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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e5d55e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #53815 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53815) diff --git a/old/53815-0.txt b/old/53815-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b904686..0000000 --- a/old/53815-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4996 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Elizabeth Ann's Houseboat, by Josephine Lawrence - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Elizabeth Ann's Houseboat - -Author: Josephine Lawrence - -Illustrator: John M. Foster - -Release Date: December 27, 2016 [EBook #53815] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETH ANN'S HOUSEBOAT *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: “Walk right in--I’m a ghost,” he said politely. - - _Elizabeth Ann’s Houseboat_ _Frontispiece_] - - - - - ELIZABETH ANN’S - HOUSEBOAT - - BY - - JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE - - AUTHOR OF - “ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH ANN,” “LINDA - LANE,” “THE TWO LITTLE FELLOWS,” ETC. - - _ILLUSTRATED BY_ - - _JOHN M. FOSTER_ - - PUBLISHERS - BARSE & CO. - NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J. - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1929 - BY - BARSE & CO. - - _Printed in the United States of America_ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I A LETTER 11 - - II ABOUT ELIZABETH ANN 21 - - III ALL DECIDED 31 - - IV SAILOR TALK 39 - - V TAKEN BOYS 50 - - VI THE BONNIE SUSIE 61 - - VII SCHOOL NEWS 70 - - VIII ROGER CALENDAR 79 - - IX OFF FOR SCHOOL 88 - - X A BUSY MORNING 97 - - XI PARTY PLANS 106 - - XII SEAMEN’S CHESTS 114 - - XIII CATHERINE DAWDLES 125 - - XIV AT THE PARTY 134 - - XV WITCHES AND ALL 145 - - XVI BAD NEWS 154 - - XVII SOMETHING DIFFERENT 162 - - XVIII ELIZABETH ANN WAITS 172 - - XIX ROGER’S MISTAKE 183 - - XX THE FORTUNE-TELLER 194 - - XXI ALL STRAIGHTENED OUT 205 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - “Walk right in--I’m a ghost,” he said politely - (page 136) _Frontispiece_ - - PAGE - - “For mercy’s sake, who are you?” she said 51 - - He seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and - lifted her into the bus 129 - - “It looks as if we were in for more snow, - doesn’t it?”--and he pointed with his - broom toward the sky 177 - - - - -ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT - -CHAPTER I - -A LETTER - - -“I don’t see why we have to hurry,” protested Elizabeth Ann. - -She wanted to get out and see what kind of a flower was growing in -the middle of the large field on the right hand side of the road. Lex -had declared that for once he couldn’t stop. Usually Lex did just as -Elizabeth Ann asked him to--Cousin Nellie said that both Lex and Uncle -Doctor always did as Elizabeth Ann asked. - -“I promised your Cousin Nellie to come right back with the mail,” -explained the patient Lex for the second time. “When I make a promise, -I keep it.” - -“Oh!” said Elizabeth Ann. “I wonder why Cousin Nellie couldn’t wait -for the mail man.” - -Lex said he didn’t know, but he had his suspicions. - -“I don’t think the mail man knows how to hurry,” said Lex. “Maybe he -gets out and picks all the flowers he sees. He’s late enough most of -the time, to pick a dozen bouquets.” - -Elizabeth Ann giggled. - -“I don’t think he picks bouquets,” she announced, “but he does read the -magazines, and his horse forgets to go. I think the mail man likes the -stories in magazines.” - -Lex, driving Uncle Doctor’s big car as he always drove, carefully, but -fast on an open road, nodded. - -“Another week and we won’t care what the mail man does,” he suggested. -“Mind going back to school, Elizabeth Ann?” - -It was that small girl’s turn to shake her head. - -“I don’t exactly mind going to school,” she explained. “I think I’ll be -glad to see my Aunt Ida, too. And I know I’ll be glad to see Doris. But -there is a great deal to learn, Lex.” - -Lex laughed and looked down at the little figure beside him. - -“Little Miss Anxious!” he teased. “You know you don’t study all the -time, Elizabeth Ann. Part of the time you play. And when you are -working away at those books with the great deal to learn in them, -suppose you think of me, plugging away. I’ve a great deal to learn -myself.” - -Elizabeth Ann smiled a little. She knew when Lex was teasing her. - -“I wouldn’t mind if I was learning to be a doctor--like you,” she said. -“You _like_ to study, because you want to hurry up and be a doctor.” - -The car had come in sight of the house where Elizabeth Ann, her Uncle -Doctor and Cousin Nellie had been spending the summer. - -“When I was your age,” said Lex, driving across the dry and burned -lawn straight toward the long, low windows, “when I was your age, I -suspect I was studying just about the same lessons you’ll have this -winter--arithmetic, and spelling and so forth.” - -The car stopped, and Cousin Nellie stepped through one of the -windows--they were really more like doors than windows. - -“Did you bring the mail, Lex?” she asked eagerly. - -“Yes’m,” answered Lex, handing her the package of letters and papers -and magazines, tied together with a string. “Everything’s there.” - -Elizabeth Ann climbed out of the car and went around to the kitchen to -see if Lyn didn’t know a girl who needed cookies. Lyn often knew a girl -who needed cookies to keep her from starving, and strangely enough that -girl was usually Elizabeth Ann. - -Though it was the first week in September, it was still very warm. -Elizabeth Ann found Lyn finishing the ironing on the side porch, and -she sat down to talk to her. She had only known Lyn since Uncle Doctor -had come to Cally for the summer, but they were great friends now. Lyn -was a tall, pleasant-faced girl and her real name you’ll never guess so -we’ll have to tell you--it was Patricia Gwendolyn Matilda Barr. - -“I’m awfully sorry you’re going home next week,” said Lyn over her -shoulder, as she disappeared into the kitchen. - -Elizabeth Ann thought she went to get a hot iron and Lyn did, but she -also brought back a plate of cookies and put it down on the top step -beside Elizabeth Ann. - -“M-m-m,” mumbled Elizabeth Ann, taking a delicious bite. “My, you make -good cookies, Lyn. We have to go home, you know. Uncle Doctor has to -cure sick people and I have to go to school. Couldn’t you go and live -with Cousin Nellie?” - -“She asked me,” Lyn admitted, beginning to iron one of Elizabeth Ann’s -dresses, “but I can’t go that far away from home. Maybe next year, when -some of my sisters are older and can help my mother, I’ll be able to -go.” - -“Don’t you have to go to school?” asked Elizabeth Ann, biting her -cookie all around the edge. She thought they lasted longer that way. - -“No-o, I don’t,” Lyn said, “but I suppose I ought to. Your Cousin -Nellie talked to me about school this summer. She says everyone ought -to learn as much as they can.” - -“My, yes,” agreed Elizabeth Ann seriously. “There is a great deal -to learn. Maybe you never get through. My Aunt Ida who has a -school--that’s where I went last winter with my cousin Doris--goes to -school herself. She takes lectures during vacation and studies all the -time.” - -Lyn had never heard of a school teacher who still studied school books, -and before she could think of anything to say, an old white horse came -rambling up to the steps. This was Elizabeth Ann’s horse, Jaspar, and -she had ridden him all summer. - -“He wants sugar!” cried Elizabeth Ann. “Lex got some at the store--it’s -under the car seat--please wait a minute, Jaspar, and I’ll be right -back.” - -She dashed away to the front of the house. The car was still standing -where Lex had stopped it, though she didn’t see him there. Elizabeth -Ann didn’t expect to see Lex--she knew that every spare moment he could -get to himself he spent studying the books that were to help him enter -college that fall. - -Cousin Nellie was still there, though. She was sitting on the low -front steps, reading her letters. - -“Elizabeth Ann, I have a letter from your Aunt Jennie,” said Cousin -Nellie (Elizabeth Ann really had a great many relatives, but she -managed to keep them all straight in her mind). - -“How is Antonio?” Elizabeth Ann asked, feeling under the seat of the -car for the package of lump sugar. “How’s Doris?” - -Cousin Nellie looked at the letter lying in her lap. - -“It’s a very important letter, dearie,” she said, a little seriously. -“Your Aunt Jennie doesn’t mention Antonio--but Doris has been ill for -two weeks.” - -“That’s why she didn’t answer my letter!” exclaimed Elizabeth Ann. “I -wrote her a long, long letter and she didn’t send me even a little -letter. Poor Doris! Did she have the measles, Cousin Nellie?” - -Cousin Nellie was reading the letter. Her lips moved, but she didn’t -speak aloud. When she reached the end of one page she looked at -Elizabeth Ann. - -“When is your Uncle Doctor coming home?” she asked. - -Elizabeth Ann blushed suddenly. - -“Oh--I forgot to tell you,” she said, looking ashamed. “Cousin Nellie -he told me to be sure and tell you he would come home to lunch to-day. -I forgot all about it.” - -Cousin Nellie folded the letter and put it in its envelope. - -“Never mind,” she said kindly. “There’s no harm done, Elizabeth Ann. -I’m very glad he will be here for lunch--there is something I must tell -him.” - -She went into the house, so Elizabeth Ann couldn’t ask questions. But, -dear me, she _thought_ questions! - -“I wonder what Aunt Jennie wrote!” thought Elizabeth Ann’s busy little -brain. “I wonder if Doris is very sick. I wonder if Aunt Jennie wants -Uncle Doctor to come and make Doris well. Uncle Doctor can cure -anybody.” - -Elizabeth Ann went around to the back porch. Jaspar was still waiting -for his sugar. - -“You spoil that horse,” said Lyn, watching as Elizabeth Ann stood on -the top step and held out her hand, palm up, with a lump of sugar on -it, as Lex had taught her. - -“He likes sugar,” Elizabeth Ann declared, while Jaspar’s long nose came -down to her little hand and he took the sugar daintily in his teeth. - -“What will he do when you’ve gone home?” demanded Lyn. “Who will give -him sugar then?” - -“Mr. Hanson,” Elizabeth Ann answered promptly. “He promised me he -would. He says he will take the best of care of Jaspar, because he -knows I love him.” - -Mr. Hanson owned the factory in Cally, and Lyn knew _him_, so he said -he wouldn’t be surprised if Jaspar lived on sugar for the rest of his -life. - -Elizabeth Ann opened her mouth to say that no horse could live on -sugar, but instead she cried, “Uncle Doctor!” and dived off the porch -into the arms of a tall, white-haired man, as if it had been weeks -since she had seen him. This was Uncle Doctor, and he and Elizabeth -Ann had had breakfast together that morning; but his little niece was -always perfectly delighted to see him. - -“Cousin Nellie has a letter, Uncle Doctor,” said Elizabeth Ann. “Doris -has been sick--maybe they want you to come and cure her. And how did -you get here from town?” - -“You put things backward, Elizabeth Ann,” teased Uncle Doctor. “If you -must know, I got a lift from one of the salesmen who brought me as far -as the cross-roads in his car; I walked the rest of the way. Where is -Cousin Nellie and this letter?” - -“Here, Cran,” Cousin Nellie said, looking through the kitchen screen. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -ABOUT ELIZABETH ANN - - -Uncle Doctor’s eyes began to twinkle in a way that Elizabeth Ann -understood. - -“Shall Elizabeth Ann and I come and listen to the letter, Nellie?” he -asked, “or shall Elizabeth Ann be a useful child and help Lyn?” - -Elizabeth Ann didn’t want to help Lyn. She wanted to hear the letter. -But she couldn’t help smiling at Uncle Doctor when he smiled at her. - -“I’ll have to read it to you, first, Cran,” said kind Cousin Nellie. -“There is something in it I must talk over with you. Come around to -the front of the house and after you have heard the letter, I’ll tell -Elizabeth Ann what Jennie says.” - -They went away together and Lyn began to put up the ironing board. - -“Time to get lunch,” she announced. “Do you want to help me, Elizabeth -Ann?” - -Elizabeth Ann could set the table very nicely, but this noon her mind -was not on her task. She did so wonder what could be in Aunt Jennie’s -letter. Aunt Jennie, when she wrote, usually wrote the kind of a letter -that Cousin Nellie liked to read aloud at the lunch or dinner table. -Aunt Jennie sent messages to everyone--even to Lyn, whom she had never -seen, but had heard of, through Elizabeth Ann and Cousin Nellie. - -“I don’t see why Cousin Nellie didn’t read the letter out loud,” -Elizabeth Ann puzzled, carrying in the bread plate. - -Lex came up the back steps, his arms filled with books. - -“Is it time to eat?” he asked in surprise. “I just brought these books -in to pack them away. I won’t need them again and I hate to leave -everything till the last minute.” - -“Tell Miss Nellie lunch is ready,” Lyn called after him as he walked -through the kitchen and on into the rest of the house. - -Uncle Doctor and Cousin Nellie came to the dining room at once. -Elizabeth Ann looked at Uncle Doctor closely, for sometimes she could -guess what he was thinking. But not to-day. He pulled back Cousin -Nellie’s chair for her and helped Elizabeth Ann into hers, without -saying a single word. Lex came back and they began to eat, and still no -one mentioned Aunt Jennie’s letter. - -Now Elizabeth Ann was a courteous little girl and she knew far more -than some little girls do. Not for worlds would she say “letter,” if -she thought that Cousin Nellie did not wish to talk about it. And -Elizabeth Ann knew that if Cousin Nellie did want to talk of the -letter, she would say something about it--so Miss Elizabeth Ann ate her -luncheon quietly and did not ask questions. - -While she is eating her lunch may be a good time to tell you a bit -about her. That is, if you’re not already acquainted. Perhaps you have -read the first book in this series, called “Adventures of Elizabeth -Ann.” Then you know she was a little girl whose parents were traveling -in Japan, and who had been sent to make friends with her relatives who -loved her as soon as they knew her. Elizabeth Ann visited ever so -many aunts in the city, in the country and at the seashore, and she -was lucky enough to find a girl cousin, Doris, almost her own age. -Elizabeth Ann and Doris went to school together and it was during a -vacation from school that Elizabeth Ann went to visit Uncle Doctor who -was her mother’s uncle and her own great-uncle. Cousin Nellie kept -house for Uncle Doctor, whose real name was Doctor Crandall Lewis. And -Elizabeth Ann had such a lovely vacation with Uncle Doctor and helped -him so much that the next summer, when he went South to do some special -work, Uncle Doctor took Elizabeth Ann with him. He took Lex, too, who -was studying to be a doctor, and who ran Uncle Doctor’s car for him, -and of course Cousin Nellie went. And their summer in the country near -the little town of Cally has been told you in the book just before this -one, called “Elizabeth Ann and Uncle Doctor.” - -That is why you find them down South now--the summer was over and in a -few days they were going home, Elizabeth Ann to Seabridge, where Doris -Mason and Aunt Jennie and the other Mason cousins lived; Uncle Doctor -and Cousin Nellie and Lyn to the town of Chester where they lived. - -But Elizabeth Ann has kept still long enough and it’s time to see what -happens next. - -As soon as lunch was finished, Lyn came in to clear the table and Lex -went out to study for another hour. He did most of his studying under -an old apple tree, and sometimes Jaspar came and cropped the grass -around him, just to be sociable, Lex said. - -“Come out where it is shady, Elizabeth Ann,” said Uncle Doctor. “I want -to talk to you.” - -He and Cousin Nellie and Elizabeth Ann went out doors where there were -some comfortable chairs on the grass near the house. It was shady here -part of the day and Cousin Nellie liked to sit in her easy-chair and -sew. - -“Is it about the letter?” asked Elizabeth Ann, perching herself on the -arm of Uncle Doctor’s chair. - -“You’ve guessed it exactly,” he answered her. “Your Aunt Jennie has -written a letter to Cousin Nellie--to both of us, rather, because she -wants our advice. And your daddy and mother are so far away she can not -write to them and get an answer in time.” - -“Then,” said Elizabeth Ann, beginning to feel excited, “the letter is -about me.” - -“Right again,” Uncle Doctor declared. “The letter is about you--about -you and Doris. Poor Doris has been very ill indeed, but she is better -now.” - -“But she can’t go back to school,” said Cousin Nellie quietly. - -Elizabeth Ann stared, too surprised to speak. Why, she and Doris had -been sent to Aunt Ida’s school because Doris’s mother thought she ought -to go away to school. Doris had an older sister and four brothers and -she was apt to be spoiled with too much attention at home. - -“Do I have to go to school all by myself?” gasped Elizabeth Ann. - -Uncle Doctor gently pulled her down into his lap. - -“Dear me, Doris isn’t the only other girl in school, is she?” he asked -in mock astonishment. “I thought there were dozens of girls there.” - -Elizabeth Ann chuckled at that idea. - -“Of course there are lots of girls,” she explained. “Only Doris is much -the nicest. We like each other.” - -“Cran, I want to tell Elizabeth Ann what is in this letter,” said -Cousin Nellie gently. “How can I tell her if you tease her all the -time? Elizabeth Ann, listen, dear--your Aunt Jennie wants to send Doris -to the country to spend the winter and she wants you to go with her.” - -Elizabeth Ann sat up with a jerk, beaming. - -“I’ll go,” she announced joyfully. “Where are we going, Cousin Nellie?” - -Uncle Doctor and Cousin Nellie looked at each other and laughed. - -“My dear child,” said Cousin Nellie, “I haven’t the slightest idea -whether it will be best for you to go. Your Aunt Jennie thinks it would -be fine for Doris to be with you, but she says herself she doesn’t know -whether you ought to leave Aunt Ida’s school.” - -“Oh, yes, Cousin Nellie!” Elizabeth Ann pleaded, “It will do me good -not to go to school. I’ve been to school _very_ regularly for years and -years.” - -Uncle Doctor’s eyes twinkled at that. - -“They have school in the country, you monkey,” he informed Elizabeth -Ann. “Doris’s mother doesn’t expect her to stay out of school; she is -to go to a little country school and so will you, if you are sent to -the country with her. So, Elizabeth Ann, it looks as though you’d be -educated, come what may.” - -Elizabeth Ann was silent for a moment. - -“Well,” she said presently, “I don’t mind a new school. I like a -change. So does Doris. Perhaps it made her sick to go to the same -school too long.” - -“I wish I knew what to do,” Cousin Nellie worried. “I can’t seem to -decide. How do we know what kind of a place the school will be; and -suppose there are heavy snow storms this winter?” - -“Elizabeth Ann won’t melt,” said Uncle Doctor cheerfully. “Though she -is sweet enough to be sugar she isn’t--and a snow storm won’t hurt her. -Anyway, you can’t decide, Nellie, till we get to Seabridge and see -what Jennie has to say. I want to look Doris over, too--she may be well -enough to go on as usual to what Elizabeth Ann ungratefully calls ‘the -same school.’” - -So that was the way it was left--Cousin Nellie and Uncle Doctor would -decide when they reached Seabridge and talked to Doris’s mother. -Elizabeth Ann, though, kept hoping that she and Doris might go to a new -school. As she told Lyn, it would be more exciting, and perhaps she -could take Antonio, her beautiful white cat with her. - -It seemed only a day or two later that the packing was done and all -the good-bys said--Mr. Hawkins and Mr. and Mrs. Hanson and the factory -nurse and Mr. Fitcher, the farmer Elizabeth Ann had made friends with, -and his wife and all the Fitcher children, came to say good-by and tell -how much they would miss Elizabeth Ann. Lyn cried, too, until Cousin -Nellie reminded her that next year she was coming North to pay her a -visit. That made Lyn feel much better. - -The trip to Seabridge was long and rather tiresome, for the roads were -dusty in some places and oily in others. Uncle Doctor and Lex took -turns driving and Elizabeth Ann and Muffins rode with Cousin Nellie on -the back seat. They stopped at hotels for two nights and they were all -glad when they came in sight of the beautiful rolling ocean. Elizabeth -Ann spoke for them all when she said, “Going to Cally was fun, because -it was a new road; but coming home was just work because there wasn’t -anything to surprise us.” - -The Masons lived in a little brown house close to the beach, and they -were everyone of them at the front door to welcome the travelers. -Elizabeth Ann had to look twice at a little girl with a white face and -two great dark eyes, before she saw that it was Doris. - -“Oh my,” thought Elizabeth Ann to herself, kissing her favorite cousin, -“Poor Doris must have been so sick!” - - - - -CHAPTER III - -ALL DECIDED - - -Muffins barked wildly at the lovely white cat that came trotting up -to Elizabeth Ann. This was Antonio--better known as Tony--and he was -plainly glad to see his little mistress again. Elizabeth Ann gathered -him in her arms as they went into the house. - -It wasn’t a large house and the four guests added to the Mason -family, completely filled the little dining room. There was dear Aunt -Jennie--who had the sweetest smile of any of her aunties, Elizabeth -Ann often thought; and pretty Emmy, the older daughter, and Jerry and -Rodney, the two big cousins; and Ted and Lansing, the two younger boy -cousins. And Doris, of course. But Doris was so strangely quiet that -Elizabeth Ann hardly knew her. Usually Doris made as much noise as her -brothers did. - -“Ted about Cally,” commanded Ted, as soon as they were all seated at -the table. “Did you like it? Wasn’t it hot down there? Mother told me -you learned how to ride a horse, Elizabeth Ann.” - -Doris didn’t say a word. She sat beside her mother and drank her milk -when she saw Uncle Doctor looking at her, but she didn’t touch her -plate and Elizabeth Ann was surprised to see that she didn’t eat her -dessert either when Emmy brought that in. Elizabeth Ann was never -allowed to have dessert if she didn’t eat her dinner; but here was -Doris, who could have apparently what she wanted, refusing to eat a -chocolate éclair. - -“I suppose it’s because she has been sick,” thought Elizabeth Ann. - -After dinner, they took a little walk on the beach, but Uncle Doctor -said Elizabeth Ann must go to bed early because she had had a long -journey. Doris had not come with them for the walk and she was already -in bed, Aunt Jennie said, when the others returned from the beach. - -“Perhaps she’ll be up early in the morning,” said Elizabeth Ann -sleepily to Cousin Nellie. - -But Doris didn’t get up early the next morning. Elizabeth Ann, who -wanted to play in the sand before breakfast, was disappointed when she -ran downstairs to find only Ted and Lansing on the front porch. - -“Where’s Doris?” she asked eagerly. - -“In bed,” Ted replied. “She stays in bed till after breakfast, since -she’s been sick. Your Uncle Doctor’s gone down to the beach to throw -sticks in the water for Muffins--want to go see him?” - -Elizabeth Ann went with the boys and they found Uncle Doctor and -Muffins having a grand time. Jerry and Rodney had already gone into -the city, to their offices, and as soon as Elizabeth Ann and Ted and -Lansing brought Uncle Doctor back to the house, they had breakfast. - -“Now I’ll go up and see Doris,” announced Uncle Doctor, when breakfast -was over. “You run out and play, Elizabeth Ann; I want to start for -home before lunch time, if possible.” - -Ted and Lansing and Elizabeth Ann went out and sat on the steps. - -“Are you going to the country with Doris?” asked Ted. - -“Are you going to Chester with Doctor Lewis?” Lansing asked. - -“I don’t know,” said Elizabeth Ann frankly. “I don’t know where I’m -going. What is the matter with Doris?” - -“She was sick almost two weeks,” Ted declared. “She was sick in bed. -And now the doctor says she ought to go to the country, because when -people live at the seashore all the year round, the country is a -change. I never get any change,” sighed Ted. - -Elizabeth Ann looked at him critically. - -“You look all right,” she observed. “I don’t believe you need any.” - -And Elizabeth Ann was right. If ever a boy looked sturdy and well and -happy, that boy was Ted Mason. He couldn’t even feel sorry for himself -because there was really nothing to feel sorry about. - -Elizabeth Ann heard a purring sound behind her back and there was Tony, -her white cat. He climbed into her lap and she stroked him gently. - -“If I go to the country, could I take Tony, do you suppose?” she asked. -“I couldn’t take him to Aunt Ida’s school, but perhaps in the country -it will be different.” - -Lansing didn’t know. Neither did Ted. - -“You’ll have to ask Mother,” they both said. - -Cousin Nellie and Aunt Jennie came out on the porch just then and Aunt -Jennie sat down beside Elizabeth Ann, while Cousin Nellie took the -rocking chair. - -“How would you like to go and visit Doris’s great uncle, dear?” asked -Aunt Jennie. - -Elizabeth Ann blinked. She often got herself tangled up thinking about -her relatives, and here she was being asked to think about Doris’s -relatives. - -“Has Doris a great uncle?” she asked cautiously. - -“Yes,” nodded Aunt Jennie, “she has. He’s my uncle, just as Doctor -Lewis is your mother’s uncle. His name is Hiram--Uncle Hiram, and he -lives on a lovely farm.” - -“Could Tony live on the farm, too?” inquired Elizabeth Ann. - -“I think he could,” Aunt Jennie answered. “I don’t see any reason why -Tony couldn’t go with you.” - -And then Uncle Doctor came out and joined them and began to talk. In a -very few minutes everything was quite clear to Elizabeth Ann. That was -always the way when Uncle Doctor talked to her--he could explain things -so plainly, and he didn’t mind dozens of questions, and he always -seemed to take it for granted that Elizabeth Ann would be willing and -anxious to do as he wanted her to do. - -“Doris must have a quiet, unexciting winter, in the open air,” said -Uncle Doctor, sitting on the porch railing. “From what you tell me, -Jennie, I think Bonnie Susie will be exactly the place for her.” - -Elizabeth Ann listened, but did not say anything. “Bonnie Susie” didn’t -sound like a farm, did it? - -“It won’t hurt Elizabeth Ann, either,” said Uncle Doctor, smiling at -that small girl, “to have a winter in the country. Tramping through -the snow drifts will give her roses in her cheeks. How are we going to -send them?” - -“Uncle Hiram has promised to come after them,” explained Aunt Jennie. -“He’s delighted at the idea of having company this winter. And I’m so -glad you are willing to have Elizabeth Ann go with Doris--she would be -so lonely in a strange house, and at a strange school, without her best -cousin, as she calls Elizabeth Ann.” - -So that was settled. Uncle Doctor and Cousin Nellie and Muffins and -Lex drove away an hour later, leaving Elizabeth Ann feeling a little -forlorn, for all she had an aunt and half a dozen cousins left. And -a cat, too, as Doris, who had dressed and came down to sit in the -sunshine, reminded her. - -“I think it will be heaps of fun to go to the country,” said Doris with -something of her old enthusiasm. “Wait till you see my Uncle Hiram’s -house, Elizabeth Ann. You never saw a house like it anywhere.” - -“Why didn’t I?” Elizabeth Ann demanded. “I’ve seen lots of houses--I -saw queer houses down South.” - -“I don’t believe you ever saw a house like my Uncle Hiram’s house,” -persisted Doris. “I never saw it, either, but Mother told me about it.” - -Elizabeth Ann was puzzled. - -“Is it a queer house, Doris?” she asked wonderingly. - -“No-o, I don’t know that it is queer,” said Doris. “It’s--it’s -different--that’s all. You see, it’s built exactly like a boat!” - -“But I thought your uncle lived on a farm,” Elizabeth Ann reminded her. - -“He does, but he lives in a boat,” replied Doris. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -SAILOR TALK - - -Aunt Jennie sent a telegram to Uncle Hiram that night and two days -later he came. He looked, Elizabeth Ann decided as soon as she saw him, -exactly like the kind of a man who would live in a boat. For one thing, -he was dressed in dark blue clothes with brass buttons and he wore a -cap instead of a hat. Uncle Hiram looked like a sailor. - -“He was captain of a ship before he married Aunt Grace,” Doris -explained to Elizabeth Ann. - -Uncle Hiram talked like a sailor, too. He came to lunch and said he -had no idea it was “mess time.” And he talked about the wind, and kept -looking at the sky as though it was most important to keep an eye on -the weather. - -Everyone liked him. He had curly white hair and a curly white beard -and a deep voice and the nicest smile. He called his car “a clipper” -and said he had had no trouble at all navigating the waters on the way -down to Seabridge. Elizabeth Ann made up her mind that it was going to -be fun to visit someone who talked about ships and the ocean all the -time, even when he was living on the dry land. - -Aunt Jennie had packed a trunk for Elizabeth Ann and Doris and this -had been sent on ahead by train to Gardner, which was the town nearest -to Uncle Hiram’s farm. And, since Gardner was some distance from -Seabridge, it was necessary for the two little girls to rise very early -the morning after Uncle Hiram came, so that he could make the trip in -one day. - -“School opens day after to-morrow,” said Uncle Hiram in his deep voice. -“Can’t have you absent on the first day, you know. Can’t have the -teacher say those girls who come from the Bonnie Susie, are slow about -learning their lessons.” - -“What _is_ the Bonnie Susie?” Elizabeth Ann whispered to Doris. But -Uncle Hiram heard her. - -“It’s our house,” he explained. “I named it after my first ship. I -wanted to call it the Bonnie Grace, but my wife wouldn’t hear of it; -said she didn’t want the whole countryside to know there was a house -named after her.” - -“I think it is nice to have a house named after you,” said Elizabeth -Ann, wondering how it would sound to have a house, or a boat, named -“The Elizabeth Ann.” - -Uncle Hiram was anxious to be off, and Aunt Jennie hurried everyone -through breakfast. Then they all came out to the car to help tuck -Elizabeth Ann and Doris in, and to see that Tony was as comfortable -as possible in his wicker basket. It can not be said that Tony liked -to travel, but Elizabeth Ann hoped he would like his new home when he -eventually reached there. - -“Take in the gang plank,” said Uncle Hiram, when his passengers were -finally settled. - -That, Elizabeth Ann discovered, meant to close the car door. - -“Full steam ahead,” said Uncle Hiram and started the car. - -“Good-by, good-by!” cried all the Masons; and Elizabeth Ann and Doris -waved and waved till they could see the little brown house no longer. - -Now if Elizabeth Ann had been all alone, or if Doris had been alone, -each little girl might have felt a bit homesick at that moment--riding -away in a strange car with a strange uncle. But two little girls can’t -feel forlorn when they have each other; and besides, as Elizabeth Ann -wrote to Uncle Doctor later, it took a great deal of time to understand -what Uncle Hiram was saying. Because he talked like a sailor, and -neither Elizabeth Ann nor Doris understood sailor talk. - -It was a most beautiful September day and the roads were lined with -goldenrod. Elizabeth Ann would have liked Tony to enjoy the scenery but -she didn’t feel that it would be safe to take him from his basket, and -Uncle Hiram said that he agreed with her. - -“Cats have to get used to strange ships,” he rumbled in his deep -voice. “Wait till we get Tony to the Bonnie Susie and he’ll feel at -home in a couple of days.” - -Elizabeth Ann, watching the gray road roll out like a piece of ribbon -in front of the car, thought often of Uncle Hiram’s house. Doris had -said it was like a boat. - -“But of course,” said Elizabeth Ann to herself, “it can’t be a real -boat. I never saw a real boat on the land. And Uncle Hiram lives on a -farm, and you have to live in a house when you live on a farm.” - -She was wondering about Uncle Hiram’s house, when his deep voice spoke -to her and she jumped a little. - -“Well, mess-mate,” said Uncle Hiram pleasantly, “what do you say to -stopping at the next place where there is something to eat?” - -“I think it would be nice to stop,” Elizabeth Ann declared promptly. - -“I’m hungry, too,” announced Doris, and it was a pity her mother -couldn’t hear her, for Doris had not been hungry lately. - -“Guess we’ll have to coal ship, too,” said Uncle Hiram and Elizabeth -Ann looked at Doris helplessly. - -“I mean, we need some gas for the car,” Uncle Hiram added. “I forget -you haven’t signed up with a ship before. But you’ll learn in -time--you’ll learn in time.” - -They came to a filling station with a nice, clean-looking restaurant -attached and Uncle Hiram drove in. He helped Elizabeth Ann and Doris -out and then looked at the basket in which Tony was fastened. - -“How do we feed the cat?” he asked. - -Elizabeth Ann had traveled with Tony before. She knew how to take care -of him. - -“If there is a quiet place, I can take him out of the basket,” she -explained. “He likes liver and milk, but he won’t eat if there is much -noise, or many people looking at him.” - -“He’s a cat after my own heart,” declared Uncle Hiram. “I can’t enjoy -my food if a crowd has to sit and stare at every mouthful I take. We’ll -see what we can do.” - -Well, what Uncle Hiram could do was to take one of the tables in a -row of little alcoves. The table had seats built on two sides of it, -and there were pink and blue curtains that could be drawn across the -doorway, so that the alcove was almost like a separate room. Elizabeth -Ann and Doris sat on one side of the table, and Uncle Hiram sat on the -other, while a little waitress in a pink and white frock and a green -apron brought them hot rolls filled with creamed chicken, and glasses -of milk and, for Tony, a green and white enameled dish with tiny pieces -of liver all cut up ready for him to eat. - -“Here’s your lunch, Tony,” Elizabeth Ann whispered, opening the basket -carefully. - -Out popped the white head and green eyes of Tony. He looked around the -alcove and apparently approved of it. The dish of liver was on the -floor and Elizabeth Ann put him down beside it and he went to eating -not greedily, but daintily and slowly, as Tony always ate. - -“You’ll be eating supper in the Bonnie Susie to-night,” said Uncle -Hiram, looking hard at Doris’s glass of milk. - -Doris thought he meant her to drink it (which he did) and she took a -long swallow. - -“Is--is the Bonnie Susie a house or a boat?” asked Elizabeth Ann, her -curiosity getting the better of her. - -“Wait and see,” Uncle Hiram said with a smile. - -“It’s a boat!” declared Doris. “I told you it was a boat, Elizabeth -Ann.” - -“Well, you----” began Elizabeth Ann. - -She had intended to say, “You never saw it,” and suggest that Doris -might be mistaken. - -But instead she glanced down under the table and cried in alarm, -“Where’s Tony? Tony isn’t here!” - -Tony wasn’t there--he had disappeared. He had licked his dish as clean -as clean could be and then had vanished. - -“I’ll find him--likely as not he is prowling around the restaurant, in -the main room,” said Uncle Hiram. “You two children stay here and I’ll -round up the culprit. We can’t allow mutiny on board this craft.” - -Uncle Hiram went out through the curtains and Elizabeth Ann and Doris -waited. He didn’t come back and he didn’t come back. - -“I can’t go away and leave him here,” whispered Elizabeth Ann, feeling -as though she would like to cry. “He would be so unhappy if he found -out I’d gone off with Uncle Hiram and left him.” - -“Serve him right,” Doris said rather crossly. “Anyway, Uncle Hiram -won’t let you stay here to wait for Tony; if that cat doesn’t come -back, you’ll just have to go and leave him.” - -Doris, you see, was a little tired and as people often are, who have -been ill, inclined to be cross. She didn’t want Elizabeth Ann to be -unhappy, but neither did she want to have their journey interrupted by -a search for Elizabeth Ann’s cat. - -“I just have to find him,” said Elizabeth Ann. “I’m going to open that -door and see where it goes.” - -She pointed to a door in the wall behind them--a closed door. But it -wasn’t a locked door for it opened when Elizabeth Ann turned the knob, -and there was a flight of steps leading down to the cellar. - -“You’d better stay right here,” Doris told her, and that was certainly -good advice. - -Elizabeth Ann, unfortunately, didn’t always take good advice. - -“I’m going down to look for Tony,” she said firmly. “You stay there so -you can tell Uncle Hiram where I’ve gone.” - -And down the steps went Miss Elizabeth Ann, into a perfectly strange -cellar. - -It wasn’t dark--that is, it wasn’t so very dark. She began to call -softly for Tony as she went down the steps and when she found herself -on the cement floor she thought she saw him moving among the shadows. -But when she walked toward what she thought was the cat, Elizabeth Ann -discovered that it was only a piece of wood someone had dropped as they -carried an armful up for the fire. - -“Here, Tony, Tony!” called Elizabeth Ann. - -The cellar seemed to have little rooms arranged around it--Elizabeth -Ann wrinkled her nose at the spaces where coal and wood were piled, and -the potatoes and onions and other vegetables heaped in neat piles in -some of the other rooms. But when she came to a place just lined with -shelves, Elizabeth Ann paused. She forgot Tony for a moment, too. - -“It looks like the pantry Aunt Hester had in her house,” thought -Elizabeth Ann. - -These shelves were filled with glass jars, just as Aunt Hester’s -shelves had been filled. Elizabeth Ann knew what was in the jars--fruit -and jam and jellies--perhaps vegetables, too. She opened the gate made -of slats and went in to have a better look. - -“I thought so!” said a sharp voice behind her. “I’m not a bit -surprised. Put out your hand!” - -Too surprised to disobey, Elizabeth Ann held out her little right hand. - -At once she felt three hard stinging blows across it--blows from a -ruler the owner of the sharp voice held in her hand. - -“Now you march right upstairs,” commanded the sharp voice. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -TAKEN BOYS - - -Poor Elizabeth Ann, her hand stinging, her eyes filled with tears, -stepped out of the room where the rows of glass jars were stored. As -she walked past the woman who held the ruler, that sharp-voiced person -gasped. - -“For mercy’s sake, who are you? I thought you were Esther,” she said. - -“I’m Elizabeth Ann Loring,” said Elizabeth Ann. “I came down here to -look for Tony, my cat.” - -“Good gracious!” the woman cried--Elizabeth Ann could see her better -now, in the light that came from one of the cellar windows. “I never -saw you before in my life!” - -Elizabeth Ann rubbed her smarting hand and winked back the tears. - -[Illustration: “For mercy’s sake, who are you?” she said.] - -“I was just looking at your pantry,” she said with dignity. “My aunt -has a pantry like that. She puts up jelly every year.” - -“I’m sorry,” said the woman, who was tall and thin and wore her hair -twisted back from her eyes in a small, hard knot. “I’m sorry I struck -you with the ruler. I thought you were my niece, Esther, who is always -stealing jam. I told her the next time I found her in the cellar I’d -give her something to remember.” - -“I’ll remember it!” Elizabeth Ann declared. “It hurt.” - -“I’m sorry,” said the woman again. “And the worst of it is, it won’t do -Esther any good; she’ll be down here the minute my back is turned.” - -“I think,” Elizabeth Ann announced in a rather small voice, “I think -I’d better go back. Uncle Hiram will be wondering where I am.” - -At this late date Elizabeth Ann had suddenly remembered that Uncle -Hiram had directed her and Doris to stay in the alcove room till he -came back. Perhaps he might not be pleased to find she was wandering -around in the cellar. - -“If you have any folks,” said the woman, switching the ruler against -her skirts and peering around the cellar as though she still hoped to -find the jam-stealing Esther, “I should think they’d be looking for -you. Where did you come from?” - -Elizabeth Ann explained about Doris and Uncle Hiram and the woman -showed her where the stairs were for Elizabeth Ann was so turned about -that she couldn’t find her way. - -“I work in the kitchen,” said the woman. “I’ll go up the other stairs. -I hope you understand it was all a mistake, my slapping you with the -ruler.” - -Elizabeth Ann said of course she knew it was a mistake; so she went -up the stairs and found herself in the alcove room. No one was there -except Doris and she was frowning. Oh yes, the wicker basket was on -the seat beside her and it was closed and fastened. That meant, very -likely, that Tony was inside. - -“Where _have_ you been?” demanded Doris. - -“Did Uncle Hiram find Tony?” Elizabeth Ann asked, instead of answering -the question. - -“Of course he did--and he’s in his basket,” said Doris, mixing her -pronouns in a way that would have scandalized Aunt Ida. “He doesn’t -like it a bit, either, because you weren’t here. He’s gone to ask the -man who owns the restaurant if he can go down in the cellar and hunt -for you.” - -And just then Uncle Hiram parted the curtains and looked in at the two -girls. He saw Elizabeth Ann and he said to her, exactly as Doris had, -“Where _have_ you been?” Only he added, “I thought I asked you to wait -till I came back.” - -“I went to look for Tony,” said Elizabeth Ann. “I thought he might have -gone down cellar to hunt for mice. And a lady thought I was Esther -stealing jam and she told me to put out my hand and she hit me three -times with her ruler.” - -Elizabeth Ann held out her hand. Across the pink palm were -angry-looking, red marks. - -“Orders are orders on board ship,” said Uncle Hiram. “However, you seem -to have battled a gale and we’ll let it go this once. I found your cat -snooping around the main dining room--guess he wanted more to eat.” - -On the way out to the car--Uncle Hiram said they must hurry for -they still had many miles to cover--Elizabeth Ann looked around her -carefully. She thought she might see Esther, and she was rather -interested in Esther. But she didn’t see any other little girl. - -“Do you think,” whispered Doris, after they were in their places on -the back seat, and Uncle Hiram was so busy watching the road that he -couldn’t listen to them chattering, “do you think that Uncle Hiram is -cross?” - -“Well, I’m not sure,” Elizabeth Ann said. “Of course I ought not to -have gone down in the cellar. Perhaps he isn’t cross when you do as he -asks you to.” - -Doris agreed that under those circumstances Uncle Hiram might not be -cross. Then she put her head down on Elizabeth Ann’s shoulder and -went to sleep. And Elizabeth Ann found that her own eyes insisted on -closing, and she went to sleep too. - -She woke up a little later to find that the car had stopped. Uncle -Hiram was talking to a man who sat in another car, headed in the -opposite direction. - -“You sure you haven’t seen him?” the man was saying as Elizabeth Ann -opened her eyes. - -“I told you I hadn’t,” answered Uncle Hiram, and his voice was a deep -growl. “I might have picked him up and given him a lift, if he asked -me, but I wouldn’t lie about it. I haven’t seen any boy on the road -since I started this trip.” - -“The varmint is probably hiding around somewhere,” the man said crossly. - -Elizabeth Ann leaned as far forward as she could, without waking the -still sleeping Doris. - -The man who sat in the other car did not have a pleasant face. He was -thin, and his nose was red, while his eyes were small and looked angry. -He had thrust his head out of the side of his car and was positively -glaring at Uncle Hiram. - -“Well, if you do see him, mind you pick him up and telephone me,” said -the man, speaking more crossly still. “I’ll pay for the telephone call. -He’s a bound boy, remember, and I have the right to him.” - -Uncle Hiram merely nodded and started his car. Elizabeth Ann waited -till he had passed the other car and then she touched him on the -shoulder. - -“Uncle Hiram,” she said in a low voice, as though she was afraid the -other man might overhear, “Uncle Hiram, what is a varmint?” - -“Eh, you’re awake then,” Uncle Hiram commented. “I thought you were -having a fine nap. A varmint, my dear, is a low kind of animal--like a -skunk or a weasel. Weasels, you know, steal chickens.” - -“Why did the man want one then?” asked Elizabeth Ann. - -“One what?” Uncle Hiram said, surprised. - -“A varmint,” explained Elizabeth Ann. “He was looking for a varmint. I -woke up when he was saying so.” - -“I don’t wonder you woke up,” Uncle Hiram declared. “He had a voice -like a buzz saw, and anyone who heard it would either wake up or have -bad dreams. That man wasn’t looking for a varmint, my dear; that was -just his way of describing a poor taken boy.” - -Elizabeth Ann stood up. She always said she could think better standing -up. - -“Please, what is a taken boy?” she asked. - -Uncle Hiram glanced over his shoulder. - -“My, my, what a lot of things you want to know,” said he. “Well, -Elizabeth Ann, a taken boy is usually an orphan. Someone takes him from -the poorhouse and agrees to be responsible for his food and shelter and -clothes. And in return the boy does as much work as he can.” - -“Oh!” Elizabeth Ann exclaimed. “Did that man with the red nose take a -boy?” - -“I’m afraid he did,” said Uncle Hiram. “I’m sorry for any lad who has -to live with a man like that. It seems this poor boy couldn’t stand it -any longer. He ran away, and the man was searching for him.” - -“I hope he doesn’t find him!” Elizabeth Ann declared. - -Uncle Hiram didn’t say anything, but Elizabeth Ann was sure he hoped -that the boy would not be found. - -“Are we there?” asked a sleepy little voice, and Doris sat up, rubbing -her eyes. - -“Almost there!” Uncle Hiram said cheerfully. “Have to go around one -more curve and take the first turn to the right, and then you’ll see -the Bonnie Susie.” - -Tony meowed mournfully in his basket. Perhaps he was tired of -automobiling. - -“I’ve learned a lot while you were asleep,” Elizabeth Ann informed -Doris, gently rocking the basket to let Tony know she heard him. “I -learned about varmints, and taken boys.” - -And she explained about them to Doris, who was interested too. - -“There’s the Bonnie Susie!” announced Uncle Hiram suddenly. - -Both little girls stood up then, because they were most anxious to see -Uncle Hiram’s house. - -“Why,” said Elizabeth Ann, in amazement, “why, it really is a ship!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE BONNIE SUSIE - - -Anyone, seeing the Bonnie Susie for the first time, would have stared. -Elizabeth Ann found out afterward that plenty of people, driving past -the house, stopped and stared, just as she and Doris were doing now. - -For there, in the center of a beautiful green lawn, surrounded by -trees, stood a ship. A real ship, if you please, with masts and a deck -and everything just as you see on ships in pictures. To be sure there -were windows and doors cut in the hull of this ship, but they didn’t -make it seem like a house. Nothing could make it seem like a house. It -was a ship. And the name was painted up on what Uncle Hiram told them -was the bow--“B-O-N-N-I-E S-U-S-I-E” in large black letters. - -“Isn’t it lovely!” cried Elizabeth Ann, clapping her hands. “I never -lived in a ship before.” - -“I told you it was a ship,” Doris insisted, and Elizabeth Ann had to -admit that she had. - -The front door opened as they went up the neat gravel path and a tall, -thin woman stood in the doorway. She reminded Elizabeth Ann a little of -the woman who had struck her with the ruler, but she had a pleasanter -face. And her hair, though it was gray, fluffed out around her face -prettily. - -“Well, so this is Elizabeth Ann!” said the woman, stooping to kiss the -small girl. “And here’s Doris. I’m Aunt Grace, and I can’t begin to -tell you how glad I am to see you both.” - -“How did you know which of us were which?” asked Elizabeth Ann, who was -perfectly famous for asking questions, as her Uncle Doctor could have -testified. - -Aunt Grace seemed pleased at the question. - -“Why I knew Doris had been ill,” she explained, “and when I saw you -bounding ahead and looking the picture of health I knew you couldn’t be -a little girl who had been sick recently. If you weren’t Doris, you -must be Elizabeth Ann.” - -This sounded most reasonable and Elizabeth Ann could understand. - -Aunt Grace took them into the house and it was absolutely the nicest -house they had ever been in--both Elizabeth Ann and Doris said so. In -the first place, there were no stairs--there were ladders. Not the -ordinary ladders that you see in barns, to be sure, nor yet the kind of -ladder your mother may stand on when she hangs the curtains. No, the -stairs in Uncle Hiram’s house were firm enough, but they were ladders -for all that--you looked right through the steps as you went up and -down. And the kitchen was called a galley, and there were no beds in -the bedrooms, but bunks, built against the wall. A bunk is like a box -and Elizabeth Ann for once in her life was eager to have bed-time come, -so she could have the experience of sleeping in a bunk. - -There was so much to see that neither Elizabeth Ann or Doris thought -especially about supper, though they had been hungry an hour ago. -But as soon as Uncle Hiram came in, after putting the car in the -garage--which was a barn Elizabeth Ann discovered the next day--he -asked Aunt Grace if supper was ready. - -“I planned to get here by four bells,” he said. - -Elizabeth Ann stared at him and somewhere in the house a clock struck -some hour. - -“It’s half-past six,” said Aunt Grace, “and supper is all ready and -waiting.” - -Elizabeth Ann looked around, but could see no bells. She had already -asked so many questions--even for her--that she didn’t want to ask -another. And Doris, as usual, said nothing. Even when Doris didn’t -understand things, she wouldn’t ask questions. She knew that if she -waited long enough, Elizabeth Ann would find out about them and explain -them. - -“Oh, I forgot Tony!” cried Elizabeth Ann suddenly. “His feelings will -be hurt; I never forgot him before.” - -“Tony is in the kitchen,” Uncle Hiram assured her. “I brought him in. -He’s under the stove and as soon as he gets a little better acquainted, -I think he’ll come out.” - -While they were eating supper--and a most delicious supper it was, too, -for Aunt Grace was a famous cook--Elizabeth Ann heard the clock strike -again. It sounded like a bell and she remembered what Uncle Hiram had -said--“four bells.” - -Elizabeth Ann counted the strokes. - -“It must be six o’clock,” she said politely. - -“It’s seven o’clock,” said Aunt Grace. - -“I just heard it strike six bells,” Uncle Hiram declared, taking out -his great silver watch. “Yes, the clock keeps good time--it’s exactly -seven o’clock.” - -“But it struck six,” said the puzzled Elizabeth Ann. - -“Now for pity’s sake, don’t tell that child about ship’s time -to-night,” begged Aunt Grace. “I’ve been married to your Uncle Hiram -for fifteen years,” she added, turning to Elizabeth Ann, “and I can’t -make head or tail of his bells. I go by my good Christian clock, and I -say it’s seven o’clock when it is seven o’clock; six bells will never -mean seven o’clock to me.” - -Elizabeth Ann, before she went to bed was as completely tangled up -about time as a girl could well be. It seemed, for Uncle Hiram told -her so while Aunt Grace was giving Doris a hot bath and putting her -to bed--rather into her bunk--that on board a ship the half hours are -very important. The ship’s clock strikes for them all. And Uncle Hiram -showed Elizabeth Ann, using his beautiful mahogany clock which was in -what he called “the first cabin” (and that was the parlor) how the time -was told off, starting at midnight. - -“One bell is half-past twelve,” explained Uncle Hiram. “Two bells is -one o’clock; three bells is half-past one, and so on, around the clock. -It’s easy enough to understand, once you’re used to it, but your Aunt -Grace never would bother to learn it. She says she went by land time so -long that she can’t learn any new way of telling time.” - -“I don’t think it is easy,” Elizabeth Ann said honestly, “and it does -mix me up. But I am going to learn it. Ted and Lansing know lots of -things I don’t, and I am going to learn something to surprise them.” - -“Don’t try to learn it all at once,” advised Uncle Hiram kindly. “Take -things easy--you’ll have all winter to learn ship’s time in, and I will -help you. There’s your Aunt Grace calling you now.” - -Aunt Grace wanted Elizabeth Ann to take her bath, and after peeping -into the kitchen and seeing that Tony was asleep on a small round -rug quite as though he felt at home there, Elizabeth Ann climbed the -ladder up to the pretty blue and white bathroom and had her bath. Three -minutes after that she was fast asleep, for no matter how exciting it -might be to sleep in a bunk, no little girl who had traveled more than -two hundred miles in one day could hope to keep awake very long after -she had gotten into such a nice soft bed. - -It was fortunate that the next day there was no school--perhaps Uncle -Hiram had arranged things purposely so that Elizabeth Ann and Doris -should reach the farm one day before school opened. He must have known -that there would be many things they wanted to see. The farm belonged -to Aunt Grace and she had lived on it all her life, she told the two -little girls, who insisted on drying the dishes for her the next -morning. - -“Your Uncle Hiram,” said Aunt Grace, and while of course he was Doris’s -uncle Elizabeth Ann felt as though he might be her uncle “a little -bit” as she said, for Doris was her cousin. “Your Uncle Hiram was on -a sailing vessel for forty years. It’s no wonder he can’t bear to get -away from the sea. But when he retired, he came back to Gardner, where -he lived when he was a boy, and we planned to be married. I’m twenty -years younger than he is and I didn’t want to give up this farm--in -fact I’d promised my mother and father to always live here. Your uncle -would have liked to live nearer the ocean, I think, but he was very -nice about it. He had some money saved and he said he’d build us a -house to live in, if I would let him build the kind of house he liked. -So he built this ship and I had the tenant farmer move in the old farm -house and we’ve been right happy. Plenty of people think we’re crazy to -live in a place that is part ship and part house, but there are some -things I like about it.” - -“I think it is lovely,” declared Elizabeth Ann loyally. “I like to go -up and down ladders; and I like to sleep in a bunk.” - -“Well, I like the deck, myself,” Aunt Grace explained. “It’s the -best place to dry clothes you ever did see. And in summer we have a -awning stretched over part of it and have chairs out there and it is -fine--there’s always a breeze. Some folks call it the roof, of course, -but your Uncle Hiram likes me to say ‘deck’ and I always do.” - -And after the dishes were dried and put away, Aunt Grace took Elizabeth -Ann and Doris up to see the deck. It was scrubbed to a shining -whiteness, and there was a railing all around, just as there would be -on a ship, so that no one could fall off. They could see far over the -fields, and Aunt Grace pointed out the farm house where the tenant -farmer lived and even the chimneys of the house on the next farm. - -“Can we see the school from here?” asked Elizabeth Ann, who was just -the least bit anxious over the idea of going to a new school. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -SCHOOL NEWS - - -“See the school?” echoed Aunt Grace. “My dear child, of course you -can’t see the school; why it’s fully three miles from here, on the -other side of that section of woods. You have to walk half a mile to -get the bus.” - -Elizabeth Ann hadn’t heard about the bus, and neither had Doris. - -“You’re going to a consolidated school,” explained Aunt Grace. “When -I was a little girl they didn’t have them--we went to a little school -house near this farm. There was only one room, and my older sister -taught all the grades. But now they have combined a number of these -small schools into one large one. A bus goes through the country -gathering up the scholars, and in that way one school building can be -made to do the work of six or seven one-room buildings.” - -“Why doesn’t the bus come and get us right here?” Doris asked. - -That was almost the first question she had asked and Aunt Grace told -her she was glad to hear her voice. - -“The bus couldn’t go round to every farm--it would take too long,” -Aunt Grace said. “So the pupils gather in certain places where the -bus driver knows they’ll be, and he picks them up in groups. You and -Elizabeth Ann and the other children who live around here, have to walk -to the nearest cross-roads--your uncle will tell you what time the bus -passes there and what time you have to leave the house. If there’s a -bad storm or it rains too hard, he will take you in the car as far as -the cross-roads; but your Uncle Doctor wrote to tell me that he wanted -both of you to walk whenever it is possible.” - -Elizabeth Ann liked to walk and Doris didn’t. But everyone did as Uncle -Doctor directed, always. - -“Then we can take our lunch to school, can’t we?” suggested Elizabeth -Ann. - -“Why you’ll have to take your lunch,” Aunt Grace replied. “I believe -some of the teachers make hot soup in the winter, but there is no place -where you can buy anything to eat. The consolidated school is right in -the country; there was some talk of building it in Gardner, but they -couldn’t agree on a plot of ground for it. You’ll both be country girls -if you live on a farm all winter, and go to a country school.” - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris had always wanted to take their lunches to -school. In Seabridge, Doris came home at noon to lunch, and Elizabeth -Ann had done that, too, wherever she went to school. Even at Aunt Ida’s -school, they had gone to Aunt Ida’s house for lunch--her house was next -door to the school. - -“I think it will be more fun to carry our lunches,” said Elizabeth Ann. -“That is, if it won’t be too much trouble for you, Aunt Grace,” she -added. - -Elizabeth Ann said “Aunt Grace” because Doris did, and now Aunt Grace -told her a surprising thing. - -“I’ll be glad to put up lunches,” she declared. “I always wanted a -little girl or two of my own to work for; and it’s nice to hear you -call me ‘Aunt,’ Elizabeth Ann. You know you are distantly related to -Uncle Hiram.” - -“Doris’s Uncle Hiram?” asked Elizabeth Ann. - -“Yes,” Aunt Grace smiled a little. “Don’t ask me how it is, but I -believe your father is a sixth or seventh cousin of Hiram’s. You don’t -have to puzzle it out--it’s worse than the ship-time that Hiram is -always trying to get me to learn.” - -They went down from the deck presently and Aunt Grace said she thought -Doris should lie down and take a little nap. This gave Elizabeth Ann an -excellent chance to study the mahogany clock, and listen to it strike. -And if ever she had said in her careless little mind that Aunt Grace -was “silly” not to learn ship-time, Elizabeth Ann was soon sorry. - -For the more she puzzled over the eight bells, and the two and three -bells, the more confused she became. And when Uncle Hiram came in and -asked her where the first mate was, Elizabeth Ann merely raised her -head and stared at him. - -“Who--who is the first mate?” she stammered uncertainly. - -“Your Aunt Grace, to be sure,” said Uncle Hiram. “I’m the Captain of -this ship and she’s first mate. She stands the forenoon watch.” - -“Is that the watch you carry in your pocket?” Elizabeth Ann asked, -beginning to feel that she didn’t understand anything Uncle Hiram said. - -“No, the forenoon watch is from eight o’clock till noon,” said Uncle -Hiram. “That’s the morning hours, you see. At eight bells, or 12 noon, -I come up to the house for dinner.” - -Elizabeth Ann blinked. - -“How many bells is it now?” she asked, pointing to the clock which said -half-past eleven. - -“Why, it’s seven bells,” Uncle Hiram replied promptly. - -Then and there Elizabeth Ann decided that she must be like Aunt -Grace--it was so much easier to say “half past eleven” than to count up -to seven bells. Of course it was easier for Uncle Hiram to tell time -that way than by the regular time, for he had done it so long. - -“Don’t bother your head about it,” he said now, noticing that Elizabeth -Ann was bewildered. “Perhaps you’ll pick it up as you go along, and if -you don’t, it doesn’t matter. Your Aunt Grace was brought up on a farm -and she can’t learn about the sea; I went to sea when I was a young lad -and I can’t pick up land ways. But we each do our way and get along -splendidly. There’s more than one way of doing a thing and I haven’t -much use for any man who thinks his is the only possible one.” - -Elizabeth Ann thought that was very nice. If she learned to tell time -by the bells that would be fine--she could surprise Lansing and Ted. -But if she didn’t learn, Uncle Hiram wouldn’t be annoyed--he thought -that the old way of telling time--by the old way, Elizabeth Ann meant -the way she had been taught--was good, too. - -Uncle Hiram had come up to the house before noon because he wanted to -drive to Gardner as soon as dinner was over and, he explained he could -get ready to go before dinner. - -“I could ship two passengers,” he announced, a twinkle in his eye. - -“That means we can go, Doris!” cried Elizabeth Ann joyfully. - -“Does it?” Doris, who had just woke up from her nap, and was still a -bit sleepy, inquired doubtfully. - -“Of course you may go,” said Aunt Grace, who had found time to cook -a marvelous dinner--with peach shortcake for dessert--informed them. -“Uncle Hiram just loves to have company with him when he drives to -Gardner.” - -Aunt Grace wouldn’t hear of them waiting to help her with the -dishes--she said there were not many, and she was used to doing them -alone--and when Elizabeth Ann and Doris went outdoors to get into the -car, they found Tony sitting on the front doorstep, washing his face as -though he had always lived in the “Bonnie Susie.” - -“Isn’t it nice to live in a house like that!” exclaimed Elizabeth Ann -proudly, looking back to wave to Aunt Grace as they drove away. - -“Pretty good ship, if I do say it myself,” Uncle Hiram agreed proudly. - -And all the way to town he told Elizabeth Ann and Doris stories of what -had happened to him while he was at sea. - -“I can feel the way the hammocks used to sway in a storm, even now,” -he said. “I still sleep in a hammock, but your Aunt Grace couldn’t get -used to one; she had to have a bunk.” - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris looked at each other. They were glad they had -bunks instead of hammocks--a hammock was all very well to sleep in for -an hour or two on a warm afternoon, but they didn’t care to sleep in -one. - -Gardner was a pretty little town, about four miles from the farm. There -was one main store, where almost everything was sold that you could -mention. Uncle Hiram drove directly to this store and he said Elizabeth -Ann and Doris might come in with him while he bought the things he had -come for--knives for cutting corn, and gloves for the men who were to -cut it. - -“Hello,” said Uncle Hiram as soon as he went into the store. -“Elizabeth Ann--Doris--here’s one of your neighbors. Catherine, this -is Elizabeth Ann Loring and Doris Mason, my nieces. They’re going to -school to-morrow, and Aunt Grace was saying she hoped you’d stop for -them as you go past the house. Catherine Gould lives near us,” Uncle -Hiram added. - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris saw a pretty girl, about their own age, very -beautifully dressed. She didn’t look as though she could have much fun -in her pink silk frock, but it certainly was pretty. And she smiled at -Elizabeth Ann and Doris and was about to say something when suddenly -she frowned and looked so cross Elizabeth Ann was startled. - -“Hello, Cathy!” said a boy’s voice, and a lad in faded overalls, with a -large package under his arm, pulled off his cap and smiled as he passed -the three girls. - -“Hello, Roger!” Uncle Hiram boomed in his deep voice. - -“I’m surprised your uncle speaks to him,” said Catherine, looking -crosser than ever. “Roger Calendar is only a taken boy.” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -ROGER CALENDAR - - -Elizabeth Ann--the famous little question mark, as Uncle Doctor had -once jokingly called her--thought of several things she wanted to know. -She remembered the taken boy the man had been hunting for when he met -Uncle Hiram the day before. She wondered whether Roger Calendar could -be that boy. She wanted to know if people called him a “varmint.” She -wanted to know---- - -But Uncle Hiram had overheard Catherine’s remark. And if Elizabeth Ann -and Doris had ever wondered whether he could be really cross, they knew -the answer now. Uncle Hiram was not at all pleased. - -“I don’t know what your father would say, Kitty, if he heard you make a -remark like that,” said Uncle Hiram. “Roger Calendar is a fine boy in -every respect. I hope the other pupils in school don’t feel toward him -as you do.” - -“Oh, no one pays any attention to him,” Catherine replied. “He keeps -to himself. I guess he doesn’t feel just right among the rest of us. I -don’t think the Bostwicks ought to send him to school, but Mr. Bostwick -told my father he had to; there’s a law that all children have to be -educated.” - -“It’s a pity there isn’t a law that says all children have to be taught -kindness and politeness,” said Uncle Hiram. “I hope Elizabeth Ann and -Doris will have too much sense to follow your example.” - -Catherine Gould didn’t seem abashed. She merely smiled a little, as -though Uncle Hiram was mistaken about her. Then she told Elizabeth Ann -that she would stop for her and Doris the next morning “in time to -get the bus,” and went out of the store. Elizabeth Ann saw her cross -the street and get into a beautiful dark blue car--a much larger and -handsomer car than Uncle Hiram’s. - -“Isn’t she pretty!” said Doris wistfully. “And did you see her dress? -I wanted a new dress, but Mother said I’d better wait till Christmas -time.” - -“I don’t like her so much,” Elizabeth Ann declared. - -“Catherine is a nice girl,” said Uncle Hiram who had wonderful hearing -and seldom missed a word. “She’s a fine girl, in many ways; but her -father is the wealthiest man in this township, and Catherine is the -only child and I’m afraid she is a little spoiled. No one but a silly, -spoiled girl would talk as she does about Roger Calendar.” - -“Is he the taken boy who was lost?” asked Elizabeth Ann quickly. - -“Oh, my, no,” Uncle Hiram answered. “That poor boy must live many miles -away from us. I never saw the man before who was searching for him. -Roger Calendar lives with the Bostwicks whose land adjoins ours on one -side. The Goulds live on the other side. Catherine and Roger must go in -to school every morning on the same bus, when school is in session; I -don’t like to think of her being rude to him.” - -As it happened, Elizabeth Ann and Doris had a chance to become -acquainted with Roger Calendar on the way home. Uncle Hiram came up -with him about half a mile out of town, and offered him a “lift.” - -“You children want to know each other,” said Uncle Hiram, as Roger -climbed into the seat beside him. “Elizabeth Ann and Doris, this is -Roger Calendar who is our neighbor; and Roger, these are my nieces. -They start school to-morrow, and if they’re late for the bus you let me -know. I don’t let anyone on my ship get tardy marks more than once.” - -Roger smiled a little shyly at the two girls. He had a friendly face -and nice dark eyes and hair. But his clothes were terribly patched and -Elizabeth Ann didn’t wonder he was ashamed of his shoes. She caught -a glimpse of them, patched with great squares of different colored -leather, before Roger seemed to suddenly remember them, and then he -thrust his feet out of sight, under the seat as far as they would go. - -“You’ll be on time all right, if Cathy Gould calls for you,” said -Roger. “Hardly anyone is late, anyway, because if you miss the bus you -never can walk to school in time for the nine o’clock bell. The only -thing to do is to turn around and go home and be marked absent for a -day.” - -When they reached the road that led to the Bostwick farm, Roger -insisted he must get out. - -“I’ll drive you all the way in,” offered Uncle Hiram. “I have plenty of -time. That package you are carrying is too heavy for a boy your size, -anyway. Better let me take you right up to the barn door, Roger.” - -“No, please,” Roger said, getting out of the car so hastily that he -almost tripped. “You’re awfully good, Mr. Kent, but Mr. Bostwick -doesn’t like me to take rides. He wouldn’t like it if he saw you -bringing me home.” - -“What did I tell you about calling me Mr. Kent?” said Uncle Hiram in -his crossest voice. - -“I forgot--I honestly did,” Roger apologized. “I meant to say ‘Uncle -Hiram.’ Good-by, Uncle Hiram, and thank you a lot for the lift. -Good-by, Elizabeth Ann and Doris--see you in school to-morrow.” - -He lifted the heavy package that pulled him over sideways when he -carried it, and almost ran down the road to the Bostwick farm. - -“Does everyone call you Uncle Hiram?” asked Elizabeth Ann curiously. - -“Just about everybody,” Uncle Hiram assured her, smiling. “Your Aunt -Grace and I long ago made up our minds that we’d have nephews and -nieces by the dozen and we seem to have them.” - -Tony was still on the front stoop of the Bonnie Susie when they reached -home. But he consented to follow Elizabeth Ann and Doris out to the -corn field. They wanted to see the corn being cut and Uncle Hiram said -it was high time they saw the farm. - -The tenant farmer, whose name was Mr. Lawton, and his two sons were -cutting corn, and Elizabeth Ann and Doris watched them for a while as -they went up and down the long rows. Tony caught a field mouse and was -so pleased with himself that Elizabeth Ann scolded him, and told him he -was vain. - -“You run up to the house, and see my wife,” said Mr. Lawton, the first -time he stopped long enough to talk to them, “and she’ll show you what -she has been doing this morning and, likely as not she’ll give you a -sample. Mother likes to give away samples.” - -Uncle Hiram wanted to stay in the field and as Elizabeth Ann and Doris -could see the farmhouse from where they stood, there was no reason -why they couldn’t go alone to call on Mrs. Lawton. Elizabeth Ann -thought she would be surprised to see them, but when they rang the -old-fashioned pull bell and a stout, pink-cheeked woman came to the -door, she didn’t look at all surprised to see two little girls on her -door step. - -“You’re the two little nieces Mrs. Kent has been expecting, aren’t -you?” she said pleasantly. “I’m Mrs. Lawton, of course. Come right in. -If you don’t mind coming into the kitchen, I can finish putting the -labels on my jelly.” - -Mrs. Lawton’s kitchen was most pleasant, though not, Elizabeth Ann -decided, quite as nice as Aunt Grace’s kitchen which Uncle Hiram would -call the galley. But the Lawton kitchen was large, and there was a -great fire in the range and oh, my, how deliciously the room did smell. - -“I’ve made forty glasses of grape jelly this morning,” said Mrs. Lawton -proudly. “I’d like you to try some on bread and butter; I always think -jelly tastes better on bread and butter than any other way you can eat -it. And I’ll be writing my labels while you eat.” - -She cut two perfectly huge slices from a loaf of fine white home-made -bread, and spread each of them thickly with butter. Then she covered -the butter with sparkling grape jelly, and put the bread on two blue -and white plates. - -“See if you don’t like that,” she said. - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris thought the jelly was the best they had ever -tasted. And while Mrs. Lawton wrote “Grape Jelly” on a lot of little -red and white labels and pasted them on the glasses she had filled, -Elizabeth Ann told her about the jam and jelly she had seen in the -cellar of the restaurant; also how the strange woman had mistaken her -for Esther, and had punished her with the ruler. - -“Well, I think that was a shame,” said Mrs. Lawton, “and I’ll give you -a glass of jelly for yourself, to help you forget that experience. And -here’s a glass for Doris, too.” - -When Elizabeth Ann and Doris showed Aunt Grace the jelly, she said -they should have it in their sandwiches for school the next day. That -made both little girls feel as though school time was very near; and -when they went to bed early that night in order to be ready for their -walk in the morning, they said they knew they would stay awake and -think about the new school. They didn’t, of course, but went straight -to sleep like sensible children, and were very much surprised to be -awakened by Aunt Grace the next morning, and told that it was time to -get dressed to go to school. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -OFF FOR SCHOOL - - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris had just finished their breakfast when -Catherine Gould called for them. Catherine wore the prettiest -dress--perhaps a little too “fussy” for school, but a beautiful green -color. She had a fancy lunch box, too, with all sorts of compartments, -for her sandwiches and a bottle to keep her soup hot in. - -Aunt Grace had packed a nice lunch for Elizabeth Ann and one just -like it for Doris; she had told them that their dresses were pretty, -too--Elizabeth Ann wore a blue and white gingham dress and Doris had a -pink one. - -“I wanted Daddy to take me as far as the cross-roads in his car every -morning,” said Catherine, “but just because he walked to school when -he was a little boy, he thinks I need exercise. I hate walking.” - -“I like it,” Elizabeth Ann declared, kissing Aunt Grace good-by. - -“Do you like living in that funny place?” asked Catherine, as the three -little girls walked down the lane which led to the road they were to -take. - -“Why, it’s the nicest house I ever lived in!” Elizabeth Ann said -enthusiastically. “Doris is crazy about it--aren’t you, Doris? We go -up and down ladders instead of stairs, and we sleep in bunks instead -of beds. And the roof is a deck, and it’s the nicest place to play you -ever saw.” - -“Yes it is,” declared Doris, forgetting her shyness. “And Elizabeth Ann -can tell ship-time--she learns everything.” - -“Oh, Doris, I only know a little bit about it,” Elizabeth Ann -protested, turning red. “I have to stop and count, and most of the time -I get it all wrong.” - -Catherine did not seem to be listening. She was peering down the road. - -“Here comes that awful Roger Calendar,” she said crossly. “It will be -just like him to try to walk with us; don’t pay any attention to him -and maybe he’ll let us alone.” - -Now Doris might have done as Catherine asked--Doris was apt to do -whatever anyone asked of her. But Elizabeth Ann liked to do her own -thinking, and she remembered what Uncle Hiram had said about Roger. - -“I think he is a nice boy,” said Elizabeth Ann, “and I mean to speak to -him. He lives on the farm next to us; Uncle Hiram said so.” - -“He only lives with the Bostwicks who own the farm,” said Catherine -scornfully. “Roger is a taken boy--didn’t you hear me tell you that -yesterday? He used to live at the poor farm, until the Bostwicks took -him. He works for them, and the only reason they send him to school is -because the Board of Education makes them.” - -Roger was waiting at the Bostwick mailbox as they came up to him. He -did not seem to notice that Catherine looked straight and pretended not -to see him. - -“Hello, Catherine,” said Roger. “Good morning, Elizabeth Ann. How are -you, Doris? Are you glad or sorry school has started?” - -Roger fell into step beside Elizabeth Ann. He carried a small brown -paper parcel in his hand--his lunch, probably, thought Elizabeth Ann, -who also suspected that there could not be more than a couple of -sandwiches in such a small package. Two sandwiches were not much lunch -for a hungry boy, she thought. Aunt Grace had insisted on making four -apiece for her and Doris. - -“I like school,” said Elizabeth Ann, as Doris didn’t answer and -Catherine continued to stare straight ahead. “I’m not sure about this -school, but maybe I’ll like it.” - -“If you’re in our class, you’ll like school,” declared Roger. “We have -the finest teacher in the whole school, haven’t we, Cathy?” - -Catherine whirled upon him. - -“Roger Calendar, if you don’t stop calling me ‘Cathy,’ I’ll do -something awful to you!” she scolded. “I’ve told you twenty times I -hate it.” - -“I’m sorry,” apologized Roger. “I keep forgetting. Isn’t Miss Owen a -nice teacher, Catherine?” - -Catherine tossed her head. - -“You may like her,” she said coldly. “I never could see anything in her -to rave about. Sometimes she gets too cross for words.” - -“She’s a fine teacher,” declared Roger. “You’ll like her, Elizabeth -Ann.” - -“Here comes Mattie Harrison,” Catherine announced, waving her hand to a -little girl who came running across a plowed field. - -Mattie Harrison was quite breathless when she reached them. She was -short and fat and her brown eyes twinkled as Catherine introduced her. -Elizabeth Ann liked her at once because she spoke to Roger and asked -him if he had had a nice summer. - -“I guess he worked the same as usual,” said Catherine in what she may -have intended to be a low voice, but which Roger heard, for his face -flushed. - -He said nothing, however, and went on talking to Elizabeth Ann and -Doris, while Catherine and Mattie walked ahead. - -Elizabeth Ann knew when they were coming to the cross-roads because she -saw a group of children waiting there. She counted a dozen boys and -girls, and all of them knew Catherine and Mattie and Roger, for they -called them by name. Doris was quite overwhelmed at the sight of so -many strangers, and she tried to hide behind Elizabeth Ann, but Mattie -proved to be an expert at helping people to know each other and before -the bus came she had introduced Doris to a little girl almost as shy as -herself, and the two were talking like old friends. This other little -girl’s name was Coralie--Coralie Slade, and Doris liked her. - -“Honk! Honk! Honk!” sounded a deep hoarse horn presently. - -Down the road came a great gray, lumbering bus. It stopped within three -feet of the waiting children and the grinning young driver looked out -at them. - -“Line up,” he commanded. “Who’s the little girl in the blue and white -dress? Did she ride with me last winter?” - -“She’s Elizabeth Ann Loring, Dave,” said Roger Calendar. “And this is -her cousin, Doris Mason. They’re going to spend the winter with Uncle -Hiram and go to our school.” - -“Let company get in first,” Dave, the driver, directed. “Hop in, -Elizabeth Ann Loring, and Doris Mason.” - -Dave evidently had his passengers well trained. None of the children -moved after they had formed themselves into a straight line. They -waited to see what Dave wanted them to do. - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris stepped into the bus. It had long seats down -either side and these were about half filled with boys and girls. Some -were older--they afterward learned that these were pupils in the higher -grades. - -“Glad to know you,” said Dave from behind his wheel. “Sit down anywhere -you like. Now then, line move up--one at a time and anyone who crowds -goes to the foot of the class.” - -One by one the boys and girls filed into the bus and took seats. -Elizabeth Ann, watching, saw at once how wise Dave was to make them -enter one at a time. If they had tried to board the bus in a struggling -crowd, it would mean only confusion and delay. Dave kept an eagle eye -on the entering line and no one dared push his neighbor. Elizabeth Ann -saw that the girls came first--Dave had taught the boys to wait their -turn. - -“All right,” said Dave, when the last pupil was safely in. “I hope -you’ll all study your books and improve your time on the way to school.” - -This was a joke and everyone laughed at it. Of course there were no -lessons to be studied the first day of school. Instead the boys and -girls talked to each other, and as the bus made a great noise the -children had to shout to make themselves heard. Dave did not seem to -mind the noise---- Roger told Elizabeth Ann that he was used to it, -since he had driven the school bus for three years. But while Dave -didn’t mind noise, he wouldn’t allow anyone to leave his seat and play -in the aisle. It was the rule--Roger told Elizabeth Ann this, too--that -if anyone left his seat Dave would stop the bus at once, and refuse to -go ahead until the boy or girl sat down again. - -“We haven’t any too much time and if Dave stops even once or twice, -we may be late,” Roger shouted to Elizabeth Ann. “Once the whole bus -load was late, and we had to stay an hour after school. That made us -miss the bus home and we all had to walk. Dave won’t stand for any -skylarking, and the kids know he means what he says.” - -The bus made two more stops, picking up four boys and two girls at -one place, and three girls and three boys at another. Then it was -comfortably filled and Dave drove steadily and at a fair rate of speed -until they came in sight of a large brick building with a fenced in -yard in front of it, and a flag on the flag pole near the gate. - -“There’s our school,” said Roger as the bus stopped. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -A BUSY MORNING - - -Elizabeth Ann peered through the window--she and Doris were in the back -of the bus and couldn’t hope to get out for several seconds. Elizabeth -Ann saw that the yard fairly swarmed with children, and that they made -a rush for the gate to see who had arrived on the bus. - -“I think this school is too big,” whispered Doris, who felt she had -seen enough strange children to last her for a long time. - -“Oh, we can play tag and everything,” Elizabeth Ann reminded her -happily, standing up because the girl in front of her was standing up -and that meant it was time to leave the bus. - -Elizabeth Ann had no brothers or sisters, and she had never in all her -life had too many children to play with. She thought that school yard -was a fine place and she could just see herself playing tag in it from -one end to the other. - -“You have to go in and be registered,” said Catherine Gould. - -These were almost the only words she had said since Roger had begun to -talk to Elizabeth Ann. Catherine had talked to Mattie Harrison most of -the time. - -“Where do we register?” Elizabeth Ann asked, following Catherine out of -the bus. - -Doris came next and pressed close to her cousin. Doris was beginning to -wish she had not come. - -“I’ll show you,” offered Catherine, pushing her way through the groups -of laughing, chattering children. - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris followed her into the building, down a long -hall, and up a short flight of stairs. - -“Miss Owen, here’s Elizabeth Ann and Doris,” said Catherine, as soon as -she opened the door nearest to the stairs. - -Miss Owen, the teacher, was talking to another teacher at her desk. -She looked surprised, but when she saw Elizabeth Ann and Doris she came -over to them instantly. - -“How do you do?” she said in a lovely voice. “I’m glad you are going -to be in my room this term. Your Uncle Hiram wrote to me about you and -I’ve been expecting you.” - -Of course that made even the shy Doris feel at home at once. Then -Miss Owen showed them their desks and the cloakroom and then the -nine o’clock bell rang and it was time to go down stairs where the -auditorium was, and where assembly was held every morning. - -This was the largest school Doris had ever attended. It was the largest -Elizabeth Ann had ever gone to, except the school where she had been -a pupil in New York when she visited her Aunt Isabel. This new school -was, as Aunt Grace had explained, really six or seven little country -schools rolled into one--and when all the pupils were gathered together -in the auditorium, they filled all the seats that were arranged in rows -on the first floor, and rose in tiers in the gallery. - -And how they could sing! One of the older pupils played the piano for -them and when the students sang the hymn Elizabeth Ann wondered whether -Uncle Hiram, at home in the Bonnie Susie, couldn’t hear them. She sang, -too, and so did Doris. It was impossible to be in that auditorium and -not join in the song. Elizabeth Ann knew right away that she was going -to like the new school. - -Afterward she was just as sure. They marched back to their class room -and Miss Owen began to teach them spelling. They had spelling and -reading, and then it was time for recess. They were allowed twenty -minutes for recess, and Miss Owen made every one of them go out and -play in the yard. She said no pupil of hers could sit indoors on such a -fine day. - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris were asked to join a game of jack stones with -Mattie Harrison and another little girl who had not been on the bus. -Her name was Flora Gabrie. Catherine Gould walked up and down the yard -with her arm around one of the older girls and seemed to be listening -intently to what she was saying. - -“That’s Lenora Miller,” said Mattie, pointing to the older girl. -“Catherine Gould thinks everything Lenora says is just right. I -shouldn’t wonder if Lenora gets herself invited to Catherine’s party.” - -“Is she going to give a party?” asked Elizabeth Ann, who could ask -questions and scoop up jack stones at the same time. - -“Catherine is always giving parties,” Mattie informed her. “She lives -in a great big house, and her mother lets her do anything she pleases.” - -The bell rang for the end of recess just then, and the rest of the -morning Elizabeth Ann was too busy trying to learn to write nicely, to -think much about parties, or girls whose mothers allowed them to do -anything they pleased. - -Mattie had explained to Elizabeth Ann and Doris about the lunch hour. -In the winter she said, there was a large, warm, light room in the -basement with tables, where the pupils ate their lunches. But as long -as the weather remained warm and pleasant--as it usually did throughout -September--the children were supposed to eat their lunches outdoors. - -“Miss Owen,” Mattie had explained, “is crazy about fresh air.” - -At noon, when the bell rang, Elizabeth Ann was starving. She was sure -she had never been so hungry before in her life. - -“Come on, we have to hurry, or we don’t get a tree,” said Mattie, who -certainly knew all about school. - -Elizabeth Ann grasped her lunch box and caught hold of Doris’s hand. - -“Hurry!” she said, and helter skelter across the play ground they ran, -to a row of apple trees that were behind the building. - -Boys and girls were climbing into these trees--you know an apple tree -is close to the ground and easy to climb--and though Elizabeth Ann and -Mattie both had to tug and pull Doris, to get her up into the tree, -they all agreed, once they were settled, that it was a lovely place to -eat lunch. - -They could look out through the branches, and the way the limbs of the -tree grew sitting in it was as easy as sitting in a comfortable rocking -chair. - -“Hello!” called Roger Calendar, leaning out from the tree next to the -one where Elizabeth Ann and Doris and Mattie were perched. - -“Hello!” Mattie answered. “Did you see your writing that Miss Owen -pinned up on the board?” - -Roger blushed and ducked behind a convenient branch. - -“Are you on a diet, Roger?” Catherine Gould called to him. “Are you -afraid you’re getting too fat?” - -Catherine sat on the grass, eating her lunch with several of the -grammar grade pupils. Catherine never would climb a tree, Mattie -whispered to Elizabeth Ann. She said that only boys liked to climb -trees. - -“Why, I like to climb ’em,” said Elizabeth Ann, meaning the trees. “So -does Doris, though she can’t climb a very high tree. Lots of girls like -to climb trees.” - -“Of course they do,” Mattie agreed. “Catherine only says that, because -she doesn’t like to climb trees. And she’s mad because Roger’s writing -was the best in the class this morning, and Miss Owen pinned it on the -board. When Catherine is mad you can always tell--she says some mean -thing.” - -“Why--what did she say that was mean?” asked Elizabeth Ann, not -understanding. - -“Oh, that about asking Roger if he was dieting to keep from getting too -fat,” Mattie explained. “Poor Roger gets only two sandwiches for his -lunch. He’s almost always hungry. The Bostwicks don’t think he needs -much to eat--my mother says they don’t eat much themselves, and they -forget when a boy is growing he needs plenty to eat. Roger can eat his -lunch in two minutes and it’s mean of Catherine to ask him if he’s -afraid of getting fat. He’s the thinnest boy in school now.” - -Yes, Elizabeth Ann could see that kind of thing was unkind for -Catherine to say. You couldn’t excuse her, either, by telling yourself -that she didn’t know about Roger. Catherine lived near Roger and knew -all about him--that he was a “taken boy” and dependent upon the people -for whom he worked for his food and clothing. There was every reason in -the world why Catherine Gould, with a father and mother and a lovely -home should have been kind to Roger who had nothing he could call his -own. - -“But she is so pretty, she must be nice,” Elizabeth Ann argued, -tumbling out of the tree to have a game of tag before the bell should -ring. “Catherine is pretty and she has lovely dresses; I don’t believe -she knows when she is being mean to Roger.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -PARTY PLANS - - -Elizabeth Ann learned more about Catherine Gould as the school term -advanced. Catherine lived nearer to the Bonnie Susie than any other -girl, and she was apt to come over Saturdays, to play with Elizabeth -Ann and Doris. They went to her house, too, and as Mattie had said, -Catherine did live in a large house and there wasn’t much that her -mother wouldn’t let her do. - -“I wish my mother would be like Mrs. Gould,” said Doris, one night -at the supper table. “Mrs. Gould only says, ‘Well, all right,’ when -Catherine tells her she doesn’t want to do her homework.” - -Uncle Hiram shook his head. - -“That is exactly why Catherine doesn’t get along better in school,” -said he. “She only does what she wants to do. Most of the time she -doesn’t want to study her homework. So last June she wasn’t promoted -with the rest of her class.” - -“Catherine always talks about her piano lessons,” declared Elizabeth -Ann. “But she doesn’t like to practice. And her mother has to do all -the explaining when the teacher comes, and Catherine doesn’t know her -music lesson.” - -“Well, anyway, she has a good time,” Doris said enviously. - -Doris was getting to look more like the old Doris that Elizabeth Ann -remembered at Aunt Ida’s school. Her cheeks were a little pinker -each day, she ate more mashed potato for supper, and she hardly ever -grumbled over her breakfast oatmeal any more. To be sure, she didn’t -like walking to the bus--and very often when Mr. Gould stopped at -the Bonnie Susie, with Catherine seated beside him in his car, Doris -thought that Uncle Hiram was “mean,” because he insisted that Elizabeth -Ann and Doris should walk to the bus. - -“Orders are orders,” Uncle Hiram was fond of saying, “and your Uncle -Doctor said plainly that you two children are to walk every day it’s -possible. You don’t want to forget how to use your feet, do you, Doris?” - -And then Aunt Grace would say, apparently as though she had just -thought of it, “Of course, if you don’t feel strong enough to walk, -Doris, your uncle might be willing for you to ride; but if you don’t -feel well you’ll have to go to bed earlier every night and I couldn’t -think of letting you go to Catherine’s party.” - -That always made Doris declare hastily that she didn’t mind walking -at all. Elizabeth Ann, who remembered how Uncle Doctor made his sick -people take walks whether they wanted to or not, was glad that Aunt -Grace was there to remind Doris about the party. For Doris could be -rather stubborn, and she might say she wouldn’t walk to the bus--only -she never in the wide world would say that if she knew she couldn’t go -to Catherine’s party. - -For Catherine was planning a wonderful party--the best and largest, so -she said, that she had ever given, and it would be on Hallowe’en, which -is, of course one of the best times in the whole of the year for party -fun. - -“I’m going to have prizes for the nicest costumes and everything,” -announced Catherine importantly. “You all have to dress up and wear -masks, so no one will know who you are.” - -Catherine saw no reason for keeping her party plans a secret and she -early announced that she meant to invite her entire class to her house, -except Roger Calendar. - -“I don’t see any reason why I have to ask him,” said Catherine, “I -don’t like him and anyway he won’t have anything fit to wear.” - -But Catherine soon found out that she couldn’t invite the entire class -and leave one out. Miss Owen said that would be a dreadful thing to do -and Catherine’s own daddy, when he heard of the plan, said he would not -let such a thing happen. - -“If you plan to invite the entire class, you’ll have to invite every -one of them,” said Mr. Gould to his daughter, firmly. “I won’t have -anyone deliberately slighted; I like Roger Calendar, and the boy gets -little enough fun. Ask him to your party.” - -“He won’t have anything to wear,” objected Catherine. - -“He can wear what he pleases to a Hallowe’en party,” Mr. Gould said. -“Ask him, anyway.” - -Now Catherine’s mother might let her do as she pleased, but her daddy, -although he loved her dearly, could not be coaxed or teased. Catherine -knew she would have to invite Roger, or else not have any party. Rather -than give up the whole plan, she sent him one of the pretty invitations. - -“Perhaps he will have sense enough not to come,” she said to Elizabeth -Ann. - -And at first it looked as though Roger wouldn’t go to the party. - -“No, I’m not going,” he said when Elizabeth Ann spoke to him about it. -“I don’t believe Catherine wants me to come to her party, and besides I -haven’t a costume. Everyone is going to dress up and I’ll look queer. -I suppose I could go as a tramp, but I’m tired of looking like a tramp -every day.” - -Elizabeth Ann thought this over. Doris said she was silly to worry -about Roger, and she’d much better spend the time thinking up -something for them to wear. Doris depended on Elizabeth Ann to “think” -her a costume, as she said. - -“I want Roger to have a good time,” explained Elizabeth Ann, “and he -can’t have a good time unless he has a costume to wear. I’m going to -ask Uncle Hiram what to do about it.” - -By this time Elizabeth Ann and Uncle Hiram were excellent friends. -He had taught her to tell time by the ship’s clock, and though she -couldn’t, as she wrote Uncle Doctor, do it in a hurry, if she went -about it slowly she could count the hours by bells very nicely. Uncle -Hiram was always telling her that she would make a fine little sailor, -and Elizabeth Ann thought that if she hadn’t first planned to be a -doctor like Uncle Doctor and Lex, she might have liked to be a sailor. - -“Uncle Hiram,” said Elizabeth Ann one afternoon when she came in, -red-cheeked and breathless from running down the lane--she had raced -Doris home from the bus and had won, as she usually did--“Uncle Hiram, -you know that Catherine Gould is going to give a party Hallowe’en. -That’s only a week off now. It’s going to be a party with prizes and -’freshments and everything. And all the class is invited.” - -“Seems to me,” Uncle Hiram answered, his eyes twinkling, “that I heard -something about this party before.” - -“I may have told you something about it,” admitted Elizabeth Ann, “but -I didn’t tell you about Roger Calendar. Catherine invited him to come -and he doesn’t want to go, because he hasn’t any costume.” - -“What kind of a costume does he want?” Uncle Hiram asked showing the -liveliest interest. - -“Oh--I don’t know,” confessed Elizabeth Ann. “Something that isn’t a -tramp costume, I guess. He says he looks like a tramp every day, and he -won’t go to the party dressed to look like one.” - -“Don’t blame him,” Uncle Hiram said. “Don’t blame him a bit. I think I -can lend the lad something--suppose you come with me, Elizabeth Ann, -and we’ll overhaul a chest or two and see what we can drag up in our -net.” - -“I love to overhaul,” declared the enthusiastic Elizabeth Ann, who -hadn’t the slightest idea what Uncle Hiram meant. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -SEAMEN’S CHESTS - - -But it was usually safe to think that what Uncle Hiram planned would be -pleasant. And when Elizabeth Ann found herself in a small square dark -room, in the hold of the ship, according to Uncle Hiram--and the cellar -as Aunt Grace called it--she began to feel a thrill of excitement. -Doris had gone home with Catherine directly from the bus, and would not -come till supper time. - -Uncle Hiram turned on the electric light and Elizabeth Ann saw that -Tony was purring against her legs--he had followed them down. It had -taken Tony a little time to learn to go up and down ladders, but now he -could do it beautifully. - -“Oh-h, what are they?” asked Elizabeth Ann, staring. - -All around the room were dark, polished boxes. They had lids and locks -and there were little keys in each lock. - -“Chests,” said Uncle Hiram, enjoying her surprise. “Seamen’s chests, -my dear. And in one of them, unless I’m greatly mistaken, we’ll find -something that Roger Calendar will be proud to wear to the party.” - -Uncle Hiram unlocked the lid of one chest and showed Elizabeth Ann a -neatly typewritten list pasted inside the lid. - -“I did that to every chest as I packed it,” he explained. “I can tell -what is in every chest. These things are all trifles I picked up on -my voyages--things your Aunt Grace doesn’t want to keep in the first -cabin. She couldn’t keep them all up there, anyway--isn’t enough room.” - -Elizabeth Ann almost forgot about Roger and the party as she turned -over the things in the different chests as Uncle Hiram unlocked one -after the other. There were strings of beads, and marvelously colored -shells and dried star fish and pebbles with flecks of shining gold in -them. - -There were yards and yards of beautiful silks from far away countries -and perfumes and spices that filled the air with fragrance as soon -as the chest in which they were kept, was opened. There were bits of -carved wood, and fans made of silk, and other fans made of shell. There -were combs and ear-rings and funny lacquered shoes. There were little -ivory figures--like the ones Elizabeth Ann had seen in Aunt Isabel’s -cabinets when she visited her in New York. In fact there were so many -things tucked away in those chests that Elizabeth Ann felt as though -she might be visiting Santa Claus and looking over all the things -he must have put away. Only these were not toys--Uncle Hiram hadn’t -collected toys, though he did have a couple of odd-looking dolls made -from carved bones. - -“Now this is what I had in mind for Roger,” said Uncle Hiram, unlocking -the last chest. “It may be a little large for him, but your Aunt Grace -can take a tuck or two in it. She’s handy with her needle. How do you -think Roger would like this?” - -He drew out something made of dark blue silk and held it up for -Elizabeth Ann to see. There were long trousers and a jacket almost -solidly embroidered in vivid colors--red and blue and silver and gold -and green. As Elizabeth Ann looked at it, she saw that there were gold -dragons cunningly placed in the embroidery. A little silk skull cap -went with the costume and embroidered silk slippers. - -“No one around here has ever seen this,” said Uncle Hiram. “I think it -will disguise Roger pretty thoroughly. I believe we have some masks -around the house--your Aunt Grace will remember where they are--just -large enough to cover your eyes. Roger might as well have one of those.” - -Aunt Grace, when she saw the costume, said it would be very easy to -alter it to fit Roger. And he stopped in for a few minutes the next -Saturday morning--he didn’t dare stay long, for he was supposed to do -most of his farm work on Saturday when there was no school--and Aunt -Grace made him put on the costume while she went all over it and marked -it with pins where she was to make it smaller or shorter. - -“Suppose something happens to it?” Roger kept asking nervously. “I -never wore silk clothes--they must be expensive. Suppose somebody -spills something on me?” - -“Let ’em spill,” said Uncle Hiram calmly. “I’ve had that Chinese -costume for twenty years or so and it’s never done anybody a bit of -good; it’s high time it began to earn a little interest. You wear it -Roger, and if you tear it or sit down on an apple pie, I won’t say a -word.” - -Aunt Grace hunted through her things and found three little -masks--“dominoes,” she called them. These went across the eyes and -Elizabeth Ann didn’t think they were much help. She was sure that -anyone would know her if she didn’t cover up more of her face than -that. But when she looked at herself in the glass with her domino on, -she was forced to admit that she didn’t look at all like Elizabeth Ann -Loring. - -“Why I might be Doris,” said the astonished Elizabeth Ann. “And Doris -looks as much like me as she looks like herself. Perhaps dominoes are -good masks, after all.” - -Of course Elizabeth Ann was interested in her own costume. Now that she -knew Roger was provided with something to wear, Elizabeth Ann could -plan for herself and Doris. And she decided that they would go to -Catherine’s party dressed as two little black cats. - -“It’s easy,” said Elizabeth Ann when Doris said she didn’t see what -they could wear that would make them look like black cats. “Aunt Grace -will make us the suits out of that old black coat she has--she said the -other day she meant to cut it up for carpet rags. And we’ll wear white -gloves and our white canvas shoes and that will make us look as though -we had white paws.” - -The old black cloth coat proved to be even better for cat costumes than -Elizabeth Ann had suspected. For it was a material called zibelene and -was covered with short fine hairs. You can see how cloth like that -would make excellent cat fur for little girls to wear to a party. - -Aunt Grace cut the costumes very much like the sleeping garments some -children wear in winter--with long sleeves and legs that came down -to the ankles. She made caps, too, with little perky ears that stood -up. Elizabeth Ann and Doris had brought their white canvas shoes with -them, but getting gloves was a more serious matter. Finally Uncle Hiram -drove to town and bought them each a pair of the white canvas gloves -that farmers use for much of their work. These of course were miles -too large for the little girls, but clever Aunt Grace--who could do -practically anything with a sewing machine or her needle--ripped the -gloves apart, cut them to fit, and sewed them up again. - -It did seem as though Hallowe’en would never come. The children at -school talked so much about the party that Miss Owen said she was -afraid they wouldn’t have anything to say to each other when they met -at Catherine’s house. And Miss Owen said, too, that it would be better -if they paid a little more attention to their lessons, and that she -certainly could not excuse boys and girls who didn’t make any attempt -to do their homework. - -Catherine was one of these. She said she was so busy getting ready for -the party that she had no time to study at home. - -“You don’t get ready for a party at night,” Mattie Harrison told her. -“You could study your homework after supper. Anyway, I don’t believe -you do a thing about the party--your mother always does every single -thing for you.” - -But Catherine went right on, letting her homework go, and Miss Owen -kept her in after school, and never paid any attention when she cried. - -“Orders are orders,” Uncle Hiram always said when Elizabeth Ann told -him about Catherine, who used to sit at her desk with the tears rolling -down her face while the rest of the class marched out of the school at -the end of the afternoon session. - -If Catherine were kept in too late she missed the bus--which left half -an hour after school closed on clear days and fifteen minutes after on -stormy days. Miss Owen didn’t like to have anyone miss the bus, and -if she could possibly dismiss her pupils she did it in time to let -them make connections. It was a rule that all the children who had to -wait for the bus must play in the school yard, and one of the teachers -always stayed till the bus came. This was because some boys and girls -were absent-minded and would have allowed the bus to go without them if -a teacher had not been on hand to remind them to stop playing. - -“I think,” said Uncle Hiram when he heard that Catherine had had to -stay in for the third afternoon in one week, “I think Miss Owen will be -glad when this party is over.” - -Dave, the driver of the bus, had heard about the party, too. Catherine -talked of nothing else. And once, when she missed the bus in the -morning and had had to go home, because there wasn’t time to walk all -the distance to school, she said that Dave was ahead of his time and -that she meant to ask her father to complain to the School Board. - -Elizabeth Ann told Doris that she thought perhaps it was better not -to have your mother let you do just as you pleased--for Catherine -apparently expected everyone else to let her do as she pleased. And it -wasn’t always convenient. - -One morning, a few days before Hallowe’en, Elizabeth Ann and Doris were -hurrying to make the bus. They were a little late for they had waited -for Catherine as long as they dared. Finally Aunt Grace had telephoned -Catherine’s mother who said that Catherine was just eating her -breakfast. She said that Elizabeth Ann and Doris should go on and that -Catherine’s daddy would take her in the car as far as the cross-roads. - -It was a cold morning--all the lovely fall weather had gone and the sky -was gray, while a keen wind blew over the fields--and Elizabeth Ann and -Doris were glad to walk fast. - -“I don’t believe we’ll make the bus,” panted Doris, turning around so -that the wind wouldn’t blow in her face. - -“Yes we will--come on--don’t stop--hurry!” commanded Elizabeth Ann. - -“Oh--here comes Catherine!” Doris cried in some dismay. “She’s waving -to us--she wants us to wait for her, Elizabeth Ann.” - -Elizabeth Ann glanced over her shoulder. Far down the road was -Catherine, not walking fast, not running, but moving along at an -ordinary pace. She was waving her hand and calling to them. - -“Hurry!” shouted Elizabeth Ann. “It’s late--hurry, Catherine, or you’ll -miss the bus.” - -That provoking Catherine _wouldn’t_ hurry. She continued to walk as she -always did, and she continued to call to Elizabeth Ann and Doris to -stop and wait for her. - -“We might as well stop,” said Elizabeth Ann with a sigh. “She slows us -up making us turn round like this.” - -They waited till Catherine caught up with them, though it was cold -standing still. Catherine didn’t seem to think she had walked slowly at -all. - -“Daddy was cross and wouldn’t bring me in the car,” she explained. “He -said if I got up when Mother first called me I would have had plenty of -time to walk. I wanted to stay home to-day, but he wouldn’t let me do -that, either.” - -“I hear the bus!” cried Elizabeth Ann suddenly. “We’re late we’ll have -to run.