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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8865-8.txt b/8865-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..594d469 --- /dev/null +++ b/8865-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4256 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings, by Annie Hamilton Donnell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + +Author: Annie Hamilton Donnell + +Posting Date: August 5, 2012 [EBook #8865] +Release Date: September, 2005 +First Posted: August 16, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS THEODOSIA'S HEARTSTRINGS *** + + + + +Produced by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + +Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + +BY + +ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +WILLIAM VAN DRESSER + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of +Stefana's patient endeavors. FRONTISPIECE.] + + + +To MY HUSBAND + +WHO COULD WRITE SO MUCH + +BETTER A BOOK AND + +DEDICATE IT TO + +ME! + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's patient +endeavors. + +"We've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly" + +"If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into a story like +that" + +Evangeline established a stage of action outside the window + + + + +Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +"Mercy gracious!" + +"_Well!"_ + +The last utterance was Miss Theodosia Baxter's. She was a woman of few +words at all times where few sufficed. One sufficed now. The child on +her front porch, with a still childlier child on the small area of her +knees, was not a creature of few words, but now extreme surprise limited +speech. She was stricken with brevity,--stricken is the word--to match +Miss Theodosia's. + +Downward, upward, each gazed into the other's surprised face. The +childlier child, jouncing pleasantly back and forth, viewed them both +impartially. + +It was the child who regarded the situation, after a moment of mental +adjustment, as humorous. She giggled softly. + +"Mercy gracious! How you surprised me' 'n' Elly Precious, an' me 'n' +Elly Precious surprised you! I don't know which was the whichest! We +came over to be shady just once more. We didn't s'pose you would come +home till to-morrow, did we, Elly Precious?" + +"I came last night," Miss Theodosia replied with crispness. She stood in +her doorway, apparently waiting for something which--apparently--was not +to happen. The child and Elly Precious sat on in seeming calm. + +"Yes'm. Of course if you hadn't come, you wouldn't be standin' there +lookin' at Elly Precious--isn't he a darlin' dear? Wouldn't you like to +look at his toes?" + +It was Miss Theodosia Baxter's turn to say "Mercy gracious!" but she did +not say it aloud. It was her turn, too, to see a bit of humor in the +situation on her front porch. + +"Not--just now," she said rather hastily. She could not remember ever to +have seen a baby's toes. "I've no doubt they are--are excellent toes." +The word did not satisfy her, but the suitable adjective was not at +hand. + +"Mercy gracious! That's a funny way to talk about toes! Elly Precious's +are pink as anything--an' six--yes'm! I've made consid'able money out of +his toes. Yes," with rising pride at the sight of Miss Theodosia's +surprise, "'leven cents, so far. I only charged Lelia Fling a cent for +two looks, because Lelia's baby's dead. I've got three cents out o' her; +she says five of Elly Precious's remind her of her baby's toes. Isn't it +funny you can't make boys pay to look at babies' toes, even when they's +such a lot? Only just girls. Stefana says it's because girls are +ungrown-up mothers. Mercy gracious! speakin' of Stefana an' mothers, +reminds me--" + +The shrill little voice stopped with a suddenness that made the woman in +the door fear for Elly Precious; it seemed that he must be jolted from +his narrow perch. + +Miss Theodosia had wandered up and down the world for three years in be +search of something to interest her, only to come home and find it here +upon the upper step of her own front porch. She stepped from the doorway +and sat down in one of the wicker rockers. She had plenty of time to be +interested; there was really no haste for unpacking and settling back +into her little country rut. + +"What about 'Stefana and mothers'?" she prodded gently. A cloud had +settled on the child's vivid little face and threatened to overshade the +childlier child, as well. "I suppose 'Stefana' is a Spanish person, +isn't she?" The name had a definitely foreign sound. + +"Oh, no'm--just a United States. We're all United States. Mother named +her; we've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly. Mother hated to +call him Elihu, but there was Grandfather gettin' older an' older all +the time, an' she dassen't wait till the next one. She put it off an' +off with the other boys, Carruthers an' Gilpatrick--he's dead. She just +couldn't name any of 'em Elihu, till Grandfather scared her, gettin' so +old. She was afraid there wouldn't be time, an' there wasn't any to +spare. Grandfather's dead now--she's thankful enough she didn't wait any +longer. He was so pleased. He said he could depart this life easier, +leavin' an Elihu Flagg behind him. An', anyway, Mother says Elly can +call himself his middle name, if he'd ruther, when he's twenty-one--his +middle name's Launcelot." + +Elihu Launcelot, at this juncture, toppled over against the little flat +breast of his nurse, asleep--or in a swoon; Miss Theodosia had her +fears. There seemed sufficient swooning cause. + +"Stefana," she prompted again, her interest advancing at a rapid pace, +"and mothers--" + +"Stefana's our oldest. She's goin' to run us while Mother's away. She's +got a job before her! All I can do is 'tend Elly Precious--we're all +boys, but us. But, of course, runnin' the family isn't the real +trouble--not what made Mother cry." + +Miss Theodosia sat forward in her chair. + +"What made Mother cry?" she asked. The child shifted her heavy burden +the better to turn her head. She regarded the beautiful white lady +gloomily. + +"You," she stated briefly. + +This time Miss Theodosia said it aloud and with a surprising ease, as if +of long custom--"Mercy gracious!" + +"Oh, I didn't mean you're to blame; you can't help Aunt Sarah tumblin' +down the cellar stairs an' Mother not bein' able to do you up." + +"Do me--up?" + +"Yes'm--white-wash you. Mother was sure you'd let her, an' we were goin' +to send Carruthers to a deaf 'n' dumb school after you'd wore white +clo'es enough. He isn't dumb, but he's deaf. He can't hear Elly Precious +laugh--only yell. Mother heard that you always wore white dresses an' +she most hugged herself--she hugged us. She said you'd prob'ly find out +what a good white-washer she was an' let her white-wash you. But, now, +Aunt Sarah's went an' fell down cellar." + +"Whitewash--whitewash?" queried Miss Theodosia. + +"Yes'm, you didn't think Mother was a washwoman, did you? Of course she +could, but it doesn't pay's well. She only whitewashes--white clo'es, +you know, dresses an' shirtwaists. She says it's her talent that the +Lord's gave her, an' she's goin' to make it gain ten talents for +Carruthers. But Aunt Sarah--" + +"Never mind Aunt Sarah. Unless--do you mean your mother has had to go +away from home?" + +"Yes'm, to see to Aunt Sarah. They were twins when they were babies. +Mother cried, because she said of course you'd have to be done up while +she was gone, an' so she'd lost you. She said you'd been her bacon light +ever since she heard you was comin' home an' wore so many white clo'es." + +The garrulous little voice might have run on indefinitely but for the +abrupt appearance, here, of a slender girl in an all-enwrapping gingham +apron. She came hurrying up Miss Theodosia's front walk. + +"Well, Evangeline Flagg, I hope you're blushing crimson scarlet +red--helping yourself to folks's doorsteps that's got back from Europe! +I hope--" but the newcomer got no further, for, quite suddenly, she +found herself blushing crimson scarlet red, in the grip of a +disconcerting thought. + +"I suppose it's just as bad to help yourself to doorsteps when folks +aren't here as when they are," she said slowly, "but you mustn't blame +Mother. She'd never've allowed Evangeline and Elly, if we'd had a single +sol-i-ta-ry tree. Or been on the shady side. Or had a porch. Elly's been +pindly, and Mother felt obliged to save his life. It's been terribly +hot. Here, Evangeline Flagg, you give Elly here, an' you run home an' +keep the soup-kettle from burning on. Don't you wait until it smells! +I've got an errand to do here." + +The child, Evangeline, relinquished her burden and turned slowly away. +But she halted at the foot of the steps. + +"This is Stefana," she introduced politely. "Stefana, you ain't _goin' +to_? You look 'xactly as if you was. Mercy gracious!" + +[Illustration: "We've all got beautiful names except poor Elly."] + +"Yes," Stefana returned gravely, "I am. Now, you go. Remember the soup!" + +Miss Theodosia's interested gaze left the retreating little figure and +came back to Stefana and Elly Precious. She was pleasantly aware of her +own immaculate daintiness in her crisp white dress. Only Theodosia +Baxter would have dreamed of arraying herself in white to unpack and +settle. Her friends declared she made a fetich of her white raiment; it +was a well-known fact among them that she was extremely "fussy" about +its laundering. + +"One, two, three," counted the slender girl, over the baby's bald little +head, "only three tucks, an' the lace not terribly full on the edges. +I'm thankful there aren't any ruffles, but, there, I suppose there are +on some o' the others, aren't there? I'll have to manage the ruffles. I +mean, if--oh, I mean, won't you please let me do you up? Just till Aunt +Sarah's bone knits--so to save you for Mother? I'll try so hard! If I +don't, Charlotte Lovell will--she's the only other one. She's a +beautiful washer and ironer, but none of her children are deaf, and she +hasn't any, anyway. I didn't dare to come over and ask you, but I kept +thinking of poor Mother and how she's been 'lotting on earning all that +money. There, I've asked you--please don't answer till I've counted ten. +When we were little, Mother always said for us to; it was safer. One, +two, three--" she counted rapidly, then swung about facing Miss +Theodosia. "You can say 'no,' now," she said, with a difficult little +smile. + +Miss Theodosia had been, in a way, counting ten herself. She had had +time to remember her very strict injunctions to those to whom she +entrusted her beloved white gowns--to pull out the lace with careful +fingers, not to iron it; to iron embroidered portions over many +thicknesses of flannel, and never, never, never on the right side; to +starch the dresses just enough and not too much. All these thoughts +flashed through her mind while Stefana counted ten. But it was without +accompaniment of injunctions that Miss Theodosia answered on that +wistful little stroke of ten. In her soul she felt the futility of +injunctions. + +"Yes," answered Miss Theodosia. + +Stefana whirled, at the risk of Elihu Launcelot. + +"Oh--oh, what? You mean I can do you up, honest? Starch you, and iron +you, too--of course, I could wash you. Oh, if I could drop Elly Precious +I'd get right up and dance!" + +"Give Elly Precious to me, and go ahead, my dear," said the White Lady +with a smile. + +But Stefana shook her head. She was covertly studying the white dress +once more. It was very white--she could detect no promising spots or +creases, and she drew a sigh even in the midst of her rejoicing. If a +person only sat on porches, in chairs, how often did white dresses need +doing up? Miss Theodosia interpreted the sigh and look. + +"Oh, I've three of them rolled up in my trunk; aren't three enough to +begin on? And shirtwaists--I'm sure I don't know how many of those. I'll +go and get them now." + +In the hall she stopped at the mirror, jibing at the image confronting +her. "You've done it this time, Theodosia Baxter! When you can't bear a +wrinkle! But, there, don't look so scared--daughters inherit their +mothers' talents, plenty of times. And you need only try it once, of +course." + +After Stefana had gone away, doubly laden with clothes and bulky baby, +Miss Theodosia remained on her porch. She found herself leaning over and +parting her porch-vines, to get a glimpse of the little house next door. +She had always loathed that little house with its barefaced poverties +and uglinesses, and it had been a great relief to her to have it stand +vacant in past years. She had left it vacant when she started upon her +last globe-trotting. Now here it was teeming with life, and here she was +aiding and abetting it! What new manner of Theodosia Baxter was this? + +"You'd better get up and globe-trot again, Woman, and not unpack," she +uttered, with a lone woman's habit of talking to herself. "You were +never made to live in a house like other people--to sit on porches and +rock. And certainly, Theodosia Baxter, you were never made to live next +to that little dry-goods box. It will turn you gray, poor thing." She +felt a gentle pity for herself, then gentle wrath seized her. Why had +she come home, anyway? Already she was lonely and restless. Why--could +anybody tell her why--had she weakly yielded to two small girls? Her +dear-beloved white dresses! And she could not go back on her +promise--not on a Baxter promise! There was, indeed, the release of +going away again, back to her globe-trotting-- + +"I might write to Cornelia Dunlap," Miss Theodosia thought. "Maybe she +is sorry she came home, too." + +Cornelia Dunlap had been her recent comrade of the road. They had +traveled to many far places together. What would Cornelia say to that +little conference of three--and a baby--on the front porch? + +"My dear," wrote Miss Theodosia, "you will think I have been swapped in +my cradle since I left you! 'That is no fellow tramp of mine,' you will +say, 'That woman being victimized by children in knee-high dresses! +Theodosia Baxter nothing!'"--for Cornelia Dunlap in moments of surprise +resorted sometimes to slang, which she claimed was a sturdy vehicle of +speech. "You will set down your teacup hard," wrote on Miss +Theodosia,--"I know you are drinking tea!--when I tell you the little +story of the Whitewashing of Theodosia Baxter. But shall I tell it? Why +expose Theodosia Baxter's weaknesses when hitherto she has posed as +strong? Soberly, Cornelia, I am as much surprised at myself as you will +be (oh, I shall tell it!). Do you remember your Mother Goose? The little +astonished old lady who took a nap beside the road and woke to find her +petticoats cut off at her knees? 'Oh, lawk-a-daisy me, can this be I!' +cried she. I'm not sure those were just her words, but they will do. Oh, +lawk-a-daisy me, can this be Theodosia Baxter! The Astonished Little Old +Lady, if I remember my Mother Goose, resorted to the simple expedient of +going home and letting her little dog decide if she were she. But I have +no little dog. + +"They were so earnest to whitewash me, Cornelia! The whole scheme was +such a plucky little one and Baxters, from the dawn of creation, have +admired pluck. The lively, chatterbox-one was 'Evangeline' and the quiet +one who should have been an Evangeline was what the other one ought to +have been,--a 'Stefana,' suggestive of flashing, dark eyes under a lace +mantilla, with ways to match the eyes. So does fate play her little +jokes. The baby--but what do I know of babies or you know of babies? He +had six toes and I might have seen them for nothing; so do we miss our +opportunities. He was named for his grandfather just in time, but the +name, my dear, the name! Elihu. Are you listening? _Elihu_! But they +offered him the assuaging 'sop' of 'Launcelot' for a middle name, and +what could a baby do? Babies are the little scapegoats of mistaken +loyalties." + +Miss Theodosia was having a good time. Her sober mood had passed. She +wrote on enjoyingly, describing the whole little episode to Cornelia +Dunlap. The freshening of it in her memory was pleasant. Again she felt +the tug of those eager little pleadings. She kept remembering other +things about little Elihu Launcelot besides his name and his toes. She +remembered how gravely he had looked at her, how tiny and soft his hands +were. + +"That little box of a house next to mine, Cornelia,--I told you about +it. Well, it's as full now as it has been empty, and a little fuller. +Dear knows how many it holds! But it's sociable seeing the smoke come +out of the chimney; _it's friendly_." + +She had not thought of it as sociable and friendly before. The thought +seemed just to have come to her. She was quite cheerful-minded when she +finished her letter to Cornelia Dunlap and neatly folded it. If she had +but known, she was sorry for Cornelia who was not next door to a +friendly little box. + +She made tea and sipped it, made golden toast and opened a +foreign-looking box of some sort of jelly. While she ate slowly, she +slowly made plans. No, she would not have a stay-all-the-time maid--yes, +she would move her things into the room facing the next-door house. +Until she got tired of watching the sociable thread of smoke, anyway. + +It had not occurred yet to Theodosia Baxter that she had not said a word +to Cornelia Dunlap about going on their travels again. When it did +occur, she suddenly laughed out aloud, but softly. + +"I forgot what I began that letter _for_! I never mentioned going away +again! And now--I'm glad. Who wants to go off? 'East, west, hame's +best.' Even a hame next door to a little dry-goods box." + +Of course there was the promise to let those funny kiddies whitewash +her-- + +"It's a Baxter promise; don't try to get out of it, Theodosia Baxter," +she said. + +The next noon she saw her dresses dangling from the neighboring +clothesline. They were not successfully dangled; Miss Theodosia liked to +see them hung with symmetry, all alike in a seemly row. The shirtwaists +dangled also in unseemly attitudes. One hung by a single sleeve. But +that was not all--a certain faint suggestion of something worse than +lack of symmetry persisted in Miss Theodosia's mind. They had been +especially travel-stained, soiled; they had still an air of soil and +travel-stain. They didn't look clean! + +Miss Theodosia groaned. "It may be blueing streaks," she said, but there +was little comfort in blueing streaks. She got her opera glasses and +peered through them at her beloved dresses. Brought up at close range, +they were certainly blue-streaked, and there was plain lack of the snowy +whiteness her stern washing-creed demanded. + +At intervals, small figures issued from the house and circled about the +clotheslines, inspecting their contents critically. Miss Theodosia saw +one of them--it was the child of her doorstep--lay questionable hold (it +must be questionable!) upon a delicate garment and examine a portion of +it excitedly. She saw the child dart back to the house and again issue +forth, dragging the slender young washerwoman. Together they examined. +Miss Theodosia caught up her glasses and brought the little pair into +the near field of her vision; she saw both anxious young faces. The face +of Stefana was strained and careworn. + +Miss Theodosia was thirty-six years old, and all of the years had been +comfortable, carefree ones. In the natural order of her pleasantly +migratory, luxurious life, she had rarely come into close contact with +careworn or strained faces; this contact through the small, clear lenses +seemed startlingly close. Stefana's lean and anxious face, the child's +baby-bent little back, like the back of an old woman--it was at these +Miss Theodosia looked through her pearl glasses. She forgot to look at +the garment the children examined so troubledly. Suddenly, Miss +Theodosia Baxter--traveler, fortune-favored one--found herself as +anxious for the success of Stefana's stout little project as the two +young people within her field of view, but, suddenly and unaccountably, +from a new motive. The slim, worn-looking little creature,--and that +tinier, tired little creature--must not fail! The stout project should +succeed! + +Stefana carried the disputed garment back into the house and rewashed +it; it was dripping wet when she again dangled it beside the others. +Several times during the afternoon this process was repeated, until, at +nightfall, the entire wash dripped, rewashed and soggy. Miss Theodosia +nodded her head approvingly; she had her reasons for being glad that the +wash was to remain out overnight. + +It was a starless, moonless night--a night to prowl successfully about +clotheslines. + +Miss Theodosia prowled. The little dry-goods box full of children was a +small, vague blur, a little darker than the darkness. The children slept +the profound sleep of childhood and childhood's unbelonging toil. Sleep +was smoothing Stefana's roughened little nerves with gentle hand and +fortifying her courage for yet more strenuous toils to come. +Evangeline's weary little arm--and tongue--were resting. + +Miss Theodosia prowled softly, to avoid disturbing the little box-house. +She had the guilty conscience of the prowler that sent her heart into +her mouth at the crackling of a twig under her feet. She found herself +listening, holding her breath in a small panic. No sound of wakened +sleepers, but there must be no more twigs. + +"I must add a postscript to Cornelia Dunlap's letter," she thought. +"This would make a thrilling wind-up! Cornelia would say, 'Lawk-a-daisy +me, it _can't_ be Theodosia Baxter!' She wouldn't need any little dog." + +Safe in her own house once more, Miss Theodosia breathed a sigh of +relief. Saved! But there was another trip yet to be made to that region +behind the vague little blur of a box. It was too soon to be relieved. + +"What I've done once I can do twice," boasted Miss Theodosia, undaunted, +though at the approach of her second prowling expedition, her courage +waned unexpectedly. "I mean if I have a cup of tea--strong," she weakly +appended to her boast. It would take her longer out there the second +time. She really needed tea. + +Miss Theodosia retired at eleven, tired but contented. She even smiled +at her sodden fingers--when had Miss Theodosia Baxter's fingers been +sodden before! + +The next morning, the child and the childlier child appeared at her +porch, where she rocked contentedly. + +"She's ironin' 'em!--Stefana's ironin' 'em! No, I can't sit down; she +said not to. She's ironed one dress three times. It's funny how irons +stick, isn't it? No, not funny--mercy gracious! You oughter see +Stefana's cheeks, an' she's burnt both thumbs--I'm keepin' Elly Precious +out o' the way, an' she's forbid Carruthers comin' in a step. She'll get +'em ironed, Stefana will. You can't discourage Stefana! Last night I +kind of thought you could, but the clo'es whitened out beautiful in the +night. Stefana said it was the night air. There wasn't a single streak +left this mornin'. We're goin' to keep your money in Mother's weddin' +sugar-bowl, an' when she comes back, we're goin' to ask her if she don't +want some sugar!" + +All day Stefana toiled and retoiled. It was night when she sent one of +the children to Miss Theodosia with her day's work. The one who came was +Carruthers, chatty and deaf. Miss Theodosia did not have to do any +talking. + +"Stefana says there's some smooches, but the worst ones come under your +arms an' where they's puckers. The wrinkles Stefana hopes you'll +excuse--they'll air 'out, she expects. She was comin' over an' explain, +herself, but she's gone to bed. Evangeline's gone, too, to keep the baby +quiet. Stefana says you needn't pay as much's you expected to, 'count o' +the smooches an' wrink--" + +"I always pay the same price for my dresses," Miss Theodosia said, +forgetful of the boy's affliction. She put the money into the hard +little palm of Carruthers and watched him scamper home with it. Miss +Theodosia looked happy. She felt pleasant little tweaks at her +heartstrings as if small grimy hands were ringing them, playing a tender +little tune. Scorched, blundering young hands--Stefana's. The little +tune rang plaintive in her ears. She had a vision of Stefana toiling +over the ironing of her dresses and going to bed exhausted, when the +toil was over. Miss Theodosia's eyes followed Carruther's retreating +little figure till it reached the House of Little Children and +disappeared from view. What had she, Theodosia Baxter, to do with houses +of little children? Since when had they possessed attractions for +her--held her tender, brooding gaze? What was she doing here now, +gazing? Theodosia Baxter! + +Stefana had folded the dresses painstakingly in separate newspaper +bundles and stacked them on Carruther's outstretched arms. They were +stacked now on Miss Theodosia's porch. She picked them up and turned +with them into the house. + +"I'll unfold them," she thought, "and shake them out. I must tell her to +send them home without folding next time--or I can go and get them +myself." + +Unpinning Stefana's many pins, she lifted out one of the dresses. It +creaked starchily under her hands; it opened out before Miss Theodosia's +horrified vision. She uttered a groan. + +Where, now, was that tender little heart-string tune? + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Miss Theodosia saw pink. Near-anger surged up within her at this +ruinous, this piteous result of Stefana's toil. The result dangled +creaksomely from her hands, revealing new wrinkles and smooches and +leprous patches of starch at every motion. What was in this bundle would +be in the rest--there was no hope. + +In Theodosia Baxter's little girlhood, she had played there were two +"'Dosies," a good one and a bad one. The Good 'Dosie was often away from +home, but was sometimes apt to appear at unexpected moments, to the +embarrassment of the Bad 'Dosie. Stamp her foot as she would, Bad 'Dosie +could not always drive the unwelcome intruder away. + +"I don't like her!" the small sinner had once been heard to say. +"She--she p'eaches at me!" + +The Good 'Dosie was preaching now. + +"Wait! Count ten!" she preached. "Don't get any angrier, or you'll see +red instead of pink. Think of that poor child's burned thumbs--think of +her having to take to her bed when she got through--" + +"I don't wonder!" snapped Bad 'Dosie. + +"Wait--wait! Aren't you going to be good? Do you remember what you used +to do, to help out? Well?" + +Miss Theodosia dropped the starchy mass on top of the other newspaper +bundles and rather suddenly sat down in a chair. She saw a little child, +preached to and penitent, on her knees, with folded hands, saying "Now I +lame me down to sleep." + +It was very still in the room. Miss Theodosia's eyes closed and opened +again. It was as if she had said "Now I lame me." A little smile tugged +at the corners of her mouth. She no longer saw even pink. + +She got up briskly and began turning back her cuffs. First, she would +build the kitchen fire; it must roar and snap, with all the work it had +to do to-night. She would heat a lot of water, for only boiling water +could take out Stefana's awful starch. While the water was heating, she +would eat her supper. + +"A good, big supper, it will have to be," smiled this gentled Miss +Theodosia. "I've got to get up my strength! No tea-and-toast-and-jam +supper to-night." She heated her gridiron smoking hot and broiled a bit +of steak. She tossed together little feathery biscuit and made coffee, +fragrant and strong. Momently, Miss Theodosia's strength "got up." She +moved about the kitchen briskly--when had she launched out upon a +night's work like this? Adventure!--call it adventure. + +Work to Miss Theodosia had always meant something that other people +did,--the Stefanas and their mothers and brothers and fathers. What she +herself did, a gentle, dilatory playing at work, hardly merited the +name. A bit of dusting, tea-and-toasting, making her own bed, cooking +for sheer love of cooking, what did they count in Miss Theodosia's +summing up of tasks? + +Always there had been some one to do her heavy things. She had put her +washings out and taken her dinners in; three times a week she was swept +and scrubbed and made immaculate. + +But to-night--to-night was different. This was to be no playing at work. +Miss Theodosia rose to the occasion gallantly--indeed, exultantly. +Thrills of enthusiasm ran up, ran down her spine. She prepared for a +night of it. + +The dresses immersed in steaming hot water and her supper eaten, she +stretched drying-lines, with considerable difficulty, from corner to +corner of her kitchen, prepared an ironing-board, and got out long-idle +irons. At eight o'clock she stopped for breath. Stefana's starch still +resisted all inducements to part with Miss Theodosia's dresses; more hot +water was required. After another steamy bath, they were cooled and +wrung and draped over the crisscross clotheslines in the hot kitchen. +Then Miss Theodosia temporarily retired from the field of battle. + +Theodosia Baxter had come back from her travelings to this small +ancestral town with a mildly disturbing taste in her mouth. "Settling +down" at thirty-six was not at all to her mind; she would not settle +down! + +"If I catch you doing it, Theodosia Baxter!" she said. "If I catch you +growing old! The minute you feel it coming on, you pack up and start for +Rome! Or Paris! Or Turkistan! Start for Anywhere! Keep going!" + +But, already, did she feel it coming on even before all her trunks were +unpacked? She was a little frightened at certain signs. Now, when she +sat down heavily--why did she sit down heavily? If some one had called +upon her for scores of little services, so that she must hop up again, +immediately--little piping voices: "Mother, where's my cap?" "Mother, +make Johnnie stop plaguing me!" "Mother, come quick!" If a big John had +come home to her, demanding her time or sympathy or service-- + +"No little Johns--no big one!" She sighed. "Is that the matter with you, +Theodosia Baxter? Well, for Heaven's sake, don't tell anybody! Keep a +bold front." + +She dozed a little in her rocker while she waited. Her plaintive +reveries took the shape of a sober little dream wherein one Theodosia +Baxter tottered on a cane and another walked briskly and youngly among +Johns. Both Theodosias were thirty-six. + +"Mercy!" she exclaimed, waking up. "Where's my cane? I must go and iron +Stefana's dresses!" She felt oddly refreshed. Queer dream to refresh +one! She found herself thinking kindly of Stefana. + +"I hope she's sound asleep, and a pitying little girl angel with a +nurse's cap under her halo will slip down and cure her thumbs before she +wakes up." + +The irons she had set to heating were much too hot. Should she run +out-of-doors while one of them cooled, and lie in wait to catch the +little nurse-angel on the wing or perhaps darting thrillingly down to +Stefana on a shooting star, breaking all speed limits! This was a night +for adventure. The wild ride of a becapped and haloed little celestial +in goggles would be an adventure! Miss Theodosia laughed out girlishly, +not at all a tottery laugh on a cane, and the pleasant sound broke the +midnight stillness. + +The dresses were dry enough to roll into tight bundles. One she essayed +to iron as it was. She began as soon as the iron was cool enough. + +Miss Theodosia toiled--adventured--through the long hours into the +short. It was unaccustomed toiling, and, like Stefana, she burned her +thumbs. She had judgment and the skill that age kindly lends, in her +favor, and slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's +patient endeavors and brought beauteous perfection out of apparent ruin. +But the process was wearying and long. It would have been but half the +labor to have begun at the beginning instead of at Stefana's poor little +end. + +At midnight, Miss Theodosia made herself cups of tea and sipped them +thirstily. A wrist, both thumbs, and her testing forefinger smarted; she +was tired and disheveled. But the spirit of adventure refused to die. + +The fire burned red-hot and the irons must cool again. Miss Theodosia +slipped out this time into the soft darkness. + +"Let us hope Aunt Sarah will 'knit fast,'" she was thinking, with +whimsical eyes. "But if she doesn't--Theodosia Baxter, dear, if Aunt +Sarah is a slow knitter, you are in for it! I've no idea of letting you +off. Baxters that begin, end." + +It was dim starshine out-of-doors. Miss Theodosia was too late to see +the nurse-angel riding on her star, her little cap and halo awry with +the downhill glide through space. She was too late to see her go into +the dark little House of Children--but she saw her come out. Distinctly, +a misty little blur of white against the velvet background. Miss +Theodosia started a very little--did she need pinching to wake her? + +For the space of a clock-tick the little celestial appeared to hesitate, +as though waiting for her star-steed to come within her hail. Then, +floatingly, not walking, it seemed to Miss Theodosia, the mist of blurry +white drew nearer. It came near to Miss Theodosia, and it was not the +nurse-angel in cap and shining halo. It was Stefana! + +The child was in her nightgown. One look into her wide, unseeing eyes +was enough; Stefana was asleep. In a chattering little voice she was +talking to herself. It was like a soft wail of sound. + +"I must get them back! Quick, before she sees; I must iron them over. +Perhaps if I starched them again--another coat of starch might hide the +smooches. She mustn't see the smooches! If Mother should lose the +chance--oh, I must get 'em back and starch 'em another coat! Mother +mustn't lose her! My thumbs ache so!" + +Was she coming straight toward the door? No, a fortunate whiff of breeze +seemed to blow her aside like a little seed-puff, and she went drifting +by. She was apparently searching anxiously. + +"I must find them! Quick, before she sees! Oh, there are the smooches. I +see some of the smooches! But I can't find the rest of them--" + +Miss Theodosia sprang forward in the direction of the pathetic little +figure, but almost as quickly caught herself up. Sleepwalkers were not +to be awakened suddenly. What then was to be done? + +"I must get her back to bed without letting her wake," thought Miss +Theodosia. A plan suggested itself. She caught of her large apron, +rolled it into a bulky mass, and swiftly followed the small nightgowned +figure. Her steps made no sound over the grass. It was but the work of +an instant to lay the roll of apron in Stefana's arms. Instantly, at the +feel of starched cloth in her hands, the tense little face relaxed. + +"I've got 'em back!" Stefana muttered, and, as if from the relief of it, +the troubled sleep seemed to calm and quiet down into deep oblivion to +all troubles. To Miss Theodosia's dismay Stefana slid quietly to the +ground and dreamlessly slept. Here, indeed, was adventure! Even at +twelve years and Stefana small, the child was too heavy to carry home. + +"I don't dare to wake her," Miss Theodosia cried aloud, but softly, as +if in fear of doing so. + +"You needn't--hush! I'll carry her for you." + +The voice seemed to materialize out of the gloom into something big and +high and unexpectedly close at hand that rightly should have startled +Miss Theodosia but failed to do so. Afterward, in the house again, among +her irons, she was startled. + +"I was going by and saw her--you can tell a sleepwalker by the way one +walks. Glides. Now, when I lift her, gently support her head--that's it. +Forward, march!" + +"This way," Miss Theodosia directed in a whisper, though he was already +moving this way. Shadow Man that he was, he stepped earthily, with thuds +of his feet on the grass. Miss Theodosia's footsteps were soft echoes. +So they came to the little House of Flaggs. + +"There's a light in that inside room, and I can see a bed. I'll lay her +down, and you can go in afterward--and--er--smooth her out." + +"Yes--yes, I'll wait out here," whispered Miss Theodosia with a curious +solemnity in her face. Rome, nor Paris, nor Anywhere had offered +adventure like this--not like this. Miss Theodosia had an odd feeling +that this, too, was a dream--and a John. Would they all wake up +together? + +"Sound as a nut--never knew what hit her! But she wants straightening. +New work for me; I'm not used to putting kiddies to bed." + +"Oh, I'm not either!" breathed Miss Theodosia, "but I might straighten +one. I don't suppose you--you kissed her thumbs? Of course not!" She +laughed softly. "But I shall." + +Now it was the Shadow Man's turn to laugh with a funny, explosive little +effect as though he were not used to muffling his laughs,--as if this +playing Shadow Man were a new rôle. + +"Why thumbs?" he whispered. "Why not lips, say, or eyes? I thought women +kissed kiddies' eyes. Hope I haven't made a mistake--" as if he had some +secret desire for women to kiss the eyes of little children. "If you +don't mind kissing 'em when you go in there--" + +"I shall kiss her thumbs," Miss Theodosia said firmly. "They were burned +at the stake for me. I know how burned thumbs feel." + +But the Shadow Man stubbornly persisted. + +"I'll tell you what," he said. "I'll go back now and kiss her thumbs, if +you'll kiss her eyes when you go in; as--er--a favor. 'Stoop over the +little sleeper,' you know, and 'press your mother's lips to the closed +blue orbs.'" He seemed to be quoting something. + +"But I haven't any mother's lips," sighed Miss Theodosia, "only the kind +for thumbs--just thumbs. I'm sorry," she added humbly. Curiously she +experienced no surprise at this intimate turn of a conversation with a +Shadow Man at midnight. + +"That's all right--that's all right," the Shadow Man assured her. "Only +thought I'd feel a little better to prove it was done that way. Hadn't +any business mixing up with women's lips and kiddies' orbs, anyway! +Serves me right." And now it was his turn to be humble. "Good night," +and he was gone. + +It was into a tiny bedroom off the kitchen, where a needle of light from +a turned-down lamp barely pricked the darkness, that Miss Theodosia +found her way. She had a dim picture of littering little clothes about +the room and on the flat pillows of the bed the round, flushed face of +Evangeline. In a clothes basket beside the bed she dimly saw a little +mound that might be Elly Precious--it was Elly Precious! The little +mound stirred with a curious, nestling sound, and instantly Stefana +stirred also and crooned. Even in her sleep she was the little Mother. +Miss Theodosia felt her own throat tighten and fill. + +Stefana still clasped the bundle of apron in her arms, and Miss +Theodosia did not dare try to take it away from her. She merely arranged +it a little more comfortably and smoothed Stefana out. Queer!--as if at +some other time, in some passed-by existence, she had smoothed out a +child. She seemed to know how. Suddenly she stooped and kissed, not +Stefana's thumbs but her eyes. + +"The starch!" murmured Stefana as Miss Theodosia turned away. "Some'dy +get it!" The deep sleep had broken a little, and through the break +trickled a thread of Stefana's troubles. Then, again, silence and peace. +No sound from bed or clothes basket on the floor. + +Outside, in the faint starlight, Miss Theodosia drew a long breath. She +softly laughed. Curious how much like a sob a little laugh can be! Oh, +starlit night of adventuring! What next? Miss Theodosia's mantle of +gentle melancholy slid from her shoulders; she no longer felt +apprehensions of growing old. Continually she saw Evangeline's rosy face +on that flat pillow, and the little mound of Elly Precious. She +remembered how tiny the house had looked from the inside, and how many +little littering clothes she had seen. The appealing quality of empty +little clothes! In Miss Theodosia's inside room of her soul, something +stirred behind the locked door. + +The irons had cooled too much, and the fire was low. Miss Theodosia went +to work again. As she worked, she talked to herself sociably. + +"Adventures thicken! Stars, and angels in caps, and children that walk +in their little sleeps! And little heaps in clothes baskets, that are +babies! And--Theodosia Baxter--a Man! Out of a clear, inky sky! Why +weren't you scared? How do you know--you never even saw his face--maybe +he was a thief, and a marauder, and a thug!" + +Granted, if thieves and marauders and those awful things, thugs, carry +little loads or sleep as tenderly as women--and never wake them; if they +are polite and say good night--. What kind of marauding and--and +thugging is that? + +"What will Stefana think when she finds my apron in bed with her!" +suddenly laughed Miss Theodosia, breaking the spell. "Funny Stefana! she +goes to my heart, she and her starch--when they're asleep!" + +But, awake, Stefana's starch went to Miss Theodosia's back and aching +bones. It was three o'clock when she was ready to go to bed. Over chairs +and the couch in her sitting-room, lay the three redeemed white dresses, +soft again and very smoochless and smooth. Miss Theodosia stood and +admired. She was full of pride and weariness. At last, at thirty-six, +she had done real work; she loved the feel of it in her tired bones. She +loved her night of adventuring. Life--she loved that. So she went to bed +at three, when the birds were beginning to get up. If her throat--calm +and grown-up throat--had not persistently tightened, she would have gone +to sleep laughing at the remembrance of it all. All the funny night. Why +wasn't it funny? Why couldn't she laugh? She sat up in bed. + +On the morning after her adventurous night, as Miss Theodosia lingered +luxuriously over her late breakfast, came bursting in Evangeline Flagg. +A gray-checked something waved from her hand like a flag of truce. +Evangeline always burst into things--houses, and rooms, and excited +little speech. + +"Here it is!--that is, if it's yours. Stefana says to ask. 'Tain't ours. +Mercy gracious, no! We don't take our aperns to bed. Stefana never heard +of such a thing. Neither o' us never. In bed--right straight in bed! An' +Stefana hugging it up like everything! She says to ask you if it's yours +because it ain't ours, nor anybody else's, an' it's got to be somebody's +apern, and once I thought I saw a gray 'n' white one hanging through +your window--I mean on a nail, but, mercy gracious, what was it doing in +bed with me an' Stefana!" + +Even Evangeline's breath had limitations. She stopped as headlong as she +had begun. She unwound the large, voluminous-skirted apron from her +grasp and extended it. + +"Here 'tis, if it's yours," she gasped, spent. She was gazing at it with +a species of awe; it was an "apern" of mystery, not a human apern. "An' +if 't isn't, take it--Stefana said not to dare to bring it back. +We--we're sort of afraid of it, honest. Though, of course, Stefana says +it must 've blew in the window"--the tide of speech was coming in once +more--"an'--an' sort of landed on the bed, an' Stefana kind of grabbed +it in her sleep, thinking it was Elly Precious. But, mercy gracious!" + +"Sit down," Miss Theodosia said, smiling. "Doesn't it tire you to talk +as fast as that?" + +"Some," admitted Evangeline, "but I don't mind. What I mind is +ghosts--aperns an' the kind with--with legs." She dropped her voice. "I +saw one las' night." + +"Mercy gracious!" Miss Theodosia breathed. + +Evangeline nodded solemnly. "Out the window. I woke up feelin' one, an' +I saw it goin' across the grass. White. Slinky." + +"Oh, not--slinky!" protested Miss Theodosia, suddenly championing the +ghost-with-legs. + +"Slinky," firmly. "I guess I'd a-screeched right out if I hadn't +remembered the baby. Elly Precious is terrible hard to put to sleep +second time. You aren't much acquainted with babies, are you?" + +Again--so soon! Miss Theodosia's humility returned. + +"We're acquainted, over to our house! Mother says babies are great +edge--edge--" + +"Educators?" + +"That's it! Mercy gracious, then I should think Mother'd be graduated!" + +After Evangeline's departure, Miss Theodosia set down her coffee cup and +gave herself up to laughter. The room rang with the pleasant sound of +it. + +"Will you l-listen to yourself, Theodosia Baxter!" she cried at length, +out of breath. "You actually sound happy!" + +In the afternoon, a bevy of Miss Theodosia's old friends called on her +as she sat on her front porch. They had intended, they said, to wait +till the proper time, according to etiquette, for calls upon returned +travelers. + +"But we wanted to see you so much, after all this time," one of them +said. "We decided we couldn't wait to be proper. Besides, it would be +such a risk. While we waited, you'd run off again. It was really our +only way. Ladies, will you see how lovely and white she looks! Perfectly +spotless!" The speaker sighed. Her own dress was dark and spot-colored. +"I don't see how you do it! I tell Andrew I'd rather dress in white than +in velvet--I love it! But, there, I couldn't get a minute to wear the +dresses; it would take all my days to do 'em up. Of course, with you +it's different. I don't suppose you ever toiled over an ironing-board a +day in your life." + +Miss Theodosia gravely shook her head. "No," she said, curious little +twinkling lines deepening round her eyes, "I never did--a day--in my +life." + +"That's what I thought! That's what I told Andrew. 'Theodosia Baxter +don't know what work is,' I told him. It's easy enough for some women to +wear lovely white things. Simplest thing in the world!" + +Miss Theodosia's cryptic little smile lingered on her lips and in the +clear windows of her eyes, as she gazed past the voluble wife of Andrew, +through her vines, at the little House of Children next door. She +imagined she heard Stefana singing, high up and sweet, over her work. +Wait!--that was not a singing sound! + +A single shriek shot above the clear humming noise that might be +Stefana. Then another--a third! + +"Some one is hurt!" cried Miss Theodosia, and she kilted her smooth +white skirts and ran. + +Again that dread shriek! Over her shoulder, as she ran, Miss Theodosia +gave directions to her startled callers. + +"Telephone for a doctor--any doctor. In the side hall--on a table!" But +could any doctor save the life of that terrible shriek? If it came once +more--It came! Miss Theodosia involuntarily closed her eyes to shut out +a sight of horror. + +"Mercy gracious!" + +She opened them hurriedly at the soft collision of herself with +Evangeline. + +"Who is it? Is it the baby? I've sent for the doctor." Half-remembered, +half-read first aids crowded her mind confusedly. Warm water and +mustard--that was for hemorrhage--no, no--poison! But did you apply it +inside or out? What was that about laying the patient up hill--feet +higher--or was it feet lower--down hill? + +"Take me there, quick! We must do what we can till the doct--oh, the +poor baby!" + +"Mercy gracious goodness! Elly Precious is eatin' bread an' molasses. +He's only et one slice, an' most o' that's on his outside. They aint' +an'thing worse'n molasses the matter with El--" + +"There! Oh, there!" As another mournful cry split the air.--"Oh, that! +What is it? Who is it?" + +"Mercy gra--why, that's Carruthers bein' a steam whistle. Did he scare +you? He does do it pretty loud when he's gettin' up steam; you see, he +don't know how loud he does it, because he's deaf o' hearin'. We can't +bear to lower him, but we only let him be a steam whistle for a +treat--when he's 'specially good--Mother said to. Stefana found him +washin' his face 'free greatest' this mornin', so she let him--.Quick, +shut your ears! He's goin' off again!" + +'But, this time, Miss Theodosia heard, unalarmed. To her own surprise, +she listened almost enjoyingly. To be able to make a noise like that! +The sheer vitality and youth of it compelled admiration. + +"If I could do that--" began Miss Theodosia's thought, then broke off +hastily as the mental vision of herself in the act of bein' a steam +whistle appeared to her. + +"You do it this way," explained Evangeline, inserting a forefinger in +each corner of her mouth and preparing to steam-whistle. + +"No, no, I don't do it any way!" Miss Theodosia protested smilingly. "Do +you think--do you think, perhaps, he has been sufficiently rewarded for +washing his own face, now? Because, you see, I have callers on my +porch." + +"Mercy gracious--I see 'em! I'll go right an' stop Carruthers! That's +what Stefana said--that we'd ought to remember you wasn't in Europe +now." + +"I think I could hear steam whistles there!" Miss Theodosia smiled. But +Evangeline's sober mind continued its line of thought. + +"Stefana says if you'll hang somethin' red out when you're asleep, or +got callers, or anythin', then she'll make us play funeral." + +"Oh, no--not that!" No red flag of warning could justify playing +funeral. + +"Well, Hold-Your-Breath, then. We can't make much noise holding our +breaths! Stefana's the champion Hold-Your-Breath-er. You take an awful +long breath--this way--" But, already, Miss Theodosia was on her way +home. She found her callers moving agitatedly about. "Central asked what +doctor, and for the life of me I couldn't remember a living doctor's +name in this town. 'Anybody,' I told her. 'Tell him to come quick; +somebody must be dying over to the little Flagg place." + +Miss Theodosia lifted a hand to stem the tide of Mrs. Andrew's words. + +"He's stopped dying--listen! It's all quiet now; it was only play. I'll +head Central off. Excuse me a minute--I mean, another minute!" + +But Central had done her work well--beyond heading-off. Already an +automobile was speeding up the road; behind it clattered a +hurriedly-driven buggy. Miss Theodosia saw them both stopping at the +little Flagg place. She smiled. She was not needed over there to make +any explanations or apologies--Evangeline was there! + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +She sat on her porch after the visitors had gone, thinking strange Miss +Theodosia thoughts. A man, coming up her front path and lifting a soft +felt hat, interrupted the strangest thought of all. + +"I beg your pardon. Is this where somebody needs help? I was told--" + +Miss Theodosia laughed outright. + +"I do need help. Were you ever a steam whistle? You put two fingers in +your mouth, one in each corner--I was trying to get up my courage to do +it!" + +The felt hat rolled down the steps, the stranger needing both his hands. + +"Like this?" + +"Ye-s. I never saw a steam whistle, you know. That was what I was +wishing." + +"Heard one? Because I can give a demonstration." + +"Don't!" Miss Theodosia shut her ears. + +"I heard one--demonstration. I thought some one was dying, at least." + +"Oh, that was the 'help wanted!' I see. My services are not required, +then; it was a false alarm." + +Miss Theodosia was on her feet, remembering her manners. "It was a true +enough alarm; won't you sit down? I think my nerves need a doctor." + +"Did I call myself a doctor? I am a reformed doctor, madam. It is some +years since I got out. But I thought, in a very urgent case--fits, you +know, or something like that--Thank you, I won't sit down. My work calls +me." + +Miss Theodosia inclined her head politely, but curiosity seized her. How +curious she was getting about many things! + +"I wish I knew--" she began. + +"Yes, madam?" + +"What work 'calls' reformed doctors. After they are--out." + +The stranger's big, unharnessed laugh was almost startling to Miss +Theodosia. Why? She had never heard just such a big, unharnessed laugh +before. She had heard a big harnessed laugh--when? Before she could +answer her own thought, or the stranger could answer her spoken query, a +hurry of small feet sounded. Only Evangeline's feet could break speed +limits like that. + +"Oh, Miss Theodosia--oh, I don't want to int'rupt, but just soon's he's +gone--" + +"He's gone," sighed Miss Theodosia, as the child came up. "You mustn't +interrupt again, that way, unless it's a very urgent case--fits or +something." In spite of proper vexation, she smiled. "Who was that man, +Evangeline, that just went away?" + +"Oh, I don't know--I wasn't acquainted with his back; that's every speck +o' him I saw. Oh! oh! oh!" + +"Evangeline Flagg, what is the matter now?" + +"'D you ever do up a man, Miss Theodosia? Stiff--awful stiff? Stefana +says it's bad enough to do women up. She's havin' a dreadful time! We +can't get the stiffness out; I been helpin'. It stands up alone!" +Suddenly, without warning, Evangeline went off into a series of shrill +shrieks. + +"Stop me! Stop me! Don't l-let Stefana hear me! Don't l-let me laugh!" + +This was an urgent case--fits or something, surely! Miss Theodosia's +eyes sought the horizon for a reformed doctor. In lack of one, she shook +Evangeline. + +"Stop at once! Make yourself stop; count ten!" + +"One! Two-o! Th-ree!" shrieked Evangeline, through to ten. Ten separate +shrieks. Then, abruptly, she ceased. + +"Mercy gracious, I've stopped! I hope Stefana wasn't listenin'. But she +wasn't; she was cryin'. I left her cryin'. If you could come over--. +Honest, we can't do a thing! We thought you'd probably did up men." + +Miss Theodosia never had. Not so--awful a thing as that! + +"It stands up alone, with both arms out! I don't dass to go back. I +shall laugh if I do, an' if I laugh, Stefana'll cry. She don't think +it's f-funny." The shrieks showed signs of returning, and Miss Theodosia +again had recourse to stern measures. + +"Count ten!" she demanded, as she shook. + +They went back together to the mysterious something that stood alone +with both arms out. It was in that pose as they approached it. Miss +Theodosia thought it was f--funny; an awful desire to shriek like +Evangeline took possession of her. She counted ten in inward haste. + +"I can't do anything with it!" wailed poor Stefana. "And Elly Precious +gets into it, and makes it walk! He's in it now." + +"It's walkin'!" shrieked Evangeline, as the portentously stiff shirt +staggered a little to one side. Stefana, filled with enthusiasm and +generosity of soul, had starched not the bosom alone but the entire +shirt. She had done it thoroughly. The result was alarming. It was a +terrible shirt! + +"Tell me what to do--somebody tell me!" entreated the little laundress. +"I've unstarched it, and unstarched it, and seems as if it got stiffer." + +"Boiling water," breathed Miss Theodosia, too spent with her struggles +not to laugh, to admit of further speech. + +"Wait! Don't anybody dass to pour boilin' water on till I get Elly +Precious out! Come to Evangeline this minute, darlin' dear--no, they +shan't boil him!" + +Elly Precious emerged, crowing. The deaf-but-not-dumb little Flagg +appeared, to swell the number around the Terrible Shirt. Stefana dried +her tears. Miss Theodosia had the sense of being looked up to--relied +upon. She rose to the occasion buoyantly. As unused as Stefana to men's +bosoms, she yet stepped into the breach. Unused to issuing orders, she +issued them. + +"Evangeline, you and Carruthers see to the baby. Stefana, come with me. +Bring--it." + +They went back to the big house, she with that new and intoxicating +sense of importance, and Stefana with the Terrible Shirt. + +"Whose is it--that?" she asked, indicating the creaking white garment. +"What were you doing with it?" + +"Starching it," mumbled poor Stefana. "It took most a package. He said +he liked his stiff. 'Put in plenty o' starch,' he said to Mother, and +she always did. So I did. I thought if he said--" + +"If who said?" It took a long time to establish the identity of the +Terrible Shirt. + +"If he did, the man it belongs to." + +"What man--who?" + +"The man that writes things." + +"What things?" + +"We don't know exactly. Evangeline thinks tracts. She says his room was +all full o' half sheets o' paper--lying all over everywhere. She saw +'Good Lord' on one. Perhaps it's sermons. Mother always sent Evangeline +home with his wash; I never went. He is a very nice man--oh, that's why +I feel so bad about his shirt! I wouldn't care if he was an--an +infidel!" + +"Bless your heart!" + +Miss Theodosia turned suddenly and embraced Stefana and the shirt. +"Don't worry any more," she said; "you and I will work wonders with that +Tract Man's shirt! Stefana, put the kettle on and we'll go to it! +There's nothing two determined people can't do, once they've put their +minds on it." + +Together they labored, and the impossible happened. Theodosia Baxter did +up a man! She--and Stefana--succeeded in getting the starch out of the +surrounding area and into the bosom of the Terrible Shirt. They got much +starch in. Inspiration appeared to come to Miss Theodosia. Even the +really awful task of ironing that bosom till it glittered and shone in +unwrinkled board-like expanse was at length accomplished. Miss Theodosia +was justly proud of herself--and of Stefana; she insisted upon including +Stefana in her triumphs. + +"Eureka!" she exulted. "Call Evangeline, Stefana, and Elly Precious, and +Carruthers! Call in a Chinaman, if you like, and tell him to look at +that! Ask him to beat it!" + +"There isn't any in this town," responded literal Stefana. "That's why +Mother did bosoms. She'd a good deal rather not've." + +"But I love to do bosoms!" sang Miss Theodosia. "I never felt so worth +while in my life before--an artist in starch, Stefana!" + +"Well, you've done beautifully--I never did see!" the grateful Stefana +cried. "But I'm afraid it's kind of gone to your head. I think you +better lie down." + +"Send for the Reformed Doctor! Stefana, what are you doing with my +beautiful bosom?" + +"I won't muss it. I'm just going to take it home and sew the buttons on. +There's two off. Mother always sewed 'em on; he pays two cents extra for +repairs." + +Miss Theodosia's fair face flushed. "You don't stir a step with it! I +have buttons and a spool of thread--what I do, I finish doing! Give it +to me." + +For the first time, Miss Theodosia handled a man's garment intimately. +It lay stiffly across her lap. She sewed on the two buttons; she mended +a tiny "hog-tear." Life had taken on new interests--bosoms and buttons. +She thrilled--when had she ever thrilled before? Ironing her own dresses +had been a poor, tame business. She would be sorry to part with this +shirt! + +And then Evangeline came. + +"Mercy gracious, doesn't it look elegant! I came over because he's come +for his shirt. He says he's goin' to begin a new story, an' he always +has to have a clean shirt on. An' his hair cut--he's got it cut. I guess +that bosom'll match his hair all right! It's perfectly lovely!" + +"What did you do with Elly Precious, Evangeline Flagg!" demanded +Stefana. + +"That's it--that's why I got to hurry back. He's keepin' Elly Precious +for me, an' he don't know what to do with babies. He says all his are +paper ones--paper babies! He gave Elly Precious his knife, an' opened +the blades to amuse him! He said he guessed Elly Precious wouldn't hurt +'em!" Evangeline's face registered great scorn. "If you'll give it to +me, I'll carry it to him," she concluded, holding out her hand for the +shirt. But Miss Theodosia sewed calmly on. She had found a second tear +larger than the first. It would be better to strengthen it with a little +piece underneath. She would find a white scrap in her bag of pieces. + +"It is not ready yet. He can wait. But you must not wait, Evangeline. +Elly Precious may be playing with his pistol, if he carries one." + +"He don't. He ain't a pistol-man, but, mercy gracious, how you scare me! +You comin' too, Stefana?" + +"Yes, Stefana can go now. She is all through," which was Miss +Theodosia's kind inclusion of Stefana. That, again, was curiously new to +Miss Theodosia. Psychological changes were taking place--or were they +just plain tugs on Miss Theodosia's heartstrings? + +She sat and sewed. + +"Patching--I'm patching!" she laughed to herself. "And here I've been +hiring my own mending done! Theodosia Baxter, see what you are doing; +you are patching a shirt for a man! No, I'm not, either! I'm doing it +for Stefana--what are you talking about?" + +Some one came up her steps and knocked on her open door. But she was too +engrossed to hear. The patch underneath had slipped a little askew. She +ripped out some of the stitches and began again. She caught herself +humming as she worked. + +"Please may I have my shirt?" a voice asked meekly. "That story is +promised for next month. It's the twenty-eighth, now." + +Evangeline's Tract Man stood in the doorway, soft felt hat in hand, +twinkles in his eyes. Evangeline's Tract Man was the Reformed Doctor! If +Miss Theodosia had been eighteen instead of thirty-six she would not +have blushed more beautifully, but she continued to patch. She was +caught in the act; no help for it now. But she would finish--that--patch. + +"So it's you! So that's the work Reformed Doctors do!" + +"Madam, yes. When stories appeal to them more than pills and tonics, +they reform and write stories. They have to!" he cried, suddenly in +earnest, "When one is life, and the other death--" + +"Oh, if it was death to them--your patients," she murmured. Then, +ashamed of her own flippancy: "Of course, I didn't mean anything as +silly as that! I meant--I meant, please sit down while I finish this +patch. There, in that easy-chair. There are magazines on the table." + +There was one magazine with his own name in the list of contents. He +opened it at that page and gazed down upon it quite soberly. + +"My name is John Bradford," he said, as if reading. Miss Theodosia +started a little, but it was not as he thought, in his innocent vanity. +Miss Theodosia got no farther than the first part of the name--so he was +a John! She glanced quickly at the doorway, measuring him in her mind as +he had stood against the lintel. He had reached a long way up--a long +man. The Shadow Man had been a long shadow. Something told her-- + +[Illustration: "If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into +a story like that."] + +"Did you ever carry a child in your arms and lay her on a bed? In the +middle of the night? Did you do it last night? Are you the same man?" + +"I am the same man I was last night," he answered gravely. "I was John +Bradford then, too. Didn't I carry her all right? What was the matter?" +Suddenly he leaned forward in the chair. "Did you kiss her thumbs?" he +demanded. + +"I kissed her eyes." + +They were silent for a little, while Miss Theodosia set small, nervous +stitches in John Bradford's shirt, and John Bradford twiddled the edges +of the magazine. He stole glances, now and then, at this strange woman +with whom he seemed to have come so oddly into contact. He could make a +story of her dark hair, straight shoulders, beautiful hands. He could +not get a good view of her full face. Bending over a bed, kissing a +little sleeper's eyes--he could work her in that way. If he knew her a +little better-- + +"I knew they did it!" + +"Did what--who?" + +"Women--kissed that way. You have proved it now." + +"I'm not women. I'm just one woman, and I never did it in my life +before." + +"Well, you liked doing it, didn't you? I could put you in, liking it." + +The shirt slid to the floor, and Miss Theodosia gave her visitor a full +view of her face. + +"Are you making 'copy' of me? Because if you are thinking of putting me +anywhere, put me into a story like that. I'd like it. I mean, with +little children in a bed--and one in a clothes basket! Say I tucked them +in--Yes, I liked kissing Stefana's eyes. I should love to have another +chance. It's nothing to be ashamed of, is it, to like little children?" + +"I like 'em. I always have." + +"Well, I always haven't. Only very lately--it's queer. When I came home +here and found all those children next door--mercy gracious!" + +They both laughed. Laughing together is a great acquaintancer. Miss +Thedosia suddenly thought of something and laughed a little more. + +"My name is Theodosia Baxter," she said. They rose and shook hands +gravely. They were decently introduced. The beautiful shiny bosom of the +shirt lay between them like a white mirror and Miss Theodosia caught the +man's glance on it. + +"Is it anything to be ashamed of--doing up a shirt?" she demanded. + +"Not doing it up like that! That's a work of art!" + +"A work of heart--I did it for Stefana. I've got quite fond of it now, +and shall hate to part with it. It's a friend." + +"A bosom friend," he parried. Again they laughed and grew more +acquainted. Miss Theodosia made tea in her dainty Sčvres cups. The +faintest flecks of pink made her face youthful. Miss Theodosia was a +good-looking woman always, but, animated, her face was really lovely. +John Bradford was better used to paper women, like paper babies, but his +taste recognized flesh-and-blood attractiveness. He had always been a +lonely man--until now. + +"I'm having a beautiful time," he sighed. "Is it anything to be ashamed +of, to have a beautiful time?" + +"Or two cups of tea? Please! This is my company tea--warranted good to +write stories on!" + +"Oh--stories. Are there such things? Did I ever write one? Have I got to +write another?" + +"It's the twenty-eighth," Miss Theodosia reminded demurely. "But you +will need another cup of tea. How long does it take?" + +"To drink another cup?" + +"To write another story. Tell me about it. Perhaps I could do it. You +take a blotter and a pen and plenty of half-sheets of paper--'tracts,' +Evangeline calls them! Then you write 'Good Lord!' That is what +Evangeline says you wrote on a tract! She said maybe it was a sermon." + +"Oh--Evangeline! And speaking of angels--" + +"Mercy gracious! You're here--both o' you! An' somebody's gone an' +spilled a drop of somethin' on that beautiful bosom!" + +"A tear-drop, Evangeline, because she wouldn't give it to me." + +"Tea drop!" sniffed Evangeline. "Guess I know! After all Stefana's work! +Miss Theodosia, can Elly Precious eat your grass? He's out there now. He +don't really eat it; he just kind of pretends. Mother says Elly Precious +ought to be put out to pasture. We haven't got any grass to speak of, +over to our house." + +"Don't speak of it! Of course he can eat mine, if you think it is +edible. Ask the Reformed Doctor." + +"Him a doctor? Mercy gracious--honest? Then he knows if Elly Precious'd +ought to eat grass--not really eat, you know." + +"Just graze a little--let him graze." The Reformed Doctor rose to his +feet and held out his hand to Miss Theodosia. "I'll go out and see how +he does it. It's lucky Evangeline came in, or I might not have known +enough to go at all. I've had a beautiful time. I'll put you in with the +bedful of kiddies." + +"And the clothes basket?" + +"And the clothes basket." + +"You haven't got your shirt--mercy gracious! I thought that's what you +came after," reminded Evangeline. + +"Was it?" the Reformed Doctor said. "Give it to me, Evangeline." + +"Not naked! Without wrappin' up! I never did see!" + +"It's such a good-looking shirt--well, then, wrap it up, wrap it up. +I've got a newspaper in my pocket. Put that round it, Evangeline." He +turned again to his hostess. "It will be a good story if I put--the +clothes basket--in it. They won't send it back. Good-by." + +He was off to inspect Elly Precious' grazing-ground. Evangeline, at the +window where she had gone to make sure her darlin' dear was safe, +presented to Miss Theodosia a square, bony little back that was +curiously like that of a dwarfed old woman. + +The trail of innocent Elly Precious was over that stoopy little figure. +Miss Theodosia looked with softened eyes. Then a smile grew in them, +wrinkling their corners whimsically. She was noticing something else +besides the little old-lady back. Evangeline's braids toed in! Tight and +flaxen, they stood out in rounded curves, converging suddenly to the bit +of faded ribbon that tied them together. There was something suspicious +looking about that ribbon--"Stefana starched it!" smiled Miss +Theodosia's thought. + +The small figure whirled face about. + +"There, _he_ can see to him awhile." Evangeline was always cheerfully +oblivious to any confusion of ideas arising from her use of personal +pronouns. "I'm tired. Children are a great care," said Evangeline. She +seated herself in an easy chair and dangled thin legs. + +"If you drank tea--I'll make you a cup of cocoa, Evangeline." + +"Oh, mercy gracious, no! I'm not as tired as _cocoa_. Jus' +sit-'n'-a'-chair tired. You know how it feels--no, you don't either. +I forgot. I guess you are pretty lucky. No, I don't guess so _either_!" +Evangeline suddenly straightened on the edge of the big chair and eyed +Miss Theodosia sternly, as though that innocent soul had been the one +guilty of disloyalty to darlin' dears. + +"Children are a great comfort," declaimed Evangeline with emphasis. She +might have been the mother of six comforts. Tenderness crept into her +eyes, and her freckles seemed to fade out, and even the small blunt nose +of her take on middle-agedness and motherliness. '"Specially when you +undress 'em. They're so darlin' an' soft! You ever undressed one--a +reg'lar _baby_ one? Of course not one o' your own when you never _had_ +any, but I thought p'raps you might've undressed a grandbaby or +somethin'--" + +Miss Theodosia shook a humbled head. + +"No," she murmured, "I never undressed even a grandbaby." And curiously +she failed either to smile at the child's little notion or to wince at +the advanced age it implied for her. She looked across the room from her +big chair to Evangeline's with rather a wistful look. She was envying +Evangeline. + +"I'm sorry," the child said gently, a little embarrassed by the +unexpected solemnity of the moment. To relieve it, she had recourse to a +sudden funny memory of her own undressings of Elly Precious. She broke +hurriedly into laughter. + +"I have to have an extra pig for my baby!" she shrilled. "Takes six +instead o' five! You know where it ends, 'This little pig said: "Quee! +Quee! Quee! can't get over the barn-door sill"?' Mercy gracious, you +don't know the little pigs, I s'pose--" More embarrassment. Even +Evangeline was losing presence of mind. + +"Oh, yes!" Miss Theodosia brightened perceptibly. "I know the one that +went to market and the one that stayed at home--all five of them I +know." + +"But you don't know Elly Precious's extra little pig!" crowed the +reassured Evangeline. "Just _us_ know that one. I made him up. When you +have six toes,--I mean when Elly Precious has,--you have to have six +pigs. After the one that can't get over the barn-door sill, I say: 'This +little pig said--' wait, I'll say the last two together so you'll see +they rhyme beautifully. Reg'lar poetry. + +"'This little pig said, "Quee! Quee! Quee! can't get over the barn-door +sill.'" + +"'_This_ little pig said, "He! He! He! when you tickle, I can't keep +still!'" + +"Elly Precious wiggles it when I tickle! We laugh like everything. I +think it is pretty good poetry," added Evangeline modestly. + +"It is beautiful poetry. I never could have begun to make up such a +lovely, ticklish little pig!" + +Evangeline leaned back again in the soft cushiony embrace of the great +chair and actually achieved a moment of silence. The talkative clock on +Miss Theodosia's mantel filled in the space. Then once more Evangeline: + +"But I shall never have any." + +"Any--pigs?" smilingly. + +"Children. Not any. I've decided I'll rest. They're such a care. But of +course I can run in an' undress Stefana's an' Elly Precious's--mercy +gracious, Elly Precious's!" + +It required too great a mental effort to visualize them. Elly Precious's +children were _funny_! Evangeline giggled softly. "Then I'll be a +gran'mother, won't I! I've always wanted to be a gran'mother an' say +what I did when _I_ was a child an' how I always _minded_." A fresh +giggle. "'_I_ never had to be _told to_ twice, my dears,' I'll say to +Elly Precious's children! They'll all be my dears. I'll help bring 'em +up. Isn't it queer," broke forth Evangeline suddenly, "how when you get +to be old you never were bad when you were young? The badnesses have +kind of--kind of faded out. I bet there _were_ badnesses!" + +And Miss Theodosia found herself nodding decisively. She, too, bet there +were. + +A hilarious little crow suddenly sounded from without the window; it was +accompanied by a deep man-sound of mirth. Miss Theodosia and Evangeline +smiled across at each other indulgently. + +"Elly Precious is havin' a good time. That's his good-time noise. Oh, I +think he's a nice person, don't you?" + +"Nice? I love him!" cried Miss Theodosia warmly. Her face that was still +the face of a girl was tenderly flushed. "I love every inch of him, +Evangeline." + +"Merry gra--that's a lot of lovin'! I guess you are ahead o' me!" + +"Evangeline Flagg, aren't you ashamed! When he is the dearest, +cunningest--" + +"Not--not _cunnin'est_. But he's got beautiful whiskers. I mean if he +didn't shave 'em off. When he came, he had 'em on. You can't love his +whiskers when you never saw--" + +Miss Theodosia held up a limp hand to stem this terrible tide of words. + +"Oh, stop! _wait_, Evangeline!" she begged. "Who are you talking about?" + +Why stop for grammatic rules at a time like this? + +"Why, he--_him_. I said I liked him, an' you said you lov--" + +"I have been talking about Elly Precious, naturally," Miss Theodosia +returned stiffly. "You are very careless with your pronouns, +Evangeline," she added with an effect of severity. Her cheeks that +persisted still in being a girl's cheeks had grown a warm, becoming +pink. In pink Miss Theodosia was lovely. + +"Don't you think you'd better relieve Elly Precious' caretaker by this +time? He may not enjoy being left in charge quite so long." + +"Not enjoy! Come an' see him not enjoy!" sang Evangeline from the +window. She was flattening her nose against the pane and bubbling with +sympathetic glee. Miss Theodosia went over and stood beside her. + +Out there the two of them were frolicking together--two joyous children. +It was the good old game of Peek-a-boo, but seemed a new, surprising +game to Miss Theodosia. The big playmate on the grass spread a +handkerchief over the little playmate's face, and with a shriek of joy +the little playmate did the rest. Then the big child's turn--turn and +turn about. Deep voice and thin, sweet tinkle of baby voice joined in a +curiously harmonious chorus that rang through the window pane into the +two pairs of listening ears. + +It was a new light in which to see--a new sound in which to hear John +Bradford. Miss Theodosia had a guilty consciousness of being an +eavesdropper, yet she kept on eavesdropping. At a particular climax in +the little play, she laughed aloud softly. Evangeline wriggled with +enjoyment. Her fingers drummed applause on the glass, and the big player +glanced quickly up and saw the two lookers-on. He did not hesitate in +the play, did not stop the next little gleeful peek. Miss Theodosia +loved it in him for not stopping. They were not ashamed--Elly Precious +and John Bradford. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +In the next few days Miss Theodosia unpacked the rest of her trunks and +put the things away neatly in permanent places. She sang as she did it. +Life seemed a singing thing to Miss Theodosia who had been a lonely +woman--until now. Now she could look out of her window and see the +little House of Flaggs. Any minute Evangeline might burst in. The steam +whistle might blow. The Shadow Reformed-Doctor Man might come for +another cup of tea. Anything might happen. + +Something did happen, but it was not a singing thing. Evangeline did +burst in. It was some days later than the Day of the Shirt. Miss +Theodosia sat comfortably sipping her afternoon tea. Two dainty cups +were before her. + +"Mercy gracious--mercy, mercy, mercy gracious! This is the worst! This +is worse than Aunt Sarah! An' to think it's Elly Precious, my darlin' +dear! An' to think I never had--! An' to think I did it myself!" + +Even to Evangeline, words failed to express this worst of all things. +She dropped, a little leaden thing of despair, into Miss Theodosia's +great chair and rocked herself in anguish. + +"What is it, dear?" Miss Theodosia cried anxiously. The little word of +endearment slipped out unconsciously, though she was not used to +"dears." But she was not used to this, either--this rocking in anguish +of a little child in her great chair. + +"Can't you stop crying and tell me?" Evangeline not able to talk! Miss +Theodosia was actually alarmed. If speech did not return quickly--but +speech returned. + +"Oh, mercy gracious me!" Evangeline sobbed, rocking harder, "to think I +went an' set him right down in the middle of 'em--right slap in the +middle! An' he didn't want to be set down. Elly Precious despises the +Benjamin baby. He knows he's a girl, an' girl-babies don't count. But I +set him down--oh, mercy gracious me, I went an' set him down, slap!" + +Sobs and words collided and inextricably mixed. In the dark Miss +Theodosia waited; she saw no light as yet. + +"If I could only have 'em--if I only had've, anyway! Then I could take +care of my darlin' dear. But Elly Precious's is the only measles we ever +had in the family." + +Ah, light! Miss Theodosia blinked in the sudden inflow of it. +Evangeline's released tongue leaped ahead. + +"How'd I know the Benjamin baby had 'em when she only just sneezed? Oh, +I suppose she sneezed 'em all around, an' I set Elly Precious down in +'em! Right in a nest o' measles!" + +"What was Elly Precious doing there? I don't remember any Benjamins." + +"No'm--oh, no'm. They're very recent. It's that house with the baby-pen +in the front yard to keep their baby in. I set Elly Precious down in it, +too, one day." + +Evangeline shuddered. "While I was gettin' Stefana's starch at the +store; I asked if I could, till I got back." + +Miss Theodosia's face put on sternness. "What was the mother of the +Benjamin baby thinking of, to let you?" she demanded. + +"Oh, I don't know--I don't know! That's a very speckled baby, anyway, +an' perhaps she didn't know measles from speckles. He didn't bloom out +reg'lar built till next day--I mean she didn't--oh, I don't mean the +mother didn't--" + +"I know, dear; I know what you mean," soothed Miss Theodosia gently. + +"Yes'm, that's what I mean. Next day they found out for sure." + +"But have you found out 'for sure'? How do you know Elly Precious has +the measles? Has he--bloomed out? Perhaps his are speck--" + +"Elly Precious!" rose Evangeline's voice of indignation. "He's the +unspeckledest baby you ever saw! I guess--I guess you never saw Elly +Precious!" + +Stefana appeared suddenly in the doorway,--a blanched and frightened +Stefana. But she was determinedly calm. + +"He's fell asleep, and Carruthers is watching him through the door. I +told him not to go any nearer'n that. I came over to ask if I'd better +send word to Mother. He said to ask you." + +"Carruthers?" Miss Theodosia was a little bewildered. + +"The Tract Man. He's the one that--that discovered Elly Precious's +measles when we found he was broken out--I mean Elly Precious broken +out--" + +"Yes, yes, I know. He is a doctor--I mean--" Miss Theodosia caught +herself up firmly. One at least must steer a clear course. + +"He was goin' past," Evangeline put in, "an' I asked him, if he uster be +a doctor, wouldn't he please to be one now an' 'xamine Elly Precious's +spots." + +"Measles," Stefana said briefly and hopelessly. "Shall we send for +Mother, or what'll we do? Aunt Sarah isn't knitting." + +"Aunt Sarah--" began poor Miss Theodosia. Would she ever get used to +little Flaggs? Evangeline broke in gloomily with explanation. + +"No'm, not knittin', Mother wrote Stefana. Kind of--of unravelin' +instead. An' Mother's caught it." + +Miss Theodosia turned appealing eyes to Stefana. + +"Her knee's bad, too. Maybe it's just rheumatism, but she borrows Aunt +Sarah's crutches when they're empty. I don't see how she'd get home--" + +"Don't send for her!" Miss Theodosia directed. Some inner voice seemed +to say it through her lips. The same dictate from within prompted the +rest. + +"Bring the baby over here. Bring all his nightgowns. I'll take care of +him. It won't do for all you children to come down. Does the +Reform--does the doctor think you can have caught them already? I don't +believe it! Not till the disease is further advanced." + +"That's what he said--not till." Stefana hurried in eagerly. "_He_ +didn't believe it." + +"The Benjamin baby wasn't further advanced," doubted Evangeline +discouragingly. + +"Never you mind the Benjamin baby! You bring your baby over here at once +with his nightgowns! I believe we're in time. I'll be reading up my +medicine book. You can tell the doctor to come here instead of to your +house. Don't any of you dare to kiss Elly Precious good-by!" + +Miss Theodosia was moving briskly about the room, doing strange +things,--pulling down shades and drawing together draperies. + +"Mustn't have too much light, though maybe that is later on, too. I'm +sure there is something about being careful of the eyes. Evangeline, +wait! Let Stefana go. I don't trust you; you might kiss him." + +"Yes'm, I might," sighed poor little Evangeline. "He's my darlin' dear." +A terrible separation yawned before her like a bottomless pit of +desolation. How was she to live Elly Preciousless? + +"Can't I come over an'--an' hold him when he isn't--when he isn't +sneezing?" she suddenly sobbed forth. Miss Theodosia was too engrossed +to be sympathetic. There were many things to think of. + +"Come over?--I should say not! You can't do anything but look through +the window, and I shall ask the doctor if that's safe. Now +listen--dear," again the "dear" slipped through her lips unconsciously. +"Listen! When you see Stefana coming, you go out the back door! I wish +I'd told her to bring him in the clothes basket instead of in her +arms--" + +"I'll tell her to! Through the window. I'll tell her to bring him by the +handles," and Evangeline hurried away excitedly. + +An hour later Miss Theodosia, in a voluminous white apron and a hastily +invented white cap, had formally assumed her astonishing new rôle. Under +the cap Miss Theodosia's cheeks were prettily pink. It was becoming to +her to be Elly Precious' nurse. But the queer feeling of it! An hour ago +Theodosia Baxter, in a big house, alone; now this becapped and +pink-cheeked Theodosia in a house with a baby! It was an exciting +change; what else might it become? She was a little afraid of Elly +Precious. + +"Not now, while he is asleep, but when he wakes--" she thought. What +would she do with Elly Precious when he waked? + +Of course, she had sent for the Reformed Doctor, and equally, of course, +she would do precisely what he told her to do. But how would it feel? So +far, it felt queer. + +"I'll wait and see," she concluded with philosophy. At six the doctor +came. It was significant how he had left his rôle of authorship at home +and came physicianly, brisk and competent. + +"Measles haven't changed, anyway, in ten years," he said as he removed +his coat. Long ago, as a doctor, John Bradford had had his +idiosyncrasies, and one of them had been to work in his shirt sleeves. +The laying aside of his coat now had, if Miss Theodosia had but known, +bridged over the ten years. + +"Am I quarantined?" demanded the nurse. + +"You are," promptly replied the doctor. + +"Mercy gracious!" + +Silence while the tiny patient was carefully examined, with so delicate +a touch that he slept on. + +"For how long?" then. + +"Oh--weeks. Two, perhaps. Perhaps three. He is beginning to be feverish +in earnest now. You got him over here just in time. May I have a glass +of water?" + +Miss Theodosia went away to get it on shaking legs. She almost +staggered. The plot was getting thick! + +"If you think his mother ought to be sent for--I'm afraid I'm in a blue +funk!" She had returned and was splashing the water over the edge of the +glass as she held it out. He laughed reassuringly. His face, turned +sidewise up at her, was as reviving as cool water upon a faint. Miss +Theodosia "came to." + +"I've got over it. Go ahead--tell me precisely what you want done. Write +it down somewhere. I can read writing! And I can't forget it. Of course +I can rock him?" + +He did not answer at once, and she misinterpreted his silence. + +"I shall rock him," she said with firmness. "Written down or not written +down." And again he laughed, with the same curiously explosive little +effect as when she had first heard him do it as a Shadow Man. + +It was long after he left before Elly Precious woke. With remarkable +presence of mind, Miss Theodosia had darkened the room to make the +difference between herself and Evangeline or Stefana as inconspicuous as +possible. It helped. Elly Precious, even busy with his measles, might +have vigorously refused this strange new ministering. But in the +darkness he accepted it with a measure of resignation. He appeared to be +looking inward at his own poor little pains instead of outward or upward +at Miss Theodosia. She wisely refrained from speech during those first +critical moments. + +Ten-year-old arms may not be as steady for cradling as thirty-six-year +olds. Miss Theodosia's were steady and soft. The baby nestled into them +and she rocked him. + +She was rocking a baby! She was glad to be alone in the dark. The +sensation rather overwhelmed her. Then Elly Precious flung up little hot +hands and touched her face, and the sensation was no longer a new one. +Surely she had felt it before. Was it in another incarnation that she +had rocked a little child? The small, hot hands tugged at her +heartstrings--they must have tugged, just so, at that ancient rocking. +It was a beautiful tune, but not a new tune that the small hands played. +No, no--not new! + +Miss Theodosia began to croon softly, no longer afraid of sound. And +Elly Precious snuggled deeper. + +Shut in together--she and he and the measles--they grew accustomed to +each other. After the first, the days went rather fast, with +Evangeline's help through the window and under the door. Evangeline +helped from the first. Miss Theodosia found little letters emerging +through the tight crack under her outside door. The first one she read +smilingly: + +[Illustration: Evangeline established a stage of action outside the +window.] + +"He likes jiggy tunes best--please sing him jiggy tunes." + +So she sang them to Elly Precious and found he liked them best; +Evangeline knew. This method of helping promised to be valuable. + +One day there were two little letters under the door. + +"When he crys, he'll stop if you distrack him. Like this--_boo_--or make +a cow-noise or a horse-noise, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes he +keaps right on and then its no use to distrack him. Try tickleing unless +tickleing is bad for measles." + +This was a long note. Miss Theodosia did not smile this time because of +the new sensitiveness in the region of her heart. When she read the +second note, she held it a long time in her hand while something wet +blistered it in spots. + +"Please don't be mad if I worry a little for fear Elly Precious will +throw off his cloes. He's a dreadfull throw-offer, so we pin his sides +to the cloesbasket but maybe you don't sleep him in a cloesbasket. I +couldent sleep last night. + +"P.S. With safety pins." + +Sometimes they were cheerful little letters that peeped under the tight +crack. Evangeline wrote the news to Elly Precious. That Stefana's washes +came easier now and Carruthers was good all the time, only they never +let him be steam whistles, of course. That they all missed Elly Precious +and hoped that they'd be short measles and, mercy gracious, yes, they +loved him, and Aunt Sarah was knitting again. + +As the baby began to convalesce (they were short measles) and could sit +up on Miss Theodosia's lap in front of the window, Evangeline's most +important assistance began. For Elly Precious had very restless +occasions and even Miss Theodosia's new skill failed always to +"distrack" him. + +Evangeline established a stage of action outside the biggest-paned, +lowest-silled window, where vision was least obscured from within. On +that stage she danced wild, long dances, varying with each performance. +It was amazing how she varied them--sometimes bending and bowing +tirelessly, sometimes evolving remarkable skirt dances from legs and +toes and whirling petticoats. She grimaced unweariedly as long as Elly +Precious would laugh at her faces. When he tired of those, she +impersonated a cow--a horse--and made cow-noises and horse-noises at +the top of her voice, to carry to Elly Precious. + +Day after day she came, and they watched her from the big-paned +window--the baby and Miss Theodosia. It was a great help to the measles. + +"I never saw such a child!" Miss Theodosia said to the Reformed Doctor. +"She never gets tired of doing it." + +"Never was but one Evangeline--but she gets tired all right. Needn't +tell me!" + +"Then it's--love," Miss Theodosia said gently. + +"It is," nodded he. + +They had proceeded far in their acquaintance. Elly Precious had been so +tiny a thing between them, as they ministered to him! It was not to be +wondered at that they had drawn closer. After his professional "call," +John Bradford fell into the way of lingering till she brought him tea. + +"Talk about women loving tea!" she gibed gayly. + +"Talk about it being the men that want three lumps!" + +"That is queer, isn't it? We're the wrong way about; I like mine sweet +and you don't want any sugar. We're the exceptions that prove the rule. +If you'll hold Elly Precious a minute, I'll fill your cup." + +"That will make three." + +"'And I'll do it again, if you like--and again if you like!'" she +quoted. + +"Are you making stories now?" she asked him that day. + +And he nodded gravely, "One--a love-story." + +"Tell me about it! We want to hear it, don't we, Elly Precious? We love +love-stories." + +"Not yet. Not till it is a little farther along." He set the third cup +down untasted. His face, as Miss Theodosia looked smilingly at it across +the baby's head, had grown grave. She wondered simply. Miss Theodosia +was not making a love-story. + +"Will you tell us about it when it's farther along? About the heroine +and how she likes being in a love-story? Mercy gracious, it must be +exciting!" + +"If I can find out how she likes it," was his enigmatic answer. "She may +not work out as I want her to. Heroines are women, you know." + +"Well, of all things! If you can't make your heroine behave, I don't see +who can!" + +"I don't," he said slowly. "But I shall do my best." + +Another day, she had something to show him, and she made a little +mystery of it at first. She and Elly Precious knew! It was something +sweet--it could be worn, but you seldom looked at it. It was soft and +hard, too. You could--kiss it! When it was empty you wanted to kiss it, +and when it was full you had to! + +"Show it to me!" he commanded; "think I can guess all that?" + +She brought it and laid it in his hands, delighted like a girl. + +"Feel of it--isn't it soft? And I never made one before, so it was hard! +You seldom look at it, because it's worn in the dark. You'd like to kiss +it now, it's so sweet, but when I put Elly Precious into it, you'll +_have_ to kiss it! There, didn't I tell you right?" + +It was a little nightgown she had made for Elly Precious. He held it on +his two big hands like something wonderful. Its little sleeves dangled +over, and she caught one of them and squeezed it in a sort of soft +ecstasy. + +"It's so little!" she cried in a whisper. "Aren't you going to kiss it?" + +"If you'll look away--I'm afraid to when you're looking." + +"I won't look," she laughed. "You look, Elly Precious!" + +The bath-times were the pleasantest to Miss Theodosia. Getting things +together--little tub and powders and soaps and the fresh little +clothes--was a beautiful beginning, and after that--after that, the +deluge! The practice she had had washing that little ancient baby, in +her former incarnation, stood Miss Theodosia in good stead! As she had +bathed and rubbed and powdered her first baby eons ago, she bathed and +rubbed and powdered this second one now. For she called Elly Precious +her baby. That was their beautiful play. + +"We'll keep it a secret, won't we?