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+Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days, 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: Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2011 [EBook #36230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S POST-GRADUATE DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: “Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beechwood period’
+forever.”—Page 113.]
+
+
+
+
+MOLLY BROWN’S POST-GRADUATE DAYS
+
+BY
+
+NELL SPEED
+
+  AUTHOR OF “MOLLY BROWN’S FRESHMAN DAYS,” “MOLLY BROWN’S
+  SOPHOMORE DAYS,” “MOLLY BROWN’S JUNIOR DAYS,”
+  “MOLLY BROWN’S SENIOR DAYS,” ETC., ETC.
+
+WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES L. WRENN
+
+NEW YORK
+
+HURST & COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1914
+
+BY
+
+HURST & COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+                                BOOK I.
+              I. The Arrival                                   5
+             II. My Old Kentucky Home                         22
+            III. Wedding Preparations and Confidences         36
+             IV. Burglars                                     51
+              V. The Wedding                                  62
+             VI. Buttermilk Tact                              77
+            VII. Pictures on Memory’s Wall                   100
+           VIII. All Kinds of Weather                        114
+             IX. Jimmy                                       143
+              X. Aunt Clay Makes a Mistake                   154
+
+                                BOOK II.
+              I. Wellington Again                            170
+             II. Levity in the Leaven                        189
+            III. History Repeats Itself                      208
+             IV. A Barrel from Home                          223
+              V. Dodo’s Surprise Party                       241
+             VI. More Surprises                              261
+            VII. Dreams and Realities                        269
+           VIII. The Old Queen’s Crowd                       288
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                               PAGE
+
+  “Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beechwood
+  period’ forever”                                     Frontispiece
+
+  “Hello, girls,” exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on
+  one side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other            10
+
+  “Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?”                  218
+
+  The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture    252
+
+
+
+
+                   MOLLY BROWN’S POST-GRADUATE DAYS.
+
+                                BOOK I.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.—THE ARRIVAL.
+
+
+“Oh, Judy, almost home! I wonder who will meet us,” cried Molly Brown.
+“I feel in my bones that you and my family will be as good friends as
+you and I have always been. You are sure to get on well with the boys.”
+
+Judy responded with a hug, thinking, with a happy twinkle in her large,
+gray eyes, that, if by any chance the rest of the Brown boys could be as
+attractive as Molly’s brother, Kent, and should find her as fascinating
+as Kent had seemed to, when she met him in the spring before the college
+pageant, she bade fair to have an exciting visit in Kentucky.
+
+Molly Brown and Julia Kean (Judy for short), after four busy years of
+college life, had just graduated at Wellington, and were on their way to
+Molly’s home in Kentucky, where Judy was to pay a long visit. As Molly
+had been looking forward to the time when she could have some of her
+college chums know her numerous and beloved family, she was very happy
+at the prospect. Judy, who was ever ready for an adventure, was bubbling
+over with anticipation.
+
+The girls sat gazing out on the beautiful rolling fields of blue grass
+and tasseling corn, which Molly knowingly remarked promised an excellent
+crop. Molly’s blue eyes were misty when she thought of dear old
+Wellington College, the four years of hard work and play, and the many
+friends she had made and left, some of them, perhaps, never to see
+again. Her mind dwelt a long time on Professor Green, the delightful
+old, young man, who had opened up a new world to her in literature; who
+had been so very kind to her through the whole college course, often
+coming to her rescue when in difficulties, and always sympathizing with
+her when she most needed sympathy; and who had, finally, proved to be
+her real benefactor, when she discovered that he was the purchaser of
+those acres of perfectly good orchard that had to be sold to keep Molly
+at college. On bidding him good-by, she had extended to him an
+invitation from her mother to make them a visit in Kentucky, and she had
+already speculated much as to whether the young, old man would accept.
+Molly never could decide whether to think of him as an old, young man,
+or a young, old man. Professor Green was in reality about thirty, but,
+when one is under twenty, over thirty seems very old.
+
+Molly smiled when she thought of her parting scene with him, and made a
+mental note that that was one of the things she must be sure to confess
+to mother. The smile was enough to dispel the mist that was in her eyes,
+and her mind turned to Chatsworth, her dear home. She thought of her
+mother, her brothers and sisters; the decrepit old cook, Aunt Mary
+Morton; Shep and Gyp, the dogs; her horse, President, no longer young,
+having lived through four administrations, but still having more go in
+him than many a colt, showing his fine racing blood and the “mettle of
+his pasture.”
+
+“Only two miles more,” breathed Molly jubilantly. “We must get our
+numerous packages together.”
+
+The girls had planned to have no bundles to carry on the train, nothing
+but two highly respectable suitcases; but the fates were against
+anything so unheard of as two females going on a journey with no extras.
+They had seven boxes of candy presented at parting by various friends. A
+large basket of fruit was added to their cares, put on the Pullman in
+New York by the resourceful Jimmy Lufton, with instructions to the
+porter to give it to the two prettiest girls who got on at Wellington,
+with through sleeper to Kentucky. There were the inevitable shirtwaists
+found in Molly’s bottom drawer; books and what not, lent to various
+girls and returned too late to pack; and some belated laundry that Molly
+had not had the heart to worry her old friend, Mrs. Murphy,
+about—collars, jabots, and the muslin sash curtains from her room at
+college that Molly could not make up her mind to put in her trunk in
+their dusty state. These things were put in a bulging box and labeled by
+Judy, quoting the immortal Mr. Venus, “Bones Warious.”
+
+“I wish we could forget it and leave it on the train,” said Molly. “The
+things in it are all mine, and, now I come to think of it, I believe
+there is nothing there of any real value except the jabots Nance made
+me—those that Mrs. Murphy called my ‘jawbones.’ I could not bear to lose
+them, and we have not time to dig them out. If Kent meets us he is sure
+to tease me, and you know how badly I take a teasing. He says he is
+lopsided now from carrying his sisters’ clothes that they have forgotten
+to pack in their trunks.”
+
+“Let me call the ‘foul, hunch-backed toad’ of a bundle mine,” offered
+Judy. “Your brother does not know me well enough to tease me.”
+
+“Don’t you believe it! Besides, you can’t fool Kent. He knows me and my
+bundles too well. Here we are,” added Molly hastily, “and there is Kent
+to meet us, driving the colts, if you please. It is a good thing you are
+not Nance Oldham. She will not consent to ride behind any colt younger
+than ten years old!”
+
+The train stopped just long enough for the girls to jump off, the porter
+depositing their numerous belongings in a heap on the platform.
+
+[Illustration: “Hello, girls,” exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one
+side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other.—Page 10.]
+
+“Hello, girls,” exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one side, and shaking
+hands with Judy, on the other, while a diminutive darkey swung on to the
+colts’ bits, occasionally leaping into the air as the restive horses
+tossed their proud heads. “My, it is good to see you! And your train on
+time, too! That is such a rare occurrence that I have an idea it may be
+yesterday’s train. You don’t mean to say that this is all of the
+emergency baggage you are carrying?” grabbing the two highly respectable
+suitcases and stowing them in the back of the trim, red-wheeled Jersey
+wagon. The girls giggled, and Kent discovered the conglomerate
+collection of packages that the porter had hastily dumped by the side of
+the track.
+
+Molly beat a hasty retreat into the station, declaring that she must
+speak to Mrs. Woodsmall, the postmistress, thus hoping to avoid the
+inevitable teasing from her big brother. Judy, with the spirit and
+somewhat the expression of a Christian martyr, picked up the aforesaid
+despised, bumpy, bulging bundle, and, with a sweet smile, said: “This is
+mine, Mr. Brown. Will you please take it? The rest of the things are
+boxes of candy and parting gifts from various friends.”
+
+Kent took the disreputable looking package, which was not at all
+improved by its long trip on the Pullman and the many disdainful kicks
+the girls had given it. Now, in the last hasty handling, the porter had
+loosened the much knotted string, the paper had burst, and from the
+yawning gash there had crept a bit of blue ribbon, Molly’s own blue.
+Judy, with her ever-ready imagination, had been heard to call it “the
+blue of chivalry and romance, the blue of distant mountains and deep
+seas.”
+
+Kent took the package, smiling his quizzical smile; the smile that from
+the beginning had made Judy decide that he was very likable; a smile all
+from the eyes, with a grave mouth. In fact, the young lady had been so
+taken with it that she had practiced the expression before her mirror
+for half an hour and then held it until she could try it on the first
+person passing by. That person happened to be Edith Williams, who had
+remarked: “Gracious me, Judy, what is the matter? I feel as though you
+were some one in a hogshead looking through the bunghole at me.” Judy
+was delighted. It was exactly the expression she was aiming for, but she
+was sorry that she had not thought of the apt description herself.
+
+“Now, Miss Judy, I have known for four years from Molly’s letters what a
+bully good chum you are, and have observed before now how charming and
+beautiful, but this rôle of Christian martyr is a new one on me. Don’t
+you know you can’t fool me about a Brown bundle? I could pick one out of
+the hold of an ocean liner in the dark, just by the lumpy, bumpy feel of
+it. Besides”—pointing to the bit of blue ribbon spilling through the
+widening tear—“there are Molly’s honest old eyes peeping out, telling me
+that this little subterfuge of yours is just an act of true friendship
+on your part, to keep me from teasing her about her slipshod method of
+packing. I tell you what I will do, Miss Judy, if you will do something
+for me. I’ll make a compact with you, and promise to go the whole of
+this day without teasing Molly.”
+
+“Well, what am I to do?”
+
+“Oh, it’s easy enough. Don’t call me Mr. Brown any more. Kent, from your
+lips, would sound good to me. You see, there are four male Browns, and
+every time you say ‘Mr. Brown’ we are liable to fall over one another
+answering you or doing your bidding.”
+
+“All right; ‘Kent’ it shall be for this day and every day that you don’t
+tease Molly.”
+
+“I meant just for the one day. The strain of never teasing Molly again
+would shatter my constitution.”
+
+“Very well, Mr. Brown; just as you choose about that.”
+
+“Oh, well, I give up.”
+
+“All right, Kent.”
+
+Molly emerged from the postoffice, with Mrs. Woodsmall following her.
+Such a stream of conversation poured from the latter’s lips that Judy
+felt her head swim.
+
+“Glad to meet you, Miss Kean. I have long wanted to see some of Molly’s
+correspondents. What beautiful postals you sent her last year from
+Maine; the summer before from Yellowstone Park; and those Eyetalian ones
+were grand; one year, even from Californy. You are the most traveled of
+all her friends, I believe, but Miss Oldham can say more on a postal
+than any of you, and such a eligible hand, too. Now-a-days all of you
+young folks write so much alike, since the round style come in, I can
+hardly tell your writin’ apart. It makes it very hard on a lonesome
+postmistress whose only way of gitting news is from the mail she
+handles. And now, since Uncle Sam has started this fool Rural Free
+Delivery, I don’t git time to more than half sort the mail before here
+comes Bud Woodsmall and snatches it from under my nose with irrevalent
+remarks about cur’osity and cats. Gimme the good old days when the
+neighbors come a-drivin’ up for their mail, and you could pass the time
+o’ day with them and git what news out of them you ain’t been able to
+git off of the postals, or make out through the thin ornvelopes, or
+guess from the postmarks. Anyhow, I gits ahead of Woodsmall lots of
+times. Jest yistiddy I ‘phoned over to Mrs. Brown that Molly would be in
+on this two train. To be sure, Woodsmall had the letter in his auto, but
+he has to go a long way round, and he’s sech a man for stopping and
+gassin’, and Molly’s ornvelope was some thinner than usual, and I could
+see mighty plain the time she expected to come. Said I to myself, said
+I, ’Now, ain’t Mrs. Brown nothing but a mother, and don’t she want the
+earliest news of her child she can git? And ain’t I the owner of that
+news, and should I not desiccate it if I can? It so happened that
+Woodsmall had a blow-out, and didn’t git yistiddy’s mail delivered until
+to-day. Now, tell me, wasn’t I right to git ahead of him?” She did not
+pause for a reply, but plunged into the stream of conversation again.
+
+“I don’t care if he is my own husband. He asked my sister first, and I
+never would have had him if there had been a chance of anything better
+offering. I wouldn’t have had him at all if I had foresaw that he was
+going to fly in my face by gitting app’inted to R. F. D., and then fly
+in the face of Providence by trying to run one of them artemobes.”
+
+Kent stopped the flow of words by saying: “Now, Mrs. Woodsmall, you are
+giving Miss Kean an entirely wrong idea of you and Bud. She will think
+you do not love him, and I am sure there is not a man in the county who
+fares better than your husband, or who shows his keep as well.”
+
+The thin, hard face of the postmistress broke into a pleasant smile, and
+Judy thought: “After all, Kent and Molly are very much alike in
+understanding the human heart and in trying to make all around them feel
+as happy as possible.”
+
+“Well, you see, Kent Brown, it’s this way: I jest natchally love to
+cook, and Bud he jest natchally loves to eat, and I’ve got the
+triflingest, no-count stomic that ever was seed. What’s the use of
+cooking up a lot of victuals for myself, when I can’t eat more’n a
+mouthful? And so,” she somewhat lamely concluded, “I jest cook ’em up
+for Bud.”
+
+The colts could not be persuaded to stand still another minute, so they
+had to call a hasty good-by to the voluble Mrs. Woodsmall. Then the
+girls gave their attention to holding on their hats and keeping their
+seats, while the lively pair of young horses pranced and cavorted until
+Kent gave them their heads and allowed them to race their fill for a
+mile or more of macadamized road.
+
+Judy was hardly prepared for such a trim turnout as the Jersey wagon,
+and such wonderful horses, to say nothing of the road. She had yet to
+learn that Mrs. Brown would have good, well-kept vehicles on her place;
+that all the Browns would have good horses; and that all Kentuckians
+insist on good roads. The number of limestone quarries throughout the
+state make good macadamized roads a comparatively easy matter.
+
+What a beautiful country it was: the fields of blue grass, with herds of
+grazing cattle, knee deep in June; an occasional clump of trees,
+reminding one rather of English landscapes; and then the fields of corn,
+proudly waving their tassels and shaking their pennant-like leaves, as
+much as to say, “roasting ears for all.”
+
+“News for you, Molly,” said Kent, as soon as he could get the colts down
+to a conversation permitting trot. “Mildred is to be married in two
+weeks.”
+
+“Oh, Kent, why didn’t they write me?”
+
+“Mother thought it would be fun to surprise you.”
+
+Judy’s glowing face saddened. “Why, I should not be here at such a time.
+I know I shall be in the way. I must write to papa to come for me
+sooner.”
+
+“Now, Miss Judy, ‘the cat is out of the bag.’ You have hit on the real
+reason why mother would not let any of us write Molly of the approaching
+nuptials in the family. She was so afraid that you might fear you would
+be de trop and want to postpone your visit to us, and she has been
+determined that nothing should happen to keep her from making your
+acquaintance, and that at the earliest. You see, poor mother has had not
+only to listen to Molly’s ravings on the subject of Miss Julia Kean for
+the last four years, but now she has to give ear to Mildred and me,
+since we met you at Wellington, and she thinks the only way to silence
+us is to have something to say about you herself.”
+
+Judy laughed, reassured. “You and Molly are exactly alike, and both of
+you must ‘favor your ma.’ Well, I’ll try not to be in the way, and maybe
+I can help.”
+
+“Of course you can,” said Molly, squeezing her. “You always help where
+there is any planning or arranging or beautifying to be done. But, Kent,
+tell me, why is Milly in such a rush?”
+
+“Why, Molly, I am surprised at you, laying it on Mildred. It happens to
+be old ‘Silence and Fun’ who is so precipitate.”
+
+“Who is ‘Silence and Fun’?” asked Judy.
+
+“Oh, he is Milly’s fiancé, but the Brown boys call him that ridiculous
+name. He has a fine name of his own, Crittenden Rutledge. But, Kent,
+please tell me, why this haste?”
+
+“Well, you see Crit has been ordered out to Iowa by his steel
+construction company, on a bridge-building debauch, and he thought Milly
+might just as well go on with him and hold the nails while he wields the
+hammer. Here we are, so put your hat on straight, and look your
+prettiest, Miss Judy. I should hate for mother to think that we had been
+misleading her.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.—MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME.
+
+
+They turned into an avenue through a gate opened from the wagon by means
+of a rope pulled by the driver.
+
+“How is that for a gate, Molly? I began my holiday by getting the thing
+in order. It works beautifully now, but the least bit of rough handling
+gets it off its trolley.”
+
+“It is fine, Kent. But tell me, are you to have your holiday now?”
+
+“Yes; you see I can help with the harvesting this week, and next week
+the wedding bells have to be rung. And I thought any spare time I have I
+could take Miss Judy off your hands.”
+
+“I am afraid that your holiday will be a very busy one,” laughed Judy;
+“but maybe I can help ring the wedding bells, and, if I can’t do much
+toward harvesting, I can at least carry water to the thirsty laborers.”
+
+Kent Brown was in an architect’s office in Louisville, working very hard
+to master his profession, for which he had a fondness amounting to a
+passion. Mrs. Brown had secretly hoped that one of her boys would want
+to become a farmer, but they one and all looked upon Chatsworth as a
+beloved home, but not a place to make a living. Their earnest endeavor,
+however, was to keep up the place, and often their hard-earned and
+harder-saved earnings went toward much needed repairs or farm machinery.
+Mrs. Brown had to confess that a little ready money earned irrespective
+of the farm was very acceptable; and, since her four boys were on their
+feet and beginning to walk alone, and stretch out willing, helpful hands
+to her, she found life much easier.
+
+Not that money or the lack of money had much to do with Mrs. Brown’s
+happiness. She was a woman of strong character and deep feelings, with a
+love for her children that her sister, Mrs. Clay, said was like that of
+a lioness for her cubs. But that remark was called forth when Mrs. Clay,
+Sister Sarah, one morning found Mrs. Brown making two pairs of new
+stockings out of four pairs of old ones, after a pattern clipped from
+the woman’s page of a newspaper. With her accustomed bluntness, she had
+said: “Well, Mildred Carmichael, if you had only three and a half
+children, instead of seven, you would not have to be guilty of such
+absurd makeshifts.”
+
+Mrs. Brown had risen up in her wrath and given her such a talk that,
+although ten years had elapsed since that memorable morning, Sister
+Sarah still avoided the subject of stockings with Sister Mildred.
+
+Mrs. Brown was a great reader, and loved old books and old poetry. One
+of Molly’s earliest remembrances was lying on the otter-skin rug in
+front of the great open fire, with brothers and sisters curled up by her
+or seated close to the big brass fender, while mother read Dickens
+aloud, or the Idyls of the King, or something else equally delightful.
+One by one the younger children would drop to sleep; and then Mammy
+would come and do what she called “walk ’em to baid,” muttering to
+herself, “I hope to Gawd that these chilluns won’t be a dreamin’ all
+night about that stuff Miss Mildred done packed in they haids.”
+
+Just now, however, Molly’s memories were merged in anticipations, and
+she watched eagerly for the first signs of welcome.
+
+As they approached the house, the colts neighed, and were greeted by
+answering whinnies from two mares grazing in a paddock. The mares ran to
+the white-washed picket fence and stretched their necks as far over as
+they could, gazing fondly on their handsome offspring, trotting gaily
+by, tossing their manes and tails.
+
+“The mothers are all coming out to meet their babies, and there is
+mine!” cried Molly.
+
+It was mother. Oh, that beloved face; that familiar, spirited walk and
+bearing of the head; those wide, clear, far-seeing gray eyes, and that
+fine patrician nose, with the mouth ever ready to laugh in spite of a
+certain sadness that lurked there! She folded Molly in her arms, but did
+not forget to keep a hand free to clasp Judy’s, and, before Molly was
+half through her hug, the older woman drew the young visitor to her, and
+kissed her fondly. Then, with an arm around each girl, she said: “I am
+truly glad to know my Molly’s friend, and gratified, indeed, to have her
+with us.”
+
+“It means a great deal to me, too, Mrs. Brown, to see Molly’s mother and
+home.” Judy feared that it would be forward to say what she had in her
+mind, and that was “such a beautiful mother and home.”
+
+The house was of white-washed brick, with a sloping gray shingled roof
+and green shutters, and a general air of roominess and comfort. A long,
+deep gallery or porch ran across the front, which Architect Kent
+explained to Judy was not quite in keeping with the style of
+architecture, but had been added by a comfort-loving Brown to the
+delectation of all who came after him. The lines of the old house were
+so good that the addition of a mere porch could not ruin it, and
+certainly added to its charm and comfort. To the left, in the rear, well
+off from the house, were the barn-yard and stables, chicken houses,
+smokehouse, and servants’ quarters; to the right, a tan-bark walk led to
+the garden. Down that path came Mildred, by her side a young man who
+seemed to be so amused by her lively chatter that he could hardly
+contain himself.
+
+“Molly, Molly, I’m so glad to see you, and so is Crit, although he has
+no words to tell you how glad he is. And, Miss Kean, Judy! It is
+splendid for you to come just now. I am certain that Kent could not keep
+the news, and you know by this time that Crit and I are to be married
+the last of next week. Mr. Rutledge, let me introduce you to Miss Kean.”
+
+Although Crittenden had never uttered a word, he seemed to be able to
+let Molly understand that he, too, was glad to see her, as he was
+vigorously hugging her and two-stepping with her over the short,
+well-kept grass. But, at Mildred’s call, he suddenly stopped, made a low
+and courtly bow to his partner, and turned to Judy, clasping her hand in
+a warm and friendly grasp, and giving her such a smile as she had never
+before beheld. In it he made her feel that she was welcome to Kentucky;
+that he intended to like her and have her like him; and had his heart
+not been already engaged, he would lay it at her feet. Never a word did
+he utter. He was tall, rather soldierly in bearing, with the most
+beaming countenance Judy had ever seen, and such perfect teeth she
+almost had her doubts about them.
+
+“Where is Sue, mother?” said Molly. “And Aunt Mary and Ca’line? Of
+course the other boys are not home so early.”
+
+“Sue has gone over to Aunt Sarah Clay’s. She sent for her in a great
+hurry. Sue was loath to go, fearing she could not get back before you
+arrived, but you know your Aunt Clay and how autocratic she is. Sue
+seems to be in great favor just now. Here is Aunt Mary, however.”
+
+Molly ran to meet the decrepit old darkey, embracing her with almost as
+much fervor as she had her mother. Aunt Mary Morton was surely of the
+old school: very short and fat, dressed in a starched purple calico,
+with a white “neckercher” and a voluminous gingham apron, her head tied
+up in a gorgeous bandanna handkerchief.
+
+“Oh, my chile, I’m glad to see you. I hope you done learned ‘nuf to stay
+at home a while. Yo’ ma’s so lonesome ‘thout you, with Mr. Ernest ‘way
+out West surveyin’ the landscape.” (Ernest, the oldest of the Brown
+boys, was employed by the government on the geological survey.) “Mr.
+Paul so took up wif sassiety in Lou’ville he can’t hardly walk straight,
+and jes’ come home long ‘nuf to snatch a moufful—but I done tuck
+’ticular notice he do manage to eat at home in spite er all his gran’
+frien’s. And now, Miss Milly gwine to step off; an’ ‘mos’ fo’ we git
+time to cook up any mo’ victuals, Miss Sue’ll be walkin’ off. Praise be,
+she ain’t a-goin’ fur. How she eber made up her min’ to gib her promise
+to a man what lib up sech a muddy lane, beats me; an’ Miss Sue, the mos’
+‘ticular of all yo’ ma’s chilluns ‘bout her shoes an’ skirts an’
+comp’ny! Now Mr. John ain’t been a full-fleshed doctor mo’n two weeks
+befo’ he so took up wif a young lady’s tongue what stayin’ over to Miss
+Sarah Clay’s, and so anxious ‘bout feelin’ her pulse, dat yo’ ma an’ I
+don’ neber see nothin’ of him. He jes’ come home from dat doctor’s
+office in town long ‘nuf to shave and mess up a lot er crivats an’ peck
+a little eatin’s, an’ off he goes. My ‘pinion is, dat’s what Miss Sarah
+done sent for Miss Sue in sech a hurry ‘bout, but you’ ma say fer me to
+hesh up, no sich a thing, she jes’ wan’ to talk ‘bout a suit’ble weddin’
+presen’ for little Miss Milly.”
+
+“Oh, Aunt Mary, isn’t it exciting to have a wedding in the family? You
+always said Milly would be the first to get married, if Sue was the
+first to get born,” said Molly, giving the old woman another hug for
+luck. “Now I want you to shake hands with my dear friend, Miss Judy
+Kean.”
+
+Aunt Mary made a bobbing curtsey to Judy, then gave her a friendly
+handshake, looking keenly in her face the while. Then she nodded her
+head, until the ends of the bright bandanna, tied in a bow on top of her
+head, quivered, and said: “I don’ know but what that there Kent was
+right.”
+
+“Aunt Mary, I am truly glad to meet you. If you could hear the blessings
+that are showered on your head when Molly gets a box from home, and
+could see how hard it is for all of those hungry girls to be polite when
+the time comes for snakey noodles, you would know how honored I feel
+that I am the first to make your acquaintance.”
+
+“Well, honey, what makes all of you go ‘way from yo’ homes to sech
+outlandish places as collidges where the eatin’s is so scurse? Can’t you
+learn what little you don’ know right by yo’ own fi’side?”
+
+“Maybe we could, Aunt Mary, but you see I haven’t any real fireside of
+my own.”
+
+“What! did yo’ folks git burned out?”
+
+“Oh, no; but you see my father is an engineer, and mamma travels with
+him, and stays wherever he stays; and, when I am not at school or
+college, I knock around with them. Of course, I’d like to have a home
+like Chatsworth, but it is lots of fun to go to new places all the time
+and meet all kinds of people.”
+
+“Well, they ain’t but two kin’s, quality an’ po’ white trash, an’ I’ll
+be boun’ you don’t neber take up wid any ob dat kin’, so you an’ yo’ ma
+‘n’ pa mought jes’ as well stay in one place.”
+
+While the girls were up in Molly’s room, which Judy was to share,
+getting ready for a belated dinner, they heard the sound of a piano,
+cracked but sweet, like the notes of an old spinnet, then a male voice,
+wonderful in its power and intensity, and at the same time so sweet and
+full of feeling that Judy, ever emotional where art was concerned, felt
+her eyes filling.
+
+  “Shed no tear, oh, shed no tear!
+  The flower will bloom another year.
+  Weep no more! Oh, weep no more!
+  Young buds sleep in the root’s white core.
+  Dry your eyes, oh, dry your eyes!
+  For I was taught in Paradise
+  To ease my breast of melodies,
+                              Shed no tear.
+
+  “Overhead—look overhead
+  ’Mong the blossoms white and red.
+  Look up, look up! I flutter now
+  On this flush pomegranate bough.
+  See me! ’tis this silvery bill
+  Ever cures the good man’s ill.
+  Shed no tear, oh, shed no tear!
+  The flower will bloom another year.
+  Adieu, adieu—I fly. Adieu,
+  I vanish in the heaven’s blue,
+                              Adieu, adieu!”
+
+“Oh, Molly, Molly, who is that?” cried Judy, weeping copiously, in spite
+of the repeated request of the singer to “shed no tear.”
+
+“Why, that is Crit. Isn’t his voice wonderful?”
+
+“Do you really mean it is Mr. Rutledge? I thought he was dumb, and have
+been feeling so sorry for Mildred.”
+
+“Dumb, indeed! He has the most beautiful voice in Kentucky, and can make
+such an eloquent speech when roused that we have been afraid he would go
+into politics. But, so far as passing the time of day is concerned, and
+the little chit-chat that fills up life, he is indeed as dumb as a fish.
+When he was a little boy he stammered and got into the habit of
+expressing his feelings in silence, and he can still do it. He had a
+teacher who cured him of stammering, but nothing will ever cure him of
+silence, unless he has something important to say, and then nothing can
+stop him. Mother tells of a man who stammered in talking but not in
+singing. One day he was passing a friend’s house, and saw that the roof
+was in a blaze, the inmates perfectly unconscious of the conflagration.
+He rushed in, tried to speak, could only stutter, and then in
+desperation burst into song. To the tune of ‘The Campbells Are Coming,’
+he sang, ‘Your house is on fire, tra-la, tra-la!’ Kent declares that
+Crit proposed to Milly in song, but Milly herself is dumb about how that
+came about.”
+
+“Well, anyhow, I have never heard such scintillating silence as his, and
+I think that Milly ought to be a very proud and happy girl.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.—WEDDING PREPARATIONS AND CONFIDENCES.
+
+
+The next two weeks were busy ones for all the Brown household: first and
+foremost, the ever-crying need of clothes to be answered; second, the
+old house to be put in apple-pie order; all the furniture rubbed and
+rubbed some more; the beautiful old floors waxed and polished until they
+shone and reflected the newly scrubbed white paint in a way Judy thought
+most romantic. (But Judy thought everything was romantic those days.)
+She was “itching to help,” and help she did in many ways. Molly would
+not let her rub furniture or wax floors, but she had the pleasure of
+hanging the freshly laundered curtains all over the house, and she was
+received with joy in the sewing room by Miss Lizzie Monday, the
+neighborhood seamstress. Miss Lizzie was of the opinion that the Browns
+thought entirely too much about food and not nearly enough about
+clothes. Indeed it was a failing of the mother, if failing she had, to
+have good food, no matter at what cost, and then, since strict economy
+had to be practiced somewhere, to practice it on the clothes.
+
+Miss Lizzie had once been present when they were packing a box to send
+to Molly at Wellington, and had sadly remarked: “In these hard times,
+with the price of food what it is, poor little raggedy Molly could have
+had an entire new outfit from the contents of that box.” Mrs. Brown had
+indignantly denied that she was spending any money at all on the box,
+but the fact remained in Miss Lizzie’s mind that the food in the
+delightful box, so eagerly looked for by the hungry college girls,
+represented so much money that had much better be put on Molly’s outside
+than her inside.
+
+“Not that much of it goes on her own inside. I know Molly too well,
+bless her heart. Can’t I just see her handing out that good old ham and
+hickory-nut cake and Rosemary pickle to those Yankees? And they, raised
+on pale, pink, ready-cooked ham and doughnuts and corner grocery dill
+pickles, don’t know what they are getting. Molly, in her same old blue
+that I have made over twice for her!—and that ham would have bought the
+stuff for a new one (not that I would have had it anything but blue).
+The half gallon of Rosemary pickle would have trimmed it nicely, and the
+hickory-nut cake would have made her at least two new shirtwaists, and
+the express on the box would more than pay me for making the things.”
+
+Judy loved to hear Miss Lizzie talk, and used to encourage her to praise
+her friend, while she sat helping to whip lace or planning the
+bridesmaids’ dresses for Molly and Sue. These dresses were flowered
+French organdies. Molly’s was covered with a feathery blue flower, that
+never was on land or sea, but it was the right color, which was the
+important thing; and Sue’s bore the same design in pink. The bride’s
+dress, a lovely simple gown of the finest Paris muslin, was all done and
+pressed and neatly folded in a box by the careful Miss Lizzie, with one
+of her own sandy hairs secretly sewed in the hem, which is supposed to
+bring good luck, and a “soon husband” to the owner of the hair.
+
+There was some doubt and much talk about how the bridal party was to
+enter the parlor and where the minister was to stand. The parlor at
+Chatsworth was not very suitable for an effective wedding, as it was in
+the wing of the house and opened only into the hall, giving, when all
+was considered, not much room for the growing list of guests. Although
+it was a very large room, having only one entrance made it rather
+awkward. It was only a few days before the wedding and this important
+subject was still under discussion.
+
+“I can count at least ninety-eight persons who are sure to come,” said
+Mrs. Brown, “all of them kin or close friends, and how they are to get
+in this room and leave an aisle for the wedding party, goodness only
+knows; and if the hall and porch are full, it will be very
+uncomfortable.”
+
+Judy and Kent were pretending to be the bride and groom, grave Sue was
+the minister, John and Paul, flower girls, and Molly, boss. Mildred and
+Crittenden were not allowed to practice for their own wedding, as Miss
+Lizzie said it was bad luck, and Miss Lizzie was authority on all such
+subjects. So the two most interested were seated at the piano,
+pretending to be the musicians doing “Chopsticks” to wedding march time.
+
+“Crit, I believe you will have to give Milly up. There is no way to have
+a decently stylish wedding in this joint,” said Paul. “Let’s stop the
+festive preparations and all of us go to Jeffersonville. It would make a
+grand story for my paper.”
+
+Judy had been very quiet for some minutes and her face wore what Molly
+called her “flashed upon that inward eye” expression. Suddenly she
+cried, “I have it. Come on and let’s get married out of doors.” She
+seized Kent by the hand and dragged him out on the lawn, the rest
+following in a daze.
+
+“Look at that natural place to be married in: the guests under the
+trees; room for everybody; a living altar of shrubs and flowers at the
+end of the tan-bark walk; minister entering from the grass walk on one
+side and Mr. Rutledge with his best man from the other; down the steps
+Mildred on Ernest’s arm, followed by Molly and Sue. Can’t you see them
+coming up the tan-bark walk? Just at sunset, the people in their light
+festive clothes, your mother beautiful in her black crêpe de Chine, with
+Paul and John and Kent standing by her making a dark note near the
+bride? Oh, why, oh, why did they not have holly-hocks up this garden
+walk instead of by the chicken yard fence? It would have made the color
+scheme simply perfect.”
+
+Judy paused for breath. She had carried the crowd by her eloquence, and
+so perfectly had she visualized the whole thing that each one was able
+to see what she meant, and absolute and unanimous approval was given the
+scheme. Kent, with his artistic eye, was in for it heart and soul, and
+began to plan Japanese lanterns to be lit after the ceremony in the
+rustic summer-house beyond, where supper was to be served, observing
+that their color might somewhat take the place of the holly-hocks that
+were in the wrong place.
+
+“Just where did you want the holly-hocks, Miss Judy? We might do better
+another year if we knew just what your orders were.”
+
+“On both sides of the tan-bark walk, just beyond the intersection of the
+grass walk. Can’t you see how fine and stately they would look, and what
+a wonderful mass of color?”
+
+“Right, as usual. What an architect you would make! That power of
+‘seein’ things’ is what an architect needs above everything. Any one can
+learn to make it, but it is the one who sees it who is the great man or
+woman, as in the present case.”
+
+Things had been humming so since Molly’s return that she had had no time
+for the confidential talk with her mother that both were hungering for.
+The Browns always had much company, but at this season there seemed to
+be no end to the comings and goings of guests, principally comings: many
+parting calls being paid to Mildred by old and young; Molly’s friends
+hastening to greet her after the eight months’ absence at college; a
+steady following of young men calling on Sue, in spite of her suspected
+preference for Cyrus Clay, the nephew of Aunt Sarah Clay’s deceased
+husband, and the one Aunt Mary objected to because of his living up such
+a muddy lane. Presents were pouring in for the bride; notes had to be
+answered; trains to be met; express packages to be fetched from the
+station; and poor little Mrs. Woodsmall kept in a state of constant
+misery over the Parcel Post business Bud was doing, and she with “never
+a chanst to take so much as a peep.”
+
+Molly, ever mindful of others, hitched up President one off day and
+drove over to the postoffice and got the poor thing. Then she let her
+see every single present; and feel the weight of every bit of silver;
+and hunt for the price mark on the bottom of the cut-glass; read all the
+cards; and even go into the sewing-room where Miss Lizzie Monday proudly
+showed her the clothes, and let her take a good look at the wedding
+dress all folded up in its box. But when Mrs. Woodsmall began to pick at
+the hem where her sharp eyes discovered an end of the stiff sandy hair,
+sewed in to bring a “soon husband,” Miss Lizzie snapped on the top and
+told her sharply to stop rumpling up Miss Milly’s dress.
+
+The night after Judy had solved the problem of where the wedding was to
+be, Molly felt that she must have her talk with her mother. Judy was
+tired and a little distrait, visualizing again no doubt; seeing the
+wedding in her mind’s eye; regretting the holly-hocks; wondering if she
+really did have the power that Kent attributed to her, that of a
+creative artist. If she did have it, what should she do about it? Was it
+not up to her to make something of herself if she had such a gift? Was
+she willing to work, as work she would have to, if she really expected
+to do something? At the back of it all was the thought, “Would Kent like
+her so much if she should turn out to be a woman with a purpose?” Judy
+was obliged to confess to herself as she dozed off that what Kent Brown
+thought of her made a good deal of difference to her, more than she had
+thought that any man’s opinion could make.
+
+Molly waited until she thought Judy was asleep and then crept softly
+downstairs to her mother’s room. Mrs. Brown was awake and glad indeed to
+see her “old red head,” as she sometimes lovingly called Molly, coming
+to have a good talk. It is funny what a difference it makes who calls
+one a red head. Now that horrid girl at college, Adele Windsor, had
+enraged Molly into forgetting what Aunt Mary called her “raisin’” by
+calling her a red head, and yet when mother called her the same thing it
+sounded like sweet music in her ears.
+
+Mother had some things to tell Molly, too. She did not altogether
+approve of John’s inamorata, the girl visiting Aunt Clay. It was a case
+of Dr. Fell with her.
+
+  “I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.
+  The reason why I cannot tell;
+  But this I know, and know full well,
+  I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.”
+
+Then she did think if Sue intended to marry Cyrus Clay she should not
+lead on the other two young men, who seemed quite serious in their
+attentions. She hated to say anything, because Sue was so dignified.
+
+“Now if it were you or Mildred, I would speak out, but you know Sue
+always did scare me a little, Molly.”
+
+And Molly and her mother giggled like school girls over this confession.
+Sue was very handsome and lovely and good, but she was certainly a
+little superior, and Mrs. Brown found that, if she had any talking over
+of things to do, she wanted either Molly or Mildred, who were “not too
+pure or good for human nature’s daily food.”
+
+Molly was eager to know what her mother thought of Judy, and was
+delighted at her frank liking for her friend. Then Molly had to tell her
+mother of her hopes and ambitions; of her triumphs and disappointments
+at college; and of her growing friendship for Jimmy Lufton, the clever
+young journalist from New York who was trying to persuade Molly to go
+into newspaper work; of his liking for her that she did not want to
+ripen into anything more serious, but his last letters were certainly
+growing more and more fervent.
+
+“Don’t flirt, little girl, don’t flirt. It would not be my Molly if she
+deceived any one. Have all the fun you can and as many friends as
+possible and enjoy life while you are young. You are sure to be popular
+with every one, men and women, boys and girls, but don’t be a coquette.”
+
+“Mother, I don’t mean to be ever, and really and truly I have done
+nothing to mislead Mr. Lufton, and maybe I am mistaken and conceited
+about his feeling for me, and I truly hope I am. I have never done
+anything but be my natural self with him.”
+
+Mrs. Brown smiled, well knowing that just being her natural self was
+where Molly did the damage, if damage had been done.
+
+“Mother, there is something else.” Mrs. Brown knew there was, and was
+patiently waiting. “You know Professor Green? Well, I gave him your
+invitation to come to Kentucky.”
+
+“And what did he say?”
+
+“He said, ‘Thank you.’”
+
+“Is he coming?”
+
+“I don’t know.” Molly found talking to her mother about Professor Green
+more difficult than she had imagined it would be. “When you wrote me two
+years ago that some eccentric person had bought the orchard and I could
+finish my college course, I told Professor Green about it, and also told
+him I should like to meet the old man who had saved me from premature
+school-teaching. And when he asked me what I’d do if I should happen to
+meet him, I told him I would give him a good hug.” Molly faltered.
+“Well, mother, when I told him good-by and gave him your invitation, I
+went back and—I just gave him a good hug.”
+
+Mrs. Brown sat up so vigorously that Molly, sitting by her side, was
+almost jolted off the bed.
+
+“Why, Molly Brown! And what did Professor Green do?”
+
+“He? Oh, he took it very philosophically and bowed his head ’til the
+storm was over.”
+
+Mrs. Brown gave a gasp of relief.
+
+“He must be a good old gentleman, indeed. About how old is he, Molly?”
+
+“The girls say every day of thirty-two.”
+
+“Why, the poor old thing! Do you think he could take the trip out here
+to Kentucky all by himself?”
+
+“Mother, please don’t tease. There is something else. Jimmy Lufton wrote
+a little note which I found in the bottom of the basket of fruit he had
+put on the train for us. It was wrapped around a lemon and said, ‘Here
+is a lemon you can hand me if, when I come to Kentucky this summer, you
+don’t want me to stay.’”
+
+“Oh! The plot thickens! So he is coming, too.”
+
+“Yes, but he lives in Lexington, and is coming out to see his family,
+anyhow.”
+
+“Well, Molly, darling, you must go to bed now, but before you go tell me
+one thing: do you want Professor Green to come to Chatsworth?”
+
+“Yes, mother, I think I do,” and giving her mother a hug that made that
+lady gasp again and say, “Molly, what a hugger you are,” she flew from
+the room and raced upstairs two steps at a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.—BURGLARS.
+
+
+Judy was sitting up in bed, the moon lighting her enough for Molly to
+see a wild, startled look on her face.
+
+“Molly, Molly, I hear something!”
+
+“You hear me making more noise than I have any business to at this time
+o’ night. I have been having a good old talk with muddy.”
+
+“Oh, no, it wasn’t that. I knew you were downstairs. I haven’t been
+truly asleep. I was ’possuming.’ It is out by the chicken yard, and I am
+so afraid it is burglars after the pullets Aunt Mary told me she was
+saving for chicken salad for the wedding supper. Lewis was to kill them
+to-morrow.”
+
+Judy had entered so intensely into the Browns’ household affairs that
+Molly herself was no more interested in the festive preparations than
+was her guest. Molly drew cautiously to the window and peeped out; she
+beckoned Judy, and the excited girls saw a sight to freeze the marrow in
+their chicken-salad-loving bones: the thief had a wheelbarrow, and some
+great gunny sacks over his arm, and was in the act of boldly opening the
+chicken-yard gate.
+
+“If we call he will get away, and how else can we let the boys know? The
+wretch may have those sacks full of chickens even now,” moaned Molly.
+
+There was a three-room cottage or “office,” as they called it, on the
+side of the house next the garden where all of the young men slept in
+summer. The girls feared that, in trying to let them know of the
+burglar, if they went out of the front door they would startle Mrs.
+Brown. And if they should try to go out the back door, in getting to the
+cottage they would have to run across a broad streak of moonlight in
+plain view of the thief, and thus give him ample time to get away with
+his booty before they could arouse the boys.
+
+“Why shouldn’t we take the matter in our own hands and make him drop his
+sacks and run?” said Molly. “I am not afraid, are you?”
+
+“Me afraid? Bless your soul, no. I am only afraid he will get off with
+the chickens,” replied the intrepid Judy. “I have my little revolver in
+the tray of my trunk, the one papa gave me when we were camping in
+Arizona. I can load it in a jiffy. But what weapon will you take?”
+
+“I don’t see anything but my tennis racket. I’ll take that and some
+balls, too, in case I have to hit at long range. There is really no
+danger for us, as a chicken thief has never been known to go armed with
+anything more dangerous than a bag.”
+
+They slipped on their raincoats, as they were darker than their kimonos,
+and crept softly down the back stairs, out on the back porch, and down
+the steps into the yard, keeping close in the shadow of the house until
+they came to an althea hedge. Skirting this, still in the shadow, they
+got near enough to the chicken-yard gate to have a good look at the
+burglar. That burly ruffian, instead of bagging the pullets that were
+peacefully roosting in a dog-wood tree, totally unconscious that they
+were sleeping the last sleep of the condemned, had taken a spade from
+his wheelbarrow, carefully spread out his gunny sacks and was digging
+with great care around the holly-hocks, digging so deep and so far from
+the roots that he soon got up a great sod without injuring the plants.
+This he placed with great care in the barrow, and as he stepped into the
+broad moonlight the girls recognized Kent. They clutched each other and
+were silent, except for a little choking noise from Judy which might
+easily have come from one of the condemned, having premonitory dreams of
+the morrow.
+
+Kent worked on until his wheelbarrow was full of the lovely flowers.
+Then he stuck in the spade and trundled it away toward the garden, the
+girls silently following, still keeping as well in the shadow as was
+possible, and holding tight to their weapons, although they no longer
+had any use for them. On reaching the garden, they realized that Kent
+must have been working many hours. He had already moved dozens of the
+stately plants, and they now stood in the garden where they belonged, no
+doubt glad of the transplanting from their former homely surroundings.
+So deeply and well had Kent dug that they were uninjured by the move,
+and he completed the job by dousing them plentifully with water from a
+great tub that he had filled at the cistern.
+
+The effect was wonderful, as Judy had known that it would be, but her
+surprise and pleasure that Kent should be so anxious to gratify her
+every wish was great. She felt her cheeks glowing with excitement and
+her heart pit-a-patting as it would not have done, even had Kent proved
+to be the chicken thief they had imagined him to be.
+
+That young man finished his job, cleaned his spade, shook out the gunny
+sacks, raked the débris from the walk, and then, giving a tired yawn and
+stretching himself until he looked even taller than the six feet one he
+measured in his stocking feet, he said out loud in a perfectly
+conversational tone:
+
+“Now, Miss Judy, you may have the master mind that can imagine things
+and see beforehand how they are going to look, but I’ll have you know it
+takes work to create and drudgery to accomplish; and only by the sweat
+of the brow can we ‘give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.’
+You and Molly can step out of the bushes and view the landscape.”
+
+“Oh, Kent, did you know we were there all the time?”
+
+“Certainly, little Sister, from the time Miss Judy went like a chicken
+with the gapes, I have known you were with me; but you seemed to be
+having such a good time I hated to break it up. You might have stepped
+in and helped a fellow, though.”
+
+“Oh, we were doing the head work,” retaliated Judy.
+
+Kent laughed, and then he had to tease them about their adventure and
+their weapons, especially Molly’s racket and balls.
+
+“We had better crawl into the hay now, however. It is getting mighty
+late at night, or, rather, mighty early in the morning, and where will
+our beauty be if we don’t get to sleep? I’ll see you to the back door.”
+
+“You needn’t,” said Molly. “You must be dead tired, and here is the
+office door open for you. There is no use in your coming any farther. We
+can slip around the front way and be in the house in no time.”
+
+“Well, good morning. I am dead tired, and such brave ladies as you are
+need no escort. Better luck to you next time you go burglar hunting.”
+
+It was a wonderful night, or rather morning, as Kent had indicated. The
+moon hung low on the horizon ready for bed, as an example to all up-late
+young ladies. The stars, with their rival retiring, were doing their
+best to get in a little shine before daylight. Everything was very
+still. The tree frogs and crickets and Katy-dids had suddenly ceased
+their incessant noise. There was a feel in the air that meant dawn.
+
+What was it that greeted the ears of the tired Kent? Old tennis player
+that he was, it sounded to him like the twang of a racket in the hands
+of a determined server who means to drive a ball that the champion
+himself could not return. Then came the dull thud of the ball, a groan,
+a scream; then the sharp crack of a pistol, more screams from inside the
+house; lights, doors opening, all the household awake, and Paul and John
+and Crit, who had spent the night at Chatsworth, tumbling out of the
+office almost before Kent could get around the house. There he found
+Judy fallen in a little heap on the grass, and Molly carefully and
+coolly aiming a second tennis ball, this time at a real burglar.
+
+The man climbing from the upper gallery of the house had been surprised
+by the girls as they came from the garden. At Molly’s first ball he had
+dropped to the ground, and Judy had caught him on the fly, as it were.
+The second tennis ball got him square on the jaw, but he was already
+down and out. Kent declared afterward, when the smoke of battle had
+cleared away, that it was not like Molly to hit a fellow when he was
+down. She had always been a good sport until now.
+
+Mrs. Woodsmall, it seems, had talked too much about the weight of
+Mildred’s silver, and had dwelt too long on the recklessness of the
+Browns in having all of those fine things in the little hall room with
+the window opening on the upper gallery, where anybody with any
+limberness could climb up that twisted wisteria vine and get away with
+anything he had a mind to. A tramp, hanging around the postoffice
+window, had overheard her and, having more limberness than any other
+commodity, had endeavored to help himself.
+
+Dr. John came with first aid to the injured, and found the man more
+scared than hurt. It was hard to tell which ball had done most damage;
+certainly Molly’s was the more effective in appearance. Her first she
+had served straight at his nose, so disfiguring that member that the
+rogues’ gallery officials would have had difficulty in identifying him.
+The second found his jaw and gave him so much pain that John feared a
+fracture. Judy’s little pistol had done good work. A flesh wound on the
+arm was the verdict for her.
+
+The ground was strewn with silver in every kind of fancy novelty that a
+bride is supposed by her dear friends to need—or why else do they give
+them to her?
+
+Then Crittenden Rutledge opened his mouth and spoke. As usual when he
+did such a thing it was worth getting up before dawn to hear him.
+
+“Don’t you think, Mildred, darling, we might give the poor fellow three
+or four cheese scoops and several butter knives and a card tray or two?
+A young couple could easily make out for a while with one of each, and
+if he will promise to go back to Indiana and stay—— You did come from
+Indiana, didn’t you?” The man gave a grin and nodded. “Well, if you
+promise to go back and never put your foot in Kentucky again, I’ll go
+wrap up Aunt Clay’s vases for you.”
+
+Mrs. Brown, thankful that her brood was safe and no more damage done the
+poor, wicked tramp than a sore shoulder, a swollen nose and a fractured
+jaw, sent them all to bed with instructions to sleep late, and told
+Molly and Judy to stay in bed for breakfast. The burglar was put in the
+smokehouse for safekeeping until sun-up, when John and Paul expected to
+take him to Louisville, swear out a warrant against him and land him in
+jail. When the time came, however, to transfer their prisoner from
+smokehouse to jail, they found the door open, the man gone and a fine
+old ham missing.
+
+“An’ they ain’t a single pusson in the whole er Indianny what knows how
+ter cook a ham, either,” bewailed Aunt Mary.
+
+“To think the ungrateful wretch went off without Aunt Clay’s vases,”
+muttered Crittenden Rutledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.—THE WEDDING.
+
+
+The wedding came off so exactly as Judy had planned it that it seemed to
+her to be a proof of the theory of transmigration of the soul, and that
+in a previous incarnation she had been to just such a wedding. The
+eldest brother, Ernest, arrived from the far West just in time to change
+his clothes and give the bride away. There were three understudies for
+his part, so there was not much concern over his non-arrival until he
+got there with a blood-curdling tale of wrecks and wash-outs that had
+delayed him twenty-four hours. Then all of them got very much concerned
+and Mrs. Brown reproached herself for being so taken up with Mildred’s
+wedding that she had forgotten to worry about the absent one for the
+time being. Ernest resembled Sue more than any of the rest of them, and
+had a good deal of her poise and dignity. “But I’ll wager that he is not
+as serious as he seems,” thought Judy, detecting a twinkle in the corner
+of his sober eyes.
+
+Mildred looked lovely, and she had such a sweet, trusting look in her
+eyes as she came down the steps and up the tan-bark walk on Ernest’s
+arm, that Crittenden Rutledge, waiting for her at the end of the walk,
+broke away from his best man and went forward several yards to meet his
+bride. Sue and Molly brought up the rear; Sue, composed and calm with
+her sweet dignity; but Molly, so deeply moved by this beloved sister’s
+marriage and the break in their ranks, the very first, that she felt her
+knees trembling and wondered if it could be possible that she was going
+to ruin everything and burst into tears or fall in a faint or do
+something terrible. But she didn’t. The familiar voice of their old
+minister in the opening lines of the Episcopal marriage service brought
+her to her senses, and she was able to follow the ritual in her mind,
+but she dared not trust herself to look up. She kept her eyes glued to
+her bouquet of “love-in-the-mist,” that Miss Lizzie Monday had brought
+her that morning, picked from her own old-fashioned garden.
+
+“I know the groom will send the bridesmaids flowers, but somehow, Molly,
+I don’t want you to carry hothouse flowers. These ‘love-in-the-mists’
+will look just right with your dress and your eyes and your ways.”
+
+So Molly carried Miss Lizzie’s “bokay” and put the flowers that the
+groom sent her in a vase in the parlor. But Molly was not thinking of
+her dress or her eyes, except to try to keep the tears in them, since
+come they would, and not let them run out on her cheeks. Mildred’s
+responses were inaudible except to dear old Dr. Peters, the minister,
+but Crittenden’s were so loud and clear and resonant that it was almost
+like chanting, and Judy had to smile when she could not help thinking of
+the stammering man’s “Your house is on fire, tra la, tra la.”
+
+“I pronounce you man and wife.”
+
+All is over. Molly can let the tears fall now if she wants to, but,
+strange to say, she does not seem to want to any more. Such a rejoicing
+is going on. Everybody seems to be kissing everybody else. Aren’t they
+all more or less kin? Mildred and Kent, the center of a gay crowd, are
+fondly kissing the ones they should merely shake hands with, and
+formally shaking hands with their nearest and dearest, just as in a fire
+people have been known to carry carefully the pillows downstairs and
+throw the bowls and pitchers out of the window. Kent has his wits about
+him, however, and kisses Judy, declaring it is all in the day’s work.
+
+A stranger standing on the outskirts of the crowd during the whole
+ceremony seemed much more interested in the bridesmaid dressed in blue
+than in the bride herself, and when this same bridesmaid felt herself
+swaying a little as though her emotion might get the better of her, if
+one had not been so taken up with the central figures on the stage he
+might have noticed the stranger start forward as though to go to her
+assistance. But he, too, was brought to his senses by the calm voice of
+Dr. Peters in the opening words of the service, and saw with evident
+relief that the bridesmaid had gained control of herself. He was a tall
+young man with kind brown eyes and light hair, a little thin at the
+temples, giving him more years perhaps than he was entitled to.
+
+When the service was over and the general confusion ensued, he made his
+way swiftly to where Molly stood, and without saying one word of
+greeting he put his arm around her and tenderly kissed her. Molly was so
+overcome with astonishment that she could only gasp, “Professor Green!
+What are you doing here?”
+
+“I am having a very pleasant time, thank you, Miss Molly. I got your
+mother’s kind invitation to attend your sister’s wedding, and—here I am.
+Didn’t your brother Paul tell you that I had come?”
+
+“No, we have been so occupied, I believe I have not seen Paul to-day.”
+
+“I went to his newspaper office in Louisville to find out something
+about how to get here, and he asked me to drive out with him. Are you
+sorry I came, Miss Molly?”
+
+“Sorry? Oh, Professor Green, you must know how glad I am to see you!
+But, you see, I was a little startled, not expecting you and thinking of
+you as still at Wellington.”
+
+“If you were thinking of me as being anywhere at all, I feel better.
+Were you really thinking of me?”
+
+“Yes,” said the candid Molly, “and wasn’t it strange that I was thinking
+of you just as you came up—and—and——” but, remembering his manner of
+greeting her, she blushed painfully.
+
+“You are not angry with me, are you, my dear child? I felt so lonesome.
+You see everybody seemed to know everybody else, and there was such a
+handshaking and so forth going on that before I knew it I was in the
+swim.”
+
+“Almost every one here is kin or near-kin, and weddings in Kentucky seem
+to give a great deal of license,” said Molly, recovering her equanimity.
+“Of course I am not angry with you. I could not get angry with any one
+on Mildred’s wedding day.”
+
+But Molly felt that in a way Edwin Green had paid her back for the hug
+she had given him. She had hugged him because he was so old that she
+could do so with impunity, and he in turn had kissed her because he felt
+lonesome, forsooth, and she was so young that it made no great
+difference. His “My dear child” had been a kind of humiliation to Molly.
+What is the use of being a senior and graduating at college if a man
+very little over thirty thinks you are nothing but a kid?
+
+“Professor Green is not so very much older than Ernest,” thought Molly,
+“and I wager he will not treat Judy with that
+old-enough-to-be-your-father air! Here am I getting mad on Mildred’s
+wedding day when I just said I could not! And, after all, Professor
+Green has been very kind to me and means to be now, I know.” Turning to
+him with one of “Molly’s own,” as Edith Williams termed her smile, she
+said, “Now you must meet my mother and all the rest of them.”
+
+Mrs. Brown looked keenly and rather sadly at the young professor. This
+coming of men for her daughters was growing wearisome, so the poor lady
+thought; but she liked Edwin Green’s expression and found herself
+trusting him before he got through explaining his sudden appearance in
+Kentucky.
+
+“After all, maybe he is only thinking of Molly as one of his pupils. His
+buying the orchard meant an interest in her college course and nothing
+else.”
+
+Mrs. Brown introduced him to the relatives and friends near her, and
+Molly had to leave him and make herself useful, as usual, in seeing that
+the refreshments were forthcoming.
+
+When they had decided to have the wedding out of doors, it had seemed
+best to have the supper al fresco, and now brisk and very polite colored
+waiters were busy bringing tables and chairs from a side porch and
+placing them on the lawn. An odor of coffee and broiled sweetbreads,
+mingling with that of chicken salad and hot beaten biscuit, began to
+rival the fragrance of the orange flowers and roses.
+
+The crowd around the bride thinning out a little to find seats at the
+tables, Professor Green was able to make his way to Mildred and
+Crittenden. After greeting them, he espied Judy talking sweetly to a
+stern-looking woman with a hard face and a soft figure, who was dressed
+severely in a stiff black silk, with most uncompromising linen collar
+and cuffs. Her iron-gray hair was tightly coiled in a fashion that
+emphasized her hawk-like expression, but with all she looked enough like
+Mrs. Brown to establish an undeniable claim to relationship with that
+charming lady. Mrs. Brown herself, in a soft black crêpe de Chine and
+old lace collar and cuffs, with her wavy chestnut hair, was more
+beautiful than any of her daughters, the bride herself having to take a
+second place.
+
+Judy was delighted to see the professor, and not nearly so astonished as
+Molly had been, the truth being that Paul had told that young lady of
+Edwin Green’s arrival, with the expectation that she would inform Molly.
+But Judy, realizing the state of excitement that Molly was in,
+determined to keep the news to herself and not give Molly anything more
+to feel just then, even if in doing so she, Judy, would appear to be
+careless and forgetful. Judy understood the regard that Molly had for
+Professor Green—better than Molly herself did. She remembered Molly’s
+expression and misery when little Otoyo, their Japanese friend at
+Wellington, had told them of his being so dangerously ill with typhoid,
+and how Molly had lost weight and could neither sleep nor eat until the
+crisis had passed.
+
+“Did you ever see such a beautiful wedding in your life?” said Judy.
+
+“Never, and I am told it was all your plan, even to the holly-hock
+background.”
+
+“Well, you see the idea was floating around in the air, and I was just
+the one who had her idea-net ready and caught it. Ideas are like
+butterflies, anyhow—all flying around waiting to be pounced on—but the
+thing is to have your net ready.”
+
+“Yes, and another thing, not to handle the butterfly idea too roughly.
+Many an idea, beautiful in itself, is ruined in the working out,” said
+her companion.
+
+“That is where taste comes in.”
+
+Judy would have liked to chase the metaphor much farther with the
+agreeable young man, but she remembered that she had set out to
+fascinate Aunt Clay, and it was Aunt Sarah Clay to whom she had been
+talking when Professor Green had come up. She introduced him, and Mrs.
+Clay immediately pounced on him with a tirade against innovations of all
+kinds.
+
+Looking very much as we are led by the cartoonists to expect a
+suffragist to look, Mrs. Clay was the most ardent “anti.” Opposed to all
+progress and innovations, and constantly at war on the subject of higher
+education of women, she carried her conservatism even to the point of
+having her grain cut with a scythe instead of using the up-to-date
+machinery. Professor Green was her natural enemy, for was he not
+instructor in a girls’ school where, she was led to understand, belief
+in equal suffrage was as necessary for entrance as the knowledge of
+Latin or mathematics?
+
+Professor Green, ignorant of the antagonism she felt for him and his
+calling, endeavored to make himself as agreeable as possible to Molly’s
+aunt. He listened with seeming respect to her attack on modernism and
+then turned the subject to the wedding, her pretty nieces and
+fine-looking nephews.
+
+“I never heard of any one getting married out of doors before in my
+life, and had I known they were contemplating such a thing I certainly
+should not have set my foot on the place, nor would I have sent them the
+handsome wedding present I did. I shall not be at all astonished if the
+bishop reprimands that sentimental old Dr. Peters for allowing anything
+so undignified in connection with the church ritual. They had much
+better jump over a broomstick like Gypsies and not desecrate our prayer
+book in such a manner. Mildred Carmichael has brought all her children
+up to have their own way. The idea of none of those boys being willing
+to stay on the farm where their forefathers managed to make a living,
+and a very good one! They, forsooth, must go as clerks or reporters or
+what not into cities and let their farm go to rack and ruin, already
+mortgaged until it is top-heavy. Then when they do make a little, they
+must squander it in this absurd new-fangled machinery, labor-saving
+devices that I have no use for in the world. And now Molly, not content
+with four years wasted at college, to say nothing of the money, says she
+wants to go back to fit herself more thoroughly for making her living.
+Living, indeed! Where are her brothers that she need feel the necessity
+of making her living?”
+
+“But, Mrs. Clay,” Judy here broke in, “my father says that there are
+only three male relatives that a woman should expect to support her: her
+father, her husband and her son. Since Molly has none of these, she, of
+course, wants to do something for herself. Even with a father, unless
+the father is very well off, it seems to me a girl ought to help after a
+lot has been spent on her education. I certainly mean to do something,
+but the trouble is, the only thing I can do will mean more money spent
+before I can accomplish anything.”
+
+“And what does such a charming person as Miss Kean expect to do?” asked
+the irascible old lady.
+
+“I want to go to Paris and study to become a decorator.” This was too
+much for Mrs. Clay. Without saying a word, she turned and stalked across
+the lawn where the waiters were carrying trays of food.
+
+“Hateful old thing! I hope food will improve her temper. It would
+certainly be acceptable to me. See, here comes Kent with a table! I’ll
+find Molly and we can have a fine foursome, and you shall taste Aunt
+Mary’s beaten biscuit, hot from the oven. No wonder Molly is such an
+angel. If, as the cereal ads. say, we are what our food makes us, any
+one raised on Aunt Mary’s cooking would have to be good. Goodness knows
+what Aunt Clay eats! It must be thistles and green persimmons!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.—BUTTERMILK TACT.
+
+
+Mildred, dressed in her pretty brown traveling suit, off to Iowa; the
+last slipper and handful of rice thrown; the last lingering guest
+departed; daylight passed and the moon well up; and at last Mrs. Brown
+and Judy and Molly were free to sink on a settle on the porch, realizing
+for the first time how tired and footsore they were.
+
+“Oh, my dears, I feel as though I could never get up again! It is a good
+thing I am so tired, for now I shall have to sleep and can’t grieve for
+Mildred all night. I begged Professor Green to stay, but he had to go
+back to Louisville. However, he is coming out to Chatsworth to-morrow to
+pay us the promised visit. We shall have to pack the presents in the
+morning to send to Iowa, and glad I’ll be to get them out of the house.
+Did I tell you, Molly, that Aunt Mary, Ca’line and Lewis are all going
+off to-morrow to Jim Jourdan’s basket funeral? We shall be alone, you
+and Judy and I. Sue goes to your Aunt Clay’s for a few days, and Kent
+starts back to work, the dear boy. Such a comfort as he has been! Ernest
+has to look up some friends in town, but will be out in time for supper.
+I fancy he will drive Professor Green out from Louisville. Good night,
+my dear girls, I know you are dead tired.”
+
+So they were, so tired that Judy overslept in the morning, but Molly was
+up betimes to help the servants get off on their gruesome spree.
+
+“Now ain’t that jes’ like my Molly baby? She don’ never fergit to be
+he’pful. Th’ ain’t no cookin’ fer you to do to-day, honey; they’s plenty
+of bis’it lef’ from the jamboree las’ night; they’s a ham bone wif ‘nuf
+on it fer you and yo’ ma an’ Miss Judy to pick on; they’s a big bowl er
+chick’n salid in the ‘frigerater that I jes’ bodaciously tuck away from
+that black Lewis. I done tol’ him that awlive ile my’naise ain’t no
+eatin’s fer niggers. If his insides needs a greasin’ he kin take a good
+swaller er castor ile. Tell yo’ ma I made that lazy Ca’line churn fo’
+sun-up ’cause they wa’nt a drap er butter in the house, an’ the
+buttermilk is in the big jar in the da’ry. They’s a pot er cabbage
+simperin’ on the back er the stove, but that ain’t meant fer the white
+folks, but jes’ in case we needs some comfort when we gits back from the
+funeral. I tried to save some ice cream fer my honey baby from las’
+night an’ had it all packed good fer keepin’, but looked like in the
+night I took sech a cravin’ fer some mo’ I couldn’ sleep ‘thout I had
+some, an’ by the time I opened up the freezer an’ et some, it looked
+like the res’ of it jes’ melted away somehow.”
+
+“Well, Aunt Mary, I am so glad you got some more. Have a good time and
+don’t worry about us. We shall get along all right. You see there are no
+men on the place to-day, and women can eat anything the day after a
+party. You know my teacher, Professor Green, is going to be here for a
+visit. He is coming this evening in time for supper, and I do hope you
+won’t be too tired after the basket funeral to make him some waffles.”
+
+“What, me tired? I ain’t a-goin’ to be doin’ nothin’ all day but enjyin’
+of myself; and if I won’t have the stren’th myself to stir up a few
+waffles fer my baby’s frien’s, I’s still survigerous ’nuf to make that
+Ca’line do it. I allus has a good time at funerals an’ a basket funeral
+is the mos’ enjyble of all entertainments.”
+
+Judy came on the scene just then and begged to be enlightened as to the
+nature of a basket funeral.
+
+“Well, you see, honey, when a member dies at a onseasonable time, or at
+the beginning of the week an’ you can’t keep him ‘til Sunday, or in
+harvestin’ time when ev’ybody is busy an’ the hosses is all workin’, why
+then we jes’ bury the corpse quiet like. And then when work gits slack
+an’ there is some chanst to borrow the white folks’ teams, we gits
+together an’ ev’ybody takes a big lunch an’ we impair to the seminary
+an’ have a preachment over the grave and then a big jamboree.” The old
+woman stopped to chuckle, and such a contagious chuckle she had that you
+found yourself laughing with her before you knew what the joke was.
+
+“I ‘member moughty well when this here same Jim Jourdan, what is to be
+preached over an’ prayed over an’ et over to-day, was doin’ the same by
+his second wife Suky Jourdan, an’ that was after I had buried my Cyrus
+an’ befo’ I took up wif my Albert. It was a hot day in July when
+fryin’-size chick’ns was jes’ about comin’ on good an’ fat, an’ I had a
+scrumptious lot of victuals good ‘nuf fer white folks. Jim looked so
+ferlorn that I as’t him to sit down an’ try to worry down some eatin’s
+with us. He was vas’ly pleased to do so, an’ look like he couldn’ praise
+my cookin’ ‘nuf; an’ befo’ we got to the pie, he up an’ ast me to come
+occupy Suky’s place in his cabin. I never said one word, but I got up
+an’ fetched a big pa’m leaf fan out’n the waggin an han’ it to him.
+‘What’s this fer, Sis Mary?’ sez he, an’ sez I, ‘You jes’ take this here
+fan an’ fan you’ secon’ ‘til she’s col’, and then come a seekin’ yo’
+third.’”
+
+The girls laughed until the tears rolled down their cheeks over Aunt
+Mary’s unique courtship. The red-wheeled wagon came up driven by Lewis
+with Ca’line sitting beside him, dressed within an inch of her life.
+Molly got a box for Aunt Mary to step on to climb into the vehicle, but
+the old woman refused to budge until Lewis took out the back seat and
+got a rocking chair for her to sit in.
+
+“You know moughty well, you fergitful nigger, that I allus goes to
+baskit funerals a-settin’ in a rockin’ cheer! Go git the one offen the
+back po’ch, the red one with the arms to it. Sho as I go a-settin’ on a
+back seat some lazy pusson what can’t borrow a team will come a-astin’
+fer to ride longside er me, an’ I don’ want nobody a-rumplin’ me up, an’
+’sides ole Miss never lent this waggin fer all the niggers in Jeff’son
+County to come a-crowdin’ in an ben’in’ the springs. Then when we gits
+to the buryin’ groun’, I’ll have a cheer to sit in an’ not have to go
+squattin’ ‘roun’ on grabe stones.”
+
+“Good-by, Aunt Mary, good-by, Ca’line and Lewis.”
+
+The girls waved until they were out of sight and then went laughing into
+the quiet house. It seemed quiet, indeed, after the hub-bub of the day
+before.
+
+“Everything certainly stayed clean with all of the guests out of doors.
+I have never had an entertainment with so little to do when it was
+over,” said Mrs. Brown. “It was a good day for the servants to go away,
+with the house in such good order and enough left-overs from the wedding
+supper for three lone women to feed on for several meals. I wonder how
+your Aunt Clay is getting on with her harvesting? She is so headstrong
+not to borrow my cutting machine! Why does she insist that flour made
+from wheat cut with a scythe makes better bread than that cut with
+modern machinery?”
+
+“She declared yesterday, mother, that she was not going to feed her
+hands until they got through mowing, if it took them until nightfall.
+She says you spoil all darkeys that come near you, and she is going to
+show them who is boss on her place. Kent infuriated her by telling her
+she would get herself into trouble if she did not look out; that her
+wheat was already overripe, and if she attempted to make her hands work
+over dinner hour they would leave it half cut; but advice to Aunt Clay
+always sends her in the opposite direction.”
+
+“I wish I had not let Sue go over there. Most of those harvesters are
+strangers from another county, and they might do something desperate if
+Sarah antagonized them.”
+
+“Don’t worry, mother, Cyrus Clay is over there, and he is sure to take
+good care of Sue.”
+
+The morning was spent with much gay talk as they packed the presents.
+Mrs. Brown was the kind of woman who could enter into the feelings of
+young people. She seemed to be of their generation and was never shocked
+or astonished when in their talk she realized that things had changed
+since her day. She usually made the best of it and put it down to
+“progress” of some sort. They worked faithfully, and by twelve o’clock
+had tied up and labeled the last parcel to go in the last barrel.
+
+“Come on, girls, let’s have an early lunch and then we can have our much
+needed and hard-earned rest. A good nap all around will make us feel
+like ourselves again.”
+
+How good that lunch did taste! Molly had been so excited that she could
+not swallow food the evening before, and Mrs. Brown had been so busy
+looking after guests that she had forgotten to eat. Judy was the only
+one who had done justice to the supper, but, having tested it, she was
+more than willing to try the chicken salad again.
+
+“Never mind washing the dishes; put them in a dish-pan for Ca’line. Get
+into your kimonos and take a good nap. I am sick for sleep,” yawned Mrs.
+Brown.
+
+In five minutes they were dead to the world, lost in that midsummer
+afternoon sleep, the heaviest of all slumber. Everything was perfectly
+still except the bees, buzzing around the honey-suckle. A venturesome
+vine had made its way through Molly’s window, ever open in summer, and
+as Judy lay, half asleep, she amused herself by watching a great bumble
+bee sip honey from the fragrant flowers, and his humming was the last
+sound that she was conscious of hearing. It seemed like a minute, so
+heavily had she slept—it was really several hours—when she was awakened
+with a nightmare that the bee was as big as a horse and his humming was
+that of a thousand bees.
+
+“Molly, Molly, listen, what is that noise?”
+
+Molly, ever a light sleeper, was out of bed in a trice and at the front
+window. What a sight met her eyes! Coming up the avenue was a crowd of
+at least forty negroes, all of them carrying scythes and whetstones, the
+sweat pouring from their black faces and bared necks and hairy chests,
+their white teeth flashing and eyeballs rolling, the sun glinting on the
+sharp steel of their scythes, menace and fury darkening the face of
+every man and coming from them a mutter and hum truly like the buzzing
+of a thousand bees.
+
+Judy, although she was weak with fear, could not help thinking, “That is
+the noise on the stage that a mob tries to make.”
+
+“Aunt Clay’s hands have struck work, and to think there is not a man on
+this place! I believe the blackguards know it! Load your pistol, Judy,
+and let us go to mother.”
+
+Mother was already up, hastily gowned in her wrapper, and opening the
+front door when the girls came down the stairs. The intrepid lady walked
+out on the porch with seemingly no more fear than she had had the day
+before when she came forward to meet the wedding guests. Head erect,
+eyes steady and piercing, with a voice clear and composed, she said,
+“Why, boys, you look very tired and hot, and I know you are hungry. Sit
+down in the shade, on the porch steps and under the trees, and I will
+see what we can find for you to eat. Molly, go get that buttermilk out
+of the dairy. The jar is too heavy for you to lift, so take Buck and let
+him carry it for you.”
+
+Mrs. Brown, with all of her courage, was never more scared in her life.
+All the time she was talking she had been looking in the crowd of black
+faces for a familiar one, and was glad to recognize Buck Jourdan, a
+good-natured, good-for-nothing nephew of Aunt Mary’s. At her command
+Buck stepped forward, and then a dozen more of the men came to the
+front, unconsciously separating themselves from the rest. Mrs. Brown saw
+that they were all negroes belonging in her neighborhood. At her calming
+words and proffer of food such a change came over the faces of the mob
+that they hardly seemed to be the same men. Their teeth showed now in
+grins instead of sinister snarls; they stacked their murderous looking
+weapons against the paulownia tree and sat down in the shade with
+expressions as peaceful as the wedding guests themselves had worn.
+
+Molly and the stalwart Buck were back in an incredibly short time with
+the five-gallon jar of buttermilk and a tray of glasses not yet put away
+from yesterday’s feast. Mrs. Brown herself dipped out the smooth,
+luscious beverage, seeing that each man was plentifully served, while
+Molly went into the house to bring out all the cooked provisions she
+could find. Mrs. Brown beckoned the trembling and wondering Judy to her
+and whispered, “Go ring the farm bell as loud as you can. All danger is
+over now, I feel sure, but it is well to let the neighbors know that we
+are in some difficulty; and I fancy I heard a horse trotting on the
+turnpike, and whoever it is might hasten to us at the sound of a farm
+bell at this unusual hour.”
+
+Judy flew to the great bell, hung on a high post in the back yard. She
+seized the rope, and then such a ding-dong as pealed forth! The bell was
+a very heavy brass one, and at every pull Judy, who was something of a
+lightweight, leaped into the air, reciting as she jumped, “Curfew shall
+not ring to-night.”
+
+“That is enough, my dear. There is no use in getting help from an
+adjacent county, and I fancy every one in Jefferson County has heard the
+bell by this time,” said Mrs. Brown, stopping her before she had quite
+finished the last stanza, which Judy said was like interrupting a good
+sneeze.
+
+Molly had found all kinds of food for the hungry laborers, who were more
+sinned against than sinning. They had gone in all good faith to the Clay
+farm to harvest the wheat according to the antiquated methods of the
+mistress, with scythes and cradles. When twelve o’clock, the dinner hour
+everywhere, came, they were told that they could not eat until they had
+finished. They had worked on until two, and then, infuriated with hunger
+and goaded on by the thought of the injustice done them, they had struck
+in a body and gone to the mansion to try to force Mrs. Clay to feed
+them; but they had been held back at the point of a pistol, by that lady
+herself. Then they had determined to get food where they could find it.
+
+Mrs. Brown gathered this much from the men as, their hunger assuaged,
+they talked more connectedly.
+
+“Th’ ain’t nothin’ like buttermilk to ease yo’ heart,” said Buck Jasper.
+“Mis’ Mildred Carmichael kin git mo’ outen her niggers fillin’ ’em full
+er buttermilk than her sister Mis’ Sary kin fillin’ ’em full er
+buckshot.”
+
+Mrs. Brown was right; she had heard a horse trotting on the turnpike.
+The men were wiping their mouths on the backs of their hands and coming
+up one at a time to thank the gracious lady for her kindness in feeding
+them, when Ernest and Edwin Green came driving into the avenue.
+
+“Mother! What does this mean? I thought I heard the farm bell when I was
+about two miles from home, and now I find the yard full of negro men.
+Have you had a fire?”
+
+Mrs. Brown explained that Aunt Clay had made things pretty hot for her
+hands, but so far there had been no other fire. She welcomed Professor
+Green to Chatsworth and called the grinning Buck to take his suitcase to
+the cottage porch. Judy wondered at her calm manner and at her saying
+nothing to Ernest about their being so frightened, not realizing that
+one hint of the trouble would have sent Ernest off into a rage, when he
+might have reprimanded the negroes and all the good work of the
+buttermilk have been undone. Molly was pale and Professor Green, ever
+watchful of her, asked Judy to give him an account of the matter, which
+she did in such a graphic manner that he, too, turned pale to think of
+the danger those dear ladies had been in. He made himself at home by
+making himself useful, and helped Molly to carry back into the kitchen
+the empty glasses and plates from the feast of the hungry darkeys. She
+laughingly handed him a great, iron pot in which cabbage had been
+cooked.
+
+“I am wondering what Aunt Mary will say about her cabbage. Mother sent
+me into the house to get all available food, when she realized that the
+hands were simply hungry and that food would be the best thing to quell
+their rage. Aunt Mary had this huge pot of cabbage on the back of the
+range; she said in case Lewis jolted down the lunch she was going to eat
+at the basket funeral she would have it cooked in readiness. The poor
+dogs will have to go hungry, too, or have some more corn bread cooked
+for them. I found this big pan full of what we call dog-bread, made from
+scalded meal and salt and bacon drippings, baked until it is crisp. The
+men were crazy about it with pot liquor poured over it. You can see for
+yourself how they licked their platters clean.”
+
+“The Saxon word ‘lady’ means bread-giver, but I think that you and your
+mother have given it a new significance, and the dictionaries will have
+to add, ‘Dispenser of cabbage and buttermilk and dog-bread.’”
+
+More wheels, and Aunt Mary and Lewis, with Ca’line much rumpled and
+asleep on the front seat, her shoes and stockings in her lap and her
+bare feet propped gracefully on the dashboard, had returned. Aunt Mary
+was much excited.
+
+“What’s all dis doin’? Who was all dem niggers I seen a-streakin’ crost
+the fiel’s? Buck Jourdan, ain’t that you I see hidin’ behine that tree?
+I thought I hearn the farm bell as we roun’ed the Pint, but Lewis lowed
+’twas over to Miss Sary Clay’s. Come here, Buck, an’ he’p me out’n dis
+here waggin. You needn’t think you kin hide from me, when I kin see the
+patch on yo’ pants made outen the selfsame goods I gib yo’ ma to make
+some waistes out’n, two years ago come next Febuway.” Buck came
+sheepishily forward to help his old aunt out of the vehicle. “Nex’ time
+you wan’ ter hide from me you’d better make out to grow a leettle
+leaner, or fin’ a tree what’s made out to grow some wider so’s you won’t
+stick out beyant it. What you been doing, and who’s been a-mashin’ down
+ole Miss’s grass, and what’s my little Miss Molly baby a-doin’ workin’
+herself to death ag’in to-day?”
+
+Buck endeavored to explain his appearance, and told the story of the
+strike at Mrs. Clay’s and how they were just passing through Mrs.
+Brown’s yard when she had come out and invited them all to dinner. His
+story was so plausible and his voice so soft and manner so wheedling,
+that Professor Green, who overheard the conversation, was much amused,
+and had he not already got the incident from Judy might have believed
+Buck, so convincing were his words and manner. Not so Aunt Mary, who had
+partly raised the worthless Buck and knew better than anyone how he
+could use his silver tongue to lie as well as tell the truth, but
+preferred the former method.
+
+“Now, look here, you Buck Jourdan, you ain’t no count on Gawd’s green
+yearth ‘cep to play the banjo. What you been doin’ hirin’ yo’self out to
+Miss Sary Clay, jes’ like you ain’t never know’d that none of our fambly
+don’ never work fer none er hern? Yo’ ma befo’ you an’ yo’ gran’ma befo’
+her done tried it. Meanin’ no disrespect to the rest er the Carmichaels,
+der’s the ole sayin’, ‘What kin you expec’ from a hog but a grunt?’ I
+knows ‘thout goin’ in my kitchen that Miss Molly done gib all you
+triflin’ niggers my pot er cabbage an’ the dog-bread I baked fer those
+houn’s an’ bird dogs what ain’t no mo’ count than you is, ‘cept’n they
+can’t play the banjo.”
+
+“Buck Jourdan, is that you?” said Ernest, coming forward and
+interrupting Aunt Mary’s tirade. “I am going to get Miss Molly’s banjo
+and you can sit down and give us some music. I haven’t heard a good tune
+since I went West.”
+
+Buck, glad to escape any farther tongue lashing from his relative, and
+always pleased to play and sing, tuned the banjo and began:
+
+  “‘Hi,’ said the ’possum as he shook the ‘simmon tree,
+  ‘Golly,’ said the rabbit; ‘you shake ’em all on me.’
+  An’ they went in wif they claws, an’ they licked they li’l paws,
+  An’ they took whole heaps home to they maws.”
+
+After several stanzas sung in a soft melodious voice, Buck, at Molly’s
+request, gave them, to a chanting recitative the following song,
+composed by a friend of Buck’s, and worthy to be incorporated in
+American folk-lore, so Professor Green laughingly assured Mrs. Brown.
+
+  THE MURDER OF THE RATTAN FAMILY.
+
+  “One evening in September, in eighteen ninety-three,
+  Jim Stone committed a murder, as cruel as it could be.
+  ’Twas on the Rattan family, while they were preparing for their bed.
+  Jim Stone, he rapped upon the door, complaining of his head.
+  The first was young Mrs. Rattan. She come to let him in.
+  He slew her with his corn knife—that’s where his crime begin.
+  The next was old Mrs. Rattan. Old soul was feeble and gray.
+  Truly she fought Jim Stone a battle till her strength it give way.
+  The next was the little baby. When he, Jim Stone did see,
+  He raised up in his cradle. ‘Oh! Jim Stone, don’t murder me!’
+  Next morning when he was arrested—wasn’t sure that he was the one.
+  Till only a few weeks later he confessed to the crime he done.
+  They took him to Southern Prison, which they thought was the
+    safetes’ place.
+  When they marched him out for trial, he had a smile upon his face.
+  And after he was sentenced, oh! how he did mourn and cry.
+  One day he received a letter, saying his daughter was bound to die.
+  Next morning he answered the letter and in it he did say,
+  ‘Tell her I’ll meet her there in Heaven, on the sixteenth of Februway.’
+  They led him upon the scaffold with the black cap over his head.
+  And he hung there sixteen minutes ‘fore the doctors pronounced
+    him dead.
+  Now wouldn’t it have been much better if he’d stayed at home
+    with his wife,
+  Instead of keeping late hours, and taking that family’s life?”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.—PICTURES ON MEMORY’S WALL.
+
+
+The next week was a very quiet and peaceful one at Chatsworth. There had
+been so many excitements, with burglars and negro uprisings and what
+not, that Molly was afraid her visitors would think Kentucky deserved
+the meaning the Indians attached to it—“the dark and bloody
+battle-ground.”
+
+Ernest, home for a vacation from his labors in the West, endeavored to
+keep Judy from missing the attentions of Kent, who was back at his grind
+in Louisville in the architect’s office, and did not get home each day
+until time for a late supper. Judy liked Ernest very well, as she did
+all of the Browns, but Kent and Molly were her favorites still, and the
+evenings were the best of all when Kent came home and, as he put it,
+“relieved Ernest.”
+
+Molly found herself on easier terms with Professor Green than she had
+ever imagined possible. If he did not consider her quite an old lady,
+she at least was beginning to look upon him as not such a very old
+gentleman. He played what Kent designated as a “cracker-jack” game of
+tennis, and turned out to be as good a horseman as the Brown boys
+themselves.
+
+“If he only had a little more hair on his forehead,” thought Molly, “he
+would look right young.”
+
+Aunt Mary was the unconscious means of consoling her for his lack of
+hair. “Honey, I likes yo’ teacher mo’n any Yankee I ever seed. He’d
+oughter rub onions on his haid to stimilate the roots. Not but what he
+ain’t han’some, baldish haid an’ all, with them hones’ eyes an’ that
+upstandin’ look. I done took notice that brains don’ make the best sile
+to grow ha’r on an’ lots er smart folks is baldish. Mindjer, I wouldn’
+go so fer as to say bald haided folks is all smart. It looks like some
+er them is so hard-haided the ha’r can’t break th’ough the scalp.”
+
+Of course, the first day at Chatsworth he had to be taken out to view
+his possessions, the two acres of orchard land. It was a possession for
+any man to be proud of. It lay on the side of a gently sloping hill
+covered with blue grass and noble, venerable, twisted apple trees, that
+Molly said reminded her of fine old hands that showed hard, useful work.
+
+“And these trees always have done good work. You know my father called
+these his lucky acres. He was always certain of an income from these
+apples. The trees have been taken care of and trimmed and not allowed to
+rot away as some of the old orchards around here have, Aunt Clay’s, for
+instance. She is so afraid of doing something modern that she refused to
+spray her trees when the country was full of San José scale, and in
+consequence lost her whole peach orchard and most of her apples. This is
+where our ‘castle’ used to be.”
+
+They were in a grassy space near the middle of the orchard, where a
+stump of an old tree was still standing. The land, showing a beautiful
+soft contour, sloped to the worm fence at the foot of the hill, where
+the grass changed its green to a brighter hue and a beautiful little
+stream sparkled in the sun.
+
+“All of us, even Sue, who is not given to such things, cried when in a
+big wind storm our beloved castle was twisted off of its roots. It was a
+tree made for children to play in, with low spreading branches and great
+crotches, the limbs all twisted and bent and one of them curving down so
+low you could sit in it and touch your feet to the ground. We had our
+regular apartments in that tree and kept our treasures in a hole too
+high up for thieves to have any suspicion of it. It was so shady and
+cool and breezy that on the hottest day we were comfortable and often
+had lunch here. We played every kind of game known to children and made
+up a lot more. ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ when they went to live up the
+tree was our best game. I remember once Kent gathered a lot of
+peach-tree gum and ruined my slippers trying to make rubber boots out of
+them as the father in Swiss Family Robinson did. Our castle had
+wonderful apples on it, too. They grew to an enormous size, and if any
+of them were ever allowed to get really ripe they turned pure gold and
+tasted—oh, how good they did taste.”
+
+Edwin Green listened, enchanted at Molly’s description of her childhood
+and the beloved play-house. He half shut his eyes and tried to picture
+her as a little girl in a blue sun-bonnet—of course she must have had a
+blue bonnet—climbing nimbly up the old apple tree, entering as eagerly
+into the game of Swiss Family Robinson as she was now playing the game
+of life, even letting her best little slippers be gummed over to play
+the game true. He had a feeling of almost bitter regret that he hadn’t
+known Molly as a little girl. “She must have been such a bully little
+girl,” thought that highly educated teacher of English.
+
+“Miss Molly, do you think that this would be the best place to build my
+bungalow? Place it right here where your castle stood? Maybe I could
+catch some of the breezes that you used to enjoy; and perhaps some of
+the happiness that you found here was spilled over and I might pick it
+up. It could not be so beautiful as your tree castle, but it is my
+‘Castle in the Air.’ If I put it here I should not have to sacrifice any
+of the other trees; there is room enough where your old friend stood for
+my modest wants. Would it hurt your feelings to have me build a little
+house where your childish mansion stood?”
+
+“Why, Professor Green, the idea of such a thing! It would give me the
+greatest happiness to have your bungalow right on this site. I would not
+be a dog in the manger about it, anyhow. Are you really and truly going
+to build?”
+
+“I hope to. Of course, I shall have to ask your mother if she would mind
+having such a close neighbor.”
+
+“Well, I hardly think mother would expect to sell a lot and then not let
+the purchaser build. She may have to sell some more of the place. I wish
+it could be that old stony strip over by Aunt Clay’s. You know our home,
+Chatsworth, is a Brown inheritance, and the Carmichael place adjoining
+belonged to mother’s people. They call it the Clay place now, but until
+grandfather died it was known as the Carmichael place. Aunt Clay married
+and lived there and somehow got hold of grandfather and made him appoint
+her administratrix and executrix to his estate. She managed things so
+well for herself that she got the house with everything in it and the
+improved, cleared land, giving mother acres and acres of poor land where
+even blackberries don’t flourish and the cows won’t graze. The sheep
+won’t drink the water, but they do condescend to keep down the weeds. I
+really believe that Aunt Clay is the only person in the world that I
+can’t like even a little bit. I fancy it is because she has been so mean
+to mother. I believe I could get over her being cross and critical with
+me, but somehow I can’t forgive the way she has always treated mother.”
+
+“I found her a very trying companion at your sister’s wedding, and she
+looks as though she had brains, too. But how anyone with sense could be
+anything but kind to your mother I cannot see.”
+
+Molly beamed with pleasure. “Ah, you see how wonderful mother is. I
+thought you would appreciate her. She likes you, too, Professor Green.
+Mother says she believes she understands boys better than girls and can
+enter into their feelings more.”
+
+“Oh, what am I saying?” thought Molly. “I wonder what the Wellington
+girls would say if they could know I forgot and as good as called their
+Professor of English a boy! Well, he does look quite boyish out of
+doors, with his hat on.”
+
+They strolled on down toward the brook, Molly patting each tree as they
+passed and telling some little incident of her childhood.
+
+“I truly believe you love every one of these trees. You touch them as
+lovingly as you do President or the dogs, and look at them as fondly as
+you do at old Aunt Mary.”
+
+“Indeed, I do; and, as for this little stream, it makes to me the
+sweetest music in the world.”
+
+“Miss Molly, when I build my little bungalow, will you come and have
+lunch with me as you used to with your brothers in the old castle? I’ll
+promise you not to let you eat at the second table as you did when you
+took breakfast with me last Christmas.”
+
+They both laughed at the thought of that morning; and Molly remembered
+that it was then that she had overheard Professor Green tell his
+housekeeper of his apple orchard out in Kentucky, and had realized for
+the first time that it was he who had bought the orchard at Chatsworth.
+
+“Indeed, I will take lunch with you, and would like to cook it, too, as
+I did your breakfast that cold morning. Do you know, when you came
+downstairs and I peeped at you through the crack in the pantry door, you
+looked and sounded almost as fierce as the mob of colored men who came
+hungry from Aunt Clay’s last week? The nice breakfast I fixed for you
+seemed to soften your temper just as mother’s buttermilk did the
+darkies’. Aunt Mary says, ‘White men and black men is all the same on
+the inside, and all of them is Hungarians.’”
+
+Edwin Green laughed, as he always did when Molly got on the subject of
+Aunt Mary. The old woman was a never failing source of wonder and
+amusement to him; and Molly mimicked her so well that you could almost
+see her short, fat figure with her head tied up in a bandanna
+handkerchief, vigorously nodding to punctuate each epigram.
+
+“Next winter I hope to have my sister with me at Wellington, and she
+will see that this ‘Hungarian’ is fed better than my housekeeper has.
+You will come to us a great deal, I hope. I am overjoyed that you are to
+take the postgraduate course. That was the one pleasant thing your aunt,
+Mrs. Clay, had to tell me when I conversed with her at the wedding, and
+she little dreamed how pleasant it was, or I doubt her giving me that
+joy.”
+
+“I am truly glad. I hated to give up right now. It seemed to me as
+though I could see the open door of culture but had not reached it, and
+had a lot of things to learn before I had any right to consider myself
+fit to pass through it. Mother and Kent together decided it must be
+managed for me. They are both bricks, anyhow.”
+
+The young people had come to the little purling brook during this
+conversation, and at Molly’s instigation had turned down the stream and
+entered, through a break in the worm fence, a beautiful bit of woods.
+The beech woods in Kentucky are, when all is told, about the most
+beautiful woods in the world. No shade is so dense, no trees more noble,
+not even oaks. With the grace of an aspen and the dignity of an oak, the
+beech to my mind is first among trees.
+
+  “Of all the beautiful pictures
+    That hang on Memory’s wall,
+  Is one of a dim old forest
+    That seemeth the best of all.
+
+  “Not for the gnarled oaks olden,
+    Dark with the mistletoe,
+  Not for the violets golden
+    That sprinkle the vale below.
+
+  “Not for the milk-white lilies
+    Leaning o’er the hedge,
+  Coquetting all day with the sunbeams
+    And stealing their golden edge.”
+
+Molly quoted the verses in her soft, clear voice, adding:
+
+“I say ‘gnarled oaks olden’ for euphony, but I always think ‘beech.’ I
+don’t know what Miss Alice or Phœbe Gary, whichever one it was who wrote
+those lovely verses, would think of my taking such a liberty, even in my
+mind.”
+
+“No doubt if Miss Alice or Phœbe Cary could have seen this wood, she
+would have searched about in her mind for a line to fit beeches and let
+oaks go hang. This is really a wonderful spot. Can’t we sit down a
+while? I hope your mother will let me have right of way through these
+woods when I build my nest in the orchard. This makes my lot more
+valuable than I thought. I have never seen such beech trees; why, in the
+East a beech is not such a wonderful tree! We have an occasional big
+one, but here are acres and acres of genuine first growth. You must love
+it here even more than in the orchard, don’t you?”
+
+“Well, you see the orchard period is what might be known as my early
+manner; while the beech woods is my romantic era. I used to come here
+after I got old enough to roam around by myself, and a certain mystery
+and gloom I felt in the air would so fill my soul with rapture that (I
+know you think this is silly) I would sit right where we are sitting now
+and cry and cry just for the pure joy of having tears to shed, I
+suppose! I know of no other reason.”
+
+Professor Green smiled, but his eyes had a mist in them as he looked at
+the young girl, little more than a child now, with her sweet, wistful
+expression, already looking back on her childhood as a thing of the past
+and her “romantic era” as though she had finished with it.
+
+“Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beech wood period’ forever! None of
+us can afford to give up romance or the dear delight of tears for tears’
+sake. I love to think of you as a little child playing in the apple
+orchard, and as a beautiful girl wandering in the woods. But do you
+know, a still more beautiful picture comes to my inward eye, and that is
+an old Molly with white hair sitting where you are now, still in the
+‘romantic era,’ still in the beech woods; and, God willing, I’ll be
+beside you, only,” he whimsically added, “I am afraid I’ll be
+bald-headed instead of white-haired!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.—ALL KINDS OF WEATHER.
+
+
+The days went dreamily on. Edwin Green lengthened his stay in Kentucky
+until he really became touchy on the subject, and one day when some one
+spoke of the old Virginia gentleman who came in out of the rain and
+stayed six years, he told Mrs. Brown that he felt very like that old
+man. She was hospitality itself, and made him understand that he was
+more than welcome, and, every time he set a date for his departure, some
+form of entertainment was immediately on foot where his presence seemed
+both desirable and necessary, and his going away was postponed again.
+Once it was a coon hunt with Ernest and John and Lewis, the colored
+gardener; once it was a moonlight picnic at a wonderful spot called
+Black Rock.
+
+On that occasion they drove in a hay wagon over a road that was a
+disgrace to Kentucky, and then up a dry creek bed until they came to the
+great black boulder that stood at least twenty feet in the air; there
+they made their temporary camp. Kent confided to Professor Green that
+they never dared to come up that creek bed unless they were sure of
+clear weather, as it had been known to fill so quickly with a big rain
+that it drowned a man and horse. It was innocent enough then, with only
+a thin stream of water trickling along the rocks, sometimes forming a
+pool where the horses would go in almost to their knees; but, as a rule,
+they went dry shod along the bed. It was rough riding, but no one
+minded. There was plenty of hay in the wagon for young bones, and Mrs.
+Brown, who was chaperoning, had a pillow to sit on and one to lean
+against. When they got to the sylvan spot every one agreed it was worth
+the bumping they had undergone.
+
+“Oh, it looks like the Doone Valley,” said Judy.
+
+And so it did, except that the stream of water was not quite so big as
+the one John Ridd had to climb up.
+
+There were sixteen in the party, which filled the big wagon comfortably
+so that no one had room to bounce out. Paul and Ernest had invited two
+girls from Louisville, who turned out to be very pleasant and attractive
+and in for a good time. The only person who was not very agreeable was
+John’s friend, the girl visiting Aunt Clay, a Miss Hunt from Tennessee.
+She was fussy and particular and afraid of spoiling her dress, a chiffon
+thing, entirely inappropriate for a hay ride. She complained of a
+headache, and, besides, as Molly said, “she didn’t sit fair.” That is a
+very important thing to do on a hay ride. One person doubling up or
+lolling can upset the comfort of a whole wagon load. You must sit with
+your feet stretched out, making what quilt makers call “the every other
+one pattern.”
+
+“I am glad she acts this way,” whispered Mrs. Brown to Molly. “I know
+now why I can’t abide her. I couldn’t tell before.”
+
+Miss Hunt’s selfishness did not seem to worry her admirers any. John was
+all devotion, as were the two other young men who came along in her
+train. They were sorry about her headache and wanted to make room in the
+wagon for her to lie down; but Mrs. Brown was firm there and said it was
+a pity for her to suffer, but she thought it might injure her back
+unless she sat up going over the rough road. That lady had no patience
+with the headache, and thought the girl would much better have stayed at
+home if she were too ill to sit up. She did not much believe in the
+headache, anyhow, and was irritated to see poor Molly with her long legs
+doubled up under her trying to make room for the lolling little beauty.
+
+“She is pretty, no doubt of that,” said Edwin Green to Mrs. Brown, whom
+he had elected to sit by and look after for the ride, “as pretty as a
+brunette can be. I like a blonde as a rule. But it looks to me as though
+Miss Molly is getting the hot end of it, as far as comfort goes.”
+
+He would have offered to change places with Molly, but had a big reason
+for refraining. That was that no other than Jimmy Lufton, Molly’s New
+York newspaper friend, was occupying the seat next to Molly, and
+Professor Green was determined to do nothing to show his misery at that
+young man’s proximity. Jimmy had arrived quite unexpectedly that
+afternoon and seemed to be as intimate with the whole Brown family in
+two hours as he, Edwin Green, was after weeks of close companionship. He
+tried not to feel bitter, and, next to sitting by Molly, he was sure he
+would rather sit by her mother than any one in the world, certainly than
+anyone in the wagon.
+
+Jimmy was easily the life of the party. He had a good tenor voice and
+knew all the new songs “hot off of the bat” from New York. He told the
+funniest stories, and at the same time was so good-natured and kindly
+and modest withal that you had to like him. He was not the typical funny
+man. Edwin Green felt that he could not have stood Molly’s preferring a
+typical funny man to him. She did prefer Jimmy, he felt almost sure, and
+now he was trying to steel himself to take his medicine like a man. He
+was determined not to whine and not to make Molly unhappy. He had seen
+the meeting between Molly and Jimmy, and it was the flood of color that
+had suffused Molly’s face and her almost painful agitation that had
+convinced him of her regard for that brilliant young journalist. Had he
+heard the conversation as well as seen the meeting, he might have been
+spared some of his unhappiness. Jimmy had said, “Where’s my lemon?” and
+Molly had answered, “Done et up.”
+
+They piled out of the wagon. John, the woodsman of the crowd, busied
+himself making a fire, demanding that the two “extra men” should come
+and chop wood, determined that they should not get in too many words
+with the beautiful Miss Hunt while he was working. Miss Hunt then
+exercised her fascinations on Jimmy Lufton, on whom she had had her eye
+ever since they left Chatsworth. Jimmy was polite, but had a
+“nothing-doing” expression which quite baffled the practiced flirt. Poor
+Molly’s foot had gone so fast asleep that she was forced to hop around
+for at least five minutes before she could get out of the wagon and
+begin to make herself useful. Kent, who had driven, with Judy on the
+front seat with him, was busy taking out the four horses to let them
+rest for the heavy pull home. The other young men were occupied in
+various ways, lifting the hampers out of the wagon and getting water
+from the beautiful spring at the foot of the huge black rock. Professor
+Green came to Molly’s assistance.
+
+“I was afraid your foot would go to sleep. You are too good to let that
+girl crowd you so. She was the most deliberately selfish person I ever
+saw.”
+
+“Oh, there is always somebody like that on a hay ride. I have never been
+on one yet that there wasn’t some girl along with a headache who took up
+more than her share of room. I am too long to double up; but it is all
+right now. The tingle has stopped, and I can bear my weight on it, I
+see.”
+
+“Did you ever see anything more beautiful than this valley? How clever
+Miss Kean is in hitting off a description! I haven’t thought of the
+Doone Valley for years, and now I can’t get it out of my head; these
+overhanging cliffs and this green grass, green even by moonlight; and
+the sensation of being in an impenetrable fortress! And the great black
+rock might be Carver Doone petrified and very much magnified, left here
+forever for his sins. It must be a magnificent sight when the creek is
+full.”
+
+“So it is; but I hope we shall not see that sight to-night. Lorna Doone
+in the big snow was in a safe place to what we would be in a big freshet
+up this valley with no way to get back but by the creek bed,” said
+Molly, jumping out of the hay wagon and beginning to make ready the
+supper.
+
+Such a supper it was, with appetites to match after the long ride and
+good jolting! Mrs. Brown was an old hand at picnic suppers and knew
+exactly what to put in and how to pack the baskets in the most
+appetizing way. There were different kinds of sandwiches, thin bread and
+butter, all kinds of pickles, apple turnovers and cheese cakes; but the
+crowning success of one of these camp picnics was always the hot coffee
+and bacon cooked on John’s fire. The Browns kept a skillet and big
+coffee pot to use only on such occasions. The cloth was soon spread and
+the cold lunch arranged on it, and then in an incredibly short time the
+coffee was boiling and the bacon sizzling.
+
+“Oh, what a smell is this?” said Jimmy Lufton, emerging from behind
+Black Rock, where Miss Hunt had been doing her best to captivate him.
+(Kent said he bet on Jimmy to give her as good as he got.) “Mark Twain
+says, ‘Bacon would improve the flavor of an angel,’ and so it would.”
+
+“Well, I’m no angel, but I certainly do smell like bacon,” said Molly
+with flushed face and rumpled hair as she knelt over the fire with a
+long stick turning the luscious morsels. “Sue and Cyrus are responsible
+for the coffee and the bacon is my affair.”
+
+“As Todger’s boy says, ‘Wittles is up,’” called Jimmy to the strolling
+couples, who lost no time in hurrying to the feast. Mrs. Brown was
+installed at the head of the cloth, but not allowed to wait on any one.
+“For once, you shall be a guest at your own table,” said Kent, taking
+the coffee pot out of her hands. “Miss Judy, don’t you think we can
+serve this?”
+
+“Mostly cream for me and very little coffee,” drawled Miss Hunt.
+
+“If you have such a bad headache you had better take it black,” said
+Judy, who was aware of that young lady’s selfish behavior on the trip.
+“The people who want a great deal of cream will have to wait until the
+rest are served, as some of the cream got spilled; and, while there is
+enough for reasonable helps, there is not enough for exorbitant
+demands.”
+
+John and the two “extras” offered their shares to the spoiled beauty,
+but Judy was adamant.
+
+“Those sandwiches with olives and mayonnaise are very rich for any one
+with a liver,” said Judy later on as Miss Hunt was preparing to help
+herself plentifully to the delectable food; “these plain
+bread-and-butter ones would be much more wholesome for you, my dear.
+What, cheese cakes for any one who is too ill to sit up straight!
+Goodness gracious, Miss Hunt, do be careful! Your demise would grieve so
+many it is really selfish of you not to take better care of yourself.”
+
+“You seem to be very much concerned about my health, Miss Kean. I wonder
+that you knew I did not feel well; you seemed to be fully occupied on
+the journey with Mr. Kent Brown,” snapped Miss Hunt.
+
+“So I was,” answered Judy, nothing daunted. “But whenever Kent had to
+turn his attentions to the four horses when we came to rough spots in
+the road and he was trying not to jolt the ambulance too much, then I
+could turn around and get a good bird’s-eye view of the passengers, and
+you always seemed to be on the point of fainting.”
+
+“I know you are better now,” said Molly, who could not bear for even
+Miss Hunt, who was certainly not her style of girl, to be teased. “I
+know these apple turnovers won’t hurt you, and Aunt Mary makes such good
+ones. Do have one, and here is some more cream if you want it in your
+coffee.”
+
+“What a sweet girl your sister is,” said Miss Hunt in an audible
+whisper. “I can’t see what she finds in that Miss Kean to want her to
+make her such an interminable visit.”
+
+The ill-natured remark was heard by every one. For did you ever notice
+that the way to make yourself heard in a crowd of noisy talkers is to
+whisper? Molly looked ready for tears, and Kent bit his lips in rage,
+but Judy, as spunky as usual, and feeling that she deserved a rebuke
+from Miss Hunt, but rather shocked at the ill-bred way of delivering it,
+spoke out: “Mrs. Brown, when we were laughing the other day over your
+story of the old Virginia gentleman who came in out of the rain and
+stayed six years, I had another one to tell, but something happened to
+interrupt me. Might I tell it now?”
+
+Mrs. Brown gave a smiling consent. She was not so tender-hearted as
+Molly and, while she felt it a mistake to wrangle, she was rather
+curious to see who would get ahead in this trial of wits.
+
+“I bet my bottom dollar on Miss Judy, don’t you, mother?” said Kent in
+an undertone.
+
+“I certainly do,” whispered his mother.
+
+“A little Southern girl we knew at college, Madeline Pettit, told in all
+seriousness about a neighbor of hers who was invited to go on a visit.
+She accepted, but they had to sell the cow for her to go on, and then
+she had to prolong her visit for the calf to get big enough for her to
+come home on. I am afraid our calf is almost big enough and papa may
+come riding in on it any day and carry me off.” There was a general roar
+of laughter, and then the picnickers, having eaten all that they
+uncomfortably could, made a general movement toward adjournment.
+
+“Where is the moon?” they all exclaimed at once. While they were eating
+and drinking and making themselves generally merry, the proverbial
+cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand, had grown and spread and now the
+moon was put out of business. The cliffs were so high that a storm had
+come up out of the west without any one dreaming of it.
+
+“This creek can fill in such a hurry when a big rain comes we had better
+start,” said Kent.
+
+“Oh, don’t be such a croaker, Kent. It can’t rain. The sky was as clear
+as a bell when we left home,” said Mrs. Brown, as eager as any of the
+young people to prolong the good times.
+
+“All right, mother, just as you think best, but I am going to get the
+horses hitched up in case you change your mind.”
+
+Change her mind she did in a very few minutes, as large drops of rain
+began to fall. The crowd came pell-mell and scrambled into the wagon.
+Mrs. Brown noticed in the confusion that she had lost her cavalier and
+that Professor Green had attached himself to Molly. She was pleased to
+see it, as she had felt sorry for the young man. He was evidently so
+miserable, and yet at the same time so determined to make himself
+agreeable to her that he had been really very charming. She loved to
+talk about books, and, as she said, seldom had the chance, for the
+people who knew about books and cared for them never seemed to realize
+that a busy mother and housekeeper could have similar tastes.
+
+“I get so tired of swapping recipes for pickles and talking about how to
+raise children. Aunt Mary makes the pickle and my children are all
+raised,” she had confided to Edwin Green. “We had a very interesting
+guest on one occasion, a woman who had done a great many delightful
+things and knew many delightful literary people, and I hoped to have a
+real good talk with her about books; but she seemed to feel she must
+stick to the obvious when she conversed with me. I often laugh when I
+think of Aunt Mary’s retort courteous to this same lady. She was
+constantly asking me how we made this and what we did to have that so
+much better than other people, and I would always refer her to Aunt
+Mary.
+
+“Once it was bread that was under discussion. You know how difficult it
+is to get a recipe from a darkey, as they never really know how they do
+the things they do best. Aunt Mary told her to the best of her ability
+what she did, but the woman was not satisfied. ‘Now, tell me exactly how
+many cups of flour you use.’ ‘Why, bless you, we done stop dolin’ out
+flour with a cup long ago an’ uses a ole broken pitcher.’ Another time
+it was coffee. ‘Now, you have told me about the freshly roasted and
+ground coffee, please tell me how much water.’ Aunt Mary gave a scornful
+sniff. ‘You mus’ think we are stingy folks ef you think we measure
+water!’ At another time she said, ‘Aunt Mary, you must have told me
+wrong, because I did exactly what you said and my popovers were complete
+failures.’ ‘Laws a mussy, I did fergit to tell you one thing, an’ that
+is that you mus’ stir in some gumption wif ev’y aig.’”
+
+  “De rain kep’ a-drappin’ in draps so mighty heavy;
+  De ribber kep’ a-risin’ an’ bus’ed froo de levvy,
+  Ring, ring de banjo, how I lub dat good ole song,
+  Come, come, my true love, oh, whar you been so long?”
+
+It was Jimmy who broke into this rollicking song, and when all of the
+Brown boys, who had had an experience with this old dry creek bed once
+on a ’possum hunt, heard him, they felt that the song was singularly
+appropriate. They also thanked their stars that they had with them some
+one who would “whoop things up” and keep the crowd cheerful, and perhaps
+the ladies would not realize the danger they were in. This wet-weather
+creek was fed by innumerable small branches, all of them dry now from
+something of a drought that had been prevalent, and John, the woodsman,
+noticed that before they had much rainfall in the valley those small
+branches had begun to flow, showing that there had already been a great
+storm to the west of them.
+
+“If the rain were merely local, old Stony Creek could not do much damage
+in itself, but it is the help of all of these wet-weather springs and
+branches that makes it play such havoc,” whispered John to Jimmy Lufton.
+“I have known it in two hours’ time to rise four feet, which sounds
+incredible; and then in two hours more subside two feet, and in a day be
+almost dry again. I spent four hours up on top of Black Rock once in a
+sudden freshet. I would have scaled the hills, but I had some young dogs
+hunting, and they were so panic-stricken and I was so afraid they would
+fall down the cliffs in the creek, that I just took them up on top of
+the rock; and there we sat huddled up in the driving rain until the
+water subsided enough for us to wade home. Swimming is out of the
+question for more than a few strokes, the current is so swift; and as
+for keeping your feet and walking, you simply can’t do it.”
+
+“We have a creek up near Lexington that goes on just such unexpected
+sprees,” said Jimmy. “It will be a perfectly respectable citizen and
+every one will forget its bad behavior, when suddenly it will break
+loose and get so full it disgraces itself and brings shame on its family
+of branches.”
+
+By this time the whole crowd was fairly damp, but they made a joke of
+it, with the exception of Miss Hunt, who was much irritated at the
+damage done her pretty dress. Although she was covered up with three
+coats, she clamored for more, but no more were offered her. Professor
+Green took off his coat and, folding it carefully, put it under the seat
+in the lunch hamper.
+
+“I fancy you think this is a funny thing to do, but I have seen a wet
+crowd almost freeze after a storm like this, and it is a great mistake
+to get all of the wraps wet. It is much better to take the rain and get
+wet yourself, and keep the coats dry; and then, when the rain is over,
+have something warm and comfortable to put on.”
+
+“That is a fine scheme,” said Paul, and all of the men followed Edwin
+Green’s example, and Molly and Judy, who had prudently brought their
+college sweaters, did the same.
+
+“I think it is rather fun to get wet when you have on clothes that won’t
+get ruined,” said Judy.
+
+“I am glad you like it,” answered Miss Hunt, still sore over her bout
+with Judy, “but I must say it is hard on me with this chiffon dress.
+What will it look like after this?”
+
+“Well, you know, chiffon is French for rag so I fancy it will look like
+a Paris creation,” called back Judy from the front seat, where she was
+still installed by Kent. “I’ll bet anything her hair will come out of
+curl,” she whispered to her companion, “and I should not be astonished
+to see some of her beauty wash off.”
+
+“Eany, meany,” laughed Kent. “You are already way ahead of her, Miss
+Judy. Do leave her her hair and complexion.”
+
+“Well, I’ll try to be good,” said penitent Judy. “You and Molly are so
+alike, it is right amusing. And the worst of it is your goodness rubs
+off on everybody you come in contact with. Do you realize I have been in
+Kentucky for weeks and that Miss Hunt is the first person I have had a
+scrap with, and so far I have not got myself in a single ‘Julia Kean’
+scrape? I have been in so many, that the girls at college have named the
+particular kind of scrape I get in after me, just as though I were a
+famous physician who had discovered a disease.”
+
+“Just what kind of scrape do you usually get in?”
+
+“The kind of scrape I get in is always one I can get out of, and usually
+one that I fall in from not looking ahead enough at the consequences.”
+
+“Well, I pray God that this will be a ‘Julia Kean’ scrape we are in
+to-night. Certainly, lack of foresight got us in. I’d like to get that
+weather man and throw him in this creek. ‘Generally fair and variable
+winds,’ much!” said Kent with such a serious expression that Judy began
+to realize that this was not simply a case of a good wetting, but might
+mean something more.
+
+The horses were knee deep in water now, but splashing bravely on. Molly
+noticed that in hitching up for the homeward trip Kent had put President
+in the lead.
+
+“That is because old President has so much sense and will know how to
+pick his way and keep his feet when the other horses would get scared
+and begin to struggle and pull down the whole team,” said Molly to
+Professor Green. Molly was fully aware of the danger they were in, but
+was keeping her knowledge to herself for fear of starting a panic among
+the girls. “There is no real danger of drowning,” she whispered to her
+companion, “so long as we stay in the wagon. But the banks are so steep
+that if we should get out we might slip into the creek and then it would
+be about impossible to keep our feet. Look at the water now, up to the
+hubs of the wheels! I am sorry for the horses, and what an awful
+responsibility for Kent! But he is equal to it. Do you know, I really
+believe Kent is equal to anything!”
+
+It was, of course, pitch dark now, except for frequent flashes of
+lightning that illuminated the raging torrents, so all were forced to
+realize the grave situation.
+
+“The horses are behaving wonderfully well, and so far all the passengers
+are. I hope it will keep up,” muttered Kent. “It is awfully hard to keep
+your head when you are driving if any one screams.”
+
+“The water is in the wagon bed now. I can tell by my feet. Don’t you
+think your mother ought to come on the front seat, where she can be out
+of it somewhat?” suggested Judy.
+
+“You are right. Mother, come on up here and help me drive. There is
+plenty of room for three of us, and I believe you would be more
+comfortable.”
+
+Mrs. Brown got up, glad to change her position. She was more frightened
+than she cared to own, and was anxious to find out just how Kent felt
+about the matter.
+
+“I am going on the front seat, too,” said the bedraggled Miss Hunt. “It
+seems to me Miss Julia Kean has had the best of everything long enough.
+I see no reason why she should sit high and dry during the whole drive,
+while here I am absolutely and actually sitting in the water.”
+
+Kent bit his lips in fury, but held his horses and his tongue while the
+change was being made. Judy showed her breeding in a way that made Molly
+proud.
+
+“High I may be, but not dry,” said Judy, playfully shaking herself on
+the already drenched Molly as she sank by her side on the soggy hay. “I
+am going to see how long our fair friend will stay up there. It is
+really the scariest place I ever got in. Down here you feel the water
+without seeing it, but up there every flash of lightning reveals terrors
+that down here are undreamed of.”
+
+“Sit in the middle, mother, and Miss Hunt and I can take better care of
+you.”
+
+“Oh, I am afraid to sit on the outside! Mrs. Brown is much larger than I
+am and could hold me in better than I could her,” said the selfish girl.
+
+She squeezed in between mother and son, as Kent said afterward, taking
+up more room then any little person that he ever saw.
+
+  “Noah he did build an ark, one wide river to cross.
+  Built it out of hickory bark, one wide river to cross.
+  One wide river, and that wide river was Jordan,
+  One wide river, and that wide river to cross.”
+
+“All join in the chorus,” demanded Jimmy.
+
+There were many verses to the time-honored song, and before they got all
+the animals in the ark the moon suddenly came out from behind a very
+black cloud, and the rain was over, but not the flood.
+
+“It took many days and nights for the water to subside for old Noah, and
+we may expect the same delay in our case,” said the happy and
+irrepressible Jimmy.
+
+Kent was glad indeed for the light of the moon. He had really had to
+leave it to President to take the proper road, or, rather, channel. That
+brave old horse had gone sturdily on, and, when one of the younger
+horses had begun to struggle and pull back, he had turned solemnly
+around and given him a soft little bite.
+
+“Mother, did you see that? And look at that off horse now! I bet he will
+behave after this.”
+
+Sure enough, the admonished animal was pulling as steadily as President
+himself, and they had no more trouble with him.
+
+There were many large holes in the creek bed, and, of course, the wheels
+often went into them. Once it looked for a moment as though they might
+have a turnover to add to their disasters. The wagon toppled, but
+righted itself in a moment. Miss Hunt, as Judy had said, on the front
+seat was able to see the danger as she could not down in the wagon, and
+when the wheels went down that particularly deep hole she let out a
+piercing scream and tried to seize the reins from Kent.
+
+Kent pulled up his horses as soon as the wagon was on a level and called
+to John, “John, will you please help Miss Hunt back into the seat she
+has just vacated? She finds she is not comfortable here.”
+
+At that Miss Hunt very humbly crawled back, and, like the Heathen
+Chinee, “subsequent proceedings interested her no more.”
+
+As dawn was breaking they drove into the avenue at Chatsworth, not
+really very much the worse for wear. The warm, dry wraps produced from
+under the seat after the moon came out had been wonderfully comforting.
+Edwin Green had made Mrs. Brown take his coat, and as he folded it
+around her he had whispered, “Kentucky women are very remarkable. They
+meet danger as though it were a partner at a ball.”
+
+“Yes,” said Kent, who had overheard him, “I could never have come
+through the deep waters if it had not been for the brave women. You saw
+how the one scream unnerved me, to say nothing of that little vixen
+grabbing my reins. Here, Ernest, we are on the pike at last, and I am
+just about all in. I wouldn’t give up until we got through, but take the
+reins. Maybe Miss Hunt would like to drive,” he had slyly added, but a
+low moan from under the wet coats was all the proud beauty could utter.
+
+Aunt Mary greeted them at Chatsworth with much delight.
+
+“The sto’m here been somethin’ turrible. I ain’t seed sich a wind sence
+the chilluns’ castle blowed down. All of yer had better come back to the
+kitchen whar it’s warm and eat somethin’. I got a big pot er hot coffee
+and pitchers er hot milk an’ a pan er quick yeast biscuit. I done notice
+ef you eat somethin’ when you is cold an’ wet, somehow you fergits ter
+catch cold.”
+
+They all came trooping back to the warm old kitchen, “ev’y spot in it as
+clean as a bisc’it board,” and there they ate the hot buttered biscuit
+and drank the coffee and milk. It was noticed that John let the “extras”
+take care of Miss Hunt, and he devoted himself to his mother. Just as
+they were separating for the morning he hugged his mother and whispered
+to her, “You need not have any more uneasiness about me, mumsy. I don’t
+believe there is a Brown living who could go on loving a woman who has
+no more sense than to grab the reins.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.—JIMMY.
+
+
+“Judy, Mrs. Woodsmall has just ‘phoned over that her hated R. F. D.
+Woodsmall is bringing you a letter from your father. She says she could
+only make out it was from him, but could not decipher anything else. She
+has an idea he is on his way, as the postmark showed it was mailed on
+the train somewhere in Kansas. Isn’t she too funny? She makes some of
+the neighbors furious, but we always laugh at her little idiosyncrasy.
+After all, it is perfectly harmless. She really is as kind a little soul
+as there is in the county. Her life has been so narrow. If she could
+have been a real worker in a big city she might have grown into a very
+remarkable person. What a detective she would have made!”
+
+Judy yawned and stretched and sat up as Molly came in bearing a tray of
+lunch for her tired friend as well as the news of a letter from Mr.
+Kean, somewhere on the road, and to be delivered some time that day if
+Bud Woodsmall’s automobile behaved.
+
+“Oh, Molly, I am tired! Are you the only one of the crowd to be up and
+doing after last night?”
+
+“I have persuaded mother to stay in bed and get a good rest. The boys
+took a late train into town, and Miss Hunt never did go to bed. Aunt
+Mary said she came down early this morning and ’phoned over to Aunt
+Clay’s coachman to come for her immediately, and off she went without
+saying ‘boo to a goose.’ I wish you could have heard Aunt Mary’s
+description of her!
+
+“‘Yo’ Aunt Clay’s comp’ny sho ain’t no wet weather beauty. Her ha’r was
+so flat her haid looked jes’ like a buckeye; and her dress ‘min’ me of a
+las’ year’s crow’s nes’. She was so shamefaced like she resem’led that
+ole peacock when Shep done pull out his tail.’”
+
+Judy laughed. “Oh, I do love Aunt Mary! But, Molly, won’t it be fine to
+see mamma and papa? Do you suppose they are really on their way?”
+
+“It will be fine to see them, but it will be pretty sad to have them
+take off my Judy. I am mighty afraid that is what they are going to do.
+Go back to sleep now and I will bring you your letter as soon as Bud
+puts in his appearance. I am going to have a hard game of tennis with
+Jimmy Lufton against Ernest and that nice Miss Rogers. Weren’t those
+girls spunky last night? An experience like that will make you know
+people better than years of plain, everyday life. Professor Green has
+struck up quite an acquaintance with Miss Ormsby. It seems they have
+many mutual friends, both of them having summered many times at
+‘Sconset.’”
+
+Molly spoke quietly, but there was a slight tremor of lip and a
+deepening of color that the sharp Judy saw and noted, but nothing would
+have made her let Molly know that she had betrayed herself in the least.
+
+“Molly was perfectly unconscious of what she was doing last night,”
+thought Judy, “but all the same she was making poor Professor Green live
+up to his name with jealousy. I don’t know but it might make Molly open
+her childlike old eyes if the patient professor should kick up his staid
+heels and jump the fence and go grazing in another paddock for a while.”
+And then aloud she said, “All right, honey, I’ll take forty winks and
+then get up and come down to the tennis court.”
+
+Mr. Kean’s letter arrived in due time and, sure enough, Mrs. Woodsmall’s
+surmises were correct. He was on the way to Kentucky with Mrs. Kean, and
+expected to be in Louisville the next day at a hotel, and would motor
+out to Chatsworth in the afternoon.
+
+“Your father and mother must not think of stopping at a hotel, Judy,”
+declared Mrs. Brown. “We have an abundance of room. Miss Rogers and Miss
+Ormsby are going in town after supper to-night with Ernest and Professor
+Green. Mr. Lufton expects to go back to Lexington to-morrow, and
+Professor Green is only waiting for some mail and will take his
+departure, too. We shall be forlorn, indeed, when all of them go. I’ll
+make Kent look up what train Mr. Kean will come in on and he will meet
+it and send them both right out here.”
+
+“Oh, Mrs. Brown, you are so good. I would love for mamma and papa to be
+here and to know all of you and have you know them. They are as
+wonderful in their way as you are in yours, and your meeting would be a
+grand combination.”
+
+Molly rather dreaded the coming of evening. She had promised Jimmy to
+take a walk with him by moonlight, and she had a terrible feeling that
+he might bring up the subject of “lemons” again. She was not prepared
+for the question that she felt almost sure he was going to ask her.
+
+“I am nothing but a kid, after all,” moaned Molly to herself. “Professor
+Green was right in calling me ‘dear child.’ Mother was married when she
+was my age, but somehow I can’t seem to grow up. Jimmy is so nice, and I
+do like him so much, but as for spending the rest of my life with
+him—oh, I just simply can’t contemplate it. Why, why doesn’t he see how
+it is without having to talk it over? I wish none of them would ever get
+sentimental over me.” And then she blushed and told herself that she was
+a big story teller and sentimentality from some one who should be
+nameless would not be so trying, after all.
+
+Supper was over, Professor Green and Ernest had gone gaily off, driving
+Miss Rogers and Miss Ormsby to Louisville, Judy and Kent were making a
+long-talked-of duty call on Aunt Clay, “just to show Miss Hunt there is
+no hard feeling,” laughed Judy. And now it was time to take the promised
+walk with Jimmy Lufton.
+
+“You look a little tired, Miss Molly. Maybe you would rather not go. You
+must not let me bore you,” said Jimmy, a little wistfully.
+
+“Oh, no, I’m all right. I fancy it will take all of us a few days to get
+over last night. I have wanted to tell you how fine you were and what it
+meant to all of us to have you so cheerful and tactful. The boys can’t
+say enough in your praise. We had to have some safety valve, and if we
+had not been laughing we might have been crying.”
+
+“Oh, I’m a cheerful idiot, all right, all right. I have such a short
+upper lip and such an eternal grin on me that no one ever seems to think
+I have any feelings. I get no more sympathy than a fat man. I wish I
+could make people understand that I am as serious as the next, but
+somehow me Irish grandmither comes popping out in me and I have to joke
+if I am to die the next minute.”
+
+“I think your disposition is most enviable,” said Molly kindly, “and, as
+for the dash of Irish, I always think that is what makes our mother so
+charming. It was almost a fad with our professor of English at college
+to find the Irish mother or grandmother for almost all of the great
+poets or essayists.” Molly could not quite trust herself to say
+Professor Green’s name, the picture of the seemingly ecstatic Edwin
+driving off with Miss Ormsby was too fresh in her mind, and she could
+not help smiling at herself for her formal “our professor of English.”
+
+Their footsteps led them into the garden and then through the apple
+orchard down by the little stream, and on to the beech woods.
+
+“I wonder why we are coming this way,” thought Molly, trying to keep her
+mind off another walk she had taken over that same ground not so long
+ago.
+
+“Let’s sit down here,” said Jimmy, stopping under the great beech tree
+where Molly and Edwin had sat on that memorable day when he had spoken
+of his vision of the white-haired Molly, and then had stopped himself so
+suddenly with a joke about his own possible baldness.
+
+“Oh, not right here,” said Molly hurriedly. “I know a nice rock a little
+farther on.”
+
+“Molly, Miss Molly, Miss Brown!——Oh, Molly, darling, there is no use in
+going any farther because I know you know that I have brought you out
+here to tell you that I——”
+
+“Jimmy, please don’t say anything more. It ’most kills me to hurt you.”
+
+“Is there no hope for me? I’ll wait a week, oh, I don’t mean a week,
+I’ll wait forever if there is a chance for me. I know this is a low
+question to ask you, but is there any one else?”
+
+Honest Molly hung her head. “Not exactly.”
+
+That “not exactly” was enough for Jimmy. He smiled a wan little smile
+that would have put his Irish grandmother to shame.
+
+“Well, don’t you mind, Miss Molly. I wouldn’t have you feel blue about
+me for a million. You never did lead me on one little bit, and I was
+almost sure when I came to Kentucky that there would be nothing doing
+for yours truly; but somehow men are made so they have to make sure
+about such things. You and I have too much sense of the ridiculous to do
+any spiel about the brother and sister business, but I’ll tell you one
+thing, I am your friend forever, and you must know that, and understand
+that as long as I live I’ll hold myself in readiness to do your
+bidding.”
+
+“Oh, Jimmy, you are so good and generous,” holding out her hand to him,
+“I am your friend forever, and I hope we shall always see a lot of each
+other.”
+
+Jimmy took her hand and for a moment bowed his curly black head over it.
+Molly put her other hand on his head, feeling somehow that it was like
+comforting Kent.
+
+“You are sure, Molly?”
+
+“Yes, Jimmy.”
+
+“Well, le’s go home. I know you are tired.
+
+  “‘If no one ever marries me
+    I sha’n’t mind very much;
+  I shall buy a squirrel in a cage,
+    And a little rabbit-hutch,’”
+
+sang the irrepressible.
+
+When Judy got back to Chatsworth she found Molly weeping her soul out on
+the pillow, and she had noticed as they passed the office porch that for
+once Jimmy Lufton was whistling in the minor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.—AUNT CLAY MAKES A MISTAKE.
+
+
+“Sister Ann, do you see any dust arising?” called Molly to Judy, who had
+actually climbed up on the gate post, hoping to see a little farther up
+the road, expecting the automobile from Louisville with her beloveds in
+it.
+
+“I see a little cloud and I hear a little buzzing. Oh, Molly, I believe
+it’s them.”
+
+“Is it, oh, Wellington graduate? Get your cases straight before they
+come or your father will think that diploma is a fake.”
+
+“Grammar go hang,” said Judy, performing a dangerous pas seul on the
+gate post and then jumping lightly down and racing up the avenue to meet
+the incoming automobile. Molly followed more slowly, never having been
+the sprinter that Judy was. Mr. Kean sprang from the car and lifted Judy
+off her feet in a regular bear hug.
