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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: What Katy Did + +Author: Susan Coolidge + +Posting Date: January 31, 2012 [EBook #8994] +Release Date: September, 2005 +First Posted: August 31, 2003 +Last Updated: July 31, 2006 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT KATY DID *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Suzanne L. Shell, Charles +Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +</H1> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +WHAT KATY DID +</H1> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +By +</P> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +SUSAN COOLIDGE +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +With Frontispiece in Color by Ralph Pallen Coleman +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +TO FIVE. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Six of us once, my darlings, played together<BR> + Beneath green boughs, which faded long ago,<BR> + Made merry in the golden summer weather,<BR> + Pelted each other with new-fallen snow.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Did the sun always shine? I can't remember<BR> + A single cloud that dimmed the happy blue,—<BR> + A single lightning-bolt or peal of thunder,<BR> + To daunt our bright, unfearing lives: can you?<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + We quarrelled often, but made peace as quickly,<BR> + Shed many tears, but laughed the while they fell,<BR> + Had our small woes, our childish bumps and bruises,<BR> + But Mother always "kissed and made them well."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Is it long since?—it seems a moment only:<BR> + Yet here we are in bonnets and tail-coats,<BR> + Grave men of business, members of committees,<BR> + Our play-time ended: even Baby votes!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + And star-eyed children, in whose innocent faces<BR> + Kindles the gladness which was once our own,<BR> + Crowd round our knees, with sweet and coaxing voices,<BR> + Asking for stories of that old-time home.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Were <I>you</I> once little too?" they say, astonished;<BR> + "Did you too play? How funny! tell us how."<BR> + Almost we start, forgetful for a moment;<BR> + Almost we answer, "We are little <I>now!</I> "<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Dear friend and lover, whom to-day we christen,<BR> + Forgive such brief bewilderment,—thy true<BR> + And kindly hand we hold; we own thee fairest.<BR> + But ah! our yesterday was precious too.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + So, darlings, take this little childish story,<BR> + In which some gleams of the old sunshine play,<BR> + And, as with careless hands you turn the pages,<BR> + Look back and smile, as here I smile to-day.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3b"> +CONTENTS +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +CHAPTER +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +I <A HREF="#chap01">THE LITTLE CARRS</A> +<BR> +II <A HREF="#chap02">PARADISE</A> +<BR> +III <A HREF="#chap03">THE DAY OF SCRAPES</A> +<BR> +IV <A HREF="#chap04">KIKERI</A> +<BR> +V <A HREF="#chap05">IN THE LOFT</A> +<BR> +VI <A HREF="#chap06">INTIMATE FRIENDS</A> +<BR> +VII <A HREF="#chap07">COUSIN HELEN'S VISIT</A> +<BR> +VIII <A HREF="#chap08">TO-MORROW</A> +<BR> +IX <A HREF="#chap09">DISMAL DAYS</A> +<BR> +X <A HREF="#chap10">ST. NICHOLAS AND ST. VALENTINE</A> +<BR> +XI <A HREF="#chap11">A NEW LESSON TO LEARN</A> +<BR> +XII <A HREF="#chap12">TWO YEARS AFTERWARD</A> +<BR> +XIII <A HREF="#chap13">AT LAST</A> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE LITTLE CARRS +</H4> + +<P> +I was sitting in the meadows one day, not long ago, at a place where +there was a small brook. It was a hot day. The sky was very blue, and +white clouds, like great swans, went floating over it to and fro. Just +opposite me was a clump of green rushes, with dark velvety spikes, and +among them one single tall, red cardinal flower, which was bending over +the brook as if to see its own beautiful face in the water. But the +cardinal did not seem to be vain. +</P> + +<P> +The picture was so pretty that I sat a long time enjoying it. Suddenly, +close to me, two small voices began to talk—or to sing, for I couldn't +tell exactly which it was. One voice was shrill; the other, which was a +little deeper, sounded very positive and cross. They were evidently +disputing about something, for they said the same words over and over +again. These were the words—"Katy did." "Katy didn't." "She did." "She +didn't." "She did." "She didn't." "Did." "Didn't." I think they must +have repeated them at least a hundred times. +</P> + +<P> +I got up from my seat to see if I could find the speakers; and sure +enough, there on one of the cat-tail bulrushes, I spied two tiny +pale-green creatures. Their eyes seemed to be weak, for they both wore +black goggles. They had six legs apiece,—two short ones, two not so +short, and two very long. These last legs had joints like the springs to +buggy-tops; and as I watched, they began walking up the rush, and then I +saw that they moved exactly like an old-fashioned gig. In fact, if I +hadn't been too big, I <I>think</I> I should have heard them creak as they +went along. They didn't say anything so long as I was there, but the +moment my back was turned they began to quarrel again, and in the same +old words—"Katy did." "Katy didn't." "She did." "She didn't." +</P> + +<P> +As I walked home I fell to thinking about another Katy,—a Katy I once +knew, who planned to do a great many wonderful things, and in the end +did none of them, but something quite different,—something she didn't +like at all at first, but which, on the whole, was a great deal better +than any of the doings she had dreamed about. And as I thought, this +little story grew in my head, and I resolved to write it down for you. I +have done it; and, in memory of my two little friends on the bulrush, I +give it their name. Here it is—the story of What Katy Did. +</P> + +<P> +Katy's name was Katy Carr. She lived in the town of Burnet, which wasn't +a very big town, but was growing as fast as it knew how. The house she +lived in stood on the edge of the town. It was a large square house, +white, with green blinds, and had a porch in front, over which roses and +clematis made a thick bower. Four tall locust trees shaded the gravel +path which led to the front gate. On one side of the house was an +orchard; on the other side were wood piles and barns, and an ice-house. +Behind was a kitchen garden sloping to the south; and behind that a +pasture with a brook in it, and butternut trees, and four cows—two red +ones, a yellow one with sharp horns tipped with tin, and a dear little +white one named Daisy. +</P> + +<P> +There were six of the Carr children—four girls and two boys. Katy, the +oldest, was twelve years old; little Phil, the youngest, was four, and +the rest fitted in between. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Carr, their Papa, was a dear, kind, busy man, who was away from home +all day, and sometimes all night, too, taking care of sick people. The +children hadn't any Mamma. She had died when Phil was a baby, four years +before my story began. Katy could remember her pretty well; to the rest +she was but a sad, sweet name, spoken on Sunday, and at prayer-times, or +when Papa was especially gentle and solemn. +</P> + +<P> +In place of this Mamma, whom they recollected so dimly, there was Aunt +Izzie, Papa's sister, who came to take care of them when Mamma went away +on that long journey, from which, for so many months, the little ones +kept hoping she might return. Aunt Izzie was a small woman, sharp-faced +and thin, rather old-looking, and very neat and particular about +everything. She meant to be kind to the children, but they puzzled her +much, because they were not a bit like herself when she was a child. +Aunt Izzie had been a gentle, tidy little thing, who loved to sit as +Curly Locks did, sewing long seams in the parlor, and to have her head +patted by older people, and be told that she was a good girl; whereas +Katy tore her dress every day, hated sewing, and didn't care a button +about being called "good," while Clover and Elsie shied off like +restless ponies when any one tried to pat their heads. It was very +perplexing to Aunt Izzie, and she found it hard to quite forgive the +children for being so "unaccountable," and so little like the good boys +and girls in Sunday-school memoirs, who were the young people she liked +best, and understood most about. +</P> + +<P> +Then Dr. Carr was another person who worried her. He wished to have the +children hardy and bold, and encouraged climbing and rough plays, in +spite of the bumps and ragged clothes which resulted. In fact, there was +just one half-hour of the day when Aunt Izzie was really satisfied about +her charges, and that was the half-hour before breakfast, when she had +made a law that they were all to sit in their little chairs and learn +the Bible verse for the day. At this time she looked at them with +pleased eyes, they were all so spick and span, with such nicely-brushed +jackets and such neatly-combed hair. But the moment the bell rang her +comfort was over. From that time on, they were what she called "not fit +to be seen." The neighbors pitied her very much. They used to count the +sixty stiff white pantalette legs hung out to dry every Monday morning, +and say to each other what a sight of washing those children made, and +what a chore it must be for poor Miss Carr to keep them so nice. But +poor Miss Carr didn't think them at all nice; that was the worst of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Clover, go up stairs and wash your hands! Dorry, pick your hat off the +floor and hang it on the nail! Not that nail—the third nail from the +corner!" These were the kind of things Aunt Izzie was saying all day +long. The children minded her pretty well, but they didn't exactly love +her, I fear. They called her "Aunt Izzie" always, never "Aunty." Boys +and girls will know what <I>that</I> meant. +</P> + +<P> +I want to show you the little Carrs, and I don't know that I could ever +have a better chance than one day when five out of the six were perched +on top of the ice-house, like chickens on a roost. This ice-house was +one of their favorite places. It was only a low roof set over a hole in +the ground, and, as it stood in the middle of the side-yard, it always +seemed to the children that the shortest road to every place was up one +of its slopes and down the other. They also liked to mount to the +ridge-pole, and then, still keeping the sitting position, to let go, and +scrape slowly down over the warm shingles to the ground. It was bad for +their shoes and trousers, of course, but what of that? Shoes and +trousers, and clothes generally, were Aunt Izzie's affair; theirs was to +slide and enjoy themselves. +</P> + +<P> +Clover, next in age to Katy, sat in the middle. She was a fair, sweet +dumpling of a girl, with thick pig-tails of light brown hair, and +short-sighted blue eyes, which seemed to hold tears, just ready to fall +from under the blue. Really, Clover was the jolliest little thing in the +world; but these eyes, and her soft cooing voice, always made people +feel like petting her and taking her part. Once, when she was very +small, she ran away with Katy's doll, and when Katy pursued, and tried +to take it from her, Clover held fast and would not let go. Dr. Carr, +who wasn't attending particularly, heard nothing but the pathetic tone +of Clover's voice, as she said: "Me won't! Me want dolly!" and, without +stopping to inquire, he called out sharply: "For shame, Katy! give your +sister <I>her</I> doll at once!" which Katy, much surprised, did; while +Clover purred in triumph, like a satisfied kitten. Clover was sunny and +sweet-tempered, a little indolent, and very modest about herself, +though, in fact, she was particularly clever in all sorts of games, and +extremely droll and funny in a quiet way. Everybody loved her, and she +loved everybody, especially Katy, whom she looked up to as one of the +wisest people in the world. +</P> + +<P> +Pretty little Phil sat next on the roof to Clover, and she held him +tight with her arm. Then came Elsie, a thin, brown child of eight, with +beautiful dark eyes, and crisp, short curls covering the whole of her +small head. Poor little Elsie was the "odd one" among the Carrs. She +didn't seem to belong exactly to either the older or the younger +children. The great desire and ambition of her heart was to be allowed +to go about with Katy and Clover and Cecy Hall, and to know their +secrets, and be permitted to put notes into the little post-offices they +were forever establishing in all sorts of hidden places. But they didn't +want Elsie, and used to tell her to "run away and play with the +children," which hurt her feelings very much. When she wouldn't run +away, I am sorry to say they ran away from her, which, as their legs +were longest, it was easy to do. Poor Elsie, left behind, would cry +bitter tears, and, as she was too proud to play much with Dorry and +John, her principal comfort was tracking the older ones about and +discovering their mysteries, especially the post-offices, which were her +greatest grievance. Her eyes were bright and quick as a bird's. She +would peep and peer, and follow and watch, till at last, in some odd, +unlikely place, the crotch of a tree, the middle of the asparagus bed, +or, perhaps, on the very top step of the scuttle ladder, she spied the +little paper box, with its load of notes, all ending with: "Be sure and +not let Elsie know." Then she would seize the box, and, marching up to +wherever the others were, she would throw it down, saying, defiantly: +"There's your old post-office!" but feeling all the time just like +crying. Poor little Elsie! In almost every big family, there is one of +these unmated, left-out children. Katy, who had the finest plans in the +world for being "heroic," and of use, never saw, as she drifted on her +heedless way, that here, in this lonely little sister, was the very +chance she wanted for being a comfort to somebody who needed comfort +very much. She never saw it, and Elsie's heavy heart went uncheered. +</P> + +<P> +Dorry and Joanna sat on the two ends of the ridge-pole. Dorry was six +years old; a pale, pudgy boy, with rather a solemn face, and smears of +molasses on the sleeve of his jacket. Joanna, whom the children called +"John," and "Johnnie," was a square, splendid child, a year younger than +Dorry; she had big brave eyes, and a wide rosy mouth, which always +looked ready to laugh. These two were great friends, though Dorry seemed +like a girl who had got into boy's clothes by mistake, and Johnnie like +a boy who, in a fit of fun, had borrowed his sister's frock. And now, as +they all sat there chattering and giggling, the window above opened, a +glad shriek was heard, and Katy's head appeared. In her hand she held a +heap of stockings, which she waved triumphantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurray!" she cried, "all done, and Aunt Izzie says we may go. Are you +tired out waiting? I couldn't help it, the holes were so big, and took +so long. Hurry up, Clover, and get the things! Cecy and I will be down +in a minute." +</P> + +<P> +The children jumped up gladly, and slid down the roof. Clover fetched a +couple of baskets from the wood-shed. Elsie ran for her kitten. Dorry +and John loaded themselves with two great fagots of green boughs. Just +as they were ready, the side-door banged, and Katy and Cecy Hall came +into the yard. +</P> + +<P> +I must tell you about Cecy. She was a great friend of the children's, +and lived in a house next door. The yards of the houses were only +separated by a green hedge, with no gate, so that Cecy spent two-thirds +of her time at Dr. Carr's, and was exactly like one of the family. She +was a neat, dapper, pink-and-white-girl, modest and prim in manner, with +light shiny hair, which always kept smooth, and slim hands, which never +looked dirty. How different from my poor Katy! Katy's hair was forever +in a snarl; her gowns were always catching on nails and tearing +"themselves"; and, in spite of her age and size, she was as heedless and +innocent as a child of six. Katy was the <I>longest</I> girl that was ever +seen. What she did to make herself grow so, nobody could tell; but there +she was—up above Papa's ear, and half a head taller than poor Aunt +Izzie. Whenever she stopped to think about her height she became very +awkward, and felt as if she were all legs and elbows, and angles and +joints. Happily, her head was so full of other things, of plans and +schemes, and fancies of all sorts, that she didn't often take time to +remember how tall she was. She was a dear, loving child, for all her +careless habits, and made bushels of good resolutions every week of her +life, only unluckily she never kept any of them. She had fits of +responsibility about the other children, and longed to set them a good +example, but when the chance came, she generally forgot to do so. Katy's +days flew like the wind; for when she wasn't studying lessons, or sewing +and darning with Aunt Izzie, which she hated extremely, there were +always so many delightful schemes rioting in her brains, that all she +wished for was ten pairs of hands to carry them out. These same active +brains got her into perpetual scrapes. She was fond of building castles +in the air, and dreaming of the time when something she had done would +make her famous, so that everybody would hear of her, and want to know +her. I don't think she had made up her mind what this wonderful thing +was to be; but while thinking about it she often forgot to learn a +lesson, or to lace her boots, and then she had a bad mark, or a scolding +from Aunt Izzie. At such times she consoled herself with planning how, +by and by, she would be beautiful and beloved, and amiable as an angel. +A great deal was to happen to Katy before that time came. Her eyes, +which were black, were to turn blue; her nose was to lengthen and +straighten, and her mouth, quite too large at present to suit the part +of a heroine, was to be made over into a sort of rosy button. Meantime, +and until these charming changes should take place, Katy forgot her +features as much as she could, though still, I think, the person on +earth whom she most envied was that lady on the outside of the +Tricopherous bottles with the wonderful hair which sweeps the ground. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +PARADISE +</H4> + +<P> +The place to which the children were going was a sort of marshy thicket +at the bottom of a field near the house. It wasn't a big thicket, but it +looked big, because the trees and bushes grew so closely that you could +not see just where it ended. In winter the ground was damp and boggy, so +that nobody went there, excepting cows, who don't mind getting their +feet wet; but in summer the water dried away, and then it was all fresh +and green, and full of delightful things—wild roses, and sassafras, and +birds' nests. Narrow, winding paths ran here and there, made by the +cattle as they wandered to and fro. This place the children called +"Paradise," and to them it seemed as wide and endless and full of +adventure as any forest of fairy land. +</P> + +<P> +The way to Paradise was through some wooden bars. Katy and Cecy climbed +these with a hop, skip and jump, while the smaller ones scrambled +underneath. Once past the bars they were fairly in the field, and, with +one consent, they all began to run till they reached the entrance of the +wood. Then they halted, with a queer look of hesitation on their faces. +It was always an exciting occasion to go to Paradise for the first time +after the long winter. Who knew what the fairies might not have done +since any of them had been there to see? +</P> + +<P> +"Which path shall we go in by?" asked Clover, at last. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose we vote," said Katy. "I say by the Pilgrim's Path and the Hill +of Difficulty." +</P> + +<P> +"So do I!" chimed in Clover, who always agreed with Katy. +</P> + +<P> +"The Path of Peace is nice," suggested Cecy. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no! We want to go by Sassafras Path!" cried John and Dorry. +</P> + +<P> +However, Katy, as usual, had her way. It was agreed that they should +first try Pilgrim's Path, and afterward make a thorough exploration of +the whole of their little kingdom, and see all that had happened since +last they were there. So in they marched, Katy and Cecy heading the +procession, and Dorry, with his great trailing bunch of boughs, bringing +up the rear. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there is the dear Rosary, all safe!" cried the children, as they +reached the top of the Hill of Difficulty, and came upon a tall stump, +out of the middle of which waved a wild rose-bush, budded over with +fresh green eaves. This "Rosary" was a fascinating thing to their minds. +They were always inventing stories about it, and were in constant terror +lest some hungry cow should take a fancy to the rose-bush and eat it up. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Katy, stroking a leaf with her finger, "it was in great +danger one night last winter, but it escaped." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how? Tell us about it!" cried the others, for Katy's stories were +famous in the family. +</P> + +<P> +"It was Christmas Eve," continued Katy, in a mysterious tone. "The fairy +of the Rosary was quite sick. She had taken a dreadful cold in her head, +and the poplar-tree fairy, just over there, told her that sassafras tea +is good for colds. So she made a large acorn-cup full, and then cuddled +herself in where the wood looks so black and soft, and fell asleep. In +the middle of the night, when she was snoring soundly, there was a noise +in the forest, and a dreadful black bull with fiery eyes galloped up. He +saw our poor Rosy Posy, and, opening his big mouth, he was just going to +bite her in two; but at that minute a little fat man, with a wand in his +hand, popped out from behind the stump. It was Santa Claus, of course. +He gave the bull such a rap with his wand that he moo-ed dreadfully, and +then put up his fore-paw, to see if his nose was on or not. He found it +was, but it hurt him so that he 'moo-ed' again, and galloped off as fast +as he could into the woods. Then Santa Claus waked up the fairy, and +told her that if she didn't take better care of Rosy Posy he should put +some other fairy into her place, and set her to keep guard over a +prickly, scratchy, blackberry-bush." +</P> + +<P> +"Is there really any fairy?" asked Dorry, who had listened to this +narrative with open mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," answered Katy. Then bending down toward Dorry, she added in +a voice intended to be of wonderful sweetness: "I am a fairy, Dorry!" +</P> + +<P> +"Pshaw!" was Dorry's reply; "you're a giraffe—Pa said so!" +</P> + +<P> +The Path of Peace got its name because of its darkness and coolness. +High bushes almost met over it, and trees kept it shady, even in the +middle of the day. A sort of white flower grew there, which the children +called Pollypods, because they didn't know the real name. They staid a +long while picking bunches of these flowers, and then John and Dorry had +to grub up an armful of sassafras roots; so that before they had fairly +gone through Toadstool Avenue, Rabbit Hollow, and the rest, the sun was +just over their heads, and it was noon. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm getting hungry," said Dorry. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no, Dorry, you mustn't be hungry till the bower is ready!" cried +the little girls, alarmed, for Dorry was apt to be disconsolate if he +was kept waiting for his meals. So they made haste to build the bower. +It did not take long, being composed of boughs hung over skipping-ropes, +which were tied to the very poplar-tree where the fairy lived who had +recommended sassafras tea to the Fairy of the Rose. +</P> + +<P> +When it was done they all cuddled in underneath. It was a very small +bower—just big enough to hold them, and the baskets, and the kitten. I +don't think there would have been room for anybody else, not even +another kitten. Katy, who sat in the middle, untied and lifted the lid +of the largest basket, while all the rest peeped eagerly to see what +was inside. +</P> + +<P> +First came a great many ginger cakes. These were carefully laid on the +grass to keep till wanted: buttered biscuit came next—three apiece, +with slices of cold lamb laid in between; and last of all were a dozen +hard-boiled eggs, and a layer of thick bread and butter sandwiched with +corn-beef. Aunt Izzie had put up lunches for Paradise before, you see, +and knew pretty well what to expect in the way of appetite. +</P> + +<P> +Oh, how good everything tasted in that bower, with the fresh wind +rustling the poplar leaves, sunshine and sweet wood-smells about them, +and birds singing overhead! No grown-up dinner party ever had half so +much fun. Each mouthful was a pleasure; and when the last crumb had +vanished, Katy produced the second basket, and there, oh, delightful +surprise! were seven little pies—molasses pies, baked in saucers—each +with a brown top and crisp candified edge, which tasted like toffy and +lemon-peel, and all sorts of good things mixed up together. +</P> + +<P> +There was a general shout. Even demure Cecy was pleased, and Dorry and +John kicked their heels on the ground in a tumult of joy. Seven pairs of +hands were held out at once toward the basket; seven sets of teeth went +to work without a moment's delay. In an incredibly short time every +vestige of the pie had disappeared, and a blissful stickiness pervaded +the party. +</P> + +<P> +"What shall we do now?" asked Clover, while little Phil tipped the +baskets upside down, as if to make sure there was nothing left that +could possibly be eaten. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," replied Katy, dreamily. She had left her seat, and was +half-sitting, half-lying on the low, crooked bough of a butternut tree, +which hung almost over the children's heads. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's play we're grown up," said Cecy, "and tell what we mean to do." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Clover, "you begin. What do you mean to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to have a black silk dress, and pink roses in my bonnet, and a +white muslin long-shawl," said Cecy; "and I mean to look <I>exactly</I> like +Minerva Clark! I shall be very good, too; as good as Mrs. Bedell, only a +great deal prettier. All the young gentlemen will want me to go and +ride, but I shan't notice them at all, because you know I shall always +be teaching in Sunday-school, and visiting the poor. And some day, when +I am bending over an old woman and feeding her with currant jelly, a +poet will come along and see me, and he'll go home and write a poem +about me," concluded Cecy, triumphantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Pooh!" said Clover. "I don't think that would be nice at all. <I>I'm</I> +going to be a beautiful lady—the most beautiful lady in the world! And +I'm going to live in a yellow castle, with yellow pillars to the +portico, and a square thing on top, like Mr. Sawyer's. My children are +going to have a play-house up there. There's going to be a spy-glass in +the window, to look out of. I shall wear gold dresses and silver dresses +every day, and diamond rings, and have white satin aprons to tie on when +I'm dusting, or doing anything dirty. In the middle of my back-yard +there will be a pond-full of Lubin's Extracts, and whenever I want any I +shall go just out and dip a bottle in. And I shan't teach in Sunday +schools, like Cecy, because I don't want to; but every Sunday I'll go +and stand by the gate, and when her scholars go by on their way home, +I'll put Lubin's Extracts on their handkerchiefs." +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to have just the same," cried Elsie, whose imagination was fired +by this gorgeous vision, "only my pond will be the biggest. I shall be a +great deal beautifuller, too," she added. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't," said Katy from overhead. "Clover is going to be the most +beautiful lady in the world." +</P> + +<P> +"But I'll be more beautiful than the most beautiful," persisted poor +little Elsie; "and I'll be big, too, and know everybody's secrets. And +everybody'll be kind, then, and never run away and hide; and there won't +be any post offices, or anything disagreeable." +</P> + +<P> +"What'll you be, Johnnie?" asked Clover, anxious to change the subject, +for Elsie's voice was growing plaintive. +</P> + +<P> +But Johnnie had no clear ideas as to her future. She laughed a great +deal, and squeezed Dorry's arm very tight, but that was all. Dorry was +more explicit. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to have turkey every day," he declared, "and batter-puddings; +not boiled ones, you know, but little baked ones, with brown shiny +tops, and a great deal of pudding sauce to eat on them. And I shall be +so big then that nobody will say, 'Three helps is quite enough for a +little boy.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Dorry, you pig!" cried Katy, while the others screamed with +laughter. Dorry was much affronted. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall just go and tell Aunt Izzie what you called me," he said, +getting up in a great pet. +</P> + +<P> +But Clover, who was a born peacemaker, caught hold of his arm, and her +coaxings and entreaties consoled him so much that he finally said he +would stay; especially as the others were quite grave now, and promised +that they wouldn't laugh any more. +</P> + +<P> +"And now, Katy, it's your turn," said Cecy; "tell us what you're going +to be when you grow up." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not sure about what I'll be," replied Katy, from overhead; +"beautiful, of course, and good if I can, only not so good as you, Cecy, +because it would be nice to go and ride with the young gentlemen +<I>sometimes</I>. And I'd like to have a large house and a splendiferous +garden, and then you could all come and live with me, and we would play +in the garden, and Dorry should have turkey five times a day if he +liked. And we'd have a machine to darn the stockings, and another +machine to put the bureau drawers in order, and we'd never sew or knit +garters, or do anything we didn't want to. That's what I'd like to <I>be</I>. +But now I'll tell you what I mean to <I>do</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it the same thing?" asked Cecy. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no!" replied Katy, "quite different; for you see I mean to <I>do</I> +something grand. I don't know what, yet; but when I'm grown up I shall +find out." (Poor Katy always said "when I'm grown up," forgetting how +very much she had grown already.) "Perhaps," she went on, "it will be +rowing out in boats, and saving peoples' lives, like that girl in the +book. Or perhaps I shall go and nurse in the hospital, like Miss +Nightingale. Or else I'll head a crusade and ride on a white horse, with +armor and a helmet on my head, and carry a sacred flag. Or if I don't do +that, I'll paint pictures, or sing, or scalp—sculp,—what is it? you +know—make figures in marble. Anyhow it shall be <I>something</I>. And when +Aunt Izzie sees it, and reads about me in the newspapers she will say, +'The dear child! I always knew she would turn out an ornament to the +family,' People very often say, afterward, that they 'always knew,'" +concluded Katy sagaciously. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Katy! how beautiful it will be!" said Clover, clasping her hands. +Clover believed in Katy as she did in the Bible. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe the newspapers would be so silly as to print things +about <I>you</I>, Katy Carr," put in Elsie, vindictively. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes they will!" said Clover; and gave Elsie a push. +</P> + +<P> +By and by John and Dorry trotted away on mysterious errands of +their own. +</P> + +<P> +"Wasn't Dorry funny with his turkey?" remarked Cecy; and they all +laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +"If you won't tell," said Katy, "I'll let you see Dorry's journal. He +kept it once for almost two weeks, and then gave it up. I found the +book, this morning, in the nursery closet." +</P> + +<P> +All of them promised, and Katy produced it from her pocket. It +began thus: +</P> + +<P> +"March 12.—Have resolved to keep a jurnal. +</P> + +<P> +March 13.—Had rost befe for diner, and cabage, and potato and appel +sawse, and rice puding. I do not like rice puding when it is like ours. +Charley Slack's kind is rele good. Mush and sirup for tea. +</P> + +<P> +March 19.—Forgit what did. John and me saved our pie to take to schule. +</P> + +<P> +March 21.—Forgit what did. Gridel cakes for brekfast. Debby didn't +fry enuff. +</P> + +<P> +March 24.—This is Sunday. Corn befe for dinnir. Studdied my Bibel +leson. Aunt Issy said I was gredy. Have resollved not to think so much +about things to ete. Wish I was a beter boy. Nothing pertikeler for tea. +</P> + +<P> +March 25.—Forgit what did. +</P> + +<P> +March 27.—Forgit what did. +</P> + +<P> +March 29.—Played. +</P> + +<P> +March 31.—Forgit what did. +</P> + +<P> +April 1.—Have dissided not to kepe a jurnal enny more." +</P> + +<P> +Here ended the extracts; and it seemed as if only a minute had passed +since they stopped laughing over them, before the long shadows began to +fall, and Mary came to say that all of them must come in to get ready +for tea. It was dreadful to have to pick up the empty baskets and go +home, feeling that the long, delightful Saturday was over, and that +there wouldn't be another for a week. But it was comforting to remember +that Paradise was always there; and that at any moment when Kate and +Aunt Izzie were willing, they had only to climb a pair of bars—very +easy ones, and without any fear of an angel with flaming sword to stop +the way—enter in, and take possession of their Eden. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE DAY OF SCRAPES +</H4> + +<P> +Mrs. Knight's school, to which Katy and Clover and Cecy went, stood +quite at the other end of the town from Dr. Carr's. It was a low, +one-story building and had a yard behind it, in which the girls played +at recess. Unfortunately, next door to it was Miss Miller's school, +equally large and popular, and with a yard behind it also. Only a high +board fence separated the two playgrounds. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knight was a stout, gentle woman, who moved slowly, and had a face +which made you think of an amiable and well-disposed cow. Miss Miller, +on the contrary, had black eyes, with black corkscrew curls waving about +them, and was generally brisk and snappy. A constant feud raged between +the two schools as to the respective merits of the teachers and the +instruction. The Knight girls for some unknown reason, considered +themselves genteel and the Miller girls vulgar, and took no pains to +conceal this opinion; while the Miller girls, on the other hand, +retaliated by being as aggravating as they knew how. They spent their +recesses and intermissions mostly in making faces through the knot-holes +in the fence, and over the top of it when they could get there, which +wasn't an easy thing to do, as the fence was pretty high. The Knight +girls could make faces too, for all their gentility. Their yard had one +great advantage over the other: it possessed a wood-shed, with a +climbable roof, which commanded Miss Miller's premises, and upon this +the girls used to sit in rows, turning up their noses at the next yard, +and irritating the foe by jeering remarks. "Knights" and "Millerites," +the two schools called each other; and the feud raged so high, that +sometimes it was hardly safe for a Knight to meet a Millerite in the +street; all of which, as may be imagined, was exceedingly improving both +to the manners and morals of the young ladies concerned. +</P> + +<P> +One morning, not long after the day in Paradise, Katy was late. She +could not find her things. Her algebra, as she expressed it, had "gone +and lost itself," her slate was missing, and the string was off her +sun-bonnet. She ran about, searching for these articles and banging +doors, till Aunt Izzie was out of patience. +</P> + +<P> +"As for your algebra," she said, "if it is that very dirty book with +only one cover, and scribbled all over the leaves, you will find it +under the kitchen-table. Philly was playing before breakfast that it was +a pig: no wonder, I'm sure, for it looks good for nothing else. How you +do manage to spoil your school-books in this manner, Katy, I cannot +imagine. It is less than a month since your father got you a new +algebra, and look at it now—not fit to be carried about. I do wish you +would realize what books cost! +</P> + +<P> +"About your slate," she went on, "I know nothing; but here is the +bonnet-string;" taking it out of her pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thank you!" said Katy, hastily sticking it on with a pin. +</P> + +<P> +"Katy Carr!" almost screamed Miss Izzie, "what are you about? Pinning on +your bonnet-string! Mercy on me, what shiftless thing will you do next? +Now stand still, and don't fidget. You sha'n't stir till I have sewed it +on properly." +</P> + +<P> +It wasn't easy to "stand still and not fidget," with Aunt Izzie +fussing away and lecturing, and now and then, in a moment of +forgetfulness, sticking her needle into one's chin. Katy bore it as +well as she could, only shifting perpetually from one foot to the +other, and now and then uttering a little snort, like an impatient +horse. The minute she was released she flew into the kitchen, seized +the algebra, and rushed like a whirlwind to the gate, where good +little Clover stood patiently waiting, though all ready herself, and +terribly afraid she should be late. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall have to run," gasped Katy, quite out of breath. "Aunt Izzie +kept me. She has been so horrid!" +</P> + +<P> +They did run as fast as they could, but time ran faster, and before they +were half-way to school the town clock struck nine, and all hope was +over. This vexed Katy very much; for, though often late, she was always +eager to be early. +</P> + +<P> +"There," she said, stopping short, "I shall just tell Aunt Izzie that it +was her fault. It is <I>too</I> bad." And she marched into school in a very +cross mood. +</P> + +<P> +A day begun in this manner is pretty sure to end badly, as most of us +know. All the morning through, things seemed to go wrong. Katy missed +twice in her grammar lesson, and lost her place in the class. Her hand +shook so when she copied her composition, that the writing, not good at +best, turned out almost illegible, so that Mrs. Knight said it must all +be done over again. This made Katy crosser than ever; and almost before +she thought, she had whispered to Clover, "How hateful!" And then, when +just before recess all who had "communicated" were requested to stand +up, her conscience gave such a twinge that she was forced to get up with +the rest, and see a black mark put against her name on the list. The +tears came into her eyes from vexation; and, for fear the other girls +would notice them, she made a bolt for the yard as soon as the bell +rang, and mounted up all alone to the wood-house roof, where she sat +with her back to the school, fighting with her eyes, and trying to get +her face in order before the rest should come. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Miller's clock was about four minutes slower than Mrs. Knight's, so +the next playground was empty. It was a warm, breezy day, and as Katy +sat here, suddenly a gust of wind came, and seizing her sun-bonnet, +which was only half tied on, whirled it across the roof. She clutched +after it as it flew, but too late. Once, twice, thrice, it flapped, then +it disappeared over the edge, and Katy, flying after, saw it lying a +crumpled lilac heap in the very middle of the enemy's yard. +</P> + +<P> +This was horrible! Not merely losing the bonnet, for Katy was +comfortably indifferent as to what became of her clothes, but to lose it +<I>so</I>. In another minute the Miller girls would be out. Already she +seemed to see them dancing war-dances round the unfortunate bonnet, +pinning it on a pole, using it as a football, waving it over the fence, +and otherwise treating it as Indians treat a captive taken in war. Was +it to be endured? Never! Better die first! And with very much the +feeling of a person who faces destruction rather than forfeit honor, +Katy set her teeth, and sliding rapidly down the roof, seized the fence, +and with one bold leap vaulted into Miss Miller's yard. +</P> + +<P> +Just then the recess bell tinkled; and a little Millerite who sat by the +window, and who, for two seconds, had been dying to give the exciting +information, squeaked out to the others: "There's Katy Carr in our +back-yard!" +</P> + +<P> +Out poured the Millerites, big and little. Their wrath and +indignation at this daring invasion cannot be described. With a howl +of fury they precipitated themselves upon Katy, but she was quick as +they, and holding the rescued bonnet in her hand, was already +half-way up the fence. +</P> + +<P> +There are moments when it is a fine thing to be tall. On this occasion +Katy's long legs and arms served her an excellent turn. Nothing but a +Daddy Long Legs ever climbed so fast or so wildly as she did now. In one +second she had gained the top of the fence. Just as she went over a +Millerite seized her by the last foot, and almost dragged her boot off. +</P> + +<P> +Almost, not quite, thanks to the stout thread with which Aunt Izzie had +sewed on the buttons. With a frantic kick Katy released herself, and had +the satisfaction of seeing her assailant go head over heels backward, +while, with a shriek of triumph and fright, she herself plunged headlong +into the midst of a group of Knights. They were listening with open +mouths to the uproar, and now stood transfixed at the astonishing +spectacle of one of their number absolutely returning alive from the +camp of the enemy. +</P> + +<P> +I cannot tell you what a commotion ensued. The Knights were beside +themselves with pride and triumph. Katy was kissed and hugged, and made +to tell her story over and over again, while rows of exulting girls sat +on the wood-house roof to crow over the discomfited Millerites: and +when, later, the foe rallied and began to retort over the fence, Clover, +armed with a tack-hammer, was lifted up in the arms of one of the tall +girls to rap the intruding knuckles as they appeared on the top. This +she did with such good-will that the Millerites were glad to drop down +again, and mutter vengeance at a safe distance. Altogether it was a +great day for the school, a day to be remembered. As time went on, Katy, +what with the excitement of her adventure, and of being praised and +petted by the big girls, grew perfectly reckless, and hardly knew what +she said or did. +</P> + +<P> +A good many of the scholars lived too far from school to go home at +noon, and were in the habit of bringing their lunches in baskets, and +staying all day. Katy and Clover were of this number. This noon, after +the dinners were eaten, it was proposed that they should play something +in the school-room, and Katy's unlucky star put it into her head to +invent a new game, which she called the Game of Rivers. +</P> + +<P> +It was played in the following manner: Each girl took the name of a +river, and laid out for herself an appointed path through the room, +winding among the desks and benches, and making a low, roaring sound, to +imitate the noise of water. Cecy was the Platte, Marianne Brooks, a tall +girl, the Mississippi, Alice Blair, the Ohio, Clover, the Penobscot, and +so on. They were instructed to run into each other once in a while, +because, as Katy said, "rivers do." As for Katy herself, she was "Father +Ocean," and, growling horribly, raged up and down the platform where +Mrs. Knight usually sat. Every now and then, when the others were at the +far end of the room, she would suddenly cry out, "Now for a meeting of +the waters!" whereupon all the rivers bouncing, bounding, scrambling, +screaming, would turn and run toward Father Ocean, while he roared +louder than all of them put together, and made short rushes up and down, +to represent the movement of waves on a beach. +</P> + +<P> +Such a noise as this beautiful game made was never heard in the town of +Burnet before or since. It was like the bellowing of the bulls of +Bashan, the squeaking of pigs, the cackle of turkey-cocks, and the laugh +of wild hyenas all at once; and, in addition, there was a great banging +of furniture and scraping of many feet on an uncarpeted floor. People +going by stopped and stared, children cried, an old lady asked why some +one didn't run for a policeman; while the Miller girls listened to the +proceedings with malicious pleasure, and told everybody that it was the +noise that Mrs. Knight's scholars "usually made at recess." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knight coming back from dinner, was much amazed to see a crowd of +people collected in front of her school. As she drew near, the sounds +reached her, and then she became really frightened, for she thought +somebody was being murdered on her premises. Hurrying in, she threw open +the door, and there, to her dismay, was the whole room in a frightful +state of confusion and uproar: chairs flung down, desks upset, ink +streaming on the floor; while in the midst of the ruin the frantic +rivers raced and screamed, and old Father Ocean, with a face as red as +fire, capered like a lunatic on the platform. +</P> + +<P> +"What <I>does</I> this mean?" gasped poor Mrs. Knight, almost unable to speak +for horror. +</P> + +<P> +At the sound of her voice the Rivers stood still, Father Ocean brought +his prances to an abrupt close, and slunk down from the platform. All +of a sudden, each girl seemed to realize what a condition the room was +in, and what a horrible thing she had done. The timid ones cowered +behind their desks, the bold ones tried to look unconscious, and, to +make matters worse, the scholars who had gone home to dinner began to +return, staring at the scene of disaster, and asking, in whispers, what +had been going on? +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Knight rang the bell. When the school had come to order, she had +the desks and chairs picked up, while she herself brought wet cloths to +sop the ink from the floor. This was done in profound silence; and the +expression of Mrs. Knight's face was so direful and solemn, that a fresh +damp fell upon the spirits of the guilty Rivers, and Father Ocean wished +himself thousands of miles away. +</P> + +<P> +When all was in order again, and the girls had taken their seats, Mrs. +Knight made a short speech. She said she never was so shocked in her +life before; she had supposed that she could trust them to behave like +ladies when her back was turned. The idea that they could act so +disgracefully, make such an uproar and alarm people going by, had never +occurred to her, and she was deeply pained. It was setting a bad example +to all the neighborhood—by which Mrs. Knight meant the rival school, +Miss Miller having just sent over a little girl, with her compliments, +to ask if any one was hurt, and could <I>she</I> do anything? which was +naturally aggravating! Mrs. Knight hoped they were sorry; she thought +they must be—sorry and ashamed. The exercises could now go on as usual. +Of course some punishment would be inflicted for the offense, but she +should have to reflect before deciding what it ought to be. Meantime she +wanted them all to think it over seriously; and if any one felt that she +was more to blame than the others, now was the moment to rise and +confess it. +</P> + +<P> +Katy's heart gave a great thump, but she rose bravely: "I made up the +game, and I was Father Ocean," she said to the astonished Mrs. Knight, +who glared at her for a minute, and then replied solemnly: "Very well, +Katy—sit down;" which Katy did, feeling more ashamed than ever, but +somehow relieved in her mind. There is a saving grace in truth which +helps truth-tellers through the worst of their troubles, and Katy found +this out now. +</P> + +<P> +The afternoon was long and hard. Mrs. Knight did not smile once; the +lessons dragged; and Katy, after the heat and excitement of the +forenoon, began to feel miserable. She had received more than one hard +blow during the meetings of the waters, and had bruised herself almost +without knowing it, against the desks and chairs. All these places now +began to ache: her head throbbed so that she could hardly see, and a +lump of something heavy seemed to be lying on her heart. +</P> + +<P> +When school was over, Mrs. Knight rose and said, "The young ladies who +took part in the game this afternoon are requested to remain." All the +others went away, and shut the door behind them. It was a horrible +moment: the girls never forgot it, or the hopeless sound of the door as +the last departing scholar clapped it after her as she left. +</P> + +<P> +I can't begin to tell you what it was that Mrs. Knight said to them: it +was very affecting, and before long most of the girls began to cry. The +penalty for their offense was announced to be the loss of recess for +three weeks; but that wasn't half so bad as seeing Mrs. Knight so +"religious and afflicted," as Cecy told her mother afterward. One by one +the sobbing sinners departed from the schoolroom. When most of them were +gone, Mrs. Knight called Katy up to the platform, and said a few words +to her specially. She was not really severe, but Katy was too penitent +and worn out to bear much, and before long was weeping like a +water-spout, or like the ocean she had pretended to be. +</P> + +<P> +At this, tender-hearted Mrs. Knight was so much affected that she let +her off at once, and even kissed her in token of forgiveness, which made +poor Ocean sob harder than ever. All the way home she sobbed; faithful +little Clover, running along by her side in great distress, begging her +to stop crying, and trying in vain to hold up the fragments of her +dress, which was torn in, at least, a dozen places. Katy could not stop +crying, and it was fortunate that Aunt Izzie happened to be out, and +that the only person who saw her in this piteous plight was Mary, the +nurse, who doted on the children, and was always ready to help them out +of their troubles. +</P> + +<P> +On this occasion she petted and cosseted Katy exactly as if it had been +Johnnie or little Phil. She took her on her lap, bathed the hot head, +brushed the hair, put arnica on the bruises, and produced a clean frock, +so that by tea-time the poor child, except for her red eyes, looked like +herself again, and Aunt Izzie didn't notice anything unusual. +</P> + +<P> +For a wonder, Dr. Carr was at home that evening. It was always a great +treat to the children when this happened, and Katy thought herself happy +when, after the little ones had gone to bed, she got Papa to herself, +and told him the whole story. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa," she said, sitting on his knee, which, big girl as she was, she +liked very much to do, "what is the reason that makes some days so lucky +and other days so unlucky? Now today began all wrong, and everything +that happened in it was wrong, and on other days I begin right, and all +goes right, straight through. If Aunt Izzie hadn't kept me in the +morning, I shouldn't have lost my mark, and then I shouldn't have been +cross, and then <I>perhaps</I> I shouldn't have got in my other scrapes." +</P> + +<P> +"But what made Aunt Izzie keep you, Katy?" +</P> + +<P> +"To sew on the string of my bonnet, Papa." +</P> + +<P> +"But how did it happen that the string was off?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Katy, reluctantly, "I am afraid that was <I>my</I> fault, for it +came off on Tuesday, and I didn't fasten it on." +</P> + +<P> +"So you see we must go back of Aunt Izzie for the beginning of this +unlucky day of yours, Childie. Did you ever hear the old saying about, +'For the want of a nail the shoe was lost'?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, never—tell it to me!" cried Katy, who loved stories as well as +when she was three years old. +</P> + +<P> +So Dr. Carr repeated— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,<BR> + For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,<BR> + For the want of a horse the rider was lost,<BR> + For the want of a rider the battle was lost,<BR> + For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,<BR> + And all for want of a horse-shoe nail."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Papa!" exclaimed Katy, giving him a great hug as she got off his +knee, "I see what you mean! Who would have thought such a little +speck of a thing as not sewing on my string could make a difference? +But I don't believe I shall get in any more scrapes, for I sha'n't +ever forget— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "'For the want of a nail the shoe was lost.'"