--just between you and me, dear! We +won't even tell Evangeline that you're my darlin' dear," she crooned +over this second baby. Elly Precious played the game; he was a little +sport, was Elly Precious. + +The morning after the little new-nightgown episode, the bath progressed +thrillingly. That was, it seemed, the morning set by Elly Precious to +give this new mother a glorious surprise. It could not be said that he +had it up his little sleeve, being innocent of any manner of garment, +but he had it prepared. + +Miss Theodosia dried the tiny body and set it far forward on her knees, +facing her, and began as usual: + +"Now, baby, watch--watch hard! Make exactly the same noise I do." She +put her lips in position for clear enunciation. + +"Mam--m-ma." + +Customarily, Elly Precious sat and chuckled gleefully and nakedly. This +was a favorite play. But, oh, to-day-- + +"Mum--mum," said Elly Precious distinctly. Miss Theodosia caught him to +her, slippery and sweet, with a cry of rapture. + +"You said it! You said it, Elly Precious--darlin' dear! Now I shall wrap +you in a beautiful soft blanket and sing you a jiggy tune! Before I +dress you in horrid, bothery sleeves, we'll rock, and rock, you and +make-believe mum-mum!" + +The big chair creaked delightsomely to the ears of Elly Precious. To its +accompaniment sang Miss Theodosia. + +"Darlin' Dear! Darlin' Dear, Mum-Mum's here--oh, Elly Precious, I shall +send you to college! Of course, to college. You shall be a doctor--" Was +that the chair creaking, or a door? It was a door. On the doorsill stood +the Reformed Doctor, gazing in. The blanket had slipped away and it was +a beautiful, bare Elly Precious in Miss Theodosia's arms, against her +breast. The little picture stood out, distinct. But so soon it faded. +She was on her feet and facing that treacherous doorway. Flames burned +on her cheeks. + +"Is it anything to be ashamed of to pretend he is my baby! Well, I've +done it--I'm pretending now. We were having a beautiful time till--" + +"Till I came." + +"Till you came. You heard what I said about making a doctor of him, I +suppose?" + +He nodded. "I heard," he said meekly. + +"But you didn't give me time to say it all. I was going to say he'd stay +a doctor and not reform!" With which Parthian shot, delivered with +spirit, Miss Theodosia turned her back and Elly Precious' back to the +intruder. What was left for him to do but retire, vanquished and +diminished? The business of the bath went on, but joyless now. There was +no further putting off of the horrid, bothery sleeves that Elly Precious +abhorred. He set up indignant wails, and Miss Theodosia's soul wailed in +unison. + +"All our dear good time spoiled! We're not pretending any more; you're +Evangeline's darlin' dear. I'll put you on the bed and give you your +bottle." So abruptly had the beautiful game come to an end. Miss +Theodosia went away to prepare the bottle. As she went, a glint of white +underneath the door to out-of-doors caught her attention. Evangeline had +not tucked it under as far as usual. Perhaps it was not unnatural, +considering her new mood, that Miss Theodosia picked up the little +letter almost impatiently. + +"He says he can come home day after to-morrow if he don't colapse, so +Stefana is cleaning the house and I'm helping and we can't hardly wait. +We've got a new cloesbasket Stefana's going to make bows for the +handles, tell Elly Precious. + +"P. S. Pink bows." + +Miss Theodosia was not impatient as she folded the little letter again. +Tears stood in her eyes. She hurried back, bottleless, to Elly Precious, +to tell him. That he had fallen asleep made no difference. + +"You are going home day after to-morrow! Dream it in a little dream, +dear. When you wake up, it will be true. They can't hardly wait and +there's a new 'cloesbasket' with bows--P. S., pink bows. Oh, Elly +Precious, you know you're glad to go home! You've been pretending, too!" +Game little Elly Precious, to pretend! She stooped and kissed his eyes, +close shut in that dream of going home. "They are cleaning the house," +she whispered, "they can't hardly wait." + +A prescience of awful loneliness swept over her. She saw Theodosia +Baxter--lone and babyless again--set back in her empty house. The +curtain had gone down--would go down day after to-morrow--on the last +beautiful act. + +"But I have two days left! I demand my pound--fifteen little pounds of +flesh!" Elly Precious' little pink flesh. She would play that last act +of the little game of make-believe. Intruders or no intruders, she would +play it! At once, she began again where they had left off. + +"You will have to go to college very young, dear," she said. "They are +going to take you away from me day after tomorrow. A day and a half is +such a little college course; you'd be such a little Freshman, Elly +Precious! So we will have to give it up, dear. We'll just spend our last +days together. Who wants to know Latin and Greek anyway? I'll teach you +to pat little cakes in English!" Surely, surely she must have taught her +first baby to pat-a-cake. The blundering little hands in hers felt +strangely familiar. The first baby had been just as funny and sweet as +Elly Precious at that little lesson. + +"If I only had a little more time!" sighed Miss Theodosia. "There is so +much left for us to do; it is cruel to hurry us so! We might--we might +run away, dear! You and I. To Europe and Asia and Africa! I'd show you +all the wonders of the world. Listen, Elly Precious,--the _pyramids_! +Wouldn't you love to see the pyramids? You could play in the warm sand, +anyway,--bury your little twelve toes deep! We would keep watch all the +time and _run_ when we saw Evangeline coming. We would never stop to put +on our shoes and stock--Elly Precious, you've gone to sleep!" So little +was he thrilled at the prospect of pyramids. + +Miss Theodosia rocked him gently in her arms. Perhaps she would rock him +the whole day and a half--they could not prevent her! She would not stop +rocking if twenty Reformed Doctors came and looked at her. She would +rock in their faces! + +A sudden and queer thought came to her of Cornelia Dunlap standing in +the doorway, looking in as John Bradford had done. + +She saw the wreck of Cornelia's plump calm--Cornelia's wide-eyed +amazement. After she had reluctantly deposited the small, limp body upon +the couch to finish out the nap, she got her writing materials and wrote +to Cornelia Dunlap, with a whimsical little smile playing about her +lips. Her pen moved fast across the sheet. + +"The baby is having a beautiful nap. While he is asleep, I can write to +you. Of course my time is limited--'what with' scalding and filling +bottles and giving little baths--Cornelia Dunlap, go and get a little +baby and wash him! In a tub, with your sleeves rolled up. Let him splash +the water into your face--over your dress--hear him laugh! Give him the +soap for a little ship a-sailing. Oh, Cornelia, teach him to pat-a-cake! +Get a baby with the measles if there's no other way. You will love him +in between all his little measles. But, listen to me; _take this +advice_: Don't let them take him back! Hold on to both his little hands. +Run away to Africa with him if there is no other way--he will love to +play in the sand beside the pyramids. Send him to college, Cornelia, and +I think--yes, make a doctor of him. Doctors are best. + +"Morituri salutamus--we who are about to lose our babies and die wish +you happiness with yours, is the free translation. _Hold on to yours_. +He is a dear, I know. He may be as dear as mine, but he hasn't twelve +toes!" + + * * * * * + +"Mercy gracious!" + +It was the two days later and it was Evangeline. The child's radiant +face lighted up the room. + +"He let me come! I promised Stefana I wouldn't kiss him till I got him +home so's she could, too. He said to kiss his neck or behind his ears." +As usual no confusion of personal pronouns troubled Evangeline. + +"Mercy gracious!--oh, mercy gracious, he's improved! He's fatter! I +never thought measles'd be fattenin'! You're glad to see me, aren't you, +darlin' dear? I'm Evangeline! I've come to take you home. We've got +everything ready, only one bow, an' Stefana's piecin' that. Oh--my +darlin' dear!" + +The curtain had gone down. Theodosia Baxter stood quite alone in her big +room. In her ears was suddenly the shriek of a steam whistle of welcome; +it died away, and the silence ached. A crumpled something half under a +chair caught her eye and she openly sobbed. It was a forgotten little +nightgown. + +"I'm going to Rome--I'm going to Paris--to Anywhere! I can't stand +this!" she wailed. And then the creak of a door again. + +He stood on the door-sill looking in. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"I've done it again!" came from the doorway repentantly, "but this time +I knocked, honest to goodness. Regular bangs! You ought to have heard," +his tone assuming an injured cadence. + +Miss Theodosia had recovered herself. She was unfeignedly glad to see +him this time. + +"Maybe it was you, steam-whistling," she laughed. "I heard that! Oh, I +am glad enough you came this time! You've saved me from a trip to +Rome--tea is so much less expensive! I'll go and get it." She was off +directly and back again in remarkably quick time with her little kettle +and lamp. "Less time and fuss, too. See how little baggage! Now, Rome--" + +"Don't mention Rome!" There was a deep note in John Bradford's voice. He +watched her making the tea. Miss Theodosia's hands were worth watching. + +"Speaking of steam whistles reminds me of ears," he said. + +"Naturally! The two go together, all right!" But she saw that his face +remained grave. "Oh!--you mean the steam-whistler's ears--I see." + +"Yes, I have examined them rather carefully. They aren't hopeless little +ears--not hopeless. I'm not ready to go any farther than that yet. But I +intend--you see, I specialized in ears and a few other things at the +University--in practice, too, before--before I reformed." + +Quickly Miss Theodosia looked up. + +"There! You are harking back; please don't hark back! It was mean in me +to say it. I'm sorry! If I'd sent Elly Precious to college--while he was +my baby--and given him a doctor's degree, he could have taken it or left +it. He'd have had a right. Men have rights to their own lives." + +"Sure," but John Bradford's tone was thoughtful rather than emphatic. +"Still--I sometimes wonder--" + +"Why?--tell me why!" Now she was championing the Reformed Doctor! "You +could do as you pleased, couldn't you? It was your own life you were +'reforming.' Still, I wonder, too. Tell me how it happened." + +"How do I know how it happened?" He was walking up and down the room. +"It was in my blood to write stories. I wrote them every chance I could +get. Had to write them. I suppose I woke up to the rather decent +conclusion that a man can't serve two masters and serve them well. Isn't +efficient. So I chose my favorite master. There you have it in a +nutshell. May I have mine in a teacup?" + +She filled the dainty shell, but it rattled a little on its saucer. Miss +Theodosia felt about for less moving things; she was strangely moved. + +"How is the love story getting on?" she asked. + +"The--oh! Well, it had a setback awhile ago. Setbacks are not good for +love stories. But I shall go to work on it again." + +"At once--to-day?" What was this sudden freak of hers to drive him to +work?--the work she had all but derided before. + +"To-day. I'm working on it now--that is--er--" + +"Before and after--tea," she smiled. "Well, I shall help you all I can +on that story. I feel in a penitent mood. When you begin on it again--" + +"I've begun on it again." + +"After you go home, I mean. When you go to work again, make believe I'm +David Copperfield's Dora--holding the pens!" Too late she saw her error +and hedged. "Or cups of tea to keep up your strength." + +"I like pens better. If Dora were there--" + +"One more cup? You've only had one. The cups are no size at all. And +while you drink it, tell me about your heroine. What have you named +her?" + +"Dora," he said promptly. "You see, you've helped already." + +It was pleasant, drinking tea like this, with John Bradford there, +opposite, having his second cup. A pleasant way to drink tea--with a +John! Miss Theodosia hugged herself happily. Even the forgotten little +nightgown on the floor failed to diminish her content. She had not +forgotten Elly Precious; she was merely making the most of the +ameliorations the gods offered. The kind gods. But conscience had to put +in its pious oar. + +"I'm having a beautiful time; I don't know whether you are or not. But +I'm going to send you back to that love story. I hope the Recording +Angel will give me a white mark for it, or cross out a black one. The +goodness of me! I've been sitting here trying to strangle my conscience, +but you see it isn't my own--it's my grandmother's conscience; you have +to respect your grandmother's conscience. You'll have to go." + +"I can work on it here," he pleaded, but she shook her head mournfully. + +"I haven't the materials. It takes special paper, doesn't it, and pens?" + +"I could--er--think up my plot." + +"With me talking a blue streak? I should talk a blue streak; that's my +grandmother's, too. No, you must go. How will you ever get it done, if +you don't?" + +"I sha'n't if I do. Staying here is doing me good. I need to 'get up +more strength.'" + +She laughed, but remembered her grandmother. "No more tea," she said +kindly. "Conscience! But I'll tell you--you may come back after you've +worked." + +"To-day?" + +"To-morrow." + +And for many to-morrows he came back. On one of them the talk once more +reverted to the book that the Story Man was understood to be writing, in +some mysterious Place of Pens and Paper. + +"I hope it's a regular romance," Miss Theodosia said. + +"Romance? What is that? Is there such a thing? There may have been +once--" + +Miss Theodosia's fair cheeks took on faint color. She turned upon him. + +"Once nothing! I can't help it if that is slang; the occasion demands +slang. Are you trying to tell me romance is dead?" + +He nodded. "Sterilized--Pasteurized--boiled out of us. I suppose," he +sighed, "we are more hygienic, but we have faded in the process. It +dulls romance to Pasteurize it." + +She held up a staying hand. + +"Please!" she said, "in words of one syllable and maybe you can convince +me. But you can't. Do you mean to say there are no sweet, blushing girls +left, with--with dreams?" + +Again his sigh. It pained him to disillusion her. + +"Not blushing ones. I tell you the color won't stand our modern +sterilization process. I misdoubt the dreams, too. If they dream 'em, +they're of independence and careers and votes; you wouldn't call those +romantic dreams, would you? The little 'clinging vines'--" he waved them +back into the past with a comprehensive sweep of his hand--"all gone. +Our present-day soil is too invigorating, too stimulating. The +young things stand up on their own roots. No more clinging. Each one +aspires to be a spunky little tree by herself. Look at 'em and see for +yourself--the subways and elevateds are full of 'em at the crush hours, +nights and mornings--all glorying in their independence--their fine, +strong, young roots. No blushing, no clinging there! Are you convinced?" + +"I am not," flashed Miss Theodosia gamely. "There must be one little +dreamer of love dreams left." + +"Show her to me." + +"That isn't fair. I'm not in a way to know girls. I know just Stefana." + +"And Evangeline." + +"And Evangeline," laughed Miss Theodosia. + +"Is she romantic?" demanded the Story Man. And there he had Miss +Theodosia. She had instant vision of Evangeline growing, straight and +thrifty already, on her own small roots. It was not possible to +visualize a blushing--a clinging little Evangeline. + +"She is still young," Miss Theodosia murmured. "Besides, she's one of a +kind. There's only one Evangeline. You can't reason by only one of +anything. The exception proves the rule." + +"Then you yield me Evangeline?" + +"Yes, you may have her on your side," conceded Miss Theodosia +generously. It was rather in the way of a relief to shift the +responsibility for Evangeline. Miss Theodosia suddenly bubbled into low +laughter. + +"She is going to be a plumber." + +"Evangeline a plumber?" + +"Yes, because she's got to be rich, she says. She's 'sick 'n' tired' of +being poor, and you can make such _darlin_', roary, snappy fires in a +tin pail! Plumberin' will be fun." + +He laughed a little, too, enjoyingly, but returned to his arguings. Said +he: + +"_Be_ a plumber, not marry one, you see. What did I tell you? Oh, you +have no monopoly on Evangelines! The woods are full of tame Evangelines, +anyway. You will have to come over to my side." + +"Not at all. I haven't given up my own side. I shall hold on a little +while longer. I am not going to admit _yet_ that all sentiment is dead +and buried. And, anyhow, I don't see what it's being dead or alive has +to do with your story. I thought authors were creators. Can't you create +a little sentiment--romance? To my order?" she added demurely. + +Replied the Story Man with grave eyes: "I shall do my best. We are a +good deal at the mercy of our heroines. But I will do all that I can to +win mine over, dear lady. Heaven knows I want to!" + +"Then you are on my side now; you have changed your mind!" she cried +tauntingly. "Woman, thy name is not Fickleness, it is thy husband's +name! Well, I am glad it is going to be my kind of a story. How did I +know but it was to be a historical novel or a problem story--ugh! And, +instead, you're going to make love to your heroine in the dear old +thrilly way." + +He stirred in his seat, and his eyes sought his hostess. But Miss +Theodosia's eyes were cheerfully following the infinitesimal stitches +with which she was rimming an infinitesimal round hole in the bit of +linen in her hand. + +"How far have you got?" she questioned over a new stitch. + +"Not very far," sadly; "I think I am a little afraid of my heroine." + +"Mercy gracious! Well, I think I'd take her by the ear and march her +round to suit myself! If I wanted her to say '_yes_'--do you want her to +say 'yes'?" + +Did he want her to say yes! + +"I'm trying to lead her up to it," he said gently. Miss Theodosia bit +off her thread. + +"March her up to it, march her! You're too gentle with her. What is the +use of being a Story Man? Might as well be a plumber like Evangeline!" + +It was at this moment that Evangeline appeared on the little Flagg +horizon. They saw her coming their way, loaded as usual with Elly +Precious. The sag of her wiry little figure on the Elly Precious side +appealed strongly to Miss Theodosia. She dropped her foolish bit of +linen and hurried to meet that little sag. When she came back with Elly +Precious in her own arms, the Story Man was wandering away. He waved his +hat to them smilingly. + +"Please drop him--drop Elly Precious," Evangeline said, "anywheres +_soft_. I don't want him to distrack your mind. You play with your dolly +an' be a darlin' dear, Elly Precious, while we talk." + +Very gently Evangeline subtracted Elly Precious from Miss Theodosia and +removed him to an undisturbing distance. Then she returned and stood +before Miss Theodosia. + +"Stefana was born to-morrow," Evangeline stated gravely. "You didn't +know, of course, nor neither did I till it kind of came out. I told +him," nodding in the direction taken by the Story Man. "We plotted up a +hatch--I mean we hatched up a plot. He said to talk it over with you. I +don't know what he's goin' to do, but he'll do it--he said he would. An' +I thought--I thought--" Unwonted hesitations disturbed Evangeline's +smooth flow of speech. She sat down suddenly. + +"I guess I can say it easier sittin' than I could standin'. It's some +hard to say--it's so kind of _bareheaded_. But I don't know what else +to do. You see, Stefana'd hear me beatin' the eggs an' stirrin', if I +did 'em at home. An' besides, it would fall--oh, mercy gracious, I know +it would! I thought if I could do it over here--" + +"Evangeline," Miss Theodosia said gently, "drop your voice at a period +and begin all over with a capital letter. Take your time, dear." + +Said Evangeline with a sigh: "I'll try standin' up. I guess I kind of +mixed you up, didn't I? You see, what I _meant_ was, could I make +Stefana's birthday cake over here to your house where she can't hear me +stirrin'?" + +"Oh, Stefana's birthday! That is why she was 'born to-morrow.'" + +"Yes'm, in a thunder storm. I've heard Mother tellin'. It will have to +be a graham cake." + +"A--what kind of cake, Evangeline? Maybe you'd better try sitting down; +I don't think I just understand." + +"No'm, no'm, I guess you wouldn't, because you probably can always 'ford +white flour. I thought if I frosted it over real white, it would hide +the grahamness. I've got two eggs." + +Understanding came to Miss Theodosia, though a little slowly. Was she +growing stupid? + +"Evangeline, we'll make Stefana's cake together; we'll take turns +'stirrin''! We'll do it over here and keep it a beautiful secret." + +The child was standing up now certainly, her wiry little body a-tilt +with excitement, a-quiver with it. Evangeline's eyes shone. + +"Oh, I knew you would! I knew you would! You're such a _nangel!_ If you +was a kind of folks that liked to be kissed--" + +The soft pink of Miss Theodosia's cheeks! She lifted her head and sat +very still. + +"Come and try me, dear. Maybe I am that kind of folks." And in a little +whirlwind of tender gratitude descended Evangeline upon her. It was a +whole-souled kiss, the only brand possible to Evangeline. + +"I--I am that kind!" gasped Miss Theodosia, emerging laughing but +tender-eyed. "Now let's begin the cake." + +"Oh, yes, mercy gracious, yes! I'll go get the eggs 'n' graham flour, +an'--an' molasses. Could we sweeten it with molasses, Miss Theodosia? +It'll take all o' my sugar for the frostin'. We are pretty used to bein' +sweetened with molasses--" + +Miss Theodosia had a swift mental taste on her tongue of Stefana's +graham birthday cake, molasses-sweet. There were her heartstrings at +their odd little twitching again! + +"You won't have to go home at all, Evangeline. I've got all the +materials--" but at sight of the child's face, a little fallen and +troubled, she hastily appended--"except the eggs. I guess you'd better +go home and get those." + +"Two!" sang Evangeline joyously, already on her way; "I've got two. +Two's a lot of eggs, isn't it?" + +They mixed and beat and stirred together, and Evangeline never knew how +many more eggs than two went into the rich golden batter. Elly Precious, +tied for safety-first into one of Miss Theodosia's chairs, looked on +with an interest more or less intermittent; when Evangeline's offerings +of "teeny speckles" of toothsome batter were delayed, the interest +flagged. The baking time was for Evangeline a period of utmost +anxiety--there were so many direful things that might happen to +Stefana's cake. If it fell down or burned up-- + +"Oh!" she breathed with infinite relief when the strain was over, and +only lovely things had happened to the cake, "I'm so happy I could sing +if I had any vocal strings! That's queer about me, isn't it? I don't +have any trouble with my _talkin'_ strings." + +"Not a bit," agreed Miss Theodosia gayly. "What makes you think you +couldn't sing?" + +"Because once I tried to sing Elly Precious to sleep an' it woke him up, +awfully up. He was scared. So I always talk him to sleep. Miss +Theodosia, don't birthday cakes sometimes have candles round the edge of +'em? I don't mean Stefana's, of course, but rich folks' birthday cakes." + +"_I_ mean Stefana's. Evangeline, we'll have thirteen candles!" but +inwardly she was wondering if forty would not fit better round the edge +of aged little Stefana's birthday cake. "And we'll decorate it--write +something on the top, you know. We'll make the Story Man do it for us." + +Evangeline was awed into near-silence. "You mean--poetry? Mercy +gracious, poetry!" + +"Something lovely," nodded Miss Theodosia a little vaguely. If it be +poetry, the Story Man must do that part, too. A little later, when +Evangeline had shouldered Elly Precious and departed and the Story Man +had sauntered again into sight, she hailed him with relief. Displaying +the snowy little cake, she explained the situation. + +"You must do the rest. We want a 'sentiment' on it, Evangeline and I. +What is the use of being a literary person if you cannot inscribe a +birthday cake?" + +He groaned a little, reminiscently. He remembered the autograph albums +of his bashful youth. How much better than an autograph album was a +frosted cake? + +"Something appropriate, you know," encouraged Miss Theodosia, brightly. +"In lovely pink writing on top." + +"'She hath starched what she could,'" he offered tentatively. + +"Oh, for shame! Something nice and romantic." + +"But romance is dead--hold on, I beg pardon! That is not decided yet; I +remember. You shall have your poetry, you and Evangeline. Something +after this wise: + + "'Our most esteemed Stefana, + May rough winds never pain her' + +"Do winds 'pain' people? But, to speak modestly, I call that a pretty +neat sentiment to turn out extempo like that. 'Stefana'--you can't deny +Stefana is a hard word to rhyme with. Now tell me a harder one!" + +"Evangeline--Theodosia," she murmured. Her eyes dwelt lovingly on the +little white cake. He should not make fun of it! + +"I'll decorate it myself," she said, "I'll have a little pink heart on +it--_two_ little pink hearts." + +"With but a single thought. Make them with but a single thought--beat +them as one. There! I'm perfectly sober and sane now. It's a fine little +cake, and I'm not worthy to write poetry for it. +Longfellow--Shakespeare--Whitcomb Riley--we'll canvass them. Don't think +I'm not respectful to Stefana's birthday." + +"I don't know what you call respect!" she retorted. But she knew the +next day. She found out what he called respect. The knowledge came, as +so much that was worth while came, through Evangeline, Elly Precious in +its wake. They came running this time. Elly Precious' small body rolled +and lurched with their hurry and the agitation of Evangeline's soul. + +"Somethin's--happened." + +"Give me the baby. Sit down, dear. Now." + +"The flower wagon brought Stefana--roses," whispered Evangeline. "In a +long box--an' tissue paper. Oh, my mercy gracious, stopped right +straight at our house! An' nobody dead." Evangeline's whisper rose to a +weird little cry. The wonder of the flower wagon stopping right +straight! And every one alive! + +"Stefana's countin' 'em. I guess she's counted 'em a hundred times. +They's--thirteen! They've got the longest stems you ever _saw_! Stefana +can't get over their stems; she said they most made her cry." + +For very breath Evangeline stopped. Over the little uneasy head of Elly +Precious shone Miss Theodosia's eyes. Miss Theodosia was softly +thrilled. The stems appealed, too, to her; she loved them long--long. + +"Roses, you say? Oh, Evangeline! Birthday roses for Stefana! What +color?" + +"Red--red--red," chanted Evangeline "Thirteen red roses an' thirteen +long stems. In a pasteboard box with 'Miss Stefana Flagg' wrote on it. +You ought to seen how Miss Stefana Flagg looked! She--she kissed the +box. I guess now she's kissin' the roses. She never 'spected to have any +roses till she was dead. An' then she couldn't 've kissed 'em an' cried +at the stems," added Evangeline softly. She was suddenly a softened +little Evangeline, curiously gentled by Stefana's sweet, red roses. Miss +Theodosia caught her breath at the sight of the child's face and the +thought of Stefana kissing her roses. + +"I wish--I wish you'd go over an' congratcherlate Stefana," whispered +Evangeline. "She'd be so tickled. I'll keep Elly Precious ever here, an' +Carruthers is playin' ball in a field." As though this ceremony of +'congratcherlation' demanded quiet and privacy. + +And by and by Miss Theodosia went. She had a whimsical impulse to carry +her little silver card case, but she did not yield to the whimsey. She +did take off her little white apron and smoothe her hair. Stefana to-day +was a person for ceremonies and respect. Oh, the kindness, the clearness +of those long-stemmed roses! She had not thought to do it herself, but +he--a man creature--Miss Theodosia's eyes were tender. + +Stefana was still sitting among her roses. They lay across her lap. + +"Oh! Oh, come right in, Miss Theodosia!" she cried welcomingly. "But +please to excuse me for not getting up--I can't bear to disturb them. +Seems as if I could sit right straight in this chair till they withered! +I'm breathing easy so not to breathe the smell out. I never had any +roses before." + +Her voice lowered to almost a whisper. She whispered a little laugh. + +"Seems as if I'd ought to be married while I have 'em! They're such +beautiful roses to be married in!" + +And this was Stefana, their matter-of-fact, starchy little white-washer! +This rapt, dreamy little face was Stefana's face! + +"Sometimes," Stefana murmured, "sometimes I've dreampt--" but Miss +Theodosia did not quite catch what it was Stefana had sometimes +"dreampt," but it was something sweet. Stefana a little dreamer of sweet +dreams! One of them must have been a rose-dream, and this was that dream +come true. + +The call of congratulation was a brief one. It seemed little short of +irreverence to have seen at all that picture of Stefana rocking her +roses in the little wooden rocker. Miss Theodosia slipped away with it +hung on the walls of her mind--she would never take it down. + +John Bradford was coming along the road and she went a little way to +meet him. Some of Stefana's radiance was in her own face. + +"I've found it," she announced in soft triumph. + +"Good!" he hazarded at random. It was always good to find things. But he +wondered at the radiance. + +"My romance that I knew was somewhere. I've found it! I told you so!" + +"Found it where?" he demanded. He was unconsciously stirred by her +emotion. He followed her glance to the little House of Flaggs. +"Not--there?" + +"Yes, there. Stefana is dreaming it over a lapful of red roses. I have +been there and seen her. Is romance dead--is it? Go and look at +Stefana!" But she held him back from going. "No, no, I didn't mean it! +Not in cold blood--I didn't go in cold blood. You will have to take my +word for it." + +"I will take your word." + +"That romance is not dead?" + +"That romance is alive. But who would have thought of it's being +_Stefana_!" + +"Who would have thought!" echoed Miss Theodosia. + +Elly Precious was fretting restlessly when she got back. The children +were on the porch. + +"Nothing's the matter with him," Evangeline explained, "unless it's +because he's a-goin' to be taken. I told him he was. It is kind of +scaring to be taken. I feel kind of that way, too." + +"Taken where?" + +"Not any where--just _taken_. His picture an' mine an' +Carruthers'--we're all goin' to be taken now, pretty soon. I must go +home an' prink Elly Precious an' Carruthers. You see, Mr. Bradford +promised to take Stefana because it's her birthday, an' first we knew he +said he'd take all o' us! He's got a camera. That's him now! I guess +he's waitin' for Elly Precious an' me." + +She was hurrying away, but bethought herself of something. "The cake!" +she said. "If Elly Precious'll be still, I can carry it on my other arm. +Maybe we'll be so busy being taken that I can't come over again before +supper." + +"Run along," Miss Theodosia said; "I'll take it over. I haven't quite +got it ready yet," for there were the two little pink hearts to +add,--Stefana's heart and a little dream-heart. She smiled tenderly over +the fashioning of those little pink hearts. Miss Theodosia was not an +artist--they wavered and leaned, but they leaned toward each other! +Perhaps they were better to be little leaning hearts. + +She carried the cake over, covered with a napkin. There were other +things, too, that she had prepared, and several trips were necessary. A +mold of quivering, scarlet jelly, full of fascinating glints of light; +scalloped, currant-rich cookies, a little platter of cold chicken--Miss +Theodosia carried them all over covered with napkins. + +Evangeline was putting the finishing touches to the supper-table, which +was brave with the best Flagg dishes. It was rather a pitiful little +bravery, but satisfying to Evangeline. She hurried Miss Theodosia aside +and talked very fast. + +"I've sent Stefana out with Elly Precious. We're goin' to blind her an' +lead her in an' count one--two--_look_! She'll see the cake the very +quickest thing! She won't cut off an inch o' the stems, so they're kind +of tall up 'n' down, you see. I mean the roses. I've put a corset steel +o' Mother's in an' kind of tied 'em to it. I hope you don't see any +corset steel." + +"No." Miss Theodosia looked not at the centerpiece of roses but at the +cake, the tremulous jelly, the platter,--anywhere else. "No, I don't see +any, dear." + +"It's perfectly lovely, isn't it? Mercy gracious--oh, mercy gracious! +It'll _dazzle_ Stefana. An' most every speck you did, Miss Theodosia. +Won't you please stay? Won't you _please_ to please?" + +"No," for the sixth time persisted Miss Theodosia. "I'm going before +Stefana gets back. This is a Flagg celebration, dear. Just little +Flaggs." + +Evangeline drew a long breath. Then little twinkles lighted in her eyes. + +"Well," she said, "they'll be star-spangled Flaggs to-night!" + +She followed Miss Theodosia to the door. Even then she could not stop +talking. Her excited little voice followed Miss Theodosia home. + +"He took us! He's blue-printing us to see if we wiggled. Elly Precious +did--mercy gracious! But maybe one of him, just one, didn't. He's goin' +to make reg'lar black an' white pictures of the unwiggled ones. I guess +you'll be surprised when you see us!" She was surprised. John Bradford +brought the little blue pictures to her the next day. They bent over +them together. + +"Oh!" Miss Theodosia uttered softly, for the pictures were instantly +tangled in her heartstrings. She could hardly bear the one unwiggled one +of Elly Precious. He was draped in tall red roses; they covered his +little body and trailed their stems about his outspread legs. He had the +effect of peeping at Miss Theodosia through roses. But what she could +see of him was Elly Precious--her baby. + +"Stefana posed him," the Story Man said, smilingly. "And Evangeline and +Carruthers, too. Look at Evangeline." + +Across Evangeline trailed the roses. It was a rigid, terribly rigid, +Evangeline, but the roses saved her. Some softening grace emanated from +them and touched the solemn little face. A little more of Evangeline +than of Elly Precious peeped from behind them. + +"Carruthers!--et, tu, Carruthers!" murmured Miss Theodosia. For here +again was the trail of the roses. Stefana had "posed" them in all the +little pictures. The effect of a rose-draped Carruthers was almost +startling. He gazed from behind them stolidly, unsmiling and +unhappy-souled. Carruthers did not enjoy being taken. + +"Now look at Stefana," John Bradford said. This was his special +exhibit--exhibit S. He watched Miss Theodosia's face as she glanced at +the little blue print. + +No roses trailing there. Just a radiant-faced Stefana gazing at Miss +Theodosia. It was the same face that hung on the walls of her memory. +Miss Theodosia had the sense of roses there, out of sight; it was as if +Stefana rocked them gently in her lap. + +"She wouldn't wear the flowers herself," the Story Man was saying; +"Neither Evangeline nor I could make her. Queer little freak." + +"She is wearing them!" smiled Miss Theodosia, "I can see them. It's only +because you are a man that you can't see,--you and Evangeline! Look at +the roses in Stefana's eyes--in her soul--" + +"Oh, you woman! Women are curious things." + +"Women are romantic things--oh, you man! Why should you understand us +Stefanas with your unsentimental soul-of-a-man? What do you know about +our dreams?" She had not meant to say quite that. "Stefana's dreams," +she corrected herself. "What do you know about them? And still--" + +Miss Theodosia looked up from the radiant little face of Stefana with +her dream-roses to the man-face beside her own. + +"And still--you sent the roses," she said softly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +A letter came to Miss Theodosia one day. Queer how disturbing a letter +could be when for so long peace had enveloped her travel-worn spirit, +though it might have been because of the peace that she was disturbed. +Ordinarily a letter from Cornelia Dunlap was the forerunner of +interesting events to break the monotony of life. But life was not +monotonous now, and it presented interesting events without the +intervention--mentally and unkindly Miss Theodosia termed it +interference--of Cornelia Dunlap. + +"Why need Cornelia write me now, or if she does write, why can't she +talk about mushrooms?" which were Cornelia's most recent palliative to +her self-imposed and brief sojourns in her little home town. It had been +cats when she and Miss Theodosia returned from Spain, Belgian hares +after their long stay in Egypt. Miss Theodosia herself had never tried +mushrooms nor Belgian hares. She had borne her short homecomings +unpalliated, and had flitted again relievedly. Usually she and Cornelia +Dunlap had flitted together. They had formed the flitting habit when +family bereavements had left them both lonely women. + +"Why must she write about Japan?" sighed Miss Theodosia now, over the +disturbing letter. "What do I care about Japan?" Yet she always had +cared about Japan. Cornelia Dunlap and she had left that delectable +country of cherry blossoms and quaint, kimona-ed women for their old +age, they said, to help them bear it. But Cornelia had forgotten that. + +"Let's go to Japan," she wrote. "I can pack in twenty-four hours; how +long will it take you? We'll stay there till cherry blossom time. +Frankly, Theodosia Baxter, I am bored, and you needn't tell me that you +aren't--frankly--too. You haven't even mushrooms (they didn't earn their +own living, my dear. I don't know what the trouble was). 'My native +country, thee,'--I love it. I tell you I do! You know yourself that I +never stay overnight in a place without unfurling my country's flag. +Remember in sunny Italy?--the little brown bambino that cheered my +colors? But I love my country best--in Japan! Come, dear, pack--pack! If +I can leave my mushrooms, I guess you can leave your lonesome, big house +in Nowhere." + +Miss Theodosia dreamed a little over her letter, of the little island of +romance and flowers and fans. They did not need to wait; they could go +again when they were old. + +She told John Bradford at their next meeting of the lure of Japan, +though in her heart she was not lured. She was not "bored"; it was not a +big, lonesome house in Nowhere! She would tell Cornelia Dunlap so. She +would tell her that Flaggs were better than mushrooms--they earned their +own living! Cornelia could run away alone to Japan to her cherry +blossoms. + +But John Bradford had his scare, and through him Evangeline hers. Gloom +settled on Evangeline. If her beloved lady was going away--the bitter, +bitter taste of life without the beloved lady! But the inspiration that +flashed into Evangeline's nimble mind temporarily comforted her. She set +about its carrying-out. Inspirations were sweet morsels under +Evangeline's tongue. + +To Miss Theodosia on her porch, telling Cornelia Dunlap that Japan had +no lure, came a solemn procession across the grass. Evangeline led, with +the effect of walking backward--though she walked straight ahead--and +waving a baton. Stefana had Elly Precious, and Carrathers tramped +soberly behind, in time to that imaginary wand. Miss Theodosia's +fascinated gaze was riveted to the procession's arms. The wonder grew +with nearness. Every individual parader in the procession wore a somber +black arm-band. Elly Precious held his small member straight out from +his side as if a little afraid of it. + +"Evangeline!" uttered Miss Theodosia. It did not occur to her to address +any one but Evangeline. Instinctively she recognized that the procession +was Evangeline. + +"Halt!" with an imaginary flourish. "Right about your faces!" Then +Evangeline turned to Miss Theodosia and offered her sad little +explanation. + +"We're in mournin'," she said. "All of us are--on our sleeves. Elly +Precious's doesn't stay on very well." + +"Evangeline!" again cried Miss Theodosia, this time in a startled voice. +Fears beset her. Was it the mother, or had poor Aunt Sarah raveled out? +How could it have happened so suddenly--a bolt out of the clear little +Flagg skies? + +"It's you," Evangeline said. Miss Theodosia settled a little in her +chair and waited. In time--Evangeline's time--she would know. Elly +Precious held out his rigid little mourning arm and softly whimpered. + +"Give him to me, Stefana; he wants to come to me," Miss Theodosia said, +extending welcoming hands. Very gently she relieved the tension of the +small arm. + +"We're in mournin' for you," Evangeline explained sadly. "_He_ said we +might as well make up our minds, I tied a stockin' round his arm, but he +took it off again because he said he didn't wear his stockin's--no, I +guess it wasn't his stockin's; it was his heart--on his sleeves. But he +said he was in mournin', too." + +Miss Theodosia gave it up. She appealed to Stefana in gentle despair. + +"You tell me, dear. What does she mean?" + +"We're so sorry you are going to Japan, and Evangeline said we ought to +go into mourning, so we went," explained the quiet Stefana. + +"She cried; you know you did, Stefana Flagg! I would've, only I was +gettin' the mournin' ready. I'm _goin_' to." + +"Don't cry!" Miss Theodosia said, though she was doing it herself. The +pulling of her heartstrings! "Don't cry, Evangeline dear. I wish we +could take back Stefana's tears." + +"You mean--you ain't goin'?" + +"I ain't goin'," repeated Miss Theodosia, tremulously smiling. "Japan! I +wouldn't go to _six_ Japans!" + +"Then take it off o' our arms, quick! You take off Carruthers', Stefana. +I'll undo Elly Precious's. Oh, goody! Oh, mercy gracious, I feel 's if +we ought to take hold o' hands an'--an' _wave_!" + +At the end of her letter to Cornelia Dunlap Miss Theodosia wrote: "You +can't tempt me with all your cherry blossoms. I've got home, Cornelia, +and all my little Flaggs are waving. Come and see _my_ Flaggs." + + * * * * * + +It was mid-September and Miss Theodosia found out-of-doors a pleasant +place to be. She had made an errand down to the business portion of the +little town for the sheer pleasure of the going and coming,--a morning +errand, as the afternoons were sacred to tea,--and now was coming +leisurely back, sniffing the sun-sweet air. She turned off the quiet, +side street she had been using as a long way home, into the main street +of the town, only to find her progress interrupted by unseemly and noisy +crowds. Miss Theodosia loved all things seemly and quiet. How she +despised a crowd, and this one--she brought up short in actual disgust +on the outer edge of it. Thus was her stately little progress stayed. +People surged about her and jostled her good-naturedly. She was in the +crowd. + +"What is it? Has there been an accident?" she inquired of the nearest +jostler. It was a ragged and radiant child. + +"Axident! Didn't ye know there was a circus? We're waitin' for the +p'rade. I hear it! I hear it comin'!" + +The crowd surged ahead toward the street curb. Against her will, Miss +Theodosia surged, too. Loud cries filled her ears--ecstatic cries of +little children. Down the usually quiet street marched, in all its +brilliancy of color and tinsel and tawdry splendor, the street parade. +Horses curvetted, elephants patiently plodded, huge cars of mystery +swung by; clowns smirked, to the riotous joy of that awful crowd. + +"See him sittin' tail to! That one there--there!" + +"Look-a that one with the spotted panth! Look at him throw kitheth!" + +"They's man-eatin' lions in that cage--see the lady sittin' with 'em!" + +"See that man top o' the band waggin that shoots up his neck +_yards_--quick! See him shorten it again!" + +Miss Theodosia saw all, against her will. All her thirty-six years she +had held aside her dainty skirts from people who went to circuses, but +how could she hold them aside now? There was not room. She was caught in +the swirl and noise and glee. + +Suddenly a familiar voice struck her ear. Evangeline's voice! Drawn up +on the curbing in a vantage-spot that only they who come early and +patiently wait can secure, was the entire family of little Flaggs. At a +new angle Miss Theodosia was able to see plainly their breathless +ecstasy. She could hear what Evangeline was saying. + +"Oh, isn't it elegant--oh, look, Stefana! Oh, don't you hope circuses'll +be free in Heaven--not jus' the p'rade, but the show!" + +Then and there Miss Theodosia's heartstrings throbbed unmercifully; she +could not do anything with them; they would throb. In vain she turned +away--looked at other faces--listened to other voices. It was Evangeline +she heard, with her wistful cry, and the little line of Flaggs that she +saw. + +"There's Miss Theodosia--there, there, Stefana! She's come to the +p'rade!" + +"Miss Theodosia! Miss Theodosia! Look, Elly Precious, quick!" And it was +Elly Precious she saw, held high by eager arms. That minute she yielded +to the wild impulse within. She pressed forward to speaking distance. + +"Who will go to the show with me this afternoon? All in favor say aye." + +"Mercy gracious, you don't honest mean--" + +"Miss Theodosia!" Stefana's lean little face actually whitened. + +"I honest mean. Isn't anybody going to say aye?" + +"I!" + +"I!" + +"I!" + +The joyous chorus of "I's"! The jubilant waving of every little Flagg! +For the moment, the gorgeous tinseled parade was forgotten in the vaster +anticipative glories of the show. Miss Theodosia's heartstrings throbbed +a little louder but tunefully. She had forgotten her skirts. + +Shows begin early and last long. Miss Theodosia's show began at the +opening of the gates. She and her little string of followers filed in. + +"Mercy gracious!" breathed Evangeline in awesome delight at the vision +spread before her. + +"Mercy gracious!" breathed Miss Theodosia. They were different mercy +graciouses. But a miracle was on the way to her, coming straight and +fast through the crowds of festive circus-goers. Very soon now--in an +hour--in another moment--It arrived! Miss Theodosia felt herself +yielding to the lure of the sawdust and the side shows--the pink +lemonade and the balloons. She was entering in! She was not Miss +Theodosia who detested crowds; in the tight grip of the miracle, she was +Miss Theodosia who thrilled and enjoyed. + +"Isn't it elegant? Oh, aren't you happy!" cried Evangeline. + +"Aren't I!" gallant Miss Theodosia responded. She caught Evangeline's +sleeve. "What is that man shouting about--there, in front of that big +tent?" + +"Oh, I don't know, but it's somethin' splendid. I know it's somethin' +splendid! I'll go 'n' see." + +"I'll go with you. Stefana, stay with the rest of the children. We'll be +right back." Miss Theodosia laughed as she and Evangeline went, hand in +hand. In a moment they were back for the rest. It was "somethin' +splendid"--come! come! + +They drank pink lemonade and ate ice-cream cones. Elly Precious and +Carruthers waved gay balloons. Evangeline chose a cane. + +"I need one. I'm so happy I tumble over! I never was so happy 'xcept +when Elly Precious stopped havin' the measles. That was as splendid as +this, but it wasn't as _splendid_ splendid. Miss Theodosia, don't you +feel all beautiful and jiggy inside?" + +"All beautiful and jiggy!" nodded Miss Theodosia, wondering a little +whether it was all circus or some pink lemonade. + +"I like the wholeness of it best," Stefana said, taking in the animated +scene with an artist's eye. + +"I don't! I like the every little speckness of it," Evangeline chirped. +"I like that 'normous big tent an' that tiny little one--I like that +balloon man--I like that little darky baby--isn't he black as the ace of +space, Miss Theodosia! Oh, I like every blade o'--sawdust!" Her laugh +trilled out gayly. + +"But we haven't seen it yet--the show." + +"Miss Theodosia! You don't honest mean we're goin' in? Stefana, she +does--she means! We're goin' in!" As of course they were. The best seats +in the great tented arena were none too good for them. Stefana +laboriously shut up Elly Precious' go-cart, and Miss Theodosia lifted +Elly Precious in her arms. In the procession they sought those +best-of-all seats. What followed, even Evangeline gazed upon in silence; +there were no words in Evangeline's dictionary for what followed. She +sat on the edge of the best-of-all seat and drank in riders and clowns +and dizzy performing fairies--an intoxicating draught. + +"Miss Theodosia," in a tiny whisper. + +"Yes, dear?" + +"Ain't you glad you ain't dead? 'Cause you don't need to be." Which was +Evangeline's way of complimenting Heaven. There was no need of dying to +find out its marvels--not now. Miss Theodosia slipped one of the small +hands into hers and squeezed it; squeezing established understanding. +They knew--they understood. + +"Well, upon my word!" a deep voice exclaimed behind them. With one +accord Miss Theodosia and her Flaggs wheeled about. The Tract +Man--Shadow Man--Reformed Doctor stood there, smiling. He was eating +popcorn from a paper bag. Transferring the bag to Evangeline, he held +out his hands for the baby. + +"You here?" Miss Theodosia exclaimed stupidly. + +"Yes--are you?" + +Every one laughed. Laughing was so easy! Elly Precious from his lofty +shoulder-post clapped small, joyous hands and crowed. In the ring a +clown threw them kisses. A fairy in short, silvery skirts rode by on two +horses. "Wait! Watch her--watch her!" Evangeline whispered hissingly. +"She's goin' to jump through a hoop o' fire! Without burnin' up!" + +John Bradford leaned forward to Miss Theodosia. + +"Having a good time?" he whispered. + +"Grand! Are you?" + +"Hunkydory!" He might have been a boy, she a girl. These might have been +little Flagg brothers--sisters. + +"We must have cones--ice-cream cones," he said. + +"We've had 'em," piped Evangeline. + +"We must have more cones, and cracker-jack." + +"We've had crackerjack." + +"We must have more crackerjack. Where is the Crackerjack Boy?" + +At the end of the show in the ring they took a vote and decided to stay +to see it all over again. What did it matter if they had seen the tinsel +fairy jump through her fiery hoop or the acrobats perform their wonders? +They felt acquainted now. They were gazing, enchanted, at friends. + +"My clown's lookin' at me! I'm goin' to bow to him." + +"Mine's threw me a kiss!" + +Stefana, more refined in taste, had adopted a beauteous creature in gold +and blue, and starry spangles. Her beauteous lady waved a scepter at her +as she glided by. + +"She's got so many ruffles on! An' they're beau-ti-fully done up!" +sighed Stefana in gentle envy of some unknown artist in starch. + +"Now what?" demanded the man of the party at length. "Anybody want to +stay here any longer? Or shall we discover new territory?" He took +Evangeline aside and questioned her. + +"Have you seen everything out there?" indicating the attractions without +the big tent. + +"We've seen a nawful lot. We've had a nelegant time," Evangeline +whispered back. Desire and loyalty to Miss Theodosia fought a duel in +her small breast and the issue was yet doubtful. + +"Isn't there something left that you'd like to see?" The order was +changed; here was man tempting woman. Desire won the duel with one +mighty blow. Evangeline tiptoed up as near his ear as possible and +breathed two words. + +John Bradford turned to the little crowd. + +"We'll go to see the Fat Lady," he said to Miss Theodosia; "I'll take +the kiddies, while you sit down somewhere and rest. + +"Sit down somewhere? Haven't I been sitting down somewhere? Don't you +suppose I want to see the Fat Lady, too?" laughed Miss Theodosia. Fat +ladies appealed to her invitingly, in this remarkable mood of hers--Miss +Theodosia's circus mood. + +"You're playing the game like a trump! I didn't dream you could +'pretend' a circus was yours. Must be some harder than pretending +babies--" John Bradford got no farther. She turned indignant eyes upon +him. + +"'Game'--'pretend'--I'd have you know I'm having a nelegant time! You +must be the Pretender." + +"Me? I'm having the time of my life! I am going to put a circus into my +love story." + +"This circus?" + +"This identical one." + +"With me and the little Flaggs in it?" + +"You--and the little Flaggs." + +They had fallen behind the children, and a side eddy of the crowd had +flowed between. The Fat Lady was at the further end of the grounds, but +there was no hurry; she would remain just as fat a Fat Lady if they +pleasantly dallied a little. Stefana had, with the deftness of +genius-born skill, solved the puzzle of opening the folded-up go-cart, +and the Man Person of the party was no longer burdened with Elly +Precious. + +Suddenly into the pleasant dallying leaped Carruthers with terrified +little face. + +"They're lost! We can't find 'em! I can't an' Stefana can't. They ain't +anywhere! We were lookin' at a man with turkles you wind up, an' when we +stopped lookin' they weren't there--not anywhere. They ain't anywhere! +Not any--' + +"Stop him!" begged Miss Theodosia. "He'll keep right on anywhere-ing. We +must find Stefana." + +"Stefana said--oh, I couldn't hear what Stefana said, but she pointed +an' pointed, an' I came lickety. They're lost! They ain't anywhere!" + +Stefana appearing here, the story was repeated. Like that--Stefana +snapped her fingers--they had disappeared. + +"I've hunted and hunted. Everybody's seen children with go-carts, but +they weren't Evangeline 'n' Elly Precious." + +Miss Theodosia's own face was pale, but she achieved a light laugh. + +"No wonder you haven't found them yet! In this crowd. It takes +time;--you tell them to be patient and we'll find the right go-cart." +She appealed to the Man Person. + +"Sure, we'll find the right go-cart! Where do you think they could have +vanished? Down a hole in the ground?" + +Miss Theodosia clapped her hands valiantly. "That's it! Evangeline found +a hole and took Elly Precious down, to show him the White Rabbit and the +Red Queen! Evangeline would love to be an Alice in Wonderland. Go and +find the hole," to the Man Person. "I'll stay right in this spot with +the children. See, in front of this ice-cream tent." + +"Good idea!--I'll bring them back with me unless you find them first." + +But they were not with him when he returned half an hour later. In spite +of himself, he looked anxious. + +"Queer thing! What color dress did she have on? I've tried to remember." + +"Pink--oh, pink!" sobbed Stefana, "but it was most washed out. It had +two tucks let down, an' it was limpy in the skirt, behind--the starch +gave out." There were so many Evangelines, but it didn't seem as if +there'd be another Evangeline limpy behind! "An' Elly Precious's lower +teeth are through, and his shoes are buttoned inside, I remember now! We +were in such a hurry--there wouldn't be another baby buttoned inside." + +After still further vain hunting, John Bradford sent the three home. + +"You may find Evangeline there, getting supper!" he said, "but I'll stay +here on the chance you don't. I'll investigate every hole on the +grounds! Don't anybody worry--now, mind! There's nothing to worry +about." + +"Fat Lady!" Miss Theodosia suddenly exclaimed as one with inspiration. +"We've never thought of her; that's where they've gone! Evangeline +couldn't wait. She had some pennies." + +"I've investigated the Fat Lady--no good. They don't let go-carts in, +and there weren't any outside. But, of course, I can go the whole +figure, to make sure. I'll go all the whole figures. Can't you trust +me?" + +"We can. Come, children. I'll coach you on Wonderland, so if Evangeline +is there you'll know what she is seeing! Gryphons, Mock 'Turkles,' Mad +Hatters--a circus within a circus! It's so much like Evangeline to find +that White Rabbit hole!" Miss Theodosia clung determinedly to a cheerful +view of the situation. But, secretly, she worried. As the time went on, +she worried harder. Two babies--one wheeling the other! What was +Evangeline but a baby? + +Miss Theodosia took the two little surviving Flaggs to her own home and +plied them with goodies--many goodies. She unearthed from hiding-places +candied ginger and guava jelly; she invented toys for the deaf little +Flagg and occupations for Stefana. She found a dog-eared copy of +"Alice," dear to her own childhood, and read to Stefana--anything to +occupy the waiting. It was long waiting! + +It grew dark. Once Miss Theodosia heard heavy steps trying painstakingly +to be light ones. She found the Man Person outside the door. + +"Nothing yet? You haven't any trace--" It was needless asking. + +"You don't think--" + +"Of course, I don't think! Nothing on earth could happen to those +kiddies." + +"Automobiles--" + +"Aren't allowed on the grounds, and you couldn't have got Evangeline off +the grounds with a tackle and falls. I know what I think." + +"Then tell it--mercy gracious!" + +"I think it's Evangeline that's happened. Mark my words! Now I'm going +back again. I just came to--I suppose I thought I was coming to relieve +your mind!" He laughed sorrily and softly. + +"Oh, go--yes, go! It's--it's long past Elly Precious' bedtime." He could +hear soft sobbing as he went away. Miss Theodosia was mourning for her +baby. The Man Person's throat tightened; he broke into a run. + +Stefana met Miss Theodosia at an inner door. She had her hat on and +Carruthers by the hand. + +"I'm going home to put him to bed. I--I shan't look at the clothes +basket. But if Elly Precious is dead, I'll put wh-white ribbons on the +h-handles!" With a moan, Stefana threw herself into the kind arms of +Elly Precious' friend who loved him, too! + +"Hush, dear! Elly Precious isn't dead, but I hope he is asleep. +Evangeline, I know, will take care of him. Let's trust Evangeline." + +"Maybe she's dead, too!" + +"Stefana! I'm disappointed. I thought you were a brave girl." + +"I am!" sobbed Stefana, gathering herself together. Miss Theodosia +watched her go quietly away, hand in hand with the little brother that +was left. But Miss Theodosia was no longer brave. Sudden terrors seized +upon her. She remembered how round and white Elly Precious was--how he +showed the little teeth that had got through--how he had loved to watch +Evangeline dance, through the window. + +"Theodosia Baxter, I'm disappointed! I thought you were a brave girl." + +As she stood in the moist darkness, a sound came to her--too soft for a +man-sound. It grew a very little more distinct. + +"Miss Theodosia--sh! he's gettin' ready to go off. I want him to go off +soon's I get him home--I don't want to 'xcite him. I jus' came to tell +you--" + +"Evangeline! Have you got him there?" + +The softest of giggles. "Why, of course! He's too valuable to leave +anywheres. Leave a Best Baby! That's the s'prise! He's a prize baby, +Elly Precious is! I've got it in my pocket!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"I've got to take him home an' bed him down!" Horsey little Evangeline! +"Then I'll come back an' show it to you. Isn't it puffectly elegant that +he took a prize! We've had the best time!" And in the darkness Miss +Theodosia heard soft, retreating steps and the faintest creak of wheels. +Left alone, she leaned for support on the porch pillar, overcome by the +Evangelineness of Evangeline. And they had all had so far from the "best +time"--they had suffered so! + +"Mercy gracious!" sighed Miss Theodosia weakly, but aloud. + +"What did I tell you?" The Man Person's voice! What kind of a ghostly +night was this? "Didn't I say it was Evangeline that had happened, 'mark +my words'? Well, wasn't it?" + +"Tell me instantly how she 'happened'! I'm all in the dark." + +"Same here. Can't see an inch before my nose. If we had a lamp--" + +"Didn't she tell you? Didn't she come home with you?" + +"No--no, I came home with her. Behind her--she didn't know. Wanted to +let her do the whole thing alone. I confess I was curious." + +"Curious! After hunting hours and hours--" + +"'Curious--after--hunting--hours--and hours,'" he intoned. She could +hear him getting ready to laugh. "The moment I caught sight of the +little imp, I forgot I was tired. Whatever she's been up to, it's +something interesting. May I wait and hear her tell about it?" + +"Of course you may! I should think you'd earned admittance." Miss +Theodosia was sizzling gently with perfectly natural irritation. Now +that her baby was safe, she had leisure to be irritated. + +"Come and rest in the easiest chair you can find. When I think--" + +"Don't think! Let's just have cups of tea and wait for the show to +begin." + +"But why aren't you cross? I am." + +The man-voice in the dark was soothing. + +"Oh, no, you only think you are, dear lady. You are deceiving yourself. +Crossness and--er--nerve-itis are two very different diseases (you note +I term them both diseases). I speak as One Who Did Once Know." + +Miss Theodosia, on her way for cups of tea, paused in her dim doorway. + +"Diseases change so. In ten years--" + +"In ten years 'nerve-itis' has lost none of its pep--rather annexed +more. It may have another name." + +"Nerve-itus Dance," murmured the voice in the doorway. "That's +it--that's what I was having when you came. I don't think I am quite +over the attack yet." + +"Three lumps of sugar dissolved in a cup of tea," prescribed the +man-voice promptly. "Repeat the dose in five minutes. Never known to +fail. As a preventive of--er--contagion, it is well for any also who +have been exposed--" + +"I'll have it there in a minute. The kettle's boiling," called Miss +Theodosia from interior regions. She came back presently with a tray lit +by a tiny flare of candle-light. + + "'How far that little candle throws his beams-- + So shines a good deed in a naughty world'" + +quoted he. "The good deed is the good tea." + +"And the naughty world is Evangeline. Won't you have three lumps just +this time, to make perfectly sure you don't contract my Nerve-itus +Dance?" + +"Safety first," he laughed. "Four lumps. This is our first tea-party at +'Candle-lighting Time,' isn't it?" + +Now Miss Theodosia laughed. It was easy to laugh with Elly Precious +being bedded down instead of lost. + +"How you do quote to-night!" she said. "That's the third time, counting +'Safety First,' in the last five minutes." + +"Pardon," he craved. "It's because I feel happy. I'm likely to quote again +at any minute." + +"Well, quote the Scriptures then to Evangeline when she comes." + +"Hark!" + +She was coming now. They could hear the light, hurrying steps. Was +Evangeline never tired? Did neither parades nor circuses--mysterious +wanderings nor mysterious triumphs--affect her? + +"The show is about to begin," murmured Miss Theodosia. + +It began immediately. Evangeline came bursting in upon them, waving a +blue ribbon. She was a fresh and radiant Evangeline. + +"Stefana says I can't stay only a minute. Stefana's kind o' mad, but she +didn't dass to be, out loud, for fear we'd 'xcite Elly Precious. He's +asleep. I was so proud of his arms an' legs when I undressed 'em! +They're very high-percented arms 'n' legs. Mercy gracious, yes! Don't +you see this ribbon's blue--blue--blue! That's because he's a Best Baby, +an' the prize was five dollars, an' they gave him a dollar 'special,' +too, that we're goin' to put in the bank--" + +Miss Theodosia held up her hand. + +"Begin at the beginning," she commanded. "Where have you been all this +time? What on earth have you been doing?" + +"Showin' Elly Precious," flashed back Evangeline brightly. "You've heard +o' Poultry Shows? Well, this wasn't. This was a Baby Show. We never +noticed it was advertised in the p'rade at all--a man with a sandwich +on. A lady told me. She said the circus folks were pretty bright, +because all o' the world loved babies an' they knew 'twould make a +beautiful side show. She said they knew it would draw, an' it did. It +drew me an' Elly Precious! The circus folks offered prizes. They weighed +an' measured 'em to see which was a Best Baby, an' Elly Precious was! +You better be proud that you--that you measled a Best Baby!" + +Miss Theodosia's glance met the Man Person's. The show was turning out +well. + +"I've got to go back, or Stefana--oh, mercy gracious me, it was worth +folks bein' mad! There was a nurse there an' a lovely lady an' a doctor. +They let me stay Elly Precious's nap out, because it isn't a sleep +go-cart. He has to sit up straight in it. The lady said to lie him down +there an' let him sleep. But we didn't expect he'd sleep so long--the +lady went away, but I stayed. I wasn't goin' to wake a Best Baby up out +o' a sound sleep! It made us a little late gettin' home." + +"Yes, go on," murmured the Man Person feelingly. + +"Why, that's as far as there is to go. Then we came home." + +"Why didn't you go back and tell Stefana or Miss Theodosia? Where was +your Baby Show, anyway?" + +"In a tent. I happened to get a peek in an' saw folks with babies, an' I +was a folks with one, so I just went in. That's all. I was goin' to tell +Stefana, but he cried an' I couldn't leave him. He wouldn't have took a +prize, cryin'. I had to keep dancin' to him--mercy gracious! But it was +worth it. Then when he'd got all measured an' weighed,--it's pretty +wearin' work,--he went to sleep. I told you that. I had to wait for him +to wake up." For the first time Evangeline was on the defensive; she +read the faint disapproval in Miss Theodosia's face. + +"Mercy gracious, I never s'posed you'd go an' worry! I thought--I +thought you'd jus' be pur-roud." Actually, Evangeline was crying now. +Miss Theodosia's disapproval vanished instantly. With a sweep of her +arms, she gathered a forgiven Evangeline in. The Man Person stood +outside the little zone of feminine emotion, but he had his own brand. + +"We _are_ pur-roud," Miss Theodosia crooned over the subdued little +figure. "It's perfectly splendid about the blue ribbon and the prize!" + +"An' the special." + +"An' the special. Think of what his mother will say! But I knew he was +the Best Baby all the time; it was written in between every little +measle!" And saving laughter righted the situation; Evangeline bounded +back to her usual spirits. "Now," Miss Theodosia said, "I'll get you +some preserved ginger and shoo you home! You mustn't stay another +minute, or Stefana will surely be over here with a policeman." + +"Stefana's proud, too--she needn't pretend! I saw her kissin' Elly +Precious's knee. But she'll scold; she thinks it's her duty. Mercy +gracious, when Aunt Sarah knits an' Mother's back, I hope Stefana'll +grow down again." + +The Man Person poised his teacup above the saucer, arrested by this new +puzzle. + +"Er--grow how?" + +"Down. She's so terrible grown-up now. It's been pretty wearin' on my +nerves. We use' to play dolls together. We don't ever now. She's too +starched up." + +"Poor Stefana with her starch!" murmured Miss Theodosia. The poor little +martyr to starch! It was to be hoped, indeed, that when Aunt Sarah knit, +Stefana could grow down again and play dolls. + +"Do you know her mother--Evangeline's?" Miss Theodosia asked, after the +child had gone. "Is Evangeline like her;--is that where she gets her +Evangelineness?" + +"No, she must get it from the father. The mother is exactly like +Stefana, or may be I've got it the wrong end to. I never saw the father; +he died a few weeks before the baby was born." + +"Well, the father must have been remarkable; somebody is responsible for +Evangeline. I love that child next to--my baby. Supposing--I think of it +sometimes--supposing I had staid in Rome or Paris or Farthest +Anyplace--not come home at all, you know,--then I should have missed it +all. I should never have known those children." + +"Nor me," he ventured. She did not appear to hear, but went on musingly: + +"Something sent me home--I needed those children." + +"And me!" + +"I was going on a fast train--a through express--straight to Lonesome +Land!" + +She laughed softly as if she were alone. "If Evangeline hadn't Flagged +my train--it was Evangeline! She switched me off on another track." +Miss Theodosia's tender eyes lifted and met the Man Person's with a +little start of recognition as if saying: "Why, are you here!" But she +met those other eyes staunchly. "I'm glad I stopped off at this Flagg +station. I like it here." + +For a little the big room, bright with lamplight, was so still that the +clock ticked impertinently. Miss Theodosia's tea cooled in its cup, and +John Bradford had long ago forgotten his. The big hands on the +chair-arms gripped them unconsciously. Then, suddenly, the man got to +his feet and walked to the far end of the room. On his return he stopped +before Miss Theodosia, looking down. + +"I love you," John Bradford said. The impertinent clock kept on, but +Miss Theodosia could not hear it now for the ticking of her heart. Was +she a frightened girl that she could not lift her eyes? + +"I was on that express, too--bound for that same place. I thank the Lord +I got off here. I shall always thank Him, whether you can love me or +not. I shall always love you. If you thought, sometime--I can wait--" + +Miss Theodosia's eyes lifted. But she shook her head. + +"I'm afraid not--sometime." + +He still stood, looking down. Very gently he touched her hair; she could +hear the long breath he drew. + +"I was afraid so. It was too much to ask. But I had to take my chance. +Don't be distressed, dear. I am happy, loving you. You can't deny me +that! I've loved you ever since I found you mending my shirt. I have had +a beautiful time loving you, and it will keep right on. But I was crazy, +wasn't I, to think--of course you 'couldn't sometime.'" + +"Because I love you now," she said steadily. "I have--I have just found +it out!" + +The gently stroking hand ceased its work. John Bradford caught the sweet +face between his great palms and turned it upward to his. + +"Dear!" he cried. He was a boy, she a girl. Love has no age. It swept +over them, a young sweet tide. This man--this woman. There was no one +else in the world then. + +"Dear!" she whispered, matching her love-word to his, "and I never knew +till a minute ago!" + +"I always knew. The shirt had no part in it! I have loved you since the +world began and the morning stars sang! You were made for me to love; +all these years I have been waiting for you, dear." + +"All these years!" she repeated a little sadly--"that reminds us. But we +are not old! I won't be--I won't have you be! What is time, anyway?" + +"Nothing!" He blew it away in a whiff of scorn. "What is anything but +that I love you and you love me? We are just born now--this is our +birthday! May I kiss you on your birthday, dear? Will you kiss me on +mine?" + +The clock must have stopped in very astonishment at this scandal of +grown love playing young love. At any rate, there was only the sound of +the young love in the room. The room sang with the beautiful sound of +it. + +It seemed a very long time afterward that John Bradford asked his +man-question: "When?" + +"When your book is written--the love story. Not till then." + +"It's getting on beautifully!" he pleaded. "It never will be done. +There's going to be no end to the chapters." + +"Mercy gracious! Where are you now?" + +"The heroine has just said yes. The hero has just kissed her--he is just +going to kiss her ag--" + +"Mercy--mercy gracious!" Miss Theodosia's fair cheeks flooded pink. She +held up a staying hand. + +"Wait--till I get--get used to being a heroine! Am I? Was _that_ the +love story?" + +"That was the love story. I have been working on it every day. Some days +I had set-backs--when the heroine flung things in my face about reformed +doctors, and times like that." + +"She took them back again, those things. She was a kind sort of a +heroine." + +"She was a dear. He wanted to kiss her when she took them back, those +things. I had all _I_ could do to keep him from it. He was a tough sort +of a hero to work with. I had my hands full." + +"Did you love--did the hero love the heroine when they sat drinking cups +of tea?" + +"A little harder every cup." + +"When they nursed the measles?" + +"A little more every measle." + +"When they went to the circus?" She drew a long, happy breath. "I like +to have been that heroine! Dear, is it right to be as happy as this? For +old folks, I mean--near-olds? Oughtn't we to knock on wood? Oh, I've +just thought of Evangeline. What will Evangeline say?" + +"Something Evangelical," he laughed. "I hope I'll be there." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Evangeline had excitements of her own. As though prizes for Best Babies +were not enough, a new excitement began the very next day. Two +excitements--one on the lovely heels of the other. Evangeline, gasping +in the joyous throes of the first-comer, raced over to Miss Theodosia, +as she had learned to race with troubles as well as joys. All the way +she emitted sounds approximating steam-whistles. The very nature of the +news she was carrying suggested the sounds she made carrying it. + +"The elegantest thing has happened--I mean's goin' to!" She could not +wait to get quite there, but sent her news ahead of her through the +transmitting medium of air. Miss Theodosia, on her porch, sat dreaming +her love's young dream--young, not old; not old! + +"The elegant elegantest! He's goin' to be cured! He won't be deaf o' +hearin' any more! I mean he thinks he won't--I mean _he_--" + +"Sit down on the step, dear. Count ten, then start again." + +"Onetwothreefour--oh, I can't wait to get to ten! If your little brother +had always been deaf o' hearin' an' a doctor looked into him with a +spy-glass an' said I think this boy can be cured, I'm goin' to take him +to a hospital an' have him operated when his mother is willin' if she +gets home--I mean if she gets home when she's willin'--oh, I mean--" + +"Yes, dear. Sit still. I understand, and I think she will be willing +when she gets home, don't you? Oh, Evangeline, won't we all be happy to +have Carruthers cured of his poor little deafness o' hearing! I know the +doctor, and he knows ears! We'll trust him, Evangeline. He will do +everything in the world there is to be done. And we'll stay at home and +pray." + +"Pray!" cried Evangeline. Her little thin face lifted to the blue +heavens. "I've woke up right slap in the middle o' nights an' prayed: +'Oh, Lord, that made a little children an' forgot his ears, do somethin' +now--don't you think you'd ought to, O Lord? It don't seem fair not to. +He ain't ever heard Elly Precious crow, nor laugh--think o' that, dear +Lord.'" The shrill voice dropped suddenly. "But He never." Evangeline +sighed. + +"Till now, dear--we hope He will now. He and the doctor who knows ears. +I thought you were so pleased and that you were--" + +"Oh, yes'm, oh, I am! It was just--I was thinkin' how lovely Elly +Precious's laugh sounds an' Carruthers not ever hearin' it. So far, I +mean." Evangeline caught her courage again in both hands. "But he'll +laugh 'nough more times when he can hear--I mean when Carruthers can. +Won't it be puffectly elegant!" + +It was later in the same day when the second excitement struck the +little House of Flaggs. Evangeline raced again across the separating +green grass to Miss Theodosia. This time she went at reduced speed +because she had Elly Precious over her shoulder. Miss Theodosia saw them +coming and smiled. + +"More news! I know it is puffectly elegant by Evangeline's face. Well, +Evangeline?" + +"Mercy gracious! Take him before I spill him! I'm so happy I joggle. +She's knittin' an' she's comin' home! I mean knittin' _enough_. She said +'my--dear--children--I--expect--to--be--home--to-morrow +--Aunt--Sarah--is--better--an'--I--can't +wait--to--see--you--your--mother--' Mercy gracious, when Stefana got to +your mother, seemed as if I'd burst! We hollered it to Carruthers, an' +he burst! An' Elly Precious knows she's comin', I know he knows. Tickle +him an' see how pleased he is!" Without comma or semicolon, to say +nothing of periods, Evangeline panted on. Out of breath at last, her +voice sat down an instant, as it were, to rest. It was up again in a +moment. + +"To-morrow is most to-day! It'll be to-day to-morrow! Oh, mercy gracious +me! We're goin' to sweep under everything an' behind--every las' thing, +under 'n' behind. She won't find a grain o' dust. An' Stefana's makin' +starch." + +"Mercy gracious!" softly ejaculated Miss Theodosia. + +"I mean to eat in the dessert--corn-starch. We've begun to skim Elly +Precious's bottles. You can eat thin bottles, can't you, darlin' dear, +when Mother's comin' home? Corn-starch has to have cream on it--when +Mother's comin' home!" She laughed joyously. All past and creamless +corn-starches were a joke. Laughing at them was easy at this happy +moment. + +"Isn't it splendid Aunt Sarah went to knittin'? Mercy gracious, I hope +she won't--won't drop a stitch for Mother to have to stay an' pick up!" +Evangeline's laugh trilled out once more. + +"Do you suppose you'd dass to cut Elly Precious's hair, Miss Theodosia, +while I danced like everything an' made faces? Dutchy, you know, in the +back o' his neck--he's straggly now. I'd make awful faces--" + +"I wouldn't 'dass,' dear," smiled Miss Theodosia. "I never could cut +fast enough and you never could dance hard enough--we'd hurt him." + +"Well, she'll look at the front o' him first--never mind. We're goin' to +put on that darlin' little ni'gown you made, for a dress--belt it in, +you know, with a ribbon off the handle o' the clo'es-basket; Stefana's +ironed it out. An' we're goin' to pin on his blue ribbon prize." + +John Bradford came that evening to sit on the porch in the soft warmth +that autumn had borrowed from summers-to-come, with promissory note to +pay it back when lovers were through with it. Miss Theodosia met him +with the news. + +"Mustn't it be beautiful to be welcomed home like that, dear? If you +could have seen Evangeline's little shiny face! And the way Elly +Precious laughed--when I tickled him! And, oh, John--Do you hear me +call you John? I thought it would be hard!" + +"'And, oh, John--'" he prompted, putting it yet further off by a +kiss-length. + +"Oh, John, I know about Carruthers. You're going to take him away to +cure him." + +"To try to cure him," John Bradford said gravely. + +"You'll do it, dear--you and the Lord! Evangeline and I are trusting. +Hark, she is coming! No one else sounds like that!" + +"No one else gallops--canters--breaks speed limits!" he laughed. "Now +what? More news?" + +The same news over again, but Evangeline saw that which momentarily +banished it from her mind. She saw John Bradford standing behind Miss +Theodosia's chair; she saw him stoop over it. + +"Mercy gracious, he kissed her!" gasped Evangeline. Something told her +to turn and gallop back, but she could not stop in time. She was already +at the foot of the steps. Awful embarrassment seized her--seized +Evangeline! In the faint, reflected lamplight from within the house she +could see the two above her looking down. Mercy gracious! + +"Sit down, Evangeline." + +"I'm s-sittin'--I _think_ I'm sittin' down." Up-standings and +down-sittings were confused in the general dizziness of things. Perhaps +she was standing up. + +"You're not sick, are you, Evangeline? You're not saying anything." + +Then Evangeline said something. + +"I--I saw him--doin' it, I mean. Mercy gracious, _what'll I do_?" For +some inherited delicacy of instinct made of her a dreadful intruder; she +saw herself in the shameful act. Instinctively Evangeline knew she was +on sacred ground. + +"I couldn't stop, I was goin' so fast. It's too late not to see him +doin' it; I don't know what to do." + +With swift, light steps Miss Theodosia was down beside her. John +Bradford with one step was there. Evangeline looked shamefacedly up into +their two kind faces. + +"I'm sorry," she whispered. For answer, John Bradford took one of Miss +Theodosia's hands and laid it on hers. He held out one of his own. + +"May I have this lady to be my wedded wife, Evangeline? Will you give +her to me?" His big voice was very tender. Evangeline looked into his +shining eyes. The mystery of love swept through her small, sweet soul. +She shut her eyes as if from some light too bright for them. If she were +alone, she would say her prayers. But the tender voice was going on. + +"May I have her, Evangeline--will you put her hand in mine? She is very +dear, indeed, to me." She could feel Miss Theodosia's soft hand quiver +against her own hard little palm. Miss Theodosia's eyes were tender, +too. + +Then, suddenly, inspiration came to her. She laid the soft hand in the +big hand and looked up, smiling into John Bradford's face. + +"I'm willin'," she said, "if you'll honor an' obey." + +It was as if a silken gown enfolded Evangeline's straight little +shoulders and they heard her say: "I pronounce thee." The strange little +ceremony left them hushed. + +No one spoke again for a little space. Somewhere sleepy birds twittered, +disturbed by rustling leaves or stealthy marauders. Somewhere a clock +intoned distantly. A train far away rushed through the night, perhaps to +some Lonesome Land, but they were not on it. Then John Bradford broke +the spell. He leaned down and kissed Evangeline. + +A little laugh bubbled up to him. "You must've made a mistake. I'm the +wrong one--mercy gracious!" + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings, by +Annie Hamilton Donnell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS THEODOSIA'S HEARTSTRINGS *** + +***** This file should be named 8865-8.txt or 8865-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/8/6/8865/ + +Produced by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 Public Domain 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/8865-8.zip b/8865-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfb2c21 --- /dev/null +++ b/8865-8.zip diff --git a/8865.txt b/8865.