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -CATHERINE DAWDLES - - -The chug-chug of the bus sounded on the main road. Dave was blowing his -horn, too, as he always did, to warn any stragglers. - -“Hurry!” urged Elizabeth Ann, taking hold of Doris’s hand to make her -run. “Hurry, Catherine--you’ll be late.” - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris ran as fast as they could, but Catherine simply -walked as usual. Once Elizabeth Ann looked over her shoulder and called -to her to run, but Catherine didn’t even answer. - -“Almost missed it,” said Dave, when Elizabeth Ann reached the low, wide -step, scarlet-faced and breathless and dragging a breathless Doris -after her. - -All the other children were inside and that showed Elizabeth Ann how -nearly she had missed the bus. Usually she and Doris were on hand to -stand in line and march in with the others. - -“Hurry up,” Dave commanded. “Hop in.” - -Doris obediently “hopped,” but Elizabeth Ann hung back. - -“Catherine Gould is coming--I have to wait for her,” she said, looking -pleadingly at Dave. - -“Well, where is she?” he demanded impatiently. - -Elizabeth Ann looked. Catherine wasn’t in sight yet. The road dipped -behind a hill and you couldn’t see anyone coming up till he or she had -almost reached the top. It was plain that Catherine didn’t intend to -hurry. - -“Get in,” said Dave curtly. “I can’t wait for Catherine--she never is -willing to hurry.” - -But he sounded his horn twice to let Catherine know he was there. - -“Get in, Elizabeth Ann,” said Dave again. “I can’t wait any longer.” - -Elizabeth Ann shook her head. - -“I have to wait for Catherine,” she declared. “You go on without me.” - -“Oh, Elizabeth Ann, you’ll be late for school,” cried Doris from her -seat in the bus. “You know Miss Owen hates to have a tardy mark against -the class.” - -Tears came into Elizabeth Ann’s eyes, but she looked steadily at Dave. - -“I can’t go and leave her,” she said. - -For answer Dave suddenly stood up. He slid out from behind the wheel -and stooped down, seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and lifted her -into the bus. He put her down on the long seat and closed the door with -a snap. - -Then he started the bus. - -“Wait!” screamed Catherine, just reaching the road. “Wait for me! Hey, -Dave, you wait for me!” - -Dave glanced at Elizabeth Ann. He stopped the bus. And that troublesome -Catherine stopped running and began to walk as slowly as she could. - -“Don’t wait for her, Dave,” said some of the boys. “She’s always acting -like that. Serve her right to go on and leave her.” - -To everyone’s surprise, Dave backed the bus. He let it run backward so -fast that he reached the dawdling Catherine before she realized it. -Neither was she prepared to have Dave jump out lift her up and tumble -her into the bus with scant ceremony. - -Then he closed the door again and began to drive with such a grim face -that none of the children thought it best to speak to him. Elizabeth -Ann didn’t feel very happy, but she was glad none of them would be -late--at the rate Dave was driving they’d probably get to school a -little earlier than usual. - -Catherine sat and frowned out of the window all the way. She acted, -thought Elizabeth Ann, as though someone had made her almost late -instead of being the one who had nearly made the entire bus load late -for school. Elizabeth Ann shuddered to think what Miss Owen would say -if an entire bus load of children walked into school late. Of course -they were not all in her room, but many of them were. - -When they reached the school yard, Dave stopped the bus, but he did not -open the door. - -[Illustration: He seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and lifted her -into the bus.] - -“I just want to tell you,” he said quietly, “that the next time anyone -stages a performance like that this morning, I shall report him or her -to the principal. And I’ll leave him behind, too--you’re all old enough -to behave yourselves and if you’re not willing to make the bus and get -to school on time, why that’s your affair, not mine.” - -He swung the heavy iron lever that opened the door and the children -began to file out quietly. Elizabeth Ann stayed in her seat until the -last one was out and then she came up to Dave. - -“I had to wait for Catherine,” she said earnestly. “She’s my friend.” - -“Well--all right,” returned Dave. “I suppose you thought you had to -wait for her; but the trouble with Catherine Gould is that too many -people wait for her--give in to her, I mean. She’d be late for school -every morning, and not care if the whole school would be late, too.” - -Elizabeth Ann sincerely hoped that Catherine would try harder to -get to school on time. Because she was so often later going home -afternoons--on account of that homework that she just wouldn’t do--and -if she had to walk to school mornings, dear me, she would be in a sad -way. - -Doris told Uncle Hiram about the bus incident, and Elizabeth Ann -was sorry she had not asked her to keep still about it. Uncle Hiram -declared that Elizabeth Ann and Doris should not wait past the usual -time another morning for Catherine. - -“She must get here in time to walk with you to the bus, or you must -start without her,” said Uncle Hiram firmly. “Catherine is entirely too -selfish and she gets more spoiled every week.” - -And the very next morning Catherine missed the bus again--Elizabeth Ann -and Doris didn’t even see her, but she wasn’t at the cross-roads with -them and Roger Calendar and the others when Dave drove up. He honked -his horn as usual, but no Catherine appeared, so he drove on to school. - -It was ten o’clock when Catherine appeared, to the surprise of -everyone, including Miss Owen who had marked her absent. At recess -Catherine, whose eyes were red from crying, told Elizabeth Ann that she -had missed the bus and had turned around and gone home. - -“I’d rather be absent than tardy,” she sniffed, “but my father saw me -coming back and he said I’d have to go to school. He wouldn’t drive me, -either--I had to walk all the way. I wouldn’t have come, only he said -if I didn’t I couldn’t have the party. After I’d told everybody about -the party, I just couldn’t give it up.” - -When Doris heard that, she said she was glad. If there was one thing -Doris wanted to go to it was that Hallowe’en party. Elizabeth Ann -looked forward to it, too, but she was more interested to learn what -the others said when they saw Roger Calendar in his embroidered silk -costume, than anything else. - -Catherine kept telling them something new about the party every day, -and the afternoon before it was actually to take place she confided -that it was to be held in her daddy’s big barn. - -“We’ve moved the piano out there and everything,” said Catherine -proudly. “We’re going to have a lovely time. Do come early.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -AT THE PARTY - - -Elizabeth Ann discovered that there was a pleasant custom in Gardner -and the farms nearby, of asking the fathers and mothers to come to the -parties too. So Uncle Hiram and Aunt Grace were going with Elizabeth -Ann and Doris; and they would visit with Mr. and Mrs. Gould in the -big farmhouse while the boys and girls had their party in the barn. -Catherine had a young aunt--Aunt Nan she called her--who knew how to -make everyone have a good time and she would be on hand to see that no -guest was neglected, or left out of any of the games. - -The party was to start at seven o’clock--“six bells,” as Elizabeth -Ann proudly told Doris. This was so that no one need be up very late. -Aunt Grace had supper early Hallowe’en night and then Elizabeth Ann -and Doris dressed in their cat costumes, put on their domino masks, -and climbed giggling into the car. They had to wear coats over their -costumes for it was a chilly night. - -They saw the lights burning in the Gould barn long before they reached -it--in fact they could see the lights as soon as they made the first -turn in the road. It was a longer drive or walk by way of the road to -the Gould farm, than across fields, but of course when you are going to -a party, you go by way of the regular road. - -“We have to get out of the car before we get to the barn, Uncle Hiram,” -explained Elizabeth Ann, as the car turned into the road that led -directly to the Gould barn. “If they see us get out, they’ll know who -we are.” - -So Uncle Hiram stopped the car and shut off the lights about ten feet -from the barn. - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris took off their coats, jumped out, and ran up to -the barn door. - -“Oh-h!” cried Doris, shrinking back of Elizabeth Ann. - -A tall white figure stood at the barn door and he bowed to them. - -“Walk right in--I’m a ghost,” he said politely. “I’m very glad to see -you, I’m sure.” - -Elizabeth Ann giggled in delight. She thought for a ghost he had very -nice manners. - -“I’m a cat,” she said. “So’s----” but Doris pinched her just in time -to prevent her from saying, “So’s Doris,” which, of course, would have -given them both away. - -They went into the barn, past the ghost, and found themselves on the -large main floor. - -“Isn’t it lovely!” said Elizabeth Ann. - -There were great shocks of corn stalks standing about, and everywhere -pumpkins carved into lanterns. In every pumpkin there was a lighted -electric bulb--Mr. Gould was a careful farmer, and he wouldn’t have any -candles in his barn. There were no chairs, but heaps of sofa cushions, -covered with gingham covers so that no one need be afraid to use -them--the covers would wash. There was the piano in one corner, just as -Catherine had promised, too. - -“Where’s Catherine?” asked Elizabeth Ann, staring around her. - -There were pirates and sailors and gypsy girls and American Indians and -fairy princesses flitting about. Elizabeth Ann thought she recognized -several of the girls in her class, but she couldn’t be sure, because -they wore masks. There were Generals in uniforms with hundreds of brass -buttons winking in the light. And there were farmers, in wide straw -hats and brand new ones too, though, thought Elizabeth Ann, straw hats -were funny in October. - -“I think that’s Catherine,” whispered Doris, pointing to a fairy -princess who stood talking to Aunt Nan--the only guest who did not wear -a mask. - -As soon as she saw the fairy princess, Elizabeth Ann felt that Doris -was right. The princess was about as tall as Catherine was, but it was -her dress that made Elizabeth Ann so sure. No one but Catherine Gould -would have a dress like that to wear to a party. - -The dress was some soft white stuff and it was completely covered -with little silver spangles. Every time the girl who wore it moved -a step, the spangles shone and glittered. There was a silver crown -to go with the dress, and a long scepter too. Oh, that was Catherine -Gould--Elizabeth Ann had no doubt of it. - -“We want to march!” called Aunt Nan, when everyone had come up and -spoken to her--as they weren’t expected to find the real hostess till -the time to unmask came. - -By the time Elizabeth Ann and Doris had reached Aunt Nan and had shaken -hands with her, the fairy princess had disappeared. Now Elizabeth Ann -looked around expectantly, for of course Catherine could play the -piano. She talked about her music lessons all the time. - -“Is there anyone here who will play for us?” asked Aunt Nan, looking -hard at a little clown in a red and yellow suit. - -The clown backed away hastily. - -“I can’t play,” he--or she--mumbled shyly. - -Then a voice, over by the door, said quietly, “I’ll play a march, if -you like.” - -Elizabeth Ann was so surprised she clutched Doris by the arm and -pinched her, though she didn’t mean to at all. There, just coming -in the door, was Roger Calendar in his embroidered blue silk Chinese -costume. - -Roger was masked and apparently no one knew him, but of course -Elizabeth Ann recognized the suit. Doris didn’t know anything about -it, so she continued to stare placidly. Doris had not been home the -afternoon Uncle Hiram showed Elizabeth Ann the chests and she had been -outdoors, playing, when Roger stopped in to have Aunt Grace fit the -suit to him. Uncle Hiram had suggested that no one tell Doris, because -she sometimes revealed secrets when she was excited. So Elizabeth Ann -was confident she was the only one at the party who knew who the guest -in the blue silk suit really was. - -But Roger couldn’t play the piano--Elizabeth Ann was sure he couldn’t -do that. Why, the Bostwicks, with whom he lived didn’t have a piano. -She had heard Mrs. Bostwick tell Aunt Grace that the reason they bought -a radio was because she liked a little music in the house. - -Yet there was Roger, walking toward the piano. While Elizabeth Ann -watched him--and for that matter everyone watched him--he sat down on -the piano bench. He began to play--the liveliest of marches rippled -from under his fingers, and feet began to go tap-tap-tap, all over the -barn. - -Elizabeth Ann was sure Catherine was the fairy princess when she -saw how that girl rushed to take her place at the head of the line. -Catherine would want to lead the march--in school she always wanted to -lead, and she was always disappointed when Miss Owen declared all the -pupils must take turns. - -Aunt Nan paired off the children, and Elizabeth Ann found she was to -march with the ghost. All she could see of him, except the sheet around -his body and the pillow case around his head, were two merry eyes that -twinkled at her through slits cut in the pillow case. - -“Bet you don’t know who I am,” said the ghost, his foot keeping time to -that enchanting music. - -“No,” said Elizabeth Ann, “I don’t know you. Do you know me?” - -“Sure, you’re Mattie Harrison,” the ghost assured her. “I’d know you -anywhere; but don’t be afraid--I won’t tell.” - -Elizabeth Ann laughed. She thought it was fine to be told she was -Mattie Harrison and if the ghost wanted to keep it a secret that would -be still more fun. - -The march started. Round and round the barn the children went, and -the third time Elizabeth Ann noticed that the doorway of the barn was -crowded--the grown-ups stood there, watching. They had wanted to see -the costumes, and had come out in the frosty air to watch the pretty -march. - -“Now we’re going to have a Virginia Reel,” announced Aunt Nan, “because -that is easy to dance, and everyone can do it; I want you to take a -good look at every couple’s costume as they go down the line. Afterward -I’ll ask you to vote for the prettiest costume worn by a girl, the best -costume worn by a boy, and the funniest costume worn by either a girl -or boy. Remember to look at everybody’s costume.” - -Roger still sat at the piano. At a nod from Aunt Nan he began to -play again. Dear me, he _couldn’t_ be Roger, thought the bewildered -Elizabeth Ann. Yet he was wearing the costume Uncle Hiram had loaned -Roger. No one else could possibly come to the party wearing that blue -silk suit. - -Still thinking and puzzling about it, Elizabeth Ann danced down the -line with her ghost. Everyone laughed and clapped when the white ghost -and the black cat danced together and the ghost whispered to Elizabeth -Ann, “Gee, Mattie, you dance better than you did,” and that, of course, -made the cat break into a giggle. - -“Now I’ll play a few minutes, while the Chinese Mandarin comes and -dances,” announced Aunt Nan. - -She took her place at the piano and Roger came toward the others. - -“My, hasn’t he a beautiful costume!” Elizabeth Ann heard the fairy -princess whisper. - -The gold dragons gleamed and the red and green of the embroidery shone -under the shadowy lights streaming down from the pumpkins. Elizabeth -Ann was a little surprised herself to see how handsome Roger’s costume -looked. - -He made the fairy princess a little bow and she gave him her hand and -they tripped down the line and back while the others looked at them. -Beyond a doubt they wore the handsomest costumes, and Elizabeth Ann’s -heart began to thump a little with excitement. Suppose Roger Calendar -should win the first prize? - -“Now, before we have the games, we’ll award the prizes, and then we’ll -unmask,” said Aunt Nan, turning around on the piano bench. - -“Who wins the first prize for the girl’s prettiest costume?” she asked, -reaching under the piano bench and bringing out three boxes tied with -orange ribbon and wrapped in black paper. - -“The fairy princess!” shouted the boys and girls as with one voice. - -“Oh, dear!” Aunt Nan sighed. “I hate to have Catherine win her -own prize. We’ll have to see what can be done about that. Unmask, -Catherine.” - -Catherine took off her mask and shook back her hair. Her face was -flushed with triumph and excitement as they clapped for her. - -“And which boy wins first prize for the handsomest costume?” asked Aunt -Nan, holding up a box. - -My goodness, they almost shouted the answer. - -“Chinese Mandarin!” they cried, “Chinese Mandarin!” and Elizabeth Ann -noticed that Catherine was shouting as loudly as the rest. - -“Unmask, Mandarin,” commanded Aunt Nan, smiling. “You get the prize.” - -Roger put up his hand and took the mask away from his eyes. - -There was a moment’s silence and then Catherine’s voice rose loud and -shrill. - -“Why it’s only Roger Calendar!” she said. “I don’t think that’s fair!” - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -WITCHES AND ALL - - -A murmur went over the barn, but it wasn’t a murmur of objection; it -sounded more like admiration. - -“That’s a fine costume!” said the ghost in Elizabeth Ann’s ear. “I’m -glad he gets the prize. Roger Calendar is a mighty nice fellow.” - -But Catherine was talking in a low tone to her aunt and her face was an -angry red. Elizabeth Ann couldn’t hear what was said, but Doris, who -was much nearer, could and she told her after they were in bed that -night. - -“Catherine’s Aunt Nan told her that if she made a scene before the -others at the party, she would make her go in the house and stay -there,” reported Doris. “She said that Roger had won the prize fairly, -and that he was Catherine’s guest and she had to be polite to him. And -she told her that if she didn’t take the prize to him and congratulate -him on winning it, she would have to go in the house, anyway.” - -So a few minutes later, the boys and girls saw Catherine, her face -still red, walking up to Roger and hold out the box he had won. - -“I congratulate you on winning first prize,” said Catherine jerkily, -“and I hope you like your prize.” - -Roger did not offer to take the box. - -“Are you willing for me to have it?” he asked in a low voice. - -Catherine nodded and Aunt Nan spoke up briskly. - -“Take it, Roger,” she directed. “We haven’t voted for the funniest -costume yet--children, who wins the prize for the funniest costume, -girl or boy?” - -Then Elizabeth Ann was surprised again. For all the children -shouted--and the ghost most loudly of all--“Give it to the two black -cats!” - -Aunt Nan laughed and asked the two black cats to please come forward. - -“You’ll have to share your prize,” she said, “We didn’t expect to have -two winners.” - -Doris was too shy to stir, so Elizabeth Ann had to go forward. She -made a funny little curtsey as she took the box and everyone clapped -for her. And the minute she took her place in the line, the ghost -whispered--“Take off your mask--you’re not Mattie Harrison. I never saw -Mattie make a curtsey.” - -“Yes, take off your masks--all of you now,” said Aunt Nan. “We’re going -to play games.” - -Elizabeth Ann had to laugh when the ghost saw her face. He stared--he -was Jim Bennett, one of the boys in her class. - -“And I was so sure you were Mattie Harrison!” he ejaculated. “You’re -about as tall as she is--there’s Mattie over there; she came as a gypsy -girl.” - -Elizabeth Ann opened the prize--it was a beautiful box of candy and -she and Doris agreed that there couldn’t be a nicer box for two prize -winners to share. - -Roger had won a writing set--pen and pencil that matched. They were -black and gold, and Roger--who had never had anything as nice in his -life--was so pleased Elizabeth Ann thought surely Catherine would be -glad he had won them. - -But Catherine continued to be cross. She was so cross that her Aunt Nan -was afraid she would spoil the party, and so allowed her to keep the -prize she had won--a pen and pencil set, too--but for a girl. Aunt Nan -said no hostess should win the prize at her own party, but Catherine -was quite capable of sitting down and crying if she didn’t get her way, -and that, of course, would be worse than letting her have the prize. If -you can think of anything worse than a hostess crying at her own party, -why we can not. - -They played all the good old Hallowe’en games--ducking for apples, and -trying to find the ring in a plate of flour and sailing walnut shell -boats in the tub of water to see which sank and which stayed up. They -threw apple peelings over their shoulders to see what initials were -formed and they walked backwards with mirrors to see what they could -see--and it must be admitted that most of them didn’t see anything at -all. - -Then, just as Mattie Harrison suggested they might have another -Virginia Reel--she said she wanted to hear Roger Calendar play -again--there was a noise and clatter at the barn door that drew their -attention to something just coming in. - -“A witch!” shrieked the children. “It’s a witch.” - -Goodness, it was a witch. She came in on her broomstick, her long wisps -of white hair floating out from under her tall black hat. There was a -light on the end of her broomstick and one of the boys whispered he -supposed that was in case the traffic was heavy in the sky as she rode -along. - -“That’s exactly what I use that light for, young man,” croaked the -witch, who certainly sounded as though she needed a cough drop. “On -Hallowe’en, the sky is so full of witches it’s all we can do to find -our way around without a collision. What are you doing here? Having a -party?” - -The children nodded. They weren’t quite sure how to talk to a witch, -and it seemed safer just to nod their heads. - -“A party, eh?” said the witch. “Well--well. How would you like to come -to my cave? I’ll have a party for you there, if you’ll come.” - -“We don’t know where you live,” said Elizabeth Ann, as no one answered. - -“Oh, I can tell you how to get to my cave,” the witch croaked. - -“Shall we go?” whispered Elizabeth Ann to Catherine. - -“Might as well,” Catherine said, who was evidently as surprised to see -a witch at her party as the other children were. - -“I can’t go with you, because I ride through the sky, and will get -there ahead of you,” said the witch. “But you take these little rolls -of silk I give you--one roll for each boy and girl--and follow them. -You’ll find my cave without a bit of trouble.” - -She brushed aside a few corn stalks and there, in a little mound lay a -heap of what looked like bobbins of silk. They were each a different -color. - -“Stand in two lines,” said the witch, picking up the bobbins, “girls in -one line, boys in the other. That’s right.” - -Roger Calendar slipped into place beside Elizabeth Ann. - -“Let me wind the silk for you,” he said in a low voice. “It’s something -like the old game of spider web, I think. If you look along the floor -you can see threads going in different directions.” - -Elizabeth Ann looked, while the witch was passing down the line, -handing each boy a bobbin. - -“Yes,” whispered Elizabeth Ann. “I see the threads. Isn’t this fun!” - -“Now then, each of you count eleven as loudly as you can,” said the -witch, picking up her broomstick. “When you have counted to eleven, -start to wind your silk. I’ll be waiting for you in my cave.” - -With a wave of her hand, she clattered out. - -“One-two-three-four----” the counting began in the barn. - -As they reached the number “ELEVEN!” the boys began to wind the silk. - -“All right, we’re ready,” said Roger to Elizabeth Ann. “I thought this -was a spider web. See, we’re going under the wagon.” - -Elizabeth Ann glanced back to see whether Doris was happy. She saw that -Jim Bennett was her partner. Jim would talk so much that Doris wouldn’t -have to say many words, and that would make her happy. Doris liked to -talk to Elizabeth Ann, but she didn’t have much to say when she was at -a party. - -The silk cord Roger was winding led him and Elizabeth Ann under -the heavy farm wagon, standing in one corner of the barn. It led -them through an empty box stall. It took them across the barn yard -and around a tree--a beautiful silver moon was shining in the sky -and Elizabeth Ann found herself wishing that she could ride a -broomstick--just once--across the sky and see how the moon looks when -one is near it. - -On all sides of them they heard laughing and talking, for the cords -were wound in and out, and some of them crossed. At about the same time -everyone reached the farmhouse door--the kitchen door Elizabeth Ann -knew it was, because she had often been in the Gould kitchen. - -But when the kitchen door opened for them--someone must have seen them -coming--lo and behold the kitchen was a cave. It looked just like a -cave, and there was a great iron pot over the fire in the fire place -and the witch sat there, waiting for them. - -The fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles were there, too, and -everyone sat down at a long table and drank the hot cocoa the witch had -ready for them and ate brown bread sandwiches and sugary doughnuts. -There was a toy pumpkin filled with salted peanuts for each guest -and after they had finished eating Uncle Hiram said it was high time -mortals went to bed so the bats and the owls and the black cats could -have their parties. - -“We’ll take you home, Roger,” Elizabeth Ann heard him say, and when she -climbed sleepily into the car a few minutes later, Roger was on the -front seat with Uncle Hiram. - -“I’m glad to-morrow is Saturday,” murmured Elizabeth Ann. “We won’t -have to get up in time to go to school.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -BAD NEWS - - -“Well, who was the witch then?” said Doris. - -She and Elizabeth Ann were talking over the party. It was the next -morning and they had slept till ten o’clock. They had just had -breakfast and were sitting in the sun on the steps, with Tony between -them. It was so cold now--the first of November--that they needed their -hats and coats on, even to sit in the sun. - -Doris had been insisting that Mrs. Gould was the witch. When Elizabeth -Ann pointed out to her that Catherine’s mother had sat at the table -near Doris, at the same time the witch was passing the cocoa, Doris had -to admit that Mrs. Gould could not have been the witch. - -“Who was the witch, then?” asked Doris. - -“I think Aunt Nan was the witch,” Elizabeth Ann said, “I noticed when -we stopped trying to bite the apples on a string she wasn’t in the -barn. I think she went to the house and put on her witch’s costume and -came back. And when we were in the kitchen, I looked all around and she -wasn’t there--unless she was the witch.” - -Doris nodded slowly. - -“Yes, Aunt Nan must have been the witch,” she agreed. “But Elizabeth -Ann, where is the prize we won?” - -“I forgot it,” confessed Elizabeth Ann. “I must have left it in the -barn. I guess Catherine will bring it over to-day.” - -“You’d better go and get it,” Doris advised. “Catherine will eat all -that candy up, and not say anything about it.” - -“Why, Doris Mason, what a thing to say!” cried Elizabeth Ann, much -shocked. “Catherine won’t eat the candy we won as a prize.” - -“Yes, she will,” said Doris obstinately. “She’s a mean girl, and I -don’t like her. If you won’t go, I’ll go and ask for our prize. I’ll -ask her mother.” - -Elizabeth Ann gazed at her cousin in some exasperation. Ordinarily -Doris wouldn’t open her mouth to talk to Mrs. Gould, and here she was -planning to ask her for the prize box of candy. - -“You can’t do things like that,” Elizabeth Ann scolded. “You have to be -polite. In the first place, for all you know, Catherine will bring the -candy over to-day; if she doesn’t, she may bring it to school Monday. -And if she never brings it,” finished Elizabeth Ann impressively, “you -can’t talk about it to her.” - -“Catherine isn’t polite,” said Doris calmly. “She didn’t want to give -Roger the prize he won; and she’ll eat up our prize if you don’t do -anything to stop her.” - -“She’ll have to eat it then,” Elizabeth Ann replied. “Couldn’t Roger -play the piano beautifully? He told me he plays by ear.” - -“What’s by ear?” asked Doris, looking as though she rather suspected -Elizabeth Ann might be teasing her. - -“He hears people play, and he can play what they do,” Elizabeth Ann -explained. “He can’t read music--not the way Catherine can, when she -practices her music lesson.” - -Aunt Grace came to the door and opened it. - -“Catherine just telephoned,” she said. “She is coming over to see you; -if you get too cold outdoors, you must bring her in. There is a nice -fire in the fireplace in the parlor.” - -“What did I tell you?” said Elizabeth Ann, when Aunt Grace had closed -the door. “Catherine is coming to bring us our candy.” - -Doris refused to be convinced and when fifteen minutes later Catherine, -empty-handed came up the path, Doris looked at Elizabeth Ann with a -I-told-you-so expression that was really very funny. - -“Hello,” said Catherine. “It’s cold to-day, isn’t it?” - -Elizabeth Ann sighed. She wasn’t cold and she liked to stay outdoors. -Doris usually wanted to go in after a few minutes and now here was -Catherine who liked to stay indoors, too. - -“There’s a fire in the first cabin,” said Elizabeth Ann. “We can go in -there, if you’d rather.” - -“I wish you wouldn’t talk that silly way,” Catherine said pettishly. -“When you mean the parlor, say so. Let’s go in--I’m freezing.” - -Elizabeth Ann saw that she was cross. Some people are cross the day -after a party, and Catherine was evidently one of those who do not feel -happy the next day. - -They went into the house and sat down on the white rug before the -logs blazing so merrily in the fireplace. Doris didn’t say a word and -Elizabeth Ann was rather glad she didn’t. She was so afraid that if -Doris did say anything, it would be to mention the chocolates. - -“I know I never should have asked that dreadful Roger Calendar to my -party,” said Catherine unexpectedly. “Now I hope you’re satisfied, -Elizabeth Ann; you and Miss Owen. You’re the ones who thought I ought -to ask him.” - -“I do think you ought to have asked him,” Elizabeth Ann declared -staunchly. “You couldn’t ask the whole class and leave him out. Miss -Owen said so.” - -“Well, he’s made plenty of trouble,” said Catherine disagreeably. “He -left the door of the corncrib open last night and one of my father’s -best cows got in and ate too much corn and died. It was a very valuable -cow.” - -Elizabeth Ann looked horrified. - -“But how do you know it was Roger who left the corncrib door open?” she -asked. “There were other boys at the party.” - -“Roger came over and helped Aunt Nan fix the strings from the barn to -the kitchen,” explained Catherine. “Aunt Nan told us this morning when -Daddy found the cow on the barn floor. He opened the corncrib door to -see how to run one of the strings under it and I suppose he forgot to -close it.” - -“I don’t believe he forgot to close it,” Elizabeth Ann said. - -“Oh, if you want to be silly, I can’t help it,” declared Catherine. -“My father thinks he left it open and so does Aunt Nan. So does Mr. -Bostwick.” - -Doris looked up and Elizabeth Ann’s eyes widened. - -“Did your father tell Mr. Bostwick?” she demanded. - -“Of course he told Mr. Bostwick,” said Catherine. “Lydia was one of -our most valuable cows. Roger hasn’t any money to pay for her, but Mr. -Bostwick is going to make him work for my father every Saturday till -the cow is paid for. My father says that carelessness is a bad habit, -and he thinks Roger ought to be cured of it. Paying for the cow will -help him remember.” - -“But I don’t believe Roger had anything to do with it,” Elizabeth Ann -insisted. - -“Why do you keep saying that?” asked Catherine. “I’m telling you that -he left the corncrib door open.” - -Elizabeth Ann stood up. - -“Did Roger say he left the door open?” she inquired pointedly. - -“No, of course he won’t admit he did,” said Catherine. “He says he -closed the door, but that is silly. He’s only trying to get out of -being blamed for killing our cow.” - -“If Roger says he closed the door, he did close the door,” Elizabeth -Ann insisted, her face flushing. - -“Would you rather take his word than mine?” asked Catherine. “Roger -Calendar is a perfect nobody, a boy from the poor farm.” - -“I don’t care, he tells the truth,” Elizabeth Ann flung out and from -behind her Doris piped up, “He wouldn’t eat candy that didn’t belong to -him--where’s the candy we won at your party, Catherine Gould?” - -And just at this moment Uncle Hiram stepped into the room and he looked -as though he had heard every word. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -SOMETHING DIFFERENT - - -“I’m afraid,” said Uncle Hiram significantly, “that someone has been -forgetting quarter-deck manners.” - -Elizabeth Ann blushed and Doris looked ashamed. They had forgotten how -their words must sound. - -“Did I hear a niece of mine talking about candy?” asked Uncle Hiram, -looking straight at Doris. - -“It was the prize we won,” Doris mumbled. “We left it at Catherine’s -house.” - -“You left it in the barn,” said Catherine. “I didn’t think you liked it -and I ate some of it. There may be a few pieces left and I’ll send them -over to you.” - -“Uncle Hiram,” broke in Elizabeth Ann, too worried about Roger and the -corncrib to listen to Doris talk about that silly candy--“Uncle Hiram, -Catherine says that Roger left the corncrib door open and one of her -father’s cows ate corn and died. And Roger says he didn’t leave the -door open.” - -“Elizabeth Ann thinks I don’t tell the truth, but she is sure Roger -does,” Catherine said. - -Uncle Hiram looked at both little girls and the frowns smoothed out of -their faces. - -“That’s better,” he said. “Why, Elizabeth Ann, I’ve heard all about -the cow from Mr. Gould and from Mr. Bostwick. They seem to think that -Roger has been careless and he’ll have to learn that carelessness costs -money. I’m sorry this thing happened--not only did the poor animal -suffer, but Roger loses what little free time he has.” - -Elizabeth Ann wanted to say that she didn’t think Mr. Gould ought to -ask Roger to pay for the cow, but she wasn’t sure Uncle Hiram would -like her to say that. So she kept silent. - -“Perhaps Roger Calendar will have more sense after this,” said -Catherine. “Anyway, I’ll never ask him to another party. I have to go -now. My mother told me not to stay too long.” - -After she had gone Elizabeth Ann cried. She felt so badly about poor -Roger, and she was sorry for Lydia, the dead cow, too. And Doris cried -because Catherine had eaten the candy. - -“I’m sorry Roger was careless, Elizabeth Ann,” said Uncle Hiram, “but -if he was the only thing for him to do is to try to make up for it. -He may think he closed that corncrib door, but both Mr. Gould and Mr. -Bostwick seem to think he was forgetful; they’re older men and we’ll -have to accept their decision.” - -Usually Elizabeth Ann and Doris saw Roger on Saturdays--he had a couple -of hours to himself in the afternoon, and he liked to come over and -talk to them. He was teaching Tony to box, and the white cat liked him. -But this Saturday they did not see Roger at all, and it was clear that -he had already started to work for Mr. Gould. - -When he saw Elizabeth Ann in school the next Monday, Roger told her -what had happened and that he expected to be working on the Gould farm -Saturdays, “forever and ever.” - -“I know you didn’t leave the door open, Roger,” said Elizabeth Ann. - -“I know you didn’t leave it open, either, Roger,” Doris added. -“Catherine ate up all our candy, so I don’t believe a word she says.” - -“Uncle Hiram scolded you for saying that last night and you told him -you wouldn’t say it again,” Elizabeth Ann told her severely. “I don’t -believe Catherine tells fibs; she thinks you left the door open, Roger, -and you _know_ you didn’t. Some day you can prove it to her father that -you didn’t.” - -Roger didn’t see how he was ever going to prove it, but he said it made -him feel better to know that Elizabeth Ann and Doris were sure he had -not been careless. And when they went into school, there was a notice -on the bulletin board that made them forget about cows and corncribs -and Hallowe’en parties. - -“The school is going to have a fair,” said Elizabeth Ann at the supper -table that night. “It was on the bulletin board this morning and Miss -Owen explained it to us. Each class has a booth and we make lots of -money, and buy Christmas presents for poor people.” - -“But we have to go around and ask people for things,” Doris said in -such a discouraged voice that everyone laughed. - -“Never mind, Doris, I’ll go around with you,” promised Uncle Hiram. -“What do we ask for?” - -“Oh, everything,” Doris explained. “Cakes and pies and fancy work to -sell. It’s a great deal of work, Miss Owen says, and she thinks it will -be good for us. We have to trim our own booths, and the fair lasts a -whole afternoon. We have it in the basement of the school.” - -The next day Miss Owen held a meeting after school and explained more -fully what her class was expected to do to make the fair a success. She -had slips of paper and they were numbered in pairs. Each child drew a -slip and found something written on it. The child who drew the slip -with the same number was his partner and was supposed to work with him. - -Elizabeth Ann drew a slip numbered 6. On it was written the word -“cakes.” Catherine Gould drew a slip numbered 6, too, and that meant -she and Elizabeth Ann were to ask people to bake cakes to sell at the -fair. - -Roger Calendar had a slip numbered 10 and Flora Gabrie drew the other -slip marked 10. They were to get packages for the grab bag table. - -“Any little things that can be wrapped in small parcels, and which can -be sold for five and ten cents,” Miss Owen explained. - -Then she told them, after they all had their slips, that they ought to -do a little work for the fair each day. - -“Otherwise, you will leave too much till the last minute,” said Miss -Owen. “We mustn’t get excited at the last minute, because we’ll have to -go to school as usual up to the day the fair is held.” - -Doris’s slip had “dolls” written on it, and she was supposed to ask -people to donate dolls for the fair. - -“Paper dolls or china dolls--it doesn’t matter,” Miss Owen told her. -“If anyone wants to lend us dolls, we’ll borrow them and send them -back after the fair is over. They’ll help decorate the doll booth.” - -“Better not lend Roger Calendar a doll,” said Catherine Gould in a low -voice. “He’s likely to forget it, and leave it out in the rain or snow -or something.” - -Elizabeth Ann held her tongue. She had promised Uncle Hiram not to -quarrel with Catherine about the cow episode. But, thought Elizabeth -Ann, if Catherine meant to bring it up every chance she found, it would -be very difficult not to answer her crossly. - -And within the next week Elizabeth Ann discovered that it was not only -difficult to keep from quarreling with Catherine, but it was almost -impossible to work with her. It had been expressly explained that the -children were to work in pairs, but Catherine wouldn’t let Elizabeth -Ann know when she was going to people’s houses to ask for cakes. Of -course she knew everyone in town and everyone who lived on the farms, -for Catherine had lived in one place all her life. She said nothing to -her father and mother about the plan for Elizabeth Ann to go with her, -and first she went to everyone she knew in Gardner and then she coaxed -her father to take her in his car to her friends who lived on various -farms and before Elizabeth Ann knew anything about it, Catherine -announced that she had twenty-four cakes “promised.” - -“I guess no one will do any better than that!” she said triumphantly -and handed in the list of names to Miss Owen. - -“But Elizabeth Ann was supposed to go with you,” the teacher protested. -“She can’t get any cakes, now. She doesn’t know any people to ask and -if she did she couldn’t go round alone and ask them.” - -“She can ask her Aunt Grace,” said Catherine stubbornly. - -Elizabeth Ann, of course, meant to ask Aunt Grace to bake a cake for -the fair. But that would be only one, and Catherine had twenty-four -cakes written down on her list, also the kinds, such as “caramel” and -“chocolate” and “cup cake.” - -“If I were you,” Doris announced indignantly, after she had heard what -had happened, “I wouldn’t have anything to do with the silly old fair. -Or else ask Miss Owen if you can help me get some dolls. The girl who -is my partner is afraid to ask people, and so am I.” - -At first Elizabeth Ann thought she would do that. But Uncle Hiram and -Miss Owen said no, when she asked them. They said that it was “high -time” that Doris learned how to ask people for the things she wanted. - -“She can’t have you to help her all her life,” said Uncle Hiram to -Elizabeth Ann. - -“I’d rather Doris and Helen Anderson did their own struggling,” Miss -Owen declared, smiling at Elizabeth Ann. “They’ll have to learn to ask -for things sooner or later and now is an excellent time to begin.” - -“I have a plan,” said Elizabeth Ann a morning or two later. “I know -what I’d like to do for the fair. It’s a secret, Doris, but I’ll have -to tell Miss Owen, and if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll let you -listen, too.” - -Doris promised quickly and she and Elizabeth Ann went up to their -class room to find Miss Owen. The teacher listened while Elizabeth Ann -explained her plan. There was no one else in the room for it still -lacked twenty minutes of nine and Miss Owen liked her class to stay out -and play till the warning bell sounded. - -“Why, I think that will be a success, Elizabeth Ann,” said Miss Owen, -when she had heard what Elizabeth Ann wanted to do. “We’ll keep it a -secret, and surprise everyone.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -ELIZABETH ANN WAITS - - -Now secrets are not the easiest thing in the world to keep, and it -is quite possible that either Elizabeth Ann or Doris might have told -someone the great plan, or a little about it, if something had not -happened that, for a time, gave them something else to think about. - -It snowed! - -Great beautiful feathery flakes of snow began to drift slowly down one -afternoon as the children went home from school and which came faster -and faster until by supper time, the ground was white. - -“If there is anything I love,” said Elizabeth Ann enthusiastically, “it -is a big snow storm. I hope it snows all night.” - -Doris didn’t like snow much, but she admitted it would be fun to go -coasting. - -“How can we go to school if it snows?” she asked, just as they were -going to bed that night. - -“Oh, Dave and the bus will get you there,” Aunt Grace assured her. -“That heavy bus can break through even deep drifts. And Uncle Hiram -will take you as far as the cross-roads, if the snow is too heavy for -you to walk there.” - -Elizabeth Ann rather hoped the snow would be up to the roof of the -Bonnie Susie in the morning, but when she woke she found it had stopped -snowing sometime during the night. Still, there was six inches or more -on the ground, and every fence and tree was topped with a feathery -trimming of white. - -“Your Uncle Hiram is up sweeping the roof--I mean the deck,” said Aunt -Grace, who tried hard to learn “sailor talk” as she called it, and -never quite succeeded. - -Elizabeth Ann and Doris put on their coats and hats and ran up the -ladder to the “top deck.” There was Uncle Hiram making the snow fly -with a broom. - -“Hello,” he said when he saw them. “Looks as if we were in for more -snow, doesn’t it?”--and he pointed with his broom toward the sky which -was heavy and gray. - -“It comes down right on top of the trees,” said Elizabeth Ann, staring -at the sky which did seem nearer the earth than usual. - -“Think you can walk out to the bus this morning, if we get pancakes -for breakfast?” Uncle Hiram suggested, knocking his broom against the -railing to free it from snow. “Let’s go down and see if the first mate -will cook us hot cakes.” - -The first mate had the batter already mixed, and if you know how good -pancakes with butter and maple syrup taste on a snowy, cold morning, -then you know how good they tasted to Elizabeth Ann and Doris. Uncle -Hiram said he had been a little worried about them when he first saw -the snow, but any two girls who could eat nine pancakes apiece, could -certainly stand a little walk through snow. And Elizabeth Ann and Doris -set out a few minutes later to find there was no wind, and that it felt -almost warm. - -“It isn’t as cold as it was yesterday and I don’t believe it will snow -any more,” said Doris, watching her rubber boots (which were the pride -of her heart) leave little criss-cross marks on the white snow. - -“Miss Owen said yesterday it was too cold to snow,” Elizabeth Ann -replied. “And it didn’t snow till afternoon and then it had turned -warmer.” - -Doris said it couldn’t be too cold to snow, and they were so busy -arguing this question that they came to the cross-roads before they -realized it. - -Roger Calendar was there--since the cow Lydia had died, Elizabeth Ann -and Doris didn’t see much of Roger except in school. He worked all day -Saturday at the Gould farm and Mr. Bostwick said that if he had to lose -so much of the time that belonged to him, of course he would expect -Roger to try to make it up by working a little longer before and after -school. - -“Where’s Catherine?” asked Roger, looking down the road as though he -expected to see her running over the snow. - -“We didn’t see anything of her,” Elizabeth Ann replied. “Maybe she is -not coming.” - -Other boys and girls came straggling up, their cheeks red and glowing, -their eyes bright, because they had had to climb fences and go around -fields to get through to the road, and the exercise made them feel -comfortable and warm. - -“Here comes the bus!” shouted the boys, as the chug-chug they all knew -so well sounded from around a curve in the road. - -“That must be Catherine!” Elizabeth Ann cried, pointing to a little dot -that was moving across the snow. - -Doris looked at her cousin anxiously. - -“You can’t wait for her, Elizabeth Ann,” she urged. “You mustn’t; she’s -late now. Dave won’t wait, and he’ll be mad if you do. You know what -he said--the next time anybody made a fuss he’d report them to the -principal.” - -“Come on, Elizabeth Ann,” said Roger. “Catherine will turn around and -go home, anyway; she couldn’t make the bus, even if she ran her feet -off. She’s too late now.” - -[Illustration: “It looks as if we were in for more snow, doesn’t -it?”--and he pointed with his broom toward the sky.] - -“Honk! Honk!” sounded the bus horn and there was Dave, swinging open -the wide door as he stopped. - -“You go ahead, Doris,” said Elizabeth Ann hastily. “I have to wait for -Catherine. We can walk. It’s mean to leave her here all alone.” - -And without looking at Dave--because she was afraid he might say she -must get into the bus, or even jump out and lift her in as he had done -before--Elizabeth Ann turned and began to walk quickly down the road -she had just come over. - -She didn’t dare glance back, not even when the bus horn shrieked at -her. That was Dave, of course, and very likely he was furious. Well, -sighed Elizabeth Ann to herself, she didn’t want to be late for school, -and the only reason that made her do this was because she could -not--she simply could not--go away and leave that little black dot -walking over the snow alone. - -Presently she heard steps behind her and someone caught up with her. -Elizabeth Ann turned in astonishment and saw that Roger Calendar was -walking beside her. - -“Why--why--you’ll miss the bus,” said Elizabeth Ann. - -“I have missed it,” Roger replied. “You didn’t think I would get on -it and leave you to walk all the way to town with a cross-patch like -Catherine, did you?” - -“She isn’t a cross-patch,” Elizabeth Ann protested, but not very firmly. - -“Of course she is,” said Roger. “She’ll be as cross as two sticks -because she has missed the bus. She’ll probably blame you for her bad -luck. And she may not go to school at all and then you’ll be sorry you -ever waited for her.” - -Elizabeth Ann said nothing. - -“Catherine Gould wouldn’t wait for you, and don’t you ever expect it of -her,” said Roger, who didn’t feel any too cheerful about the tardy mark -he knew would be placed against his name. - -“Why Roger Calendar, yes she would, too!” Elizabeth Ann retorted. “I -guess Catherine would wait for me, if she saw me coming and she knew -the bus wouldn’t wait. Of course she would.” - -Roger thought it wiser not to argue that question. - -“Dave was as mad as mad could be,” he said significantly. “He said his -patience was--was exhausted.” - -They met Catherine at that moment and Elizabeth Ann had no time to -think about Dave. - -“Hello, where are you going?” asked Catherine, looking at Elizabeth Ann -and Roger in evident surprise. - -“We’re waiting for you,” Elizabeth Ann explained. “We saw you coming -and we didn’t want to go on without you.” - -Catherine stopped short in the snow. - -“Has the bus gone?” she demanded. “Didn’t Dave wait for me?” - -Roger kept still, so Elizabeth Ann had to explain again. - -“He wouldn’t wait--that would make everyone late,” she said. “We’ll -have to walk all the way and we’d better hurry.” - -“I hate walking,” exclaimed Catherine petulantly, “and I hate to be -late--Miss Owen makes such a silly fuss.” - -She stood kicking a lump of snow with one foot while Elizabeth Ann -stared at her anxiously and Roger looked at Elizabeth Ann with an -I-told-you-so expression on his face. - -But Catherine, had they known it, didn’t dare go home. Her daddy had -refused to drive her to the bus again, because she wouldn’t get up when -she was called to breakfast; Catherine knew that if she went home, she -would only be sent to school again. - -“All right, come on,” she said suddenly and began to walk so fast that -Elizabeth Ann could scarcely keep up with her. Roger, being a boy, -of course could walk faster than Catherine, but he kept step with -Elizabeth Ann. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -ROGER’S MISTAKE - - -Elizabeth Ann, running to keep up with Catherine, felt almost cheerful. -No matter if they were late--Catherine was going to school. She wasn’t -going to turn around and go home, as Roger has said she would. - -“I think Roger would like her, if only Catherine would be nicer to -him,” thought Elizabeth Ann, her cheeks bright red from running against -the wind. “Oh, dear, I’m out of breath--and it’s snowing again!” - -Sure enough, the white flakes were whirling around them and the gray -sky seemed to be pressing in upon them. - -“I hate snow,” said Catherine, who could not be said to look forward to -the winter. “I like the summer but I hate winter.” - -She was out of breath, too, now and had to walk more slowly. When they -gained the main road, they amused themselves by walking in the broad -treads, like ribbon bands, that the bus wheels had left marked on the -snow. - -“Perhaps we’ll get a lift,” said Roger, when they had walked perhaps -half a mile. - -“No we won’t,” contradicted Catherine. “Everyone has gone to the -creamery. Any wagons or cars that pass us will be going toward home.” - -Elizabeth Ann had to admit that she was right. Within the next ten -minutes four wagons passed them, but they were all headed in the wrong -direction. The empty milk cans, rattling in the back of the wagons -showed that their drivers had been to the creamery in Gardner and were -now going home. - -Catherine stopped without warning when they came to a mail box fastened -to a stump of a pine tree. - -“My second cousin lives here,” she announced. “I’m going to see her. -I can stay at her house till afternoon and then go home. I don’t feel -well and I don’t think I ought to walk all that distance to school.” - -“What will your mother say?” asked Elizabeth Ann, quite horrified. - -“Oh, my mother won’t care. When I tell her I stayed with Cousin Betty, -Mother will write me an absence excuse,” Catherine declared. “Don’t you -want to come, too? We can play in the big barn.” - -“No, I couldn’t,” said Elizabeth Ann hastily. “Uncle Hiram wouldn’t -like it. Would he, Roger?” - -“Of course he wouldn’t--for pity’s sake do hurry, Elizabeth Ann,” Roger -urged her. - -“Ain’t we late enough now, without arguing about staying to play in -anybody’s barn?” - -“I didn’t ask you, Roger Calendar,” called Catherine, as Elizabeth Ann -hastened after Roger who was already moving down the road. “I wouldn’t -ask you to play in my cousin’s barn; you might leave _her_ corncrib -door open.” - -Elizabeth glanced timidly at Roger as they hurried along. - -“You’re not mad, Roger, are you?” she ventured presently. - -“I haven’t time to be mad,” said Roger. “I told you Catherine wouldn’t -go to school; that’s why Dave and all of us hate to see you making a -monkey of yourself for a girl like that. We’re going to be good and -late for school.” - -Elizabeth Ann was hurrying now to keep up with him. - -“I’m sorry you waited,” she panted. “You didn’t have to wait, Roger. -And Catherine is mean to say things to you the way she does.” - -“I’m used to that,” said Roger. “Say, Elizabeth Ann, perhaps I can find -a short cut; wouldn’t it be fun if we should get to school on time, -after all?” - -Elizabeth Ann beamed at the idea. She did so hate to be late, and she -didn’t want all the pupils to stare at her when she and Roger came in, -and wonder where Catherine was. If they could get to school at the -usual time, it would be the other boys and girls who would be surprised. - -“I’m not exactly sure, but I think there is a road that goes across -behind a piece of woods,” said Roger. “If it’s the one I think it is, -it will bring us out on one side of the school building. The only -trouble is, I don’t think any teams go through it in winter and it may -be drifted.” - -“It hasn’t snowed much yet,” Elizabeth Ann declared cheerfully. “And I -think it’s going to stop now.” - -She squinted at the sky, as she had seen Uncle Hiram do, and the wet -white flakes fell into her eyes and down the collar of her coat. It was -snowing steadily and there were no signs whatever that it meant to stop -any time soon. - -“Well, we can try the short road, at least,” said Roger. “We turn off -here. Are you warm enough, Elizabeth Ann?” - -“Oh, my, yes,” that small girl assured him. “Only don’t walk quite so -fast, please Roger; my knees won’t stretch only just so far.” - -“I’ll walk the way you want to,” promised Roger. “I forgot you can’t -walk as fast as a boy. Want me to carry your lunch?” - -Roger had forgotten all about the two small books and the lunch box -Elizabeth Ann carried, till this moment. He wasn’t very used to girls, -anyway, and he was rather apt to let them wait on themselves. Now, -however, he took Elizabeth Ann’s things and that left her hands free. -She could put them into the two big flannel-lined pockets of her coat -and let them both get warm at once. - -The road down which Roger had turned apparently was not used at all in -the winter. Not a single track marked the whiteness of the snow that -covered it. The underbrush of the woods which bordered it on either -side showed gleaming red berries here and there and Elizabeth Ann saw a -few birds picking at the berries, but they did not seem to think they -were very good. - -“Perhaps they’re sour,” said Elizabeth Ann aloud. - -She was walking behind Roger, stepping into the footprints his rubber -boots left. And she noticed that the heel of one of his boots seemed to -be leaking. - -“Roger, did you know your boot leaks?” she asked, before she stopped to -think. - -Roger nodded, without turning. - -“They’re old,” he said. “I may get a new pair for Christmas. But the -Bostwicks are so cross about the cow, I may not get anything for -Christmas this year.” - -“I don’t think you left the corncrib door open,” said Elizabeth Ann for -the fiftieth time. - -“I’d tell you if I had really left it open,” Roger answered. “I know I -didn’t. But there’s no way to prove it.” - -He tramped on moodily, and Elizabeth Ann, who found it hard going -through the soft sticky snow, began to feel tired. She didn’t want to -bother Roger, but at last she thought she must ask a question. - -“What time do you suppose it is, Roger?” she asked. “Is it much further -to the piece of woods you remember?” - -Roger stopped and looked at her anxiously. - -“Bet you’re getting tired,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, Elizabeth -Ann; we’ll sit down on this log and eat our lunches. That will give -us a little rest. We’re late now--I’m sure of it--and fifteen minutes -won’t make any difference.” - -He brushed the snow off a large log at the side of the road and -Elizabeth Ann sat down. She was warm enough, but she was very tired. -She opened her lunch box and held it out to Roger. - -“No thanks,” he said gruffly, “I have my own.” - -He took two apples out of the paper bag he had carried in his pocket. - -“You have to eat some of mine,” Elizabeth Ann insisted. “Aunt Grace -always puts up some for me to pass to the other girls. She gives Doris -extra sandwiches, too. These are minced chicken, Roger.” - -“Will you eat one of my apples then?” demanded Roger, looking at the -sandwiches hungrily. - -Elizabeth Ann promised and they began to eat as though breakfast had -been “the day before,” Roger said. But the long walk had made them -hungry, and when the sandwiches and stuffed eggs, and even Roger’s -apples had disappeared, they both felt much better. - -“If it would stop snowing, we could go faster,” said Roger, as they -started to walk again. “It can’t be much further, Elizabeth Ann.” - -But it was. They walked another two miles and then Roger was forced to -admit that he did not know where they were. - -“I said you made a monkey out of yourself, waiting for Catherine,” he -declared ruefully, “but I’m a worse monkey; here we are, goodness only -knows how many miles from school--and it must be noon. I haven’t a -watch, but it feels like noon to me.” - -Elizabeth Ann could have cried, but she didn’t. She was so tired and -worried and it began to look as though they wouldn’t get to school that -day at all. But Roger was sorry enough, without seeing her cry, she -thought, so she just winked her eyes a little and then said bravely: - -“What’ll we do next, Roger?” - -“We’ll have to go back,” said Roger slowly. “All the way back to the -main road; because I’m afraid to go any further over this road. I don’t -know where it leads--and it may go on for miles and miles, without -passing a house.” - -They turned around and went back. It seemed three times as long a -journey as when they had first walked it, but the wind was no longer -in their faces and that was better. But when they reached the main -road, Elizabeth Ann was sure she couldn’t walk another step. - -“I’m awfully sorry, Elizabeth Ann,” said Roger, looking at her -anxiously. “Don’t sit down in the snow--you can’t rest now; it’s only -a little further to school. You can’t sit down in wet snow, Elizabeth -Ann.” - -But Elizabeth Ann didn’t care where she sat. Not only was she tired, -but she was sleepy. She stumbled when she walked, and she didn’t see -any reason why Roger should expect to keep her walking and walking, -when she was so tired. - -“You go on without me,” she told him, “I’ll come after a while.” - -But Roger had heard an automobile and he looked hopefully down the road. - -“Here comes a car!” he cried. “I’ll ask them to take us to school. -Don’t you dare sit down in the wet cold snow, Elizabeth Ann Loring!” - -Roger was so eager to get someone to take Elizabeth Ann to school, -before she went to sleep where she was, that he paid no attention to -the car. It is doubtful whether he would have recognized it, anyway, -for it was well covered with snow. But Elizabeth Ann, sleepy as she -was, recognized whose voice it was that answered Roger’s eager shout -and she knew both the men whose heads were thrust out of the car -windows when it stopped. - -“Uncle Hiram and Mr. Gould!” said Elizabeth Ann, forgetting how tired -she was because of being so much surprised. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -THE FORTUNE-TELLER - - -Now Roger didn’t like Catherine Gould, but, as he told Elizabeth Ann -afterward, that didn’t mean he wanted to tell tales about her. So -when Uncle Hiram began to ask questions, Roger told everything that -had happened to Elizabeth Ann and himself, but he said nothing about -Catherine. - -“I don’t see how Elizabeth Ann could miss the bus,” said Uncle Hiram. -“Why didn’t Doris miss it, too?” - -Elizabeth Ann blushed and Roger looked confused. - -“Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to go to school and be marked tardy, -Elizabeth Ann,” said Uncle Hiram. “I believe in finishing what you -start out to do; and you started for school in good time this morning.” - -“I’ll drive you to school,” Mr. Gould offered. - -“No--I mean no thank you, we can walk,” said Elizabeth Ann quickly. - -She was afraid that if the principal or Miss Owen saw the car, they -might come out to ask Mr. Gould about Catherine. - -“Did Catherine make the bus this morning?” asked Mr. Gould suddenly. - -Well, neither Elizabeth Ann nor Roger could answer that question -without telling the whole story. Mr. Gould saw that something was -wrong, and he began to ask so many questions that soon he and Uncle -Hiram knew exactly what had happened. Elizabeth Ann cried, partly -because she was tired and partly because she was afraid Catherine would -blame her, and partly because she didn’t want Catherine to be scolded. -But of course, she had to answer Mr. Gould’s questions and he went -after Catherine and brought her to school--though it was then almost -three o’clock and school was out at half past three. But first he took -Elizabeth Ann and Roger to school, and though Miss Owen hated to do it, -she had to mark them tardy. Elizabeth Ann was so tired and sleepy she -couldn’t sit up at her desk, so Uncle Hiram took her home where she -went to bed and slept till eight o’clock that night when she woke up -and had bread and milk, then went to sleep again. But Roger stayed the -rest of the day in school and rode home with Dave in the afternoon bus -and told him about Elizabeth Ann. - -Uncle Hiram explained to Elizabeth Ann before she went to school the -next morning, that now, as long as she knew Catherine wouldn’t hurry -and didn’t care how many friends she made late for school, that she was -not to wait for her again. - -“She must learn her own lessons,” said Uncle Hiram. “Perhaps if she -finds no one will wait for her, she’ll teach herself to be on time. You -can help people just so much, Elizabeth Ann; after that they must help -themselves.” - -Catherine did make the bus for the next few mornings. She may have been -eager to talk over the fair plans with the others in school, since it -was almost time for the great affair. Catherine had to remind her -friends to bake their cakes, too, and she knew that if she didn’t make -a good record in school her daddy would not take her around to collect -the various cakes. Whatever her reasons, Catherine was as prompt as the -most punctual scholar all the rest of the week. - -“What are you going to do, Elizabeth Ann?” asked Roger, who had -collected everything he could for the grab bag; Uncle Hiram had given -him a basket filled with small things and that had delighted Roger -beyond words. - -Miss Owen had been pleased, too. There were shells in the basket and -small curios, and little foreign coins and packets of postage stamps -from strange countries. They all made lovely grab bag prizes. - -But Elizabeth Ann wouldn’t tell even Roger what she was going to do -at the fair. Miss Owen knew, and Doris knew, but no one else did. Of -course Uncle Hiram and Aunt Grace knew--they didn’t count, Elizabeth -Ann explained, because grown-ups had to know your secrets so they could -help you with your costumes. - -“Costumes?” repeated Roger. “Are you going to wear a costume--like the -one you wore Hallowe’en at Catherine’s party, Elizabeth Ann?” - -“Sh! Don’t tell anyone I’m going to wear a costume,” Elizabeth Ann -said. “I told you it’s a secret--and I’m not going to be a black cat!” -and that was all Roger could coax from her. - -The fair opened in the afternoon at two o’clock, so there was, of -course, no school that afternoon. The long light basement looked very -fine when the first visitors came down the stairs--there were rows of -booths on each side of the hall, and each booth was in charge of a -class room. All the pupils were supposed to take turns helping, so that -each child would have some time to go around and see the other booths. - -The teachers were on hand to make change and wrap parcels and answer -questions, but the boys and girls were supposed to do most of the -selling. And every one of them had customers, because if no one else -came to buy, a mother or a daddy or an uncle or aunt would be sure to -step up smilingly and say, “How much is that? I believe I’ll take it.” - -At one end of the room was a tent, and five minutes after the fair -had opened, the news was all over the basement that there was a -fortune-teller in the tent. - -“She’s tall and dark,” reported one of the teachers, “and she sits on -a throne--I wonder who built the throne? They must have worked on it -nights when no one was in the building.” - -“The fortune-teller has an assistant,” Flora Gabrie told Roger -Calendar. “I peeked in the tent. I’m sure I never saw her before. I -never saw the fortune-teller, either. They must be from out of town.” - -It cost ten cents to have one’s fortune told and it seemed as though -everyone was anxious to find out what was “going to happen” as Flora -Gabrie said with a little shiver. Flora said she didn’t believe that -anyone could tell what was going to happen, but just the same she took -ten cents of the money she had saved for Christmas, and gave it to the -gypsy princess. - -Whatever the princess--who was tall and dark, and who might or might -not have been pretty, for she was so wrapped up in veils that no one -could see her face--told the people who came into her tent, it made -them happy. Most of them laughed and laughed and just to hear them -laughing in the tent made those outside who were waiting their turns, -the more anxious to go in. All afternoon there was a line of people -going and coming from the fortune-teller’s tent. - -“I’m going, too,” Catherine Gould suddenly decided. - -She had been spending all her money at the grab-bag table, for she -liked the shells and stamps that Uncle Hiram had given Roger. She was -rather greedy about them and might have opened some of the packages -before she bought them, if Miss Owen had not kept an eye on her. But -Catherine still had ten cents left and she meant to spend this to have -her fortune told. - -She had to stand in line for several minutes and then her turn came. -The attendant, who was short, and wrapped in veils, too, opened the -flap of the tent and led Catherine inside. - -“Kneel,” said this attendant and Catherine knelt down before the gypsy -princess who sat on a throne of pillows, most gorgeous to behold in her -red and green frock. - -“Oh-h!” cried the fortune-teller, as soon as she saw Catherine. “I see -a door.” - -Then Catherine saw that in her hand the gypsy held a little silver ball. - -“What kind of a door is it?” whispered Catherine fearfully. - -“It’s a queer, barn door,” the gypsy answered. “Can’t you see it?”--and -she held the silver ball down close to Catherine’s eyes. - -“It must be the corncrib door,” said Catherine, staring into the silver -ball. - -It was the gypsy’s turn to stare. She didn’t say anything but Catherine -could feel her staring through her veil. - -“I had a party Hallowe’en night, at my house,” went on Catherine. -“And two girls won a box of candy for a prize. They didn’t eat it and -I thought perhaps they wouldn’t want it, and I might as well have -it myself. I didn’t know where else to hide it, to keep the other -children from eating it, so I put it in the corncrib. I knew the mice -or rats couldn’t get it there and I could take it out in the morning.” - -The gypsy princess leaned down from her throne. - -“Go on,” she commanded, while the attendant looked as though she might -be glued to the floor. - -“Why I--er--I guess I didn’t fasten the door,” said Catherine -uncomfortably. “One of our cows got in during the night and ate so much -corn she died. But I never said Roger Calendar left the door open--when -my father asked me if any of the boys had been to the corncrib, I said -Roger had. He _had_ been there--that was the truth. He helped my aunt -fix the strings for one of the party games.” - -The gypsy drew a long breath. - -“That’s why I couldn’t tell your fortune,” she announced. “You can’t -have any fortune, unless you tell what really happened. Tell your -father.” - -“Oh, I couldn’t!” said Catherine hastily. “He’d be so cross. I can’t -bear to have people cross with me. Besides, I’m not sure I did leave -the door open. Perhaps Roger went to the corncrib after I did.” - -The gypsy leaned down again and pressed something into Catherine’s hand. - -“There’s your dime,” she said softly. “I haven’t told your fortune. I -can’t find any for you.” - -“Well, all right, I’ll go buy another grab bag,” Catherine retorted, a -little angrily. “You won’t tell what I’ve told you, will you. I guess -you won’t, because you don’t know anyone to tell. And no one would -believe what a strange gypsy says, if I say it isn’t true, anyway.” - -Other people were eager to have their fortunes told and as soon as -Catherine went out, her dime clutched tightly in her hand, another took -her place. And by five o’clock, when the fair was practically over, and -Miss Owen said the gypsy must come and have some ice cream, there was -almost fifty dollars in the money box in the tent. That didn’t mean -five hundred people had had their fortunes told--dear no. Many folk -left extra money because they knew it was going to be used for poor -boys and girls, to give them a happy Christmas. - -“I’m sure you’re all interested in our gypsy princess,” said Miss -Owen, when the fortune-teller came out of her tent, “and I think I’ll -have to introduce you--to Miss Elizabeth Ann Loring and her assistant, -Doris Mason; this was entirely Elizabeth Ann’s idea and I think she has -managed it very cleverly.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -ALL STRAIGHTENED OUT - - -Elizabeth Ann blushed and the people who had come to the fair clapped. -Doris forgot to be shy and beamed. - -“Nobody ever guessed it was you, Elizabeth Ann,” she kept saying. - -Uncle Hiram took them both over to the ice cream booth and there was -still some ice cream left, vanilla and chocolate. Before they had quite -finished their plates, Aunt Grace called to Uncle Hiram to come where -she was and look at something, and that left Elizabeth Ann and Doris -alone. The children in charge of the ice cream booth had gone to buy -something at one of the tables--for the fair was almost over--and the -teacher who had given the two little girls their ice cream had taken -her money box over to have the money counted where all the money boxes -were. - -“P-st!” whispered someone right in Elizabeth Ann’s ear. - -Of course she jumped, for it startled her. - -“Here I am--back of these pillows,” said a voice and Catherine Gould -put her head out between two black satin pillows that had been left on -a piano bench. - -“I think you were awfully mean to fool people, Elizabeth Ann,” said -Catherine reproachfully. “Of course if I had known who you were, I -wouldn’t have asked you to tell my fortune.” - -“It was just for fun,” Elizabeth Ann answered, taking the last spoonful -of her chocolate ice cream and looking at her empty plate wistfully. - -“Well, don’t you ever tell what I told you about the corncrib door, or -I’ll never forgive you,” said Catherine. - -“Why I wouldn’t tell--I don’t carry tales,” Elizabeth Ann declared -indignantly, “but aren’t you going to tell Mr. Bostwick--or your -father?” - -“Why should I?” asked Catherine, though her face turned red. “I’m not -sure I left it unfastened. I can’t be perfectly sure some of the boys -didn’t go to the corncrib after I left the candy there.” - -Doris almost choked on her last bit of ice cream in her hurry to tell -Catherine what she thought of her. - -“Why Catherine Gould, you’re telling a lie,” she cried. “I mean you -will be telling a lie, if you don’t explain to your father about the -corncrib door. He thinks Roger left it open, and Roger has to work for -him every Saturday.” - -“I am not telling a lie, and don’t you say such things, Doris Mason!” -stormed Catherine. “Maybe I didn’t leave the door open. Anyway, it -won’t hurt Roger Calendar to work Saturdays--my father says idleness is -bad for anyone. And Roger _is_ careless--one day last summer he left -the pasture bars down and Mr. Bostwick’s cows got in the garden and ate -almost the entire first crop of peas.” - -Someone struck a chord on the piano just then--that was to attract the -attention of everyone in the room. Elizabeth Ann peeked around a tall -man and saw that it was Roger who sat at the school piano. - -“We’re going to auction the cakes that are left,” announced Mr. Fundy -the principal. “We have six fine cakes left and they won’t keep till -our next fair, so we’ll sell them to the highest bidder.” - -Roger played softly while the cakes were being auctioned off and -they were soon sold. Aunt Grace bought a banana layer cake, much to -the pleasure of Elizabeth Ann and Doris, who liked banana cake. And -when the last cake had been sold and the money added to that already -counted, Mr. Fundy had another announcement to make. - -“I’m glad to be able to tell you,” he said, “that everything in all the -booths has been sold; and we have cleared for our Christmas fund for -poor and sick children, exactly $160. I call that pretty fine for a -country school like ours.” - -All the people clapped and Roger broke into a rollicking march on the -piano. With $160, Miss Owen explained to Elizabeth Ann who stood near -her, they could buy more than they had planned, and not a child would -have to be left off the list. - -Then, of course, it was time to go home, and Elizabeth Ann and Doris -couldn’t talk about Catherine in the car for not only would Uncle Hiram -and Aunt Grace hear them, but Roger, who was going to have supper -at their house before he went to the Bostwick farm. Uncle Hiram had -arranged that with Mr. Bostwick, and it was a real treat for Roger who -seldom visited anywhere. - -“Don’t you wish you had a piano of your own?” Doris asked him, when -they were almost home. - -“Yes, I’d like one,” said Roger, “but the only way I’ll ever get it -will be to earn the money; and if people keep on saying I leave doors -open and kill cows, it will take me all my life to pay them. I never -will get any money saved for a piano.” - -“Avast there,” Uncle Hiram mumbled over his shoulder. “The wind can -blow in the east only so long; your east wind is about blown out and -you ought to be looking for clear weather.” - -“I hope you’ll get a nice west wind soon, Roger,” said gentle Aunt -Grace. “I’m having waffles for supper--maybe they will help.” - -They couldn’t help laughing a little at the idea of waffles being a -west wind, but Roger told Aunt Grace that hot waffles were as good as a -spell of clear weather to him; a west wind, he explained to Elizabeth -Ann, always brought clear weather. - -Elizabeth Ann looked at Doris and Doris looked at Elizabeth Ann. But -they couldn’t make up their minds what they ought to do. - -Roger had his golden brown waffles and went home, whistling cheerily as -though he had forgotten such unpleasant things as corncrib doors, and -perhaps he had. Aunt Grace went out into the kitchen--excuse us, the -galley--to set her bread. And Elizabeth Ann and Doris sat on the floor -of their bedroom and talked about Catherine Gould until Uncle Hiram -called to them that it was high time sailors their age were fast asleep. - -In the morning, on the way to school, Elizabeth Ann and Doris were -still talking about Catherine. - -“I don’t want Roger to have to work Saturdays for Mr. Gould,” said -Elizabeth Ann. “It isn’t fair; he used to have two hours to himself -every Saturday and he could go over to Mrs. Weber’s and play on her -piano, he told me. Now he can’t do anything because Mr. Bostwick says -he must help him every minute to make up for the time he has to give -Catherine’s father.” - -“But you can’t make Catherine tell her father,” Doris pointed out. “And -you don’t want to tell him yourself--you told her you wouldn’t.” - -Elizabeth Ann shook her head so that her red tam almost fell off. - -“No, of course I wouldn’t tell,” she declared. “But I am going to think -and think and by and by I’ll find a way.” - -Doris had great respect for Elizabeth Ann’s thinking powers and she -watched her anxiously the rest of the day. Catherine was absent from -school, so when they left the bus at the cross-roads in the later -afternoon, only Roger was with them. He turned off at the lane leading -to the Bostwick farm, and as soon as they were alone, Elizabeth Ann -turned eagerly to Doris. - -“I know what to do!” she exclaimed. “I’ve thought it all out--first -we ask Uncle Hiram to promise that he will tell Mr. Gould about -Catherine--how she hid the candy and forgot to fasten the door and then -let him think Roger did it. But before Uncle Hiram tells Mr. Gould, he -must make him promise that he won’t scold Catherine.” - -“She ought to be scolded,” said Doris sternly. She didn’t like to be -scolded herself, mind you, but she didn’t mind seeing other people get -their “comeuppance,” as Aunt Grace called it. - -“Well, perhaps,” Elizabeth Ann admitted, “but we can’t help that. If -Catherine thinks she is going to be scolded, she will never tell. -And if we can promise her no one will say a word, she won’t mind -telling. We want Roger to stop working for Mr. Gould--never mind about -Catherine.” - -“Yes, but how can you tell Uncle Hiram when you said you wouldn’t?” -asked the practical Doris. - -“I’m going to see Catherine now and ask her to let me tell,” Elizabeth -Ann explained. “You go on to the house and tell Aunt Grace where I am; -I’ll come as soon as I see Catherine.” - -Doris went on, grumbling that the plan wouldn’t work. But the -surprising thing about it was that it did, it worked out exactly as -Elizabeth Ann planned. Catherine said if her daddy wouldn’t scold or -punish her, she didn’t mind having Uncle Hiram tell what had happened. -And Uncle Hiram, though at first he said he wouldn’t ask Mr. Gould -to make any silly promises, finally consented. He told him the story -Elizabeth Ann had told him--about the corncrib door and the candy, and -Catherine’s fear that led her to shift the blame to Roger. - -Mr. Gould was sorry about Roger and went at once to see Mr. Bostwick to -tell him a mistake had been made, and that Roger wasn’t careless after -all. And of course Roger no longer had to work all day Saturday at the -Gould farm. But Mr. Gould was even sorrier about his own little girl, -and he said that no matter what happened another time, if Catherine -would come to him and tell him he wouldn’t scold but would help her to -set the mistake right. And Catherine promised to tell him after this. - -Of course it was almost Christmas by this time--less than two weeks to -Christmas Eve. But we haven’t enough pages to tell you about Christmas -in the Bonnie Susie, so that will have to wait till another book. Only -you may be sure Elizabeth Ann and Doris had a wonderful time, for the -country is the place for little girls to enjoy Christmas. - - -THE END - - - - -Elizabeth Ann Series - -By JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE - -_For Girls from 7 to 12_ - -[Illustration: _The_ Adventures _of_ ELIZABETH ANN] - -Elizabeth Ann is a little girl whom we first meet on a big train, -travelling all alone. Her father and mother have sailed for Japan, -and she is sent back East to visit at first one relative’s home, and -then another. Of course, she meets many new friends, some of whom -she is quite happy with, while others--but you must read the stories -for yourself. Every other girl who reads the first of these charming -books will want all the rest; for Elizabeth Ann is certainly worth the -cultivating. - - THE ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH ANN. - - ELIZABETH ANN AT MAPLE SPRING. - - ELIZABETH ANN’S SIX COUSINS. - - ELIZABETH ANN and DORIS. - - ELIZABETH ANN’S BORROWED GRANDMA. - - ELIZABETH ANN’S SPRING VACATION. - - ELIZABETH ANN and UNCLE DOCTOR. - - ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT. - - Publishers - BARSE & CO. - New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J. - - - - -LINDA LANE SERIES - -By Josephine Lawrence - -For Girls from 12 to 15 - - CLOTH LARGE 12 MO. ILLUSTRATED - -[Illustration: LINDA LANE HELPS OUT] - -“The trouble with Linda Lane,” said Mrs. Quincy, “was that she -‘couldn’t get along with folks.’” As everyone knows, a girl needs -friends to love her and believe in her. It isn’t to be wondered at that -Linda wasn’t happy. Then little Miss Gilly came to the rooms of the -Society, the only home Linda knew, and took the girl home with her. A -new life begins for Linda, and she finds, to her surprise and delight, -how to get along with people, how to make friends, and slowly and -surely how to be happy. - -Linda admires independence above all other traits of character. She has -plenty of that quality herself and she is the kind of girl who not only -cheerfully fights her own battles, but those of the weaker who cannot -defend themselves. She is “bossy,” lovable, impatient and loyal, a born -manager, whose plans invariably work out to satisfactory conclusions, -and Linda has a definite plan which gradually unfolds in these books -written about her--the sort of plan only a girl without a home and -parents of her own could think of and carry to completion. Linda Lane -knows what she wants and she is willing to work and trust to her own -efforts to make her wishes come true. - - 1. LINDA LANE. - 2. LINDA LANE HELPS OUT. - 3. LINDA LANE’S PLAN. - 4. LINDA LANE EXPERIMENTS. - 5. LINDA LANE’S PROBLEMS. - 6. LINDA LANE’S BIG SISTER. - - Publishers - BARSE & CO. - New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J. - - - - -CHARMING STORIES FOR GIRLS - -The Corner House Girls Series - -By GRACE BROOKS HILL - -[Illustration: _The_ CORNER HOUSE GIRLS] - -Four girls from eight to fourteen years of age receive word that a -rich bachelor uncle has died, leaving them the old Corner House he -occupied. They move into it and then the fun begins. What they find -and do will provoke many a hearty laugh. Later, they enter school and -make many friends. One of these invites the girls to spend a few weeks -at a bungalow owned by her parents, and the adventures they meet with -make very interesting reading. Clean, wholesome stories of humor and -adventure, sure to appeal to all young girls. - - 1 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS. - 2 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL. - 3 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS. - 4 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY. - 5 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS’ ODD FIND. - 6 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR. - 7 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS GROWING UP. - 8 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND. - 9 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A HOUSEBOAT. - 10 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES. - 11 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON PALM ISLAND. - 12 THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY. - 13 THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS FACING THE WORLD. - - PUBLISHERS - BARSE & CO. - NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J. - - - - -CHICKEN LITTLE JANE SERIES - -_By_ LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE - -[Illustration: CHICKEN LITTLE JANE COMES TO TOWN] - -Chicken Little Jane is a Western prairie girl who lives a happy, -outdoor life in a country where there is plenty of room to turn around. -She is a wide-awake, resourceful girl who will instantly win her way -into the hearts of other girls. And what good times she has!--with her -pets, her friends, and her many interests. “Chicken Little” is the -affectionate nickname given to her when she is very, very good, but -when she misbehaves it is “Jane”--just Jane! - - Adventures of Chicken Little Jane - Chicken Little Jane on the “Big John” - Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town - Chicken Little Jane in the Rockies - - PUBLISHERS - BARSE & CO. - NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J. - - - - -HAT MAY - -_AN ENCHANTED PRINCESS_ - -_By_ LUCY THURSTON ABBOTT - -_For girls from 8 to 14_ - -NET $1.00 - -[Illustration: HAT MAY] - -This charming story is concerned with the fortunes of a little girl -whom a whim of Fate has placed in charge of a woman and her lame -husband living on the New England coast--the Winkiepaw pair--and -the woman, whom Hat May always looks upon as a cruel ogress of her -imaginary fairy world, treats her very badly indeed. - -The story covering Hat May’s doings is everything that a book for girls -between the ages of eight and fourteen should be. The characters are -skillfully drawn and true to nature; also while there is considerable -pathos connected with the ill-treatment of Hat May; so too there is -discovered in the telling an abundance of childish and delightful humor. - - BARSE & CO. - Publishers - New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J. - - - - -~The Rusty-Cats~ - -_A story of Hat May and her friends._ - -BY LUCY THURSTON ABBOTT - -_Author of “Hat May.”_ - -(For Girls from 8 to 14) - -Summer has come again to Carey Hill bringing with it the “rusticators,” -or, as the Carey children are called, the “rusty-cats.” With them -comes happiness to Hat May the little enchanted princess, and hope -of recovery to her little crippled friend, Hank. The mystic rites of -The Seven Bloody Bones baffle prying Mrs. Winkiepaw who is forced -to grant more freedom to her slave, Hat May. The success of Ariel’s -wonderful play, written especially for the Seven, buys a wheel-chair -for Hank, and then when the summer is over, and life with the ogress -becomes too hard to bear, Phin cleverly rescues Hat May and defeats -the ill-tempered ogress. Can anyone guess the beautiful word which -disenchants Hat May and takes her from her dreary and sordid existence -to one of beauty and happiness? - - _Price Net $1.00_ - - Publishers - BARSE & CO. - NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J. - - - - -Transcriber’s Note: - -Changes to the original publication have been made as follows: - - Page 16 - where Lyn had stopped it _changed to_ - where Lex had stopped it - - Page 27 - Oh, yes, Aunt Nellie _changed to_ - Oh, yes, Cousin Nellie - - Page 28 - it looks as thought _changed to_ - it looks as though - - Page 47 - to go and leave him. _changed to_ - to go and leave him.” - - Page 63 - bunk is like a a box _changed to_ - bunk is like a box - - Page 73 - Aunt Grace, smiled a little _changed to_ - Aunt Grace smiled a little - - not to learn ship time _changed to_ - not to learn ship-time - - and its nice to hear you _changed to_ - and it’s nice to hear you - - Page 93 - “Whose the little girl _changed to_ - “Who’s the little girl - - Page 98 - Where do we register” _changed to_ - Where do we register?” - - Page 100 - sang, too and so did Doris _changed to_ - sang, too, and so did Doris - - Page 119 - material called zibilene _changed to_ - material called zibelene - - Page 159 - he forgot to close it.’ _changed to_ - he forgot to close it.” - - Page 168 - had been expressibly explained _changed to_ - had been expressly explained - - Page 190 - “It can’t be much further, Elizabeth Ann. _changed to_ - “It can’t be much further, Elizabeth Ann.” - - Page 198 - And everyone of them had _changed to_ - And every one of them had - - Page 200 - packages before she brought them _changed to_ - packages before she bought them - - Page 213 - that it did it worked out _changed to_ - that it did, it worked out - - Linda Lane Series - a girl needs friends to lover her _changed to_ - a girl needs friends to love her - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Elizabeth Ann's Houseboat, by Josephine Lawrence - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETH ANN'S HOUSEBOAT *** - -***** This file should be named 53815-0.txt or 53815-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/8/1/53815/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Elizabeth Ann's Houseboat - -Author: Josephine Lawrence - -Illustrator: John M. Foster - -Release Date: December 27, 2016 [EBook #53815] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETH ANN'S HOUSEBOAT *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<hr class="divider" /> -<h1>ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT</h1> -<hr class="divider2" /> - -<div class="hidehand"> -<div class="figcenter width400"> -<img src="images/cover2.jpg" width="400" height="614" alt="Cover" /> -</div></div> - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter width400"> -<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> -<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="" /> -<div class="caption">“Walk right in—I’m a ghost,” he said politely.<br /> - -<i>Elizabeth Ann’s <span class="word-spacing3">Houseboat Frontispiece</span></i></div> -</div> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<div class="box title"> -<p class="center p180">ELIZABETH ANN’S<br /> -HOUSEBOAT</p> - -<p class="center mt3"><span class="p110">BY</span><br /> -<span class="p140">JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE</span></p> - -<p class="center">AUTHOR OF<br /> -“ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH ANN,” “LINDA<br /> -LANE,” “THE TWO LITTLE FELLOWS,” ETC.</p> - -<p class="center mt3"><i>ILLUSTRATED BY</i><br /> -<span class="p140"><em>JOHN M. FOSTER</em></span></p> - - -<p class="center p130 mt3"><small>PUBLISHERS</small><br /> -BARSE & CO.<br /> -<small>NEW YORK, N. <span class="word-spacing">Y. NEWARK</span>, N. J.</small></p> -</div> - - - -<div class="section mt3"> -<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1929</span><br /> -BY<br /> -BARSE & CO.</p> - -<p class="center"><em>Printed in the United States of America</em></p> -</div> - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table summary="Contents"> -<tr> -<th class="tdr">CHAPTER</th> -<th> </th> -<th class="tdr2">PAGE</th> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">I</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">A Letter</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#i">11</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">II</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">About Elizabeth Ann</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ii">21</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">III</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">All Decided</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iii">31</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">IV</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Sailor Talk</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iv">39</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">V</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Taken Boys</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#v">50</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">VI</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">The Bonnie Susie</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vi">61</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">VII</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">School News</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vii">70</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">VIII</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Roger Calendar</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#viii">79</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">IX</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Off for School</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ix">88</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">X</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">A Busy Morning</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#x">97</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XI</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Party Plans</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xi">106</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XII</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Seamen’s Chests</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xii">114</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XIII</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Catherine Dawdles</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiii">125</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XIV</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">At the Party</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiv">134</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XV</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Witches and All</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xv">145</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XVI</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Bad News</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvi">154</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XVII</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Something Different</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvii">162</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XVIII</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Elizabeth Ann Waits</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xviii">172</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XIX</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">Roger’s Mistake</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xix">183</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XX</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">The Fortune-Teller</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xx">194</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr">XXI</td> -<td class="tdl smcap">All Straightened Out</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxi">205</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> - -<h2><a name="illustrations" id="illustrations"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> - -<table summary="Illustrations"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">“Walk right in—I’m a ghost,” he said politely -(page <a href="#frontispiece">136</a>)</td> -<td class="tdr2"><em><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece</a></em></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td> </td> -<td class="tdr2"><small>PAGE</small></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">“For mercy’s sake, who are you?” she said</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#mercy">51</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">He seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and -lifted her into the bus</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#seized">129</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">“It looks as if we were in for more snow, -doesn’t it?”—and he pointed with his -broom toward the sky</td> -<td class="tdr2"><a href="#looks">177</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> -</div> - - - -<p class="center p180">ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT</p> - -<h2><a name="i" id="i"></a>CHAPTER I<br /> -<small>A LETTER</small></h2> - - -<p>“<span class="smcap">I don’t</span> see why we have to hurry,” protested Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>She wanted to get out and see what kind of a flower was growing in -the middle of the large field on the right hand side of the road. Lex -had declared that for once he couldn’t stop. Usually Lex did just as -Elizabeth Ann asked him to—Cousin Nellie said that both Lex and Uncle -Doctor always did as Elizabeth Ann asked.</p> - -<p>“I promised your Cousin Nellie to come right back with the mail,” -explained the patient Lex for the second time. “When I make a promise, -I keep it.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” said Elizabeth Ann. “I wonder why<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> Cousin Nellie couldn’t wait -for the mail man.”</p> - -<p>Lex said he didn’t know, but he had his suspicions.</p> - -<p>“I don’t think the mail man knows how to hurry,” said Lex. “Maybe he -gets out and picks all the flowers he sees. He’s late enough most of -the time, to pick a dozen bouquets.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann giggled.</p> - -<p>“I don’t think he picks bouquets,” she announced, “but he does read the -magazines, and his horse forgets to go. I think the mail man likes the -stories in magazines.”</p> - -<p>Lex, driving Uncle Doctor’s big car as he always drove, carefully, but -fast on an open road, nodded.</p> - -<p>“Another week and we won’t care what the mail man does,” he suggested. -“Mind going back to school, Elizabeth Ann?”</p> - -<p>It was that small girl’s turn to shake her head.</p> - -<p>“I don’t exactly mind going to school,” she explained. “I think I’ll be -glad to see my Aunt Ida, too. And I know I’ll be glad to see Doris. But -there is a great deal to learn, Lex.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> -Lex laughed and looked down at the little figure beside him.</p> - -<p>“Little Miss Anxious!” he teased. “You know you don’t study all the -time, Elizabeth Ann. Part of the time you play. And when you are -working away at those books with the great deal to learn in them, -suppose you think of me, plugging away. I’ve a great deal to learn -myself.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann smiled a little. She knew when Lex was teasing her.</p> - -<p>“I wouldn’t mind if I was learning to be a doctor—like you,” she said. -“You <em>like</em> to study, because you want to hurry up and be a doctor.”</p> - -<p>The car had come in sight of the house where Elizabeth Ann, her Uncle -Doctor and Cousin Nellie had been spending the summer.</p> - -<p>“When I was your age,” said Lex, driving across the dry and burned -lawn straight toward the long, low windows, “when I was your age, I -suspect I was studying just about the same lessons you’ll have this -winter—arithmetic, and spelling and so forth.”</p> - -<p>The car stopped, and Cousin Nellie stepped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> through one of the -windows—they were really more like doors than windows.</p> - -<p>“Did you bring the mail, Lex?” she asked eagerly.</p> - -<p>“Yes’m,” answered Lex, handing her the package of letters and papers -and magazines, tied together with a string. “Everything’s there.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann climbed out of the car and went around to the kitchen to -see if Lyn didn’t know a girl who needed cookies. Lyn often knew a girl -who needed cookies to keep her from starving, and strangely enough that -girl was usually Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>Though it was the first week in September, it was still very warm. -Elizabeth Ann found Lyn finishing the ironing on the side porch, and -she sat down to talk to her. She had only known Lyn since Uncle Doctor -had come to Cally for the summer, but they were great friends now. Lyn -was a tall, pleasant-faced girl and her real name you’ll never guess so -we’ll have to tell you—it was Patricia Gwendolyn Matilda Barr.</p> - -<p>“I’m awfully sorry you’re going home next<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> week,” said Lyn over her -shoulder, as she disappeared into the kitchen.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann thought she went to get a hot iron and Lyn did, but she -also brought back a plate of cookies and put it down on the top step -beside Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“M-m-m,” mumbled Elizabeth Ann, taking a delicious bite. “My, you make -good cookies, Lyn. We have to go home, you know. Uncle Doctor has to -cure sick people and I have to go to school. Couldn’t you go and live -with Cousin Nellie?”</p> - -<p>“She asked me,” Lyn admitted, beginning to iron one of Elizabeth Ann’s -dresses, “but I can’t go that far away from home. Maybe next year, when -some of my sisters are older and can help my mother, I’ll be able to -go.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t you have to go to school?” asked Elizabeth Ann, biting her -cookie all around the edge. She thought they lasted longer that way.</p> - -<p>“No-o, I don’t,” Lyn said, “but I suppose I ought to. Your Cousin -Nellie talked to me about school this summer. She says everyone ought -to learn as much as they can.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> -“My, yes,” agreed Elizabeth Ann seriously. “There is a great deal -to learn. Maybe you never get through. My Aunt Ida who has a -school—that’s where I went last winter with my cousin Doris—goes to -school herself. She takes lectures during vacation and studies all the -time.”</p> - -<p>Lyn had never heard of a school teacher who still studied school books, -and before she could think of anything to say, an old white horse came -rambling up to the steps. This was Elizabeth Ann’s horse, Jaspar, and -she had ridden him all summer.</p> - -<p>“He wants sugar!” cried Elizabeth Ann. “Lex got some at the store—it’s -under the car seat—please wait a minute, Jaspar, and I’ll be right -back.”</p> - -<p>She dashed away to the front of the house. The car was still standing where -<a name="Lex" id="Lex"></a><ins title="Original has 'Lyn'">Lex</ins> had stopped it, though she didn’t see him there. Elizabeth -Ann didn’t expect to see Lex—she knew that every spare moment he could -get to himself he spent studying the books that were to help him enter -college that fall.</p> - -<p>Cousin Nellie was still there, though. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> was sitting on the low -front steps, reading her letters.</p> - -<p>“Elizabeth Ann, I have a letter from your Aunt Jennie,” said Cousin -Nellie (Elizabeth Ann really had a great many relatives, but she -managed to keep them all straight in her mind).</p> - -<p>“How is Antonio?” Elizabeth Ann asked, feeling under the seat of the -car for the package of lump sugar. “How’s Doris?”</p> - -<p>Cousin Nellie looked at the letter lying in her lap.</p> - -<p>“It’s a very important letter, dearie,” she said, a little seriously. -“Your Aunt Jennie doesn’t mention Antonio—but Doris has been ill for -two weeks.”</p> - -<p>“That’s why she didn’t answer my letter!” exclaimed Elizabeth Ann. “I -wrote her a long, long letter and she didn’t send me even a little -letter. Poor Doris! Did she have the measles, Cousin Nellie?”</p> - -<p>Cousin Nellie was reading the letter. Her lips moved, but she didn’t -speak aloud. When she reached the end of one page she looked at -Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> -“When is your Uncle Doctor coming home?” she asked.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann blushed suddenly.</p> - -<p>“Oh—I forgot to tell you,” she said, looking ashamed. “Cousin Nellie -he told me to be sure and tell you he would come home to lunch to-day. -I forgot all about it.”</p> - -<p>Cousin Nellie folded the letter and put it in its envelope.</p> - -<p>“Never mind,” she said kindly. “There’s no harm done, Elizabeth Ann. -I’m very glad he will be here for lunch—there is something I must tell -him.”</p> - -<p>She went into the house, so Elizabeth Ann couldn’t ask questions. But, -dear me, she <em>thought</em> questions!</p> - -<p>“I wonder what Aunt Jennie wrote!” thought Elizabeth Ann’s busy little -brain. “I wonder if Doris is very sick. I wonder if Aunt Jennie wants -Uncle Doctor to come and make Doris well. Uncle Doctor can cure -anybody.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann went around to the back porch. Jaspar was still waiting -for his sugar.</p> - -<p>“You spoil that horse,” said Lyn, watching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> as Elizabeth Ann stood on -the top step and held out her hand, palm up, with a lump of sugar on -it, as Lex had taught her.</p> - -<p>“He likes sugar,” Elizabeth Ann declared, while Jaspar’s long nose came -down to her little hand and he took the sugar daintily in his teeth.</p> - -<p>“What will he do when you’ve gone home?” demanded Lyn. “Who will give -him sugar then?”</p> - -<p>“Mr. Hanson,” Elizabeth Ann answered promptly. “He promised me he -would. He says he will take the best of care of Jaspar, because he -knows I love him.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Hanson owned the factory in Cally, and Lyn knew <em>him</em>, so he said -he wouldn’t be surprised if Jaspar lived on sugar for the rest of his -life.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann opened her mouth to say that no horse could live on -sugar, but instead she cried, “Uncle Doctor!” and dived off the porch -into the arms of a tall, white-haired man, as if it had been weeks -since she had seen him. This was Uncle Doctor, and he and Elizabeth -Ann had had breakfast together<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> that morning; but his little niece was -always perfectly delighted to see him.</p> - -<p>“Cousin Nellie has a letter, Uncle Doctor,” said Elizabeth Ann. “Doris -has been sick—maybe they want you to come and cure her. And how did -you get here from town?”