<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +KIKERI +</H4> + +<P> +But I am sorry to say that my poor, thoughtless Katy <I>did</I> forget, +and did get into another scrape, and that no later than the very +next Monday. +</P> + +<P> +Monday was apt to be rather a stormy day at the Carrs'. There was the +big wash to be done, and Aunt Izzie always seemed a little harder to +please, and the servants a good deal crosser than on common days. But I +think it was also, in part, the fault of the children, who, after the +quiet of Sunday, were specially frisky and uproarious, and readier than +usual for all sorts of mischief. +</P> + +<P> +To Clover and Elsie, Sunday seemed to begin at Saturday's bed-time, when +their hair was wet, and screwed up in papers, that it might curl next +day. Elsie's waved naturally, so Aunt Izzie didn't think it necessary to +pin her papers very tight; but Clover's thick, straight locks required +to be pinched hard before they would give even the least twirl, and to +her, Saturday night was one of misery. She would lie tossing, and +turning, and trying first one side of her head and then the other; but +whichever way she placed herself, the hard knobs and the pins stuck out +and hurt her; so when at last she fell asleep, it was face down, with +her small nose buried in the pillow, which was not comfortable, and gave +her bad dreams. In consequence of these sufferings Clover hated curls, +and when she "made up" stories for the younger children, they always +commenced: "The hair of the beautiful princess was as straight as a +yard-stick, and she never did it up in papers—never!" +</P> + +<P> +Sunday always began with a Bible story, followed by a breakfast of baked +beans, which two things were much tangled up together in Philly's mind. +After breakfast the children studied their Sunday-school lessons, and +then the big carryall came round, and they drove to church, which was a +good mile off. It was a large, old-fashioned church, with galleries, and +long pews with high red-cushioned seats. +</P> + +<P> +The choir sat at the end, behind a low, green curtain, which slipped +from side to side on rods. When the sermon began, they would draw the +curtain aside and show themselves, all ready to listen, but the rest of +the time they kept it shut. Katy always guessed that they must be having +good times behind the green curtain—eating orange-peel, perhaps, or +reading the Sunday-school books—and she often wished she might sit up +there among them. +</P> + +<P> +The seat in Dr. Carr's pew was so high that none of the children, except +Katy, could touch the floor, even with the point of a toe. This made +their feet go to sleep; and when they felt the queer little pin-pricks +which drowsy feet use to rouse themselves with, they would slide off the +seat, and sit on the benches to get over it. Once there, and well hidden +from view, it was almost impossible not to whisper. Aunt Izzie would +frown and shake her head, but it did little good, especially as Phil and +Dorry were sleeping with their heads on her lap, and it took both her +hands to keep them from rolling off into the bottom of the pew. When +good old Dr. Stone said, "Finally, my brethren," she would begin waking +them up. It was hard work sometimes, but generally she succeeded, so +that during the last hymn the two stood together on the seat, quite +brisk and refreshed, sharing a hymn-book, and making believe to sing +like the older people. +</P> + +<P> +After church came Sunday-school, which the children liked very much, and +then they went home to dinner, which was always the same on Sunday—cold +corned-beef, baked potatoes, and rice pudding. They did not go to church +in the afternoon unless they wished, but were pounced upon by Katy +instead, and forced to listen to the reading of <I>The Sunday Visitor</I>, a +religious paper, of which she was the editor. This paper was partly +written, partly printed, on a large sheet of foolscap, and had at the +top an ornamental device, in lead pencil, with "Sunday Visitor" in the +middle of it. The reading part began with a dull little piece of the +kind which grown people call an editorial, about "Neatness," or +"Obedience," or "Punctuality." The children always fidgeted when +listening to this, partly, I think, because it aggravated them to have +Katy recommending on paper, as very easy, the virtues which she herself +found it so hard to practise in real life. Next came anecdotes about +dogs and elephants and snakes, taken from the Natural History book, and +not very interesting, because the audience knew them by heart already. A +hymn or two followed, or a string of original verses, and, last of all, +a chapter of "Little Maria and Her Sisters," a dreadful tale, in which +Katy drew so much moral, and made such personal allusions to the faults +of the rest, that it was almost more than they could bear. In fact, +there had just been a nursery rebellion on the subject. You must know +that, for some weeks back, Katy had been too lazy to prepare any fresh +<I>Sunday Visitors</I>, and so had forced the children to sit in a row and +listen to the back numbers, which she read aloud from the very +beginning! "Little Maria" sounded much worse when taken in these large +doses, and Clover and Elsie, combining for once, made up their minds to +endure it no longer. So, watching their chance, they carried off the +whole edition, and poked it into the kitchen fire, where they watched it +burn with a mixture of fear and delight which it was comical to witness. +They dared not confess the deed, but it was impossible not to look +conscious when Katy was flying about and rummaging after her lost +treasure, and she suspected them, and was very irate in consequence. +</P> + +<P> +The evenings of Sunday were always spent in repeating hymns to Papa and +Aunt Izzie. This was fun, for they all took turns, and there was quite a +scramble as to who should secure the favorites, such as, "The west hath +shut its gate of gold," and "Go when the morning shineth." On the whole, +Sunday was a sweet and pleasant day, and the children thought so; but, +from its being so much quieter than other days, they always got up on +Monday full of life and mischief, and ready to fizz over at any minute, +like champagne bottles with the wires just cut. +</P> + +<P> +This particular Monday was rainy, so there couldn't be any out-door +play, which was the usual vent for over-high spirits. The little ones, +cooped up in the nursery all the afternoon, had grown perfectly riotous. +Philly was not quite well, and had been taking medicine. The medicine +was called <I>Elixir Pro</I>. It was a great favorite with Aunt Izzie, who +kept a bottle of it always on hand. The bottle was large and black, with +a paper label tied round its neck, and the children shuddered at the +sight of it. +</P> + +<P> +After Phil had stopped roaring and spluttering, and play had begun +again, the dolls, as was only natural, were taken ill also, and so was +"Pikery," John's little yellow chair, which she always pretended was a +doll too. She kept an old apron tied on his back, and generally took him +to bed with her—not into bed, that would have been troublesome; but +close by, tied to the bed-post. Now, as she told the others, Pikery was +very sick indeed. He must have some medicine, just like Philly. +</P> + +<P> +"Give him some water," suggested Dorry. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said John, decidedly, "it must be black and out of a bottle, or it +won't do any good." +</P> + +<P> +After thinking a moment, she trotted quietly across the passage into +Aunt Izzie's room. Nobody was there, but John knew where the Elixir Pro +was kept—in the closet on the third shelf. She pulled one of the +drawers out a little, climbed up, and reached it down. The children were +enchanted when she marched back, the bottle in one hand, the cork in the +other, and proceeded to pour a liberal dose on to Pikery's wooden seat, +which John called his lap. +</P> + +<P> +"There! there! my poor boy," she said, patting his shoulder—I mean his +arm—"swallow it down—it'll do you good." +</P> + +<P> +Just then Aunt Izzie came in, and to her dismay saw a long trickle of +something dark and sticky running down on to the carpet. It was Pikery's +medicine, which he had refused to swallow. +</P> + +<P> +"What is that?" she asked sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"My baby is sick," faltered John, displaying the guilty bottle. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie rapped her over the head with a thimble, and told her that +she was a very naughty child, whereupon Johnnie pouted, and cried a +little. Aunt Izzie wiped up the slop, and taking away the Elixir, +retired with it to her closet, saying that she "never knew anything like +it—it was always so on Mondays." +</P> + +<P> +What further pranks were played in the nursery that day, I cannot +pretend to tell. But late in the afternoon a dreadful screaming was +heard, and when people rushed from all parts of the house to see what +was the matter, behold the nursery door was locked, and nobody could get +in. Aunt Izzie called through the keyhole to have it opened, but the +roars were so loud that it was long before she could get an answer. At +last Elsie, sobbing violently, explained that Dorry had locked the door, +and now the key wouldn't turn, and they couldn't open it. <I>Would</I> they +have to stay there always, and starve? +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you won't, you foolish child," exclaimed Aunt Izzie. "Dear, +dear, what on earth will come next? Stop crying, Elsie—do you hear me? +You shall all be got out in a few minutes." +</P> + +<P> +And sure enough, the next thing came a rattling at the blinds, and there +was Alexander, the hired man, standing outside on a tall ladder and +nodding his head at the children. The little ones forgot their fright. +They flew to open the window, and frisked and jumped about Alexander as +he climbed in and unlocked the door. It struck them as being such a fine +thing to be let out in this way, that Dorry began to rather plume +himself for fastening them in. +</P> + +<P> +But Aunt Izzie didn't take this view of the case. She scolded them well, +and declared they were troublesome children, who couldn't be trusted one +moment out of sight, and that she was more than half sorry she had +promised to go to the Lecture that evening. "How do I know," she +concluded, "that before I come home you won't have set the house on +fire, or killed somebody?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no we won't! no we won't!" whined the children, quite moved by this +frightful picture. But bless you—ten minutes afterward they had +forgotten all about it. +</P> + +<P> +All this time Katy had been sitting on the ledge of the bookcase in the +Library, poring over a book. It was called Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. +The man who wrote it was an Italian, but somebody had done the story +over into English. It was rather a queer book for a little girl to take +a fancy to, but somehow Katy liked it very much. It told about knights, +and ladies, and giants, and battles, and made her feel hot and cold by +turns as she read, and as if she must rush at something, and shout, and +strike blows. Katy was naturally fond of reading. Papa encouraged it. He +kept a few books locked up, and then turned her loose in the Library. +She read all sorts of things: travels, and sermons, and old magazines. +Nothing was so dull that she couldn't get through with it. Anything +really interesting absorbed her so that she never knew what was going on +about her. The little girls to whose houses she went visiting had found +this out, and always hid away their story-books when she was expected to +tea. If they didn't do this, she was sure to pick one up and plunge in, +and then it was no use to call her, or tug at her dress, for she neither +saw nor heard anything more, till it was time to go home. +</P> + +<P> +This afternoon she read the Jerusalem till It was too dark to see any +more. On her way up stairs she met Aunt Izzie, with bonnet and shawl on. +</P> + +<P> +"Where <I>have</I> you been?" she said. "I have been calling you for the last +half-hour." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't hear you, ma'am." +</P> + +<P> +"But where were you?" persisted Miss Izzie. +</P> + +<P> +"In the Library, reading," replied Katy. +</P> + +<P> +Her aunt gave a sort of sniff, but she knew Katy's ways, and said no +more. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going out to drink tea with Mrs. Hall and attend the evening +Lecture," she went on. "Be sure that Clover gets her lesson, and if Cecy +comes over as usual, you must send her home early. All of you must be in +bed by nine." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm," said Katy, but I fear she was not attending much, but thinking, +in her secret soul, how jolly it was to have Aunt Izzie go out for once. +Miss Carr was very faithful to her duties: she seldom left the children, +even for an evening, so whenever she did, they felt a certain sense of +novelty and freedom, which was dangerous as well as pleasant. +</P> + +<P> +Still, I am sure that on this occasion Katy meant no mischief. Like all +excitable people she seldom did <I>mean</I> to do wrong, she just did it when +it came into her head. Supper passed off successfully, and all might +have gone well, had it not been that after the lessons were learned and +Cecy had come in, they fell to talking about "Kikeri." +</P> + +<P> +Kikeri was a game which had been very popular with them a year before. +They had invented it themselves, and chosen for it this queer name out +of an old fairy story. It was a sort of mixture of Blindman's Buff and +Tag—only instead of any one's eyes being bandaged, they all played in +the dark. One of the children would stay out in the hall, which was +dimly lighted from the stairs, while the others hid themselves in the +nursery. When they were all hidden, they would call out "Kikeri," as a +signal for the one in the hall to come in and find them. Of course, +coming from the light he could see nothing, while the others could see +only dimly. It was very exciting to stand crouching up in a corner and +watch the dark figure stumbling about and feeling to right and left, +while every now and then somebody, just escaping his clutches, would +slip past and gain the hall, which was "Freedom Castle," with a joyful +shout of "Kikeri, Kikeri, Kikeri, Ki!" Whoever was caught had to take +the place of the catcher. For a long time this game was the delight of +the Carr children; but so many scratches and black-and-blue spots came +of it, and so many of the nursery things were thrown down and broken, +that at last Aunt Izzie issued an order that it should not be played any +more. This was almost a year since; but talking of it now put it into +their heads to want to try it again. +</P> + +<P> +"After all we didn't promise," said Cecy. +</P> + +<P> +"No, and <I>Papa</I> never said a word about our not playing it," added Katy, +to whom "Papa" was authority, and must always be minded, while Aunt +Izzie might now and then be defied. +</P> + +<P> +So they all went up stairs. Dorry and John, though half undressed, were +allowed to join the game. Philly was fast asleep in another room. +</P> + +<P> +It was certainly splendid fun. Once Clover climbed up on the +mantel-piece and sat there, and when Katy, who was finder, groped about +a little more wildly than usual, she caught hold of Clover's foot, and +couldn't imagine where it came from. Dorry got a hard knock, and cried, +and at another time Katy's dress caught on the bureau handle and was +frightfully torn, but these were too much affairs of every day to +interfere in the least with the pleasures of Kikeri. The fun and frolic +seemed to grow greater the longer they played. In the excitement, time +went on much faster than any of them dreamed. Suddenly, in the midst of +the noise, came a sound—the sharp distinct slam of the carryall-door at +the side entrance. Aunt Izzie had returned from her Lecture. +</P> + +<P> +The dismay and confusion of that moment! Cecy slipped down stairs like +an eel, and fled on the wings of fear along the path which led to her +home. Mrs. Hall, as she bade Aunt Izzie good-night, and shut Dr. Carr's +front door behind her with a bang, might have been struck with the +singular fact that a distant bang came from her own front door like a +sort of echo. But she was not a suspicious woman; and when she went up +stairs there were Cecy's clothes neatly folded on a chair, and Cecy +herself in bed, fast asleep, only with a little more color than usual in +her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime, Aunt Izzie was on <I>her</I> way up stairs, and such a panic as +prevailed in the nursery! Katie felt it, and basely scuttled off to her +own room, where she went to bed with all possible speed. But the others +found it much harder to go to bed; there were so many of them, all +getting into each other's way, and with no lamp to see by. Dorry and +John popped under the clothes half undressed, Elsie disappeared, and +Clover, too late for either, and hearing Aunt Izzie's step in the hall, +did this horrible thing—fell on her knees, with her face buried in a +chair, and began to say her prayers very hard indeed. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie, coming in with a candle in her hand, stood in the doorway, +astonished at the spectacle. She sat down and waited for Clover to get +through, while Clover, on her part, didn't dare to get through, but went +on repeating "Now I lay me" over and over again, in a sort of despair. +At last Aunt Izzie said very grimly: "That will do, Clover, you can get +up!" and Clover rose, feeling like a culprit, which she was, for it was +much naughtier to pretend to be praying than to disobey Aunt Izzie and +be out of bed after ten o'clock, though I think Clover hardly understood +this then. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie at once began to undress her, and while doing so asked so +many questions, that before long she had got at the truth of the whole +matter. She gave Clover a sharp scolding, and leaving her to wash her +tearful face, she went to the bed where John and Dorry lay, fast asleep, +and snoring as conspicuously as they knew how. Something strange in the +appearance of the bed made her look more closely: she lifted the +clothes, and there, sure enough, they were—half dressed, and with their +school-boots on. +</P> + +<P> +Such a shake as Aunt Izzie gave the little scamps at this discovery, +would have roused a couple of dormice. Much against their will John and +Dorry were forced to wake up, and be slapped and scolded, and made +ready for bed, Aunt Izzie standing over them all the while, like a +dragon. She had just tucked them warmly in, when for the first time she +missed Elsie. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is my poor little Elsie?" she exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"In bed," said Clover, meekly. +</P> + +<P> +"In bed!" repeated Aunt Izzie, much amazed. Then stooping down, she gave +a vigorous pull. The trundle-bed came into view, and sure enough, there +was Elsie, in full dress, shoes and all, but so fast asleep that not all +Aunt Izzie's shakes, and pinches, and calls, were able to rouse her. Her +clothes were taken off, her boots unlaced, her night-gown put on; but +through it all Elsie slept, and she was the only one of the children who +did not get the scolding she deserved that dreadful night. +</P> + +<P> +Katy did not even pretend to be asleep when Aunt Izzie went to her room. +Her tardy conscience had waked up, and she was lying in bed, very +miserable at having drawn the others into a scrape as well as herself, +and at the failure of her last set of resolutions about "setting an +example to the younger ones." +</P> + +<P> +So unhappy was she, that Aunt Izzie's severe words were almost a relief; +and though she cried herself to sleep, it was rather from the burden of +her own thoughts than because she had been scolded. +</P> + +<P> +She cried even harder the next day, for Dr. Carr talked to her more +seriously than he had ever done before. He reminded her of the time when +her Mamma died, and of how she said, "Katy must be a Mamma to the little +ones, when she grows up." And he asked her if she didn't think the time +was come for beginning to take this dear place towards the children. +Poor Katy! She sobbed as if her heart would break at this, and though +she made no promises, I think she was never quite so thoughtless again, +after that day. As for the rest, Papa called them together and made them +distinctly understand that "Kikeri" was never to be played any more. It +was so seldom that Papa forbade any games, however boisterous, that this +order really made an impression on the unruly brood, and they never have +played Kikeri again, from that day to this. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE LOFT +</H4> + +<P> +"I declare," said Miss Petingill, laying down her work, "if them +children don't beat all! What on airth <I>are</I> they going to do now?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Petingill was sitting in the little room in the back building, +which she always had when she came to the Carr's for a week's mending +and making over. She was the dearest, funniest old woman who ever went +out sewing by the day. Her face was round, and somehow made you think of +a very nice baked apple, it was so criss-crossed, and lined by a +thousand good-natured puckers. She was small and wiry, and wore caps and +a false front, which was just the color of a dusty Newfoundland dog's +back. Her eyes were dim, and she used spectacles; but for all that, she +was an excellent worker. Every one liked Miss Petingill though Aunt +Izzie <I>did</I> once say that her tongue "was hung in the middle." Aunt +Izzie made this remark when she was in a temper, and was by no means +prepared to have Phil walk up at once and request Miss Petingill to +"stick it out," which she obligingly did; while the rest of the children +crowded to look. They couldn't see that it was different from other +tongues, but Philly persisted in finding something curious about it; +there must be, you know—since it was hung in that queer way! +</P> + +<P> +Wherever Miss Petingill went, all sorts of treasures went with her. The +children liked to have her come, for it was as good as a fairy story, or +the circus, to see her things unpacked. Miss Petingill was very much +afraid of burglars; she lay awake half the night listening for them and +nothing on earth would have persuaded her to go anywhere, leaving behind +what she called her "Plate." This stately word meant six old teaspoons, +very thin and bright and sharp, and a butter-knife, whose handle set +forth that it was "A testimonial of gratitude, for saving the life of +Ithuriel Jobson, aged seven, on the occasion of his being attacked with +quinsy sore throat." Miss Petingill was very proud of her knife. It and +the spoons travelled about in a little basket which hung on her arm, and +was never allowed to be out of her sight, even when the family she was +sewing for were the honestest people in the world. +</P> + +<P> +Then, beside the plate-basket, Miss Petingill never stirred without Tom, +her tortoiseshell cat. Tom was a beauty, and knew his power; he ruled +Miss Petingill with a rod of iron, and always sat in the rocking-chair +when there was one. It was no matter where <I>she</I> sat, Miss Petingill +told people, but Tom was delicate, and must be made comfortable. A big +family Bible always came too, and a special red merino pin-cushion, and +some "shade pictures" of old Mr. and Mrs. Petingill and Peter Petingill, +who was drowned at sea; and photographs of Mrs. Porter, who used to be +Marcia Petingill, and Mrs. Porter's husband, and all the Porter +children. Many little boxes and jars came also, and a long row of phials +and bottles, filled with homemade physic and herb teas. Miss Petingill +could not have slept without having them beside her, for, as she said, +how did she know that she might not be "took sudden" with something, and +die for want of a little ginger-balsam or pennyroyal? +</P> + +<P> +The Carr children always made so much noise, that it required something +unusual to make Miss Petingill drop her work, as she did now, and fly to +the window. In fact there was a tremendous hubbub: hurrahs from Dorry, +stamping of feet, and a great outcry of shrill, glad voices. Looking +down, Miss Petingill saw the whole six—no, seven, for Cecy was there +too—stream out of the wood-house door—which wasn't a door, but only a +tall open arch—and rush noisily across the yard. Katy was at the head, +bearing a large black bottle without any cork in it, while the others +carried in each hand what seemed to be a cookie. +</P> + +<P> +"Katherine Carr! Kather-<I>ine</I>!" screamed Miss Petingill, tapping loudly +on the glass. "Don't you see that it's raining? you ought to be ashamed +to let your little brothers and sisters go out and get wet in such a +way!" But nobody heard her, and the children vanished into the shed, +where nothing could be seen but a distant flapping of pantalettes and +frilled trousers, going up what seemed to be a ladder, farther back in +the shed. So, with a dissatisfied cluck, Miss Petingill drew back her +head, perched the spectacles on her nose, and went to work again on +Katy's plaid alpaca, which had two immense zigzag rents across the +middle of the front breadth. Katy's frocks, strange to say, always tore +exactly in that place! +</P> + +<P> +If Miss Petingill's eyes could have reached a little farther, they would +have seen that it wasn't a ladder up which the children were climbing, +but a tall wooden post, with spikes driven into it about a foot apart. +It required quite a stride to get from one spike to the other; in fact +the littler ones couldn't have managed it at all, had it not been for +Clover and Cecy "boosting" very hard from below, while Katy, making a +long arm, clawed from above. At last they were all safely up, and in the +delightful retreat which I am about to describe: +</P> + +<P> +Imagine a low, dark loft without any windows, and with only a very +little light coming in through the square hole in the floor, to which +the spikey post led. There was a strong smell of corn-cobs, though the +corn had been taken away, a great deal of dust and spiderweb in the +corners, and some wet spots on the boards; for the roof always leaked a +little in rainy weather. +</P> + +<P> +This was the place, which for some reason I have never been able to find +out, the Carr children preferred to any other on rainy Saturdays, when +they could not play out-doors, Aunt Izzie was as much puzzled at this +fancy as I am. When she was young (a vague, far-off time, which none of +her nieces and nephews believed in much), she had never had any of these +queer notions about getting off into holes and corners, and poke-away +places. Aunt Izzie would gladly have forbidden them to go the loft, but +Dr. Carr had given his permission, so all she could do was to invent +stories about children who had broken their bones in various dreadful +ways, by climbing posts and ladders. But these stories made no +impression on any of the children except little Phil, and the +self-willed brood kept on their way, and climbed their spiked post as +often as they liked. +</P> + +<P> +"What's in the bottle?" demanded Dorry, the minute he was fairly landed +in the loft. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be greedy," replied Katy, severely; "you will know when the time +comes. It is something <I>delicious</I>, I can assure you. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," she went on, having thus quenched Dorry, "all of you had better +give me your cookies to put away: if you don't, they'll be sure to be +eaten up before the feast, and then you know there wouldn't be anything +to make a feast of." +</P> + +<P> +So all of them handed over their cookies. Dorry, who had begun on his as +he came up the ladder, was a little unwilling, but he was too much in +the habit of minding Katy to dare to disobey. The big bottle was set in +a corner, and a stack of cookies built up around it. +</P> + +<P> +"That's right," proceeded Katy, who, as oldest and biggest, always took +the lead in their plays. "Now if we're fixed and ready to begin, the +Fête (Katy pronounced it <I>Feet</I>) can commence. The opening exercise will +be 'A Tragedy of the Alhambra,' by Miss Hall." +</P> + +<P> +"No," cried Clover; "first 'The Blue Wizard, or Edwitha of the +Hebrides,' you know, Katy." +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't I tell you?" said Katy; "a dreadful accident has happened to +that." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, what?" cried all the rest, for Edwitha was rather a favorite with +the family. It was one of the many serial stories which Katy was forever +writing, and was about a lady, a knight, a blue wizard, and a poodle +named Bop. It had been going on so many months now, that everybody had +forgotten the beginning, and nobody had any particular hope of living to +hear the end, but still the news of its untimely fate was a shock. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you," said Katy. "Old Judge Kirby called this morning to +see Aunt Izzie; I was studying in the little room, but I saw him come +in, and pull out the big chair and sit down, and I almost screamed +out 'don't!'" +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" cried the children. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you see? I had stuffed 'Edwitha' down between the back and the +seat. It was a <I>beau</I>tiful hiding-place, for the seat goes back ever so +far; but Edwitha was such a fat bundle, and old Judge Kirby takes up so +much room, that I was afraid there would be trouble. And sure enough, +he had hardly dropped down before there was a great crackling of paper, +and he jumped up again and called out, 'Bless me! what is that?' And +then he began poking, and poking, and just as he had poked out the +whole bundle, and was putting on his spectacles to see what it was, +Aunt Izzie came in." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what next?" cried the children, immensely tickled. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" continued Katy, "Aunt Izzie put on her glasses too, and screwed up +her eyes—you know the way she does, and she and the judge read a little +bit of it; that part at the first, you remember, where Bop steals the +blue-pills, and the Wizard tries to throw him into the sea. You can't +think how funny it was to hear Aunt Izzie reading 'Edwitha' out loud—" +and Katy went into convulsions at the recollection "where she got to 'Oh +Bop—my angel Bop—' I just rolled under the table, and stuffed the +table-cover in my mouth to keep from screaming right out. By and by I +heard her call Debby, and give her the papers, and say: 'Here is a mass +of trash which I wish you to put at once into the kitchen fire.' And she +told me afterward that she thought I would be in an insane asylum before +I was twenty. It was too bad," ended Katy half laughing and half +crying, "to burn up the new chapter and all. But there's one good +thing—she didn't find 'The Fairy of the Dry Goods Box,' that was +stuffed farther back in the seat. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," continued the mistress of ceremonies, "we will begin. Miss +Hall will please rise." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Hall," much flustered at her fine name, got up with very +red cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"It was once upon a time," she read, "Moonlight lay on the halls of the +Alhambra, and the knight, striding impatiently down the passage, thought +she would never come." +</P> + +<P> +"Who, the moon?" asked Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"No, of course not," replied Cecy, "a lady he was in love with. The next +verse is going to tell about her, only you interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"She wore a turban of silver, with a jewelled crescent. As she stole +down the corregidor the beams struck it and it glittered like stars. +</P> + +<P> +"'So you are come, Zuleika?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes, my lord.' +</P> + +<P> +"Just then a sound as of steel smote upon the ear, and Zuleika's +mail-clad father rushed in. He drew his sword, so did the other. A +moment more, and they both lay dead and stiff in the beams of the moon. +Zuleika gave a loud shriek, and threw herself upon their bodies. She was +dead, too! And so ends the Tragedy of the Alhambra." +</P> + +<P> +"That's lovely," said Katy, drawing a long breath, "only very sad! What +beautiful stories you do write, Cecy! But I wish you wouldn't always +kill the people. Why couldn't the knight have killed the father, +and—no, I suppose Zuleika wouldn't have married him then. Well, the +father might have—oh, bother! why must anybody be killed, anyhow? why +not have them fall on each other's necks, and make up?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Katy!" cried Cecy, "it wouldn't have been a tragedy then. You know +the name was A <I>Tragedy</I> of the Alhambra." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well," said Katy, hurriedly, for Cecy's lips were beginning to +pout, and her fair, pinkish face to redden, as if she were about to cry; +"perhaps it <I>was</I> prettier to have them all die; only I thought, for +a change, you know!—What a lovely word that was—. 'Corregidor'—what +does it mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," replied Cecy, quite consoled. "It was in the 'Conquest +of Granada.' Something to walk over, I believe." +</P> + +<P> +"The next," went on Katy, consulting her paper, "is 'Yap,' a Simple +Poem, by Clover Carr." +</P> + +<P> +All the children giggled, but Clover got up composedly, and recited the +following verses: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Did you ever know Yap?<BR> + The best little dog<BR> + Who e'er sat on lap<BR> + Or barked at a frog.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "His eyes were like beads,<BR> + His tail like a mop,<BR> + And it waggled as if<BR> + It never would stop.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "His hair was like silk<BR> + Of the glossiest sheen,<BR> + He always ate milk,<BR> + And once the cold-cream<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Off the nursery bureau<BR> + (That line is too long!)<BR> + It made him quite ill,<BR> + So endeth my song.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "For Yappy he died<BR> + Just two months ago,<BR> + And we oughtn't to sing<BR> + At a funeral, you know."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The "Poem" met with immense applause; all the children laughed, and +shouted, and clapped, till the loft rang again. But Clover kept her face +perfectly, and sat down as demure as ever, except that the little +dimples came and went at the corners of her mouth; dimples, partly +natural, and partly, I regret to say, the result of a pointed +slate-pencil, with which Clover was in the habit of deepening them every +day while she studied her lessons. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Katy, after the noise had subsided, "now come 'Scripture +Verses,' by Miss Elsie and Joanna Carr. Hold up your head, Elsie, and +speak distinctly; and oh, Johnnie, you <I>mustn't</I> giggle in that way +when it comes your turn!" +</P> + +<P> +But Johnnie only giggled the harder at this appeal, keeping her hands +very tight across her mouth, and peeping out over her fingers. Elsie, +however, was solemn as a little judge, and with great dignity began: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "An angel with a fiery sword,<BR> + Came to send Adam and Eve abroad<BR> + And as they journeyed through the skies<BR> + They took one look at Paradise.<BR> + They thought of all the happy hours<BR> + Among the birds and fragrant bowers,<BR> + And Eve she wept, and Adam bawled,<BR> + And both together loudly squalled."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Dorry snickered at this, but sedate Clover hushed him. +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't," she said; "it's about the Bible, you know. Now John, it's +your turn." +</P> + +<P> +But Johnnie would persist in holding her hands over her mouth, while her +fat little shoulders shook with laughter. At last, with a great effort, +she pulled her face straight, and speaking as fast as she possibly +could, repeated, in a sort of burst: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Balaam's donkey saw the Angel,<BR> + And stopped short in fear.<BR> + Balaam didn't see the Angel,<BR> + Which is very queer."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +After which she took refuge again behind her fingers, while Elsie went +on— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Elijah by the creek,<BR> + He by ravens fed,<BR> + Took from their horny beak<BR> + Pieces of meat and bread."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Johnnie," said Katy, but the incorrigible Johnnie was shaking +again, and all they could make out was— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "The bears came down, and ate———and ate."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +These "Verses" were part of a grand project on which Clover and Elsie +had been busy for more than a year. It was a sort of rearrangement of +Scripture for infant minds; and when it was finished, they meant to have +it published, bound in red, with daguerreotypes of the two authoresses +on the cover. "The Youth's Poetical Bible" was to be the name of it. +Papa, much tickled with the scraps which he overheard, proposed, +instead, "The Trundle-Bed Book," as having been composed principally in +that spot, but Elsie and Clover were highly indignant, and would not +listen to the idea for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +After the "Scripture Verses," came Dorry's turn. He had been allowed to +choose for himself, which was unlucky, as his taste was peculiar, not +to say gloomy. On this occasion he had selected that cheerful hymn +which begins— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +And he now began to recite it in a lugubrious voice and with great +emphasis, smacking his lips, as it were, over such lines as— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Princes, this clay <I>shall</I> be your bed,<BR> + In spite of all your towers."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The older children listened with a sort of fascinated horror, rather +enjoying the cold chills which ran down their backs, and huddling close +together, as Dorry's hollow tones echoed from the dark corners of the +loft. It was too much for Philly, however. At the close of the piece he +was found to be in tears. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want to st-a-a-y up here and be groaned at," he sobbed. +</P> + +<P> +"There, you bad boy!" cried Katy, all the more angry because she was +conscious of having enjoyed it herself, "that's what you do with your +horrid hymns, frightening us to death and making Phil cry!" And she gave +Dorry a little shake. He began to whimper, and as Phil was still +sobbing, and Johnnie had begun to sob too, out of sympathy with the +others, the <I>Feet</I> in the Loft seemed likely to come to a sad end. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm goin' to tell Aunt Izzie that I don't like you," declared Dorry, +putting one leg through the opening in the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"No, you aren't," said Katy, seizing him, "you are going to stay, +because <I>now</I> we are going to have the Feast! Do stop, Phil; and +Johnnie, don't be a goose, but come and pass round the cookies." +</P> + +<P> +The word "Feast" produced a speedy effect on the spirits of the party. +Phil cheered at once, and Dorry changed his mind about going. The black +bottle was solemnly set in the midst, and the cookies were handed about +by Johnnie, who was now all smiles. The cookies had scalloped edges and +caraway seeds inside, and were very nice. There were two apiece; and as +the last was finished, Katy put her hand in her pocket, and amid great +applause, produced the crowning addition to the repast—seven long, +brown sticks of cinnamon. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it fun?" she said. "Debby was real good-natured to-day, and let +me put my own hand into the box, so I picked out the longest sticks +there were. Now, Cecy, as you're company, you shall have the first drink +out of the bottle." +</P> + +<P> +The "something delicious" proved to be weak vinegar-and-water. It was +quite warm, but somehow, drank up there in the loft, and out of a +bottle, it tasted very nice. Beside, they didn't <I>call</I> it +vinegar-and-water—of course not! Each child gave his or her swallow a +different name, as if the bottle were like Signor Blitz's and could pour +out a dozen things at once. Clover called her share "Raspberry Shrub," +Dorry christened his "Ginger Pop," while Cecy, who was romantic, took +her three sips under the name of "Hydomel," which she explained was +something nice, made, she believed, of beeswax. The last drop gone, and +the last bit of cinnamon crunched, the company came to order again, for +the purpose of hearing Philly repeat his one piece,— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Little drops of water,"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +which exciting poem he had said every Saturday as far back as they could +remember. After that Katy declared the literary part of the "Feet" over, +and they all fell to playing "Stagecoach," which, in spite of close +quarters and an occasional bump from the roof, was such good fun, that a +general "Oh dear!" welcomed the ringing of the tea-bell. I suppose +cookies and vinegar had taken away their appetites, for none of them +were hungry, and Dorry astonished Aunt Izzie very much by eyeing the +table in a disgusted way, and saying: "Pshaw! <I>only</I> plum sweatmeats and +sponge cake and hot biscuit! I don't want any supper." +</P> + +<P> +"What ails the child? he must be sick," said Dr. Carr; but Katy +explained. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, Papa, it isn't that—only we've been having a feast in +the loft." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you have a good time?" asked Papa, while Aunt Izzie gave a +dissatisfied groan. And all the children answered at once: +"Splendiferous!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +INTIMATE FRIENDS +</H4> + +<P> +"Aunt Izzie, may I ask Imogen Clark to spend the day here on Saturday?" +cried Katy, bursting in one afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +"Who on earth is Imogen Clark? I never heard the name before," +replied her aunt. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the <I>loveliest</I> girl! She hasn't been going to Mrs. Knight's school +but a little while, but we're the greatest friends. And she's perfectly +beautiful, Aunt Izzie. Her hands are just as white as snow, and no +bigger than <I>that</I>. She's got the littlest waist of any girl in school, +and she's real sweet, and so self-denying and unselfish! I don't believe +she has a bit good times at home, either. Do let me ask her!" +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know she's so sweet and self-denying, if you've known her +such a short time?" asked Aunt Izzie, in an unpromising tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she tells me everything! We always walk together at recess now. I +know all about her, and she's just lovely! Her father used to be real +rich, but they're poor now, and Imogen had to have her boots patched +twice last winter. I guess she's the flower of her family. You can't +think how I love her!" concluded Katy, sentimentally. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I can't," said Aunt Izzie. "I never could see into these sudden +friendships of yours, Katy, and I'd rather you wouldn't invite this +Imogen, or whatever her name is, till I've had a chance to ask somebody +about her." +</P> + +<P> +Katy clasped her hands in despair. "Oh, Aunt Izzie!" she cried, "Imogen +knows that I came in to ask you, and she's standing at the gate at this +moment, waiting to hear what you say. Please let me, just this once! I +shall be so dreadfully ashamed not to." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Miss Izzie, moved by the wretchedness of Katy's face, "if +you've asked her already, it's no use my saying no, I suppose. But +recollect, Katy, this is not to happen again. I can't have you inviting +girls, and then coming for my leave. Your father won't be at all +pleased. He's very particular about whom you make friends with. Remember +how Mrs. Spenser turned out." +</P> + +<P> +Poor Katy! Her propensity to fall violently in love with new people was +always getting her into scrapes. Ever since she began to walk and talk, +"Katy's intimate friends" had been one of the jokes of the household. +</P> + +<P> +Papa once undertook to keep a list of them, but the number grew so great +that he gave it up in despair. First on the list was a small Irish +child, named Marianne O'Riley. Marianne lived in a street which Katy +passed on her way to school. It was not Mrs. Knight's, but an ABC +school, to which Dorry and John now went. Marianne used to be always +making sand-pies in front of her mother's house, and Katy, who was about +five years old, often stopped to help her. Over this mutual pastry they +grew so intimate, that Katy resolved to adopt Marianne as her own little +girl, and bring her up in a safe and hidden corner. +</P> + +<P> +She told Clover of this plan, but nobody else. The two children, full of +their delightful secret, began to save pieces of bread and cookies from +their supper every evening. By degrees they collected a great heap of +dry crusts, and other refreshments, which they put safely away in the +garret. They also saved the apples which were given them for two weeks, +and made a bed in a big empty box, with cotton quilts, and the dolls' +pillows out of the baby-house. When all was ready, Katy broke the plan +to her beloved Marianne, and easily persuaded her to run away and take +possession of this new home. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't tell Papa and Mamma till she's quite grown up," Katy said to +Clover; "then we'll bring her down stairs, and <I>won't</I> they be +surprised? Don't let's call her Marianne any longer, either. It isn't +pretty. We'll name her Susquehanna instead—Susquehanna Carr. Recollect, +Marianne, you mustn't answer if I call you Marianne—only when I say +Susquehanna." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes'm," replied Marianne, very meekly. +</P> + +<P> +For a whole day all went on delightfully. Susquehanna lived in her +wooden box, ate all the apples and the freshest cookies, and was happy. +The two children took turns to steal away and play with the "Baby," as +they called Marianne, though she was a great deal bigger than Clover. +But when night came on, and nurse swooped on Katy and Clover, and +carried them off to bed, Miss O'Riley began to think that the garret was +a dreadful place. Peeping out of her box, she could see black things +standing in corners, which she did not recollect seeing in the day-time. +They were really trunks and brooms and warming-pans, but somehow, in the +darkness, they looked different—big and awful. Poor little Marianne +bore it as long as she could; but when at last a rat began to scratch in +the wall close beside her, her courage gave way entirely, and she +screamed at the top of her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"What is that?" said Dr. Carr, who had just come in, and was on his way +up stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"It sounds as if it came from the attic," said Mrs. Carr (for this was +before Mamma died). "Can it be that one of the children has got out of +bed and wandered up stairs in her sleep?" +</P> + +<P> +No, Katy and Clover were safe in the nursery; so Dr. Carr took a +candle and went as fast as he could to the attic, where the yells were +growing terrific. When he reached the top of the stairs, the cries +ceased. He looked about. Nothing was to be seen at first, then a +little head appeared over the edge of a big wooden box, and a piteous +voice sobbed out: +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Miss Katy, and indeed I can't be stayin' any longer. There's +rats in it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who on earth <I>are</I> you?" asked the amazed Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure I'm Miss Katy's and Miss Clover's Baby. But I don't want to be a +baby any longer. I want to go home and see my mother." And again the +poor little midge lifted up her voice and wept. +</P> + +<P> +I don't think Dr. Carr ever laughed so hard in his life, as when +finally he got to the bottom of the story, and found that Katy and +Clover had been "adopting" a child. But he was very kind to poor +Susquehanna, and carried her down stairs in his arms, to the nursery. +There, in a bed close to the other children, she soon forgot her +troubles and fell asleep. +</P> + +<P> +The little sisters were much surprised when they waked up in the +morning, and found their Baby asleep beside them. But their joy was +speedily turned to tears. After breakfast, Dr. Carr carried Marianne +home to her mother, who was in a great fright over her disappearance, +and explained to the children that the garret plan must be given up. +Great was the mourning in the nursery; but as Marianne was allowed to +come and play with them now and then, they gradually got over their +grief. A few months later Mr. O'Riley moved away from Burnet, and that +was the end of Katy's first friendship. +</P> + +<P> +The next was even funnier. There was a queer old black woman who lived +all alone by herself in a small house near the school. This old woman +had a very bad temper. The neighbors told horrible stories about her, so +that the children were afraid to pass the house. They used to turn +always just before they reached it, and cross to the other side of the +street. This they did so regularly, that their feet had worn a path in +the grass. But for some reason Katy found a great fascination in the +little house. She liked to dodge about the door, always holding herself +ready to turn and run in case the old woman rushed out upon her with a +broomstick. One day she begged a large cabbage of Alexander, and rolled +it in at the door of the house. The old woman seemed to like it, and +after this Katy always stopped to speak when she went by. She even got +so far as to sit on the step and watch the old woman at work. There was +a sort of perilous pleasure in doing this. It was like sitting at the +entrance of a lion's cage, uncertain at what moment his Majesty might +take it into his head to give a spring and eat you up. +</P> + +<P> +After this, Katy took a fancy to a couple of twin sisters, daughters of +a German jeweller. They were quite grown-up, and always wore dresses +exactly alike. Hardly any one could tell them apart. They spoke very +little English, and as Katy didn't know a word of German, their +intercourse was confined to smiles, and to the giving of bunches of +flowers, which Katy used to tie up and present to them whenever they +passed the gate. She was too shy to do more than just put the flowers in +their hands and run away; but the twins were evidently pleased, for one +day, when Clover happened to be looking out of the window, she saw them +open the gate, fasten a little parcel to a bush, and walk rapidly off. +Of course she called Katy at once, and the two children flew out to see +what the parcel was. It held a bonnet—a beautiful doll's bonnet of blue +silk, trimmed with artificial flowers; upon it was pinned a slip of +paper with these words, in an odd foreign hand: +</P> + +<P> +"To the nice little girl who was so kindly to give us some flowers." +</P> + +<P> +You can judge whether Katy and Clover were pleased or not. +</P> + +<P> +This was when Katy was six years old. I can't begin to tell you how many +different friends she had set up since then. There was an ash-man, and a +steam-boat captain. There was Mrs. Sawyer's cook, a nice old woman, who +gave Katy lessons in cooking, and taught her to make soft custard and +sponge-cake. There was a bonnet-maker, pretty and dressy, whom, to Aunt +Izzie's great indignation, Katy persisted in calling "Cousin Estelle!" +There was a thief in the town-jail, under whose window Katy used to +stand, saying, "I'm so sorry, poor man!" and "have you got any little +girls like me?" in the most piteous way. The thief had a piece of string +which he let down from the window. Katy would tie rosebuds and cherries +to this string, and the thief would draw them up. It was so interesting +to do this, that Katy felt dreadfully when they carried the man off to +the State Prison. Then followed a short interval of Cornelia Perham, a +nice, good-natured girl, whose father was a fruit-merchant. I am afraid +Katy's liking for prunes and white grapes played a part in this +intimacy. It was splendid fun to go with Cornelia to her father's big +shop, and have whole boxes of raisins and drums of figs opened for their +amusement, and be allowed to ride up and down in the elevator as much as +they liked. But of all Katy's queer acquaintances, Mrs. Spenser, to whom +Aunt Izzie had alluded, was the queerest. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Spenser was a mysterious lady whom nobody ever saw. Her husband was +a handsome, rather bad-looking man, who had come from parts unknown, and +rented a small house in Burnet. He didn't seem to have any particular +business, and was away from home a great deal. His wife was said to be +an invalid, and people, when they spoke of him, shook their heads and +wondered how the poor woman got on all alone in the house, while her +husband was absent. +</P> + +<P> +Of course Katy was too young to understand these whispers, or the +reasons why people were not disposed to think well of Mr. Spenser. The +romance of the closed door and the lady whom nobody saw, interested her +very much. She used to stop and stare at the windows, and wonder what +was going on inside, till at last it seemed as if she <I>must</I> know. So, +one day she took some flowers and Victoria, her favorite doll, and +boldly marched into the Spensers' yard. +</P> + +<P> +She tapped at the front door, but nobody answered. Then she tapped +again. Still nobody answered. She tried the door. It was locked. So +shouldering Victoria, she trudged round to the back of the house. As she +passed the side-door she saw that it was open a little way. She knocked +for the third time, and as no one came, she went in, and passing through +the little hall, began to tap at all the inside doors. +</P> + +<P> +There seemed to be no people in the house, Katy peeped into the kitchen +first. It was bare and forlorn. All sorts of dishes were standing about. +There was no fire in the stove. The parlor was not much better. Mr. +Spenser's boots lay in the middle of the floor. There were dirty glasses +on the table. On the mantel-piece was a platter with bones of meat upon +it. Dust lay thick over everything, and the whole house looked as if it +hadn't been lived in for at least a year. +</P> + +<P> +Katy tried several other doors, all of which were locked, and then she +went up stairs. As she stood on the top step, grasping her flowers, and +a little doubtful what to do next, a feeble voice from a bed-room +called out: +</P> + +<P> +"Who is there?" +</P> + +<P> +This was Mrs. Spenser. She was lying on her bed, which was very tossed +and tumbled, as if it hadn't been made up that morning. The room was as +disorderly and dirty as all the rest of the house, and Mrs. Spenser's +wrapper and night-cap were by no means clean, but her face was sweet, +and she had beautiful curling hair, which fell over the pillow. She was +evidently very sick, and altogether Katy felt sorrier for her than she +had ever done for anybody in her life. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you, child?" asked Mrs. Spenser. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm Dr. Carr's little girl," answered Katy, going straight up to the +bed. "I came to bring you some flowers." And she laid the bouquet on the +dirty sheet. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Spenser seemed to like the flowers. She took them up and smelled +them for a long time, without speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"But how did you get in?" she said at last. +</P> + +<P> +"The door was open," faltered Katy, who was beginning to feel scared at +her own daring, "and they said you were sick, so I thought perhaps you +would like me to come and see you." +</P> + +<P> +"You are a kind little girl," said Mrs. Spenser, and gave her a kiss. +</P> + +<P> +After this Katy used to go every day. Sometimes Mrs. Spenser would be up +and moving feebly about; but more often she was in bed, and Katy would +sit beside her. The house never looked a bit better than it did that +first day, but after a while Katy used to brush Mrs. Spenser's hair, and +wash her face with the corner of a towel. +</P> + +<P> +I think her visits were a comfort to the poor lady, who was very ill and +lonely. Sometimes, when she felt pretty well, she would tell Katy +stories about the time when she was a little girl and lived at home with +her father and mother. But she never spoke of Mr. Spenser, and Katy +never saw him except once, when she was so frightened that for several +days she dared not go near the house. At last Cecy reported that she had +seen him go off in the stage with his carpet-bag, so Katy ventured in +again. Mrs. Spenser cried when she saw her. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you were never coming any more," she said. +</P> + +<P> +Katy was touched and flattered at having been missed, and after that she +never lost a day. She always carried the prettiest flowers she could +find, and if any one gave her a specially nice peach or a bunch of +grapes, she saved it for Mrs. Spenser. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie was much worried at all this. But Dr. Carr would not +interfere. He said it was a case where grown people could do nothing, +and if Katy was a comfort to the poor lady he was glad. Katy was glad +too, and the visits did her as much good as they did Mrs. Spenser, for +the intense pity she felt for the sick woman made her gentle and patient +as she had never been before. +</P> + +<P> +One day she stopped, as usual, on her way home from school. She tried +the side-door—it was locked; the back-door, it was locked too. All the +blinds were shut tight. This was very puzzling. +</P> + +<P> +As she stood in the yard a woman put her head out of the window of +the next house. "It's no use knocking," she said, "all the folks have +gone away." +</P> + +<P> +"Gone away where?" asked Katy. +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody knows," said the woman; "the gentleman came back in the middle +of the night, and this morning, before light, he had a wagon at the +door, and just put in the trunks and the sick lady, and drove off. +There's been more than one a-knocking besides you, since then. But Mr. +Pudgett, he's got the key, and nobody can get in without goin' to him." +</P> + +<P> +It was too true. Mrs. Spenser was gone, and Katy never saw her again. In +a few days it came out that Mr. Spenser was a very bad man, and had been +making false money—<I>counterfeiting</I>, as grown people call it. The +police were searching for him to put him in jail, and that was the +reason he had come back in such a hurry and carried off his poor sick +wife. Aunt Izzie cried with mortification, when she heard this. She said +she thought it was a disgrace that Katy should have been visiting in a +counterfeiter's family. But Dr. Carr only laughed. He told Aunt Izzie +that he didn't think that kind of crime was catching, and as for Mrs. +Spenser, she was much to be pitied. But Aunt Izzie could not get over +her vexation, and every now and then, when she was vexed, she would +refer to the affair, though this all happened so long ago that most +people had forgotten all about it, and Philly and John had stopped +playing at "Putting Mr. Spenser in Jail," which for a long time was one +of their favorite games. +</P> + +<P> +Katy always felt badly when Aunt Izzie spoke unkindly of her poor sick +friend. She had tears in her eyes now, as she walked to the gate, and +looked so very sober, that Imogen Clark, who stood there waiting, +clasped her hands and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, I see! Your aristocratic Aunt refuses." +</P> + +<P> +Imogen's real name was Elizabeth. She was rather a pretty girl, with a +screwed-up, sentimental mouth, shiny brown hair, and a little round curl +on each of her cheeks. These curls must have been fastened on with glue +or tin tacks, one would think, for they never moved, however much she +laughed or shook her head. Imogen was a bright girl, naturally, but she +had read so many novels that her brain was completely turned. It was +partly this which made her so attractive to Katy, who adored stories, +and thought Imogen was a real heroine of romance. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, she doesn't," she replied, hardly able to keep from laughing, at +the idea of Aunt Izzie's being called an "aristocratic relative"—"she +says she shall be my hap—" But here Katy's conscience gave a prick, and +the sentence ended in "um, um, um—" "So you'll come, won't you, +darling? I am so glad!" +</P> + +<P> +"And I!" said Imogen, turning up her eyes theatrically. +</P> + +<P> +From this time on till the end of the week, the children talked of +nothing but Imogen's visit, and the nice time they were going to have. +Before breakfast on Saturday morning, Katy and Clover were at work +building a beautiful bower of asparagus boughs under the trees. All the +playthings were set out in order. Debby baked them some cinnamon cakes, +the kitten had a pink ribbon tied round her neck, and the dolls, +including "Pikery," were arrayed in their best clothes. +</P> + +<P> +About half-past ten Imogen arrived. She was dressed in a light-blue +barège, with low neck and short sleeves, and wore coral beads in her +hair, white satin slippers, and a pair of yellow gloves. The gloves and +slippers were quite dirty, and the barège was old and darned; but the +general effect was so very gorgeous, that the children, who were dressed +for play, in gingham frocks and white aprons, were quite dazzled at the +appearance of their guest. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Imogen, you look just like a young lady in a story!" said simple +Katy; whereupon Imogen tossed her head and rustled her skirts about more +than ever. +</P> + +<P> +Somehow, with these fine clothes, Imogen seemed to have put on a fine +manner, quite different from the one she used every day. You know some +people always do, when they go out visiting. You would almost have +supposed that this was a different Imogen, who was kept in a box most of +the time, and taken out for Sundays and grand occasions. She swam about, +and diddled, and lisped, and looked at herself in the glass, and was +generally grown-up and airy. When Aunt Izzie spoke to her, she fluttered +and behaved so queerly, that Clover almost laughed; and even Katy, who +could see nothing wrong in people she loved, was glad to carry her away +to the playroom. +</P> + +<P> +"Come out to the bower," she said, putting her arm round the blue +barège waist. +</P> + +<P> +"A bower!" cried Imogen. "How sweet!" But when they reached the +asparagus boughs her face fell. "Why it hasn't any roof, or pinnacles, +or any fountain!" she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Why no, of course not," said Clover, staring, "we made it ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Imogen. She was evidently disappointed. Katy and Clover felt +mortified; but as their visitor did not care for the bower, they tried +to think of something else. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us go to the Loft," they said. +</P> + +<P> +So they all crossed the yard together. Imogen picked her way daintily +in the white satin slippers, but when she saw the spiked post, she +gave a scream. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, not up there, darling, not up there!". she cried; "never, never!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, do try! It's just as easy as can be," pleaded Katy, going up and +down half a dozen times in succession to show how easy it was. But +Imogen wouldn't be persuaded. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not ask me," she said affectedly; "my nerves would never stand such +a thing! And besides—my dress!" +</P> + +<P> +"What made you wear it?" said Philly, who was a plain-spoken child, and +given to questions. While John whispered to Dorry, "That's a real stupid +girl. Let's go off somewhere and play by ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +So, one by one, the small fry crept away, leaving Katy and Clover to +entertain the visitor by themselves. They tried dolls, but Imogen did +not care for dolls. Then they proposed to sit down in the shade, and cap +verses, a game they all liked. But Imogen said that though she adored +poetry, she never could remember any. So it ended in their going to the +orchard, where Imogen ate a great many plums and early apples, and +really seemed to enjoy herself. But when she could eat no more, a +dreadful dulness fell over the party. At last Imogen said: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you ever sit in the drawing-room?" +</P> + +<P> +"The what?" asked Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"The drawing-room," repeated Imogen. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she means the parlor!" cried Katy. "No, we don't sit there except +when Aunt Izzie has company to tea. It is all dark and poky, you know. +Beside, it's so much pleasanter to be out-doors. Don't you think so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sometimes," replied Imogen, doubtfully, "but I think it would be +pleasant to go in and sit there for a while, now. My head aches +dreadfully, being out here in this horrid sun." +</P> + +<P> +Katy was at her wit's end to know what to do. They scarcely ever went +into the parlor, which Aunt Izzie regarded as a sort of sacred place. +She kept cotton petticoats over all the chairs for fear of dust, and +never opened the blinds for fear of flies. The idea of children with +dusty boots going in there to sit! On the other hand, Katy's natural +politeness made it hard to refuse a visitor anything she asked for. And +beside, it was dreadful to think that Imogen might go away and report +"Katy Carr isn't allowed to sit in the best room, even when she has +company!" With a quaking heart she led the way to the parlor. She dared +not open the blinds, so the room looked very dark. She could just see +Imogen's figure as she sat on the sofa, and Clover twirling uneasily +about on the piano-stool. All the time she kept listening to hear if +Aunt Izzie were not coming, and altogether the parlor was a dismal place +to her; not half so pleasant as the asparagus bower, where they felt +perfectly safe. +</P> + +<P> +But Imogen, who, for the first time, seemed comfortable, began to talk. +Her talk was about herself. Such stories she told about the things +which had happened to her! All the young ladies in The Ledger put +together, never had stranger adventures. Gradually, Katy and Clover got +so interested that they left their seats and crouched down close to the +sofa, listening with open mouths to these stories. Katy forgot to +listen for Aunt Izzie. The parlor door swung open, but she did not +notice it. She did not even hear the front door shut, when Papa came +home to dinner. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Carr, stopping in the hall to glance over his newspaper, heard the +high-pitched voice running on in the parlor. At first he hardly +listened; then these words caught his ear: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it was lovely, girls, perfectly delicious! I suppose I did look +well, for I was all in white, with my hair let down, and just one rose, +you know, here on top. And he leaned over me, and said in a low, deep +tone, 'Lady, I am a Brigand, but I feel the enchanting power of your +beauty. You are free!'" +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Carr pushed the door open a little farther. Nothing was to be seen +but some indistinct figures, but he heard Katy's voice in an eager tone: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, <I>do</I> go on. What happened next?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who on earth have the children got in the parlor?" he asked Aunt Izzie, +whom he found in the dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +"The parlor!" cried Miss Izzie, wrathfully, "why, what are they there +for?" Then going to the door, she called out, "Children, what are you +doing in the parlor? Come out right away. I thought you were playing +out-doors." +</P> + +<P> +"Imogen had a head-ache," faltered Katy. The three girls came out into +the hall; Clover and Katy looking scared, and even the Enchanter of the +Brigand quite crest-fallen. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Aunt Izzie, grimly, "I am sorry to hear that. Probably you +are bilious. Would you like some camphor or anything?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you," replied Imogen, meekly. But afterwards she +whispered to Katy: +</P> + +<P> +"Your aunt isn't very nice, I think. She's just like Jackima, that +horrid old woman I told you about, who lived in the Brigand's Cave and +did the cooking. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think you're a bit polite to tell me so," retorted Katy, very +angry at this speech. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, never mind, dear, don't take it to heart!" replied Imogen, sweetly. +"We can't help having relations that ain't nice, you know." +</P> + +<P> +The visit was evidently not a success. Papa was very civil to Imogen at +dinner, but he watched her closely, and Katy saw a comical twinkle in +his eye, which she did not like. Papa had very droll eyes. They saw +everything, and sometimes they seemed to talk almost as distinctly as +his tongue. Katy began to feel low-spirited. She confessed afterward +that she should never have got through the afternoon if she hadn't run +up stairs two or three times, and comforted herself by reading a little +in "Rosamond." +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't you glad she's gone?" whispered Clover, as they stood at the +gate together watching Imogen walk down the street. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Clover! how can you?" said Katy But she gave Clover a great hug, +and I think in her heart she <I>was</I> glad. +</P> + +<P> +"Katy," said Papa, next day, "you came into the room then, exactly like +your new friend Miss Clark." +</P> + +<P> +"How? I don't know what you mean," answered Katy, blushing deeply. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>So</I>," said Dr. Carr; and he got up, raising his shoulders and squaring +his elbows, and took a few mincing steps across the room. Katy couldn't +help laughing, it was so funny, and so like Imogen. Then Papa sat down +again and drew her close to him. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear," he said, "you're an affectionate child, and I'm glad of +it. But there is such a thing as throwing away one's affection. I +didn't fancy that little girl at all yesterday. What makes you like +her so much?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't like her so much, yesterday," admitted Katy, reluctantly. +"She's a great deal nicer than that at school, sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad to hear it," said her father. "For I should be sorry to think +that you really admired such silly manners. And what was that nonsense I +heard her telling you about Brigands?" +</P> + +<P> +"It really hap—" began Katy.—Then she caught Papa's eye, and bit her +lip, for he looked very quizzical. "Well," she went on, laughing, "I +suppose it didn't really all happen;—but it was ever so funny, Papa, +even if it was a make-up. And Imogen's just as good-natured as can be. +All the girls like her." +</P> + +<P> +"Make-ups are all very well," said Papa, "as long as people don't try to +make you believe they are true. When they do that, it seems to me it +comes too near the edge of falsehood to be very safe or pleasant. If I +were you, Katy, I'd be a little shy of swearing eternal friendship for +Miss Clark. She may be good-natured, as you say, but I think two or +three years hence she won't seem so nice to you as she does now. Give me +a kiss, Chick, and run away, for there's Alexander with the buggy." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +COUSIN HELEN'S VISIT +</H4> + +<P> +A little knot of the school-girls were walking home together one +afternoon in July. As they neared Dr. Carr's gate, Maria Fiske +exclaimed, at the sight of a pretty bunch of flowers lying in the middle +of the sidewalk: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh my!" she cried, "see what somebody's dropped! I'm going to have it." +She stooped to pick it up. But, just as her fingers touched the stems, +the nosegay, as if bewitched, began to move. Maria made a bewildered +clutch. The nosegay moved faster, and at last vanished under the gate, +while a giggle sounded from the other side of the hedge. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see that?" shrieked Maria; "those flowers ran away of +themselves." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense," said Katy, "it's those absurd children." Then, opening the +gate, she called: "John! Dorry! come out and show yourselves." But +nobody replied, and no one could be seen. The nosegay lay on the path, +however, and picking it up, Katy exhibited to the girls a long end of +black thread, tied to the stems. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a very favorite trick of Johnnie's," she said: "she and Dorry +are always tying up flowers, and putting them out on the walk to tease +people. Here, Maria, take 'em if you like. Though I don't think John's +taste in bouquets is very good." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it splendid to have vacation come?" said one of the bigger girls. +"What are you all going to do? We're going to the seaside." +</P> + +<P> +"Pa says he'll take Susie and me to Niagara," said Maria. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to make my aunt a visit," said Alice Blair. "She lives in a +real lovely place in the country, and there's a pond there; and Tom +(that's my cousin) says he'll teach me to row. What are you going to +do, Katy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't know; play round and have splendid times," replied Katy, +throwing her bag of books into the air, and catching it again. But the +other girls looked as if they didn't think this good fun at all, and as +if they were sorry for her; and Katy felt suddenly that her vacation +wasn't going to be so pleasant as that of the rest. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish Papa <I>would</I> take us somewhere," she said to Clover, as they +walked up the gravel path. "All the other girls' Papas do." +</P> + +<P> +"He's too busy," replied Clover. "Beside, I don't think any of the rest +of the girls have half such good times as we. Ellen Robbins says she'd +give a million of dollars for such nice brothers and sisters as ours to +play with. And, you know, Maria and Susie have <I>awful</I> times at home, +though they do go to places. Mrs. Fiske is so particular. She always +says 'Don't,' and they haven't got any yard to their house, or anything. +I wouldn't change." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor I," said Katy, cheering up at these words of wisdom. "Oh, isn't it +lovely to think there won't be any school to-morrow? Vacations are just +splendid!" and she gave her bag another toss. It fell to the ground +with a crash. +</P> + +<P> +"There, you've cracked your slate," said Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"No matter, I sha'n't want it again for eight weeks," replied Katy, +comfortably, as they ran up the steps. +</P> + +<P> +They burst open the front door and raced up stairs, crying "Hurrah! +hurrah! vacation's begun. Aunt Izzie, vacation's begun!" Then they +stopped short, for lo! the upper hall was all in confusion. Sounds of +beating and dusting came from the spare room. Tables and chairs were +standing about; and a cot-bed, which seemed to be taking a walk all by +itself, had stopped short at the head of the stairs, and barred the way. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, how queer!" said Katy, trying to get by. "What <I>can</I> be going to +happen? Oh, there's Aunt Izzie! Aunt Izzie, who's coming? What <I>are</I> you +moving the things out of the Blue-room for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, gracious! is that you?" replied Aunt Izzie, who looked very hot and +flurried. "Now, children, it's no use for you to stand there asking +questions; I haven't got time to answer them. Let the bedstead alone, +Katy, you'll push it into the wall. There, I told you so!" as Katy gave +an impatient shove, "you've made a bad mark on the paper. What a +troublesome child you are! Go right down stairs, both of you, and don't +come up this way again till after tea. I've just as much as I can +possibly attend to till then." +</P> + +<P> +"Just tell us what's going to happen, and we will," cried the children. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Cousin Helen is coming to visit us," said Miss Izzie, curtly, and +disappeared into the Blue-room. +</P> + +<P> +This was news indeed. Katy and Clover ran down stairs in great +excitement, and after consulting a little, retired to the Loft to talk +it over in peace and quiet. Cousin Helen coming! It seemed as strange as +if Queen Victoria, gold crown and all, had invited herself to tea. Or as +if some character out of a book, Robinson Crusoe, say, or "Amy Herbert," +had driven up with a trunk and announced the intention of spending a +week. For to the imaginations of the children, Cousin Helen was as +interesting and unreal as anybody in the Fairy Tales: Cinderella, or +Blue-Beard, or dear Red Riding-Hood herself. Only there was a sort of +mixture of Sunday-school book in their idea of her, for Cousin Helen was +very, very good. +</P> + +<P> +None of them had ever seen her. Philly said he was sure she hadn't any +legs, because she never went away from home, and lay on a sofa all the +time. But the rest knew that this was because Cousin Helen was ill. Papa +always went to visit her twice a year, and he liked to talk to the +children about her, and tell how sweet and patient she was, and what a +pretty room she lived in. Katy and Clover had "played Cousin Helen" so +long, that now they were frightened as well as glad at the idea of +seeing the real one. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you suppose she will want us to say hymns to her all the time?" +asked Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"Not all the time," replied Katy, "because you know she'll get tired, +and have to take naps in the afternoons. And then, of course, she reads +the Bible a great deal. Oh dear, how quiet we shall have to be! I wonder +how long she's going to stay?" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you suppose she looks like?" went on Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"Something like 'Lucy,' in Mrs. Sherwood, I guess, with blue eyes, and +curls, and a long, straight nose. And she'll keep her hands clasped <I>so</I> +all the time, and wear 'frilled wrappers,' and lie on the sofa perfectly +still, and never smile, but just look patient. We'll have to take off +our boots in the hall, Clover, and go up stairs in stocking feet, so as +not to make a noise, all the time she stays." +</P> + +<P> +"Won't it be funny!" giggled Clover, her sober little face growing +bright at the idea of this variation on the hymns. +</P> + +<P> +The time seemed very long till the next afternoon, when Cousin Helen was +expected. Aunt Izzie, who was in a great excitement, gave the children +many orders about their behavior. They were to do this and that, and not +to do the other. Dorry, at last, announced that he wished Cousin Helen +would just stay at home. Clover and Elsie, who had been thinking pretty +much the same thing in private, were glad to hear that she was on her +way to a Water Cure, and would stay only four days. +</P> + +<P> +Five o'clock came. They all sat on the steps waiting for the carriage. +At last it drove up. Papa was on the box. He motioned the children to +stand back. Then he helped out a nice-looking young woman, who, Aunt +Izzie told them, was Cousin Helen's nurse, and then, very carefully, +lifted Cousin Helen in his arms and brought her in. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there are the chicks!" were the first words the children heard, in +such a gay, pleasant voice. "Do set me down somewhere, uncle. I want to +see them so much!" +</P> + +<P> +So Papa put Cousin Helen on the hall sofa. The nurse fetched a pillow, +and when she was made comfortable, Dr. Carr called to the little ones. +</P> + +<P> +"Cousin Helen wants to see you," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I do," said the bright voice. "So this is Katy? Why, what a +splendid tall Katy it is! And this is Clover," kissing her; "and this +dear little Elsie. You all look as natural as possible—just as if I had +seen you before." +</P> + +<P> +And she hugged them all round, not as if it was polite to like them +because they were relations, but as if she had loved them and wanted +them all her life. +</P> + +<P> +There was something in Cousin Helen's face and manner, which made the +children at home with her at once. Even Philly, who had backed away with +his hands behind him, after staring hard for a minute or two, came up +with a sort of rush to get his share of kissing. +</P> + +<P> +Still, Katy's first feeling was one of disappointment. Cousin Helen was +not at all like "Lucy," in Mrs. Sherwood's story. Her nose turned up the +least bit in the world. She had brown hair, which didn't curl, a brown +skin, and bright eyes, which danced when she laughed or spoke. Her face +was thin, but except for that you wouldn't have guessed that she was +sick. She didn't fold her hands, and she didn't look patient, but +absolutely glad and merry. Her dress wasn't a "frilled wrapper," but a +sort of loose travelling thing of pretty gray stuff, with a rose-colored +bow, and bracelets, and a round hat trimmed with a gray feather. All +Katy's dreams about the "saintly invalid" seemed to take wings and fly +away. But the more she watched Cousin Helen the more she seemed to like +her, and to feel as if she were nicer than the imaginary person which +she and Clover had invented. +</P> + +<P> +"She looks just like other people, don't she?" whispered Cecy, who had +come over to have a peep at the new arrival. +</P> + +<P> +"Y-e-s," replied Katy, doubtfully, "only a great, great deal prettier." +</P> + +<P> +By and by, Papa carried Cousin Helen up stairs. All the children wanted +to go too, but he told them she was tired, and must rest. So they went +out doors to play till tea-time. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, do let me take up the tray," cried Katy at the tea-table, as she +watched Aunt Izzie getting ready Cousin Helen's supper. Such a nice +supper! Cold chicken, and raspberries and cream, and tea in a pretty +pink-and-white china cup. And such a snow-white napkin as Aunt Izzie +spread over the tray! +</P> + +<P> +"No indeed," said Aunt Izzie; "you'll drop it the first thing." But +Katy's eyes begged so hard, that Dr. Carr said, "Yes, let her, Izzie; I +like to see the girls useful." +</P> + +<P> +So Katy, proud of the commission, took the tray and carried it +carefully across the hall. There was a bowl of flowers on the table. As +she passed, she was struck with a bright idea. She set down the tray, +and picking out a rose, laid it on the napkin besides the saucer of +crimson raspberries. It looked very pretty, and Katy smiled to herself +with pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you stopping for?" called Aunt Izzie, from the dining-room. +"Do be careful, Katy, I really think Bridget had better take it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no, no!" protested Katy, "I'm most up already." And she sped up +stairs as fast as she could go. Luckless speed! She had just reached +the door of the Blue-room, when she tripped upon her boot-lace, which, +as usual, was dangling, made a misstep, and stumbled. She caught at +the door to save herself; the door flew open; and Katy, with the tray, +cream, raspberries, rose and all, descended in a confused heap upon +the carpet. +</P> + +<P> +"I told you so!" exclaimed Aunt Izzie from the bottom of the stairs. +</P> + +<P> +Katy never forgot how kind Cousin Helen was on this occasion. She was in +bed, and was of course a good deal startled at the sudden crash and +tumble on her floor. But after one little jump, nothing could have been +sweeter than the way in which she comforted poor crest-fallen Katy, and +made so merry over the accident, that even Aunt Izzie almost forgot to +scold. The broken dishes were piled up and the carpet made clean again, +while Aunt Izzie prepared another tray just as nice as the first. +</P> + +<P> +"Please let Katy bring it up!" pleaded Cousin Helen, in her pleasant +voice, "I am sure she will be careful this time. And Katy, I want +just such another rose on the napkin. I guess that was your +doing—wasn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +Katy <I>was</I> careful.—This time all went well. The tray was placed safely +on a little table beside the bed, and Katy sat watching Cousin Helen eat +her supper with a warm, loving feeling at her heart. I think we are +scarcely ever so grateful to people as when they help us to get back our +own self-esteem. +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen hadn't much appetite, though she declared everything was +delicious. Katy could see that she was very tired. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," she said, when she had finished, "if you'll shake up this pillow, +<I>so;</I>—and move this other pillow a little, I think I will settle myself +to sleep. Thanks—that's just right. Why, Katy dear, you are a born +nurse Now kiss me. Good-night! To-morrow we will have a nice talk." +</P> + +<P> +Katy went down stairs very happy. +</P> + +<P> +"Cousin Helen's perfectly lovely," she told Clover. "And she's got on +the most <I>beautiful</I> night-gown, all lace and ruffles. It's just like a +night-gown in a book." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it wicked to care about clothes when you're sick?" +questioned Cecy. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe Cousin Helen <I>could</I> do anything wicked," said Katy. +</P> + +<P> +"I told Ma that she had on bracelets, and Ma said she feared your cousin +was a worldly person," retorted Cecy, primming up her lips. +</P> + +<P> +Katy and Clover were quite distressed at this opinion. They talked about +it while they were undressing. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to ask Cousin Helen to-morrow," said Katy. +</P> + +<P> +Next morning the children got up very early. They were so glad that it +was vacation! If it hadn't been, they would have been forced to go to +school without seeing Cousin Helen, for she didn't wake till late. +They grew so impatient of the delay, and went up stairs so often to +listen at the door, and see if she were moving, that Aunt Izzie +finally had to order them off. Katy rebelled against this order a good +deal, but she consoled herself by going into the garden and picking +the prettiest flowers she could find, to give to Cousin Helen the +moment she should see her. +</P> + +<P> +When Aunt Izzie let her go up, Cousin Helen was lying on the sofa all +dressed for the day in a fresh blue muslin, with blue ribbons, and +cunning bronze slippers with rosettes on the toes. The sofa had been +wheeled round with its back to the light. There was a cushion with a +pretty fluted cover, that Katy had never seen before, and several other +things were scattered about, which gave the room quite a different air. +All the house was neat, but somehow Aunt Izzie's rooms never were +pretty. Children's eyes are quick to perceive such things, and Katy saw +at once that the Blue-room had never looked like this. +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen was white and tired, but her eyes and smile were as bright +as ever. She was delighted with the flowers, which Katy presented +rather shyly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how lovely!" she said; "I must put them in water right away. Katy +dear, don't you want to bring that little vase on the bureau and set it +on this chair beside me? And please pour a little water into it first." +</P> + +<P> +"What a beauty!" cried Katy, as she lifted the graceful white cup swung +on a gilt stand. "Is it yours, Cousin Helen?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is my pet vase. It stands on a little table beside me at home, +and I fancied that the Water Cure would seem more home-like if I had it +with me there, so I brought it along. But why do you look so puzzled, +Katy? Does it seem queer that a vase should travel about in a trunk?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Katy, slowly, "I was only thinking—Cousin Helen, is it +worldly to have pretty things when you're sick?" +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen laughed heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"What put that idea into your head?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Cecy said so when I told her about your beautiful night-gown." +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she said, "I'll tell you what I think, Katy. Pretty things are +no more 'worldly' than ugly ones, except when they spoil us by making us +vain, or careless of the comfort of other people. And sickness is such a +disagreeable thing in itself, that unless sick people take great pains, +they soon grow to be eyesores to themselves and everybody about them. I +don't think it is possible for an invalid to be too particular. And when +one has the back-ache, and the head-ache, and the all-over ache," she +added, smiling, "there isn't much danger of growing vain because of a +ruffle more or less on one's night-gown, or a bit of bright ribbon." +</P> + +<P> +Then she began to arrange the flowers, touching each separate one +gently, and as if she loved it. +</P> + +<P> +"What a queer noise!" she exclaimed, suddenly stopping. +</P> + +<P> +It <I>was</I> queer—a sort of snuffing and snorting sound, as if a walrus or +a sea-horse were promenading up and down in the hall. Katy opened the +door. Behold! there were John and Dorry, very red in the face from +flattening their noses against the key-hole, in a vain attempt to see if +Cousin Helen were up and ready to receive company. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, let them come in!" cried Cousin Helen from her sofa. +</P> + +<P> +So they came in, followed, before long, by Clover and Elsie. Such a +merry morning as they had! Cousin Helen proved to possess a perfect +genius for story-telling, and for suggesting games which could be played +about her sofa, and did not make more noise than she could bear. Aunt +Izzie, dropping in about eleven o'clock, found them having such a good +time, that almost before she knew it, <I>she</I> was drawn into the game too. +Nobody had ever heard of such a thing before! There sat Aunt Izzie on +the floor, with three long lamp-lighters stuck in her hair, playing, +"I'm a genteel Lady, always genteel," in the jolliest manner possible. +The children were so enchanted at the spectacle, that they could hardly +attend to the game, and were always forgetting how many "horns" they +had. Clover privately thought that Cousin Helen must be a witch; and +Papa, when he came home at noon, said almost the same thing. +</P> + +<P> +"What have you been doing to them, Helen?" he inquired, as he opened the +door, and saw the merry circle on the carpet. Aunt Izzie's hair was half +pulled down, and Philly was rolling over and over in convulsions of +laughter. But Cousin Helen said she hadn't done anything, and pretty +soon Papa was on the floor too, playing away as fast as the rest. +</P> + +<P> +"I must put a stop to this," he cried, when everybody was tired of +laughing, and everybody's head was stuck as full of paper quills as a +porcupine's back. "Cousin Helen will be worn out. Run away, all of you, +and don't come near this door again till the clock strikes four. Do you +hear, chicks? Run—run! Shoo! shoo!" +</P> + +<P> +The children scuttled away like a brood of fowls—all but Katy. "Oh, +Papa, I'll be <I>so</I> quiet!" she pleaded. "Mightn't I stay just till the +dinner-bell rings?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do let her!" said Cousin Helen, so Papa said "Yes." +</P> + +<P> +Katy sat on the floor holding Cousin Helen's hand, and listening to her +talk with Papa. It interested her, though it was about things and people +she did not know. +</P> + +<P> +"How is Alex?" asked Dr. Carr, at length. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite well now," replied Cousin Helen, with one of her brightest looks. +"He was run down and tired in the Spring, and we were a little anxious +about him, but Emma persuaded him to take a fortnight's vacation, and he +came back all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you see them often?" +</P> + +<P> +"Almost every day. And little Helen comes every day, you know, for +her lessons." +</P> + +<P> +"Is she as pretty as she used to be?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes—prettier, I think. She is a lovely little creature: having her +so much with me is one of my greatest treats. Alex tries to think that +she looks a little as I used to. But that is a compliment so great, that +I dare not appropriate it." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Carr stooped and kissed Cousin Helen as if he could not help it. "My +<I>dear</I> child," he said. That was all; but something in the tone made +Katy curious. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa," she said, after dinner, "who is Alex, that you and Cousin Helen +were talking about?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Katy? What makes you want to know?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't exactly tell—only Cousin Helen looked so;—and you kissed +her;—and I thought perhaps it was something interesting." +</P> + +<P> +"So it is," said Dr. Carr, drawing her on to his knee. "I've a mind to +tell you about it, Katy, because you're old enough to see how beautiful +it is, and wise enough (I hope) not to chatter or ask questions. Alex is +the name of somebody who, long ago, when Cousin Helen was well and +strong, she loved, and expected to marry." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! why didn't she?" cried Katy. +</P> + +<P> +"She met with a dreadful accident," continued Dr. Carr. "For a long time +they thought she would die. Then she grew slowly better, and the doctors +told her that she might live a good many years, but that she would have +to lie on her sofa always, and be helpless, and a cripple. +</P> + +<P> +"Alex felt dreadfully when he heard this. He wanted to marry Cousin +Helen just the same, and be her nurse, and take care of her always; but +she would not consent. She broke the engagement, and told him that some +day she hoped he would love somebody else well enough to marry her. So +after a good many years, he did, and now he and his wife live next door +to Cousin Helen, and are her dearest friends. Their little girl is named +'Helen.' All their plans are talked over with her, and there is nobody +in the world they think so much of." +</P> + +<P> +"But doesn't it make Cousin Helen feel bad, when she sees them walking +about and enjoying themselves, and she can't move?" asked Katy. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Dr. Carr, "it doesn't, because Cousin Helen is half an angel +already, and loves other people better than herself. I'm very glad she +could come here for once. She's an example to us all, Katy, and I +couldn't ask anything better than to have my little girls take pattern +after her." +</P> + +<P> +"It must be awful to be sick," soliloquized Katy, after Papa was +gone. "Why, if I had to stay in bed a whole week—I should <I>die</I>, I +know I should." +</P> + +<P> +Poor Katy. It seemed to her, as it does to almost all young people, +that there is nothing in the world so easy as to die, the moment +things go wrong! +</P> + +<P> +This conversation with Papa made Cousin Helen doubly interesting in +Katy's eyes. "It was just like something in a book," to be in the same +house with the heroine of a love-story so sad and sweet. +</P> + +<P> +The play that afternoon was much interrupted, for every few minutes +somebody had to run in and see if it wasn't four o'clock. The instant +the hour came, all six children galloped up stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we'll tell stories this time," said Cousin Helen. +</P> + +<P> +So they told stories. Cousin Helen's were the best of all. There was one +of them about a robber, which sent delightful chills creeping down all +their backs. All but Philly. He was so excited, that he grew warlike. +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't afraid of robbers," he declared, strutting up and down. "When +they come, I shall just cut them in two with my sword which Papa gave +me. They did come once. I did cut them in two—three, five, eleven of +'em. You'll see!" +</P> + +<P> +But that evening, after the younger children were gone to bed, and Katy +and Clover were sitting in the Blue-room, a lamentable howling was heard +from the nursery. Clover ran to see what was the matter. Behold—there +was Phil, sitting up in bed, and crying for help. +</P> + +<P> +"There's robbers under the bed," he sobbed; "ever so many robbers." +</P> + +<P> +"Why no, Philly!" said Clover, peeping under the valance to satisfy him; +"there isn't anybody there." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, there is, I tell you," declared Phil, holding her tight. "I heard +one. They were <I>chewing my india-rubbers</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor little fellow!" said Cousin Helen, when Clover, having pacified +Phil, came back to report. "It's a warning against robber stories. But +this one ended so well, that I didn't think of anybody's being +frightened." +</P> + +<P> +It was no use, after this, for Aunt Izzie to make rules about going into +the Blue-room. She might as well have ordered flies to keep away from a +sugar-bowl. By hook or by crook, the children <I>would</I> get up stairs. +Whenever Aunt Izzie went in, she was sure to find them there, just as +close to Cousin Helen as they could get. And Cousin Helen begged her not +to interfere. +</P> + +<P> +"We have only three or four days to be together," she said. "Let them +come as much as they like. It won't hurt me a bit." +</P> + +<P> +Little Elsie clung with a passionate love to this new friend. Cousin +Helen had sharp eyes. She saw the wistful look in Elsie's face at once, +and took special pains to be sweet and tender to her. This preference +made Katy jealous. She couldn't bear to share her cousin with anybody. +</P> + +<P> +When the last evening came, and they went up after tea to the Blue-room, +Cousin Helen was opening a box which had just come by Express. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a Good-by Box," she said. "All of you must sit down in a row, and +when I hide my hands behind me, <I>so</I>, you must choose in turn which you +will take." +</P> + +<P> +So they all chose in turn, "Which hand will you have, the right or the +left?" and Cousin Helen, with the air of a wise fairy, brought out from +behind her pillow something pretty for each one. First came a vase +exactly like her own, which Katy had admired so much. Katy screamed with +delight as it was placed in her hands: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, how lovely! how lovely!" she cried. "I'll keep it as long as I live +and breathe." +</P> + +<P> +"If you do, it'll be the first time you ever kept anything for a week +without breaking it," remarked Aunt Izzie. +</P> + +<P> +Next came a pretty purple pocket-book for Clover. It was just what she +wanted, for she had lost her porte-monnaie. Then a cunning little locket +on a bit of velvet ribbon, which Cousin Helen tied round Elsie's neck. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a piece of my hair in it," she said. "Why, Elsie, darling, +what's the matter? Don't cry so!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you're s-o beautiful, and s-o sweet!" sobbed Elsie; "and you're +go-o-ing away." +</P> + +<P> +Dorry had a box of dominoes, and John a solitaire board. For Phil there +appeared a book—"The History of the Robber Cat." +</P> + +<P> +"That will remind you of the night when the thieves came and chewed your +india-rubbers," said Cousin Helen, with a mischievous smile. They all +laughed, Phil loudest of all. +</P> + +<P> +Nobody was forgotten. There was a notebook for Papa, and a set of ivory +tablets for Aunt Izzie. Even Cecy was remembered. Her present was "The +Book of Golden Deeds," with all sorts of stories about boys and girls +who had done brave and good things. She was almost too pleased to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thank you, Cousin Helen!" she said at last. Cecy wasn't a +cousin, but she and the Carr children were in the habit of sharing +their aunts and uncles, and relations generally, as they did their +other good things. +</P> + +<P> +Next day came the sad parting. All the little ones stood at the gate, +to wave their pocket-handkerchiefs as the carriage drove away. When it +was quite out of sight, Katy rushed off to "weep a little weep," all +by herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa said he wished we were all like Cousin Helen," she thought, as she +wiped her eyes, "and I mean to try, though I don't suppose if I tried a +thousand years I should ever get to be half so good. I'll study, and +keep my things in order, and be ever so kind to the little ones. Dear +me—if only Aunt Izzie was Cousin Helen, how easy it would be! Never +mind—I'll think about her all the time, and I'll begin to-morrow." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +TO-MORROW +</H4> + +<P> +"To-morrow I will begin," thought Katy, as she dropped asleep that +night. How often we all do so! And what a pity it is that when morning +comes and to-morrow is to-day, we so frequently wake up feeling quite +differently; careless or impatient, and not a bit inclined to do the +fine things we planned overnight. +</P> + +<P> +Sometimes it seems as if there must be wicked little imps in the world, +who are kept tied up so long as the sun shines, but who creep into our +bed-rooms when we are asleep, to tease us and ruffle our tempers. Else, +why, when we go to rest good-natured and pleasant, should we wake up so +cross? Now there was Katy. Her last sleepy thought was an intention to +be an angel from that time on, and as much like Cousin Helen as she +could; and when she opened her eyes she was all out of sorts, and as +fractious as a bear! Old Mary said that she got out of bed on the wrong +side. I wonder, by the way, if anybody will ever be wise enough to tell +us which side that is, so that we may always choose the other? How +comfortable it would be if they could! +</P> + +<P> +You know how, if we begin the day in a cross mood, all sorts of +unfortunate accidents seem to occur to add to our vexations. The very +first thing Katy did this morning was to break her precious vase—the +one Cousin Helen had given her. +</P> + +<P> +It was standing on the bureau with a little cluster of blush-roses in +it. The bureau had a swing-glass. While Katy was brushing her hair, the +glass tipped a little so that she could not see. At a good-humored +moment, this accident wouldn't have troubled her much. But being out of +temper to begin with, it made her angry. She gave the glass a violent +push. The lower part swung forward, there was a smash, and the first +thing Katy knew, the blush-roses lay scattered all over the floor, and +Cousin Helen's pretty present was ruined. +</P> + +<P> +Katy just sat down on the carpet and cried as hard as if she had been +Phil himself. Aunt Izzie heard her lamenting, and came in. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm very sorry," she said, picking up the broken glass, "but it's no +more than I expected, you're so careless, Katy. Now don't sit there in +that foolish way! Get up and dress yourself. You'll be late to +breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter?" asked Papa, noticing Katy's red eyes as she took +her seat at the table. +</P> + +<P> +"I've broken my vase," said Katy, dolefully. +</P> + +<P> +"It was extremely careless of you to put it in such a dangerous place," +said her aunt. "You might have known that the glass would swing and +knock it off." Then, seeing a big tear fall in the middle of Katy's +plate, she added: "Really, Katy, you're too big to behave like a baby. +Why Dorry would be ashamed to do so. Pray control yourself!" +</P> + +<P> +This snub did not improve Katy's temper. She went on with her breakfast +in sulky silence. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you all going to do to-day?" asked Dr. Carr, hoping to give +things a more cheerful turn. +</P> + +<P> +"Swing!" cried John and Dorry both together. "Alexander's put us up a +splendid one in the wood-shed." +</P> + +<P> +"No you're not," said Aunt Izzie in a positive tone, "the swing is not +to be used till to-morrow. Remember that, children. Not till to-morrow. +And not then, unless I give you leave." +</P> + +<P> +This was unwise of Aunt Izzie. She would better have explained farther. +The truth was, that Alexander, in putting up the swing, had cracked one +of the staples which fastened it to the roof. He meant to get a new one +in the course of the day, and, meantime, he had cautioned Miss Carr to +let no one use the swing, because it really was not safe. If she had +told this to the children, all would have been right; but Aunt Izzie's +theory was, that young people must obey their elders without +explanation. +</P> + +<P> +John, and Elsie, and Dorry, all pouted when they heard this order. Elsie +recovered her good-humor first. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care," she said, "'cause I'm going to be very busy; I've got to +write a letter to Cousin Helen about somefing." (Elsie never could quite +pronounce the <I>th</I>.) +</P> + +<P> +"What?" asked Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, somefing," answered Elsie, wagging her head mysteriously. "None of +the rest of you must know, Cousin Helen said so, it's a secret she and +me has got." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe Cousin Helen said so at all," said Katy, crossly. "She +wouldn't tell secrets to a silly little girl like you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes she would too," retorted Elsie angrily. "She said I was just as +good to trust as if I was ever so big. And she said I was her pet. So +there! Katy Carr!" +</P> + +<P> +"Stop disputing," said Aunt Izzie. "Katy your top-drawer is all out of +order. I never saw anything look so badly. Go up stairs at once and +straighten it, before you do anything else. Children, you must keep in +the shade this morning. It's too hot for you to be running about in the +sun. Elsie, go into the kitchen and tell Debby I want to speak to her." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Elsie, in an important tone, "And afterwards I'm coming back +to write my letter to Cousin Helen." +</P> + +<P> +Katy went slowly up stairs, dragging one foot after the other. It was a +warm, languid day. Her head ached a little, and her eyes smarted and +felt heavy from crying so much. Everything seemed dull and hateful. She +said to herself, that Aunt Izzie was very unkind to make her work in +vacation, and she pulled the top-drawer open with a disgusted groan. +</P> + +<P> +It must be confessed that Miss Izzie was right. A bureau-drawer could +hardly look worse than this one did. It reminded one of the White +Knight's recipe for a pudding, which began with blotting-paper, and +ended with sealing-wax and gunpowder. All sorts of things were mixed +together, as if somebody had put in a long stick and stirred them +well up. There were books and paint-boxes and bits of scribbled +paper, and lead-pencils and brushes. Stocking-legs had come unrolled, +and twisted themselves about pocket-handkerchiefs, and ends of +ribbon, and linen collars. +</P> + +<P> +Ruffles, all crushed out of shape, stuck up from under the heavier +things, and sundry little paper boxes lay empty on top, the treasures +they once held having sifted down to the bottom of the drawer, and +disappeared beneath the general mass. +</P> + +<P> +It took much time and patience to bring order out of this confusion. But +Katy knew that Aunt Izzie would be up by and by, and she dared not stop +till all was done. By the time it was finished, she was very tired. +Going down stairs, she met Elsie coming up with a slate in her hand, +which, as soon as she saw Katy, she put behind her. +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't look," she said, "it's my letter to Cousin Helen. Nobody +but me knows the secret. It's all written, and I'm going to send it to +the office. See—there's a stamp on it;" and she exhibited a corner of +the slate. Sure enough, there was a stamp stuck on the frame. +</P> + +<P> +"You little goose!" said Katy, impatiently, "you can't send <I>that</I> to +the post-office. Here, give me the slate. I'll copy what you've written +on paper, and Papa'll give you an envelope." +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," cried Elsie, struggling, "you mustn't! You'll see what I've +said and Cousin Helen said I wasn't to tell. It's a secret. Let go of my +slate, I say! I'll tell Cousin Helen what a mean girl you are, and then +she won't love you a bit." +</P> + +<P> +"There, then, take your old slate!" said Katy, giving her a vindictive +push. Elsie slipped, screamed, caught at the banisters, missed them, and +rolling over and over, fell with a thump on the hall floor. +</P> + +<P> +It wasn't much of a fall, only half-a-dozen steps, but the bump was a +hard one, and Elsie roared as if she had been half killed. Aunt Izzie +and Mary came rushing to the spot. +</P> + +<P> +"Katy—pushed—me," sobbed Elsie. "She wanted me to tell her my secret, +and I wouldn't. She's a bad, naughty girl!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Katy Carr, I <I>should</I> think you'd be ashamed of yourself," said +Aunt Izzie, "wreaking your temper on your poor little sister! I think +your Cousin Helen will be surprised when she hears this. There, there, +Elsie! Don't cry any more, dear. Come up stairs with me. I'll put on +some arnica, and Katy sha'n't hurt you again." +</P> + +<P> +So they went up stairs. Katy, left below, felt very miserable: +repentant, defiant, discontented, and sulky all at once. She knew in +her heart that she had not meant to hurt Elsie, but was thoroughly +ashamed of that push; but Aunt Izzie's hint about telling Cousin Helen, +had made her too angry to allow of her confessing this to herself or +anybody else. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care!" she murmured, choking back her tears. "Elsie is a real +cry-baby, anyway. And Aunt Izzie always takes her part. Just because I +told the little silly not to go and send a great heavy slate to the +post-office!" +</P> + +<P> +She went out by the side-door into the yard. As she passed the shed, the +new swing caught her eye. +</P> + +<P> +"How exactly like Aunt Izzie," she thought, "ordering the children not +to swing till she gives them leave. I suppose she thinks it's too hot, +or something. <I>I</I> sha'n't mind her, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +She seated herself in the swing. It was a first-rate one, with a broad, +comfortable seat, and thick new ropes. The seat hung just the right +distance from the floor. Alexander was a capital hand at putting up +swings, and the wood-shed the nicest possible spot in which to have one. +</P> + +<P> +It was a big place, with a very high roof. There was not much wood left +in it just now, and the little there was, was piled neatly about the +sides of the shed, so as to leave plenty of room. The place felt cool +and dark, and the motion of the swing seemed to set the breeze blowing. +It waved Katy's hair like a great fan, and made her dreamy and quiet. +All sorts of sleepy ideas began to flit through her brain. Swinging to +and fro like the pendulum of a great clock, she gradually rose higher +and higher, driving herself along by the motion of her body, and +striking the floor smartly with her foot, at every sweep. Now she was at +the top of the high arched door. Then she could almost touch the +cross-beam above it, and through the small square window could see +pigeons sitting and pluming themselves on the eaves of the barn, and +white clouds blowing over the blue sky. She had never swung so high +before. It was like flying, she thought, and she bent and curved more +strongly in the seat, trying to send herself yet higher, and graze the +roof with her toes. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, at the very highest point of the sweep, there was a sharp +noise of cracking. The swing gave a violent twist, spun half round, and +tossed Katy into the air. She clutched the rope,—felt it dragged from +her grasp,—then, down,—down—down—she fell. All grew dark, and she +knew no more. +</P> + +<P> +When she opened her eyes she was lying on the sofa in the dining-room. +Clover was kneeling beside her with a pale, scared face, and Aunt Izzie +was dropping something cold and wet on her forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter?" said Katy, faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she's alive—she's alive!" and Clover put her arms round Katy's +neck and sobbed. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush, dear!" Aunt Izzie's voice sounded unusually gentle. "You've had a +bad tumble, Katy. Don't you recollect?" +</P> + +<P> +"A tumble? Oh, yes—out of the swing," said Katy, as it all came +slowly back to her. "Did the rope break, Aunt Izzie? I can't remember +about it." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Katy, not the rope. The staple drew out of the roof. It was a +cracked one, and not safe. Don't you recollect my telling you not to +swing to-day? Did you forget?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Aunt Izzie—I didn't forget. I—" but here Katy broke down. She +closed her eyes, and big tears rolled from under the lids. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't cry," whispered Clover, crying herself, "please don't. Aunt Izzie +isn't going to scold you." But Katy was too weak and shaken not to cry. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I'd like to go up stairs and lie on the bed," she said. But +when she tried to get off the sofa, everything swam before her, and she +fell back again on the pillow. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I can't stand up!" she gasped, looking very much frightened. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid you've given yourself a sprain somewhere," said Aunt Izzie, +who looked rather frightened herself. "You'd better lie still a while, +dear, before you try to move. Ah, here's the doctor! well, I am glad." +And she went forward to meet him. It wasn't Papa, but Dr. Alsop, who +lived quite near them. +</P> + +<P> +"I am so relieved that you could come," Aunt Izzie said. "My brother is +gone out of town not to return till to-morrow, and one of the little +girls has had a bad fall." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Alsop sat down beside the sofa and counted Katy's pulse. Then he +began feeling all over her. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you move this leg?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +Katy gave a feeble kick. +</P> + +<P> +"And this?" +</P> + +<P> +The kick was a good deal more feeble. +</P> + +<P> +"Did that hurt you?" asked Dr. Alsop, seeing a look of pain on her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, a little," replied Katy, trying hard not to cry. +</P> + +<P> +"In your back, eh? Was the pain high up or low down?" And the doctor +punched Katy's spine for some minutes, making her squirm uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid she's done some mischief," he said at last, "but it's +impossible to tell yet exactly what. It may be only a twist, or a slight +sprain," he added, seeing the look of terror on Katy's face. "You'd +better get her up stairs and undress her as soon as you can, Miss Carr. +I'll leave a prescription to rub her with." And Dr. Alsop took out a bit +of paper and began to write. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, must I go to bed?" said Katy. "How long will I have to stay +there, doctor?" +</P> + +<P> +"That depends on how fast you get well," replied the doctor; "not long, +I hope. Perhaps only a few days. +</P> + +<P> +"A few days!" repeated Katy, in a despairing tone. +</P> + +<P> +After the doctor was gone, Aunt Izzie and Debby lifted Katy, and carried +her slowly up stairs. It was not easy, for every motion hurt her, and +the sense of being helpless hurt most of all. She couldn't help crying +after she was undressed and put into bed. It all seemed so dreadful and +strange. If only Papa was here, she thought. But Dr. Carr had gone into +the country to see somebody who was very sick, and couldn't possibly be +back till to-morrow. +</P> + +<P> +Such a long, long afternoon as that was! Aunt Izzie sent up some dinner, +but Katy couldn't eat. Her lips were parched and her head ached +violently. The sun began to pour in, the room grew warm. Flies buzzed in +the window, and tormented her by lighting on her face. Little prickles +of pain ran up and down her back. She lay with her eyes shut, because it +hurt to keep them open, and all sorts of uneasy thoughts went rushing +through her mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps, if my back is really sprained, I shall have to lie here as +much as a week," she said to herself. "Oh dear, dear! I <I>can't</I>. The +vacation is only eight weeks, and I was going to do such lovely things! +How can people be as patient as Cousin Helen when they have to lie +still? Won't she be sorry when she hears! Was it really yesterday that +she went away? It seems a year. If only I hadn't got into that nasty old +swing!" And then Katy began to imagine how it would have been if she +<I>hadn't</I>, and how she and Clover had meant to go to Paradise that +afternoon. They might have been there under the cool trees now. As these +thoughts ran through her mind, her head grew hotter and her position in +the bed more uncomfortable. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she became conscious that the glaring light from the window was +shaded, and that the wind seemed to be blowing freshly over her. She +opened her heavy eyes. The blinds were shut, and there beside the bed +sat little Elsie, fanning her with a palm-leaf fan. +</P> + +<P> +"Did I wake you up, Katy?" she asked in a timid voice. +</P> + +<P> +Katy looked at her with startled, amazed eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be frightened," said Elsie, "I won't disturb you. Johnnie and me +are so sorry you're sick," and her little lips trembled. "But we mean to +keep real quiet, and never bang the nursery door, or make noises on the +stairs, till you're well again. And I've brought you somefing real nice. +Some of it's from John, and some from me. It's because you got tumbled +out of the swing. See—" and Elsie pointed triumphantly to a chair, +which she had pulled up close to the bed, and on which were solemnly set +forth: 1st. A pewter tea-set; 2d. A box with a glass lid, on which +flowers were painted; 3d. A jointed doll; 4th. A transparent slate; and +lastly, two new lead pencils! +</P> + +<P> +"They're all yours—yours to keep," said generous little Elsie. "You +can have Pikery, too, if you want. Only he's pretty big, and I'm +afraid he'd be lonely without me. Don't you like the fings, Katy? +They're real pretty!" +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to Katy as if the hottest sort of a coal of fire was burning +into the top of her head as she looked at the treasures on the chair, +and then at Elsie's face all lighted up with affectionate +self-sacrifice. She tried to speak, but began to cry instead, which +frightened Elsie very much. +</P> + +<P> +"Does it hurt you so bad?" she asked, crying, too, from sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no! it isn't that," sobbed Katy, "but I was so cross to you this +morning, Elsie, and pushed you. Oh, please forgive me, please do!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's got well!" said Elsie, surprised. "Aunt Izzie put a fing out +of a bottle on it, and the bump all went away. Shall I go and ask her to +put some on you too—I will." And she ran toward the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no!" cried Katy, "don't go away, Elsie. Come here and kiss +me, instead." +</P> + +<P> +Elsie turned as if doubtful whether this invitation could be meant for +her. Katy held out her arms. Elsie ran right into them, and the big +sister and the little, exchanged an embrace which seemed to bring their +hearts closer together than they had ever been before. +</P> + +<P> +"You're the most <I>precious</I> little darling," murmured Katy, clasping +Elsie tight. "I've been real horrid to you, Elsie. But I'll never be +again. You shall play with me and Clover, and Cecy, just as much as you +like, and write notes in all the post-offices, and everything else." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, goody! goody!" cried Elsie, executing little skips of transport. +"How sweet you are, Katy! I mean to love you next best to Cousin Helen +and Papa! And"—racking her brains for some way of repaying this +wonderful kindness—"I'll tell you the secret, if you want me to <I>very</I> +much. I guess Cousin Helen would let me." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" said Katy; "never mind about the secret. I don't want you to tell +it to me. Sit down by the bed, and fan me some more instead." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" persisted Elsie, who, now that she had made up her mind to part +with the treasured secret, could not bear to be stopped. "Cousin Helen +gave me a half-dollar, and told me to give it to Debby, and tell her she +was much obliged to her for making her such nice things to eat. And I +did. And Debby was real pleased. And I wrote Cousin Helen a letter, and +told her that Debby liked the half-dollar. That's the secret! Isn't it a +nice one? Only you mustn't tell anybody about it, ever—just as long as +you live." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" said Katy, smiling faintly, "I won't." +</P> + +<P> +All the rest of the afternoon Elsie sat beside the bed with her +palm-leaf fan, keeping off the flies, and "shue"-ing away the other +children when they peeped in at the door. "Do you really like to have me +here?" she asked, more than once, and smiled, oh, <I>so</I> triumphantly! +when Katy said "Yes!" But though Katy said yes, I am afraid it was only +half the truth, for the sight of the dear little forgiving girl, whom +she had treated unkindly, gave her more pain than pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be <I>so</I> good to her when I get well," she thought to herself, +tossing uneasily to and fro. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie slept in her room that night. Katy was feverish. When morning +came, and Dr. Carr returned, he found her in a good deal of pain, hot +and restless, with wide-open, anxious eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa!" she cried the first thing, "must I lie here as much as a week?" +</P> + +<P> +"My darling, I'm afraid you must," replied her father, who looked +worried, and very grave. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear, dear!" sobbed Katy, "how can I bear it?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +DISMAL DAYS +</H4> + +<P> +If anybody had told Katy, that first afternoon, that at the end of a +week she would still be in bed, and in pain, and with no time fixed for +getting up, I think it would have almost killed her. She was so restless +and eager, that to lie still seemed one of the hardest things in the +world. But to lie still and have her back ache all the time, was worse +yet. Day after day she asked Papa with quivering lip: "Mayn't I get up +and go down stairs this morning?" And when he shook his head, the lip +would quiver more, and tears would come. But if she tried to get up, it +hurt her so much, that in spite of herself she was glad to sink back +again on the soft pillows and mattress, which felt so comfortable to her +poor bones. +</P> + +<P> +Then there came a time when Katy didn't even ask to be allowed to get +up. A time when sharp, dreadful pain, such as she never imagined +before, took hold of her. When days and nights got all confused and +tangled up together, and Aunt Izzie never seemed to go to bed. A time +when Papa was constantly in her room. When other doctors came and stood +over her, and punched and felt her back, and talked to each other in +low whispers. It was all like a long, bad dream, from which she +couldn't wake up, though she tried ever so hard. Now and then she would +rouse a little, and catch the sound of voices, or be aware that Clover +or Elsie stood at the door, crying softly; or that Aunt Izzie, in +creaking slippers, was going about the room on tiptoe. Then all these +things would slip away again, and she would drop off into a dark place, +where there was nothing but pain, and sleep, which made her forget +pain, and so seemed the best thing in the world. +</P> + +<P> +We will hurry over this time, for it is hard to think of our bright Katy +in such a sad plight. By and by the pain grew less, and the sleep +quieter. Then, as the pain became easier still, Katy woke up as it +were—began to take notice of what was going on about her; to put +questions. +</P> + +<P> +"How long have I been sick?" she asked one morning. +</P> + +<P> +"It is four weeks yesterday," said Papa. +</P> + +<P> +"Four weeks!" said Katy. "Why, I didn't know it was so long as that. Was +I very sick, Papa?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very, dear. But you are a great deal better now." +</P> + +<P> +"How did I hurt me when I tumbled out of the swing?" asked Katy, who was +in an unusually wakeful mood. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe I could make you understand, dear." +</P> + +<P> +"But try, Papa!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—did you know that you had a long bone down your back, +called a spine?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought that was a disease," said Katy. "Clover said that Cousin +Helen had the spine!" +</P> + +<P> +"No—the spine is a bone. It is made up of a row of smaller bones—or +knobs—and in the middle of it is a sort of rope of nerves called the +spinal cord. Nerves, you know, are the things we feel with. Well, this +spinal cord is rolled up for safe keeping in a soft wrapping, called +membrane. When you fell out of the swing, you struck against one of +these knobs, and bruised the membrane inside, and the nerve inflamed, +and gave you a fever in the back. Do you see?" +</P> + +<P> +"A little," said Katy, not quite understanding, but too tired to +question farther. After she had rested a while, she said: "Is the fever +well now, Papa? Can I get up again and go down stairs right away?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not right away, I'm afraid," said Dr. Carr, trying to speak cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +Katy didn't ask any more questions then. Another week passed, and +another. The pain was almost gone. It only came back now and then for a +few minutes. She could sleep now, and eat, and be raised in bed without +feeling giddy. But still the once active limbs hung heavy and lifeless, +and she was not able to walk, or even stand alone. +</P> + +<P> +"My legs feel so queer," she said one morning, "they are just like the +Prince's legs which were turned to black marble in the Arabian Nights. +What do you suppose is the reason, Papa? Won't they feel natural soon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not soon," answered Dr. Carr. Then he said to himself: "Poor child! she +had better know the truth." So he went on, aloud, "I am afraid, my +darling, that you must make up your mind to stay in bed a long time." +</P> + +<P> +"How long?" said Katy, looking frightened: "a month more?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't tell exactly how long," answered her father. "The doctors +think, as I do, that the injury to your spine is one which you will +outgrow by and by, because you are so young and strong. But it may take +a good while to do it. It may be that you will have to lie here for +months, or it may be more. The only cure for such a hurt is time and +patience. It is hard, darling"—for Katy began to sob wildly—"but you +have Hope to help you along. Think of poor Cousin Helen, bearing all +these years without hope!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Papa!" gasped Katy, between her sobs, "doesn't it seem dreadful, +that just getting into the swing for a few minutes should do so much +harm? Such a little thing as that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, such a little thing!" repeated Dr. Carr, sadly. "And it was only a +little thing, too, forgetting Aunt Izzie's order about the swing. Just +for the want of the small 'horseshoe nail' of Obedience, Katy." +</P> + +<P> +Years afterwards, Katy told somebody that the longest six weeks of her +life were those which followed this conversation with Papa. Now that she +knew there was no chance of getting well at once, the days dragged +dreadfully. Each seemed duller and dismaller than the day before. She +lost heart about herself, and took no interest in anything. Aunt Izzie +brought her books, but she didn't want to read, or to sew. Nothing +amused her. Clover and Cecy would come and sit with her, but hearing +them tell about their plays, and the things they had been doing, made +her cry so miserably, that Aunt Izzie wouldn't let them come often. They +were very sorry for Katy, but the room was so gloomy, and Katy so cross, +that they didn't mind much not being allowed to see her. In those days +Katy made Aunt Izzie keep the blinds shut tight, and she lay in the +dark, thinking how miserable she was, and how wretched all the rest of +her life was going to be. Everybody was very kind and patient with her, +but she was too selfishly miserable to notice it. Aunt Izzie ran up and +down stairs, and was on her feet all day, trying to get something which +would please her, but Katy hardly said "Thank you," and never saw how +tired Aunt Izzie looked. So long as she was forced to stay in bed, Katy +could not be grateful for anything that was done for her. +</P> + +<P> +But doleful as the days were, they were not so bad as the nights, when, +after Aunt Izzie was asleep, Katy would lie wide awake, and have long, +hopeless fits of crying. At these times she would think of all the plans +she had made for doing beautiful things when she was grown up. "And now +I shall never do any of them," she would say to herself, "only just lie +here. Papa says I may get well by and by, but I sha'n't, I know I +sha'n't. And even if I do, I shall have wasted all these years, and the +others will grow up and get ahead of me, and I sha'n't be a comfort to +them or to anybody else. Oh dear! oh dear! how dreadful it is!" +</P> + +<P> +The first thing which broke in upon this sad state of affairs, was a +letter from Cousin Helen, which Papa brought one morning and handed to +Aunt Izzie. +</P> + +<P> +"Helen tells me she's going home this week," said Aunt Izzie, from the +window, where she had gone to read the letter. "Well, I'm sorry, but I +think she's quite right not to stop. It's just as she says: one +invalid at a time is enough in a house. I'm sure I have my hands full +with Katy." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Aunt Izzie!" cried Katy, "is Cousin Helen coming this way when she +goes home? Oh! do make her stop. If it's just for one day, do ask her! I +want to see her so much! I can't tell you how much! Won't you? Please! +Please, dear Papa!" +</P> + +<P> +She was almost crying with eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes, darling, if you wish it so much," said Dr. Carr. "It will +cost Aunt Izzie some trouble, but she's so kind that I'm sure she'll +manage it if it is to give you so much pleasure. Can't you, Izzie?" And +he looked eagerly at his sister. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I will!" said Miss Izzie, heartily. Katy was so glad, that, +for the first time in her life, she threw her arms of her own accord +round Aunt Izzie's neck, and kissed her. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, dear Aunty!" she said. +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie looked as pleased as could be. She had a warm heart +hidden under her fidgety ways—only Katy had never been sick before, +to find it out. +</P> + +<P> +For the next week Katy was feverish with expectation. At last Cousin +Helen came. This time Katy was not on the steps to welcome her, but +after a little while Papa brought Cousin Helen in his arms, and sat her +in a big chair beside the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"How dark it is!" she said, after they had kissed each other and talked +for a minute or two; "I can't see your face at all. Would it hurt your +eyes to have a little more light?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no!" answered Katy. "It don't hurt my eyes, only I hate to have the +sun come in. It makes me feel worse, somehow." +</P> + +<P> +"Push the blind open a little bit then Clover;" and Clover did so. +</P> + +<P> +"Now I can see," said Cousin Helen. +</P> + +<P> +It was a forlorn-looking child enough which she saw lying before her. +Katy's face had grown thin, and her eyes had red circles about them from +continual crying. Her hair had been brushed twice that morning by Aunt +Izzie, but Katy had run her fingers impatiently through it, till it +stood out above her head like a frowsy bush. She wore a calico +dressing-gown, which, though clean, was particularly ugly in pattern; +and the room, for all its tidiness, had a dismal look, with the chairs +set up against the wall, and a row of medicine-bottles on the +chimney-piece. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it horrid?" sighed Katy, as Cousin Helen looked around. +"Everything's horrid. But I don't mind so much now that you've come. Oh, +Cousin Helen, I've had such a dreadful, <I>dreadful</I> time!" +</P> + +<P> +"I know," said her cousin, pityingly. "I've heard all about it, Katy, +and I'm so very sorry for you! It is a hard trial, my poor darling." +</P> + +<P> +"But how do <I>you</I> do it?" cried Katy. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you manage to be so sweet and beautiful and patient, when you're +feeling badly all the time, and can't do anything, or walk, or +stand?"—her voice was lost in sobs. +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen didn't say anything for a little while. She just sat and +stroked Katy's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Katy," she said at last, "has Papa told you that he thinks you are +going to get well by and by?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Katy, "he did say so. But perhaps it won't be for a long, +long time. And I wanted to do so many things. And now I can't do +anything at all!" +</P> + +<P> +"What sort of things?" +</P> + +<P> +"Study, and help people, and become famous. And I wanted to teach the +children. Mamma said I must take care of them, and I meant to. And now I +can't go to school or learn anything myself. And if I ever do get well, +the children will be almost grown up, and they won't need me." +</P> + +<P> +"But why must you wait till you get well?" asked Cousin Helen, smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Cousin Helen, what can I do lying here in bed?" +</P> + +<P> +"A good deal. Shall I tell you, Katy, what it seems to me that I should +say to myself if I were in your place?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, please!" replied Katy wonderingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I should say this: 'Now, Katy Carr, you wanted to go to school and +learn to be wise and useful, and here's a chance for you. God is going +to let you go to <I>His</I> school—where He teaches all sorts of beautiful +things to people. Perhaps He will only keep you for one term, or perhaps +it may be for three or four; but whichever it is, you must make the very +most of the chance, because He gives it to you Himself.'" +</P> + +<P> +"But what is the school?" asked Katy. "I don't know what you mean." +</P> + +<P> +"It is called The School of Pain," replied Cousin Helen, with her +sweetest smile. "And the place where the lessons are to be learned is +this room of yours. The rules of the school are pretty hard, but the +good scholars, who keep them best, find out after a while how right and +kind they are. And the lessons aren't easy, either, but the more you +study the more interesting they become." +</P> + +<P> +"What are the lessons?" asked Katy, getting interested, and beginning to +feel as if Cousin Helen were telling her a story. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, there's the lesson of Patience. That's one of the hardest +studies. You can't learn much of it at a time, but every bit you get by +heart, makes the next bit easier. And there's the lesson of +Cheerfulness. And the lesson of Making the Best of Things." +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes there isn't anything to make the best of," remarked Katy, +dolefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes there is, always! Everything in the world has two handles. Didn't +you know that? One is a smooth handle. If you take hold of it, the thing +comes up lightly and easily, but if you seize the rough handle, it hurts +your hand and the thing is hard to lift. Some people always manage to +get hold of the wrong handle." +</P> + +<P> +"Is Aunt Izzie a 'thing?'" asked Katy. Cousin Helen was glad to hear +her laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—Aunt Izzie is a <I>thing</I>—and she has a nice pleasant handle too, +if you just try to find it. And the children are 'things,' also, in one +sense. All their handles are different. You know human beings aren't +made just alike, like red flower-pots. We have to feel and guess before +we can make out just how other people go, and how we ought to take hold +of them. It is very interesting, I advise you to try it. And while you +are trying, you will learn all sorts of things which will help you to +help others." +</P> + +<P> +"If I only could!" sighed Katy. "Are there any other studies in the +School, Cousin Helen?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, there's the lesson of Hopefulness. That class has ever so many +teachers. The Sun is one. He sits outside the window all day waiting a +chance to slip in and get at his pupil. He's a first-rate teacher, too. +I wouldn't shut him out, if I were you. +</P> + +<P> +"Every morning, the first thing when I woke up, I would say to myself: +'I am going to get well, so Papa thinks. Perhaps it may be to-morrow. +So, in case this <I>should</I> be the last day of my sickness, let me spend +it <I>beauti-</I>fully, and make my sick-room so pleasant that everybody +will like to remember it.' +</P> + +<P> +"Then, there is one more lesson, Katy—the lesson of Neatness. +School-rooms must be kept in order, you know. A sick person ought to be +as fresh and dainty as a rose." +</P> + +<P> +"But it is such a fuss," pleaded Katy. "I don't believe you've any idea +what a bother it is to always be nice and in order. You never were +careless like me, Cousin Helen; you were born neat." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, was I?" said her Cousin. "Well, Katy, we won't dispute that point, +but I'll tell you a story, if you like, about a girl I once knew, who +<I>wasn't</I> born neat." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, do!" cried Katy, enchanted. Cousin Helen had done her good, +already. She looked brighter and less listless than for days. +</P> + +<P> +"This girl was quite young," continued Cousin Helen; "she was strong and +active, and liked to run, and climb, and ride, and do all sorts of jolly +things. One day something happened—an accident—and they told her that +all the rest of her life she had got to lie on her back and suffer pain, +and never walk any more, or do any of the things she enjoyed most." +</P> + +<P> +"Just like you and me!" whispered Katy, squeezing Cousin Helen's hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Something like me; but not so much like you, because, you know, we hope +<I>you</I> are going to get well one of these days. The girl didn't mind it +so much when they first told her, for she was so ill that she felt sure +she should die. But when she got better, and began to think of the long +life which lay before her, that was worse than ever the pain had been. +She was so wretched, that she didn't care what became of anything, or +how anything looked. She had no Aunt Izzie to look after things, so her +room soon got into a dreadful state. It was full of dust and confusion, +and dirty spoons and phials of physic. She kept the blinds shut, and let +her hair tangle every which way, and altogether was a dismal spectacle. +</P> + +<P> +"This girl had a dear old father," went on Cousin Helen, "who used to +come every day and sit beside her bed. One morning he said to her: +</P> + +<P> +"'My daughter, I'm afraid you've got to live in this room for a long +time. Now there's one thing I want you to do for my sake.' +</P> + +<P> +"'What's that?' she asked, surprised to hear there was anything left +which she could <I>do</I> for anybody. +</P> + +<P> +"'I want you to turn out all these physic bottles, and make your room +pleasant and pretty for <I>me</I> to come and sit in. You see, I shall spend +a good deal of my time here! Now I don't like dust and darkness. I like +to see flowers on the table, and sunshine in at the window. Will you do +this to please me?' +</P> + +<P> +"'Yes,' said the girl, but she gave a sigh, and I am afraid she felt as +if it was going to be a dreadful trouble. +</P> + +<P> +"'Then, another thing,' continued her father, 'I want <I>you</I> to look +pretty. Can't nightgowns and wrappers be trimmed and made becoming just +as much as dresses? A sick woman who isn't neat is a disagreeable +object. Do, to please me, send for something pretty, and let me see you +looking nice again. I can't bear to have my Helen turn into a +slattern.