+
+“Save a little for me, Bobby,” piped the little lady mother. “Judy,
+Judy, it is too good to be true that we have got you at last, and I mean
+to keep you forever now, you slippery thing.” And then they all of them
+got into the car and had a three-cornered hug. Molly came up with only
+enough breath to give them a cordial greeting, welcoming them to
+Chatsworth.
+
+“That is a very fine young man, your brother, who met us at the station,
+Miss Molly. Kent is his name? He recognized us by my likeness to you,
+Judy, so make your best bow and look pleased.” In looking pleased, Judy
+did a great deal of unnecessary blushing which her mother noticed, but,
+mothers being different from fathers, said nothing about it.
+
+Mrs. Brown came hurrying down the walk to meet her guests. She was
+amused to see how much Judy resembled both her parents, although Mrs.
+Kean was so small and Mr. Kean so large. Mother and daughter were alike
+in their quick, extravagant speech, and a certain bird-like poise of the
+head, but father and daughter had eyes that might have been cut out of
+the same piece of gray and by the same pattern.
+
+“Where is your baggage? Surely Kent gave you my message and you are
+going to visit us?”
+
+“You have been so kind to my girl that I see no way but to let you be
+kind to us, too, and if we will not inconvenience you we will accept
+your invitation,” said Mr. Kean. “As for baggage: Mrs. Kean is a dressy
+soul, but she only carries a doll trunk which holds all of her little
+frocks and fixings and even leaves a tiny tray for my belongings.”
+
+He assisted his smiling wife to alight and then from the bottom of the
+car produced a wicker trunk that was really no bigger than a large
+suitcase, but much more dignified looking.
+
+“She says a trunk gives her a little more permanent feeling than a bag
+and makes a hotel room seem more homelike,” went on Mr. Kean. Mrs. Brown
+thought that she had never heard such a pleasant voice and jolly laugh.
+
+“Judy, show your mother and father their room. I know they are tired and
+will want to rest before dinner.”
+
+“Tired! Bless your soul, what have we done to be tired? We have been on
+a Pullman four nights, and that is when we get in rest enough for months
+to come. I know Julia will want to get at her doll trunk and change her
+traveling dress, but, if you will permit me, I shall stay down here with
+you. What a beautiful farm you have! How many acres in it?”
+
+“I have three hundred acres in all; two hundred under cultivation and in
+grass, fifty in woodland, and fifty that are not worth anything. It is a
+strange barren strip of land that my father had to take as a bad debt
+and I inherited from him. We graze some forlorn sheep on it, but they
+won’t drink the water, and it is almost more trouble than they are worth
+to drive them to water on another part of the place.”
+
+Mr. Kean listened intently. “I should like to see your farm, Mrs. Brown.
+Did you ever have the water on the barren strip analyzed?”
+
+“No, Mr. Brown thought of looking into it but never did, and I have had
+so many problems to solve and expenses to meet with my large and growing
+family that I have never thought of it any more.”
+
+Mrs. Kean and Judy came down to join the others in a very short time,
+considering that Mrs. Kean had unpacked her tiny trunk and shaken out
+her little frocks and changed into a dainty pink gingham that looked as
+though it had just come from the laundry, showing no signs of having
+been packed for weeks.
+
+“What have you done to my Judy, Mrs. Brown? I have never seen her
+looking so well.”
+
+“Fried chicken and candied sweet potatoes are the chief of my diet, and
+who would have the ingratitude not to show such keep?” laughed the
+daughter, pulling the little mother down on her lap and holding her as
+tenderly as though their relationship were reversed. “Robert and Julia,
+are you aware of the fact that your lady daughter has been a perfect
+lady since she came to these parts, and has got herself into no bad
+scrapes, and has not been saucy but once, and that was necessary? Wasn’t
+it, Mrs. Brown?”
+
+“It certainly was. My old mammy used to tell me, ‘Don’ sass ole folks
+‘til they fust sass you’; and Saint Paul says, ‘Live peaceably with all
+men, as much as lieth in you.’ When Judy felt called upon to speak out
+to Miss Hunt she had the gratitude of almost every one present.”
+
+Professor Green joined them and, having made the Keans’ acquaintance at
+Wellington, introductions were not necessary. That young man was in a
+very happy frame of mind as his hated rival that he had to like in spite
+of himself had taken an early train to Lexington; and there had been a
+dejected look to his back as he got into the buggy that Edwin Green
+decided could not belong to an accepted lover. Molly had a soft, sad
+look about her blue eyes, but certainly none of the elation of the newly
+engaged. He had held a cryptic conversation with Mrs. Brown that morning
+on the porch, in which he had gathered that the dear lady considered
+Molly singularly undeveloped for a girl her age; that any thought of her
+becoming engaged for at least a year was very distasteful to her mother;
+that her mind should be left free for the postgraduate course she was so
+soon to enter upon. But she very delicately gave him to understand that
+she liked him and that Molly also liked him more than any friend she
+had. The conversation left him slightly dazed, but also very calm and
+happy, liking Mrs. Brown even better than before and admiring her for
+her delicate tact and frankness that does not often combine with such
+diplomacy. His mail had come and he had no excuse for further delay, and
+had determined to go home on the following day.
+
+“Professor Green, I have been so long on the train that I feel the need
+of stretching my legs. Could you tear yourself away from these ladies
+long enough to show me around the farm?”
+
+“Indeed, I could; but maybe the ladies would like to come.”
+
+“No, indeed,” answered Mrs. Kean. “I know Bobbie’s leg-stretching walks
+too well to have any desire to try to keep up with him. It is so
+pleasant and restful here, and Mrs. Brown, Molly, Judy and I can have a
+nice talk.”
+
+The two gentlemen started off at a good pace.
+
+“Professor, I should like to see this barren strip of land Mrs. Brown
+tells me of. It sounds rather interesting to me. You know where it is,
+do you not?”
+
+“Yes; and, do you know, I was going to ask you to look at it and give
+your opinion about it. It has the look to me of possible oil fields. I
+haven’t said anything to any of the family about it, as they are such a
+sanguine lot I was afraid of raising their hopes when nothing might come
+of it, but I had determined to have a talk with Kent before I left. He
+is the most level-headed member of the family, and would not fly off
+half-cocked. Miss Molly tells me they are contemplating selling this
+wonderful bit of beech woods. They have a good offer for it, but it is
+like selling members of the family to part with these trees.”
+
+The two men walked on, discovering many things to talk about and finding
+each other vastly agreeable. Their walk led them through the beech
+woods, then through a growth of scrub pines and stunted oaks and
+blackberry bushes, until they gradually emerged into a hard stony valley
+sparsely covered with grass and broomsedge.
+
+“About as forlorn a spot as you can find in the whole of Kentucky, I
+fancy,” said the younger man. “Its contrast with the beech woods we have
+just passed is about as great as that between Mrs. Brown and her sister,
+Mrs. Clay, who, with all due respect, is as rocky as this strip of
+barren land and as unattractive. She is the only person of whom I have
+ever heard Miss Molly and her brother Kent say anything unkind, and they
+cannot conceal their feeling against her. It seems that Mrs. Clay had
+the settling of her father’s estate, and arranged matters so well for
+herself that Mrs. Brown’s share turned out to be this stony strip. Mrs.
+Brown accepted it and refused to make a row, declaring that she would
+never have a disagreement with any member of her family about ‘things.’
+She is a wonderful woman,” added the professor, thinking of his talk of
+the morning.
+
+Mr. Kean stopped at the banks of a lonesome tarn, filled with black
+water with a greasy looking slime over it.
+
+“Look at those bubbles over there! Could they be caused by turtles? No,
+turtles could not live in this Dead Sea. Look, look! More and more of
+them. Watch that big one break! See the greasy ring he made!”
+
+He was so excited that Edwin Green smiled to see how alike father and
+daughter were, and was amused at himself for speaking of the Browns as
+being people who went off half-cocked to this man who was a hair trigger
+if ever there was one.
+
+Mr. Kean stooped over and scooped up some of the water in his hand. “‘If
+my old nose don’t tell no lies, seems like I smell custard pies.’ Why,
+Green, smell this! It’s simply reeking of petroleum! I bet that old Mrs.
+Clay will come to wish she had made a different division of her father’s
+estate. Come on, let’s go break the news to the Browns.”
+
+“But are you certain enough? They may be disappointed,” said the more
+cautious Edwin.
+
+“I am sure enough to want to send to Louisville immediately for a drill
+to test it. I have had a lot of experience with oil in various places
+and I am a regular oil wizard. You have heard of a water witch? My
+friends say that my nose has never played me false, and I can smell out
+oil lands that they would buy on the say-so of my scent as quickly as
+with the proof of a drill and pump. My, I’m glad for this good luck to
+come to these people who have been so good to my little girl.”
+
+The two men were very much excited as they made their way back to the
+house.
+
+“It is funny the way oil crops up in unexpected places,” said Mr. Kean.
+“There is very little of it in this belt, and for that reason Mrs. Brown
+should get a very good price for her land. I think it best for her to
+sell to the Trust as soon as possible. There is no use in fighting them.
+They are obliged to win out. They will be pretty square with her if she
+does not try to fight them. What a fine young fellow that Kent is! And
+as for Miss Molly, she is a corker! She has got my poor little wild
+Indian of a Judy out of dozens of scrapes at college. Judy always ends
+by telling us all about the terrible things that almost happened to her.
+She seems to me to be a little tamer, but maybe it is a strangeness from
+not seeing us for so long.”
+
+Edwin Green had his own opinion about the reason for that seeming
+tameness, but he held his peace. He could not help seeing Kent’s
+partiality for Miss Julia Kean, and had no reason to believe otherwise
+than that the young lady reciprocated. Love, or the possibility of
+loving, might be a great tamer for Judy. He was really not far from the
+mark. Judy was interested in Kent, very much so, but it was ambition
+that was steadying her and a determination to do something with the
+artistic talent that she was almost sure she possessed. Paris was her
+Mecca, and she was preparing herself to talk it out with her parents.
+They, poor grown-up children that they were, had no plans for their
+daughter’s future. College had solved the problem for four years, but,
+now that that was over, what to do with her next? They loved to have her
+with them and had looked forward eagerly to the time when she could be
+with them, but after all was a railway camp the best place for a girl of
+Judy’s stamp?
+
+“Mrs. Brown, what will you take for that barren strip of land over
+there?” said Mr. Kean, sinking into a chair on the porch where the
+ladies were still having their quiet talk.
+
+“Well, Mr. Kean, since it is not worth anything, and I have to pay taxes
+on it, I think I would give it away to any one who would promise to keep
+up the fences.”
+
+“Can you get right-of-way through the adjoining place to the road behind
+you, where I see that a narrow-gauge railroad runs?”
+
+Mrs. Brown flushed and hesitated. “There is a lane connecting these two
+turnpikes older than the turnpikes themselves. My place does not go
+through to this narrow-gauge railroad that you saw this morning, but my
+father’s old place, the Carmichael farm, now owned by my sister, Mrs.
+Clay, borders on both roads. This lane divides the two places as far as
+mine goes and then cuts through her place to the road behind. She has
+lately closed that lane, fenced it off and put it in corn.”
+
+“Rather high-handed proceedings,” growled Mr. Kean. “Did you protest?”
+
+“The boys went to see her about it, as it blocks their short cut to the
+Ohio River, where they go swimming, but she was so insulted at what she
+called their interference that I insisted upon their letting the matter
+drop. Paul, who always has insisted on his rights, went so far as to see
+a lawyer about it. His opinion was that Sister Sarah had no more right
+to fence off that lane than she would have to build a house in the
+middle of Main Street. But, if you knew my Sister Sarah, you would
+understand that if she decided to build a house in the middle of Main
+Street she would do it.”
+
+“Perhaps she would if the Law were as ladylike as you are, Mrs. Brown,”
+laughed Mr. Kean, “but the Law happens to be not even much of a
+gentleman. What I wanted to get at was whether or not you had
+right-of-way, not way. You have the right if not the way. Now I am going
+to come to business with you. Did you know, my dear lady, that that
+despised strip of land is worth more than all of your fruitful acres put
+together, beech woods and apple orchard thrown in?” He jumped up from
+his chair, able to contain himself no longer, and in clarion tones
+literally shouted, “Lady, lady, you’ve struck oil, you’ve struck oil!”
+
+
+
+
+                                BOOK II.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.—WELLINGTON AGAIN.
+
+
+“Wellington! Wellington!”
+
+Molly waked from her reverie with a start. It seemed only yesterday that
+she was coming to Wellington for the first time, “a greeny from
+Greenville, Green County,” as she had been scornfully designated by a
+superior sophomore. She could vividly recall her arrival, a poor, tired,
+timid little girl in a shabby brown dress, with soot on her face and
+seemingly not a friend on earth. She smiled when she thought of how many
+friends she had made that first day, friends who had really stuck. First
+of all there had been dear old Nance Oldham; then Mary Stewart, who had
+taken her under her wing and looked after her like a veritable anxious
+hen-mother during the whole of her freshman year; then the vivid,
+scintillating Julia Kean, her own Judy; then Professor Green, who
+certainly had proved a friend. On looking back, it seemed that every one
+with whom she had come in contact on that day had done something nice
+for her and tried to help her. Mother had always told her that friends
+were already made for persons who really wanted them, made and ready
+with hands outstretched, and all you had to do was reach out and find
+your friend.
+
+Now, as before, the trainload of girls piled out at the pretty, trim
+little station, and there was dear old Mr. Murphy ready to look after
+the baggage, no easy job, as he declared, there being as many different
+kinds of trunks as there were young ladies. Molly shook his hand warmly,
+for, after all, he was really the very first friend she had made at
+Wellington. Her trunk being shabby had had no effect on his manner to
+her as a Freshman, but he noticed now that she had a new one and
+remarked on its elegance.
+
+“I simply had to have a new one, Mr. Murphy, ‘the good old wagon done
+broke down.’ It was old when I started in at Wellington, and four round
+trips have done for it.”
+
+Next to Molly’s big new trunk,—and this time it was a big one, as she
+had some new clothes and enough of them for about the first time in her
+life, and had bought a trunk with plenty of trays so as to pack them
+properly,—and snuggled up close to it as though for protection, was the
+strangest little trunk Molly had ever seen: calf-skin with the hair on
+it, spotted red and white, a little moth eaten in spots, with wrought
+iron hinges and a lock of great strength but of a simple, fine
+design—oak leaves with the key hole shaped like an acorn. A rope was
+tied tightly around it, reminding Molly of a halter dragging the poor
+little calf to slaughter.
+
+“Well, well, I haven’t seen such a trunk as this since I left the ould
+counthry,” said the baggage master, putting his hand fondly on the
+strange-looking trunk. “I’ll bet the owner of this, Miss Molly, will
+have many a knock from some of the high-falutin’ young ladies of
+Wellington. They haven’t seen it yet, because it is hiding behind your
+grand new big one. I pray the Blessed Virgin that the poor little maid
+will find a strong friend to get behind and to look after her.”
+
+Molly smiled at the old man’s imagery, and thought, “What a race the
+Irish are! I am glad I have some of their blood.”
+
+She turned at the sound of laughter and saw coming toward her as strange
+a figure as Wellington Station had ever sheltered, she was sure. A tall
+girl of about twenty years was approaching, dressed in a stiff blue
+homespun dress with a very wide gathered skirt and a tight basque (about
+the fashion of the early eighties), and a cheap sailor hat. In her hand
+she carried a bundle done up in a large, flowered, knotted handkerchief.
+Her hair was black and straight and coming down, but when your eyes once
+got to her face her clothes paled into insignificance, and Molly, for
+one, never gave them another thought. Imagine the oval of a Holbein
+Madonna; a clear olive skin; hazel eyes wide and dreamy; a broad low
+forehead with strongly marked brows; a nose of unusual beauty (there are
+so few beautiful noses in real life); and a determined mouth with a “do
+or die” expression. She came down the platform, head well up and an easy
+swinging walk, no more regarding the amused titter of the crowd of
+girls, separating to let her pass, than a St. Bernard dog would have
+noticed the yap of some toy poodles. On espying her trunk—of course it
+was hers, the little hair trunk with the wrought iron hinges and
+lock—she quickened her gait, as though to meet a friend, stooped over,
+picked it up, and swung it to her broad fine shoulder, more as though it
+had been a kitten than a calf. Turning to the astonished Molly, she said
+in a voice so sweet and full that it suggested the low notes of a
+‘cello, “Kin you’uns tell me’uns whar—no, no, I mean—can you tell me
+where I can find the president?”
+
+“Indeed, I can,” answered Molly. “I am going to see her myself just as
+soon as I get settled in my quarters in the Quadrangle, and if you will
+tell me where you are to be I will take you to your room and then come
+for you to go and see President Walker. Mr. Murphy, the baggage master,
+will attend to your trunk. You will see to this young lady’s trunk soon,
+won’t you, Mr. Murphy?”
+
+“The Saints be praised for answering the prayers of an ould man in such
+a hurry! Of course I will, Miss Molly; and where shall I be after
+sinding the little trunk, miss?”
+
+“I don’t know until I see the president. I think I’ll just keep my box
+with me. I can carry it myself. ’Tain’t much to tote.”
+
+“Oh, no, I wouldn’t do that,” said Molly, hardly able to keep back the
+laugh that she was afraid would come bubbling out in spite of her. “I
+tell you what you do: let Mr. Murphy keep your trunk until you find out
+where your room is to be, and in the meantime you come to my place; then
+as soon as you are located we can ‘phone for it.” The girl looked at her
+new-found friend with eyes for all the world like a trusting collie’s,
+and silently followed her to the ’bus.
+
+“My name is Molly Brown, of Kentucky. Please tell me yours.”
+
+“Kaintucky? Oh, I might have known it. I am Melissa Hathaway, and am
+pleased to make your acquaintance, Molly Brown of Kaintucky. I come from
+near Catlettsburg, Kaintucky, myself.”
+
+“Well, we are from the same state and must be friends, mustn’t we?”
+
+There were many curious glances cast at Molly’s new friend, but the
+giggling at her strange clothes had stopped and the spell of her
+countenance had in a measure taken hold of the girls. Molly spoke to
+many friends, but she missed her intimates and wondered where Nance was,
+and if any of the others were coming back for the postgraduate course.
+At the thought of Nance she smiled, knowing just how she would take her
+befriending this mountain girl. She would be cold at first and perhaps a
+bit scornful in her ladylike way, and end by being as good as gold to
+her, and perhaps even making her some proper clothes.
+
+The door at No. 5 Quadrangle was ajar and Molly could see Nance flitting
+back and forth getting things to rights. What a busy soul she was and
+how good it was to know she was already there! The girls were soon
+locked in each other’s arms, so overjoyed to be together again that
+Molly for a moment forgot her guest; and Nance did not see her as she
+stood in the doorway, a silent witness to the enthusiastic meeting of
+the chums.
+
+“Oh, Melissa, what am I thinking of, leaving you standing there so long?
+You must excuse me. Nance Oldham and I always behave this way when we
+get back in the fall; and now I want to introduce you two. Miss Oldham,
+this is my new friend, Miss Hathaway, also of Kentucky.”
+
+Nance shook hands with the quaint-looking new friend and awaited an
+explanation, which she knew would be forthcoming from Molly as soon as
+she could get a chance. Melissa was quiet and composed, taking in
+everything in the room. Her eyes lingered hungrily on the books that
+Nance had already arranged on the shelves, and then rested in a kind of
+trance on the pictures that Nance had unpacked and hung.
+
+“Nance, I have some biscuit and fudge in my grip, if you could scare up
+some tea. I am awfully hungry, and I fancy Miss Hathaway could eat a
+little something before we go to look up the president. She does not
+know where her room is to be, and I asked her to come with us until she
+is located.”
+
+“You are very kind to me, and your treating me so well makes me feel as
+though I were back in the mountains. We-uns—I mean we always try to be
+good to strangers, back where I come from.”
+
+Nance was drawn to the girl as Molly had been.
+
+“She knows how to sit still, and waits until she has something to say
+before she says anything,” thought the analytical Nance. “I believe I am
+going to like Molly’s ‘lame duck’ this time; and, goodness me, how
+beautiful she is!”
+
+Melissa was glad to get her tea, having been in a day coach all night
+with nothing but a cold lunch to keep body and soul together until she
+got to Wellington. Nance noticed that she knew how to hold her cup
+properly and ate like a lady; her English, too, was good as a rule, with
+occasional lapses into the mountain vernacular. The girls were curious
+about her, but did not like to question her, and she said nothing about
+herself.
+
+Tea over, they went to call on the president, leaving Nance to go on
+with her “feminine touches,” as Judy used to call her arrangements.
+
+Miss Walker was very glad to see Molly, kissing her fondly and calling
+her “Molly.” “It is good, indeed, to have you back. Every Wellington
+girl who comes back for the postgraduate course gives me a compliment
+better than a gift of jewels. And this is Miss Melissa Hathaway? I have
+been expecting you, and to think that you should have fallen to the care
+of Molly Brown on your very first day at college! You are to be
+congratulated, Miss Hathaway. Molly Brown’s friendship keeps one from
+all harm, like the kiss of a good fairy on one’s brow. Molly, if you
+will excuse me, I shall take Miss Hathaway into my office first and have
+a talk with her and shall see you later.”
+
+Molly was blushing with pleasure over the praise from Prexy, and was
+glad to sit in the quiet room awaiting her turn.
+
+Melissa was closeted for some time with the president, and in the
+meantime the waiting-room began to fill with students, some of them
+newcomers tremblingly awaiting the ordeal of an interview with the
+august head of Wellington; others, like Molly, looking forward with
+pleasure to a chat with an old friend. Melissa came back alone with a
+message for Molly to come in to Miss Walker, and told her that she was
+to wait, as the president wished Molly to show the stranger her room.
+
+“Molly Brown, how did you happen to be the one to look after this girl?
+It seems providential.”
+
+“Well, Mr. Murphy attributes it to himself, and declares it is the
+direct answer to his prayers,” laughed Molly, and told Miss Walker of
+the little calf trunk and the old baggage master’s sentimentality about
+it.
+
+“I am going to read you part of a letter concerning Melissa Hathaway,
+and that will explain her and her being at Wellington better than any
+words of mine. This letter is from an old graduate, a splendid woman who
+has for years been doing a kind of social settlement work in the
+mountains of Virginia and Kentucky.
+
+  “‘I am sending you the first ripe fruit from the orchard that I
+  planted at least ten years ago in this mountain soil. You must not
+  think it is a century plant I am tending. I gather flowers every day
+  that fully repay me for my labor here, but, alas, flowers do not
+  always come to fruit. Melissa Hathaway is without doubt one of the
+  most remarkable young women I have ever known, and has repaid me for
+  the infinite pains I have taken with her, and will repay every one
+  by being a success. She comes from surroundings that the people of
+  cities could hardly dream of, in spite of the slums that are, of
+  course, worse because of their crowded condition and lack of air.
+  But in these mountain cabins you find a desolation and ignorance
+  that is appalling, but at the same time a rectitude and intelligence
+  that astonish you; and unbounded hospitality.
+
+  “‘A generation ago the Hathaways were rather well-to-do, for the
+  mountains; that is, they owned a cow and some hogs and chickens and
+  did not sleep in the kitchen, but had a second room and some twenty
+  beautiful home-made quilts. A feud wiped almost the whole family off
+  the face of the earth. Melissa’s father, grandfather and three
+  uncles were killed in a raid by their mortal enemies, the Sydneys,
+  and the grandmother and Melissa were the only ones left to tell the
+  tale. (Her young mother died in giving birth to Melissa.) Melissa
+  was eight years old at the time of the wholesale tragedy, which
+  occurred a few days before I came here to take up my life work. I
+  went to old Mrs. Hathaway’s cabin as soon as I could make my way
+  across the mountain. The old woman received me with dignity and
+  reserve, but some suspicion. I asked her to let Melissa come to
+  school. She was rather eager for her to learn, since she was nothing
+  but a miserable girl. She was bitter on the subject of Melissa’s
+  sex. “Ter think of my bringing forth man-child after man-child, and
+  here in my old age not a thing but this puny little gal ter look to,
+  ter shoot down those dogs of Sydneys!”
+
+  “‘This child of eight (Melissa is now eighteen, but looks older),
+  came to school every day rain or shine, walking three miles over the
+  worst trail you have ever imagined. Her eagerness for knowledge was
+  something pathetic. I realized from the beginning that she had a
+  very remarkable intellect and gave her every chance for cultivation
+  and preparation for college, determined that my Alma Mater should
+  have the final hand in her education if it could be managed. And
+  now, managed it is by a scholarship presented to my now flourishing
+  school by the Mountain Educational Association. I am sorry her
+  clothes are not quite what my beautiful Melissa should have, but she
+  would not accept a penny for clothes from any of the funds that I
+  sometimes have at my disposal. “Money for my education is
+  different,” she said. “I mean to bring all of that back to the
+  mountains and give it to my people, but I cannot let any one spend
+  money on clothes for me. They would burn my back unless I earned
+  them myself.” She was that way from the time she first came to me. I
+  remember she had a green skirt and an old black basque of her
+  grandmother’s, belted in on her slim little figure. I wanted all of
+  my pupils to have a change of clothing, as from the first I was
+  trying to teach cleanliness and hygiene along with the three R’s. I
+  asked the children one day to let me know if they had two of
+  everything. Melissa stood up and proudly raised her hand. “Please,
+  Miss Teacher, we’uns is got two dresses; one ain’t got no waist and
+  one ain’t got no skirt, but they is two dresses.”
+
+  “‘I know that my dear Miss Walker will do her best to place my girl
+  where she can make some friends and not get too homesick for her
+  mountains. I wish she had clothes more like other people, but, since
+  she is what she is, I fancy the clothes in the long run will not
+  make much difference.’
+
+“That is all of interest to you,” concluded Miss Walker. “Miss Hathaway
+is, to say the least, a very remarkable young woman. Her entrance
+examination was unconditioned. And now to get her into a suitable room!
+I had expected to put her in one over the postoffice, but she would be
+so isolated there. I wish she could have the singleton near you in the
+Quadrangle. I, too, have some funds at my disposal that would enable me
+to give her one of these more expensive rooms, but do you think she
+would accept it?”
+
+Molly, rather amused at being asked by Prexy herself to decide what to
+do with this proud girl, smilingly answered, “I am proud myself, but
+lots of things have been done for me without my knowing about it, and
+when I do find out I am not hurt but pleased to feel that my friends
+want to help me. I can’t remember being insulted yet.”
+
+“Well, my child, if I have your sanction about a little mild deceit, I
+think I’ll put Miss Hathaway in the singleton near you. I believe she is
+going to be a credit to Wellington. Kentucky has been good to us,
+indeed.”
+
+“I’ll do all I can to help Melissa,” said Molly, her eyes still misty
+over the letter concerning the childhood of the mountain girl. “She
+interests me deeply.”
+
+Then Molly and Miss Walker plunged into a talk about what Molly was to
+study. English Literature and Composition were of course the big things,
+but she was also anxious to take up some special work in Domestic
+Science, a new and very complete equipment having been recently
+installed at Wellington and a highly recommended teacher, a graduate
+from the Boston school, being in charge.
+
+“Miss Hathaway is to do work on that line, too, and I fancy you will be
+put into the same division. She is preparing herself to help her
+mountain people, and I think they need domestic science even more than
+they do higher mathematics.”
+
+Molly escorted Melissa to her small room in the Quadrangle, where she
+was duly and gratefully installed. Her shyness was passing off with
+Nance and Molly, and now they noticed that she never made the slips into
+the mountain vernacular. But on meeting strangers, or when embarrassed
+in any way, she would unconsciously drop into it, and then become more
+embarrassed. She never let herself off, but always bit her lip and
+quickly repeated her remark in the proper English.
+
+“She is really almost as foreign as little Otoyo Sen,” said Nance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.—LEVITY IN THE LEAVEN.
+
+
+“Molly, do you know you are a grown-up lady?” asked Nance a few days
+after they had settled themselves and were back in the grind of work. “I
+have been seeing it in all kinds of ways; firstly, you have gained in
+weight.”
+
+“Only three pounds, and that could not show much, spread over such a
+large area,” laughed Molly.
+
+“Well, you look more rounded, somehow. Then I notice you keep your pumps
+on and don’t kick them off every time you sit down; and when you do sit
+down you don’t always lie down as you used to do. Now, I have always
+been a grown-up little old lady, but you were a child when you left
+college last June, and now you are a beautiful, dignified woman.”
+
+“Nonsense, Nance, I am exactly the same. I don’t kick off my pumps
+because I might have a hole in the toe of my stocking, and I don’t lie
+down when I sit down because of my good tailored skirt. You are just
+fancying things. I am the same old kid. It is thanks to Judy that I have
+the tailor-made dress and the other things that make me feel grown-up.
+You see, my family have always had an idea that I did not care for
+clothes just because I wore the old ones without complaining. One day
+Kent spoke of my indifference to clothes to Judy, and she fired up and
+told him I did love clothes and would like to have pretty ones more than
+any girl she knew of; that I pretended to be indifferent just to carry
+off the old ones with grace. Kent was very much astonished and the dear
+boy insisted on my going into Louisville before Judy left and having a
+good tailor make me two dresses, this blue one for every day and my
+lovely best gray. I was so afraid of hurting Miss Lizzie Monday’s
+feelings (she is the little old seamstress who has made my clothes ever
+since I was born); but Kent fixed that up by going to see Miss Lizzie
+himself, asking her advice and requesting her company into Louisville,
+where we did the shopping and interviewed the tailor, had lunch at the
+Watterson and took in a show in the afternoon. Miss Lizzie had the time
+of her life and was as much pleased over my having some good clothes as
+I am myself. Dear old Kent had to draw on his savings that he is putting
+by with a view to taking a finishing course on architecture, but mother
+says she is going to reimburse him just as soon as there is a settlement
+made for the oil lands we are selling.”
+
+“Do you know, Molly, when I got your letter telling me about Mr. Kean’s
+nosing out oil on your place, I was so happy and excited that I began to
+cry and got my nose so red I had to skip a lecture at Chautauqua, which
+shocked my mother greatly. To think of your dear mother having an income
+that will make her comfortable and independent!”
+
+“Mother does not seem to be greatly elated over it. She is very glad to
+pay off the mortgage on Chatsworth; relieved that we shall not have to
+sell our beautiful beech woods; but money means less to my mother than
+any one in the world, I do believe. Why, talking about my being a kid, I
+was born more grown-up than my mother, in some ways. It’s the Irish in
+her. The Irish are all children.”
+
+Molly had very cleverly got Nance off of the subject of there being a
+change in her, but Nance was right. Molly was older, and she felt it
+herself. The summer had been an eventful one for her and had left her
+older and wiser. Mildred’s marriage; Jimmy Lufton’s proposal, or near
+proposal; the family’s change of fortune; Professor Green’s evident
+preference for her society; all these things had combined to sober her
+in a way.
+
+“I am as limber as ever, and don’t feel my age in my ‘jints,’ but I am
+getting on,” thought Molly. “Nance sees it, and I wonder if Professor
+Green notices it. He seemed a little stiff with me, but seeing him for
+the first time in class might account for that.”
+
+The class in Domestic Science was proving of tremendous interest both to
+Molly and Melissa. Melissa had much to learn and Molly much to un-learn.
+It was a special course, and for that reason girls from all classes were
+mixed in it. There were quite a number of Juniors, and Molly was sorry
+to see Anne White among them, as she had been on the platform at
+Wellington when Melissa arrived, and, in the quiet way for which she was
+famous in making trouble, had been the one to start the titter that had
+grown, as that seemingly unconscious young goddess made her way down the
+platform, into a wave of laughter. Melissa had been fully aware of the
+amusement she had caused, but she had borne no malice against the
+thoughtless girls.
+
+“I reckon I was a figure of fun to these rich girls,” Melissa said to
+Molly, “but I know they did not mean to be unkind; and if they knew what
+it means to me to come to college perhaps they would look at me
+differently. Anyhow, you were so nice to me from the very minute I spoke
+to you; and even before I spoke, Molly, dear, because I saw your sweet
+eyes taking me in as I came up the platform between the rows of grinning
+students. And I said to myself, ‘All these are just second-growth timber
+and don’t count for much. That girl with the blue eyes and the pretty
+red hair looking at me so kindly is the only tree here that is worth
+much.’ And somehow I have been resting in the shade of your branches
+ever since.”
+
+This little conversation was held one morning as the girls were getting
+their materials ready for some experimental bread-making. A tremendously
+interesting lecture on yeast had preceded it, and now was to be followed
+by various chemical experiments. The lecturer had not arrived, but had
+appointed certain students to get the materials in order.
+
+Anne White was one of the monitors, and was moving around in a demure
+way, daintily setting out the little bowls of flour and portions of
+yeast. Anne White was a small, mousy-looking, brown-haired young woman
+who looked as though butter would not melt in her mouth, but who was in
+reality often the ring-leader in many foolish escapades. She was a great
+practical joker, and when all is told a practical joker is a very trying
+person, and very often a person lacking in true humor. As she placed the
+bowls of yeast, she sang the following song with many sly looks at Molly
+and her friend:
+
+  “The first time I saw Melissa,
+  She was sitting in the cellar,
+  Sitting in the cellar shelling peas.
+  And when I stooped to kiss her,
+  She said she’d tell her mother,
+  For she was such an awful little tease.
+    Oh, wasn’t she sweet? You bet she was,
+  She couldn’t have been any sweeter.
+    Oh, wasn’t she cute? You bet she was,
+  She couldn’t have been any cuter.
+  For when I stooped to kiss her,
+  She said she’d tell her mother,
+  For she was such an awful little tease.”
+
+The singing was so evidently done for Melissa’s benefit that Molly felt
+indignant.
+
+“I can’t stand teasing, and certainly not such silly teasing as Anne
+White delights in. She is a slippery little thing, and I have an idea
+means mischief for my Melissa. I wish Judy were here to circumvent her,
+but since she is not I shall have to keep my eye open.” So thought
+Molly, and accordingly opened her eyes just in time to see Anne White
+raise the cover of Melissa’s bowl of flour and drop in something. The
+instructor came in just then and the class came to order.
+
+“It can’t do any real harm,” thought Molly, “because we don’t have to
+eat our messes, but if it is something to embarrass Melissa I shall have
+a talk with Anne White that she will remember all her days. She knows
+Melissa and I are not the kind to blab on her, the reason she is
+presuming in this way.”
+
+Miss Morse, the Domestic Science teacher, was so exactly like the
+advertisements in the magazines of various foodstuffs that one was
+forced to smile. She was always dressed in immaculate linen, and, as she
+would stand at her desk and hold out a sample of material with which she
+was going to demonstrate, her smile and expression were always those of
+the lady who says, “Use this and no other.” She was thoroughly in
+earnest, however, and scientific, and her lectures on Domestic Economy
+were really thrilling to Molly, who always took an interest in household
+affairs and was astonished to find out what a waste was going on in all
+American homes. Melissa listened to every word, and felt that the
+knowledge she was gaining in this branch of college work was perhaps the
+most necessary of all to take back to her mountain people.
+
+Miss Morse had the most wonderful and capable hands that were ever seen.
+She was never known to spill anything or slop over; she used her scales
+and measures with the precision of an analytical chemist; and, no matter
+how complicated the experiment, there were no extra, useless utensils.
+This in itself is worth coming to college to learn, as I have never
+known a girl make a plate of fudge without getting every pan in the
+kitchen dirty. Later on in the course of lectures this wonderful woman
+actually killed a fowl and picked and dressed it right before the eyes
+of the astonished girls, without making a spot on her dress or on the
+cloth spread on her desk, and she did not even turn back her linen
+cuffs.
+
+“I wish Ca’line could see that,” thought Molly on that occasion, a
+picture of the chicken pickin’ in the back yard at Chatsworth coming
+before her mind’s eye, with feathers flying hither and yon and Ca’line
+herself covered with gore.
+
+“Now, young ladies,” said the precise Miss Morse, “enough flour is given
+each one for a small loaf of bread; the right amount of water is
+measured out; salt and sugar; lard and yeast. You have the correct
+material for a perfect loaf. This is a demonstration of yesterday’s
+lecture. Remember, salt retards the action of yeast and must not be put
+in until the yeast plant has begun to grow. Sugar promotes the growth
+and can be placed in the warm water with the yeast.”
+
+The students went eagerly to work like so many children with their mud
+pies. In due course of time each little loaf was made out and put at
+exactly the right temperature to rise. Miss Morse explained to them the
+different methods of bread-making and the fallacy of thinking that good
+bread-making is due to luck. Molly smiled in remembering what dear old
+Aunt Mary had said about remembering to put the gumption in.
+
+While the bread was rising and baking the girls were allowed to work on
+their Domestic Science problem, a pretty difficult one requiring all
+their faculties: it was how to feed a family consisting of five, mother
+and father and three children, on ten dollars for one week. The market
+price of food was given and their menus were to be worked out with
+regard to the amount of nourishment to be gained as well as the
+suitability of food. Miss Morse told them they would have to study
+pretty hard to do it, but it was splendid practice. Poor Melissa was
+having a hard time. In the first place, she knew so little about food,
+having been brought up so very simply, and then, she confided to Molly,
+she was very much worried about her loaf of bread because it didn’t do
+just right.
+
+Finally the time was up, and the bread, too, according to science,
+should have been up and ready to bake. The monitors were requested to
+place the loaves in the gas ovens, already tested and proved to be of
+proper temperature. The problems, meantime, must be completed at once
+and handed in.
+
+A wail from Melissa on the aside to Molly: “Oh, Molly, Molly, I have got
+my family all fed for six days, and I forgot Sunday. Not a cent of money
+left from all of that ten dollars, and I have known whole families live
+for a month on less in the mountains! What shall I do?”
+
+“I tell you,” said Molly, stopping a minute to think, “have them all
+invited out to Sunday dinner and let them eat no breakfast in
+anticipation of the good things they are expecting; and let the dinner
+be so delicious and plentiful that they can’t possibly want any supper.”
+
+“Good,” said Melissa, ever appreciative of Molly’s suggestions, “I’ll do
+that very thing.” And so she did; and Miss Morse was so amused that she
+let it pass as a very good paper, as indeed it was.
+
+All of the little loaves were baked and placed in front of the girls,
+the pans being numbered so that each loaf returned to its trembling
+maker. It was strange that in spite of science the loaves did not look
+exactly alike. Molly’s was beautiful, but had she not had her hand in
+Aunt Mary’s dough ever since she could climb up to the table and cut out
+little “bis’it wif a thimble”? Some of them looked bumpy and some
+stringy, but poor Melissa’s was a strange dark color and had not risen.
+
+“Miss Hathaway, did you follow the directions in your experiment?”
+
+“Yes, Miss Morse, to the best of my ability,” answered Melissa. And,
+then flushing and becoming excited, she dropped into her familiar
+mountain speech. “Some low-down sneak has drapped some sody in we’un’s
+pannikin. I mean, oh, I mean, some ill-bred person has put saleratus in
+my little bowl. I have been raised on too much saleratus in the bread,
+and I know it.” And the proud mountain girl, who had not minded the
+laughter caused by her appearance, burst into tears over the failure of
+her bread-making and fled from the room.
+
+Miss Morse was shocked and sorry that such a scene should have occurred
+in her class, but was determined to investigate the matter. She
+dismissed the class without a word; but, as Molly was leaving the room,
+she requested her to stop a moment.
+
+“Miss Brown, this is a very unfortunate thing to have occurred in this
+class. Domestic Science seems to be an easy prey to the practical joke,
+and when once it is started it is a difficult matter to weed out. I am
+particularly sorry for it to have been played on Miss Hathaway, who is
+so earnest and anxious to learn. Miss Walker has told me much about her,
+and the girl’s appearance alone is fine enough to interest one. I could
+not help seeing by your countenance, which is a very speaking one, my
+dear, that you knew something about this so-called joke. Now, Miss
+Brown, I ask you as a friend to tell me what you know, and, if you are
+not willing, I demand it of you as an instructor and member of the
+faculty of Wellington.”
+
+Molly, who had been as pale as death ever since Melissa’s mortification
+and outbreak, now flushed crimson, held her breath a minute to get
+control of her voice, and then answered with as much composure as she
+could muster: “Miss Morse, I have gone through four years at Wellington
+and have happened to know of a great many scrapes the different students
+have got themselves in, but never yet have I been known to tell tales,
+and I could hardly start now. I do know who did the dastardly trick, and
+am glad that Melissa had recourse to her native dialect to express her
+feelings about the person who was mean enough to do it; ‘low-down sneak’
+is exactly what she was.”
+
+“Very well, Miss Brown, if you refuse to divulge the name of the joker,
+I shall be forced to take the matter up with the president. I hoped we
+could settle it in the class. This department being a new one at
+Wellington, and also my first experience at teaching, I naturally have
+some feeling about making it go as smoothly as possible.” This time Miss
+Morse was flushed and her lip trembling.
+
+Molly felt truly sorry for her, and suddenly realized that Miss Morse,
+with all of her assurance, was little more than a girl herself. As for
+taking it up with the president, Molly smiled when she remembered the
+time Miss Walker had tried to make her tell, and when she had refused
+how Miss Walker had hugged her.
+
+“Oh, Miss Morse, I am so sorry for you, and wish, almost wish, some one
+had seen the offence besides myself, some one who would not mind
+telling; but I truly can’t tell, somehow I am not made that way. There
+is something I can do, though, and that is, go call on the person myself
+and put it up to her to refrain from any more jokes in your class. I
+meant to see her, anyhow, and warn her to let my Melissa alone.”
+
+“Would you do that? I think that would be all that is necessary, and I
+need not inform the president. I thank you, Miss Brown. You do not know
+how this has disturbed me.”
+
+“Too much ‘sody’ in the bread is a very disturbing thing,” laughed
+Molly. “I remember a story they tell on my grandfather. He had an old
+cook who was very fond of making buttermilk biscuit, and equally fond of
+putting too much soda in them. He stood it for some time, but one
+morning when they were brought to breakfast as green as poor Melissa’s
+loaf, grandpa sent for the cook and made her eat the whole panful.
+Needless to add, she was cured of the soda habit. It would be a great
+way to cure the would-be joker if we made her eat Melissa’s sad loaf.”
+
+Molly did see Anne White that very afternoon, making a formal call on
+her and giving that mousy young woman a talk that made her cry and
+promise to play no more jokes in Domestic Science class, and to
+apologize to Melissa for the mortification she had caused her. Molly
+told her something about Melissa and the struggle and sacrifices she had
+made to get her education, and before she had finished Anne White was as
+much interested in the mountain girl and as anxious for her to succeed
+as Molly herself. She promised to help her all she could, and a Junior
+can do a great deal to help a Freshman. Molly was astonished to find
+that Anne White was really rather likable. She had a mistaken sense of
+fun, but was not really unkind.
+
+Melissa had too much to do to brood long over her outbreak, and laughed
+and let the matter drop out of her mind when the following apology was
+poked under her door:
+
+  “My Dear Miss Hathaway: I am truly sorry to have caused you so much
+  mortification in the Domestic Science class. It was a very foolish,
+  thoughtless act, and I hope you will accept my apology. I wish I had
+  found such a friend in my freshman year as you have in Molly Brown.
+
+                                                   “Sincerely yours,
+                                               “‘A Low-Down Sneak.’”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.—HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.
+
+
+Molly and Nance were very busy with their special courses, Nance working
+at French literature as though she had no other interest in the world,
+and Molly at English and Domestic Science.
+
+“Thank goodness, I shall not have to tutor! Since we ‘struck ile’ I am
+saved that,” said Molly one day to her roommate, who was as usual
+occupied, in spite of its being “blind man’s holiday,” too early to
+light the gas and too late to see without it. “Nance, you will put out
+your eyes with that mending. I never saw such a busy bee as you are.
+Melissa tells me you are going to help her with a dress, too.”
+
+“Yes, I am so glad she will let me. I told her how we made the Empire
+gown for you in your Freshman year, and she seemed to feel that if her
+dear Molly allowed that much to be done for her, it was not for her to
+object to a similar favor. I know you will laugh when I tell you that I
+am going to get a one-piece dress and an extra skirt for shirtwaists out
+of the blue homespun. It is beautiful material, spun with an
+old-fashioned spinning wheel and woven on a hand loom by Melissa’s
+grandmother. Did you ever see so much goods in one dress? It seems that
+the dear woman who has taught her everything she knows has not had any
+new clothes herself for ten years, and could not give her much idea of
+the prevailing fashion; and Melissa made this dress herself from a
+pattern her mother had used for her wedding dress. I hate to cut it up.
+It seems a kind of desecration, but Melissa has a splendid figure and if
+her clothes were not quite so voluminous she would be as stylish as any
+one. She improves every day in many ways and seems to be less shy.”
+
+“She has an instinct for good literature. Professor Green tells me her
+taste is unerring. He says it is because her preference is for the
+simple, and the simple is always the best. Little Otoyo has the same
+feeling for the best in poetry. Haven’t we missed that little Jap,
+though? I’ll be so glad to have her back. I fancy I shall have some
+tutoring to do in spite of myself to get Otoyo Sen up with her class.”
+
+Otoyo Sen, the little Japanese girl who had played such a close part in
+the college life of our girls, had been back in Japan, and had not been
+able to reach America in time for the opening weeks of college, due to
+some business engagements of her father. But she was trusting to Molly
+and her own industry to catch up with her class, and was hurrying back
+to Wellington as fast as the San Francisco Limited could bring her.
+
+Molly had been writing every moment that she could spare from her hard
+reading, and now she had two things she really wanted to show Professor
+Green—a story she had worked on for weeks until it seemed to be part of
+her, and a poem. She had sent the poem to a magazine and it had been
+rejected, accompanied by a letter which she could not understand. At all
+times in earlier days she had gone frankly to the professor’s study to
+ask him for advice, but this year she could hardly make up her mind to
+do it.
+
+“He is as kind as ever to me, but somehow I can’t make up my mind to run
+in on him as I used to,” said Molly to herself. “I know I am a silly
+goose—or is it perhaps because I am so grown up? It is only five o’clock
+this minute, it gets dark so early in November, and I have half a mind
+to go now.” The temperament that goes with Molly’s coloring usually
+means quick action following the thought, so in a moment Molly had on
+her jacket and hat. “Nance, I am going to see Professor Green about some
+things I have been writing. I won’t be late, but don’t wait tea for me.
+Melissa may be in to see us, but you will take care of her, I know.”
+
+There was a rather tired-sounding, “Come in,” at Molly’s knock on
+Professor Green’s study door.
+
+“Oh, dear, now I am going to bore him!” thought the girl. “I have half a
+mind to run back through the passage and get out into the Cloister
+before he has a chance to open the door and see who was knocking. But
+that would be too foolish for a postgraduate! I’d better run the risk of
+boring him rather than have him think I am some one playing a foolish
+Sophomore joke, or even a timid little Freshman, afraid to call her soul
+her own.”
+
+“Come in, come in. Is any one there?” called the voice rather briskly
+for the usually gentle professor. And before Molly could open the door
+it was actually jerked open. “Dearest Molly!—I mean, Miss Molly—I
+thought you were going to be some one else. The fact is, I have had a
+regular visitation from would-be poets this afternoon, and, as it never
+rains but it pours, I had a terrible feeling that it was another one. I
+am so glad to see you; not just because you are not what I feared you
+were, but because you are you.”
+
+Molly blushed crimson and tried to hide the little roll of manuscript
+behind her, but the young man saw it and kicked himself mentally for a
+rash, talking idiot.
+
+“I can’t come in, thank you. I just stopped by to—to——I just thought I’d
+ask you when your sister was coming.”
+
+“Oh, Molly Brown, what a poor prevaricator you do make! You know
+perfectly well you have written something you want me to see; and you
+also know, or ought to know, that I want to see what you have written
+above everything; and what I said about would-be poets had nothing to do
+with you and me. The fact is, I am a would-be myself and have been
+working on a sonnet this afternoon instead of looking over the thousand
+themes that I must have finished before to-morrow’s lecture. I had just
+got the eighth line completed when you knocked, and the six others will
+be easy. Please come in and take off your hat, and I’ll get Mrs. Brady
+to make us some tea; and while the kettle is boiling you can show me
+what you have been doing, and when I get my other six lines to my sonnet
+done I’ll show it to you.”
+
+Molly of course had to comply with a request made with so much
+kindliness and sincerity. Mrs. Brady came, in answer to the professor’s
+bell which connected his study with his house, and was delighted to see
+Molly, remembering with great pleasure the Christmas breakfast the young
+girl had cooked for Professor Green the year before. Molly had a way
+with her that appealed to old people as well as young, and she had won
+Mrs. Brady’s heart on that memorable morning by telling her that she,
+too, boasted of Irish blood.
+
+“And I might have known it, from the sweet tongue in your head,” Mrs.
+Brady had replied.
+
+The old woman hastened off to make the tea, and Molly reluctantly
+unrolled her manuscript.
+
+“Professor Green, I want you to think of me as some one you do not know
+or like when you read my stuff.”
+
+“That is a very difficult task you have set me, and I am afraid one that
+I am unequal to; but I do promise to be unbiased and to give you my real
+opinion, and you must not be discouraged if it is not favorable,
+because, after all, it is worth very little.”
+
+“I think it is worth a lot. This first thing is something I have been
+working on very hard. It is called ‘The Basket Funeral.’ I remembered
+what you told me about trying to write about familiar things, and then,
+on reading the ‘Life and Letters of Jane Austen,’ I came on her advice
+to a niece who was contemplating a literary career. It was, ‘Send your
+characters where you have never been yourself, but never take them.’ I
+had never been out of Kentucky, except to row across the Ohio River to
+Indiana, when I came to Wellington, and so I put my story in Kentucky
+with Aunt Mary as my heroine. Now be as hard on me as you want to. I can
+stand it.”
+
+There was perfect silence in the pleasant study while Edwin Green
+carefully perused the well-written manuscript. An occasional involuntary
+chuckle was all that broke the quiet when one of Aunt Mary’s witticisms
+brought back the figure of the old darkey to his mind. When he had
+finished, which was in a very few minutes, as the sketch was a short
+one, he carefully rolled the paper and remained silent. Molly felt as
+though she would scream if he did not say something, but not a word did
+he utter, only sat and rolled the manuscript and smiled an inscrutable
+smile. Finally she could stand it no longer.
+
+“I am sorry to have bothered you, Professor Green. I know it is hard for
+you to have to tell me the truth, so I won’t ask you.” She reached for
+the roll of paper, her hand shaking a little with excitement.
+
+“Oh, please excuse me. Do you know, I took you at your word and forgot I
+knew you, and forgot how much I liked you; forgot everything in fact but
+Aunt Mary and the ‘Basket Funeral.’ My dear girl, you have done a
+wonderful little bit of writing, simple, natural, sincere. I
+congratulate you and envy you.”
+
+And what should Molly do, great, big, grown-up postgraduate that she
+was, but behave exactly as the little Freshman had four years before
+when this same august professor had rescued her from the locked
+Cloisters: she burst into tears. At that crucial moment the rattle of
+tea cups was heard as Mrs. Brady came lumbering down the hall, and Molly
+had to compose herself and make out she had a bad cold.
+
+“Have some hot soup,” said the young man, and both of them laughed.
+
+“It was natural for me to blubber, after all,” said Molly, after Mrs.
+Brady had taken her departure. “When you sat there so still, with your
+lips so tightly closed, I felt exactly as I did four years ago, shut out
+in the cold with all the doors locked; and when you finally spoke it was
+like coming into your warm pleasant study again with you being kind to
+me just as you were to the little scared Freshman. Do you know, I like
+my picture of Aunt Mary, too, and when I thought you didn’t like it I
+felt forlorn indeed.”
+
+“I notice one thing, Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky doesn’t cry until
+everything is over. The little Freshman didn’t blubber while she was
+locked out, but waited until she got into the pleasant study, and now
+the ancient postgrad is able to restrain her tears until the awful ogre
+of a critic praises her work. Now let’s have another cup of tea all
+around and show me what else you have brought.”
+
+“I hesitate to show you this more than the other thing, after your
+cutting remarks about would-bes. But I want you to read this so you can
+tell me what this letter means that I got from the editor of a magazine,
+when he politely returned my rejected poem.”
+
+“Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind? Poetry should always be read
+aloud, I think; and afterward I will see what I think the editor meant.”
+
+[Illustration: “Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?”—Page 218.]
+
+“All right, but I am afraid it is getting late and Nance will worry
+about me.”
+
+The study was cosy indeed with its rows and rows of books, its
+comfortable chairs and the cheerful open grate. This was his one
+extravagance in a land of furnace heat and drum stoves, so Edwin Green
+declared. “But somehow the glow of the fire makes me think better,” he
+said in self-defence.
+
+Molly read any poetry well, her voice with its musical quality being
+peculiarly adapted to it. This was her poem:
+
+  “My thoughts like gentle steeds to-day
+  Rest quiet in the paddock fold,
+  Munching their food contentedly.
+  Was it last night? When up—away!
+  Through spaces limitless, untold,
+  Like storm clouds lashed before the wind,
+  Nor strength, nor will could check nor hold,
+  Manes flying—through the night they dashed
+  ‘Til the first glimmering sun’s ray flashed
+  Its blessed light; ‘til the first sigh
+  Of dawn’s awak’ning stirred the leaves.
+  Then back to quiet fold—the night was done—
+  Bend patient necks—the yoke—and day’s begun.”
+
+“Let me see it. Your voice would make ‘Eany, meany, miney, mo’ sound
+like music. I should have read it first to myself to be able to pass on
+it without prejudice.”
+
+He took the poem and read it very carefully. “Miss Molly, you are aware
+of the fact that you may become a real writer? How old are you?”
+
+“Almost twenty.”
+
+“Well, I consider that a pretty good poem for almost twenty. I bet I
+know what that saphead of an editor had to say without reading his
+letter. Didn’t he say something about your having only thirteen lines?”
+
+“Oh, is that what he meant? I have puzzled my brains out over his note.
+I didn’t even know I had only thirteen lines. Of course I knew it wasn’t
+exactly sonnet form, but somehow I started out to make fourteen lines
+and thought I had done it. Here is his cryptic note.”
+
+  “Dear M. B.: We are sorry to say we are too superstitious to print
+  your poem. Are the poor horses too tired to go a few more feet? If
+  you can urge them on, even if you should lame them a bit, we might
+  reconsider and accept your verses.
+
+                                                  “The Editor of ——”
+
+“Fools, fools, all of them are fools! Don’t you change it for the whole
+of the silly magazine. It is a good poem, and its having thirteen lines
+is none of his business. Haven’t you as much right to create a form of
+verse as Villon or Alfred Tennyson? That editor would have rejected
+‘Tears, idle tears,’ because it hasn’t a rhyme in it and looks as though
+it might have.”
+
+The professor was so excited that Molly had to laugh.
+
+“You are certainly kind to me and my efforts. I must go now. Please give
+my love to Mrs. Brady and thank her for her tea. You never did tell me
+when you expect your sister.”
+
+“Bless my soul,” said Edwin Green, looking at his watch, “she will be
+here in a few minutes now!”
+
+“Don’t forget to let me see your sonnet, and please put all the lines
+in. I am so glad your sister is to be with you, and hope to see her
+often.”
+
+And Molly flew away, happy as a bird that her writing was coming on, and
+that she felt at home again with the most interesting man she had ever
+met.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.—A BARREL FROM HOME.
+
+
+Christmas was upon our girls almost before they had unpacked and settled
+down to work. Mid-year exams. had no terrors for our two post-graduates,
+but they were working just as hard as they ever had in their collegiate
+course.
+
+“I don’t know what it is that drives us so, Nance, unless it is that we
+are getting ready for the final examination at Judgment Day,” said
+Molly. “I am so interested, I never seem to get tired these days; and I
+don’t even mind the tutoring that has been thrust upon me. Now that I
+shall not have to teach for a living, I really believe I should not mind
+it very much.”
+
+Otoyo Sen was safely sailing under Molly’s tutelage through her senior
+year. She spoke the most correct and precise English unless she was
+embarrassed or upset in some way, and then, like Melissa Hathaway, she
+spoke from the heart, and little Otoyo’s heart seemed to beat in adverbs
+and participles. She and Melissa had struck up the closest friendship.
+
+“We might have known they would,” said the analytical Nance. “They are
+strangely alike to be so different.”
+
+“Now, Nance, how Bostonesque we are becoming! I have never asked a
+Bostonian a question that I have not been answered in this way, ‘It is
+and it isn’t,’” teased Molly.
+
+“Well, they are alike in being foreign, for Melissa is as foreign from
+us as is Otoyo. Then they are both scrupulously courteous until their
+amour propre is stepped on, and then you realize that they are both
+medieval. They are certainly alike in pride and in fortitude and
+perseverance and family feeling. You know perfectly well that the real
+Melissa that is so covered up by this educated Melissa would take a gun
+and shoot every living Sydney she could get at if her grandmother told
+her to! I hope to goodness modernism will never get to the old woman and
+she will learn that women can do anything men can, or she will make
+Melissa take the place of the sons she mourns. On the other hand, little
+Otoyo would commit hara-kiri without winking an eyelash if
+honorable-father told her to.”
+
+“You have so convinced me of their similarity that I see no room for
+difference. They will look to me exactly like twins after this,” laughed
+Molly; and both the girls could hardly restrain their merriment, for at
+that moment the so-called twins came in to call: Melissa, tall and
+stately as “the lonesome pine,” with all doubts as to her fine figure
+removed now, thanks to Nance’s skillful reformation of the blue
+homespun; and little Otoyo looking more like a mechanical toy than ever,
+since she had taken on a little more of the desirable flesh, according
+to the taste of her countrymen.
+
+“Melissa and I have determined to move into a suite together,” said
+Otoyo, as they entered. “Miss Walker said it is not usually for a
+Freshman and Senior to be so intimately, but since there is a suite
+vacant in the Quadrangle and more visits for singletons than suites, she
+is willing.”
+
+“You are excited over it, I know, you dear little Otoyo,” said her
+tutor, “or you would not be so adverbial, and you must mean ‘calls for
+singletons’ instead of ‘visits.’”
+
+“Oh, you English and your language, made for what you call puns!”
+
+“I am glad you call them puns instead of visiting them on us,” said
+Nance, dodging a soft cushion hurled by Molly. “Did you girls hear the
+news? I am to stay at Wellington for Christmas and my father is coming
+down here to spend it with me. I can’t think when father has taken a
+holiday before, and I am as excited about it as can be. He needs a rest,
+and he needs some fun. I wish he could have come last year before the
+old guard disbanded.”
+
+“But listen to me,” put in Molly. “I have some news, too, that I was
+trying to keep for a surprise, but I am a sieve where news is concerned:
+Judy Kean is to be here for Christmas, too. She writes that as her
+mother and father are in Turkey she will have to have some turkey in
+her, and she can think of no place that she would rather have that
+turkey than at Wellington with us. Dear old Judy, won’t it be fun? And
+she will help to whoop things up for your father, Nance. She expected to
+be studying art in Paris by now, but Mr. Kean insisted on a year of
+drawing in New York before Paris, and that makes her in easy reach of
+us. We shall have to stop work and go to playing. I declare I have grown
+so used to work—I don’t believe I know how to play.”
+
+“Mees Grace Green is going to have an astonishment party for her
+brother, the young student medical,” said Otoyo, the ever-ready news
+monger.
+
+“A surprise party for Dodo,” shrieked the girls with delight. “Otoyo,
+Otoyo, you are too delicious.”
+
+“Also, Mr. Andy McLean will be home with his honorable parents for
+making holiday, having done much proud work in the law school at Harvard
+University.”
+
+Nance smiled. Her private opinion was that Mr. Andrew McLean and his
+proud work were the cause of Otoyo’s very mixed English.
+
+“Also,” continued Otoyo, “Mr. Andrew McLean will bring with him
+honorable young Japanese gentleman, who has hugged the Christian faith
+and is muchly studying to live in this country, whereas his honorable
+father has a wonderful shop of beautiful Japanese prints in Boston. My
+honorable father is familiar with his honorable father, namely, Mr.
+Seshu.”
+
+“Oh ho, and that is the reason of the many mistakes,” said Molly, in an
+aside to Nance. “I thought at first it was Andy’s return, but I bet the
+little thing is contemplating something in connection with the honorable
+Mr. Seshu. I wonder if her father has written her about this young Jap.”
+
+During all this chit-chat Melissa had sat perfectly quiet, but her quiet
+was never heavy nor depressing. She looked calmly and interestedly on
+and listened and smiled and sometimes gave a low laugh, showing that her
+humor was keen and ready. Otoyo was a never-failing source of delight to
+her, and when the little thing spoke of hugging the Christian faith a
+real hearty laugh came bubbling up. But she put her arm affectionately
+around her little friend and smothered her laugh in Otoyo’s smooth black
+hair, that always had a look of having just been brushed, no matter how
+modern and American was the arrangement.
+
+And very modern and American were all of Otoyo’s arrangements now. Her
+clothes bore the stamp of the best New York shops, with the most
+up-to-date shoes and hats, and she endeavored in every way to be as
+American as possible. She even tried to use the slang she heard around
+her, but her attempts in that direction were very laughable.
+
+In due time the holidays arrived, and with them came our own Judy full
+of enthusiasm for her work at the art school; came young Andy with his
+Japanese friend from the law school. Andy looking older and broader and
+more robust, not half so raw-boned as he used to be, and the young
+Japanese gentleman, on first sight, so like Otoyo that it was funny—but,
+on further acquaintance, it proved to be a racial likeness only; came
+Nance’s father, a staid, quiet gentleman with his daughter’s merry brown
+eyes and a general look of one to be depended on; came George Theodore
+Green, familiarly known as Dodo, no longer so shy, but with much more
+assurance of manner, as befitted a medical student from Johns Hopkins.
+
+Miss Grace Green had secretly sent out invitations for the surprise
+party for Christmas Eve, and all the girls were very busy getting their
+best bibs and tuckers in order to do honor to the occasion. Molly had
+seen a good deal of Miss Green since she came to Wellington to keep
+house for her brother, and they had become fast friends. Miss Green
+often asked her to come in to afternoon tea, and then they would have
+the most delightful talks in the professor’s study, and he would read to
+them. Sometimes Molly would be prevailed upon to read some of her
+sketches, always of Kentucky and the familiar things of her childhood.
+She lost her shyness in doing this, and felt that it rather helped her
+and gave her new ideas for more things to write about.
+
+“Judy, please help me unpack this barrel from home,” called Molly the
+day before Christmas. “I know you will want to help carry some of the
+things to the Greens for me. I almost wish I had sent the barrel there,
+as so many of the things are to go to them. We shall be laden down, I am
+sure.”
+
+Judy, all excitement, began to knock off the top hoop and then with much
+hacking and prying they finally got off the head of the
+formidable-looking barrel and began to unpack the goodies: a ham for the
+professor of English cooked by Aunt Mary; a fruit cake for Molly, black
+and rich, with an odor to it that Judy said reminded her of the feast in
+St. Agnes Eve; a jar of Rosemary pickles; one of brandy peaches; a box
+of beaten biscuit; a roasted turkey, stuffed with chestnuts, and a
+wonderful bunch of mistletoe full of berries, growing to a knobby
+stunted branch of a walnut tree, which Kent had sawed off with great
+care and then packed so well with tissue paper that not one berry or
+leaf was misplaced.
+
+“This is for Miss Green’s party. I asked Kent to get it for me. You know
+her party is to be an old English one, and it would not be complete
+without mistletoe. What is this little note hitched to it?
+
+  “’Dearest Molly:
+
+  “‘I almost broke my neck getting this, and hope it is what you want.
+  Tell Miss Judy Kean, who, I hear, is to spend Christmas with you,
+  not to get under this until I get there.
+
+                                                            “’Kent.’
+
+“What can he mean? Judy Kean, is Kent coming here for Christmas? Answer
+me.”
+
+But Judy only buried her crimson face in the big turkey’s bosom and
+giggled.
+
+“Answer me, Judy Kean.”
+
+“How do I know? Am I your brother’s keeper?”
+
+“He couldn’t be coming or mother would have written me! I see he means
+for you to wait for him until he ‘arrives’ in his profession. Oh, Judy,
+Judy, I do hope you will! But come on now, we must take these things to
+the Greens. Miss Grace is very busy with her preparations, while Dodo is
+off for the day with young Andy and his Jap friend, revisiting their old
+college, Exmoor. We must get the mistletoe hung; and the ham is to be
+part of the party, I fancy. I am going to take them some of these
+pickles, too, and half of my fruit cake. It is so big that it will take
+us months to devour it, besides ruining our complexions.”
+
+The girls, weighed down with their heavy contributions—ham, pickle,
+fruit cake and mistletoe—rang the bell at Professor Green’s house,
+fronting on the campus. The door was quickly opened by Miss Alice Fern.
+She eyed them haughtily and coldly, hardly responding to Molly’s
+greeting and barely acknowledging the introduction to Judy, whom she
+already knew, but refused to remember.
+
+“My cousin, Miss Green, is very busy and regrets she cannot speak to you
+just now.”
+
+“Oh, I am sorry not to see her! I have some mistletoe that my brother
+sent her from Kentucky, and Miss Kean and I were going to ask her to let
+us hang it for her.”
+
+“You are very kind, but I am decorating the house for my cousins, and
+can do it very well without any assistance from outside.”
+
+“Molly, we had better leave our packages and make a chastened
+departure,” said Judy, the irrepressible. “We have some interior
+decorations besides the mistletoe, Miss Fern, in the way of an old ham
+and a fruit cake, and some Rosemary pickles. Are you also chairman of
+the committee on that kind of interior decorations? If you are not, I
+should think it were best for us to interview the secretary of the
+interior, if we are not allowed to see the head of the department.”
+
+At that moment who should come bounding up the steps but Edwin Green
+himself.
+
+“Good morning to both of you! I am so glad to see you back in
+Wellington, Miss Kean. I have just come from the Quadrangle, where I
+went to call on you, but saw Miss Oldham, who told me you and Miss Molly
+were on your way to see my sister. Why don’t you come in? Grace is in
+the pantry, preparing for the ‘astonishment party,’ as I am told Miss
+Sen calls it. I will call her directly.”
+
+“Grace has asked to be excused to callers, Edwin,” said the stately Miss
+Fern.
+
+“Nonsense, Alice, she was expecting Miss Brown to decorate the parlors,
+and Miss Kean is not a stranger to any of us. Come in, come in,” and the
+indignant professor ushered them into the parlor and went to call his
+sister, confiding to her, as she hastened to greet the girls, that if
+Alice Fern did not stop trying to run their affairs he was going to do
+something desperate.
+
+“I am afraid you brought it on us by being too nice to her two years ago
+when she first came home from abroad,” teased his sister; and he
+remembered that he had been rather attentive to his fair cousin at a
+time when Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky had had a little misunderstanding
+with him.
+
+“How good of you, you dear, sweet girl, to have this mistletoe sent all
+the way from Kentucky for our party, and what a wonderful piece of
+walnut it is growing to, this great, knotted, knobby branch! But, Alice,
+don’t break any of it off! You will ruin it.” Miss Green stopped Alice
+just in time, as she had begun with rapid tugs to pull the mistletoe
+from the branch that Kent had sawed off with such care, and to stick it
+in vases among the holly, where it did not show to any advantage. “Of
+course, it must be hung from the chandelier just as it is.”
+
+“Oh, very well, Cousin Grace; but it seems to me to be a very heavy
+looking decoration.” And the young woman flounced off, leaving Molly and
+Judy feeling very much mystified, to say the least.
+
+“Aunt Mary sent you a ham, Professor Green. I brought it to-day,
+thinking maybe your sister would like it for part of the night’s
+festivities.”
+
+“Not a bit of it. That ham is to be brought out when there are not so
+many to devour it. I am not usually a greedy glutton, but beech-nut fed,
+home-cured ham is too good for the rabble, and I am going to hide it
+before Grace casts her eagle eye on it.” He accordingly picked it up and
+pretended to conceal it from his smiling sister.
+
+“Well, anyhow, Miss Green, you will use my fruit cake for the party,
+will you not?” begged Molly.
+
+“Oh, please don’t ask me to. I know there is nothing in the world so
+good as fruit cake, and Edwin has told me of the wonders that come from
+Aunt Mary’s kitchen. So if you don’t mind, Molly, I am going to keep my
+cake for our private consumption. It would disappear like magic before
+the young people to-night, and Edwin and I could have it for many nights
+to come. Do you think I am as greedy as Edwin is with his ham?”
+
+Molly was very much amused, but her amusement was turned to
+embarrassment when she heard Miss Fern say to her Cousin Edwin: “Miss
+Brown seems to be trying very hard to give the party.”
+
+She did not hear Edwin’s answer, but noticed that he hugged his ham even
+more fervently, it being, fortunately for him and his coat, well wrapped
+in waxed paper. She also noticed that he went around and took out of the
+vases the few pieces of mistletoe that his cousin had pulled from the
+big bunch, and carefully wired them where they belonged on the walnut
+branch, and then got a step ladder and tied the beautiful decoration to
+the chandelier, while Judy, ignoring the stately Alice, bossed the job.
+
+“Miss Molly, did you know that Dicky Blount will be here to-night?”
+asked the professor. “We can have some good music, which will be a
+welcome addition to the program, I think.”
+
+“That is fine; but please give him a slice of ham. I feel as though some
+were coming to him. Five pounds of Huyler’s was too much for the old ham
+bone he got that memorable evening at Judith’s dinner. By the way,
+Professor Green, I want to ask a favor of you and your sister.”
+
+“Granted before asked, as far as I am concerned, and Grace is usually
+very amiable where you are in question,” said the eager Edwin.
+
+“Oh, it isn’t so much of a favor, and I have an idea I am doing you one
+to ask it of you. My dear friend Melissa Hathaway has a most wonderful
+voice, but no one ever knows it, as she is so reserved. I thought, maybe
+to-night, you might persuade her to sing. She has some ballads that are
+splendid for an Old English celebration.”
+
+“I should say we will ask her, and be too glad to! I am so pleased that
+she is coming. She seemed rather doubtful whether she could or not.”
+
+“Oh, that was just clothes, and clever Nance solved the problem for her
+just as she often has for me by making something out of nothing. When
+you see our Melissa and realize that her dress is made of eight yards of
+Seco silk at twenty cents a yard, you will think Nance is pretty
+clever.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.—DODO’S SURPRISE PARTY.
+
+
+The old red brick house, where Professor Green had his bachelor
+quarters, had been put in good order for his sister’s régime, and with
+the furniture that had been in storage for many years since the death of
+their parents was made most attractive. It was designed for parties,
+seemingly, as the whole lower floor could be turned practically into one
+room. It had begun to snow, which made the glowing fire in the big hall
+even more cheerful by contrast.
+
+“Whew! aren’t we festive?” exclaimed Dodo, bursting in at the front door
+with Lawrence Upton, whom he had picked up at Exmoor. “Looks to me like
+a ball, with all of this holly and the bare floors ready for dancing.
+Andy and his little Jap are coming around this evening to see you,
+Gracey, and I wish we could get some girls to have a bit of a dance. I
+have been learning to dance along with my other arduous tasks at the
+University, and I’d like to trip the light fantastic toe with some real
+flesh and blood. I have had nothing but a rocking chair to practice with
+for ever so long. I’ve got a little broken sofa that is great to ‘turkey
+trot’ with.”
+
+“How about the old tune, ‘Waltzing ’Round with Sophy, Sophy Just
+Seventeen,’ for that dance of yours?” laughed his older brother. “I
+declare, Dodo, we ought to do better than that for you at a girls’
+college, even in holiday time. Let’s wait and see if young Andy comes,
+and then with his help maybe we can scare up a girl or so.”
+
+Miss Grace thanked Edwin with an appreciative pat for keeping up the
+game of surprise party. Just then Richard Blount came blowing in from
+New York, and they all went in to supper, where the greedy Edwin
+permitted them to have a try at his ham.
+
+“What a girl that Miss Brown is!” declared Dicky. “She seems to me to be
+the most attractive blonde I have ever seen.” Richard, being very fair,
+of course, had a leaning toward brunettes. “We were talking about her
+the other evening at the Stewarts’, and we agreed that when all was told
+she was about the best bred person we knew.”
+
+Miss Fern, to whom praise of Molly seemed to be bitterness and gall,
+gave a sniff of her aristocratic nose and remarked: “There must have
+been some question of Miss Brown’s breeding for you to have been
+discussing it. I have always thought breeding was something taken for
+granted.”
+
+“So it should be,” said Professor Green, laconically.
+
+“Do you know, it is a strange thing to me, but the only two persons in
+the world that I know of who don’t like Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky are
+our two cousins on different sides of the house—Judith Blount and you,
+Cousin Alice.”
+
+This from Dodo, enfant terrible. Edwin turned the color of his old ham
+and looked sternly at Dodo, who was entirely unconscious of having said
+anything amiss. Miss Grace and Lawrence Upton giggled shamefully, while
+Richard Blount hastened to say, “I think you are mistaken about Judith.
+On the contrary, she now speaks very highly of Miss Brown, and looks
+upon her as a very good friend.”
+
+“As for me,” said Alice, “I have never given Miss Brown a thought one
+way or the other. I do not know her well enough to dislike her. She
+impresses me as being rather pushing.”
+
+At this Miss Grace made a sign for them to rise, as she was anxious to
+get the dining-room in readiness for the entertainment.
+
+“All of you boys had better put on your dress suits if there is a chance
+of scaring up some dancers,” she tactfully suggested, so there was a
+general rush for their rooms, and she was left in peace to get
+everything ready for the surprise party.
+
+The guests, as had been agreed upon, arrived together. The old house was
+suddenly filled with dancers enough to satisfy the eager Dodo, and dear
+Mrs. McLean, ready to play dance music until they dropped. Dodo was
+astonished enough to delight his sister, and the fun began.
+
+Dr. McLean and Mr. Oldham found much to talk about, so Nance felt that
+her father was going to have a pleasant evening, and with a glad sigh
+gave herself up to having a good time with the rest. Young Andy was not
+long in attaching himself to her side, and they picked up conversation
+where they had dropped it the year before and seemed to find each other
+as agreeable as ever.
+
+All the girls looked lovely, as girls should when they have an evening
+of fun ahead of them and plenty of partners to make things lively.
+Several more young men came over from Exmoor, in response to a secret
+invitation sent by Miss Grace through young Andy, so, as Judy put it,
+“There were beaux to burn.”
+
+Judy was going in very much for the picturesque in dress, as is the
+usual thing with art students, so she was very æsthetically attired in a
+clinging green Liberty silk. Molly wore her bridesmaid blue organdy,
+which was very becoming. Nance,—who always had the proper thing to wear
+on every occasion without having to scrape around and take stitches and
+let down hems, and find a petticoat to match, and for that reason had
+time to do those necessary things for the other girls,—wore a pretty
+little evening gown of white chiffon, and she looked so pretty herself
+that Dr. McLean whispered to his wife that he took it all back about
+young Andy’s having picked out a plain lassie. Little Otoyo had on the
+handsomest dress of the evening, a rose pink silk embroidered in cherry
+blossoms. The clever child had bought the dress in New York at a swell
+shop and taken it to Japan with her, and there had the wonderful
+embroidery put on it. Melissa was a revelation to herself and her
+friends. The black Seco silk fitted her so well that Nance was really
+elated over her success as a mantuamaker. Melissa had never gone
+décolleté in her life, and at first the girls could hardly persuade her
+to wear the low-necked dress; but when she saw Molly she was content.
+
+“Whatever Molly does is always right, and if she wears low neck then I
+will, too,” said the artless girl.
+
+Her hair was rolled at the sides and done in a low knot on her neck. As
+she came into the parlor Richard Blount, who was going over some music
+at the piano, did not see her at first. Looking up to speak to Edwin
+about a song he was to sing, he was struck dumb by her beauty. Clutching
+Edwin he managed to gasp out, “Great Cæsar! who is she?”
+
+“She is not Medusa, my dear Dick. Don’t stand as though you had turned
+to stone. It is Miss Hathaway, a friend of Miss Brown’s, and a very
+interesting and original young woman, also from Kentucky, but from the
+mountains. I will introduce you with pleasure.”
+
+Edwin Green did introduce him, and if Richard Blount took his eyes from
+Melissa once during the evening he did it when no one was looking.
+
+Mr. Seshu, young Andy’s friend, proved to be a charming, educated young
+man, who understood English perfectly and spoke with only an occasional
+blunder. He made himself very agreeable to Molly, who was eager to talk
+with him, hoping to find out if he were worthy of their little Otoyo.
+The girls were almost certain that he had come to Wellington with the
+idea of viewing Otoyo and passing on her as a possible wife. Otoyo had
+let drop two or three remarks that made them feel that this was the
+case. She was very much excited, and her little hands were like ice when
+Molly took them in hers to tell her how sweet she looked and how
+beautiful and becoming her dress was. It was a trying ordeal for any
+girl, and Molly wondered that the little thing could go through with it,
+but honorable father had thus decreed it and it must be borne.
+
+“I fancy it is better than having the marriage broker putting his finger
+in, which is what would have happened if the Sens and Seshus had not
+‘hugged the Christian faith’ and come to America,” whispered Molly to
+Nance as they took off their wraps.
+
+“I’d see myself being pranced out like a colt, honorable father or not,”
+said Nance. “I fancy he is very nice, however, or Andy would not be so
+chummy with him.”
+
+Molly was amused at the farce of telling Mr. Seshu that one of his
+country women was a student at Wellington, and she hoped to have the
+pleasure of introducing them. He received the information with a polite
+bow, and no more expression than a stone image, but with volubly
+expressed thanks and eagerness for the introduction.
+
+“Our little Otoyo is very precious to us,” said Molly, “and we are very
+proud of her progress in her studies. She takes a fine place with her
+class, and will graduate this year with flying colors. She writes
+perfect English, but there are times in conversation when adverbs are
+too many for her. She is excited to-night over coming to a dance, having
+but recently added dancing to her many accomplishments, and her adverbs
+may get the better of her.” Molly was determined that the seeker for a
+wife should not take the poor little thing’s excitement to himself.
+
+Mr. Seshu seemed more anxious to talk about Otoyo than to meet her.
+
+“And so you are trying to pump me about my little friend, are you, you
+wily young Jap? Well, you have come to the right corner. I’ll tell you
+all I can, and you shall hear such good things of Otoyo that you will
+think I am a veritable marriage broker,” said Molly to herself.
+
+“Is Mees Sen of kindly heart and temper good, you say?”
+
+“She has the kindest heart in the world and a good temper, but she is
+well able to stand up for herself when it is necessary.”
+
+“He shall not think he is getting nothing but a good family horse, but I
+am going to try to let him understand that our little Otoyo has a high
+spirit and is fit for something besides the plow,” added Molly to
+herself.
+
+After much talk, in which Molly felt that she had been most diplomatic,
+Mr. Seshu was finally presented to Miss Sen. Poor little Otoyo was not
+as embarrassed as she would have been had she not learned to converse
+with honorable gentlemen quite like American maidens. The practice she
+had had with young Andy and Professor Green came in very well now, and
+her anxious friends were delighted to see that she was holding her own
+with her polished countryman, and that he seemed much interested in her
+chatter. At the instigation of Molly and Nance, Andy McLean soon came up
+and claimed Otoyo for a dance. She looked very coquettishly at her
+Japanese suitor and immediately accepted, and Mr. Seshu was as
+disconsolate as any other young man would have been to have a pleasant
+companion snatched from him.
+
+“We’ll teach him a thing or two,” said our girls. “And just look how
+well Otoyo is ‘step twoing,’ as she calls it, with Andy!”
+
+“While the dancers are resting we will have some music,” said the
+gracious hostess. “I am going to ask you, Miss Hathaway, to sing for
+us.”
+
+Melissa looked astonished that she should be chosen, but, with that
+poise and dignity that years in society cannot give some persons, she
+agreed to sing what she could if Molly would accompany her on the
+guitar.
+
+“Sing ‘Lord Ronald and Fair Eleanor,’” whispered Molly. “I want
+Professor Green to hear it.”
+
+[Illustration: The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming
+picture.—Page 252.]
+
+The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture as they took
+their places to do their part toward entertaining the guests—Molly so
+fair and slender in her pretty blue dress, with her hair “making
+sunshine in a shady place,” seated with the guitar, while Melissa, tall
+and stately, with figure more developed, in her clinging black dress
+stood near her. Judy was so overcome at the picturesque effect that she
+began to make rapid sketching movements in the air as was her wont.
+
+“Oh, what don’t we see when we haven’t got a gun! I’d give anything for
+a piece of charcoal and some paper.”
+
+“I don’t know all of this song, but I shall sing all I do. I learned it
+from my grandmother, and she learned it from hers. This is all Granny
+knows, but she says her grandmother had many more verses,” said Melissa
+as Molly struck the opening chords of the accompaniment.
+
+  “So she dressed herself in scarlet red,
+    And she dressed her maid in green,
+  And every town that they went through
+    They took her to be some queen, queen, queen,
+    They took her to be some queen.
+
+  “‘Lord Ronald, Lord Ronald, is this your bride
+    That seems so plaguey brown?
+  And you might have married as fair skinned a girl
+    As ever the sun shone on, on, on,
+    As ever the sun shone on.’
+
+  “The little brown girl, she had a penknife,
+    It was both long and sharp;
+  She stuck it in fair Eleanor’s side
+    And it entered at the heart, heart, heart,
+    It entered at the heart.
+
+  “Lord Ronald, he took her by her little brown hand
+    And led her across the hall;
+  And with his sword cut off her head,
+    And kicked it against the wall, wall, wall,
+    And kicked it against the wall.
+
+  “‘Mother, dear mother, come dig my grave;
+    Dig it both wide and deep.
+  By my side fair Eleanor put,
+    And the little brown girl at my feet, feet, feet,
+    And the little brown girl at my feet.’”
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the beautiful girl finished the plaintive air there was absolute
+stillness for a few seconds. The audience was too deeply moved to speak.
+Melissa’s voice was sweet and full and came with no more effort than the
+song of the mocking bird heard in her own valleys at dawn. She took high
+note or low with the same ease that she had stooped and lifted her
+little hair trunk at Wellington station.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+The song in itself was very remarkable, being one of the few original
+ballads evidently brought to America by an early settler, and handed
+down from mother to daughter through the centuries. Edwin Green
+recognized it, and noted the changes from the original from time to
+time. Richard Blount was the first to find his tongue, although he was
+the one most deeply moved by the performance.
+
+“My, that was fine!” was all he could say, but he broke the spell of
+silence, and there was a storm of applause. Melissa bowed and smiled,
+pleased that she met with their approval, but with no airs or
+affectation.
+
+“She has the stage manner of a great artist who is above caring for what
+the gallery thinks, but has sung for Art’s sake, and, as an artist,
+knows her work is good,” said Richard to Professor Green. “Miss
+Hathaway, you will sing again for us, please. I can’t remember having
+such a treat as you have just given us, and I have been to every opera
+in New York for six years.”
+
+The demand was general, so Melissa graciously complied. This time she
+gave “The Mistletoe Bough.”
+
+  “The mistletoe hung in the castle hall,
+  And the holly branch shone on the old oak wall;
+  And all within were blithe and gay,
+  Keeping their Christmas holiday.
+        Oh, the mistletoe bough,
+        Oh, the mistletoe bough.”
+
+And so on, through the many stanzas of the fine old ballad, telling of
+the bride who cried, “I’ll hide, I’ll hide,” and then of the search and
+how they never found the beautiful bride until years had passed away,
+and then, on opening the old chest in the attic, her bones were
+discovered and the wedding veil.
+
+When the applause subsided, Miss Grace asked Richard Blount to sing.
+
+“I’ll do it, Cousin Grace, but I have never felt more modest about my
+little accomplishments. Miss Hathaway has taken all the wind out of my
+sails. I am going to sing a little thing that I clipped out of a
+newspaper and put to music. ‘It is a poor thing, but mine own.’ I think
+it is appropriate for this party, and hope you will agree with me.”
+
+“Now, Dicky, you know we love your singing, and because Miss Hathaway
+has charmed us is no reason why you cannot charm us all over. Caruso can
+sing, as well as Sembrich,” said Miss Grace.
+
+Richard Blount had a good baritone voice, and sang with a great deal of
+taste; and he played on the piano with real genius. With a few brilliant
+runs he settled down to the simple, sweet air he had composed for the
+little bit of fugitive verse, and then began to sing:
+
+  “The holly is a soldier bold,
+    Arrayed in tunic green,
+  His slender sword is never sheathed,
+    But always bared and keen.
+  He stands amid the winter snows
+    A sentry in the wood,—
+  The scarlet berries on his boughs
+    Are drops of frozen blood.
+
+  “The mistletoe’s a maiden fair,
+    Enchanted by the oak,
+  Who holds her in his hoary arms,
+    And hides her in his cloak.
+  She knows her soldier lover waits
+    Among the leafless trees,
+  And, weeping in the bitter cold,
+    Her tears to jewels freeze.
+
+  “But at the holy Christmas-tide,
+    Blessed time of all the year,
+  The evil spirits lose their power,
+    And angels reappear.
+  They meet beside some friendly hearth,
+    While softly falls the snow—
+  The soldier Holly and his bride,
+    The mystic Mistletoe.”
+
+Richard had been delighted by Melissa’s performance, and now she
+returned the compliment by being so carried away by his singing and the
+song that she forgot all shyness and reserve and openly congratulated
+him, praising his music with so much real appreciation and fervor that
+the young man was persuaded to sing again. He sang the beautiful Indian
+song of Cadman’s, “The Moon Hangs Low,” and was beginning the opening
+chords to “The Land of Sky-blue Water,” when there came a sharp ringing
+of the bell, followed by some confusion in the hall as the door was
+opened and a gust of wind blew in the fast falling snow. Then a man’s
+voice was heard inquiring for Professor Green.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.—MORE SURPRISES.
+
+
+“Whose voice is that?” exclaimed Molly and Judy in unison; and without
+waiting to be answered they rushed into the hall to find Kent Brown
+being warmly greeted by Professor Green. Before he had time to shake the
+snow from his broad shoulders, Molly seized him and he seized Judy, and
+they had a good old three-cornered Christmas hug.
+
+“Did you get my note tied to the mistletoe?”
+
+“Yes, you goose; but we did not know you were really coming. I thought
+you were speaking in parables,” said Molly, but Judy only blushed.
+
+“Well, it is powerful fine to get here. My train is four hours late.”
+
+“I know you are tired and hungry,” said Miss Green, who was as cordial
+as her brother in her reception of the young Kentuckian. “But where is
+your grip, Mr. Brown?”
+
+“Oh, I left it at the inn in the village. I could not think of piling in
+on you in this way without any warning.”
+
+“Well, Edwin will ‘phone for it immediately. You Southern people think
+you are the only ones who can put yourselves out for guests. It would be
+a pretty thing for one of Mrs. Brown’s sons to be in Wellington and not
+at our house.”
+
+So Kent was taken into the Greens’ house with as much cordiality and
+hospitality as Chatsworth itself could have shown. The odor of coffee
+soon began to invade the hall and parlors, and in a little while the
+dining-room doors were thrown open and the feasting began. Miss Green
+was an excellent housekeeper, and knew how to cater to young people’s
+tastes as well as Mrs. Brown herself, so the food was plentiful and
+delicious. Molly noticed with a smile that some of the precious ham was
+smuggled to the plates of Dr. and Mrs. McLean and Mr. Oldham, where it
+was duly appreciated, and that later on the favored three were regaled
+with slices of the fruit cake.
+
+Kent found a cozy seat for Judy by the hall fire, and soon joined her
+with trays of supper.
+
+“Oh, Miss Judy, it has been years since last July. I have worked as hard
+as a man could, hoping to make the time fly, but it hasn’t done much
+good,—except that it made my firm suggest that I let up for a few days
+at Christmas, and here I am! I am working awfully hard trying to learn
+to do water coloring of the architectural drawings. I wish I had you to
+help me, you are so clever. I am hoping to get to New York or Paris some
+day to learn the tricks of the trade, but in the meantime there are lots
+of things to learn in Louisville; and I am getting more money for my
+work than I did. Did Molly give you my message tied to the mistletoe?”
+
+“Yes, Kent.”
+
+“Will you wait? I was speaking in parables. I think somehow that I must
+arrive a little more, before I can catch you under the mistletoe; and
+you must do your work, too. Oh, Judy, it is hard to be so wise and
+circumspect! But will you wait?”
+
+“Yes, Kent. I am working hard, too, harder than I have ever worked in my
+life. I was terribly disappointed when papa would not let me go to Paris
+this winter, but insisted on the year of hard drawing in New York, to
+test myself and find myself, as it were, and I have been determined to
+make good. I am drawing all the time, and you know that is virtuous when
+I am simply demented on the subject of color. I let myself work in color
+on Saturday in Central Park, but the rest of the time it is charcoal
+from the antique or from life, with classes in composition and design.
+There is no use in talking about being a decorator if you can’t draw. I
+hope to be in Paris next year, and then I shall reap my reward and
+simply wallow in color.”
+
+When supper was over, they were all called on to stand up for the
+Virginia Reel, which Mrs. McLean played with such spirit that Mr. Oldham
+and Dr. McLean could not keep their feet still; and before the
+astonished eyes of Edwin Green and Andy McLean, who had other plans, Mr.
+Oldham seized Molly and Dr. McLean Nance, and they danced down the
+middle and back again with as much spirit as they had ever shown in
+their youth.
+
+“It takes the old timers to dance the old dances, hey, Mr. Oldham?” said
+the panting doctor as he came up the middle smiling and cutting pigeon
+wings, while Nance arose to the occasion and “chasseed” to his steps
+like any belle of the sixties. Even Miss Alice Fern forgot her dignity
+and romped, but she was very gay, as Edwin had sought her out when Molly
+danced off with Mr. Oldham. He had remembered that he had been rather
+remiss in his attentions to his fair cousin.
+
+How they did dance!—and all of the extra men danced with each other, so
+there were no wall flowers. Richard Blount claimed Melissa as a partner,
+and they delighted the crowd by singing as they danced a song that
+Melissa had taught Richard, as she told him of some of the mountain
+dance games, the words fitting themselves to Mrs. McLean’s lively tunes.
+
+  “‘Old man, old man, let me have your daughter?’
+  ‘Yes, young man, for a dollar and a quarter.
+  Pick up her duds and pitch ’em up behind her.’
+  ‘Here’s your money, old man, I’ve got your daughter.’”
+
+After the dance they drew around the open fire in the hall and roasted
+chestnuts and popped corn and told stories, and had a very merry
+old-fashioned time capping quotations. And finally the one thing
+wanting, as Molly thought, came to pass, and Professor Green read
+Dickens’ Christmas Carol just as he had three years before, when he and
+his sister gave Molly the surprise party at Queen’s in her Sophomore
+year.
+
+“At the risk of making myself verra unpopular, I am afraid I shall have
+to say it is time for all of us to be in bed,” said Mrs. McLean, when
+the professor closed the worn old copy of Dickens.
+
+“Oh, not ’til we have had a little more dancing, please, dear Mrs.
+McLean,” came in a chorus from the young people; and Professor Green
+told her that it would be a pity to throw Dodo back on a rocking chair
+for a partner before he had had a little more practice with flesh and
+blood. So up they all sprang, and with Miss Grace at the piano, to
+relieve the good-natured Mrs. McLean, who had thrummed her fingers sore,
+off they went into more waltzes and two-steps, even the shy Melissa
+dancing with Richard Blount as though she had been at balls every night
+of her life. Otoyo and Mr. Seshu hopped around together as though
+“step-twoing” and “dance-rounding” were the national dances of Japan.
+
+And so ended the delightful surprise party. Before they departed, Dr.
+McLean drew his wife under the mistletoe and kissed her.
+
+“Just to show you bashful young fellows how it is done,” said the jovial
+doctor.
+
+“And I will give the lassies a lesson in how to accept such public
+demonstration,” said his blushing wife, and she suited the action to the
+word by giving him a playful slap, whereupon he kissed her again, but
+instead of another slap she hugged him in return, and there was a
+general laugh.
+
+“I did that just to show the indignant lassies that they must not hold
+with their anger too long. A kiss under the mistletoe has never yet been
+offered as an insult, and the forward miss is not the one to get the
+kiss.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.—DREAMS AND REALITIES.
+
+
+The holidays were all too soon over. Much feasting went on, what with
+Molly’s big turkey and her fruit cake and Rosemary pickles; and the
+invitations to Mrs. McLean’s and Miss Walker’s; and Otoyo’s Japanese
+spread, where she and Melissa charmed the company with the beautifully
+arranged rooms and the dainty, delicious refreshments. Mr. Seshu,
+throughout, was very attentive to his little countrywoman, and the girls
+decided that he was in love with her just like any ordinary American
+might be.
+
+“I am so glad it is coming about this way,” said Molly. “Just think how
+hard it might have been for our little Otoyo, now that she has been in
+this country long enough to see how we do such things, had she been
+compelled, by filial feeling, to marry some one whom she did not love
+and who did not love her. I think she is all over the sentimental
+attachment she used to have for the unconscious Andy, don’t you, Nance?”
+
+“I fancy she is,” said the far from unconscious Nance, who always had a
+heightened color when young Andy’s name got into the conversation. “I
+don’t think she ever really cared for Andy. He was just the first and
+only young man who was ever nice to her, and it went to her head. Andy
+is so kind and good natured.”
+
+“You forget Professor Green. He was always careful and attentive, and
+Otoyo would chatter like a magpie with him.”
+
+“Oh, but he is so much older!” And then Nance wished she had bitten out
+her tongue, as Molly looked hurt and sad.
+
+“Professor Green is not so terribly old! I think he is much more
+agreeable than callow youths who have no conversation beyond their own
+affairs.”
+
+“Now, Molly Brown, I didn’t mean to say a thing to hurt your feelings or
+to imply that Professor Green was anything but perfection. He is not too
+old for y—us, I mean; but Otoyo is like a child.”
+
+“I am ashamed of myself, Nance, but I do get kind of tired of
+everybody’s taking the stand that Professor Green is so old. He is the
+best man friend I ever had, and—and——” But Nance kissed her fondly, and
+she did not have to go on with her sentence, which was lucky, as she did
+not know how she was going to finish it without committing herself.
+
+Kent had to fly back to Louisville to work at his chosen profession and
+try to learn how to do water color renderings of the architectural
+elevations; Judy back to New York to dig at her charcoal drawings and
+dream of swimming in color, with Kent striking out beside her; Dodo
+again at Johns Hopkins, learning much about medicine and how to “turkey
+trot” with a broken sofa; young Andy and Mr. Seshu at Harvard, studying
+the laws of their country, for was not Mr. Seshu fast becoming an
+American? They had their dreams, too, these two young men. Andy was
+looking forward to the day when he would not have to stop talking to
+Nance just at the most interesting turn of the argument, but could stay
+right along with her forever and ever,—and sure he was that they would
+never talk out! Mr. Seshu’s dreams—but, after all, what do we know of
+his dreams? Certain we are that he looked favorably on the little Miss
+Sen, and that honorable Father Sen and honorable Father Seshu had a long
+and satisfactory talk in the shop in Boston with the beautiful Japanese
+prints hanging all around them, representing in themselves money enough
+to make the prospective young couple very wealthy.
+
+Mr. Oldham went back to Vermont, also dreaming that the day might come
+when his little Nance would keep house for him, and he could leave the
+hated boarding house, and have a real home. Richard Blount returned to
+New York, dreaming, too, and his dream was of the beautiful mountain
+girl with the dignity and poise of a queen, eyes like the clear brown
+pools of autumn and a purposeful look on her young face that showed even
+a casual observer that she had a mission in life.
+
+Mid-year examinations came and went. Melissa and Otoyo came through
+without a scratch, which made Molly rejoice as though it had been her
+own ordeal.
+
+Domestic Science grew more thrilling; so interesting, indeed, that Molly
+could not decide for a whole day whether she would rather be a
+scientific cook or a great literary success. But a note from a magazine
+editor accepting her “Basket Funeral” and asking for more similar
+stories decided her in favor of literature. And on the same day, too,
+Professor Edwin Green said to her, “Please, Miss Molly, don’t learn how
+to cook so well that you forget how to make popovers. I am afraid all of
+these scientific rules you are learning will upset the natural-born
+knowledge that you already possess, and your spontaneous genius will be
+choked by an academic style of cooking that would be truly deplorable.”
+
+Molly laughingly confided in the professor that she would not give one
+of Aunt Mary’s hot turnovers for all of Miss Morse’s scientifically made
+bread.
+
+“I know her bread is perfect, but it lacks a certain taste and life, and
+is to the real thing what a marble statue is to flesh and blood. Judy
+described it, in speaking of the food at a lunchroom for self-supporting
+women that she occasionally goes to in New York, as being ‘too chaste.’”
+
+“That is exactly it, too chaste,” agreed Professor Green.
+
+“Of course, cooking is a small part of what we learn in Domestic
+Science,—food values, economic housekeeping, etc. It really is a very
+broad and far-reaching science.”
+
+They were in the professor’s study, where Molly had come to tell him the
+good news about her story, and to ask his advice concerning what other
+of her character sketches she should send to the magazine. She was
+wearing her cap and gown, as she was just returning from a formal
+college function. When the young man greeted her, he had quickly rolled
+up something, looking a little shamefaced. But as they talked, he rolled
+and unrolled and finally determined to show the papers to her.
+
+“Miss Molly, Kent has sent me the plans for my bungalow that I
+commissioned him at Christmas to get busy on. I wonder if you would care
+to see them.”
+
+“Of course I’d be charmed to, Professor Green. There is nothing in the
+world that is more interesting to me than plans of a house. Kent and I
+have been drawing them ever since we could hold pencils. Kent was the
+master hand at outside effects, and I was the housekeeper, who must have
+the proper pantry arrangements and conveniences.”
+
+“Well, please pass on these. The outside effects seem lovely to me, but
+I cannot tell about the interior.”
+
+Molly seated herself and pored over the prints, soon mastering the
+details with a practiced eye, noting dimensions and windows and doors.
+
+“I think it is splendid, but do you really want my criticism?”
+
+“I certainly do, more than any one’s.”
+
+“Well, there is waste space here that should be put in the store room.
+This little passage from dining-room to kitchen is entirely unnecessary
+and should be incorporated in the butler’s pantry. These twin doors in
+the hall, one leading to the attic and one to the cellar, are no doubt
+very pretty, but they are not wide enough. An attic is for trunks, and
+how could one larger than a steamer trunk get through such a narrow
+door? A cellar is certainly for barrels and the like, and I am sure it
+would be a tug to pull a barrel through this little crack of a door. I’d
+allow at least nine inches more on each door, and that means a foot and
+a half off something. Let me see. It seems a pity to take it off of the
+living-room, and rather inhospitable to rob the guest chamber.
+
+“Aunt Clay always puts the new towels in the guest chamber for the
+company to break in. She says company can’t kick about the slick
+stiffness of them, and somehow it would seem rather Aunt Clayish to take
+that eighteen inches off of the poor unsuspecting guests, whoever they
+may be.”
+
+Molly sat a long time studying the plans, and she looked so sweet and so
+earnest that Edwin Green thought with regret of the tacit promise he had
+made Mrs. Brown: to let Molly stay a child for another year. How he
+longed to know his fate! How simple it would be while she was showing
+her interest in his little bungalow to ask her to tell him if she
+thought she could ever make it her little home, too! Was she the child
+her mother thought her? Did she think he was a “laggard in love,” and
+despise him for a “faint heart”? Or could it be that she thought of him
+only as an old and trusted friend, too ancient to contemplate as
+anything but a professor of literature, and, at that, one who was
+building a home in which to spend his rapidly declining years?
+
+“Time will tell,” sighed the poor, conscientious young man, “but if I am
+letting my happiness slip through my fingers from a mistaken sense of
+duty, then I don’t deserve anything but ‘single blessedness’.”
+
+“I have it!” exclaimed Molly. “Have the cellar entrance outside by the
+kitchen door with a gourd pergola over both, and take this inside space
+where the cellar door and steps were to be for a large closet in the
+poor guests’ room, to make up to them for coming so near to losing a
+foot and a half off of their room.”
+
+“That suits me, if it suits you. Is there anything else?”
+
+“If you won’t tell Kent it is my suggestion, I do think the bathroom
+door ought to open in and not out. He and I have disagreed about doors
+ever since we were children.
+
+“Do you know what plan Kent is making for mother and me? He wants us to
+go abroad next winter. Sue is to be married to her Cyrus in June, muddy
+lane and all; Paul and John are in Louisville most of the time, now that
+Paul is on a morning paper and has to work at night, and John is
+building up his practice and has to be on the spot; Kent hopes to be
+able to take a course at the Beaux Arts next winter if he can save
+enough money, and that would leave no one at Chatsworth but mother and
+me. There is no reason why we should not go, and you know I am excited
+about it; and, as for mother, she says she is like our country cousin
+who came to the exposition in Louisville and said in a grandiloquent
+tone, ‘I am desirous to go elsewhere and view likewise.’ Mother and I
+have never traveled anywhere, and it would be splendid for us. Don’t you
+think so?”
+
+“I certainly do, especially as next year is my sabbatical year of
+teaching, and I expect to have a holiday myself and do some traveling. I
+have something to dream of now, and that is to meet you and your mother
+in Europe and ‘go elsewhere and view likewise’ in your company!”
+
+“Oh, Mother and I will be so glad to see you,” exclaimed Molly. “I have
+brought a letter from Mildred to read to you, Professor Green. It is so
+like Mildred and tells so much of her life in Iowa that I thought it
+might interest you.”
+
+“Indeed it will. I have thought so often of that delightful young couple
+and the wonderful wedding in the garden.”
+
+So Molly began:
+
+  “‘Dearest Sister:—You complain of having only second-hand letters
+  from me and you are quite right. There is nothing more irritating
+  than letters written to other people and handed down. Your letters
+  should belong to you, and you only, just as much as your
+  tooth-brush. You remember how mad it used to make Ernest to have his
+  letters sent to Aunt Clay, and how he would put in bad words just to
+  keep Mother from handing them on.
+
+  ‘Crit and I are more and more pleased with our little home out here
+  in this Western town (not that they call themselves Western, and on
+  the map they are really more Eastern than Western). The people are
+  lovely, and so neighborly and hospitable. It is a good thing for
+  Southern people to get away from home occasionally and come to the
+  realization that they have not got a corner on hospitality.
+  Entertaining out here really means trouble to the hostess, as there
+  are no servants and the ladies of the house have all the work to do;
+  and still they entertain a great deal and do it very well, too.
+
+  ‘I have never seen anything like the system the women have evolved
+  for their work. For instance: they wash on Monday morning and have a
+  “biled dinner.” When washing is over, they are too tired to do any
+  more work, so they usually go calling or have club meetings or some
+  form of amusement to rest up for Tuesday, ironing day. Wednesday,
+  they bake. Thursday is the great day for teas and parties. Friday is
+  thorough cleaning day, and I came very near making myself very
+  unpopular because in my ignorance, when I first came here, I
+  returned some calls on that fateful day. I was greeted by irate
+  dames at every door, their heads tied up in towels and their faces
+  very dirty. I could hardly believe they were the same elegant ladies
+  I had met at the Thursday reception, beautifully gowned and showing
+  no marks of toil. On Saturday they bake again and get ready for
+  Sunday, and on Sunday no one ever thinks of staying away from church
+  because of cooking or house work.
+
+  ‘I am so glad our mother taught us how to work some, at least not to
+  be afraid of work, but I do wish I had been as fond of the kitchen
+  as you always were and had learned how to cook from Aunt Mary. My
+  sole culinary accomplishment was cloudbursts, and if Crit is an
+  angel he has to have something to go on besides cloudbursts. The
+  restaurants and hotels here are impossible and there are no boarding
+  houses. There are only twenty servants in the whole town and they
+  already have a waiting list of persons who want them when the
+  present employers are through with them, which only death or removal
+  from the town would make possible, so you see we have to keep house.
+  I am learning to cook, and simply adore Friday when I can tie up my
+  head and pull the house to pieces and make the dust fly. Crit calls
+  me a Sunbonnet Baby because I am so afraid of not keeping to the
+  schedule set down for me by my neighbors. Crit has bought me every
+  patent convenience on the market to make the work easy: washing
+  machine, electric iron and toaster, fancy mop wringer, and a dust
+  pan that can stand up by itself and let you sweep the dirt in
+  without stooping, vacuum carpet cleaner (but no carpets as yet),
+  window washer and dustless dusters, fireless cooker and a steamer
+  that can cook five things at once and blows a little whistle when
+  the water gets low in the bottom vessel. I have no excuse for not
+  being a good cook except that I lack the genius that you have. I
+  thought I never should learn how to make bread but I have mastered
+  it at last and can turn out a right good loaf and really lovely
+  turnovers.
+
+  ‘Thank you so much for your hints from your Domestic Science class.
+  I really got a lot from them. I had an awfully funny time with some
+  bread last week. You see, having once learned how to make it, it was
+  terribly mortifying to mix up a big batch and have it simply refuse
+  to rise. I didn’t want Crit to see it, so I took it out in the
+  backyard and buried it in some sand the plasterers had left there.
+  Crit came home to dinner and went out in the yard to see if his
+  radishes were up and came in much excited: said he had found a new
+  mushroom growth (you remember he was always interested in mushrooms
+  and knew all kinds of edible varieties that we had never heard of).
+  Sure enough there was a brand new variety. That hateful old dough
+  had come up at last! The hot sand had been too much for it and it
+  was rising to beat the band. I was strangely unsympathetic with Crit
+  and his mushroom cult, so he came in to dinner. As soon as Crit went
+  back to work, I went out and covered up the disgraceful failure with
+  a lot more sand, hammered it down well and put a chicken coop on it,
+  determined to get rid of it; but surely murder must be like yeast
+  and it will out. When Crit came back to supper that old leaven had
+  found its way through the cracks under the chicken coop and a little
+  spot was appearing to the side of the sand pile. Crit was awfully
+  excited and began to pull off pieces to send to Washington for the
+  Government to look into the specimens, and I had to give in and tell
+  him the truth. He almost died laughing and decided to send some
+  anyhow, just to see what Uncle Sam would make out of it. The report
+  has not come yet. I have lots more things to tell you about my
+  housekeeping but I must stop now. I am so sorry I can not come home
+  to Sue’s wedding, but it is such an expensive trip out here that I
+  do not see how Crit and I can manage it just now. Of course Crit
+  could not come anyhow as the bridge would surely fall down if he
+  were not here to hold it up, and even if we could afford it I should
+  hate to leave him more than I can tell you. Oh, Molly, he is so
+  precious! We have been married almost a year now and when I was
+  cross about his mushrooms was the nearest we have ever come to a
+  misunderstanding. That is doing pretty well for me who am a born
+  pepper pot. It is all Crit, who is an angel, as I believe I remarked
+  before. Please write to me all about your class reunion, and give my
+  love to that adorable Julia Kean, and also remember me to that nice
+  Professor Green.
+
+                                              ‘Your ’special sister,
+                                           Mildred Brown Rutledge.’”
+
+“What a delightful letter and how happy they are,” said the professor,
+fingering his roll of blue prints with a sad smile. “It was good of her
+to remember me. Please give her my love when you write.”
+
+“I did not tell you quite all she said,” confessed Molly, opening the
+letter again and reading. “She says, ‘remember me to that nice Professor
+Green, who is almost as lovely as Crit,’” and Molly beat a hasty
+retreat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.—THE OLD QUEEN’S CROWD.
+
+
+“Nance, do you fancy this has really been such a quiet, uneventful
+college year, or are we just so old and settled that we don’t know
+excitement when we see it? It has been a very happy time, and I feel
+that I have got hold of myself somehow, and am able to make use of the
+hard studying I have done at college. I know you will laugh when I tell
+you that one reason I have been so happy is that I have not had to
+bother myself over Math. No one can ever know how I did hate and despise
+that subject.”
+
+“You poor old Molly, I know it was hard on you. You were in good
+company, anyhow, in your hatred of it. You remember Lord Macauley hated
+it, too, but for that very reason was determined ‘to take no second
+place’ in it. You always managed to get good marks after that first
+condition in our Freshman year. I often laugh when I think of you with
+your feet in hot water and your head tied up in a cold wet towel, trying
+to cure a cold and at the same time grasp higher mathematics,” answered
+the sympathetic Nance, looking lovingly at her roommate. The girls found
+themselves looking at each other very often with sad, loving glances.
+Their partnership was rapidly approaching its close. They could not be
+room-mates forever and college must end some time.
+
+“The funny thing about me and Math. is that I never did really and truly
+understand it,” laughed Molly. “I learned how to work one example as
+another was worked, but it was never with any real comprehension.
+Nothing but memory got me through. I remember so well when I was a
+little girl, going to the district school. I came home in tears because
+division of decimals had stumped me. My father found me weeping my soul
+out with a sticky slate and pencil grasped to my panting breast. ‘What’s
+the matter, little daughter?’ he said. ‘Oh, father, I can’t see how a
+great big number can go into a little bits of number and make a bigger
+number still.’ ‘Well, you poor lamb, don’t bother your little red head
+about it any more, but run and get yourself dressed and come drive to
+town with me. I am going to take you to see Jo Jefferson play “Cricket
+on the Hearth.”’ I shall never forget that play, but I never have really
+understood decimals; and you may know what higher mathematics meant to
+me.”
+
+“Speaking of a quiet year, Molly, I have an idea one reason it has been
+so uneventful is that our dear old Judy has not been here to get herself
+into hot water, sometimes pulling in her devoted friends after her when
+they tried to fish her out. Won’t it be splendid to see all the old
+Queen’s crowd again: Judy and Katherine and Edith, Margaret and Jessie?
+I wonder if they have changed much! I am so glad they are coming to the
+meeting of the alumnæ this year, and that we are here without having to
+come!”
+
+“I do hope my box from home will get here in time for the first night of
+the gathering of the clan. I know it will seem more natural to them if
+we can get up a little feast. I want all of the girls to know Melissa.
+Isn’t she happy at the prospect of her dear teacher’s coming? Do you
+know the lady’s name? I never can remember to ask Melissa, who always
+speaks of her with clasped hands and a rapt expression as ‘teacher’.”
+
+“Yes,” answered Nance. “She has a wonderful name for one who is giving
+up her life working for mankind: Dorothea Allfriend, all-friendly gift
+of God. I believe her name must have influenced her from the beginning.”
+
+“We must ask her to our spread on Melissa’s account,” cried the
+impetuously hospitable Molly. “That makes ten, counting the eight
+Queen’s girls, and while we are about it, let’s have——”
+
+“Molly Brown, stop right there. If you ask a lot of outsiders, how can
+we have the intimate old talk that we are all of us hungering for? Of
+course we can’t leave Melissa out, as she has been too close to us all
+winter to do anything without her, and her friend must come, too; but in
+the name of old Queen’s, let that suffice.”
+
+“Right, as usual, Nance, but inviting is such a habit with all of my
+family that it almost amounts to a vice. Of course we don’t want
+outsiders, and I shall hold a tight rein on my inclination to entertain
+until after the fourth of June. If there are any scraps left, I might
+give another party.”
+
+“There won’t be any, unless all of us have fallen in love and lost our
+appetites.”
+
+The fourth came at last, and with it our five old friends: the Williams
+sisters, Katherine and Edith, as amusing as ever, still squabbling over
+small matters but agreeing on fundamentals, which they had long ago
+decided was the only thing that mattered; Margaret Wakefield, with the
+added poise and gracious manner that a winter in Washington society
+would be apt to give one; Jessie Lynch, as pretty as ever but still
+Jessie Lynch, not having married the owner of the ring, as we had rather
+expected her to do when she left college; and our dear Judy, in the
+seventh heaven of bliss because The American Artists’ exhibition had
+accepted and actually hung, not very far above the line, a small picture
+done in Central Park at dusk.
+
+The meeting at No. 5, Quadrangle, was a joyous one. Everybody talked at
+once, except of course little Otoyo, whose manners were still so good
+that she never talked when any one else had the floor; but her smile was
+so beaming that Edith declared it was positively deafening.
+
+“Silence, silence!” and Margaret, the one-time class president, rapped
+for order. “I am so afraid I will miss something and I can’t hear a
+thing. Let’s get the budget of news and find out where we stand, and
+then we can go on with the uproar.”
+
+“Well, what is the matter with refreshments?” inquired the ever-ready
+Molly. “That will quiet some of us at least. But before we begin, I must
+ask you, Otoyo, where Melissa is. She and her friend Miss Allfriend
+understood the time, did they not?”
+
+“Yes, they understood and send you most respectful greetings, but my
+dearly friend, Melissa, says she well understands that the meeting of
+these eight old friends is equally to her meeting of her one friend, and
+she will not intrusive be until we our confidences have bartered, and
+then she will bring Miss Allfriend to meet the companions of Miss Brown
+and Miss Oldham.”
+
+“I haven’t heard who Melissa is, but she must be fine to show so much
+tact,” exclaimed Katherine. “I am truly glad we are alone. I am bursting
+with news and drying up for news, and any outsider would spoil it all.”
+
+Nance gave a triumphant glance in Molly’s direction, and Molly stopped
+carving the ham long enough to give an humble bow to Nance before
+remarking, “You girls are sure to adore my Melissa, but if Katherine is
+already bursting with news, suppose she begins before I get the ham
+carved. What is it, Kate? A big novel already accepted?”
+
+“No, but a good job as reader for a publisher, and two magazine stories
+in current numbers, and an order for some college notes for a big Sunday
+sheet. Isn’t that going some for the homeliest one of the Williams
+sisters? But that is nothing. My news is as naught to what is to come.
+Have none of you noticed the blushing Edith? Look at her fluffy
+pompadour, her stylish sleeves, her manicured nails. Compare them with
+those of the old Edith. Remember her lank hair and out-of-date blouses
+and finger nails gnawed down to the quick. Note the change and guess and
+guess again.”
+
+“Edith, Edith! Oh, you fraud!” in chorus from the astonished girls.
+
+“Is it a man?”
+
+“Who is he?”
+
+“When is it to be?”
+
+They certainly guessed right the very first time. Edith Williams was to
+be the first of the old guard to marry, and she was certainly the last
+to expect such a thing. She took the astonishment of her friends very
+coolly and accepted their congratulations without the least
+embarrassment.
+
+“I can’t see what you are making such a fuss about. You must have known
+all the time that my hatred of the male sex was a pose, just adopted
+because I had a notion that no man in his senses could ever see anything
+in me to care for; or if one did, he would be such a poor thing that I
+could not care for him. But,” with a complacent smile, “I find I was
+mistaken.”
+
+“Tell us all about him, do please, Edith. I know he is splendid or you
+would not want him,” said Molly, handing Edith the first plate piled
+with all dainties.
+
+“I can’t eat and talk, too, so I’ll cut my love affair short. His name
+is plain James Wilson, but he is not plain, at all. He is very tall,
+very good looking and very clever. He is dramatic critic on a big New
+York paper and has written a play that is to be produced in the fall.
+Oh, girls, I can’t keep it up any longer! I mean, this seeming coldness.
+He is splendid and I am very happy!” With which outburst, she attempted
+to hide her blushes in her plate, but Katherine rescued it, saying
+sternly, “Don’t ruin the food, but effuse on your napkin,” which made
+them laugh and restored Edith’s equanimity. Then the girls learned that
+she was to be married in two weeks and go to Nova Scotia on her
+honeymoon.
+
+“Next!” rapped Margaret. “How about you, my Jessica, and what have you
+done with your winter?”
+
+Pretty Jessie blushed and held up her fingers, bare of rings. “Not even
+any borrowed ones?” laughed Judy. “Why, Jessie, I believe you have
+sought the safety that lies in numbers, and have so many beaux you can’t
+decide among them.”
+
+“I have had a glorious debutante winter and do not feel much like
+settling down as yet,” confessed the little beauty. “There is lots of
+time for serious thoughts like matrimony later on.”
+
+“So there is, my child, but don’t do like the poor princess who was so
+choosey that she ended by having to take the crooked stick. My Jessica
+must have the best stick in the forest, if she must have any at all,”
+said Margaret, putting her arm around her friend. “For my part, I have
+had a busy winter and haven’t felt the need of a stick, straight or
+crooked. What with entertaining for my father and keeping up the social
+end necessary for a public man, and a general welfare movement I am
+interested in, and the Suffrage League, I have often wished I had an
+astral body to help me out. Mind you, I am not opposed to matrimony, but
+I am just not interested in it for myself.”
+
+“That is a dangerous sentiment to express,” teased Judy. “I find that a
+statement like that from a handsome young woman usually means she is
+taking notice. Come now, Margaret, if, instead of having an astral body
+to do part of the work you are planning for yourself, you had been born
+triplets, you would have let one of you get married, wouldn’t you? Now
+‘fess up. Margaret could attend the suffrage meetings, and Maggie could
+look after the child’s welfare, while dear, handsome, wholesome Peggy
+could be the beloved wife of some promising public man. I don’t believe
+Margaret or Maggie would mind at all if Peggy had to hurry home from the
+meetings to have the house attractive for a brilliant young Senator from
+the western states whom we shall call ‘the Baby of the Senate’ just for
+euphony, and who would come dashing up to the door in his limousine
+whistling ‘Peg o’ my Heart’ in joyful anticipation of his welcome.”
+
+Margaret, the stately and composed, was blushing furiously at Judy’s
+nonsense.
+
+“Judy Kean, who has been telling you things?”
+
+“No one, I declare, Margaret. I was just visualizing. I wouldn’t have
+presumed to hit the nail on the head had I realized I was doing it. You
+must forgive me, dear, but I am rather proud of being able to predict,
+and if I ever meet the ‘Baby of the Senate’ I shall tell him to ‘try,
+try again’.”
+
+Molly interfered at this point and stopped Judy’s naughty mouth with a
+beaten biscuit. “Aren’t you ashamed, Judy? How should you like to be
+teased as you have teased Margaret?”
+
+“Shouldn’t mind in the least. If in a moment of ambitious dreaming I
+have said ‘nay, nay’ to any handsome young western senators, Margaret
+has my permission to tell them to ‘try, try again,’ that I was just
+a-fooling. I am perfectly frank about my intentions in regard to the
+husband question. I am wedded to my art, but it is merely a temporary
+arrangement, and I may get a divorce any day if more attractive
+inducements are offered than my art can furnish. It is fine, though, to
+get my picture accepted and almost well hung by The American Artists. I
+have an idea its size had something to do with the judges taking it. It
+would have been cruel to refuse such a little thing; and then it is so
+easy to hang a tiny picture, and there are so many gaps in galleries
+that have to be filled in somehow.”
+
+“What a rattler you are, Judy,” broke in Edith. “Your picture is lovely,
+and it made me proud to tell James, who took me to the exhibition, that
+you were my classmate and one of the immortal eight.”
+
+“Three more to report,” rapped Margaret, “Molly and Nance and Otoyo.
+Otoyo first, to punish her for being so noisy,” and Margaret drew the
+little Japanese to her side with an affectionate smile.
+
+“It is not for humble Japanese maidens to bare lay their heart
+throbbings, so my beloved friends will have to excuse the little Otoyo.”
+
+And it spoke well for the breeding of the other seven that they
+respected the reticence of their little foreign friend and did not try
+to force her confidence, although they were none of them ignorant of the
+intentions of the wily Mr. Seshu.
+
+“Otoyo is right,” declared Nance. “I have nothing to confess, but if I
+had, I should be Japanesque and keep it to myself.”
+
+“Oh, you ‘copy cat’,” sang Judy. “I’ll wager anything that Nance has
+more up her sleeve than any of us. Look, look! It has gone all the way
+up her sleeve and is crawling out at her neck.”
+
+Nance made a wild grab at her neck, where, sure enough, the sharp eyes
+of Judy had discovered a tiny gold chain that Nance had not meant to
+show above her neat collar. She clutched it so forcibly that the
+delicate fastening broke, and a small gold locket was hurled across the
+room right into Molly’s lap. Molly caught it up and handed it back to
+the crimson and confused Nance amid the shrieks of the girls.
+
+“I reckon a girl has a right to carry her father’s picture around her
+neck if she has a mind to,” said Molly.
+
+Just then there was a knock at the door and Melissa and Miss Allfriend
+were ushered in, much to the relief of Molly, who by their coming had
+escaped the ordeal of the teasing from her friends that she knew was
+drawing near; and it also gave Nance the chance to compose herself.
+
+Miss Allfriend proved to be delightful. She was overjoyed to be back at
+her Alma Mater and eager to know Melissa’s friends and to thank them for
+their kindness to her protégée. Personalities were dropped and the
+program for the entertainment of the alumnæ was soon under discussion.
+Miss Allfriend had been president of her class and she and Margaret
+found many subjects of mutual interest. Melissa was anxious to know the
+old Queen’s girls, having heard so much of them from Otoyo, and the
+girls were equally anxious to know the interesting mountain girl. The
+party was a great success, and Nance was delighted to see that there
+were no “scraps” left for Molly to give another, as there were many
+things on foot for the alumnæ meeting for the next week and Nance felt
+sure Molly would have enough to do without any more entertaining.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now we will leave our girls. Their postgraduate year is over. A very
+happy one it has been, with little excitement but much good, hard work.
+Nance is to go to Vermont and rescue her long-suffering father from the
+boarding house, and give the poor man the taste of home life that he has
+never known. Mrs. Oldham cannot keep house in Vermont and make speeches,
+now at the International Peace Conference at The Hague, and then at a
+Biennial of Woman’s Clubs in San Francisco, with a stop over in New York
+to address the Equal Suffrage League between boat and train!
+
+Molly is going back to Kentucky to assist at her sister’s wedding, this
+wedding a formal affair in a church, to suit the notions of the
+formidable Aunt Clay. Molly has many plots in her head to work out. Her
+little success with “The Basket Funeral” has fired her ambition, and she
+is longing for time to write more. French must be studied hard all
+summer if they are to go abroad, and Kent must be coached, as he is very
+rusty in his French and must rub up on it for lectures at the Beaux
+Arts. She has promised Edwin Green to write to him, and he has offered
+to criticize her stories, which will be a great help to her. The place
+of meeting in Europe has not been decided on, but Professor Green is
+determined that meeting there shall be.
+
+Melissa will go back to her beloved mountains and try to give out during
+her well-earned vacation some of the precious knowledge she has gained
+in her freshman year to the less fortunate children of her county. She
+will in a measure repay the noble woman who has spent her life in the
+mountain mission work for all the care and labor she has expended on
+her, and will go back to Wellington for the sophomore course with her
+purpose stronger and deeper: to help her people and uplift them as she
+herself has become uplifted.
+
+One more incident only we must record before this volume ends. After
+Molly got home she received by express a box wrapped in Japanese paper,
+so carefully and wonderfully done up that it seemed a pity to break the
+fastenings. In the box was the most beautiful little stunted tree in a
+pot that looked as though it had come out of a museum. The tree had all
+the characteristics of a “gnarled oak olden,” with thick twisted
+branches and one limb that looked as though little children might have
+had a swing on it, so low did it sag. And this tiny tree, with all the
+dignity of a great “father of the forest,” was, pot and all, only eight
+inches high! With it, came the following letter:
+
+“Will the honorably and kindly graciously Miss Brown be so stoopingly as
+to accept this humble gift from the father of Otoyo Sen, who has by the
+most graciously help of Miss Brown passed her difficulty examinations at
+Wellington College and now is to become the humble wife of honorable
+Japanese gentleman, Mr. Seshu? The honorable gentleman gave greatly
+praise to graciously Miss Brown for her so kindly words about humble
+Japanese maiden and is gratefully that his humble wife is the friend of
+so kindly lady.”
+
+With this little note, it seemed to Molly that the last ties that bound
+her to the precious life at Wellington and the old, complete Queen’s
+group had suddenly snapped. Little Otoyo had outstripped them all! She
+was quietly entering the school of Life, while the rest were only
+standing at the threshold.
+
+Molly, knowing the serene satisfaction with which the Japanese maiden
+awaited the new bonds, and remembering the transforming happiness of
+Edith Williams in anticipation of a similar experience, thoughtfully
+pondered upon her own future.
+
+She had the eye of faith but she was not a seer; and she could not
+travel in advance those devious paths by which Destiny was to lead her.
+
+How she finally came to her own and fulfilled the promise of college
+days, it remains for “Molly Brown’s Orchard Home” to disclose.
+
+                                The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days, by Nell Speed
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+Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days, 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: Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2011 [EBook #36230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S POST-GRADUATE DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Oh, Miss Molly, let's stay in the 'beechwood period'
+forever."--Page 113.]
+
+
+
+
+MOLLY BROWN'S POST-GRADUATE DAYS
+
+BY
+
+NELL SPEED
+
+  AUTHOR OF "MOLLY BROWN'S FRESHMAN DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S
+  SOPHOMORE DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS,"
+  "MOLLY BROWN'S SENIOR DAYS," ETC., ETC.
+
+WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES L. WRENN
+
+NEW YORK
+
+HURST & COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1914
+
+BY
+
+HURST & COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+                                BOOK I.
+              I. The Arrival                                   5
+             II. My Old Kentucky Home                         22
+            III. Wedding Preparations and Confidences         36
+             IV. Burglars                                     51
+              V. The Wedding                                  62
+             VI. Buttermilk Tact                              77
+            VII. Pictures on Memory's Wall                   100
+           VIII. All Kinds of Weather                        114
+             IX. Jimmy                                       143
+              X. Aunt Clay Makes a Mistake                   154
+
+                                BOOK II.
+              I. Wellington Again                            170
+             II. Levity in the Leaven                        189
+            III. History Repeats Itself                      208
+             IV. A Barrel from Home                          223
+              V. Dodo's Surprise Party                       241
+             VI. More Surprises                              261
+            VII. Dreams and Realities                        269
+           VIII. The Old Queen's Crowd                       288
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                               PAGE
+
+  "Oh, Miss Molly, let's stay in the 'beechwood
+  period' forever"                                     Frontispiece
+
+  "Hello, girls," exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on
+  one side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other            10
+
+  "Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?"                  218
+
+  The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture    252
+
+
+
+
+                   MOLLY BROWN'S POST-GRADUATE DAYS.
+
+                                BOOK I.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--THE ARRIVAL.
+
+
+"Oh, Judy, almost home! I wonder who will meet us," cried Molly Brown.
+"I feel in my bones that you and my family will be as good friends as
+you and I have always been. You are sure to get on well with the boys."
+
+Judy responded with a hug, thinking, with a happy twinkle in her large,
+gray eyes, that, if by any chance the rest of the Brown boys could be as
+attractive as Molly's brother, Kent, and should find her as fascinating
+as Kent had seemed to, when she met him in the spring before the college
+pageant, she bade fair to have an exciting visit in Kentucky.
+
+Molly Brown and Julia Kean (Judy for short), after four busy years of
+college life, had just graduated at Wellington, and were on their way to
+Molly's home in Kentucky, where Judy was to pay a long visit. As Molly
+had been looking forward to the time when she could have some of her
+college chums know her numerous and beloved family, she was very happy
+at the prospect. Judy, who was ever ready for an adventure, was bubbling
+over with anticipation.
+
+The girls sat gazing out on the beautiful rolling fields of blue grass
+and tasseling corn, which Molly knowingly remarked promised an excellent
+crop. Molly's blue eyes were misty when she thought of dear old
+Wellington College, the four years of hard work and play, and the many
+friends she had made and left, some of them, perhaps, never to see
+again. Her mind dwelt a long time on Professor Green, the delightful
+old, young man, who had opened up a new world to her in literature; who
+had been so very kind to her through the whole college course, often
+coming to her rescue when in difficulties, and always sympathizing with
+her when she most needed sympathy; and who had, finally, proved to be
+her real benefactor, when she discovered that he was the purchaser of
+those acres of perfectly good orchard that had to be sold to keep Molly
+at college. On bidding him good-by, she had extended to him an
+invitation from her mother to make them a visit in Kentucky, and she had
+already speculated much as to whether the young, old man would accept.