</p> - -<p>“You put things backward, Elizabeth Ann,” teased Uncle Doctor. “If you -must know, I got a lift from one of the salesmen who brought me as far -as the cross-roads in his car; I walked the rest of the way. Where is -Cousin Nellie and this letter?”</p> - -<p>“Here, Cran,” Cousin Nellie said, looking through the kitchen screen.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="ii" id="ii"></a>CHAPTER II<br /> -<small>ABOUT ELIZABETH ANN</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Uncle Doctor’s</span> eyes began to twinkle in a way that Elizabeth Ann -understood.</p> - -<p>“Shall Elizabeth Ann and I come and listen to the letter, Nellie?” he -asked, “or shall Elizabeth Ann be a useful child and help Lyn?”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann didn’t want to help Lyn. She wanted to hear the letter. -But she couldn’t help smiling at Uncle Doctor when he smiled at her.</p> - -<p>“I’ll have to read it to you, first, Cran,” said kind Cousin Nellie. -“There is something in it I must talk over with you. Come around to -the front of the house and after you have heard the letter, I’ll tell -Elizabeth Ann what Jennie says.”</p> - -<p>They went away together and Lyn began to put up the ironing board.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> -“Time to get lunch,” she announced. “Do you want to help me, Elizabeth -Ann?”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann could set the table very nicely, but this noon her mind -was not on her task. She did so wonder what could be in Aunt Jennie’s -letter. Aunt Jennie, when she wrote, usually wrote the kind of a letter -that Cousin Nellie liked to read aloud at the lunch or dinner table. -Aunt Jennie sent messages to everyone—even to Lyn, whom she had never -seen, but had heard of, through Elizabeth Ann and Cousin Nellie.</p> - -<p>“I don’t see why Cousin Nellie didn’t read the letter out loud,” -Elizabeth Ann puzzled, carrying in the bread plate.</p> - -<p>Lex came up the back steps, his arms filled with books.</p> - -<p>“Is it time to eat?” he asked in surprise. “I just brought these books -in to pack them away. I won’t need them again and I hate to leave -everything till the last minute.”</p> - -<p>“Tell Miss Nellie lunch is ready,” Lyn called after him as he walked -through the kitchen and on into the rest of the house.</p> - -<p>Uncle Doctor and Cousin Nellie came to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> dining room at once. -Elizabeth Ann looked at Uncle Doctor closely, for sometimes she could -guess what he was thinking. But not to-day. He pulled back Cousin -Nellie’s chair for her and helped Elizabeth Ann into hers, without -saying a single word. Lex came back and they began to eat, and still no -one mentioned Aunt Jennie’s letter.</p> - -<p>Now Elizabeth Ann was a courteous little girl and she knew far more -than some little girls do. Not for worlds would she say “letter,” if -she thought that Cousin Nellie did not wish to talk about it. And -Elizabeth Ann knew that if Cousin Nellie did want to talk of the -letter, she would say something about it—so Miss Elizabeth Ann ate her -luncheon quietly and did not ask questions.</p> - -<p>While she is eating her lunch may be a good time to tell you a bit -about her. That is, if you’re not already acquainted. Perhaps you have -read the first book in this series, called “Adventures of Elizabeth -Ann.” Then you know she was a little girl whose parents were traveling -in Japan, and who had been sent to make friends with her relatives who -loved her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> as soon as they knew her. Elizabeth Ann visited ever so -many aunts in the city, in the country and at the seashore, and she -was lucky enough to find a girl cousin, Doris, almost her own age. -Elizabeth Ann and Doris went to school together and it was during a -vacation from school that Elizabeth Ann went to visit Uncle Doctor who -was her mother’s uncle and her own great-uncle. Cousin Nellie kept -house for Uncle Doctor, whose real name was Doctor Crandall Lewis. And -Elizabeth Ann had such a lovely vacation with Uncle Doctor and helped -him so much that the next summer, when he went South to do some special -work, Uncle Doctor took Elizabeth Ann with him. He took Lex, too, who -was studying to be a doctor, and who ran Uncle Doctor’s car for him, -and of course Cousin Nellie went. And their summer in the country near -the little town of Cally has been told you in the book just before this -one, called “Elizabeth Ann and Uncle Doctor.”</p> - -<p>That is why you find them down South now—the summer was over and in a -few days they were going home, Elizabeth Ann to Seabridge,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> where Doris -Mason and Aunt Jennie and the other Mason cousins lived; Uncle Doctor -and Cousin Nellie and Lyn to the town of Chester where they lived.</p> - -<p>But Elizabeth Ann has kept still long enough and it’s time to see what -happens next.</p> - -<p>As soon as lunch was finished, Lyn came in to clear the table and Lex -went out to study for another hour. He did most of his studying under -an old apple tree, and sometimes Jaspar came and cropped the grass -around him, just to be sociable, Lex said.</p> - -<p>“Come out where it is shady, Elizabeth Ann,” said Uncle Doctor. “I want -to talk to you.”</p> - -<p>He and Cousin Nellie and Elizabeth Ann went out doors where there were -some comfortable chairs on the grass near the house. It was shady here -part of the day and Cousin Nellie liked to sit in her easy-chair and -sew.</p> - -<p>“Is it about the letter?” asked Elizabeth Ann, perching herself on the -arm of Uncle Doctor’s chair.</p> - -<p>“You’ve guessed it exactly,” he answered her. “Your Aunt Jennie has -written a letter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> to Cousin Nellie—to both of us, rather, because she -wants our advice. And your daddy and mother are so far away she can not -write to them and get an answer in time.”</p> - -<p>“Then,” said Elizabeth Ann, beginning to feel excited, “the letter is -about me.”</p> - -<p>“Right again,” Uncle Doctor declared. “The letter is about you—about -you and Doris. Poor Doris has been very ill indeed, but she is better -now.”</p> - -<p>“But she can’t go back to school,” said Cousin Nellie quietly.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann stared, too surprised to speak. Why, she and Doris had -been sent to Aunt Ida’s school because Doris’s mother thought she ought -to go away to school. Doris had an older sister and four brothers and -she was apt to be spoiled with too much attention at home.</p> - -<p>“Do I have to go to school all by myself?” gasped Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>Uncle Doctor gently pulled her down into his lap.</p> - -<p>“Dear me, Doris isn’t the only other girl in school, is she?” he asked -in mock astonishment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> “I thought there were dozens of girls there.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann chuckled at that idea.</p> - -<p>“Of course there are lots of girls,” she explained. “Only Doris is much -the nicest. We like each other.”</p> - -<p>“Cran, I want to tell Elizabeth Ann what is in this letter,” said -Cousin Nellie gently. “How can I tell her if you tease her all the -time? Elizabeth Ann, listen, dear—your Aunt Jennie wants to send Doris -to the country to spend the winter and she wants you to go with her.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann sat up with a jerk, beaming.</p> - -<p>“I’ll go,” she announced joyfully. “Where are we going, Cousin Nellie?”</p> - -<p>Uncle Doctor and Cousin Nellie looked at each other and laughed.</p> - -<p>“My dear child,” said Cousin Nellie, “I haven’t the slightest idea -whether it will be best for you to go. Your Aunt Jennie thinks it would -be fine for Doris to be with you, but she says herself she doesn’t know -whether you ought to leave Aunt Ida’s school.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, yes, <a name="cousin" id="cousin"></a><ins title="Original has 'Aunt'">Cousin</ins> -Nellie!” Elizabeth Ann<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> pleaded, “It will do -me good not to go to school. I’ve been to school <em>very</em> regularly for -years and years.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Doctor’s eyes twinkled at that.</p> - -<p>“They have school in the country, you monkey,” he informed Elizabeth -Ann. “Doris’s mother doesn’t expect her to stay out of school; she is -to go to a little country school and so will you, if you are sent to -the country with her. So, Elizabeth Ann, it looks as -<a name="though" id="though"></a><ins title="Original has 'thought'">though</ins> you’d be -educated, come what may.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann was silent for a moment.</p> - -<p>“Well,” she said presently, “I don’t mind a new school. I like a -change. So does Doris. Perhaps it made her sick to go to the same -school too long.”</p> - -<p>“I wish I knew what to do,” Cousin Nellie worried. “I can’t seem to -decide. How do we know what kind of a place the school will be; and -suppose there are heavy snow storms this winter?”</p> - -<p>“Elizabeth Ann won’t melt,” said Uncle Doctor cheerfully. “Though she -is sweet enough to be sugar she isn’t—and a snow storm won’t hurt her. -Anyway, you can’t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> decide, Nellie, till we get to Seabridge and see -what Jennie has to say. I want to look Doris over, too—she may be well -enough to go on as usual to what Elizabeth Ann ungratefully calls ‘the -same school.’”</p> - -<p>So that was the way it was left—Cousin Nellie and Uncle Doctor would -decide when they reached Seabridge and talked to Doris’s mother. -Elizabeth Ann, though, kept hoping that she and Doris might go to a new -school. As she told Lyn, it would be more exciting, and perhaps she -could take Antonio, her beautiful white cat with her.</p> - -<p>It seemed only a day or two later that the packing was done and all -the good-bys said—Mr. Hawkins and Mr. and Mrs. Hanson and the factory -nurse and Mr. Fitcher, the farmer Elizabeth Ann had made friends with, -and his wife and all the Fitcher children, came to say good-by and tell -how much they would miss Elizabeth Ann. Lyn cried, too, until Cousin -Nellie reminded her that next year she was coming North to pay her a -visit. That made Lyn feel much better.</p> - -<p>The trip to Seabridge was long and rather<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> tiresome, for the roads were -dusty in some places and oily in others. Uncle Doctor and Lex took -turns driving and Elizabeth Ann and Muffins rode with Cousin Nellie on -the back seat. They stopped at hotels for two nights and they were all -glad when they came in sight of the beautiful rolling ocean. Elizabeth -Ann spoke for them all when she said, “Going to Cally was fun, because -it was a new road; but coming home was just work because there wasn’t -anything to surprise us.”</p> - -<p>The Masons lived in a little brown house close to the beach, and they -were everyone of them at the front door to welcome the travelers. -Elizabeth Ann had to look twice at a little girl with a white face and -two great dark eyes, before she saw that it was Doris.</p> - -<p>“Oh my,” thought Elizabeth Ann to herself, kissing her favorite cousin, -“Poor Doris must have been so sick!”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="iii" id="iii"></a>CHAPTER III<br /> -<small>ALL DECIDED</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Muffins</span> barked wildly at the lovely white cat that came trotting up -to Elizabeth Ann. This was Antonio—better known as Tony—and he was -plainly glad to see his little mistress again. Elizabeth Ann gathered -him in her arms as they went into the house.</p> - -<p>It wasn’t a large house and the four guests added to the Mason -family, completely filled the little dining room. There was dear Aunt -Jennie—who had the sweetest smile of any of her aunties, Elizabeth -Ann often thought; and pretty Emmy, the older daughter, and Jerry and -Rodney, the two big cousins; and Ted and Lansing, the two younger boy -cousins. And Doris, of course. But Doris was so strangely quiet that -Elizabeth Ann hardly knew her. Usually Doris made as much noise as her -brothers did.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> -“Ted about Cally,” commanded Ted, as soon as they were all seated at -the table. “Did you like it? Wasn’t it hot down there? Mother told me -you learned how to ride a horse, Elizabeth Ann.”</p> - -<p>Doris didn’t say a word. She sat beside her mother and drank her milk -when she saw Uncle Doctor looking at her, but she didn’t touch her -plate and Elizabeth Ann was surprised to see that she didn’t eat her -dessert either when Emmy brought that in. Elizabeth Ann was never -allowed to have dessert if she didn’t eat her dinner; but here was -Doris, who could have apparently what she wanted, refusing to eat a -chocolate éclair.</p> - -<p>“I suppose it’s because she has been sick,” thought Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>After dinner, they took a little walk on the beach, but Uncle Doctor -said Elizabeth Ann must go to bed early because she had had a long -journey. Doris had not come with them for the walk and she was already -in bed, Aunt Jennie said, when the others returned from the beach.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps she’ll be up early in the morning,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> said Elizabeth Ann -sleepily to Cousin Nellie.</p> - -<p>But Doris didn’t get up early the next morning. Elizabeth Ann, who -wanted to play in the sand before breakfast, was disappointed when she -ran downstairs to find only Ted and Lansing on the front porch.</p> - -<p>“Where’s Doris?” she asked eagerly.</p> - -<p>“In bed,” Ted replied. “She stays in bed till after breakfast, since -she’s been sick. Your Uncle Doctor’s gone down to the beach to throw -sticks in the water for Muffins—want to go see him?”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann went with the boys and they found Uncle Doctor and -Muffins having a grand time. Jerry and Rodney had already gone into -the city, to their offices, and as soon as Elizabeth Ann and Ted and -Lansing brought Uncle Doctor back to the house, they had breakfast.</p> - -<p>“Now I’ll go up and see Doris,” announced Uncle Doctor, when breakfast -was over. “You run out and play, Elizabeth Ann; I want to start for -home before lunch time, if possible.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> -Ted and Lansing and Elizabeth Ann went out and sat on the steps.</p> - -<p>“Are you going to the country with Doris?” asked Ted.</p> - -<p>“Are you going to Chester with Doctor Lewis?” Lansing asked.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know,” said Elizabeth Ann frankly. “I don’t know where I’m -going. What is the matter with Doris?”</p> - -<p>“She was sick almost two weeks,” Ted declared. “She was sick in bed. -And now the doctor says she ought to go to the country, because when -people live at the seashore all the year round, the country is a -change. I never get any change,” sighed Ted.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann looked at him critically.</p> - -<p>“You look all right,” she observed. “I don’t believe you need any.”</p> - -<p>And Elizabeth Ann was right. If ever a boy looked sturdy and well and -happy, that boy was Ted Mason. He couldn’t even feel sorry for himself -because there was really nothing to feel sorry about.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann heard a purring sound behind her back and there was Tony, -her white<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> cat. He climbed into her lap and she stroked him gently.</p> - -<p>“If I go to the country, could I take Tony, do you suppose?” she asked. -“I couldn’t take him to Aunt Ida’s school, but perhaps in the country -it will be different.”</p> - -<p>Lansing didn’t know. Neither did Ted.</p> - -<p>“You’ll have to ask Mother,” they both said.</p> - -<p>Cousin Nellie and Aunt Jennie came out on the porch just then and Aunt -Jennie sat down beside Elizabeth Ann, while Cousin Nellie took the -rocking chair.</p> - -<p>“How would you like to go and visit Doris’s great uncle, dear?” asked -Aunt Jennie.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann blinked. She often got herself tangled up thinking about -her relatives, and here she was being asked to think about Doris’s -relatives.</p> - -<p>“Has Doris a great uncle?” she asked cautiously.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” nodded Aunt Jennie, “she has. He’s my uncle, just as Doctor -Lewis is your mother’s uncle. His name is Hiram—Uncle Hiram, and he -lives on a lovely farm.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> -“Could Tony live on the farm, too?” inquired Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“I think he could,” Aunt Jennie answered. “I don’t see any reason why -Tony couldn’t go with you.”</p> - -<p>And then Uncle Doctor came out and joined them and began to talk. In a -very few minutes everything was quite clear to Elizabeth Ann. That was -always the way when Uncle Doctor talked to her—he could explain things -so plainly, and he didn’t mind dozens of questions, and he always -seemed to take it for granted that Elizabeth Ann would be willing and -anxious to do as he wanted her to do.</p> - -<p>“Doris must have a quiet, unexciting winter, in the open air,” said -Uncle Doctor, sitting on the porch railing. “From what you tell me, -Jennie, I think Bonnie Susie will be exactly the place for her.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann listened, but did not say anything. “Bonnie Susie” didn’t -sound like a farm, did it?</p> - -<p>“It won’t hurt Elizabeth Ann, either,” said Uncle Doctor, smiling at -that small girl, “to have a winter in the country. Tramping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> through -the snow drifts will give her roses in her cheeks. How are we going to -send them?”</p> - -<p>“Uncle Hiram has promised to come after them,” explained Aunt Jennie. -“He’s delighted at the idea of having company this winter. And I’m so -glad you are willing to have Elizabeth Ann go with Doris—she would be -so lonely in a strange house, and at a strange school, without her best -cousin, as she calls Elizabeth Ann.”</p> - -<p>So that was settled. Uncle Doctor and Cousin Nellie and Muffins and -Lex drove away an hour later, leaving Elizabeth Ann feeling a little -forlorn, for all she had an aunt and half a dozen cousins left. And -a cat, too, as Doris, who had dressed and came down to sit in the -sunshine, reminded her.</p> - -<p>“I think it will be heaps of fun to go to the country,” said Doris with -something of her old enthusiasm. “Wait till you see my Uncle Hiram’s -house, Elizabeth Ann. You never saw a house like it anywhere.”</p> - -<p>“Why didn’t I?” Elizabeth Ann demanded. “I’ve seen lots of houses—I -saw queer houses down South.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> -“I don’t believe you ever saw a house like my Uncle Hiram’s house,” -persisted Doris. “I never saw it, either, but Mother told me about it.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann was puzzled.</p> - -<p>“Is it a queer house, Doris?” she asked wonderingly.</p> - -<p>“No-o, I don’t know that it is queer,” said Doris. “It’s—it’s -different—that’s all. You see, it’s built exactly like a boat!”</p> - -<p>“But I thought your uncle lived on a farm,” Elizabeth Ann reminded her.</p> - -<p>“He does, but he lives in a boat,” replied Doris.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="iv" id="iv"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /> -<small>SAILOR TALK</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Aunt Jennie</span> sent a telegram to Uncle Hiram that night and two days -later he came. He looked, Elizabeth Ann decided as soon as she saw him, -exactly like the kind of a man who would live in a boat. For one thing, -he was dressed in dark blue clothes with brass buttons and he wore a -cap instead of a hat. Uncle Hiram looked like a sailor.</p> - -<p>“He was captain of a ship before he married Aunt Grace,” Doris -explained to Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram talked like a sailor, too. He came to lunch and said he -had no idea it was “mess time.” And he talked about the wind, and kept -looking at the sky as though it was most important to keep an eye on -the weather.</p> - -<p>Everyone liked him. He had curly white<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> hair and a curly white beard -and a deep voice and the nicest smile. He called his car “a clipper” -and said he had had no trouble at all navigating the waters on the way -down to Seabridge. Elizabeth Ann made up her mind that it was going to -be fun to visit someone who talked about ships and the ocean all the -time, even when he was living on the dry land.</p> - -<p>Aunt Jennie had packed a trunk for Elizabeth Ann and Doris and this -had been sent on ahead by train to Gardner, which was the town nearest -to Uncle Hiram’s farm. And, since Gardner was some distance from -Seabridge, it was necessary for the two little girls to rise very early -the morning after Uncle Hiram came, so that he could make the trip in -one day.</p> - -<p>“School opens day after to-morrow,” said Uncle Hiram in his deep voice. -“Can’t have you absent on the first day, you know. Can’t have the -teacher say those girls who come from the Bonnie Susie, are slow about -learning their lessons.”</p> - -<p>“What <em>is</em> the Bonnie Susie?” Elizabeth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> Ann whispered to Doris. But -Uncle Hiram heard her.</p> - -<p>“It’s our house,” he explained. “I named it after my first ship. I -wanted to call it the Bonnie Grace, but my wife wouldn’t hear of it; -said she didn’t want the whole countryside to know there was a house -named after her.”</p> - -<p>“I think it is nice to have a house named after you,” said Elizabeth -Ann, wondering how it would sound to have a house, or a boat, named -“The Elizabeth Ann.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram was anxious to be off, and Aunt Jennie hurried everyone -through breakfast. Then they all came out to the car to help tuck -Elizabeth Ann and Doris in, and to see that Tony was as comfortable -as possible in his wicker basket. It can not be said that Tony liked -to travel, but Elizabeth Ann hoped he would like his new home when he -eventually reached there.</p> - -<p>“Take in the gang plank,” said Uncle Hiram, when his passengers were -finally settled.</p> - -<p>That, Elizabeth Ann discovered, meant to close the car door.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> -“Full steam ahead,” said Uncle Hiram and started the car.</p> - -<p>“Good-by, good-by!” cried all the Masons; and Elizabeth Ann and Doris -waved and waved till they could see the little brown house no longer.</p> - -<p>Now if Elizabeth Ann had been all alone, or if Doris had been alone, -each little girl might have felt a bit homesick at that moment—riding -away in a strange car with a strange uncle. But two little girls can’t -feel forlorn when they have each other; and besides, as Elizabeth Ann -wrote to Uncle Doctor later, it took a great deal of time to understand -what Uncle Hiram was saying. Because he talked like a sailor, and -neither Elizabeth Ann nor Doris understood sailor talk.</p> - -<p>It was a most beautiful September day and the roads were lined with -goldenrod. Elizabeth Ann would have liked Tony to enjoy the scenery but -she didn’t feel that it would be safe to take him from his basket, and -Uncle Hiram said that he agreed with her.</p> - -<p>“Cats have to get used to strange ships,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> he rumbled in his deep -voice. “Wait till we get Tony to the Bonnie Susie and he’ll feel at -home in a couple of days.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann, watching the gray road roll out like a piece of ribbon -in front of the car, thought often of Uncle Hiram’s house. Doris had -said it was like a boat.</p> - -<p>“But of course,” said Elizabeth Ann to herself, “it can’t be a real -boat. I never saw a real boat on the land. And Uncle Hiram lives on a -farm, and you have to live in a house when you live on a farm.”</p> - -<p>She was wondering about Uncle Hiram’s house, when his deep voice spoke -to her and she jumped a little.</p> - -<p>“Well, mess-mate,” said Uncle Hiram pleasantly, “what do you say to -stopping at the next place where there is something to eat?”</p> - -<p>“I think it would be nice to stop,” Elizabeth Ann declared promptly.</p> - -<p>“I’m hungry, too,” announced Doris, and it was a pity her mother -couldn’t hear her, for Doris had not been hungry lately.</p> - -<p>“Guess we’ll have to coal ship, too,” said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> Uncle Hiram and Elizabeth -Ann looked at Doris helplessly.</p> - -<p>“I mean, we need some gas for the car,” Uncle Hiram added. “I forget -you haven’t signed up with a ship before. But you’ll learn in -time—you’ll learn in time.”</p> - -<p>They came to a filling station with a nice, clean-looking restaurant -attached and Uncle Hiram drove in. He helped Elizabeth Ann and Doris -out and then looked at the basket in which Tony was fastened.</p> - -<p>“How do we feed the cat?” he asked.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann had traveled with Tony before. She knew how to take care -of him.</p> - -<p>“If there is a quiet place, I can take him out of the basket,” she -explained. “He likes liver and milk, but he won’t eat if there is much -noise, or many people looking at him.”</p> - -<p>“He’s a cat after my own heart,” declared Uncle Hiram. “I can’t enjoy -my food if a crowd has to sit and stare at every mouthful I take. We’ll -see what we can do.”</p> - -<p>Well, what Uncle Hiram could do was to take one of the tables in a -row of little alcoves. The table had seats built on two sides of it, -and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> there were pink and blue curtains that could be drawn across the -doorway, so that the alcove was almost like a separate room. Elizabeth -Ann and Doris sat on one side of the table, and Uncle Hiram sat on the -other, while a little waitress in a pink and white frock and a green -apron brought them hot rolls filled with creamed chicken, and glasses -of milk and, for Tony, a green and white enameled dish with tiny pieces -of liver all cut up ready for him to eat.</p> - -<p>“Here’s your lunch, Tony,” Elizabeth Ann whispered, opening the basket -carefully.</p> - -<p>Out popped the white head and green eyes of Tony. He looked around the -alcove and apparently approved of it. The dish of liver was on the -floor and Elizabeth Ann put him down beside it and he went to eating -not greedily, but daintily and slowly, as Tony always ate.</p> - -<p>“You’ll be eating supper in the Bonnie Susie to-night,” said Uncle -Hiram, looking hard at Doris’s glass of milk.</p> - -<p>Doris thought he meant her to drink it (which he did) and she took a -long swallow.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> -“Is—is the Bonnie Susie a house or a boat?” asked Elizabeth Ann, her -curiosity getting the better of her.</p> - -<p>“Wait and see,” Uncle Hiram said with a smile.</p> - -<p>“It’s a boat!” declared Doris. “I told you it was a boat, Elizabeth -Ann.”</p> - -<p>“Well, you——” began Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>She had intended to say, “You never saw it,” and suggest that Doris -might be mistaken.</p> - -<p>But instead she glanced down under the table and cried in alarm, -“Where’s Tony? Tony isn’t here!”</p> - -<p>Tony wasn’t there—he had disappeared. He had licked his dish as clean -as clean could be and then had vanished.</p> - -<p>“I’ll find him—likely as not he is prowling around the restaurant, in -the main room,” said Uncle Hiram. “You two children stay here and I’ll -round up the culprit. We can’t allow mutiny on board this craft.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram went out through the curtains and Elizabeth Ann and Doris -waited. He didn’t come back and he didn’t come back.</p> - -<p>“I can’t go away and leave him here,” whispered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> Elizabeth Ann, feeling -as though she would like to cry. “He would be so unhappy if he found -out I’d gone off with Uncle Hiram and left him.”</p> - -<p>“Serve him right,” Doris said rather crossly. “Anyway, Uncle Hiram -won’t let you stay here to wait for Tony; if that cat doesn’t come -back, you’ll just have to go and leave <a name="quote" id="quote"></a><ins title="Original omits quotation mark">him.”</ins></p> - -<p>Doris, you see, was a little tired and as people often are, who have -been ill, inclined to be cross. She didn’t want Elizabeth Ann to be -unhappy, but neither did she want to have their journey interrupted by -a search for Elizabeth Ann’s cat.</p> - -<p>“I just have to find him,” said Elizabeth Ann. “I’m going to open that -door and see where it goes.”</p> - -<p>She pointed to a door in the wall behind them—a closed door. But it -wasn’t a locked door for it opened when Elizabeth Ann turned the knob, -and there was a flight of steps leading down to the cellar.</p> - -<p>“You’d better stay right here,” Doris told her, and that was certainly -good advice.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> -Elizabeth Ann, unfortunately, didn’t always take good advice.</p> - -<p>“I’m going down to look for Tony,” she said firmly. “You stay there so -you can tell Uncle Hiram where I’ve gone.”</p> - -<p>And down the steps went Miss Elizabeth Ann, into a perfectly strange -cellar.</p> - -<p>It wasn’t dark—that is, it wasn’t so very dark. She began to call -softly for Tony as she went down the steps and when she found herself -on the cement floor she thought she saw him moving among the shadows. -But when she walked toward what she thought was the cat, Elizabeth Ann -discovered that it was only a piece of wood someone had dropped as they -carried an armful up for the fire.</p> - -<p>“Here, Tony, Tony!” called Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>The cellar seemed to have little rooms arranged around it—Elizabeth -Ann wrinkled her nose at the spaces where coal and wood were piled, and -the potatoes and onions and other vegetables heaped in neat piles in -some of the other rooms. But when she came to a place just lined with -shelves, Elizabeth Ann paused. She forgot Tony for a moment, too.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> -“It looks like the pantry Aunt Hester had in her house,” thought -Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>These shelves were filled with glass jars, just as Aunt Hester’s -shelves had been filled. Elizabeth Ann knew what was in the jars—fruit -and jam and jellies—perhaps vegetables, too. She opened the gate made -of slats and went in to have a better look.</p> - -<p>“I thought so!” said a sharp voice behind her. “I’m not a bit -surprised. Put out your hand!”</p> - -<p>Too surprised to disobey, Elizabeth Ann held out her little right hand.</p> - -<p>At once she felt three hard stinging blows across it—blows from a -ruler the owner of the sharp voice held in her hand.</p> - -<p>“Now you march right upstairs,” commanded the sharp voice.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="v" id="v"></a>CHAPTER V<br /> -<small>TAKEN BOYS</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Poor</span> Elizabeth Ann, her hand stinging, her eyes filled with tears, -stepped out of the room where the rows of glass jars were stored. As -she walked past the woman who held the ruler, that sharp-voiced person -gasped.</p> - -<p>“For mercy’s sake, who are you? I thought you were Esther,” she said.</p> - -<p>“I’m Elizabeth Ann Loring,” said Elizabeth Ann. “I came down here to -look for Tony, my cat.”</p> - -<p>“Good gracious!” the woman cried—Elizabeth Ann could see her better -now, in the light that came from one of the cellar windows. “I never -saw you before in my life!”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann rubbed her smarting hand and winked back the tears. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter width400"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> -<a name="mercy" id="mercy"></a><img src="images/i-051.jpg" width="400" height="596" alt="" /> -<div class="caption">“For mercy’s sake, who are you?” she said.</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> -“I was just looking at your pantry,” she said with dignity. “My aunt -has a pantry like that. She puts up jelly every year.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sorry,” said the woman, who was tall and thin and wore her hair -twisted back from her eyes in a small, hard knot. “I’m sorry I struck -you with the ruler. I thought you were my niece, Esther, who is always -stealing jam. I told her the next time I found her in the cellar I’d -give her something to remember.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll remember it!” Elizabeth Ann declared. “It hurt.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sorry,” said the woman again. “And the worst of it is, it won’t do -Esther any good; she’ll be down here the minute my back is turned.”</p> - -<p>“I think,” Elizabeth Ann announced in a rather small voice, “I think -I’d better go back. Uncle Hiram will be wondering where I am.”</p> - -<p>At this late date Elizabeth Ann had suddenly remembered that Uncle -Hiram had directed her and Doris to stay in the alcove room till he -came back. Perhaps he might not be pleased to find she was wandering -around in the cellar.</p> - -<p>“If you have any folks,” said the woman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> switching the ruler against -her skirts and peering around the cellar as though she still hoped to -find the jam-stealing Esther, “I should think they’d be looking for -you. Where did you come from?”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann explained about Doris and Uncle Hiram and the woman -showed her where the stairs were for Elizabeth Ann was so turned about -that she couldn’t find her way.</p> - -<p>“I work in the kitchen,” said the woman. “I’ll go up the other stairs. -I hope you understand it was all a mistake, my slapping you with the -ruler.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann said of course she knew it was a mistake; so she went -up the stairs and found herself in the alcove room. No one was there -except Doris and she was frowning. Oh yes, the wicker basket was on -the seat beside her and it was closed and fastened. That meant, very -likely, that Tony was inside.</p> - -<p>“Where <em>have</em> you been?” demanded Doris.</p> - -<p>“Did Uncle Hiram find Tony?” Elizabeth Ann asked, instead of answering -the question.</p> - -<p>“Of course he did—and he’s in his basket,” said Doris, mixing her -pronouns in a way that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> would have scandalized Aunt Ida. “He doesn’t -like it a bit, either, because you weren’t here. He’s gone to ask the -man who owns the restaurant if he can go down in the cellar and hunt -for you.”</p> - -<p>And just then Uncle Hiram parted the curtains and looked in at the two -girls. He saw Elizabeth Ann and he said to her, exactly as Doris had, -“Where <em>have</em> you been?” Only he added, “I thought I asked you to wait -till I came back.”</p> - -<p>“I went to look for Tony,” said Elizabeth Ann. “I thought he might have -gone down cellar to hunt for mice. And a lady thought I was Esther -stealing jam and she told me to put out my hand and she hit me three -times with her ruler.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann held out her hand. Across the pink palm were -angry-looking, red marks.</p> - -<p>“Orders are orders on board ship,” said Uncle Hiram. “However, you seem -to have battled a gale and we’ll let it go this once. I found your cat -snooping around the main dining room—guess he wanted more to eat.”</p> - -<p>On the way out to the car—Uncle Hiram<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> said they must hurry for -they still had many miles to cover—Elizabeth Ann looked around her -carefully. She thought she might see Esther, and she was rather -interested in Esther. But she didn’t see any other little girl.</p> - -<p>“Do you think,” whispered Doris, after they were in their places on -the back seat, and Uncle Hiram was so busy watching the road that he -couldn’t listen to them chattering, “do you think that Uncle Hiram is -cross?”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’m not sure,” Elizabeth Ann said. “Of course I ought not to -have gone down in the cellar. Perhaps he isn’t cross when you do as he -asks you to.”</p> - -<p>Doris agreed that under those circumstances Uncle Hiram might not be -cross. Then she put her head down on Elizabeth Ann’s shoulder and -went to sleep. And Elizabeth Ann found that her own eyes insisted on -closing, and she went to sleep too.</p> - -<p>She woke up a little later to find that the car had stopped. Uncle -Hiram was talking to a man who sat in another car, headed in the -opposite direction.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> -“You sure you haven’t seen him?” the man was saying as Elizabeth Ann -opened her eyes.</p> - -<p>“I told you I hadn’t,” answered Uncle Hiram, and his voice was a deep -growl. “I might have picked him up and given him a lift, if he asked -me, but I wouldn’t lie about it. I haven’t seen any boy on the road -since I started this trip.”</p> - -<p>“The varmint is probably hiding around somewhere,” the man said crossly.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann leaned as far forward as she could, without waking the -still sleeping Doris.</p> - -<p>The man who sat in the other car did not have a pleasant face. He was -thin, and his nose was red, while his eyes were small and looked angry. -He had thrust his head out of the side of his car and was positively -glaring at Uncle Hiram.</p> - -<p>“Well, if you do see him, mind you pick him up and telephone me,” said -the man, speaking more crossly still. “I’ll pay for the telephone call. -He’s a bound boy, remember, and I have the right to him.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram merely nodded and started his car. Elizabeth Ann waited -till he had passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> the other car and then she touched him on the -shoulder.</p> - -<p>“Uncle Hiram,” she said in a low voice, as though she was afraid the -other man might overhear, “Uncle Hiram, what is a varmint?”</p> - -<p>“Eh, you’re awake then,” Uncle Hiram commented. “I thought you were -having a fine nap. A varmint, my dear, is a low kind of animal—like a -skunk or a weasel. Weasels, you know, steal chickens.”</p> - -<p>“Why did the man want one then?” asked Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“One what?” Uncle Hiram said, surprised.</p> - -<p>“A varmint,” explained Elizabeth Ann. “He was looking for a varmint. I -woke up when he was saying so.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t wonder you woke up,” Uncle Hiram declared. “He had a voice -like a buzz saw, and anyone who heard it would either wake up or have -bad dreams. That man wasn’t looking for a varmint, my dear; that was -just his way of describing a poor taken boy.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann stood up. She always said she could think better standing -up.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> -“Please, what is a taken boy?” she asked.</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram glanced over his shoulder.</p> - -<p>“My, my, what a lot of things you want to know,” said he. “Well, -Elizabeth Ann, a taken boy is usually an orphan. Someone takes him from -the poorhouse and agrees to be responsible for his food and shelter and -clothes. And in return the boy does as much work as he can.”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” Elizabeth Ann exclaimed. “Did that man with the red nose take a -boy?”</p> - -<p>“I’m afraid he did,” said Uncle Hiram. “I’m sorry for any lad who has -to live with a man like that. It seems this poor boy couldn’t stand it -any longer. He ran away, and the man was searching for him.”</p> - -<p>“I hope he doesn’t find him!” Elizabeth Ann declared.</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram didn’t say anything, but Elizabeth Ann was sure he hoped -that the boy would not be found.</p> - -<p>“Are we there?” asked a sleepy little voice, and Doris sat up, rubbing -her eyes.</p> - -<p>“Almost there!” Uncle Hiram said cheerfully. “Have to go around one -more curve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> and take the first turn to the right, and then you’ll see -the Bonnie Susie.”</p> - -<p>Tony meowed mournfully in his basket. Perhaps he was tired of -automobiling.</p> - -<p>“I’ve learned a lot while you were asleep,” Elizabeth Ann informed -Doris, gently rocking the basket to let Tony know she heard him. “I -learned about varmints, and taken boys.”</p> - -<p>And she explained about them to Doris, who was interested too.</p> - -<p>“There’s the Bonnie Susie!” announced Uncle Hiram suddenly.</p> - -<p>Both little girls stood up then, because they were most anxious to see -Uncle Hiram’s house.</p> - -<p>“Why,” said Elizabeth Ann, in amazement, “why, it really is a ship!”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="vi" id="vi"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /> -<small>THE BONNIE SUSIE</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Anyone</span>, seeing the Bonnie Susie for the first time, would have stared. -Elizabeth Ann found out afterward that plenty of people, driving past -the house, stopped and stared, just as she and Doris were doing now.</p> - -<p>For there, in the center of a beautiful green lawn, surrounded by -trees, stood a ship. A real ship, if you please, with masts and a deck -and everything just as you see on ships in pictures. To be sure there -were windows and doors cut in the hull of this ship, but they didn’t -make it seem like a house. Nothing could make it seem like a house. It -was a ship. And the name was painted up on what Uncle Hiram told them -was the bow—“B-O-N-N-I-E S-U-S-I-E” in large black letters.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it lovely!” cried Elizabeth Ann,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> clapping her hands. “I never -lived in a ship before.”</p> - -<p>“I told you it was a ship,” Doris insisted, and Elizabeth Ann had to -admit that she had.</p> - -<p>The front door opened as they went up the neat gravel path and a tall, -thin woman stood in the doorway. She reminded Elizabeth Ann a little of -the woman who had struck her with the ruler, but she had a pleasanter -face. And her hair, though it was gray, fluffed out around her face -prettily.</p> - -<p>“Well, so this is Elizabeth Ann!” said the woman, stooping to kiss the -small girl. “And here’s Doris. I’m Aunt Grace, and I can’t begin to -tell you how glad I am to see you both.”</p> - -<p>“How did you know which of us were which?” asked Elizabeth Ann, who was -perfectly famous for asking questions, as her Uncle Doctor could have -testified.</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace seemed pleased at the question.</p> - -<p>“Why I knew Doris had been ill,” she explained, “and when I saw you -bounding ahead and looking the picture of health I knew you couldn’t be -a little girl who had been sick<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> recently. If you weren’t Doris, you -must be Elizabeth Ann.”</p> - -<p>This sounded most reasonable and Elizabeth Ann could understand.</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace took them into the house and it was absolutely the nicest -house they had ever been in—both Elizabeth Ann and Doris said so. In -the first place, there were no stairs—there were ladders. Not the -ordinary ladders that you see in barns, to be sure, nor yet the kind of -ladder your mother may stand on when she hangs the curtains. No, the -stairs in Uncle Hiram’s house were firm enough, but they were ladders -for all that—you looked right through the steps as you went up and -down. And the kitchen was called a galley, and there were no beds in -the bedrooms, but bunks, built against the wall. A bunk is like -<a name="a" id="a"></a><ins title="Original has 'a a'">a</ins> -box and Elizabeth Ann for once in her life was eager -to have bed-time come, so she could have the experience of sleeping in -a bunk.</p> - -<p>There was so much to see that neither Elizabeth Ann or Doris thought -especially about supper, though they had been hungry an hour ago. -But as soon as Uncle Hiram came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> in, after putting the car in the -garage—which was a barn Elizabeth Ann discovered the next day—he -asked Aunt Grace if supper was ready.</p> - -<p>“I planned to get here by four bells,” he said.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann stared at him and somewhere in the house a clock struck -some hour.</p> - -<p>“It’s half-past six,” said Aunt Grace, “and supper is all ready and -waiting.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann looked around, but could see no bells. She had already -asked so many questions—even for her—that she didn’t want to ask -another. And Doris, as usual, said nothing. Even when Doris didn’t -understand things, she wouldn’t ask questions. She knew that if she -waited long enough, Elizabeth Ann would find out about them and explain -them.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I forgot Tony!” cried Elizabeth Ann suddenly. “His feelings will -be hurt; I never forgot him before.”</p> - -<p>“Tony is in the kitchen,” Uncle Hiram assured her. “I brought him in. -He’s under the stove and as soon as he gets a little better acquainted, -I think he’ll come out.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> -While they were eating supper—and a most delicious supper it was, too, -for Aunt Grace was a famous cook—Elizabeth Ann heard the clock strike -again. It sounded like a bell and she remembered what Uncle Hiram had -said—“four bells.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann counted the strokes.</p> - -<p>“It must be six o’clock,” she said politely.</p> - -<p>“It’s seven o’clock,” said Aunt Grace.</p> - -<p>“I just heard it strike six bells,” Uncle Hiram declared, taking out -his great silver watch. “Yes, the clock keeps good time—it’s exactly -seven o’clock.”</p> - -<p>“But it struck six,” said the puzzled Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“Now for pity’s sake, don’t tell that child about ship’s time -to-night,” begged Aunt Grace. “I’ve been married to your Uncle Hiram -for fifteen years,” she added, turning to Elizabeth Ann, “and I can’t -make head or tail of his bells. I go by my good Christian clock, and I -say it’s seven o’clock when it is seven o’clock; six bells will never -mean seven o’clock to me.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann, before she went to bed was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> as completely tangled up -about time as a girl could well be. It seemed, for Uncle Hiram told -her so while Aunt Grace was giving Doris a hot bath and putting her -to bed—rather into her bunk—that on board a ship the half hours are -very important. The ship’s clock strikes for them all. And Uncle Hiram -showed Elizabeth Ann, using his beautiful mahogany clock which was in -what he called “the first cabin” (and that was the parlor) how the time -was told off, starting at midnight.</p> - -<p>“One bell is half-past twelve,” explained Uncle Hiram. “Two bells is -one o’clock; three bells is half-past one, and so on, around the clock. -It’s easy enough to understand, once you’re used to it, but your Aunt -Grace never would bother to learn it. She says she went by land time so -long that she can’t learn any new way of telling time.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think it is easy,” Elizabeth Ann said honestly, “and it does -mix me up. But I am going to learn it. Ted and Lansing know lots of -things I don’t, and I am going to learn something to surprise them.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t try to learn it all at once,” advised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> Uncle Hiram kindly. “Take -things easy—you’ll have all winter to learn ship’s time in, and I will -help you. There’s your Aunt Grace calling you now.”</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace wanted Elizabeth Ann to take her bath, and after peeping -into the kitchen and seeing that Tony was asleep on a small round -rug quite as though he felt at home there, Elizabeth Ann climbed the -ladder up to the pretty blue and white bathroom and had her bath. Three -minutes after that she was fast asleep, for no matter how exciting it -might be to sleep in a bunk, no little girl who had traveled more than -two hundred miles in one day could hope to keep awake very long after -she had gotten into such a nice soft bed.</p> - -<p>It was fortunate that the next day there was no school—perhaps Uncle -Hiram had arranged things purposely so that Elizabeth Ann and Doris -should reach the farm one day before school opened. He must have known -that there would be many things they wanted to see. The farm belonged -to Aunt Grace and she had lived on it all her life, she told the two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> -little girls, who insisted on drying the dishes for her the next -morning.</p> - -<p>“Your Uncle Hiram,” said Aunt Grace, and while of course he was Doris’s -uncle Elizabeth Ann felt as though he might be her uncle “a little -bit” as she said, for Doris was her cousin. “Your Uncle Hiram was on -a sailing vessel for forty years. It’s no wonder he can’t bear to get -away from the sea. But when he retired, he came back to Gardner, where -he lived when he was a boy, and we planned to be married. I’m twenty -years younger than he is and I didn’t want to give up this farm—in -fact I’d promised my mother and father to always live here. Your uncle -would have liked to live nearer the ocean, I think, but he was very -nice about it. He had some money saved and he said he’d build us a -house to live in, if I would let him build the kind of house he liked. -So he built this ship and I had the tenant farmer move in the old farm -house and we’ve been right happy. Plenty of people think we’re crazy to -live in a place that is part ship and part house, but there are some -things I like about it.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> -“I think it is lovely,” declared Elizabeth Ann loyally. “I like to go -up and down ladders; and I like to sleep in a bunk.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I like the deck, myself,” Aunt Grace explained. “It’s the -best place to dry clothes you ever did see. And in summer we have a -awning stretched over part of it and have chairs out there and it is -fine—there’s always a breeze. Some folks call it the roof, of course, -but your Uncle Hiram likes me to say ‘deck’ and I always do.”</p> - -<p>And after the dishes were dried and put away, Aunt Grace took Elizabeth -Ann and Doris up to see the deck. It was scrubbed to a shining -whiteness, and there was a railing all around, just as there would be -on a ship, so that no one could fall off. They could see far over the -fields, and Aunt Grace pointed out the farm house where the tenant -farmer lived and even the chimneys of the house on the next farm.</p> - -<p>“Can we see the school from here?” asked Elizabeth Ann, who was just -the least bit anxious over the idea of going to a new school.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="vii" id="vii"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /> -<small>SCHOOL NEWS</small></h2> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">See</span> the school?” echoed Aunt Grace. “My dear child, of course you -can’t see the school; why it’s fully three miles from here, on the -other side of that section of woods. You have to walk half a mile to -get the bus.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann hadn’t heard about the bus, and neither had Doris.</p> - -<p>“You’re going to a consolidated school,” explained Aunt Grace. “When -I was a little girl they didn’t have them—we went to a little school -house near this farm. There was only one room, and my older sister -taught all the grades. But now they have combined a number of these -small schools into one large one. A bus goes through the country -gathering up the scholars, and in that way one school building can be -made to do the work of six or seven one-room buildings.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> -“Why doesn’t the bus come and get us right here?” Doris asked.</p> - -<p>That was almost the first question she had asked and Aunt Grace told -her she was glad to hear her voice.</p> - -<p>“The bus couldn’t go round to every farm—it would take too long,” -Aunt Grace said. “So the pupils gather in certain places where the -bus driver knows they’ll be, and he picks them up in groups. You and -Elizabeth Ann and the other children who live around here, have to walk -to the nearest cross-roads—your uncle will tell you what time the bus -passes there and what time you have to leave the house. If there’s a -bad storm or it rains too hard, he will take you in the car as far as -the cross-roads; but your Uncle Doctor wrote to tell me that he wanted -both of you to walk whenever it is possible.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann liked to walk and Doris didn’t. But everyone did as Uncle -Doctor directed, always.