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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 54685 ***
+
+HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS
+
+A Story For Girls In Half-A-Dozen Chapters
+
+By Kate Douglas Wiggin
+
+Illustrated by Mills Thompson
+
+Philadelphia Henry Altemus Company
+
+1903
+
+[Illustration: 0001]
+
+[Illustration: 0006]
+
+[Illustration: 0007]
+
+
+
+
+HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT
+
+|MARCH had come in like a lion, and showed no sign of going out like a
+lamb. The pussy willows knew that it was, or ought to be, spring, but
+although it takes a deal to discourage a New England pussy willow,
+they shivered in their brown skins and despaired of making their annual
+appearance even by April Fool's Hay. The swallows still lingered in the
+South, having received private advices from the snow-birds that State
+o' Maine weather, in the present season, was only fitted for Arctic
+explorers. The air was keen and nipping and the wind blew steadily from
+the north and howled about the chimneys until one hardly knew whether
+to hug the warmth of the open fire or to go out and battle with the
+elements.
+
+Little did the rosy girls of the Wareham Female Seminary (girls were
+still “young females” when all this happened)--little did they care
+about snow and sleet and ice. Studies went on all the better with the
+afternoon skating and sliding to look forward to. What joy to perch in
+the window-seat with your volume of Virgil, and translate “_Hoc opus
+hic labor est_” with half an eye on the gleaming ice of the pond, or
+the glittering crust of the hillsides! What fun to slip on your rubber
+boots, muffle yourself in your warm coat (made out of mother's old
+mink cape), and run across the way to the Academy for recitations in
+mathematics or philosophy!
+
+These joys, however, with their attendant responsibilities, duties, and
+cares, were to be suspended for a while at the Wareham Seminary, and
+the “young females” who graced that institution of learning were not
+inconsolable.
+
+Bell Winship, an uncommonly nice girl herself and a born leader of other
+nice girls, had sent out five mysteriously worded notes that morning,
+five little notes to as many little maids, requesting the honor of their
+presence at ten a. m. precisely, in Number 27, Second floor.
+
+Where Bell Winship wished girls to be, there they always were, and on
+the minute, too, lest they should miss something; so there is nothing
+remarkable in this statement of the fact, that at ten o'clock in the
+morning, Number 27, Second floor, of the Wareham Female Seminary seemed
+to be overflowing with girls, although in reality there were but six,
+all told.
+
+The wildest curiosity prevailed, and it was very imperfectly controlled,
+but, at length, the hostess, mounting a shoebox, spoke with great
+dignity in these words:
+
+“Fellow-countrywomen: Whereas, our recitation-hall has been burned to
+the ground, thereby giving us a well-earned vacation of two weeks, I
+wish to impart to you a plan by which we can better resign ourselves
+to the afflicting and mysterious dispensation. You are aware,” she
+continued, still impressively, “that my highly respected parents are
+both away for the winter, thus leaving our humble cottage closed, and
+it occurred to me as a brilliant, if somewhat daring, idea, that we six
+girls should go over and keep house in it for a fortnight, alone and
+untrammeled.” Here the tidal wave of her eloquence was impeded by the
+overmastering enthusiasm of the audience. Cheers and applause greeted
+her. Everybody pounded with whatever she chanced to have in her hand, on
+any article of furniture that chanced to be near.
+
+“Oh, Bell, Bell! what a lovely plan!” cried Lilia Porter; “a more
+than usually lovely plan; but will your mother ever allow it, do you
+suppose?”
+
+“That's the point,” answered Bell, gleefully. “Here is the letter I have
+just received from my father; he is a good parent, wholly worthy of his
+daughter:”
+
+     Baltimore, March 6th, 18--.
+
+     My dear Child:--We do not like to refuse you anything while
+     we are away enjoying ourselves, so, as the house is well
+     insured, you may go over and try your scheme. Your mother
+     says that you must not entirely demolish her jelly and
+     preserves. My only wish is that you will be careful of the
+     fires and lights.
+
+     I hope you won't feel injured if I suggest your asking
+     advice and suggestion of Miss Miranda and Miss Jane, who are
+     your nearest neighbors. They will take you in charge anyway,
+     and you might as well put yourself nominally under their
+     care. Your uncle will, of course, have an eye to you,
+     perhaps two eyes, and I dare say he could use more than the
+     allotted number, but Grandmamma will lend him hers, no
+     doubt.
+
+     Write me a line every day, saying that the household timbers
+     are still standing.
+
+     Your weakly indulgent but affectionate
+
+     Father.
+
+“Isn't he a perfect darling!” cried the enraptured quintette.
+
+“I think,” said demure Patty Weld, “that before we permit ourselves to
+feel too happy, we had better consult _our_ 'powers that be,' and see if
+we can accept Bell's invitation.”
+
+“I refuse to hear 'No' from one of you,” Bell answered, firmly. “I have
+thought it all over; spent the night upon it, in fact. You, Alice, and
+Josie Fenton, are too far from home to go there anyway, so I shall lead
+you off as helpless captives. Your mother is in town, Lilia, so that you
+can ask her immediately, and hear the worst; you and Edith, Patty, are
+only a half-day's journey away, and can find out easily. I know you
+can get permission, for it's going to be perfectly proper and safe.
+Grandmamma lives nearby, the Sawyer spinsters are the village duennas,
+and Uncle Harry can protect us from any rampaging burglars and midnight
+marauders that may happen in to pay their respects.”
+
+So the “Jolly Six,” as they were called by their schoolmates, separated,
+to build many castles in the air. Bell, it was decided, was to go on
+to her country home in advance, and, with the help of a neighboring
+farmer's daughter, prepare and provision the house for an unusual siege.
+
+The girls had determined to have no servant, and their many ingenious
+plans for managing and dividing the work were the source of great
+amusement to the teachers, some of whom had been admitted to their
+confidence. Josie Fenton and Bell were to do the cooking, Jo claiming
+the sternly practical department best suited to her--meat, vegetables,
+and bread--while Bell was to concoct puddings, cakes, and the various
+little indigestible dainties toward which schoolgirl hearts are so
+tender. Alice Forsaith, the oldest of the party and the beauty of the
+school, with Edith Lambert, as an aid, was to manage the making of the
+beds, tidying of rooms, and setting of tables, while Lilia Porter and
+Patty Weld, with noble heroism and selfsacrifice, offered to shoulder
+that cross of an old-fashioned girl's life--the washing and wiping of
+dishes.
+
+On a Wednesday morning the two maiden ladies living nearly opposite the
+Winship cottage were transfixed with wonder by the appearance of Bell,
+who asked for the house-key left in safe keeping with them.
+
+“Du tell, Isabel!--I didn't expect to see you this mornin',--air your
+folks comin' home or hev you been turned out o' school?” asked Miss
+Miranda.
+
+“Oh, no,” laughed Bell; “I'm going to housekeeping myself!”
+
+“Good land! You haven't run off and got married, have you?” cried Miss
+Jane.
+
+“Not quite so bad as that; but I'm going to bring five of my schoolmates
+over to-morrow, and we intend to stay here two weeks all alone, as
+housekeepers and householders.”
+
+“Land o' mercy,” moaned the nervous Miss Miranda. “That Pa o' yourn
+would let you tread on him and not notice it. How any sensible man
+could do sech a crazy thing as to let a pack of girls tear his house
+to pieces, I don't see. You'll burn us all up before a week's out; I
+declare I sha'n't sleep a wink for worrying the whole time.”
+
+“You needn't be afraid, Miss Sawyer,” said Bell, with some spirit. “If
+six girls, none of them younger than fourteen, can't take care of a few
+stoves and fireplaces, I should think it was a pity. Everybody seems
+to think nowadays that young people have no common sense. The world's
+growing wiser all the time, and I don't see why we shouldn't be as
+bright as those detestable pattern-girls of fifty years ago.”
+
+“Well, well, don't get huffy, Isabel; you mean well, but all girls are
+unstiddy at your age. Anyhow, I'll try to keep an eye on ye. Here's your
+key, and we can spare you a quart of milk a day and risin's for your
+bread, if you're going to try riz bread, though I don't s'pose one of ye
+knows anything about flour food.”
+
+“Thank you; that'll be very nice, and now I'm going over to begin work,
+for I have heaps to do. Emma Jane Perkins has come to help me, and
+Grandma's Betty will come down every afternoon. By the way, can I have
+Topsycat while I am here?”
+
+“Yes, I s'pose so,” said Miss Jane, “though it's been an awful sight of
+work gettin' her used to our ways, and I'd never have done it if Mis'
+Winship hadn't set such store by her. She pretty near pined away the
+first week, and I've baked ginger cake for her and buttered her fritters
+every mornin'.”
+
+“I won't borrow her if you think she will be more troublesome
+afterward,” Bell answered, “but you know it's almost impossible to keep
+house without a cat and a dog. Bobs came over from Uncle Harry's the
+moment I arrived, and is waiting at the gate now.”
+
+“I don't agree with you,” said Miss Miranda. “'Blessed be nothin', I
+say, when it comes to live stock. We disposed of our horse, the pig went
+next, and the cow's turn's comin'. Even a cat is dreadful confinin'.
+If you have a cat and two hens you're as much tied down as if you had a
+barn full of critters.”
+
+The day was very cold, and both Bell and Emma Jane shivered as they
+unlocked one frost-bitten door after another.
+
+“We shall freeze as stiff as pokers,” said Bell, with chattering teeth;
+“but we can't help it; let's build a fire in every stove in the honse
+and thaw things out.” This was done, and in an hour they were moderately
+comfortable. The weather being so cold, Bell decided upon using
+only three rooms, all on the first floor--the large, handsome family
+sitting-room, the kitchen, and Mrs. Win-ship's chamber. This being very
+capacious, she moved a couple of bedsteads from other rooms, and placing
+the three side by side, filled up the intervening spaces with bolsters,
+thus making one immensely wide bed.
+
+“There, Emma Jane, isn't that a bright idea! We can all sleep in a
+row, and then there'll be no quarreling about bedfellows or rooms. I
+certainly am a good contriver,” cried Bell, with a triumphant little
+laugh.
+
+“It looks awful like a hospital, and the bolsters will keep fallin'
+down in between and it'll be dreadful hard mak-in' 'em up of a mornin',”
+ rejoined Emma Jane, who was no flatterer, being New England born and
+bred.
+
+The sitting-room coal stove had accommodations, on top and back, for
+cooking, so Bell thought that their suppers, with perhaps an occasional
+breakfast, might be prepared there. The large bay-window, with its
+bright drugget, would serve as a sort of tiny diningroom, so the
+mahogany extension-table, with its carved legs, pretty red cover, and
+silver service, was carried there. This accomplished, and every room
+made graceful and attractive by Bell (who was a born homemaker, and
+placed photographs, lamps, sofa-pillows, fir-boughs, and bowls of red
+apples just where they were needed in the picture), she went over to her
+Grandmother's, where four loaves of bread were baking and pies being
+filled, in order that the young housekeepers might begin with a full
+pantry.
+
+“Oh, Grandma,” she exclaimed breathlessly, tearing off her cloud and
+bringing down with it a sunshiny mass of bronze hair, “it does look
+lovely, if I do say it; and as for setting that house on fire, there's
+no danger, for it will take a week to thaw it into a state in which it
+would burn. I have made up my mind that I sha'n't be the one to build
+the fires every morning, even if I am hostess. I don't want to freeze
+myself daily for the cause of politeness. Has the provision man come
+yet!”
+
+“Yes,” said Uncle Harry, “and brought eatables enough for an army--more
+than you girls can devour in a month.”
+
+“You'll see,” said Bell, laughingly.
+
+“You don't know the capacity of the 'Jolly Six' yet. Now, Betty, please
+take the eggs and potatoes and fish and put them in our store room. I've
+just time to make my cake and custard before I drive to the station
+for the girls. Do you know, Uncle Harry, I am going to do the most
+astounding thing! I've borrowed Farmer Allen's one-seated old pung,--the
+one he takes to town filled with vegetables,--and I am going to keep it
+for our sleigh-rides. It will hold all six of us, and what do we care
+for public opinion!” said she, with a disdainful gesture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--IN THE FIRELIGHT
+
+|TWO hours later you might have seen the old pung drawn by Mr. Allen's
+Jerry, with Bell and Alice Forsaith on the seat, and four laughing,
+rosy-cheeked girls warmly tucked in buffalo robes on the bottom. Even
+the sober old sun, who had been under a cloud that day, poked his head
+out to see the fun, and became so interested that, in spite of himself,
+he forgot his determination not to shine, and did his duty all the
+afternoon.
+
+When the girls opened the door and saw Bell's preparations,--the cozy
+sitting-room, with dining-table in the bay-window, three sofas in a row,
+so that on snowy days they might extend their lazy lengths thereon,
+and finally a fir-covered barrel of Nodhead and Baldwin apples in one
+corner,--there arose bursts of happy laughter and ecstatic cheers loud
+enough to shock the neighbors, who seldom laughed and never cheered.
+
+“I know it's an original idea to have an apple-barrel in your parlor
+corner,” said Bell; “but the common-sense of it will be seen by every
+thoughtful mind. Our forces will consume a peck a day, and life is
+too short to spend it in galloping up and down cellar constantly for
+apples.”
+
+“Bell Winship, you are an inhospitable creature,” exclaimed Lilia
+Porter. “Here I am, calmly seated on a coal-hod with my hat on, while you
+are talking so fast that you can't get time to show us our apartments.
+Shelter before food, say I!”
+
+“Apartments!” sniffed Bell, in mock dudgeon. “You are very grand in your
+ideas! Behold your camp, your wigwam, your tent, your quarters!” and
+she threw open the door of the large chamber and waved the party
+dramatically in that direction.
+
+“Bell, you will yet be Presidentess of these United States,” cried Edith
+Lambert. “Any girl who can devise two such happy combinations as an
+apple-barrel in a parlor corner and three beds in a row, ought to be
+given a chair of state.”
+
+“Might a poor worm inquire, Bell,” asked Patty, “why those croquet
+mallets and balls are laid out in file round the beds?”
+
+“Why, those are for protection, you goose, supposing anybody should come
+in the piazza window at night, and we had nothing to kill him with!”
+
+“Yes, and supposing he should take one of the mallets and pound us all
+to a jelly to begin with?” Patty retorted, being of a practical mind.
+
+“That _would_ be rather embarrassing,” answered Bell, with a reflective
+shudder; “I hadn't thought of it.”
+
+“What could one poor man do against five girls banging him with croquet
+mallets, while the sixth was running to alarm the neighbors?” asked
+Alice, “and to put an end to the discussion I suggest that the cooks
+start supper;” whereupon she threw herself into an arm-chair, and put up
+a pair of small, stout boots on the fender.
+
+The unfortunate couple referred to exchanged looks of unmitigated
+discouragement.
+
+“I have my opinion of a girl who will mention supper before she has been
+in the house an hour,” said the head cook.
+
+“Josie, I foresee that they are going to make galley-slaves of us if
+they can. However,” turning again to Alice, “it isn't to be supper, but
+dinner. The meals at this house are to be thus and so: Breakfast at 9
+a.m., luncheon at 12 m., dinner at 5 p.m., refreshments at various times
+betwixt and between, and all affairs pertaining to eatables are to be
+completely under the control of the chefs, Mesdemoiselles Winship
+and Fenton. We cannot have you 'suggesting' dinner at all hours, Miss
+Forsaith. If time hangs heavy on your hands, occupy it in your own
+branches of housework.”
+
+“If we are to be ruled over in this way, life will not be worth living,”
+ cried Patty Weld, in comical despair. “I dare say we shall be half
+starved as the days go on, but do give us something good to begin on,
+Bluebell!”
+
+Judging from the scene at the table an hour later, it would not have
+made much difference whether the repast was sumptuous or not, so
+formidable were the appetites, and such the merriment.
+
+“Oh, dear,” sighed Bell, dismally, to the assistant cook, “I will
+throw off all disguise and say that this family is a surprise and a
+disappointment to me. When a person cooks twenty-seven potatoes, with
+the reasonable expectation of having half left to fry, and sees a
+solitary one left in the dish, with all its lovely companions both faded
+and gone, she is naturally disheartened. Any way, we have finished for
+to-night, so the Dish Brigade can marshal its forces. We will take our
+one potato into the kitchen, Jo, and see if we can make it enough for
+breakfast. Look in the corner bookcase; bring Mrs. Whitney's 'Just How,'
+Marion Harland's 'Cook Book,' 'The Young Housekeeper's Friend,' and 'The
+Bride's Manual.'”
+
+At nine o'clock that evening Uncle Harry passed through the garden, and
+noticing a pair of open shutters, peeped in at the back window of the
+sitting-room, thinking he had never seen a more charming or attractive
+picture. Pretty Edith Lambert was curled up in an armchair near the
+astral lamp, her face resting on her two rosy palms, and her eyes bent
+over “Little Women.” Bluebell, her bright hair bobbed in a funny sort
+of twist, from which two or three venturesome and rebellious curls were
+straying out, and her high-necked blue apron still on over her dark
+dress, was humming soft little songs at the piano. Roguish Jo was
+sitting flat on the hearth, her bright cheeks flushed rosier under the
+warm occupation of corn popping, and her dark hair falling loosely round
+her face, while Patty Weld with her shy, demure face, was beside her
+on a hassock, knitting a “fascinator” out of white wool. These two, so
+thoroughly unlike, were never to be seen apart; indeed, they were so
+inseparable as to be dubbed the “Scissors” or “Tongs” by their friends.
+Alice and Lilia were quarreling briskly over a game of cribbage, Lilia's
+animated expression and ringing laugh contrasting forcibly with the
+calm face of her antagonist. Alice was never known to be excited over
+anything. It was she who carried off all the dignity and took the part
+of presiding goddess of the party. The girls all adored her for her
+beauty and superior age; for she had attained the enviable pinnacle of
+“sweet sixteen.”
+
+“Come,” said Jo, breaking the silence, “let us have refreshments, then a
+good quiet talk together, then muster the Hair-Brushing Brigade, and go
+to bed. I think I have corn enough; I've popped and popped and popped as
+no one ever popped before, and till popping has ceased to be fun.”
+
+“Pop on, pop ever; the more you give us, Jo, the more popular you'll
+be,” laughed Bell.
+
+“She is a veritable 'pop-in-J,' isn't she?” cried Lilia.
+
+“Now Lilia,” said Edith, “let us get the apples and nuts, and we'll sit
+in a ring on the floor, and eat. I shan't crack the almonds; the girl
+that hath her teeth, I say, is no girl, if with her teeth she cannot
+crack an almond. Lilia, you're not a bit of assistance; you've tied up
+the end of the nut-bag in a hard knot, upset the apple-dish, put
+the tablecloth on crooked, and--oh, dear--now you've stepped in the
+pop-corn,” as Lilia, trying desperately to cross the room without
+knocking something over, as usual, had hit the corn-pan in her airy
+flight. “You have such a genius for stepping into half-a-dozen things at
+once, I think you must be web-footed.”
+
+“Well, that's possible,” retorted the unfortunate Lilia; “I've often
+been told I was a duck of a girl, and this proves it.”
+
+“Do you realize, girls,” said Edith, after a while, “that we shall all
+be visited by ghosts and visions to-night, if we don't terminate this
+repast? I'll put away the dishes, Bell, if you'll move the sofas up to
+the fire, so that we can have our good-night chat.”
+
+So, speedily, six warm dressing-sacques were slipped on, and then, the
+lamps being turned out, in the ruddy glow of the firelight, the brown,
+the yellow, and the dark hair was taken down, and the housekeepers,
+braiding it up for the night, talked and dreamed and built their castles
+in the air, as all young things are wont to do.
+
+“Girls, dear old girls,” said Alice, softly, breaking an unusual silence
+of two minutes; “isn't this cosy and sweet and friendly beyond anything?
+How thankful we ought to be for the happy lives God gives us! We have
+been put into this beautiful world and taken care of so wisely and
+kindly every day; yet we don't often speak, or even think, about it.”
+
+“It is trouble, sometimes, more than happiness, that leads us into
+thinking about God's care and goodness,” said Edith, “although it's very
+strange that it should. Before my mother's death I was just a little
+baby playing with letter-blocks, and all at once, after that, I began to
+make the letters into words and spell out things for myself.”
+
+“What a perfect heathen I am,” burst out Jo. “I can't feel any of these
+things any more than if I were a Chinaman. Or, perhaps, it is as Edith
+says, I am still playing with blocks, although I cannot even see the
+letters on them. I wonder if I shall ever be wide awake enough for
+that!”
+
+“Look out of the window, Jo,” said
+
+Bell, who was leaning on the sill. “Don't you think if God can make
+out of all that snow and ice, in three short months, a lovely, tender,
+green, springing world, He can make something out of us! Isn't it a
+wonderful thing that He can wake up the life that's asleep under the
+frozen earth?”
+
+“Well,” rejoined Jo, dismally, “there's something to begin on out there,
+but I don't think I have much of a soul; any way, I have never seen any
+signs of it. You always say things so prettily, Bell, that I like to
+hear you sermonize. You'd make a good minister's wife.”
+
+“I think you have plenty of 'soul material,' Jo,” said Lilia, confusedly
+struggling to make a figure of speech express her meaning. “There's lots
+of it there, only it wants to be blown up, somehow.”
+
+“Thanks for your encouragement,” said Jo, amid the laughter that
+followed Lilia's peculiar metaphor. “I think if you'll try to handle the
+spiritual bellows, you'll find it's harder work than you imagine. Now
+don't laugh, girls, because I really do feel solemn about it, only I
+talk in my usual frivolous way.”
+
+“You always make yourself appear wicked, Jo,” said her loving champion,
+Patty, “but I happen to know a few facts on the opposite side. Who was
+it who gave every cent of her month's allowance to Mrs. Hart, the poor
+washerwoman who scorched her white skirt; and who stayed away from the
+church sociable to take care of that horrid room mate of hers who had a
+headache?”
+
+“Patty, if you don't desist,” cried Jo, with a flaming face, and
+brandishing a hair-brush fiercely, “I'll throw this at your dear,
+charitable little head. Now, Bell, you know we all agreed to tell a
+story of adventure each night before going to bed, and I think you, as
+hostess, ought to begin. If the entertainment is delayed much longer it
+will find me asleep with fatigue and over-feeding in the front row of
+the orchestra.”
+
+“Dear me, I can't begin!” cried Bell, “Nothing ever happened to me
+except going to California and having a double wedding in the family.
+That's the sum total of my adventures.”
+
+“Make up something then, or tell us a true story about California. Oh,
+you do have such a good time, and funny things are always happening to
+you,” sighed Lilia. “You never seem to have any trials.”
+
+“Trials!” rejoined Bell, sarcastically. “I should think I hadn't.
+Perhaps I haven't a little scamp of a brother and an awfully fussy old
+aunty! Perhaps I'm not such an idiot that I can't multiply eight and
+nine, or seven and six, without a lead-pencil; perhaps I wasn't left
+at school while my parents toured in the South! Don't you call those
+afflictions?”
+
+“Yes, I do,” answered Lilia, joining in the general laugh; “and I'll
+never allude to your good fortune again. Now tell us a California
+story,--that's a dear,--for I'm getting sleepy as well as Jo.”
+
+“Oh, well,” said Bell, walking about the room absent-mindedly, until her
+eyes rested on the cabinet, “I'll tell you the story of these;” and she
+took up a string of dusty pearls which were seamed and cracked as if by
+fire. “Now open your eyes and lend me your ears, for I shall make it as
+'bookish' and romantic as possible.
+
+“Last summer Mother and I were living in a beautiful valley a hundred
+miles from San Francisco. It was near the mining districts, where Father
+was attending to some business. Of course, a great many Mexicans and
+Indians, as well as Chinamen, worked in these mines, and we used to see
+them very often. Mother and I were sitting under the peach-trees in
+the garden one afternoon. It was so beautiful sewing or reading in that
+California garden, for the fruit was ripe and hanging in bushels on
+the trees, as lovely to look at as it was luscious to eat; some of the
+peaches were a rich yellow inside and others snow-white, except where
+the crimson stones had tinged their sockets with rosy little spots.”
+
+“Don't,” cried Jo; “you'll make us discontented with our New England
+apples!”
+
+“We were chatting and eating peaches,” continued Bell, “when the gate
+opened, and an Indian girl with an old squaw came in and approached us,
+The girl could speak English, and told me her name was Eskaluna. I
+had heard about her, and knew that she was the beauty and belle of the
+tribe, and was going to marry the chief's son when the next moon came;
+for our Indian cook was as gossipy as a Yankee, and was forever telling
+us tales. She was the most beautiful creature I ever saw: lovely black
+hair, not so coarse as is usual with them, brilliant dark eyes, good
+features, and the prettiest slim hands and graceful arms. She was
+dressed gaily and handsomely in the fashion of her tribe, and on her
+lovely, bare, brown neck was this long string of Mexican pearls, which
+we noticed at once as being very valuable. She stayed there all the
+afternoon under the fruit-trees, and really grew quite confidential.
+Mother, meanwhile, had gone into ecstacies over her beautiful pearls,
+and had taken them from her neck to examine them. At sunset, when she
+went home to her wigwam, she slipped the necklace into mother's lap,
+saying, with her sweet trick of speech, 'I eatie your peachie, you
+takie my beads.' Of course, mother could not accept them, and Eskaluna
+departed in quite a disappointed mood. I remember being sorry that the
+pretty young thing was going to marry the disagreeable, ugly chief. He
+was just as jealous and ferocious as he could be--wouldn't let her
+talk to one of the warriors of the tribe, and had shot one man already
+because he fancied Eskaluna admired him.”
+
+A chorus of “Oh's” and “Ah's” interrupted Bell, and Alice's eyes grew
+round with interest, for she was sixteen and had been called a “cruel
+coquette” by a young student at Wareham.
+
+“In a few days our Indian cook came home at night from the mines, saying
+that he wanted a holiday the next morning to go to a funeral. We had
+heard that in some tribes they burn the bodies of the dead, and wondered
+whether his were one of them, so we asked him the particulars, of
+course, and were terribly shocked when we heard that it was the funeral
+of poor Eskaluna, who had visited us so lately, in all her dusky beauty.
+Nakawa told us the whole story in his broken English, and a sad one it
+was. Her lover, the chief, as I have said, was always jealous of her,
+and on the afternoon she came to our house, he had heard from some
+crafty villain or other (an enemy of Eskaluna's, of course), that she
+was false, and, instead of intending to marry him, loved a handsome
+young Indian of another tribe, and was planning to run away with him.
+
+“This fired his hot blood, and he rushed off on the village road
+determined to kill her. He climbed a large sycamore tree on a lonely
+part of the way, and there waited until the shadows fell over the
+mountain sides, and the sun, dropping behind their peaks, left the San
+Jacinto valley in fast-growing darkness. At last he saw the gleam of her
+scarlet dress in the distance, and soon he heard her voice as she came
+singing along, little thinking of her dreadful fate. He took sure aim
+at the heart that was beating happily and carelessly under its cape of
+birds' feathers; shot, and so swift and unerring was his arrow that
+she fell in an instant, dead, upon the path. Then, leaving her with the
+helpless old squaw, he escaped into a canon near by.
+
+[Illustration: 0053]
+
+“The next day we went over to the Indian encampment, and reached the
+place just after poor Eskaluna had been burned on the funeral pile. We
+went close to the spot and could hardly help crying when we thought of
+her beauty and sweetness, and her sad and undeserved death. Up near the
+head of the pile where that lovely brown neck of hers had rested,--the
+prettiest neck in the world,--lay this charred string of pearls she had
+worn in our garden. Mother asked for it as a remembrance, and the old
+squaw gave it to her. Eskaluna's brother is on the war-path after her
+murderer, I believe, to this day, if he hasn't killed him yet; for he
+was determined to avenge her. Now, isn't that romantic, and tragic at
+the same time, girls? Poor Eskaluna! I don't know that her fate would
+have been much easier if she had married the chief; but it is hard to
+think of her being so heartlessly murdered when she was so innocent and
+true; and that's the end of my story. Who comes next?”
+
+“Not I, at this hour,” yawned Jo, “but it was a good tale!”
+
+“Nor I, after that thrilling experience of yours!” said Alice,
+admiringly.
+
+“I can think of no story half so delightful as the dreams we shall have
+if we go to bed,” murmured Edith from her cozy corner. “Come, it is
+after ten, and the wide bed calls loudly for occupants.”
+
+In a half-hour all six were asleep, and the bright-faced moon, looking
+in at the piazza window, smiled as she saw the half-dozen heads in a
+row, and the bed surrounded by croquet mallets and balls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--AN EMERGENCY CASE
+
+|THE next morning broke clear, bright, and sparkling, but bitterly cold.
+I cannot attempt to tell you all the doings of that indefatigable and
+ingenious bevy of girls during the day. Miss Miranda, their opposite
+neighbor, had kept to her post of observation, the window, very closely,
+and had seen much to awaken scorn and surprise.
+
+“Wa'al, Jane!” said she, excitedly, in the afternoon, “there they go
+ag'in! That's the fourth time the hoss has been harnessed into Allen's
+pung to-day; and now they've got their uncle. Whatever they find to
+laugh so over, and where they go to, is more'n I can see. They haven't
+done up their dinner dishes, I know, for I've been watching of 'em and
+they hain't had time to do 'em so quick as this, though Bell Winship
+is as spry as a skeeter when she gets a-goin'.”
+
+Miss Miranda's organs of vision were better than magnifying glasses,
+for, aided by a lively imagination, they could dart around corners and
+through doors with great ease. Bell avowed confidentially to Patty that
+morning, when she met her neighbor's eyes fixed on the pantry window,
+that she believed Miss Miranda could see a fly-speck on top of a
+liberty-pole.
+
+The girls had made the day a very long and lively one, and in the
+evening, their spirits still high and their inventive powers still
+unimpaired, they gave an impromptu concert. The audience was small
+but appreciative. Grandmother was in a private box--the high-backed
+arm-chair in the cosiest corner; Uncle Harry sat on a hastily-erected
+throne made by perching a stool on the dining-table, and being given a
+large pair of goggles, was requested to serve as dramatic and musical
+critic for the morning newspapers. Two or three of the boarders
+from Mrs. Carter's famous Winter Farmhouse on the hill, the young
+schoolmaster (a Bowdoin student earning his college course by odd terms
+of teaching), and Hugh Pennell, his chum and classmate, home on a brief
+holiday, made quite a brave show when seated in three rows, while the
+unaffected laughter, the open mouths, and the staring eyes of “the
+help,” Emma Jane Perkins, Betty Bean, and 'Bijah Flagg, who were
+grouped at the hall door, helped in the general merriment.
+
+Bell had a keen sense of the ridiculous and a voice like a meadow-lark.
+Jo was capital, too, as a mimic, so together, they gave some absurdly
+funny scenes from famous operas. Bell had thrown on an evening dress of
+her cousin's, which happened to be left in the house, and this, with its
+short sleeves, showing her round, girlish arms, and its long train, made
+her such a distracting little prima donna of fifteen, that Hugh Pennell
+quite laid his boyish heart at her feet. She sang “The Last Rose of
+Summer” with all the smiles, head-tossings, arch looks, casting down
+of eyelids, and kissing of finger-tips at the close, which generally
+accompany it when sung by the stage soprano, and she was naturally
+greeted with rapturous applause. Then Jo, as the tenor, in dressing-gown
+and smoking-cap for male attire, sang a fervent duet with Alice
+Forsaith, rendering it with original Italian words and embraces at the
+end of every measure.
+
+[Illustration: 0063]
+
+Tableaux showing scenes from well-known novels, and thrilling historical
+events depicted in pantomime, came next, and the company was invited
+to name them as they followed one another in quick succession,--Eliza
+crossing the river by leaping from ice block to ice block, the
+bloodhounds in hot pursuit; Pochahontas saving the life of her noble
+Captain John; Rochester, holding Jane Eyre spellbound by the steely
+glitter of his eye; and the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers, landing on a
+stern and rock-bound coast, ably represented by the dining-room table.
+As Uncle Harry sat on the table he was obliged to be the center of this
+thrilling scene, which was variously surmised by the audience to be
+the capture of a slave-ship by pirates, the rescue of a babe from a
+tenement-house fire, the killing of Julius Cæsar in the Roman Senate, or
+an impassioned attempt to drag Casabianca from the burning deck.
+
+After bidding their visitors goodnight, Bell and Jo went into the
+kitchen to put buckwheat cakes to raise for breakfast.
+
+“I believe I'll chop the meat hash for a half-hour while the kitchen is
+warm,” said Jo. “Emma Jane is right about the knife; it is dull beyond
+words!”
+
+“If it is any duller than Emma Jane herself, I am sorry for it,”
+ rejoined Bell.
+
+“It's a poor workman who complains of his tools, Jo,” said Patty,
+looking in at the door, with a superior air; “Columbus discovered
+America in an open boat.”
+
+“He would never have discovered America with this chopping-knife,” quoth
+Jo, bringing it down with vicious emphasis on the unoffending meat.
+
+“Did you notice Emma Jane's expression as she stood in the doorway to
+night?”
+
+“I did,” replied Bell, as she bustled about her last tasks at closet,
+cupboard, and sink. “Not a penny of my money shall go to the heathen in
+other lands until I have done some missionary work with her. In ten days
+I propose to make her stand straight, hold her head up, keep her mouth
+closed when not occupied in conversation or eating, stop straining her
+hair out by the roots, tie the ends of her braids with ribbon instead of
+twine, give up her magenta hood, and a few other little details.”
+
+“I don't see how you dare advise her at her advanced age,” responded
+Jo. “I suppose she is thirteen, but she appears about thirty. Look,
+Bell, can this hash be safely trusted now to the pearly teeth of
+our parlor boarders, or are the pieces too large for their 'delicate
+sensibilities'?”
+
+“I think that it may escape criticism,” laughed Bell. “Cover it with a
+clean towel and a platter, and one of us will give it a last castigation
+before it goes in the frying-pan.”
+
+“I never had such a good time in my life, never, never!” sighed Lilia,
+as she blew out the lamp, and tucked herself on the front side of the
+bed, a little later. “I have only two things to trouble me. First: my
+wisdom tooth feels as if it were going to ache again. Second: it is my
+turn to build the kitchen fire in the morning.”
+
+“Console yourself with one thought, my dear,” murmured Bell, drowsily,
+yet sagely. “Both these misfortunes can't happen to you, for if your
+tooth chances to ache, we shall not have the heart to make you build the
+fire.”
+
+“Don't tell her that,” urged Jo, with a prodigious yawn, “or she will be
+feigning toothache constantly.”
+
+Lilia's fears had good foundation, however, for in the middle of the
+night, Jo, who slept next the front side, wakened suddenly to find her
+slipping quietly out of bed.
+
+“What's the matter, Lilia!” she whispered.
+
+“Nothing; don't wake the others, but that miserable tooth grumbles just
+enough to keep me awake, and my temple aches and my cheek, too. Where is
+the lotion I use for bathing my face, do you know?”
+
+“Yes, where you put it this morning, on the back of the wash-stand;
+sha'n't I light the lamp and help you?”
+
+“No, no, hush!” said Lilia. “I can put my hand on it in the dark. Here
+it is! I'll bathe my face a few minutes, and then try to go to sleep.”
+
+So, she anointed herself freely, put the bottle and sponge under the
+head of the bed lest she should need them again, and, finally, the pain
+growing less, fell asleep.
+
+In the morning, Bell, who wakened first, rubbed her eyes drowsily,
+glanced at Lilia, who was breathing quietly, and uttered a piercing
+shriek. This in turn aroused the other girls, who joined in the shriek
+on general principles, and then, blinking in the half-light, looked
+where Bell pointed. One side of Lilia's face was swollen, and of a
+dark, purple color, presenting a truly frightful appearance. At length,
+hearing the confusion, Lilia awoke with a start, and her eyes being
+open, and rolling about in surprise, she looked still more alarming.
+
+“What on earth is the matter, girls?” she asked, sitting up in bed,
+smoothing back her hair and rubbing her heavy lids.
+
+Thereupon Edith and Alice began to tremble and nobody answered her.
+
+“K-k-keep c-c-calm,” said Bell. “Lilia, dear, your face is badly swollen
+and inflamed, and we're afraid you are going to be ill, but we'll send
+for the doctor straight away. Does it pain you very much?”
+
+Lilia jumped up hastily, and, looking in the mirror, uttered a cry of
+terror, and sank back into the rocking-chair.
+
+“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What can it be! Oh, take me home to my father! It
+must be a malignant pustule--or spotted fever--or something dreadful!
+What shall I do? Bell, you are a doctor's daughter; do find out
+what's the matter with me! I am disfigured for life, and I wasn't very
+good-looking before.”
+
+“Girls,” said Bell, “let us dress this very instant, for we can't be too
+quick about a thing of this kind. You, Jo, build the kitchen fire, and,
+Alice, make a blaze on the hearth in here; then, after we've made her
+comfortable, Edith can run and tell Uncle Harry to come.”
+
+“Put on the kettle,” added Patty, “and heat blankets; they always do
+that in emergencies.”
+
+“Don't frighten me to death,” wailed Lilia, “calling me 'a thing of this
+kind' and an 'emergency.' I don't feel a hit worse than I did in the
+night.”
+
+“She had neuralgia in her face,” explained Jo; “that must have had
+something to do with it. She put on some of her liniment, and then
+dropped off to sleep. Come, darling, let us tuck you in bed again; try
+to keep up your courage!”
+
+Then there was a hasty consultation in the kitchen 'midst many groans
+and tears. Bell was an authority on sickness, and she said, with an
+awestruck face, that it must be a dreadful attack of erysipelas in the
+very last stages.
+
+“But,” cried Alice, perplexed, “it is all very strange, for why does she
+have so little pain, and how could her face have turned so black from
+mortification in one night?”
+
+“Blood-poisoning is very quick and very deadly,” said Patty, who had
+heard about such a case in her own family.
+
+“Goodness knows what it is,” exclaimed Bell, wringing her hands in
+nervous terror. “What to do with her I don't know; whether to put bricks
+to her head and ice to her feet, or keep her head cold and heat her
+'extremities,' as father calls them--whether to give her a sweat or keep
+her dry, or wrap her in blankets, or get the linen sheets. Jo is with
+her now. If you'll go and wake Uncle Harry, Edith, it is the best thing
+we can do. Run along with her, too, Patty, and you won't be afraid
+together.”
+
+Alice and Bell went back presently to Lilia, who looked even worse, now
+that the room was bright with the glow of the open fire and the pale
+light of the student lamp.
+
+“You patient old darling!” cried Bell, falling on her knees beside the
+bed. “We have sent for Uncle Harry and the Doctor, and now you are sure
+to be all right, for we've taken the thing in good time. Good gracious!!
+what bottle have I tipped over under this bed!”
+
+“It's my neuralgia liniment,” murmured Lilia, faintly. “I bathed my face
+in it last night, and put it under there afterward. Don't spill it, for
+I can't get any more here.”
+
+“Your neuralgia lotion!” shrieked Bell, first with a look of blank
+astonishment, and then one of excitement and glee mixed in equal
+parts. “Look at it, girls! Look, Alice and Jo! Oh, Lilia, you precious,
+blundering goose!” and thereupon she dragged out from beneath the bed
+valance a pint bottle of violet ink, and then relapsed into a paroxysm
+of voiceless mirth. Just then the hack door opened, and in hurried Uncle
+Harry, Edith, and Patty, much terrified, for they had heard the shouts
+and gasps and excited voices from outside, and supposed that Lilia must
+at least have fallen into convulsions.
+
+“Let me see the poor child immediately,” cried Mr. Winship. “What is the
+trouble with you, Bell? are you demented? and where is Lilia?” looking
+at the apparently empty bed, for Lilia had wound herself in the sheets
+and blankets, disappeared from view, and was endeavoring to force
+a pillow into her mouth in order to render her shame-faced laughter
+inaudible. “Are you trying to play a joke on me?” continued he, with as
+much dignity as was consistent with an attire made up of an undershirt,
+a pair of trousers, overshoes, a tall hat, and a gold-headed cane
+which he had quite unconsciously caught up in his hasty flight from his
+chamber.
+
+“The fact is,” answered Bell, between her gasps, and trying desperately
+hard to regain her sobriety,--“the fact is--Uncle Harry--we made--a
+mistake, and so did--Lilia. There were two bottles just alike on the
+wash-stand, and in the night she bathed her face for five minutes in the
+purple ink! Oh, oh, oh!!”
+
+Uncle Harry's face relaxed into a broad smile as he realized the joke.
+
+“Oh, Mr. Winship, you should have seen her!” sighed Jo, lifting her head
+from the sofa-pillow, with streaming eyes. “All her face, except part
+of her forehead and one cheek, was covered with enormous dark purple
+blotches. She looked like a clown, or a Fourth of July fantastic, or
+anything else frightful!”
+
+“Well,” said Edith, slyly, “Bell said mortification had taken place. I
+don't think Lilia has ever been more mortified than she is now; do you?
+
+“Puns are out of place, Edith,” said Bell, severely. “Don't hurry, Uncle
+Harry. Don't let any thought of your rather peculiar attire cause you
+embarrassment.”
+
+But before Bell's teasing voice had ceased, the last thud, thud of his
+rubbers, and click, click of his gold-headed cane were heard in the
+hall, and he thought, as he tried to finish his early morning nap, that
+it would be a long time before he allowed those madcap girls to rout him
+out of bed again at five o'clock on a winter's day.
+
+As for the girls themselves, they did not even make a trial of slumber,
+but first scrubbed Lilia energetically with hard soap and pumice, and
+then made molasses candy, determined that the roaring kitchen fire
+should be used to some purpose.
+
+Having gained so much time by the unusual way in which they had started
+the day, they were enabled to look back at nightfall on an unprecedented
+number of activities, some of them rather unique and original. There was
+a call upon Emma Jane's mother, another upon Mrs. Carter at the Winter
+Farm, a sleigh-ride with Geoffrey Strong, the vehicle being a truck for
+hauling wood, an hour's coasting down Brigadier hill, and a trip to the
+doctor's for courtplaster and arnica and peppermint and cough lozenges.
+Then directly after luncheon Bell and Jo made a private and confidential
+call upon Grandma Win-ship's pig, leaving with him as evidences of
+regard several samples of their own cookery. This call they hoped was
+unnoticed, but an hour afterwards the other four girls were espied
+coming from the Winships', all clad in black garments of one sort or
+another. When questioned as to the meaning of this mysterious piece of
+foolishness they merely remarked that they, too, had called upon the
+Winships pig, but that it was a visit of condolence and sympathy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--A WINTER PICNIC
+
+|YOU may think that Lilia's “mortification” was quite an excitement
+in this enterprising young household; yet I assure you that never
+twenty-four hours passed but a ridiculous adventure of some kind
+overtook the girls. The daily bulletin which they carried over to Mrs.
+Carter at the Winter Farm kept the worthy inmates in constant wonderment
+as to what would happen next. Sometimes there was a regular programme
+for the next day, prepared the night before, but oftener, things
+happened of themselves, and when they do that, you know, pleasure seems
+a deal more satisfying and delightful, because it is unexpected. Uncle
+Harry was in great demand, and very often made one of the gay party of
+young folks off for a frolic. They defied King Winter openly, and went
+on all sorts of excursions, even on a bona-fide picnic, notwithstanding
+the two feet of snow on the ground. The way of it was this: On Friday,
+the boys--Hugh Pennell, Bell's cousin, Jack Brayton, and the young
+schoolmaster--turned the great bare hall in the top of the old Winship
+family house into a woodland bower.
+
+By the way, I have not told you much about Geoffrey Strong yet, because
+the girls of the story have had everything their own way, but Geoffrey
+Strong was well worth knowing. He was only eighteen years old, but had
+finished his sophomore year at Bowdoin College, and was teaching the
+district school that he might partly earn the money necessary to take
+him through the remainder of the course. He was as sturdy and strong
+as his name, or as one of the stout pine-trees of his native State, as
+gentle and chivalrous as a boy knight of the olden time; as true and
+manly a lad, and withal as good and earnest a teacher, notwithstanding
+his youth, as any little country urchin could wish. Mr. Win-ship was his
+guardian, and thus he had become quite one of the Winship family.
+
+The boys were making the picnic grounds when I interrupted my story with
+this long parenthesis. They took a large pair of old drop curtains used
+at some time or other in church tableaux, and made a dark green carpet
+by stretching them across the floor smoothly and tacking them down; they
+wreathed the pillars and trimmed the doors and windows with evergreens,
+and then planted young spruce and cedar and hemlock trees in the corners
+or scattered them about the room firmly rooted in painted nail-kegs.
+
+“It looks rather jolly, boys, doesn't it?” cried Jack, rubbing his cold
+fingers, “but I'm afraid we've gone as far as we can; we can't make
+birds and flowers and brooks!”
+
+“What's the special difficulty?” asked Geoffrey. “We'll borrow
+Grandmother Winship's two cages of canaries and Mrs. Adams' two; then
+we'll bring over Mrs. Carter's pet parrot, and altogether we'll be
+musical enough, considering the fact that the thermometer is below
+zero.”
+
+This suggestion of Geoff's they accordingly adopted, and their mimic
+forest became tuneful.
+
+The next stroke of genius came from Hugh Pennell. He found bunches of
+white and yellow everlastings at home with which he mixed some cleverly
+constructed bright tissue-paper flowers, of mysterious botanical
+structure. He planted these in pots, and tied them to shrubs, and
+behold, their forest bloomed!
+
+“But we have finished now, boys,” said Hugh, dejectedly, as he put his
+last bed of whiteweed and buttercups under a shady tree. (They
+were made of paper, and were growing artistically in a moss-covered
+chopping-tray.) “We can't get up a brook, and a brook is a handy thing
+at a picnic, too. Good for the small children to fall into, good for
+drinking, good for dish-washing, good for its cool and musical tinkle.”
+
+“I have an idea,” suggested Jack, who was mounted on a step-ladder
+busily engaged in tying a stuffed owl and a blue jay to a tree-top. “I
+have an idea. We can fill the ice-water tank, put it on a shelf, let the
+water run into a tub, then station a boy in the corner to keep filling
+the tank from the tub. There's your stagnant pool and your running
+streamlet. There's your drinking-water, your dish-washer, your musical
+tinkle, and possibly your small child's watery grave. What could be more
+romantic?”
+
+“Out with him!” shouted Geoff. “He ought to be drowned for proposing
+such an apology for a brook.”
+
+“I fail to see the point,” said Jack; “the sound would be sylvan and
+suggestive, and I've no doubt the girls would be charmed.”
+
+“We'll brook no further argument on the subject,” retorted Hugh; “the
+afternoon is running away with us. We might bring up the bath-tub, or
+the watering-trough, sink it in an evergreen bank and surround it with
+house plants, but I don't think it would satisfy us exactly. I'll tell
+you, let us give up the brook and build a sort of what-do-you-call'em
+for a retreat, in one corner.” After some explanations from Hugh about
+his plan, the boys finally succeeded in manufacturing something romantic
+and ingenious. Two blooming oleanders in boxes were brought from Uncle
+Harry's parlor, there was a hemlock tree with a rustic seat under it,
+there was an evergreen arch above, there was a little rockery built with
+a dozen stones from the old wall behind the barn, and there were Miss
+Jane Sawyer's potted scarlet geraniums set in among them, all surmounted
+by two banging baskets and a bird-cage. With nothing save an airtight
+stove to warm it into life (the ugliness of the stove quite hidden by
+screens of green boughs), the cold, bare hall was magically changed
+into a green forest, vocal with singing birds and radiant with blooming
+flowers.
+
+The boys swung their hats in irrepressible glee.
+
+“Won't this be a surprise to the people, though! Won't they think of the
+desert blooming as the rose!” cried Hugh.
+
+“I fancy it won't astonish Uncle Harry and Grandmother much,” answered
+Jack, dryly, “inasmuch as we've nearly borrowed them out of house and
+home during the operation. Old Mrs. Winship said when I took her hammer,
+hatchet, chopping-tray, house plants, and screw-driver, that perhaps she
+had better go over to Mrs. Carter's and board. The girls will be fairly
+stunned, though. Just imagine Bell's eyes! I told them we'd see to
+sweeping and heating the hall, but they don't expect any decorations.
+Well, I'm off. Lock the door, Geoff, and guard it like a dragon; we meet
+at eleven to-morrow morning, do we? Be on hand, sharp, and let us all go
+in and view the scene together. I wouldn't for worlds miss hearing and
+seeing the girls.”
+
+Jack and Hugh started for home, and Geoff went downstairs to run a
+gauntlet of questioning from Jo Fenton, who was present in Grandmother
+Winship's kitchen on one of the borrowing tours of the day, and
+extremely anxious to find out why so much mysterious hammering was going
+on.
+
+While these preparations were in progress, the six juvenile housekeepers
+were undergoing abject suffering in their cookery for the picnic. It had
+been a day of disasters from beginning to end--the first really mournful
+one in their experience.
+
+It commenced bright and early, too; in fact, was all ready for them
+before they awoke in the morning, and the coal fire began it, for it
+went out in the night. Everybody knows what it is to build a fire in a
+large coal stove; it was Jo's turn as stoker and tirewoman, and I regret
+to say that this circumstance made her a little cross, in fact, audibly
+so.
+
+After much searching for kindling-wood, however, much chattering of
+teeth, for the thermometer was below zero, much vicious banging of stove
+doors, and clattering of hods and shovels, that trouble was overcome.
+But, dear me! it was only the first drop of a pouring rain of accidents,
+and at last the girls accepted it as a fatal shower which must fall
+before the weather would clear, and thus resigned themselves to the
+inevitable.
+
+The breakfast was as bad as a breakfast knew how to be. The girls were
+all cooks to-day in the exciting preparation for the picnic, for they
+wanted to take especially tempting dainties in order that they might
+astonish more experienced providers. Patty scorched the milk toast;
+Edith, that most precise and careful of all little women under the
+sun, broke a platter and burned her fingers; Lilia browned a delicious
+omelet, and waved the spider triumphantly in the air, astonished at her
+own success, when, alas, the smooth little circlet slipped illnaturedly
+into the coal hod. Lilia stood still in horror and dismay, while Bell
+fished it hastily out, looking very crumpled, sooty, shrunken, and
+generally penitent, if an omelet can assume that expression. She slapped
+it on the table severely, and said, with a little choke and tear in her
+voice:
+
+“The last of the eggs went into that omelet, and it is going to he
+rinsed, and fried over, and eaten. There isn't another thing in the
+house for breakfast. There is no bread; Alice put cream-of-tartar into
+the buckwheats, instead of saleratus, and measured it with a tablespoon
+besides; Miss Miranda's cat upset the milk can; the potatoes are frozen;
+and I am ashamed to borrow anything more of Grandmother.”
+
+“Never,” cried Alice, with much determination. “Sooner eat omelet and
+coal hod, too! Never mind the breakfast! there are always apples. What
+shall we take to the picnic? We can suggest luncheon at high noon, and
+no one will suspect we haven't breakfasted.”
+
+“Let's make mince pies,” cried Jo, animatedly, from her seat on the
+wood-box.
+
+“Goose,” answered Bell, with a sarcastic smile. “There's plenty of time
+to make mince-meat, of course!”
+
+“At any rate, we must have jelly-cake,” said Lilia, with decision, while
+dishing up the injured omelet for the second time. “We had better carry
+the delicacies, for Mrs. Pennell and the boys will be sure to bring
+bread and meat and common things.”
+
+“Oh, tarts, tarts!” exclaimed Edith, in an ecstacy of reminiscence. “I
+haven't had tarts for a perfect age! Do you think we could manage them?”
+
+“They must be easy enough,” answered Patty, with calm authority. “Cut a
+hole out of the middle of each round thing, then till it up with jelly
+and bake it; that's simple.”
+
+[Illustration: 0093]
+
+“Glad you think so,” responded Edith, with an air of deep melancholy and
+cynicism, as she prepared to wash the cooking dishes and found an empty
+dish-water pot. “I should think the jelly would grow hard and crusty
+before the tarts baked, but I suppose it's all right. Everything we
+touch to-day is sure to fail.”
+
+“Oh, how much better if you said, 'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try,'” sang
+Bell, in a spasm of gayety.
+
+“Oh, how much sadder you will feel when you've tried, by and by,”
+ retorted Edith. “Is there anything difficult about pastry, I wonder?
+Look in the cookbook. Does it have to be soaked over night like ham, or
+hung for two weeks like game, or put away in a stone jar like
+fruit-cake, or 'braised' or 'trussed' or 'larded' or anything?”
+
+“No,” said Patty, looking up from the 'Bride's Manual,' “but it has to
+be pounded on a marble slab with a glass rolling-pin.”
+
+“Stuff and nonsense,” said Bell, “Tarts are nothing but pie-crust. This
+village is situated in the very middle of what is called the New England
+Pie Belt, and the glass rolling-pin and the marble slab have never been
+seen by the oldest or youngest inhabitant. I know that bride. When she
+makes pastry you can see her diamond engagement ring flash as she
+dips her turquoise scoop into her ruby flour-barrel. Look up soft
+gingerbread, Patty.”
+
+“Four cups best New Orleans molasses--”
+
+“The molasses is out,” said Jo; “find jelly-cake.”
+
+“Jelly all gone,” said Bell; “where, I can't think, for there were
+seventeen tumblers.”
+
+“The boys are awfully fond of it with bread,” said Alice, reminiscently.
+“How about doughnuts?”
+
+“All right,” Bell answered, “of course you'll go to the store for more
+eggs and a pail of lard. We're out of molasses, eggs, lard, ginger,
+jelly, patience, and luck.”
+
+Over an hour was spent in futile excursions through the cookery books,
+vain rummagings of the pantry and larder, frequent trips to the country
+store, and nothing was a triumphant success. Things that should have
+been thin were fat and puffy; those that should have risen high and
+light as air were flat and soggy; pots, pans, bowls, were heaped on one
+another in the sink until at one o'clock Alice Forsaith went to bed
+with a headache, leaving the kitchen in a state of general confusion
+and uproar. I cannot bear to tell you all the sorry incidents of that
+dreadful day, but Bell had shared in the blunders with the rest. She had
+gone to the store-room for citron, and had stumbled on a jar of
+frozen “something” very like mince-meat. This, indeed, was a precious
+discovery! She flew back to the kitchen, crying:
+
+“Hurrah! We'll have the pies after all, girls! Mother has left a pot
+of mince-meat in the pantry. It's frozen, but it will be all right. You
+trust to me. I've made pies before, and these shall not be a failure.”
+
+The spider was heated, and enough meat for three pies put in to thaw. It
+thawed, naturally, the fire being extremely hot, and it presently became
+very thin and curious in its appearance.
+
+“It looks like thick soup with pieces of chopped apple in it,” said
+Lilia to Bell, who was patting down a very tough, substantial bottom
+crust on a pie plate.
+
+“We-l-l, it does!” owned the head cook, frankly; “but I suppose it will
+boil down or thicken up in baking. I don't like to taste it, somehow.”
+
+“Very natural,” said Lilia, dryly. “It doesn't look 'tasty;' and, to
+tell the truth, it does not look at all as I've been brought up to
+imagine mince-meat ought to look.”
+
+“I can't be responsible for your 'bringing up,' Lill. Please pour it in,
+and I'll hold the plate.”
+
+The mixture trickled in; Bell put a very lumpy, spotted covering of
+dough over it, slashed a bold original design in the middle for a
+ventilator, and deposited the first pie in the oven with a sigh of
+relief.
+
+Just at this happy moment, Betty Bean, Mrs. Winship's maid-of-all-work,
+walked in with a can of kerosene.
+
+“Don't you think that's funny looking mince-meat, Betty?” asked Patty,
+pointing to the frying-pan.
+
+Betty the wise looked at it one moment, and then said, with youthful
+certainty and disdain: “'Tain't no more mince-meat than a cat's foot.”
+
+This was decisive, and the utterance fell like a thunder-bolt upon the
+kitchen-maids.
+
+“Gracious,” cried Bell, dropping her good English and her rolling-pin
+at the same time. “What do you mean? It looked exactly like it before it
+melted. What is it, then?”
+
+“Suet,” answered cruel Betty Bean. “Your ma chopped it and done it up
+in molasses for her suet plum puddins this winter. It's thick when it's
+cold; and when it was froze, maybe it did look like pie-meat with a good
+deal of apple in it; but it ain't no such thing.”
+
+This was too much. If I am to relate truly the adventures of this
+half-dozen suffering little maidens, I must tell you that Bell entirely
+lost her sunny temper for a moment; caught up the unoffending spider
+filled with molasses and floating bits of suet; carried it steadily and
+swiftly to the back-door, hurled it into a snow-bank; slammed the door,
+and sat down on a flour-firkin, burying her face in the very dingy
+roller-towel. The girls stopped laughing.
+
+“Never mind, Bluebell,” cooed Patty, sympathetically, smoothing her
+hostess's curly hair with a very doughnutty hand, and trying to wipe her
+flushed cheeks with an apron redolent of hot fat. “You can use the
+rest of the pie-crust for tarts, and my doughnuts are swelling up
+be-yoo-ti-ful-ly!”
+
+Bell withdrew the towel from her merry, tearful eyes, and said with
+savage emphasis:
+
+“If any of you dare tell this at the picnic to-morrow, or let Uncle
+Harry or the boys know about it, I'll--I don't know what I'll do,”
+ finished she, weakly.
+
+“That's a fearful threat,” laughed Jo,--“'The King of France and fifty
+thousand men plucked forth their swords! and put them up again.'”
+
+And so this cloud passed over, and another and yet another with
+comforting gleams of sunshine between, till at length it was seven
+o'clock in the evening before the dishes were washed and the kitchen
+tidied; then six as tired young housewives stretched themselves before
+the parlor fire as a bright blaze often shines upon. Bell, pale and
+pretty, was curled upon the sofa, with her eyes closed. The other girls
+were lounging in different attitudes of dejection, all with from one to
+three burned fingers enveloped in cloths. The results of the day's labor
+were painfully meager,--a colander full of doughnuts, some currant buns,
+molasses ginger-bread, and a loaf of tolerably light fruit cake. Out in
+the kitchen closet lay a melancholy pile of failure,--Alice's pop-overs,
+which had refused to pop; Patty's tarts, rocky and tough; and a bride's
+cake that would have made any newly married couple feel as if they were
+at the funeral of their own stomachs. The girls had flown too high in
+their journey through the cook book. Bell and Jo could really make plain
+things very nicely, and were considered remarkable caterers by their
+admiring family of school-mates; but the dainties they had attempted
+were entirely beyond their powers; hence the pile of wasted goodies in
+the closet.
+
+“Oh, dear,” sighed Lilia. “Nobody has spoken a word for an age, and I
+don't wonder, if everybody is as tired as I. Shall we ever be rested
+enough to go to-morrow?”
+
+“I was thinking,” said Edith, dreamily, “that we have only seven more
+days to stay. If they were all to be as horrible as this, I shouldn't
+care very much; but we have had such fun, I dread to break up
+housekeeping. The chief trouble with to-day was that we did no planning
+yesterday. We never looked into the store-room nor bought anything in
+advance nor settled what we should cook.”
+
+“Well,” said Bell, waking up a little, “we will crowd everything
+possible into the last week and make it a real carnival time. To-morrow
+is Saturday and the picnic; on Monday or Tuesday we'll have some sort
+of a 'pow-wow,' as Uncle Harry says, for the boys, in return for their
+invitation, and then we'll think of something perfectly grand and
+stupendous for Friday, our last day of fun. It will take from that
+until Monday to get the house into something like order for my mother's
+return. (This with a remorseful recollection of the terrible back
+bed-room, where everything imaginable had been 'dumped' for a week
+past.)
+
+“I haven't finished trimming our shade hats,” called Alice, faintly,
+from the distance. “I will do it in the morning while you are packing
+the luncheon. Whatever we do let us unpack our baskets privately and try
+to mix in our food with Mrs. Carter's or Mrs. Winship's, so that nobody
+will know which is which.”
+
+The girls had tried to devise something jaunty, picturesque, and summery
+for a picnic costume; but the weather being too cold for a change of
+dress, they had only bought broad straw hats at the country store,--hats
+that farmers wore in haying time, with high crowns and wide brims. They
+had turned up one side of them coquettishly, and adorned it with
+funny silhouettes made of black paper, descriptive of their various
+adventures. Lilia's, for instance, had a huge ink bottle and sponge;
+Bell's a mammoth pie and frying-pan. Around the crowns they had tied
+colored scarfs of ribbon or gauze, interwoven with bunches of dried
+grasses, oats, and everlastings.
+
+Half-past eight found them all sleep-in as soundly as dormice; and the
+next morning with the recuperative power that youth brings, they awoke
+entirely refreshed and ready for the fray.
+
+The picnic was a glorious success. It was a clear, bright day, and not
+very cold; so that with a good fire they were able to have a couple of
+windows open, and to feel more as if they were out in the fresh air. The
+surprise and delight of the girls knew no bounds when they were ushered
+into their novel picnic ground, and even the older people avowed that
+they had never seen such a miracle of ingenuity. The scene was as pretty
+a one as can be imagined, though the young people little knew how
+lovely a picture they helped to make in the midst of their pastoral
+surroundings. Six charming faces they were, happy with girlish joy,
+sweet and bright from loving hearts, and pure, innocent, earnest living.
+Bell was radiant, issuing orders for the spread of the feast, flying
+here and there, laughing over a stuffed snake under a bush (Geoff's
+device), and talking merry nonsense with Hugh, her arch eyes shining
+with mischief under her great straw hat.
+
+Marcus Aurelius, the parrot, talked, and the canaries sang as if this
+were the last opportunity any of them ever expected to have; while
+the embroidered butterflies and stuffed birds fluttered and swayed and
+danced on the quivering tree-twigs beneath them almost as if they were
+alive.
+
+The table-cloth was spread on the floor, in real picnic fashion, for
+the boys would allow neither tables nor chairs, and the lunch was
+simply delectable. Mrs. Win-ship, Mrs. Brayton, and Mrs. Pennell, with
+affectionate forethought, had brought everything that schoolgirls and
+boys particularly affect--jelly-cake, tarts, and hosts of other goodies.
+How the girls remembered their closetful of “attempts” at home; how they
+roguishly exchanged glances, yet never disclosed their failures; how
+they discoursed learnedly on baking-powder versus saleratus, raw potato
+versus boiled potato yeast; and with what dignity and assurance
+they discussed questions of household economy, and interlarded their
+conversation with quotations from the “Young Housekeeper's Friend,” and
+the “Bride's Manual.”
+
+In the afternoon they played all sorts of games,--some quiet, more not
+at all so,--until at five o'clock, nearly dark in these short days,
+they left their make-believe forest and trudged home through the snow,
+baskets under their arms, declaring it a mistaken idea that picnics
+should be confined to summer.
+
+“What a gl-orious time we've had!” exclaimed Jo, as they busied
+themselves about the home dining-room. “Yesterday seems like a horrible
+nightmare, or, at least, it would if it hadn't happened in the daytime,
+and if we hadn't the pantry to remind us of the truth. The things we
+carried were not so v-e-r-y bad, after all! I was really proud of the
+buns, and Patty's doughnuts were as 'swelled up' as Mrs. Drayton's.”
+
+“And a great deal yellower and spotted-er,” quoth Edith, in a sly aside.
+
+“Well,” admitted Patty, ruefully, “there certainly was quite enough
+saleratus in them; but I think it very unbecoming in the maker of the
+bride's-cake to say anything about other people's mistakes! Bride's
+cake, indeed!” she finished with a scornful smile.
+
+“True!” said Edith, much crushed by this heartless allusion to what had
+been the most thorough and expensive failure of the day; “I can't deny
+it. Proceed with your sarcasm.”
+
+“This house 'looks as if it was going to ride out'! as Miss Miranda
+says,” exclaimed Alice. “Do let us try to straighten it before Sunday!
+The closets are all in snarls, the kitchen's in a mess, and the less
+said about the back bedroom the better.”
+
+Accordingly, inspired by Alice's enthusiasm, they began to work and to
+improve the hours like a whole hiveful of busy bees. They put on big
+aprons and washed pans and pots that had been evaded for two days, made
+fish-balls for breakfast, dusted, scrubbed, washed, mended, darned, and
+otherwise reduced the house to that especial and delicious kind of
+order which is likened unto apple-pie. And thus one week of the joys and
+trials of this merry half-a-dozen housekeepers was over and gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG
+
+|MONDAY morning broke. Such a cold, dismal, drizzly morning! The wind
+whistled and blew about the cottage, until Lilia suggested tying
+the clothes-line round the chimneys and fastening it to the strong
+pine-trees in front, for greater safety. It snowed at six o'clock, it
+hailed at seven, rained at eight, stopped at nine, and presently began
+to go through the same varied programme. After breakfast, Bell went
+to the window and stood dreamily flattening her nose against the pane,
+while the others busied themselves about their several tasks.
+
+“Well, girls,” said she at length, “we've had four different kinds of
+weather this morning, so it may clear off after all, though I confess it
+doesn't look like it. It's too stormy to go anywhere, or for anybody to
+come to us, so we shall have to try violently in every possible way to
+amuse ourselves. I must run over to Miss Miranda's for the milk before
+it rains harder. Perhaps I shall stumble into some excitement on the
+way; who knows!”
+
+So saying, she ran out, and in a few minutes appeared in the yard
+wrapped in a bright red water-proof, the hood pulled over her head, and
+framing her roguish, rosy face. In ten minutes she returned breathless
+from a race across the garden, and a vain attempt to keep her umbrella
+right side out. She entered the room in her usual breezy way, leaving
+the doors all open, and sank into a chair, with an expression of
+mysterious mirth in her eyes.
+
+“Guess what's happened!” she asked, with sparkling eyes. “I have the
+most enormous, improbable, unguessable surprise for you; you never
+will think, and anyway I can't wait to tell, so here it is: We are all
+invited to tea this afternoon with Miss Miranda and Miss Jane! Isn't
+that 'ridikilis'?”
+
+“Do tell, Isabel,” squeaked Jo, with a comically irreverent imitation of
+Miss Sawyer, “air you a-going to accept?”
+
+“Oh, yes, Bell, we'd better go,” said Edith Lambert. “I should like to
+see the inside of that old house. I dare say we shall enjoy it, and it
+saves cooking.”
+
+“We are remarkably favored,” laughed Bell. “I don't believe that anybody
+has been invited there since the Sewing Circle met with them three years
+ago. They live such a quiet, strange, lonely life! Their mother and
+father died when they were very young, more than thirty years ago. They
+were quite rich for the times, and left their daughters this big house
+all furnished and quantities of lovely old-fashioned dishes and
+pictures. All the rooms are locked, but I'll try and melt Miss Miranda's
+heart, and get her to show us some of her relics. Scarcely anything has
+been changed in all these years, except that they have bought a
+cooking-stove. Miss Jane hates new-fangled things, and is really ashamed
+of the stove, I think; as to having a sewing-machine, or an egg-beater,
+or a carpet-sweeper,--why, she would as soon think of changing the
+fashion of her bonnet! I believe there isn't such a curious house, nor
+another pair of such dried-up, half-nice, half-disagreeable people in the
+country. There's Emma Jane with the butter! I'll meet her at the back
+door, get her to peel some potatoes and apples, make her sew a white
+ruffle in her neck, and make some original remark.”
+
+Bell's criticism of the Misses Sawyer and their home was quite just. The
+old brick house stood in a garden which, in the spring-time, was filled
+with odorous lilacs, blossoming apple-trees, and long rows of currant
+and gooseberry bushes. In the summer, too, there were actual groves of
+asparagus, gaudy sunflowers, bright hollyhocks, gay marigolds, royal
+flower-de-luce,--all respectable, old-fashioned posies, into whose
+hearts the humming-birds loved to thrust their dainty beaks and
+steal their sweetness. Then there were beds paved round with white
+clam-shells, where were growing trembling little bride's-tears,
+bachelor's-buttons, larkspur, and china pinks. No modern blossoms would
+Miss Miranda allow within these sacred ancient places, no
+begonias, gladioli, and “sech,” with their new-fangled, heathenish,
+unpronounceable names. The old flowers were good enough for her; and,
+certainly, they made a blooming spot about the dark house.
+
+Now, indeed, there was neither a leaf nor a bud to be seen; snow-birds
+perched and twittered on the naked apple-boughs, and rifts of snow lay
+over the sleeping seed-souls of the hollyhocks and marigolds, keeping
+them just alive and no more, in a freezing, cold-blooded sort of way
+common to snow.
+
+But if the garden outside looked like a relic of the olden time,
+the rooms inside seemed even more so. The “keeping-room” had been
+refurnished fifteen or twenty years before, but so well had it been
+kept, that there still hovered about it a painful air of newness. Over
+the stiff black hair-cloth sofa hung a funeral wreath in a shell frame,
+surrounded by the Sawyer family photographs--husbands and wives always
+taken in affectionate attitudes, that their relations might never be
+misunderstood. In a corner stood the mahogany “what-not” with its bead
+watch-cases, shells, and glass globes covering worsted-work flowers,
+together with more family pictures, daguerreotypes in black cases on
+the top shelf, and a marvelous blue china vase holding peacock feathers.
+Then there was a gorgeous “drawn in” rug before the fireplace,
+with impossible purple roses and pink leaves on its surface, and a
+marble-topped table holding a magnificent lamp with a glass fringe
+around it, and a large piece of red flannel floating in the kerosene.
+
+All these glories the girls were allowed to view as a great favor
+granted at Bell's earnest request. They examined the parlor and the
+curiosities in the diningroom cupboard with awe-struck faces, though
+their sobriety was almost overcome at the sight of some of the works of
+art which Miss Miranda held up for their reverential admiration.
+
+Upstairs there were rooms scarcely ever opened. The bedsteads were
+four-posted, and so high with many feather beds that their sleepy
+occupants must have ascended a step-ladder to get into them, or climbed
+up the posts hand over hand and dropped down into the downy depths. The
+counterpanes and comforters were quilted in wonderful patterns. There
+was the “wild-goose chase,” the “log cabin,” the “rocky mountain,” the
+“Irish plaid,” and a “charm quilt,” in twelve hundred pieces, no two
+of which were alike. The windows in the best chamber had white cotton
+curtains with elaborate fringes; the looking-glass was long and narrow
+with a yellow-painted frame, and a picture, in the upper half, of
+Napoleon crossing the Alps, the Alps in question being very pointed and
+of a sky-blue color, while Napoleon, in full-dress uniform, with never
+an outrider nor a guide, was galloping up and over the dizzy peaks on a
+skittish-looking pony.
+
+These things nearly upset Jo's gravity, and she quite lost Miss Sawyer's
+favor by coughing down an irrepressible giggle when she was shown a
+painting of Burns and His Mary, done in oil by Miss Hannah, the oldest
+sister of the family, and long since dead. Miss Sawyer had no doubt that
+Hannah's genius was of the highest order, although the specimens of her
+skill handed down would astonish a modern artist. Burns and His Mary
+were seated on a bank belonging to a landscape certainly not Scottish;
+His Mary, with a pink tarlatan dress on, tucked to the waist; while a
+brook was seemingly purling over Burns' coat-tails spread out behind him
+on the bank. It was this peculiar detail which aroused Jo's mirth, as
+well it might, so that she could not trust herself to examine with the
+others Miss Hannah's last and finest effort--“Maidens welcoming General
+Washington in the streets of Alexandria.” The maidens, thirteen in
+number, were precisely alike in form and feature, all very smooth as
+to hair, long as to waist, short as to skirt, pointed as to toe, and
+carrying bouquets of exactly the same size and structure, tied up with
+green ribbon.
+
+The tour of inspection finished, the girls sat down to chat over their
+tatting and crochet work, while the two ladies went out to prepare
+supper.
+
+“My reputation is gone,” whispered Jo, solemnly. “To think that I should
+have laughed when I had been behaving so beautifully all the afternoon;
+but Robbie Burns was the last straw that broke the camel's back of
+my politeness; I couldn't have helped it if Miss Miranda had eaten me
+instead of frowning at me.”
+
+“What do you think?” cried Lilia, jumping up impulsively and knocking
+down her chair in so doing, “I'm going to beard the lion in his den, and
+see if they won't let me help them get supper. Don't you want to come,
+Jo?”
+
+The two girls ran across the long, cold hall, opened the kitchen door
+stealthily, and Jo asked in her sweetest tones, “Can't we set the table
+or help in any way, Miss Miranda?”
+
+“No, I thank you, Josephine; there is nothing to do, or leastways you
+wouldn't know where things are, and wouldn't be any good. The Porter
+girl may come in if she wants to, but two of you would only clutter up
+the kitchen.”
+
+So Lilia went in meekly, and poor Jo flew back to the parlor, smarting
+under a bitter sense of disgrace. The sisters fortunately knew nothing
+of Lilia's aptitude for blunders, else she never would have been
+suffered to touch their precious household gods. As it was, by dint of
+extreme care, she managed to get the plum sauce on the table, and to
+set the chairs around it, without any serious disaster. To be sure, in
+cutting the dried beef, she notched a memorandum of the pieces shaved on
+each of her fingers, so that when she finished they were perfect little
+calendars of suffering; however, this only concerned herself, and she
+did not murmur, as most of her mistakes implicated other people.
+
+At half-past five they sat down to supper; and such a supper! Miss
+Miranda was evidently anxious to impress the young people. The best pink
+“chany” set had been unearthed, and there were besides other old dishes
+of great magnificence. Quaint British lustre pitchers held the milk and
+cream, a green dragon plate the cookies, and the “Sheltered Peasant”
+ saucers came in for general admiration.
+
+The china was not more notable than the food. There were light soda
+biscuits, large in size and thick, and there was cold buttermilk bread;
+a blue and white bowl held tomato preserves, while a glass one was full
+of delicious applesauce cooked in maple-syrup; then there was a round,
+creamy cottage-cheese, white as a snow-ball; a golden, dried-pumpkin
+pie, baked in a deep yellow plate; the brownest and plummiest and
+indigestible-est of all plummy cakes, with doughnuts and sugar
+gingerbread besides. This array of good things being taken in with rapid
+and rabid glances, the girls exchanged involuntary looks of delight, and
+even emitted audible signs of happiness. To say that they did justice to
+the repast would be a feeble expression, for in truth the meals of their
+own preparation were irregular as to time, indifferent as to quality,
+and sometimes, when they calculated carelessly and unwisely, even small
+as to quantity.
+
+[Illustration: 0127]
+
+After tea was over, each of the girls was required to give, in answer to
+a string of questions asked, her entire family history; for no tidbit of
+information concerning other people's affairs was uninteresting to Miss
+Jane or Miss Miranda. This cross-examination being finished, they
+rose to go, unable to hear any longer the quiet, proper, suppressed
+atmosphere that pervaded the house. While they had been admiring the
+quaint, old-fashioned relics and busy devouring the appetizing New
+England goodies, they were quite at ease, but an hour or two of
+conversation had exhausted their adaptability. When they had taken their
+leave, and the sound of their merry voices and ringing laughter floated
+in from the country road, Miss Miranda sank into a chair, and waved a
+fan excitedly to and fro, her mouse-colored complexion quite flushed and
+pink from the unwonted dissipation.
+
+“Wall, Jane,” said she, “it's over now, and we've done our dooty by Mis'
+Winship; she's a good neighbor, and I wanted to act right by Isabel when
+her Ma was away, but of all the crazy, 'stivering' girls I ever see,
+them do beat all; though they did behave tolerable well this afternoon.”
+
+“They seemed to enjoy their supper,” said Miss Jane; “I never saw girls
+make a heartier meal.”
+
+“They did for certain,” continued Miranda, “too hearty most. I thought.
+That light-haired girl with the blue ear-rings left her meat hash,
+that'll sour before we can warm it over again, and et and et fruit cake
+till I was afraid she'd have fits at the table. We ought to be very
+thankful we hevn't any young ones or men-folks to cook for, Jane.”
+
+And with that expression of gratitude on her lips, she lighted a candle,
+and after locking up the house securely, the two spinsters went to their
+bedrooms to sleep the sleep of the calm and the virtuous.
+
+Their merry visitors, undisturbed by the pelting rain from above, and
+the deep “slush” beneath, waded over into their own grounds with many a
+hearty laugh and jest.
+
+“Oh, how delightful our own sitting-room looks!” exclaimed Patty, as
+they opened the door and gathered about the cheerful fire on the hearth.
+And, indeed, it did, after the stiff, prim arrangement of the rooms
+they had left. The flickering blaze cast soft shadows on the walls, and
+touched the marbles on the brackets with rosy tints; the canary-birds
+were fast asleep with their heads hidden under their wings, and the dog
+and cat were snoozing peacefully together on the hearth-rug. The young
+people, as well as the room, belonged to another generation than Miss
+Miranda's and Miss Jane's, a brighter, freer, fresher one, with a wider
+outlook, and quite different problems and responsibilities.
+
+“We never can be jollier than this!” cried Lilia, in an irrepressible
+burst of appreciation. “Oh, that it might last forever, and that
+seminaries for young ladies might be turned into zoological gardens!
+Then we could keep house here this week, the next week, and eternally,
+taking tea with Miss Miranda whenever she asked us to come. What a good
+supper that was, girls! Oh, Bell and Jo, you ought to be overcome with
+remorse when you think what you might give us to eat, if you were only
+skillful, energetic, and ingenious!”
+
+“You're the very essence of thanklessness!” answered Bell, in high
+dudgeon. “It's nothing less than fiery martyrdom to cook for you girls,
+when you are so ungrateful. Your special seminary will not be so far
+removed from a zoological garden when _you_ return to it, that is
+certain!”
+
+“My dear child, I am sorry already for my remark,” said Lilia, in
+feigned repentance. “It was very thoughtless in me to arouse your
+anger until after the next meal. Any impertinence of ours is sure to
+be visited upon us in the form of oatmeal porridge, or salt fish and
+crackers.”
+
+“Lilia Porter, if you want to be an angel by and by, it would be better
+to draw your thoughts away from eatables for a time; you talk quite too
+much about food,” said Edith Lambert, who had a very hearty appetite,
+but never called attention to it. “When you have done with your
+nonsense, I have something to propose for our final 'good time.' We have
+only four days, 'tis true, and 'pity 'tis 'tis true; but we must
+go away with flying colors, and so astonish the natives with our genius
+that the village will talk of us for months to come.”
+
+“Si-lence in court!” cried Jo, impressively. “Let me offer you the coal
+hod for a platform; it won't tip over; go on, you look as dignified as a
+policeman.”
+
+“Stop your nonsense, Jo. You remember, Bell, the evening when we made a
+comic pantomime of 'Young Lochinvar,' and acted it before the teachers
+and seniors?”
+
+“Indeed I do,” laughed Bell, in recollection. “We girls took all the
+characters. What fun it was!”
+
+“Why can't we do that again, changing and improving it, of course? The
+boys are so clever and bright about anything of the kind that they would
+be irresistibly funny. What do you think?”
+
+“I like the idea,” exclaimed Patty Weld. “Uncle Harry's large hall would
+be just the place for it, and the stage is already there.”
+
+“So it is; how fortunate,” agreed Alice; “we couldn't think of anything
+that would be greater fun. How shall we cast the characters! You must be
+the bride, Bell, the 'fair Ellen!' you will do it better than anybody.
+Jo will make up into the funniest old lady for a mother, and the rest
+of us can be the bride-maidens. Hugh Pennell will be a glorious Young
+Lochinvar, if he can be persuaded to run away with Bell--” this with a
+sly glance at her hostess.
+
+“Yes,” said Edith, “and poor Jack will have to be the 'craven
+bridegroom,' who loses his bride, and Geoff, the stern parent.”
+
+“Uncle Harry will read the poem for us, I know,” continued Bell; “he
+does that sort of thing often at the church, and does it beautifully.
+Phil Howard, Royal Lawrence, and Harry will be bridemen. We'll perform
+the piece in such a tragic way that each separate hair in the audience
+will stand erect.”
+
+“But, oh, the labor of it, girls!” sighed Patty--“wooden horses to be
+made for the elopement scene, Scottish dresses, and all sorts of toggery
+to be hunted up; can we ever do it in time, with our house-cleaning
+before us?”
+
+“Nonsense, of course we can,” rejoined Bell, energetically. “We will
+consult every book on private theatricals, Scottish history, manners,
+and costumes in this house, and Uncle Harry's, too. Let us get up at
+five to-morrow morning, have a simple breakfast of--”
+
+“Cornmeal mush or dry bread and milk,” finished Lilia, with grim
+sarcasm. “If time must be saved, of course, it must come out of the
+cooking! How are we to do this amount of work on a low diet, I should
+like to know?”
+
+“How are the cooks to get time for anything outside the kitchen if they
+humor your unnatural appetites! Out of kindness, we propose to lower you
+gradually, meal by meal, into the pit of boarding-school fare.”
+
+“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' I don't care to be
+starved beforehand by way of getting used to it,” retorted Lilia, as
+she lighted the bedroom candles. “Come, dears, do cover the fire; it
+was sleepy-time an hour ago, and if you want to see something beautiful,
+look through the piazza window.”
+
+Beneath them lay the steep river bank, smooth with its white, glittering
+crust, above which a few naked alders pushed their snow-weighted
+finger-tips; one rugged old pine-tree stood in the garden, grand, dark,
+and fearless; the quiet part of the river had been turned by King Winter
+into an icy mirror; but over the dam a hundred yards below, the waters
+tumbled too furiously to be frozen. The old bridge looked like a silver
+string tying together the two little villages, and over all was the
+dazzling winter moonlight.
+
+Six dreamy faces now at the cottage window. Six girlish figures, all
+drawn closely together, with arms lovingly clasped. The white beauty,
+and the solemn stillness of the picture hushed them into quietness. One
+minute passed and then another, while the spell was working, till at
+length Bell impulsively bent her brown head, and said softly: “If the
+minister were here he would say, 'Let us pray.' It makes me want to
+whisper, 'Dear Lord, make us pure and white within, as thy world is
+without.'”
+
+“Amen,” murmured Edith and Patty, in the same breath.
+
+“Pull down the curtain,” sighed Jo; “it makes me feel wicked!”
+
+“Ah, don't, don't, not quite yet!” pleaded Edith, “it is too heavenly
+and it can't do us any harm to feel wicked. It reminds me of Tennyson's
+'St. Agnes' Eve,' of the white, white picture she looked out upon from
+her convent window the night she was lifted to the golden doors of
+heaven--the poem you recited for the medal, Alice,--say a verse of it.”
+ And Alice, half under her breath, repeated the lovely lines:=
+
+````“As these white robes are soil'd and
+
+`````dark
+
+````To yonder shining ground;
+
+```As this pale taper's earthly spark,
+
+````To yonder argent round;
+
+```So shines my soul before the Lamb,
+
+````My spirit before Thee;
+
+```So in mine earthly house I am
+
+````To that I hope to be!”=
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--“THE END OF THE PLAY”
+
+|ON the next morning, and, indeed, on all of those left of their stay,
+the six housekeepers were up at an alarmingly early hour, so that the
+sun, accustomed to being the earliest of all risers, felt himself quite
+behindhand and outshone.
+
+In vain he clambered up over the hillside in a desperate hurry; the
+girls were always before him with lighted candles. As for the clock, it
+held up its hands with astonishment, and struck five shrill exclamation
+points of surprise to see six wide-awake young persons tumbling out of
+their warm nests before the world was lighted or heated.
+
+The day's hours were hardly enough for the day's plans, for there were
+farewell coasting, skating, and sleighing parties, besides active daily
+preparations for the pantomime. The costumes of the hoys were gorgeous
+to behold, and were fashioned entirely by the girls' clever fingers.
+They consisted of scarlet or blue flannel shirts, short plaid kilts,
+colored stockings striped with braid, sashes worn over shoulders, and
+jaunty little caps with bobbing quills.
+
+On the last happy evening of their stay, the eventful evening of “Young
+Lochinvar,” the guests gathered from all the surrounding country to see
+the frolic. There were people from North Edgewood, South Edgewood, East
+Edge-wood, and West Edgewood; from Edgewood Upper Corner, Edgewood Lower
+Corner, and Edgewood Four Corners, and everybody had brought his uncles
+and cousins.
+
+In the big dressing-room the young actors were assembled,--and
+fortunately in a high state of exuberance and excitement, else they
+would have been decidedly frightened at the ordeal before them. Jo,
+mirror in hand, was trying to make herself look seventy; and, though she
+had not succeeded, she had transformed herself into a very presentable
+Scottish dame, with her short satin gown and apron, lace kerchief and
+spectacles. Edith was giving a pair of pointed burnt-cork eyebrows to
+Hugh, that he might wear a sufficiently dashing and defiant countenance
+for Lochinvar, while Jack stood before the glass practicing his meek
+expression for the jilted bridegroom.
+
+[Illustration: 0145]
+
+Bell had sunk into a chair, and folded her hands to “get up” her
+courage. As to her dress, nobody knew whether it was the proper one
+for a Scottish bride or not; but it was the only available thing, and
+certainly she looked in it a very bewitching and sufficient excuse for
+Lochinvar's rash folly. It was of some shining white material, and came
+below the ankle, just showing a pair of jaunty high-heeled slippers;
+the skirt was 'broidered and flounced to the belt, the waist simple and
+full,' with short puffed sleeves; while a bridal veil and dainty crown
+of flowers made her as winsome and bonny as a white Scottish rose. Emma
+Jane Perkins stood in one corner paralyzed by her own good looks. Her
+red hair was waved and hanging in her neck, and her dress was white.
+She hoped she could be trusted to bring in this overpowering weight of
+beauty at the right moment, but felt a little doubtful.
+
+Uncle Harry stumbled in at the low door.
+
+“Are you ready, young fry?” asked he. “It is half-past seven, and we
+ought to begin.”
+
+“Put out the footlights, give the people back their money, and tell
+them the prima donna is dangerously ill!” gasped Bell, faintly, fanning
+herself with a box-cover. “I don't believe I can ever do it. Hugh,
+are you perfectly sure our horse won't break down on the stage when we
+elope?”
+
+“Calm yourself, 'fair Ellen,' and trust to my horsemanship. Doesn't the
+poem say:=
+
+```Through all the wide Border his steed
+
+`````was the best?=
+
+“And doesn't this exactly embody Scott's idea?”--pointing to a wild and
+cross-eyed wooden effigy mounted on a pair of trucks.
+
+*****
+
+You have all read Sir Walter Scott's poem of “Young Lochinvar,” and many
+a time, I hope, for they are brave old verses:=
+
+```Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the
+
+`````West,
+
+```Through all the wide Border his steed
+
+`````was the best,
+
+```And, save his good broadsword, he
+
+`````weapons had none;
+
+```He rode all unarmed, and he rode all
+
+`````alone.
+
+```So faithful in love, and so dauntless in
+
+`````war,
+
+```There never was knight like the young
+
+`````Lochinvar.=
+
+And then, you remember, the young knight rode fast and far, stayed not
+for brakes, stopped not for stones, but all in vain; for ere he alighted
+at Netherby Gate, the fair Ellen, overcome by parental authority, had
+consented to be married to another:=
+
+```For a laggard in love and a dastard in
+
+`````war
+
+```Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave
+
+`````Lochinvar.=
+
+But he, nothing daunted, boldly entered the bridal hall among bridemen
+and bridemaids and kinsmen, thereby raising so general a commotion
+that the bride's father cried at once, the poor craven bridegroom being
+struck quite dumb:=
+
+```“Oh, come ye in peace here, or coyne ye
+
+`````inivar,
+
+```Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord
+
+`````Lochinvar?"
+
+The lover answers with apparent indifference that though he has in past
+times been exceedingly fond of the young person called Ellen, he has now
+merely come to tread a measure and drink one cup of wine with her, for
+although love swells like the tide, it ebbs like it also. So he drinks
+her health, while she sighs and blushes, weeps and smiles, alternately;
+then he takes her soft hand, her parents fretting and fuming the while,
+and leads the dance with her,--he so stately, she so lovely, that they
+are the subject of much envy, admiration, and sympathy. But while thus
+treading the measure, he whispers in her ear something to which she
+apparently consents without much unwillingness, and at the right moment
+they dance out from the crowd of kinsmen to the door of the great hall,
+where in the darkness the charger stands ready saddled. Quick as thought
+the dauntless lover swings his fair Ellen lightly up, springs before her
+on the saddle, and they dash furiously away:=
+
+```“She is won! We are gone, over ban,
+
+`````bush, and scaur;
+
+```They'll have fleet steeds that follow
+
+`````quoth young Lochinvar.
+
+As soon as their flight is discovered, there is wild excitement and
+hasty mounting of all the Netherby Clan; there is racing and chasing
+over the fields, but “the laggard in love and the dastard in war” never
+recovers his lost Ellen.=
+
+```So daring in love, and so dauntless in
+
+`````war,
+
+```Have ye e'er heard of gallant like
+
+`````young Lochinvar?=
+
+Uncle Harry read the poem through in such a stirring way that the
+audience was fairly warmed into interest; then, standing by the side of
+the stage with the curtain rolled up, he read it again, line by line, or
+verse by verse, to explain the action.
+
+During the first stanza, Lochinvar made his triumphal entrance, riding a
+prancing hobby-horse with a sweeping tail of raveled rope, and a mane to
+match, gorgeous trappings adorned with sleigh-bells and ornamental paper
+designs, and bunches of cotton tacked on for flecks of foam.
+
+Lochinvar himself wore gray pasteboard armor, a pair of carpet slippers
+with ferocious spurs, red mittens, and carried a huge carving-knife.
+His costume alone was food for amusement, but the manner in which he
+careered wildly about the stage, displaying his valorous horsemanship as
+he rode to the wedding, was perfectly irresistible.
+
+The next scene opened in Netherby Hall, showing the bridal party all
+assembled in gala dress. Into this family gathering presently strode the
+determined lover, with his carving-knife sheathed for politeness'
+sake. Then followed a comical pantomime between the angry parents, who
+demanded his intentions, and the adroit Lochinvar, who declared them to
+be peaceful. The father (Geoffrey Strong) at last gave him unwilling
+permission to drink one cup of wine and tread one measure with the
+bride. She kissed the goblet (a tin quart measure), he quaffed off the
+spirit, and threw down the cup. Pair Ellen bridled with pleasure, and
+promenaded about the room on his arm, while the bridegroom looked on
+wretchedly, the parents quarreled, and the bride-maidens whispered:=
+
+`````“'Twere better by far
+
+```To have matched our fair cousin with
+
+````young Lochinvar."=
+
+At the first opportunity, the guests walked leisurely out, and young
+Lochinvar seized an imaginary chance to draw Ellen hastily back into the
+supper room. He whispered the magic word into her ear, she started in
+horror and drew back; he urged; she demurred; he pleaded; she showed
+signs of surrender; he begged on his bended knees; she yielded at
+length to the plan of the elopement, with all its delightful risks. Then
+Lochinvar darted to the outside door and brought in his charger,--rather
+an unique proceeding, perhaps, but necessary under the circumstances,
+inasmuch as the audience could not be transported to the proper scene of
+the mounting. As the flight was to be made on horseback, much ingenuity
+and labor were needed to arrange it artistically. The horse's head was
+the work of Geoff's hand, and for meekness of expression, jadedness,
+utterly-cast-down-and-worn-out-ness, it stood absolutely unrivalled. A
+pair of trucks were secreted beneath the horse-blankets, and the front
+legs of the animal pranced gaily out in front, taking that startling and
+decided curve only seen in pictures of mowing-machines and horseraces.
+Lochinvar quieted his fiery beast, and swung Ellen into the saddle,
+leaped up after her, waved his tall hat in triumph, and started off at a
+snail's pace, the horse being dragged by a rope from behind the scenes.
+When half way across the stage, Ellen clasped her lover's arm and seemed
+to have forgotten something. Everybody in the room at once guessed
+it must be some part of her trousseau. She explained earnestly in
+pantomime; Lochinvar refused to return; she insisted; he remained firm;
+she pouted and seemingly said that she wouldn't elope at all unless she
+could have her own way. He relented, they went back to Netherby Hall,
+and Ellen ran up a secret stairway and came down laden with maidenly
+traps. Greatly to the merriment of the observers, she loaded them on
+the docile horse in the very face of Lochinvar's displeasure--two small
+looking-glasses, a bird-cage, and a French bonnet. She then leisurely
+drew on a pair of huge India rubbers, unfurled a yellow linen umbrella,
+and just as her lover's patience was ebbing, suffered herself to be
+remounted. The second trip across the stage was accomplished in safety,
+though with anything but the fleetness common to elopements either in
+life or in poetry.
+
+Then came the pursuit--a most graphic and stirring scene, giving large
+opportunities to the supernumerary characters. Four bridemen on dashing
+hobbyhorses, jumping fences, leaping bars and ditches in hot excitement;
+four bride-maids, with handkerchiefs tied over their heads, running
+hither and thither in confusion; the old mother and father, limping in
+and straining their eyes for a sight of their refractory daughter; and
+last of all, poor Jack, the deserted bridegroom, on foot, with never a
+horse left to him, puffing and panting in his angry chase.
+
+It was done! How people laughed till they cried, how they continued
+to laugh for five minutes afterward, I cannot begin to tell you. The
+performance had been the perfection of fun from first to last, and
+seemed all the more inspiring because it was original with the bright
+bevy of young folks who had enacted the poem. Uncle Harry had renewed
+his youth, and received the plaudits of the crowd with unconcealed
+pleasure. The hero and heroine, Lochinvar and fair Ellen, had so
+generously provided dramatic opportunities for the minor actors that
+all had enjoyed an equal chance in the favor of the audience. There was
+neither envy, jealousy, nor heartburning; each of the girls gloried
+in the achievements of the others, and confessed that the mechanical
+ingenuity of the boys had made the triumph possible.
+
+At length the lights were all out, the finery bundled up, the many
+farewells said, and as the girls, escorted by their faithful young
+squires, trudged along the path through the orchard for the last time,
+sad thoughts would come, although the party was much too youthful and
+cheery to be gloomy.
+
+“Depart, fun and frolic!” sighed Lilia, in mournful tones. “Depart,
+breakfasts at any hour and other delights of laziness! Enter,
+boarding-school, books, bells, and other banes of existence!”
+
+“It is really too awful to think or to speak about,” sighed Jo. “Now
+I know how Eve must have felt when she had to pack up and leave the
+garden; only she went because she insisted upon eating of the tree of
+knowledge, while I must go and eat, whether I will or not.”
+
+“Your appetite for that special fruit isn't so great that you'll ever
+be troubled with indigestion,” dryly rejoined Patty, the student of the
+“Jolly Six.”
+
+“Fancy starting off at half-past ten to-morrow morning; fancy reaching
+school at one, and sitting down stupidly to a dinner of broth, fried
+liver, and cracker-pudding! Ugh! it makes me shiver,” said Alice.
+
+“Think of us,” cried Geoff, “going back to college, and settling into
+regular 'digs.'”
+
+“If 'digs' is a contraction of dignitaries,” said Edith, saucily,
+“you'll never be those; if you mean you are to delve into the mines
+of learning, that's doubtful, too; but if it's a corruption of Digger
+Indian, I should say there might be some force in your remark. Oh, what
+matchless war-whoops you gave in the pursuit to-night. Every separate
+hair in Betty Bean's head stood on end, and the Misses Sawyer sat close
+together and trembled visibly!”
+
+“It was a wonderful evening,” remarked Hugh. “There were persons there
+who said that Bell was beautiful and I was clever.”
+
+“I don't want to annoy you,” laughed Jo, “but I heard exactly the
+opposite.”
+
+“Which only goes to show that both of us are both,” retorted Bell.
+
+“And that sentence goes to show that a week's absence from the class in
+parsing and analysis has had its effect,” said Patty. “Look at our angel
+cottage, girls! Doesn't it look like a marble night-lamp with the hall
+light shining through all its sweet little windows'?”
+
+“The fire isn't out, that's fortunate,” observed Alice, as she saw a
+small cloud of smoke issuing from the chimney.
+
+“Good night and sweet dreams,” called the hoys, when Geoffrey had
+unlocked the door of the cottage.
+
+“Sweet dreams, indeed!” the girls answered in chorus. “The kitchen
+closet to put in order, also the shed, two trunks to pack, twenty-four
+hours' dishes to wash, and a million 'odd jobs' more or less.”
+
+“Don't forget the borrowed articles to be returned,” reminded Hugh.
+“We'll take the pung and do that for you, also attend to the cleaning
+of the shed, which is more in our line than yours. Boys, let us give
+one rousing cheer for Dr. and Mrs. Winship, the model parents of the
+century!”
+
+The welkin rang with hurrahs, in which the girls joined with hearty
+vigor.
+
+“Now another rousing one for the model daughter of the century,” cried
+Bell, modestly; “the model daughter who had the bright idea and begged
+the model parents to assent to it. Of what use would have been the model
+parents, pray, unless they had had the model daughter with the bright
+idea?”
+
+More cheers, lustier than ever, floated out into the orchard.
+
+“The model daughter would have had a dull house-party with nothing but
+her bright idea to keep her company,” said Jo Fenton, suggestively.
+
+“Three cheers for the house party! Three cheers for the 'Jolly Six!'
+Hip, hip, hurrah!” and at this moment Uncle Harry's window opened and
+across the breadth of the orchard came the warning note of a conch
+shell, an instrument of much power, with which Uncle Harry called his
+men to dinner in haying time. Had it not been for this message of
+correction it is possible the enthusiastic young people might have
+cheered one another till midnight.
+
+*****
+
+It was afternoon of the next day. The six little housekeepers were gone,
+and the dejected hoys went into the garden to take a last look at the
+empty cottage. On the door was a long piece of fluttering white paper,
+tied with black ribbon. It proved to be the parting words of the “Jolly
+Six."=
+
+```How dear to our hearts are the scenes of
+
+`````vacation,
+
+```When fond recollection presents them
+
+`````to view!
+
+```The coasting, the sleigh-rides, and--chief
+
+`````recreation--
+
+```That gayest of picnics with squires so
+
+`````true!=
+
+```And note, torn away from the loved situ-
+
+`````ation,
+
+```The hump of conceit will explosively
+
+`````swell,
+
+```As proudly we think, never since the
+
+`````creation,
+
+```Did any young housekeepers keep
+
+`````house so well!=
+
+```Think not our great genius too highly
+
+`````we've rated,
+
+```For all that belongs to the kitchen we
+
+`````know;
+
+```And feel that from infancy we have been
+
+`````fated
+
+```For scrubbing and cooking, far more
+
+`````than for show.=
+
+```The cook-stove and dish-pan to us are so
+
+`````charming,
+
+```So toothsome the compounds we often
+
+`````have mixed,
+
+```That though you would think the news
+
+`````somewhat alarming,
+
+```On housekeeping ever our minds are
+
+`````quite fixed.=
+
+```Good-by to all hope of a fame uni-
+
+`````versal!
+
+```Farewell, vain ambition,--that way
+
+`````madness lies!
+
+```The rest of our youth shall be one long
+
+`````rehearsal
+
+```For life in six cottages, all of this
+
+`````size!=
+
+B. W.
+
+J. F.
+
+P. W.
+
+A. F.
+
+E. L.
+
+L. P.
+
+X=
+
+``Their joint mark.
+
+``Witnessed by me this morning,
+
+``Jack Frost, Notary Public.
+
+``Sealed with a snow flake.=
+
+
+The boys read this nonsense with hearty laughter, and latching the gate
+behind them, they went off, leaving the place deserted.
+
+“They are awfully jolly girls,” said Jack.
+
+“Better than jolly,” added Geoffrey, thoughtfully.
+
+“You're right, Geoff; miles better and miles more than jolly,” agreed
+Hugh. “None like'em in Brunswick.”
+
+“Or in Portland.”
+
+“Or in Bath.”
+
+“Or in Augusta.”
+
+And with this outburst of respectful admiration the lads passed out of
+view.
+
+The setting sun shone rosily in at the piazza window that afternoon,
+but fell blankly against a gray curtain, instead of smiling into six
+laughing faces as before.
+
+A noisy crowd of sparrows settled on the bare branches over the
+door-step, twittering as if they expected the supper of bread-crumbs
+which girlish hands had been wont to throw them, and at last flew
+away disappointed. In the old house opposite, Miss Miranda sat in her
+high-backed chair, knitting as fiercely as ever, while Miss Jane was at
+her post by the window, drearily watching the sun go down.
+
+She turned away with the glow of a new thought in her wrinkled face.
+“Mi-randy!” called she, sharply.
+
+No answer but the sharp click of knitting-needles.
+
+“Mirandy Sawyer! What do you say to invitin' our niece, Hannah, down
+here from the farm, and givin' her a couple of terms' schoolin'? Aurelia
+has her hands full raisin' that great family of children. She'd be glad
+one of 'em should have some advantages. We ain't seen Hannah since she
+was ten, but she was a nice appearin', pretty behavin' girl.”
+
+Miranda glanced ont of the window without speaking.
+
+“It seems like a streak of sunshine had gone out o' the place with them
+young creeters, and I think we've lived here alone about long enough!”
+ continued Miss Jane. “I should like to give one girl a chance of being
+a brighter, livelier woman than I am. Yes, you may drop your knittin',
+Mirandy, but you know it as well as I do!”
+
+No wonder that Miss Miranda looked very much as if she had been struck
+by lightning; the more wonder that the quiet old house didn't shake to
+its foundation, when this proposal was made. Indeed, old Tabby, on the
+hearth-rug, did wake up, startled, no doubt by the consciousness that a
+child's hand might pull her tail in days to come.
+
+“It does seem dreadful lonesome,” Miss Miranda agreed, after a long
+pause. “Hear Topsy howling in the kitchen; she's missin' the young life
+that's gone, and she'll have to git used to us all over again, jest as
+I said. Hannah would be considerable expense to us, and make a sight o'
+work, too. Of course, you've thought o' that?”
+
+“We take about so many steps, anyway,” argued Miss Jane, “and if the
+child's spry and handy, she may save us a few now and then. Tabitha
+ain't so much care, nor near so confinin', sence Topsy came to keep her
+comp'ny--even two cats is better'n one.”
+
+“There goes Emma Jane Perkins,” exclaimed Miss Miranda, from her post
+of observation. “She looks different somehow. I've always said I should
+think her face would ache, it's so hombly, but I guess she's passed her
+hombliest, and is going to improve. Mebbe Mis' Perkins has been givin'
+her spring medicine.”
+
+“I guess the 'spring medicine' has been two weeks' good time with that
+trainin' and careerin' houseful of girls,” rejoined Miss Jane, wisely.
+“Everybody in the village sits up kind o' smart and looks as if they'd
+taken a tonic. Maybe I'd better write to Aurelia on Sunday, Mirandy.”
+
+“Mebbe you had, Jane, and if she can't spare Hannah, say we'll take
+Rebecca, though I always thought she was a self-willed child, too full
+of her own fancies to be easy managed.”
+
+This is not the time for Rebecca's story; but, as a matter of
+fact, Mrs. Aurelia Randall could not spare Hannah, who was docile,
+industrious, and of much assistance with the house-work, and as a
+matter of fact it was the somewhat dreaded Rebecca who did come from
+the far-away farm to live in the dull old house with Miss Jane and Miss
+Miranda. And all that befell this new family circle, formed almost by
+accident, and all that Rebecca did, or became, as well as everything
+that happened during the gradual beautifying of Emma Jane Perkins, was,
+as you see, the indirect result of Bell Winship's madcap experiment in
+housekeeping.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 54685 ***
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-

