diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-0.txt | 2686 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-0.zip | bin | 54689 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h.zip | bin | 2664287 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/54685-h.htm | 3365 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/0001.jpg | bin | 211704 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/0006.jpg | bin | 337566 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/0007.jpg | bin | 294476 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/0053.jpg | bin | 354805 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/0063.jpg | bin | 313671 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/0093.jpg | bin | 308654 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/0127.jpg | bin | 402876 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/0145.jpg | bin | 203891 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 196406 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/54685-h/images/enlarge.jpg | bin | 789 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/54685-h.htm.2018-08-20 | 3364 |
18 files changed, 17 insertions, 9415 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3acf267 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54685 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54685) diff --git a/old/54685-0.txt b/old/54685-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 08a77b8..0000000 --- a/old/54685-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2686 +0,0 @@ -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 - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS *** - -***** This file should be named 54685-0.txt or 54685-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/6/8/54685/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - 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. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - diff --git a/old/54685-0.zip b/old/54685-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 27016e7..0000000 --- a/old/54685-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h.zip b/old/54685-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 56a22d1..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/54685-h.htm b/old/54685-h/54685-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index bfdb0de..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/54685-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3365 +0,0 @@ -<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> - -<!DOCTYPE html - PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "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%;} - .large {font-size: 115%;} - .x-large {font-size: 130%;} - .indent5 { margin-left: 5%;} - .indent10 { margin-left: 10%;} - .indent15 { margin-left: 15%;} - .indent20 { margin-left: 20%;} - .indent30 { margin-left: 30%;} - .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;} - .side { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 15%; padding-left: 0.8em; - border-left: dashed thin; text-align: left; - text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; - font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} - .head { float: left; font-size: 90%; width: 98%; padding-left: 0.8em; - border-left: dashed thin; text-align: center; - 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—BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II—IN THE FIRELIGHT </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III—AN EMERGENCY CASE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV—A WINTER PICNIC </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V—OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI—“THE END OF THE PLAY” </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—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 - “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 “<i>Hoc opus hic - labor est</i>” 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 - “young females” 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> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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:” - </p> -<pre xml:space="preserve"> - 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. -</pre> - <p> - “Isn't he a perfect darling!” cried the enraptured quintette. - </p> - <p> - “I think,” said demure Patty Weld, “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - 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. - </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—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. - </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> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “Oh, no,” laughed Bell; “I'm going to housekeeping myself!” - </p> - <p> - “Good land! You haven't run off and got married, have you?” cried Miss - Jane. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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'.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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. - </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> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes,” said Uncle Harry, “and brought eatables enough for an army—more - than you girls can devour in a month.” - </p> - <p> - “You'll see,” said Bell, laughingly. - </p> - <p> - “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. - </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—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,—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. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Might a poor worm inquire, Bell,” asked Patty, “why those croquet mallets - and balls are laid out in file round the beds?” - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “That <i>would</i> be rather embarrassing,” answered Bell, with a - reflective shudder; “I hadn't thought of it.” - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - The unfortunate couple referred to exchanged looks of unmitigated - discouragement. - </p> - <p> - “I have my opinion of a girl who will mention supper before she has been - in the house an hour,” said the head cook. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </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> - “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.'” - </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 - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Pop on, pop ever; the more you give us, Jo, the more popular you'll be,” - laughed Bell. - </p> - <p> - “She is a veritable 'pop-in-J,' isn't she?” cried Lilia. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, that's possible,” retorted the unfortunate Lilia; “I've often been - told I was a duck of a girl, and this proves it.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “Look out of the window, Jo,” said - </p> - <p> - 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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Don't,” cried Jo; “you'll make us discontented with our New England - apples!” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - 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. - </p> - <p> - “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> - “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> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “Not I, at this hour,” yawned Jo, “but it was a good tale!” - </p> - <p> - “Nor I, after that thrilling experience of yours!” said Alice, admiringly. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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—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> - “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'.” - </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—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. - </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 “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. - </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,—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> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “If it is any duller than Emma Jane herself, I am sorry for it,” rejoined - Bell. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “He would never have discovered America with this chopping-knife,” quoth - Jo, bringing it down with vicious emphasis on the unoffending meat. - </p> - <p> - “Did you notice Emma Jane's expression as she stood in the doorway to - night?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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'?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Don't tell her that,” urged Jo, with a prodigious yawn, “or she will be - feigning toothache constantly.” - </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> - “What's the matter, Lilia!” she whispered. - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, where you put it this morning, on the back of the wash-stand; - sha'n't I light the lamp and help you?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - “What on earth is the matter, girls?” 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> - “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?” - </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> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Put on the kettle,” added Patty, “and heat blankets; they always do that - in emergencies.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </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> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “Blood-poisoning is very quick and very deadly,” said Patty, who had heard - about such a case in her own family. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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!!” - </p> - <p> - Uncle Harry's face relaxed into a broad smile as he realized the joke. - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “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? - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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—A WINTER PICNIC - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>OU 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. - </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> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “Out with him!” shouted Geoff. “He ought to be drowned for proposing such - an apology for a brook.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - The boys swung their hats in irrepressible glee. - </p> - <p> - “Won't this be a surprise to the people, though! Won't they think of the - desert blooming as the rose!” cried Hugh. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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—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> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Let's make mince pies,” cried Jo, animatedly, from her seat on the - wood-box. - </p> - <p> - “Goose,” answered Bell, with a sarcastic smile. “There's plenty of time to - make mince-meat, of course!” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, how much better if you said, 'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try,'” sang - Bell, in a spasm of gayety. - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “Four cups best New Orleans molasses—” - </p> - <p> - “The molasses is out,” said Jo; “find jelly-cake.” - </p> - <p> - “Jelly all gone,” said Bell; “where, I can't think, for there were - seventeen tumblers.” - </p> - <p> - “The boys are awfully fond of it with bread,” said Alice, reminiscently. - “How about doughnuts?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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 “something” very like - mince-meat. This, indeed, was a precious discovery! She flew back to the - kitchen, crying: - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “I can't be responsible for your 'bringing up,' Lill. Please pour it in, - and I'll hold the plate.” - </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> - “Don't you think that's funny looking mince-meat, Betty?” 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: “'Tain't no more mince-meat than a cat's - foot.” - </p> - <p> - This was decisive, and the utterance fell like a thunder-bolt upon the - kitchen-maids. - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - Bell withdrew the towel from her merry, tearful eyes, and said with savage - emphasis: - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “That's a fearful threat,” laughed Jo,—“'The King of France and - fifty thousand men plucked forth their swords! and put them up again.'” - </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,—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. - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.) - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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,—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—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.” - </p> - <p> - 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. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “And a great deal yellower and spotted-er,” quoth Edith, in a sly aside. - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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—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> - “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!” - </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> - “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'?” - </p> - <p> - “Do tell, Isabel,” squeaked Jo, with a comically irreverent imitation of - Miss Sawyer, “air you a-going to accept?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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,—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. - </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 “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. - </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 “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. - </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—“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. - </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> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - 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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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 “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. - </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> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “They seemed to enjoy their supper,” said Miss Jane; “I never saw girls - make a heartier meal.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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 “slush” beneath, waded over into their own grounds with many a hearty - laugh and jest. - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “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 <i>you</i> return to it, that is - certain!” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “Indeed I do,” laughed Bell, in recollection. “We girls took all the - characters. What fun it was!” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “Yes,” said Edith, “and poor Jack will have to be the 'craven bridegroom,' - who loses his bride, and Geoff, the stern parent.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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—” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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: “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.'” - </p> - <p> - “Amen,” murmured Edith and Patty, in the same breath. - </p> - <p> - “Pull down the curtain,” sighed Jo; “it makes me feel wicked!” - </p> - <p> - “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: - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - “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!” - </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—“THE END OF THE PLAY” - </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 “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. - </p> - <p> - 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. - </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 “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. - </p> - <p> - Uncle Harry stumbled in at the low door. - </p> - <p> - “Are you ready, young fry?” asked he. “It is half-past seven, and we ought - to begin.” - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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> - “And doesn't this exactly embody Scott's idea?”