+Molly never could decide whether to think of him as an old, young man,
+or a young, old man. Professor Green was in reality about thirty, but,
+when one is under twenty, over thirty seems very old.
+
+Molly smiled when she thought of her parting scene with him, and made a
+mental note that that was one of the things she must be sure to confess
+to mother. The smile was enough to dispel the mist that was in her eyes,
+and her mind turned to Chatsworth, her dear home. She thought of her
+mother, her brothers and sisters; the decrepit old cook, Aunt Mary
+Morton; Shep and Gyp, the dogs; her horse, President, no longer young,
+having lived through four administrations, but still having more go in
+him than many a colt, showing his fine racing blood and the "mettle of
+his pasture."
+
+"Only two miles more," breathed Molly jubilantly. "We must get our
+numerous packages together."
+
+The girls had planned to have no bundles to carry on the train, nothing
+but two highly respectable suitcases; but the fates were against
+anything so unheard of as two females going on a journey with no extras.
+They had seven boxes of candy presented at parting by various friends. A
+large basket of fruit was added to their cares, put on the Pullman in
+New York by the resourceful Jimmy Lufton, with instructions to the
+porter to give it to the two prettiest girls who got on at Wellington,
+with through sleeper to Kentucky. There were the inevitable shirtwaists
+found in Molly's bottom drawer; books and what not, lent to various
+girls and returned too late to pack; and some belated laundry that Molly
+had not had the heart to worry her old friend, Mrs. Murphy,
+about--collars, jabots, and the muslin sash curtains from her room at
+college that Molly could not make up her mind to put in her trunk in
+their dusty state. These things were put in a bulging box and labeled by
+Judy, quoting the immortal Mr. Venus, "Bones Warious."
+
+"I wish we could forget it and leave it on the train," said Molly. "The
+things in it are all mine, and, now I come to think of it, I believe
+there is nothing there of any real value except the jabots Nance made
+me--those that Mrs. Murphy called my 'jawbones.' I could not bear to lose
+them, and we have not time to dig them out. If Kent meets us he is sure
+to tease me, and you know how badly I take a teasing. He says he is
+lopsided now from carrying his sisters' clothes that they have forgotten
+to pack in their trunks."
+
+"Let me call the 'foul, hunch-backed toad' of a bundle mine," offered
+Judy. "Your brother does not know me well enough to tease me."
+
+"Don't you believe it! Besides, you can't fool Kent. He knows me and my
+bundles too well. Here we are," added Molly hastily, "and there is Kent
+to meet us, driving the colts, if you please. It is a good thing you are
+not Nance Oldham. She will not consent to ride behind any colt younger
+than ten years old!"
+
+The train stopped just long enough for the girls to jump off, the porter
+depositing their numerous belongings in a heap on the platform.
+
+[Illustration: "Hello, girls," exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one
+side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other.--Page 10.]
+
+"Hello, girls," exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one side, and shaking
+hands with Judy, on the other, while a diminutive darkey swung on to the
+colts' bits, occasionally leaping into the air as the restive horses
+tossed their proud heads. "My, it is good to see you! And your train on
+time, too! That is such a rare occurrence that I have an idea it may be
+yesterday's train. You don't mean to say that this is all of the
+emergency baggage you are carrying?" grabbing the two highly respectable
+suitcases and stowing them in the back of the trim, red-wheeled Jersey
+wagon. The girls giggled, and Kent discovered the conglomerate
+collection of packages that the porter had hastily dumped by the side of
+the track.
+
+Molly beat a hasty retreat into the station, declaring that she must
+speak to Mrs. Woodsmall, the postmistress, thus hoping to avoid the
+inevitable teasing from her big brother. Judy, with the spirit and
+somewhat the expression of a Christian martyr, picked up the aforesaid
+despised, bumpy, bulging bundle, and, with a sweet smile, said: "This is
+mine, Mr. Brown. Will you please take it? The rest of the things are
+boxes of candy and parting gifts from various friends."
+
+Kent took the disreputable looking package, which was not at all
+improved by its long trip on the Pullman and the many disdainful kicks
+the girls had given it. Now, in the last hasty handling, the porter had
+loosened the much knotted string, the paper had burst, and from the
+yawning gash there had crept a bit of blue ribbon, Molly's own blue.
+Judy, with her ever-ready imagination, had been heard to call it "the
+blue of chivalry and romance, the blue of distant mountains and deep
+seas."
+
+Kent took the package, smiling his quizzical smile; the smile that from
+the beginning had made Judy decide that he was very likable; a smile all
+from the eyes, with a grave mouth. In fact, the young lady had been so
+taken with it that she had practiced the expression before her mirror
+for half an hour and then held it until she could try it on the first
+person passing by. That person happened to be Edith Williams, who had
+remarked: "Gracious me, Judy, what is the matter? I feel as though you
+were some one in a hogshead looking through the bunghole at me." Judy
+was delighted. It was exactly the expression she was aiming for, but she
+was sorry that she had not thought of the apt description herself.
+
+"Now, Miss Judy, I have known for four years from Molly's letters what a
+bully good chum you are, and have observed before now how charming and
+beautiful, but this r�le of Christian martyr is a new one on me. Don't
+you know you can't fool me about a Brown bundle? I could pick one out of
+the hold of an ocean liner in the dark, just by the lumpy, bumpy feel of
+it. Besides"--pointing to the bit of blue ribbon spilling through the
+widening tear--"there are Molly's honest old eyes peeping out, telling me
+that this little subterfuge of yours is just an act of true friendship
+on your part, to keep me from teasing her about her slipshod method of
+packing. I tell you what I will do, Miss Judy, if you will do something
+for me. I'll make a compact with you, and promise to go the whole of
+this day without teasing Molly."
+
+"Well, what am I to do?"
+
+"Oh, it's easy enough. Don't call me Mr. Brown any more. Kent, from your
+lips, would sound good to me. You see, there are four male Browns, and
+every time you say 'Mr. Brown' we are liable to fall over one another
+answering you or doing your bidding."
+
+"All right; 'Kent' it shall be for this day and every day that you don't
+tease Molly."
+
+"I meant just for the one day. The strain of never teasing Molly again
+would shatter my constitution."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Brown; just as you choose about that."
+
+"Oh, well, I give up."
+
+"All right, Kent."
+
+Molly emerged from the postoffice, with Mrs. Woodsmall following her.
+Such a stream of conversation poured from the latter's lips that Judy
+felt her head swim.
+
+"Glad to meet you, Miss Kean. I have long wanted to see some of Molly's
+correspondents. What beautiful postals you sent her last year from
+Maine; the summer before from Yellowstone Park; and those Eyetalian ones
+were grand; one year, even from Californy. You are the most traveled of
+all her friends, I believe, but Miss Oldham can say more on a postal
+than any of you, and such a eligible hand, too. Now-a-days all of you
+young folks write so much alike, since the round style come in, I can
+hardly tell your writin' apart. It makes it very hard on a lonesome
+postmistress whose only way of gitting news is from the mail she
+handles. And now, since Uncle Sam has started this fool Rural Free
+Delivery, I don't git time to more than half sort the mail before here
+comes Bud Woodsmall and snatches it from under my nose with irrevalent
+remarks about cur'osity and cats. Gimme the good old days when the
+neighbors come a-drivin' up for their mail, and you could pass the time
+o' day with them and git what news out of them you ain't been able to
+git off of the postals, or make out through the thin ornvelopes, or
+guess from the postmarks. Anyhow, I gits ahead of Woodsmall lots of
+times. Jest yistiddy I 'phoned over to Mrs. Brown that Molly would be in
+on this two train. To be sure, Woodsmall had the letter in his auto, but
+he has to go a long way round, and he's sech a man for stopping and
+gassin', and Molly's ornvelope was some thinner than usual, and I could
+see mighty plain the time she expected to come. Said I to myself, said
+I, 'Now, ain't Mrs. Brown nothing but a mother, and don't she want the
+earliest news of her child she can git? And ain't I the owner of that
+news, and should I not desiccate it if I can? It so happened that
+Woodsmall had a blow-out, and didn't git yistiddy's mail delivered until
+to-day. Now, tell me, wasn't I right to git ahead of him?" She did not
+pause for a reply, but plunged into the stream of conversation again.
+
+"I don't care if he is my own husband. He asked my sister first, and I
+never would have had him if there had been a chance of anything better
+offering. I wouldn't have had him at all if I had foresaw that he was
+going to fly in my face by gitting app'inted to R. F. D., and then fly
+in the face of Providence by trying to run one of them artemobes."
+
+Kent stopped the flow of words by saying: "Now, Mrs. Woodsmall, you are
+giving Miss Kean an entirely wrong idea of you and Bud. She will think
+you do not love him, and I am sure there is not a man in the county who
+fares better than your husband, or who shows his keep as well."
+
+The thin, hard face of the postmistress broke into a pleasant smile, and
+Judy thought: "After all, Kent and Molly are very much alike in
+understanding the human heart and in trying to make all around them feel
+as happy as possible."
+
+"Well, you see, Kent Brown, it's this way: I jest natchally love to
+cook, and Bud he jest natchally loves to eat, and I've got the
+triflingest, no-count stomic that ever was seed. What's the use of
+cooking up a lot of victuals for myself, when I can't eat more'n a
+mouthful? And so," she somewhat lamely concluded, "I jest cook 'em up
+for Bud."
+
+The colts could not be persuaded to stand still another minute, so they
+had to call a hasty good-by to the voluble Mrs. Woodsmall. Then the
+girls gave their attention to holding on their hats and keeping their
+seats, while the lively pair of young horses pranced and cavorted until
+Kent gave them their heads and allowed them to race their fill for a
+mile or more of macadamized road.
+
+Judy was hardly prepared for such a trim turnout as the Jersey wagon,
+and such wonderful horses, to say nothing of the road. She had yet to
+learn that Mrs. Brown would have good, well-kept vehicles on her place;
+that all the Browns would have good horses; and that all Kentuckians
+insist on good roads. The number of limestone quarries throughout the
+state make good macadamized roads a comparatively easy matter.
+
+What a beautiful country it was: the fields of blue grass, with herds of
+grazing cattle, knee deep in June; an occasional clump of trees,
+reminding one rather of English landscapes; and then the fields of corn,
+proudly waving their tassels and shaking their pennant-like leaves, as
+much as to say, "roasting ears for all."
+
+"News for you, Molly," said Kent, as soon as he could get the colts down
+to a conversation permitting trot. "Mildred is to be married in two
+weeks."
+
+"Oh, Kent, why didn't they write me?"
+
+"Mother thought it would be fun to surprise you."
+
+Judy's glowing face saddened. "Why, I should not be here at such a time.
+I know I shall be in the way. I must write to papa to come for me
+sooner."
+
+"Now, Miss Judy, 'the cat is out of the bag.' You have hit on the real
+reason why mother would not let any of us write Molly of the approaching
+nuptials in the family. She was so afraid that you might fear you would
+be de trop and want to postpone your visit to us, and she has been
+determined that nothing should happen to keep her from making your
+acquaintance, and that at the earliest. You see, poor mother has had not
+only to listen to Molly's ravings on the subject of Miss Julia Kean for
+the last four years, but now she has to give ear to Mildred and me,
+since we met you at Wellington, and she thinks the only way to silence
+us is to have something to say about you herself."
+
+Judy laughed, reassured. "You and Molly are exactly alike, and both of
+you must 'favor your ma.' Well, I'll try not to be in the way, and maybe
+I can help."
+
+"Of course you can," said Molly, squeezing her. "You always help where
+there is any planning or arranging or beautifying to be done. But, Kent,
+tell me, why is Milly in such a rush?"
+
+"Why, Molly, I am surprised at you, laying it on Mildred. It happens to
+be old 'Silence and Fun' who is so precipitate."
+
+"Who is 'Silence and Fun'?" asked Judy.
+
+"Oh, he is Milly's fianc�, but the Brown boys call him that ridiculous
+name. He has a fine name of his own, Crittenden Rutledge. But, Kent,
+please tell me, why this haste?"
+
+"Well, you see Crit has been ordered out to Iowa by his steel
+construction company, on a bridge-building debauch, and he thought Milly
+might just as well go on with him and hold the nails while he wields the
+hammer. Here we are, so put your hat on straight, and look your
+prettiest, Miss Judy. I should hate for mother to think that we had been
+misleading her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME.
+
+
+They turned into an avenue through a gate opened from the wagon by means
+of a rope pulled by the driver.
+
+"How is that for a gate, Molly? I began my holiday by getting the thing
+in order. It works beautifully now, but the least bit of rough handling
+gets it off its trolley."
+
+"It is fine, Kent. But tell me, are you to have your holiday now?"
+
+"Yes; you see I can help with the harvesting this week, and next week
+the wedding bells have to be rung. And I thought any spare time I have I
+could take Miss Judy off your hands."
+
+"I am afraid that your holiday will be a very busy one," laughed Judy;
+"but maybe I can help ring the wedding bells, and, if I can't do much
+toward harvesting, I can at least carry water to the thirsty laborers."
+
+Kent Brown was in an architect's office in Louisville, working very hard
+to master his profession, for which he had a fondness amounting to a
+passion. Mrs. Brown had secretly hoped that one of her boys would want
+to become a farmer, but they one and all looked upon Chatsworth as a
+beloved home, but not a place to make a living. Their earnest endeavor,
+however, was to keep up the place, and often their hard-earned and
+harder-saved earnings went toward much needed repairs or farm machinery.
+Mrs. Brown had to confess that a little ready money earned irrespective
+of the farm was very acceptable; and, since her four boys were on their
+feet and beginning to walk alone, and stretch out willing, helpful hands
+to her, she found life much easier.
+
+Not that money or the lack of money had much to do with Mrs. Brown's
+happiness. She was a woman of strong character and deep feelings, with a
+love for her children that her sister, Mrs. Clay, said was like that of
+a lioness for her cubs. But that remark was called forth when Mrs. Clay,
+Sister Sarah, one morning found Mrs. Brown making two pairs of new
+stockings out of four pairs of old ones, after a pattern clipped from
+the woman's page of a newspaper. With her accustomed bluntness, she had
+said: "Well, Mildred Carmichael, if you had only three and a half
+children, instead of seven, you would not have to be guilty of such
+absurd makeshifts."
+
+Mrs. Brown had risen up in her wrath and given her such a talk that,
+although ten years had elapsed since that memorable morning, Sister
+Sarah still avoided the subject of stockings with Sister Mildred.
+
+Mrs. Brown was a great reader, and loved old books and old poetry. One
+of Molly's earliest remembrances was lying on the otter-skin rug in
+front of the great open fire, with brothers and sisters curled up by her
+or seated close to the big brass fender, while mother read Dickens
+aloud, or the Idyls of the King, or something else equally delightful.
+One by one the younger children would drop to sleep; and then Mammy
+would come and do what she called "walk 'em to baid," muttering to
+herself, "I hope to Gawd that these chilluns won't be a dreamin' all
+night about that stuff Miss Mildred done packed in they haids."
+
+Just now, however, Molly's memories were merged in anticipations, and
+she watched eagerly for the first signs of welcome.
+
+As they approached the house, the colts neighed, and were greeted by
+answering whinnies from two mares grazing in a paddock. The mares ran to
+the white-washed picket fence and stretched their necks as far over as
+they could, gazing fondly on their handsome offspring, trotting gaily
+by, tossing their manes and tails.
+
+"The mothers are all coming out to meet their babies, and there is
+mine!" cried Molly.
+
+It was mother. Oh, that beloved face; that familiar, spirited walk and
+bearing of the head; those wide, clear, far-seeing gray eyes, and that
+fine patrician nose, with the mouth ever ready to laugh in spite of a
+certain sadness that lurked there! She folded Molly in her arms, but did
+not forget to keep a hand free to clasp Judy's, and, before Molly was
+half through her hug, the older woman drew the young visitor to her, and
+kissed her fondly. Then, with an arm around each girl, she said: "I am
+truly glad to know my Molly's friend, and gratified, indeed, to have her
+with us."
+
+"It means a great deal to me, too, Mrs. Brown, to see Molly's mother and
+home." Judy feared that it would be forward to say what she had in her
+mind, and that was "such a beautiful mother and home."
+
+The house was of white-washed brick, with a sloping gray shingled roof
+and green shutters, and a general air of roominess and comfort. A long,
+deep gallery or porch ran across the front, which Architect Kent
+explained to Judy was not quite in keeping with the style of
+architecture, but had been added by a comfort-loving Brown to the
+delectation of all who came after him. The lines of the old house were
+so good that the addition of a mere porch could not ruin it, and
+certainly added to its charm and comfort. To the left, in the rear, well
+off from the house, were the barn-yard and stables, chicken houses,
+smokehouse, and servants' quarters; to the right, a tan-bark walk led to
+the garden. Down that path came Mildred, by her side a young man who
+seemed to be so amused by her lively chatter that he could hardly
+contain himself.
+
+"Molly, Molly, I'm so glad to see you, and so is Crit, although he has
+no words to tell you how glad he is. And, Miss Kean, Judy! It is
+splendid for you to come just now. I am certain that Kent could not keep
+the news, and you know by this time that Crit and I are to be married
+the last of next week. Mr. Rutledge, let me introduce you to Miss Kean."
+
+Although Crittenden had never uttered a word, he seemed to be able to
+let Molly understand that he, too, was glad to see her, as he was
+vigorously hugging her and two-stepping with her over the short,
+well-kept grass. But, at Mildred's call, he suddenly stopped, made a low
+and courtly bow to his partner, and turned to Judy, clasping her hand in
+a warm and friendly grasp, and giving her such a smile as she had never
+before beheld. In it he made her feel that she was welcome to Kentucky;
+that he intended to like her and have her like him; and had his heart
+not been already engaged, he would lay it at her feet. Never a word did
+he utter. He was tall, rather soldierly in bearing, with the most
+beaming countenance Judy had ever seen, and such perfect teeth she
+almost had her doubts about them.
+
+"Where is Sue, mother?" said Molly. "And Aunt Mary and Ca'line? Of
+course the other boys are not home so early."
+
+"Sue has gone over to Aunt Sarah Clay's. She sent for her in a great
+hurry. Sue was loath to go, fearing she could not get back before you
+arrived, but you know your Aunt Clay and how autocratic she is. Sue
+seems to be in great favor just now. Here is Aunt Mary, however."
+
+Molly ran to meet the decrepit old darkey, embracing her with almost as
+much fervor as she had her mother. Aunt Mary Morton was surely of the
+old school: very short and fat, dressed in a starched purple calico,
+with a white "neckercher" and a voluminous gingham apron, her head tied
+up in a gorgeous bandanna handkerchief.
+
+"Oh, my chile, I'm glad to see you. I hope you done learned 'nuf to stay
+at home a while. Yo' ma's so lonesome 'thout you, with Mr. Ernest 'way
+out West surveyin' the landscape." (Ernest, the oldest of the Brown
+boys, was employed by the government on the geological survey.) "Mr.
+Paul so took up wif sassiety in Lou'ville he can't hardly walk straight,
+and jes' come home long 'nuf to snatch a moufful--but I done tuck
+'ticular notice he do manage to eat at home in spite er all his gran'
+frien's. And now, Miss Milly gwine to step off; an' 'mos' fo' we git
+time to cook up any mo' victuals, Miss Sue'll be walkin' off. Praise be,
+she ain't a-goin' fur. How she eber made up her min' to gib her promise
+to a man what lib up sech a muddy lane, beats me; an' Miss Sue, the mos'
+'ticular of all yo' ma's chilluns 'bout her shoes an' skirts an'
+comp'ny! Now Mr. John ain't been a full-fleshed doctor mo'n two weeks
+befo' he so took up wif a young lady's tongue what stayin' over to Miss
+Sarah Clay's, and so anxious 'bout feelin' her pulse, dat yo' ma an' I
+don' neber see nothin' of him. He jes' come home from dat doctor's
+office in town long 'nuf to shave and mess up a lot er crivats an' peck
+a little eatin's, an' off he goes. My 'pinion is, dat's what Miss Sarah
+done sent for Miss Sue in sech a hurry 'bout, but you' ma say fer me to
+hesh up, no sich a thing, she jes' wan' to talk 'bout a suit'ble weddin'
+presen' for little Miss Milly."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Mary, isn't it exciting to have a wedding in the family? You
+always said Milly would be the first to get married, if Sue was the
+first to get born," said Molly, giving the old woman another hug for
+luck. "Now I want you to shake hands with my dear friend, Miss Judy
+Kean."
+
+Aunt Mary made a bobbing curtsey to Judy, then gave her a friendly
+handshake, looking keenly in her face the while. Then she nodded her
+head, until the ends of the bright bandanna, tied in a bow on top of her
+head, quivered, and said: "I don' know but what that there Kent was
+right."
+
+"Aunt Mary, I am truly glad to meet you. If you could hear the blessings
+that are showered on your head when Molly gets a box from home, and
+could see how hard it is for all of those hungry girls to be polite when
+the time comes for snakey noodles, you would know how honored I feel
+that I am the first to make your acquaintance."
+
+"Well, honey, what makes all of you go 'way from yo' homes to sech
+outlandish places as collidges where the eatin's is so scurse? Can't you
+learn what little you don' know right by yo' own fi'side?"
+
+"Maybe we could, Aunt Mary, but you see I haven't any real fireside of
+my own."
+
+"What! did yo' folks git burned out?"
+
+"Oh, no; but you see my father is an engineer, and mamma travels with
+him, and stays wherever he stays; and, when I am not at school or
+college, I knock around with them. Of course, I'd like to have a home
+like Chatsworth, but it is lots of fun to go to new places all the time
+and meet all kinds of people."
+
+"Well, they ain't but two kin's, quality an' po' white trash, an' I'll
+be boun' you don't neber take up wid any ob dat kin', so you an' yo' ma
+'n' pa mought jes' as well stay in one place."
+
+While the girls were up in Molly's room, which Judy was to share,
+getting ready for a belated dinner, they heard the sound of a piano,
+cracked but sweet, like the notes of an old spinnet, then a male voice,
+wonderful in its power and intensity, and at the same time so sweet and
+full of feeling that Judy, ever emotional where art was concerned, felt
+her eyes filling.
+
+  "Shed no tear, oh, shed no tear!
+  The flower will bloom another year.
+  Weep no more! Oh, weep no more!
+  Young buds sleep in the root's white core.
+  Dry your eyes, oh, dry your eyes!
+  For I was taught in Paradise
+  To ease my breast of melodies,
+                              Shed no tear.
+
+  "Overhead--look overhead
+  'Mong the blossoms white and red.
+  Look up, look up! I flutter now
+  On this flush pomegranate bough.
+  See me! 'tis this silvery bill
+  Ever cures the good man's ill.
+  Shed no tear, oh, shed no tear!
+  The flower will bloom another year.
+  Adieu, adieu--I fly. Adieu,
+  I vanish in the heaven's blue,
+                              Adieu, adieu!"
+
+"Oh, Molly, Molly, who is that?" cried Judy, weeping copiously, in spite
+of the repeated request of the singer to "shed no tear."
+
+"Why, that is Crit. Isn't his voice wonderful?"
+
+"Do you really mean it is Mr. Rutledge? I thought he was dumb, and have
+been feeling so sorry for Mildred."
+
+"Dumb, indeed! He has the most beautiful voice in Kentucky, and can make
+such an eloquent speech when roused that we have been afraid he would go
+into politics. But, so far as passing the time of day is concerned, and
+the little chit-chat that fills up life, he is indeed as dumb as a fish.
+When he was a little boy he stammered and got into the habit of
+expressing his feelings in silence, and he can still do it. He had a
+teacher who cured him of stammering, but nothing will ever cure him of
+silence, unless he has something important to say, and then nothing can
+stop him. Mother tells of a man who stammered in talking but not in
+singing. One day he was passing a friend's house, and saw that the roof
+was in a blaze, the inmates perfectly unconscious of the conflagration.
+He rushed in, tried to speak, could only stutter, and then in
+desperation burst into song. To the tune of 'The Campbells Are Coming,'
+he sang, 'Your house is on fire, tra-la, tra-la!' Kent declares that
+Crit proposed to Milly in song, but Milly herself is dumb about how that
+came about."
+
+"Well, anyhow, I have never heard such scintillating silence as his, and
+I think that Milly ought to be a very proud and happy girl."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--WEDDING PREPARATIONS AND CONFIDENCES.
+
+
+The next two weeks were busy ones for all the Brown household: first and
+foremost, the ever-crying need of clothes to be answered; second, the
+old house to be put in apple-pie order; all the furniture rubbed and
+rubbed some more; the beautiful old floors waxed and polished until they
+shone and reflected the newly scrubbed white paint in a way Judy thought
+most romantic. (But Judy thought everything was romantic those days.)
+She was "itching to help," and help she did in many ways. Molly would
+not let her rub furniture or wax floors, but she had the pleasure of
+hanging the freshly laundered curtains all over the house, and she was
+received with joy in the sewing room by Miss Lizzie Monday, the
+neighborhood seamstress. Miss Lizzie was of the opinion that the Browns
+thought entirely too much about food and not nearly enough about
+clothes. Indeed it was a failing of the mother, if failing she had, to
+have good food, no matter at what cost, and then, since strict economy
+had to be practiced somewhere, to practice it on the clothes.
+
+Miss Lizzie had once been present when they were packing a box to send
+to Molly at Wellington, and had sadly remarked: "In these hard times,
+with the price of food what it is, poor little raggedy Molly could have
+had an entire new outfit from the contents of that box." Mrs. Brown had
+indignantly denied that she was spending any money at all on the box,
+but the fact remained in Miss Lizzie's mind that the food in the
+delightful box, so eagerly looked for by the hungry college girls,
+represented so much money that had much better be put on Molly's outside
+than her inside.
+
+"Not that much of it goes on her own inside. I know Molly too well,
+bless her heart. Can't I just see her handing out that good old ham and
+hickory-nut cake and Rosemary pickle to those Yankees? And they, raised
+on pale, pink, ready-cooked ham and doughnuts and corner grocery dill
+pickles, don't know what they are getting. Molly, in her same old blue
+that I have made over twice for her!--and that ham would have bought the
+stuff for a new one (not that I would have had it anything but blue).
+The half gallon of Rosemary pickle would have trimmed it nicely, and the
+hickory-nut cake would have made her at least two new shirtwaists, and
+the express on the box would more than pay me for making the things."
+
+Judy loved to hear Miss Lizzie talk, and used to encourage her to praise
+her friend, while she sat helping to whip lace or planning the
+bridesmaids' dresses for Molly and Sue. These dresses were flowered
+French organdies. Molly's was covered with a feathery blue flower, that
+never was on land or sea, but it was the right color, which was the
+important thing; and Sue's bore the same design in pink. The bride's
+dress, a lovely simple gown of the finest Paris muslin, was all done and
+pressed and neatly folded in a box by the careful Miss Lizzie, with one
+of her own sandy hairs secretly sewed in the hem, which is supposed to
+bring good luck, and a "soon husband" to the owner of the hair.
+
+There was some doubt and much talk about how the bridal party was to
+enter the parlor and where the minister was to stand. The parlor at
+Chatsworth was not very suitable for an effective wedding, as it was in
+the wing of the house and opened only into the hall, giving, when all
+was considered, not much room for the growing list of guests. Although
+it was a very large room, having only one entrance made it rather
+awkward. It was only a few days before the wedding and this important
+subject was still under discussion.
+
+"I can count at least ninety-eight persons who are sure to come," said
+Mrs. Brown, "all of them kin or close friends, and how they are to get
+in this room and leave an aisle for the wedding party, goodness only
+knows; and if the hall and porch are full, it will be very
+uncomfortable."
+
+Judy and Kent were pretending to be the bride and groom, grave Sue was
+the minister, John and Paul, flower girls, and Molly, boss. Mildred and
+Crittenden were not allowed to practice for their own wedding, as Miss
+Lizzie said it was bad luck, and Miss Lizzie was authority on all such
+subjects. So the two most interested were seated at the piano,
+pretending to be the musicians doing "Chopsticks" to wedding march time.
+
+"Crit, I believe you will have to give Milly up. There is no way to have
+a decently stylish wedding in this joint," said Paul. "Let's stop the
+festive preparations and all of us go to Jeffersonville. It would make a
+grand story for my paper."
+
+Judy had been very quiet for some minutes and her face wore what Molly
+called her "flashed upon that inward eye" expression. Suddenly she
+cried, "I have it. Come on and let's get married out of doors." She
+seized Kent by the hand and dragged him out on the lawn, the rest
+following in a daze.
+
+"Look at that natural place to be married in: the guests under the
+trees; room for everybody; a living altar of shrubs and flowers at the
+end of the tan-bark walk; minister entering from the grass walk on one
+side and Mr. Rutledge with his best man from the other; down the steps
+Mildred on Ernest's arm, followed by Molly and Sue. Can't you see them
+coming up the tan-bark walk? Just at sunset, the people in their light
+festive clothes, your mother beautiful in her black cr�pe de Chine, with
+Paul and John and Kent standing by her making a dark note near the
+bride? Oh, why, oh, why did they not have holly-hocks up this garden
+walk instead of by the chicken yard fence? It would have made the color
+scheme simply perfect."
+
+Judy paused for breath. She had carried the crowd by her eloquence, and
+so perfectly had she visualized the whole thing that each one was able
+to see what she meant, and absolute and unanimous approval was given the
+scheme. Kent, with his artistic eye, was in for it heart and soul, and
+began to plan Japanese lanterns to be lit after the ceremony in the
+rustic summer-house beyond, where supper was to be served, observing
+that their color might somewhat take the place of the holly-hocks that
+were in the wrong place.
+
+"Just where did you want the holly-hocks, Miss Judy? We might do better
+another year if we knew just what your orders were."
+
+"On both sides of the tan-bark walk, just beyond the intersection of the
+grass walk. Can't you see how fine and stately they would look, and what
+a wonderful mass of color?"
+
+"Right, as usual. What an architect you would make! That power of
+'seein' things' is what an architect needs above everything. Any one can
+learn to make it, but it is the one who sees it who is the great man or
+woman, as in the present case."
+
+Things had been humming so since Molly's return that she had had no time
+for the confidential talk with her mother that both were hungering for.
+The Browns always had much company, but at this season there seemed to
+be no end to the comings and goings of guests, principally comings: many
+parting calls being paid to Mildred by old and young; Molly's friends
+hastening to greet her after the eight months' absence at college; a
+steady following of young men calling on Sue, in spite of her suspected
+preference for Cyrus Clay, the nephew of Aunt Sarah Clay's deceased
+husband, and the one Aunt Mary objected to because of his living up such
+a muddy lane. Presents were pouring in for the bride; notes had to be
+answered; trains to be met; express packages to be fetched from the
+station; and poor little Mrs. Woodsmall kept in a state of constant
+misery over the Parcel Post business Bud was doing, and she with "never
+a chanst to take so much as a peep."
+
+Molly, ever mindful of others, hitched up President one off day and
+drove over to the postoffice and got the poor thing. Then she let her
+see every single present; and feel the weight of every bit of silver;
+and hunt for the price mark on the bottom of the cut-glass; read all the
+cards; and even go into the sewing-room where Miss Lizzie Monday proudly
+showed her the clothes, and let her take a good look at the wedding
+dress all folded up in its box. But when Mrs. Woodsmall began to pick at
+the hem where her sharp eyes discovered an end of the stiff sandy hair,
+sewed in to bring a "soon husband," Miss Lizzie snapped on the top and
+told her sharply to stop rumpling up Miss Milly's dress.
+
+The night after Judy had solved the problem of where the wedding was to
+be, Molly felt that she must have her talk with her mother. Judy was
+tired and a little distrait, visualizing again no doubt; seeing the
+wedding in her mind's eye; regretting the holly-hocks; wondering if she
+really did have the power that Kent attributed to her, that of a
+creative artist. If she did have it, what should she do about it? Was it
+not up to her to make something of herself if she had such a gift? Was
+she willing to work, as work she would have to, if she really expected
+to do something? At the back of it all was the thought, "Would Kent like
+her so much if she should turn out to be a woman with a purpose?" Judy
+was obliged to confess to herself as she dozed off that what Kent Brown
+thought of her made a good deal of difference to her, more than she had
+thought that any man's opinion could make.
+
+Molly waited until she thought Judy was asleep and then crept softly
+downstairs to her mother's room. Mrs. Brown was awake and glad indeed to
+see her "old red head," as she sometimes lovingly called Molly, coming
+to have a good talk. It is funny what a difference it makes who calls
+one a red head. Now that horrid girl at college, Adele Windsor, had
+enraged Molly into forgetting what Aunt Mary called her "raisin'" by
+calling her a red head, and yet when mother called her the same thing it
+sounded like sweet music in her ears.
+
+Mother had some things to tell Molly, too. She did not altogether
+approve of John's inamorata, the girl visiting Aunt Clay. It was a case
+of Dr. Fell with her.
+
+  "I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.
+  The reason why I cannot tell;
+  But this I know, and know full well,
+  I do not love thee, Dr. Fell."
+
+Then she did think if Sue intended to marry Cyrus Clay she should not
+lead on the other two young men, who seemed quite serious in their
+attentions. She hated to say anything, because Sue was so dignified.
+
+"Now if it were you or Mildred, I would speak out, but you know Sue
+always did scare me a little, Molly."
+
+And Molly and her mother giggled like school girls over this confession.
+Sue was very handsome and lovely and good, but she was certainly a
+little superior, and Mrs. Brown found that, if she had any talking over
+of things to do, she wanted either Molly or Mildred, who were "not too
+pure or good for human nature's daily food."
+
+Molly was eager to know what her mother thought of Judy, and was
+delighted at her frank liking for her friend. Then Molly had to tell her
+mother of her hopes and ambitions; of her triumphs and disappointments
+at college; and of her growing friendship for Jimmy Lufton, the clever
+young journalist from New York who was trying to persuade Molly to go
+into newspaper work; of his liking for her that she did not want to
+ripen into anything more serious, but his last letters were certainly
+growing more and more fervent.
+
+"Don't flirt, little girl, don't flirt. It would not be my Molly if she
+deceived any one. Have all the fun you can and as many friends as
+possible and enjoy life while you are young. You are sure to be popular
+with every one, men and women, boys and girls, but don't be a coquette."
+
+"Mother, I don't mean to be ever, and really and truly I have done
+nothing to mislead Mr. Lufton, and maybe I am mistaken and conceited
+about his feeling for me, and I truly hope I am. I have never done
+anything but be my natural self with him."
+
+Mrs. Brown smiled, well knowing that just being her natural self was
+where Molly did the damage, if damage had been done.
+
+"Mother, there is something else." Mrs. Brown knew there was, and was
+patiently waiting. "You know Professor Green? Well, I gave him your
+invitation to come to Kentucky."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"He said, 'Thank you.'"
+
+"Is he coming?"
+
+"I don't know." Molly found talking to her mother about Professor Green
+more difficult than she had imagined it would be. "When you wrote me two
+years ago that some eccentric person had bought the orchard and I could
+finish my college course, I told Professor Green about it, and also told
+him I should like to meet the old man who had saved me from premature
+school-teaching. And when he asked me what I'd do if I should happen to
+meet him, I told him I would give him a good hug." Molly faltered.
+"Well, mother, when I told him good-by and gave him your invitation, I
+went back and--I just gave him a good hug."
+
+Mrs. Brown sat up so vigorously that Molly, sitting by her side, was
+almost jolted off the bed.
+
+"Why, Molly Brown! And what did Professor Green do?"
+
+"He? Oh, he took it very philosophically and bowed his head 'til the
+storm was over."
+
+Mrs. Brown gave a gasp of relief.
+
+"He must be a good old gentleman, indeed. About how old is he, Molly?"
+
+"The girls say every day of thirty-two."
+
+"Why, the poor old thing! Do you think he could take the trip out here
+to Kentucky all by himself?"
+
+"Mother, please don't tease. There is something else. Jimmy Lufton wrote
+a little note which I found in the bottom of the basket of fruit he had
+put on the train for us. It was wrapped around a lemon and said, 'Here
+is a lemon you can hand me if, when I come to Kentucky this summer, you
+don't want me to stay.'"
+
+"Oh! The plot thickens! So he is coming, too."
+
+"Yes, but he lives in Lexington, and is coming out to see his family,
+anyhow."
+
+"Well, Molly, darling, you must go to bed now, but before you go tell me
+one thing: do you want Professor Green to come to Chatsworth?"
+
+"Yes, mother, I think I do," and giving her mother a hug that made that
+lady gasp again and say, "Molly, what a hugger you are," she flew from
+the room and raced upstairs two steps at a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--BURGLARS.
+
+
+Judy was sitting up in bed, the moon lighting her enough for Molly to
+see a wild, startled look on her face.
+
+"Molly, Molly, I hear something!"
+
+"You hear me making more noise than I have any business to at this time
+o' night. I have been having a good old talk with muddy."
+
+"Oh, no, it wasn't that. I knew you were downstairs. I haven't been
+truly asleep. I was 'possuming.' It is out by the chicken yard, and I am
+so afraid it is burglars after the pullets Aunt Mary told me she was
+saving for chicken salad for the wedding supper. Lewis was to kill them
+to-morrow."
+
+Judy had entered so intensely into the Browns' household affairs that
+Molly herself was no more interested in the festive preparations than
+was her guest. Molly drew cautiously to the window and peeped out; she
+beckoned Judy, and the excited girls saw a sight to freeze the marrow in
+their chicken-salad-loving bones: the thief had a wheelbarrow, and some
+great gunny sacks over his arm, and was in the act of boldly opening the
+chicken-yard gate.
+
+"If we call he will get away, and how else can we let the boys know? The
+wretch may have those sacks full of chickens even now," moaned Molly.
+
+There was a three-room cottage or "office," as they called it, on the
+side of the house next the garden where all of the young men slept in
+summer. The girls feared that, in trying to let them know of the
+burglar, if they went out of the front door they would startle Mrs.
+Brown. And if they should try to go out the back door, in getting to the
+cottage they would have to run across a broad streak of moonlight in
+plain view of the thief, and thus give him ample time to get away with
+his booty before they could arouse the boys.
+
+"Why shouldn't we take the matter in our own hands and make him drop his
+sacks and run?" said Molly. "I am not afraid, are you?"
+
+"Me afraid? Bless your soul, no. I am only afraid he will get off with
+the chickens," replied the intrepid Judy. "I have my little revolver in
+the tray of my trunk, the one papa gave me when we were camping in
+Arizona. I can load it in a jiffy. But what weapon will you take?"
+
+"I don't see anything but my tennis racket. I'll take that and some
+balls, too, in case I have to hit at long range. There is really no
+danger for us, as a chicken thief has never been known to go armed with
+anything more dangerous than a bag."
+
+They slipped on their raincoats, as they were darker than their kimonos,
+and crept softly down the back stairs, out on the back porch, and down
+the steps into the yard, keeping close in the shadow of the house until
+they came to an althea hedge. Skirting this, still in the shadow, they
+got near enough to the chicken-yard gate to have a good look at the
+burglar. That burly ruffian, instead of bagging the pullets that were
+peacefully roosting in a dog-wood tree, totally unconscious that they
+were sleeping the last sleep of the condemned, had taken a spade from
+his wheelbarrow, carefully spread out his gunny sacks and was digging
+with great care around the holly-hocks, digging so deep and so far from
+the roots that he soon got up a great sod without injuring the plants.
+This he placed with great care in the barrow, and as he stepped into the
+broad moonlight the girls recognized Kent. They clutched each other and
+were silent, except for a little choking noise from Judy which might
+easily have come from one of the condemned, having premonitory dreams of
+the morrow.
+
+Kent worked on until his wheelbarrow was full of the lovely flowers.
+Then he stuck in the spade and trundled it away toward the garden, the
+girls silently following, still keeping as well in the shadow as was
+possible, and holding tight to their weapons, although they no longer
+had any use for them. On reaching the garden, they realized that Kent
+must have been working many hours. He had already moved dozens of the
+stately plants, and they now stood in the garden where they belonged, no
+doubt glad of the transplanting from their former homely surroundings.
+So deeply and well had Kent dug that they were uninjured by the move,
+and he completed the job by dousing them plentifully with water from a
+great tub that he had filled at the cistern.
+
+The effect was wonderful, as Judy had known that it would be, but her
+surprise and pleasure that Kent should be so anxious to gratify her
+every wish was great. She felt her cheeks glowing with excitement and
+her heart pit-a-patting as it would not have done, even had Kent proved
+to be the chicken thief they had imagined him to be.
+
+That young man finished his job, cleaned his spade, shook out the gunny
+sacks, raked the d�bris from the walk, and then, giving a tired yawn and
+stretching himself until he looked even taller than the six feet one he
+measured in his stocking feet, he said out loud in a perfectly
+conversational tone:
+
+"Now, Miss Judy, you may have the master mind that can imagine things
+and see beforehand how they are going to look, but I'll have you know it
+takes work to create and drudgery to accomplish; and only by the sweat
+of the brow can we 'give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.'
+You and Molly can step out of the bushes and view the landscape."
+
+"Oh, Kent, did you know we were there all the time?"
+
+"Certainly, little Sister, from the time Miss Judy went like a chicken
+with the gapes, I have known you were with me; but you seemed to be
+having such a good time I hated to break it up. You might have stepped
+in and helped a fellow, though."
+
+"Oh, we were doing the head work," retaliated Judy.
+
+Kent laughed, and then he had to tease them about their adventure and
+their weapons, especially Molly's racket and balls.
+
+"We had better crawl into the hay now, however. It is getting mighty
+late at night, or, rather, mighty early in the morning, and where will
+our beauty be if we don't get to sleep? I'll see you to the back door."
+
+"You needn't," said Molly. "You must be dead tired, and here is the
+office door open for you. There is no use in your coming any farther. We
+can slip around the front way and be in the house in no time."
+
+"Well, good morning. I am dead tired, and such brave ladies as you are
+need no escort. Better luck to you next time you go burglar hunting."
+
+It was a wonderful night, or rather morning, as Kent had indicated. The
+moon hung low on the horizon ready for bed, as an example to all up-late
+young ladies. The stars, with their rival retiring, were doing their
+best to get in a little shine before daylight. Everything was very
+still. The tree frogs and crickets and Katy-dids had suddenly ceased
+their incessant noise. There was a feel in the air that meant dawn.
+
+What was it that greeted the ears of the tired Kent? Old tennis player
+that he was, it sounded to him like the twang of a racket in the hands
+of a determined server who means to drive a ball that the champion
+himself could not return. Then came the dull thud of the ball, a groan,
+a scream; then the sharp crack of a pistol, more screams from inside the
+house; lights, doors opening, all the household awake, and Paul and John
+and Crit, who had spent the night at Chatsworth, tumbling out of the
+office almost before Kent could get around the house. There he found
+Judy fallen in a little heap on the grass, and Molly carefully and
+coolly aiming a second tennis ball, this time at a real burglar.
+
+The man climbing from the upper gallery of the house had been surprised
+by the girls as they came from the garden. At Molly's first ball he had
+dropped to the ground, and Judy had caught him on the fly, as it were.
+The second tennis ball got him square on the jaw, but he was already
+down and out. Kent declared afterward, when the smoke of battle had
+cleared away, that it was not like Molly to hit a fellow when he was
+down. She had always been a good sport until now.
+
+Mrs. Woodsmall, it seems, had talked too much about the weight of
+Mildred's silver, and had dwelt too long on the recklessness of the
+Browns in having all of those fine things in the little hall room with
+the window opening on the upper gallery, where anybody with any
+limberness could climb up that twisted wisteria vine and get away with
+anything he had a mind to. A tramp, hanging around the postoffice
+window, had overheard her and, having more limberness than any other
+commodity, had endeavored to help himself.
+
+Dr. John came with first aid to the injured, and found the man more
+scared than hurt. It was hard to tell which ball had done most damage;
+certainly Molly's was the more effective in appearance. Her first she
+had served straight at his nose, so disfiguring that member that the
+rogues' gallery officials would have had difficulty in identifying him.
+The second found his jaw and gave him so much pain that John feared a
+fracture. Judy's little pistol had done good work. A flesh wound on the
+arm was the verdict for her.
+
+The ground was strewn with silver in every kind of fancy novelty that a
+bride is supposed by her dear friends to need--or why else do they give
+them to her?
+
+Then Crittenden Rutledge opened his mouth and spoke. As usual when he
+did such a thing it was worth getting up before dawn to hear him.
+
+"Don't you think, Mildred, darling, we might give the poor fellow three
+or four cheese scoops and several butter knives and a card tray or two?
+A young couple could easily make out for a while with one of each, and
+if he will promise to go back to Indiana and stay---- You did come from
+Indiana, didn't you?" The man gave a grin and nodded. "Well, if you
+promise to go back and never put your foot in Kentucky again, I'll go
+wrap up Aunt Clay's vases for you."
+
+Mrs. Brown, thankful that her brood was safe and no more damage done the
+poor, wicked tramp than a sore shoulder, a swollen nose and a fractured
+jaw, sent them all to bed with instructions to sleep late, and told
+Molly and Judy to stay in bed for breakfast. The burglar was put in the
+smokehouse for safekeeping until sun-up, when John and Paul expected to
+take him to Louisville, swear out a warrant against him and land him in
+jail. When the time came, however, to transfer their prisoner from
+smokehouse to jail, they found the door open, the man gone and a fine
+old ham missing.
+
+"An' they ain't a single pusson in the whole er Indianny what knows how
+ter cook a ham, either," bewailed Aunt Mary.
+
+"To think the ungrateful wretch went off without Aunt Clay's vases,"
+muttered Crittenden Rutledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--THE WEDDING.
+
+
+The wedding came off so exactly as Judy had planned it that it seemed to
+her to be a proof of the theory of transmigration of the soul, and that
+in a previous incarnation she had been to just such a wedding. The
+eldest brother, Ernest, arrived from the far West just in time to change
+his clothes and give the bride away. There were three understudies for
+his part, so there was not much concern over his non-arrival until he
+got there with a blood-curdling tale of wrecks and wash-outs that had
+delayed him twenty-four hours. Then all of them got very much concerned
+and Mrs. Brown reproached herself for being so taken up with Mildred's
+wedding that she had forgotten to worry about the absent one for the
+time being. Ernest resembled Sue more than any of the rest of them, and
+had a good deal of her poise and dignity. "But I'll wager that he is not
+as serious as he seems," thought Judy, detecting a twinkle in the corner
+of his sober eyes.
+
+Mildred looked lovely, and she had such a sweet, trusting look in her
+eyes as she came down the steps and up the tan-bark walk on Ernest's
+arm, that Crittenden Rutledge, waiting for her at the end of the walk,
+broke away from his best man and went forward several yards to meet his
+bride. Sue and Molly brought up the rear; Sue, composed and calm with
+her sweet dignity; but Molly, so deeply moved by this beloved sister's
+marriage and the break in their ranks, the very first, that she felt her
+knees trembling and wondered if it could be possible that she was going
+to ruin everything and burst into tears or fall in a faint or do
+something terrible. But she didn't. The familiar voice of their old
+minister in the opening lines of the Episcopal marriage service brought
+her to her senses, and she was able to follow the ritual in her mind,
+but she dared not trust herself to look up. She kept her eyes glued to
+her bouquet of "love-in-the-mist," that Miss Lizzie Monday had brought
+her that morning, picked from her own old-fashioned garden.
+
+"I know the groom will send the bridesmaids flowers, but somehow, Molly,
+I don't want you to carry hothouse flowers. These 'love-in-the-mists'
+will look just right with your dress and your eyes and your ways."
+
+So Molly carried Miss Lizzie's "bokay" and put the flowers that the
+groom sent her in a vase in the parlor. But Molly was not thinking of
+her dress or her eyes, except to try to keep the tears in them, since
+come they would, and not let them run out on her cheeks. Mildred's
+responses were inaudible except to dear old Dr. Peters, the minister,
+but Crittenden's were so loud and clear and resonant that it was almost
+like chanting, and Judy had to smile when she could not help thinking of
+the stammering man's "Your house is on fire, tra la, tra la."
+
+"I pronounce you man and wife."
+
+All is over. Molly can let the tears fall now if she wants to, but,
+strange to say, she does not seem to want to any more. Such a rejoicing
+is going on. Everybody seems to be kissing everybody else. Aren't they
+all more or less kin? Mildred and Kent, the center of a gay crowd, are
+fondly kissing the ones they should merely shake hands with, and
+formally shaking hands with their nearest and dearest, just as in a fire
+people have been known to carry carefully the pillows downstairs and
+throw the bowls and pitchers out of the window. Kent has his wits about
+him, however, and kisses Judy, declaring it is all in the day's work.
+
+A stranger standing on the outskirts of the crowd during the whole
+ceremony seemed much more interested in the bridesmaid dressed in blue
+than in the bride herself, and when this same bridesmaid felt herself
+swaying a little as though her emotion might get the better of her, if
+one had not been so taken up with the central figures on the stage he
+might have noticed the stranger start forward as though to go to her
+assistance. But he, too, was brought to his senses by the calm voice of
+Dr. Peters in the opening words of the service, and saw with evident
+relief that the bridesmaid had gained control of herself. He was a tall
+young man with kind brown eyes and light hair, a little thin at the
+temples, giving him more years perhaps than he was entitled to.
+
+When the service was over and the general confusion ensued, he made his
+way swiftly to where Molly stood, and without saying one word of
+greeting he put his arm around her and tenderly kissed her. Molly was so
+overcome with astonishment that she could only gasp, "Professor Green!
+What are you doing here?"
+
+"I am having a very pleasant time, thank you, Miss Molly. I got your
+mother's kind invitation to attend your sister's wedding, and--here I am.
+Didn't your brother Paul tell you that I had come?"
+
+"No, we have been so occupied, I believe I have not seen Paul to-day."
+
+"I went to his newspaper office in Louisville to find out something
+about how to get here, and he asked me to drive out with him. Are you
+sorry I came, Miss Molly?"
+
+"Sorry? Oh, Professor Green, you must know how glad I am to see you!
+But, you see, I was a little startled, not expecting you and thinking of
+you as still at Wellington."
+
+"If you were thinking of me as being anywhere at all, I feel better.
+Were you really thinking of me?"
+
+"Yes," said the candid Molly, "and wasn't it strange that I was thinking
+of you just as you came up--and--and----" but, remembering his manner of
+greeting her, she blushed painfully.
+
+"You are not angry with me, are you, my dear child? I felt so lonesome.
+You see everybody seemed to know everybody else, and there was such a
+handshaking and so forth going on that before I knew it I was in the
+swim."
+
+"Almost every one here is kin or near-kin, and weddings in Kentucky seem
+to give a great deal of license," said Molly, recovering her equanimity.
+"Of course I am not angry with you. I could not get angry with any one
+on Mildred's wedding day."
+
+But Molly felt that in a way Edwin Green had paid her back for the hug
+she had given him. She had hugged him because he was so old that she
+could do so with impunity, and he in turn had kissed her because he felt
+lonesome, forsooth, and she was so young that it made no great
+difference. His "My dear child" had been a kind of humiliation to Molly.
+What is the use of being a senior and graduating at college if a man
+very little over thirty thinks you are nothing but a kid?
+
+"Professor Green is not so very much older than Ernest," thought Molly,
+"and I wager he will not treat Judy with that
+old-enough-to-be-your-father air! Here am I getting mad on Mildred's
+wedding day when I just said I could not! And, after all, Professor
+Green has been very kind to me and means to be now, I know." Turning to
+him with one of "Molly's own," as Edith Williams termed her smile, she
+said, "Now you must meet my mother and all the rest of them."
+
+Mrs. Brown looked keenly and rather sadly at the young professor. This
+coming of men for her daughters was growing wearisome, so the poor lady
+thought; but she liked Edwin Green's expression and found herself
+trusting him before he got through explaining his sudden appearance in
+Kentucky.
+
+"After all, maybe he is only thinking of Molly as one of his pupils. His
+buying the orchard meant an interest in her college course and nothing
+else."
+
+Mrs. Brown introduced him to the relatives and friends near her, and
+Molly had to leave him and make herself useful, as usual, in seeing that
+the refreshments were forthcoming.
+
+When they had decided to have the wedding out of doors, it had seemed
+best to have the supper al fresco, and now brisk and very polite colored
+waiters were busy bringing tables and chairs from a side porch and
+placing them on the lawn. An odor of coffee and broiled sweetbreads,
+mingling with that of chicken salad and hot beaten biscuit, began to
+rival the fragrance of the orange flowers and roses.
+
+The crowd around the bride thinning out a little to find seats at the
+tables, Professor Green was able to make his way to Mildred and
+Crittenden. After greeting them, he espied Judy talking sweetly to a
+stern-looking woman with a hard face and a soft figure, who was dressed
+severely in a stiff black silk, with most uncompromising linen collar
+and cuffs. Her iron-gray hair was tightly coiled in a fashion that
+emphasized her hawk-like expression, but with all she looked enough like
+Mrs. Brown to establish an undeniable claim to relationship with that
+charming lady. Mrs. Brown herself, in a soft black cr�pe de Chine and
+old lace collar and cuffs, with her wavy chestnut hair, was more
+beautiful than any of her daughters, the bride herself having to take a
+second place.
+
+Judy was delighted to see the professor, and not nearly so astonished as
+Molly had been, the truth being that Paul had told that young lady of
+Edwin Green's arrival, with the expectation that she would inform Molly.
+But Judy, realizing the state of excitement that Molly was in,
+determined to keep the news to herself and not give Molly anything more
+to feel just then, even if in doing so she, Judy, would appear to be
+careless and forgetful. Judy understood the regard that Molly had for
+Professor Green--better than Molly herself did. She remembered Molly's
+expression and misery when little Otoyo, their Japanese friend at
+Wellington, had told them of his being so dangerously ill with typhoid,
+and how Molly had lost weight and could neither sleep nor eat until the
+crisis had passed.
+
+"Did you ever see such a beautiful wedding in your life?" said Judy.
+
+"Never, and I am told it was all your plan, even to the holly-hock
+background."
+
+"Well, you see the idea was floating around in the air, and I was just
+the one who had her idea-net ready and caught it. Ideas are like
+butterflies, anyhow--all flying around waiting to be pounced on--but the
+thing is to have your net ready."
+
+"Yes, and another thing, not to handle the butterfly idea too roughly.
+Many an idea, beautiful in itself, is ruined in the working out," said
+her companion.
+
+"That is where taste comes in."
+
+Judy would have liked to chase the metaphor much farther with the
+agreeable young man, but she remembered that she had set out to
+fascinate Aunt Clay, and it was Aunt Sarah Clay to whom she had been
+talking when Professor Green had come up. She introduced him, and Mrs.
+Clay immediately pounced on him with a tirade against innovations of all
+kinds.
+
+Looking very much as we are led by the cartoonists to expect a
+suffragist to look, Mrs. Clay was the most ardent "anti." Opposed to all
+progress and innovations, and constantly at war on the subject of higher
+education of women, she carried her conservatism even to the point of
+having her grain cut with a scythe instead of using the up-to-date
+machinery. Professor Green was her natural enemy, for was he not
+instructor in a girls' school where, she was led to understand, belief
+in equal suffrage was as necessary for entrance as the knowledge of
+Latin or mathematics?
+
+Professor Green, ignorant of the antagonism she felt for him and his
+calling, endeavored to make himself as agreeable as possible to Molly's
+aunt. He listened with seeming respect to her attack on modernism and
+then turned the subject to the wedding, her pretty nieces and
+fine-looking nephews.
+
+"I never heard of any one getting married out of doors before in my
+life, and had I known they were contemplating such a thing I certainly
+should not have set my foot on the place, nor would I have sent them the
+handsome wedding present I did. I shall not be at all astonished if the
+bishop reprimands that sentimental old Dr. Peters for allowing anything
+so undignified in connection with the church ritual. They had much
+better jump over a broomstick like Gypsies and not desecrate our prayer
+book in such a manner. Mildred Carmichael has brought all her children
+up to have their own way. The idea of none of those boys being willing
+to stay on the farm where their forefathers managed to make a living,
+and a very good one! They, forsooth, must go as clerks or reporters or
+what not into cities and let their farm go to rack and ruin, already
+mortgaged until it is top-heavy. Then when they do make a little, they
+must squander it in this absurd new-fangled machinery, labor-saving
+devices that I have no use for in the world. And now Molly, not content
+with four years wasted at college, to say nothing of the money, says she
+wants to go back to fit herself more thoroughly for making her living.
+Living, indeed! Where are her brothers that she need feel the necessity
+of making her living?"
+
+"But, Mrs. Clay," Judy here broke in, "my father says that there are
+only three male relatives that a woman should expect to support her: her
+father, her husband and her son. Since Molly has none of these, she, of
+course, wants to do something for herself. Even with a father, unless
+the father is very well off, it seems to me a girl ought to help after a
+lot has been spent on her education. I certainly mean to do something,
+but the trouble is, the only thing I can do will mean more money spent
+before I can accomplish anything."
+
+"And what does such a charming person as Miss Kean expect to do?" asked
+the irascible old lady.
+
+"I want to go to Paris and study to become a decorator." This was too
+much for Mrs. Clay. Without saying a word, she turned and stalked across
+the lawn where the waiters were carrying trays of food.
+
+"Hateful old thing! I hope food will improve her temper. It would
+certainly be acceptable to me. See, here comes Kent with a table! I'll
+find Molly and we can have a fine foursome, and you shall taste Aunt
+Mary's beaten biscuit, hot from the oven. No wonder Molly is such an
+angel. If, as the cereal ads. say, we are what our food makes us, any
+one raised on Aunt Mary's cooking would have to be good. Goodness knows
+what Aunt Clay eats! It must be thistles and green persimmons!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.--BUTTERMILK TACT.
+
+
+Mildred, dressed in her pretty brown traveling suit, off to Iowa; the
+last slipper and handful of rice thrown; the last lingering guest
+departed; daylight passed and the moon well up; and at last Mrs. Brown
+and Judy and Molly were free to sink on a settle on the porch, realizing
+for the first time how tired and footsore they were.
+
+"Oh, my dears, I feel as though I could never get up again! It is a good
+thing I am so tired, for now I shall have to sleep and can't grieve for
+Mildred all night. I begged Professor Green to stay, but he had to go
+back to Louisville. However, he is coming out to Chatsworth to-morrow to
+pay us the promised visit. We shall have to pack the presents in the
+morning to send to Iowa, and glad I'll be to get them out of the house.
+Did I tell you, Molly, that Aunt Mary, Ca'line and Lewis are all going
+off to-morrow to Jim Jourdan's basket funeral? We shall be alone, you
+and Judy and I. Sue goes to your Aunt Clay's for a few days, and Kent
+starts back to work, the dear boy. Such a comfort as he has been! Ernest
+has to look up some friends in town, but will be out in time for supper.
+I fancy he will drive Professor Green out from Louisville. Good night,
+my dear girls, I know you are dead tired."
+
+So they were, so tired that Judy overslept in the morning, but Molly was
+up betimes to help the servants get off on their gruesome spree.
+
+"Now ain't that jes' like my Molly baby? She don' never fergit to be
+he'pful. Th' ain't no cookin' fer you to do to-day, honey; they's plenty
+of bis'it lef' from the jamboree las' night; they's a ham bone wif 'nuf
+on it fer you and yo' ma an' Miss Judy to pick on; they's a big bowl er
+chick'n salid in the 'frigerater that I jes' bodaciously tuck away from
+that black Lewis. I done tol' him that awlive ile my'naise ain't no
+eatin's fer niggers. If his insides needs a greasin' he kin take a good
+swaller er castor ile. Tell yo' ma I made that lazy Ca'line churn fo'
+sun-up 'cause they wa'nt a drap er butter in the house, an' the
+buttermilk is in the big jar in the da'ry. They's a pot er cabbage
+simperin' on the back er the stove, but that ain't meant fer the white
+folks, but jes' in case we needs some comfort when we gits back from the
+funeral. I tried to save some ice cream fer my honey baby from las'
+night an' had it all packed good fer keepin', but looked like in the
+night I took sech a cravin' fer some mo' I couldn' sleep 'thout I had
+some, an' by the time I opened up the freezer an' et some, it looked
+like the res' of it jes' melted away somehow."
+
+"Well, Aunt Mary, I am so glad you got some more. Have a good time and
+don't worry about us. We shall get along all right. You see there are no
+men on the place to-day, and women can eat anything the day after a
+party. You know my teacher, Professor Green, is going to be here for a
+visit. He is coming this evening in time for supper, and I do hope you
+won't be too tired after the basket funeral to make him some waffles."
+
+"What, me tired? I ain't a-goin' to be doin' nothin' all day but enjyin'
+of myself; and if I won't have the stren'th myself to stir up a few
+waffles fer my baby's frien's, I's still survigerous 'nuf to make that
+Ca'line do it. I allus has a good time at funerals an' a basket funeral
+is the mos' enjyble of all entertainments."
+
+Judy came on the scene just then and begged to be enlightened as to the
+nature of a basket funeral.
+
+"Well, you see, honey, when a member dies at a onseasonable time, or at
+the beginning of the week an' you can't keep him 'til Sunday, or in
+harvestin' time when ev'ybody is busy an' the hosses is all workin', why
+then we jes' bury the corpse quiet like. And then when work gits slack
+an' there is some chanst to borrow the white folks' teams, we gits
+together an' ev'ybody takes a big lunch an' we impair to the seminary
+an' have a preachment over the grave and then a big jamboree." The old
+woman stopped to chuckle, and such a contagious chuckle she had that you
+found yourself laughing with her before you knew what the joke was.
+
+"I 'member moughty well when this here same Jim Jourdan, what is to be
+preached over an' prayed over an' et over to-day, was doin' the same by
+his second wife Suky Jourdan, an' that was after I had buried my Cyrus
+an' befo' I took up wif my Albert. It was a hot day in July when
+fryin'-size chick'ns was jes' about comin' on good an' fat, an' I had a
+scrumptious lot of victuals good 'nuf fer white folks. Jim looked so
+ferlorn that I as't him to sit down an' try to worry down some eatin's
+with us. He was vas'ly pleased to do so, an' look like he couldn' praise
+my cookin' 'nuf; an' befo' we got to the pie, he up an' ast me to come
+occupy Suky's place in his cabin. I never said one word, but I got up
+an' fetched a big pa'm leaf fan out'n the waggin an han' it to him.
+'What's this fer, Sis Mary?' sez he, an' sez I, 'You jes' take this here
+fan an' fan you' secon' 'til she's col', and then come a seekin' yo'
+third.'"
+
+The girls laughed until the tears rolled down their cheeks over Aunt
+Mary's unique courtship. The red-wheeled wagon came up driven by Lewis
+with Ca'line sitting beside him, dressed within an inch of her life.
+Molly got a box for Aunt Mary to step on to climb into the vehicle, but
+the old woman refused to budge until Lewis took out the back seat and
+got a rocking chair for her to sit in.
+
+"You know moughty well, you fergitful nigger, that I allus goes to
+baskit funerals a-settin' in a rockin' cheer! Go git the one offen the
+back po'ch, the red one with the arms to it. Sho as I go a-settin' on a
+back seat some lazy pusson what can't borrow a team will come a-astin'
+fer to ride longside er me, an' I don' want nobody a-rumplin' me up, an'
+'sides ole Miss never lent this waggin fer all the niggers in Jeff'son
+County to come a-crowdin' in an ben'in' the springs. Then when we gits
+to the buryin' groun', I'll have a cheer to sit in an' not have to go
+squattin' 'roun' on grabe stones."
+
+"Good-by, Aunt Mary, good-by, Ca'line and Lewis."
+
+The girls waved until they were out of sight and then went laughing into
+the quiet house. It seemed quiet, indeed, after the hub-bub of the day
+before.
+
+"Everything certainly stayed clean with all of the guests out of doors.
+I have never had an entertainment with so little to do when it was
+over," said Mrs. Brown. "It was a good day for the servants to go away,
+with the house in such good order and enough left-overs from the wedding
+supper for three lone women to feed on for several meals. I wonder how
+your Aunt Clay is getting on with her harvesting? She is so headstrong
+not to borrow my cutting machine! Why does she insist that flour made
+from wheat cut with a scythe makes better bread than that cut with
+modern machinery?"
+
+"She declared yesterday, mother, that she was not going to feed her
+hands until they got through mowing, if it took them until nightfall.
+She says you spoil all darkeys that come near you, and she is going to
+show them who is boss on her place. Kent infuriated her by telling her
+she would get herself into trouble if she did not look out; that her
+wheat was already overripe, and if she attempted to make her hands work
+over dinner hour they would leave it half cut; but advice to Aunt Clay
+always sends her in the opposite direction."
+
+"I wish I had not let Sue go over there. Most of those harvesters are
+strangers from another county, and they might do something desperate if
+Sarah antagonized them."
+
+"Don't worry, mother, Cyrus Clay is over there, and he is sure to take
+good care of Sue."
+
+The morning was spent with much gay talk as they packed the presents.
+Mrs. Brown was the kind of woman who could enter into the feelings of
+young people. She seemed to be of their generation and was never shocked
+or astonished when in their talk she realized that things had changed
+since her day. She usually made the best of it and put it down to
+"progress" of some sort. They worked faithfully, and by twelve o'clock
+had tied up and labeled the last parcel to go in the last barrel.
+
+"Come on, girls, let's have an early lunch and then we can have our much
+needed and hard-earned rest. A good nap all around will make us feel
+like ourselves again."
+
+How good that lunch did taste! Molly had been so excited that she could
+not swallow food the evening before, and Mrs. Brown had been so busy
+looking after guests that she had forgotten to eat. Judy was the only
+one who had done justice to the supper, but, having tested it, she was
+more than willing to try the chicken salad again.
+
+"Never mind washing the dishes; put them in a dish-pan for Ca'line. Get
+into your kimonos and take a good nap. I am sick for sleep," yawned Mrs.
+Brown.
+
+In five minutes they were dead to the world, lost in that midsummer
+afternoon sleep, the heaviest of all slumber. Everything was perfectly
+still except the bees, buzzing around the honey-suckle. A venturesome
+vine had made its way through Molly's window, ever open in summer, and
+as Judy lay, half asleep, she amused herself by watching a great bumble
+bee sip honey from the fragrant flowers, and his humming was the last
+sound that she was conscious of hearing. It seemed like a minute, so
+heavily had she slept--it was really several hours--when she was awakened
+with a nightmare that the bee was as big as a horse and his humming was
+that of a thousand bees.
+
+"Molly, Molly, listen, what is that noise?"
+
+Molly, ever a light sleeper, was out of bed in a trice and at the front
+window. What a sight met her eyes! Coming up the avenue was a crowd of
+at least forty negroes, all of them carrying scythes and whetstones, the
+sweat pouring from their black faces and bared necks and hairy chests,
+their white teeth flashing and eyeballs rolling, the sun glinting on the
+sharp steel of their scythes, menace and fury darkening the face of
+every man and coming from them a mutter and hum truly like the buzzing
+of a thousand bees.
+
+Judy, although she was weak with fear, could not help thinking, "That is
+the noise on the stage that a mob tries to make."
+
+"Aunt Clay's hands have struck work, and to think there is not a man on
+this place! I believe the blackguards know it! Load your pistol, Judy,
+and let us go to mother."
+
+Mother was already up, hastily gowned in her wrapper, and opening the
+front door when the girls came down the stairs. The intrepid lady walked
+out on the porch with seemingly no more fear than she had had the day
+before when she came forward to meet the wedding guests. Head erect,
+eyes steady and piercing, with a voice clear and composed, she said,
+"Why, boys, you look very tired and hot, and I know you are hungry. Sit
+down in the shade, on the porch steps and under the trees, and I will
+see what we can find for you to eat. Molly, go get that buttermilk out
+of the dairy. The jar is too heavy for you to lift, so take Buck and let
+him carry it for you."
+
+Mrs. Brown, with all of her courage, was never more scared in her life.
+All the time she was talking she had been looking in the crowd of black
+faces for a familiar one, and was glad to recognize Buck Jourdan, a
+good-natured, good-for-nothing nephew of Aunt Mary's. At her command
+Buck stepped forward, and then a dozen more of the men came to the
+front, unconsciously separating themselves from the rest. Mrs. Brown saw
+that they were all negroes belonging in her neighborhood. At her calming
+words and proffer of food such a change came over the faces of the mob
+that they hardly seemed to be the same men. Their teeth showed now in
+grins instead of sinister snarls; they stacked their murderous looking
+weapons against the paulownia tree and sat down in the shade with
+expressions as peaceful as the wedding guests themselves had worn.
+
+Molly and the stalwart Buck were back in an incredibly short time with
+the five-gallon jar of buttermilk and a tray of glasses not yet put away
+from yesterday's feast. Mrs. Brown herself dipped out the smooth,
+luscious beverage, seeing that each man was plentifully served, while
+Molly went into the house to bring out all the cooked provisions she
+could find. Mrs. Brown beckoned the trembling and wondering Judy to her
+and whispered, "Go ring the farm bell as loud as you can. All danger is
+over now, I feel sure, but it is well to let the neighbors know that we
+are in some difficulty; and I fancy I heard a horse trotting on the
+turnpike, and whoever it is might hasten to us at the sound of a farm
+bell at this unusual hour."
+
+Judy flew to the great bell, hung on a high post in the back yard. She
+seized the rope, and then such a ding-dong as pealed forth! The bell was
+a very heavy brass one, and at every pull Judy, who was something of a
+lightweight, leaped into the air, reciting as she jumped, "Curfew shall
+not ring to-night."
+
+"That is enough, my dear. There is no use in getting help from an
+adjacent county, and I fancy every one in Jefferson County has heard the
+bell by this time," said Mrs. Brown, stopping her before she had quite
+finished the last stanza, which Judy said was like interrupting a good
+sneeze.
+
+Molly had found all kinds of food for the hungry laborers, who were more
+sinned against than sinning. They had gone in all good faith to the Clay
+farm to harvest the wheat according to the antiquated methods of the
+mistress, with scythes and cradles. When twelve o'clock, the dinner hour
+everywhere, came, they were told that they could not eat until they had
+finished. They had worked on until two, and then, infuriated with hunger
+and goaded on by the thought of the injustice done them, they had struck
+in a body and gone to the mansion to try to force Mrs. Clay to feed
+them; but they had been held back at the point of a pistol, by that lady
+herself. Then they had determined to get food where they could find it.
+
+Mrs. Brown gathered this much from the men as, their hunger assuaged,
+they talked more connectedly.
+
+"Th' ain't nothin' like buttermilk to ease yo' heart," said Buck Jasper.
+"Mis' Mildred Carmichael kin git mo' outen her niggers fillin' 'em full
+er buttermilk than her sister Mis' Sary kin fillin' 'em full er
+buckshot."
+
+Mrs. Brown was right; she had heard a horse trotting on the turnpike.
+The men were wiping their mouths on the backs of their hands and coming
+up one at a time to thank the gracious lady for her kindness in feeding
+them, when Ernest and Edwin Green came driving into the avenue.
+
+"Mother! What does this mean? I thought I heard the farm bell when I was
+about two miles from home, and now I find the yard full of negro men.
+Have you had a fire?"
+
+Mrs. Brown explained that Aunt Clay had made things pretty hot for her
+hands, but so far there had been no other fire. She welcomed Professor
+Green to Chatsworth and called the grinning Buck to take his suitcase to
+the cottage porch. Judy wondered at her calm manner and at her saying
+nothing to Ernest about their being so frightened, not realizing that
+one hint of the trouble would have sent Ernest off into a rage, when he
+might have reprimanded the negroes and all the good work of the
+buttermilk have been undone. Molly was pale and Professor Green, ever
+watchful of her, asked Judy to give him an account of the matter, which
+she did in such a graphic manner that he, too, turned pale to think of
+the danger those dear ladies had been in. He made himself at home by
+making himself useful, and helped Molly to carry back into the kitchen
+the empty glasses and plates from the feast of the hungry darkeys. She
+laughingly handed him a great, iron pot in which cabbage had been
+cooked.
+
+"I am wondering what Aunt Mary will say about her cabbage. Mother sent
+me into the house to get all available food, when she realized that the
+hands were simply hungry and that food would be the best thing to quell
+their rage. Aunt Mary had this huge pot of cabbage on the back of the
+range; she said in case Lewis jolted down the lunch she was going to eat
+at the basket funeral she would have it cooked in readiness. The poor
+dogs will have to go hungry, too, or have some more corn bread cooked
+for them. I found this big pan full of what we call dog-bread, made from
+scalded meal and salt and bacon drippings, baked until it is crisp. The
+men were crazy about it with pot liquor poured over it. You can see for
+yourself how they licked their platters clean."
+
+"The Saxon word 'lady' means bread-giver, but I think that you and your
+mother have given it a new significance, and the dictionaries will have
+to add, 'Dispenser of cabbage and buttermilk and dog-bread.'"
+
+More wheels, and Aunt Mary and Lewis, with Ca'line much rumpled and
+asleep on the front seat, her shoes and stockings in her lap and her
+bare feet propped gracefully on the dashboard, had returned. Aunt Mary
+was much excited.
+
+"What's all dis doin'? Who was all dem niggers I seen a-streakin' crost
+the fiel's? Buck Jourdan, ain't that you I see hidin' behine that tree?
+I thought I hearn the farm bell as we roun'ed the Pint, but Lewis lowed
+'twas over to Miss Sary Clay's. Come here, Buck, an' he'p me out'n dis
+here waggin. You needn't think you kin hide from me, when I kin see the
+patch on yo' pants made outen the selfsame goods I gib yo' ma to make
+some waistes out'n, two years ago come next Febuway." Buck came
+sheepishily forward to help his old aunt out of the vehicle. "Nex' time
+you wan' ter hide from me you'd better make out to grow a leettle
+leaner, or fin' a tree what's made out to grow some wider so's you won't
+stick out beyant it. What you been doing, and who's been a-mashin' down
+ole Miss's grass, and what's my little Miss Molly baby a-doin' workin'
+herself to death ag'in to-day?"
+
+Buck endeavored to explain his appearance, and told the story of the
+strike at Mrs. Clay's and how they were just passing through Mrs.
+Brown's yard when she had come out and invited them all to dinner. His
+story was so plausible and his voice so soft and manner so wheedling,
+that Professor Green, who overheard the conversation, was much amused,
+and had he not already got the incident from Judy might have believed
+Buck, so convincing were his words and manner. Not so Aunt Mary, who had
+partly raised the worthless Buck and knew better than anyone how he
+could use his silver tongue to lie as well as tell the truth, but
+preferred the former method.
+
+"Now, look here, you Buck Jourdan, you ain't no count on Gawd's green
+yearth 'cep to play the banjo. What you been doin' hirin' yo'self out to
+Miss Sary Clay, jes' like you ain't never know'd that none of our fambly
+don' never work fer none er hern? Yo' ma befo' you an' yo' gran'ma befo'
+her done tried it. Meanin' no disrespect to the rest er the Carmichaels,
+der's the ole sayin', 'What kin you expec' from a hog but a grunt?' I
+knows 'thout goin' in my kitchen that Miss Molly done gib all you
+triflin' niggers my pot er cabbage an' the dog-bread I baked fer those
+houn's an' bird dogs what ain't no mo' count than you is, 'cept'n they
+can't play the banjo."
+
+"Buck Jourdan, is that you?" said Ernest, coming forward and
+interrupting Aunt Mary's tirade. "I am going to get Miss Molly's banjo
+and you can sit down and give us some music. I haven't heard a good tune
+since I went West."
+
+Buck, glad to escape any farther tongue lashing from his relative, and
+always pleased to play and sing, tuned the banjo and began:
+
+  "'Hi,' said the 'possum as he shook the 'simmon tree,
+  'Golly,' said the rabbit; 'you shake 'em all on me.'
+  An' they went in wif they claws, an' they licked they li'l paws,
+  An' they took whole heaps home to they maws."
+
+After several stanzas sung in a soft melodious voice, Buck, at Molly's
+request, gave them, to a chanting recitative the following song,
+composed by a friend of Buck's, and worthy to be incorporated in
+American folk-lore, so Professor Green laughingly assured Mrs. Brown.
+
+  THE MURDER OF THE RATTAN FAMILY.
+
+  "One evening in September, in eighteen ninety-three,
+  Jim Stone committed a murder, as cruel as it could be.
+  'Twas on the Rattan family, while they were preparing for their bed.
+  Jim Stone, he rapped upon the door, complaining of his head.
+  The first was young Mrs. Rattan. She come to let him in.
+  He slew her with his corn knife--that's where his crime begin.
+  The next was old Mrs. Rattan. Old soul was feeble and gray.
+  Truly she fought Jim Stone a battle till her strength it give way.
+  The next was the little baby. When he, Jim Stone did see,
+  He raised up in his cradle. 'Oh! Jim Stone, don't murder me!'
+  Next morning when he was arrested--wasn't sure that he was the one.
+  Till only a few weeks later he confessed to the crime he done.
+  They took him to Southern Prison, which they thought was the
+    safetes' place.
+  When they marched him out for trial, he had a smile upon his face.
+  And after he was sentenced, oh! how he did mourn and cry.
+  One day he received a letter, saying his daughter was bound to die.
+  Next morning he answered the letter and in it he did say,
+  'Tell her I'll meet her there in Heaven, on the sixteenth of Februway.'
+  They led him upon the scaffold with the black cap over his head.
+  And he hung there sixteen minutes 'fore the doctors pronounced
+    him dead.
+  Now wouldn't it have been much better if he'd stayed at home
+    with his wife,
+  Instead of keeping late hours, and taking that family's life?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.--PICTURES ON MEMORY'S WALL.
+
+
+The next week was a very quiet and peaceful one at Chatsworth. There had
+been so many excitements, with burglars and negro uprisings and what
+not, that Molly was afraid her visitors would think Kentucky deserved
+the meaning the Indians attached to it--"the dark and bloody
+battle-ground."
+
+Ernest, home for a vacation from his labors in the West, endeavored to
+keep Judy from missing the attentions of Kent, who was back at his grind
+in Louisville in the architect's office, and did not get home each day
+until time for a late supper. Judy liked Ernest very well, as she did
+all of the Browns, but Kent and Molly were her favorites still, and the
+evenings were the best of all when Kent came home and, as he put it,
+"relieved Ernest."
+
+Molly found herself on easier terms with Professor Green than she had
+ever imagined possible. If he did not consider her quite an old lady,
+she at least was beginning to look upon him as not such a very old
+gentleman. He played what Kent designated as a "cracker-jack" game of
+tennis, and turned out to be as good a horseman as the Brown boys
+themselves.
+
+"If he only had a little more hair on his forehead," thought Molly, "he
+would look right young."
+
+Aunt Mary was the unconscious means of consoling her for his lack of
+hair. "Honey, I likes yo' teacher mo'n any Yankee I ever seed. He'd
+oughter rub onions on his haid to stimilate the roots. Not but what he
+ain't han'some, baldish haid an' all, with them hones' eyes an' that
+upstandin' look. I done took notice that brains don' make the best sile
+to grow ha'r on an' lots er smart folks is baldish. Mindjer, I wouldn'
+go so fer as to say bald haided folks is all smart. It looks like some
+er them is so hard-haided the ha'r can't break th'ough the scalp."
+
+Of course, the first day at Chatsworth he had to be taken out to view
+his possessions, the two acres of orchard land. It was a possession for
+any man to be proud of. It lay on the side of a gently sloping hill
+covered with blue grass and noble, venerable, twisted apple trees, that
+Molly said reminded her of fine old hands that showed hard, useful work.
+
+"And these trees always have done good work. You know my father called
+these his lucky acres. He was always certain of an income from these
+apples. The trees have been taken care of and trimmed and not allowed to
+rot away as some of the old orchards around here have, Aunt Clay's, for
+instance. She is so afraid of doing something modern that she refused to
+spray her trees when the country was full of San Jos� scale, and in
+consequence lost her whole peach orchard and most of her apples. This is
+where our 'castle' used to be."
+
+They were in a grassy space near the middle of the orchard, where a
+stump of an old tree was still standing. The land, showing a beautiful
+soft contour, sloped to the worm fence at the foot of the hill, where
+the grass changed its green to a brighter hue and a beautiful little
+stream sparkled in the sun.
+
+"All of us, even Sue, who is not given to such things, cried when in a
+big wind storm our beloved castle was twisted off of its roots. It was a
+tree made for children to play in, with low spreading branches and great
+crotches, the limbs all twisted and bent and one of them curving down so
+low you could sit in it and touch your feet to the ground. We had our
+regular apartments in that tree and kept our treasures in a hole too
+high up for thieves to have any suspicion of it. It was so shady and
+cool and breezy that on the hottest day we were comfortable and often
+had lunch here. We played every kind of game known to children and made
+up a lot more. 'Swiss Family Robinson' when they went to live up the
+tree was our best game. I remember once Kent gathered a lot of
+peach-tree gum and ruined my slippers trying to make rubber boots out of
+them as the father in Swiss Family Robinson did. Our castle had
+wonderful apples on it, too. They grew to an enormous size, and if any
+of them were ever allowed to get really ripe they turned pure gold and
+tasted--oh, how good they did taste."
+
+Edwin Green listened, enchanted at Molly's description of her childhood
+and the beloved play-house. He half shut his eyes and tried to picture
+her as a little girl in a blue sun-bonnet--of course she must have had a
+blue bonnet--climbing nimbly up the old apple tree, entering as eagerly
+into the game of Swiss Family Robinson as she was now playing the game
+of life, even letting her best little slippers be gummed over to play
+the game true. He had a feeling of almost bitter regret that he hadn't
+known Molly as a little girl. "She must have been such a bully little
+girl," thought that highly educated teacher of English.
+
+"Miss Molly, do you think that this would be the best place to build my
+bungalow? Place it right here where your castle stood? Maybe I could
+catch some of the breezes that you used to enjoy; and perhaps some of
+the happiness that you found here was spilled over and I might pick it
+up. It could not be so beautiful as your tree castle, but it is my
+'Castle in the Air.' If I put it here I should not have to sacrifice any
+of the other trees; there is room enough where your old friend stood for
+my modest wants. Would it hurt your feelings to have me build a little
+house where your childish mansion stood?"
+
+"Why, Professor Green, the idea of such a thing! It would give me the
+greatest happiness to have your bungalow right on this site. I would not
+be a dog in the manger about it, anyhow. Are you really and truly going
+to build?"
+
+"I hope to. Of course, I shall have to ask your mother if she would mind
+having such a close neighbor."
+
+"Well, I hardly think mother would expect to sell a lot and then not let
+the purchaser build. She may have to sell some more of the place. I wish
+it could be that old stony strip over by Aunt Clay's. You know our home,
+Chatsworth, is a Brown inheritance, and the Carmichael place adjoining
+belonged to mother's people. They call it the Clay place now, but until
+grandfather died it was known as the Carmichael place. Aunt Clay married
+and lived there and somehow got hold of grandfather and made him appoint
+her administratrix and executrix to his estate. She managed things so
+well for herself that she got the house with everything in it and the
+improved, cleared land, giving mother acres and acres of poor land where
+even blackberries don't flourish and the cows won't graze. The sheep
+won't drink the water, but they do condescend to keep down the weeds. I
+really believe that Aunt Clay is the only person in the world that I
+can't like even a little bit. I fancy it is because she has been so mean
+to mother. I believe I could get over her being cross and critical with
+me, but somehow I can't forgive the way she has always treated mother."
+
+"I found her a very trying companion at your sister's wedding, and she
+looks as though she had brains, too. But how anyone with sense could be
+anything but kind to your mother I cannot see."
+
+Molly beamed with pleasure. "Ah, you see how wonderful mother is. I
+thought you would appreciate her. She likes you, too, Professor Green.
+Mother says she believes she understands boys better than girls and can
+enter into their feelings more."
+
+"Oh, what am I saying?" thought Molly. "I wonder what the Wellington
+girls would say if they could know I forgot and as good as called their
+Professor of English a boy! Well, he does look quite boyish out of
+doors, with his hat on."
+
+They strolled on down toward the brook, Molly patting each tree as they
+passed and telling some little incident of her childhood.
+
+"I truly believe you love every one of these trees. You touch them as
+lovingly as you do President or the dogs, and look at them as fondly as
+you do at old Aunt Mary."
+
+"Indeed, I do; and, as for this little stream, it makes to me the
+sweetest music in the world."
+
+"Miss Molly, when I build my little bungalow, will you come and have
+lunch with me as you used to with your brothers in the old castle? I'll
+promise you not to let you eat at the second table as you did when you
+took breakfast with me last Christmas."
+
+They both laughed at the thought of that morning; and Molly remembered
+that it was then that she had overheard Professor Green tell his
+housekeeper of his apple orchard out in Kentucky, and had realized for
+the first time that it was he who had bought the orchard at Chatsworth.
+
+"Indeed, I will take lunch with you, and would like to cook it, too, as
+I did your breakfast that cold morning. Do you know, when you came
+downstairs and I peeped at you through the crack in the pantry door, you
+looked and sounded almost as fierce as the mob of colored men who came
+hungry from Aunt Clay's last week? The nice breakfast I fixed for you
+seemed to soften your temper just as mother's buttermilk did the
+darkies'. Aunt Mary says, 'White men and black men is all the same on
+the inside, and all of them is Hungarians.'"
+
+Edwin Green laughed, as he always did when Molly got on the subject of
+Aunt Mary. The old woman was a never failing source of wonder and
+amusement to him; and Molly mimicked her so well that you could almost
+see her short, fat figure with her head tied up in a bandanna
+handkerchief, vigorously nodding to punctuate each epigram.
+
+"Next winter I hope to have my sister with me at Wellington, and she
+will see that this 'Hungarian' is fed better than my housekeeper has.
+You will come to us a great deal, I hope. I am overjoyed that you are to
+take the postgraduate course. That was the one pleasant thing your aunt,
+Mrs. Clay, had to tell me when I conversed with her at the wedding, and
+she little dreamed how pleasant it was, or I doubt her giving me that
+joy."
+
+"I am truly glad. I hated to give up right now. It seemed to me as
+though I could see the open door of culture but had not reached it, and
+had a lot of things to learn before I had any right to consider myself
+fit to pass through it. Mother and Kent together decided it must be
+managed for me. They are both bricks, anyhow."
+
+The young people had come to the little purling brook during this
+conversation, and at Molly's instigation had turned down the stream and
+entered, through a break in the worm fence, a beautiful bit of woods.
+The beech woods in Kentucky are, when all is told, about the most
+beautiful woods in the world. No shade is so dense, no trees more noble,
+not even oaks. With the grace of an aspen and the dignity of an oak, the
+beech to my mind is first among trees.
+
+  "Of all the beautiful pictures
+    That hang on Memory's wall,
+  Is one of a dim old forest
+    That seemeth the best of all.
+
+  "Not for the gnarled oaks olden,
+    Dark with the mistletoe,
+  Not for the violets golden
+    That sprinkle the vale below.
+
+  "Not for the milk-white lilies
+    Leaning o'er the hedge,
+  Coquetting all day with the sunbeams
+    And stealing their golden edge."
+
+Molly quoted the verses in her soft, clear voice, adding:
+
+"I say 'gnarled oaks olden' for euphony, but I always think 'beech.' I
+don't know what Miss Alice or Phoebe Gary, whichever one it was who wrote
+those lovely verses, would think of my taking such a liberty, even in my
+mind."
+
+"No doubt if Miss Alice or Phoebe Cary could have seen this wood, she
+would have searched about in her mind for a line to fit beeches and let
+oaks go hang. This is really a wonderful spot. Can't we sit down a
+while? I hope your mother will let me have right of way through these
+woods when I build my nest in the orchard. This makes my lot more
+valuable than I thought. I have never seen such beech trees; why, in the
+East a beech is not such a wonderful tree! We have an occasional big
+one, but here are acres and acres of genuine first growth. You must love
+it here even more than in the orchard, don't you?"
+
+"Well, you see the orchard period is what might be known as my early
+manner; while the beech woods is my romantic era. I used to come here
+after I got old enough to roam around by myself, and a certain mystery
+and gloom I felt in the air would so fill my soul with rapture that (I
+know you think this is silly) I would sit right where we are sitting now
+and cry and cry just for the pure joy of having tears to shed, I
+suppose! I know of no other reason."
+
+Professor Green smiled, but his eyes had a mist in them as he looked at
+the young girl, little more than a child now, with her sweet, wistful
+expression, already looking back on her childhood as a thing of the past
+and her "romantic era" as though she had finished with it.
+
+"Oh, Miss Molly, let's stay in the 'beech wood period' forever! None of
+us can afford to give up romance or the dear delight of tears for tears'
+sake. I love to think of you as a little child playing in the apple
+orchard, and as a beautiful girl wandering in the woods. But do you
+know, a still more beautiful picture comes to my inward eye, and that is
+an old Molly with white hair sitting where you are now, still in the
+'romantic era,' still in the beech woods; and, God willing, I'll be
+beside you, only," he whimsically added, "I am afraid I'll be
+bald-headed instead of white-haired!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--ALL KINDS OF WEATHER.
+
+
+The days went dreamily on. Edwin Green lengthened his stay in Kentucky
+until he really became touchy on the subject, and one day when some one
+spoke of the old Virginia gentleman who came in out of the rain and
+stayed six years, he told Mrs. Brown that he felt very like that old
+man. She was hospitality itself, and made him understand that he was
+more than welcome, and, every time he set a date for his departure, some
+form of entertainment was immediately on foot where his presence seemed
+both desirable and necessary, and his going away was postponed again.
+Once it was a coon hunt with Ernest and John and Lewis, the colored
+gardener; once it was a moonlight picnic at a wonderful spot called
+Black Rock.
+
+On that occasion they drove in a hay wagon over a road that was a
+disgrace to Kentucky, and then up a dry creek bed until they came to the
+great black boulder that stood at least twenty feet in the air; there
+they made their temporary camp. Kent confided to Professor Green that
+they never dared to come up that creek bed unless they were sure of
+clear weather, as it had been known to fill so quickly with a big rain
+that it drowned a man and horse. It was innocent enough then, with only
+a thin stream of water trickling along the rocks, sometimes forming a
+pool where the horses would go in almost to their knees; but, as a rule,
+they went dry shod along the bed. It was rough riding, but no one
+minded. There was plenty of hay in the wagon for young bones, and Mrs.
+Brown, who was chaperoning, had a pillow to sit on and one to lean
+against. When they got to the sylvan spot every one agreed it was worth
+the bumping they had undergone.
+
+"Oh, it looks like the Doone Valley," said Judy.
+
+And so it did, except that the stream of water was not quite so big as
+the one John Ridd had to climb up.
+
+There were sixteen in the party, which filled the big wagon comfortably
+so that no one had room to bounce out. Paul and Ernest had invited two
+girls from Louisville, who turned out to be very pleasant and attractive
+and in for a good time. The only person who was not very agreeable was
+John's friend, the girl visiting Aunt Clay, a Miss Hunt from Tennessee.
+She was fussy and particular and afraid of spoiling her dress, a chiffon
+thing, entirely inappropriate for a hay ride. She complained of a
+headache, and, besides, as Molly said, "she didn't sit fair." That is a
+very important thing to do on a hay ride. One person doubling up or
+lolling can upset the comfort of a whole wagon load. You must sit with
+your feet stretched out, making what quilt makers call "the every other
+one pattern."
+
+"I am glad she acts this way," whispered Mrs. Brown to Molly. "I know
+now why I can't abide her. I couldn't tell before."
+
+Miss Hunt's selfishness did not seem to worry her admirers any. John was
+all devotion, as were the two other young men who came along in her
+train. They were sorry about her headache and wanted to make room in the
+wagon for her to lie down; but Mrs. Brown was firm there and said it was
+a pity for her to suffer, but she thought it might injure her back
+unless she sat up going over the rough road. That lady had no patience
+with the headache, and thought the girl would much better have stayed at
+home if she were too ill to sit up. She did not much believe in the
+headache, anyhow, and was irritated to see poor Molly with her long legs
+doubled up under her trying to make room for the lolling little beauty.
+
+"She is pretty, no doubt of that," said Edwin Green to Mrs. Brown, whom
+he had elected to sit by and look after for the ride, "as pretty as a
+brunette can be. I like a blonde as a rule. But it looks to me as though
+Miss Molly is getting the hot end of it, as far as comfort goes."
+
+He would have offered to change places with Molly, but had a big reason
+for refraining. That was that no other than Jimmy Lufton, Molly's New
+York newspaper friend, was occupying the seat next to Molly, and
+Professor Green was determined to do nothing to show his misery at that
+young man's proximity. Jimmy had arrived quite unexpectedly that
+afternoon and seemed to be as intimate with the whole Brown family in
+two hours as he, Edwin Green, was after weeks of close companionship. He
+tried not to feel bitter, and, next to sitting by Molly, he was sure he
+would rather sit by her mother than any one in the world, certainly than
+anyone in the wagon.
+
+Jimmy was easily the life of the party. He had a good tenor voice and
+knew all the new songs "hot off of the bat" from New York. He told the
+funniest stories, and at the same time was so good-natured and kindly
+and modest withal that you had to like him. He was not the typical funny
+man. Edwin Green felt that he could not have stood Molly's preferring a
+typical funny man to him. She did prefer Jimmy, he felt almost sure, and
+now he was trying to steel himself to take his medicine like a man. He
+was determined not to whine and not to make Molly unhappy. He had seen
+the meeting between Molly and Jimmy, and it was the flood of color that
+had suffused Molly's face and her almost painful agitation that had
+convinced him of her regard for that brilliant young journalist. Had he
+heard the conversation as well as seen the meeting, he might have been
+spared some of his unhappiness. Jimmy had said, "Where's my lemon?" and
+Molly had answered, "Done et up."
+
+They piled out of the wagon. John, the woodsman of the crowd, busied
+himself making a fire, demanding that the two "extra men" should come
+and chop wood, determined that they should not get in too many words
+with the beautiful Miss Hunt while he was working. Miss Hunt then
+exercised her fascinations on Jimmy Lufton, on whom she had had her eye
+ever since they left Chatsworth. Jimmy was polite, but had a
+"nothing-doing" expression which quite baffled the practiced flirt. Poor
+Molly's foot had gone so fast asleep that she was forced to hop around
+for at least five minutes before she could get out of the wagon and
+begin to make herself useful. Kent, who had driven, with Judy on the
+front seat with him, was busy taking out the four horses to let them
+rest for the heavy pull home. The other young men were occupied in
+various ways, lifting the hampers out of the wagon and getting water
+from the beautiful spring at the foot of the huge black rock. Professor
+Green came to Molly's assistance.
+
+"I was afraid your foot would go to sleep. You are too good to let that
+girl crowd you so. She was the most deliberately selfish person I ever
+saw."
+
+"Oh, there is always somebody like that on a hay ride. I have never been
+on one yet that there wasn't some girl along with a headache who took up
+more than her share of room. I am too long to double up; but it is all
+right now. The tingle has stopped, and I can bear my weight on it, I
+see."
+
+"Did you ever see anything more beautiful than this valley? How clever
+Miss Kean is in hitting off a description! I haven't thought of the
+Doone Valley for years, and now I can't get it out of my head; these
+overhanging cliffs and this green grass, green even by moonlight; and
+the sensation of being in an impenetrable fortress! And the great black
+rock might be Carver Doone petrified and very much magnified, left here
+forever for his sins. It must be a magnificent sight when the creek is
+full."
+
+"So it is; but I hope we shall not see that sight to-night. Lorna Doone
+in the big snow was in a safe place to what we would be in a big freshet
+up this valley with no way to get back but by the creek bed," said
+Molly, jumping out of the hay wagon and beginning to make ready the
+supper.
+
+Such a supper it was, with appetites to match after the long ride and
+good jolting! Mrs. Brown was an old hand at picnic suppers and knew
+exactly what to put in and how to pack the baskets in the most
+appetizing way. There were different kinds of sandwiches, thin bread and
+butter, all kinds of pickles, apple turnovers and cheese cakes; but the
+crowning success of one of these camp picnics was always the hot coffee
+and bacon cooked on John's fire. The Browns kept a skillet and big
+coffee pot to use only on such occasions. The cloth was soon spread and
+the cold lunch arranged on it, and then in an incredibly short time the
+coffee was boiling and the bacon sizzling.
+
+"Oh, what a smell is this?" said Jimmy Lufton, emerging from behind
+Black Rock, where Miss Hunt had been doing her best to captivate him.
+(Kent said he bet on Jimmy to give her as good as he got.) "Mark Twain
+says, 'Bacon would improve the flavor of an angel,' and so it would."
+
+"Well, I'm no angel, but I certainly do smell like bacon," said Molly
+with flushed face and rumpled hair as she knelt over the fire with a
+long stick turning the luscious morsels. "Sue and Cyrus are responsible
+for the coffee and the bacon is my affair."
+
+"As Todger's boy says, 'Wittles is up,'" called Jimmy to the strolling
+couples, who lost no time in hurrying to the feast. Mrs. Brown was
+installed at the head of the cloth, but not allowed to wait on any one.
+"For once, you shall be a guest at your own table," said Kent, taking
+the coffee pot out of her hands. "Miss Judy, don't you think we can
+serve this?"
+
+"Mostly cream for me and very little coffee," drawled Miss Hunt.
+
+"If you have such a bad headache you had better take it black," said
+Judy, who was aware of that young lady's selfish behavior on the trip.
+"The people who want a great deal of cream will have to wait until the
+rest are served, as some of the cream got spilled; and, while there is
+enough for reasonable helps, there is not enough for exorbitant
+demands."
+
+John and the two "extras" offered their shares to the spoiled beauty,
+but Judy was adamant.
+
+"Those sandwiches with olives and mayonnaise are very rich for any one
+with a liver," said Judy later on as Miss Hunt was preparing to help
+herself plentifully to the delectable food; "these plain
+bread-and-butter ones would be much more wholesome for you, my dear.
+What, cheese cakes for any one who is too ill to sit up straight!
+Goodness gracious, Miss Hunt, do be careful! Your demise would grieve so
+many it is really selfish of you not to take better care of yourself."
+
+"You seem to be very much concerned about my health, Miss Kean. I wonder
+that you knew I did not feel well; you seemed to be fully occupied on
+the journey with Mr. Kent Brown," snapped Miss Hunt.
+
+"So I was," answered Judy, nothing daunted. "But whenever Kent had to
+turn his attentions to the four horses when we came to rough spots in
+the road and he was trying not to jolt the ambulance too much, then I
+could turn around and get a good bird's-eye view of the passengers, and
+you always seemed to be on the point of fainting."
+
+"I know you are better now," said Molly, who could not bear for even
+Miss Hunt, who was certainly not her style of girl, to be teased. "I
+know these apple turnovers won't hurt you, and Aunt Mary makes such good
+ones. Do have one, and here is some more cream if you want it in your
+coffee."
+
+"What a sweet girl your sister is," said Miss Hunt in an audible
+whisper. "I can't see what she finds in that Miss Kean to want her to
+make her such an interminable visit."
+
+The ill-natured remark was heard by every one. For did you ever notice
+that the way to make yourself heard in a crowd of noisy talkers is to
+whisper? Molly looked ready for tears, and Kent bit his lips in rage,
+but Judy, as spunky as usual, and feeling that she deserved a rebuke
+from Miss Hunt, but rather shocked at the ill-bred way of delivering it,
+spoke out: "Mrs. Brown, when we were laughing the other day over your
+story of the old Virginia gentleman who came in out of the rain and
+stayed six years, I had another one to tell, but something happened to
+interrupt me. Might I tell it now?"
+
+Mrs. Brown gave a smiling consent. She was not so tender-hearted as
+Molly and, while she felt it a mistake to wrangle, she was rather
+curious to see who would get ahead in this trial of wits.
+
+"I bet my bottom dollar on Miss Judy, don't you, mother?" said Kent in
+an undertone.
+
+"I certainly do," whispered his mother.
+
+"A little Southern girl we knew at college, Madeline Pettit, told in all
+seriousness about a neighbor of hers who was invited to go on a visit.
+She accepted, but they had to sell the cow for her to go on, and then
+she had to prolong her visit for the calf to get big enough for her to
+come home on. I am afraid our calf is almost big enough and papa may
+come riding in on it any day and carry me off." There was a general roar
+of laughter, and then the picnickers, having eaten all that they
+uncomfortably could, made a general movement toward adjournment.
+
+"Where is the moon?" they all exclaimed at once. While they were eating
+and drinking and making themselves generally merry, the proverbial
+cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, had grown and spread and now the
+moon was put out of business. The cliffs were so high that a storm had
+come up out of the west without any one dreaming of it.
+
+"This creek can fill in such a hurry when a big rain comes we had better
+start," said Kent.
+
+"Oh, don't be such a croaker, Kent. It can't rain. The sky was as clear
+as a bell when we left home," said Mrs. Brown, as eager as any of the
+young people to prolong the good times.
+
+"All right, mother, just as you think best, but I am going to get the
+horses hitched up in case you change your mind."
+
+Change her mind she did in a very few minutes, as large drops of rain
+began to fall. The crowd came pell-mell and scrambled into the wagon.
+Mrs. Brown noticed in the confusion that she had lost her cavalier and
+that Professor Green had attached himself to Molly. She was pleased to
+see it, as she had felt sorry for the young man. He was evidently so
+miserable, and yet at the same time so determined to make himself
+agreeable to her that he had been really very charming. She loved to
+talk about books, and, as she said, seldom had the chance, for the
+people who knew about books and cared for them never seemed to realize
+that a busy mother and housekeeper could have similar tastes.
+
+"I get so tired of swapping recipes for pickles and talking about how to
+raise children. Aunt Mary makes the pickle and my children are all
+raised," she had confided to Edwin Green. "We had a very interesting
+guest on one occasion, a woman who had done a great many delightful
+things and knew many delightful literary people, and I hoped to have a
+real good talk with her about books; but she seemed to feel she must
+stick to the obvious when she conversed with me. I often laugh when I
+think of Aunt Mary's retort courteous to this same lady. She was
+constantly asking me how we made this and what we did to have that so
+much better than other people, and I would always refer her to Aunt
+Mary.
+
+"Once it was bread that was under discussion. You know how difficult it
+is to get a recipe from a darkey, as they never really know how they do
+the things they do best. Aunt Mary told her to the best of her ability
+what she did, but the woman was not satisfied. 'Now, tell me exactly how
+many cups of flour you use.' 'Why, bless you, we done stop dolin' out
+flour with a cup long ago an' uses a ole broken pitcher.' Another time
+it was coffee. 'Now, you have told me about the freshly roasted and
+ground coffee, please tell me how much water.' Aunt Mary gave a scornful
+sniff. 'You mus' think we are stingy folks ef you think we measure
+water!' At another time she said, 'Aunt Mary, you must have told me
+wrong, because I did exactly what you said and my popovers were complete
+failures.' 'Laws a mussy, I did fergit to tell you one thing, an' that
+is that you mus' stir in some gumption wif ev'y aig.'"
+
+  "De rain kep' a-drappin' in draps so mighty heavy;
+  De ribber kep' a-risin' an' bus'ed froo de levvy,
+  Ring, ring de banjo, how I lub dat good ole song,
+  Come, come, my true love, oh, whar you been so long?"
+
+It was Jimmy who broke into this rollicking song, and when all of the
+Brown boys, who had had an experience with this old dry creek bed once
+on a 'possum hunt, heard him, they felt that the song was singularly
+appropriate. They also thanked their stars that they had with them some
+one who would "whoop things up" and keep the crowd cheerful, and perhaps
+the ladies would not realize the danger they were in. This wet-weather
+creek was fed by innumerable small branches, all of them dry now from
+something of a drought that had been prevalent, and John, the woodsman,
+noticed that before they had much rainfall in the valley those small
+branches had begun to flow, showing that there had already been a great
+storm to the west of them.
+
+"If the rain were merely local, old Stony Creek could not do much damage
+in itself, but it is the help of all of these wet-weather springs and
+branches that makes it play such havoc," whispered John to Jimmy Lufton.
+"I have known it in two hours' time to rise four feet, which sounds
+incredible; and then in two hours more subside two feet, and in a day be
+almost dry again. I spent four hours up on top of Black Rock once in a
+sudden freshet. I would have scaled the hills, but I had some young dogs
+hunting, and they were so panic-stricken and I was so afraid they would
+fall down the cliffs in the creek, that I just took them up on top of
+the rock; and there we sat huddled up in the driving rain until the
+water subsided enough for us to wade home. Swimming is out of the
+question for more than a few strokes, the current is so swift; and as
+for keeping your feet and walking, you simply can't do it."
+
+"We have a creek up near Lexington that goes on just such unexpected
+sprees," said Jimmy. "It will be a perfectly respectable citizen and
+every one will forget its bad behavior, when suddenly it will break
+loose and get so full it disgraces itself and brings shame on its family
+of branches."
+
+By this time the whole crowd was fairly damp, but they made a joke of
+it, with the exception of Miss Hunt, who was much irritated at the
+damage done her pretty dress. Although she was covered up with three
+coats, she clamored for more, but no more were offered her. Professor
+Green took off his coat and, folding it carefully, put it under the seat
+in the lunch hamper.
+
+"I fancy you think this is a funny thing to do, but I have seen a wet
+crowd almost freeze after a storm like this, and it is a great mistake
+to get all of the wraps wet. It is much better to take the rain and get
+wet yourself, and keep the coats dry; and then, when the rain is over,
+have something warm and comfortable to put on."
+
+"That is a fine scheme," said Paul, and all of the men followed Edwin
+Green's example, and Molly and Judy, who had prudently brought their
+college sweaters, did the same.
+
+"I think it is rather fun to get wet when you have on clothes that won't
+get ruined," said Judy.
+
+"I am glad you like it," answered Miss Hunt, still sore over her bout
+with Judy, "but I must say it is hard on me with this chiffon dress.
+What will it look like after this?"
+
+"Well, you know, chiffon is French for rag so I fancy it will look like
+a Paris creation," called back Judy from the front seat, where she was
+still installed by Kent. "I'll bet anything her hair will come out of
+curl," she whispered to her companion, "and I should not be astonished
+to see some of her beauty wash off."
+
+"Eany, meany," laughed Kent. "You are already way ahead of her, Miss
+Judy. Do leave her her hair and complexion."
+
+"Well, I'll try to be good," said penitent Judy. "You and Molly are so
+alike, it is right amusing. And the worst of it is your goodness rubs
+off on everybody you come in contact with. Do you realize I have been in
+Kentucky for weeks and that Miss Hunt is the first person I have had a
+scrap with, and so far I have not got myself in a single 'Julia Kean'
+scrape? I have been in so many, that the girls at college have named the
+particular kind of scrape I get in after me, just as though I were a
+famous physician who had discovered a disease."
+
+"Just what kind of scrape do you usually get in?"
+
+"The kind of scrape I get in is always one I can get out of, and usually
+one that I fall in from not looking ahead enough at the consequences."
+
+"Well, I pray God that this will be a 'Julia Kean' scrape we are in
+to-night. Certainly, lack of foresight got us in. I'd like to get that
+weather man and throw him in this creek. 'Generally fair and variable
+winds,' much!" said Kent with such a serious expression that Judy began
+to realize that this was not simply a case of a good wetting, but might
+mean something more.
+
+The horses were knee deep in water now, but splashing bravely on. Molly
+noticed that in hitching up for the homeward trip Kent had put President
+in the lead.
+
+"That is because old President has so much sense and will know how to
+pick his way and keep his feet when the other horses would get scared
+and begin to struggle and pull down the whole team," said Molly to
+Professor Green. Molly was fully aware of the danger they were in, but
+was keeping her knowledge to herself for fear of starting a panic among
+the girls. "There is no real danger of drowning," she whispered to her
+companion, "so long as we stay in the wagon. But the banks are so steep
+that if we should get out we might slip into the creek and then it would
+be about impossible to keep our feet. Look at the water now, up to the
+hubs of the wheels! I am sorry for the horses, and what an awful
+responsibility for Kent! But he is equal to it. Do you know, I really
+believe Kent is equal to anything!"
+
+It was, of course, pitch dark now, except for frequent flashes of
+lightning that illuminated the raging torrents, so all were forced to
+realize the grave situation.
+
+"The horses are behaving wonderfully well, and so far all the passengers
+are. I hope it will keep up," muttered Kent. "It is awfully hard to keep
+your head when you are driving if any one screams."
+
+"The water is in the wagon bed now. I can tell by my feet. Don't you
+think your mother ought to come on the front seat, where she can be out
+of it somewhat?" suggested Judy.
+
+"You are right. Mother, come on up here and help me drive. There is
+plenty of room for three of us, and I believe you would be more
+comfortable."
+
+Mrs. Brown got up, glad to change her position. She was more frightened
+than she cared to own, and was anxious to find out just how Kent felt
+about the matter.
+
+"I am going on the front seat, too," said the bedraggled Miss Hunt. "It
+seems to me Miss Julia Kean has had the best of everything long enough.
+I see no reason why she should sit high and dry during the whole drive,
+while here I am absolutely and actually sitting in the water."
+
+Kent bit his lips in fury, but held his horses and his tongue while the
+change was being made. Judy showed her breeding in a way that made Molly
+proud.
+
+"High I may be, but not dry," said Judy, playfully shaking herself on
+the already drenched Molly as she sank by her side on the soggy hay. "I
+am going to see how long our fair friend will stay up there. It is
+really the scariest place I ever got in. Down here you feel the water
+without seeing it, but up there every flash of lightning reveals terrors
+that down here are undreamed of."
+
+"Sit in the middle, mother, and Miss Hunt and I can take better care of
+you."
+
+"Oh, I am afraid to sit on the outside! Mrs. Brown is much larger than I
+am and could hold me in better than I could her," said the selfish girl.
+
+She squeezed in between mother and son, as Kent said afterward, taking
+up more room then any little person that he ever saw.
+
+  "Noah he did build an ark, one wide river to cross.
+  Built it out of hickory bark, one wide river to cross.
+  One wide river, and that wide river was Jordan,
+  One wide river, and that wide river to cross."
+
+"All join in the chorus," demanded Jimmy.
+
+There were many verses to the time-honored song, and before they got all
+the animals in the ark the moon suddenly came out from behind a very
+black cloud, and the rain was over, but not the flood.
+
+"It took many days and nights for the water to subside for old Noah, and
+we may expect the same delay in our case," said the happy and
+irrepressible Jimmy.
+
+Kent was glad indeed for the light of the moon. He had really had to
+leave it to President to take the proper road, or, rather, channel. That
+brave old horse had gone sturdily on, and, when one of the younger
+horses had begun to struggle and pull back, he had turned solemnly
+around and given him a soft little bite.
+
+"Mother, did you see that? And look at that off horse now! I bet he will
+behave after this."
+
+Sure enough, the admonished animal was pulling as steadily as President
+himself, and they had no more trouble with him.
+
+There were many large holes in the creek bed, and, of course, the wheels
+often went into them. Once it looked for a moment as though they might
+have a turnover to add to their disasters. The wagon toppled, but
+righted itself in a moment. Miss Hunt, as Judy had said, on the front
+seat was able to see the danger as she could not down in the wagon, and
+when the wheels went down that particularly deep hole she let out a
+piercing scream and tried to seize the reins from Kent.
+
+Kent pulled up his horses as soon as the wagon was on a level and called
+to John, "John, will you please help Miss Hunt back into the seat she
+has just vacated? She finds she is not comfortable here."
+
+At that Miss Hunt very humbly crawled back, and, like the Heathen
+Chinee, "subsequent proceedings interested her no more."
+
+As dawn was breaking they drove into the avenue at Chatsworth, not
+really very much the worse for wear. The warm, dry wraps produced from
+under the seat after the moon came out had been wonderfully comforting.
+Edwin Green had made Mrs. Brown take his coat, and as he folded it
+around her he had whispered, "Kentucky women are very remarkable. They
+meet danger as though it were a partner at a ball."
+
+"Yes," said Kent, who had overheard him, "I could never have come
+through the deep waters if it had not been for the brave women. You saw
+how the one scream unnerved me, to say nothing of that little vixen
+grabbing my reins. Here, Ernest, we are on the pike at last, and I am
+just about all in. I wouldn't give up until we got through, but take the
+reins. Maybe Miss Hunt would like to drive," he had slyly added, but a
+low moan from under the wet coats was all the proud beauty could utter.
+
+Aunt Mary greeted them at Chatsworth with much delight.
+
+"The sto'm here been somethin' turrible. I ain't seed sich a wind sence
+the chilluns' castle blowed down. All of yer had better come back to the
+kitchen whar it's warm and eat somethin'. I got a big pot er hot coffee
+and pitchers er hot milk an' a pan er quick yeast biscuit. I done notice
+ef you eat somethin' when you is cold an' wet, somehow you fergits ter
+catch cold."
+
+They all came trooping back to the warm old kitchen, "ev'y spot in it as
+clean as a bisc'it board," and there they ate the hot buttered biscuit
+and drank the coffee and milk. It was noticed that John let the "extras"
+take care of Miss Hunt, and he devoted himself to his mother. Just as
+they were separating for the morning he hugged his mother and whispered
+to her, "You need not have any more uneasiness about me, mumsy. I don't
+believe there is a Brown living who could go on loving a woman who has
+no more sense than to grab the reins."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.--JIMMY.
+
+
+"Judy, Mrs. Woodsmall has just 'phoned over that her hated R. F. D.
+Woodsmall is bringing you a letter from your father. She says she could
+only make out it was from him, but could not decipher anything else. She
+has an idea he is on his way, as the postmark showed it was mailed on
+the train somewhere in Kansas. Isn't she too funny? She makes some of
+the neighbors furious, but we always laugh at her little idiosyncrasy.
+After all, it is perfectly harmless. She really is as kind a little soul
+as there is in the county. Her life has been so narrow. If she could
+have been a real worker in a big city she might have grown into a very
+remarkable person. What a detective she would have made!"
+
+Judy yawned and stretched and sat up as Molly came in bearing a tray of
+lunch for her tired friend as well as the news of a letter from Mr.
+Kean, somewhere on the road, and to be delivered some time that day if
+Bud Woodsmall's automobile behaved.
+
+"Oh, Molly, I am tired! Are you the only one of the crowd to be up and
+doing after last night?"
+
+"I have persuaded mother to stay in bed and get a good rest. The boys
+took a late train into town, and Miss Hunt never did go to bed. Aunt
+Mary said she came down early this morning and 'phoned over to Aunt
+Clay's coachman to come for her immediately, and off she went without
+saying 'boo to a goose.' I wish you could have heard Aunt Mary's
+description of her!
+
+"'Yo' Aunt Clay's comp'ny sho ain't no wet weather beauty. Her ha'r was
+so flat her haid looked jes' like a buckeye; and her dress 'min' me of a
+las' year's crow's nes'. She was so shamefaced like she resem'led that
+ole peacock when Shep done pull out his tail.'"
+
+Judy laughed. "Oh, I do love Aunt Mary! But, Molly, won't it be fine to
+see mamma and papa? Do you suppose they are really on their way?"
+
+"It will be fine to see them, but it will be pretty sad to have them
+take off my Judy. I am mighty afraid that is what they are going to do.
+Go back to sleep now and I will bring you your letter as soon as Bud
+puts in his appearance. I am going to have a hard game of tennis with
+Jimmy Lufton against Ernest and that nice Miss Rogers. Weren't those
+girls spunky last night? An experience like that will make you know
+people better than years of plain, everyday life. Professor Green has
+struck up quite an acquaintance with Miss Ormsby. It seems they have
+many mutual friends, both of them having summered many times at
+'Sconset.'"
+
+Molly spoke quietly, but there was a slight tremor of lip and a
+deepening of color that the sharp Judy saw and noted, but nothing would
+have made her let Molly know that she had betrayed herself in the least.
+
+"Molly was perfectly unconscious of what she was doing last night,"
+thought Judy, "but all the same she was making poor Professor Green live
+up to his name with jealousy. I don't know but it might make Molly open
+her childlike old eyes if the patient professor should kick up his staid
+heels and jump the fence and go grazing in another paddock for a while."
+And then aloud she said, "All right, honey, I'll take forty winks and
+then get up and come down to the tennis court."
+
+Mr. Kean's letter arrived in due time and, sure enough, Mrs. Woodsmall's
+surmises were correct. He was on the way to Kentucky with Mrs. Kean, and
+expected to be in Louisville the next day at a hotel, and would motor
+out to Chatsworth in the afternoon.
+
+"Your father and mother must not think of stopping at a hotel, Judy,"
+declared Mrs. Brown. "We have an abundance of room. Miss Rogers and Miss
+Ormsby are going in town after supper to-night with Ernest and Professor
+Green. Mr. Lufton expects to go back to Lexington to-morrow, and
+Professor Green is only waiting for some mail and will take his
+departure, too. We shall be forlorn, indeed, when all of them go. I'll
+make Kent look up what train Mr. Kean will come in on and he will meet
+it and send them both right out here."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Brown, you are so good. I would love for mamma and papa to be
+here and to know all of you and have you know them. They are as
+wonderful in their way as you are in yours, and your meeting would be a
+grand combination."
+
+Molly rather dreaded the coming of evening. She had promised Jimmy to
+take a walk with him by moonlight, and she had a terrible feeling that
+he might bring up the subject of "lemons" again. She was not prepared
+for the question that she felt almost sure he was going to ask her.
+
+"I am nothing but a kid, after all," moaned Molly to herself. "Professor
+Green was right in calling me 'dear child.' Mother was married when she
+was my age, but somehow I can't seem to grow up. Jimmy is so nice, and I
+do like him so much, but as for spending the rest of my life with
+him--oh, I just simply can't contemplate it. Why, why doesn't he see how
+it is without having to talk it over? I wish none of them would ever get
+sentimental over me." And then she blushed and told herself that she was
+a big story teller and sentimentality from some one who should be
+nameless would not be so trying, after all.
+
+Supper was over, Professor Green and Ernest had gone gaily off, driving
+Miss Rogers and Miss Ormsby to Louisville, Judy and Kent were making a
+long-talked-of duty call on Aunt Clay, "just to show Miss Hunt there is
+no hard feeling," laughed Judy. And now it was time to take the promised
+walk with Jimmy Lufton.
+
+"You look a little tired, Miss Molly. Maybe you would rather not go. You
+must not let me bore you," said Jimmy, a little wistfully.
+
+"Oh, no, I'm all right. I fancy it will take all of us a few days to get
+over last night. I have wanted to tell you how fine you were and what it
+meant to all of us to have you so cheerful and tactful. The boys can't
+say enough in your praise. We had to have some safety valve, and if we
+had not been laughing we might have been crying."
+
+"Oh, I'm a cheerful idiot, all right, all right. I have such a short
+upper lip and such an eternal grin on me that no one ever seems to think
+I have any feelings. I get no more sympathy than a fat man. I wish I
+could make people understand that I am as serious as the next, but
+somehow me Irish grandmither comes popping out in me and I have to joke
+if I am to die the next minute."
+
+"I think your disposition is most enviable," said Molly kindly, "and, as
+for the dash of Irish, I always think that is what makes our mother so
+charming. It was almost a fad with our professor of English at college
+to find the Irish mother or grandmother for almost all of the great
+poets or essayists." Molly could not quite trust herself to say
+Professor Green's name, the picture of the seemingly ecstatic Edwin
+driving off with Miss Ormsby was too fresh in her mind, and she could
+not help smiling at herself for her formal "our professor of English."
+
+Their footsteps led them into the garden and then through the apple
+orchard down by the little stream, and on to the beech woods.
+
+"I wonder why we are coming this way," thought Molly, trying to keep her
+mind off another walk she had taken over that same ground not so long
+ago.
+
+"Let's sit down here," said Jimmy, stopping under the great beech tree
+where Molly and Edwin had sat on that memorable day when he had spoken
+of his vision of the white-haired Molly, and then had stopped himself so
+suddenly with a joke about his own possible baldness.
+
+"Oh, not right here," said Molly hurriedly. "I know a nice rock a little
+farther on."
+
+"Molly, Miss Molly, Miss Brown!----Oh, Molly, darling, there is no use in
+going any farther because I know you know that I have brought you out
+here to tell you that I----"
+
+"Jimmy, please don't say anything more. It 'most kills me to hurt you."
+
+"Is there no hope for me? I'll wait a week, oh, I don't mean a week,
+I'll wait forever if there is a chance for me. I know this is a low
+question to ask you, but is there any one else?"
+
+Honest Molly hung her head. "Not exactly."
+
+That "not exactly" was enough for Jimmy. He smiled a wan little smile
+that would have put his Irish grandmother to shame.
+
+"Well, don't you mind, Miss Molly. I wouldn't have you feel blue about
+me for a million. You never did lead me on one little bit, and I was
+almost sure when I came to Kentucky that there would be nothing doing
+for yours truly; but somehow men are made so they have to make sure
+about such things. You and I have too much sense of the ridiculous to do
+any spiel about the brother and sister business, but I'll tell you one
+thing, I am your friend forever, and you must know that, and understand
+that as long as I live I'll hold myself in readiness to do your
+bidding."
+
+"Oh, Jimmy, you are so good and generous," holding out her hand to him,
+"I am your friend forever, and I hope we shall always see a lot of each
+other."
+
+Jimmy took her hand and for a moment bowed his curly black head over it.
+Molly put her other hand on his head, feeling somehow that it was like
+comforting Kent.
+
+"You are sure, Molly?"
+
+"Yes, Jimmy."
+
+"Well, le's go home. I know you are tired.
+
+  "'If no one ever marries me
+    I sha'n't mind very much;
+  I shall buy a squirrel in a cage,
+    And a little rabbit-hutch,'"
+
+sang the irrepressible.
+
+When Judy got back to Chatsworth she found Molly weeping her soul out on
+the pillow, and she had noticed as they passed the office porch that for
+once Jimmy Lufton was whistling in the minor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.--AUNT CLAY MAKES A MISTAKE.
+
+
+"Sister Ann, do you see any dust arising?" called Molly to Judy, who had
+actually climbed up on the gate post, hoping to see a little farther up
+the road, expecting the automobile from Louisville with her beloveds in
+it.
+
+"I see a little cloud and I hear a little buzzing. Oh, Molly, I believe
+it's them."
+
+"Is it, oh, Wellington graduate? Get your cases straight before they
+come or your father will think that diploma is a fake."
+
+"Grammar go hang," said Judy, performing a dangerous pas seul on the
+gate post and then jumping lightly down and racing up the avenue to meet
+the incoming automobile. Molly followed more slowly, never having been
+the sprinter that Judy was. Mr. Kean sprang from the car and lifted Judy
+off her feet in a regular bear hug.
+
+"Save a little for me, Bobby," piped the little lady mother. "Judy,
+Judy, it is too good to be true that we have got you at last, and I mean
+to keep you forever now, you slippery thing." And then they all of them
+got into the car and had a three-cornered hug. Molly came up with only
+enough breath to give them a cordial greeting, welcoming them to
+Chatsworth.
+
+"That is a very fine young man, your brother, who met us at the station,
+Miss Molly. Kent is his name? He recognized us by my likeness to you,
+Judy, so make your best bow and look pleased." In looking pleased, Judy
+did a great deal of unnecessary blushing which her mother noticed, but,
+mothers being different from fathers, said nothing about it.
+
+Mrs. Brown came hurrying down the walk to meet her guests. She was
+amused to see how much Judy resembled both her parents, although Mrs.
+Kean was so small and Mr. Kean so large. Mother and daughter were alike
+in their quick, extravagant speech, and a certain bird-like poise of the
+head, but father and daughter had eyes that might have been cut out of
+the same piece of gray and by the same pattern.
+
+"Where is your baggage? Surely Kent gave you my message and you are
+going to visit us?"
+
+"You have been so kind to my girl that I see no way but to let you be
+kind to us, too, and if we will not inconvenience you we will accept
+your invitation," said Mr. Kean. "As for baggage: Mrs. Kean is a dressy
+soul, but she only carries a doll trunk which holds all of her little
+frocks and fixings and even leaves a tiny tray for my belongings."
+
+He assisted his smiling wife to alight and then from the bottom of the
+car produced a wicker trunk that was really no bigger than a large
+suitcase, but much more dignified looking.
+
+"She says a trunk gives her a little more permanent feeling than a bag
+and makes a hotel room seem more homelike," went on Mr. Kean. Mrs. Brown
+thought that she had never heard such a pleasant voice and jolly laugh.
+
+"Judy, show your mother and father their room. I know they are tired and
+will want to rest before dinner."
+
+"Tired! Bless your soul, what have we done to be tired? We have been on
+a Pullman four nights, and that is when we get in rest enough for months
+to come. I know Julia will want to get at her doll trunk and change her
+traveling dress, but, if you will permit me, I shall stay down here with
+you. What a beautiful farm you have! How many acres in it?"
+
+"I have three hundred acres in all; two hundred under cultivation and in
+grass, fifty in woodland, and fifty that are not worth anything. It is a
+strange barren strip of land that my father had to take as a bad debt
+and I inherited from him. We graze some forlorn sheep on it, but they
+won't drink the water, and it is almost more trouble than they are worth
+to drive them to water on another part of the place."
+
+Mr. Kean listened intently. "I should like to see your farm, Mrs. Brown.
+Did you ever have the water on the barren strip analyzed?"
+
+"No, Mr. Brown thought of looking into it but never did, and I have had
+so many problems to solve and expenses to meet with my large and growing
+family that I have never thought of it any more."
+
+Mrs. Kean and Judy came down to join the others in a very short time,
+considering that Mrs. Kean had unpacked her tiny trunk and shaken out
+her little frocks and changed into a dainty pink gingham that looked as
+though it had just come from the laundry, showing no signs of having
+been packed for weeks.
+
+"What have you done to my Judy, Mrs. Brown? I have never seen her
+looking so well."
+
+"Fried chicken and candied sweet potatoes are the chief of my diet, and
+who would have the ingratitude not to show such keep?" laughed the
+daughter, pulling the little mother down on her lap and holding her as
+tenderly as though their relationship were reversed. "Robert and Julia,
+are you aware of the fact that your lady daughter has been a perfect
+lady since she came to these parts, and has got herself into no bad
+scrapes, and has not been saucy but once, and that was necessary? Wasn't
+it, Mrs. Brown?"
+
+"It certainly was. My old mammy used to tell me, 'Don' sass ole folks
+'til they fust sass you'; and Saint Paul says, 'Live peaceably with all
+men, as much as lieth in you.' When Judy felt called upon to speak out
+to Miss Hunt she had the gratitude of almost every one present."
+
+Professor Green joined them and, having made the Keans' acquaintance at
+Wellington, introductions were not necessary. That young man was in a
+very happy frame of mind as his hated rival that he had to like in spite
+of himself had taken an early train to Lexington; and there had been a
+dejected look to his back as he got into the buggy that Edwin Green
+decided could not belong to an accepted lover. Molly had a soft, sad
+look about her blue eyes, but certainly none of the elation of the newly
+engaged. He had held a cryptic conversation with Mrs. Brown that morning
+on the porch, in which he had gathered that the dear lady considered
+Molly singularly undeveloped for a girl her age; that any thought of her
+becoming engaged for at least a year was very distasteful to her mother;
+that her mind should be left free for the postgraduate course she was so
+soon to enter upon. But she very delicately gave him to understand that
+she liked him and that Molly also liked him more than any friend she
+had. The conversation left him slightly dazed, but also very calm and
+happy, liking Mrs. Brown even better than before and admiring her for
+her delicate tact and frankness that does not often combine with such
+diplomacy. His mail had come and he had no excuse for further delay, and
+had determined to go home on the following day.
+
+"Professor Green, I have been so long on the train that I feel the need
+of stretching my legs. Could you tear yourself away from these ladies
+long enough to show me around the farm?"
+
+"Indeed, I could; but maybe the ladies would like to come."
+
+"No, indeed," answered Mrs. Kean. "I know Bobbie's leg-stretching walks
+too well to have any desire to try to keep up with him. It is so
+pleasant and restful here, and Mrs. Brown, Molly, Judy and I can have a
+nice talk."
+
+The two gentlemen started off at a good pace.
+
+"Professor, I should like to see this barren strip of land Mrs. Brown
+tells me of. It sounds rather interesting to me. You know where it is,
+do you not?"