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f6f702 --- /dev/null +++ b/8865.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4256 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings, by Annie Hamilton Donnell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + +Author: Annie Hamilton Donnell + +Posting Date: August 5, 2012 [EBook #8865] +Release Date: September, 2005 +First Posted: August 16, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS THEODOSIA'S HEARTSTRINGS *** + + + + +Produced by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + +Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + +BY + +ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +WILLIAM VAN DRESSER + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of +Stefana's patient endeavors. FRONTISPIECE.] + + + +To MY HUSBAND + +WHO COULD WRITE SO MUCH + +BETTER A BOOK AND + +DEDICATE IT TO + +ME! + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's patient +endeavors. + +"We've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly" + +"If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into a story like +that" + +Evangeline established a stage of action outside the window + + + + +Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +"Mercy gracious!" + +"_Well!"_ + +The last utterance was Miss Theodosia Baxter's. She was a woman of few +words at all times where few sufficed. One sufficed now. The child on +her front porch, with a still childlier child on the small area of her +knees, was not a creature of few words, but now extreme surprise limited +speech. She was stricken with brevity,--stricken is the word--to match +Miss Theodosia's. + +Downward, upward, each gazed into the other's surprised face. The +childlier child, jouncing pleasantly back and forth, viewed them both +impartially. + +It was the child who regarded the situation, after a moment of mental +adjustment, as humorous. She giggled softly. + +"Mercy gracious! How you surprised me' 'n' Elly Precious, an' me 'n' +Elly Precious surprised you! I don't know which was the whichest! We +came over to be shady just once more. We didn't s'pose you would come +home till to-morrow, did we, Elly Precious?" + +"I came last night," Miss Theodosia replied with crispness. She stood in +her doorway, apparently waiting for something which--apparently--was not +to happen. The child and Elly Precious sat on in seeming calm. + +"Yes'm. Of course if you hadn't come, you wouldn't be standin' there +lookin' at Elly Precious--isn't he a darlin' dear? Wouldn't you like to +look at his toes?" + +It was Miss Theodosia Baxter's turn to say "Mercy gracious!" but she did +not say it aloud. It was her turn, too, to see a bit of humor in the +situation on her front porch. + +"Not--just now," she said rather hastily. She could not remember ever to +have seen a baby's toes. "I've no doubt they are--are excellent toes." +The word did not satisfy her, but the suitable adjective was not at +hand. + +"Mercy gracious! That's a funny way to talk about toes! Elly Precious's +are pink as anything--an' six--yes'm! I've made consid'able money out of +his toes. Yes," with rising pride at the sight of Miss Theodosia's +surprise, "'leven cents, so far. I only charged Lelia Fling a cent for +two looks, because Lelia's baby's dead. I've got three cents out o' her; +she says five of Elly Precious's remind her of her baby's toes. Isn't it +funny you can't make boys pay to look at babies' toes, even when they's +such a lot? Only just girls. Stefana says it's because girls are +ungrown-up mothers. Mercy gracious! speakin' of Stefana an' mothers, +reminds me--" + +The shrill little voice stopped with a suddenness that made the woman in +the door fear for Elly Precious; it seemed that he must be jolted from +his narrow perch. + +Miss Theodosia had wandered up and down the world for three years in be +search of something to interest her, only to come home and find it here +upon the upper step of her own front porch. She stepped from the doorway +and sat down in one of the wicker rockers. She had plenty of time to be +interested; there was really no haste for unpacking and settling back +into her little country rut. + +"What about 'Stefana and mothers'?" she prodded gently. A cloud had +settled on the child's vivid little face and threatened to overshade the +childlier child, as well. "I suppose 'Stefana' is a Spanish person, +isn't she?" The name had a definitely foreign sound. + +"Oh, no'm--just a United States. We're all United States. Mother named +her; we've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly. Mother hated to +call him Elihu, but there was Grandfather gettin' older an' older all +the time, an' she dassen't wait till the next one. She put it off an' +off with the other boys, Carruthers an' Gilpatrick--he's dead. She just +couldn't name any of 'em Elihu, till Grandfather scared her, gettin' so +old. She was afraid there wouldn't be time, an' there wasn't any to +spare. Grandfather's dead now--she's thankful enough she didn't wait any +longer. He was so pleased. He said he could depart this life easier, +leavin' an Elihu Flagg behind him. An', anyway, Mother says Elly can +call himself his middle name, if he'd ruther, when he's twenty-one--his +middle name's Launcelot." + +Elihu Launcelot, at this juncture, toppled over against the little flat +breast of his nurse, asleep--or in a swoon; Miss Theodosia had her +fears. There seemed sufficient swooning cause. + +"Stefana," she prompted again, her interest advancing at a rapid pace, +"and mothers--" + +"Stefana's our oldest. She's goin' to run us while Mother's away. She's +got a job before her! All I can do is 'tend Elly Precious--we're all +boys, but us. But, of course, runnin' the family isn't the real +trouble--not what made Mother cry." + +Miss Theodosia sat forward in her chair. + +"What made Mother cry?" she asked. The child shifted her heavy burden +the better to turn her head. She regarded the beautiful white lady +gloomily. + +"You," she stated briefly. + +This time Miss Theodosia said it aloud and with a surprising ease, as if +of long custom--"Mercy gracious!" + +"Oh, I didn't mean you're to blame; you can't help Aunt Sarah tumblin' +down the cellar stairs an' Mother not bein' able to do you up." + +"Do me--up?" + +"Yes'm--white-wash you. Mother was sure you'd let her, an' we were goin' +to send Carruthers to a deaf 'n' dumb school after you'd wore white +clo'es enough. He isn't dumb, but he's deaf. He can't hear Elly Precious +laugh--only yell. Mother heard that you always wore white dresses an' +she most hugged herself--she hugged us. She said you'd prob'ly find out +what a good white-washer she was an' let her white-wash you. But, now, +Aunt Sarah's went an' fell down cellar." + +"Whitewash--whitewash?" queried Miss Theodosia. + +"Yes'm, you didn't think Mother was a washwoman, did you? Of course she +could, but it doesn't pay's well. She only whitewashes--white clo'es, +you know, dresses an' shirtwaists. She says it's her talent that the +Lord's gave her, an' she's goin' to make it gain ten talents for +Carruthers. But Aunt Sarah--" + +"Never mind Aunt Sarah. Unless--do you mean your mother has had to go +away from home?" + +"Yes'm, to see to Aunt Sarah. They were twins when they were babies. +Mother cried, because she said of course you'd have to be done up while +she was gone, an' so she'd lost you. She said you'd been her bacon light +ever since she heard you was comin' home an' wore so many white clo'es." + +The garrulous little voice might have run on indefinitely but for the +abrupt appearance, here, of a slender girl in an all-enwrapping gingham +apron. She came hurrying up Miss Theodosia's front walk. + +"Well, Evangeline Flagg, I hope you're blushing crimson scarlet +red--helping yourself to folks's doorsteps that's got back from Europe! +I hope--" but the newcomer got no further, for, quite suddenly, she +found herself blushing crimson scarlet red, in the grip of a +disconcerting thought. + +"I suppose it's just as bad to help yourself to doorsteps when folks +aren't here as when they are," she said slowly, "but you mustn't blame +Mother. She'd never've allowed Evangeline and Elly, if we'd had a single +sol-i-ta-ry tree. Or been on the shady side. Or had a porch. Elly's been +pindly, and Mother felt obliged to save his life. It's been terribly +hot. Here, Evangeline Flagg, you give Elly here, an' you run home an' +keep the soup-kettle from burning on. Don't you wait until it smells! +I've got an errand to do here." + +The child, Evangeline, relinquished her burden and turned slowly away. +But she halted at the foot of the steps. + +"This is Stefana," she introduced politely. "Stefana, you ain't _goin' +to_? You look 'xactly as if you was. Mercy gracious!" + +[Illustration: "We've all got beautiful names except poor Elly."] + +"Yes," Stefana returned gravely, "I am. Now, you go. Remember the soup!" + +Miss Theodosia's interested gaze left the retreating little figure and +came back to Stefana and Elly Precious. She was pleasantly aware of her +own immaculate daintiness in her crisp white dress. Only Theodosia +Baxter would have dreamed of arraying herself in white to unpack and +settle. Her friends declared she made a fetich of her white raiment; it +was a well-known fact among them that she was extremely "fussy" about +its laundering. + +"One, two, three," counted the slender girl, over the baby's bald little +head, "only three tucks, an' the lace not terribly full on the edges. +I'm thankful there aren't any ruffles, but, there, I suppose there are +on some o' the others, aren't there? I'll have to manage the ruffles. I +mean, if--oh, I mean, won't you please let me do you up? Just till Aunt +Sarah's bone knits--so to save you for Mother? I'll try so hard! If I +don't, Charlotte Lovell will--she's the only other one. She's a +beautiful washer and ironer, but none of her children are deaf, and she +hasn't any, anyway. I didn't dare to come over and ask you, but I kept +thinking of poor Mother and how she's been 'lotting on earning all that +money. There, I've asked you--please don't answer till I've counted ten. +When we were little, Mother always said for us to; it was safer. One, +two, three--" she counted rapidly, then swung about facing Miss +Theodosia. "You can say 'no,' now," she said, with a difficult little +smile. + +Miss Theodosia had been, in a way, counting ten herself. She had had +time to remember her very strict injunctions to those to whom she +entrusted her beloved white gowns--to pull out the lace with careful +fingers, not to iron it; to iron embroidered portions over many +thicknesses of flannel, and never, never, never on the right side; to +starch the dresses just enough and not too much. All these thoughts +flashed through her mind while Stefana counted ten. But it was without +accompaniment of injunctions that Miss Theodosia answered on that +wistful little stroke of ten. In her soul she felt the futility of +injunctions. + +"Yes," answered Miss Theodosia. + +Stefana whirled, at the risk of Elihu Launcelot. + +"Oh--oh, what? You mean I can do you up, honest? Starch you, and iron +you, too--of course, I could wash you. Oh, if I could drop Elly Precious +I'd get right up and dance!" + +"Give Elly Precious to me, and go ahead, my dear," said the White Lady +with a smile. + +But Stefana shook her head. She was covertly studying the white dress +once more. It was very white--she could detect no promising spots or +creases, and she drew a sigh even in the midst of her rejoicing. If a +person only sat on porches, in chairs, how often did white dresses need +doing up? Miss Theodosia interpreted the sigh and look. + +"Oh, I've three of them rolled up in my trunk; aren't three enough to +begin on? And shirtwaists--I'm sure I don't know how many of those. I'll +go and get them now." + +In the hall she stopped at the mirror, jibing at the image confronting +her. "You've done it this time, Theodosia Baxter! When you can't bear a +wrinkle! But, there, don't look so scared--daughters inherit their +mothers' talents, plenty of times. And you need only try it once, of +course." + +After Stefana had gone away, doubly laden with clothes and bulky baby, +Miss Theodosia remained on her porch. She found herself leaning over and +parting her porch-vines, to get a glimpse of the little house next door. +She had always loathed that little house with its barefaced poverties +and uglinesses, and it had been a great relief to her to have it stand +vacant in past years. She had left it vacant when she started upon her +last globe-trotting. Now here it was teeming with life, and here she was +aiding and abetting it! What new manner of Theodosia Baxter was this? + +"You'd better get up and globe-trot again, Woman, and not unpack," she +uttered, with a lone woman's habit of talking to herself. "You were +never made to live in a house like other people--to sit on porches and +rock. And certainly, Theodosia Baxter, you were never made to live next +to that little dry-goods box. It will turn you gray, poor thing." She +felt a gentle pity for herself, then gentle wrath seized her. Why had +she come home, anyway? Already she was lonely and restless. Why--could +anybody tell her why--had she weakly yielded to two small girls? Her +dear-beloved white dresses! And she could not go back on her +promise--not on a Baxter promise! There was, indeed, the release of +going away again, back to her globe-trotting-- + +"I might write to Cornelia Dunlap," Miss Theodosia thought. "Maybe she +is sorry she came home, too." + +Cornelia Dunlap had been her recent comrade of the road. They had +traveled to many far places together. What would Cornelia say to that +little conference of three--and a baby--on the front porch? + +"My dear," wrote Miss Theodosia, "you will think I have been swapped in +my cradle since I left you! 'That is no fellow tramp of mine,' you will +say, 'That woman being victimized by children in knee-high dresses! +Theodosia Baxter nothing!'"--for Cornelia Dunlap in moments of surprise +resorted sometimes to slang, which she claimed was a sturdy vehicle of +speech. "You will set down your teacup hard," wrote on Miss +Theodosia,--"I know you are drinking tea!--when I tell you the little +story of the Whitewashing of Theodosia Baxter. But shall I tell it? Why +expose Theodosia Baxter's weaknesses when hitherto she has posed as +strong? Soberly, Cornelia, I am as much surprised at myself as you will +be (oh, I shall tell it!). Do you remember your Mother Goose? The little +astonished old lady who took a nap beside the road and woke to find her +petticoats cut off at her knees? 'Oh, lawk-a-daisy me, can this be I!' +cried she. I'm not sure those were just her words, but they will do. Oh, +lawk-a-daisy me, can this be Theodosia Baxter! The Astonished Little Old +Lady, if I remember my Mother Goose, resorted to the simple expedient of +going home and letting her little dog decide if she were she. But I have +no little dog. + +"They were so earnest to whitewash me, Cornelia! The whole scheme was +such a plucky little one and Baxters, from the dawn of creation, have +admired pluck. The lively, chatterbox-one was 'Evangeline' and the quiet +one who should have been an Evangeline was what the other one ought to +have been,--a 'Stefana,' suggestive of flashing, dark eyes under a lace +mantilla, with ways to match the eyes. So does fate play her little +jokes. The baby--but what do I know of babies or you know of babies? He +had six toes and I might have seen them for nothing; so do we miss our +opportunities. He was named for his grandfather just in time, but the +name, my dear, the name! Elihu. Are you listening? _Elihu_! But they +offered him the assuaging 'sop' of 'Launcelot' for a middle name, and +what could a baby do? Babies are the little scapegoats of mistaken +loyalties." + +Miss Theodosia was having a good time. Her sober mood had passed. She +wrote on enjoyingly, describing the whole little episode to Cornelia +Dunlap. The freshening of it in her memory was pleasant. Again she felt +the tug of those eager little pleadings. She kept remembering other +things about little Elihu Launcelot besides his name and his toes. She +remembered how gravely he had looked at her, how tiny and soft his hands +were. + +"That little box of a house next to mine, Cornelia,--I told you about +it. Well, it's as full now as it has been empty, and a little fuller. +Dear knows how many it holds! But it's sociable seeing the smoke come +out of the chimney; _it's friendly_." + +She had not thought of it as sociable and friendly before. The thought +seemed just to have come to her. She was quite cheerful-minded when she +finished her letter to Cornelia Dunlap and neatly folded it. If she had +but known, she was sorry for Cornelia who was not next door to a +friendly little box. + +She made tea and sipped it, made golden toast and opened a +foreign-looking box of some sort of jelly. While she ate slowly, she +slowly made plans. No, she would not have a stay-all-the-time maid--yes, +she would move her things into the room facing the next-door house. +Until she got tired of watching the sociable thread of smoke, anyway. + +It had not occurred yet to Theodosia Baxter that she had not said a word +to Cornelia Dunlap about going on their travels again. When it did +occur, she suddenly laughed out aloud, but softly. + +"I forgot what I began that letter _for_! I never mentioned going away +again! And now--I'm glad. Who wants to go off? 'East, west, hame's +best.' Even a hame next door to a little dry-goods box." + +Of course there was the promise to let those funny kiddies whitewash +her-- + +"It's a Baxter promise; don't try to get out of it, Theodosia Baxter," +she said. + +The next noon she saw her dresses dangling from the neighboring +clothesline. They were not successfully dangled; Miss Theodosia liked to +see them hung with symmetry, all alike in a seemly row. The shirtwaists +dangled also in unseemly attitudes. One hung by a single sleeve. But +that was not all--a certain faint suggestion of something worse than +lack of symmetry persisted in Miss Theodosia's mind. They had been +especially travel-stained, soiled; they had still an air of soil and +travel-stain. They didn't look clean! + +Miss Theodosia groaned. "It may be blueing streaks," she said, but there +was little comfort in blueing streaks. She got her opera glasses and +peered through them at her beloved dresses. Brought up at close range, +they were certainly blue-streaked, and there was plain lack of the snowy +whiteness her stern washing-creed demanded. + +At intervals, small figures issued from the house and circled about the +clotheslines, inspecting their contents critically. Miss Theodosia saw +one of them--it was the child of her doorstep--lay questionable hold (it +must be questionable!) upon a delicate garment and examine a portion of +it excitedly. She saw the child dart back to the house and again issue +forth, dragging the slender young washerwoman. Together they examined. +Miss Theodosia caught up her glasses and brought the little pair into +the near field of her vision; she saw both anxious young faces. The face +of Stefana was strained and careworn. + +Miss Theodosia was thirty-six years old, and all of the years had been +comfortable, carefree ones. In the natural order of her pleasantly +migratory, luxurious life, she had rarely come into close contact with +careworn or strained faces; this contact through the small, clear lenses +seemed startlingly close. Stefana's lean and anxious face, the child's +baby-bent little back, like the back of an old woman--it was at these +Miss Theodosia looked through her pearl glasses. She forgot to look at +the garment the children examined so troubledly. Suddenly, Miss +Theodosia Baxter--traveler, fortune-favored one--found herself as +anxious for the success of Stefana's stout little project as the two +young people within her field of view, but, suddenly and unaccountably, +from a new motive. The slim, worn-looking little creature,--and that +tinier, tired little creature--must not fail! The stout project should +succeed! + +Stefana carried the disputed garment back into the house and rewashed +it; it was dripping wet when she again dangled it beside the others. +Several times during the afternoon this process was repeated, until, at +nightfall, the entire wash dripped, rewashed and soggy. Miss Theodosia +nodded her head approvingly; she had her reasons for being glad that the +wash was to remain out overnight. + +It was a starless, moonless night--a night to prowl successfully about +clotheslines. + +Miss Theodosia prowled. The little dry-goods box full of children was a +small, vague blur, a little darker than the darkness. The children slept +the profound sleep of childhood and childhood's unbelonging toil. Sleep +was smoothing Stefana's roughened little nerves with gentle hand and +fortifying her courage for yet more strenuous toils to come. +Evangeline's weary little arm--and tongue--were resting. + +Miss Theodosia prowled softly, to avoid disturbing the little box-house. +She had the guilty conscience of the prowler that sent her heart into +her mouth at the crackling of a twig under her feet. She found herself +listening, holding her breath in a small panic. No sound of wakened +sleepers, but there must be no more twigs. + +"I must add a postscript to Cornelia Dunlap's letter," she thought. +"This would make a thrilling wind-up! Cornelia would say, 'Lawk-a-daisy +me, it _can't_ be Theodosia Baxter!' She wouldn't need any little dog." + +Safe in her own house once more, Miss Theodosia breathed a sigh of +relief. Saved! But there was another trip yet to be made to that region +behind the vague little blur of a box. It was too soon to be relieved. + +"What I've done once I can do twice," boasted Miss Theodosia, undaunted, +though at the approach of her second prowling expedition, her courage +waned unexpectedly. "I mean if I have a cup of tea--strong," she weakly +appended to her boast. It would take her longer out there the second +time. She really needed tea. + +Miss Theodosia retired at eleven, tired but contented. She even smiled +at her sodden fingers--when had Miss Theodosia Baxter's fingers been +sodden before! + +The next morning, the child and the childlier child appeared at her +porch, where she rocked contentedly. + +"She's ironin' 'em!--Stefana's ironin' 'em! No, I can't sit down; she +said not to. She's ironed one dress three times. It's funny how irons +stick, isn't it? No, not funny--mercy gracious! You oughter see +Stefana's cheeks, an' she's burnt both thumbs--I'm keepin' Elly Precious +out o' the way, an' she's forbid Carruthers comin' in a step. She'll get +'em ironed, Stefana will. You can't discourage Stefana! Last night I +kind of thought you could, but the clo'es whitened out beautiful in the +night. Stefana said it was the night air. There wasn't a single streak +left this mornin'. We're goin' to keep your money in Mother's weddin' +sugar-bowl, an' when she comes back, we're goin' to ask her if she don't +want some sugar!" + +All day Stefana toiled and retoiled. It was night when she sent one of +the children to Miss Theodosia with her day's work. The one who came was +Carruthers, chatty and deaf. Miss Theodosia did not have to do any +talking. + +"Stefana says there's some smooches, but the worst ones come under your +arms an' where they's puckers. The wrinkles Stefana hopes you'll +excuse--they'll air 'out, she expects. She was comin' over an' explain, +herself, but she's gone to bed. Evangeline's gone, too, to keep the baby +quiet. Stefana says you needn't pay as much's you expected to, 'count o' +the smooches an' wrink--" + +"I always pay the same price for my dresses," Miss Theodosia said, +forgetful of the boy's affliction. She put the money into the hard +little palm of Carruthers and watched him scamper home with it. Miss +Theodosia looked happy. She felt pleasant little tweaks at her +heartstrings as if small grimy hands were ringing them, playing a tender +little tune. Scorched, blundering young hands--Stefana's. The little +tune rang plaintive in her ears. She had a vision of Stefana toiling +over the ironing of her dresses and going to bed exhausted, when the +toil was over. Miss Theodosia's eyes followed Carruther's retreating +little figure till it reached the House of Little Children and +disappeared from view. What had she, Theodosia Baxter, to do with houses +of little children? Since when had they possessed attractions for +her--held her tender, brooding gaze? What was she doing here now, +gazing? Theodosia Baxter! + +Stefana had folded the dresses painstakingly in separate newspaper +bundles and stacked them on Carruther's outstretched arms. They were +stacked now on Miss Theodosia's porch. She picked them up and turned +with them into the house. + +"I'll unfold them," she thought, "and shake them out. I must tell her to +send them home without folding next time--or I can go and get them +myself." + +Unpinning Stefana's many pins, she lifted out one of the dresses. It +creaked starchily under her hands; it opened out before Miss Theodosia's +horrified vision. She uttered a groan. + +Where, now, was that tender little heart-string tune? + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Miss Theodosia saw pink. Near-anger surged up within her at this +ruinous, this piteous result of Stefana's toil. The result dangled +creaksomely from her hands, revealing new wrinkles and smooches and +leprous patches of starch at every motion. What was in this bundle would +be in the rest--there was no hope. + +In Theodosia Baxter's little girlhood, she had played there were two +"'Dosies," a good one and a bad one. The Good 'Dosie was often away from +home, but was sometimes apt to appear at unexpected moments, to the +embarrassment of the Bad 'Dosie. Stamp her foot as she would, Bad 'Dosie +could not always drive the unwelcome intruder away. + +"I don't like her!" the small sinner had once been heard to say. +"She--she p'eaches at me!" + +The Good 'Dosie was preaching now. + +"Wait! Count ten!" she preached. "Don't get any angrier, or you'll see +red instead of pink. Think of that poor child's burned thumbs--think of +her having to take to her bed when she got through--" + +"I don't wonder!" snapped Bad 'Dosie. + +"Wait--wait! Aren't you going to be good? Do you remember what you used +to do, to help out? Well?" + +Miss Theodosia dropped the starchy mass on top of the other newspaper +bundles and rather suddenly sat down in a chair. She saw a little child, +preached to and penitent, on her knees, with folded hands, saying "Now I +lame me down to sleep." + +It was very still in the room. Miss Theodosia's eyes closed and opened +again. It was as if she had said "Now I lame me." A little smile tugged +at the corners of her mouth. She no longer saw even pink. + +She got up briskly and began turning back her cuffs. First, she would +build the kitchen fire; it must roar and snap, with all the work it had +to do to-night. She would heat a lot of water, for only boiling water +could take out Stefana's awful starch. While the water was heating, she +would eat her supper. + +"A good, big supper, it will have to be," smiled this gentled Miss +Theodosia. "I've got to get up my strength! No tea-and-toast-and-jam +supper to-night." She heated her gridiron smoking hot and broiled a bit +of steak. She tossed together little feathery biscuit and made coffee, +fragrant and strong. Momently, Miss Theodosia's strength "got up." She +moved about the kitchen briskly--when had she launched out upon a +night's work like this? Adventure!--call it adventure. + +Work to Miss Theodosia had always meant something that other people +did,--the Stefanas and their mothers and brothers and fathers. What she +herself did, a gentle, dilatory playing at work, hardly merited the +name. A bit of dusting, tea-and-toasting, making her own bed, cooking +for sheer love of cooking, what did they count in Miss Theodosia's +summing up of tasks? + +Always there had been some one to do her heavy things. She had put her +washings out and taken her dinners in; three times a week she was swept +and scrubbed and made immaculate. + +But to-night--to-night was different. This was to be no playing at work. +Miss Theodosia rose to the occasion gallantly--indeed, exultantly. +Thrills of enthusiasm ran up, ran down her spine. She prepared for a +night of it. + +The dresses immersed in steaming hot water and her supper eaten, she +stretched drying-lines, with considerable difficulty, from corner to +corner of her kitchen, prepared an ironing-board, and got out long-idle +irons. At eight o'clock she stopped for breath. Stefana's starch still +resisted all inducements to part with Miss Theodosia's dresses; more hot +water was required. After another steamy bath, they were cooled and +wrung and draped over the crisscross clotheslines in the hot kitchen. +Then Miss Theodosia temporarily retired from the field of battle. + +Theodosia Baxter had come back from her travelings to this small +ancestral town with a mildly disturbing taste in her mouth. "Settling +down" at thirty-six was not at all to her mind; she would not settle +down! + +"If I catch you doing it, Theodosia Baxter!" she said. "If I catch you +growing old! The minute you feel it coming on, you pack up and start for +Rome! Or Paris! Or Turkistan! Start for Anywhere! Keep going!" + +But, already, did she feel it coming on even before all her trunks were +unpacked? She was a little frightened at certain signs. Now, when she +sat down heavily--why did she sit down heavily? If some one had called +upon her for scores of little services, so that she must hop up again, +immediately--little piping voices: "Mother, where's my cap?" "Mother, +make Johnnie stop plaguing me!" "Mother, come quick!" If a big John had +come home to her, demanding her time or sympathy or service-- + +"No little Johns--no big one!" She sighed. "Is that the matter with you, +Theodosia Baxter? Well, for Heaven's sake, don't tell anybody! Keep a +bold front." + +She dozed a little in her rocker while she waited. Her plaintive +reveries took the shape of a sober little dream wherein one Theodosia +Baxter tottered on a cane and another walked briskly and youngly among +Johns. Both Theodosias were thirty-six. + +"Mercy!" she exclaimed, waking up. "Where's my cane? I must go and iron +Stefana's dresses!" She felt oddly refreshed. Queer dream to refresh +one! She found herself thinking kindly of Stefana. + +"I hope she's sound asleep, and a pitying little girl angel with a +nurse's cap under her halo will slip down and cure her thumbs before she +wakes up." + +The irons she had set to heating were much too hot. Should she run +out-of-doors while one of them cooled, and lie in wait to catch the +little nurse-angel on the wing or perhaps darting thrillingly down to +Stefana on a shooting star, breaking all speed limits! This was a night +for adventure. The wild ride of a becapped and haloed little celestial +in goggles would be an adventure! Miss Theodosia laughed out girlishly, +not at all a tottery laugh on a cane, and the pleasant sound broke the +midnight stillness. + +The dresses were dry enough to roll into tight bundles. One she essayed +to iron as it was. She began as soon as the iron was cool enough. + +Miss Theodosia toiled--adventured--through the long hours into the +short. It was unaccustomed toiling, and, like Stefana, she burned her +thumbs. She had judgment and the skill that age kindly lends, in her +favor, and slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's +patient endeavors and brought beauteous perfection out of apparent ruin. +But the process was wearying and long. It would have been but half the +labor to have begun at the beginning instead of at Stefana's poor little +end. + +At midnight, Miss Theodosia made herself cups of tea and sipped them +thirstily. A wrist, both thumbs, and her testing forefinger smarted; she +was tired and disheveled. But the spirit of adventure refused to die. + +The fire burned red-hot and the irons must cool again. Miss Theodosia +slipped out this time into the soft darkness. + +"Let us hope Aunt Sarah will 'knit fast,'" she was thinking, with +whimsical eyes. "But if she doesn't--Theodosia Baxter, dear, if Aunt +Sarah is a slow knitter, you are in for it! I've no idea of letting you +off. Baxters that begin, end." + +It was dim starshine out-of-doors. Miss Theodosia was too late to see +the nurse-angel riding on her star, her little cap and halo awry with +the downhill glide through space. She was too late to see her go into +the dark little House of Children--but she saw her come out. Distinctly, +a misty little blur of white against the velvet background. Miss +Theodosia started a very little--did she need pinching to wake her? + +For the space of a clock-tick the little celestial appeared to hesitate, +as though waiting for her star-steed to come within her hail. Then, +floatingly, not walking, it seemed to Miss Theodosia, the mist of blurry +white drew nearer. It came near to Miss Theodosia, and it was not the +nurse-angel in cap and shining halo. It was Stefana! + +The child was in her nightgown. One look into her wide, unseeing eyes +was enough; Stefana was asleep. In a chattering little voice she was +talking to herself. It was like a soft wail of sound. + +"I must get them back! Quick, before she sees; I must iron them over. +Perhaps if I starched them again--another coat of starch might hide the +smooches. She mustn't see the smooches! If Mother should lose the +chance--oh, I must get 'em back and starch 'em another coat! Mother +mustn't lose her! My thumbs ache so!" + +Was she coming straight toward the door? No, a fortunate whiff of breeze +seemed to blow her aside like a little seed-puff, and she went drifting +by. She was apparently searching anxiously. + +"I must find them! Quick, before she sees! Oh, there are the smooches. I +see some of the smooches! But I can't find the rest of them--" + +Miss Theodosia sprang forward in the direction of the pathetic little +figure, but almost as quickly caught herself up. Sleepwalkers were not +to be awakened suddenly. What then was to be done? + +"I must get her back to bed without letting her wake," thought Miss +Theodosia. A plan suggested itself. She caught of her large apron, +rolled it into a bulky mass, and swiftly followed the small nightgowned +figure. Her steps made no sound over the grass. It was but the work of +an instant to lay the roll of apron in Stefana's arms. Instantly, at the +feel of starched cloth in her hands, the tense little face relaxed. + +"I've got 'em back!" Stefana muttered, and, as if from the relief of it, +the troubled sleep seemed to calm and quiet down into deep oblivion to +all troubles. To Miss Theodosia's dismay Stefana slid quietly to the +ground and dreamlessly slept. Here, indeed, was adventure! Even at +twelve years and Stefana small, the child was too heavy to carry home. + +"I don't dare to wake her," Miss Theodosia cried aloud, but softly, as +if in fear of doing so. + +"You needn't--hush! I'll carry her for you." + +The voice seemed to materialize out of the gloom into something big and +high and unexpectedly close at hand that rightly should have startled +Miss Theodosia but failed to do so. Afterward, in the house again, among +her irons, she was startled. + +"I was going by and saw her--you can tell a sleepwalker by the way one +walks. Glides. Now, when I lift her, gently support her head--that's it. +Forward, march!" + +"This way," Miss Theodosia directed in a whisper, though he was already +moving this way. Shadow Man that he was, he stepped earthily, with thuds +of his feet on the grass. Miss Theodosia's footsteps were soft echoes. +So they came to the little House of Flaggs. + +"There's a light in that inside room, and I can see a bed. I'll lay her +down, and you can go in afterward--and--er--smooth her out." + +"Yes--yes, I'll wait out here," whispered Miss Theodosia with a curious +solemnity in her face. Rome, nor Paris, nor Anywhere had offered +adventure like this--not like this. Miss Theodosia had an odd feeling +that this, too, was a dream--and a John. Would they all wake up +together? + +"Sound as a nut--never knew what hit her! But she wants straightening. +New work for me; I'm not used to putting kiddies to bed." + +"Oh, I'm not either!" breathed Miss Theodosia, "but I might straighten +one. I don't suppose you--you kissed her thumbs? Of course not!" She +laughed softly. "But I shall." + +Now it was the Shadow Man's turn to laugh with a funny, explosive little +effect as though he were not used to muffling his laughs,--as if this +playing Shadow Man were a new role. + +"Why thumbs?" he whispered. "Why not lips, say, or eyes? I thought women +kissed kiddies' eyes. Hope I haven't made a mistake--" as if he had some +secret desire for women to kiss the eyes of little children. "If you +don't mind kissing 'em when you go in there--" + +"I shall kiss her thumbs," Miss Theodosia said firmly. "They were burned +at the stake for me. I know how burned thumbs feel." + +But the Shadow Man stubbornly persisted. + +"I'll tell you what," he said. "I'll go back now and kiss her thumbs, if +you'll kiss her eyes when you go in; as--er--a favor. 'Stoop over the +little sleeper,' you know, and 'press your mother's lips to the closed +blue orbs.'" He seemed to be quoting something. + +"But I haven't any mother's lips," sighed Miss Theodosia, "only the kind +for thumbs--just thumbs. I'm sorry," she added humbly. Curiously she +experienced no surprise at this intimate turn of a conversation with a +Shadow Man at midnight. + +"That's all right--that's all right," the Shadow Man assured her. "Only +thought I'd feel a little better to prove it was done that way. Hadn't +any business mixing up with women's lips and kiddies' orbs, anyway! +Serves me right." And now it was his turn to be humble. "Good night," +and he was gone. + +It was into a tiny bedroom off the kitchen, where a needle of light from +a turned-down lamp barely pricked the darkness, that Miss Theodosia +found her way. She had a dim picture of littering little clothes about +the room and on the flat pillows of the bed the round, flushed face of +Evangeline. In a clothes basket beside the bed she dimly saw a little +mound that might be Elly Precious--it was Elly Precious! The little +mound stirred with a curious, nestling sound, and instantly Stefana +stirred also and crooned. Even in her sleep she was the little Mother. +Miss Theodosia felt her own throat tighten and fill. + +Stefana still clasped the bundle of apron in her arms, and Miss +Theodosia did not dare try to take it away from her. She merely arranged +it a little more comfortably and smoothed Stefana out. Queer!--as if at +some other time, in some passed-by existence, she had smoothed out a +child. She seemed to know how. Suddenly she stooped and kissed, not +Stefana's thumbs but her eyes. + +"The starch!" murmured Stefana as Miss Theodosia turned away. "Some'dy +get it!" The deep sleep had broken a little, and through the break +trickled a thread of Stefana's troubles. Then, again, silence and peace. +No sound from bed or clothes basket on the floor. + +Outside, in the faint starlight, Miss Theodosia drew a long breath. She +softly laughed. Curious how much like a sob a little laugh can be! Oh, +starlit night of adventuring! What next? Miss Theodosia's mantle of +gentle melancholy slid from her shoulders; she no longer felt +apprehensions of growing old. Continually she saw Evangeline's rosy face +on that flat pillow, and the little mound of Elly Precious. She +remembered how tiny the house had looked from the inside, and how many +little littering clothes she had seen. The appealing quality of empty +little clothes! In Miss Theodosia's inside room of her soul, something +stirred behind the locked door. + +The irons had cooled too much, and the fire was low. Miss Theodosia went +to work again. As she worked, she talked to herself sociably. + +"Adventures thicken! Stars, and angels in caps, and children that walk +in their little sleeps! And little heaps in clothes baskets, that are +babies! And--Theodosia Baxter--a Man! Out of a clear, inky sky! Why +weren't you scared? How do you know--you never even saw his face--maybe +he was a thief, and a marauder, and a thug!" + +Granted, if thieves and marauders and those awful things, thugs, carry +little loads or sleep as tenderly as women--and never wake them; if they +are polite and say good night--. What kind of marauding and--and +thugging is that? + +"What will Stefana think when she finds my apron in bed with her!" +suddenly laughed Miss Theodosia, breaking the spell. "Funny Stefana! she +goes to my heart, she and her starch--when they're asleep!" + +But, awake, Stefana's starch went to Miss Theodosia's back and aching +bones. It was three o'clock when she was ready to go to bed. Over chairs +and the couch in her sitting-room, lay the three redeemed white dresses, +soft again and very smoochless and smooth. Miss Theodosia stood and +admired. She was full of pride and weariness. At last, at thirty-six, +she had done real work; she loved the feel of it in her tired bones. She +loved her night of adventuring. Life--she loved that. So she went to bed +at three, when the birds were beginning to get up. If her throat--calm +and grown-up throat--had not persistently tightened, she would have gone +to sleep laughing at the remembrance of it all. All the funny night. Why +wasn't it funny? Why couldn't she laugh? She sat up in bed. + +On the morning after her adventurous night, as Miss Theodosia lingered +luxuriously over her late breakfast, came bursting in Evangeline Flagg. +A gray-checked something waved from her hand like a flag of truce. +Evangeline always burst into things--houses, and rooms, and excited +little speech. + +"Here it is!--that is, if it's yours. Stefana says to ask. 'Tain't ours. +Mercy gracious, no! We don't take our aperns to bed. Stefana never heard +of such a thing. Neither o' us never. In bed--right straight in bed! An' +Stefana hugging it up like everything! She says to ask you if it's yours +because it ain't ours, nor anybody else's, an' it's got to be somebody's +apern, and once I thought I saw a gray 'n' white one hanging through +your window--I mean on a nail, but, mercy gracious, what was it doing in +bed with me an' Stefana!" + +Even Evangeline's breath had limitations. She stopped as headlong as she +had begun. She unwound the large, voluminous-skirted apron from her +grasp and extended it. + +"Here 'tis, if it's yours," she gasped, spent. She was gazing at it with +a species of awe; it was an "apern" of mystery, not a human apern. "An' +if 't isn't, take it--Stefana said not to dare to bring it back. +We--we're sort of afraid of it, honest. Though, of course, Stefana says +it must 've blew in the window"--the tide of speech was coming in once +more--"an'--an' sort of landed on the bed, an' Stefana kind of grabbed +it in her sleep, thinking it was Elly Precious. But, mercy gracious!" + +"Sit down," Miss Theodosia said, smiling. "Doesn't it tire you to talk +as fast as that?" + +"Some," admitted Evangeline, "but I don't mind. What I mind is +ghosts--aperns an' the kind with--with legs." She dropped her voice. "I +saw one las' night." + +"Mercy gracious!" Miss Theodosia breathed. + +Evangeline nodded solemnly. "Out the window. I woke up feelin' one, an' +I saw it goin' across the grass. White. Slinky." + +"Oh, not--slinky!" protested Miss Theodosia, suddenly championing the +ghost-with-legs. + +"Slinky," firmly. "I guess I'd a-screeched right out if I hadn't +remembered the baby. Elly Precious is terrible hard to put to sleep +second time. You aren't much acquainted with babies, are you?" + +Again--so soon! Miss Theodosia's humility returned. + +"We're acquainted, over to our house! Mother says babies are great +edge--edge--" + +"Educators?" + +"That's it! Mercy gracious, then I should think Mother'd be graduated!" + +After Evangeline's departure, Miss Theodosia set down her coffee cup and +gave herself up to laughter. The room rang with the pleasant sound of +it. + +"Will you l-listen to yourself, Theodosia Baxter!" she cried at length, +out of breath. "You actually sound happy!" + +In the afternoon, a bevy of Miss Theodosia's old friends called on her +as she sat on her front porch. They had intended, they said, to wait +till the proper time, according to etiquette, for calls upon returned +travelers. + +"But we wanted to see you so much, after all this time," one of them +said. "We decided we couldn't wait to be proper. Besides, it would be +such a risk. While we waited, you'd run off again. It was really our +only way. Ladies, will you see how lovely and white she looks! Perfectly +spotless!" The speaker sighed. Her own dress was dark and spot-colored. +"I don't see how you do it! I tell Andrew I'd rather dress in white than +in velvet--I love it! But, there, I couldn't get a minute to wear the +dresses; it would take all my days to do 'em up. Of course, with you +it's different. I don't suppose you ever toiled over an ironing-board a +day in your life." + +Miss Theodosia gravely shook her head. "No," she said, curious little +twinkling lines deepening round her eyes, "I never did--a day--in my +life." + +"That's what I thought! That's what I told Andrew. 'Theodosia Baxter +don't know what work is,' I told him. It's easy enough for some women to +wear lovely white things. Simplest thing in the world!" + +Miss Theodosia's cryptic little smile lingered on her lips and in the +clear windows of her eyes, as she gazed past the voluble wife of Andrew, +through her vines, at the little House of Children next door. She +imagined she heard Stefana singing, high up and sweet, over her work. +Wait!--that was not a singing sound! + +A single shriek shot above the clear humming noise that might be +Stefana. Then another--a third! + +"Some one is hurt!" cried Miss Theodosia, and she kilted her smooth +white skirts and ran. + +Again that dread shriek! Over her shoulder, as she ran, Miss Theodosia +gave directions to her startled callers. + +"Telephone for a doctor--any doctor. In the side hall--on a table!" But +could any doctor save the life of that terrible shriek? If it came once +more--It came! Miss Theodosia involuntarily closed her eyes to shut out +a sight of horror. + +"Mercy gracious!" + +She opened them hurriedly at the soft collision of herself with +Evangeline. + +"Who is it? Is it the baby? I've sent for the doctor." Half-remembered, +half-read first aids crowded her mind confusedly. Warm water and +mustard--that was for hemorrhage--no, no--poison! But did you apply it +inside or out? What was that about laying the patient up hill--feet +higher--or was it feet lower--down hill? + +"Take me there, quick! We must do what we can till the doct--oh, the +poor baby!" + +"Mercy gracious goodness! Elly Precious is eatin' bread an' molasses. +He's only et one slice, an' most o' that's on his outside. They aint' +an'thing worse'n molasses the matter with El--" + +"There! Oh, there!" As another mournful cry split the air.--"Oh, that! +What is it? Who is it?" + +"Mercy gra--why, that's Carruthers bein' a steam whistle. Did he scare +you? He does do it pretty loud when he's gettin' up steam; you see, he +don't know how loud he does it, because he's deaf o' hearin'. We can't +bear to lower him, but we only let him be a steam whistle for a +treat--when he's 'specially good--Mother said to. Stefana found him +washin' his face 'free greatest' this mornin', so she let him--.Quick, +shut your ears! He's goin' off again!" + +'But, this time, Miss Theodosia heard, unalarmed. To her own surprise, +she listened almost enjoyingly. To be able to make a noise like that! +The sheer vitality and youth of it compelled admiration. + +"If I could do that--" began Miss Theodosia's thought, then broke off +hastily as the mental vision of herself in the act of bein' a steam +whistle appeared to her. + +"You do it this way," explained Evangeline, inserting a forefinger in +each corner of her mouth and preparing to steam-whistle. + +"No, no, I don't do it any way!" Miss Theodosia protested smilingly. "Do +you think--do you think, perhaps, he has been sufficiently rewarded for +washing his own face, now? Because, you see, I have callers on my +porch." + +"Mercy gracious--I see 'em! I'll go right an' stop Carruthers! That's +what Stefana said--that we'd ought to remember you wasn't in Europe +now." + +"I think I could hear steam whistles there!" Miss Theodosia smiled. But +Evangeline's sober mind continued its line of thought. + +"Stefana says if you'll hang somethin' red out when you're asleep, or +got callers, or anythin', then she'll make us play funeral." + +"Oh, no--not that!" No red flag of warning could justify playing +funeral. + +"Well, Hold-Your-Breath, then. We can't make much noise holding our +breaths! Stefana's the champion Hold-Your-Breath-er. You take an awful +long breath--this way--" But, already, Miss Theodosia was on her way +home. She found her callers moving agitatedly about. "Central asked what +doctor, and for the life of me I couldn't remember a living doctor's +name in this town. 'Anybody,' I told her. 'Tell him to come quick; +somebody must be dying over to the little Flagg place." + +Miss Theodosia lifted a hand to stem the tide of Mrs. Andrew's words. + +"He's stopped dying--listen! It's all quiet now; it was only play. I'll +head Central off. Excuse me a minute--I mean, another minute!" + +But Central had done her work well--beyond heading-off. Already an +automobile was speeding up the road; behind it clattered a +hurriedly-driven buggy. Miss Theodosia saw them both stopping at the +little Flagg place. She smiled. She was not needed over there to make +any explanations or apologies--Evangeline was there! + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +She sat on her porch after the visitors had gone, thinking strange Miss +Theodosia thoughts. A man, coming up her front path and lifting a soft +felt hat, interrupted the strangest thought of all. + +"I beg your pardon. Is this where somebody needs help? I was told--" + +Miss Theodosia laughed outright. + +"I do need help. Were you ever a steam whistle? You put two fingers in +your mouth, one in each corner--I was trying to get up my courage to do +it!" + +The felt hat rolled down the steps, the stranger needing both his hands. + +"Like this?" + +"Ye-s. I never saw a steam whistle, you know. That was what I was +wishing." + +"Heard one? Because I can give a demonstration." + +"Don't!" Miss Theodosia shut her ears. + +"I heard one--demonstration. I thought some one was dying, at least." + +"Oh, that was the 'help wanted!' I see. My services are not required, +then; it was a false alarm." + +Miss Theodosia was on her feet, remembering her manners. "It was a true +enough alarm; won't you sit down? I think my nerves need a doctor." + +"Did I call myself a doctor? I am a reformed doctor, madam. It is some +years since I got out. But I thought, in a very urgent case--fits, you +know, or something like that--Thank you, I won't sit down. My work calls +me." + +Miss Theodosia inclined her head politely, but curiosity seized her. How +curious she was getting about many things! + +"I wish I knew--" she began. + +"Yes, madam?" + +"What work 'calls' reformed doctors. After they are--out." + +The stranger's big, unharnessed laugh was almost startling to Miss +Theodosia. Why? She had never heard just such a big, unharnessed laugh +before. She had heard a big harnessed laugh--when? Before she could +answer her own thought, or the stranger could answer her spoken query, a +hurry of small feet sounded. Only Evangeline's feet could break speed +limits like that. + +"Oh, Miss Theodosia--oh, I don't want to int'rupt, but just soon's he's +gone--" + +"He's gone," sighed Miss Theodosia, as the child came up. "You mustn't +interrupt again, that way, unless it's a very urgent case--fits or +something." In spite of proper vexation, she smiled. "Who was that man, +Evangeline, that just went away?" + +"Oh, I don't know--I wasn't acquainted with his back; that's every speck +o' him I saw. Oh! oh! oh!" + +"Evangeline Flagg, what is the matter now?" + +"'D you ever do up a man, Miss Theodosia? Stiff--awful stiff? Stefana +says it's bad enough to do women up. She's havin' a dreadful time! We +can't get the stiffness out; I been helpin'. It stands up alone!" +Suddenly, without warning, Evangeline went off into a series of shrill +shrieks. + +"Stop me! Stop me! Don't l-let Stefana hear me! Don't l-let me laugh!" + +This was an urgent case--fits or something, surely! Miss Theodosia's +eyes sought the horizon for a reformed doctor. In lack of one, she shook +Evangeline. + +"Stop at once! Make yourself stop; count ten!" + +"One! Two-o! Th-ree!" shrieked Evangeline, through to ten. Ten separate +shrieks. Then, abruptly, she ceased. + +"Mercy gracious, I've stopped! I hope Stefana wasn't listenin'. But she +wasn't; she was cryin'. I left her cryin'. If you could come over--. +Honest, we can't do a thing! We thought you'd probably did up men." + +Miss Theodosia never had. Not so--awful a thing as that! + +"It stands up alone, with both arms out! I don't dass to go back. I +shall laugh if I do, an' if I laugh, Stefana'll cry. She don't think +it's f-funny." The shrieks showed signs of returning, and Miss Theodosia +again had recourse to stern measures. + +"Count ten!" she demanded, as she shook. + +They went back together to the mysterious something that stood alone +with both arms out. It was in that pose as they approached it. Miss +Theodosia thought it was f--funny; an awful desire to shriek like +Evangeline took possession of her. She counted ten in inward haste. + +"I can't do anything with it!" wailed poor Stefana. "And Elly Precious +gets into it, and makes it walk! He's in it now." + +"It's walkin'!" shrieked Evangeline, as the portentously stiff shirt +staggered a little to one side. Stefana, filled with enthusiasm and +generosity of soul, had starched not the bosom alone but the entire +shirt. She had done it thoroughly. The result was alarming. It was a +terrible shirt! + +"Tell me what to do--somebody tell me!" entreated the little laundress. +"I've unstarched it, and unstarched it, and seems as if it got stiffer." + +"Boiling water," breathed Miss Theodosia, too spent with her struggles +not to laugh, to admit of further speech. + +"Wait! Don't anybody dass to pour boilin' water on till I get Elly +Precious out! Come to Evangeline this minute, darlin' dear--no, they +shan't boil him!" + +Elly Precious emerged, crowing. The deaf-but-not-dumb little Flagg +appeared, to swell the number around the Terrible Shirt. Stefana dried +her tears. Miss Theodosia had the sense of being looked up to--relied +upon. She rose to the occasion buoyantly. As unused as Stefana to men's +bosoms, she yet stepped into the breach. Unused to issuing orders, she +issued them. + +"Evangeline, you and Carruthers see to the baby. Stefana, come with me. +Bring--it." + +They went back to the big house, she with that new and intoxicating +sense of importance, and Stefana with the Terrible Shirt. + +"Whose is it--that?" she asked, indicating the creaking white garment. +"What were you doing with it?" + +"Starching it," mumbled poor Stefana. "It took most a package. He said +he liked his stiff. 'Put in plenty o' starch,' he said to Mother, and +she always did. So I did. I thought if he said--" + +"If who said?" It took a long time to establish the identity of the +Terrible Shirt. + +"If he did, the man it belongs to." + +"What man--who?" + +"The man that writes things." + +"What things?" + +"We don't know exactly. Evangeline thinks tracts. She says his room was +all full o' half sheets o' paper--lying all over everywhere. She saw +'Good Lord' on one. Perhaps it's sermons. Mother always sent Evangeline +home with his wash; I never went. He is a very nice man--oh, that's why +I feel so bad about his shirt! I wouldn't care if he was an--an +infidel!" + +"Bless your heart!" + +Miss Theodosia turned suddenly and embraced Stefana and the shirt. +"Don't worry any more," she said; "you and I will work wonders with that +Tract Man's shirt! Stefana, put the kettle on and we'll go to it! +There's nothing two determined people can't do, once they've put their +minds on it." + +Together they labored, and the impossible happened. Theodosia Baxter did +up a man! She--and Stefana--succeeded in getting the starch out of the +surrounding area and into the bosom of the Terrible Shirt. They got much +starch in. Inspiration appeared to come to Miss Theodosia. Even the +really awful task of ironing that bosom till it glittered and shone in +unwrinkled board-like expanse was at length accomplished. Miss Theodosia +was justly proud of herself--and of Stefana; she insisted upon including +Stefana in her triumphs. + +"Eureka!" she exulted. "Call Evangeline, Stefana, and Elly Precious, and +Carruthers! Call in a Chinaman, if you like, and tell him to look at +that! Ask him to beat it!" + +"There isn't any in this town," responded literal Stefana. "That's why +Mother did bosoms. She'd a good deal rather not've." + +"But I love to do bosoms!" sang Miss Theodosia. "I never felt so worth +while in my life before--an artist in starch, Stefana!" + +"Well, you've done beautifully--I never did see!" the grateful Stefana +cried. "But I'm afraid it's kind of gone to your head. I think you +better lie down." + +"Send for the Reformed Doctor! Stefana, what are you doing with my +beautiful bosom?" + +"I won't muss it. I'm just going to take it home and sew the buttons on. +There's two off. Mother always sewed 'em on; he pays two cents extra for +repairs." + +Miss Theodosia's fair face flushed. "You don't stir a step with it! I +have buttons and a spool of thread--what I do, I finish doing! Give it +to me." + +For the first time, Miss Theodosia handled a man's garment intimately. +It lay stiffly across her lap. She sewed on the two buttons; she mended +a tiny "hog-tear." Life had taken on new interests--bosoms and buttons. +She thrilled--when had she ever thrilled before? Ironing her own dresses +had been a poor, tame business. She would be sorry to part with this +shirt! + +And then Evangeline came. + +"Mercy gracious, doesn't it look elegant! I came over because he's come +for his shirt. He says he's goin' to begin a new story, an' he always +has to have a clean shirt on. An' his hair cut--he's got it cut. I guess +that bosom'll match his hair all right! It's perfectly lovely!" + +"What did you do with Elly Precious, Evangeline Flagg!" demanded +Stefana. + +"That's it--that's why I got to hurry back. He's keepin' Elly Precious +for me, an' he don't know what to do with babies. He says all his are +paper ones--paper babies! He gave Elly Precious his knife, an' opened +the blades to amuse him! He said he guessed Elly Precious wouldn't hurt +'em!" Evangeline's face registered great scorn. "If you'll give it to +me, I'll carry it to him," she concluded, holding out her hand for the +shirt. But Miss Theodosia sewed calmly on. She had found a second tear +larger than the first. It would be better to strengthen it with a little +piece underneath. She would find a white scrap in her bag of pieces. + +"It is not ready yet. He can wait. But you must not wait, Evangeline. +Elly Precious may be playing with his pistol, if he carries one." + +"He don't. He ain't a pistol-man, but, mercy gracious, how you scare me! +You comin' too, Stefana?" + +"Yes, Stefana can go now. She is all through," which was Miss +Theodosia's kind inclusion of Stefana. That, again, was curiously new to +Miss Theodosia. Psychological changes were taking place--or were they +just plain tugs on Miss Theodosia's heartstrings? + +She sat and sewed. + +"Patching--I'm patching!" she laughed to herself. "And here I've been +hiring my own mending done! Theodosia Baxter, see what you are doing; +you are patching a shirt for a man! No, I'm not, either! I'm doing it +for Stefana--what are you talking about?" + +Some one came up her steps and knocked on her open door. But she was too +engrossed to hear. The patch underneath had slipped a little askew. She +ripped out some of the stitches and began again. She caught herself +humming as she worked. + +"Please may I have my shirt?" a voice asked meekly. "That story is +promised for next month. It's the twenty-eighth, now." + +Evangeline's Tract Man stood in the doorway, soft felt hat in hand, +twinkles in his eyes. Evangeline's Tract Man was the Reformed Doctor! If +Miss Theodosia had been eighteen instead of thirty-six she would not +have blushed more beautifully, but she continued to patch. She was +caught in the act; no help for it now. But she would finish--that--patch. + +"So it's you! So that's the work Reformed Doctors do!" + +"Madam, yes. When stories appeal to them more than pills and tonics, +they reform and write stories. They have to!" he cried, suddenly in +earnest, "When one is life, and the other death--" + +"Oh, if it was death to them--your patients," she murmured. Then, +ashamed of her own flippancy: "Of course, I didn't mean anything as +silly as that! I meant--I meant, please sit down while I finish this +patch. There, in that easy-chair. There are magazines on the table." + +There was one magazine with his own name in the list of contents. He +opened it at that page and gazed down upon it quite soberly. + +"My name is John Bradford," he said, as if reading. Miss Theodosia +started a little, but it was not as he thought, in his innocent vanity. +Miss Theodosia got no farther than the first part of the name--so he was +a John! She glanced quickly at the doorway, measuring him in her mind as +he had stood against the lintel. He had reached a long way up--a long +man. The Shadow Man had been a long shadow. Something told her-- + +[Illustration: "If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into +a story like that."] + +"Did you ever carry a child in your arms and lay her on a bed? In the +middle of the night? Did you do it last night? Are you the same man?" + +"I am the same man I was last night," he answered gravely. "I was John +Bradford then, too. Didn't I carry her all right? What was the matter?" +Suddenly he leaned forward in the chair. "Did you kiss her thumbs?" he +demanded. + +"I kissed her eyes." + +They were silent for a little, while Miss Theodosia set small, nervous +stitches in John Bradford's shirt, and John Bradford twiddled the edges +of the magazine. He stole glances, now and then, at this strange woman +with whom he seemed to have come so oddly into contact. He could make a +story of her dark hair, straight shoulders, beautiful hands. He could +not get a good view of her full face. Bending over a bed, kissing a +little sleeper's eyes--he could work her in that way. If he knew her a +little better-- + +"I knew they did it!" + +"Did what--who?" + +"Women--kissed that way. You have proved it now." + +"I'm not women. I'm just one woman, and I never did it in my life +before." + +"Well, you liked doing it, didn't you? I could put you in, liking it." + +The shirt slid to the floor, and Miss Theodosia gave her visitor a full +view of her face. + +"Are you making 'copy' of me? Because if you are thinking of putting me +anywhere, put me into a story like that. I'd like it. I mean, with +little children in a bed--and one in a clothes basket! Say I tucked them +in--Yes, I liked kissing Stefana's eyes. I should love to have another +chance. It's nothing to be ashamed of, is it, to like little children?" + +"I like 'em. I always have." + +"Well, I always haven't. Only very lately--it's queer. When I came home +here and found all those children next door--mercy gracious!" + +They both laughed. Laughing together is a great acquaintancer. Miss +Thedosia suddenly thought of something and laughed a little more. + +"My name is Theodosia Baxter," she said. They rose and shook hands +gravely. They were decently introduced. The beautiful shiny bosom of the +shirt lay between them like a white mirror and Miss Theodosia caught the +man's glance on it. + +"Is it anything to be ashamed of--doing up a shirt?" she demanded. + +"Not doing it up like that! That's a work of art!" + +"A work of heart--I did it for Stefana. I've got quite fond of it now, +and shall hate to part with it. It's a friend." + +"A bosom friend," he parried. Again they laughed and grew more +acquainted. Miss Theodosia made tea in her dainty Sevres cups. The +faintest flecks of pink made her face youthful. Miss Theodosia was a +good-looking woman always, but, animated, her face was really lovely. +John Bradford was better used to paper women, like paper babies, but his +taste recognized flesh-and-blood attractiveness. He had always been a +lonely man--until now. + +"I'm having a beautiful time," he sighed. "Is it anything to be ashamed +of, to have a beautiful time?" + +"Or two cups of tea? Please! This is my company tea--warranted good to +write stories on!" + +"Oh--stories. Are there such things? Did I ever write one? Have I got to +write another?" + +"It's the twenty-eighth," Miss Theodosia reminded demurely. "But you +will need another cup of tea. How long does it take?" + +"To drink another cup?" + +"To write another story. Tell me about it. Perhaps I could do it. You +take a blotter and a pen and plenty of half-sheets of paper--'tracts,' +Evangeline calls them! Then you write 'Good Lord!' That is what +Evangeline says you wrote on a tract! She said maybe it was a sermon." + +"Oh--Evangeline! And speaking of angels--" + +"Mercy gracious! You're here--both o' you! An' somebody's gone an' +spilled a drop of somethin' on that beautiful bosom!" + +"A tear-drop, Evangeline, because she wouldn't give it to me." + +"Tea drop!" sniffed Evangeline. "Guess I know! After all Stefana's work! +Miss Theodosia, can Elly Precious eat your grass? He's out there now. He +don't really eat it; he just kind of pretends. Mother says Elly Precious +ought to be put out to pasture. We haven't got any grass to speak of, +over to our house." + +"Don't speak of it! Of course he can eat mine, if you think it is +edible. Ask the Reformed Doctor." + +"Him a doctor? Mercy gracious--honest? Then he knows if Elly Precious'd +ought to eat grass--not really eat, you know." + +"Just graze a little--let him graze." The Reformed Doctor rose to his +feet and held out his hand to Miss Theodosia. "I'll go out and see how +he does it. It's lucky Evangeline came in, or I might not have known +enough to go at all. I've had a beautiful time. I'll put you in with the +bedful of kiddies." + +"And the clothes basket?" + +"And the clothes basket." + +"You haven't got your shirt--mercy gracious! I thought that's what you +came after," reminded Evangeline. + +"Was it?" the Reformed Doctor said. "Give it to me, Evangeline." + +"Not naked! Without wrappin' up! I never did see!" + +"It's such a good-looking shirt--well, then, wrap it up, wrap it up. +I've got a newspaper in my pocket. Put that round it, Evangeline." He +turned again to his hostess. "It will be a good story if I put--the +clothes basket--in it. They won't send it back. Good-by." + +He was off to inspect Elly Precious' grazing-ground. Evangeline, at the +window where she had gone to make sure her darlin' dear was safe, +presented to Miss Theodosia a square, bony little back that was +curiously like that of a dwarfed old woman. + +The trail of innocent Elly Precious was over that stoopy little figure. +Miss Theodosia looked with softened eyes. Then a smile grew in them, +wrinkling their corners whimsically. She was noticing something else +besides the little old-lady back. Evangeline's braids toed in! Tight and +flaxen, they stood out in rounded curves, converging suddenly to the bit +of faded ribbon that tied them together. There was something suspicious +looking about that ribbon--"Stefana starched it!" smiled Miss +Theodosia's thought. + +The small figure whirled face about. + +"There, _he_ can see to him awhile." Evangeline was always cheerfully +oblivious to any confusion of ideas arising from her use of personal +pronouns. "I'm tired. Children are a great care," said Evangeline. She +seated herself in an easy chair and dangled thin legs. + +"If you drank tea--I'll make you a cup of cocoa, Evangeline." + +"Oh, mercy gracious, no! I'm not as tired as _cocoa_. Jus' +sit-'n'-a'-chair tired. You know how it feels--no, you don't either. +I forgot. I guess you are pretty lucky. No, I don't guess so _either_!" +Evangeline suddenly straightened on the edge of the big chair and eyed +Miss Theodosia sternly, as though that innocent soul had been the one +guilty of disloyalty to darlin' dears. + +"Children are a great comfort," declaimed Evangeline with emphasis. She +might have been the mother of six comforts. Tenderness crept into her +eyes, and her freckles seemed to fade out, and even the small blunt nose +of her take on middle-agedness and motherliness. '"Specially when you +undress 'em. They're so darlin' an' soft! You ever undressed one--a +reg'lar _baby_ one? Of course not one o' your own when you never _had_ +any, but I thought p'raps you might've undressed a grandbaby or +somethin'--" + +Miss Theodosia shook a humbled head. + +"No," she murmured, "I never undressed even a grandbaby." And curiously +she failed either to smile at the child's little notion or to wince at +the advanced age it implied for her. She looked across the room from her +big chair to Evangeline's with rather a wistful look. She was envying +Evangeline. + +"I'm sorry," the child said gently, a little embarrassed by the +unexpected solemnity of the moment. To relieve it, she had recourse to a +sudden funny memory of her own undressings of Elly Precious. She broke +hurriedly into laughter. + +"I have to have an extra pig for my baby!" she shrilled. "Takes six +instead o' five! You know where it ends, 'This little pig said: "Quee! +Quee! Quee! can't get over the barn-door sill"?' Mercy gracious, you +don't know the little pigs, I s'pose--" More embarrassment. Even +Evangeline was losing presence of mind. + +"Oh, yes!" Miss Theodosia brightened perceptibly. "I know the one that +went to market and the one that stayed at home--all five of them I +know." + +"But you don't know Elly Precious's extra little pig!" crowed the +reassured Evangeline. "Just _us_ know that one. I made him up. When you +have six toes,--I mean when Elly Precious has,--you have to have six +pigs. After the one that can't get over the barn-door sill, I say: 'This +little pig said--' wait, I'll say the last two together so you'll see +they rhyme beautifully. Reg'lar poetry. + +"'This little pig said, "Quee! Quee! Quee! can't get over the barn-door +sill.'" + +"'_This_ little pig said, "He! He! He! when you tickle, I can't keep +still!'" + +"Elly Precious wiggles it when I tickle! We laugh like everything. I +think it is pretty good poetry," added Evangeline modestly. + +"It is beautiful poetry. I never could have begun to make up such a +lovely, ticklish little pig!" + +Evangeline leaned back again in the soft cushiony embrace of the great +chair and actually achieved a moment of silence. The talkative clock on +Miss Theodosia's mantel filled in the space. Then once more Evangeline: + +"But I shall never have any." + +"Any--pigs?" smilingly. + +"Children. Not any. I've decided I'll rest. They're such a care. But of +course I can run in an' undress Stefana's an' Elly Precious's--mercy +gracious, Elly Precious's!" + +It required too great a mental effort to visualize them. Elly Precious's +children were _funny_! Evangeline giggled softly. "Then I'll be a +gran'mother, won't I! I've always wanted to be a gran'mother an' say +what I did when _I_ was a child an' how I always _minded_." A fresh +giggle. "'_I_ never had to be _told to_ twice, my dears,' I'll say to +Elly Precious's children! They'll all be my dears. I'll help bring 'em +up. Isn't it queer," broke forth Evangeline suddenly, "how when you get +to be old you never were bad when you were young? The badnesses have +kind of--kind of faded out. I bet there _were_ badnesses!" + +And Miss Theodosia found herself nodding decisively. She, too, bet there +were. + +A hilarious little crow suddenly sounded from without the window; it was +accompanied by a deep man-sound of mirth. Miss Theodosia and Evangeline +smiled across at each other indulgently. + +"Elly Precious is havin' a good time. That's his good-time noise. Oh, I +think he's a nice person, don't you?" + +"Nice? I love him!" cried Miss Theodosia warmly. Her face that was still +the face of a girl was tenderly flushed. "I love every inch of him, +Evangeline." + +"Merry gra--that's a lot of lovin'! I guess you are ahead o' me!" + +"Evangeline Flagg, aren't you ashamed! When he is the dearest, +cunningest--" + +"Not--not _cunnin'est_. But he's got beautiful whiskers. I mean if he +didn't shave 'em off. When he came, he had 'em on. You can't love his +whiskers when you never saw--" + +Miss Theodosia held up a limp hand to stem this terrible tide of words. + +"Oh, stop! _wait_, Evangeline!" she begged. "Who are you talking about?" + +Why stop for grammatic rules at a time like this? + +"Why, he--_him_. I said I liked him, an' you said you lov--" + +"I have been talking about Elly Precious, naturally," Miss Theodosia +returned stiffly. "You are very careless with your pronouns, +Evangeline," she added with an effect of severity. Her cheeks that +persisted still in being a girl's cheeks had grown a warm, becoming +pink. In pink Miss Theodosia was lovely. + +"Don't you think you'd better relieve Elly Precious' caretaker by this +time? He may not enjoy being left in charge quite so long." + +"Not enjoy! Come an' see him not enjoy!" sang Evangeline from the +window. She was flattening her nose against the pane and bubbling with +sympathetic glee. Miss Theodosia went over and stood beside her. + +Out there the two of them were frolicking together--two joyous children. +It was the good old game of Peek-a-boo, but seemed a new, surprising +game to Miss Theodosia. The big playmate on the grass spread a +handkerchief over the little playmate's face, and with a shriek of joy +the little playmate did the rest. Then the big child's turn--turn and +turn about. Deep voice and thin, sweet tinkle of baby voice joined in a +curiously harmonious chorus that rang through the window pane into the +two pairs of listening ears. + +It was a new light in which to see--a new sound in which to hear John +Bradford. Miss Theodosia had a guilty consciousness of being an +eavesdropper, yet she kept on eavesdropping. At a particular climax in +the little play, she laughed aloud softly. Evangeline wriggled with +enjoyment. Her fingers drummed applause on the glass, and the big player +glanced quickly up and saw the two lookers-on. He did not hesitate in +the play, did not stop the next little gleeful peek. Miss Theodosia +loved it in him for not stopping. They were not ashamed--Elly Precious +and John Bradford. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +In the next few days Miss Theodosia unpacked the rest of her trunks and +put the things away neatly in permanent places. She sang as she did it. +Life seemed a singing thing to Miss Theodosia who had been a lonely +woman--until now. Now she could look out of her window and see the +little House of Flaggs. Any minute Evangeline might burst in. The steam +whistle might blow. The Shadow Reformed-Doctor Man might come for +another cup of tea. Anything might happen. + +Something did happen, but it was not a singing thing. Evangeline did +burst in. It was some days later than the Day of the Shirt. Miss +Theodosia sat comfortably sipping her afternoon tea. Two dainty cups +were before her. + +"Mercy gracious--mercy, mercy, mercy gracious! This is the worst! This +is worse than Aunt Sarah! An' to think it's Elly Precious, my darlin' +dear! An' to think I never had--! An' to think I did it myself!" + +Even to Evangeline, words failed to express this worst of all things. +She dropped, a little leaden thing of despair, into Miss Theodosia's +great chair and rocked herself in anguish. + +"What is it, dear?" Miss Theodosia cried anxiously. The little word of +endearment slipped out unconsciously, though she was not used to +"dears." But she was not used to this, either--this rocking in anguish +of a little child in her great chair. + +"Can't you stop crying and tell me?" Evangeline not able to talk! Miss +Theodosia was actually alarmed. If speech did not return quickly--but +speech returned. + +"Oh, mercy gracious me!" Evangeline sobbed, rocking harder, "to think I +went an' set him right down in the middle of 'em--right slap in the +middle! An' he didn't want to be set down. Elly Precious despises the +Benjamin baby. He knows he's a girl, an' girl-babies don't count. But I +set him down--oh, mercy gracious me, I went an' set him down, slap!" + +Sobs and words collided and inextricably mixed. In the dark Miss +Theodosia waited; she saw no light as yet. + +"If I could only have 'em--if I only had've, anyway! Then I could take +care of my darlin' dear. But Elly Precious's is the only measles we ever +had in the family." + +Ah, light! Miss Theodosia blinked in the sudden inflow of it. +Evangeline's released tongue leaped ahead. + +"How'd I know the Benjamin baby had 'em when she only just sneezed? Oh, +I suppose she sneezed 'em all around, an' I set Elly Precious down in +'em! Right in a nest o' measles!" + +"What was Elly Precious doing there? I don't remember any Benjamins." + +"No'm--oh, no'm. They're very recent. It's that house with the baby-pen +in the front yard to keep their baby in. I set Elly Precious down in it, +too, one day." + +Evangeline shuddered. "While I was gettin' Stefana's starch at the +store; I asked if I could, till I got back." + +Miss Theodosia's face put on sternness. "What was the mother of the +Benjamin baby thinking of, to let you?" she demanded. + +"Oh, I don't know--I don't know! That's a very speckled baby, anyway, +an' perhaps she didn't know measles from speckles. He didn't bloom out +reg'lar built till next day--I mean she didn't--oh, I don't mean the +mother didn't--" + +"I know, dear; I know what you mean," soothed Miss Theodosia gently. + +"Yes'm, that's what I mean. Next day they found out for sure." + +"But have you found out 'for sure'? How do you know Elly Precious has +the measles? Has he--bloomed out? Perhaps his are speck--" + +"Elly Precious!" rose Evangeline's voice of indignation. "He's the +unspeckledest baby you ever saw! I guess--I guess you never saw Elly +Precious!" + +Stefana appeared suddenly in the doorway,--a blanched and frightened +Stefana. But she was determinedly calm. + +"He's fell asleep, and Carruthers is watching him through the door. I +told him not to go any nearer'n that. I came over to ask if I'd better +send word to Mother. He said to ask you." + +"Carruthers?" Miss Theodosia was a little bewildered. + +"The Tract Man. He's the one that--that discovered Elly Precious's +measles when we found he was broken out--I mean Elly Precious broken +out--" + +"Yes, yes, I know. He is a doctor--I mean--" Miss Theodosia caught +herself up firmly. One at least must steer a clear course. + +"He was goin' past," Evangeline put in, "an' I asked him, if he uster be +a doctor, wouldn't he please to be one now an' 'xamine Elly Precious's +spots." + +"Measles," Stefana said briefly and hopelessly. "Shall we send for +Mother, or what'll we do? Aunt Sarah isn't knitting." + +"Aunt Sarah--" began poor Miss Theodosia. Would she ever get used to +little Flaggs? Evangeline broke in gloomily with explanation. + +"No'm, not knittin', Mother wrote Stefana. Kind of--of unravelin' +instead. An' Mother's caught it." + +Miss Theodosia turned appealing eyes to Stefana. + +"Her knee's bad, too. Maybe it's just rheumatism, but she borrows Aunt +Sarah's crutches when they're empty. I don't see how she'd get home--" + +"Don't send for her!" Miss Theodosia directed. Some inner voice seemed +to say it through her lips. The same dictate from within prompted the +rest. + +"Bring the baby over here. Bring all his nightgowns. I'll take care of +him. It won't do for all you children to come down. Does the +Reform--does the doctor think you can have caught them already? I don't +believe it! Not till the disease is further advanced." + +"That's what he said--not till." Stefana hurried in eagerly. "_He_ +didn't believe it." + +"The Benjamin baby wasn't further advanced," doubted Evangeline +discouragingly. + +"Never you mind the Benjamin baby! You bring your baby over here at once +with his nightgowns! I believe we're in time. I'll be reading up my +medicine book. You can tell the doctor to come here instead of to your +house. Don't any of you dare to kiss Elly Precious good-by!" + +Miss Theodosia was moving briskly about the room, doing strange +things,--pulling down shades and drawing together draperies. + +"Mustn't have too much light, though maybe that is later on, too. I'm +sure there is something about being careful of the eyes. Evangeline, +wait! Let Stefana go. I don't trust you; you might kiss him." + +"Yes'm, I might," sighed poor little Evangeline. "He's my darlin' dear." +A terrible separation yawned before her like a bottomless pit of +desolation. How was she to live Elly Preciousless? + +"Can't I come over an'--an' hold him when he isn't--when he isn't +sneezing?" she suddenly sobbed forth. Miss Theodosia was too engrossed +to be sympathetic. There were many things to think of. + +"Come over?