—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 “Young Lochinvar,” 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"> - “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?” - </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,—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"> - “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 “the laggard in love and the dastard in war” 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"> - “'Tivere better by far - </p> - <p class="indent15"> - To have matched our fair cousin with - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - young Lochinvar.” - </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,—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. - </p> - <p> - 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. - </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> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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. - </p> - <p> - “Think of us,” cried Geoff, “going back to college, and settling into - regular 'digs.'” - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - “It was a wonderful evening,” remarked Hugh. “There were persons there who - said that Bell was beautiful and I was clever.” - </p> - <p> - “I don't want to annoy you,” laughed Jo, “but I heard exactly the - opposite.” - </p> - <p> - “Which only goes to show that both of us are both,” retorted Bell. - </p> - <p> - “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'?” - </p> - <p> - “The fire isn't out, that's fortunate,” observed Alice, as she saw a small - cloud of smoke issuing from the chimney. - </p> - <p> - “Good night and sweet dreams,” called the hoys, when Geoffrey had unlocked - the door of the cottage. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </p> - <p> - The welkin rang with hurrahs, in which the girls joined with hearty vigor. - </p> - <p> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - More cheers, lustier than ever, floated out into the orchard. - </p> - <p> - “The model daughter would have had a dull house-party with nothing but her - bright idea to keep her company,” said Jo Fenton, suggestively. - </p> - <p> - “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. - </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 “Jolly - Six.” - </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—chief - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - recreation— - </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,—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> - “They are awfully jolly girls,” said Jack. - </p> - <p> - “Better than jolly,” added Geoffrey, thoughtfully. - </p> - <p> - “You're right, Geoff; miles better and miles more than jolly,” agreed - Hugh. “None like'em in Brunswick.” - </p> - <p> - “Or in Portland.” - </p> - <p> - “Or in Bath.” - </p> - <p> - “Or in Augusta.” - </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. - “Mi-randy!” called she, sharply. - </p> - <p> - No answer but the sharp click of knitting-needles. - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - Miranda glanced ont of the window without speaking. - </p> - <p> - “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!” - </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> - “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?” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </p> - <p> - “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.” - </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> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS *** - -***** This file should be named 54685-h.htm or 54685-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/6/8/54685/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - 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. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - - </body> -</html> diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/0001.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/0001.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3e34b97..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/0001.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/0006.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/0006.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 10e02d1..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/0006.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/0007.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/0007.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 3d2c452..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/0007.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/0053.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/0053.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index dd1ea95..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/0053.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/0063.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/0063.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 29e088f..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/0063.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/0093.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/0093.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 465f02d..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/0093.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/0127.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/0127.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 161f704..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/0127.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/0145.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/0145.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1e14c89..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/0145.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e1e61bc..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/54685-h/images/enlarge.jpg b/old/54685-h/images/enlarge.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 5a9bcf3..0000000 --- a/old/54685-h/images/enlarge.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/old/54685-h.htm.2018-08-20 b/old/old/54685-h.htm.2018-08-20 deleted file mode 100644 index fee7aa5..0000000 --- a/old/old/54685-h.htm.2018-08-20 +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3364 +0,0 @@ -<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
-
-<!DOCTYPE html
- PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
- "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
-
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
- <head>
- <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%;}
- .large {font-size: 115%;}
- .x-large {font-size: 130%;}
- .indent5 { margin-left: 5%;}
- .indent10 { margin-left: 10%;}
- .indent15 { margin-left: 15%;}
- .indent20 { margin-left: 20%;}
- .indent30 { margin-left: 30%;}
- .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;}
- .side { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 15%; padding-left: 0.8em;
- border-left: dashed thin; text-align: left;
- text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
- font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;}
- .head { float: left; font-size: 90%; width: 98%; padding-left: 0.8em;
- border-left: dashed thin; text-align: center;
- 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—BELL WINSHIP's EXPERIMENT </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II—IN THE FIRELIGHT </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III—AN EMERGENCY CASE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV—A WINTER PICNIC </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V—OLD MAIDS AND YOUNG </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI—“THE END OF THE PLAY” </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—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
- “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 “<i>Hoc opus hic
- labor est</i>” 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
- “young females” 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>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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:”
- </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
- 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.