-Project Gutenberg's Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin

-

-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: Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers

-       A Story for Girls in Half-A-Dozen Chapters

-

-Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin

-

-Illustrator: Mills Thompson

-

-Release Date: May 8, 2017 [EBook #54685]

-Last Updated: March 10, 2018

-

-Language: English

-

-Character set encoding: UTF-8

-

-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS ***

-

-

-

-

-Produced by David Widger from page images generously

-provided by the Internet Archive

-

-

-

-

-

-

-</pre>

-

-    <div style="height: 8em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h1>

-      HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS

-    </h1>

-    <h3>

-      A Story For Girls In Half-A-Dozen Chapters

-    </h3>

-    <h2>

-      By Kate Douglas Wiggin

-    </h2>

-    <h3>

-      Illustrated by Mills Thompson

-    </h3>

-    <h4>

-      Philadelphia Henry Altemus Company

-    </h4>

-    <h3>

-      1903

-    </h3>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">

-      <img src="images/0001.jpg" alt="0001 " width="100%" /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h5>

-      <a href="images/0001.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

-    </h5>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">

-      <img src="images/0006.jpg" alt="0006 " width="100%" /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h5>

-      <a href="images/0006.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

-    </h5>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">

-      <img src="images/0007.jpg" alt="0007 " width="100%" /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h5>

-      <a href="images/0007.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

-    </h5>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <b>CONTENTS</b>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS</b> </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I&mdash;BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II&mdash;IN THE FIRELIGHT </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III&mdash;AN EMERGENCY CASE </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV&mdash;A WINTER PICNIC </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V&mdash;OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG </a>

-    </p>

-    <p class="toc">

-      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI&mdash;&ldquo;THE END OF THE PLAY&rdquo; </a>

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h1>

-      HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS

-    </h1>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      CHAPTER I&mdash;BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>ARCH had come in

-      like a lion, and showed no sign of going out like a lamb. The pussy

-      willows knew that it was, or ought to be, spring, but although it takes a

-      deal to discourage a New England pussy willow, they shivered in their

-      brown skins and despaired of making their annual appearance even by April

-      Fool's Hay. The swallows still lingered in the South, having received

-      private advices from the snow-birds that State o' Maine weather, in the

-      present season, was only fitted for Arctic explorers. The air was keen and

-      nipping and the wind blew steadily from the north and howled about the

-      chimneys until one hardly knew whether to hug the warmth of the open fire

-      or to go out and battle with the elements.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Little did the rosy girls of the Wareham Female Seminary (girls were still

-      &ldquo;young females&rdquo; when all this happened)&mdash;little did they care about

-      snow and sleet and ice. Studies went on all the better with the afternoon

-      skating and sliding to look forward to. What joy to perch in the

-      window-seat with your volume of Virgil, and translate &ldquo;<i>Hoc opus hic

-      labor est</i>&rdquo; with half an eye on the gleaming ice of the pond, or the

-      glittering crust of the hillsides! What fun to slip on your rubber boots,

-      muffle yourself in your warm coat (made out of mother's old mink cape),

-      and run across the way to the Academy for recitations in mathematics or

-      philosophy!

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      These joys, however, with their attendant responsibilities, duties, and

-      cares, were to be suspended for a while at the Wareham Seminary, and the

-      &ldquo;young females&rdquo; who graced that institution of learning were not

-      inconsolable.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Bell Winship, an uncommonly nice girl herself and a born leader of other

-      nice girls, had sent out five mysteriously worded notes that morning, five

-      little notes to as many little maids, requesting the honor of their

-      presence at ten a. m. precisely, in Number 27, Second floor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Where Bell Winship wished girls to be, there they always were, and on the

-      minute, too, lest they should miss something; so there is nothing

-      remarkable in this statement of the fact, that at ten o'clock in the

-      morning, Number 27, Second floor, of the Wareham Female Seminary seemed to

-      be overflowing with girls, although in reality there were but six, all

-      told.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The wildest curiosity prevailed, and it was very imperfectly controlled,

-      but, at length, the hostess, mounting a shoebox, spoke with great dignity

-      in these words:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Fellow-countrywomen: Whereas, our recitation-hall has been burned to the

-      ground, thereby giving us a well-earned vacation of two weeks, I wish to

-      impart to you a plan by which we can better resign ourselves to the

-      afflicting and mysterious dispensation. You are aware,&rdquo; she continued,

-      still impressively, &ldquo;that my highly respected parents are both away for

-      the winter, thus leaving our humble cottage closed, and it occurred to me

-      as a brilliant, if somewhat daring, idea, that we six girls should go over

-      and keep house in it for a fortnight, alone and untrammeled.&rdquo; Here the

-      tidal wave of her eloquence was impeded by the overmastering enthusiasm of

-      the audience. Cheers and applause greeted her. Everybody pounded with

-      whatever she chanced to have in her hand, on any article of furniture that

-      chanced to be near.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, Bell, Bell! what a lovely plan!&rdquo; cried Lilia Porter; &ldquo;a more than

-      usually lovely plan; but will your mother ever allow it, do you suppose?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That's the point,&rdquo; answered Bell, gleefully. &ldquo;Here is the letter I have

-      just received from my father; he is a good parent, wholly worthy of his

-      daughter:&rdquo;

-     </p>

-<pre xml:space="preserve">

-     Baltimore, March 6th, 18&mdash;.

-

-     My dear Child:&mdash;We do not like to refuse you anything while

-     we are away enjoying ourselves, so, as the house is well

-     insured, you may go over and try your scheme. Your mother

-     says that you must not entirely demolish her jelly and

-     preserves. My only wish is that you will be careful of the

-     fires and lights.

-

-     I hope you won't feel injured if I suggest your asking

-     advice and suggestion of Miss Miranda and Miss Jane, who are

-     your nearest neighbors. They will take you in charge anyway,

-     and you might as well put yourself nominally under their

-     care. Your uncle will, of course, have an eye to you,

-     perhaps two eyes, and I dare say he could use more than the

-     allotted number, but Grandmamma will lend him hers, no

-     doubt.

-

-     Write me a line every day, saying that the household timbers

-     are still standing.

-

-     Your weakly indulgent but affectionate

-

-     Father.

-</pre>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Isn't he a perfect darling!&rdquo; cried the enraptured quintette.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; said demure Patty Weld, &ldquo;that before we permit ourselves to

-      feel too happy, we had better consult <i>our</i> 'powers that be,' and see

-      if we can accept Bell's invitation.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I refuse to hear 'No' from one of you,&rdquo; Bell answered, firmly. &ldquo;I have

-      thought it all over; spent the night upon it, in fact. You, Alice, and

-      Josie Fenton, are too far from home to go there anyway, so I shall lead

-      you off as helpless captives. Your mother is in town, Lilia, so that you

-      can ask her immediately, and hear the worst; you and Edith, Patty, are

-      only a half-day's journey away, and can find out easily. I know you can

-      get permission, for it's going to be perfectly proper and safe. Grandmamma

-      lives nearby, the Sawyer spinsters are the village duennas, and Uncle

-      Harry can protect us from any rampaging burglars and midnight marauders

-      that may happen in to pay their respects.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      So the &ldquo;Jolly Six,&rdquo; as they were called by their schoolmates, separated,

-      to build many castles in the air. Bell, it was decided, was to go on to

-      her country home in advance, and, with the help of a neighboring farmer's

-      daughter, prepare and provision the house for an unusual siege.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The girls had determined to have no servant, and their many ingenious

-      plans for managing and dividing the work were the source of great

-      amusement to the teachers, some of whom had been admitted to their

-      confidence. Josie Fenton and Bell were to do the cooking, Jo claiming the

-      sternly practical department best suited to her&mdash;meat, vegetables,

-      and bread&mdash;while Bell was to concoct puddings, cakes, and the various

-      little indigestible dainties toward which schoolgirl hearts are so tender.

-      Alice Forsaith, the oldest of the party and the beauty of the school, with

-      Edith Lambert, as an aid, was to manage the making of the beds, tidying of

-      rooms, and setting of tables, while Lilia Porter and Patty Weld, with

-      noble heroism and selfsacrifice, offered to shoulder that cross of an

-      old-fashioned girl's life&mdash;the washing and wiping of dishes.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      On a Wednesday morning the two maiden ladies living nearly opposite the

-      Winship cottage were transfixed with wonder by the appearance of Bell, who

-      asked for the house-key left in safe keeping with them.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Du tell, Isabel!&mdash;I didn't expect to see you this mornin',&mdash;air

-      your folks comin' home or hev you been turned out o' school?&rdquo; asked Miss

-      Miranda.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo; laughed Bell; &ldquo;I'm going to housekeeping myself!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Good land! You haven't run off and got married, have you?&rdquo; cried Miss

-      Jane.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Not quite so bad as that; but I'm going to bring five of my schoolmates

-      over to-morrow, and we intend to stay here two weeks all alone, as

-      housekeepers and householders.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Land o' mercy,&rdquo; moaned the nervous Miss Miranda. &ldquo;That Pa o' yourn would

-      let you tread on him and not notice it. How any sensible man could do sech

-      a crazy thing as to let a pack of girls tear his house to pieces, I don't

-      see. You'll burn us all up before a week's out; I declare I sha'n't sleep

-      a wink for worrying the whole time.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You needn't be afraid, Miss Sawyer,&rdquo; said Bell, with some spirit. &ldquo;If six

-      girls, none of them younger than fourteen, can't take care of a few stoves

-      and fireplaces, I should think it was a pity. Everybody seems to think

-      nowadays that young people have no common sense. The world's growing wiser

-      all the time, and I don't see why we shouldn't be as bright as those

-      detestable pattern-girls of fifty years ago.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well, well, don't get huffy, Isabel; you mean well, but all girls are

-      unstiddy at your age. Anyhow, I'll try to keep an eye on ye. Here's your

-      key, and we can spare you a quart of milk a day and risin's for your

-      bread, if you're going to try riz bread, though I don't s'pose one of ye

-      knows anything about flour food.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Thank you; that'll be very nice, and now I'm going over to begin work,

-      for I have heaps to do. Emma Jane Perkins has come to help me, and

-      Grandma's Betty will come down every afternoon. By the way, can I have

-      Topsycat while I am here?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes, I s'pose so,&rdquo; said Miss Jane, &ldquo;though it's been an awful sight of

-      work gettin' her used to our ways, and I'd never have done it if Mis'

-      Winship hadn't set such store by her. She pretty near pined away the first

-      week, and I've baked ginger cake for her and buttered her fritters every

-      mornin'.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I won't borrow her if you think she will be more troublesome afterward,&rdquo;

-       Bell answered, &ldquo;but you know it's almost impossible to keep house without

-      a cat and a dog. Bobs came over from Uncle Harry's the moment I arrived,

-      and is waiting at the gate now.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I don't agree with you,&rdquo; said Miss Miranda. &ldquo;'Blessed be nothin', I say,

-      when it comes to live stock. We disposed of our horse, the pig went next,

-      and the cow's turn's comin'. Even a cat is dreadful confinin'. If you have

-      a cat and two hens you're as much tied down as if you had a barn full of

-      critters.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      The day was very cold, and both Bell and Emma Jane shivered as they

-      unlocked one frost-bitten door after another.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We shall freeze as stiff as pokers,&rdquo; said Bell, with chattering teeth;

-      &ldquo;but we can't help it; let's build a fire in every stove in the honse and

-      thaw things out.&rdquo; This was done, and in an hour they were moderately

-      comfortable. The weather being so cold, Bell decided upon using only three

-      rooms, all on the first floor&mdash;the large, handsome family

-      sitting-room, the kitchen, and Mrs. Win-ship's chamber. This being very

-      capacious, she moved a couple of bedsteads from other rooms, and placing

-      the three side by side, filled up the intervening spaces with bolsters,

-      thus making one immensely wide bed.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;There, Emma Jane, isn't that a bright idea! We can all sleep in a row,

-      and then there'll be no quarreling about bedfellows or rooms. I certainly

-      am a good contriver,&rdquo; cried Bell, with a triumphant little laugh.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It looks awful like a hospital, and the bolsters will keep fallin' down

-      in between and it'll be dreadful hard mak-in' 'em up of a mornin',&rdquo;

-       rejoined Emma Jane, who was no flatterer, being New England born and bred.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The sitting-room coal stove had accommodations, on top and back, for

-      cooking, so Bell thought that their suppers, with perhaps an occasional

-      breakfast, might be prepared there. The large bay-window, with its bright

-      drugget, would serve as a sort of tiny diningroom, so the mahogany

-      extension-table, with its carved legs, pretty red cover, and silver

-      service, was carried there. This accomplished, and every room made

-      graceful and attractive by Bell (who was a born homemaker, and placed

-      photographs, lamps, sofa-pillows, fir-boughs, and bowls of red apples just

-      where they were needed in the picture), she went over to her

-      Grandmother's, where four loaves of bread were baking and pies being

-      filled, in order that the young housekeepers might begin with a full

-      pantry.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, Grandma,&rdquo; she exclaimed breathlessly, tearing off her cloud and

-      bringing down with it a sunshiny mass of bronze hair, &ldquo;it does look

-      lovely, if I do say it; and as for setting that house on fire, there's no

-      danger, for it will take a week to thaw it into a state in which it would

-      burn. I have made up my mind that I sha'n't be the one to build the fires

-      every morning, even if I am hostess. I don't want to freeze myself daily

-      for the cause of politeness. Has the provision man come yet!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Uncle Harry, &ldquo;and brought eatables enough for an army&mdash;more

-      than you girls can devour in a month.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You'll see,&rdquo; said Bell, laughingly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You don't know the capacity of the 'Jolly Six' yet. Now, Betty, please

-      take the eggs and potatoes and fish and put them in our store room. I've

-      just time to make my cake and custard before I drive to the station for

-      the girls. Do you know, Uncle Harry, I am going to do the most astounding

-      thing! I've borrowed Farmer Allen's one-seated old pung,&mdash;the one he

-      takes to town filled with vegetables,&mdash;and I am going to keep it for

-      our sleigh-rides. It will hold all six of us, and what do we care for

-      public opinion!&rdquo; said she, with a disdainful gesture.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      CHAPTER II&mdash;IN THE FIRELIGHT

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO hours later you

-      might have seen the old pung drawn by Mr. Allen's Jerry, with Bell and

-      Alice Forsaith on the seat, and four laughing, rosy-cheeked girls warmly

-      tucked in buffalo robes on the bottom. Even the sober old sun, who had

-      been under a cloud that day, poked his head out to see the fun, and became

-      so interested that, in spite of himself, he forgot his determination not

-      to shine, and did his duty all the afternoon.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      When the girls opened the door and saw Bell's preparations,&mdash;the cozy

-      sitting-room, with dining-table in the bay-window, three sofas in a row,

-      so that on snowy days they might extend their lazy lengths thereon, and

-      finally a fir-covered barrel of Nodhead and Baldwin apples in one corner,&mdash;there

-      arose bursts of happy laughter and ecstatic cheers loud enough to shock

-      the neighbors, who seldom laughed and never cheered.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I know it's an original idea to have an apple-barrel in your parlor

-      corner,&rdquo; said Bell; &ldquo;but the common-sense of it will be seen by every

-      thoughtful mind. Our forces will consume a peck a day, and life is too

-      short to spend it in galloping up and down cellar constantly for apples.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Bell Winship, you are an inhospitable creature,&rdquo; exclaimed Lilia Porter.

-      &ldquo;Here I am, calmly seated on a coal-hod with my hat on, while you are

-      talking so fast that you can't get time to show us our apartments. Shelter

-      before food, say I!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Apartments!&rdquo; sniffed Bell, in mock dudgeon. &ldquo;You are very grand in your

-      ideas! Behold your camp, your wigwam, your tent, your quarters!&rdquo; and she

-      threw open the door of the large chamber and waved the party dramatically

-      in that direction.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Bell, you will yet be Presidentess of these United States,&rdquo; cried Edith

-      Lambert. &ldquo;Any girl who can devise two such happy combinations as an

-      apple-barrel in a parlor corner and three beds in a row, ought to be given

-      a chair of state.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Might a poor worm inquire, Bell,&rdquo; asked Patty, &ldquo;why those croquet mallets

-      and balls are laid out in file round the beds?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Why, those are for protection, you goose, supposing anybody should come

-      in the piazza window at night, and we had nothing to kill him with!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes, and supposing he should take one of the mallets and pound us all to

-      a jelly to begin with?&rdquo; Patty retorted, being of a practical mind.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That <i>would</i> be rather embarrassing,&rdquo; answered Bell, with a

-      reflective shudder; &ldquo;I hadn't thought of it.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What could one poor man do against five girls banging him with croquet

-      mallets, while the sixth was running to alarm the neighbors?&rdquo; asked Alice,

-      &ldquo;and to put an end to the discussion I suggest that the cooks start

-      supper;&rdquo; whereupon she threw herself into an arm-chair, and put up a pair

-      of small, stout boots on the fender.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The unfortunate couple referred to exchanged looks of unmitigated

-      discouragement.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I have my opinion of a girl who will mention supper before she has been

-      in the house an hour,&rdquo; said the head cook.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Josie, I foresee that they are going to make galley-slaves of us if they

-      can. However,&rdquo; turning again to Alice, &ldquo;it isn't to be supper, but dinner.

-      The meals at this house are to be thus and so: Breakfast at 9 a.m.,

-      luncheon at 12 m., dinner at 5 p.m., refreshments at various times betwixt

-      and between, and all affairs pertaining to eatables are to be completely

-      under the control of the chefs, Mesdemoiselles Winship and Fenton. We

-      cannot have you 'suggesting' dinner at all hours, Miss Forsaith. If time

-      hangs heavy on your hands, occupy it in your own branches of housework.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;If we are to be ruled over in this way, life will not be worth living,&rdquo;

-       cried Patty Weld, in comical despair. &ldquo;I dare say we shall be half starved

-      as the days go on, but do give us something good to begin on, Bluebell!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Judging from the scene at the table an hour later, it would not have made

-      much difference whether the repast was sumptuous or not, so formidable

-      were the appetites, and such the merriment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, dear,&rdquo; sighed Bell, dismally, to the assistant cook, &ldquo;I will throw

-      off all disguise and say that this family is a surprise and a

-      disappointment to me. When a person cooks twenty-seven potatoes, with the

-      reasonable expectation of having half left to fry, and sees a solitary one

-      left in the dish, with all its lovely companions both faded and gone, she

-      is naturally disheartened. Any way, we have finished for to-night, so the

-      Dish Brigade can marshal its forces. We will take our one potato into the

-      kitchen, Jo, and see if we can make it enough for breakfast. Look in the

-      corner bookcase; bring Mrs. Whitney's 'Just How,' Marion Harland's 'Cook

-      Book,' 'The Young Housekeeper's Friend,' and 'The Bride's Manual.'&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      At nine o'clock that evening Uncle Harry passed through the garden, and

-      noticing a pair of open shutters, peeped in at the back window of the

-      sitting-room, thinking he had never seen a more charming or attractive

-      picture. Pretty Edith Lambert was curled up in an armchair near the astral

-      lamp, her face resting on her two rosy palms, and her eyes bent over

-      &ldquo;Little Women.&rdquo; Bluebell, her bright hair bobbed in a funny sort of twist,

-      from which two or three venturesome and rebellious curls were straying

-      out, and her high-necked blue apron still on over her dark dress, was

-      humming soft little songs at the piano. Roguish Jo was sitting flat on the

-      hearth, her bright cheeks flushed rosier under the warm occupation of corn

-      popping, and her dark hair falling loosely round her face, while Patty

-      Weld with her shy, demure face, was beside her on a hassock, knitting a

-      &ldquo;fascinator&rdquo; out of white wool. These two, so thoroughly unlike, were

-      never to be seen apart; indeed, they were so inseparable as to be dubbed

-      the &ldquo;Scissors&rdquo; or &ldquo;Tongs&rdquo; by their friends. Alice and Lilia were

-      quarreling briskly over a game of cribbage, Lilia's animated expression

-      and ringing laugh contrasting forcibly with the calm face of her

-      antagonist. Alice was never known to be excited over anything. It was she

-      who carried off all the dignity and took the part of presiding goddess of

-      the party. The girls all adored her for her beauty and superior age; for

-      she had attained the enviable pinnacle of &ldquo;sweet sixteen.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said Jo, breaking the silence, &ldquo;let us have refreshments, then a

-      good quiet talk together, then muster the Hair-Brushing Brigade, and go to

-      bed. I think I have corn enough; I've popped and popped and popped as no

-      one ever popped before, and till popping has ceased to be fun.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Pop on, pop ever; the more you give us, Jo, the more popular you'll be,&rdquo;

-       laughed Bell.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;She is a veritable 'pop-in-J,' isn't she?&rdquo; cried Lilia.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Now Lilia,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;let us get the apples and nuts, and we'll sit in

-      a ring on the floor, and eat. I shan't crack the almonds; the girl that

-      hath her teeth, I say, is no girl, if with her teeth she cannot crack an

-      almond. Lilia, you're not a bit of assistance; you've tied up the end of

-      the nut-bag in a hard knot, upset the apple-dish, put the tablecloth on

-      crooked, and&mdash;oh, dear&mdash;now you've stepped in the pop-corn,&rdquo; as

-      Lilia, trying desperately to cross the room without knocking something

-      over, as usual, had hit the corn-pan in her airy flight. &ldquo;You have such a

-      genius for stepping into half-a-dozen things at once, I think you must be

-      web-footed.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well, that's possible,&rdquo; retorted the unfortunate Lilia; &ldquo;I've often been

-      told I was a duck of a girl, and this proves it.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Do you realize, girls,&rdquo; said Edith, after a while, &ldquo;that we shall all be

-      visited by ghosts and visions to-night, if we don't terminate this repast?

-      I'll put away the dishes, Bell, if you'll move the sofas up to the fire,

-      so that we can have our good-night chat.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      So, speedily, six warm dressing-sacques were slipped on, and then, the

-      lamps being turned out, in the ruddy glow of the firelight, the brown, the

-      yellow, and the dark hair was taken down, and the housekeepers, braiding

-      it up for the night, talked and dreamed and built their castles in the

-      air, as all young things are wont to do.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Girls, dear old girls,&rdquo; said Alice, softly, breaking an unusual silence

-      of two minutes; &ldquo;isn't this cosy and sweet and friendly beyond anything?

-      How thankful we ought to be for the happy lives God gives us! We have been

-      put into this beautiful world and taken care of so wisely and kindly every

-      day; yet we don't often speak, or even think, about it.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is trouble, sometimes, more than happiness, that leads us into

-      thinking about God's care and goodness,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;although it's very

-      strange that it should. Before my mother's death I was just a little baby

-      playing with letter-blocks, and all at once, after that, I began to make

-      the letters into words and spell out things for myself.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What a perfect heathen I am,&rdquo; burst out Jo. &ldquo;I can't feel any of these

-      things any more than if I were a Chinaman. Or, perhaps, it is as Edith

-      says, I am still playing with blocks, although I cannot even see the

-      letters on them. I wonder if I shall ever be wide awake enough for that!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Look out of the window, Jo,&rdquo; said

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Bell, who was leaning on the sill. &ldquo;Don't you think if God can make out of

-      all that snow and ice, in three short months, a lovely, tender, green,

-      springing world, He can make something out of us! Isn't it a wonderful

-      thing that He can wake up the life that's asleep under the frozen earth?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; rejoined Jo, dismally, &ldquo;there's something to begin on out there,

-      but I don't think I have much of a soul; any way, I have never seen any

-      signs of it. You always say things so prettily, Bell, that I like to hear

-      you sermonize. You'd make a good minister's wife.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I think you have plenty of 'soul material,' Jo,&rdquo; said Lilia, confusedly

-      struggling to make a figure of speech express her meaning. &ldquo;There's lots

-      of it there, only it wants to be blown up, somehow.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Thanks for your encouragement,&rdquo; said Jo, amid the laughter that followed

-      Lilia's peculiar metaphor. &ldquo;I think if you'll try to handle the spiritual

-      bellows, you'll find it's harder work than you imagine. Now don't laugh,

-      girls, because I really do feel solemn about it, only I talk in my usual

-      frivolous way.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You always make yourself appear wicked, Jo,&rdquo; said her loving champion,

-      Patty, &ldquo;but I happen to know a few facts on the opposite side. Who was it

-      who gave every cent of her month's allowance to Mrs. Hart, the poor

-      washerwoman who scorched her white skirt; and who stayed away from the

-      church sociable to take care of that horrid room mate of hers who had a

-      headache?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Patty, if you don't desist,&rdquo; cried Jo, with a flaming face, and

-      brandishing a hair-brush fiercely, &ldquo;I'll throw this at your dear,

-      charitable little head. Now, Bell, you know we all agreed to tell a story

-      of adventure each night before going to bed, and I think you, as hostess,

-      ought to begin. If the entertainment is delayed much longer it will find

-      me asleep with fatigue and over-feeding in the front row of the

-      orchestra.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Dear me, I can't begin!&rdquo; cried Bell, &ldquo;Nothing ever happened to me except

-      going to California and having a double wedding in the family. That's the

-      sum total of my adventures.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Make up something then, or tell us a true story about California. Oh, you

-      do have such a good time, and funny things are always happening to you,&rdquo;

-       sighed Lilia. &ldquo;You never seem to have any trials.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Trials!&rdquo; rejoined Bell, sarcastically. &ldquo;I should think I hadn't. Perhaps

-      I haven't a little scamp of a brother and an awfully fussy old aunty!

-      Perhaps I'm not such an idiot that I can't multiply eight and nine, or

-      seven and six, without a lead-pencil; perhaps I wasn't left at school

-      while my parents toured in the South! Don't you call those afflictions?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes, I do,&rdquo; answered Lilia, joining in the general laugh; &ldquo;and I'll never

-      allude to your good fortune again. Now tell us a California story,&mdash;that's

-      a dear,&mdash;for I'm getting sleepy as well as Jo.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, well,&rdquo; said Bell, walking about the room absent-mindedly, until her

-      eyes rested on the cabinet, &ldquo;I'll tell you the story of these;&rdquo; and she

-      took up a string of dusty pearls which were seamed and cracked as if by

-      fire. &ldquo;Now open your eyes and lend me your ears, for I shall make it as

-      'bookish' and romantic as possible.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Last summer Mother and I were living in a beautiful valley a hundred

-      miles from San Francisco. It was near the mining districts, where Father

-      was attending to some business. Of course, a great many Mexicans and

-      Indians, as well as Chinamen, worked in these mines, and we used to see

-      them very often. Mother and I were sitting under the peach-trees in the

-      garden one afternoon. It was so beautiful sewing or reading in that

-      California garden, for the fruit was ripe and hanging in bushels on the

-      trees, as lovely to look at as it was luscious to eat; some of the peaches

-      were a rich yellow inside and others snow-white, except where the crimson

-      stones had tinged their sockets with rosy little spots.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Don't,&rdquo; cried Jo; &ldquo;you'll make us discontented with our New England

-      apples!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We were chatting and eating peaches,&rdquo; continued Bell, &ldquo;when the gate

-      opened, and an Indian girl with an old squaw came in and approached us,

-      The girl could speak English, and told me her name was Eskaluna. I had

-      heard about her, and knew that she was the beauty and belle of the tribe,

-      and was going to marry the chief's son when the next moon came; for our

-      Indian cook was as gossipy as a Yankee, and was forever telling us tales.

-      She was the most beautiful creature I ever saw: lovely black hair, not so

-      coarse as is usual with them, brilliant dark eyes, good features, and the

-      prettiest slim hands and graceful arms. She was dressed gaily and

-      handsomely in the fashion of her tribe, and on her lovely, bare, brown

-      neck was this long string of Mexican pearls, which we noticed at once as

-      being very valuable. She stayed there all the afternoon under the

-      fruit-trees, and really grew quite confidential. Mother, meanwhile, had

-      gone into ecstacies over her beautiful pearls, and had taken them from her

-      neck to examine them. At sunset, when she went home to her wigwam, she

-      slipped the necklace into mother's lap, saying, with her sweet trick of

-      speech, 'I eatie your peachie, you takie my beads.' Of course, mother

-      could not accept them, and Eskaluna departed in quite a disappointed mood.