--I should say not! You can't do anything but look through +the window, and I shall ask the doctor if that's safe. Now +listen--dear," again the "dear" slipped through her lips unconsciously. +"Listen! When you see Stefana coming, you go out the back door! I wish +I'd told her to bring him in the clothes basket instead of in her +arms--" + +"I'll tell her to! Through the window. I'll tell her to bring him by the +handles," and Evangeline hurried away excitedly. + +An hour later Miss Theodosia, in a voluminous white apron and a hastily +invented white cap, had formally assumed her astonishing new role. Under +the cap Miss Theodosia's cheeks were prettily pink. It was becoming to +her to be Elly Precious' nurse. But the queer feeling of it! An hour ago +Theodosia Baxter, in a big house, alone; now this becapped and +pink-cheeked Theodosia in a house with a baby! It was an exciting +change; what else might it become? She was a little afraid of Elly +Precious. + +"Not now, while he is asleep, but when he wakes--" she thought. What +would she do with Elly Precious when he waked? + +Of course, she had sent for the Reformed Doctor, and equally, of course, +she would do precisely what he told her to do. But how would it feel? So +far, it felt queer. + +"I'll wait and see," she concluded with philosophy. At six the doctor +came. It was significant how he had left his role of authorship at home +and came physicianly, brisk and competent. + +"Measles haven't changed, anyway, in ten years," he said as he removed +his coat. Long ago, as a doctor, John Bradford had had his +idiosyncrasies, and one of them had been to work in his shirt sleeves. +The laying aside of his coat now had, if Miss Theodosia had but known, +bridged over the ten years. + +"Am I quarantined?" demanded the nurse. + +"You are," promptly replied the doctor. + +"Mercy gracious!" + +Silence while the tiny patient was carefully examined, with so delicate +a touch that he slept on. + +"For how long?" then. + +"Oh--weeks. Two, perhaps. Perhaps three. He is beginning to be feverish +in earnest now. You got him over here just in time. May I have a glass +of water?" + +Miss Theodosia went away to get it on shaking legs. She almost +staggered. The plot was getting thick! + +"If you think his mother ought to be sent for--I'm afraid I'm in a blue +funk!" She had returned and was splashing the water over the edge of the +glass as she held it out. He laughed reassuringly. His face, turned +sidewise up at her, was as reviving as cool water upon a faint. Miss +Theodosia "came to." + +"I've got over it. Go ahead--tell me precisely what you want done. Write +it down somewhere. I can read writing! And I can't forget it. Of course +I can rock him?" + +He did not answer at once, and she misinterpreted his silence. + +"I shall rock him," she said with firmness. "Written down or not written +down." And again he laughed, with the same curiously explosive little +effect as when she had first heard him do it as a Shadow Man. + +It was long after he left before Elly Precious woke. With remarkable +presence of mind, Miss Theodosia had darkened the room to make the +difference between herself and Evangeline or Stefana as inconspicuous as +possible. It helped. Elly Precious, even busy with his measles, might +have vigorously refused this strange new ministering. But in the +darkness he accepted it with a measure of resignation. He appeared to be +looking inward at his own poor little pains instead of outward or upward +at Miss Theodosia. She wisely refrained from speech during those first +critical moments. + +Ten-year-old arms may not be as steady for cradling as thirty-six-year +olds. Miss Theodosia's were steady and soft. The baby nestled into them +and she rocked him. + +She was rocking a baby! She was glad to be alone in the dark. The +sensation rather overwhelmed her. Then Elly Precious flung up little hot +hands and touched her face, and the sensation was no longer a new one. +Surely she had felt it before. Was it in another incarnation that she +had rocked a little child? The small, hot hands tugged at her +heartstrings--they must have tugged, just so, at that ancient rocking. +It was a beautiful tune, but not a new tune that the small hands played. +No, no--not new! + +Miss Theodosia began to croon softly, no longer afraid of sound. And +Elly Precious snuggled deeper. + +Shut in together--she and he and the measles--they grew accustomed to +each other. After the first, the days went rather fast, with +Evangeline's help through the window and under the door. Evangeline +helped from the first. Miss Theodosia found little letters emerging +through the tight crack under her outside door. The first one she read +smilingly: + +[Illustration: Evangeline established a stage of action outside the +window.] + +"He likes jiggy tunes best--please sing him jiggy tunes." + +So she sang them to Elly Precious and found he liked them best; +Evangeline knew. This method of helping promised to be valuable. + +One day there were two little letters under the door. + +"When he crys, he'll stop if you distrack him. Like this--_boo_--or make +a cow-noise or a horse-noise, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes he +keaps right on and then its no use to distrack him. Try tickleing unless +tickleing is bad for measles." + +This was a long note. Miss Theodosia did not smile this time because of +the new sensitiveness in the region of her heart. When she read the +second note, she held it a long time in her hand while something wet +blistered it in spots. + +"Please don't be mad if I worry a little for fear Elly Precious will +throw off his cloes. He's a dreadfull throw-offer, so we pin his sides +to the cloesbasket but maybe you don't sleep him in a cloesbasket. I +couldent sleep last night. + +"P.S. With safety pins." + +Sometimes they were cheerful little letters that peeped under the tight +crack. Evangeline wrote the news to Elly Precious. That Stefana's washes +came easier now and Carruthers was good all the time, only they never +let him be steam whistles, of course. That they all missed Elly Precious +and hoped that they'd be short measles and, mercy gracious, yes, they +loved him, and Aunt Sarah was knitting again. + +As the baby began to convalesce (they were short measles) and could sit +up on Miss Theodosia's lap in front of the window, Evangeline's most +important assistance began. For Elly Precious had very restless +occasions and even Miss Theodosia's new skill failed always to +"distrack" him. + +Evangeline established a stage of action outside the biggest-paned, +lowest-silled window, where vision was least obscured from within. On +that stage she danced wild, long dances, varying with each performance. +It was amazing how she varied them--sometimes bending and bowing +tirelessly, sometimes evolving remarkable skirt dances from legs and +toes and whirling petticoats. She grimaced unweariedly as long as Elly +Precious would laugh at her faces. When he tired of those, she +impersonated a cow--a horse--and made cow-noises and horse-noises at +the top of her voice, to carry to Elly Precious. + +Day after day she came, and they watched her from the big-paned +window--the baby and Miss Theodosia. It was a great help to the measles. + +"I never saw such a child!" Miss Theodosia said to the Reformed Doctor. +"She never gets tired of doing it." + +"Never was but one Evangeline--but she gets tired all right. Needn't +tell me!" + +"Then it's--love," Miss Theodosia said gently. + +"It is," nodded he. + +They had proceeded far in their acquaintance. Elly Precious had been so +tiny a thing between them, as they ministered to him! It was not to be +wondered at that they had drawn closer. After his professional "call," +John Bradford fell into the way of lingering till she brought him tea. + +"Talk about women loving tea!" she gibed gayly. + +"Talk about it being the men that want three lumps!" + +"That is queer, isn't it? We're the wrong way about; I like mine sweet +and you don't want any sugar. We're the exceptions that prove the rule. +If you'll hold Elly Precious a minute, I'll fill your cup." + +"That will make three." + +"'And I'll do it again, if you like--and again if you like!'" she +quoted. + +"Are you making stories now?" she asked him that day. + +And he nodded gravely, "One--a love-story." + +"Tell me about it! We want to hear it, don't we, Elly Precious? We love +love-stories." + +"Not yet. Not till it is a little farther along." He set the third cup +down untasted. His face, as Miss Theodosia looked smilingly at it across +the baby's head, had grown grave. She wondered simply. Miss Theodosia +was not making a love-story. + +"Will you tell us about it when it's farther along? About the heroine +and how she likes being in a love-story? Mercy gracious, it must be +exciting!" + +"If I can find out how she likes it," was his enigmatic answer. "She may +not work out as I want her to. Heroines are women, you know." + +"Well, of all things! If you can't make your heroine behave, I don't see +who can!" + +"I don't," he said slowly. "But I shall do my best." + +Another day, she had something to show him, and she made a little +mystery of it at first. She and Elly Precious knew! It was something +sweet--it could be worn, but you seldom looked at it. It was soft and +hard, too. You could--kiss it! When it was empty you wanted to kiss it, +and when it was full you had to! + +"Show it to me!" he commanded; "think I can guess all that?" + +She brought it and laid it in his hands, delighted like a girl. + +"Feel of it--isn't it soft? And I never made one before, so it was hard! +You seldom look at it, because it's worn in the dark. You'd like to kiss +it now, it's so sweet, but when I put Elly Precious into it, you'll +_have_ to kiss it! There, didn't I tell you right?" + +It was a little nightgown she had made for Elly Precious. He held it on +his two big hands like something wonderful. Its little sleeves dangled +over, and she caught one of them and squeezed it in a sort of soft +ecstasy. + +"It's so little!" she cried in a whisper. "Aren't you going to kiss it?" + +"If you'll look away--I'm afraid to when you're looking." + +"I won't look," she laughed. "You look, Elly Precious!" + +The bath-times were the pleasantest to Miss Theodosia. Getting things +together--little tub and powders and soaps and the fresh little +clothes--was a beautiful beginning, and after that--after that, the +deluge! The practice she had had washing that little ancient baby, in +her former incarnation, stood Miss Theodosia in good stead! As she had +bathed and rubbed and powdered her first baby eons ago, she bathed and +rubbed and powdered this second one now. For she called Elly Precious +her baby. That was their beautiful play. + +"We'll keep it a secret, won't we?--just between you and me, dear! We +won't even tell Evangeline that you're my darlin' dear," she crooned +over this second baby. Elly Precious played the game; he was a little +sport, was Elly Precious. + +The morning after the little new-nightgown episode, the bath progressed +thrillingly. That was, it seemed, the morning set by Elly Precious to +give this new mother a glorious surprise. It could not be said that he +had it up his little sleeve, being innocent of any manner of garment, +but he had it prepared. + +Miss Theodosia dried the tiny body and set it far forward on her knees, +facing her, and began as usual: + +"Now, baby, watch--watch hard! Make exactly the same noise I do." She +put her lips in position for clear enunciation. + +"Mam--m-ma." + +Customarily, Elly Precious sat and chuckled gleefully and nakedly. This +was a favorite play. But, oh, to-day-- + +"Mum--mum," said Elly Precious distinctly. Miss Theodosia caught him to +her, slippery and sweet, with a cry of rapture. + +"You said it! You said it, Elly Precious--darlin' dear! Now I shall wrap +you in a beautiful soft blanket and sing you a jiggy tune! Before I +dress you in horrid, bothery sleeves, we'll rock, and rock, you and +make-believe mum-mum!" + +The big chair creaked delightsomely to the ears of Elly Precious. To its +accompaniment sang Miss Theodosia. + +"Darlin' Dear! Darlin' Dear, Mum-Mum's here--oh, Elly Precious, I shall +send you to college! Of course, to college. You shall be a doctor--" Was +that the chair creaking, or a door? It was a door. On the doorsill stood +the Reformed Doctor, gazing in. The blanket had slipped away and it was +a beautiful, bare Elly Precious in Miss Theodosia's arms, against her +breast. The little picture stood out, distinct. But so soon it faded. +She was on her feet and facing that treacherous doorway. Flames burned +on her cheeks. + +"Is it anything to be ashamed of to pretend he is my baby! Well, I've +done it--I'm pretending now. We were having a beautiful time till--" + +"Till I came." + +"Till you came. You heard what I said about making a doctor of him, I +suppose?" + +He nodded. "I heard," he said meekly. + +"But you didn't give me time to say it all. I was going to say he'd stay +a doctor and not reform!" With which Parthian shot, delivered with +spirit, Miss Theodosia turned her back and Elly Precious' back to the +intruder. What was left for him to do but retire, vanquished and +diminished? The business of the bath went on, but joyless now. There was +no further putting off of the horrid, bothery sleeves that Elly Precious +abhorred. He set up indignant wails, and Miss Theodosia's soul wailed in +unison. + +"All our dear good time spoiled! We're not pretending any more; you're +Evangeline's darlin' dear. I'll put you on the bed and give you your +bottle." So abruptly had the beautiful game come to an end. Miss +Theodosia went away to prepare the bottle. As she went, a glint of white +underneath the door to out-of-doors caught her attention. Evangeline had +not tucked it under as far as usual. Perhaps it was not unnatural, +considering her new mood, that Miss Theodosia picked up the little +letter almost impatiently. + +"He says he can come home day after to-morrow if he don't colapse, so +Stefana is cleaning the house and I'm helping and we can't hardly wait. +We've got a new cloesbasket Stefana's going to make bows for the +handles, tell Elly Precious. + +"P. S. Pink bows." + +Miss Theodosia was not impatient as she folded the little letter again. +Tears stood in her eyes. She hurried back, bottleless, to Elly Precious, +to tell him. That he had fallen asleep made no difference. + +"You are going home day after to-morrow! Dream it in a little dream, +dear. When you wake up, it will be true. They can't hardly wait and +there's a new 'cloesbasket' with bows--P. S., pink bows. Oh, Elly +Precious, you know you're glad to go home! You've been pretending, too!" +Game little Elly Precious, to pretend! She stooped and kissed his eyes, +close shut in that dream of going home. "They are cleaning the house," +she whispered, "they can't hardly wait." + +A prescience of awful loneliness swept over her. She saw Theodosia +Baxter--lone and babyless again--set back in her empty house. The +curtain had gone down--would go down day after to-morrow--on the last +beautiful act. + +"But I have two days left! I demand my pound--fifteen little pounds of +flesh!" Elly Precious' little pink flesh. She would play that last act +of the little game of make-believe. Intruders or no intruders, she would +play it! At once, she began again where they had left off. + +"You will have to go to college very young, dear," she said. "They are +going to take you away from me day after tomorrow. A day and a half is +such a little college course; you'd be such a little Freshman, Elly +Precious! So we will have to give it up, dear. We'll just spend our last +days together. Who wants to know Latin and Greek anyway? I'll teach you +to pat little cakes in English!" Surely, surely she must have taught her +first baby to pat-a-cake. The blundering little hands in hers felt +strangely familiar. The first baby had been just as funny and sweet as +Elly Precious at that little lesson. + +"If I only had a little more time!" sighed Miss Theodosia. "There is so +much left for us to do; it is cruel to hurry us so! We might--we might +run away, dear! You and I. To Europe and Asia and Africa! I'd show you +all the wonders of the world. Listen, Elly Precious,--the _pyramids_! +Wouldn't you love to see the pyramids? You could play in the warm sand, +anyway,--bury your little twelve toes deep! We would keep watch all the +time and _run_ when we saw Evangeline coming. We would never stop to put +on our shoes and stock--Elly Precious, you've gone to sleep!" So little +was he thrilled at the prospect of pyramids. + +Miss Theodosia rocked him gently in her arms. Perhaps she would rock him +the whole day and a half--they could not prevent her! She would not stop +rocking if twenty Reformed Doctors came and looked at her. She would +rock in their faces! + +A sudden and queer thought came to her of Cornelia Dunlap standing in +the doorway, looking in as John Bradford had done. + +She saw the wreck of Cornelia's plump calm--Cornelia's wide-eyed +amazement. After she had reluctantly deposited the small, limp body upon +the couch to finish out the nap, she got her writing materials and wrote +to Cornelia Dunlap, with a whimsical little smile playing about her +lips. Her pen moved fast across the sheet. + +"The baby is having a beautiful nap. While he is asleep, I can write to +you. Of course my time is limited--'what with' scalding and filling +bottles and giving little baths--Cornelia Dunlap, go and get a little +baby and wash him! In a tub, with your sleeves rolled up. Let him splash +the water into your face--over your dress--hear him laugh! Give him the +soap for a little ship a-sailing. Oh, Cornelia, teach him to pat-a-cake! +Get a baby with the measles if there's no other way. You will love him +in between all his little measles. But, listen to me; _take this +advice_: Don't let them take him back! Hold on to both his little hands. +Run away to Africa with him if there is no other way--he will love to +play in the sand beside the pyramids. Send him to college, Cornelia, and +I think--yes, make a doctor of him. Doctors are best. + +"Morituri salutamus--we who are about to lose our babies and die wish +you happiness with yours, is the free translation. _Hold on to yours_. +He is a dear, I know. He may be as dear as mine, but he hasn't twelve +toes!" + + * * * * * + +"Mercy gracious!" + +It was the two days later and it was Evangeline. The child's radiant +face lighted up the room. + +"He let me come! I promised Stefana I wouldn't kiss him till I got him +home so's she could, too. He said to kiss his neck or behind his ears." +As usual no confusion of personal pronouns troubled Evangeline. + +"Mercy gracious!--oh, mercy gracious, he's improved! He's fatter! I +never thought measles'd be fattenin'! You're glad to see me, aren't you, +darlin' dear? I'm Evangeline! I've come to take you home. We've got +everything ready, only one bow, an' Stefana's piecin' that. Oh--my +darlin' dear!" + +The curtain had gone down. Theodosia Baxter stood quite alone in her big +room. In her ears was suddenly the shriek of a steam whistle of welcome; +it died away, and the silence ached. A crumpled something half under a +chair caught her eye and she openly sobbed. It was a forgotten little +nightgown. + +"I'm going to Rome--I'm going to Paris--to Anywhere! I can't stand +this!" she wailed. And then the creak of a door again. + +He stood on the door-sill looking in. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"I've done it again!" came from the doorway repentantly, "but this time +I knocked, honest to goodness. Regular bangs! You ought to have heard," +his tone assuming an injured cadence. + +Miss Theodosia had recovered herself. She was unfeignedly glad to see +him this time. + +"Maybe it was you, steam-whistling," she laughed. "I heard that! Oh, I +am glad enough you came this time! You've saved me from a trip to +Rome--tea is so much less expensive! I'll go and get it." She was off +directly and back again in remarkably quick time with her little kettle +and lamp. "Less time and fuss, too. See how little baggage! Now, Rome--" + +"Don't mention Rome!" There was a deep note in John Bradford's voice. He +watched her making the tea. Miss Theodosia's hands were worth watching. + +"Speaking of steam whistles reminds me of ears," he said. + +"Naturally! The two go together, all right!" But she saw that his face +remained grave. "Oh!--you mean the steam-whistler's ears--I see." + +"Yes, I have examined them rather carefully. They aren't hopeless little +ears--not hopeless. I'm not ready to go any farther than that yet. But I +intend--you see, I specialized in ears and a few other things at the +University--in practice, too, before--before I reformed." + +Quickly Miss Theodosia looked up. + +"There! You are harking back; please don't hark back! It was mean in me +to say it. I'm sorry! If I'd sent Elly Precious to college--while he was +my baby--and given him a doctor's degree, he could have taken it or left +it. He'd have had a right. Men have rights to their own lives." + +"Sure," but John Bradford's tone was thoughtful rather than emphatic. +"Still--I sometimes wonder--" + +"Why?--tell me why!" Now she was championing the Reformed Doctor! "You +could do as you pleased, couldn't you? It was your own life you were +'reforming.' Still, I wonder, too. Tell me how it happened." + +"How do I know how it happened?" He was walking up and down the room. +"It was in my blood to write stories. I wrote them every chance I could +get. Had to write them. I suppose I woke up to the rather decent +conclusion that a man can't serve two masters and serve them well. Isn't +efficient. So I chose my favorite master. There you have it in a +nutshell. May I have mine in a teacup?" + +She filled the dainty shell, but it rattled a little on its saucer. Miss +Theodosia felt about for less moving things; she was strangely moved. + +"How is the love story getting on?" she asked. + +"The--oh! Well, it had a setback awhile ago. Setbacks are not good for +love stories. But I shall go to work on it again." + +"At once--to-day?" What was this sudden freak of hers to drive him to +work?--the work she had all but derided before. + +"To-day. I'm working on it now--that is--er--" + +"Before and after--tea," she smiled. "Well, I shall help you all I can +on that story. I feel in a penitent mood. When you begin on it again--" + +"I've begun on it again." + +"After you go home, I mean. When you go to work again, make believe I'm +David Copperfield's Dora--holding the pens!" Too late she saw her error +and hedged. "Or cups of tea to keep up your strength." + +"I like pens better. If Dora were there--" + +"One more cup? You've only had one. The cups are no size at all. And +while you drink it, tell me about your heroine. What have you named +her?" + +"Dora," he said promptly. "You see, you've helped already." + +It was pleasant, drinking tea like this, with John Bradford there, +opposite, having his second cup. A pleasant way to drink tea--with a +John! Miss Theodosia hugged herself happily. Even the forgotten little +nightgown on the floor failed to diminish her content. She had not +forgotten Elly Precious; she was merely making the most of the +ameliorations the gods offered. The kind gods. But conscience had to put +in its pious oar. + +"I'm having a beautiful time; I don't know whether you are or not. But +I'm going to send you back to that love story. I hope the Recording +Angel will give me a white mark for it, or cross out a black one. The +goodness of me! I've been sitting here trying to strangle my conscience, +but you see it isn't my own--it's my grandmother's conscience; you have +to respect your grandmother's conscience. You'll have to go." + +"I can work on it here," he pleaded, but she shook her head mournfully. + +"I haven't the materials. It takes special paper, doesn't it, and pens?" + +"I could--er--think up my plot." + +"With me talking a blue streak? I should talk a blue streak; that's my +grandmother's, too. No, you must go. How will you ever get it done, if +you don't?" + +"I sha'n't if I do. Staying here is doing me good. I need to 'get up +more strength.'" + +She laughed, but remembered her grandmother. "No more tea," she said +kindly. "Conscience! But I'll tell you--you may come back after you've +worked." + +"To-day?" + +"To-morrow." + +And for many to-morrows he came back. On one of them the talk once more +reverted to the book that the Story Man was understood to be writing, in +some mysterious Place of Pens and Paper. + +"I hope it's a regular romance," Miss Theodosia said. + +"Romance? What is that? Is there such a thing? There may have been +once--" + +Miss Theodosia's fair cheeks took on faint color. She turned upon him. + +"Once nothing! I can't help it if that is slang; the occasion demands +slang. Are you trying to tell me romance is dead?" + +He nodded. "Sterilized--Pasteurized--boiled out of us. I suppose," he +sighed, "we are more hygienic, but we have faded in the process. It +dulls romance to Pasteurize it." + +She held up a staying hand. + +"Please!" she said, "in words of one syllable and maybe you can convince +me. But you can't. Do you mean to say there are no sweet, blushing girls +left, with--with dreams?" + +Again his sigh. It pained him to disillusion her. + +"Not blushing ones. I tell you the color won't stand our modern +sterilization process. I misdoubt the dreams, too. If they dream 'em, +they're of independence and careers and votes; you wouldn't call those +romantic dreams, would you? The little 'clinging vines'--" he waved them +back into the past with a comprehensive sweep of his hand--"all gone. +Our present-day soil is too invigorating, too stimulating. The +young things stand up on their own roots. No more clinging. Each one +aspires to be a spunky little tree by herself. Look at 'em and see for +yourself--the subways and elevateds are full of 'em at the crush hours, +nights and mornings--all glorying in their independence--their fine, +strong, young roots. No blushing, no clinging there! Are you convinced?" + +"I am not," flashed Miss Theodosia gamely. "There must be one little +dreamer of love dreams left." + +"Show her to me." + +"That isn't fair. I'm not in a way to know girls. I know just Stefana." + +"And Evangeline." + +"And Evangeline," laughed Miss Theodosia. + +"Is she romantic?" demanded the Story Man. And there he had Miss +Theodosia. She had instant vision of Evangeline growing, straight and +thrifty already, on her own small roots. It was not possible to +visualize a blushing--a clinging little Evangeline. + +"She is still young," Miss Theodosia murmured. "Besides, she's one of a +kind. There's only one Evangeline. You can't reason by only one of +anything. The exception proves the rule." + +"Then you yield me Evangeline?" + +"Yes, you may have her on your side," conceded Miss Theodosia +generously. It was rather in the way of a relief to shift the +responsibility for Evangeline. Miss Theodosia suddenly bubbled into low +laughter. + +"She is going to be a plumber." + +"Evangeline a plumber?" + +"Yes, because she's got to be rich, she says. She's 'sick 'n' tired' of +being poor, and you can make such _darlin_', roary, snappy fires in a +tin pail! Plumberin' will be fun." + +He laughed a little, too, enjoyingly, but returned to his arguings. Said +he: + +"_Be_ a plumber, not marry one, you see. What did I tell you? Oh, you +have no monopoly on Evangelines! The woods are full of tame Evangelines, +anyway. You will have to come over to my side." + +"Not at all. I haven't given up my own side. I shall hold on a little +while longer. I am not going to admit _yet_ that all sentiment is dead +and buried. And, anyhow, I don't see what it's being dead or alive has +to do with your story. I thought authors were creators. Can't you create +a little sentiment--romance? To my order?" she added demurely. + +Replied the Story Man with grave eyes: "I shall do my best. We are a +good deal at the mercy of our heroines. But I will do all that I can to +win mine over, dear lady. Heaven knows I want to!" + +"Then you are on my side now; you have changed your mind!" she cried +tauntingly. "Woman, thy name is not Fickleness, it is thy husband's +name! Well, I am glad it is going to be my kind of a story. How did I +know but it was to be a historical novel or a problem story--ugh! And, +instead, you're going to make love to your heroine in the dear old +thrilly way." + +He stirred in his seat, and his eyes sought his hostess. But Miss +Theodosia's eyes were cheerfully following the infinitesimal stitches +with which she was rimming an infinitesimal round hole in the bit of +linen in her hand. + +"How far have you got?" she questioned over a new stitch. + +"Not very far," sadly; "I think I am a little afraid of my heroine." + +"Mercy gracious! Well, I think I'd take her by the ear and march her +round to suit myself! If I wanted her to say '_yes_'--do you want her to +say 'yes'?" + +Did he want her to say yes! + +"I'm trying to lead her up to it," he said gently. Miss Theodosia bit +off her thread. + +"March her up to it, march her! You're too gentle with her. What is the +use of being a Story Man? Might as well be a plumber like Evangeline!" + +It was at this moment that Evangeline appeared on the little Flagg +horizon. They saw her coming their way, loaded as usual with Elly +Precious. The sag of her wiry little figure on the Elly Precious side +appealed strongly to Miss Theodosia. She dropped her foolish bit of +linen and hurried to meet that little sag. When she came back with Elly +Precious in her own arms, the Story Man was wandering away. He waved his +hat to them smilingly. + +"Please drop him--drop Elly Precious," Evangeline said, "anywheres +_soft_. I don't want him to distrack your mind. You play with your dolly +an' be a darlin' dear, Elly Precious, while we talk." + +Very gently Evangeline subtracted Elly Precious from Miss Theodosia and +removed him to an undisturbing distance. Then she returned and stood +before Miss Theodosia. + +"Stefana was born to-morrow," Evangeline stated gravely. "You didn't +know, of course, nor neither did I till it kind of came out. I told +him," nodding in the direction taken by the Story Man. "We plotted up a +hatch--I mean we hatched up a plot. He said to talk it over with you. I +don't know what he's goin' to do, but he'll do it--he said he would. An' +I thought--I thought--" Unwonted hesitations disturbed Evangeline's +smooth flow of speech. She sat down suddenly. + +"I guess I can say it easier sittin' than I could standin'. It's some +hard to say--it's so kind of _bareheaded_. But I don't know what else +to do. You see, Stefana'd hear me beatin' the eggs an' stirrin', if I +did 'em at home. An' besides, it would fall--oh, mercy gracious, I know +it would! I thought if I could do it over here--" + +"Evangeline," Miss Theodosia said gently, "drop your voice at a period +and begin all over with a capital letter. Take your time, dear." + +Said Evangeline with a sigh: "I'll try standin' up. I guess I kind of +mixed you up, didn't I? You see, what I _meant_ was, could I make +Stefana's birthday cake over here to your house where she can't hear me +stirrin'?" + +"Oh, Stefana's birthday! That is why she was 'born to-morrow.'" + +"Yes'm, in a thunder storm. I've heard Mother tellin'. It will have to +be a graham cake." + +"A--what kind of cake, Evangeline? Maybe you'd better try sitting down; +I don't think I just understand." + +"No'm, no'm, I guess you wouldn't, because you probably can always 'ford +white flour. I thought if I frosted it over real white, it would hide +the grahamness. I've got two eggs." + +Understanding came to Miss Theodosia, though a little slowly. Was she +growing stupid? + +"Evangeline, we'll make Stefana's cake together; we'll take turns +'stirrin''! We'll do it over here and keep it a beautiful secret." + +The child was standing up now certainly, her wiry little body a-tilt +with excitement, a-quiver with it. Evangeline's eyes shone. + +"Oh, I knew you would! I knew you would! You're such a _nangel!_ If you +was a kind of folks that liked to be kissed--" + +The soft pink of Miss Theodosia's cheeks! She lifted her head and sat +very still. + +"Come and try me, dear. Maybe I am that kind of folks." And in a little +whirlwind of tender gratitude descended Evangeline upon her. It was a +whole-souled kiss, the only brand possible to Evangeline. + +"I--I am that kind!" gasped Miss Theodosia, emerging laughing but +tender-eyed. "Now let's begin the cake." + +"Oh, yes, mercy gracious, yes! I'll go get the eggs 'n' graham flour, +an'--an' molasses. Could we sweeten it with molasses, Miss Theodosia? +It'll take all o' my sugar for the frostin'. We are pretty used to bein' +sweetened with molasses--" + +Miss Theodosia had a swift mental taste on her tongue of Stefana's +graham birthday cake, molasses-sweet. There were her heartstrings at +their odd little twitching again! + +"You won't have to go home at all, Evangeline. I've got all the +materials--" but at sight of the child's face, a little fallen and +troubled, she hastily appended--"except the eggs. I guess you'd better +go home and get those." + +"Two!" sang Evangeline joyously, already on her way; "I've got two. +Two's a lot of eggs, isn't it?" + +They mixed and beat and stirred together, and Evangeline never knew how +many more eggs than two went into the rich golden batter. Elly Precious, +tied for safety-first into one of Miss Theodosia's chairs, looked on +with an interest more or less intermittent; when Evangeline's offerings +of "teeny speckles" of toothsome batter were delayed, the interest +flagged. The baking time was for Evangeline a period of utmost +anxiety--there were so many direful things that might happen to +Stefana's cake. If it fell down or burned up-- + +"Oh!" she breathed with infinite relief when the strain was over, and +only lovely things had happened to the cake, "I'm so happy I could sing +if I had any vocal strings! That's queer about me, isn't it? I don't +have any trouble with my _talkin'_ strings." + +"Not a bit," agreed Miss Theodosia gayly. "What makes you think you +couldn't sing?" + +"Because once I tried to sing Elly Precious to sleep an' it woke him up, +awfully up. He was scared. So I always talk him to sleep. Miss +Theodosia, don't birthday cakes sometimes have candles round the edge of +'em? I don't mean Stefana's, of course, but rich folks' birthday cakes." + +"_I_ mean Stefana's. Evangeline, we'll have thirteen candles!" but +inwardly she was wondering if forty would not fit better round the edge +of aged little Stefana's birthday cake. "And we'll decorate it--write +something on the top, you know. We'll make the Story Man do it for us." + +Evangeline was awed into near-silence. "You mean--poetry? Mercy +gracious, poetry!" + +"Something lovely," nodded Miss Theodosia a little vaguely. If it be +poetry, the Story Man must do that part, too. A little later, when +Evangeline had shouldered Elly Precious and departed and the Story Man +had sauntered again into sight, she hailed him with relief. Displaying +the snowy little cake, she explained the situation. + +"You must do the rest. We want a 'sentiment' on it, Evangeline and I. +What is the use of being a literary person if you cannot inscribe a +birthday cake?" + +He groaned a little, reminiscently. He remembered the autograph albums +of his bashful youth. How much better than an autograph album was a +frosted cake? + +"Something appropriate, you know," encouraged Miss Theodosia, brightly. +"In lovely pink writing on top." + +"'She hath starched what she could,'" he offered tentatively. + +"Oh, for shame! Something nice and romantic." + +"But romance is dead--hold on, I beg pardon! That is not decided yet; I +remember. You shall have your poetry, you and Evangeline. Something +after this wise: + + "'Our most esteemed Stefana, + May rough winds never pain her' + +"Do winds 'pain' people? But, to speak modestly, I call that a pretty +neat sentiment to turn out extempo like that. 'Stefana'--you can't deny +Stefana is a hard word to rhyme with. Now tell me a harder one!" + +"Evangeline--Theodosia," she murmured. Her eyes dwelt lovingly on the +little white cake. He should not make fun of it! + +"I'll decorate it myself," she said, "I'll have a little pink heart on +it--_two_ little pink hearts." + +"With but a single thought. Make them with but a single thought--beat +them as one. There! I'm perfectly sober and sane now. It's a fine little +cake, and I'm not worthy to write poetry for it. +Longfellow--Shakespeare--Whitcomb Riley--we'll canvass them. Don't think +I'm not respectful to Stefana's birthday." + +"I don't know what you call respect!" she retorted. But she knew the +next day. She found out what he called respect. The knowledge came, as +so much that was worth while came, through Evangeline, Elly Precious in +its wake. They came running this time. Elly Precious' small body rolled +and lurched with their hurry and the agitation of Evangeline's soul. + +"Somethin's--happened." + +"Give me the baby. Sit down, dear. Now." + +"The flower wagon brought Stefana--roses," whispered Evangeline. "In a +long box--an' tissue paper. Oh, my mercy gracious, stopped right +straight at our house! An' nobody dead." Evangeline's whisper rose to a +weird little cry. The wonder of the flower wagon stopping right +straight! And every one alive! + +"Stefana's countin' 'em. I guess she's counted 'em a hundred times. +They's--thirteen! They've got the longest stems you ever _saw_! Stefana +can't get over their stems; she said they most made her cry." + +For very breath Evangeline stopped. Over the little uneasy head of Elly +Precious shone Miss Theodosia's eyes. Miss Theodosia was softly +thrilled. The stems appealed, too, to her; she loved them long--long. + +"Roses, you say? Oh, Evangeline! Birthday roses for Stefana! What +color?" + +"Red--red--red," chanted Evangeline "Thirteen red roses an' thirteen +long stems. In a pasteboard box with 'Miss Stefana Flagg' wrote on it. +You ought to seen how Miss Stefana Flagg looked! She--she kissed the +box. I guess now she's kissin' the roses. She never 'spected to have any +roses till she was dead. An' then she couldn't 've kissed 'em an' cried +at the stems," added Evangeline softly. She was suddenly a softened +little Evangeline, curiously gentled by Stefana's sweet, red roses. Miss +Theodosia caught her breath at the sight of the child's face and the +thought of Stefana kissing her roses. + +"I wish--I wish you'd go over an' congratcherlate Stefana," whispered +Evangeline. "She'd be so tickled. I'll keep Elly Precious ever here, an' +Carruthers is playin' ball in a field." As though this ceremony of +'congratcherlation' demanded quiet and privacy. + +And by and by Miss Theodosia went. She had a whimsical impulse to carry +her little silver card case, but she did not yield to the whimsey. She +did take off her little white apron and smoothe her hair. Stefana to-day +was a person for ceremonies and respect. Oh, the kindness, the clearness +of those long-stemmed roses! She had not thought to do it herself, but +he--a man creature--Miss Theodosia's eyes were tender. + +Stefana was still sitting among her roses. They lay across her lap. + +"Oh! Oh, come right in, Miss Theodosia!" she cried welcomingly. "But +please to excuse me for not getting up--I can't bear to disturb them. +Seems as if I could sit right straight in this chair till they withered! +I'm breathing easy so not to breathe the smell out. I never had any +roses before." + +Her voice lowered to almost a whisper. She whispered a little laugh. + +"Seems as if I'd ought to be married while I have 'em! They're such +beautiful roses to be married in!" + +And this was Stefana, their matter-of-fact, starchy little white-washer! +This rapt, dreamy little face was Stefana's face! + +"Sometimes," Stefana murmured, "sometimes I've dreampt--" but Miss +Theodosia did not quite catch what it was Stefana had sometimes +"dreampt," but it was something sweet. Stefana a little dreamer of sweet +dreams! One of them must have been a rose-dream, and this was that dream +come true. + +The call of congratulation was a brief one. It seemed little short of +irreverence to have seen at all that picture of Stefana rocking her +roses in the little wooden rocker. Miss Theodosia slipped away with it +hung on the walls of her mind--she would never take it down. + +John Bradford was coming along the road and she went a little way to +meet him. Some of Stefana's radiance was in her own face. + +"I've found it," she announced in soft triumph. + +"Good!" he hazarded at random. It was always good to find things. But he +wondered at the radiance. + +"My romance that I knew was somewhere. I've found it! I told you so!" + +"Found it where?" he demanded. He was unconsciously stirred by her +emotion. He followed her glance to the little House of Flaggs. +"Not--there?" + +"Yes, there. Stefana is dreaming it over a lapful of red roses. I have +been there and seen her. Is romance dead--is it? Go and look at +Stefana!" But she held him back from going. "No, no, I didn't mean it! +Not in cold blood--I didn't go in cold blood. You will have to take my +word for it." + +"I will take your word." + +"That romance is not dead?" + +"That romance is alive. But who would have thought of it's being +_Stefana_!" + +"Who would have thought!" echoed Miss Theodosia. + +Elly Precious was fretting restlessly when she got back. The children +were on the porch. + +"Nothing's the matter with him," Evangeline explained, "unless it's +because he's a-goin' to be taken. I told him he was. It is kind of +scaring to be taken. I feel kind of that way, too." + +"Taken where?" + +"Not any where--just _taken_. His picture an' mine an' +Carruthers'--we're all goin' to be taken now, pretty soon. I must go +home an' prink Elly Precious an' Carruthers. You see, Mr. Bradford +promised to take Stefana because it's her birthday, an' first we knew he +said he'd take all o' us! He's got a camera. That's him now! I guess +he's waitin' for Elly Precious an' me." + +She was hurrying away, but bethought herself of something. "The cake!" +she said. "If Elly Precious'll be still, I can carry it on my other arm. +Maybe we'll be so busy being taken that I can't come over again before +supper." + +"Run along," Miss Theodosia said; "I'll take it over. I haven't quite +got it ready yet," for there were the two little pink hearts to +add,--Stefana's heart and a little dream-heart. She smiled tenderly over +the fashioning of those little pink hearts. Miss Theodosia was not an +artist--they wavered and leaned, but they leaned toward each other! +Perhaps they were better to be little leaning hearts. + +She carried the cake over, covered with a napkin. There were other +things, too, that she had prepared, and several trips were necessary. A +mold of quivering, scarlet jelly, full of fascinating glints of light; +scalloped, currant-rich cookies, a little platter of cold chicken--Miss +Theodosia carried them all over covered with napkins. + +Evangeline was putting the finishing touches to the supper-table, which +was brave with the best Flagg dishes. It was rather a pitiful little +bravery, but satisfying to Evangeline. She hurried Miss Theodosia aside +and talked very fast. + +"I've sent Stefana out with Elly Precious. We're goin' to blind her an' +lead her in an' count one--two--_look_! She'll see the cake the very +quickest thing! She won't cut off an inch o' the stems, so they're kind +of tall up 'n' down, you see. I mean the roses. I've put a corset steel +o' Mother's in an' kind of tied 'em to it. I hope you don't see any +corset steel." + +"No." Miss Theodosia looked not at the centerpiece of roses but at the +cake, the tremulous jelly, the platter,--anywhere else. "No, I don't see +any, dear." + +"It's perfectly lovely, isn't it? Mercy gracious--oh, mercy gracious! +It'll _dazzle_ Stefana. An' most every speck you did, Miss Theodosia. +Won't you please stay? Won't you _please_ to please?" + +"No," for the sixth time persisted Miss Theodosia. "I'm going before +Stefana gets back. This is a Flagg celebration, dear. Just little +Flaggs." + +Evangeline drew a long breath. Then little twinkles lighted in her eyes. + +"Well," she said, "they'll be star-spangled Flaggs to-night!" + +She followed Miss Theodosia to the door. Even then she could not stop +talking. Her excited little voice followed Miss Theodosia home. + +"He took us! He's blue-printing us to see if we wiggled. Elly Precious +did--mercy gracious! But maybe one of him, just one, didn't. He's goin' +to make reg'lar black an' white pictures of the unwiggled ones. I guess +you'll be surprised when you see us!" She was surprised. John Bradford +brought the little blue pictures to her the next day. They bent over +them together. + +"Oh!" Miss Theodosia uttered softly, for the pictures were instantly +tangled in her heartstrings. She could hardly bear the one unwiggled one +of Elly Precious. He was draped in tall red roses; they covered his +little body and trailed their stems about his outspread legs. He had the +effect of peeping at Miss Theodosia through roses. But what she could +see of him was Elly Precious--her baby. + +"Stefana posed him," the Story Man said, smilingly. "And Evangeline and +Carruthers, too. Look at Evangeline." + +Across Evangeline trailed the roses. It was a rigid, terribly rigid, +Evangeline, but the roses saved her. Some softening grace emanated from +them and touched the solemn little face. A little more of Evangeline +than of Elly Precious peeped from behind them. + +"Carruthers!--et, tu, Carruthers!" murmured Miss Theodosia. For here +again was the trail of the roses. Stefana had "posed" them in all the +little pictures. The effect of a rose-draped Carruthers was almost +startling. He gazed from behind them stolidly, unsmiling and +unhappy-souled. Carruthers did not enjoy being taken. + +"Now look at Stefana," John Bradford said. This was his special +exhibit--exhibit S. He watched Miss Theodosia's face as she glanced at +the little blue print. + +No roses trailing there. Just a radiant-faced Stefana gazing at Miss +Theodosia. It was the same face that hung on the walls of her memory. +Miss Theodosia had the sense of roses there, out of sight; it was as if +Stefana rocked them gently in her lap. + +"She wouldn't wear the flowers herself," the Story Man was saying; +"Neither Evangeline nor I could make her. Queer little freak." + +"She is wearing them!" smiled Miss Theodosia, "I can see them. It's only +because you are a man that you can't see,--you and Evangeline! Look at +the roses in Stefana's eyes--in her soul--" + +"Oh, you woman! Women are curious things." + +"Women are romantic things--oh, you man! Why should you understand us +Stefanas with your unsentimental soul-of-a-man? What do you know about +our dreams?" She had not meant to say quite that. "Stefana's dreams," +she corrected herself. "What do you know about them? And still--" + +Miss Theodosia looked up from the radiant little face of Stefana with +her dream-roses to the man-face beside her own. + +"And still--you sent the roses," she said softly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +A letter came to Miss Theodosia one day. Queer how disturbing a letter +could be when for so long peace had enveloped her travel-worn spirit, +though it might have been because of the peace that she was disturbed. +Ordinarily a letter from Cornelia Dunlap was the forerunner of +interesting events to break the monotony of life. But life was not +monotonous now, and it presented interesting events without the +intervention--mentally and unkindly Miss Theodosia termed it +interference--of Cornelia Dunlap. + +"Why need Cornelia write me now, or if she does write, why can't she +talk about mushrooms?" which were Cornelia's most recent palliative to +her self-imposed and brief sojourns in her little home town. It had been +cats when she and Miss Theodosia returned from Spain, Belgian hares +after their long stay in Egypt. Miss Theodosia herself had never tried +mushrooms nor Belgian hares. She had borne her short homecomings +unpalliated, and had flitted again relievedly. Usually she and Cornelia +Dunlap had flitted together. They had formed the flitting habit when +family bereavements had left them both lonely women. + +"Why must she write about Japan?" sighed Miss Theodosia now, over the +disturbing letter. "What do I care about Japan?" Yet she always had +cared about Japan. Cornelia Dunlap and she had left that delectable +country of cherry blossoms and quaint, kimona-ed women for their old +age, they said, to help them bear it. But Cornelia had forgotten that. + +"Let's go to Japan," she wrote. "I can pack in twenty-four hours; how +long will it take you? We'll stay there till cherry blossom time. +Frankly, Theodosia Baxter, I am bored, and you needn't tell me that you +aren't--frankly--too. You haven't even mushrooms (they didn't earn their +own living, my dear. I don't know what the trouble was). 'My native +country, thee,'--I love it. I tell you I do! You know yourself that I +never stay overnight in a place without unfurling my country's flag. +Remember in sunny Italy?--the little brown bambino that cheered my +colors? But I love my country best--in Japan! Come, dear, pack--pack! If +I can leave my mushrooms, I guess you can leave your lonesome, big house +in Nowhere." + +Miss Theodosia dreamed a little over her letter, of the little island of +romance and flowers and fans. They did not need to wait; they could go +again when they were old. + +She told John Bradford at their next meeting of the lure of Japan, +though in her heart she was not lured. She was not "bored"; it was not a +big, lonesome house in Nowhere! She would tell Cornelia Dunlap so. She +would tell her that Flaggs were better than mushrooms--they earned their +own living! Cornelia could run away alone to Japan to her cherry +blossoms. + +But John Bradford had his scare, and through him Evangeline hers. Gloom +settled on Evangeline. If her beloved lady was going away--the bitter, +bitter taste of life without the beloved lady! But the inspiration that +flashed into Evangeline's nimble mind temporarily comforted her. She set +about its carrying-out. Inspirations were sweet morsels under +Evangeline's tongue. + +To Miss Theodosia on her porch, telling Cornelia Dunlap that Japan had +no lure, came a solemn procession across the grass. Evangeline led, with +the effect of walking backward--though she walked straight ahead--and +waving a baton. Stefana had Elly Precious, and Carrathers tramped +soberly behind, in time to that imaginary wand. Miss Theodosia's +fascinated gaze was riveted to the procession's arms. The wonder grew +with nearness. Every individual parader in the procession wore a somber +black arm-band. Elly Precious held his small member straight out from +his side as if a little afraid of it. + +"Evangeline!" uttered Miss Theodosia. It did not occur to her to address +any one but Evangeline. Instinctively she recognized that the procession +was Evangeline. + +"Halt!" with an imaginary flourish. "Right about your faces!" Then +Evangeline turned to Miss Theodosia and offered her sad little +explanation. + +"We're in mournin'," she said. "All of us are--on our sleeves. Elly +Precious's doesn't stay on very well." + +"Evangeline!" again cried Miss Theodosia, this time in a startled voice. +Fears beset her. Was it the mother, or had poor Aunt Sarah raveled out? +How could it have happened so suddenly--a bolt out of the clear little +Flagg skies? + +"It's you," Evangeline said. Miss Theodosia settled a little in her +chair and waited. In time--Evangeline's time--she would know. Elly +Precious held out his rigid little mourning arm and softly whimpered. + +"Give him to me, Stefana; he wants to come to me," Miss Theodosia said, +extending welcoming hands. Very gently she relieved the tension of the +small arm. + +"We're in mournin' for you," Evangeline explained sadly. "_He_ said we +might as well make up our minds, I tied a stockin' round his arm, but he +took it off again because he said he didn't wear his stockin's--no, I +guess it wasn't his stockin's; it was his heart--on his sleeves. But he +said he was in mournin', too." + +Miss Theodosia gave it up. She appealed to Stefana in gentle despair. + +"You tell me, dear. What does she mean?" + +"We're so sorry you are going to Japan, and Evangeline said we ought to +go into mourning, so we went," explained the quiet Stefana. + +"She cried; you know you did, Stefana Flagg! I would've, only I was +gettin' the mournin' ready. I'm _goin_' to." + +"Don't cry!" Miss Theodosia said, though she was doing it herself. The +pulling of her heartstrings! "Don't cry, Evangeline dear. I wish we +could take back Stefana's tears." + +"You mean--you ain't goin'?" + +"I ain't goin'," repeated Miss Theodosia, tremulously smiling. "Japan! I +wouldn't go to _six_ Japans!" + +"Then take it off o' our arms, quick! You take off Carruthers', Stefana. +I'll undo Elly Precious's. Oh, goody! Oh, mercy gracious, I feel 's if +we ought to take hold o' hands an'--an' _wave_!" + +At the end of her letter to Cornelia Dunlap Miss Theodosia wrote: "You +can't tempt me with all your cherry blossoms. I've got home, Cornelia, +and all my little Flaggs are waving. Come and see _my_ Flaggs." + + * * * * * + +It was mid-September and Miss Theodosia found out-of-doors a pleasant +place to be. She had made an errand down to the business portion of the +little town for the sheer pleasure of the going and coming,--a morning +errand, as the afternoons were sacred to tea,--and now was coming +leisurely back, sniffing the sun-sweet air. She turned off the quiet, +side street she had been using as a long way home, into the main street +of the town, only to find her progress interrupted by unseemly and noisy +crowds. Miss Theodosia loved all things seemly and quiet. How she +despised a crowd, and this one--she brought up short in actual disgust +on the outer edge of it. Thus was her stately little progress stayed. +People surged about her and jostled her good-naturedly. She was in the +crowd. + +"What is it? Has there been an accident?" she inquired of the nearest +jostler. It was a ragged and radiant child. + +"Axident! Didn't ye know there was a circus? We're waitin' for the +p'rade. I hear it! I hear it comin'!" + +The crowd surged ahead toward the street curb. Against her will, Miss +Theodosia surged, too. Loud cries filled her ears--ecstatic cries of +little children. Down the usually quiet street marched, in all its +brilliancy of color and tinsel and tawdry splendor, the street parade. +Horses curvetted, elephants patiently plodded, huge cars of mystery +swung by; clowns smirked, to the riotous joy of that awful crowd. + +"See him sittin' tail to! That one there--there!" + +"Look-a that one with the spotted panth! Look at him throw kitheth!" + +"They's man-eatin' lions in that cage--see the lady sittin' with 'em!" + +"See that man top o' the band waggin that shoots up his neck +_yards_--quick! See him shorten it again!" + +Miss Theodosia saw all, against her will. All her thirty-six years she +had held aside her dainty skirts from people who went to circuses, but +how could she hold them aside now? There was not room. She was caught in +the swirl and noise and glee. + +Suddenly a familiar voice struck her ear. Evangeline's voice! Drawn up +on the curbing in a vantage-spot that only they who come early and +patiently wait can secure, was the entire family of little Flaggs. At a +new angle Miss Theodosia was able to see plainly their breathless +ecstasy. She could hear what Evangeline was saying. + +"Oh, isn't it elegant--oh, look, Stefana! Oh, don't you hope circuses'll +be free in Heaven--not jus' the p'rade, but the show!" + +Then and there Miss Theodosia's heartstrings throbbed unmercifully; she +could not do anything with them; they would throb. In vain she turned +away--looked at other faces--listened to other voices. It was Evangeline +she heard, with her wistful cry, and the little line of Flaggs that she +saw. + +"There's Miss Theodosia--there, there, Stefana! She's come to the +p'rade!" + +"Miss Theodosia! Miss Theodosia! Look, Elly Precious, quick!" And it was +Elly Precious she saw, held high by eager arms. That minute she yielded +to the wild impulse within. She pressed forward to speaking distance. + +"Who will go to the show with me this afternoon? All in favor say aye." + +"Mercy gracious, you don't honest mean--" + +"Miss Theodosia!" Stefana's lean little face actually whitened. + +"I honest mean. Isn't anybody going to say aye?" + +"I!" + +"I!" + +"I!" + +The joyous chorus of "I's"! The jubilant waving of every little Flagg! +For the moment, the gorgeous tinseled parade was forgotten in the vaster +anticipative glories of the show. Miss Theodosia's heartstrings throbbed +a little louder but tunefully. She had forgotten her skirts. + +Shows begin early and last long. Miss Theodosia's show began at the +opening of the gates. She and her little string of followers filed in. + +"Mercy gracious!" breathed Evangeline in awesome delight at the vision +spread before her. + +"Mercy gracious!" breathed Miss Theodosia. They were different mercy +graciouses. But a miracle was on the way to her, coming straight and +fast through the crowds of festive circus-goers. Very soon now--in an +hour--in another moment--It arrived! Miss Theodosia felt herself +yielding to the lure of the sawdust and the side shows--the pink +lemonade and the balloons. She was entering in! She was not Miss +Theodosia who detested crowds; in the tight grip of the miracle, she was +Miss Theodosia who thrilled and enjoyed. + +"Isn't it elegant? Oh, aren't you happy!" cried Evangeline. + +"Aren't I!" gallant Miss Theodosia responded. She caught Evangeline's +sleeve. "What is that man shouting about--there, in front of that big +tent?" + +"Oh, I don't know, but it's somethin' splendid. I know it's somethin' +splendid! I'll go 'n' see." + +"I'll go with you. Stefana, stay with the rest of the children. We'll be +right back." Miss Theodosia laughed as she and Evangeline went, hand in +hand. In a moment they were back for the rest. It was "somethin' +splendid"--come! come! + +They drank pink lemonade and ate ice-cream cones. Elly Precious and +Carruthers waved gay balloons. Evangeline chose a cane. + +"I need one. I'm so happy I tumble over! I never was so happy 'xcept +when Elly Precious stopped havin' the measles. That was as splendid as +this, but it wasn't as _splendid_ splendid. Miss Theodosia, don't you +feel all beautiful and jiggy inside?" + +"All beautiful and jiggy!" nodded Miss Theodosia, wondering a little +whether it was all circus or some pink lemonade. + +"I like the wholeness of it best," Stefana said, taking in the animated +scene with an artist's eye. + +"I don't! I like the every little speckness of it," Evangeline chirped. +"I like that 'normous big tent an' that tiny little one--I like that +balloon man--I like that little darky baby--isn't he black as the ace of +space, Miss Theodosia! Oh, I like every blade o'--sawdust!" Her laugh +trilled out gayly. + +"But we haven't seen it yet--the show." + +"Miss Theodosia! You don't honest mean we're goin' in? Stefana, she +does--she means! We're goin' in!" As of course they were. The best seats +in the great tented arena were none too good for them. Stefana +laboriously shut up Elly Precious' go-cart, and Miss Theodosia lifted +Elly Precious in her arms. In the procession they sought those +best-of-all seats. What followed, even Evangeline gazed upon in silence; +there were no words in Evangeline's dictionary for what followed. She +sat on the edge of the best-of-all seat and drank in riders and clowns +and dizzy performing fairies--an intoxicating draught. + +"Miss Theodosia," in a tiny whisper. + +"Yes, dear?" + +"Ain't you glad you ain't dead? 'Cause you don't need to be." Which was +Evangeline's way of complimenting Heaven. There was no need of dying to +find out its marvels--not now. Miss Theodosia slipped one of the small +hands into hers and squeezed it; squeezing established understanding. +They knew--they understood. + +"Well, upon my word!" a deep voice exclaimed behind them. With one +accord Miss Theodosia and her Flaggs wheeled about. The Tract +Man--Shadow Man--Reformed Doctor stood there, smiling. He was eating +popcorn from a paper bag. Transferring the bag to Evangeline, he held +out his hands for the baby. + +"You here?" Miss Theodosia exclaimed stupidly. + +"Yes--are you?" + +Every one laughed. Laughing was so easy! Elly Precious from his lofty +shoulder-post clapped small, joyous hands and crowed. In the ring a +clown threw them kisses. A fairy in short, silvery skirts rode by on two +horses. "Wait! Watch her--watch her!" Evangeline whispered hissingly. +"She's goin' to jump through a hoop o' fire! Without burnin' up!" + +John Bradford leaned forward to Miss Theodosia. + +"Having a good time?" he whispered. + +"Grand! Are you?" + +"Hunkydory!" He might have been a boy, she a girl. These might have been +little Flagg brothers--sisters. + +"We must have cones--ice-cream cones," he said. + +"We've had 'em," piped Evangeline. + +"We must have more cones, and cracker-jack." + +"We've had crackerjack." + +"We must have more crackerjack. Where is the Crackerjack Boy?" + +At the end of the show in the ring they took a vote and decided to stay +to see it all over again. What did it matter if they had seen the tinsel +fairy jump through her fiery hoop or the acrobats perform their wonders? +They felt acquainted now. They were gazing, enchanted, at friends. + +"My clown's lookin' at me! I'm goin' to bow to him." + +"Mine's threw me a kiss!" + +Stefana, more refined in taste, had adopted a beauteous creature in gold +and blue, and starry spangles. Her beauteous lady waved a scepter at her +as she glided by. + +"She's got so many ruffles on! An' they're beau-ti-fully done up!" +sighed Stefana in gentle envy of some unknown artist in starch. + +"Now what?" demanded the man of the party at length. "Anybody want to +stay here any longer? Or shall we discover new territory?" He took +Evangeline aside and questioned her. + +"Have you seen everything out there?" indicating the attractions without +the big tent. + +"We've seen a nawful lot. We've had a nelegant time," Evangeline +whispered back. Desire and loyalty to Miss Theodosia fought a duel in +her small breast and the issue was yet doubtful. + +"Isn't there something left that you'd like to see?" The order was +changed; here was man tempting woman. Desire won the duel with one +mighty blow. Evangeline tiptoed up as near his ear as possible and +breathed two words. + +John Bradford turned to the little crowd. + +"We'll go to see the Fat Lady," he said to Miss Theodosia; "I'll take +the kiddies, while you sit down somewhere and rest. + +"Sit down somewhere? Haven't I been sitting down somewhere? Don't you +suppose I want to see the Fat Lady, too?" laughed Miss Theodosia. Fat +ladies appealed to her invitingly, in this remarkable mood of hers--Miss +Theodosia's circus mood. + +"You're playing the game like a trump! I didn't dream you could +'pretend' a circus was yours. Must be some harder than pretending +babies--" John Bradford got no farther. She turned indignant eyes upon +him. + +"'Game'--'pretend'--I'd have you know I'm having a nelegant time! You +must be the Pretender." + +"Me? I'm having the time of my life! I am going to put a circus into my +love story." + +"This circus?" + +"This identical one." + +"With me and the little Flaggs in it?" + +"You--and the little Flaggs." + +They had fallen behind the children, and a side eddy of the crowd had +flowed between. The Fat Lady was at the further end of the grounds, but +there was no hurry; she would remain just as fat a Fat Lady if they +pleasantly dallied a little. Stefana had, with the deftness of +genius-born skill, solved the puzzle of opening the folded-up go-cart, +and the Man Person of the party was no longer burdened with Elly +Precious. + +Suddenly into the pleasant dallying leaped Carruthers with terrified +little face. + +"They're lost! We can't find 'em! I can't an' Stefana can't. They ain't +anywhere! We were lookin' at a man with turkles you wind up, an' when we +stopped lookin' they weren't there--not anywhere. They ain't anywhere! +Not any--' + +"Stop him!" begged Miss Theodosia. "He'll keep right on anywhere-ing. We +must find Stefana." + +"Stefana said--oh, I couldn't hear what Stefana said, but she pointed +an' pointed, an' I came lickety. They're lost! They ain't anywhere!" + +Stefana appearing here, the story was repeated. Like that--Stefana +snapped her fingers--they had disappeared. + +"I've hunted and hunted. Everybody's seen children with go-carts, but +they weren't Evangeline 'n' Elly Precious." + +Miss Theodosia's own face was pale, but she achieved a light laugh. + +"No wonder you haven't found them yet! In this crowd. It takes +time;--you tell them to be patient and we'll find the right go-cart." +She appealed to the Man Person. + +"Sure, we'll find the right go-cart! Where do you think they could have +vanished? Down a hole in the ground?" + +Miss Theodosia clapped her hands valiantly. "That's it! Evangeline found +a hole and took Elly Precious down, to show him the White Rabbit and the +Red Queen! Evangeline would love to be an Alice in Wonderland. Go and +find the hole," to the Man Person. "I'll stay right in this spot with +the children. See, in front of this ice-cream tent." + +"Good idea!--I'll bring them back with me unless you find them first." + +But they were not with him when he returned half an hour later. In spite +of himself, he looked anxious. + +"Queer thing! What color dress did she have on? I've tried to remember." + +"Pink--oh, pink!" sobbed Stefana, "but it was most washed out. It had +two tucks let down, an' it was limpy in the skirt, behind--the starch +gave out." There were so many Evangelines, but it didn't seem as if +there'd be another Evangeline limpy behind! "An' Elly Precious's lower +teeth are through, and his shoes are buttoned inside, I remember now! We +were in such a hurry--there wouldn't be another baby buttoned inside." + +After still further vain hunting, John Bradford sent the three home. + +"You may find Evangeline there, getting supper!" he said, "but I'll stay +here on the chance you don't. I'll investigate every hole on the +grounds! Don't anybody worry--now, mind! There's nothing to worry +about." + +"Fat Lady!" Miss Theodosia suddenly exclaimed as one with inspiration. +"We've never thought of her; that's where they've gone! Evangeline +couldn't wait. She had some pennies." + +"I've investigated the Fat Lady--no good. They don't let go-carts in, +and there weren't any outside. But, of course, I can go the whole +figure, to make sure. I'll go all the whole figures. Can't you trust +me?" + +"We can. Come, children. I'll coach you on Wonderland, so if Evangeline +is there you'll know what she is seeing! Gryphons, Mock 'Turkles,' Mad +Hatters--a circus within a circus! It's so much like Evangeline to find +that White Rabbit hole!" Miss Theodosia clung determinedly to a cheerful +view of the situation. But, secretly, she worried. As the time went on, +she worried harder. Two babies--one wheeling the other! What was +Evangeline but a baby? + +Miss Theodosia took the two little surviving Flaggs to her own home and +plied them with goodies--many goodies. She unearthed from hiding-places +candied ginger and guava jelly; she invented toys for the deaf little +Flagg and occupations for Stefana. She found a dog-eared copy of +"Alice," dear to her own childhood, and read to Stefana--anything to +occupy the waiting. It was long waiting! + +It grew dark. Once Miss Theodosia heard heavy steps trying painstakingly +to be light ones. She found the Man Person outside the door. + +"Nothing yet? You haven't any trace--" It was needless asking. + +"You don't think--" + +"Of course, I don't think! Nothing on earth could happen to those +kiddies." + +"Automobiles--" + +"Aren't allowed on the grounds, and you couldn't have got Evangeline off +the grounds with a tackle and falls. I know what I think." + +"Then tell it--mercy gracious!" + +"I think it's Evangeline that's happened. Mark my words! Now I'm going +back again. I just came to--I suppose I thought I was coming to relieve +your mind!" He laughed sorrily and softly. + +"Oh, go--yes, go! It's--it's long past Elly Precious' bedtime." He could +hear soft sobbing as he went away. Miss Theodosia was mourning for her +baby. The Man Person's throat tightened; he broke into a run. + +Stefana met Miss Theodosia at an inner door. She had her hat on and +Carruthers by the hand. + +"I'm going home to put him to bed. I--I shan't look at the clothes +basket. But if Elly Precious is dead, I'll put wh-white ribbons on the +h-handles!" With a moan, Stefana threw herself into the kind arms of +Elly Precious' friend who loved him, too! + +"Hush, dear! Elly Precious isn't dead, but I hope he is asleep. +Evangeline, I know, will take care of him. Let's trust Evangeline." + +"Maybe she's dead, too!" + +"Stefana! I'm disappointed. I thought you were a brave girl." + +"I am!" sobbed Stefana, gathering herself together. Miss Theodosia +watched her go quietly away, hand in hand with the little brother that +was left. But Miss Theodosia was no longer brave. Sudden terrors seized +upon her. She remembered how round and white Elly Precious was--how he +showed the little teeth that had got through--how he had loved to watch +Evangeline dance, through the window. + +"Theodosia Baxter, I'm disappointed! I thought you were a brave girl." + +As she stood in the moist darkness, a sound came to her--too soft for a +man-sound. It grew a very little more distinct. + +"Miss Theodosia--sh! he's gettin' ready to go off. I want him to go off +soon's I get him home--I don't want to 'xcite him. I jus' came to tell +you--" + +"Evangeline! Have you got him there?" + +The softest of giggles. "Why, of course! He's too valuable to leave +anywheres. Leave a Best Baby! That's the s'prise! He's a prize baby, +Elly Precious is! I've got it in my pocket!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"I've got to take him home an' bed him down!" Horsey little Evangeline! +"Then I'll come back an' show it to you. Isn't it puffectly elegant that +he took a prize! We've had the best time!" And in the darkness Miss +Theodosia heard soft, retreating steps and the faintest creak of wheels. +Left alone, she leaned for support on the porch pillar, overcome by the +Evangelineness of Evangeline. And they had all had so far from the "best +time"--they had suffered so! + +"Mercy gracious!" sighed Miss Theodosia weakly, but aloud. + +"What did I tell you?" The Man Person's voice! What kind of a ghostly +night was this? "Didn't I say it was Evangeline that had happened, 'mark +my words'? Well, wasn't it?" + +"Tell me instantly how she 'happened'! I'm all in the dark." + +"Same here. Can't see an inch before my nose. If we had a lamp--" + +"Didn't she tell you? Didn't she come home with you?" + +"No--no, I came home with her. Behind her--she didn't know. Wanted to +let her do the whole thing alone. I confess I was curious." + +"Curious! After hunting hours and hours--" + +"'Curious--after--hunting--hours--and hours,'" he intoned. She could +hear him getting ready to laugh. "The moment I caught sight of the +little imp, I forgot I was tired. Whatever she's been up to, it's +something interesting. May I wait and hear her tell about it?" + +"Of course you may! I should think you'd earned admittance." Miss +Theodosia was sizzling gently with perfectly natural irritation. Now +that her baby was safe, she had leisure to be irritated. + +"Come and rest in the easiest chair you can find. When I think--" + +"Don't think! Let's just have cups of tea and wait for the show to +begin." + +"But why aren't you cross? I am." + +The man-voice in the dark was soothing. + +"Oh, no, you only think you are, dear lady. You are deceiving yourself. +Crossness and--er--nerve-itis are two very different diseases (you note +I term them both diseases). I speak as One Who Did Once Know." + +Miss Theodosia, on her way for cups of tea, paused in her dim doorway. + +"Diseases change so. In ten years--" + +"In ten years 'nerve-itis' has lost none of its pep--rather annexed +more. It may have another name." + +"Nerve-itus Dance," murmured the voice in the doorway. "That's +it--that's what I was having when you came. I don't think I am quite +over the attack yet." + +"Three lumps of sugar dissolved in a cup of tea," prescribed the +man-voice promptly. "Repeat the dose in five minutes. Never known to +fail. As a preventive of--er--contagion, it is well for any also who +have been exposed--" + +"I'll have it there in a minute. The kettle's boiling," called Miss +Theodosia from interior regions. She came back presently with a tray lit +by a tiny flare of candle-light. + + "'How far that little candle throws his beams-- + So shines a good deed in a naughty world'" + +quoted he. "The good deed is the good tea." + +"And the naughty world is Evangeline. Won't you have three lumps just +this time, to make perfectly sure you don't contract my Nerve-itus +Dance?" + +"Safety first," he laughed. "Four lumps. This is our first tea-party at +'Candle-lighting Time,' isn't it?" + +Now Miss Theodosia laughed. It was easy to laugh with Elly Precious +being bedded down instead of lost. + +"How you do quote to-night!" she said. "That's the third time, counting +'Safety First,' in the last five minutes." + +"Pardon," he craved. "It's because I feel happy. I'm likely to quote again +at any minute." + +"Well, quote the Scriptures then to Evangeline when she comes." + +"Hark!" + +She was coming now. They could hear the light, hurrying steps. Was +Evangeline never tired? Did neither parades nor circuses--mysterious +wanderings nor mysterious triumphs--affect her? + +"The show is about to begin," murmured Miss Theodosia. + +It began immediately. Evangeline came bursting in upon them, waving a +blue ribbon. She was a fresh and radiant Evangeline. + +"Stefana says I can't stay only a minute. Stefana's kind o' mad, but she +didn't dass to be, out loud, for fear we'd 'xcite Elly Precious. He's +asleep. I was so proud of his arms an' legs when I undressed 'em! +They're very high-percented arms 'n' legs. Mercy gracious, yes! Don't +you see this ribbon's blue--blue--blue! That's because he's a Best Baby, +an' the prize was five dollars, an' they gave him a dollar 'special,' +too, that we're goin' to put in the bank--" + +Miss Theodosia held up her hand. + +"Begin at the beginning," she commanded. "Where have you been all this +time? What on earth have you been doing?" + +"Showin' Elly Precious," flashed back Evangeline brightly. "You've heard +o' Poultry Shows? Well, this wasn't. This was a Baby Show. We never +noticed it was advertised in the p'rade at all--a man with a sandwich +on. A lady told me. She said the circus folks were pretty bright, +because all o' the world loved babies an' they knew 'twould make a +beautiful side show. She said they knew it would draw, an' it did. It +drew me an' Elly Precious! The circus folks offered prizes. They weighed +an' measured 'em to see which was a Best Baby, an' Elly Precious was! +You better be proud that you--that you measled a Best Baby!" + +Miss Theodosia's glance met the Man Person's. The show was turning out +well. + +"I've got to go back, or Stefana--oh, mercy gracious me, it was worth +folks bein' mad! There was a nurse there an' a lovely lady an' a doctor. +They let me stay Elly Precious's nap out, because it isn't a sleep +go-cart. He has to sit up straight in it. The lady said to lie him down +there an' let him sleep. But we didn't expect he'd sleep so long--the +lady went away, but I stayed. I wasn't goin' to wake a Best Baby up out +o' a sound sleep! It made us a little late gettin' home." + +"Yes, go on," murmured the Man Person feelingly. + +"Why, that's as far as there is to go. Then we came home." + +"Why didn't you go back and tell Stefana or Miss Theodosia? Where was +your Baby Show, anyway?" + +"In a tent. I happened to get a peek in an' saw folks with babies, an' I +was a folks with one, so I just went in. That's all. I was goin' to tell +Stefana, but he cried an' I couldn't leave him. He wouldn't have took a +prize, cryin'. I had to keep dancin' to him--mercy gracious! But it was +worth it. Then when he'd got all measured an' weighed,--it's pretty +wearin' work,--he went to sleep. I told you that. I had to wait for him +to wake up." For the first time Evangeline was on the defensive; she +read the faint disapproval in Miss Theodosia's face. + +"Mercy gracious, I never s'posed you'd go an' worry! I thought--I +thought you'd jus' be pur-roud." Actually, Evangeline was crying now. +Miss Theodosia's disapproval vanished instantly. With a sweep of her +arms, she gathered a forgiven Evangeline in. The Man Person stood +outside the little zone of feminine emotion, but he had his own brand. + +"We _are_ pur-roud," Miss Theodosia crooned over the subdued little +figure. "It's perfectly splendid about the blue ribbon and the prize!" + +"An' the special." + +"An' the special. Think of what his mother will say! But I knew he was +the Best Baby all the time; it was written in between every little +measle!" And saving laughter righted the situation; Evangeline bounded +back to her usual spirits. "Now," Miss Theodosia said, "I'll get you +some preserved ginger and shoo you home! You mustn't stay another +minute, or Stefana will surely be over here with a policeman." + +"Stefana's proud, too--she needn't pretend! I saw her kissin' Elly +Precious's knee. But she'll scold; she thinks it's her duty. Mercy +gracious, when Aunt Sarah knits an' Mother's back, I hope Stefana'll +grow down again." + +The Man Person poised his teacup above the saucer, arrested by this new +puzzle. + +"Er--grow how?" + +"Down. She's so terrible grown-up now. It's been pretty wearin' on my +nerves. We use' to play dolls together. We don't ever now. She's too +starched up." + +"Poor Stefana with her starch!" murmured Miss Theodosia. The poor little +martyr to starch! It was to be hoped, indeed, that when Aunt Sarah knit, +Stefana could grow down again and play dolls. + +"Do you know her mother--Evangeline's?" Miss Theodosia asked, after the +child had gone. "Is Evangeline like her;--is that where she gets her +Evangelineness?" + +"No, she must get it from the father. The mother is exactly like +Stefana, or may be I've got it the wrong end to. I never saw the father; +he died a few weeks before the baby was born." + +"Well, the father must have been remarkable; somebody is responsible for +Evangeline. I love that child next to--my baby. Supposing--I think of it +sometimes--supposing I had staid in Rome or Paris or Farthest +Anyplace--not come home at all, you know,--then I should have missed it +all. I should never have known those children." + +"Nor me," he ventured. She did not appear to hear, but went on musingly: + +"Something sent me home--I needed those children." + +"And me!" + +"I was going on a fast train--a through express--straight to Lonesome +Land!" + +She laughed softly as if she were alone. "If Evangeline hadn't Flagged +my train--it was Evangeline! She switched me off on another track." +Miss Theodosia's tender eyes lifted and met the Man Person's with a +little start of recognition as if saying: "Why, are you here!" But she +met those other eyes staunchly. "I'm glad I stopped off at this Flagg +station. I like it here." + +For a little the big room, bright with lamplight, was so still that the +clock ticked impertinently. Miss Theodosia's tea cooled in its cup, and +John Bradford had long ago forgotten his. The big hands on the +chair-arms gripped them unconsciously. Then, suddenly, the man got to +his feet and walked to the far end of the room. On his return he stopped +before Miss Theodosia, looking down. + +"I love you," John Bradford said. The impertinent clock kept on, but +Miss Theodosia could not hear it now for the ticking of her heart. Was +she a frightened girl that she could not lift her eyes? + +"I was on that express, too--bound for that same place. I thank the Lord +I got off here. I shall always thank Him, whether you can love me or +not. I shall always love you. If you thought, sometime--I can wait--" + +Miss Theodosia's eyes lifted. But she shook her head. + +"I'm afraid not--sometime." + +He still stood, looking down. Very gently he touched her hair; she could +hear the long breath he drew. + +"I was afraid so. It was too much to ask. But I had to take my chance. +Don't be distressed, dear. I am happy, loving you. You can't deny me +that! I've loved you ever since I found you mending my shirt. I have had +a beautiful time loving you, and it will keep right on. But I was crazy, +wasn't I, to think--of course you 'couldn't sometime.'" + +"Because I love you now," she said steadily. "I have--I have just found +it out!" + +The gently stroking hand ceased its work. John Bradford caught the sweet +face between his great palms and turned it upward to his. + +"Dear!" he cried. He was a boy, she a girl. Love has no age. It swept +over them, a young sweet tide. This man--this woman. There was no one +else in the world then. + +"Dear!" she whispered, matching her love-word to his, "and I never knew +till a minute ago!" + +"I always knew. The shirt had no part in it! I have loved you since the +world began and the morning stars sang! You were made for me to love; +all these years I have been waiting for you, dear." + +"All these years!" she repeated a little sadly--"that reminds us. But we +are not old! I won't be--I won't have you be! What is time, anyway?" + +"Nothing!" He blew it away in a whiff of scorn. "What is anything but +that I love you and you love me? We are just born now--this is our +birthday! May I kiss you on your birthday, dear? Will you kiss me on +mine?" + +The clock must have stopped in very astonishment at this scandal of +grown love playing young love. At any rate, there was only the sound of +the young love in the room. The room sang with the beautiful sound of +it. + +It seemed a very long time afterward that John Bradford asked his +man-question: "When?" + +"When your book is written--the love story. Not till then." + +"It's getting on beautifully!" he pleaded. "It never will be done. +There's going to be no end to the chapters." + +"Mercy gracious! Where are you now?" + +"The heroine has just said yes. The hero has just kissed her--he is just +going to kiss her ag--" + +"Mercy--mercy gracious!" Miss Theodosia's fair cheeks flooded pink. She +held up a staying hand. + +"Wait--till I get--get used to being a heroine! Am I? Was _that_ the +love story?" + +"That was the love story. I have been working on it every day. Some days +I had set-backs--when the heroine flung things in my face about reformed +doctors, and times like that." + +"She took them back again, those things. She was a kind sort of a +heroine." + +"She was a dear. He wanted to kiss her when she took them back, those +things. I had all _I_ could do to keep him from it. He was a tough sort +of a hero to work with. I had my hands full." + +"Did you love--did the hero love the heroine when they sat drinking cups +of tea?" + +"A little harder every cup." + +"When they nursed the measles?" + +"A little more every measle." + +"When they went to the circus?" She drew a long, happy breath. "I like +to have been that heroine! Dear, is it right to be as happy as this? For +old folks, I mean--near-olds? Oughtn't we to knock on wood? Oh, I've +just thought of Evangeline. What will Evangeline say?" + +"Something Evangelical," he laughed. "I hope I'll be there." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Evangeline had excitements of her own. As though prizes for Best Babies +were not enough, a new excitement began the very next day. Two +excitements--one on the lovely heels of the other. Evangeline, gasping +in the joyous throes of the first-comer, raced over to Miss Theodosia, +as she had learned to race with troubles as well as joys. All the way +she emitted sounds approximating steam-whistles. The very nature of the +news she was carrying suggested the sounds she made carrying it. + +"The elegantest thing has happened--I mean's goin' to!" She could not +wait to get quite there, but sent her news ahead of her through the +transmitting medium of air. Miss Theodosia, on her porch, sat dreaming +her love's young dream--young, not old; not old! + +"The elegant elegantest! He's goin' to be cured! He won't be deaf o' +hearin' any more! I mean he thinks he won't--I mean _he_--" + +"Sit down on the step, dear. Count ten, then start again." + +"Onetwothreefour--oh, I can't wait to get to ten! If your little brother +had always been deaf o' hearin' an' a doctor looked into him with a +spy-glass an' said I think this boy can be cured, I'm goin' to take him +to a hospital an' have him operated when his mother is willin' if she +gets home--I mean if she gets home when she's willin'--oh, I mean--" + +"Yes, dear. Sit still. I understand, and I think she will be willing +when she gets home, don't you? Oh, Evangeline, won't we all be happy to +have Carruthers cured of his poor little deafness o' hearing! I know the +doctor, and he knows ears! We'll trust him, Evangeline. He will do +everything in the world there is to be done. And we'll stay at home and +pray." + +"Pray!" cried Evangeline. Her little thin face lifted to the blue +heavens. "I've woke up right slap in the middle o' nights an' prayed: +'Oh, Lord, that made a little children an' forgot his ears, do somethin' +now--don't you think you'd ought to, O Lord? It don't seem fair not to. +He ain't ever heard Elly Precious crow, nor laugh--think o' that, dear +Lord.'" The shrill voice dropped suddenly. "But He never." Evangeline +sighed. + +"Till now, dear--we hope He will now. He and the doctor who knows ears. +I thought you were so pleased and that you were--" + +"Oh, yes'm, oh, I am! It was just--I was thinkin' how lovely Elly +Precious's laugh sounds an' Carruthers not ever hearin' it. So far, I +mean." Evangeline caught her courage again in both hands. "But he'll +laugh 'nough more times when he can hear--I mean when Carruthers can. +Won't it be puffectly elegant!" + +It was later in the same day when the second excitement struck the +little House of Flaggs. Evangeline raced again across the separating +green grass to Miss Theodosia. This time she went at reduced speed +because she had Elly Precious over her shoulder. Miss Theodosia saw them +coming and smiled. + +"More news! I know it is puffectly elegant by Evangeline's face. Well, +Evangeline?" + +"Mercy gracious! Take him before I spill him! I'm so happy I joggle. +She's knittin' an' she's comin' home! I mean knittin' _enough_. She said +'my--dear--children--I--expect--to--be--home--to-morrow +--Aunt--Sarah--is--better--an'--I--can't +wait--to--see--you--your--mother--' Mercy gracious, when Stefana got to +your mother, seemed as if I'd burst! We hollered it to Carruthers, an' +he burst! An' Elly Precious knows she's comin', I know he knows. Tickle +him an' see how pleased he is!" Without comma or semicolon, to say +nothing of periods, Evangeline panted on. Out of breath at last, her +voice sat down an instant, as it were, to rest. It was up again in a +moment. + +"To-morrow is most to-day! It'll be to-day to-morrow! Oh, mercy gracious +me! We're goin' to sweep under everything an' behind--every las' thing, +under 'n' behind. She won't find a grain o' dust. An' Stefana's makin' +starch." + +"Mercy gracious!" softly ejaculated Miss Theodosia. + +"I mean to eat in the dessert--corn-starch. We've begun to skim Elly +Precious's bottles. You can eat thin bottles, can't you, darlin' dear, +when Mother's comin' home? Corn-starch has to have cream on it--when +Mother's comin' home!" She laughed joyously. All past and creamless +corn-starches were a joke. Laughing at them was easy at this happy +moment. + +"Isn't it splendid Aunt Sarah went to knittin'? Mercy gracious, I hope +she won't--won't drop a stitch for Mother to have to stay an' pick up!" +Evangeline's laugh trilled out once more. + +"Do you suppose you'd dass to cut Elly Precious's hair, Miss Theodosia, +while I danced like everything an' made faces? Dutchy, you know, in the +back o' his neck--he's straggly now. I'd make awful faces--" + +"I wouldn't 'dass,' dear," smiled Miss Theodosia. "I never could cut +fast enough and you never could dance hard enough--we'd hurt him." + +"Well, she'll look at the front o' him first--never mind. We're goin' to +put on that darlin' little ni'gown you made, for a dress--belt it in, +you know, with a ribbon off the handle o' the clo'es-basket; Stefana's +ironed it out. An' we're goin' to pin on his blue ribbon prize." + +John Bradford came that evening to sit on the porch in the soft warmth +that autumn had borrowed from summers-to-come, with promissory note to +pay it back when lovers were through with it. Miss Theodosia met him +with the news. + +"Mustn't it be beautiful to be welcomed home like that, dear? If you +could have seen Evangeline's little shiny face! And the way Elly +Precious laughed--when I tickled him! And, oh, John--Do you hear me +call you John? I thought it would be hard!" + +"'And, oh, John--'" he prompted, putting it yet further off by a +kiss-length. + +"Oh, John, I know about Carruthers. You're going to take him away to +cure him." + +"To try to cure him," John Bradford said gravely. + +"You'll do it, dear--you and the Lord! Evangeline and I are trusting. +Hark, she is coming! No one else sounds like that!" + +"No one else gallops--canters--breaks speed limits!" he laughed. "Now +what? More news?" + +The same news over again, but Evangeline saw that which momentarily +banished it from her mind. She saw John Bradford standing behind Miss +Theodosia's chair; she saw him stoop over it. + +"Mercy gracious, he kissed her!" gasped Evangeline. Something told her +to turn and gallop back, but she could not stop in time. She was already +at the foot of the steps. Awful embarrassment seized her--seized +Evangeline! In the faint, reflected lamplight from within the house she +could see the two above her looking down. Mercy gracious! + +"Sit down, Evangeline." + +"I'm s-sittin'--I _think_ I'm sittin' down." Up-standings and +down-sittings were confused in the general dizziness of things. Perhaps +she was standing up. + +"You're not sick, are you, Evangeline? You're not saying anything." + +Then Evangeline said something. + +"I--I saw him--doin' it, I mean. Mercy gracious, _what'll I do_?" For +some inherited delicacy of instinct made of her a dreadful intruder; she +saw herself in the shameful act. Instinctively Evangeline knew she was +on sacred ground. + +"I couldn't stop, I was goin' so fast. It's too late not to see him +doin' it; I don't know what to do." + +With swift, light steps Miss Theodosia was down beside her. John +Bradford with one step was there. Evangeline looked shamefacedly up into +their two kind faces. + +"I'm sorry," she whispered. For answer, John Bradford took one of Miss +Theodosia's hands and laid it on hers. He held out one of his own. + +"May I have this lady to be my wedded wife, Evangeline? Will you give +her to me?" His big voice was very tender. Evangeline looked into his +shining eyes. The mystery of love swept through her small, sweet soul. +She shut her eyes as if from some light too bright for them. If she were +alone, she would say her prayers. But the tender voice was going on. + +"May I have her, Evangeline--will you put her hand in mine? She is very +dear, indeed, to me." She could feel Miss Theodosia's soft hand quiver +against her own hard little palm. Miss Theodosia's eyes were tender, +too. + +Then, suddenly, inspiration came to her. She laid the soft hand in the +big hand and looked up, smiling into John Bradford's face. + +"I'm willin'," she said, "if you'll honor an' obey." + +It was as if a silken gown enfolded Evangeline's straight little +shoulders and they heard her say: "I pronounce thee." The strange little +ceremony left them hushed. + +No one spoke again for a little space. Somewhere sleepy birds twittered, +disturbed by rustling leaves or stealthy marauders. Somewhere a clock +intoned distantly. A train far away rushed through the night, perhaps to +some Lonesome Land, but they were not on it. Then John Bradford broke +the spell. He leaned down and kissed Evangeline. + +A little laugh bubbled up to him. "You must've made a mistake. I'm the +wrong one--mercy gracious!" + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings, by +Annie Hamilton Donnell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS THEODOSIA'S HEARTSTRINGS *** + +***** This file should be named 8865.txt or 8865.