-</pre>
- <p>
- “Isn't he a perfect darling!” cried the enraptured quintette.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think,” said demure Patty Weld, “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- 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.
- </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—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.
- </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>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, no,” laughed Bell; “I'm going to housekeeping myself!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good land! You haven't run off and got married, have you?” cried Miss
- Jane.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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'.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </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>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” said Uncle Harry, “and brought eatables enough for an army—more
- than you girls can devour in a month.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You'll see,” said Bell, laughingly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </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—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,—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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Might a poor worm inquire, Bell,” asked Patty, “why those croquet mallets
- and balls are laid out in file round the beds?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That <i>would</i> be rather embarrassing,” answered Bell, with a
- reflective shudder; “I hadn't thought of it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- The unfortunate couple referred to exchanged looks of unmitigated
- discouragement.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have my opinion of a girl who will mention supper before she has been
- in the house an hour,” said the head cook.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </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>
- “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.'”
- </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
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pop on, pop ever; the more you give us, Jo, the more popular you'll be,”
- laughed Bell.
- </p>
- <p>
- “She is a veritable 'pop-in-J,' isn't she?” cried Lilia.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, that's possible,” retorted the unfortunate Lilia; “I've often been
- told I was a duck of a girl, and this proves it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look out of the window, Jo,” said
- </p>
- <p>
- 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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don't,” cried Jo; “you'll make us discontented with our New England
- apples!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- 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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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>
- “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>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not I, at this hour,” yawned Jo, “but it was a good tale!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nor I, after that thrilling experience of yours!” said Alice, admiringly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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—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>
- “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'.”
- </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—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.
- </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 “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.
- </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,—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>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If it is any duller than Emma Jane herself, I am sorry for it,” rejoined
- Bell.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He would never have discovered America with this chopping-knife,” quoth
- Jo, bringing it down with vicious emphasis on the unoffending meat.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you notice Emma Jane's expression as she stood in the doorway to
- night?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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'?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don't tell her that,” urged Jo, with a prodigious yawn, “or she will be
- feigning toothache constantly.”
- </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>
- “What's the matter, Lilia!” she whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, where you put it this morning, on the back of the wash-stand;
- sha'n't I light the lamp and help you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
- “What on earth is the matter, girls?” 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>
- “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?”
- </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>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Put on the kettle,” added Patty, “and heat blankets; they always do that
- in emergencies.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </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>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Blood-poisoning is very quick and very deadly,” said Patty, who had heard
- about such a case in her own family.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncle Harry's face relaxed into a broad smile as he realized the joke.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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—A WINTER PICNIC
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">Y</span>OU 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.
- </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>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Out with him!” shouted Geoff. “He ought to be drowned for proposing such
- an apology for a brook.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- The boys swung their hats in irrepressible glee.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Won't this be a surprise to the people, though! Won't they think of the
- desert blooming as the rose!” cried Hugh.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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—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>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let's make mince pies,” cried Jo, animatedly, from her seat on the
- wood-box.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Goose,” answered Bell, with a sarcastic smile. “There's plenty of time to
- make mince-meat, of course!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, how much better if you said, 'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try,'” sang
- Bell, in a spasm of gayety.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Four cups best New Orleans molasses—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The molasses is out,” said Jo; “find jelly-cake.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Jelly all gone,” said Bell; “where, I can't think, for there were
- seventeen tumblers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The boys are awfully fond of it with bread,” said Alice, reminiscently.
- “How about doughnuts?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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 “something” very like
- mince-meat. This, indeed, was a precious discovery! She flew back to the
- kitchen, crying:
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can't be responsible for your 'bringing up,' Lill. Please pour it in,
- and I'll hold the plate.”
- </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>
- “Don't you think that's funny looking mince-meat, Betty?” 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: “'Tain't no more mince-meat than a cat's
- foot.”
- </p>
- <p>
- This was decisive, and the utterance fell like a thunder-bolt upon the
- kitchen-maids.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Bell withdrew the towel from her merry, tearful eyes, and said with savage
- emphasis:
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That's a fearful threat,” laughed Jo,—“'The King of France and
- fifty thousand men plucked forth their swords! and put them up again.'”