+
+"Yes; and, do you know, I was going to ask you to look at it and give
+your opinion about it. It has the look to me of possible oil fields. I
+haven't said anything to any of the family about it, as they are such a
+sanguine lot I was afraid of raising their hopes when nothing might come
+of it, but I had determined to have a talk with Kent before I left. He
+is the most level-headed member of the family, and would not fly off
+half-cocked. Miss Molly tells me they are contemplating selling this
+wonderful bit of beech woods. They have a good offer for it, but it is
+like selling members of the family to part with these trees."
+
+The two men walked on, discovering many things to talk about and finding
+each other vastly agreeable. Their walk led them through the beech
+woods, then through a growth of scrub pines and stunted oaks and
+blackberry bushes, until they gradually emerged into a hard stony valley
+sparsely covered with grass and broomsedge.
+
+"About as forlorn a spot as you can find in the whole of Kentucky, I
+fancy," said the younger man. "Its contrast with the beech woods we have
+just passed is about as great as that between Mrs. Brown and her sister,
+Mrs. Clay, who, with all due respect, is as rocky as this strip of
+barren land and as unattractive. She is the only person of whom I have
+ever heard Miss Molly and her brother Kent say anything unkind, and they
+cannot conceal their feeling against her. It seems that Mrs. Clay had
+the settling of her father's estate, and arranged matters so well for
+herself that Mrs. Brown's share turned out to be this stony strip. Mrs.
+Brown accepted it and refused to make a row, declaring that she would
+never have a disagreement with any member of her family about 'things.'
+She is a wonderful woman," added the professor, thinking of his talk of
+the morning.
+
+Mr. Kean stopped at the banks of a lonesome tarn, filled with black
+water with a greasy looking slime over it.
+
+"Look at those bubbles over there! Could they be caused by turtles? No,
+turtles could not live in this Dead Sea. Look, look! More and more of
+them. Watch that big one break! See the greasy ring he made!"
+
+He was so excited that Edwin Green smiled to see how alike father and
+daughter were, and was amused at himself for speaking of the Browns as
+being people who went off half-cocked to this man who was a hair trigger
+if ever there was one.
+
+Mr. Kean stooped over and scooped up some of the water in his hand. "'If
+my old nose don't tell no lies, seems like I smell custard pies.' Why,
+Green, smell this! It's simply reeking of petroleum! I bet that old Mrs.
+Clay will come to wish she had made a different division of her father's
+estate. Come on, let's go break the news to the Browns."
+
+"But are you certain enough? They may be disappointed," said the more
+cautious Edwin.
+
+"I am sure enough to want to send to Louisville immediately for a drill
+to test it. I have had a lot of experience with oil in various places
+and I am a regular oil wizard. You have heard of a water witch? My
+friends say that my nose has never played me false, and I can smell out
+oil lands that they would buy on the say-so of my scent as quickly as
+with the proof of a drill and pump. My, I'm glad for this good luck to
+come to these people who have been so good to my little girl."
+
+The two men were very much excited as they made their way back to the
+house.
+
+"It is funny the way oil crops up in unexpected places," said Mr. Kean.
+"There is very little of it in this belt, and for that reason Mrs. Brown
+should get a very good price for her land. I think it best for her to
+sell to the Trust as soon as possible. There is no use in fighting them.
+They are obliged to win out. They will be pretty square with her if she
+does not try to fight them. What a fine young fellow that Kent is! And
+as for Miss Molly, she is a corker! She has got my poor little wild
+Indian of a Judy out of dozens of scrapes at college. Judy always ends
+by telling us all about the terrible things that almost happened to her.
+She seems to me to be a little tamer, but maybe it is a strangeness from
+not seeing us for so long."
+
+Edwin Green had his own opinion about the reason for that seeming
+tameness, but he held his peace. He could not help seeing Kent's
+partiality for Miss Julia Kean, and had no reason to believe otherwise
+than that the young lady reciprocated. Love, or the possibility of
+loving, might be a great tamer for Judy. He was really not far from the
+mark. Judy was interested in Kent, very much so, but it was ambition
+that was steadying her and a determination to do something with the
+artistic talent that she was almost sure she possessed. Paris was her
+Mecca, and she was preparing herself to talk it out with her parents.
+They, poor grown-up children that they were, had no plans for their
+daughter's future. College had solved the problem for four years, but,
+now that that was over, what to do with her next? They loved to have her
+with them and had looked forward eagerly to the time when she could be
+with them, but after all was a railway camp the best place for a girl of
+Judy's stamp?
+
+"Mrs. Brown, what will you take for that barren strip of land over
+there?" said Mr. Kean, sinking into a chair on the porch where the
+ladies were still having their quiet talk.
+
+"Well, Mr. Kean, since it is not worth anything, and I have to pay taxes
+on it, I think I would give it away to any one who would promise to keep
+up the fences."
+
+"Can you get right-of-way through the adjoining place to the road behind
+you, where I see that a narrow-gauge railroad runs?"
+
+Mrs. Brown flushed and hesitated. "There is a lane connecting these two
+turnpikes older than the turnpikes themselves. My place does not go
+through to this narrow-gauge railroad that you saw this morning, but my
+father's old place, the Carmichael farm, now owned by my sister, Mrs.
+Clay, borders on both roads. This lane divides the two places as far as
+mine goes and then cuts through her place to the road behind. She has
+lately closed that lane, fenced it off and put it in corn."
+
+"Rather high-handed proceedings," growled Mr. Kean. "Did you protest?"
+
+"The boys went to see her about it, as it blocks their short cut to the
+Ohio River, where they go swimming, but she was so insulted at what she
+called their interference that I insisted upon their letting the matter
+drop. Paul, who always has insisted on his rights, went so far as to see
+a lawyer about it. His opinion was that Sister Sarah had no more right
+to fence off that lane than she would have to build a house in the
+middle of Main Street. But, if you knew my Sister Sarah, you would
+understand that if she decided to build a house in the middle of Main
+Street she would do it."
+
+"Perhaps she would if the Law were as ladylike as you are, Mrs. Brown,"
+laughed Mr. Kean, "but the Law happens to be not even much of a
+gentleman. What I wanted to get at was whether or not you had
+right-of-way, not way. You have the right if not the way. Now I am going
+to come to business with you. Did you know, my dear lady, that that
+despised strip of land is worth more than all of your fruitful acres put
+together, beech woods and apple orchard thrown in?" He jumped up from
+his chair, able to contain himself no longer, and in clarion tones
+literally shouted, "Lady, lady, you've struck oil, you've struck oil!"
+
+
+
+
+                                BOOK II.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--WELLINGTON AGAIN.
+
+
+"Wellington! Wellington!"
+
+Molly waked from her reverie with a start. It seemed only yesterday that
+she was coming to Wellington for the first time, "a greeny from
+Greenville, Green County," as she had been scornfully designated by a
+superior sophomore. She could vividly recall her arrival, a poor, tired,
+timid little girl in a shabby brown dress, with soot on her face and
+seemingly not a friend on earth. She smiled when she thought of how many
+friends she had made that first day, friends who had really stuck. First
+of all there had been dear old Nance Oldham; then Mary Stewart, who had
+taken her under her wing and looked after her like a veritable anxious
+hen-mother during the whole of her freshman year; then the vivid,
+scintillating Julia Kean, her own Judy; then Professor Green, who
+certainly had proved a friend. On looking back, it seemed that every one
+with whom she had come in contact on that day had done something nice
+for her and tried to help her. Mother had always told her that friends
+were already made for persons who really wanted them, made and ready
+with hands outstretched, and all you had to do was reach out and find
+your friend.
+
+Now, as before, the trainload of girls piled out at the pretty, trim
+little station, and there was dear old Mr. Murphy ready to look after
+the baggage, no easy job, as he declared, there being as many different
+kinds of trunks as there were young ladies. Molly shook his hand warmly,
+for, after all, he was really the very first friend she had made at
+Wellington. Her trunk being shabby had had no effect on his manner to
+her as a Freshman, but he noticed now that she had a new one and
+remarked on its elegance.
+
+"I simply had to have a new one, Mr. Murphy, 'the good old wagon done
+broke down.' It was old when I started in at Wellington, and four round
+trips have done for it."
+
+Next to Molly's big new trunk,--and this time it was a big one, as she
+had some new clothes and enough of them for about the first time in her
+life, and had bought a trunk with plenty of trays so as to pack them
+properly,--and snuggled up close to it as though for protection, was the
+strangest little trunk Molly had ever seen: calf-skin with the hair on
+it, spotted red and white, a little moth eaten in spots, with wrought
+iron hinges and a lock of great strength but of a simple, fine
+design--oak leaves with the key hole shaped like an acorn. A rope was
+tied tightly around it, reminding Molly of a halter dragging the poor
+little calf to slaughter.
+
+"Well, well, I haven't seen such a trunk as this since I left the ould
+counthry," said the baggage master, putting his hand fondly on the
+strange-looking trunk. "I'll bet the owner of this, Miss Molly, will
+have many a knock from some of the high-falutin' young ladies of
+Wellington. They haven't seen it yet, because it is hiding behind your
+grand new big one. I pray the Blessed Virgin that the poor little maid
+will find a strong friend to get behind and to look after her."
+
+Molly smiled at the old man's imagery, and thought, "What a race the
+Irish are! I am glad I have some of their blood."
+
+She turned at the sound of laughter and saw coming toward her as strange
+a figure as Wellington Station had ever sheltered, she was sure. A tall
+girl of about twenty years was approaching, dressed in a stiff blue
+homespun dress with a very wide gathered skirt and a tight basque (about
+the fashion of the early eighties), and a cheap sailor hat. In her hand
+she carried a bundle done up in a large, flowered, knotted handkerchief.
+Her hair was black and straight and coming down, but when your eyes once
+got to her face her clothes paled into insignificance, and Molly, for
+one, never gave them another thought. Imagine the oval of a Holbein
+Madonna; a clear olive skin; hazel eyes wide and dreamy; a broad low
+forehead with strongly marked brows; a nose of unusual beauty (there are
+so few beautiful noses in real life); and a determined mouth with a "do
+or die" expression. She came down the platform, head well up and an easy
+swinging walk, no more regarding the amused titter of the crowd of
+girls, separating to let her pass, than a St. Bernard dog would have
+noticed the yap of some toy poodles. On espying her trunk--of course it
+was hers, the little hair trunk with the wrought iron hinges and
+lock--she quickened her gait, as though to meet a friend, stooped over,
+picked it up, and swung it to her broad fine shoulder, more as though it
+had been a kitten than a calf. Turning to the astonished Molly, she said
+in a voice so sweet and full that it suggested the low notes of a
+'cello, "Kin you'uns tell me'uns whar--no, no, I mean--can you tell me
+where I can find the president?"
+
+"Indeed, I can," answered Molly. "I am going to see her myself just as
+soon as I get settled in my quarters in the Quadrangle, and if you will
+tell me where you are to be I will take you to your room and then come
+for you to go and see President Walker. Mr. Murphy, the baggage master,
+will attend to your trunk. You will see to this young lady's trunk soon,
+won't you, Mr. Murphy?"
+
+"The Saints be praised for answering the prayers of an ould man in such
+a hurry! Of course I will, Miss Molly; and where shall I be after
+sinding the little trunk, miss?"
+
+"I don't know until I see the president. I think I'll just keep my box
+with me. I can carry it myself. 'Tain't much to tote."
+
+"Oh, no, I wouldn't do that," said Molly, hardly able to keep back the
+laugh that she was afraid would come bubbling out in spite of her. "I
+tell you what you do: let Mr. Murphy keep your trunk until you find out
+where your room is to be, and in the meantime you come to my place; then
+as soon as you are located we can 'phone for it." The girl looked at her
+new-found friend with eyes for all the world like a trusting collie's,
+and silently followed her to the 'bus.
+
+"My name is Molly Brown, of Kentucky. Please tell me yours."
+
+"Kaintucky? Oh, I might have known it. I am Melissa Hathaway, and am
+pleased to make your acquaintance, Molly Brown of Kaintucky. I come from
+near Catlettsburg, Kaintucky, myself."
+
+"Well, we are from the same state and must be friends, mustn't we?"
+
+There were many curious glances cast at Molly's new friend, but the
+giggling at her strange clothes had stopped and the spell of her
+countenance had in a measure taken hold of the girls. Molly spoke to
+many friends, but she missed her intimates and wondered where Nance was,
+and if any of the others were coming back for the postgraduate course.
+At the thought of Nance she smiled, knowing just how she would take her
+befriending this mountain girl. She would be cold at first and perhaps a
+bit scornful in her ladylike way, and end by being as good as gold to
+her, and perhaps even making her some proper clothes.
+
+The door at No. 5 Quadrangle was ajar and Molly could see Nance flitting
+back and forth getting things to rights. What a busy soul she was and
+how good it was to know she was already there! The girls were soon
+locked in each other's arms, so overjoyed to be together again that
+Molly for a moment forgot her guest; and Nance did not see her as she
+stood in the doorway, a silent witness to the enthusiastic meeting of
+the chums.
+
+"Oh, Melissa, what am I thinking of, leaving you standing there so long?
+You must excuse me. Nance Oldham and I always behave this way when we
+get back in the fall; and now I want to introduce you two. Miss Oldham,
+this is my new friend, Miss Hathaway, also of Kentucky."
+
+Nance shook hands with the quaint-looking new friend and awaited an
+explanation, which she knew would be forthcoming from Molly as soon as
+she could get a chance. Melissa was quiet and composed, taking in
+everything in the room. Her eyes lingered hungrily on the books that
+Nance had already arranged on the shelves, and then rested in a kind of
+trance on the pictures that Nance had unpacked and hung.
+
+"Nance, I have some biscuit and fudge in my grip, if you could scare up
+some tea. I am awfully hungry, and I fancy Miss Hathaway could eat a
+little something before we go to look up the president. She does not
+know where her room is to be, and I asked her to come with us until she
+is located."
+
+"You are very kind to me, and your treating me so well makes me feel as
+though I were back in the mountains. We-uns--I mean we always try to be
+good to strangers, back where I come from."
+
+Nance was drawn to the girl as Molly had been.
+
+"She knows how to sit still, and waits until she has something to say
+before she says anything," thought the analytical Nance. "I believe I am
+going to like Molly's 'lame duck' this time; and, goodness me, how
+beautiful she is!"
+
+Melissa was glad to get her tea, having been in a day coach all night
+with nothing but a cold lunch to keep body and soul together until she
+got to Wellington. Nance noticed that she knew how to hold her cup
+properly and ate like a lady; her English, too, was good as a rule, with
+occasional lapses into the mountain vernacular. The girls were curious
+about her, but did not like to question her, and she said nothing about
+herself.
+
+Tea over, they went to call on the president, leaving Nance to go on
+with her "feminine touches," as Judy used to call her arrangements.
+
+Miss Walker was very glad to see Molly, kissing her fondly and calling
+her "Molly." "It is good, indeed, to have you back. Every Wellington
+girl who comes back for the postgraduate course gives me a compliment
+better than a gift of jewels. And this is Miss Melissa Hathaway? I have
+been expecting you, and to think that you should have fallen to the care
+of Molly Brown on your very first day at college! You are to be
+congratulated, Miss Hathaway. Molly Brown's friendship keeps one from
+all harm, like the kiss of a good fairy on one's brow. Molly, if you
+will excuse me, I shall take Miss Hathaway into my office first and have
+a talk with her and shall see you later."
+
+Molly was blushing with pleasure over the praise from Prexy, and was
+glad to sit in the quiet room awaiting her turn.
+
+Melissa was closeted for some time with the president, and in the
+meantime the waiting-room began to fill with students, some of them
+newcomers tremblingly awaiting the ordeal of an interview with the
+august head of Wellington; others, like Molly, looking forward with
+pleasure to a chat with an old friend. Melissa came back alone with a
+message for Molly to come in to Miss Walker, and told her that she was
+to wait, as the president wished Molly to show the stranger her room.
+
+"Molly Brown, how did you happen to be the one to look after this girl?
+It seems providential."
+
+"Well, Mr. Murphy attributes it to himself, and declares it is the
+direct answer to his prayers," laughed Molly, and told Miss Walker of
+the little calf trunk and the old baggage master's sentimentality about
+it.
+
+"I am going to read you part of a letter concerning Melissa Hathaway,
+and that will explain her and her being at Wellington better than any
+words of mine. This letter is from an old graduate, a splendid woman who
+has for years been doing a kind of social settlement work in the
+mountains of Virginia and Kentucky.
+
+  "'I am sending you the first ripe fruit from the orchard that I
+  planted at least ten years ago in this mountain soil. You must not
+  think it is a century plant I am tending. I gather flowers every day
+  that fully repay me for my labor here, but, alas, flowers do not
+  always come to fruit. Melissa Hathaway is without doubt one of the
+  most remarkable young women I have ever known, and has repaid me for
+  the infinite pains I have taken with her, and will repay every one
+  by being a success. She comes from surroundings that the people of
+  cities could hardly dream of, in spite of the slums that are, of
+  course, worse because of their crowded condition and lack of air.
+  But in these mountain cabins you find a desolation and ignorance
+  that is appalling, but at the same time a rectitude and intelligence
+  that astonish you; and unbounded hospitality.
+
+  "'A generation ago the Hathaways were rather well-to-do, for the
+  mountains; that is, they owned a cow and some hogs and chickens and
+  did not sleep in the kitchen, but had a second room and some twenty
+  beautiful home-made quilts. A feud wiped almost the whole family off
+  the face of the earth. Melissa's father, grandfather and three
+  uncles were killed in a raid by their mortal enemies, the Sydneys,
+  and the grandmother and Melissa were the only ones left to tell the
+  tale. (Her young mother died in giving birth to Melissa.) Melissa
+  was eight years old at the time of the wholesale tragedy, which
+  occurred a few days before I came here to take up my life work. I
+  went to old Mrs. Hathaway's cabin as soon as I could make my way
+  across the mountain. The old woman received me with dignity and
+  reserve, but some suspicion. I asked her to let Melissa come to
+  school. She was rather eager for her to learn, since she was nothing
+  but a miserable girl. She was bitter on the subject of Melissa's
+  sex. "Ter think of my bringing forth man-child after man-child, and
+  here in my old age not a thing but this puny little gal ter look to,
+  ter shoot down those dogs of Sydneys!"
+
+  "'This child of eight (Melissa is now eighteen, but looks older),
+  came to school every day rain or shine, walking three miles over the
+  worst trail you have ever imagined. Her eagerness for knowledge was
+  something pathetic. I realized from the beginning that she had a
+  very remarkable intellect and gave her every chance for cultivation
+  and preparation for college, determined that my Alma Mater should
+  have the final hand in her education if it could be managed. And
+  now, managed it is by a scholarship presented to my now flourishing
+  school by the Mountain Educational Association. I am sorry her
+  clothes are not quite what my beautiful Melissa should have, but she
+  would not accept a penny for clothes from any of the funds that I
+  sometimes have at my disposal. "Money for my education is
+  different," she said. "I mean to bring all of that back to the
+  mountains and give it to my people, but I cannot let any one spend
+  money on clothes for me. They would burn my back unless I earned
+  them myself." She was that way from the time she first came to me. I
+  remember she had a green skirt and an old black basque of her
+  grandmother's, belted in on her slim little figure. I wanted all of
+  my pupils to have a change of clothing, as from the first I was
+  trying to teach cleanliness and hygiene along with the three R's. I
+  asked the children one day to let me know if they had two of
+  everything. Melissa stood up and proudly raised her hand. "Please,
+  Miss Teacher, we'uns is got two dresses; one ain't got no waist and
+  one ain't got no skirt, but they is two dresses."
+
+  "'I know that my dear Miss Walker will do her best to place my girl
+  where she can make some friends and not get too homesick for her
+  mountains. I wish she had clothes more like other people, but, since
+  she is what she is, I fancy the clothes in the long run will not
+  make much difference.'
+
+"That is all of interest to you," concluded Miss Walker. "Miss Hathaway
+is, to say the least, a very remarkable young woman. Her entrance
+examination was unconditioned. And now to get her into a suitable room!
+I had expected to put her in one over the postoffice, but she would be
+so isolated there. I wish she could have the singleton near you in the
+Quadrangle. I, too, have some funds at my disposal that would enable me
+to give her one of these more expensive rooms, but do you think she
+would accept it?"
+
+Molly, rather amused at being asked by Prexy herself to decide what to
+do with this proud girl, smilingly answered, "I am proud myself, but
+lots of things have been done for me without my knowing about it, and
+when I do find out I am not hurt but pleased to feel that my friends
+want to help me. I can't remember being insulted yet."
+
+"Well, my child, if I have your sanction about a little mild deceit, I
+think I'll put Miss Hathaway in the singleton near you. I believe she is
+going to be a credit to Wellington. Kentucky has been good to us,
+indeed."
+
+"I'll do all I can to help Melissa," said Molly, her eyes still misty
+over the letter concerning the childhood of the mountain girl. "She
+interests me deeply."
+
+Then Molly and Miss Walker plunged into a talk about what Molly was to
+study. English Literature and Composition were of course the big things,
+but she was also anxious to take up some special work in Domestic
+Science, a new and very complete equipment having been recently
+installed at Wellington and a highly recommended teacher, a graduate
+from the Boston school, being in charge.
+
+"Miss Hathaway is to do work on that line, too, and I fancy you will be
+put into the same division. She is preparing herself to help her
+mountain people, and I think they need domestic science even more than
+they do higher mathematics."
+
+Molly escorted Melissa to her small room in the Quadrangle, where she
+was duly and gratefully installed. Her shyness was passing off with
+Nance and Molly, and now they noticed that she never made the slips into
+the mountain vernacular. But on meeting strangers, or when embarrassed
+in any way, she would unconsciously drop into it, and then become more
+embarrassed. She never let herself off, but always bit her lip and
+quickly repeated her remark in the proper English.
+
+"She is really almost as foreign as little Otoyo Sen," said Nance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--LEVITY IN THE LEAVEN.
+
+
+"Molly, do you know you are a grown-up lady?" asked Nance a few days
+after they had settled themselves and were back in the grind of work. "I
+have been seeing it in all kinds of ways; firstly, you have gained in
+weight."
+
+"Only three pounds, and that could not show much, spread over such a
+large area," laughed Molly.
+
+"Well, you look more rounded, somehow. Then I notice you keep your pumps
+on and don't kick them off every time you sit down; and when you do sit
+down you don't always lie down as you used to do. Now, I have always
+been a grown-up little old lady, but you were a child when you left
+college last June, and now you are a beautiful, dignified woman."
+
+"Nonsense, Nance, I am exactly the same. I don't kick off my pumps
+because I might have a hole in the toe of my stocking, and I don't lie
+down when I sit down because of my good tailored skirt. You are just
+fancying things. I am the same old kid. It is thanks to Judy that I have
+the tailor-made dress and the other things that make me feel grown-up.
+You see, my family have always had an idea that I did not care for
+clothes just because I wore the old ones without complaining. One day
+Kent spoke of my indifference to clothes to Judy, and she fired up and
+told him I did love clothes and would like to have pretty ones more than
+any girl she knew of; that I pretended to be indifferent just to carry
+off the old ones with grace. Kent was very much astonished and the dear
+boy insisted on my going into Louisville before Judy left and having a
+good tailor make me two dresses, this blue one for every day and my
+lovely best gray. I was so afraid of hurting Miss Lizzie Monday's
+feelings (she is the little old seamstress who has made my clothes ever
+since I was born); but Kent fixed that up by going to see Miss Lizzie
+himself, asking her advice and requesting her company into Louisville,
+where we did the shopping and interviewed the tailor, had lunch at the
+Watterson and took in a show in the afternoon. Miss Lizzie had the time
+of her life and was as much pleased over my having some good clothes as
+I am myself. Dear old Kent had to draw on his savings that he is putting
+by with a view to taking a finishing course on architecture, but mother
+says she is going to reimburse him just as soon as there is a settlement
+made for the oil lands we are selling."
+
+"Do you know, Molly, when I got your letter telling me about Mr. Kean's
+nosing out oil on your place, I was so happy and excited that I began to
+cry and got my nose so red I had to skip a lecture at Chautauqua, which
+shocked my mother greatly. To think of your dear mother having an income
+that will make her comfortable and independent!"
+
+"Mother does not seem to be greatly elated over it. She is very glad to
+pay off the mortgage on Chatsworth; relieved that we shall not have to
+sell our beautiful beech woods; but money means less to my mother than
+any one in the world, I do believe. Why, talking about my being a kid, I
+was born more grown-up than my mother, in some ways. It's the Irish in
+her. The Irish are all children."
+
+Molly had very cleverly got Nance off of the subject of there being a
+change in her, but Nance was right. Molly was older, and she felt it
+herself. The summer had been an eventful one for her and had left her
+older and wiser. Mildred's marriage; Jimmy Lufton's proposal, or near
+proposal; the family's change of fortune; Professor Green's evident
+preference for her society; all these things had combined to sober her
+in a way.
+
+"I am as limber as ever, and don't feel my age in my 'jints,' but I am
+getting on," thought Molly. "Nance sees it, and I wonder if Professor
+Green notices it. He seemed a little stiff with me, but seeing him for
+the first time in class might account for that."
+
+The class in Domestic Science was proving of tremendous interest both to
+Molly and Melissa. Melissa had much to learn and Molly much to un-learn.
+It was a special course, and for that reason girls from all classes were
+mixed in it. There were quite a number of Juniors, and Molly was sorry
+to see Anne White among them, as she had been on the platform at
+Wellington when Melissa arrived, and, in the quiet way for which she was
+famous in making trouble, had been the one to start the titter that had
+grown, as that seemingly unconscious young goddess made her way down the
+platform, into a wave of laughter. Melissa had been fully aware of the
+amusement she had caused, but she had borne no malice against the
+thoughtless girls.
+
+"I reckon I was a figure of fun to these rich girls," Melissa said to
+Molly, "but I know they did not mean to be unkind; and if they knew what
+it means to me to come to college perhaps they would look at me
+differently. Anyhow, you were so nice to me from the very minute I spoke
+to you; and even before I spoke, Molly, dear, because I saw your sweet
+eyes taking me in as I came up the platform between the rows of grinning
+students. And I said to myself, 'All these are just second-growth timber
+and don't count for much. That girl with the blue eyes and the pretty
+red hair looking at me so kindly is the only tree here that is worth
+much.' And somehow I have been resting in the shade of your branches
+ever since."
+
+This little conversation was held one morning as the girls were getting
+their materials ready for some experimental bread-making. A tremendously
+interesting lecture on yeast had preceded it, and now was to be followed
+by various chemical experiments. The lecturer had not arrived, but had
+appointed certain students to get the materials in order.
+
+Anne White was one of the monitors, and was moving around in a demure
+way, daintily setting out the little bowls of flour and portions of
+yeast. Anne White was a small, mousy-looking, brown-haired young woman
+who looked as though butter would not melt in her mouth, but who was in
+reality often the ring-leader in many foolish escapades. She was a great
+practical joker, and when all is told a practical joker is a very trying
+person, and very often a person lacking in true humor. As she placed the
+bowls of yeast, she sang the following song with many sly looks at Molly
+and her friend:
+
+  "The first time I saw Melissa,
+  She was sitting in the cellar,
+  Sitting in the cellar shelling peas.
+  And when I stooped to kiss her,
+  She said she'd tell her mother,
+  For she was such an awful little tease.
+    Oh, wasn't she sweet? You bet she was,
+  She couldn't have been any sweeter.
+    Oh, wasn't she cute? You bet she was,
+  She couldn't have been any cuter.
+  For when I stooped to kiss her,
+  She said she'd tell her mother,
+  For she was such an awful little tease."
+
+The singing was so evidently done for Melissa's benefit that Molly felt
+indignant.
+
+"I can't stand teasing, and certainly not such silly teasing as Anne
+White delights in. She is a slippery little thing, and I have an idea
+means mischief for my Melissa. I wish Judy were here to circumvent her,
+but since she is not I shall have to keep my eye open." So thought
+Molly, and accordingly opened her eyes just in time to see Anne White
+raise the cover of Melissa's bowl of flour and drop in something. The
+instructor came in just then and the class came to order.
+
+"It can't do any real harm," thought Molly, "because we don't have to
+eat our messes, but if it is something to embarrass Melissa I shall have
+a talk with Anne White that she will remember all her days. She knows
+Melissa and I are not the kind to blab on her, the reason she is
+presuming in this way."
+
+Miss Morse, the Domestic Science teacher, was so exactly like the
+advertisements in the magazines of various foodstuffs that one was
+forced to smile. She was always dressed in immaculate linen, and, as she
+would stand at her desk and hold out a sample of material with which she
+was going to demonstrate, her smile and expression were always those of
+the lady who says, "Use this and no other." She was thoroughly in
+earnest, however, and scientific, and her lectures on Domestic Economy
+were really thrilling to Molly, who always took an interest in household
+affairs and was astonished to find out what a waste was going on in all
+American homes. Melissa listened to every word, and felt that the
+knowledge she was gaining in this branch of college work was perhaps the
+most necessary of all to take back to her mountain people.
+
+Miss Morse had the most wonderful and capable hands that were ever seen.
+She was never known to spill anything or slop over; she used her scales
+and measures with the precision of an analytical chemist; and, no matter
+how complicated the experiment, there were no extra, useless utensils.
+This in itself is worth coming to college to learn, as I have never
+known a girl make a plate of fudge without getting every pan in the
+kitchen dirty. Later on in the course of lectures this wonderful woman
+actually killed a fowl and picked and dressed it right before the eyes
+of the astonished girls, without making a spot on her dress or on the
+cloth spread on her desk, and she did not even turn back her linen
+cuffs.
+
+"I wish Ca'line could see that," thought Molly on that occasion, a
+picture of the chicken pickin' in the back yard at Chatsworth coming
+before her mind's eye, with feathers flying hither and yon and Ca'line
+herself covered with gore.
+
+"Now, young ladies," said the precise Miss Morse, "enough flour is given
+each one for a small loaf of bread; the right amount of water is
+measured out; salt and sugar; lard and yeast. You have the correct
+material for a perfect loaf. This is a demonstration of yesterday's
+lecture. Remember, salt retards the action of yeast and must not be put
+in until the yeast plant has begun to grow. Sugar promotes the growth
+and can be placed in the warm water with the yeast."
+
+The students went eagerly to work like so many children with their mud
+pies. In due course of time each little loaf was made out and put at
+exactly the right temperature to rise. Miss Morse explained to them the
+different methods of bread-making and the fallacy of thinking that good
+bread-making is due to luck. Molly smiled in remembering what dear old
+Aunt Mary had said about remembering to put the gumption in.
+
+While the bread was rising and baking the girls were allowed to work on
+their Domestic Science problem, a pretty difficult one requiring all
+their faculties: it was how to feed a family consisting of five, mother
+and father and three children, on ten dollars for one week. The market
+price of food was given and their menus were to be worked out with
+regard to the amount of nourishment to be gained as well as the
+suitability of food. Miss Morse told them they would have to study
+pretty hard to do it, but it was splendid practice. Poor Melissa was
+having a hard time. In the first place, she knew so little about food,
+having been brought up so very simply, and then, she confided to Molly,
+she was very much worried about her loaf of bread because it didn't do
+just right.
+
+Finally the time was up, and the bread, too, according to science,
+should have been up and ready to bake. The monitors were requested to
+place the loaves in the gas ovens, already tested and proved to be of
+proper temperature. The problems, meantime, must be completed at once
+and handed in.
+
+A wail from Melissa on the aside to Molly: "Oh, Molly, Molly, I have got
+my family all fed for six days, and I forgot Sunday. Not a cent of money
+left from all of that ten dollars, and I have known whole families live
+for a month on less in the mountains! What shall I do?"
+
+"I tell you," said Molly, stopping a minute to think, "have them all
+invited out to Sunday dinner and let them eat no breakfast in
+anticipation of the good things they are expecting; and let the dinner
+be so delicious and plentiful that they can't possibly want any supper."
+
+"Good," said Melissa, ever appreciative of Molly's suggestions, "I'll do
+that very thing." And so she did; and Miss Morse was so amused that she
+let it pass as a very good paper, as indeed it was.
+
+All of the little loaves were baked and placed in front of the girls,
+the pans being numbered so that each loaf returned to its trembling
+maker. It was strange that in spite of science the loaves did not look
+exactly alike. Molly's was beautiful, but had she not had her hand in
+Aunt Mary's dough ever since she could climb up to the table and cut out
+little "bis'it wif a thimble"? Some of them looked bumpy and some
+stringy, but poor Melissa's was a strange dark color and had not risen.
+
+"Miss Hathaway, did you follow the directions in your experiment?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Morse, to the best of my ability," answered Melissa. And,
+then flushing and becoming excited, she dropped into her familiar
+mountain speech. "Some low-down sneak has drapped some sody in we'un's
+pannikin. I mean, oh, I mean, some ill-bred person has put saleratus in
+my little bowl. I have been raised on too much saleratus in the bread,
+and I know it." And the proud mountain girl, who had not minded the
+laughter caused by her appearance, burst into tears over the failure of
+her bread-making and fled from the room.
+
+Miss Morse was shocked and sorry that such a scene should have occurred
+in her class, but was determined to investigate the matter. She
+dismissed the class without a word; but, as Molly was leaving the room,
+she requested her to stop a moment.
+
+"Miss Brown, this is a very unfortunate thing to have occurred in this
+class. Domestic Science seems to be an easy prey to the practical joke,
+and when once it is started it is a difficult matter to weed out. I am
+particularly sorry for it to have been played on Miss Hathaway, who is
+so earnest and anxious to learn. Miss Walker has told me much about her,
+and the girl's appearance alone is fine enough to interest one. I could
+not help seeing by your countenance, which is a very speaking one, my
+dear, that you knew something about this so-called joke. Now, Miss
+Brown, I ask you as a friend to tell me what you know, and, if you are
+not willing, I demand it of you as an instructor and member of the
+faculty of Wellington."
+
+Molly, who had been as pale as death ever since Melissa's mortification
+and outbreak, now flushed crimson, held her breath a minute to get
+control of her voice, and then answered with as much composure as she
+could muster: "Miss Morse, I have gone through four years at Wellington
+and have happened to know of a great many scrapes the different students
+have got themselves in, but never yet have I been known to tell tales,
+and I could hardly start now. I do know who did the dastardly trick, and
+am glad that Melissa had recourse to her native dialect to express her
+feelings about the person who was mean enough to do it; 'low-down sneak'
+is exactly what she was."
+
+"Very well, Miss Brown, if you refuse to divulge the name of the joker,
+I shall be forced to take the matter up with the president. I hoped we
+could settle it in the class. This department being a new one at
+Wellington, and also my first experience at teaching, I naturally have
+some feeling about making it go as smoothly as possible." This time Miss
+Morse was flushed and her lip trembling.
+
+Molly felt truly sorry for her, and suddenly realized that Miss Morse,
+with all of her assurance, was little more than a girl herself. As for
+taking it up with the president, Molly smiled when she remembered the
+time Miss Walker had tried to make her tell, and when she had refused
+how Miss Walker had hugged her.
+
+"Oh, Miss Morse, I am so sorry for you, and wish, almost wish, some one
+had seen the offence besides myself, some one who would not mind
+telling; but I truly can't tell, somehow I am not made that way. There
+is something I can do, though, and that is, go call on the person myself
+and put it up to her to refrain from any more jokes in your class. I
+meant to see her, anyhow, and warn her to let my Melissa alone."
+
+"Would you do that? I think that would be all that is necessary, and I
+need not inform the president. I thank you, Miss Brown. You do not know
+how this has disturbed me."
+
+"Too much 'sody' in the bread is a very disturbing thing," laughed
+Molly. "I remember a story they tell on my grandfather. He had an old
+cook who was very fond of making buttermilk biscuit, and equally fond of
+putting too much soda in them. He stood it for some time, but one
+morning when they were brought to breakfast as green as poor Melissa's
+loaf, grandpa sent for the cook and made her eat the whole panful.
+Needless to add, she was cured of the soda habit. It would be a great
+way to cure the would-be joker if we made her eat Melissa's sad loaf."
+
+Molly did see Anne White that very afternoon, making a formal call on
+her and giving that mousy young woman a talk that made her cry and
+promise to play no more jokes in Domestic Science class, and to
+apologize to Melissa for the mortification she had caused her. Molly
+told her something about Melissa and the struggle and sacrifices she had
+made to get her education, and before she had finished Anne White was as
+much interested in the mountain girl and as anxious for her to succeed
+as Molly herself. She promised to help her all she could, and a Junior
+can do a great deal to help a Freshman. Molly was astonished to find
+that Anne White was really rather likable. She had a mistaken sense of
+fun, but was not really unkind.
+
+Melissa had too much to do to brood long over her outbreak, and laughed
+and let the matter drop out of her mind when the following apology was
+poked under her door:
+
+  "My Dear Miss Hathaway: I am truly sorry to have caused you so much
+  mortification in the Domestic Science class. It was a very foolish,
+  thoughtless act, and I hope you will accept my apology. I wish I had
+  found such a friend in my freshman year as you have in Molly Brown.
+
+                                                   "Sincerely yours,
+                                               "'A Low-Down Sneak.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.
+
+
+Molly and Nance were very busy with their special courses, Nance working
+at French literature as though she had no other interest in the world,
+and Molly at English and Domestic Science.
+
+"Thank goodness, I shall not have to tutor! Since we 'struck ile' I am
+saved that," said Molly one day to her roommate, who was as usual
+occupied, in spite of its being "blind man's holiday," too early to
+light the gas and too late to see without it. "Nance, you will put out
+your eyes with that mending. I never saw such a busy bee as you are.
+Melissa tells me you are going to help her with a dress, too."
+
+"Yes, I am so glad she will let me. I told her how we made the Empire
+gown for you in your Freshman year, and she seemed to feel that if her
+dear Molly allowed that much to be done for her, it was not for her to
+object to a similar favor. I know you will laugh when I tell you that I
+am going to get a one-piece dress and an extra skirt for shirtwaists out
+of the blue homespun. It is beautiful material, spun with an
+old-fashioned spinning wheel and woven on a hand loom by Melissa's
+grandmother. Did you ever see so much goods in one dress? It seems that
+the dear woman who has taught her everything she knows has not had any
+new clothes herself for ten years, and could not give her much idea of
+the prevailing fashion; and Melissa made this dress herself from a
+pattern her mother had used for her wedding dress. I hate to cut it up.
+It seems a kind of desecration, but Melissa has a splendid figure and if
+her clothes were not quite so voluminous she would be as stylish as any
+one. She improves every day in many ways and seems to be less shy."
+
+"She has an instinct for good literature. Professor Green tells me her
+taste is unerring. He says it is because her preference is for the
+simple, and the simple is always the best. Little Otoyo has the same
+feeling for the best in poetry. Haven't we missed that little Jap,
+though? I'll be so glad to have her back. I fancy I shall have some
+tutoring to do in spite of myself to get Otoyo Sen up with her class."
+
+Otoyo Sen, the little Japanese girl who had played such a close part in
+the college life of our girls, had been back in Japan, and had not been
+able to reach America in time for the opening weeks of college, due to
+some business engagements of her father. But she was trusting to Molly
+and her own industry to catch up with her class, and was hurrying back
+to Wellington as fast as the San Francisco Limited could bring her.
+
+Molly had been writing every moment that she could spare from her hard
+reading, and now she had two things she really wanted to show Professor
+Green--a story she had worked on for weeks until it seemed to be part of
+her, and a poem. She had sent the poem to a magazine and it had been
+rejected, accompanied by a letter which she could not understand. At all
+times in earlier days she had gone frankly to the professor's study to
+ask him for advice, but this year she could hardly make up her mind to
+do it.
+
+"He is as kind as ever to me, but somehow I can't make up my mind to run
+in on him as I used to," said Molly to herself. "I know I am a silly
+goose--or is it perhaps because I am so grown up? It is only five o'clock
+this minute, it gets dark so early in November, and I have half a mind
+to go now." The temperament that goes with Molly's coloring usually
+means quick action following the thought, so in a moment Molly had on
+her jacket and hat. "Nance, I am going to see Professor Green about some
+things I have been writing. I won't be late, but don't wait tea for me.
+Melissa may be in to see us, but you will take care of her, I know."
+
+There was a rather tired-sounding, "Come in," at Molly's knock on
+Professor Green's study door.
+
+"Oh, dear, now I am going to bore him!" thought the girl. "I have half a
+mind to run back through the passage and get out into the Cloister
+before he has a chance to open the door and see who was knocking. But
+that would be too foolish for a postgraduate! I'd better run the risk of
+boring him rather than have him think I am some one playing a foolish
+Sophomore joke, or even a timid little Freshman, afraid to call her soul
+her own."
+
+"Come in, come in. Is any one there?" called the voice rather briskly
+for the usually gentle professor. And before Molly could open the door
+it was actually jerked open. "Dearest Molly!--I mean, Miss Molly--I
+thought you were going to be some one else. The fact is, I have had a
+regular visitation from would-be poets this afternoon, and, as it never
+rains but it pours, I had a terrible feeling that it was another one. I
+am so glad to see you; not just because you are not what I feared you
+were, but because you are you."
+
+Molly blushed crimson and tried to hide the little roll of manuscript
+behind her, but the young man saw it and kicked himself mentally for a
+rash, talking idiot.
+
+"I can't come in, thank you. I just stopped by to--to----I just thought I'd
+ask you when your sister was coming."
+
+"Oh, Molly Brown, what a poor prevaricator you do make! You know
+perfectly well you have written something you want me to see; and you
+also know, or ought to know, that I want to see what you have written
+above everything; and what I said about would-be poets had nothing to do
+with you and me. The fact is, I am a would-be myself and have been
+working on a sonnet this afternoon instead of looking over the thousand
+themes that I must have finished before to-morrow's lecture. I had just
+got the eighth line completed when you knocked, and the six others will
+be easy. Please come in and take off your hat, and I'll get Mrs. Brady
+to make us some tea; and while the kettle is boiling you can show me
+what you have been doing, and when I get my other six lines to my sonnet
+done I'll show it to you."
+
+Molly of course had to comply with a request made with so much
+kindliness and sincerity. Mrs. Brady came, in answer to the professor's
+bell which connected his study with his house, and was delighted to see
+Molly, remembering with great pleasure the Christmas breakfast the young
+girl had cooked for Professor Green the year before. Molly had a way
+with her that appealed to old people as well as young, and she had won
+Mrs. Brady's heart on that memorable morning by telling her that she,
+too, boasted of Irish blood.
+
+"And I might have known it, from the sweet tongue in your head," Mrs.
+Brady had replied.
+
+The old woman hastened off to make the tea, and Molly reluctantly
+unrolled her manuscript.
+
+"Professor Green, I want you to think of me as some one you do not know
+or like when you read my stuff."
+
+"That is a very difficult task you have set me, and I am afraid one that
+I am unequal to; but I do promise to be unbiased and to give you my real
+opinion, and you must not be discouraged if it is not favorable,
+because, after all, it is worth very little."
+
+"I think it is worth a lot. This first thing is something I have been
+working on very hard. It is called 'The Basket Funeral.' I remembered
+what you told me about trying to write about familiar things, and then,
+on reading the 'Life and Letters of Jane Austen,' I came on her advice
+to a niece who was contemplating a literary career. It was, 'Send your
+characters where you have never been yourself, but never take them.' I
+had never been out of Kentucky, except to row across the Ohio River to
+Indiana, when I came to Wellington, and so I put my story in Kentucky
+with Aunt Mary as my heroine. Now be as hard on me as you want to. I can
+stand it."
+
+There was perfect silence in the pleasant study while Edwin Green
+carefully perused the well-written manuscript. An occasional involuntary
+chuckle was all that broke the quiet when one of Aunt Mary's witticisms
+brought back the figure of the old darkey to his mind. When he had
+finished, which was in a very few minutes, as the sketch was a short
+one, he carefully rolled the paper and remained silent. Molly felt as
+though she would scream if he did not say something, but not a word did
+he utter, only sat and rolled the manuscript and smiled an inscrutable
+smile. Finally she could stand it no longer.
+
+"I am sorry to have bothered you, Professor Green. I know it is hard for
+you to have to tell me the truth, so I won't ask you." She reached for
+the roll of paper, her hand shaking a little with excitement.
+
+"Oh, please excuse me. Do you know, I took you at your word and forgot I
+knew you, and forgot how much I liked you; forgot everything in fact but
+Aunt Mary and the 'Basket Funeral.' My dear girl, you have done a
+wonderful little bit of writing, simple, natural, sincere. I
+congratulate you and envy you."
+
+And what should Molly do, great, big, grown-up postgraduate that she
+was, but behave exactly as the little Freshman had four years before
+when this same august professor had rescued her from the locked
+Cloisters: she burst into tears. At that crucial moment the rattle of
+tea cups was heard as Mrs. Brady came lumbering down the hall, and Molly
+had to compose herself and make out she had a bad cold.
+
+"Have some hot soup," said the young man, and both of them laughed.
+
+"It was natural for me to blubber, after all," said Molly, after Mrs.
+Brady had taken her departure. "When you sat there so still, with your
+lips so tightly closed, I felt exactly as I did four years ago, shut out
+in the cold with all the doors locked; and when you finally spoke it was
+like coming into your warm pleasant study again with you being kind to
+me just as you were to the little scared Freshman. Do you know, I like
+my picture of Aunt Mary, too, and when I thought you didn't like it I
+felt forlorn indeed."
+
+"I notice one thing, Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky doesn't cry until
+everything is over. The little Freshman didn't blubber while she was
+locked out, but waited until she got into the pleasant study, and now
+the ancient postgrad is able to restrain her tears until the awful ogre
+of a critic praises her work. Now let's have another cup of tea all
+around and show me what else you have brought."
+
+"I hesitate to show you this more than the other thing, after your
+cutting remarks about would-bes. But I want you to read this so you can
+tell me what this letter means that I got from the editor of a magazine,
+when he politely returned my rejected poem."
+
+"Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind? Poetry should always be read
+aloud, I think; and afterward I will see what I think the editor meant."
+
+[Illustration: "Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?"--Page 218.]
+
+"All right, but I am afraid it is getting late and Nance will worry
+about me."
+
+The study was cosy indeed with its rows and rows of books, its
+comfortable chairs and the cheerful open grate. This was his one
+extravagance in a land of furnace heat and drum stoves, so Edwin Green
+declared. "But somehow the glow of the fire makes me think better," he
+said in self-defence.
+
+Molly read any poetry well, her voice with its musical quality being
+peculiarly adapted to it. This was her poem:
+
+  "My thoughts like gentle steeds to-day
+  Rest quiet in the paddock fold,
+  Munching their food contentedly.
+  Was it last night? When up--away!
+  Through spaces limitless, untold,
+  Like storm clouds lashed before the wind,
+  Nor strength, nor will could check nor hold,
+  Manes flying--through the night they dashed
+  'Til the first glimmering sun's ray flashed
+  Its blessed light; 'til the first sigh
+  Of dawn's awak'ning stirred the leaves.
+  Then back to quiet fold--the night was done--
+  Bend patient necks--the yoke--and day's begun."
+
+"Let me see it. Your voice would make 'Eany, meany, miney, mo' sound
+like music. I should have read it first to myself to be able to pass on
+it without prejudice."
+
+He took the poem and read it very carefully. "Miss Molly, you are aware
+of the fact that you may become a real writer? How old are you?"
+
+"Almost twenty."
+
+"Well, I consider that a pretty good poem for almost twenty. I bet I
+know what that saphead of an editor had to say without reading his
+letter. Didn't he say something about your having only thirteen lines?"
+
+"Oh, is that what he meant? I have puzzled my brains out over his note.
+I didn't even know I had only thirteen lines. Of course I knew it wasn't
+exactly sonnet form, but somehow I started out to make fourteen lines
+and thought I had done it. Here is his cryptic note."
+
+  "Dear M. B.: We are sorry to say we are too superstitious to print
+  your poem. Are the poor horses too tired to go a few more feet? If
+  you can urge them on, even if you should lame them a bit, we might
+  reconsider and accept your verses.
+
+                                                  "The Editor of ----"
+
+"Fools, fools, all of them are fools! Don't you change it for the whole
+of the silly magazine. It is a good poem, and its having thirteen lines
+is none of his business. Haven't you as much right to create a form of
+verse as Villon or Alfred Tennyson? That editor would have rejected
+'Tears, idle tears,' because it hasn't a rhyme in it and looks as though
+it might have."
+
+The professor was so excited that Molly had to laugh.
+
+"You are certainly kind to me and my efforts. I must go now. Please give
+my love to Mrs. Brady and thank her for her tea. You never did tell me
+when you expect your sister."
+
+"Bless my soul," said Edwin Green, looking at his watch, "she will be
+here in a few minutes now!"
+
+"Don't forget to let me see your sonnet, and please put all the lines
+in. I am so glad your sister is to be with you, and hope to see her
+often."
+
+And Molly flew away, happy as a bird that her writing was coming on, and
+that she felt at home again with the most interesting man she had ever
+met.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--A BARREL FROM HOME.
+
+
+Christmas was upon our girls almost before they had unpacked and settled
+down to work. Mid-year exams. had no terrors for our two post-graduates,
+but they were working just as hard as they ever had in their collegiate
+course.
+
+"I don't know what it is that drives us so, Nance, unless it is that we
+are getting ready for the final examination at Judgment Day," said
+Molly. "I am so interested, I never seem to get tired these days; and I
+don't even mind the tutoring that has been thrust upon me. Now that I
+shall not have to teach for a living, I really believe I should not mind
+it very much."
+
+Otoyo Sen was safely sailing under Molly's tutelage through her senior
+year. She spoke the most correct and precise English unless she was
+embarrassed or upset in some way, and then, like Melissa Hathaway, she
+spoke from the heart, and little Otoyo's heart seemed to beat in adverbs
+and participles. She and Melissa had struck up the closest friendship.
+
+"We might have known they would," said the analytical Nance. "They are
+strangely alike to be so different."
+
+"Now, Nance, how Bostonesque we are becoming! I have never asked a
+Bostonian a question that I have not been answered in this way, 'It is
+and it isn't,'" teased Molly.
+
+"Well, they are alike in being foreign, for Melissa is as foreign from
+us as is Otoyo. Then they are both scrupulously courteous until their
+amour propre is stepped on, and then you realize that they are both
+medieval. They are certainly alike in pride and in fortitude and
+perseverance and family feeling. You know perfectly well that the real
+Melissa that is so covered up by this educated Melissa would take a gun
+and shoot every living Sydney she could get at if her grandmother told
+her to! I hope to goodness modernism will never get to the old woman and
+she will learn that women can do anything men can, or she will make
+Melissa take the place of the sons she mourns. On the other hand, little
+Otoyo would commit hara-kiri without winking an eyelash if
+honorable-father told her to."
+
+"You have so convinced me of their similarity that I see no room for
+difference. They will look to me exactly like twins after this," laughed
+Molly; and both the girls could hardly restrain their merriment, for at
+that moment the so-called twins came in to call: Melissa, tall and
+stately as "the lonesome pine," with all doubts as to her fine figure
+removed now, thanks to Nance's skillful reformation of the blue
+homespun; and little Otoyo looking more like a mechanical toy than ever,
+since she had taken on a little more of the desirable flesh, according
+to the taste of her countrymen.
+
+"Melissa and I have determined to move into a suite together," said
+Otoyo, as they entered. "Miss Walker said it is not usually for a
+Freshman and Senior to be so intimately, but since there is a suite
+vacant in the Quadrangle and more visits for singletons than suites, she
+is willing."
+
+"You are excited over it, I know, you dear little Otoyo," said her
+tutor, "or you would not be so adverbial, and you must mean 'calls for
+singletons' instead of 'visits.'"
+
+"Oh, you English and your language, made for what you call puns!"
+
+"I am glad you call them puns instead of visiting them on us," said
+Nance, dodging a soft cushion hurled by Molly. "Did you girls hear the
+news? I am to stay at Wellington for Christmas and my father is coming
+down here to spend it with me. I can't think when father has taken a
+holiday before, and I am as excited about it as can be. He needs a rest,
+and he needs some fun. I wish he could have come last year before the
+old guard disbanded."
+
+"But listen to me," put in Molly. "I have some news, too, that I was
+trying to keep for a surprise, but I am a sieve where news is concerned:
+Judy Kean is to be here for Christmas, too. She writes that as her
+mother and father are in Turkey she will have to have some turkey in
+her, and she can think of no place that she would rather have that
+turkey than at Wellington with us. Dear old Judy, won't it be fun? And
+she will help to whoop things up for your father, Nance. She expected to
+be studying art in Paris by now, but Mr. Kean insisted on a year of
+drawing in New York before Paris, and that makes her in easy reach of
+us. We shall have to stop work and go to playing. I declare I have grown
+so used to work--I don't believe I know how to play."
+
+"Mees Grace Green is going to have an astonishment party for her
+brother, the young student medical," said Otoyo, the ever-ready news
+monger.
+
+"A surprise party for Dodo," shrieked the girls with delight. "Otoyo,
+Otoyo, you are too delicious."
+
+"Also, Mr. Andy McLean will be home with his honorable parents for
+making holiday, having done much proud work in the law school at Harvard
+University."
+
+Nance smiled. Her private opinion was that Mr. Andrew McLean and his
+proud work were the cause of Otoyo's very mixed English.
+
+"Also," continued Otoyo, "Mr. Andrew McLean will bring with him
+honorable young Japanese gentleman, who has hugged the Christian faith
+and is muchly studying to live in this country, whereas his honorable
+father has a wonderful shop of beautiful Japanese prints in Boston. My
+honorable father is familiar with his honorable father, namely, Mr.
+Seshu."
+
+"Oh ho, and that is the reason of the many mistakes," said Molly, in an
+aside to Nance. "I thought at first it was Andy's return, but I bet the
+little thing is contemplating something in connection with the honorable
+Mr. Seshu. I wonder if her father has written her about this young Jap."
+
+During all this chit-chat Melissa had sat perfectly quiet, but her quiet
+was never heavy nor depressing. She looked calmly and interestedly on
+and listened and smiled and sometimes gave a low laugh, showing that her
+humor was keen and ready. Otoyo was a never-failing source of delight to
+her, and when the little thing spoke of hugging the Christian faith a
+real hearty laugh came bubbling up. But she put her arm affectionately
+around her little friend and smothered her laugh in Otoyo's smooth black
+hair, that always had a look of having just been brushed, no matter how
+modern and American was the arrangement.
+
+And very modern and American were all of Otoyo's arrangements now. Her
+clothes bore the stamp of the best New York shops, with the most
+up-to-date shoes and hats, and she endeavored in every way to be as
+American as possible. She even tried to use the slang she heard around
+her, but her attempts in that direction were very laughable.
+
+In due time the holidays arrived, and with them came our own Judy full
+of enthusiasm for her work at the art school; came young Andy with his
+Japanese friend from the law school. Andy looking older and broader and
+more robust, not half so raw-boned as he used to be, and the young
+Japanese gentleman, on first sight, so like Otoyo that it was funny--but,
+on further acquaintance, it proved to be a racial likeness only; came
+Nance's father, a staid, quiet gentleman with his daughter's merry brown
+eyes and a general look of one to be depended on; came George Theodore
+Green, familiarly known as Dodo, no longer so shy, but with much more
+assurance of manner, as befitted a medical student from Johns Hopkins.
+
+Miss Grace Green had secretly sent out invitations for the surprise
+party for Christmas Eve, and all the girls were very busy getting their
+best bibs and tuckers in order to do honor to the occasion. Molly had
+seen a good deal of Miss Green since she came to Wellington to keep
+house for her brother, and they had become fast friends. Miss Green
+often asked her to come in to afternoon tea, and then they would have
+the most delightful talks in the professor's study, and he would read to
+them. Sometimes Molly would be prevailed upon to read some of her
+sketches, always of Kentucky and the familiar things of her childhood.
+She lost her shyness in doing this, and felt that it rather helped her
+and gave her new ideas for more things to write about.
+
+"Judy, please help me unpack this barrel from home," called Molly the
+day before Christmas. "I know you will want to help carry some of the
+things to the Greens for me. I almost wish I had sent the barrel there,
+as so many of the things are to go to them. We shall be laden down, I am
+sure."
+
+Judy, all excitement, began to knock off the top hoop and then with much
+hacking and prying they finally got off the head of the
+formidable-looking barrel and began to unpack the goodies: a ham for the
+professor of English cooked by Aunt Mary; a fruit cake for Molly, black
+and rich, with an odor to it that Judy said reminded her of the feast in
+St. Agnes Eve; a jar of Rosemary pickles; one of brandy peaches; a box
+of beaten biscuit; a roasted turkey, stuffed with chestnuts, and a
+wonderful bunch of mistletoe full of berries, growing to a knobby
+stunted branch of a walnut tree, which Kent had sawed off with great
+care and then packed so well with tissue paper that not one berry or
+leaf was misplaced.
+
+"This is for Miss Green's party. I asked Kent to get it for me. You know
+her party is to be an old English one, and it would not be complete
+without mistletoe. What is this little note hitched to it?
+
+  "'Dearest Molly:
+
+  "'I almost broke my neck getting this, and hope it is what you want.
+  Tell Miss Judy Kean, who, I hear, is to spend Christmas with you,
+  not to get under this until I get there.
+
+                                                            "'Kent.'
+
+"What can he mean? Judy Kean, is Kent coming here for Christmas? Answer
+me."
+
+But Judy only buried her crimson face in the big turkey's bosom and
+giggled.
+
+"Answer me, Judy Kean."
+
+"How do I know? Am I your brother's keeper?"
+
+"He couldn't be coming or mother would have written me! I see he means
+for you to wait for him until he 'arrives' in his profession. Oh, Judy,
+Judy, I do hope you will! But come on now, we must take these things to
+the Greens. Miss Grace is very busy with her preparations, while Dodo is
+off for the day with young Andy and his Jap friend, revisiting their old
+college, Exmoor. We must get the mistletoe hung; and the ham is to be
+part of the party, I fancy. I am going to take them some of these
+pickles, too, and half of my fruit cake. It is so big that it will take
+us months to devour it, besides ruining our complexions."
+
+The girls, weighed down with their heavy contributions--ham, pickle,
+fruit cake and mistletoe--rang the bell at Professor Green's house,
+fronting on the campus. The door was quickly opened by Miss Alice Fern.
+She eyed them haughtily and coldly, hardly responding to Molly's
+greeting and barely acknowledging the introduction to Judy, whom she
+already knew, but refused to remember.
+
+"My cousin, Miss Green, is very busy and regrets she cannot speak to you
+just now."
+
+"Oh, I am sorry not to see her! I have some mistletoe that my brother
+sent her from Kentucky, and Miss Kean and I were going to ask her to let
+us hang it for her."
+
+"You are very kind, but I am decorating the house for my cousins, and
+can do it very well without any assistance from outside."
+
+"Molly, we had better leave our packages and make a chastened
+departure," said Judy, the irrepressible. "We have some interior
+decorations besides the mistletoe, Miss Fern, in the way of an old ham
+and a fruit cake, and some Rosemary pickles. Are you also chairman of
+the committee on that kind of interior decorations? If you are not, I
+should think it were best for us to interview the secretary of the
+interior, if we are not allowed to see the head of the department."
+
+At that moment who should come bounding up the steps but Edwin Green
+himself.
+
+"Good morning to both of you! I am so glad to see you back in
+Wellington, Miss Kean. I have just come from the Quadrangle, where I
+went to call on you, but saw Miss Oldham, who told me you and Miss Molly
+were on your way to see my sister. Why don't you come in? Grace is in
+the pantry, preparing for the 'astonishment party,' as I am told Miss
+Sen calls it. I will call her directly."
+
+"Grace has asked to be excused to callers, Edwin," said the stately Miss
+Fern.
+
+"Nonsense, Alice, she was expecting Miss Brown to decorate the parlors,
+and Miss Kean is not a stranger to any of us. Come in, come in," and the
+indignant professor ushered them into the parlor and went to call his
+sister, confiding to her, as she hastened to greet the girls, that if
+Alice Fern did not stop trying to run their affairs he was going to do
+something desperate.
+
+"I am afraid you brought it on us by being too nice to her two years ago
+when she first came home from abroad," teased his sister; and he
+remembered that he had been rather attentive to his fair cousin at a
+time when Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky had had a little misunderstanding
+with him.
+
+"How good of you, you dear, sweet girl, to have this mistletoe sent all
+the way from Kentucky for our party, and what a wonderful piece of
+walnut it is growing to, this great, knotted, knobby branch! But, Alice,
+don't break any of it off! You will ruin it." Miss Green stopped Alice
+just in time, as she had begun with rapid tugs to pull the mistletoe
+from the branch that Kent had sawed off with such care, and to stick it
+in vases among the holly, where it did not show to any advantage. "Of
+course, it must be hung from the chandelier just as it is."
+
+"Oh, very well, Cousin Grace; but it seems to me to be a very heavy
+looking decoration." And the young woman flounced off, leaving Molly and
+Judy feeling very much mystified, to say the least.
+
+"Aunt Mary sent you a ham, Professor Green. I brought it to-day,
+thinking maybe your sister would like it for part of the night's
+festivities."
+
+"Not a bit of it. That ham is to be brought out when there are not so
+many to devour it. I am not usually a greedy glutton, but beech-nut fed,
+home-cured ham is too good for the rabble, and I am going to hide it
+before Grace casts her eagle eye on it." He accordingly picked it up and
+pretended to conceal it from his smiling sister.
+
+"Well, anyhow, Miss Green, you will use my fruit cake for the party,
+will you not?" begged Molly.
+
+"Oh, please don't ask me to. I know there is nothing in the world so
+good as fruit cake, and Edwin has told me of the wonders that come from
+Aunt Mary's kitchen. So if you don't mind, Molly, I am going to keep my
+cake for our private consumption. It would disappear like magic before
+the young people to-night, and Edwin and I could have it for many nights
+to come. Do you think I am as greedy as Edwin is with his ham?"
+
+Molly was very much amused, but her amusement was turned to
+embarrassment when she heard Miss Fern say to her Cousin Edwin: "Miss
+Brown seems to be trying very hard to give the party."
+
+She did not hear Edwin's answer, but noticed that he hugged his ham even
+more fervently, it being, fortunately for him and his coat, well wrapped
+in waxed paper. She also noticed that he went around and took out of the
+vases the few pieces of mistletoe that his cousin had pulled from the
+big bunch, and carefully wired them where they belonged on the walnut
+branch, and then got a step ladder and tied the beautiful decoration to
+the chandelier, while Judy, ignoring the stately Alice, bossed the job.
+
+"Miss Molly, did you know that Dicky Blount will be here to-night?"
+asked the professor. "We can have some good music, which will be a
+welcome addition to the program, I think."
+
+"That is fine; but please give him a slice of ham. I feel as though some
+were coming to him. Five pounds of Huyler's was too much for the old ham
+bone he got that memorable evening at Judith's dinner. By the way,
+Professor Green, I want to ask a favor of you and your sister."
+
+"Granted before asked, as far as I am concerned, and Grace is usually
+very amiable where you are in question," said the eager Edwin.
+
+"Oh, it isn't so much of a favor, and I have an idea I am doing you one
+to ask it of you. My dear friend Melissa Hathaway has a most wonderful
+voice, but no one ever knows it, as she is so reserved. I thought, maybe
+to-night, you might persuade her to sing. She has some ballads that are
+splendid for an Old English celebration."
+
+"I should say we will ask her, and be too glad to! I am so pleased that
+she is coming. She seemed rather doubtful whether she could or not."
+
+"Oh, that was just clothes, and clever Nance solved the problem for her
+just as she often has for me by making something out of nothing. When
+you see our Melissa and realize that her dress is made of eight yards of
+Seco silk at twenty cents a yard, you will think Nance is pretty
+clever."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--DODO'S SURPRISE PARTY.
+
+
+The old red brick house, where Professor Green had his bachelor
+quarters, had been put in good order for his sister's r�gime, and with
+the furniture that had been in storage for many years since the death of
+their parents was made most attractive. It was designed for parties,
+seemingly, as the whole lower floor could be turned practically into one
+room. It had begun to snow, which made the glowing fire in the big hall
+even more cheerful by contrast.
+
+"Whew! aren't we festive?" exclaimed Dodo, bursting in at the front door
+with Lawrence Upton, whom he had picked up at Exmoor. "Looks to me like
+a ball, with all of this holly and the bare floors ready for dancing.
+Andy and his little Jap are coming around this evening to see you,
+Gracey, and I wish we could get some girls to have a bit of a dance. I
+have been learning to dance along with my other arduous tasks at the
+University, and I'd like to trip the light fantastic toe with some real
+flesh and blood. I have had nothing but a rocking chair to practice with
+for ever so long. I've got a little broken sofa that is great to 'turkey
+trot' with."
+
+"How about the old tune, 'Waltzing 'Round with Sophy, Sophy Just
+Seventeen,' for that dance of yours?" laughed his older brother. "I
+declare, Dodo, we ought to do better than that for you at a girls'
+college, even in holiday time. Let's wait and see if young Andy comes,
+and then with his help maybe we can scare up a girl or so."
+
+Miss Grace thanked Edwin with an appreciative pat for keeping up the
+game of surprise party. Just then Richard Blount came blowing in from
+New York, and they all went in to supper, where the greedy Edwin
+permitted them to have a try at his ham.
+
+"What a girl that Miss Brown is!" declared Dicky. "She seems to me to be
+the most attractive blonde I have ever seen." Richard, being very fair,
+of course, had a leaning toward brunettes. "We were talking about her
+the other evening at the Stewarts', and we agreed that when all was told
+she was about the best bred person we knew."
+
+Miss Fern, to whom praise of Molly seemed to be bitterness and gall,
+gave a sniff of her aristocratic nose and remarked: "There must have
+been some question of Miss Brown's breeding for you to have been
+discussing it. I have always thought breeding was something taken for
+granted."
+
+"So it should be," said Professor Green, laconically.
+
+"Do you know, it is a strange thing to me, but the only two persons in
+the world that I know of who don't like Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky are
+our two cousins on different sides of the house--Judith Blount and you,
+Cousin Alice."
+
+This from Dodo, enfant terrible. Edwin turned the color of his old ham
+and looked sternly at Dodo, who was entirely unconscious of having said
+anything amiss. Miss Grace and Lawrence Upton giggled shamefully, while
+Richard Blount hastened to say, "I think you are mistaken about Judith.
+On the contrary, she now speaks very highly of Miss Brown, and looks
+upon her as a very good friend."
+
+"As for me," said Alice, "I have never given Miss Brown a thought one
+way or the other. I do not know her well enough to dislike her. She
+impresses me as being rather pushing."
+
+At this Miss Grace made a sign for them to rise, as she was anxious to
+get the dining-room in readiness for the entertainment.
+
+"All of you boys had better put on your dress suits if there is a chance
+of scaring up some dancers," she tactfully suggested, so there was a
+general rush for their rooms, and she was left in peace to get
+everything ready for the surprise party.
+
+The guests, as had been agreed upon, arrived together. The old house was
+suddenly filled with dancers enough to satisfy the eager Dodo, and dear
+Mrs. McLean, ready to play dance music until they dropped. Dodo was
+astonished enough to delight his sister, and the fun began.
+
+Dr. McLean and Mr. Oldham found much to talk about, so Nance felt that
+her father was going to have a pleasant evening, and with a glad sigh
+gave herself up to having a good time with the rest. Young Andy was not
+long in attaching himself to her side, and they picked up conversation
+where they had dropped it the year before and seemed to find each other
+as agreeable as ever.
+
+All the girls looked lovely, as girls should when they have an evening
+of fun ahead of them and plenty of partners to make things lively.
+Several more young men came over from Exmoor, in response to a secret
+invitation sent by Miss Grace through young Andy, so, as Judy put it,
+"There were beaux to burn."
+
+Judy was going in very much for the picturesque in dress, as is the
+usual thing with art students, so she was very �sthetically attired in a
+clinging green Liberty silk. Molly wore her bridesmaid blue organdy,
+which was very becoming. Nance,--who always had the proper thing to wear
+on every occasion without having to scrape around and take stitches and
+let down hems, and find a petticoat to match, and for that reason had
+time to do those necessary things for the other girls,--wore a pretty
+little evening gown of white chiffon, and she looked so pretty herself
+that Dr. McLean whispered to his wife that he took it all back about
+young Andy's having picked out a plain lassie. Little Otoyo had on the
+handsomest dress of the evening, a rose pink silk embroidered in cherry
+blossoms. The clever child had bought the dress in New York at a swell
+shop and taken it to Japan with her, and there had the wonderful
+embroidery put on it. Melissa was a revelation to herself and her
+friends. The black Seco silk fitted her so well that Nance was really
+elated over her success as a mantuamaker. Melissa had never gone
+d�collet� in her life, and at first the girls could hardly persuade her
+to wear the low-necked dress; but when she saw Molly she was content.
+
+"Whatever Molly does is always right, and if she wears low neck then I
+will, too," said the artless girl.
+
+Her hair was rolled at the sides and done in a low knot on her neck. As
+she came into the parlor Richard Blount, who was going over some music
+at the piano, did not see her at first. Looking up to speak to Edwin
+about a song he was to sing, he was struck dumb by her beauty. Clutching
+Edwin he managed to gasp out, "Great C�sar! who is she?"
+
+"She is not Medusa, my dear Dick. Don't stand as though you had turned
+to stone. It is Miss Hathaway, a friend of Miss Brown's, and a very
+interesting and original young woman, also from Kentucky, but from the
+mountains. I will introduce you with pleasure."
+
+Edwin Green did introduce him, and if Richard Blount took his eyes from
+Melissa once during the evening he did it when no one was looking.
+
+Mr. Seshu, young Andy's friend, proved to be a charming, educated young
+man, who understood English perfectly and spoke with only an occasional
+blunder. He made himself very agreeable to Molly, who was eager to talk
+with him, hoping to find out if he were worthy of their little Otoyo.
+The girls were almost certain that he had come to Wellington with the
+idea of viewing Otoyo and passing on her as a possible wife. Otoyo had
+let drop two or three remarks that made them feel that this was the
+case. She was very much excited, and her little hands were like ice when
+Molly took them in hers to tell her how sweet she looked and how
+beautiful and becoming her dress was. It was a trying ordeal for any
+girl, and Molly wondered that the little thing could go through with it,
+but honorable father had thus decreed it and it must be borne.
+
+"I fancy it is better than having the marriage broker putting his finger
+in, which is what would have happened if the Sens and Seshus had not
+'hugged the Christian faith' and come to America," whispered Molly to
+Nance as they took off their wraps.
+
+"I'd see myself being pranced out like a colt, honorable father or not,"
+said Nance. "I fancy he is very nice, however, or Andy would not be so
+chummy with him."
+
+Molly was amused at the farce of telling Mr. Seshu that one of his
+country women was a student at Wellington, and she hoped to have the
+pleasure of introducing them. He received the information with a polite
+bow, and no more expression than a stone image, but with volubly
+expressed thanks and eagerness for the introduction.
+
+"Our little Otoyo is very precious to us," said Molly, "and we are very
+proud of her progress in her studies. She takes a fine place with her
+class, and will graduate this year with flying colors. She writes
+perfect English, but there are times in conversation when adverbs are
+too many for her. She is excited to-night over coming to a dance, having
+but recently added dancing to her many accomplishments, and her adverbs
+may get the better of her." Molly was determined that the seeker for a
+wife should not take the poor little thing's excitement to himself.
+
+Mr. Seshu seemed more anxious to talk about Otoyo than to meet her.
+
+"And so you are trying to pump me about my little friend, are you, you
+wily young Jap? Well, you have come to the right corner. I'll tell you
+all I can, and you shall hear such good things of Otoyo that you will
+think I am a veritable marriage broker," said Molly to herself.
+
+"Is Mees Sen of kindly heart and temper good, you say?"
+
+"She has the kindest heart in the world and a good temper, but she is
+well able to stand up for herself when it is necessary."
+
+"He shall not think he is getting nothing but a good family horse, but I
+am going to try to let him understand that our little Otoyo has a high
+spirit and is fit for something besides the plow," added Molly to
+herself.
+
+After much talk, in which Molly felt that she had been most diplomatic,
+Mr. Seshu was finally presented to Miss Sen. Poor little Otoyo was not
+as embarrassed as she would have been had she not learned to converse
+with honorable gentlemen quite like American maidens. The practice she
+had had with young Andy and Professor Green came in very well now, and
+her anxious friends were delighted to see that she was holding her own
+with her polished countryman, and that he seemed much interested in her
+chatter. At the instigation of Molly and Nance, Andy McLean soon came up
+and claimed Otoyo for a dance. She looked very coquettishly at her
+Japanese suitor and immediately accepted, and Mr. Seshu was as
+disconsolate as any other young man would have been to have a pleasant
+companion snatched from him.
+
+"We'll teach him a thing or two," said our girls. "And just look how
+well Otoyo is 'step twoing,' as she calls it, with Andy!"
+
+"While the dancers are resting we will have some music," said the
+gracious hostess. "I am going to ask you, Miss Hathaway, to sing for
+us."
+
+Melissa looked astonished that she should be chosen, but, with that
+poise and dignity that years in society cannot give some persons, she
+agreed to sing what she could if Molly would accompany her on the
+guitar.
+
+"Sing 'Lord Ronald and Fair Eleanor,'" whispered Molly. "I want
+Professor Green to hear it."
+
+[Illustration: The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming
+picture.--Page 252.]
+
+The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture as they took
+their places to do their part toward entertaining the guests--Molly so
+fair and slender in her pretty blue dress, with her hair "making
+sunshine in a shady place," seated with the guitar, while Melissa, tall
+and stately, with figure more developed, in her clinging black dress
+stood near her. Judy was so overcome at the picturesque effect that she
+began to make rapid sketching movements in the air as was her wont.
+
+"Oh, what don't we see when we haven't got a gun! I'd give anything for
+a piece of charcoal and some paper."
+
+"I don't know all of this song, but I shall sing all I do. I learned it
+from my grandmother, and she learned it from hers. This is all Granny
+knows, but she says her grandmother had many more verses," said Melissa
+as Molly struck the opening chords of the accompaniment.
+
+  "So she dressed herself in scarlet red,
+    And she dressed her maid in green,
+  And every town that they went through
+    They took her to be some queen, queen, queen,
+    They took her to be some queen.
+
+  "'Lord Ronald, Lord Ronald, is this your bride
+    That seems so plaguey brown?
+  And you might have married as fair skinned a girl
+    As ever the sun shone on, on, on,
+    As ever the sun shone on.'
+
+  "The little brown girl, she had a penknife,
+    It was both long and sharp;
+  She stuck it in fair Eleanor's side
+    And it entered at the heart, heart, heart,
+    It entered at the heart.
+
+  "Lord Ronald, he took her by her little brown hand
+    And led her across the hall;
+  And with his sword cut off her head,
+    And kicked it against the wall, wall, wall,
+    And kicked it against the wall.
+
+  "'Mother, dear mother, come dig my grave;
+    Dig it both wide and deep.
+  By my side fair Eleanor put,
+    And the little brown girl at my feet, feet, feet,
+    And the little brown girl at my feet.'"
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the beautiful girl finished the plaintive air there was absolute
+stillness for a few seconds. The audience was too deeply moved to speak.
+Melissa's voice was sweet and full and came with no more effort than the
+song of the mocking bird heard in her own valleys at dawn. She took high
+note or low with the same ease that she had stooped and lifted her
+little hair trunk at Wellington station.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+The song in itself was very remarkable, being one of the few original
+ballads evidently brought to America by an early settler, and handed
+down from mother to daughter through the centuries. Edwin Green
+recognized it, and noted the changes from the original from time to
+time. Richard Blount was the first to find his tongue, although he was
+the one most deeply moved by the performance.
+
+"My, that was fine!" was all he could say, but he broke the spell of
+silence, and there was a storm of applause. Melissa bowed and smiled,
+pleased that she met with their approval, but with no airs or
+affectation.
+
+"She has the stage manner of a great artist who is above caring for what
+the gallery thinks, but has sung for Art's sake, and, as an artist,
+knows her work is good," said Richard to Professor Green. "Miss
+Hathaway, you will sing again for us, please. I can't remember having
+such a treat as you have just given us, and I have been to every opera
+in New York for six years."
+
+The demand was general, so Melissa graciously complied. This time she
+gave "The Mistletoe Bough."
+
+  "The mistletoe hung in the castle hall,
+  And the holly branch shone on the old oak wall;
+  And all within were blithe and gay,
+  Keeping their Christmas holiday.
+        Oh, the mistletoe bough,
+        Oh, the mistletoe bough."
+
+And so on, through the many stanzas of the fine old ballad, telling of
+the bride who cried, "I'll hide, I'll hide," and then of the search and
+how they never found the beautiful bride until years had passed away,
+and then, on opening the old chest in the attic, her bones were
+discovered and the wedding veil.
+
+When the applause subsided, Miss Grace asked Richard Blount to sing.
+
+"I'll do it, Cousin Grace, but I have never felt more modest about my
+little accomplishments. Miss Hathaway has taken all the wind out of my
+sails. I am going to sing a little thing that I clipped out of a
+newspaper and put to music. 'It is a poor thing, but mine own.' I think
+it is appropriate for this party, and hope you will agree with me."
+
+"Now, Dicky, you know we love your singing, and because Miss Hathaway
+has charmed us is no reason why you cannot charm us all over. Caruso can
+sing, as well as Sembrich," said Miss Grace.
+
+Richard Blount had a good baritone voice, and sang with a great deal of
+taste; and he played on the piano with real genius. With a few brilliant
+runs he settled down to the simple, sweet air he had composed for the
+little bit of fugitive verse, and then began to sing:
+
+  "The holly is a soldier bold,
+    Arrayed in tunic green,
+  His slender sword is never sheathed,
+    But always bared and keen.
+  He stands amid the winter snows
+    A sentry in the wood,--
+  The scarlet berries on his boughs
+    Are drops of frozen blood.
+
+  "The mistletoe's a maiden fair,
+    Enchanted by the oak,
+  Who holds her in his hoary arms,
+    And hides her in his cloak.
+  She knows her soldier lover waits
+    Among the leafless trees,
+  And, weeping in the bitter cold,
+    Her tears to jewels freeze.
+
+  "But at the holy Christmas-tide,
+    Blessed time of all the year,
+  The evil spirits lose their power,
+    And angels reappear.
+  They meet beside some friendly hearth,
+    While softly falls the snow--
+  The soldier Holly and his bride,
+    The mystic Mistletoe."
+
+Richard had been delighted by Melissa's performance, and now she
+returned the compliment by being so carried away by his singing and the
+song that she forgot all shyness and reserve and openly congratulated
+him, praising his music with so much real appreciation and fervor that
+the young man was persuaded to sing again. He sang the beautiful Indian
+song of Cadman's, "The Moon Hangs Low," and was beginning the opening
+chords to "The Land of Sky-blue Water," when there came a sharp ringing
+of the bell, followed by some confusion in the hall as the door was
+opened and a gust of wind blew in the fast falling snow. Then a man's
+voice was heard inquiring for Professor Green.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.--MORE SURPRISES.
+
+
+"Whose voice is that?" exclaimed Molly and Judy in unison; and without
+waiting to be answered they rushed into the hall to find Kent Brown
+being warmly greeted by Professor Green. Before he had time to shake the
+snow from his broad shoulders, Molly seized him and he seized Judy, and
+they had a good old three-cornered Christmas hug.
+
+"Did you get my note tied to the mistletoe?"
+
+"Yes, you goose; but we did not know you were really coming. I thought
+you were speaking in parables," said Molly, but Judy only blushed.
+
+"Well, it is powerful fine to get here. My train is four hours late."
+
+"I know you are tired and hungry," said Miss Green, who was as cordial
+as her brother in her reception of the young Kentuckian. "But where is
+your grip, Mr. Brown?"
+
+"Oh, I left it at the inn in the village. I could not think of piling in
+on you in this way without any warning."
+
+"Well, Edwin will 'phone for it immediately. You Southern people think
+you are the only ones who can put yourselves out for guests. It would be
+a pretty thing for one of Mrs. Brown's sons to be in Wellington and not
+at our house."
+
+So Kent was taken into the Greens' house with as much cordiality and
+hospitality as Chatsworth itself could have shown. The odor of coffee
+soon began to invade the hall and parlors, and in a little while the
+dining-room doors were thrown open and the feasting began. Miss Green
+was an excellent housekeeper, and knew how to cater to young people's
+tastes as well as Mrs. Brown herself, so the food was plentiful and
+delicious. Molly noticed with a smile that some of the precious ham was
+smuggled to the plates of Dr. and Mrs. McLean and Mr. Oldham, where it
+was duly appreciated, and that later on the favored three were regaled
+with slices of the fruit cake.
+
+Kent found a cozy seat for Judy by the hall fire, and soon joined her
+with trays of supper.
+
+"Oh, Miss Judy, it has been years since last July. I have worked as hard
+as a man could, hoping to make the time fly, but it hasn't done much
+good,--except that it made my firm suggest that I let up for a few days
+at Christmas, and here I am! I am working awfully hard trying to learn
+to do water coloring of the architectural drawings. I wish I had you to
+help me, you are so clever. I am hoping to get to New York or Paris some
+day to learn the tricks of the trade, but in the meantime there are lots
+of things to learn in Louisville; and I am getting more money for my
+work than I did. Did Molly give you my message tied to the mistletoe?"
+
+"Yes, Kent."
+
+"Will you wait? I was speaking in parables. I think somehow that I must
+arrive a little more, before I can catch you under the mistletoe; and
+you must do your work, too. Oh, Judy, it is hard to be so wise and
+circumspect! But will you wait?"
+
+"Yes, Kent. I am working hard, too, harder than I have ever worked in my
+life. I was terribly disappointed when papa would not let me go to Paris
+this winter, but insisted on the year of hard drawing in New York, to
+test myself and find myself, as it were, and I have been determined to
+make good. I am drawing all the time, and you know that is virtuous when
+I am simply demented on the subject of color. I let myself work in color
+on Saturday in Central Park, but the rest of the time it is charcoal
+from the antique or from life, with classes in composition and design.
+There is no use in talking about being a decorator if you can't draw. I
+hope to be in Paris next year, and then I shall reap my reward and
+simply wallow in color."
+
+When supper was over, they were all called on to stand up for the
+Virginia Reel, which Mrs. McLean played with such spirit that Mr. Oldham
+and Dr. McLean could not keep their feet still; and before the
+astonished eyes of Edwin Green and Andy McLean, who had other plans, Mr.
+Oldham seized Molly and Dr. McLean Nance, and they danced down the
+middle and back again with as much spirit as they had ever shown in
+their youth.
+
+"It takes the old timers to dance the old dances, hey, Mr. Oldham?" said
+the panting doctor as he came up the middle smiling and cutting pigeon
+wings, while Nance arose to the occasion and "chasseed" to his steps
+like any belle of the sixties. Even Miss Alice Fern forgot her dignity
+and romped, but she was very gay, as Edwin had sought her out when Molly
+danced off with Mr. Oldham. He had remembered that he had been rather
+remiss in his attentions to his fair cousin.
+
+How they did dance!--and all of the extra men danced with each other, so
+there were no wall flowers. Richard Blount claimed Melissa as a partner,
+and they delighted the crowd by singing as they danced a song that
+Melissa had taught Richard, as she told him of some of the mountain
+dance games, the words fitting themselves to Mrs. McLean's lively tunes.
+
+  "'Old man, old man, let me have your daughter?'
+  'Yes, young man, for a dollar and a quarter.
+  Pick up her duds and pitch 'em up behind her.'
+  'Here's your money, old man, I've got your daughter.'"
+
+After the dance they drew around the open fire in the hall and roasted
+chestnuts and popped corn and told stories, and had a very merry
+old-fashioned time capping quotations. And finally the one thing
+wanting, as Molly thought, came to pass, and Professor Green read
+Dickens' Christmas Carol just as he had three years before, when he and
+his sister gave Molly the surprise party at Queen's in her Sophomore
+year.
+
+"At the risk of making myself verra unpopular, I am afraid I shall have
+to say it is time for all of us to be in bed," said Mrs. McLean, when
+the professor closed the worn old copy of Dickens.
+
+"Oh, not 'til we have had a little more dancing, please, dear Mrs.
+McLean," came in a chorus from the young people; and Professor Green
+told her that it would be a pity to throw Dodo back on a rocking chair
+for a partner before he had had a little more practice with flesh and
+blood. So up they all sprang, and with Miss Grace at the piano, to
+relieve the good-natured Mrs. McLean, who had thrummed her fingers sore,
+off they went into more waltzes and two-steps, even the shy Melissa
+dancing with Richard Blount as though she had been at balls every night
+of her life. Otoyo and Mr. Seshu hopped around together as though
+"step-twoing" and "dance-rounding" were the national dances of Japan.
+
+And so ended the delightful surprise party. Before they departed, Dr.
+McLean drew his wife under the mistletoe and kissed her.
+
+"Just to show you bashful young fellows how it is done," said the jovial
+doctor.
+
+"And I will give the lassies a lesson in how to accept such public
+demonstration," said his blushing wife, and she suited the action to the
+word by giving him a playful slap, whereupon he kissed her again, but
+instead of another slap she hugged him in return, and there was a
+general laugh.
+
+"I did that just to show the indignant lassies that they must not hold
+with their anger too long. A kiss under the mistletoe has never yet been
+offered as an insult, and the forward miss is not the one to get the
+kiss."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.--DREAMS AND REALITIES.
+
+
+The holidays were all too soon over. Much feasting went on, what with
+Molly's big turkey and her fruit cake and Rosemary pickles; and the
+invitations to Mrs. McLean's and Miss Walker's; and Otoyo's Japanese
+spread, where she and Melissa charmed the company with the beautifully
+arranged rooms and the dainty, delicious refreshments. Mr. Seshu,
+throughout, was very attentive to his little countrywoman, and the girls
+decided that he was in love with her just like any ordinary American
+might be.
+
+"I am so glad it is coming about this way," said Molly. "Just think how
+hard it might have been for our little Otoyo, now that she has been in
+this country long enough to see how we do such things, had she been
+compelled, by filial feeling, to marry some one whom she did not love
+and who did not love her. I think she is all over the sentimental
+attachment she used to have for the unconscious Andy, don't you, Nance?"
+
+"I fancy she is," said the far from unconscious Nance, who always had a
+heightened color when young Andy's name got into the conversation. "I
+don't think she ever really cared for Andy. He was just the first and
+only young man who was ever nice to her, and it went to her head. Andy
+is so kind and good natured."
+
+"You forget Professor Green. He was always careful and attentive, and
+Otoyo would chatter like a magpie with him."
+
+"Oh, but he is so much older!" And then Nance wished she had bitten out
+her tongue, as Molly looked hurt and sad.
+
+"Professor Green is not so terribly old! I think he is much more
+agreeable than callow youths who have no conversation beyond their own
+affairs."
+
+"Now, Molly Brown, I didn't mean to say a thing to hurt your feelings or
+to imply that Professor Green was anything but perfection. He is not too
+old for y--us, I mean; but Otoyo is like a child."
+
+"I am ashamed of myself, Nance, but I do get kind of tired of
+everybody's taking the stand that Professor Green is so old. He is the
+best man friend I ever had, and--and----" But Nance kissed her fondly, and
+she did not have to go on with her sentence, which was lucky, as she did
+not know how she was going to finish it without committing herself.
+
+Kent had to fly back to Louisville to work at his chosen profession and
+try to learn how to do water color renderings of the architectural
+elevations; Judy back to New York to dig at her charcoal drawings and
+dream of swimming in color, with Kent striking out beside her; Dodo
+again at Johns Hopkins, learning much about medicine and how to "turkey
+trot" with a broken sofa; young Andy and Mr. Seshu at Harvard, studying
+the laws of their country, for was not Mr. Seshu fast becoming an
+American? They had their dreams, too, these two young men. Andy was
+looking forward to the day when he would not have to stop talking to
+Nance just at the most interesting turn of the argument, but could stay
+right along with her forever and ever,--and sure he was that they would
+never talk out! Mr. Seshu's dreams--but, after all, what do we know of
+his dreams? Certain we are that he looked favorably on the little Miss
+Sen, and that honorable Father Sen and honorable Father Seshu had a long
+and satisfactory talk in the shop in Boston with the beautiful Japanese
+prints hanging all around them, representing in themselves money enough
+to make the prospective young couple very wealthy.
+
+Mr. Oldham went back to Vermont, also dreaming that the day might come
+when his little Nance would keep house for him, and he could leave the
+hated boarding house, and have a real home. Richard Blount returned to
+New York, dreaming, too, and his dream was of the beautiful mountain
+girl with the dignity and poise of a queen, eyes like the clear brown
+pools of autumn and a purposeful look on her young face that showed even
+a casual observer that she had a mission in life.
+
+Mid-year examinations came and went. Melissa and Otoyo came through
+without a scratch, which made Molly rejoice as though it had been her
+own ordeal.
+
+Domestic Science grew more thrilling; so interesting, indeed, that Molly
+could not decide for a whole day whether she would rather be a
+scientific cook or a great literary success. But a note from a magazine
+editor accepting her "Basket Funeral" and asking for more similar
+stories decided her in favor of literature. And on the same day, too,
+Professor Edwin Green said to her, "Please, Miss Molly, don't learn how
+to cook so well that you forget how to make popovers. I am afraid all of
+these scientific rules you are learning will upset the natural-born
+knowledge that you already possess, and your spontaneous genius will be
+choked by an academic style of cooking that would be truly deplorable."
+
+Molly laughingly confided in the professor that she would not give one
+of Aunt Mary's hot turnovers for all of Miss Morse's scientifically made
+bread.
+
+"I know her bread is perfect, but it lacks a certain taste and life, and
+is to the real thing what a marble statue is to flesh and blood. Judy
+described it, in speaking of the food at a lunchroom for self-supporting
+women that she occasionally goes to in New York, as being 'too chaste.'"
+
+"That is exactly it, too chaste," agreed Professor Green.
+
+"Of course, cooking is a small part of what we learn in Domestic
+Science,--food values, economic housekeeping, etc. It really is a very
+broad and far-reaching science."
+
+They were in the professor's study, where Molly had come to tell him the
+good news about her story, and to ask his advice concerning what other
+of her character sketches she should send to the magazine. She was
+wearing her cap and gown, as she was just returning from a formal
+college function. When the young man greeted her, he had quickly rolled
+up something, looking a little shamefaced. But as they talked, he rolled
+and unrolled and finally determined to show the papers to her.
+
+"Miss Molly, Kent has sent me the plans for my bungalow that I
+commissioned him at Christmas to get busy on. I wonder if you would care
+to see them."
+
+"Of course I'd be charmed to, Professor Green. There is nothing in the
+world that is more interesting to me than plans of a house. Kent and I
+have been drawing them ever since we could hold pencils. Kent was the
+master hand at outside effects, and I was the housekeeper, who must have
+the proper pantry arrangements and conveniences."
+
+"Well, please pass on these. The outside effects seem lovely to me, but
+I cannot tell about the interior."
+
+Molly seated herself and pored over the prints, soon mastering the
+details with a practiced eye, noting dimensions and windows and doors.
+
+"I think it is splendid, but do you really want my criticism?"
+
+"I certainly do, more than any one's."
+
+"Well, there is waste space here that should be put in the store room.
+This little passage from dining-room to kitchen is entirely unnecessary
+and should be incorporated in the butler's pantry. These twin doors in
+the hall, one leading to the attic and one to the cellar, are no doubt
+very pretty, but they are not wide enough. An attic is for trunks, and
+how could one larger than a steamer trunk get through such a narrow
+door? A cellar is certainly for barrels and the like, and I am sure it
+would be a tug to pull a barrel through this little crack of a door. I'd
+allow at least nine inches more on each door, and that means a foot and
+a half off something. Let me see. It seems a pity to take it off of the
+living-room, and rather inhospitable to rob the guest chamber.
+
+"Aunt Clay always puts the new towels in the guest chamber for the
+company to break in. She says company can't kick about the slick
+stiffness of them, and somehow it would seem rather Aunt Clayish to take
+that eighteen inches off of the poor unsuspecting guests, whoever they
+may be."
+
+Molly sat a long time studying the plans, and she looked so sweet and so
+earnest that Edwin Green thought with regret of the tacit promise he had
+made Mrs. Brown: to let Molly stay a child for another year. How he
+longed to know his fate! How simple it would be while she was showing
+her interest in his little bungalow to ask her to tell him if she
+thought she could ever make it her little home, too! Was she the child
+her mother thought her? Did she think he was a "laggard in love," and
+despise him for a "faint heart"? Or could it be that she thought of him
+only as an old and trusted friend, too ancient to contemplate as
+anything but a professor of literature, and, at that, one who was
+building a home in which to spend his rapidly declining years?
+
+"Time will tell," sighed the poor, conscientious young man, "but if I am
+letting my happiness slip through my fingers from a mistaken sense of
+duty, then I don't deserve anything but 'single blessedness'."
+
+"I have it!" exclaimed Molly. "Have the cellar entrance outside by the
+kitchen door with a gourd pergola over both, and take this inside space
+where the cellar door and steps were to be for a large closet in the
+poor guests' room, to make up to them for coming so near to losing a
+foot and a half off of their room."
+
+"That suits me, if it suits you. Is there anything else?"
+
+"If you won't tell Kent it is my suggestion, I do think the bathroom
+door ought to open in and not out. He and I have disagreed about doors
+ever since we were children.
+
+"Do you know what plan Kent is making for mother and me? He wants us to
+go abroad next winter. Sue is to be married to her Cyrus in June, muddy
+lane and all; Paul and John are in Louisville most of the time, now that
+Paul is on a morning paper and has to work at night, and John is
+building up his practice and has to be on the spot; Kent hopes to be
+able to take a course at the Beaux Arts next winter if he can save
+enough money, and that would leave no one at Chatsworth but mother and
+me. There is no reason why we should not go, and you know I am excited
+about it; and, as for mother, she says she is like our country cousin
+who came to the exposition in Louisville and said in a grandiloquent
+tone, 'I am desirous to go elsewhere and view likewise.' Mother and I
+have never traveled anywhere, and it would be splendid for us. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+"I certainly do, especially as next year is my sabbatical year of
+teaching, and I expect to have a holiday myself and do some traveling. I
+have something to dream of now, and that is to meet you and your mother
+in Europe and 'go elsewhere and view likewise' in your company!"
+
+"Oh, Mother and I will be so glad to see you," exclaimed Molly. "I have
+brought a letter from Mildred to read to you, Professor Green. It is so
+like Mildred and tells so much of her life in Iowa that I thought it
+might interest you."
+
+"Indeed it will. I have thought so often of that delightful young couple
+and the wonderful wedding in the garden."
+
+So Molly began:
+
+  "'Dearest Sister:--You complain of having only second-hand letters
+  from me and you are quite right. There is nothing more irritating
+  than letters written to other people and handed down. Your letters
+  should belong to you, and you only, just as much as your
+  tooth-brush. You remember how mad it used to make Ernest to have his
+  letters sent to Aunt Clay, and how he would put in bad words just to
+  keep Mother from handing them on.
+
+  'Crit and I are more and more pleased with our little home out here
+  in this Western town (not that they call themselves Western, and on
+  the map they are really more Eastern than Western). The people are
+  lovely, and so neighborly and hospitable. It is a good thing for
+  Southern people to get away from home occasionally and come to the
+  realization that they have not got a corner on hospitality.
+  Entertaining out here really means trouble to the hostess, as there
+  are no servants and the ladies of the house have all the work to do;
+  and still they entertain a great deal and do it very well, too.
+
+  'I have never seen anything like the system the women have evolved
+  for their work. For instance: they wash on Monday morning and have a
+  "biled dinner." When washing is over, they are too tired to do any
+  more work, so they usually go calling or have club meetings or some
+  form of amusement to rest up for Tuesday, ironing day. Wednesday,
+  they bake. Thursday is the great day for teas and parties. Friday is
+  thorough cleaning day, and I came very near making myself very
+  unpopular because in my ignorance, when I first came here, I
+  returned some calls on that fateful day. I was greeted by irate
+  dames at every door, their heads tied up in towels and their faces
+  very dirty. I could hardly believe they were the same elegant ladies
+  I had met at the Thursday reception, beautifully gowned and showing
+  no marks of toil. On Saturday they bake again and get ready for
+  Sunday, and on Sunday no one ever thinks of staying away from church
+  because of cooking or house work.
+
+  'I am so glad our mother taught us how to work some, at least not to
+  be afraid of work, but I do wish I had been as fond of the kitchen
+  as you always were and had learned how to cook from Aunt Mary. My
+  sole culinary accomplishment was cloudbursts, and if Crit is an
+  angel he has to have something to go on besides cloudbursts. The
+  restaurants and hotels here are impossible and there are no boarding
+  houses. There are only twenty servants in the whole town and they
+  already have a waiting list of persons who want them when the
+  present employers are through with them, which only death or removal
+  from the town would make possible, so you see we have to keep house.
+  I am learning to cook, and simply adore Friday when I can tie up my
+  head and pull the house to pieces and make the dust fly. Crit calls
+  me a Sunbonnet Baby because I am so afraid of not keeping to the
+  schedule set down for me by my neighbors. Crit has bought me every
+  patent convenience on the market to make the work easy: washing
+  machine, electric iron and toaster, fancy mop wringer, and a dust
+  pan that can stand up by itself and let you sweep the dirt in
+  without stooping, vacuum carpet cleaner (but no carpets as yet),
+  window washer and dustless dusters, fireless cooker and a steamer
+  that can cook five things at once and blows a little whistle when
+  the water gets low in the bottom vessel. I have no excuse for not
+  being a good cook except that I lack the genius that you have. I
+  thought I never should learn how to make bread but I have mastered
+  it at last and can turn out a right good loaf and really lovely
+  turnovers.
+
+  'Thank you so much for your hints from your Domestic Science class.
+  I really got a lot from them. I had an awfully funny time with some
+  bread last week. You see, having once learned how to make it, it was
+  terribly mortifying to mix up a big batch and have it simply refuse
+  to rise. I didn't want Crit to see it, so I took it out in the
+  backyard and buried it in some sand the plasterers had left there.
+  Crit came home to dinner and went out in the yard to see if his
+  radishes were up and came in much excited: said he had found a new
+  mushroom growth (you remember he was always interested in mushrooms
+  and knew all kinds of edible varieties that we had never heard of).
+  Sure enough there was a brand new variety. That hateful old dough
+  had come up at last! The hot sand had been too much for it and it
+  was rising to beat the band. I was strangely unsympathetic with Crit
+  and his mushroom cult, so he came in to dinner. As soon as Crit went
+  back to work, I went out and covered up the disgraceful failure with
+  a lot more sand, hammered it down well and put a chicken coop on it,
+  determined to get rid of it; but surely murder must be like yeast
+  and it will out. When Crit came back to supper that old leaven had
+  found its way through the cracks under the chicken coop and a little
+  spot was appearing to the side of the sand pile. Crit was awfully
+  excited and began to pull off pieces to send to Washington for the
+  Government to look into the specimens, and I had to give in and tell
+  him the truth. He almost died laughing and decided to send some
+  anyhow, just to see what Uncle Sam would make out of it. The report
+  has not come yet. I have lots more things to tell you about my
+  housekeeping but I must stop now. I am so sorry I can not come home
+  to Sue's wedding, but it is such an expensive trip out here that I
+  do not see how Crit and I can manage it just now. Of course Crit
+  could not come anyhow as the bridge would surely fall down if he
+  were not here to hold it up, and even if we could afford it I should
+  hate to leave him more than I can tell you. Oh, Molly, he is so
+  precious! We have been married almost a year now and when I was
+  cross about his mushrooms was the nearest we have ever come to a
+  misunderstanding. That is doing pretty well for me who am a born
+  pepper pot. It is all Crit, who is an angel, as I believe I remarked
+  before. Please write to me all about your class reunion, and give my
+  love to that adorable Julia Kean, and also remember me to that nice
+  Professor Green.
+
+                                              'Your 'special sister,
+                                           Mildred Brown Rutledge.'"
+
+"What a delightful letter and how happy they are," said the professor,
+fingering his roll of blue prints with a sad smile. "It was good of her
+to remember me. Please give her my love when you write."
+
+"I did not tell you quite all she said," confessed Molly, opening the
+letter again and reading. "She says, 'remember me to that nice Professor
+Green, who is almost as lovely as Crit,'" and Molly beat a hasty
+retreat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--THE OLD QUEEN'S CROWD.
+
+
+"Nance, do you fancy this has really been such a quiet, uneventful
+college year, or are we just so old and settled that we don't know
+excitement when we see it? It has been a very happy time, and I feel
+that I have got hold of myself somehow, and am able to make use of the
+hard studying I have done at college. I know you will laugh when I tell
+you that one reason I have been so happy is that I have not had to
+bother myself over Math. No one can ever know how I did hate and despise
+that subject."
+
+"You poor old Molly, I know it was hard on you. You were in good
+company, anyhow, in your hatred of it. You remember Lord Macauley hated
+it, too, but for that very reason was determined 'to take no second
+place' in it. You always managed to get good marks after that first
+condition in our Freshman year. I often laugh when I think of you with
+your feet in hot water and your head tied up in a cold wet towel, trying
+to cure a cold and at the same time grasp higher mathematics," answered
+the sympathetic Nance, looking lovingly at her roommate. The girls found
+themselves looking at each other very often with sad, loving glances.
+Their partnership was rapidly approaching its close. They could not be
+room-mates forever and college must end some time.
+
+"The funny thing about me and Math. is that I never did really and truly
+understand it," laughed Molly. "I learned how to work one example as
+another was worked, but it was never with any real comprehension.
+Nothing but memory got me through. I remember so well when I was a
+little girl, going to the district school. I came home in tears because
+division of decimals had stumped me. My father found me weeping my soul
+out with a sticky slate and pencil grasped to my panting breast. 'What's
+the matter, little daughter?' he said. 'Oh, father, I can't see how a
+great big number can go into a little bits of number and make a bigger
+number still.' 'Well, you poor lamb, don't bother your little red head
+about it any more, but run and get yourself dressed and come drive to
+town with me. I am going to take you to see Jo Jefferson play "Cricket
+on the Hearth."' I shall never forget that play, but I never have really
+understood decimals; and you may know what higher mathematics meant to
+me."
+
+"Speaking of a quiet year, Molly, I have an idea one reason it has been
+so uneventful is that our dear old Judy has not been here to get herself
+into hot water, sometimes pulling in her devoted friends after her when
+they tried to fish her out. Won't it be splendid to see all the old
+Queen's crowd again: Judy and Katherine and Edith, Margaret and Jessie?
+I wonder if they have changed much! I am so glad they are coming to the
+meeting of the alumn� this year, and that we are here without having to
+come!"
+
+"I do hope my box from home will get here in time for the first night of
+the gathering of the clan. I know it will seem more natural to them if
+we can get up a little feast. I want all of the girls to know Melissa.
+Isn't she happy at the prospect of her dear teacher's coming? Do you
+know the lady's name? I never can remember to ask Melissa, who always
+speaks of her with clasped hands and a rapt expression as 'teacher'."
+
+"Yes," answered Nance. "She has a wonderful name for one who is giving
+up her life working for mankind: Dorothea Allfriend, all-friendly gift
+of God. I believe her name must have influenced her from the beginning."
+
+"We must ask her to our spread on Melissa's account," cried the
+impetuously hospitable Molly. "That makes ten, counting the eight
+Queen's girls, and while we are about it, let's have----"
+
+"Molly Brown, stop right there. If you ask a lot of outsiders, how can
+we have the intimate old talk that we are all of us hungering for? Of
+course we can't leave Melissa out, as she has been too close to us all
+winter to do anything without her, and her friend must come, too; but in
+the name of old Queen's, let that suffice."
+
+"Right, as usual, Nance, but inviting is such a habit with all of my
+family that it almost amounts to a vice. Of course we don't want
+outsiders, and I shall hold a tight rein on my inclination to entertain
+until after the fourth of June. If there are any scraps left, I might
+give another party."
+
+"There won't be any, unless all of us have fallen in love and lost our
+appetites."
+
+The fourth came at last, and with it our five old friends: the Williams
+sisters, Katherine and Edith, as amusing as ever, still squabbling over
+small matters but agreeing on fundamentals, which they had long ago
+decided was the only thing that mattered; Margaret Wakefield, with the
+added poise and gracious manner that a winter in Washington society
+would be apt to give one; Jessie Lynch, as pretty as ever but still
+Jessie Lynch, not having married the owner of the ring, as we had rather
+expected her to do when she left college; and our dear Judy, in the
+seventh heaven of bliss because The American Artists' exhibition had
+accepted and actually hung, not very far above the line, a small picture
+done in Central Park at dusk.
+
+The meeting at No. 5, Quadrangle, was a joyous one. Everybody talked at
+once, except of course little Otoyo, whose manners were still so good
+that she never talked when any one else had the floor; but her smile was
+so beaming that Edith declared it was positively deafening.
+
+"Silence, silence!" and Margaret, the one-time class president, rapped
+for order. "I am so afraid I will miss something and I can't hear a
+thing. Let's get the budget of news and find out where we stand, and
+then we can go on with the uproar."
+
+"Well, what is the matter with refreshments?" inquired the ever-ready
+Molly. "That will quiet some of us at least. But before we begin, I must
+ask you, Otoyo, where Melissa is. She and her friend Miss Allfriend
+understood the time, did they not?"
+
+"Yes, they understood and send you most respectful greetings, but my
+dearly friend, Melissa, says she well understands that the meeting of
+these eight old friends is equally to her meeting of her one friend, and
+she will not intrusive be until we our confidences have bartered, and
+then she will bring Miss Allfriend to meet the companions of Miss Brown
+and Miss Oldham."
+
+"I haven't heard who Melissa is, but she must be fine to show so much
+tact," exclaimed Katherine. "I am truly glad we are alone. I am bursting
+with news and drying up for news, and any outsider would spoil it all."
+
+Nance gave a triumphant glance in Molly's direction, and Molly stopped
+carving the ham long enough to give an humble bow to Nance before
+remarking, "You girls are sure to adore my Melissa, but if Katherine is
+already bursting with news, suppose she begins before I get the ham
+carved. What is it, Kate? A big novel already accepted?"
+
+"No, but a good job as reader for a publisher, and two magazine stories
+in current numbers, and an order for some college notes for a big Sunday
+sheet. Isn't that going some for the homeliest one of the Williams
+sisters? But that is nothing. My news is as naught to what is to come.
+Have none of you noticed the blushing Edith? Look at her fluffy
+pompadour, her stylish sleeves, her manicured nails. Compare them with
+those of the old Edith. Remember her lank hair and out-of-date blouses
+and finger nails gnawed down to the quick. Note the change and guess and
+guess again."
+
+"Edith, Edith! Oh, you fraud!" in chorus from the astonished girls.
+
+"Is it a man?"
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"When is it to be?"
+
+They certainly guessed right the very first time. Edith Williams was to
+be the first of the old guard to marry, and she was certainly the last
+to expect such a thing. She took the astonishment of her friends very
+coolly and accepted their congratulations without the least
+embarrassment.
+
+"I can't see what you are making such a fuss about. You must have known
+all the time that my hatred of the male sex was a pose, just adopted
+because I had a notion that no man in his senses could ever see anything
+in me to care for; or if one did, he would be such a poor thing that I
+could not care for him. But," with a complacent smile, "I find I was
+mistaken."
+
+"Tell us all about him, do please, Edith. I know he is splendid or you
+would not want him," said Molly, handing Edith the first plate piled
+with all dainties.
+
+"I can't eat and talk, too, so I'll cut my love affair short. His name
+is plain James Wilson, but he is not plain, at all. He is very tall,
+very good looking and very clever. He is dramatic critic on a big New
+York paper and has written a play that is to be produced in the fall.
+Oh, girls, I can't keep it up any longer! I mean, this seeming coldness.
+He is splendid and I am very happy!" With which outburst, she attempted
+to hide her blushes in her plate, but Katherine rescued it, saying
+sternly, "Don't ruin the food, but effuse on your napkin," which made
+them laugh and restored Edith's equanimity. Then the girls learned that
+she was to be married in two weeks and go to Nova Scotia on her
+honeymoon.
+
+"Next!" rapped Margaret. "How about you, my Jessica, and what have you
+done with your winter?"
+
+Pretty Jessie blushed and held up her fingers, bare of rings. "Not even
+any borrowed ones?" laughed Judy. "Why, Jessie, I believe you have
+sought the safety that lies in numbers, and have so many beaux you can't
+decide among them."
+
+"I have had a glorious debutante winter and do not feel much like
+settling down as yet," confessed the little beauty. "There is lots of
+time for serious thoughts like matrimony later on."
+
+"So there is, my child, but don't do like the poor princess who was so
+choosey that she ended by having to take the crooked stick. My Jessica
+must have the best stick in the forest, if she must have any at all,"
+said Margaret, putting her arm around her friend. "For my part, I have
+had a busy winter and haven't felt the need of a stick, straight or
+crooked. What with entertaining for my father and keeping up the social
+end necessary for a public man, and a general welfare movement I am
+interested in, and the Suffrage League, I have often wished I had an
+astral body to help me out. Mind you, I am not opposed to matrimony, but
+I am just not interested in it for myself."
+
+"That is a dangerous sentiment to express," teased Judy. "I find that a
+statement like that from a handsome young woman usually means she is
+taking notice. Come now, Margaret, if, instead of having an astral body
+to do part of the work you are planning for yourself, you had been born
+triplets, you would have let one of you get married, wouldn't you? Now
+'fess up. Margaret could attend the suffrage meetings, and Maggie could
+look after the child's welfare, while dear, handsome, wholesome Peggy
+could be the beloved wife of some promising public man. I don't believe
+Margaret or Maggie would mind at all if Peggy had to hurry home from the
+meetings to have the house attractive for a brilliant young Senator from
+the western states whom we shall call 'the Baby of the Senate' just for
+euphony, and who would come dashing up to the door in his limousine
+whistling 'Peg o' my Heart' in joyful anticipation of his welcome."
+
+Margaret, the stately and composed, was blushing furiously at Judy's
+nonsense.
+
+"Judy Kean, who has been telling you things?"
+
+"No one, I declare, Margaret. I was just visualizing. I wouldn't have
+presumed to hit the nail on the head had I realized I was doing it. You
+must forgive me, dear, but I am rather proud of being able to predict,
+and if I ever meet the 'Baby of the Senate' I shall tell him to 'try,
+try again'."
+
+Molly interfered at this point and stopped Judy's naughty mouth with a
+beaten biscuit. "Aren't you ashamed, Judy? How should you like to be
+teased as you have teased Margaret?"
+
+"Shouldn't mind in the least. If in a moment of ambitious dreaming I
+have said 'nay, nay' to any handsome young western senators, Margaret
+has my permission to tell them to 'try, try again,' that I was just
+a-fooling. I am perfectly frank about my intentions in regard to the
+husband question. I am wedded to my art, but it is merely a temporary
+arrangement, and I may get a divorce any day if more attractive
+inducements are offered than my art can furnish. It is fine, though, to
+get my picture accepted and almost well hung by The American Artists. I
+have an idea its size had something to do with the judges taking it. It
+would have been cruel to refuse such a little thing; and then it is so
+easy to hang a tiny picture, and there are so many gaps in galleries
+that have to be filled in somehow."
+
+"What a rattler you are, Judy," broke in Edith. "Your picture is lovely,
+and it made me proud to tell James, who took me to the exhibition, that
+you were my classmate and one of the immortal eight."
+
+"Three more to report," rapped Margaret, "Molly and Nance and Otoyo.
+Otoyo first, to punish her for being so noisy," and Margaret drew the
+little Japanese to her side with an affectionate smile.
+
+"It is not for humble Japanese maidens to bare lay their heart
+throbbings, so my beloved friends will have to excuse the little Otoyo."
+
+And it spoke well for the breeding of the other seven that they
+respected the reticence of their little foreign friend and did not try
+to force her confidence, although they were none of them ignorant of the
+intentions of the wily Mr. Seshu.
+
+"Otoyo is right," declared Nance. "I have nothing to confess, but if I
+had, I should be Japanesque and keep it to myself."
+
+"Oh, you 'copy cat'," sang Judy. "I'll wager anything that Nance has
+more up her sleeve than any of us. Look, look! It has gone all the way
+up her sleeve and is crawling out at her neck."
+
+Nance made a wild grab at her neck, where, sure enough, the sharp eyes
+of Judy had discovered a tiny gold chain that Nance had not meant to
+show above her neat collar. She clutched it so forcibly that the
+delicate fastening broke, and a small gold locket was hurled across the
+room right into Molly's lap. Molly caught it up and handed it back to
+the crimson and confused Nance amid the shrieks of the girls.
+
+"I reckon a girl has a right to carry her father's picture around her
+neck if she has a mind to," said Molly.
+
+Just then there was a knock at the door and Melissa and Miss Allfriend
+were ushered in, much to the relief of Molly, who by their coming had
+escaped the ordeal of the teasing from her friends that she knew was
+drawing near; and it also gave Nance the chance to compose herself.
+
+Miss Allfriend proved to be delightful. She was overjoyed to be back at
+her Alma Mater and eager to know Melissa's friends and to thank them for
+their kindness to her prot�g�e. Personalities were dropped and the
+program for the entertainment of the alumn� was soon under discussion.
+Miss Allfriend had been president of her class and she and Margaret
+found many subjects of mutual interest. Melissa was anxious to know the
+old Queen's girls, having heard so much of them from Otoyo, and the
+girls were equally anxious to know the interesting mountain girl. The
+party was a great success, and Nance was delighted to see that there
+were no "scraps" left for Molly to give another, as there were many
+things on foot for the alumn� meeting for the next week and Nance felt
+sure Molly would have enough to do without any more entertaining.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now we will leave our girls. Their postgraduate year is over. A very
+happy one it has been, with little excitement but much good, hard work.
+Nance is to go to Vermont and rescue her long-suffering father from the
+boarding house, and give the poor man the taste of home life that he has
+never known. Mrs. Oldham cannot keep house in Vermont and make speeches,
+now at the International Peace Conference at The Hague, and then at a
+Biennial of Woman's Clubs in San Francisco, with a stop over in New York
+to address the Equal Suffrage League between boat and train!
+
+Molly is going back to Kentucky to assist at her sister's wedding, this
+wedding a formal affair in a church, to suit the notions of the
+formidable Aunt Clay. Molly has many plots in her head to work out. Her
+little success with "The Basket Funeral" has fired her ambition, and she
+is longing for time to write more. French must be studied hard all
+summer if they are to go abroad, and Kent must be coached, as he is very
+rusty in his French and must rub up on it for lectures at the Beaux
+Arts. She has promised Edwin Green to write to him, and he has offered
+to criticize her stories, which will be a great help to her. The place
+of meeting in Europe has not been decided on, but Professor Green is
+determined that meeting there shall be.
+
+Melissa will go back to her beloved mountains and try to give out during
+her well-earned vacation some of the precious knowledge she has gained
+in her freshman year to the less fortunate children of her county. She
+will in a measure repay the noble woman who has spent her life in the
+mountain mission work for all the care and labor she has expended on
+her, and will go back to Wellington for the sophomore course with her
+purpose stronger and deeper: to help her people and uplift them as she
+herself has become uplifted.
+
+One more incident only we must record before this volume ends. After
+Molly got home she received by express a box wrapped in Japanese paper,
+so carefully and wonderfully done up that it seemed a pity to break the
+fastenings. In the box was the most beautiful little stunted tree in a
+pot that looked as though it had come out of a museum. The tree had all
+the characteristics of a "gnarled oak olden," with thick twisted
+branches and one limb that looked as though little children might have
+had a swing on it, so low did it sag. And this tiny tree, with all the
+dignity of a great "father of the forest," was, pot and all, only eight
+inches high! With it, came the following letter:
+
+"Will the honorably and kindly graciously Miss Brown be so stoopingly as
+to accept this humble gift from the father of Otoyo Sen, who has by the
+most graciously help of Miss Brown passed her difficulty examinations at
+Wellington College and now is to become the humble wife of honorable
+Japanese gentleman, Mr. Seshu? The honorable gentleman gave greatly
+praise to graciously Miss Brown for her so kindly words about humble
+Japanese maiden and is gratefully that his humble wife is the friend of
+so kindly lady."
+
+With this little note, it seemed to Molly that the last ties that bound
+her to the precious life at Wellington and the old, complete Queen's
+group had suddenly snapped. Little Otoyo had outstripped them all! She
+was quietly entering the school of Life, while the rest were only
+standing at the threshold.
+
+Molly, knowing the serene satisfaction with which the Japanese maiden
+awaited the new bonds, and remembering the transforming happiness of
+Edith Williams in anticipation of a similar experience, thoughtfully
+pondered upon her own future.
+
+She had the eye of faith but she was not a seer; and she could not
+travel in advance those devious paths by which Destiny was to lead her.
+
+How she finally came to her own and fulfilled the promise of college
+days, it remains for "Molly Brown's Orchard Home" to disclose.
+
+                                The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days, by Nell Speed
+
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+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" >
+<head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+    <meta content="Molly Brown’s Post-Graduate Days" name="DC.Title"/>
+    <meta content="Nell Speed" name="DC.Creator"/>
+    <meta content="en" name="DC.Language"/>
+    <meta content="1922" name="DC.Created"/>
+    <meta name="generator" content="ppgen (1.08) generated May 25, 2011 08:34 PM" />
+    <title>Molly Brown’s Post-Graduate Days</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+        p                       {margin-top:1ex; margin-bottom:0; text-align:justify;}
+        div.center p            {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:center;}
+        .pagenum                {display:inline; font-size:x-small; text-align:right; text-indent:0;
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+        .pncolor                {color:silver;}
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+        h2                      {text-align:left; font-weight:normal;}
+        h1                      {font-size:1.4em; margin-top:4em; margin-bottom:2em;}
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+        hr.tb                   {border:none; border-bottom: 1px solid black; margin: 20px auto; width:35%}
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+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days, 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: Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2011 [EBook #36230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S POST-GRADUATE DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div><a name='ifpc' id='ifpc'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i001' id='i001'></a>
+<img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='“Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beechwood period’ forever.”—Page 113.' title=''/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beechwood<br/>period’ forever.”—<i>Page 113.</i></span>
+</div>
+<div class='center'>
+<h1>MOLLY BROWN’S<br />POST-GRADUATE<br />DAYS</h1>
+
+<p>BY</p>
+
+<p style='font-size:larger'>NELL SPEED</p>
+
+<p style='font-size:smaller; margin-top:2em;'>AUTHOR OF “MOLLY BROWN’S FRESHMAN DAYS,” “MOLLY BROWN’S<br/>
+SOPHOMORE DAYS,” “MOLLY BROWN’S JUNIOR DAYS,”<br/>
+“MOLLY BROWN’S SENIOR DAYS,” ETC., ETC.</p>
+
+<p style='margin-top:2em;'><i>WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS<br/>
+BY CHARLES L. WRENN</i></p>
+
+<p style='margin-top:2em;'>NEW YORK<br/>
+<span style='font-size:larger'>HURST &amp; COMPANY</span><br/>
+PUBLISHERS</p>
+</div>
+<p style='font-size:smaller; text-align:center; margin:2em auto'>Copyright, 1914<br/>
+BY<br/>
+HURST &amp; COMPANY</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.3em;'>CONTENTS</span></p>
+</div>
+<table class='c' summary=''>
+<tr><td colspan='3' align='center'>BOOK I</td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>I.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Arrival</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chI'>5</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>II.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>My Old Kentucky Home</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chII'>22</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>III.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Wedding Preparations and Confidences</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chIII'>36</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Burglars</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chIV'>51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>V.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Wedding</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chV'>62</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Buttermilk Tact</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chVI'>77</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Pictures on Memory’s Wall</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chVII'>100</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VIII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>All Kinds of Weather</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chVIII'>114</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>IX.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Jimmy</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chIX'>143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>X.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Aunt Clay Makes a Mistake</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chX'>154</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan='3' align='center'>BOOK II</td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>I.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Wellington Again</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#p2chI'>170</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>II.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Levity in the Leaven</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#p2chII'>189</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>III.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>History Repeats Itself</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#p2chIII'>208</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Barrel from Home</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#p2chIV'>223</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>V.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Dodo’s Surprise Party</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#p2chV'>241</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>More Surprises</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#p2chVI'>261</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Dreams and Realities</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#p2chVII'>269</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VIII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Old Queen’s Crowd</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#p2chVIII'>288</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p class='center larger'>ILLUSTRATIONS</p>
+
+<table style='margin-left:auto; margin-right: auto' summary=''><tr><td></td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td>“Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beechwood period’ forever”</td><td align='right'><a href='#ifpc'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>“Hello, girls,” exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other</td><td align='right'><a href='#i010'>10</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>“Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?”</td><td align='right'><a href='#i218'>218</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture</td><td align='right'><a href='#i252'>252</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5'></a>5</span></div>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.4em;'>MOLLY BROWN’S POST-GRADUATE DAYS.</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.2em'>BOOK I.</span></p>
+</div>
+<h2><a name='chI' id='chI'></a>CHAPTER I.—THE ARRIVAL.</h2>
+<p>
+“Oh, Judy, almost home! I wonder who will
+meet us,” cried Molly Brown. “I feel in my
+bones that you and my family will be as good
+friends as you and I have always been. You
+are sure to get on well with the boys.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy responded with a hug, thinking, with a
+happy twinkle in her large, gray eyes, that, if by
+any chance the rest of the Brown boys could be
+as attractive as Molly’s brother, Kent, and should
+find her as fascinating as Kent had seemed to,
+when she met him in the spring before the college pageant,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6'></a>6</span>
+she bade fair to have an exciting
+visit in Kentucky.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly Brown and Julia Kean (Judy for short),
+after four busy years of college life, had just
+graduated at Wellington, and were on their way
+to Molly’s home in Kentucky, where Judy was
+to pay a long visit. As Molly had been looking
+forward to the time when she could have some
+of her college chums know her numerous and
+beloved family, she was very happy at the prospect.
+Judy, who was ever ready for an adventure,
+was bubbling over with anticipation.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls sat gazing out on the beautiful rolling
+fields of blue grass and tasseling corn, which
+Molly knowingly remarked promised an excellent
+crop. Molly’s blue eyes were misty when she
+thought of dear old Wellington College, the four
+years of hard work and play, and the many
+friends she had made and left, some of them,
+perhaps, never to see again. Her mind dwelt a
+long time on Professor Green, the delightful old,
+young man, who had opened up a new world to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span>
+her in literature; who had been so very kind to
+her through the whole college course, often coming
+to her rescue when in difficulties, and always
+sympathizing with her when she most needed
+sympathy; and who had, finally, proved to be
+her real benefactor, when she discovered that
+he was the purchaser of those acres of perfectly
+good orchard that had to be sold to keep Molly
+at college. On bidding him good-by, she had
+extended to him an invitation from her mother
+to make them a visit in Kentucky, and she had
+already speculated much as to whether the young,
+old man would accept. Molly never could decide
+whether to think of him as an old, young man,
+or a young, old man. Professor Green was in
+reality about thirty, but, when one is under
+twenty, over thirty seems very old.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly smiled when she thought of her parting
+scene with him, and made a mental note that
+that was one of the things she must be sure to
+confess to mother. The smile was enough to
+dispel the mist that was in her eyes, and her mind
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8'></a>8</span>
+turned to Chatsworth, her dear home. She
+thought of her mother, her brothers and sisters;
+the decrepit old cook, Aunt Mary Morton; Shep
+and Gyp, the dogs; her horse, President, no
+longer young, having lived through four administrations,
+but still having more go in him than
+many a colt, showing his fine racing blood and the
+“mettle of his pasture.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Only two miles more,” breathed Molly jubilantly.
+“We must get our numerous packages
+together.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls had planned to have no bundles to
+carry on the train, nothing but two highly respectable
+suitcases; but the fates were against
+anything so unheard of as two females going on
+a journey with no extras. They had seven boxes
+of candy presented at parting by various friends.
+A large basket of fruit was added to their cares,
+put on the Pullman in New York by the resourceful
+Jimmy Lufton, with instructions to the
+porter to give it to the two prettiest girls who
+got on at Wellington, with through sleeper to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9'></a>9</span>
+Kentucky. There were the inevitable shirtwaists
+found in Molly’s bottom drawer; books
+and what not, lent to various girls and returned
+too late to pack; and some belated laundry that
+Molly had not had the heart to worry her old
+friend, Mrs. Murphy, about—collars, jabots, and
+the muslin sash curtains from her room at college
+that Molly could not make up her mind to
+put in her trunk in their dusty state. These
+things were put in a bulging box and labeled by
+Judy, quoting the immortal Mr. Venus, “Bones
+Warious.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish we could forget it and leave it on the
+train,” said Molly. “The things in it are all
+mine, and, now I come to think of it, I believe
+there is nothing there of any real value except
+the jabots Nance made me—those that Mrs. Murphy
+called my ‘jawbones.’ I could not bear to
+lose them, and we have not time to dig them out.
+If Kent meets us he is sure to tease me, and you
+know how badly I take a teasing. He says he is
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10'></a>10</span>
+lopsided now from carrying his sisters’ clothes
+that they have forgotten to pack in their trunks.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let me call the ‘foul, hunch-backed toad’ of a
+bundle mine,” offered Judy. “Your brother does
+not know me well enough to tease me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you believe it! Besides, you can’t fool
+Kent. He knows me and my bundles too well.
+Here we are,” added Molly hastily, “and there
+is Kent to meet us, driving the colts, if you
+please. It is a good thing you are not Nance
+Oldham. She will not consent to ride behind any
+colt younger than ten years old!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The train stopped just long enough for the
+girls to jump off, the porter depositing their
+numerous belongings in a heap on the platform.
+</p>
+<div><a name='i010' id='i010'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i002' id='i002'></a>
+<img src='images/illus-010.jpg' alt='“Hello, girls,” exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other.—Page 10.' title=''/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“Hello, girls,” exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one side,<br/>and shaking hands with Judy, on the other.—<i>Page 10.</i></span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span></div>
+<p>
+“Hello, girls,” exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly,
+on one side, and shaking hands with Judy, on
+the other, while a diminutive darkey swung on to
+the colts’ bits, occasionally leaping into the air
+as the restive horses tossed their proud heads.
+“My, it is good to see you! And your train on
+time, too! That is such a rare occurrence that I
+have an idea it may be yesterday’s train. You
+don’t mean to say that this is all of the emergency
+baggage you are carrying?” grabbing the
+two highly respectable suitcases and stowing
+them in the back of the trim, red-wheeled Jersey
+wagon. The girls giggled, and Kent discovered
+the conglomerate collection of packages that
+the porter had hastily dumped by the side of the
+track.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly beat a hasty retreat into the station,
+declaring that she must speak to Mrs. Woodsmall,
+the postmistress, thus hoping to avoid the
+inevitable teasing from her big brother. Judy,
+with the spirit and somewhat the expression of
+a Christian martyr, picked up the aforesaid despised,
+bumpy, bulging bundle, and, with a sweet
+smile, said: “This is mine, Mr. Brown. Will
+you please take it? The rest of the things are
+boxes of candy and parting gifts from various
+friends.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent took the disreputable looking package,
+which was not at all improved by its long trip on
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span>
+the Pullman and the many disdainful kicks the
+girls had given it. Now, in the last hasty handling,
+the porter had loosened the much knotted
+string, the paper had burst, and from the yawning
+gash there had crept a bit of blue ribbon,
+Molly’s own blue. Judy, with her ever-ready
+imagination, had been heard to call it “the blue
+of chivalry and romance, the blue of distant
+mountains and deep seas.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent took the package, smiling his quizzical
+smile; the smile that from the beginning had
+made Judy decide that he was very likable; a
+smile all from the eyes, with a grave mouth. In
+fact, the young lady had been so taken with it
+that she had practiced the expression before her
+mirror for half an hour and then held it until
+she could try it on the first person passing by.
+That person happened to be Edith Williams, who
+had remarked: “Gracious me, Judy, what is the
+matter? I feel as though you were some one
+in a hogshead looking through the bunghole at
+me.” Judy was delighted. It was exactly the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span>
+expression she was aiming for, but she was sorry
+that she had not thought of the apt description
+herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, Miss Judy, I have known for four
+years from Molly’s letters what a bully good
+chum you are, and have observed before now
+how charming and beautiful, but this rôle of
+Christian martyr is a new one on me. Don’t
+you know you can’t fool me about a Brown bundle?