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/8/6/8865/ + +Produced by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + +Author: Annie Hamilton Donnell + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8865] +[This file was first posted on August 16, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MISS THEODOSIA'S HEARTSTRINGS *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + +Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + +BY + +ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +WILLIAM VAN DRESSER + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of +Stefana's patient endeavors. FRONTISPIECE.] + + + +To MY HUSBAND + +WHO COULD WRITE SO MUCH + +BETTER A BOOK AND + +DEDICATE IT TO + +ME! + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's patient +endeavors. + +"We've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly" + +"If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into a story like +that" + +Evangeline established a stage of action outside the window + + + + +Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +"Mercy gracious!" + +"_Well!"_ + +The last utterance was Miss Theodosia Baxter's. She was a woman of few +words at all times where few sufficed. One sufficed now. The child on +her front porch, with a still childlier child on the small area of her +knees, was not a creature of few words, but now extreme surprise limited +speech. She was stricken with brevity,--stricken is the word--to match +Miss Theodosia's. + +Downward, upward, each gazed into the other's surprised face. The +childlier child, jouncing pleasantly back and forth, viewed them both +impartially. + +It was the child who regarded the situation, after a moment of mental +adjustment, as humorous. She giggled softly. + +"Mercy gracious! How you surprised me' 'n' Elly Precious, an' me 'n' +Elly Precious surprised you! I don't know which was the whichest! We +came over to be shady just once more. We didn't s'pose you would come +home till to-morrow, did we, Elly Precious?" + +"I came last night," Miss Theodosia replied with crispness. She stood in +her doorway, apparently waiting for something which--apparently--was not +to happen. The child and Elly Precious sat on in seeming calm. + +"Yes'm. Of course if you hadn't come, you wouldn't be standin' there +lookin' at Elly Precious--isn't he a darlin' dear? Wouldn't you like to +look at his toes?" + +It was Miss Theodosia Baxter's turn to say "Mercy gracious!" but she did +not say it aloud. It was her turn, too, to see a bit of humor in the +situation on her front porch. + +"Not--just now," she said rather hastily. She could not remember ever to +have seen a baby's toes. "I've no doubt they are--are excellent toes." +The word did not satisfy her, but the suitable adjective was not at +hand. + +"Mercy gracious! That's a funny way to talk about toes! Elly Precious's +are pink as anything--an' six--yes'm! I've made consid'able money out of +his toes. Yes," with rising pride at the sight of Miss Theodosia's +surprise, "'leven cents, so far. I only charged Lelia Fling a cent for +two looks, because Lelia's baby's dead. I've got three cents out o' her; +she says five of Elly Precious's remind her of her baby's toes. Isn't it +funny you can't make boys pay to look at babies' toes, even when they's +such a lot? Only just girls. Stefana says it's because girls are +ungrown-up mothers. Mercy gracious! speakin' of Stefana an' mothers, +reminds me--" + +The shrill little voice stopped with a suddenness that made the woman in +the door fear for Elly Precious; it seemed that he must be jolted from +his narrow perch. + +Miss Theodosia had wandered up and down the world for three years in be +search of something to interest her, only to come home and find it here +upon the upper step of her own front porch. She stepped from the doorway +and sat down in one of the wicker rockers. She had plenty of time to be +interested; there was really no haste for unpacking and settling back +into her little country rut. + +"What about 'Stefana and mothers'?" she prodded gently. A cloud had +settled on the child's vivid little face and threatened to overshade the +childlier child, as well. "I suppose 'Stefana' is a Spanish person, +isn't she?" The name had a definitely foreign sound. + +"Oh, no'm--just a United States. We're all United States. Mother named +her; we've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly. Mother hated to +call him Elihu, but there was Grandfather gettin' older an' older all +the time, an' she dassen't wait till the next one. She put it off an' +off with the other boys, Carruthers an' Gilpatrick--he's dead. She just +couldn't name any of 'em Elihu, till Grandfather scared her, gettin' so +old. She was afraid there wouldn't be time, an' there wasn't any to +spare. Grandfather's dead now--she's thankful enough she didn't wait any +longer. He was so pleased. He said be could depart this life easier, +leavin' an Elihu Flagg behind him. An', anyway, Mother says Elly can +call himself his middle name, if he'd ruther, when he's twenty-one--his +middle name's Launcelot." + +Elihu Launcelot, at this juncture, toppled over against the little flat +breast of his nurse, asleep--or in a swoon; Miss Theodosia had her +fears. There seemed sufficient swooning cause. + +"Stefana," she prompted again, her interest advancing at a rapid pace, +"and mothers--" + +"Stefana's our oldest. She's goin' to run us while Mother's away. She's +got a job before her! All I can do is 'tend Elly Precious--we're all +boys, but us. But, of course, runnin' the family isn't the real +trouble--not what made Mother cry." + +Miss Theodosia sat forward in her chair. + +"What made Mother cry?" she asked. The child shifted her heavy burden +the better to turn her head. She regarded the beautiful white lady +gloomily. + +"You," she stated briefly. + +This time Miss Theodosia said it aloud and with a surprising ease, as if +of long custom--"Mercy gracious!" + +"Oh, I didn't mean you're to blame; you can't help Aunt Sarah tumblin' +down the cellar stairs an' Mother not bein' able to do you up." + +"Do me--up?" + +"Yes'm--white-wash you. Mother was sure you'd let her, an' we were goin' +to send Carruthers to a deaf 'n' dumb school after you'd wore white +clo'es enough. He isn't dumb, but he's deaf. He can't hear Elly Precious +laugh--only yell. Mother heard that you always wore white dresses an' +she most hugged herself--she hugged us. She said you'd prob'ly find out +what a good white-washer she was an' let her white-wash you. But, now, +Aunt Sarah's went an' fell down cellar." + +"Whitewash--whitewash?" queried Miss Theodosia. + +"Yes'm, you didn't think Mother was a washwoman, did you? Of course she +could, but it doesn't pay's well. She only whitewashes--white clo'es, +you know, dresses an' shirtwaists. She says it's her talent that the +Lord's gave her, an' she's goin' to make it gain ten talents for +Carruthers. But Aunt Sarah--" + +"Never mind Aunt Sarah. Unless--do you mean your mother has had to go +away from home?" + +"Yes'm, to see to Aunt Sarah. They were twins when they were babies. +Mother cried, because she said of course you'd have to be done up while +she was gone, an' so she'd lost you. She said you'd been her bacon light +ever since she heard you was comin' home an' wore so many white clo'es." + +The garrulous little voice might have run on indefinitely but for the +abrupt appearance, here, of a slender girl in an all-enwrapping gingham +apron. She came hurrying up Miss Theodosia's front walk. + +"Well, Evangeline Flagg, I hope you're blushing crimson scarlet +red--helping yourself to folks's doorsteps that's got back from Europe! +I hope--" but the newcomer got no further, for, quite suddenly, she +found herself blushing crimson scarlet red, in the grip of a +disconcerting thought. + +"I suppose it's just as bad to help yourself to doorsteps when folks +aren't here as when they are," she said slowly, "but you mustn't blame +Mother. She'd never've allowed Evangeline and Elly, if we'd had a single +sol-i-ta-ry tree. Or been on the shady side. Or had a porch. Elly's been +pindly, and Mother felt obliged to save his life. It's been terribly +hot. Here, Evangeline Flagg, you give Elly here, an' you run home an' +keep the soup-kettle from burning on. Don't you wait until it smells! +I've got an errand to do here." + +The child, Evangeline, relinquished her burden and turned slowly away. +But she halted at the foot of the steps. + +"This is Stefana," she introduced politely. "Stefana, you ain't _goin' +to_? You look 'xactly as if you was. Mercy gracious!" + +[Illustration: "We've all got beautiful names except poor Elly."] + +"Yes," Stefana returned gravely, "I am. Now, you go. Remember the soup!" + +Miss Theodosia's interested gaze left the retreating little figure and +came back to Stefana and Elly Precious. She was pleasantly aware of her +own immaculate daintiness in her crisp white dress. Only Theodosia +Baxter would have dreamed of arraying herself in white to unpack and +settle. Her friends declared she made a fetich of her white raiment; it +was a well-known fact among them that she was extremely "fussy" about +its laundering. + +"One, two, three," counted the slender girl, over the baby's bald little +head, "only three tucks, an' the lace not terribly full on the edges. +I'm thankful there aren't any ruffles, but, there, I suppose there are +on some o' the others, aren't there? I'll have to manage the ruffles. I +mean, if--oh, I mean, won't you please let me do you up? Just till Aunt +Sarah's bone knits--so to save you for Mother? I'll try so hard! If I +don't, Charlotte Lovell will--she's the only other one. She's a +beautiful washer and ironer, but none of her children are deaf, and she +hasn't any, anyway. I didn't dare to come over and ask you, but I kept +thinking of poor Mother and how she's been 'lotting on earning all that +money. There, I've asked you--please don't answer till I've counted ten. +When we were little, Mother always said for us to; it was safer. One, +two, three--" she counted rapidly, then swung about facing Miss +Theodosia. "You can say 'no,' now," she said, with a difficult little +smile. + +Miss Theodosia had been, in a way, counting ten herself. She had had +time to remember her very strict injunctions to those to whom she +entrusted her beloved white gowns--to pull out the lace with careful +fingers, not to iron it; to iron embroidered portions over many +thicknesses of flannel, and never, never, never on the right side; to +starch the dresses just enough and not too much. All these thoughts +flashed through her mind while Stefana counted ten. But it was without +accompaniment of injunctions that Miss Theodosia answered on that +wistful little stroke of ten. In her soul she felt the futility of +injunctions. + +"Yes," answered Miss Theodosia. + +Stefana whirled, at the risk of Elihu Launcelot. + +"Oh--oh, what? You mean I can do you up, honest? Starch you, and iron +you, too--of course, I could wash you. Oh, if I could drop Elly Precious +I'd get right up and dance!" + +"Give Elly Precious to me, and go ahead, my dear," said the White Lady +with a smile. + +But Stefana shook her head. She was covertly studying the white dress +once more. It was very white--she could detect no promising spots or +creases, and she drew a sigh even in the midst of her rejoicing. If a +person only sat on porches, in chairs, how often did white dresses need +doing up? Miss Theodosia interpreted the sigh and look. + +"Oh, I've three of them rolled up in my trunk; aren't three enough to +begin on? And shirtwaists--I'm sure I don't know how many of those. I'll +go and get them now." + +In the hall she stopped at the mirror, jibing at the image confronting +her. "You've done it this time, Theodosia Baxter! When you can't bear a +wrinkle! But, there, don't look so scared--daughters inherit their +mothers' talents, plenty of times. And you need only try it once, of +course." + +After Stefana had gone away, doubly laden with clothes and bulky baby, +Miss Theodosia remained on her porch. She found herself leaning over and +parting her porch-vines, to get a glimpse of the little house next door. +She had always loathed that little house with its barefaced poverties +and uglinesses, and it had been a great relief to her to have it stand +vacant in past years. She had left it vacant when she started upon her +last globe-trotting. Now here it was teeming with life, and here she was +aiding and abetting it! What new manner of Theodosia Baxter was this? + +"You'd better get up and globe-trot again, Woman, and not unpack," she +uttered, with a lone woman's habit of talking to herself. "You were +never made to live in a house like other people--to sit on porches and +rock. And certainly, Theodosia Baxter, you were never made to live next +to that little dry-goods box. It will turn you gray, poor thing." She +felt a gentle pity for herself, then gentle wrath seized her. Why had +she come home, anyway? Already she was lonely and restless. Why--could +anybody tell her why--had she weakly yielded to two small girls? Her +dear-beloved white dresses! And she could not go back on her +promise--not on a Baxter promise! There was, indeed, the release of +going away again, back to her globe-trotting-- + +"I might write to Cornelia Dunlap," Miss Theodosia thought. "Maybe she +is sorry she came home, too." + +Cornelia Dunlap had been her recent comrade of the road. They had +traveled to many far places together. What would Cornelia say to that +little conference of three--and a baby--on the front porch? + +"My dear," wrote Miss Theodosia, "you will think I have been swapped in +my cradle since I left you! 'That is no fellow tramp of mine,' you will +say, 'That woman being victimized by children in knee-high dresses! +Theodosia Baxter nothing!'"--for Cornelia Dunlap in moments of surprise +resorted sometimes to slang, which she claimed was a sturdy vehicle of +speech. "You will set down your teacup hard," wrote on Miss +Theodosia,--"I know you are drinking tea!--when I tell you the little +story of the Whitewashing of Theodosia Baxter. But shall I tell it? Why +expose Theodosia Baxter's weaknesses when hitherto she has posed as +strong? Soberly, Cornelia, I am as much surprised at myself as you will +be (oh, I shall tell it!). Do you remember your Mother Goose? The little +astonished old lady who took a nap beside the road and woke to find her +petticoats cut off at her knees? 'Oh, lawk-a-daisy me, can this be I!' +cried she. I'm not sure those were just her words, but they will do. Oh, +lawk-a-daisy me, can this be Theodosia Baxter! The Astonished Little Old +Lady, if I remember my Mother Goose, resorted to the simple expedient of +going home and letting her little dog decide if she were she. But I have +no little dog. + +"They were so earnest to whitewash me, Cornelia! The whole scheme was +such a plucky little one and Baxters, from the dawn of creation, have +admired pluck. The lively, chatterbox-one was 'Evangeline' and the quiet +one who should have been an Evangeline was what the other one ought to +have been,--a 'Stefana,' suggestive of flashing, dark eyes under a lace +mantilla, with ways to match the eyes. So does fate play her little +jokes. The baby--but what do I know of babies or you know of babies? He +had six toes and I might have seen them for nothing; so do we miss our +opportunities. He was named for his grandfather just in time, but the +name, my dear, the name! Elihu. Are you listening? _Elihu_! But they +offered him the assuaging 'sop' of 'Launcelot' for a middle name, and +what could a baby do? Babies are the little scapegoats of mistaken +loyalties." + +Miss Theodosia was having a good time. Her sober mood had passed. She +wrote on enjoyingly, describing the whole little episode to Cornelia +Dunlap. The freshening of it in her memory was pleasant. Again she felt +the tug of those eager little pleadings. She kept remembering other +things about little Elihu Launcelot besides his name and his toes. She +remembered how gravely he had looked at her, how tiny and soft his hands +were. + +"That little box of a house next to mine, Cornelia,--I told you about +it. Well, it's as full now as it has been empty, and a little fuller. +Dear knows how many it holds! But it's sociable seeing the smoke come +out of the chimney; _it's friendly_." + +She had not thought of it as sociable and friendly before. The thought +seemed just to have come to her. She was quite cheerful-minded when she +finished her letter to Cornelia Dunlap and neatly folded it. If she had +but known, she was sorry for Cornelia who was not next door to a +friendly little box. + +She made tea and sipped it, made golden toast and opened a +foreign-looking box of some sort of jelly. While she ate slowly, she +slowly made plans. No, she would not have a stay-all-the-time maid--yes, +she would move her things into the room facing the next-door house. +Until she got tired of watching the sociable thread of smoke, anyway. + +It had not occurred yet to Theodosia Baxter that she had not said a word +to Cornelia Dunlap about going on their travels again. When it did +occur, she suddenly laughed out aloud, but softly. + +"I forgot what I began that letter _for_! I never mentioned going away +again! And now--I'm glad. Who wants to go off? 'East, west, hame's +best.' Even a hame next door to a little dry-goods box." + +Of course there was the promise to let those funny kiddies whitewash +her-- + +"It's a Baxter promise; don't try to get out of it, Theodosia Baxter," +she said. + +The next noon she saw her dresses dangling from the neighboring +clothesline. They were not successfully dangled; Miss Theodosia liked to +see them hung with symmetry, all alike in a seemly row. The shirtwaists +dangled also in unseemly attitudes. One hung by a single sleeve. But +that was not all--a certain faint suggestion of something worse than +lack of symmetry persisted in Miss Theodosia's mind. They had been +especially travel-stained, soiled; they had still an air of soil and +travel-stain. They didn't look clean! + +Miss Theodosia groaned. "It may be blueing streaks," she said, but there +was little comfort in blueing streaks. She got her opera glasses and +peered through them at her beloved dresses. Brought up at close range, +they were certainly blue-streaked, and there was plain lack of the snowy +whiteness her stern washing-creed demanded. + +At intervals, small figures issued from the house and circled about the +clotheslines, inspecting their contents critically. Miss Theodosia saw +one of them--it was the child of her doorstep--lay questionable hold (it +must be questionable!) upon a delicate garment and examine a portion of +it excitedly. She saw the child dart back to the house and again issue +forth, dragging the slender young washerwoman. Together they examined. +Miss Theodosia caught up her glasses and brought the little pair into +the near field of her vision; she saw both anxious young faces. The face +of Stefana was strained and careworn. + +Miss Theodosia was thirty-six years old, and all of the years had been +comfortable, carefree ones. In the natural order of her pleasantly +migratory, luxurious life, she had rarely come into close contact with +careworn or strained faces; this contact through the small, clear lenses +seemed startlingly close. Stefana's lean and anxious face, the child's +baby-bent little back, like the back of an old woman--it was at these +Miss Theodosia looked through her pearl glasses. She forgot to look at +the garment the children examined so troubledly. Suddenly, Miss +Theodosia Baxter--traveler, fortune-favored one--found herself as +anxious for the success of Stefana's stout little project as the two +young people within her field of view, but, suddenly and unaccountably, +from a new motive. The slim, worn-looking little creature,--and that +tinier, tired little creature--must not fail! The stout project should +succeed! + +Stefana carried the disputed garment back into the house and rewashed +it; it was dripping wet when she again dangled it beside the others. +Several times during the afternoon this process was repeated, until, at +nightfall, the entire wash dripped, rewashed and soggy. Miss Theodosia +nodded her head approvingly; she had her reasons for being glad that the +wash was to remain out overnight. + +It was a starless, moonless night--a night to prowl successfully about +clotheslines. + +Miss Theodosia prowled. The little dry-goods box full of children was a +small, vague blur, a little darker than the darkness. The children slept +the profound sleep of childhood and childhood's unbelonging toil. Sleep +was smoothing Stefana's roughened little nerves with gentle hand and +fortifying her courage for yet more strenuous toils to come. +Evangeline's weary little arm--and tongue--were resting. + +Miss Theodosia prowled softly, to avoid disturbing the little box-house. +She had the guilty conscience of the prowler that sent her heart into +her mouth at the crackling of a twig under her feet. She found herself +listening, holding her breath in a small panic. No sound of wakened +sleepers, but there must be no more twigs. + +"I must add a postscript to Cornelia Dunlap's letter," she thought. +"This would make a thrilling wind-up! Cornelia would say, 'Lawk-a-daisy +me, it _can't_ be Theodosia Baxter!' She wouldn't need any little dog." + +Safe in her own house once more, Miss Theodosia breathed a sigh of +relief. Saved! But there was another trip yet to be made to that region +behind the vague little blur of a box. It was too soon to be relieved. + +"What I've done once I can do twice," boasted Miss Theodosia, undaunted, +though at the approach of her second prowling expedition, her courage +waned unexpectedly. "I mean if I have a cup of tea--strong," she weakly +appended to her boast. It would take her longer out there the second +time. She really needed tea. + +Miss Theodosia retired at eleven, tired but contented. She even smiled +at her sodden fingers--when had Miss Theodosia Baxter's fingers been +sodden before! + +The next morning, the child and the childlier child appeared at her +porch, where she rocked contentedly. + +"She's ironin' 'em!--Stefana's ironin' 'em! No, I can't sit down; she +said not to. She's ironed one dress three times. It's funny how irons +stick, isn't it? No, not funny--mercy gracious! You oughter see +Stefana's cheeks, an' she's burnt both thumbs--I'm keepin' Elly Precious +out o' the way, an' she's forbid Carruthers comin' in a step. She'll get +'em ironed, Stefana will. You can't discourage Stefana! Last night I +kind of thought you could, but the clo'es whitened out beautiful in the +night. Stefana said it was the night air. There wasn't a single streak +left this mornin'. We're goin' to keep your money in Mother's weddin' +sugar-bowl, an' when she comes back, we're goin' to ask her if she don't +want some sugar!" + +All day Stefana toiled and retoiled. It was night when she sent one of +the children to Miss Theodosia with her day's work. The one who came was +Carruthers, chatty and deaf. Miss Theodosia did not have to do any +talking. + +"Stefana says there's some smooches, but the worst ones come under your +arms an' where they's puckers. The wrinkles Stefana hopes you'll +excuse--they'll air 'out, she expects. She was comin' over an' explain, +herself, but she's gone to bed. Evangeline's gone, too, to keep the baby +quiet. Stefana says you needn't pay as much's you expected to, 'count o' +the smooches an' wrink--" + +"I always pay the same price for my dresses," Miss Theodosia said, +forgetful of the boy's affliction. She put the money into the hard +little palm of Carruthers and watched him scamper home with it. Miss +Theodosia looked happy. She felt pleasant little tweaks at her +heartstrings as if small grimy hands were ringing them, playing a tender +little tune. Scorched, blundering young hands--Stefana's. The little +tune rang plaintive in her ears. She had a vision of Stefana toiling +over the ironing of her dresses and going to bed exhausted, when the +toil was over. Miss Theodosia's eyes followed Carruther's retreating +little figure till it reached the House of Little Children and +disappeared from view. What had she, Theodosia Baxter, to do with houses +of little children? Since when had they possessed attractions for +her--held her tender, brooding gaze? What was she doing here now, +gazing? Theodosia Baxter! + +Stefana had folded the dresses painstakingly in separate newspaper +bundles and stacked them on Carruther's outstretched arms. They were +stacked now on Miss Theodosia's porch. She picked them up and turned +with them into the house. + +"I'll unfold them," she thought, "and shake them out. I must tell her to +send them home without folding next time--or I can go and get them +myself." + +Unpinning Stefana's many pins, she lifted out one of the dresses. It +creaked starchily under her hands; it opened out before Miss Theodosia's +horrified vision. She uttered a groan. + +Where, now, was that tender little heart-string tune? + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Miss Theodosia saw pink. Near-anger surged up within her at this +ruinous, this piteous result of Stefana's toil. The result dangled +creaksomely from her hands, revealing new wrinkles and smooches and +leprous patches of starch at every motion. What was in this bundle would +be in the rest--there was no hope. + +In Theodosia Baxter's little girlhood, she had played there were two +"'Dosies," a good one and a bad one. The Good 'Dosie was often away from +home, but was sometimes apt to appear at unexpected moments, to the +embarrassment of the Bad 'Dosie. Stamp her foot as she would, Bad 'Dosie +could not always drive the unwelcome intruder away. + +"I don't like her!" the small sinner had once been heard to say. +"She--she p'eaches at me!" + +The Good 'Dosie was preaching now. + +"Wait! Count ten!" she preached. "Don't get any angrier, or you'll see +red instead of pink. Think of that poor child's burned thumbs--think of +her having to take to her bed when she got through--" + +"I don't wonder!" snapped Bad 'Dosie. + +"Wait--wait! Aren't you going to be good? Do you remember what you used +to do, to help out? Well?" + +Miss Theodosia dropped the starchy mass on top of the other newspaper +bundles and rather suddenly sat down in a chair. She saw a little child, +preached to and penitent, on her knees, with folded hands, saying "Now I +lame me down to sleep." + +It was very still in the room. Miss Theodosia's eyes closed and opened +again. It was as if she had said "Now I lame me." A little smile tugged +at the corners of her mouth. She no longer saw even pink. + +She got up briskly and began turning back her cuffs. First, she would +build the kitchen fire; it must roar and snap, with all the work it had +to do to-night. She would heat a lot of water, for only boiling water +could take out Stefana's awful starch. While the water was heating, she +would eat her supper. + +"A good, big supper, it will have to be," smiled this gentled Miss +Theodosia. "I've got to get up my strength! No tea-and-toast-and-jam +supper to-night." She heated her gridiron smoking hot and broiled a bit +of steak. She tossed together little feathery biscuit and made coffee, +fragrant and strong. Momently, Miss Theodosia's strength "got up." She +moved about the kitchen briskly--when had she launched out upon a +night's work like this? Adventure!--call it adventure. + +Work to Miss Theodosia had always meant something that other people +did,--the Stefanas and their mothers and brothers and fathers. What she +herself did, a gentle, dilatory playing at work, hardly merited the +name. A bit of dusting, tea-and-toasting, making her own bed, cooking +for sheer love of cooking, what did they count in Miss Theodosia's +summing up of tasks? + +Always there had been some one to do her heavy things. She had put her +washings out and taken her dinners in; three times a week she was swept +and scrubbed and made immaculate. + +But to-night--to-night was different. This was to be no playing at work. +Miss Theodosia rose to the occasion gallantly--indeed, exultantly. +Thrills of enthusiasm ran up, ran down her spine. She prepared for a +night of it. + +The dresses immersed in steaming hot water and her supper eaten, she +stretched drying-lines, with considerable difficulty, from corner to +corner of her kitchen, prepared an ironing-board, and got out long-idle +irons. At eight o'clock she stopped for breath. Stefana's starch still +resisted all inducements to part with Miss Theodosia's dresses; more hot +water was required. After another steamy bath, they were cooled and +wrung and draped over the crisscross clotheslines in the hot kitchen. +Then Miss Theodosia temporarily retired from the field of battle. + +Theodosia Baxter had come back from her travelings to this small +ancestral town with a mildly disturbing taste in her mouth. "Settling +down" at thirty-six was not at all to her mind; she would not settle +down! + +"If I catch you doing it, Theodosia Baxter!" she said. "If I catch you +growing old! The minute you feel it coming on, you pack up and start for +Rome! Or Paris! Or Turkistan! Start for Anywhere! Keep going!" + +But, already, did she feel it coming on even before all her trunks were +unpacked? She was a little frightened at certain signs. Now, when she +sat down heavily--why did she sit down heavily? If some one had called +upon her for scores of little services, so that she must hop up again, +immediately--little piping voices: "Mother, where's my cap?" "Mother, +make Johnnie stop plaguing me!" "Mother, come quick!" If a big John had +come home to her, demanding her time or sympathy or service-- + +"No little Johns--no big one!" She sighed. "Is that the matter with you, +Theodosia Baxter? Well, for Heaven's sake, don't tell anybody! Keep a +bold front." + +She dozed a little in her rocker while she waited. Her plaintive +reveries took the shape of a sober little dream wherein one Theodosia +Baxter tottered on a cane and another walked briskly and youngly among +Johns. Both Theodosias were thirty-six. + +"Mercy!" she exclaimed, waking up. "Where's my cane? I must go and iron +Stefana's dresses!" She felt oddly refreshed. Queer dream to refresh +one! She found herself thinking kindly of Stefana. + +"I hope she's sound asleep, and a pitying little girl angel with a +nurse's cap under her halo will slip down and cure her thumbs before she +wakes up." + +The irons she had set to heating were much too hot. Should she run +out-of-doors while one of them cooled, and lie in wait to catch the +little nurse-angel on the wing or perhaps darting thrillingly down to +Stefana on a shooting star, breaking all speed limits! This was a night +for adventure. The wild ride of a becapped and haloed little celestial +in goggles would be an adventure! Miss Theodosia laughed out girlishly, +not at all a tottery laugh on a cane, and the pleasant sound broke the +midnight stillness. + +The dresses were dry enough to roll into tight bundles. One she essayed +to iron as it was. She began as soon as the iron was cool enough. + +Miss Theodosia toiled--adventured--through the long hours into the +short. It was unaccustomed toiling, and, like Stefana, she burned her +thumbs. She had judgment and the skill that age kindly lends, in her +favor, and slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's +patient endeavors and brought beauteous perfection out of apparent ruin. +But the process was wearying and long. It would have been but half the +labor to have begun at the beginning instead of at Stefana's poor little +end. + +At midnight, Miss Theodosia made herself cups of tea and sipped them +thirstily. A wrist, both thumbs, and her testing forefinger smarted; she +was tired and disheveled. But the spirit of adventure refused to die. + +The fire burned red-hot and the irons must cool again. Miss Theodosia +slipped out this time into the soft darkness. + +"Let us hope Aunt Sarah will 'knit fast,'" she was thinking, with +whimsical eyes. "But if she doesn't--Theodosia Baxter, dear, if Aunt +Sarah is a slow knitter, you are in for it! I've no idea of letting you +off. Baxters that begin, end." + +It was dim starshine out-of-doors. Miss Theodosia was too late to see +the nurse-angel riding on her star, her little cap and halo awry with +the downhill glide through space. She was too late to see her go into +the dark little House of Children--but she saw her come out. Distinctly, +a misty little blur of white against the velvet background. Miss +Theodosia started a very little--did she need pinching to wake her? + +For the space of a clock-tick the little celestial appeared to hesitate, +as though waiting for her star-steed to come within her hail. Then, +floatingly, not walking, it seemed to Miss Theodosia, the mist of blurry +white drew nearer. It came near to Miss Theodosia, and it was not the +nurse-angel in cap and shining halo. It was Stefana! + +The child was in her nightgown. One look into her wide, unseeing eyes +was enough; Stefana was asleep. In a chattering little voice she was +talking to herself. It was like a soft wail of sound. + +"I must get them back! Quick, before she sees; I must iron them over. +Perhaps if I starched them again--another coat of starch might hide the +smooches. She mustn't see the smooches! If Mother should lose the +chance--oh, I must get 'em back and starch 'em another coat! Mother +mustn't lose her! My thumbs ache so!" + +Was she coming straight toward the door? No, a fortunate whiff of breeze +seemed to blow her aside like a little seed-puff, and she went drifting +by. She was apparently searching anxiously. + +"I must find them! Quick, before she sees! Oh, there are the smooches. I +see some of the smooches! But I can't find the rest of them--" + +Miss Theodosia sprang forward in the direction of the pathetic little +figure, but almost as quickly caught herself up. Sleepwalkers were not +to be awakened suddenly. What then was to be done? + +"I must get her back to bed without letting her wake," thought Miss +Theodosia. A plan suggested itself. She caught of her large apron, +rolled it into a bulky mass, and swiftly followed the small nightgowned +figure. Her steps made no sound over the grass. It was but the work of +an instant to lay the roll of apron in Stefana's arms. Instantly, at the +feel of starched cloth in her hands, the tense little face relaxed. + +"I've got 'em back!" Stefana muttered, and, as if from the relief of it, +the troubled sleep seemed to calm and quiet down into deep oblivion to +all troubles. To Miss Theodosia's dismay Stefana slid quietly to the +ground and dreamlessly slept. Here, indeed, was adventure! Even at +twelve years and Stefana small, the child was too heavy to carry home. + +"I don't dare to wake her," Miss Theodosia cried aloud, but softly, as +if in fear of doing so. + +"You needn't--hush! I'll carry her for you." + +The voice seemed to materialize out of the gloom into something big and +high and unexpectedly close at hand that rightly should have startled +Miss Theodosia but failed to do so. Afterward, in the house again, among +her irons, she was startled. + +"I was going by and saw her--you can tell a sleepwalker by the way one +walks. Glides. Now, when I lift her, gently support her head--that's it. +Forward, march!" + +"This way," Miss Theodosia directed in a whisper, though he was already +moving this way. Shadow Man that he was, he stepped earthily, with thuds +of his feet on the grass. Miss Theodosia's footsteps were soft echoes. +So they came to the little House of Flaggs. + +"There's a light in that inside room, and I can see a bed. I'll lay her +down, and you can go in afterward--and--er--smooth her out." + +"Yes--yes, I'll wait out here," whispered Miss Theodosia with a curious +solemnity in her face. Rome, nor Paris, nor Anywhere had offered +adventure like this--not like this. Miss Theodosia had an odd feeling +that this, too, was a dream--and a John. Would they all wake up +together? + +"Sound as a nut--never knew what hit her! But she wants straightening. +New work for me; I'm not used to putting kiddies to bed." + +"Oh, I'm not either!" breathed Miss Theodosia, "but I might straighten +one. I don't suppose you--you kissed her thumbs? Of course not!" She +laughed softly. "But I shall." + +Now it was the Shadow Man's turn to laugh with a funny, explosive little +effect as though he were not used to muffling his laughs,--as if this +playing Shadow Man were a new role. + +"Why thumbs?" he whispered. "Why not lips, say, or eyes? I thought women +kissed kiddies' eyes. Hope I haven't made a mistake--" as if he had some +secret desire for women to kiss the eyes of little children. "If you +don't mind kissing 'em when you go in there--" + +"I shall kiss her thumbs," Miss Theodosia said firmly. "They were burned +at the stake for me. I know how burned thumbs feel." + +But the Shadow Man stubbornly persisted. + +"I'll tell you what," he said. "I'll go back now and kiss her thumbs, if +you'll kiss her eyes when you go in; as--er--a favor. 'Stoop over the +little sleeper,' you know, and 'press your mother's lips to the closed +blue orbs.'" He seemed to be quoting something. + +"But I haven't any mother's lips," sighed Miss Theodosia, "only the kind +for thumbs--just thumbs. I'm sorry," she added humbly. Curiously she +experienced no surprise at this intimate turn of a conversation with a +Shadow Man at midnight. + +"That's all right--that's all right," the Shadow Man assured her. "Only +thought I'd feel a little better to prove it was done that way. Hadn't +any business mixing up with women's lips and kiddies' orbs, anyway! +Serves me right." And now it was his turn to be humble. "Good night," +and he was gone. + +It was into a tiny bedroom off the kitchen, where a needle of light from +a turned-down lamp barely pricked the darkness, that Miss Theodosia +found her way. She had a dim picture of littering little clothes about +the room and on the flat pillows of the bed the round, flushed face of +Evangeline. In a clothes basket beside the bed she dimly saw a little +mound that might be Elly Precious--it was Elly Precious! The little +mound stirred with a curious, nestling sound, and instantly Stefana +stirred also and crooned. Even in her sleep she was the little Mother. +Miss Theodosia felt her own throat tighten and fill. + +Stefana still clasped the bundle of apron in her arms, and Miss +Theodosia did not dare try to take it away from her. She merely arranged +it a little more comfortably and smoothed Stefana out. Queer!--as if at +some other time, in some passed-by existence, she had smoothed out a +child. She seemed to know how. Suddenly she stooped and kissed, not +Stefana's thumbs but her eyes. + +"The starch!" murmured Stefana as Miss Theodosia turned away. "Some'dy +get it!" The deep sleep had broken a little, and through the break +trickled a thread of Stefana's troubles. Then, again, silence and peace. +No sound from bed or clothes basket on the floor. + +Outside, in the faint starlight, Miss Theodosia drew a long breath. She +softly laughed. Curious how much like a sob a little laugh can be! Oh, +starlit night of adventuring! What next? Miss Theodosia's mantle of +gentle melancholy slid from her shoulders; she no longer felt +apprehensions of growing old. Continually she saw Evangeline's rosy face +on that flat pillow, and the little mound of Elly Precious. She +remembered how tiny the house had looked from the inside, and how many +little littering clothes she had seen. The appealing quality of empty +little clothes! In Miss Theodosia's inside room of her soul, something +stirred behind the locked door. + +The irons had cooled too much, and the fire was low. Miss Theodosia went +to work again. As she worked, she talked to herself sociably. + +"Adventures thicken! Stars, and angels in caps, and children that walk +in their little sleeps! And little heaps in clothes baskets, that are +babies! And--Theodosia Baxter--a Man! Out of a clear, inky sky! Why +weren't you scared? How do you know--you never even saw his face--maybe +he was a thief, and a marauder, and a thug!" + +Granted, if thieves and marauders and those awful things, thugs, carry +little loads or sleep as tenderly as women--and never wake them; if they +are polite and say good night--. What kind of marauding and--and +thugging is that? + +"What will Stefana think when she finds my apron in bed with her!" +suddenly laughed Miss Theodosia, breaking the spell. "Funny Stefana! she +goes to my heart, she and her starch--when they're asleep!" + +But, awake, Stefana's starch went to Miss Theodosia's back and aching +bones. It was three o'clock when she was ready to go to bed. Over chairs +and the couch in her sitting-room, lay the three redeemed white dresses, +soft again and very smoochless and smooth. Miss Theodosia stood and +admired. She was full of pride and weariness. At last, at thirty-six, +she had done real work; she loved the feel of it in her tired bones. She +loved her night of adventuring. Life--she loved that. So she went to bed +at three, when the birds were beginning to get up. If her throat--calm +and grown-up throat--had not persistently tightened, she would have gone +to sleep laughing at the remembrance of it all. All the funny night. Why +wasn't it funny? Why couldn't she laugh? She sat up in bed. + +On the morning after her adventurous night, as Miss Theodosia lingered +luxuriously over her late breakfast, came bursting in Evangeline Flagg. +A gray-checked something waved from her hand like a flag of truce. +Evangeline always burst into things--houses, and rooms, and excited +little speech. + +"Here it is!--that is, if it's yours. Stefana says to ask. 'Tain't ours. +Mercy gracious, no! We don't take our aperns to bed. Stefana never heard +of such a thing. Neither o' us never. In bed--right straight in bed! An' +Stefana hugging it up like everything! She says to ask you if it's yours +because it ain't ours, nor anybody else's, an' it's got to be somebody's +apern, and once I thought I saw a gray 'n' white one hanging through +your window--I mean on a nail, but, mercy gracious, what was it doing in +bed with me an' Stefana!" + +Even Evangeline's breath had limitations. She stopped as headlong as she +had begun. She unwound the large, voluminous-skirted apron from her +grasp and extended it. + +"Here 'tis, if it's yours," she gasped, spent. She was gazing at it with +a species of awe; it was an "apern" of mystery, not a human apern. "An' +if 't isn't, take it--Stefana said not to dare to bring it back. +We--we're sort of afraid of it, honest. Though, of course, Stefana says +it must 've blew in the window"--the tide of speech was coming in once +more--"an'--an' sort of landed on the bed, an' Stefana kind of grabbed +it in her sleep, thinking it was Elly Precious. But, mercy gracious!" + +"Sit down," Miss Theodosia said, smiling. "Doesn't it tire you to talk +as fast as that?" + +"Some," admitted Evangeline, "but I don't mind. What I mind is +ghosts--aperns an' the kind with--with legs." She dropped her voice. "I +saw one las' night." + +"Mercy gracious!" Miss Theodosia breathed. + +Evangeline nodded solemnly. "Out the window. I woke up feelin' one, an' +I saw it goin' across the grass. White. Slinky." + +"Oh, not--slinky!" protested Miss Theodosia, suddenly championing the +ghost-with-legs. + +"Slinky," firmly. "I guess I'd a-screeched right out if I hadn't +remembered the baby. Elly Precious is terrible hard to put to sleep +second time. You aren't much acquainted with babies, are you?" + +Again--so soon! Miss Theodosia's humility returned. + +"We're acquainted, over to our house! Mother says babies are great +edge--edge--" + +"Educators?" + +"That's it! Mercy gracious, then I should think Mother'd be graduated!" + +After Evangeline's departure, Miss Theodosia set down her coffee cup and +gave herself up to laughter. The room rang with the pleasant sound of +it. + +"Will you l-listen to yourself, Theodosia Baxter!" she cried at length, +out of breath. "You actually sound happy!" + +In the afternoon, a bevy of Miss Theodosia's old friends called on her +as she sat on her front porch. They had intended, they said, to wait +till the proper time, according to etiquette, for calls upon returned +travelers. + +"But we wanted to see you so much, after all this time," one of them +said. "We decided we couldn't wait to be proper. Besides, it would be +such a risk. While we waited, you'd run off again. It was really our +only way. Ladies, will you see how lovely and white she looks! Perfectly +spotless!" The speaker sighed. Her own dress was dark and spot-colored. +"I don't see how you do it! I tell Andrew I'd rather dress in white than +in velvet--I love it! But, there, I couldn't get a minute to wear the +dresses; it would take all my days to do 'em up. Of course, with you +it's different. I don't suppose you ever toiled over an ironing-board a +day in your life." + +Miss Theodosia gravely shook her head. "No," she said, curious little +twinkling lines deepening round her eyes, "I never did--a day--in my +life." + +"That's what I thought! That's what I told Andrew. 'Theodosia Baxter +don't know what work is,' I told him. It's easy enough for some women to +wear lovely white things. Simplest thing in the world!" + +Miss Theodosia's cryptic little smile lingered on her lips and in the +clear windows of her eyes, as she gazed past the voluble wife of Andrew, +through her vines, at the little House of Children next door. She +imagined she heard Stefana singing, high up and sweet, over her work. +Wait!--that was not a singing sound! + +A single shriek shot above the clear humming noise that might be +Stefana. Then another--a third! + +"Some one is hurt!" cried Miss Theodosia, and she kilted her smooth +white skirts and ran. + +Again that dread shriek! Over her shoulder, as she ran, Miss Theodosia +gave directions to her startled callers. + +"Telephone for a doctor--any doctor. In the side hall--on a table!" But +could any doctor save the life of that terrible shriek? If it came once +more--It came! Miss Theodosia involuntarily closed her eyes to shut out +a sight of horror. + +"Mercy gracious!" + +She opened them hurriedly at the soft collision of herself with +Evangeline. + +"Who is it? Is it the baby? I've sent for the doctor." Half-remembered, +half-read first aids crowded her mind confusedly. Warm water and +mustard--that was for hemorrhage--no, no--poison! But did you apply it +inside or out? What was that about laying the patient up hill--feet +higher--or was it feet lower--down hill? + +"Take me there, quick! We must do what we can till the doct--oh, the +poor baby!" + +"Mercy gracious goodness! Elly Precious is eatin' bread an' molasses. +He's only et one slice, an' most o' that's on his outside. They aint' +an'thing worse'n molasses the matter with El--" + +"There! Oh, there!" As another mournful cry split the air.--"Oh, that! +What is it? Who is it?" + +"Mercy gra--why, that's Carruthers bein' a steam whistle. Did he scare +you? He does do it pretty loud when he's gettin' up steam; you see, he +don't know how loud he does it, because he's deaf o' hearin'. We can't +bear to lower him, but we only let him be a steam whistle for a +treat--when he's 'specially good--Mother said to. Stefana found him +washin' his face 'free greatest' this mornin', so she let him--.Quick, +shut your ears! He's goin' off again!" + +'But, this time, Miss Theodosia heard, unalarmed. To her own surprise, +she listened almost enjoyingly. To be able to make a noise like that! +The sheer vitality and youth of it compelled admiration. + +"If I could do that--" began Miss Theodosia's thought, then broke off +hastily as the mental vision of herself in the act of bein' a steam +whistle appeared to her. + +"You do it this way," explained Evangeline, inserting a forefinger in +each corner of her mouth and preparing to steam-whistle. + +"No, no, I don't do it any way!" Miss Theodosia protested smilingly. "Do +you think--do you think, perhaps, he has been sufficiently rewarded for +washing his own face, now? Because, you see, I have callers on my +porch." + +"Mercy gracious--I see 'em! I'll go right an' stop Carruthers! That's +what Stefana said--that we'd ought to remember you wasn't in Europe +now." + +"I think I could hear steam whistles there!" Miss Theodosia smiled. But +Evangeline's sober mind continued its line of thought. + +"Stefana says if you'll hang somethin' red out when you're asleep, or +got callers, or anythin', then she'll make us play funeral." + +"Oh, no--not that!" No red flag of warning could justify playing +funeral. + +"Well, Hold-Your-Breath, then. We can't make much noise holding our +breaths! Stefana's the champion Hold-Your-Breath-er. You take an awful +long breath--this way--" But, already, Miss Theodosia was on her way +home. She found her callers moving agitatedly about. "Central asked what +doctor, and for the life of me I couldn't remember a living doctor's +name in this town. 'Anybody,' I told her. 'Tell him to come quick; +somebody must be dying over to the little Flagg place." + +Miss Theodosia lifted a hand to stem the tide of Mrs. Andrew's words. + +"He's stopped dying--listen! It's all quiet now; it was only play. I'll +head Central off. Excuse me a minute--I mean, another minute!" + +But Central had done her work well--beyond heading-off. Already an +automobile was speeding up the road; behind it clattered a +hurriedly-driven buggy. Miss Theodosia saw them both stopping at the +little Flagg place. She smiled. She was not needed over there to make +any explanations or apologies--Evangeline was there! + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +She sat on her porch after the visitors had gone, thinking strange Miss +Theodosia thoughts. A man, coming up her front path and lifting a soft +felt hat, interrupted the strangest thought of all. + +"I beg your pardon. Is this where somebody needs help? I was told--" + +Miss Theodosia laughed outright. + +"I do need help. Were you ever a steam whistle? You put two fingers in +your mouth, one in each corner--I was trying to get up my courage to do +it!" + +The felt hat rolled down the steps, the stranger needing both his hands. + +"Like this?" + +"Ye-s. I never saw a steam whistle, you know. That was what I was +wishing." + +"Heard one? Because I can give a demonstration." + +"Don't!" Miss Theodosia shut her ears. + +"I heard one--demonstration. I thought some one was dying, at least." + +"Oh, that was the 'help wanted!' I see. My services are not required, +then; it was a false alarm." + +Miss Theodosia was on her feet, remembering her manners. "It was a true +enough alarm; won't you sit down? I think my nerves need a doctor." + +"Did I call myself a doctor? I am a reformed doctor, madam. It is some +years since I got out. But I thought, in a very urgent case--fits, you +know, or something like that--Thank you, I won't sit down. My work calls +me." + +Miss Theodosia inclined her head politely, but curiosity seized her. How +curious she was getting about many things! + +"I wish I knew--" she began. + +"Yes, madam?" + +"What work 'calls' reformed doctors. After they are--out." + +The stranger's big, unharnessed laugh was almost startling to Miss +Theodosia. Why? She had never heard just such a big, unharnessed laugh +before. She had heard a big harnessed laugh--when? Before she could +answer her own thought, or the stranger could answer her spoken query, a +hurry of small feet sounded. Only Evangeline's feet could break speed +limits like that. + +"Oh, Miss Theodosia--oh, I don't want to int'rupt, but just soon's he's +gone--" + +"He's gone," sighed Miss Theodosia, as the child came up. "You mustn't +interrupt again, that way, unless it's a very urgent case--fits or +something." In spite of proper vexation, she smiled. "Who was that man, +Evangeline, that just went away?" + +"Oh, I don't know--I wasn't acquainted with his back; that's every speck +o' him I saw. Oh! oh! oh!" + +"Evangeline Flagg, what is the matter now?" + +"'D you ever do up a man, Miss Theodosia? Stiff--awful stiff? Stefana +says it's bad enough to do women up. She's havin' a dreadful time! We +can't get the stiffness out; I been helpin'. It stands up alone!" +Suddenly, without warning, Evangeline went off into a series of shrill +shrieks. + +"Stop me! Stop me! Don't l-let Stefana hear me! Don't l-let me laugh!" + +This was an urgent case--fits or something, surely! Miss Theodosia's +eyes sought the horizon for a reformed doctor. In lack of one, she shook +Evangeline. + +"Stop at once! Make yourself stop; count ten!" + +"One! Two-o! Th-ree!" shrieked Evangeline, through to ten. Ten separate +shrieks. Then, abruptly, she ceased. + +"Mercy gracious, I've stopped! I hope Stefana wasn't listenin'. But she +wasn't; she was cryin'. I left her cryin'. If you could come over--. +Honest, we can't do a thing! We thought you'd probably did up men." + +Miss Theodosia never had. Not so--awful a thing as that! + +"It stands up alone, with both arms out! I don't dass to go back. I +shall laugh if I do, an' if I laugh, Stefana'll cry. She don't think +it's f-funny." The shrieks showed signs of returning, and Miss Theodosia +again had recourse to stern measures. + +"Count ten!" she demanded, as she shook. + +They went back together to the mysterious something that stood alone +with both arms out. It was in that pose as they approached it. Miss +Theodosia thought it was f--funny; an awful desire to shriek like +Evangeline took possession of her. She counted ten in inward haste. + +"I can't do anything with it!" wailed poor Stefana. "And Elly Precious +gets into it, and makes it walk! He's in it now." + +"It's walkin'!" shrieked Evangeline, as the portentously stiff shirt +staggered a little to one side. Stefana, filled with enthusiasm and +generosity of soul, had starched not the bosom alone but the entire +shirt. She had done it thoroughly. The result was alarming. It was a +terrible shirt! + +"Tell me what to do--somebody tell me!" entreated the little laundress. +"I've unstarched it, and unstarched it, and seems as if it got stiffer." + +"Boiling water," breathed Miss Theodosia, too spent with her struggles +not to laugh, to admit of further speech. + +"Wait! Don't anybody dass to pour boilin' water on till I get Elly +Precious out! Come to Evangeline this minute, darlin' dear--no, they +shan't boil him!" + +Elly Precious emerged, crowing. The deaf-but-not-dumb little Flagg +appeared, to swell the number around the Terrible Shirt. Stefana dried +her tears. Miss Theodosia had the sense of being looked up to--relied +upon. She rose to the occasion buoyantly. As unused as Stefana to men's +bosoms, she yet stepped into the breach. Unused to issuing orders, she +issued them. + +"Evangeline, you and Carruthers see to the baby. Stefana, come with me. +Bring--it." + +They went back to the big house, she with that new and intoxicating +sense of importance, and Stefana with the Terrible Shirt. + +"Whose is it--that?" she asked, indicating the creaking white garment. +"What were you doing with it?" + +"Starching it," mumbled poor Stefana. "It took most a package. He said +he liked his stiff. 'Put in plenty o' starch,' he said to Mother, and +she always did. So I did. I thought if he said--" + +"If who said?" It took a long time to establish the identity of the +Terrible Shirt. + +"If he did, the man it belongs to." + +"What man--who?" + +"The man that writes things." + +"What things?" + +"We don't know exactly. Evangeline thinks tracts. She says his room was +all full o' half sheets o' paper--lying all over everywhere. She saw +'Good Lord' on one. Perhaps it's sermons. Mother always sent Evangeline +home with his wash; I never went. He is a very nice man--oh, that's why +I feel so bad about his shirt! I wouldn't care if he was an--an +infidel!" + +"Bless your heart!" + +Miss Theodosia turned suddenly and embraced Stefana and the shirt. +"Don't worry any more," she said; "you and I will work wonders with that +Tract Man's shirt! Stefana, put the kettle on and we'll go to it! +There's nothing two determined people can't do, once they've put their +minds on it." + +Together they labored, and the impossible happened. Theodosia Baxter did +up a man! She--and Stefana--succeeded in getting the starch out of the +surrounding area and into the bosom of the Terrible Shirt. They got much +starch in. Inspiration appeared to come to Miss Theodosia. Even the +really awful task of ironing that bosom till it glittered and shone in +unwrinkled board-like expanse was at length accomplished. Miss Theodosia +was justly proud of herself--and of Stefana; she insisted upon including +Stefana in her triumphs. + +"Eureka!" she exulted. "Call Evangeline, Stefana, and Elly Precious, and +Carruthers! Call in a Chinaman, if you like, and tell him to look at +that! Ask him to beat it!" + +"There isn't any in this town," responded literal Stefana. "That's why +Mother did bosoms. She'd a good deal rather not've." + +"But I love to do bosoms!" sang Miss Theodosia. "I never felt so worth +while in my life before--an artist in starch, Stefana!" + +"Well, you've done beautifully--I never did see!" the grateful Stefana +cried. "But I'm afraid it's kind of gone to your head. I think you +better lie down." + +"Send for the Reformed Doctor! Stefana, what are you doing with my +beautiful bosom?" + +"I won't muss it. I'm just going to take it home and sew the buttons on. +There's two off. Mother always sewed 'em on; he pays two cents extra for +repairs." + +Miss Theodosia's fair face flushed. "You don't stir a step with it! I +have buttons and a spool of thread--what I do, I finish doing! Give it +to me." + +For the first time, Miss Theodosia handled a man's garment intimately. +It lay stiffly across her lap. She sewed on the two buttons; she mended +a tiny "hog-tear." Life had taken on new interests--bosoms and buttons. +She thrilled--when had she ever thrilled before? Ironing her own dresses +had been a poor, tame business. She would be sorry to part with this +shirt! + +And then Evangeline came. + +"Mercy gracious, doesn't it look elegant! I came over because he's come +for his shirt. He says he's goin' to begin a new story, an' he always +has to have a clean shirt on. An' his hair cut--he's got it cut. I guess +that bosom'll match his hair all right! It's perfectly lovely!" + +"What did you do with Elly Precious, Evangeline Flagg!" demanded +Stefana. + +"That's it--that's why I got to hurry back. He's keepin' Elly Precious +for me, an' he don't know what to do with babies. He says all his are +paper ones--paper babies! He gave Elly Precious his knife, an' opened +the blades to amuse him! He said he guessed Elly Precious wouldn't hurt +'em!" Evangeline's face registered great scorn. "If you'll give it to +me, I'll carry it to him," she concluded, holding out her hand for the +shirt. But Miss Theodosia sewed calmly on. She had found a second tear +larger than the first. It would be better to strengthen it with a little +piece underneath. She would find a white scrap in her bag of pieces. + +"It is not ready yet. He can wait. But you must not wait, Evangeline. +Elly Precious may be playing with his pistol, if he carries one." + +"He don't. He ain't a pistol-man, but, mercy gracious, how you scare me! +You comin' too, Stefana?" + +"Yes, Stefana can go now. She is all through," which was Miss +Theodosia's kind inclusion of Stefana. That, again, was curiously new to +Miss Theodosia. Psychological changes were taking place--or were they +just plain tugs on Miss Theodosia's heartstrings? + +She sat and sewed. + +"Patching--I'm patching!" she laughed to herself. "And here I've been +hiring my own mending done! Theodosia Baxter, see what you are doing; +you are patching a shirt for a man! No, I'm not, either! I'm doing it +for Stefana--what are you talking about?" + +Some one came up her steps and knocked on her open door. But she was too +engrossed to hear. The patch underneath had slipped a little askew. She +ripped out some of the stitches and began again. She caught herself +humming as she worked. + +"Please may I have my shirt?" a voice asked meekly. "That story is +promised for next month. It's the twenty-eighth, now." + +Evangeline's Tract Man stood in the doorway, soft felt hat in hand, +twinkles in his eyes. Evangeline's Tract Man was the Reformed Doctor! If +Miss Theodosia had been eighteen instead of thirty-six she would not +have blushed more beautifully, but she continued to patch. She was +caught in the act; no help for it now. But she would finish--that-- +patch. + +"So it's you! So that's the work Reformed Doctors do!" + +"Madam, yes. When stories appeal to them more than pills and tonics, +they reform and write stories. They have to!" he cried, suddenly in +earnest, "When one is life, and the other death--" + +"Oh, if it was death to them--your patients," she murmured. Then, +ashamed of her own flippancy: "Of course, I didn't mean anything as +silly as that! I meant--I meant, please sit down while I finish this +patch. There, in that easy-chair. There are magazines on the table." + +There was one magazine with his own name in the list of contents. He +opened it at that page and gazed down upon it quite soberly. + +"My name is John Bradford," he said, as if reading. Miss Theodosia +started a little, but it was not as he thought, in his innocent vanity. +Miss Theodosia got no farther than the first part of the name--so he was +a John! She glanced quickly at the doorway, measuring him in her mind as +he had stood against the lintel. He had reached a long way up--a long +man. The Shadow Man had been a long shadow. Something told her-- + +[Illustration: "If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into +a story like that."] + +"Did you ever carry a child in your arms and lay her on a bed? In the +middle of the night? Did you do it last night? Are you the same man?" + +"I am the same man I was last night," he answered gravely. "I was John +Bradford then, too. Didn't I carry her all right? What was the matter?" +Suddenly he leaned forward in the chair. "Did you kiss her thumbs?" he +demanded. + +"I kissed her eyes." + +They were silent for a little, while Miss Theodosia set small, nervous +stitches in John Bradford's shirt, and John Bradford twiddled the edges +of the magazine. He stole glances, now and then, at this strange woman +with whom he seemed to have come so oddly into contact. He could make a +story of her dark hair, straight shoulders, beautiful hands. He could +not get a good view of her full face. Bending over a bed, kissing a +little sleeper's eyes--he could work her in that way. If he knew her a +little better-- + +"I knew they did it!" + +"Did what--who?" + +"Women--kissed that way. You have proved it now." + +"I'm not women. I'm just one woman, and I never did it in my life +before." + +"Well, you liked doing it, didn't you? I could put you in, liking it." + +The shirt slid to the floor, and Miss Theodosia gave her visitor a full +view of her face. + +"Are you making 'copy' of me? Because if you are thinking of putting me +anywhere, put me into a story like that. I'd like it. I mean, with +little children in a bed--and one in a clothes basket! Say I tucked them +in--Yes, I liked kissing Stefana's eyes. I should love to have another +chance. It's nothing to be ashamed of, is it, to like little children?" + +"I like 'em. I always have." + +"Well, I always haven't. Only very lately--it's queer. When I came home +here and found all those children next door--mercy gracious!" + +They both laughed. Laughing together is a great acquaintancer. Miss +Thedosia suddenly thought of something and laughed a little more. + +"My name is Theodosia Baxter," she said. They rose and shook hands +gravely. They were decently introduced. The beautiful shiny bosom of the +shirt lay between them like a white mirror and Miss Theodosia caught the +man's glance on it. + +"Is it anything to be ashamed of--doing up a shirt?" she demanded. + +"Not doing it up like that! That's a work of art!" + +"A work of heart--I did it for Stefana. I've got quite fond of it now, +and shall hate to part with it. It's a friend." + +"A bosom friend," he parried. Again they laughed and grew more +acquainted. Miss Theodosia made tea in her dainty Sevres cups. The +faintest flecks of pink made her face youthful. Miss Theodosia was a +good-looking woman always, but, animated, her face was really lovely. +John Bradford was better used to paper women, like paper babies, but his +taste recognized flesh-and-blood attractiveness. He had always been a +lonely man--until now. + +"I'm having a beautiful time," he sighed. "Is it anything to be ashamed +of, to have a beautiful time?" + +"Or two cups of tea? Please! This is my company tea--warranted good to +write stories on!" + +"Oh--stories. Are there such things? Did I ever write one? Have I got to +write another?" + +"It's the twenty-eighth," Miss Theodosia reminded demurely. "But you +will need another cup of tea. How long does it take?" + +"To drink another cup?" + +"To write another story. Tell me about it. Perhaps I could do it. You +take a blotter and a pen and plenty of half-sheets of paper--'tracts,' +Evangeline calls them! Then you write 'Good Lord!' That is what +Evangeline says you wrote on a tract! She said maybe it was a sermon." + +"Oh--Evangeline! And speaking of angels--" + +"Mercy gracious! You're here--both o' you! An' somebody's gone an' +spilled a drop of somethin' on that beautiful bosom!" + +"A tear-drop, Evangeline, because she wouldn't give it to me." + +"Tea drop!" sniffed Evangeline. "Guess I know! After all Stefana's work! +Miss Theodosia, can Elly Precious eat your grass? He's out there now. He +don't really eat it; he just kind of pretends. Mother says Elly Precious +ought to be put out to pasture. We haven't got any grass to speak of, +over to our house." + +"Don't speak of it! Of course he can eat mine, if you think it is +edible. Ask the Reformed Doctor." + +"Him a doctor? Mercy gracious--honest? Then he knows if Elly Precious'd +ought to eat grass--not really eat, you know." + +"Just graze a little--let him graze." The Reformed Doctor rose to his +feet and held out his hand to Miss Theodosia. "I'll go out and see how +he does it. It's lucky Evangeline came in, or I might not have known +enough to go at all. I've had a beautiful time. I'll put you in with the +bedful of kiddies." + +"And the clothes basket?" + +"And the clothes basket." + +"You haven't got your shirt--mercy gracious! I thought that's what you +came after," reminded Evangeline. + +"Was it?" the Reformed Doctor said. "Give it to me, Evangeline." + +"Not naked! Without wrappin' up! I never did see!" + +"It's such a good-looking shirt--well, then, wrap it up, wrap it up. +I've got a newspaper in my pocket. Put that round it, Evangeline." He +turned again to his hostess. "It will be a good story if I put--the +clothes basket--in it. They won't send it back. Good-by." + +He was off to inspect Elly Precious' grazing-ground. Evangeline, at the +window where she had gone to make sure her darlin' dear was safe, +presented to Miss Theodosia a square, bony little back that was +curiously like that of a dwarfed old woman. + +The trail of innocent Elly Precious was over that stoopy little figure. +Miss Theodosia looked with softened eyes. Then a smile grew in them, +wrinkling their corners whimsically. She was noticing something else +besides the little old-lady back. Evangeline's braids toed in! Tight and +flaxen, they stood out in rounded curves, converging suddenly to the bit +of faded ribbon that tied them together. There was something suspicious +looking about that ribbon--"Stefana starched it!" smiled Miss +Theodosia's thought. + +The small figure whirled face about. + +"There, _he_ can see to him awhile." Evangeline was always cheerfully +oblivious to any confusion of ideas arising from her use of personal +pronouns. "I'm tired. Children are a great care," said Evangeline. She +seated herself in an easy chair and dangled thin legs. + +"If you drank tea--I'll make you a cup of cocoa, Evangeline." + +"Oh, mercy gracious, no! I'm not as tired as _cocoa_. Jus' +sit-'n'-a'-chair tired. You know how it feels--no, you don't either. +I forgot. I guess you are pretty lucky. No, I don't guess so _either_!" +Evangeline suddenly straightened on the edge of the big chair and eyed +Miss Theodosia sternly, as though that innocent soul had been the one +guilty of disloyalty to darlin' dears. + +"Children are a great comfort," declaimed Evangeline with emphasis. She +might have been the mother of six comforts. Tenderness crept into her +eyes, and her freckles seemed to fade out, and even the small blunt nose +of her take on middle-agedness and motherliness. '"Specially when you +undress 'em. They're so darlin' an' soft! You ever undressed one--a +reg'lar _baby_ one? Of course not one o' your own when you never _had_ +any, but I thought p'raps you might've undressed a grandbaby or +somethin'--" + +Miss Theodosia shook a humbled head. + +"No," she murmured, "I never undressed even a grandbaby." And curiously +she failed either to smile at the child's little notion or to wince at +the advanced age it implied for her. She looked across the room from her +big chair to Evangeline's with rather a wistful look. She was envying +Evangeline. + +"I'm sorry," the child said gently, a little embarrassed by the +unexpected solemnity of the moment. To relieve it, she had recourse to a +sudden funny memory of her own undressings of Elly Precious. She broke +hurriedly into laughter. + +"I have to have an extra pig for my baby!" she shrilled. "Takes six +instead o' five! You know where it ends, 'This little pig said: "Quee! +Quee! Quee! can't get over the barn-door sill"?' Mercy gracious, you +don't know the little pigs, I s'pose--" More embarrassment. Even +Evangeline was losing presence of mind. + +"Oh, yes!" Miss Theodosia brightened perceptibly. "I know the one that +went to market and the one that stayed at home--all five of them I +know." + +"But you don't know Elly Precious's extra little pig!" crowed the +reassured Evangeline. "Just _us_ know that one. I made him up. When you +have six toes,--I mean when Elly Precious has,--you have to have six +pigs. After the one that can't get over the barn-door sill, I say: 'This +little pig said--' wait, I'll say the last two together so you'll see +they rhyme beautifully. Reg'lar poetry. + +"'This little pig said, "Quee! Quee! Quee! can't get over the barn-door +sill.'" + +"'_This_ little pig said, "He! He! He! when you tickle, I can't keep +still!'" + +"Elly Precious wiggles it when I tickle! We laugh like everything. I +think it is pretty good poetry," added Evangeline modestly. + +"It is beautiful poetry. I never could have begun to make up such a +lovely, ticklish little pig!" + +Evangeline leaned back again in the soft cushiony embrace of the great +chair and actually achieved a moment of silence. The talkative clock on +Miss Theodosia's mantel filled in the space. Then once more Evangeline: + +"But I shall never have any." + +"Any--pigs?" smilingly. + +"Children. Not any. I've decided I'll rest. They're such a care. But of +course I can run in an' undress Stefana's an' Elly Precious's--mercy +gracious, Elly Precious's!" + +It required too great a mental effort to visualize them. Elly Precious's +children were _funny_! Evangeline giggled softly. "Then I'll be a +gran'mother, won't I! I've always wanted to be a gran'mother an' say +what I did when _I_ was a child an' how I always _minded_." A fresh +giggle. "'_I_ never had to be _told to_ twice, my dears,' I'll say to +Elly Precious's children! They'll all be my dears. I'll help bring 'em +up. Isn't it queer," broke forth Evangeline suddenly, "how when you get +to be old you never were bad when you were young? The badnesses have +kind of--kind of faded out. I bet there _were_ badnesses!" + +And Miss Theodosia found herself nodding decisively. She, too, bet there +were. + +A hilarious little crow suddenly sounded from without the window; it was +accompanied by a deep man-sound of mirth. Miss Theodosia and Evangeline +smiled across at each other indulgently. + +"Elly Precious is havin' a good time. That's his good-time noise. Oh, I +think he's a nice person, don't you?" + +"Nice? I love him!" cried Miss Theodosia warmly. Her face that was still +the face of a girl was tenderly flushed. "I love every inch of him, +Evangeline." + +"Merry gra--that's a lot of lovin'! I guess you are ahead o' me!" + +"Evangeline Flagg, aren't you ashamed! When he is the dearest, +cunningest--" + +"Not--not _cunnin'est_. But he's got beautiful whiskers. I mean if he +didn't shave 'em off. When he came, he had 'em on. You can't love his +whiskers when you never saw--" + +Miss Theodosia held up a limp hand to stem this terrible tide of words. + +"Oh, stop! _wait_, Evangeline!" she begged. "Who are you talking about?" + +Why stop for grammatic rules at a time like this? + +"Why, he--_him_. I said I liked him, an' you said you lov--" + +"I have been talking about Elly Precious, naturally," Miss Theodosia +returned stiffly. "You are very careless with your pronouns, +Evangeline," she added with an effect of severity. Her cheeks that +persisted still in being a girl's cheeks had grown a warm, becoming +pink. In pink Miss Theodosia was lovely. + +"Don't you think you'd better relieve Elly Precious' caretaker by this +time? He may not enjoy being left in charge quite so long." + +"Not enjoy! Come an' see him not enjoy!" sang Evangeline from the +window. She was flattening her nose against the pane and bubbling with +sympathetic glee. Miss Theodosia went over and stood beside her. + +Out there the two of them were frolicking together--two joyous children. +It was the good old game of Peek-a-boo, but seemed a new, surprising +game to Miss Theodosia. The big playmate on the grass spread a +handkerchief over the little playmate's face, and with a shriek of joy +the little playmate did the rest. Then the big child's turn--turn and +turn about. Deep voice and thin, sweet tinkle of baby voice joined in a +curiously harmonious chorus that rang through the window pane into the +two pairs of listening ears. + +It was a new light in which to see--a new sound in which to hear John +Bradford. Miss Theodosia had a guilty consciousness of being an +eavesdropper, yet she kept on eavesdropping. At a particular climax in +the little play, she laughed aloud softly. Evangeline wriggled with +enjoyment. Her fingers drummed applause on the glass, and the big player +glanced quickly up and saw the two lookers-on. He did not hesitate in +the play, did not stop the next little gleeful peek. Miss Theodosia +loved it in him for not stopping. They were not ashamed--Elly Precious +and John Bradford. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +In the next few days Miss Theodosia unpacked the rest of her trunks and +put the things away neatly in permanent places. She sang as she did it. +Life seemed a singing thing to Miss Theodosia who had been a lonely +woman--until now. Now she could look out of her window and see the +little House of Flaggs. Any minute Evangeline might burst in. The steam +whistle might blow. The Shadow Reformed-Doctor Man might come for +another cup of tea. Anything might happen. + +Something did happen, but it was not a singing thing. Evangeline did +burst in. It was some days later than the Day of the Shirt. Miss +Theodosia sat comfortably sipping her afternoon tea. Two dainty cups +were before her. + +"Mercy gracious--mercy, mercy, mercy gracious! This is the worst! This +is worse than Aunt Sarah! An' to think it's Elly Precious, my darlin' +dear! An' to think I never had--! An' to think I did it myself!" + +Even to Evangeline, words failed to express this worst of all things. +She dropped, a little leaden thing of despair, into Miss Theodosia's +great chair and rocked herself in anguish. + +"What is it, dear?" Miss Theodosia cried anxiously. The little word of +endearment slipped out unconsciously, though she was not used to +"dears." But she was not used to this, either--this rocking in anguish +of a little child in her great chair. + +"Can't you stop crying and tell me?" Evangeline not able to talk! Miss +Theodosia was actually alarmed. If speech did not return quickly--but +speech returned. + +"Oh, mercy gracious me!" Evangeline sobbed, rocking harder, "to think I +went an' set him right down in the middle of 'em--right slap in the +middle! An' he didn't want to be set down. Elly Precious despises the +Benjamin baby. He knows he's a girl, an' girl-babies don't count. But I +set him down--oh, mercy gracious me, I went an' set him down, slap!" + +Sobs and words collided and inextricably mixed. In the dark Miss +Theodosia waited; she saw no light as yet. + +"If I could only have 'em--if I only had've, anyway! Then I could take +care of my darlin' dear. But Elly Precious's is the only measles we ever +had in the family." + +Ah, light! Miss Theodosia blinked in the sudden inflow of it. +Evangeline's released tongue leaped ahead. + +"How'd I know the Benjamin baby had 'em when she only just sneezed? Oh, +I suppose she sneezed 'em all around, an' I set Elly Precious down in +'em! Right in a nest o' measles!" + +"What was Elly Precious doing there? I don't remember any Benjamins." + +"No'm--oh, no'm. They're very recent. It's that house with the baby-pen +in the front yard to keep their baby in. I set Elly Precious down in it, +too, one day." + +Evangeline shuddered. "While I was gettin' Stefana's starch at the +store; I asked if I could, till I got back." + +Miss Theodosia's face put on sternness. "What was the mother of the +Benjamin baby thinking of, to let you?" she demanded. + +"Oh, I don't know--I don't know! That's a very speckled baby, anyway, +an' perhaps she didn't know measles from speckles. He didn't bloom out +reg'lar built till next day--I mean she didn't--oh, I don't mean the +mother didn't--" + +"I know, dear; I know what you mean," soothed Miss Theodosia gently. + +"Yes'm, that's what I mean. Next day they found out for sure." + +"But have you found out 'for sure'? How do you know Elly Precious has +the measles? Has he--bloomed out? Perhaps his are speck--" + +"Elly Precious!" rose Evangeline's voice of indignation. "He's the +unspeckledest baby you ever saw! I guess--I guess you never saw Elly +Precious!" + +Stefana appeared suddenly in the doorway,--a blanched and frightened +Stefana. But she was determinedly calm. + +"He's fell asleep, and Carruthers is watching him through the door. I +told him not to go any nearer'n that. I came over to ask if I'd better +send word to Mother. He said to ask you." + +"Carruthers?" Miss Theodosia was a little bewildered. + +"The Tract Man. He's the one that--that discovered Elly Precious's +measles when we found he was broken out--I mean Elly Precious broken +out--" + +"Yes, yes, I know. He is a doctor--I mean--" Miss Theodosia caught +herself up firmly. One at least must steer a clear course. + +"He was goin' past," Evangeline put in, "an' I asked him, if he uster be +a doctor, wouldn't he please to be one now an' 'xamine Elly Precious's +spots." + +"Measles," Stefana said briefly and hopelessly. "Shall we send for +Mother, or what'll we do? Aunt Sarah isn't knitting." + +"Aunt Sarah--" began poor Miss Theodosia. Would she ever get used to +little Flaggs? Evangeline broke in gloomily with explanation. + +"No'm, not knittin', Mother wrote Stefana. Kind of--of unravelin' +instead. An' Mother's caught it." + +Miss Theodosia turned appealing eyes to Stefana. + +"Her knee's bad, too. Maybe it's just rheumatism, but she borrows Aunt +Sarah's crutches when they're empty. I don't see how she'd get home--" + +"Don't send for her!" Miss Theodosia directed. Some inner voice seemed +to say it through her lips. The same dictate from within prompted the +rest. + +"Bring the baby over here. Bring all his nightgowns. I'll take care of +him. It won't do for all you children to come down. Does the +Reform--does the doctor think you can have caught them already? I don't +believe it! Not till the disease is further advanced." + +"That's what he said--not till." Stefana hurried in eagerly. "_He_ +didn't believe it." + +"The Benjamin baby wasn't further advanced," doubted Evangeline +discouragingly. + +"Never you mind the Benjamin baby! You bring your baby over here at once +with his nightgowns! I believe we're in time. I'll be reading up my +medicine book. You can tell the doctor to come here instead of to your +house. Don't any of you dare to kiss Elly Precious good-by!" + +Miss Theodosia was moving briskly about the room, doing strange +things,--pulling down shades and drawing together draperies. + +"Mustn't have too much light, though maybe that is later on, too. I'm +sure there is something about being careful of the eyes. Evangeline, +wait! Let Stefana go. I don't trust you; you might kiss him." + +"Yes'm, I might," sighed poor little Evangeline. "He's my darlin' dear." +A terrible separation yawned before her like a bottomless pit of +desolation. How was she to live Elly Preciousless? + +"Can't I come over an'--an' hold him when he isn't--when he isn't +sneezing?" she suddenly sobbed forth. Miss Theodosia was too engrossed +to be sympathetic. There were many things to think of. + +"Come over?--I should say not! You can't do anything but look through +the window, and I shall ask the doctor if that's safe. Now +listen--dear," again the "dear" slipped through her lips unconsciously. +"Listen! When you see Stefana coming, you go out the back door! I wish +I'd told her to bring him in the clothes basket instead of in her +arms--" + +"I'll tell her to! Through the window. I'll tell her to bring him by the +handles," and Evangeline hurried away excitedly. + +An hour later Miss Theodosia, in a voluminous white apron and a hastily +invented white cap, had formally assumed her astonishing new role. Under +the cap Miss Theodosia's cheeks were prettily pink. It was becoming to +her to be Elly Precious' nurse. But the queer feeling of it! An hour ago +Theodosia Baxter, in a big house, alone; now this becapped and +pink-cheeked Theodosia in a house with a baby! It was an exciting +change; what else might it become? She was a little afraid of Elly +Precious. + +"Not now, while he is asleep, but when he wakes--" she thought. What +would she do with Elly Precious when he waked? + +Of course, she had sent for the Reformed Doctor, and equally, of course, +she would do precisely what he told her to do. But how would it feel? So +far, it felt queer. + +"I'll wait and see," she concluded with philosophy. At six the doctor +came. It was significant how he had left his role of authorship at home +and came physicianly, brisk and competent. + +"Measles haven't changed, anyway, in ten years," he said as he removed +his coat. Long ago, as a doctor, John Bradford had had his +idiosyncrasies, and one of them had been to work in his shirt sleeves. +The laying aside of his coat now had, if Miss Theodosia had but known, +bridged over the ten years. + +"Am I quarantined?" demanded the nurse. + +"You are," promptly replied the doctor. + +"Mercy gracious!" + +Silence while the tiny patient was carefully examined, with so delicate +a touch that he slept on. + +"For how long?" then. + +"Oh--weeks. Two, perhaps. Perhaps three. He is beginning to be feverish +in earnest now. You got him over here just in time. May I have a glass +of water?" + +Miss Theodosia went away to get it on shaking legs. She almost +staggered. The plot was getting thick! + +"If you think his mother ought to be sent for--I'm afraid I'm in a blue +funk!" She had returned and was splashing the water over the edge of the +glass as she held it out. He laughed reassuringly. His face, turned +sidewise up at her, was as reviving as cool water upon a faint. Miss +Theodosia "came to." + +"I've got over it. Go ahead--tell me precisely what you want done. Write +it down somewhere. I can read writing! And I can't forget it. Of course +I can rock him?" + +He did not answer at once, and she misinterpreted his silence. + +"I shall rock him," she said with firmness. "Written down or not written +down." And again he laughed, with the same curiously explosive little +effect as when she had first heard him do it as a Shadow Man. + +It was long after he left before Elly Precious woke. With remarkable +presence of mind, Miss Theodosia had darkened the room to make the +difference between herself and Evangeline or Stefana as inconspicuous as +possible. It helped. Elly Precious, even busy with his measles, might +have vigorously refused this strange new ministering. But in the +darkness he accepted it with a measure of resignation. He appeared to be +looking inward at his own poor little pains instead of outward or upward +at Miss Theodosia. She wisely refrained from speech during those first +critical moments. + +Ten-year-old arms may not be as steady for cradling as thirty-six-year +olds. Miss Theodosia's were steady and soft. The baby nestled into them +and she rocked him. + +She was rocking a baby! She was glad to be alone in the dark. The +sensation rather overwhelmed her. Then Elly Precious flung up little hot +hands and touched her face, and the sensation was no longer a new one. +Surely she had felt it before. Was it in another incarnation that she +had rocked a little child? The small, hot hands tugged at her +heartstrings--they must have tugged, just so, at that ancient rocking. +It was a beautiful tune, but not a new tune that the small hands played. +No, no--not new! + +Miss Theodosia began to croon softly, no longer afraid of sound. And +Elly Precious snuggled deeper. + +Shut in together--she and he and the measles--they grew accustomed to +each other. After the first, the days went rather fast, with +Evangeline's help through the window and under the door. Evangeline +helped from the first. Miss Theodosia found little letters emerging +through the tight crack under her outside door. The first one she read +smilingly: + +[Illustration: Evangeline established a stage of action outside the +window.] + +"He likes jiggy tunes best--please sing him jiggy tunes." + +So she sang them to Elly Precious and found he liked them best; +Evangeline knew. This method of helping promised to be valuable. + +One day there were two little letters under the door. + +"When he crys, he'll stop if you distrack him. Like this--_boo_--or make +a cow-noise or a horse-noise, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes he +keaps right on and then its no use to distrack him. Try tickleing unless +tickleing is bad for measles." + +This was a long note. Miss Theodosia did not smile this time because of +the new sensitiveness in the region of her heart. When she read the +second note, she held it a long time in her hand while something wet +blistered it in spots. + +"Please don't be mad if I worry a little for fear Elly Precious will +throw off his cloes. He's a dreadfull throw-offer, so we pin his sides +to the cloesbasket but maybe you don't sleep him in a cloesbasket. I +couldent sleep last night. + +"P.S. With safety pins." + +Sometimes they were cheerful little letters that peeped under the tight +crack. Evangeline wrote the news to Elly Precious. That Stefana's washes +came easier now and Carruthers was good all the time, only they never +let him be steam whistles, of course. That they all missed Elly Precious +and hoped that they'd be short measles and, mercy gracious, yes, they +loved him, and Aunt Sarah was knitting again. + +As the baby began to convalesce (they were short measles) and could sit +up on Miss Theodosia's lap in front of the window, Evangeline's most +important assistance began. For Elly Precious had very restless +occasions and even Miss Theodosia's new skill failed always to +"distrack" him. + +Evangeline established a stage of action outside the biggest-paned, +lowest-silled window, where vision was least obscured from within. On +that stage she danced wild, long dances, varying with each performance. +It was amazing how she varied them--sometimes bending and bowing +tirelessly, sometimes evolving remarkable skirt dances from legs and +toes and whirling petticoats. She grimaced unweariedly as long as Elly +Precious would laugh at her faces. When he tired of those, she +impersonated a cow--a horse--and made cow-noises and horse-noises at +the top of her voice, to carry to Elly Precious. + +Day after day she came, and they watched her from the big-paned +window--the baby and Miss Theodosia. It was a great help to the measles. + +"I never saw such a child!" Miss Theodosia said to the Reformed Doctor. +"She never gets tired of doing it." + +"Never was but one Evangeline--but she gets tired all right. Needn't +tell me!" + +"Then it's--love," Miss Theodosia said gently. + +"It is," nodded he. + +They had proceeded far in their acquaintance. Elly Precious had been so +tiny a thing between them, as they ministered to him! It was not to be +wondered at that they had drawn closer. After his professional "call," +John Bradford fell into the way of lingering till she brought him tea. + +"Talk about women loving tea!" she gibed gayly. + +"Talk about it being the men that want three lumps!" + +"That is queer, isn't it? We're the wrong way about; I like mine sweet +and you don't want any sugar. We're the exceptions that prove the rule. +If you'll hold Elly Precious a minute, I'll fill your cup." + +"That will make three." + +"'And I'll do it again, if you like--and again if you like!'" she +quoted. + +"Are you making stories now?" she asked him that day. + +And he nodded gravely, "One--a love-story." + +"Tell me about it! We want to hear it, don't we, Elly Precious? We love +love-stories." + +"Not yet. Not till it is a little farther along." He set the third cup +down untasted. His face, as Miss Theodosia looked smilingly at it across +the baby's head, had grown grave. She wondered simply. Miss Theodosia +was not making a love-story. + +"Will you tell us about it when it's farther along? About the heroine +and how she likes being in a love-story? Mercy gracious, it must be +exciting!" + +"If I can find out how she likes it," was his enigmatic answer. "She may +not work out as I want her to. Heroines are women, you know." + +"Well, of all things! If you can't make your heroine behave, I don't see +who can!" + +"I don't," he said slowly. "But I shall do my best." + +Another day, she had something to show him, and she made a little +mystery of it at first. She and Elly Precious knew! It was something +sweet--it could be worn, but you seldom looked at it. It was soft and +hard, too. You could--kiss it! When it was empty you wanted to kiss it, +and when it was full you had to! + +"Show it to me!" he commanded; "think I can guess all that?" + +She brought it and laid it in his hands, delighted like a girl. + +"Feel of it--isn't it soft? And I never made one before, so it was hard! +You seldom look at it, because it's worn in the dark. You'd like to kiss +it now, it's so sweet, but when I put Elly Precious into it, you'll +_have_ to kiss it! There, didn't I tell you right?" + +It was a little nightgown she had made for Elly Precious. He held it on +his two big hands like something wonderful. Its little sleeves dangled +over, and she caught one of them and squeezed it in a sort of soft +ecstasy. + +"It's so little!" she cried in a whisper. "Aren't you going to kiss it?" + +"If you'll look away--I'm afraid to when you're looking." + +"I won't look," she laughed. "You look, Elly Precious!" + +The bath-times were the pleasantest to Miss Theodosia. Getting things +together--little tub and powders and soaps and the fresh little +clothes--was a beautiful beginning, and after that--after that, the +deluge! The practice she had had washing that little ancient baby, in +her former incarnation, stood Miss Theodosia in good stead! As she had +bathed and rubbed and powdered her first baby eons ago, she bathed and +rubbed and powdered this second one now. For she called Elly Precious +her baby. That was their beautiful play. + +"We'll keep it a secret, won't we?