- </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,—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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.)
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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,—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—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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- 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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And a great deal yellower and spotted-er,” quoth Edith, in a sly aside.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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—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>
- “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!”
- </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>
- “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'?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do tell, Isabel,” squeaked Jo, with a comically irreverent imitation of
- Miss Sawyer, “air you a-going to accept?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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,—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.
- </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 “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.
- </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 “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.
- </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—“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.
- </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>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- 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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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 “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.
- </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>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They seemed to enjoy their supper,” said Miss Jane; “I never saw girls
- make a heartier meal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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 “slush” beneath, waded over into their own grounds with many a hearty
- laugh and jest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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 <i>you</i> return to it, that is
- certain!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Indeed I do,” laughed Bell, in recollection. “We girls took all the
- characters. What fun it was!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” said Edith, “and poor Jack will have to be the 'craven bridegroom,'
- who loses his bride, and Geoff, the stern parent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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: “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.'”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Amen,” murmured Edith and Patty, in the same breath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pull down the curtain,” sighed Jo; “it makes me feel wicked!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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:
- </p>
- <p>
- <br />
- </p>
- <p class="indent20">
- “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!”
- </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—“THE END OF THE PLAY”
- </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 “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- 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.
- </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 “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncle Harry stumbled in at the low door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you ready, young fry?” asked he. “It is half-past seven, and we ought
- to begin.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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>
- “And doesn't this exactly embody Scott's idea?”—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 “Young Lochinvar,” 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">
- “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?”
- </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,—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">
- “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 “the laggard in love and the dastard in war” 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">
- “'Tivere better by far
- </p>
- <p class="indent15">
- To have matched our fair cousin with
- </p>
- <p class="indent20">
- young Lochinvar.”
- </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,—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.
- </p>
- <p>
- 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.
- </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>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Think of us,” cried Geoff, “going back to college, and settling into
- regular 'digs.'”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was a wonderful evening,” remarked Hugh. “There were persons there who
- said that Bell was beautiful and I was clever.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don't want to annoy you,” laughed Jo, “but I heard exactly the
- opposite.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Which only goes to show that both of us are both,” retorted Bell.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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'?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The fire isn't out, that's fortunate,” observed Alice, as she saw a small
- cloud of smoke issuing from the chimney.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good night and sweet dreams,” called the hoys, when Geoffrey had unlocked
- the door of the cottage.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The welkin rang with hurrahs, in which the girls joined with hearty vigor.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- More cheers, lustier than ever, floated out into the orchard.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The model daughter would have had a dull house-party with nothing but her
- bright idea to keep her company,” said Jo Fenton, suggestively.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.
- </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 “Jolly
- Six.”
- </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—chief
- </p>
- <p class="indent30">
- recreation—
- </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,—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>
- “They are awfully jolly girls,” said Jack.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Better than jolly,” added Geoffrey, thoughtfully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You're right, Geoff; miles better and miles more than jolly,” agreed
- Hugh. “None like'em in Brunswick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Or in Portland.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Or in Bath.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Or in Augusta.”
- </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.
- “Mi-randy!” called she, sharply.
- </p>
- <p>
- No answer but the sharp click of knitting-needles.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Miranda glanced ont of the window without speaking.
- </p>
- <p>
- “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!”
- </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>
- “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?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “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.”
- </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>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's Half-A-Dozen Housekeepers, by Kate Douglas Wiggin
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HALF-A-DOZEN HOUSEKEEPERS ***
-
-***** This file should be named 54685-h.htm or 54685-h.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
- http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/6/8/54685/
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
-States without permission and without paying copyright
-royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
- 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.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
- the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
- you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
- to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
- agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
- Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
- within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
- legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
- payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
- Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
- Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
- Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
- you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
- does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
- License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
- copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
- all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
- works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
- any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
- electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
- receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
- distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
- Dr. Gregory B. Newby
- Chief Executive and Director
- gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
- </body>
-</html>
|