</p> - -<p>“Then we can take our lunch to school, can’t we?” suggested Elizabeth -Ann.</p> - -<p>“Why you’ll have to take your lunch,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> Aunt Grace replied. “I believe -some of the teachers make hot soup in the winter, but there is no place -where you can buy anything to eat. The consolidated school is right in -the country; there was some talk of building it in Gardner, but they -couldn’t agree on a plot of ground for it. You’ll both be country girls -if you live on a farm all winter, and go to a country school.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris had always wanted to take their lunches to -school. In Seabridge, Doris came home at noon to lunch, and Elizabeth -Ann had done that, too, wherever she went to school. Even at Aunt Ida’s -school, they had gone to Aunt Ida’s house for lunch—her house was next -door to the school.</p> - -<p>“I think it will be more fun to carry our lunches,” said Elizabeth Ann. -“That is, if it won’t be too much trouble for you, Aunt Grace,” she -added.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann said “Aunt Grace” because Doris did, and now Aunt Grace -told her a surprising thing.</p> - -<p>“I’ll be glad to put up lunches,” she declared. “I always wanted a -little girl or two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> of my own to work for; and -<a name="its" id="its"></a><ins title="Original has 'its'">it’s</ins> nice to hear you -call me ‘Aunt,’ Elizabeth Ann. You know you are distantly related to -Uncle Hiram.”</p> - -<p>“Doris’s Uncle Hiram?” asked Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” Aunt -<a name="comma" id="comma"></a><ins title="Original has 'Grace,'">Grace</ins> smiled a little. “Don’t ask me -how it is, but I believe your father is a sixth or seventh cousin of -Hiram’s. You don’t have to puzzle it out—it’s worse than the ship-time -that Hiram is always trying to get me to learn.”</p> - -<p>They went down from the deck presently and Aunt Grace said she thought -Doris should lie down and take a little nap. This gave Elizabeth Ann an -excellent chance to study the mahogany clock, and listen to it strike. -And if ever she had said in her careless little mind that Aunt Grace -was “silly” not to learn <a name="hyphen" id="hyphen"></a><ins title="Original has 'ship time'">ship-time</ins>, -Elizabeth Ann was soon sorry.</p> - -<p>For the more she puzzled over the eight bells, and the two and three -bells, the more confused she became. And when Uncle Hiram came in and -asked her where the first mate was, Elizabeth Ann merely raised her -head and stared at him.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> -“Who—who is the first mate?” she stammered uncertainly.</p> - -<p>“Your Aunt Grace, to be sure,” said Uncle Hiram. “I’m the Captain of -this ship and she’s first mate. She stands the forenoon watch.”</p> - -<p>“Is that the watch you carry in your pocket?” Elizabeth Ann asked, -beginning to feel that she didn’t understand anything Uncle Hiram said.</p> - -<p>“No, the forenoon watch is from eight o’clock till noon,” said Uncle -Hiram. “That’s the morning hours, you see. At eight bells, or 12 noon, -I come up to the house for dinner.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann blinked.</p> - -<p>“How many bells is it now?” she asked, pointing to the clock which said -half-past eleven.</p> - -<p>“Why, it’s seven bells,” Uncle Hiram replied promptly.</p> - -<p>Then and there Elizabeth Ann decided that she must be like Aunt -Grace—it was so much easier to say “half past eleven” than to count up -to seven bells. Of course it was easier for Uncle Hiram to tell time -that way than by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> regular time, for he had done it so long.</p> - -<p>“Don’t bother your head about it,” he said now, noticing that Elizabeth -Ann was bewildered. “Perhaps you’ll pick it up as you go along, and if -you don’t, it doesn’t matter. Your Aunt Grace was brought up on a farm -and she can’t learn about the sea; I went to sea when I was a young lad -and I can’t pick up land ways. But we each do our way and get along -splendidly. There’s more than one way of doing a thing and I haven’t -much use for any man who thinks his is the only possible one.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann thought that was very nice. If she learned to tell time -by the bells that would be fine—she could surprise Lansing and Ted. -But if she didn’t learn, Uncle Hiram wouldn’t be annoyed—he thought -that the old way of telling time—by the old way, Elizabeth Ann meant -the way she had been taught—was good, too.</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram had come up to the house before noon because he wanted to -drive to Gardner as soon as dinner was over and, he explained he could -get ready to go before dinner.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> -“I could ship two passengers,” he announced, a twinkle in his eye.</p> - -<p>“That means we can go, Doris!” cried Elizabeth Ann joyfully.</p> - -<p>“Does it?” Doris, who had just woke up from her nap, and was still a -bit sleepy, inquired doubtfully.</p> - -<p>“Of course you may go,” said Aunt Grace, who had found time to cook -a marvelous dinner—with peach shortcake for dessert—informed them. -“Uncle Hiram just loves to have company with him when he drives to -Gardner.”</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace wouldn’t hear of them waiting to help her with the -dishes—she said there were not many, and she was used to doing them -alone—and when Elizabeth Ann and Doris went outdoors to get into the -car, they found Tony sitting on the front doorstep, washing his face as -though he had always lived in the “Bonnie Susie.”</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it nice to live in a house like that!” exclaimed Elizabeth Ann -proudly, looking back to wave to Aunt Grace as they drove away.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> -“Pretty good ship, if I do say it myself,” Uncle Hiram agreed proudly.</p> - -<p>And all the way to town he told Elizabeth Ann and Doris stories of what -had happened to him while he was at sea.</p> - -<p>“I can feel the way the hammocks used to sway in a storm, even now,” -he said. “I still sleep in a hammock, but your Aunt Grace couldn’t get -used to one; she had to have a bunk.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris looked at each other. They were glad they had -bunks instead of hammocks—a hammock was all very well to sleep in for -an hour or two on a warm afternoon, but they didn’t care to sleep in -one.</p> - -<p>Gardner was a pretty little town, about four miles from the farm. There -was one main store, where almost everything was sold that you could -mention. Uncle Hiram drove directly to this store and he said Elizabeth -Ann and Doris might come in with him while he bought the things he had -come for—knives for cutting corn, and gloves for the men who were to -cut it.</p> - -<p>“Hello,” said Uncle Hiram as soon as he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> went into the store. -“Elizabeth Ann—Doris—here’s one of your neighbors. Catherine, this -is Elizabeth Ann Loring and Doris Mason, my nieces. They’re going to -school to-morrow, and Aunt Grace was saying she hoped you’d stop for -them as you go past the house. Catherine Gould lives near us,” Uncle -Hiram added.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris saw a pretty girl, about their own age, very -beautifully dressed. She didn’t look as though she could have much fun -in her pink silk frock, but it certainly was pretty. And she smiled at -Elizabeth Ann and Doris and was about to say something when suddenly -she frowned and looked so cross Elizabeth Ann was startled.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Cathy!” said a boy’s voice, and a lad in faded overalls, with a -large package under his arm, pulled off his cap and smiled as he passed -the three girls.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Roger!” Uncle Hiram boomed in his deep voice.</p> - -<p>“I’m surprised your uncle speaks to him,” said Catherine, looking -crosser than ever. “Roger Calendar is only a taken boy.”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="viii" id="viii"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /> -<small><a name="roger" id="roger"></a> <ins title="Original is in small capitals rather than all capitals">ROGER CALENDAR</ins></small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Ann</span>—the famous little question mark, as Uncle Doctor had -once jokingly called her—thought of several things she wanted to know. -She remembered the taken boy the man had been hunting for when he met -Uncle Hiram the day before. She wondered whether Roger Calendar could -be that boy. She wanted to know if people called him a “varmint.” She -wanted to know——</p> - -<p>But Uncle Hiram had overheard Catherine’s remark. And if Elizabeth Ann -and Doris had ever wondered whether he could be really cross, they knew -the answer now. Uncle Hiram was not at all pleased.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know what your father would say, Kitty, if he heard you make a -remark like that,” said Uncle Hiram. “Roger Calendar is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> a fine boy in -every respect. I hope the other pupils in school don’t feel toward him -as you do.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, no one pays any attention to him,” Catherine replied. “He keeps -to himself. I guess he doesn’t feel just right among the rest of us. I -don’t think the Bostwicks ought to send him to school, but Mr. Bostwick -told my father he had to; there’s a law that all children have to be -educated.”</p> - -<p>“It’s a pity there isn’t a law that says all children have to be taught -kindness and politeness,” said Uncle Hiram. “I hope Elizabeth Ann and -Doris will have too much sense to follow your example.”</p> - -<p>Catherine Gould didn’t seem abashed. She merely smiled a little, as -though Uncle Hiram was mistaken about her. Then she told Elizabeth Ann -that she would stop for her and Doris the next morning “in time to -get the bus,” and went out of the store. Elizabeth Ann saw her cross -the street and get into a beautiful dark blue car—a much larger and -handsomer car than Uncle Hiram’s.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t she pretty!” said Doris wistfully.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> “And did you see her dress? -I wanted a new dress, but Mother said I’d better wait till Christmas -time.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t like her so much,” Elizabeth Ann declared.</p> - -<p>“Catherine is a nice girl,” said Uncle Hiram who had wonderful hearing -and seldom missed a word. “She’s a fine girl, in many ways; but her -father is the wealthiest man in this township, and Catherine is the -only child and I’m afraid she is a little spoiled. No one but a silly, -spoiled girl would talk as she does about Roger Calendar.”</p> - -<p>“Is he the taken boy who was lost?” asked Elizabeth Ann quickly.</p> - -<p>“Oh, my, no,” Uncle Hiram answered. “That poor boy must live many miles -away from us. I never saw the man before who was searching for him. -Roger Calendar lives with the Bostwicks whose land adjoins ours on one -side. The Goulds live on the other side. Catherine and Roger must go in -to school every morning on the same bus, when school is in session; I -don’t like to think of her being rude to him.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> -As it happened, Elizabeth Ann and Doris had a chance to become -acquainted with Roger Calendar on the way home. Uncle Hiram came up -with him about half a mile out of town, and offered him a “lift.”</p> - -<p>“You children want to know each other,” said Uncle Hiram, as Roger -climbed into the seat beside him. “Elizabeth Ann and Doris, this is -Roger Calendar who is our neighbor; and Roger, these are my nieces. -They start school to-morrow, and if they’re late for the bus you let me -know. I don’t let anyone on my ship get tardy marks more than once.”</p> - -<p>Roger smiled a little shyly at the two girls. He had a friendly face -and nice dark eyes and hair. But his clothes were terribly patched and -Elizabeth Ann didn’t wonder he was ashamed of his shoes. She caught -a glimpse of them, patched with great squares of different colored -leather, before Roger seemed to suddenly remember them, and then he -thrust his feet out of sight, under the seat as far as they would go.</p> - -<p>“You’ll be on time all right, if Cathy Gould calls for you,” said -Roger. “Hardly anyone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> is late, anyway, because if you miss the bus you -never can walk to school in time for the nine o’clock bell. The only -thing to do is to turn around and go home and be marked absent for a -day.”</p> - -<p>When they reached the road that led to the Bostwick farm, Roger -insisted he must get out.</p> - -<p>“I’ll drive you all the way in,” offered Uncle Hiram. “I have plenty of -time. That package you are carrying is too heavy for a boy your size, -anyway. Better let me take you right up to the barn door, Roger.”</p> - -<p>“No, please,” Roger said, getting out of the car so hastily that he -almost tripped. “You’re awfully good, Mr. Kent, but Mr. Bostwick -doesn’t like me to take rides. He wouldn’t like it if he saw you -bringing me home.”</p> - -<p>“What did I tell you about calling me Mr. Kent?” said Uncle Hiram in -his crossest voice.</p> - -<p>“I forgot—I honestly did,” Roger apologized. “I meant to say ‘Uncle -Hiram.’ Good-by, Uncle Hiram, and thank you a lot for the lift. -Good-by, Elizabeth Ann and Doris—see you in school to-morrow.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> -He lifted the heavy package that pulled him over sideways when he -carried it, and almost ran down the road to the Bostwick farm.</p> - -<p>“Does everyone call you Uncle Hiram?” asked Elizabeth Ann curiously.</p> - -<p>“Just about everybody,” Uncle Hiram assured her, smiling. “Your Aunt -Grace and I long ago made up our minds that we’d have nephews and -nieces by the dozen and we seem to have them.”</p> - -<p>Tony was still on the front stoop of the Bonnie Susie when they reached -home. But he consented to follow Elizabeth Ann and Doris out to the -corn field. They wanted to see the corn being cut and Uncle Hiram said -it was high time they saw the farm.</p> - -<p>The tenant farmer, whose name was Mr. Lawton, and his two sons were -cutting corn, and Elizabeth Ann and Doris watched them for a while as -they went up and down the long rows. Tony caught a field mouse and was -so pleased with himself that Elizabeth Ann scolded him, and told him he -was vain.</p> - -<p>“You run up to the house, and see my wife,” said Mr. Lawton, the first -time he stopped long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> enough to talk to them, “and she’ll show you what -she has been doing this morning and, likely as not she’ll give you a -sample. Mother likes to give away samples.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram wanted to stay in the field and as Elizabeth Ann and Doris -could see the farmhouse from where they stood, there was no reason -why they couldn’t go alone to call on Mrs. Lawton. Elizabeth Ann -thought she would be surprised to see them, but when they rang the -old-fashioned pull bell and a stout, pink-cheeked woman came to the -door, she didn’t look at all surprised to see two little girls on her -door step.</p> - -<p>“You’re the two little nieces Mrs. Kent has been expecting, aren’t -you?” she said pleasantly. “I’m Mrs. Lawton, of course. Come right in. -If you don’t mind coming into the kitchen, I can finish putting the -labels on my jelly.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Lawton’s kitchen was most pleasant, though not, Elizabeth Ann -decided, quite as nice as Aunt Grace’s kitchen which Uncle Hiram would -call the galley. But the Lawton kitchen was large, and there was a -great fire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> in the range and oh, my, how deliciously the room did smell.</p> - -<p>“I’ve made forty glasses of grape jelly this morning,” said Mrs. Lawton -proudly. “I’d like you to try some on bread and butter; I always think -jelly tastes better on bread and butter than any other way you can eat -it. And I’ll be writing my labels while you eat.”</p> - -<p>She cut two perfectly huge slices from a loaf of fine white home-made -bread, and spread each of them thickly with butter. Then she covered -the butter with sparkling grape jelly, and put the bread on two blue -and white plates.</p> - -<p>“See if you don’t like that,” she said.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris thought the jelly was the best they had ever -tasted. And while Mrs. Lawton wrote “Grape Jelly” on a lot of little -red and white labels and pasted them on the glasses she had filled, -Elizabeth Ann told her about the jam and jelly she had seen in the -cellar of the restaurant; also how the strange woman had mistaken her -for Esther, and had punished her with the ruler.</p> - -<p>“Well, I think that was a shame,” said Mrs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> Lawton, “and I’ll give you -a glass of jelly for yourself, to help you forget that experience. And -here’s a glass for Doris, too.”</p> - -<p>When Elizabeth Ann and Doris showed Aunt Grace the jelly, she said -they should have it in their sandwiches for school the next day. That -made both little girls feel as though school time was very near; and -when they went to bed early that night in order to be ready for their -walk in the morning, they said they knew they would stay awake and -think about the new school. They didn’t, of course, but went straight -to sleep like sensible children, and were very much surprised to be -awakened by Aunt Grace the next morning, and told that it was time to -get dressed to go to school.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="ix" id="ix"></a>CHAPTER IX<br /> -<small>OFF FOR SCHOOL</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Ann</span> and Doris had just finished their breakfast when -Catherine Gould called for them. Catherine wore the prettiest -dress—perhaps a little too “fussy” for school, but a beautiful green -color. She had a fancy lunch box, too, with all sorts of compartments, -for her sandwiches and a bottle to keep her soup hot in.</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace had packed a nice lunch for Elizabeth Ann and one just -like it for Doris; she had told them that their dresses were pretty, -too—Elizabeth Ann wore a blue and white gingham dress and Doris had a -pink one.</p> - -<p>“I wanted Daddy to take me as far as the cross-roads in his car every -morning,” said Catherine, “but just because he walked to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> school when -he was a little boy, he thinks I need exercise. I hate walking.”</p> - -<p>“I like it,” Elizabeth Ann declared, kissing Aunt Grace good-by.</p> - -<p>“Do you like living in that funny place?” asked Catherine, as the three -little girls walked down the lane which led to the road they were to -take.</p> - -<p>“Why, it’s the nicest house I ever lived in!” Elizabeth Ann said -enthusiastically. “Doris is crazy about it—aren’t you, Doris? We go -up and down ladders instead of stairs, and we sleep in bunks instead -of beds. And the roof is a deck, and it’s the nicest place to play you -ever saw.”</p> - -<p>“Yes it is,” declared Doris, forgetting her shyness. “And Elizabeth Ann -can tell ship-time—she learns everything.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, Doris, I only know a little bit about it,” Elizabeth Ann -protested, turning red. “I have to stop and count, and most of the time -I get it all wrong.”</p> - -<p>Catherine did not seem to be listening. She was peering down the road.</p> - -<p>“Here comes that awful Roger Calendar,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> she said crossly. “It will be -just like him to try to walk with us; don’t pay any attention to him -and maybe he’ll let us alone.”</p> - -<p>Now Doris might have done as Catherine asked—Doris was apt to do -whatever anyone asked of her. But Elizabeth Ann liked to do her own -thinking, and she remembered what Uncle Hiram had said about Roger.</p> - -<p>“I think he is a nice boy,” said Elizabeth Ann, “and I mean to speak to -him. He lives on the farm next to us; Uncle Hiram said so.”</p> - -<p>“He only lives with the Bostwicks who own the farm,” said Catherine -scornfully. “Roger is a taken boy—didn’t you hear me tell you that -yesterday? He used to live at the poor farm, until the Bostwicks took -him. He works for them, and the only reason they send him to school is -because the Board of Education makes them.”</p> - -<p>Roger was waiting at the Bostwick mailbox as they came up to him. He -did not seem to notice that Catherine looked straight and pretended not -to see him.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Catherine,” said Roger. “Good morning, Elizabeth Ann. How are -you, Doris?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> Are you glad or sorry school has started?”</p> - -<p>Roger fell into step beside Elizabeth Ann. He carried a small brown -paper parcel in his hand—his lunch, probably, thought Elizabeth Ann, -who also suspected that there could not be more than a couple of -sandwiches in such a small package. Two sandwiches were not much lunch -for a hungry boy, she thought. Aunt Grace had insisted on making four -apiece for her and Doris.</p> - -<p>“I like school,” said Elizabeth Ann, as Doris didn’t answer and -Catherine continued to stare straight ahead. “I’m not sure about this -school, but maybe I’ll like it.”</p> - -<p>“If you’re in our class, you’ll like school,” declared Roger. “We have -the finest teacher in the whole school, haven’t we, Cathy?”</p> - -<p>Catherine whirled upon him.</p> - -<p>“Roger Calendar, if you don’t stop calling me ‘Cathy,’ I’ll do -something awful to you!” she scolded. “I’ve told you twenty times I -hate it.”</p> - -<p>“I’m sorry,” apologized Roger. “I keep forgetting. Isn’t Miss Owen a -nice teacher, Catherine?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> -Catherine tossed her head.</p> - -<p>“You may like her,” she said coldly. “I never could see anything in her -to rave about. Sometimes she gets too cross for words.”</p> - -<p>“She’s a fine teacher,” declared Roger. “You’ll like her, Elizabeth -Ann.”</p> - -<p>“Here comes Mattie Harrison,” Catherine announced, waving her hand to a -little girl who came running across a plowed field.</p> - -<p>Mattie Harrison was quite breathless when she reached them. She was -short and fat and her brown eyes twinkled as Catherine introduced her. -Elizabeth Ann liked her at once because she spoke to Roger and asked -him if he had had a nice summer.</p> - -<p>“I guess he worked the same as usual,” said Catherine in what she may -have intended to be a low voice, but which Roger heard, for his face -flushed.</p> - -<p>He said nothing, however, and went on talking to Elizabeth Ann and -Doris, while Catherine and Mattie walked ahead.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann knew when they were coming to the cross-roads because she -saw a group of children waiting there. She counted a dozen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> boys and -girls, and all of them knew Catherine and Mattie and Roger, for they -called them by name. Doris was quite overwhelmed at the sight of so -many strangers, and she tried to hide behind Elizabeth Ann, but Mattie -proved to be an expert at helping people to know each other and before -the bus came she had introduced Doris to a little girl almost as shy as -herself, and the two were talking like old friends. This other little -girl’s name was Coralie—Coralie Slade, and Doris liked her.</p> - -<p>“Honk! Honk! Honk!” sounded a deep hoarse horn presently.</p> - -<p>Down the road came a great gray, lumbering bus. It stopped within three -feet of the waiting children and the grinning young driver looked out -at them.</p> - -<p>“Line up,” he commanded. “<a name="who" id="who"></a><ins title="Original has 'Whose'">Who’s</ins> -the little girl in the blue -and white dress? Did she ride with me last winter?”</p> - -<p>“She’s Elizabeth Ann Loring, Dave,” said Roger Calendar. “And this is -her cousin, Doris Mason. They’re going to spend the winter with Uncle -Hiram and go to our school.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> -“Let company get in first,” Dave, the driver, directed. “Hop in, -Elizabeth Ann Loring, and Doris Mason.”</p> - -<p>Dave evidently had his passengers well trained. None of the children -moved after they had formed themselves into a straight line. They -waited to see what Dave wanted them to do.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris stepped into the bus. It had long seats down -either side and these were about half filled with boys and girls. Some -were older—they afterward learned that these were pupils in the higher -grades.</p> - -<p>“Glad to know you,” said Dave from behind his wheel. “Sit down anywhere -you like. Now then, line move up—one at a time and anyone who crowds -goes to the foot of the class.”</p> - -<p>One by one the boys and girls filed into the bus and took seats. -Elizabeth Ann, watching, saw at once how wise Dave was to make them -enter one at a time. If they had tried to board the bus in a struggling -crowd, it would mean only confusion and delay. Dave kept an eagle eye -on the entering line and no one dared push<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> his neighbor. Elizabeth Ann -saw that the girls came first—Dave had taught the boys to wait their -turn.</p> - -<p>“All right,” said Dave, when the last pupil was safely in. “I hope -you’ll all study your books and improve your time on the way to school.”</p> - -<p>This was a joke and everyone laughed at it. Of course there were no -lessons to be studied the first day of school. Instead the boys and -girls talked to each other, and as the bus made a great noise the -children had to shout to make themselves heard. Dave did not seem to -mind the noise—— Roger told Elizabeth Ann that he was used to it, -since he had driven the school bus for three years. But while Dave -didn’t mind noise, he wouldn’t allow anyone to leave his seat and play -in the aisle. It was the rule—Roger told Elizabeth Ann this, too—that -if anyone left his seat Dave would stop the bus at once, and refuse to -go ahead until the boy or girl sat down again.</p> - -<p>“We haven’t any too much time and if Dave stops even once or twice, -we may be late,” Roger shouted to Elizabeth Ann. “Once the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> whole bus -load was late, and we had to stay an hour after school. That made us -miss the bus home and we all had to walk. Dave won’t stand for any -skylarking, and the kids know he means what he says.”</p> - -<p>The bus made two more stops, picking up four boys and two girls at -one place, and three girls and three boys at another. Then it was -comfortably filled and Dave drove steadily and at a fair rate of speed -until they came in sight of a large brick building with a fenced in -yard in front of it, and a flag on the flag pole near the gate.</p> - -<p>“There’s our school,” said Roger as the bus stopped.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="x" id="x"></a>CHAPTER X<br /> -<small>A BUSY MORNING</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Ann</span> peered through the window—she and Doris were in the back -of the bus and couldn’t hope to get out for several seconds. Elizabeth -Ann saw that the yard fairly swarmed with children, and that they made -a rush for the gate to see who had arrived on the bus.</p> - -<p>“I think this school is too big,” whispered Doris, who felt she had -seen enough strange children to last her for a long time.</p> - -<p>“Oh, we can play tag and everything,” Elizabeth Ann reminded her -happily, standing up because the girl in front of her was standing up -and that meant it was time to leave the bus.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann had no brothers or sisters, and she had never in all her -life had too many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> children to play with. She thought that school yard -was a fine place and she could just see herself playing tag in it from -one end to the other.</p> - -<p>“You have to go in and be registered,” said Catherine Gould.</p> - -<p>These were almost the only words she had said since Roger had begun to -talk to Elizabeth Ann. Catherine had talked to Mattie Harrison most of -the time.</p> - -<p>“Where do we <a name="query" id="query"></a><ins title="Original omits question mark">register?</ins>” -Elizabeth Ann asked, following Catherine out of the bus.</p> - -<p>Doris came next and pressed close to her cousin. Doris was beginning to -wish she had not come.</p> - -<p>“I’ll show you,” offered Catherine, pushing her way through the groups -of laughing, chattering children.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris followed her into the building, down a long -hall, and up a short flight of stairs.</p> - -<p>“Miss Owen, here’s Elizabeth Ann and Doris,” said Catherine, as soon as -she opened the door nearest to the stairs.</p> - -<p>Miss Owen, the teacher, was talking to another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> teacher at her desk. -She looked surprised, but when she saw Elizabeth Ann and Doris she came -over to them instantly.</p> - -<p>“How do you do?” she said in a lovely voice. “I’m glad you are going -to be in my room this term. Your Uncle Hiram wrote to me about you and -I’ve been expecting you.”</p> - -<p>Of course that made even the shy Doris feel at home at once. Then -Miss Owen showed them their desks and the cloakroom and then the -nine o’clock bell rang and it was time to go down stairs where the -auditorium was, and where assembly was held every morning.</p> - -<p>This was the largest school Doris had ever attended. It was the largest -Elizabeth Ann had ever gone to, except the school where she had been -a pupil in New York when she visited her Aunt Isabel. This new school -was, as Aunt Grace had explained, really six or seven little country -schools rolled into one—and when all the pupils were gathered together -in the auditorium, they filled all the seats that were arranged in rows -on the first floor, and rose in tiers in the gallery.</p> - -<p>And how they could sing! One of the older<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> pupils played the piano for -them and when the students sang the hymn Elizabeth Ann wondered whether -Uncle Hiram, at home in the Bonnie Susie, couldn’t hear them. She sang, -<a name="comma2" id="comma2"></a><ins title="Original omits comma">too,</ins> and so did Doris. It was impossible to be in that auditorium -and not join in the song. Elizabeth Ann knew right away that she was -going to like the new school.</p> - -<p>Afterward she was just as sure. They marched back to their class room -and Miss Owen began to teach them spelling. They had spelling and -reading, and then it was time for recess. They were allowed twenty -minutes for recess, and Miss Owen made every one of them go out and -play in the yard. She said no pupil of hers could sit indoors on such a -fine day.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris were asked to join a game of jack stones with -Mattie Harrison and another little girl who had not been on the bus. -Her name was Flora Gabrie. Catherine Gould walked up and down the yard -with her arm around one of the older girls and seemed to be listening -intently to what she was saying.</p> - -<p>“That’s Lenora Miller,” said Mattie, pointing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> to the older girl. -“Catherine Gould thinks everything Lenora says is just right. I -shouldn’t wonder if Lenora gets herself invited to Catherine’s party.”</p> - -<p>“Is she going to give a party?” asked Elizabeth Ann, who could ask -questions and scoop up jack stones at the same time.</p> - -<p>“Catherine is always giving parties,” Mattie informed her. “She lives -in a great big house, and her mother lets her do anything she pleases.”</p> - -<p>The bell rang for the end of recess just then, and the rest of the -morning Elizabeth Ann was too busy trying to learn to write nicely, to -think much about parties, or girls whose mothers allowed them to do -anything they pleased.</p> - -<p>Mattie had explained to Elizabeth Ann and Doris about the lunch hour. -In the winter she said, there was a large, warm, light room in the -basement with tables, where the pupils ate their lunches. But as long -as the weather remained warm and pleasant—as it usually did throughout -September—the children were supposed to eat their lunches outdoors.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> -“Miss Owen,” Mattie had explained, “is crazy about fresh air.”</p> - -<p>At noon, when the bell rang, Elizabeth Ann was starving. She was sure -she had never been so hungry before in her life.</p> - -<p>“Come on, we have to hurry, or we don’t get a tree,” said Mattie, who -certainly knew all about school.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann grasped her lunch box and caught hold of Doris’s hand.</p> - -<p>“Hurry!” she said, and helter skelter across the play ground they ran, -to a row of apple trees that were behind the building.</p> - -<p>Boys and girls were climbing into these trees—you know an apple tree -is close to the ground and easy to climb—and though Elizabeth Ann and -Mattie both had to tug and pull Doris, to get her up into the tree, -they all agreed, once they were settled, that it was a lovely place to -eat lunch.</p> - -<p>They could look out through the branches, and the way the limbs of the -tree grew sitting in it was as easy as sitting in a comfortable rocking -chair.</p> - -<p>“Hello!” called Roger Calendar, leaning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> out from the tree next to the -one where Elizabeth Ann and Doris and Mattie were perched.</p> - -<p>“Hello!” Mattie answered. “Did you see your writing that Miss Owen -pinned up on the board?”</p> - -<p>Roger blushed and ducked behind a convenient branch.</p> - -<p>“Are you on a diet, Roger?” Catherine Gould called to him. “Are you -afraid you’re getting too fat?”</p> - -<p>Catherine sat on the grass, eating her lunch with several of the -grammar grade pupils. Catherine never would climb a tree, Mattie -whispered to Elizabeth Ann. She said that only boys liked to climb -trees.</p> - -<p>“Why, I like to climb ’em,” said Elizabeth Ann, meaning the trees. “So -does Doris, though she can’t climb a very high tree. Lots of girls like -to climb trees.”</p> - -<p>“Of course they do,” Mattie agreed. “Catherine only says that, because -she doesn’t like to climb trees. And she’s mad because Roger’s writing -was the best in the class this morning, and Miss Owen pinned it on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> -board. When Catherine is mad you can always tell—she says some mean -thing.”</p> - -<p>“Why—what did she say that was mean?” asked Elizabeth Ann, not -understanding.</p> - -<p>“Oh, that about asking Roger if he was dieting to keep from getting too -fat,” Mattie explained. “Poor Roger gets only two sandwiches for his -lunch. He’s almost always hungry. The Bostwicks don’t think he needs -much to eat—my mother says they don’t eat much themselves, and they -forget when a boy is growing he needs plenty to eat. Roger can eat his -lunch in two minutes and it’s mean of Catherine to ask him if he’s -afraid of getting fat. He’s the thinnest boy in school now.”</p> - -<p>Yes, Elizabeth Ann could see that kind of thing was unkind for -Catherine to say. You couldn’t excuse her, either, by telling yourself -that she didn’t know about Roger. Catherine lived near Roger and knew -all about him—that he was a “taken boy” and dependent upon the people -for whom he worked for his food and clothing. There was every reason in -the world why Catherine Gould, with a father and mother and a lovely -home should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> have been kind to Roger who had nothing he could call his -own.</p> - -<p>“But she is so pretty, she must be nice,” Elizabeth Ann argued, -tumbling out of the tree to have a game of tag before the bell should -ring. “Catherine is pretty and she has lovely dresses; I don’t believe -she knows when she is being mean to Roger.”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xi" id="xi"></a>CHAPTER XI<br /> -<small>PARTY PLANS</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Ann</span> learned more about Catherine Gould as the school term -advanced. Catherine lived nearer to the Bonnie Susie than any other -girl, and she was apt to come over Saturdays, to play with Elizabeth -Ann and Doris. They went to her house, too, and as Mattie had said, -Catherine did live in a large house and there wasn’t much that her -mother wouldn’t let her do.</p> - -<p>“I wish my mother would be like Mrs. Gould,” said Doris, one night -at the supper table. “Mrs. Gould only says, ‘Well, all right,’ when -Catherine tells her she doesn’t want to do her homework.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram shook his head.</p> - -<p>“That is exactly why Catherine doesn’t get along better in school,” -said he. “She only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> does what she wants to do. Most of the time she -doesn’t want to study her homework. So last June she wasn’t promoted -with the rest of her class.”</p> - -<p>“Catherine always talks about her piano lessons,” declared Elizabeth -Ann. “But she doesn’t like to practice. And her mother has to do all -the explaining when the teacher comes, and Catherine doesn’t know her -music lesson.”</p> - -<p>“Well, anyway, she has a good time,” Doris said enviously.</p> - -<p>Doris was getting to look more like the old Doris that Elizabeth Ann -remembered at Aunt Ida’s school. Her cheeks were a little pinker -each day, she ate more mashed potato for supper, and she hardly ever -grumbled over her breakfast oatmeal any more. To be sure, she didn’t -like walking to the bus—and very often when Mr. Gould stopped at -the Bonnie Susie, with Catherine seated beside him in his car, Doris -thought that Uncle Hiram was “mean,” because he insisted that Elizabeth -Ann and Doris should walk to the bus.</p> - -<p>“Orders are orders,” Uncle Hiram was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> fond of saying, “and your Uncle -Doctor said plainly that you two children are to walk every day it’s -possible. You don’t want to forget how to use your feet, do you, Doris?”</p> - -<p>And then Aunt Grace would say, apparently as though she had just -thought of it, “Of course, if you don’t feel strong enough to walk, -Doris, your uncle might be willing for you to ride; but if you don’t -feel well you’ll have to go to bed earlier every night and I couldn’t -think of letting you go to Catherine’s party.”</p> - -<p>That always made Doris declare hastily that she didn’t mind walking -at all. Elizabeth Ann, who remembered how Uncle Doctor made his sick -people take walks whether they wanted to or not, was glad that Aunt -Grace was there to remind Doris about the party. For Doris could be -rather stubborn, and she might say she wouldn’t walk to the bus—only -she never in the wide world would say that if she knew she couldn’t go -to Catherine’s party.</p> - -<p>For Catherine was planning a wonderful party—the best and largest, so -she said, that she had ever given, and it would be on Hallowe’en, which -is, of course one of the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> times in the whole of the year for party -fun.</p> - -<p>“I’m going to have prizes for the nicest costumes and everything,” -announced Catherine importantly. “You all have to dress up and wear -masks, so no one will know who you are.”</p> - -<p>Catherine saw no reason for keeping her party plans a secret and she -early announced that she meant to invite her entire class to her house, -except Roger Calendar.</p> - -<p>“I don’t see any reason why I have to ask him,” said Catherine, “I -don’t like him and anyway he won’t have anything fit to wear.”</p> - -<p>But Catherine soon found out that she couldn’t invite the entire class -and leave one out. Miss Owen said that would be a dreadful thing to do -and Catherine’s own daddy, when he heard of the plan, said he would not -let such a thing happen.</p> - -<p>“If you plan to invite the entire class, you’ll have to invite every -one of them,” said Mr. Gould to his daughter, firmly. “I won’t have -anyone deliberately slighted; I like Roger Calendar, and the boy gets -little enough fun. Ask him to your party.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> -“He won’t have anything to wear,” objected Catherine.</p> - -<p>“He can wear what he pleases to a Hallowe’en party,” Mr. Gould said. -“Ask him, anyway.”</p> - -<p>Now Catherine’s mother might let her do as she pleased, but her daddy, -although he loved her dearly, could not be coaxed or teased. Catherine -knew she would have to invite Roger, or else not have any party. Rather -than give up the whole plan, she sent him one of the pretty invitations.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps he will have sense enough not to come,” she said to Elizabeth -Ann.</p> - -<p>And at first it looked as though Roger wouldn’t go to the party.</p> - -<p>“No, I’m not going,” he said when Elizabeth Ann spoke to him about it. -“I don’t believe Catherine wants me to come to her party, and besides I -haven’t a costume. Everyone is going to dress up and I’ll look queer. -I suppose I could go as a tramp, but I’m tired of looking like a tramp -every day.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann thought this over. Doris said she was silly to worry -about Roger, and she’d<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> much better spend the time thinking up -something for them to wear. Doris depended on Elizabeth Ann to “think” -her a costume, as she said.</p> - -<p>“I want Roger to have a good time,” explained Elizabeth Ann, “and he -can’t have a good time unless he has a costume to wear. I’m going to -ask Uncle Hiram what to do about it.”</p> - -<p>By this time Elizabeth Ann and Uncle Hiram were excellent friends. -He had taught her to tell time by the ship’s clock, and though she -couldn’t, as she wrote Uncle Doctor, do it in a hurry, if she went -about it slowly she could count the hours by bells very nicely. Uncle -Hiram was always telling her that she would make a fine little sailor, -and Elizabeth Ann thought that if she hadn’t first planned to be a -doctor like Uncle Doctor and Lex, she might have liked to be a sailor.</p> - -<p>“Uncle Hiram,” said Elizabeth Ann one afternoon when she came in, -red-cheeked and breathless from running down the lane—she had raced -Doris home from the bus and had won, as she usually did—“Uncle Hiram, -you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> know that Catherine Gould is going to give a party Hallowe’en. -That’s only a week off now. It’s going to be a party with prizes and -’freshments and everything. And all the class is invited.”</p> - -<p>“Seems to me,” Uncle Hiram answered, his eyes twinkling, “that I heard -something about this party before.”</p> - -<p>“I may have told you something about it,” admitted Elizabeth Ann, “but -I didn’t tell you about Roger Calendar. Catherine invited him to come -and he doesn’t want to go, because he hasn’t any costume.”</p> - -<p>“What kind of a costume does he want?” Uncle Hiram asked showing the -liveliest interest.</p> - -<p>“Oh—I don’t know,” confessed Elizabeth Ann. “Something that isn’t a -tramp costume, I guess. He says he looks like a tramp every day, and he -won’t go to the party dressed to look like one.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t blame him,” Uncle Hiram said. “Don’t blame him a bit. I think I -can lend the lad something—suppose you come with me, Elizabeth Ann, -and we’ll overhaul a chest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> or two and see what we can drag up in our -net.”</p> - -<p>“I love to overhaul,” declared the enthusiastic Elizabeth Ann, who -hadn’t the slightest idea what Uncle Hiram meant.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xii" id="xii"></a>CHAPTER XII<br /> -<small>SEAMEN’S CHESTS</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">But</span> it was usually safe to think that what Uncle Hiram planned would be -pleasant. And when Elizabeth Ann found herself in a small square dark -room, in the hold of the ship, according to Uncle Hiram—and the cellar -as Aunt Grace called it—she began to feel a thrill of excitement. -Doris had gone home with Catherine directly from the bus, and would not -come till supper time.</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram turned on the electric light and Elizabeth Ann saw that -Tony was purring against her legs—he had followed them down. It had -taken Tony a little time to learn to go up and down ladders, but now he -could do it beautifully.</p> - -<p>“Oh-h, what are they?” asked Elizabeth Ann, staring.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> -All around the room were dark, polished boxes. They had lids and locks -and there were little keys in each lock.</p> - -<p>“Chests,” said Uncle Hiram, enjoying her surprise. “Seamen’s chests, -my dear. And in one of them, unless I’m greatly mistaken, we’ll find -something that Roger Calendar will be proud to wear to the party.”</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram unlocked the lid of one chest and showed Elizabeth Ann a -neatly typewritten list pasted inside the lid.</p> - -<p>“I did that to every chest as I packed it,” he explained. “I can tell -what is in every chest. These things are all trifles I picked up on -my voyages—things your Aunt Grace doesn’t want to keep in the first -cabin. She couldn’t keep them all up there, anyway—isn’t enough room.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann almost forgot about Roger and the party as she turned -over the things in the different chests as Uncle Hiram unlocked one -after the other. There were strings of beads, and marvelously colored -shells and dried star fish and pebbles with flecks of shining gold in -them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> -There were yards and yards of beautiful silks from far away countries -and perfumes and spices that filled the air with fragrance as soon -as the chest in which they were kept, was opened. There were bits of -carved wood, and fans made of silk, and other fans made of shell. There -were combs and ear-rings and funny lacquered shoes. There were little -ivory figures—like the ones Elizabeth Ann had seen in Aunt Isabel’s -cabinets when she visited her in New York. In fact there were so many -things tucked away in those chests that Elizabeth Ann felt as though -she might be visiting Santa Claus and looking over all the things -he must have put away. Only these were not toys—Uncle Hiram hadn’t -collected toys, though he did have a couple of odd-looking dolls made -from carved bones.</p> - -<p>“Now this is what I had in mind for Roger,” said Uncle Hiram, unlocking -the last chest. “It may be a little large for him, but your Aunt Grace -can take a tuck or two in it. She’s handy with her needle. How do you -think Roger would like this?”</p> - -<p>He drew out something made of dark blue<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> silk and held it up for -Elizabeth Ann to see. There were long trousers and a jacket almost -solidly embroidered in vivid colors—red and blue and silver and gold -and green. As Elizabeth Ann looked at it, she saw that there were gold -dragons cunningly placed in the embroidery. A little silk skull cap -went with the costume and embroidered silk slippers.</p> - -<p>“No one around here has ever seen this,” said Uncle Hiram. “I think it -will disguise Roger pretty thoroughly. I believe we have some masks -around the house—your Aunt Grace will remember where they are—just -large enough to cover your eyes. Roger might as well have one of those.”</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace, when she saw the costume, said it would be very easy to -alter it to fit Roger. And he stopped in for a few minutes the next -Saturday morning—he didn’t dare stay long, for he was supposed to do -most of his farm work on Saturday when there was no school—and Aunt -Grace made him put on the costume while she went all over it and marked -it with pins where she was to make it smaller or shorter.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> -“Suppose something happens to it?” Roger kept asking nervously. “I -never wore silk clothes—they must be expensive. Suppose somebody -spills something on me?”</p> - -<p>“Let ’em spill,” said Uncle Hiram calmly. “I’ve had that Chinese -costume for twenty years or so and it’s never done anybody a bit of -good; it’s high time it began to earn a little interest. You wear it -Roger, and if you tear it or sit down on an apple pie, I won’t say a -word.”</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace hunted through her things and found three little -masks—“dominoes,” she called them. These went across the eyes and -Elizabeth Ann didn’t think they were much help. She was sure that -anyone would know her if she didn’t cover up more of her face than -that. But when she looked at herself in the glass with her domino on, -she was forced to admit that she didn’t look at all like Elizabeth Ann -Loring.</p> - -<p>“Why I might be Doris,” said the astonished Elizabeth Ann. “And Doris -looks as much like me as she looks like herself. Perhaps dominoes are -good masks, after all.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> -Of course Elizabeth Ann was interested in her own costume. Now that she -knew Roger was provided with something to wear, Elizabeth Ann could -plan for herself and Doris. And she decided that they would go to -Catherine’s party dressed as two little black cats.</p> - -<p>“It’s easy,” said Elizabeth Ann when Doris said she didn’t see what -they could wear that would make them look like black cats. “Aunt Grace -will make us the suits out of that old black coat she has—she said the -other day she meant to cut it up for carpet rags. And we’ll wear white -gloves and our white canvas shoes and that will make us look as though -we had white paws.”</p> - -<p>The old black cloth coat proved to be even better for cat costumes -than Elizabeth Ann had suspected. For it was a material called -<a name="zibelene" id="zibelene"></a><ins title="Original has 'zibilene'">zibelene</ins> -and was covered with short fine hairs. You can see -how cloth like that would make excellent cat fur for little girls to -wear to a party.</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace cut the costumes very much like the sleeping garments some -children wear in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> winter—with long sleeves and legs that came down -to the ankles. She made caps, too, with little perky ears that stood -up. Elizabeth Ann and Doris had brought their white canvas shoes with -them, but getting gloves was a more serious matter. Finally Uncle Hiram -drove to town and bought them each a pair of the white canvas gloves -that farmers use for much of their work. These of course were miles -too large for the little girls, but clever Aunt Grace—who could do -practically anything with a sewing machine or her needle—ripped the -gloves apart, cut them to fit, and sewed them up again.</p> - -<p>It did seem as though Hallowe’en would never come. The children at -school talked so much about the party that Miss Owen said she was -afraid they wouldn’t have anything to say to each other when they met -at Catherine’s house. And Miss Owen said, too, that it would be better -if they paid a little more attention to their lessons, and that she -certainly could not excuse boys and girls who didn’t make any attempt -to do their homework.</p> - -<p>Catherine was one of these. She said she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> was so busy getting ready for -the party that she had no time to study at home.</p> - -<p>“You don’t get ready for a party at night,” Mattie Harrison told her. -“You could study your homework after supper. Anyway, I don’t believe -you do a thing about the party—your mother always does every single -thing for you.”</p> - -<p>But Catherine went right on, letting her homework go, and Miss Owen -kept her in after school, and never paid any attention when she cried.</p> - -<p>“Orders are orders,” Uncle Hiram always said when Elizabeth Ann told -him about Catherine, who used to sit at her desk with the tears rolling -down her face while the rest of the class marched out of the school at -the end of the afternoon session.</p> - -<p>If Catherine were kept in too late she missed the bus—which left half -an hour after school closed on clear days and fifteen minutes after on -stormy days. Miss Owen didn’t like to have anyone miss the bus, and -if she could possibly dismiss her pupils she did it in time to let -them make connections. It was a rule<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> that all the children who had to -wait for the bus must play in the school yard, and one of the teachers -always stayed till the bus came. This was because some boys and girls -were absent-minded and would have allowed the bus to go without them if -a teacher had not been on hand to remind them to stop playing.</p> - -<p>“I think,” said Uncle Hiram when he heard that Catherine had had to -stay in for the third afternoon in one week, “I think Miss Owen will be -glad when this party is over.”