+I could pick one out of the hold of an ocean
+liner in the dark, just by the lumpy, bumpy feel
+of it. Besides”—pointing to the bit of blue
+ribbon spilling through the widening tear—“there
+are Molly’s honest old eyes peeping out,
+telling me that this little subterfuge of yours is
+just an act of true friendship on your part, to
+keep me from teasing her about her slipshod
+method of packing. I tell you what I will do,
+Miss Judy, if you will do something for me. I’ll
+make a compact with you, and promise to go the
+whole of this day without teasing Molly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, what am I to do?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, it’s easy enough. Don’t call me Mr.
+Brown any more. Kent, from your lips, would
+sound good to me. You see, there are four male
+Browns, and every time you say ‘Mr. Brown’ we
+are liable to fall over one another answering you
+or doing your bidding.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right; ‘Kent’ it shall be for this day and
+every day that you don’t tease Molly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I meant just for the one day. The strain of
+never teasing Molly again would shatter my constitution.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Very well, Mr. Brown; just as you choose
+about that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, well, I give up.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right, Kent.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly emerged from the postoffice, with Mrs.
+Woodsmall following her. Such a stream of
+conversation poured from the latter’s lips that
+Judy felt her head swim.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Glad to meet you, Miss Kean. I have long
+wanted to see some of Molly’s correspondents.
+What beautiful postals you sent her last year
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span>
+from Maine; the summer before from Yellowstone
+Park; and those Eyetalian ones were
+grand; one year, even from Californy. You are
+the most traveled of all her friends, I believe, but
+Miss Oldham can say more on a postal than any
+of you, and such a eligible hand, too. Now-a-days
+all of you young folks write so much alike,
+since the round style come in, I can hardly tell
+your writin’ apart. It makes it very hard on a
+lonesome postmistress whose only way of gitting
+news is from the mail she handles. And now,
+since Uncle Sam has started this fool Rural Free
+Delivery, I don’t git time to more than half sort
+the mail before here comes Bud Woodsmall and
+snatches it from under my nose with irrevalent
+remarks about cur’osity and cats. Gimme the
+good old days when the neighbors come a-drivin’
+up for their mail, and you could pass the time o’
+day with them and git what news out of them
+you ain’t been able to git off of the postals, or
+make out through the thin ornvelopes, or guess
+from the postmarks. Anyhow, I gits ahead of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span>
+Woodsmall lots of times. Jest yistiddy I ‘phoned
+over to Mrs. Brown that Molly would be in on
+this two train. To be sure, Woodsmall had the
+letter in his auto, but he has to go a long way
+round, and he’s sech a man for stopping and gassin’,
+and Molly’s ornvelope was some thinner
+than usual, and I could see mighty plain the time
+she expected to come. Said I to myself, said I,
+’Now, ain’t Mrs. Brown nothing but a mother,
+and don’t she want the earliest news of her child
+she can git? And ain’t I the owner of that news,
+and should I not desiccate it if I can? It so
+happened that Woodsmall had a blow-out, and
+didn’t git yistiddy’s mail delivered until to-day.
+Now, tell me, wasn’t I right to git ahead of
+him?” She did not pause for a reply, but
+plunged into the stream of conversation again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t care if he is my own husband. He
+asked my sister first, and I never would have
+had him if there had been a chance of anything
+better offering. I wouldn’t have had him at
+all if I had foresaw that he was going to fly in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span>
+my face by gitting app’inted to R. F. D., and
+then fly in the face of Providence by trying to
+run one of them artemobes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent stopped the flow of words by saying:
+“Now, Mrs. Woodsmall, you are giving Miss
+Kean an entirely wrong idea of you and Bud.
+She will think you do not love him, and I am
+sure there is not a man in the county who fares
+better than your husband, or who shows his
+keep as well.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The thin, hard face of the postmistress broke
+into a pleasant smile, and Judy thought: “After
+all, Kent and Molly are very much alike in understanding
+the human heart and in trying to
+make all around them feel as happy as possible.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you see, Kent Brown, it’s this way: I
+jest natchally love to cook, and Bud he jest natchally
+loves to eat, and I’ve got the triflingest, no-count
+stomic that ever was seed. What’s the use
+of cooking up a lot of victuals for myself, when
+I can’t eat more’n a mouthful? And so,” she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span>
+somewhat lamely concluded, “I jest cook ’em
+up for Bud.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The colts could not be persuaded to stand still
+another minute, so they had to call a hasty good-by
+to the voluble Mrs. Woodsmall. Then the
+girls gave their attention to holding on their
+hats and keeping their seats, while the lively pair
+of young horses pranced and cavorted until Kent
+gave them their heads and allowed them to race
+their fill for a mile or more of macadamized
+road.
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy was hardly prepared for such a trim
+turnout as the Jersey wagon, and such wonderful
+horses, to say nothing of the road. She had
+yet to learn that Mrs. Brown would have good,
+well-kept vehicles on her place; that all the
+Browns would have good horses; and that all
+Kentuckians insist on good roads. The number
+of limestone quarries throughout the state make
+good macadamized roads a comparatively easy
+matter.
+</p>
+<p>
+What a beautiful country it was: the fields of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19'></a>19</span>
+blue grass, with herds of grazing cattle, knee
+deep in June; an occasional clump of trees, reminding
+one rather of English landscapes; and
+then the fields of corn, proudly waving their tassels
+and shaking their pennant-like leaves, as
+much as to say, “roasting ears for all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“News for you, Molly,” said Kent, as soon as
+he could get the colts down to a conversation permitting
+trot. “Mildred is to be married in two
+weeks.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Kent, why didn’t they write me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mother thought it would be fun to surprise
+you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy’s glowing face saddened. “Why, I should
+not be here at such a time. I know I shall be in
+the way. I must write to papa to come for me
+sooner.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, Miss Judy, ‘the cat is out of the bag.’
+You have hit on the real reason why mother
+would not let any of us write Molly of the approaching
+nuptials in the family. She was so
+afraid that you might fear you would be <i>de trop</i>
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span>
+and want to postpone your visit to us, and she
+has been determined that nothing should happen
+to keep her from making your acquaintance, and
+that at the earliest. You see, poor mother has
+had not only to listen to Molly’s ravings on the
+subject of Miss Julia Kean for the last four
+years, but now she has to give ear to Mildred
+and me, since we met you at Wellington, and
+she thinks the only way to silence us is to have
+something to say about you herself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy laughed, reassured. “You and Molly are
+exactly alike, and both of you must ‘favor your
+ma.’ Well, I’ll try not to be in the way, and
+maybe I can help.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course you can,” said Molly, squeezing
+her. “You always help where there is any planning
+or arranging or beautifying to be done.
+But, Kent, tell me, why is Milly in such a rush?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Molly, I am surprised at you, laying
+it on Mildred. It happens to be old ‘Silence and
+Fun’ who is so precipitate.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who is ‘Silence and Fun’?” asked Judy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, he is Milly’s <i>fiancé</i>, but the Brown boys
+call him that ridiculous name. He has a fine
+name of his own, Crittenden Rutledge. But,
+Kent, please tell me, why this haste?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you see Crit has been ordered out to
+Iowa by his steel construction company, on a
+bridge-building debauch, and he thought Milly
+might just as well go on with him and hold the
+nails while he wields the hammer. Here we are,
+so put your hat on straight, and look your prettiest,
+Miss Judy. I should hate for mother to
+think that we had been misleading her.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span><a name='chII' id='chII'></a>CHAPTER II.—MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME.</h2>
+<p>
+They turned into an avenue through a gate
+opened from the wagon by means of a rope
+pulled by the driver.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How is that for a gate, Molly? I began my
+holiday by getting the thing in order. It works
+beautifully now, but the least bit of rough handling
+gets it off its trolley.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is fine, Kent. But tell me, are you to have
+your holiday now?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes; you see I can help with the harvesting
+this week, and next week the wedding bells have
+to be rung. And I thought any spare time I
+have I could take Miss Judy off your hands.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am afraid that your holiday will be a very
+busy one,” laughed Judy; “but maybe I can help
+ring the wedding bells, and, if I can’t do much
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span>
+toward harvesting, I can at least carry water to
+the thirsty laborers.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent Brown was in an architect’s office in
+Louisville, working very hard to master his profession,
+for which he had a fondness amounting
+to a passion. Mrs. Brown had secretly hoped
+that one of her boys would want to become a
+farmer, but they one and all looked upon Chatsworth
+as a beloved home, but not a place to make
+a living. Their earnest endeavor, however, was
+to keep up the place, and often their hard-earned
+and harder-saved earnings went toward much
+needed repairs or farm machinery. Mrs. Brown
+had to confess that a little ready money earned
+irrespective of the farm was very acceptable;
+and, since her four boys were on their feet and
+beginning to walk alone, and stretch out willing,
+helpful hands to her, she found life much easier.
+</p>
+<p>
+Not that money or the lack of money had
+much to do with Mrs. Brown’s happiness. She
+was a woman of strong character and deep feelings,
+with a love for her children that her sister,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span>
+Mrs. Clay, said was like that of a lioness for her
+cubs. But that remark was called forth when
+Mrs. Clay, Sister Sarah, one morning found Mrs.
+Brown making two pairs of new stockings out
+of four pairs of old ones, after a pattern clipped
+from the woman’s page of a newspaper. With
+her accustomed bluntness, she had said: “Well,
+Mildred Carmichael, if you had only three and
+a half children, instead of seven, you would not
+have to be guilty of such absurd makeshifts.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown had risen up in her wrath and
+given her such a talk that, although ten years
+had elapsed since that memorable morning, Sister
+Sarah still avoided the subject of stockings
+with Sister Mildred.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown was a great reader, and loved old
+books and old poetry. One of Molly’s earliest
+remembrances was lying on the otter-skin rug
+in front of the great open fire, with brothers and
+sisters curled up by her or seated close to the
+big brass fender, while mother read Dickens
+aloud, or the Idyls of the King, or something else
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span>
+equally delightful. One by one the younger children
+would drop to sleep; and then Mammy
+would come and do what she called “walk ’em to
+baid,” muttering to herself, “I hope to Gawd that
+these chilluns won’t be a dreamin’ all night about
+that stuff Miss Mildred done packed in they
+haids.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Just now, however, Molly’s memories were
+merged in anticipations, and she watched eagerly
+for the first signs of welcome.
+</p>
+<p>
+As they approached the house, the colts
+neighed, and were greeted by answering whinnies
+from two mares grazing in a paddock. The
+mares ran to the white-washed picket fence and
+stretched their necks as far over as they could,
+gazing fondly on their handsome offspring, trotting
+gaily by, tossing their manes and tails.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The mothers are all coming out to meet their
+babies, and there is mine!” cried Molly.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was mother. Oh, that beloved face; that
+familiar, spirited walk and bearing of the head;
+those wide, clear, far-seeing gray eyes, and that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26'></a>26</span>
+fine patrician nose, with the mouth ever ready to
+laugh in spite of a certain sadness that lurked
+there! She folded Molly in her arms, but did
+not forget to keep a hand free to clasp Judy’s,
+and, before Molly was half through her hug,
+the older woman drew the young visitor to her,
+and kissed her fondly. Then, with an arm
+around each girl, she said: “I am truly glad to
+know my Molly’s friend, and gratified, indeed,
+to have her with us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It means a great deal to me, too, Mrs. Brown,
+to see Molly’s mother and home.” Judy feared
+that it would be forward to say what she had
+in her mind, and that was “such a beautiful
+mother and home.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The house was of white-washed brick, with
+a sloping gray shingled roof and green shutters,
+and a general air of roominess and comfort. A
+long, deep gallery or porch ran across the front,
+which Architect Kent explained to Judy was not
+quite in keeping with the style of architecture,
+but had been added by a comfort-loving Brown
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span>
+to the delectation of all who came after him.
+The lines of the old house were so good that the
+addition of a mere porch could not ruin it, and
+certainly added to its charm and comfort. To
+the left, in the rear, well off from the house,
+were the barn-yard and stables, chicken houses,
+smokehouse, and servants’ quarters; to the right,
+a tan-bark walk led to the garden. Down that
+path came Mildred, by her side a young man who
+seemed to be so amused by her lively chatter
+that he could hardly contain himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Molly, Molly, I’m so glad to see you, and so
+is Crit, although he has no words to tell you
+how glad he is. And, Miss Kean, Judy! It is
+splendid for you to come just now. I am certain
+that Kent could not keep the news, and you
+know by this time that Crit and I are to be married
+the last of next week. Mr. Rutledge, let me
+introduce you to Miss Kean.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Although Crittenden had never uttered a
+word, he seemed to be able to let Molly understand
+that he, too, was glad to see her, as he was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span>
+vigorously hugging her and two-stepping with
+her over the short, well-kept grass. But, at Mildred’s
+call, he suddenly stopped, made a low and
+courtly bow to his partner, and turned to Judy,
+clasping her hand in a warm and friendly grasp,
+and giving her such a smile as she had never
+before beheld. In it he made her feel that she
+was welcome to Kentucky; that he intended to
+like her and have her like him; and had his heart
+not been already engaged, he would lay it at
+her feet. Never a word did he utter. He was
+tall, rather soldierly in bearing, with the most
+beaming countenance Judy had ever seen, and
+such perfect teeth she almost had her doubts
+about them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where is Sue, mother?” said Molly. “And
+Aunt Mary and Ca’line? Of course the other
+boys are not home so early.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sue has gone over to Aunt Sarah Clay’s. She
+sent for her in a great hurry. Sue was loath to
+go, fearing she could not get back before you
+arrived, but you know your Aunt Clay and how
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span>
+autocratic she is. Sue seems to be in great favor
+just now. Here is Aunt Mary, however.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly ran to meet the decrepit old darkey, embracing
+her with almost as much fervor as she
+had her mother. Aunt Mary Morton was surely
+of the old school: very short and fat, dressed in
+a starched purple calico, with a white “neckercher”
+and a voluminous gingham apron, her
+head tied up in a gorgeous bandanna handkerchief.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, my chile, I’m glad to see you. I hope
+you done learned ‘nuf to stay at home a while.
+Yo’ ma’s so lonesome ‘thout you, with Mr. Ernest
+‘way out West surveyin’ the landscape.”
+(Ernest, the oldest of the Brown boys, was employed
+by the government on the geological survey.)
+“Mr. Paul so took up wif sassiety in Lou’ville
+he can’t hardly walk straight, and jes’ come
+home long ‘nuf to snatch a moufful—but I done
+tuck ’ticular notice he do manage to eat at home
+in spite er all his gran’ frien’s. And now, Miss
+Milly gwine to step off; an’ ‘mos’ fo’ we git time
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span>
+to cook up any mo’ victuals, Miss Sue’ll be walkin’
+off. Praise be, she ain’t a-goin’ fur. How
+she eber made up her min’ to gib her promise to
+a man what lib up sech a muddy lane, beats me;
+an’ Miss Sue, the mos’ ‘ticular of all yo’ ma’s
+chilluns ‘bout her shoes an’ skirts an’ comp’ny!
+Now Mr. John ain’t been a full-fleshed doctor
+mo’n two weeks befo’ he so took up wif a young
+lady’s tongue what stayin’ over to Miss Sarah
+Clay’s, and so anxious ‘bout feelin’ her pulse, dat
+yo’ ma an’ I don’ neber see nothin’ of him. He
+jes’ come home from dat doctor’s office in town
+long ‘nuf to shave and mess up a lot er crivats
+an’ peck a little eatin’s, an’ off he goes. My ‘pinion
+is, dat’s what Miss Sarah done sent for Miss
+Sue in sech a hurry ‘bout, but you’ ma say fer
+me to hesh up, no sich a thing, she jes’ wan’ to
+talk ‘bout a suit’ble weddin’ presen’ for little Miss
+Milly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Aunt Mary, isn’t it exciting to have a
+wedding in the family? You always said Milly
+would be the first to get married, if Sue was the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span>
+first to get born,” said Molly, giving the old
+woman another hug for luck. “Now I want you
+to shake hands with my dear friend, Miss Judy
+Kean.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Mary made a bobbing curtsey to Judy,
+then gave her a friendly handshake, looking
+keenly in her face the while. Then she nodded
+her head, until the ends of the bright bandanna,
+tied in a bow on top of her head, quivered, and
+said: “I don’ know but what that there Kent
+was right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aunt Mary, I am truly glad to meet you. If
+you could hear the blessings that are showered
+on your head when Molly gets a box from home,
+and could see how hard it is for all of those hungry
+girls to be polite when the time comes for
+snakey noodles, you would know how honored I
+feel that I am the first to make your acquaintance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, honey, what makes all of you go ‘way
+from yo’ homes to sech outlandish places as collidges
+where the eatin’s is so scurse? Can’t you
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span>
+learn what little you don’ know right by yo’ own
+fi’side?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Maybe we could, Aunt Mary, but you see
+I haven’t any real fireside of my own.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What! did yo’ folks git burned out?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no; but you see my father is an engineer,
+and mamma travels with him, and stays wherever
+he stays; and, when I am not at school or
+college, I knock around with them. Of course,
+I’d like to have a home like Chatsworth, but it is
+lots of fun to go to new places all the time and
+meet all kinds of people.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, they ain’t but two kin’s, quality an’ po’
+white trash, an’ I’ll be boun’ you don’t neber
+take up wid any ob dat kin’, so you an’ yo’ ma ‘n’
+pa mought jes’ as well stay in one place.”
+</p>
+<p>
+While the girls were up in Molly’s room, which
+Judy was to share, getting ready for a belated
+dinner, they heard the sound of a piano, cracked
+but sweet, like the notes of an old spinnet, then
+a male voice, wonderful in its power and intensity,
+and at the same time so sweet and full of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span>
+feeling that Judy, ever emotional where art was
+concerned, felt her eyes filling.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“Shed&nbsp;no&nbsp;tear,&nbsp;oh,&nbsp;shed&nbsp;no&nbsp;tear!<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;flower&nbsp;will&nbsp;bloom&nbsp;another&nbsp;year.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Weep&nbsp;no&nbsp;more!&nbsp;Oh,&nbsp;weep&nbsp;no&nbsp;more!<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Young&nbsp;buds&nbsp;sleep&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;root’s&nbsp;white&nbsp;core.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Dry&nbsp;your&nbsp;eyes,&nbsp;oh,&nbsp;dry&nbsp;your&nbsp;eyes!<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;For&nbsp;I&nbsp;was&nbsp;taught&nbsp;in&nbsp;Paradise<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;To&nbsp;ease&nbsp;my&nbsp;breast&nbsp;of&nbsp;melodies,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Shed&nbsp;no&nbsp;tear.<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“Overhead—look&nbsp;overhead<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;’Mong&nbsp;the&nbsp;blossoms&nbsp;white&nbsp;and&nbsp;red.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Look&nbsp;up,&nbsp;look&nbsp;up!&nbsp;I&nbsp;flutter&nbsp;now<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;On&nbsp;this&nbsp;flush&nbsp;pomegranate&nbsp;bough.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;See&nbsp;me!&nbsp;’tis&nbsp;this&nbsp;silvery&nbsp;bill<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Ever&nbsp;cures&nbsp;the&nbsp;good&nbsp;man’s&nbsp;ill.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Shed&nbsp;no&nbsp;tear,&nbsp;oh,&nbsp;shed&nbsp;no&nbsp;tear!<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;flower&nbsp;will&nbsp;bloom&nbsp;another&nbsp;year.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Adieu,&nbsp;adieu—I&nbsp;fly.&nbsp;Adieu,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;I&nbsp;vanish&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;heaven’s&nbsp;blue,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Adieu,&nbsp;adieu!”<br />
+</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span></div>
+<p>
+“Oh, Molly, Molly, who is that?” cried Judy,
+weeping copiously, in spite of the repeated request
+of the singer to “shed no tear.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, that is Crit. Isn’t his voice wonderful?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you really mean it is Mr. Rutledge? I
+thought he was dumb, and have been feeling so
+sorry for Mildred.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dumb, indeed! He has the most beautiful
+voice in Kentucky, and can make such an eloquent
+speech when roused that we have been
+afraid he would go into politics. But, so far as
+passing the time of day is concerned, and the
+little chit-chat that fills up life, he is indeed as
+dumb as a fish. When he was a little boy he
+stammered and got into the habit of expressing
+his feelings in silence, and he can still do it. He
+had a teacher who cured him of stammering, but
+nothing will ever cure him of silence, unless
+he has something important to say, and then
+nothing can stop him. Mother tells of a man
+who stammered in talking but not in singing.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span>
+One day he was passing a friend’s house, and
+saw that the roof was in a blaze, the inmates
+perfectly unconscious of the conflagration. He
+rushed in, tried to speak, could only stutter, and
+then in desperation burst into song. To the
+tune of ‘The Campbells Are Coming,’ he sang,
+‘Your house is on fire, tra-la, tra-la!’ Kent declares
+that Crit proposed to Milly in song, but
+Milly herself is dumb about how that came
+about.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, anyhow, I have never heard such scintillating
+silence as his, and I think that Milly
+ought to be a very proud and happy girl.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span><a name='chIII' id='chIII'></a>CHAPTER III.—WEDDING PREPARATIONS AND CONFIDENCES.</h2>
+<p>
+The next two weeks were busy ones for all the
+Brown household: first and foremost, the ever-crying
+need of clothes to be answered; second,
+the old house to be put in apple-pie order; all
+the furniture rubbed and rubbed some more; the
+beautiful old floors waxed and polished until
+they shone and reflected the newly scrubbed
+white paint in a way Judy thought most romantic.
+(But Judy thought everything was romantic
+those days.) She was “itching to help,” and
+help she did in many ways. Molly would not let
+her rub furniture or wax floors, but she had
+the pleasure of hanging the freshly laundered
+curtains all over the house, and she was received
+with joy in the sewing room by Miss Lizzie Monday,
+the neighborhood seamstress. Miss Lizzie
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span>
+was of the opinion that the Browns thought entirely
+too much about food and not nearly
+enough about clothes. Indeed it was a failing of
+the mother, if failing she had, to have good food,
+no matter at what cost, and then, since strict
+economy had to be practiced somewhere, to practice
+it on the clothes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Lizzie had once been present when they
+were packing a box to send to Molly at Wellington,
+and had sadly remarked: “In these hard
+times, with the price of food what it is, poor
+little raggedy Molly could have had an entire
+new outfit from the contents of that box.” Mrs.
+Brown had indignantly denied that she was
+spending any money at all on the box, but the
+fact remained in Miss Lizzie’s mind that the
+food in the delightful box, so eagerly looked for
+by the hungry college girls, represented so much
+money that had much better be put on Molly’s
+outside than her inside.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not that much of it goes on her own inside.
+I know Molly too well, bless her heart. Can’t I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span>
+just see her handing out that good old ham
+and hickory-nut cake and Rosemary pickle to
+those Yankees? And they, raised on pale, pink,
+ready-cooked ham and doughnuts and corner grocery
+dill pickles, don’t know what they are getting.
+Molly, in her same old blue that I have
+made over twice for her!—and that ham would
+have bought the stuff for a new one (not that I
+would have had it anything but blue). The half
+gallon of Rosemary pickle would have trimmed
+it nicely, and the hickory-nut cake would have
+made her at least two new shirtwaists, and the
+express on the box would more than pay me for
+making the things.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy loved to hear Miss Lizzie talk, and used
+to encourage her to praise her friend, while she
+sat helping to whip lace or planning the bridesmaids’
+dresses for Molly and Sue. These
+dresses were flowered French organdies. Molly’s
+was covered with a feathery blue flower, that
+never was on land or sea, but it was the right
+color, which was the important thing; and Sue’s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span>
+bore the same design in pink. The bride’s dress,
+a lovely simple gown of the finest Paris muslin,
+was all done and pressed and neatly folded in a
+box by the careful Miss Lizzie, with one of her
+own sandy hairs secretly sewed in the hem, which
+is supposed to bring good luck, and a “soon husband”
+to the owner of the hair.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was some doubt and much talk about
+how the bridal party was to enter the parlor and
+where the minister was to stand. The parlor at
+Chatsworth was not very suitable for an effective
+wedding, as it was in the wing of the house and
+opened only into the hall, giving, when all was
+considered, not much room for the growing list
+of guests. Although it was a very large room,
+having only one entrance made it rather awkward.
+It was only a few days before the wedding
+and this important subject was still under
+discussion.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can count at least ninety-eight persons who
+are sure to come,” said Mrs. Brown, “all of them
+kin or close friends, and how they are to get in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span>
+this room and leave an aisle for the wedding
+party, goodness only knows; and if the hall and
+porch are full, it will be very uncomfortable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy and Kent were pretending to be the bride
+and groom, grave Sue was the minister, John and
+Paul, flower girls, and Molly, boss. Mildred and
+Crittenden were not allowed to practice for their
+own wedding, as Miss Lizzie said it was bad
+luck, and Miss Lizzie was authority on all such
+subjects. So the two most interested were seated
+at the piano, pretending to be the musicians doing
+“Chopsticks” to wedding march time.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Crit, I believe you will have to give Milly up.
+There is no way to have a decently stylish wedding
+in this joint,” said Paul. “Let’s stop the
+festive preparations and all of us go to Jeffersonville.
+It would make a grand story for my
+paper.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy had been very quiet for some minutes
+and her face wore what Molly called her “flashed
+upon that inward eye” expression. Suddenly she
+cried, “I have it. Come on and let’s get married
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span>
+out of doors.” She seized Kent by the hand and
+dragged him out on the lawn, the rest following
+in a daze.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Look at that natural place to be married in:
+the guests under the trees; room for everybody;
+a living altar of shrubs and flowers at the end of
+the tan-bark walk; minister entering from the
+grass walk on one side and Mr. Rutledge with
+his best man from the other; down the steps Mildred
+on Ernest’s arm, followed by Molly and
+Sue. Can’t you see them coming up the tan-bark
+walk? Just at sunset, the people in their light
+festive clothes, your mother beautiful in her
+black crêpe de Chine, with Paul and John and
+Kent standing by her making a dark note near
+the bride? Oh, why, oh, why did they not have
+holly-hocks up this garden walk instead of by
+the chicken yard fence? It would have made the
+color scheme simply perfect.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy paused for breath. She had carried the
+crowd by her eloquence, and so perfectly had
+she visualized the whole thing that each one was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42'></a>42</span>
+able to see what she meant, and absolute and
+unanimous approval was given the scheme.
+Kent, with his artistic eye, was in for it heart
+and soul, and began to plan Japanese lanterns to
+be lit after the ceremony in the rustic summer-house
+beyond, where supper was to be served,
+observing that their color might somewhat take
+the place of the holly-hocks that were in the
+wrong place.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Just where did you want the holly-hocks,
+Miss Judy? We might do better another year if
+we knew just what your orders were.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“On both sides of the tan-bark walk, just beyond
+the intersection of the grass walk. Can’t
+you see how fine and stately they would look, and
+what a wonderful mass of color?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Right, as usual. What an architect you
+would make! That power of ‘seein’ things’ is
+what an architect needs above everything. Any
+one can learn to make it, but it is the one who
+<i>sees</i> it who is the great man or woman, as in the
+present case.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Things had been humming so since Molly’s return
+that she had had no time for the confidential
+talk with her mother that both were hungering
+for. The Browns always had much company,
+but at this season there seemed to be no end to
+the comings and goings of guests, principally
+comings: many parting calls being paid to Mildred
+by old and young; Molly’s friends hastening
+to greet her after the eight months’ absence
+at college; a steady following of young men calling
+on Sue, in spite of her suspected preference
+for Cyrus Clay, the nephew of Aunt Sarah Clay’s
+deceased husband, and the one Aunt Mary objected
+to because of his living up such a muddy
+lane. Presents were pouring in for the bride;
+notes had to be answered; trains to be met; express
+packages to be fetched from the station;
+and poor little Mrs. Woodsmall kept in a state of
+constant misery over the Parcel Post business
+Bud was doing, and she with “never a chanst to
+take so much as a peep.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly, ever mindful of others, hitched up
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span>
+President one off day and drove over to the postoffice
+and got the poor thing. Then she let her
+see every single present; and feel the weight of
+every bit of silver; and hunt for the price mark
+on the bottom of the cut-glass; read all the cards;
+and even go into the sewing-room where Miss
+Lizzie Monday proudly showed her the clothes,
+and let her take a good look at the wedding dress
+all folded up in its box. But when Mrs. Woodsmall
+began to pick at the hem where her sharp
+eyes discovered an end of the stiff sandy hair,
+sewed in to bring a “soon husband,” Miss Lizzie
+snapped on the top and told her sharply to stop
+rumpling up Miss Milly’s dress.
+</p>
+<p>
+The night after Judy had solved the problem
+of where the wedding was to be, Molly felt that
+she must have her talk with her mother. Judy
+was tired and a little distrait, visualizing again
+no doubt; seeing the wedding in her mind’s eye;
+regretting the holly-hocks; wondering if she
+really did have the power that Kent attributed
+to her, that of a creative artist. If she did have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span>
+it, what should she do about it? Was it not up
+to her to make something of herself if she had
+such a gift? Was she willing to work, as work
+she would have to, if she really expected to do
+something? At the back of it all was the
+thought, “Would Kent like her so much if she
+should turn out to be a woman with a purpose?”
+Judy was obliged to confess to herself as she
+dozed off that what Kent Brown thought of her
+made a good deal of difference to her, more than
+she had thought that any man’s opinion could
+make.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly waited until she thought Judy was
+asleep and then crept softly downstairs to her
+mother’s room. Mrs. Brown was awake and
+glad indeed to see her “old red head,” as she
+sometimes lovingly called Molly, coming to have
+a good talk. It is funny what a difference it
+makes who calls one a red head. Now that horrid
+girl at college, Adele Windsor, had enraged
+Molly into forgetting what Aunt Mary called
+her “raisin’” by calling her a red head, and yet
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span>
+when mother called her the same thing it sounded
+like sweet music in her ears.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mother had some things to tell Molly, too.
+She did not altogether approve of John’s inamorata,
+the girl visiting Aunt Clay. It was a case
+of Dr. Fell with her.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“I&nbsp;do&nbsp;not&nbsp;love&nbsp;thee,&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Fell.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;reason&nbsp;why&nbsp;I&nbsp;cannot&nbsp;tell;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;But&nbsp;this&nbsp;I&nbsp;know,&nbsp;and&nbsp;know&nbsp;full&nbsp;well,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;I&nbsp;do&nbsp;not&nbsp;love&nbsp;thee,&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Fell.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+Then she did think if Sue intended to marry
+Cyrus Clay she should not lead on the other two
+young men, who seemed quite serious in their
+attentions. She hated to say anything, because
+Sue was so dignified.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now if it were you or Mildred, I would speak
+out, but you know Sue always did scare me a
+little, Molly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And Molly and her mother giggled like school
+girls over this confession. Sue was very handsome and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span>
+lovely and good, but she was certainly
+a little superior, and Mrs. Brown found that, if
+she had any talking over of things to do, she
+wanted either Molly or Mildred, who were “not
+too pure or good for human nature’s daily
+food.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly was eager to know what her mother
+thought of Judy, and was delighted at her frank
+liking for her friend. Then Molly had to tell her
+mother of her hopes and ambitions; of her triumphs
+and disappointments at college; and of
+her growing friendship for Jimmy Lufton, the
+clever young journalist from New York who was
+trying to persuade Molly to go into newspaper
+work; of his liking for her that she did not want
+to ripen into anything more serious, but his last
+letters were certainly growing more and more
+fervent.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t flirt, little girl, don’t flirt. It would
+not be my Molly if she deceived any one. Have
+all the fun you can and as many friends as possible
+and enjoy life while you are young. You are
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span>
+sure to be popular with every one, men and
+women, boys and girls, but don’t be a coquette.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mother, I don’t mean to be ever, and really
+and truly I have done nothing to mislead Mr.
+Lufton, and maybe I am mistaken and conceited
+about his feeling for me, and I truly hope I am.
+I have never done anything but be my natural
+self with him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown smiled, well knowing that just being
+her natural self was where Molly did the
+damage, if damage had been done.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mother, there is something else.” Mrs.
+Brown knew there was, and was patiently waiting.
+“You know Professor Green? Well, I
+gave him your invitation to come to Kentucky.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And what did he say?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He said, ‘Thank you.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is he coming?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know.” Molly found talking to her
+mother about Professor Green more difficult than
+she had imagined it would be. “When you wrote
+me two years ago that some eccentric person had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span>
+bought the orchard and I could finish my college
+course, I told Professor Green about it, and
+also told him I should like to meet the old man
+who had saved me from premature school-teaching.
+And when he asked me what I’d do if I
+should happen to meet him, I told him I would
+give him a good hug.” Molly faltered. “Well,
+mother, when I told him good-by and gave him
+your invitation, I went back and—I just gave
+him a good hug.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown sat up so vigorously that Molly,
+sitting by her side, was almost jolted off the bed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Molly Brown! And what did Professor
+Green do?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He? Oh, he took it very philosophically and
+bowed his head ’til the storm was over.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown gave a gasp of relief.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He must be a good old gentleman, indeed.
+About how old is he, Molly?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The girls say every day of thirty-two.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, the poor old thing! Do you think he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span>
+could take the trip out here to Kentucky all by
+himself?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mother, please don’t tease. There is something
+else. Jimmy Lufton wrote a little note
+which I found in the bottom of the basket of
+fruit he had put on the train for us. It was
+wrapped around a lemon and said, ‘Here is a
+lemon you can hand me if, when I come to Kentucky
+this summer, you don’t want me to stay.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! The plot thickens! So he is coming,
+too.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, but he lives in Lexington, and is coming
+out to see his family, anyhow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, Molly, darling, you must go to bed now,
+but before you go tell me one thing: do you want
+Professor Green to come to Chatsworth?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, mother, I think I do,” and giving her
+mother a hug that made that lady gasp again and
+say, “Molly, what a hugger you are,” she flew
+from the room and raced upstairs two steps at
+a time.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span><a name='chIV' id='chIV'></a>CHAPTER IV.—BURGLARS.</h2>
+<p>
+Judy was sitting up in bed, the moon lighting
+her enough for Molly to see a wild, startled look
+on her face.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Molly, Molly, I hear something!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You hear me making more noise than I have
+any business to at this time o’ night. I have
+been having a good old talk with muddy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no, it wasn’t that. I knew you were
+downstairs. I haven’t been truly asleep. I was
+’possuming.’ It is out by the chicken yard, and
+I am so afraid it is burglars after the pullets
+Aunt Mary told me she was saving for chicken
+salad for the wedding supper. Lewis was to kill
+them to-morrow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy had entered so intensely into the Browns’
+household affairs that Molly herself was no more
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52'></a>52</span>
+interested in the festive preparations than was
+her guest. Molly drew cautiously to the window
+and peeped out; she beckoned Judy, and the excited
+girls saw a sight to freeze the marrow in
+their chicken-salad-loving bones: the thief had a
+wheelbarrow, and some great gunny sacks over
+his arm, and was in the act of boldly opening
+the chicken-yard gate.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If we call he will get away, and how else can
+we let the boys know? The wretch may have
+those sacks full of chickens even now,” moaned
+Molly.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a three-room cottage or “office,” as
+they called it, on the side of the house next the
+garden where all of the young men slept in summer.
+The girls feared that, in trying to let them
+know of the burglar, if they went out of the front
+door they would startle Mrs. Brown. And if
+they should try to go out the back door, in getting
+to the cottage they would have to run across
+a broad streak of moonlight in plain view of the
+thief, and thus give him ample time to get away
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span>
+with his booty before they could arouse the boys.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why shouldn’t we take the matter in our own
+hands and make him drop his sacks and run?”
+said Molly. “I am not afraid, are you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Me afraid? Bless your soul, no. I am only
+afraid he will get off with the chickens,” replied
+the intrepid Judy. “I have my little revolver in
+the tray of my trunk, the one papa gave me when
+we were camping in Arizona. I can load it in a
+jiffy. But what weapon will you take?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t see anything but my tennis racket.
+I’ll take that and some balls, too, in case I have
+to hit at long range. There is really no danger
+for us, as a chicken thief has never been known
+to go armed with anything more dangerous than
+a bag.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They slipped on their raincoats, as they were
+darker than their kimonos, and crept softly down
+the back stairs, out on the back porch, and down
+the steps into the yard, keeping close in the
+shadow of the house until they came to an althea
+hedge. Skirting this, still in the shadow, they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span>
+got near enough to the chicken-yard gate to have
+a good look at the burglar. That burly ruffian,
+instead of bagging the pullets that were peacefully
+roosting in a dog-wood tree, totally unconscious
+that they were sleeping the last sleep of
+the condemned, had taken a spade from his
+wheelbarrow, carefully spread out his gunny
+sacks and was digging with great care around
+the holly-hocks, digging so deep and so far from
+the roots that he soon got up a great sod without
+injuring the plants. This he placed with great
+care in the barrow, and as he stepped into the
+broad moonlight the girls recognized Kent.
+They clutched each other and were silent, except
+for a little choking noise from Judy which might
+easily have come from one of the condemned,
+having premonitory dreams of the morrow.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent worked on until his wheelbarrow was
+full of the lovely flowers. Then he stuck in the
+spade and trundled it away toward the garden,
+the girls silently following, still keeping as well
+in the shadow as was possible, and holding tight
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span>
+to their weapons, although they no longer had
+any use for them. On reaching the garden, they
+realized that Kent must have been working many
+hours. He had already moved dozens of the
+stately plants, and they now stood in the garden
+where they belonged, no doubt glad of the transplanting
+from their former homely surroundings.
+So deeply and well had Kent dug that they were
+uninjured by the move, and he completed the job
+by dousing them plentifully with water from a
+great tub that he had filled at the cistern.
+</p>
+<p>
+The effect was wonderful, as Judy had known
+that it would be, but her surprise and pleasure
+that Kent should be so anxious to gratify her
+every wish was great. She felt her cheeks glowing
+with excitement and her heart pit-a-patting
+as it would not have done, even had Kent proved
+to be the chicken thief they had imagined him
+to be.
+</p>
+<p>
+That young man finished his job, cleaned his
+spade, shook out the gunny sacks, raked the
+débris from the walk, and then, giving a tired
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56'></a>56</span>
+yawn and stretching himself until he looked even
+taller than the six feet one he measured in his
+stocking feet, he said out loud in a perfectly conversational
+tone:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, Miss Judy, you may have the master
+mind that can imagine things and see beforehand
+how they are going to look, but I’ll have you
+know it takes work to create and drudgery to
+accomplish; and only by the sweat of the brow
+can we ‘give to airy nothing a local habitation
+and a name.’ You and Molly can step out of the
+bushes and view the landscape.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Kent, did you know we were there all
+the time?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Certainly, little Sister, from the time Miss
+Judy went like a chicken with the gapes, I have
+known you were with me; but you seemed to be
+having such a good time I hated to break it up.
+You might have stepped in and helped a fellow,
+though.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, we were doing the head work,” retaliated
+Judy.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent laughed, and then he had to tease them
+about their adventure and their weapons, especially
+Molly’s racket and balls.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We had better crawl into the hay now, however.
+It is getting mighty late at night, or,
+rather, mighty early in the morning, and where
+will our beauty be if we don’t get to sleep? I’ll
+see you to the back door.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You needn’t,” said Molly. “You must be
+dead tired, and here is the office door open for
+you. There is no use in your coming any farther.
+We can slip around the front way and be
+in the house in no time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, good morning. I am dead tired, and
+such brave ladies as you are need no escort. Better
+luck to you next time you go burglar hunting.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a wonderful night, or rather morning,
+as Kent had indicated. The moon hung low on
+the horizon ready for bed, as an example to all
+up-late young ladies. The stars, with their rival
+retiring, were doing their best to get in a little
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span>
+shine before daylight. Everything was very still.
+The tree frogs and crickets and Katy-dids had
+suddenly ceased their incessant noise. There
+was a feel in the air that meant dawn.
+</p>
+<p>
+What was it that greeted the ears of the tired
+Kent? Old tennis player that he was, it sounded
+to him like the twang of a racket in the hands
+of a determined server who means to drive a
+ball that the champion himself could not return.
+Then came the dull thud of the ball, a groan, a
+scream; then the sharp crack of a pistol, more
+screams from inside the house; lights, doors
+opening, all the household awake, and Paul and
+John and Crit, who had spent the night at Chatsworth,
+tumbling out of the office almost before
+Kent could get around the house. There he
+found Judy fallen in a little heap on the grass,
+and Molly carefully and coolly aiming a second
+tennis ball, this time at a real burglar.
+</p>
+<p>
+The man climbing from the upper gallery of
+the house had been surprised by the girls as they
+came from the garden. At Molly’s first ball he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59'></a>59</span>
+had dropped to the ground, and Judy had caught
+him on the fly, as it were. The second tennis ball
+got him square on the jaw, but he was already
+down and out. Kent declared afterward, when
+the smoke of battle had cleared away, that it was
+not like Molly to hit a fellow when he was down.
+She had always been a good sport until now.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Woodsmall, it seems, had talked too
+much about the weight of Mildred’s silver, and
+had dwelt too long on the recklessness of the
+Browns in having all of those fine things in the
+little hall room with the window opening on the
+upper gallery, where anybody with any limberness
+could climb up that twisted wisteria vine
+and get away with anything he had a mind to.
+A tramp, hanging around the postoffice window,
+had overheard her and, having more limberness
+than any other commodity, had endeavored to
+help himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. John came with first aid to the injured,
+and found the man more scared than hurt. It
+was hard to tell which ball had done most damage; certainly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span>
+Molly’s was the more effective in
+appearance. Her first she had served straight
+at his nose, so disfiguring that member that the
+rogues’ gallery officials would have had difficulty
+in identifying him. The second found his jaw
+and gave him so much pain that John feared a
+fracture. Judy’s little pistol had done good work.
+A flesh wound on the arm was the verdict for
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+The ground was strewn with silver in every
+kind of fancy novelty that a bride is supposed by
+her dear friends to need—or why else do they
+give them to her?
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Crittenden Rutledge opened his mouth
+and spoke. As usual when he did such a thing it
+was worth getting up before dawn to hear him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you think, Mildred, darling, we might
+give the poor fellow three or four cheese scoops
+and several butter knives and a card tray or
+two? A young couple could easily make out for
+a while with one of each, and if he will promise
+to go back to Indiana and stay—— You did
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span>
+come from Indiana, didn’t you?” The man gave
+a grin and nodded. “Well, if you promise to go
+back and never put your foot in Kentucky again,
+I’ll go wrap up Aunt Clay’s vases for you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown, thankful that her brood was safe
+and no more damage done the poor, wicked
+tramp than a sore shoulder, a swollen nose and a
+fractured jaw, sent them all to bed with instructions
+to sleep late, and told Molly and Judy to
+stay in bed for breakfast. The burglar was
+put in the smokehouse for safekeeping until
+sun-up, when John and Paul expected to take
+him to Louisville, swear out a warrant against
+him and land him in jail. When the time came,
+however, to transfer their prisoner from smokehouse
+to jail, they found the door open, the man
+gone and a fine old ham missing.
+</p>
+<p>
+“An’ they ain’t a single pusson in the whole er
+Indianny what knows how ter cook a ham,
+either,” bewailed Aunt Mary.
+</p>
+<p>
+“To think the ungrateful wretch went off
+without Aunt Clay’s vases,” muttered Crittenden
+Rutledge.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span><a name='chV' id='chV'></a>CHAPTER V.—THE WEDDING.</h2>
+<p>
+The wedding came off so exactly as Judy had
+planned it that it seemed to her to be a proof of
+the theory of transmigration of the soul, and
+that in a previous incarnation she had been to
+just such a wedding. The eldest brother, Ernest,
+arrived from the far West just in time to change
+his clothes and give the bride away. There were
+three understudies for his part, so there was not
+much concern over his non-arrival until he got
+there with a blood-curdling tale of wrecks and
+wash-outs that had delayed him twenty-four
+hours. Then all of them got very much concerned
+and Mrs. Brown reproached herself for
+being so taken up with Mildred’s wedding that
+she had forgotten to worry about the absent one
+for the time being. Ernest resembled Sue more
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63'></a>63</span>
+than any of the rest of them, and had a good deal
+of her poise and dignity. “But I’ll wager that he
+is not as serious as he seems,” thought Judy, detecting
+a twinkle in the corner of his sober eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mildred looked lovely, and she had such a
+sweet, trusting look in her eyes as she came down
+the steps and up the tan-bark walk on Ernest’s
+arm, that Crittenden Rutledge, waiting for her
+at the end of the walk, broke away from his best
+man and went forward several yards to meet
+his bride. Sue and Molly brought up the rear;
+Sue, composed and calm with her sweet dignity;
+but Molly, so deeply moved by this beloved sister’s
+marriage and the break in their ranks, the
+very first, that she felt her knees trembling and
+wondered if it could be possible that she was
+going to ruin everything and burst into tears or
+fall in a faint or do something terrible. But she
+didn’t. The familiar voice of their old minister
+in the opening lines of the Episcopal marriage
+service brought her to her senses, and she was
+able to follow the ritual in her mind, but she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span>
+dared not trust herself to look up. She kept her
+eyes glued to her bouquet of “love-in-the-mist,”
+that Miss Lizzie Monday had brought her that
+morning, picked from her own old-fashioned
+garden.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know the groom will send the bridesmaids
+flowers, but somehow, Molly, I don’t want you
+to carry hothouse flowers. These ‘love-in-the-mists’
+will look just right with your dress and
+your eyes and your ways.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So Molly carried Miss Lizzie’s “bokay” and
+put the flowers that the groom sent her in a vase
+in the parlor. But Molly was not thinking of
+her dress or her eyes, except to try to keep the
+tears in them, since come they would, and not let
+them run out on her cheeks. Mildred’s responses
+were inaudible except to dear old Dr. Peters, the
+minister, but Crittenden’s were so loud and clear
+and resonant that it was almost like chanting,
+and Judy had to smile when she could not help
+thinking of the stammering man’s “Your house
+is on fire, tra la, tra la.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I pronounce you man and wife.”
+</p>
+<p>
+All is over. Molly can let the tears fall now
+if she wants to, but, strange to say, she does not
+seem to want to any more. Such a rejoicing is
+going on. Everybody seems to be kissing everybody
+else. Aren’t they all more or less kin?
+Mildred and Kent, the center of a gay crowd,
+are fondly kissing the ones they should merely
+shake hands with, and formally shaking hands
+with their nearest and dearest, just as in a fire
+people have been known to carry carefully the
+pillows downstairs and throw the bowls and
+pitchers out of the window. Kent has his wits
+about him, however, and kisses Judy, declaring
+it is all in the day’s work.
+</p>
+<p>
+A stranger standing on the outskirts of the
+crowd during the whole ceremony seemed much
+more interested in the bridesmaid dressed in blue
+than in the bride herself, and when this same
+bridesmaid felt herself swaying a little as though
+her emotion might get the better of her, if one
+had not been so taken up with the central figures
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span>
+on the stage he might have noticed the stranger
+start forward as though to go to her assistance.
+But he, too, was brought to his senses by the
+calm voice of Dr. Peters in the opening words of
+the service, and saw with evident relief that the
+bridesmaid had gained control of herself. He
+was a tall young man with kind brown eyes and
+light hair, a little thin at the temples, giving him
+more years perhaps than he was entitled to.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the service was over and the general
+confusion ensued, he made his way swiftly to
+where Molly stood, and without saying one word
+of greeting he put his arm around her and tenderly
+kissed her. Molly was so overcome with
+astonishment that she could only gasp, “Professor
+Green! What are you doing here?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am having a very pleasant time, thank you,
+Miss Molly. I got your mother’s kind invitation
+to attend your sister’s wedding, and—here I am.
+Didn’t your brother Paul tell you that I had
+come?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, we have been so occupied, I believe I have
+not seen Paul to-day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I went to his newspaper office in Louisville
+to find out something about how to get here, and
+he asked me to drive out with him. Are you
+sorry I came, Miss Molly?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sorry? Oh, Professor Green, you must know
+how glad I am to see you! But, you see, I was a
+little startled, not expecting you and thinking
+of you as still at Wellington.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you were thinking of me as being anywhere
+at all, I feel better. Were you really thinking of
+me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” said the candid Molly, “and wasn’t it
+strange that I was thinking of you just as you
+came up—and—and——” but, remembering his
+manner of greeting her, she blushed painfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are not angry with me, are you, my dear
+child? I felt so lonesome. You see everybody
+seemed to know everybody else, and there was
+such a handshaking and so forth going on that
+before I knew it I was in the swim.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Almost every one here is kin or near-kin,
+and weddings in Kentucky seem to give a great
+deal of license,” said Molly, recovering her
+equanimity. “Of course I am not angry with
+you. I could not get angry with any one on Mildred’s
+wedding day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But Molly felt that in a way Edwin Green had
+paid her back for the hug she had given him.
+She had hugged him because he was so old that
+she could do so with impunity, and he in turn
+had kissed her because he felt lonesome, forsooth,
+and she was so young that it made no
+great difference. His “My dear child” had been
+a kind of humiliation to Molly. What is the use
+of being a senior and graduating at college if a
+man very little over thirty thinks you are nothing
+but a kid?
+</p>
+<p>
+“Professor Green is not so very much older
+than Ernest,” thought Molly, “and I wager he
+will not treat Judy with that old-enough-to-be-your-father
+air! Here am I getting mad on Mildred’s
+wedding day when I just said I could not!
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span>
+And, after all, Professor Green has been very
+kind to me and means to be now, I know.” Turning
+to him with one of “Molly’s own,” as Edith
+Williams termed her smile, she said, “Now you
+must meet my mother and all the rest of them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown looked keenly and rather sadly at
+the young professor. This coming of men for
+her daughters was growing wearisome, so the
+poor lady thought; but she liked Edwin Green’s
+expression and found herself trusting him before
+he got through explaining his sudden appearance
+in Kentucky.
+</p>
+<p>
+“After all, maybe he is only thinking of Molly
+as one of his pupils. His buying the orchard
+meant an interest in her college course and nothing
+else.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown introduced him to the relatives
+and friends near her, and Molly had to leave him
+and make herself useful, as usual, in seeing that
+the refreshments were forthcoming.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they had decided to have the wedding
+out of doors, it had seemed best to have the supper
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span>
+<i>al fresco</i>, and now brisk and very polite colored
+waiters were busy bringing tables and chairs
+from a side porch and placing them on the lawn.
+An odor of coffee and broiled sweetbreads,
+mingling with that of chicken salad and hot
+beaten biscuit, began to rival the fragrance of
+the orange flowers and roses.
+</p>
+<p>
+The crowd around the bride thinning out a
+little to find seats at the tables, Professor Green
+was able to make his way to Mildred and Crittenden.
+After greeting them, he espied Judy talking
+sweetly to a stern-looking woman with a
+hard face and a soft figure, who was dressed
+severely in a stiff black silk, with most uncompromising
+linen collar and cuffs. Her iron-gray
+hair was tightly coiled in a fashion that emphasized
+her hawk-like expression, but with all she
+looked enough like Mrs. Brown to establish an
+undeniable claim to relationship with that charming
+lady. Mrs. Brown herself, in a soft black
+crêpe de Chine and old lace collar and cuffs, with
+her wavy chestnut hair, was more beautiful than
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span>
+any of her daughters, the bride herself having
+to take a second place.
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy was delighted to see the professor, and
+not nearly so astonished as Molly had been, the
+truth being that Paul had told that young lady
+of Edwin Green’s arrival, with the expectation
+that she would inform Molly. But Judy, realizing
+the state of excitement that Molly was in,
+determined to keep the news to herself and not
+give Molly anything more to feel just then, even
+if in doing so she, Judy, would appear to be careless
+and forgetful. Judy understood the regard
+that Molly had for Professor Green—better
+than Molly herself did. She remembered
+Molly’s expression and misery when little Otoyo,
+their Japanese friend at Wellington, had told
+them of his being so dangerously ill with typhoid,
+and how Molly had lost weight and could neither
+sleep nor eat until the crisis had passed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you ever see such a beautiful wedding in
+your life?” said Judy.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never, and I am told it was all your plan,
+even to the holly-hock background.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you see the idea was floating around in
+the air, and I was just the one who had her idea-net
+ready and caught it. Ideas are like butterflies,
+anyhow—all flying around waiting to be
+pounced on—but the thing is to have your net
+ready.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, and another thing, not to handle the butterfly
+idea too roughly. Many an idea, beautiful
+in itself, is ruined in the working out,” said her
+companion.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is where taste comes in.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy would have liked to chase the metaphor
+much farther with the agreeable young man, but
+she remembered that she had set out to fascinate
+Aunt Clay, and it was Aunt Sarah Clay to whom
+she had been talking when Professor Green had
+come up. She introduced him, and Mrs. Clay
+immediately pounced on him with a tirade
+against innovations of all kinds.
+</p>
+<p>
+Looking very much as we are led by the cartoonists
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span>
+to expect a suffragist to look, Mrs. Clay
+was the most ardent “anti.” Opposed to all
+progress and innovations, and constantly at war
+on the subject of higher education of women, she
+carried her conservatism even to the point of having
+her grain cut with a scythe instead of using
+the up-to-date machinery. Professor Green was
+her natural enemy, for was he not instructor in
+a girls’ school where, she was led to understand,
+belief in equal suffrage was as necessary for entrance
+as the knowledge of Latin or mathematics?
+</p>
+<p>
+Professor Green, ignorant of the antagonism
+she felt for him and his calling, endeavored to
+make himself as agreeable as possible to Molly’s
+aunt. He listened with seeming respect to her
+attack on modernism and then turned the subject
+to the wedding, her pretty nieces and fine-looking
+nephews.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never heard of any one getting married out
+of doors before in my life, and had I known they
+were contemplating such a thing I certainly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span>
+should not have set my foot on the place, nor
+would I have sent them the handsome wedding
+present I did. I shall not be at all astonished if
+the bishop reprimands that sentimental old Dr.
+Peters for allowing anything so undignified in
+connection with the church ritual. They had
+much better jump over a broomstick like Gypsies
+and not desecrate our prayer book in such a manner.
+Mildred Carmichael has brought all her
+children up to have their own way. The idea of
+none of those boys being willing to stay on the
+farm where their forefathers managed to make
+a living, and a very good one! They, forsooth,
+must go as clerks or reporters or what not into
+cities and let their farm go to rack and ruin, already
+mortgaged until it is top-heavy. Then
+when they do make a little, they must squander
+it in this absurd new-fangled machinery, labor-saving
+devices that I have no use for in the
+world. And now Molly, not content with four
+years wasted at college, to say nothing of the
+money, says she wants to go back to fit herself
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span>
+more thoroughly for making her living. Living,
+indeed! Where are her brothers that she need
+feel the necessity of making her living?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But, Mrs. Clay,” Judy here broke in, “my
+father says that there are only three male relatives
+that a woman should expect to support her:
+her father, her husband and her son. Since
+Molly has none of these, she, of course, wants to
+do something for herself. Even with a father,
+unless the father is very well off, it seems to me
+a girl ought to help after a lot has been spent
+on her education. I certainly mean to do something,
+but the trouble is, the only thing I can do
+will mean more money spent before I can accomplish
+anything.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And what does such a charming person as
+Miss Kean expect to do?” asked the irascible old
+lady.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I want to go to Paris and study to become a
+decorator.” This was too much for Mrs. Clay.
+Without saying a word, she turned and stalked
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span>
+across the lawn where the waiters were carrying
+trays of food.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hateful old thing! I hope food will improve
+her temper. It would certainly be acceptable to
+me. See, here comes Kent with a table! I’ll
+find Molly and we can have a fine foursome, and
+you shall taste Aunt Mary’s beaten biscuit, hot
+from the oven. No wonder Molly is such an
+angel. If, as the cereal ads. say, we are what
+our food makes us, any one raised on Aunt
+Mary’s cooking would have to be good. Goodness
+knows what Aunt Clay eats! It must be
+thistles and green persimmons!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span><a name='chVI' id='chVI'></a>CHAPTER VI.—BUTTERMILK TACT.</h2>
+<p>
+Mildred, dressed in her pretty brown traveling
+suit, off to Iowa; the last slipper and handful of
+rice thrown; the last lingering guest departed;
+daylight passed and the moon well up; and at
+last Mrs. Brown and Judy and Molly were free
+to sink on a settle on the porch, realizing for the
+first time how tired and footsore they were.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, my dears, I feel as though I could never
+get up again! It is a good thing I am so tired,
+for now I shall have to sleep and can’t grieve for
+Mildred all night. I begged Professor Green to
+stay, but he had to go back to Louisville. However,
+he is coming out to Chatsworth to-morrow
+to pay us the promised visit. We shall have to
+pack the presents in the morning to send to Iowa,
+and glad I’ll be to get them out of the house. Did
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span>
+I tell you, Molly, that Aunt Mary, Ca’line and
+Lewis are all going off to-morrow to Jim Jourdan’s
+basket funeral? We shall be alone, you
+and Judy and I. Sue goes to your Aunt Clay’s
+for a few days, and Kent starts back to work,
+the dear boy. Such a comfort as he has been!
+Ernest has to look up some friends in town, but
+will be out in time for supper. I fancy he will
+drive Professor Green out from Louisville. Good
+night, my dear girls, I know you are dead tired.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So they were, so tired that Judy overslept in
+the morning, but Molly was up betimes to help
+the servants get off on their gruesome spree.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now ain’t that jes’ like my Molly baby? She
+don’ never fergit to be he’pful. Th’ ain’t no
+cookin’ fer you to do to-day, honey; they’s plenty
+of bis’it lef’ from the jamboree las’ night; they’s
+a ham bone wif ‘nuf on it fer you and yo’ ma an’
+Miss Judy to pick on; they’s a big bowl er
+chick’n salid in the ‘frigerater that I jes’ bodaciously
+tuck away from that black Lewis. I done
+tol’ him that awlive ile my’naise ain’t no eatin’s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79'></a>79</span>
+fer niggers. If his insides needs a greasin’ he
+kin take a good swaller er castor ile. Tell yo’
+ma I made that lazy Ca’line churn fo’ sun-up
+’cause they wa’nt a drap er butter in the house,
+an’ the buttermilk is in the big jar in the da’ry.
+They’s a pot er cabbage simperin’ on the back er
+the stove, but that ain’t meant fer the white
+folks, but jes’ in case we needs some comfort
+when we gits back from the funeral. I tried to
+save some ice cream fer my honey baby from las’
+night an’ had it all packed good fer keepin’, but
+looked like in the night I took sech a cravin’ fer
+some mo’ I couldn’ sleep ‘thout I had some, an’
+by the time I opened up the freezer an’ et some,
+it looked like the res’ of it jes’ melted away somehow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, Aunt Mary, I am so glad you got some
+more. Have a good time and don’t worry about
+us. We shall get along all right. You see there
+are no men on the place to-day, and women can
+eat anything the day after a party. You know
+my teacher, Professor Green, is going to be here
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span>
+for a visit. He is coming this evening in time
+for supper, and I do hope you won’t be too tired
+after the basket funeral to make him some waffles.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What, me tired? I ain’t a-goin’ to be doin’
+nothin’ all day but enjyin’ of myself; and if I
+won’t have the stren’th myself to stir up a few
+waffles fer my baby’s frien’s, I’s still survigerous
+’nuf to make that Ca’line do it. I allus has a
+good time at funerals an’ a basket funeral is the
+mos’ enjyble of all entertainments.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy came on the scene just then and begged
+to be enlightened as to the nature of a basket
+funeral.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you see, honey, when a member dies at
+a onseasonable time, or at the beginning of the
+week an’ you can’t keep him ‘til Sunday, or in
+harvestin’ time when ev’ybody is busy an’ the
+hosses is all workin’, why then we jes’ bury the
+corpse quiet like. And then when work gits slack
+an’ there is some chanst to borrow the white
+folks’ teams, we gits together an’ ev’ybody takes
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span>
+a big lunch an’ we impair to the seminary an’
+have a preachment over the grave and then a
+big jamboree.” The old woman stopped to
+chuckle, and such a contagious chuckle she had
+that you found yourself laughing with her before
+you knew what the joke was.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I ‘member moughty well when this here same
+Jim Jourdan, what is to be preached over an’
+prayed over an’ et over to-day, was doin’ the
+same by his second wife Suky Jourdan, an’ that
+was after I had buried my Cyrus an’ befo’ I took
+up wif my Albert. It was a hot day in July when
+fryin’-size chick’ns was jes’ about comin’ on good
+an’ fat, an’ I had a scrumptious lot of victuals
+good ‘nuf fer white folks. Jim looked so ferlorn
+that I as’t him to sit down an’ try to worry down
+some eatin’s with us. He was vas’ly pleased to
+do so, an’ look like he couldn’ praise my cookin’
+‘nuf; an’ befo’ we got to the pie, he up an’ ast me
+to come occupy Suky’s place in his cabin. I
+never said one word, but I got up an’ fetched a
+big pa’m leaf fan out’n the waggin an han’ it to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span>
+him. ‘What’s this fer, Sis Mary?’ sez he, an’
+sez I, ‘You jes’ take this here fan an’ fan you’
+secon’ ‘til she’s col’, and then come a seekin’ yo’
+third.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls laughed until the tears rolled down
+their cheeks over Aunt Mary’s unique courtship.
+The red-wheeled wagon came up driven by Lewis
+with Ca’line sitting beside him, dressed within an
+inch of her life. Molly got a box for Aunt Mary
+to step on to climb into the vehicle, but the old
+woman refused to budge until Lewis took out
+the back seat and got a rocking chair for her to
+sit in.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You know moughty well, you fergitful nigger,
+that I allus goes to baskit funerals a-settin’
+in a rockin’ cheer! Go git the one offen the back
+po’ch, the red one with the arms to it. Sho as
+I go a-settin’ on a back seat some lazy pusson
+what can’t borrow a team will come a-astin’ fer
+to ride longside er me, an’ I don’ want nobody
+a-rumplin’ me up, an’ ’sides ole Miss never lent
+this waggin fer all the niggers in Jeff’son County
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span>
+to come a-crowdin’ in an ben’in’ the springs.
+Then when we gits to the buryin’ groun’, I’ll
+have a cheer to sit in an’ not have to go squattin’
+‘roun’ on grabe stones.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good-by, Aunt Mary, good-by, Ca’line and
+Lewis.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls waved until they were out of sight
+and then went laughing into the quiet house. It
+seemed quiet, indeed, after the hub-bub of the
+day before.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Everything certainly stayed clean with all of
+the guests out of doors. I have never had an
+entertainment with so little to do when it was
+over,” said Mrs. Brown. “It was a good day
+for the servants to go away, with the house in
+such good order and enough left-overs from the
+wedding supper for three lone women to feed on
+for several meals. I wonder how your Aunt
+Clay is getting on with her harvesting? She is
+so headstrong not to borrow my cutting machine!
+Why does she insist that flour made from wheat
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span>
+cut with a scythe makes better bread than that
+cut with modern machinery?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She declared yesterday, mother, that she was
+not going to feed her hands until they got
+through mowing, if it took them until nightfall.
+She says you spoil all darkeys that come near
+you, and she is going to show them who is boss
+on her place. Kent infuriated her by telling her
+she would get herself into trouble if she did not
+look out; that her wheat was already overripe,
+and if she attempted to make her hands work
+over dinner hour they would leave it half cut;
+but advice to Aunt Clay always sends her in the
+opposite direction.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish I had not let Sue go over there. Most
+of those harvesters are strangers from another
+county, and they might do something desperate
+if Sarah antagonized them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t worry, mother, Cyrus Clay is over
+there, and he is sure to take good care of Sue.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The morning was spent with much gay talk as
+they packed the presents. Mrs. Brown was the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span>
+kind of woman who could enter into the feelings
+of young people. She seemed to be of their generation
+and was never shocked or astonished
+when in their talk she realized that things had
+changed since her day. She usually made the
+best of it and put it down to “progress” of some
+sort. They worked faithfully, and by twelve
+o’clock had tied up and labeled the last parcel to
+go in the last barrel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come on, girls, let’s have an early lunch and
+then we can have our much needed and hard-earned
+rest. A good nap all around will make
+us feel like ourselves again.”
+</p>
+<p>
+How good that lunch did taste! Molly had
+been so excited that she could not swallow food
+the evening before, and Mrs. Brown had been so
+busy looking after guests that she had forgotten
+to eat. Judy was the only one who had done
+justice to the supper, but, having tested it, she
+was more than willing to try the chicken salad
+again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never mind washing the dishes; put them in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span>
+a dish-pan for Ca’line. Get into your kimonos
+and take a good nap. I am sick for sleep,”
+yawned Mrs. Brown.
+</p>
+<p>
+In five minutes they were dead to the world,
+lost in that midsummer afternoon sleep, the
+heaviest of all slumber. Everything was perfectly
+still except the bees, buzzing around the
+honey-suckle. A venturesome vine had made its
+way through Molly’s window, ever open in summer,
+and as Judy lay, half asleep, she amused
+herself by watching a great bumble bee sip honey
+from the fragrant flowers, and his humming was
+the last sound that she was conscious of hearing.
+It seemed like a minute, so heavily had she slept—it
+was really several hours—when she was
+awakened with a nightmare that the bee was as
+big as a horse and his humming was that of a
+thousand bees.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Molly, Molly, listen, what is that noise?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly, ever a light sleeper, was out of bed in a
+trice and at the front window. What a sight
+met her eyes! Coming up the avenue was a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span>
+crowd of at least forty negroes, all of them carrying
+scythes and whetstones, the sweat pouring
+from their black faces and bared necks and hairy
+chests, their white teeth flashing and eyeballs
+rolling, the sun glinting on the sharp steel of
+their scythes, menace and fury darkening the
+face of every man and coming from them a mutter
+and hum truly like the buzzing of a thousand
+bees.
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy, although she was weak with fear, could
+not help thinking, “That is the noise on the stage
+that a mob tries to make.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aunt Clay’s hands have struck work, and to
+think there is not a man on this place! I believe
+the blackguards know it! Load your pistol, Judy,
+and let us go to mother.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mother was already up, hastily gowned in her
+wrapper, and opening the front door when the
+girls came down the stairs. The intrepid lady
+walked out on the porch with seemingly no more
+fear than she had had the day before when she
+came forward to meet the wedding guests. Head
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88'></a>88</span>
+erect, eyes steady and piercing, with a voice clear
+and composed, she said, “Why, boys, you look
+very tired and hot, and I know you are hungry.
+Sit down in the shade, on the porch steps and
+under the trees, and I will see what we can find
+for you to eat. Molly, go get that buttermilk
+out of the dairy. The jar is too heavy for you
+to lift, so take Buck and let him carry it for you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown, with all of her courage, was
+never more scared in her life. All the time she
+was talking she had been looking in the crowd
+of black faces for a familiar one, and was glad
+to recognize Buck Jourdan, a good-natured, good-for-nothing
+nephew of Aunt Mary’s. At her
+command Buck stepped forward, and then a
+dozen more of the men came to the front, unconsciously
+separating themselves from the rest.
+Mrs. Brown saw that they were all negroes belonging
+in her neighborhood. At her calming
+words and proffer of food such a change came
+over the faces of the mob that they hardly
+seemed to be the same men. Their teeth showed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span>
+now in grins instead of sinister snarls; they
+stacked their murderous looking weapons against
+the paulownia tree and sat down in the shade
+with expressions as peaceful as the wedding
+guests themselves had worn.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly and the stalwart Buck were back in an
+incredibly short time with the five-gallon jar of
+buttermilk and a tray of glasses not yet put away
+from yesterday’s feast. Mrs. Brown herself
+dipped out the smooth, luscious beverage, seeing
+that each man was plentifully served, while
+Molly went into the house to bring out all the
+cooked provisions she could find. Mrs. Brown
+beckoned the trembling and wondering Judy to
+her and whispered, “Go ring the farm bell as
+loud as you can. All danger is over now, I feel
+sure, but it is well to let the neighbors know that
+we are in some difficulty; and I fancy I heard a
+horse trotting on the turnpike, and whoever it
+is might hasten to us at the sound of a farm bell
+at this unusual hour.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy flew to the great bell, hung on a high
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90'></a>90</span>
+post in the back yard. She seized the rope, and
+then such a ding-dong as pealed forth! The bell
+was a very heavy brass one, and at every pull
+Judy, who was something of a lightweight,
+leaped into the air, reciting as she jumped, “Curfew
+shall not ring to-night.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is enough, my dear. There is no use
+in getting help from an adjacent county, and I
+fancy every one in Jefferson County has heard
+the bell by this time,” said Mrs. Brown, stopping
+her before she had quite finished the last stanza,
+which Judy said was like interrupting a good
+sneeze.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly had found all kinds of food for the
+hungry laborers, who were more sinned against
+than sinning. They had gone in all good faith
+to the Clay farm to harvest the wheat according
+to the antiquated methods of the mistress, with
+scythes and cradles. When twelve o’clock, the
+dinner hour everywhere, came, they were told
+that they could not eat until they had finished.
+They had worked on until two, and then, infuriated
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span>
+with hunger and goaded on by the thought
+of the injustice done them, they had struck in a
+body and gone to the mansion to try to force
+Mrs. Clay to feed them; but they had been held
+back at the point of a pistol, by that lady herself.
+Then they had determined to get food where
+they could find it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown gathered this much from the men
+as, their hunger assuaged, they talked more connectedly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Th’ ain’t nothin’ like buttermilk to ease yo’
+heart,” said Buck Jasper. “Mis’ Mildred Carmichael
+kin git mo’ outen her niggers fillin’ ’em
+full er buttermilk than her sister Mis’ Sary kin
+fillin’ ’em full er buckshot.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown was right; she had heard a horse
+trotting on the turnpike. The men were wiping
+their mouths on the backs of their hands and
+coming up one at a time to thank the gracious
+lady for her kindness in feeding them, when
+Ernest and Edwin Green came driving into the
+avenue.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mother! What does this mean? I thought
+I heard the farm bell when I was about two miles
+from home, and now I find the yard full of negro
+men. Have you had a fire?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown explained that Aunt Clay had
+made things pretty hot for her hands, but so far
+there had been no other fire. She welcomed Professor
+Green to Chatsworth and called the grinning
+Buck to take his suitcase to the cottage
+porch. Judy wondered at her calm manner and
+at her saying nothing to Ernest about their being
+so frightened, not realizing that one hint of
+the trouble would have sent Ernest off into a
+rage, when he might have reprimanded the
+negroes and all the good work of the buttermilk
+have been undone. Molly was pale and Professor
+Green, ever watchful of her, asked Judy to
+give him an account of the matter, which she did
+in such a graphic manner that he, too, turned
+pale to think of the danger those dear ladies had
+been in. He made himself at home by making
+himself useful, and helped Molly to carry back
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span>
+into the kitchen the empty glasses and plates
+from the feast of the hungry darkeys. She
+laughingly handed him a great, iron pot in which
+cabbage had been cooked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am wondering what Aunt Mary will say
+about her cabbage. Mother sent me into the
+house to get all available food, when she realized
+that the hands were simply hungry and that
+food would be the best thing to quell their rage.
+Aunt Mary had this huge pot of cabbage on the
+back of the range; she said in case Lewis jolted
+down the lunch she was going to eat at the basket
+funeral she would have it cooked in readiness.
+The poor dogs will have to go hungry, too, or
+have some more corn bread cooked for them. I
+found this big pan full of what we call dog-bread,
+made from scalded meal and salt and bacon drippings,
+baked until it is crisp. The men were
+crazy about it with pot liquor poured over it. You
+can see for yourself how they licked their platters
+clean.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The Saxon word ‘lady’ means bread-giver,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span>
+but I think that you and your mother have given
+it a new significance, and the dictionaries will
+have to add, ‘Dispenser of cabbage and buttermilk
+and dog-bread.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+More wheels, and Aunt Mary and Lewis, with
+Ca’line much rumpled and asleep on the front
+seat, her shoes and stockings in her lap and her
+bare feet propped gracefully on the dashboard,
+had returned. Aunt Mary was much excited.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s all dis doin’? Who was all dem niggers
+I seen a-streakin’ crost the fiel’s? Buck
+Jourdan, ain’t that you I see hidin’ behine that
+tree? I thought I hearn the farm bell as we
+roun’ed the Pint, but Lewis lowed ’twas over to
+Miss Sary Clay’s. Come here, Buck, an’ he’p
+me out’n dis here waggin. You needn’t think
+you kin hide from me, when I kin see the patch
+on yo’ pants made outen the selfsame goods I
+gib yo’ ma to make some waistes out’n, two years
+ago come next Febuway.” Buck came sheepishily
+forward to help his old aunt out of the vehicle.
+“Nex’ time you wan’ ter hide from me you’d
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span>
+better make out to grow a leettle leaner, or fin’
+a tree what’s made out to grow some wider so’s
+you won’t stick out beyant it. What you been
+doing, and who’s been a-mashin’ down ole Miss’s
+grass, and what’s my little Miss Molly baby
+a-doin’ workin’ herself to death ag’in to-day?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Buck endeavored to explain his appearance,
+and told the story of the strike at Mrs. Clay’s
+and how they were just passing through Mrs.
+Brown’s yard when she had come out and invited
+them all to dinner. His story was so plausible
+and his voice so soft and manner so wheedling,
+that Professor Green, who overheard the conversation,
+was much amused, and had he not already
+got the incident from Judy might have
+believed Buck, so convincing were his words and
+manner. Not so Aunt Mary, who had partly
+raised the worthless Buck and knew better than
+anyone how he could use his silver tongue to lie
+as well as tell the truth, but preferred the former
+method.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, look here, you Buck Jourdan, you ain’t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span>
+no count on Gawd’s green yearth ‘cep to play the
+banjo. What you been doin’ hirin’ yo’self out
+to Miss Sary Clay, jes’ like you ain’t never
+know’d that none of our fambly don’ never work
+fer none er hern? Yo’ ma befo’ you an’ yo’
+gran’ma befo’ her done tried it. Meanin’ no disrespect
+to the rest er the Carmichaels, der’s the
+ole sayin’, ‘What kin you expec’ from a hog but
+a grunt?’ I knows ‘thout goin’ in my kitchen
+that Miss Molly done gib all you triflin’ niggers
+my pot er cabbage an’ the dog-bread I baked fer
+those houn’s an’ bird dogs what ain’t no mo’
+count than you is, ‘cept’n they can’t play the
+banjo.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Buck Jourdan, is that you?” said Ernest,
+coming forward and interrupting Aunt Mary’s
+tirade. “I am going to get Miss Molly’s banjo
+and you can sit down and give us some music. I
+haven’t heard a good tune since I went West.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Buck, glad to escape any farther tongue lashing
+from his relative, and always pleased to play
+and sing, tuned the banjo and began:
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“‘Hi,’&nbsp;said&nbsp;the&nbsp;’possum&nbsp;as&nbsp;he&nbsp;shook&nbsp;the&nbsp;‘simmon&nbsp;tree,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;‘Golly,’&nbsp;said&nbsp;the&nbsp;rabbit;&nbsp;‘you&nbsp;shake&nbsp;’em&nbsp;all&nbsp;on&nbsp;me.’<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;An’&nbsp;they&nbsp;went&nbsp;in&nbsp;wif&nbsp;they&nbsp;claws,&nbsp;an’&nbsp;they&nbsp;licked&nbsp;they&nbsp;li’l&nbsp;paws,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;An’&nbsp;they&nbsp;took&nbsp;whole&nbsp;heaps&nbsp;home&nbsp;to&nbsp;they&nbsp;maws.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+After several stanzas sung in a soft melodious
+voice, Buck, at Molly’s request, gave them, to a
+chanting recitative the following song, composed
+by a friend of Buck’s, and worthy to be incorporated
+in American folk-lore, so Professor Green
+laughingly assured Mrs. Brown.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;MURDER&nbsp;OF&nbsp;THE&nbsp;RATTAN&nbsp;FAMILY.<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“One&nbsp;evening&nbsp;in&nbsp;September,&nbsp;in&nbsp;eighteen&nbsp;ninety-three,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Jim&nbsp;Stone&nbsp;committed&nbsp;a&nbsp;murder,&nbsp;as&nbsp;cruel&nbsp;as&nbsp;it&nbsp;could&nbsp;be.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;’Twas&nbsp;on&nbsp;the&nbsp;Rattan&nbsp;family,&nbsp;while&nbsp;they&nbsp;were&nbsp;preparing&nbsp;for&nbsp;their&nbsp;bed.<br />
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Jim&nbsp;Stone,&nbsp;he&nbsp;rapped&nbsp;upon&nbsp;the&nbsp;door,&nbsp;complaining&nbsp;of&nbsp;his&nbsp;head.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;first&nbsp;was&nbsp;young&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;Rattan.&nbsp;She&nbsp;come&nbsp;to&nbsp;let&nbsp;him&nbsp;in.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;He&nbsp;slew&nbsp;her&nbsp;with&nbsp;his&nbsp;corn&nbsp;knife—that’s&nbsp;where&nbsp;his&nbsp;crime&nbsp;begin.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;next&nbsp;was&nbsp;old&nbsp;Mrs.&nbsp;Rattan.&nbsp;Old&nbsp;soul&nbsp;was&nbsp;feeble&nbsp;and&nbsp;gray.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Truly&nbsp;she&nbsp;fought&nbsp;Jim&nbsp;Stone&nbsp;a&nbsp;battle&nbsp;till&nbsp;her&nbsp;strength&nbsp;it&nbsp;give&nbsp;way.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;next&nbsp;was&nbsp;the&nbsp;little&nbsp;baby.&nbsp;When&nbsp;he,&nbsp;Jim&nbsp;Stone&nbsp;did&nbsp;see,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;He&nbsp;raised&nbsp;up&nbsp;in&nbsp;his&nbsp;cradle.&nbsp;‘Oh!&nbsp;Jim&nbsp;Stone,&nbsp;don’t&nbsp;murder&nbsp;me!’<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Next&nbsp;morning&nbsp;when&nbsp;he&nbsp;was&nbsp;arrested—wasn’t&nbsp;sure&nbsp;that&nbsp;he&nbsp;was&nbsp;the&nbsp;one.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Till&nbsp;only&nbsp;a&nbsp;few&nbsp;weeks&nbsp;later&nbsp;he&nbsp;confessed&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;crime&nbsp;he&nbsp;done.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;They&nbsp;took&nbsp;him&nbsp;to&nbsp;Southern&nbsp;Prison,&nbsp;which&nbsp;they&nbsp;thought&nbsp;was&nbsp;the<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;safetes’&nbsp;place.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;When&nbsp;they&nbsp;marched&nbsp;him&nbsp;out&nbsp;for&nbsp;trial,&nbsp;he&nbsp;had&nbsp;a&nbsp;smile&nbsp;upon&nbsp;his&nbsp;face.<br />
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;after&nbsp;he&nbsp;was&nbsp;sentenced,&nbsp;oh!&nbsp;how&nbsp;he&nbsp;did&nbsp;mourn&nbsp;and&nbsp;cry.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;One&nbsp;day&nbsp;he&nbsp;received&nbsp;a&nbsp;letter,&nbsp;saying&nbsp;his&nbsp;daughter&nbsp;was&nbsp;bound&nbsp;to&nbsp;die.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Next&nbsp;morning&nbsp;he&nbsp;answered&nbsp;the&nbsp;letter&nbsp;and&nbsp;in&nbsp;it&nbsp;he&nbsp;did&nbsp;say,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;‘Tell&nbsp;her&nbsp;I’ll&nbsp;meet&nbsp;her&nbsp;there&nbsp;in&nbsp;Heaven,&nbsp;on&nbsp;the&nbsp;sixteenth&nbsp;of&nbsp;Februway.’<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;They&nbsp;led&nbsp;him&nbsp;upon&nbsp;the&nbsp;scaffold&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;black&nbsp;cap&nbsp;over&nbsp;his&nbsp;head.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;he&nbsp;hung&nbsp;there&nbsp;sixteen&nbsp;minutes&nbsp;‘fore&nbsp;the&nbsp;doctors&nbsp;pronounced<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;him&nbsp;dead.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Now&nbsp;wouldn’t&nbsp;it&nbsp;have&nbsp;been&nbsp;much&nbsp;better&nbsp;if&nbsp;he’d&nbsp;stayed&nbsp;at&nbsp;home<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;with&nbsp;his&nbsp;wife,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead&nbsp;of&nbsp;keeping&nbsp;late&nbsp;hours,&nbsp;and&nbsp;taking&nbsp;that&nbsp;family’s&nbsp;life?”<br />
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100'></a>100</span><a name='chVII' id='chVII'></a>CHAPTER VII.—PICTURES ON MEMORY’S WALL.</h2>
+<p>
+The next week was a very quiet and peaceful
+one at Chatsworth. There had been so many excitements,
+with burglars and negro uprisings and
+what not, that Molly was afraid her visitors
+would think Kentucky deserved the meaning the
+Indians attached to it—“the dark and bloody
+battle-ground.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ernest, home for a vacation from his labors
+in the West, endeavored to keep Judy from missing
+the attentions of Kent, who was back at his
+grind in Louisville in the architect’s office, and
+did not get home each day until time for a late
+supper. Judy liked Ernest very well, as she did
+all of the Browns, but Kent and Molly were her
+favorites still, and the evenings were the best of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span>
+all when Kent came home and, as he put it, “relieved
+Ernest.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly found herself on easier terms with Professor
+Green than she had ever imagined possible.
+If he did not consider her quite an old
+lady, she at least was beginning to look upon him
+as not such a very old gentleman. He played
+what Kent designated as a “cracker-jack” game
+of tennis, and turned out to be as good a horseman
+as the Brown boys themselves.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If he only had a little more hair on his forehead,”
+thought Molly, “he would look right
+young.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Mary was the unconscious means of consoling
+her for his lack of hair. “Honey, I likes
+yo’ teacher mo’n any Yankee I ever seed. He’d
+oughter rub onions on his haid to stimilate the
+roots. Not but what he ain’t han’some, baldish
+haid an’ all, with them hones’ eyes an’ that upstandin’
+look. I done took notice that brains
+don’ make the best sile to grow ha’r on an’ lots
+er smart folks is baldish. Mindjer, I wouldn’
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span>
+go so fer as to say bald haided folks is all smart.
+It looks like some er them is so hard-haided the
+ha’r can’t break th’ough the scalp.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Of course, the first day at Chatsworth he had
+to be taken out to view his possessions, the two
+acres of orchard land. It was a possession for
+any man to be proud of. It lay on the side of a
+gently sloping hill covered with blue grass and
+noble, venerable, twisted apple trees, that Molly
+said reminded her of fine old hands that showed
+hard, useful work.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And these trees always have done good work.
+You know my father called these his lucky acres.
+He was always certain of an income from these
+apples. The trees have been taken care of and
+trimmed and not allowed to rot away as some of
+the old orchards around here have, Aunt Clay’s,
+for instance. She is so afraid of doing something
+modern that she refused to spray her trees
+when the country was full of San José scale, and
+in consequence lost her whole peach orchard and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103'></a>103</span>
+most of her apples. This is where our ‘castle’
+used to be.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They were in a grassy space near the middle
+of the orchard, where a stump of an old tree was
+still standing. The land, showing a beautiful
+soft contour, sloped to the worm fence at the
+foot of the hill, where the grass changed its green
+to a brighter hue and a beautiful little stream
+sparkled in the sun.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All of us, even Sue, who is not given to such
+things, cried when in a big wind storm our beloved
+castle was twisted off of its roots. It was
+a tree made for children to play in, with low
+spreading branches and great crotches, the limbs
+all twisted and bent and one of them curving
+down so low you could sit in it and touch your
+feet to the ground. We had our regular apartments
+in that tree and kept our treasures in a
+hole too high up for thieves to have any suspicion
+of it. It was so shady and cool and breezy
+that on the hottest day we were comfortable and
+often had lunch here. We played every kind of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span>
+game known to children and made up a lot more.
+‘Swiss Family Robinson’ when they went to live
+up the tree was our best game. I remember once
+Kent gathered a lot of peach-tree gum and
+ruined my slippers trying to make rubber boots
+out of them as the father in Swiss Family Robinson
+did. Our castle had wonderful apples on
+it, too. They grew to an enormous size, and if
+any of them were ever allowed to get really ripe
+they turned pure gold and tasted—oh, how good
+they did taste.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Edwin Green listened, enchanted at Molly’s
+description of her childhood and the beloved
+play-house. He half shut his eyes and tried to
+picture her as a little girl in a blue sun-bonnet—of
+course she must have had a blue bonnet—climbing
+nimbly up the old apple tree, entering
+as eagerly into the game of Swiss Family Robinson
+as she was now playing the game of life,
+even letting her best little slippers be gummed
+over to play the game true. He had a feeling of
+almost bitter regret that he hadn’t known Molly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span>
+as a little girl. “She must have been such a bully
+little girl,” thought that highly educated teacher
+of English.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Molly, do you think that this would be
+the best place to build my bungalow? Place it
+right here where your castle stood? Maybe I
+could catch some of the breezes that you used to
+enjoy; and perhaps some of the happiness that
+you found here was spilled over and I might pick
+it up. It could not be so beautiful as your tree
+castle, but it is my ‘Castle in the Air.’ If I put
+it here I should not have to sacrifice any of the
+other trees; there is room enough where your
+old friend stood for my modest wants. Would
+it hurt your feelings to have me build a little
+house where your childish mansion stood?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Professor Green, the idea of such a
+thing! It would give me the greatest happiness
+to have your bungalow right on this site. I
+would not be a dog in the manger about it, anyhow.
+Are you really and truly going to build?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I hope to. Of course, I shall have to ask
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106'></a>106</span>
+your mother if she would mind having such a
+close neighbor.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I hardly think mother would expect to
+sell a lot and then not let the purchaser build.
+She may have to sell some more of the place. I
+wish it could be that old stony strip over by
+Aunt Clay’s. You know our home, Chatsworth,
+is a Brown inheritance, and the Carmichael
+place adjoining belonged to mother’s people.
+They call it the Clay place now, but until grandfather
+died it was known as the Carmichael
+place. Aunt Clay married and lived there and
+somehow got hold of grandfather and made him
+appoint her administratrix and executrix to his
+estate. She managed things so well for herself
+that she got the house with everything in it and
+the improved, cleared land, giving mother acres
+and acres of poor land where even blackberries
+don’t flourish and the cows won’t graze. The
+sheep won’t drink the water, but they do condescend
+to keep down the weeds. I really believe
+that Aunt Clay is the only person in the world
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107'></a>107</span>
+that I can’t like even a little bit. I fancy it is
+because she has been so mean to mother. I believe
+I could get over her being cross and critical
+with me, but somehow I can’t forgive the way
+she has always treated mother.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I found her a very trying companion at your
+sister’s wedding, and she looks as though she
+had brains, too. But how anyone with sense
+could be anything but kind to your mother I cannot
+see.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly beamed with pleasure. “Ah, you see
+how wonderful mother is. I thought you would
+appreciate her. She likes you, too, Professor
+Green. Mother says she believes she understands
+boys better than girls and can enter into
+their feelings more.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, what am I saying?” thought Molly. “I
+wonder what the Wellington girls would say if
+they could know I forgot and as good as called
+their Professor of English a boy! Well, he does
+look quite boyish out of doors, with his hat on.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They strolled on down toward the brook,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108'></a>108</span>
+Molly patting each tree as they passed and telling
+some little incident of her childhood.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I truly believe you love every one of these
+trees. You touch them as lovingly as you do
+President or the dogs, and look at them as fondly
+as you do at old Aunt Mary.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed, I do; and, as for this little stream, it
+makes to me the sweetest music in the world.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Molly, when I build my little bungalow,
+will you come and have lunch with me as you
+used to with your brothers in the old castle? I’ll
+promise you not to let you eat at the second
+table as you did when you took breakfast with
+me last Christmas.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They both laughed at the thought of that
+morning; and Molly remembered that it was then
+that she had overheard Professor Green tell his
+housekeeper of his apple orchard out in Kentucky,
+and had realized for the first time that
+it was he who had bought the orchard at Chatsworth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed, I will take lunch with you, and would
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span>
+like to cook it, too, as I did your breakfast that
+cold morning. Do you know, when you came
+downstairs and I peeped at you through the crack
+in the pantry door, you looked and sounded almost
+as fierce as the mob of colored men who
+came hungry from Aunt Clay’s last week? The
+nice breakfast I fixed for you seemed to soften
+your temper just as mother’s buttermilk did the
+darkies’. Aunt Mary says, ‘White men and
+black men is all the same on the inside, and all
+of them is Hungarians.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+Edwin Green laughed, as he always did when
+Molly got on the subject of Aunt Mary. The old
+woman was a never failing source of wonder and
+amusement to him; and Molly mimicked her so
+well that you could almost see her short, fat figure
+with her head tied up in a bandanna handkerchief,
+vigorously nodding to punctuate each
+epigram.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Next winter I hope to have my sister with
+me at Wellington, and she will see that this ‘Hungarian’
+is fed better than my housekeeper has.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span>
+You will come to us a great deal, I hope. I am
+overjoyed that you are to take the postgraduate
+course. That was the one pleasant thing your
+aunt, Mrs. Clay, had to tell me when I conversed
+with her at the wedding, and she little dreamed
+how pleasant it was, or I doubt her giving me
+that joy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am truly glad. I hated to give up right
+now. It seemed to me as though I could see the
+open door of culture but had not reached it, and
+had a lot of things to learn before I had any right
+to consider myself fit to pass through it. Mother
+and Kent together decided it must be managed
+for me. They are both bricks, anyhow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The young people had come to the little purling
+brook during this conversation, and at Molly’s
+instigation had turned down the stream and entered,
+through a break in the worm fence, a
+beautiful bit of woods. The beech woods in Kentucky
+are, when all is told, about the most beautiful
+woods in the world. No shade is so dense,
+no trees more noble, not even oaks. With the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span>
+grace of an aspen and the dignity of an oak, the
+beech to my mind is first among trees.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“Of&nbsp;all&nbsp;the&nbsp;beautiful&nbsp;pictures<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That&nbsp;hang&nbsp;on&nbsp;Memory’s&nbsp;wall,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Is&nbsp;one&nbsp;of&nbsp;a&nbsp;dim&nbsp;old&nbsp;forest<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That&nbsp;seemeth&nbsp;the&nbsp;best&nbsp;of&nbsp;all.<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“Not&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;gnarled&nbsp;oaks&nbsp;olden,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Dark&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;mistletoe,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Not&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;violets&nbsp;golden<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That&nbsp;sprinkle&nbsp;the&nbsp;vale&nbsp;below.<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“Not&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;milk-white&nbsp;lilies<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Leaning&nbsp;o’er&nbsp;the&nbsp;hedge,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Coquetting&nbsp;all&nbsp;day&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;sunbeams<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;stealing&nbsp;their&nbsp;golden&nbsp;edge.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly quoted the verses in her soft, clear
+voice, adding:
+</p>
+<p>
+“I say ‘gnarled oaks olden’ for euphony, but
+I always think ‘beech.’ I don’t know what Miss
+Alice or Phœbe Gary, whichever one it was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span>
+who wrote those lovely verses, would think of
+my taking such a liberty, even in my mind.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No doubt if Miss Alice or Phœbe Cary could
+have seen this wood, she would have searched
+about in her mind for a line to fit beeches and
+let oaks go hang. This is really a wonderful
+spot. Can’t we sit down a while? I hope your
+mother will let me have right of way through
+these woods when I build my nest in the orchard.
+This makes my lot more valuable than I thought.
+I have never seen such beech trees; why, in the
+East a beech is not such a wonderful tree! We
+have an occasional big one, but here are acres
+and acres of genuine first growth. You must
+love it here even more than in the orchard, don’t
+you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you see the orchard period is what
+might be known as my early manner; while the
+beech woods is my romantic era. I used to come
+here after I got old enough to roam around by
+myself, and a certain mystery and gloom I felt
+in the air would so fill my soul with rapture that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span>
+(I know you think this is silly) I would sit right
+where we are sitting now and cry and cry just
+for the pure joy of having tears to shed, I suppose!
+I know of no other reason.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Professor Green smiled, but his eyes had a
+mist in them as he looked at the young girl, little
+more than a child now, with her sweet, wistful
+expression, already looking back on her childhood
+as a thing of the past and her “romantic
+era” as though she had finished with it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beech wood
+period’ forever! None of us can afford to give
+up romance or the dear delight of tears for tears’
+sake. I love to think of you as a little child
+playing in the apple orchard, and as a beautiful
+girl wandering in the woods. But do you know,
+a still more beautiful picture comes to my inward
+eye, and that is an old Molly with white hair sitting
+where you are now, still in the ‘romantic
+era,’ still in the beech woods; and, God willing,
+I’ll be beside you, only,” he whimsically added,
+“I am afraid I’ll be bald-headed instead of white-haired!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span><a name='chVIII' id='chVIII'></a>CHAPTER VIII.—ALL KINDS OF WEATHER.</h2>
+<p>
+The days went dreamily on. Edwin Green
+lengthened his stay in Kentucky until he really
+became touchy on the subject, and one day when
+some one spoke of the old Virginia gentleman
+who came in out of the rain and stayed six years,
+he told Mrs. Brown that he felt very like that old
+man. She was hospitality itself, and made him
+understand that he was more than welcome, and,
+every time he set a date for his departure, some
+form of entertainment was immediately on foot
+where his presence seemed both desirable and
+necessary, and his going away was postponed
+again. Once it was a coon hunt with Ernest and
+John and Lewis, the colored gardener; once it
+was a moonlight picnic at a wonderful spot called
+Black Rock.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+On that occasion they drove in a hay wagon
+over a road that was a disgrace to Kentucky,
+and then up a dry creek bed until they came to
+the great black boulder that stood at least twenty
+feet in the air; there they made their temporary
+camp. Kent confided to Professor Green that
+they never dared to come up that creek bed unless
+they were sure of clear weather, as it had
+been known to fill so quickly with a big rain that
+it drowned a man and horse. It was innocent
+enough then, with only a thin stream of water
+trickling along the rocks, sometimes forming a
+pool where the horses would go in almost to their
+knees; but, as a rule, they went dry shod along
+the bed. It was rough riding, but no one minded.
+There was plenty of hay in the wagon for young
+bones, and Mrs. Brown, who was chaperoning,
+had a pillow to sit on and one to lean against.
+When they got to the sylvan spot every one
+agreed it was worth the bumping they had undergone.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, it looks like the Doone Valley,” said
+Judy.
+</p>
+<p>
+And so it did, except that the stream of water
+was not quite so big as the one John Ridd had
+to climb up.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were sixteen in the party, which filled
+the big wagon comfortably so that no one had
+room to bounce out. Paul and Ernest had invited
+two girls from Louisville, who turned out
+to be very pleasant and attractive and in for a
+good time. The only person who was not very
+agreeable was John’s friend, the girl visiting
+Aunt Clay, a Miss Hunt from Tennessee. She
+was fussy and particular and afraid of spoiling
+her dress, a chiffon thing, entirely inappropriate
+for a hay ride. She complained of a headache,
+and, besides, as Molly said, “she didn’t sit fair.”
+That is a very important thing to do on a hay
+ride. One person doubling up or lolling can upset
+the comfort of a whole wagon load. You
+must sit with your feet stretched out, making
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span>
+what quilt makers call “the every other one pattern.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am glad she acts this way,” whispered Mrs.
+Brown to Molly. “I know now why I can’t abide
+her. I couldn’t tell before.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Hunt’s selfishness did not seem to worry
+her admirers any. John was all devotion, as
+were the two other young men who came along
+in her train. They were sorry about her headache
+and wanted to make room in the wagon for
+her to lie down; but Mrs. Brown was firm there
+and said it was a pity for her to suffer, but she
+thought it might injure her back unless she sat
+up going over the rough road. That lady had no
+patience with the headache, and thought the girl
+would much better have stayed at home if she
+were too ill to sit up. She did not much believe
+in the headache, anyhow, and was irritated to
+see poor Molly with her long legs doubled up
+under her trying to make room for the lolling
+little beauty.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She is pretty, no doubt of that,” said Edwin
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span>
+Green to Mrs. Brown, whom he had elected to
+sit by and look after for the ride, “as pretty as a
+brunette can be. I like a blonde as a rule. But
+it looks to me as though Miss Molly is getting
+the hot end of it, as far as comfort goes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He would have offered to change places with
+Molly, but had a big reason for refraining.
+That was that no other than Jimmy Lufton,
+Molly’s New York newspaper friend, was occupying
+the seat next to Molly, and Professor
+Green was determined to do nothing to show his
+misery at that young man’s proximity. Jimmy
+had arrived quite unexpectedly that afternoon
+and seemed to be as intimate with the whole
+Brown family in two hours as he, Edwin Green,
+was after weeks of close companionship. He
+tried not to feel bitter, and, next to sitting by
+Molly, he was sure he would rather sit by her
+mother than any one in the world, certainly than
+anyone in the wagon.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jimmy was easily the life of the party. He
+had a good tenor voice and knew all the new
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span>
+songs “hot off of the bat” from New York. He
+told the funniest stories, and at the same time
+was so good-natured and kindly and modest
+withal that you had to like him. He was not the
+typical funny man. Edwin Green felt that he
+could not have stood Molly’s preferring a typical
+funny man to him. She did prefer Jimmy,
+he felt almost sure, and now he was trying to
+steel himself to take his medicine like a man.
+He was determined not to whine and not to make
+Molly unhappy. He had seen the meeting between
+Molly and Jimmy, and it was the flood of
+color that had suffused Molly’s face and her
+almost painful agitation that had convinced him
+of her regard for that brilliant young journalist.
+Had he heard the conversation as well as seen
+the meeting, he might have been spared some of
+his unhappiness. Jimmy had said, “Where’s my
+lemon?” and Molly had answered, “Done et
+up.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They piled out of the wagon. John, the woodsman
+of the crowd, busied himself making a fire,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span>
+demanding that the two “extra men” should come
+and chop wood, determined that they should not
+get in too many words with the beautiful Miss
+Hunt while he was working. Miss Hunt then
+exercised her fascinations on Jimmy Lufton, on
+whom she had had her eye ever since they left
+Chatsworth. Jimmy was polite, but had a “nothing-doing”
+expression which quite baffled the
+practiced flirt. Poor Molly’s foot had gone so
+fast asleep that she was forced to hop around
+for at least five minutes before she could get out
+of the wagon and begin to make herself useful.
+Kent, who had driven, with Judy on the front
+seat with him, was busy taking out the four
+horses to let them rest for the heavy pull home.
+The other young men were occupied in various
+ways, lifting the hampers out of the wagon and
+getting water from the beautiful spring at the
+foot of the huge black rock. Professor Green
+came to Molly’s assistance.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was afraid your foot would go to sleep.
+You are too good to let that girl crowd you so.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span>
+She was the most deliberately selfish person I
+ever saw.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, there is always somebody like that on a
+hay ride. I have never been on one yet that there
+wasn’t some girl along with a headache who took
+up more than her share of room. I am too long
+to double up; but it is all right now. The tingle
+has stopped, and I can bear my weight on it, I
+see.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you ever see anything more beautiful
+than this valley? How clever Miss Kean is in
+hitting off a description! I haven’t thought of
+the Doone Valley for years, and now I can’t get
+it out of my head; these overhanging cliffs and
+this green grass, green even by moonlight; and
+the sensation of being in an impenetrable fortress!
+And the great black rock might be Carver
+Doone petrified and very much magnified, left
+here forever for his sins. It must be a magnificent
+sight when the creek is full.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So it is; but I hope we shall not see that sight
+to-night. Lorna Doone in the big snow was in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span>
+a safe place to what we would be in a big freshet
+up this valley with no way to get back but by the
+creek bed,” said Molly, jumping out of the hay
+wagon and beginning to make ready the supper.
+</p>
+<p>
+Such a supper it was, with appetites to match
+after the long ride and good jolting! Mrs.
+Brown was an old hand at picnic suppers and
+knew exactly what to put in and how to pack
+the baskets in the most appetizing way. There
+were different kinds of sandwiches, thin bread
+and butter, all kinds of pickles, apple turnovers
+and cheese cakes; but the crowning success of
+one of these camp picnics was always the hot
+coffee and bacon cooked on John’s fire. The
+Browns kept a skillet and big coffee pot to use
+only on such occasions. The cloth was soon
+spread and the cold lunch arranged on it, and
+then in an incredibly short time the coffee was
+boiling and the bacon sizzling.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, what a smell is this?” said Jimmy Lufton,
+emerging from behind Black Rock, where
+Miss Hunt had been doing her best to captivate
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span>
+him. (Kent said he bet on Jimmy to give her as
+good as he got.) “Mark Twain says, ‘Bacon
+would improve the flavor of an angel,’ and so it
+would.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I’m no angel, but I certainly do smell
+like bacon,” said Molly with flushed face and
+rumpled hair as she knelt over the fire with a
+long stick turning the luscious morsels. “Sue
+and Cyrus are responsible for the coffee and the
+bacon is my affair.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“As Todger’s boy says, ‘Wittles is up,’”
+called Jimmy to the strolling couples, who lost no
+time in hurrying to the feast. Mrs. Brown was
+installed at the head of the cloth, but not allowed
+to wait on any one. “For once, you shall be a
+guest at your own table,” said Kent, taking the
+coffee pot out of her hands. “Miss Judy, don’t
+you think we can serve this?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mostly cream for me and very little coffee,”
+drawled Miss Hunt.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you have such a bad headache you had better
+take it black,” said Judy, who was aware of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span>
+that young lady’s selfish behavior on the trip.
+“The people who want a great deal of cream will
+have to wait until the rest are served, as some
+of the cream got spilled; and, while there is
+enough for reasonable helps, there is not enough
+for exorbitant demands.”
+</p>
+<p>
+John and the two “extras” offered their shares
+to the spoiled beauty, but Judy was adamant.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Those sandwiches with olives and mayonnaise
+are very rich for any one with a liver,” said
+Judy later on as Miss Hunt was preparing to
+help herself plentifully to the delectable food;
+“these plain bread-and-butter ones would be
+much more wholesome for you, my dear. What,
+cheese cakes for any one who is too ill to sit up
+straight! Goodness gracious, Miss Hunt, do be
+careful! Your demise would grieve so many it
+is really selfish of you not to take better care of
+yourself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You seem to be very much concerned about
+my health, Miss Kean. I wonder that you knew
+I did not feel well; you seemed to be fully occupied
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span>
+on the journey with Mr. Kent Brown,”
+snapped Miss Hunt.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So I was,” answered Judy, nothing daunted.
+“But whenever Kent had to turn his attentions to
+the four horses when we came to rough spots in
+the road and he was trying not to jolt the ambulance
+too much, then I could turn around and
+get a good bird’s-eye view of the passengers, and
+you always seemed to be on the point of fainting.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know you are better now,” said Molly, who
+could not bear for even Miss Hunt, who was certainly
+not her style of girl, to be teased. “I know
+these apple turnovers won’t hurt you, and Aunt
+Mary makes such good ones. Do have one, and
+here is some more cream if you want it in your
+coffee.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What a sweet girl your sister is,” said Miss
+Hunt in an audible whisper. “I can’t see what
+she finds in that Miss Kean to want her to make
+her such an interminable visit.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The ill-natured remark was heard by every
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span>
+one. For did you ever notice that the way to
+make yourself heard in a crowd of noisy talkers
+is to whisper? Molly looked ready for tears,
+and Kent bit his lips in rage, but Judy, as spunky
+as usual, and feeling that she deserved a rebuke
+from Miss Hunt, but rather shocked at the ill-bred
+way of delivering it, spoke out: “Mrs.
+Brown, when we were laughing the other day
+over your story of the old Virginia gentleman
+who came in out of the rain and stayed six years,
+I had another one to tell, but something happened
+to interrupt me. Might I tell it now?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown gave a smiling consent. She was
+not so tender-hearted as Molly and, while she
+felt it a mistake to wrangle, she was rather curious
+to see who would get ahead in this trial of
+wits.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I bet my bottom dollar on Miss Judy, don’t
+you, mother?” said Kent in an undertone.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I certainly do,” whispered his mother.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A little Southern girl we knew at college,
+Madeline Pettit, told in all seriousness about a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span>
+neighbor of hers who was invited to go on a visit.
+She accepted, but they had to sell the cow for
+her to go on, and then she had to prolong her
+visit for the calf to get big enough for her to
+come home on. I am afraid our calf is almost
+big enough and papa may come riding in on it
+any day and carry me off.” There was a general
+roar of laughter, and then the picnickers, having
+eaten all that they uncomfortably could, made
+a general movement toward adjournment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where is the moon?” they all exclaimed at
+once. While they were eating and drinking and
+making themselves generally merry, the proverbial
+cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand, had
+grown and spread and now the moon was put out
+of business. The cliffs were so high that a storm
+had come up out of the west without any one
+dreaming of it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“This creek can fill in such a hurry when a big
+rain comes we had better start,” said Kent.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, don’t be such a croaker, Kent. It can’t
+rain. The sky was as clear as a bell when we
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span>
+left home,” said Mrs. Brown, as eager as any
+of the young people to prolong the good times.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right, mother, just as you think best, but
+I am going to get the horses hitched up in case
+you change your mind.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Change her mind she did in a very few minutes,
+as large drops of rain began to fall. The
+crowd came pell-mell and scrambled into the
+wagon. Mrs. Brown noticed in the confusion
+that she had lost her cavalier and that Professor
+Green had attached himself to Molly. She was
+pleased to see it, as she had felt sorry for the
+young man. He was evidently so miserable, and
+yet at the same time so determined to make himself
+agreeable to her that he had been really very
+charming. She loved to talk about books, and,
+as she said, seldom had the chance, for the people
+who knew about books and cared for them
+never seemed to realize that a busy mother and
+housekeeper could have similar tastes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I get so tired of swapping recipes for pickles
+and talking about how to raise children. Aunt
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span>
+Mary makes the pickle and my children are all
+raised,” she had confided to Edwin Green. “We
+had a very interesting guest on one occasion, a
+woman who had done a great many delightful
+things and knew many delightful literary people,
+and I hoped to have a real good talk with her
+about books; but she seemed to feel she must
+stick to the obvious when she conversed with me.
+I often laugh when I think of Aunt Mary’s retort
+courteous to this same lady. She was constantly
+asking me how we made this and what
+we did to have that so much better than other
+people, and I would always refer her to Aunt
+Mary.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Once it was bread that was under discussion.
+You know how difficult it is to get a recipe
+from a darkey, as they never really know how
+they do the things they do best. Aunt Mary
+told her to the best of her ability what she did,
+but the woman was not satisfied. ‘Now, tell me
+exactly how many cups of flour you use.’ ‘Why,
+bless you, we done stop dolin’ out flour with a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>
+cup long ago an’ uses a ole broken pitcher.’ Another
+time it was coffee. ‘Now, you have told
+me about the freshly roasted and ground coffee,
+please tell me how much water.’ Aunt Mary
+gave a scornful sniff. ‘You mus’ think we are
+stingy folks ef you think we measure water!’ At
+another time she said, ‘Aunt Mary, you must
+have told me wrong, because I did exactly what
+you said and my popovers were complete failures.’
+‘Laws a mussy, I did fergit to tell you
+one thing, an’ that is that you mus’ stir in some
+gumption wif ev’y aig.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“De&nbsp;rain&nbsp;kep’&nbsp;a-drappin’&nbsp;in&nbsp;draps&nbsp;so&nbsp;mighty&nbsp;heavy;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;De&nbsp;ribber&nbsp;kep’&nbsp;a-risin’&nbsp;an’&nbsp;bus’ed&nbsp;froo&nbsp;de&nbsp;levvy,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Ring,&nbsp;ring&nbsp;de&nbsp;banjo,&nbsp;how&nbsp;I&nbsp;lub&nbsp;dat&nbsp;good&nbsp;ole&nbsp;song,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Come,&nbsp;come,&nbsp;my&nbsp;true&nbsp;love,&nbsp;oh,&nbsp;whar&nbsp;you&nbsp;been&nbsp;so&nbsp;long?”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+It was Jimmy who broke into this rollicking
+song, and when all of the Brown boys, who had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131'></a>131</span>
+had an experience with this old dry creek bed
+once on a ’possum hunt, heard him, they felt that
+the song was singularly appropriate. They also
+thanked their stars that they had with them some
+one who would “whoop things up” and keep the
+crowd cheerful, and perhaps the ladies would not
+realize the danger they were in. This wet-weather
+creek was fed by innumerable small
+branches, all of them dry now from something of
+a drought that had been prevalent, and John, the
+woodsman, noticed that before they had much
+rainfall in the valley those small branches had
+begun to flow, showing that there had already
+been a great storm to the west of them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If the rain were merely local, old Stony Creek
+could not do much damage in itself, but it is the
+help of all of these wet-weather springs and
+branches that makes it play such havoc,” whispered
+John to Jimmy Lufton. “I have known it
+in two hours’ time to rise four feet, which sounds
+incredible; and then in two hours more subside
+two feet, and in a day be almost dry again. I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span>
+spent four hours up on top of Black Rock once
+in a sudden freshet. I would have scaled the
+hills, but I had some young dogs hunting, and
+they were so panic-stricken and I was so afraid
+they would fall down the cliffs in the creek, that
+I just took them up on top of the rock; and there
+we sat huddled up in the driving rain until the
+water subsided enough for us to wade home.
+Swimming is out of the question for more than
+a few strokes, the current is so swift; and as for
+keeping your feet and walking, you simply can’t
+do it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We have a creek up near Lexington that goes
+on just such unexpected sprees,” said Jimmy.
+“It will be a perfectly respectable citizen and
+every one will forget its bad behavior, when suddenly
+it will break loose and get so full it disgraces
+itself and brings shame on its family of
+branches.”
+</p>
+<p>
+By this time the whole crowd was fairly damp,
+but they made a joke of it, with the exception of
+Miss Hunt, who was much irritated at the damage done
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span>
+her pretty dress. Although she was
+covered up with three coats, she clamored for
+more, but no more were offered her. Professor
+Green took off his coat and, folding it carefully,
+put it under the seat in the lunch hamper.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I fancy you think this is a funny thing to do,
+but I have seen a wet crowd almost freeze after
+a storm like this, and it is a great mistake to get
+all of the wraps wet. It is much better to take
+the rain and get wet yourself, and keep the coats
+dry; and then, when the rain is over, have something
+warm and comfortable to put on.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is a fine scheme,” said Paul, and all of
+the men followed Edwin Green’s example, and
+Molly and Judy, who had prudently brought
+their college sweaters, did the same.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think it is rather fun to get wet when you
+have on clothes that won’t get ruined,” said Judy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am glad you like it,” answered Miss Hunt,
+still sore over her bout with Judy, “but I must
+say it is hard on me with this chiffon dress.
+What will it look like after this?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you know, chiffon is French for rag so
+I fancy it will look like a Paris creation,” called
+back Judy from the front seat, where she was
+still installed by Kent. “I’ll bet anything her
+hair will come out of curl,” she whispered to her
+companion, “and I should not be astonished to
+see some of her beauty wash off.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Eany, meany,” laughed Kent. “You are already
+way ahead of her, Miss Judy. Do leave
+her her hair and complexion.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I’ll try to be good,” said penitent Judy.
+“You and Molly are so alike, it is right amusing.
+And the worst of it is your goodness rubs off on
+everybody you come in contact with. Do you
+realize I have been in Kentucky for weeks and
+that Miss Hunt is the first person I have had a
+scrap with, and so far I have not got myself in a
+single ‘Julia Kean’ scrape? I have been in so
+many, that the girls at college have named the
+particular kind of scrape I get in after me, just
+as though I were a famous physician who had
+discovered a disease.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Just what kind of scrape do you usually get
+in?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The kind of scrape I get in is always one I
+can get out of, and usually one that I fall in from
+not looking ahead enough at the consequences.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I pray God that this will be a ‘Julia
+Kean’ scrape we are in to-night. Certainly, lack
+of foresight got us in. I’d like to get that
+weather man and throw him in this creek. ‘Generally
+fair and variable winds,’ much!” said Kent
+with such a serious expression that Judy began
+to realize that this was not simply a case of a
+good wetting, but might mean something more.
+</p>
+<p>
+The horses were knee deep in water now, but
+splashing bravely on. Molly noticed that in
+hitching up for the homeward trip Kent had put
+President in the lead.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is because old President has so much
+sense and will know how to pick his way and
+keep his feet when the other horses would get
+scared and begin to struggle and pull down the
+whole team,” said Molly to Professor Green.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136'></a>136</span>
+Molly was fully aware of the danger they were
+in, but was keeping her knowledge to herself for
+fear of starting a panic among the girls. “There
+is no real danger of drowning,” she whispered
+to her companion, “so long as we stay in the
+wagon. But the banks are so steep that if we
+should get out we might slip into the creek and
+then it would be about impossible to keep our
+feet. Look at the water now, up to the hubs of
+the wheels! I am sorry for the horses, and what
+an awful responsibility for Kent! But he is
+equal to it. Do you know, I really believe Kent
+is equal to anything!”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was, of course, pitch dark now, except for
+frequent flashes of lightning that illuminated the
+raging torrents, so all were forced to realize the
+grave situation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The horses are behaving wonderfully well,
+and so far all the passengers are. I hope it will
+keep up,” muttered Kent. “It is awfully hard to
+keep your head when you are driving if any one
+screams.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137'></a>137</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“The water is in the wagon bed now. I can
+tell by my feet. Don’t you think your mother
+ought to come on the front seat, where she can
+be out of it somewhat?” suggested Judy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are right. Mother, come on up here and
+help me drive. There is plenty of room for three
+of us, and I believe you would be more comfortable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown got up, glad to change her position.
+She was more frightened than she cared
+to own, and was anxious to find out just how
+Kent felt about the matter.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am going on the front seat, too,” said the
+bedraggled Miss Hunt. “It seems to me Miss
+Julia Kean has had the best of everything long
+enough. I see no reason why she should sit high
+and dry during the whole drive, while here I am
+absolutely and actually sitting in the water.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent bit his lips in fury, but held his horses
+and his tongue while the change was being made.
+Judy showed her breeding in a way that made
+Molly proud.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138'></a>138</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“High I may be, but not dry,” said Judy, playfully
+shaking herself on the already drenched
+Molly as she sank by her side on the soggy hay.
+“I am going to see how long our fair friend will
+stay up there. It is really the scariest place I
+ever got in. Down here you feel the water without
+seeing it, but up there every flash of lightning
+reveals terrors that down here are undreamed
+of.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sit in the middle, mother, and Miss Hunt and
+I can take better care of you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I am afraid to sit on the outside! Mrs.
+Brown is much larger than I am and could hold
+me in better than I could her,” said the selfish
+girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+She squeezed in between mother and son, as
+Kent said afterward, taking up more room then
+any little person that he ever saw.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“Noah&nbsp;he&nbsp;did&nbsp;build&nbsp;an&nbsp;ark,&nbsp;one&nbsp;wide&nbsp;river&nbsp;to&nbsp;cross.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Built&nbsp;it&nbsp;out&nbsp;of&nbsp;hickory&nbsp;bark,&nbsp;one&nbsp;wide&nbsp;river&nbsp;to&nbsp;cross.<br />
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139'></a>139</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;One&nbsp;wide&nbsp;river,&nbsp;and&nbsp;that&nbsp;wide&nbsp;river&nbsp;was&nbsp;Jordan,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;One&nbsp;wide&nbsp;river,&nbsp;and&nbsp;that&nbsp;wide&nbsp;river&nbsp;to&nbsp;cross.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+“All join in the chorus,” demanded Jimmy.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were many verses to the time-honored
+song, and before they got all the animals in the
+ark the moon suddenly came out from behind a
+very black cloud, and the rain was over, but not
+the flood.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It took many days and nights for the water
+to subside for old Noah, and we may expect the
+same delay in our case,” said the happy and irrepressible
+Jimmy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent was glad indeed for the light of the
+moon. He had really had to leave it to President
+to take the proper road, or, rather, channel.
+That brave old horse had gone sturdily on, and,
+when one of the younger horses had begun to
+struggle and pull back, he had turned solemnly
+around and given him a soft little bite.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mother, did you see that? And look at that
+off horse now! I bet he will behave after this.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Sure enough, the admonished animal was pulling
+as steadily as President himself, and they
+had no more trouble with him.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were many large holes in the creek bed,
+and, of course, the wheels often went into them.
+Once it looked for a moment as though they
+might have a turnover to add to their disasters.
+The wagon toppled, but righted itself in a moment.
+Miss Hunt, as Judy had said, on the front
+seat was able to see the danger as she could not
+down in the wagon, and when the wheels went
+down that particularly deep hole she let out a
+piercing scream and tried to seize the reins from
+Kent.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent pulled up his horses as soon as the
+wagon was on a level and called to John, “John,
+will you please help Miss Hunt back into the seat
+she has just vacated? She finds she is not comfortable
+here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+At that Miss Hunt very humbly crawled back,
+and, like the Heathen Chinee, “subsequent proceedings
+interested her no more.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+As dawn was breaking they drove into the
+avenue at Chatsworth, not really very much the
+worse for wear. The warm, dry wraps produced
+from under the seat after the moon came
+out had been wonderfully comforting. Edwin
+Green had made Mrs. Brown take his coat, and
+as he folded it around her he had whispered,
+“Kentucky women are very remarkable. They
+meet danger as though it were a partner at a
+ball.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” said Kent, who had overheard him, “I
+could never have come through the deep waters
+if it had not been for the brave women. You saw
+how the one scream unnerved me, to say nothing
+of that little vixen grabbing my reins. Here,
+Ernest, we are on the pike at last, and I am just
+about all in. I wouldn’t give up until we got
+through, but take the reins. Maybe Miss Hunt
+would like to drive,” he had slyly added, but a
+low moan from under the wet coats was all the
+proud beauty could utter.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Aunt Mary greeted them at Chatsworth with
+much delight.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The sto’m here been somethin’ turrible. I
+ain’t seed sich a wind sence the chilluns’ castle
+blowed down. All of yer had better come back
+to the kitchen whar it’s warm and eat somethin’.
+I got a big pot er hot coffee and pitchers er hot
+milk an’ a pan er quick yeast biscuit. I done notice
+ef you eat somethin’ when you is cold an’
+wet, somehow you fergits ter catch cold.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They all came trooping back to the warm old
+kitchen, “ev’y spot in it as clean as a bisc’it
+board,” and there they ate the hot buttered biscuit
+and drank the coffee and milk. It was noticed
+that John let the “extras” take care of Miss
+Hunt, and he devoted himself to his mother. Just
+as they were separating for the morning he
+hugged his mother and whispered to her, “You
+need not have any more uneasiness about me,
+mumsy. I don’t believe there is a Brown living
+who could go on loving a woman who has no
+more sense than to grab the reins.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143'></a>143</span><a name='chIX' id='chIX'></a>CHAPTER IX.—JIMMY.</h2>
+<p>
+“Judy, Mrs. Woodsmall has just ‘phoned over
+that her hated R. F. D. Woodsmall is bringing
+you a letter from your father. She says she could
+only make out it was from him, but could not decipher
+anything else. She has an idea he is on
+his way, as the postmark showed it was mailed
+on the train somewhere in Kansas. Isn’t she
+too funny? She makes some of the neighbors
+furious, but we always laugh at her little idiosyncrasy.
+After all, it is perfectly harmless.
+She really is as kind a little soul as there is in
+the county. Her life has been so narrow. If
+she could have been a real worker in a big city
+she might have grown into a very remarkable
+person. What a detective she would have made!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy yawned and stretched and sat up as Molly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span>
+came in bearing a tray of lunch for her tired
+friend as well as the news of a letter from Mr.
+Kean, somewhere on the road, and to be delivered
+some time that day if Bud Woodsmall’s
+automobile behaved.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Molly, I am tired! Are you the only one
+of the crowd to be up and doing after last night?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have persuaded mother to stay in bed and
+get a good rest. The boys took a late train into
+town, and Miss Hunt never did go to bed. Aunt
+Mary said she came down early this morning and
+’phoned over to Aunt Clay’s coachman to come
+for her immediately, and off she went without
+saying ‘boo to a goose.’ I wish you could have
+heard Aunt Mary’s description of her!
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Yo’ Aunt Clay’s comp’ny sho ain’t no wet
+weather beauty. Her ha’r was so flat her haid
+looked jes’ like a buckeye; and her dress ‘min’
+me of a las’ year’s crow’s nes’. She was so
+shamefaced like she resem’led that ole peacock
+when Shep done pull out his tail.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy laughed. “Oh, I do love Aunt Mary!
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span>
+But, Molly, won’t it be fine to see mamma and
+papa? Do you suppose they are really on their
+way?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It will be fine to see them, but it will be pretty
+sad to have them take off my Judy. I am mighty
+afraid that is what they are going to do. Go
+back to sleep now and I will bring you your letter
+as soon as Bud puts in his appearance. I am
+going to have a hard game of tennis with Jimmy
+Lufton against Ernest and that nice Miss Rogers.
+Weren’t those girls spunky last night? An
+experience like that will make you know people
+better than years of plain, everyday life. Professor
+Green has struck up quite an acquaintance
+with Miss Ormsby. It seems they have many
+mutual friends, both of them having summered
+many times at ‘Sconset.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly spoke quietly, but there was a slight
+tremor of lip and a deepening of color that the
+sharp Judy saw and noted, but nothing would
+have made her let Molly know that she had betrayed
+herself in the least.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Molly was perfectly unconscious of what she
+was doing last night,” thought Judy, “but all the
+same she was making poor Professor Green live
+up to his name with jealousy. I don’t know but
+it might make Molly open her childlike old eyes
+if the patient professor should kick up his staid
+heels and jump the fence and go grazing in another
+paddock for a while.” And then aloud
+she said, “All right, honey, I’ll take forty winks
+and then get up and come down to the tennis
+court.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Kean’s letter arrived in due time and, sure
+enough, Mrs. Woodsmall’s surmises were correct.
+He was on the way to Kentucky with Mrs.
+Kean, and expected to be in Louisville the next
+day at a hotel, and would motor out to Chatsworth
+in the afternoon.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Your father and mother must not think of
+stopping at a hotel, Judy,” declared Mrs. Brown.
+“We have an abundance of room. Miss Rogers
+and Miss Ormsby are going in town after supper
+to-night with Ernest and Professor Green. Mr.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span>
+Lufton expects to go back to Lexington to-morrow,
+and Professor Green is only waiting for
+some mail and will take his departure, too. We
+shall be forlorn, indeed, when all of them go.
+I’ll make Kent look up what train Mr. Kean will
+come in on and he will meet it and send them both
+right out here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Mrs. Brown, you are so good. I would
+love for mamma and papa to be here and to know
+all of you and have you know them. They are
+as wonderful in their way as you are in yours,
+and your meeting would be a grand combination.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly rather dreaded the coming of evening.
+She had promised Jimmy to take a walk with him
+by moonlight, and she had a terrible feeling that
+he might bring up the subject of “lemons” again.
+She was not prepared for the question that she
+felt almost sure he was going to ask her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am nothing but a kid, after all,” moaned
+Molly to herself. “Professor Green was right
+in calling me ‘dear child.’ Mother was married
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span>
+when she was my age, but somehow I can’t seem
+to grow up. Jimmy is so nice, and I do like him
+so much, but as for spending the rest of my life
+with him—oh, I just simply can’t contemplate it.
+Why, why doesn’t he see how it is without having
+to talk it over? I wish none of them would
+ever get sentimental over me.” And then she
+blushed and told herself that she was a big story
+teller and sentimentality from some one who
+should be nameless would not be so trying, after
+all.
+</p>
+<p>
+Supper was over, Professor Green and Ernest
+had gone gaily off, driving Miss Rogers and Miss
+Ormsby to Louisville, Judy and Kent were making
+a long-talked-of duty call on Aunt Clay,
+“just to show Miss Hunt there is no hard feeling,”
+laughed Judy. And now it was time to
+take the promised walk with Jimmy Lufton.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You look a little tired, Miss Molly. Maybe
+you would rather not go. You must not let me
+bore you,” said Jimmy, a little wistfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no, I’m all right. I fancy it will take all
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span>
+of us a few days to get over last night. I have
+wanted to tell you how fine you were and what it
+meant to all of us to have you so cheerful and
+tactful. The boys can’t say enough in your
+praise. We had to have some safety valve, and
+if we had not been laughing we might have been
+crying.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I’m a cheerful idiot, all right, all right.
+I have such a short upper lip and such an eternal
+grin on me that no one ever seems to think I
+have any feelings. I get no more sympathy than
+a fat man. I wish I could make people understand
+that I am as serious as the next, but somehow
+me Irish grandmither comes popping out
+in me and I have to joke if I am to die the next
+minute.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think your disposition is most enviable,”
+said Molly kindly, “and, as for the dash of Irish,
+I always think that is what makes our mother so
+charming. It was almost a fad with our professor
+of English at college to find the Irish
+mother or grandmother for almost all of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span>
+great poets or essayists.” Molly could not quite
+trust herself to say Professor Green’s name, the
+picture of the seemingly ecstatic Edwin driving
+off with Miss Ormsby was too fresh in her mind,
+and she could not help smiling at herself for her
+formal “our professor of English.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Their footsteps led them into the garden and
+then through the apple orchard down by the little
+stream, and on to the beech woods.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wonder why we are coming this way,”
+thought Molly, trying to keep her mind off another
+walk she had taken over that same ground
+not so long ago.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let’s sit down here,” said Jimmy, stopping
+under the great beech tree where Molly and Edwin
+had sat on that memorable day when he had
+spoken of his vision of the white-haired Molly,
+and then had stopped himself so suddenly with a
+joke about his own possible baldness.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, not right here,” said Molly hurriedly.
+“I know a nice rock a little farther on.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Molly, Miss Molly, Miss Brown!——Oh,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span>
+Molly, darling, there is no use in going any farther
+because I know you know that I have
+brought you out here to tell you that I——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Jimmy, please don’t say anything more. It
+’most kills me to hurt you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is there no hope for me? I’ll wait a week,
+oh, I don’t mean a week, I’ll wait forever if there
+is a chance for me. I know this is a low question
+to ask you, but is there any one else?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Honest Molly hung her head. “Not exactly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+That “not exactly” was enough for Jimmy.
+He smiled a wan little smile that would have put
+his Irish grandmother to shame.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, don’t you mind, Miss Molly. I wouldn’t
+have you feel blue about me for a million. You
+never did lead me on one little bit, and I was
+almost sure when I came to Kentucky that there
+would be nothing doing for yours truly; but
+somehow men are made so they have to make
+sure about such things. You and I have too
+much sense of the ridiculous to do any spiel
+about the brother and sister business, but I’ll
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span>
+tell you one thing, I am your friend forever, and
+you must know that, and understand that as long
+as I live I’ll hold myself in readiness to do your
+bidding.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Jimmy, you are so good and generous,”
+holding out her hand to him, “I am your friend
+forever, and I hope we shall always see a lot of
+each other.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Jimmy took her hand and for a moment bowed
+his curly black head over it. Molly put her other
+hand on his head, feeling somehow that it was
+like comforting Kent.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are sure, Molly?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Jimmy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, le’s go home. I know you are tired.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“‘If&nbsp;no&nbsp;one&nbsp;ever&nbsp;marries&nbsp;me<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I&nbsp;sha’n’t&nbsp;mind&nbsp;very&nbsp;much;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;I&nbsp;shall&nbsp;buy&nbsp;a&nbsp;squirrel&nbsp;in&nbsp;a&nbsp;cage,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;a&nbsp;little&nbsp;rabbit-hutch,’”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+sang the irrepressible.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+When Judy got back to Chatsworth she found
+Molly weeping her soul out on the pillow, and she
+had noticed as they passed the office porch that
+for once Jimmy Lufton was whistling in the
+minor.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span><a name='chX' id='chX'></a>CHAPTER X.—AUNT CLAY MAKES A MISTAKE.</h2>
+<p>
+“Sister Ann, do you see any dust arising?”