-      I remember being sorry that the pretty young thing was going to marry the

-      disagreeable, ugly chief. He was just as jealous and ferocious as he could

-      be&mdash;wouldn't let her talk to one of the warriors of the tribe, and

-      had shot one man already because he fancied Eskaluna admired him.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      A chorus of &ldquo;Oh's&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ah's&rdquo; interrupted Bell, and Alice's eyes grew

-      round with interest, for she was sixteen and had been called a &ldquo;cruel

-      coquette&rdquo; by a young student at Wareham.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;In a few days our Indian cook came home at night from the mines, saying

-      that he wanted a holiday the next morning to go to a funeral. We had heard

-      that in some tribes they burn the bodies of the dead, and wondered whether

-      his were one of them, so we asked him the particulars, of course, and were

-      terribly shocked when we heard that it was the funeral of poor Eskaluna,

-      who had visited us so lately, in all her dusky beauty. Nakawa told us the

-      whole story in his broken English, and a sad one it was. Her lover, the

-      chief, as I have said, was always jealous of her, and on the afternoon she

-      came to our house, he had heard from some crafty villain or other (an

-      enemy of Eskaluna's, of course), that she was false, and, instead of

-      intending to marry him, loved a handsome young Indian of another tribe,

-      and was planning to run away with him.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This fired his hot blood, and he rushed off on the village road

-      determined to kill her. He climbed a large sycamore tree on a lonely part

-      of the way, and there waited until the shadows fell over the mountain

-      sides, and the sun, dropping behind their peaks, left the San Jacinto

-      valley in fast-growing darkness. At last he saw the gleam of her scarlet

-      dress in the distance, and soon he heard her voice as she came singing

-      along, little thinking of her dreadful fate. He took sure aim at the heart

-      that was beating happily and carelessly under its cape of birds' feathers;

-      shot, and so swift and unerring was his arrow that she fell in an instant,

-      dead, upon the path. Then, leaving her with the helpless old squaw, he

-      escaped into a canon near by.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">

-      <img src="images/0053.jpg" alt="0053 " width="100%" /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h5>

-      <a href="images/0053.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

-    </h5>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The next day we went over to the Indian encampment, and reached the place

-      just after poor Eskaluna had been burned on the funeral pile. We went

-      close to the spot and could hardly help crying when we thought of her

-      beauty and sweetness, and her sad and undeserved death. Up near the head

-      of the pile where that lovely brown neck of hers had rested,&mdash;the

-      prettiest neck in the world,&mdash;lay this charred string of pearls she

-      had worn in our garden. Mother asked for it as a remembrance, and the old

-      squaw gave it to her. Eskaluna's brother is on the war-path after her

-      murderer, I believe, to this day, if he hasn't killed him yet; for he was

-      determined to avenge her. Now, isn't that romantic, and tragic at the same

-      time, girls? Poor Eskaluna! I don't know that her fate would have been

-      much easier if she had married the chief; but it is hard to think of her

-      being so heartlessly murdered when she was so innocent and true; and

-      that's the end of my story. Who comes next?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Not I, at this hour,&rdquo; yawned Jo, &ldquo;but it was a good tale!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Nor I, after that thrilling experience of yours!&rdquo; said Alice, admiringly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I can think of no story half so delightful as the dreams we shall have if

-      we go to bed,&rdquo; murmured Edith from her cozy corner. &ldquo;Come, it is after

-      ten, and the wide bed calls loudly for occupants.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      In a half-hour all six were asleep, and the bright-faced moon, looking in

-      at the piazza window, smiled as she saw the half-dozen heads in a row, and

-      the bed surrounded by croquet mallets and balls.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      CHAPTER III&mdash;AN EMERGENCY CASE

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE next morning

-      broke clear, bright, and sparkling, but bitterly cold. I cannot attempt to

-      tell you all the doings of that indefatigable and ingenious bevy of girls

-      during the day. Miss Miranda, their opposite neighbor, had kept to her

-      post of observation, the window, very closely, and had seen much to awaken

-      scorn and surprise.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Wa'al, Jane!&rdquo; said she, excitedly, in the afternoon, &ldquo;there they go

-      ag'in! That's the fourth time the hoss has been harnessed into Allen's

-      pung to-day; and now they've got their uncle. Whatever they find to laugh

-      so over, and where they go to, is more'n I can see. They haven't done up

-      their dinner dishes, I know, for I've been watching of 'em and they

-      hain't had time to do 'em so quick as this, though Bell Winship is

-      as spry as a skeeter when she gets a-goin'.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Miss Miranda's organs of vision were better than magnifying glasses, for,

-      aided by a lively imagination, they could dart around corners and through

-      doors with great ease. Bell avowed confidentially to Patty that morning,

-      when she met her neighbor's eyes fixed on the pantry window, that she

-      believed Miss Miranda could see a fly-speck on top of a liberty-pole.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The girls had made the day a very long and lively one, and in the evening,

-      their spirits still high and their inventive powers still unimpaired, they

-      gave an impromptu concert. The audience was small but appreciative.

-      Grandmother was in a private box&mdash;the high-backed arm-chair in the

-      cosiest corner; Uncle Harry sat on a hastily-erected throne made by

-      perching a stool on the dining-table, and being given a large pair of

-      goggles, was requested to serve as dramatic and musical critic for the

-      morning newspapers. Two or three of the boarders from Mrs. Carter's famous

-      Winter Farmhouse on the hill, the young schoolmaster (a Bowdoin student

-      earning his college course by odd terms of teaching), and Hugh Pennell,

-      his chum and classmate, home on a brief holiday, made quite a brave show

-      when seated in three rows, while the unaffected laughter, the open mouths,

-      and the staring eyes of &ldquo;the help,&rdquo; Emma Jane Perkins, Betty Bean, and 'Bijah

-      Flagg, who were grouped at the hall door, helped in the general merriment.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Bell had a keen sense of the ridiculous and a voice like a meadow-lark. Jo

-      was capital, too, as a mimic, so together, they gave some absurdly funny

-      scenes from famous operas. Bell had thrown on an evening dress of her

-      cousin's, which happened to be left in the house, and this, with its short

-      sleeves, showing her round, girlish arms, and its long train, made her

-      such a distracting little prima donna of fifteen, that Hugh Pennell quite

-      laid his boyish heart at her feet. She sang &ldquo;The Last Rose of Summer&rdquo; with

-      all the smiles, head-tossings, arch looks, casting down of eyelids, and

-      kissing of finger-tips at the close, which generally accompany it when

-      sung by the stage soprano, and she was naturally greeted with rapturous

-      applause. Then Jo, as the tenor, in dressing-gown and smoking-cap for male

-      attire, sang a fervent duet with Alice Forsaith, rendering it with

-      original Italian words and embraces at the end of every measure.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">

-      <img src="images/0063.jpg" alt="0063 " width="100%" /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h5>

-      <a href="images/0063.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

-    </h5>

-    <p>

-      Tableaux showing scenes from well-known novels, and thrilling historical

-      events depicted in pantomime, came next, and the company was invited to

-      name them as they followed one another in quick succession,&mdash;Eliza

-      crossing the river by leaping from ice block to ice block, the bloodhounds

-      in hot pursuit; Pochahontas saving the life of her noble Captain John;

-      Rochester, holding Jane Eyre spellbound by the steely glitter of his eye;

-      and the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers, landing on a stern and rock-bound

-      coast, ably represented by the dining-room table. As Uncle Harry sat on

-      the table he was obliged to be the center of this thrilling scene, which

-      was variously surmised by the audience to be the capture of a slave-ship

-      by pirates, the rescue of a babe from a tenement-house fire, the killing

-      of Julius Cæsar in the Roman Senate, or an impassioned attempt to drag

-      Casabianca from the burning deck.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      After bidding their visitors goodnight, Bell and Jo went into the kitchen

-      to put buckwheat cakes to raise for breakfast.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I believe I'll chop the meat hash for a half-hour while the kitchen is

-      warm,&rdquo; said Jo. &ldquo;Emma Jane is right about the knife; it is dull beyond

-      words!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;If it is any duller than Emma Jane herself, I am sorry for it,&rdquo; rejoined

-      Bell.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It's a poor workman who complains of his tools, Jo,&rdquo; said Patty, looking

-      in at the door, with a superior air; &ldquo;Columbus discovered America in an

-      open boat.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;He would never have discovered America with this chopping-knife,&rdquo; quoth

-      Jo, bringing it down with vicious emphasis on the unoffending meat.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Did you notice Emma Jane's expression as she stood in the doorway to

-      night?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I did,&rdquo; replied Bell, as she bustled about her last tasks at closet,

-      cupboard, and sink. &ldquo;Not a penny of my money shall go to the heathen in

-      other lands until I have done some missionary work with her. In ten days I

-      propose to make her stand straight, hold her head up, keep her mouth

-      closed when not occupied in conversation or eating, stop straining her

-      hair out by the roots, tie the ends of her braids with ribbon instead of

-      twine, give up her magenta hood, and a few other little details.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I don't see how you dare advise her at her advanced age,&rdquo; responded Jo.

-      &ldquo;I suppose she is thirteen, but she appears about thirty. Look, Bell, can

-      this hash be safely trusted now to the pearly teeth of our parlor

-      boarders, or are the pieces too large for their 'delicate sensibilities'?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I think that it may escape criticism,&rdquo; laughed Bell. &ldquo;Cover it with a

-      clean towel and a platter, and one of us will give it a last castigation

-      before it goes in the frying-pan.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I never had such a good time in my life, never, never!&rdquo; sighed Lilia, as

-      she blew out the lamp, and tucked herself on the front side of the bed, a

-      little later. &ldquo;I have only two things to trouble me. First: my wisdom

-      tooth feels as if it were going to ache again. Second: it is my turn to

-      build the kitchen fire in the morning.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Console yourself with one thought, my dear,&rdquo; murmured Bell, drowsily, yet

-      sagely. &ldquo;Both these misfortunes can't happen to you, for if your tooth

-      chances to ache, we shall not have the heart to make you build the fire.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Don't tell her that,&rdquo; urged Jo, with a prodigious yawn, &ldquo;or she will be

-      feigning toothache constantly.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Lilia's fears had good foundation, however, for in the middle of the

-      night, Jo, who slept next the front side, wakened suddenly to find her

-      slipping quietly out of bed.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What's the matter, Lilia!&rdquo; she whispered.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Nothing; don't wake the others, but that miserable tooth grumbles just

-      enough to keep me awake, and my temple aches and my cheek, too. Where is

-      the lotion I use for bathing my face, do you know?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes, where you put it this morning, on the back of the wash-stand;

-      sha'n't I light the lamp and help you?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No, no, hush!&rdquo; said Lilia. &ldquo;I can put my hand on it in the dark. Here it

-      is! I'll bathe my face a few minutes, and then try to go to sleep.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      So, she anointed herself freely, put the bottle and sponge under the head

-      of the bed lest she should need them again, and, finally, the pain growing

-      less, fell asleep.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      In the morning, Bell, who wakened first, rubbed her eyes drowsily, glanced

-      at Lilia, who was breathing quietly, and uttered a piercing shriek. This

-      in turn aroused the other girls, who joined in the shriek on general

-      principles, and then, blinking in the half-light, looked where Bell

-      pointed. One side of Lilia's face was swollen, and of a dark, purple

-      color, presenting a truly frightful appearance. At length, hearing the

-      confusion, Lilia awoke with a start, and her eyes being open, and rolling

-      about in surprise, she looked still more alarming.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What on earth is the matter, girls?&rdquo; she asked, sitting up in bed,

-      smoothing back her hair and rubbing her heavy lids.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Thereupon Edith and Alice began to tremble and nobody answered her.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;K-k-keep c-c-calm,&rdquo; said Bell. &ldquo;Lilia, dear, your face is badly swollen

-      and inflamed, and we're afraid you are going to be ill, but we'll send for

-      the doctor straight away. Does it pain you very much?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Lilia jumped up hastily, and, looking in the mirror, uttered a cry of

-      terror, and sank back into the rocking-chair.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What can it be! Oh, take me home to my father! It

-      must be a malignant pustule&mdash;or spotted fever&mdash;or something

-      dreadful! What shall I do? Bell, you are a doctor's daughter; do find out

-      what's the matter with me! I am disfigured for life, and I wasn't very

-      good-looking before.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Girls,&rdquo; said Bell, &ldquo;let us dress this very instant, for we can't be too

-      quick about a thing of this kind. You, Jo, build the kitchen fire, and,

-      Alice, make a blaze on the hearth in here; then, after we've made her

-      comfortable, Edith can run and tell Uncle Harry to come.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Put on the kettle,&rdquo; added Patty, &ldquo;and heat blankets; they always do that

-      in emergencies.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Don't frighten me to death,&rdquo; wailed Lilia, &ldquo;calling me 'a thing of this

-      kind' and an 'emergency.' I don't feel a hit worse than I did in the

-      night.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;She had neuralgia in her face,&rdquo; explained Jo; &ldquo;that must have had

-      something to do with it. She put on some of her liniment, and then dropped

-      off to sleep. Come, darling, let us tuck you in bed again; try to keep up

-      your courage!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Then there was a hasty consultation in the kitchen 'midst many

-      groans and tears. Bell was an authority on sickness, and she said, with an

-      awestruck face, that it must be a dreadful attack of erysipelas in the

-      very last stages.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; cried Alice, perplexed, &ldquo;it is all very strange, for why does she

-      have so little pain, and how could her face have turned so black from

-      mortification in one night?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Blood-poisoning is very quick and very deadly,&rdquo; said Patty, who had heard

-      about such a case in her own family.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Goodness knows what it is,&rdquo; exclaimed Bell, wringing her hands in nervous

-      terror. &ldquo;What to do with her I don't know; whether to put bricks to her

-      head and ice to her feet, or keep her head cold and heat her

-      'extremities,' as father calls them&mdash;whether to give her a sweat or

-      keep her dry, or wrap her in blankets, or get the linen sheets. Jo is with

-      her now. If you'll go and wake Uncle Harry, Edith, it is the best thing we

-      can do. Run along with her, too, Patty, and you won't be afraid together.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Alice and Bell went back presently to Lilia, who looked even worse, now

-      that the room was bright with the glow of the open fire and the pale light

-      of the student lamp.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You patient old darling!&rdquo; cried Bell, falling on her knees beside the

-      bed. &ldquo;We have sent for Uncle Harry and the Doctor, and now you are sure to

-      be all right, for we've taken the thing in good time. Good gracious!! what

-      bottle have I tipped over under this bed!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It's my neuralgia liniment,&rdquo; murmured Lilia, faintly. &ldquo;I bathed my face

-      in it last night, and put it under there afterward. Don't spill it, for I

-      can't get any more here.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Your neuralgia lotion!&rdquo; shrieked Bell, first with a look of blank

-      astonishment, and then one of excitement and glee mixed in equal parts.

-      &ldquo;Look at it, girls! Look, Alice and Jo! Oh, Lilia, you precious,

-      blundering goose!&rdquo; and thereupon she dragged out from beneath the bed

-      valance a pint bottle of violet ink, and then relapsed into a paroxysm of

-      voiceless mirth. Just then the hack door opened, and in hurried Uncle

-      Harry, Edith, and Patty, much terrified, for they had heard the shouts and

-      gasps and excited voices from outside, and supposed that Lilia must at

-      least have fallen into convulsions.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Let me see the poor child immediately,&rdquo; cried Mr. Winship. &ldquo;What is the

-      trouble with you, Bell? are you demented? and where is Lilia?&rdquo; looking at

-      the apparently empty bed, for Lilia had wound herself in the sheets and

-      blankets, disappeared from view, and was endeavoring to force a pillow

-      into her mouth in order to render her shame-faced laughter inaudible. &ldquo;Are

-      you trying to play a joke on me?&rdquo; continued he, with as much dignity as

-      was consistent with an attire made up of an undershirt, a pair of

-      trousers, overshoes, a tall hat, and a gold-headed cane which he had quite

-      unconsciously caught up in his hasty flight from his chamber.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The fact is,&rdquo; answered Bell, between her gasps, and trying desperately

-      hard to regain her sobriety,&mdash;&ldquo;the fact is&mdash;Uncle Harry&mdash;we

-      made&mdash;a mistake, and so did&mdash;Lilia. There were two bottles just

-      alike on the wash-stand, and in the night she bathed her face for five

-      minutes in the purple ink! Oh, oh, oh!!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Uncle Harry's face relaxed into a broad smile as he realized the joke.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Winship, you should have seen her!&rdquo; sighed Jo, lifting her head

-      from the sofa-pillow, with streaming eyes. &ldquo;All her face, except part of

-      her forehead and one cheek, was covered with enormous dark purple

-      blotches. She looked like a clown, or a Fourth of July fantastic, or

-      anything else frightful!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Edith, slyly, &ldquo;Bell said mortification had taken place. I

-      don't think Lilia has ever been more mortified than she is now; do you?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Puns are out of place, Edith,&rdquo; said Bell, severely. &ldquo;Don't hurry, Uncle

-      Harry. Don't let any thought of your rather peculiar attire cause you

-      embarrassment.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      But before Bell's teasing voice had ceased, the last thud, thud of his

-      rubbers, and click, click of his gold-headed cane were heard in the hall,

-      and he thought, as he tried to finish his early morning nap, that it would

-      be a long time before he allowed those madcap girls to rout him out of bed

-      again at five o'clock on a winter's day.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      As for the girls themselves, they did not even make a trial of slumber,

-      but first scrubbed Lilia energetically with hard soap and pumice, and then

-      made molasses candy, determined that the roaring kitchen fire should be

-      used to some purpose.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Having gained so much time by the unusual way in which they had started

-      the day, they were enabled to look back at nightfall on an unprecedented

-      number of activities, some of them rather unique and original. There was a

-      call upon Emma Jane's mother, another upon Mrs. Carter at the Winter Farm,

-      a sleigh-ride with Geoffrey Strong, the vehicle being a truck for hauling

-      wood, an hour's coasting down Brigadier hill, and a trip to the doctor's

-      for courtplaster and arnica and peppermint and cough lozenges. Then

-      directly after luncheon Bell and Jo made a private and confidential call

-      upon Grandma Win-ship's pig, leaving with him as evidences of regard

-      several samples of their own cookery. This call they hoped was unnoticed,

-      but an hour afterwards the other four girls were espied coming from the

-      Winships', all clad in black garments of one sort or another. When

-      questioned as to the meaning of this mysterious piece of foolishness they

-      merely remarked that they, too, had called upon the Winships pig, but that

-      it was a visit of condolence and sympathy.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      CHAPTER IV&mdash;A WINTER PICNIC

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>OU may think that

-      Lilia's &ldquo;mortification&rdquo; was quite an excitement in this enterprising young

-      household; yet I assure you that never twenty-four hours passed but a

-      ridiculous adventure of some kind overtook the girls. The daily bulletin

-      which they carried over to Mrs. Carter at the Winter Farm kept the worthy

-      inmates in constant wonderment as to what would happen next. Sometimes

-      there was a regular programme for the next day, prepared the night before,

-      but oftener, things happened of themselves, and when they do that, you

-      know, pleasure seems a deal more satisfying and delightful, because it is

-      unexpected. Uncle Harry was in great demand, and very often made one of

-      the gay party of young folks off for a frolic. They defied King Winter

-      openly, and went on all sorts of excursions, even on a bona-fide picnic,

-      notwithstanding the two feet of snow on the ground. The way of it was

-      this: On Friday, the boys&mdash;Hugh Pennell, Bell's cousin, Jack Brayton,

-      and the young schoolmaster&mdash;turned the great bare hall in the top of

-      the old Winship family house into a woodland bower.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      By the way, I have not told you much about Geoffrey Strong yet, because

-      the girls of the story have had everything their own way, but Geoffrey

-      Strong was well worth knowing. He was only eighteen years old, but had

-      finished his sophomore year at Bowdoin College, and was teaching the

-      district school that he might partly earn the money necessary to take him

-      through the remainder of the course. He was as sturdy and strong as his

-      name, or as one of the stout pine-trees of his native State, as gentle and

-      chivalrous as a boy knight of the olden time; as true and manly a lad, and

-      withal as good and earnest a teacher, notwithstanding his youth, as any

-      little country urchin could wish. Mr. Win-ship was his guardian, and thus

-      he had become quite one of the Winship family.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The boys were making the picnic grounds when I interrupted my story with

-      this long parenthesis. They took a large pair of old drop curtains used at

-      some time or other in church tableaux, and made a dark green carpet by

-      stretching them across the floor smoothly and tacking them down; they

-      wreathed the pillars and trimmed the doors and windows with evergreens,

-      and then planted young spruce and cedar and hemlock trees in the corners

-      or scattered them about the room firmly rooted in painted nail-kegs.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It looks rather jolly, boys, doesn't it?&rdquo; cried Jack, rubbing his cold

-      fingers, &ldquo;but I'm afraid we've gone as far as we can; we can't make birds

-      and flowers and brooks!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What's the special difficulty?&rdquo; asked Geoffrey. &ldquo;We'll borrow Grandmother

-      Winship's two cages of canaries and Mrs. Adams' two; then we'll bring over

-      Mrs. Carter's pet parrot, and altogether we'll be musical enough,

-      considering the fact that the thermometer is below zero.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      This suggestion of Geoff's they accordingly adopted, and their mimic

-      forest became tuneful.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The next stroke of genius came from Hugh Pennell. He found bunches of

-      white and yellow everlastings at home with which he mixed some cleverly

-      constructed bright tissue-paper flowers, of mysterious botanical

-      structure. He planted these in pots, and tied them to shrubs, and behold,

-      their forest bloomed!

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But we have finished now, boys,&rdquo; said Hugh, dejectedly, as he put his

-      last bed of whiteweed and buttercups under a shady tree. (They were made

-      of paper, and were growing artistically in a moss-covered chopping-tray.)

-      &ldquo;We can't get up a brook, and a brook is a handy thing at a picnic, too.

-      Good for the small children to fall into, good for drinking, good for

-      dish-washing, good for its cool and musical tinkle.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I have an idea,&rdquo; suggested Jack, who was mounted on a step-ladder busily

-      engaged in tying a stuffed owl and a blue jay to a tree-top. &ldquo;I have an

-      idea. We can fill the ice-water tank, put it on a shelf, let the water run

-      into a tub, then station a boy in the corner to keep filling the tank from

-      the tub. There's your stagnant pool and your running streamlet. There's

-      your drinking-water, your dish-washer, your musical tinkle, and possibly

-      your small child's watery grave. What could be more romantic?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Out with him!&rdquo; shouted Geoff. &ldquo;He ought to be drowned for proposing such

-      an apology for a brook.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I fail to see the point,&rdquo; said Jack; &ldquo;the sound would be sylvan and

-      suggestive, and I've no doubt the girls would be charmed.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We'll brook no further argument on the subject,&rdquo; retorted Hugh; &ldquo;the

-      afternoon is running away with us. We might bring up the bath-tub, or the

-      watering-trough, sink it in an evergreen bank and surround it with house

-      plants, but I don't think it would satisfy us exactly. I'll tell you, let

-      us give up the brook and build a sort of what-do-you-call'em for a

-      retreat, in one corner.&rdquo; After some explanations from Hugh about his plan,

-      the boys finally succeeded in manufacturing something romantic and

-      ingenious. Two blooming oleanders in boxes were brought from Uncle Harry's

-      parlor, there was a hemlock tree with a rustic seat under it, there was an

-      evergreen arch above, there was a little rockery built with a dozen stones

-      from the old wall behind the barn, and there were Miss Jane Sawyer's

-      potted scarlet geraniums set in among them, all surmounted by two banging

-      baskets and a bird-cage. With nothing save an airtight stove to warm it

-      into life (the ugliness of the stove quite hidden by screens of green

-      boughs), the cold, bare hall was magically changed into a green forest,

-      vocal with singing birds and radiant with blooming flowers.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The boys swung their hats in irrepressible glee.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Won't this be a surprise to the people, though! Won't they think of the

-      desert blooming as the rose!&rdquo; cried Hugh.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I fancy it won't astonish Uncle Harry and Grandmother much,&rdquo; answered

-      Jack, dryly, &ldquo;inasmuch as we've nearly borrowed them out of house and home

-      during the operation. Old Mrs. Winship said when I took her hammer,

-      hatchet, chopping-tray, house plants, and screw-driver, that perhaps she

-      had better go over to Mrs. Carter's and board. The girls will be fairly

-      stunned, though. Just imagine Bell's eyes! I told them we'd see to

-      sweeping and heating the hall, but they don't expect any decorations.

-      Well, I'm off. Lock the door, Geoff, and guard it like a dragon; we meet

-      at eleven to-morrow morning, do we? Be on hand, sharp, and let us all go

-      in and view the scene together. I wouldn't for worlds miss hearing and

-      seeing the girls.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Jack and Hugh started for home, and Geoff went downstairs to run a

-      gauntlet of questioning from Jo Fenton, who was present in Grandmother

-      Winship's kitchen on one of the borrowing tours of the day, and extremely

-      anxious to find out why so much mysterious hammering was going on.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      While these preparations were in progress, the six juvenile housekeepers

-      were undergoing abject suffering in their cookery for the picnic. It had

-      been a day of disasters from beginning to end&mdash;the first really

-      mournful one in their experience.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It commenced bright and early, too; in fact, was all ready for them before

-      they awoke in the morning, and the coal fire began it, for it went out in

-      the night. Everybody knows what it is to build a fire in a large coal

-      stove; it was Jo's turn as stoker and tirewoman, and I regret to say that

-      this circumstance made her a little cross, in fact, audibly so.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      After much searching for kindling-wood, however, much chattering of teeth,

-      for the thermometer was below zero, much vicious banging of stove doors,

-      and clattering of hods and shovels, that trouble was overcome. But, dear

-      me! it was only the first drop of a pouring rain of accidents, and at last

-      the girls accepted it as a fatal shower which must fall before the weather

-      would clear, and thus resigned themselves to the inevitable.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The breakfast was as bad as a breakfast knew how to be. The girls were all

-      cooks to-day in the exciting preparation for the picnic, for they wanted

-      to take especially tempting dainties in order that they might astonish

-      more experienced providers. Patty scorched the milk toast; Edith, that

-      most precise and careful of all little women under the sun, broke a

-      platter and burned her fingers; Lilia browned a delicious omelet, and

-      waved the spider triumphantly in the air, astonished at her own success,

-      when, alas, the smooth little circlet slipped illnaturedly into the coal

-      hod. Lilia stood still in horror and dismay, while Bell fished it hastily

-      out, looking very crumpled, sooty, shrunken, and generally penitent, if an

-      omelet can assume that expression. She slapped it on the table severely,

-      and said, with a little choke and tear in her voice:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The last of the eggs went into that omelet, and it is going to he rinsed,

-      and fried over, and eaten. There isn't another thing in the house for

-      breakfast. There is no bread; Alice put cream-of-tartar into the

-      buckwheats, instead of saleratus, and measured it with a tablespoon

-      besides; Miss Miranda's cat upset the milk can; the potatoes are frozen;

-      and I am ashamed to borrow anything more of Grandmother.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; cried Alice, with much determination. &ldquo;Sooner eat omelet and coal

-      hod, too! Never mind the breakfast! there are always apples. What shall we

-      take to the picnic? We can suggest luncheon at high noon, and no one will

-      suspect we haven't breakfasted.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Let's make mince pies,&rdquo; cried Jo, animatedly, from her seat on the

-      wood-box.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Goose,&rdquo; answered Bell, with a sarcastic smile. &ldquo;There's plenty of time to

-      make mince-meat, of course!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;At any rate, we must have jelly-cake,&rdquo; said Lilia, with decision, while

-      dishing up the injured omelet for the second time. &ldquo;We had better carry

-      the delicacies, for Mrs. Pennell and the boys will be sure to bring bread

-      and meat and common things.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, tarts, tarts!&rdquo; exclaimed Edith, in an ecstacy of reminiscence. &ldquo;I

-      haven't had tarts for a perfect age! Do you think we could manage them?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;They must be easy enough,&rdquo; answered Patty, with calm authority. &ldquo;Cut a

-      hole out of the middle of each round thing, then till it up with jelly and

-      bake it; that's simple.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">

-      <img src="images/0093.jpg" alt="0093 " width="100%" /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h5>

-      <a href="images/0093.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

-    </h5>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Glad you think so,&rdquo; responded Edith, with an air of deep melancholy and

-      cynicism, as she prepared to wash the cooking dishes and found an empty

-      dish-water pot. &ldquo;I should think the jelly would grow hard and crusty

-      before the tarts baked, but I suppose it's all right. Everything we touch

-      to-day is sure to fail.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, how much better if you said, 'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try,'&rdquo; sang

-      Bell, in a spasm of gayety.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, how much sadder you will feel when you've tried, by and by,&rdquo; retorted

-      Edith. &ldquo;Is there anything difficult about pastry, I wonder? Look in the

-      cookbook. Does it have to be soaked over night like ham, or hung for two

-      weeks like game, or put away in a stone jar like fruit-cake, or 'braised'

-      or 'trussed' or 'larded' or anything?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Patty, looking up from the 'Bride's Manual,' &ldquo;but it has to be

-      pounded on a marble slab with a glass rolling-pin.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Stuff and nonsense,&rdquo; said Bell, &ldquo;Tarts are nothing but pie-crust. This

-      village is situated in the very middle of what is called the New England

-      Pie Belt, and the glass rolling-pin and the marble slab have never been

-      seen by the oldest or youngest inhabitant. I know that bride. When she

-      makes pastry you can see her diamond engagement ring flash as she dips her

-      turquoise scoop into her ruby flour-barrel. Look up soft gingerbread,

-      Patty.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Four cups best New Orleans molasses&mdash;&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The molasses is out,&rdquo; said Jo; &ldquo;find jelly-cake.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Jelly all gone,&rdquo; said Bell; &ldquo;where, I can't think, for there were

-      seventeen tumblers.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The boys are awfully fond of it with bread,&rdquo; said Alice, reminiscently.

-      &ldquo;How about doughnuts?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; Bell answered, &ldquo;of course you'll go to the store for more

-      eggs and a pail of lard. We're out of molasses, eggs, lard, ginger, jelly,

-      patience, and luck.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Over an hour was spent in futile excursions through the cookery books,

-      vain rummagings of the pantry and larder, frequent trips to the country

-      store, and nothing was a triumphant success. Things that should have been

-      thin were fat and puffy; those that should have risen high and light as

-      air were flat and soggy; pots, pans, bowls, were heaped on one another in

-      the sink until at one o'clock Alice Forsaith went to bed with a headache,

-      leaving the kitchen in a state of general confusion and uproar. I cannot

-      bear to tell you all the sorry incidents of that dreadful day, but Bell

-      had shared in the blunders with the rest. She had gone to the store-room

-      for citron, and had stumbled on a jar of frozen &ldquo;something&rdquo; very like

-      mince-meat. This, indeed, was a precious discovery! She flew back to the

-      kitchen, crying:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Hurrah! We'll have the pies after all, girls! Mother has left a pot of

-      mince-meat in the pantry. It's frozen, but it will be all right. You trust

-      to me. I've made pies before, and these shall not be a failure.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      The spider was heated, and enough meat for three pies put in to thaw. It

-      thawed, naturally, the fire being extremely hot, and it presently became

-      very thin and curious in its appearance.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It looks like thick soup with pieces of chopped apple in it,&rdquo; said Lilia

-      to Bell, who was patting down a very tough, substantial bottom crust on a

-      pie plate.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We-l-l, it does!&rdquo; owned the head cook, frankly; &ldquo;but I suppose it will

-      boil down or thicken up in baking. I don't like to taste it, somehow.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Very natural,&rdquo; said Lilia, dryly. &ldquo;It doesn't look 'tasty;' and, to tell

-      the truth, it does not look at all as I've been brought up to imagine

-      mince-meat ought to look.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I can't be responsible for your 'bringing up,' Lill. Please pour it in,

-      and I'll hold the plate.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      The mixture trickled in; Bell put a very lumpy, spotted covering of dough

-      over it, slashed a bold original design in the middle for a ventilator,

-      and deposited the first pie in the oven with a sigh of relief.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Just at this happy moment, Betty Bean, Mrs. Winship's maid-of-all-work,

-      walked in with a can of kerosene.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Don't you think that's funny looking mince-meat, Betty?&rdquo; asked Patty,

-      pointing to the frying-pan.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Betty the wise looked at it one moment, and then said, with youthful

-      certainty and disdain: &ldquo;'Tain't no more mince-meat than a cat's

-      foot.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      This was decisive, and the utterance fell like a thunder-bolt upon the

-      kitchen-maids.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Gracious,&rdquo; cried Bell, dropping her good English and her rolling-pin at

-      the same time. &ldquo;What do you mean? It looked exactly like it before it

-      melted. What is it, then?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Suet,&rdquo; answered cruel Betty Bean. &ldquo;Your ma chopped it and done it up in

-      molasses for her suet plum puddins this winter. It's thick when it's cold;

-      and when it was froze, maybe it did look like pie-meat with a good deal of

-      apple in it; but it ain't no such thing.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      This was too much. If I am to relate truly the adventures of this

-      half-dozen suffering little maidens, I must tell you that Bell entirely

-      lost her sunny temper for a moment; caught up the unoffending spider

-      filled with molasses and floating bits of suet; carried it steadily and

-      swiftly to the back-door, hurled it into a snow-bank; slammed the door,

-      and sat down on a flour-firkin, burying her face in the very dingy

-      roller-towel. The girls stopped laughing.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Never mind, Bluebell,&rdquo; cooed Patty, sympathetically, smoothing her

-      hostess's curly hair with a very doughnutty hand, and trying to wipe her

-      flushed cheeks with an apron redolent of hot fat. &ldquo;You can use the rest of

-      the pie-crust for tarts, and my doughnuts are swelling up

-      be-yoo-ti-ful-ly!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Bell withdrew the towel from her merry, tearful eyes, and said with savage

-      emphasis:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;If any of you dare tell this at the picnic to-morrow, or let Uncle Harry

-      or the boys know about it, I'll&mdash;I don't know what I'll do,&rdquo; finished

-      she, weakly.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;That's a fearful threat,&rdquo; laughed Jo,&mdash;&ldquo;'The King of France and

-      fifty thousand men plucked forth their swords! and put them up again.'&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      And so this cloud passed over, and another and yet another with comforting

-      gleams of sunshine between, till at length it was seven o'clock in the

-      evening before the dishes were washed and the kitchen tidied; then six as

-      tired young housewives stretched themselves before the parlor fire as a

-      bright blaze often shines upon. Bell, pale and pretty, was curled upon the

-      sofa, with her eyes closed. The other girls were lounging in different

-      attitudes of dejection, all with from one to three burned fingers

-      enveloped in cloths. The results of the day's labor were painfully meager,&mdash;a

-      colander full of doughnuts, some currant buns, molasses ginger-bread, and

-      a loaf of tolerably light fruit cake. Out in the kitchen closet lay a

-      melancholy pile of failure,&mdash;Alice's pop-overs, which had refused to

-      pop; Patty's tarts, rocky and tough; and a bride's cake that would have

-      made any newly married couple feel as if they were at the funeral of their

-      own stomachs. The girls had flown too high in their journey through the

-      cook book. Bell and Jo could really make plain things very nicely, and

-      were considered remarkable caterers by their admiring family of

-      school-mates; but the dainties they had attempted were entirely beyond

-      their powers; hence the pile of wasted goodies in the closet.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, dear,&rdquo; sighed Lilia. &ldquo;Nobody has spoken a word for an age, and I

-      don't wonder, if everybody is as tired as I. Shall we ever be rested

-      enough to go to-morrow?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I was thinking,&rdquo; said Edith, dreamily, &ldquo;that we have only seven more days

-      to stay. If they were all to be as horrible as this, I shouldn't care very

-      much; but we have had such fun, I dread to break up housekeeping. The

-      chief trouble with to-day was that we did no planning yesterday. We never

-      looked into the store-room nor bought anything in advance nor settled what

-      we should cook.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Bell, waking up a little, &ldquo;we will crowd everything possible

-      into the last week and make it a real carnival time. To-morrow is Saturday

-      and the picnic; on Monday or Tuesday we'll have some sort of a 'pow-wow,'

-      as Uncle Harry says, for the boys, in return for their invitation, and

-      then we'll think of something perfectly grand and stupendous for Friday,

-      our last day of fun. It will take from that until Monday to get the house

-      into something like order for my mother's return. (This with a remorseful

-      recollection of the terrible back bed-room, where everything imaginable

-      had been 'dumped' for a week past.)

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I haven't finished trimming our shade hats,&rdquo; called Alice, faintly, from

-      the distance. &ldquo;I will do it in the morning while you are packing the

-      luncheon. Whatever we do let us unpack our baskets privately and try to

-      mix in our food with Mrs. Carter's or Mrs. Winship's, so that nobody will

-      know which is which.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      The girls had tried to devise something jaunty, picturesque, and summery

-      for a picnic costume; but the weather being too cold for a change of

-      dress, they had only bought broad straw hats at the country store,&mdash;hats

-      that farmers wore in haying time, with high crowns and wide brims. They

-      had turned up one side of them coquettishly, and adorned it with funny

-      silhouettes made of black paper, descriptive of their various adventures.

-      Lilia's, for instance, had a huge ink bottle and sponge; Bell's a mammoth

-      pie and frying-pan. Around the crowns they had tied colored scarfs of

-      ribbon or gauze, interwoven with bunches of dried grasses, oats, and

-      everlastings.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Half-past eight found them all sleep-in as soundly as dormice; and the

-      next morning with the recuperative power that youth brings, they awoke

-      entirely refreshed and ready for the fray.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The picnic was a glorious success. It was a clear, bright day, and not

-      very cold; so that with a good fire they were able to have a couple of

-      windows open, and to feel more as if they were out in the fresh air. The

-      surprise and delight of the girls knew no bounds when they were ushered

-      into their novel picnic ground, and even the older people avowed that they

-      had never seen such a miracle of ingenuity. The scene was as pretty a one

-      as can be imagined, though the young people little knew how lovely a

-      picture they helped to make in the midst of their pastoral surroundings.

-      Six charming faces they were, happy with girlish joy, sweet and bright

-      from loving hearts, and pure, innocent, earnest living. Bell was radiant,

-      issuing orders for the spread of the feast, flying here and there,

-      laughing over a stuffed snake under a bush (Geoff's device), and talking

-      merry nonsense with Hugh, her arch eyes shining with mischief under her

-      great straw hat.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Marcus Aurelius, the parrot, talked, and the canaries sang as if this were

-      the last opportunity any of them ever expected to have; while the

-      embroidered butterflies and stuffed birds fluttered and swayed and danced

-      on the quivering tree-twigs beneath them almost as if they were alive.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The table-cloth was spread on the floor, in real picnic fashion, for the

-      boys would allow neither tables nor chairs, and the lunch was simply

-      delectable. Mrs. Win-ship, Mrs. Brayton, and Mrs. Pennell, with

-      affectionate forethought, had brought everything that schoolgirls and boys

-      particularly affect&mdash;jelly-cake, tarts, and hosts of other goodies.

-      How the girls remembered their closetful of &ldquo;attempts&rdquo; at home; how they

-      roguishly exchanged glances, yet never disclosed their failures; how they

-      discoursed learnedly on baking-powder versus saleratus, raw potato versus

-      boiled potato yeast; and with what dignity and assurance they discussed

-      questions of household economy, and interlarded their conversation with

-      quotations from the &ldquo;Young Housekeeper's Friend,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Bride's

-      Manual.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      In the afternoon they played all sorts of games,&mdash;some quiet, more

-      not at all so,&mdash;until at five o'clock, nearly dark in these short

-      days, they left their make-believe forest and trudged home through the

-      snow, baskets under their arms, declaring it a mistaken idea that picnics

-      should be confined to summer.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What a gl-orious time we've had!&rdquo; exclaimed Jo, as they busied themselves

-      about the home dining-room. &ldquo;Yesterday seems like a horrible nightmare,

-      or, at least, it would if it hadn't happened in the daytime, and if we

-      hadn't the pantry to remind us of the truth. The things we carried were

-      not so v-e-r-y bad, after all! I was really proud of the buns, and Patty's

-      doughnuts were as 'swelled up' as Mrs. Drayton's.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And a great deal yellower and spotted-er,&rdquo; quoth Edith, in a sly aside.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; admitted Patty, ruefully, &ldquo;there certainly was quite enough

-      saleratus in them; but I think it very unbecoming in the maker of the

-      bride's-cake to say anything about other people's mistakes! Bride's cake,

-      indeed!&rdquo; she finished with a scornful smile.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;True!&rdquo; said Edith, much crushed by this heartless allusion to what had

-      been the most thorough and expensive failure of the day; &ldquo;I can't deny it.

-      Proceed with your sarcasm.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;This house 'looks as if it was going to ride out'! as Miss Miranda says,&rdquo;

-       exclaimed Alice. &ldquo;Do let us try to straighten it before Sunday! The

-      closets are all in snarls, the kitchen's in a mess, and the less said

-      about the back bedroom the better.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Accordingly, inspired by Alice's enthusiasm, they began to work and to

-      improve the hours like a whole hiveful of busy bees. They put on big

-      aprons and washed pans and pots that had been evaded for two days, made

-      fish-balls for breakfast, dusted, scrubbed, washed, mended, darned, and

-      otherwise reduced the house to that especial and delicious kind of order

-      which is likened unto apple-pie. And thus one week of the joys and trials

-      of this merry half-a-dozen housekeepers was over and gone.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      CHAPTER V&mdash;OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG

-    </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>ONDAY morning

-      broke. Such a cold, dismal, drizzly morning! The wind whistled and blew

-      about the cottage, until Lilia suggested tying the clothes-line round the

-      chimneys and fastening it to the strong pine-trees in front, for greater

-      safety. It snowed at six o'clock, it hailed at seven, rained at eight,

-      stopped at nine, and presently began to go through the same varied

-      programme. After breakfast, Bell went to the window and stood dreamily

-      flattening her nose against the pane, while the others busied themselves

-      about their several tasks.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Well, girls,&rdquo; said she at length, &ldquo;we've had four different kinds of

-      weather this morning, so it may clear off after all, though I confess it

-      doesn't look like it. It's too stormy to go anywhere, or for anybody to

-      come to us, so we shall have to try violently in every possible way to

-      amuse ourselves. I must run over to Miss Miranda's for the milk before it

-      rains harder. Perhaps I shall stumble into some excitement on the way; who

-      knows!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      So saying, she ran out, and in a few minutes appeared in the yard wrapped

-      in a bright red water-proof, the hood pulled over her head, and framing

-      her roguish, rosy face. In ten minutes she returned breathless from a race

-      across the garden, and a vain attempt to keep her umbrella right side out.

-      She entered the room in her usual breezy way, leaving the doors all open,

-      and sank into a chair, with an expression of mysterious mirth in her eyes.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Guess what's happened!&rdquo; she asked, with sparkling eyes. &ldquo;I have the most

-      enormous, improbable, unguessable surprise for you; you never will think,

-      and anyway I can't wait to tell, so here it is: We are all invited to tea

-      this afternoon with Miss Miranda and Miss Jane! Isn't that 'ridikilis'?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Do tell, Isabel,&rdquo; squeaked Jo, with a comically irreverent imitation of

-      Miss Sawyer, &ldquo;air you a-going to accept?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, yes, Bell, we'd better go,&rdquo; said Edith Lambert. &ldquo;I should like to see

-      the inside of that old house. I dare say we shall enjoy it, and it saves

-      cooking.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We are remarkably favored,&rdquo; laughed Bell. &ldquo;I don't believe that anybody

-      has been invited there since the Sewing Circle met with them three years

-      ago. They live such a quiet, strange, lonely life! Their mother and father

-      died when they were very young, more than thirty years ago. They were

-      quite rich for the times, and left their daughters this big house all

-      furnished and quantities of lovely old-fashioned dishes and pictures. All

-      the rooms are locked, but I'll try and melt Miss Miranda's heart, and get

-      her to show us some of her relics. Scarcely anything has been changed in

-      all these years, except that they have bought a cooking-stove. Miss Jane

-      hates new-fangled things, and is really ashamed of the stove, I think; as

-      to having a sewing-machine, or an egg-beater, or a carpet-sweeper,&mdash;why,

-      she would as soon think of changing the fashion of her bonnet! I believe

-      there isn't such a curious house, nor another pair of such dried-up,

-      half-nice, half-disagreeable people in the country. There's Emma Jane with

-      the butter! I'll meet her at the back door, get her to peel some potatoes

-      and apples, make her sew a white ruffle in her neck, and make some

-      original remark.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Bell's criticism of the Misses Sawyer and their home was quite just. The

-      old brick house stood in a garden which, in the spring-time, was filled

-      with odorous lilacs, blossoming apple-trees, and long rows of currant and

-      gooseberry bushes. In the summer, too, there were actual groves of

-      asparagus, gaudy sunflowers, bright hollyhocks, gay marigolds, royal

-      flower-de-luce,&mdash;all respectable, old-fashioned posies, into whose

-      hearts the humming-birds loved to thrust their dainty beaks and steal

-      their sweetness. Then there were beds paved round with white clam-shells,

-      where were growing trembling little bride's-tears, bachelor's-buttons,

-      larkspur, and china pinks. No modern blossoms would Miss Miranda allow

-      within these sacred ancient places, no begonias, gladioli, and &ldquo;sech,&rdquo;

-       with their new-fangled, heathenish, unpronounceable names. The old flowers

-      were good enough for her; and, certainly, they made a blooming spot about

-      the dark house.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Now, indeed, there was neither a leaf nor a bud to be seen; snow-birds

-      perched and twittered on the naked apple-boughs, and rifts of snow lay

-      over the sleeping seed-souls of the hollyhocks and marigolds, keeping them

-      just alive and no more, in a freezing, cold-blooded sort of way common to

-      snow.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      But if the garden outside looked like a relic of the olden time, the rooms

-      inside seemed even more so. The &ldquo;keeping-room&rdquo; had been refurnished

-      fifteen or twenty years before, but so well had it been kept, that there

-      still hovered about it a painful air of newness. Over the stiff black

-      hair-cloth sofa hung a funeral wreath in a shell frame, surrounded by the

-      Sawyer family photographs&mdash;husbands and wives always taken in

-      affectionate attitudes, that their relations might never be misunderstood.

-      In a corner stood the mahogany &ldquo;what-not&rdquo; with its bead watch-cases,

-      shells, and glass globes covering worsted-work flowers, together with more

-      family pictures, daguerreotypes in black cases on the top shelf, and a

-      marvelous blue china vase holding peacock feathers. Then there was a

-      gorgeous &ldquo;drawn in&rdquo; rug before the fireplace, with impossible purple roses

-      and pink leaves on its surface, and a marble-topped table holding a

-      magnificent lamp with a glass fringe around it, and a large piece of red

-      flannel floating in the kerosene.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      All these glories the girls were allowed to view as a great favor granted

-      at Bell's earnest request. They examined the parlor and the curiosities in

-      the diningroom cupboard with awe-struck faces, though their sobriety was

-      almost overcome at the sight of some of the works of art which Miss

-      Miranda held up for their reverential admiration.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Upstairs there were rooms scarcely ever opened. The bedsteads were

-      four-posted, and so high with many feather beds that their sleepy

-      occupants must have ascended a step-ladder to get into them, or climbed up

-      the posts hand over hand and dropped down into the downy depths. The

-      counterpanes and comforters were quilted in wonderful patterns. There was

-      the &ldquo;wild-goose chase,&rdquo; the &ldquo;log cabin,&rdquo; the &ldquo;rocky mountain,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Irish

-      plaid,&rdquo; and a &ldquo;charm quilt,&rdquo; in twelve hundred pieces, no two of which

-      were alike. The windows in the best chamber had white cotton curtains with

-      elaborate fringes; the looking-glass was long and narrow with a

-      yellow-painted frame, and a picture, in the upper half, of Napoleon

-      crossing the Alps, the Alps in question being very pointed and of a

-      sky-blue color, while Napoleon, in full-dress uniform, with never an

-      outrider nor a guide, was galloping up and over the dizzy peaks on a

-      skittish-looking pony.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      These things nearly upset Jo's gravity, and she quite lost Miss Sawyer's

-      favor by coughing down an irrepressible giggle when she was shown a

-      painting of Burns and His Mary, done in oil by Miss Hannah, the oldest

-      sister of the family, and long since dead. Miss Sawyer had no doubt that

-      Hannah's genius was of the highest order, although the specimens of her

-      skill handed down would astonish a modern artist. Burns and His Mary were

-      seated on a bank belonging to a landscape certainly not Scottish; His

-      Mary, with a pink tarlatan dress on, tucked to the waist; while a brook

-      was seemingly purling over Burns' coat-tails spread out behind him on the

-      bank. It was this peculiar detail which aroused Jo's mirth, as well it

-      might, so that she could not trust herself to examine with the others Miss

-      Hannah's last and finest effort&mdash;&ldquo;Maidens welcoming General

-      Washington in the streets of Alexandria.&rdquo; The maidens, thirteen in number,

-      were precisely alike in form and feature, all very smooth as to hair, long

-      as to waist, short as to skirt, pointed as to toe, and carrying bouquets

-      of exactly the same size and structure, tied up with green ribbon.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The tour of inspection finished, the girls sat down to chat over their

-      tatting and crochet work, while the two ladies went out to prepare supper.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;My reputation is gone,&rdquo; whispered Jo, solemnly. &ldquo;To think that I should

-      have laughed when I had been behaving so beautifully all the afternoon;

-      but Robbie Burns was the last straw that broke the camel's back of my

-      politeness; I couldn't have helped it if Miss Miranda had eaten me instead

-      of frowning at me.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;What do you think?&rdquo; cried Lilia, jumping up impulsively and knocking down

-      her chair in so doing, &ldquo;I'm going to beard the lion in his den, and see if

-      they won't let me help them get supper. Don't you want to come, Jo?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      The two girls ran across the long, cold hall, opened the kitchen door

-      stealthily, and Jo asked in her sweetest tones, &ldquo;Can't we set the table or

-      help in any way, Miss Miranda?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;No, I thank you, Josephine; there is nothing to do, or leastways you

-      wouldn't know where things are, and wouldn't be any good. The Porter girl

-      may come in if she wants to, but two of you would only clutter up the

-      kitchen.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      So Lilia went in meekly, and poor Jo flew back to the parlor, smarting

-      under a bitter sense of disgrace. The sisters fortunately knew nothing of

-      Lilia's aptitude for blunders, else she never would have been suffered to

-      touch their precious household gods. As it was, by dint of extreme care,

-      she managed to get the plum sauce on the table, and to set the chairs

-      around it, without any serious disaster. To be sure, in cutting the dried

-      beef, she notched a memorandum of the pieces shaved on each of her

-      fingers, so that when she finished they were perfect little calendars of

-      suffering; however, this only concerned herself, and she did not murmur,

-      as most of her mistakes implicated other people.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At half-past five they sat down to supper; and such a supper! Miss Miranda

-      was evidently anxious to impress the young people. The best pink &ldquo;chany&rdquo;

-       set had been unearthed, and there were besides other old dishes of great

-      magnificence. Quaint British lustre pitchers held the milk and cream, a

-      green dragon plate the cookies, and the &ldquo;Sheltered Peasant&rdquo; saucers came

-      in for general admiration.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The china was not more notable than the food. There were light soda

-      biscuits, large in size and thick, and there was cold buttermilk bread; a

-      blue and white bowl held tomato preserves, while a glass one was full of

-      delicious applesauce cooked in maple-syrup; then there was a round, creamy

-      cottage-cheese, white as a snow-ball; a golden, dried-pumpkin pie, baked

-      in a deep yellow plate; the brownest and plummiest and indigestible-est of

-      all plummy cakes, with doughnuts and sugar gingerbread besides. This array

-      of good things being taken in with rapid and rabid glances, the girls

-      exchanged involuntary looks of delight, and even emitted audible signs of

-      happiness. To say that they did justice to the repast would be a feeble

-      expression, for in truth the meals of their own preparation were irregular

-      as to time, indifferent as to quality, and sometimes, when they calculated

-      carelessly and unwisely, even small as to quantity.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">

-      <img src="images/0127.jpg" alt="0127 " width="100%" /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h5>

-      <a href="images/0127.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

-    </h5>

-    <p>

-      After tea was over, each of the girls was required to give, in answer to a

-      string of questions asked, her entire family history; for no tidbit of

-      information concerning other people's affairs was uninteresting to Miss

-      Jane or Miss Miranda. This cross-examination being finished, they rose to

-      go, unable to hear any longer the quiet, proper, suppressed atmosphere

-      that pervaded the house. While they had been admiring the quaint,

-      old-fashioned relics and busy devouring the appetizing New England

-      goodies, they were quite at ease, but an hour or two of conversation had

-      exhausted their adaptability. When they had taken their leave, and the

-      sound of their merry voices and ringing laughter floated in from the

-      country road, Miss Miranda sank into a chair, and waved a fan excitedly to

-      and fro, her mouse-colored complexion quite flushed and pink from the

-      unwonted dissipation.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Wall, Jane,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;it's over now, and we've done our dooty by Mis'

-      Winship; she's a good neighbor, and I wanted to act right by Isabel when

-      her Ma was away, but of all the crazy, 'stivering' girls I ever see, them

-      do beat all; though they did behave tolerable well this afternoon.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;They seemed to enjoy their supper,&rdquo; said Miss Jane; &ldquo;I never saw girls

-      make a heartier meal.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;They did for certain,&rdquo; continued Miranda, &ldquo;too hearty most. I thought.

-      That light-haired girl with the blue ear-rings left her meat hash, that'll

-      sour before we can warm it over again, and et and et fruit cake till I was

-      afraid she'd have fits at the table. We ought to be very thankful we

-      hevn't any young ones or men-folks to cook for, Jane.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      And with that expression of gratitude on her lips, she lighted a candle,

-      and after locking up the house securely, the two spinsters went to their

-      bedrooms to sleep the sleep of the calm and the virtuous.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Their merry visitors, undisturbed by the pelting rain from above, and the

-      deep &ldquo;slush&rdquo; beneath, waded over into their own grounds with many a hearty

-      laugh and jest.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Oh, how delightful our own sitting-room looks!&rdquo; exclaimed Patty, as they

-      opened the door and gathered about the cheerful fire on the hearth. And,

-      indeed, it did, after the stiff, prim arrangement of the rooms they had

-      left. The flickering blaze cast soft shadows on the walls, and touched the

-      marbles on the brackets with rosy tints; the canary-birds were fast asleep

-      with their heads hidden under their wings, and the dog and cat were

-      snoozing peacefully together on the hearth-rug. The young people, as well

-      as the room, belonged to another generation than Miss Miranda's and Miss

-      Jane's, a brighter, freer, fresher one, with a wider outlook, and quite

-      different problems and responsibilities.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We never can be jollier than this!&rdquo; cried Lilia, in an irrepressible

-      burst of appreciation. &ldquo;Oh, that it might last forever, and that

-      seminaries for young ladies might be turned into zoological gardens! Then

-      we could keep house here this week, the next week, and eternally, taking

-      tea with Miss Miranda whenever she asked us to come. What a good supper

-      that was, girls! Oh, Bell and Jo, you ought to be overcome with remorse

-      when you think what you might give us to eat, if you were only skillful,

-      energetic, and ingenious!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You're the very essence of thanklessness!&rdquo; answered Bell, in high

-      dudgeon. &ldquo;It's nothing less than fiery martyrdom to cook for you girls,

-      when you are so ungrateful. Your special seminary will not be so far

-      removed from a zoological garden when <i>you</i> return to it, that is

-      certain!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;My dear child, I am sorry already for my remark,&rdquo; said Lilia, in feigned

-      repentance. &ldquo;It was very thoughtless in me to arouse your anger until

-      after the next meal. Any impertinence of ours is sure to be visited upon

-      us in the form of oatmeal porridge, or salt fish and crackers.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Lilia Porter, if you want to be an angel by and by, it would be better to

-      draw your thoughts away from eatables for a time; you talk quite too much

-      about food,&rdquo; said Edith Lambert, who had a very hearty appetite, but never

-      called attention to it. &ldquo;When you have done with your nonsense, I have

-      something to propose for our final 'good time.' We have only four days, 'tis

-      true, and 'pity 'tis 'tis true; but we must go away with

-      flying colors, and so astonish the natives with our genius that the

-      village will talk of us for months to come.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Si-lence in court!&rdquo; cried Jo, impressively. &ldquo;Let me offer you the coal

-      hod for a platform; it won't tip over; go on, you look as dignified as a

-      policeman.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Stop your nonsense, Jo. You remember, Bell, the evening when we made a

-      comic pantomime of 'Young Lochinvar,' and acted it before the teachers and

-      seniors?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Indeed I do,&rdquo; laughed Bell, in recollection. &ldquo;We girls took all the

-      characters. What fun it was!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Why can't we do that again, changing and improving it, of course? The

-      boys are so clever and bright about anything of the kind that they would

-      be irresistibly funny. What do you think?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I like the idea,&rdquo; exclaimed Patty Weld. &ldquo;Uncle Harry's large hall would

-      be just the place for it, and the stage is already there.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;So it is; how fortunate,&rdquo; agreed Alice; &ldquo;we couldn't think of anything

-      that would be greater fun. How shall we cast the characters! You must be

-      the bride, Bell, the 'fair Ellen!' you will do it better than anybody. Jo

-      will make up into the funniest old lady for a mother, and the rest of us

-      can be the bride-maidens. Hugh Pennell will be a glorious Young Lochinvar,

-      if he can be persuaded to run away with Bell&mdash;&rdquo; this with a sly

-      glance at her hostess.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;and poor Jack will have to be the 'craven bridegroom,'

-      who loses his bride, and Geoff, the stern parent.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Uncle Harry will read the poem for us, I know,&rdquo; continued Bell; &ldquo;he does

-      that sort of thing often at the church, and does it beautifully. Phil

-      Howard, Royal Lawrence, and Harry will be bridemen. We'll perform the

-      piece in such a tragic way that each separate hair in the audience will

-      stand erect.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;But, oh, the labor of it, girls!&rdquo; sighed Patty&mdash;&ldquo;wooden horses to be

-      made for the elopement scene, Scottish dresses, and all sorts of toggery

-      to be hunted up; can we ever do it in time, with our house-cleaning before

-      us?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Nonsense, of course we can,&rdquo; rejoined Bell, energetically. &ldquo;We will

-      consult every book on private theatricals, Scottish history, manners, and

-      costumes in this house, and Uncle Harry's, too. Let us get up at five

-      to-morrow morning, have a simple breakfast of&mdash;&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Cornmeal mush or dry bread and milk,&rdquo; finished Lilia, with grim sarcasm.

-      &ldquo;If time must be saved, of course, it must come out of the cooking! How

-      are we to do this amount of work on a low diet, I should like to know?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;How are the cooks to get time for anything outside the kitchen if they

-      humor your unnatural appetites! Out of kindness, we propose to lower you

-      gradually, meal by meal, into the pit of boarding-school fare.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' I don't care to be starved

-      beforehand by way of getting used to it,&rdquo; retorted Lilia, as she lighted

-      the bedroom candles. &ldquo;Come, dears, do cover the fire; it was sleepy-time

-      an hour ago, and if you want to see something beautiful, look through the

-      piazza window.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Beneath them lay the steep river bank, smooth with its white, glittering

-      crust, above which a few naked alders pushed their snow-weighted

-      finger-tips; one rugged old pine-tree stood in the garden, grand, dark,

-      and fearless; the quiet part of the river had been turned by King Winter

-      into an icy mirror; but over the dam a hundred yards below, the waters

-      tumbled too furiously to be frozen. The old bridge looked like a silver

-      string tying together the two little villages, and over all was the

-      dazzling winter moonlight.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Six dreamy faces now at the cottage window. Six girlish figures, all drawn

-      closely together, with arms lovingly clasped. The white beauty, and the

-      solemn stillness of the picture hushed them into quietness. One minute

-      passed and then another, while the spell was working, till at length Bell

-      impulsively bent her brown head, and said softly: &ldquo;If the minister were

-      here he would say, 'Let us pray.' It makes me want to whisper, 'Dear Lord,

-      make us pure and white within, as thy world is without.'&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Amen,&rdquo; murmured Edith and Patty, in the same breath.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Pull down the curtain,&rdquo; sighed Jo; &ldquo;it makes me feel wicked!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Ah, don't, don't, not quite yet!&rdquo; pleaded Edith, &ldquo;it is too heavenly and

-      it can't do us any harm to feel wicked. It reminds me of Tennyson's 'St.

-      Agnes' Eve,' of the white, white picture she looked out upon from her

-      convent window the night she was lifted to the golden doors of heaven&mdash;the

-      poem you recited for the medal, Alice,&mdash;say a verse of it.&rdquo; And

-      Alice, half under her breath, repeated the lovely lines:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent20">

-      &ldquo;As these white robes are soil'd and

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      dark

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent20">

-      To yonder shining ground;

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      As this pale taper's earthly spark,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent20">

-      To yonder argent round;

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      So shines my soul before the Lamb,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent20">

-      My spirit before Thee;

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      So in mine earthly house I am

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent20">

-      To that I hope to be!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /> <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div style="height: 4em;">

-      <br /><br /><br /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h2>

-      CHAPTER VI&mdash;&ldquo;THE END OF THE PLAY&rdquo;

-     </h2>

-    <p class="pfirst">

-      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the next

-      morning, and, indeed, on all of those left of their stay, the six

-      housekeepers were up at an alarmingly early hour, so that the sun,

-      accustomed to being the earliest of all risers, felt himself quite

-      behindhand and outshone.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      In vain he clambered up over the hillside in a desperate hurry; the girls

-      were always before him with lighted candles. As for the clock, it held up

-      its hands with astonishment, and struck five shrill exclamation points of

-      surprise to see six wide-awake young persons tumbling out of their warm

-      nests before the world was lighted or heated.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The day's hours were hardly enough for the day's plans, for there were

-      farewell coasting, skating, and sleighing parties, besides active daily

-      preparations for the pantomime. The costumes of the hoys were gorgeous to

-      behold, and were fashioned entirely by the girls' clever fingers. They

-      consisted of scarlet or blue flannel shirts, short plaid kilts, colored

-      stockings striped with braid, sashes worn over shoulders, and jaunty

-      little caps with bobbing quills.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      On the last happy evening of their stay, the eventful evening of &ldquo;Young

-      Lochinvar,&rdquo; the guests gathered from all the surrounding country to see

-      the frolic. There were people from North Edgewood, South Edgewood, East

-      Edge-wood, and West Edgewood; from Edgewood Upper Corner, Edgewood Lower

-      Corner, and Edgewood Four Corners, and everybody had brought his uncles

-      and cousins.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      In the big dressing-room the young actors were assembled,&mdash;and

-      fortunately in a high state of exuberance and excitement, else they would

-      have been decidedly frightened at the ordeal before them. Jo, mirror in

-      hand, was trying to make herself look seventy; and, though she had not

-      succeeded, she had transformed herself into a very presentable Scottish

-      dame, with her short satin gown and apron, lace kerchief and spectacles.

-      Edith was giving a pair of pointed burnt-cork eyebrows to Hugh, that he

-      might wear a sufficiently dashing and defiant countenance for Lochinvar,

-      while Jack stood before the glass practicing his meek expression for the

-      jilted bridegroom.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008"> </a>

-    </p>

-    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">

-      <img src="images/0145.jpg" alt="0145 " width="100%" /><br />

-    </div>

-    <h5>

-      <a href="images/0145.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>

-    </h5>

-    <p>

-      Bell had sunk into a chair, and folded her hands to &ldquo;get up&rdquo; her courage.

-      As to her dress, nobody knew whether it was the proper one for a Scottish

-      bride or not; but it was the only available thing, and certainly she

-      looked in it a very bewitching and sufficient excuse for Lochinvar's rash

-      folly. It was of some shining white material, and came below the ankle,

-      just showing a pair of jaunty high-heeled slippers; the skirt was

-      'broidered and flounced to the belt, the waist simple and full, with short

-      puffed sleeves; while a bridal veil and dainty crown of flowers made her

-      as winsome and bonny as a white Scottish rose. Emma Jane Perkins stood in

-      one corner paralyzed by her own good looks. Her red hair was waved and

-      hanging in her neck, and her dress was white. She hoped she could be

-      trusted to bring in this overpowering weight of beauty at the right

-      moment, but felt a little doubtful.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Uncle Harry stumbled in at the low door.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Are you ready, young fry?&rdquo; asked he. &ldquo;It is half-past seven, and we ought

-      to begin.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Put out the footlights, give the people back their money, and tell them

-      the prima donna is dangerously ill!&rdquo; gasped Bell, faintly, fanning herself

-      with a box-cover. &ldquo;I don't believe I can ever do it. Hugh, are you

-      perfectly sure our horse won't break down on the stage when we elope?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Calm yourself, 'fair Ellen,' and trust to my horsemanship. Doesn't the

-      poem say:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      'Through all the wide Border his steed

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      was the best?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And doesn't this exactly embody Scott's idea?&rdquo;&mdash;pointing to a wild

-      and cross-eyed wooden effigy mounted on a pair of trucks.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      You have all read Sir Walter Scott's poem of &ldquo;Young Lochinvar,&rdquo; and many a

-      time, I hope, for they are brave old verses:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      West,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Through all the wide Border his steed

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      was the best,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      And, save his good broadsword, he

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      weapons had none;

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      He rode all unarmed, and he rode all

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      alone.

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      So faithful in love, and so dauntless in

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      war,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      There never was knight like the young

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      Lochinvar.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      And then, you remember, the young knight rode fast and far, stayed not for

-      brakes, stopped not for stones, but all in vain; for ere he alighted at

-      Netherby Gate, the fair Ellen, overcome by parental authority, had

-      consented to be married to another:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      For a laggard in love and a dastard in

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      war

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      Lochinvar.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      But he, nothing daunted, boldly entered the bridal hall among bridemen and

-      bridemaids and kinsmen, thereby raising so general a commotion that the

-      bride's father cried at once, the poor craven bridegroom being struck

-      quite dumb:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      &ldquo;Oh, come ye in peace here, or coyne ye

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      inivar,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      Lochinvar?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The lover answers with apparent indifference that though he has in past

-      times been exceedingly fond of the young person called Ellen, he has now

-      merely come to tread a measure and drink one cup of wine with her, for

-      although love swells like the tide, it ebbs like it also. So he drinks her

-      health, while she sighs and blushes, weeps and smiles, alternately; then

-      he takes her soft hand, her parents fretting and fuming the while, and

-      leads the dance with her,&mdash;he so stately, she so lovely, that they

-      are the subject of much envy, admiration, and sympathy. But while thus

-      treading the measure, he whispers in her ear something to which she

-      apparently consents without much unwillingness, and at the right moment

-      they dance out from the crowd of kinsmen to the door of the great hall,

-      where in the darkness the charger stands ready saddled. Quick as thought

-      the dauntless lover swings his fair Ellen lightly up, springs before her

-      on the saddle, and they dash furiously away:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      &ldquo;She is won! We are gone, over ban,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      bush, and scaur;

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      They'll have fleet steeds that follow

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      quoth young Lochinvar.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      As soon as their flight is discovered, there is wild excitement and hasty

-      mounting of all the Netherby Clan; there is racing and chasing over the

-      fields, but &ldquo;the laggard in love and the dastard in war&rdquo; never recovers

-      his lost Ellen.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      So daring in love, and so dauntless in

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      war,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Have ye e'er heard of gallant like

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      young Lochinvar?

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Uncle Harry read the poem through in such a stirring way that the audience

-      was fairly warmed into interest; then, standing by the side of the stage

-      with the curtain rolled up, he read it again, line by line, or verse by

-      verse, to explain the action.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      During the first stanza, Lochinvar made his triumphal entrance, riding a

-      prancing hobby-horse with a sweeping tail of raveled rope, and a mane to

-      match, gorgeous trappings adorned with sleigh-bells and ornamental paper

-      designs, and bunches of cotton tacked on for flecks of foam.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Lochinvar himself wore gray pasteboard armor, a pair of carpet slippers

-      with ferocious spurs, red mittens, and carried a huge carving-knife. His

-      costume alone was food for amusement, but the manner in which he careered

-      wildly about the stage, displaying his valorous horsemanship as he rode to

-      the wedding, was perfectly irresistible.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The next scene opened in Netherby Hall, showing the bridal party all

-      assembled in gala dress. Into this family gathering presently strode the

-      determined lover, with his carving-knife sheathed for politeness' sake.

