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diff --git a/4784-h/4784-h.htm b/4784-h/4784-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7090f52 --- /dev/null +++ b/4784-h/4784-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5803 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Brother and Sister, by Josephine Lawrence +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Brother and Sister, by Josephine Lawrence + +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: Brother and Sister + +Author: Josephine Lawrence + +Posting Date: September 4, 2009 [EBook #4784] +Release Date: December, 2003 +First Posted: March 18, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROTHER AND SISTER *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +BROTHER AND SISTER +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +AUTHOR OF +<BR><BR> + "BROTHER AND SISTER'S SCHOOLDAYS"<BR> + "BROTHER AND SISTER'S HOLIDAYS"<BR> +<BR> + BROTHER AND SISTER SERIES<BR> +<BR> + BY JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE<BR> +<BR> + 1. BROTHER AND SISTER<BR> + 2. BROTHER AND SISTER'S SCHOOLDAYS<BR> + 3. BROTHER AND SISTER'S HOLIDAYS<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +BROTHER AND SISTER +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE MORRISONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">GRANDMA HASTINGS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">SISTER IN MISCHIEF</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">PARTY PREPARATIONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">DICK'S BUTTONS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">RALPH'S PRESENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">MORE PRESENTS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE PARTY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">OUT IN THE BARN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">THE HAUNTED HOUSE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">JIMMIE'S SURPRISE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">A LITTLE SHOPPING</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">TWO IN TROUBLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">TROUBLE AGAIN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">MISS PUTNAM COMPLAINS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">MAKING UP WITH JIMMIE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">MICKEY GAFFNEY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">A VERY SICK DOLL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">PLANS FOR MICKEY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">BROTHER AND SISTER PAY A CALL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">MICKEY OWNS UP</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +BROTHER AND SISTER +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE MORRISONS +</H3> + +<P> +"Brother," said Mother Morrison, "you haven't touched your glass of +milk. Hurry now, and drink it before we leave the table." +</P> + +<P> +Brother's big brown eyes turned from his knife, which he had been +playing was a bridge from the salt cellar to the egg cup, toward the +tumbler of milk standing beside his plate. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't have to drink milk this morning, Mother," he assured her +confidently. "Honestly I don't. It's raining so hard that we can't go +outdoors and grow, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +Louise, his older sister, said sharply. "Don't be silly!" but Ralph, +who was in a hurry to catch his train, stopped long enough to give a +word of advice. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here, Brother," he urged seriously, "better not skip a morning. +Your birthday is next week, isn't it? Well, if you're not tall enough +by Wednesday morning, you can't have the present I bought for you last +night. Too short, no present—you think it over." +</P> + +<P> +He stooped to kiss his mother, tweaked Sister's perky bow of +hair-ribbon, and with a hasty "Good-bye" for the others at the table, +hurried out into the hall. They heard the front door slam after him. +</P> + +<P> +Spurred by Ralph's mysterious hint, Brother drank his milk, and then +the Morrison family scattered for their usual busy day. +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister were left to clear the breakfast table. They always +did this, carrying out the dishes and silver to Molly in the kitchen. +Then they crumbled the cloth neatly. Molly declared she could not do +without them. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you suppose Ralph is going to give you?" speculated Sister, +carefully folding up the napkin Louise had dropped, and slipping it +into the white pique ring embroidered with an "L." "Maybe it's a train?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't believe it's a train," said Brother slowly, crumbling a +bit of bread and beginning to build a little farm with the crumbs. "No, +I guess maybe he will give me a tool-chest." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, and bring the bread tray," suggested Sister practically. She +never forgot the task in hand for other interests. "Mother says we +mustn't dawdle, Roddy, you know she did. It's my turn to feed the +birds, so I'll crumb the table. Could I use your saw if you get a +tool-chest?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother answered dreamily that he supposed she could. He watched Sister +and her crumb-brush sweep away his nice little bread-crumb fences, +while he planned to build a real fence if Ralph's present should turn +out to be the long-coveted tool-chest. +</P> + +<P> +When Sister had swept up every tiny crumb, she and Brother went out to +scatter the bits of bread to the birds who, winter and summer, never +failed to come to the back door and who always seemed hungry. +</P> + +<P> +This morning there were robins, starlings, a pair of beautiful big blue +jays, and, of course, the rusty little sparrows. Each bird seemed to be +pretending to the others that he was looking for worms, and each one +slyly watched the Morrison back door in hopes that two small figures +would presently come out and toss them a breakfast of breadcrumbs. +</P> + +<P> +Sister flung her crumbs as far as her short arm would send them, and +managed to hit an indignant old starling squarely in the eye. He glared +at her crossly. +</P> + +<P> +"Birds don't mind getting wet, do they?" said Brother, as the sparrows +hopped about in the driving rain and pecked gratefully at the crumbs. +"Let's hop the way they do, Betty." +</P> + +<P> +Sister obediently hopped, looking not unlike a very plump little robin +at that, with her dark eyes and bobbing curls. Only, you see, she and +Brother were much heavier than any birds, and they made so much noise +that Molly came to the door to see what they were doing. +</P> + +<P> +"Another rainy day and the two of you bursting with mischief!" she +sighed good-naturedly. "Will you be quiet for an hour if I let you make +a dough-man while I'm mixing my bread?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister loved to make dough-men, and so while Molly kneaded +her bread, they worked busily and happily at the other end of the +table, shaping two men from the bit of sponge she gave them and quite +forgetting to scold about the unpleasant weather which kept them +indoors. +</P> + +<P> +Their real names, you must know, were Rhodes and Elizabeth Morrison. +Rhodes was six, and Elizabeth five, and sometimes they were called +"Roddy" and "Betty," but most always Brother and Sister. +</P> + +<P> +This was partly because they were so many Morrisons. +</P> + +<P> +There was Daddy Morrison, who was a lawyer and who went to town every +morning to a busy office that seemed, to Brother and Sister, when they +visited him, to be all papers and typewriters. +</P> + +<P> +There was dear Mother Morrison, who was altogether lovely, with brown +eyes like Brother's, and dark curly hair like Sister. +</P> + +<P> +There were Louise and Grace, the twins; they were fifteen and went to +high school, and were very pretty and important and busy. +</P> + +<P> +Then there was Dick, the oldest of them all, and Ralph, who went to law +school in the city, and Jimmie, who was seventeen and the captain of +the high school football team. +</P> + +<P> +Counting Brother and Sister, seven children, you see, and as Molly +truly said, "a houseful." Molly had lived with Mother Morrison since +Louise and Grace were babies, and they would not have known what to do +without her. She was as much a part of the family as any of them. +</P> + +<P> +The Morrison house was a big, shabby, roomy place with wide, deep +porches and many windows. There was a large lawn in front and an old +barn in back where the older boys had fitted up a gymnasium with all +kinds of fascinating apparatus, most of which Brother and Sister were +forbidden to touch. +</P> + +<P> +The Morrisons lived in Ridgeway, a thriving suburb of the city, where +Daddy Morrison, Dick and Ralph went every day. +</P> + +<P> +And now that you are introduced, we'll go back to Brother and Sister +making dough-men in Molly's kitchen. +</P> + +<P> +"What makes my dough-man kind of dark?" inquired Sister, calling +Molly's attention to the queer-shaped figure she had pieced together. +</P> + +<P> +Sure enough Sister's dough-man, and Brother's, too, was a rather dark +gray, while the bread Molly was mixing was creamy white. +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison, coming into the kitchen carrying Brother's rubbers and +raincoat, saved Molly an explanation. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GRANDMA HASTINGS +</H3> + +<P> +"Where are you going Mother?" asked Brother, when he saw the rubbers. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not going out," smiled Mother. "You are going for me, dear. These +are your rubbers and coat—hop into them and run across the street to +Grandma's with this apron pattern." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you bake my dough-man, Molly?" begged Brother, struggling into +his coat and taking the small parcel Mother gave him. "Is Betty coming?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not this time," answered his mother. "It is raining too hard. Yes, +Molly will bake your dough-man and you may eat him for lunch. Run along +now." +</P> + +<P> +Grandmother Hastings lived almost directly across the street from the +Morrison house and she was putting her beautiful Boston fern out to get +the rain when Brother tramped sturdily up her side garden path. +</P> + +<P> +"Bless his heart, he's a regular little duck!" cried Grandma, giving +him a tremendous hug. +</P> + +<P> +That is the way grandmothers are, you know, whether they live across +the street from you and see you every day, or whether they live miles +away and come to visit you Christmas and summer times. A grandmother is +always glad to see you. +</P> + +<P> +Grandmother Hastings was short and plumpy and her white hair was curly +and her eyes were blue. She had pink cheeks and wore a blue dress and a +white apron with a frilly bib, and altogether, Brother thought +privately, she looked very nice indeed. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm very glad to get that pattern," she told him, patting the long +leaves of the fern and spreading them out to catch the rain. "I've a +magazine you can take back to Mother, dearie, and an old fashion book +Sister will like for paper dolls. Come into the sitting-room while I +find them for you. Take off your rubbers, child." +</P> + +<P> +Brother followed her into the house and there Aunt Kate swooped upon +him and tickled him as she always did. Aunt Kate was a school teacher. +In summer she tutored backward pupils. She was on her way to give a +lesson now and in a few minutes she went away merrily into the driving +rain. That left Grandmother and Brother to entertain each other. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know what Ralph is going to give me for a birthday present, +Grandmother?" Brother asked, dropping flat on his stomach to play +jungle with the tigerskin that lay before the fireplace. "He says if +I'm not tall enough I can't have it. But he's bought it all ready—he +said so." +</P> + +<P> +Brother, you see, would be six years old in a few days. He couldn't +help thinking a great deal about his birthday. +</P> + +<P> +Grandmother and Brother had no secrets from each other, though +sometimes they planned surprises for the other members of the family. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't know what Ralph plans to give you," admitted Grandmother. +"Don't try to find out, dearie. It is much nicer to be surprised. Why, +you know you wouldn't have a bit of fun next Wednesday if you knew what +your presents were to be." +</P> + +<P> +Brother was willing to be surprised, because Wednesday wasn't so long +to wait. Still he thought he would like to know what Ralph's present +was. Ralph was his dearest brother, and he had a happy knack of always +giving Brother and Sister exactly what they wanted. Louise and Grace +were apt to make them presents which were useful, like pretty socks and +hair-ribbons for Sister, and gloves and handkerchiefs for Brother, but +Ralph never did anything like that. +</P> + +<P> +"I've dropped a stitch in my knitting," said Grandmother suddenly. +"Brother, I wonder if you could run upstairs and bring me my glasses? I +think they are on the bureau in my room." +</P> + +<P> +Brother ran upstairs and went into Grandmother's pretty bedroom. There +were white and silver things on her bureau and a little gold jewel box +and several bottles of different colors. But, though Brother looked +carefully, he could not find the glasses. +</P> + +<P> +He went out into the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Grandma!" he called. "Your glasses aren't on the bureau." +</P> + +<P> +"Dear, dear," sighed Grandmother. "'Let me see, where can they be? Do +you know, Brother, I'm afraid I have left them in my black silk bag on +the closet shelf. Can you get it, or shall I come up?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can get it," answered Brother confidently. "You wait, Grandma." +</P> + +<P> +The closet shelf was pretty high, but Brother carried a chair to the +closet door and by standing on it he was able to reach the shelf. +Goodness, what was more, he could see the things on the shelf. +</P> + +<P> +And they were bundles! +</P> + +<P> +One—two—three—Brother counted three mysterious paper bundles, tied +with brown string. +</P> + +<P> +Now you know if you had a birthday due most any minute and your head +was full of the presents you hoped to receive, and you saw three +bundles on the shelf in your grandma's closet, you know you would +probably do just what Brother did; poke your finger into the top +bundle. Brother poked. Then he prodded. The top bundle slipped and +carried the other two with it. Brother was brushed off the chair and +three bundles and one boy landed in a heap on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Brother!" cried Grandma, who had come up to see what kept him so long. +"Are you hurt?" +</P> + +<P> +"No'm," answered Brother, rather foolishly. "I was just feeling these +bundles, Grandma, to see—to—see——" +</P> + +<P> +"Whether they were birthday presents?" smiled Grandma. "Well, dearie, +they are nothing but blankets tied up to send to the cleaners. I'm +glad, for your sake, they were, for you might have hurt yourself, +otherwise, as it is, they were soft and thick for you to fall on." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll get the glasses now," murmured Brother hastily. +</P> + +<P> +He climbed up on the chair again and this time found without any +trouble the black bag which held Grandma's glasses. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother is waving a handkerchief—that means she wants you," said +Grandmother, glancing from the window. "Scoot along, dear, and don't +think too much about the birthday till it comes. Here are the +magazines. And here's a drop-cake for you." +</P> + +<P> +Brother paddled down the steps, went halfway to the front hedge, and +then turned. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Grandma!" he shouted. "Do you know what I think Ralph is going to +give me? I think it's a tool-chest!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SISTER IN MISCHIEF +</H3> + +<P> +"I hope it's like this to-morrow!" +</P> + +<P> +Brother stood on the front porch, flattening his nose against the +screen door and sniffing the fragrant June sunshine. +</P> + +<P> +Ever since his unsuccessful attempt to find out from Grandma Hastings +what Ralph's present was to be, it had rained. That was three days ago, +so you may be sure the whole Morrison family were very glad to see the +sun again. Especially as the very next day was Brother's birthday. +</P> + +<P> +"Brother, I'm going down town to buy the favors for your party," +announced Louise, who sat in the porch hammock crocheting a sweater. +"Wouldn't you like to go with me?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother thought he would. +</P> + +<P> +"Take me?" begged Sister, falling over the small broom she carried, in +her eagerness to be one of the party. "It's my turn, Louise, honestly +it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you see, I can't very well take you both," explained Louise +kindly. "Mrs. Adams is going to call for me with her car, and it +wouldn't be polite to ask her to take two children; and as it is +Brother's birthday, he ought to be the one to go—don't you think so?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister nodded, though her lower lip trembled suspiciously. And when +Mrs. Adams drove her shiny automobile up to the curb, and Louise and +Brother were whisked away in it, two big tears rolled down Sister's +round cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, honey!" Grace, the other twin sister, swinging her tennis +racquet, came through the hall and saw the tears. "What you crying +for?" she asked. "Everyone gone and left you? I'll tell you what to +do—you go out in the kitchen and take a peep at what is on the table +and you won't feel like crying another moment." +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" asked Sister cautiously. +</P> + +<P> +She wasn't going to stop crying and then find out she had been cheated. +</P> + +<P> +"You go look," answered Grace mysteriously. +</P> + +<P> +So sister started for the kitchen and Grace ran off to her game of +tennis with Jimmie. +</P> + +<P> +The kitchen was in perfect order and very quiet. Molly was upstairs +making the beds, and Mother Morrison was planning the party with +Grandmother Hastings. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Sister softly as she saw what was on the table. "Oh, my!" +</P> + +<P> +For right in the center of the white-topped table, on a large pink +plate, perched Brother's birthday cake! It was a beautiful cake, +perfectly round and very smooth and brown. +</P> + +<P> +"But the icing!" said Sister aloud. "There's no ICING! I s'pose Molly +didn't have time." +</P> + +<P> +If Sister had stopped to think, she would have remembered that all the +birthday cakes Molly made—and she made seven every year for the +Morrisons, and one for Grandmother Hastings—were always iced with pink +or white or chocolate icing. +</P> + +<P> +But, you see, she didn't stop to think, and when she discovered a bowl +of lovely creamy white stuff on the small table between the windows, +this small girl decided that she would ice the cake and save Molly the +trouble. +</P> + +<P> +There was a little film of water over the top of the bowl, but Sister +took a wooden spoon and stirred it carefully, and the water mixed +nicely with the white stuff, so that she had a bowl filled with the +smoothest, whitest "icing" any cook could ask for. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll get a silver knife to spread it with," said Sister, who had often +watched Molly, and knew what to do. +</P> + +<P> +She brought the knife from the dining-room and had just put one broad +streak of white across the top of the cake when Molly came down the +back stairs and saw her. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister!" cried Molly. "What are you doing with my cold starch?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm icing the cake," answered Sister calmly. "You forgot it, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +Poor Molly grabbed the bowl from Sister's hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't I leave the kitchen one minute that you don't get into +mischief?" she scolded. "This isn't ICING—it's STARCH for Mr. Jimmie's +collars. I'm going to make a beautiful chocolate icing for the cake +this afternoon and write Brother's name on it in white frosting." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Sister meekly. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on upstairs, do," Molly urged her. "I've my hands full today +getting ready for the party; can't you find something nice to do +upstairs?" +</P> + +<P> +Thus sped on her way, Sister reluctantly mounted the stairs to the +second floor. +</P> + +<P> +"I could play jacks with Nellie Yarrow," she said to herself. "Only +she's lost her jackstones and I can't find mine. What's that on Dick's +bureau?" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph and Jimmie roomed together, but Dick had a room of his own, and +though Sister was strictly forbidden to meddle with his things, they +had a great attraction for her. She could just see the top of Dick's +chiffonier from the floor and now she dragged a chair up to it and +climbed up to see what the shining thing was that had caught her eye. +</P> + +<P> +It was a gold collar button, and Dick, she found, had a box of pearl +and gold buttons that Sister was sure she had never seen before. She +played with them, tossing them up and down and watching them glitter, +until a sudden thought struck her. +</P> + +<P> +"They'd make lovely jackstones," she whispered. "I could use 'em and +put them right back. I know Nellie has a ball." +</P> + +<P> +Dick had several new ties, and Sister had to admire these before she +could leave the chiffonier. Finally she slipped the box of pretty +buttons in her pocket and jumped down. She put the chair where she had +found it, and ran downstairs and through the hedge that separated the +Morrison house from that of Dr. Yarrow's. +</P> + +<P> +"Nellie, oh, Nellie!" called Sister. "Come on, let's play jackstones." +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't any," answered Nellie Yarrow, a little girl a year or so older +than Sister. "All I have left is my ball." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, get that and we can play," Sister told her. "I've found +something we can use—see!" +</P> + +<P> +Nellie admired the collar buttons immensely and thought it would be +great fun to play with them. She ran and got her ball and the two +little friends sat down on the concrete walk to play jackstones, +heedless of the hot morning sun. +</P> + +<P> +Sister had won one game and Nellie two, when they heard Louise calling. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister! Sister! Where are you? If you want to help fix the fishpond, +you'll have to come right away." +</P> + +<P> +Sister stuffed the buttons in her pocket and ran home, eager to see +what Louise and Brother had bought. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PARTY PREPARATIONS +</H3> + +<P> +When Mother Morrison had suggested a fishpond for the party, Louise and +Grace had protested. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mother!" they cried. "That's so old!" +</P> + +<P> +"But the children like it," said Mother Morrison mildly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's fun," urged Brother. "It's fun to fish over the table and catch +something!" +</P> + +<P> +Sister, too, had asked for the pond, so it was decided to have one. +Louise and Grace might not care for such things at their birthday +parties, but this, as Sister said, was "different." +</P> + +<P> +"We bought bushels and bushels," Brother informed Sister as she bounded +through the hedge and up to the front porch. "Little colored pencils, +and crayons, and games, and dolls, and oh!—everything!" +</P> + +<P> +Louise, whose shopping bag was certainly bulging with parcels, laughed +merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"We bought all the little gifts for the fish-pond and for the—there! I +almost told you." She clapped her hand over her mouth and laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +"For the what?" teased Sister. "Tell me, Louise—I won't tell." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Mother said no one was to know," declared Louise firmly. "Now all +these packages you may open, and after lunch I'll help you tie them up +again and fix the pond. But these other parcels go upstairs to Mother's +room and no one is to touch them." +</P> + +<P> +She tumbled half the contents of her bag on the porch floor and then +ran upstairs with the rest. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's look at them," said Sister eagerly. "What's the matter, Roddy?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was thinking," explained Brother, making no move to open the +packages. "We saw a little boy down town and his foot was all tied up +in a rag, and I know it hurt him 'cause he limped." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe he sprained his ankle," said Sister. "Like Dr. Yarrow's cousin, +you know." +</P> + +<P> +"It wasn't his ankle—it was his foot," insisted Brother. "And I told +Louise Mother said we mustn't go on the ground without our sandals, and +she said she guessed the boy didn't have any sandals; she said he +prob'bly didn't have any shoes, either." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor any stockings—just rags?" asked Sister in pity. "I like to go +barefoot, Roddy, but I like my new patent leather slippers, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe he has some for Sunday," comforted Brother, trying to be +hopeful. "Everybody has to wear shoes on Sunday." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, of course they do," agreed Sister, who had never heard of a boy +and girl who didn't wear shoes on Sunday and every day in the week +except when they were allowed to go barefoot as a great treat. +</P> + +<P> +The tempting packages were not to be forgotten one moment longer, and +they decided to "take turns" opening them. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it fun!" giggled Sister. "What do you s'pose Mother is going to +make you, Roddy?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," replied Brother absently. "I keep thinking about +Ralph's present. He says that he thinks I'll be tall enough to have it +by tomorrow." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you drink all your milk for breakfast?" asked Sister anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph was most particular about the children's milk. He insisted that +they couldn't grow properly without enough milk, and as both were +anxious to grow tall, Brother and Sister usually drank their milk +without fussing. +</P> + +<P> +Brother had finished his to the last drop that morning, he said, and +when they were called in to lunch presently, he drank another glass so +that he would surely grow enough to please Ralph. +</P> + +<P> +"And now we'll do up the fishpond presents," said Louise, when they had +finished lunch. +</P> + +<P> +She and Grace both helped, for Mother Morrison was busy in the kitchen +with Molly, and of course none of the brothers were home during the day +except Jimmie, and he was usually busy out in the barn where the +gymnasium was. +</P> + +<P> +You have probably "fished" in a fishpond yourself at parties, and know +what it is. Little gifts are placed somewhere out of sight, and each +small guest is given a fishing rod and line with a hook at the end. He +dangles this over the back of a sofa, or over a table, and when he +draws it up there is a "fish," or the present, attached to it. +</P> + +<P> +Louise had plenty of nice white paper and pink string, and each gift +was carefully wrapped and tied. Dark blue crepe paper was tacked around +three sides of a table and this table placed across one corner of the +parlor. This was the "ocean." The presents were placed on the floor +back of the table, and Brother and Sister knew, from past pleasant +experience, that when it came time to fish, the packages would +obligingly attach themselves to the hooks. +</P> + +<P> +"Tomorrow's ever so long off," sighed Brother, when the fishpond was +ready and Louise and Grace had gone over to the library to take back +some books. +</P> + +<P> +He and Sister were not wanted in the kitchen and they were asked not to +touch the clean white clothes spread out on the guest room bed for them +to wear to the party. There really did not seem to be anything for them +to do. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go out and watch for Ralph?" suggested Sister. +</P> + +<P> +Ralph was the best loved brother, after all, though, of course, the +children loved Dick and Jimmie dearly. But no one was quite as patient +as Ralph, no one had time to read to them as often as he did, no one +told them stories without coaxing as Ralph did. +</P> + +<P> +He and Dick came up the street from the station together this night, +and though Dick kissed Sister and said, "Hello, kid," to Brother, he +dashed into the house, while Ralph stayed to talk. +</P> + +<P> +"Birthday tomorrow, Brother?" he asked teasingly, though he knew very +well that Brother would be six years old. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Ralph!" Brother was so excited he nearly stuttered. "Ralph, +couldn't you tell me what the present is now? I'm just as tall, and +it's almost my birthday. Please, Ralph?" +</P> + +<P> +Ralph swung Sister up and sat her on the fence-post. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't believe I could do that," he replied slowly. "Let's see, +did you drink your milk today without grumbling?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I did—didn't I, Sister?" said Brother eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," nodded Sister. "He drank all of his for lunch, too, Ralph, and +didn't spill any." +</P> + +<P> +"That's certainly fine," praised Ralph. "I'm sure you've grown a little +bit every day, too. Well, Brother, I tell you what I'll do—tomorrow +morning I'll bring the present up to your room before breakfast. How +will that do?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother was more excited than ever, and for once he was ready to go to +bed that night without a protest. He and Sister trailed sleepily off +upstairs, wishing for the morning to come so that they might know what +this mysterious present was. +</P> + +<P> +They had two little white beds in the same room and they could undress +themselves very nicely if they helped each other with the buttons. +Mother Morrison usually came up before they were ready for bed, and on +bath nights she always came up with them and stayed till they were in +bed. +</P> + +<P> +The night before a birthday party was, of course, a bath night, and +Sister was very willing to let Brother take his bath first because she +had a picture book she wanted to look at. She was lying on her bed, in +her nightie, looking at the pictures while Brother splashed in the tub +and Mother Morrison waited for him to stop playing and use the soap to +lather himself, instead of pretending it was a boat, when Dick knocked +on the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here!" he said, opening it and thrusting in his head. "Have +either of you kids been in my room today?" +</P> + +<P> +"How nice you are!" cried Sister, sitting up to look at Dick, who, +indeed, did seem very nice, though he was without his coat. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm twenty minutes late now," growled Dick. "I've hunted everywhere +for my collar buttons and studs, and I can't find them." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +DICK'S BUTTONS +</H3> + +<P> +Before Sister could say anything, in pranced Brother, very pink and +clean from his hot bath and treading on his gray bathrobe at every +other step. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you been meddling with my things again?" demanded Dick. "Mother, +I've an engagement at eight o'clock and it's quarter past now; every +blessed collar button is gone from my chiffonier!" +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison, who had followed Brother into the room, looked +anxiously at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Brother, you haven't been in Dick's room today, have you?" she asked +him. +</P> + +<P> +Then Sister, whose memory had been waking up, spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Please, Dick," she said in a very little voice. "Please, I had the +buttons." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you did!" Dick quite forgot to smile at her. "What did you want +'em for? Where are they now?" +</P> + +<P> +"You see, I was playing jackstones with Nellie Yarrow, and afterward +I—I left them in my pocket—" Sister's voice trailed off. +</P> + +<P> +She recollected that the dress she had been wearing was now down the +laundry chute. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother, something's got to be done!" fumed Dick. "I can't have the +kids going through my stuff and helping themselves to whatever they +want; those buttons were my solid gold ones and my good studs were in +the same box. There's the telephone!—Nina will be furious! Sister, +where did you say that dress was?" +</P> + +<P> +Dick rushed downstairs to answer the telephone, leaving a sorrowful +Sister curled up in a forlorn little heap on the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"My blue dress is way down in the laundry," she wailed. "The buttons +are in the pocket. Oh, Mother, it's awful far down there, and it's dark +on the stairs!" +</P> + +<P> +"What's all the racket about?" inquired Ralph, coming to the door. "Is +Sister crying? And Dick is trying to smooth down Nina Carson, who seems +to be in a bad way. Want any help with these young ones, Mother? +Anyway, tell a fellow the cause of the excitement." +</P> + +<P> +Sister smiled through her tears. "Young ones" was what Molly's country +sister had once called them, and Ralph always said it when he meant to +make her laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"I really think Sister should go down and get the buttons from her +dress pocket," said dear Mother Morrison decidedly. "I have forbidden +her, time and again, to touch anything in Dick's room. Take your kimona +and slippers, Sister, and hurry; I'll have your bath ready for you when +you come back." +</P> + +<P> +More tears ran down Sister's round cheeks. Her eyes were so full of +salt water she couldn't find the armholes of her pink kimona, and Ralph +had to help her. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go with her, Mother," he offered. "I'll sit on the stairs and +wait while she hunts for the buttons; and after this you—will leave +Dick's things alone, won't you, Sister?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister promised joyfully, and paddled off downstairs with Ralph. The +dark stairs that led to the laundry didn't frighten her one bit, and +while Ralph sat on the last step and held the door open, Sister snapped +on the light and found the blue dress on top of the basket that stood +under the chute. Surely enough, the buttons were in the pocket just as +she had left them. She took the box and hurried back to Ralph. "Where's +Dick going?" she asked him, as they went upstairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, out somewhere, to see some girl," replied Ralph, who seldom went +to call on a girl. "Scoot now, Sister—I'm going out on the porch and +read. You've made poor old Dick half an hour late as it is." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph went out on the screened front porch, where Daddy Morrison was +reading beside the electric lamp, and had just picked up his magazine, +when there was a patter of little feet and Sister threw her arms around +him breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"I love you, Ralph!" she said quickly, hugging him and then turning to +run. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, here!" cried Daddy Morrison in surprise. "Thought you were in +bed long ago. Don't I get any kissing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mother is waiting to bathe me," explained Sister hurriedly, "and Dick +wants his collar buttons, so I have to go, Daddy." +</P> + +<P> +Her father caught her as she rushed past him and gave her a quick kiss. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister!" called Mother Morrison. "Sister, are you coming?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister, the box of buttons clutched tightly in her hand, ran upstairs. +Dick, glowering, met her at the top. +</P> + +<P> +"For goodness' sake!" he ejaculated. "I'd about given up hope—and if +you ever touch one of my things again—" +</P> + +<P> +"I won't!" promised Sister hastily. "Honest Injun, I won't. You aren't +mad, are you, Dick?" +</P> + +<P> +Dick was wrestling with a stiff collar before the glass in the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'm not mad, but I shall be in a minute," he announced grimly. +"Don't stand there and watch me, please; you make me nervous." +</P> + +<P> +"Come and take your bath, dear," called Mother Morrison. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you hear Mother? What are you waiting for?" demanded Dick. +</P> + +<P> +"Waiting for you to kiss me good-night," answered Sister composedly. +</P> + +<P> +Dick stared at her. Then he laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"There!" he said, picking Sister up and kissing her soundly. "Now will +you leave me in peace, you monkey?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister was satisfied and hurried off to her bathing. When she came out +of the bathroom, she found Brother sleepily waiting for her, sitting +up, in his bed. +</P> + +<P> +"If you hear Ralph in the morning," he told her earnestly, "you call +me, 'cause I want to see my own birthday present before you do." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't I look at it if you're not awake?" asked Sister hopefully. +</P> + +<P> +"No, you mustn't," said Brother firmly. "It's my birthday present, and +I want to see it first. Now you remember!" +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison kissed them both, put a screen in another window, for +the night was warm, and snapped off the light. It was time for Brother +and Sister to be asleep. +</P> + +<P> +"Roddy!" whispered Sister softly. +</P> + +<P> +"Uh-huh?" came sleepily from Brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I can't help looking when Ralph opens the door?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother roused himself. +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't," he repeated. "It's my birthday. I wouldn't look first if +it was your birthday present. You can shut your eyes, can't you?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister sighed, and a big yawn came and surprised the sigh. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe he'll have it tied in a paper," she murmured hopefully. "Then I +can't see it." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +RALPH'S PRESENT +</H3> + +<P> +The sun rose bright and early on Brother's birthday morning. Not any +earlier than usual, perhaps, but it certainly woke Brother a whole +half-hour earlier than he usually opened his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Almost at the same moment that his brown eyes opened wide, and he sat +up in bed, Sister's dark eyes also opened wide and she sat up in her +little white bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she said, blinking. "OH, it's your birthday, Roddy! Many happy +returns of the day—and I have a present for you!" +</P> + +<P> +She slipped out of bed and ran over to the chest of white drawers that +held her own possessions. +</P> + +<P> +"You can play with them a little while and then you can eat 'em," she +explained, returning with a flat, white box which she put on Brother's +lap. +</P> + +<P> +The present proved to be a pound of animal crackers, of which Brother +was very fond, and Sister was telling him how she had carefully picked +out as many horses and elephants as she could—for indulgent Grandma +Hastings had bought several pounds of the crackers, and allowed Sister +to select the two kinds of animals that were Brother's favorites—when +they heard Ralph's quick step in the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Here comes Ralph! Don't look!" commanded Brother hastily. +</P> + +<P> +Sister promptly dived under the bedclothes, and when Ralph softly +opened the door—lest the children were still asleep—he saw Brother +staring eagerly toward him and a little lump in the middle of Sister's +bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, young man, how does it feel to be six years old?" Ralph asked +merrily, putting down the basket he carried on the floor, and coming +over to Brother, who stood up to hug him. +</P> + +<P> +"Just as nice," gurgled Brother, standing still to receive the six +"spanks" without which no birthday could be properly celebrated. +</P> + +<P> +"Can I look yet?" asked a muffled voice meekly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, sweetheart, what have they done to you?" demanded Ralph in +amazement, uncovering a very warm and flushed little girl. "I thought +you were asleep, honey. Don't you feel well?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I feel all right," Sister assured him cheerfully. "Only I promised +Brother I wouldn't look at the present before he did." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so, I did bring a present, didn't I?" said Ralph, pretending to +have forgotten. "Well, Brother, stand up while I measure you once more; +I must be sure that you are tall enough and that means that you drank +your milk every time without grumbling." +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't he grumble?" asked Sister, watching while Ralph stood brother +against the wall and made a tiny mark with a pencil. "You never said he +couldn't grumble, Ralph." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't I?" Ralph said. "Well, then, I should, because that is very +important. You will grow, you know, if you drink your milk and grumble +about it, but not half as fast as you will grow if you drink the milk +and make no fuss. That's true, Sister—I'm not joking." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't grumble much, did I, Sister?" interposed Brother. "Haven't I +grown, Ralph?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think you have—enough to have what I have brought you," +returned Ralph cheerfully. "Here, now, tell me what you think of this." +</P> + +<P> +He stooped down and lifted the lid of the basket. Then he tipped it +over on one side and out rolled the fattest brown and white collie +puppy dog you ever saw! +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! Oh! Oh!" shrieked Brother and Sister together. "What a perfectly +dear little puppy!" +</P> + +<P> +"He's yours, Brother," said Ralph, smiling like the dear big brother he +was. "Yours to take care of and love, and to name." +</P> + +<P> +"Hasn't he any name?" asked Brother, hugging the fat puppy, who seemed +to like it and tried to say so with his little red tongue. "I don't +know what to name a puppy dog." +</P> + +<P> +"Call him 'Brownie,'" suggested Sister, down on her knees on the floor, +watching the dog with shining eyes. "I think that is a nice name." +</P> + +<P> +"So do I," agreed Brother. +</P> + +<P> +"I do, too," said Ralph. "And now you must get dressed if you are not +to be late for breakfast; and I must go down now—I have to take an +earlier train in." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you come to the party?" begged Sister, as Ralph stood up to go. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't believe I'll be home in time," he answered. "But you can tell me +all about it and that will be almost as nice." +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison came in to help them dress and she kissed Brother six +times because it was his birthday. He wore a new blue sailor suit, and +Sister put on her next-to-the-best hair-ribbon in his honor. +</P> + +<P> +"I like birthdays," sighed Brother, slipping into his seat at the +breakfast table and eyeing the little heap of bundles at his plate with +great delight. "Look at my puppy dog, Dick." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that is a nice pup," admitted Dick, putting down his paper. +"Have you named him yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Name's Brownie—Betty thought of it," replied Brother. "Can he have +cereal, Mother? And Daddy wrote on this box, didn't he?" The little boy +picked up a box wrapped in paper. +</P> + +<P> +"Now just a minute," said Mother Morrison firmly. "The dog can't eat at +the table, dear; put him down until you have finished breakfast. I +don't want you to open the parcels, either, until you have had your +milk and cereal. But those two on top you may open—they are from Daddy +and Dick and they're going to leave in ten minutes." +</P> + +<P> +Brother opened the two packages eagerly. That from Daddy Morrison was a +little wooden block and a set of rubber type with an ink-pad, so that +Brother might play at printing. He knew his letters and, if someone +helped him, could spell a number of words. Dick's parcel contained a +little silver collar for the new puppy, so made that it could be made +larger for him as he grew. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Dick!" Brother flung himself upon that pleased young man and +kissed him heartily. Somehow Brother seldom kissed Dick, although he +loved him dearly. "It's the nicest collar!" +</P> + +<P> +"All right, all right," said Dick hastily. "Glad you like it. Coming, +Dad?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother had to thank Daddy Morrison for his gift and kiss him good-bye, +and then the interrupted breakfast went on. As soon as they had all +finished, they gathered around Brother to watch him open his birthday +gifts. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MORE PRESENTS +</H3> + +<P> +"With so many birthdays in one family, we must not give elaborate or +expensive presents ever," Mother Morrison had once said, and she had +made that a rule. +</P> + +<P> +So Brother's presents, while representing a great deal of beautiful +love, were simple and mostly home-made. +</P> + +<P> +Louise had made him an entire set of new sails for his ship Swallow; +Grace had cleverly painted and cut out a set of paper soldiers, and set +them in tiny wooden blocks so that they stood upright; Jimmie's present +was a set of little garden tools; Molly brought in a gingerbread man, +very wide and tall and most handsomely decorated with pink sugar icing. +And Mother Morrison gave him a box of watercolor paints and a painting +book. +</P> + +<P> +Just as Brother had unwrapped the last of his gifts, dear Grandmother +Hastings hurried in. Under her arm she carried a large square box, and +her eyes twinkled as she set it down. +</P> + +<P> +"For the birthday boy!" she said. +</P> + +<P> +"A toolchest!" shouted Brother in delight. "Look, Grandma, Ralph gave +me a puppy!" +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you said 'thank you!' just like that!" laughed Grandmother, as +Brother hugged her so tightly she could scarcely get her breath. "Let +me give you six kisses, dearie. Why, Brother, what is the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"I never said 'thank you' at all," mourned Brother. "Did I, Sister? And +Ralph gave me such a nice puppy dog." +</P> + +<P> +"But you can say 'thank you' tonight, can't he, Grandma?" protested +Sister loyally. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course, dear. Don't worry, Brother—Ralph knew you were very +happy to have the doggie. Now come and tell me what you are going to +call him." +</P> + +<P> +There were many things to be done to get ready for the party that +afternoon, and while Brother and Sister introduced Brownie to their +grandmother, the rest of the family scattered to their work. Presently +Grandmother Hastings declared she must run home and put a lace collar +on her best frock so that she could come to the party, and Brother and +Sister were left alone with the new presents. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's take Brownie out for a walk," suggested Sister. "Have you fed +him, Roddy?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother shook his head. No, Brownie had had no breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I'd said thank you' to Ralph," worried Ralph's little brother. +"Maybe he won't come home to supper tonight, and I'll be in bed when he +comes." +</P> + +<P> +"Telephone him," said Sister, stroking one of Brownie's velvet ears. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know the name of the law school," objected Brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Ask Daddy," promptly responded Sister. "He'll know." +</P> + +<P> +The children knew the number of Daddy Morrison's big office in the +city, and both could telephone very nicely. The phone booth was under +the hall stairs and Brother knew no one in the house could hear him +when he took down the receiver. +</P> + +<P> +"Please give me 6587 Main," he said politely, while Sister and Brownie +sat down on the floor to wait and listen. +</P> + +<P> +Dick was in his father's office, and unless the person calling asked +for Mr. Morrison, senior, the switchboard operator gave them Mr. +Morrison, junior. That was Dick, who was named for Daddy Morrison. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, hello!" came Dick's voice over the wire in answer to Brother's +call. +</P> + +<P> +"I want Daddy," said Brother distinctly. +</P> + +<P> +"Is that you, Brother?" asked Dick in surprise. "Did Mother ask you to +call him? Is anything wrong at home?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, only I want to speak to him," said Brother impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"He's busy—if you are only trying to amuse yourself, I advise you to +stop it," answered Dick rather sharply. "You know you are not supposed +to use the 'phone, Brother." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess I can talk to my father," asserted Brother indignantly. "You +tell him I want to speak to him, Dick Morrison!" +</P> + +<P> +Dick apparently made the connection, for in another moment Brother +heard his father's voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Son?" it said gently. "What can I do for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Daddy!" Brother spoke rapidly, his words tumbling over each other. +"I never said 'thank you' to Ralph for the puppy dog! An' sometimes he +doesn't come home to supper, and I don't see him till tomorrow morning. +I want to tell him how much I like Brownie, and I don't know the name +of the law school. Will you tell me so I can ask 'Central' for the +number and call Ralph up?" +</P> + +<P> +There was a pause. Daddy Morrison was apparently thinking. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you, son," he said presently. "I do not believe Ralph's +school allows their pupils to be called from a class to answer the +telephone, so you had better not try that plan. But Ralph is coming to +the office this noon to go to lunch with Dick. You tell Mother that I +said you were to be permitted to telephone the office at half-past +twelve. In that way you'll catch Ralph here and can say what you want +to him. How will that do?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's fine, Daddy!" replied Brother gratefully. "Thank you ever so +much—wait a minute, Daddy—" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm just saying the good-bye," called Sister, who loved to telephone. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, youngsters," said Daddy Morrison, laughing as he hung up the +receiver. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, for goodness' sake, what are you two doing here?" demanded +Louise, coming through the hall with something hidden in her apron. +"Who said you could telephone? Whom did you call up?" +</P> + +<P> +"Daddy," answered Brother serenely. "He said I could call the office +again at half-past twelve. What you got, Louise?" +</P> + +<P> +"Secrets," said Louise mysteriously. "People with birthdays shouldn't +ask questions." +</P> + +<P> +She hurried on toward the kitchen and in a few moments the children +heard her laughing with Molly. +</P> + +<P> +"I think Brownie is hungry," insisted Sister. "Aren't you ever going to +feed him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course he's hungry," chimed in Grace, who had overheard. "There's a +bowl of bread and milk Mother fixed for him before breakfast, out on +the back porch, with a plate over it to keep the cats out. Take him out +there and feed him, Brother." +</P> + +<P> +Brownie was indeed very hungry and the children enjoyed watching him +eat the bread and milk Mother Morrison had fixed for him. After he had +eaten it all up, they took him out on the grass to play, but that fat +little brown puppy, instead of playing with them, curled up and went to +sleep. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind—here comes the party!" cried Sister, whose bright eyes had +spied a wagon turning into the drive. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PARTY +</H3> + +<P> +"The party" happened to be the ice-cream, and Brother and Sister +watched eagerly as the delivery boy carried the heavy wooden tub in +which the cream was packed, up the back steps. +</P> + +<P> +"Going to have a party?" he smiled at them as he came back to his +wagon. "Have a good time!" +</P> + +<P> +The pretty little notes of invitation, which Mother Morrison had +written to six boys and six girls, friends of Brother's and Sister's, +two weeks ago, had said from "four to six," so it was time to dress in +the best white clothes soon after lunch. Indeed, Brother's collar bow +was not tied before the doorbell rang, and Nellie Yarrow arrived. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose she lived so far away, she thought she might be late," said +Louise. +</P> + +<P> +She ran downstairs and showed Nellie where to put the present she had +brought for Brother. +</P> + +<P> +After that the other boys and girls came, one by one, and Brother soon +had a little pile of presents on the living-room table. He opened each +one, and said thank you to the child who had brought it, and he forgot +to be shy, so that he really enjoyed it all very much. +</P> + +<P> +Charlie Raynor and his sister, Winifred, were the last to come, and +Winifred was excited over something. +</P> + +<P> +"I had the most awful time with Charlie!" she announced earnestly, to +sympathetic Mother Morrison. "He acted dreadful!" +</P> + +<P> +Winifred was two years older than Charlie and felt responsible for him. +</P> + +<P> +"Give Roddy his present now," Winifred urged Charlie. "Hurry, I tell +you." +</P> + +<P> +Silently Charlie held out a little paper bag of candy. +</P> + +<P> +"I had all I could do to keep him from eating it on the way here," his +sister explained. "He just loves candy!" +</P> + +<P> +Brother took the bag of candy and put it with his other gifts on the +table. Then the children began the peanut hunt, which was the first +game Louise and Grace had planned for them. +</P> + +<P> +This was played outdoors, and it was fully half an hour before all the +peanuts had been discovered. Then, as several of the girls wanted to +start the old, old game of "Going to Jerusalem," and Grace offered to +play the music, they all trooped back to the living-room. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Roddy, your candy is gone!" announced Sister in surprise. "When +did you eat it?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother came up to her where she stood by the table of presents. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't eat it," he said wonderingly. "I left it right there on top +of that book. Isn't that funny!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's gone," asserted Sister. "Someone ate it!" +</P> + +<P> +Winifred had heard, and now she turned on the unfortunate Charlie. +</P> + +<P> +"Charles Eldridge Raynor!" she said sternly. "Did you eat Roddy's candy +that you brought him? Did you?" +</P> + +<P> +Charlie nodded miserably. He had slipped into the room, unnoticed +during the peanut hunt, and unable to longer withstand the temptation, +had calmly eaten up his birthday gift. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope," stammered Winifred with very red cheeks, "I hope you will +excuse him, Mrs. Morrison. I never knew him to do such a thing before!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it isn't anything so very dreadful," declared Mother Morrison, +smiling. "Any laddie with a sweet tooth might easily do the same thing. +Come, children, Grace is waiting to play for you." +</P> + +<P> +They played "Going to Jerusalem" and "Drop the Handkerchief," and all +the time there was the mysterious fishpond back of the table! But they +could not fish till after they had had ice cream. +</P> + +<P> +As they were playing a noisy game of "Tag" out on the lawn, Molly came +to the door to ask them to come into the dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +Such a pretty table met their eyes! It seemed to be all blue and white, +and in the center was the big birthday cake—iced as only Molly could +ice it, and showing no trace of the starch Sister had tried to cover it +with. Six candles twinkled merrily on the top. +</P> + +<P> +"Make six wishes, Brother," said Mother Morrison. +</P> + +<P> +"Then he blows, and as many candles as he blows out he will have wishes +come true," explained Sister quaintly. +</P> + +<P> +Brother made his wishes—they must not be spoken aloud—and then took a +deep breath. +</P> + +<P> +Pouf! Three of the candles went out +</P> + +<P> +"Three wishes!" shouted the children. "You'll have three wishes come +true!" +</P> + +<P> +It was a lovely birthday supper. Everyone said so. They had chicken +sandwiches, and cocoa, and vanilla and strawberry ice-cream, and of +course the birthday cake, which Brother cut in slices himself with the +big silver cake knife. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—look!" ejaculated Sister in surprise, glancing up from her cake +at the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison stood there, smiling, and in her hands she carried what +seemed to be a very large pudding or pie baked in a milk pan. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it?" said Brother curiously. "What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a secret," answered his mother mysteriously. "Grandmother +Hastings planned it for you." +</P> + +<P> +"And you and Louise bought part of it," Grandmother Hastings assured +him, nodding and smiling from the other doorway, the one that led into +the hall. +</P> + +<P> +She had come over, in her prettiest white and lavender gown, to see the +end of the party. +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison came up to the table with the pie and the children saw +that the paper crust was full of little slits and that from each slit a +ribbon hung out. Some were blue and some were pink. +</P> + +<P> +"Each girl must choose a blue ribbon," said Mother Morrison. "The pink +ones are for the boys. You pull first, Lucy." +</P> + +<P> +Lucy Reed pulled one of the blue ribbons. She hauled out a little +celluloid doll dressed in a gay red frock. +</P> + +<P> +"How lovely!" Lucy cried. "Do we all get something?" +</P> + +<P> +Each child was eager to pull a ribbon, and, wasn't it strange?