+called Molly to Judy, who had actually climbed
+up on the gate post, hoping to see a little farther
+up the road, expecting the automobile from
+Louisville with her beloveds in it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I see a little cloud and I hear a little buzzing.
+Oh, Molly, I believe it’s them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is it, oh, Wellington graduate? Get your
+cases straight before they come or your father
+will think that diploma is a fake.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Grammar go hang,” said Judy, performing
+a dangerous <i>pas seul</i> on the gate post and then
+jumping lightly down and racing up the avenue
+to meet the incoming automobile. Molly followed
+more slowly, never having been the
+sprinter that Judy was. Mr. Kean sprang from
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span>
+the car and lifted Judy off her feet in a regular
+bear hug.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Save a little for me, Bobby,” piped the little
+lady mother. “Judy, Judy, it is too good to be
+true that we have got you at last, and I mean to
+keep you forever now, you slippery thing.” And
+then they all of them got into the car and had a
+three-cornered hug. Molly came up with only
+enough breath to give them a cordial greeting,
+welcoming them to Chatsworth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is a very fine young man, your brother,
+who met us at the station, Miss Molly. Kent is
+his name? He recognized us by my likeness to
+you, Judy, so make your best bow and look
+pleased.” In looking pleased, Judy did a great
+deal of unnecessary blushing which her mother
+noticed, but, mothers being different from
+fathers, said nothing about it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown came hurrying down the walk to
+meet her guests. She was amused to see how
+much Judy resembled both her parents, although
+Mrs. Kean was so small and Mr. Kean so large.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span>
+Mother and daughter were alike in their quick,
+extravagant speech, and a certain bird-like poise
+of the head, but father and daughter had eyes
+that might have been cut out of the same piece
+of gray and by the same pattern.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where is your baggage? Surely Kent gave
+you my message and you are going to visit us?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You have been so kind to my girl that I see
+no way but to let you be kind to us, too, and if we
+will not inconvenience you we will accept your
+invitation,” said Mr. Kean. “As for baggage:
+Mrs. Kean is a dressy soul, but she only carries
+a doll trunk which holds all of her little frocks
+and fixings and even leaves a tiny tray for my
+belongings.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He assisted his smiling wife to alight and then
+from the bottom of the car produced a wicker
+trunk that was really no bigger than a large suitcase,
+but much more dignified looking.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She says a trunk gives her a little more permanent
+feeling than a bag and makes a hotel
+room seem more homelike,” went on Mr. Kean.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span>
+Mrs. Brown thought that she had never heard
+such a pleasant voice and jolly laugh.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Judy, show your mother and father their
+room. I know they are tired and will want to
+rest before dinner.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tired! Bless your soul, what have we done
+to be tired? We have been on a Pullman four
+nights, and that is when we get in rest enough
+for months to come. I know Julia will want to
+get at her doll trunk and change her traveling
+dress, but, if you will permit me, I shall stay
+down here with you. What a beautiful farm
+you have! How many acres in it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have three hundred acres in all; two hundred
+under cultivation and in grass, fifty in woodland,
+and fifty that are not worth anything. It is
+a strange barren strip of land that my father had
+to take as a bad debt and I inherited from him.
+We graze some forlorn sheep on it, but they
+won’t drink the water, and it is almost more
+trouble than they are worth to drive them to
+water on another part of the place.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158'></a>158</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Kean listened intently. “I should like to
+see your farm, Mrs. Brown. Did you ever have
+the water on the barren strip analyzed?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, Mr. Brown thought of looking into it but
+never did, and I have had so many problems to
+solve and expenses to meet with my large and
+growing family that I have never thought of it
+any more.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Kean and Judy came down to join the
+others in a very short time, considering that Mrs.
+Kean had unpacked her tiny trunk and shaken
+out her little frocks and changed into a dainty
+pink gingham that looked as though it had just
+come from the laundry, showing no signs of having
+been packed for weeks.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What have you done to my Judy, Mrs.
+Brown? I have never seen her looking so well.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Fried chicken and candied sweet potatoes are
+the chief of my diet, and who would have the ingratitude
+not to show such keep?” laughed the
+daughter, pulling the little mother down on her
+lap and holding her as tenderly as though their
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span>
+relationship were reversed. “Robert and Julia,
+are you aware of the fact that your lady daughter
+has been a perfect lady since she came to
+these parts, and has got herself into no bad
+scrapes, and has not been saucy but once, and
+that was necessary? Wasn’t it, Mrs. Brown?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It certainly was. My old mammy used to tell
+me, ‘Don’ sass ole folks ‘til they fust sass you’;
+and Saint Paul says, ‘Live peaceably with all
+men, as much as lieth in you.’ When Judy felt
+called upon to speak out to Miss Hunt she had
+the gratitude of almost every one present.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Professor Green joined them and, having made
+the Keans’ acquaintance at Wellington, introductions
+were not necessary. That young man
+was in a very happy frame of mind as his hated
+rival that he had to like in spite of himself had
+taken an early train to Lexington; and there had
+been a dejected look to his back as he got into
+the buggy that Edwin Green decided could not
+belong to an accepted lover. Molly had a soft,
+sad look about her blue eyes, but certainly none
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span>
+of the elation of the newly engaged. He had
+held a cryptic conversation with Mrs. Brown that
+morning on the porch, in which he had gathered
+that the dear lady considered Molly singularly
+undeveloped for a girl her age; that any thought
+of her becoming engaged for at least a year was
+very distasteful to her mother; that her mind
+should be left free for the postgraduate course
+she was so soon to enter upon. But she very delicately
+gave him to understand that she liked him
+and that Molly also liked him more than any
+friend she had. The conversation left him
+slightly dazed, but also very calm and happy,
+liking Mrs. Brown even better than before and
+admiring her for her delicate tact and frankness
+that does not often combine with such diplomacy.
+His mail had come and he had no excuse for
+further delay, and had determined to go home
+on the following day.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Professor Green, I have been so long on the
+train that I feel the need of stretching my legs.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span>
+Could you tear yourself away from these ladies
+long enough to show me around the farm?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed, I could; but maybe the ladies would
+like to come.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, indeed,” answered Mrs. Kean. “I know
+Bobbie’s leg-stretching walks too well to have
+any desire to try to keep up with him. It is so
+pleasant and restful here, and Mrs. Brown,
+Molly, Judy and I can have a nice talk.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The two gentlemen started off at a good pace.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Professor, I should like to see this barren
+strip of land Mrs. Brown tells me of. It sounds
+rather interesting to me. You know where it is,
+do you not?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes; and, do you know, I was going to ask you
+to look at it and give your opinion about it. It
+has the look to me of possible oil fields. I haven’t
+said anything to any of the family about it, as
+they are such a sanguine lot I was afraid of raising
+their hopes when nothing might come of it,
+but I had determined to have a talk with Kent
+before I left. He is the most level-headed member of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162'></a>162</span>
+the family, and would not fly off half-cocked.
+Miss Molly tells me they are contemplating
+selling this wonderful bit of beech woods.
+They have a good offer for it, but it is like selling
+members of the family to part with these
+trees.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The two men walked on, discovering many
+things to talk about and finding each other vastly
+agreeable. Their walk led them through the
+beech woods, then through a growth of scrub
+pines and stunted oaks and blackberry bushes,
+until they gradually emerged into a hard stony
+valley sparsely covered with grass and broomsedge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“About as forlorn a spot as you can find in
+the whole of Kentucky, I fancy,” said the younger
+man. “Its contrast with the beech woods we have
+just passed is about as great as that between
+Mrs. Brown and her sister, Mrs. Clay, who, with
+all due respect, is as rocky as this strip of barren
+land and as unattractive. She is the only person
+of whom I have ever heard Miss Molly and her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span>
+brother Kent say anything unkind, and they cannot
+conceal their feeling against her. It seems
+that Mrs. Clay had the settling of her father’s
+estate, and arranged matters so well for herself
+that Mrs. Brown’s share turned out to be this
+stony strip. Mrs. Brown accepted it and refused
+to make a row, declaring that she would never
+have a disagreement with any member of her
+family about ‘things.’ She is a wonderful
+woman,” added the professor, thinking of his talk
+of the morning.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Kean stopped at the banks of a lonesome
+tarn, filled with black water with a greasy looking
+slime over it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Look at those bubbles over there! Could
+they be caused by turtles? No, turtles could not
+live in this Dead Sea. Look, look! More and
+more of them. Watch that big one break! See
+the greasy ring he made!”
+</p>
+<p>
+He was so excited that Edwin Green smiled
+to see how alike father and daughter were, and
+was amused at himself for speaking of the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span>
+Browns as being people who went off half-cocked
+to this man who was a hair trigger if ever there
+was one.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Kean stooped over and scooped up some
+of the water in his hand. “‘If my old nose don’t
+tell no lies, seems like I smell custard pies.’ Why,
+Green, smell this! It’s simply reeking of petroleum!
+I bet that old Mrs. Clay will come to wish
+she had made a different division of her father’s
+estate. Come on, let’s go break the news to the
+Browns.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But are you certain enough? They may be
+disappointed,” said the more cautious Edwin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am sure enough to want to send to Louisville
+immediately for a drill to test it. I have
+had a lot of experience with oil in various places
+and I am a regular oil wizard. You have heard
+of a water witch? My friends say that my nose
+has never played me false, and I can smell out
+oil lands that they would buy on the say-so of
+my scent as quickly as with the proof of a drill
+and pump. My, I’m glad for this good luck to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span>
+come to these people who have been so good to
+my little girl.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The two men were very much excited as they
+made their way back to the house.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is funny the way oil crops up in unexpected
+places,” said Mr. Kean. “There is very little of
+it in this belt, and for that reason Mrs. Brown
+should get a very good price for her land. I
+think it best for her to sell to the Trust as soon
+as possible. There is no use in fighting them.
+They are obliged to win out. They will be pretty
+square with her if she does not try to fight them.
+What a fine young fellow that Kent is! And as
+for Miss Molly, she is a corker! She has got
+my poor little wild Indian of a Judy out of dozens
+of scrapes at college. Judy always ends by
+telling us all about the terrible things that almost
+happened to her. She seems to me to be a little
+tamer, but maybe it is a strangeness from not seeing
+us for so long.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Edwin Green had his own opinion about the
+reason for that seeming tameness, but he held
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span>
+his peace. He could not help seeing Kent’s partiality
+for Miss Julia Kean, and had no reason to
+believe otherwise than that the young lady reciprocated.
+Love, or the possibility of loving,
+might be a great tamer for Judy. He was really
+not far from the mark. Judy was interested in
+Kent, very much so, but it was ambition that was
+steadying her and a determination to do something
+with the artistic talent that she was almost
+sure she possessed. Paris was her Mecca, and
+she was preparing herself to talk it out with her
+parents. They, poor grown-up children that they
+were, had no plans for their daughter’s future.
+College had solved the problem for four years,
+but, now that that was over, what to do with her
+next? They loved to have her with them and had
+looked forward eagerly to the time when she
+could be with them, but after all was a railway
+camp the best place for a girl of Judy’s stamp?
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mrs. Brown, what will you take for that barren
+strip of land over there?” said Mr. Kean,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167'></a>167</span>
+sinking into a chair on the porch where the ladies
+were still having their quiet talk.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, Mr. Kean, since it is not worth anything,
+and I have to pay taxes on it, I think I
+would give it away to any one who would promise
+to keep up the fences.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Can you get right-of-way through the adjoining
+place to the road behind you, where I see that
+a narrow-gauge railroad runs?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Brown flushed and hesitated. “There
+is a lane connecting these two turnpikes older
+than the turnpikes themselves. My place does
+not go through to this narrow-gauge railroad
+that you saw this morning, but my father’s old
+place, the Carmichael farm, now owned by my
+sister, Mrs. Clay, borders on both roads. This
+lane divides the two places as far as mine goes
+and then cuts through her place to the road behind.
+She has lately closed that lane, fenced it
+off and put it in corn.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Rather high-handed proceedings,” growled
+Mr. Kean. “Did you protest?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“The boys went to see her about it, as it blocks
+their short cut to the Ohio River, where they go
+swimming, but she was so insulted at what she
+called their interference that I insisted upon their
+letting the matter drop. Paul, who always has
+insisted on his rights, went so far as to see a
+lawyer about it. His opinion was that Sister
+Sarah had no more right to fence off that lane
+than she would have to build a house in the middle
+of Main Street. But, if you knew my Sister
+Sarah, you would understand that if she decided
+to build a house in the middle of Main Street
+she would do it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps she would if the Law were as ladylike
+as you are, Mrs. Brown,” laughed Mr. Kean,
+“but the Law happens to be not even much of a
+gentleman. What I wanted to get at was whether
+or not you had <i>right</i>-of-way, not way. You have
+the right if not the way. Now I am going to
+come to business with you. Did you know, my
+dear lady, that that despised strip of land is
+worth more than all of your fruitful acres put
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span>
+together, beech woods and apple orchard thrown
+in?” He jumped up from his chair, able to contain
+himself no longer, and in clarion tones literally
+shouted, “Lady, lady, you’ve struck oil,
+you’ve struck oil!”
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.4em'>BOOK II.</span></p>
+</div>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span><a name='p2chI' id='p2chI'></a>CHAPTER I.—WELLINGTON AGAIN.</h2>
+<p>
+“Wellington! Wellington!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly waked from her reverie with a start. It
+seemed only yesterday that she was coming to
+Wellington for the first time, “a greeny from
+Greenville, Green County,” as she had been
+scornfully designated by a superior sophomore.
+She could vividly recall her arrival, a poor, tired,
+timid little girl in a shabby brown dress, with
+soot on her face and seemingly not a friend on
+earth. She smiled when she thought of how
+many friends she had made that first day, friends
+who had really stuck. First of all there had been
+dear old Nance Oldham; then Mary Stewart,
+who had taken her under her wing and looked
+after her like a veritable anxious hen-mother during
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span>
+the whole of her freshman year; then the
+vivid, scintillating Julia Kean, her own Judy;
+then Professor Green, who certainly had proved
+a friend. On looking back, it seemed that every
+one with whom she had come in contact on that
+day had done something nice for her and tried
+to help her. Mother had always told her that
+friends were already made for persons who really
+wanted them, made and ready with hands outstretched,
+and all you had to do was reach out
+and find your friend.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, as before, the trainload of girls piled
+out at the pretty, trim little station, and there
+was dear old Mr. Murphy ready to look after the
+baggage, no easy job, as he declared, there being
+as many different kinds of trunks as there were
+young ladies. Molly shook his hand warmly,
+for, after all, he was really the very first friend
+she had made at Wellington. Her trunk being
+shabby had had no effect on his manner to her
+as a Freshman, but he noticed now that she had
+a new one and remarked on its elegance.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I simply had to have a new one, Mr. Murphy,
+‘the good old wagon done broke down.’ It
+was old when I started in at Wellington, and
+four round trips have done for it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Next to Molly’s big new trunk,—and this time
+it was a big one, as she had some new clothes and
+enough of them for about the first time in her
+life, and had bought a trunk with plenty of trays
+so as to pack them properly,—and snuggled up
+close to it as though for protection, was the
+strangest little trunk Molly had ever seen: calf-skin
+with the hair on it, spotted red and white,
+a little moth eaten in spots, with wrought iron
+hinges and a lock of great strength but of a simple,
+fine design—oak leaves with the key hole
+shaped like an acorn. A rope was tied tightly
+around it, reminding Molly of a halter dragging
+the poor little calf to slaughter.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, well, I haven’t seen such a trunk as this
+since I left the ould counthry,” said the baggage
+master, putting his hand fondly on the strange-looking
+trunk. “I’ll bet the owner of this, Miss
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span>
+Molly, will have many a knock from some of the
+high-falutin’ young ladies of Wellington. They
+haven’t seen it yet, because it is hiding behind
+your grand new big one. I pray the Blessed Virgin
+that the poor little maid will find a strong
+friend to get behind and to look after her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly smiled at the old man’s imagery, and
+thought, “What a race the Irish are! I am glad
+I have some of their blood.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She turned at the sound of laughter and saw
+coming toward her as strange a figure as Wellington
+Station had ever sheltered, she was sure.
+A tall girl of about twenty years was approaching,
+dressed in a stiff blue homespun dress with
+a very wide gathered skirt and a tight basque
+(about the fashion of the early eighties), and a
+cheap sailor hat. In her hand she carried a bundle
+done up in a large, flowered, knotted handkerchief.
+Her hair was black and straight and coming
+down, but when your eyes once got to her
+face her clothes paled into insignificance, and
+Molly, for one, never gave them another thought.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span>
+Imagine the oval of a Holbein Madonna; a clear
+olive skin; hazel eyes wide and dreamy; a broad
+low forehead with strongly marked brows; a
+nose of unusual beauty (there are so few beautiful
+noses in real life); and a determined mouth
+with a “do or die” expression. She came down
+the platform, head well up and an easy swinging
+walk, no more regarding the amused titter of the
+crowd of girls, separating to let her pass, than
+a St. Bernard dog would have noticed the yap of
+some toy poodles. On espying her trunk—of
+course it was hers, the little hair trunk with the
+wrought iron hinges and lock—she quickened her
+gait, as though to meet a friend, stooped over,
+picked it up, and swung it to her broad fine shoulder,
+more as though it had been a kitten than a
+calf. Turning to the astonished Molly, she said
+in a voice so sweet and full that it suggested the
+low notes of a ‘cello, “Kin you’uns tell me’uns
+whar—no, no, I mean—can you tell me where I
+can find the president?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed, I can,” answered Molly. “I am going to see
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span>
+her myself just as soon as I get settled
+in my quarters in the Quadrangle, and if you will
+tell me where you are to be I will take you to your
+room and then come for you to go and see President
+Walker. Mr. Murphy, the baggage master,
+will attend to your trunk. You will see to this
+young lady’s trunk soon, won’t you, Mr. Murphy?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The Saints be praised for answering the
+prayers of an ould man in such a hurry! Of
+course I will, Miss Molly; and where shall I be
+after sinding the little trunk, miss?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know until I see the president. I think
+I’ll just keep my box with me. I can carry it
+myself. ’Tain’t much to tote.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no, I wouldn’t do that,” said Molly,
+hardly able to keep back the laugh that she was
+afraid would come bubbling out in spite of her.
+“I tell you what you do: let Mr. Murphy keep
+your trunk until you find out where your room is
+to be, and in the meantime you come to my place;
+then as soon as you are located we can ‘phone
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span>
+for it.” The girl looked at her new-found friend
+with eyes for all the world like a trusting collie’s,
+and silently followed her to the ’bus.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My name is Molly Brown, of Kentucky.
+Please tell me yours.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Kaintucky? Oh, I might have known it. I
+am Melissa Hathaway, and am pleased to make
+your acquaintance, Molly Brown of Kaintucky.
+I come from near Catlettsburg, Kaintucky, myself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, we are from the same state and must
+be friends, mustn’t we?”
+</p>
+<p>
+There were many curious glances cast at
+Molly’s new friend, but the giggling at her
+strange clothes had stopped and the spell of her
+countenance had in a measure taken hold of the
+girls. Molly spoke to many friends, but she
+missed her intimates and wondered where Nance
+was, and if any of the others were coming back
+for the postgraduate course. At the thought of
+Nance she smiled, knowing just how she would
+take her befriending this mountain girl. She
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span>
+would be cold at first and perhaps a bit scornful
+in her ladylike way, and end by being as good as
+gold to her, and perhaps even making her some
+proper clothes.
+</p>
+<p>
+The door at No. 5 Quadrangle was ajar and
+Molly could see Nance flitting back and forth
+getting things to rights. What a busy soul she
+was and how good it was to know she was already
+there! The girls were soon locked in each
+other’s arms, so overjoyed to be together again
+that Molly for a moment forgot her guest; and
+Nance did not see her as she stood in the doorway,
+a silent witness to the enthusiastic meeting
+of the chums.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Melissa, what am I thinking of, leaving
+you standing there so long? You must excuse
+me. Nance Oldham and I always behave this
+way when we get back in the fall; and now I
+want to introduce you two. Miss Oldham, this is
+my new friend, Miss Hathaway, also of Kentucky.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nance shook hands with the quaint-looking
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span>
+new friend and awaited an explanation, which
+she knew would be forthcoming from Molly as
+soon as she could get a chance. Melissa was
+quiet and composed, taking in everything in the
+room. Her eyes lingered hungrily on the books
+that Nance had already arranged on the shelves,
+and then rested in a kind of trance on the pictures
+that Nance had unpacked and hung.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nance, I have some biscuit and fudge in my
+grip, if you could scare up some tea. I am awfully
+hungry, and I fancy Miss Hathaway could
+eat a little something before we go to look up the
+president. She does not know where her room is
+to be, and I asked her to come with us until she
+is located.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are very kind to me, and your treating
+me so well makes me feel as though I were back
+in the mountains. We-uns—I mean we always
+try to be good to strangers, back where I come
+from.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nance was drawn to the girl as Molly had
+been.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“She knows how to sit still, and waits until she
+has something to say before she says anything,”
+thought the analytical Nance. “I believe I am
+going to like Molly’s ‘lame duck’ this time; and,
+goodness me, how beautiful she is!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Melissa was glad to get her tea, having been
+in a day coach all night with nothing but a cold
+lunch to keep body and soul together until she
+got to Wellington. Nance noticed that she knew
+how to hold her cup properly and ate like a lady;
+her English, too, was good as a rule, with occasional
+lapses into the mountain vernacular.
+The girls were curious about her, but did not like
+to question her, and she said nothing about herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tea over, they went to call on the president,
+leaving Nance to go on with her “feminine
+touches,” as Judy used to call her arrangements.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Walker was very glad to see Molly, kissing
+her fondly and calling her “Molly.” “It is
+good, indeed, to have you back. Every Wellington
+girl who comes back for the postgraduate
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span>
+course gives me a compliment better than a gift
+of jewels. And this is Miss Melissa Hathaway?
+I have been expecting you, and to think that you
+should have fallen to the care of Molly Brown
+on your very first day at college! You are to be
+congratulated, Miss Hathaway. Molly Brown’s
+friendship keeps one from all harm, like the kiss
+of a good fairy on one’s brow. Molly, if you will
+excuse me, I shall take Miss Hathaway into my
+office first and have a talk with her and shall see
+you later.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly was blushing with pleasure over the
+praise from Prexy, and was glad to sit in the
+quiet room awaiting her turn.
+</p>
+<p>
+Melissa was closeted for some time with the
+president, and in the meantime the waiting-room
+began to fill with students, some of them newcomers
+tremblingly awaiting the ordeal of an interview
+with the august head of Wellington;
+others, like Molly, looking forward with pleasure
+to a chat with an old friend. Melissa came back
+alone with a message for Molly to come in to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span>
+Miss Walker, and told her that she was to wait,
+as the president wished Molly to show the stranger
+her room.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Molly Brown, how did you happen to be the
+one to look after this girl? It seems providential.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, Mr. Murphy attributes it to himself,
+and declares it is the direct answer to his prayers,”
+laughed Molly, and told Miss Walker of
+the little calf trunk and the old baggage master’s
+sentimentality about it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am going to read you part of a letter concerning
+Melissa Hathaway, and that will explain
+her and her being at Wellington better than
+any words of mine. This letter is from an old
+graduate, a splendid woman who has for years
+been doing a kind of social settlement work in
+the mountains of Virginia and Kentucky.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“‘I am sending you the first ripe fruit from
+the orchard that I planted at least ten years ago
+in this mountain soil. You must not think it is a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span>
+century plant I am tending. I gather flowers
+every day that fully repay me for my labor here,
+but, alas, flowers do not always come to fruit.
+Melissa Hathaway is without doubt one of the
+most remarkable young women I have ever
+known, and has repaid me for the infinite pains
+I have taken with her, and will repay every one
+by being a success. She comes from surroundings
+that the people of cities could hardly dream
+of, in spite of the slums that are, of course,
+worse because of their crowded condition and
+lack of air. But in these mountain cabins you
+find a desolation and ignorance that is appalling,
+but at the same time a rectitude and intelligence
+that astonish you; and unbounded hospitality.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“‘A generation ago the Hathaways were
+rather well-to-do, for the mountains; that is, they
+owned a cow and some hogs and chickens and
+did not sleep in the kitchen, but had a second
+room and some twenty beautiful home-made
+quilts. A feud wiped almost the whole family
+off the face of the earth. Melissa’s father,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span>
+grandfather and three uncles were killed in a
+raid by their mortal enemies, the Sydneys, and
+the grandmother and Melissa were the only ones
+left to tell the tale. (Her young mother died in
+giving birth to Melissa.) Melissa was eight years
+old at the time of the wholesale tragedy, which
+occurred a few days before I came here to take
+up my life work. I went to old Mrs. Hathaway’s
+cabin as soon as I could make my way
+across the mountain. The old woman received
+me with dignity and reserve, but some suspicion.
+I asked her to let Melissa come to school. She
+was rather eager for her to learn, since she was
+nothing but a miserable girl. She was bitter on
+the subject of Melissa’s sex. “Ter think of my
+bringing forth man-child after man-child, and
+here in my old age not a thing but this puny
+little gal ter look to, ter shoot down those dogs
+of Sydneys!”
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“‘This child of eight (Melissa is now eighteen,
+but looks older), came to school every day rain
+or shine, walking three miles over the worst trail
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span>
+you have ever imagined. Her eagerness for
+knowledge was something pathetic. I realized
+from the beginning that she had a very remarkable
+intellect and gave her every chance for cultivation
+and preparation for college, determined
+that my Alma Mater should have the final hand
+in her education if it could be managed. And
+now, managed it is by a scholarship presented to
+my now flourishing school by the Mountain Educational
+Association. I am sorry her clothes are
+not quite what my beautiful Melissa should have,
+but she would not accept a penny for clothes
+from any of the funds that I sometimes have at
+my disposal. “Money for my education is different,”
+she said. “I mean to bring all of that
+back to the mountains and give it to my people,
+but I cannot let any one spend money on clothes
+for me. They would burn my back unless I
+earned them myself.” She was that way from
+the time she first came to me. I remember she
+had a green skirt and an old black basque of her
+grandmother’s, belted in on her slim little figure.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span>
+I wanted all of my pupils to have a change of
+clothing, as from the first I was trying to teach
+cleanliness and hygiene along with the three
+R’s. I asked the children one day to let me know
+if they had two of everything. Melissa stood up
+and proudly raised her hand. “Please, Miss
+Teacher, we’uns is got two dresses; one ain’t got
+no waist and one ain’t got no skirt, but they is
+two dresses.”
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“‘I know that my dear Miss Walker will do
+her best to place my girl where she can make some
+friends and not get too homesick for her mountains.
+I wish she had clothes more like other people,
+but, since she is what she is, I fancy the
+clothes in the long run will not make much difference.’
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is all of interest to you,” concluded Miss
+Walker. “Miss Hathaway is, to say the least, a
+very remarkable young woman. Her entrance
+examination was unconditioned. And now to get
+her into a suitable room! I had expected to put
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span>
+her in one over the postoffice, but she would be
+so isolated there. I wish she could have the singleton
+near you in the Quadrangle. I, too, have
+some funds at my disposal that would enable me
+to give her one of these more expensive rooms,
+but do you think she would accept it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly, rather amused at being asked by Prexy
+herself to decide what to do with this proud girl,
+smilingly answered, “I am proud myself, but lots
+of things have been done for me without my
+knowing about it, and when I do find out I am
+not hurt but pleased to feel that my friends want
+to help me. I can’t remember being insulted
+yet.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, my child, if I have your sanction about
+a little mild deceit, I think I’ll put Miss Hathaway
+in the singleton near you. I believe she is
+going to be a credit to Wellington. Kentucky
+has been good to us, indeed.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll do all I can to help Melissa,” said Molly,
+her eyes still misty over the letter concerning the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span>
+childhood of the mountain girl. “She interests
+me deeply.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Molly and Miss Walker plunged into a
+talk about what Molly was to study. English
+Literature and Composition were of course the
+big things, but she was also anxious to take up
+some special work in Domestic Science, a new
+and very complete equipment having been recently
+installed at Wellington and a highly recommended
+teacher, a graduate from the Boston
+school, being in charge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Hathaway is to do work on that line,
+too, and I fancy you will be put into the same
+division. She is preparing herself to help her
+mountain people, and I think they need domestic
+science even more than they do higher mathematics.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly escorted Melissa to her small room in
+the Quadrangle, where she was duly and gratefully
+installed. Her shyness was passing off with
+Nance and Molly, and now they noticed that she
+never made the slips into the mountain vernacular.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span>
+But on meeting strangers, or when embarrassed
+in any way, she would unconsciously drop
+into it, and then become more embarrassed. She
+never let herself off, but always bit her lip and
+quickly repeated her remark in the proper English.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She is really almost as foreign as little Otoyo
+Sen,” said Nance.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span><a name='p2chII' id='p2chII'></a>CHAPTER II.—LEVITY IN THE LEAVEN.</h2>
+<p>
+“Molly, do you know you are a grown-up
+lady?” asked Nance a few days after they had
+settled themselves and were back in the grind of
+work. “I have been seeing it in all kinds of
+ways; firstly, you have gained in weight.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Only three pounds, and that could not show
+much, spread over such a large area,” laughed
+Molly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you look more rounded, somehow.
+Then I notice you keep your pumps on and don’t
+kick them off every time you sit down; and when
+you do sit down you don’t always lie down as you
+used to do. Now, I have always been a grown-up
+little old lady, but you were a child when you
+left college last June, and now you are a beautiful,
+dignified woman.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nonsense, Nance, I am exactly the same. I
+don’t kick off my pumps because I might have a
+hole in the toe of my stocking, and I don’t lie
+down when I sit down because of my good tailored
+skirt. You are just fancying things. I am
+the same old kid. It is thanks to Judy that I
+have the tailor-made dress and the other things
+that make me feel grown-up. You see, my family
+have always had an idea that I did not care
+for clothes just because I wore the old ones without
+complaining. One day Kent spoke of my indifference
+to clothes to Judy, and she fired up and
+told him I did love clothes and would like to have
+pretty ones more than any girl she knew of; that
+I pretended to be indifferent just to carry off the
+old ones with grace. Kent was very much astonished
+and the dear boy insisted on my going
+into Louisville before Judy left and having a
+good tailor make me two dresses, this blue one
+for every day and my lovely best gray. I was so
+afraid of hurting Miss Lizzie Monday’s feelings
+(she is the little old seamstress who has made
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span>
+my clothes ever since I was born); but Kent
+fixed that up by going to see Miss Lizzie himself,
+asking her advice and requesting her company
+into Louisville, where we did the shopping and
+interviewed the tailor, had lunch at the Watterson
+and took in a show in the afternoon. Miss
+Lizzie had the time of her life and was as much
+pleased over my having some good clothes as I
+am myself. Dear old Kent had to draw on his
+savings that he is putting by with a view to taking
+a finishing course on architecture, but mother
+says she is going to reimburse him just as soon as
+there is a settlement made for the oil lands we are
+selling.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you know, Molly, when I got your letter
+telling me about Mr. Kean’s nosing out oil on
+your place, I was so happy and excited that I
+began to cry and got my nose so red I had to
+skip a lecture at Chautauqua, which shocked my
+mother greatly. To think of your dear mother
+having an income that will make her comfortable
+and independent!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192'></a>192</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mother does not seem to be greatly elated
+over it. She is very glad to pay off the mortgage
+on Chatsworth; relieved that we shall not have
+to sell our beautiful beech woods; but money
+means less to my mother than any one in the
+world, I do believe. Why, talking about my being
+a kid, I was born more grown-up than my
+mother, in some ways. It’s the Irish in her. The
+Irish are all children.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly had very cleverly got Nance off of the
+subject of there being a change in her, but Nance
+was right. Molly was older, and she felt it herself.
+The summer had been an eventful one for
+her and had left her older and wiser. Mildred’s
+marriage; Jimmy Lufton’s proposal, or near proposal;
+the family’s change of fortune; Professor
+Green’s evident preference for her society; all
+these things had combined to sober her in a way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am as limber as ever, and don’t feel my age
+in my ‘jints,’ but I am getting on,” thought Molly.
+“Nance sees it, and I wonder if Professor Green
+notices it. He seemed a little stiff with me, but
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193'></a>193</span>
+seeing him for the first time in class might account
+for that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The class in Domestic Science was proving of
+tremendous interest both to Molly and Melissa.
+Melissa had much to learn and Molly much to
+un-learn. It was a special course, and for that
+reason girls from all classes were mixed in it.
+There were quite a number of Juniors, and Molly
+was sorry to see Anne White among them, as
+she had been on the platform at Wellington when
+Melissa arrived, and, in the quiet way for which
+she was famous in making trouble, had been the
+one to start the titter that had grown, as that
+seemingly unconscious young goddess made her
+way down the platform, into a wave of laughter.
+Melissa had been fully aware of the amusement
+she had caused, but she had borne no malice
+against the thoughtless girls.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I reckon I was a figure of fun to these rich
+girls,” Melissa said to Molly, “but I know they
+did not mean to be unkind; and if they knew what
+it means to me to come to college perhaps they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span>
+would look at me differently. Anyhow, you were
+so nice to me from the very minute I spoke to
+you; and even before I spoke, Molly, dear, because
+I saw your sweet eyes taking me in as I
+came up the platform between the rows of grinning
+students. And I said to myself, ‘All these
+are just second-growth timber and don’t count
+for much. That girl with the blue eyes and the
+pretty red hair looking at me so kindly is the
+only tree here that is worth much.’ And somehow
+I have been resting in the shade of your
+branches ever since.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This little conversation was held one morning
+as the girls were getting their materials ready
+for some experimental bread-making. A tremendously
+interesting lecture on yeast had preceded
+it, and now was to be followed by various
+chemical experiments. The lecturer had not arrived,
+but had appointed certain students to get
+the materials in order.
+</p>
+<p>
+Anne White was one of the monitors, and was
+moving around in a demure way, daintily setting
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span>
+out the little bowls of flour and portions of yeast.
+Anne White was a small, mousy-looking, brown-haired
+young woman who looked as though butter
+would not melt in her mouth, but who was in
+reality often the ring-leader in many foolish
+escapades. She was a great practical joker, and
+when all is told a practical joker is a very trying
+person, and very often a person lacking in true
+humor. As she placed the bowls of yeast, she
+sang the following song with many sly looks at
+Molly and her friend:
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“The&nbsp;first&nbsp;time&nbsp;I&nbsp;saw&nbsp;Melissa,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;She&nbsp;was&nbsp;sitting&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;cellar,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Sitting&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;cellar&nbsp;shelling&nbsp;peas.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;when&nbsp;I&nbsp;stooped&nbsp;to&nbsp;kiss&nbsp;her,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;She&nbsp;said&nbsp;she’d&nbsp;tell&nbsp;her&nbsp;mother,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;For&nbsp;she&nbsp;was&nbsp;such&nbsp;an&nbsp;awful&nbsp;little&nbsp;tease.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Oh,&nbsp;wasn’t&nbsp;she&nbsp;sweet?&nbsp;You&nbsp;bet&nbsp;she&nbsp;was,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;She&nbsp;couldn’t&nbsp;have&nbsp;been&nbsp;any&nbsp;sweeter.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Oh,&nbsp;wasn’t&nbsp;she&nbsp;cute?&nbsp;You&nbsp;bet&nbsp;she&nbsp;was,<br />
+</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196'></a>196</span></div>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;She&nbsp;couldn’t&nbsp;have&nbsp;been&nbsp;any&nbsp;cuter.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;For&nbsp;when&nbsp;I&nbsp;stooped&nbsp;to&nbsp;kiss&nbsp;her,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;She&nbsp;said&nbsp;she’d&nbsp;tell&nbsp;her&nbsp;mother,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;For&nbsp;she&nbsp;was&nbsp;such&nbsp;an&nbsp;awful&nbsp;little&nbsp;tease.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+The singing was so evidently done for Melissa’s
+benefit that Molly felt indignant.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t stand teasing, and certainly not such
+silly teasing as Anne White delights in. She is a
+slippery little thing, and I have an idea means
+mischief for my Melissa. I wish Judy were here
+to circumvent her, but since she is not I shall
+have to keep my eye open.” So thought Molly,
+and accordingly opened her eyes just in time to
+see Anne White raise the cover of Melissa’s bowl
+of flour and drop in something. The instructor
+came in just then and the class came to order.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It can’t do any real harm,” thought Molly,
+“because we don’t have to eat our messes, but if
+it is something to embarrass Melissa I shall have
+a talk with Anne White that she will remember
+all her days. She knows Melissa and I are not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span>
+the kind to blab on her, the reason she is presuming
+in this way.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Morse, the Domestic Science teacher,
+was so exactly like the advertisements in the magazines
+of various foodstuffs that one was forced
+to smile. She was always dressed in immaculate
+linen, and, as she would stand at her desk and
+hold out a sample of material with which she was
+going to demonstrate, her smile and expression
+were always those of the lady who says, “Use
+this and no other.” She was thoroughly in earnest,
+however, and scientific, and her lectures on
+Domestic Economy were really thrilling to Molly,
+who always took an interest in household affairs
+and was astonished to find out what a waste was
+going on in all American homes. Melissa listened
+to every word, and felt that the knowledge
+she was gaining in this branch of college work
+was perhaps the most necessary of all to take
+back to her mountain people.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Morse had the most wonderful and capable
+hands that were ever seen. She was never
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span>
+known to spill anything or slop over; she used
+her scales and measures with the precision of an
+analytical chemist; and, no matter how complicated
+the experiment, there were no extra, useless
+utensils. This in itself is worth coming to college
+to learn, as I have never known a girl make
+a plate of fudge without getting every pan in
+the kitchen dirty. Later on in the course of lectures
+this wonderful woman actually killed a
+fowl and picked and dressed it right before the
+eyes of the astonished girls, without making a
+spot on her dress or on the cloth spread on her
+desk, and she did not even turn back her linen
+cuffs.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish Ca’line could see that,” thought Molly
+on that occasion, a picture of the chicken pickin’
+in the back yard at Chatsworth coming before
+her mind’s eye, with feathers flying hither and
+yon and Ca’line herself covered with gore.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, young ladies,” said the precise Miss
+Morse, “enough flour is given each one for a
+small loaf of bread; the right amount of water is
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span>
+measured out; salt and sugar; lard and yeast.
+You have the correct material for a perfect loaf.
+This is a demonstration of yesterday’s lecture.
+Remember, salt retards the action of yeast and
+must not be put in until the yeast plant has begun
+to grow. Sugar promotes the growth and can be
+placed in the warm water with the yeast.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The students went eagerly to work like so
+many children with their mud pies. In due course
+of time each little loaf was made out and put at
+exactly the right temperature to rise. Miss
+Morse explained to them the different methods
+of bread-making and the fallacy of thinking that
+good bread-making is due to luck. Molly smiled
+in remembering what dear old Aunt Mary had
+said about remembering to put the gumption in.
+</p>
+<p>
+While the bread was rising and baking the
+girls were allowed to work on their Domestic
+Science problem, a pretty difficult one requiring
+all their faculties: it was how to feed a family
+consisting of five, mother and father and three
+children, on ten dollars for one week. The market price
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span>
+of food was given and their menus were
+to be worked out with regard to the amount of
+nourishment to be gained as well as the suitability
+of food. Miss Morse told them they would
+have to study pretty hard to do it, but it was
+splendid practice. Poor Melissa was having a
+hard time. In the first place, she knew so little
+about food, having been brought up so very simply,
+and then, she confided to Molly, she was
+very much worried about her loaf of bread because
+it didn’t do just right.
+</p>
+<p>
+Finally the time was up, and the bread, too,
+according to science, should have been up and
+ready to bake. The monitors were requested to
+place the loaves in the gas ovens, already tested
+and proved to be of proper temperature. The
+problems, meantime, must be completed at once
+and handed in.
+</p>
+<p>
+A wail from Melissa on the aside to Molly:
+“Oh, Molly, Molly, I have got my family all fed
+for six days, and I forgot Sunday. Not a cent
+of money left from all of that ten dollars, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span>
+I have known whole families live for a month on
+less in the mountains! What shall I do?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I tell you,” said Molly, stopping a minute to
+think, “have them all invited out to Sunday dinner
+and let them eat no breakfast in anticipation
+of the good things they are expecting; and let
+the dinner be so delicious and plentiful that they
+can’t possibly want any supper.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good,” said Melissa, ever appreciative of
+Molly’s suggestions, “I’ll do that very thing.”
+And so she did; and Miss Morse was so amused
+that she let it pass as a very good paper, as indeed
+it was.
+</p>
+<p>
+All of the little loaves were baked and placed
+in front of the girls, the pans being numbered so
+that each loaf returned to its trembling maker.
+It was strange that in spite of science the loaves
+did not look exactly alike. Molly’s was beautiful,
+but had she not had her hand in Aunt Mary’s
+dough ever since she could climb up to the table
+and cut out little “bis’it wif a thimble”? Some
+of them looked bumpy and some stringy, but poor
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span>
+Melissa’s was a strange dark color and had not
+risen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Hathaway, did you follow the directions
+in your experiment?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Miss Morse, to the best of my ability,”
+answered Melissa. And, then flushing and becoming
+excited, she dropped into her familiar
+mountain speech. “Some low-down sneak has
+drapped some sody in we’un’s pannikin. I mean,
+oh, I mean, some ill-bred person has put saleratus
+in my little bowl. I have been raised on too much
+saleratus in the bread, and I know it.” And the
+proud mountain girl, who had not minded the
+laughter caused by her appearance, burst into
+tears over the failure of her bread-making and
+fled from the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Morse was shocked and sorry that such a
+scene should have occurred in her class, but was
+determined to investigate the matter. She dismissed
+the class without a word; but, as Molly
+was leaving the room, she requested her to stop
+a moment.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Brown, this is a very unfortunate thing
+to have occurred in this class. Domestic Science
+seems to be an easy prey to the practical joke,
+and when once it is started it is a difficult matter
+to weed out. I am particularly sorry for it to
+have been played on Miss Hathaway, who is so
+earnest and anxious to learn. Miss Walker has
+told me much about her, and the girl’s appearance
+alone is fine enough to interest one. I could
+not help seeing by your countenance, which is a
+very speaking one, my dear, that you knew something
+about this so-called joke. Now, Miss
+Brown, I ask you as a friend to tell me what you
+know, and, if you are not willing, I demand it of
+you as an instructor and member of the faculty
+of Wellington.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly, who had been as pale as death ever
+since Melissa’s mortification and outbreak, now
+flushed crimson, held her breath a minute to get
+control of her voice, and then answered with as
+much composure as she could muster: “Miss
+Morse, I have gone through four years at Wellington
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span>
+and have happened to know of a great
+many scrapes the different students have got
+themselves in, but never yet have I been known
+to tell tales, and I could hardly start now. I do
+know who did the dastardly trick, and am glad
+that Melissa had recourse to her native dialect
+to express her feelings about the person who was
+mean enough to do it; ‘low-down sneak’ is exactly
+what she was.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Very well, Miss Brown, if you refuse to divulge
+the name of the joker, I shall be forced to
+take the matter up with the president. I hoped
+we could settle it in the class. This department
+being a new one at Wellington, and also my first
+experience at teaching, I naturally have some
+feeling about making it go as smoothly as possible.”
+This time Miss Morse was flushed and
+her lip trembling.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly felt truly sorry for her, and suddenly
+realized that Miss Morse, with all of her assurance,
+was little more than a girl herself. As for
+taking it up with the president, Molly smiled
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205'></a>205</span>
+when she remembered the time Miss Walker had
+tried to make her tell, and when she had refused
+how Miss Walker had hugged her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Miss Morse, I am so sorry for you, and
+wish, almost wish, some one had seen the offence
+besides myself, some one who would not mind
+telling; but I truly can’t tell, somehow I am not
+made that way. There is something I can do,
+though, and that is, go call on the person myself
+and put it up to her to refrain from any more
+jokes in your class. I meant to see her, anyhow,
+and warn her to let my Melissa alone.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Would you do that? I think that would be all
+that is necessary, and I need not inform the president.
+I thank you, Miss Brown. You do not
+know how this has disturbed me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Too much ‘sody’ in the bread is a very disturbing
+thing,” laughed Molly. “I remember a
+story they tell on my grandfather. He had an
+old cook who was very fond of making buttermilk
+biscuit, and equally fond of putting too much
+soda in them. He stood it for some time, but one
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206'></a>206</span>
+morning when they were brought to breakfast
+as green as poor Melissa’s loaf, grandpa sent for
+the cook and made her eat the whole panful.
+Needless to add, she was cured of the soda habit.
+It would be a great way to cure the would-be
+joker if we made her eat Melissa’s sad loaf.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly did see Anne White that very afternoon,
+making a formal call on her and giving that
+mousy young woman a talk that made her cry
+and promise to play no more jokes in Domestic
+Science class, and to apologize to Melissa for the
+mortification she had caused her. Molly told her
+something about Melissa and the struggle and
+sacrifices she had made to get her education, and
+before she had finished Anne White was as much
+interested in the mountain girl and as anxious
+for her to succeed as Molly herself. She promised
+to help her all she could, and a Junior can
+do a great deal to help a Freshman. Molly was
+astonished to find that Anne White was really
+rather likable. She had a mistaken sense of fun,
+but was not really unkind.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Melissa had too much to do to brood long over
+her outbreak, and laughed and let the matter drop
+out of her mind when the following apology was
+poked under her door:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“<span class='sc'>My Dear Miss Hathaway</span>: I am truly sorry
+to have caused you so much mortification in the
+Domestic Science class. It was a very foolish,
+thoughtless act, and I hope you will accept my
+apology. I wish I had found such a friend in
+my freshman year as you have in Molly Brown.
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:4em;;'>“Sincerely yours,</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:4em;;'>“‘<span class='sc'>A Low-Down Sneak</span>.’”</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span><a name='p2chIII' id='p2chIII'></a>CHAPTER III.—HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.</h2>
+<p>
+Molly and Nance were very busy with their
+special courses, Nance working at French literature
+as though she had no other interest in the
+world, and Molly at English and Domestic Science.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thank goodness, I shall not have to tutor!
+Since we ‘struck ile’ I am saved that,” said
+Molly one day to her roommate, who was as
+usual occupied, in spite of its being “blind man’s
+holiday,” too early to light the gas and too late
+to see without it. “Nance, you will put out your
+eyes with that mending. I never saw such a
+busy bee as you are. Melissa tells me you are
+going to help her with a dress, too.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, I am so glad she will let me. I told her
+how we made the Empire gown for you in your
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209'></a>209</span>
+Freshman year, and she seemed to feel that if
+her dear Molly allowed that much to be done for
+her, it was not for her to object to a similar
+favor. I know you will laugh when I tell you that
+I am going to get a one-piece dress and an extra
+skirt for shirtwaists out of the blue homespun.
+It is beautiful material, spun with an old-fashioned
+spinning wheel and woven on a hand loom
+by Melissa’s grandmother. Did you ever see so
+much goods in one dress? It seems that the dear
+woman who has taught her everything she knows
+has not had any new clothes herself for ten years,
+and could not give her much idea of the prevailing
+fashion; and Melissa made this dress herself
+from a pattern her mother had used for her wedding
+dress. I hate to cut it up. It seems a kind
+of desecration, but Melissa has a splendid figure
+and if her clothes were not quite so voluminous
+she would be as stylish as any one. She improves
+every day in many ways and seems to be less
+shy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She has an instinct for good literature. Professor
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span>
+Green tells me her taste is unerring. He
+says it is because her preference is for the simple,
+and the simple is always the best. Little Otoyo
+has the same feeling for the best in poetry.
+Haven’t we missed that little Jap, though? I’ll
+be so glad to have her back. I fancy I shall have
+some tutoring to do in spite of myself to get
+Otoyo Sen up with her class.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Otoyo Sen, the little Japanese girl who had
+played such a close part in the college life of our
+girls, had been back in Japan, and had not been
+able to reach America in time for the opening
+weeks of college, due to some business engagements
+of her father. But she was trusting to
+Molly and her own industry to catch up with her
+class, and was hurrying back to Wellington as
+fast as the San Francisco Limited could bring
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly had been writing every moment that she
+could spare from her hard reading, and now she
+had two things she really wanted to show Professor
+Green—a story she had worked on for weeks
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211'></a>211</span>
+until it seemed to be part of her, and a poem. She
+had sent the poem to a magazine and it had been
+rejected, accompanied by a letter which she could
+not understand. At all times in earlier days she
+had gone frankly to the professor’s study to ask
+him for advice, but this year she could hardly
+make up her mind to do it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He is as kind as ever to me, but somehow I
+can’t make up my mind to run in on him as I
+used to,” said Molly to herself. “I know I am
+a silly goose—or is it perhaps because I am so
+grown up? It is only five o’clock this minute,
+it gets dark so early in November, and I have
+half a mind to go now.” The temperament that
+goes with Molly’s coloring usually means quick
+action following the thought, so in a moment
+Molly had on her jacket and hat. “Nance, I am
+going to see Professor Green about some things
+I have been writing. I won’t be late, but don’t
+wait tea for me. Melissa may be in to see us,
+but you will take care of her, I know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a rather tired-sounding, “Come in,”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span>
+at Molly’s knock on Professor Green’s study
+door.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear, now I am going to bore him!”
+thought the girl. “I have half a mind to run
+back through the passage and get out into the
+Cloister before he has a chance to open the door
+and see who was knocking. But that would be
+too foolish for a postgraduate! I’d better run
+the risk of boring him rather than have him think
+I am some one playing a foolish Sophomore joke,
+or even a timid little Freshman, afraid to call
+her soul her own.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come in, come in. Is any one there?” called
+the voice rather briskly for the usually gentle
+professor. And before Molly could open the door
+it was actually jerked open. “Dearest Molly!—I
+mean, Miss Molly—I thought you were going
+to be some one else. The fact is, I have had a
+regular visitation from would-be poets this afternoon,
+and, as it never rains but it pours, I had a
+terrible feeling that it was another one. I am so
+glad to see you; not just because you are not
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span>
+what I feared you were, but because you are
+you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly blushed crimson and tried to hide the
+little roll of manuscript behind her, but the young
+man saw it and kicked himself mentally for a
+rash, talking idiot.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t come in, thank you. I just stopped
+by to—to——I just thought I’d ask you when
+your sister was coming.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Molly Brown, what a poor prevaricator
+you do make! You know perfectly well you have
+written something you want me to see; and you
+also know, or ought to know, that I want to see
+what you have written above everything; and
+what I said about would-be poets had nothing to
+do with you and me. The fact is, I am a would-be
+myself and have been working on a sonnet this
+afternoon instead of looking over the thousand
+themes that I must have finished before to-morrow’s
+lecture. I had just got the eighth line completed
+when you knocked, and the six others will
+be easy. Please come in and take off your hat,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214'></a>214</span>
+and I’ll get Mrs. Brady to make us some tea; and
+while the kettle is boiling you can show me what
+you have been doing, and when I get my other six
+lines to my sonnet done I’ll show it to you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly of course had to comply with a request
+made with so much kindliness and sincerity. Mrs.
+Brady came, in answer to the professor’s bell
+which connected his study with his house, and
+was delighted to see Molly, remembering with
+great pleasure the Christmas breakfast the young
+girl had cooked for Professor Green the year before.
+Molly had a way with her that appealed to
+old people as well as young, and she had won
+Mrs. Brady’s heart on that memorable morning
+by telling her that she, too, boasted of Irish
+blood.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I might have known it, from the sweet
+tongue in your head,” Mrs. Brady had replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+The old woman hastened off to make the tea,
+and Molly reluctantly unrolled her manuscript.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Professor Green, I want you to think of me
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span>
+as some one you do not know or like when you
+read my stuff.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is a very difficult task you have set me,
+and I am afraid one that I am unequal to; but
+I do promise to be unbiased and to give you my
+real opinion, and you must not be discouraged if
+it is not favorable, because, after all, it is worth
+very little.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think it is worth a lot. This first thing is
+something I have been working on very hard. It
+is called ‘The Basket Funeral.’ I remembered
+what you told me about trying to write about
+familiar things, and then, on reading the ‘Life
+and Letters of Jane Austen,’ I came on her advice
+to a niece who was contemplating a literary
+career. It was, ‘Send your characters where you
+have never been yourself, but never take them.’
+I had never been out of Kentucky, except to row
+across the Ohio River to Indiana, when I came to
+Wellington, and so I put my story in Kentucky
+with Aunt Mary as my heroine. Now be as hard
+on me as you want to. I can stand it.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+There was perfect silence in the pleasant study
+while Edwin Green carefully perused the well-written
+manuscript. An occasional involuntary
+chuckle was all that broke the quiet when one of
+Aunt Mary’s witticisms brought back the figure
+of the old darkey to his mind. When he had finished,
+which was in a very few minutes, as the
+sketch was a short one, he carefully rolled the
+paper and remained silent. Molly felt as though
+she would scream if he did not say something,
+but not a word did he utter, only sat and rolled
+the manuscript and smiled an inscrutable smile.
+Finally she could stand it no longer.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am sorry to have bothered you, Professor
+Green. I know it is hard for you to have to tell
+me the truth, so I won’t ask you.” She reached
+for the roll of paper, her hand shaking a little
+with excitement.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, please excuse me. Do you know, I took
+you at your word and forgot I knew you, and
+forgot how much I liked you; forgot everything
+in fact but Aunt Mary and the ‘Basket Funeral.’
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217'></a>217</span>
+My dear girl, you have done a wonderful little
+bit of writing, simple, natural, sincere. I congratulate
+you and envy you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And what should Molly do, great, big, grown-up
+postgraduate that she was, but behave exactly
+as the little Freshman had four years before
+when this same august professor had rescued her
+from the locked Cloisters: she burst into tears.
+At that crucial moment the rattle of tea cups
+was heard as Mrs. Brady came lumbering down
+the hall, and Molly had to compose herself and
+make out she had a bad cold.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have some hot soup,” said the young man,
+and both of them laughed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was natural for me to blubber, after all,”
+said Molly, after Mrs. Brady had taken her departure.
+“When you sat there so still, with your
+lips so tightly closed, I felt exactly as I did four
+years ago, shut out in the cold with all the doors
+locked; and when you finally spoke it was like
+coming into your warm pleasant study again with
+you being kind to me just as you were to the little
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218'></a>218</span>
+scared Freshman. Do you know, I like my picture
+of Aunt Mary, too, and when I thought you
+didn’t like it I felt forlorn indeed.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I notice one thing, Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky
+doesn’t cry until everything is over. The
+little Freshman didn’t blubber while she was
+locked out, but waited until she got into the pleasant
+study, and now the ancient postgrad is able
+to restrain her tears until the awful ogre of a
+critic praises her work. Now let’s have another
+cup of tea all around and show me what else you
+have brought.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I hesitate to show you this more than the other
+thing, after your cutting remarks about would-bes.
+But I want you to read this so you can tell
+me what this letter means that I got from the
+editor of a magazine, when he politely returned
+my rejected poem.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Read me the poem yourself. Would you
+mind? Poetry should always be read aloud, I
+think; and afterward I will see what I think the
+editor meant.”
+</p>
+<div><a name='i218' id='i218'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i003' id='i003'></a>
+<img src='images/illus-218.jpg' alt='“Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?”—Page 218.' title=''/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“Read me the poem yourself. Would<br/>you mind?”—<i>Page 218.</i></span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219'></a>219</span></div>
+<p>
+“All right, but I am afraid it is getting late
+and Nance will worry about me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The study was cosy indeed with its rows and
+rows of books, its comfortable chairs and the
+cheerful open grate. This was his one extravagance
+in a land of furnace heat and drum stoves,
+so Edwin Green declared. “But somehow the
+glow of the fire makes me think better,” he said
+in self-defence.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly read any poetry well, her voice with its
+musical quality being peculiarly adapted to it.
+This was her poem:
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“My&nbsp;thoughts&nbsp;like&nbsp;gentle&nbsp;steeds&nbsp;to-day<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Rest&nbsp;quiet&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;paddock&nbsp;fold,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Munching&nbsp;their&nbsp;food&nbsp;contentedly.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Was&nbsp;it&nbsp;last&nbsp;night?&nbsp;When&nbsp;up—away!<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Through&nbsp;spaces&nbsp;limitless,&nbsp;untold,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Like&nbsp;storm&nbsp;clouds&nbsp;lashed&nbsp;before&nbsp;the&nbsp;wind,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Nor&nbsp;strength,&nbsp;nor&nbsp;will&nbsp;could&nbsp;check&nbsp;nor&nbsp;hold,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Manes&nbsp;flying—through&nbsp;the&nbsp;night&nbsp;they&nbsp;dashed<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;‘Til&nbsp;the&nbsp;first&nbsp;glimmering&nbsp;sun’s&nbsp;ray&nbsp;flashed<br />
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Its&nbsp;blessed&nbsp;light;&nbsp;‘til&nbsp;the&nbsp;first&nbsp;sigh<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Of&nbsp;dawn’s&nbsp;awak’ning&nbsp;stirred&nbsp;the&nbsp;leaves.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Then&nbsp;back&nbsp;to&nbsp;quiet&nbsp;fold—the&nbsp;night&nbsp;was&nbsp;done—<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Bend&nbsp;patient&nbsp;necks—the&nbsp;yoke—and&nbsp;day’s&nbsp;begun.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let me see it. Your voice would make
+‘Eany, meany, miney, mo’ sound like music. I
+should have read it first to myself to be able to
+pass on it without prejudice.”
+</p>
+<p>
+He took the poem and read it very carefully.
+“Miss Molly, you are aware of the fact that you
+may become a real writer? How old are you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Almost twenty.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I consider that a pretty good poem for
+almost twenty. I bet I know what that saphead
+of an editor had to say without reading his letter.
+Didn’t he say something about your having
+only thirteen lines?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, is that what he meant? I have puzzled
+my brains out over his note. I didn’t even know
+I had only thirteen lines. Of course I knew it
+wasn’t exactly sonnet form, but somehow I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221'></a>221</span>
+started out to make fourteen lines and thought
+I had done it. Here is his cryptic note.”
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“<span class='sc'>Dear M. B.</span>: We are sorry to say we are too
+superstitious to print your poem. Are the poor
+horses too tired to go a few more feet? If you
+can urge them on, even if you should lame them
+a bit, we might reconsider and accept your
+verses.
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:4em;;'>“<span class='sc'>The Editor of</span> ——”</p>
+<p>
+“Fools, fools, all of them are fools! Don’t
+you change it for the whole of the silly magazine.
+It is a good poem, and its having thirteen lines
+is none of his business. Haven’t you as much
+right to create a form of verse as Villon or Alfred
+Tennyson? That editor would have rejected
+‘Tears, idle tears,’ because it hasn’t a
+rhyme in it and looks as though it might have.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The professor was so excited that Molly had
+to laugh.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are certainly kind to me and my efforts.
+I must go now. Please give my love to Mrs.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222'></a>222</span>
+Brady and thank her for her tea. You never did
+tell me when you expect your sister.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bless my soul,” said Edwin Green, looking
+at his watch, “she will be here in a few minutes
+now!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t forget to let me see your sonnet, and
+please put all the lines in. I am so glad your sister
+is to be with you, and hope to see her often.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And Molly flew away, happy as a bird that her
+writing was coming on, and that she felt at home
+again with the most interesting man she had ever
+met.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223'></a>223</span><a name='p2chIV' id='p2chIV'></a>CHAPTER IV.—A BARREL FROM HOME.</h2>
+<p>
+Christmas was upon our girls almost before
+they had unpacked and settled down to work.
+Mid-year exams. had no terrors for our two post-graduates,
+but they were working just as hard
+as they ever had in their collegiate course.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know what it is that drives us so,
+Nance, unless it is that we are getting ready for
+the final examination at Judgment Day,” said
+Molly. “I am so interested, I never seem to get
+tired these days; and I don’t even mind the tutoring
+that has been thrust upon me. Now that I
+shall not have to teach for a living, I really believe
+I should not mind it very much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Otoyo Sen was safely sailing under Molly’s
+tutelage through her senior year. She spoke the
+most correct and precise English unless she was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224'></a>224</span>
+embarrassed or upset in some way, and then, like
+Melissa Hathaway, she spoke from the heart, and
+little Otoyo’s heart seemed to beat in adverbs
+and participles. She and Melissa had struck up
+the closest friendship.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We might have known they would,” said the
+analytical Nance. “They are strangely alike to
+be so different.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, Nance, how Bostonesque we are becoming!
+I have never asked a Bostonian a question
+that I have not been answered in this way, ‘It is
+and it isn’t,’” teased Molly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, they are alike in being foreign, for
+Melissa is as foreign from us as is Otoyo. Then
+they are both scrupulously courteous until their
+<i>amour propre</i> is stepped on, and then you realize
+that they are both medieval. They are certainly
+alike in pride and in fortitude and perseverance
+and family feeling. You know perfectly well
+that the real Melissa that is so covered up by this
+educated Melissa would take a gun and shoot
+every living Sydney she could get at if her grandmother
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225'></a>225</span>
+told her to! I hope to goodness modernism
+will never get to the old woman and she will
+learn that women can do anything men can, or
+she will make Melissa take the place of the sons
+she mourns. On the other hand, little Otoyo
+would commit <i>hara-kiri</i> without winking an eyelash
+if honorable-father told her to.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You have so convinced me of their similarity
+that I see no room for difference. They will look
+to me exactly like twins after this,” laughed
+Molly; and both the girls could hardly restrain
+their merriment, for at that moment the so-called
+twins came in to call: Melissa, tall and stately
+as “the lonesome pine,” with all doubts as to her
+fine figure removed now, thanks to Nance’s skillful
+reformation of the blue homespun; and little
+Otoyo looking more like a mechanical toy than
+ever, since she had taken on a little more of the
+desirable flesh, according to the taste of her
+countrymen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Melissa and I have determined to move into
+a suite together,” said Otoyo, as they entered.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226'></a>226</span>
+“Miss Walker said it is not usually for a Freshman
+and Senior to be so intimately, but since
+there is a suite vacant in the Quadrangle and
+more visits for singletons than suites, she is willing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are excited over it, I know, you dear little
+Otoyo,” said her tutor, “or you would not be so
+adverbial, and you must mean ‘calls for singletons’
+instead of ‘visits.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, you English and your language, made
+for what you call puns!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am glad you call them puns instead of visiting
+them on us,” said Nance, dodging a soft
+cushion hurled by Molly. “Did you girls hear
+the news? I am to stay at Wellington for Christmas
+and my father is coming down here to spend
+it with me. I can’t think when father has taken
+a holiday before, and I am as excited about it
+as can be. He needs a rest, and he needs some
+fun. I wish he could have come last year before
+the old guard disbanded.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But listen to me,” put in Molly. “I have some
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227'></a>227</span>
+news, too, that I was trying to keep for a surprise,
+but I am a sieve where news is concerned:
+Judy Kean is to be here for Christmas, too. She
+writes that as her mother and father are in Turkey
+she will have to have some turkey in her, and
+she can think of no place that she would rather
+have that turkey than at Wellington with us.
+Dear old Judy, won’t it be fun? And she will
+help to whoop things up for your father, Nance.
+She expected to be studying art in Paris by now,
+but Mr. Kean insisted on a year of drawing in
+New York before Paris, and that makes her
+in easy reach of us. We shall have to stop work
+and go to playing. I declare I have grown so
+used to work—I don’t believe I know how to
+play.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mees Grace Green is going to have an astonishment
+party for her brother, the young
+student medical,” said Otoyo, the ever-ready
+news monger.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A surprise party for Dodo,” shrieked the girls
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228'></a>228</span>
+with delight. “Otoyo, Otoyo, you are too delicious.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Also, Mr. Andy McLean will be home with
+his honorable parents for making holiday, having
+done much proud work in the law school at
+Harvard University.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nance smiled. Her private opinion was that
+Mr. Andrew McLean and his proud work were
+the cause of Otoyo’s very mixed English.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Also,” continued Otoyo, “Mr. Andrew McLean
+will bring with him honorable young Japanese
+gentleman, who has hugged the Christian
+faith and is muchly studying to live in this country,
+whereas his honorable father has a wonderful
+shop of beautiful Japanese prints in Boston.
+My honorable father is familiar with his honorable
+father, namely, Mr. Seshu.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh ho, and that is the reason of the many
+mistakes,” said Molly, in an aside to Nance. “I
+thought at first it was Andy’s return, but I bet
+the little thing is contemplating something in connection
+with the honorable Mr. Seshu. I wonder if her father
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229'></a>229</span>
+has written her about this young
+Jap.”
+</p>
+<p>
+During all this chit-chat Melissa had sat perfectly
+quiet, but her quiet was never heavy nor
+depressing. She looked calmly and interestedly
+on and listened and smiled and sometimes gave
+a low laugh, showing that her humor was keen
+and ready. Otoyo was a never-failing source of
+delight to her, and when the little thing spoke of
+hugging the Christian faith a real hearty laugh
+came bubbling up. But she put her arm affectionately
+around her little friend and smothered
+her laugh in Otoyo’s smooth black hair, that always
+had a look of having just been brushed, no
+matter how modern and American was the arrangement.
+</p>
+<p>
+And very modern and American were all of
+Otoyo’s arrangements now. Her clothes bore the
+stamp of the best New York shops, with the most
+up-to-date shoes and hats, and she endeavored
+in every way to be as American as possible. She
+even tried to use the slang she heard around her,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230'></a>230</span>
+but her attempts in that direction were very
+laughable.
+</p>
+<p>
+In due time the holidays arrived, and with
+them came our own Judy full of enthusiasm for
+her work at the art school; came young Andy
+with his Japanese friend from the law school.
+Andy looking older and broader and more robust,
+not half so raw-boned as he used to be, and the
+young Japanese gentleman, on first sight, so like
+Otoyo that it was funny—but, on further acquaintance,
+it proved to be a racial likeness only;
+came Nance’s father, a staid, quiet gentleman
+with his daughter’s merry brown eyes and a general
+look of one to be depended on; came George
+Theodore Green, familiarly known as Dodo, no
+longer so shy, but with much more assurance of
+manner, as befitted a medical student from Johns
+Hopkins.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Grace Green had secretly sent out invitations
+for the surprise party for Christmas Eve,
+and all the girls were very busy getting their
+best bibs and tuckers in order to do honor to the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231'></a>231</span>
+occasion. Molly had seen a good deal of Miss
+Green since she came to Wellington to keep house
+for her brother, and they had become fast friends.
+Miss Green often asked her to come in to afternoon
+tea, and then they would have the most delightful
+talks in the professor’s study, and he
+would read to them. Sometimes Molly would be
+prevailed upon to read some of her sketches, always
+of Kentucky and the familiar things of her
+childhood. She lost her shyness in doing this,
+and felt that it rather helped her and gave her
+new ideas for more things to write about.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Judy, please help me unpack this barrel from
+home,” called Molly the day before Christmas.
+“I know you will want to help carry some of the
+things to the Greens for me. I almost wish I had
+sent the barrel there, as so many of the things
+are to go to them. We shall be laden down, I
+am sure.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy, all excitement, began to knock off the top
+hoop and then with much hacking and prying
+they finally got off the head of the formidable-looking
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232'></a>232</span>
+barrel and began to unpack the goodies:
+a ham for the professor of English cooked by
+Aunt Mary; a fruit cake for Molly, black and
+rich, with an odor to it that Judy said reminded
+her of the feast in St. Agnes Eve; a jar of Rosemary
+pickles; one of brandy peaches; a box
+of beaten biscuit; a roasted turkey, stuffed with
+chestnuts, and a wonderful bunch of mistletoe
+full of berries, growing to a knobby stunted
+branch of a walnut tree, which Kent had sawed
+off with great care and then packed so well with
+tissue paper that not one berry or leaf was misplaced.
+</p>
+<p>
+“This is for Miss Green’s party. I asked Kent
+to get it for me. You know her party is to be
+an old English one, and it would not be complete
+without mistletoe. What is this little note
+hitched to it?
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“’<span class='sc'>Dearest Molly</span>:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“‘I almost broke my neck getting this, and
+hope it is what you want. Tell Miss Judy Kean,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233'></a>233</span>
+who, I hear, is to spend Christmas with you, not
+to get under this until I get there.
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:4em;;'>“’<span class='sc'>Kent.</span>’</p>
+<p>
+“What can he mean? Judy Kean, is Kent
+coming here for Christmas? Answer me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But Judy only buried her crimson face in the
+big turkey’s bosom and giggled.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Answer me, Judy Kean.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do I know? Am I your brother’s
+keeper?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He couldn’t be coming or mother would have
+written me! I see he means for you to wait for
+him until he ‘arrives’ in his profession. Oh,
+Judy, Judy, I do hope you will! But come on
+now, we must take these things to the Greens.
+Miss Grace is very busy with her preparations,
+while Dodo is off for the day with young Andy
+and his Jap friend, revisiting their old college,
+Exmoor. We must get the mistletoe hung; and
+the ham is to be part of the party, I fancy. I
+am going to take them some of these pickles, too,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234'></a>234</span>
+and half of my fruit cake. It is so big that it
+will take us months to devour it, besides ruining
+our complexions.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls, weighed down with their heavy contributions—ham,
+pickle, fruit cake and mistletoe—rang
+the bell at Professor Green’s house,
+fronting on the campus. The door was quickly
+opened by Miss Alice Fern. She eyed them
+haughtily and coldly, hardly responding to
+Molly’s greeting and barely acknowledging the
+introduction to Judy, whom she already knew,
+but refused to remember.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My cousin, Miss Green, is very busy and regrets
+she cannot speak to you just now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I am sorry not to see her! I have some
+mistletoe that my brother sent her from Kentucky,
+and Miss Kean and I were going to ask
+her to let us hang it for her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You are very kind, but I am decorating the
+house for my cousins, and can do it very well
+without any assistance from outside.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Molly, we had better leave our packages and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235'></a>235</span>
+make a chastened departure,” said Judy, the irrepressible.
+“We have some interior decorations
+besides the mistletoe, Miss Fern, in the way of
+an old ham and a fruit cake, and some Rosemary
+pickles. Are you also chairman of the committee
+on that kind of interior decorations? If you are
+not, I should think it were best for us to interview
+the secretary of the interior, if we are not
+allowed to see the head of the department.”
+</p>
+<p>
+At that moment who should come bounding
+up the steps but Edwin Green himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good morning to both of you! I am so glad
+to see you back in Wellington, Miss Kean. I
+have just come from the Quadrangle, where I
+went to call on you, but saw Miss Oldham, who
+told me you and Miss Molly were on your way to
+see my sister. Why don’t you come in? Grace
+is in the pantry, preparing for the ‘astonishment
+party,’ as I am told Miss Sen calls it. I will call
+her directly.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Grace has asked to be excused to callers, Edwin,”
+said the stately Miss Fern.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236'></a>236</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nonsense, Alice, she was expecting Miss
+Brown to decorate the parlors, and Miss Kean is
+not a stranger to any of us. Come in, come in,”
+and the indignant professor ushered them into
+the parlor and went to call his sister, confiding to
+her, as she hastened to greet the girls, that if
+Alice Fern did not stop trying to run their affairs
+he was going to do something desperate.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am afraid you brought it on us by being too
+nice to her two years ago when she first came
+home from abroad,” teased his sister; and he remembered
+that he had been rather attentive to
+his fair cousin at a time when Miss Molly Brown
+of Kentucky had had a little misunderstanding
+with him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How good of you, you dear, sweet girl, to
+have this mistletoe sent all the way from Kentucky
+for our party, and what a wonderful piece
+of walnut it is growing to, this great, knotted,
+knobby branch! But, Alice, don’t break any of
+it off! You will ruin it.” Miss Green stopped
+Alice just in time, as she had begun with rapid
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237'></a>237</span>
+tugs to pull the mistletoe from the branch that
+Kent had sawed off with such care, and to stick
+it in vases among the holly, where it did not
+show to any advantage. “Of course, it must be
+hung from the chandelier just as it is.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, very well, Cousin Grace; but it seems to
+me to be a very heavy looking decoration.” And
+the young woman flounced off, leaving Molly and
+Judy feeling very much mystified, to say the
+least.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aunt Mary sent you a ham, Professor Green.
+I brought it to-day, thinking maybe your sister
+would like it for part of the night’s festivities.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not a bit of it. That ham is to be brought
+out when there are not so many to devour it. I
+am not usually a greedy glutton, but beech-nut
+fed, home-cured ham is too good for the rabble,
+and I am going to hide it before Grace casts her
+eagle eye on it.” He accordingly picked it up
+and pretended to conceal it from his smiling
+sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, anyhow, Miss Green, you will use my
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238'></a>238</span>
+fruit cake for the party, will you not?” begged
+Molly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, please don’t ask me to. I know there is
+nothing in the world so good as fruit cake, and
+Edwin has told me of the wonders that come
+from Aunt Mary’s kitchen. So if you don’t
+mind, Molly, I am going to keep my cake for our
+private consumption. It would disappear like
+magic before the young people to-night, and Edwin
+and I could have it for many nights to come.
+Do you think I am as greedy as Edwin is with
+his ham?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly was very much amused, but her amusement
+was turned to embarrassment when she
+heard Miss Fern say to her Cousin Edwin: “Miss
+Brown seems to be trying very hard to give the
+party.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She did not hear Edwin’s answer, but noticed
+that he hugged his ham even more fervently, it
+being, fortunately for him and his coat, well
+wrapped in waxed paper. She also noticed that
+he went around and took out of the vases the few
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239'></a>239</span>
+pieces of mistletoe that his cousin had pulled from
+the big bunch, and carefully wired them where
+they belonged on the walnut branch, and then
+got a step ladder and tied the beautiful decoration
+to the chandelier, while Judy, ignoring the
+stately Alice, bossed the job.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Molly, did you know that Dicky Blount
+will be here to-night?” asked the professor. “We
+can have some good music, which will be a welcome
+addition to the program, I think.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is fine; but please give him a slice of
+ham. I feel as though some were coming to him.
+Five pounds of Huyler’s was too much for the
+old ham bone he got that memorable evening at
+Judith’s dinner. By the way, Professor Green,
+I want to ask a favor of you and your sister.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Granted before asked, as far as I am concerned,
+and Grace is usually very amiable where
+you are in question,” said the eager Edwin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, it isn’t so much of a favor, and I have an
+idea I am doing you one to ask it of you. My
+dear friend Melissa Hathaway has a most wonderful voice,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240'></a>240</span>
+but no one ever knows it, as she is
+so reserved. I thought, maybe to-night, you
+might persuade her to sing. She has some ballads
+that are splendid for an Old English celebration.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should say we will ask her, and be too glad
+to! I am so pleased that she is coming. She
+seemed rather doubtful whether she could or
+not.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, that was just clothes, and clever Nance
+solved the problem for her just as she often has
+for me by making something out of nothing.
+When you see our Melissa and realize that her
+dress is made of eight yards of Seco silk at
+twenty cents a yard, you will think Nance is
+pretty clever.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241'></a>241</span><a name='p2chV' id='p2chV'></a>CHAPTER V.—DODO’S SURPRISE PARTY.</h2>
+<p>
+The old red brick house, where Professor
+Green had his bachelor quarters, had been put in
+good order for his sister’s régime, and with the
+furniture that had been in storage for many
+years since the death of their parents was made
+most attractive. It was designed for parties,
+seemingly, as the whole lower floor could be
+turned practically into one room. It had begun
+to snow, which made the glowing fire in the big
+hall even more cheerful by contrast.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Whew! aren’t we festive?” exclaimed Dodo,
+bursting in at the front door with Lawrence
+Upton, whom he had picked up at Exmoor.
+“Looks to me like a ball, with all of this holly
+and the bare floors ready for dancing. Andy
+and his little Jap are coming around this evening to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242'></a>242</span>
+see you, Gracey, and I wish we could get
+some girls to have a bit of a dance. I have been
+learning to dance along with my other arduous
+tasks at the University, and I’d like to trip the
+light fantastic toe with some real flesh and blood.
+I have had nothing but a rocking chair to practice
+with for ever so long. I’ve got a little broken
+sofa that is great to ‘turkey trot’ with.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How about the old tune, ‘Waltzing ’Round
+with Sophy, Sophy Just Seventeen,’ for that
+dance of yours?” laughed his older brother. “I
+declare, Dodo, we ought to do better than that
+for you at a girls’ college, even in holiday time.
+Let’s wait and see if young Andy comes, and
+then with his help maybe we can scare up a girl
+or so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Grace thanked Edwin with an appreciative
+pat for keeping up the game of surprise
+party. Just then Richard Blount came blowing
+in from New York, and they all went in to supper,
+where the greedy Edwin permitted them to
+have a try at his ham.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243'></a>243</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“What a girl that Miss Brown is!” declared
+Dicky. “She seems to me to be the most attractive
+blonde I have ever seen.” Richard, being
+very fair, of course, had a leaning toward
+brunettes. “We were talking about her the other
+evening at the Stewarts’, and we agreed that
+when all was told she was about the best bred
+person we knew.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Fern, to whom praise of Molly seemed
+to be bitterness and gall, gave a sniff of her aristocratic
+nose and remarked: “There must have
+been some question of Miss Brown’s breeding for
+you to have been discussing it. I have always
+thought breeding was something taken for
+granted.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So it should be,” said Professor Green, laconically.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you know, it is a strange thing to me, but
+the only two persons in the world that I know
+of who don’t like Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky
+are our two cousins on different sides of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244'></a>244</span>
+the house—Judith Blount and you, Cousin
+Alice.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This from Dodo, enfant terrible. Edwin
+turned the color of his old ham and looked sternly
+at Dodo, who was entirely unconscious of having
+said anything amiss. Miss Grace and Lawrence
+Upton giggled shamefully, while Richard
+Blount hastened to say, “I think you are mistaken
+about Judith. On the contrary, she now speaks
+very highly of Miss Brown, and looks upon her
+as a very good friend.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“As for me,” said Alice, “I have never given
+Miss Brown a thought one way or the other. I
+do not know her well enough to dislike her. She
+impresses me as being rather pushing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+At this Miss Grace made a sign for them to
+rise, as she was anxious to get the dining-room
+in readiness for the entertainment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All of you boys had better put on your dress
+suits if there is a chance of scaring up some
+dancers,” she tactfully suggested, so there was a
+general rush for their rooms, and she was left in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245'></a>245</span>
+peace to get everything ready for the surprise
+party.
+</p>
+<p>
+The guests, as had been agreed upon, arrived
+together. The old house was suddenly filled with
+dancers enough to satisfy the eager Dodo, and
+dear Mrs. McLean, ready to play dance music
+until they dropped. Dodo was astonished enough
+to delight his sister, and the fun began.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dr. McLean and Mr. Oldham found much to
+talk about, so Nance felt that her father was going
+to have a pleasant evening, and with a glad
+sigh gave herself up to having a good time with
+the rest. Young Andy was not long in attaching
+himself to her side, and they picked up conversation
+where they had dropped it the year
+before and seemed to find each other as agreeable
+as ever.
+</p>
+<p>
+All the girls looked lovely, as girls should
+when they have an evening of fun ahead of them
+and plenty of partners to make things lively.
+Several more young men came over from Exmoor,
+in response to a secret invitation sent by
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246'></a>246</span>
+Miss Grace through young Andy, so, as Judy put
+it, “There were beaux to burn.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Judy was going in very much for the picturesque
+in dress, as is the usual thing with art
+students, so she was very æsthetically attired in
+a clinging green Liberty silk. Molly wore her
+bridesmaid blue organdy, which was very becoming.
+Nance,—who always had the proper thing to
+wear on every occasion without having to scrape
+around and take stitches and let down hems, and
+find a petticoat to match, and for that reason had
+time to do those necessary things for the other
+girls,—wore a pretty little evening gown of white
+chiffon, and she looked so pretty herself that Dr.
+McLean whispered to his wife that he took it all
+back about young Andy’s having picked out a
+plain lassie. Little Otoyo had on the handsomest
+dress of the evening, a rose pink silk embroidered
+in cherry blossoms. The clever child had bought
+the dress in New York at a swell shop and taken
+it to Japan with her, and there had the wonderful
+embroidery put on it. Melissa was a revelation
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247'></a>247</span>
+to herself and her friends. The black Seco silk
+fitted her so well that Nance was really elated
+over her success as a mantuamaker. Melissa had
+never gone décolleté in her life, and at first the
+girls could hardly persuade her to wear the low-necked
+dress; but when she saw Molly she was
+content.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Whatever Molly does is always right, and if
+she wears low neck then I will, too,” said the artless
+girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+Her hair was rolled at the sides and done in a
+low knot on her neck. As she came into the parlor
+Richard Blount, who was going over some
+music at the piano, did not see her at first. Looking
+up to speak to Edwin about a song he was
+to sing, he was struck dumb by her beauty.
+Clutching Edwin he managed to gasp out, “Great
+Cæsar! who is she?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She is not Medusa, my dear Dick. Don’t
+stand as though you had turned to stone. It is
+Miss Hathaway, a friend of Miss Brown’s, and
+a very interesting and original young woman,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248'></a>248</span>
+also from Kentucky, but from the mountains. I
+will introduce you with pleasure.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Edwin Green did introduce him, and if Richard
+Blount took his eyes from Melissa once during
+the evening he did it when no one was looking.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Seshu, young Andy’s friend, proved to be
+a charming, educated young man, who understood
+English perfectly and spoke with only an
+occasional blunder. He made himself very agreeable
+to Molly, who was eager to talk with him,
+hoping to find out if he were worthy of their
+little Otoyo. The girls were almost certain that
+he had come to Wellington with the idea of
+viewing Otoyo and passing on her as a possible
+wife. Otoyo had let drop two or three remarks
+that made them feel that this was the case. She
+was very much excited, and her little hands were
+like ice when Molly took them in hers to tell her
+how sweet she looked and how beautiful and becoming
+her dress was. It was a trying ordeal for
+any girl, and Molly wondered that the little thing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249'></a>249</span>
+could go through with it, but honorable father
+had thus decreed it and it must be borne.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I fancy it is better than having the marriage
+broker putting his finger in, which is what would
+have happened if the Sens and Seshus had not
+‘hugged the Christian faith’ and come to
+America,” whispered Molly to Nance as they
+took off their wraps.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’d see myself being pranced out like a colt,
+honorable father or not,” said Nance. “I fancy
+he is very nice, however, or Andy would not be
+so chummy with him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly was amused at the farce of telling Mr.
+Seshu that one of his country women was a student
+at Wellington, and she hoped to have the
+pleasure of introducing them. He received the
+information with a polite bow, and no more expression
+than a stone image, but with volubly expressed
+thanks and eagerness for the introduction.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Our little Otoyo is very precious to us,” said
+Molly, “and we are very proud of her progress
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250'></a>250</span>
+in her studies. She takes a fine place with her
+class, and will graduate this year with flying colors.
+She writes perfect English, but there are
+times in conversation when adverbs are too many
+for her. She is excited to-night over coming to a
+dance, having but recently added dancing to her
+many accomplishments, and her adverbs may get
+the better of her.” Molly was determined that
+the seeker for a wife should not take the poor
+little thing’s excitement to himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Seshu seemed more anxious to talk about
+Otoyo than to meet her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And so you are trying to pump me about my
+little friend, are you, you wily young Jap? Well,
+you have come to the right corner. I’ll tell you
+all I can, and you shall hear such good things of
+Otoyo that you will think I am a veritable marriage
+broker,” said Molly to herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is Mees Sen of kindly heart and temper good,
+you say?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She has the kindest heart in the world and a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251'></a>251</span>
+good temper, but she is well able to stand up for
+herself when it is necessary.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He shall not think he is getting nothing but
+a good family horse, but I am going to try to let
+him understand that our little Otoyo has a high
+spirit and is fit for something besides the plow,”
+added Molly to herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+After much talk, in which Molly felt that she
+had been most diplomatic, Mr. Seshu was finally
+presented to Miss Sen. Poor little Otoyo was not
+as embarrassed as she would have been had she
+not learned to converse with honorable gentlemen
+quite like American maidens. The practice
+she had had with young Andy and Professor
+Green came in very well now, and her anxious
+friends were delighted to see that she was holding
+her own with her polished countryman, and
+that he seemed much interested in her chatter.
+At the instigation of Molly and Nance, Andy
+McLean soon came up and claimed Otoyo for a
+dance. She looked very coquettishly at her Japanese
+suitor and immediately accepted, and Mr.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252'></a>252</span>
+Seshu was as disconsolate as any other young
+man would have been to have a pleasant companion
+snatched from him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll teach him a thing or two,” said our
+girls. “And just look how well Otoyo is ‘step
+twoing,’ as she calls it, with Andy!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“While the dancers are resting we will have
+some music,” said the gracious hostess. “I am
+going to ask you, Miss Hathaway, to sing for
+us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Melissa looked astonished that she should be
+chosen, but, with that poise and dignity that
+years in society cannot give some persons, she
+agreed to sing what she could if Molly would
+accompany her on the guitar.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sing ‘Lord Ronald and Fair Eleanor,’” whispered
+Molly. “I want Professor Green to hear
+it.”
+</p>
+<div><a name='i252' id='i252'></a></div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i004' id='i004'></a>
+<img src='images/illus-252.jpg' alt='The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture.—Page 252.' title=''/><br />
+<span class='caption'>The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully<br/>charming picture.—<i>Page 252.</i></span>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253'></a>253</span></div>
+<p>
+The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully
+charming picture as they took their places to do
+their part toward entertaining the guests—Molly
+so fair and slender in her pretty blue dress, with
+her hair “making sunshine in a shady place,”
+seated with the guitar, while Melissa, tall and
+stately, with figure more developed, in her clinging
+black dress stood near her. Judy was so
+overcome at the picturesque effect that she began
+to make rapid sketching movements in the
+air as was her wont.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, what don’t we see when we haven’t got
+a gun! I’d give anything for a piece of charcoal
+and some paper.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know all of this song, but I shall sing
+all I do. I learned it from my grandmother, and
+she learned it from hers. This is all Granny
+knows, but she says her grandmother had many
+more verses,” said Melissa as Molly struck the
+opening chords of the accompaniment.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“So&nbsp;she&nbsp;dressed&nbsp;herself&nbsp;in&nbsp;scarlet&nbsp;red,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;she&nbsp;dressed&nbsp;her&nbsp;maid&nbsp;in&nbsp;green,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;every&nbsp;town&nbsp;that&nbsp;they&nbsp;went&nbsp;through<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They&nbsp;took&nbsp;her&nbsp;to&nbsp;be&nbsp;some&nbsp;queen,&nbsp;queen,&nbsp;queen,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They&nbsp;took&nbsp;her&nbsp;to&nbsp;be&nbsp;some&nbsp;queen.<br />
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254'></a>254</span>
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“‘Lord&nbsp;Ronald,&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;Ronald,&nbsp;is&nbsp;this&nbsp;your&nbsp;bride<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That&nbsp;seems&nbsp;so&nbsp;plaguey&nbsp;brown?<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;you&nbsp;might&nbsp;have&nbsp;married&nbsp;as&nbsp;fair&nbsp;skinned&nbsp;a&nbsp;girl<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As&nbsp;ever&nbsp;the&nbsp;sun&nbsp;shone&nbsp;on,&nbsp;on,&nbsp;on,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As&nbsp;ever&nbsp;the&nbsp;sun&nbsp;shone&nbsp;on.’<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“The&nbsp;little&nbsp;brown&nbsp;girl,&nbsp;she&nbsp;had&nbsp;a&nbsp;penknife,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It&nbsp;was&nbsp;both&nbsp;long&nbsp;and&nbsp;sharp;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;She&nbsp;stuck&nbsp;it&nbsp;in&nbsp;fair&nbsp;Eleanor’s&nbsp;side<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;it&nbsp;entered&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;heart,&nbsp;heart,&nbsp;heart,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It&nbsp;entered&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;heart.<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“Lord&nbsp;Ronald,&nbsp;he&nbsp;took&nbsp;her&nbsp;by&nbsp;her&nbsp;little&nbsp;brown&nbsp;hand<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;led&nbsp;her&nbsp;across&nbsp;the&nbsp;hall;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;with&nbsp;his&nbsp;sword&nbsp;cut&nbsp;off&nbsp;her&nbsp;head,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;kicked&nbsp;it&nbsp;against&nbsp;the&nbsp;wall,&nbsp;wall,&nbsp;wall,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;kicked&nbsp;it&nbsp;against&nbsp;the&nbsp;wall.<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“‘Mother,&nbsp;dear&nbsp;mother,&nbsp;come&nbsp;dig&nbsp;my&nbsp;grave;<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Dig&nbsp;it&nbsp;both&nbsp;wide&nbsp;and&nbsp;deep.<br />
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255'></a>255</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;By&nbsp;my&nbsp;side&nbsp;fair&nbsp;Eleanor&nbsp;put,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;the&nbsp;little&nbsp;brown&nbsp;girl&nbsp;at&nbsp;my&nbsp;feet,&nbsp;feet,&nbsp;feet,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;the&nbsp;little&nbsp;brown&nbsp;girl&nbsp;at&nbsp;my&nbsp;feet.’”<br />
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+As the beautiful girl finished the plaintive air
+there was absolute stillness for a few seconds.
+The audience was too deeply moved to speak.
+Melissa’s voice was sweet and full and came with
+no more effort than the song of the mocking bird
+heard in her own valleys at dawn. She took high
+note or low with the same ease that she had
+stooped and lifted her little hair trunk at Wellington
+station.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<p>
+The song in itself was very remarkable, being
+one of the few original ballads evidently brought
+to America by an early settler, and handed down
+from mother to daughter through the centuries.
+Edwin Green recognized it, and noted the
+changes from the original from time to time.
+Richard Blount was the first to find his tongue,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256'></a>256</span>
+although he was the one most deeply moved by
+the performance.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My, that was fine!” was all he could say, but
+he broke the spell of silence, and there was a
+storm of applause. Melissa bowed and smiled,
+pleased that she met with their approval, but with
+no airs or affectation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She has the stage manner of a great artist
+who is above caring for what the gallery thinks,
+but has sung for Art’s sake, and, as an artist,
+knows her work is good,” said Richard to Professor
+Green. “Miss Hathaway, you will sing
+again for us, please. I can’t remember having
+such a treat as you have just given us, and I
+have been to every opera in New York for six
+years.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The demand was general, so Melissa graciously
+complied. This time she gave “The Mistletoe
+Bough.”
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“The&nbsp;mistletoe&nbsp;hung&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;castle&nbsp;hall,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;the&nbsp;holly&nbsp;branch&nbsp;shone&nbsp;on&nbsp;the&nbsp;old&nbsp;oak&nbsp;wall;<br />
+</p>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257'></a>257</span></div>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;all&nbsp;within&nbsp;were&nbsp;blithe&nbsp;and&nbsp;gay,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Keeping&nbsp;their&nbsp;Christmas&nbsp;holiday.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Oh,&nbsp;the&nbsp;mistletoe&nbsp;bough,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Oh,&nbsp;the&nbsp;mistletoe&nbsp;bough.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+And so on, through the many stanzas of the
+fine old ballad, telling of the bride who cried,
+“I’ll hide, I’ll hide,” and then of the search and
+how they never found the beautiful bride until
+years had passed away, and then, on opening the
+old chest in the attic, her bones were discovered
+and the wedding veil.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the applause subsided, Miss Grace asked
+Richard Blount to sing.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll do it, Cousin Grace, but I have never felt
+more modest about my little accomplishments.
+Miss Hathaway has taken all the wind out of my
+sails. I am going to sing a little thing that I
+clipped out of a newspaper and put to music. ‘It
+is a poor thing, but mine own.’ I think it is appropriate
+for this party, and hope you will agree
+with me.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258'></a>258</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, Dicky, you know we love your singing,
+and because Miss Hathaway has charmed us is
+no reason why you cannot charm us all over.
+Caruso can sing, as well as Sembrich,” said Miss
+Grace.
+</p>
+<p>
+Richard Blount had a good baritone voice, and
+sang with a great deal of taste; and he played
+on the piano with real genius. With a few brilliant
+runs he settled down to the simple, sweet air
+he had composed for the little bit of fugitive
+verse, and then began to sing:
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“The&nbsp;holly&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;soldier&nbsp;bold,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Arrayed&nbsp;in&nbsp;tunic&nbsp;green,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;His&nbsp;slender&nbsp;sword&nbsp;is&nbsp;never&nbsp;sheathed,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;But&nbsp;always&nbsp;bared&nbsp;and&nbsp;keen.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;He&nbsp;stands&nbsp;amid&nbsp;the&nbsp;winter&nbsp;snows<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A&nbsp;sentry&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;wood,—<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;scarlet&nbsp;berries&nbsp;on&nbsp;his&nbsp;boughs<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Are&nbsp;drops&nbsp;of&nbsp;frozen&nbsp;blood.<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“The&nbsp;mistletoe’s&nbsp;a&nbsp;maiden&nbsp;fair,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Enchanted&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;oak,<br />
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259'></a>259</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Who&nbsp;holds&nbsp;her&nbsp;in&nbsp;his&nbsp;hoary&nbsp;arms,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;hides&nbsp;her&nbsp;in&nbsp;his&nbsp;cloak.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;She&nbsp;knows&nbsp;her&nbsp;soldier&nbsp;lover&nbsp;waits<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Among&nbsp;the&nbsp;leafless&nbsp;trees,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And,&nbsp;weeping&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;bitter&nbsp;cold,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Her&nbsp;tears&nbsp;to&nbsp;jewels&nbsp;freeze.<br />
+&#160;<br/>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“But&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;holy&nbsp;Christmas-tide,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Blessed&nbsp;time&nbsp;of&nbsp;all&nbsp;the&nbsp;year,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;evil&nbsp;spirits&nbsp;lose&nbsp;their&nbsp;power,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And&nbsp;angels&nbsp;reappear.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;They&nbsp;meet&nbsp;beside&nbsp;some&nbsp;friendly&nbsp;hearth,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;While&nbsp;softly&nbsp;falls&nbsp;the&nbsp;snow—<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;soldier&nbsp;Holly&nbsp;and&nbsp;his&nbsp;bride,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;mystic&nbsp;Mistletoe.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+Richard had been delighted by Melissa’s performance,
+and now she returned the compliment
+by being so carried away by his singing
+and the song that she forgot all shyness and reserve
+and openly congratulated him, praising his
+music with so much real appreciation and fervor
+that the young man was persuaded to sing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260'></a>260</span>
+again. He sang the beautiful Indian song of
+Cadman’s, “The Moon Hangs Low,” and was
+beginning the opening chords to “The Land of
+Sky-blue Water,” when there came a sharp ringing
+of the bell, followed by some confusion in the
+hall as the door was opened and a gust of wind
+blew in the fast falling snow. Then a man’s
+voice was heard inquiring for Professor Green.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261'></a>261</span><a name='p2chVI' id='p2chVI'></a>CHAPTER VI.—MORE SURPRISES.</h2>
+<p>
+“Whose voice is that?” exclaimed Molly and
+Judy in unison; and without waiting to be answered
+they rushed into the hall to find Kent
+Brown being warmly greeted by Professor
+Green. Before he had time to shake the snow
+from his broad shoulders, Molly seized him and
+he seized Judy, and they had a good old three-cornered
+Christmas hug.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you get my note tied to the mistletoe?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, you goose; but we did not know you
+were really coming. I thought you were speaking
+in parables,” said Molly, but Judy only
+blushed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, it is powerful fine to get here. My
+train is four hours late.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know you are tired and hungry,” said Miss
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262'></a>262</span>
+Green, who was as cordial as her brother in her
+reception of the young Kentuckian. “But where
+is your grip, Mr. Brown?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I left it at the inn in the village. I could
+not think of piling in on you in this way without
+any warning.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, Edwin will ‘phone for it immediately.
+You Southern people think you are the only ones
+who can put yourselves out for guests. It
+would be a pretty thing for one of Mrs. Brown’s
+sons to be in Wellington and not at our house.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So Kent was taken into the Greens’ house with
+as much cordiality and hospitality as Chatsworth
+itself could have shown. The odor of coffee
+soon began to invade the hall and parlors, and in
+a little while the dining-room doors were thrown
+open and the feasting began. Miss Green was
+an excellent housekeeper, and knew how to cater
+to young people’s tastes as well as Mrs. Brown
+herself, so the food was plentiful and delicious.
+Molly noticed with a smile that some of the precious
+ham was smuggled to the plates of Dr. and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263'></a>263</span>
+Mrs. McLean and Mr. Oldham, where it was
+duly appreciated, and that later on the favored
+three were regaled with slices of the fruit cake.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent found a cozy seat for Judy by the hall
+fire, and soon joined her with trays of supper.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Miss Judy, it has been years since last
+July. I have worked as hard as a man could,
+hoping to make the time fly, but it hasn’t done
+much good,—except that it made my firm suggest
+that I let up for a few days at Christmas,
+and here I am! I am working awfully hard trying
+to learn to do water coloring of the architectural
+drawings. I wish I had you to help me,
+you are so clever. I am hoping to get to New
+York or Paris some day to learn the tricks of the
+trade, but in the meantime there are lots of
+things to learn in Louisville; and I am getting
+more money for my work than I did. Did Molly
+give you my message tied to the mistletoe?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Kent.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will you wait? I was speaking in parables.
+I think somehow that I must arrive a little more,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264'></a>264</span>
+before I can catch you under the mistletoe; and
+you must do your work, too. Oh, Judy, it is
+hard to be so wise and circumspect! But will
+you wait?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, Kent. I am working hard, too, harder
+than I have ever worked in my life. I was terribly
+disappointed when papa would not let me
+go to Paris this winter, but insisted on the year
+of hard drawing in New York, to test myself
+and find myself, as it were, and I have been determined
+to make good. I am drawing all the
+time, and you know that is virtuous when I am
+simply demented on the subject of color. I let
+myself work in color on Saturday in Central
+Park, but the rest of the time it is charcoal from
+the antique or from life, with classes in composition
+and design. There is no use in talking
+about being a decorator if you can’t draw. I
+hope to be in Paris next year, and then I shall
+reap my reward and simply wallow in color.”
+</p>
+<p>
+When supper was over, they were all called on
+to stand up for the Virginia Reel, which Mrs.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265'></a>265</span>
+McLean played with such spirit that Mr. Oldham
+and Dr. McLean could not keep their feet
+still; and before the astonished eyes of Edwin
+Green and Andy McLean, who had other plans,
+Mr. Oldham seized Molly and Dr. McLean
+Nance, and they danced down the middle and
+back again with as much spirit as they had ever
+shown in their youth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It takes the old timers to dance the old dances,
+hey, Mr. Oldham?” said the panting doctor as
+he came up the middle smiling and cutting
+pigeon wings, while Nance arose to the occasion
+and “chasseed” to his steps like any belle of the
+sixties. Even Miss Alice Fern forgot her dignity
+and romped, but she was very gay, as Edwin
+had sought her out when Molly danced off
+with Mr. Oldham. He had remembered that
+he had been rather remiss in his attentions to
+his fair cousin.
+</p>
+<p>
+How they did dance!—and all of the extra
+men danced with each other, so there were no
+wall flowers. Richard Blount claimed Melissa
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266'></a>266</span>
+as a partner, and they delighted the crowd by
+singing as they danced a song that Melissa had
+taught Richard, as she told him of some of the
+mountain dance games, the words fitting themselves
+to Mrs. McLean’s lively tunes.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;“‘Old&nbsp;man,&nbsp;old&nbsp;man,&nbsp;let&nbsp;me&nbsp;have&nbsp;your&nbsp;daughter?’<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;‘Yes,&nbsp;young&nbsp;man,&nbsp;for&nbsp;a&nbsp;dollar&nbsp;and&nbsp;a&nbsp;quarter.<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Pick&nbsp;up&nbsp;her&nbsp;duds&nbsp;and&nbsp;pitch&nbsp;’em&nbsp;up&nbsp;behind&nbsp;her.’<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;‘Here’s&nbsp;your&nbsp;money,&nbsp;old&nbsp;man,&nbsp;I’ve&nbsp;got&nbsp;your&nbsp;daughter.’”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+After the dance they drew around the open
+fire in the hall and roasted chestnuts and popped
+corn and told stories, and had a very merry old-fashioned
+time capping quotations. And finally
+the one thing wanting, as Molly thought, came
+to pass, and Professor Green read Dickens’
+Christmas Carol just as he had three years before,
+when he and his sister gave Molly the surprise
+party at Queen’s in her Sophomore year.
+</p>
+<p>
+“At the risk of making myself
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267'></a>267</span>
+verra unpopular, I am afraid I shall have to say it is time for
+all of us to be in bed,” said Mrs. McLean, when
+the professor closed the worn old copy of
+Dickens.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, not ’til we have had a little more dancing,
+please, dear Mrs. McLean,” came in a
+chorus from the young people; and Professor
+Green told her that it would be a pity to throw
+Dodo back on a rocking chair for a partner before
+he had had a little more practice with flesh
+and blood. So up they all sprang, and with Miss
+Grace at the piano, to relieve the good-natured
+Mrs. McLean, who had thrummed her fingers
+sore, off they went into more waltzes and two-steps,
+even the shy Melissa dancing with Richard
+Blount as though she had been at balls every
+night of her life. Otoyo and Mr. Seshu hopped
+around together as though “step-twoing” and
+“dance-rounding” were the national dances of
+Japan.
+</p>
+<p>
+And so ended the delightful surprise party.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268'></a>268</span>
+Before they departed, Dr. McLean drew his wife
+under the mistletoe and kissed her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Just to show you bashful young fellows how
+it is done,” said the jovial doctor.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I will give the lassies a lesson in how to
+accept such public demonstration,” said his
+blushing wife, and she suited the action to the
+word by giving him a playful slap, whereupon
+he kissed her again, but instead of another slap
+she hugged him in return, and there was a general
+laugh.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I did that just to show the indignant lassies
+that they must not hold with their anger too
+long. A kiss under the mistletoe has never yet
+been offered as an insult, and the forward miss
+is not the one to get the kiss.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269'></a>269</span><a name='p2chVII' id='p2chVII'></a>CHAPTER VII.—DREAMS AND REALITIES.</h2>
+<p>
+The holidays were all too soon over. Much
+feasting went on, what with Molly’s big turkey
+and her fruit cake and Rosemary pickles; and
+the invitations to Mrs. McLean’s and Miss Walker’s;
+and Otoyo’s Japanese spread, where she
+and Melissa charmed the company with the
+beautifully arranged rooms and the dainty, delicious
+refreshments. Mr. Seshu, throughout,
+was very attentive to his little countrywoman,
+and the girls decided that he was in love with
+her just like any ordinary American might be.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am so glad it is coming about this way,”
+said Molly. “Just think how hard it might have
+been for our little Otoyo, now that she has been
+in this country long enough to see how we do
+such things, had she been compelled, by filial
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270'></a>270</span>
+feeling, to marry some one whom she did not
+love and who did not love her. I think she is
+all over the sentimental attachment she used to
+have for the unconscious Andy, don’t you,
+Nance?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I fancy she is,” said the far from unconscious
+Nance, who always had a heightened color when
+young Andy’s name got into the conversation.
+“I don’t think she ever really cared for Andy.
+He was just the first and only young man who
+was ever nice to her, and it went to her head.
+Andy is so kind and good natured.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You forget Professor Green. He was always
+careful and attentive, and Otoyo would
+chatter like a magpie with him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, but he is so much older!” And then
+Nance wished she had bitten out her tongue, as
+Molly looked hurt and sad.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Professor Green is not so terribly old! I
+think he is much more agreeable than callow
+youths who have no conversation beyond their
+own affairs.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271'></a>271</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, Molly Brown, I didn’t mean to say a
+thing to hurt your feelings or to imply that Professor
+Green was anything but perfection. He
+is not too old for y—us, I mean; but Otoyo is
+like a child.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am ashamed of myself, Nance, but I do get
+kind of tired of everybody’s taking the stand
+that Professor Green is so old. He is the best
+man friend I ever had, and—and——” But
+Nance kissed her fondly, and she did not have to
+go on with her sentence, which was lucky, as she
+did not know how she was going to finish it without
+committing herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+Kent had to fly back to Louisville to work at
+his chosen profession and try to learn how to do
+water color renderings of the architectural elevations;
+Judy back to New York to dig at her
+charcoal drawings and dream of swimming in
+color, with Kent striking out beside her; Dodo
+again at Johns Hopkins, learning much about
+medicine and how to “turkey trot” with a broken
+sofa; young Andy and Mr. Seshu at Harvard,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272'></a>272</span>
+studying the laws of their country, for was not
+Mr. Seshu fast becoming an American? They
+had their dreams, too, these two young men.
+Andy was looking forward to the day when he
+would not have to stop talking to Nance just at
+the most interesting turn of the argument, but
+could stay right along with her forever and ever,—and
+sure he was that they would never talk
+out! Mr. Seshu’s dreams—but, after all, what
+do we know of his dreams? Certain we are that
+he looked favorably on the little Miss Sen, and
+that honorable Father Sen and honorable Father
+Seshu had a long and satisfactory talk in the
+shop in Boston with the beautiful Japanese prints
+hanging all around them, representing in themselves
+money enough to make the prospective
+young couple very wealthy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Oldham went back to Vermont, also
+dreaming that the day might come when his little
+Nance would keep house for him, and he could
+leave the hated boarding house, and have a real
+home. Richard Blount returned to New York,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273'></a>273</span>
+dreaming, too, and his dream was of the beautiful
+mountain girl with the dignity and poise of a
+queen, eyes like the clear brown pools of autumn
+and a purposeful look on her young face that
+showed even a casual observer that she had a
+mission in life.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mid-year examinations came and went. Melissa
+and Otoyo came through without a scratch,
+which made Molly rejoice as though it had been
+her own ordeal.
+</p>
+<p>
+Domestic Science grew more thrilling; so interesting,
+indeed, that Molly could not decide for
+a whole day whether she would rather be a scientific
+cook or a great literary success. But a
+note from a magazine editor accepting her “Basket
+Funeral” and asking for more similar stories
+decided her in favor of literature. And on the
+same day, too, Professor Edwin Green said to
+her, “Please, Miss Molly, don’t learn how to cook
+so well that you forget how to make popovers. I
+am afraid all of these scientific rules you are
+learning will upset the natural-born knowledge
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274'></a>274</span>
+that you already possess, and your spontaneous
+genius will be choked by an academic style of
+cooking that would be truly deplorable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly laughingly confided in the professor
+that she would not give one of Aunt Mary’s hot
+turnovers for all of Miss Morse’s scientifically
+made bread.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know her bread is perfect, but it lacks a certain
+taste and life, and is to the real thing what a
+marble statue is to flesh and blood. Judy described
+it, in speaking of the food at a lunchroom
+for self-supporting women that she occasionally
+goes to in New York, as being ‘too chaste.’”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is exactly it, too chaste,” agreed Professor
+Green.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, cooking is a small part of what
+we learn in Domestic Science,—food values, economic
+housekeeping, etc. It really is a very
+broad and far-reaching science.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They were in the professor’s study, where
+Molly had come to tell him the good news about
+her story, and to ask his advice concerning what
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275'></a>275</span>
+other of her character sketches she should send
+to the magazine. She was wearing her cap and
+gown, as she was just returning from a formal
+college function. When the young man greeted
+her, he had quickly rolled up something, looking
+a little shamefaced. But as they talked, he rolled
+and unrolled and finally determined to show the
+papers to her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Molly, Kent has sent me the plans for
+my bungalow that I commissioned him at Christmas
+to get busy on. I wonder if you would care
+to see them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course I’d be charmed to, Professor
+Green. There is nothing in the world that is
+more interesting to me than plans of a house.
+Kent and I have been drawing them ever since
+we could hold pencils. Kent was the master
+hand at outside effects, and I was the housekeeper,
+who must have the proper pantry arrangements
+and conveniences.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, please pass on these. The outside effects seem
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276'></a>276</span>
+lovely to me, but I cannot tell about
+the interior.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly seated herself and pored over the
+prints, soon mastering the details with a practiced
+eye, noting dimensions and windows and
+doors.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I think it is splendid, but do you really want
+my criticism?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I certainly do, more than any one’s.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, there is waste space here that should
+be put in the store room. This little passage from
+dining-room to kitchen is entirely unnecessary
+and should be incorporated in the butler’s pantry.
+These twin doors in the hall, one leading to the
+attic and one to the cellar, are no doubt very
+pretty, but they are not wide enough. An attic
+is for trunks, and how could one larger than a
+steamer trunk get through such a narrow door?
+A cellar is certainly for barrels and the like, and
+I am sure it would be a tug to pull a barrel
+through this little crack of a door. I’d allow at
+least nine inches more on each door, and that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277'></a>277</span>
+means a foot and a half off something. Let me
+see. It seems a pity to take it off of the living-room,
+and rather inhospitable to rob the guest
+chamber.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aunt Clay always puts the new towels in the
+guest chamber for the company to break in. She
+says company can’t kick about the slick stiffness
+of them, and somehow it would seem rather
+Aunt Clayish to take that eighteen inches off of
+the poor unsuspecting guests, whoever they may
+be.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly sat a long time studying the plans, and
+she looked so sweet and so earnest that Edwin
+Green thought with regret of the tacit promise
+he had made Mrs. Brown: to let Molly stay a
+child for another year. How he longed to know
+his fate! How simple it would be while she was
+showing her interest in his little bungalow to
+ask her to tell him if she thought she could ever
+make it her little home, too! Was she the child
+her mother thought her? Did she think he was
+a “laggard in love,” and despise him for a “faint
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278'></a>278</span>
+heart”? Or could it be that she thought of him
+only as an old and trusted friend, too ancient to
+contemplate as anything but a professor of literature,
+and, at that, one who was building a home
+in which to spend his rapidly declining years?
+</p>
+<p>
+“Time will tell,” sighed the poor, conscientious
+young man, “but if I am letting my happiness
+slip through my fingers from a mistaken sense
+of duty, then I don’t deserve anything but ‘single
+blessedness’.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have it!” exclaimed Molly. “Have the cellar
+entrance outside by the kitchen door with a
+gourd pergola over both, and take this inside
+space where the cellar door and steps were to be
+for a large closet in the poor guests’ room, to
+make up to them for coming so near to losing a
+foot and a half off of their room.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That suits me, if it suits you. Is there anything
+else?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you won’t tell Kent it is my suggestion, I
+do think the bathroom door ought to open in and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279'></a>279</span>
+not out. He and I have disagreed about doors
+ever since we were children.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you know what plan Kent is making for
+mother and me? He wants us to go abroad next
+winter. Sue is to be married to her Cyrus in
+June, muddy lane and all; Paul and John are in
+Louisville most of the time, now that Paul is on
+a morning paper and has to work at night, and
+John is building up his practice and has to be on
+the spot; Kent hopes to be able to take a course
+at the Beaux Arts next winter if he can save
+enough money, and that would leave no one at
+Chatsworth but mother and me. There is no
+reason why we should not go, and you know I
+am excited about it; and, as for mother, she says
+she is like our country cousin who came to the
+exposition in Louisville and said in a grandiloquent
+tone, ‘I am desirous to go elsewhere and
+view likewise.’ Mother and I have never traveled
+anywhere, and it would be splendid for us.
+Don’t you think so?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I certainly do, especially as next year is my
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280'></a>280</span>
+sabbatical year of teaching, and I expect to have
+a holiday myself and do some traveling. I have
+something to dream of now, and that is to meet
+you and your mother in Europe and ‘go elsewhere
+and view likewise’ in your company!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Mother and I will be so glad to see you,”
+exclaimed Molly. “I have brought a letter from
+Mildred to read to you, Professor Green. It is
+so like Mildred and tells so much of her life in
+Iowa that I thought it might interest you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Indeed it will. I have thought so often of
+that delightful young couple and the wonderful
+wedding in the garden.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So Molly began:
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+“‘Dearest Sister:—You complain of having
+only second-hand letters from me and you are
+quite right. There is nothing more irritating
+than letters written to other people and handed
+down. Your letters should belong to you, and
+you only, just as much as your tooth-brush. You
+remember how mad it used to make Ernest to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281'></a>281</span>
+have his letters sent to Aunt Clay, and how he
+would put in bad words just to keep Mother
+from handing them on.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+‘Crit and I are more and more pleased with our
+little home out here in this Western town (not
+that they call themselves Western, and on the
+map they are really more Eastern than Western).
+The people are lovely, and so neighborly and
+hospitable. It is a good thing for Southern
+people to get away from home occasionally and
+come to the realization that they have not got
+a corner on hospitality. Entertaining out here
+really means trouble to the hostess, as there are
+no servants and the ladies of the house have all
+the work to do; and still they entertain a great
+deal and do it very well, too.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+‘I have never seen anything like the system the
+women have evolved for their work. For instance:
+they wash on Monday morning and have
+a “biled dinner.” When washing is over, they
+are too tired to do any more work, so they usually
+go calling or have club meetings or some form
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282'></a>282</span>
+of amusement to rest up for Tuesday, ironing
+day. Wednesday, they bake. Thursday is the
+great day for teas and parties. Friday is thorough
+cleaning day, and I came very near making
+myself very unpopular because in my ignorance,
+when I first came here, I returned some
+calls on that fateful day. I was greeted by irate
+dames at every door, their heads tied up in
+towels and their faces very dirty. I could hardly
+believe they were the same elegant ladies I had
+met at the Thursday reception, beautifully
+gowned and showing no marks of toil. On Saturday
+they bake again and get ready for Sunday,
+and on Sunday no one ever thinks of staying
+away from church because of cooking or house
+work.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+‘I am so glad our mother taught us how to
+work some, at least not to be afraid of work,
+but I do wish I had been as fond of the kitchen
+as you always were and had learned how to cook
+from Aunt Mary. My sole culinary accomplishment
+was cloudbursts, and if Crit is an angel he
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283'></a>283</span>
+has to have something to go on besides cloudbursts.
+The restaurants and hotels here are
+impossible and there are no boarding houses.
+There are only twenty servants in the whole
+town and they already have a waiting list of
+persons who want them when the present employers
+are through with them, which only death
+or removal from the town would make possible,
+so you see we have to keep house. I am learning
+to cook, and simply adore Friday when I can
+tie up my head and pull the house to pieces and
+make the dust fly. Crit calls me a Sunbonnet
+Baby because I am so afraid of not keeping to
+the schedule set down for me by my neighbors.
+Crit has bought me every patent convenience on
+the market to make the work easy: washing machine,
+electric iron and toaster, fancy mop
+wringer, and a dust pan that can stand up by
+itself and let you sweep the dirt in without stooping,
+vacuum carpet cleaner (but no carpets as
+yet), window washer and dustless dusters, fireless
+cooker and a steamer that can cook five
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284'></a>284</span>
+things at once and blows a little whistle when
+the water gets low in the bottom vessel. I have
+no excuse for not being a good cook except that
+I lack the genius that you have. I thought I
+never should learn how to make bread but I have
+mastered it at last and can turn out a right good
+loaf and really lovely turnovers.
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 4em;'>
+‘Thank you so much for your hints from your
+Domestic Science class. I really got a lot from
+them. I had an awfully funny time with some
+bread last week. You see, having once learned
+how to make it, it was terribly mortifying to
+mix up a big batch and have it simply refuse to
+rise. I didn’t want Crit to see it, so I took it
+out in the backyard and buried it in some sand
+the plasterers had left there. Crit came home to
+dinner and went out in the yard to see if his
+radishes were up and came in much excited:
+said he had found a new mushroom growth (you
+remember he was always interested in mushrooms
+and knew all kinds of edible varieties that
+we had never heard of). Sure enough there
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285'></a>285</span>
+was a brand new variety. That hateful old
+dough had come up at last! The hot sand had
+been too much for it and it was rising to beat
+the band. I was strangely unsympathetic with
+Crit and his mushroom cult, so he came in to
+dinner. As soon as Crit went back to work, I
+went out and covered up the disgraceful failure
+with a lot more sand, hammered it down well
+and put a chicken coop on it, determined to get
+rid of it; but surely murder must be like yeast
+and it will out. When Crit came back to supper
+that old leaven had found its way through the
+cracks under the chicken coop and a little spot
+was appearing to the side of the sand pile. Crit
+was awfully excited and began to pull off pieces
+to send to Washington for the Government to
+look into the specimens, and I had to give in and
+tell him the truth. He almost died laughing and
+decided to send some anyhow, just to see what
+Uncle Sam would make out of it. The report
+has not come yet. I have lots more things to
+tell you about my housekeeping but I must stop
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286'></a>286</span>
+now. I am so sorry I can not come home to Sue’s
+wedding, but it is such an expensive trip out
+here that I do not see how Crit and I can manage
+it just now. Of course Crit could not come anyhow
+as the bridge would surely fall down if he
+were not here to hold it up, and even if we could
+afford it I should hate to leave him more than I
+can tell you. Oh, Molly, he is so precious! We
+have been married almost a year now and when
+I was cross about his mushrooms was the nearest
+we have ever come to a misunderstanding. That
+is doing pretty well for me who am a born pepper
+pot. It is all Crit, who is an angel, as I believe I
+remarked before. Please write to me all about
+your class reunion, and give my love to that adorable
+Julia Kean, and also remember me to that
+nice Professor Green.
+</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:4em;;'>‘Your ’special sister,</p>
+<p style='text-align:right; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-right:4em;;'><span class='sc'>Mildred Brown Rutledge</span>.’”</p>
+<p>
+“What a delightful letter and how happy they
+are,” said the professor, fingering his roll of blue
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287'></a>287</span>
+prints with a sad smile. “It was good of her to
+remember me. Please give her my love when
+you write.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I did not tell you quite all she said,” confessed
+Molly, opening the letter again and reading.
+“She says, ‘remember me to that nice Professor
+Green, who is almost as lovely as Crit,’” and
+Molly beat a hasty retreat.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288'></a>288</span><a name='p2chVIII' id='p2chVIII'></a>CHAPTER VIII.—THE OLD QUEEN’S CROWD.</h2>
+<p>
+“Nance, do you fancy this has really been such
+a quiet, uneventful college year, or are we just
+so old and settled that we don’t know excitement
+when we see it? It has been a very happy time,
+and I feel that I have got hold of myself somehow,
+and am able to make use of the hard studying
+I have done at college. I know you will
+laugh when I tell you that one reason I have been
+so happy is that I have not had to bother myself
+over Math. No one can ever know how I did
+hate and despise that subject.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You poor old Molly, I know it was hard on
+you. You were in good company, anyhow, in
+your hatred of it. You remember Lord Macauley
+hated it, too, but for that very reason was
+determined ‘to take no second place’ in it. You
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289'></a>289</span>
+always managed to get good marks after that
+first condition in our Freshman year. I often
+laugh when I think of you with your feet in hot
+water and your head tied up in a cold wet towel,
+trying to cure a cold and at the same time grasp
+higher mathematics,” answered the sympathetic
+Nance, looking lovingly at her roommate. The
+girls found themselves looking at each other very
+often with sad, loving glances. Their partnership
+was rapidly approaching its close. They
+could not be room-mates forever and college must
+end some time.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The funny thing about me and Math. is that
+I never did really and truly understand it,”
+laughed Molly. “I learned how to work one
+example as another was worked, but it was never
+with any real comprehension. Nothing but memory
+got me through. I remember so well when I
+was a little girl, going to the district school. I
+came home in tears because division of decimals
+had stumped me. My father found me weeping
+my soul out with a sticky slate and pencil
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290'></a>290</span>
+grasped to my panting breast. ‘What’s the matter,
+little daughter?’ he said. ‘Oh, father, I
+can’t see how a great big number can go into a
+little bits of number and make a bigger number
+still.’ ‘Well, you poor lamb, don’t bother your
+little red head about it any more, but run and
+get yourself dressed and come drive to town with
+me. I am going to take you to see Jo Jefferson
+play “Cricket on the Hearth.”’ I shall never
+forget that play, but I never have really understood
+decimals; and you may know what higher
+mathematics meant to me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Speaking of a quiet year, Molly, I have an
+idea one reason it has been so uneventful is that
+our dear old Judy has not been here to get herself
+into hot water, sometimes pulling in her
+devoted friends after her when they tried to fish
+her out. Won’t it be splendid to see all the old
+Queen’s crowd again: Judy and Katherine and
+Edith, Margaret and Jessie? I wonder if they
+have changed much! I am so glad they are coming to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291'></a>291</span>
+the meeting of the alumnæ this year, and
+that we are here without having to come!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I do hope my box from home will get here in
+time for the first night of the gathering of the
+clan. I know it will seem more natural to them
+if we can get up a little feast. I want all of the
+girls to know Melissa. Isn’t she happy at the
+prospect of her dear teacher’s coming? Do you
+know the lady’s name? I never can remember to
+ask Melissa, who always speaks of her with
+clasped hands and a rapt expression as
+‘teacher’.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” answered Nance. “She has a wonderful
+name for one who is giving up her life working
+for mankind: Dorothea Allfriend, all-friendly
+gift of God. I believe her name must have influenced
+her from the beginning.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We must ask her to our spread on Melissa’s
+account,” cried the impetuously hospitable Molly.
+“That makes ten, counting the eight Queen’s
+girls, and while we are about it, let’s have——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Molly Brown, stop right there. If you ask a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292'></a>292</span>
+lot of outsiders, how can we have the intimate
+old talk that we are all of us hungering for? Of
+course we can’t leave Melissa out, as she has
+been too close to us all winter to do anything
+without her, and her friend must come, too; but
+in the name of old Queen’s, let that suffice.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Right, as usual, Nance, but inviting is such
+a habit with all of my family that it almost
+amounts to a vice. Of course we don’t want outsiders,
+and I shall hold a tight rein on my inclination
+to entertain until after the fourth of June.
+If there are any scraps left, I might give another
+party.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There won’t be any, unless all of us have
+fallen in love and lost our appetites.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The fourth came at last, and with it our five
+old friends: the Williams sisters, Katherine and
+Edith, as amusing as ever, still squabbling over
+small matters but agreeing on fundamentals,
+which they had long ago decided was the only
+thing that mattered; Margaret Wakefield, with
+the added poise and gracious manner that a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293'></a>293</span>
+winter in Washington society would be apt to
+give one; Jessie Lynch, as pretty as ever but
+still Jessie Lynch, not having married the owner
+of the ring, as we had rather expected her to do
+when she left college; and our dear Judy, in the
+seventh heaven of bliss because The American
+Artists’ exhibition had accepted and actually
+hung, not very far above the line, a small picture
+done in Central Park at dusk.
+</p>
+<p>
+The meeting at No. 5, Quadrangle, was a joyous
+one. Everybody talked at once, except of
+course little Otoyo, whose manners were still so
+good that she never talked when any one else
+had the floor; but her smile was so beaming that
+Edith declared it was positively deafening.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Silence, silence!” and Margaret, the one-time
+class president, rapped for order. “I am so afraid
+I will miss something and I can’t hear a thing.
+Let’s get the budget of news and find out where
+we stand, and then we can go on with the uproar.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, what is the matter with refreshments?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294'></a>294</span>
+inquired the ever-ready Molly. “That will quiet
+some of us at least. But before we begin, I
+must ask you, Otoyo, where Melissa is. She and
+her friend Miss Allfriend understood the time,
+did they not?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, they understood and send you most respectful
+greetings, but my dearly friend, Melissa,
+says she well understands that the meeting of
+these eight old friends is equally to her meeting
+of her one friend, and she will not intrusive
+be until we our confidences have bartered, and
+then she will bring Miss Allfriend to meet the
+companions of Miss Brown and Miss Oldham.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I haven’t heard who Melissa is, but she must
+be fine to show so much tact,” exclaimed Katherine.
+“I am truly glad we are alone. I am
+bursting with news and drying up for news, and
+any outsider would spoil it all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nance gave a triumphant glance in Molly’s
+direction, and Molly stopped carving the ham
+long enough to give an humble bow to Nance
+before remarking, “You girls are sure to adore
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295'></a>295</span>
+my Melissa, but if Katherine is already bursting
+with news, suppose she begins before I get the
+ham carved. What is it, Kate? A big novel
+already accepted?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, but a good job as reader for a publisher,
+and two magazine stories in current numbers,
+and an order for some college notes for a big
+Sunday sheet. Isn’t that going some for the
+homeliest one of the Williams sisters? But that
+is nothing. My news is as naught to what is to
+come. Have none of you noticed the blushing
+Edith? Look at her fluffy pompadour, her stylish
+sleeves, her manicured nails. Compare them
+with those of the old Edith. Remember her lank
+hair and out-of-date blouses and finger nails
+gnawed down to the quick. Note the change and
+guess and guess again.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Edith, Edith! Oh, you fraud!” in chorus
+from the astonished girls.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Is it a man?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who is he?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“When is it to be?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296'></a>296</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+They certainly guessed right the very first
+time. Edith Williams was to be the first of the
+old guard to marry, and she was certainly the
+last to expect such a thing. She took the astonishment
+of her friends very coolly and accepted
+their congratulations without the least embarrassment.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t see what you are making such a fuss
+about. You must have known all the time that
+my hatred of the male sex was a pose, just
+adopted because I had a notion that no man in
+his senses could ever see anything in me to care
+for; or if one did, he would be such a poor
+thing that I could not care for him. But,” with
+a complacent smile, “I find I was mistaken.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tell us all about him, do please, Edith. I
+know he is splendid or you would not want
+him,” said Molly, handing Edith the first plate
+piled with all dainties.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t eat and talk, too, so I’ll cut my love
+affair short. His name is plain James Wilson,
+but he is not plain, at all. He is very tall, very
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297'></a>297</span>
+good looking and very clever. He is dramatic
+critic on a big New York paper and has written a
+play that is to be produced in the fall. Oh, girls,
+I can’t keep it up any longer! I mean, this seeming
+coldness. He is <i>splendid</i> and I am very
+happy!” With which outburst, she attempted to
+hide her blushes in her plate, but Katherine
+rescued it, saying sternly, “Don’t ruin the food,
+but effuse on your napkin,” which made them
+laugh and restored Edith’s equanimity. Then
+the girls learned that she was to be married in two
+weeks and go to Nova Scotia on her honeymoon.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Next!” rapped Margaret. “How about you,
+my Jessica, and what have you done with your
+winter?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Pretty Jessie blushed and held up her fingers,
+bare of rings. “Not even any borrowed ones?”
+laughed Judy. “Why, Jessie, I believe you have
+sought the safety that lies in numbers, and have
+so many beaux you can’t decide among them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have had a glorious debutante winter and
+do not feel much like settling down as yet,” confessed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298'></a>298</span>
+the little beauty. “There is lots of time
+for serious thoughts like matrimony later on.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So there is, my child, but don’t do like the
+poor princess who was so choosey that she ended
+by having to take the crooked stick. My Jessica
+must have the best stick in the forest, if she must
+have any at all,” said Margaret, putting her arm
+around her friend. “For my part, I have had a
+busy winter and haven’t felt the need of a stick,
+straight or crooked. What with entertaining
+for my father and keeping up the social end
+necessary for a public man, and a general welfare
+movement I am interested in, and the Suffrage
+League, I have often wished I had an
+astral body to help me out. Mind you, I am
+not opposed to matrimony, but I am just not
+interested in it for myself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is a dangerous sentiment to express,”
+teased Judy. “I find that a statement like that
+from a handsome young woman usually means
+she is taking notice. Come now, Margaret, if,
+instead of having an astral body to do part of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299'></a>299</span>
+the work you are planning for yourself, you had
+been born triplets, you would have let one of you
+get married, wouldn’t you? Now ‘fess up. Margaret
+could attend the suffrage meetings, and
+Maggie could look after the child’s welfare, while
+dear, handsome, wholesome Peggy could be the
+beloved wife of some promising public man. I
+don’t believe Margaret or Maggie would mind
+at all if Peggy had to hurry home from the meetings
+to have the house attractive for a brilliant
+young Senator from the western states whom we
+shall call ‘the Baby of the Senate’ just for
+euphony, and who would come dashing up to
+the door in his limousine whistling ‘Peg o’ my
+Heart’ in joyful anticipation of his welcome.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Margaret, the stately and composed, was blushing
+furiously at Judy’s nonsense.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Judy Kean, who has been telling you things?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No one, I declare, Margaret. I was just
+visualizing. I wouldn’t have presumed to hit the
+nail on the head had I realized I was doing it.