--just between you and me, dear! We +won't even tell Evangeline that you're my darlin' dear," she crooned +over this second baby. Elly Precious played the game; he was a little +sport, was Elly Precious. + +The morning after the little new-nightgown episode, the bath progressed +thrillingly. That was, it seemed, the morning set by Elly Precious to +give this new mother a glorious surprise. It could not be said that he +had it up his little sleeve, being innocent of any manner of garment, +but he had it prepared. + +Miss Theodosia dried the tiny body and set it far forward on her knees, +facing her, and began as usual: + +"Now, baby, watch--watch hard! Make exactly the same noise I do." She +put her lips in position for clear enunciation. + +"Mam--m-ma." + +Customarily, Elly Precious sat and chuckled gleefully and nakedly. This +was a favorite play. But, oh, to-day-- + +"Mum--mum," said Elly Precious distinctly. Miss Theodosia caught him to +her, slippery and sweet, with a cry of rapture. + +"You said it! You said it, Elly Precious--darlin' dear! Now I shall wrap +you in a beautiful soft blanket and sing you a jiggy tune! Before I +dress you in horrid, bothery sleeves, we'll rock, and rock, you and +make-believe mum-mum!" + +The big chair creaked delightsomely to the ears of Elly Precious. To its +accompaniment sang Miss Theodosia. + +"Darlin' Dear! Darlin' Dear, Mum-Mum's here--oh, Elly Precious, I shall +send you to college! Of course, to college. You shall be a doctor--" Was +that the chair creaking, or a door? It was a door. On the doorsill stood +the Reformed Doctor, gazing in. The blanket had slipped away and it was +a beautiful, bare Elly Precious in Miss Theodosia's arms, against her +breast. The little picture stood out, distinct. But so soon it faded. +She was on her feet and facing that treacherous doorway. Flames burned +on her cheeks. + +"Is it anything to be ashamed of to pretend he is my baby! Well, I've +done it--I'm pretending now. We were having a beautiful time till--" + +"Till I came." + +"Till you came. You heard what I said about making a doctor of him, I +suppose?" + +He nodded. "I heard," he said meekly. + +"But you didn't give me time to say it all. I was going to say he'd stay +a doctor and not reform!" With which Parthian shot, delivered with +spirit, Miss Theodosia turned her back and Elly Precious' back to the +intruder. What was left for him to do but retire, vanquished and +diminished? The business of the bath went on, but joyless now. There was +no further putting off of the horrid, bothery sleeves that Elly Precious +abhorred. He set up indignant wails, and Miss Theodosia's soul wailed in +unison. + +"All our dear good time spoiled! We're not pretending any more; you're +Evangeline's darlin' dear. I'll put you on the bed and give you your +bottle." So abruptly had the beautiful game come to an end. Miss +Theodosia went away to prepare the bottle. As she went, a glint of white +underneath the door to out-of-doors caught her attention. Evangeline had +not tucked it under as far as usual. Perhaps it was not unnatural, +considering her new mood, that Miss Theodosia picked up the little +letter almost impatiently. + +"He says he can come home day after to-morrow if he don't colapse, so +Stefana is cleaning the house and I'm helping and we can't hardly wait. +We've got a new cloesbasket Stefana's going to make bows for the +handles, tell Elly Precious. + +"P. S. Pink bows." + +Miss Theodosia was not impatient as she folded the little letter again. +Tears stood in her eyes. She hurried back, bottleless, to Elly Precious, +to tell him. That he had fallen asleep made no difference. + +"You are going home day after to-morrow! Dream it in a little dream, +dear. When you wake up, it will be true. They can't hardly wait and +there's a new 'cloesbasket' with bows--P. S., pink bows. Oh, Elly +Precious, you know you're glad to go home! You've been pretending, too!" +Game little Elly Precious, to pretend! She stooped and kissed his eyes, +close shut in that dream of going home. "They are cleaning the house," +she whispered, "they can't hardly wait." + +A prescience of awful loneliness swept over her. She saw Theodosia +Baxter--lone and babyless again--set back in her empty house. The +curtain had gone down--would go down day after to-morrow--on the last +beautiful act. + +"But I have two days left! I demand my pound--fifteen little pounds of +flesh!" Elly Precious' little pink flesh. She would play that last act +of the little game of make-believe. Intruders or no intruders, she would +play it! At once, she began again where they had left off. + +"You will have to go to college very young, dear," she said. "They are +going to take you away from me day after tomorrow. A day and a half is +such a little college course; you'd be such a little Freshman, Elly +Precious! So we will have to give it up, dear. We'll just spend our last +days together. Who wants to know Latin and Greek anyway? I'll teach you +to pat little cakes in English!" Surely, surely she must have taught her +first baby to pat-a-cake. The blundering little hands in hers felt +strangely familiar. The first baby had been just as funny and sweet as +Elly Precious at that little lesson. + +"If I only had a little more time!" sighed Miss Theodosia. "There is so +much left for us to do; it is cruel to hurry us so! We might--we might +run away, dear! You and I. To Europe and Asia and Africa! I'd show you +all the wonders of the world. Listen, Elly Precious,--the _pyramids_! +Wouldn't you love to see the pyramids? You could play in the warm sand, +anyway,--bury your little twelve toes deep! We would keep watch all the +time and _run_ when we saw Evangeline coming. We would never stop to put +on our shoes and stock--Elly Precious, you've gone to sleep!" So little +was he thrilled at the prospect of pyramids. + +Miss Theodosia rocked him gently in her arms. Perhaps she would rock him +the whole day and a half--they could not prevent her! She would not stop +rocking if twenty Reformed Doctors came and looked at her. She would +rock in their faces! + +A sudden and queer thought came to her of Cornelia Dunlap standing in +the doorway, looking in as John Bradford had done. + +She saw the wreck of Cornelia's plump calm--Cornelia's wide-eyed +amazement. After she had reluctantly deposited the small, limp body upon +the couch to finish out the nap, she got her writing materials and wrote +to Cornelia Dunlap, with a whimsical little smile playing about her +lips. Her pen moved fast across the sheet. + +"The baby is having a beautiful nap. While he is asleep, I can write to +you. Of course my time is limited--'what with' scalding and filling +bottles and giving little baths--Cornelia Dunlap, go and get a little +baby and wash him! In a tub, with your sleeves rolled up. Let him splash +the water into your face--over your dress--hear him laugh! Give him the +soap for a little ship a-sailing. Oh, Cornelia, teach him to pat-a-cake! +Get a baby with the measles if there's no other way. You will love him +in between all his little measles. But, listen to me; _take this +advice_: Don't let them take him back! Hold on to both his little hands. +Run away to Africa with him if there is no other way--he will love to +play in the sand beside the pyramids. Send him to college, Cornelia, and +I think--yes, make a doctor of him. Doctors are best. + +"Morituri salutamus--we who are about to lose our babies and die wish +you happiness with yours, is the free translation. _Hold on to yours_. +He is a dear, I know. He may be as dear as mine, but he hasn't twelve +toes!" + + * * * * * + +"Mercy gracious!" + +It was the two days later and it was Evangeline. The child's radiant +face lighted up the room. + +"He let me come! I promised Stefana I wouldn't kiss him till I got him +home so's she could, too. He said to kiss his neck or behind his ears." +As usual no confusion of personal pronouns troubled Evangeline. + +"Mercy gracious!--oh, mercy gracious, he's improved! He's fatter! I +never thought measles'd be fattenin'! You're glad to see me, aren't you, +darlin' dear? I'm Evangeline! I've come to take you home. We've got +everything ready, only one bow, an' Stefana's piecin' that. Oh--my +darlin' dear!" + +The curtain had gone down. Theodosia Baxter stood quite alone in her big +room. In her ears was suddenly the shriek of a steam whistle of welcome; +it died away, and the silence ached. A crumpled something half under a +chair caught her eye and she openly sobbed. It was a forgotten little +nightgown. + +"I'm going to Rome--I'm going to Paris--to Anywhere! I can't stand +this!" she wailed. And then the creak of a door again. + +He stood on the door-sill looking in. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"I've done it again!" came from the doorway repentantly, "but this time +I knocked, honest to goodness. Regular bangs! You ought to have heard," +his tone assuming an injured cadence. + +Miss Theodosia had recovered herself. She was unfeignedly glad to see +him this time. + +"Maybe it was you, steam-whistling," she laughed. "I heard that! Oh, I +am glad enough you came this time! You've saved me from a trip to +Rome--tea is so much less expensive! I'll go and get it." She was off +directly and back again in remarkably quick time with her little kettle +and lamp. "Less time and fuss, too. See how little baggage! Now, Rome--" + +"Don't mention Rome!" There was a deep note in John Bradford's voice. He +watched her making the tea. Miss Theodosia's hands were worth watching. + +"Speaking of steam whistles reminds me of ears," he said. + +"Naturally! The two go together, all right!" But she saw that his face +remained grave. "Oh!--you mean the steam-whistler's ears--I see." + +"Yes, I have examined them rather carefully. They aren't hopeless little +ears--not hopeless. I'm not ready to go any farther than that yet. But I +intend--you see, I specialized in ears and a few other things at the +University--in practice, too, before--before I reformed." + +Quickly Miss Theodosia looked up. + +"There! You are harking back; please don't hark back! It was mean in me +to say it. I'm sorry! If I'd sent Elly Precious to college--while he was +my baby--and given him a doctor's degree, he could have taken it or left +it. He'd have had a right. Men have rights to their own lives." + +"Sure," but John Bradford's tone was thoughtful rather than emphatic. +"Still--I sometimes wonder--" + +"Why?--tell me why!" Now she was championing the Reformed Doctor! "You +could do as you pleased, couldn't you? It was your own life you were +'reforming.' Still, I wonder, too. Tell me how it happened." + +"How do I know how it happened?" He was walking up and down the room. +"It was in my blood to write stories. I wrote them every chance I could +get. Had to write them. I suppose I woke up to the rather decent +conclusion that a man can't serve two masters and serve them well. Isn't +efficient. So I chose my favorite master. There you have it in a +nutshell. May I have mine in a teacup?" + +She filled the dainty shell, but it rattled a little on its saucer. Miss +Theodosia felt about for less moving things; she was strangely moved. + +"How is the love story getting on?" she asked. + +"The--oh! Well, it had a setback awhile ago. Setbacks are not good for +love stories. But I shall go to work on it again." + +"At once--to-day?" What was this sudden freak of hers to drive him to +work?--the work she had all but derided before. + +"To-day. I'm working on it now--that is--er--" + +"Before and after--tea," she smiled. "Well, I shall help you all I can +on that story. I feel in a penitent mood. When you begin on it again--" + +"I've begun on it again." + +"After you go home, I mean. When you go to work again, make believe I'm +David Copperfield's Dora--holding the pens!" Too late she saw her error +and hedged. "Or cups of tea to keep up your strength." + +"I like pens better. If Dora were there--" + +"One more cup? You've only had one. The cups are no size at all. And +while you drink it, tell me about your heroine. What have you named +her?" + +"Dora," he said promptly. "You see, you've helped already." + +It was pleasant, drinking tea like this, with John Bradford there, +opposite, having his second cup. A pleasant way to drink tea--with a +John! Miss Theodosia hugged herself happily. Even the forgotten little +nightgown on the floor failed to diminish her content. She had not +forgotten Elly Precious; she was merely making the most of the +ameliorations the gods offered. The kind gods. But conscience had to put +in its pious oar. + +"I'm having a beautiful time; I don't know whether you are or not. But +I'm going to send you back to that love story. I hope the Recording +Angel will give me a white mark for it, or cross out a black one. The +goodness of me! I've been sitting here trying to strangle my conscience, +but you see it isn't my own--it's my grandmother's conscience; you have +to respect your grandmother's conscience. You'll have to go." + +"I can work on it here," he pleaded, but she shook her head mournfully. + +"I haven't the materials. It takes special paper, doesn't it, and pens?" + +"I could--er--think up my plot." + +"With me talking a blue streak? I should talk a blue streak; that's my +grandmother's, too. No, you must go. How will you ever get it done, if +you don't?" + +"I sha'n't if I do. Staying here is doing me good. I need to 'get up +more strength.'" + +She laughed, but remembered her grandmother. "No more tea," she said +kindly. "Conscience! But I'll tell you--you may come back after you've +worked." + +"To-day?" + +"To-morrow." + +And for many to-morrows he came back. On one of them the talk once more +reverted to the book that the Story Man was understood to be writing, in +some mysterious Place of Pens and Paper. + +"I hope it's a regular romance," Miss Theodosia said. + +"Romance? What is that? Is there such a thing? There may have been +once--" + +Miss Theodosia's fair cheeks took on faint color. She turned upon him. + +"Once nothing! I can't help it if that is slang; the occasion demands +slang. Are you trying to tell me romance is dead?" + +He nodded. "Sterilized--Pasteurized--boiled out of us. I suppose," he +sighed, "we are more hygienic, but we have faded in the process. It +dulls romance to Pasteurize it." + +She held up a staying hand. + +"Please!" she said, "in words of one syllable and maybe you can convince +me. But you can't. Do you mean to say there are no sweet, blushing girls +left, with--with dreams?" + +Again his sigh. It pained him to disillusion her. + +"Not blushing ones. I tell you the color won't stand our modern +sterilization process. I misdoubt the dreams, too. If they dream 'em, +they're of independence and careers and votes; you wouldn't call those +romantic dreams, would you? The little 'clinging vines'--" he waved them +back into the past with a comprehensive sweep of his hand--"all gone. +Our present-day soil is too invigorating, too stimulating. The +young things stand up on their own roots. No more clinging. Each one +aspires to be a spunky little tree by herself. Look at 'em and see for +yourself--the subways and elevateds are full of 'em at the crush hours, +nights and mornings--all glorying in their independence--their fine, +strong, young roots. No blushing, no clinging there! Are you convinced?" + +"I am not," flashed Miss Theodosia gamely. "There must be one little +dreamer of love dreams left." + +"Show her to me." + +"That isn't fair. I'm not in a way to know girls. I know just Stefana." + +"And Evangeline." + +"And Evangeline," laughed Miss Theodosia. + +"Is she romantic?" demanded the Story Man. And there he had Miss +Theodosia. She had instant vision of Evangeline growing, straight and +thrifty already, on her own small roots. It was not possible to +visualize a blushing--a clinging little Evangeline. + +"She is still young," Miss Theodosia murmured. "Besides, she's one of a +kind. There's only one Evangeline. You can't reason by only one of +anything. The exception proves the rule." + +"Then you yield me Evangeline?" + +"Yes, you may have her on your side," conceded Miss Theodosia +generously. It was rather in the way of a relief to shift the +responsibility for Evangeline. Miss Theodosia suddenly bubbled into low +laughter. + +"She is going to be a plumber." + +"Evangeline a plumber?" + +"Yes, because she's got to be rich, she says. She's 'sick 'n' tired' of +being poor, and you can make such _darlin_', roary, snappy fires in a +tin pail! Plumberin' will be fun." + +He laughed a little, too, enjoyingly, but returned to his arguings. Said +he: + +"_Be_ a plumber, not marry one, you see. What did I tell you? Oh, you +have no monopoly on Evangelines! The woods are full of tame Evangelines, +anyway. You will have to come over to my side." + +"Not at all. I haven't given up my own side. I shall hold on a little +while longer. I am not going to admit _yet_ that all sentiment is dead +and buried. And, anyhow, I don't see what it's being dead or alive has +to do with your story. I thought authors were creators. Can't you create +a little sentiment--romance? To my order?" she added demurely. + +Replied the Story Man with grave eyes: "I shall do my best. We are a +good deal at the mercy of our heroines. But I will do all that I can to +win mine over, dear lady. Heaven knows I want to!" + +"Then you are on my side now; you have changed your mind!" she cried +tauntingly. "Woman, thy name is not Fickleness, it is thy husband's +name! Well, I am glad it is going to be my kind of a story. How did I +know but it was to be a historical novel or a problem story--ugh! And, +instead, you're going to make love to your heroine in the dear old +thrilly way." + +He stirred in his seat, and his eyes sought his hostess. But Miss +Theodosia's eyes were cheerfully following the infinitesimal stitches +with which she was rimming an infinitesimal round hole in the bit of +linen in her hand. + +"How far have you got?" she questioned over a new stitch. + +"Not very far," sadly; "I think I am a little afraid of my heroine." + +"Mercy gracious! Well, I think I'd take her by the ear and march her +round to suit myself! If I wanted her to say '_yes_'--do you want her to +say 'yes'?" + +Did he want her to say yes! + +"I'm trying to lead her up to it," he said gently. Miss Theodosia bit +off her thread. + +"March her up to it, march her! You're too gentle with her. What is the +use of being a Story Man? Might as well be a plumber like Evangeline!" + +It was at this moment that Evangeline appeared on the little Flagg +horizon. They saw her coming their way, loaded as usual with Elly +Precious. The sag of her wiry little figure on the Elly Precious side +appealed strongly to Miss Theodosia. She dropped her foolish bit of +linen and hurried to meet that little sag. When she came back with Elly +Precious in her own arms, the Story Man was wandering away. He waved his +hat to them smilingly. + +"Please drop him--drop Elly Precious," Evangeline said, "anywheres +_soft_. I don't want him to distrack your mind. You play with your dolly +an' be a darlin' dear, Elly Precious, while we talk." + +Very gently Evangeline subtracted Elly Precious from Miss Theodosia and +removed him to an undisturbing distance. Then she returned and stood +before Miss Theodosia. + +"Stefana was born to-morrow," Evangeline stated gravely. "You didn't +know, of course, nor neither did I till it kind of came out. I told +him," nodding in the direction taken by the Story Man. "We plotted up a +hatch--I mean we hatched up a plot. He said to talk it over with you. I +don't know what he's goin' to do, but he'll do it--he said he would. An' +I thought--I thought--" Unwonted hesitations disturbed Evangeline's +smooth flow of speech. She sat down suddenly. + +"I guess I can say it easier sittin' than I could standin'. It's some +hard to say--it's so kind of _bareheaded_. But I don't know what else +to do. You see, Stefana'd hear me beatin' the eggs an' stirrin', if I +did 'em at home. An' besides, it would fall--oh, mercy gracious, I know +it would! I thought if I could do it over here--" + +"Evangeline," Miss Theodosia said gently, "drop your voice at a period +and begin all over with a capital letter. Take your time, dear." + +Said Evangeline with a sigh: "I'll try standin' up. I guess I kind of +mixed you up, didn't I? You see, what I _meant_ was, could I make +Stefana's birthday cake over here to your house where she can't hear me +stirrin'?" + +"Oh, Stefana's birthday! That is why she was 'born to-morrow.'" + +"Yes'm, in a thunder storm. I've heard Mother tellin'. It will have to +be a graham cake." + +"A--what kind of cake, Evangeline? Maybe you'd better try sitting down; +I don't think I just understand." + +"No'm, no'm, I guess you wouldn't, because you probably can always 'ford +white flour. I thought if I frosted it over real white, it would hide +the grahamness. I've got two eggs." + +Understanding came to Miss Theodosia, though a little slowly. Was she +growing stupid? + +"Evangeline, we'll make Stefana's cake together; we'll take turns +'stirrin''! We'll do it over here and keep it a beautiful secret." + +The child was standing up now certainly, her wiry little body a-tilt +with excitement, a-quiver with it. Evangeline's eyes shone. + +"Oh, I knew you would! I knew you would! You're such a _nangel!_ If you +was a kind of folks that liked to be kissed--" + +The soft pink of Miss Theodosia's cheeks! She lifted her head and sat +very still. + +"Come and try me, dear. Maybe I am that kind of folks." And in a little +whirlwind of tender gratitude descended Evangeline upon her. It was a +whole-souled kiss, the only brand possible to Evangeline. + +"I--I am that kind!" gasped Miss Theodosia, emerging laughing but +tender-eyed. "Now let's begin the cake." + +"Oh, yes, mercy gracious, yes! I'll go get the eggs 'n' graham flour, +an'--an' molasses. Could we sweeten it with molasses, Miss Theodosia? +It'll take all o' my sugar for the frostin'. We are pretty used to bein' +sweetened with molasses--" + +Miss Theodosia had a swift mental taste on her tongue of Stefana's +graham birthday cake, molasses-sweet. There were her heartstrings at +their odd little twitching again! + +"You won't have to go home at all, Evangeline. I've got all the +materials--" but at sight of the child's face, a little fallen and +troubled, she hastily appended--"except the eggs. I guess you'd better +go home and get those." + +"Two!" sang Evangeline joyously, already on her way; "I've got two. +Two's a lot of eggs, isn't it?" + +They mixed and beat and stirred together, and Evangeline never knew how +many more eggs than two went into the rich golden batter. Elly Precious, +tied for safety-first into one of Miss Theodosia's chairs, looked on +with an interest more or less intermittent; when Evangeline's offerings +of "teeny speckles" of toothsome batter were delayed, the interest +flagged. The baking time was for Evangeline a period of utmost +anxiety--there were so many direful things that might happen to +Stefana's cake. If it fell down or burned up-- + +"Oh!" she breathed with infinite relief when the strain was over, and +only lovely things had happened to the cake, "I'm so happy I could sing +if I had any vocal strings! That's queer about me, isn't it? I don't +have any trouble with my _talkin'_ strings." + +"Not a bit," agreed Miss Theodosia gayly. "What makes you think you +couldn't sing?" + +"Because once I tried to sing Elly Precious to sleep an' it woke him up, +awfully up. He was scared. So I always talk him to sleep. Miss +Theodosia, don't birthday cakes sometimes have candles round the edge of +'em? I don't mean Stefana's, of course, but rich folks' birthday cakes." + +"_I_ mean Stefana's. Evangeline, we'll have thirteen candles!" but +inwardly she was wondering if forty would not fit better round the edge +of aged little Stefana's birthday cake. "And we'll decorate it--write +something on the top, you know. We'll make the Story Man do it for us." + +Evangeline was awed into near-silence. "You mean--poetry? Mercy +gracious, poetry!" + +"Something lovely," nodded Miss Theodosia a little vaguely. If it be +poetry, the Story Man must do that part, too. A little later, when +Evangeline had shouldered Elly Precious and departed and the Story Man +had sauntered again into sight, she hailed him with relief. Displaying +the snowy little cake, she explained the situation. + +"You must do the rest. We want a 'sentiment' on it, Evangeline and I. +What is the use of being a literary person if you cannot inscribe a +birthday cake?" + +He groaned a little, reminiscently. He remembered the autograph albums +of his bashful youth. How much better than an autograph album was a +frosted cake? + +"Something appropriate, you know," encouraged Miss Theodosia, brightly. +"In lovely pink writing on top." + +"'She hath starched what she could,'" he offered tentatively. + +"Oh, for shame! Something nice and romantic." + +"But romance is dead--hold on, I beg pardon! That is not decided yet; I +remember. You shall have your poetry, you and Evangeline. Something +after this wise: + + "'Our most esteemed Stefana, + May rough winds never pain her' + +"Do winds 'pain' people? But, to speak modestly, I call that a pretty +neat sentiment to turn out extempo like that. 'Stefana'--you can't deny +Stefana is a hard word to rhyme with. Now tell me a harder one!" + +"Evangeline--Theodosia," she murmured. Her eyes dwelt lovingly on the +little white cake. He should not make fun of it! + +"I'll decorate it myself," she said, "I'll have a little pink heart on +it--_two_ little pink hearts." + +"With but a single thought. Make them with but a single thought--beat +them as one. There! I'm perfectly sober and sane now. It's a fine little +cake, and I'm not worthy to write poetry for it. Longfellow-- +Shakespeare--Whitcomb Riley--we'll canvass them. Don't think +I'm not respectful to Stefana's birthday." + +"I don't know what you call respect!" she retorted. But she knew the +next day. She found out what he called respect. The knowledge came, as +so much that was worth while came, through Evangeline, Elly Precious in +its wake. They came running this time. Elly Precious' small body rolled +and lurched with their hurry and the agitation of Evangeline's soul. + +"Somethin's--happened." + +"Give me the baby. Sit down, dear. Now." + +"The flower wagon brought Stefana--roses," whispered Evangeline. "In a +long box--an' tissue paper. Oh, my mercy gracious, stopped right +straight at our house! An' nobody dead." Evangeline's whisper rose to a +weird little cry. The wonder of the flower wagon stopping right +straight! And every one alive! + +"Stefana's countin' 'em. I guess she's counted 'em a hundred times. +They's--thirteen! They've got the longest stems you ever _saw_! Stefana +can't get over their stems; she said they most made her cry." + +For very breath Evangeline stopped. Over the little uneasy head of Elly +Precious shone Miss Theodosia's eyes. Miss Theodosia was softly +thrilled. The stems appealed, too, to her; she loved them long--long. + +"Roses, you say?" Oh, Evangeline! Birthday roses for Stefana! What +color?" + +"Red--red--red," chanted Evangeline "Thirteen red roses an' thirteen +long stems. In a pasteboard box with 'Miss Stefana Flagg' wrote on it. +You ought to seen how Miss Stefana Flagg looked! She--she kissed the +box. I guess now she's kissin' the roses. She never 'spected to have any +roses till she was dead. An' then she couldn't 've kissed 'em an' cried +at the stems," added Evangeline softly. She was suddenly a softened +little Evangeline, curiously gentled by Stefana's sweet, red roses. Miss +Theodosia caught her breath at the sight of the child's face and the +thought of Stefana kissing her roses. + +"I wish--I wish you'd go over an' congratcherlate Stefana," whispered +Evangeline. "She'd be so tickled. I'll keep Elly Precious ever here, an' +Carruthers is playin' ball in a field." As though this ceremony of +'congratcherlation' demanded quiet and privacy. + +And by and by Miss Theodosia went. She had a whimsical impulse to carry +her little silver card case, but she did not yield to the whimsey. She +did take off her little white apron and smoothe her hair. Stefana to-day +was a person for ceremonies and respect. Oh, the kindness, the clearness +of those long-stemmed roses! She had not thought to do it herself, but +he--a man creature--Miss Theodosia's eyes were tender. + +Stefana was still sitting among her roses. They lay across her lap. + +"Oh! Oh, come right in, Miss Theodosia!" she cried welcomingly. "But +please to excuse me for not getting up--I can't bear to disturb them. +Seems as if I could sit right straight in this chair till they withered! +I'm breathing easy so not to breathe the smell out. I never had any +roses before." + +Her voice lowered to almost a whisper. She whispered a little laugh. + +"Seems as if I'd ought to be married while I have 'em! They're such +beautiful roses to be married in!" + +And this was Stefana, their matter-of-fact, starchy little white-washer! +This rapt, dreamy little face was Stefana's face! + +"Sometimes," Stefana murmured, "sometimes I've dreampt--" but Miss +Theodosia did not quite catch what it was Stefana had sometimes +"dreampt," but it was something sweet. Stefana a little dreamer of sweet +dreams! One of them must have been a rose-dream, and this was that dream +come true. + +The call of congratulation was a brief one. It seemed little short of +irreverence to have seen at all that picture of Stefana rocking her +roses in the little wooden rocker. Miss Theodosia slipped away with it +hung on the walls of her mind--she would never take it down. + +John Bradford was coming along the road and she went a little way to +meet him. Some of Stefana's radiance was in her own face. + +"I've found it," she announced in soft triumph. + +"Good!" he hazarded at random. It was always good to find things. But he +wondered at the radiance. + +"My romance that I knew was somewhere. I've found it! I told you so!" + +"Found it where?" he demanded. He was unconsciously stirred by her +emotion. He followed her glance to the little House of Flaggs. +"Not--there?" + +"Yes, there. Stefana is dreaming it over a lapful of red roses. I have +been there and seen her. Is romance dead--is it? Go and look at +Stefana!" But she held him back from going. "No, no, I didn't mean it! +Not in cold blood--I didn't go in cold blood. You will have to take my +word for it." + +"I will take your word." + +"That romance is not dead?" + +"That romance is alive. But who would have thought of it's being +_Stefana_!" + +"Who would have thought!" echoed Miss Theodosia. + +Elly Precious was fretting restlessly when she got back. The children +were on the porch. + +"Nothing's the matter with him," Evangeline explained, "unless it's +because he's a-goin' to be taken. I told him he was. It is kind of +scaring to be taken. I feel kind of that way, too." + +"Taken where?" + +"Not any where--just _taken_. His picture an' mine an' +Carruthers'--we're all goin' to be taken now, pretty soon. I must go +home an' prink Elly Precious an' Carruthers. You see, Mr. Bradford +promised to take Stefana because it's her birthday, an' first we knew he +said he'd take all o' us! He's got a camera. That's him now! I guess +he's waitin' for Elly Precious an' me." + +She was hurrying away, but bethought herself of something. "The cake!" +she said. "If Elly Precious'll be still, I can carry it on my other arm. +Maybe we'll be so busy being taken that I can't come over again before +supper." + +"Run along," Miss Theodosia said; "I'll take it over. I haven't quite +got it ready yet," for there were the two little pink hearts to +add,--Stefana's heart and a little dream-heart. She smiled tenderly over +the fashioning of those little pink hearts. Miss Theodosia was not an +artist--they wavered and leaned, but they leaned toward each other! +Perhaps they were better to be little leaning hearts. + +She carried the cake over, covered with a napkin. There were other +things, too, that she had prepared, and several trips were necessary. A +mold of quivering, scarlet jelly, full of fascinating glints of light; +scalloped, currant-rich cookies, a little platter of cold chicken--Miss +Theodosia carried them all over covered with napkins. + +Evangeline was putting the finishing touches to the supper-table, which +was brave with the best Flagg dishes. It was rather a pitiful little +bravery, but satisfying to Evangeline. She hurried Miss Theodosia aside +and talked very fast. + +"I've sent Stefana out with Elly Precious. We're goin' to blind her an' +lead her in an' count one--two--_look_! She'll see the cake the very +quickest thing! She won't cut off an inch o' the stems, so they're kind +of tall up 'n' down, you see. I mean the roses. I've put a corset steel +o' Mother's in an' kind of tied 'em to it. I hope you don't see any +corset steel." + +"No." Miss Theodosia looked not at the centerpiece of roses but at the +cake, the tremulous jelly, the platter,--anywhere else. "No, I don't see +any, dear." + +"It's perfectly lovely, isn't it? Mercy gracious--oh, mercy gracious! +It'll _dazzle_ Stefana. An' most every speck you did, Miss Theodosia. +Won't you please stay? Won't you _please_ to please?" + +"No," for the sixth time persisted Miss Theodosia. "I'm going before +Stefana gets back. This is a Flagg celebration, dear. Just little +Flaggs." + +Evangeline drew a long breath. Then little twinkles lighted in her eyes. + +"Well," she said, "they'll be star-spangled Flaggs to-night!" + +She followed Miss Theodosia to the door. Even then she could not stop +talking. Her excited little voice followed Miss Theodosia home. + +"He took us! He's blue-printing us to see if we wiggled. Elly Precious +did--mercy gracious! But maybe one of him, just one, didn't. He's goin' +to make reg'lar black an' white pictures of the unwiggled ones. I guess +you'll be surprised when you see us!" She was surprised. John Bradford +brought the little blue pictures to her the next day. They bent over +them together. + +"Oh!" Miss Theodosia uttered softly, for the pictures were instantly +tangled in her heartstrings. She could hardly bear the one unwiggled one +of Elly Precious. He was draped in tall red roses; they covered his +little body and trailed their stems about his outspread legs. He had the +effect of peeping at Miss Theodosia through roses. But what she could +see of him was Elly Precious--her baby. + +"Stefana posed him," the Story Man said, smilingly. "And Evangeline and +Carruthers, too. Look at Evangeline." + +Across Evangeline trailed the roses. It was a rigid, terribly rigid, +Evangeline, but the roses saved her. Some softening grace emanated from +them and touched the solemn little face. A little more of Evangeline +than of Elly Precious peeped from behind them. + +"Carruthers!--et, tu, Carruthers!" murmured Miss Theodosia. For here +again was the trail of the roses. Stefana had "posed" them in all the +little pictures. The effect of a rose-draped Carruthers was almost +startling. He gazed from behind them stolidly, unsmiling and +unhappy-souled. Carruthers did not enjoy being taken. + +"Now look at Stefana," John Bradford said. This was his special +exhibit--exhibit S. He watched Miss Theodosia's face as she glanced at +the little blue print. + +No roses trailing there. Just a radiant-faced Stefana gazing at Miss +Theodosia. It was the same face that hung on the walls of her memory. +Miss Theodosia had the sense of roses there, out of sight; it was as if +Stefana rocked them gently in her lap. + +"She wouldn't wear the flowers herself," the Story Man was saying; +"Neither Evangeline nor I could make her. Queer little freak." + +"She is wearing them!" smiled Miss Theodosia, "I can see them. It's only +because you are a man that you can't see,--you and Evangeline! Look at +the roses in Stefana's eyes--in her soul--" + +"Oh, you woman! Women are curious things." + +"Women are romantic things--oh, you man! Why should you understand us +Stefanas with your unsentimental soul-of-a-man? What do you know about +our dreams?" She had not meant to say quite that. "Stefana's dreams," +she corrected herself. "What do you know about them? And still--" + +Miss Theodosia looked up from the radiant little face of Stefana with +her dream-roses to the man-face beside her own. + +"And still--you sent the roses," she said softly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +A letter came to Miss Theodosia one day. Queer how disturbing a letter +could be when for so long peace had enveloped her travel-worn spirit, +though it might have been because of the peace that she was disturbed. +Ordinarily a letter from Cornelia Dunlap was the forerunner of +interesting events to break the monotony of life. But life was not +monotonous now, and it presented interesting events without the +intervention--mentally and unkindly Miss Theodosia termed it +interference--of Cornelia Dunlap. + +"Why need Cornelia write me now, or if she does write, why can't she +talk about mushrooms?" which were Cornelia's most recent palliative to +her self-imposed and brief sojourns in her little home town. It had been +cats when she and Miss Theodosia returned from Spain, Belgian hares +after their long stay in Egypt. Miss Theodosia herself had never tried +mushrooms nor Belgian hares. She had borne her short homecomings +unpalliated, and had flitted again relievedly. Usually she and Cornelia +Dunlap had flitted together. They had formed the flitting habit when +family bereavements had left them both lonely women. + +"Why must she write about Japan?" sighed Miss Theodosia now, over the +disturbing letter. "What do I care about Japan?" Yet she always had +cared about Japan. Cornelia Dunlap and she had left that delectable +country of cherry blossoms and quaint, kimona-ed women for their old +age, they said, to help them bear it. But Cornelia had forgotten that. + +"Let's go to Japan," she wrote. "I can pack in twenty-four hours; how +long will it take you? We'll stay there till cherry blossom time. +Frankly, Theodosia Baxter, I am bored, and you needn't tell me that you +aren't--frankly--too. You haven't even mushrooms (they didn't earn their +own living, my dear. I don't know what the trouble was). 'My native +country, thee,'--I love it. I tell you I do! You know yourself that I +never stay overnight in a place without unfurling my country's flag. +Remember in sunny Italy?--the little brown bambino that cheered my +colors? But I love my country best--in Japan! Come, dear, pack--pack! If +I can leave my mushrooms, I guess you can leave your lonesome, big house +in Nowhere." + +Miss Theodosia dreamed a little over her letter, of the little island of +romance and flowers and fans. They did not need to wait; they could go +again when they were old. + +She told John Bradford at their next meeting of the lure of Japan, +though in her heart she was not lured. She was not "bored"; it was not a +big, lonesome house in Nowhere! She would tell Cornelia Dunlap so. She +would tell her that Flaggs were better than mushrooms--they earned their +own living! Cornelia could run away alone to Japan to her cherry +blossoms. + +But John Bradford had his scare, and through him Evangeline hers. Gloom +settled on Evangeline. If her beloved lady was going away--the bitter, +bitter taste of life without the beloved lady! But the inspiration that +flashed into Evangeline's nimble mind temporarily comforted her. She set +about its carrying-out. Inspirations were sweet morsels under +Evangeline's tongue. + +To Miss Theodosia on her porch, telling Cornelia Dunlap that Japan had +no lure, came a solemn procession across the grass. Evangeline led, with +the effect of walking backward--though she walked straight ahead--and +waving a baton. Stefana had Elly Precious, and Carrathers tramped +soberly behind, in time to that imaginary wand. Miss Theodosia's +fascinated gaze was riveted to the procession's arms. The wonder grew +with nearness. Every individual parader in the procession wore a somber +black arm-band. Elly Precious held his small member straight out from +his side as if a little afraid of it. + +"Evangeline!" uttered Miss Theodosia. It did not occur to her to address +any one but Evangeline. Instinctively she recognized that the procession +was Evangeline. + +"Halt!" with an imaginary flourish. "Right about your faces!" Then +Evangeline turned to Miss Theodosia and offered her sad little +explanation. + +"We're in mournin'," she said. "All of us are--on our sleeves. Elly +Precious's doesn't stay on very well." + +"Evangeline!" again cried Miss Theodosia, this time in a startled voice. +Fears beset her. Was it the mother, or had poor Aunt Sarah raveled out? +How could it have happened so suddenly--a bolt out of the clear little +Flagg skies? + +"It's you," Evangeline said. Miss Theodosia settled a little in her +chair and waited. In time--Evangeline's time--she would know. Elly +Precious held out his rigid little mourning arm and softly whimpered. + +"Give him to me, Stefana; he wants to come to me," Miss Theodosia said, +extending welcoming hands. Very gently she relieved the tension of the +small arm. + +"We're in mournin' for you," Evangeline explained sadly. "_He_ said we +might as well make up our minds, I tied a stockin' round his arm, but he +took it off again because he said he didn't wear his stockin's--no, I +guess it wasn't his stockin's; it was his heart--on his sleeves. But he +said he was in mournin', too." + +Miss Theodosia gave it up. She appealed to Stefana in gentle despair. + +"You tell me, dear. What does she mean?" + +"We're so sorry you are going to Japan, and Evangeline said we ought to +go into mourning, so we went," explained the quiet Stefana. + +"She cried; you know you did, Stefana Flagg! I would've, only I was +gettin' the mournin' ready. I'm _goin_' to." + +"Don't cry!" Miss Theodosia said, though she was doing it herself. The +pulling of her heartstrings! "Don't cry, Evangeline dear. I wish we +could take back Stefana's tears." + +"You mean--you ain't goin'?" + +"I ain't goin'," repeated Miss Theodosia, tremulously smiling. "Japan! I +wouldn't go to _six_ Japans!" + +"Then take it off o' our arms, quick! You take off Carruthers', Stefana. +I'll undo Elly Precious's. Oh, goody! Oh, mercy gracious, I feel 's if +we ought to take hold o' hands an'--an' _wave_!" + +At the end of her letter to Cornelia Dunlap Miss Theodosia wrote: "You +can't tempt me with all your cherry blossoms. I've got home, Cornelia, +and all my little Flaggs are waving. Come and see _my_ Flaggs." + + * * * * * + +It was mid-September and Miss Theodosia found out-of-doors a pleasant +place to be. She had made an errand down to the business portion of the +little town for the sheer pleasure of the going and coming,--a morning +errand, as the afternoons were sacred to tea,--and now was coming +leisurely back, sniffing the sun-sweet air. She turned off the quiet, +side street she had been using as a long way home, into the main street +of the town, only to find her progress interrupted by unseemly and noisy +crowds. Miss Theodosia loved all things seemly and quiet. How she +despised a crowd, and this one--she brought up short in actual disgust +on the outer edge of it. Thus was her stately little progress stayed. +People surged about her and jostled her good-naturedly. She was in the +crowd. + +"What is it? Has there been an accident?" she inquired of the nearest +jostler. It was a ragged and radiant child. + +"Axident! Didn't ye know there was a circus? We're waitin' for the +p'rade. I hear it! I hear it comin'!" + +The crowd surged ahead toward the street curb. Against her will, Miss +Theodosia surged, too. Loud cries filled her ears--ecstatic cries of +little children. Down the usually quiet street marched, in all its +brilliancy of color and tinsel and tawdry splendor, the street parade. +Horses curvetted, elephants patiently plodded, huge cars of mystery +swung by; clowns smirked, to the riotous joy of that awful crowd. + +"See him sittin' tail to! That one there--there!" + +"Look-a that one with the spotted panth! Look at him throw kitheth!" + +"They's man-eatin' lions in that cage--see the lady sittin' with 'em!" + +"See that man top o' the band waggin that shoots up his neck +_yards_--quick! See him shorten it again!" + +Miss Theodosia saw all, against her will. All her thirty-six years she +had held aside her dainty skirts from people who went to circuses, but +how could she hold them aside now? There was not room. She was caught in +the swirl and noise and glee. + +Suddenly a familiar voice struck her ear. Evangeline's voice! Drawn up +on the curbing in a vantage-spot that only they who come early and +patiently wait can secure, was the entire family of little Flaggs. At a +new angle Miss Theodosia was able to see plainly their breathless +ecstasy. She could hear what Evangeline was saying. + +"Oh, isn't it elegant--oh, look, Stefana! Oh, don't you hope circuses'll +be free in Heaven--not jus' the p'rade, but the show!" + +Then and there Miss Theodosia's heartstrings throbbed unmercifully; she +could not do anything with them; they would throb. In vain she turned +away--looked at other faces--listened to other voices. It was Evangeline +she heard, with her wistful cry, and the little line of Flaggs that she +saw. + +"There's Miss Theodosia--there, there, Stefana! She's come to the +p'rade!" + +"Miss Theodosia! Miss Theodosia! Look, Elly Precious, quick!" And it was +Elly Precious she saw, held high by eager arms. That minute she yielded +to the wild impulse within. She pressed forward to speaking distance. + +"Who will go to the show with me this afternoon? All in favor say aye." + +"Mercy gracious, you don't honest mean--" + +"Miss Theodosia!" Stefana's lean little face actually whitened. + +"I honest mean. Isn't anybody going to say aye?" + +"I!" + +"I!" + +"I!" + +The joyous chorus of "I's"! The jubilant waving of every little Flagg! +For the moment, the gorgeous tinseled parade was forgotten in the vaster +anticipative glories of the show. Miss Theodosia's heartstrings throbbed +a little louder but tunefully. She had forgotten her skirts. + +Shows begin early and last long. Miss Theodosia's show began at the +opening of the gates. She and her little string of followers filed in. + +"Mercy gracious!" breathed Evangeline in awesome delight at the vision +spread before her. + +"Mercy gracious!" breathed Miss Theodosia. They were different mercy +graciouses. But a miracle was on the way to her, coming straight and +fast through the crowds of festive circus-goers. Very soon now--in an +hour--in another moment--It arrived! Miss Theodosia felt herself +yielding to the lure of the sawdust and the side shows--the pink +lemonade and the balloons. She was entering in! She was not Miss +Theodosia who detested crowds; in the tight grip of the miracle, she was +Miss Theodosia who thrilled and enjoyed. + +"Isn't it elegant? Oh, aren't you happy!" cried Evangeline. + +"Aren't I!" gallant Miss Theodosia responded. She caught Evangeline's +sleeve. "What is that man shouting about--there, in front of that big +tent?" + +"Oh, I don't know, but it's somethin' splendid. I know it's somethin' +splendid! I'll go 'n' see." + +"I'll go with you. Stefana, stay with the rest of the children. We'll be +right back." Miss Theodosia laughed as she and Evangeline went, hand in +hand. In a moment they were back for the rest. It was "somethin' +splendid"--come! come! + +They drank pink lemonade and ate ice-cream cones. Elly Precious and +Carruthers waved gay balloons. Evangeline chose a cane. + +"I need one. I'm so happy I tumble over! I never was so happy 'xcept +when Elly Precious stopped havin' the measles. That was as splendid as +this, but it wasn't as _splendid_ splendid. Miss Theodosia, don't you +feel all beautiful and jiggy inside?" + +"All beautiful and jiggy!" nodded Miss Theodosia, wondering a little +whether it was all circus or some pink lemonade. + +"I like the wholeness of it best," Stefana said, taking in the animated +scene with an artist's eye. + +"I don't! I like the every little speckness of it," Evangeline chirped. +"I like that 'normous big tent an' that tiny little one--I like that +balloon man--I like that little darky baby--isn't he black as the ace of +space, Miss Theodosia! Oh, I like every blade o'--sawdust!" Her laugh +trilled out gayly. + +"But we haven't seen it yet--the show." + +"Miss Theodosia! You don't honest mean we're goin' in? Stefana, she +does--she means! We're goin' in!" As of course they were. The best seats +in the great tented arena were none too good for them. Stefana +laboriously shut up Elly Precious' go-cart, and Miss Theodosia lifted +Elly Precious in her arms. In the procession they sought those +best-of-all seats. What followed, even Evangeline gazed upon in silence; +there were no words in Evangeline's dictionary for what followed. She +sat on the edge of the best-of-all seat and drank in riders and clowns +and dizzy performing fairies--an intoxicating draught. + +"Miss Theodosia," in a tiny whisper. + +"Yes, dear?" + +"Ain't you glad you ain't dead? 'Cause you don't need to be." Which was +Evangeline's way of complimenting Heaven. There was no need of dying to +find out its marvels--not now. Miss Theodosia slipped one of the small +hands into hers and squeezed it; squeezing established understanding. +They knew--they understood. + +"Well, upon my word!" a deep voice exclaimed behind them. With one +accord Miss Theodosia and her Flaggs wheeled about. The Tract +Man--Shadow Man--Reformed Doctor stood there, smiling. He was eating +popcorn from a paper bag. Transferring the bag to Evangeline, he held +out his hands for the baby. + +"You here?" Miss Theodosia exclaimed stupidly. + +"Yes--are you?" + +Every one laughed. Laughing was so easy! Elly Precious from his lofty +shoulder-post clapped small, joyous hands and crowed. In the ring a +clown threw them kisses. A fairy in short, silvery skirts rode by on two +horses. "Wait! Watch her--watch her!" Evangeline whispered hissingly. +"She's goin' to jump through a hoop o' fire! Without burnin' up!" + +John Bradford leaned forward to Miss Theodosia. + +"Having a good time?" he whispered. + +"Grand! Are you?" + +"Hunkydory!" He might have been a boy, she a girl. These might have been +little Flagg brothers--sisters. + +"We must have cones--ice-cream cones," he said. + +"We've had 'em," piped Evangeline. + +"We must have more cones, and cracker-jack." + +"We've had crackerjack." + +"We must have more crackerjack. Where is the Crackerjack Boy?" + +At the end of the show in the ring they took a vote and decided to stay +to see it all over again. What did it matter if they had seen the tinsel +fairy jump through her fiery hoop or the acrobats perform their wonders? +They felt acquainted now. They were gazing, enchanted, at friends. + +"My clown's lookin' at me! I'm goin' to bow to him." + +"Mine's threw me a kiss!" + +Stefana, more refined in taste, had adopted a beauteous creature in gold +and blue, and starry spangles. Her beauteous lady waved a scepter at her +as she glided by. + +"She's got so many ruffles on! An' they're beau-ti-fully done up!" +sighed Stefana in gentle envy of some unknown artist in starch. + +"Now what?" demanded the man of the party at length. "Anybody want to +stay here any longer? Or shall we discover new territory?" He took +Evangeline aside and questioned her. + +"Have you seen everything out there?" indicating the attractions without +the big tent. + +"We've seen a nawful lot. We've had a nelegant time," Evangeline +whispered back. Desire and loyalty to Miss Theodosia fought a duel in +her small breast and the issue was yet doubtful. + +"Isn't there something left that you'd like to see?" The order was +changed; here was man tempting woman. Desire won the duel with one +mighty blow. Evangeline tiptoed up as near his ear as possible and +breathed two words. + +John Bradford turned to the little crowd. + +"We'll go to see the Fat Lady," he said to Miss Theodosia; "I'll take +the kiddies, while you sit down somewhere and rest. + +"Sit down somewhere? Haven't I been sitting down somewhere? Don't you +suppose I want to see the Fat Lady, too?" laughed Miss Theodosia. Fat +ladies appealed to her invitingly, in this remarkable mood of hers--Miss +Theodosia's circus mood. + +"You're playing the game like a trump! I didn't dream you could +'pretend' a circus was yours. Must be some harder than pretending +babies--" John Bradford got no farther. She turned indignant eyes upon +him. + +"'Game'--'pretend'--I'd have you know I'm having a nelegant time! You +must be the Pretender." + +"Me? I'm having the time of my life! I am going to put a circus into my +love story." + +"This circus?" + +"This identical one." + +"With me and the little Flaggs in it?" + +"You--and the little Flaggs." + +They had fallen behind the children, and a side eddy of the crowd had +flowed between. The Fat Lady was at the further end of the grounds, but +there was no hurry; she would remain just as fat a Fat Lady if they +pleasantly dallied a little. Stefana had, with the deftness of +genius-born skill, solved the puzzle of opening the folded-up go-cart, +and the Man Person of the party was no longer burdened with Elly +Precious. + +Suddenly into the pleasant dallying leaped Carruthers with terrified +little face. + +"They're lost! We can't find 'em! I can't an' Stefana can't. They ain't +anywhere! We were lookin' at a man with turkles you wind up, an' when we +stopped lookin' they weren't there--not anywhere. They ain't anywhere! +Not any--' + +"Stop him!" begged Miss Theodosia. "He'll keep right on anywhere-ing. We +must find Stefana." + +"Stefana said--oh, I couldn't hear what Stefana said, but she pointed +an' pointed, an' I came lickety. They're lost! They ain't anywhere!" + +Stefana appearing here, the story was repeated. Like that--Stefana +snapped her fingers--they had disappeared. + +"I've hunted and hunted. Everybody's seen children with go-carts, but +they weren't Evangeline 'n' Elly Precious." + +Miss Theodosia's own face was pale, but she achieved a light laugh. + +"No wonder you haven't found them yet! In this crowd. It takes +time;--you tell them to be patient and we'll find the right go-cart." +She appealed to the Man Person. + +"Sure, we'll find the right go-cart! Where do you think they could have +vanished? Down a hole in the ground?" + +Miss Theodosia clapped her hands valiantly. "That's it! Evangeline found +a hole and took Elly Precious down, to show him the White Rabbit and the +Red Queen! Evangeline would love to be an Alice in Wonderland. Go and +find the hole," to the Man Person. "I'll stay right in this spot with +the children. See, in front of this ice-cream tent." + +"Good idea!--I'll bring them back with me unless you find them first." + +But they were not with him when he returned half an hour later. In spite +of himself, he looked anxious. + +"Queer thing! What color dress did she have on? I've tried to remember." + +"Pink--oh, pink!" sobbed Stefana, "but it was most washed out. It had +two tucks let down, an' it was limpy in the skirt, behind--the starch +gave out." There were so many Evangelines, but it didn't seem as if +there'd be another Evangeline limpy behind! "An' Elly Precious's lower +teeth are through, and his shoes are buttoned inside, I remember now! We +were in such a hurry--there wouldn't be another baby buttoned inside." + +After still further vain hunting, John Bradford sent the three home. + +"You may find Evangeline there, getting supper!" he said, "but I'll stay +here on the chance you don't. I'll investigate every hole on the +grounds! Don't anybody worry--now, mind! There's nothing to worry +about." + +"Fat Lady!" Miss Theodosia suddenly exclaimed as one with inspiration. +"We've never thought of her; that's where they've gone! Evangeline +couldn't wait. She had some pennies." + +"I've investigated the Fat Lady--no good. They don't let go-carts in, +and there weren't any outside. But, of course, I can go the whole +figure, to make sure. I'll go all the whole figures. Can't you trust +me?" + +"We can. Come, children. I'll coach you on Wonderland, so if Evangeline +is there you'll know what she is seeing! Gryphons, Mock 'Turkles,' Mad +Hatters--a circus within a circus! It's so much like Evangeline to find +that White Rabbit hole!" Miss Theodosia clung determinedly to a cheerful +view of the situation. But, secretly, she worried. As the time went on, +she worried harder. Two babies--one wheeling the other! What was +Evangeline but a baby? + +Miss Theodosia took the two little surviving Flaggs to her own home and +plied them with goodies--many goodies. She unearthed from hiding-places +candied ginger and guava jelly; she invented toys for the deaf little +Flagg and occupations for Stefana. She found a dog-eared copy of +"Alice," dear to her own childhood, and read to Stefana--anything to +occupy the waiting. It was long waiting! + +It grew dark. Once Miss Theodosia heard heavy steps trying painstakingly +to be light ones. She found the Man Person outside the door. + +"Nothing yet? You haven't any trace--" It was needless asking. + +"You don't think--" + +"Of course, I don't think! Nothing on earth could happen to those +kiddies." + +"Automobiles--" + +"Aren't allowed on the grounds, and you couldn't have got Evangeline off +the grounds with a tackle and falls. I know what I think." + +"Then tell it--mercy gracious!" + +"I think it's Evangeline that's happened. Mark my words! Now I'm going +back again. I just came to--I suppose I thought I was coming to relieve +your mind!" He laughed sorrily and softly. + +"Oh, go--yes, go! It's--it's long past Elly Precious' bedtime." He could +hear soft sobbing as he went away. Miss Theodosia was mourning for her +baby. The Man Person's throat tightened; he broke into a run. + +Stefana met Miss Theodosia at an inner door. She had her hat on and +Carruthers by the hand. + +"I'm going home to put him to bed. I--I shan't look at the clothes +basket. But if Elly Precious is dead, I'll put wh-white ribbons on the +h-handles!" With a moan, Stefana threw herself into the kind arms of +Elly Precious' friend who loved him, too! + +"Hush, dear! Elly Precious isn't dead, but I hope he is asleep. +Evangeline, I know, will take care of him. Let's trust Evangeline." + +"Maybe she's dead, too!" + +"Stefana! I'm disappointed. I thought you were a brave girl." + +"I am!" sobbed Stefana, gathering herself together. Miss Theodosia +watched her go quietly away, hand in hand with the little brother that +was left. But Miss Theodosia was no longer brave. Sudden terrors seized +upon her. She remembered how round and white Elly Precious was--how he +showed the little teeth that had got through--how he had loved to watch +Evangeline dance, through the window. + +"Theodosia Baxter, I'm disappointed! I thought you were a brave girl." + +As she stood in the moist darkness, a sound came to her--too soft for a +man-sound. It grew a very little more distinct. + +"Miss Theodosia--sh! he's gettin' ready to go off. I want him to go off +soon's I get him home--I don't want to 'xcite him. I jus' came to tell +you--" + +"Evangeline! Have you got him there?" + +The softest of giggles. "Why, of course! He's too valuable to leave +anywheres. Leave a Best Baby! That's the s'prise! He's a prize baby, +Elly Precious is! I've got it in my pocket!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"I've got to take him home an' bed him down!" Horsey little Evangeline! +"Then I'll come back an' show it to you. Isn't it puffectly elegant that +he took a prize! We've had the best time!" And in the darkness Miss +Theodosia heard soft, retreating steps and the faintest creak of wheels. +Left alone, she leaned for support on the porch pillar, overcome by the +Evangelineness of Evangeline. And they had all had so far from the "best +time"--they had suffered so! + +"Mercy gracious!" sighed Miss Theodosia weakly, but aloud. + +"What did I tell you?" The Man Person's voice! What kind of a ghostly +night was this? "Didn't I say it was Evangeline that had happened, 'mark +my words'? Well, wasn't it?" + +"Tell me instantly how she 'happened'! I'm all in the dark." + +"Same here. Can't see an inch before my nose. If we had a lamp--" + +"Didn't she tell you? Didn't she come home with you?" + +"No--no, I came home with her. Behind her--she didn't know. Wanted to +let her do the whole thing alone. I confess I was curious." + +"Curious! After hunting hours and hours--" + +"'Curious--after--hunting--hours--and hours,'" he intoned. She could +hear him getting ready to laugh. "The moment I caught sight of the +little imp, I forgot I was tired. Whatever she's been up to, it's +something interesting. May I wait and hear her tell about it?" + +"Of course you may! I should think you'd earned admittance." Miss +Theodosia was sizzling gently with perfectly natural irritation. Now +that her baby was safe, she had leisure to be irritated. + +"Come and rest in the easiest chair you can find. When I think--" + +"Don't think! Let's just have cups of tea and wait for the show to +begin." + +"But why aren't you cross? I am." + +The man-voice in the dark was soothing. + +"Oh, no, you only think you are, dear lady. You are deceiving yourself. +Crossness and--er--nerve-itis are two very different diseases (you note +I term them both diseases). I speak as One Who Did Once Know." + +Miss Theodosia, on her way for cups of tea, paused in her dim doorway. + +"Diseases change so. In ten years--" + +"In ten years 'nerve-itis' has lost none of its pep--rather annexed +more. It may have another name." + +"Nerve-itus Dance," murmured the voice in the doorway. "That's +it--that's what I was having when you came. I don't think I am quite +over the attack yet." + +"Three lumps of sugar dissolved in a cup of tea," prescribed the +man-voice promptly. "Repeat the dose in five minutes. Never known to +fail. As a preventive of--er--contagion, it is well for any also who +have been exposed--" + +"I'll have it there in a minute. The kettle's boiling," called Miss +Theodosia from interior regions. She came back presently with a tray lit +by a tiny flare of candle-light. + + "'How far that little candle throws his beams-- + So shines a good deed in a naughty world'" + +quoted he. "The good deed is the good tea." + +"And the naughty world is Evangeline. Won't you have three lumps just +this time, to make perfectly sure you don't contract my Nerve-itus +Dance?" + +"Safety first," he laughed. "Four lumps. This is our first tea-party at +'Candle-lighting Time,' isn't it?" + +Now Miss Theodosia laughed. It was easy to laugh with Elly Precious +being bedded down instead of lost. + +"How you do quote to-night!" she said. "That's the third time, counting +'Safety First,' in the last five minutes." + +"Pardon," he craved. "It's because I feel happy. I'm likely to quote again +at any minute." + +"Well, quote the Scriptures then to Evangeline when she comes." + +"Hark!" + +She was coming now. They could hear the light, hurrying steps. Was +Evangeline never tired? Did neither parades nor circuses--mysterious +wanderings nor mysterious triumphs--affect her? + +"The show is about to begin," murmured Miss Theodosia. + +It began immediately. Evangeline came bursting in upon them, waving a +blue ribbon. She was a fresh and radiant Evangeline. + +"Stefana says I can't stay only a minute. Stefana's kind o' mad, but she +didn't dass to be, out loud, for fear we'd 'xcite Elly Precious. He's +asleep. I was so proud of his arms an' legs when I undressed 'em! +They're very high-percented arms 'n' legs. Mercy gracious, yes! Don't +you see this ribbon's blue--blue--blue! That's because he's a Best Baby, +an' the prize was five dollars, an' they gave him a dollar 'special,' +too, that we're goin' to put in the bank--" + +Miss Theodosia held up her hand. + +"Begin at the beginning," she commanded. "Where have you been all this +time? What on earth have you been doing?" + +"Showin' Elly Precious," flashed back Evangeline brightly. "You've heard +o' Poultry Shows? Well, this wasn't. This was a Baby Show. We never +noticed it was advertised in the p'rade at all--a man with a sandwich +on. A lady told me. She said the circus folks were pretty bright, +because all o' the world loved babies an' they knew 'twould make a +beautiful side show. She said they knew it would draw, an' it did. It +drew me an' Elly Precious! The circus folks offered prizes. They weighed +an' measured 'em to see which was a Best Baby, an' Elly Precious was! +You better be proud that you--that you measled a Best Baby!" + +Miss Theodosia's glance met the Man Person's. The show was turning out +well. + +"I've got to go back, or Stefana--oh, mercy gracious me, it was worth +folks bein' mad! There was a nurse there an' a lovely lady an' a doctor. +They let me stay Elly Precious's nap out, because it isn't a sleep +go-cart. He has to sit up straight in it. The lady said to lie him down +there an' let him sleep. But we didn't expect he'd sleep so long--the +lady went away, but I stayed. I wasn't goin' to wake a Best Baby up out +o' a sound sleep! It made us a little late gettin' home." + +"Yes, go on," murmured the Man Person feelingly. + +"Why, that's as far as there is to go. Then we came home." + +"Why didn't you go back and tell Stefana or Miss Theodosia? Where was +your Baby Show, anyway?" + +"In a tent. I happened to get a peek in an' saw folks with babies, an' I +was a folks with one, so I just went in. That's all. I was goin' to tell +Stefana, but he cried an' I couldn't leave him. He wouldn't have took a +prize, cryin'. I had to keep dancin' to him--mercy gracious! But it was +worth it. Then when he'd got all measured an' weighed,--it's pretty +wearin' work,--he went to sleep. I told you that. I had to wait for him +to wake up." For the first time Evangeline was on the defensive; she +read the faint disapproval in Miss Theodosia's face. + +"Mercy gracious, I never s'posed you'd go an' worry! I thought--I +thought you'd jus' be pur-roud." Actually, Evangeline was crying now. +Miss Theodosia's disapproval vanished instantly. With a sweep of her +arms, she gathered a forgiven Evangeline in. The Man Person stood +outside the little zone of feminine emotion, but he had his own brand. + +"We _are_ pur-roud," Miss Theodosia crooned over the subdued little +figure. "It's perfectly splendid about the blue ribbon and the prize!" + +"An' the special." + +"An' the special. Think of what his mother will say! But I knew he was +the Best Baby all the time; it was written in between every little +measle!" And saving laughter righted the situation; Evangeline bounded +back to her usual spirits. "Now," Miss Theodosia said, "I'll get you +some preserved ginger and shoo you home! You mustn't stay another +minute, or Stefana will surely be over here with a policeman." + +"Stefana's proud, too--she needn't pretend! I saw her kissin' Elly +Precious's knee. But she'll scold; she thinks it's her duty. Mercy +gracious, when Aunt Sarah knits an' Mother's back, I hope Stefana'll +grow down again." + +The Man Person poised his teacup above the saucer, arrested by this new +puzzle. + +"Er--grow how?" + +"Down. She's so terrible grown-up now. It's been pretty wearin' on my +nerves. We use' to play dolls together. We don't ever now. She's too +starched up." + +"Poor Stefana with her starch!" murmured Miss Theodosia. The poor little +martyr to starch! It was to be hoped, indeed, that when Aunt Sarah knit, +Stefana could grow down again and play dolls. + +"Do you know her mother--Evangeline's?" Miss Theodosia asked, after the +child had gone. "Is Evangeline like her;--is that where she gets her +Evangelineness?" + +"No, she must get it from the father. The mother is exactly like +Stefana, or may be I've got it the wrong end to. I never saw the father; +he died a few weeks before the baby was born." + +"Well, the father must have been remarkable; somebody is responsible for +Evangeline. I love that child next to--my baby. Supposing--I think of it +sometimes--supposing I had staid in Rome or Paris or Farthest +Anyplace--not come home at all, you know,--then I should have missed it +all. I should never have known those children." + +"Nor me," he ventured. She did not appear to hear, but went on musingly: + +"Something sent me home--I needed those children." + +"And me!" + +"I was going on a fast train--a through express--straight to Lonesome +Land!" + +She laughed softly as if she were alone. "If Evangeline hadn't Flagged +my train--it was Evangeline! She switched me off on another track." +Miss Theodosia's tender eyes lifted and met the Man Person's with a +little start of recognition as if saying: "Why, are you here!" But she +met those other eyes staunchly. "I'm glad I stopped off at this Flagg +station. I like it here." + +For a little the big room, bright with lamplight, was so still that the +clock ticked impertinently. Miss Theodosia's tea cooled in its cup, and +John Bradford had long ago forgotten his. The big hands on the +chair-arms gripped them unconsciously. Then, suddenly, the man got to +his feet and walked to the far end of the room. On his return he stopped +before Miss Theodosia, looking down. + +"I love you," John Bradford said. The impertinent clock kept on, but +Miss Theodosia could not hear it now for the ticking of her heart. Was +she a frightened girl that she could not lift her eyes? + +"I was on that express, too--bound for that same place. I thank the Lord +I got off here. I shall always thank Him, whether you can love me or +not. I shall always love you. If you thought, sometime--I can wait--" + +Miss Theodosia's eyes lifted. But she shook her head. + +"I'm afraid not--sometime." + +He still stood, looking down. Very gently he touched her hair; she could +hear the long breath he drew. + +"I was afraid so. It was too much to ask. But I had to take my chance. +Don't be distressed, dear. I am happy, loving you. You can't deny me +that! I've loved you ever since I found you mending my shirt. I have had +a beautiful time loving you, and it will keep right on. But I was crazy, +wasn't I, to think--of course you 'couldn't sometime.'" + +"Because I love you now," she said steadily. "I have--I have just found +it out!" + +The gently stroking hand ceased its work. John Bradford caught the sweet +face between his great palms and turned it upward to his. + +"Dear!" he cried. He was a boy, she a girl. Love has no age. It swept +over them, a young sweet tide. This man--this woman. There was no one +else in the world then. + +"Dear!" she whispered, matching her love-word to his, "and I never knew +till a minute ago!" + +"I always knew. The shirt had no part in it! I have loved you since the +world began and the morning stars sang! You were made for me to love; +all these years I have been waiting for you, dear." + +"All these years!" she repeated a little sadly--"that reminds us. But we +are not old! I won't be--I won't have you be! What is time, anyway?" + +"Nothing!" He blew it away in a whiff of scorn. "What is anything but +that I love you and you love me? We are just born now--this is our +birthday! May I kiss you on your birthday, dear? Will you kiss me on +mine?" + +The clock must have stopped in very astonishment at this scandal of +grown love playing young love. At any rate, there was only the sound of +the young love in the room. The room sang with the beautiful sound of +it. + +It seemed a very long time afterward that John Bradford asked his +man-question: "When?" + +"When your book is written--the love story. Not till then." + +"It's getting on beautifully!" he pleaded. "It never will be done. +There's going to be no end to the chapters." + +"Mercy gracious! Where are you now?" + +"The heroine has just said yes. The hero has just kissed her--he is just +going to kiss her ag--" + +"Mercy--mercy gracious!" Miss Theodosia's fair cheeks flooded pink. She +held up a staying hand. + +"Wait--till I get--get used to being a heroine! Am I? Was _that_ the +love story?" + +"That was the love story. I have been working on it every day. Some days +I had set-backs--when the heroine flung things in my face about reformed +doctors, and times like that." + +"She took them back again, those things. She was a kind sort of a +heroine." + +"She was a dear. He wanted to kiss her when she took them back, those +things. I had all _I_ could do to keep him from it. He was a tough sort +of a hero to work with. I had my hands full." + +"Did you love--did the hero love the heroine when they sat drinking cups +of tea?" + +"A little harder every cup." + +"When they nursed the measles?" + +"A little more every measle." + +"When they went to the circus?" She drew a long, happy breath. "I like +to have been that heroine! Dear, is it right to be as happy as this? For +old folks, I mean--near-olds? Oughtn't we to knock on wood? Oh, I've +just thought of Evangeline. What will Evangeline say?" + +"Something Evangelical," he laughed. "I hope I'll be there." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Evangeline had excitements of her own. As though prizes for Best Babies +were not enough, a new excitement began the very next day. Two +excitements--one on the lovely heels of the other. Evangeline, gasping +in the joyous throes of the first-comer, raced over to Miss Theodosia, +as she had learned to race with troubles as well as joys. All the way +she emitted sounds approximating steam-whistles. The very nature of the +news she was carrying suggested the sounds she made carrying it. + +"The elegantest thing has happened--I mean's goin' to!" She could not +wait to get quite there, but sent her news ahead of her through the +transmitting medium of air. Miss Theodosia, on her porch, sat dreaming +her love's young dream--young, not old; not old! + +"The elegant elegantest! He's goin' to be cured! He won't be deaf o' +hearin' any more! I mean he thinks he won't--I mean _he_--" + +"Sit down on the step, dear. Count ten, then start again." + +"Onetwothreefour--oh, I can't wait to get to ten! If your little brother +had always been deaf o' hearin' an' a doctor looked into him with a +spy-glass an' said I think this boy can be cured, I'm goin' to take him +to a hospital an' have him operated when his mother is willin' if she +gets home--I mean if she gets home when she's willin'--oh, I mean--" + +"Yes, dear. Sit still. I understand, and I think she will be willing +when she gets home, don't you? Oh, Evangeline, won't we all be happy to +have Carruthers cured of his poor little deafness o' hearing! I know the +doctor, and he knows ears! We'll trust him, Evangeline. He will do +everything in the world there is to be done. And we'll stay at home and +pray." + +"Pray!" cried Evangeline. Her little thin face lifted to the blue +heavens. "I've woke up right slap in the middle o' nights an' prayed: +'Oh, Lord, that made a little children an' forgot his ears, do somethin' +now--don't you think you'd ought to, O Lord? It don't seem fair not to. +He ain't ever heard Elly Precious crow, nor laugh--think o' that, dear +Lord.'" The shrill voice dropped suddenly. "But He never." Evangeline +sighed. + +"Till now, dear--we hope He will now. He and the doctor who knows ears. +I thought you were so pleased and that you were--" + +"Oh, yes'm, oh, I am! It was just--I was thinkin' how lovely Elly +Precious's laugh sounds an' Carruthers not ever hearin' it. So far, I +mean." Evangeline caught her courage again in both hands. "But he'll +laugh 'nough more times when he can hear--I mean when Carruthers can. +Won't it be puffectly elegant!" + +It was later in the same day when the second excitement struck the +little House of Flaggs. Evangeline raced again across the separating +green grass to Miss Theodosia. This time she went at reduced speed +because she had Elly Precious over her shoulder. Miss Theodosia saw them +coming and smiled. + +"More news! I know it is puffectly elegant by Evangeline's face. Well, +Evangeline?" + +"Mercy gracious! Take him before I spill him! I'm so happy I joggle. +She's knittin' an' she's comin' home! I mean knittin' _enough_. She said +'my--dear--children--I--expect--to--be--home--to-morrow +--Aunt--Sarah--is--better--an'--I--can't +wait--to--see--you--your--mother--' Mercy gracious, when Stefana got to +your mother, seemed as if I'd burst! We hollered it to Carruthers, an' +he burst! An' Elly Precious knows she's comin', I know he knows. Tickle +him an' see how pleased he is!" Without comma or semicolon, to say +nothing of periods, Evangeline panted on. Out of breath at last, her +voice sat down an instant, as it were, to rest. It was up again in a +moment. + +"To-morrow is most to-day! It'll be to-day to-morrow! Oh, mercy gracious +me! We're goin' to sweep under everything an' behind--every las' thing, +under 'n' behind. She won't find a grain o' dust. An' Stefana's makin' +starch." + +"Mercy gracious!" softly ejaculated Miss Theodosia. + +"I mean to eat in the dessert--corn-starch. We've begun to skim Elly +Precious's bottles. You can eat thin bottles, can't you, darlin' dear, +when Mother's comin' home? Corn-starch has to have cream on it--when +Mother's comin' home!" She laughed joyously. All past and creamless +corn-starches were a joke. Laughing at them was easy at this happy +moment. + +"Isn't it splendid Aunt Sarah went to knittin'? Mercy gracious, I hope +she won't--won't drop a stitch for Mother to have to stay an' pick up!" +Evangeline's laugh trilled out once more. + +"Do you suppose you'd dass to cut Elly Precious's hair, Miss Theodosia, +while I danced like everything an' made faces? Dutchy, you know, in the +back o' his neck--he's straggly now. I'd make awful faces--" + +"I wouldn't 'dass,' dear," smiled Miss Theodosia. "I never could cut +fast enough and you never could dance hard enough--we'd hurt him." + +"Well, she'll look at the front o' him first--never mind. We're goin' to +put on that darlin' little ni'gown you made, for a dress--belt it in, +you know, with a ribbon off the handle o' the clo'es-basket; Stefana's +ironed it out. An' we're goin' to pin on his blue ribbon prize." + +John Bradford came that evening to sit on the porch in the soft warmth +that autumn had borrowed from summers-to-come, with promissory note to +pay it back when lovers were through with it. Miss Theodosia met him +with the news. + +"Mustn't it be beautiful to be welcomed home like that, dear? If you +could have seen Evangeline's little shiny face! And the way Elly +Precious laughed--when I tickled him! And, oh, John--Do you hear me +call you John? I thought it would be hard!" + +"'And, oh, John--'" he prompted, putting it yet further off by a +kiss-length. + +"Oh, John, I know about Carruthers. You're going to take him away to +cure him." + +"To try to cure him," John Bradford said gravely. + +"You'll do it, dear--you and the Lord! Evangeline and I are trusting. +Hark, she is coming! No one else sounds like that!" + +"No one else gallops--canters--breaks speed limits!" he laughed. "Now +what? More news?" + +The same news over again, but Evangeline saw that which momentarily +banished it from her mind. She saw John Bradford standing behind Miss +Theodosia's chair; she saw him stoop over it. + +"Mercy gracious, he kissed her!" gasped Evangeline. Something told her +to turn and gallop back, but she could not stop in time. She was already +at the foot of the steps. Awful embarrassment seized her--seized +Evangeline! In the faint, reflected lamplight from within the house she +could see the two above her looking down. Mercy gracious! + +"Sit down, Evangeline." + +"I'm s-sittin'--I _think_ I'm sittin' down." Up-standings and +down-sittings were confused in the general dizziness of things. Perhaps +she was standing up. + +"You're not sick, are you, Evangeline? You're not saying anything." + +Then Evangeline said something. + +"I--I saw him--doin' it, I mean. Mercy gracious, _what'll I do_?" For +some inherited delicacy of instinct made of her a dreadful intruder; she +saw herself in the shameful act. Instinctively Evangeline knew she was +on sacred ground. + +"I couldn't stop, I was goin' so fast. It's too late not to see him +doin' it; I don't know what to do." + +With swift, light steps Miss Theodosia was down beside her. John +Bradford with one step was there. Evangeline looked shamefacedly up into +their two kind faces. + +"I'm sorry," she whispered. For answer, John Bradford took one of Miss +Theodosia's hands and laid it on hers. He held out one of his own. + +"May I have this lady to be my wedded wife, Evangeline? Will you give +her to me?" His big voice was very tender. Evangeline looked into his +shining eyes. The mystery of love swept through her small, sweet soul. +She shut her eyes as if from some light too bright for them. If she were +alone, she would say her prayers. But the tender voice was going on. + +"May I have her, Evangeline--will you put her hand in mine? She is very +dear, indeed, to me." She could feel Miss Theodosia's soft hand quiver +against her own hard little palm. Miss Theodosia's eyes were tender, +too. + +Then, suddenly, inspiration came to her. She laid the soft hand in the +big hand and looked up, smiling into John Bradford's face. + +"I'm willin'," she said, "if you'll honor an' obey." + +It was as if a silken gown enfolded Evangeline's straight little +shoulders and they heard her say: "I pronounce thee." The strange little +ceremony left them hushed. + +No one spoke again for a little space. Somewhere sleepy birds twittered, +disturbed by rustling leaves or stealthy marauders. Somewhere a clock +intoned distantly. A train far away rushed through the night, perhaps to +some Lonesome Land, but they were not on it. Then John Bradford broke +the spell. He leaned down and kissed Evangeline. + +A little laugh bubbled up to him. "You must've made a mistake. I'm the +wrong one--mercy gracious!" + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MISS THEODOSIA'S HEARTSTRINGS *** + +This file should be named 7msth10.txt or 7msth10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7msth11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7msth10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + +Author: Annie Hamilton Donnell + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8865] +[This file was first posted on August 16, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MISS THEODOSIA'S HEARTSTRINGS *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + +Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + +BY + +ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + +WILLIAM VAN DRESSER + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of +Stefana's patient endeavors. FRONTISPIECE.] + + + +To MY HUSBAND + +WHO COULD WRITE SO MUCH + +BETTER A BOOK AND + +DEDICATE IT TO + +ME! + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's patient +endeavors. + +"We've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly" + +"If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into a story like +that" + +Evangeline established a stage of action outside the window + + + + +Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +"Mercy gracious!" + +"_Well!"