—there +were just enough ribbons to go round! After every one, including +Brother and Sister, had had his turn, the "crust" was all torn, and not +a single present or ribbon was left. +</P> + +<P> +"Half-past five!" said Louise then, looking at her little wrist-watch. +"We must hurry with the fishing." +</P> + +<P> +So they went into the living-room and had a delightful time fishing in +the pond back of the table. There was a gift for everyone who fished, +and when six o'clock struck, and it was time to go home, each small +guest had a package to take along. +</P> + +<P> +"We've had the nicest time," they called to Mother Morrison as they +said good-bye. "We hope Roddy has a party every year." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +OUT IN THE BARN +</H3> + +<P> +"The party was a great success, eh?" asked Ralph at the breakfast table +the next morning. "I judged so, because it was one o'clock before I +could leave Dad's office to get some lunch. He and Dick insisted on +holding me there till quarter past." +</P> + +<P> +Brother looked at Sister. Sister looked at Brother. They had both +forgotten they meant to telephone Ralph at half-past twelve! +</P> + +<P> +"Don't worry over it, Brother," said Ralph, laughing. "No serious harm +was done, old chap. I made Dad tell me the mysterious reason of the +wait, and when you didn't 'phone in we all three concluded the party +had been too much for you. I'm glad you liked the dog." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes!" Brother seized upon this safe topic. "It is the nicest dog, +Ralph. And I did mean to say thank you,' only I forgot." +</P> + +<P> +After Daddy Morrison and Ralph and Dick had gone off to the station, +Brother and Sister began to have queer feelings. Yes'm, they both felt +"somehow different," as Brother said. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to clear off the table," complained Sister, drawing +pictures on the tablecloth with a fork, a practice which Molly had +always sternly forbidden. +</P> + +<P> +"Neither do I," agreed Brother. "Let's go out in the barn and play." +</P> + +<P> +"Jimmie won't like it," suggested Sister, taking up a cup so carelessly +that some of the coffee left in it slopped over on the clean cloth. +</P> + +<P> +"Jimmie doesn't own the barn," sniffed Brother crossly. "I guess we can +just play in it without hurting any of his stuff." +</P> + +<P> +"Here, here, what are you talking so long about?" demanded Molly +good-naturedly. +</P> + +<P> +She came to the dining-room door and inspected the table critically. +</P> + +<P> +"Just as I thought," she said grimly. "Too much party yesterday! +Sister, give me that cup and stop marking the cloth. Run off and play, +both of you, till you get over being cross. I'd rather do the work +myself than listen to you grumble." +</P> + +<P> +Thus dismissed, Brother and Sister wandered off to the barn. They ought +to have felt happy with the extra time for play, but, for some reason, +they were decidedly uncomfortable. +</P> + +<P> +"Everybody's busy," grumbled Brother. "Nobody cares what we do. Louise +and Grace are sewing, and Mother is going to make strawberry jam. Let's +try the rings, Betty." +</P> + +<P> +They were inside the old barn now, and the swinging rings had always +fascinated Sister. But she knew that Jimmie had said they were not to +touch them, and indeed Daddy Morrison had warned the children not to +play in the barn unless some of the older boys were with them. +</P> + +<P> +"It is really Jimmie's and Ralph's gymnasium," he had explained. "They +know how to use the apparatus, and you don't. When you are older, +Jimmie will teach you and you may play there all you wish." +</P> + +<P> +Sister looked longingly at the rings when Brother suggested them. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's Jimmie?" she asked cautiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Up in his room studying," answered Brother confidently. +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie had been "conditioned" in the June examinations, and now spent +part of every vacation day studying so that he might take another test +before school opened in the fall. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," agreed Sister, assured that Jimmie was not likely to walk +in upon them. "How'll we get the rings untied?" +</P> + +<P> +The rings were fastened up out of the way, tied to a nail on the side +wall, so that when not in use they did not take up any room. Jimmie +could reach this nail easily, but, of course, it was far above +Brother's head. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll get the step-ladder," announced Brother confidently. "You hold it +for me." +</P> + +<P> +The step-ladder was an old one and inclined to wobble. Brother mounted +it slowly, and Sister sat down on the lowest step to hold it steady. +Her weight was not enough to anchor the ladder, and it still shook +crazily when Brother reached the highest step and stood on his tiptoes +to reach the string that held the swings on the nail. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you kids up to now?" a voice asked suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +It was Jimmie! He had come out to the barn to get a book he had left in +the corner cupboard. +</P> + +<P> +Sister jumped to her feet, startled. Her elbow brushed the wobbily +ladder and over it went, carrying Brother with it. He was too surprised +to cry out. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hurt? Of all the crazy actions?" Jimmie scolded vigorously as +he rushed to his small brother's rescue. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately for him, Brother had landed on one of the heavy, thick, +quilted pads that were on the floor. The boys used them when on the +apparatus in case they fell. Brother was not hurt at all, but he was +frightened, and when Jimmie picked him up he was crying bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"I've a good mind to tell Father," continued Jimmie, who, of the three +older boys, was less inclined to leniency with the performances of +Brother and Sister. "Next time you might be badly hurt, and then it +would be too late to punish you. Come here, Sister." +</P> + +<P> +Sister came reluctantly. +</P> + +<P> +"What were you trying to do?" said Jimmie grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"Trying to use the swinging rings," answered Sister meekly. +</P> + +<P> +"There's nothing to do," wailed Brother forlornly. "Everybody's busy +and no one wants to play. And you don't own this barn, Jimmie +Morrison—so there!" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I don't," retorted Jimmie. "But Dad happens to have given me +the use of it. And you're going to stay out if I have to put a padlock +on the door. You've got all outdoors to play in—can't you find +something pleasant to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Betty! Roddy!" called Nellie Yarrow from her side of the hedge. +"Betty! Come on out, I want to tell you something." +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister ran toward the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a second!" shouted Jimmie. "Turn around." +</P> + +<P> +They looked back at him. He was smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"No hard feelings?" he suggested. +</P> + +<P> +Sister dimpled and Brother laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"No hard feelings," they chuckled and ran on down to the hedge. +</P> + +<P> +That was the way the Morrison family always smoothed out their +disputes. There was so many of them that they really could not be +expected to be always pleasant and never quarrel, but every +disagreement was, sooner or later, sure to end with the cheerful +announcement, "No hard feelings." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose they ought to have a place of their own to play in," said +Jimmie to himself when the children had gone. "I wonder if—" +</P> + +<P> +He had an idea which for the present he meant to keep to himself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HAUNTED HOUSE +</H3> + +<P> +"Hello!" Nellie Yarrow greeted Brother and Sister. "What do you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"What?" asked Sister, apparently unable to think. +</P> + +<P> +Nellie Yarrow pointed her finger as one having important news to tell. +</P> + +<P> +"The haunted house is rented!" she said, excitedly. +</P> + +<P> +The "haunted" house was an object of curiosity to every child in +Ridgeway. It was a small, shabby brown shingled dwelling on one of the +side streets, and it was whispered that a man had once seen a "ghost" +sitting at one of the windows. That was enough. Ever after no boy or +girl would go past the house at night, if it were possible to avoid it, +and the more timid ran by it even in the day time. Of course they +should have known there are no such things as "ghosts," but some of +them didn't. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is going to live in it?" asked Sister curiously. "Don't you +suppose they will be afraid?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I wouldn't live in it," declared Nellie positively. "Some folks +don't care anything about ghosts, though. Let's go down and watch 'em +carry in the furniture." +</P> + +<P> +Not many new families moved into Ridgeway during the year, and a June +moving was something of an event. The children found a little group of +folk watching the green van backed up to the gate. Two colored men were +carrying in furniture, and an old lady with her head tied up in a towel +was sweeping off the narrow front porch. +</P> + +<P> +"Gee, she's got a parrot!" cried a ragged, redheaded little boy who was +trying to walk on top of the sharp pickets. +</P> + +<P> +He was barefooted and the pickets were very sharp, so when the +moving—van man, having put down the parrot and its cage on the porch, +pretended to run straight toward him, the boy lost his balance and +fell. He was up in a moment and running down the street as fast as +though the furniture man were really chasing him. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister!" Brother spoke excitedly. "That's the little boy I told you +about. We saw him downtown, Louise and I, when we were buying things +for the fishpond for my birthday; remember? Only he didn't have a rag +on his foot today." +</P> + +<P> +"He used to be in my class at school," said Nellie. "Oh, look at all +the boxes of books!" +</P> + +<P> +Brother meant to ask Nellie what the redheaded boy's name was, but she +had danced out to the van to see how large it was inside, and when she +came back Brother had forgotten his question. +</P> + +<P> +"My father says an old lady is going to live here," volunteered Francis +Rider, a freckle-faced lad of ten or twelve. "She lives all by herself, +and she doesn't like noise. Her name is Miss Putnam." +</P> + +<P> +Neither, they were to learn, did Miss Putnam like company, especially +that of boys and girls. +</P> + +<P> +When the last piece of furniture had been carried in, and the van had +driven creakingly off down the street, the old lady, with her head tied +in the towel, was seen approaching the fence. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Miss Putnam," whispered Francis. +</P> + +<P> +"Get off that fence!" cried Miss Putnam, brandishing her broom. "Get +off! I'm not going to have my fence broken down by a parcel of young +ones. Go on home, I tell you!" +</P> + +<P> +The children scrambled down and scattered like leaves. Francis, when he +was a safe distance up the street, put out his tongue and made a face +at Miss Putnam. The old lady continued to stand by the gate and shake +her broom threateningly as long as there was a child in sight. +</P> + +<P> +"The Collins house is rented at last," said Daddy Morrison at the +supper table that night. "I came through there on my way home from the +station, and there was a light in the kitchen window. I wonder who has +taken it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know, Daddy," answered Louise quickly. "An aunt of Mrs. Collins has +rented it. She is a Miss Putnam and she makes lovely braided rugs for +the art and craft shops in the city. Sue Loftis told me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she's cross as—as anything!" struck in Brother severely. "She +chased us all off her fence this morning; didn't she, Betty?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she did," nodded Sister. "And we weren't doing a thing 'cept +watch her move in. Francis Rider stuck out his tongue at her, and she +called him a 'brat.'" +</P> + +<P> +Daddy Morrison glanced at her sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let me hear of either of you annoying Miss Putnam in any way," +he said sternly. "I know how children can sometimes, without meaning +it, bother an elderly and crochety person. Miss Putnam has every right +to keep her house and yard for herself, and if she is 'cross,' as you +call it, that is her affair, too. My advice to you youngsters is to +stay away from the Collins house." +</P> + +<P> +"Now will you be good?" said Ralph, catching Sister by her short skirts +as she attempted to slip past him as he sat in one of the comfortable +porch rockers. +</P> + +<P> +The family had scattered after supper, and only Ralph and Jimmie were +on the front porch. +</P> + +<P> +"The day after a party is always unlucky," observed Jimmie, tweaking +his little sister's hair-ribbon playfully. "You and Brother have had +more than your share of scolding today, haven't you, Sister?" +</P> + +<P> +To his surprise, and Ralph's, Sister's small foot in its patent leather +slipper and white sock struck at him viciously. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Elizabeth Morrison!" exclaimed Ralph, lifting the little girl to +his lap and holding her firmly there in spite of her struggles. "I'm +astonished at you. What are you kicking Jimmie for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Go way!" cried Sister furiously, as Jimmie tried to see her face. "Go +way—you're a mean, hateful boy!" +</P> + +<P> +"Quit it!" commanded Ralph, giving her a little shake. "Stop acting +like this, Sister, or I'll take you in and put you to bed!" +</P> + +<P> +Sister knew he was quite capable of doing this very thing and she +stopped struggling. +</P> + +<P> +"Jimmie is just as mean!" she sobbed, burying her head in Ralph's coat. +</P> + +<P> +"What have I done?" demanded Jimmie, much surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"You've gone and put a padlock on the barn door!" flashed Sister, +sitting up and drying her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie laughed, and Ralph laughed a little too. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I haven't locked the door for the reason you think," explained +Jimmie kindly. "It isn't just to keep you and Brother out, Sister. I'm +making you something nice, and I don't want you to see it until it is +all finished." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," conceded Sister graciously. "I thought maybe you didn't +want Brother and me to play in the barn." +</P> + +<P> +"No hard feelings, then?" inquired Jimmie, holding out his hand. +</P> + +<P> +And—"No hard feelings," admitted Sister, smiling after the "salt-water +shower." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +JIMMIE'S SURPRISE +</H3> + +<P> +The "haunted" house continued to be an attraction to the children of +the neighborhood even after Miss Putnam moved in, and the ghost might +reasonably be supposed to have moved out. Alas, it was Miss Putnam +herself who now supplied the thrills. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Putnam, you see, had never had much to do with children, and she +thought she disliked them very much indeed. Boys, in her opinion, made +a great deal of noise and girls always giggled and were silly. So +whenever she saw a child hanging over her gate, or even stopping to +glance at her house, she was apt to come charging out at them with a +broom. The younger ones were afraid of her and the older, larger boys +naughtily enjoyed provoking the poor old lady. So it was soon a common +sight to see several boys flying up the street, Miss Putnam after them, +waving her broom wildly. +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister, mindful of Daddy Morrison's warning, never actually +did anything to make Miss Putnam chase them. But it must be confessed +that they used to walk through the street on which she lived, in the +hope of seeing her chase someone. Ridgeway was a quiet place in summer +time, and any excitement was welcome. +</P> + +<P> +For several days after Sister's outburst because of the locked barn +door, Jimmie worked away busily in his beloved gymnasium. He would not +let either Brother or Sister as much as put their noses inside the +door, and when they tried to find out from Molly what he was doing—for +Molly could usually be depended upon to know what everyone in the +family was up to—she simply shook her head and said she had promised +not to tell. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish," said Sister for the tenth time one warm morning, "I wish +there was something new to do." +</P> + +<P> +"So do I," agreed Brother. "There's Jimmie—he's beckoning to us." +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie stood in the barn doorway, motioning the children to come in. +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister jumped down the three back steps in one leap and +raced toward the barn. +</P> + +<P> +"Want to see what I've been making?" asked Jimmie proudly, "Come on in, +and look—there!" +</P> + +<P> +The tools from the carpenter's bench which occupied one side of the +barn were scattered about on the floor where Jimmie had been using +them. All Brother and Sister could see was a wide, rather shallow box, +painted a dark green. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it—is it a boat?" ventured Sister doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"What's it for?" asked Brother. +</P> + +<P> +"It's for you to play with," explained Jimmie. "I thought maybe you +would help me carry it out under the horsechestnut tree in the side +yard." +</P> + +<P> +"But how do we play with it?" insisted Brother. "Is it a game, Jimmie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Put your hand in that bag back of you," directed Jimmie. "Perhaps then +you can guess." +</P> + +<P> +A burlap bag, opened, stood close to Sister. She and Brother plunged +their hands in and drew them out filled with something that trickled +swiftly through their fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Sand!" they shouted. "Seashore sand! Oh, Jimmie, is it a sandbox?" +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie nodded, smiling. He knew they had long wanted a sandbox, and +like the dear, good brother he was, he had spent his mornings sawing +and fitting and smoothing off boards to make a nice, strong box. +</P> + +<P> +"What fun!" Sister bounced up and down with pleasure. "Can we play with +it right away?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know why not," said Jimmie. "You two take one end, and we'll +carry it out under the tree. Mother thought that was the best place +because it will be shady most of the day for you." +</P> + +<P> +They carried the box out to the tree, and then Jimmie brought the bag +of sand on the wheelbarrow and dumped it into the box. +</P> + +<P> +"Just like the seashore!" beamed Brother. "Thank you ever so much, +Jimmie." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, thank you ever so much, Jimmie," echoed Sister, jumping up and +standing on tiptoe to kiss Jimmie. "It's the nicest box!" +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie pretended that it wasn't much to do, but of course he was very +much pleased that his little brother and sister should be so delighted. +Big brothers often pretend that they don't want anyone to make a fuss +over the presents they give or the nice things they do, but just the +same they are secretly glad when their efforts are appreciated. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's fifty cents for each of you," announced Jimmie, pulling some +change from his pocket and handing two quarters to Brother and a shiny +half-dollar to Sister. "If Mother is willing for you to go downtown you +can get some sand-toys." +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison was willing they should go if they would remember to be +careful about automobiles and if they would promise to be back within +an hour. +</P> + +<P> +The Morrison house was not very near the section of Ridgeway which +contained the shops and stores, but the children often took the long +walk alone. There were no trolleys to be careful about, except the one +line that ran to the city, but the automobile traffic was rather heavy +and one had to remember to stop and look both ways before crossing a +street. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's take Brownie with us," suggested Brother, when they were ready +to start out to spend their wealth. "We can carry him if he gets tired." +</P> + +<P> +The fat little collie puppy wagged his tail cordially. He loved to go +walking and felt that too often he was neglected when he should have +been invited. He always wore his silver collar, and Louise had given +Brother a little leather leash that could be snapped on when he took +the dog outside the yard. +</P> + +<P> +"Want to go, Brownie?" asked Sister. "Want to go out?" +</P> + +<P> +Brownie barked sharply. Indeed, he did want to go! +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister took turns leading him, and before they had gone +very far they met Nellie Yarrow. She offered to go with them and she +was much interested to hear that there was a new sandbox in the +Morrison yard. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll come over and play with you this afternoon," she promised. "Let +me lead Brownie, Roddy?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother gave her the leash, watching her anxiously. Nellie was +sometimes careless with other people's property, he had learned, though +she was so generous with her own it was hard to refuse her anything. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let him get away," he cautioned. +</P> + +<P> +Nellie opened her mouth to say "I won't," when with a sudden jerk +Brownie tore the leather line from her hand and dashed into the road. +</P> + +<P> +"Here comes a big motor-truck!" screamed Sister. "Brownie will be run +over and killed!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A LITTLE SHOPPING +</H3> + +<P> +The foolish little puppy crouched down directly in the path of the +lumbering motor-truck. The children could feel the ground quivering as +the weight of the heavy wheels jarred at every turn. +</P> + +<P> +Brother forgot that he had promised to be careful about automobiles. He +forgot that, bad as it would be for a motor-driver to run over a puppy +dog, it would be twenty times worse for him to run down a little boy. +He forgot everything except the fact that his dog was in danger! +</P> + +<P> +"Look out!" shrieked Nellie Yarrow. "Roddy, come back!" +</P> + +<P> +A huge red touring car, filled with laughing girls, whizzed past him, +and after that a light delivery car that had to swerve sharply to avoid +striking him. As Brother reached the dog he thought the motor-truck was +going to roll right over him, and he closed his eyes and made a grab +for Brownie. When he opened them, the truck was standing still, two +wheels in the ditch, and three men were climbing down and starting +toward him. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hurt, Roddy?" cried Sister, skipping into the road, followed +by Nellie. "My, I thought that truck was going to run over you sure!" +</P> + +<P> +"Come out of the road, you kids!" ordered one of the men roughly, +pushing the three children not unkindly over in the direction of the +ditch. "This is no place to stand and talk—hasn't your mother ever +told you to keep out of the streets?" +</P> + +<P> +The driver of the truck, who was a young man with blue eyes and a quick +smile, patted Brownie on the head gently. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw the dog," he explained to Brother. "I wouldn't have run over +him, anyway. Next time, no matter what happens, don't you run into the +road. Cars going the other way might have struck you, and I didn't know +which way you were going to jump after you got the dog. No driver wants +to run over a dog if he can help it, and you children only make matters +worse by dashing in among traffic." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't mean to," said Brother sorrowfully. "Only I didn't want +Brownie to get hurt. I hardly ever dash among traffic, do I, Sister?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, he doesn't," declared Sister loyally, while Nellie stood silently +by. "Mother always makes us promise to be careful 'bout dashing." +</P> + +<P> +The three men laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, as long as you don't make it a practice, we won't count this +time," said the man who had told them not to stand talking in the road. +"Now scoot back to the sidewalk—or, here, George, you take them over. +That's a nice dog you have." +</P> + +<P> +George, it proved, was the driver, and he took Sister by one hand and +Brother by the other. Nellie held Sister's other hand and Brother +carried Brownie, and in this order they made their way safely back to +the pavement on the other side of the street. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-bye, and don't forget about keeping out of the street," said the +truck-driver cheerfully, when he had them neatly lined up on the curb. +</P> + +<P> +They watched him run back to his machine—as Brother observed, he +didn't look to see whether any motor-cars were likely to run him down, +but then, of course, he was grown up and used to them—saw him mount to +the high seat, and waved good-bye to all three men. Then they walked +on, for the sand-toys were still to be bought. +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister were the most careful of shoppers, and with Nellie +to help them by suggestions, they managed to find a set of tin +sand-dishes, a windmill that pumped sand, a little iron dumpcart that +would be very useful to carry loads, and a string of tin buckets that +went up and down on a chain and filled with sand and emptied again as +long as anyone would turn the handle. +</P> + +<P> +"Come over after lunch and we'll play," said Sister as Nellie left them +at her own hedge. +</P> + +<P> +Nellie did come over and the three children had a wonderful time with +the new toys and the clean white sand, while Brownie slept comfortably +under the tree. Before Nellie was ready to go home, however, a thunder +storm came up and her mother called her to come in. Mother Morrison +came out and helped Brother and Sister to carry their box into the +barn, where the sand would not get wet. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't want to play with the sandbox all the time, dearies," she +said, leading the way back to the house. "If you play too steadily with +anything, presently you will find that you are growing tired of it. Now +play on the porch, or find something nice to do in the house, and +tomorrow Jimmie will put the box under the tree again for you." +</P> + +<P> +It was very warm and sticky, and Sister tumbled into the comfortable +porch swing, meaning to stay there just a few minutes. She fell asleep +and slept all through the storm, waking up a little cross, as one is +apt to do on a hot summer afternoon. The rain had stopped and Brother +had gone over to see Grandmother Hastings. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Sister," Louise greeted her when she raised a flushed, warm +face and touseled hair from the canvas cushions. "You've had a fine +nap. Want me to go upstairs with you and help you find a clean dress?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Sister a bit crossly. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll feel much better, honey, when your face is washed and you have +on a thinner frock," urged Louise, putting down her knitting. "Come +upstairs like a good girl, and I'll tell you what I saw Miss Putnam +doing as I came past her house this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +Sister toiled upstairs after Louise, feeling much abused. She had not +intended to take a nap, and now here she had slept away good playtime +and was certainly warmer and more uncomfortable than she had been +before she went to sleep. +</P> + +<P> +But after Louise had bathed her face and hands in cool water and had +brushed her hair and buttoned her into a pretty white dress with blue +spots, Sister was her own sunny self. She had not been thoroughly +awake, you see, and that was the reason she felt a little cross. +</P> + +<P> +"What was Miss Putnam doing?" she asked curiously, watching Louise fold +up the frock she had taken off. +</P> + +<P> +"She was out in her yard nailing something on the fence," said Louise. +"I saw her when I was a block away, hammering as though her life +depended on it. A crowd of boys were watching her—at a safe +distance—and when I came near enough I saw she had a roll of wire in +the yard. She was nailing barbwire along the fence pickets!" +</P> + +<P> +"How mean!" scolded Sister. "No one wants to climb over her old fence, +or swing on her gate." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I think it is a shame the way the boys torment her," declared +Louise severely. "Jimmie says he caught a little red-headed boy the +other day throwing old tin cans over her fence. You know what Daddy +would say if he ever thought you or Brother did anything like that." +</P> + +<P> +"We don't," Sister assured her earnestly. "We never bother Miss Putnam." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT +</H3> + +<P> +Fourth of July, always a glorious holiday in the Morrison household, +came and was celebrated by a family picnic which gave Brother and +Sister something to talk about for days afterward. Their sandbox, too, +kept them busy and for a long time Jimmie never had to warn them not to +touch the gymnasium apparatus in the barn. +</P> + +<P> +Daddy Morrison and Dick and Ralph continued to go every day to the city +and Jimmie worked faithfully at his books, determined to begin the fall +school term without a condition. As captain of the football team it was +necessary for him to make a good showing in his lessons as well as in +athletics. +</P> + +<P> +Louise and Grace perhaps enjoyed the vacation time more than any other +members of the family. They would be sophomores when they returned to +high school in September, and while they were willing to study hard +then, they meant to have all the fun they could before they were bound +down to books and lessons again. +</P> + +<P> +"Where you going?" Sister asked one night, finding Louise prinking +before the hall mirror and Grace counting change from her mesh bag. +</P> + +<P> +"Out," answered Louise serenely, pulling her pretty hair more over her +ears. +</P> + +<P> +"I know—to the movies!" guessed Brother. "Can't we go? Oh, please, +Louise—you said you'd take us sometime!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, Louise, can't we go?" teased Sister. "I never went to the +movies at night," she added pleadingly. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't go," said Louise reasonably enough. "We didn't go when we +were little like you. Don't hang on me, please, Sister; it's too hot." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you're mean!" stormed Brother. "Mother, can't we go to the +movies?" +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison, who had been upstairs to get her fan, was going with +Louise and Grace. She shook her head to Brother's question. +</P> + +<P> +"My dearies, of course you can't go at night," she said firmly. "I want +you to be good children and go to bed when the clock strikes eight. +Ralph promised to come up and see you. Kiss Mother good-night, Sister, +and be a good girl." +</P> + +<P> +Left alone, Brother and Sister sat down on the front stairs. Molly was +out and Daddy Morrison and Dick had gone to a lodge meeting. Jimmie was +studying up in his room and Ralph was out in the barn putting some +things away. +</P> + +<P> +"There's that old clock!" said Brother crossly as the Grandfather's +clock on the stair landing boomed the hour. +</P> + +<P> +Eight slow, deep strokes—eight o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +Sister settled herself more firmly against the banister railings. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not going to bed," she announced flatly. "If everybody can go to +the movies 'cept me, I don't think it's fair, so there!" +</P> + +<P> +Just how she expected to even things up by refusing to go to bed Sister +did not explain. Perhaps she didn't know. Anyway, Brother said he +wasn't going to bed either. Ralph came in at half-past eight to find +them both playing checkers on the living-room floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Thought you went to bed at eight o'clock," said Ralph, surprised. +"Mother say you might stay up tonight?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, she didn't," admitted Brother, "but she went to the movies with +Louise and Grace. Everybody is having fun and we're not." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph didn't scold. He merely closed up the checkerboard and put it +away in the book-case drawer with the box of checkers. Then he lifted +Sister to his lap and put an arm around Brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor chicks, you do feel abused; don't you?" he said comfortably. "But +I'll tell you something—you wouldn't like going to the movies at +night; you would go to sleep after a little while and lose half the +pictures. Now suppose I take you this Saturday afternoon. How will that +do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Will you take us, Ralph?" cried Sister. "Down to the Majestic?" +</P> + +<P> +This was the largest motion picture theatre in Ridgeway. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take you both to the Majestic next Saturday afternoon," promised +Ralph, "if you will go to bed without any more fuss tonight." +</P> + +<P> +Both children were delighted with the thought of an afternoon's +enjoyment with Ralph and they trotted up to bed with him as pleasantly +as though going to bed were a pleasure. Grownups will tell you it is, +but when you are five and six this is difficult to believe. +</P> + +<P> +Unfortunately Brother and Sister were doomed to another disappointment. +Before Saturday afternoon came, Ralph remembered that he had promised +to play tennis with a friend and he could not break the engagement, +because to do so would spoil the afternoon for eight or ten people who +counted on him for games. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm just as sorry as I can be," Ralph told Brother and Sister +earnestly. "I don't see how I could forget I promised Fred Holmes to +play with him. If you want to wait another week for me, I'll give you +the money for ice-cream sodas." +</P> + +<P> +Grandmother Hastings and Mother Morrison had gone to the city, the +girls had company, Molly was lying down with a headache—there seemed +to be no one to take the children to the matinee. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess we'll have to go buy sodas," agreed Brother disconsolately. +"Only if I don't go to movies pretty soon, I'll—I'll—I don't know +what I'll do!" +</P> + +<P> +"I know," said Sister, dimpling mischievously. "I'll tell you, Roddy." +</P> + +<P> +"You be good, Sister," warned Ralph, eyeing her a bit anxiously. "I +couldn't take a naughty little girl to the movies, you know." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TWO IN TROUBLE +</H3> + +<P> +Ralph knew that Sister could put queer ideas into Brother's head, and +he hoped that the fun of going downtown, and buying ice-cream soda at +the drug store, might cause Sister to forget whatever she had in mind. +</P> + +<P> +When he came home from his tennis game he found both children playing +in the sandbox, and as they were very good the rest of that afternoon +and evening and all day Sunday, Ralph decided that Sister was not going +to be naughty or get Brother to help her to do anything she should not. +</P> + +<P> +Monday evening Mother and Daddy Morrison went through the hedge into +Dr. Yarrow's house to visit the doctor and his wife. Brother and Sister +were told to run in and visit Grandmother Hastings until eight o'clock, +their bedtime. +</P> + +<P> +"Can we take Brownie?" begged Sister. "Grandmother says he is the +nicest dog!" +</P> + +<P> +So Brownie, who was now three times the size he had been when Ralph +brought him home in the basket, was allowed to go calling, too. +</P> + +<P> +"Grandma," said Sister, when Grandmother Hastings had answered their +knock on her screen door, and had hugged and kissed them both. +"Grandma, couldn't we go to the movies?" +</P> + +<P> +Now Grandmother Hastings was a darling grandmother who loved to do +whatever her grandchildren asked of her. It never entered her dear head +that Mother Morrison might not wish Brother and Sister to go to the +movies at night. She only thought how they would enjoy the pictures, +and although she disliked going out at night herself, she said that she +would take Brother and Sister. +</P> + +<P> +"We can't go downtown to the Majestic," she said, "for that is too far +for me to walk. We'll have to go over to the nice little theatre on +Dollmer Avenue. If we go right away, we can be home early." +</P> + +<P> +Sister lagged a little behind her grandmother and brother as they +started for the theatre. She was stuffing Brownie into her roomy middy +blouse. He was rather a large puppy to squeeze into such a place, but +Sister managed it somehow. Grandmother Hastings supposed that the dog +had been left on the porch. +</P> + +<P> +The theatre was dark, for the pictures were being shown on the screen +when they reached it, and Grandmother Hastings had to feel her way down +the aisle, Brother and Sister clinging to her skirts. The electric fans +were going, but it was warm and close, and Grandmother wished longingly +for her own cool parlor. But Brother and Sister thought everything +about the movie theatre beautiful. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you suppose Brownie likes it?" whispered Brother, who sat next to +Sister. Grandmother was on his other side. +</P> + +<P> +"He feels kind of hot," admitted Sister, who could not have been very +comfortable with the heavy dog inside her blouse. "But I think he likes +it." +</P> + +<P> +Brownie had his head stuck halfway out, and he probably wondered where +he was. It was so dark that there was little danger of anyone +discovering him. A dog in a motion-picture house is about as popular, +you know, as Mary's lamb was in school. That is, he isn't popular at +all. +</P> + +<P> +Brownie might have gone to the movies and gone home again without +anyone ever having been the wiser, if there had not been a film shown +that night that no regular dog could look at and not bark. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, look at the big cat!" whispered Sister excitedly. +</P> + +<P> +Surely enough, a large cat sat on the fence, and, as they watched, a +huge collie dog, with a beautiful plumy tail, came marching around the +corner. +</P> + +<P> +He spied the cat and dashed for her. She began to run, on the screen, +of course. The audience in the movie house began to laugh, for the dog +in his first jump had upset a bucket of paint. The people in the +theatre were sure they were going to see a funny picture. +</P> + +<P> +But Brownie had seen the cat, too. He knew cats, and there were many in +his neighborhood he meant to chase as soon as he was old enough to make +them afraid of him. He scratched vigorously on Sister's blouse and +whined. +</P> + +<P> +"Ki-yi!" he yelped, as though saying: "Ki-yi! I'll bet I could catch +that cat!" +</P> + +<P> +Barking shrilly, he scrambled out from Sister's middy, shook himself +free of her arms, and tore down the aisle of the theatre, intent on +catching the fluffy cat. +</P> + +<P> +"Ki-yi!" he continued to call joyously. +</P> + +<P> +"Brownie! Here, Brownie!" called Sister frantically. "Brownie, come +back here!" +</P> + +<P> +The theatre was in an uproar in a minute. Ladies began to shriek that +the dog was mad, and some of them stood upon the seats and cried out. +The men who tried to catch Brownie only made him bark more, and the +louder he barked the more the ladies shrieked. Finally they stopped the +picture and turned on the lights. +</P> + +<P> +"Rhodes and Elizabeth Morrison!" said someone sternly. "What are you +doing here?" +</P> + +<P> +There, across the aisle from Grandmother Hastings and Brother and +Sister, sat Daddy and Mother Morrison with Dr. and Mrs. Yarrow. They +had come to the movies, too! +</P> + +<P> +"Is that dog Brownie?" asked Daddy Morrison, coming over to them. +</P> + +<P> +Everyone had left his seat and the aisle was in confusion; people +talking and arguing and advising one another. +</P> + +<P> +Sister nodded miserably. She felt very small and unhappy. +</P> + +<P> +"Rhodes, go down and get Brownie at once!" commanded Daddy Morrison. +</P> + +<P> +When they were naughty, Brother and Sister were always called by their +"truly" names, you see. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go get him," gulped Sister. "I brought him—Roddy didn't want me +to." +</P> + +<P> +Brownie came willingly enough to Sister and she gathered him up in her +arms. He may have wondered, in his doggie mind, what all the fuss was +about and what had become of the fluffy cat, but he was getting used to +having his fun abruptly ended. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know you brought the dog, dear," said Grandmother Hastings, +breaking a grim silence as they walked home. "And did you know Mother +wasn't willing to have you go at night when you asked me to take you?" +</P> + +<P> +Poor little Sister had to confess that she had asked Grandmother to +take them because she knew that in no other way could they get to the +movies at night. Grandmother Hastings never scolded, but her +grandchildren hated to know that she was disappointed in them. +</P> + +<P> +No one scolded Brother and Sister very much that night. They were put +to bed, and the next morning Daddy Morrison called them into his "den" +before he left for the office, and told them that for a week they could +not go out of their own yard. +</P> + +<P> +"And I s'pose we can't go with Ralph Saturday," wailed Sister. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TROUBLE AGAIN +</H3> + +<P> +However, they were allowed to go with Ralph to the movies the next +Saturday. Ralph himself explained to Daddy Morrison that he had +promised to take them and then found he had a previous engagement. He +thought, and Daddy Morrison did, too, that having to stay in the yard +for a whole week was punishment enough even if one exception was +permitted. +</P> + +<P> +So Brother and Sister went down to the "big" theatre with Ralph the +next Saturday afternoon, and then they had to stay in their yard all +day Sunday and all day Monday, and after that they might again go where +they pleased. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go see if Norman Crane's aunt sent him a birthday present," +suggested Sister the first morning they were free to leave the yard. +</P> + +<P> +Norman Crane was a little friend who lived several blocks away, and +whose aunt in New York City sent him wonderful presents at Christmas +time and on his birthday. He had had a party a few days before, and of +course Brother and Sister could not go—all because they would go to +those unlucky movies! +</P> + +<P> +Brother was willing to stop at Norman's house, but when they reached +there they found Norman had gone to the city with his mother for a +day's shopping. +</P> + +<P> +"I smell tar," declared Brother, as they came down the steps and turned +into the street where Miss Putnam lived in the haunted house—only it +wasn't called that any longer. "Oh, look, Betty, they're mending +something." +</P> + +<P> +There was a little group of children about a big pot of boiling tar and +workmen were mending the roofs of three or four houses that were built +exactly alike and were owned by the same man. These houses were always +repaired and painted at the same time every year. +</P> + +<P> +Nearest to the boiling pot—indeed, with his red head almost in the hot +steam—was the little boy Brother and Sister had noticed walking on +Miss Putnam's picket fence. A puddle of tar had splashed over on the +ground and the red-headed boy was stirring it with a stick held between +his bare toes. +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't hang around here all day," said one of the workmen, kindly +enough. "Run away before you get burned. Hey, there, Red! Do you want +to blister your foot?" +</P> + +<P> +The red-haired lad grinned mischievously. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd hate to spoil my shoes," he jeered, "but you watch and I'll kick +over your old pot! I can, just as easy." +</P> + +<P> +The other children drew nearer, half-believing the boy would tip over +the pot of boiling tar. +</P> + +<P> +"Here," said another and younger workman, "if we give each of you a +little on a stick will you promise to go off and leave us in peace?" +</P> + +<P> +There was an eager chorus of promises, and the good-natured young +roofer actually stuck a little ball of the soft tar on each stick +thrust at him and watched the small army of boys and girls march up the +street, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"That Mickey Gaffney thinks he's smart," said Nellie Yarrow, who had +found Brother and Sister in the crowd, as the red-headed boy dashed +past them, waving his stick of tar wildly and shouting like an Indian. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know him?" asked Sister. "Doesn't he ever wear shoes?" +</P> + +<P> +"I guess so—I don't know. I don't like him," replied Nellie +indifferently. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe he has any shoes, not even for Sunday," Brother said +to himself. "His coat was all torn and his mother sewed his pants up +with another kind of cloth so that it shows. I wonder where 'bouts he +lives?" +</P> + +<P> +He opened his mouth to ask Nellie, when Miss Putnam swooped down to the +fence as they were passing her house. +</P> + +<P> +"Go way!" she called, leaving her weeding to wave a rake at them. "Go +'long with you! Don't you drop any of that messy tar on my sidewalk!" +</P> + +<P> +"What lovely flowers!" whispered Sister as they obediently hurried past. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, Miss Putnam had made a beautiful garden and lawn of her small +yard, and she did all the work of taking care of it herself. +</P> + +<P> +Sister and Brother carried their tar home with them and left it in the +sand heap. Jimmie had six boys playing in the gymnasium with him and +they all stayed to lunch. Molly and Mother Morrison were used to having +unexpected guests, and no matter how many there were, in some +mysterious manner plenty of good things to eat appeared on the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Can we come out and watch you?" asked Brother when the boys were going +back to the barn. +</P> + +<P> +"We're going swimming," answered Jimmie. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't we go swimming?" inquired Sister hopefully. +</P> + +<P> +"You can NOT!" retorted Jimmie. "Why don't you take a nap, +or—something?" +</P> + +<P> +"Come on out to the barn, Roddy," Sister urged Brother when Jimmie and +his friends had gone whistling on their way to the river. +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't you be meddling with any of those things out there," warned +Molly, clearing the table. "Your brother doesn't like you to touch his +exercises, you know." +</P> + +<P> +Molly called all the apparatus the boys used "exercises." +</P> + +<P> +"We're not going to touch 'em!" declared Sister. "We're only going to +look." +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie seldom snapped his padlock, for lately the children had not +bothered the gymnasium in the barn. They found the door open this +afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +"Bet you can't jump off that!" said Sister, pointing to a home-made +"horse" that Jimmie had ingeniously contrived. +</P> + +<P> +(If you don't know the kind of "horse" they use in a gymnasium, ask +your big brother or sister.) +</P> + +<P> +"Bet I can!" challenged Brother. +</P> + +<P> +They took turns jumping until they were tired, and they went about +poking their little fingers and noses into whatever they could find to +examine. Sister's investigations ended sadly enough, for she succeeded +in pulling down a tray of butterflies that Jimmie was mounting (he had +thought the gymnasium a safe place to keep them out of everyone's way), +and now broken glass and crumbled butterflies were scattered all over +the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"Now you've done it!" cried Brother. "Jimmie will be just as mad!" +</P> + +<P> +They found an old broom and swept the broken glass under one of the +heavy floor pads. Then, very much subdued, they went into the house and +were so quiet for the rest of the afternoon and through supper that +Mother Morrison wondered if they were sick. +</P> + +<P> +They were having dessert when the doorbell rang and Molly went to the +door. She came back in a moment, her eyes round with wonder and looking +rather frightened. +</P> + +<P> +"It's Mr. Dougherty, sir," she said to Daddy Morrison. "He wants to see +you." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Dougherty was Ridgeway's one and only policeman. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MISS PUTNAM COMPLAINS +</H3> + +<P> +At the mention of the policeman's name, Sister had given a gasp. No one +noticed her as Daddy Morrison pushed back his chair and went into the +hall. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder what he wants?" mused Mother Morrison, helping Ralph to +blackberries. +</P> + +<P> +"Sister, you're spilling juice on the tablecloth," reproved Dick. "Look +out, there goes another spot." +</P> + +<P> +Sister was trying to eat her berries, and also plan what to say when +the policeman should send for her. She was sure that he had heard about +the broken case of butterflies, for Jimmie, when greatly provoked at +her long ago, had threatened to tell Mr. Dougherty of her next misdeed. +</P> + +<P> +"I like Mr. Dougherty," announced Brother sweetly. +</P> + +<P> +No broken butterflies lay heavy on HIS conscience. +</P> + +<P> +Louise and Grace finished their dessert and were excused to go +upstairs. The others lingered at the table because Daddy Morrison and +Mr. Dougherty had gone into the living-room and they did not wish to +disturb them. +</P> + +<P> +"Lelia," called Daddy Morrison presently, "will you come here for a +moment?" +</P> + +<P> +Leila was Mother Morrison's name, and she rose and went across the hall +quickly. +</P> + +<P> +There was a low murmur of talk, an exclamation from Mother Morrison, +and then the voice of Mr. Dougherty in the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'm to tell the Chief that you'll drop in tonight?" he was +saying. "All right, sir, that'll be satisfactory, of course. I'm not +overly fond of this sort of work, but when a woman makes a complaint, +you know, we haven't much choice." +</P> + +<P> +"I understand," Daddy Morrison's deep, pleasant voice answered. "I'll +get at the truth, and tell the Chief I'll be down at the town hall +before ten o'clock. Good-night, Dougherty." +</P> + +<P> +"Good-night, sir," said Mr. Dougherty and the screen door slammed. +</P> + +<P> +Daddy Morrison came back to the dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +"Rhodes and Elizabeth, I want to speak to you," he said very gravely. +"Come up to my den." +</P> + +<P> +Sister's small face went very white. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't mean to, honest I didn't, Jimmie!" she cried, hurling herself +on that astonished young man and clinging desperately to his coat +lapels. "I didn't know they were there till they fell over." +</P> + +<P> +"What ails her?" Jimmie demanded, staring at his father. "What fell +over?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your case of butterflies," Brother informed him sadly "We were playing +out in the barn and Betty reached up to open a window and the pole +knocked the box off." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I must say—" began Jimmie wrathfully. "I must say! If you two +don't learn to leave my things alone—" +</P> + +<P> +"Save your lecture, Jimmie," advised his father quickly. "I didn't know +about the butterflies, but I want to ask the children about something +else. Come upstairs, now. You, too, Mother." +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister followed Mother and Daddy Morrison upstairs, puzzled +to know what was to be said to them. If the butterflies made so little +difference to anyone—except Jimmie, who was perfectly boiling, it was +plain to see—what else was there to scold them about? For that it was +to be a scolding neither Brother or Sister doubted—hadn't Daddy called +them "Rhodes" and "Elizabeth"? +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Daddy Morrison, when they were all in the little room he +called his den and he had closed the door, although it was a warm +night, "what were you doing this afternoon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Playing in the barn," answered Brother. "It wasn't locked, Daddy." +</P> + +<P> +"And then you broke Jimmie's case of butterflies," said Daddy. "What +did you do then?" +</P> + +<P> +"We swept the glass under a pad," said Sister, finding her voice. "Did +Jimmie tell Mr. Dougherty?" +</P> + +<P> +"Jimmie didn't know, and he certainly would not tell the police," +declared Daddy Morrison, smiling a little in spite of his evident +anxiety. "Miss Putnam, children, has made a complaint to the police +that you tracked fresh tar over her porch and sidewalk, and she wants +you to clean it off. That was why Mr. Dougherty came tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"We won't either clean it off!" cried Brother angrily. "Serve her right +to clean it off herself; mean old thing!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let me hear you talk like that again," said Daddy Morrison +sternly. "Did either of you have anything to do with putting tar on her +porch or walk?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir," replied Brother more meekly. +</P> + +<P> +"But did you PLAY with the tar?" asked Mother Morrison. "Mr. Dougherty +told us there were roofers mending the Gillson houses today, and using +hot tar." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, they gave us some," said Brother honestly enough. "Didn't they, +Betty? All the children had some, and we went by Miss Putnam's house +and she yelled at us." +</P> + +<P> +"But we didn't stop," added Sister. "We went right on and came home, +didn't we, Roddy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," nodded Brother. "And that was before lunch, Daddy." +</P> + +<P> +Daddy Morrison looked troubled. +</P> + +<P> +"If you say you did not throw the tar, I believe you," he said gravely. +"You may get into mischief and do wrong things, but I am sure you do +not tell wrong stories. I don't see how Miss Putnam can be positive +enough to give your names to the police, but I am going around to see +her now and hear what she has to say. Then I'll stop in at the town +hall and see the chief of police." +</P> + +<P> +The telephone rang just then, and he went downstairs. It was only +half-past seven, but Mother Morrison insisted that it was time for them +to get ready for bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Your father doesn't want you to speak of the tar to any of your +playmates," she said as she brushed Sister's hair. "You must be very +careful and not say a word against Miss Putnam. People may make +mistakes easily, and we'll try to think as kindly of her as we can. +Poor old lady! She must be terribly tormented by the children to +dislike them so." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish," wept Sister over her sandals as she unbuckled them, "I wish I +hadn't smashed Jimmie's butterflies. Now he's mad at me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you know he has asked you not to play in the barn when he isn't +there to watch you," suggested Mother Morrison mildly. "However, you +can make it up with Jimmie tomorrow; he never holds a grudge." +</P> + +<P> +"Weed the onions for him," advised Brother wisely if sleepily. "He +hates weeding." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe I will," decided Sister. "Daddy said tonight he couldn't go +swimming again until he had worked in the garden." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MAKING UP WITH JIMMIE +</H3> + +<P> +Daddy Morrison went to see Miss Putnam after the children had gone to +bed. The old lady was very sure that Brother and Sister had thrown the +tar and she was so positive in her assertions that finally he asked her +how she could be so sure. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, one of the neighbors told me," Miss Putnam said reluctantly. +"No, I don't know your children from any of the others, but she does. +All children look pretty much alike to me—noisy, scuffling young ones! +No, I couldn't tell you the neighbor's name—I wouldn't want to get her +into any trouble." +</P> + +<P> +When Daddy Morrison went away, she showed him the tar on her porch and +sidewalk. +</P> + +<P> +"Somebody ought to be made to clear it off," said Miss Putnam severely. +</P> + +<P> +The chief of police, at the town hall, was a little angry that a +complaint had been made merely on the word of a neighbor, who might +easily be mistaken about the children she had seen throwing tar. +However, as Brother and Sister said they had nothing to do with it, and +Miss Putnam refused to believe them, there was nothing to do but let +the complaint stand. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep away from Miss Putnam's house and street," commanded Daddy +Morrison at the breakfast table the next morning. "Don't go past her +house except when it is absolutely necessary. We're not going to have +any more bickering over this matter. Your mother and I believe you and +that is all that is necessary. I shall be seriously displeased if I +find you are talking it over with outsiders, especially other children." +</P> + +<P> +Ralph and Dick had already taken their way to the station and now Daddy +Morrison hurried to get his train. +</P> + +<P> +"Why doesn't he want us to talk about it?" asked Sister, puzzled. +"Couldn't I tell Nellie Yarrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't," counseled Mother Morrison. "You see, dear, you can't help +feeling that Miss Putnam has been unfair and every time you tell what +she has done you will make someone else think she is unfair, too. Your +friends will take your part, of course, and while you think Miss Putnam +is decidedly 'mean,' she is acting right, according to her own ideas. +It is never best to talk much about a quarrel of any kind." +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie, who had been eating his breakfast in silence, rose and looked +toward his mother. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I have to work in that old garden?" he said aggrievedly. +</P> + +<P> +"You know what your father said," replied Mother Morrison. +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie did not like to weed, and the Morrison garden, when it came his +turn, was often sadly neglected. He and Ralph and Dick were responsible +for the care of the garden two weeks at a time during the growing +season. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, maybe if I stick at it this morning, I can go swimming this +afternoon," muttered Jimmie. "Dad didn't say the whole thing had to be +weeded today, did he?" +</P> + +<P> +"He wants the new heads of lettuce transplanted, and all the onions +weeded," answered Mother Morrison. "You know you were asked to tend to +those a week ago, Jimmie." +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie flung himself out of the house in rather a bad temper. He did +not like to transplant lettuce and the onions must be weeded by hand. +Other vegetables could be handled with a hoe, or the garden cultivator, +but the eight long rows of new onions must be carefully done down on +one's hands and knees. +</P> + +<P> +"Jimmie!" said a little voice at his elbow as he got the trowel and the +wheelbarrow from the toolhouse. "Jimmie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what do you want?" demanded Jimmie shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll—I'll help you," offered Sister timidly. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't," said Jimmie. "Last time you crammed the lettuce plants in +so hard they died over night." +</P> + +<P> +"But I'll bring the water for 'em, in the watering-pot, and I can weed +onions—I know how to do that," insisted Sister humbly. +</P> + +<P> +"I won't need the watering-pot," said Jimmie more graciously. "I'll use +the hose on them all tonight. I wonder if you could weed the onions?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes!" Sister assured him eagerly. "You watch me, Jimmie." +</P> + +<P> +She fell on her fat little knees, and began to pull the weeds from a +long row of onions. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was hot and the row was very long. Before she reached the +middle of it, the perspiration was running down Sister's face, and her +hands were damp and grimy. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here," Jimmie called to her anxiously, on his way back for more +lettuce plants, "don't you want to rest? And why don't you wear a +sunbonnet, or something?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister stood up, straightening her aching little shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Sunbonnets are hot," she explained carefully. "And I don't want to +rest, Jimmie. I'll go get a drink of water and then I'll weed some +more." +</P> + +<P> +"Bring me a drink, too, will you?" Jimmie called after her. +</P> + +<P> +When she brought it he forgot to say thank you because one of his +friends had ridden past on his bicycle and this reminded Jimmie that he +had meant to do something to his own wheel that morning. So he drank +the water Sister carried out to him without a word because he was +cross, and when we're cross we do not always remember to be polite. +</P> + +<P> +Sister went steadily at the weeding again, and after a while Jimmie +finished the lettuce, and began to weed an onion row himself. +</P> + +<P> +"You can stop if you want to now," he said to Sister presently. "Don't +you want to play? I can finish these." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not going to stop till they're all done," announced Sister. "Molly +says the only way to get anything finished is to use plenty of +per—perservance!" +</P> + +<P> +Jimmie laughed and glanced at her curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess you mean PERSEVERANCE" he suggested, "Well, Sister, you are +certainly fine help. It begins to look as though I could go swimming +this afternoon after all." +</P> + +<P> +Surely enough, when Mother Morrison called to them that lunch was +ready, they were weeding the last onion row. +</P> + +<P> +"I can finish that in fifteen minutes," declared Jimmie gaily. "You're +a brick, Sister! When you want me to do something for you, just mention +it, will you?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister beamed. She was hot and tired and she knew her face and hands +were streaked and dirty. Brother had spent the morning playing with +Nellie Yarrow and Ellis Carr, and Nellie's aunt had taken them to the +drug store for ice-cream soda. Yet Sister, far from being sorry for her +hot, busy morning in the garden, felt very happy. +</P> + +<P> +"Now you don't mind, do you?" she asked Jimmie anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Mind what?" he said, putting the wheelbarrow away in the toolhouse. +</P> + +<P> +"About the butterflies," explained Sister. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd forgotten all about them," declared Jimmie, hugging her. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MICKEY GAFFNEY +</H3> + +<P> +Brother and Sister were very fond of playing school. They carefully +saved all the old pencils and scraps of paper and half-used blank books +that Grace and Louise and Jimmie gave them, and many mornings they +spent on the porch "going to school." +</P> + +<P> +Neither had ever been to school, and of course they were excited at the +prospect of starting in the fall. Brother had had kindergarten lessons +at home and he was ready for the first grade, while Sister would have +to make her start in the Ridgeway school kindergarten. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish summer would hurry up and go," complained Brother one August +day. "Then we could really go to school." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, don't wish that," advised Louise. "Goodness knows you'll be +tired of it soon enough! Sister, what are you dragging out here?" +</P> + +<P> +"My blackboard," answered Sister, almost falling over the doorsill as +she pulled her blackboard—a gift from Grandmother Hastings—out onto +the porch. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Grace, we'll go in," proposed Louise, hastily gathering up +her work. "If these children are going to play school there won't be +any place for us! We'll go up to my room." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought maybe you would be the scholars," said Brother, +disappointed. "We never have enough scholars." +</P> + +<P> +Louise was halfway up the stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"You can play the dolls are scholars," she called back. +</P> + +<P> +Mother Morrison had gone over to Grandmother Hastings to help her make +blackberry jam, and Louise and Grace had been left in charge of the +house. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me be the teacher," begged Sister, when her blackboard was +arranged to her liking. "I know how, Roddy." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, all right, you can be teacher first," agreed Brother. "But after +you play, then it's my turn." +</P> + +<P> +Sister picked up a book and pointed to the blackboard. +</P> + +<P> +"'Rithmetic class, go to the board," she commanded. +</P> + +<P> +Both she and Brother knew a good deal about what went on in classrooms, +because they had listened to the older children recite. +</P> + +<P> +"How much is sixty-eight times ninety-two?" asked Teacher-Sister +importantly. +</P> + +<P> +Brother made several marks on the blackboard with the crayon. +</P> + +<P> +"Nine hundred," he answered doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Correct," said the teacher kindly. "Now I'll hear the class in +spellin'." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish we had more scholars," complained Brother. "It's no fun with +just one; I have to be everything." +</P> + +<P> +"There's that little boy again—maybe he'd play," suggested Sister, +pointing to the red-haired, barefooted little boy who stood staring on +the walk that led up to the porch. +</P> + +<P> +He could not see through the screens very clearly, but he had heard the +voices of the children and, stopping to listen, had drawn nearer and +nearer. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Mickey Gaffney," whispered Brother. "Hello, Mickey," he called +more loudly. "Want to come play school with us?" +</P> + +<P> +Mickey came up on the steps, and flattened his nose against the screen +door. +</P> + +<P> +"I dunno," he said doubtfully. "How do you play?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister pushed open the door for him, and Mickey rather shyly looked +about him. +</P> + +<P> +"It's nice and shady in here," he said appreciatively. "You got a +blackboard, ain't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"You should say 'have' a blackboard and 'ain't' is dreadful," corrected +Sister, blissfully unaware that "dreadful" was not a good word to use. +"You can use the chalk if you'll be a scholar, Mickey." +</P> + +<P> +Mickey was anxious to draw on the blackboard and he consented to play +"just for a little." +</P> + +<P> +As Brother had said, two scholars were ever so much better than one and +they had a beautiful time playing together. Mickey, in spite of his +ragged clothes, and bad grammar, knew how to play, and he suggested +several new things that Sister and Brother had never done. +</P> + +<P> +"I been to school," boasted Mickey. +</P> + +<P> +The children were anxious to have him stay to lunch with them and +Louise, who had heard his voice and who came downstairs to see him, +also invited him to stay. But he was too shy, and shuffled off just as +Nellie Yarrow bounded up the front steps. +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't that Mickey Gaffney?" she asked curiously. "I shouldn't think +you'd want to play with him. His folks are awful poor, and, besides, +his father was arrested last year." +</P> + +<P> +"Mickey isn't to blame for that," retorted Grace quickly. "Don't be a +snob, Nellie; Brother and Sister had a good time playing with that +little red-headed boy." +</P> + +<P> +"But hardly any of the children play with him," persisted Nellie, who +of course went to the public school. "You see last term Mickey was in +my room, and he only came till about the middle of October—maybe it +was November. Anyway, soon as it got cold he stopped coming. +</P> + +<P> +"The teacher thought he was playing hooky, and she told Mr. Alexander, +the principal. And he found out that the reason Mickey didn't come to +school was 'cause his father didn't send him." +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't his father send him?" asked Sister. +</P> + +<P> +"He wouldn't work, and Mickey didn't have any shoes to wear," explained +Nellie. "Mr. Alexander got somebody to give Mickey a pair of shoes, but +he wouldn't pay any attention to his lessons, and I know he wasn't +promoted. I suppose he'll be in the first grade again this year." +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister thought a good deal about Mickey after Nellie had +gone home. They wondered if he wanted to go to school and whether he +wished the summer would hurry so the new term might open. +</P> + +<P> +"He liked to play school, so I guess he likes to go, really," argued +Sister. "Playing is different," said Brother wisely. "He didn't have +any shoes on this morning, did he?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, that's so," Sister recalled. "And his clothes were all torn and +dirty; maybe he hasn't any new suit to wear the first day." +</P> + +<P> +All the Morrison children had always started school in new suits or +dresses, and Mother Morrison had promised Brother a new sailor suit and +Sister a gingham frock when they started off in September. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Putnam would say he 'scuffled,'" giggled Sister, remembering that +was what Miss Putnam thought all children did with their feet. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder who really did put the tar on her porch?" murmured Brother. +"She'll always think we did it, unless someone tells her something +else." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A VERY SICK DOLL +</H3> + +<P> +"Madam," declared Brother seriously, "your child is very ill, I fear!" +</P> + +<P> +He was the "doctor" and had been called to attend Muriel Elsie, +Sister's best and largest doll. The children had started this new game +one day. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Doctor!" fluttered Sister, much worried. "Can't you give her +something?" +</P> + +<P> +The doctor sat down on the window-seat and considered. +</P> + +<P> +"You ate all the peppermints up," he told Muriel Elsie's "mother." Then +he went on: "And Louise hid the box of chocolates. No, I don't believe +I can give her any medicines." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you can," urged the little mother, hurriedly. "Go to the drug +store; that's where Doctor Yarrow gets all his pills and things." +</P> + +<P> +"Where—where is the drugstore?" stammered the doctor. +</P> + +<P> +He was used to having Sister tell him. She usually planned their games. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's—it's—" Sister looked about her desperately. Where should +she say the drugstore was? "I know," she cried. "Over to +Grandma's—hurry!" +</P> + +<P> +Grandmother Hastings glanced up from her sewing in surprise as Brother +and Sister tumbled up the steps of the side porch where she sat. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Grandma!" and Sister fell over the Boston fern in her eagerness to +explain the play. "Grandma, Muriel Elsie is ever so sick, and Roddy is +the doctor; and we have to go to the drugstore to get medicine for her. +Have you any? You have, haven't you, Grandma?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me," said Grandmother Hastings, adjusting her glasses. "Muriel +Elsie is very ill, is she? Well, now, what kind of medicine do you +think she needs?" +</P> + +<P> +"Muriel Elsie likes medicine that tastes good," explained Sister. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I must put on my thinking-cap," said dear Grandmother Hastings. +"I didn't know I was keeping a 'drug store' till this minute, you see." +</P> + +<P> +The children were as quiet as two little mice, so that Grandmother +might think better. +</P> + +<P> +"I know!" she cried in a moment. "I think I have the very thing! Come +on out in the kitchen with me." +</P> + +<P> +They pattered after her and watched while she lifted down a large +pasteboard box from a cupboard. From this box she took several tiny +round boxes, such as druggists use for pills. +</P> + +<P> +"I think Muriel Elsie needs two kinds of medicine," said Grandmother +gravely. "Now if you want to watch me put it up, there's nothing to +hinder you." +</P> + +<P> +Grandmother Hastings could play "pretend" beautifully, as Brother and +Sister often said. Now she opened her shining white bread box and took +out a loaf of white bread and one of brown. She washed her hands +carefully at the sink, tied on a big white apron and brought the sugar +and cinnamon from the pantry. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Grandma!" squeaked Brother in joyful excitement. "What are you +going to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, get some medicine ready for Muriel Elsie," answered his +grandmother, making believe to be surprised. "Didn't you want me to?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course—don't mind him, Grandma," said Sister scornfully. "I'd like +to keep a drug store when I grow up." +</P> + +<P> +Grandmother cut a slice of bread from the white loaf and buttered it +lightly. Then she sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar, broke off a +little piece and rolled that into several tiny round balls. They looked +for all the world like real pills. +</P> + +<P> +Then she cut a slice of brown bread and rolled that into little pills, +too. She filled four of the small boxes. +</P> + +<P> +"There!" she said, giving the boxes to Brother. "See that your patient +takes a white pill and a brown one every two minutes and she will soon +be well." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you very much, Grandma," said Brother, standing up to go. "Don't +you want us to eat the trimmings?" +</P> + +<P> +Grandmother laughed and said yes, they might eat the crusts, and she +gave them each a slice of the brown bread spread with nice, sweet +butter, too. +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister hurried home and on the way over they changed to the +Doctor and Muriel Elsie's worried mamma. They had been so interested in +watching Grandmother Hastings make the pills that they had almost +forgotten that they were playing. +</P> + +<P> +They had left the patient in the porch swing—Sister said it was +important to keep her in the fresh air—but when they went to take her +up and give her a pill, she wasn't to be found. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps Louise did something to her," decided Sister. +</P> + +<P> +But Louise, questioned, declared she had not seen the doll. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it Muriel Elsie you're looking for?" asked Molly, her head tied up +in a sweep cap and a broom on her shoulder as she prepared to sweep the +upstairs hall. "Why, I found her half an hour ago on the porch floor, +her face all cracked into little chips." +</P> + +<P> +"Muriel Elsie all chipped?" repeated Sister in wonder. "Why, she's my +very best doll!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Twas that imp of a Brownie did it," related Molly. "I was coming out +to sweep the porch off, and he raced on ahead and went to jerking the +cushions out of the hammock. First thing I knew there was a crash, and +the doll was smashed on the floor. I saved you the pieces, Sister." +</P> + +<P> +Brownie had a trick, the children knew, of snatching the sofa and swing +cushions and flinging them on the floor whenever he thought anyone was +ready to sleep. They had always considered this rather a clever trick +for a little dog, and Sister could not find it in her heart to scold +him even now. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose he didn't know Muriel Elsie was there," she said +sorrowfully. "I had a cushion over her so she couldn't take cold. Where +did you put her, Molly?" +</P> + +<P> +Molly brought out the box with the unfortunate Muriel Elsie in it. Only +her pretty face was damaged and that was badly chipped. Besides her +whole head wobbled on her body. +</P> + +<P> +Sister began to cry. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe Ralph can mend her," she sobbed. "My poor little Muriel Elsie! +And we were playing she was sick, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I guess Ralph can mend her," said Brother bravely. "He can mend +lots of things. And you have all the pieces." +</P> + +<P> +Sister took the box under her arm and went down to the gate to wait for +Ralph, who was expected home on an early train. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I s'pose we might as well eat the pills," suggested Brother. +"Muriel Elsie's certainly too sick for pills—she needs—operating on!" +</P> + +<P> +So they ate the pills while they were waiting for Ralph, and they gave +Brownie some, too. As Sister said he didn't mean to break the doll and +he probably felt the way she did when she found she had knocked over +Jimmie's case of butterflies. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PLANS FOR MICKEY +</H3> + +<P> +The last pill had disappeared down little red lane, when Ralph was seen +to turn the corner. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Chicks, why so solemn?" he asked cheerfully. "Sister, have you +been crying?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister held out the broken doll silently. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, that's too bad!" exclaimed Ralph, sitting down on the step beside +his little sister. "What happened to Muriel Elsie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Brownie jerked her out of the hammock and she fell on her head," +Brother explained. "Can you mend her, Ralph?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid not," said Ralph regretfully. "Mending faces is ticklish +work; I might manage an arm or leg, but not a FACE. I tell you, +Sister—you take Muriel Elsie down to the Exchange and see if Miss +Arline can't mend her. Leave her there, ask how much it will cost and +when she will be ready, and I'll give you the money." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go with you, Betty," Brother offered. "Let's go now," +</P> + +<P> +Molly tied the box up with paper and string and hand in hand Brother +and Sister started. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly I can mend the dollie," announced Miss Arline when they +reached her house and had shown her Muriel Elsie and explained the +accident. "I think I'll take her into the city with me tomorrow to a +doll's hospital. You come for her a week from today and she will be +ready for you. I can't tell how much it will cost, you tell your +brother, until I find out what the hospital will charge me." +</P> + +<P> +On their way home, Brother and Sister met Mickey Gaffney. They had not +seen him since he played school with them, and the sight of him at once +suggested something to Brother. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Nellie Yarrow says you're going to be in the first grade at +school this term," he said to Mickey. "I'm going to be in first grade, +too. We'll be in the same room." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't know as I'm going to school," declared Mickey perversely. "I +didn't go much last year." +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't—wouldn't your 'father let you?" suggested Sister timidly. +</P> + +<P> +Mickey flushed a little. +</P> + +<P> +"Aw, it wasn't so much his fault, leastways he said he didn't care if I +went," he muttered, digging his bare foot into the gravel on one side +of the stone flagging. "After they had him arrested he said I had to +go." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't you want to go?" urged Brother, round-eyed. "I think it's lots +of fun to go to school." +</P> + +<P> +"Guess you wouldn't think so if you didn't have some shoes and a good +coat," retorted Mickey. "I ain't going to school this year, either, if +I can't have things to wear. None of the boys go barefoot." +</P> + +<P> +"But Nellie says Mr. Alexander got some shoes for you to wear," said +Brother quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"How would you like to wear somebody else's shoes?" inquired Mickey +with scorn. "They belonged to Ted Scott and he was always looking at my +feet when I wore 'em. I want some shoes of my OWN!" +</P> + +<P> +"Couldn't your father buy you just one pair?" Sister asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, he couldn't," Mickey answered desperately. "He doesn't like to +work, and we had to sell Ted Scott's shoes this summer for fifty cents. +When the old man does work it takes all he makes to buy grub. My mother +takes in washing to pay the rent." +</P> + +<P> +Mickey told them this jerkily, as though against his will, and +kind-hearted little Brother thought perhaps they had asked too many +questions. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe you could earn money yourself," he said presently. "I'm going to +ask Daddy. You just wait, Mickey." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't mind earning SOME money," admitted Mickey cautiously. "But +it takes a LOT for new shoes. And they got to be new." +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister hurried home, eager to see Daddy Morrison, and ask +his advice. They found him reading on the porch and waiting for dinner. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Daddy!" Sister rushed for him. "Daddy, how can Mickey Gaffney earn +enough money to buy a whole pair of new shoes?" +</P> + +<P> +"A whole pair of shoes?" repeated Daddy, laughing. "Why, Daughter, I +suppose a way can be found, if he must have them. Who is this Mickey +Gaffney?" +</P> + +<P> +Sister told about Mickey, and Brother helped her, and when they had +finished, Daddy Morrison knew all about Mickey and his school troubles. +</P> + +<P> +"Being red-headed and Irish, I don't suppose he will let me GIVE him +the money," he mused. "Let's see, what can a chap that age do? He must +be seven or eight years old—I've seen him hanging around the station, +ready to carry suitcases. I wonder if he couldn't help the boys with +the garden?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll pay him if he can weed," grinned Jimmie, who had been listening. +"And Ralph was saying last week that he wasn't going to have time to +take his turn at garden work—he wants to go in on an earlier train." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, we'll tell Ralph that Mickey is open for an engagement," +said Daddy Morrison. "We'll start him in the garden and then perhaps +other odd jobs will turn up." +</P> + +<P> +"Dinner is ready, folks," called Mother Morrison, and they all went +into the dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +"I want Mickey to earn a whole lot of money," declared Sister that +night as they were getting ready for bed. "Pulling weeds is such slow +work. He'll have to pull an awful lot to work an hour." +</P> + +<P> +After Mother had kissed them good-night and put out the light, a big +idea came to Sister. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what we'll do!" she asserted, sitting up in bed. "Listen, +Roddy, Ellis Carr said his father said Miss Putnam worked too hard. +Well, why can't Mickey help her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe he can," murmured Brother sleepily. "Only she wont like him, +'cause he's a boy." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BROTHER AND SISTER PAY A CALL +</H3> + +<P> +Sister's first thought in the morning was Mickey and Miss Putnam. "It's +too bad he is a boy," she admitted, referring to Mickey, "because Miss +Putnam doesn't like children. But if Mickey was grown up he wouldn't +have to have shoes to wear to school, because he wouldn't go to school." +</P> + +<P> +"Sister, your reasoning is all right," Ralph praised her. "Perhaps you +will grow up to be a lawyer like your father and brothers." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no," said Sister positively and sweetly. "When I grow up I'm going +to be a farmer." +</P> + +<P> +After breakfast, she helped Brother clear the table and brush the +crumbs, and then she dragged him out to the porch steps to consult with +him. +</P> + +<P> +"We have to go see Miss Putnam," she whispered. "About Mickey, you +know." +</P> + +<P> +Brother looked frightened. +</P> + +<P> +"She won't let us in," he said in alarm. "She thinks we threw tar on +her porch. 'Sides, can't Mickey go see her?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, we want to have it all fixed for him," explained Sister patiently. +"Mickey is scared of her, too, and maybe he wouldn't go. But if she +says yes, he can work for her, he'll go work 'cause he wants the shoes. +Come on, Roddy, I'm not afraid." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you do the talking?" suggested Brother. +</P> + +<P> +Sister promised to "do the talking," and without saying anything to +anyone in the house, the small boy and girl set out for the "terrible" +Miss Putnam's. +</P> + +<P> +In her heart of hearts, Sister was very much afraid of the cross old +lady, and when they turned in at her gate she was almost ready to run +home. But she remembered Mickey and how sadly he needed the new shoes, +so she lifted the brass knocker on the white door and waited as bravely +as she could. +</P> + +<P> +"Land sakes!" gasped Miss Putnam when she came to the door. "What on +earth do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +This wasn't a very gracious welcome, and Sister stuttered a little from +nervousness as she said they wanted to speak to her. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in then," said Miss Putnam shortly. "Mind you wipe your feet, and +don't scratch the rounds of the chairs with your heels." +</P> + +<P> +She led them into a tiny sitting-room and Brother and Sister sat down +on two hard, straight chairs while Miss Putnam took the only rocker. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" she asked expectantly. +</P> + +<P> +"We've come about Mickey Gaffney," said Sister hurriedly. "He hasn't +any shoes to wear to school and he wants to earn money to buy 'em. He's +going to work for us, some, but school starts in about three weeks and +we're afraid he won't have enough money." +</P> + +<P> +"And couldn't he work for you?" chimed in Brother bravely, determined +not to let his sister have to do all the talking. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I do need a man to do odd jobs," said Miss Putnam quite mildly. +"Is he very strong?" +</P> + +<P> +You see, she hadn't listened very carefully to Sister, or else she +didn't stop to think—no man wants shoes to wear to school. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm, he's pretty strong," Sister assured her earnestly. "He's eight +years old and big for his age." +</P> + +<P> +"Eight years old!" echoed Miss Putnam. "Why, that's a mere BABY! What +can such a child do to earn money?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mickey can run errands and sweep and weed the garden," recited +Brother, gaining confidence since Miss Putnam neither shouted at them +nor chased them from her house. "He can dry dishes, too—he says he +does 'em for his mother." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Putnam thought for a few moments. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to need someone to do errands for me this winter when I +can't get around," she said slowly. "And I've about broke my back in +the garden this summer. But boys are noisy, careless creatures—I don't +know as I could stand a boy around me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Mickey is nice," Sister hastened to explain. "He's going to grow +up and support his mother. He won't make any more noise than he can +help." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Putnam smiled grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"I guess that's true," she said. "Well, tell your Mickey to come round +and see me, and if he doesn't charge too much, perhaps we can suit each +other." +</P> + +<P> +Brother and Sister trotted home, well-pleased with the success of their +errand. It was something to have secured the promise of more work for +Mickey. +</P> + +<P> +"There he is now!" exclaimed Brother, spying the flaming red head of +the Gaffney boy ahead of them. "Hey, Mickey!" +</P> + +<P> +Mickey was on his way to the grocery store for soap, he informed them. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a minute," said Brother. "We want to tell you—Daddy says you can +help Jimmie and Ralph in our garden and they will pay you, by the hour, +Ralph says. And Miss Putnam says you can run errands for her." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Putnam?" repeated Mickey, surprised. "Miss Putnam wouldn't have a +boy in her yard." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she will," declared Sister. "She said so. And you can run errands +after school this winter when she can't get around—she said so, didn't +she, Roddy?" +</P> + +<P> +Brother nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"It would be kind of nice to have a job this winter, wouldn't it?" said +Mickey thoughtfully. "My mother would like that. Well, if you're sure +Miss Putnam won't come out with a broom when she sees me, I'll go." +</P> + +<P> +"No, she won't," Sister assured him. "I don't believe she's so cross +when you know her." +</P> + +<P> +"'Cept about tar," said Brother sorrowfully. +</P> + +<P> +Mickey looked at them, mystified. +</P> + +<P> +"What about tar?" he asked. "Has Miss Putnam any?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MICKEY OWNS UP +</H3> + +<P> +Brother told Mickey the tar incident in a few words. +</P> + +<P> +"And you can't make her believe Betty and I didn't put it on her +porch," he concluded. "She's just 'termined we did it." +</P> + +<P> +"And she sent the policeman to your house and all," mused Mickey. "Gee!" +</P> + +<P> +His face was rather red and he looked at Brother and Sister queerly. He +opened his mouth as though to say something, then apparently changed +his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we have to go home," declared Brother. "You'll go see Miss +Putnam, won't you, Mickey?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose so," muttered Mickey. "So long!" +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe he doesn't like it," said Sister as they went on toward their +house. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes he does," replied Brother confidently. "He'll go, you see if +he doesn't." +</P> + +<P> +Mickey Gaffney did go see Miss Putnam, and something about him made the +old lady like him right away. She engaged him to do errands for her an +hour in the morning, and again in the afternoon, and she paid him +fifteen cents an hour. If he weeded in the garden that was to be extra. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you have enough for your shoes?" asked Sister anxiously one +morning, when Mickey came to do some weeding in the garden for Jimmie. +</P> + +<P> +"My, yes, and I guess I can buy my little sister a pair," said Mickey +proudly. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you a little sister?" demanded Brother and Sister together. "How +old is she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Five," answered Mickey, getting down on his hands and knees and going +at the weeds in a business-like way. "She'll be five next month." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't that nice!" commented Sister. "I'm five years old, too." +</P> + +<P> +Mickey avoided her eyes and was apparently too busy to talk much to +them, so by and by Brother and Sister ran off and left him to his +weeding. +</P> + +<P> +If they had stayed, they might have seen Mickey throw down his +weeding-fork suddenly and march out of the garden. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't believe that boy is going to stick to his work," said Molly to +Mother Morrison. "He's gone already." +</P> + +<P> +But Mickey was hurrying along toward Miss Putnam's house and did not +care very much what anyone thought of him. He didn't think kindly of +himself at that moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Mickey!" Miss Putnam looked up at him in amazement as he came +around to the back porch where she was sweeping a rug. "What's the +matter, child, don't you feel well?" +</P> + +<P> +"I feel all right," he said briefly. "Say, Miss Putnam, you know that +tar that was on your porch? I threw it!" +</P> + +<P> +"You—you what?" gasped Miss Putnam. "You threw that hot tar all over +my clean porch and walk? Why, Mickey!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm," muttered Mickey miserably. +</P> + +<P> +"But why?" insisted Miss Putnam. "And Mrs. Graham told me that the +Morrison boy and girl did it." +</P> + +<P> +"Guess she thought she saw 'em—it was most dark," said Mickey. "But it +wasn't Roddy and Betty. I did it, and Nina, my little sister, helped +me." +</P> + +<P> +"But why?" persisted Miss Putnam. "I never should have thought it of +you, Mickey, never." +</P> + +<P> +Strange as it may seem, Miss Putnam really liked Mickey. He was so +willing and so cheerful and so quick that the old lady who had had to +do all the work of her small home so long that she had forgotten how it +felt to have younger hands helping her, began to look forward to +Mickey's coming every day. +</P> + +<P> +And Mickey liked Miss Putnam. He found she was very fair about time and +reasonable about the amount of work she expected him to accomplish. The +fact that he was barefooted did not seem to bother her and she treated +him exactly as though his clothes were whole instead of torn and poorly +patched. +</P> + +<P> +Now when she asked him why he had thrown the tar, it was hard for him +to tell the truth. But he did. When Mickey once made up his mind to do +a thing, he always went through with it. +</P> + +<P> +"It was 'count of the barbwire," Mickey explained in a low voice. "I +didn't know you put it up, and I climbed the fence one night, to scare +you through the window, and I thought you'd run out and chase me. And I +tore my coat on the wire and scratched my face. So after that I was +always looking for a chance to get even." +</P> + +<P> +"When I saw the tar, I came back after supper and made Nina carry it +for me while I slung it—we had a tin bucket. I'm awful sorry, Miss +Putnam; honest I am!" +</P> + +<P> +"But—did you let me send a policeman to the Morrison's house?" asked +Miss Putnam uncertainly. +</P> + +<P> +"I never knew about that till just before I came here to work," said +Mickey earnestly. "And ever since I've felt mean as dirt, not telling. +Nina is just as old as Betty. It wasn't her fault—Nina's, I mean; she +does whatever I tell her to." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll go call on Mrs. Morrison this afternoon," said Miss Putnam +briskly. "And then I'll take down that wire. I don't need it now +anyway, for the children don't bother me since you're here. I guess +they're afraid you'd catch them if you should chase them," she smiled +grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"And I can go right on working?" suggested Mickey anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, child. Why not?" said Miss Putnam. +</P> + +<P> +That settled Mickey's last worry. With a hurried "thank you," he dashed +away, out through the yard and up the street. He wanted to find Brother +and Sister and tell them what he had done. +</P> + +<P> +"My goodness, I think you're ever so brave," said Sister when she had +heard his story. "I'd be scared to death to tell Miss Putnam like that." +</P> + +<P> +"Pooh, she's all right," answered Mickey. "I like her. And now I have a +lot of time to make up—most half an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"School begins two weeks from today," announced Brother, watching +Mickey tackle an onion row. "You're sure you're going, Mickey?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," said Mickey proudly. "I'll stop for you the first morning +just to prove it." +</P> + +<P> +"And we'll go every day and never be late once, will we?" chimed in +Sister. +</P> + +<P> +But whether they were able to keep this good resolution or not remains +to be seen. If you are interested to know you will have to read the +next book about them, called "BROTHER AND SISTER'S SCHOOL DAYS." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Brother and Sister, by Josephine Lawrence + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROTHER AND SISTER *** + +***** This file should be named 4784-h.htm or 4784-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/7/8/4784/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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