+You must forgive me, dear, but I am rather
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300'></a>300</span>
+proud of being able to predict, and if I ever meet
+the ‘Baby of the Senate’ I shall tell him to ‘try,
+try again’.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly interfered at this point and stopped
+Judy’s naughty mouth with a beaten biscuit.
+“Aren’t you ashamed, Judy? How should you
+like to be teased as you have teased Margaret?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shouldn’t mind in the least. If in a moment
+of ambitious dreaming I have said ‘nay, nay’ to
+any handsome young western senators, Margaret
+has my permission to tell them to ‘try, try
+again,’ that I was just a-fooling. I am perfectly
+frank about my intentions in regard to the husband
+question. I am wedded to my art, but it
+is merely a temporary arrangement, and I may
+get a divorce any day if more attractive inducements
+are offered than my art can furnish. It
+is fine, though, to get my picture accepted and
+almost well hung by The American Artists. I
+have an idea its size had something to do with
+the judges taking it. It would have been cruel
+to refuse such a little thing; and then it is so
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_301'></a>301</span>
+easy to hang a tiny picture, and there are so
+many gaps in galleries that have to be filled in
+somehow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What a rattler you are, Judy,” broke in
+Edith. “Your picture is lovely, and it made me
+proud to tell James, who took me to the exhibition,
+that you were my classmate and one of the
+immortal eight.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Three more to report,” rapped Margaret,
+“Molly and Nance and Otoyo. Otoyo first, to
+punish her for being so noisy,” and Margaret
+drew the little Japanese to her side with an affectionate
+smile.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is not for humble Japanese maidens to bare
+lay their heart throbbings, so my beloved friends
+will have to excuse the little Otoyo.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And it spoke well for the breeding of the other
+seven that they respected the reticence of their
+little foreign friend and did not try to force her
+confidence, although they were none of them
+ignorant of the intentions of the wily Mr. Seshu.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Otoyo is right,” declared Nance. “I have
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302'></a>302</span>
+nothing to confess, but if I had, I should be
+Japanesque and keep it to myself.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, you ‘copy cat’,” sang Judy. “I’ll wager
+anything that Nance has more up her sleeve than
+any of us. Look, look! It has gone all the way
+up her sleeve and is crawling out at her neck.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Nance made a wild grab at her neck, where,
+sure enough, the sharp eyes of Judy had discovered
+a tiny gold chain that Nance had not meant
+to show above her neat collar. She clutched it
+so forcibly that the delicate fastening broke, and
+a small gold locket was hurled across the room
+right into Molly’s lap. Molly caught it up and
+handed it back to the crimson and confused Nance
+amid the shrieks of the girls.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I reckon a girl has a right to carry her
+father’s picture around her neck if she has a
+mind to,” said Molly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Just then there was a knock at the door and
+Melissa and Miss Allfriend were ushered in,
+much to the relief of Molly, who by their coming
+had escaped the ordeal of the teasing from her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_303'></a>303</span>
+friends that she knew was drawing near; and
+it also gave Nance the chance to compose herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Allfriend proved to be delightful. She
+was overjoyed to be back at her Alma Mater and
+eager to know Melissa’s friends and to thank
+them for their kindness to her protégée. Personalities
+were dropped and the program for the
+entertainment of the alumnæ was soon under discussion.
+Miss Allfriend had been president of
+her class and she and Margaret found many subjects
+of mutual interest. Melissa was anxious to
+know the old Queen’s girls, having heard so much
+of them from Otoyo, and the girls were equally
+anxious to know the interesting mountain girl.
+The party was a great success, and Nance was
+delighted to see that there were no “scraps” left
+for Molly to give another, as there were many
+things on foot for the alumnæ meeting for the
+next week and Nance felt sure Molly would have
+enough to do without any more entertaining.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304'></a>304</span></div>
+<p>
+And now we will leave our girls. Their postgraduate
+year is over. A very happy one it has
+been, with little excitement but much good, hard
+work. Nance is to go to Vermont and rescue her
+long-suffering father from the boarding house,
+and give the poor man the taste of home life that
+he has never known. Mrs. Oldham cannot keep
+house in Vermont and make speeches, now at
+the International Peace Conference at The
+Hague, and then at a Biennial of Woman’s
+Clubs in San Francisco, with a stop over in New
+York to address the Equal Suffrage League between
+boat and train!
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly is going back to Kentucky to assist at
+her sister’s wedding, this wedding a formal affair
+in a church, to suit the notions of the formidable
+Aunt Clay. Molly has many plots in her head
+to work out. Her little success with “The Basket
+Funeral” has fired her ambition, and she is longing
+for time to write more. French must be
+studied hard all summer if they are to go abroad,
+and Kent must be coached, as he is very rusty
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305'></a>305</span>
+in his French and must rub up on it for lectures
+at the Beaux Arts. She has promised Edwin
+Green to write to him, and he has offered to
+criticize her stories, which will be a great help
+to her. The place of meeting in Europe has not
+been decided on, but Professor Green is determined
+that meeting there shall be.
+</p>
+<p>
+Melissa will go back to her beloved mountains
+and try to give out during her well-earned vacation
+some of the precious knowledge she has
+gained in her freshman year to the less fortunate
+children of her county. She will in a
+measure repay the noble woman who has spent
+her life in the mountain mission work for all the
+care and labor she has expended on her, and will
+go back to Wellington for the sophomore course
+with her purpose stronger and deeper: to help
+her people and uplift them as she herself has
+become uplifted.
+</p>
+<p>
+One more incident only we must record before
+this volume ends. After Molly got home she received
+by express a box wrapped in Japanese
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_306'></a>306</span>
+paper, so carefully and wonderfully done up that
+it seemed a pity to break the fastenings. In the
+box was the most beautiful little stunted tree in
+a pot that looked as though it had come out of a
+museum. The tree had all the characteristics
+of a “gnarled oak olden,” with thick twisted
+branches and one limb that looked as though
+little children might have had a swing on it, so
+low did it sag. And this tiny tree, with all the
+dignity of a great “father of the forest,” was,
+pot and all, only eight inches high! With it,
+came the following letter:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will the honorably and kindly graciously
+Miss Brown be so stoopingly as to accept this
+humble gift from the father of Otoyo Sen, who
+has by the most graciously help of Miss Brown
+passed her difficulty examinations at Wellington
+College and now is to become the humble wife of
+honorable Japanese gentleman, Mr. Seshu? The
+honorable gentleman gave greatly praise to graciously
+Miss Brown for her so kindly words
+about humble Japanese maiden and is gratefully
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_307'></a>307</span>
+that his humble wife is the friend of so kindly
+lady.”
+</p>
+<p>
+With this little note, it seemed to Molly that
+the last ties that bound her to the precious life
+at Wellington and the old, complete Queen’s
+group had suddenly snapped. Little Otoyo had
+outstripped them all! She was quietly entering
+the school of Life, while the rest were only standing
+at the threshold.
+</p>
+<p>
+Molly, knowing the serene satisfaction with
+which the Japanese maiden awaited the new
+bonds, and remembering the transforming happiness
+of Edith Williams in anticipation of a similar
+experience, thoughtfully pondered upon her
+own future.
+</p>
+<p>
+She had the eye of faith but she was not a
+seer; and she could not travel in advance those
+devious paths by which Destiny was to lead her.
+</p>
+<p>
+How she finally came to her own and fulfilled
+the promise of college days, it remains for “Molly
+Brown’s Orchard Home” to disclose.
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span class='sc'>The End.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days, by Nell Speed
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+</body>
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+Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days, 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: Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days
+
+Author: Nell Speed
+
+Illustrator: Charles L. Wrenn
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2011 [EBook #36230]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOLLY BROWN'S POST-GRADUATE DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Oh, Miss Molly, let's stay in the 'beechwood period'
+forever."--Page 113.]
+
+
+
+
+MOLLY BROWN'S POST-GRADUATE DAYS
+
+BY
+
+NELL SPEED
+
+  AUTHOR OF "MOLLY BROWN'S FRESHMAN DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S
+  SOPHOMORE DAYS," "MOLLY BROWN'S JUNIOR DAYS,"
+  "MOLLY BROWN'S SENIOR DAYS," ETC., ETC.
+
+WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES L. WRENN
+
+NEW YORK
+
+HURST & COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1914
+
+BY
+
+HURST & COMPANY
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+                                BOOK I.
+              I. The Arrival                                   5
+             II. My Old Kentucky Home                         22
+            III. Wedding Preparations and Confidences         36
+             IV. Burglars                                     51
+              V. The Wedding                                  62
+             VI. Buttermilk Tact                              77
+            VII. Pictures on Memory's Wall                   100
+           VIII. All Kinds of Weather                        114
+             IX. Jimmy                                       143
+              X. Aunt Clay Makes a Mistake                   154
+
+                                BOOK II.
+              I. Wellington Again                            170
+             II. Levity in the Leaven                        189
+            III. History Repeats Itself                      208
+             IV. A Barrel from Home                          223
+              V. Dodo's Surprise Party                       241
+             VI. More Surprises                              261
+            VII. Dreams and Realities                        269
+           VIII. The Old Queen's Crowd                       288
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                               PAGE
+
+  "Oh, Miss Molly, let's stay in the 'beechwood
+  period' forever"                                     Frontispiece
+
+  "Hello, girls," exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on
+  one side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other            10
+
+  "Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?"                  218
+
+  The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture    252
+
+
+
+
+                   MOLLY BROWN'S POST-GRADUATE DAYS.
+
+                                BOOK I.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--THE ARRIVAL.
+
+
+"Oh, Judy, almost home! I wonder who will meet us," cried Molly Brown.
+"I feel in my bones that you and my family will be as good friends as
+you and I have always been. You are sure to get on well with the boys."
+
+Judy responded with a hug, thinking, with a happy twinkle in her large,
+gray eyes, that, if by any chance the rest of the Brown boys could be as
+attractive as Molly's brother, Kent, and should find her as fascinating
+as Kent had seemed to, when she met him in the spring before the college
+pageant, she bade fair to have an exciting visit in Kentucky.
+
+Molly Brown and Julia Kean (Judy for short), after four busy years of
+college life, had just graduated at Wellington, and were on their way to
+Molly's home in Kentucky, where Judy was to pay a long visit. As Molly
+had been looking forward to the time when she could have some of her
+college chums know her numerous and beloved family, she was very happy
+at the prospect. Judy, who was ever ready for an adventure, was bubbling
+over with anticipation.
+
+The girls sat gazing out on the beautiful rolling fields of blue grass
+and tasseling corn, which Molly knowingly remarked promised an excellent
+crop. Molly's blue eyes were misty when she thought of dear old
+Wellington College, the four years of hard work and play, and the many
+friends she had made and left, some of them, perhaps, never to see
+again. Her mind dwelt a long time on Professor Green, the delightful
+old, young man, who had opened up a new world to her in literature; who
+had been so very kind to her through the whole college course, often
+coming to her rescue when in difficulties, and always sympathizing with
+her when she most needed sympathy; and who had, finally, proved to be
+her real benefactor, when she discovered that he was the purchaser of
+those acres of perfectly good orchard that had to be sold to keep Molly
+at college. On bidding him good-by, she had extended to him an
+invitation from her mother to make them a visit in Kentucky, and she had
+already speculated much as to whether the young, old man would accept.
+Molly never could decide whether to think of him as an old, young man,
+or a young, old man. Professor Green was in reality about thirty, but,
+when one is under twenty, over thirty seems very old.
+
+Molly smiled when she thought of her parting scene with him, and made a
+mental note that that was one of the things she must be sure to confess
+to mother. The smile was enough to dispel the mist that was in her eyes,
+and her mind turned to Chatsworth, her dear home. She thought of her
+mother, her brothers and sisters; the decrepit old cook, Aunt Mary
+Morton; Shep and Gyp, the dogs; her horse, President, no longer young,
+having lived through four administrations, but still having more go in
+him than many a colt, showing his fine racing blood and the "mettle of
+his pasture."
+
+"Only two miles more," breathed Molly jubilantly. "We must get our
+numerous packages together."
+
+The girls had planned to have no bundles to carry on the train, nothing
+but two highly respectable suitcases; but the fates were against
+anything so unheard of as two females going on a journey with no extras.
+They had seven boxes of candy presented at parting by various friends. A
+large basket of fruit was added to their cares, put on the Pullman in
+New York by the resourceful Jimmy Lufton, with instructions to the
+porter to give it to the two prettiest girls who got on at Wellington,
+with through sleeper to Kentucky. There were the inevitable shirtwaists
+found in Molly's bottom drawer; books and what not, lent to various
+girls and returned too late to pack; and some belated laundry that Molly
+had not had the heart to worry her old friend, Mrs. Murphy,
+about--collars, jabots, and the muslin sash curtains from her room at
+college that Molly could not make up her mind to put in her trunk in
+their dusty state. These things were put in a bulging box and labeled by
+Judy, quoting the immortal Mr. Venus, "Bones Warious."
+
+"I wish we could forget it and leave it on the train," said Molly. "The
+things in it are all mine, and, now I come to think of it, I believe
+there is nothing there of any real value except the jabots Nance made
+me--those that Mrs. Murphy called my 'jawbones.' I could not bear to lose
+them, and we have not time to dig them out. If Kent meets us he is sure
+to tease me, and you know how badly I take a teasing. He says he is
+lopsided now from carrying his sisters' clothes that they have forgotten
+to pack in their trunks."
+
+"Let me call the 'foul, hunch-backed toad' of a bundle mine," offered
+Judy. "Your brother does not know me well enough to tease me."
+
+"Don't you believe it! Besides, you can't fool Kent. He knows me and my
+bundles too well. Here we are," added Molly hastily, "and there is Kent
+to meet us, driving the colts, if you please. It is a good thing you are
+not Nance Oldham. She will not consent to ride behind any colt younger
+than ten years old!"
+
+The train stopped just long enough for the girls to jump off, the porter
+depositing their numerous belongings in a heap on the platform.
+
+[Illustration: "Hello, girls," exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one
+side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other.--Page 10.]
+
+"Hello, girls," exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one side, and shaking
+hands with Judy, on the other, while a diminutive darkey swung on to the
+colts' bits, occasionally leaping into the air as the restive horses
+tossed their proud heads. "My, it is good to see you! And your train on
+time, too! That is such a rare occurrence that I have an idea it may be
+yesterday's train. You don't mean to say that this is all of the
+emergency baggage you are carrying?" grabbing the two highly respectable
+suitcases and stowing them in the back of the trim, red-wheeled Jersey
+wagon. The girls giggled, and Kent discovered the conglomerate
+collection of packages that the porter had hastily dumped by the side of
+the track.
+
+Molly beat a hasty retreat into the station, declaring that she must
+speak to Mrs. Woodsmall, the postmistress, thus hoping to avoid the
+inevitable teasing from her big brother. Judy, with the spirit and
+somewhat the expression of a Christian martyr, picked up the aforesaid
+despised, bumpy, bulging bundle, and, with a sweet smile, said: "This is
+mine, Mr. Brown. Will you please take it? The rest of the things are
+boxes of candy and parting gifts from various friends."
+
+Kent took the disreputable looking package, which was not at all
+improved by its long trip on the Pullman and the many disdainful kicks
+the girls had given it. Now, in the last hasty handling, the porter had
+loosened the much knotted string, the paper had burst, and from the
+yawning gash there had crept a bit of blue ribbon, Molly's own blue.
+Judy, with her ever-ready imagination, had been heard to call it "the
+blue of chivalry and romance, the blue of distant mountains and deep
+seas."
+
+Kent took the package, smiling his quizzical smile; the smile that from
+the beginning had made Judy decide that he was very likable; a smile all
+from the eyes, with a grave mouth. In fact, the young lady had been so
+taken with it that she had practiced the expression before her mirror
+for half an hour and then held it until she could try it on the first
+person passing by. That person happened to be Edith Williams, who had
+remarked: "Gracious me, Judy, what is the matter? I feel as though you
+were some one in a hogshead looking through the bunghole at me." Judy
+was delighted. It was exactly the expression she was aiming for, but she
+was sorry that she had not thought of the apt description herself.
+
+"Now, Miss Judy, I have known for four years from Molly's letters what a
+bully good chum you are, and have observed before now how charming and
+beautiful, but this role of Christian martyr is a new one on me. Don't
+you know you can't fool me about a Brown bundle? I could pick one out of
+the hold of an ocean liner in the dark, just by the lumpy, bumpy feel of
+it. Besides"--pointing to the bit of blue ribbon spilling through the
+widening tear--"there are Molly's honest old eyes peeping out, telling me
+that this little subterfuge of yours is just an act of true friendship
+on your part, to keep me from teasing her about her slipshod method of
+packing. I tell you what I will do, Miss Judy, if you will do something
+for me. I'll make a compact with you, and promise to go the whole of
+this day without teasing Molly."
+
+"Well, what am I to do?"
+
+"Oh, it's easy enough. Don't call me Mr. Brown any more. Kent, from your
+lips, would sound good to me. You see, there are four male Browns, and
+every time you say 'Mr. Brown' we are liable to fall over one another
+answering you or doing your bidding."
+
+"All right; 'Kent' it shall be for this day and every day that you don't
+tease Molly."
+
+"I meant just for the one day. The strain of never teasing Molly again
+would shatter my constitution."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Brown; just as you choose about that."
+
+"Oh, well, I give up."
+
+"All right, Kent."
+
+Molly emerged from the postoffice, with Mrs. Woodsmall following her.
+Such a stream of conversation poured from the latter's lips that Judy
+felt her head swim.
+
+"Glad to meet you, Miss Kean. I have long wanted to see some of Molly's
+correspondents. What beautiful postals you sent her last year from
+Maine; the summer before from Yellowstone Park; and those Eyetalian ones
+were grand; one year, even from Californy. You are the most traveled of
+all her friends, I believe, but Miss Oldham can say more on a postal
+than any of you, and such a eligible hand, too. Now-a-days all of you
+young folks write so much alike, since the round style come in, I can
+hardly tell your writin' apart. It makes it very hard on a lonesome
+postmistress whose only way of gitting news is from the mail she
+handles. And now, since Uncle Sam has started this fool Rural Free
+Delivery, I don't git time to more than half sort the mail before here
+comes Bud Woodsmall and snatches it from under my nose with irrevalent
+remarks about cur'osity and cats. Gimme the good old days when the
+neighbors come a-drivin' up for their mail, and you could pass the time
+o' day with them and git what news out of them you ain't been able to
+git off of the postals, or make out through the thin ornvelopes, or
+guess from the postmarks. Anyhow, I gits ahead of Woodsmall lots of
+times. Jest yistiddy I 'phoned over to Mrs. Brown that Molly would be in
+on this two train. To be sure, Woodsmall had the letter in his auto, but
+he has to go a long way round, and he's sech a man for stopping and
+gassin', and Molly's ornvelope was some thinner than usual, and I could
+see mighty plain the time she expected to come. Said I to myself, said
+I, 'Now, ain't Mrs. Brown nothing but a mother, and don't she want the
+earliest news of her child she can git? And ain't I the owner of that
+news, and should I not desiccate it if I can? It so happened that
+Woodsmall had a blow-out, and didn't git yistiddy's mail delivered until
+to-day. Now, tell me, wasn't I right to git ahead of him?" She did not
+pause for a reply, but plunged into the stream of conversation again.
+
+"I don't care if he is my own husband. He asked my sister first, and I
+never would have had him if there had been a chance of anything better
+offering. I wouldn't have had him at all if I had foresaw that he was
+going to fly in my face by gitting app'inted to R. F. D., and then fly
+in the face of Providence by trying to run one of them artemobes."
+
+Kent stopped the flow of words by saying: "Now, Mrs. Woodsmall, you are
+giving Miss Kean an entirely wrong idea of you and Bud. She will think
+you do not love him, and I am sure there is not a man in the county who
+fares better than your husband, or who shows his keep as well."
+
+The thin, hard face of the postmistress broke into a pleasant smile, and
+Judy thought: "After all, Kent and Molly are very much alike in
+understanding the human heart and in trying to make all around them feel
+as happy as possible."
+
+"Well, you see, Kent Brown, it's this way: I jest natchally love to
+cook, and Bud he jest natchally loves to eat, and I've got the
+triflingest, no-count stomic that ever was seed. What's the use of
+cooking up a lot of victuals for myself, when I can't eat more'n a
+mouthful? And so," she somewhat lamely concluded, "I jest cook 'em up
+for Bud."
+
+The colts could not be persuaded to stand still another minute, so they
+had to call a hasty good-by to the voluble Mrs. Woodsmall. Then the
+girls gave their attention to holding on their hats and keeping their
+seats, while the lively pair of young horses pranced and cavorted until
+Kent gave them their heads and allowed them to race their fill for a
+mile or more of macadamized road.
+
+Judy was hardly prepared for such a trim turnout as the Jersey wagon,
+and such wonderful horses, to say nothing of the road. She had yet to
+learn that Mrs. Brown would have good, well-kept vehicles on her place;
+that all the Browns would have good horses; and that all Kentuckians
+insist on good roads. The number of limestone quarries throughout the
+state make good macadamized roads a comparatively easy matter.
+
+What a beautiful country it was: the fields of blue grass, with herds of
+grazing cattle, knee deep in June; an occasional clump of trees,
+reminding one rather of English landscapes; and then the fields of corn,
+proudly waving their tassels and shaking their pennant-like leaves, as
+much as to say, "roasting ears for all."
+
+"News for you, Molly," said Kent, as soon as he could get the colts down
+to a conversation permitting trot. "Mildred is to be married in two
+weeks."
+
+"Oh, Kent, why didn't they write me?"
+
+"Mother thought it would be fun to surprise you."
+
+Judy's glowing face saddened. "Why, I should not be here at such a time.
+I know I shall be in the way. I must write to papa to come for me
+sooner."
+
+"Now, Miss Judy, 'the cat is out of the bag.' You have hit on the real
+reason why mother would not let any of us write Molly of the approaching
+nuptials in the family. She was so afraid that you might fear you would
+be de trop and want to postpone your visit to us, and she has been
+determined that nothing should happen to keep her from making your
+acquaintance, and that at the earliest. You see, poor mother has had not
+only to listen to Molly's ravings on the subject of Miss Julia Kean for
+the last four years, but now she has to give ear to Mildred and me,
+since we met you at Wellington, and she thinks the only way to silence
+us is to have something to say about you herself."
+
+Judy laughed, reassured. "You and Molly are exactly alike, and both of
+you must 'favor your ma.' Well, I'll try not to be in the way, and maybe
+I can help."
+
+"Of course you can," said Molly, squeezing her. "You always help where
+there is any planning or arranging or beautifying to be done. But, Kent,
+tell me, why is Milly in such a rush?"
+
+"Why, Molly, I am surprised at you, laying it on Mildred. It happens to
+be old 'Silence and Fun' who is so precipitate."
+
+"Who is 'Silence and Fun'?" asked Judy.
+
+"Oh, he is Milly's fiance, but the Brown boys call him that ridiculous
+name. He has a fine name of his own, Crittenden Rutledge. But, Kent,
+please tell me, why this haste?"
+
+"Well, you see Crit has been ordered out to Iowa by his steel
+construction company, on a bridge-building debauch, and he thought Milly
+might just as well go on with him and hold the nails while he wields the
+hammer. Here we are, so put your hat on straight, and look your
+prettiest, Miss Judy. I should hate for mother to think that we had been
+misleading her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME.
+
+
+They turned into an avenue through a gate opened from the wagon by means
+of a rope pulled by the driver.
+
+"How is that for a gate, Molly? I began my holiday by getting the thing
+in order. It works beautifully now, but the least bit of rough handling
+gets it off its trolley."
+
+"It is fine, Kent. But tell me, are you to have your holiday now?"
+
+"Yes; you see I can help with the harvesting this week, and next week
+the wedding bells have to be rung. And I thought any spare time I have I
+could take Miss Judy off your hands."
+
+"I am afraid that your holiday will be a very busy one," laughed Judy;
+"but maybe I can help ring the wedding bells, and, if I can't do much
+toward harvesting, I can at least carry water to the thirsty laborers."
+
+Kent Brown was in an architect's office in Louisville, working very hard
+to master his profession, for which he had a fondness amounting to a
+passion. Mrs. Brown had secretly hoped that one of her boys would want
+to become a farmer, but they one and all looked upon Chatsworth as a
+beloved home, but not a place to make a living. Their earnest endeavor,
+however, was to keep up the place, and often their hard-earned and
+harder-saved earnings went toward much needed repairs or farm machinery.
+Mrs. Brown had to confess that a little ready money earned irrespective
+of the farm was very acceptable; and, since her four boys were on their
+feet and beginning to walk alone, and stretch out willing, helpful hands
+to her, she found life much easier.
+
+Not that money or the lack of money had much to do with Mrs. Brown's
+happiness. She was a woman of strong character and deep feelings, with a
+love for her children that her sister, Mrs. Clay, said was like that of
+a lioness for her cubs. But that remark was called forth when Mrs. Clay,
+Sister Sarah, one morning found Mrs. Brown making two pairs of new
+stockings out of four pairs of old ones, after a pattern clipped from
+the woman's page of a newspaper. With her accustomed bluntness, she had
+said: "Well, Mildred Carmichael, if you had only three and a half
+children, instead of seven, you would not have to be guilty of such
+absurd makeshifts."
+
+Mrs. Brown had risen up in her wrath and given her such a talk that,
+although ten years had elapsed since that memorable morning, Sister
+Sarah still avoided the subject of stockings with Sister Mildred.
+
+Mrs. Brown was a great reader, and loved old books and old poetry. One
+of Molly's earliest remembrances was lying on the otter-skin rug in
+front of the great open fire, with brothers and sisters curled up by her
+or seated close to the big brass fender, while mother read Dickens
+aloud, or the Idyls of the King, or something else equally delightful.
+One by one the younger children would drop to sleep; and then Mammy
+would come and do what she called "walk 'em to baid," muttering to
+herself, "I hope to Gawd that these chilluns won't be a dreamin' all
+night about that stuff Miss Mildred done packed in they haids."
+
+Just now, however, Molly's memories were merged in anticipations, and
+she watched eagerly for the first signs of welcome.
+
+As they approached the house, the colts neighed, and were greeted by
+answering whinnies from two mares grazing in a paddock. The mares ran to
+the white-washed picket fence and stretched their necks as far over as
+they could, gazing fondly on their handsome offspring, trotting gaily
+by, tossing their manes and tails.
+
+"The mothers are all coming out to meet their babies, and there is
+mine!" cried Molly.
+
+It was mother. Oh, that beloved face; that familiar, spirited walk and
+bearing of the head; those wide, clear, far-seeing gray eyes, and that
+fine patrician nose, with the mouth ever ready to laugh in spite of a
+certain sadness that lurked there! She folded Molly in her arms, but did
+not forget to keep a hand free to clasp Judy's, and, before Molly was
+half through her hug, the older woman drew the young visitor to her, and
+kissed her fondly. Then, with an arm around each girl, she said: "I am
+truly glad to know my Molly's friend, and gratified, indeed, to have her
+with us."
+
+"It means a great deal to me, too, Mrs. Brown, to see Molly's mother and
+home." Judy feared that it would be forward to say what she had in her
+mind, and that was "such a beautiful mother and home."
+
+The house was of white-washed brick, with a sloping gray shingled roof
+and green shutters, and a general air of roominess and comfort. A long,
+deep gallery or porch ran across the front, which Architect Kent
+explained to Judy was not quite in keeping with the style of
+architecture, but had been added by a comfort-loving Brown to the
+delectation of all who came after him. The lines of the old house were
+so good that the addition of a mere porch could not ruin it, and
+certainly added to its charm and comfort. To the left, in the rear, well
+off from the house, were the barn-yard and stables, chicken houses,
+smokehouse, and servants' quarters; to the right, a tan-bark walk led to
+the garden. Down that path came Mildred, by her side a young man who
+seemed to be so amused by her lively chatter that he could hardly
+contain himself.
+
+"Molly, Molly, I'm so glad to see you, and so is Crit, although he has
+no words to tell you how glad he is. And, Miss Kean, Judy! It is
+splendid for you to come just now. I am certain that Kent could not keep
+the news, and you know by this time that Crit and I are to be married
+the last of next week. Mr. Rutledge, let me introduce you to Miss Kean."
+
+Although Crittenden had never uttered a word, he seemed to be able to
+let Molly understand that he, too, was glad to see her, as he was
+vigorously hugging her and two-stepping with her over the short,
+well-kept grass. But, at Mildred's call, he suddenly stopped, made a low
+and courtly bow to his partner, and turned to Judy, clasping her hand in
+a warm and friendly grasp, and giving her such a smile as she had never
+before beheld. In it he made her feel that she was welcome to Kentucky;
+that he intended to like her and have her like him; and had his heart
+not been already engaged, he would lay it at her feet. Never a word did
+he utter. He was tall, rather soldierly in bearing, with the most
+beaming countenance Judy had ever seen, and such perfect teeth she
+almost had her doubts about them.
+
+"Where is Sue, mother?" said Molly. "And Aunt Mary and Ca'line? Of
+course the other boys are not home so early."
+
+"Sue has gone over to Aunt Sarah Clay's. She sent for her in a great
+hurry. Sue was loath to go, fearing she could not get back before you
+arrived, but you know your Aunt Clay and how autocratic she is. Sue
+seems to be in great favor just now. Here is Aunt Mary, however."
+
+Molly ran to meet the decrepit old darkey, embracing her with almost as
+much fervor as she had her mother. Aunt Mary Morton was surely of the
+old school: very short and fat, dressed in a starched purple calico,
+with a white "neckercher" and a voluminous gingham apron, her head tied
+up in a gorgeous bandanna handkerchief.
+
+"Oh, my chile, I'm glad to see you. I hope you done learned 'nuf to stay
+at home a while. Yo' ma's so lonesome 'thout you, with Mr. Ernest 'way
+out West surveyin' the landscape." (Ernest, the oldest of the Brown
+boys, was employed by the government on the geological survey.) "Mr.
+Paul so took up wif sassiety in Lou'ville he can't hardly walk straight,
+and jes' come home long 'nuf to snatch a moufful--but I done tuck
+'ticular notice he do manage to eat at home in spite er all his gran'
+frien's. And now, Miss Milly gwine to step off; an' 'mos' fo' we git
+time to cook up any mo' victuals, Miss Sue'll be walkin' off. Praise be,
+she ain't a-goin' fur. How she eber made up her min' to gib her promise
+to a man what lib up sech a muddy lane, beats me; an' Miss Sue, the mos'
+'ticular of all yo' ma's chilluns 'bout her shoes an' skirts an'
+comp'ny! Now Mr. John ain't been a full-fleshed doctor mo'n two weeks
+befo' he so took up wif a young lady's tongue what stayin' over to Miss
+Sarah Clay's, and so anxious 'bout feelin' her pulse, dat yo' ma an' I
+don' neber see nothin' of him. He jes' come home from dat doctor's
+office in town long 'nuf to shave and mess up a lot er crivats an' peck
+a little eatin's, an' off he goes. My 'pinion is, dat's what Miss Sarah
+done sent for Miss Sue in sech a hurry 'bout, but you' ma say fer me to
+hesh up, no sich a thing, she jes' wan' to talk 'bout a suit'ble weddin'
+presen' for little Miss Milly."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Mary, isn't it exciting to have a wedding in the family? You
+always said Milly would be the first to get married, if Sue was the
+first to get born," said Molly, giving the old woman another hug for
+luck. "Now I want you to shake hands with my dear friend, Miss Judy
+Kean."
+
+Aunt Mary made a bobbing curtsey to Judy, then gave her a friendly
+handshake, looking keenly in her face the while. Then she nodded her
+head, until the ends of the bright bandanna, tied in a bow on top of her
+head, quivered, and said: "I don' know but what that there Kent was
+right."
+
+"Aunt Mary, I am truly glad to meet you. If you could hear the blessings
+that are showered on your head when Molly gets a box from home, and
+could see how hard it is for all of those hungry girls to be polite when
+the time comes for snakey noodles, you would know how honored I feel
+that I am the first to make your acquaintance."
+
+"Well, honey, what makes all of you go 'way from yo' homes to sech
+outlandish places as collidges where the eatin's is so scurse? Can't you
+learn what little you don' know right by yo' own fi'side?"
+
+"Maybe we could, Aunt Mary, but you see I haven't any real fireside of
+my own."
+
+"What! did yo' folks git burned out?"
+
+"Oh, no; but you see my father is an engineer, and mamma travels with
+him, and stays wherever he stays; and, when I am not at school or
+college, I knock around with them. Of course, I'd like to have a home
+like Chatsworth, but it is lots of fun to go to new places all the time
+and meet all kinds of people."
+
+"Well, they ain't but two kin's, quality an' po' white trash, an' I'll
+be boun' you don't neber take up wid any ob dat kin', so you an' yo' ma
+'n' pa mought jes' as well stay in one place."
+
+While the girls were up in Molly's room, which Judy was to share,
+getting ready for a belated dinner, they heard the sound of a piano,
+cracked but sweet, like the notes of an old spinnet, then a male voice,
+wonderful in its power and intensity, and at the same time so sweet and
+full of feeling that Judy, ever emotional where art was concerned, felt
+her eyes filling.
+
+  "Shed no tear, oh, shed no tear!
+  The flower will bloom another year.
+  Weep no more! Oh, weep no more!
+  Young buds sleep in the root's white core.
+  Dry your eyes, oh, dry your eyes!
+  For I was taught in Paradise
+  To ease my breast of melodies,
+                              Shed no tear.
+
+  "Overhead--look overhead
+  'Mong the blossoms white and red.
+  Look up, look up! I flutter now
+  On this flush pomegranate bough.
+  See me! 'tis this silvery bill
+  Ever cures the good man's ill.
+  Shed no tear, oh, shed no tear!
+  The flower will bloom another year.
+  Adieu, adieu--I fly. Adieu,
+  I vanish in the heaven's blue,
+                              Adieu, adieu!"
+
+"Oh, Molly, Molly, who is that?" cried Judy, weeping copiously, in spite
+of the repeated request of the singer to "shed no tear."
+
+"Why, that is Crit. Isn't his voice wonderful?"
+
+"Do you really mean it is Mr. Rutledge? I thought he was dumb, and have
+been feeling so sorry for Mildred."
+
+"Dumb, indeed! He has the most beautiful voice in Kentucky, and can make
+such an eloquent speech when roused that we have been afraid he would go
+into politics. But, so far as passing the time of day is concerned, and
+the little chit-chat that fills up life, he is indeed as dumb as a fish.
+When he was a little boy he stammered and got into the habit of
+expressing his feelings in silence, and he can still do it. He had a
+teacher who cured him of stammering, but nothing will ever cure him of
+silence, unless he has something important to say, and then nothing can
+stop him. Mother tells of a man who stammered in talking but not in
+singing. One day he was passing a friend's house, and saw that the roof
+was in a blaze, the inmates perfectly unconscious of the conflagration.
+He rushed in, tried to speak, could only stutter, and then in
+desperation burst into song. To the tune of 'The Campbells Are Coming,'
+he sang, 'Your house is on fire, tra-la, tra-la!' Kent declares that
+Crit proposed to Milly in song, but Milly herself is dumb about how that
+came about."
+
+"Well, anyhow, I have never heard such scintillating silence as his, and
+I think that Milly ought to be a very proud and happy girl."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--WEDDING PREPARATIONS AND CONFIDENCES.
+
+
+The next two weeks were busy ones for all the Brown household: first and
+foremost, the ever-crying need of clothes to be answered; second, the
+old house to be put in apple-pie order; all the furniture rubbed and
+rubbed some more; the beautiful old floors waxed and polished until they
+shone and reflected the newly scrubbed white paint in a way Judy thought
+most romantic. (But Judy thought everything was romantic those days.)
+She was "itching to help," and help she did in many ways. Molly would
+not let her rub furniture or wax floors, but she had the pleasure of
+hanging the freshly laundered curtains all over the house, and she was
+received with joy in the sewing room by Miss Lizzie Monday, the
+neighborhood seamstress. Miss Lizzie was of the opinion that the Browns
+thought entirely too much about food and not nearly enough about
+clothes. Indeed it was a failing of the mother, if failing she had, to
+have good food, no matter at what cost, and then, since strict economy
+had to be practiced somewhere, to practice it on the clothes.
+
+Miss Lizzie had once been present when they were packing a box to send
+to Molly at Wellington, and had sadly remarked: "In these hard times,
+with the price of food what it is, poor little raggedy Molly could have
+had an entire new outfit from the contents of that box." Mrs. Brown had
+indignantly denied that she was spending any money at all on the box,
+but the fact remained in Miss Lizzie's mind that the food in the
+delightful box, so eagerly looked for by the hungry college girls,
+represented so much money that had much better be put on Molly's outside
+than her inside.
+
+"Not that much of it goes on her own inside. I know Molly too well,
+bless her heart. Can't I just see her handing out that good old ham and
+hickory-nut cake and Rosemary pickle to those Yankees? And they, raised
+on pale, pink, ready-cooked ham and doughnuts and corner grocery dill
+pickles, don't know what they are getting. Molly, in her same old blue
+that I have made over twice for her!--and that ham would have bought the
+stuff for a new one (not that I would have had it anything but blue).
+The half gallon of Rosemary pickle would have trimmed it nicely, and the
+hickory-nut cake would have made her at least two new shirtwaists, and
+the express on the box would more than pay me for making the things."
+
+Judy loved to hear Miss Lizzie talk, and used to encourage her to praise
+her friend, while she sat helping to whip lace or planning the
+bridesmaids' dresses for Molly and Sue. These dresses were flowered
+French organdies. Molly's was covered with a feathery blue flower, that
+never was on land or sea, but it was the right color, which was the
+important thing; and Sue's bore the same design in pink. The bride's
+dress, a lovely simple gown of the finest Paris muslin, was all done and
+pressed and neatly folded in a box by the careful Miss Lizzie, with one
+of her own sandy hairs secretly sewed in the hem, which is supposed to
+bring good luck, and a "soon husband" to the owner of the hair.
+
+There was some doubt and much talk about how the bridal party was to
+enter the parlor and where the minister was to stand. The parlor at
+Chatsworth was not very suitable for an effective wedding, as it was in
+the wing of the house and opened only into the hall, giving, when all
+was considered, not much room for the growing list of guests. Although
+it was a very large room, having only one entrance made it rather
+awkward. It was only a few days before the wedding and this important
+subject was still under discussion.
+
+"I can count at least ninety-eight persons who are sure to come," said
+Mrs. Brown, "all of them kin or close friends, and how they are to get
+in this room and leave an aisle for the wedding party, goodness only
+knows; and if the hall and porch are full, it will be very
+uncomfortable."
+
+Judy and Kent were pretending to be the bride and groom, grave Sue was
+the minister, John and Paul, flower girls, and Molly, boss. Mildred and
+Crittenden were not allowed to practice for their own wedding, as Miss
+Lizzie said it was bad luck, and Miss Lizzie was authority on all such
+subjects. So the two most interested were seated at the piano,
+pretending to be the musicians doing "Chopsticks" to wedding march time.
+
+"Crit, I believe you will have to give Milly up. There is no way to have
+a decently stylish wedding in this joint," said Paul. "Let's stop the
+festive preparations and all of us go to Jeffersonville. It would make a
+grand story for my paper."
+
+Judy had been very quiet for some minutes and her face wore what Molly
+called her "flashed upon that inward eye" expression. Suddenly she
+cried, "I have it. Come on and let's get married out of doors." She
+seized Kent by the hand and dragged him out on the lawn, the rest
+following in a daze.
+
+"Look at that natural place to be married in: the guests under the
+trees; room for everybody; a living altar of shrubs and flowers at the
+end of the tan-bark walk; minister entering from the grass walk on one
+side and Mr. Rutledge with his best man from the other; down the steps
+Mildred on Ernest's arm, followed by Molly and Sue. Can't you see them
+coming up the tan-bark walk? Just at sunset, the people in their light
+festive clothes, your mother beautiful in her black crepe de Chine, with
+Paul and John and Kent standing by her making a dark note near the
+bride? Oh, why, oh, why did they not have holly-hocks up this garden
+walk instead of by the chicken yard fence? It would have made the color
+scheme simply perfect."
+
+Judy paused for breath. She had carried the crowd by her eloquence, and
+so perfectly had she visualized the whole thing that each one was able
+to see what she meant, and absolute and unanimous approval was given the
+scheme. Kent, with his artistic eye, was in for it heart and soul, and
+began to plan Japanese lanterns to be lit after the ceremony in the
+rustic summer-house beyond, where supper was to be served, observing
+that their color might somewhat take the place of the holly-hocks that
+were in the wrong place.
+
+"Just where did you want the holly-hocks, Miss Judy? We might do better
+another year if we knew just what your orders were."
+
+"On both sides of the tan-bark walk, just beyond the intersection of the
+grass walk. Can't you see how fine and stately they would look, and what
+a wonderful mass of color?"
+
+"Right, as usual. What an architect you would make! That power of
+'seein' things' is what an architect needs above everything. Any one can
+learn to make it, but it is the one who sees it who is the great man or
+woman, as in the present case."
+
+Things had been humming so since Molly's return that she had had no time
+for the confidential talk with her mother that both were hungering for.
+The Browns always had much company, but at this season there seemed to
+be no end to the comings and goings of guests, principally comings: many
+parting calls being paid to Mildred by old and young; Molly's friends
+hastening to greet her after the eight months' absence at college; a
+steady following of young men calling on Sue, in spite of her suspected
+preference for Cyrus Clay, the nephew of Aunt Sarah Clay's deceased
+husband, and the one Aunt Mary objected to because of his living up such
+a muddy lane. Presents were pouring in for the bride; notes had to be
+answered; trains to be met; express packages to be fetched from the
+station; and poor little Mrs. Woodsmall kept in a state of constant
+misery over the Parcel Post business Bud was doing, and she with "never
+a chanst to take so much as a peep."
+
+Molly, ever mindful of others, hitched up President one off day and
+drove over to the postoffice and got the poor thing. Then she let her
+see every single present; and feel the weight of every bit of silver;
+and hunt for the price mark on the bottom of the cut-glass; read all the
+cards; and even go into the sewing-room where Miss Lizzie Monday proudly
+showed her the clothes, and let her take a good look at the wedding
+dress all folded up in its box. But when Mrs. Woodsmall began to pick at
+the hem where her sharp eyes discovered an end of the stiff sandy hair,
+sewed in to bring a "soon husband," Miss Lizzie snapped on the top and
+told her sharply to stop rumpling up Miss Milly's dress.
+
+The night after Judy had solved the problem of where the wedding was to
+be, Molly felt that she must have her talk with her mother. Judy was
+tired and a little distrait, visualizing again no doubt; seeing the
+wedding in her mind's eye; regretting the holly-hocks; wondering if she
+really did have the power that Kent attributed to her, that of a
+creative artist. If she did have it, what should she do about it? Was it
+not up to her to make something of herself if she had such a gift? Was
+she willing to work, as work she would have to, if she really expected
+to do something? At the back of it all was the thought, "Would Kent like
+her so much if she should turn out to be a woman with a purpose?" Judy
+was obliged to confess to herself as she dozed off that what Kent Brown
+thought of her made a good deal of difference to her, more than she had
+thought that any man's opinion could make.
+
+Molly waited until she thought Judy was asleep and then crept softly
+downstairs to her mother's room. Mrs. Brown was awake and glad indeed to
+see her "old red head," as she sometimes lovingly called Molly, coming
+to have a good talk. It is funny what a difference it makes who calls
+one a red head. Now that horrid girl at college, Adele Windsor, had
+enraged Molly into forgetting what Aunt Mary called her "raisin'" by
+calling her a red head, and yet when mother called her the same thing it
+sounded like sweet music in her ears.
+
+Mother had some things to tell Molly, too. She did not altogether
+approve of John's inamorata, the girl visiting Aunt Clay. It was a case
+of Dr. Fell with her.
+
+  "I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.
+  The reason why I cannot tell;
+  But this I know, and know full well,
+  I do not love thee, Dr. Fell."
+
+Then she did think if Sue intended to marry Cyrus Clay she should not
+lead on the other two young men, who seemed quite serious in their
+attentions. She hated to say anything, because Sue was so dignified.
+
+"Now if it were you or Mildred, I would speak out, but you know Sue
+always did scare me a little, Molly."
+
+And Molly and her mother giggled like school girls over this confession.
+Sue was very handsome and lovely and good, but she was certainly a
+little superior, and Mrs. Brown found that, if she had any talking over
+of things to do, she wanted either Molly or Mildred, who were "not too
+pure or good for human nature's daily food."
+
+Molly was eager to know what her mother thought of Judy, and was
+delighted at her frank liking for her friend. Then Molly had to tell her
+mother of her hopes and ambitions; of her triumphs and disappointments
+at college; and of her growing friendship for Jimmy Lufton, the clever
+young journalist from New York who was trying to persuade Molly to go
+into newspaper work; of his liking for her that she did not want to
+ripen into anything more serious, but his last letters were certainly
+growing more and more fervent.
+
+"Don't flirt, little girl, don't flirt. It would not be my Molly if she
+deceived any one. Have all the fun you can and as many friends as
+possible and enjoy life while you are young. You are sure to be popular
+with every one, men and women, boys and girls, but don't be a coquette."
+
+"Mother, I don't mean to be ever, and really and truly I have done
+nothing to mislead Mr. Lufton, and maybe I am mistaken and conceited
+about his feeling for me, and I truly hope I am. I have never done
+anything but be my natural self with him."
+
+Mrs. Brown smiled, well knowing that just being her natural self was
+where Molly did the damage, if damage had been done.
+
+"Mother, there is something else." Mrs. Brown knew there was, and was
+patiently waiting. "You know Professor Green? Well, I gave him your
+invitation to come to Kentucky."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"He said, 'Thank you.'"
+
+"Is he coming?"
+
+"I don't know." Molly found talking to her mother about Professor Green
+more difficult than she had imagined it would be. "When you wrote me two
+years ago that some eccentric person had bought the orchard and I could
+finish my college course, I told Professor Green about it, and also told
+him I should like to meet the old man who had saved me from premature
+school-teaching. And when he asked me what I'd do if I should happen to
+meet him, I told him I would give him a good hug." Molly faltered.
+"Well, mother, when I told him good-by and gave him your invitation, I
+went back and--I just gave him a good hug."
+
+Mrs. Brown sat up so vigorously that Molly, sitting by her side, was
+almost jolted off the bed.
+
+"Why, Molly Brown! And what did Professor Green do?"
+
+"He? Oh, he took it very philosophically and bowed his head 'til the
+storm was over."
+
+Mrs. Brown gave a gasp of relief.
+
+"He must be a good old gentleman, indeed. About how old is he, Molly?"
+
+"The girls say every day of thirty-two."
+
+"Why, the poor old thing! Do you think he could take the trip out here
+to Kentucky all by himself?"
+
+"Mother, please don't tease. There is something else. Jimmy Lufton wrote
+a little note which I found in the bottom of the basket of fruit he had
+put on the train for us. It was wrapped around a lemon and said, 'Here
+is a lemon you can hand me if, when I come to Kentucky this summer, you
+don't want me to stay.'"
+
+"Oh! The plot thickens! So he is coming, too."
+
+"Yes, but he lives in Lexington, and is coming out to see his family,
+anyhow."
+
+"Well, Molly, darling, you must go to bed now, but before you go tell me
+one thing: do you want Professor Green to come to Chatsworth?"
+
+"Yes, mother, I think I do," and giving her mother a hug that made that
+lady gasp again and say, "Molly, what a hugger you are," she flew from
+the room and raced upstairs two steps at a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--BURGLARS.
+
+
+Judy was sitting up in bed, the moon lighting her enough for Molly to
+see a wild, startled look on her face.
+
+"Molly, Molly, I hear something!"
+
+"You hear me making more noise than I have any business to at this time
+o' night. I have been having a good old talk with muddy."
+
+"Oh, no, it wasn't that. I knew you were downstairs. I haven't been
+truly asleep. I was 'possuming.' It is out by the chicken yard, and I am
+so afraid it is burglars after the pullets Aunt Mary told me she was
+saving for chicken salad for the wedding supper. Lewis was to kill them
+to-morrow."
+
+Judy had entered so intensely into the Browns' household affairs that
+Molly herself was no more interested in the festive preparations than
+was her guest. Molly drew cautiously to the window and peeped out; she
+beckoned Judy, and the excited girls saw a sight to freeze the marrow in
+their chicken-salad-loving bones: the thief had a wheelbarrow, and some
+great gunny sacks over his arm, and was in the act of boldly opening the
+chicken-yard gate.
+
+"If we call he will get away, and how else can we let the boys know? The
+wretch may have those sacks full of chickens even now," moaned Molly.
+
+There was a three-room cottage or "office," as they called it, on the
+side of the house next the garden where all of the young men slept in
+summer. The girls feared that, in trying to let them know of the
+burglar, if they went out of the front door they would startle Mrs.
+Brown. And if they should try to go out the back door, in getting to the
+cottage they would have to run across a broad streak of moonlight in
+plain view of the thief, and thus give him ample time to get away with
+his booty before they could arouse the boys.
+
+"Why shouldn't we take the matter in our own hands and make him drop his
+sacks and run?" said Molly. "I am not afraid, are you?"
+
+"Me afraid? Bless your soul, no. I am only afraid he will get off with
+the chickens," replied the intrepid Judy. "I have my little revolver in
+the tray of my trunk, the one papa gave me when we were camping in
+Arizona. I can load it in a jiffy. But what weapon will you take?"
+
+"I don't see anything but my tennis racket. I'll take that and some
+balls, too, in case I have to hit at long range. There is really no
+danger for us, as a chicken thief has never been known to go armed with
+anything more dangerous than a bag."
+
+They slipped on their raincoats, as they were darker than their kimonos,
+and crept softly down the back stairs, out on the back porch, and down
+the steps into the yard, keeping close in the shadow of the house until
+they came to an althea hedge. Skirting this, still in the shadow, they
+got near enough to the chicken-yard gate to have a good look at the
+burglar. That burly ruffian, instead of bagging the pullets that were
+peacefully roosting in a dog-wood tree, totally unconscious that they
+were sleeping the last sleep of the condemned, had taken a spade from
+his wheelbarrow, carefully spread out his gunny sacks and was digging
+with great care around the holly-hocks, digging so deep and so far from
+the roots that he soon got up a great sod without injuring the plants.
+This he placed with great care in the barrow, and as he stepped into the
+broad moonlight the girls recognized Kent. They clutched each other and
+were silent, except for a little choking noise from Judy which might
+easily have come from one of the condemned, having premonitory dreams of
+the morrow.
+
+Kent worked on until his wheelbarrow was full of the lovely flowers.
+Then he stuck in the spade and trundled it away toward the garden, the
+girls silently following, still keeping as well in the shadow as was
+possible, and holding tight to their weapons, although they no longer
+had any use for them. On reaching the garden, they realized that Kent
+must have been working many hours. He had already moved dozens of the
+stately plants, and they now stood in the garden where they belonged, no
+doubt glad of the transplanting from their former homely surroundings.
+So deeply and well had Kent dug that they were uninjured by the move,
+and he completed the job by dousing them plentifully with water from a
+great tub that he had filled at the cistern.
+
+The effect was wonderful, as Judy had known that it would be, but her
+surprise and pleasure that Kent should be so anxious to gratify her
+every wish was great. She felt her cheeks glowing with excitement and
+her heart pit-a-patting as it would not have done, even had Kent proved
+to be the chicken thief they had imagined him to be.
+
+That young man finished his job, cleaned his spade, shook out the gunny
+sacks, raked the debris from the walk, and then, giving a tired yawn and
+stretching himself until he looked even taller than the six feet one he
+measured in his stocking feet, he said out loud in a perfectly
+conversational tone:
+
+"Now, Miss Judy, you may have the master mind that can imagine things
+and see beforehand how they are going to look, but I'll have you know it
+takes work to create and drudgery to accomplish; and only by the sweat
+of the brow can we 'give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.'
+You and Molly can step out of the bushes and view the landscape."
+
+"Oh, Kent, did you know we were there all the time?"
+
+"Certainly, little Sister, from the time Miss Judy went like a chicken
+with the gapes, I have known you were with me; but you seemed to be
+having such a good time I hated to break it up. You might have stepped
+in and helped a fellow, though."
+
+"Oh, we were doing the head work," retaliated Judy.
+
+Kent laughed, and then he had to tease them about their adventure and
+their weapons, especially Molly's racket and balls.
+
+"We had better crawl into the hay now, however. It is getting mighty
+late at night, or, rather, mighty early in the morning, and where will
+our beauty be if we don't get to sleep? I'll see you to the back door."
+
+"You needn't," said Molly. "You must be dead tired, and here is the
+office door open for you. There is no use in your coming any farther. We
+can slip around the front way and be in the house in no time."
+
+"Well, good morning. I am dead tired, and such brave ladies as you are
+need no escort. Better luck to you next time you go burglar hunting."
+
+It was a wonderful night, or rather morning, as Kent had indicated. The
+moon hung low on the horizon ready for bed, as an example to all up-late
+young ladies. The stars, with their rival retiring, were doing their
+best to get in a little shine before daylight. Everything was very
+still. The tree frogs and crickets and Katy-dids had suddenly ceased
+their incessant noise. There was a feel in the air that meant dawn.
+
+What was it that greeted the ears of the tired Kent? Old tennis player
+that he was, it sounded to him like the twang of a racket in the hands
+of a determined server who means to drive a ball that the champion
+himself could not return. Then came the dull thud of the ball, a groan,
+a scream; then the sharp crack of a pistol, more screams from inside the
+house; lights, doors opening, all the household awake, and Paul and John
+and Crit, who had spent the night at Chatsworth, tumbling out of the
+office almost before Kent could get around the house. There he found
+Judy fallen in a little heap on the grass, and Molly carefully and
+coolly aiming a second tennis ball, this time at a real burglar.
+
+The man climbing from the upper gallery of the house had been surprised
+by the girls as they came from the garden. At Molly's first ball he had
+dropped to the ground, and Judy had caught him on the fly, as it were.
+The second tennis ball got him square on the jaw, but he was already
+down and out. Kent declared afterward, when the smoke of battle had
+cleared away, that it was not like Molly to hit a fellow when he was
+down. She had always been a good sport until now.
+
+Mrs. Woodsmall, it seems, had talked too much about the weight of
+Mildred's silver, and had dwelt too long on the recklessness of the
+Browns in having all of those fine things in the little hall room with
+the window opening on the upper gallery, where anybody with any
+limberness could climb up that twisted wisteria vine and get away with
+anything he had a mind to. A tramp, hanging around the postoffice
+window, had overheard her and, having more limberness than any other
+commodity, had endeavored to help himself.
+
+Dr. John came with first aid to the injured, and found the man more
+scared than hurt. It was hard to tell which ball had done most damage;
+certainly Molly's was the more effective in appearance. Her first she
+had served straight at his nose, so disfiguring that member that the
+rogues' gallery officials would have had difficulty in identifying him.
+The second found his jaw and gave him so much pain that John feared a
+fracture. Judy's little pistol had done good work. A flesh wound on the
+arm was the verdict for her.
+
+The ground was strewn with silver in every kind of fancy novelty that a
+bride is supposed by her dear friends to need--or why else do they give
+them to her?
+
+Then Crittenden Rutledge opened his mouth and spoke. As usual when he
+did such a thing it was worth getting up before dawn to hear him.
+
+"Don't you think, Mildred, darling, we might give the poor fellow three
+or four cheese scoops and several butter knives and a card tray or two?
+A young couple could easily make out for a while with one of each, and
+if he will promise to go back to Indiana and stay---- You did come from
+Indiana, didn't you?" The man gave a grin and nodded. "Well, if you
+promise to go back and never put your foot in Kentucky again, I'll go
+wrap up Aunt Clay's vases for you."
+
+Mrs. Brown, thankful that her brood was safe and no more damage done the
+poor, wicked tramp than a sore shoulder, a swollen nose and a fractured
+jaw, sent them all to bed with instructions to sleep late, and told
+Molly and Judy to stay in bed for breakfast. The burglar was put in the
+smokehouse for safekeeping until sun-up, when John and Paul expected to
+take him to Louisville, swear out a warrant against him and land him in
+jail. When the time came, however, to transfer their prisoner from
+smokehouse to jail, they found the door open, the man gone and a fine
+old ham missing.
+
+"An' they ain't a single pusson in the whole er Indianny what knows how
+ter cook a ham, either," bewailed Aunt Mary.
+
+"To think the ungrateful wretch went off without Aunt Clay's vases,"
+muttered Crittenden Rutledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--THE WEDDING.
+
+
+The wedding came off so exactly as Judy had planned it that it seemed to
+her to be a proof of the theory of transmigration of the soul, and that
+in a previous incarnation she had been to just such a wedding. The
+eldest brother, Ernest, arrived from the far West just in time to change
+his clothes and give the bride away. There were three understudies for
+his part, so there was not much concern over his non-arrival until he
+got there with a blood-curdling tale of wrecks and wash-outs that had
+delayed him twenty-four hours. Then all of them got very much concerned
+and Mrs. Brown reproached herself for being so taken up with Mildred's
+wedding that she had forgotten to worry about the absent one for the
+time being. Ernest resembled Sue more than any of the rest of them, and
+had a good deal of her poise and dignity. "But I'll wager that he is not
+as serious as he seems," thought Judy, detecting a twinkle in the corner
+of his sober eyes.
+
+Mildred looked lovely, and she had such a sweet, trusting look in her
+eyes as she came down the steps and up the tan-bark walk on Ernest's
+arm, that Crittenden Rutledge, waiting for her at the end of the walk,
+broke away from his best man and went forward several yards to meet his
+bride. Sue and Molly brought up the rear; Sue, composed and calm with
+her sweet dignity; but Molly, so deeply moved by this beloved sister's
+marriage and the break in their ranks, the very first, that she felt her
+knees trembling and wondered if it could be possible that she was going
+to ruin everything and burst into tears or fall in a faint or do
+something terrible. But she didn't. The familiar voice of their old
+minister in the opening lines of the Episcopal marriage service brought
+her to her senses, and she was able to follow the ritual in her mind,
+but she dared not trust herself to look up. She kept her eyes glued to
+her bouquet of "love-in-the-mist," that Miss Lizzie Monday had brought
+her that morning, picked from her own old-fashioned garden.
+
+"I know the groom will send the bridesmaids flowers, but somehow, Molly,
+I don't want you to carry hothouse flowers. These 'love-in-the-mists'
+will look just right with your dress and your eyes and your ways."
+
+So Molly carried Miss Lizzie's "bokay" and put the flowers that the
+groom sent her in a vase in the parlor. But Molly was not thinking of
+her dress or her eyes, except to try to keep the tears in them, since
+come they would, and not let them run out on her cheeks. Mildred's
+responses were inaudible except to dear old Dr. Peters, the minister,
+but Crittenden's were so loud and clear and resonant that it was almost
+like chanting, and Judy had to smile when she could not help thinking of
+the stammering man's "Your house is on fire, tra la, tra la."
+
+"I pronounce you man and wife."
+
+All is over. Molly can let the tears fall now if she wants to, but,
+strange to say, she does not seem to want to any more. Such a rejoicing
+is going on. Everybody seems to be kissing everybody else. Aren't they
+all more or less kin? Mildred and Kent, the center of a gay crowd, are
+fondly kissing the ones they should merely shake hands with, and
+formally shaking hands with their nearest and dearest, just as in a fire
+people have been known to carry carefully the pillows downstairs and
+throw the bowls and pitchers out of the window. Kent has his wits about
+him, however, and kisses Judy, declaring it is all in the day's work.
+
+A stranger standing on the outskirts of the crowd during the whole
+ceremony seemed much more interested in the bridesmaid dressed in blue
+than in the bride herself, and when this same bridesmaid felt herself
+swaying a little as though her emotion might get the better of her, if
+one had not been so taken up with the central figures on the stage he
+might have noticed the stranger start forward as though to go to her
+assistance. But he, too, was brought to his senses by the calm voice of
+Dr. Peters in the opening words of the service, and saw with evident
+relief that the bridesmaid had gained control of herself. He was a tall
+young man with kind brown eyes and light hair, a little thin at the
+temples, giving him more years perhaps than he was entitled to.
+
+When the service was over and the general confusion ensued, he made his
+way swiftly to where Molly stood, and without saying one word of
+greeting he put his arm around her and tenderly kissed her. Molly was so
+overcome with astonishment that she could only gasp, "Professor Green!
+What are you doing here?"
+
+"I am having a very pleasant time, thank you, Miss Molly. I got your
+mother's kind invitation to attend your sister's wedding, and--here I am.
+Didn't your brother Paul tell you that I had come?"
+
+"No, we have been so occupied, I believe I have not seen Paul to-day."
+
+"I went to his newspaper office in Louisville to find out something
+about how to get here, and he asked me to drive out with him. Are you
+sorry I came, Miss Molly?"
+
+"Sorry? Oh, Professor Green, you must know how glad I am to see you!
+But, you see, I was a little startled, not expecting you and thinking of
+you as still at Wellington."
+
+"If you were thinking of me as being anywhere at all, I feel better.
+Were you really thinking of me?"
+
+"Yes," said the candid Molly, "and wasn't it strange that I was thinking
+of you just as you came up--and--and----" but, remembering his manner of
+greeting her, she blushed painfully.
+
+"You are not angry with me, are you, my dear child? I felt so lonesome.
+You see everybody seemed to know everybody else, and there was such a
+handshaking and so forth going on that before I knew it I was in the
+swim."
+
+"Almost every one here is kin or near-kin, and weddings in Kentucky seem
+to give a great deal of license," said Molly, recovering her equanimity.
+"Of course I am not angry with you. I could not get angry with any one
+on Mildred's wedding day."
+
+But Molly felt that in a way Edwin Green had paid her back for the hug
+she had given him. She had hugged him because he was so old that she
+could do so with impunity, and he in turn had kissed her because he felt
+lonesome, forsooth, and she was so young that it made no great
+difference. His "My dear child" had been a kind of humiliation to Molly.
+What is the use of being a senior and graduating at college if a man
+very little over thirty thinks you are nothing but a kid?
+
+"Professor Green is not so very much older than Ernest," thought Molly,
+"and I wager he will not treat Judy with that
+old-enough-to-be-your-father air! Here am I getting mad on Mildred's
+wedding day when I just said I could not! And, after all, Professor
+Green has been very kind to me and means to be now, I know." Turning to
+him with one of "Molly's own," as Edith Williams termed her smile, she
+said, "Now you must meet my mother and all the rest of them."
+
+Mrs. Brown looked keenly and rather sadly at the young professor. This
+coming of men for her daughters was growing wearisome, so the poor lady
+thought; but she liked Edwin Green's expression and found herself
+trusting him before he got through explaining his sudden appearance in
+Kentucky.
+
+"After all, maybe he is only thinking of Molly as one of his pupils. His
+buying the orchard meant an interest in her college course and nothing
+else."
+
+Mrs. Brown introduced him to the relatives and friends near her, and
+Molly had to leave him and make herself useful, as usual, in seeing that
+the refreshments were forthcoming.
+
+When they had decided to have the wedding out of doors, it had seemed
+best to have the supper al fresco, and now brisk and very polite colored
+waiters were busy bringing tables and chairs from a side porch and
+placing them on the lawn. An odor of coffee and broiled sweetbreads,
+mingling with that of chicken salad and hot beaten biscuit, began to
+rival the fragrance of the orange flowers and roses.
+
+The crowd around the bride thinning out a little to find seats at the
+tables, Professor Green was able to make his way to Mildred and
+Crittenden. After greeting them, he espied Judy talking sweetly to a
+stern-looking woman with a hard face and a soft figure, who was dressed
+severely in a stiff black silk, with most uncompromising linen collar
+and cuffs. Her iron-gray hair was tightly coiled in a fashion that
+emphasized her hawk-like expression, but with all she looked enough like
+Mrs. Brown to establish an undeniable claim to relationship with that
+charming lady. Mrs. Brown herself, in a soft black crepe de Chine and
+old lace collar and cuffs, with her wavy chestnut hair, was more
+beautiful than any of her daughters, the bride herself having to take a
+second place.
+
+Judy was delighted to see the professor, and not nearly so astonished as
+Molly had been, the truth being that Paul had told that young lady of
+Edwin Green's arrival, with the expectation that she would inform Molly.
+But Judy, realizing the state of excitement that Molly was in,
+determined to keep the news to herself and not give Molly anything more
+to feel just then, even if in doing so she, Judy, would appear to be
+careless and forgetful. Judy understood the regard that Molly had for
+Professor Green--better than Molly herself did. She remembered Molly's
+expression and misery when little Otoyo, their Japanese friend at
+Wellington, had told them of his being so dangerously ill with typhoid,
+and how Molly had lost weight and could neither sleep nor eat until the
+crisis had passed.
+
+"Did you ever see such a beautiful wedding in your life?" said Judy.
+
+"Never, and I am told it was all your plan, even to the holly-hock
+background."
+
+"Well, you see the idea was floating around in the air, and I was just
+the one who had her idea-net ready and caught it. Ideas are like
+butterflies, anyhow--all flying around waiting to be pounced on--but the
+thing is to have your net ready."
+
+"Yes, and another thing, not to handle the butterfly idea too roughly.
+Many an idea, beautiful in itself, is ruined in the working out," said
+her companion.
+
+"That is where taste comes in."
+
+Judy would have liked to chase the metaphor much farther with the
+agreeable young man, but she remembered that she had set out to
+fascinate Aunt Clay, and it was Aunt Sarah Clay to whom she had been
+talking when Professor Green had come up. She introduced him, and Mrs.
+Clay immediately pounced on him with a tirade against innovations of all
+kinds.
+
+Looking very much as we are led by the cartoonists to expect a
+suffragist to look, Mrs. Clay was the most ardent "anti." Opposed to all
+progress and innovations, and constantly at war on the subject of higher
+education of women, she carried her conservatism even to the point of
+having her grain cut with a scythe instead of using the up-to-date
+machinery. Professor Green was her natural enemy, for was he not
+instructor in a girls' school where, she was led to understand, belief
+in equal suffrage was as necessary for entrance as the knowledge of
+Latin or mathematics?
+
+Professor Green, ignorant of the antagonism she felt for him and his
+calling, endeavored to make himself as agreeable as possible to Molly's
+aunt. He listened with seeming respect to her attack on modernism and
+then turned the subject to the wedding, her pretty nieces and
+fine-looking nephews.
+
+"I never heard of any one getting married out of doors before in my
+life, and had I known they were contemplating such a thing I certainly
+should not have set my foot on the place, nor would I have sent them the
+handsome wedding present I did. I shall not be at all astonished if the
+bishop reprimands that sentimental old Dr. Peters for allowing anything
+so undignified in connection with the church ritual. They had much
+better jump over a broomstick like Gypsies and not desecrate our prayer
+book in such a manner. Mildred Carmichael has brought all her children
+up to have their own way. The idea of none of those boys being willing
+to stay on the farm where their forefathers managed to make a living,
+and a very good one! They, forsooth, must go as clerks or reporters or
+what not into cities and let their farm go to rack and ruin, already
+mortgaged until it is top-heavy. Then when they do make a little, they
+must squander it in this absurd new-fangled machinery, labor-saving
+devices that I have no use for in the world. And now Molly, not content
+with four years wasted at college, to say nothing of the money, says she
+wants to go back to fit herself more thoroughly for making her living.
+Living, indeed! Where are her brothers that she need feel the necessity
+of making her living?"
+
+"But, Mrs. Clay," Judy here broke in, "my father says that there are
+only three male relatives that a woman should expect to support her: her
+father, her husband and her son. Since Molly has none of these, she, of
+course, wants to do something for herself. Even with a father, unless
+the father is very well off, it seems to me a girl ought to help after a
+lot has been spent on her education. I certainly mean to do something,
+but the trouble is, the only thing I can do will mean more money spent
+before I can accomplish anything."
+
+"And what does such a charming person as Miss Kean expect to do?" asked
+the irascible old lady.
+
+"I want to go to Paris and study to become a decorator." This was too
+much for Mrs. Clay. Without saying a word, she turned and stalked across
+the lawn where the waiters were carrying trays of food.
+
+"Hateful old thing! I hope food will improve her temper. It would
+certainly be acceptable to me. See, here comes Kent with a table! I'll
+find Molly and we can have a fine foursome, and you shall taste Aunt
+Mary's beaten biscuit, hot from the oven. No wonder Molly is such an
+angel. If, as the cereal ads. say, we are what our food makes us, any
+one raised on Aunt Mary's cooking would have to be good. Goodness knows
+what Aunt Clay eats! It must be thistles and green persimmons!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.--BUTTERMILK TACT.
+
+
+Mildred, dressed in her pretty brown traveling suit, off to Iowa; the
+last slipper and handful of rice thrown; the last lingering guest
+departed; daylight passed and the moon well up; and at last Mrs. Brown
+and Judy and Molly were free to sink on a settle on the porch, realizing
+for the first time how tired and footsore they were.
+
+"Oh, my dears, I feel as though I could never get up again! It is a good
+thing I am so tired, for now I shall have to sleep and can't grieve for
+Mildred all night. I begged Professor Green to stay, but he had to go
+back to Louisville. However, he is coming out to Chatsworth to-morrow to
+pay us the promised visit. We shall have to pack the presents in the
+morning to send to Iowa, and glad I'll be to get them out of the house.
+Did I tell you, Molly, that Aunt Mary, Ca'line and Lewis are all going
+off to-morrow to Jim Jourdan's basket funeral? We shall be alone, you
+and Judy and I. Sue goes to your Aunt Clay's for a few days, and Kent
+starts back to work, the dear boy. Such a comfort as he has been! Ernest
+has to look up some friends in town, but will be out in time for supper.
+I fancy he will drive Professor Green out from Louisville. Good night,
+my dear girls, I know you are dead tired."
+
+So they were, so tired that Judy overslept in the morning, but Molly was
+up betimes to help the servants get off on their gruesome spree.
+
+"Now ain't that jes' like my Molly baby? She don' never fergit to be
+he'pful. Th' ain't no cookin' fer you to do to-day, honey; they's plenty
+of bis'it lef' from the jamboree las' night; they's a ham bone wif 'nuf
+on it fer you and yo' ma an' Miss Judy to pick on; they's a big bowl er
+chick'n salid in the 'frigerater that I jes' bodaciously tuck away from
+that black Lewis. I done tol' him that awlive ile my'naise ain't no
+eatin's fer niggers. If his insides needs a greasin' he kin take a good
+swaller er castor ile. Tell yo' ma I made that lazy Ca'line churn fo'
+sun-up 'cause they wa'nt a drap er butter in the house, an' the
+buttermilk is in the big jar in the da'ry. They's a pot er cabbage
+simperin' on the back er the stove, but that ain't meant fer the white
+folks, but jes' in case we needs some comfort when we gits back from the
+funeral. I tried to save some ice cream fer my honey baby from las'
+night an' had it all packed good fer keepin', but looked like in the
+night I took sech a cravin' fer some mo' I couldn' sleep 'thout I had
+some, an' by the time I opened up the freezer an' et some, it looked
+like the res' of it jes' melted away somehow."
+
+"Well, Aunt Mary, I am so glad you got some more. Have a good time and
+don't worry about us. We shall get along all right. You see there are no
+men on the place to-day, and women can eat anything the day after a
+party. You know my teacher, Professor Green, is going to be here for a
+visit. He is coming this evening in time for supper, and I do hope you
+won't be too tired after the basket funeral to make him some waffles."
+
+"What, me tired? I ain't a-goin' to be doin' nothin' all day but enjyin'
+of myself; and if I won't have the stren'th myself to stir up a few
+waffles fer my baby's frien's, I's still survigerous 'nuf to make that
+Ca'line do it. I allus has a good time at funerals an' a basket funeral
+is the mos' enjyble of all entertainments."
+
+Judy came on the scene just then and begged to be enlightened as to the
+nature of a basket funeral.
+
+"Well, you see, honey, when a member dies at a onseasonable time, or at
+the beginning of the week an' you can't keep him 'til Sunday, or in
+harvestin' time when ev'ybody is busy an' the hosses is all workin', why
+then we jes' bury the corpse quiet like. And then when work gits slack
+an' there is some chanst to borrow the white folks' teams, we gits
+together an' ev'ybody takes a big lunch an' we impair to the seminary
+an' have a preachment over the grave and then a big jamboree." The old
+woman stopped to chuckle, and such a contagious chuckle she had that you
+found yourself laughing with her before you knew what the joke was.
+
+"I 'member moughty well when this here same Jim Jourdan, what is to be
+preached over an' prayed over an' et over to-day, was doin' the same by
+his second wife Suky Jourdan, an' that was after I had buried my Cyrus
+an' befo' I took up wif my Albert. It was a hot day in July when
+fryin'-size chick'ns was jes' about comin' on good an' fat, an' I had a
+scrumptious lot of victuals good 'nuf fer white folks. Jim looked so
+ferlorn that I as't him to sit down an' try to worry down some eatin's
+with us. He was vas'ly pleased to do so, an' look like he couldn' praise
+my cookin' 'nuf; an' befo' we got to the pie, he up an' ast me to come
+occupy Suky's place in his cabin. I never said one word, but I got up
+an' fetched a big pa'm leaf fan out'n the waggin an han' it to him.
+'What's this fer, Sis Mary?' sez he, an' sez I, 'You jes' take this here
+fan an' fan you' secon' 'til she's col', and then come a seekin' yo'
+third.'"
+
+The girls laughed until the tears rolled down their cheeks over Aunt
+Mary's unique courtship. The red-wheeled wagon came up driven by Lewis
+with Ca'line sitting beside him, dressed within an inch of her life.
+Molly got a box for Aunt Mary to step on to climb into the vehicle, but
+the old woman refused to budge until Lewis took out the back seat and
+got a rocking chair for her to sit in.
+
+"You know moughty well, you fergitful nigger, that I allus goes to
+baskit funerals a-settin' in a rockin' cheer! Go git the one offen the
+back po'ch, the red one with the arms to it. Sho as I go a-settin' on a
+back seat some lazy pusson what can't borrow a team will come a-astin'
+fer to ride longside er me, an' I don' want nobody a-rumplin' me up, an'
+'sides ole Miss never lent this waggin fer all the niggers in Jeff'son
+County to come a-crowdin' in an ben'in' the springs. Then when we gits
+to the buryin' groun', I'll have a cheer to sit in an' not have to go
+squattin' 'roun' on grabe stones."
+
+"Good-by, Aunt Mary, good-by, Ca'line and Lewis."
+
+The girls waved until they were out of sight and then went laughing into
+the quiet house. It seemed quiet, indeed, after the hub-bub of the day
+before.
+
+"Everything certainly stayed clean with all of the guests out of doors.
+I have never had an entertainment with so little to do when it was
+over," said Mrs. Brown. "It was a good day for the servants to go away,
+with the house in such good order and enough left-overs from the wedding
+supper for three lone women to feed on for several meals. I wonder how
+your Aunt Clay is getting on with her harvesting? She is so headstrong
+not to borrow my cutting machine! Why does she insist that flour made
+from wheat cut with a scythe makes better bread than that cut with
+modern machinery?"
+
+"She declared yesterday, mother, that she was not going to feed her
+hands until they got through mowing, if it took them until nightfall.
+She says you spoil all darkeys that come near you, and she is going to
+show them who is boss on her place. Kent infuriated her by telling her
+she would get herself into trouble if she did not look out; that her
+wheat was already overripe, and if she attempted to make her hands work
+over dinner hour they would leave it half cut; but advice to Aunt Clay
+always sends her in the opposite direction."
+
+"I wish I had not let Sue go over there. Most of those harvesters are
+strangers from another county, and they might do something desperate if
+Sarah antagonized them."
+
+"Don't worry, mother, Cyrus Clay is over there, and he is sure to take
+good care of Sue."
+
+The morning was spent with much gay talk as they packed the presents.
+Mrs. Brown was the kind of woman who could enter into the feelings of
+young people. She seemed to be of their generation and was never shocked
+or astonished when in their talk she realized that things had changed
+since her day. She usually made the best of it and put it down to
+"progress" of some sort. They worked faithfully, and by twelve o'clock
+had tied up and labeled the last parcel to go in the last barrel.
+
+"Come on, girls, let's have an early lunch and then we can have our much
+needed and hard-earned rest. A good nap all around will make us feel
+like ourselves again."
+
+How good that lunch did taste! Molly had been so excited that she could
+not swallow food the evening before, and Mrs. Brown had been so busy
+looking after guests that she had forgotten to eat. Judy was the only
+one who had done justice to the supper, but, having tested it, she was
+more than willing to try the chicken salad again.
+
+"Never mind washing the dishes; put them in a dish-pan for Ca'line. Get
+into your kimonos and take a good nap. I am sick for sleep," yawned Mrs.
+Brown.
+
+In five minutes they were dead to the world, lost in that midsummer
+afternoon sleep, the heaviest of all slumber. Everything was perfectly
+still except the bees, buzzing around the honey-suckle. A venturesome
+vine had made its way through Molly's window, ever open in summer, and
+as Judy lay, half asleep, she amused herself by watching a great bumble
+bee sip honey from the fragrant flowers, and his humming was the last
+sound that she was conscious of hearing. It seemed like a minute, so
+heavily had she slept--it was really several hours--when she was awakened
+with a nightmare that the bee was as big as a horse and his humming was
+that of a thousand bees.
+
+"Molly, Molly, listen, what is that noise?"
+
+Molly, ever a light sleeper, was out of bed in a trice and at the front
+window. What a sight met her eyes! Coming up the avenue was a crowd of
+at least forty negroes, all of them carrying scythes and whetstones, the
+sweat pouring from their black faces and bared necks and hairy chests,
+their white teeth flashing and eyeballs rolling, the sun glinting on the
+sharp steel of their scythes, menace and fury darkening the face of
+every man and coming from them a mutter and hum truly like the buzzing
+of a thousand bees.
+
+Judy, although she was weak with fear, could not help thinking, "That is
+the noise on the stage that a mob tries to make."
+
+"Aunt Clay's hands have struck work, and to think there is not a man on
+this place! I believe the blackguards know it! Load your pistol, Judy,
+and let us go to mother."
+
+Mother was already up, hastily gowned in her wrapper, and opening the
+front door when the girls came down the stairs. The intrepid lady walked
+out on the porch with seemingly no more fear than she had had the day
+before when she came forward to meet the wedding guests. Head erect,
+eyes steady and piercing, with a voice clear and composed, she said,
+"Why, boys, you look very tired and hot, and I know you are hungry. Sit
+down in the shade, on the porch steps and under the trees, and I will
+see what we can find for you to eat. Molly, go get that buttermilk out
+of the dairy. The jar is too heavy for you to lift, so take Buck and let
+him carry it for you."
+
+Mrs. Brown, with all of her courage, was never more scared in her life.
+All the time she was talking she had been looking in the crowd of black
+faces for a familiar one, and was glad to recognize Buck Jourdan, a
+good-natured, good-for-nothing nephew of Aunt Mary's. At her command
+Buck stepped forward, and then a dozen more of the men came to the
+front, unconsciously separating themselves from the rest. Mrs. Brown saw
+that they were all negroes belonging in her neighborhood. At her calming
+words and proffer of food such a change came over the faces of the mob
+that they hardly seemed to be the same men. Their teeth showed now in
+grins instead of sinister snarls; they stacked their murderous looking
+weapons against the paulownia tree and sat down in the shade with
+expressions as peaceful as the wedding guests themselves had worn.
+
+Molly and the stalwart Buck were back in an incredibly short time with
+the five-gallon jar of buttermilk and a tray of glasses not yet put away
+from yesterday's feast. Mrs. Brown herself dipped out the smooth,
+luscious beverage, seeing that each man was plentifully served, while
+Molly went into the house to bring out all the cooked provisions she
+could find. Mrs. Brown beckoned the trembling and wondering Judy to her
+and whispered, "Go ring the farm bell as loud as you can. All danger is
+over now, I feel sure, but it is well to let the neighbors know that we
+are in some difficulty; and I fancy I heard a horse trotting on the
+turnpike, and whoever it is might hasten to us at the sound of a farm
+bell at this unusual hour."
+
+Judy flew to the great bell, hung on a high post in the back yard. She
+seized the rope, and then such a ding-dong as pealed forth! The bell was
+a very heavy brass one, and at every pull Judy, who was something of a
+lightweight, leaped into the air, reciting as she jumped, "Curfew shall
+not ring to-night."
+
+"That is enough, my dear. There is no use in getting help from an
+adjacent county, and I fancy every one in Jefferson County has heard the
+bell by this time," said Mrs. Brown, stopping her before she had quite
+finished the last stanza, which Judy said was like interrupting a good
+sneeze.
+
+Molly had found all kinds of food for the hungry laborers, who were more
+sinned against than sinning. They had gone in all good faith to the Clay
+farm to harvest the wheat according to the antiquated methods of the
+mistress, with scythes and cradles. When twelve o'clock, the dinner hour
+everywhere, came, they were told that they could not eat until they had
+finished. They had worked on until two, and then, infuriated with hunger
+and goaded on by the thought of the injustice done them, they had struck
+in a body and gone to the mansion to try to force Mrs. Clay to feed
+them; but they had been held back at the point of a pistol, by that lady
+herself. Then they had determined to get food where they could find it.
+
+Mrs. Brown gathered this much from the men as, their hunger assuaged,
+they talked more connectedly.
+
+"Th' ain't nothin' like buttermilk to ease yo' heart," said Buck Jasper.
+"Mis' Mildred Carmichael kin git mo' outen her niggers fillin' 'em full
+er buttermilk than her sister Mis' Sary kin fillin' 'em full er
+buckshot."
+
+Mrs. Brown was right; she had heard a horse trotting on the turnpike.
+The men were wiping their mouths on the backs of their hands and coming
+up one at a time to thank the gracious lady for her kindness in feeding
+them, when Ernest and Edwin Green came driving into the avenue.
+
+"Mother! What does this mean? I thought I heard the farm bell when I was
+about two miles from home, and now I find the yard full of negro men.
+Have you had a fire?"
+
+Mrs. Brown explained that Aunt Clay had made things pretty hot for her
+hands, but so far there had been no other fire. She welcomed Professor
+Green to Chatsworth and called the grinning Buck to take his suitcase to
+the cottage porch. Judy wondered at her calm manner and at her saying
+nothing to Ernest about their being so frightened, not realizing that
+one hint of the trouble would have sent Ernest off into a rage, when he
+might have reprimanded the negroes and all the good work of the
+buttermilk have been undone. Molly was pale and Professor Green, ever
+watchful of her, asked Judy to give him an account of the matter, which
+she did in such a graphic manner that he, too, turned pale to think of
+the danger those dear ladies had been in. He made himself at home by
+making himself useful, and helped Molly to carry back into the kitchen
+the empty glasses and plates from the feast of the hungry darkeys. She
+laughingly handed him a great, iron pot in which cabbage had been
+cooked.
+
+"I am wondering what Aunt Mary will say about her cabbage. Mother sent
+me into the house to get all available food, when she realized that the
+hands were simply hungry and that food would be the best thing to quell
+their rage. Aunt Mary had this huge pot of cabbage on the back of the
+range; she said in case Lewis jolted down the lunch she was going to eat
+at the basket funeral she would have it cooked in readiness. The poor
+dogs will have to go hungry, too, or have some more corn bread cooked
+for them. I found this big pan full of what we call dog-bread, made from
+scalded meal and salt and bacon drippings, baked until it is crisp. The
+men were crazy about it with pot liquor poured over it. You can see for
+yourself how they licked their platters clean."
+
+"The Saxon word 'lady' means bread-giver, but I think that you and your
+mother have given it a new significance, and the dictionaries will have
+to add, 'Dispenser of cabbage and buttermilk and dog-bread.'"
+
+More wheels, and Aunt Mary and Lewis, with Ca'line much rumpled and
+asleep on the front seat, her shoes and stockings in her lap and her
+bare feet propped gracefully on the dashboard, had returned. Aunt Mary
+was much excited.
+
+"What's all dis doin'? Who was all dem niggers I seen a-streakin' crost
+the fiel's? Buck Jourdan, ain't that you I see hidin' behine that tree?
+I thought I hearn the farm bell as we roun'ed the Pint, but Lewis lowed
+'twas over to Miss Sary Clay's. Come here, Buck, an' he'p me out'n dis
+here waggin. You needn't think you kin hide from me, when I kin see the
+patch on yo' pants made outen the selfsame goods I gib yo' ma to make
+some waistes out'n, two years ago come next Febuway." Buck came
+sheepishily forward to help his old aunt out of the vehicle. "Nex' time
+you wan' ter hide from me you'd better make out to grow a leettle
+leaner, or fin' a tree what's made out to grow some wider so's you won't
+stick out beyant it. What you been doing, and who's been a-mashin' down
+ole Miss's grass, and what's my little Miss Molly baby a-doin' workin'
+herself to death ag'in to-day?"
+
+Buck endeavored to explain his appearance, and told the story of the
+strike at Mrs. Clay's and how they were just passing through Mrs.
+Brown's yard when she had come out and invited them all to dinner. His
+story was so plausible and his voice so soft and manner so wheedling,
+that Professor Green, who overheard the conversation, was much amused,
+and had he not already got the incident from Judy might have believed
+Buck, so convincing were his words and manner. Not so Aunt Mary, who had
+partly raised the worthless Buck and knew better than anyone how he
+could use his silver tongue to lie as well as tell the truth, but
+preferred the former method.
+
+"Now, look here, you Buck Jourdan, you ain't no count on Gawd's green
+yearth 'cep to play the banjo. What you been doin' hirin' yo'self out to
+Miss Sary Clay, jes' like you ain't never know'd that none of our fambly
+don' never work fer none er hern? Yo' ma befo' you an' yo' gran'ma befo'
+her done tried it. Meanin' no disrespect to the rest er the Carmichaels,
+der's the ole sayin', 'What kin you expec' from a hog but a grunt?' I
+knows 'thout goin' in my kitchen that Miss Molly done gib all you
+triflin' niggers my pot er cabbage an' the dog-bread I baked fer those
+houn's an' bird dogs what ain't no mo' count than you is, 'cept'n they
+can't play the banjo."
+
+"Buck Jourdan, is that you?" said Ernest, coming forward and
+interrupting Aunt Mary's tirade. "I am going to get Miss Molly's banjo
+and you can sit down and give us some music. I haven't heard a good tune
+since I went West."
+
+Buck, glad to escape any farther tongue lashing from his relative, and
+always pleased to play and sing, tuned the banjo and began:
+
+  "'Hi,' said the 'possum as he shook the 'simmon tree,
+  'Golly,' said the rabbit; 'you shake 'em all on me.'
+  An' they went in wif they claws, an' they licked they li'l paws,
+  An' they took whole heaps home to they maws."
+
+After several stanzas sung in a soft melodious voice, Buck, at Molly's
+request, gave them, to a chanting recitative the following song,
+composed by a friend of Buck's, and worthy to be incorporated in
+American folk-lore, so Professor Green laughingly assured Mrs. Brown.
+
+  THE MURDER OF THE RATTAN FAMILY.
+
+  "One evening in September, in eighteen ninety-three,
+  Jim Stone committed a murder, as cruel as it could be.
+  'Twas on the Rattan family, while they were preparing for their bed.
+  Jim Stone, he rapped upon the door, complaining of his head.
+  The first was young Mrs. Rattan. She come to let him in.
+  He slew her with his corn knife--that's where his crime begin.
+  The next was old Mrs. Rattan. Old soul was feeble and gray.
+  Truly she fought Jim Stone a battle till her strength it give way.
+  The next was the little baby. When he, Jim Stone did see,
+  He raised up in his cradle. 'Oh! Jim Stone, don't murder me!'
+  Next morning when he was arrested--wasn't sure that he was the one.
+  Till only a few weeks later he confessed to the crime he done.
+  They took him to Southern Prison, which they thought was the
+    safetes' place.
+  When they marched him out for trial, he had a smile upon his face.
+  And after he was sentenced, oh! how he did mourn and cry.
+  One day he received a letter, saying his daughter was bound to die.
+  Next morning he answered the letter and in it he did say,
+  'Tell her I'll meet her there in Heaven, on the sixteenth of Februway.'
+  They led him upon the scaffold with the black cap over his head.
+  And he hung there sixteen minutes 'fore the doctors pronounced
+    him dead.
+  Now wouldn't it have been much better if he'd stayed at home
+    with his wife,
+  Instead of keeping late hours, and taking that family's life?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.--PICTURES ON MEMORY'S WALL.
+
+
+The next week was a very quiet and peaceful one at Chatsworth. There had
+been so many excitements, with burglars and negro uprisings and what
+not, that Molly was afraid her visitors would think Kentucky deserved
+the meaning the Indians attached to it--"the dark and bloody
+battle-ground."
+
+Ernest, home for a vacation from his labors in the West, endeavored to
+keep Judy from missing the attentions of Kent, who was back at his grind
+in Louisville in the architect's office, and did not get home each day
+until time for a late supper. Judy liked Ernest very well, as she did
+all of the Browns, but Kent and Molly were her favorites still, and the
+evenings were the best of all when Kent came home and, as he put it,
+"relieved Ernest."
+
+Molly found herself on easier terms with Professor Green than she had
+ever imagined possible. If he did not consider her quite an old lady,
+she at least was beginning to look upon him as not such a very old
+gentleman. He played what Kent designated as a "cracker-jack" game of
+tennis, and turned out to be as good a horseman as the Brown boys
+themselves.
+
+"If he only had a little more hair on his forehead," thought Molly, "he
+would look right young."
+
+Aunt Mary was the unconscious means of consoling her for his lack of
+hair. "Honey, I likes yo' teacher mo'n any Yankee I ever seed. He'd
+oughter rub onions on his haid to stimilate the roots. Not but what he
+ain't han'some, baldish haid an' all, with them hones' eyes an' that
+upstandin' look. I done took notice that brains don' make the best sile
+to grow ha'r on an' lots er smart folks is baldish. Mindjer, I wouldn'
+go so fer as to say bald haided folks is all smart. It looks like some
+er them is so hard-haided the ha'r can't break th'ough the scalp."
+
+Of course, the first day at Chatsworth he had to be taken out to view
+his possessions, the two acres of orchard land. It was a possession for
+any man to be proud of. It lay on the side of a gently sloping hill
+covered with blue grass and noble, venerable, twisted apple trees, that
+Molly said reminded her of fine old hands that showed hard, useful work.
+
+"And these trees always have done good work. You know my father called
+these his lucky acres. He was always certain of an income from these
+apples. The trees have been taken care of and trimmed and not allowed to
+rot away as some of the old orchards around here have, Aunt Clay's, for
+instance. She is so afraid of doing something modern that she refused to
+spray her trees when the country was full of San Jose scale, and in
+consequence lost her whole peach orchard and most of her apples. This is
+where our 'castle' used to be."
+
+They were in a grassy space near the middle of the orchard, where a
+stump of an old tree was still standing. The land, showing a beautiful
+soft contour, sloped to the worm fence at the foot of the hill, where
+the grass changed its green to a brighter hue and a beautiful little
+stream sparkled in the sun.
+
+"All of us, even Sue, who is not given to such things, cried when in a
+big wind storm our beloved castle was twisted off of its roots. It was a
+tree made for children to play in, with low spreading branches and great
+crotches, the limbs all twisted and bent and one of them curving down so
+low you could sit in it and touch your feet to the ground. We had our
+regular apartments in that tree and kept our treasures in a hole too
+high up for thieves to have any suspicion of it. It was so shady and
+cool and breezy that on the hottest day we were comfortable and often
+had lunch here. We played every kind of game known to children and made
+up a lot more. 'Swiss Family Robinson' when they went to live up the
+tree was our best game. I remember once Kent gathered a lot of
+peach-tree gum and ruined my slippers trying to make rubber boots out of
+them as the father in Swiss Family Robinson did. Our castle had
+wonderful apples on it, too. They grew to an enormous size, and if any
+of them were ever allowed to get really ripe they turned pure gold and
+tasted--oh, how good they did taste."
+
+Edwin Green listened, enchanted at Molly's description of her childhood
+and the beloved play-house. He half shut his eyes and tried to picture
+her as a little girl in a blue sun-bonnet--of course she must have had a
+blue bonnet--climbing nimbly up the old apple tree, entering as eagerly
+into the game of Swiss Family Robinson as she was now playing the game
+of life, even letting her best little slippers be gummed over to play
+the game true. He had a feeling of almost bitter regret that he hadn't
+known Molly as a little girl. "She must have been such a bully little
+girl," thought that highly educated teacher of English.
+
+"Miss Molly, do you think that this would be the best place to build my
+bungalow? Place it right here where your castle stood? Maybe I could
+catch some of the breezes that you used to enjoy; and perhaps some of
+the happiness that you found here was spilled over and I might pick it
+up. It could not be so beautiful as your tree castle, but it is my
+'Castle in the Air.' If I put it here I should not have to sacrifice any
+of the other trees; there is room enough where your old friend stood for
+my modest wants. Would it hurt your feelings to have me build a little
+house where your childish mansion stood?"
+
+"Why, Professor Green, the idea of such a thing! It would give me the
+greatest happiness to have your bungalow right on this site. I would not
+be a dog in the manger about it, anyhow. Are you really and truly going
+to build?"
+
+"I hope to. Of course, I shall have to ask your mother if she would mind
+having such a close neighbor."
+
+"Well, I hardly think mother would expect to sell a lot and then not let
+the purchaser build. She may have to sell some more of the place. I wish
+it could be that old stony strip over by Aunt Clay's. You know our home,
+Chatsworth, is a Brown inheritance, and the Carmichael place adjoining
+belonged to mother's people. They call it the Clay place now, but until
+grandfather died it was known as the Carmichael place. Aunt Clay married
+and lived there and somehow got hold of grandfather and made him appoint
+her administratrix and executrix to his estate. She managed things so
+well for herself that she got the house with everything in it and the
+improved, cleared land, giving mother acres and acres of poor land where
+even blackberries don't flourish and the cows won't graze. The sheep
+won't drink the water, but they do condescend to keep down the weeds. I
+really believe that Aunt Clay is the only person in the world that I
+can't like even a little bit. I fancy it is because she has been so mean
+to mother. I believe I could get over her being cross and critical with
+me, but somehow I can't forgive the way she has always treated mother."
+
+"I found her a very trying companion at your sister's wedding, and she
+looks as though she had brains, too. But how anyone with sense could be
+anything but kind to your mother I cannot see."
+
+Molly beamed with pleasure. "Ah, you see how wonderful mother is. I
+thought you would appreciate her. She likes you, too, Professor Green.
+Mother says she believes she understands boys better than girls and can
+enter into their feelings more."
+
+"Oh, what am I saying?" thought Molly. "I wonder what the Wellington
+girls would say if they could know I forgot and as good as called their
+Professor of English a boy! Well, he does look quite boyish out of
+doors, with his hat on."
+
+They strolled on down toward the brook, Molly patting each tree as they
+passed and telling some little incident of her childhood.
+
+"I truly believe you love every one of these trees. You touch them as
+lovingly as you do President or the dogs, and look at them as fondly as
+you do at old Aunt Mary."
+
+"Indeed, I do; and, as for this little stream, it makes to me the
+sweetest music in the world."
+
+"Miss Molly, when I build my little bungalow, will you come and have
+lunch with me as you used to with your brothers in the old castle? I'll
+promise you not to let you eat at the second table as you did when you
+took breakfast with me last Christmas."
+
+They both laughed at the thought of that morning; and Molly remembered
+that it was then that she had overheard Professor Green tell his
+housekeeper of his apple orchard out in Kentucky, and had realized for
+the first time that it was he who had bought the orchard at Chatsworth.
+
+"Indeed, I will take lunch with you, and would like to cook it, too, as
+I did your breakfast that cold morning. Do you know, when you came
+downstairs and I peeped at you through the crack in the pantry door, you
+looked and sounded almost as fierce as the mob of colored men who came
+hungry from Aunt Clay's last week? The nice breakfast I fixed for you
+seemed to soften your temper just as mother's buttermilk did the
+darkies'. Aunt Mary says, 'White men and black men is all the same on
+the inside, and all of them is Hungarians.'"
+
+Edwin Green laughed, as he always did when Molly got on the subject of
+Aunt Mary. The old woman was a never failing source of wonder and
+amusement to him; and Molly mimicked her so well that you could almost
+see her short, fat figure with her head tied up in a bandanna
+handkerchief, vigorously nodding to punctuate each epigram.
+
+"Next winter I hope to have my sister with me at Wellington, and she
+will see that this 'Hungarian' is fed better than my housekeeper has.
+You will come to us a great deal, I hope. I am overjoyed that you are to
+take the postgraduate course. That was the one pleasant thing your aunt,
+Mrs. Clay, had to tell me when I conversed with her at the wedding, and
+she little dreamed how pleasant it was, or I doubt her giving me that
+joy."
+
+"I am truly glad. I hated to give up right now. It seemed to me as
+though I could see the open door of culture but had not reached it, and
+had a lot of things to learn before I had any right to consider myself
+fit to pass through it. Mother and Kent together decided it must be
+managed for me. They are both bricks, anyhow."
+
+The young people had come to the little purling brook during this
+conversation, and at Molly's instigation had turned down the stream and
+entered, through a break in the worm fence, a beautiful bit of woods.
+The beech woods in Kentucky are, when all is told, about the most
+beautiful woods in the world. No shade is so dense, no trees more noble,
+not even oaks. With the grace of an aspen and the dignity of an oak, the
+beech to my mind is first among trees.
+
+  "Of all the beautiful pictures
+    That hang on Memory's wall,
+  Is one of a dim old forest
+    That seemeth the best of all.
+
+  "Not for the gnarled oaks olden,
+    Dark with the mistletoe,
+  Not for the violets golden
+    That sprinkle the vale below.
+
+  "Not for the milk-white lilies
+    Leaning o'er the hedge,
+  Coquetting all day with the sunbeams
+    And stealing their golden edge."
+
+Molly quoted the verses in her soft, clear voice, adding:
+
+"I say 'gnarled oaks olden' for euphony, but I always think 'beech.' I
+don't know what Miss Alice or Phoebe Gary, whichever one it was who wrote
+those lovely verses, would think of my taking such a liberty, even in my
+mind."
+
+"No doubt if Miss Alice or Phoebe Cary could have seen this wood, she
+would have searched about in her mind for a line to fit beeches and let
+oaks go hang. This is really a wonderful spot. Can't we sit down a
+while? I hope your mother will let me have right of way through these
+woods when I build my nest in the orchard. This makes my lot more
+valuable than I thought. I have never seen such beech trees; why, in the
+East a beech is not such a wonderful tree! We have an occasional big
+one, but here are acres and acres of genuine first growth. You must love
+it here even more than in the orchard, don't you?"
+
+"Well, you see the orchard period is what might be known as my early
+manner; while the beech woods is my romantic era. I used to come here
+after I got old enough to roam around by myself, and a certain mystery
+and gloom I felt in the air would so fill my soul with rapture that (I
+know you think this is silly) I would sit right where we are sitting now
+and cry and cry just for the pure joy of having tears to shed, I
+suppose! I know of no other reason."
+
+Professor Green smiled, but his eyes had a mist in them as he looked at
+the young girl, little more than a child now, with her sweet, wistful
+expression, already looking back on her childhood as a thing of the past
+and her "romantic era" as though she had finished with it.
+
+"Oh, Miss Molly, let's stay in the 'beech wood period' forever! None of
+us can afford to give up romance or the dear delight of tears for tears'
+sake. I love to think of you as a little child playing in the apple
+orchard, and as a beautiful girl wandering in the woods. But do you
+know, a still more beautiful picture comes to my inward eye, and that is
+an old Molly with white hair sitting where you are now, still in the
+'romantic era,' still in the beech woods; and, God willing, I'll be
+beside you, only," he whimsically added, "I am afraid I'll be
+bald-headed instead of white-haired!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--ALL KINDS OF WEATHER.
+
+
+The days went dreamily on. Edwin Green lengthened his stay in Kentucky
+until he really became touchy on the subject, and one day when some one
+spoke of the old Virginia gentleman who came in out of the rain and
+stayed six years, he told Mrs. Brown that he felt very like that old
+man. She was hospitality itself, and made him understand that he was
+more than welcome, and, every time he set a date for his departure, some
+form of entertainment was immediately on foot where his presence seemed
+both desirable and necessary, and his going away was postponed again.
+Once it was a coon hunt with Ernest and John and Lewis, the colored
+gardener; once it was a moonlight picnic at a wonderful spot called
+Black Rock.
+
+On that occasion they drove in a hay wagon over a road that was a
+disgrace to Kentucky, and then up a dry creek bed until they came to the
+great black boulder that stood at least twenty feet in the air; there
+they made their temporary camp. Kent confided to Professor Green that
+they never dared to come up that creek bed unless they were sure of
+clear weather, as it had been known to fill so quickly with a big rain
+that it drowned a man and horse. It was innocent enough then, with only
+a thin stream of water trickling along the rocks, sometimes forming a
+pool where the horses would go in almost to their knees; but, as a rule,
+they went dry shod along the bed. It was rough riding, but no one
+minded. There was plenty of hay in the wagon for young bones, and Mrs.
+Brown, who was chaperoning, had a pillow to sit on and one to lean
+against. When they got to the sylvan spot every one agreed it was worth
+the bumping they had undergone.
+
+"Oh, it looks like the Doone Valley," said Judy.
+
+And so it did, except that the stream of water was not quite so big as
+the one John Ridd had to climb up.
+
+There were sixteen in the party, which filled the big wagon comfortably
+so that no one had room to bounce out. Paul and Ernest had invited two
+girls from Louisville, who turned out to be very pleasant and attractive
+and in for a good time. The only person who was not very agreeable was
+John's friend, the girl visiting Aunt Clay, a Miss Hunt from Tennessee.
+She was fussy and particular and afraid of spoiling her dress, a chiffon
+thing, entirely inappropriate for a hay ride. She complained of a
+headache, and, besides, as Molly said, "she didn't sit fair." That is a
+very important thing to do on a hay ride. One person doubling up or
+lolling can upset the comfort of a whole wagon load. You must sit with
+your feet stretched out, making what quilt makers call "the every other
+one pattern."
+
+"I am glad she acts this way," whispered Mrs. Brown to Molly. "I know
+now why I can't abide her. I couldn't tell before."
+
+Miss Hunt's selfishness did not seem to worry her admirers any. John was
+all devotion, as were the two other young men who came along in her
+train. They were sorry about her headache and wanted to make room in the
+wagon for her to lie down; but Mrs. Brown was firm there and said it was
+a pity for her to suffer, but she thought it might injure her back
+unless she sat up going over the rough road. That lady had no patience
+with the headache, and thought the girl would much better have stayed at
+home if she were too ill to sit up. She did not much believe in the
+headache, anyhow, and was irritated to see poor Molly with her long legs
+doubled up under her trying to make room for the lolling little beauty.
+
+"She is pretty, no doubt of that," said Edwin Green to Mrs. Brown, whom
+he had elected to sit by and look after for the ride, "as pretty as a
+brunette can be. I like a blonde as a rule. But it looks to me as though
+Miss Molly is getting the hot end of it, as far as comfort goes."
+
+He would have offered to change places with Molly, but had a big reason
+for refraining. That was that no other than Jimmy Lufton, Molly's New
+York newspaper friend, was occupying the seat next to Molly, and
+Professor Green was determined to do nothing to show his misery at that
+young man's proximity. Jimmy had arrived quite unexpectedly that
+afternoon and seemed to be as intimate with the whole Brown family in
+two hours as he, Edwin Green, was after weeks of close companionship. He
+tried not to feel bitter, and, next to sitting by Molly, he was sure he
+would rather sit by her mother than any one in the world, certainly than
+anyone in the wagon.
+
+Jimmy was easily the life of the party. He had a good tenor voice and
+knew all the new songs "hot off of the bat" from New York. He told the
+funniest stories, and at the same time was so good-natured and kindly
+and modest withal that you had to like him. He was not the typical funny
+man. Edwin Green felt that he could not have stood Molly's preferring a
+typical funny man to him. She did prefer Jimmy, he felt almost sure, and
+now he was trying to steel himself to take his medicine like a man. He
+was determined not to whine and not to make Molly unhappy. He had seen
+the meeting between Molly and Jimmy, and it was the flood of color that
+had suffused Molly's face and her almost painful agitation that had
+convinced him of her regard for that brilliant young journalist. Had he
+heard the conversation as well as seen the meeting, he might have been
+spared some of his unhappiness. Jimmy had said, "Where's my lemon?" and
+Molly had answered, "Done et up."
+
+They piled out of the wagon. John, the woodsman of the crowd, busied
+himself making a fire, demanding that the two "extra men" should come
+and chop wood, determined that they should not get in too many words
+with the beautiful Miss Hunt while he was working. Miss Hunt then
+exercised her fascinations on Jimmy Lufton, on whom she had had her eye
+ever since they left Chatsworth. Jimmy was polite, but had a
+"nothing-doing" expression which quite baffled the practiced flirt. Poor
+Molly's foot had gone so fast asleep that she was forced to hop around
+for at least five minutes before she could get out of the wagon and
+begin to make herself useful. Kent, who had driven, with Judy on the
+front seat with him, was busy taking out the four horses to let them
+rest for the heavy pull home. The other young men were occupied in
+various ways, lifting the hampers out of the wagon and getting water
+from the beautiful spring at the foot of the huge black rock. Professor
+Green came to Molly's assistance.
+
+"I was afraid your foot would go to sleep. You are too good to let that
+girl crowd you so. She was the most deliberately selfish person I ever
+saw."
+
+"Oh, there is always somebody like that on a hay ride. I have never been
+on one yet that there wasn't some girl along with a headache who took up
+more than her share of room. I am too long to double up; but it is all
+right now. The tingle has stopped, and I can bear my weight on it, I
+see."
+
+"Did you ever see anything more beautiful than this valley? How clever
+Miss Kean is in hitting off a description! I haven't thought of the
+Doone Valley for years, and now I can't get it out of my head; these
+overhanging cliffs and this green grass, green even by moonlight; and
+the sensation of being in an impenetrable fortress! And the great black
+rock might be Carver Doone petrified and very much magnified, left here
+forever for his sins. It must be a magnificent sight when the creek is
+full."
+
+"So it is; but I hope we shall not see that sight to-night. Lorna Doone
+in the big snow was in a safe place to what we would be in a big freshet
+up this valley with no way to get back but by the creek bed," said
+Molly, jumping out of the hay wagon and beginning to make ready the
+supper.
+
+Such a supper it was, with appetites to match after the long ride and
+good jolting! Mrs. Brown was an old hand at picnic suppers and knew
+exactly what to put in and how to pack the baskets in the most
+appetizing way. There were different kinds of sandwiches, thin bread and
+butter, all kinds of pickles, apple turnovers and cheese cakes; but the
+crowning success of one of these camp picnics was always the hot coffee
+and bacon cooked on John's fire. The Browns kept a skillet and big
+coffee pot to use only on such occasions. The cloth was soon spread and
+the cold lunch arranged on it, and then in an incredibly short time the
+coffee was boiling and the bacon sizzling.
+
+"Oh, what a smell is this?" said Jimmy Lufton, emerging from behind
+Black Rock, where Miss Hunt had been doing her best to captivate him.
+(Kent said he bet on Jimmy to give her as good as he got.) "Mark Twain
+says, 'Bacon would improve the flavor of an angel,' and so it would."
+
+"Well, I'm no angel, but I certainly do smell like bacon," said Molly
+with flushed face and rumpled hair as she knelt over the fire with a
+long stick turning the luscious morsels. "Sue and Cyrus are responsible
+for the coffee and the bacon is my affair."
+
+"As Todger's boy says, 'Wittles is up,'" called Jimmy to the strolling
+couples, who lost no time in hurrying to the feast. Mrs. Brown was
+installed at the head of the cloth, but not allowed to wait on any one.
+"For once, you shall be a guest at your own table," said Kent, taking
+the coffee pot out of her hands. "Miss Judy, don't you think we can
+serve this?"
+
+"Mostly cream for me and very little coffee," drawled Miss Hunt.
+
+"If you have such a bad headache you had better take it black," said
+Judy, who was aware of that young lady's selfish behavior on the trip.
+"The people who want a great deal of cream will have to wait until the
+rest are served, as some of the cream got spilled; and, while there is
+enough for reasonable helps, there is not enough for exorbitant
+demands."
+
+John and the two "extras" offered their shares to the spoiled beauty,
+but Judy was adamant.
+
+"Those sandwiches with olives and mayonnaise are very rich for any one
+with a liver," said Judy later on as Miss Hunt was preparing to help
+herself plentifully to the delectable food; "these plain
+bread-and-butter ones would be much more wholesome for you, my dear.
+What, cheese cakes for any one who is too ill to sit up straight!
+Goodness gracious, Miss Hunt, do be careful! Your demise would grieve so
+many it is really selfish of you not to take better care of yourself."
+
+"You seem to be very much concerned about my health, Miss Kean. I wonder
+that you knew I did not feel well; you seemed to be fully occupied on
+the journey with Mr. Kent Brown," snapped Miss Hunt.
+
+"So I was," answered Judy, nothing daunted. "But whenever Kent had to
+turn his attentions to the four horses when we came to rough spots in
+the road and he was trying not to jolt the ambulance too much, then I
+could turn around and get a good bird's-eye view of the passengers, and
+you always seemed to be on the point of fainting."
+
+"I know you are better now," said Molly, who could not bear for even
+Miss Hunt, who was certainly not her style of girl, to be teased. "I
+know these apple turnovers won't hurt you, and Aunt Mary makes such good
+ones. Do have one, and here is some more cream if you want it in your
+coffee."
+
+"What a sweet girl your sister is," said Miss Hunt in an audible
+whisper. "I can't see what she finds in that Miss Kean to want her to
+make her such an interminable visit."
+
+The ill-natured remark was heard by every one. For did you ever notice
+that the way to make yourself heard in a crowd of noisy talkers is to
+whisper? Molly looked ready for tears, and Kent bit his lips in rage,
+but Judy, as spunky as usual, and feeling that she deserved a rebuke
+from Miss Hunt, but rather shocked at the ill-bred way of delivering it,
+spoke out: "Mrs. Brown, when we were laughing the other day over your
+story of the old Virginia gentleman who came in out of the rain and
+stayed six years, I had another one to tell, but something happened to
+interrupt me. Might I tell it now?"
+
+Mrs. Brown gave a smiling consent. She was not so tender-hearted as
+Molly and, while she felt it a mistake to wrangle, she was rather
+curious to see who would get ahead in this trial of wits.
+
+"I bet my bottom dollar on Miss Judy, don't you, mother?" said Kent in
+an undertone.
+
+"I certainly do," whispered his mother.
+
+"A little Southern girl we knew at college, Madeline Pettit, told in all
+seriousness about a neighbor of hers who was invited to go on a visit.
+She accepted, but they had to sell the cow for her to go on, and then
+she had to prolong her visit for the calf to get big enough for her to
+come home on. I am afraid our calf is almost big enough and papa may
+come riding in on it any day and carry me off." There was a general roar
+of laughter, and then the picnickers, having eaten all that they
+uncomfortably could, made a general movement toward adjournment.
+
+"Where is the moon?" they all exclaimed at once. While they were eating
+and drinking and making themselves generally merry, the proverbial
+cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, had grown and spread and now the
+moon was put out of business. The cliffs were so high that a storm had
+come up out of the west without any one dreaming of it.
+
+"This creek can fill in such a hurry when a big rain comes we had better
+start," said Kent.
+
+"Oh, don't be such a croaker, Kent. It can't rain. The sky was as clear
+as a bell when we left home," said Mrs. Brown, as eager as any of the
+young people to prolong the good times.
+
+"All right, mother, just as you think best, but I am going to get the
+horses hitched up in case you change your mind."
+
+Change her mind she did in a very few minutes, as large drops of rain
+began to fall. The crowd came pell-mell and scrambled into the wagon.
+Mrs. Brown noticed in the confusion that she had lost her cavalier and
+that Professor Green had attached himself to Molly. She was pleased to
+see it, as she had felt sorry for the young man. He was evidently so
+miserable, and yet at the same time so determined to make himself
+agreeable to her that he had been really very charming. She loved to
+talk about books, and, as she said, seldom had the chance, for the
+people who knew about books and cared for them never seemed to realize
+that a busy mother and housekeeper could have similar tastes.
+
+"I get so tired of swapping recipes for pickles and talking about how to
+raise children. Aunt Mary makes the pickle and my children are all
+raised," she had confided to Edwin Green. "We had a very interesting
+guest on one occasion, a woman who had done a great many delightful
+things and knew many delightful literary people, and I hoped to have a
+real good talk with her about books; but she seemed to feel she must
+stick to the obvious when she conversed with me. I often laugh when I
+think of Aunt Mary's retort courteous to this same lady. She was
+constantly asking me how we made this and what we did to have that so
+much better than other people, and I would always refer her to Aunt
+Mary.
+
+"Once it was bread that was under discussion. You know how difficult it
+is to get a recipe from a darkey, as they never really know how they do
+the things they do best. Aunt Mary told her to the best of her ability
+what she did, but the woman was not satisfied. 'Now, tell me exactly how
+many cups of flour you use.' 'Why, bless you, we done stop dolin' out
+flour with a cup long ago an' uses a ole broken pitcher.' Another time
+it was coffee. 'Now, you have told me about the freshly roasted and
+ground coffee, please tell me how much water.' Aunt Mary gave a scornful
+sniff. 'You mus' think we are stingy folks ef you think we measure
+water!' At another time she said, 'Aunt Mary, you must have told me
+wrong, because I did exactly what you said and my popovers were complete
+failures.' 'Laws a mussy, I did fergit to tell you one thing, an' that
+is that you mus' stir in some gumption wif ev'y aig.'"
+
+  "De rain kep' a-drappin' in draps so mighty heavy;
+  De ribber kep' a-risin' an' bus'ed froo de levvy,
+  Ring, ring de banjo, how I lub dat good ole song,
+  Come, come, my true love, oh, whar you been so long?"
+
+It was Jimmy who broke into this rollicking song, and when all of the
+Brown boys, who had had an experience with this old dry creek bed once
+on a 'possum hunt, heard him, they felt that the song was singularly
+appropriate. They also thanked their stars that they had with them some
+one who would "whoop things up" and keep the crowd cheerful, and perhaps
+the ladies would not realize the danger they were in. This wet-weather
+creek was fed by innumerable small branches, all of them dry now from
+something of a drought that had been prevalent, and John, the woodsman,
+noticed that before they had much rainfall in the valley those small
+branches had begun to flow, showing that there had already been a great
+storm to the west of them.
+
+"If the rain were merely local, old Stony Creek could not do much damage
+in itself, but it is the help of all of these wet-weather springs and
+branches that makes it play such havoc," whispered John to Jimmy Lufton.
+"I have known it in two hours' time to rise four feet, which sounds
+incredible; and then in two hours more subside two feet, and in a day be
+almost dry again. I spent four hours up on top of Black Rock once in a
+sudden freshet. I would have scaled the hills, but I had some young dogs
+hunting, and they were so panic-stricken and I was so afraid they would
+fall down the cliffs in the creek, that I just took them up on top of
+the rock; and there we sat huddled up in the driving rain until the
+water subsided enough for us to wade home. Swimming is out of the
+question for more than a few strokes, the current is so swift; and as
+for keeping your feet and walking, you simply can't do it."
+
+"We have a creek up near Lexington that goes on just such unexpected
+sprees," said Jimmy. "It will be a perfectly respectable citizen and
+every one will forget its bad behavior, when suddenly it will break
+loose and get so full it disgraces itself and brings shame on its family
+of branches."
+
+By this time the whole crowd was fairly damp, but they made a joke of
+it, with the exception of Miss Hunt, who was much irritated at the
+damage done her pretty dress. Although she was covered up with three
+coats, she clamored for more, but no more were offered her. Professor
+Green took off his coat and, folding it carefully, put it under the seat
+in the lunch hamper.
+
+"I fancy you think this is a funny thing to do, but I have seen a wet
+crowd almost freeze after a storm like this, and it is a great mistake
+to get all of the wraps wet. It is much better to take the rain and get
+wet yourself, and keep the coats dry; and then, when the rain is over,
+have something warm and comfortable to put on."
+
+"That is a fine scheme," said Paul, and all of the men followed Edwin
+Green's example, and Molly and Judy, who had prudently brought their
+college sweaters, did the same.
+
+"I think it is rather fun to get wet when you have on clothes that won't
+get ruined," said Judy.
+
+"I am glad you like it," answered Miss Hunt, still sore over her bout
+with Judy, "but I must say it is hard on me with this chiffon dress.
+What will it look like after this?"
+
+"Well, you know, chiffon is French for rag so I fancy it will look like
+a Paris creation," called back Judy from the front seat, where she was
+still installed by Kent. "I'll bet anything her hair will come out of
+curl," she whispered to her companion, "and I should not be astonished
+to see some of her beauty wash off."
+
+"Eany, meany," laughed Kent. "You are already way ahead of her, Miss
+Judy. Do leave her her hair and complexion."
+
+"Well, I'll try to be good," said penitent Judy. "You and Molly are so
+alike, it is right amusing. And the worst of it is your goodness rubs
+off on everybody you come in contact with. Do you realize I have been in
+Kentucky for weeks and that Miss Hunt is the first person I have had a
+scrap with, and so far I have not got myself in a single 'Julia Kean'
+scrape? I have been in so many, that the girls at college have named the
+particular kind of scrape I get in after me, just as though I were a
+famous physician who had discovered a disease."
+
+"Just what kind of scrape do you usually get in?"
+
+"The kind of scrape I get in is always one I can get out of, and usually
+one that I fall in from not looking ahead enough at the consequences."
+
+"Well, I pray God that this will be a 'Julia Kean' scrape we are in
+to-night. Certainly, lack of foresight got us in. I'd like to get that
+weather man and throw him in this creek. 'Generally fair and variable
+winds,' much!" said Kent with such a serious expression that Judy began
+to realize that this was not simply a case of a good wetting, but might
+mean something more.
+
+The horses were knee deep in water now, but splashing bravely on. Molly
+noticed that in hitching up for the homeward trip Kent had put President
+in the lead.
+
+"That is because old President has so much sense and will know how to
+pick his way and keep his feet when the other horses would get scared
+and begin to struggle and pull down the whole team," said Molly to
+Professor Green. Molly was fully aware of the danger they were in, but
+was keeping her knowledge to herself for fear of starting a panic among
+the girls. "There is no real danger of drowning," she whispered to her
+companion, "so long as we stay in the wagon. But the banks are so steep
+that if we should get out we might slip into the creek and then it would
+be about impossible to keep our feet. Look at the water now, up to the
+hubs of the wheels! I am sorry for the horses, and what an awful
+responsibility for Kent! But he is equal to it. Do you know, I really
+believe Kent is equal to anything!"
+
+It was, of course, pitch dark now, except for frequent flashes of
+lightning that illuminated the raging torrents, so all were forced to
+realize the grave situation.
+
+"The horses are behaving wonderfully well, and so far all the passengers
+are. I hope it will keep up," muttered Kent. "It is awfully hard to keep
+your head when you are driving if any one screams."
+
+"The water is in the wagon bed now. I can tell by my feet. Don't you
+think your mother ought to come on the front seat, where she can be out
+of it somewhat?" suggested Judy.
+
+"You are right. Mother, come on up here and help me drive. There is
+plenty of room for three of us, and I believe you would be more
+comfortable."
+
+Mrs. Brown got up, glad to change her position. She was more frightened
+than she cared to own, and was anxious to find out just how Kent felt
+about the matter.
+
+"I am going on the front seat, too," said the bedraggled Miss Hunt. "It
+seems to me Miss Julia Kean has had the best of everything long enough.
+I see no reason why she should sit high and dry during the whole drive,
+while here I am absolutely and actually sitting in the water."
+
+Kent bit his lips in fury, but held his horses and his tongue while the
+change was being made. Judy showed her breeding in a way that made Molly
+proud.
+
+"High I may be, but not dry," said Judy, playfully shaking herself on
+the already drenched Molly as she sank by her side on the soggy hay. "I
+am going to see how long our fair friend will stay up there. It is
+really the scariest place I ever got in. Down here you feel the water
+without seeing it, but up there every flash of lightning reveals terrors
+that down here are undreamed of."
+
+"Sit in the middle, mother, and Miss Hunt and I can take better care of
+you."
+
+"Oh, I am afraid to sit on the outside! Mrs. Brown is much larger than I
+am and could hold me in better than I could her," said the selfish girl.
+
+She squeezed in between mother and son, as Kent said afterward, taking
+up more room then any little person that he ever saw.
+
+  "Noah he did build an ark, one wide river to cross.
+  Built it out of hickory bark, one wide river to cross.
+  One wide river, and that wide river was Jordan,
+  One wide river, and that wide river to cross."
+
+"All join in the chorus," demanded Jimmy.
+
+There were many verses to the time-honored song, and before they got all
+the animals in the ark the moon suddenly came out from behind a very
+black cloud, and the rain was over, but not the flood.
+
+"It took many days and nights for the water to subside for old Noah, and
+we may expect the same delay in our case," said the happy and
+irrepressible Jimmy.
+
+Kent was glad indeed for the light of the moon. He had really had to
+leave it to President to take the proper road, or, rather, channel. That
+brave old horse had gone sturdily on, and, when one of the younger
+horses had begun to struggle and pull back, he had turned solemnly
+around and given him a soft little bite.
+
+"Mother, did you see that? And look at that off horse now! I bet he will
+behave after this."
+
+Sure enough, the admonished animal was pulling as steadily as President
+himself, and they had no more trouble with him.
+
+There were many large holes in the creek bed, and, of course, the wheels
+often went into them. Once it looked for a moment as though they might
+have a turnover to add to their disasters. The wagon toppled, but
+righted itself in a moment. Miss Hunt, as Judy had said, on the front
+seat was able to see the danger as she could not down in the wagon, and
+when the wheels went down that particularly deep hole she let out a
+piercing scream and tried to seize the reins from Kent.
+
+Kent pulled up his horses as soon as the wagon was on a level and called
+to John, "John, will you please help Miss Hunt back into the seat she
+has just vacated? She finds she is not comfortable here."
+
+At that Miss Hunt very humbly crawled back, and, like the Heathen
+Chinee, "subsequent proceedings interested her no more."
+
+As dawn was breaking they drove into the avenue at Chatsworth, not
+really very much the worse for wear. The warm, dry wraps produced from
+under the seat after the moon came out had been wonderfully comforting.
+Edwin Green had made Mrs. Brown take his coat, and as he folded it
+around her he had whispered, "Kentucky women are very remarkable. They
+meet danger as though it were a partner at a ball."
+
+"Yes," said Kent, who had overheard him, "I could never have come
+through the deep waters if it had not been for the brave women. You saw
+how the one scream unnerved me, to say nothing of that little vixen
+grabbing my reins. Here, Ernest, we are on the pike at last, and I am
+just about all in. I wouldn't give up until we got through, but take the
+reins. Maybe Miss Hunt would like to drive," he had slyly added, but a
+low moan from under the wet coats was all the proud beauty could utter.
+
+Aunt Mary greeted them at Chatsworth with much delight.
+
+"The sto'm here been somethin' turrible. I ain't seed sich a wind sence
+the chilluns' castle blowed down. All of yer had better come back to the
+kitchen whar it's warm and eat somethin'. I got a big pot er hot coffee
+and pitchers er hot milk an' a pan er quick yeast biscuit. I done notice
+ef you eat somethin' when you is cold an' wet, somehow you fergits ter
+catch cold."
+
+They all came trooping back to the warm old kitchen, "ev'y spot in it as
+clean as a bisc'it board," and there they ate the hot buttered biscuit
+and drank the coffee and milk. It was noticed that John let the "extras"
+take care of Miss Hunt, and he devoted himself to his mother. Just as
+they were separating for the morning he hugged his mother and whispered
+to her, "You need not have any more uneasiness about me, mumsy. I don't
+believe there is a Brown living who could go on loving a woman who has
+no more sense than to grab the reins."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.--JIMMY.
+
+
+"Judy, Mrs. Woodsmall has just 'phoned over that her hated R. F. D.
+Woodsmall is bringing you a letter from your father. She says she could
+only make out it was from him, but could not decipher anything else. She
+has an idea he is on his way, as the postmark showed it was mailed on
+the train somewhere in Kansas. Isn't she too funny? She makes some of
+the neighbors furious, but we always laugh at her little idiosyncrasy.
+After all, it is perfectly harmless. She really is as kind a little soul
+as there is in the county. Her life has been so narrow. If she could
+have been a real worker in a big city she might have grown into a very
+remarkable person. What a detective she would have made!"
+
+Judy yawned and stretched and sat up as Molly came in bearing a tray of
+lunch for her tired friend as well as the news of a letter from Mr.
+Kean, somewhere on the road, and to be delivered some time that day if
+Bud Woodsmall's automobile behaved.
+
+"Oh, Molly, I am tired! Are you the only one of the crowd to be up and
+doing after last night?"
+
+"I have persuaded mother to stay in bed and get a good rest. The boys
+took a late train into town, and Miss Hunt never did go to bed. Aunt
+Mary said she came down early this morning and 'phoned over to Aunt
+Clay's coachman to come for her immediately, and off she went without
+saying 'boo to a goose.' I wish you could have heard Aunt Mary's
+description of her!
+
+"'Yo' Aunt Clay's comp'ny sho ain't no wet weather beauty. Her ha'r was
+so flat her haid looked jes' like a buckeye; and her dress 'min' me of a
+las' year's crow's nes'. She was so shamefaced like she resem'led that
+ole peacock when Shep done pull out his tail.'"
+
+Judy laughed. "Oh, I do love Aunt Mary! But, Molly, won't it be fine to
+see mamma and papa? Do you suppose they are really on their way?"
+
+"It will be fine to see them, but it will be pretty sad to have them
+take off my Judy. I am mighty afraid that is what they are going to do.
+Go back to sleep now and I will bring you your letter as soon as Bud
+puts in his appearance. I am going to have a hard game of tennis with
+Jimmy Lufton against Ernest and that nice Miss Rogers. Weren't those
+girls spunky last night? An experience like that will make you know
+people better than years of plain, everyday life. Professor Green has
+struck up quite an acquaintance with Miss Ormsby. It seems they have
+many mutual friends, both of them having summered many times at
+'Sconset.'"
+
+Molly spoke quietly, but there was a slight tremor of lip and a
+deepening of color that the sharp Judy saw and noted, but nothing would
+have made her let Molly know that she had betrayed herself in the least.
+
+"Molly was perfectly unconscious of what she was doing last night,"
+thought Judy, "but all the same she was making poor Professor Green live
+up to his name with jealousy. I don't know but it might make Molly open
+her childlike old eyes if the patient professor should kick up his staid
+heels and jump the fence and go grazing in another paddock for a while."
+And then aloud she said, "All right, honey, I'll take forty winks and
+then get up and come down to the tennis court."
+
+Mr. Kean's letter arrived in due time and, sure enough, Mrs. Woodsmall's
+surmises were correct. He was on the way to Kentucky with Mrs. Kean, and
+expected to be in Louisville the next day at a hotel, and would motor
+out to Chatsworth in the afternoon.
+
+"Your father and mother must not think of stopping at a hotel, Judy,"
+declared Mrs. Brown. "We have an abundance of room. Miss Rogers and Miss
+Ormsby are going in town after supper to-night with Ernest and Professor
+Green. Mr. Lufton expects to go back to Lexington to-morrow, and
+Professor Green is only waiting for some mail and will take his
+departure, too. We shall be forlorn, indeed, when all of them go. I'll
+make Kent look up what train Mr. Kean will come in on and he will meet
+it and send them both right out here."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Brown, you are so good. I would love for mamma and papa to be
+here and to know all of you and have you know them. They are as
+wonderful in their way as you are in yours, and your meeting would be a
+grand combination."