-      Then followed a comical pantomime between the angry parents, who demanded

-      his intentions, and the adroit Lochinvar, who declared them to be

-      peaceful. The father (Geoffrey Strong) at last gave him unwilling

-      permission to drink one cup of wine and tread one measure with the bride.

-      She kissed the goblet (a tin quart measure), he quaffed off the spirit,

-      and threw down the cup. Pair Ellen bridled with pleasure, and promenaded

-      about the room on his arm, while the bridegroom looked on wretchedly, the

-      parents quarreled, and the bride-maidens whispered:

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      &ldquo;'Tivere better by far

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      To have matched our fair cousin with

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent20">

-      young Lochinvar.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At the first opportunity, the guests walked leisurely out, and young

-      Lochinvar seized an imaginary chance to draw Ellen hastily back into the

-      supper room. He whispered the magic word into her ear, she started in

-      horror and drew back; he urged; she demurred; he pleaded; she showed signs

-      of surrender; he begged on his bended knees; she yielded at length to the

-      plan of the elopement, with all its delightful risks. Then Lochinvar

-      darted to the outside door and brought in his charger,&mdash;rather an

-      unique proceeding, perhaps, but necessary under the circumstances,

-      inasmuch as the audience could not be transported to the proper scene of

-      the mounting. As the flight was to be made on horseback, much ingenuity

-      and labor were needed to arrange it artistically. The horse's head was the

-      work of Geoff's hand, and for meekness of expression, jadedness,

-      utterly-cast-down-and-worn-out-ness, it stood absolutely unrivalled. A

-      pair of trucks were secreted beneath the horse-blankets, and the front

-      legs of the animal pranced gaily out in front, taking that startling and

-      decided curve only seen in pictures of mowing-machines and horseraces.

-      Lochinvar quieted his fiery beast, and swung Ellen into the saddle, leaped

-      up after her, waved his tall hat in triumph, and started off at a snail's

-      pace, the horse being dragged by a rope from behind the scenes. When half

-      way across the stage, Ellen clasped her lover's arm and seemed to have

-      forgotten something. Everybody in the room at once guessed it must be some

-      part of her trousseau. She explained earnestly in pantomime; Lochinvar

-      refused to return; she insisted; he remained firm; she pouted and

-      seemingly said that she wouldn't elope at all unless she could have her

-      own way. He relented, they went back to Netherby Hall, and Ellen ran up a

-      secret stairway and came down laden with maidenly traps. Greatly to the

-      merriment of the observers, she loaded them on the docile horse in the

-      very face of Lochinvar's displeasure&mdash;two small looking-glasses, a

-      bird-cage, and a French bonnet. She then leisurely drew on a pair of huge

-      India rubbers, unfurled a yellow linen umbrella, and just as her lover's

-      patience was ebbing, suffered herself to be remounted. The second trip

-      across the stage was accomplished in safety, though with anything but the

-      fleetness common to elopements either in life or in poetry.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      Then came the pursuit&mdash;a most graphic and stirring scene, giving

-      large opportunities to the supernumerary characters. Four bridemen on

-      dashing hobbyhorses, jumping fences, leaping bars and ditches in hot

-      excitement; four bride-maids, with handkerchiefs tied over their heads,

-      running hither and thither in confusion; the old mother and father,

-      limping in and straining their eyes for a sight of their refractory

-      daughter; and last of all, poor Jack, the deserted bridegroom, on foot,

-      with never a horse left to him, puffing and panting in his angry chase.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was done! How people laughed till they cried, how they continued to

-      laugh for five minutes afterward, I cannot begin to tell you. The

-      performance had been the perfection of fun from first to last, and seemed

-      all the more inspiring because it was original with the bright bevy of

-      young folks who had enacted the poem. Uncle Harry had renewed his youth,

-      and received the plaudits of the crowd with unconcealed pleasure. The hero

-      and heroine, Lochinvar and fair Ellen, had so generously provided dramatic

-      opportunities for the minor actors that all had enjoyed an equal chance in

-      the favor of the audience. There was neither envy, jealousy, nor

-      heartburning; each of the girls gloried in the achievements of the others,

-      and confessed that the mechanical ingenuity of the boys had made the

-      triumph possible.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      At length the lights were all out, the finery bundled up, the many

-      farewells said, and as the girls, escorted by their faithful young

-      squires, trudged along the path through the orchard for the last time, sad

-      thoughts would come, although the party was much too youthful and cheery

-      to be gloomy.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Depart, fun and frolic!&rdquo; sighed Lilia, in mournful tones. &ldquo;Depart,

-      breakfasts at any hour and other delights of laziness! Enter,

-      boarding-school, books, bells, and other banes of existence!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It is really too awful to think or to speak about,&rdquo; sighed Jo. &ldquo;Now I

-      know how Eve must have felt when she had to pack up and leave the garden;

-      only she went because she insisted upon eating of the tree of knowledge,

-      while I must go and eat, whether I will or not.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Your appetite for that special fruit isn't so great that you'll ever be

-      troubled with indigestion,&rdquo; dryly rejoined Patty, the student of the

-      &ldquo;Jolly Six.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Fancy starting off at half-past ten to-morrow morning; fancy reaching

-      school at one, and sitting down stupidly to a dinner of broth, fried

-      liver, and cracker-pudding! Ugh! it makes me shiver,&rdquo; said Alice.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Think of us,&rdquo; cried Geoff, &ldquo;going back to college, and settling into

-      regular 'digs.'&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;If 'digs' is a contraction of dignitaries,&rdquo; said Edith, saucily, &ldquo;you'll

-      never be those; if you mean you are to delve into the mines of learning,

-      that's doubtful, too; but if it's a corruption of Digger Indian, I should

-      say there might be some force in your remark. Oh, what matchless

-      war-whoops you gave in the pursuit to-night. Every separate hair in Betty

-      Bean's head stood on end, and the Misses Sawyer sat close together and

-      trembled visibly!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It was a wonderful evening,&rdquo; remarked Hugh. &ldquo;There were persons there who

-      said that Bell was beautiful and I was clever.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I don't want to annoy you,&rdquo; laughed Jo, &ldquo;but I heard exactly the

-      opposite.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Which only goes to show that both of us are both,&rdquo; retorted Bell.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;And that sentence goes to show that a week's absence from the class in

-      parsing and analysis has had its effect,&rdquo; said Patty. &ldquo;Look at our angel

-      cottage, girls! Doesn't it look like a marble night-lamp with the hall

-      light shining through all its sweet little windows'?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The fire isn't out, that's fortunate,&rdquo; observed Alice, as she saw a small

-      cloud of smoke issuing from the chimney.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Good night and sweet dreams,&rdquo; called the hoys, when Geoffrey had unlocked

-      the door of the cottage.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Sweet dreams, indeed!&rdquo; the girls answered in chorus. &ldquo;The kitchen closet

-      to put in order, also the shed, two trunks to pack, twenty-four hours'

-      dishes to wash, and a million 'odd jobs' more or less.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Don't forget the borrowed articles to be returned,&rdquo; reminded Hugh. &ldquo;We'll

-      take the pung and do that for you, also attend to the cleaning of the

-      shed, which is more in our line than yours. Boys, let us give one rousing

-      cheer for Dr. and Mrs. Winship, the model parents of the century!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      The welkin rang with hurrahs, in which the girls joined with hearty vigor.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Now another rousing one for the model daughter of the century,&rdquo; cried

-      Bell, modestly; &ldquo;the model daughter who had the bright idea and begged the

-      model parents to assent to it. Of what use would have been the model

-      parents, pray, unless they had had the model daughter with the bright

-      idea?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      More cheers, lustier than ever, floated out into the orchard.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;The model daughter would have had a dull house-party with nothing but her

-      bright idea to keep her company,&rdquo; said Jo Fenton, suggestively.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Three cheers for the house party! Three cheers for the 'Jolly Six!' Hip,

-      hip, hurrah!&rdquo; and at this moment Uncle Harry's window opened and across

-      the breadth of the orchard came the warning note of a conch shell, an

-      instrument of much power, with which Uncle Harry called his men to dinner

-      in haying time. Had it not been for this message of correction it is

-      possible the enthusiastic young people might have cheered one another till

-      midnight.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <hr />

-    <p>

-      <br /><br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      It was afternoon of the next day. The six little housekeepers were gone,

-      and the dejected hoys went into the garden to take a last look at the

-      empty cottage. On the door was a long piece of fluttering white paper,

-      tied with black ribbon. It proved to be the parting words of the &ldquo;Jolly

-      Six.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      How dear to our hearts are the scenes of

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      vacation,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      When fond recollection presents them

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      to view!

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      The coasting, the sleigh-rides, and&mdash;chief

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      recreation&mdash;

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      That gayest of picnics with squires so

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      true!

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      And note, torn away from the loved situ-

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      ation,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      The hump of conceit will explosively

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      swell,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      As proudly we think, never since the

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      creation,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Did any young housekeepers keep

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      house so well!

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Think not our great genius too highly

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      we've rated,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      For all that belongs to the kitchen we

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      know;

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      And feel that from infancy we have been

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      fated

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      For scrubbing and cooking, far more

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      than for show.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      The cook-stove and dish-pan to us are so

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      charming,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      So toothsome the compounds we often

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      have mixed,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      That though you would think the news

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      somewhat alarming,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      On housekeeping ever our minds are

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      quite fixed.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Good-by to all hope of a fame uni-

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      versal!

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      Farewell, vain ambition,&mdash;that way

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      madness lies!

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      The rest of our youth shall be one long

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      rehearsal

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent15">

-      For life in six cottages, all of this

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent30">

-      size!

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <h3>

-      B. W.

-    </h3>

-    <h3>

-      J. F.

-    </h3>

-    <h3>

-      P. W.

-    </h3>

-    <h3>

-      A. F.

-    </h3>

-    <h3>

-      E. L.

-    </h3>

-    <h3>

-      L. P.

-    </h3>

-    <p class="indent10">

-      X

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent10">

-      Their joint mark.

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent10">

-      Witnessed by me this morning,

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent10">

-      Jack Frost, Notary Public.

-    </p>

-    <p class="indent10">

-      Sealed with a snow flake.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      <br />

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The boys read this nonsense with hearty laughter, and latching the gate

-      behind them, they went off, leaving the place deserted.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;They are awfully jolly girls,&rdquo; said Jack.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Better than jolly,&rdquo; added Geoffrey, thoughtfully.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;You're right, Geoff; miles better and miles more than jolly,&rdquo; agreed

-      Hugh. &ldquo;None like'em in Brunswick.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Or in Portland.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Or in Bath.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Or in Augusta.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      And with this outburst of respectful admiration the lads passed out of

-      view.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      The setting sun shone rosily in at the piazza window that afternoon, but

-      fell blankly against a gray curtain, instead of smiling into six laughing

-      faces as before.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      A noisy crowd of sparrows settled on the bare branches over the door-step,

-      twittering as if they expected the supper of bread-crumbs which girlish

-      hands had been wont to throw them, and at last flew away disappointed. In

-      the old house opposite, Miss Miranda sat in her high-backed chair,

-      knitting as fiercely as ever, while Miss Jane was at her post by the

-      window, drearily watching the sun go down.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      She turned away with the glow of a new thought in her wrinkled face.

-      &ldquo;Mi-randy!&rdquo; called she, sharply.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      No answer but the sharp click of knitting-needles.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Mirandy Sawyer! What do you say to invitin' our niece, Hannah, down here

-      from the farm, and givin' her a couple of terms' schoolin'? Aurelia has

-      her hands full raisin' that great family of children. She'd be glad one of

-      'em should have some advantages. We ain't seen Hannah since she was

-      ten, but she was a nice appearin', pretty behavin' girl.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      Miranda glanced ont of the window without speaking.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It seems like a streak of sunshine had gone out o' the place with them

-      young creeters, and I think we've lived here alone about long enough!&rdquo;

-       continued Miss Jane. &ldquo;I should like to give one girl a chance of being a

-      brighter, livelier woman than I am. Yes, you may drop your knittin',

-      Mirandy, but you know it as well as I do!&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      No wonder that Miss Miranda looked very much as if she had been struck by

-      lightning; the more wonder that the quiet old house didn't shake to its

-      foundation, when this proposal was made. Indeed, old Tabby, on the

-      hearth-rug, did wake up, startled, no doubt by the consciousness that a

-      child's hand might pull her tail in days to come.

-    </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;It does seem dreadful lonesome,&rdquo; Miss Miranda agreed, after a long pause.

-      &ldquo;Hear Topsy howling in the kitchen; she's missin' the young life that's

-      gone, and she'll have to git used to us all over again, jest as I said.

-      Hannah would be considerable expense to us, and make a sight o' work, too.

-      Of course, you've thought o' that?&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;We take about so many steps, anyway,&rdquo; argued Miss Jane, &ldquo;and if the

-      child's spry and handy, she may save us a few now and then. Tabitha ain't

-      so much care, nor near so confinin', sence Topsy came to keep her comp'ny&mdash;even

-      two cats is better'n one.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;There goes Emma Jane Perkins,&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Miranda, from her post of

-      observation. &ldquo;She looks different somehow. I've always said I should think

-      her face would ache, it's so hombly, but I guess she's passed her

-      hombliest, and is going to improve. Mebbe Mis' Perkins has been givin' her

-      spring medicine.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;I guess the 'spring medicine' has been two weeks' good time with that

-      trainin' and careerin' houseful of girls,&rdquo; rejoined Miss Jane, wisely.

-      &ldquo;Everybody in the village sits up kind o' smart and looks as if they'd

-      taken a tonic. Maybe I'd better write to Aurelia on Sunday, Mirandy.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      &ldquo;Mebbe you had, Jane, and if she can't spare Hannah, say we'll take

-      Rebecca, though I always thought she was a self-willed child, too full of

-      her own fancies to be easy managed.&rdquo;

-     </p>

-    <p>

-      This is not the time for Rebecca's story; but, as a matter of fact, Mrs.

-      Aurelia Randall could not spare Hannah, who was docile, industrious, and

-      of much assistance with the house-work, and as a matter of fact it was the

-      somewhat dreaded Rebecca who did come from the far-away farm to live in

-      the dull old house with Miss Jane and Miss Miranda. And all that befell

-      this new family circle, formed almost by accident, and all that Rebecca

-      did, or became, as well as everything that happened during the gradual

-      beautifying of Emma Jane Perkins, was, as you see, the indirect result of

-      Bell Winship's madcap experiment in housekeeping.

-    </p>

-    <h3>

-      THE END

-    </h3>

-    <div style="height: 6em;">

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-End of Project Gutenberg's Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin

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-</pre>

-

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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin</title>
+    <meta content="pg2html (binary v0.17)" />
+    <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
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+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
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+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 54685 ***</div>
+
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      A Story For Girls In Half-A-Dozen Chapters
+    </h3>
+    <h2>
+      By Kate Douglas Wiggin
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Illustrated by Mills Thompson
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      Philadelphia Henry Altemus Company
+    </h4>
+    <h3>
+      1903
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0001.jpg" alt="0001 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0001.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0006.jpg" alt="0006 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0006.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0007.jpg" alt="0007 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0007.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <b>CONTENTS</b>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS</b> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I&mdash;BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II&mdash;IN THE FIRELIGHT </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III&mdash;AN EMERGENCY CASE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV&mdash;A WINTER PICNIC </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V&mdash;OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI&mdash;&ldquo;THE END OF THE PLAY&rdquo; </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I&mdash;BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>ARCH had come in
+      like a lion, and showed no sign of going out like a lamb. The pussy
+      willows knew that it was, or ought to be, spring, but although it takes a
+      deal to discourage a New England pussy willow, they shivered in their
+      brown skins and despaired of making their annual appearance even by April
+      Fool's Hay. The swallows still lingered in the South, having received
+      private advices from the snow-birds that State o' Maine weather, in the
+      present season, was only fitted for Arctic explorers. The air was keen and
+      nipping and the wind blew steadily from the north and howled about the
+      chimneys until one hardly knew whether to hug the warmth of the open fire
+      or to go out and battle with the elements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little did the rosy girls of the Wareham Female Seminary (girls were still
+      &ldquo;young females&rdquo; when all this happened)&mdash;little did they care about
+      snow and sleet and ice. Studies went on all the better with the afternoon
+      skating and sliding to look forward to. What joy to perch in the
+      window-seat with your volume of Virgil, and translate &ldquo;<i>Hoc opus hic
+      labor est</i>&rdquo; with half an eye on the gleaming ice of the pond, or the
+      glittering crust of the hillsides! What fun to slip on your rubber boots,
+      muffle yourself in your warm coat (made out of mother's old mink cape),
+      and run across the way to the Academy for recitations in mathematics or
+      philosophy!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These joys, however, with their attendant responsibilities, duties, and
+      cares, were to be suspended for a while at the Wareham Seminary, and the
+      &ldquo;young females&rdquo; who graced that institution of learning were not
+      inconsolable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell Winship, an uncommonly nice girl herself and a born leader of other
+      nice girls, had sent out five mysteriously worded notes that morning, five
+      little notes to as many little maids, requesting the honor of their
+      presence at ten a. m. precisely, in Number 27, Second floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where Bell Winship wished girls to be, there they always were, and on the
+      minute, too, lest they should miss something; so there is nothing
+      remarkable in this statement of the fact, that at ten o'clock in the
+      morning, Number 27, Second floor, of the Wareham Female Seminary seemed to
+      be overflowing with girls, although in reality there were but six, all
+      told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wildest curiosity prevailed, and it was very imperfectly controlled,
+      but, at length, the hostess, mounting a shoebox, spoke with great dignity
+      in these words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fellow-countrywomen: Whereas, our recitation-hall has been burned to the
+      ground, thereby giving us a well-earned vacation of two weeks, I wish to
+      impart to you a plan by which we can better resign ourselves to the
+      afflicting and mysterious dispensation. You are aware,&rdquo; she continued,
+      still impressively, &ldquo;that my highly respected parents are both away for
+      the winter, thus leaving our humble cottage closed, and it occurred to me
+      as a brilliant, if somewhat daring, idea, that we six girls should go over
+      and keep house in it for a fortnight, alone and untrammeled.&rdquo; Here the
+      tidal wave of her eloquence was impeded by the overmastering enthusiasm of
+      the audience. Cheers and applause greeted her. Everybody pounded with
+      whatever she chanced to have in her hand, on any article of furniture that
+      chanced to be near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Bell, Bell! what a lovely plan!&rdquo; cried Lilia Porter; &ldquo;a more than
+      usually lovely plan; but will your mother ever allow it, do you suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the point,&rdquo; answered Bell, gleefully. &ldquo;Here is the letter I have
+      just received from my father; he is a good parent, wholly worthy of his
+      daughter:&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Baltimore, March 6th, 18&mdash;.
+
+     My dear Child:&mdash;We do not like to refuse you anything while
+     we are away enjoying ourselves, so, as the house is well
+     insured, you may go over and try your scheme. Your mother
+     says that you must not entirely demolish her jelly and
+     preserves. My only wish is that you will be careful of the
+     fires and lights.
+
+     I hope you won't feel injured if I suggest your asking
+     advice and suggestion of Miss Miranda and Miss Jane, who are
+     your nearest neighbors. They will take you in charge anyway,
+     and you might as well put yourself nominally under their
+     care. Your uncle will, of course, have an eye to you,
+     perhaps two eyes, and I dare say he could use more than the
+     allotted number, but Grandmamma will lend him hers, no
+     doubt.
+
+     Write me a line every day, saying that the household timbers
+     are still standing.
+
+     Your weakly indulgent but affectionate
+
+     Father.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't he a perfect darling!&rdquo; cried the enraptured quintette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; said demure Patty Weld, &ldquo;that before we permit ourselves to
+      feel too happy, we had better consult <i>our</i> 'powers that be,' and see
+      if we can accept Bell's invitation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I refuse to hear 'No' from one of you,&rdquo; Bell answered, firmly. &ldquo;I have
+      thought it all over; spent the night upon it, in fact. You, Alice, and
+      Josie Fenton, are too far from home to go there anyway, so I shall lead
+      you off as helpless captives. Your mother is in town, Lilia, so that you
+      can ask her immediately, and hear the worst; you and Edith, Patty, are
+      only a half-day's journey away, and can find out easily. I know you can
+      get permission, for it's going to be perfectly proper and safe. Grandmamma
+      lives nearby, the Sawyer spinsters are the village duennas, and Uncle
+      Harry can protect us from any rampaging burglars and midnight marauders
+      that may happen in to pay their respects.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the &ldquo;Jolly Six,&rdquo; as they were called by their schoolmates, separated,
+      to build many castles in the air. Bell, it was decided, was to go on to
+      her country home in advance, and, with the help of a neighboring farmer's
+      daughter, prepare and provision the house for an unusual siege.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls had determined to have no servant, and their many ingenious
+      plans for managing and dividing the work were the source of great
+      amusement to the teachers, some of whom had been admitted to their
+      confidence. Josie Fenton and Bell were to do the cooking, Jo claiming the
+      sternly practical department best suited to her&mdash;meat, vegetables,
+      and bread&mdash;while Bell was to concoct puddings, cakes, and the various
+      little indigestible dainties toward which schoolgirl hearts are so tender.
+      Alice Forsaith, the oldest of the party and the beauty of the school, with
+      Edith Lambert, as an aid, was to manage the making of the beds, tidying of
+      rooms, and setting of tables, while Lilia Porter and Patty Weld, with
+      noble heroism and selfsacrifice, offered to shoulder that cross of an
+      old-fashioned girl's life&mdash;the washing and wiping of dishes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On a Wednesday morning the two maiden ladies living nearly opposite the
+      Winship cottage were transfixed with wonder by the appearance of Bell, who
+      asked for the house-key left in safe keeping with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Du tell, Isabel!&mdash;I didn't expect to see you this mornin',&mdash;air
+      your folks comin' home or hev you been turned out o' school?&rdquo; asked Miss
+      Miranda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo; laughed Bell; &ldquo;I'm going to housekeeping myself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good land! You haven't run off and got married, have you?&rdquo; cried Miss
+      Jane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not quite so bad as that; but I'm going to bring five of my schoolmates
+      over to-morrow, and we intend to stay here two weeks all alone, as
+      housekeepers and householders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Land o' mercy,&rdquo; moaned the nervous Miss Miranda. &ldquo;That Pa o' yourn would
+      let you tread on him and not notice it. How any sensible man could do sech
+      a crazy thing as to let a pack of girls tear his house to pieces, I don't
+      see. You'll burn us all up before a week's out; I declare I sha'n't sleep
+      a wink for worrying the whole time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't be afraid, Miss Sawyer,&rdquo; said Bell, with some spirit. &ldquo;If six
+      girls, none of them younger than fourteen, can't take care of a few stoves
+      and fireplaces, I should think it was a pity. Everybody seems to think
+      nowadays that young people have no common sense. The world's growing wiser
+      all the time, and I don't see why we shouldn't be as bright as those
+      detestable pattern-girls of fifty years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, don't get huffy, Isabel; you mean well, but all girls are
+      unstiddy at your age. Anyhow, I'll try to keep an eye on ye. Here's your
+      key, and we can spare you a quart of milk a day and risin's for your
+      bread, if you're going to try riz bread, though I don't s'pose one of ye
+      knows anything about flour food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you; that'll be very nice, and now I'm going over to begin work,
+      for I have heaps to do. Emma Jane Perkins has come to help me, and
+      Grandma's Betty will come down every afternoon. By the way, can I have
+      Topsycat while I am here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I s'pose so,&rdquo; said Miss Jane, &ldquo;though it's been an awful sight of
+      work gettin' her used to our ways, and I'd never have done it if Mis'
+      Winship hadn't set such store by her. She pretty near pined away the first
+      week, and I've baked ginger cake for her and buttered her fritters every
+      mornin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't borrow her if you think she will be more troublesome afterward,&rdquo;
+       Bell answered, &ldquo;but you know it's almost impossible to keep house without
+      a cat and a dog. Bobs came over from Uncle Harry's the moment I arrived,
+      and is waiting at the gate now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't agree with you,&rdquo; said Miss Miranda. &ldquo;'Blessed be nothin', I say,
+      when it comes to live stock. We disposed of our horse, the pig went next,
+      and the cow's turn's comin'. Even a cat is dreadful confinin'. If you have
+      a cat and two hens you're as much tied down as if you had a barn full of
+      critters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The day was very cold, and both Bell and Emma Jane shivered as they
+      unlocked one frost-bitten door after another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall freeze as stiff as pokers,&rdquo; said Bell, with chattering teeth;
+      &ldquo;but we can't help it; let's build a fire in every stove in the honse and
+      thaw things out.&rdquo; This was done, and in an hour they were moderately
+      comfortable. The weather being so cold, Bell decided upon using only three
+      rooms, all on the first floor&mdash;the large, handsome family
+      sitting-room, the kitchen, and Mrs. Win-ship's chamber. This being very
+      capacious, she moved a couple of bedsteads from other rooms, and placing
+      the three side by side, filled up the intervening spaces with bolsters,
+      thus making one immensely wide bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, Emma Jane, isn't that a bright idea! We can all sleep in a row,
+      and then there'll be no quarreling about bedfellows or rooms. I certainly
+      am a good contriver,&rdquo; cried Bell, with a triumphant little laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks awful like a hospital, and the bolsters will keep fallin' down
+      in between and it'll be dreadful hard mak-in' 'em up of a mornin',&rdquo;
+       rejoined Emma Jane, who was no flatterer, being New England born and bred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sitting-room coal stove had accommodations, on top and back, for
+      cooking, so Bell thought that their suppers, with perhaps an occasional
+      breakfast, might be prepared there. The large bay-window, with its bright
+      drugget, would serve as a sort of tiny diningroom, so the mahogany
+      extension-table, with its carved legs, pretty red cover, and silver
+      service, was carried there. This accomplished, and every room made
+      graceful and attractive by Bell (who was a born homemaker, and placed
+      photographs, lamps, sofa-pillows, fir-boughs, and bowls of red apples just
+      where they were needed in the picture), she went over to her
+      Grandmother's, where four loaves of bread were baking and pies being
+      filled, in order that the young housekeepers might begin with a full
+      pantry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Grandma,&rdquo; she exclaimed breathlessly, tearing off her cloud and
+      bringing down with it a sunshiny mass of bronze hair, &ldquo;it does look
+      lovely, if I do say it; and as for setting that house on fire, there's no
+      danger, for it will take a week to thaw it into a state in which it would
+      burn. I have made up my mind that I sha'n't be the one to build the fires
+      every morning, even if I am hostess. I don't want to freeze myself daily
+      for the cause of politeness. Has the provision man come yet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Uncle Harry, &ldquo;and brought eatables enough for an army&mdash;more
+      than you girls can devour in a month.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll see,&rdquo; said Bell, laughingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't know the capacity of the 'Jolly Six' yet. Now, Betty, please
+      take the eggs and potatoes and fish and put them in our store room. I've
+      just time to make my cake and custard before I drive to the station for
+      the girls. Do you know, Uncle Harry, I am going to do the most astounding
+      thing! I've borrowed Farmer Allen's one-seated old pung,&mdash;the one he
+      takes to town filled with vegetables,&mdash;and I am going to keep it for
+      our sleigh-rides. It will hold all six of us, and what do we care for
+      public opinion!&rdquo; said she, with a disdainful gesture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II&mdash;IN THE FIRELIGHT
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO hours later you
+      might have seen the old pung drawn by Mr. Allen's Jerry, with Bell and
+      Alice Forsaith on the seat, and four laughing, rosy-cheeked girls warmly
+      tucked in buffalo robes on the bottom. Even the sober old sun, who had
+      been under a cloud that day, poked his head out to see the fun, and became
+      so interested that, in spite of himself, he forgot his determination not
+      to shine, and did his duty all the afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the girls opened the door and saw Bell's preparations,&mdash;the cozy
+      sitting-room, with dining-table in the bay-window, three sofas in a row,
+      so that on snowy days they might extend their lazy lengths thereon, and
+      finally a fir-covered barrel of Nodhead and Baldwin apples in one corner,&mdash;there
+      arose bursts of happy laughter and ecstatic cheers loud enough to shock
+      the neighbors, who seldom laughed and never cheered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it's an original idea to have an apple-barrel in your parlor
+      corner,&rdquo; said Bell; &ldquo;but the common-sense of it will be seen by every
+      thoughtful mind. Our forces will consume a peck a day, and life is too
+      short to spend it in galloping up and down cellar constantly for apples.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bell Winship, you are an inhospitable creature,&rdquo; exclaimed Lilia Porter.
+      &ldquo;Here I am, calmly seated on a coal-hod with my hat on, while you are
+      talking so fast that you can't get time to show us our apartments. Shelter
+      before food, say I!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Apartments!&rdquo; sniffed Bell, in mock dudgeon. &ldquo;You are very grand in your
+      ideas! Behold your camp, your wigwam, your tent, your quarters!&rdquo; and she
+      threw open the door of the large chamber and waved the party dramatically
+      in that direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bell, you will yet be Presidentess of these United States,&rdquo; cried Edith
+      Lambert. &ldquo;Any girl who can devise two such happy combinations as an
+      apple-barrel in a parlor corner and three beds in a row, ought to be given
+      a chair of state.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Might a poor worm inquire, Bell,&rdquo; asked Patty, &ldquo;why those croquet mallets
+      and balls are laid out in file round the beds?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, those are for protection, you goose, supposing anybody should come
+      in the piazza window at night, and we had nothing to kill him with!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and supposing he should take one of the mallets and pound us all to
+      a jelly to begin with?&rdquo; Patty retorted, being of a practical mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That <i>would</i> be rather embarrassing,&rdquo; answered Bell, with a
+      reflective shudder; &ldquo;I hadn't thought of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What could one poor man do against five girls banging him with croquet
+      mallets, while the sixth was running to alarm the neighbors?&rdquo; asked Alice,
+      &ldquo;and to put an end to the discussion I suggest that the cooks start
+      supper;&rdquo; whereupon she threw herself into an arm-chair, and put up a pair
+      of small, stout boots on the fender.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate couple referred to exchanged looks of unmitigated
+      discouragement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have my opinion of a girl who will mention supper before she has been
+      in the house an hour,&rdquo; said the head cook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Josie, I foresee that they are going to make galley-slaves of us if they
+      can. However,&rdquo; turning again to Alice, &ldquo;it isn't to be supper, but dinner.
+      The meals at this house are to be thus and so: Breakfast at 9 a.m.,
+      luncheon at 12 m., dinner at 5 p.m., refreshments at various times betwixt
+      and between, and all affairs pertaining to eatables are to be completely
+      under the control of the chefs, Mesdemoiselles Winship and Fenton. We
+      cannot have you 'suggesting' dinner at all hours, Miss Forsaith. If time
+      hangs heavy on your hands, occupy it in your own branches of housework.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we are to be ruled over in this way, life will not be worth living,&rdquo;
+       cried Patty Weld, in comical despair. &ldquo;I dare say we shall be half starved
+      as the days go on, but do give us something good to begin on, Bluebell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Judging from the scene at the table an hour later, it would not have made
+      much difference whether the repast was sumptuous or not, so formidable
+      were the appetites, and such the merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear,&rdquo; sighed Bell, dismally, to the assistant cook, &ldquo;I will throw
+      off all disguise and say that this family is a surprise and a
+      disappointment to me. When a person cooks twenty-seven potatoes, with the
+      reasonable expectation of having half left to fry, and sees a solitary one
+      left in the dish, with all its lovely companions both faded and gone, she
+      is naturally disheartened. Any way, we have finished for to-night, so the
+      Dish Brigade can marshal its forces. We will take our one potato into the
+      kitchen, Jo, and see if we can make it enough for breakfast. Look in the
+      corner bookcase; bring Mrs. Whitney's 'Just How,' Marion Harland's 'Cook
+      Book,' 'The Young Housekeeper's Friend,' and 'The Bride's Manual.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At nine o'clock that evening Uncle Harry passed through the garden, and
+      noticing a pair of open shutters, peeped in at the back window of the
+      sitting-room, thinking he had never seen a more charming or attractive
+      picture. Pretty Edith Lambert was curled up in an armchair near the astral
+      lamp, her face resting on her two rosy palms, and her eyes bent over
+      &ldquo;Little Women.&rdquo; Bluebell, her bright hair bobbed in a funny sort of twist,
+      from which two or three venturesome and rebellious curls were straying
+      out, and her high-necked blue apron still on over her dark dress, was
+      humming soft little songs at the piano. Roguish Jo was sitting flat on the
+      hearth, her bright cheeks flushed rosier under the warm occupation of corn
+      popping, and her dark hair falling loosely round her face, while Patty
+      Weld with her shy, demure face, was beside her on a hassock, knitting a
+      &ldquo;fascinator&rdquo; out of white wool. These two, so thoroughly unlike, were
+      never to be seen apart; indeed, they were so inseparable as to be dubbed
+      the &ldquo;Scissors&rdquo; or &ldquo;Tongs&rdquo; by their friends. Alice and Lilia were
+      quarreling briskly over a game of cribbage, Lilia's animated expression
+      and ringing laugh contrasting forcibly with the calm face of her
+      antagonist. Alice was never known to be excited over anything. It was she
+      who carried off all the dignity and took the part of presiding goddess of
+      the party. The girls all adored her for her beauty and superior age; for
+      she had attained the enviable pinnacle of &ldquo;sweet sixteen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said Jo, breaking the silence, &ldquo;let us have refreshments, then a
+      good quiet talk together, then muster the Hair-Brushing Brigade, and go to
+      bed. I think I have corn enough; I've popped and popped and popped as no
+      one ever popped before, and till popping has ceased to be fun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pop on, pop ever; the more you give us, Jo, the more popular you'll be,&rdquo;
+       laughed Bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is a veritable 'pop-in-J,' isn't she?&rdquo; cried Lilia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now Lilia,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;let us get the apples and nuts, and we'll sit in
+      a ring on the floor, and eat. I shan't crack the almonds; the girl that
+      hath her teeth, I say, is no girl, if with her teeth she cannot crack an
+      almond. Lilia, you're not a bit of assistance; you've tied up the end of
+      the nut-bag in a hard knot, upset the apple-dish, put the tablecloth on
+      crooked, and&mdash;oh, dear&mdash;now you've stepped in the pop-corn,&rdquo; as
+      Lilia, trying desperately to cross the room without knocking something
+      over, as usual, had hit the corn-pan in her airy flight. &ldquo;You have such a
+      genius for stepping into half-a-dozen things at once, I think you must be
+      web-footed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that's possible,&rdquo; retorted the unfortunate Lilia; &ldquo;I've often been
+      told I was a duck of a girl, and this proves it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you realize, girls,&rdquo; said Edith, after a while, &ldquo;that we shall all be
+      visited by ghosts and visions to-night, if we don't terminate this repast?
+      I'll put away the dishes, Bell, if you'll move the sofas up to the fire,
+      so that we can have our good-night chat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, speedily, six warm dressing-sacques were slipped on, and then, the
+      lamps being turned out, in the ruddy glow of the firelight, the brown, the
+      yellow, and the dark hair was taken down, and the housekeepers, braiding
+      it up for the night, talked and dreamed and built their castles in the
+      air, as all young things are wont to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Girls, dear old girls,&rdquo; said Alice, softly, breaking an unusual silence
+      of two minutes; &ldquo;isn't this cosy and sweet and friendly beyond anything?
+      How thankful we ought to be for the happy lives God gives us! We have been
+      put into this beautiful world and taken care of so wisely and kindly every
+      day; yet we don't often speak, or even think, about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is trouble, sometimes, more than happiness, that leads us into
+      thinking about God's care and goodness,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;although it's very
+      strange that it should. Before my mother's death I was just a little baby
+      playing with letter-blocks, and all at once, after that, I began to make
+      the letters into words and spell out things for myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a perfect heathen I am,&rdquo; burst out Jo. &ldquo;I can't feel any of these
+      things any more than if I were a Chinaman. Or, perhaps, it is as Edith
+      says, I am still playing with blocks, although I cannot even see the
+      letters on them. I wonder if I shall ever be wide awake enough for that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out of the window, Jo,&rdquo; said
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell, who was leaning on the sill. &ldquo;Don't you think if God can make out of
+      all that snow and ice, in three short months, a lovely, tender, green,
+      springing world, He can make something out of us! Isn't it a wonderful
+      thing that He can wake up the life that's asleep under the frozen earth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; rejoined Jo, dismally, &ldquo;there's something to begin on out there,
+      but I don't think I have much of a soul; any way, I have never seen any
+      signs of it. You always say things so prettily, Bell, that I like to hear
+      you sermonize. You'd make a good minister's wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you have plenty of 'soul material,' Jo,&rdquo; said Lilia, confusedly
+      struggling to make a figure of speech express her meaning. &ldquo;There's lots
+      of it there, only it wants to be blown up, somehow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks for your encouragement,&rdquo; said Jo, amid the laughter that followed
+      Lilia's peculiar metaphor. &ldquo;I think if you'll try to handle the spiritual
+      bellows, you'll find it's harder work than you imagine. Now don't laugh,
+      girls, because I really do feel solemn about it, only I talk in my usual
+      frivolous way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You always make yourself appear wicked, Jo,&rdquo; said her loving champion,
+      Patty, &ldquo;but I happen to know a few facts on the opposite side. Who was it
+      who gave every cent of her month's allowance to Mrs. Hart, the poor
+      washerwoman who scorched her white skirt; and who stayed away from the
+      church sociable to take care of that horrid room mate of hers who had a
+      headache?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patty, if you don't desist,&rdquo; cried Jo, with a flaming face, and
+      brandishing a hair-brush fiercely, &ldquo;I'll throw this at your dear,
+      charitable little head. Now, Bell, you know we all agreed to tell a story
+      of adventure each night before going to bed, and I think you, as hostess,
+      ought to begin. If the entertainment is delayed much longer it will find
+      me asleep with fatigue and over-feeding in the front row of the
+      orchestra.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, I can't begin!&rdquo; cried Bell, &ldquo;Nothing ever happened to me except
+      going to California and having a double wedding in the family. That's the
+      sum total of my adventures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make up something then, or tell us a true story about California. Oh, you
+      do have such a good time, and funny things are always happening to you,&rdquo;
+       sighed Lilia. &ldquo;You never seem to have any trials.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trials!&rdquo; rejoined Bell, sarcastically. &ldquo;I should think I hadn't. Perhaps
+      I haven't a little scamp of a brother and an awfully fussy old aunty!
+      Perhaps I'm not such an idiot that I can't multiply eight and nine, or
+      seven and six, without a lead-pencil; perhaps I wasn't left at school
+      while my parents toured in the South! Don't you call those afflictions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I do,&rdquo; answered Lilia, joining in the general laugh; &ldquo;and I'll never
+      allude to your good fortune again. Now tell us a California story,&mdash;that's
+      a dear,&mdash;for I'm getting sleepy as well as Jo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, well,&rdquo; said Bell, walking about the room absent-mindedly, until her
+      eyes rested on the cabinet, &ldquo;I'll tell you the story of these;&rdquo; and she
+      took up a string of dusty pearls which were seamed and cracked as if by
+      fire. &ldquo;Now open your eyes and lend me your ears, for I shall make it as
+      'bookish' and romantic as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last summer Mother and I were living in a beautiful valley a hundred
+      miles from San Francisco. It was near the mining districts, where Father
+      was attending to some business. Of course, a great many Mexicans and
+      Indians, as well as Chinamen, worked in these mines, and we used to see
+      them very often. Mother and I were sitting under the peach-trees in the
+      garden one afternoon. It was so beautiful sewing or reading in that
+      California garden, for the fruit was ripe and hanging in bushels on the
+      trees, as lovely to look at as it was luscious to eat; some of the peaches
+      were a rich yellow inside and others snow-white, except where the crimson
+      stones had tinged their sockets with rosy little spots.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't,&rdquo; cried Jo; &ldquo;you'll make us discontented with our New England
+      apples!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were chatting and eating peaches,&rdquo; continued Bell, &ldquo;when the gate
+      opened, and an Indian girl with an old squaw came in and approached us,
+      The girl could speak English, and told me her name was Eskaluna. I had
+      heard about her, and knew that she was the beauty and belle of the tribe,
+      and was going to marry the chief's son when the next moon came; for our
+      Indian cook was as gossipy as a Yankee, and was forever telling us tales.
+      She was the most beautiful creature I ever saw: lovely black hair, not so
+      coarse as is usual with them, brilliant dark eyes, good features, and the
+      prettiest slim hands and graceful arms. She was dressed gaily and
+      handsomely in the fashion of her tribe, and on her lovely, bare, brown
+      neck was this long string of Mexican pearls, which we noticed at once as
+      being very valuable. She stayed there all the afternoon under the
+      fruit-trees, and really grew quite confidential. Mother, meanwhile, had
+      gone into ecstacies over her beautiful pearls, and had taken them from her
+      neck to examine them. At sunset, when she went home to her wigwam, she
+      slipped the necklace into mother's lap, saying, with her sweet trick of
+      speech, 'I eatie your peachie, you takie my beads.' Of course, mother
+      could not accept them, and Eskaluna departed in quite a disappointed mood.
+      I remember being sorry that the pretty young thing was going to marry the
+      disagreeable, ugly chief. He was just as jealous and ferocious as he could
+      be&mdash;wouldn't let her talk to one of the warriors of the tribe, and
+      had shot one man already because he fancied Eskaluna admired him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A chorus of &ldquo;Oh's&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ah's&rdquo; interrupted Bell, and Alice's eyes grew
+      round with interest, for she was sixteen and had been called a &ldquo;cruel
+      coquette&rdquo; by a young student at Wareham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a few days our Indian cook came home at night from the mines, saying
+      that he wanted a holiday the next morning to go to a funeral. We had heard
+      that in some tribes they burn the bodies of the dead, and wondered whether
+      his were one of them, so we asked him the particulars, of course, and were
+      terribly shocked when we heard that it was the funeral of poor Eskaluna,
+      who had visited us so lately, in all her dusky beauty. Nakawa told us the
+      whole story in his broken English, and a sad one it was. Her lover, the
+      chief, as I have said, was always jealous of her, and on the afternoon she
+      came to our house, he had heard from some crafty villain or other (an
+      enemy of Eskaluna's, of course), that she was false, and, instead of
+      intending to marry him, loved a handsome young Indian of another tribe,
+      and was planning to run away with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This fired his hot blood, and he rushed off on the village road
+      determined to kill her. He climbed a large sycamore tree on a lonely part
+      of the way, and there waited until the shadows fell over the mountain
+      sides, and the sun, dropping behind their peaks, left the San Jacinto
+      valley in fast-growing darkness. At last he saw the gleam of her scarlet
+      dress in the distance, and soon he heard her voice as she came singing
+      along, little thinking of her dreadful fate. He took sure aim at the heart
+      that was beating happily and carelessly under its cape of birds' feathers;
+      shot, and so swift and unerring was his arrow that she fell in an instant,
+      dead, upon the path. Then, leaving her with the helpless old squaw, he
+      escaped into a canon near by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0053.jpg" alt="0053 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0053.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next day we went over to the Indian encampment, and reached the place
+      just after poor Eskaluna had been burned on the funeral pile. We went
+      close to the spot and could hardly help crying when we thought of her
+      beauty and sweetness, and her sad and undeserved death. Up near the head
+      of the pile where that lovely brown neck of hers had rested,&mdash;the
+      prettiest neck in the world,&mdash;lay this charred string of pearls she
+      had worn in our garden. Mother asked for it as a remembrance, and the old
+      squaw gave it to her. Eskaluna's brother is on the war-path after her
+      murderer, I believe, to this day, if he hasn't killed him yet; for he was
+      determined to avenge her. Now, isn't that romantic, and tragic at the same
+      time, girls? Poor Eskaluna! I don't know that her fate would have been
+      much easier if she had married the chief; but it is hard to think of her
+      being so heartlessly murdered when she was so innocent and true; and
+      that's the end of my story. Who comes next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not I, at this hour,&rdquo; yawned Jo, &ldquo;but it was a good tale!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor I, after that thrilling experience of yours!&rdquo; said Alice, admiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can think of no story half so delightful as the dreams we shall have if
+      we go to bed,&rdquo; murmured Edith from her cozy corner. &ldquo;Come, it is after
+      ten, and the wide bed calls loudly for occupants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a half-hour all six were asleep, and the bright-faced moon, looking in
+      at the piazza window, smiled as she saw the half-dozen heads in a row, and
+      the bed surrounded by croquet mallets and balls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III&mdash;AN EMERGENCY CASE
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE next morning
+      broke clear, bright, and sparkling, but bitterly cold. I cannot attempt to
+      tell you all the doings of that indefatigable and ingenious bevy of girls
+      during the day. Miss Miranda, their opposite neighbor, had kept to her
+      post of observation, the window, very closely, and had seen much to awaken
+      scorn and surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wa'al, Jane!&rdquo; said she, excitedly, in the afternoon, &ldquo;there they go
+      ag'in! That's the fourth time the hoss has been harnessed into Allen's
+      pung to-day; and now they've got their uncle. Whatever they find to laugh
+      so over, and where they go to, is more'n I can see. They haven't done up
+      their dinner dishes, I know, for I've been watching of 'em and they
+      hain't had time to do 'em so quick as this, though Bell Winship is
+      as spry as a skeeter when she gets a-goin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miranda's organs of vision were better than magnifying glasses, for,
+      aided by a lively imagination, they could dart around corners and through
+      doors with great ease. Bell avowed confidentially to Patty that morning,
+      when she met her neighbor's eyes fixed on the pantry window, that she
+      believed Miss Miranda could see a fly-speck on top of a liberty-pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls had made the day a very long and lively one, and in the evening,
+      their spirits still high and their inventive powers still unimpaired, they
+      gave an impromptu concert. The audience was small but appreciative.
+      Grandmother was in a private box&mdash;the high-backed arm-chair in the
+      cosiest corner; Uncle Harry sat on a hastily-erected throne made by
+      perching a stool on the dining-table, and being given a large pair of
+      goggles, was requested to serve as dramatic and musical critic for the
+      morning newspapers. Two or three of the boarders from Mrs. Carter's famous
+      Winter Farmhouse on the hill, the young schoolmaster (a Bowdoin student
+      earning his college course by odd terms of teaching), and Hugh Pennell,
+      his chum and classmate, home on a brief holiday, made quite a brave show
+      when seated in three rows, while the unaffected laughter, the open mouths,
+      and the staring eyes of &ldquo;the help,&rdquo; Emma Jane Perkins, Betty Bean, and 'Bijah
+      Flagg, who were grouped at the hall door, helped in the general merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell had a keen sense of the ridiculous and a voice like a meadow-lark. Jo
+      was capital, too, as a mimic, so together, they gave some absurdly funny
+      scenes from famous operas. Bell had thrown on an evening dress of her
+      cousin's, which happened to be left in the house, and this, with its short
+      sleeves, showing her round, girlish arms, and its long train, made her
+      such a distracting little prima donna of fifteen, that Hugh Pennell quite
+      laid his boyish heart at her feet. She sang &ldquo;The Last Rose of Summer&rdquo; with
+      all the smiles, head-tossings, arch looks, casting down of eyelids, and
+      kissing of finger-tips at the close, which generally accompany it when
+      sung by the stage soprano, and she was naturally greeted with rapturous
+      applause. Then Jo, as the tenor, in dressing-gown and smoking-cap for male
+      attire, sang a fervent duet with Alice Forsaith, rendering it with
+      original Italian words and embraces at the end of every measure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0063.jpg" alt="0063 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0063.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Tableaux showing scenes from well-known novels, and thrilling historical
+      events depicted in pantomime, came next, and the company was invited to
+      name them as they followed one another in quick succession,&mdash;Eliza
+      crossing the river by leaping from ice block to ice block, the bloodhounds
+      in hot pursuit; Pochahontas saving the life of her noble Captain John;
+      Rochester, holding Jane Eyre spellbound by the steely glitter of his eye;
+      and the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers, landing on a stern and rock-bound
+      coast, ably represented by the dining-room table. As Uncle Harry sat on
+      the table he was obliged to be the center of this thrilling scene, which
+      was variously surmised by the audience to be the capture of a slave-ship
+      by pirates, the rescue of a babe from a tenement-house fire, the killing
+      of Julius Cæsar in the Roman Senate, or an impassioned attempt to drag
+      Casabianca from the burning deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After bidding their visitors goodnight, Bell and Jo went into the kitchen
+      to put buckwheat cakes to raise for breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I'll chop the meat hash for a half-hour while the kitchen is
+      warm,&rdquo; said Jo. &ldquo;Emma Jane is right about the knife; it is dull beyond
+      words!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it is any duller than Emma Jane herself, I am sorry for it,&rdquo; rejoined
+      Bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a poor workman who complains of his tools, Jo,&rdquo; said Patty, looking
+      in at the door, with a superior air; &ldquo;Columbus discovered America in an
+      open boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He would never have discovered America with this chopping-knife,&rdquo; quoth
+      Jo, bringing it down with vicious emphasis on the unoffending meat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you notice Emma Jane's expression as she stood in the doorway to
+      night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did,&rdquo; replied Bell, as she bustled about her last tasks at closet,
+      cupboard, and sink. &ldquo;Not a penny of my money shall go to the heathen in
+      other lands until I have done some missionary work with her. In ten days I
+      propose to make her stand straight, hold her head up, keep her mouth
+      closed when not occupied in conversation or eating, stop straining her
+      hair out by the roots, tie the ends of her braids with ribbon instead of
+      twine, give up her magenta hood, and a few other little details.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see how you dare advise her at her advanced age,&rdquo; responded Jo.
+      &ldquo;I suppose she is thirteen, but she appears about thirty. Look, Bell, can
+      this hash be safely trusted now to the pearly teeth of our parlor
+      boarders, or are the pieces too large for their 'delicate sensibilities'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that it may escape criticism,&rdquo; laughed Bell. &ldquo;Cover it with a
+      clean towel and a platter, and one of us will give it a last castigation
+      before it goes in the frying-pan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never had such a good time in my life, never, never!&rdquo; sighed Lilia, as
+      she blew out the lamp, and tucked herself on the front side of the bed, a
+      little later. &ldquo;I have only two things to trouble me. First: my wisdom
+      tooth feels as if it were going to ache again. Second: it is my turn to
+      build the kitchen fire in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Console yourself with one thought, my dear,&rdquo; murmured Bell, drowsily, yet
+      sagely. &ldquo;Both these misfortunes can't happen to you, for if your tooth
+      chances to ache, we shall not have the heart to make you build the fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't tell her that,&rdquo; urged Jo, with a prodigious yawn, &ldquo;or she will be
+      feigning toothache constantly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lilia's fears had good foundation, however, for in the middle of the
+      night, Jo, who slept next the front side, wakened suddenly to find her
+      slipping quietly out of bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter, Lilia!&rdquo; she whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing; don't wake the others, but that miserable tooth grumbles just
+      enough to keep me awake, and my temple aches and my cheek, too. Where is
+      the lotion I use for bathing my face, do you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, where you put it this morning, on the back of the wash-stand;
+      sha'n't I light the lamp and help you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, hush!&rdquo; said Lilia. &ldquo;I can put my hand on it in the dark. Here it
+      is! I'll bathe my face a few minutes, and then try to go to sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, she anointed herself freely, put the bottle and sponge under the head
+      of the bed lest she should need them again, and, finally, the pain growing
+      less, fell asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning, Bell, who wakened first, rubbed her eyes drowsily, glanced
+      at Lilia, who was breathing quietly, and uttered a piercing shriek. This
+      in turn aroused the other girls, who joined in the shriek on general
+      principles, and then, blinking in the half-light, looked where Bell
+      pointed. One side of Lilia's face was swollen, and of a dark, purple
+      color, presenting a truly frightful appearance. At length, hearing the
+      confusion, Lilia awoke with a start, and her eyes being open, and rolling
+      about in surprise, she looked still more alarming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What on earth is the matter, girls?&rdquo; she asked, sitting up in bed,
+      smoothing back her hair and rubbing her heavy lids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon Edith and Alice began to tremble and nobody answered her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;K-k-keep c-c-calm,&rdquo; said Bell. &ldquo;Lilia, dear, your face is badly swollen
+      and inflamed, and we're afraid you are going to be ill, but we'll send for
+      the doctor straight away. Does it pain you very much?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lilia jumped up hastily, and, looking in the mirror, uttered a cry of
+      terror, and sank back into the rocking-chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What can it be! Oh, take me home to my father! It
+      must be a malignant pustule&mdash;or spotted fever&mdash;or something
+      dreadful! What shall I do? Bell, you are a doctor's daughter; do find out
+      what's the matter with me! I am disfigured for life, and I wasn't very
+      good-looking before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Girls,&rdquo; said Bell, &ldquo;let us dress this very instant, for we can't be too
+      quick about a thing of this kind. You, Jo, build the kitchen fire, and,
+      Alice, make a blaze on the hearth in here; then, after we've made her
+      comfortable, Edith can run and tell Uncle Harry to come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put on the kettle,&rdquo; added Patty, &ldquo;and heat blankets; they always do that
+      in emergencies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't frighten me to death,&rdquo; wailed Lilia, &ldquo;calling me 'a thing of this
+      kind' and an 'emergency.' I don't feel a hit worse than I did in the
+      night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had neuralgia in her face,&rdquo; explained Jo; &ldquo;that must have had
+      something to do with it. She put on some of her liniment, and then dropped
+      off to sleep. Come, darling, let us tuck you in bed again; try to keep up
+      your courage!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there was a hasty consultation in the kitchen 'midst many
+      groans and tears. Bell was an authority on sickness, and she said, with an
+      awestruck face, that it must be a dreadful attack of erysipelas in the
+      very last stages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; cried Alice, perplexed, &ldquo;it is all very strange, for why does she
+      have so little pain, and how could her face have turned so black from
+      mortification in one night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blood-poisoning is very quick and very deadly,&rdquo; said Patty, who had heard
+      about such a case in her own family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goodness knows what it is,&rdquo; exclaimed Bell, wringing her hands in nervous
+      terror. &ldquo;What to do with her I don't know; whether to put bricks to her
+      head and ice to her feet, or keep her head cold and heat her
+      'extremities,' as father calls them&mdash;whether to give her a sweat or
+      keep her dry, or wrap her in blankets, or get the linen sheets. Jo is with
+      her now. If you'll go and wake Uncle Harry, Edith, it is the best thing we
+      can do. Run along with her, too, Patty, and you won't be afraid together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alice and Bell went back presently to Lilia, who looked even worse, now
+      that the room was bright with the glow of the open fire and the pale light
+      of the student lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You patient old darling!&rdquo; cried Bell, falling on her knees beside the
+      bed. &ldquo;We have sent for Uncle Harry and the Doctor, and now you are sure to
+      be all right, for we've taken the thing in good time. Good gracious!! what
+      bottle have I tipped over under this bed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's my neuralgia liniment,&rdquo; murmured Lilia, faintly. &ldquo;I bathed my face
+      in it last night, and put it under there afterward. Don't spill it, for I
+      can't get any more here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your neuralgia lotion!&rdquo; shrieked Bell, first with a look of blank
+      astonishment, and then one of excitement and glee mixed in equal parts.
+      &ldquo;Look at it, girls! Look, Alice and Jo! Oh, Lilia, you precious,
+      blundering goose!&rdquo; and thereupon she dragged out from beneath the bed
+      valance a pint bottle of violet ink, and then relapsed into a paroxysm of
+      voiceless mirth. Just then the hack door opened, and in hurried Uncle
+      Harry, Edith, and Patty, much terrified, for they had heard the shouts and
+      gasps and excited voices from outside, and supposed that Lilia must at
+      least have fallen into convulsions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me see the poor child immediately,&rdquo; cried Mr. Winship. &ldquo;What is the
+      trouble with you, Bell? are you demented? and where is Lilia?&rdquo; looking at
+      the apparently empty bed, for Lilia had wound herself in the sheets and
+      blankets, disappeared from view, and was endeavoring to force a pillow
+      into her mouth in order to render her shame-faced laughter inaudible. &ldquo;Are
+      you trying to play a joke on me?&rdquo; continued he, with as much dignity as
+      was consistent with an attire made up of an undershirt, a pair of
+      trousers, overshoes, a tall hat, and a gold-headed cane which he had quite
+      unconsciously caught up in his hasty flight from his chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fact is,&rdquo; answered Bell, between her gasps, and trying desperately
+      hard to regain her sobriety,&mdash;&ldquo;the fact is&mdash;Uncle Harry&mdash;we
+      made&mdash;a mistake, and so did&mdash;Lilia. There were two bottles just
+      alike on the wash-stand, and in the night she bathed her face for five
+      minutes in the purple ink! Oh, oh, oh!!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncle Harry's face relaxed into a broad smile as he realized the joke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Winship, you should have seen her!&rdquo; sighed Jo, lifting her head
+      from the sofa-pillow, with streaming eyes. &ldquo;All her face, except part of
+      her forehead and one cheek, was covered with enormous dark purple
+      blotches. She looked like a clown, or a Fourth of July fantastic, or
+      anything else frightful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Edith, slyly, &ldquo;Bell said mortification had taken place. I
+      don't think Lilia has ever been more mortified than she is now; do you?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Puns are out of place, Edith,&rdquo; said Bell, severely. &ldquo;Don't hurry, Uncle
+      Harry. Don't let any thought of your rather peculiar attire cause you
+      embarrassment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But before Bell's teasing voice had ceased, the last thud, thud of his
+      rubbers, and click, click of his gold-headed cane were heard in the hall,
+      and he thought, as he tried to finish his early morning nap, that it would
+      be a long time before he allowed those madcap girls to rout him out of bed
+      again at five o'clock on a winter's day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the girls themselves, they did not even make a trial of slumber,
+      but first scrubbed Lilia energetically with hard soap and pumice, and then
+      made molasses candy, determined that the roaring kitchen fire should be
+      used to some purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having gained so much time by the unusual way in which they had started
+      the day, they were enabled to look back at nightfall on an unprecedented
+      number of activities, some of them rather unique and original. There was a
+      call upon Emma Jane's mother, another upon Mrs. Carter at the Winter Farm,
+      a sleigh-ride with Geoffrey Strong, the vehicle being a truck for hauling
+      wood, an hour's coasting down Brigadier hill, and a trip to the doctor's
+      for courtplaster and arnica and peppermint and cough lozenges. Then
+      directly after luncheon Bell and Jo made a private and confidential call
+      upon Grandma Win-ship's pig, leaving with him as evidences of regard
+      several samples of their own cookery. This call they hoped was unnoticed,
+      but an hour afterwards the other four girls were espied coming from the
+      Winships', all clad in black garments of one sort or another. When
+      questioned as to the meaning of this mysterious piece of foolishness they
+      merely remarked that they, too, had called upon the Winships pig, but that
+      it was a visit of condolence and sympathy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV&mdash;A WINTER PICNIC
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>OU may think that
+      Lilia's &ldquo;mortification&rdquo; was quite an excitement in this enterprising young
+      household; yet I assure you that never twenty-four hours passed but a
+      ridiculous adventure of some kind overtook the girls. The daily bulletin
+      which they carried over to Mrs. Carter at the Winter Farm kept the worthy
+      inmates in constant wonderment as to what would happen next. Sometimes
+      there was a regular programme for the next day, prepared the night before,
+      but oftener, things happened of themselves, and when they do that, you
+      know, pleasure seems a deal more satisfying and delightful, because it is
+      unexpected. Uncle Harry was in great demand, and very often made one of
+      the gay party of young folks off for a frolic. They defied King Winter
+      openly, and went on all sorts of excursions, even on a bona-fide picnic,
+      notwithstanding the two feet of snow on the ground. The way of it was
+      this: On Friday, the boys&mdash;Hugh Pennell, Bell's cousin, Jack Brayton,
+      and the young schoolmaster&mdash;turned the great bare hall in the top of
+      the old Winship family house into a woodland bower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the way, I have not told you much about Geoffrey Strong yet, because
+      the girls of the story have had everything their own way, but Geoffrey
+      Strong was well worth knowing. He was only eighteen years old, but had
+      finished his sophomore year at Bowdoin College, and was teaching the
+      district school that he might partly earn the money necessary to take him
+      through the remainder of the course. He was as sturdy and strong as his
+      name, or as one of the stout pine-trees of his native State, as gentle and
+      chivalrous as a boy knight of the olden time; as true and manly a lad, and
+      withal as good and earnest a teacher, notwithstanding his youth, as any
+      little country urchin could wish. Mr. Win-ship was his guardian, and thus
+      he had become quite one of the Winship family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys were making the picnic grounds when I interrupted my story with
+      this long parenthesis. They took a large pair of old drop curtains used at
+      some time or other in church tableaux, and made a dark green carpet by
+      stretching them across the floor smoothly and tacking them down; they
+      wreathed the pillars and trimmed the doors and windows with evergreens,
+      and then planted young spruce and cedar and hemlock trees in the corners
+      or scattered them about the room firmly rooted in painted nail-kegs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks rather jolly, boys, doesn't it?&rdquo; cried Jack, rubbing his cold
+      fingers, &ldquo;but I'm afraid we've gone as far as we can; we can't make birds
+      and flowers and brooks!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the special difficulty?&rdquo; asked Geoffrey. &ldquo;We'll borrow Grandmother
+      Winship's two cages of canaries and Mrs. Adams' two; then we'll bring over
+      Mrs. Carter's pet parrot, and altogether we'll be musical enough,
+      considering the fact that the thermometer is below zero.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This suggestion of Geoff's they accordingly adopted, and their mimic
+      forest became tuneful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next stroke of genius came from Hugh Pennell. He found bunches of
+      white and yellow everlastings at home with which he mixed some cleverly
+      constructed bright tissue-paper flowers, of mysterious botanical
+      structure. He planted these in pots, and tied them to shrubs, and behold,
+      their forest bloomed!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But we have finished now, boys,&rdquo; said Hugh, dejectedly, as he put his
+      last bed of whiteweed and buttercups under a shady tree. (They were made
+      of paper, and were growing artistically in a moss-covered chopping-tray.)
+      &ldquo;We can't get up a brook, and a brook is a handy thing at a picnic, too.
+      Good for the small children to fall into, good for drinking, good for
+      dish-washing, good for its cool and musical tinkle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have an idea,&rdquo; suggested Jack, who was mounted on a step-ladder busily
+      engaged in tying a stuffed owl and a blue jay to a tree-top. &ldquo;I have an
+      idea. We can fill the ice-water tank, put it on a shelf, let the water run
+      into a tub, then station a boy in the corner to keep filling the tank from
+      the tub. There's your stagnant pool and your running streamlet. There's
+      your drinking-water, your dish-washer, your musical tinkle, and possibly
+      your small child's watery grave. What could be more romantic?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out with him!&rdquo; shouted Geoff. &ldquo;He ought to be drowned for proposing such
+      an apology for a brook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fail to see the point,&rdquo; said Jack; &ldquo;the sound would be sylvan and
+      suggestive, and I've no doubt the girls would be charmed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll brook no further argument on the subject,&rdquo; retorted Hugh; &ldquo;the
+      afternoon is running away with us. We might bring up the bath-tub, or the
+      watering-trough, sink it in an evergreen bank and surround it with house
+      plants, but I don't think it would satisfy us exactly. I'll tell you, let
+      us give up the brook and build a sort of what-do-you-call'em for a
+      retreat, in one corner.&rdquo; After some explanations from Hugh about his plan,
+      the boys finally succeeded in manufacturing something romantic and
+      ingenious. Two blooming oleanders in boxes were brought from Uncle Harry's
+      parlor, there was a hemlock tree with a rustic seat under it, there was an
+      evergreen arch above, there was a little rockery built with a dozen stones
+      from the old wall behind the barn, and there were Miss Jane Sawyer's
+      potted scarlet geraniums set in among them, all surmounted by two banging
+      baskets and a bird-cage. With nothing save an airtight stove to warm it
+      into life (the ugliness of the stove quite hidden by screens of green
+      boughs), the cold, bare hall was magically changed into a green forest,
+      vocal with singing birds and radiant with blooming flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys swung their hats in irrepressible glee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't this be a surprise to the people, though! Won't they think of the
+      desert blooming as the rose!&rdquo; cried Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy it won't astonish Uncle Harry and Grandmother much,&rdquo; answered
+      Jack, dryly, &ldquo;inasmuch as we've nearly borrowed them out of house and home
+      during the operation. Old Mrs. Winship said when I took her hammer,
+      hatchet, chopping-tray, house plants, and screw-driver, that perhaps she
+      had better go over to Mrs. Carter's and board. The girls will be fairly
+      stunned, though. Just imagine Bell's eyes! I told them we'd see to
+      sweeping and heating the hall, but they don't expect any decorations.
+      Well, I'm off. Lock the door, Geoff, and guard it like a dragon; we meet
+      at eleven to-morrow morning, do we? Be on hand, sharp, and let us all go
+      in and view the scene together. I wouldn't for worlds miss hearing and
+      seeing the girls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack and Hugh started for home, and Geoff went downstairs to run a
+      gauntlet of questioning from Jo Fenton, who was present in Grandmother
+      Winship's kitchen on one of the borrowing tours of the day, and extremely
+      anxious to find out why so much mysterious hammering was going on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these preparations were in progress, the six juvenile housekeepers
+      were undergoing abject suffering in their cookery for the picnic. It had
+      been a day of disasters from beginning to end&mdash;the first really
+      mournful one in their experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It commenced bright and early, too; in fact, was all ready for them before
+      they awoke in the morning, and the coal fire began it, for it went out in
+      the night. Everybody knows what it is to build a fire in a large coal
+      stove; it was Jo's turn as stoker and tirewoman, and I regret to say that
+      this circumstance made her a little cross, in fact, audibly so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After much searching for kindling-wood, however, much chattering of teeth,
+      for the thermometer was below zero, much vicious banging of stove doors,
+      and clattering of hods and shovels, that trouble was overcome. But, dear
+      me! it was only the first drop of a pouring rain of accidents, and at last
+      the girls accepted it as a fatal shower which must fall before the weather
+      would clear, and thus resigned themselves to the inevitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The breakfast was as bad as a breakfast knew how to be. The girls were all
+      cooks to-day in the exciting preparation for the picnic, for they wanted
+      to take especially tempting dainties in order that they might astonish
+      more experienced providers. Patty scorched the milk toast; Edith, that
+      most precise and careful of all little women under the sun, broke a
+      platter and burned her fingers; Lilia browned a delicious omelet, and
+      waved the spider triumphantly in the air, astonished at her own success,
+      when, alas, the smooth little circlet slipped illnaturedly into the coal
+      hod. Lilia stood still in horror and dismay, while Bell fished it hastily
+      out, looking very crumpled, sooty, shrunken, and generally penitent, if an
+      omelet can assume that expression. She slapped it on the table severely,
+      and said, with a little choke and tear in her voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The last of the eggs went into that omelet, and it is going to he rinsed,
+      and fried over, and eaten. There isn't another thing in the house for
+      breakfast. There is no bread; Alice put cream-of-tartar into the
+      buckwheats, instead of saleratus, and measured it with a tablespoon
+      besides; Miss Miranda's cat upset the milk can; the potatoes are frozen;
+      and I am ashamed to borrow anything more of Grandmother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; cried Alice, with much determination. &ldquo;Sooner eat omelet and coal
+      hod, too! Never mind the breakfast! there are always apples. What shall we
+      take to the picnic? We can suggest luncheon at high noon, and no one will
+      suspect we haven't breakfasted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's make mince pies,&rdquo; cried Jo, animatedly, from her seat on the
+      wood-box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goose,&rdquo; answered Bell, with a sarcastic smile. &ldquo;There's plenty of time to
+      make mince-meat, of course!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate, we must have jelly-cake,&rdquo; said Lilia, with decision, while
+      dishing up the injured omelet for the second time. &ldquo;We had better carry
+      the delicacies, for Mrs. Pennell and the boys will be sure to bring bread
+      and meat and common things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, tarts, tarts!&rdquo; exclaimed Edith, in an ecstacy of reminiscence. &ldquo;I
+      haven't had tarts for a perfect age! Do you think we could manage them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They must be easy enough,&rdquo; answered Patty, with calm authority. &ldquo;Cut a
+      hole out of the middle of each round thing, then till it up with jelly and
+      bake it; that's simple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0093.jpg" alt="0093 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0093.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad you think so,&rdquo; responded Edith, with an air of deep melancholy and
+      cynicism, as she prepared to wash the cooking dishes and found an empty
+      dish-water pot. &ldquo;I should think the jelly would grow hard and crusty
+      before the tarts baked, but I suppose it's all right. Everything we touch
+      to-day is sure to fail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how much better if you said, 'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try,'&rdquo; sang
+      Bell, in a spasm of gayety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how much sadder you will feel when you've tried, by and by,&rdquo; retorted
+      Edith. &ldquo;Is there anything difficult about pastry, I wonder? Look in the
+      cookbook. Does it have to be soaked over night like ham, or hung for two
+      weeks like game, or put away in a stone jar like fruit-cake, or 'braised'
+      or 'trussed' or 'larded' or anything?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Patty, looking up from the 'Bride's Manual,' &ldquo;but it has to be
+      pounded on a marble slab with a glass rolling-pin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stuff and nonsense,&rdquo; said Bell, &ldquo;Tarts are nothing but pie-crust. This
+      village is situated in the very middle of what is called the New England
+      Pie Belt, and the glass rolling-pin and the marble slab have never been
+      seen by the oldest or youngest inhabitant. I know that bride. When she
+      makes pastry you can see her diamond engagement ring flash as she dips her
+      turquoise scoop into her ruby flour-barrel. Look up soft gingerbread,
+      Patty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Four cups best New Orleans molasses&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The molasses is out,&rdquo; said Jo; &ldquo;find jelly-cake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jelly all gone,&rdquo; said Bell; &ldquo;where, I can't think, for there were
+      seventeen tumblers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boys are awfully fond of it with bread,&rdquo; said Alice, reminiscently.
+      &ldquo;How about doughnuts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; Bell answered, &ldquo;of course you'll go to the store for more
+      eggs and a pail of lard. We're out of molasses, eggs, lard, ginger, jelly,
+      patience, and luck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Over an hour was spent in futile excursions through the cookery books,
+      vain rummagings of the pantry and larder, frequent trips to the country
+      store, and nothing was a triumphant success. Things that should have been
+      thin were fat and puffy; those that should have risen high and light as
+      air were flat and soggy; pots, pans, bowls, were heaped on one another in
+      the sink until at one o'clock Alice Forsaith went to bed with a headache,
+      leaving the kitchen in a state of general confusion and uproar. I cannot
+      bear to tell you all the sorry incidents of that dreadful day, but Bell
+      had shared in the blunders with the rest. She had gone to the store-room
+      for citron, and had stumbled on a jar of frozen &ldquo;something&rdquo; very like
+      mince-meat. This, indeed, was a precious discovery! She flew back to the
+      kitchen, crying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurrah! We'll have the pies after all, girls! Mother has left a pot of
+      mince-meat in the pantry. It's frozen, but it will be all right. You trust
+      to me. I've made pies before, and these shall not be a failure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The spider was heated, and enough meat for three pies put in to thaw. It
+      thawed, naturally, the fire being extremely hot, and it presently became
+      very thin and curious in its appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks like thick soup with pieces of chopped apple in it,&rdquo; said Lilia
+      to Bell, who was patting down a very tough, substantial bottom crust on a
+      pie plate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We-l-l, it does!&rdquo; owned the head cook, frankly; &ldquo;but I suppose it will
+      boil down or thicken up in baking. I don't like to taste it, somehow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very natural,&rdquo; said Lilia, dryly. &ldquo;It doesn't look 'tasty;' and, to tell
+      the truth, it does not look at all as I've been brought up to imagine
+      mince-meat ought to look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't be responsible for your 'bringing up,' Lill. Please pour it in,
+      and I'll hold the plate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mixture trickled in; Bell put a very lumpy, spotted covering of dough
+      over it, slashed a bold original design in the middle for a ventilator,
+      and deposited the first pie in the oven with a sigh of relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at this happy moment, Betty Bean, Mrs. Winship's maid-of-all-work,
+      walked in with a can of kerosene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you think that's funny looking mince-meat, Betty?&rdquo; asked Patty,
+      pointing to the frying-pan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Betty the wise looked at it one moment, and then said, with youthful
+      certainty and disdain: &ldquo;'Tain't no more mince-meat than a cat's
+      foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was decisive, and the utterance fell like a thunder-bolt upon the
+      kitchen-maids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious,&rdquo; cried Bell, dropping her good English and her rolling-pin at
+      the same time. &ldquo;What do you mean? It looked exactly like it before it
+      melted. What is it, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suet,&rdquo; answered cruel Betty Bean. &ldquo;Your ma chopped it and done it up in
+      molasses for her suet plum puddins this winter. It's thick when it's cold;
+      and when it was froze, maybe it did look like pie-meat with a good deal of
+      apple in it; but it ain't no such thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was too much. If I am to relate truly the adventures of this
+      half-dozen suffering little maidens, I must tell you that Bell entirely
+      lost her sunny temper for a moment; caught up the unoffending spider
+      filled with molasses and floating bits of suet; carried it steadily and
+      swiftly to the back-door, hurled it into a snow-bank; slammed the door,
+      and sat down on a flour-firkin, burying her face in the very dingy
+      roller-towel. The girls stopped laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind, Bluebell,&rdquo; cooed Patty, sympathetically, smoothing her
+      hostess's curly hair with a very doughnutty hand, and trying to wipe her
+      flushed cheeks with an apron redolent of hot fat. &ldquo;You can use the rest of
+      the pie-crust for tarts, and my doughnuts are swelling up
+      be-yoo-ti-ful-ly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell withdrew the towel from her merry, tearful eyes, and said with savage
+      emphasis:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If any of you dare tell this at the picnic to-morrow, or let Uncle Harry
+      or the boys know about it, I'll&mdash;I don't know what I'll do,&rdquo; finished
+      she, weakly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a fearful threat,&rdquo; laughed Jo,&mdash;&ldquo;'The King of France and
+      fifty thousand men plucked forth their swords! and put them up again.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so this cloud passed over, and another and yet another with comforting
+      gleams of sunshine between, till at length it was seven o'clock in the
+      evening before the dishes were washed and the kitchen tidied; then six as
+      tired young housewives stretched themselves before the parlor fire as a
+      bright blaze often shines upon. Bell, pale and pretty, was curled upon the
+      sofa, with her eyes closed. The other girls were lounging in different
+      attitudes of dejection, all with from one to three burned fingers
+      enveloped in cloths. The results of the day's labor were painfully meager,&mdash;a
+      colander full of doughnuts, some currant buns, molasses ginger-bread, and
+      a loaf of tolerably light fruit cake. Out in the kitchen closet lay a
+      melancholy pile of failure,&mdash;Alice's pop-overs, which had refused to
+      pop; Patty's tarts, rocky and tough; and a bride's cake that would have
+      made any newly married couple feel as if they were at the funeral of their
+      own stomachs. The girls had flown too high in their journey through the
+      cook book. Bell and Jo could really make plain things very nicely, and
+      were considered remarkable caterers by their admiring family of
+      school-mates; but the dainties they had attempted were entirely beyond
+      their powers; hence the pile of wasted goodies in the closet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear,&rdquo; sighed Lilia. &ldquo;Nobody has spoken a word for an age, and I
+      don't wonder, if everybody is as tired as I. Shall we ever be rested
+      enough to go to-morrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was thinking,&rdquo; said Edith, dreamily, &ldquo;that we have only seven more days
+      to stay. If they were all to be as horrible as this, I shouldn't care very
+      much; but we have had such fun, I dread to break up housekeeping. The
+      chief trouble with to-day was that we did no planning yesterday. We never
+      looked into the store-room nor bought anything in advance nor settled what
+      we should cook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Bell, waking up a little, &ldquo;we will crowd everything possible
+      into the last week and make it a real carnival time. To-morrow is Saturday
+      and the picnic; on Monday or Tuesday we'll have some sort of a 'pow-wow,'
+      as Uncle Harry says, for the boys, in return for their invitation, and
+      then we'll think of something perfectly grand and stupendous for Friday,
+      our last day of fun. It will take from that until Monday to get the house
+      into something like order for my mother's return. (This with a remorseful
+      recollection of the terrible back bed-room, where everything imaginable
+      had been 'dumped' for a week past.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't finished trimming our shade hats,&rdquo; called Alice, faintly, from
+      the distance. &ldquo;I will do it in the morning while you are packing the
+      luncheon. Whatever we do let us unpack our baskets privately and try to
+      mix in our food with Mrs. Carter's or Mrs. Winship's, so that nobody will
+      know which is which.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls had tried to devise something jaunty, picturesque, and summery
+      for a picnic costume; but the weather being too cold for a change of
+      dress, they had only bought broad straw hats at the country store,&mdash;hats
+      that farmers wore in haying time, with high crowns and wide brims. They
+      had turned up one side of them coquettishly, and adorned it with funny
+      silhouettes made of black paper, descriptive of their various adventures.
+      Lilia's, for instance, had a huge ink bottle and sponge; Bell's a mammoth
+      pie and frying-pan. Around the crowns they had tied colored scarfs of
+      ribbon or gauze, interwoven with bunches of dried grasses, oats, and
+      everlastings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half-past eight found them all sleep-in as soundly as dormice; and the
+      next morning with the recuperative power that youth brings, they awoke
+      entirely refreshed and ready for the fray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The picnic was a glorious success. It was a clear, bright day, and not
+      very cold; so that with a good fire they were able to have a couple of
+      windows open, and to feel more as if they were out in the fresh air. The
+      surprise and delight of the girls knew no bounds when they were ushered
+      into their novel picnic ground, and even the older people avowed that they
+      had never seen such a miracle of ingenuity. The scene was as pretty a one
+      as can be imagined, though the young people little knew how lovely a
+      picture they helped to make in the midst of their pastoral surroundings.
+      Six charming faces they were, happy with girlish joy, sweet and bright
+      from loving hearts, and pure, innocent, earnest living. Bell was radiant,
+      issuing orders for the spread of the feast, flying here and there,
+      laughing over a stuffed snake under a bush (Geoff's device), and talking
+      merry nonsense with Hugh, her arch eyes shining with mischief under her
+      great straw hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marcus Aurelius, the parrot, talked, and the canaries sang as if this were
+      the last opportunity any of them ever expected to have; while the
+      embroidered butterflies and stuffed birds fluttered and swayed and danced
+      on the quivering tree-twigs beneath them almost as if they were alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The table-cloth was spread on the floor, in real picnic fashion, for the
+      boys would allow neither tables nor chairs, and the lunch was simply
+      delectable. Mrs. Win-ship, Mrs. Brayton, and Mrs. Pennell, with
+      affectionate forethought, had brought everything that schoolgirls and boys
+      particularly affect&mdash;jelly-cake, tarts, and hosts of other goodies.
+      How the girls remembered their closetful of &ldquo;attempts&rdquo; at home; how they
+      roguishly exchanged glances, yet never disclosed their failures; how they
+      discoursed learnedly on baking-powder versus saleratus, raw potato versus
+      boiled potato yeast; and with what dignity and assurance they discussed
+      questions of household economy, and interlarded their conversation with
+      quotations from the &ldquo;Young Housekeeper's Friend,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Bride's
+      Manual.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon they played all sorts of games,&mdash;some quiet, more
+      not at all so,&mdash;until at five o'clock, nearly dark in these short
+      days, they left their make-believe forest and trudged home through the
+      snow, baskets under their arms, declaring it a mistaken idea that picnics
+      should be confined to summer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a gl-orious time we've had!&rdquo; exclaimed Jo, as they busied themselves
+      about the home dining-room. &ldquo;Yesterday seems like a horrible nightmare,
+      or, at least, it would if it hadn't happened in the daytime, and if we
+      hadn't the pantry to remind us of the truth. The things we carried were
+      not so v-e-r-y bad, after all! I was really proud of the buns, and Patty's
+      doughnuts were as 'swelled up' as Mrs. Drayton's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a great deal yellower and spotted-er,&rdquo; quoth Edith, in a sly aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; admitted Patty, ruefully, &ldquo;there certainly was quite enough
+      saleratus in them; but I think it very unbecoming in the maker of the
+      bride's-cake to say anything about other people's mistakes! Bride's cake,
+      indeed!&rdquo; she finished with a scornful smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True!&rdquo; said Edith, much crushed by this heartless allusion to what had
+      been the most thorough and expensive failure of the day; &ldquo;I can't deny it.
+      Proceed with your sarcasm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This house 'looks as if it was going to ride out'! as Miss Miranda says,&rdquo;
+       exclaimed Alice. &ldquo;Do let us try to straighten it before Sunday! The
+      closets are all in snarls, the kitchen's in a mess, and the less said
+      about the back bedroom the better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, inspired by Alice's enthusiasm, they began to work and to
+      improve the hours like a whole hiveful of busy bees. They put on big
+      aprons and washed pans and pots that had been evaded for two days, made
+      fish-balls for breakfast, dusted, scrubbed, washed, mended, darned, and
+      otherwise reduced the house to that especial and delicious kind of order
+      which is likened unto apple-pie. And thus one week of the joys and trials
+      of this merry half-a-dozen housekeepers was over and gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V&mdash;OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>ONDAY morning
+      broke. Such a cold, dismal, drizzly morning! The wind whistled and blew
+      about the cottage, until Lilia suggested tying the clothes-line round the
+      chimneys and fastening it to the strong pine-trees in front, for greater
+      safety. It snowed at six o'clock, it hailed at seven, rained at eight,
+      stopped at nine, and presently began to go through the same varied
+      programme. After breakfast, Bell went to the window and stood dreamily
+      flattening her nose against the pane, while the others busied themselves
+      about their several tasks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, girls,&rdquo; said she at length, &ldquo;we've had four different kinds of
+      weather this morning, so it may clear off after all, though I confess it
+      doesn't look like it. It's too stormy to go anywhere, or for anybody to
+      come to us, so we shall have to try violently in every possible way to
+      amuse ourselves. I must run over to Miss Miranda's for the milk before it
+      rains harder. Perhaps I shall stumble into some excitement on the way; who
+      knows!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she ran out, and in a few minutes appeared in the yard wrapped
+      in a bright red water-proof, the hood pulled over her head, and framing
+      her roguish, rosy face. In ten minutes she returned breathless from a race
+      across the garden, and a vain attempt to keep her umbrella right side out.
+      She entered the room in her usual breezy way, leaving the doors all open,
+      and sank into a chair, with an expression of mysterious mirth in her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guess what's happened!&rdquo; she asked, with sparkling eyes. &ldquo;I have the most
+      enormous, improbable, unguessable surprise for you; you never will think,
+      and anyway I can't wait to tell, so here it is: We are all invited to tea
+      this afternoon with Miss Miranda and Miss Jane! Isn't that 'ridikilis'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do tell, Isabel,&rdquo; squeaked Jo, with a comically irreverent imitation of
+      Miss Sawyer, &ldquo;air you a-going to accept?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, Bell, we'd better go,&rdquo; said Edith Lambert. &ldquo;I should like to see
+      the inside of that old house. I dare say we shall enjoy it, and it saves
+      cooking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are remarkably favored,&rdquo; laughed Bell. &ldquo;I don't believe that anybody
+      has been invited there since the Sewing Circle met with them three years
+      ago. They live such a quiet, strange, lonely life! Their mother and father
+      died when they were very young, more than thirty years ago. They were
+      quite rich for the times, and left their daughters this big house all
+      furnished and quantities of lovely old-fashioned dishes and pictures. All
+      the rooms are locked, but I'll try and melt Miss Miranda's heart, and get
+      her to show us some of her relics. Scarcely anything has been changed in
+      all these years, except that they have bought a cooking-stove. Miss Jane
+      hates new-fangled things, and is really ashamed of the stove, I think; as
+      to having a sewing-machine, or an egg-beater, or a carpet-sweeper,&mdash;why,
+      she would as soon think of changing the fashion of her bonnet! I believe
+      there isn't such a curious house, nor another pair of such dried-up,
+      half-nice, half-disagreeable people in the country. There's Emma Jane with
+      the butter! I'll meet her at the back door, get her to peel some potatoes
+      and apples, make her sew a white ruffle in her neck, and make some
+      original remark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell's criticism of the Misses Sawyer and their home was quite just. The
+      old brick house stood in a garden which, in the spring-time, was filled
+      with odorous lilacs, blossoming apple-trees, and long rows of currant and
+      gooseberry bushes. In the summer, too, there were actual groves of
+      asparagus, gaudy sunflowers, bright hollyhocks, gay marigolds, royal
+      flower-de-luce,&mdash;all respectable, old-fashioned posies, into whose
+      hearts the humming-birds loved to thrust their dainty beaks and steal
+      their sweetness. Then there were beds paved round with white clam-shells,
+      where were growing trembling little bride's-tears, bachelor's-buttons,
+      larkspur, and china pinks. No modern blossoms would Miss Miranda allow
+      within these sacred ancient places, no begonias, gladioli, and &ldquo;sech,&rdquo;
+       with their new-fangled, heathenish, unpronounceable names. The old flowers
+      were good enough for her; and, certainly, they made a blooming spot about
+      the dark house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, indeed, there was neither a leaf nor a bud to be seen; snow-birds
+      perched and twittered on the naked apple-boughs, and rifts of snow lay
+      over the sleeping seed-souls of the hollyhocks and marigolds, keeping them
+      just alive and no more, in a freezing, cold-blooded sort of way common to
+      snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if the garden outside looked like a relic of the olden time, the rooms
+      inside seemed even more so. The &ldquo;keeping-room&rdquo; had been refurnished
+      fifteen or twenty years before, but so well had it been kept, that there
+      still hovered about it a painful air of newness. Over the stiff black
+      hair-cloth sofa hung a funeral wreath in a shell frame, surrounded by the
+      Sawyer family photographs&mdash;husbands and wives always taken in
+      affectionate attitudes, that their relations might never be misunderstood.
+      In a corner stood the mahogany &ldquo;what-not&rdquo; with its bead watch-cases,
+      shells, and glass globes covering worsted-work flowers, together with more
+      family pictures, daguerreotypes in black cases on the top shelf, and a
+      marvelous blue china vase holding peacock feathers. Then there was a
+      gorgeous &ldquo;drawn in&rdquo; rug before the fireplace, with impossible purple roses
+      and pink leaves on its surface, and a marble-topped table holding a
+      magnificent lamp with a glass fringe around it, and a large piece of red
+      flannel floating in the kerosene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All these glories the girls were allowed to view as a great favor granted
+      at Bell's earnest request. They examined the parlor and the curiosities in
+      the diningroom cupboard with awe-struck faces, though their sobriety was
+      almost overcome at the sight of some of the works of art which Miss
+      Miranda held up for their reverential admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upstairs there were rooms scarcely ever opened. The bedsteads were
+      four-posted, and so high with many feather beds that their sleepy
+      occupants must have ascended a step-ladder to get into them, or climbed up
+      the posts hand over hand and dropped down into the downy depths. The
+      counterpanes and comforters were quilted in wonderful patterns. There was
+      the &ldquo;wild-goose chase,&rdquo; the &ldquo;log cabin,&rdquo; the &ldquo;rocky mountain,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Irish
+      plaid,&rdquo; and a &ldquo;charm quilt,&rdquo; in twelve hundred pieces, no two of which
+      were alike. The windows in the best chamber had white cotton curtains with
+      elaborate fringes; the looking-glass was long and narrow with a
+      yellow-painted frame, and a picture, in the upper half, of Napoleon
+      crossing the Alps, the Alps in question being very pointed and of a
+      sky-blue color, while Napoleon, in full-dress uniform, with never an
+      outrider nor a guide, was galloping up and over the dizzy peaks on a
+      skittish-looking pony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These things nearly upset Jo's gravity, and she quite lost Miss Sawyer's
+      favor by coughing down an irrepressible giggle when she was shown a
+      painting of Burns and His Mary, done in oil by Miss Hannah, the oldest
+      sister of the family, and long since dead. Miss Sawyer had no doubt that
+      Hannah's genius was of the highest order, although the specimens of her
+      skill handed down would astonish a modern artist. Burns and His Mary were
+      seated on a bank belonging to a landscape certainly not Scottish; His
+      Mary, with a pink tarlatan dress on, tucked to the waist; while a brook
+      was seemingly purling over Burns' coat-tails spread out behind him on the
+      bank. It was this peculiar detail which aroused Jo's mirth, as well it
+      might, so that she could not trust herself to examine with the others Miss
+      Hannah's last and finest effort&mdash;&ldquo;Maidens welcoming General
+      Washington in the streets of Alexandria.&rdquo; The maidens, thirteen in number,
+      were precisely alike in form and feature, all very smooth as to hair, long
+      as to waist, short as to skirt, pointed as to toe, and carrying bouquets
+      of exactly the same size and structure, tied up with green ribbon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tour of inspection finished, the girls sat down to chat over their
+      tatting and crochet work, while the two ladies went out to prepare supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My reputation is gone,&rdquo; whispered Jo, solemnly. &ldquo;To think that I should
+      have laughed when I had been behaving so beautifully all the afternoon;
+      but Robbie Burns was the last straw that broke the camel's back of my
+      politeness; I couldn't have helped it if Miss Miranda had eaten me instead
+      of frowning at me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think?&rdquo; cried Lilia, jumping up impulsively and knocking down
+      her chair in so doing, &ldquo;I'm going to beard the lion in his den, and see if
+      they won't let me help them get supper. Don't you want to come, Jo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two girls ran across the long, cold hall, opened the kitchen door
+      stealthily, and Jo asked in her sweetest tones, &ldquo;Can't we set the table or
+      help in any way, Miss Miranda?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I thank you, Josephine; there is nothing to do, or leastways you
+      wouldn't know where things are, and wouldn't be any good. The Porter girl
+      may come in if she wants to, but two of you would only clutter up the
+      kitchen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Lilia went in meekly, and poor Jo flew back to the parlor, smarting
+      under a bitter sense of disgrace. The sisters fortunately knew nothing of
+      Lilia's aptitude for blunders, else she never would have been suffered to
+      touch their precious household gods. As it was, by dint of extreme care,
+      she managed to get the plum sauce on the table, and to set the chairs
+      around it, without any serious disaster. To be sure, in cutting the dried
+      beef, she notched a memorandum of the pieces shaved on each of her
+      fingers, so that when she finished they were perfect little calendars of
+      suffering; however, this only concerned herself, and she did not murmur,
+      as most of her mistakes implicated other people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At half-past five they sat down to supper; and such a supper! Miss Miranda
+      was evidently anxious to impress the young people. The best pink &ldquo;chany&rdquo;
+       set had been unearthed, and there were besides other old dishes of great
+      magnificence. Quaint British lustre pitchers held the milk and cream, a
+      green dragon plate the cookies, and the &ldquo;Sheltered Peasant&rdquo; saucers came
+      in for general admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The china was not more notable than the food. There were light soda
+      biscuits, large in size and thick, and there was cold buttermilk bread; a
+      blue and white bowl held tomato preserves, while a glass one was full of
+      delicious applesauce cooked in maple-syrup; then there was a round, creamy
+      cottage-cheese, white as a snow-ball; a golden, dried-pumpkin pie, baked
+      in a deep yellow plate; the brownest and plummiest and indigestible-est of
+      all plummy cakes, with doughnuts and sugar gingerbread besides. This array
+      of good things being taken in with rapid and rabid glances, the girls
+      exchanged involuntary looks of delight, and even emitted audible signs of
+      happiness. To say that they did justice to the repast would be a feeble