_ + +The last utterance was Miss Theodosia Baxter's. She was a woman of few +words at all times where few sufficed. One sufficed now. The child on +her front porch, with a still childlier child on the small area of her +knees, was not a creature of few words, but now extreme surprise limited +speech. She was stricken with brevity,--stricken is the word--to match +Miss Theodosia's. + +Downward, upward, each gazed into the other's surprised face. The +childlier child, jouncing pleasantly back and forth, viewed them both +impartially. + +It was the child who regarded the situation, after a moment of mental +adjustment, as humorous. She giggled softly. + +"Mercy gracious! How you surprised me' 'n' Elly Precious, an' me 'n' +Elly Precious surprised you! I don't know which was the whichest! We +came over to be shady just once more. We didn't s'pose you would come +home till to-morrow, did we, Elly Precious?" + +"I came last night," Miss Theodosia replied with crispness. She stood in +her doorway, apparently waiting for something which--apparently--was not +to happen. The child and Elly Precious sat on in seeming calm. + +"Yes'm. Of course if you hadn't come, you wouldn't be standin' there +lookin' at Elly Precious--isn't he a darlin' dear? Wouldn't you like to +look at his toes?" + +It was Miss Theodosia Baxter's turn to say "Mercy gracious!" but she did +not say it aloud. It was her turn, too, to see a bit of humor in the +situation on her front porch. + +"Not--just now," she said rather hastily. She could not remember ever to +have seen a baby's toes. "I've no doubt they are--are excellent toes." +The word did not satisfy her, but the suitable adjective was not at +hand. + +"Mercy gracious! That's a funny way to talk about toes! Elly Precious's +are pink as anything--an' six--yes'm! I've made consid'able money out of +his toes. Yes," with rising pride at the sight of Miss Theodosia's +surprise, "'leven cents, so far. I only charged Lelia Fling a cent for +two looks, because Lelia's baby's dead. I've got three cents out o' her; +she says five of Elly Precious's remind her of her baby's toes. Isn't it +funny you can't make boys pay to look at babies' toes, even when they's +such a lot? Only just girls. Stefana says it's because girls are +ungrown-up mothers. Mercy gracious! speakin' of Stefana an' mothers, +reminds me--" + +The shrill little voice stopped with a suddenness that made the woman in +the door fear for Elly Precious; it seemed that he must be jolted from +his narrow perch. + +Miss Theodosia had wandered up and down the world for three years in be +search of something to interest her, only to come home and find it here +upon the upper step of her own front porch. She stepped from the doorway +and sat down in one of the wicker rockers. She had plenty of time to be +interested; there was really no haste for unpacking and settling back +into her little country rut. + +"What about 'Stefana and mothers'?" she prodded gently. A cloud had +settled on the child's vivid little face and threatened to overshade the +childlier child, as well. "I suppose 'Stefana' is a Spanish person, +isn't she?" The name had a definitely foreign sound. + +"Oh, no'm--just a United States. We're all United States. Mother named +her; we've all got beautiful names, except poor Elly. Mother hated to +call him Elihu, but there was Grandfather gettin' older an' older all +the time, an' she dassen't wait till the next one. She put it off an' +off with the other boys, Carruthers an' Gilpatrick--he's dead. She just +couldn't name any of 'em Elihu, till Grandfather scared her, gettin' so +old. She was afraid there wouldn't be time, an' there wasn't any to +spare. Grandfather's dead now--she's thankful enough she didn't wait any +longer. He was so pleased. He said be could depart this life easier, +leavin' an Elihu Flagg behind him. An', anyway, Mother says Elly can +call himself his middle name, if he'd ruther, when he's twenty-one--his +middle name's Launcelot." + +Elihu Launcelot, at this juncture, toppled over against the little flat +breast of his nurse, asleep--or in a swoon; Miss Theodosia had her +fears. There seemed sufficient swooning cause. + +"Stefana," she prompted again, her interest advancing at a rapid pace, +"and mothers--" + +"Stefana's our oldest. She's goin' to run us while Mother's away. She's +got a job before her! All I can do is 'tend Elly Precious--we're all +boys, but us. But, of course, runnin' the family isn't the real +trouble--not what made Mother cry." + +Miss Theodosia sat forward in her chair. + +"What made Mother cry?" she asked. The child shifted her heavy burden +the better to turn her head. She regarded the beautiful white lady +gloomily. + +"You," she stated briefly. + +This time Miss Theodosia said it aloud and with a surprising ease, as if +of long custom--"Mercy gracious!" + +"Oh, I didn't mean you're to blame; you can't help Aunt Sarah tumblin' +down the cellar stairs an' Mother not bein' able to do you up." + +"Do me--up?" + +"Yes'm--white-wash you. Mother was sure you'd let her, an' we were goin' +to send Carruthers to a deaf 'n' dumb school after you'd wore white +clo'es enough. He isn't dumb, but he's deaf. He can't hear Elly Precious +laugh--only yell. Mother heard that you always wore white dresses an' +she most hugged herself--she hugged us. She said you'd prob'ly find out +what a good white-washer she was an' let her white-wash you. But, now, +Aunt Sarah's went an' fell down cellar." + +"Whitewash--whitewash?" queried Miss Theodosia. + +"Yes'm, you didn't think Mother was a washwoman, did you? Of course she +could, but it doesn't pay's well. She only whitewashes--white clo'es, +you know, dresses an' shirtwaists. She says it's her talent that the +Lord's gave her, an' she's goin' to make it gain ten talents for +Carruthers. But Aunt Sarah--" + +"Never mind Aunt Sarah. Unless--do you mean your mother has had to go +away from home?" + +"Yes'm, to see to Aunt Sarah. They were twins when they were babies. +Mother cried, because she said of course you'd have to be done up while +she was gone, an' so she'd lost you. She said you'd been her bacon light +ever since she heard you was comin' home an' wore so many white clo'es." + +The garrulous little voice might have run on indefinitely but for the +abrupt appearance, here, of a slender girl in an all-enwrapping gingham +apron. She came hurrying up Miss Theodosia's front walk. + +"Well, Evangeline Flagg, I hope you're blushing crimson scarlet +red--helping yourself to folks's doorsteps that's got back from Europe! +I hope--" but the newcomer got no further, for, quite suddenly, she +found herself blushing crimson scarlet red, in the grip of a +disconcerting thought. + +"I suppose it's just as bad to help yourself to doorsteps when folks +aren't here as when they are," she said slowly, "but you mustn't blame +Mother. She'd never've allowed Evangeline and Elly, if we'd had a single +sol-i-ta-ry tree. Or been on the shady side. Or had a porch. Elly's been +pindly, and Mother felt obliged to save his life. It's been terribly +hot. Here, Evangeline Flagg, you give Elly here, an' you run home an' +keep the soup-kettle from burning on. Don't you wait until it smells! +I've got an errand to do here." + +The child, Evangeline, relinquished her burden and turned slowly away. +But she halted at the foot of the steps. + +"This is Stefana," she introduced politely. "Stefana, you ain't _goin' +to_? You look 'xactly as if you was. Mercy gracious!" + +[Illustration: "We've all got beautiful names except poor Elly."] + +"Yes," Stefana returned gravely, "I am. Now, you go. Remember the soup!" + +Miss Theodosia's interested gaze left the retreating little figure and +came back to Stefana and Elly Precious. She was pleasantly aware of her +own immaculate daintiness in her crisp white dress. Only Theodosia +Baxter would have dreamed of arraying herself in white to unpack and +settle. Her friends declared she made a fetich of her white raiment; it +was a well-known fact among them that she was extremely "fussy" about +its laundering. + +"One, two, three," counted the slender girl, over the baby's bald little +head, "only three tucks, an' the lace not terribly full on the edges. +I'm thankful there aren't any ruffles, but, there, I suppose there are +on some o' the others, aren't there? I'll have to manage the ruffles. I +mean, if--oh, I mean, won't you please let me do you up? Just till Aunt +Sarah's bone knits--so to save you for Mother? I'll try so hard! If I +don't, Charlotte Lovell will--she's the only other one. She's a +beautiful washer and ironer, but none of her children are deaf, and she +hasn't any, anyway. I didn't dare to come over and ask you, but I kept +thinking of poor Mother and how she's been 'lotting on earning all that +money. There, I've asked you--please don't answer till I've counted ten. +When we were little, Mother always said for us to; it was safer. One, +two, three--" she counted rapidly, then swung about facing Miss +Theodosia. "You can say 'no,' now," she said, with a difficult little +smile. + +Miss Theodosia had been, in a way, counting ten herself. She had had +time to remember her very strict injunctions to those to whom she +entrusted her beloved white gowns--to pull out the lace with careful +fingers, not to iron it; to iron embroidered portions over many +thicknesses of flannel, and never, never, never on the right side; to +starch the dresses just enough and not too much. All these thoughts +flashed through her mind while Stefana counted ten. But it was without +accompaniment of injunctions that Miss Theodosia answered on that +wistful little stroke of ten. In her soul she felt the futility of +injunctions. + +"Yes," answered Miss Theodosia. + +Stefana whirled, at the risk of Elihu Launcelot. + +"Oh--oh, what? You mean I can do you up, honest? Starch you, and iron +you, too--of course, I could wash you. Oh, if I could drop Elly Precious +I'd get right up and dance!" + +"Give Elly Precious to me, and go ahead, my dear," said the White Lady +with a smile. + +But Stefana shook her head. She was covertly studying the white dress +once more. It was very white--she could detect no promising spots or +creases, and she drew a sigh even in the midst of her rejoicing. If a +person only sat on porches, in chairs, how often did white dresses need +doing up? Miss Theodosia interpreted the sigh and look. + +"Oh, I've three of them rolled up in my trunk; aren't three enough to +begin on? And shirtwaists--I'm sure I don't know how many of those. I'll +go and get them now." + +In the hall she stopped at the mirror, jibing at the image confronting +her. "You've done it this time, Theodosia Baxter! When you can't bear a +wrinkle! But, there, don't look so scared--daughters inherit their +mothers' talents, plenty of times. And you need only try it once, of +course." + +After Stefana had gone away, doubly laden with clothes and bulky baby, +Miss Theodosia remained on her porch. She found herself leaning over and +parting her porch-vines, to get a glimpse of the little house next door. +She had always loathed that little house with its barefaced poverties +and uglinesses, and it had been a great relief to her to have it stand +vacant in past years. She had left it vacant when she started upon her +last globe-trotting. Now here it was teeming with life, and here she was +aiding and abetting it! What new manner of Theodosia Baxter was this? + +"You'd better get up and globe-trot again, Woman, and not unpack," she +uttered, with a lone woman's habit of talking to herself. "You were +never made to live in a house like other people--to sit on porches and +rock. And certainly, Theodosia Baxter, you were never made to live next +to that little dry-goods box. It will turn you gray, poor thing." She +felt a gentle pity for herself, then gentle wrath seized her. Why had +she come home, anyway? Already she was lonely and restless. Why--could +anybody tell her why--had she weakly yielded to two small girls? Her +dear-beloved white dresses! And she could not go back on her +promise--not on a Baxter promise! There was, indeed, the release of +going away again, back to her globe-trotting-- + +"I might write to Cornelia Dunlap," Miss Theodosia thought. "Maybe she +is sorry she came home, too." + +Cornelia Dunlap had been her recent comrade of the road. They had +traveled to many far places together. What would Cornelia say to that +little conference of three--and a baby--on the front porch? + +"My dear," wrote Miss Theodosia, "you will think I have been swapped in +my cradle since I left you! 'That is no fellow tramp of mine,' you will +say, 'That woman being victimized by children in knee-high dresses! +Theodosia Baxter nothing!'"--for Cornelia Dunlap in moments of surprise +resorted sometimes to slang, which she claimed was a sturdy vehicle of +speech. "You will set down your teacup hard," wrote on Miss +Theodosia,--"I know you are drinking tea!--when I tell you the little +story of the Whitewashing of Theodosia Baxter. But shall I tell it? Why +expose Theodosia Baxter's weaknesses when hitherto she has posed as +strong? Soberly, Cornelia, I am as much surprised at myself as you will +be (oh, I shall tell it!). Do you remember your Mother Goose? The little +astonished old lady who took a nap beside the road and woke to find her +petticoats cut off at her knees? 'Oh, lawk-a-daisy me, can this be I!' +cried she. I'm not sure those were just her words, but they will do. Oh, +lawk-a-daisy me, can this be Theodosia Baxter! The Astonished Little Old +Lady, if I remember my Mother Goose, resorted to the simple expedient of +going home and letting her little dog decide if she were she. But I have +no little dog. + +"They were so earnest to whitewash me, Cornelia! The whole scheme was +such a plucky little one and Baxters, from the dawn of creation, have +admired pluck. The lively, chatterbox-one was 'Evangeline' and the quiet +one who should have been an Evangeline was what the other one ought to +have been,--a 'Stefana,' suggestive of flashing, dark eyes under a lace +mantilla, with ways to match the eyes. So does fate play her little +jokes. The baby--but what do I know of babies or you know of babies? He +had six toes and I might have seen them for nothing; so do we miss our +opportunities. He was named for his grandfather just in time, but the +name, my dear, the name! Elihu. Are you listening? _Elihu_! But they +offered him the assuaging 'sop' of 'Launcelot' for a middle name, and +what could a baby do? Babies are the little scapegoats of mistaken +loyalties." + +Miss Theodosia was having a good time. Her sober mood had passed. She +wrote on enjoyingly, describing the whole little episode to Cornelia +Dunlap. The freshening of it in her memory was pleasant. Again she felt +the tug of those eager little pleadings. She kept remembering other +things about little Elihu Launcelot besides his name and his toes. She +remembered how gravely he had looked at her, how tiny and soft his hands +were. + +"That little box of a house next to mine, Cornelia,--I told you about +it. Well, it's as full now as it has been empty, and a little fuller. +Dear knows how many it holds! But it's sociable seeing the smoke come +out of the chimney; _it's friendly_." + +She had not thought of it as sociable and friendly before. The thought +seemed just to have come to her. She was quite cheerful-minded when she +finished her letter to Cornelia Dunlap and neatly folded it. If she had +but known, she was sorry for Cornelia who was not next door to a +friendly little box. + +She made tea and sipped it, made golden toast and opened a +foreign-looking box of some sort of jelly. While she ate slowly, she +slowly made plans. No, she would not have a stay-all-the-time maid--yes, +she would move her things into the room facing the next-door house. +Until she got tired of watching the sociable thread of smoke, anyway. + +It had not occurred yet to Theodosia Baxter that she had not said a word +to Cornelia Dunlap about going on their travels again. When it did +occur, she suddenly laughed out aloud, but softly. + +"I forgot what I began that letter _for_! I never mentioned going away +again! And now--I'm glad. Who wants to go off? 'East, west, hame's +best.' Even a hame next door to a little dry-goods box." + +Of course there was the promise to let those funny kiddies whitewash +her-- + +"It's a Baxter promise; don't try to get out of it, Theodosia Baxter," +she said. + +The next noon she saw her dresses dangling from the neighboring +clothesline. They were not successfully dangled; Miss Theodosia liked to +see them hung with symmetry, all alike in a seemly row. The shirtwaists +dangled also in unseemly attitudes. One hung by a single sleeve. But +that was not all--a certain faint suggestion of something worse than +lack of symmetry persisted in Miss Theodosia's mind. They had been +especially travel-stained, soiled; they had still an air of soil and +travel-stain. They didn't look clean! + +Miss Theodosia groaned. "It may be blueing streaks," she said, but there +was little comfort in blueing streaks. She got her opera glasses and +peered through them at her beloved dresses. Brought up at close range, +they were certainly blue-streaked, and there was plain lack of the snowy +whiteness her stern washing-creed demanded. + +At intervals, small figures issued from the house and circled about the +clotheslines, inspecting their contents critically. Miss Theodosia saw +one of them--it was the child of her doorstep--lay questionable hold (it +must be questionable!) upon a delicate garment and examine a portion of +it excitedly. She saw the child dart back to the house and again issue +forth, dragging the slender young washerwoman. Together they examined. +Miss Theodosia caught up her glasses and brought the little pair into +the near field of her vision; she saw both anxious young faces. The face +of Stefana was strained and careworn. + +Miss Theodosia was thirty-six years old, and all of the years had been +comfortable, carefree ones. In the natural order of her pleasantly +migratory, luxurious life, she had rarely come into close contact with +careworn or strained faces; this contact through the small, clear lenses +seemed startlingly close. Stefana's lean and anxious face, the child's +baby-bent little back, like the back of an old woman--it was at these +Miss Theodosia looked through her pearl glasses. She forgot to look at +the garment the children examined so troubledly. Suddenly, Miss +Theodosia Baxter--traveler, fortune-favored one--found herself as +anxious for the success of Stefana's stout little project as the two +young people within her field of view, but, suddenly and unaccountably, +from a new motive. The slim, worn-looking little creature,--and that +tinier, tired little creature--must not fail! The stout project should +succeed! + +Stefana carried the disputed garment back into the house and rewashed +it; it was dripping wet when she again dangled it beside the others. +Several times during the afternoon this process was repeated, until, at +nightfall, the entire wash dripped, rewashed and soggy. Miss Theodosia +nodded her head approvingly; she had her reasons for being glad that the +wash was to remain out overnight. + +It was a starless, moonless night--a night to prowl successfully about +clotheslines. + +Miss Theodosia prowled. The little dry-goods box full of children was a +small, vague blur, a little darker than the darkness. The children slept +the profound sleep of childhood and childhood's unbelonging toil. Sleep +was smoothing Stefana's roughened little nerves with gentle hand and +fortifying her courage for yet more strenuous toils to come. +Evangeline's weary little arm--and tongue--were resting. + +Miss Theodosia prowled softly, to avoid disturbing the little box-house. +She had the guilty conscience of the prowler that sent her heart into +her mouth at the crackling of a twig under her feet. She found herself +listening, holding her breath in a small panic. No sound of wakened +sleepers, but there must be no more twigs. + +"I must add a postscript to Cornelia Dunlap's letter," she thought. +"This would make a thrilling wind-up! Cornelia would say, 'Lawk-a-daisy +me, it _can't_ be Theodosia Baxter!' She wouldn't need any little dog." + +Safe in her own house once more, Miss Theodosia breathed a sigh of +relief. Saved! But there was another trip yet to be made to that region +behind the vague little blur of a box. It was too soon to be relieved. + +"What I've done once I can do twice," boasted Miss Theodosia, undaunted, +though at the approach of her second prowling expedition, her courage +waned unexpectedly. "I mean if I have a cup of tea--strong," she weakly +appended to her boast. It would take her longer out there the second +time. She really needed tea. + +Miss Theodosia retired at eleven, tired but contented. She even smiled +at her sodden fingers--when had Miss Theodosia Baxter's fingers been +sodden before! + +The next morning, the child and the childlier child appeared at her +porch, where she rocked contentedly. + +"She's ironin' 'em!--Stefana's ironin' 'em! No, I can't sit down; she +said not to. She's ironed one dress three times. It's funny how irons +stick, isn't it? No, not funny--mercy gracious! You oughter see +Stefana's cheeks, an' she's burnt both thumbs--I'm keepin' Elly Precious +out o' the way, an' she's forbid Carruthers comin' in a step. She'll get +'em ironed, Stefana will. You can't discourage Stefana! Last night I +kind of thought you could, but the clo'es whitened out beautiful in the +night. Stefana said it was the night air. There wasn't a single streak +left this mornin'. We're goin' to keep your money in Mother's weddin' +sugar-bowl, an' when she comes back, we're goin' to ask her if she don't +want some sugar!" + +All day Stefana toiled and retoiled. It was night when she sent one of +the children to Miss Theodosia with her day's work. The one who came was +Carruthers, chatty and deaf. Miss Theodosia did not have to do any +talking. + +"Stefana says there's some smooches, but the worst ones come under your +arms an' where they's puckers. The wrinkles Stefana hopes you'll +excuse--they'll air 'out, she expects. She was comin' over an' explain, +herself, but she's gone to bed. Evangeline's gone, too, to keep the baby +quiet. Stefana says you needn't pay as much's you expected to, 'count o' +the smooches an' wrink--" + +"I always pay the same price for my dresses," Miss Theodosia said, +forgetful of the boy's affliction. She put the money into the hard +little palm of Carruthers and watched him scamper home with it. Miss +Theodosia looked happy. She felt pleasant little tweaks at her +heartstrings as if small grimy hands were ringing them, playing a tender +little tune. Scorched, blundering young hands--Stefana's. The little +tune rang plaintive in her ears. She had a vision of Stefana toiling +over the ironing of her dresses and going to bed exhausted, when the +toil was over. Miss Theodosia's eyes followed Carruther's retreating +little figure till it reached the House of Little Children and +disappeared from view. What had she, Theodosia Baxter, to do with houses +of little children? Since when had they possessed attractions for +her--held her tender, brooding gaze? What was she doing here now, +gazing? Theodosia Baxter! + +Stefana had folded the dresses painstakingly in separate newspaper +bundles and stacked them on Carruther's outstretched arms. They were +stacked now on Miss Theodosia's porch. She picked them up and turned +with them into the house. + +"I'll unfold them," she thought, "and shake them out. I must tell her to +send them home without folding next time--or I can go and get them +myself." + +Unpinning Stefana's many pins, she lifted out one of the dresses. It +creaked starchily under her hands; it opened out before Miss Theodosia's +horrified vision. She uttered a groan. + +Where, now, was that tender little heart-string tune? + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Miss Theodosia saw pink. Near-anger surged up within her at this +ruinous, this piteous result of Stefana's toil. The result dangled +creaksomely from her hands, revealing new wrinkles and smooches and +leprous patches of starch at every motion. What was in this bundle would +be in the rest--there was no hope. + +In Theodosia Baxter's little girlhood, she had played there were two +"'Dosies," a good one and a bad one. The Good 'Dosie was often away from +home, but was sometimes apt to appear at unexpected moments, to the +embarrassment of the Bad 'Dosie. Stamp her foot as she would, Bad 'Dosie +could not always drive the unwelcome intruder away. + +"I don't like her!" the small sinner had once been heard to say. +"She--she p'eaches at me!" + +The Good 'Dosie was preaching now. + +"Wait! Count ten!" she preached. "Don't get any angrier, or you'll see +red instead of pink. Think of that poor child's burned thumbs--think of +her having to take to her bed when she got through--" + +"I don't wonder!" snapped Bad 'Dosie. + +"Wait--wait! Aren't you going to be good? Do you remember what you used +to do, to help out? Well?" + +Miss Theodosia dropped the starchy mass on top of the other newspaper +bundles and rather suddenly sat down in a chair. She saw a little child, +preached to and penitent, on her knees, with folded hands, saying "Now I +lame me down to sleep." + +It was very still in the room. Miss Theodosia's eyes closed and opened +again. It was as if she had said "Now I lame me." A little smile tugged +at the corners of her mouth. She no longer saw even pink. + +She got up briskly and began turning back her cuffs. First, she would +build the kitchen fire; it must roar and snap, with all the work it had +to do to-night. She would heat a lot of water, for only boiling water +could take out Stefana's awful starch. While the water was heating, she +would eat her supper. + +"A good, big supper, it will have to be," smiled this gentled Miss +Theodosia. "I've got to get up my strength! No tea-and-toast-and-jam +supper to-night." She heated her gridiron smoking hot and broiled a bit +of steak. She tossed together little feathery biscuit and made coffee, +fragrant and strong. Momently, Miss Theodosia's strength "got up." She +moved about the kitchen briskly--when had she launched out upon a +night's work like this? Adventure!--call it adventure. + +Work to Miss Theodosia had always meant something that other people +did,--the Stefanas and their mothers and brothers and fathers. What she +herself did, a gentle, dilatory playing at work, hardly merited the +name. A bit of dusting, tea-and-toasting, making her own bed, cooking +for sheer love of cooking, what did they count in Miss Theodosia's +summing up of tasks? + +Always there had been some one to do her heavy things. She had put her +washings out and taken her dinners in; three times a week she was swept +and scrubbed and made immaculate. + +But to-night--to-night was different. This was to be no playing at work. +Miss Theodosia rose to the occasion gallantly--indeed, exultantly. +Thrills of enthusiasm ran up, ran down her spine. She prepared for a +night of it. + +The dresses immersed in steaming hot water and her supper eaten, she +stretched drying-lines, with considerable difficulty, from corner to +corner of her kitchen, prepared an ironing-board, and got out long-idle +irons. At eight o'clock she stopped for breath. Stefana's starch still +resisted all inducements to part with Miss Theodosia's dresses; more hot +water was required. After another steamy bath, they were cooled and +wrung and draped over the crisscross clotheslines in the hot kitchen. +Then Miss Theodosia temporarily retired from the field of battle. + +Theodosia Baxter had come back from her travelings to this small +ancestral town with a mildly disturbing taste in her mouth. "Settling +down" at thirty-six was not at all to her mind; she would not settle +down! + +"If I catch you doing it, Theodosia Baxter!" she said. "If I catch you +growing old! The minute you feel it coming on, you pack up and start for +Rome! Or Paris! Or Turkistan! Start for Anywhere! Keep going!" + +But, already, did she feel it coming on even before all her trunks were +unpacked? She was a little frightened at certain signs. Now, when she +sat down heavily--why did she sit down heavily? If some one had called +upon her for scores of little services, so that she must hop up again, +immediately--little piping voices: "Mother, where's my cap?" "Mother, +make Johnnie stop plaguing me!" "Mother, come quick!" If a big John had +come home to her, demanding her time or sympathy or service-- + +"No little Johns--no big one!" She sighed. "Is that the matter with you, +Theodosia Baxter? Well, for Heaven's sake, don't tell anybody! Keep a +bold front." + +She dozed a little in her rocker while she waited. Her plaintive +reveries took the shape of a sober little dream wherein one Theodosia +Baxter tottered on a cane and another walked briskly and youngly among +Johns. Both Theodosias were thirty-six. + +"Mercy!" she exclaimed, waking up. "Where's my cane? I must go and iron +Stefana's dresses!" She felt oddly refreshed. Queer dream to refresh +one! She found herself thinking kindly of Stefana. + +"I hope she's sound asleep, and a pitying little girl angel with a +nurse's cap under her halo will slip down and cure her thumbs before she +wakes up." + +The irons she had set to heating were much too hot. Should she run +out-of-doors while one of them cooled, and lie in wait to catch the +little nurse-angel on the wing or perhaps darting thrillingly down to +Stefana on a shooting star, breaking all speed limits! This was a night +for adventure. The wild ride of a becapped and haloed little celestial +in goggles would be an adventure! Miss Theodosia laughed out girlishly, +not at all a tottery laugh on a cane, and the pleasant sound broke the +midnight stillness. + +The dresses were dry enough to roll into tight bundles. One she essayed +to iron as it was. She began as soon as the iron was cool enough. + +Miss Theodosia toiled--adventured--through the long hours into the +short. It was unaccustomed toiling, and, like Stefana, she burned her +thumbs. She had judgment and the skill that age kindly lends, in her +favor, and slowly her delicate fingers undid the ravages of Stefana's +patient endeavors and brought beauteous perfection out of apparent ruin. +But the process was wearying and long. It would have been but half the +labor to have begun at the beginning instead of at Stefana's poor little +end. + +At midnight, Miss Theodosia made herself cups of tea and sipped them +thirstily. A wrist, both thumbs, and her testing forefinger smarted; she +was tired and disheveled. But the spirit of adventure refused to die. + +The fire burned red-hot and the irons must cool again. Miss Theodosia +slipped out this time into the soft darkness. + +"Let us hope Aunt Sarah will 'knit fast,'" she was thinking, with +whimsical eyes. "But if she doesn't--Theodosia Baxter, dear, if Aunt +Sarah is a slow knitter, you are in for it! I've no idea of letting you +off. Baxters that begin, end." + +It was dim starshine out-of-doors. Miss Theodosia was too late to see +the nurse-angel riding on her star, her little cap and halo awry with +the downhill glide through space. She was too late to see her go into +the dark little House of Children--but she saw her come out. Distinctly, +a misty little blur of white against the velvet background. Miss +Theodosia started a very little--did she need pinching to wake her? + +For the space of a clock-tick the little celestial appeared to hesitate, +as though waiting for her star-steed to come within her hail. Then, +floatingly, not walking, it seemed to Miss Theodosia, the mist of blurry +white drew nearer. It came near to Miss Theodosia, and it was not the +nurse-angel in cap and shining halo. It was Stefana! + +The child was in her nightgown. One look into her wide, unseeing eyes +was enough; Stefana was asleep. In a chattering little voice she was +talking to herself. It was like a soft wail of sound. + +"I must get them back! Quick, before she sees; I must iron them over. +Perhaps if I starched them again--another coat of starch might hide the +smooches. She mustn't see the smooches! If Mother should lose the +chance--oh, I must get 'em back and starch 'em another coat! Mother +mustn't lose her! My thumbs ache so!" + +Was she coming straight toward the door? No, a fortunate whiff of breeze +seemed to blow her aside like a little seed-puff, and she went drifting +by. She was apparently searching anxiously. + +"I must find them! Quick, before she sees! Oh, there are the smooches. I +see some of the smooches! But I can't find the rest of them--" + +Miss Theodosia sprang forward in the direction of the pathetic little +figure, but almost as quickly caught herself up. Sleepwalkers were not +to be awakened suddenly. What then was to be done? + +"I must get her back to bed without letting her wake," thought Miss +Theodosia. A plan suggested itself. She caught of her large apron, +rolled it into a bulky mass, and swiftly followed the small nightgowned +figure. Her steps made no sound over the grass. It was but the work of +an instant to lay the roll of apron in Stefana's arms. Instantly, at the +feel of starched cloth in her hands, the tense little face relaxed. + +"I've got 'em back!" Stefana muttered, and, as if from the relief of it, +the troubled sleep seemed to calm and quiet down into deep oblivion to +all troubles. To Miss Theodosia's dismay Stefana slid quietly to the +ground and dreamlessly slept. Here, indeed, was adventure! Even at +twelve years and Stefana small, the child was too heavy to carry home. + +"I don't dare to wake her," Miss Theodosia cried aloud, but softly, as +if in fear of doing so. + +"You needn't--hush! I'll carry her for you." + +The voice seemed to materialize out of the gloom into something big and +high and unexpectedly close at hand that rightly should have startled +Miss Theodosia but failed to do so. Afterward, in the house again, among +her irons, she was startled. + +"I was going by and saw her--you can tell a sleepwalker by the way one +walks. Glides. Now, when I lift her, gently support her head--that's it. +Forward, march!" + +"This way," Miss Theodosia directed in a whisper, though he was already +moving this way. Shadow Man that he was, he stepped earthily, with thuds +of his feet on the grass. Miss Theodosia's footsteps were soft echoes. +So they came to the little House of Flaggs. + +"There's a light in that inside room, and I can see a bed. I'll lay her +down, and you can go in afterward--and--er--smooth her out." + +"Yes--yes, I'll wait out here," whispered Miss Theodosia with a curious +solemnity in her face. Rome, nor Paris, nor Anywhere had offered +adventure like this--not like this. Miss Theodosia had an odd feeling +that this, too, was a dream--and a John. Would they all wake up +together? + +"Sound as a nut--never knew what hit her! But she wants straightening. +New work for me; I'm not used to putting kiddies to bed." + +"Oh, I'm not either!" breathed Miss Theodosia, "but I might straighten +one. I don't suppose you--you kissed her thumbs? Of course not!" She +laughed softly. "But I shall." + +Now it was the Shadow Man's turn to laugh with a funny, explosive little +effect as though he were not used to muffling his laughs,--as if this +playing Shadow Man were a new rôle. + +"Why thumbs?" he whispered. "Why not lips, say, or eyes? I thought women +kissed kiddies' eyes. Hope I haven't made a mistake--" as if he had some +secret desire for women to kiss the eyes of little children. "If you +don't mind kissing 'em when you go in there--" + +"I shall kiss her thumbs," Miss Theodosia said firmly. "They were burned +at the stake for me. I know how burned thumbs feel." + +But the Shadow Man stubbornly persisted. + +"I'll tell you what," he said. "I'll go back now and kiss her thumbs, if +you'll kiss her eyes when you go in; as--er--a favor. 'Stoop over the +little sleeper,' you know, and 'press your mother's lips to the closed +blue orbs.'" He seemed to be quoting something. + +"But I haven't any mother's lips," sighed Miss Theodosia, "only the kind +for thumbs--just thumbs. I'm sorry," she added humbly. Curiously she +experienced no surprise at this intimate turn of a conversation with a +Shadow Man at midnight. + +"That's all right--that's all right," the Shadow Man assured her. "Only +thought I'd feel a little better to prove it was done that way. Hadn't +any business mixing up with women's lips and kiddies' orbs, anyway! +Serves me right." And now it was his turn to be humble. "Good night," +and he was gone. + +It was into a tiny bedroom off the kitchen, where a needle of light from +a turned-down lamp barely pricked the darkness, that Miss Theodosia +found her way. She had a dim picture of littering little clothes about +the room and on the flat pillows of the bed the round, flushed face of +Evangeline. In a clothes basket beside the bed she dimly saw a little +mound that might be Elly Precious--it was Elly Precious! The little +mound stirred with a curious, nestling sound, and instantly Stefana +stirred also and crooned. Even in her sleep she was the little Mother. +Miss Theodosia felt her own throat tighten and fill. + +Stefana still clasped the bundle of apron in her arms, and Miss +Theodosia did not dare try to take it away from her. She merely arranged +it a little more comfortably and smoothed Stefana out. Queer!--as if at +some other time, in some passed-by existence, she had smoothed out a +child. She seemed to know how. Suddenly she stooped and kissed, not +Stefana's thumbs but her eyes. + +"The starch!" murmured Stefana as Miss Theodosia turned away. "Some'dy +get it!" The deep sleep had broken a little, and through the break +trickled a thread of Stefana's troubles. Then, again, silence and peace. +No sound from bed or clothes basket on the floor. + +Outside, in the faint starlight, Miss Theodosia drew a long breath. She +softly laughed. Curious how much like a sob a little laugh can be! Oh, +starlit night of adventuring! What next? Miss Theodosia's mantle of +gentle melancholy slid from her shoulders; she no longer felt +apprehensions of growing old. Continually she saw Evangeline's rosy face +on that flat pillow, and the little mound of Elly Precious. She +remembered how tiny the house had looked from the inside, and how many +little littering clothes she had seen. The appealing quality of empty +little clothes! In Miss Theodosia's inside room of her soul, something +stirred behind the locked door. + +The irons had cooled too much, and the fire was low. Miss Theodosia went +to work again. As she worked, she talked to herself sociably. + +"Adventures thicken! Stars, and angels in caps, and children that walk +in their little sleeps! And little heaps in clothes baskets, that are +babies! And--Theodosia Baxter--a Man! Out of a clear, inky sky! Why +weren't you scared? How do you know--you never even saw his face--maybe +he was a thief, and a marauder, and a thug!" + +Granted, if thieves and marauders and those awful things, thugs, carry +little loads or sleep as tenderly as women--and never wake them; if they +are polite and say good night--. What kind of marauding and--and +thugging is that? + +"What will Stefana think when she finds my apron in bed with her!" +suddenly laughed Miss Theodosia, breaking the spell. "Funny Stefana! she +goes to my heart, she and her starch--when they're asleep!" + +But, awake, Stefana's starch went to Miss Theodosia's back and aching +bones. It was three o'clock when she was ready to go to bed. Over chairs +and the couch in her sitting-room, lay the three redeemed white dresses, +soft again and very smoochless and smooth. Miss Theodosia stood and +admired. She was full of pride and weariness. At last, at thirty-six, +she had done real work; she loved the feel of it in her tired bones. She +loved her night of adventuring. Life--she loved that. So she went to bed +at three, when the birds were beginning to get up. If her throat--calm +and grown-up throat--had not persistently tightened, she would have gone +to sleep laughing at the remembrance of it all. All the funny night. Why +wasn't it funny? Why couldn't she laugh? She sat up in bed. + +On the morning after her adventurous night, as Miss Theodosia lingered +luxuriously over her late breakfast, came bursting in Evangeline Flagg. +A gray-checked something waved from her hand like a flag of truce. +Evangeline always burst into things--houses, and rooms, and excited +little speech. + +"Here it is!--that is, if it's yours. Stefana says to ask. 'Tain't ours. +Mercy gracious, no! We don't take our aperns to bed. Stefana never heard +of such a thing. Neither o' us never. In bed--right straight in bed! An' +Stefana hugging it up like everything! She says to ask you if it's yours +because it ain't ours, nor anybody else's, an' it's got to be somebody's +apern, and once I thought I saw a gray 'n' white one hanging through +your window--I mean on a nail, but, mercy gracious, what was it doing in +bed with me an' Stefana!" + +Even Evangeline's breath had limitations. She stopped as headlong as she +had begun. She unwound the large, voluminous-skirted apron from her +grasp and extended it. + +"Here 'tis, if it's yours," she gasped, spent. She was gazing at it with +a species of awe; it was an "apern" of mystery, not a human apern. "An' +if 't isn't, take it--Stefana said not to dare to bring it back. +We--we're sort of afraid of it, honest. Though, of course, Stefana says +it must 've blew in the window"--the tide of speech was coming in once +more--"an'--an' sort of landed on the bed, an' Stefana kind of grabbed +it in her sleep, thinking it was Elly Precious. But, mercy gracious!" + +"Sit down," Miss Theodosia said, smiling. "Doesn't it tire you to talk +as fast as that?" + +"Some," admitted Evangeline, "but I don't mind. What I mind is +ghosts--aperns an' the kind with--with legs." She dropped her voice. "I +saw one las' night." + +"Mercy gracious!" Miss Theodosia breathed. + +Evangeline nodded solemnly. "Out the window. I woke up feelin' one, an' +I saw it goin' across the grass. White. Slinky." + +"Oh, not--slinky!" protested Miss Theodosia, suddenly championing the +ghost-with-legs. + +"Slinky," firmly. "I guess I'd a-screeched right out if I hadn't +remembered the baby. Elly Precious is terrible hard to put to sleep +second time. You aren't much acquainted with babies, are you?" + +Again--so soon! Miss Theodosia's humility returned. + +"We're acquainted, over to our house! Mother says babies are great +edge--edge--" + +"Educators?" + +"That's it! Mercy gracious, then I should think Mother'd be graduated!" + +After Evangeline's departure, Miss Theodosia set down her coffee cup and +gave herself up to laughter. The room rang with the pleasant sound of +it. + +"Will you l-listen to yourself, Theodosia Baxter!" she cried at length, +out of breath. "You actually sound happy!" + +In the afternoon, a bevy of Miss Theodosia's old friends called on her +as she sat on her front porch. They had intended, they said, to wait +till the proper time, according to etiquette, for calls upon returned +travelers. + +"But we wanted to see you so much, after all this time," one of them +said. "We decided we couldn't wait to be proper. Besides, it would be +such a risk. While we waited, you'd run off again. It was really our +only way. Ladies, will you see how lovely and white she looks! Perfectly +spotless!" The speaker sighed. Her own dress was dark and spot-colored. +"I don't see how you do it! I tell Andrew I'd rather dress in white than +in velvet--I love it! But, there, I couldn't get a minute to wear the +dresses; it would take all my days to do 'em up. Of course, with you +it's different. I don't suppose you ever toiled over an ironing-board a +day in your life." + +Miss Theodosia gravely shook her head. "No," she said, curious little +twinkling lines deepening round her eyes, "I never did--a day--in my +life." + +"That's what I thought! That's what I told Andrew. 'Theodosia Baxter +don't know what work is,' I told him. It's easy enough for some women to +wear lovely white things. Simplest thing in the world!" + +Miss Theodosia's cryptic little smile lingered on her lips and in the +clear windows of her eyes, as she gazed past the voluble wife of Andrew, +through her vines, at the little House of Children next door. She +imagined she heard Stefana singing, high up and sweet, over her work. +Wait!--that was not a singing sound! + +A single shriek shot above the clear humming noise that might be +Stefana. Then another--a third! + +"Some one is hurt!" cried Miss Theodosia, and she kilted her smooth +white skirts and ran. + +Again that dread shriek! Over her shoulder, as she ran, Miss Theodosia +gave directions to her startled callers. + +"Telephone for a doctor--any doctor. In the side hall--on a table!" But +could any doctor save the life of that terrible shriek? If it came once +more--It came! Miss Theodosia involuntarily closed her eyes to shut out +a sight of horror. + +"Mercy gracious!" + +She opened them hurriedly at the soft collision of herself with +Evangeline. + +"Who is it? Is it the baby? I've sent for the doctor." Half-remembered, +half-read first aids crowded her mind confusedly. Warm water and +mustard--that was for hemorrhage--no, no--poison! But did you apply it +inside or out? What was that about laying the patient up hill--feet +higher--or was it feet lower--down hill? + +"Take me there, quick! We must do what we can till the doct--oh, the +poor baby!" + +"Mercy gracious goodness! Elly Precious is eatin' bread an' molasses. +He's only et one slice, an' most o' that's on his outside. They aint' +an'thing worse'n molasses the matter with El--" + +"There! Oh, there!" As another mournful cry split the air.--"Oh, that! +What is it? Who is it?" + +"Mercy gra--why, that's Carruthers bein' a steam whistle. Did he scare +you? He does do it pretty loud when he's gettin' up steam; you see, he +don't know how loud he does it, because he's deaf o' hearin'. We can't +bear to lower him, but we only let him be a steam whistle for a +treat--when he's 'specially good--Mother said to. Stefana found him +washin' his face 'free greatest' this mornin', so she let him--.Quick, +shut your ears! He's goin' off again!" + +'But, this time, Miss Theodosia heard, unalarmed. To her own surprise, +she listened almost enjoyingly. To be able to make a noise like that! +The sheer vitality and youth of it compelled admiration. + +"If I could do that--" began Miss Theodosia's thought, then broke off +hastily as the mental vision of herself in the act of bein' a steam +whistle appeared to her. + +"You do it this way," explained Evangeline, inserting a forefinger in +each corner of her mouth and preparing to steam-whistle. + +"No, no, I don't do it any way!" Miss Theodosia protested smilingly. "Do +you think--do you think, perhaps, he has been sufficiently rewarded for +washing his own face, now? Because, you see, I have callers on my +porch." + +"Mercy gracious--I see 'em! I'll go right an' stop Carruthers! That's +what Stefana said--that we'd ought to remember you wasn't in Europe +now." + +"I think I could hear steam whistles there!" Miss Theodosia smiled. But +Evangeline's sober mind continued its line of thought. + +"Stefana says if you'll hang somethin' red out when you're asleep, or +got callers, or anythin', then she'll make us play funeral." + +"Oh, no--not that!" No red flag of warning could justify playing +funeral. + +"Well, Hold-Your-Breath, then. We can't make much noise holding our +breaths! Stefana's the champion Hold-Your-Breath-er. You take an awful +long breath--this way--" But, already, Miss Theodosia was on her way +home. She found her callers moving agitatedly about. "Central asked what +doctor, and for the life of me I couldn't remember a living doctor's +name in this town. 'Anybody,' I told her. 'Tell him to come quick; +somebody must be dying over to the little Flagg place." + +Miss Theodosia lifted a hand to stem the tide of Mrs. Andrew's words. + +"He's stopped dying--listen! It's all quiet now; it was only play. I'll +head Central off. Excuse me a minute--I mean, another minute!" + +But Central had done her work well--beyond heading-off. Already an +automobile was speeding up the road; behind it clattered a +hurriedly-driven buggy. Miss Theodosia saw them both stopping at the +little Flagg place. She smiled. She was not needed over there to make +any explanations or apologies--Evangeline was there! + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +She sat on her porch after the visitors had gone, thinking strange Miss +Theodosia thoughts. A man, coming up her front path and lifting a soft +felt hat, interrupted the strangest thought of all. + +"I beg your pardon. Is this where somebody needs help? I was told--" + +Miss Theodosia laughed outright. + +"I do need help. Were you ever a steam whistle? You put two fingers in +your mouth, one in each corner--I was trying to get up my courage to do +it!" + +The felt hat rolled down the steps, the stranger needing both his hands. + +"Like this?" + +"Ye-s. I never saw a steam whistle, you know. That was what I was +wishing." + +"Heard one? Because I can give a demonstration." + +"Don't!" Miss Theodosia shut her ears. + +"I heard one--demonstration. I thought some one was dying, at least." + +"Oh, that was the 'help wanted!' I see. My services are not required, +then; it was a false alarm." + +Miss Theodosia was on her feet, remembering her manners. "It was a true +enough alarm; won't you sit down? I think my nerves need a doctor." + +"Did I call myself a doctor? I am a reformed doctor, madam. It is some +years since I got out. But I thought, in a very urgent case--fits, you +know, or something like that--Thank you, I won't sit down. My work calls +me." + +Miss Theodosia inclined her head politely, but curiosity seized her. How +curious she was getting about many things! + +"I wish I knew--" she began. + +"Yes, madam?" + +"What work 'calls' reformed doctors. After they are--out." + +The stranger's big, unharnessed laugh was almost startling to Miss +Theodosia. Why? She had never heard just such a big, unharnessed laugh +before. She had heard a big harnessed laugh--when? Before she could +answer her own thought, or the stranger could answer her spoken query, a +hurry of small feet sounded. Only Evangeline's feet could break speed +limits like that. + +"Oh, Miss Theodosia--oh, I don't want to int'rupt, but just soon's he's +gone--" + +"He's gone," sighed Miss Theodosia, as the child came up. "You mustn't +interrupt again, that way, unless it's a very urgent case--fits or +something." In spite of proper vexation, she smiled. "Who was that man, +Evangeline, that just went away?" + +"Oh, I don't know--I wasn't acquainted with his back; that's every speck +o' him I saw. Oh! oh! oh!" + +"Evangeline Flagg, what is the matter now?" + +"'D you ever do up a man, Miss Theodosia? Stiff--awful stiff? Stefana +says it's bad enough to do women up. She's havin' a dreadful time! We +can't get the stiffness out; I been helpin'. It stands up alone!" +Suddenly, without warning, Evangeline went off into a series of shrill +shrieks. + +"Stop me! Stop me! Don't l-let Stefana hear me! Don't l-let me laugh!" + +This was an urgent case--fits or something, surely! Miss Theodosia's +eyes sought the horizon for a reformed doctor. In lack of one, she shook +Evangeline. + +"Stop at once! Make yourself stop; count ten!" + +"One! Two-o! Th-ree!" shrieked Evangeline, through to ten. Ten separate +shrieks. Then, abruptly, she ceased. + +"Mercy gracious, I've stopped! I hope Stefana wasn't listenin'. But she +wasn't; she was cryin'. I left her cryin'. If you could come over--. +Honest, we can't do a thing! We thought you'd probably did up men." + +Miss Theodosia never had. Not so--awful a thing as that! + +"It stands up alone, with both arms out! I don't dass to go back. I +shall laugh if I do, an' if I laugh, Stefana'll cry. She don't think +it's f-funny." The shrieks showed signs of returning, and Miss Theodosia +again had recourse to stern measures. + +"Count ten!" she demanded, as she shook. + +They went back together to the mysterious something that stood alone +with both arms out. It was in that pose as they approached it. Miss +Theodosia thought it was f--funny; an awful desire to shriek like +Evangeline took possession of her. She counted ten in inward haste. + +"I can't do anything with it!" wailed poor Stefana. "And Elly Precious +gets into it, and makes it walk! He's in it now." + +"It's walkin'!" shrieked Evangeline, as the portentously stiff shirt +staggered a little to one side. Stefana, filled with enthusiasm and +generosity of soul, had starched not the bosom alone but the entire +shirt. She had done it thoroughly. The result was alarming. It was a +terrible shirt! + +"Tell me what to do--somebody tell me!" entreated the little laundress. +"I've unstarched it, and unstarched it, and seems as if it got stiffer." + +"Boiling water," breathed Miss Theodosia, too spent with her struggles +not to laugh, to admit of further speech. + +"Wait! Don't anybody dass to pour boilin' water on till I get Elly +Precious out! Come to Evangeline this minute, darlin' dear--no, they +shan't boil him!" + +Elly Precious emerged, crowing. The deaf-but-not-dumb little Flagg +appeared, to swell the number around the Terrible Shirt. Stefana dried +her tears. Miss Theodosia had the sense of being looked up to--relied +upon. She rose to the occasion buoyantly. As unused as Stefana to men's +bosoms, she yet stepped into the breach. Unused to issuing orders, she +issued them. + +"Evangeline, you and Carruthers see to the baby. Stefana, come with me. +Bring--it." + +They went back to the big house, she with that new and intoxicating +sense of importance, and Stefana with the Terrible Shirt. + +"Whose is it--that?" she asked, indicating the creaking white garment. +"What were you doing with it?" + +"Starching it," mumbled poor Stefana. "It took most a package. He said +he liked his stiff. 'Put in plenty o' starch,' he said to Mother, and +she always did. So I did. I thought if he said--" + +"If who said?" It took a long time to establish the identity of the +Terrible Shirt. + +"If he did, the man it belongs to." + +"What man--who?" + +"The man that writes things." + +"What things?" + +"We don't know exactly. Evangeline thinks tracts. She says his room was +all full o' half sheets o' paper--lying all over everywhere. She saw +'Good Lord' on one. Perhaps it's sermons. Mother always sent Evangeline +home with his wash; I never went. He is a very nice man--oh, that's why +I feel so bad about his shirt! I wouldn't care if he was an--an +infidel!" + +"Bless your heart!" + +Miss Theodosia turned suddenly and embraced Stefana and the shirt. +"Don't worry any more," she said; "you and I will work wonders with that +Tract Man's shirt! Stefana, put the kettle on and we'll go to it! +There's nothing two determined people can't do, once they've put their +minds on it." + +Together they labored, and the impossible happened. Theodosia Baxter did +up a man! She--and Stefana--succeeded in getting the starch out of the +surrounding area and into the bosom of the Terrible Shirt. They got much +starch in. Inspiration appeared to come to Miss Theodosia. Even the +really awful task of ironing that bosom till it glittered and shone in +unwrinkled board-like expanse was at length accomplished. Miss Theodosia +was justly proud of herself--and of Stefana; she insisted upon including +Stefana in her triumphs. + +"Eureka!" she exulted. "Call Evangeline, Stefana, and Elly Precious, and +Carruthers! Call in a Chinaman, if you like, and tell him to look at +that! Ask him to beat it!" + +"There isn't any in this town," responded literal Stefana. "That's why +Mother did bosoms. She'd a good deal rather not've." + +"But I love to do bosoms!" sang Miss Theodosia. "I never felt so worth +while in my life before--an artist in starch, Stefana!" + +"Well, you've done beautifully--I never did see!" the grateful Stefana +cried. "But I'm afraid it's kind of gone to your head. I think you +better lie down." + +"Send for the Reformed Doctor! Stefana, what are you doing with my +beautiful bosom?" + +"I won't muss it. I'm just going to take it home and sew the buttons on. +There's two off. Mother always sewed 'em on; he pays two cents extra for +repairs." + +Miss Theodosia's fair face flushed. "You don't stir a step with it! I +have buttons and a spool of thread--what I do, I finish doing! Give it +to me." + +For the first time, Miss Theodosia handled a man's garment intimately. +It lay stiffly across her lap. She sewed on the two buttons; she mended +a tiny "hog-tear." Life had taken on new interests--bosoms and buttons. +She thrilled--when had she ever thrilled before? Ironing her own dresses +had been a poor, tame business. She would be sorry to part with this +shirt! + +And then Evangeline came. + +"Mercy gracious, doesn't it look elegant! I came over because he's come +for his shirt. He says he's goin' to begin a new story, an' he always +has to have a clean shirt on. An' his hair cut--he's got it cut. I guess +that bosom'll match his hair all right! It's perfectly lovely!" + +"What did you do with Elly Precious, Evangeline Flagg!" demanded +Stefana. + +"That's it--that's why I got to hurry back. He's keepin' Elly Precious +for me, an' he don't know what to do with babies. He says all his are +paper ones--paper babies! He gave Elly Precious his knife, an' opened +the blades to amuse him! He said he guessed Elly Precious wouldn't hurt +'em!" Evangeline's face registered great scorn. "If you'll give it to +me, I'll carry it to him," she concluded, holding out her hand for the +shirt. But Miss Theodosia sewed calmly on. She had found a second tear +larger than the first. It would be better to strengthen it with a little +piece underneath. She would find a white scrap in her bag of pieces. + +"It is not ready yet. He can wait. But you must not wait, Evangeline. +Elly Precious may be playing with his pistol, if he carries one." + +"He don't. He ain't a pistol-man, but, mercy gracious, how you scare me! +You comin' too, Stefana?" + +"Yes, Stefana can go now. She is all through," which was Miss +Theodosia's kind inclusion of Stefana. That, again, was curiously new to +Miss Theodosia. Psychological changes were taking place--or were they +just plain tugs on Miss Theodosia's heartstrings? + +She sat and sewed. + +"Patching--I'm patching!" she laughed to herself. "And here I've been +hiring my own mending done! Theodosia Baxter, see what you are doing; +you are patching a shirt for a man! No, I'm not, either! I'm doing it +for Stefana--what are you talking about?" + +Some one came up her steps and knocked on her open door. But she was too +engrossed to hear. The patch underneath had slipped a little askew. She +ripped out some of the stitches and began again. She caught herself +humming as she worked. + +"Please may I have my shirt?" a voice asked meekly. "That story is +promised for next month. It's the twenty-eighth, now." + +Evangeline's Tract Man stood in the doorway, soft felt hat in hand, +twinkles in his eyes. Evangeline's Tract Man was the Reformed Doctor! If +Miss Theodosia had been eighteen instead of thirty-six she would not +have blushed more beautifully, but she continued to patch. She was +caught in the act; no help for it now. But she would finish--that-- +patch. + +"So it's you! So that's the work Reformed Doctors do!" + +"Madam, yes. When stories appeal to them more than pills and tonics, +they reform and write stories. They have to!" he cried, suddenly in +earnest, "When one is life, and the other death--" + +"Oh, if it was death to them--your patients," she murmured. Then, +ashamed of her own flippancy: "Of course, I didn't mean anything as +silly as that! I meant--I meant, please sit down while I finish this +patch. There, in that easy-chair. There are magazines on the table." + +There was one magazine with his own name in the list of contents. He +opened it at that page and gazed down upon it quite soberly. + +"My name is John Bradford," he said, as if reading. Miss Theodosia +started a little, but it was not as he thought, in his innocent vanity. +Miss Theodosia got no farther than the first part of the name--so he was +a John! She glanced quickly at the doorway, measuring him in her mind as +he had stood against the lintel. He had reached a long way up--a long +man. The Shadow Man had been a long shadow. Something told her-- + +[Illustration: "If you are thinking of putting me anywhere, put me into +a story like that."] + +"Did you ever carry a child in your arms and lay her on a bed? In the +middle of the night? Did you do it last night? Are you the same man?" + +"I am the same man I was last night," he answered gravely. "I was John +Bradford then, too. Didn't I carry her all right? What was the matter?" +Suddenly he leaned forward in the chair. "Did you kiss her thumbs?" he +demanded. + +"I kissed her eyes." + +They were silent for a little, while Miss Theodosia set small, nervous +stitches in John Bradford's shirt, and John Bradford twiddled the edges +of the magazine. He stole glances, now and then, at this strange woman +with whom he seemed to have come so oddly into contact. He could make a +story of her dark hair, straight shoulders, beautiful hands. He could +not get a good view of her full face. Bending over a bed, kissing a +little sleeper's eyes--he could work her in that way. If he knew her a +little better-- + +"I knew they did it!" + +"Did what--who?" + +"Women--kissed that way. You have proved it now." + +"I'm not women. I'm just one woman, and I never did it in my life +before." + +"Well, you liked doing it, didn't you? I could put you in, liking it." + +The shirt slid to the floor, and Miss Theodosia gave her visitor a full +view of her face. + +"Are you making 'copy' of me? Because if you are thinking of putting me +anywhere, put me into a story like that. I'd like it. I mean, with +little children in a bed--and one in a clothes basket! Say I tucked them +in--Yes, I liked kissing Stefana's eyes. I should love to have another +chance. It's nothing to be ashamed of, is it, to like little children?" + +"I like 'em. I always have." + +"Well, I always haven't. Only very lately--it's queer. When I came home +here and found all those children next door--mercy gracious!" + +They both laughed. Laughing together is a great acquaintancer. Miss +Thedosia suddenly thought of something and laughed a little more. + +"My name is Theodosia Baxter," she said. They rose and shook hands +gravely. They were decently introduced. The beautiful shiny bosom of the +shirt lay between them like a white mirror and Miss Theodosia caught the +man's glance on it. + +"Is it anything to be ashamed of--doing up a shirt?" she demanded. + +"Not doing it up like that! That's a work of art!" + +"A work of heart--I did it for Stefana. I've got quite fond of it now, +and shall hate to part with it. It's a friend." + +"A bosom friend," he parried. Again they laughed and grew more +acquainted. Miss Theodosia made tea in her dainty Sčvres cups. The +faintest flecks of pink made her face youthful. Miss Theodosia was a +good-looking woman always, but, animated, her face was really lovely. +John Bradford was better used to paper women, like paper babies, but his +taste recognized flesh-and-blood attractiveness. He had always been a +lonely man--until now. + +"I'm having a beautiful time," he sighed. "Is it anything to be ashamed +of, to have a beautiful time?" + +"Or two cups of tea? Please! This is my company tea--warranted good to +write stories on!" + +"Oh--stories. Are there such things? Did I ever write one? Have I got to +write another?" + +"It's the twenty-eighth," Miss Theodosia reminded demurely. "But you +will need another cup of tea. How long does it take?" + +"To drink another cup?" + +"To write another story. Tell me about it. Perhaps I could do it. You +take a blotter and a pen and plenty of half-sheets of paper--'tracts,' +Evangeline calls them! Then you write 'Good Lord!' That is what +Evangeline says you wrote on a tract! She said maybe it was a sermon." + +"Oh--Evangeline! And speaking of angels--" + +"Mercy gracious! You're here--both o' you! An' somebody's gone an' +spilled a drop of somethin' on that beautiful bosom!" + +"A tear-drop, Evangeline, because she wouldn't give it to me." + +"Tea drop!" sniffed Evangeline. "Guess I know! After all Stefana's work! +Miss Theodosia, can Elly Precious eat your grass? He's out there now. He +don't really eat it; he just kind of pretends. Mother says Elly Precious +ought to be put out to pasture. We haven't got any grass to speak of, +over to our house." + +"Don't speak of it! Of course he can eat mine, if you think it is +edible. Ask the Reformed Doctor." + +"Him a doctor? Mercy gracious--honest? Then he knows if Elly Precious'd +ought to eat grass--not really eat, you know." + +"Just graze a little--let him graze." The Reformed Doctor rose to his +feet and held out his hand to Miss Theodosia. "I'll go out and see how +he does it. It's lucky Evangeline came in, or I might not have known +enough to go at all. I've had a beautiful time. I'll put you in with the +bedful of kiddies." + +"And the clothes basket?" + +"And the clothes basket." + +"You haven't got your shirt--mercy gracious! I thought that's what you +came after," reminded Evangeline. + +"Was it?" the Reformed Doctor said. "Give it to me, Evangeline." + +"Not naked! Without wrappin' up! I never did see!" + +"It's such a good-looking shirt--well, then, wrap it up, wrap it up. +I've got a newspaper in my pocket. Put that round it, Evangeline." He +turned again to his hostess. "It will be a good story if I put--the +clothes basket--in it. They won't send it back. Good-by." + +He was off to inspect Elly Precious' grazing-ground. Evangeline, at the +window where she had gone to make sure her darlin' dear was safe, +presented to Miss Theodosia a square, bony little back that was +curiously like that of a dwarfed old woman. + +The trail of innocent Elly Precious was over that stoopy little figure. +Miss Theodosia looked with softened eyes. Then a smile grew in them, +wrinkling their corners whimsically. She was noticing something else +besides the little old-lady back. Evangeline's braids toed in! Tight and +flaxen, they stood out in rounded curves, converging suddenly to the bit +of faded ribbon that tied them together. There was something suspicious +looking about that ribbon--"Stefana starched it!" smiled Miss +Theodosia's thought. + +The small figure whirled face about. + +"There, _he_ can see to him awhile." Evangeline was always cheerfully +oblivious to any confusion of ideas arising from her use of personal +pronouns. "I'm tired. Children are a great care," said Evangeline. She +seated herself in an easy chair and dangled thin legs. + +"If you drank tea--I'll make you a cup of cocoa, Evangeline." + +"Oh, mercy gracious, no! I'm not as tired as _cocoa_. Jus' +sit-'n'-a'-chair tired. You know how it feels--no, you don't either. +I forgot. I guess you are pretty lucky. No, I don't guess so _either_!" +Evangeline suddenly straightened on the edge of the big chair and eyed +Miss Theodosia sternly, as though that innocent soul had been the one +guilty of disloyalty to darlin' dears. + +"Children are a great comfort," declaimed Evangeline with emphasis. She +might have been the mother of six comforts. Tenderness crept into her +eyes, and her freckles seemed to fade out, and even the small blunt nose +of her take on middle-agedness and motherliness. '"Specially when you +undress 'em. They're so darlin' an' soft! You ever undressed one--a +reg'lar _baby_ one? Of course not one o' your own when you never _had_ +any, but I thought p'raps you might've undressed a grandbaby or +somethin'--" + +Miss Theodosia shook a humbled head. + +"No," she murmured, "I never undressed even a grandbaby." And curiously +she failed either to smile at the child's little notion or to wince at +the advanced age it implied for her. She looked across the room from her +big chair to Evangeline's with rather a wistful look. She was envying +Evangeline. + +"I'm sorry," the child said gently, a little embarrassed by the +unexpected solemnity of the moment. To relieve it, she had recourse to a +sudden funny memory of her own undressings of Elly Precious. She broke +hurriedly into laughter. + +"I have to have an extra pig for my baby!" she shrilled. "Takes six +instead o' five! You know where it ends, 'This little pig said: "Quee! +Quee! Quee! can't get over the barn-door sill"?' Mercy gracious, you +don't know the little pigs, I s'pose--" More embarrassment. Even +Evangeline was losing presence of mind. + +"Oh, yes!" Miss Theodosia brightened perceptibly. "I know the one that +went to market and the one that stayed at home--all five of them I +know." + +"But you don't know Elly Precious's extra little pig!" crowed the +reassured Evangeline. "Just _us_ know that one. I made him up. When you +have six toes,--I mean when Elly Precious has,--you have to have six +pigs. After the one that can't get over the barn-door sill, I say: 'This +little pig said--' wait, I'll say the last two together so you'll see +they rhyme beautifully. Reg'lar poetry. + +"'This little pig said, "Quee! Quee! Quee! can't get over the barn-door +sill.'" + +"'_This_ little pig said, "He! He! He! when you tickle, I can't keep +still!'" + +"Elly Precious wiggles it when I tickle! We laugh like everything. I +think it is pretty good poetry," added Evangeline modestly. + +"It is beautiful poetry. I never could have begun to make up such a +lovely, ticklish little pig!" + +Evangeline leaned back again in the soft cushiony embrace of the great +chair and actually achieved a moment of silence. The talkative clock on +Miss Theodosia's mantel filled in the space. Then once more Evangeline: + +"But I shall never have any." + +"Any--pigs?" smilingly. + +"Children. Not any. I've decided I'll rest. They're such a care. But of +course I can run in an' undress Stefana's an' Elly Precious's--mercy +gracious, Elly Precious's!" + +It required too great a mental effort to visualize them. Elly Precious's +children were _funny_! Evangeline giggled softly. "Then I'll be a +gran'mother, won't I! I've always wanted to be a gran'mother an' say +what I did when _I_ was a child an' how I always _minded_." A fresh +giggle. "'_I_ never had to be _told to_ twice, my dears,' I'll say to +Elly Precious's children! They'll all be my dears. I'll help bring 'em +up. Isn't it queer," broke forth Evangeline suddenly, "how when you get +to be old you never were bad when you were young? The badnesses have +kind of--kind of faded out. I bet there _were_ badnesses!" + +And Miss Theodosia found herself nodding decisively. She, too, bet there +were. + +A hilarious little crow suddenly sounded from without the window; it was +accompanied by a deep man-sound of mirth. Miss Theodosia and Evangeline +smiled across at each other indulgently. + +"Elly Precious is havin' a good time. That's his good-time noise. Oh, I +think he's a nice person, don't you?" + +"Nice? I love him!" cried Miss Theodosia warmly. Her face that was still +the face of a girl was tenderly flushed. "I love every inch of him, +Evangeline." + +"Merry gra--that's a lot of lovin'! I guess you are ahead o' me!" + +"Evangeline Flagg, aren't you ashamed! When he is the dearest, +cunningest--" + +"Not--not _cunnin'est_. But he's got beautiful whiskers. I mean if he +didn't shave 'em off. When he came, he had 'em on. You can't love his +whiskers when you never saw--" + +Miss Theodosia held up a limp hand to stem this terrible tide of words. + +"Oh, stop! _wait_, Evangeline!" she begged. "Who are you talking about?" + +Why stop for grammatic rules at a time like this? + +"Why, he--_him_. I said I liked him, an' you said you lov--" + +"I have been talking about Elly Precious, naturally," Miss Theodosia +returned stiffly. "You are very careless with your pronouns, +Evangeline," she added with an effect of severity. Her cheeks that +persisted still in being a girl's cheeks had grown a warm, becoming +pink. In pink Miss Theodosia was lovely. + +"Don't you think you'd better relieve Elly Precious' caretaker by this +time? He may not enjoy being left in charge quite so long." + +"Not enjoy! Come an' see him not enjoy!" sang Evangeline from the +window. She was flattening her nose against the pane and bubbling with +sympathetic glee. Miss Theodosia went over and stood beside her. + +Out there the two of them were frolicking together--two joyous children. +It was the good old game of Peek-a-boo, but seemed a new, surprising +game to Miss Theodosia. The big playmate on the grass spread a +handkerchief over the little playmate's face, and with a shriek of joy +the little playmate did the rest. Then the big child's turn--turn and +turn about. Deep voice and thin, sweet tinkle of baby voice joined in a +curiously harmonious chorus that rang through the window pane into the +two pairs of listening ears. + +It was a new light in which to see--a new sound in which to hear John +Bradford. Miss Theodosia had a guilty consciousness of being an +eavesdropper, yet she kept on eavesdropping. At a particular climax in +the little play, she laughed aloud softly. Evangeline wriggled with +enjoyment. Her fingers drummed applause on the glass, and the big player +glanced quickly up and saw the two lookers-on. He did not hesitate in +the play, did not stop the next little gleeful peek. Miss Theodosia +loved it in him for not stopping. They were not ashamed--Elly Precious +and John Bradford. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +In the next few days Miss Theodosia unpacked the rest of her trunks and +put the things away neatly in permanent places. She sang as she did it. +Life seemed a singing thing to Miss Theodosia who had been a lonely +woman--until now. Now she could look out of her window and see the +little House of Flaggs. Any minute Evangeline might burst in. The steam +whistle might blow. The Shadow Reformed-Doctor Man might come for +another cup of tea. Anything might happen. + +Something did happen, but it was not a singing thing. Evangeline did +burst in. It was some days later than the Day of the Shirt. Miss +Theodosia sat comfortably sipping her afternoon tea. Two dainty cups +were before her. + +"Mercy gracious--mercy, mercy, mercy gracious! This is the worst! This +is worse than Aunt Sarah! An' to think it's Elly Precious, my darlin' +dear! An' to think I never had--! An' to think I did it myself!" + +Even to Evangeline, words failed to express this worst of all things. +She dropped, a little leaden thing of despair, into Miss Theodosia's +great chair and rocked herself in anguish. + +"What is it, dear?" Miss Theodosia cried anxiously. The little word of +endearment slipped out unconsciously, though she was not used to +"dears." But she was not used to this, either--this rocking in anguish +of a little child in her great chair. + +"Can't you stop crying and tell me?" Evangeline not able to talk! Miss +Theodosia was actually alarmed. If speech did not return quickly--but +speech returned. + +"Oh, mercy gracious me!" Evangeline sobbed, rocking harder, "to think I +went an' set him right down in the middle of 'em--right slap in the +middle! An' he didn't want to be set down. Elly Precious despises the +Benjamin baby. He knows he's a girl, an' girl-babies don't count. But I +set him down--oh, mercy gracious me, I went an' set him down, slap!" + +Sobs and words collided and inextricably mixed. In the dark Miss +Theodosia waited; she saw no light as yet. + +"If I could only have 'em--if I only had've, anyway! Then I could take +care of my darlin' dear. But Elly Precious's is the only measles we ever +had in the family." + +Ah, light! Miss Theodosia blinked in the sudden inflow of it. +Evangeline's released tongue leaped ahead. + +"How'd I know the Benjamin baby had 'em when she only just sneezed? Oh, +I suppose she sneezed 'em all around, an' I set Elly Precious down in +'em! Right in a nest o' measles!" + +"What was Elly Precious doing there? I don't remember any Benjamins." + +"No'm--oh, no'm. They're very recent. It's that house with the baby-pen +in the front yard to keep their baby in. I set Elly Precious down in it, +too, one day." + +Evangeline shuddered. "While I was gettin' Stefana's starch at the +store; I asked if I could, till I got back." + +Miss Theodosia's face put on sternness. "What was the mother of the +Benjamin baby thinking of, to let you?" she demanded. + +"Oh, I don't know--I don't know! That's a very speckled baby, anyway, +an' perhaps she didn't know measles from speckles. He didn't bloom out +reg'lar built till next day--I mean she didn't--oh, I don't mean the +mother didn't--" + +"I know, dear; I know what you mean," soothed Miss Theodosia gently. + +"Yes'm, that's what I mean. Next day they found out for sure." + +"But have you found out 'for sure'? How do you know Elly Precious has +the measles? Has he--bloomed out? Perhaps his are speck--" + +"Elly Precious!" rose Evangeline's voice of indignation. "He's the +unspeckledest baby you ever saw! I guess--I guess you never saw Elly +Precious!" + +Stefana appeared suddenly in the doorway,--a blanched and frightened +Stefana. But she was determinedly calm. + +"He's fell asleep, and Carruthers is watching him through the door. I +told him not to go any nearer'n that. I came over to ask if I'd better +send word to Mother. He said to ask you." + +"Carruthers?" Miss Theodosia was a little bewildered. + +"The Tract Man. He's the one that--that discovered Elly Precious's +measles when we found he was broken out--I mean Elly Precious broken +out--" + +"Yes, yes, I know. He is a doctor--I mean--" Miss Theodosia caught +herself up firmly. One at least must steer a clear course. + +"He was goin' past," Evangeline put in, "an' I asked him, if he uster be +a doctor, wouldn't he please to be one now an' 'xamine Elly Precious's +spots." + +"Measles," Stefana said briefly and hopelessly. "Shall we send for +Mother, or what'll we do? Aunt Sarah isn't knitting." + +"Aunt Sarah--" began poor Miss Theodosia. Would she ever get used to +little Flaggs? Evangeline broke in gloomily with explanation. + +"No'm, not knittin', Mother wrote Stefana. Kind of--of unravelin' +instead. An' Mother's caught it." + +Miss Theodosia turned appealing eyes to Stefana. + +"Her knee's bad, too. Maybe it's just rheumatism, but she borrows Aunt +Sarah's crutches when they're empty. I don't see how she'd get home--" + +"Don't send for her!" Miss Theodosia directed. Some inner voice seemed +to say it through her lips. The same dictate from within prompted the +rest. + +"Bring the baby over here. Bring all his nightgowns. I'll take care of +him. It won't do for all you children to come down. Does the +Reform--does the doctor think you can have caught them already? I don't +believe it! Not till the disease is further advanced." + +"That's what he said--not till." Stefana hurried in eagerly. "_He_ +didn't believe it." + +"The Benjamin baby wasn't further advanced," doubted Evangeline +discouragingly. + +"Never you mind the Benjamin baby! You bring your baby over here at once +with his nightgowns! I believe we're in time. I'll be reading up my +medicine book. You can tell the doctor to come here instead of to your +house. Don't any of you dare to kiss Elly Precious good-by!" + +Miss Theodosia was moving briskly about the room, doing strange +things,--pulling down shades and drawing together draperies. + +"Mustn't have too much light, though maybe that is later on, too. I'm +sure there is something about being careful of the eyes. Evangeline, +wait! Let Stefana go. I don't trust you; you might kiss him." + +"Yes'm, I might," sighed poor little Evangeline. "He's my darlin' dear." +A terrible separation yawned before her like a bottomless pit of +desolation. How was she to live Elly Preciousless? + +"Can't I come over an'--an' hold him when he isn't--when he isn't +sneezing?" she suddenly sobbed forth. Miss Theodosia was too engrossed +to be sympathetic. There were many things to think of. + +"Come over?--I should say not! You can't do anything but look through +the window, and I shall ask the doctor if that's safe. Now +listen--dear," again the "dear" slipped through her lips unconsciously. +"Listen! When you see Stefana coming, you go out the back door! I wish +I'd told her to bring him in the clothes basket instead of in her +arms--" + +"I'll tell her to! Through the window. I'll tell her to bring him by the +handles," and Evangeline hurried away excitedly. + +An hour later Miss Theodosia, in a voluminous white apron and a hastily +invented white cap, had formally assumed her astonishing new rôle. Under +the cap Miss Theodosia's cheeks were prettily pink. It was becoming to +her to be Elly Precious' nurse. But the queer feeling of it! An hour ago +Theodosia Baxter, in a big house, alone; now this becapped and +pink-cheeked Theodosia in a house with a baby! It was an exciting +change; what else might it become? She was a little afraid of Elly +Precious. + +"Not now, while he is asleep, but when he wakes--" she thought. What +would she do with Elly Precious when he waked? + +Of course, she had sent for the Reformed Doctor, and equally, of course, +she would do precisely what he told her to do. But how would it feel? So +far, it felt queer. + +"I'll wait and see," she concluded with philosophy. At six the doctor +came. It was significant how he had left his rôle of authorship at home +and came physicianly, brisk and competent. + +"Measles haven't changed, anyway, in ten years," he said as he removed +his coat. Long ago, as a doctor, John Bradford had had his +idiosyncrasies, and one of them had been to work in his shirt sleeves. +The laying aside of his coat now had, if Miss Theodosia had but known, +bridged over the ten years. + +"Am I quarantined?" demanded the nurse. + +"You are," promptly replied the doctor. + +"Mercy gracious!" + +Silence while the tiny patient was carefully examined, with so delicate +a touch that he slept on. + +"For how long?" then. + +"Oh--weeks. Two, perhaps. Perhaps three. He is beginning to be feverish +in earnest now. You got him over here just in time. May I have a glass +of water?" + +Miss Theodosia went away to get it on shaking legs. She almost +staggered. The plot was getting thick! + +"If you think his mother ought to be sent for--I'm afraid I'm in a blue +funk!" She had returned and was splashing the water over the edge of the +glass as she held it out. He laughed reassuringly. His face, turned +sidewise up at her, was as reviving as cool water upon a faint. Miss +Theodosia "came to." + +"I've got over it. Go ahead--tell me precisely what you want done. Write +it down somewhere. I can read writing! And I can't forget it. Of course +I can rock him?" + +He did not answer at once, and she misinterpreted his silence. + +"I shall rock him," she said with firmness. "Written down or not written +down." And again he laughed, with the same curiously explosive little +effect as when she had first heard him do it as a Shadow Man. + +It was long after he left before Elly Precious woke. With remarkable +presence of mind, Miss Theodosia had darkened the room to make the +difference between herself and Evangeline or Stefana as inconspicuous as +possible. It helped. Elly Precious, even busy with his measles, might +have vigorously refused this strange new ministering. But in the +darkness he accepted it with a measure of resignation. He appeared to be +looking inward at his own poor little pains instead of outward or upward +at Miss Theodosia. She wisely refrained from speech during those first +critical moments. + +Ten-year-old arms may not be as steady for cradling as thirty-six-year +olds. Miss Theodosia's were steady and soft. The baby nestled into them +and she rocked him. + +She was rocking a baby! She was glad to be alone in the dark. The +sensation rather overwhelmed her. Then Elly Precious flung up little hot +hands and touched her face, and the sensation was no longer a new one. +Surely she had felt it before. Was it in another incarnation that she +had rocked a little child? The small, hot hands tugged at her +heartstrings--they must have tugged, just so, at that ancient rocking. +It was a beautiful tune, but not a new tune that the small hands played. +No, no--not new! + +Miss Theodosia began to croon softly, no longer afraid of sound. And +Elly Precious snuggled deeper. + +Shut in together--she and he and the measles--they grew accustomed to +each other. After the first, the days went rather fast, with +Evangeline's help through the window and under the door. Evangeline +helped from the first. Miss Theodosia found little letters emerging +through the tight crack under her outside door. The first one she read +smilingly: + +[Illustration: Evangeline established a stage of action outside the +window.] + +"He likes jiggy tunes best--please sing him jiggy tunes." + +So she sang them to Elly Precious and found he liked them best; +Evangeline knew. This method of helping promised to be valuable. + +One day there were two little letters under the door. + +"When he crys, he'll stop if you distrack him. Like this--_boo_--or make +a cow-noise or a horse-noise, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes he +keaps right on and then its no use to distrack him. Try tickleing unless +tickleing is bad for measles." + +This was a long note. Miss Theodosia did not smile this time because of +the new sensitiveness in the region of her heart. When she read the +second note, she held it a long time in her hand while something wet +blistered it in spots. + +"Please don't be mad if I worry a little for fear Elly Precious will +throw off his cloes. He's a dreadfull throw-offer, so we pin his sides +to the cloesbasket but maybe you don't sleep him in a cloesbasket. I +couldent sleep last night. + +"P.S. With safety pins." + +Sometimes they were cheerful little letters that peeped under the tight +crack. Evangeline wrote the news to Elly Precious. That Stefana's washes +came easier now and Carruthers was good all the time, only they never +let him be steam whistles, of course. That they all missed Elly Precious +and hoped that they'd be short measles and, mercy gracious, yes, they +loved him, and Aunt Sarah was knitting again. + +As the baby began to convalesce (they were short measles) and could sit +up on Miss Theodosia's lap in front of the window, Evangeline's most +important assistance began. For Elly Precious had very restless +occasions and even Miss Theodosia's new skill failed always to +"distrack" him. + +Evangeline established a stage of action outside the biggest-paned, +lowest-silled window, where vision was least obscured from within. On +that stage she danced wild, long dances, varying with each performance. +It was amazing how she varied them--sometimes bending and bowing +tirelessly, sometimes evolving remarkable skirt dances from legs and +toes and whirling petticoats. She grimaced unweariedly as long as Elly +Precious would laugh at her faces. When he tired of those, she +impersonated a cow--a horse--and made cow-noises and horse-noises at +the top of her voice, to carry to Elly Precious. + +Day after day she came, and they watched her from the big-paned +window--the baby and Miss Theodosia. It was a great help to the measles. + +"I never saw such a child!" Miss Theodosia said to the Reformed Doctor. +"She never gets tired of doing it." + +"Never was but one Evangeline--but she gets tired all right. Needn't +tell me!" + +"Then it's--love," Miss Theodosia said gently. + +"It is," nodded he. + +They had proceeded far in their acquaintance. Elly Precious had been so +tiny a thing between them, as they ministered to him! It was not to be +wondered at that they had drawn closer. After his professional "call," +John Bradford fell into the way of lingering till she brought him tea. + +"Talk about women loving tea!" she gibed gayly. + +"Talk about it being the men that want three lumps!" + +"That is queer, isn't it? We're the wrong way about; I like mine sweet +and you don't want any sugar. We're the exceptions that prove the rule. +If you'll hold Elly Precious a minute, I'll fill your cup." + +"That will make three." + +"'And I'll do it again, if you like--and again if you like!'" she +quoted. + +"Are you making stories now?" she asked him that day. + +And he nodded gravely, "One--a love-story." + +"Tell me about it! We want to hear it, don't we, Elly Precious? We love +love-stories." + +"Not yet. Not till it is a little farther along." He set the third cup +down untasted. His face, as Miss Theodosia looked smilingly at it across +the baby's head, had grown grave. She wondered simply. Miss Theodosia +was not making a love-story. + +"Will you tell us about it when it's farther along? About the heroine +and how she likes being in a love-story? Mercy gracious, it must be +exciting!" + +"If I can find out how she likes it," was his enigmatic answer. "She may +not work out as I want her to. Heroines are women, you know." + +"Well, of all things! If you can't make your heroine behave, I don't see +who can!" + +"I don't," he said slowly. "But I shall do my best." + +Another day, she had something to show him, and she made a little +mystery of it at first. She and Elly Precious knew! It was something +sweet--it could be worn, but you seldom looked at it. It was soft and +hard, too. You could--kiss it! When it was empty you wanted to kiss it, +and when it was full you had to! + +"Show it to me!" he commanded; "think I can guess all that?" + +She brought it and laid it in his hands, delighted like a girl. + +"Feel of it--isn't it soft? And I never made one before, so it was hard! +You seldom look at it, because it's worn in the dark. You'd like to kiss +it now, it's so sweet, but when I put Elly Precious into it, you'll +_have_ to kiss it! There, didn't I tell you right?" + +It was a little nightgown she had made for Elly Precious. He held it on +his two big hands like something wonderful. Its little sleeves dangled +over, and she caught one of them and squeezed it in a sort of soft +ecstasy. + +"It's so little!" she cried in a whisper. "Aren't you going to kiss it?" + +"If you'll look away--I'm afraid to when you're looking." + +"I won't look," she laughed. "You look, Elly Precious!" + +The bath-times were the pleasantest to Miss Theodosia. Getting things +together--little tub and powders and soaps and the fresh little +clothes--was a beautiful beginning, and after that--after that, the +deluge! The practice she had had washing that little ancient baby, in +her former incarnation, stood Miss Theodosia in good stead! As she had +bathed and rubbed and powdered her first baby eons ago, she bathed and +rubbed and powdered this second one now. For she called Elly Precious +her baby. That was their beautiful play. + +"We'll keep it a secret, won't we?