+
+Molly rather dreaded the coming of evening. She had promised Jimmy to
+take a walk with him by moonlight, and she had a terrible feeling that
+he might bring up the subject of "lemons" again. She was not prepared
+for the question that she felt almost sure he was going to ask her.
+
+"I am nothing but a kid, after all," moaned Molly to herself. "Professor
+Green was right in calling me 'dear child.' Mother was married when she
+was my age, but somehow I can't seem to grow up. Jimmy is so nice, and I
+do like him so much, but as for spending the rest of my life with
+him--oh, I just simply can't contemplate it. Why, why doesn't he see how
+it is without having to talk it over? I wish none of them would ever get
+sentimental over me." And then she blushed and told herself that she was
+a big story teller and sentimentality from some one who should be
+nameless would not be so trying, after all.
+
+Supper was over, Professor Green and Ernest had gone gaily off, driving
+Miss Rogers and Miss Ormsby to Louisville, Judy and Kent were making a
+long-talked-of duty call on Aunt Clay, "just to show Miss Hunt there is
+no hard feeling," laughed Judy. And now it was time to take the promised
+walk with Jimmy Lufton.
+
+"You look a little tired, Miss Molly. Maybe you would rather not go. You
+must not let me bore you," said Jimmy, a little wistfully.
+
+"Oh, no, I'm all right. I fancy it will take all of us a few days to get
+over last night. I have wanted to tell you how fine you were and what it
+meant to all of us to have you so cheerful and tactful. The boys can't
+say enough in your praise. We had to have some safety valve, and if we
+had not been laughing we might have been crying."
+
+"Oh, I'm a cheerful idiot, all right, all right. I have such a short
+upper lip and such an eternal grin on me that no one ever seems to think
+I have any feelings. I get no more sympathy than a fat man. I wish I
+could make people understand that I am as serious as the next, but
+somehow me Irish grandmither comes popping out in me and I have to joke
+if I am to die the next minute."
+
+"I think your disposition is most enviable," said Molly kindly, "and, as
+for the dash of Irish, I always think that is what makes our mother so
+charming. It was almost a fad with our professor of English at college
+to find the Irish mother or grandmother for almost all of the great
+poets or essayists." Molly could not quite trust herself to say
+Professor Green's name, the picture of the seemingly ecstatic Edwin
+driving off with Miss Ormsby was too fresh in her mind, and she could
+not help smiling at herself for her formal "our professor of English."
+
+Their footsteps led them into the garden and then through the apple
+orchard down by the little stream, and on to the beech woods.
+
+"I wonder why we are coming this way," thought Molly, trying to keep her
+mind off another walk she had taken over that same ground not so long
+ago.
+
+"Let's sit down here," said Jimmy, stopping under the great beech tree
+where Molly and Edwin had sat on that memorable day when he had spoken
+of his vision of the white-haired Molly, and then had stopped himself so
+suddenly with a joke about his own possible baldness.
+
+"Oh, not right here," said Molly hurriedly. "I know a nice rock a little
+farther on."
+
+"Molly, Miss Molly, Miss Brown!----Oh, Molly, darling, there is no use in
+going any farther because I know you know that I have brought you out
+here to tell you that I----"
+
+"Jimmy, please don't say anything more. It 'most kills me to hurt you."
+
+"Is there no hope for me? I'll wait a week, oh, I don't mean a week,
+I'll wait forever if there is a chance for me. I know this is a low
+question to ask you, but is there any one else?"
+
+Honest Molly hung her head. "Not exactly."
+
+That "not exactly" was enough for Jimmy. He smiled a wan little smile
+that would have put his Irish grandmother to shame.
+
+"Well, don't you mind, Miss Molly. I wouldn't have you feel blue about
+me for a million. You never did lead me on one little bit, and I was
+almost sure when I came to Kentucky that there would be nothing doing
+for yours truly; but somehow men are made so they have to make sure
+about such things. You and I have too much sense of the ridiculous to do
+any spiel about the brother and sister business, but I'll tell you one
+thing, I am your friend forever, and you must know that, and understand
+that as long as I live I'll hold myself in readiness to do your
+bidding."
+
+"Oh, Jimmy, you are so good and generous," holding out her hand to him,
+"I am your friend forever, and I hope we shall always see a lot of each
+other."
+
+Jimmy took her hand and for a moment bowed his curly black head over it.
+Molly put her other hand on his head, feeling somehow that it was like
+comforting Kent.
+
+"You are sure, Molly?"
+
+"Yes, Jimmy."
+
+"Well, le's go home. I know you are tired.
+
+  "'If no one ever marries me
+    I sha'n't mind very much;
+  I shall buy a squirrel in a cage,
+    And a little rabbit-hutch,'"
+
+sang the irrepressible.
+
+When Judy got back to Chatsworth she found Molly weeping her soul out on
+the pillow, and she had noticed as they passed the office porch that for
+once Jimmy Lufton was whistling in the minor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.--AUNT CLAY MAKES A MISTAKE.
+
+
+"Sister Ann, do you see any dust arising?" called Molly to Judy, who had
+actually climbed up on the gate post, hoping to see a little farther up
+the road, expecting the automobile from Louisville with her beloveds in
+it.
+
+"I see a little cloud and I hear a little buzzing. Oh, Molly, I believe
+it's them."
+
+"Is it, oh, Wellington graduate? Get your cases straight before they
+come or your father will think that diploma is a fake."
+
+"Grammar go hang," said Judy, performing a dangerous pas seul on the
+gate post and then jumping lightly down and racing up the avenue to meet
+the incoming automobile. Molly followed more slowly, never having been
+the sprinter that Judy was. Mr. Kean sprang from the car and lifted Judy
+off her feet in a regular bear hug.
+
+"Save a little for me, Bobby," piped the little lady mother. "Judy,
+Judy, it is too good to be true that we have got you at last, and I mean
+to keep you forever now, you slippery thing." And then they all of them
+got into the car and had a three-cornered hug. Molly came up with only
+enough breath to give them a cordial greeting, welcoming them to
+Chatsworth.
+
+"That is a very fine young man, your brother, who met us at the station,
+Miss Molly. Kent is his name? He recognized us by my likeness to you,
+Judy, so make your best bow and look pleased." In looking pleased, Judy
+did a great deal of unnecessary blushing which her mother noticed, but,
+mothers being different from fathers, said nothing about it.
+
+Mrs. Brown came hurrying down the walk to meet her guests. She was
+amused to see how much Judy resembled both her parents, although Mrs.
+Kean was so small and Mr. Kean so large. Mother and daughter were alike
+in their quick, extravagant speech, and a certain bird-like poise of the
+head, but father and daughter had eyes that might have been cut out of
+the same piece of gray and by the same pattern.
+
+"Where is your baggage? Surely Kent gave you my message and you are
+going to visit us?"
+
+"You have been so kind to my girl that I see no way but to let you be
+kind to us, too, and if we will not inconvenience you we will accept
+your invitation," said Mr. Kean. "As for baggage: Mrs. Kean is a dressy
+soul, but she only carries a doll trunk which holds all of her little
+frocks and fixings and even leaves a tiny tray for my belongings."
+
+He assisted his smiling wife to alight and then from the bottom of the
+car produced a wicker trunk that was really no bigger than a large
+suitcase, but much more dignified looking.
+
+"She says a trunk gives her a little more permanent feeling than a bag
+and makes a hotel room seem more homelike," went on Mr. Kean. Mrs. Brown
+thought that she had never heard such a pleasant voice and jolly laugh.
+
+"Judy, show your mother and father their room. I know they are tired and
+will want to rest before dinner."
+
+"Tired! Bless your soul, what have we done to be tired? We have been on
+a Pullman four nights, and that is when we get in rest enough for months
+to come. I know Julia will want to get at her doll trunk and change her
+traveling dress, but, if you will permit me, I shall stay down here with
+you. What a beautiful farm you have! How many acres in it?"
+
+"I have three hundred acres in all; two hundred under cultivation and in
+grass, fifty in woodland, and fifty that are not worth anything. It is a
+strange barren strip of land that my father had to take as a bad debt
+and I inherited from him. We graze some forlorn sheep on it, but they
+won't drink the water, and it is almost more trouble than they are worth
+to drive them to water on another part of the place."
+
+Mr. Kean listened intently. "I should like to see your farm, Mrs. Brown.
+Did you ever have the water on the barren strip analyzed?"
+
+"No, Mr. Brown thought of looking into it but never did, and I have had
+so many problems to solve and expenses to meet with my large and growing
+family that I have never thought of it any more."
+
+Mrs. Kean and Judy came down to join the others in a very short time,
+considering that Mrs. Kean had unpacked her tiny trunk and shaken out
+her little frocks and changed into a dainty pink gingham that looked as
+though it had just come from the laundry, showing no signs of having
+been packed for weeks.
+
+"What have you done to my Judy, Mrs. Brown? I have never seen her
+looking so well."
+
+"Fried chicken and candied sweet potatoes are the chief of my diet, and
+who would have the ingratitude not to show such keep?" laughed the
+daughter, pulling the little mother down on her lap and holding her as
+tenderly as though their relationship were reversed. "Robert and Julia,
+are you aware of the fact that your lady daughter has been a perfect
+lady since she came to these parts, and has got herself into no bad
+scrapes, and has not been saucy but once, and that was necessary? Wasn't
+it, Mrs. Brown?"
+
+"It certainly was. My old mammy used to tell me, 'Don' sass ole folks
+'til they fust sass you'; and Saint Paul says, 'Live peaceably with all
+men, as much as lieth in you.' When Judy felt called upon to speak out
+to Miss Hunt she had the gratitude of almost every one present."
+
+Professor Green joined them and, having made the Keans' acquaintance at
+Wellington, introductions were not necessary. That young man was in a
+very happy frame of mind as his hated rival that he had to like in spite
+of himself had taken an early train to Lexington; and there had been a
+dejected look to his back as he got into the buggy that Edwin Green
+decided could not belong to an accepted lover. Molly had a soft, sad
+look about her blue eyes, but certainly none of the elation of the newly
+engaged. He had held a cryptic conversation with Mrs. Brown that morning
+on the porch, in which he had gathered that the dear lady considered
+Molly singularly undeveloped for a girl her age; that any thought of her
+becoming engaged for at least a year was very distasteful to her mother;
+that her mind should be left free for the postgraduate course she was so
+soon to enter upon. But she very delicately gave him to understand that
+she liked him and that Molly also liked him more than any friend she
+had. The conversation left him slightly dazed, but also very calm and
+happy, liking Mrs. Brown even better than before and admiring her for
+her delicate tact and frankness that does not often combine with such
+diplomacy. His mail had come and he had no excuse for further delay, and
+had determined to go home on the following day.
+
+"Professor Green, I have been so long on the train that I feel the need
+of stretching my legs. Could you tear yourself away from these ladies
+long enough to show me around the farm?"
+
+"Indeed, I could; but maybe the ladies would like to come."
+
+"No, indeed," answered Mrs. Kean. "I know Bobbie's leg-stretching walks
+too well to have any desire to try to keep up with him. It is so
+pleasant and restful here, and Mrs. Brown, Molly, Judy and I can have a
+nice talk."
+
+The two gentlemen started off at a good pace.
+
+"Professor, I should like to see this barren strip of land Mrs. Brown
+tells me of. It sounds rather interesting to me. You know where it is,
+do you not?"
+
+"Yes; and, do you know, I was going to ask you to look at it and give
+your opinion about it. It has the look to me of possible oil fields. I
+haven't said anything to any of the family about it, as they are such a
+sanguine lot I was afraid of raising their hopes when nothing might come
+of it, but I had determined to have a talk with Kent before I left. He
+is the most level-headed member of the family, and would not fly off
+half-cocked. Miss Molly tells me they are contemplating selling this
+wonderful bit of beech woods. They have a good offer for it, but it is
+like selling members of the family to part with these trees."
+
+The two men walked on, discovering many things to talk about and finding
+each other vastly agreeable. Their walk led them through the beech
+woods, then through a growth of scrub pines and stunted oaks and
+blackberry bushes, until they gradually emerged into a hard stony valley
+sparsely covered with grass and broomsedge.
+
+"About as forlorn a spot as you can find in the whole of Kentucky, I
+fancy," said the younger man. "Its contrast with the beech woods we have
+just passed is about as great as that between Mrs. Brown and her sister,
+Mrs. Clay, who, with all due respect, is as rocky as this strip of
+barren land and as unattractive. She is the only person of whom I have
+ever heard Miss Molly and her brother Kent say anything unkind, and they
+cannot conceal their feeling against her. It seems that Mrs. Clay had
+the settling of her father's estate, and arranged matters so well for
+herself that Mrs. Brown's share turned out to be this stony strip. Mrs.
+Brown accepted it and refused to make a row, declaring that she would
+never have a disagreement with any member of her family about 'things.'
+She is a wonderful woman," added the professor, thinking of his talk of
+the morning.
+
+Mr. Kean stopped at the banks of a lonesome tarn, filled with black
+water with a greasy looking slime over it.
+
+"Look at those bubbles over there! Could they be caused by turtles? No,
+turtles could not live in this Dead Sea. Look, look! More and more of
+them. Watch that big one break! See the greasy ring he made!"
+
+He was so excited that Edwin Green smiled to see how alike father and
+daughter were, and was amused at himself for speaking of the Browns as
+being people who went off half-cocked to this man who was a hair trigger
+if ever there was one.
+
+Mr. Kean stooped over and scooped up some of the water in his hand. "'If
+my old nose don't tell no lies, seems like I smell custard pies.' Why,
+Green, smell this! It's simply reeking of petroleum! I bet that old Mrs.
+Clay will come to wish she had made a different division of her father's
+estate. Come on, let's go break the news to the Browns."
+
+"But are you certain enough? They may be disappointed," said the more
+cautious Edwin.
+
+"I am sure enough to want to send to Louisville immediately for a drill
+to test it. I have had a lot of experience with oil in various places
+and I am a regular oil wizard. You have heard of a water witch? My
+friends say that my nose has never played me false, and I can smell out
+oil lands that they would buy on the say-so of my scent as quickly as
+with the proof of a drill and pump. My, I'm glad for this good luck to
+come to these people who have been so good to my little girl."
+
+The two men were very much excited as they made their way back to the
+house.
+
+"It is funny the way oil crops up in unexpected places," said Mr. Kean.
+"There is very little of it in this belt, and for that reason Mrs. Brown
+should get a very good price for her land. I think it best for her to
+sell to the Trust as soon as possible. There is no use in fighting them.
+They are obliged to win out. They will be pretty square with her if she
+does not try to fight them. What a fine young fellow that Kent is! And
+as for Miss Molly, she is a corker! She has got my poor little wild
+Indian of a Judy out of dozens of scrapes at college. Judy always ends
+by telling us all about the terrible things that almost happened to her.
+She seems to me to be a little tamer, but maybe it is a strangeness from
+not seeing us for so long."
+
+Edwin Green had his own opinion about the reason for that seeming
+tameness, but he held his peace. He could not help seeing Kent's
+partiality for Miss Julia Kean, and had no reason to believe otherwise
+than that the young lady reciprocated. Love, or the possibility of
+loving, might be a great tamer for Judy. He was really not far from the
+mark. Judy was interested in Kent, very much so, but it was ambition
+that was steadying her and a determination to do something with the
+artistic talent that she was almost sure she possessed. Paris was her
+Mecca, and she was preparing herself to talk it out with her parents.
+They, poor grown-up children that they were, had no plans for their
+daughter's future. College had solved the problem for four years, but,
+now that that was over, what to do with her next? They loved to have her
+with them and had looked forward eagerly to the time when she could be
+with them, but after all was a railway camp the best place for a girl of
+Judy's stamp?
+
+"Mrs. Brown, what will you take for that barren strip of land over
+there?" said Mr. Kean, sinking into a chair on the porch where the
+ladies were still having their quiet talk.
+
+"Well, Mr. Kean, since it is not worth anything, and I have to pay taxes
+on it, I think I would give it away to any one who would promise to keep
+up the fences."
+
+"Can you get right-of-way through the adjoining place to the road behind
+you, where I see that a narrow-gauge railroad runs?"
+
+Mrs. Brown flushed and hesitated. "There is a lane connecting these two
+turnpikes older than the turnpikes themselves. My place does not go
+through to this narrow-gauge railroad that you saw this morning, but my
+father's old place, the Carmichael farm, now owned by my sister, Mrs.
+Clay, borders on both roads. This lane divides the two places as far as
+mine goes and then cuts through her place to the road behind. She has
+lately closed that lane, fenced it off and put it in corn."
+
+"Rather high-handed proceedings," growled Mr. Kean. "Did you protest?"
+
+"The boys went to see her about it, as it blocks their short cut to the
+Ohio River, where they go swimming, but she was so insulted at what she
+called their interference that I insisted upon their letting the matter
+drop. Paul, who always has insisted on his rights, went so far as to see
+a lawyer about it. His opinion was that Sister Sarah had no more right
+to fence off that lane than she would have to build a house in the
+middle of Main Street. But, if you knew my Sister Sarah, you would
+understand that if she decided to build a house in the middle of Main
+Street she would do it."
+
+"Perhaps she would if the Law were as ladylike as you are, Mrs. Brown,"
+laughed Mr. Kean, "but the Law happens to be not even much of a
+gentleman. What I wanted to get at was whether or not you had
+right-of-way, not way. You have the right if not the way. Now I am going
+to come to business with you. Did you know, my dear lady, that that
+despised strip of land is worth more than all of your fruitful acres put
+together, beech woods and apple orchard thrown in?" He jumped up from
+his chair, able to contain himself no longer, and in clarion tones
+literally shouted, "Lady, lady, you've struck oil, you've struck oil!"
+
+
+
+
+                                BOOK II.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--WELLINGTON AGAIN.
+
+
+"Wellington! Wellington!"
+
+Molly waked from her reverie with a start. It seemed only yesterday that
+she was coming to Wellington for the first time, "a greeny from
+Greenville, Green County," as she had been scornfully designated by a
+superior sophomore. She could vividly recall her arrival, a poor, tired,
+timid little girl in a shabby brown dress, with soot on her face and
+seemingly not a friend on earth. She smiled when she thought of how many
+friends she had made that first day, friends who had really stuck. First
+of all there had been dear old Nance Oldham; then Mary Stewart, who had
+taken her under her wing and looked after her like a veritable anxious
+hen-mother during the whole of her freshman year; then the vivid,
+scintillating Julia Kean, her own Judy; then Professor Green, who
+certainly had proved a friend. On looking back, it seemed that every one
+with whom she had come in contact on that day had done something nice
+for her and tried to help her. Mother had always told her that friends
+were already made for persons who really wanted them, made and ready
+with hands outstretched, and all you had to do was reach out and find
+your friend.
+
+Now, as before, the trainload of girls piled out at the pretty, trim
+little station, and there was dear old Mr. Murphy ready to look after
+the baggage, no easy job, as he declared, there being as many different
+kinds of trunks as there were young ladies. Molly shook his hand warmly,
+for, after all, he was really the very first friend she had made at
+Wellington. Her trunk being shabby had had no effect on his manner to
+her as a Freshman, but he noticed now that she had a new one and
+remarked on its elegance.
+
+"I simply had to have a new one, Mr. Murphy, 'the good old wagon done
+broke down.' It was old when I started in at Wellington, and four round
+trips have done for it."
+
+Next to Molly's big new trunk,--and this time it was a big one, as she
+had some new clothes and enough of them for about the first time in her
+life, and had bought a trunk with plenty of trays so as to pack them
+properly,--and snuggled up close to it as though for protection, was the
+strangest little trunk Molly had ever seen: calf-skin with the hair on
+it, spotted red and white, a little moth eaten in spots, with wrought
+iron hinges and a lock of great strength but of a simple, fine
+design--oak leaves with the key hole shaped like an acorn. A rope was
+tied tightly around it, reminding Molly of a halter dragging the poor
+little calf to slaughter.
+
+"Well, well, I haven't seen such a trunk as this since I left the ould
+counthry," said the baggage master, putting his hand fondly on the
+strange-looking trunk. "I'll bet the owner of this, Miss Molly, will
+have many a knock from some of the high-falutin' young ladies of
+Wellington. They haven't seen it yet, because it is hiding behind your
+grand new big one. I pray the Blessed Virgin that the poor little maid
+will find a strong friend to get behind and to look after her."
+
+Molly smiled at the old man's imagery, and thought, "What a race the
+Irish are! I am glad I have some of their blood."
+
+She turned at the sound of laughter and saw coming toward her as strange
+a figure as Wellington Station had ever sheltered, she was sure. A tall
+girl of about twenty years was approaching, dressed in a stiff blue
+homespun dress with a very wide gathered skirt and a tight basque (about
+the fashion of the early eighties), and a cheap sailor hat. In her hand
+she carried a bundle done up in a large, flowered, knotted handkerchief.
+Her hair was black and straight and coming down, but when your eyes once
+got to her face her clothes paled into insignificance, and Molly, for
+one, never gave them another thought. Imagine the oval of a Holbein
+Madonna; a clear olive skin; hazel eyes wide and dreamy; a broad low
+forehead with strongly marked brows; a nose of unusual beauty (there are
+so few beautiful noses in real life); and a determined mouth with a "do
+or die" expression. She came down the platform, head well up and an easy
+swinging walk, no more regarding the amused titter of the crowd of
+girls, separating to let her pass, than a St. Bernard dog would have
+noticed the yap of some toy poodles. On espying her trunk--of course it
+was hers, the little hair trunk with the wrought iron hinges and
+lock--she quickened her gait, as though to meet a friend, stooped over,
+picked it up, and swung it to her broad fine shoulder, more as though it
+had been a kitten than a calf. Turning to the astonished Molly, she said
+in a voice so sweet and full that it suggested the low notes of a
+'cello, "Kin you'uns tell me'uns whar--no, no, I mean--can you tell me
+where I can find the president?"
+
+"Indeed, I can," answered Molly. "I am going to see her myself just as
+soon as I get settled in my quarters in the Quadrangle, and if you will
+tell me where you are to be I will take you to your room and then come
+for you to go and see President Walker. Mr. Murphy, the baggage master,
+will attend to your trunk. You will see to this young lady's trunk soon,
+won't you, Mr. Murphy?"
+
+"The Saints be praised for answering the prayers of an ould man in such
+a hurry! Of course I will, Miss Molly; and where shall I be after
+sinding the little trunk, miss?"
+
+"I don't know until I see the president. I think I'll just keep my box
+with me. I can carry it myself. 'Tain't much to tote."
+
+"Oh, no, I wouldn't do that," said Molly, hardly able to keep back the
+laugh that she was afraid would come bubbling out in spite of her. "I
+tell you what you do: let Mr. Murphy keep your trunk until you find out
+where your room is to be, and in the meantime you come to my place; then
+as soon as you are located we can 'phone for it." The girl looked at her
+new-found friend with eyes for all the world like a trusting collie's,
+and silently followed her to the 'bus.
+
+"My name is Molly Brown, of Kentucky. Please tell me yours."
+
+"Kaintucky? Oh, I might have known it. I am Melissa Hathaway, and am
+pleased to make your acquaintance, Molly Brown of Kaintucky. I come from
+near Catlettsburg, Kaintucky, myself."
+
+"Well, we are from the same state and must be friends, mustn't we?"
+
+There were many curious glances cast at Molly's new friend, but the
+giggling at her strange clothes had stopped and the spell of her
+countenance had in a measure taken hold of the girls. Molly spoke to
+many friends, but she missed her intimates and wondered where Nance was,
+and if any of the others were coming back for the postgraduate course.
+At the thought of Nance she smiled, knowing just how she would take her
+befriending this mountain girl. She would be cold at first and perhaps a
+bit scornful in her ladylike way, and end by being as good as gold to
+her, and perhaps even making her some proper clothes.
+
+The door at No. 5 Quadrangle was ajar and Molly could see Nance flitting
+back and forth getting things to rights. What a busy soul she was and
+how good it was to know she was already there! The girls were soon
+locked in each other's arms, so overjoyed to be together again that
+Molly for a moment forgot her guest; and Nance did not see her as she
+stood in the doorway, a silent witness to the enthusiastic meeting of
+the chums.
+
+"Oh, Melissa, what am I thinking of, leaving you standing there so long?
+You must excuse me. Nance Oldham and I always behave this way when we
+get back in the fall; and now I want to introduce you two. Miss Oldham,
+this is my new friend, Miss Hathaway, also of Kentucky."
+
+Nance shook hands with the quaint-looking new friend and awaited an
+explanation, which she knew would be forthcoming from Molly as soon as
+she could get a chance. Melissa was quiet and composed, taking in
+everything in the room. Her eyes lingered hungrily on the books that
+Nance had already arranged on the shelves, and then rested in a kind of
+trance on the pictures that Nance had unpacked and hung.
+
+"Nance, I have some biscuit and fudge in my grip, if you could scare up
+some tea. I am awfully hungry, and I fancy Miss Hathaway could eat a
+little something before we go to look up the president. She does not
+know where her room is to be, and I asked her to come with us until she
+is located."
+
+"You are very kind to me, and your treating me so well makes me feel as
+though I were back in the mountains. We-uns--I mean we always try to be
+good to strangers, back where I come from."
+
+Nance was drawn to the girl as Molly had been.
+
+"She knows how to sit still, and waits until she has something to say
+before she says anything," thought the analytical Nance. "I believe I am
+going to like Molly's 'lame duck' this time; and, goodness me, how
+beautiful she is!"
+
+Melissa was glad to get her tea, having been in a day coach all night
+with nothing but a cold lunch to keep body and soul together until she
+got to Wellington. Nance noticed that she knew how to hold her cup
+properly and ate like a lady; her English, too, was good as a rule, with
+occasional lapses into the mountain vernacular. The girls were curious
+about her, but did not like to question her, and she said nothing about
+herself.
+
+Tea over, they went to call on the president, leaving Nance to go on
+with her "feminine touches," as Judy used to call her arrangements.
+
+Miss Walker was very glad to see Molly, kissing her fondly and calling
+her "Molly." "It is good, indeed, to have you back. Every Wellington
+girl who comes back for the postgraduate course gives me a compliment
+better than a gift of jewels. And this is Miss Melissa Hathaway? I have
+been expecting you, and to think that you should have fallen to the care
+of Molly Brown on your very first day at college! You are to be
+congratulated, Miss Hathaway. Molly Brown's friendship keeps one from
+all harm, like the kiss of a good fairy on one's brow. Molly, if you
+will excuse me, I shall take Miss Hathaway into my office first and have
+a talk with her and shall see you later."
+
+Molly was blushing with pleasure over the praise from Prexy, and was
+glad to sit in the quiet room awaiting her turn.
+
+Melissa was closeted for some time with the president, and in the
+meantime the waiting-room began to fill with students, some of them
+newcomers tremblingly awaiting the ordeal of an interview with the
+august head of Wellington; others, like Molly, looking forward with
+pleasure to a chat with an old friend. Melissa came back alone with a
+message for Molly to come in to Miss Walker, and told her that she was
+to wait, as the president wished Molly to show the stranger her room.
+
+"Molly Brown, how did you happen to be the one to look after this girl?
+It seems providential."
+
+"Well, Mr. Murphy attributes it to himself, and declares it is the
+direct answer to his prayers," laughed Molly, and told Miss Walker of
+the little calf trunk and the old baggage master's sentimentality about
+it.
+
+"I am going to read you part of a letter concerning Melissa Hathaway,
+and that will explain her and her being at Wellington better than any
+words of mine. This letter is from an old graduate, a splendid woman who
+has for years been doing a kind of social settlement work in the
+mountains of Virginia and Kentucky.
+
+  "'I am sending you the first ripe fruit from the orchard that I
+  planted at least ten years ago in this mountain soil. You must not
+  think it is a century plant I am tending. I gather flowers every day
+  that fully repay me for my labor here, but, alas, flowers do not
+  always come to fruit. Melissa Hathaway is without doubt one of the
+  most remarkable young women I have ever known, and has repaid me for
+  the infinite pains I have taken with her, and will repay every one
+  by being a success. She comes from surroundings that the people of
+  cities could hardly dream of, in spite of the slums that are, of
+  course, worse because of their crowded condition and lack of air.
+  But in these mountain cabins you find a desolation and ignorance
+  that is appalling, but at the same time a rectitude and intelligence
+  that astonish you; and unbounded hospitality.
+
+  "'A generation ago the Hathaways were rather well-to-do, for the
+  mountains; that is, they owned a cow and some hogs and chickens and
+  did not sleep in the kitchen, but had a second room and some twenty
+  beautiful home-made quilts. A feud wiped almost the whole family off
+  the face of the earth. Melissa's father, grandfather and three
+  uncles were killed in a raid by their mortal enemies, the Sydneys,
+  and the grandmother and Melissa were the only ones left to tell the
+  tale. (Her young mother died in giving birth to Melissa.) Melissa
+  was eight years old at the time of the wholesale tragedy, which
+  occurred a few days before I came here to take up my life work. I
+  went to old Mrs. Hathaway's cabin as soon as I could make my way
+  across the mountain. The old woman received me with dignity and
+  reserve, but some suspicion. I asked her to let Melissa come to
+  school. She was rather eager for her to learn, since she was nothing
+  but a miserable girl. She was bitter on the subject of Melissa's
+  sex. "Ter think of my bringing forth man-child after man-child, and
+  here in my old age not a thing but this puny little gal ter look to,
+  ter shoot down those dogs of Sydneys!"
+
+  "'This child of eight (Melissa is now eighteen, but looks older),
+  came to school every day rain or shine, walking three miles over the
+  worst trail you have ever imagined. Her eagerness for knowledge was
+  something pathetic. I realized from the beginning that she had a
+  very remarkable intellect and gave her every chance for cultivation
+  and preparation for college, determined that my Alma Mater should
+  have the final hand in her education if it could be managed. And
+  now, managed it is by a scholarship presented to my now flourishing
+  school by the Mountain Educational Association. I am sorry her
+  clothes are not quite what my beautiful Melissa should have, but she
+  would not accept a penny for clothes from any of the funds that I
+  sometimes have at my disposal. "Money for my education is
+  different," she said. "I mean to bring all of that back to the
+  mountains and give it to my people, but I cannot let any one spend
+  money on clothes for me. They would burn my back unless I earned
+  them myself." She was that way from the time she first came to me. I
+  remember she had a green skirt and an old black basque of her
+  grandmother's, belted in on her slim little figure. I wanted all of
+  my pupils to have a change of clothing, as from the first I was
+  trying to teach cleanliness and hygiene along with the three R's. I
+  asked the children one day to let me know if they had two of
+  everything. Melissa stood up and proudly raised her hand. "Please,
+  Miss Teacher, we'uns is got two dresses; one ain't got no waist and
+  one ain't got no skirt, but they is two dresses."
+
+  "'I know that my dear Miss Walker will do her best to place my girl
+  where she can make some friends and not get too homesick for her
+  mountains. I wish she had clothes more like other people, but, since
+  she is what she is, I fancy the clothes in the long run will not
+  make much difference.'
+
+"That is all of interest to you," concluded Miss Walker. "Miss Hathaway
+is, to say the least, a very remarkable young woman. Her entrance
+examination was unconditioned. And now to get her into a suitable room!
+I had expected to put her in one over the postoffice, but she would be
+so isolated there. I wish she could have the singleton near you in the
+Quadrangle. I, too, have some funds at my disposal that would enable me
+to give her one of these more expensive rooms, but do you think she
+would accept it?"
+
+Molly, rather amused at being asked by Prexy herself to decide what to
+do with this proud girl, smilingly answered, "I am proud myself, but
+lots of things have been done for me without my knowing about it, and
+when I do find out I am not hurt but pleased to feel that my friends
+want to help me. I can't remember being insulted yet."
+
+"Well, my child, if I have your sanction about a little mild deceit, I
+think I'll put Miss Hathaway in the singleton near you. I believe she is
+going to be a credit to Wellington. Kentucky has been good to us,
+indeed."
+
+"I'll do all I can to help Melissa," said Molly, her eyes still misty
+over the letter concerning the childhood of the mountain girl. "She
+interests me deeply."
+
+Then Molly and Miss Walker plunged into a talk about what Molly was to
+study. English Literature and Composition were of course the big things,
+but she was also anxious to take up some special work in Domestic
+Science, a new and very complete equipment having been recently
+installed at Wellington and a highly recommended teacher, a graduate
+from the Boston school, being in charge.
+
+"Miss Hathaway is to do work on that line, too, and I fancy you will be
+put into the same division. She is preparing herself to help her
+mountain people, and I think they need domestic science even more than
+they do higher mathematics."
+
+Molly escorted Melissa to her small room in the Quadrangle, where she
+was duly and gratefully installed. Her shyness was passing off with
+Nance and Molly, and now they noticed that she never made the slips into
+the mountain vernacular. But on meeting strangers, or when embarrassed
+in any way, she would unconsciously drop into it, and then become more
+embarrassed. She never let herself off, but always bit her lip and
+quickly repeated her remark in the proper English.
+
+"She is really almost as foreign as little Otoyo Sen," said Nance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--LEVITY IN THE LEAVEN.
+
+
+"Molly, do you know you are a grown-up lady?" asked Nance a few days
+after they had settled themselves and were back in the grind of work. "I
+have been seeing it in all kinds of ways; firstly, you have gained in
+weight."
+
+"Only three pounds, and that could not show much, spread over such a
+large area," laughed Molly.
+
+"Well, you look more rounded, somehow. Then I notice you keep your pumps
+on and don't kick them off every time you sit down; and when you do sit
+down you don't always lie down as you used to do. Now, I have always
+been a grown-up little old lady, but you were a child when you left
+college last June, and now you are a beautiful, dignified woman."
+
+"Nonsense, Nance, I am exactly the same. I don't kick off my pumps
+because I might have a hole in the toe of my stocking, and I don't lie
+down when I sit down because of my good tailored skirt. You are just
+fancying things. I am the same old kid. It is thanks to Judy that I have
+the tailor-made dress and the other things that make me feel grown-up.
+You see, my family have always had an idea that I did not care for
+clothes just because I wore the old ones without complaining. One day
+Kent spoke of my indifference to clothes to Judy, and she fired up and
+told him I did love clothes and would like to have pretty ones more than
+any girl she knew of; that I pretended to be indifferent just to carry
+off the old ones with grace. Kent was very much astonished and the dear
+boy insisted on my going into Louisville before Judy left and having a
+good tailor make me two dresses, this blue one for every day and my
+lovely best gray. I was so afraid of hurting Miss Lizzie Monday's
+feelings (she is the little old seamstress who has made my clothes ever
+since I was born); but Kent fixed that up by going to see Miss Lizzie
+himself, asking her advice and requesting her company into Louisville,
+where we did the shopping and interviewed the tailor, had lunch at the
+Watterson and took in a show in the afternoon. Miss Lizzie had the time
+of her life and was as much pleased over my having some good clothes as
+I am myself. Dear old Kent had to draw on his savings that he is putting
+by with a view to taking a finishing course on architecture, but mother
+says she is going to reimburse him just as soon as there is a settlement
+made for the oil lands we are selling."
+
+"Do you know, Molly, when I got your letter telling me about Mr. Kean's
+nosing out oil on your place, I was so happy and excited that I began to
+cry and got my nose so red I had to skip a lecture at Chautauqua, which
+shocked my mother greatly. To think of your dear mother having an income
+that will make her comfortable and independent!"
+
+"Mother does not seem to be greatly elated over it. She is very glad to
+pay off the mortgage on Chatsworth; relieved that we shall not have to
+sell our beautiful beech woods; but money means less to my mother than
+any one in the world, I do believe. Why, talking about my being a kid, I
+was born more grown-up than my mother, in some ways. It's the Irish in
+her. The Irish are all children."
+
+Molly had very cleverly got Nance off of the subject of there being a
+change in her, but Nance was right. Molly was older, and she felt it
+herself. The summer had been an eventful one for her and had left her
+older and wiser. Mildred's marriage; Jimmy Lufton's proposal, or near
+proposal; the family's change of fortune; Professor Green's evident
+preference for her society; all these things had combined to sober her
+in a way.
+
+"I am as limber as ever, and don't feel my age in my 'jints,' but I am
+getting on," thought Molly. "Nance sees it, and I wonder if Professor
+Green notices it. He seemed a little stiff with me, but seeing him for
+the first time in class might account for that."
+
+The class in Domestic Science was proving of tremendous interest both to
+Molly and Melissa. Melissa had much to learn and Molly much to un-learn.
+It was a special course, and for that reason girls from all classes were
+mixed in it. There were quite a number of Juniors, and Molly was sorry
+to see Anne White among them, as she had been on the platform at
+Wellington when Melissa arrived, and, in the quiet way for which she was
+famous in making trouble, had been the one to start the titter that had
+grown, as that seemingly unconscious young goddess made her way down the
+platform, into a wave of laughter. Melissa had been fully aware of the
+amusement she had caused, but she had borne no malice against the
+thoughtless girls.
+
+"I reckon I was a figure of fun to these rich girls," Melissa said to
+Molly, "but I know they did not mean to be unkind; and if they knew what
+it means to me to come to college perhaps they would look at me
+differently. Anyhow, you were so nice to me from the very minute I spoke
+to you; and even before I spoke, Molly, dear, because I saw your sweet
+eyes taking me in as I came up the platform between the rows of grinning
+students. And I said to myself, 'All these are just second-growth timber
+and don't count for much. That girl with the blue eyes and the pretty
+red hair looking at me so kindly is the only tree here that is worth
+much.' And somehow I have been resting in the shade of your branches
+ever since."
+
+This little conversation was held one morning as the girls were getting
+their materials ready for some experimental bread-making. A tremendously
+interesting lecture on yeast had preceded it, and now was to be followed
+by various chemical experiments. The lecturer had not arrived, but had
+appointed certain students to get the materials in order.
+
+Anne White was one of the monitors, and was moving around in a demure
+way, daintily setting out the little bowls of flour and portions of
+yeast. Anne White was a small, mousy-looking, brown-haired young woman
+who looked as though butter would not melt in her mouth, but who was in
+reality often the ring-leader in many foolish escapades. She was a great
+practical joker, and when all is told a practical joker is a very trying
+person, and very often a person lacking in true humor. As she placed the
+bowls of yeast, she sang the following song with many sly looks at Molly
+and her friend:
+
+  "The first time I saw Melissa,
+  She was sitting in the cellar,
+  Sitting in the cellar shelling peas.
+  And when I stooped to kiss her,
+  She said she'd tell her mother,
+  For she was such an awful little tease.
+    Oh, wasn't she sweet? You bet she was,
+  She couldn't have been any sweeter.
+    Oh, wasn't she cute? You bet she was,
+  She couldn't have been any cuter.
+  For when I stooped to kiss her,
+  She said she'd tell her mother,
+  For she was such an awful little tease."
+
+The singing was so evidently done for Melissa's benefit that Molly felt
+indignant.
+
+"I can't stand teasing, and certainly not such silly teasing as Anne
+White delights in. She is a slippery little thing, and I have an idea
+means mischief for my Melissa. I wish Judy were here to circumvent her,
+but since she is not I shall have to keep my eye open." So thought
+Molly, and accordingly opened her eyes just in time to see Anne White
+raise the cover of Melissa's bowl of flour and drop in something. The
+instructor came in just then and the class came to order.
+
+"It can't do any real harm," thought Molly, "because we don't have to
+eat our messes, but if it is something to embarrass Melissa I shall have
+a talk with Anne White that she will remember all her days. She knows
+Melissa and I are not the kind to blab on her, the reason she is
+presuming in this way."
+
+Miss Morse, the Domestic Science teacher, was so exactly like the
+advertisements in the magazines of various foodstuffs that one was
+forced to smile. She was always dressed in immaculate linen, and, as she
+would stand at her desk and hold out a sample of material with which she
+was going to demonstrate, her smile and expression were always those of
+the lady who says, "Use this and no other." She was thoroughly in
+earnest, however, and scientific, and her lectures on Domestic Economy
+were really thrilling to Molly, who always took an interest in household
+affairs and was astonished to find out what a waste was going on in all
+American homes. Melissa listened to every word, and felt that the
+knowledge she was gaining in this branch of college work was perhaps the
+most necessary of all to take back to her mountain people.
+
+Miss Morse had the most wonderful and capable hands that were ever seen.
+She was never known to spill anything or slop over; she used her scales
+and measures with the precision of an analytical chemist; and, no matter
+how complicated the experiment, there were no extra, useless utensils.
+This in itself is worth coming to college to learn, as I have never
+known a girl make a plate of fudge without getting every pan in the
+kitchen dirty. Later on in the course of lectures this wonderful woman
+actually killed a fowl and picked and dressed it right before the eyes
+of the astonished girls, without making a spot on her dress or on the
+cloth spread on her desk, and she did not even turn back her linen
+cuffs.
+
+"I wish Ca'line could see that," thought Molly on that occasion, a
+picture of the chicken pickin' in the back yard at Chatsworth coming
+before her mind's eye, with feathers flying hither and yon and Ca'line
+herself covered with gore.
+
+"Now, young ladies," said the precise Miss Morse, "enough flour is given
+each one for a small loaf of bread; the right amount of water is
+measured out; salt and sugar; lard and yeast. You have the correct
+material for a perfect loaf. This is a demonstration of yesterday's
+lecture. Remember, salt retards the action of yeast and must not be put
+in until the yeast plant has begun to grow. Sugar promotes the growth
+and can be placed in the warm water with the yeast."
+
+The students went eagerly to work like so many children with their mud
+pies. In due course of time each little loaf was made out and put at
+exactly the right temperature to rise. Miss Morse explained to them the
+different methods of bread-making and the fallacy of thinking that good
+bread-making is due to luck. Molly smiled in remembering what dear old
+Aunt Mary had said about remembering to put the gumption in.
+
+While the bread was rising and baking the girls were allowed to work on
+their Domestic Science problem, a pretty difficult one requiring all
+their faculties: it was how to feed a family consisting of five, mother
+and father and three children, on ten dollars for one week. The market
+price of food was given and their menus were to be worked out with
+regard to the amount of nourishment to be gained as well as the
+suitability of food. Miss Morse told them they would have to study
+pretty hard to do it, but it was splendid practice. Poor Melissa was
+having a hard time. In the first place, she knew so little about food,
+having been brought up so very simply, and then, she confided to Molly,
+she was very much worried about her loaf of bread because it didn't do
+just right.
+
+Finally the time was up, and the bread, too, according to science,
+should have been up and ready to bake. The monitors were requested to
+place the loaves in the gas ovens, already tested and proved to be of
+proper temperature. The problems, meantime, must be completed at once
+and handed in.
+
+A wail from Melissa on the aside to Molly: "Oh, Molly, Molly, I have got
+my family all fed for six days, and I forgot Sunday. Not a cent of money
+left from all of that ten dollars, and I have known whole families live
+for a month on less in the mountains! What shall I do?"
+
+"I tell you," said Molly, stopping a minute to think, "have them all
+invited out to Sunday dinner and let them eat no breakfast in
+anticipation of the good things they are expecting; and let the dinner
+be so delicious and plentiful that they can't possibly want any supper."
+
+"Good," said Melissa, ever appreciative of Molly's suggestions, "I'll do
+that very thing." And so she did; and Miss Morse was so amused that she
+let it pass as a very good paper, as indeed it was.
+
+All of the little loaves were baked and placed in front of the girls,
+the pans being numbered so that each loaf returned to its trembling
+maker. It was strange that in spite of science the loaves did not look
+exactly alike. Molly's was beautiful, but had she not had her hand in
+Aunt Mary's dough ever since she could climb up to the table and cut out
+little "bis'it wif a thimble"? Some of them looked bumpy and some
+stringy, but poor Melissa's was a strange dark color and had not risen.
+
+"Miss Hathaway, did you follow the directions in your experiment?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Morse, to the best of my ability," answered Melissa. And,
+then flushing and becoming excited, she dropped into her familiar
+mountain speech. "Some low-down sneak has drapped some sody in we'un's
+pannikin. I mean, oh, I mean, some ill-bred person has put saleratus in
+my little bowl. I have been raised on too much saleratus in the bread,
+and I know it." And the proud mountain girl, who had not minded the
+laughter caused by her appearance, burst into tears over the failure of
+her bread-making and fled from the room.
+
+Miss Morse was shocked and sorry that such a scene should have occurred
+in her class, but was determined to investigate the matter. She
+dismissed the class without a word; but, as Molly was leaving the room,
+she requested her to stop a moment.
+
+"Miss Brown, this is a very unfortunate thing to have occurred in this
+class. Domestic Science seems to be an easy prey to the practical joke,
+and when once it is started it is a difficult matter to weed out. I am
+particularly sorry for it to have been played on Miss Hathaway, who is
+so earnest and anxious to learn. Miss Walker has told me much about her,
+and the girl's appearance alone is fine enough to interest one. I could
+not help seeing by your countenance, which is a very speaking one, my
+dear, that you knew something about this so-called joke. Now, Miss
+Brown, I ask you as a friend to tell me what you know, and, if you are
+not willing, I demand it of you as an instructor and member of the
+faculty of Wellington."
+
+Molly, who had been as pale as death ever since Melissa's mortification
+and outbreak, now flushed crimson, held her breath a minute to get
+control of her voice, and then answered with as much composure as she
+could muster: "Miss Morse, I have gone through four years at Wellington
+and have happened to know of a great many scrapes the different students
+have got themselves in, but never yet have I been known to tell tales,
+and I could hardly start now. I do know who did the dastardly trick, and
+am glad that Melissa had recourse to her native dialect to express her
+feelings about the person who was mean enough to do it; 'low-down sneak'
+is exactly what she was."
+
+"Very well, Miss Brown, if you refuse to divulge the name of the joker,
+I shall be forced to take the matter up with the president. I hoped we
+could settle it in the class. This department being a new one at
+Wellington, and also my first experience at teaching, I naturally have
+some feeling about making it go as smoothly as possible." This time Miss
+Morse was flushed and her lip trembling.
+
+Molly felt truly sorry for her, and suddenly realized that Miss Morse,
+with all of her assurance, was little more than a girl herself. As for
+taking it up with the president, Molly smiled when she remembered the
+time Miss Walker had tried to make her tell, and when she had refused
+how Miss Walker had hugged her.
+
+"Oh, Miss Morse, I am so sorry for you, and wish, almost wish, some one
+had seen the offence besides myself, some one who would not mind
+telling; but I truly can't tell, somehow I am not made that way. There
+is something I can do, though, and that is, go call on the person myself
+and put it up to her to refrain from any more jokes in your class. I
+meant to see her, anyhow, and warn her to let my Melissa alone."
+
+"Would you do that? I think that would be all that is necessary, and I
+need not inform the president. I thank you, Miss Brown. You do not know
+how this has disturbed me."
+
+"Too much 'sody' in the bread is a very disturbing thing," laughed
+Molly. "I remember a story they tell on my grandfather. He had an old
+cook who was very fond of making buttermilk biscuit, and equally fond of
+putting too much soda in them. He stood it for some time, but one
+morning when they were brought to breakfast as green as poor Melissa's
+loaf, grandpa sent for the cook and made her eat the whole panful.
+Needless to add, she was cured of the soda habit. It would be a great
+way to cure the would-be joker if we made her eat Melissa's sad loaf."
+
+Molly did see Anne White that very afternoon, making a formal call on
+her and giving that mousy young woman a talk that made her cry and
+promise to play no more jokes in Domestic Science class, and to
+apologize to Melissa for the mortification she had caused her. Molly
+told her something about Melissa and the struggle and sacrifices she had
+made to get her education, and before she had finished Anne White was as
+much interested in the mountain girl and as anxious for her to succeed
+as Molly herself. She promised to help her all she could, and a Junior
+can do a great deal to help a Freshman. Molly was astonished to find
+that Anne White was really rather likable. She had a mistaken sense of
+fun, but was not really unkind.
+
+Melissa had too much to do to brood long over her outbreak, and laughed
+and let the matter drop out of her mind when the following apology was
+poked under her door:
+
+  "My Dear Miss Hathaway: I am truly sorry to have caused you so much
+  mortification in the Domestic Science class. It was a very foolish,
+  thoughtless act, and I hope you will accept my apology. I wish I had
+  found such a friend in my freshman year as you have in Molly Brown.
+
+                                                   "Sincerely yours,
+                                               "'A Low-Down Sneak.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.
+
+
+Molly and Nance were very busy with their special courses, Nance working
+at French literature as though she had no other interest in the world,
+and Molly at English and Domestic Science.
+
+"Thank goodness, I shall not have to tutor! Since we 'struck ile' I am
+saved that," said Molly one day to her roommate, who was as usual
+occupied, in spite of its being "blind man's holiday," too early to
+light the gas and too late to see without it. "Nance, you will put out
+your eyes with that mending. I never saw such a busy bee as you are.
+Melissa tells me you are going to help her with a dress, too."
+
+"Yes, I am so glad she will let me. I told her how we made the Empire
+gown for you in your Freshman year, and she seemed to feel that if her
+dear Molly allowed that much to be done for her, it was not for her to
+object to a similar favor. I know you will laugh when I tell you that I
+am going to get a one-piece dress and an extra skirt for shirtwaists out
+of the blue homespun. It is beautiful material, spun with an
+old-fashioned spinning wheel and woven on a hand loom by Melissa's
+grandmother. Did you ever see so much goods in one dress? It seems that
+the dear woman who has taught her everything she knows has not had any
+new clothes herself for ten years, and could not give her much idea of
+the prevailing fashion; and Melissa made this dress herself from a
+pattern her mother had used for her wedding dress. I hate to cut it up.
+It seems a kind of desecration, but Melissa has a splendid figure and if
+her clothes were not quite so voluminous she would be as stylish as any
+one. She improves every day in many ways and seems to be less shy."
+
+"She has an instinct for good literature. Professor Green tells me her
+taste is unerring. He says it is because her preference is for the
+simple, and the simple is always the best. Little Otoyo has the same
+feeling for the best in poetry. Haven't we missed that little Jap,
+though? I'll be so glad to have her back. I fancy I shall have some
+tutoring to do in spite of myself to get Otoyo Sen up with her class."
+
+Otoyo Sen, the little Japanese girl who had played such a close part in
+the college life of our girls, had been back in Japan, and had not been
+able to reach America in time for the opening weeks of college, due to
+some business engagements of her father. But she was trusting to Molly
+and her own industry to catch up with her class, and was hurrying back
+to Wellington as fast as the San Francisco Limited could bring her.
+
+Molly had been writing every moment that she could spare from her hard
+reading, and now she had two things she really wanted to show Professor
+Green--a story she had worked on for weeks until it seemed to be part of
+her, and a poem. She had sent the poem to a magazine and it had been
+rejected, accompanied by a letter which she could not understand. At all
+times in earlier days she had gone frankly to the professor's study to
+ask him for advice, but this year she could hardly make up her mind to
+do it.
+
+"He is as kind as ever to me, but somehow I can't make up my mind to run
+in on him as I used to," said Molly to herself. "I know I am a silly
+goose--or is it perhaps because I am so grown up? It is only five o'clock
+this minute, it gets dark so early in November, and I have half a mind
+to go now." The temperament that goes with Molly's coloring usually
+means quick action following the thought, so in a moment Molly had on
+her jacket and hat. "Nance, I am going to see Professor Green about some
+things I have been writing. I won't be late, but don't wait tea for me.
+Melissa may be in to see us, but you will take care of her, I know."
+
+There was a rather tired-sounding, "Come in," at Molly's knock on
+Professor Green's study door.
+
+"Oh, dear, now I am going to bore him!" thought the girl. "I have half a
+mind to run back through the passage and get out into the Cloister
+before he has a chance to open the door and see who was knocking. But
+that would be too foolish for a postgraduate! I'd better run the risk of
+boring him rather than have him think I am some one playing a foolish
+Sophomore joke, or even a timid little Freshman, afraid to call her soul
+her own."
+
+"Come in, come in. Is any one there?" called the voice rather briskly
+for the usually gentle professor. And before Molly could open the door
+it was actually jerked open. "Dearest Molly!--I mean, Miss Molly--I
+thought you were going to be some one else. The fact is, I have had a
+regular visitation from would-be poets this afternoon, and, as it never
+rains but it pours, I had a terrible feeling that it was another one. I
+am so glad to see you; not just because you are not what I feared you
+were, but because you are you."
+
+Molly blushed crimson and tried to hide the little roll of manuscript
+behind her, but the young man saw it and kicked himself mentally for a
+rash, talking idiot.
+
+"I can't come in, thank you. I just stopped by to--to----I just thought I'd
+ask you when your sister was coming."
+
+"Oh, Molly Brown, what a poor prevaricator you do make! You know
+perfectly well you have written something you want me to see; and you
+also know, or ought to know, that I want to see what you have written
+above everything; and what I said about would-be poets had nothing to do
+with you and me. The fact is, I am a would-be myself and have been
+working on a sonnet this afternoon instead of looking over the thousand
+themes that I must have finished before to-morrow's lecture. I had just
+got the eighth line completed when you knocked, and the six others will
+be easy. Please come in and take off your hat, and I'll get Mrs. Brady
+to make us some tea; and while the kettle is boiling you can show me
+what you have been doing, and when I get my other six lines to my sonnet
+done I'll show it to you."
+
+Molly of course had to comply with a request made with so much
+kindliness and sincerity. Mrs. Brady came, in answer to the professor's
+bell which connected his study with his house, and was delighted to see
+Molly, remembering with great pleasure the Christmas breakfast the young
+girl had cooked for Professor Green the year before. Molly had a way
+with her that appealed to old people as well as young, and she had won
+Mrs. Brady's heart on that memorable morning by telling her that she,
+too, boasted of Irish blood.
+
+"And I might have known it, from the sweet tongue in your head," Mrs.
+Brady had replied.
+
+The old woman hastened off to make the tea, and Molly reluctantly
+unrolled her manuscript.
+
+"Professor Green, I want you to think of me as some one you do not know
+or like when you read my stuff."
+
+"That is a very difficult task you have set me, and I am afraid one that
+I am unequal to; but I do promise to be unbiased and to give you my real
+opinion, and you must not be discouraged if it is not favorable,
+because, after all, it is worth very little."
+
+"I think it is worth a lot. This first thing is something I have been
+working on very hard. It is called 'The Basket Funeral.' I remembered
+what you told me about trying to write about familiar things, and then,
+on reading the 'Life and Letters of Jane Austen,' I came on her advice
+to a niece who was contemplating a literary career. It was, 'Send your
+characters where you have never been yourself, but never take them.' I
+had never been out of Kentucky, except to row across the Ohio River to
+Indiana, when I came to Wellington, and so I put my story in Kentucky
+with Aunt Mary as my heroine. Now be as hard on me as you want to. I can
+stand it."
+
+There was perfect silence in the pleasant study while Edwin Green
+carefully perused the well-written manuscript. An occasional involuntary
+chuckle was all that broke the quiet when one of Aunt Mary's witticisms
+brought back the figure of the old darkey to his mind. When he had
+finished, which was in a very few minutes, as the sketch was a short
+one, he carefully rolled the paper and remained silent. Molly felt as
+though she would scream if he did not say something, but not a word did
+he utter, only sat and rolled the manuscript and smiled an inscrutable
+smile. Finally she could stand it no longer.
+
+"I am sorry to have bothered you, Professor Green. I know it is hard for
+you to have to tell me the truth, so I won't ask you." She reached for
+the roll of paper, her hand shaking a little with excitement.
+
+"Oh, please excuse me. Do you know, I took you at your word and forgot I
+knew you, and forgot how much I liked you; forgot everything in fact but
+Aunt Mary and the 'Basket Funeral.' My dear girl, you have done a
+wonderful little bit of writing, simple, natural, sincere. I
+congratulate you and envy you."
+
+And what should Molly do, great, big, grown-up postgraduate that she
+was, but behave exactly as the little Freshman had four years before
+when this same august professor had rescued her from the locked
+Cloisters: she burst into tears. At that crucial moment the rattle of
+tea cups was heard as Mrs. Brady came lumbering down the hall, and Molly
+had to compose herself and make out she had a bad cold.
+
+"Have some hot soup," said the young man, and both of them laughed.
+
+"It was natural for me to blubber, after all," said Molly, after Mrs.
+Brady had taken her departure. "When you sat there so still, with your
+lips so tightly closed, I felt exactly as I did four years ago, shut out
+in the cold with all the doors locked; and when you finally spoke it was
+like coming into your warm pleasant study again with you being kind to
+me just as you were to the little scared Freshman. Do you know, I like
+my picture of Aunt Mary, too, and when I thought you didn't like it I
+felt forlorn indeed."
+
+"I notice one thing, Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky doesn't cry until
+everything is over. The little Freshman didn't blubber while she was
+locked out, but waited until she got into the pleasant study, and now
+the ancient postgrad is able to restrain her tears until the awful ogre
+of a critic praises her work. Now let's have another cup of tea all
+around and show me what else you have brought."
+
+"I hesitate to show you this more than the other thing, after your
+cutting remarks about would-bes. But I want you to read this so you can
+tell me what this letter means that I got from the editor of a magazine,
+when he politely returned my rejected poem."
+
+"Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind? Poetry should always be read
+aloud, I think; and afterward I will see what I think the editor meant."
+
+[Illustration: "Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?"--Page 218.]
+
+"All right, but I am afraid it is getting late and Nance will worry
+about me."
+
+The study was cosy indeed with its rows and rows of books, its
+comfortable chairs and the cheerful open grate. This was his one
+extravagance in a land of furnace heat and drum stoves, so Edwin Green
+declared. "But somehow the glow of the fire makes me think better," he
+said in self-defence.
+
+Molly read any poetry well, her voice with its musical quality being
+peculiarly adapted to it. This was her poem:
+
+  "My thoughts like gentle steeds to-day
+  Rest quiet in the paddock fold,
+  Munching their food contentedly.
+  Was it last night? When up--away!
+  Through spaces limitless, untold,
+  Like storm clouds lashed before the wind,
+  Nor strength, nor will could check nor hold,
+  Manes flying--through the night they dashed
+  'Til the first glimmering sun's ray flashed
+  Its blessed light; 'til the first sigh
+  Of dawn's awak'ning stirred the leaves.
+  Then back to quiet fold--the night was done--
+  Bend patient necks--the yoke--and day's begun."
+
+"Let me see it. Your voice would make 'Eany, meany, miney, mo' sound
+like music. I should have read it first to myself to be able to pass on
+it without prejudice."
+
+He took the poem and read it very carefully. "Miss Molly, you are aware
+of the fact that you may become a real writer? How old are you?"
+
+"Almost twenty."
+
+"Well, I consider that a pretty good poem for almost twenty. I bet I
+know what that saphead of an editor had to say without reading his
+letter. Didn't he say something about your having only thirteen lines?"
+
+"Oh, is that what he meant? I have puzzled my brains out over his note.
+I didn't even know I had only thirteen lines. Of course I knew it wasn't
+exactly sonnet form, but somehow I started out to make fourteen lines
+and thought I had done it. Here is his cryptic note."
+
+  "Dear M. B.: We are sorry to say we are too superstitious to print
+  your poem. Are the poor horses too tired to go a few more feet? If
+  you can urge them on, even if you should lame them a bit, we might
+  reconsider and accept your verses.
+
+                                                  "The Editor of ----"
+
+"Fools, fools, all of them are fools! Don't you change it for the whole
+of the silly magazine. It is a good poem, and its having thirteen lines
+is none of his business. Haven't you as much right to create a form of
+verse as Villon or Alfred Tennyson? That editor would have rejected
+'Tears, idle tears,' because it hasn't a rhyme in it and looks as though
+it might have."
+
+The professor was so excited that Molly had to laugh.
+
+"You are certainly kind to me and my efforts. I must go now. Please give
+my love to Mrs. Brady and thank her for her tea. You never did tell me
+when you expect your sister."
+
+"Bless my soul," said Edwin Green, looking at his watch, "she will be
+here in a few minutes now!"
+
+"Don't forget to let me see your sonnet, and please put all the lines
+in. I am so glad your sister is to be with you, and hope to see her
+often."
+
+And Molly flew away, happy as a bird that her writing was coming on, and
+that she felt at home again with the most interesting man she had ever
+met.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--A BARREL FROM HOME.
+
+
+Christmas was upon our girls almost before they had unpacked and settled
+down to work. Mid-year exams. had no terrors for our two post-graduates,
+but they were working just as hard as they ever had in their collegiate
+course.
+
+"I don't know what it is that drives us so, Nance, unless it is that we
+are getting ready for the final examination at Judgment Day," said
+Molly. "I am so interested, I never seem to get tired these days; and I
+don't even mind the tutoring that has been thrust upon me. Now that I
+shall not have to teach for a living, I really believe I should not mind
+it very much."
+
+Otoyo Sen was safely sailing under Molly's tutelage through her senior
+year. She spoke the most correct and precise English unless she was
+embarrassed or upset in some way, and then, like Melissa Hathaway, she
+spoke from the heart, and little Otoyo's heart seemed to beat in adverbs
+and participles. She and Melissa had struck up the closest friendship.
+
+"We might have known they would," said the analytical Nance. "They are
+strangely alike to be so different."
+
+"Now, Nance, how Bostonesque we are becoming! I have never asked a
+Bostonian a question that I have not been answered in this way, 'It is
+and it isn't,'" teased Molly.
+
+"Well, they are alike in being foreign, for Melissa is as foreign from
+us as is Otoyo. Then they are both scrupulously courteous until their
+amour propre is stepped on, and then you realize that they are both
+medieval. They are certainly alike in pride and in fortitude and
+perseverance and family feeling. You know perfectly well that the real
+Melissa that is so covered up by this educated Melissa would take a gun
+and shoot every living Sydney she could get at if her grandmother told
+her to! I hope to goodness modernism will never get to the old woman and
+she will learn that women can do anything men can, or she will make
+Melissa take the place of the sons she mourns. On the other hand, little
+Otoyo would commit hara-kiri without winking an eyelash if
+honorable-father told her to."
+
+"You have so convinced me of their similarity that I see no room for
+difference. They will look to me exactly like twins after this," laughed
+Molly; and both the girls could hardly restrain their merriment, for at
+that moment the so-called twins came in to call: Melissa, tall and
+stately as "the lonesome pine," with all doubts as to her fine figure
+removed now, thanks to Nance's skillful reformation of the blue
+homespun; and little Otoyo looking more like a mechanical toy than ever,
+since she had taken on a little more of the desirable flesh, according
+to the taste of her countrymen.
+
+"Melissa and I have determined to move into a suite together," said
+Otoyo, as they entered. "Miss Walker said it is not usually for a
+Freshman and Senior to be so intimately, but since there is a suite
+vacant in the Quadrangle and more visits for singletons than suites, she
+is willing."
+
+"You are excited over it, I know, you dear little Otoyo," said her
+tutor, "or you would not be so adverbial, and you must mean 'calls for
+singletons' instead of 'visits.'"
+
+"Oh, you English and your language, made for what you call puns!"
+
+"I am glad you call them puns instead of visiting them on us," said
+Nance, dodging a soft cushion hurled by Molly. "Did you girls hear the
+news? I am to stay at Wellington for Christmas and my father is coming
+down here to spend it with me. I can't think when father has taken a
+holiday before, and I am as excited about it as can be. He needs a rest,
+and he needs some fun. I wish he could have come last year before the
+old guard disbanded."
+
+"But listen to me," put in Molly. "I have some news, too, that I was
+trying to keep for a surprise, but I am a sieve where news is concerned:
+Judy Kean is to be here for Christmas, too. She writes that as her
+mother and father are in Turkey she will have to have some turkey in
+her, and she can think of no place that she would rather have that
+turkey than at Wellington with us. Dear old Judy, won't it be fun? And
+she will help to whoop things up for your father, Nance. She expected to
+be studying art in Paris by now, but Mr. Kean insisted on a year of
+drawing in New York before Paris, and that makes her in easy reach of
+us. We shall have to stop work and go to playing. I declare I have grown
+so used to work--I don't believe I know how to play."
+
+"Mees Grace Green is going to have an astonishment party for her
+brother, the young student medical," said Otoyo, the ever-ready news
+monger.
+
+"A surprise party for Dodo," shrieked the girls with delight. "Otoyo,
+Otoyo, you are too delicious."
+
+"Also, Mr. Andy McLean will be home with his honorable parents for
+making holiday, having done much proud work in the law school at Harvard
+University."
+
+Nance smiled. Her private opinion was that Mr. Andrew McLean and his
+proud work were the cause of Otoyo's very mixed English.
+
+"Also," continued Otoyo, "Mr. Andrew McLean will bring with him
+honorable young Japanese gentleman, who has hugged the Christian faith
+and is muchly studying to live in this country, whereas his honorable
+father has a wonderful shop of beautiful Japanese prints in Boston. My
+honorable father is familiar with his honorable father, namely, Mr.
+Seshu."
+
+"Oh ho, and that is the reason of the many mistakes," said Molly, in an
+aside to Nance. "I thought at first it was Andy's return, but I bet the
+little thing is contemplating something in connection with the honorable
+Mr. Seshu. I wonder if her father has written her about this young Jap."
+
+During all this chit-chat Melissa had sat perfectly quiet, but her quiet
+was never heavy nor depressing. She looked calmly and interestedly on
+and listened and smiled and sometimes gave a low laugh, showing that her
+humor was keen and ready. Otoyo was a never-failing source of delight to
+her, and when the little thing spoke of hugging the Christian faith a
+real hearty laugh came bubbling up. But she put her arm affectionately
+around her little friend and smothered her laugh in Otoyo's smooth black
+hair, that always had a look of having just been brushed, no matter how
+modern and American was the arrangement.
+
+And very modern and American were all of Otoyo's arrangements now. Her
+clothes bore the stamp of the best New York shops, with the most
+up-to-date shoes and hats, and she endeavored in every way to be as
+American as possible. She even tried to use the slang she heard around
+her, but her attempts in that direction were very laughable.
+
+In due time the holidays arrived, and with them came our own Judy full
+of enthusiasm for her work at the art school; came young Andy with his
+Japanese friend from the law school. Andy looking older and broader and
+more robust, not half so raw-boned as he used to be, and the young
+Japanese gentleman, on first sight, so like Otoyo that it was funny--but,
+on further acquaintance, it proved to be a racial likeness only; came
+Nance's father, a staid, quiet gentleman with his daughter's merry brown
+eyes and a general look of one to be depended on; came George Theodore
+Green, familiarly known as Dodo, no longer so shy, but with much more
+assurance of manner, as befitted a medical student from Johns Hopkins.
+
+Miss Grace Green had secretly sent out invitations for the surprise
+party for Christmas Eve, and all the girls were very busy getting their
+best bibs and tuckers in order to do honor to the occasion. Molly had
+seen a good deal of Miss Green since she came to Wellington to keep
+house for her brother, and they had become fast friends. Miss Green
+often asked her to come in to afternoon tea, and then they would have
+the most delightful talks in the professor's study, and he would read to
+them. Sometimes Molly would be prevailed upon to read some of her
+sketches, always of Kentucky and the familiar things of her childhood.
+She lost her shyness in doing this, and felt that it rather helped her
+and gave her new ideas for more things to write about.
+
+"Judy, please help me unpack this barrel from home," called Molly the
+day before Christmas. "I know you will want to help carry some of the
+things to the Greens for me. I almost wish I had sent the barrel there,
+as so many of the things are to go to them. We shall be laden down, I am
+sure."
+
+Judy, all excitement, began to knock off the top hoop and then with much
+hacking and prying they finally got off the head of the
+formidable-looking barrel and began to unpack the goodies: a ham for the
+professor of English cooked by Aunt Mary; a fruit cake for Molly, black
+and rich, with an odor to it that Judy said reminded her of the feast in
+St. Agnes Eve; a jar of Rosemary pickles; one of brandy peaches; a box
+of beaten biscuit; a roasted turkey, stuffed with chestnuts, and a
+wonderful bunch of mistletoe full of berries, growing to a knobby
+stunted branch of a walnut tree, which Kent had sawed off with great
+care and then packed so well with tissue paper that not one berry or
+leaf was misplaced.
+
+"This is for Miss Green's party. I asked Kent to get it for me. You know
+her party is to be an old English one, and it would not be complete
+without mistletoe. What is this little note hitched to it?
+
+  "'Dearest Molly:
+
+  "'I almost broke my neck getting this, and hope it is what you want.
+  Tell Miss Judy Kean, who, I hear, is to spend Christmas with you,
+  not to get under this until I get there.
+
+                                                            "'Kent.'
+
+"What can he mean? Judy Kean, is Kent coming here for Christmas? Answer
+me."
+
+But Judy only buried her crimson face in the big turkey's bosom and
+giggled.
+
+"Answer me, Judy Kean."
+
+"How do I know? Am I your brother's keeper?"
+
+"He couldn't be coming or mother would have written me! I see he means
+for you to wait for him until he 'arrives' in his profession. Oh, Judy,
+Judy, I do hope you will! But come on now, we must take these things to
+the Greens. Miss Grace is very busy with her preparations, while Dodo is
+off for the day with young Andy and his Jap friend, revisiting their old
+college, Exmoor. We must get the mistletoe hung; and the ham is to be
+part of the party, I fancy. I am going to take them some of these
+pickles, too, and half of my fruit cake. It is so big that it will take
+us months to devour it, besides ruining our complexions."
+
+The girls, weighed down with their heavy contributions--ham, pickle,
+fruit cake and mistletoe--rang the bell at Professor Green's house,
+fronting on the campus. The door was quickly opened by Miss Alice Fern.
+She eyed them haughtily and coldly, hardly responding to Molly's
+greeting and barely acknowledging the introduction to Judy, whom she
+already knew, but refused to remember.
+
+"My cousin, Miss Green, is very busy and regrets she cannot speak to you
+just now."
+
+"Oh, I am sorry not to see her! I have some mistletoe that my brother
+sent her from Kentucky, and Miss Kean and I were going to ask her to let
+us hang it for her."
+
+"You are very kind, but I am decorating the house for my cousins, and
+can do it very well without any assistance from outside."
+
+"Molly, we had better leave our packages and make a chastened
+departure," said Judy, the irrepressible. "We have some interior
+decorations besides the mistletoe, Miss Fern, in the way of an old ham
+and a fruit cake, and some Rosemary pickles. Are you also chairman of
+the committee on that kind of interior decorations? If you are not, I
+should think it were best for us to interview the secretary of the
+interior, if we are not allowed to see the head of the department."
+
+At that moment who should come bounding up the steps but Edwin Green
+himself.
+
+"Good morning to both of you! I am so glad to see you back in
+Wellington, Miss Kean. I have just come from the Quadrangle, where I
+went to call on you, but saw Miss Oldham, who told me you and Miss Molly
+were on your way to see my sister. Why don't you come in? Grace is in
+the pantry, preparing for the 'astonishment party,' as I am told Miss
+Sen calls it. I will call her directly."
+
+"Grace has asked to be excused to callers, Edwin," said the stately Miss
+Fern.
+
+"Nonsense, Alice, she was expecting Miss Brown to decorate the parlors,
+and Miss Kean is not a stranger to any of us. Come in, come in," and the
+indignant professor ushered them into the parlor and went to call his
+sister, confiding to her, as she hastened to greet the girls, that if
+Alice Fern did not stop trying to run their affairs he was going to do
+something desperate.
+
+"I am afraid you brought it on us by being too nice to her two years ago
+when she first came home from abroad," teased his sister; and he
+remembered that he had been rather attentive to his fair cousin at a
+time when Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky had had a little misunderstanding
+with him.
+
+"How good of you, you dear, sweet girl, to have this mistletoe sent all
+the way from Kentucky for our party, and what a wonderful piece of
+walnut it is growing to, this great, knotted, knobby branch! But, Alice,
+don't break any of it off! You will ruin it." Miss Green stopped Alice
+just in time, as she had begun with rapid tugs to pull the mistletoe
+from the branch that Kent had sawed off with such care, and to stick it
+in vases among the holly, where it did not show to any advantage. "Of
+course, it must be hung from the chandelier just as it is."
+
+"Oh, very well, Cousin Grace; but it seems to me to be a very heavy
+looking decoration." And the young woman flounced off, leaving Molly and
+Judy feeling very much mystified, to say the least.
+
+"Aunt Mary sent you a ham, Professor Green. I brought it to-day,
+thinking maybe your sister would like it for part of the night's
+festivities."
+
+"Not a bit of it. That ham is to be brought out when there are not so
+many to devour it. I am not usually a greedy glutton, but beech-nut fed,
+home-cured ham is too good for the rabble, and I am going to hide it
+before Grace casts her eagle eye on it." He accordingly picked it up and
+pretended to conceal it from his smiling sister.
+
+"Well, anyhow, Miss Green, you will use my fruit cake for the party,
+will you not?" begged Molly.
+
+"Oh, please don't ask me to. I know there is nothing in the world so
+good as fruit cake, and Edwin has told me of the wonders that come from
+Aunt Mary's kitchen. So if you don't mind, Molly, I am going to keep my
+cake for our private consumption. It would disappear like magic before
+the young people to-night, and Edwin and I could have it for many nights
+to come. Do you think I am as greedy as Edwin is with his ham?"
+
+Molly was very much amused, but her amusement was turned to
+embarrassment when she heard Miss Fern say to her Cousin Edwin: "Miss
+Brown seems to be trying very hard to give the party."
+
+She did not hear Edwin's answer, but noticed that he hugged his ham even
+more fervently, it being, fortunately for him and his coat, well wrapped
+in waxed paper. She also noticed that he went around and took out of the
+vases the few pieces of mistletoe that his cousin had pulled from the
+big bunch, and carefully wired them where they belonged on the walnut
+branch, and then got a step ladder and tied the beautiful decoration to
+the chandelier, while Judy, ignoring the stately Alice, bossed the job.
+
+"Miss Molly, did you know that Dicky Blount will be here to-night?"
+asked the professor. "We can have some good music, which will be a
+welcome addition to the program, I think."
+
+"That is fine; but please give him a slice of ham. I feel as though some
+were coming to him. Five pounds of Huyler's was too much for the old ham
+bone he got that memorable evening at Judith's dinner. By the way,
+Professor Green, I want to ask a favor of you and your sister."
+
+"Granted before asked, as far as I am concerned, and Grace is usually
+very amiable where you are in question," said the eager Edwin.
+
+"Oh, it isn't so much of a favor, and I have an idea I am doing you one
+to ask it of you. My dear friend Melissa Hathaway has a most wonderful
+voice, but no one ever knows it, as she is so reserved. I thought, maybe
+to-night, you might persuade her to sing. She has some ballads that are
+splendid for an Old English celebration."
+
+"I should say we will ask her, and be too glad to! I am so pleased that
+she is coming. She seemed rather doubtful whether she could or not."
+
+"Oh, that was just clothes, and clever Nance solved the problem for her
+just as she often has for me by making something out of nothing. When
+you see our Melissa and realize that her dress is made of eight yards of
+Seco silk at twenty cents a yard, you will think Nance is pretty
+clever."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--DODO'S SURPRISE PARTY.
+
+
+The old red brick house, where Professor Green had his bachelor
+quarters, had been put in good order for his sister's regime, and with
+the furniture that had been in storage for many years since the death of
+their parents was made most attractive. It was designed for parties,
+seemingly, as the whole lower floor could be turned practically into one
+room. It had begun to snow, which made the glowing fire in the big hall
+even more cheerful by contrast.
+
+"Whew! aren't we festive?" exclaimed Dodo, bursting in at the front door
+with Lawrence Upton, whom he had picked up at Exmoor. "Looks to me like
+a ball, with all of this holly and the bare floors ready for dancing.
+Andy and his little Jap are coming around this evening to see you,
+Gracey, and I wish we could get some girls to have a bit of a dance. I
+have been learning to dance along with my other arduous tasks at the
+University, and I'd like to trip the light fantastic toe with some real
+flesh and blood. I have had nothing but a rocking chair to practice with
+for ever so long. I've got a little broken sofa that is great to 'turkey
+trot' with."
+
+"How about the old tune, 'Waltzing 'Round with Sophy, Sophy Just
+Seventeen,' for that dance of yours?" laughed his older brother. "I
+declare, Dodo, we ought to do better than that for you at a girls'
+college, even in holiday time. Let's wait and see if young Andy comes,
+and then with his help maybe we can scare up a girl or so."
+
+Miss Grace thanked Edwin with an appreciative pat for keeping up the
+game of surprise party. Just then Richard Blount came blowing in from
+New York, and they all went in to supper, where the greedy Edwin
+permitted them to have a try at his ham.
+
+"What a girl that Miss Brown is!" declared Dicky. "She seems to me to be
+the most attractive blonde I have ever seen." Richard, being very fair,
+of course, had a leaning toward brunettes. "We were talking about her
+the other evening at the Stewarts', and we agreed that when all was told
+she was about the best bred person we knew."
+
+Miss Fern, to whom praise of Molly seemed to be bitterness and gall,
+gave a sniff of her aristocratic nose and remarked: "There must have
+been some question of Miss Brown's breeding for you to have been
+discussing it. I have always thought breeding was something taken for
+granted."
+
+"So it should be," said Professor Green, laconically.
+
+"Do you know, it is a strange thing to me, but the only two persons in
+the world that I know of who don't like Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky are
+our two cousins on different sides of the house--Judith Blount and you,
+Cousin Alice."
+
+This from Dodo, enfant terrible. Edwin turned the color of his old ham
+and looked sternly at Dodo, who was entirely unconscious of having said
+anything amiss. Miss Grace and Lawrence Upton giggled shamefully, while
+Richard Blount hastened to say, "I think you are mistaken about Judith.
+On the contrary, she now speaks very highly of Miss Brown, and looks
+upon her as a very good friend."
+
+"As for me," said Alice, "I have never given Miss Brown a thought one
+way or the other. I do not know her well enough to dislike her. She
+impresses me as being rather pushing."
+
+At this Miss Grace made a sign for them to rise, as she was anxious to
+get the dining-room in readiness for the entertainment.
+
+"All of you boys had better put on your dress suits if there is a chance
+of scaring up some dancers," she tactfully suggested, so there was a
+general rush for their rooms, and she was left in peace to get
+everything ready for the surprise party.
+
+The guests, as had been agreed upon, arrived together. The old house was
+suddenly filled with dancers enough to satisfy the eager Dodo, and dear
+Mrs. McLean, ready to play dance music until they dropped. Dodo was
+astonished enough to delight his sister, and the fun began.
+
+Dr. McLean and Mr. Oldham found much to talk about, so Nance felt that
+her father was going to have a pleasant evening, and with a glad sigh
+gave herself up to having a good time with the rest. Young Andy was not
+long in attaching himself to her side, and they picked up conversation
+where they had dropped it the year before and seemed to find each other
+as agreeable as ever.
+
+All the girls looked lovely, as girls should when they have an evening
+of fun ahead of them and plenty of partners to make things lively.
+Several more young men came over from Exmoor, in response to a secret
+invitation sent by Miss Grace through young Andy, so, as Judy put it,
+"There were beaux to burn."
+
+Judy was going in very much for the picturesque in dress, as is the
+usual thing with art students, so she was very aesthetically attired in a
+clinging green Liberty silk. Molly wore her bridesmaid blue organdy,
+which was very becoming. Nance,--who always had the proper thing to wear
+on every occasion without having to scrape around and take stitches and
+let down hems, and find a petticoat to match, and for that reason had
+time to do those necessary things for the other girls,--wore a pretty
+little evening gown of white chiffon, and she looked so pretty herself
+that Dr. McLean whispered to his wife that he took it all back about
+young Andy's having picked out a plain lassie. Little Otoyo had on the
+handsomest dress of the evening, a rose pink silk embroidered in cherry
+blossoms. The clever child had bought the dress in New York at a swell
+shop and taken it to Japan with her, and there had the wonderful
+embroidery put on it. Melissa was a revelation to herself and her
+friends. The black Seco silk fitted her so well that Nance was really
+elated over her success as a mantuamaker. Melissa had never gone
+decollete in her life, and at first the girls could hardly persuade her
+to wear the low-necked dress; but when she saw Molly she was content.
+
+"Whatever Molly does is always right, and if she wears low neck then I
+will, too," said the artless girl.
+
+Her hair was rolled at the sides and done in a low knot on her neck. As
+she came into the parlor Richard Blount, who was going over some music
+at the piano, did not see her at first. Looking up to speak to Edwin
+about a song he was to sing, he was struck dumb by her beauty. Clutching
+Edwin he managed to gasp out, "Great Caesar! who is she?"
+
+"She is not Medusa, my dear Dick. Don't stand as though you had turned
+to stone. It is Miss Hathaway, a friend of Miss Brown's, and a very
+interesting and original young woman, also from Kentucky, but from the
+mountains. I will introduce you with pleasure."
+
+Edwin Green did introduce him, and if Richard Blount took his eyes from
+Melissa once during the evening he did it when no one was looking.
+
+Mr. Seshu, young Andy's friend, proved to be a charming, educated young
+man, who understood English perfectly and spoke with only an occasional
+blunder. He made himself very agreeable to Molly, who was eager to talk
+with him, hoping to find out if he were worthy of their little Otoyo.
+The girls were almost certain that he had come to Wellington with the
+idea of viewing Otoyo and passing on her as a possible wife. Otoyo had
+let drop two or three remarks that made them feel that this was the
+case. She was very much excited, and her little hands were like ice when
+Molly took them in hers to tell her how sweet she looked and how
+beautiful and becoming her dress was. It was a trying ordeal for any
+girl, and Molly wondered that the little thing could go through with it,
+but honorable father had thus decreed it and it must be borne.
+
+"I fancy it is better than having the marriage broker putting his finger
+in, which is what would have happened if the Sens and Seshus had not
+'hugged the Christian faith' and come to America," whispered Molly to
+Nance as they took off their wraps.
+
+"I'd see myself being pranced out like a colt, honorable father or not,"
+said Nance. "I fancy he is very nice, however, or Andy would not be so
+chummy with him."
+
+Molly was amused at the farce of telling Mr. Seshu that one of his
+country women was a student at Wellington, and she hoped to have the
+pleasure of introducing them. He received the information with a polite
+bow, and no more expression than a stone image, but with volubly
+expressed thanks and eagerness for the introduction.
+
+"Our little Otoyo is very precious to us," said Molly, "and we are very
+proud of her progress in her studies. She takes a fine place with her
+class, and will graduate this year with flying colors. She writes
+perfect English, but there are times in conversation when adverbs are
+too many for her. She is excited to-night over coming to a dance, having
+but recently added dancing to her many accomplishments, and her adverbs
+may get the better of her." Molly was determined that the seeker for a
+wife should not take the poor little thing's excitement to himself.
+
+Mr. Seshu seemed more anxious to talk about Otoyo than to meet her.
+
+"And so you are trying to pump me about my little friend, are you, you
+wily young Jap? Well, you have come to the right corner. I'll tell you
+all I can, and you shall hear such good things of Otoyo that you will
+think I am a veritable marriage broker," said Molly to herself.
+
+"Is Mees Sen of kindly heart and temper good, you say?"
+
+"She has the kindest heart in the world and a good temper, but she is
+well able to stand up for herself when it is necessary."
+
+"He shall not think he is getting nothing but a good family horse, but I
+am going to try to let him understand that our little Otoyo has a high
+spirit and is fit for something besides the plow," added Molly to
+herself.
+
+After much talk, in which Molly felt that she had been most diplomatic,
+Mr. Seshu was finally presented to Miss Sen. Poor little Otoyo was not
+as embarrassed as she would have been had she not learned to converse
+with honorable gentlemen quite like American maidens. The practice she
+had had with young Andy and Professor Green came in very well now, and
+her anxious friends were delighted to see that she was holding her own
+with her polished countryman, and that he seemed much interested in her
+chatter. At the instigation of Molly and Nance, Andy McLean soon came up
+and claimed Otoyo for a dance. She looked very coquettishly at her
+Japanese suitor and immediately accepted, and Mr. Seshu was as
+disconsolate as any other young man would have been to have a pleasant
+companion snatched from him.
+
+"We'll teach him a thing or two," said our girls. "And just look how
+well Otoyo is 'step twoing,' as she calls it, with Andy!"
+
+"While the dancers are resting we will have some music," said the
+gracious hostess. "I am going to ask you, Miss Hathaway, to sing for
+us."
+
+Melissa looked astonished that she should be chosen, but, with that
+poise and dignity that years in society cannot give some persons, she
+agreed to sing what she could if Molly would accompany her on the
+guitar.
+
+"Sing 'Lord Ronald and Fair Eleanor,'" whispered Molly. "I want
+Professor Green to hear it."
+
+[Illustration: The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming
+picture.--Page 252.]
+
+The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture as they took
+their places to do their part toward entertaining the guests--Molly so
+fair and slender in her pretty blue dress, with her hair "making
+sunshine in a shady place," seated with the guitar, while Melissa, tall
+and stately, with figure more developed, in her clinging black dress
+stood near her. Judy was so overcome at the picturesque effect that she
+began to make rapid sketching movements in the air as was her wont.
+
+"Oh, what don't we see when we haven't got a gun! I'd give anything for
+a piece of charcoal and some paper."
+
+"I don't know all of this song, but I shall sing all I do. I learned it
+from my grandmother, and she learned it from hers. This is all Granny
+knows, but she says her grandmother had many more verses," said Melissa
+as Molly struck the opening chords of the accompaniment.
+
+  "So she dressed herself in scarlet red,
+    And she dressed her maid in green,
+  And every town that they went through
+    They took her to be some queen, queen, queen,
+    They took her to be some queen.
+
+  "'Lord Ronald, Lord Ronald, is this your bride
+    That seems so plaguey brown?
+  And you might have married as fair skinned a girl
+    As ever the sun shone on, on, on,
+    As ever the sun shone on.'
+
+  "The little brown girl, she had a penknife,
+    It was both long and sharp;
+  She stuck it in fair Eleanor's side
+    And it entered at the heart, heart, heart,
+    It entered at the heart.
+
+  "Lord Ronald, he took her by her little brown hand
+    And led her across the hall;
+  And with his sword cut off her head,
+    And kicked it against the wall, wall, wall,
+    And kicked it against the wall.
+
+  "'Mother, dear mother, come dig my grave;
+    Dig it both wide and deep.
+  By my side fair Eleanor put,
+    And the little brown girl at my feet, feet, feet,
+    And the little brown girl at my feet.'"
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the beautiful girl finished the plaintive air there was absolute
+stillness for a few seconds. The audience was too deeply moved to speak.
+Melissa's voice was sweet and full and came with no more effort than the
+song of the mocking bird heard in her own valleys at dawn. She took high
+note or low with the same ease that she had stooped and lifted her
+little hair trunk at Wellington station.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+The song in itself was very remarkable, being one of the few original
+ballads evidently brought to America by an early settler, and handed
+down from mother to daughter through the centuries. Edwin Green
+recognized it, and noted the changes from the original from time to
+time. Richard Blount was the first to find his tongue, although he was
+the one most deeply moved by the performance.
+
+"My, that was fine!" was all he could say, but he broke the spell of
+silence, and there was a storm of applause. Melissa bowed and smiled,
+pleased that she met with their approval, but with no airs or
+affectation.
+
+"She has the stage manner of a great artist who is above caring for what
+the gallery thinks, but has sung for Art's sake, and, as an artist,
+knows her work is good," said Richard to Professor Green. "Miss
+Hathaway, you will sing again for us, please. I can't remember having
+such a treat as you have just given us, and I have been to every opera
+in New York for six years."
+
+The demand was general, so Melissa graciously complied. This time she
+gave "The Mistletoe Bough."
+
+  "The mistletoe hung in the castle hall,
+  And the holly branch shone on the old oak wall;
+  And all within were blithe and gay,
+  Keeping their Christmas holiday.
+        Oh, the mistletoe bough,
+        Oh, the mistletoe bough."
+
+And so on, through the many stanzas of the fine old ballad, telling of
+the bride who cried, "I'll hide, I'll hide," and then of the search and
+how they never found the beautiful bride until years had passed away,
+and then, on opening the old chest in the attic, her bones were
+discovered and the wedding veil.
+
+When the applause subsided, Miss Grace asked Richard Blount to sing.
+
+"I'll do it, Cousin Grace, but I have never felt more modest about my
+little accomplishments. Miss Hathaway has taken all the wind out of my
+sails. I am going to sing a little thing that I clipped out of a
+newspaper and put to music. 'It is a poor thing, but mine own.' I think
+it is appropriate for this party, and hope you will agree with me."
+
+"Now, Dicky, you know we love your singing, and because Miss Hathaway
+has charmed us is no reason why you cannot charm us all over. Caruso can
+sing, as well as Sembrich," said Miss Grace.
+
+Richard Blount had a good baritone voice, and sang with a great deal of
+taste; and he played on the piano with real genius. With a few brilliant
+runs he settled down to the simple, sweet air he had composed for the
+little bit of fugitive verse, and then began to sing:
+
+  "The holly is a soldier bold,
+    Arrayed in tunic green,
+  His slender sword is never sheathed,
+    But always bared and keen.
+  He stands amid the winter snows
+    A sentry in the wood,--
+  The scarlet berries on his boughs
+    Are drops of frozen blood.
+
+  "The mistletoe's a maiden fair,
+    Enchanted by the oak,
+  Who holds her in his hoary arms,
+    And hides her in his cloak.
+  She knows her soldier lover waits
+    Among the leafless trees,
+  And, weeping in the bitter cold,
+    Her tears to jewels freeze.
+
+  "But at the holy Christmas-tide,
+    Blessed time of all the year,
+  The evil spirits lose their power,
+    And angels reappear.
+  They meet beside some friendly hearth,
+    While softly falls the snow--
+  The soldier Holly and his bride,
+    The mystic Mistletoe."
+
+Richard had been delighted by Melissa's performance, and now she
+returned the compliment by being so carried away by his singing and the
+song that she forgot all shyness and reserve and openly congratulated
+him, praising his music with so much real appreciation and fervor that
+the young man was persuaded to sing again. He sang the beautiful Indian
+song of Cadman's, "The Moon Hangs Low," and was beginning the opening
+chords to "The Land of Sky-blue Water," when there came a sharp ringing
+of the bell, followed by some confusion in the hall as the door was
+opened and a gust of wind blew in the fast falling snow. Then a man's
+voice was heard inquiring for Professor Green.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.--MORE SURPRISES.
+
+
+"Whose voice is that?" exclaimed Molly and Judy in unison; and without
+waiting to be answered they rushed into the hall to find Kent Brown
+being warmly greeted by Professor Green. Before he had time to shake the
+snow from his broad shoulders, Molly seized him and he seized Judy, and
+they had a good old three-cornered Christmas hug.
+
+"Did you get my note tied to the mistletoe?"
+
+"Yes, you goose; but we did not know you were really coming. I thought
+you were speaking in parables," said Molly, but Judy only blushed.
+
+"Well, it is powerful fine to get here. My train is four hours late."
+
+"I know you are tired and hungry," said Miss Green, who was as cordial
+as her brother in her reception of the young Kentuckian. "But where is
+your grip, Mr. Brown?"
+
+"Oh, I left it at the inn in the village. I could not think of piling in
+on you in this way without any warning."
+
+"Well, Edwin will 'phone for it immediately. You Southern people think
+you are the only ones who can put yourselves out for guests. It would be
+a pretty thing for one of Mrs. Brown's sons to be in Wellington and not
+at our house."
+
+So Kent was taken into the Greens' house with as much cordiality and
+hospitality as Chatsworth itself could have shown. The odor of coffee
+soon began to invade the hall and parlors, and in a little while the
+dining-room doors were thrown open and the feasting began. Miss Green
+was an excellent housekeeper, and knew how to cater to young people's
+tastes as well as Mrs. Brown herself, so the food was plentiful and
+delicious. Molly noticed with a smile that some of the precious ham was
+smuggled to the plates of Dr. and Mrs. McLean and Mr. Oldham, where it
+was duly appreciated, and that later on the favored three were regaled
+with slices of the fruit cake.
+
+Kent found a cozy seat for Judy by the hall fire, and soon joined her
+with trays of supper.
+
+"Oh, Miss Judy, it has been years since last July. I have worked as hard
+as a man could, hoping to make the time fly, but it hasn't done much
+good,--except that it made my firm suggest that I let up for a few days
+at Christmas, and here I am! I am working awfully hard trying to learn
+to do water coloring of the architectural drawings. I wish I had you to
+help me, you are so clever. I am hoping to get to New York or Paris some
+day to learn the tricks of the trade, but in the meantime there are lots
+of things to learn in Louisville; and I am getting more money for my
+work than I did. Did Molly give you my message tied to the mistletoe?"
+
+"Yes, Kent."
+
+"Will you wait? I was speaking in parables. I think somehow that I must
+arrive a little more, before I can catch you under the mistletoe; and
+you must do your work, too. Oh, Judy, it is hard to be so wise and
+circumspect! But will you wait?"
+
+"Yes, Kent. I am working hard, too, harder than I have ever worked in my
+life. I was terribly disappointed when papa would not let me go to Paris
+this winter, but insisted on the year of hard drawing in New York, to
+test myself and find myself, as it were, and I have been determined to
+make good. I am drawing all the time, and you know that is virtuous when
+I am simply demented on the subject of color. I let myself work in color
+on Saturday in Central Park, but the rest of the time it is charcoal
+from the antique or from life, with classes in composition and design.
+There is no use in talking about being a decorator if you can't draw. I
+hope to be in Paris next year, and then I shall reap my reward and
+simply wallow in color."
+
+When supper was over, they were all called on to stand up for the
+Virginia Reel, which Mrs. McLean played with such spirit that Mr. Oldham
+and Dr. McLean could not keep their feet still; and before the
+astonished eyes of Edwin Green and Andy McLean, who had other plans, Mr.
+Oldham seized Molly and Dr. McLean Nance, and they danced down the
+middle and back again with as much spirit as they had ever shown in
+their youth.
+
+"It takes the old timers to dance the old dances, hey, Mr. Oldham?" said
+the panting doctor as he came up the middle smiling and cutting pigeon
+wings, while Nance arose to the occasion and "chasseed" to his steps
+like any belle of the sixties. Even Miss Alice Fern forgot her dignity
+and romped, but she was very gay, as Edwin had sought her out when Molly
+danced off with Mr. Oldham. He had remembered that he had been rather
+remiss in his attentions to his fair cousin.
+
+How they did dance!--and all of the extra men danced with each other, so
+there were no wall flowers. Richard Blount claimed Melissa as a partner,
+and they delighted the crowd by singing as they danced a song that
+Melissa had taught Richard, as she told him of some of the mountain
+dance games, the words fitting themselves to Mrs. McLean's lively tunes.
+
+  "'Old man, old man, let me have your daughter?'
+  'Yes, young man, for a dollar and a quarter.
+  Pick up her duds and pitch 'em up behind her.'
+  'Here's your money, old man, I've got your daughter.'"
+
+After the dance they drew around the open fire in the hall and roasted
+chestnuts and popped corn and told stories, and had a very merry
+old-fashioned time capping quotations. And finally the one thing
+wanting, as Molly thought, came to pass, and Professor Green read
+Dickens' Christmas Carol just as he had three years before, when he and
+his sister gave Molly the surprise party at Queen's in her Sophomore
+year.
+
+"At the risk of making myself verra unpopular, I am afraid I shall have
+to say it is time for all of us to be in bed," said Mrs. McLean, when
+the professor closed the worn old copy of Dickens.
+
+"Oh, not 'til we have had a little more dancing, please, dear Mrs.
+McLean," came in a chorus from the young people; and Professor Green
+told her that it would be a pity to throw Dodo back on a rocking chair
+for a partner before he had had a little more practice with flesh and
+blood. So up they all sprang, and with Miss Grace at the piano, to
+relieve the good-natured Mrs. McLean, who had thrummed her fingers sore,
+off they went into more waltzes and two-steps, even the shy Melissa
+dancing with Richard Blount as though she had been at balls every night
+of her life. Otoyo and Mr. Seshu hopped around together as though
+"step-twoing" and "dance-rounding" were the national dances of Japan.
+
+And so ended the delightful surprise party. Before they departed, Dr.
+McLean drew his wife under the mistletoe and kissed her.
+
+"Just to show you bashful young fellows how it is done," said the jovial
+doctor.
+
+"And I will give the lassies a lesson in how to accept such public
+demonstration," said his blushing wife, and she suited the action to the
+word by giving him a playful slap, whereupon he kissed her again, but
+instead of another slap she hugged him in return, and there was a
+general laugh.
+
+"I did that just to show the indignant lassies that they must not hold
+with their anger too long. A kiss under the mistletoe has never yet been
+offered as an insult, and the forward miss is not the one to get the
+kiss."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.--DREAMS AND REALITIES.
+
+
+The holidays were all too soon over. Much feasting went on, what with
+Molly's big turkey and her fruit cake and Rosemary pickles; and the
+invitations to Mrs. McLean's and Miss Walker's; and Otoyo's Japanese
+spread, where she and Melissa charmed the company with the beautifully
+arranged rooms and the dainty, delicious refreshments. Mr. Seshu,
+throughout, was very attentive to his little countrywoman, and the girls
+decided that he was in love with her just like any ordinary American
+might be.
+
+"I am so glad it is coming about this way," said Molly. "Just think how
+hard it might have been for our little Otoyo, now that she has been in
+this country long enough to see how we do such things, had she been
+compelled, by filial feeling, to marry some one whom she did not love
+and who did not love her. I think she is all over the sentimental
+attachment she used to have for the unconscious Andy, don't you, Nance?"
+
+"I fancy she is," said the far from unconscious Nance, who always had a
+heightened color when young Andy's name got into the conversation. "I
+don't think she ever really cared for Andy. He was just the first and
+only young man who was ever nice to her, and it went to her head. Andy
+is so kind and good natured."
+
+"You forget Professor Green. He was always careful and attentive, and
+Otoyo would chatter like a magpie with him."
+
+"Oh, but he is so much older!" And then Nance wished she had bitten out
+her tongue, as Molly looked hurt and sad.
+
+"Professor Green is not so terribly old! I think he is much more
+agreeable than callow youths who have no conversation beyond their own
+affairs."
+
+"Now, Molly Brown, I didn't mean to say a thing to hurt your feelings or
+to imply that Professor Green was anything but perfection. He is not too
+old for y--us, I mean; but Otoyo is like a child."
+
+"I am ashamed of myself, Nance, but I do get kind of tired of
+everybody's taking the stand that Professor Green is so old. He is the
+best man friend I ever had, and--and----" But Nance kissed her fondly, and
+she did not have to go on with her sentence, which was lucky, as she did
+not know how she was going to finish it without committing herself.
+
+Kent had to fly back to Louisville to work at his chosen profession and
+try to learn how to do water color renderings of the architectural
+elevations; Judy back to New York to dig at her charcoal drawings and
+dream of swimming in color, with Kent striking out beside her; Dodo
+again at Johns Hopkins, learning much about medicine and how to "turkey
+trot" with a broken sofa; young Andy and Mr. Seshu at Harvard, studying
+the laws of their country, for was not Mr. Seshu fast becoming an
+American? They had their dreams, too, these two young men. Andy was
+looking forward to the day when he would not have to stop talking to
+Nance just at the most interesting turn of the argument, but could stay
+right along with her forever and ever,--and sure he was that they would
+never talk out! Mr. Seshu's dreams--but, after all, what do we know of
+his dreams? Certain we are that he looked favorably on the little Miss
+Sen, and that honorable Father Sen and honorable Father Seshu had a long
+and satisfactory talk in the shop in Boston with the beautiful Japanese
+prints hanging all around them, representing in themselves money enough
+to make the prospective young couple very wealthy.
+
+Mr. Oldham went back to Vermont, also dreaming that the day might come
+when his little Nance would keep house for him, and he could leave the
+hated boarding house, and have a real home. Richard Blount returned to
+New York, dreaming, too, and his dream was of the beautiful mountain
+girl with the dignity and poise of a queen, eyes like the clear brown
+pools of autumn and a purposeful look on her young face that showed even
+a casual observer that she had a mission in life.
+
+Mid-year examinations came and went. Melissa and Otoyo came through
+without a scratch, which made Molly rejoice as though it had been her
+own ordeal.
+
+Domestic Science grew more thrilling; so interesting, indeed, that Molly
+could not decide for a whole day whether she would rather be a
+scientific cook or a great literary success. But a note from a magazine
+editor accepting her "Basket Funeral" and asking for more similar
+stories decided her in favor of literature. And on the same day, too,
+Professor Edwin Green said to her, "Please, Miss Molly, don't learn how
+to cook so well that you forget how to make popovers. I am afraid all of
+these scientific rules you are learning will upset the natural-born
+knowledge that you already possess, and your spontaneous genius will be
+choked by an academic style of cooking that would be truly deplorable."
+
+Molly laughingly confided in the professor that she would not give one
+of Aunt Mary's hot turnovers for all of Miss Morse's scientifically made
+bread.
+
+"I know her bread is perfect, but it lacks a certain taste and life, and
+is to the real thing what a marble statue is to flesh and blood. Judy
+described it, in speaking of the food at a lunchroom for self-supporting
+women that she occasionally goes to in New York, as being 'too chaste.'"
+
+"That is exactly it, too chaste," agreed Professor Green.
+
+"Of course, cooking is a small part of what we learn in Domestic
+Science,--food values, economic housekeeping, etc. It really is a very
+broad and far-reaching science."
+
+They were in the professor's study, where Molly had come to tell him the
+good news about her story, and to ask his advice concerning what other
+of her character sketches she should send to the magazine. She was
+wearing her cap and gown, as she was just returning from a formal
+college function. When the young man greeted her, he had quickly rolled
+up something, looking a little shamefaced. But as they talked, he rolled
+and unrolled and finally determined to show the papers to her.
+
+"Miss Molly, Kent has sent me the plans for my bungalow that I
+commissioned him at Christmas to get busy on. I wonder if you would care
+to see them."
+
+"Of course I'd be charmed to, Professor Green. There is nothing in the
+world that is more interesting to me than plans of a house. Kent and I
+have been drawing them ever since we could hold pencils. Kent was the
+master hand at outside effects, and I was the housekeeper, who must have
+the proper pantry arrangements and conveniences."
+
+"Well, please pass on these. The outside effects seem lovely to me, but
+I cannot tell about the interior."
+
+Molly seated herself and pored over the prints, soon mastering the
+details with a practiced eye, noting dimensions and windows and doors.
+
+"I think it is splendid, but do you really want my criticism?"
+
+"I certainly do, more than any one's."
+
+"Well, there is waste space here that should be put in the store room.
+This little passage from dining-room to kitchen is entirely unnecessary
+and should be incorporated in the butler's pantry. These twin doors in
+the hall, one leading to the attic and one to the cellar, are no doubt
+very pretty, but they are not wide enough. An attic is for trunks, and
+how could one larger than a steamer trunk get through such a narrow
+door? A cellar is certainly for barrels and the like, and I am sure it
+would be a tug to pull a barrel through this little crack of a door. I'd
+allow at least nine inches more on each door, and that means a foot and
+a half off something. Let me see. It seems a pity to take it off of the
+living-room, and rather inhospitable to rob the guest chamber.
+
+"Aunt Clay always puts the new towels in the guest chamber for the
+company to break in. She says company can't kick about the slick
+stiffness of them, and somehow it would seem rather Aunt Clayish to take
+that eighteen inches off of the poor unsuspecting guests, whoever they
+may be."
+
+Molly sat a long time studying the plans, and she looked so sweet and so
+earnest that Edwin Green thought with regret of the tacit promise he had
+made Mrs. Brown: to let Molly stay a child for another year. How he
+longed to know his fate! How simple it would be while she was showing
+her interest in his little bungalow to ask her to tell him if she
+thought she could ever make it her little home, too! Was she the child
+her mother thought her? Did she think he was a "laggard in love," and
+despise him for a "faint heart"? Or could it be that she thought of him
+only as an old and trusted friend, too ancient to contemplate as
+anything but a professor of literature, and, at that, one who was
+building a home in which to spend his rapidly declining years?
+
+"Time will tell," sighed the poor, conscientious young man, "but if I am
+letting my happiness slip through my fingers from a mistaken sense of
+duty, then I don't deserve anything but 'single blessedness'."
+
+"I have it!" exclaimed Molly. "Have the cellar entrance outside by the
+kitchen door with a gourd pergola over both, and take this inside space
+where the cellar door and steps were to be for a large closet in the
+poor guests' room, to make up to them for coming so near to losing a
+foot and a half off of their room."
+
+"That suits me, if it suits you. Is there anything else?"
+
+"If you won't tell Kent it is my suggestion, I do think the bathroom
+door ought to open in and not out. He and I have disagreed about doors
+ever since we were children.
+
+"Do you know what plan Kent is making for mother and me? He wants us to
+go abroad next winter. Sue is to be married to her Cyrus in June, muddy
+lane and all; Paul and John are in Louisville most of the time, now that
+Paul is on a morning paper and has to work at night, and John is
+building up his practice and has to be on the spot; Kent hopes to be
+able to take a course at the Beaux Arts next winter if he can save
+enough money, and that would leave no one at Chatsworth but mother and
+me. There is no reason why we should not go, and you know I am excited
+about it; and, as for mother, she says she is like our country cousin
+who came to the exposition in Louisville and said in a grandiloquent
+tone, 'I am desirous to go elsewhere and view likewise.' Mother and I
+have never traveled anywhere, and it would be splendid for us. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+"I certainly do, especially as next year is my sabbatical year of
+teaching, and I expect to have a holiday myself and do some traveling. I
+have something to dream of now, and that is to meet you and your mother
+in Europe and 'go elsewhere and view likewise' in your company!"
+
+"Oh, Mother and I will be so glad to see you," exclaimed Molly. "I have
+brought a letter from Mildred to read to you, Professor Green. It is so
+like Mildred and tells so much of her life in Iowa that I thought it
+might interest you."
+
+"Indeed it will. I have thought so often of that delightful young couple
+and the wonderful wedding in the garden."
+
+So Molly began:
+
+  "'Dearest Sister:--You complain of having only second-hand letters
+  from me and you are quite right. There is nothing more irritating
+  than letters written to other people and handed down. Your letters
+  should belong to you, and you only, just as much as your
+  tooth-brush. You remember how mad it used to make Ernest to have his
+  letters sent to Aunt Clay, and how he would put in bad words just to
+  keep Mother from handing them on.
+
+  'Crit and I are more and more pleased with our little home out here
+  in this Western town (not that they call themselves Western, and on
+  the map they are really more Eastern than Western). The people are
+  lovely, and so neighborly and hospitable. It is a good thing for
+  Southern people to get away from home occasionally and come to the
+  realization that they have not got a corner on hospitality.
+  Entertaining out here really means trouble to the hostess, as there
+  are no servants and the ladies of the house have all the work to do;
+  and still they entertain a great deal and do it very well, too.
+
+  'I have never seen anything like the system the women have evolved
+  for their work. For instance: they wash on Monday morning and have a
+  "biled dinner." When washing is over, they are too tired to do any
+  more work, so they usually go calling or have club meetings or some
+  form of amusement to rest up for Tuesday, ironing day. Wednesday,
+  they bake. Thursday is the great day for teas and parties. Friday is
+  thorough cleaning day, and I came very near making myself very
+  unpopular because in my ignorance, when I first came here, I
+  returned some calls on that fateful day. I was greeted by irate
+  dames at every door, their heads tied up in towels and their faces
+  very dirty. I could hardly believe they were the same elegant ladies
+  I had met at the Thursday reception, beautifully gowned and showing
+  no marks of toil. On Saturday they bake again and get ready for
+  Sunday, and on Sunday no one ever thinks of staying away from church
+  because of cooking or house work.
+
+  'I am so glad our mother taught us how to work some, at least not to
+  be afraid of work, but I do wish I had been as fond of the kitchen
+  as you always were and had learned how to cook from Aunt Mary. My
+  sole culinary accomplishment was cloudbursts, and if Crit is an
+  angel he has to have something to go on besides cloudbursts. The
+  restaurants and hotels here are impossible and there are no boarding
+  houses. There are only twenty servants in the whole town and they
+  already have a waiting list of persons who want them when the
+  present employers are through with them, which only death or removal
+  from the town would make possible, so you see we have to keep house.
+  I am learning to cook, and simply adore Friday when I can tie up my
+  head and pull the house to pieces and make the dust fly. Crit calls
+  me a Sunbonnet Baby because I am so afraid of not keeping to the
+  schedule set down for me by my neighbors. Crit has bought me every
+  patent convenience on the market to make the work easy: washing
+  machine, electric iron and toaster, fancy mop wringer, and a dust
+  pan that can stand up by itself and let you sweep the dirt in
+  without stooping, vacuum carpet cleaner (but no carpets as yet),
+  window washer and dustless dusters, fireless cooker and a steamer
+  that can cook five things at once and blows a little whistle when
+  the water gets low in the bottom vessel. I have no excuse for not
+  being a good cook except that I lack the genius that you have. I
+  thought I never should learn how to make bread but I have mastered
+  it at last and can turn out a right good loaf and really lovely
+  turnovers.
+
+  'Thank you so much for your hints from your Domestic Science class.
+  I really got a lot from them. I had an awfully funny time with some
+  bread last week. You see, having once learned how to make it, it was
+  terribly mortifying to mix up a big batch and have it simply refuse
+  to rise. I didn't want Crit to see it, so I took it out in the
+  backyard and buried it in some sand the plasterers had left there.
+  Crit came home to dinner and went out in the yard to see if his
+  radishes were up and came in much excited: said he had found a new
+  mushroom growth (you remember he was always interested in mushrooms
+  and knew all kinds of edible varieties that we had never heard of).
+  Sure enough there was a brand new variety. That hateful old dough
+  had come up at last! The hot sand had been too much for it and it
+  was rising to beat the band. I was strangely unsympathetic with Crit
+  and his mushroom cult, so he came in to dinner. As soon as Crit went
+  back to work, I went out and covered up the disgraceful failure with
+  a lot more sand, hammered it down well and put a chicken coop on it,
+  determined to get rid of it; but surely murder must be like yeast
+  and it will out. When Crit came back to supper that old leaven had
+  found its way through the cracks under the chicken coop and a little
+  spot was appearing to the side of the sand pile. Crit was awfully
+  excited and began to pull off pieces to send to Washington for the
+  Government to look into the specimens, and I had to give in and tell
+  him the truth. He almost died laughing and decided to send some
+  anyhow, just to see what Uncle Sam would make out of it. The report
+  has not come yet. I have lots more things to tell you about my
+  housekeeping but I must stop now. I am so sorry I can not come home
+  to Sue's wedding, but it is such an expensive trip out here that I
+  do not see how Crit and I can manage it just now. Of course Crit
+  could not come anyhow as the bridge would surely fall down if he
+  were not here to hold it up, and even if we could afford it I should
+  hate to leave him more than I can tell you. Oh, Molly, he is so
+  precious! We have been married almost a year now and when I was
+  cross about his mushrooms was the nearest we have ever come to a
+  misunderstanding. That is doing pretty well for me who am a born
+  pepper pot. It is all Crit, who is an angel, as I believe I remarked
+  before. Please write to me all about your class reunion, and give my
+  love to that adorable Julia Kean, and also remember me to that nice
+  Professor Green.
+
+                                              'Your 'special sister,
+                                           Mildred Brown Rutledge.'"
+
+"What a delightful letter and how happy they are," said the professor,
+fingering his roll of blue prints with a sad smile. "It was good of her
+to remember me. Please give her my love when you write."
+
+"I did not tell you quite all she said," confessed Molly, opening the
+letter again and reading. "She says, 'remember me to that nice Professor
+Green, who is almost as lovely as Crit,'" and Molly beat a hasty
+retreat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--THE OLD QUEEN'S CROWD.
+
+
+"Nance, do you fancy this has really been such a quiet, uneventful
+college year, or are we just so old and settled that we don't know
+excitement when we see it? It has been a very happy time, and I feel
+that I have got hold of myself somehow, and am able to make use of the
+hard studying I have done at college. I know you will laugh when I tell
+you that one reason I have been so happy is that I have not had to
+bother myself over Math. No one can ever know how I did hate and despise
+that subject."
+
+"You poor old Molly, I know it was hard on you. You were in good
+company, anyhow, in your hatred of it. You remember Lord Macauley hated
+it, too, but for that very reason was determined 'to take no second
+place' in it. You always managed to get good marks after that first
+condition in our Freshman year. I often laugh when I think of you with
+your feet in hot water and your head tied up in a cold wet towel, trying
+to cure a cold and at the same time grasp higher mathematics," answered
+the sympathetic Nance, looking lovingly at her roommate. The girls found
+themselves looking at each other very often with sad, loving glances.
+Their partnership was rapidly approaching its close. They could not be
+room-mates forever and college must end some time.
+
+"The funny thing about me and Math. is that I never did really and truly
+understand it," laughed Molly. "I learned how to work one example as
+another was worked, but it was never with any real comprehension.
+Nothing but memory got me through. I remember so well when I was a
+little girl, going to the district school. I came home in tears because
+division of decimals had stumped me. My father found me weeping my soul
+out with a sticky slate and pencil grasped to my panting breast. 'What's
+the matter, little daughter?' he said. 'Oh, father, I can't see how a
+great big number can go into a little bits of number and make a bigger
+number still.' 'Well, you poor lamb, don't bother your little red head
+about it any more, but run and get yourself dressed and come drive to
+town with me. I am going to take you to see Jo Jefferson play "Cricket
+on the Hearth."' I shall never forget that play, but I never have really
+understood decimals; and you may know what higher mathematics meant to
+me."
+
+"Speaking of a quiet year, Molly, I have an idea one reason it has been
+so uneventful is that our dear old Judy has not been here to get herself
+into hot water, sometimes pulling in her devoted friends after her when
+they tried to fish her out. Won't it be splendid to see all the old
+Queen's crowd again: Judy and Katherine and Edith, Margaret and Jessie?
+I wonder if they have changed much! I am so glad they are coming to the
+meeting of the alumnae this year, and that we are here without having to
+come!"
+
+"I do hope my box from home will get here in time for the first night of
+the gathering of the clan. I know it will seem more natural to them if
+we can get up a little feast. I want all of the girls to know Melissa.
+Isn't she happy at the prospect of her dear teacher's coming? Do you
+know the lady's name? I never can remember to ask Melissa, who always
+speaks of her with clasped hands and a rapt expression as 'teacher'."
+
+"Yes," answered Nance. "She has a wonderful name for one who is giving
+up her life working for mankind: Dorothea Allfriend, all-friendly gift
+of God. I believe her name must have influenced her from the beginning."
+
+"We must ask her to our spread on Melissa's account," cried the
+impetuously hospitable Molly. "That makes ten, counting the eight
+Queen's girls, and while we are about it, let's have----"
+
+"Molly Brown, stop right there. If you ask a lot of outsiders, how can
+we have the intimate old talk that we are all of us hungering for? Of
+course we can't leave Melissa out, as she has been too close to us all
+winter to do anything without her, and her friend must come, too; but in
+the name of old Queen's, let that suffice."
+
+"Right, as usual, Nance, but inviting is such a habit with all of my
+family that it almost amounts to a vice. Of course we don't want
+outsiders, and I shall hold a tight rein on my inclination to entertain
+until after the fourth of June. If there are any scraps left, I might
+give another party."
+
+"There won't be any, unless all of us have fallen in love and lost our
+appetites."
+
+The fourth came at last, and with it our five old friends: the Williams
+sisters, Katherine and Edith, as amusing as ever, still squabbling over
+small matters but agreeing on fundamentals, which they had long ago
+decided was the only thing that mattered; Margaret Wakefield, with the
+added poise and gracious manner that a winter in Washington society
+would be apt to give one; Jessie Lynch, as pretty as ever but still
+Jessie Lynch, not having married the owner of the ring, as we had rather
+expected her to do when she left college; and our dear Judy, in the
+seventh heaven of bliss because The American Artists' exhibition had
+accepted and actually hung, not very far above the line, a small picture
+done in Central Park at dusk.
+
+The meeting at No. 5, Quadrangle, was a joyous one. Everybody talked at
+once, except of course little Otoyo, whose manners were still so good
+that she never talked when any one else had the floor; but her smile was
+so beaming that Edith declared it was positively deafening.
+
+"Silence, silence!" and Margaret, the one-time class president, rapped
+for order. "I am so afraid I will miss something and I can't hear a
+thing. Let's get the budget of news and find out where we stand, and
+then we can go on with the uproar."
+
+"Well, what is the matter with refreshments?" inquired the ever-ready
+Molly. "That will quiet some of us at least. But before we begin, I must
+ask you, Otoyo, where Melissa is. She and her friend Miss Allfriend
+understood the time, did they not?"
+
+"Yes, they understood and send you most respectful greetings, but my
+dearly friend, Melissa, says she well understands that the meeting of
+these eight old friends is equally to her meeting of her one friend, and
+she will not intrusive be until we our confidences have bartered, and
+then she will bring Miss Allfriend to meet the companions of Miss Brown
+and Miss Oldham."
+
+"I haven't heard who Melissa is, but she must be fine to show so much
+tact," exclaimed Katherine. "I am truly glad we are alone. I am bursting
+with news and drying up for news, and any outsider would spoil it all."
+
+Nance gave a triumphant glance in Molly's direction, and Molly stopped
+carving the ham long enough to give an humble bow to Nance before
+remarking, "You girls are sure to adore my Melissa, but if Katherine is
+already bursting with news, suppose she begins before I get the ham
+carved. What is it, Kate? A big novel already accepted?"
+
+"No, but a good job as reader for a publisher, and two magazine stories
+in current numbers, and an order for some college notes for a big Sunday
+sheet. Isn't that going some for the homeliest one of the Williams
+sisters? But that is nothing. My news is as naught to what is to come.
+Have none of you noticed the blushing Edith? Look at her fluffy
+pompadour, her stylish sleeves, her manicured nails. Compare them with
+those of the old Edith. Remember her lank hair and out-of-date blouses
+and finger nails gnawed down to the quick. Note the change and guess and
+guess again."
+
+"Edith, Edith! Oh, you fraud!" in chorus from the astonished girls.
+
+"Is it a man?"
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"When is it to be?"
+
+They certainly guessed right the very first time. Edith Williams was to
+be the first of the old guard to marry, and she was certainly the last
+to expect such a thing. She took the astonishment of her friends very
+coolly and accepted their congratulations without the least
+embarrassment.
+
+"I can't see what you are making such a fuss about. You must have known
+all the time that my hatred of the male sex was a pose, just adopted
+because I had a notion that no man in his senses could ever see anything
+in me to care for; or if one did, he would be such a poor thing that I
+could not care for him. But," with a complacent smile, "I find I was
+mistaken."
+
+"Tell us all about him, do please, Edith. I know he is splendid or you
+would not want him," said Molly, handing Edith the first plate piled
+with all dainties.
+
+"I can't eat and talk, too, so I'll cut my love affair short. His name
+is plain James Wilson, but he is not plain, at all. He is very tall,
+very good looking and very clever. He is dramatic critic on a big New
+York paper and has written a play that is to be produced in the fall.
+Oh, girls, I can't keep it up any longer! I mean, this seeming coldness.
+He is splendid and I am very happy!" With which outburst, she attempted
+to hide her blushes in her plate, but Katherine rescued it, saying
+sternly, "Don't ruin the food, but effuse on your napkin," which made
+them laugh and restored Edith's equanimity. Then the girls learned that
+she was to be married in two weeks and go to Nova Scotia on her
+honeymoon.
+
+"Next!" rapped Margaret. "How about you, my Jessica, and what have you
+done with your winter?"
+
+Pretty Jessie blushed and held up her fingers, bare of rings. "Not even
+any borrowed ones?" laughed Judy. "Why, Jessie, I believe you have
+sought the safety that lies in numbers, and have so many beaux you can't
+decide among them."
+
+"I have had a glorious debutante winter and do not feel much like
+settling down as yet," confessed the little beauty. "There is lots of
+time for serious thoughts like matrimony later on."
+
+"So there is, my child, but don't do like the poor princess who was so
+choosey that she ended by having to take the crooked stick. My Jessica
+must have the best stick in the forest, if she must have any at all,"
+said Margaret, putting her arm around her friend. "For my part, I have
+had a busy winter and haven't felt the need of a stick, straight or
+crooked. What with entertaining for my father and keeping up the social
+end necessary for a public man, and a general welfare movement I am
+interested in, and the Suffrage League, I have often wished I had an
+astral body to help me out. Mind you, I am not opposed to matrimony, but
+I am just not interested in it for myself."
+
+"That is a dangerous sentiment to express," teased Judy. "I find that a
+statement like that from a handsome young woman usually means she is
+taking notice. Come now, Margaret, if, instead of having an astral body
+to do part of the work you are planning for yourself, you had been born
+triplets, you would have let one of you get married, wouldn't you? Now
+'fess up. Margaret could attend the suffrage meetings, and Maggie could
+look after the child's welfare, while dear, handsome, wholesome Peggy
+could be the beloved wife of some promising public man. I don't believe
+Margaret or Maggie would mind at all if Peggy had to hurry home from the
+meetings to have the house attractive for a brilliant young Senator from
+the western states whom we shall call 'the Baby of the Senate' just for
+euphony, and who would come dashing up to the door in his limousine
+whistling 'Peg o' my Heart' in joyful anticipation of his welcome."
+
+Margaret, the stately and composed, was blushing furiously at Judy's
+nonsense.
+
+"Judy Kean, who has been telling you things?"
+
+"No one, I declare, Margaret. I was just visualizing. I wouldn't have
+presumed to hit the nail on the head had I realized I was doing it. You
+must forgive me, dear, but I am rather proud of being able to predict,
+and if I ever meet the 'Baby of the Senate' I shall tell him to 'try,
+try again'."
+
+Molly interfered at this point and stopped Judy's naughty mouth with a
+beaten biscuit. "Aren't you ashamed, Judy? How should you like to be
+teased as you have teased Margaret?"
+
+"Shouldn't mind in the least. If in a moment of ambitious dreaming I
+have said 'nay, nay' to any handsome young western senators, Margaret
+has my permission to tell them to 'try, try again,' that I was just
+a-fooling. I am perfectly frank about my intentions in regard to the
+husband question. I am wedded to my art, but it is merely a temporary
+arrangement, and I may get a divorce any day if more attractive
+inducements are offered than my art can furnish. It is fine, though, to
+get my picture accepted and almost well hung by The American Artists. I
+have an idea its size had something to do with the judges taking it. It
+would have been cruel to refuse such a little thing; and then it is so
+easy to hang a tiny picture, and there are so many gaps in galleries
+that have to be filled in somehow."
+
+"What a rattler you are, Judy," broke in Edith. "Your picture is lovely,
+and it made me proud to tell James, who took me to the exhibition, that
+you were my classmate and one of the immortal eight."
+
+"Three more to report," rapped Margaret, "Molly and Nance and Otoyo.
+Otoyo first, to punish her for being so noisy," and Margaret drew the
+little Japanese to her side with an affectionate smile.
+
+"It is not for humble Japanese maidens to bare lay their heart
+throbbings, so my beloved friends will have to excuse the little Otoyo."
+
+And it spoke well for the breeding of the other seven that they
+respected the reticence of their little foreign friend and did not try
+to force her confidence, although they were none of them ignorant of the
+intentions of the wily Mr. Seshu.
+
+"Otoyo is right," declared Nance. "I have nothing to confess, but if I
+had, I should be Japanesque and keep it to myself."
+
+"Oh, you 'copy cat'," sang Judy. "I'll wager anything that Nance has
+more up her sleeve than any of us. Look, look! It has gone all the way
+up her sleeve and is crawling out at her neck."
+
+Nance made a wild grab at her neck, where, sure enough, the sharp eyes
+of Judy had discovered a tiny gold chain that Nance had not meant to
+show above her neat collar. She clutched it so forcibly that the
+delicate fastening broke, and a small gold locket was hurled across the
+room right into Molly's lap. Molly caught it up and handed it back to
+the crimson and confused Nance amid the shrieks of the girls.
+
+"I reckon a girl has a right to carry her father's picture around her
+neck if she has a mind to," said Molly.
+
+Just then there was a knock at the door and Melissa and Miss Allfriend
+were ushered in, much to the relief of Molly, who by their coming had
+escaped the ordeal of the teasing from her friends that she knew was
+drawing near; and it also gave Nance the chance to compose herself.
+
+Miss Allfriend proved to be delightful. She was overjoyed to be back at
+her Alma Mater and eager to know Melissa's friends and to thank them for
+their kindness to her protegee. Personalities were dropped and the
+program for the entertainment of the alumnae was soon under discussion.
+Miss Allfriend had been president of her class and she and Margaret
+found many subjects of mutual interest. Melissa was anxious to know the
+old Queen's girls, having heard so much of them from Otoyo, and the
+girls were equally anxious to know the interesting mountain girl. The
+party was a great success, and Nance was delighted to see that there
+were no "scraps" left for Molly to give another, as there were many
+things on foot for the alumnae meeting for the next week and Nance felt
+sure Molly would have enough to do without any more entertaining.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now we will leave our girls. Their postgraduate year is over. A very
+happy one it has been, with little excitement but much good, hard work.
+Nance is to go to Vermont and rescue her long-suffering father from the
+boarding house, and give the poor man the taste of home life that he has
+never known. Mrs. Oldham cannot keep house in Vermont and make speeches,
+now at the International Peace Conference at The Hague, and then at a
+Biennial of Woman's Clubs in San Francisco, with a stop over in New York
+to address the Equal Suffrage League between boat and train!
+
+Molly is going back to Kentucky to assist at her sister's wedding, this
+wedding a formal affair in a church, to suit the notions of the
+formidable Aunt Clay. Molly has many plots in her head to work out. Her
+little success with "The Basket Funeral" has fired her ambition, and she
+is longing for time to write more. French must be studied hard all
+summer if they are to go abroad, and Kent must be coached, as he is very
+rusty in his French and must rub up on it for lectures at the Beaux
+Arts. She has promised Edwin Green to write to him, and he has offered
+to criticize her stories, which will be a great help to her. The place
+of meeting in Europe has not been decided on, but Professor Green is
+determined that meeting there shall be.
+
+Melissa will go back to her beloved mountains and try to give out during
+her well-earned vacation some of the precious knowledge she has gained
+in her freshman year to the less fortunate children of her county. She
+will in a measure repay the noble woman who has spent her life in the
+mountain mission work for all the care and labor she has expended on
+her, and will go back to Wellington for the sophomore course with her
+purpose stronger and deeper: to help her people and uplift them as she
+herself has become uplifted.
+
+One more incident only we must record before this volume ends. After
+Molly got home she received by express a box wrapped in Japanese paper,
+so carefully and wonderfully done up that it seemed a pity to break the
+fastenings. In the box was the most beautiful little stunted tree in a
+pot that looked as though it had come out of a museum. The tree had all
+the characteristics of a "gnarled oak olden," with thick twisted
+branches and one limb that looked as though little children might have
+had a swing on it, so low did it sag. And this tiny tree, with all the
+dignity of a great "father of the forest," was, pot and all, only eight
+inches high! With it, came the following letter:
+
+"Will the honorably and kindly graciously Miss Brown be so stoopingly as
+to accept this humble gift from the father of Otoyo Sen, who has by the
+most graciously help of Miss Brown passed her difficulty examinations at
+Wellington College and now is to become the humble wife of honorable
+Japanese gentleman, Mr. Seshu? The honorable gentleman gave greatly
+praise to graciously Miss Brown for her so kindly words about humble
+Japanese maiden and is gratefully that his humble wife is the friend of
+so kindly lady."
+
+With this little note, it seemed to Molly that the last ties that bound
+her to the precious life at Wellington and the old, complete Queen's
+group had suddenly snapped. Little Otoyo had outstripped them all! She
+was quietly entering the school of Life, while the rest were only
+standing at the threshold.
+
+Molly, knowing the serene satisfaction with which the Japanese maiden
+awaited the new bonds, and remembering the transforming happiness of
+Edith Williams in anticipation of a similar experience, thoughtfully
+pondered upon her own future.
+
+She had the eye of faith but she was not a seer; and she could not
+travel in advance those devious paths by which Destiny was to lead her.
+
+How she finally came to her own and fulfilled the promise of college
+days, it remains for "Molly Brown's Orchard Home" to disclose.
+
+                                The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Molly Brown's Post-Graduate Days, by Nell Speed
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