</p> - -<p>Dave, the driver of the bus, had heard about the party, too. Catherine -talked of nothing else. And once, when she missed the bus in the -morning and had had to go home, because there wasn’t time to walk all -the distance to school, she said that Dave was ahead of his time and -that she meant to ask her father to complain to the School Board.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann told Doris that she thought perhaps it was better not -to have your mother let you do just as you pleased—for Catherine -apparently expected everyone else to let her do as she pleased. And it -wasn’t always convenient.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> -One morning, a few days before Hallowe’en, Elizabeth Ann and Doris were -hurrying to make the bus. They were a little late for they had waited -for Catherine as long as they dared. Finally Aunt Grace had telephoned -Catherine’s mother who said that Catherine was just eating her -breakfast. She said that Elizabeth Ann and Doris should go on and that -Catherine’s daddy would take her in the car as far as the cross-roads.</p> - -<p>It was a cold morning—all the lovely fall weather had gone and the sky -was gray, while a keen wind blew over the fields—and Elizabeth Ann and -Doris were glad to walk fast.</p> - -<p>“I don’t believe we’ll make the bus,” panted Doris, turning around so -that the wind wouldn’t blow in her face.</p> - -<p>“Yes we will—come on—don’t stop—hurry!” commanded Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“Oh—here comes Catherine!” Doris cried in some dismay. “She’s waving -to us—she wants us to wait for her, Elizabeth Ann.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann glanced over her shoulder. Far down the road was -Catherine, not walking fast, not running, but moving along at an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> -ordinary pace. She was waving her hand and calling to them.</p> - -<p>“Hurry!” shouted Elizabeth Ann. “It’s late—hurry, Catherine, or you’ll -miss the bus.”</p> - -<p>That provoking Catherine <em>wouldn’t</em> hurry. She continued to walk as she -always did, and she continued to call to Elizabeth Ann and Doris to -stop and wait for her.</p> - -<p>“We might as well stop,” said Elizabeth Ann with a sigh. “She slows us -up making us turn round like this.”</p> - -<p>They waited till Catherine caught up with them, though it was cold -standing still. Catherine didn’t seem to think she had walked slowly at -all.</p> - -<p>“Daddy was cross and wouldn’t bring me in the car,” she explained. “He -said if I got up when Mother first called me I would have had plenty of -time to walk. I wanted to stay home to-day, but he wouldn’t let me do -that, either.”</p> - -<p>“I hear the bus!” cried Elizabeth Ann suddenly. “We’re late we’ll have -to run.”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xiii" id="xiii"></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /> -<small>CATHERINE DAWDLES</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> chug-chug of the bus sounded on the main road. Dave was blowing his -horn, too, as he always did, to warn any stragglers.</p> - -<p>“Hurry!” urged Elizabeth Ann, taking hold of Doris’s hand to make her -run. “Hurry, Catherine—you’ll be late.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris ran as fast as they could, but Catherine simply -walked as usual. Once Elizabeth Ann looked over her shoulder and called -to her to run, but Catherine didn’t even answer.</p> - -<p>“Almost missed it,” said Dave, when Elizabeth Ann reached the low, wide -step, scarlet-faced and breathless and dragging a breathless Doris -after her.</p> - -<p>All the other children were inside and that showed Elizabeth Ann how -nearly she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> missed the bus. Usually she and Doris were on hand to -stand in line and march in with the others.</p> - -<p>“Hurry up,” Dave commanded. “Hop in.”</p> - -<p>Doris obediently “hopped,” but Elizabeth Ann hung back.</p> - -<p>“Catherine Gould is coming—I have to wait for her,” she said, looking -pleadingly at Dave.</p> - -<p>“Well, where is she?” he demanded impatiently.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann looked. Catherine wasn’t in sight yet. The road dipped -behind a hill and you couldn’t see anyone coming up till he or she had -almost reached the top. It was plain that Catherine didn’t intend to -hurry.</p> - -<p>“Get in,” said Dave curtly. “I can’t wait for Catherine—she never is -willing to hurry.”</p> - -<p>But he sounded his horn twice to let Catherine know he was there.</p> - -<p>“Get in, Elizabeth Ann,” said Dave again. “I can’t wait any longer.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann shook her head.</p> - -<p>“I have to wait for Catherine,” she declared. “You go on without me.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> -“Oh, Elizabeth Ann, you’ll be late for school,” cried Doris from her -seat in the bus. “You know Miss Owen hates to have a tardy mark against -the class.”</p> - -<p>Tears came into Elizabeth Ann’s eyes, but she looked steadily at Dave.</p> - -<p>“I can’t go and leave her,” she said.</p> - -<p>For answer Dave suddenly stood up. He slid out from behind the wheel -and stooped down, seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and lifted her -into the bus. He put her down on the long seat and closed the door with -a snap.</p> - -<p>Then he started the bus.</p> - -<p>“Wait!” screamed Catherine, just reaching the road. “Wait for me! Hey, -Dave, you wait for me!”</p> - -<p>Dave glanced at Elizabeth Ann. He stopped the bus. And that troublesome -Catherine stopped running and began to walk as slowly as she could.</p> - -<p>“Don’t wait for her, Dave,” said some of the boys. “She’s always acting -like that. Serve her right to go on and leave her.”</p> - -<p>To everyone’s surprise, Dave backed the bus. He let it run backward so -fast that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> reached the dawdling Catherine before she realized it. -Neither was she prepared to have Dave jump out lift her up and tumble -her into the bus with scant ceremony.</p> - -<p>Then he closed the door again and began to drive with such a grim face -that none of the children thought it best to speak to him. Elizabeth -Ann didn’t feel very happy, but she was glad none of them would be -late—at the rate Dave was driving they’d probably get to school a -little earlier than usual.</p> - -<p>Catherine sat and frowned out of the window all the way. She acted, -thought Elizabeth Ann, as though someone had made her almost late -instead of being the one who had nearly made the entire bus load late -for school. Elizabeth Ann shuddered to think what Miss Owen would say -if an entire bus load of children walked into school late. Of course -they were not all in her room, but many of them were.</p> - -<p>When they reached the school yard, Dave stopped the bus, but he did not -open the door. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter width400"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> -<a name="seized" id="seized"></a> -<img src="images/i-129.jpg" width="400" height="587" alt="" /> -<div class="caption">He seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and lifted her -into the bus.</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> -“I just want to tell you,” he said quietly, “that the next time anyone -stages a performance like that this morning, I shall report him or her -to the principal. And I’ll leave him behind, too—you’re all old enough -to behave yourselves and if you’re not willing to make the bus and get -to school on time, why that’s your affair, not mine.”</p> - -<p>He swung the heavy iron lever that opened the door and the children -began to file out quietly. Elizabeth Ann stayed in her seat until the -last one was out and then she came up to Dave.</p> - -<p>“I had to wait for Catherine,” she said earnestly. “She’s my friend.”</p> - -<p>“Well—all right,” returned Dave. “I suppose you thought you had to -wait for her; but the trouble with Catherine Gould is that too many -people wait for her—give in to her, I mean. She’d be late for school -every morning, and not care if the whole school would be late, too.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann sincerely hoped that Catherine would try harder to -get to school on time. Because she was so often later going home -afternoons—on account of that homework that she just wouldn’t do—and -if she had to walk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> to school mornings, dear me, she would be in a sad -way.</p> - -<p>Doris told Uncle Hiram about the bus incident, and Elizabeth Ann -was sorry she had not asked her to keep still about it. Uncle Hiram -declared that Elizabeth Ann and Doris should not wait past the usual -time another morning for Catherine.</p> - -<p>“She must get here in time to walk with you to the bus, or you must -start without her,” said Uncle Hiram firmly. “Catherine is entirely too -selfish and she gets more spoiled every week.”</p> - -<p>And the very next morning Catherine missed the bus again—Elizabeth Ann -and Doris didn’t even see her, but she wasn’t at the cross-roads with -them and Roger Calendar and the others when Dave drove up. He honked -his horn as usual, but no Catherine appeared, so he drove on to school.</p> - -<p>It was ten o’clock when Catherine appeared, to the surprise of -everyone, including Miss Owen who had marked her absent. At recess -Catherine, whose eyes were red from crying, told Elizabeth Ann that she -had missed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> bus and had turned around and gone home.</p> - -<p>“I’d rather be absent than tardy,” she sniffed, “but my father saw me -coming back and he said I’d have to go to school. He wouldn’t drive me, -either—I had to walk all the way. I wouldn’t have come, only he said -if I didn’t I couldn’t have the party. After I’d told everybody about -the party, I just couldn’t give it up.”</p> - -<p>When Doris heard that, she said she was glad. If there was one thing -Doris wanted to go to it was that Hallowe’en party. Elizabeth Ann -looked forward to it, too, but she was more interested to learn what -the others said when they saw Roger Calendar in his embroidered silk -costume, than anything else.</p> - -<p>Catherine kept telling them something new about the party every day, -and the afternoon before it was actually to take place she confided -that it was to be held in her daddy’s big barn.</p> - -<p>“We’ve moved the piano out there and everything,” said Catherine -proudly. “We’re going to have a lovely time. Do come early.”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xiv" id="xiv"></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /> -<small>AT THE PARTY</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Ann</span> discovered that there was a pleasant custom in Gardner -and the farms nearby, of asking the fathers and mothers to come to the -parties too. So Uncle Hiram and Aunt Grace were going with Elizabeth -Ann and Doris; and they would visit with Mr. and Mrs. Gould in the -big farmhouse while the boys and girls had their party in the barn. -Catherine had a young aunt—Aunt Nan she called her—who knew how to -make everyone have a good time and she would be on hand to see that no -guest was neglected, or left out of any of the games.</p> - -<p>The party was to start at seven o’clock—“six bells,” as Elizabeth -Ann proudly told Doris. This was so that no one need be up very late. -Aunt Grace had supper early Hallowe’en<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> night and then Elizabeth Ann -and Doris dressed in their cat costumes, put on their domino masks, -and climbed giggling into the car. They had to wear coats over their -costumes for it was a chilly night.</p> - -<p>They saw the lights burning in the Gould barn long before they reached -it—in fact they could see the lights as soon as they made the first -turn in the road. It was a longer drive or walk by way of the road to -the Gould farm, than across fields, but of course when you are going to -a party, you go by way of the regular road.</p> - -<p>“We have to get out of the car before we get to the barn, Uncle Hiram,” -explained Elizabeth Ann, as the car turned into the road that led -directly to the Gould barn. “If they see us get out, they’ll know who -we are.”</p> - -<p>So Uncle Hiram stopped the car and shut off the lights about ten feet -from the barn.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris took off their coats, jumped out, and ran up to -the barn door.</p> - -<p>“Oh-h!” cried Doris, shrinking back of Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> -A tall white figure stood at the barn door and he bowed to them.</p> - -<p><a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece"></a>“Walk right in—I’m a ghost,” he said politely. “I’m very glad to see -you, I’m sure.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann giggled in delight. She thought for a ghost he had very -nice manners.</p> - -<p>“I’m a cat,” she said. “So’s——” but Doris pinched her just in time -to prevent her from saying, “So’s Doris,” which, of course, would have -given them both away.</p> - -<p>They went into the barn, past the ghost, and found themselves on the -large main floor.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it lovely!” said Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>There were great shocks of corn stalks standing about, and everywhere -pumpkins carved into lanterns. In every pumpkin there was a lighted -electric bulb—Mr. Gould was a careful farmer, and he wouldn’t have any -candles in his barn. There were no chairs, but heaps of sofa cushions, -covered with gingham covers so that no one need be afraid to use -them—the covers would wash. There was the piano in one corner, just as -Catherine had promised, too.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> -“Where’s Catherine?” asked Elizabeth Ann, staring around her.</p> - -<p>There were pirates and sailors and gypsy girls and American Indians and -fairy princesses flitting about. Elizabeth Ann thought she recognized -several of the girls in her class, but she couldn’t be sure, because -they wore masks. There were Generals in uniforms with hundreds of brass -buttons winking in the light. And there were farmers, in wide straw -hats and brand new ones too, though, thought Elizabeth Ann, straw hats -were funny in October.</p> - -<p>“I think that’s Catherine,” whispered Doris, pointing to a fairy -princess who stood talking to Aunt Nan—the only guest who did not wear -a mask.</p> - -<p>As soon as she saw the fairy princess, Elizabeth Ann felt that Doris -was right. The princess was about as tall as Catherine was, but it was -her dress that made Elizabeth Ann so sure. No one but Catherine Gould -would have a dress like that to wear to a party.</p> - -<p>The dress was some soft white stuff and it was completely covered -with little silver<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> spangles. Every time the girl who wore it moved -a step, the spangles shone and glittered. There was a silver crown -to go with the dress, and a long scepter too. Oh, that was Catherine -Gould—Elizabeth Ann had no doubt of it.</p> - -<p>“We want to march!” called Aunt Nan, when everyone had come up and -spoken to her—as they weren’t expected to find the real hostess till -the time to unmask came.</p> - -<p>By the time Elizabeth Ann and Doris had reached Aunt Nan and had shaken -hands with her, the fairy princess had disappeared. Now Elizabeth Ann -looked around expectantly, for of course Catherine could play the -piano. She talked about her music lessons all the time.</p> - -<p>“Is there anyone here who will play for us?” asked Aunt Nan, looking -hard at a little clown in a red and yellow suit.</p> - -<p>The clown backed away hastily.</p> - -<p>“I can’t play,” he—or she—mumbled shyly.</p> - -<p>Then a voice, over by the door, said quietly, “I’ll play a march, if -you like.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann was so surprised she clutched Doris by the arm and -pinched her, though she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> didn’t mean to at all. There, just coming -in the door, was Roger Calendar in his embroidered blue silk Chinese -costume.</p> - -<p>Roger was masked and apparently no one knew him, but of course -Elizabeth Ann recognized the suit. Doris didn’t know anything about -it, so she continued to stare placidly. Doris had not been home the -afternoon Uncle Hiram showed Elizabeth Ann the chests and she had been -outdoors, playing, when Roger stopped in to have Aunt Grace fit the -suit to him. Uncle Hiram had suggested that no one tell Doris, because -she sometimes revealed secrets when she was excited. So Elizabeth Ann -was confident she was the only one at the party who knew who the guest -in the blue silk suit really was.</p> - -<p>But Roger couldn’t play the piano—Elizabeth Ann was sure he couldn’t -do that. Why, the Bostwicks, with whom he lived didn’t have a piano. -She had heard Mrs. Bostwick tell Aunt Grace that the reason they bought -a radio was because she liked a little music in the house.</p> - -<p>Yet there was Roger, walking toward the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> piano. While Elizabeth Ann -watched him—and for that matter everyone watched him—he sat down on -the piano bench. He began to play—the liveliest of marches rippled -from under his fingers, and feet began to go tap-tap-tap, all over the -barn.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann was sure Catherine was the fairy princess when she -saw how that girl rushed to take her place at the head of the line. -Catherine would want to lead the march—in school she always wanted to -lead, and she was always disappointed when Miss Owen declared all the -pupils must take turns.</p> - -<p>Aunt Nan paired off the children, and Elizabeth Ann found she was to -march with the ghost. All she could see of him, except the sheet around -his body and the pillow case around his head, were two merry eyes that -twinkled at her through slits cut in the pillow case.</p> - -<p>“Bet you don’t know who I am,” said the ghost, his foot keeping time to -that enchanting music.</p> - -<p>“No,” said Elizabeth Ann, “I don’t know you. Do you know me?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> -“Sure, you’re Mattie Harrison,” the ghost assured her. “I’d know you -anywhere; but don’t be afraid—I won’t tell.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann laughed. She thought it was fine to be told she was -Mattie Harrison and if the ghost wanted to keep it a secret that would -be still more fun.</p> - -<p>The march started. Round and round the barn the children went, and -the third time Elizabeth Ann noticed that the doorway of the barn was -crowded—the grown-ups stood there, watching. They had wanted to see -the costumes, and had come out in the frosty air to watch the pretty -march.</p> - -<p>“Now we’re going to have a Virginia Reel,” announced Aunt Nan, “because -that is easy to dance, and everyone can do it; I want you to take a -good look at every couple’s costume as they go down the line. Afterward -I’ll ask you to vote for the prettiest costume worn by a girl, the best -costume worn by a boy, and the funniest costume worn by either a girl -or boy. Remember to look at everybody’s costume.”</p> - -<p>Roger still sat at the piano. At a nod from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> Aunt Nan he began to -play again. Dear me, he <em>couldn’t</em> be Roger, thought the bewildered -Elizabeth Ann. Yet he was wearing the costume Uncle Hiram had loaned -Roger. No one else could possibly come to the party wearing that blue -silk suit.</p> - -<p>Still thinking and puzzling about it, Elizabeth Ann danced down the -line with her ghost. Everyone laughed and clapped when the white ghost -and the black cat danced together and the ghost whispered to Elizabeth -Ann, “Gee, Mattie, you dance better than you did,” and that, of course, -made the cat break into a giggle.</p> - -<p>“Now I’ll play a few minutes, while the Chinese Mandarin comes and -dances,” announced Aunt Nan.</p> - -<p>She took her place at the piano and Roger came toward the others.</p> - -<p>“My, hasn’t he a beautiful costume!” Elizabeth Ann heard the fairy -princess whisper.</p> - -<p>The gold dragons gleamed and the red and green of the embroidery shone -under the shadowy lights streaming down from the pumpkins. Elizabeth -Ann was a little surprised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> herself to see how handsome Roger’s costume -looked.</p> - -<p>He made the fairy princess a little bow and she gave him her hand and -they tripped down the line and back while the others looked at them. -Beyond a doubt they wore the handsomest costumes, and Elizabeth Ann’s -heart began to thump a little with excitement. Suppose Roger Calendar -should win the first prize?</p> - -<p>“Now, before we have the games, we’ll award the prizes, and then we’ll -unmask,” said Aunt Nan, turning around on the piano bench.</p> - -<p>“Who wins the first prize for the girl’s prettiest costume?” she asked, -reaching under the piano bench and bringing out three boxes tied with -orange ribbon and wrapped in black paper.</p> - -<p>“The fairy princess!” shouted the boys and girls as with one voice.</p> - -<p>“Oh, dear!” Aunt Nan sighed. “I hate to have Catherine win her -own prize. We’ll have to see what can be done about that. Unmask, -Catherine.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> -Catherine took off her mask and shook back her hair. Her face was -flushed with triumph and excitement as they clapped for her.</p> - -<p>“And which boy wins first prize for the handsomest costume?” asked Aunt -Nan, holding up a box.</p> - -<p>My goodness, they almost shouted the answer.</p> - -<p>“Chinese Mandarin!” they cried, “Chinese Mandarin!” and Elizabeth Ann -noticed that Catherine was shouting as loudly as the rest.</p> - -<p>“Unmask, Mandarin,” commanded Aunt Nan, smiling. “You get the prize.”</p> - -<p>Roger put up his hand and took the mask away from his eyes.</p> - -<p>There was a moment’s silence and then Catherine’s voice rose loud and -shrill.</p> - -<p>“Why it’s only Roger Calendar!” she said. “I don’t think that’s fair!”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xv" id="xv"></a>CHAPTER XV<br /> -<small>WITCHES AND ALL</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">A murmur</span> went over the barn, but it wasn’t a murmur of objection; it -sounded more like admiration.</p> - -<p>“That’s a fine costume!” said the ghost in Elizabeth Ann’s ear. “I’m -glad he gets the prize. Roger Calendar is a mighty nice fellow.”</p> - -<p>But Catherine was talking in a low tone to her aunt and her face was an -angry red. Elizabeth Ann couldn’t hear what was said, but Doris, who -was much nearer, could and she told her after they were in bed that -night.</p> - -<p>“Catherine’s Aunt Nan told her that if she made a scene before the -others at the party, she would make her go in the house and stay -there,” reported Doris. “She said that Roger had won the prize fairly, -and that he was Catherine’s guest and she had to be polite to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> him. And -she told her that if she didn’t take the prize to him and congratulate -him on winning it, she would have to go in the house, anyway.”</p> - -<p>So a few minutes later, the boys and girls saw Catherine, her face -still red, walking up to Roger and hold out the box he had won.</p> - -<p>“I congratulate you on winning first prize,” said Catherine jerkily, -“and I hope you like your prize.”</p> - -<p>Roger did not offer to take the box.</p> - -<p>“Are you willing for me to have it?” he asked in a low voice.</p> - -<p>Catherine nodded and Aunt Nan spoke up briskly.</p> - -<p>“Take it, Roger,” she directed. “We haven’t voted for the funniest -costume yet—children, who wins the prize for the funniest costume, -girl or boy?”</p> - -<p>Then Elizabeth Ann was surprised again. For all the children -shouted—and the ghost most loudly of all—“Give it to the two black -cats!”</p> - -<p>Aunt Nan laughed and asked the two black cats to please come forward.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> -“You’ll have to share your prize,” she said, “We didn’t expect to have -two winners.”</p> - -<p>Doris was too shy to stir, so Elizabeth Ann had to go forward. She -made a funny little curtsey as she took the box and everyone clapped -for her. And the minute she took her place in the line, the ghost -whispered—“Take off your mask—you’re not Mattie Harrison. I never saw -Mattie make a curtsey.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, take off your masks—all of you now,” said Aunt Nan. “We’re going -to play games.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann had to laugh when the ghost saw her face. He stared—he -was Jim Bennett, one of the boys in her class.</p> - -<p>“And I was so sure you were Mattie Harrison!” he ejaculated. “You’re -about as tall as she is—there’s Mattie over there; she came as a gypsy -girl.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann opened the prize—it was a beautiful box of candy and -she and Doris agreed that there couldn’t be a nicer box for two prize -winners to share.</p> - -<p>Roger had won a writing set—pen and pencil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> that matched. They were -black and gold, and Roger—who had never had anything as nice in his -life—was so pleased Elizabeth Ann thought surely Catherine would be -glad he had won them.</p> - -<p>But Catherine continued to be cross. She was so cross that her Aunt Nan -was afraid she would spoil the party, and so allowed her to keep the -prize she had won—a pen and pencil set, too—but for a girl. Aunt Nan -said no hostess should win the prize at her own party, but Catherine -was quite capable of sitting down and crying if she didn’t get her way, -and that, of course, would be worse than letting her have the prize. If -you can think of anything worse than a hostess crying at her own party, -why we can not.</p> - -<p>They played all the good old Hallowe’en games—ducking for apples, and -trying to find the ring in a plate of flour and sailing walnut shell -boats in the tub of water to see which sank and which stayed up. They -threw apple peelings over their shoulders to see what initials were -formed and they walked backwards with mirrors to see what they could -see—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> it must be admitted that most of them didn’t see anything at -all.</p> - -<p>Then, just as Mattie Harrison suggested they might have another -Virginia Reel—she said she wanted to hear Roger Calendar play -again—there was a noise and clatter at the barn door that drew their -attention to something just coming in.</p> - -<p>“A witch!” shrieked the children. “It’s a witch.”</p> - -<p>Goodness, it was a witch. She came in on her broomstick, her long wisps -of white hair floating out from under her tall black hat. There was a -light on the end of her broomstick and one of the boys whispered he -supposed that was in case the traffic was heavy in the sky as she rode -along.</p> - -<p>“That’s exactly what I use that light for, young man,” croaked the -witch, who certainly sounded as though she needed a cough drop. “On -Hallowe’en, the sky is so full of witches it’s all we can do to find -our way around without a collision. What are you doing here? Having a -party?”</p> - -<p>The children nodded. They weren’t quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> sure how to talk to a witch, -and it seemed safer just to nod their heads.</p> - -<p>“A party, eh?” said the witch. “Well—well. How would you like to come -to my cave? I’ll have a party for you there, if you’ll come.”</p> - -<p>“We don’t know where you live,” said Elizabeth Ann, as no one answered.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I can tell you how to get to my cave,” the witch croaked.</p> - -<p>“Shall we go?” whispered Elizabeth Ann to Catherine.</p> - -<p>“Might as well,” Catherine said, who was evidently as surprised to see -a witch at her party as the other children were.</p> - -<p>“I can’t go with you, because I ride through the sky, and will get -there ahead of you,” said the witch. “But you take these little rolls -of silk I give you—one roll for each boy and girl—and follow them. -You’ll find my cave without a bit of trouble.”</p> - -<p>She brushed aside a few corn stalks and there, in a little mound lay a -heap of what looked like bobbins of silk. They were each a different -color.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> -“Stand in two lines,” said the witch, picking up the bobbins, “girls in -one line, boys in the other. That’s right.”</p> - -<p>Roger Calendar slipped into place beside Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“Let me wind the silk for you,” he said in a low voice. “It’s something -like the old game of spider web, I think. If you look along the floor -you can see threads going in different directions.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann looked, while the witch was passing down the line, -handing each boy a bobbin.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” whispered Elizabeth Ann. “I see the threads. Isn’t this fun!”</p> - -<p>“Now then, each of you count eleven as loudly as you can,” said the -witch, picking up her broomstick. “When you have counted to eleven, -start to wind your silk. I’ll be waiting for you in my cave.”</p> - -<p>With a wave of her hand, she clattered out.</p> - -<p>“One-two-three-four——” the counting began in the barn.</p> - -<p>As they reached the number “ELEVEN!” the boys began to wind the silk.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> -“All right, we’re ready,” said Roger to Elizabeth Ann. “I thought this -was a spider web. See, we’re going under the wagon.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann glanced back to see whether Doris was happy. She saw that -Jim Bennett was her partner. Jim would talk so much that Doris wouldn’t -have to say many words, and that would make her happy. Doris liked to -talk to Elizabeth Ann, but she didn’t have much to say when she was at -a party.</p> - -<p>The silk cord Roger was winding led him and Elizabeth Ann under -the heavy farm wagon, standing in one corner of the barn. It led -them through an empty box stall. It took them across the barn yard -and around a tree—a beautiful silver moon was shining in the sky -and Elizabeth Ann found herself wishing that she could ride a -broomstick—just once—across the sky and see how the moon looks when -one is near it.</p> - -<p>On all sides of them they heard laughing and talking, for the cords -were wound in and out, and some of them crossed. At about the same time -everyone reached the farmhouse door—the kitchen door Elizabeth Ann -knew it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> was, because she had often been in the Gould kitchen.</p> - -<p>But when the kitchen door opened for them—someone must have seen them -coming—lo and behold the kitchen was a cave. It looked just like a -cave, and there was a great iron pot over the fire in the fire place -and the witch sat there, waiting for them.</p> - -<p>The fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles were there, too, and -everyone sat down at a long table and drank the hot cocoa the witch had -ready for them and ate brown bread sandwiches and sugary doughnuts. -There was a toy pumpkin filled with salted peanuts for each guest -and after they had finished eating Uncle Hiram said it was high time -mortals went to bed so the bats and the owls and the black cats could -have their parties.</p> - -<p>“We’ll take you home, Roger,” Elizabeth Ann heard him say, and when she -climbed sleepily into the car a few minutes later, Roger was on the -front seat with Uncle Hiram.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad to-morrow is Saturday,” murmured Elizabeth Ann. “We won’t -have to get up in time to go to school.”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xvi" id="xvi"></a>CHAPTER XVI<br /> -<small>BAD NEWS</small></h2> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">Well</span>, who was the witch then?” said Doris.</p> - -<p>She and Elizabeth Ann were talking over the party. It was the next -morning and they had slept till ten o’clock. They had just had -breakfast and were sitting in the sun on the steps, with Tony between -them. It was so cold now—the first of November—that they needed their -hats and coats on, even to sit in the sun.</p> - -<p>Doris had been insisting that Mrs. Gould was the witch. When Elizabeth -Ann pointed out to her that Catherine’s mother had sat at the table -near Doris, at the same time the witch was passing the cocoa, Doris had -to admit that Mrs. Gould could not have been the witch.</p> - -<p>“Who was the witch, then?” asked Doris.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> -“I think Aunt Nan was the witch,” Elizabeth Ann said, “I noticed when -we stopped trying to bite the apples on a string she wasn’t in the -barn. I think she went to the house and put on her witch’s costume and -came back. And when we were in the kitchen, I looked all around and she -wasn’t there—unless she was the witch.”</p> - -<p>Doris nodded slowly.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Aunt Nan must have been the witch,” she agreed. “But Elizabeth -Ann, where is the prize we won?”</p> - -<p>“I forgot it,” confessed Elizabeth Ann. “I must have left it in the -barn. I guess Catherine will bring it over to-day.”</p> - -<p>“You’d better go and get it,” Doris advised. “Catherine will eat all -that candy up, and not say anything about it.”</p> - -<p>“Why, Doris Mason, what a thing to say!” cried Elizabeth Ann, much -shocked. “Catherine won’t eat the candy we won as a prize.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, she will,” said Doris obstinately. “She’s a mean girl, and I -don’t like her. If you won’t go, I’ll go and ask for our prize. I’ll -ask her mother.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> -Elizabeth Ann gazed at her cousin in some exasperation. Ordinarily -Doris wouldn’t open her mouth to talk to Mrs. Gould, and here she was -planning to ask her for the prize box of candy.</p> - -<p>“You can’t do things like that,” Elizabeth Ann scolded. “You have to be -polite. In the first place, for all you know, Catherine will bring the -candy over to-day; if she doesn’t, she may bring it to school Monday. -And if she never brings it,” finished Elizabeth Ann impressively, “you -can’t talk about it to her.”</p> - -<p>“Catherine isn’t polite,” said Doris calmly. “She didn’t want to give -Roger the prize he won; and she’ll eat up our prize if you don’t do -anything to stop her.”</p> - -<p>“She’ll have to eat it then,” Elizabeth Ann replied. “Couldn’t Roger -play the piano beautifully? He told me he plays by ear.”</p> - -<p>“What’s by ear?” asked Doris, looking as though she rather suspected -Elizabeth Ann might be teasing her.</p> - -<p>“He hears people play, and he can play what they do,” Elizabeth Ann -explained. “He can’t read music—not the way Catherine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> can, when she -practices her music lesson.”</p> - -<p>Aunt Grace came to the door and opened it.</p> - -<p>“Catherine just telephoned,” she said. “She is coming over to see you; -if you get too cold outdoors, you must bring her in. There is a nice -fire in the fireplace in the parlor.”</p> - -<p>“What did I tell you?” said Elizabeth Ann, when Aunt Grace had closed -the door. “Catherine is coming to bring us our candy.”</p> - -<p>Doris refused to be convinced and when fifteen minutes later Catherine, -empty-handed came up the path, Doris looked at Elizabeth Ann with a -I-told-you-so expression that was really very funny.</p> - -<p>“Hello,” said Catherine. “It’s cold to-day, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann sighed. She wasn’t cold and she liked to stay outdoors. -Doris usually wanted to go in after a few minutes and now here was -Catherine who liked to stay indoors, too.</p> - -<p>“There’s a fire in the first cabin,” said Elizabeth Ann. “We can go in -there, if you’d rather.”</p> - -<p>“I wish you wouldn’t talk that silly way,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> Catherine said pettishly. -“When you mean the parlor, say so. Let’s go in—I’m freezing.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann saw that she was cross. Some people are cross the day -after a party, and Catherine was evidently one of those who do not feel -happy the next day.</p> - -<p>They went into the house and sat down on the white rug before the -logs blazing so merrily in the fireplace. Doris didn’t say a word and -Elizabeth Ann was rather glad she didn’t. She was so afraid that if -Doris did say anything, it would be to mention the chocolates.</p> - -<p>“I know I never should have asked that dreadful Roger Calendar to my -party,” said Catherine unexpectedly. “Now I hope you’re satisfied, -Elizabeth Ann; you and Miss Owen. You’re the ones who thought I ought -to ask him.”</p> - -<p>“I do think you ought to have asked him,” Elizabeth Ann declared -staunchly. “You couldn’t ask the whole class and leave him out. Miss -Owen said so.”</p> - -<p>“Well, he’s made plenty of trouble,” said Catherine disagreeably. “He -left the door of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> the corncrib open last night and one of my father’s -best cows got in and ate too much corn and died. It was a very valuable -cow.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann looked horrified.</p> - -<p>“But how do you know it was Roger who left the corncrib door open?” she -asked. “There were other boys at the party.”</p> - -<p>“Roger came over and helped Aunt Nan fix the strings from the barn to -the kitchen,” explained Catherine. “Aunt Nan told us this morning when -Daddy found the cow on the barn floor. He opened the corncrib door to -see how to run one of the strings under it and I suppose he forgot to -close <a name="quote2" id="quote2"></a><ins title="Original has ’">it.”</ins></p> - -<p>“I don’t believe he forgot to close it,” Elizabeth Ann said.</p> - -<p>“Oh, if you want to be silly, I can’t help it,” declared Catherine. -“My father thinks he left it open and so does Aunt Nan. So does Mr. -Bostwick.”</p> - -<p>Doris looked up and Elizabeth Ann’s eyes widened.</p> - -<p>“Did your father tell Mr. Bostwick?” she demanded.</p> - -<p>“Of course he told Mr. Bostwick,” said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> Catherine. “Lydia was one of -our most valuable cows. Roger hasn’t any money to pay for her, but Mr. -Bostwick is going to make him work for my father every Saturday till -the cow is paid for. My father says that carelessness is a bad habit, -and he thinks Roger ought to be cured of it. Paying for the cow will -help him remember.”</p> - -<p>“But I don’t believe Roger had anything to do with it,” Elizabeth Ann -insisted.</p> - -<p>“Why do you keep saying that?” asked Catherine. “I’m telling you that -he left the corncrib door open.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann stood up.</p> - -<p>“Did Roger say he left the door open?” she inquired pointedly.</p> - -<p>“No, of course he won’t admit he did,” said Catherine. “He says he -closed the door, but that is silly. He’s only trying to get out of -being blamed for killing our cow.”</p> - -<p>“If Roger says he closed the door, he did close the door,” Elizabeth -Ann insisted, her face flushing.</p> - -<p>“Would you rather take his word than mine?” asked Catherine. “Roger -Calendar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> is a perfect nobody, a boy from the poor farm.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t care, he tells the truth,” Elizabeth Ann flung out and from -behind her Doris piped up, “He wouldn’t eat candy that didn’t belong to -him—where’s the candy we won at your party, Catherine Gould?”</p> - -<p>And just at this moment Uncle Hiram stepped into the room and he looked -as though he had heard every word.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xvii" id="xvii"></a>CHAPTER XVII<br /> -<small>SOMETHING DIFFERENT</small></h2> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">I’m</span> afraid,” said Uncle Hiram significantly, “that someone has been -forgetting quarter-deck manners.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann blushed and Doris looked ashamed. They had forgotten how -their words must sound.</p> - -<p>“Did I hear a niece of mine talking about candy?” asked Uncle Hiram, -looking straight at Doris.</p> - -<p>“It was the prize we won,” Doris mumbled. “We left it at Catherine’s -house.”</p> - -<p>“You left it in the barn,” said Catherine. “I didn’t think you liked it -and I ate some of it. There may be a few pieces left and I’ll send them -over to you.”</p> - -<p>“Uncle Hiram,” broke in Elizabeth Ann, too worried about Roger and the -corncrib to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> listen to Doris talk about that silly candy—“Uncle Hiram, -Catherine says that Roger left the corncrib door open and one of her -father’s cows ate corn and died. And Roger says he didn’t leave the -door open.”</p> - -<p>“Elizabeth Ann thinks I don’t tell the truth, but she is sure Roger -does,” Catherine said.</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram looked at both little girls and the frowns smoothed out of -their faces.</p> - -<p>“That’s better,” he said. “Why, Elizabeth Ann, I’ve heard all about -the cow from Mr. Gould and from Mr. Bostwick. They seem to think that -Roger has been careless and he’ll have to learn that carelessness costs -money. I’m sorry this thing happened—not only did the poor animal -suffer, but Roger loses what little free time he has.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann wanted to say that she didn’t think Mr. Gould ought to -ask Roger to pay for the cow, but she wasn’t sure Uncle Hiram would -like her to say that. So she kept silent.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps Roger Calendar will have more sense after this,” said -Catherine. “Anyway, I’ll never ask him to another party. I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> to go -now. My mother told me not to stay too long.”</p> - -<p>After she had gone Elizabeth Ann cried. She felt so badly about poor -Roger, and she was sorry for Lydia, the dead cow, too. And Doris cried -because Catherine had eaten the candy.</p> - -<p>“I’m sorry Roger was careless, Elizabeth Ann,” said Uncle Hiram, “but -if he was the only thing for him to do is to try to make up for it. -He may think he closed that corncrib door, but both Mr. Gould and Mr. -Bostwick seem to think he was forgetful; they’re older men and we’ll -have to accept their decision.”</p> - -<p>Usually Elizabeth Ann and Doris saw Roger on Saturdays—he had a couple -of hours to himself in the afternoon, and he liked to come over and -talk to them. He was teaching Tony to box, and the white cat liked him. -But this Saturday they did not see Roger at all, and it was clear that -he had already started to work for Mr. Gould.</p> - -<p>When he saw Elizabeth Ann in school the next Monday, Roger told her -what had happened and that he expected to be working on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> the Gould farm -Saturdays, “forever and ever.”</p> - -<p>“I know you didn’t leave the door open, Roger,” said Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“I know you didn’t leave it open, either, Roger,” Doris added. -“Catherine ate up all our candy, so I don’t believe a word she says.”</p> - -<p>“Uncle Hiram scolded you for saying that last night and you told him -you wouldn’t say it again,” Elizabeth Ann told her severely. “I don’t -believe Catherine tells fibs; she thinks you left the door open, Roger, -and you <em>know</em> you didn’t. Some day you can prove it to her father that -you didn’t.”</p> - -<p>Roger didn’t see how he was ever going to prove it, but he said it made -him feel better to know that Elizabeth Ann and Doris were sure he had -not been careless. And when they went into school, there was a notice -on the bulletin board that made them forget about cows and corncribs -and Hallowe’en parties.</p> - -<p>“The school is going to have a fair,” said Elizabeth Ann at the supper -table that night. “It was on the bulletin board this morning and Miss -Owen explained it to us. Each class has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> a booth and we make lots of -money, and buy Christmas presents for poor people.”</p> - -<p>“But we have to go around and ask people for things,” Doris said in -such a discouraged voice that everyone laughed.</p> - -<p>“Never mind, Doris, I’ll go around with you,” promised Uncle Hiram. -“What do we ask for?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, everything,” Doris explained. “Cakes and pies and fancy work to -sell. It’s a great deal of work, Miss Owen says, and she thinks it will -be good for us. We have to trim our own booths, and the fair lasts a -whole afternoon. We have it in the basement of the school.”</p> - -<p>The next day Miss Owen held a meeting after school and explained more -fully what her class was expected to do to make the fair a success. She -had slips of paper and they were numbered in pairs. Each child drew a -slip and found something written on it. The child who drew the slip -with the same number was his partner and was supposed to work with him.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann drew a slip numbered 6. On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span> it was written the word -“cakes.” Catherine Gould drew a slip numbered 6, too, and that meant -she and Elizabeth Ann were to ask people to bake cakes to sell at the -fair.</p> - -<p>Roger Calendar had a slip numbered 10 and Flora Gabrie drew the other -slip marked 10. They were to get packages for the grab bag table.</p> - -<p>“Any little things that can be wrapped in small parcels, and which can -be sold for five and ten cents,” Miss Owen explained.</p> - -<p>Then she told them, after they all had their slips, that they ought to -do a little work for the fair each day.</p> - -<p>“Otherwise, you will leave too much till the last minute,” said Miss -Owen. “We mustn’t get excited at the last minute, because we’ll have to -go to school as usual up to the day the fair is held.”</p> - -<p>Doris’s slip had “dolls” written on it, and she was supposed to ask -people to donate dolls for the fair.</p> - -<p>“Paper dolls or china dolls—it doesn’t matter,” Miss Owen told her. -“If anyone wants to lend us dolls, we’ll borrow them and send<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> them -back after the fair is over. They’ll help decorate the doll booth.”</p> - -<p>“Better not lend Roger Calendar a doll,” said Catherine Gould in a low -voice. “He’s likely to forget it, and leave it out in the rain or snow -or something.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann held her tongue. She had promised Uncle Hiram not to -quarrel with Catherine about the cow episode. But, thought Elizabeth -Ann, if Catherine meant to bring it up every chance she found, it would -be very difficult not to answer her crossly.</p> - -<p>And within the next week Elizabeth Ann discovered that it was not only -difficult to keep from quarreling with Catherine, but it was almost -impossible to work with her. It had been -<a name="expressly" id="expressly"></a><ins title="Original has 'expressibly'">expressly</ins> explained that the -children were to work in pairs, but Catherine wouldn’t let Elizabeth -Ann know when she was going to people’s houses to ask for cakes. Of -course she knew everyone in town and everyone who lived on the farms, -for Catherine had lived in one place all her life. She said nothing to -her father and mother about the plan for Elizabeth Ann to go with her, -and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> first she went to everyone she knew in Gardner and then she coaxed -her father to take her in his car to her friends who lived on various -farms and before Elizabeth Ann knew anything about it, Catherine -announced that she had twenty-four cakes “promised.”</p> - -<p>“I guess no one will do any better than that!” she said triumphantly -and handed in the list of names to Miss Owen.</p> - -<p>“But Elizabeth Ann was supposed to go with you,” the teacher protested. -“She can’t get any cakes, now. She doesn’t know any people to ask and -if she did she couldn’t go round alone and ask them.”</p> - -<p>“She can ask her Aunt Grace,” said Catherine stubbornly.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann, of course, meant to ask Aunt Grace to bake a cake for -the fair. But that would be only one, and Catherine had twenty-four -cakes written down on her list, also the kinds, such as “caramel” and -“chocolate” and “cup cake.”</p> - -<p>“If I were you,” Doris announced indignantly, after she had heard what -had happened, “I wouldn’t have anything to do with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> the silly old fair. -Or else ask Miss Owen if you can help me get some dolls. The girl who -is my partner is afraid to ask people, and so am I.”</p> - -<p>At first Elizabeth Ann thought she would do that. But Uncle Hiram and -Miss Owen said no, when she asked them. They said that it was “high -time” that Doris learned how to ask people for the things she wanted.</p> - -<p>“She can’t have you to help her all her life,” said Uncle Hiram to -Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“I’d rather Doris and Helen Anderson did their own struggling,” Miss -Owen declared, smiling at Elizabeth Ann. “They’ll have to learn to ask -for things sooner or later and now is an excellent time to begin.”</p> - -<p>“I have a plan,” said Elizabeth Ann a morning or two later. “I know -what I’d like to do for the fair. It’s a secret, Doris, but I’ll have -to tell Miss Owen, and if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll let you -listen, too.”</p> - -<p>Doris promised quickly and she and Elizabeth Ann went up to their -class room to find Miss Owen. The teacher listened while Elizabeth Ann -explained her plan. There was no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> one else in the room for it still -lacked twenty minutes of nine and Miss Owen liked her class to stay out -and play till the warning bell sounded.</p> - -<p>“Why, I think that will be a success, Elizabeth Ann,” said Miss Owen, -when she had heard what Elizabeth Ann wanted to do. “We’ll keep it a -secret, and surprise everyone.”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xviii" id="xviii"></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br /> -<small>ELIZABETH ANN WAITS</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Now</span> secrets are not the easiest thing in the world to keep, and it -is quite possible that either Elizabeth Ann or Doris might have told -someone the great plan, or a little about it, if something had not -happened that, for a time, gave them something else to think about.</p> - -<p>It snowed!</p> - -<p>Great beautiful feathery flakes of snow began to drift slowly down one -afternoon as the children went home from school and which came faster -and faster until by supper time, the ground was white.</p> - -<p>“If there is anything I love,” said Elizabeth Ann enthusiastically, “it -is a big snow storm. I hope it snows all night.”</p> - -<p>Doris didn’t like snow much, but she admitted it would be fun to go -coasting.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> -“How can we go to school if it snows?” she asked, just as they were -going to bed that night.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Dave and the bus will get you there,” Aunt Grace assured her. -“That heavy bus can break through even deep drifts. And Uncle Hiram -will take you as far as the cross-roads, if the snow is too heavy for -you to walk there.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann rather hoped the snow would be up to the roof of the -Bonnie Susie in the morning, but when she woke she found it had stopped -snowing sometime during the night. Still, there was six inches or more -on the ground, and every fence and tree was topped with a feathery -trimming of white.</p> - -<p>“Your Uncle Hiram is up sweeping the roof—I mean the deck,” said Aunt -Grace, who tried hard to learn “sailor talk” as she called it, and -never quite succeeded.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann and Doris put on their coats and hats and ran up the -ladder to the “top deck.” There was Uncle Hiram making the snow fly -with a broom.</p> - -<p>“Hello,” he said when he saw them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> “Looks as if we were in for more -snow, doesn’t it?”—and he pointed with his broom toward the sky which -was heavy and gray.</p> - -<p>“It comes down right on top of the trees,” said Elizabeth Ann, staring -at the sky which did seem nearer the earth than usual.</p> - -<p>“Think you can walk out to the bus this morning, if we get pancakes -for breakfast?” Uncle Hiram suggested, knocking his broom against the -railing to free it from snow. “Let’s go down and see if the first mate -will cook us hot cakes.”</p> - -<p>The first mate had the batter already mixed, and if you know how good -pancakes with butter and maple syrup taste on a snowy, cold morning, -then you know how good they tasted to Elizabeth Ann and Doris. Uncle -Hiram said he had been a little worried about them when he first saw -the snow, but any two girls who could eat nine pancakes apiece, could -certainly stand a little walk through snow. And Elizabeth Ann and Doris -set out a few minutes later to find there was no wind, and that it felt -almost warm.