--just between you and me, dear! We +won't even tell Evangeline that you're my darlin' dear," she crooned +over this second baby. Elly Precious played the game; he was a little +sport, was Elly Precious. + +The morning after the little new-nightgown episode, the bath progressed +thrillingly. That was, it seemed, the morning set by Elly Precious to +give this new mother a glorious surprise. It could not be said that he +had it up his little sleeve, being innocent of any manner of garment, +but he had it prepared. + +Miss Theodosia dried the tiny body and set it far forward on her knees, +facing her, and began as usual: + +"Now, baby, watch--watch hard! Make exactly the same noise I do." She +put her lips in position for clear enunciation. + +"Mam--m-ma." + +Customarily, Elly Precious sat and chuckled gleefully and nakedly. This +was a favorite play. But, oh, to-day-- + +"Mum--mum," said Elly Precious distinctly. Miss Theodosia caught him to +her, slippery and sweet, with a cry of rapture. + +"You said it! You said it, Elly Precious--darlin' dear! Now I shall wrap +you in a beautiful soft blanket and sing you a jiggy tune! Before I +dress you in horrid, bothery sleeves, we'll rock, and rock, you and +make-believe mum-mum!" + +The big chair creaked delightsomely to the ears of Elly Precious. To its +accompaniment sang Miss Theodosia. + +"Darlin' Dear! Darlin' Dear, Mum-Mum's here--oh, Elly Precious, I shall +send you to college! Of course, to college. You shall be a doctor--" Was +that the chair creaking, or a door? It was a door. On the doorsill stood +the Reformed Doctor, gazing in. The blanket had slipped away and it was +a beautiful, bare Elly Precious in Miss Theodosia's arms, against her +breast. The little picture stood out, distinct. But so soon it faded. +She was on her feet and facing that treacherous doorway. Flames burned +on her cheeks. + +"Is it anything to be ashamed of to pretend he is my baby! Well, I've +done it--I'm pretending now. We were having a beautiful time till--" + +"Till I came." + +"Till you came. You heard what I said about making a doctor of him, I +suppose?" + +He nodded. "I heard," he said meekly. + +"But you didn't give me time to say it all. I was going to say he'd stay +a doctor and not reform!" With which Parthian shot, delivered with +spirit, Miss Theodosia turned her back and Elly Precious' back to the +intruder. What was left for him to do but retire, vanquished and +diminished? The business of the bath went on, but joyless now. There was +no further putting off of the horrid, bothery sleeves that Elly Precious +abhorred. He set up indignant wails, and Miss Theodosia's soul wailed in +unison. + +"All our dear good time spoiled! We're not pretending any more; you're +Evangeline's darlin' dear. I'll put you on the bed and give you your +bottle." So abruptly had the beautiful game come to an end. Miss +Theodosia went away to prepare the bottle. As she went, a glint of white +underneath the door to out-of-doors caught her attention. Evangeline had +not tucked it under as far as usual. Perhaps it was not unnatural, +considering her new mood, that Miss Theodosia picked up the little +letter almost impatiently. + +"He says he can come home day after to-morrow if he don't colapse, so +Stefana is cleaning the house and I'm helping and we can't hardly wait. +We've got a new cloesbasket Stefana's going to make bows for the +handles, tell Elly Precious. + +"P. S. Pink bows." + +Miss Theodosia was not impatient as she folded the little letter again. +Tears stood in her eyes. She hurried back, bottleless, to Elly Precious, +to tell him. That he had fallen asleep made no difference. + +"You are going home day after to-morrow! Dream it in a little dream, +dear. When you wake up, it will be true. They can't hardly wait and +there's a new 'cloesbasket' with bows--P. S., pink bows. Oh, Elly +Precious, you know you're glad to go home! You've been pretending, too!" +Game little Elly Precious, to pretend! She stooped and kissed his eyes, +close shut in that dream of going home. "They are cleaning the house," +she whispered, "they can't hardly wait." + +A prescience of awful loneliness swept over her. She saw Theodosia +Baxter--lone and babyless again--set back in her empty house. The +curtain had gone down--would go down day after to-morrow--on the last +beautiful act. + +"But I have two days left! I demand my pound--fifteen little pounds of +flesh!" Elly Precious' little pink flesh. She would play that last act +of the little game of make-believe. Intruders or no intruders, she would +play it! At once, she began again where they had left off. + +"You will have to go to college very young, dear," she said. "They are +going to take you away from me day after tomorrow. A day and a half is +such a little college course; you'd be such a little Freshman, Elly +Precious! So we will have to give it up, dear. We'll just spend our last +days together. Who wants to know Latin and Greek anyway? I'll teach you +to pat little cakes in English!" Surely, surely she must have taught her +first baby to pat-a-cake. The blundering little hands in hers felt +strangely familiar. The first baby had been just as funny and sweet as +Elly Precious at that little lesson. + +"If I only had a little more time!" sighed Miss Theodosia. "There is so +much left for us to do; it is cruel to hurry us so! We might--we might +run away, dear! You and I. To Europe and Asia and Africa! I'd show you +all the wonders of the world. Listen, Elly Precious,--the _pyramids_! +Wouldn't you love to see the pyramids? You could play in the warm sand, +anyway,--bury your little twelve toes deep! We would keep watch all the +time and _run_ when we saw Evangeline coming. We would never stop to put +on our shoes and stock--Elly Precious, you've gone to sleep!" So little +was he thrilled at the prospect of pyramids. + +Miss Theodosia rocked him gently in her arms. Perhaps she would rock him +the whole day and a half--they could not prevent her! She would not stop +rocking if twenty Reformed Doctors came and looked at her. She would +rock in their faces! + +A sudden and queer thought came to her of Cornelia Dunlap standing in +the doorway, looking in as John Bradford had done. + +She saw the wreck of Cornelia's plump calm--Cornelia's wide-eyed +amazement. After she had reluctantly deposited the small, limp body upon +the couch to finish out the nap, she got her writing materials and wrote +to Cornelia Dunlap, with a whimsical little smile playing about her +lips. Her pen moved fast across the sheet. + +"The baby is having a beautiful nap. While he is asleep, I can write to +you. Of course my time is limited--'what with' scalding and filling +bottles and giving little baths--Cornelia Dunlap, go and get a little +baby and wash him! In a tub, with your sleeves rolled up. Let him splash +the water into your face--over your dress--hear him laugh! Give him the +soap for a little ship a-sailing. Oh, Cornelia, teach him to pat-a-cake! +Get a baby with the measles if there's no other way. You will love him +in between all his little measles. But, listen to me; _take this +advice_: Don't let them take him back! Hold on to both his little hands. +Run away to Africa with him if there is no other way--he will love to +play in the sand beside the pyramids. Send him to college, Cornelia, and +I think--yes, make a doctor of him. Doctors are best. + +"Morituri salutamus--we who are about to lose our babies and die wish +you happiness with yours, is the free translation. _Hold on to yours_. +He is a dear, I know. He may be as dear as mine, but he hasn't twelve +toes!" + + * * * * * + +"Mercy gracious!" + +It was the two days later and it was Evangeline. The child's radiant +face lighted up the room. + +"He let me come! I promised Stefana I wouldn't kiss him till I got him +home so's she could, too. He said to kiss his neck or behind his ears." +As usual no confusion of personal pronouns troubled Evangeline. + +"Mercy gracious!--oh, mercy gracious, he's improved! He's fatter! I +never thought measles'd be fattenin'! You're glad to see me, aren't you, +darlin' dear? I'm Evangeline! I've come to take you home. We've got +everything ready, only one bow, an' Stefana's piecin' that. Oh--my +darlin' dear!" + +The curtain had gone down. Theodosia Baxter stood quite alone in her big +room. In her ears was suddenly the shriek of a steam whistle of welcome; +it died away, and the silence ached. A crumpled something half under a +chair caught her eye and she openly sobbed. It was a forgotten little +nightgown. + +"I'm going to Rome--I'm going to Paris--to Anywhere! I can't stand +this!" she wailed. And then the creak of a door again. + +He stood on the door-sill looking in. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"I've done it again!" came from the doorway repentantly, "but this time +I knocked, honest to goodness. Regular bangs! You ought to have heard," +his tone assuming an injured cadence. + +Miss Theodosia had recovered herself. She was unfeignedly glad to see +him this time. + +"Maybe it was you, steam-whistling," she laughed. "I heard that! Oh, I +am glad enough you came this time! You've saved me from a trip to +Rome--tea is so much less expensive! I'll go and get it." She was off +directly and back again in remarkably quick time with her little kettle +and lamp. "Less time and fuss, too. See how little baggage! Now, Rome--" + +"Don't mention Rome!" There was a deep note in John Bradford's voice. He +watched her making the tea. Miss Theodosia's hands were worth watching. + +"Speaking of steam whistles reminds me of ears," he said. + +"Naturally! The two go together, all right!" But she saw that his face +remained grave. "Oh!--you mean the steam-whistler's ears--I see." + +"Yes, I have examined them rather carefully. They aren't hopeless little +ears--not hopeless. I'm not ready to go any farther than that yet. But I +intend--you see, I specialized in ears and a few other things at the +University--in practice, too, before--before I reformed." + +Quickly Miss Theodosia looked up. + +"There! You are harking back; please don't hark back! It was mean in me +to say it. I'm sorry! If I'd sent Elly Precious to college--while he was +my baby--and given him a doctor's degree, he could have taken it or left +it. He'd have had a right. Men have rights to their own lives." + +"Sure," but John Bradford's tone was thoughtful rather than emphatic. +"Still--I sometimes wonder--" + +"Why?--tell me why!" Now she was championing the Reformed Doctor! "You +could do as you pleased, couldn't you? It was your own life you were +'reforming.' Still, I wonder, too. Tell me how it happened." + +"How do I know how it happened?" He was walking up and down the room. +"It was in my blood to write stories. I wrote them every chance I could +get. Had to write them. I suppose I woke up to the rather decent +conclusion that a man can't serve two masters and serve them well. Isn't +efficient. So I chose my favorite master. There you have it in a +nutshell. May I have mine in a teacup?" + +She filled the dainty shell, but it rattled a little on its saucer. Miss +Theodosia felt about for less moving things; she was strangely moved. + +"How is the love story getting on?" she asked. + +"The--oh! Well, it had a setback awhile ago. Setbacks are not good for +love stories. But I shall go to work on it again." + +"At once--to-day?" What was this sudden freak of hers to drive him to +work?--the work she had all but derided before. + +"To-day. I'm working on it now--that is--er--" + +"Before and after--tea," she smiled. "Well, I shall help you all I can +on that story. I feel in a penitent mood. When you begin on it again--" + +"I've begun on it again." + +"After you go home, I mean. When you go to work again, make believe I'm +David Copperfield's Dora--holding the pens!" Too late she saw her error +and hedged. "Or cups of tea to keep up your strength." + +"I like pens better. If Dora were there--" + +"One more cup? You've only had one. The cups are no size at all. And +while you drink it, tell me about your heroine. What have you named +her?" + +"Dora," he said promptly. "You see, you've helped already." + +It was pleasant, drinking tea like this, with John Bradford there, +opposite, having his second cup. A pleasant way to drink tea--with a +John! Miss Theodosia hugged herself happily. Even the forgotten little +nightgown on the floor failed to diminish her content. She had not +forgotten Elly Precious; she was merely making the most of the +ameliorations the gods offered. The kind gods. But conscience had to put +in its pious oar. + +"I'm having a beautiful time; I don't know whether you are or not. But +I'm going to send you back to that love story. I hope the Recording +Angel will give me a white mark for it, or cross out a black one. The +goodness of me! I've been sitting here trying to strangle my conscience, +but you see it isn't my own--it's my grandmother's conscience; you have +to respect your grandmother's conscience. You'll have to go." + +"I can work on it here," he pleaded, but she shook her head mournfully. + +"I haven't the materials. It takes special paper, doesn't it, and pens?" + +"I could--er--think up my plot." + +"With me talking a blue streak? I should talk a blue streak; that's my +grandmother's, too. No, you must go. How will you ever get it done, if +you don't?" + +"I sha'n't if I do. Staying here is doing me good. I need to 'get up +more strength.'" + +She laughed, but remembered her grandmother. "No more tea," she said +kindly. "Conscience! But I'll tell you--you may come back after you've +worked." + +"To-day?" + +"To-morrow." + +And for many to-morrows he came back. On one of them the talk once more +reverted to the book that the Story Man was understood to be writing, in +some mysterious Place of Pens and Paper. + +"I hope it's a regular romance," Miss Theodosia said. + +"Romance? What is that? Is there such a thing? There may have been +once--" + +Miss Theodosia's fair cheeks took on faint color. She turned upon him. + +"Once nothing! I can't help it if that is slang; the occasion demands +slang. Are you trying to tell me romance is dead?" + +He nodded. "Sterilized--Pasteurized--boiled out of us. I suppose," he +sighed, "we are more hygienic, but we have faded in the process. It +dulls romance to Pasteurize it." + +She held up a staying hand. + +"Please!" she said, "in words of one syllable and maybe you can convince +me. But you can't. Do you mean to say there are no sweet, blushing girls +left, with--with dreams?" + +Again his sigh. It pained him to disillusion her. + +"Not blushing ones. I tell you the color won't stand our modern +sterilization process. I misdoubt the dreams, too. If they dream 'em, +they're of independence and careers and votes; you wouldn't call those +romantic dreams, would you? The little 'clinging vines'--" he waved them +back into the past with a comprehensive sweep of his hand--"all gone. +Our present-day soil is too invigorating, too stimulating. The +young things stand up on their own roots. No more clinging. Each one +aspires to be a spunky little tree by herself. Look at 'em and see for +yourself--the subways and elevateds are full of 'em at the crush hours, +nights and mornings--all glorying in their independence--their fine, +strong, young roots. No blushing, no clinging there! Are you convinced?" + +"I am not," flashed Miss Theodosia gamely. "There must be one little +dreamer of love dreams left." + +"Show her to me." + +"That isn't fair. I'm not in a way to know girls. I know just Stefana." + +"And Evangeline." + +"And Evangeline," laughed Miss Theodosia. + +"Is she romantic?" demanded the Story Man. And there he had Miss +Theodosia. She had instant vision of Evangeline growing, straight and +thrifty already, on her own small roots. It was not possible to +visualize a blushing--a clinging little Evangeline. + +"She is still young," Miss Theodosia murmured. "Besides, she's one of a +kind. There's only one Evangeline. You can't reason by only one of +anything. The exception proves the rule." + +"Then you yield me Evangeline?" + +"Yes, you may have her on your side," conceded Miss Theodosia +generously. It was rather in the way of a relief to shift the +responsibility for Evangeline. Miss Theodosia suddenly bubbled into low +laughter. + +"She is going to be a plumber." + +"Evangeline a plumber?" + +"Yes, because she's got to be rich, she says. She's 'sick 'n' tired' of +being poor, and you can make such _darlin_', roary, snappy fires in a +tin pail! Plumberin' will be fun." + +He laughed a little, too, enjoyingly, but returned to his arguings. Said +he: + +"_Be_ a plumber, not marry one, you see. What did I tell you? Oh, you +have no monopoly on Evangelines! The woods are full of tame Evangelines, +anyway. You will have to come over to my side." + +"Not at all. I haven't given up my own side. I shall hold on a little +while longer. I am not going to admit _yet_ that all sentiment is dead +and buried. And, anyhow, I don't see what it's being dead or alive has +to do with your story. I thought authors were creators. Can't you create +a little sentiment--romance? To my order?" she added demurely. + +Replied the Story Man with grave eyes: "I shall do my best. We are a +good deal at the mercy of our heroines. But I will do all that I can to +win mine over, dear lady. Heaven knows I want to!" + +"Then you are on my side now; you have changed your mind!" she cried +tauntingly. "Woman, thy name is not Fickleness, it is thy husband's +name! Well, I am glad it is going to be my kind of a story. How did I +know but it was to be a historical novel or a problem story--ugh! And, +instead, you're going to make love to your heroine in the dear old +thrilly way." + +He stirred in his seat, and his eyes sought his hostess. But Miss +Theodosia's eyes were cheerfully following the infinitesimal stitches +with which she was rimming an infinitesimal round hole in the bit of +linen in her hand. + +"How far have you got?" she questioned over a new stitch. + +"Not very far," sadly; "I think I am a little afraid of my heroine." + +"Mercy gracious! Well, I think I'd take her by the ear and march her +round to suit myself! If I wanted her to say '_yes_'--do you want her to +say 'yes'?" + +Did he want her to say yes! + +"I'm trying to lead her up to it," he said gently. Miss Theodosia bit +off her thread. + +"March her up to it, march her! You're too gentle with her. What is the +use of being a Story Man? Might as well be a plumber like Evangeline!" + +It was at this moment that Evangeline appeared on the little Flagg +horizon. They saw her coming their way, loaded as usual with Elly +Precious. The sag of her wiry little figure on the Elly Precious side +appealed strongly to Miss Theodosia. She dropped her foolish bit of +linen and hurried to meet that little sag. When she came back with Elly +Precious in her own arms, the Story Man was wandering away. He waved his +hat to them smilingly. + +"Please drop him--drop Elly Precious," Evangeline said, "anywheres +_soft_. I don't want him to distrack your mind. You play with your dolly +an' be a darlin' dear, Elly Precious, while we talk." + +Very gently Evangeline subtracted Elly Precious from Miss Theodosia and +removed him to an undisturbing distance. Then she returned and stood +before Miss Theodosia. + +"Stefana was born to-morrow," Evangeline stated gravely. "You didn't +know, of course, nor neither did I till it kind of came out. I told +him," nodding in the direction taken by the Story Man. "We plotted up a +hatch--I mean we hatched up a plot. He said to talk it over with you. I +don't know what he's goin' to do, but he'll do it--he said he would. An' +I thought--I thought--" Unwonted hesitations disturbed Evangeline's +smooth flow of speech. She sat down suddenly. + +"I guess I can say it easier sittin' than I could standin'. It's some +hard to say--it's so kind of _bareheaded_. But I don't know what else +to do. You see, Stefana'd hear me beatin' the eggs an' stirrin', if I +did 'em at home. An' besides, it would fall--oh, mercy gracious, I know +it would! I thought if I could do it over here--" + +"Evangeline," Miss Theodosia said gently, "drop your voice at a period +and begin all over with a capital letter. Take your time, dear." + +Said Evangeline with a sigh: "I'll try standin' up. I guess I kind of +mixed you up, didn't I? You see, what I _meant_ was, could I make +Stefana's birthday cake over here to your house where she can't hear me +stirrin'?" + +"Oh, Stefana's birthday! That is why she was 'born to-morrow.'" + +"Yes'm, in a thunder storm. I've heard Mother tellin'. It will have to +be a graham cake." + +"A--what kind of cake, Evangeline? Maybe you'd better try sitting down; +I don't think I just understand." + +"No'm, no'm, I guess you wouldn't, because you probably can always 'ford +white flour. I thought if I frosted it over real white, it would hide +the grahamness. I've got two eggs." + +Understanding came to Miss Theodosia, though a little slowly. Was she +growing stupid? + +"Evangeline, we'll make Stefana's cake together; we'll take turns +'stirrin''! We'll do it over here and keep it a beautiful secret." + +The child was standing up now certainly, her wiry little body a-tilt +with excitement, a-quiver with it. Evangeline's eyes shone. + +"Oh, I knew you would! I knew you would! You're such a _nangel!_ If you +was a kind of folks that liked to be kissed--" + +The soft pink of Miss Theodosia's cheeks! She lifted her head and sat +very still. + +"Come and try me, dear. Maybe I am that kind of folks." And in a little +whirlwind of tender gratitude descended Evangeline upon her. It was a +whole-souled kiss, the only brand possible to Evangeline. + +"I--I am that kind!" gasped Miss Theodosia, emerging laughing but +tender-eyed. "Now let's begin the cake." + +"Oh, yes, mercy gracious, yes! I'll go get the eggs 'n' graham flour, +an'--an' molasses. Could we sweeten it with molasses, Miss Theodosia? +It'll take all o' my sugar for the frostin'. We are pretty used to bein' +sweetened with molasses--" + +Miss Theodosia had a swift mental taste on her tongue of Stefana's +graham birthday cake, molasses-sweet. There were her heartstrings at +their odd little twitching again! + +"You won't have to go home at all, Evangeline. I've got all the +materials--" but at sight of the child's face, a little fallen and +troubled, she hastily appended--"except the eggs. I guess you'd better +go home and get those." + +"Two!" sang Evangeline joyously, already on her way; "I've got two. +Two's a lot of eggs, isn't it?" + +They mixed and beat and stirred together, and Evangeline never knew how +many more eggs than two went into the rich golden batter. Elly Precious, +tied for safety-first into one of Miss Theodosia's chairs, looked on +with an interest more or less intermittent; when Evangeline's offerings +of "teeny speckles" of toothsome batter were delayed, the interest +flagged. The baking time was for Evangeline a period of utmost +anxiety--there were so many direful things that might happen to +Stefana's cake. If it fell down or burned up-- + +"Oh!" she breathed with infinite relief when the strain was over, and +only lovely things had happened to the cake, "I'm so happy I could sing +if I had any vocal strings! That's queer about me, isn't it? I don't +have any trouble with my _talkin'_ strings." + +"Not a bit," agreed Miss Theodosia gayly. "What makes you think you +couldn't sing?" + +"Because once I tried to sing Elly Precious to sleep an' it woke him up, +awfully up. He was scared. So I always talk him to sleep. Miss +Theodosia, don't birthday cakes sometimes have candles round the edge of +'em? I don't mean Stefana's, of course, but rich folks' birthday cakes." + +"_I_ mean Stefana's. Evangeline, we'll have thirteen candles!" but +inwardly she was wondering if forty would not fit better round the edge +of aged little Stefana's birthday cake. "And we'll decorate it--write +something on the top, you know. We'll make the Story Man do it for us." + +Evangeline was awed into near-silence. "You mean--poetry? Mercy +gracious, poetry!" + +"Something lovely," nodded Miss Theodosia a little vaguely. If it be +poetry, the Story Man must do that part, too. A little later, when +Evangeline had shouldered Elly Precious and departed and the Story Man +had sauntered again into sight, she hailed him with relief. Displaying +the snowy little cake, she explained the situation. + +"You must do the rest. We want a 'sentiment' on it, Evangeline and I. +What is the use of being a literary person if you cannot inscribe a +birthday cake?" + +He groaned a little, reminiscently. He remembered the autograph albums +of his bashful youth. How much better than an autograph album was a +frosted cake? + +"Something appropriate, you know," encouraged Miss Theodosia, brightly. +"In lovely pink writing on top." + +"'She hath starched what she could,'" he offered tentatively. + +"Oh, for shame! Something nice and romantic." + +"But romance is dead--hold on, I beg pardon! That is not decided yet; I +remember. You shall have your poetry, you and Evangeline. Something +after this wise: + + "'Our most esteemed Stefana, + May rough winds never pain her' + +"Do winds 'pain' people? But, to speak modestly, I call that a pretty +neat sentiment to turn out extempo like that. 'Stefana'--you can't deny +Stefana is a hard word to rhyme with. Now tell me a harder one!" + +"Evangeline--Theodosia," she murmured. Her eyes dwelt lovingly on the +little white cake. He should not make fun of it! + +"I'll decorate it myself," she said, "I'll have a little pink heart on +it--_two_ little pink hearts." + +"With but a single thought. Make them with but a single thought--beat +them as one. There! I'm perfectly sober and sane now. It's a fine little +cake, and I'm not worthy to write poetry for it. Longfellow-- +Shakespeare--Whitcomb Riley--we'll canvass them. Don't think +I'm not respectful to Stefana's birthday." + +"I don't know what you call respect!" she retorted. But she knew the +next day. She found out what he called respect. The knowledge came, as +so much that was worth while came, through Evangeline, Elly Precious in +its wake. They came running this time. Elly Precious' small body rolled +and lurched with their hurry and the agitation of Evangeline's soul. + +"Somethin's--happened." + +"Give me the baby. Sit down, dear. Now." + +"The flower wagon brought Stefana--roses," whispered Evangeline. "In a +long box--an' tissue paper. Oh, my mercy gracious, stopped right +straight at our house! An' nobody dead." Evangeline's whisper rose to a +weird little cry. The wonder of the flower wagon stopping right +straight! And every one alive! + +"Stefana's countin' 'em. I guess she's counted 'em a hundred times. +They's--thirteen! They've got the longest stems you ever _saw_! Stefana +can't get over their stems; she said they most made her cry." + +For very breath Evangeline stopped. Over the little uneasy head of Elly +Precious shone Miss Theodosia's eyes. Miss Theodosia was softly +thrilled. The stems appealed, too, to her; she loved them long--long. + +"Roses, you say?" Oh, Evangeline! Birthday roses for Stefana! What +color?" + +"Red--red--red," chanted Evangeline "Thirteen red roses an' thirteen +long stems. In a pasteboard box with 'Miss Stefana Flagg' wrote on it. +You ought to seen how Miss Stefana Flagg looked! She--she kissed the +box. I guess now she's kissin' the roses. She never 'spected to have any +roses till she was dead. An' then she couldn't 've kissed 'em an' cried +at the stems," added Evangeline softly. She was suddenly a softened +little Evangeline, curiously gentled by Stefana's sweet, red roses. Miss +Theodosia caught her breath at the sight of the child's face and the +thought of Stefana kissing her roses. + +"I wish--I wish you'd go over an' congratcherlate Stefana," whispered +Evangeline. "She'd be so tickled. I'll keep Elly Precious ever here, an' +Carruthers is playin' ball in a field." As though this ceremony of +'congratcherlation' demanded quiet and privacy. + +And by and by Miss Theodosia went. She had a whimsical impulse to carry +her little silver card case, but she did not yield to the whimsey. She +did take off her little white apron and smoothe her hair. Stefana to-day +was a person for ceremonies and respect. Oh, the kindness, the clearness +of those long-stemmed roses! She had not thought to do it herself, but +he--a man creature--Miss Theodosia's eyes were tender. + +Stefana was still sitting among her roses. They lay across her lap. + +"Oh! Oh, come right in, Miss Theodosia!" she cried welcomingly. "But +please to excuse me for not getting up--I can't bear to disturb them. +Seems as if I could sit right straight in this chair till they withered! +I'm breathing easy so not to breathe the smell out. I never had any +roses before." + +Her voice lowered to almost a whisper. She whispered a little laugh. + +"Seems as if I'd ought to be married while I have 'em! They're such +beautiful roses to be married in!" + +And this was Stefana, their matter-of-fact, starchy little white-washer! +This rapt, dreamy little face was Stefana's face! + +"Sometimes," Stefana murmured, "sometimes I've dreampt--" but Miss +Theodosia did not quite catch what it was Stefana had sometimes +"dreampt," but it was something sweet. Stefana a little dreamer of sweet +dreams! One of them must have been a rose-dream, and this was that dream +come true. + +The call of congratulation was a brief one. It seemed little short of +irreverence to have seen at all that picture of Stefana rocking her +roses in the little wooden rocker. Miss Theodosia slipped away with it +hung on the walls of her mind--she would never take it down. + +John Bradford was coming along the road and she went a little way to +meet him. Some of Stefana's radiance was in her own face. + +"I've found it," she announced in soft triumph. + +"Good!" he hazarded at random. It was always good to find things. But he +wondered at the radiance. + +"My romance that I knew was somewhere. I've found it! I told you so!" + +"Found it where?" he demanded. He was unconsciously stirred by her +emotion. He followed her glance to the little House of Flaggs. +"Not--there?" + +"Yes, there. Stefana is dreaming it over a lapful of red roses. I have +been there and seen her. Is romance dead--is it? Go and look at +Stefana!" But she held him back from going. "No, no, I didn't mean it! +Not in cold blood--I didn't go in cold blood. You will have to take my +word for it." + +"I will take your word." + +"That romance is not dead?" + +"That romance is alive. But who would have thought of it's being +_Stefana_!" + +"Who would have thought!" echoed Miss Theodosia. + +Elly Precious was fretting restlessly when she got back. The children +were on the porch. + +"Nothing's the matter with him," Evangeline explained, "unless it's +because he's a-goin' to be taken. I told him he was. It is kind of +scaring to be taken. I feel kind of that way, too." + +"Taken where?" + +"Not any where--just _taken_. His picture an' mine an' +Carruthers'--we're all goin' to be taken now, pretty soon. I must go +home an' prink Elly Precious an' Carruthers. You see, Mr. Bradford +promised to take Stefana because it's her birthday, an' first we knew he +said he'd take all o' us! He's got a camera. That's him now! I guess +he's waitin' for Elly Precious an' me." + +She was hurrying away, but bethought herself of something. "The cake!" +she said. "If Elly Precious'll be still, I can carry it on my other arm. +Maybe we'll be so busy being taken that I can't come over again before +supper." + +"Run along," Miss Theodosia said; "I'll take it over. I haven't quite +got it ready yet," for there were the two little pink hearts to +add,--Stefana's heart and a little dream-heart. She smiled tenderly over +the fashioning of those little pink hearts. Miss Theodosia was not an +artist--they wavered and leaned, but they leaned toward each other! +Perhaps they were better to be little leaning hearts. + +She carried the cake over, covered with a napkin. There were other +things, too, that she had prepared, and several trips were necessary. A +mold of quivering, scarlet jelly, full of fascinating glints of light; +scalloped, currant-rich cookies, a little platter of cold chicken--Miss +Theodosia carried them all over covered with napkins. + +Evangeline was putting the finishing touches to the supper-table, which +was brave with the best Flagg dishes. It was rather a pitiful little +bravery, but satisfying to Evangeline. She hurried Miss Theodosia aside +and talked very fast. + +"I've sent Stefana out with Elly Precious. We're goin' to blind her an' +lead her in an' count one--two--_look_! She'll see the cake the very +quickest thing! She won't cut off an inch o' the stems, so they're kind +of tall up 'n' down, you see. I mean the roses. I've put a corset steel +o' Mother's in an' kind of tied 'em to it. I hope you don't see any +corset steel." + +"No." Miss Theodosia looked not at the centerpiece of roses but at the +cake, the tremulous jelly, the platter,--anywhere else. "No, I don't see +any, dear." + +"It's perfectly lovely, isn't it? Mercy gracious--oh, mercy gracious! +It'll _dazzle_ Stefana. An' most every speck you did, Miss Theodosia. +Won't you please stay? Won't you _please_ to please?" + +"No," for the sixth time persisted Miss Theodosia. "I'm going before +Stefana gets back. This is a Flagg celebration, dear. Just little +Flaggs." + +Evangeline drew a long breath. Then little twinkles lighted in her eyes. + +"Well," she said, "they'll be star-spangled Flaggs to-night!" + +She followed Miss Theodosia to the door. Even then she could not stop +talking. Her excited little voice followed Miss Theodosia home. + +"He took us! He's blue-printing us to see if we wiggled. Elly Precious +did--mercy gracious! But maybe one of him, just one, didn't. He's goin' +to make reg'lar black an' white pictures of the unwiggled ones. I guess +you'll be surprised when you see us!" She was surprised. John Bradford +brought the little blue pictures to her the next day. They bent over +them together. + +"Oh!" Miss Theodosia uttered softly, for the pictures were instantly +tangled in her heartstrings. She could hardly bear the one unwiggled one +of Elly Precious. He was draped in tall red roses; they covered his +little body and trailed their stems about his outspread legs. He had the +effect of peeping at Miss Theodosia through roses. But what she could +see of him was Elly Precious--her baby. + +"Stefana posed him," the Story Man said, smilingly. "And Evangeline and +Carruthers, too. Look at Evangeline." + +Across Evangeline trailed the roses. It was a rigid, terribly rigid, +Evangeline, but the roses saved her. Some softening grace emanated from +them and touched the solemn little face. A little more of Evangeline +than of Elly Precious peeped from behind them. + +"Carruthers!--et, tu, Carruthers!" murmured Miss Theodosia. For here +again was the trail of the roses. Stefana had "posed" them in all the +little pictures. The effect of a rose-draped Carruthers was almost +startling. He gazed from behind them stolidly, unsmiling and +unhappy-souled. Carruthers did not enjoy being taken. + +"Now look at Stefana," John Bradford said. This was his special +exhibit--exhibit S. He watched Miss Theodosia's face as she glanced at +the little blue print. + +No roses trailing there. Just a radiant-faced Stefana gazing at Miss +Theodosia. It was the same face that hung on the walls of her memory. +Miss Theodosia had the sense of roses there, out of sight; it was as if +Stefana rocked them gently in her lap. + +"She wouldn't wear the flowers herself," the Story Man was saying; +"Neither Evangeline nor I could make her. Queer little freak." + +"She is wearing them!" smiled Miss Theodosia, "I can see them. It's only +because you are a man that you can't see,--you and Evangeline! Look at +the roses in Stefana's eyes--in her soul--" + +"Oh, you woman! Women are curious things." + +"Women are romantic things--oh, you man! Why should you understand us +Stefanas with your unsentimental soul-of-a-man? What do you know about +our dreams?" She had not meant to say quite that. "Stefana's dreams," +she corrected herself. "What do you know about them? And still--" + +Miss Theodosia looked up from the radiant little face of Stefana with +her dream-roses to the man-face beside her own. + +"And still--you sent the roses," she said softly. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +A letter came to Miss Theodosia one day. Queer how disturbing a letter +could be when for so long peace had enveloped her travel-worn spirit, +though it might have been because of the peace that she was disturbed. +Ordinarily a letter from Cornelia Dunlap was the forerunner of +interesting events to break the monotony of life. But life was not +monotonous now, and it presented interesting events without the +intervention--mentally and unkindly Miss Theodosia termed it +interference--of Cornelia Dunlap. + +"Why need Cornelia write me now, or if she does write, why can't she +talk about mushrooms?" which were Cornelia's most recent palliative to +her self-imposed and brief sojourns in her little home town. It had been +cats when she and Miss Theodosia returned from Spain, Belgian hares +after their long stay in Egypt. Miss Theodosia herself had never tried +mushrooms nor Belgian hares. She had borne her short homecomings +unpalliated, and had flitted again relievedly. Usually she and Cornelia +Dunlap had flitted together. They had formed the flitting habit when +family bereavements had left them both lonely women. + +"Why must she write about Japan?" sighed Miss Theodosia now, over the +disturbing letter. "What do I care about Japan?" Yet she always had +cared about Japan. Cornelia Dunlap and she had left that delectable +country of cherry blossoms and quaint, kimona-ed women for their old +age, they said, to help them bear it. But Cornelia had forgotten that. + +"Let's go to Japan," she wrote. "I can pack in twenty-four hours; how +long will it take you? We'll stay there till cherry blossom time. +Frankly, Theodosia Baxter, I am bored, and you needn't tell me that you +aren't--frankly--too. You haven't even mushrooms (they didn't earn their +own living, my dear. I don't know what the trouble was). 'My native +country, thee,'--I love it. I tell you I do! You know yourself that I +never stay overnight in a place without unfurling my country's flag. +Remember in sunny Italy?--the little brown bambino that cheered my +colors? But I love my country best--in Japan! Come, dear, pack--pack! If +I can leave my mushrooms, I guess you can leave your lonesome, big house +in Nowhere." + +Miss Theodosia dreamed a little over her letter, of the little island of +romance and flowers and fans. They did not need to wait; they could go +again when they were old. + +She told John Bradford at their next meeting of the lure of Japan, +though in her heart she was not lured. She was not "bored"; it was not a +big, lonesome house in Nowhere! She would tell Cornelia Dunlap so. She +would tell her that Flaggs were better than mushrooms--they earned their +own living! Cornelia could run away alone to Japan to her cherry +blossoms. + +But John Bradford had his scare, and through him Evangeline hers. Gloom +settled on Evangeline. If her beloved lady was going away--the bitter, +bitter taste of life without the beloved lady! But the inspiration that +flashed into Evangeline's nimble mind temporarily comforted her. She set +about its carrying-out. Inspirations were sweet morsels under +Evangeline's tongue. + +To Miss Theodosia on her porch, telling Cornelia Dunlap that Japan had +no lure, came a solemn procession across the grass. Evangeline led, with +the effect of walking backward--though she walked straight ahead--and +waving a baton. Stefana had Elly Precious, and Carrathers tramped +soberly behind, in time to that imaginary wand. Miss Theodosia's +fascinated gaze was riveted to the procession's arms. The wonder grew +with nearness. Every individual parader in the procession wore a somber +black arm-band. Elly Precious held his small member straight out from +his side as if a little afraid of it. + +"Evangeline!" uttered Miss Theodosia. It did not occur to her to address +any one but Evangeline. Instinctively she recognized that the procession +was Evangeline. + +"Halt!" with an imaginary flourish. "Right about your faces!" Then +Evangeline turned to Miss Theodosia and offered her sad little +explanation. + +"We're in mournin'," she said. "All of us are--on our sleeves. Elly +Precious's doesn't stay on very well." + +"Evangeline!" again cried Miss Theodosia, this time in a startled voice. +Fears beset her. Was it the mother, or had poor Aunt Sarah raveled out? +How could it have happened so suddenly--a bolt out of the clear little +Flagg skies? + +"It's you," Evangeline said. Miss Theodosia settled a little in her +chair and waited. In time--Evangeline's time--she would know. Elly +Precious held out his rigid little mourning arm and softly whimpered. + +"Give him to me, Stefana; he wants to come to me," Miss Theodosia said, +extending welcoming hands. Very gently she relieved the tension of the +small arm. + +"We're in mournin' for you," Evangeline explained sadly. "_He_ said we +might as well make up our minds, I tied a stockin' round his arm, but he +took it off again because he said he didn't wear his stockin's--no, I +guess it wasn't his stockin's; it was his heart--on his sleeves. But he +said he was in mournin', too." + +Miss Theodosia gave it up. She appealed to Stefana in gentle despair. + +"You tell me, dear. What does she mean?" + +"We're so sorry you are going to Japan, and Evangeline said we ought to +go into mourning, so we went," explained the quiet Stefana. + +"She cried; you know you did, Stefana Flagg! I would've, only I was +gettin' the mournin' ready. I'm _goin_' to." + +"Don't cry!" Miss Theodosia said, though she was doing it herself. The +pulling of her heartstrings! "Don't cry, Evangeline dear. I wish we +could take back Stefana's tears." + +"You mean--you ain't goin'?" + +"I ain't goin'," repeated Miss Theodosia, tremulously smiling. "Japan! I +wouldn't go to _six_ Japans!" + +"Then take it off o' our arms, quick! You take off Carruthers', Stefana. +I'll undo Elly Precious's. Oh, goody! Oh, mercy gracious, I feel 's if +we ought to take hold o' hands an'--an' _wave_!" + +At the end of her letter to Cornelia Dunlap Miss Theodosia wrote: "You +can't tempt me with all your cherry blossoms. I've got home, Cornelia, +and all my little Flaggs are waving. Come and see _my_ Flaggs." + + * * * * * + +It was mid-September and Miss Theodosia found out-of-doors a pleasant +place to be. She had made an errand down to the business portion of the +little town for the sheer pleasure of the going and coming,--a morning +errand, as the afternoons were sacred to tea,--and now was coming +leisurely back, sniffing the sun-sweet air. She turned off the quiet, +side street she had been using as a long way home, into the main street +of the town, only to find her progress interrupted by unseemly and noisy +crowds. Miss Theodosia loved all things seemly and quiet. How she +despised a crowd, and this one--she brought up short in actual disgust +on the outer edge of it. Thus was her stately little progress stayed. +People surged about her and jostled her good-naturedly. She was in the +crowd. + +"What is it? Has there been an accident?" she inquired of the nearest +jostler. It was a ragged and radiant child. + +"Axident! Didn't ye know there was a circus? We're waitin' for the +p'rade. I hear it! I hear it comin'!" + +The crowd surged ahead toward the street curb. Against her will, Miss +Theodosia surged, too. Loud cries filled her ears--ecstatic cries of +little children. Down the usually quiet street marched, in all its +brilliancy of color and tinsel and tawdry splendor, the street parade. +Horses curvetted, elephants patiently plodded, huge cars of mystery +swung by; clowns smirked, to the riotous joy of that awful crowd. + +"See him sittin' tail to! That one there--there!" + +"Look-a that one with the spotted panth! Look at him throw kitheth!" + +"They's man-eatin' lions in that cage--see the lady sittin' with 'em!" + +"See that man top o' the band waggin that shoots up his neck +_yards_--quick! See him shorten it again!" + +Miss Theodosia saw all, against her will. All her thirty-six years she +had held aside her dainty skirts from people who went to circuses, but +how could she hold them aside now? There was not room. She was caught in +the swirl and noise and glee. + +Suddenly a familiar voice struck her ear. Evangeline's voice! Drawn up +on the curbing in a vantage-spot that only they who come early and +patiently wait can secure, was the entire family of little Flaggs. At a +new angle Miss Theodosia was able to see plainly their breathless +ecstasy. She could hear what Evangeline was saying. + +"Oh, isn't it elegant--oh, look, Stefana! Oh, don't you hope circuses'll +be free in Heaven--not jus' the p'rade, but the show!" + +Then and there Miss Theodosia's heartstrings throbbed unmercifully; she +could not do anything with them; they would throb. In vain she turned +away--looked at other faces--listened to other voices. It was Evangeline +she heard, with her wistful cry, and the little line of Flaggs that she +saw. + +"There's Miss Theodosia--there, there, Stefana! She's come to the +p'rade!" + +"Miss Theodosia! Miss Theodosia! Look, Elly Precious, quick!" And it was +Elly Precious she saw, held high by eager arms. That minute she yielded +to the wild impulse within. She pressed forward to speaking distance. + +"Who will go to the show with me this afternoon? All in favor say aye." + +"Mercy gracious, you don't honest mean--" + +"Miss Theodosia!" Stefana's lean little face actually whitened. + +"I honest mean. Isn't anybody going to say aye?" + +"I!" + +"I!" + +"I!" + +The joyous chorus of "I's"! The jubilant waving of every little Flagg! +For the moment, the gorgeous tinseled parade was forgotten in the vaster +anticipative glories of the show. Miss Theodosia's heartstrings throbbed +a little louder but tunefully. She had forgotten her skirts. + +Shows begin early and last long. Miss Theodosia's show began at the +opening of the gates. She and her little string of followers filed in. + +"Mercy gracious!" breathed Evangeline in awesome delight at the vision +spread before her. + +"Mercy gracious!" breathed Miss Theodosia. They were different mercy +graciouses. But a miracle was on the way to her, coming straight and +fast through the crowds of festive circus-goers. Very soon now--in an +hour--in another moment--It arrived! Miss Theodosia felt herself +yielding to the lure of the sawdust and the side shows--the pink +lemonade and the balloons. She was entering in! She was not Miss +Theodosia who detested crowds; in the tight grip of the miracle, she was +Miss Theodosia who thrilled and enjoyed. + +"Isn't it elegant? Oh, aren't you happy!" cried Evangeline. + +"Aren't I!" gallant Miss Theodosia responded. She caught Evangeline's +sleeve. "What is that man shouting about--there, in front of that big +tent?" + +"Oh, I don't know, but it's somethin' splendid. I know it's somethin' +splendid! I'll go 'n' see." + +"I'll go with you. Stefana, stay with the rest of the children. We'll be +right back." Miss Theodosia laughed as she and Evangeline went, hand in +hand. In a moment they were back for the rest. It was "somethin' +splendid"--come! come! + +They drank pink lemonade and ate ice-cream cones. Elly Precious and +Carruthers waved gay balloons. Evangeline chose a cane. + +"I need one. I'm so happy I tumble over! I never was so happy 'xcept +when Elly Precious stopped havin' the measles. That was as splendid as +this, but it wasn't as _splendid_ splendid. Miss Theodosia, don't you +feel all beautiful and jiggy inside?" + +"All beautiful and jiggy!" nodded Miss Theodosia, wondering a little +whether it was all circus or some pink lemonade. + +"I like the wholeness of it best," Stefana said, taking in the animated +scene with an artist's eye. + +"I don't! I like the every little speckness of it," Evangeline chirped. +"I like that 'normous big tent an' that tiny little one--I like that +balloon man--I like that little darky baby--isn't he black as the ace of +space, Miss Theodosia! Oh, I like every blade o'--sawdust!" Her laugh +trilled out gayly. + +"But we haven't seen it yet--the show." + +"Miss Theodosia! You don't honest mean we're goin' in? Stefana, she +does--she means! We're goin' in!" As of course they were. The best seats +in the great tented arena were none too good for them. Stefana +laboriously shut up Elly Precious' go-cart, and Miss Theodosia lifted +Elly Precious in her arms. In the procession they sought those +best-of-all seats. What followed, even Evangeline gazed upon in silence; +there were no words in Evangeline's dictionary for what followed. She +sat on the edge of the best-of-all seat and drank in riders and clowns +and dizzy performing fairies--an intoxicating draught. + +"Miss Theodosia," in a tiny whisper. + +"Yes, dear?" + +"Ain't you glad you ain't dead? 'Cause you don't need to be." Which was +Evangeline's way of complimenting Heaven. There was no need of dying to +find out its marvels--not now. Miss Theodosia slipped one of the small +hands into hers and squeezed it; squeezing established understanding. +They knew--they understood. + +"Well, upon my word!" a deep voice exclaimed behind them. With one +accord Miss Theodosia and her Flaggs wheeled about. The Tract +Man--Shadow Man--Reformed Doctor stood there, smiling. He was eating +popcorn from a paper bag. Transferring the bag to Evangeline, he held +out his hands for the baby. + +"You here?" Miss Theodosia exclaimed stupidly. + +"Yes--are you?" + +Every one laughed. Laughing was so easy! Elly Precious from his lofty +shoulder-post clapped small, joyous hands and crowed. In the ring a +clown threw them kisses. A fairy in short, silvery skirts rode by on two +horses. "Wait! Watch her--watch her!" Evangeline whispered hissingly. +"She's goin' to jump through a hoop o' fire! Without burnin' up!" + +John Bradford leaned forward to Miss Theodosia. + +"Having a good time?" he whispered. + +"Grand! Are you?" + +"Hunkydory!" He might have been a boy, she a girl. These might have been +little Flagg brothers--sisters. + +"We must have cones--ice-cream cones," he said. + +"We've had 'em," piped Evangeline. + +"We must have more cones, and cracker-jack." + +"We've had crackerjack." + +"We must have more crackerjack. Where is the Crackerjack Boy?" + +At the end of the show in the ring they took a vote and decided to stay +to see it all over again. What did it matter if they had seen the tinsel +fairy jump through her fiery hoop or the acrobats perform their wonders? +They felt acquainted now. They were gazing, enchanted, at friends. + +"My clown's lookin' at me! I'm goin' to bow to him." + +"Mine's threw me a kiss!" + +Stefana, more refined in taste, had adopted a beauteous creature in gold +and blue, and starry spangles. Her beauteous lady waved a scepter at her +as she glided by. + +"She's got so many ruffles on! An' they're beau-ti-fully done up!" +sighed Stefana in gentle envy of some unknown artist in starch. + +"Now what?" demanded the man of the party at length. "Anybody want to +stay here any longer? Or shall we discover new territory?" He took +Evangeline aside and questioned her. + +"Have you seen everything out there?" indicating the attractions without +the big tent. + +"We've seen a nawful lot. We've had a nelegant time," Evangeline +whispered back. Desire and loyalty to Miss Theodosia fought a duel in +her small breast and the issue was yet doubtful. + +"Isn't there something left that you'd like to see?" The order was +changed; here was man tempting woman. Desire won the duel with one +mighty blow. Evangeline tiptoed up as near his ear as possible and +breathed two words. + +John Bradford turned to the little crowd. + +"We'll go to see the Fat Lady," he said to Miss Theodosia; "I'll take +the kiddies, while you sit down somewhere and rest. + +"Sit down somewhere? Haven't I been sitting down somewhere? Don't you +suppose I want to see the Fat Lady, too?" laughed Miss Theodosia. Fat +ladies appealed to her invitingly, in this remarkable mood of hers--Miss +Theodosia's circus mood. + +"You're playing the game like a trump! I didn't dream you could +'pretend' a circus was yours. Must be some harder than pretending +babies--" John Bradford got no farther. She turned indignant eyes upon +him. + +"'Game'--'pretend'--I'd have you know I'm having a nelegant time! You +must be the Pretender." + +"Me? I'm having the time of my life! I am going to put a circus into my +love story." + +"This circus?" + +"This identical one." + +"With me and the little Flaggs in it?" + +"You--and the little Flaggs." + +They had fallen behind the children, and a side eddy of the crowd had +flowed between. The Fat Lady was at the further end of the grounds, but +there was no hurry; she would remain just as fat a Fat Lady if they +pleasantly dallied a little. Stefana had, with the deftness of +genius-born skill, solved the puzzle of opening the folded-up go-cart, +and the Man Person of the party was no longer burdened with Elly +Precious. + +Suddenly into the pleasant dallying leaped Carruthers with terrified +little face. + +"They're lost! We can't find 'em! I can't an' Stefana can't. They ain't +anywhere! We were lookin' at a man with turkles you wind up, an' when we +stopped lookin' they weren't there--not anywhere. They ain't anywhere! +Not any--' + +"Stop him!" begged Miss Theodosia. "He'll keep right on anywhere-ing. We +must find Stefana." + +"Stefana said--oh, I couldn't hear what Stefana said, but she pointed +an' pointed, an' I came lickety. They're lost! They ain't anywhere!" + +Stefana appearing here, the story was repeated. Like that--Stefana +snapped her fingers--they had disappeared. + +"I've hunted and hunted. Everybody's seen children with go-carts, but +they weren't Evangeline 'n' Elly Precious." + +Miss Theodosia's own face was pale, but she achieved a light laugh. + +"No wonder you haven't found them yet! In this crowd. It takes +time;--you tell them to be patient and we'll find the right go-cart." +She appealed to the Man Person. + +"Sure, we'll find the right go-cart! Where do you think they could have +vanished? Down a hole in the ground?" + +Miss Theodosia clapped her hands valiantly. "That's it! Evangeline found +a hole and took Elly Precious down, to show him the White Rabbit and the +Red Queen! Evangeline would love to be an Alice in Wonderland. Go and +find the hole," to the Man Person. "I'll stay right in this spot with +the children. See, in front of this ice-cream tent." + +"Good idea!--I'll bring them back with me unless you find them first." + +But they were not with him when he returned half an hour later. In spite +of himself, he looked anxious. + +"Queer thing! What color dress did she have on? I've tried to remember." + +"Pink--oh, pink!" sobbed Stefana, "but it was most washed out. It had +two tucks let down, an' it was limpy in the skirt, behind--the starch +gave out." There were so many Evangelines, but it didn't seem as if +there'd be another Evangeline limpy behind! "An' Elly Precious's lower +teeth are through, and his shoes are buttoned inside, I remember now! We +were in such a hurry--there wouldn't be another baby buttoned inside." + +After still further vain hunting, John Bradford sent the three home. + +"You may find Evangeline there, getting supper!" he said, "but I'll stay +here on the chance you don't. I'll investigate every hole on the +grounds! Don't anybody worry--now, mind! There's nothing to worry +about." + +"Fat Lady!" Miss Theodosia suddenly exclaimed as one with inspiration. +"We've never thought of her; that's where they've gone! Evangeline +couldn't wait. She had some pennies." + +"I've investigated the Fat Lady--no good. They don't let go-carts in, +and there weren't any outside. But, of course, I can go the whole +figure, to make sure. I'll go all the whole figures. Can't you trust +me?" + +"We can. Come, children. I'll coach you on Wonderland, so if Evangeline +is there you'll know what she is seeing! Gryphons, Mock 'Turkles,' Mad +Hatters--a circus within a circus! It's so much like Evangeline to find +that White Rabbit hole!" Miss Theodosia clung determinedly to a cheerful +view of the situation. But, secretly, she worried. As the time went on, +she worried harder. Two babies--one wheeling the other! What was +Evangeline but a baby? + +Miss Theodosia took the two little surviving Flaggs to her own home and +plied them with goodies--many goodies. She unearthed from hiding-places +candied ginger and guava jelly; she invented toys for the deaf little +Flagg and occupations for Stefana. She found a dog-eared copy of +"Alice," dear to her own childhood, and read to Stefana--anything to +occupy the waiting. It was long waiting! + +It grew dark. Once Miss Theodosia heard heavy steps trying painstakingly +to be light ones. She found the Man Person outside the door. + +"Nothing yet? You haven't any trace--" It was needless asking. + +"You don't think--" + +"Of course, I don't think! Nothing on earth could happen to those +kiddies." + +"Automobiles--" + +"Aren't allowed on the grounds, and you couldn't have got Evangeline off +the grounds with a tackle and falls. I know what I think." + +"Then tell it--mercy gracious!" + +"I think it's Evangeline that's happened. Mark my words! Now I'm going +back again. I just came to--I suppose I thought I was coming to relieve +your mind!" He laughed sorrily and softly. + +"Oh, go--yes, go! It's--it's long past Elly Precious' bedtime." He could +hear soft sobbing as he went away. Miss Theodosia was mourning for her +baby. The Man Person's throat tightened; he broke into a run. + +Stefana met Miss Theodosia at an inner door. She had her hat on and +Carruthers by the hand. + +"I'm going home to put him to bed. I--I shan't look at the clothes +basket. But if Elly Precious is dead, I'll put wh-white ribbons on the +h-handles!" With a moan, Stefana threw herself into the kind arms of +Elly Precious' friend who loved him, too! + +"Hush, dear! Elly Precious isn't dead, but I hope he is asleep. +Evangeline, I know, will take care of him. Let's trust Evangeline." + +"Maybe she's dead, too!" + +"Stefana! I'm disappointed. I thought you were a brave girl." + +"I am!" sobbed Stefana, gathering herself together. Miss Theodosia +watched her go quietly away, hand in hand with the little brother that +was left. But Miss Theodosia was no longer brave. Sudden terrors seized +upon her. She remembered how round and white Elly Precious was--how he +showed the little teeth that had got through--how he had loved to watch +Evangeline dance, through the window. + +"Theodosia Baxter, I'm disappointed! I thought you were a brave girl." + +As she stood in the moist darkness, a sound came to her--too soft for a +man-sound. It grew a very little more distinct. + +"Miss Theodosia--sh! he's gettin' ready to go off. I want him to go off +soon's I get him home--I don't want to 'xcite him. I jus' came to tell +you--" + +"Evangeline! Have you got him there?" + +The softest of giggles. "Why, of course! He's too valuable to leave +anywheres. Leave a Best Baby! That's the s'prise! He's a prize baby, +Elly Precious is! I've got it in my pocket!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"I've got to take him home an' bed him down!" Horsey little Evangeline! +"Then I'll come back an' show it to you. Isn't it puffectly elegant that +he took a prize! We've had the best time!" And in the darkness Miss +Theodosia heard soft, retreating steps and the faintest creak of wheels. +Left alone, she leaned for support on the porch pillar, overcome by the +Evangelineness of Evangeline. And they had all had so far from the "best +time"--they had suffered so! + +"Mercy gracious!" sighed Miss Theodosia weakly, but aloud. + +"What did I tell you?" The Man Person's voice! What kind of a ghostly +night was this? "Didn't I say it was Evangeline that had happened, 'mark +my words'? Well, wasn't it?" + +"Tell me instantly how she 'happened'! I'm all in the dark." + +"Same here. Can't see an inch before my nose. If we had a lamp--" + +"Didn't she tell you? Didn't she come home with you?" + +"No--no, I came home with her. Behind her--she didn't know. Wanted to +let her do the whole thing alone. I confess I was curious." + +"Curious! After hunting hours and hours--" + +"'Curious--after--hunting--hours--and hours,'" he intoned. She could +hear him getting ready to laugh. "The moment I caught sight of the +little imp, I forgot I was tired. Whatever she's been up to, it's +something interesting. May I wait and hear her tell about it?" + +"Of course you may! I should think you'd earned admittance." Miss +Theodosia was sizzling gently with perfectly natural irritation. Now +that her baby was safe, she had leisure to be irritated. + +"Come and rest in the easiest chair you can find. When I think--" + +"Don't think! Let's just have cups of tea and wait for the show to +begin." + +"But why aren't you cross? I am." + +The man-voice in the dark was soothing. + +"Oh, no, you only think you are, dear lady. You are deceiving yourself. +Crossness and--er--nerve-itis are two very different diseases (you note +I term them both diseases). I speak as One Who Did Once Know." + +Miss Theodosia, on her way for cups of tea, paused in her dim doorway. + +"Diseases change so. In ten years--" + +"In ten years 'nerve-itis' has lost none of its pep--rather annexed +more. It may have another name." + +"Nerve-itus Dance," murmured the voice in the doorway. "That's +it--that's what I was having when you came. I don't think I am quite +over the attack yet." + +"Three lumps of sugar dissolved in a cup of tea," prescribed the +man-voice promptly. "Repeat the dose in five minutes. Never known to +fail. As a preventive of--er--contagion, it is well for any also who +have been exposed--" + +"I'll have it there in a minute. The kettle's boiling," called Miss +Theodosia from interior regions. She came back presently with a tray lit +by a tiny flare of candle-light. + + "'How far that little candle throws his beams-- + So shines a good deed in a naughty world'" + +quoted he. "The good deed is the good tea." + +"And the naughty world is Evangeline. Won't you have three lumps just +this time, to make perfectly sure you don't contract my Nerve-itus +Dance?" + +"Safety first," he laughed. "Four lumps. This is our first tea-party at +'Candle-lighting Time,' isn't it?" + +Now Miss Theodosia laughed. It was easy to laugh with Elly Precious +being bedded down instead of lost. + +"How you do quote to-night!" she said. "That's the third time, counting +'Safety First,' in the last five minutes." + +"Pardon," he craved. "It's because I feel happy. I'm likely to quote again +at any minute." + +"Well, quote the Scriptures then to Evangeline when she comes." + +"Hark!" + +She was coming now. They could hear the light, hurrying steps. Was +Evangeline never tired? Did neither parades nor circuses--mysterious +wanderings nor mysterious triumphs--affect her? + +"The show is about to begin," murmured Miss Theodosia. + +It began immediately. Evangeline came bursting in upon them, waving a +blue ribbon. She was a fresh and radiant Evangeline. + +"Stefana says I can't stay only a minute. Stefana's kind o' mad, but she +didn't dass to be, out loud, for fear we'd 'xcite Elly Precious. He's +asleep. I was so proud of his arms an' legs when I undressed 'em! +They're very high-percented arms 'n' legs. Mercy gracious, yes! Don't +you see this ribbon's blue--blue--blue! That's because he's a Best Baby, +an' the prize was five dollars, an' they gave him a dollar 'special,' +too, that we're goin' to put in the bank--" + +Miss Theodosia held up her hand. + +"Begin at the beginning," she commanded. "Where have you been all this +time? What on earth have you been doing?" + +"Showin' Elly Precious," flashed back Evangeline brightly. "You've heard +o' Poultry Shows? Well, this wasn't. This was a Baby Show. We never +noticed it was advertised in the p'rade at all--a man with a sandwich +on. A lady told me. She said the circus folks were pretty bright, +because all o' the world loved babies an' they knew 'twould make a +beautiful side show. She said they knew it would draw, an' it did. It +drew me an' Elly Precious! The circus folks offered prizes. They weighed +an' measured 'em to see which was a Best Baby, an' Elly Precious was! +You better be proud that you--that you measled a Best Baby!" + +Miss Theodosia's glance met the Man Person's. The show was turning out +well. + +"I've got to go back, or Stefana--oh, mercy gracious me, it was worth +folks bein' mad! There was a nurse there an' a lovely lady an' a doctor. +They let me stay Elly Precious's nap out, because it isn't a sleep +go-cart. He has to sit up straight in it. The lady said to lie him down +there an' let him sleep. But we didn't expect he'd sleep so long--the +lady went away, but I stayed. I wasn't goin' to wake a Best Baby up out +o' a sound sleep! It made us a little late gettin' home." + +"Yes, go on," murmured the Man Person feelingly. + +"Why, that's as far as there is to go. Then we came home." + +"Why didn't you go back and tell Stefana or Miss Theodosia? Where was +your Baby Show, anyway?" + +"In a tent. I happened to get a peek in an' saw folks with babies, an' I +was a folks with one, so I just went in. That's all. I was goin' to tell +Stefana, but he cried an' I couldn't leave him. He wouldn't have took a +prize, cryin'. I had to keep dancin' to him--mercy gracious! But it was +worth it. Then when he'd got all measured an' weighed,--it's pretty +wearin' work,--he went to sleep. I told you that. I had to wait for him +to wake up." For the first time Evangeline was on the defensive; she +read the faint disapproval in Miss Theodosia's face. + +"Mercy gracious, I never s'posed you'd go an' worry! I thought--I +thought you'd jus' be pur-roud." Actually, Evangeline was crying now. +Miss Theodosia's disapproval vanished instantly. With a sweep of her +arms, she gathered a forgiven Evangeline in. The Man Person stood +outside the little zone of feminine emotion, but he had his own brand. + +"We _are_ pur-roud," Miss Theodosia crooned over the subdued little +figure. "It's perfectly splendid about the blue ribbon and the prize!" + +"An' the special." + +"An' the special. Think of what his mother will say! But I knew he was +the Best Baby all the time; it was written in between every little +measle!" And saving laughter righted the situation; Evangeline bounded +back to her usual spirits. "Now," Miss Theodosia said, "I'll get you +some preserved ginger and shoo you home! You mustn't stay another +minute, or Stefana will surely be over here with a policeman." + +"Stefana's proud, too--she needn't pretend! I saw her kissin' Elly +Precious's knee. But she'll scold; she thinks it's her duty. Mercy +gracious, when Aunt Sarah knits an' Mother's back, I hope Stefana'll +grow down again." + +The Man Person poised his teacup above the saucer, arrested by this new +puzzle. + +"Er--grow how?" + +"Down. She's so terrible grown-up now. It's been pretty wearin' on my +nerves. We use' to play dolls together. We don't ever now. She's too +starched up." + +"Poor Stefana with her starch!" murmured Miss Theodosia. The poor little +martyr to starch! It was to be hoped, indeed, that when Aunt Sarah knit, +Stefana could grow down again and play dolls. + +"Do you know her mother--Evangeline's?" Miss Theodosia asked, after the +child had gone. "Is Evangeline like her;--is that where she gets her +Evangelineness?" + +"No, she must get it from the father. The mother is exactly like +Stefana, or may be I've got it the wrong end to. I never saw the father; +he died a few weeks before the baby was born." + +"Well, the father must have been remarkable; somebody is responsible for +Evangeline. I love that child next to--my baby. Supposing--I think of it +sometimes--supposing I had staid in Rome or Paris or Farthest +Anyplace--not come home at all, you know,--then I should have missed it +all. I should never have known those children." + +"Nor me," he ventured. She did not appear to hear, but went on musingly: + +"Something sent me home--I needed those children." + +"And me!" + +"I was going on a fast train--a through express--straight to Lonesome +Land!" + +She laughed softly as if she were alone. "If Evangeline hadn't Flagged +my train--it was Evangeline! She switched me off on another track." +Miss Theodosia's tender eyes lifted and met the Man Person's with a +little start of recognition as if saying: "Why, are you here!" But she +met those other eyes staunchly. "I'm glad I stopped off at this Flagg +station. I like it here." + +For a little the big room, bright with lamplight, was so still that the +clock ticked impertinently. Miss Theodosia's tea cooled in its cup, and +John Bradford had long ago forgotten his. The big hands on the +chair-arms gripped them unconsciously. Then, suddenly, the man got to +his feet and walked to the far end of the room. On his return he stopped +before Miss Theodosia, looking down. + +"I love you," John Bradford said. The impertinent clock kept on, but +Miss Theodosia could not hear it now for the ticking of her heart. Was +she a frightened girl that she could not lift her eyes? + +"I was on that express, too--bound for that same place. I thank the Lord +I got off here. I shall always thank Him, whether you can love me or +not. I shall always love you. If you thought, sometime--I can wait--" + +Miss Theodosia's eyes lifted. But she shook her head. + +"I'm afraid not--sometime." + +He still stood, looking down. Very gently he touched her hair; she could +hear the long breath he drew. + +"I was afraid so. It was too much to ask. But I had to take my chance. +Don't be distressed, dear. I am happy, loving you. You can't deny me +that! I've loved you ever since I found you mending my shirt. I have had +a beautiful time loving you, and it will keep right on. But I was crazy, +wasn't I, to think--of course you 'couldn't sometime.'" + +"Because I love you now," she said steadily. "I have--I have just found +it out!" + +The gently stroking hand ceased its work. John Bradford caught the sweet +face between his great palms and turned it upward to his. + +"Dear!" he cried. He was a boy, she a girl. Love has no age. It swept +over them, a young sweet tide. This man--this woman. There was no one +else in the world then. + +"Dear!" she whispered, matching her love-word to his, "and I never knew +till a minute ago!" + +"I always knew. The shirt had no part in it! I have loved you since the +world began and the morning stars sang! You were made for me to love; +all these years I have been waiting for you, dear." + +"All these years!" she repeated a little sadly--"that reminds us. But we +are not old! I won't be--I won't have you be! What is time, anyway?" + +"Nothing!" He blew it away in a whiff of scorn. "What is anything but +that I love you and you love me? We are just born now--this is our +birthday! May I kiss you on your birthday, dear? Will you kiss me on +mine?" + +The clock must have stopped in very astonishment at this scandal of +grown love playing young love. At any rate, there was only the sound of +the young love in the room. The room sang with the beautiful sound of +it. + +It seemed a very long time afterward that John Bradford asked his +man-question: "When?" + +"When your book is written--the love story. Not till then." + +"It's getting on beautifully!" he pleaded. "It never will be done. +There's going to be no end to the chapters." + +"Mercy gracious! Where are you now?" + +"The heroine has just said yes. The hero has just kissed her--he is just +going to kiss her ag--" + +"Mercy--mercy gracious!" Miss Theodosia's fair cheeks flooded pink. She +held up a staying hand. + +"Wait--till I get--get used to being a heroine! Am I? Was _that_ the +love story?" + +"That was the love story. I have been working on it every day. Some days +I had set-backs--when the heroine flung things in my face about reformed +doctors, and times like that." + +"She took them back again, those things. She was a kind sort of a +heroine." + +"She was a dear. He wanted to kiss her when she took them back, those +things. I had all _I_ could do to keep him from it. He was a tough sort +of a hero to work with. I had my hands full." + +"Did you love--did the hero love the heroine when they sat drinking cups +of tea?" + +"A little harder every cup." + +"When they nursed the measles?" + +"A little more every measle." + +"When they went to the circus?" She drew a long, happy breath. "I like +to have been that heroine! Dear, is it right to be as happy as this? For +old folks, I mean--near-olds? Oughtn't we to knock on wood? Oh, I've +just thought of Evangeline. What will Evangeline say?" + +"Something Evangelical," he laughed. "I hope I'll be there." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Evangeline had excitements of her own. As though prizes for Best Babies +were not enough, a new excitement began the very next day. Two +excitements--one on the lovely heels of the other. Evangeline, gasping +in the joyous throes of the first-comer, raced over to Miss Theodosia, +as she had learned to race with troubles as well as joys. All the way +she emitted sounds approximating steam-whistles. The very nature of the +news she was carrying suggested the sounds she made carrying it. + +"The elegantest thing has happened--I mean's goin' to!" She could not +wait to get quite there, but sent her news ahead of her through the +transmitting medium of air. Miss Theodosia, on her porch, sat dreaming +her love's young dream--young, not old; not old! + +"The elegant elegantest! He's goin' to be cured! He won't be deaf o' +hearin' any more! I mean he thinks he won't--I mean _he_--" + +"Sit down on the step, dear. Count ten, then start again." + +"Onetwothreefour--oh, I can't wait to get to ten! If your little brother +had always been deaf o' hearin' an' a doctor looked into him with a +spy-glass an' said I think this boy can be cured, I'm goin' to take him +to a hospital an' have him operated when his mother is willin' if she +gets home--I mean if she gets home when she's willin'--oh, I mean--" + +"Yes, dear. Sit still. I understand, and I think she will be willing +when she gets home, don't you? Oh, Evangeline, won't we all be happy to +have Carruthers cured of his poor little deafness o' hearing! I know the +doctor, and he knows ears! We'll trust him, Evangeline. He will do +everything in the world there is to be done. And we'll stay at home and +pray." + +"Pray!" cried Evangeline. Her little thin face lifted to the blue +heavens. "I've woke up right slap in the middle o' nights an' prayed: +'Oh, Lord, that made a little children an' forgot his ears, do somethin' +now--don't you think you'd ought to, O Lord? It don't seem fair not to. +He ain't ever heard Elly Precious crow, nor laugh--think o' that, dear +Lord.'" The shrill voice dropped suddenly. "But He never." Evangeline +sighed. + +"Till now, dear--we hope He will now. He and the doctor who knows ears. +I thought you were so pleased and that you were--" + +"Oh, yes'm, oh, I am! It was just--I was thinkin' how lovely Elly +Precious's laugh sounds an' Carruthers not ever hearin' it. So far, I +mean." Evangeline caught her courage again in both hands. "But he'll +laugh 'nough more times when he can hear--I mean when Carruthers can. +Won't it be puffectly elegant!" + +It was later in the same day when the second excitement struck the +little House of Flaggs. Evangeline raced again across the separating +green grass to Miss Theodosia. This time she went at reduced speed +because she had Elly Precious over her shoulder. Miss Theodosia saw them +coming and smiled. + +"More news! I know it is puffectly elegant by Evangeline's face. Well, +Evangeline?" + +"Mercy gracious! Take him before I spill him! I'm so happy I joggle. +She's knittin' an' she's comin' home! I mean knittin' _enough_. She said +'my--dear--children--I--expect--to--be--home--to-morrow +--Aunt--Sarah--is--better--an'--I--can't +wait--to--see--you--your--mother--' Mercy gracious, when Stefana got to +your mother, seemed as if I'd burst! We hollered it to Carruthers, an' +he burst! An' Elly Precious knows she's comin', I know he knows. Tickle +him an' see how pleased he is!" Without comma or semicolon, to say +nothing of periods, Evangeline panted on. Out of breath at last, her +voice sat down an instant, as it were, to rest. It was up again in a +moment. + +"To-morrow is most to-day! It'll be to-day to-morrow! Oh, mercy gracious +me! We're goin' to sweep under everything an' behind--every las' thing, +under 'n' behind. She won't find a grain o' dust. An' Stefana's makin' +starch." + +"Mercy gracious!" softly ejaculated Miss Theodosia. + +"I mean to eat in the dessert--corn-starch. We've begun to skim Elly +Precious's bottles. You can eat thin bottles, can't you, darlin' dear, +when Mother's comin' home? Corn-starch has to have cream on it--when +Mother's comin' home!" She laughed joyously. All past and creamless +corn-starches were a joke. Laughing at them was easy at this happy +moment. + +"Isn't it splendid Aunt Sarah went to knittin'? Mercy gracious, I hope +she won't--won't drop a stitch for Mother to have to stay an' pick up!" +Evangeline's laugh trilled out once more. + +"Do you suppose you'd dass to cut Elly Precious's hair, Miss Theodosia, +while I danced like everything an' made faces? Dutchy, you know, in the +back o' his neck--he's straggly now. I'd make awful faces--" + +"I wouldn't 'dass,' dear," smiled Miss Theodosia. "I never could cut +fast enough and you never could dance hard enough--we'd hurt him." + +"Well, she'll look at the front o' him first--never mind. We're goin' to +put on that darlin' little ni'gown you made, for a dress--belt it in, +you know, with a ribbon off the handle o' the clo'es-basket; Stefana's +ironed it out. An' we're goin' to pin on his blue ribbon prize." + +John Bradford came that evening to sit on the porch in the soft warmth +that autumn had borrowed from summers-to-come, with promissory note to +pay it back when lovers were through with it. Miss Theodosia met him +with the news. + +"Mustn't it be beautiful to be welcomed home like that, dear? If you +could have seen Evangeline's little shiny face! And the way Elly +Precious laughed--when I tickled him! And, oh, John--Do you hear me +call you John? I thought it would be hard!" + +"'And, oh, John--'" he prompted, putting it yet further off by a +kiss-length. + +"Oh, John, I know about Carruthers. You're going to take him away to +cure him." + +"To try to cure him," John Bradford said gravely. + +"You'll do it, dear--you and the Lord! Evangeline and I are trusting. +Hark, she is coming! No one else sounds like that!" + +"No one else gallops--canters--breaks speed limits!" he laughed. "Now +what? More news?" + +The same news over again, but Evangeline saw that which momentarily +banished it from her mind. She saw John Bradford standing behind Miss +Theodosia's chair; she saw him stoop over it. + +"Mercy gracious, he kissed her!" gasped Evangeline. Something told her +to turn and gallop back, but she could not stop in time. She was already +at the foot of the steps. Awful embarrassment seized her--seized +Evangeline! In the faint, reflected lamplight from within the house she +could see the two above her looking down. Mercy gracious! + +"Sit down, Evangeline." + +"I'm s-sittin'--I _think_ I'm sittin' down." Up-standings and +down-sittings were confused in the general dizziness of things. Perhaps +she was standing up. + +"You're not sick, are you, Evangeline? You're not saying anything." + +Then Evangeline said something. + +"I--I saw him--doin' it, I mean. Mercy gracious, _what'll I do_?" For +some inherited delicacy of instinct made of her a dreadful intruder; she +saw herself in the shameful act. Instinctively Evangeline knew she was +on sacred ground. + +"I couldn't stop, I was goin' so fast. It's too late not to see him +doin' it; I don't know what to do." + +With swift, light steps Miss Theodosia was down beside her. John +Bradford with one step was there. Evangeline looked shamefacedly up into +their two kind faces. + +"I'm sorry," she whispered. For answer, John Bradford took one of Miss +Theodosia's hands and laid it on hers. He held out one of his own. + +"May I have this lady to be my wedded wife, Evangeline? Will you give +her to me?" His big voice was very tender. Evangeline looked into his +shining eyes. The mystery of love swept through her small, sweet soul. +She shut her eyes as if from some light too bright for them. If she were +alone, she would say her prayers. But the tender voice was going on. + +"May I have her, Evangeline--will you put her hand in mine? She is very +dear, indeed, to me." She could feel Miss Theodosia's soft hand quiver +against her own hard little palm. Miss Theodosia's eyes were tender, +too. + +Then, suddenly, inspiration came to her. She laid the soft hand in the +big hand and looked up, smiling into John Bradford's face. + +"I'm willin'," she said, "if you'll honor an' obey." + +It was as if a silken gown enfolded Evangeline's straight little +shoulders and they heard her say: "I pronounce thee." The strange little +ceremony left them hushed. + +No one spoke again for a little space. Somewhere sleepy birds twittered, +disturbed by rustling leaves or stealthy marauders. Somewhere a clock +intoned distantly. A train far away rushed through the night, perhaps to +some Lonesome Land, but they were not on it. Then John Bradford broke +the spell. He leaned down and kissed Evangeline. + +A little laugh bubbled up to him. "You must've made a mistake. I'm the +wrong one--mercy gracious!" + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MISS THEODOSIA'S HEARTSTRINGS *** + +This file should be named 8msth10.txt or 8msth10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8msth11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8msth10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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