+      expression, for in truth the meals of their own preparation were irregular
+      as to time, indifferent as to quality, and sometimes, when they calculated
+      carelessly and unwisely, even small as to quantity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0127.jpg" alt="0127 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0127.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      After tea was over, each of the girls was required to give, in answer to a
+      string of questions asked, her entire family history; for no tidbit of
+      information concerning other people's affairs was uninteresting to Miss
+      Jane or Miss Miranda. This cross-examination being finished, they rose to
+      go, unable to hear any longer the quiet, proper, suppressed atmosphere
+      that pervaded the house. While they had been admiring the quaint,
+      old-fashioned relics and busy devouring the appetizing New England
+      goodies, they were quite at ease, but an hour or two of conversation had
+      exhausted their adaptability. When they had taken their leave, and the
+      sound of their merry voices and ringing laughter floated in from the
+      country road, Miss Miranda sank into a chair, and waved a fan excitedly to
+      and fro, her mouse-colored complexion quite flushed and pink from the
+      unwonted dissipation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall, Jane,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;it's over now, and we've done our dooty by Mis'
+      Winship; she's a good neighbor, and I wanted to act right by Isabel when
+      her Ma was away, but of all the crazy, 'stivering' girls I ever see, them
+      do beat all; though they did behave tolerable well this afternoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They seemed to enjoy their supper,&rdquo; said Miss Jane; &ldquo;I never saw girls
+      make a heartier meal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They did for certain,&rdquo; continued Miranda, &ldquo;too hearty most. I thought.
+      That light-haired girl with the blue ear-rings left her meat hash, that'll
+      sour before we can warm it over again, and et and et fruit cake till I was
+      afraid she'd have fits at the table. We ought to be very thankful we
+      hevn't any young ones or men-folks to cook for, Jane.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that expression of gratitude on her lips, she lighted a candle,
+      and after locking up the house securely, the two spinsters went to their
+      bedrooms to sleep the sleep of the calm and the virtuous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their merry visitors, undisturbed by the pelting rain from above, and the
+      deep &ldquo;slush&rdquo; beneath, waded over into their own grounds with many a hearty
+      laugh and jest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how delightful our own sitting-room looks!&rdquo; exclaimed Patty, as they
+      opened the door and gathered about the cheerful fire on the hearth. And,
+      indeed, it did, after the stiff, prim arrangement of the rooms they had
+      left. The flickering blaze cast soft shadows on the walls, and touched the
+      marbles on the brackets with rosy tints; the canary-birds were fast asleep
+      with their heads hidden under their wings, and the dog and cat were
+      snoozing peacefully together on the hearth-rug. The young people, as well
+      as the room, belonged to another generation than Miss Miranda's and Miss
+      Jane's, a brighter, freer, fresher one, with a wider outlook, and quite
+      different problems and responsibilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We never can be jollier than this!&rdquo; cried Lilia, in an irrepressible
+      burst of appreciation. &ldquo;Oh, that it might last forever, and that
+      seminaries for young ladies might be turned into zoological gardens! Then
+      we could keep house here this week, the next week, and eternally, taking
+      tea with Miss Miranda whenever she asked us to come. What a good supper
+      that was, girls! Oh, Bell and Jo, you ought to be overcome with remorse
+      when you think what you might give us to eat, if you were only skillful,
+      energetic, and ingenious!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're the very essence of thanklessness!&rdquo; answered Bell, in high
+      dudgeon. &ldquo;It's nothing less than fiery martyrdom to cook for you girls,
+      when you are so ungrateful. Your special seminary will not be so far
+      removed from a zoological garden when <i>you</i> return to it, that is
+      certain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear child, I am sorry already for my remark,&rdquo; said Lilia, in feigned
+      repentance. &ldquo;It was very thoughtless in me to arouse your anger until
+      after the next meal. Any impertinence of ours is sure to be visited upon
+      us in the form of oatmeal porridge, or salt fish and crackers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lilia Porter, if you want to be an angel by and by, it would be better to
+      draw your thoughts away from eatables for a time; you talk quite too much
+      about food,&rdquo; said Edith Lambert, who had a very hearty appetite, but never
+      called attention to it. &ldquo;When you have done with your nonsense, I have
+      something to propose for our final 'good time.' We have only four days, 'tis
+      true, and 'pity 'tis 'tis true; but we must go away with
+      flying colors, and so astonish the natives with our genius that the
+      village will talk of us for months to come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Si-lence in court!&rdquo; cried Jo, impressively. &ldquo;Let me offer you the coal
+      hod for a platform; it won't tip over; go on, you look as dignified as a
+      policeman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop your nonsense, Jo. You remember, Bell, the evening when we made a
+      comic pantomime of 'Young Lochinvar,' and acted it before the teachers and
+      seniors?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed I do,&rdquo; laughed Bell, in recollection. &ldquo;We girls took all the
+      characters. What fun it was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why can't we do that again, changing and improving it, of course? The
+      boys are so clever and bright about anything of the kind that they would
+      be irresistibly funny. What do you think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like the idea,&rdquo; exclaimed Patty Weld. &ldquo;Uncle Harry's large hall would
+      be just the place for it, and the stage is already there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it is; how fortunate,&rdquo; agreed Alice; &ldquo;we couldn't think of anything
+      that would be greater fun. How shall we cast the characters! You must be
+      the bride, Bell, the 'fair Ellen!' you will do it better than anybody. Jo
+      will make up into the funniest old lady for a mother, and the rest of us
+      can be the bride-maidens. Hugh Pennell will be a glorious Young Lochinvar,
+      if he can be persuaded to run away with Bell&mdash;&rdquo; this with a sly
+      glance at her hostess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;and poor Jack will have to be the 'craven bridegroom,'
+      who loses his bride, and Geoff, the stern parent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle Harry will read the poem for us, I know,&rdquo; continued Bell; &ldquo;he does
+      that sort of thing often at the church, and does it beautifully. Phil
+      Howard, Royal Lawrence, and Harry will be bridemen. We'll perform the
+      piece in such a tragic way that each separate hair in the audience will
+      stand erect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, oh, the labor of it, girls!&rdquo; sighed Patty&mdash;&ldquo;wooden horses to be
+      made for the elopement scene, Scottish dresses, and all sorts of toggery
+      to be hunted up; can we ever do it in time, with our house-cleaning before
+      us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense, of course we can,&rdquo; rejoined Bell, energetically. &ldquo;We will
+      consult every book on private theatricals, Scottish history, manners, and
+      costumes in this house, and Uncle Harry's, too. Let us get up at five
+      to-morrow morning, have a simple breakfast of&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cornmeal mush or dry bread and milk,&rdquo; finished Lilia, with grim sarcasm.
+      &ldquo;If time must be saved, of course, it must come out of the cooking! How
+      are we to do this amount of work on a low diet, I should like to know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are the cooks to get time for anything outside the kitchen if they
+      humor your unnatural appetites! Out of kindness, we propose to lower you
+      gradually, meal by meal, into the pit of boarding-school fare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' I don't care to be starved
+      beforehand by way of getting used to it,&rdquo; retorted Lilia, as she lighted
+      the bedroom candles. &ldquo;Come, dears, do cover the fire; it was sleepy-time
+      an hour ago, and if you want to see something beautiful, look through the
+      piazza window.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath them lay the steep river bank, smooth with its white, glittering
+      crust, above which a few naked alders pushed their snow-weighted
+      finger-tips; one rugged old pine-tree stood in the garden, grand, dark,
+      and fearless; the quiet part of the river had been turned by King Winter
+      into an icy mirror; but over the dam a hundred yards below, the waters
+      tumbled too furiously to be frozen. The old bridge looked like a silver
+      string tying together the two little villages, and over all was the
+      dazzling winter moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Six dreamy faces now at the cottage window. Six girlish figures, all drawn
+      closely together, with arms lovingly clasped. The white beauty, and the
+      solemn stillness of the picture hushed them into quietness. One minute
+      passed and then another, while the spell was working, till at length Bell
+      impulsively bent her brown head, and said softly: &ldquo;If the minister were
+      here he would say, 'Let us pray.' It makes me want to whisper, 'Dear Lord,
+      make us pure and white within, as thy world is without.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen,&rdquo; murmured Edith and Patty, in the same breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pull down the curtain,&rdquo; sighed Jo; &ldquo;it makes me feel wicked!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, don't, don't, not quite yet!&rdquo; pleaded Edith, &ldquo;it is too heavenly and
+      it can't do us any harm to feel wicked. It reminds me of Tennyson's 'St.
+      Agnes' Eve,' of the white, white picture she looked out upon from her
+      convent window the night she was lifted to the golden doors of heaven&mdash;the
+      poem you recited for the medal, Alice,&mdash;say a verse of it.&rdquo; And
+      Alice, half under her breath, repeated the lovely lines:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      &ldquo;As these white robes are soil'd and
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      dark
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      To yonder shining ground;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      As this pale taper's earthly spark,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      To yonder argent round;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So shines my soul before the Lamb,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      My spirit before Thee;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So in mine earthly house I am
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      To that I hope to be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI&mdash;&ldquo;THE END OF THE PLAY&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the next
+      morning, and, indeed, on all of those left of their stay, the six
+      housekeepers were up at an alarmingly early hour, so that the sun,
+      accustomed to being the earliest of all risers, felt himself quite
+      behindhand and outshone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain he clambered up over the hillside in a desperate hurry; the girls
+      were always before him with lighted candles. As for the clock, it held up
+      its hands with astonishment, and struck five shrill exclamation points of
+      surprise to see six wide-awake young persons tumbling out of their warm
+      nests before the world was lighted or heated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day's hours were hardly enough for the day's plans, for there were
+      farewell coasting, skating, and sleighing parties, besides active daily
+      preparations for the pantomime. The costumes of the hoys were gorgeous to
+      behold, and were fashioned entirely by the girls' clever fingers. They
+      consisted of scarlet or blue flannel shirts, short plaid kilts, colored
+      stockings striped with braid, sashes worn over shoulders, and jaunty
+      little caps with bobbing quills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the last happy evening of their stay, the eventful evening of &ldquo;Young
+      Lochinvar,&rdquo; the guests gathered from all the surrounding country to see
+      the frolic. There were people from North Edgewood, South Edgewood, East
+      Edge-wood, and West Edgewood; from Edgewood Upper Corner, Edgewood Lower
+      Corner, and Edgewood Four Corners, and everybody had brought his uncles
+      and cousins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the big dressing-room the young actors were assembled,&mdash;and
+      fortunately in a high state of exuberance and excitement, else they would
+      have been decidedly frightened at the ordeal before them. Jo, mirror in
+      hand, was trying to make herself look seventy; and, though she had not
+      succeeded, she had transformed herself into a very presentable Scottish
+      dame, with her short satin gown and apron, lace kerchief and spectacles.
+      Edith was giving a pair of pointed burnt-cork eyebrows to Hugh, that he
+      might wear a sufficiently dashing and defiant countenance for Lochinvar,
+      while Jack stood before the glass practicing his meek expression for the
+      jilted bridegroom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0145.jpg" alt="0145 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0145.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Bell had sunk into a chair, and folded her hands to &ldquo;get up&rdquo; her courage.
+      As to her dress, nobody knew whether it was the proper one for a Scottish
+      bride or not; but it was the only available thing, and certainly she
+      looked in it a very bewitching and sufficient excuse for Lochinvar's rash
+      folly. It was of some shining white material, and came below the ankle,
+      just showing a pair of jaunty high-heeled slippers; the skirt was
+      'broidered and flounced to the belt, the waist simple and full, with short
+      puffed sleeves; while a bridal veil and dainty crown of flowers made her
+      as winsome and bonny as a white Scottish rose. Emma Jane Perkins stood in
+      one corner paralyzed by her own good looks. Her red hair was waved and
+      hanging in her neck, and her dress was white. She hoped she could be
+      trusted to bring in this overpowering weight of beauty at the right
+      moment, but felt a little doubtful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncle Harry stumbled in at the low door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you ready, young fry?&rdquo; asked he. &ldquo;It is half-past seven, and we ought
+      to begin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put out the footlights, give the people back their money, and tell them
+      the prima donna is dangerously ill!&rdquo; gasped Bell, faintly, fanning herself
+      with a box-cover. &ldquo;I don't believe I can ever do it. Hugh, are you
+      perfectly sure our horse won't break down on the stage when we elope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Calm yourself, 'fair Ellen,' and trust to my horsemanship. Doesn't the
+      poem say:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      'Through all the wide Border his steed
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      was the best?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And doesn't this exactly embody Scott's idea?&rdquo;&mdash;pointing to a wild
+      and cross-eyed wooden effigy mounted on a pair of trucks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You have all read Sir Walter Scott's poem of &ldquo;Young Lochinvar,&rdquo; and many a
+      time, I hope, for they are brave old verses:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      West,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Through all the wide Border his steed
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      was the best,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      And, save his good broadsword, he
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      weapons had none;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      He rode all unarmed, and he rode all
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      alone.
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So faithful in love, and so dauntless in
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      war,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      There never was knight like the young
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      Lochinvar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, you remember, the young knight rode fast and far, stayed not for
+      brakes, stopped not for stones, but all in vain; for ere he alighted at
+      Netherby Gate, the fair Ellen, overcome by parental authority, had
+      consented to be married to another:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      For a laggard in love and a dastard in
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      war
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      Lochinvar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he, nothing daunted, boldly entered the bridal hall among bridemen and
+      bridemaids and kinsmen, thereby raising so general a commotion that the
+      bride's father cried at once, the poor craven bridegroom being struck
+      quite dumb:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      &ldquo;Oh, come ye in peace here, or coyne ye
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      inivar,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      Lochinvar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lover answers with apparent indifference that though he has in past
+      times been exceedingly fond of the young person called Ellen, he has now
+      merely come to tread a measure and drink one cup of wine with her, for
+      although love swells like the tide, it ebbs like it also. So he drinks her
+      health, while she sighs and blushes, weeps and smiles, alternately; then
+      he takes her soft hand, her parents fretting and fuming the while, and
+      leads the dance with her,&mdash;he so stately, she so lovely, that they
+      are the subject of much envy, admiration, and sympathy. But while thus
+      treading the measure, he whispers in her ear something to which she
+      apparently consents without much unwillingness, and at the right moment
+      they dance out from the crowd of kinsmen to the door of the great hall,
+      where in the darkness the charger stands ready saddled. Quick as thought
+      the dauntless lover swings his fair Ellen lightly up, springs before her
+      on the saddle, and they dash furiously away:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      &ldquo;She is won! We are gone, over ban,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      bush, and scaur;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      They'll have fleet steeds that follow
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      quoth young Lochinvar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as their flight is discovered, there is wild excitement and hasty
+      mounting of all the Netherby Clan; there is racing and chasing over the
+      fields, but &ldquo;the laggard in love and the dastard in war&rdquo; never recovers
+      his lost Ellen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So daring in love, and so dauntless in
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      war,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Have ye e'er heard of gallant like
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      young Lochinvar?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncle Harry read the poem through in such a stirring way that the audience
+      was fairly warmed into interest; then, standing by the side of the stage
+      with the curtain rolled up, he read it again, line by line, or verse by
+      verse, to explain the action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the first stanza, Lochinvar made his triumphal entrance, riding a
+      prancing hobby-horse with a sweeping tail of raveled rope, and a mane to
+      match, gorgeous trappings adorned with sleigh-bells and ornamental paper
+      designs, and bunches of cotton tacked on for flecks of foam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lochinvar himself wore gray pasteboard armor, a pair of carpet slippers
+      with ferocious spurs, red mittens, and carried a huge carving-knife. His
+      costume alone was food for amusement, but the manner in which he careered
+      wildly about the stage, displaying his valorous horsemanship as he rode to
+      the wedding, was perfectly irresistible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next scene opened in Netherby Hall, showing the bridal party all
+      assembled in gala dress. Into this family gathering presently strode the
+      determined lover, with his carving-knife sheathed for politeness' sake.
+      Then followed a comical pantomime between the angry parents, who demanded
+      his intentions, and the adroit Lochinvar, who declared them to be
+      peaceful. The father (Geoffrey Strong) at last gave him unwilling
+      permission to drink one cup of wine and tread one measure with the bride.
+      She kissed the goblet (a tin quart measure), he quaffed off the spirit,
+      and threw down the cup. Pair Ellen bridled with pleasure, and promenaded
+      about the room on his arm, while the bridegroom looked on wretchedly, the
+      parents quarreled, and the bride-maidens whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      &ldquo;'Tivere better by far
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      To have matched our fair cousin with
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      young Lochinvar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first opportunity, the guests walked leisurely out, and young
+      Lochinvar seized an imaginary chance to draw Ellen hastily back into the
+      supper room. He whispered the magic word into her ear, she started in
+      horror and drew back; he urged; she demurred; he pleaded; she showed signs
+      of surrender; he begged on his bended knees; she yielded at length to the
+      plan of the elopement, with all its delightful risks. Then Lochinvar
+      darted to the outside door and brought in his charger,&mdash;rather an
+      unique proceeding, perhaps, but necessary under the circumstances,
+      inasmuch as the audience could not be transported to the proper scene of
+      the mounting. As the flight was to be made on horseback, much ingenuity
+      and labor were needed to arrange it artistically. The horse's head was the
+      work of Geoff's hand, and for meekness of expression, jadedness,
+      utterly-cast-down-and-worn-out-ness, it stood absolutely unrivalled. A
+      pair of trucks were secreted beneath the horse-blankets, and the front
+      legs of the animal pranced gaily out in front, taking that startling and
+      decided curve only seen in pictures of mowing-machines and horseraces.
+      Lochinvar quieted his fiery beast, and swung Ellen into the saddle, leaped
+      up after her, waved his tall hat in triumph, and started off at a snail's
+      pace, the horse being dragged by a rope from behind the scenes. When half
+      way across the stage, Ellen clasped her lover's arm and seemed to have
+      forgotten something. Everybody in the room at once guessed it must be some
+      part of her trousseau. She explained earnestly in pantomime; Lochinvar
+      refused to return; she insisted; he remained firm; she pouted and
+      seemingly said that she wouldn't elope at all unless she could have her
+      own way. He relented, they went back to Netherby Hall, and Ellen ran up a
+      secret stairway and came down laden with maidenly traps. Greatly to the
+      merriment of the observers, she loaded them on the docile horse in the
+      very face of Lochinvar's displeasure&mdash;two small looking-glasses, a
+      bird-cage, and a French bonnet. She then leisurely drew on a pair of huge
+      India rubbers, unfurled a yellow linen umbrella, and just as her lover's
+      patience was ebbing, suffered herself to be remounted. The second trip
+      across the stage was accomplished in safety, though with anything but the
+      fleetness common to elopements either in life or in poetry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came the pursuit&mdash;a most graphic and stirring scene, giving
+      large opportunities to the supernumerary characters. Four bridemen on
+      dashing hobbyhorses, jumping fences, leaping bars and ditches in hot
+      excitement; four bride-maids, with handkerchiefs tied over their heads,
+      running hither and thither in confusion; the old mother and father,
+      limping in and straining their eyes for a sight of their refractory
+      daughter; and last of all, poor Jack, the deserted bridegroom, on foot,
+      with never a horse left to him, puffing and panting in his angry chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was done! How people laughed till they cried, how they continued to
+      laugh for five minutes afterward, I cannot begin to tell you. The
+      performance had been the perfection of fun from first to last, and seemed
+      all the more inspiring because it was original with the bright bevy of
+      young folks who had enacted the poem. Uncle Harry had renewed his youth,
+      and received the plaudits of the crowd with unconcealed pleasure. The hero
+      and heroine, Lochinvar and fair Ellen, had so generously provided dramatic
+      opportunities for the minor actors that all had enjoyed an equal chance in
+      the favor of the audience. There was neither envy, jealousy, nor
+      heartburning; each of the girls gloried in the achievements of the others,
+      and confessed that the mechanical ingenuity of the boys had made the
+      triumph possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the lights were all out, the finery bundled up, the many
+      farewells said, and as the girls, escorted by their faithful young
+      squires, trudged along the path through the orchard for the last time, sad
+      thoughts would come, although the party was much too youthful and cheery
+      to be gloomy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Depart, fun and frolic!&rdquo; sighed Lilia, in mournful tones. &ldquo;Depart,
+      breakfasts at any hour and other delights of laziness! Enter,
+      boarding-school, books, bells, and other banes of existence!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is really too awful to think or to speak about,&rdquo; sighed Jo. &ldquo;Now I
+      know how Eve must have felt when she had to pack up and leave the garden;
+      only she went because she insisted upon eating of the tree of knowledge,
+      while I must go and eat, whether I will or not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your appetite for that special fruit isn't so great that you'll ever be
+      troubled with indigestion,&rdquo; dryly rejoined Patty, the student of the
+      &ldquo;Jolly Six.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fancy starting off at half-past ten to-morrow morning; fancy reaching
+      school at one, and sitting down stupidly to a dinner of broth, fried
+      liver, and cracker-pudding! Ugh! it makes me shiver,&rdquo; said Alice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of us,&rdquo; cried Geoff, &ldquo;going back to college, and settling into
+      regular 'digs.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If 'digs' is a contraction of dignitaries,&rdquo; said Edith, saucily, &ldquo;you'll
+      never be those; if you mean you are to delve into the mines of learning,
+      that's doubtful, too; but if it's a corruption of Digger Indian, I should
+      say there might be some force in your remark. Oh, what matchless
+      war-whoops you gave in the pursuit to-night. Every separate hair in Betty
+      Bean's head stood on end, and the Misses Sawyer sat close together and
+      trembled visibly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a wonderful evening,&rdquo; remarked Hugh. &ldquo;There were persons there who
+      said that Bell was beautiful and I was clever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to annoy you,&rdquo; laughed Jo, &ldquo;but I heard exactly the
+      opposite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which only goes to show that both of us are both,&rdquo; retorted Bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that sentence goes to show that a week's absence from the class in
+      parsing and analysis has had its effect,&rdquo; said Patty. &ldquo;Look at our angel
+      cottage, girls! Doesn't it look like a marble night-lamp with the hall
+      light shining through all its sweet little windows'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fire isn't out, that's fortunate,&rdquo; observed Alice, as she saw a small
+      cloud of smoke issuing from the chimney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good night and sweet dreams,&rdquo; called the hoys, when Geoffrey had unlocked
+      the door of the cottage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sweet dreams, indeed!&rdquo; the girls answered in chorus. &ldquo;The kitchen closet
+      to put in order, also the shed, two trunks to pack, twenty-four hours'
+      dishes to wash, and a million 'odd jobs' more or less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't forget the borrowed articles to be returned,&rdquo; reminded Hugh. &ldquo;We'll
+      take the pung and do that for you, also attend to the cleaning of the
+      shed, which is more in our line than yours. Boys, let us give one rousing
+      cheer for Dr. and Mrs. Winship, the model parents of the century!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The welkin rang with hurrahs, in which the girls joined with hearty vigor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now another rousing one for the model daughter of the century,&rdquo; cried
+      Bell, modestly; &ldquo;the model daughter who had the bright idea and begged the
+      model parents to assent to it. Of what use would have been the model
+      parents, pray, unless they had had the model daughter with the bright
+      idea?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      More cheers, lustier than ever, floated out into the orchard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The model daughter would have had a dull house-party with nothing but her
+      bright idea to keep her company,&rdquo; said Jo Fenton, suggestively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three cheers for the house party! Three cheers for the 'Jolly Six!' Hip,
+      hip, hurrah!&rdquo; and at this moment Uncle Harry's window opened and across
+      the breadth of the orchard came the warning note of a conch shell, an
+      instrument of much power, with which Uncle Harry called his men to dinner
+      in haying time. Had it not been for this message of correction it is
+      possible the enthusiastic young people might have cheered one another till
+      midnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was afternoon of the next day. The six little housekeepers were gone,
+      and the dejected hoys went into the garden to take a last look at the
+      empty cottage. On the door was a long piece of fluttering white paper,
+      tied with black ribbon. It proved to be the parting words of the &ldquo;Jolly
+      Six.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      How dear to our hearts are the scenes of
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      vacation,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      When fond recollection presents them
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      to view!
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      The coasting, the sleigh-rides, and&mdash;chief
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      recreation&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      That gayest of picnics with squires so
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      true!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      And note, torn away from the loved situ-
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      ation,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      The hump of conceit will explosively
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      swell,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      As proudly we think, never since the
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      creation,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Did any young housekeepers keep
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      house so well!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Think not our great genius too highly
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      we've rated,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      For all that belongs to the kitchen we
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      know;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      And feel that from infancy we have been
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      fated
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      For scrubbing and cooking, far more
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      than for show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      The cook-stove and dish-pan to us are so
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      charming,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So toothsome the compounds we often
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      have mixed,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      That though you would think the news
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      somewhat alarming,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      On housekeeping ever our minds are
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      quite fixed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Good-by to all hope of a fame uni-
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      versal!
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Farewell, vain ambition,&mdash;that way
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      madness lies!
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      The rest of our youth shall be one long
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      rehearsal
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      For life in six cottages, all of this
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      size!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      B. W.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      J. F.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      P. W.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      A. F.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      E. L.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      L. P.
+    </h3>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      X
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      Their joint mark.
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      Witnessed by me this morning,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      Jack Frost, Notary Public.
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      Sealed with a snow flake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys read this nonsense with hearty laughter, and latching the gate
+      behind them, they went off, leaving the place deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are awfully jolly girls,&rdquo; said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better than jolly,&rdquo; added Geoffrey, thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're right, Geoff; miles better and miles more than jolly,&rdquo; agreed
+      Hugh. &ldquo;None like'em in Brunswick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or in Portland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or in Bath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or in Augusta.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with this outburst of respectful admiration the lads passed out of
+      view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The setting sun shone rosily in at the piazza window that afternoon, but
+      fell blankly against a gray curtain, instead of smiling into six laughing
+      faces as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A noisy crowd of sparrows settled on the bare branches over the door-step,
+      twittering as if they expected the supper of bread-crumbs which girlish
+      hands had been wont to throw them, and at last flew away disappointed. In
+      the old house opposite, Miss Miranda sat in her high-backed chair,
+      knitting as fiercely as ever, while Miss Jane was at her post by the
+      window, drearily watching the sun go down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned away with the glow of a new thought in her wrinkled face.
+      &ldquo;Mi-randy!&rdquo; called she, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No answer but the sharp click of knitting-needles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mirandy Sawyer! What do you say to invitin' our niece, Hannah, down here
+      from the farm, and givin' her a couple of terms' schoolin'? Aurelia has
+      her hands full raisin' that great family of children. She'd be glad one of
+      'em should have some advantages. We ain't seen Hannah since she was
+      ten, but she was a nice appearin', pretty behavin' girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miranda glanced ont of the window without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems like a streak of sunshine had gone out o' the place with them
+      young creeters, and I think we've lived here alone about long enough!&rdquo;
+       continued Miss Jane. &ldquo;I should like to give one girl a chance of being a
+      brighter, livelier woman than I am. Yes, you may drop your knittin',
+      Mirandy, but you know it as well as I do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No wonder that Miss Miranda looked very much as if she had been struck by
+      lightning; the more wonder that the quiet old house didn't shake to its
+      foundation, when this proposal was made. Indeed, old Tabby, on the
+      hearth-rug, did wake up, startled, no doubt by the consciousness that a
+      child's hand might pull her tail in days to come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does seem dreadful lonesome,&rdquo; Miss Miranda agreed, after a long pause.
+      &ldquo;Hear Topsy howling in the kitchen; she's missin' the young life that's
+      gone, and she'll have to git used to us all over again, jest as I said.
+      Hannah would be considerable expense to us, and make a sight o' work, too.
+      Of course, you've thought o' that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We take about so many steps, anyway,&rdquo; argued Miss Jane, &ldquo;and if the
+      child's spry and handy, she may save us a few now and then. Tabitha ain't
+      so much care, nor near so confinin', sence Topsy came to keep her comp'ny&mdash;even
+      two cats is better'n one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There goes Emma Jane Perkins,&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Miranda, from her post of
+      observation. &ldquo;She looks different somehow. I've always said I should think
+      her face would ache, it's so hombly, but I guess she's passed her
+      hombliest, and is going to improve. Mebbe Mis' Perkins has been givin' her
+      spring medicine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess the 'spring medicine' has been two weeks' good time with that
+      trainin' and careerin' houseful of girls,&rdquo; rejoined Miss Jane, wisely.
+      &ldquo;Everybody in the village sits up kind o' smart and looks as if they'd
+      taken a tonic. Maybe I'd better write to Aurelia on Sunday, Mirandy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mebbe you had, Jane, and if she can't spare Hannah, say we'll take
+      Rebecca, though I always thought she was a self-willed child, too full of
+      her own fancies to be easy managed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This is not the time for Rebecca's story; but, as a matter of fact, Mrs.
+      Aurelia Randall could not spare Hannah, who was docile, industrious, and
+      of much assistance with the house-work, and as a matter of fact it was the
+      somewhat dreaded Rebecca who did come from the far-away farm to live in
+      the dull old house with Miss Jane and Miss Miranda. And all that befell
+      this new family circle, formed almost by accident, and all that Rebecca
+      did, or became, as well as everything that happened during the gradual
+      beautifying of Emma Jane Perkins, was, as you see, the indirect result of
+      Bell Winship's madcap experiment in housekeeping.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      THE END
+    </h3>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 54685 ***</div>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
+
+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: Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers
+       A Story for Girls in Half-A-Dozen Chapters
+
+Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin
+
+Illustrator: Mills Thompson
+
+Release Date: May 8, 2017 [EBook #54685]
+Last Updated: March 10, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger from page images generously
+provided by the Internet Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS
+
+A Story For Girls In Half-A-Dozen Chapters
+
+By Kate Douglas Wiggin
+
+Illustrated by Mills Thompson
+
+Philadelphia Henry Altemus Company
+
+1903
+
+[Illustration: 0001]
+
+[Illustration: 0006]
+
+[Illustration: 0007]
+
+
+
+
+HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT
+
+|MARCH had come in like a lion, and showed no sign of going out like a
+lamb. The pussy willows knew that it was, or ought to be, spring, but
+although it takes a deal to discourage a New England pussy willow,
+they shivered in their brown skins and despaired of making their annual
+appearance even by April Fool's Hay. The swallows still lingered in the
+South, having received private advices from the snow-birds that State
+o' Maine weather, in the present season, was only fitted for Arctic
+explorers. The air was keen and nipping and the wind blew steadily from
+the north and howled about the chimneys until one hardly knew whether
+to hug the warmth of the open fire or to go out and battle with the
+elements.
+
+Little did the rosy girls of the Wareham Female Seminary (girls were
+still “young females” when all this happened)--little did they care
+about snow and sleet and ice. Studies went on all the better with the
+afternoon skating and sliding to look forward to. What joy to perch in
+the window-seat with your volume of Virgil, and translate “_Hoc opus
+hic labor est_” with half an eye on the gleaming ice of the pond, or
+the glittering crust of the hillsides! What fun to slip on your rubber
+boots, muffle yourself in your warm coat (made out of mother's old
+mink cape), and run across the way to the Academy for recitations in
+mathematics or philosophy!
+
+These joys, however, with their attendant responsibilities, duties, and
+cares, were to be suspended for a while at the Wareham Seminary, and
+the “young females” who graced that institution of learning were not
+inconsolable.
+
+Bell Winship, an uncommonly nice girl herself and a born leader of other
+nice girls, had sent out five mysteriously worded notes that morning,
+five little notes to as many little maids, requesting the honor of their
+presence at ten a. m. precisely, in Number 27, Second floor.
+
+Where Bell Winship wished girls to be, there they always were, and on
+the minute, too, lest they should miss something; so there is nothing
+remarkable in this statement of the fact, that at ten o'clock in the
+morning, Number 27, Second floor, of the Wareham Female Seminary seemed
+to be overflowing with girls, although in reality there were but six,
+all told.
+
+The wildest curiosity prevailed, and it was very imperfectly controlled,
+but, at length, the hostess, mounting a shoebox, spoke with great
+dignity in these words:
+
+“Fellow-countrywomen: Whereas, our recitation-hall has been burned to
+the ground, thereby giving us a well-earned vacation of two weeks, I
+wish to impart to you a plan by which we can better resign ourselves
+to the afflicting and mysterious dispensation. You are aware,” she
+continued, still impressively, “that my highly respected parents are
+both away for the winter, thus leaving our humble cottage closed, and
+it occurred to me as a brilliant, if somewhat daring, idea, that we six
+girls should go over and keep house in it for a fortnight, alone and
+untrammeled.” Here the tidal wave of her eloquence was impeded by the
+overmastering enthusiasm of the audience. Cheers and applause greeted
+her. Everybody pounded with whatever she chanced to have in her hand, on
+any article of furniture that chanced to be near.
+
+“Oh, Bell, Bell! what a lovely plan!” cried Lilia Porter; “a more
+than usually lovely plan; but will your mother ever allow it, do you
+suppose?”
+
+“That's the point,” answered Bell, gleefully. “Here is the letter I have
+just received from my father; he is a good parent, wholly worthy of his
+daughter:”
+
+     Baltimore, March 6th, 18--.
+
+     My dear Child:--We do not like to refuse you anything while
+     we are away enjoying ourselves, so, as the house is well
+     insured, you may go over and try your scheme. Your mother
+     says that you must not entirely demolish her jelly and
+     preserves. My only wish is that you will be careful of the
+     fires and lights.
+
+     I hope you won't feel injured if I suggest your asking
+     advice and suggestion of Miss Miranda and Miss Jane, who are
+     your nearest neighbors. They will take you in charge anyway,
+     and you might as well put yourself nominally under their
+     care. Your uncle will, of course, have an eye to you,
+     perhaps two eyes, and I dare say he could use more than the
+     allotted number, but Grandmamma will lend him hers, no
+     doubt.
+
+     Write me a line every day, saying that the household timbers
+     are still standing.
+
+     Your weakly indulgent but affectionate
+
+     Father.
+
+“Isn't he a perfect darling!” cried the enraptured quintette.
+
+“I think,” said demure Patty Weld, “that before we permit ourselves to
+feel too happy, we had better consult _our_ 'powers that be,' and see if
+we can accept Bell's invitation.”
+
+“I refuse to hear 'No' from one of you,” Bell answered, firmly. “I have
+thought it all over; spent the night upon it, in fact. You, Alice, and
+Josie Fenton, are too far from home to go there anyway, so I shall lead
+you off as helpless captives. Your mother is in town, Lilia, so that you
+can ask her immediately, and hear the worst; you and Edith, Patty, are
+only a half-day's journey away, and can find out easily. I know you
+can get permission, for it's going to be perfectly proper and safe.
+Grandmamma lives nearby, the Sawyer spinsters are the village duennas,
+and Uncle Harry can protect us from any rampaging burglars and midnight
+marauders that may happen in to pay their respects.”
+
+So the “Jolly Six,” as they were called by their schoolmates, separated,
+to build many castles in the air. Bell, it was decided, was to go on
+to her country home in advance, and, with the help of a neighboring
+farmer's daughter, prepare and provision the house for an unusual siege.
+
+The girls had determined to have no servant, and their many ingenious
+plans for managing and dividing the work were the source of great
+amusement to the teachers, some of whom had been admitted to their
+confidence. Josie Fenton and Bell were to do the cooking, Jo claiming
+the sternly practical department best suited to her--meat, vegetables,
+and bread--while Bell was to concoct puddings, cakes, and the various
+little indigestible dainties toward which schoolgirl hearts are so
+tender. Alice Forsaith, the oldest of the party and the beauty of the
+school, with Edith Lambert, as an aid, was to manage the making of the
+beds, tidying of rooms, and setting of tables, while Lilia Porter and
+Patty Weld, with noble heroism and selfsacrifice, offered to shoulder
+that cross of an old-fashioned girl's life--the washing and wiping of
+dishes.
+
+On a Wednesday morning the two maiden ladies living nearly opposite the
+Winship cottage were transfixed with wonder by the appearance of Bell,
+who asked for the house-key left in safe keeping with them.
+
+“Du tell, Isabel!--I didn't expect to see you this mornin',--air your
+folks comin' home or hev you been turned out o' school?” asked Miss
+Miranda.
+
+“Oh, no,” laughed Bell; “I'm going to housekeeping myself!”
+
+“Good land! You haven't run off and got married, have you?” cried Miss
+Jane.
+
+“Not quite so bad as that; but I'm going to bring five of my schoolmates
+over to-morrow, and we intend to stay here two weeks all alone, as
+housekeepers and householders.”
+
+“Land o' mercy,” moaned the nervous Miss Miranda. “That Pa o' yourn
+would let you tread on him and not notice it. How any sensible man
+could do sech a crazy thing as to let a pack of girls tear his house
+to pieces, I don't see. You'll burn us all up before a week's out; I
+declare I sha'n't sleep a wink for worrying the whole time.”
+
+“You needn't be afraid, Miss Sawyer,” said Bell, with some spirit. “If
+six girls, none of them younger than fourteen, can't take care of a few
+stoves and fireplaces, I should think it was a pity. Everybody seems
+to think nowadays that young people have no common sense. The world's
+growing wiser all the time, and I don't see why we shouldn't be as
+bright as those detestable pattern-girls of fifty years ago.”
+
+“Well, well, don't get huffy, Isabel; you mean well, but all girls are
+unstiddy at your age. Anyhow, I'll try to keep an eye on ye. Here's your
+key, and we can spare you a quart of milk a day and risin's for your
+bread, if you're going to try riz bread, though I don't s'pose one of ye
+knows anything about flour food.”
+
+“Thank you; that'll be very nice, and now I'm going over to begin work,
+for I have heaps to do. Emma Jane Perkins has come to help me, and
+Grandma's Betty will come down every afternoon. By the way, can I have
+Topsycat while I am here?”
+
+“Yes, I s'pose so,” said Miss Jane, “though it's been an awful sight of
+work gettin' her used to our ways, and I'd never have done it if Mis'
+Winship hadn't set such store by her. She pretty near pined away the
+first week, and I've baked ginger cake for her and buttered her fritters
+every mornin'.”
+
+“I won't borrow her if you think she will be more troublesome
+afterward,” Bell answered, “but you know it's almost impossible to keep
+house without a cat and a dog. Bobs came over from Uncle Harry's the
+moment I arrived, and is waiting at the gate now.”
+
+“I don't agree with you,” said Miss Miranda. “'Blessed be nothin', I
+say, when it comes to live stock. We disposed of our horse, the pig went
+next, and the cow's turn's comin'. Even a cat is dreadful confinin'.
+If you have a cat and two hens you're as much tied down as if you had a
+barn full of critters.”
+
+The day was very cold, and both Bell and Emma Jane shivered as they
+unlocked one frost-bitten door after another.
+
+“We shall freeze as stiff as pokers,” said Bell, with chattering teeth;
+“but we can't help it; let's build a fire in every stove in the honse
+and thaw things out.” This was done, and in an hour they were moderately
+comfortable. The weather being so cold, Bell decided upon using
+only three rooms, all on the first floor--the large, handsome family
+sitting-room, the kitchen, and Mrs. Win-ship's chamber. This being very
+capacious, she moved a couple of bedsteads from other rooms, and placing
+the three side by side, filled up the intervening spaces with bolsters,
+thus making one immensely wide bed.
+
+“There, Emma Jane, isn't that a bright idea! We can all sleep in a
+row, and then there'll be no quarreling about bedfellows or rooms. I
+certainly am a good contriver,” cried Bell, with a triumphant little
+laugh.
+
+“It looks awful like a hospital, and the bolsters will keep fallin'
+down in between and it'll be dreadful hard mak-in' 'em up of a mornin',”
+ rejoined Emma Jane, who was no flatterer, being New England born and
+bred.
+
+The sitting-room coal stove had accommodations, on top and back, for
+cooking, so Bell thought that their suppers, with perhaps an occasional
+breakfast, might be prepared there. The large bay-window, with its
+bright drugget, would serve as a sort of tiny diningroom, so the
+mahogany extension-table, with its carved legs, pretty red cover, and
+silver service, was carried there. This accomplished, and every room
+made graceful and attractive by Bell (who was a born homemaker, and
+placed photographs, lamps, sofa-pillows, fir-boughs, and bowls of red
+apples just where they were needed in the picture), she went over to her
+Grandmother's, where four loaves of bread were baking and pies being
+filled, in order that the young housekeepers might begin with a full
+pantry.
+
+“Oh, Grandma,” she exclaimed breathlessly, tearing off her cloud and
+bringing down with it a sunshiny mass of bronze hair, “it does look
+lovely, if I do say it; and as for setting that house on fire, there's
+no danger, for it will take a week to thaw it into a state in which it
+would burn. I have made up my mind that I sha'n't be the one to build
+the fires every morning, even if I am hostess. I don't want to freeze
+myself daily for the cause of politeness. Has the provision man come
+yet!”
+
+“Yes,” said Uncle Harry, “and brought eatables enough for an army--more
+than you girls can devour in a month.”
+
+“You'll see,” said Bell, laughingly.
+
+“You don't know the capacity of the 'Jolly Six' yet. Now, Betty, please
+take the eggs and potatoes and fish and put them in our store room. I've
+just time to make my cake and custard before I drive to the station
+for the girls. Do you know, Uncle Harry, I am going to do the most
+astounding thing! I've borrowed Farmer Allen's one-seated old pung,--the
+one he takes to town filled with vegetables,--and I am going to keep it
+for our sleigh-rides. It will hold all six of us, and what do we care
+for public opinion!” said she, with a disdainful gesture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--IN THE FIRELIGHT
+
+|TWO hours later you might have seen the old pung drawn by Mr. Allen's
+Jerry, with Bell and Alice Forsaith on the seat, and four laughing,
+rosy-cheeked girls warmly tucked in buffalo robes on the bottom. Even
+the sober old sun, who had been under a cloud that day, poked his head
+out to see the fun, and became so interested that, in spite of himself,
+he forgot his determination not to shine, and did his duty all the
+afternoon.
+
+When the girls opened the door and saw Bell's preparations,--the cozy
+sitting-room, with dining-table in the bay-window, three sofas in a row,
+so that on snowy days they might extend their lazy lengths thereon,
+and finally a fir-covered barrel of Nodhead and Baldwin apples in one
+corner,--there arose bursts of happy laughter and ecstatic cheers loud
+enough to shock the neighbors, who seldom laughed and never cheered.
+
+“I know it's an original idea to have an apple-barrel in your parlor
+corner,” said Bell; “but the common-sense of it will be seen by every
+thoughtful mind. Our forces will consume a peck a day, and life is
+too short to spend it in galloping up and down cellar constantly for
+apples.”
+
+“Bell Winship, you are an inhospitable creature,” exclaimed Lilia
+Porter. “Here I am, calmly seated on a coal-hod with my hat on, while you
+are talking so fast that you can't get time to show us our apartments.
+Shelter before food, say I!”
+
+“Apartments!” sniffed Bell, in mock dudgeon. “You are very grand in your
+ideas! Behold your camp, your wigwam, your tent, your quarters!” and
+she threw open the door of the large chamber and waved the party
+dramatically in that direction.
+
+“Bell, you will yet be Presidentess of these United States,” cried Edith
+Lambert. “Any girl who can devise two such happy combinations as an
+apple-barrel in a parlor corner and three beds in a row, ought to be
+given a chair of state.”
+
+“Might a poor worm inquire, Bell,” asked Patty, “why those croquet
+mallets and balls are laid out in file round the beds?”
+
+“Why, those are for protection, you goose, supposing anybody should come
+in the piazza window at night, and we had nothing to kill him with!”
+
+“Yes, and supposing he should take one of the mallets and pound us all
+to a jelly to begin with?” Patty retorted, being of a practical mind.
+
+“That _would_ be rather embarrassing,” answered Bell, with a reflective
+shudder; “I hadn't thought of it.”
+
+“What could one poor man do against five girls banging him with croquet
+mallets, while the sixth was running to alarm the neighbors?” asked
+Alice, “and to put an end to the discussion I suggest that the cooks
+start supper;” whereupon she threw herself into an arm-chair, and put up
+a pair of small, stout boots on the fender.
+
+The unfortunate couple referred to exchanged looks of unmitigated
+discouragement.
+
+“I have my opinion of a girl who will mention supper before she has been
+in the house an hour,” said the head cook.
+
+“Josie, I foresee that they are going to make galley-slaves of us if
+they can. However,” turning again to Alice, “it isn't to be supper, but
+dinner. The meals at this house are to be thus and so: Breakfast at 9
+a.m., luncheon at 12 m., dinner at 5 p.m., refreshments at various times
+betwixt and between, and all affairs pertaining to eatables are to be
+completely under the control of the chefs, Mesdemoiselles Winship
+and Fenton. We cannot have you 'suggesting' dinner at all hours, Miss
+Forsaith. If time hangs heavy on your hands, occupy it in your own
+branches of housework.”
+
+“If we are to be ruled over in this way, life will not be worth living,”
+ cried Patty Weld, in comical despair. “I dare say we shall be half
+starved as the days go on, but do give us something good to begin on,
+Bluebell!”
+
+Judging from the scene at the table an hour later, it would not have
+made much difference whether the repast was sumptuous or not, so
+formidable were the appetites, and such the merriment.
+
+“Oh, dear,” sighed Bell, dismally, to the assistant cook, “I will
+throw off all disguise and say that this family is a surprise and a
+disappointment to me. When a person cooks twenty-seven potatoes, with
+the reasonable expectation of having half left to fry, and sees a
+solitary one left in the dish, with all its lovely companions both faded
+and gone, she is naturally disheartened. Any way, we have finished for
+to-night, so the Dish Brigade can marshal its forces. We will take our
+one potato into the kitchen, Jo, and see if we can make it enough for
+breakfast. Look in the corner bookcase; bring Mrs. Whitney's 'Just How,'
+Marion Harland's 'Cook Book,' 'The Young Housekeeper's Friend,' and 'The
+Bride's Manual.'”
+
+At nine o'clock that evening Uncle Harry passed through the garden, and
+noticing a pair of open shutters, peeped in at the back window of the
+sitting-room, thinking he had never seen a more charming or attractive
+picture. Pretty Edith Lambert was curled up in an armchair near the
+astral lamp, her face resting on her two rosy palms, and her eyes bent
+over “Little Women.” Bluebell, her bright hair bobbed in a funny sort
+of twist, from which two or three venturesome and rebellious curls were
+straying out, and her high-necked blue apron still on over her dark
+dress, was humming soft little songs at the piano. Roguish Jo was
+sitting flat on the hearth, her bright cheeks flushed rosier under the
+warm occupation of corn popping, and her dark hair falling loosely round
+her face, while Patty Weld with her shy, demure face, was beside her
+on a hassock, knitting a “fascinator” out of white wool. These two, so
+thoroughly unlike, were never to be seen apart; indeed, they were so
+inseparable as to be dubbed the “Scissors” or “Tongs” by their friends.
+Alice and Lilia were quarreling briskly over a game of cribbage, Lilia's
+animated expression and ringing laugh contrasting forcibly with the
+calm face of her antagonist. Alice was never known to be excited over
+anything. It was she who carried off all the dignity and took the part
+of presiding goddess of the party. The girls all adored her for her
+beauty and superior age; for she had attained the enviable pinnacle of
+“sweet sixteen.”
+
+“Come,” said Jo, breaking the silence, “let us have refreshments, then a
+good quiet talk together, then muster the Hair-Brushing Brigade, and go
+to bed. I think I have corn enough; I've popped and popped and popped as
+no one ever popped before, and till popping has ceased to be fun.”
+
+“Pop on, pop ever; the more you give us, Jo, the more popular you'll
+be,” laughed Bell.
+
+“She is a veritable 'pop-in-J,' isn't she?” cried Lilia.
+
+“Now Lilia,” said Edith, “let us get the apples and nuts, and we'll sit
+in a ring on the floor, and eat. I shan't crack the almonds; the girl
+that hath her teeth, I say, is no girl, if with her teeth she cannot
+crack an almond. Lilia, you're not a bit of assistance; you've tied up
+the end of the nut-bag in a hard knot, upset the apple-dish, put
+the tablecloth on crooked, and--oh, dear--now you've stepped in the
+pop-corn,” as Lilia, trying desperately to cross the room without
+knocking something over, as usual, had hit the corn-pan in her airy
+flight. “You have such a genius for stepping into half-a-dozen things at
+once, I think you must be web-footed.”
+
+“Well, that's possible,” retorted the unfortunate Lilia; “I've often
+been told I was a duck of a girl, and this proves it.”
+
+“Do you realize, girls,” said Edith, after a while, “that we shall all
+be visited by ghosts and visions to-night, if we don't terminate this
+repast? I'll put away the dishes, Bell, if you'll move the sofas up to
+the fire, so that we can have our good-night chat.”
+
+So, speedily, six warm dressing-sacques were slipped on, and then, the
+lamps being turned out, in the ruddy glow of the firelight, the brown,
+the yellow, and the dark hair was taken down, and the housekeepers,
+braiding it up for the night, talked and dreamed and built their castles
+in the air, as all young things are wont to do.
+
+“Girls, dear old girls,” said Alice, softly, breaking an unusual silence
+of two minutes; “isn't this cosy and sweet and friendly beyond anything?
+How thankful we ought to be for the happy lives God gives us! We have
+been put into this beautiful world and taken care of so wisely and
+kindly every day; yet we don't often speak, or even think, about it.”
+
+“It is trouble, sometimes, more than happiness, that leads us into
+thinking about God's care and goodness,” said Edith, “although it's very
+strange that it should. Before my mother's death I was just a little
+baby playing with letter-blocks, and all at once, after that, I began to
+make the letters into words and spell out things for myself.”
+
+“What a perfect heathen I am,” burst out Jo. “I can't feel any of these
+things any more than if I were a Chinaman. Or, perhaps, it is as Edith
+says, I am still playing with blocks, although I cannot even see the
+letters on them. I wonder if I shall ever be wide awake enough for
+that!”
+
+“Look out of the window, Jo,” said
+
+Bell, who was leaning on the sill. “Don't you think if God can make
+out of all that snow and ice, in three short months, a lovely, tender,
+green, springing world, He can make something out of us! Isn't it a
+wonderful thing that He can wake up the life that's asleep under the
+frozen earth?”
+
+“Well,” rejoined Jo, dismally, “there's something to begin on out there,
+but I don't think I have much of a soul; any way, I have never seen any
+signs of it. You always say things so prettily, Bell, that I like to
+hear you sermonize. You'd make a good minister's wife.”
+
+“I think you have plenty of 'soul material,' Jo,” said Lilia, confusedly
+struggling to make a figure of speech express her meaning. “There's lots
+of it there, only it wants to be blown up, somehow.”
+
+“Thanks for your encouragement,” said Jo, amid the laughter that
+followed Lilia's peculiar metaphor. “I think if you'll try to handle the
+spiritual bellows, you'll find it's harder work than you imagine. Now
+don't laugh, girls, because I really do feel solemn about it, only I
+talk in my usual frivolous way.”
+
+“You always make yourself appear wicked, Jo,” said her loving champion,
+Patty, “but I happen to know a few facts on the opposite side. Who was
+it who gave every cent of her month's allowance to Mrs. Hart, the poor
+washerwoman who scorched her white skirt; and who stayed away from the
+church sociable to take care of that horrid room mate of hers who had a
+headache?”
+
+“Patty, if you don't desist,” cried Jo, with a flaming face, and
+brandishing a hair-brush fiercely, “I'll throw this at your dear,
+charitable little head. Now, Bell, you know we all agreed to tell a
+story of adventure each night before going to bed, and I think you, as
+hostess, ought to begin. If the entertainment is delayed much longer it
+will find me asleep with fatigue and over-feeding in the front row of
+the orchestra.”
+
+“Dear me, I can't begin!” cried Bell, “Nothing ever happened to me
+except going to California and having a double wedding in the family.
+That's the sum total of my adventures.”
+
+“Make up something then, or tell us a true story about California. Oh,
+you do have such a good time, and funny things are always happening to
+you,” sighed Lilia. “You never seem to have any trials.”
+
+“Trials!” rejoined Bell, sarcastically. “I should think I hadn't.
+Perhaps I haven't a little scamp of a brother and an awfully fussy old
+aunty! Perhaps I'm not such an idiot that I can't multiply eight and
+nine, or seven and six, without a lead-pencil; perhaps I wasn't left
+at school while my parents toured in the South! Don't you call those
+afflictions?”
+
+“Yes, I do,” answered Lilia, joining in the general laugh; “and I'll
+never allude to your good fortune again. Now tell us a California
+story,--that's a dear,--for I'm getting sleepy as well as Jo.”
+
+“Oh, well,” said Bell, walking about the room absent-mindedly, until her
+eyes rested on the cabinet, “I'll tell you the story of these;” and she
+took up a string of dusty pearls which were seamed and cracked as if by
+fire. “Now open your eyes and lend me your ears, for I shall make it as
+'bookish' and romantic as possible.
+
+“Last summer Mother and I were living in a beautiful valley a hundred
+miles from San Francisco. It was near the mining districts, where Father
+was attending to some business. Of course, a great many Mexicans and
+Indians, as well as Chinamen, worked in these mines, and we used to see
+them very often. Mother and I were sitting under the peach-trees in
+the garden one afternoon. It was so beautiful sewing or reading in that
+California garden, for the fruit was ripe and hanging in bushels on
+the trees, as lovely to look at as it was luscious to eat; some of the
+peaches were a rich yellow inside and others snow-white, except where
+the crimson stones had tinged their sockets with rosy little spots.”
+
+“Don't,” cried Jo; “you'll make us discontented with our New England
+apples!”
+
+“We were chatting and eating peaches,” continued Bell, “when the gate
+opened, and an Indian girl with an old squaw came in and approached us,
+The girl could speak English, and told me her name was Eskaluna. I
+had heard about her, and knew that she was the beauty and belle of the
+tribe, and was going to marry the chief's son when the next moon came;
+for our Indian cook was as gossipy as a Yankee, and was forever telling
+us tales. She was the most beautiful creature I ever saw: lovely black
+hair, not so coarse as is usual with them, brilliant dark eyes, good
+features, and the prettiest slim hands and graceful arms. She was
+dressed gaily and handsomely in the fashion of her tribe, and on her
+lovely, bare, brown neck was this long string of Mexican pearls, which
+we noticed at once as being very valuable. She stayed there all the
+afternoon under the fruit-trees, and really grew quite confidential.
+Mother, meanwhile, had gone into ecstacies over her beautiful pearls,
+and had taken them from her neck to examine them. At sunset, when she
+went home to her wigwam, she slipped the necklace into mother's lap,
+saying, with her sweet trick of speech, 'I eatie your peachie, you
+takie my beads.' Of course, mother could not accept them, and Eskaluna
+departed in quite a disappointed mood. I remember being sorry that the
+pretty young thing was going to marry the disagreeable, ugly chief. He
+was just as jealous and ferocious as he could be--wouldn't let her
+talk to one of the warriors of the tribe, and had shot one man already
+because he fancied Eskaluna admired him.”
+
+A chorus of “Oh's” and “Ah's” interrupted Bell, and Alice's eyes grew
+round with interest, for she was sixteen and had been called a “cruel
+coquette” by a young student at Wareham.
+
+“In a few days our Indian cook came home at night from the mines, saying
+that he wanted a holiday the next morning to go to a funeral. We had
+heard that in some tribes they burn the bodies of the dead, and wondered
+whether his were one of them, so we asked him the particulars, of
+course, and were terribly shocked when we heard that it was the funeral
+of poor Eskaluna, who had visited us so lately, in all her dusky beauty.
+Nakawa told us the whole story in his broken English, and a sad one it
+was. Her lover, the chief, as I have said, was always jealous of her,
+and on the afternoon she came to our house, he had heard from some
+crafty villain or other (an enemy of Eskaluna's, of course), that she
+was false, and, instead of intending to marry him, loved a handsome
+young Indian of another tribe, and was planning to run away with him.
+
+“This fired his hot blood, and he rushed off on the village road
+determined to kill her. He climbed a large sycamore tree on a lonely
+part of the way, and there waited until the shadows fell over the
+mountain sides, and the sun, dropping behind their peaks, left the San
+Jacinto valley in fast-growing darkness. At last he saw the gleam of her
+scarlet dress in the distance, and soon he heard her voice as she came
+singing along, little thinking of her dreadful fate. He took sure aim
+at the heart that was beating happily and carelessly under its cape of
+birds' feathers; shot, and so swift and unerring was his arrow that
+she fell in an instant, dead, upon the path. Then, leaving her with the
+helpless old squaw, he escaped into a canon near by.
+
+[Illustration: 0053]
+
+“The next day we went over to the Indian encampment, and reached the
+place just after poor Eskaluna had been burned on the funeral pile. We
+went close to the spot and could hardly help crying when we thought of
+her beauty and sweetness, and her sad and undeserved death. Up near the
+head of the pile where that lovely brown neck of hers had rested,--the
+prettiest neck in the world,--lay this charred string of pearls she had
+worn in our garden. Mother asked for it as a remembrance, and the old
+squaw gave it to her. Eskaluna's brother is on the war-path after her
+murderer, I believe, to this day, if he hasn't killed him yet; for he
+was determined to avenge her. Now, isn't that romantic, and tragic at
+the same time, girls? Poor Eskaluna! I don't know that her fate would
+have been much easier if she had married the chief; but it is hard to
+think of her being so heartlessly murdered when she was so innocent and
+true; and that's the end of my story. Who comes next?”
+
+“Not I, at this hour,” yawned Jo, “but it was a good tale!”
+
+“Nor I, after that thrilling experience of yours!” said Alice,
+admiringly.
+
+“I can think of no story half so delightful as the dreams we shall have
+if we go to bed,” murmured Edith from her cozy corner. “Come, it is
+after ten, and the wide bed calls loudly for occupants.”
+
+In a half-hour all six were asleep, and the bright-faced moon, looking
+in at the piazza window, smiled as she saw the half-dozen heads in a
+row, and the bed surrounded by croquet mallets and balls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--AN EMERGENCY CASE
+
+|THE next morning broke clear, bright, and sparkling, but bitterly cold.
+I cannot attempt to tell you all the doings of that indefatigable and
+ingenious bevy of girls during the day. Miss Miranda, their opposite
+neighbor, had kept to her post of observation, the window, very closely,
+and had seen much to awaken scorn and surprise.
+
+“Wa'al, Jane!” said she, excitedly, in the afternoon, “there they go
+ag'in! That's the fourth time the hoss has been harnessed into Allen's
+pung to-day; and now they've got their uncle. Whatever they find to
+laugh so over, and where they go to, is more'n I can see. They haven't
+done up their dinner dishes, I know, for I've been watching of 'em and
+they hain't had time to do 'em so quick as this, though Bell Winship
+is as spry as a skeeter when she gets a-goin'.”
+
+Miss Miranda's organs of vision were better than magnifying glasses,
+for, aided by a lively imagination, they could dart around corners and
+through doors with great ease. Bell avowed confidentially to Patty that
+morning, when she met her neighbor's eyes fixed on the pantry window,
+that she believed Miss Miranda could see a fly-speck on top of a
+liberty-pole.
+
+The girls had made the day a very long and lively one, and in the
+evening, their spirits still high and their inventive powers still
+unimpaired, they gave an impromptu concert. The audience was small
+but appreciative. Grandmother was in a private box--the high-backed
+arm-chair in the cosiest corner; Uncle Harry sat on a hastily-erected
+throne made by perching a stool on the dining-table, and being given a
+large pair of goggles, was requested to serve as dramatic and musical
+critic for the morning newspapers. Two or three of the boarders
+from Mrs. Carter's famous Winter Farmhouse on the hill, the young
+schoolmaster (a Bowdoin student earning his college course by odd terms
+of teaching), and Hugh Pennell, his chum and classmate, home on a brief
+holiday, made quite a brave show when seated in three rows, while the
+unaffected laughter, the open mouths, and the staring eyes of “the
+help,” Emma Jane Perkins, Betty Bean, and 'Bijah Flagg, who were
+grouped at the hall door, helped in the general merriment.
+
+Bell had a keen sense of the ridiculous and a voice like a meadow-lark.
+Jo was capital, too, as a mimic, so together, they gave some absurdly
+funny scenes from famous operas. Bell had thrown on an evening dress of
+her cousin's, which happened to be left in the house, and this, with its
+short sleeves, showing her round, girlish arms, and its long train, made
+her such a distracting little prima donna of fifteen, that Hugh Pennell
+quite laid his boyish heart at her feet. She sang “The Last Rose of
+Summer” with all the smiles, head-tossings, arch looks, casting down
+of eyelids, and kissing of finger-tips at the close, which generally
+accompany it when sung by the stage soprano, and she was naturally
+greeted with rapturous applause. Then Jo, as the tenor, in dressing-gown
+and smoking-cap for male attire, sang a fervent duet with Alice
+Forsaith, rendering it with original Italian words and embraces at the
+end of every measure.
+
+[Illustration: 0063]
+
+Tableaux showing scenes from well-known novels, and thrilling historical
+events depicted in pantomime, came next, and the company was invited
+to name them as they followed one another in quick succession,--Eliza
+crossing the river by leaping from ice block to ice block, the
+bloodhounds in hot pursuit; Pochahontas saving the life of her noble
+Captain John; Rochester, holding Jane Eyre spellbound by the steely
+glitter of his eye; and the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers, landing on a
+stern and rock-bound coast, ably represented by the dining-room table.
+As Uncle Harry sat on the table he was obliged to be the center of this
+thrilling scene, which was variously surmised by the audience to be
+the capture of a slave-ship by pirates, the rescue of a babe from a
+tenement-house fire, the killing of Julius Cæsar in the Roman Senate, or
+an impassioned attempt to drag Casabianca from the burning deck.
+
+After bidding their visitors goodnight, Bell and Jo went into the
+kitchen to put buckwheat cakes to raise for breakfast.
+
+“I believe I'll chop the meat hash for a half-hour while the kitchen is
+warm,” said Jo. “Emma Jane is right about the knife; it is dull beyond
+words!”
+
+“If it is any duller than Emma Jane herself, I am sorry for it,”
+ rejoined Bell.
+
+“It's a poor workman who complains of his tools, Jo,” said Patty,
+looking in at the door, with a superior air; “Columbus discovered
+America in an open boat.”
+
+“He would never have discovered America with this chopping-knife,” quoth
+Jo, bringing it down with vicious emphasis on the unoffending meat.
+
+“Did you notice Emma Jane's expression as she stood in the doorway to
+night?”
+
+“I did,” replied Bell, as she bustled about her last tasks at closet,
+cupboard, and sink. “Not a penny of my money shall go to the heathen in
+other lands until I have done some missionary work with her. In ten days
+I propose to make her stand straight, hold her head up, keep her mouth
+closed when not occupied in conversation or eating, stop straining her
+hair out by the roots, tie the ends of her braids with ribbon instead of
+twine, give up her magenta hood, and a few other little details.”
+
+“I don't see how you dare advise her at her advanced age,” responded
+Jo. “I suppose she is thirteen, but she appears about thirty. Look,
+Bell, can this hash be safely trusted now to the pearly teeth of
+our parlor boarders, or are the pieces too large for their 'delicate
+sensibilities'?”
+
+“I think that it may escape criticism,” laughed Bell. “Cover it with a
+clean towel and a platter, and one of us will give it a last castigation
+before it goes in the frying-pan.”
+
+“I never had such a good time in my life, never, never!” sighed Lilia,
+as she blew out the lamp, and tucked herself on the front side of the
+bed, a little later. “I have only two things to trouble me. First: my
+wisdom tooth feels as if it were going to ache again. Second: it is my
+turn to build the kitchen fire in the morning.”
+
+“Console yourself with one thought, my dear,” murmured Bell, drowsily,
+yet sagely. “Both these misfortunes can't happen to you, for if your
+tooth chances to ache, we shall not have the heart to make you build the
+fire.”
+
+“Don't tell her that,” urged Jo, with a prodigious yawn, “or she will be
+feigning toothache constantly.”
+
+Lilia's fears had good foundation, however, for in the middle of the
+night, Jo, who slept next the front side, wakened suddenly to find her
+slipping quietly out of bed.
+
+“What's the matter, Lilia!” she whispered.
+
+“Nothing; don't wake the others, but that miserable tooth grumbles just
+enough to keep me awake, and my temple aches and my cheek, too. Where is
+the lotion I use for bathing my face, do you know?”
+
+“Yes, where you put it this morning, on the back of the wash-stand;
+sha'n't I light the lamp and help you?”
+
+“No, no, hush!” said Lilia. “I can put my hand on it in the dark. Here
+it is! I'll bathe my face a few minutes, and then try to go to sleep.”
+
+So, she anointed herself freely, put the bottle and sponge under the
+head of the bed lest she should need them again, and, finally, the pain
+growing less, fell asleep.
+
+In the morning, Bell, who wakened first, rubbed her eyes drowsily,
+glanced at Lilia, who was breathing quietly, and uttered a piercing
+shriek. This in turn aroused the other girls, who joined in the shriek
+on general principles, and then, blinking in the half-light, looked
+where Bell pointed. One side of Lilia's face was swollen, and of a
+dark, purple color, presenting a truly frightful appearance. At length,
+hearing the confusion, Lilia awoke with a start, and her eyes being
+open, and rolling about in surprise, she looked still more alarming.
+
+“What on earth is the matter, girls?” she asked, sitting up in bed,
+smoothing back her hair and rubbing her heavy lids.
+
+Thereupon Edith and Alice began to tremble and nobody answered her.
+
+“K-k-keep c-c-calm,” said Bell. “Lilia, dear, your face is badly swollen
+and inflamed, and we're afraid you are going to be ill, but we'll send
+for the doctor straight away. Does it pain you very much?”
+
+Lilia jumped up hastily, and, looking in the mirror, uttered a cry of
+terror, and sank back into the rocking-chair.
+
+“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What can it be! Oh, take me home to my father! It
+must be a malignant pustule--or spotted fever--or something dreadful!
+What shall I do? Bell, you are a doctor's daughter; do find out
+what's the matter with me! I am disfigured for life, and I wasn't very
+good-looking before.”
+
+“Girls,” said Bell, “let us dress this very instant, for we can't be too
+quick about a thing of this kind. You, Jo, build the kitchen fire, and,
+Alice, make a blaze on the hearth in here; then, after we've made her
+comfortable, Edith can run and tell Uncle Harry to come.”
+
+“Put on the kettle,” added Patty, “and heat blankets; they always do
+that in emergencies.”
+
+“Don't frighten me to death,” wailed Lilia, “calling me 'a thing of this
+kind' and an 'emergency.' I don't feel a hit worse than I did in the
+night.”
+
+“She had neuralgia in her face,” explained Jo; “that must have had
+something to do with it. She put on some of her liniment, and then
+dropped off to sleep. Come, darling, let us tuck you in bed again; try
+to keep up your courage!”
+
+Then there was a hasty consultation in the kitchen 'midst many groans
+and tears. Bell was an authority on sickness, and she said, with an
+awestruck face, that it must be a dreadful attack of erysipelas in the
+very last stages.
+
+“But,” cried Alice, perplexed, “it is all very strange, for why does she
+have so little pain, and how could her face have turned so black from
+mortification in one night?”
+
+“Blood-poisoning is very quick and very deadly,” said Patty, who had
+heard about such a case in her own family.
+
+“Goodness knows what it is,” exclaimed Bell, wringing her hands in
+nervous terror. “What to do with her I don't know; whether to put bricks
+to her head and ice to her feet, or keep her head cold and heat her
+'extremities,' as father calls them--whether to give her a sweat or keep
+her dry, or wrap her in blankets, or get the linen sheets. Jo is with
+her now. If you'll go and wake Uncle Harry, Edith, it is the best thing
+we can do. Run along with her, too, Patty, and you won't be afraid
+together.”
+
+Alice and Bell went back presently to Lilia, who looked even worse, now
+that the room was bright with the glow of the open fire and the pale
+light of the student lamp.
+
+“You patient old darling!” cried Bell, falling on her knees beside the
+bed. “We have sent for Uncle Harry and the Doctor, and now you are sure
+to be all right, for we've taken the thing in good time. Good gracious!!
+what bottle have I tipped over under this bed!”
+
+“It's my neuralgia liniment,” murmured Lilia, faintly. “I bathed my face
+in it last night, and put it under there afterward. Don't spill it, for
+I can't get any more here.”
+
+“Your neuralgia lotion!” shrieked Bell, first with a look of blank
+astonishment, and then one of excitement and glee mixed in equal
+parts. “Look at it, girls! Look, Alice and Jo! Oh, Lilia, you precious,
+blundering goose!” and thereupon she dragged out from beneath the bed
+valance a pint bottle of violet ink, and then relapsed into a paroxysm
+of voiceless mirth. Just then the hack door opened, and in hurried Uncle
+Harry, Edith, and Patty, much terrified, for they had heard the shouts
+and gasps and excited voices from outside, and supposed that Lilia must
+at least have fallen into convulsions.
+
+“Let me see the poor child immediately,” cried Mr. Winship. “What is the
+trouble with you, Bell? are you demented? and where is Lilia?” looking
+at the apparently empty bed, for Lilia had wound herself in the sheets
+and blankets, disappeared from view, and was endeavoring to force
+a pillow into her mouth in order to render her shame-faced laughter
+inaudible. “Are you trying to play a joke on me?” continued he, with as
+much dignity as was consistent with an attire made up of an undershirt,
+a pair of trousers, overshoes, a tall hat, and a gold-headed cane
+which he had quite unconsciously caught up in his hasty flight from his
+chamber.
+
+“The fact is,” answered Bell, between her gasps, and trying desperately
+hard to regain her sobriety,--“the fact is--Uncle Harry--we made--a
+mistake, and so did--Lilia. There were two bottles just alike on the
+wash-stand, and in the night she bathed her face for five minutes in the
+purple ink! Oh, oh, oh!!”
+
+Uncle Harry's face relaxed into a broad smile as he realized the joke.
+
+“Oh, Mr. Winship, you should have seen her!” sighed Jo, lifting her head
+from the sofa-pillow, with streaming eyes. “All her face, except part
+of her forehead and one cheek, was covered with enormous dark purple
+blotches. She looked like a clown, or a Fourth of July fantastic, or
+anything else frightful!”
+
+“Well,” said Edith, slyly, “Bell said mortification had taken place. I
+don't think Lilia has ever been more mortified than she is now; do you?
+
+“Puns are out of place, Edith,” said Bell, severely. “Don't hurry, Uncle
+Harry. Don't let any thought of your rather peculiar attire cause you
+embarrassment.”
+
+But before Bell's teasing voice had ceased, the last thud, thud of his
+rubbers, and click, click of his gold-headed cane were heard in the
+hall, and he thought, as he tried to finish his early morning nap, that
+it would be a long time before he allowed those madcap girls to rout him
+out of bed again at five o'clock on a winter's day.
+
+As for the girls themselves, they did not even make a trial of slumber,
+but first scrubbed Lilia energetically with hard soap and pumice, and
+then made molasses candy, determined that the roaring kitchen fire
+should be used to some purpose.
+
+Having gained so much time by the unusual way in which they had started
+the day, they were enabled to look back at nightfall on an unprecedented
+number of activities, some of them rather unique and original. There was
+a call upon Emma Jane's mother, another upon Mrs. Carter at the Winter
+Farm, a sleigh-ride with Geoffrey Strong, the vehicle being a truck for
+hauling wood, an hour's coasting down Brigadier hill, and a trip to the
+doctor's for courtplaster and arnica and peppermint and cough lozenges.
+Then directly after luncheon Bell and Jo made a private and confidential
+call upon Grandma Win-ship's pig, leaving with him as evidences of
+regard several samples of their own cookery. This call they hoped was
+unnoticed, but an hour afterwards the other four girls were espied
+coming from the Winships', all clad in black garments of one sort or
+another. When questioned as to the meaning of this mysterious piece of
+foolishness they merely remarked that they, too, had called upon the
+Winships pig, but that it was a visit of condolence and sympathy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--A WINTER PICNIC
+
+|YOU may think that Lilia's “mortification” was quite an excitement
+in this enterprising young household; yet I assure you that never
+twenty-four hours passed but a ridiculous adventure of some kind
+overtook the girls. The daily bulletin which they carried over to Mrs.
+Carter at the Winter Farm kept the worthy inmates in constant wonderment
+as to what would happen next. Sometimes there was a regular programme
+for the next day, prepared the night before, but oftener, things
+happened of themselves, and when they do that, you know, pleasure seems
+a deal more satisfying and delightful, because it is unexpected. Uncle
+Harry was in great demand, and very often made one of the gay party of
+young folks off for a frolic. They defied King Winter openly, and went
+on all sorts of excursions, even on a bona-fide picnic, notwithstanding
+the two feet of snow on the ground. The way of it was this: On Friday,
+the boys--Hugh Pennell, Bell's cousin, Jack Brayton, and the young
+schoolmaster--turned the great bare hall in the top of the old Winship
+family house into a woodland bower.
+
+By the way, I have not told you much about Geoffrey Strong yet, because
+the girls of the story have had everything their own way, but Geoffrey
+Strong was well worth knowing. He was only eighteen years old, but had
+finished his sophomore year at Bowdoin College, and was teaching the
+district school that he might partly earn the money necessary to take
+him through the remainder of the course. He was as sturdy and strong
+as his name, or as one of the stout pine-trees of his native State, as
+gentle and chivalrous as a boy knight of the olden time; as true and
+manly a lad, and withal as good and earnest a teacher, notwithstanding
+his youth, as any little country urchin could wish. Mr. Win-ship was his
+guardian, and thus he had become quite one of the Winship family.
+
+The boys were making the picnic grounds when I interrupted my story with
+this long parenthesis. They took a large pair of old drop curtains used
+at some time or other in church tableaux, and made a dark green carpet
+by stretching them across the floor smoothly and tacking them down; they
+wreathed the pillars and trimmed the doors and windows with evergreens,
+and then planted young spruce and cedar and hemlock trees in the corners
+or scattered them about the room firmly rooted in painted nail-kegs.
+
+“It looks rather jolly, boys, doesn't it?” cried Jack, rubbing his cold
+fingers, “but I'm afraid we've gone as far as we can; we can't make
+birds and flowers and brooks!”
+
+“What's the special difficulty?” asked Geoffrey. “We'll borrow
+Grandmother Winship's two cages of canaries and Mrs. Adams' two; then
+we'll bring over Mrs. Carter's pet parrot, and altogether we'll be
+musical enough, considering the fact that the thermometer is below
+zero.”
+
+This suggestion of Geoff's they accordingly adopted, and their mimic
+forest became tuneful.
+
+The next stroke of genius came from Hugh Pennell. He found bunches of
+white and yellow everlastings at home with which he mixed some cleverly
+constructed bright tissue-paper flowers, of mysterious botanical
+structure. He planted these in pots, and tied them to shrubs, and
+behold, their forest bloomed!
+
+“But we have finished now, boys,” said Hugh, dejectedly, as he put his
+last bed of whiteweed and buttercups under a shady tree. (They
+were made of paper, and were growing artistically in a moss-covered
+chopping-tray.) “We can't get up a brook, and a brook is a handy thing
+at a picnic, too. Good for the small children to fall into, good for
+drinking, good for dish-washing, good for its cool and musical tinkle.”
+
+“I have an idea,” suggested Jack, who was mounted on a step-ladder
+busily engaged in tying a stuffed owl and a blue jay to a tree-top. “I
+have an idea. We can fill the ice-water tank, put it on a shelf, let the
+water run into a tub, then station a boy in the corner to keep filling
+the tank from the tub. There's your stagnant pool and your running
+streamlet. There's your drinking-water, your dish-washer, your musical
+tinkle, and possibly your small child's watery grave. What could be more
+romantic?”
+
+“Out with him!” shouted Geoff. “He ought to be drowned for proposing
+such an apology for a brook.”
+
+“I fail to see the point,” said Jack; “the sound would be sylvan and
+suggestive, and I've no doubt the girls would be charmed.”
+
+“We'll brook no further argument on the subject,” retorted Hugh; “the
+afternoon is running away with us. We might bring up the bath-tub, or
+the watering-trough, sink it in an evergreen bank and surround it with
+house plants, but I don't think it would satisfy us exactly. I'll tell
+you, let us give up the brook and build a sort of what-do-you-call'em
+for a retreat, in one corner.” After some explanations from Hugh about
+his plan, the boys finally succeeded in manufacturing something romantic
+and ingenious. Two blooming oleanders in boxes were brought from Uncle
+Harry's parlor, there was a hemlock tree with a rustic seat under it,
+there was an evergreen arch above, there was a little rockery built with
+a dozen stones from the old wall behind the barn, and there were Miss
+Jane Sawyer's potted scarlet geraniums set in among them, all surmounted
+by two banging baskets and a bird-cage. With nothing save an airtight
+stove to warm it into life (the ugliness of the stove quite hidden by
+screens of green boughs), the cold, bare hall was magically changed
+into a green forest, vocal with singing birds and radiant with blooming
+flowers.
+
+The boys swung their hats in irrepressible glee.
+
+“Won't this be a surprise to the people, though! Won't they think of the
+desert blooming as the rose!” cried Hugh.
+
+“I fancy it won't astonish Uncle Harry and Grandmother much,” answered
+Jack, dryly, “inasmuch as we've nearly borrowed them out of house and
+home during the operation. Old Mrs. Winship said when I took her hammer,
+hatchet, chopping-tray, house plants, and screw-driver, that perhaps she
+had better go over to Mrs. Carter's and board. The girls will be fairly
+stunned, though. Just imagine Bell's eyes! I told them we'd see to
+sweeping and heating the hall, but they don't expect any decorations.
+Well, I'm off. Lock the door, Geoff, and guard it like a dragon; we meet
+at eleven to-morrow morning, do we? Be on hand, sharp, and let us all go
+in and view the scene together. I wouldn't for worlds miss hearing and
+seeing the girls.”
+
+Jack and Hugh started for home, and Geoff went downstairs to run a
+gauntlet of questioning from Jo Fenton, who was present in Grandmother
+Winship's kitchen on one of the borrowing tours of the day, and
+extremely anxious to find out why so much mysterious hammering was going
+on.
+
+While these preparations were in progress, the six juvenile housekeepers
+were undergoing abject suffering in their cookery for the picnic. It had
+been a day of disasters from beginning to end--the first really mournful
+one in their experience.
+
+It commenced bright and early, too; in fact, was all ready for them
+before they awoke in the morning, and the coal fire began it, for it
+went out in the night. Everybody knows what it is to build a fire in a
+large coal stove; it was Jo's turn as stoker and tirewoman, and I regret
+to say that this circumstance made her a little cross, in fact, audibly
+so.
+
+After much searching for kindling-wood, however, much chattering of
+teeth, for the thermometer was below zero, much vicious banging of stove
+doors, and clattering of hods and shovels, that trouble was overcome.
+But, dear me! it was only the first drop of a pouring rain of accidents,
+and at last the girls accepted it as a fatal shower which must fall
+before the weather would clear, and thus resigned themselves to the
+inevitable.
+
+The breakfast was as bad as a breakfast knew how to be. The girls were
+all cooks to-day in the exciting preparation for the picnic, for they
+wanted to take especially tempting dainties in order that they might
+astonish more experienced providers. Patty scorched the milk toast;
+Edith, that most precise and careful of all little women under the
+sun, broke a platter and burned her fingers; Lilia browned a delicious
+omelet, and waved the spider triumphantly in the air, astonished at her
+own success, when, alas, the smooth little circlet slipped illnaturedly
+into the coal hod. Lilia stood still in horror and dismay, while Bell
+fished it hastily out, looking very crumpled, sooty, shrunken, and
+generally penitent, if an omelet can assume that expression. She slapped
+it on the table severely, and said, with a little choke and tear in her
+voice:
+
+“The last of the eggs went into that omelet, and it is going to he
+rinsed, and fried over, and eaten. There isn't another thing in the
+house for breakfast. There is no bread; Alice put cream-of-tartar into
+the buckwheats, instead of saleratus, and measured it with a tablespoon
+besides; Miss Miranda's cat upset the milk can; the potatoes are frozen;
+and I am ashamed to borrow anything more of Grandmother.”
+
+“Never,” cried Alice, with much determination. “Sooner eat omelet and
+coal hod, too! Never mind the breakfast! there are always apples. What
+shall we take to the picnic? We can suggest luncheon at high noon, and
+no one will suspect we haven't breakfasted.”
+
+“Let's make mince pies,” cried Jo, animatedly, from her seat on the
+wood-box.
+
+“Goose,” answered Bell, with a sarcastic smile. “There's plenty of time
+to make mince-meat, of course!”
+
+“At any rate, we must have jelly-cake,” said Lilia, with decision, while
+dishing up the injured omelet for the second time. “We had better carry
+the delicacies, for Mrs. Pennell and the boys will be sure to bring
+bread and meat and common things.”
+
+“Oh, tarts, tarts!” exclaimed Edith, in an ecstacy of reminiscence. “I
+haven't had tarts for a perfect age! Do you think we could manage them?”
+
+“They must be easy enough,” answered Patty, with calm authority. “Cut a
+hole out of the middle of each round thing, then till it up with jelly
+and bake it; that's simple.”
+
+[Illustration: 0093]
+
+“Glad you think so,” responded Edith, with an air of deep melancholy and
+cynicism, as she prepared to wash the cooking dishes and found an empty
+dish-water pot. “I should think the jelly would grow hard and crusty
+before the tarts baked, but I suppose it's all right. Everything we
+touch to-day is sure to fail.”
+
+“Oh, how much better if you said, 'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try,'” sang
+Bell, in a spasm of gayety.
+
+“Oh, how much sadder you will feel when you've tried, by and by,”
+ retorted Edith. “Is there anything difficult about pastry, I wonder?