</p> - -<p>“It isn’t as cold as it was yesterday and I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> don’t believe it will snow -any more,” said Doris, watching her rubber boots (which were the pride -of her heart) leave little criss-cross marks on the white snow.</p> - -<p>“Miss Owen said yesterday it was too cold to snow,” Elizabeth Ann -replied. “And it didn’t snow till afternoon and then it had turned -warmer.”</p> - -<p>Doris said it couldn’t be too cold to snow, and they were so busy -arguing this question that they came to the cross-roads before they -realized it.</p> - -<p>Roger Calendar was there—since the cow Lydia had died, Elizabeth Ann -and Doris didn’t see much of Roger except in school. He worked all day -Saturday at the Gould farm and Mr. Bostwick said that if he had to lose -so much of the time that belonged to him, of course he would expect -Roger to try to make it up by working a little longer before and after -school.</p> - -<p>“Where’s Catherine?” asked Roger, looking down the road as though he -expected to see her running over the snow.</p> - -<p>“We didn’t see anything of her,” Elizabeth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> Ann replied. “Maybe she is -not coming.”</p> - -<p>Other boys and girls came straggling up, their cheeks red and glowing, -their eyes bright, because they had had to climb fences and go around -fields to get through to the road, and the exercise made them feel -comfortable and warm.</p> - -<p>“Here comes the bus!” shouted the boys, as the chug-chug they all knew -so well sounded from around a curve in the road.</p> - -<p>“That must be Catherine!” Elizabeth Ann cried, pointing to a little dot -that was moving across the snow.</p> - -<p>Doris looked at her cousin anxiously.</p> - -<p>“You can’t wait for her, Elizabeth Ann,” she urged. “You mustn’t; she’s -late now. Dave won’t wait, and he’ll be mad if you do. You know what -he said—the next time anybody made a fuss he’d report them to the -principal.”</p> - -<p>“Come on, Elizabeth Ann,” said Roger. “Catherine will turn around and -go home, anyway; she couldn’t make the bus, even if she ran her feet -off. She’s too late now.” -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span></p> - -<div class="figcenter width400"> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> -<a name="looks" id="looks"></a> -<img src="images/i-177.jpg" width="400" height="575" alt="" /> -<div class="caption">“It looks as if we were in for more snow, doesn’t -it?”—and he pointed with his broom toward the sky.</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> -“Honk! Honk!” sounded the bus horn and there was Dave, swinging open -the wide door as he stopped.</p> - -<p>“You go ahead, Doris,” said Elizabeth Ann hastily. “I have to wait for -Catherine. We can walk. It’s mean to leave her here all alone.”</p> - -<p>And without looking at Dave—because she was afraid he might say she -must get into the bus, or even jump out and lift her in as he had done -before—Elizabeth Ann turned and began to walk quickly down the road -she had just come over.</p> - -<p>She didn’t dare glance back, not even when the bus horn shrieked at -her. That was Dave, of course, and very likely he was furious. Well, -sighed Elizabeth Ann to herself, she didn’t want to be late for school, -and the only reason that made her do this was because she could -not—she simply could not—go away and leave that little black dot -walking over the snow alone.</p> - -<p>Presently she heard steps behind her and someone caught up with her. -Elizabeth Ann turned in astonishment and saw that Roger Calendar was -walking beside her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> -“Why—why—you’ll miss the bus,” said Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>“I have missed it,” Roger replied. “You didn’t think I would get on -it and leave you to walk all the way to town with a cross-patch like -Catherine, did you?”</p> - -<p>“She isn’t a cross-patch,” Elizabeth Ann protested, but not very firmly.</p> - -<p>“Of course she is,” said Roger. “She’ll be as cross as two sticks -because she has missed the bus. She’ll probably blame you for her bad -luck. And she may not go to school at all and then you’ll be sorry you -ever waited for her.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann said nothing.</p> - -<p>“Catherine Gould wouldn’t wait for you, and don’t you ever expect it of -her,” said Roger, who didn’t feel any too cheerful about the tardy mark -he knew would be placed against his name.</p> - -<p>“Why Roger Calendar, yes she would, too!” Elizabeth Ann retorted. “I -guess Catherine would wait for me, if she saw me coming and she knew -the bus wouldn’t wait. Of course she would.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> -Roger thought it wiser not to argue that question.</p> - -<p>“Dave was as mad as mad could be,” he said significantly. “He said his -patience was—was exhausted.”</p> - -<p>They met Catherine at that moment and Elizabeth Ann had no time to -think about Dave.</p> - -<p>“Hello, where are you going?” asked Catherine, looking at Elizabeth Ann -and Roger in evident surprise.</p> - -<p>“We’re waiting for you,” Elizabeth Ann explained. “We saw you coming -and we didn’t want to go on without you.”</p> - -<p>Catherine stopped short in the snow.</p> - -<p>“Has the bus gone?” she demanded. “Didn’t Dave wait for me?”</p> - -<p>Roger kept still, so Elizabeth Ann had to explain again.</p> - -<p>“He wouldn’t wait—that would make everyone late,” she said. “We’ll -have to walk all the way and we’d better hurry.”</p> - -<p>“I hate walking,” exclaimed Catherine petulantly, “and I hate to be -late—Miss Owen makes such a silly fuss.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> -She stood kicking a lump of snow with one foot while Elizabeth Ann -stared at her anxiously and Roger looked at Elizabeth Ann with an -I-told-you-so expression on his face.</p> - -<p>But Catherine, had they known it, didn’t dare go home. Her daddy had -refused to drive her to the bus again, because she wouldn’t get up when -she was called to breakfast; Catherine knew that if she went home, she -would only be sent to school again.</p> - -<p>“All right, come on,” she said suddenly and began to walk so fast that -Elizabeth Ann could scarcely keep up with her. Roger, being a boy, -of course could walk faster than Catherine, but he kept step with -Elizabeth Ann.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xix" id="xix"></a>CHAPTER XIX<br /> -<small>ROGER’S MISTAKE</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Ann</span>, running to keep up with Catherine, felt almost cheerful. -No matter if they were late—Catherine was going to school. She wasn’t -going to turn around and go home, as Roger has said she would.</p> - -<p>“I think Roger would like her, if only Catherine would be nicer to -him,” thought Elizabeth Ann, her cheeks bright red from running against -the wind. “Oh, dear, I’m out of breath—and it’s snowing again!”</p> - -<p>Sure enough, the white flakes were whirling around them and the gray -sky seemed to be pressing in upon them.</p> - -<p>“I hate snow,” said Catherine, who could not be said to look forward to -the winter. “I like the summer but I hate winter.”</p> - -<p>She was out of breath, too, now and had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> walk more slowly. When they -gained the main road, they amused themselves by walking in the broad -treads, like ribbon bands, that the bus wheels had left marked on the -snow.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps we’ll get a lift,” said Roger, when they had walked perhaps -half a mile.</p> - -<p>“No we won’t,” contradicted Catherine. “Everyone has gone to the -creamery. Any wagons or cars that pass us will be going toward home.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann had to admit that she was right. Within the next ten -minutes four wagons passed them, but they were all headed in the wrong -direction. The empty milk cans, rattling in the back of the wagons -showed that their drivers had been to the creamery in Gardner and were -now going home.</p> - -<p>Catherine stopped without warning when they came to a mail box fastened -to a stump of a pine tree.</p> - -<p>“My second cousin lives here,” she announced. “I’m going to see her. -I can stay at her house till afternoon and then go home. I don’t feel -well and I don’t think I ought to walk all that distance to school.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> -“What will your mother say?” asked Elizabeth Ann, quite horrified.</p> - -<p>“Oh, my mother won’t care. When I tell her I stayed with Cousin Betty, -Mother will write me an absence excuse,” Catherine declared. “Don’t you -want to come, too? We can play in the big barn.”</p> - -<p>“No, I couldn’t,” said Elizabeth Ann hastily. “Uncle Hiram wouldn’t -like it. Would he, Roger?”</p> - -<p>“Of course he wouldn’t—for pity’s sake do hurry, Elizabeth Ann,” Roger -urged her.</p> - -<p>“Ain’t we late enough now, without arguing about staying to play in -anybody’s barn?”</p> - -<p>“I didn’t ask you, Roger Calendar,” called Catherine, as Elizabeth Ann -hastened after Roger who was already moving down the road. “I wouldn’t -ask you to play in my cousin’s barn; you might leave <em>her</em> corncrib -door open.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth glanced timidly at Roger as they hurried along.</p> - -<p>“You’re not mad, Roger, are you?” she ventured presently.</p> - -<p>“I haven’t time to be mad,” said Roger. “I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> told you Catherine wouldn’t -go to school; that’s why Dave and all of us hate to see you making a -monkey of yourself for a girl like that. We’re going to be good and -late for school.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann was hurrying now to keep up with him.</p> - -<p>“I’m sorry you waited,” she panted. “You didn’t have to wait, Roger. -And Catherine is mean to say things to you the way she does.”</p> - -<p>“I’m used to that,” said Roger. “Say, Elizabeth Ann, perhaps I can find -a short cut; wouldn’t it be fun if we should get to school on time, -after all?”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann beamed at the idea. She did so hate to be late, and she -didn’t want all the pupils to stare at her when she and Roger came in, -and wonder where Catherine was. If they could get to school at the -usual time, it would be the other boys and girls who would be surprised.</p> - -<p>“I’m not exactly sure, but I think there is a road that goes across -behind a piece of woods,” said Roger. “If it’s the one I think it is, -it will bring us out on one side of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> school building. The only -trouble is, I don’t think any teams go through it in winter and it may -be drifted.”</p> - -<p>“It hasn’t snowed much yet,” Elizabeth Ann declared cheerfully. “And I -think it’s going to stop now.”</p> - -<p>She squinted at the sky, as she had seen Uncle Hiram do, and the wet -white flakes fell into her eyes and down the collar of her coat. It was -snowing steadily and there were no signs whatever that it meant to stop -any time soon.</p> - -<p>“Well, we can try the short road, at least,” said Roger. “We turn off -here. Are you warm enough, Elizabeth Ann?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, my, yes,” that small girl assured him. “Only don’t walk quite so -fast, please Roger; my knees won’t stretch only just so far.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll walk the way you want to,” promised Roger. “I forgot you can’t -walk as fast as a boy. Want me to carry your lunch?”</p> - -<p>Roger had forgotten all about the two small books and the lunch box -Elizabeth Ann carried, till this moment. He wasn’t very used to girls, -anyway, and he was rather apt to let<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> them wait on themselves. Now, -however, he took Elizabeth Ann’s things and that left her hands free. -She could put them into the two big flannel-lined pockets of her coat -and let them both get warm at once.</p> - -<p>The road down which Roger had turned apparently was not used at all in -the winter. Not a single track marked the whiteness of the snow that -covered it. The underbrush of the woods which bordered it on either -side showed gleaming red berries here and there and Elizabeth Ann saw a -few birds picking at the berries, but they did not seem to think they -were very good.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps they’re sour,” said Elizabeth Ann aloud.</p> - -<p>She was walking behind Roger, stepping into the footprints his rubber -boots left. And she noticed that the heel of one of his boots seemed to -be leaking.</p> - -<p>“Roger, did you know your boot leaks?” she asked, before she stopped to -think.</p> - -<p>Roger nodded, without turning.</p> - -<p>“They’re old,” he said. “I may get a new pair for Christmas. But the -Bostwicks are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> so cross about the cow, I may not get anything for -Christmas this year.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t think you left the corncrib door open,” said Elizabeth Ann for -the fiftieth time.</p> - -<p>“I’d tell you if I had really left it open,” Roger answered. “I know I -didn’t. But there’s no way to prove it.”</p> - -<p>He tramped on moodily, and Elizabeth Ann, who found it hard going -through the soft sticky snow, began to feel tired. She didn’t want to -bother Roger, but at last she thought she must ask a question.</p> - -<p>“What time do you suppose it is, Roger?” she asked. “Is it much further -to the piece of woods you remember?”</p> - -<p>Roger stopped and looked at her anxiously.</p> - -<p>“Bet you’re getting tired,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, Elizabeth -Ann; we’ll sit down on this log and eat our lunches. That will give -us a little rest. We’re late now—I’m sure of it—and fifteen minutes -won’t make any difference.”</p> - -<p>He brushed the snow off a large log at the side of the road and -Elizabeth Ann sat down.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> She was warm enough, but she was very tired. -She opened her lunch box and held it out to Roger.</p> - -<p>“No thanks,” he said gruffly, “I have my own.”</p> - -<p>He took two apples out of the paper bag he had carried in his pocket.</p> - -<p>“You have to eat some of mine,” Elizabeth Ann insisted. “Aunt Grace -always puts up some for me to pass to the other girls. She gives Doris -extra sandwiches, too. These are minced chicken, Roger.”</p> - -<p>“Will you eat one of my apples then?” demanded Roger, looking at the -sandwiches hungrily.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann promised and they began to eat as though breakfast had -been “the day before,” Roger said. But the long walk had made them -hungry, and when the sandwiches and stuffed eggs, and even Roger’s -apples had disappeared, they both felt much better.</p> - -<p>“If it would stop snowing, we could go faster,” said Roger, as they -started to walk again. “It can’t be much further, Elizabeth -<a name="quote3" id="quote3"></a><ins title="Original omits quotation mark">Ann.”</ins></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> -But it was. They walked another two miles and then Roger was forced to -admit that he did not know where they were.</p> - -<p>“I said you made a monkey out of yourself, waiting for Catherine,” he -declared ruefully, “but I’m a worse monkey; here we are, goodness only -knows how many miles from school—and it must be noon. I haven’t a -watch, but it feels like noon to me.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann could have cried, but she didn’t. She was so tired and -worried and it began to look as though they wouldn’t get to school that -day at all. But Roger was sorry enough, without seeing her cry, she -thought, so she just winked her eyes a little and then said bravely:</p> - -<p>“What’ll we do next, Roger?”</p> - -<p>“We’ll have to go back,” said Roger slowly. “All the way back to the -main road; because I’m afraid to go any further over this road. I don’t -know where it leads—and it may go on for miles and miles, without -passing a house.”</p> - -<p>They turned around and went back. It seemed three times as long a -journey as when they had first walked it, but the wind was no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> longer -in their faces and that was better. But when they reached the main -road, Elizabeth Ann was sure she couldn’t walk another step.</p> - -<p>“I’m awfully sorry, Elizabeth Ann,” said Roger, looking at her -anxiously. “Don’t sit down in the snow—you can’t rest now; it’s only -a little further to school. You can’t sit down in wet snow, Elizabeth -Ann.”</p> - -<p>But Elizabeth Ann didn’t care where she sat. Not only was she tired, -but she was sleepy. She stumbled when she walked, and she didn’t see -any reason why Roger should expect to keep her walking and walking, -when she was so tired.</p> - -<p>“You go on without me,” she told him, “I’ll come after a while.”</p> - -<p>But Roger had heard an automobile and he looked hopefully down the road.</p> - -<p>“Here comes a car!” he cried. “I’ll ask them to take us to school. -Don’t you dare sit down in the wet cold snow, Elizabeth Ann Loring!”</p> - -<p>Roger was so eager to get someone to take Elizabeth Ann to school, -before she went to sleep where she was, that he paid no attention<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> to -the car. It is doubtful whether he would have recognized it, anyway, -for it was well covered with snow. But Elizabeth Ann, sleepy as she -was, recognized whose voice it was that answered Roger’s eager shout -and she knew both the men whose heads were thrust out of the car -windows when it stopped.</p> - -<p>“Uncle Hiram and Mr. Gould!” said Elizabeth Ann, forgetting how tired -she was because of being so much surprised.</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xx" id="xx"></a>CHAPTER XX<br /> -<small>THE FORTUNE-TELLER</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Now</span> Roger didn’t like Catherine Gould, but, as he told Elizabeth Ann -afterward, that didn’t mean he wanted to tell tales about her. So -when Uncle Hiram began to ask questions, Roger told everything that -had happened to Elizabeth Ann and himself, but he said nothing about -Catherine.</p> - -<p>“I don’t see how Elizabeth Ann could miss the bus,” said Uncle Hiram. -“Why didn’t Doris miss it, too?”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann blushed and Roger looked confused.</p> - -<p>“Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to go to school and be marked tardy, -Elizabeth Ann,” said Uncle Hiram. “I believe in finishing what you -start out to do; and you started for school in good time this morning.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> -“I’ll drive you to school,” Mr. Gould offered.</p> - -<p>“No—I mean no thank you, we can walk,” said Elizabeth Ann quickly.</p> - -<p>She was afraid that if the principal or Miss Owen saw the car, they -might come out to ask Mr. Gould about Catherine.</p> - -<p>“Did Catherine make the bus this morning?” asked Mr. Gould suddenly.</p> - -<p>Well, neither Elizabeth Ann nor Roger could answer that question -without telling the whole story. Mr. Gould saw that something was -wrong, and he began to ask so many questions that soon he and Uncle -Hiram knew exactly what had happened. Elizabeth Ann cried, partly -because she was tired and partly because she was afraid Catherine would -blame her, and partly because she didn’t want Catherine to be scolded. -But of course, she had to answer Mr. Gould’s questions and he went -after Catherine and brought her to school—though it was then almost -three o’clock and school was out at half past three. But first he took -Elizabeth Ann and Roger to school, and though Miss Owen hated to do it, -she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> to mark them tardy. Elizabeth Ann was so tired and sleepy she -couldn’t sit up at her desk, so Uncle Hiram took her home where she -went to bed and slept till eight o’clock that night when she woke up -and had bread and milk, then went to sleep again. But Roger stayed the -rest of the day in school and rode home with Dave in the afternoon bus -and told him about Elizabeth Ann.</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram explained to Elizabeth Ann before she went to school the -next morning, that now, as long as she knew Catherine wouldn’t hurry -and didn’t care how many friends she made late for school, that she was -not to wait for her again.</p> - -<p>“She must learn her own lessons,” said Uncle Hiram. “Perhaps if she -finds no one will wait for her, she’ll teach herself to be on time. You -can help people just so much, Elizabeth Ann; after that they must help -themselves.”</p> - -<p>Catherine did make the bus for the next few mornings. She may have been -eager to talk over the fair plans with the others in school, since it -was almost time for the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> affair. Catherine had to remind her -friends to bake their cakes, too, and she knew that if she didn’t make -a good record in school her daddy would not take her around to collect -the various cakes. Whatever her reasons, Catherine was as prompt as the -most punctual scholar all the rest of the week.</p> - -<p>“What are you going to do, Elizabeth Ann?” asked Roger, who had -collected everything he could for the grab bag; Uncle Hiram had given -him a basket filled with small things and that had delighted Roger -beyond words.</p> - -<p>Miss Owen had been pleased, too. There were shells in the basket and -small curios, and little foreign coins and packets of postage stamps -from strange countries. They all made lovely grab bag prizes.</p> - -<p>But Elizabeth Ann wouldn’t tell even Roger what she was going to do -at the fair. Miss Owen knew, and Doris knew, but no one else did. Of -course Uncle Hiram and Aunt Grace knew—they didn’t count, Elizabeth -Ann explained, because grown-ups had to know your secrets so they could -help you with your costumes.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> -“Costumes?” repeated Roger. “Are you going to wear a costume—like the -one you wore Hallowe’en at Catherine’s party, Elizabeth Ann?”</p> - -<p>“Sh! Don’t tell anyone I’m going to wear a costume,” Elizabeth Ann -said. “I told you it’s a secret—and I’m not going to be a black cat!” -and that was all Roger could coax from her.</p> - -<p>The fair opened in the afternoon at two o’clock, so there was, of -course, no school that afternoon. The long light basement looked very -fine when the first visitors came down the stairs—there were rows of -booths on each side of the hall, and each booth was in charge of a -class room. All the pupils were supposed to take turns helping, so that -each child would have some time to go around and see the other booths.</p> - -<p>The teachers were on hand to make change and wrap parcels and answer -questions, but the boys and girls were supposed to do most of the -selling. And <a name="everyone" id="everyone"></a><ins title="Original has 'everyone'">every one</ins> -of them had customers, because if -no one else came to buy, a mother or a daddy or an uncle or aunt would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> -be sure to step up smilingly and say, “How much is that? I believe I’ll -take it.”</p> - -<p>At one end of the room was a tent, and five minutes after the fair -had opened, the news was all over the basement that there was a -fortune-teller in the tent.</p> - -<p>“She’s tall and dark,” reported one of the teachers, “and she sits on -a throne—I wonder who built the throne? They must have worked on it -nights when no one was in the building.”</p> - -<p>“The fortune-teller has an assistant,” Flora Gabrie told Roger -Calendar. “I peeked in the tent. I’m sure I never saw her before. I -never saw the fortune-teller, either. They must be from out of town.”</p> - -<p>It cost ten cents to have one’s fortune told and it seemed as though -everyone was anxious to find out what was “going to happen” as Flora -Gabrie said with a little shiver. Flora said she didn’t believe that -anyone could tell what was going to happen, but just the same she took -ten cents of the money she had saved for Christmas, and gave it to the -gypsy princess.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> -Whatever the princess—who was tall and dark, and who might or might -not have been pretty, for she was so wrapped up in veils that no one -could see her face—told the people who came into her tent, it made -them happy. Most of them laughed and laughed and just to hear them -laughing in the tent made those outside who were waiting their turns, -the more anxious to go in. All afternoon there was a line of people -going and coming from the fortune-teller’s tent.</p> - -<p>“I’m going, too,” Catherine Gould suddenly decided.</p> - -<p>She had been spending all her money at the grab-bag table, for she -liked the shells and stamps that Uncle Hiram had given Roger. She was -rather greedy about them and might have opened some of the packages -before she <a name="bought" id="bought"></a><ins title="Original has 'brought'">bought</ins> -them, if Miss Owen had not kept an eye on -her. But Catherine still had ten cents left and she meant to spend this -to have her fortune told.</p> - -<p>She had to stand in line for several minutes and then her turn came. -The attendant, who was short, and wrapped in veils, too, opened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> the -flap of the tent and led Catherine inside.</p> - -<p>“Kneel,” said this attendant and Catherine knelt down before the gypsy -princess who sat on a throne of pillows, most gorgeous to behold in her -red and green frock.</p> - -<p>“Oh-h!” cried the fortune-teller, as soon as she saw Catherine. “I see -a door.”</p> - -<p>Then Catherine saw that in her hand the gypsy held a little silver ball.</p> - -<p>“What kind of a door is it?” whispered Catherine fearfully.</p> - -<p>“It’s a queer, barn door,” the gypsy answered. “Can’t you see it?”—and -she held the silver ball down close to Catherine’s eyes.</p> - -<p>“It must be the corncrib door,” said Catherine, staring into the silver -ball.</p> - -<p>It was the gypsy’s turn to stare. She didn’t say anything but Catherine -could feel her staring through her veil.</p> - -<p>“I had a party Hallowe’en night, at my house,” went on Catherine. -“And two girls won a box of candy for a prize. They didn’t eat it and -I thought perhaps they wouldn’t want it, and I might as well have -it myself. I didn’t know where else to hide it, to keep the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> other -children from eating it, so I put it in the corncrib. I knew the mice -or rats couldn’t get it there and I could take it out in the morning.”</p> - -<p>The gypsy princess leaned down from her throne.</p> - -<p>“Go on,” she commanded, while the attendant looked as though she might -be glued to the floor.</p> - -<p>“Why I—er—I guess I didn’t fasten the door,” said Catherine -uncomfortably. “One of our cows got in during the night and ate so much -corn she died. But I never said Roger Calendar left the door open—when -my father asked me if any of the boys had been to the corncrib, I said -Roger had. He <em>had</em> been there—that was the truth. He helped my aunt -fix the strings for one of the party games.”</p> - -<p>The gypsy drew a long breath.</p> - -<p>“That’s why I couldn’t tell your fortune,” she announced. “You can’t -have any fortune, unless you tell what really happened. Tell your -father.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I couldn’t!” said Catherine hastily. “He’d be so cross. I can’t -bear to have people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> cross with me. Besides, I’m not sure I did leave -the door open. Perhaps Roger went to the corncrib after I did.”</p> - -<p>The gypsy leaned down again and pressed something into Catherine’s hand.</p> - -<p>“There’s your dime,” she said softly. “I haven’t told your fortune. I -can’t find any for you.”</p> - -<p>“Well, all right, I’ll go buy another grab bag,” Catherine retorted, a -little angrily. “You won’t tell what I’ve told you, will you. I guess -you won’t, because you don’t know anyone to tell. And no one would -believe what a strange gypsy says, if I say it isn’t true, anyway.”</p> - -<p>Other people were eager to have their fortunes told and as soon as -Catherine went out, her dime clutched tightly in her hand, another took -her place. And by five o’clock, when the fair was practically over, and -Miss Owen said the gypsy must come and have some ice cream, there was -almost fifty dollars in the money box in the tent. That didn’t mean -five hundred people had had their fortunes told—dear no. Many folk -left extra money because they knew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> it was going to be used for poor -boys and girls, to give them a happy Christmas.</p> - -<p>“I’m sure you’re all interested in our gypsy princess,” said Miss -Owen, when the fortune-teller came out of her tent, “and I think I’ll -have to introduce you—to Miss Elizabeth Ann Loring and her assistant, -Doris Mason; this was entirely Elizabeth Ann’s idea and I think she has -managed it very cleverly.”</p> - - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<hr class="divider" /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> -</div> - -<h2><a name="xxi" id="xxi"></a>CHAPTER XXI<br /> -<small>ALL STRAIGHTENED OUT</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Ann</span> blushed and the people who had come to the fair clapped. -Doris forgot to be shy and beamed.</p> - -<p>“Nobody ever guessed it was you, Elizabeth Ann,” she kept saying.</p> - -<p>Uncle Hiram took them both over to the ice cream booth and there was -still some ice cream left, vanilla and chocolate. Before they had quite -finished their plates, Aunt Grace called to Uncle Hiram to come where -she was and look at something, and that left Elizabeth Ann and Doris -alone. The children in charge of the ice cream booth had gone to buy -something at one of the tables—for the fair was almost over—and the -teacher who had given the two little girls their ice cream had taken -her money box over to have the money counted where all the money boxes -were.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> -“P-st!” whispered someone right in Elizabeth Ann’s ear.</p> - -<p>Of course she jumped, for it startled her.</p> - -<p>“Here I am—back of these pillows,” said a voice and Catherine Gould -put her head out between two black satin pillows that had been left on -a piano bench.</p> - -<p>“I think you were awfully mean to fool people, Elizabeth Ann,” said -Catherine reproachfully. “Of course if I had known who you were, I -wouldn’t have asked you to tell my fortune.”</p> - -<p>“It was just for fun,” Elizabeth Ann answered, taking the last spoonful -of her chocolate ice cream and looking at her empty plate wistfully.</p> - -<p>“Well, don’t you ever tell what I told you about the corncrib door, or -I’ll never forgive you,” said Catherine.</p> - -<p>“Why I wouldn’t tell—I don’t carry tales,” Elizabeth Ann declared -indignantly, “but aren’t you going to tell Mr. Bostwick—or your -father?”</p> - -<p>“Why should I?” asked Catherine, though her face turned red. “I’m not -sure I left it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> unfastened. I can’t be perfectly sure some of the boys -didn’t go to the corncrib after I left the candy there.”</p> - -<p>Doris almost choked on her last bit of ice cream in her hurry to tell -Catherine what she thought of her.</p> - -<p>“Why Catherine Gould, you’re telling a lie,” she cried. “I mean you -will be telling a lie, if you don’t explain to your father about the -corncrib door. He thinks Roger left it open, and Roger has to work for -him every Saturday.”</p> - -<p>“I am not telling a lie, and don’t you say such things, Doris Mason!” -stormed Catherine. “Maybe I didn’t leave the door open. Anyway, it -won’t hurt Roger Calendar to work Saturdays—my father says idleness is -bad for anyone. And Roger <em>is</em> careless—one day last summer he left -the pasture bars down and Mr. Bostwick’s cows got in the garden and ate -almost the entire first crop of peas.”</p> - -<p>Someone struck a chord on the piano just then—that was to attract the -attention of everyone in the room. Elizabeth Ann peeked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> around a tall -man and saw that it was Roger who sat at the school piano.</p> - -<p>“We’re going to auction the cakes that are left,” announced Mr. Fundy -the principal. “We have six fine cakes left and they won’t keep till -our next fair, so we’ll sell them to the highest bidder.”</p> - -<p>Roger played softly while the cakes were being auctioned off and -they were soon sold. Aunt Grace bought a banana layer cake, much to -the pleasure of Elizabeth Ann and Doris, who liked banana cake. And -when the last cake had been sold and the money added to that already -counted, Mr. Fundy had another announcement to make.</p> - -<p>“I’m glad to be able to tell you,” he said, “that everything in all the -booths has been sold; and we have cleared for our Christmas fund for -poor and sick children, exactly $160. I call that pretty fine for a -country school like ours.”</p> - -<p>All the people clapped and Roger broke into a rollicking march on the -piano. With $160, Miss Owen explained to Elizabeth Ann who stood near -her, they could buy more than they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> had planned, and not a child would -have to be left off the list.</p> - -<p>Then, of course, it was time to go home, and Elizabeth Ann and Doris -couldn’t talk about Catherine in the car for not only would Uncle Hiram -and Aunt Grace hear them, but Roger, who was going to have supper -at their house before he went to the Bostwick farm. Uncle Hiram had -arranged that with Mr. Bostwick, and it was a real treat for Roger who -seldom visited anywhere.</p> - -<p>“Don’t you wish you had a piano of your own?” Doris asked him, when -they were almost home.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I’d like one,” said Roger, “but the only way I’ll ever get it -will be to earn the money; and if people keep on saying I leave doors -open and kill cows, it will take me all my life to pay them. I never -will get any money saved for a piano.”</p> - -<p>“Avast there,” Uncle Hiram mumbled over his shoulder. “The wind can -blow in the east only so long; your east wind is about blown out and -you ought to be looking for clear weather.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> -“I hope you’ll get a nice west wind soon, Roger,” said gentle Aunt -Grace. “I’m having waffles for supper—maybe they will help.”</p> - -<p>They couldn’t help laughing a little at the idea of waffles being a -west wind, but Roger told Aunt Grace that hot waffles were as good as a -spell of clear weather to him; a west wind, he explained to Elizabeth -Ann, always brought clear weather.</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann looked at Doris and Doris looked at Elizabeth Ann. But -they couldn’t make up their minds what they ought to do.</p> - -<p>Roger had his golden brown waffles and went home, whistling cheerily as -though he had forgotten such unpleasant things as corncrib doors, and -perhaps he had. Aunt Grace went out into the kitchen—excuse us, the -galley—to set her bread. And Elizabeth Ann and Doris sat on the floor -of their bedroom and talked about Catherine Gould until Uncle Hiram -called to them that it was high time sailors their age were fast asleep.</p> - -<p>In the morning, on the way to school, Elizabeth Ann and Doris were -still talking about Catherine.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> -“I don’t want Roger to have to work Saturdays for Mr. Gould,” said -Elizabeth Ann. “It isn’t fair; he used to have two hours to himself -every Saturday and he could go over to Mrs. Weber’s and play on her -piano, he told me. Now he can’t do anything because Mr. Bostwick says -he must help him every minute to make up for the time he has to give -Catherine’s father.”</p> - -<p>“But you can’t make Catherine tell her father,” Doris pointed out. “And -you don’t want to tell him yourself—you told her you wouldn’t.”</p> - -<p>Elizabeth Ann shook her head so that her red tam almost fell off.</p> - -<p>“No, of course I wouldn’t tell,” she declared. “But I am going to think -and think and by and by I’ll find a way.”</p> - -<p>Doris had great respect for Elizabeth Ann’s thinking powers and she -watched her anxiously the rest of the day. Catherine was absent from -school, so when they left the bus at the cross-roads in the later -afternoon, only Roger was with them. He turned off at the lane leading -to the Bostwick farm, and as soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> as they were alone, Elizabeth Ann -turned eagerly to Doris.</p> - -<p>“I know what to do!” she exclaimed. “I’ve thought it all out—first -we ask Uncle Hiram to promise that he will tell Mr. Gould about -Catherine—how she hid the candy and forgot to fasten the door and then -let him think Roger did it. But before Uncle Hiram tells Mr. Gould, he -must make him promise that he won’t scold Catherine.”</p> - -<p>“She ought to be scolded,” said Doris sternly. She didn’t like to be -scolded herself, mind you, but she didn’t mind seeing other people get -their “comeuppance,” as Aunt Grace called it.</p> - -<p>“Well, perhaps,” Elizabeth Ann admitted, “but we can’t help that. If -Catherine thinks she is going to be scolded, she will never tell. -And if we can promise her no one will say a word, she won’t mind -telling. We want Roger to stop working for Mr. Gould—never mind about -Catherine.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but how can you tell Uncle Hiram when you said you wouldn’t?” -asked the practical Doris.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> -“I’m going to see Catherine now and ask her to let me tell,” Elizabeth -Ann explained. “You go on to the house and tell Aunt Grace where I am; -I’ll come as soon as I see Catherine.”</p> - -<p>Doris went on, grumbling that the plan wouldn’t work. But the -surprising thing about it was that it <a name="comma3" id="comma3"></a><ins title="Original omits comma">did,</ins> -it worked out exactly as -Elizabeth Ann planned. Catherine said if her daddy wouldn’t scold or -punish her, she didn’t mind having Uncle Hiram tell what had happened. -And Uncle Hiram, though at first he said he wouldn’t ask Mr. Gould -to make any silly promises, finally consented. He told him the story -Elizabeth Ann had told him—about the corncrib door and the candy, and -Catherine’s fear that led her to shift the blame to Roger.</p> - -<p>Mr. Gould was sorry about Roger and went at once to see Mr. Bostwick to -tell him a mistake had been made, and that Roger wasn’t careless after -all. And of course Roger no longer had to work all day Saturday at the -Gould farm. But Mr. Gould was even sorrier about his own little girl, -and he said that no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> matter what happened another time, if Catherine -would come to him and tell him he wouldn’t scold but would help her to -set the mistake right. And Catherine promised to tell him after this.</p> - -<p>Of course it was almost Christmas by this time—less than two weeks to -Christmas Eve. But we haven’t enough pages to tell you about Christmas -in the Bonnie Susie, so that will have to wait till another book. Only -you may be sure Elizabeth Ann and Doris had a wonderful time, for the -country is the place for little girls to enjoy Christmas.</p> - - -<p class="center p120">THE END</p> - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<div class="book-list-container"> -<p class="center p180">Elizabeth Ann Series</p> - -<p class="center p130">By JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE</p> - -<p class="center"><i>For Girls from 7 to 12</i></p> - - -<div class="float-left width80"> -<img src="images/i-215.png" width="80" height="128" alt="Book cover" title="The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann" /> -</div> - -<p class="noi">Elizabeth Ann is a little girl whom we first meet on a big train, -travelling all alone. Her father and mother have sailed for Japan, -and she is sent back East to visit at first one relative’s home, and -then another. Of course, she meets many new friends, some of whom -she is quite happy with, while others—but you must read the stories -for yourself. Every other girl who reads the first of these charming -books will want all the rest; for Elizabeth Ann is certainly worth the -cultivating.</p> - -<ul class="nobullet"> -<li>THE ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH ANN.</li> -<li>ELIZABETH ANN AT MAPLE SPRING.</li> -<li>ELIZABETH ANN’S SIX COUSINS.</li> -<li>ELIZABETH ANN and DORIS.</li> -<li>ELIZABETH ANN’S BORROWED GRANDMA.</li> -<li>ELIZABETH ANN’S SPRING VACATION.</li> -<li>ELIZABETH ANN and UNCLE DOCTOR.</li> -<li>ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT.</li> -</ul> - -<p class="center p140">Publishers<br /> -BARSE & CO.<br /> -New York, N. <span class="word-spacing">Y. Newark,</span> N. J.</p> -</div> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<div class="book-list-container"> -<p class="center p180">LINDA LANE SERIES</p> - -<p class="center p130">By Josephine Lawrence</p> - -<p class="center">For Girls from 12 to 15</p> - -<p class="center"><span class="smcap"><span class="word-spacing">Cloth Large</span> 12 <span class="word-spacing">Mo. Illustrated</span></span> -</p> - -<div class="float-left width80"> -<img src="images/i-216.png" width="80" height="125" alt="Book cover" title="Linda Lane Helps Out" /> -</div> - -<p>“The trouble with Linda Lane,” said Mrs. Quincy, “was that she -‘couldn’t get along with folks.’” As everyone knows, a girl needs -friends to <a name="love" id="love"></a><ins title="Original has 'lover'">love</ins> -her and believe in her. It isn’t to be -wondered at that Linda wasn’t happy. Then little Miss Gilly came to the -rooms of the Society, the only home Linda knew, and took the girl home -with her. A new life begins for Linda, and she finds, to her surprise -and delight, how to get along with people, how to make friends, and -slowly and surely how to be happy.</p> - -<p>Linda admires independence above all other traits of character. She has -plenty of that quality herself and she is the kind of girl who not only -cheerfully fights her own battles, but those of the weaker who cannot -defend themselves. She is “bossy,” lovable, impatient and loyal, a born -manager, whose plans invariably work out to satisfactory conclusions, -and Linda has a definite plan which gradually unfolds in these books -written about her—the sort of plan only a girl without a home and -parents of her own could think of and carry to completion. Linda Lane -knows what she wants and she is willing to work and trust to her own -efforts to make her wishes come true.</p> - -<ul class="nobullet"><li>1. LINDA LANE.</li> -<li>2. LINDA LANE HELPS OUT.</li> -<li>3. LINDA LANE’S PLAN.</li> -<li>4. LINDA LANE EXPERIMENTS.</li> -<li>5. LINDA LANE’S PROBLEMS.</li> -<li>6. LINDA LANE’S BIG SISTER.</li> -</ul> - -<p class="center p140">Publishers<br /> -BARSE & CO.<br /> -New York, N. <span class="word-spacing">Y. Newark,</span> N. J.</p> -</div> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<div class="book-list-container"> -<p class="center p120">CHARMING STORIES FOR GIRLS</p> - -<p class="center p180">The Corner House Girls Series</p> - -<p class="center p120">By GRACE BROOKS HILL</p> - -<div class="float-left width80"> -<img src="images/i-217.png" width="80" height="113" alt="Book cover" title="The Corner House Girls" /> -</div> - -<p>Four girls from eight to fourteen years of age receive word that a -rich bachelor uncle has died, leaving them the old Corner House he -occupied. They move into it and then the fun begins. What they find -and do will provoke many a hearty laugh. Later, they enter school and -make many friends. One of these invites the girls to spend a few weeks -at a bungalow owned by her parents, and the adventures they meet with -make very interesting reading. Clean, wholesome stories of humor and -adventure, sure to appeal to all young girls.</p> - -<ul class="nobullet"> -<li> 1 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS.</li> -<li> 2 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL.</li> -<li> 3 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS.</li> -<li> 4 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY.</li> -<li> 5 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS’ ODD FIND.</li> -<li> 6 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR.</li> -<li> 7 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS GROWING UP.</li> -<li> 8 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND.</li> -<li> 9 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A HOUSEBOAT.</li> -<li>10 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES.</li> -<li>11 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON PALM ISLAND.</li> -<li>12 THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY.</li> -<li>13 THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS FACING THE WORLD.</li> -</ul> - -<p class="center p140">Publishers<br /> -BARSE & CO.<br /> -New York, N. <span class="word-spacing">Y. Newark,</span> N. J.</p> -</div> - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<div class="book-list-container"> -<p class="center p180">CHICKEN LITTLE JANE SERIES</p> - -<p class="center p130"><i>By</i> LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE</p> - -<div class="float-left width80"> -<img src="images/i-219.png" width="80" height="122" alt="Book cover" title="Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town" /> -</div> - -<p class="noi">Chicken Little Jane is a Western prairie girl who lives a happy, -outdoor life in a country where there is plenty of room to turn around. -She is a wide-awake, resourceful girl who will instantly win her way -into the hearts of other girls. And what good times she has!—with her -pets, her friends, and her many interests. “Chicken Little” is the -affectionate nickname given to her when she is very, very good, but -when she misbehaves it is “Jane”—just Jane!</p> - -<ul class="nobullet"> -<li>Adventures of Chicken Little Jane</li> -<li>Chicken Little Jane on the “Big John”</li> -<li>Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town</li> -<li>Chicken Little Jane in the Rockies</li> -</ul> - -<p class="center p140">PUBLISHERS<br /> -BARSE & CO.<br /> -New York, N. <span class="word-spacing">Y. Newark,</span> N. J.</p> -</div> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<div class="book-list-container"> -<p class="center p180 mb0">~HAT MAY~</p> - -<p class="center p160 mt0"><span class="underscore">AN ENCHANTED PRINCESS</span><br /> -~~</p> - -<p class="center p130"><i>By</i> LUCY THURSTON ABBOTT</p> - -<p class="center"><i>For girls from 8 to 14</i></p> - -<p class="center">NET $1.00</p> - -<div class="float-left width80"> -<img src="images/i-220.png" width="80" height="115" alt="Book cover" title="HAT MAY" /> -</div> - -<p class="noi"><span class="dropcap ornate">T</span>HIS charming story is concerned with the fortunes of a little girl -whom a whim of Fate has placed in charge of a woman and her lame -husband living on the New England coast—the Winkiepaw pair—and -the woman, whom Hat May always looks upon as a cruel ogress of her -imaginary fairy world, treats her very badly indeed.</p> - -<p>The story covering Hat May’s doings is everything that a book for girls -between the ages of eight and fourteen should be. The characters are -skillfully drawn and true to nature; also while there is considerable -pathos connected with the ill-treatment of Hat May; so too there is -discovered in the telling an abundance of childish and delightful humor.</p> - -<p class="center p140">BARSE & CO.<br /> -<span class="ornate">Publishers</span><br /> -New York, N. <span class="word-spacing">Y. Newark,</span> N. J.</p> -</div> - - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<div class="book-list-container"> -<p class="center p180 mb0">~The Rusty-Cats~</p> - -<p class="center p130"><i>A story of Hat May and her friends.</i></p> - -<p class="center p130 smcap"><small>BY</small><br /> -Lucy Thurston Abbott</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Author of “Hat May.”</i></p> - -<p class="center">(For Girls from 8 to 14)</p> - -<p>Summer has come again to Carey Hill bringing with it the “rusticators,” -or, as the Carey children are called, the “rusty-cats.” With them -comes happiness to Hat May the little enchanted princess, and hope -of recovery to her little crippled friend, Hank. The mystic rites of -The Seven Bloody Bones baffle prying Mrs. Winkiepaw who is forced -to grant more freedom to her slave, Hat May. The success of Ariel’s -wonderful play, written especially for the Seven, buys a wheel-chair -for Hank, and then when the summer is over, and life with the ogress -becomes too hard to bear, Phin cleverly rescues Hat May and defeats -the ill-tempered ogress. Can anyone guess the beautiful word which -disenchants Hat May and takes her from her dreary and sordid existence -to one of beauty and happiness?</p> - -<hr class="small" /> - -<p class="center p120"><i>Price Net $1.00</i></p> - -<hr class="small" /> - -<p class="center p140"><span class="ornate">Publishers</span><br /> -BARSE & CO.<br /> -New York, N. <span class="word-spacing">Y. Newark,</span> N. J.</p> -</div> - - - -<div class="section"> -<hr class="divider" /> -</div> -<div class="tn"> -<p class="center p110">Transcriber’s Note:</p> - -<p class="noi">Changes to the original publication have been made -as follows:</p> - -<ul class="nobullet"> -<li><ul><li>Page 16<br /> -where Lyn had stopped it <i>changed to</i><br /> -where <a href="#Lex">Lex had stopped it</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 27<br /> -Oh, yes, Aunt Nellie <i>changed to</i><br /> -Oh, yes, <a href="#cousin">Cousin</a> Nellie</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 28<br /> -it looks as thought <i>changed to</i><br /> -it looks as <a href="#though">though</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 47<br /> -to go and leave him. <i>changed to</i><br /> -to go and leave <a href="#quote">him.”</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 63<br /> -bunk is like a a box <i>changed to</i><br /> -bunk is like <a href="#a">a box</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 73<br /> -Aunt Grace, smiled a little <i>changed to</i><br /> -Aunt <a href="#comma">Grace</a> smiled a little</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 73<br /> -not to learn ship time <i>changed to</i><br /> -not to learn <a href="#hyphen">ship-time</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 73<br /> -and its nice to hear you <i>changed to</i><br /> -and <a href="#its">it’s</a> nice to hear you</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 79<br /> -<span class="smcap">Roger Calendar</span> small capitals <i>changed to</i><br /> -<a href="#roger">ROGER CALENDAR</a> all capitals</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 93<br /> -“Whose the little girl <i>changed to</i><br /> -“<a href="#who">Who’s</a> the little girl</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 98<br /> -Where do we register” <i>changed to</i><br /> -Where do we <a href="#query">register?”</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 100<br /> -sang, too and so did Doris <i>changed to</i><br /> -sang, <a href="#comma2">too, and</a> so did Doris</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 119<br /> -material called zibilene <i>changed to</i><br /> -material called <a href="#zibelene">zibelene</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 159<br /> -he forgot to close it.’ <i>changed to</i><br /> -he forgot to close <a href="#quote2">it.”</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 168<br /> -had been expressibly explained <i>changed to</i><br /> -had been <a href="#expressly">expressly</a> explained</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 190<br /> -“It can’t be much further, Elizabeth Ann. <i>changed to</i><br /> -“It can’t be much further, Elizabeth <a href="#quote3">Ann.”</a></li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 198<br /> -And everyone of them had <i>changed to</i><br /> -And <a href="#everyone">every one</a> of them had</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 200<br /> -packages before she brought them <i>changed to</i><br /> -packages before she <a href="#bought">bought</a> them</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Page 213<br /> -that it did it worked out <i>changed to</i><br /> -that it <a href="#comma3">did, it</a> worked out</li></ul></li> - -<li><ul><li>Linda Lane Series<br /> -a girl needs friends to lover her <i>changed to</i><br /> -a girl needs friends to <a href="#love">love</a> her</li></ul></li> -</ul> -</div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Elizabeth Ann's Houseboat, by Josephine Lawrence - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELIZABETH ANN'S HOUSEBOAT *** - -***** This file should be named 53815-h.htm or 53815-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/8/1/53815/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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