+Look in the cookbook. Does it have to be soaked over night like ham, or
+hung for two weeks like game, or put away in a stone jar like
+fruit-cake, or 'braised' or 'trussed' or 'larded' or anything?”
+
+“No,” said Patty, looking up from the 'Bride's Manual,' “but it has to
+be pounded on a marble slab with a glass rolling-pin.”
+
+“Stuff and nonsense,” said Bell, “Tarts are nothing but pie-crust. This
+village is situated in the very middle of what is called the New England
+Pie Belt, and the glass rolling-pin and the marble slab have never been
+seen by the oldest or youngest inhabitant. I know that bride. When she
+makes pastry you can see her diamond engagement ring flash as she
+dips her turquoise scoop into her ruby flour-barrel. Look up soft
+gingerbread, Patty.”
+
+“Four cups best New Orleans molasses--”
+
+“The molasses is out,” said Jo; “find jelly-cake.”
+
+“Jelly all gone,” said Bell; “where, I can't think, for there were
+seventeen tumblers.”
+
+“The boys are awfully fond of it with bread,” said Alice, reminiscently.
+“How about doughnuts?”
+
+“All right,” Bell answered, “of course you'll go to the store for more
+eggs and a pail of lard. We're out of molasses, eggs, lard, ginger,
+jelly, patience, and luck.”
+
+Over an hour was spent in futile excursions through the cookery books,
+vain rummagings of the pantry and larder, frequent trips to the country
+store, and nothing was a triumphant success. Things that should have
+been thin were fat and puffy; those that should have risen high and
+light as air were flat and soggy; pots, pans, bowls, were heaped on one
+another in the sink until at one o'clock Alice Forsaith went to bed
+with a headache, leaving the kitchen in a state of general confusion
+and uproar. I cannot bear to tell you all the sorry incidents of that
+dreadful day, but Bell had shared in the blunders with the rest. She had
+gone to the store-room for citron, and had stumbled on a jar of
+frozen “something” very like mince-meat. This, indeed, was a precious
+discovery! She flew back to the kitchen, crying:
+
+“Hurrah! We'll have the pies after all, girls! Mother has left a pot
+of mince-meat in the pantry. It's frozen, but it will be all right. You
+trust to me. I've made pies before, and these shall not be a failure.”
+
+The spider was heated, and enough meat for three pies put in to thaw. It
+thawed, naturally, the fire being extremely hot, and it presently became
+very thin and curious in its appearance.
+
+“It looks like thick soup with pieces of chopped apple in it,” said
+Lilia to Bell, who was patting down a very tough, substantial bottom
+crust on a pie plate.
+
+“We-l-l, it does!” owned the head cook, frankly; “but I suppose it will
+boil down or thicken up in baking. I don't like to taste it, somehow.”
+
+“Very natural,” said Lilia, dryly. “It doesn't look 'tasty;' and, to
+tell the truth, it does not look at all as I've been brought up to
+imagine mince-meat ought to look.”
+
+“I can't be responsible for your 'bringing up,' Lill. Please pour it in,
+and I'll hold the plate.”
+
+The mixture trickled in; Bell put a very lumpy, spotted covering of
+dough over it, slashed a bold original design in the middle for a
+ventilator, and deposited the first pie in the oven with a sigh of
+relief.
+
+Just at this happy moment, Betty Bean, Mrs. Winship's maid-of-all-work,
+walked in with a can of kerosene.
+
+“Don't you think that's funny looking mince-meat, Betty?” asked Patty,
+pointing to the frying-pan.
+
+Betty the wise looked at it one moment, and then said, with youthful
+certainty and disdain: “'Tain't no more mince-meat than a cat's foot.”
+
+This was decisive, and the utterance fell like a thunder-bolt upon the
+kitchen-maids.
+
+“Gracious,” cried Bell, dropping her good English and her rolling-pin
+at the same time. “What do you mean? It looked exactly like it before it
+melted. What is it, then?”
+
+“Suet,” answered cruel Betty Bean. “Your ma chopped it and done it up
+in molasses for her suet plum puddins this winter. It's thick when it's
+cold; and when it was froze, maybe it did look like pie-meat with a good
+deal of apple in it; but it ain't no such thing.”
+
+This was too much. If I am to relate truly the adventures of this
+half-dozen suffering little maidens, I must tell you that Bell entirely
+lost her sunny temper for a moment; caught up the unoffending spider
+filled with molasses and floating bits of suet; carried it steadily and
+swiftly to the back-door, hurled it into a snow-bank; slammed the door,
+and sat down on a flour-firkin, burying her face in the very dingy
+roller-towel. The girls stopped laughing.
+
+“Never mind, Bluebell,” cooed Patty, sympathetically, smoothing her
+hostess's curly hair with a very doughnutty hand, and trying to wipe her
+flushed cheeks with an apron redolent of hot fat. “You can use the
+rest of the pie-crust for tarts, and my doughnuts are swelling up
+be-yoo-ti-ful-ly!”
+
+Bell withdrew the towel from her merry, tearful eyes, and said with
+savage emphasis:
+
+“If any of you dare tell this at the picnic to-morrow, or let Uncle
+Harry or the boys know about it, I'll--I don't know what I'll do,”
+ finished she, weakly.
+
+“That's a fearful threat,” laughed Jo,--“'The King of France and fifty
+thousand men plucked forth their swords! and put them up again.'”
+
+And so this cloud passed over, and another and yet another with
+comforting gleams of sunshine between, till at length it was seven
+o'clock in the evening before the dishes were washed and the kitchen
+tidied; then six as tired young housewives stretched themselves before
+the parlor fire as a bright blaze often shines upon. Bell, pale and
+pretty, was curled upon the sofa, with her eyes closed. The other girls
+were lounging in different attitudes of dejection, all with from one to
+three burned fingers enveloped in cloths. The results of the day's labor
+were painfully meager,--a colander full of doughnuts, some currant buns,
+molasses ginger-bread, and a loaf of tolerably light fruit cake. Out in
+the kitchen closet lay a melancholy pile of failure,--Alice's pop-overs,
+which had refused to pop; Patty's tarts, rocky and tough; and a bride's
+cake that would have made any newly married couple feel as if they were
+at the funeral of their own stomachs. The girls had flown too high in
+their journey through the cook book. Bell and Jo could really make plain
+things very nicely, and were considered remarkable caterers by their
+admiring family of school-mates; but the dainties they had attempted
+were entirely beyond their powers; hence the pile of wasted goodies in
+the closet.
+
+“Oh, dear,” sighed Lilia. “Nobody has spoken a word for an age, and I
+don't wonder, if everybody is as tired as I. Shall we ever be rested
+enough to go to-morrow?”
+
+“I was thinking,” said Edith, dreamily, “that we have only seven more
+days to stay. If they were all to be as horrible as this, I shouldn't
+care very much; but we have had such fun, I dread to break up
+housekeeping. The chief trouble with to-day was that we did no planning
+yesterday. We never looked into the store-room nor bought anything in
+advance nor settled what we should cook.”
+
+“Well,” said Bell, waking up a little, “we will crowd everything
+possible into the last week and make it a real carnival time. To-morrow
+is Saturday and the picnic; on Monday or Tuesday we'll have some sort
+of a 'pow-wow,' as Uncle Harry says, for the boys, in return for their
+invitation, and then we'll think of something perfectly grand and
+stupendous for Friday, our last day of fun. It will take from that
+until Monday to get the house into something like order for my mother's
+return. (This with a remorseful recollection of the terrible back
+bed-room, where everything imaginable had been 'dumped' for a week
+past.)
+
+“I haven't finished trimming our shade hats,” called Alice, faintly,
+from the distance. “I will do it in the morning while you are packing
+the luncheon. Whatever we do let us unpack our baskets privately and try
+to mix in our food with Mrs. Carter's or Mrs. Winship's, so that nobody
+will know which is which.”
+
+The girls had tried to devise something jaunty, picturesque, and summery
+for a picnic costume; but the weather being too cold for a change of
+dress, they had only bought broad straw hats at the country store,--hats
+that farmers wore in haying time, with high crowns and wide brims. They
+had turned up one side of them coquettishly, and adorned it with
+funny silhouettes made of black paper, descriptive of their various
+adventures. Lilia's, for instance, had a huge ink bottle and sponge;
+Bell's a mammoth pie and frying-pan. Around the crowns they had tied
+colored scarfs of ribbon or gauze, interwoven with bunches of dried
+grasses, oats, and everlastings.
+
+Half-past eight found them all sleep-in as soundly as dormice; and the
+next morning with the recuperative power that youth brings, they awoke
+entirely refreshed and ready for the fray.
+
+The picnic was a glorious success. It was a clear, bright day, and not
+very cold; so that with a good fire they were able to have a couple of
+windows open, and to feel more as if they were out in the fresh air. The
+surprise and delight of the girls knew no bounds when they were ushered
+into their novel picnic ground, and even the older people avowed that
+they had never seen such a miracle of ingenuity. The scene was as pretty
+a one as can be imagined, though the young people little knew how
+lovely a picture they helped to make in the midst of their pastoral
+surroundings. Six charming faces they were, happy with girlish joy,
+sweet and bright from loving hearts, and pure, innocent, earnest living.
+Bell was radiant, issuing orders for the spread of the feast, flying
+here and there, laughing over a stuffed snake under a bush (Geoff's
+device), and talking merry nonsense with Hugh, her arch eyes shining
+with mischief under her great straw hat.
+
+Marcus Aurelius, the parrot, talked, and the canaries sang as if this
+were the last opportunity any of them ever expected to have; while
+the embroidered butterflies and stuffed birds fluttered and swayed and
+danced on the quivering tree-twigs beneath them almost as if they were
+alive.
+
+The table-cloth was spread on the floor, in real picnic fashion, for
+the boys would allow neither tables nor chairs, and the lunch was
+simply delectable. Mrs. Win-ship, Mrs. Brayton, and Mrs. Pennell, with
+affectionate forethought, had brought everything that schoolgirls and
+boys particularly affect--jelly-cake, tarts, and hosts of other goodies.
+How the girls remembered their closetful of “attempts” at home; how they
+roguishly exchanged glances, yet never disclosed their failures; how
+they discoursed learnedly on baking-powder versus saleratus, raw potato
+versus boiled potato yeast; and with what dignity and assurance
+they discussed questions of household economy, and interlarded their
+conversation with quotations from the “Young Housekeeper's Friend,” and
+the “Bride's Manual.”
+
+In the afternoon they played all sorts of games,--some quiet, more not
+at all so,--until at five o'clock, nearly dark in these short days,
+they left their make-believe forest and trudged home through the snow,
+baskets under their arms, declaring it a mistaken idea that picnics
+should be confined to summer.
+
+“What a gl-orious time we've had!” exclaimed Jo, as they busied
+themselves about the home dining-room. “Yesterday seems like a horrible
+nightmare, or, at least, it would if it hadn't happened in the daytime,
+and if we hadn't the pantry to remind us of the truth. The things we
+carried were not so v-e-r-y bad, after all! I was really proud of the
+buns, and Patty's doughnuts were as 'swelled up' as Mrs. Drayton's.”
+
+“And a great deal yellower and spotted-er,” quoth Edith, in a sly aside.
+
+“Well,” admitted Patty, ruefully, “there certainly was quite enough
+saleratus in them; but I think it very unbecoming in the maker of the
+bride's-cake to say anything about other people's mistakes! Bride's
+cake, indeed!” she finished with a scornful smile.
+
+“True!” said Edith, much crushed by this heartless allusion to what had
+been the most thorough and expensive failure of the day; “I can't deny
+it. Proceed with your sarcasm.”
+
+“This house 'looks as if it was going to ride out'! as Miss Miranda
+says,” exclaimed Alice. “Do let us try to straighten it before Sunday!
+The closets are all in snarls, the kitchen's in a mess, and the less
+said about the back bedroom the better.”
+
+Accordingly, inspired by Alice's enthusiasm, they began to work and to
+improve the hours like a whole hiveful of busy bees. They put on big
+aprons and washed pans and pots that had been evaded for two days, made
+fish-balls for breakfast, dusted, scrubbed, washed, mended, darned, and
+otherwise reduced the house to that especial and delicious kind of
+order which is likened unto apple-pie. And thus one week of the joys and
+trials of this merry half-a-dozen housekeepers was over and gone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG
+
+|MONDAY morning broke. Such a cold, dismal, drizzly morning! The wind
+whistled and blew about the cottage, until Lilia suggested tying
+the clothes-line round the chimneys and fastening it to the strong
+pine-trees in front, for greater safety. It snowed at six o'clock, it
+hailed at seven, rained at eight, stopped at nine, and presently began
+to go through the same varied programme. After breakfast, Bell went
+to the window and stood dreamily flattening her nose against the pane,
+while the others busied themselves about their several tasks.
+
+“Well, girls,” said she at length, “we've had four different kinds of
+weather this morning, so it may clear off after all, though I confess it
+doesn't look like it. It's too stormy to go anywhere, or for anybody to
+come to us, so we shall have to try violently in every possible way to
+amuse ourselves. I must run over to Miss Miranda's for the milk before
+it rains harder. Perhaps I shall stumble into some excitement on the
+way; who knows!”
+
+So saying, she ran out, and in a few minutes appeared in the yard
+wrapped in a bright red water-proof, the hood pulled over her head, and
+framing her roguish, rosy face. In ten minutes she returned breathless
+from a race across the garden, and a vain attempt to keep her umbrella
+right side out. She entered the room in her usual breezy way, leaving
+the doors all open, and sank into a chair, with an expression of
+mysterious mirth in her eyes.
+
+“Guess what's happened!” she asked, with sparkling eyes. “I have the
+most enormous, improbable, unguessable surprise for you; you never
+will think, and anyway I can't wait to tell, so here it is: We are all
+invited to tea this afternoon with Miss Miranda and Miss Jane! Isn't
+that 'ridikilis'?”
+
+“Do tell, Isabel,” squeaked Jo, with a comically irreverent imitation of
+Miss Sawyer, “air you a-going to accept?”
+
+“Oh, yes, Bell, we'd better go,” said Edith Lambert. “I should like to
+see the inside of that old house. I dare say we shall enjoy it, and it
+saves cooking.”
+
+“We are remarkably favored,” laughed Bell. “I don't believe that anybody
+has been invited there since the Sewing Circle met with them three years
+ago. They live such a quiet, strange, lonely life! Their mother and
+father died when they were very young, more than thirty years ago. They
+were quite rich for the times, and left their daughters this big house
+all furnished and quantities of lovely old-fashioned dishes and
+pictures. All the rooms are locked, but I'll try and melt Miss Miranda's
+heart, and get her to show us some of her relics. Scarcely anything has
+been changed in all these years, except that they have bought a
+cooking-stove. Miss Jane hates new-fangled things, and is really ashamed
+of the stove, I think; as to having a sewing-machine, or an egg-beater,
+or a carpet-sweeper,--why, she would as soon think of changing the
+fashion of her bonnet! I believe there isn't such a curious house, nor
+another pair of such dried-up, half-nice, half-disagreeable people in the
+country. There's Emma Jane with the butter! I'll meet her at the back
+door, get her to peel some potatoes and apples, make her sew a white
+ruffle in her neck, and make some original remark.”
+
+Bell's criticism of the Misses Sawyer and their home was quite just. The
+old brick house stood in a garden which, in the spring-time, was filled
+with odorous lilacs, blossoming apple-trees, and long rows of currant
+and gooseberry bushes. In the summer, too, there were actual groves of
+asparagus, gaudy sunflowers, bright hollyhocks, gay marigolds, royal
+flower-de-luce,--all respectable, old-fashioned posies, into whose
+hearts the humming-birds loved to thrust their dainty beaks and
+steal their sweetness. Then there were beds paved round with white
+clam-shells, where were growing trembling little bride's-tears,
+bachelor's-buttons, larkspur, and china pinks. No modern blossoms would
+Miss Miranda allow within these sacred ancient places, no
+begonias, gladioli, and “sech,” with their new-fangled, heathenish,
+unpronounceable names. The old flowers were good enough for her; and,
+certainly, they made a blooming spot about the dark house.
+
+Now, indeed, there was neither a leaf nor a bud to be seen; snow-birds
+perched and twittered on the naked apple-boughs, and rifts of snow lay
+over the sleeping seed-souls of the hollyhocks and marigolds, keeping
+them just alive and no more, in a freezing, cold-blooded sort of way
+common to snow.
+
+But if the garden outside looked like a relic of the olden time,
+the rooms inside seemed even more so. The “keeping-room” had been
+refurnished fifteen or twenty years before, but so well had it been
+kept, that there still hovered about it a painful air of newness. Over
+the stiff black hair-cloth sofa hung a funeral wreath in a shell frame,
+surrounded by the Sawyer family photographs--husbands and wives always
+taken in affectionate attitudes, that their relations might never be
+misunderstood. In a corner stood the mahogany “what-not” with its bead
+watch-cases, shells, and glass globes covering worsted-work flowers,
+together with more family pictures, daguerreotypes in black cases on
+the top shelf, and a marvelous blue china vase holding peacock feathers.
+Then there was a gorgeous “drawn in” rug before the fireplace,
+with impossible purple roses and pink leaves on its surface, and a
+marble-topped table holding a magnificent lamp with a glass fringe
+around it, and a large piece of red flannel floating in the kerosene.
+
+All these glories the girls were allowed to view as a great favor
+granted at Bell's earnest request. They examined the parlor and the
+curiosities in the diningroom cupboard with awe-struck faces, though
+their sobriety was almost overcome at the sight of some of the works of
+art which Miss Miranda held up for their reverential admiration.
+
+Upstairs there were rooms scarcely ever opened. The bedsteads were
+four-posted, and so high with many feather beds that their sleepy
+occupants must have ascended a step-ladder to get into them, or climbed
+up the posts hand over hand and dropped down into the downy depths. The
+counterpanes and comforters were quilted in wonderful patterns. There
+was the “wild-goose chase,” the “log cabin,” the “rocky mountain,” the
+“Irish plaid,” and a “charm quilt,” in twelve hundred pieces, no two
+of which were alike. The windows in the best chamber had white cotton
+curtains with elaborate fringes; the looking-glass was long and narrow
+with a yellow-painted frame, and a picture, in the upper half, of
+Napoleon crossing the Alps, the Alps in question being very pointed and
+of a sky-blue color, while Napoleon, in full-dress uniform, with never
+an outrider nor a guide, was galloping up and over the dizzy peaks on a
+skittish-looking pony.
+
+These things nearly upset Jo's gravity, and she quite lost Miss Sawyer's
+favor by coughing down an irrepressible giggle when she was shown a
+painting of Burns and His Mary, done in oil by Miss Hannah, the oldest
+sister of the family, and long since dead. Miss Sawyer had no doubt that
+Hannah's genius was of the highest order, although the specimens of her
+skill handed down would astonish a modern artist. Burns and His Mary
+were seated on a bank belonging to a landscape certainly not Scottish;
+His Mary, with a pink tarlatan dress on, tucked to the waist; while a
+brook was seemingly purling over Burns' coat-tails spread out behind him
+on the bank. It was this peculiar detail which aroused Jo's mirth, as
+well it might, so that she could not trust herself to examine with the
+others Miss Hannah's last and finest effort--“Maidens welcoming General
+Washington in the streets of Alexandria.” The maidens, thirteen in
+number, were precisely alike in form and feature, all very smooth as
+to hair, long as to waist, short as to skirt, pointed as to toe, and
+carrying bouquets of exactly the same size and structure, tied up with
+green ribbon.
+
+The tour of inspection finished, the girls sat down to chat over their
+tatting and crochet work, while the two ladies went out to prepare
+supper.
+
+“My reputation is gone,” whispered Jo, solemnly. “To think that I should
+have laughed when I had been behaving so beautifully all the afternoon;
+but Robbie Burns was the last straw that broke the camel's back of
+my politeness; I couldn't have helped it if Miss Miranda had eaten me
+instead of frowning at me.”
+
+“What do you think?” cried Lilia, jumping up impulsively and knocking
+down her chair in so doing, “I'm going to beard the lion in his den, and
+see if they won't let me help them get supper. Don't you want to come,
+Jo?”
+
+The two girls ran across the long, cold hall, opened the kitchen door
+stealthily, and Jo asked in her sweetest tones, “Can't we set the table
+or help in any way, Miss Miranda?”
+
+“No, I thank you, Josephine; there is nothing to do, or leastways you
+wouldn't know where things are, and wouldn't be any good. The Porter
+girl may come in if she wants to, but two of you would only clutter up
+the kitchen.”
+
+So Lilia went in meekly, and poor Jo flew back to the parlor, smarting
+under a bitter sense of disgrace. The sisters fortunately knew nothing
+of Lilia's aptitude for blunders, else she never would have been
+suffered to touch their precious household gods. As it was, by dint of
+extreme care, she managed to get the plum sauce on the table, and to
+set the chairs around it, without any serious disaster. To be sure, in
+cutting the dried beef, she notched a memorandum of the pieces shaved on
+each of her fingers, so that when she finished they were perfect little
+calendars of suffering; however, this only concerned herself, and she
+did not murmur, as most of her mistakes implicated other people.
+
+At half-past five they sat down to supper; and such a supper! Miss
+Miranda was evidently anxious to impress the young people. The best pink
+“chany” set had been unearthed, and there were besides other old dishes
+of great magnificence. Quaint British lustre pitchers held the milk and
+cream, a green dragon plate the cookies, and the “Sheltered Peasant”
+ saucers came in for general admiration.
+
+The china was not more notable than the food. There were light soda
+biscuits, large in size and thick, and there was cold buttermilk bread;
+a blue and white bowl held tomato preserves, while a glass one was full
+of delicious applesauce cooked in maple-syrup; then there was a round,
+creamy cottage-cheese, white as a snow-ball; a golden, dried-pumpkin
+pie, baked in a deep yellow plate; the brownest and plummiest and
+indigestible-est of all plummy cakes, with doughnuts and sugar
+gingerbread besides. This array of good things being taken in with rapid
+and rabid glances, the girls exchanged involuntary looks of delight, and
+even emitted audible signs of happiness. To say that they did justice to
+the repast would be a feeble expression, for in truth the meals of their
+own preparation were irregular as to time, indifferent as to quality,
+and sometimes, when they calculated carelessly and unwisely, even small
+as to quantity.
+
+[Illustration: 0127]
+
+After tea was over, each of the girls was required to give, in answer to
+a string of questions asked, her entire family history; for no tidbit of
+information concerning other people's affairs was uninteresting to Miss
+Jane or Miss Miranda. This cross-examination being finished, they
+rose to go, unable to hear any longer the quiet, proper, suppressed
+atmosphere that pervaded the house. While they had been admiring the
+quaint, old-fashioned relics and busy devouring the appetizing New
+England goodies, they were quite at ease, but an hour or two of
+conversation had exhausted their adaptability. When they had taken their
+leave, and the sound of their merry voices and ringing laughter floated
+in from the country road, Miss Miranda sank into a chair, and waved a
+fan excitedly to and fro, her mouse-colored complexion quite flushed and
+pink from the unwonted dissipation.
+
+“Wall, Jane,” said she, “it's over now, and we've done our dooty by Mis'
+Winship; she's a good neighbor, and I wanted to act right by Isabel when
+her Ma was away, but of all the crazy, 'stivering' girls I ever see,
+them do beat all; though they did behave tolerable well this afternoon.”
+
+“They seemed to enjoy their supper,” said Miss Jane; “I never saw girls
+make a heartier meal.”
+
+“They did for certain,” continued Miranda, “too hearty most. I thought.
+That light-haired girl with the blue ear-rings left her meat hash,
+that'll sour before we can warm it over again, and et and et fruit cake
+till I was afraid she'd have fits at the table. We ought to be very
+thankful we hevn't any young ones or men-folks to cook for, Jane.”
+
+And with that expression of gratitude on her lips, she lighted a candle,
+and after locking up the house securely, the two spinsters went to their
+bedrooms to sleep the sleep of the calm and the virtuous.
+
+Their merry visitors, undisturbed by the pelting rain from above, and
+the deep “slush” beneath, waded over into their own grounds with many a
+hearty laugh and jest.
+
+“Oh, how delightful our own sitting-room looks!” exclaimed Patty, as
+they opened the door and gathered about the cheerful fire on the hearth.
+And, indeed, it did, after the stiff, prim arrangement of the rooms
+they had left. The flickering blaze cast soft shadows on the walls, and
+touched the marbles on the brackets with rosy tints; the canary-birds
+were fast asleep with their heads hidden under their wings, and the dog
+and cat were snoozing peacefully together on the hearth-rug. The young
+people, as well as the room, belonged to another generation than Miss
+Miranda's and Miss Jane's, a brighter, freer, fresher one, with a wider
+outlook, and quite different problems and responsibilities.
+
+“We never can be jollier than this!” cried Lilia, in an irrepressible
+burst of appreciation. “Oh, that it might last forever, and that
+seminaries for young ladies might be turned into zoological gardens!
+Then we could keep house here this week, the next week, and eternally,
+taking tea with Miss Miranda whenever she asked us to come. What a good
+supper that was, girls! Oh, Bell and Jo, you ought to be overcome with
+remorse when you think what you might give us to eat, if you were only
+skillful, energetic, and ingenious!”
+
+“You're the very essence of thanklessness!” answered Bell, in high
+dudgeon. “It's nothing less than fiery martyrdom to cook for you girls,
+when you are so ungrateful. Your special seminary will not be so far
+removed from a zoological garden when _you_ return to it, that is
+certain!”
+
+“My dear child, I am sorry already for my remark,” said Lilia, in
+feigned repentance. “It was very thoughtless in me to arouse your
+anger until after the next meal. Any impertinence of ours is sure to
+be visited upon us in the form of oatmeal porridge, or salt fish and
+crackers.”
+
+“Lilia Porter, if you want to be an angel by and by, it would be better
+to draw your thoughts away from eatables for a time; you talk quite too
+much about food,” said Edith Lambert, who had a very hearty appetite,
+but never called attention to it. “When you have done with your
+nonsense, I have something to propose for our final 'good time.' We have
+only four days, 'tis true, and 'pity 'tis 'tis true; but we must
+go away with flying colors, and so astonish the natives with our genius
+that the village will talk of us for months to come.”
+
+“Si-lence in court!” cried Jo, impressively. “Let me offer you the coal
+hod for a platform; it won't tip over; go on, you look as dignified as a
+policeman.”
+
+“Stop your nonsense, Jo. You remember, Bell, the evening when we made a
+comic pantomime of 'Young Lochinvar,' and acted it before the teachers
+and seniors?”
+
+“Indeed I do,” laughed Bell, in recollection. “We girls took all the
+characters. What fun it was!”
+
+“Why can't we do that again, changing and improving it, of course? The
+boys are so clever and bright about anything of the kind that they would
+be irresistibly funny. What do you think?”
+
+“I like the idea,” exclaimed Patty Weld. “Uncle Harry's large hall would
+be just the place for it, and the stage is already there.”
+
+“So it is; how fortunate,” agreed Alice; “we couldn't think of anything
+that would be greater fun. How shall we cast the characters! You must be
+the bride, Bell, the 'fair Ellen!' you will do it better than anybody.
+Jo will make up into the funniest old lady for a mother, and the rest
+of us can be the bride-maidens. Hugh Pennell will be a glorious Young
+Lochinvar, if he can be persuaded to run away with Bell--” this with a
+sly glance at her hostess.
+
+“Yes,” said Edith, “and poor Jack will have to be the 'craven
+bridegroom,' who loses his bride, and Geoff, the stern parent.”
+
+“Uncle Harry will read the poem for us, I know,” continued Bell; “he
+does that sort of thing often at the church, and does it beautifully.
+Phil Howard, Royal Lawrence, and Harry will be bridemen. We'll perform
+the piece in such a tragic way that each separate hair in the audience
+will stand erect.”
+
+“But, oh, the labor of it, girls!” sighed Patty--“wooden horses to be
+made for the elopement scene, Scottish dresses, and all sorts of toggery
+to be hunted up; can we ever do it in time, with our house-cleaning
+before us?”
+
+“Nonsense, of course we can,” rejoined Bell, energetically. “We will
+consult every book on private theatricals, Scottish history, manners,
+and costumes in this house, and Uncle Harry's, too. Let us get up at
+five to-morrow morning, have a simple breakfast of--”
+
+“Cornmeal mush or dry bread and milk,” finished Lilia, with grim
+sarcasm. “If time must be saved, of course, it must come out of the
+cooking! How are we to do this amount of work on a low diet, I should
+like to know?”
+
+“How are the cooks to get time for anything outside the kitchen if they
+humor your unnatural appetites! Out of kindness, we propose to lower you
+gradually, meal by meal, into the pit of boarding-school fare.”
+
+“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' I don't care to be
+starved beforehand by way of getting used to it,” retorted Lilia, as
+she lighted the bedroom candles. “Come, dears, do cover the fire; it
+was sleepy-time an hour ago, and if you want to see something beautiful,
+look through the piazza window.”
+
+Beneath them lay the steep river bank, smooth with its white, glittering
+crust, above which a few naked alders pushed their snow-weighted
+finger-tips; one rugged old pine-tree stood in the garden, grand, dark,
+and fearless; the quiet part of the river had been turned by King Winter
+into an icy mirror; but over the dam a hundred yards below, the waters
+tumbled too furiously to be frozen. The old bridge looked like a silver
+string tying together the two little villages, and over all was the
+dazzling winter moonlight.
+
+Six dreamy faces now at the cottage window. Six girlish figures, all
+drawn closely together, with arms lovingly clasped. The white beauty,
+and the solemn stillness of the picture hushed them into quietness. One
+minute passed and then another, while the spell was working, till at
+length Bell impulsively bent her brown head, and said softly: “If the
+minister were here he would say, 'Let us pray.' It makes me want to
+whisper, 'Dear Lord, make us pure and white within, as thy world is
+without.'”
+
+“Amen,” murmured Edith and Patty, in the same breath.
+
+“Pull down the curtain,” sighed Jo; “it makes me feel wicked!”
+
+“Ah, don't, don't, not quite yet!” pleaded Edith, “it is too heavenly
+and it can't do us any harm to feel wicked. It reminds me of Tennyson's
+'St. Agnes' Eve,' of the white, white picture she looked out upon from
+her convent window the night she was lifted to the golden doors of
+heaven--the poem you recited for the medal, Alice,--say a verse of it.”
+ And Alice, half under her breath, repeated the lovely lines:=
+
+````“As these white robes are soil'd and
+
+`````dark
+
+````To yonder shining ground;
+
+```As this pale taper's earthly spark,
+
+````To yonder argent round;
+
+```So shines my soul before the Lamb,
+
+````My spirit before Thee;
+
+```So in mine earthly house I am
+
+````To that I hope to be!”=
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--“THE END OF THE PLAY”
+
+|ON the next morning, and, indeed, on all of those left of their stay,
+the six housekeepers were up at an alarmingly early hour, so that the
+sun, accustomed to being the earliest of all risers, felt himself quite
+behindhand and outshone.
+
+In vain he clambered up over the hillside in a desperate hurry; the
+girls were always before him with lighted candles. As for the clock, it
+held up its hands with astonishment, and struck five shrill exclamation
+points of surprise to see six wide-awake young persons tumbling out of
+their warm nests before the world was lighted or heated.
+
+The day's hours were hardly enough for the day's plans, for there were
+farewell coasting, skating, and sleighing parties, besides active daily
+preparations for the pantomime. The costumes of the hoys were gorgeous
+to behold, and were fashioned entirely by the girls' clever fingers.
+They consisted of scarlet or blue flannel shirts, short plaid kilts,
+colored stockings striped with braid, sashes worn over shoulders, and
+jaunty little caps with bobbing quills.
+
+On the last happy evening of their stay, the eventful evening of “Young
+Lochinvar,” the guests gathered from all the surrounding country to see
+the frolic. There were people from North Edgewood, South Edgewood, East
+Edge-wood, and West Edgewood; from Edgewood Upper Corner, Edgewood Lower
+Corner, and Edgewood Four Corners, and everybody had brought his uncles
+and cousins.
+
+In the big dressing-room the young actors were assembled,--and
+fortunately in a high state of exuberance and excitement, else they
+would have been decidedly frightened at the ordeal before them. Jo,
+mirror in hand, was trying to make herself look seventy; and, though she
+had not succeeded, she had transformed herself into a very presentable
+Scottish dame, with her short satin gown and apron, lace kerchief and
+spectacles. Edith was giving a pair of pointed burnt-cork eyebrows to
+Hugh, that he might wear a sufficiently dashing and defiant countenance
+for Lochinvar, while Jack stood before the glass practicing his meek
+expression for the jilted bridegroom.
+
+[Illustration: 0145]
+
+Bell had sunk into a chair, and folded her hands to “get up” her
+courage. As to her dress, nobody knew whether it was the proper one
+for a Scottish bride or not; but it was the only available thing, and
+certainly she looked in it a very bewitching and sufficient excuse for
+Lochinvar's rash folly. It was of some shining white material, and came
+below the ankle, just showing a pair of jaunty high-heeled slippers;
+the skirt was 'broidered and flounced to the belt, the waist simple and
+full,' with short puffed sleeves; while a bridal veil and dainty crown
+of flowers made her as winsome and bonny as a white Scottish rose. Emma
+Jane Perkins stood in one corner paralyzed by her own good looks. Her
+red hair was waved and hanging in her neck, and her dress was white.
+She hoped she could be trusted to bring in this overpowering weight of
+beauty at the right moment, but felt a little doubtful.
+
+Uncle Harry stumbled in at the low door.
+
+“Are you ready, young fry?” asked he. “It is half-past seven, and we
+ought to begin.”
+
+“Put out the footlights, give the people back their money, and tell
+them the prima donna is dangerously ill!” gasped Bell, faintly, fanning
+herself with a box-cover. “I don't believe I can ever do it. Hugh,
+are you perfectly sure our horse won't break down on the stage when we
+elope?”
+
+“Calm yourself, 'fair Ellen,' and trust to my horsemanship. Doesn't the
+poem say:=
+
+```Through all the wide Border his steed
+
+`````was the best?=
+
+“And doesn't this exactly embody Scott's idea?”--pointing to a wild and
+cross-eyed wooden effigy mounted on a pair of trucks.
+
+*****
+
+You have all read Sir Walter Scott's poem of “Young Lochinvar,” and many
+a time, I hope, for they are brave old verses:=
+
+```Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the
+
+`````West,
+
+```Through all the wide Border his steed
+
+`````was the best,
+
+```And, save his good broadsword, he
+
+`````weapons had none;
+
+```He rode all unarmed, and he rode all
+
+`````alone.
+
+```So faithful in love, and so dauntless in
+
+`````war,
+
+```There never was knight like the young
+
+`````Lochinvar.=
+
+And then, you remember, the young knight rode fast and far, stayed not
+for brakes, stopped not for stones, but all in vain; for ere he alighted
+at Netherby Gate, the fair Ellen, overcome by parental authority, had
+consented to be married to another:=
+
+```For a laggard in love and a dastard in
+
+`````war
+
+```Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave
+
+`````Lochinvar.=
+
+But he, nothing daunted, boldly entered the bridal hall among bridemen
+and bridemaids and kinsmen, thereby raising so general a commotion
+that the bride's father cried at once, the poor craven bridegroom being
+struck quite dumb:=
+
+```“Oh, come ye in peace here, or coyne ye
+
+`````inivar,
+
+```Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord
+
+`````Lochinvar?"
+
+The lover answers with apparent indifference that though he has in past
+times been exceedingly fond of the young person called Ellen, he has now
+merely come to tread a measure and drink one cup of wine with her, for
+although love swells like the tide, it ebbs like it also. So he drinks
+her health, while she sighs and blushes, weeps and smiles, alternately;
+then he takes her soft hand, her parents fretting and fuming the while,
+and leads the dance with her,--he so stately, she so lovely, that they
+are the subject of much envy, admiration, and sympathy. But while thus
+treading the measure, he whispers in her ear something to which she
+apparently consents without much unwillingness, and at the right moment
+they dance out from the crowd of kinsmen to the door of the great hall,
+where in the darkness the charger stands ready saddled. Quick as thought
+the dauntless lover swings his fair Ellen lightly up, springs before her
+on the saddle, and they dash furiously away:=
+
+```“She is won! We are gone, over ban,
+
+`````bush, and scaur;
+
+```They'll have fleet steeds that follow
+
+`````quoth young Lochinvar.
+
+As soon as their flight is discovered, there is wild excitement and
+hasty mounting of all the Netherby Clan; there is racing and chasing
+over the fields, but “the laggard in love and the dastard in war” never
+recovers his lost Ellen.=
+
+```So daring in love, and so dauntless in
+
+`````war,
+
+```Have ye e'er heard of gallant like
+
+`````young Lochinvar?=
+
+Uncle Harry read the poem through in such a stirring way that the
+audience was fairly warmed into interest; then, standing by the side of
+the stage with the curtain rolled up, he read it again, line by line, or
+verse by verse, to explain the action.
+
+During the first stanza, Lochinvar made his triumphal entrance, riding a
+prancing hobby-horse with a sweeping tail of raveled rope, and a mane to
+match, gorgeous trappings adorned with sleigh-bells and ornamental paper
+designs, and bunches of cotton tacked on for flecks of foam.
+
+Lochinvar himself wore gray pasteboard armor, a pair of carpet slippers
+with ferocious spurs, red mittens, and carried a huge carving-knife.
+His costume alone was food for amusement, but the manner in which he
+careered wildly about the stage, displaying his valorous horsemanship as
+he rode to the wedding, was perfectly irresistible.
+
+The next scene opened in Netherby Hall, showing the bridal party all
+assembled in gala dress. Into this family gathering presently strode the
+determined lover, with his carving-knife sheathed for politeness'
+sake. Then followed a comical pantomime between the angry parents, who
+demanded his intentions, and the adroit Lochinvar, who declared them to
+be peaceful. The father (Geoffrey Strong) at last gave him unwilling
+permission to drink one cup of wine and tread one measure with the
+bride. She kissed the goblet (a tin quart measure), he quaffed off the
+spirit, and threw down the cup. Pair Ellen bridled with pleasure, and
+promenaded about the room on his arm, while the bridegroom looked on
+wretchedly, the parents quarreled, and the bride-maidens whispered:=
+
+`````“'Twere better by far
+
+```To have matched our fair cousin with
+
+````young Lochinvar."=
+
+At the first opportunity, the guests walked leisurely out, and young
+Lochinvar seized an imaginary chance to draw Ellen hastily back into the
+supper room. He whispered the magic word into her ear, she started in
+horror and drew back; he urged; she demurred; he pleaded; she showed
+signs of surrender; he begged on his bended knees; she yielded at
+length to the plan of the elopement, with all its delightful risks. Then
+Lochinvar darted to the outside door and brought in his charger,--rather
+an unique proceeding, perhaps, but necessary under the circumstances,
+inasmuch as the audience could not be transported to the proper scene of
+the mounting. As the flight was to be made on horseback, much ingenuity
+and labor were needed to arrange it artistically. The horse's head was
+the work of Geoff's hand, and for meekness of expression, jadedness,
+utterly-cast-down-and-worn-out-ness, it stood absolutely unrivalled. A
+pair of trucks were secreted beneath the horse-blankets, and the front
+legs of the animal pranced gaily out in front, taking that startling and
+decided curve only seen in pictures of mowing-machines and horseraces.
+Lochinvar quieted his fiery beast, and swung Ellen into the saddle,
+leaped up after her, waved his tall hat in triumph, and started off at a
+snail's pace, the horse being dragged by a rope from behind the scenes.
+When half way across the stage, Ellen clasped her lover's arm and seemed
+to have forgotten something. Everybody in the room at once guessed
+it must be some part of her trousseau. She explained earnestly in
+pantomime; Lochinvar refused to return; she insisted; he remained firm;
+she pouted and seemingly said that she wouldn't elope at all unless she
+could have her own way. He relented, they went back to Netherby Hall,
+and Ellen ran up a secret stairway and came down laden with maidenly
+traps. Greatly to the merriment of the observers, she loaded them on
+the docile horse in the very face of Lochinvar's displeasure--two small
+looking-glasses, a bird-cage, and a French bonnet. She then leisurely
+drew on a pair of huge India rubbers, unfurled a yellow linen umbrella,
+and just as her lover's patience was ebbing, suffered herself to be
+remounted. The second trip across the stage was accomplished in safety,
+though with anything but the fleetness common to elopements either in
+life or in poetry.
+
+Then came the pursuit--a most graphic and stirring scene, giving large
+opportunities to the supernumerary characters. Four bridemen on dashing
+hobbyhorses, jumping fences, leaping bars and ditches in hot excitement;
+four bride-maids, with handkerchiefs tied over their heads, running
+hither and thither in confusion; the old mother and father, limping in
+and straining their eyes for a sight of their refractory daughter; and
+last of all, poor Jack, the deserted bridegroom, on foot, with never a
+horse left to him, puffing and panting in his angry chase.
+
+It was done! How people laughed till they cried, how they continued
+to laugh for five minutes afterward, I cannot begin to tell you. The
+performance had been the perfection of fun from first to last, and
+seemed all the more inspiring because it was original with the bright
+bevy of young folks who had enacted the poem. Uncle Harry had renewed
+his youth, and received the plaudits of the crowd with unconcealed
+pleasure. The hero and heroine, Lochinvar and fair Ellen, had so
+generously provided dramatic opportunities for the minor actors that
+all had enjoyed an equal chance in the favor of the audience. There was
+neither envy, jealousy, nor heartburning; each of the girls gloried
+in the achievements of the others, and confessed that the mechanical
+ingenuity of the boys had made the triumph possible.
+
+At length the lights were all out, the finery bundled up, the many
+farewells said, and as the girls, escorted by their faithful young
+squires, trudged along the path through the orchard for the last time,
+sad thoughts would come, although the party was much too youthful and
+cheery to be gloomy.
+
+“Depart, fun and frolic!” sighed Lilia, in mournful tones. “Depart,
+breakfasts at any hour and other delights of laziness! Enter,
+boarding-school, books, bells, and other banes of existence!”
+
+“It is really too awful to think or to speak about,” sighed Jo. “Now
+I know how Eve must have felt when she had to pack up and leave the
+garden; only she went because she insisted upon eating of the tree of
+knowledge, while I must go and eat, whether I will or not.”
+
+“Your appetite for that special fruit isn't so great that you'll ever
+be troubled with indigestion,” dryly rejoined Patty, the student of the
+“Jolly Six.”
+
+“Fancy starting off at half-past ten to-morrow morning; fancy reaching
+school at one, and sitting down stupidly to a dinner of broth, fried
+liver, and cracker-pudding! Ugh! it makes me shiver,” said Alice.
+
+“Think of us,” cried Geoff, “going back to college, and settling into
+regular 'digs.'”
+
+“If 'digs' is a contraction of dignitaries,” said Edith, saucily,
+“you'll never be those; if you mean you are to delve into the mines
+of learning, that's doubtful, too; but if it's a corruption of Digger
+Indian, I should say there might be some force in your remark. Oh, what
+matchless war-whoops you gave in the pursuit to-night. Every separate
+hair in Betty Bean's head stood on end, and the Misses Sawyer sat close
+together and trembled visibly!”
+
+“It was a wonderful evening,” remarked Hugh. “There were persons there
+who said that Bell was beautiful and I was clever.”
+
+“I don't want to annoy you,” laughed Jo, “but I heard exactly the
+opposite.”
+
+“Which only goes to show that both of us are both,” retorted Bell.
+
+“And that sentence goes to show that a week's absence from the class in
+parsing and analysis has had its effect,” said Patty. “Look at our angel
+cottage, girls! Doesn't it look like a marble night-lamp with the hall
+light shining through all its sweet little windows'?”
+
+“The fire isn't out, that's fortunate,” observed Alice, as she saw a
+small cloud of smoke issuing from the chimney.
+
+“Good night and sweet dreams,” called the hoys, when Geoffrey had
+unlocked the door of the cottage.
+
+“Sweet dreams, indeed!” the girls answered in chorus. “The kitchen
+closet to put in order, also the shed, two trunks to pack, twenty-four
+hours' dishes to wash, and a million 'odd jobs' more or less.”
+
+“Don't forget the borrowed articles to be returned,” reminded Hugh.
+“We'll take the pung and do that for you, also attend to the cleaning
+of the shed, which is more in our line than yours. Boys, let us give
+one rousing cheer for Dr. and Mrs. Winship, the model parents of the
+century!”
+
+The welkin rang with hurrahs, in which the girls joined with hearty
+vigor.
+
+“Now another rousing one for the model daughter of the century,” cried
+Bell, modestly; “the model daughter who had the bright idea and begged
+the model parents to assent to it. Of what use would have been the model
+parents, pray, unless they had had the model daughter with the bright
+idea?”
+
+More cheers, lustier than ever, floated out into the orchard.
+
+“The model daughter would have had a dull house-party with nothing but
+her bright idea to keep her company,” said Jo Fenton, suggestively.
+
+“Three cheers for the house party! Three cheers for the 'Jolly Six!'
+Hip, hip, hurrah!” and at this moment Uncle Harry's window opened and
+across the breadth of the orchard came the warning note of a conch
+shell, an instrument of much power, with which Uncle Harry called his
+men to dinner in haying time. Had it not been for this message of
+correction it is possible the enthusiastic young people might have
+cheered one another till midnight.
+
+*****
+
+It was afternoon of the next day. The six little housekeepers were gone,
+and the dejected hoys went into the garden to take a last look at the
+empty cottage. On the door was a long piece of fluttering white paper,
+tied with black ribbon. It proved to be the parting words of the “Jolly
+Six."=
+
+```How dear to our hearts are the scenes of
+
+`````vacation,
+
+```When fond recollection presents them
+
+`````to view!
+
+```The coasting, the sleigh-rides, and--chief
+
+`````recreation--
+
+```That gayest of picnics with squires so
+
+`````true!=
+
+```And note, torn away from the loved situ-
+
+`````ation,
+
+```The hump of conceit will explosively
+
+`````swell,
+
+```As proudly we think, never since the
+
+`````creation,
+
+```Did any young housekeepers keep
+
+`````house so well!=
+
+```Think not our great genius too highly
+
+`````we've rated,
+
+```For all that belongs to the kitchen we
+
+`````know;
+
+```And feel that from infancy we have been
+
+`````fated
+
+```For scrubbing and cooking, far more
+
+`````than for show.=
+
+```The cook-stove and dish-pan to us are so
+
+`````charming,
+
+```So toothsome the compounds we often
+
+`````have mixed,
+
+```That though you would think the news
+
+`````somewhat alarming,
+
+```On housekeeping ever our minds are
+
+`````quite fixed.=
+
+```Good-by to all hope of a fame uni-
+
+`````versal!
+
+```Farewell, vain ambition,--that way
+
+`````madness lies!
+
+```The rest of our youth shall be one long
+
+`````rehearsal
+
+```For life in six cottages, all of this
+
+`````size!=
+
+B. W.
+
+J. F.
+
+P. W.
+
+A. F.
+
+E. L.
+
+L. P.
+
+X=
+
+``Their joint mark.
+
+``Witnessed by me this morning,
+
+``Jack Frost, Notary Public.
+
+``Sealed with a snow flake.=
+
+
+The boys read this nonsense with hearty laughter, and latching the gate
+behind them, they went off, leaving the place deserted.
+
+“They are awfully jolly girls,” said Jack.
+
+“Better than jolly,” added Geoffrey, thoughtfully.
+
+“You're right, Geoff; miles better and miles more than jolly,” agreed
+Hugh. “None like'em in Brunswick.”
+
+“Or in Portland.”
+
+“Or in Bath.”
+
+“Or in Augusta.”
+
+And with this outburst of respectful admiration the lads passed out of
+view.
+
+The setting sun shone rosily in at the piazza window that afternoon,
+but fell blankly against a gray curtain, instead of smiling into six
+laughing faces as before.
+
+A noisy crowd of sparrows settled on the bare branches over the
+door-step, twittering as if they expected the supper of bread-crumbs
+which girlish hands had been wont to throw them, and at last flew
+away disappointed. In the old house opposite, Miss Miranda sat in her
+high-backed chair, knitting as fiercely as ever, while Miss Jane was at
+her post by the window, drearily watching the sun go down.
+
+She turned away with the glow of a new thought in her wrinkled face.
+“Mi-randy!” called she, sharply.
+
+No answer but the sharp click of knitting-needles.
+
+“Mirandy Sawyer! What do you say to invitin' our niece, Hannah, down
+here from the farm, and givin' her a couple of terms' schoolin'? Aurelia
+has her hands full raisin' that great family of children. She'd be glad
+one of 'em should have some advantages. We ain't seen Hannah since she
+was ten, but she was a nice appearin', pretty behavin' girl.”
+
+Miranda glanced ont of the window without speaking.
+
+“It seems like a streak of sunshine had gone out o' the place with them
+young creeters, and I think we've lived here alone about long enough!”
+ continued Miss Jane. “I should like to give one girl a chance of being
+a brighter, livelier woman than I am. Yes, you may drop your knittin',
+Mirandy, but you know it as well as I do!”
+
+No wonder that Miss Miranda looked very much as if she had been struck
+by lightning; the more wonder that the quiet old house didn't shake to
+its foundation, when this proposal was made. Indeed, old Tabby, on the
+hearth-rug, did wake up, startled, no doubt by the consciousness that a
+child's hand might pull her tail in days to come.
+
+“It does seem dreadful lonesome,” Miss Miranda agreed, after a long
+pause. “Hear Topsy howling in the kitchen; she's missin' the young life
+that's gone, and she'll have to git used to us all over again, jest as
+I said. Hannah would be considerable expense to us, and make a sight o'
+work, too. Of course, you've thought o' that?”
+
+“We take about so many steps, anyway,” argued Miss Jane, “and if the
+child's spry and handy, she may save us a few now and then. Tabitha
+ain't so much care, nor near so confinin', sence Topsy came to keep her
+comp'ny--even two cats is better'n one.”
+
+“There goes Emma Jane Perkins,” exclaimed Miss Miranda, from her post
+of observation. “She looks different somehow. I've always said I should
+think her face would ache, it's so hombly, but I guess she's passed her
+hombliest, and is going to improve. Mebbe Mis' Perkins has been givin'
+her spring medicine.”
+
+“I guess the 'spring medicine' has been two weeks' good time with that
+trainin' and careerin' houseful of girls,” rejoined Miss Jane, wisely.
+“Everybody in the village sits up kind o' smart and looks as if they'd
+taken a tonic. Maybe I'd better write to Aurelia on Sunday, Mirandy.”
+
+“Mebbe you had, Jane, and if she can't spare Hannah, say we'll take
+Rebecca, though I always thought she was a self-willed child, too full
+of her own fancies to be easy managed.”
+
+This is not the time for Rebecca's story; but, as a matter of
+fact, Mrs. Aurelia Randall could not spare Hannah, who was docile,
+industrious, and of much assistance with the house-work, and as a
+matter of fact it was the somewhat dreaded Rebecca who did come from
+the far-away farm to live in the dull old house with Miss Jane and Miss
+Miranda. And all that befell this new family circle, formed almost by
+accident, and all that Rebecca did, or became, as well as everything
+that happened during the gradual beautifying of Emma Jane Perkins, was,
+as you see, the indirect result of Bell Winship's madcap experiment in
+housekeeping.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
+
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+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin</title>
+    <meta content="pg2html (binary v0.17)" />
+    <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .50em; margin-bottom: .50em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; font-size: 80%; font-style: italic;}
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    .xx-small {font-size: 60%;}
+    .x-small {font-size: 75%;}
+    .small {font-size: 85%;}
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+    .indent40  { margin-left: 40%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: 0.6em;
+                font-variant: normal; font-style: normal;
+                text-align: right; background-color: #FFFACD;
+                border: 1px solid; padding: 0.3em;text-indent: 0em;}
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+               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border:        solid 1px;}
+    .head      { float: left; font-size: 90%; width: 98%; padding-left: 0.8em;
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+               text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
+               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border:        solid 1px;}
+    p.pfirst, p.noindent {text-indent: 0}
+    span.dropcap         { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 0.8 }
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
+
+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: Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers
+       A Story for Girls in Half-A-Dozen Chapters
+
+Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin
+
+Illustrator: Mills Thompson
+
+Release Date: May 8, 2017 [EBook #54685]
+Last Updated: March 10, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger from page images generously
+provided by the Internet Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      A Story For Girls In Half-A-Dozen Chapters
+    </h3>
+    <h2>
+      By Kate Douglas Wiggin
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Illustrated by Mills Thompson
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      Philadelphia Henry Altemus Company
+    </h4>
+    <h3>
+      1903
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0001.jpg" alt="0001 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0001.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0006.jpg" alt="0006 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0006.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0007.jpg" alt="0007 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0007.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <b>CONTENTS</b>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS</b> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I&mdash;BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II&mdash;IN THE FIRELIGHT </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III&mdash;AN EMERGENCY CASE </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV&mdash;A WINTER PICNIC </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V&mdash;OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI&mdash;&ldquo;THE END OF THE PLAY&rdquo; </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I&mdash;BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>ARCH had come in
+      like a lion, and showed no sign of going out like a lamb. The pussy
+      willows knew that it was, or ought to be, spring, but although it takes a
+      deal to discourage a New England pussy willow, they shivered in their
+      brown skins and despaired of making their annual appearance even by April
+      Fool's Hay. The swallows still lingered in the South, having received
+      private advices from the snow-birds that State o' Maine weather, in the
+      present season, was only fitted for Arctic explorers. The air was keen and
+      nipping and the wind blew steadily from the north and howled about the
+      chimneys until one hardly knew whether to hug the warmth of the open fire
+      or to go out and battle with the elements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little did the rosy girls of the Wareham Female Seminary (girls were still
+      &ldquo;young females&rdquo; when all this happened)&mdash;little did they care about
+      snow and sleet and ice. Studies went on all the better with the afternoon
+      skating and sliding to look forward to. What joy to perch in the
+      window-seat with your volume of Virgil, and translate &ldquo;<i>Hoc opus hic
+      labor est</i>&rdquo; with half an eye on the gleaming ice of the pond, or the
+      glittering crust of the hillsides! What fun to slip on your rubber boots,
+      muffle yourself in your warm coat (made out of mother's old mink cape),
+      and run across the way to the Academy for recitations in mathematics or
+      philosophy!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These joys, however, with their attendant responsibilities, duties, and
+      cares, were to be suspended for a while at the Wareham Seminary, and the
+      &ldquo;young females&rdquo; who graced that institution of learning were not
+      inconsolable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell Winship, an uncommonly nice girl herself and a born leader of other
+      nice girls, had sent out five mysteriously worded notes that morning, five
+      little notes to as many little maids, requesting the honor of their
+      presence at ten a. m. precisely, in Number 27, Second floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where Bell Winship wished girls to be, there they always were, and on the
+      minute, too, lest they should miss something; so there is nothing
+      remarkable in this statement of the fact, that at ten o'clock in the
+      morning, Number 27, Second floor, of the Wareham Female Seminary seemed to
+      be overflowing with girls, although in reality there were but six, all
+      told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wildest curiosity prevailed, and it was very imperfectly controlled,
+      but, at length, the hostess, mounting a shoebox, spoke with great dignity
+      in these words:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fellow-countrywomen: Whereas, our recitation-hall has been burned to the
+      ground, thereby giving us a well-earned vacation of two weeks, I wish to
+      impart to you a plan by which we can better resign ourselves to the
+      afflicting and mysterious dispensation. You are aware,&rdquo; she continued,
+      still impressively, &ldquo;that my highly respected parents are both away for
+      the winter, thus leaving our humble cottage closed, and it occurred to me
+      as a brilliant, if somewhat daring, idea, that we six girls should go over
+      and keep house in it for a fortnight, alone and untrammeled.&rdquo; Here the
+      tidal wave of her eloquence was impeded by the overmastering enthusiasm of
+      the audience. Cheers and applause greeted her. Everybody pounded with
+      whatever she chanced to have in her hand, on any article of furniture that
+      chanced to be near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Bell, Bell! what a lovely plan!&rdquo; cried Lilia Porter; &ldquo;a more than
+      usually lovely plan; but will your mother ever allow it, do you suppose?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the point,&rdquo; answered Bell, gleefully. &ldquo;Here is the letter I have
+      just received from my father; he is a good parent, wholly worthy of his
+      daughter:&rdquo;
+     </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Baltimore, March 6th, 18&mdash;.
+
+     My dear Child:&mdash;We do not like to refuse you anything while
+     we are away enjoying ourselves, so, as the house is well
+     insured, you may go over and try your scheme. Your mother
+     says that you must not entirely demolish her jelly and
+     preserves. My only wish is that you will be careful of the
+     fires and lights.
+
+     I hope you won't feel injured if I suggest your asking
+     advice and suggestion of Miss Miranda and Miss Jane, who are
+     your nearest neighbors. They will take you in charge anyway,
+     and you might as well put yourself nominally under their
+     care. Your uncle will, of course, have an eye to you,
+     perhaps two eyes, and I dare say he could use more than the
+     allotted number, but Grandmamma will lend him hers, no
+     doubt.
+
+     Write me a line every day, saying that the household timbers
+     are still standing.
+
+     Your weakly indulgent but affectionate
+
+     Father.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn't he a perfect darling!&rdquo; cried the enraptured quintette.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; said demure Patty Weld, &ldquo;that before we permit ourselves to
+      feel too happy, we had better consult <i>our</i> 'powers that be,' and see
+      if we can accept Bell's invitation.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I refuse to hear 'No' from one of you,&rdquo; Bell answered, firmly. &ldquo;I have
+      thought it all over; spent the night upon it, in fact. You, Alice, and
+      Josie Fenton, are too far from home to go there anyway, so I shall lead
+      you off as helpless captives. Your mother is in town, Lilia, so that you
+      can ask her immediately, and hear the worst; you and Edith, Patty, are
+      only a half-day's journey away, and can find out easily. I know you can
+      get permission, for it's going to be perfectly proper and safe. Grandmamma
+      lives nearby, the Sawyer spinsters are the village duennas, and Uncle
+      Harry can protect us from any rampaging burglars and midnight marauders
+      that may happen in to pay their respects.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So the &ldquo;Jolly Six,&rdquo; as they were called by their schoolmates, separated,
+      to build many castles in the air. Bell, it was decided, was to go on to
+      her country home in advance, and, with the help of a neighboring farmer's
+      daughter, prepare and provision the house for an unusual siege.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls had determined to have no servant, and their many ingenious
+      plans for managing and dividing the work were the source of great
+      amusement to the teachers, some of whom had been admitted to their
+      confidence. Josie Fenton and Bell were to do the cooking, Jo claiming the
+      sternly practical department best suited to her&mdash;meat, vegetables,
+      and bread&mdash;while Bell was to concoct puddings, cakes, and the various
+      little indigestible dainties toward which schoolgirl hearts are so tender.
+      Alice Forsaith, the oldest of the party and the beauty of the school, with
+      Edith Lambert, as an aid, was to manage the making of the beds, tidying of
+      rooms, and setting of tables, while Lilia Porter and Patty Weld, with
+      noble heroism and selfsacrifice, offered to shoulder that cross of an
+      old-fashioned girl's life&mdash;the washing and wiping of dishes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On a Wednesday morning the two maiden ladies living nearly opposite the
+      Winship cottage were transfixed with wonder by the appearance of Bell, who
+      asked for the house-key left in safe keeping with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Du tell, Isabel!&mdash;I didn't expect to see you this mornin',&mdash;air
+      your folks comin' home or hev you been turned out o' school?&rdquo; asked Miss
+      Miranda.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no,&rdquo; laughed Bell; &ldquo;I'm going to housekeeping myself!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good land! You haven't run off and got married, have you?&rdquo; cried Miss
+      Jane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not quite so bad as that; but I'm going to bring five of my schoolmates
+      over to-morrow, and we intend to stay here two weeks all alone, as
+      housekeepers and householders.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Land o' mercy,&rdquo; moaned the nervous Miss Miranda. &ldquo;That Pa o' yourn would
+      let you tread on him and not notice it. How any sensible man could do sech
+      a crazy thing as to let a pack of girls tear his house to pieces, I don't
+      see. You'll burn us all up before a week's out; I declare I sha'n't sleep
+      a wink for worrying the whole time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn't be afraid, Miss Sawyer,&rdquo; said Bell, with some spirit. &ldquo;If six
+      girls, none of them younger than fourteen, can't take care of a few stoves
+      and fireplaces, I should think it was a pity. Everybody seems to think
+      nowadays that young people have no common sense. The world's growing wiser
+      all the time, and I don't see why we shouldn't be as bright as those
+      detestable pattern-girls of fifty years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, don't get huffy, Isabel; you mean well, but all girls are
+      unstiddy at your age. Anyhow, I'll try to keep an eye on ye. Here's your
+      key, and we can spare you a quart of milk a day and risin's for your
+      bread, if you're going to try riz bread, though I don't s'pose one of ye
+      knows anything about flour food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you; that'll be very nice, and now I'm going over to begin work,
+      for I have heaps to do. Emma Jane Perkins has come to help me, and
+      Grandma's Betty will come down every afternoon. By the way, can I have
+      Topsycat while I am here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I s'pose so,&rdquo; said Miss Jane, &ldquo;though it's been an awful sight of
+      work gettin' her used to our ways, and I'd never have done it if Mis'
+      Winship hadn't set such store by her. She pretty near pined away the first
+      week, and I've baked ginger cake for her and buttered her fritters every
+      mornin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won't borrow her if you think she will be more troublesome afterward,&rdquo;
+       Bell answered, &ldquo;but you know it's almost impossible to keep house without
+      a cat and a dog. Bobs came over from Uncle Harry's the moment I arrived,
+      and is waiting at the gate now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't agree with you,&rdquo; said Miss Miranda. &ldquo;'Blessed be nothin', I say,
+      when it comes to live stock. We disposed of our horse, the pig went next,
+      and the cow's turn's comin'. Even a cat is dreadful confinin'. If you have
+      a cat and two hens you're as much tied down as if you had a barn full of
+      critters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The day was very cold, and both Bell and Emma Jane shivered as they
+      unlocked one frost-bitten door after another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall freeze as stiff as pokers,&rdquo; said Bell, with chattering teeth;
+      &ldquo;but we can't help it; let's build a fire in every stove in the honse and
+      thaw things out.&rdquo; This was done, and in an hour they were moderately
+      comfortable. The weather being so cold, Bell decided upon using only three
+      rooms, all on the first floor&mdash;the large, handsome family
+      sitting-room, the kitchen, and Mrs. Win-ship's chamber. This being very
+      capacious, she moved a couple of bedsteads from other rooms, and placing
+      the three side by side, filled up the intervening spaces with bolsters,
+      thus making one immensely wide bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There, Emma Jane, isn't that a bright idea! We can all sleep in a row,
+      and then there'll be no quarreling about bedfellows or rooms. I certainly
+      am a good contriver,&rdquo; cried Bell, with a triumphant little laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks awful like a hospital, and the bolsters will keep fallin' down
+      in between and it'll be dreadful hard mak-in' 'em up of a mornin',&rdquo;
+       rejoined Emma Jane, who was no flatterer, being New England born and bred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sitting-room coal stove had accommodations, on top and back, for
+      cooking, so Bell thought that their suppers, with perhaps an occasional
+      breakfast, might be prepared there. The large bay-window, with its bright
+      drugget, would serve as a sort of tiny diningroom, so the mahogany
+      extension-table, with its carved legs, pretty red cover, and silver
+      service, was carried there. This accomplished, and every room made
+      graceful and attractive by Bell (who was a born homemaker, and placed
+      photographs, lamps, sofa-pillows, fir-boughs, and bowls of red apples just
+      where they were needed in the picture), she went over to her
+      Grandmother's, where four loaves of bread were baking and pies being
+      filled, in order that the young housekeepers might begin with a full
+      pantry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Grandma,&rdquo; she exclaimed breathlessly, tearing off her cloud and
+      bringing down with it a sunshiny mass of bronze hair, &ldquo;it does look
+      lovely, if I do say it; and as for setting that house on fire, there's no
+      danger, for it will take a week to thaw it into a state in which it would
+      burn. I have made up my mind that I sha'n't be the one to build the fires
+      every morning, even if I am hostess. I don't want to freeze myself daily
+      for the cause of politeness. Has the provision man come yet!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Uncle Harry, &ldquo;and brought eatables enough for an army&mdash;more
+      than you girls can devour in a month.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll see,&rdquo; said Bell, laughingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't know the capacity of the 'Jolly Six' yet. Now, Betty, please
+      take the eggs and potatoes and fish and put them in our store room. I've
+      just time to make my cake and custard before I drive to the station for
+      the girls. Do you know, Uncle Harry, I am going to do the most astounding
+      thing! I've borrowed Farmer Allen's one-seated old pung,&mdash;the one he
+      takes to town filled with vegetables,&mdash;and I am going to keep it for
+      our sleigh-rides. It will hold all six of us, and what do we care for
+      public opinion!&rdquo; said she, with a disdainful gesture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II&mdash;IN THE FIRELIGHT
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO hours later you
+      might have seen the old pung drawn by Mr. Allen's Jerry, with Bell and
+      Alice Forsaith on the seat, and four laughing, rosy-cheeked girls warmly
+      tucked in buffalo robes on the bottom. Even the sober old sun, who had
+      been under a cloud that day, poked his head out to see the fun, and became
+      so interested that, in spite of himself, he forgot his determination not
+      to shine, and did his duty all the afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the girls opened the door and saw Bell's preparations,&mdash;the cozy
+      sitting-room, with dining-table in the bay-window, three sofas in a row,
+      so that on snowy days they might extend their lazy lengths thereon, and
+      finally a fir-covered barrel of Nodhead and Baldwin apples in one corner,&mdash;there
+      arose bursts of happy laughter and ecstatic cheers loud enough to shock
+      the neighbors, who seldom laughed and never cheered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it's an original idea to have an apple-barrel in your parlor
+      corner,&rdquo; said Bell; &ldquo;but the common-sense of it will be seen by every
+      thoughtful mind. Our forces will consume a peck a day, and life is too
+      short to spend it in galloping up and down cellar constantly for apples.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bell Winship, you are an inhospitable creature,&rdquo; exclaimed Lilia Porter.
+      &ldquo;Here I am, calmly seated on a coal-hod with my hat on, while you are
+      talking so fast that you can't get time to show us our apartments. Shelter
+      before food, say I!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Apartments!&rdquo; sniffed Bell, in mock dudgeon. &ldquo;You are very grand in your
+      ideas! Behold your camp, your wigwam, your tent, your quarters!&rdquo; and she
+      threw open the door of the large chamber and waved the party dramatically
+      in that direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bell, you will yet be Presidentess of these United States,&rdquo; cried Edith
+      Lambert. &ldquo;Any girl who can devise two such happy combinations as an
+      apple-barrel in a parlor corner and three beds in a row, ought to be given
+      a chair of state.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Might a poor worm inquire, Bell,&rdquo; asked Patty, &ldquo;why those croquet mallets
+      and balls are laid out in file round the beds?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, those are for protection, you goose, supposing anybody should come
+      in the piazza window at night, and we had nothing to kill him with!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and supposing he should take one of the mallets and pound us all to
+      a jelly to begin with?&rdquo; Patty retorted, being of a practical mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That <i>would</i> be rather embarrassing,&rdquo; answered Bell, with a
+      reflective shudder; &ldquo;I hadn't thought of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What could one poor man do against five girls banging him with croquet
+      mallets, while the sixth was running to alarm the neighbors?&rdquo; asked Alice,
+      &ldquo;and to put an end to the discussion I suggest that the cooks start
+      supper;&rdquo; whereupon she threw herself into an arm-chair, and put up a pair
+      of small, stout boots on the fender.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The unfortunate couple referred to exchanged looks of unmitigated
+      discouragement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have my opinion of a girl who will mention supper before she has been
+      in the house an hour,&rdquo; said the head cook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Josie, I foresee that they are going to make galley-slaves of us if they
+      can. However,&rdquo; turning again to Alice, &ldquo;it isn't to be supper, but dinner.
+      The meals at this house are to be thus and so: Breakfast at 9 a.m.,
+      luncheon at 12 m., dinner at 5 p.m., refreshments at various times betwixt
+      and between, and all affairs pertaining to eatables are to be completely
+      under the control of the chefs, Mesdemoiselles Winship and Fenton. We
+      cannot have you 'suggesting' dinner at all hours, Miss Forsaith. If time
+      hangs heavy on your hands, occupy it in your own branches of housework.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If we are to be ruled over in this way, life will not be worth living,&rdquo;
+       cried Patty Weld, in comical despair. &ldquo;I dare say we shall be half starved
+      as the days go on, but do give us something good to begin on, Bluebell!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Judging from the scene at the table an hour later, it would not have made
+      much difference whether the repast was sumptuous or not, so formidable
+      were the appetites, and such the merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear,&rdquo; sighed Bell, dismally, to the assistant cook, &ldquo;I will throw
+      off all disguise and say that this family is a surprise and a
+      disappointment to me. When a person cooks twenty-seven potatoes, with the
+      reasonable expectation of having half left to fry, and sees a solitary one
+      left in the dish, with all its lovely companions both faded and gone, she
+      is naturally disheartened. Any way, we have finished for to-night, so the
+      Dish Brigade can marshal its forces. We will take our one potato into the
+      kitchen, Jo, and see if we can make it enough for breakfast. Look in the
+      corner bookcase; bring Mrs. Whitney's 'Just How,' Marion Harland's 'Cook
+      Book,' 'The Young Housekeeper's Friend,' and 'The Bride's Manual.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At nine o'clock that evening Uncle Harry passed through the garden, and
+      noticing a pair of open shutters, peeped in at the back window of the
+      sitting-room, thinking he had never seen a more charming or attractive
+      picture. Pretty Edith Lambert was curled up in an armchair near the astral
+      lamp, her face resting on her two rosy palms, and her eyes bent over
+      &ldquo;Little Women.&rdquo; Bluebell, her bright hair bobbed in a funny sort of twist,
+      from which two or three venturesome and rebellious curls were straying
+      out, and her high-necked blue apron still on over her dark dress, was
+      humming soft little songs at the piano. Roguish Jo was sitting flat on the
+      hearth, her bright cheeks flushed rosier under the warm occupation of corn
+      popping, and her dark hair falling loosely round her face, while Patty
+      Weld with her shy, demure face, was beside her on a hassock, knitting a
+      &ldquo;fascinator&rdquo; out of white wool. These two, so thoroughly unlike, were
+      never to be seen apart; indeed, they were so inseparable as to be dubbed
+      the &ldquo;Scissors&rdquo; or &ldquo;Tongs&rdquo; by their friends. Alice and Lilia were
+      quarreling briskly over a game of cribbage, Lilia's animated expression
+      and ringing laugh contrasting forcibly with the calm face of her
+      antagonist. Alice was never known to be excited over anything. It was she
+      who carried off all the dignity and took the part of presiding goddess of
+      the party. The girls all adored her for her beauty and superior age; for
+      she had attained the enviable pinnacle of &ldquo;sweet sixteen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said Jo, breaking the silence, &ldquo;let us have refreshments, then a
+      good quiet talk together, then muster the Hair-Brushing Brigade, and go to
+      bed. I think I have corn enough; I've popped and popped and popped as no
+      one ever popped before, and till popping has ceased to be fun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pop on, pop ever; the more you give us, Jo, the more popular you'll be,&rdquo;
+       laughed Bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is a veritable 'pop-in-J,' isn't she?&rdquo; cried Lilia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now Lilia,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;let us get the apples and nuts, and we'll sit in
+      a ring on the floor, and eat. I shan't crack the almonds; the girl that
+      hath her teeth, I say, is no girl, if with her teeth she cannot crack an
+      almond. Lilia, you're not a bit of assistance; you've tied up the end of
+      the nut-bag in a hard knot, upset the apple-dish, put the tablecloth on
+      crooked, and&mdash;oh, dear&mdash;now you've stepped in the pop-corn,&rdquo; as
+      Lilia, trying desperately to cross the room without knocking something
+      over, as usual, had hit the corn-pan in her airy flight. &ldquo;You have such a
+      genius for stepping into half-a-dozen things at once, I think you must be
+      web-footed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that's possible,&rdquo; retorted the unfortunate Lilia; &ldquo;I've often been
+      told I was a duck of a girl, and this proves it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you realize, girls,&rdquo; said Edith, after a while, &ldquo;that we shall all be
+      visited by ghosts and visions to-night, if we don't terminate this repast?
+      I'll put away the dishes, Bell, if you'll move the sofas up to the fire,
+      so that we can have our good-night chat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, speedily, six warm dressing-sacques were slipped on, and then, the
+      lamps being turned out, in the ruddy glow of the firelight, the brown, the
+      yellow, and the dark hair was taken down, and the housekeepers, braiding
+      it up for the night, talked and dreamed and built their castles in the
+      air, as all young things are wont to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Girls, dear old girls,&rdquo; said Alice, softly, breaking an unusual silence
+      of two minutes; &ldquo;isn't this cosy and sweet and friendly beyond anything?
+      How thankful we ought to be for the happy lives God gives us! We have been
+      put into this beautiful world and taken care of so wisely and kindly every
+      day; yet we don't often speak, or even think, about it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is trouble, sometimes, more than happiness, that leads us into
+      thinking about God's care and goodness,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;although it's very
+      strange that it should. Before my mother's death I was just a little baby
+      playing with letter-blocks, and all at once, after that, I began to make
+      the letters into words and spell out things for myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a perfect heathen I am,&rdquo; burst out Jo. &ldquo;I can't feel any of these
+      things any more than if I were a Chinaman. Or, perhaps, it is as Edith
+      says, I am still playing with blocks, although I cannot even see the
+      letters on them. I wonder if I shall ever be wide awake enough for that!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look out of the window, Jo,&rdquo; said
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell, who was leaning on the sill. &ldquo;Don't you think if God can make out of
+      all that snow and ice, in three short months, a lovely, tender, green,
+      springing world, He can make something out of us! Isn't it a wonderful
+      thing that He can wake up the life that's asleep under the frozen earth?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; rejoined Jo, dismally, &ldquo;there's something to begin on out there,
+      but I don't think I have much of a soul; any way, I have never seen any
+      signs of it. You always say things so prettily, Bell, that I like to hear
+      you sermonize. You'd make a good minister's wife.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you have plenty of 'soul material,' Jo,&rdquo; said Lilia, confusedly
+      struggling to make a figure of speech express her meaning. &ldquo;There's lots
+      of it there, only it wants to be blown up, somehow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks for your encouragement,&rdquo; said Jo, amid the laughter that followed
+      Lilia's peculiar metaphor. &ldquo;I think if you'll try to handle the spiritual
+      bellows, you'll find it's harder work than you imagine. Now don't laugh,
+      girls, because I really do feel solemn about it, only I talk in my usual
+      frivolous way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You always make yourself appear wicked, Jo,&rdquo; said her loving champion,
+      Patty, &ldquo;but I happen to know a few facts on the opposite side. Who was it
+      who gave every cent of her month's allowance to Mrs. Hart, the poor
+      washerwoman who scorched her white skirt; and who stayed away from the
+      church sociable to take care of that horrid room mate of hers who had a
+      headache?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Patty, if you don't desist,&rdquo; cried Jo, with a flaming face, and
+      brandishing a hair-brush fiercely, &ldquo;I'll throw this at your dear,
+      charitable little head. Now, Bell, you know we all agreed to tell a story
+      of adventure each night before going to bed, and I think you, as hostess,
+      ought to begin. If the entertainment is delayed much longer it will find
+      me asleep with fatigue and over-feeding in the front row of the
+      orchestra.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dear me, I can't begin!&rdquo; cried Bell, &ldquo;Nothing ever happened to me except
+      going to California and having a double wedding in the family. That's the
+      sum total of my adventures.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Make up something then, or tell us a true story about California. Oh, you
+      do have such a good time, and funny things are always happening to you,&rdquo;
+       sighed Lilia. &ldquo;You never seem to have any trials.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trials!&rdquo; rejoined Bell, sarcastically. &ldquo;I should think I hadn't. Perhaps
+      I haven't a little scamp of a brother and an awfully fussy old aunty!
+      Perhaps I'm not such an idiot that I can't multiply eight and nine, or
+      seven and six, without a lead-pencil; perhaps I wasn't left at school
+      while my parents toured in the South! Don't you call those afflictions?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I do,&rdquo; answered Lilia, joining in the general laugh; &ldquo;and I'll never
+      allude to your good fortune again. Now tell us a California story,&mdash;that's
+      a dear,&mdash;for I'm getting sleepy as well as Jo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, well,&rdquo; said Bell, walking about the room absent-mindedly, until her
+      eyes rested on the cabinet, &ldquo;I'll tell you the story of these;&rdquo; and she
+      took up a string of dusty pearls which were seamed and cracked as if by
+      fire. &ldquo;Now open your eyes and lend me your ears, for I shall make it as
+      'bookish' and romantic as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last summer Mother and I were living in a beautiful valley a hundred
+      miles from San Francisco. It was near the mining districts, where Father
+      was attending to some business. Of course, a great many Mexicans and
+      Indians, as well as Chinamen, worked in these mines, and we used to see
+      them very often. Mother and I were sitting under the peach-trees in the
+      garden one afternoon. It was so beautiful sewing or reading in that
+      California garden, for the fruit was ripe and hanging in bushels on the
+      trees, as lovely to look at as it was luscious to eat; some of the peaches
+      were a rich yellow inside and others snow-white, except where the crimson
+      stones had tinged their sockets with rosy little spots.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't,&rdquo; cried Jo; &ldquo;you'll make us discontented with our New England
+      apples!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were chatting and eating peaches,&rdquo; continued Bell, &ldquo;when the gate
+      opened, and an Indian girl with an old squaw came in and approached us,
+      The girl could speak English, and told me her name was Eskaluna. I had
+      heard about her, and knew that she was the beauty and belle of the tribe,
+      and was going to marry the chief's son when the next moon came; for our
+      Indian cook was as gossipy as a Yankee, and was forever telling us tales.
+      She was the most beautiful creature I ever saw: lovely black hair, not so
+      coarse as is usual with them, brilliant dark eyes, good features, and the
+      prettiest slim hands and graceful arms. She was dressed gaily and
+      handsomely in the fashion of her tribe, and on her lovely, bare, brown
+      neck was this long string of Mexican pearls, which we noticed at once as
+      being very valuable. She stayed there all the afternoon under the
+      fruit-trees, and really grew quite confidential. Mother, meanwhile, had
+      gone into ecstacies over her beautiful pearls, and had taken them from her
+      neck to examine them. At sunset, when she went home to her wigwam, she
+      slipped the necklace into mother's lap, saying, with her sweet trick of
+      speech, 'I eatie your peachie, you takie my beads.' Of course, mother
+      could not accept them, and Eskaluna departed in quite a disappointed mood.
+      I remember being sorry that the pretty young thing was going to marry the
+      disagreeable, ugly chief. He was just as jealous and ferocious as he could
+      be&mdash;wouldn't let her talk to one of the warriors of the tribe, and
+      had shot one man already because he fancied Eskaluna admired him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A chorus of &ldquo;Oh's&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ah's&rdquo; interrupted Bell, and Alice's eyes grew
+      round with interest, for she was sixteen and had been called a &ldquo;cruel
+      coquette&rdquo; by a young student at Wareham.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a few days our Indian cook came home at night from the mines, saying
+      that he wanted a holiday the next morning to go to a funeral. We had heard
+      that in some tribes they burn the bodies of the dead, and wondered whether
+      his were one of them, so we asked him the particulars, of course, and were
+      terribly shocked when we heard that it was the funeral of poor Eskaluna,
+      who had visited us so lately, in all her dusky beauty. Nakawa told us the
+      whole story in his broken English, and a sad one it was. Her lover, the
+      chief, as I have said, was always jealous of her, and on the afternoon she
+      came to our house, he had heard from some crafty villain or other (an
+      enemy of Eskaluna's, of course), that she was false, and, instead of
+      intending to marry him, loved a handsome young Indian of another tribe,
+      and was planning to run away with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This fired his hot blood, and he rushed off on the village road
+      determined to kill her. He climbed a large sycamore tree on a lonely part
+      of the way, and there waited until the shadows fell over the mountain
+      sides, and the sun, dropping behind their peaks, left the San Jacinto
+      valley in fast-growing darkness. At last he saw the gleam of her scarlet
+      dress in the distance, and soon he heard her voice as she came singing
+      along, little thinking of her dreadful fate. He took sure aim at the heart
+      that was beating happily and carelessly under its cape of birds' feathers;
+      shot, and so swift and unerring was his arrow that she fell in an instant,
+      dead, upon the path. Then, leaving her with the helpless old squaw, he
+      escaped into a canon near by.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0053.jpg" alt="0053 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0053.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The next day we went over to the Indian encampment, and reached the place
+      just after poor Eskaluna had been burned on the funeral pile. We went
+      close to the spot and could hardly help crying when we thought of her
+      beauty and sweetness, and her sad and undeserved death. Up near the head
+      of the pile where that lovely brown neck of hers had rested,&mdash;the
+      prettiest neck in the world,&mdash;lay this charred string of pearls she
+      had worn in our garden. Mother asked for it as a remembrance, and the old
+      squaw gave it to her. Eskaluna's brother is on the war-path after her
+      murderer, I believe, to this day, if he hasn't killed him yet; for he was
+      determined to avenge her. Now, isn't that romantic, and tragic at the same
+      time, girls? Poor Eskaluna! I don't know that her fate would have been
+      much easier if she had married the chief; but it is hard to think of her
+      being so heartlessly murdered when she was so innocent and true; and
+      that's the end of my story. Who comes next?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not I, at this hour,&rdquo; yawned Jo, &ldquo;but it was a good tale!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor I, after that thrilling experience of yours!&rdquo; said Alice, admiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can think of no story half so delightful as the dreams we shall have if
+      we go to bed,&rdquo; murmured Edith from her cozy corner. &ldquo;Come, it is after
+      ten, and the wide bed calls loudly for occupants.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In a half-hour all six were asleep, and the bright-faced moon, looking in
+      at the piazza window, smiled as she saw the half-dozen heads in a row, and
+      the bed surrounded by croquet mallets and balls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III&mdash;AN EMERGENCY CASE
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE next morning
+      broke clear, bright, and sparkling, but bitterly cold. I cannot attempt to
+      tell you all the doings of that indefatigable and ingenious bevy of girls
+      during the day. Miss Miranda, their opposite neighbor, had kept to her
+      post of observation, the window, very closely, and had seen much to awaken
+      scorn and surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wa'al, Jane!&rdquo; said she, excitedly, in the afternoon, &ldquo;there they go
+      ag'in! That's the fourth time the hoss has been harnessed into Allen's
+      pung to-day; and now they've got their uncle. Whatever they find to laugh
+      so over, and where they go to, is more'n I can see. They haven't done up
+      their dinner dishes, I know, for I've been watching of 'em and they
+      hain't had time to do 'em so quick as this, though Bell Winship is
+      as spry as a skeeter when she gets a-goin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Miranda's organs of vision were better than magnifying glasses, for,
+      aided by a lively imagination, they could dart around corners and through
+      doors with great ease. Bell avowed confidentially to Patty that morning,
+      when she met her neighbor's eyes fixed on the pantry window, that she
+      believed Miss Miranda could see a fly-speck on top of a liberty-pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls had made the day a very long and lively one, and in the evening,
+      their spirits still high and their inventive powers still unimpaired, they
+      gave an impromptu concert. The audience was small but appreciative.
+      Grandmother was in a private box&mdash;the high-backed arm-chair in the
+      cosiest corner; Uncle Harry sat on a hastily-erected throne made by
+      perching a stool on the dining-table, and being given a large pair of
+      goggles, was requested to serve as dramatic and musical critic for the
+      morning newspapers. Two or three of the boarders from Mrs. Carter's famous
+      Winter Farmhouse on the hill, the young schoolmaster (a Bowdoin student
+      earning his college course by odd terms of teaching), and Hugh Pennell,
+      his chum and classmate, home on a brief holiday, made quite a brave show
+      when seated in three rows, while the unaffected laughter, the open mouths,
+      and the staring eyes of &ldquo;the help,&rdquo; Emma Jane Perkins, Betty Bean, and 'Bijah
+      Flagg, who were grouped at the hall door, helped in the general merriment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell had a keen sense of the ridiculous and a voice like a meadow-lark. Jo
+      was capital, too, as a mimic, so together, they gave some absurdly funny
+      scenes from famous operas. Bell had thrown on an evening dress of her
+      cousin's, which happened to be left in the house, and this, with its short
+      sleeves, showing her round, girlish arms, and its long train, made her
+      such a distracting little prima donna of fifteen, that Hugh Pennell quite
+      laid his boyish heart at her feet. She sang &ldquo;The Last Rose of Summer&rdquo; with
+      all the smiles, head-tossings, arch looks, casting down of eyelids, and
+      kissing of finger-tips at the close, which generally accompany it when
+      sung by the stage soprano, and she was naturally greeted with rapturous
+      applause. Then Jo, as the tenor, in dressing-gown and smoking-cap for male
+      attire, sang a fervent duet with Alice Forsaith, rendering it with
+      original Italian words and embraces at the end of every measure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0063.jpg" alt="0063 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0063.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Tableaux showing scenes from well-known novels, and thrilling historical
+      events depicted in pantomime, came next, and the company was invited to
+      name them as they followed one another in quick succession,&mdash;Eliza
+      crossing the river by leaping from ice block to ice block, the bloodhounds
+      in hot pursuit; Pochahontas saving the life of her noble Captain John;
+      Rochester, holding Jane Eyre spellbound by the steely glitter of his eye;
+      and the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers, landing on a stern and rock-bound
+      coast, ably represented by the dining-room table. As Uncle Harry sat on
+      the table he was obliged to be the center of this thrilling scene, which
+      was variously surmised by the audience to be the capture of a slave-ship
+      by pirates, the rescue of a babe from a tenement-house fire, the killing
+      of Julius Cæsar in the Roman Senate, or an impassioned attempt to drag
+      Casabianca from the burning deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After bidding their visitors goodnight, Bell and Jo went into the kitchen
+      to put buckwheat cakes to raise for breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I'll chop the meat hash for a half-hour while the kitchen is
+      warm,&rdquo; said Jo. &ldquo;Emma Jane is right about the knife; it is dull beyond
+      words!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it is any duller than Emma Jane herself, I am sorry for it,&rdquo; rejoined
+      Bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a poor workman who complains of his tools, Jo,&rdquo; said Patty, looking
+      in at the door, with a superior air; &ldquo;Columbus discovered America in an
+      open boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He would never have discovered America with this chopping-knife,&rdquo; quoth
+      Jo, bringing it down with vicious emphasis on the unoffending meat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you notice Emma Jane's expression as she stood in the doorway to
+      night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did,&rdquo; replied Bell, as she bustled about her last tasks at closet,
+      cupboard, and sink. &ldquo;Not a penny of my money shall go to the heathen in
+      other lands until I have done some missionary work with her. In ten days I
+      propose to make her stand straight, hold her head up, keep her mouth
+      closed when not occupied in conversation or eating, stop straining her
+      hair out by the roots, tie the ends of her braids with ribbon instead of
+      twine, give up her magenta hood, and a few other little details.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see how you dare advise her at her advanced age,&rdquo; responded Jo.
+      &ldquo;I suppose she is thirteen, but she appears about thirty. Look, Bell, can
+      this hash be safely trusted now to the pearly teeth of our parlor
+      boarders, or are the pieces too large for their 'delicate sensibilities'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think that it may escape criticism,&rdquo; laughed Bell. &ldquo;Cover it with a
+      clean towel and a platter, and one of us will give it a last castigation
+      before it goes in the frying-pan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never had such a good time in my life, never, never!&rdquo; sighed Lilia, as
+      she blew out the lamp, and tucked herself on the front side of the bed, a
+      little later. &ldquo;I have only two things to trouble me. First: my wisdom
+      tooth feels as if it were going to ache again. Second: it is my turn to
+      build the kitchen fire in the morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Console yourself with one thought, my dear,&rdquo; murmured Bell, drowsily, yet
+      sagely. &ldquo;Both these misfortunes can't happen to you, for if your tooth
+      chances to ache, we shall not have the heart to make you build the fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't tell her that,&rdquo; urged Jo, with a prodigious yawn, &ldquo;or she will be
+      feigning toothache constantly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lilia's fears had good foundation, however, for in the middle of the
+      night, Jo, who slept next the front side, wakened suddenly to find her
+      slipping quietly out of bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the matter, Lilia!&rdquo; she whispered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing; don't wake the others, but that miserable tooth grumbles just
+      enough to keep me awake, and my temple aches and my cheek, too. Where is
+      the lotion I use for bathing my face, do you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, where you put it this morning, on the back of the wash-stand;
+      sha'n't I light the lamp and help you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, hush!&rdquo; said Lilia. &ldquo;I can put my hand on it in the dark. Here it
+      is! I'll bathe my face a few minutes, and then try to go to sleep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So, she anointed herself freely, put the bottle and sponge under the head
+      of the bed lest she should need them again, and, finally, the pain growing
+      less, fell asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning, Bell, who wakened first, rubbed her eyes drowsily, glanced
+      at Lilia, who was breathing quietly, and uttered a piercing shriek. This
+      in turn aroused the other girls, who joined in the shriek on general
+      principles, and then, blinking in the half-light, looked where Bell
+      pointed. One side of Lilia's face was swollen, and of a dark, purple
+      color, presenting a truly frightful appearance. At length, hearing the
+      confusion, Lilia awoke with a start, and her eyes being open, and rolling
+      about in surprise, she looked still more alarming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What on earth is the matter, girls?&rdquo; she asked, sitting up in bed,
+      smoothing back her hair and rubbing her heavy lids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereupon Edith and Alice began to tremble and nobody answered her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;K-k-keep c-c-calm,&rdquo; said Bell. &ldquo;Lilia, dear, your face is badly swollen
+      and inflamed, and we're afraid you are going to be ill, but we'll send for
+      the doctor straight away. Does it pain you very much?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lilia jumped up hastily, and, looking in the mirror, uttered a cry of
+      terror, and sank back into the rocking-chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What can it be! Oh, take me home to my father! It
+      must be a malignant pustule&mdash;or spotted fever&mdash;or something
+      dreadful! What shall I do? Bell, you are a doctor's daughter; do find out
+      what's the matter with me! I am disfigured for life, and I wasn't very
+      good-looking before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Girls,&rdquo; said Bell, &ldquo;let us dress this very instant, for we can't be too
+      quick about a thing of this kind. You, Jo, build the kitchen fire, and,
+      Alice, make a blaze on the hearth in here; then, after we've made her
+      comfortable, Edith can run and tell Uncle Harry to come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put on the kettle,&rdquo; added Patty, &ldquo;and heat blankets; they always do that
+      in emergencies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't frighten me to death,&rdquo; wailed Lilia, &ldquo;calling me 'a thing of this
+      kind' and an 'emergency.' I don't feel a hit worse than I did in the
+      night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had neuralgia in her face,&rdquo; explained Jo; &ldquo;that must have had
+      something to do with it. She put on some of her liniment, and then dropped
+      off to sleep. Come, darling, let us tuck you in bed again; try to keep up
+      your courage!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there was a hasty consultation in the kitchen 'midst many
+      groans and tears. Bell was an authority on sickness, and she said, with an
+      awestruck face, that it must be a dreadful attack of erysipelas in the
+      very last stages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; cried Alice, perplexed, &ldquo;it is all very strange, for why does she
+      have so little pain, and how could her face have turned so black from
+      mortification in one night?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blood-poisoning is very quick and very deadly,&rdquo; said Patty, who had heard
+      about such a case in her own family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goodness knows what it is,&rdquo; exclaimed Bell, wringing her hands in nervous
+      terror. &ldquo;What to do with her I don't know; whether to put bricks to her
+      head and ice to her feet, or keep her head cold and heat her
+      'extremities,' as father calls them&mdash;whether to give her a sweat or
+      keep her dry, or wrap her in blankets, or get the linen sheets. Jo is with
+      her now. If you'll go and wake Uncle Harry, Edith, it is the best thing we
+      can do. Run along with her, too, Patty, and you won't be afraid together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Alice and Bell went back presently to Lilia, who looked even worse, now
+      that the room was bright with the glow of the open fire and the pale light
+      of the student lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You patient old darling!&rdquo; cried Bell, falling on her knees beside the
+      bed. &ldquo;We have sent for Uncle Harry and the Doctor, and now you are sure to
+      be all right, for we've taken the thing in good time. Good gracious!! what
+      bottle have I tipped over under this bed!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's my neuralgia liniment,&rdquo; murmured Lilia, faintly. &ldquo;I bathed my face
+      in it last night, and put it under there afterward. Don't spill it, for I
+      can't get any more here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your neuralgia lotion!&rdquo; shrieked Bell, first with a look of blank
+      astonishment, and then one of excitement and glee mixed in equal parts.
+      &ldquo;Look at it, girls! Look, Alice and Jo! Oh, Lilia, you precious,
+      blundering goose!&rdquo; and thereupon she dragged out from beneath the bed
+      valance a pint bottle of violet ink, and then relapsed into a paroxysm of
+      voiceless mirth. Just then the hack door opened, and in hurried Uncle
+      Harry, Edith, and Patty, much terrified, for they had heard the shouts and
+      gasps and excited voices from outside, and supposed that Lilia must at
+      least have fallen into convulsions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me see the poor child immediately,&rdquo; cried Mr. Winship. &ldquo;What is the
+      trouble with you, Bell? are you demented? and where is Lilia?&rdquo; looking at
+      the apparently empty bed, for Lilia had wound herself in the sheets and
+      blankets, disappeared from view, and was endeavoring to force a pillow
+      into her mouth in order to render her shame-faced laughter inaudible. &ldquo;Are
+      you trying to play a joke on me?&rdquo; continued he, with as much dignity as
+      was consistent with an attire made up of an undershirt, a pair of
+      trousers, overshoes, a tall hat, and a gold-headed cane which he had quite
+      unconsciously caught up in his hasty flight from his chamber.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fact is,&rdquo; answered Bell, between her gasps, and trying desperately
+      hard to regain her sobriety,&mdash;&ldquo;the fact is&mdash;Uncle Harry&mdash;we
+      made&mdash;a mistake, and so did&mdash;Lilia. There were two bottles just
+      alike on the wash-stand, and in the night she bathed her face for five
+      minutes in the purple ink! Oh, oh, oh!!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncle Harry's face relaxed into a broad smile as he realized the joke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Winship, you should have seen her!&rdquo; sighed Jo, lifting her head
+      from the sofa-pillow, with streaming eyes. &ldquo;All her face, except part of
+      her forehead and one cheek, was covered with enormous dark purple
+      blotches. She looked like a clown, or a Fourth of July fantastic, or
+      anything else frightful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Edith, slyly, &ldquo;Bell said mortification had taken place. I
+      don't think Lilia has ever been more mortified than she is now; do you?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Puns are out of place, Edith,&rdquo; said Bell, severely. &ldquo;Don't hurry, Uncle
+      Harry. Don't let any thought of your rather peculiar attire cause you
+      embarrassment.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But before Bell's teasing voice had ceased, the last thud, thud of his
+      rubbers, and click, click of his gold-headed cane were heard in the hall,
+      and he thought, as he tried to finish his early morning nap, that it would
+      be a long time before he allowed those madcap girls to rout him out of bed
+      again at five o'clock on a winter's day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the girls themselves, they did not even make a trial of slumber,
+      but first scrubbed Lilia energetically with hard soap and pumice, and then
+      made molasses candy, determined that the roaring kitchen fire should be
+      used to some purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having gained so much time by the unusual way in which they had started
+      the day, they were enabled to look back at nightfall on an unprecedented
+      number of activities, some of them rather unique and original. There was a
+      call upon Emma Jane's mother, another upon Mrs. Carter at the Winter Farm,
+      a sleigh-ride with Geoffrey Strong, the vehicle being a truck for hauling
+      wood, an hour's coasting down Brigadier hill, and a trip to the doctor's
+      for courtplaster and arnica and peppermint and cough lozenges. Then
+      directly after luncheon Bell and Jo made a private and confidential call
+      upon Grandma Win-ship's pig, leaving with him as evidences of regard
+      several samples of their own cookery. This call they hoped was unnoticed,
+      but an hour afterwards the other four girls were espied coming from the
+      Winships', all clad in black garments of one sort or another. When
+      questioned as to the meaning of this mysterious piece of foolishness they
+      merely remarked that they, too, had called upon the Winships pig, but that
+      it was a visit of condolence and sympathy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV&mdash;A WINTER PICNIC
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>OU may think that
+      Lilia's &ldquo;mortification&rdquo; was quite an excitement in this enterprising young
+      household; yet I assure you that never twenty-four hours passed but a
+      ridiculous adventure of some kind overtook the girls. The daily bulletin
+      which they carried over to Mrs. Carter at the Winter Farm kept the worthy
+      inmates in constant wonderment as to what would happen next. Sometimes
+      there was a regular programme for the next day, prepared the night before,
+      but oftener, things happened of themselves, and when they do that, you
+      know, pleasure seems a deal more satisfying and delightful, because it is
+      unexpected. Uncle Harry was in great demand, and very often made one of
+      the gay party of young folks off for a frolic. They defied King Winter
+      openly, and went on all sorts of excursions, even on a bona-fide picnic,
+      notwithstanding the two feet of snow on the ground. The way of it was
+      this: On Friday, the boys&mdash;Hugh Pennell, Bell's cousin, Jack Brayton,
+      and the young schoolmaster&mdash;turned the great bare hall in the top of
+      the old Winship family house into a woodland bower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the way, I have not told you much about Geoffrey Strong yet, because
+      the girls of the story have had everything their own way, but Geoffrey
+      Strong was well worth knowing. He was only eighteen years old, but had
+      finished his sophomore year at Bowdoin College, and was teaching the
+      district school that he might partly earn the money necessary to take him
+      through the remainder of the course. He was as sturdy and strong as his
+      name, or as one of the stout pine-trees of his native State, as gentle and
+      chivalrous as a boy knight of the olden time; as true and manly a lad, and
+      withal as good and earnest a teacher, notwithstanding his youth, as any
+      little country urchin could wish. Mr. Win-ship was his guardian, and thus
+      he had become quite one of the Winship family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys were making the picnic grounds when I interrupted my story with
+      this long parenthesis. They took a large pair of old drop curtains used at
+      some time or other in church tableaux, and made a dark green carpet by
+      stretching them across the floor smoothly and tacking them down; they
+      wreathed the pillars and trimmed the doors and windows with evergreens,
+      and then planted young spruce and cedar and hemlock trees in the corners
+      or scattered them about the room firmly rooted in painted nail-kegs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks rather jolly, boys, doesn't it?&rdquo; cried Jack, rubbing his cold
+      fingers, &ldquo;but I'm afraid we've gone as far as we can; we can't make birds
+      and flowers and brooks!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the special difficulty?&rdquo; asked Geoffrey. &ldquo;We'll borrow Grandmother
+      Winship's two cages of canaries and Mrs. Adams' two; then we'll bring over
+      Mrs. Carter's pet parrot, and altogether we'll be musical enough,
+      considering the fact that the thermometer is below zero.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This suggestion of Geoff's they accordingly adopted, and their mimic
+      forest became tuneful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next stroke of genius came from Hugh Pennell. He found bunches of
+      white and yellow everlastings at home with which he mixed some cleverly
+      constructed bright tissue-paper flowers, of mysterious botanical
+      structure. He planted these in pots, and tied them to shrubs, and behold,
+      their forest bloomed!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But we have finished now, boys,&rdquo; said Hugh, dejectedly, as he put his
+      last bed of whiteweed and buttercups under a shady tree. (They were made
+      of paper, and were growing artistically in a moss-covered chopping-tray.)
+      &ldquo;We can't get up a brook, and a brook is a handy thing at a picnic, too.
+      Good for the small children to fall into, good for drinking, good for
+      dish-washing, good for its cool and musical tinkle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have an idea,&rdquo; suggested Jack, who was mounted on a step-ladder busily
+      engaged in tying a stuffed owl and a blue jay to a tree-top. &ldquo;I have an
+      idea. We can fill the ice-water tank, put it on a shelf, let the water run
+      into a tub, then station a boy in the corner to keep filling the tank from
+      the tub. There's your stagnant pool and your running streamlet. There's
+      your drinking-water, your dish-washer, your musical tinkle, and possibly
+      your small child's watery grave. What could be more romantic?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Out with him!&rdquo; shouted Geoff. &ldquo;He ought to be drowned for proposing such
+      an apology for a brook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fail to see the point,&rdquo; said Jack; &ldquo;the sound would be sylvan and
+      suggestive, and I've no doubt the girls would be charmed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll brook no further argument on the subject,&rdquo; retorted Hugh; &ldquo;the
+      afternoon is running away with us. We might bring up the bath-tub, or the
+      watering-trough, sink it in an evergreen bank and surround it with house
+      plants, but I don't think it would satisfy us exactly. I'll tell you, let
+      us give up the brook and build a sort of what-do-you-call'em for a
+      retreat, in one corner.&rdquo; After some explanations from Hugh about his plan,
+      the boys finally succeeded in manufacturing something romantic and
+      ingenious. Two blooming oleanders in boxes were brought from Uncle Harry's
+      parlor, there was a hemlock tree with a rustic seat under it, there was an
+      evergreen arch above, there was a little rockery built with a dozen stones
+      from the old wall behind the barn, and there were Miss Jane Sawyer's
+      potted scarlet geraniums set in among them, all surmounted by two banging
+      baskets and a bird-cage. With nothing save an airtight stove to warm it
+      into life (the ugliness of the stove quite hidden by screens of green
+      boughs), the cold, bare hall was magically changed into a green forest,
+      vocal with singing birds and radiant with blooming flowers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys swung their hats in irrepressible glee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't this be a surprise to the people, though! Won't they think of the
+      desert blooming as the rose!&rdquo; cried Hugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy it won't astonish Uncle Harry and Grandmother much,&rdquo; answered
+      Jack, dryly, &ldquo;inasmuch as we've nearly borrowed them out of house and home
+      during the operation. Old Mrs. Winship said when I took her hammer,
+      hatchet, chopping-tray, house plants, and screw-driver, that perhaps she
+      had better go over to Mrs. Carter's and board. The girls will be fairly
+      stunned, though. Just imagine Bell's eyes! I told them we'd see to
+      sweeping and heating the hall, but they don't expect any decorations.
+      Well, I'm off. Lock the door, Geoff, and guard it like a dragon; we meet
+      at eleven to-morrow morning, do we? Be on hand, sharp, and let us all go
+      in and view the scene together. I wouldn't for worlds miss hearing and
+      seeing the girls.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack and Hugh started for home, and Geoff went downstairs to run a
+      gauntlet of questioning from Jo Fenton, who was present in Grandmother
+      Winship's kitchen on one of the borrowing tours of the day, and extremely
+      anxious to find out why so much mysterious hammering was going on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While these preparations were in progress, the six juvenile housekeepers
+      were undergoing abject suffering in their cookery for the picnic. It had
+      been a day of disasters from beginning to end&mdash;the first really
+      mournful one in their experience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It commenced bright and early, too; in fact, was all ready for them before
+      they awoke in the morning, and the coal fire began it, for it went out in
+      the night. Everybody knows what it is to build a fire in a large coal
+      stove; it was Jo's turn as stoker and tirewoman, and I regret to say that
+      this circumstance made her a little cross, in fact, audibly so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After much searching for kindling-wood, however, much chattering of teeth,
+      for the thermometer was below zero, much vicious banging of stove doors,
+      and clattering of hods and shovels, that trouble was overcome. But, dear
+      me! it was only the first drop of a pouring rain of accidents, and at last
+      the girls accepted it as a fatal shower which must fall before the weather
+      would clear, and thus resigned themselves to the inevitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The breakfast was as bad as a breakfast knew how to be. The girls were all
+      cooks to-day in the exciting preparation for the picnic, for they wanted
+      to take especially tempting dainties in order that they might astonish
+      more experienced providers. Patty scorched the milk toast; Edith, that
+      most precise and careful of all little women under the sun, broke a
+      platter and burned her fingers; Lilia browned a delicious omelet, and
+      waved the spider triumphantly in the air, astonished at her own success,
+      when, alas, the smooth little circlet slipped illnaturedly into the coal
+      hod. Lilia stood still in horror and dismay, while Bell fished it hastily
+      out, looking very crumpled, sooty, shrunken, and generally penitent, if an
+      omelet can assume that expression. She slapped it on the table severely,
+      and said, with a little choke and tear in her voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The last of the eggs went into that omelet, and it is going to he rinsed,
+      and fried over, and eaten. There isn't another thing in the house for
+      breakfast. There is no bread; Alice put cream-of-tartar into the
+      buckwheats, instead of saleratus, and measured it with a tablespoon
+      besides; Miss Miranda's cat upset the milk can; the potatoes are frozen;
+      and I am ashamed to borrow anything more of Grandmother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never,&rdquo; cried Alice, with much determination. &ldquo;Sooner eat omelet and coal
+      hod, too! Never mind the breakfast! there are always apples. What shall we
+      take to the picnic? We can suggest luncheon at high noon, and no one will
+      suspect we haven't breakfasted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's make mince pies,&rdquo; cried Jo, animatedly, from her seat on the
+      wood-box.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Goose,&rdquo; answered Bell, with a sarcastic smile. &ldquo;There's plenty of time to
+      make mince-meat, of course!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At any rate, we must have jelly-cake,&rdquo; said Lilia, with decision, while
+      dishing up the injured omelet for the second time. &ldquo;We had better carry
+      the delicacies, for Mrs. Pennell and the boys will be sure to bring bread
+      and meat and common things.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, tarts, tarts!&rdquo; exclaimed Edith, in an ecstacy of reminiscence. &ldquo;I
+      haven't had tarts for a perfect age! Do you think we could manage them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They must be easy enough,&rdquo; answered Patty, with calm authority. &ldquo;Cut a
+      hole out of the middle of each round thing, then till it up with jelly and
+      bake it; that's simple.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0093.jpg" alt="0093 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0093.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Glad you think so,&rdquo; responded Edith, with an air of deep melancholy and
+      cynicism, as she prepared to wash the cooking dishes and found an empty
+      dish-water pot. &ldquo;I should think the jelly would grow hard and crusty
+      before the tarts baked, but I suppose it's all right. Everything we touch
+      to-day is sure to fail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how much better if you said, 'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try,'&rdquo; sang
+      Bell, in a spasm of gayety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how much sadder you will feel when you've tried, by and by,&rdquo; retorted
+      Edith. &ldquo;Is there anything difficult about pastry, I wonder? Look in the
+      cookbook. Does it have to be soaked over night like ham, or hung for two
+      weeks like game, or put away in a stone jar like fruit-cake, or 'braised'
+      or 'trussed' or 'larded' or anything?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Patty, looking up from the 'Bride's Manual,' &ldquo;but it has to be
+      pounded on a marble slab with a glass rolling-pin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stuff and nonsense,&rdquo; said Bell, &ldquo;Tarts are nothing but pie-crust. This
+      village is situated in the very middle of what is called the New England
+      Pie Belt, and the glass rolling-pin and the marble slab have never been
+      seen by the oldest or youngest inhabitant. I know that bride. When she
+      makes pastry you can see her diamond engagement ring flash as she dips her
+      turquoise scoop into her ruby flour-barrel. Look up soft gingerbread,
+      Patty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Four cups best New Orleans molasses&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The molasses is out,&rdquo; said Jo; &ldquo;find jelly-cake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jelly all gone,&rdquo; said Bell; &ldquo;where, I can't think, for there were
+      seventeen tumblers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The boys are awfully fond of it with bread,&rdquo; said Alice, reminiscently.
+      &ldquo;How about doughnuts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; Bell answered, &ldquo;of course you'll go to the store for more
+      eggs and a pail of lard. We're out of molasses, eggs, lard, ginger, jelly,
+      patience, and luck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Over an hour was spent in futile excursions through the cookery books,
+      vain rummagings of the pantry and larder, frequent trips to the country
+      store, and nothing was a triumphant success. Things that should have been
+      thin were fat and puffy; those that should have risen high and light as
+      air were flat and soggy; pots, pans, bowls, were heaped on one another in
+      the sink until at one o'clock Alice Forsaith went to bed with a headache,
+      leaving the kitchen in a state of general confusion and uproar. I cannot
+      bear to tell you all the sorry incidents of that dreadful day, but Bell
+      had shared in the blunders with the rest. She had gone to the store-room
+      for citron, and had stumbled on a jar of frozen &ldquo;something&rdquo; very like
+      mince-meat. This, indeed, was a precious discovery! She flew back to the
+      kitchen, crying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hurrah! We'll have the pies after all, girls! Mother has left a pot of
+      mince-meat in the pantry. It's frozen, but it will be all right. You trust
+      to me. I've made pies before, and these shall not be a failure.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The spider was heated, and enough meat for three pies put in to thaw. It
+      thawed, naturally, the fire being extremely hot, and it presently became
+      very thin and curious in its appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks like thick soup with pieces of chopped apple in it,&rdquo; said Lilia
+      to Bell, who was patting down a very tough, substantial bottom crust on a
+      pie plate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We-l-l, it does!&rdquo; owned the head cook, frankly; &ldquo;but I suppose it will
+      boil down or thicken up in baking. I don't like to taste it, somehow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very natural,&rdquo; said Lilia, dryly. &ldquo;It doesn't look 'tasty;' and, to tell
+      the truth, it does not look at all as I've been brought up to imagine
+      mince-meat ought to look.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't be responsible for your 'bringing up,' Lill. Please pour it in,
+      and I'll hold the plate.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mixture trickled in; Bell put a very lumpy, spotted covering of dough
+      over it, slashed a bold original design in the middle for a ventilator,
+      and deposited the first pie in the oven with a sigh of relief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at this happy moment, Betty Bean, Mrs. Winship's maid-of-all-work,
+      walked in with a can of kerosene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you think that's funny looking mince-meat, Betty?&rdquo; asked Patty,
+      pointing to the frying-pan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Betty the wise looked at it one moment, and then said, with youthful
+      certainty and disdain: &ldquo;'Tain't no more mince-meat than a cat's
+      foot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was decisive, and the utterance fell like a thunder-bolt upon the
+      kitchen-maids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gracious,&rdquo; cried Bell, dropping her good English and her rolling-pin at
+      the same time. &ldquo;What do you mean? It looked exactly like it before it
+      melted. What is it, then?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suet,&rdquo; answered cruel Betty Bean. &ldquo;Your ma chopped it and done it up in
+      molasses for her suet plum puddins this winter. It's thick when it's cold;
+      and when it was froze, maybe it did look like pie-meat with a good deal of
+      apple in it; but it ain't no such thing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was too much. If I am to relate truly the adventures of this
+      half-dozen suffering little maidens, I must tell you that Bell entirely
+      lost her sunny temper for a moment; caught up the unoffending spider
+      filled with molasses and floating bits of suet; carried it steadily and
+      swiftly to the back-door, hurled it into a snow-bank; slammed the door,
+      and sat down on a flour-firkin, burying her face in the very dingy
+      roller-towel. The girls stopped laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind, Bluebell,&rdquo; cooed Patty, sympathetically, smoothing her
+      hostess's curly hair with a very doughnutty hand, and trying to wipe her
+      flushed cheeks with an apron redolent of hot fat. &ldquo;You can use the rest of
+      the pie-crust for tarts, and my doughnuts are swelling up
+      be-yoo-ti-ful-ly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell withdrew the towel from her merry, tearful eyes, and said with savage
+      emphasis:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If any of you dare tell this at the picnic to-morrow, or let Uncle Harry
+      or the boys know about it, I'll&mdash;I don't know what I'll do,&rdquo; finished
+      she, weakly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a fearful threat,&rdquo; laughed Jo,&mdash;&ldquo;'The King of France and
+      fifty thousand men plucked forth their swords! and put them up again.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so this cloud passed over, and another and yet another with comforting
+      gleams of sunshine between, till at length it was seven o'clock in the
+      evening before the dishes were washed and the kitchen tidied; then six as
+      tired young housewives stretched themselves before the parlor fire as a
+      bright blaze often shines upon. Bell, pale and pretty, was curled upon the
+      sofa, with her eyes closed. The other girls were lounging in different
+      attitudes of dejection, all with from one to three burned fingers
+      enveloped in cloths. The results of the day's labor were painfully meager,&mdash;a
+      colander full of doughnuts, some currant buns, molasses ginger-bread, and
+      a loaf of tolerably light fruit cake. Out in the kitchen closet lay a
+      melancholy pile of failure,&mdash;Alice's pop-overs, which had refused to
+      pop; Patty's tarts, rocky and tough; and a bride's cake that would have
+      made any newly married couple feel as if they were at the funeral of their
+      own stomachs. The girls had flown too high in their journey through the
+      cook book. Bell and Jo could really make plain things very nicely, and
+      were considered remarkable caterers by their admiring family of
+      school-mates; but the dainties they had attempted were entirely beyond
+      their powers; hence the pile of wasted goodies in the closet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, dear,&rdquo; sighed Lilia. &ldquo;Nobody has spoken a word for an age, and I
+      don't wonder, if everybody is as tired as I. Shall we ever be rested
+      enough to go to-morrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was thinking,&rdquo; said Edith, dreamily, &ldquo;that we have only seven more days
+      to stay. If they were all to be as horrible as this, I shouldn't care very
+      much; but we have had such fun, I dread to break up housekeeping. The
+      chief trouble with to-day was that we did no planning yesterday. We never
+      looked into the store-room nor bought anything in advance nor settled what
+      we should cook.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Bell, waking up a little, &ldquo;we will crowd everything possible
+      into the last week and make it a real carnival time. To-morrow is Saturday
+      and the picnic; on Monday or Tuesday we'll have some sort of a 'pow-wow,'
+      as Uncle Harry says, for the boys, in return for their invitation, and
+      then we'll think of something perfectly grand and stupendous for Friday,
+      our last day of fun. It will take from that until Monday to get the house
+      into something like order for my mother's return. (This with a remorseful
+      recollection of the terrible back bed-room, where everything imaginable
+      had been 'dumped' for a week past.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't finished trimming our shade hats,&rdquo; called Alice, faintly, from
+      the distance. &ldquo;I will do it in the morning while you are packing the
+      luncheon. Whatever we do let us unpack our baskets privately and try to
+      mix in our food with Mrs. Carter's or Mrs. Winship's, so that nobody will
+      know which is which.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girls had tried to devise something jaunty, picturesque, and summery
+      for a picnic costume; but the weather being too cold for a change of
+      dress, they had only bought broad straw hats at the country store,&mdash;hats
+      that farmers wore in haying time, with high crowns and wide brims. They
+      had turned up one side of them coquettishly, and adorned it with funny
+      silhouettes made of black paper, descriptive of their various adventures.
+      Lilia's, for instance, had a huge ink bottle and sponge; Bell's a mammoth
+      pie and frying-pan. Around the crowns they had tied colored scarfs of
+      ribbon or gauze, interwoven with bunches of dried grasses, oats, and
+      everlastings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half-past eight found them all sleep-in as soundly as dormice; and the
+      next morning with the recuperative power that youth brings, they awoke
+      entirely refreshed and ready for the fray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The picnic was a glorious success. It was a clear, bright day, and not
+      very cold; so that with a good fire they were able to have a couple of
+      windows open, and to feel more as if they were out in the fresh air. The
+      surprise and delight of the girls knew no bounds when they were ushered
+      into their novel picnic ground, and even the older people avowed that they
+      had never seen such a miracle of ingenuity. The scene was as pretty a one
+      as can be imagined, though the young people little knew how lovely a
+      picture they helped to make in the midst of their pastoral surroundings.
+      Six charming faces they were, happy with girlish joy, sweet and bright
+      from loving hearts, and pure, innocent, earnest living. Bell was radiant,
+      issuing orders for the spread of the feast, flying here and there,
+      laughing over a stuffed snake under a bush (Geoff's device), and talking
+      merry nonsense with Hugh, her arch eyes shining with mischief under her
+      great straw hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Marcus Aurelius, the parrot, talked, and the canaries sang as if this were
+      the last opportunity any of them ever expected to have; while the
+      embroidered butterflies and stuffed birds fluttered and swayed and danced
+      on the quivering tree-twigs beneath them almost as if they were alive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The table-cloth was spread on the floor, in real picnic fashion, for the
+      boys would allow neither tables nor chairs, and the lunch was simply
+      delectable. Mrs. Win-ship, Mrs. Brayton, and Mrs. Pennell, with
+      affectionate forethought, had brought everything that schoolgirls and boys
+      particularly affect&mdash;jelly-cake, tarts, and hosts of other goodies.
+      How the girls remembered their closetful of &ldquo;attempts&rdquo; at home; how they
+      roguishly exchanged glances, yet never disclosed their failures; how they
+      discoursed learnedly on baking-powder versus saleratus, raw potato versus
+      boiled potato yeast; and with what dignity and assurance they discussed
+      questions of household economy, and interlarded their conversation with
+      quotations from the &ldquo;Young Housekeeper's Friend,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Bride's
+      Manual.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the afternoon they played all sorts of games,&mdash;some quiet, more
+      not at all so,&mdash;until at five o'clock, nearly dark in these short
+      days, they left their make-believe forest and trudged home through the
+      snow, baskets under their arms, declaring it a mistaken idea that picnics
+      should be confined to summer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a gl-orious time we've had!&rdquo; exclaimed Jo, as they busied themselves
+      about the home dining-room. &ldquo;Yesterday seems like a horrible nightmare,
+      or, at least, it would if it hadn't happened in the daytime, and if we
+      hadn't the pantry to remind us of the truth. The things we carried were
+      not so v-e-r-y bad, after all! I was really proud of the buns, and Patty's
+      doughnuts were as 'swelled up' as Mrs. Drayton's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And a great deal yellower and spotted-er,&rdquo; quoth Edith, in a sly aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; admitted Patty, ruefully, &ldquo;there certainly was quite enough
+      saleratus in them; but I think it very unbecoming in the maker of the
+      bride's-cake to say anything about other people's mistakes! Bride's cake,
+      indeed!&rdquo; she finished with a scornful smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True!&rdquo; said Edith, much crushed by this heartless allusion to what had
+      been the most thorough and expensive failure of the day; &ldquo;I can't deny it.
+      Proceed with your sarcasm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This house 'looks as if it was going to ride out'! as Miss Miranda says,&rdquo;
+       exclaimed Alice. &ldquo;Do let us try to straighten it before Sunday! The
+      closets are all in snarls, the kitchen's in a mess, and the less said
+      about the back bedroom the better.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, inspired by Alice's enthusiasm, they began to work and to
+      improve the hours like a whole hiveful of busy bees. They put on big
+      aprons and washed pans and pots that had been evaded for two days, made
+      fish-balls for breakfast, dusted, scrubbed, washed, mended, darned, and
+      otherwise reduced the house to that especial and delicious kind of order
+      which is likened unto apple-pie. And thus one week of the joys and trials
+      of this merry half-a-dozen housekeepers was over and gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V&mdash;OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG
+    </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>ONDAY morning
+      broke. Such a cold, dismal, drizzly morning! The wind whistled and blew
+      about the cottage, until Lilia suggested tying the clothes-line round the
+      chimneys and fastening it to the strong pine-trees in front, for greater
+      safety. It snowed at six o'clock, it hailed at seven, rained at eight,
+      stopped at nine, and presently began to go through the same varied
+      programme. After breakfast, Bell went to the window and stood dreamily
+      flattening her nose against the pane, while the others busied themselves
+      about their several tasks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, girls,&rdquo; said she at length, &ldquo;we've had four different kinds of
+      weather this morning, so it may clear off after all, though I confess it
+      doesn't look like it. It's too stormy to go anywhere, or for anybody to
+      come to us, so we shall have to try violently in every possible way to
+      amuse ourselves. I must run over to Miss Miranda's for the milk before it
+      rains harder. Perhaps I shall stumble into some excitement on the way; who
+      knows!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So saying, she ran out, and in a few minutes appeared in the yard wrapped
+      in a bright red water-proof, the hood pulled over her head, and framing
+      her roguish, rosy face. In ten minutes she returned breathless from a race
+      across the garden, and a vain attempt to keep her umbrella right side out.
+      She entered the room in her usual breezy way, leaving the doors all open,
+      and sank into a chair, with an expression of mysterious mirth in her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guess what's happened!&rdquo; she asked, with sparkling eyes. &ldquo;I have the most
+      enormous, improbable, unguessable surprise for you; you never will think,
+      and anyway I can't wait to tell, so here it is: We are all invited to tea
+      this afternoon with Miss Miranda and Miss Jane! Isn't that 'ridikilis'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do tell, Isabel,&rdquo; squeaked Jo, with a comically irreverent imitation of
+      Miss Sawyer, &ldquo;air you a-going to accept?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, Bell, we'd better go,&rdquo; said Edith Lambert. &ldquo;I should like to see
+      the inside of that old house. I dare say we shall enjoy it, and it saves
+      cooking.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are remarkably favored,&rdquo; laughed Bell. &ldquo;I don't believe that anybody
+      has been invited there since the Sewing Circle met with them three years
+      ago. They live such a quiet, strange, lonely life! Their mother and father
+      died when they were very young, more than thirty years ago. They were
+      quite rich for the times, and left their daughters this big house all
+      furnished and quantities of lovely old-fashioned dishes and pictures. All
+      the rooms are locked, but I'll try and melt Miss Miranda's heart, and get
+      her to show us some of her relics. Scarcely anything has been changed in
+      all these years, except that they have bought a cooking-stove. Miss Jane
+      hates new-fangled things, and is really ashamed of the stove, I think; as
+      to having a sewing-machine, or an egg-beater, or a carpet-sweeper,&mdash;why,
+      she would as soon think of changing the fashion of her bonnet! I believe
+      there isn't such a curious house, nor another pair of such dried-up,
+      half-nice, half-disagreeable people in the country. There's Emma Jane with
+      the butter! I'll meet her at the back door, get her to peel some potatoes
+      and apples, make her sew a white ruffle in her neck, and make some
+      original remark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bell's criticism of the Misses Sawyer and their home was quite just. The
+      old brick house stood in a garden which, in the spring-time, was filled
+      with odorous lilacs, blossoming apple-trees, and long rows of currant and
+      gooseberry bushes. In the summer, too, there were actual groves of
+      asparagus, gaudy sunflowers, bright hollyhocks, gay marigolds, royal
+      flower-de-luce,&mdash;all respectable, old-fashioned posies, into whose
+      hearts the humming-birds loved to thrust their dainty beaks and steal
+      their sweetness. Then there were beds paved round with white clam-shells,
+      where were growing trembling little bride's-tears, bachelor's-buttons,
+      larkspur, and china pinks. No modern blossoms would Miss Miranda allow
+      within these sacred ancient places, no begonias, gladioli, and &ldquo;sech,&rdquo;
+       with their new-fangled, heathenish, unpronounceable names. The old flowers
+      were good enough for her; and, certainly, they made a blooming spot about
+      the dark house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, indeed, there was neither a leaf nor a bud to be seen; snow-birds
+      perched and twittered on the naked apple-boughs, and rifts of snow lay
+      over the sleeping seed-souls of the hollyhocks and marigolds, keeping them
+      just alive and no more, in a freezing, cold-blooded sort of way common to
+      snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if the garden outside looked like a relic of the olden time, the rooms
+      inside seemed even more so. The &ldquo;keeping-room&rdquo; had been refurnished
+      fifteen or twenty years before, but so well had it been kept, that there
+      still hovered about it a painful air of newness. Over the stiff black
+      hair-cloth sofa hung a funeral wreath in a shell frame, surrounded by the
+      Sawyer family photographs&mdash;husbands and wives always taken in
+      affectionate attitudes, that their relations might never be misunderstood.
+      In a corner stood the mahogany &ldquo;what-not&rdquo; with its bead watch-cases,
+      shells, and glass globes covering worsted-work flowers, together with more
+      family pictures, daguerreotypes in black cases on the top shelf, and a
+      marvelous blue china vase holding peacock feathers. Then there was a
+      gorgeous &ldquo;drawn in&rdquo; rug before the fireplace, with impossible purple roses
+      and pink leaves on its surface, and a marble-topped table holding a
+      magnificent lamp with a glass fringe around it, and a large piece of red
+      flannel floating in the kerosene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All these glories the girls were allowed to view as a great favor granted
+      at Bell's earnest request. They examined the parlor and the curiosities in
+      the diningroom cupboard with awe-struck faces, though their sobriety was
+      almost overcome at the sight of some of the works of art which Miss
+      Miranda held up for their reverential admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upstairs there were rooms scarcely ever opened. The bedsteads were
+      four-posted, and so high with many feather beds that their sleepy
+      occupants must have ascended a step-ladder to get into them, or climbed up
+      the posts hand over hand and dropped down into the downy depths. The
+      counterpanes and comforters were quilted in wonderful patterns. There was
+      the &ldquo;wild-goose chase,&rdquo; the &ldquo;log cabin,&rdquo; the &ldquo;rocky mountain,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Irish
+      plaid,&rdquo; and a &ldquo;charm quilt,&rdquo; in twelve hundred pieces, no two of which
+      were alike. The windows in the best chamber had white cotton curtains with
+      elaborate fringes; the looking-glass was long and narrow with a
+      yellow-painted frame, and a picture, in the upper half, of Napoleon
+      crossing the Alps, the Alps in question being very pointed and of a
+      sky-blue color, while Napoleon, in full-dress uniform, with never an
+      outrider nor a guide, was galloping up and over the dizzy peaks on a
+      skittish-looking pony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These things nearly upset Jo's gravity, and she quite lost Miss Sawyer's
+      favor by coughing down an irrepressible giggle when she was shown a
+      painting of Burns and His Mary, done in oil by Miss Hannah, the oldest
+      sister of the family, and long since dead. Miss Sawyer had no doubt that
+      Hannah's genius was of the highest order, although the specimens of her
+      skill handed down would astonish a modern artist. Burns and His Mary were
+      seated on a bank belonging to a landscape certainly not Scottish; His
+      Mary, with a pink tarlatan dress on, tucked to the waist; while a brook
+      was seemingly purling over Burns' coat-tails spread out behind him on the
+      bank. It was this peculiar detail which aroused Jo's mirth, as well it
+      might, so that she could not trust herself to examine with the others Miss
+      Hannah's last and finest effort&mdash;&ldquo;Maidens welcoming General
+      Washington in the streets of Alexandria.&rdquo; The maidens, thirteen in number,
+      were precisely alike in form and feature, all very smooth as to hair, long
+      as to waist, short as to skirt, pointed as to toe, and carrying bouquets
+      of exactly the same size and structure, tied up with green ribbon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tour of inspection finished, the girls sat down to chat over their
+      tatting and crochet work, while the two ladies went out to prepare supper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My reputation is gone,&rdquo; whispered Jo, solemnly. &ldquo;To think that I should
+      have laughed when I had been behaving so beautifully all the afternoon;
+      but Robbie Burns was the last straw that broke the camel's back of my
+      politeness; I couldn't have helped it if Miss Miranda had eaten me instead
+      of frowning at me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you think?&rdquo; cried Lilia, jumping up impulsively and knocking down
+      her chair in so doing, &ldquo;I'm going to beard the lion in his den, and see if
+      they won't let me help them get supper. Don't you want to come, Jo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The two girls ran across the long, cold hall, opened the kitchen door
+      stealthily, and Jo asked in her sweetest tones, &ldquo;Can't we set the table or
+      help in any way, Miss Miranda?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I thank you, Josephine; there is nothing to do, or leastways you
+      wouldn't know where things are, and wouldn't be any good. The Porter girl
+      may come in if she wants to, but two of you would only clutter up the
+      kitchen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      So Lilia went in meekly, and poor Jo flew back to the parlor, smarting
+      under a bitter sense of disgrace. The sisters fortunately knew nothing of
+      Lilia's aptitude for blunders, else she never would have been suffered to
+      touch their precious household gods. As it was, by dint of extreme care,
+      she managed to get the plum sauce on the table, and to set the chairs
+      around it, without any serious disaster. To be sure, in cutting the dried
+      beef, she notched a memorandum of the pieces shaved on each of her
+      fingers, so that when she finished they were perfect little calendars of
+      suffering; however, this only concerned herself, and she did not murmur,
+      as most of her mistakes implicated other people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At half-past five they sat down to supper; and such a supper! Miss Miranda
+      was evidently anxious to impress the young people. The best pink &ldquo;chany&rdquo;
+       set had been unearthed, and there were besides other old dishes of great
+      magnificence. Quaint British lustre pitchers held the milk and cream, a
+      green dragon plate the cookies, and the &ldquo;Sheltered Peasant&rdquo; saucers came
+      in for general admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The china was not more notable than the food. There were light soda
+      biscuits, large in size and thick, and there was cold buttermilk bread; a
+      blue and white bowl held tomato preserves, while a glass one was full of
+      delicious applesauce cooked in maple-syrup; then there was a round, creamy
+      cottage-cheese, white as a snow-ball; a golden, dried-pumpkin pie, baked
+      in a deep yellow plate; the brownest and plummiest and indigestible-est of
+      all plummy cakes, with doughnuts and sugar gingerbread besides. This array
+      of good things being taken in with rapid and rabid glances, the girls
+      exchanged involuntary looks of delight, and even emitted audible signs of
+      happiness. To say that they did justice to the repast would be a feeble
+      expression, for in truth the meals of their own preparation were irregular
+      as to time, indifferent as to quality, and sometimes, when they calculated
+      carelessly and unwisely, even small as to quantity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0127.jpg" alt="0127 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0127.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      After tea was over, each of the girls was required to give, in answer to a
+      string of questions asked, her entire family history; for no tidbit of
+      information concerning other people's affairs was uninteresting to Miss
+      Jane or Miss Miranda. This cross-examination being finished, they rose to
+      go, unable to hear any longer the quiet, proper, suppressed atmosphere
+      that pervaded the house. While they had been admiring the quaint,
+      old-fashioned relics and busy devouring the appetizing New England
+      goodies, they were quite at ease, but an hour or two of conversation had
+      exhausted their adaptability. When they had taken their leave, and the
+      sound of their merry voices and ringing laughter floated in from the
+      country road, Miss Miranda sank into a chair, and waved a fan excitedly to
+      and fro, her mouse-colored complexion quite flushed and pink from the
+      unwonted dissipation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wall, Jane,&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;it's over now, and we've done our dooty by Mis'
+      Winship; she's a good neighbor, and I wanted to act right by Isabel when
+      her Ma was away, but of all the crazy, 'stivering' girls I ever see, them
+      do beat all; though they did behave tolerable well this afternoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They seemed to enjoy their supper,&rdquo; said Miss Jane; &ldquo;I never saw girls
+      make a heartier meal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They did for certain,&rdquo; continued Miranda, &ldquo;too hearty most. I thought.
+      That light-haired girl with the blue ear-rings left her meat hash, that'll
+      sour before we can warm it over again, and et and et fruit cake till I was
+      afraid she'd have fits at the table. We ought to be very thankful we
+      hevn't any young ones or men-folks to cook for, Jane.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that expression of gratitude on her lips, she lighted a candle,
+      and after locking up the house securely, the two spinsters went to their
+      bedrooms to sleep the sleep of the calm and the virtuous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their merry visitors, undisturbed by the pelting rain from above, and the
+      deep &ldquo;slush&rdquo; beneath, waded over into their own grounds with many a hearty
+      laugh and jest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, how delightful our own sitting-room looks!&rdquo; exclaimed Patty, as they
+      opened the door and gathered about the cheerful fire on the hearth. And,
+      indeed, it did, after the stiff, prim arrangement of the rooms they had
+      left. The flickering blaze cast soft shadows on the walls, and touched the
+      marbles on the brackets with rosy tints; the canary-birds were fast asleep
+      with their heads hidden under their wings, and the dog and cat were
+      snoozing peacefully together on the hearth-rug. The young people, as well
+      as the room, belonged to another generation than Miss Miranda's and Miss
+      Jane's, a brighter, freer, fresher one, with a wider outlook, and quite
+      different problems and responsibilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We never can be jollier than this!&rdquo; cried Lilia, in an irrepressible
+      burst of appreciation. &ldquo;Oh, that it might last forever, and that
+      seminaries for young ladies might be turned into zoological gardens! Then
+      we could keep house here this week, the next week, and eternally, taking
+      tea with Miss Miranda whenever she asked us to come. What a good supper
+      that was, girls! Oh, Bell and Jo, you ought to be overcome with remorse
+      when you think what you might give us to eat, if you were only skillful,
+      energetic, and ingenious!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're the very essence of thanklessness!&rdquo; answered Bell, in high
+      dudgeon. &ldquo;It's nothing less than fiery martyrdom to cook for you girls,
+      when you are so ungrateful. Your special seminary will not be so far
+      removed from a zoological garden when <i>you</i> return to it, that is
+      certain!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My dear child, I am sorry already for my remark,&rdquo; said Lilia, in feigned
+      repentance. &ldquo;It was very thoughtless in me to arouse your anger until
+      after the next meal. Any impertinence of ours is sure to be visited upon
+      us in the form of oatmeal porridge, or salt fish and crackers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lilia Porter, if you want to be an angel by and by, it would be better to
+      draw your thoughts away from eatables for a time; you talk quite too much
+      about food,&rdquo; said Edith Lambert, who had a very hearty appetite, but never
+      called attention to it. &ldquo;When you have done with your nonsense, I have
+      something to propose for our final 'good time.' We have only four days, 'tis
+      true, and 'pity 'tis 'tis true; but we must go away with
+      flying colors, and so astonish the natives with our genius that the
+      village will talk of us for months to come.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Si-lence in court!&rdquo; cried Jo, impressively. &ldquo;Let me offer you the coal
+      hod for a platform; it won't tip over; go on, you look as dignified as a
+      policeman.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop your nonsense, Jo. You remember, Bell, the evening when we made a
+      comic pantomime of 'Young Lochinvar,' and acted it before the teachers and
+      seniors?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed I do,&rdquo; laughed Bell, in recollection. &ldquo;We girls took all the
+      characters. What fun it was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why can't we do that again, changing and improving it, of course? The
+      boys are so clever and bright about anything of the kind that they would
+      be irresistibly funny. What do you think?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I like the idea,&rdquo; exclaimed Patty Weld. &ldquo;Uncle Harry's large hall would
+      be just the place for it, and the stage is already there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it is; how fortunate,&rdquo; agreed Alice; &ldquo;we couldn't think of anything
+      that would be greater fun. How shall we cast the characters! You must be
+      the bride, Bell, the 'fair Ellen!' you will do it better than anybody. Jo
+      will make up into the funniest old lady for a mother, and the rest of us
+      can be the bride-maidens. Hugh Pennell will be a glorious Young Lochinvar,
+      if he can be persuaded to run away with Bell&mdash;&rdquo; this with a sly
+      glance at her hostess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Edith, &ldquo;and poor Jack will have to be the 'craven bridegroom,'
+      who loses his bride, and Geoff, the stern parent.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Uncle Harry will read the poem for us, I know,&rdquo; continued Bell; &ldquo;he does
+      that sort of thing often at the church, and does it beautifully. Phil
+      Howard, Royal Lawrence, and Harry will be bridemen. We'll perform the
+      piece in such a tragic way that each separate hair in the audience will
+      stand erect.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, oh, the labor of it, girls!&rdquo; sighed Patty&mdash;&ldquo;wooden horses to be
+      made for the elopement scene, Scottish dresses, and all sorts of toggery
+      to be hunted up; can we ever do it in time, with our house-cleaning before
+      us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nonsense, of course we can,&rdquo; rejoined Bell, energetically. &ldquo;We will
+      consult every book on private theatricals, Scottish history, manners, and
+      costumes in this house, and Uncle Harry's, too. Let us get up at five
+      to-morrow morning, have a simple breakfast of&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cornmeal mush or dry bread and milk,&rdquo; finished Lilia, with grim sarcasm.
+      &ldquo;If time must be saved, of course, it must come out of the cooking! How
+      are we to do this amount of work on a low diet, I should like to know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are the cooks to get time for anything outside the kitchen if they
+      humor your unnatural appetites! Out of kindness, we propose to lower you
+      gradually, meal by meal, into the pit of boarding-school fare.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' I don't care to be starved
+      beforehand by way of getting used to it,&rdquo; retorted Lilia, as she lighted
+      the bedroom candles. &ldquo;Come, dears, do cover the fire; it was sleepy-time
+      an hour ago, and if you want to see something beautiful, look through the
+      piazza window.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath them lay the steep river bank, smooth with its white, glittering
+      crust, above which a few naked alders pushed their snow-weighted
+      finger-tips; one rugged old pine-tree stood in the garden, grand, dark,
+      and fearless; the quiet part of the river had been turned by King Winter
+      into an icy mirror; but over the dam a hundred yards below, the waters
+      tumbled too furiously to be frozen. The old bridge looked like a silver
+      string tying together the two little villages, and over all was the
+      dazzling winter moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Six dreamy faces now at the cottage window. Six girlish figures, all drawn
+      closely together, with arms lovingly clasped. The white beauty, and the
+      solemn stillness of the picture hushed them into quietness. One minute
+      passed and then another, while the spell was working, till at length Bell
+      impulsively bent her brown head, and said softly: &ldquo;If the minister were
+      here he would say, 'Let us pray.' It makes me want to whisper, 'Dear Lord,
+      make us pure and white within, as thy world is without.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Amen,&rdquo; murmured Edith and Patty, in the same breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pull down the curtain,&rdquo; sighed Jo; &ldquo;it makes me feel wicked!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, don't, don't, not quite yet!&rdquo; pleaded Edith, &ldquo;it is too heavenly and
+      it can't do us any harm to feel wicked. It reminds me of Tennyson's 'St.
+      Agnes' Eve,' of the white, white picture she looked out upon from her
+      convent window the night she was lifted to the golden doors of heaven&mdash;the
+      poem you recited for the medal, Alice,&mdash;say a verse of it.&rdquo; And
+      Alice, half under her breath, repeated the lovely lines:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      &ldquo;As these white robes are soil'd and
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      dark
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      To yonder shining ground;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      As this pale taper's earthly spark,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      To yonder argent round;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So shines my soul before the Lamb,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      My spirit before Thee;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So in mine earthly house I am
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      To that I hope to be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI&mdash;&ldquo;THE END OF THE PLAY&rdquo;
+     </h2>
+    <p class="pfirst">
+      <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the next
+      morning, and, indeed, on all of those left of their stay, the six
+      housekeepers were up at an alarmingly early hour, so that the sun,
+      accustomed to being the earliest of all risers, felt himself quite
+      behindhand and outshone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain he clambered up over the hillside in a desperate hurry; the girls
+      were always before him with lighted candles. As for the clock, it held up
+      its hands with astonishment, and struck five shrill exclamation points of
+      surprise to see six wide-awake young persons tumbling out of their warm
+      nests before the world was lighted or heated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day's hours were hardly enough for the day's plans, for there were
+      farewell coasting, skating, and sleighing parties, besides active daily
+      preparations for the pantomime. The costumes of the hoys were gorgeous to
+      behold, and were fashioned entirely by the girls' clever fingers. They
+      consisted of scarlet or blue flannel shirts, short plaid kilts, colored
+      stockings striped with braid, sashes worn over shoulders, and jaunty
+      little caps with bobbing quills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the last happy evening of their stay, the eventful evening of &ldquo;Young
+      Lochinvar,&rdquo; the guests gathered from all the surrounding country to see
+      the frolic. There were people from North Edgewood, South Edgewood, East
+      Edge-wood, and West Edgewood; from Edgewood Upper Corner, Edgewood Lower
+      Corner, and Edgewood Four Corners, and everybody had brought his uncles
+      and cousins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the big dressing-room the young actors were assembled,&mdash;and
+      fortunately in a high state of exuberance and excitement, else they would
+      have been decidedly frightened at the ordeal before them. Jo, mirror in
+      hand, was trying to make herself look seventy; and, though she had not
+      succeeded, she had transformed herself into a very presentable Scottish
+      dame, with her short satin gown and apron, lace kerchief and spectacles.
+      Edith was giving a pair of pointed burnt-cork eyebrows to Hugh, that he
+      might wear a sufficiently dashing and defiant countenance for Lochinvar,
+      while Jack stood before the glass practicing his meek expression for the
+      jilted bridegroom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
+      <img src="images/0145.jpg" alt="0145 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h5>
+      <a href="images/0145.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      Bell had sunk into a chair, and folded her hands to &ldquo;get up&rdquo; her courage.
+      As to her dress, nobody knew whether it was the proper one for a Scottish
+      bride or not; but it was the only available thing, and certainly she
+      looked in it a very bewitching and sufficient excuse for Lochinvar's rash
+      folly. It was of some shining white material, and came below the ankle,
+      just showing a pair of jaunty high-heeled slippers; the skirt was
+      'broidered and flounced to the belt, the waist simple and full, with short
+      puffed sleeves; while a bridal veil and dainty crown of flowers made her
+      as winsome and bonny as a white Scottish rose. Emma Jane Perkins stood in
+      one corner paralyzed by her own good looks. Her red hair was waved and
+      hanging in her neck, and her dress was white. She hoped she could be
+      trusted to bring in this overpowering weight of beauty at the right
+      moment, but felt a little doubtful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncle Harry stumbled in at the low door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you ready, young fry?&rdquo; asked he. &ldquo;It is half-past seven, and we ought
+      to begin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put out the footlights, give the people back their money, and tell them
+      the prima donna is dangerously ill!&rdquo; gasped Bell, faintly, fanning herself
+      with a box-cover. &ldquo;I don't believe I can ever do it. Hugh, are you
+      perfectly sure our horse won't break down on the stage when we elope?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Calm yourself, 'fair Ellen,' and trust to my horsemanship. Doesn't the
+      poem say:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      'Through all the wide Border his steed
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      was the best?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And doesn't this exactly embody Scott's idea?&rdquo;&mdash;pointing to a wild
+      and cross-eyed wooden effigy mounted on a pair of trucks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You have all read Sir Walter Scott's poem of &ldquo;Young Lochinvar,&rdquo; and many a
+      time, I hope, for they are brave old verses:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      West,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Through all the wide Border his steed
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      was the best,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      And, save his good broadsword, he
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      weapons had none;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      He rode all unarmed, and he rode all
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      alone.
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So faithful in love, and so dauntless in
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      war,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      There never was knight like the young
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      Lochinvar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, you remember, the young knight rode fast and far, stayed not for
+      brakes, stopped not for stones, but all in vain; for ere he alighted at
+      Netherby Gate, the fair Ellen, overcome by parental authority, had
+      consented to be married to another:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      For a laggard in love and a dastard in
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      war
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      Lochinvar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he, nothing daunted, boldly entered the bridal hall among bridemen and
+      bridemaids and kinsmen, thereby raising so general a commotion that the
+      bride's father cried at once, the poor craven bridegroom being struck
+      quite dumb:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      &ldquo;Oh, come ye in peace here, or coyne ye
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      inivar,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      Lochinvar?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lover answers with apparent indifference that though he has in past
+      times been exceedingly fond of the young person called Ellen, he has now
+      merely come to tread a measure and drink one cup of wine with her, for
+      although love swells like the tide, it ebbs like it also. So he drinks her
+      health, while she sighs and blushes, weeps and smiles, alternately; then
+      he takes her soft hand, her parents fretting and fuming the while, and
+      leads the dance with her,&mdash;he so stately, she so lovely, that they
+      are the subject of much envy, admiration, and sympathy. But while thus
+      treading the measure, he whispers in her ear something to which she
+      apparently consents without much unwillingness, and at the right moment
+      they dance out from the crowd of kinsmen to the door of the great hall,
+      where in the darkness the charger stands ready saddled. Quick as thought
+      the dauntless lover swings his fair Ellen lightly up, springs before her
+      on the saddle, and they dash furiously away:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      &ldquo;She is won! We are gone, over ban,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      bush, and scaur;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      They'll have fleet steeds that follow
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      quoth young Lochinvar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as their flight is discovered, there is wild excitement and hasty
+      mounting of all the Netherby Clan; there is racing and chasing over the
+      fields, but &ldquo;the laggard in love and the dastard in war&rdquo; never recovers
+      his lost Ellen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So daring in love, and so dauntless in
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      war,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Have ye e'er heard of gallant like
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      young Lochinvar?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Uncle Harry read the poem through in such a stirring way that the audience
+      was fairly warmed into interest; then, standing by the side of the stage
+      with the curtain rolled up, he read it again, line by line, or verse by
+      verse, to explain the action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the first stanza, Lochinvar made his triumphal entrance, riding a
+      prancing hobby-horse with a sweeping tail of raveled rope, and a mane to
+      match, gorgeous trappings adorned with sleigh-bells and ornamental paper
+      designs, and bunches of cotton tacked on for flecks of foam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lochinvar himself wore gray pasteboard armor, a pair of carpet slippers
+      with ferocious spurs, red mittens, and carried a huge carving-knife. His
+      costume alone was food for amusement, but the manner in which he careered
+      wildly about the stage, displaying his valorous horsemanship as he rode to
+      the wedding, was perfectly irresistible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next scene opened in Netherby Hall, showing the bridal party all
+      assembled in gala dress. Into this family gathering presently strode the
+      determined lover, with his carving-knife sheathed for politeness' sake.
+      Then followed a comical pantomime between the angry parents, who demanded
+      his intentions, and the adroit Lochinvar, who declared them to be
+      peaceful. The father (Geoffrey Strong) at last gave him unwilling
+      permission to drink one cup of wine and tread one measure with the bride.
+      She kissed the goblet (a tin quart measure), he quaffed off the spirit,
+      and threw down the cup. Pair Ellen bridled with pleasure, and promenaded
+      about the room on his arm, while the bridegroom looked on wretchedly, the
+      parents quarreled, and the bride-maidens whispered:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      &ldquo;'Tivere better by far
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      To have matched our fair cousin with
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent20">
+      young Lochinvar.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first opportunity, the guests walked leisurely out, and young
+      Lochinvar seized an imaginary chance to draw Ellen hastily back into the
+      supper room. He whispered the magic word into her ear, she started in
+      horror and drew back; he urged; she demurred; he pleaded; she showed signs
+      of surrender; he begged on his bended knees; she yielded at length to the
+      plan of the elopement, with all its delightful risks. Then Lochinvar
+      darted to the outside door and brought in his charger,&mdash;rather an
+      unique proceeding, perhaps, but necessary under the circumstances,
+      inasmuch as the audience could not be transported to the proper scene of
+      the mounting. As the flight was to be made on horseback, much ingenuity
+      and labor were needed to arrange it artistically. The horse's head was the
+      work of Geoff's hand, and for meekness of expression, jadedness,
+      utterly-cast-down-and-worn-out-ness, it stood absolutely unrivalled. A
+      pair of trucks were secreted beneath the horse-blankets, and the front
+      legs of the animal pranced gaily out in front, taking that startling and
+      decided curve only seen in pictures of mowing-machines and horseraces.
+      Lochinvar quieted his fiery beast, and swung Ellen into the saddle, leaped
+      up after her, waved his tall hat in triumph, and started off at a snail's
+      pace, the horse being dragged by a rope from behind the scenes. When half
+      way across the stage, Ellen clasped her lover's arm and seemed to have
+      forgotten something. Everybody in the room at once guessed it must be some
+      part of her trousseau. She explained earnestly in pantomime; Lochinvar
+      refused to return; she insisted; he remained firm; she pouted and
+      seemingly said that she wouldn't elope at all unless she could have her
+      own way. He relented, they went back to Netherby Hall, and Ellen ran up a
+      secret stairway and came down laden with maidenly traps. Greatly to the
+      merriment of the observers, she loaded them on the docile horse in the
+      very face of Lochinvar's displeasure&mdash;two small looking-glasses, a
+      bird-cage, and a French bonnet. She then leisurely drew on a pair of huge
+      India rubbers, unfurled a yellow linen umbrella, and just as her lover's
+      patience was ebbing, suffered herself to be remounted. The second trip
+      across the stage was accomplished in safety, though with anything but the
+      fleetness common to elopements either in life or in poetry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came the pursuit&mdash;a most graphic and stirring scene, giving
+      large opportunities to the supernumerary characters. Four bridemen on
+      dashing hobbyhorses, jumping fences, leaping bars and ditches in hot
+      excitement; four bride-maids, with handkerchiefs tied over their heads,
+      running hither and thither in confusion; the old mother and father,
+      limping in and straining their eyes for a sight of their refractory
+      daughter; and last of all, poor Jack, the deserted bridegroom, on foot,
+      with never a horse left to him, puffing and panting in his angry chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was done! How people laughed till they cried, how they continued to
+      laugh for five minutes afterward, I cannot begin to tell you. The
+      performance had been the perfection of fun from first to last, and seemed
+      all the more inspiring because it was original with the bright bevy of
+      young folks who had enacted the poem. Uncle Harry had renewed his youth,
+      and received the plaudits of the crowd with unconcealed pleasure. The hero
+      and heroine, Lochinvar and fair Ellen, had so generously provided dramatic
+      opportunities for the minor actors that all had enjoyed an equal chance in
+      the favor of the audience. There was neither envy, jealousy, nor
+      heartburning; each of the girls gloried in the achievements of the others,
+      and confessed that the mechanical ingenuity of the boys had made the
+      triumph possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length the lights were all out, the finery bundled up, the many
+      farewells said, and as the girls, escorted by their faithful young
+      squires, trudged along the path through the orchard for the last time, sad
+      thoughts would come, although the party was much too youthful and cheery
+      to be gloomy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Depart, fun and frolic!&rdquo; sighed Lilia, in mournful tones. &ldquo;Depart,
+      breakfasts at any hour and other delights of laziness! Enter,
+      boarding-school, books, bells, and other banes of existence!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is really too awful to think or to speak about,&rdquo; sighed Jo. &ldquo;Now I
+      know how Eve must have felt when she had to pack up and leave the garden;
+      only she went because she insisted upon eating of the tree of knowledge,
+      while I must go and eat, whether I will or not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your appetite for that special fruit isn't so great that you'll ever be
+      troubled with indigestion,&rdquo; dryly rejoined Patty, the student of the
+      &ldquo;Jolly Six.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fancy starting off at half-past ten to-morrow morning; fancy reaching
+      school at one, and sitting down stupidly to a dinner of broth, fried
+      liver, and cracker-pudding! Ugh! it makes me shiver,&rdquo; said Alice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think of us,&rdquo; cried Geoff, &ldquo;going back to college, and settling into
+      regular 'digs.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If 'digs' is a contraction of dignitaries,&rdquo; said Edith, saucily, &ldquo;you'll
+      never be those; if you mean you are to delve into the mines of learning,
+      that's doubtful, too; but if it's a corruption of Digger Indian, I should
+      say there might be some force in your remark. Oh, what matchless
+      war-whoops you gave in the pursuit to-night. Every separate hair in Betty
+      Bean's head stood on end, and the Misses Sawyer sat close together and
+      trembled visibly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a wonderful evening,&rdquo; remarked Hugh. &ldquo;There were persons there who
+      said that Bell was beautiful and I was clever.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't want to annoy you,&rdquo; laughed Jo, &ldquo;but I heard exactly the
+      opposite.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which only goes to show that both of us are both,&rdquo; retorted Bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that sentence goes to show that a week's absence from the class in
+      parsing and analysis has had its effect,&rdquo; said Patty. &ldquo;Look at our angel
+      cottage, girls! Doesn't it look like a marble night-lamp with the hall
+      light shining through all its sweet little windows'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The fire isn't out, that's fortunate,&rdquo; observed Alice, as she saw a small
+      cloud of smoke issuing from the chimney.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good night and sweet dreams,&rdquo; called the hoys, when Geoffrey had unlocked
+      the door of the cottage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sweet dreams, indeed!&rdquo; the girls answered in chorus. &ldquo;The kitchen closet
+      to put in order, also the shed, two trunks to pack, twenty-four hours'
+      dishes to wash, and a million 'odd jobs' more or less.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't forget the borrowed articles to be returned,&rdquo; reminded Hugh. &ldquo;We'll
+      take the pung and do that for you, also attend to the cleaning of the
+      shed, which is more in our line than yours. Boys, let us give one rousing
+      cheer for Dr. and Mrs. Winship, the model parents of the century!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The welkin rang with hurrahs, in which the girls joined with hearty vigor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now another rousing one for the model daughter of the century,&rdquo; cried
+      Bell, modestly; &ldquo;the model daughter who had the bright idea and begged the
+      model parents to assent to it. Of what use would have been the model
+      parents, pray, unless they had had the model daughter with the bright
+      idea?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      More cheers, lustier than ever, floated out into the orchard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The model daughter would have had a dull house-party with nothing but her
+      bright idea to keep her company,&rdquo; said Jo Fenton, suggestively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three cheers for the house party! Three cheers for the 'Jolly Six!' Hip,
+      hip, hurrah!&rdquo; and at this moment Uncle Harry's window opened and across
+      the breadth of the orchard came the warning note of a conch shell, an
+      instrument of much power, with which Uncle Harry called his men to dinner
+      in haying time. Had it not been for this message of correction it is
+      possible the enthusiastic young people might have cheered one another till
+      midnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was afternoon of the next day. The six little housekeepers were gone,
+      and the dejected hoys went into the garden to take a last look at the
+      empty cottage. On the door was a long piece of fluttering white paper,
+      tied with black ribbon. It proved to be the parting words of the &ldquo;Jolly
+      Six.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      How dear to our hearts are the scenes of
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      vacation,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      When fond recollection presents them
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      to view!
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      The coasting, the sleigh-rides, and&mdash;chief
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      recreation&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      That gayest of picnics with squires so
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      true!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      And note, torn away from the loved situ-
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      ation,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      The hump of conceit will explosively
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      swell,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      As proudly we think, never since the
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      creation,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Did any young housekeepers keep
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      house so well!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Think not our great genius too highly
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      we've rated,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      For all that belongs to the kitchen we
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      know;
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      And feel that from infancy we have been
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      fated
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      For scrubbing and cooking, far more
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      than for show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      The cook-stove and dish-pan to us are so
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      charming,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      So toothsome the compounds we often
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      have mixed,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      That though you would think the news
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      somewhat alarming,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      On housekeeping ever our minds are
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      quite fixed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Good-by to all hope of a fame uni-
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      versal!
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      Farewell, vain ambition,&mdash;that way
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      madness lies!
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      The rest of our youth shall be one long
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      rehearsal
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent15">
+      For life in six cottages, all of this
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent30">
+      size!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      B. W.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      J. F.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      P. W.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      A. F.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      E. L.
+    </h3>
+    <h3>
+      L. P.
+    </h3>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      X
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      Their joint mark.
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      Witnessed by me this morning,
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      Jack Frost, Notary Public.
+    </p>
+    <p class="indent10">
+      Sealed with a snow flake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys read this nonsense with hearty laughter, and latching the gate
+      behind them, they went off, leaving the place deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are awfully jolly girls,&rdquo; said Jack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better than jolly,&rdquo; added Geoffrey, thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're right, Geoff; miles better and miles more than jolly,&rdquo; agreed
+      Hugh. &ldquo;None like'em in Brunswick.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or in Portland.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or in Bath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or in Augusta.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with this outburst of respectful admiration the lads passed out of
+      view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The setting sun shone rosily in at the piazza window that afternoon, but
+      fell blankly against a gray curtain, instead of smiling into six laughing
+      faces as before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A noisy crowd of sparrows settled on the bare branches over the door-step,
+      twittering as if they expected the supper of bread-crumbs which girlish
+      hands had been wont to throw them, and at last flew away disappointed. In
+      the old house opposite, Miss Miranda sat in her high-backed chair,
+      knitting as fiercely as ever, while Miss Jane was at her post by the
+      window, drearily watching the sun go down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned away with the glow of a new thought in her wrinkled face.
+      &ldquo;Mi-randy!&rdquo; called she, sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No answer but the sharp click of knitting-needles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mirandy Sawyer! What do you say to invitin' our niece, Hannah, down here
+      from the farm, and givin' her a couple of terms' schoolin'? Aurelia has
+      her hands full raisin' that great family of children. She'd be glad one of
+      'em should have some advantages. We ain't seen Hannah since she was
+      ten, but she was a nice appearin', pretty behavin' girl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Miranda glanced ont of the window without speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems like a streak of sunshine had gone out o' the place with them
+      young creeters, and I think we've lived here alone about long enough!&rdquo;
+       continued Miss Jane. &ldquo;I should like to give one girl a chance of being a
+      brighter, livelier woman than I am. Yes, you may drop your knittin',
+      Mirandy, but you know it as well as I do!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No wonder that Miss Miranda looked very much as if she had been struck by
+      lightning; the more wonder that the quiet old house didn't shake to its
+      foundation, when this proposal was made. Indeed, old Tabby, on the
+      hearth-rug, did wake up, startled, no doubt by the consciousness that a
+      child's hand might pull her tail in days to come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It does seem dreadful lonesome,&rdquo; Miss Miranda agreed, after a long pause.
+      &ldquo;Hear Topsy howling in the kitchen; she's missin' the young life that's
+      gone, and she'll have to git used to us all over again, jest as I said.
+      Hannah would be considerable expense to us, and make a sight o' work, too.
+      Of course, you've thought o' that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We take about so many steps, anyway,&rdquo; argued Miss Jane, &ldquo;and if the
+      child's spry and handy, she may save us a few now and then. Tabitha ain't
+      so much care, nor near so confinin', sence Topsy came to keep her comp'ny&mdash;even
+      two cats is better'n one.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There goes Emma Jane Perkins,&rdquo; exclaimed Miss Miranda, from her post of
+      observation. &ldquo;She looks different somehow. I've always said I should think
+      her face would ache, it's so hombly, but I guess she's passed her
+      hombliest, and is going to improve. Mebbe Mis' Perkins has been givin' her
+      spring medicine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guess the 'spring medicine' has been two weeks' good time with that
+      trainin' and careerin' houseful of girls,&rdquo; rejoined Miss Jane, wisely.
+      &ldquo;Everybody in the village sits up kind o' smart and looks as if they'd
+      taken a tonic. Maybe I'd better write to Aurelia on Sunday, Mirandy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mebbe you had, Jane, and if she can't spare Hannah, say we'll take
+      Rebecca, though I always thought she was a self-willed child, too full of
+      her own fancies to be easy managed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This is not the time for Rebecca's story; but, as a matter of fact, Mrs.
+      Aurelia Randall could not spare Hannah, who was docile, industrious, and
+      of much assistance with the house-work, and as a matter of fact it was the
+      somewhat dreaded Rebecca who did come from the far-away farm to live in
+      the dull old house with Miss Jane and Miss Miranda. And all that befell
+      this new family circle, formed almost by accident, and all that Rebecca
+      did, or became, as well as everything that happened during the gradual
+      beautifying of Emma Jane Perkins, was, as you see, the indirect result of
+      Bell Winship's madcap experiment in housekeeping.
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      THE END
+    </h3>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
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+  </body>
+</html>
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