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Helen!" exclaimed Katy, with wide-open eyes, "was it <I>you</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said her cousin, smiling. "It was I though I didn't mean to let +the name slip out so soon. So, after my father was gone away, I sent for +a looking-glass. Such a sight, Katy! My hair was a perfect mouse's nest, +and I had frowned so much that my forehead was all criss-crossed with +lines of pain, till it looked like an old woman's." +</P> + +<P> +Katy stared at Cousin Helen's smooth brow and glossy hair. "I can't +believe it," she said; "your hair never could be rough." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes it was—worse, a great deal, than yours looks now. But that peep in +the glass did me good. I began to think how selfishly I was behaving, +and to desire to do better. And after that, when the pain came on, I +used to lie and keep my forehead smooth with my fingers, and try not to +let my face show what I was enduring. So by and by the wrinkles wore +away, and though I am a good deal older now, they have never come back. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a great deal of trouble at first to have to think and plan to +keep my room and myself looking nice. But after a while it grew to be a +habit, and then it became easy. And the pleasure it gave my dear father +repaid for all. He had been proud of his active, healthy girl, but I +think she was never such a comfort to him as his sick one, lying there +in her bed. My room was his favorite sitting-place, and he spent so +much time there, that now the room, and everything in it, makes me +think of him." +</P> + +<P> +There were tears in Cousin Helen's eyes as she ceased speaking. But Katy +looked bright and eager. It seemed somehow to be a help, as well as a +great surprise, that ever there should have been a time when Cousin +Helen was less perfect than she was now. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really think I could do so too?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Do what? Comb your hair?" Cousin Helen was smiling now. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh no! Be nice and sweet and patient, and a comfort to people. You know +what I mean." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure you can, if you try." +</P> + +<P> +"But what would you do first?" asked Katy; who, now that her mind had +grasped a new idea, was eager to begin. +</P> + +<P> +"Well—first I would open the blinds, and make the room look a little +less dismal. Are you taking all those medicines in the bottles now?" +</P> + +<P> +"No—only that big one with the blue label." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you might ask Aunt Izzy to take away the others. And I'd get +Clover to pick a bunch of fresh flowers every day for your table. By the +way, I don't see the little white vase." +</P> + +<P> +"No—it got broken the very day after you went away; the day I fell out +of the swing," said Katy, sorrowfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind, pet, don't look so doleful. I know the tree those vases +grow upon, and you shall have another. Then, after the room is made +pleasant, I would have all my lesson-books fetched up, if I were you, +and I would study a couple of hours every morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" cried Katy, making a wry face at the idea. +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen smiled. "I know," said she, "it sounds like dull work, +learning geography and doing sums up here all by yourself. But I think +if you make the effort you'll be glad by and by. You won't lose so much +ground, you see—won't slip back quite so far in your education. And +then, studying will be like working at a garden, where things don't grow +easily. Every flower you raise will be a sort of triumph, and you will +value it twice as much as a common flower which has cost no trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Katy, rather forlornly, "I'll try. But it won't be a bit +nice studying without anybody to study with me. Is there anything else, +Cousin Helen?" +</P> + +<P> +Just then the door creaked, and Elsie timidly put her head into the +room. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Elsie, run away!" cried Katy. "Cousin Helen and I are talking. +Don't come just now." +</P> + +<P> +Katy didn't speak unkindly, but Elsie's face fell, and she looked +disappointed. She said nothing, however, but shut the door and +stole away. +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen watched this little scene without speaking. For a few +minutes after Elsie was gone she seemed to be thinking. +</P> + +<P> +"Katy," she said at last, "you were saying just now, that one of the +things you were sorry about was that while you were ill you could be of +no use to the children. Do you know, I don't think you have that reason +for being sorry." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" said Katy, astonished. +</P> + +<P> +"Because you can be of use. It seems to me that you have more of a +chance with the children now, than you ever could have had when you were +well, and flying about as you used. You might do almost anything you +liked with them." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't think what you mean," said Katy, sadly. "Why, Cousin Helen, +half the time I don't even know where they are, or what they are doing. +And I can't get up and go after them, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"But you can make your room such a delightful place, that they will +want to come to you! Don't you see, a sick person has one splendid +chance—she is always on hand. Everybody who wants her knows just +where to go. If people love her, she gets naturally to be the heart of +the house. +</P> + +<P> +"Once make the little ones feel that your room is the place of all +others to come to when they are tired, or happy, or grieved, or sorry +about anything, and that the Katy who lives there is sure to give them a +loving reception—and the battle is won. For you know we never do +people good by lecturing; only by living their lives with them, and +helping a little here, and a little there, to make them better. And when +one's own life is laid aside for a while, as yours is now, that is the +very time to take up other people's lives, as we can't do when we are +scurrying and bustling over our own affairs. But I didn't mean to preach +a sermon. I'm afraid you're tired." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'm not a bit," said Katy, holding Cousin Helen's hand tight in +hers; "you can't think how much better I feel. Oh, Cousin Helen, I +will try!" +</P> + +<P> +"It won't be easy," replied her cousin. "There will be days when your +head aches, and you feel cross and fretted, and don't want to think of +any one but yourself. And there'll be other days when Clover and the +rest will come in, as Elsie did just now, and you will be doing +something else, and will feel as if their coming was a bother. But you +must recollect that every time you forget, and are impatient or +selfish, you chill them and drive them farther away. They are loving +little things, and are so sorry for you now, that nothing you do makes +them angry. But by and by they will get used to having you sick, and if +you haven't won them as friends, they will grow away from you as they +get older." +</P> + +<P> +Just then Dr. Carr came in. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Papa! you haven't come to take Cousin Helen, have you?" cried Katy. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I have," said her father. "I think the big invalid and the +little invalid have talked quite long enough. Cousin Helen looks tired." +</P> + +<P> +For a minute, Katy felt just like crying. But she choked back the tears. +"My first lesson in Patience," she said to herself, and managed to give +a faint, watery smile as Papa looked at her. +</P> + +<P> +"That's right, dear," whispered Cousin Helen, as she bent forward to +kiss her. "And one last word, Katy. In this school, to which you and I +belong, there is one great comfort, and that is that the Teacher is +always at hand. He never goes away. If things puzzle us, there He is, +close by, ready to explain and make all easy. Try to think of this, +darling, and don't be afraid to ask Him for help if the lesson seems +too hard." +</P> + +<P> +Katy had a strange dream that night. She thought she was trying to study +a lesson out of a book which wouldn't come quite open. She could just +see a little bit of what was inside, but it was in a language which she +did not understand. She tried in vain; not a word could she read; and +yet, for all that, it looked so interesting that she longed to go on. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if somebody would only help me!" she cried impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly a hand came over her shoulder and took hold of the book. It +opened at once, and showed the whole page. And then the forefinger of +the hand began to point to line after line, and as it moved the words +became plain, and Katy could read them easily. She looked up. There, +stooping over her, was a great beautiful Face. The eyes met hers. The +lips smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you ask me before, Little Scholar?" said a voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it is You, just as Cousin Helen told me!" cried Katy. +</P> + +<P> +She must have spoken in her sleep, for Aunt Izzie half woke up, and +said: +</P> + +<P> +"What is it? Do you want anything?" +</P> + +<P> +The dream broke, and Katy roused, to find herself in bed, with the first +sunbeams struggling in at the window, and Aunt Izzie raised on her +elbow, looking at her with a sort of sleepy wonder. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ST. NICHOLAS AND ST. VALENTINE +</H4> + +<P> +"What are the children all doing to-day?" said Katy laying down "Norway +and the Norwegians," which she was reading for the fourth time; "I +haven't seen them since breakfast." +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie, who was sewing on the other side of the room, looked up +from her work. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know," she said, "they're over at Cecy's, or somewhere. They'll +be back before long, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +Her voice sounded a little odd and mysterious, but Katy didn't +notice it. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought of such a nice plan yesterday," she went on. "That was that +all of them should hang their stockings up here to-morrow night instead +of in the nursery. Then I could see them open their presents, you know. +Mayn't they, Aunt Izzie? It would be real fun." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe there will be any objection," replied her aunt. She +looked as if she were trying not to laugh. Katy wondered what was the +matter with her. +</P> + +<P> +It was more than two months now since Cousin Helen went away, and Winter +had fairly come. Snow was falling out-doors. Katy could see the thick +flakes go whirling past the window, but the sight did not chill her. It +only made the room look warmer and more cosy. It was a pleasant room +now. There was a bright fire in the grate. Everything was neat and +orderly, the air was sweet with mignonette, from a little glass of +flowers which stood on the table, and the Katy who lay in bed, was a +very different-looking Katy from the forlorn girl of the last chapter. +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen's visit, though it lasted only one day, did great good. Not +that Katy grew perfect all at once. None of us do that, even in books. +But it is everything to be started in the right path. Katy's feet were +on it now; and though she often stumbled and slipped, and often sat down +discouraged, she kept on pretty steadily, in spite of bad days, which +made her say to herself that she was not getting forward at all. +</P> + +<P> +These bad days, when everything seemed hard, and she herself was cross +and fretful, and drove the children out of her room, cost Katy many +bitter tears. But after them she would pick herself up, and try again, +and harder. And I think that in spite of drawbacks, the little scholar, +on the whole, was learning her lesson pretty well. +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen was a great comfort all this time. She never forgot Katy. +Nearly every week some little thing came from her. Sometimes it was a +pencil note, written from her sofa. Sometimes it was an interesting +book, or a new magazine, or some pretty little thing for the room. The +crimson wrapper which Katy wore was one of her presents, so were the +bright chromos of Autumn leaves which hung on the wall, the little stand +for the books—all sorts of things. Katy loved to look about her as she +lay. All the room seemed full of Cousin Helen and her kindness. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I had something pretty to put into everybody's stocking," she +went on, wistfully; "but I've only got the muffetees for Papa, and these +reins for Phil." She took them from under her pillow as she spoke—gay +worsted affairs, with bells sewed on here and there. She had knit them +herself, a very little bit at a time. +</P> + +<P> +"There's my pink sash," she said suddenly, "I might give that to +Clover. I only wore it once, you know, and I don't think I got any +spots on it. Would you please fetch it and let me see, Aunt Izzie? It's +in the top drawer." +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie brought the sash. It proved to be quite fresh, and they both +decided that it would do nicely for Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"You know I sha'n't want sashes for ever so long," said Katy, in rather +a sad tone, "And this is a beauty." +</P> + +<P> +When she spoke next, her voice was bright again. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I had something real nice for Elsie. Do you know, Aunt Izzie—I +think Elsie is the dearest little girl that ever was." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad you've found it out," said Aunt Izzie, who had always been +specially fond of Elsie. +</P> + +<P> +"What she wants most of all is a writing-desk," continued Katy. "And +Johnnie wants a sled. But, oh dear! these are such big things. And I've +only got two dollars and a quarter." +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie marched out of the room without saying anything. When she +came back she had something folded up in her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know what to give you for Christmas, Katy," she said, "because +Helen sends you such a lot of things that there don't seem to be +anything you haven't already. So I thought I'd give you this, and let +you choose for yourself. But if you've set your heart on getting +presents for the children, perhaps you'd rather have it now." So saying, +Aunt Izzie laid on the bed a crisp, new five-dollar bill! +</P> + +<P> +"How good you are!" cried Katy, flushed with pleasure. And indeed Aunt +Izzie <I>did</I> seem to have grown wonderfully good of late. Perhaps Katy +had got hold of her smooth handle! +</P> + +<P> +Being now in possession of seven dollars and a quarter, Katy could +afford to be gorgeously generous. She gave Aunt Izzie an exact +description of the desk she wanted. +</P> + +<P> +"It's no matter about its being very big," said Katy, "but it must have +a blue velvet lining, and an inkstand, with a silver top. And please buy +some little sheets of paper and envelopes, and a pen-handle; the +prettiest you can find. Oh! and there must be a lock and key. Don't +forget that, Aunt Izzie." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I won't. What else?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like the sled to be green," went on Katy, "and to have a nice name. +Sky-Scraper would be nice, if there was one. Johnnie saw a sled once +called Sky-Scraper, and she said it was splendid. And if there's money +enough left, Aunty, won't you buy me a real nice book for Dorry, and +another for Cecy, and a silver thimble for Mary? Her old one is full of +holes. Oh! and some candy. And something for Debby and Bridget—some +little thing, you know. I think that's all!" +</P> + +<P> +Was ever seven dollars and a quarter expected to do so much? Aunt Izzie +must have been a witch, indeed, to make it hold out. But she did, and +next day all the precious bundles came home. How Katy enjoyed untying +the strings! +</P> + +<P> +Everything was exactly right. +</P> + +<P> +"There wasn't any Sky-Scraper," said Aunt Izzie, "so I got +'Snow-Skimmer' instead." +</P> + +<P> +"It's beautiful, and I like it just as well," said Katy contentedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hide them, hide them!" she cried with sudden terror, "somebody's +coming." But the somebody was only Papa, who put his head into the room +as Aunt Izzie, laden with bundles, scuttled across the hall. +</P> + +<P> +Katy was glad to catch him alone. She had a little private secret to +talk over with him. It was about Aunt Izzie, for whom she, as yet, had +no present. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought perhaps you'd get me a book like that one of Cousin Helen's, +which Aunt Izzie liked so much," she said. "I don't recollect the name +exactly. It was something about a Shadow. But I've spent all my money." +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind about that," said Dr. Carr. "We'll make that right. 'The +Shadow of the Cross'—was that it? I'll buy it this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, thank you, Papa! And please get a brown cover, if you can, because +Cousin Helen's was brown. And you won't let Aunt Izzie know, will you? +Be careful, Papa!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll swallow the book first, brown cover and all," said Papa, +making a funny face. He was pleased to see Katy so interested about +anything again. +</P> + +<P> +These delightful secrets took up so much of her thoughts, that Katy +scarcely found time to wonder at the absence of the children, who +generally haunted her room, but who for three days back had hardly been +seen. However, after supper they all came up in a body, looking very +merry, and as if they had been having a good time somewhere. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know what we've been doing," began Philly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush, Phil!" said Clover, in a warning voice. Then she divided the +stockings which she held in her hand. And everybody proceeded to +hang them up. +</P> + +<P> +Dorry hung his on one side of the fireplace, and John hers exactly +opposite. Clover and Phil suspended theirs side by side, on two handles +of the bureau. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to put mine here, close to Katy, so that she can see it the +first fing in the mornin'," said Elsie, pinning hers to the bed-post. +</P> + +<P> +Then they all sat down round the fire to write their wishes on bits of +paper, and see whether they would burn, or fly up the chimney. If they +did the latter, it was a sign that Santa Claus had them safe, and would +bring the things wished for. +</P> + +<P> +John wished for a sled and a doll's tea-set, and the continuation of the +Swiss Family Robinson. Dorry's list ran thus: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "A plum-cake,<BR> + A new Bibel,<BR> + Harry and Lucy,<BR> + A Kellidescope,<BR> + Everything else Santa Claus likes."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +When they had written these lists they threw them into the fire. The +fire gave a flicker just then, and the papers vanished. Nobody saw +exactly how. John thought they flew up chimney, but Dorry said they +didn't. Phil dropped his piece in very solemnly. It flamed for a minute, +then sank into ashes. +</P> + +<P> +"There, you won't get it, whatever it was!" said Dorry. "What did you +write, Phil?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nofing," said Phil, "only just Philly Carr." +</P> + +<P> +The children shouted. +</P> + +<P> +"I wrote 'a writing-desk' on mine," remarked Elsie, sorrowfully, "but it +all burned up." +</P> + +<P> +Katy chuckled when she heard this. +</P> + +<P> +And now Clover produced her list. She read aloud: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "'Strive and Thrive,'<BR> + A pair of kid gloves,<BR> + A muff,<BR> + A good temper!"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Then she dropped it into the fire. Behold, it flew straight up chimney. +</P> + +<P> +"How queer!" said Katy; "none of the rest of them did that." +</P> + +<P> +The truth was, that Clover, who was a canny little mortal, had slipped +across the room and opened the door just before putting her wishes in. +This, of course, made a draft, and sent the paper right upward. +</P> + +<P> +Pretty soon Aunt Izzie came in and swept them all off to bed. +</P> + +<P> +"I know how it will be in the morning," she said, "you'll all be up +and racing about as soon as it is light. So you must get your sleep +now, if ever." +</P> + +<P> +After they had gone, Katy recollected that nobody had offered to hang a +stocking up for her. She felt a little hurt when she thought of it. "But +I suppose they forgot," she said to herself. +</P> + +<P> +A little later Papa and Aunt Izzie came in, and they filled the +stockings. It was great fun. Each was brought to Katy, as she lay in +bed, that she might arrange it as she liked. +</P> + +<P> +The toes were stuffed with candy and oranges. Then came the parcels, all +shapes and sizes, tied in white paper, with ribbons, and labelled. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" asked Dr. Carr, as Aunt Izzie rammed a long, narrow +package into Clover's stocking. +</P> + +<P> +"A nail-brush," answered Aunt Izzie. "Clover needed a new one." +</P> + +<P> +How Papa and Katy laughed! "I don't believe Santa Claus ever had such a +thing before," said Dr. Carr. +</P> + +<P> +"He's a very dirty old gentleman, then," observed Aunt Izzie, grimly. +</P> + +<P> +The desk and sled were too big to go into any stocking, so they were +wrapped in paper and hung beneath the other things. It was ten o'clock +before all was done, and Papa and Aunt Izzie went away. Katy lay a long +time watching the queer shapes of the stocking-legs as they dangled in +the firelight. Then she fell asleep. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed only a minute, before something touched her and woke her up. +Behold, it was day-time, and there was Philly in his nightgown, climbing +up on the bed to kiss her! The rest of the children, half dressed, were +dancing about with their stockings in their hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" they cried. "Oh, Katy, such +beautiful, beautiful things!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" shrieked Elsie, who at that moment spied her desk, "Santa Claus +<I>did</I> bring it, after all! Why, it's got 'from Katy' written on it! Oh, +Katy, it's so sweet, and I'm <I>so</I> happy!" and Elsie hugged Katy, and +sobbed for pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +But what was that strange thing beside the bed! Katy stared, and rubbed +her eyes. It certainly had not been there when she went to sleep. How +had it come? +</P> + +<P> +It was a little evergreen tree planted in a red flower-pot. The pot had +stripes of gilt paper stuck on it, and gilt stars and crosses, which +made it look very gay. The boughs of the tree were hung with oranges, +and nuts, and shiny red apples, and pop-corn balls, and strings of +bright berries. There were also a number of little packages tied with +blue and crimson ribbon, and altogether the tree looked so pretty, that +Katy gave a cry of delighted surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a Christmas-tree for you, because you're sick, you know!" said the +children, all trying to hug her at once. +</P> + +<P> +"We made it ourselves," said Dorry, hopping about on one foot; "I pasted +the black stars on the pot." +</P> + +<P> +"And I popped the corn!" cried Philly. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you like it?" asked Elsie, cuddling close to Katy. "That's my +present—that one tied with a green ribbon. I wish it was nicer! Don't +you want to open 'em right away?" +</P> + +<P> +Of course Katy wanted to. All sorts of things came out of the little +bundles. The children had arranged every parcel themselves. No grown +person had been allowed to help in the least. +</P> + +<P> +Elsie's present was a pen-wiper, with a gray flannel kitten on it. +Johnnie's, a doll's tea-tray of scarlet tin. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it beau-ti-ful?" she said, admiringly. +</P> + +<P> +Dorry's gift, I regret to say, was a huge red-and-yellow spider, which +whirred wildly when waved at the end of its string. +</P> + +<P> +"They didn't want me to buy it," said he, "but I did! I thought it would +amoose you. Does it amoose you, Katy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed," said Katy, laughing and blinking as Dorry waved the +spider to and fro before her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You can play with it when we ain't here and you're all alone, you +know," remarked Dorry, highly gratified. +</P> + +<P> +"But you don't notice what the tree's standing upon," said Clover. +</P> + +<P> +It was a chair, a very large and curious one, with a long-cushioned +back, which ended in a footstool. +</P> + +<P> +"That's Papa's present," said Clover; "see, it tips back so as to be +just like a bed. And Papa says he thinks pretty soon you can lie on it, +in the window, where you can see us play." +</P> + +<P> +"Does he really?" said Katy, doubtfully. It still hurt her very much to +be touched or moved. +</P> + +<P> +"And see what's tied to the arm of the chair," said Elsie. +</P> + +<P> +It was a little silver bell, with "Katy" engraved on the handle. +</P> + +<P> +"Cousin Helen sent it. It's for you to ring when you want anybody to +come," explained Elsie. +</P> + +<P> +More surprises. To the other arm of the chair was fastened a beautiful +book. It was "The Wide Wide World"—and there Was Katy's name written on +it, 'from her affectionate Cecy.' On it stood a great parcel of dried +cherries from Mrs. Hall. Mrs. Hall had the most <I>delicious</I> dried +cherries, the children thought. +</P> + +<P> +"How perfectly lovely everybody is!" said Katy, with grateful tears +in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +That was a pleasant Christmas. The children declared it to be the nicest +they had ever had. And though Katy couldn't quite say that, she enjoyed +it too, and was very happy. +</P> + +<P> +It was several weeks before she was able to use the chair, but when once +she became accustomed to it, it proved very comfortable. Aunt Izzie +would dress her in the morning, tip the chair back till it was on a +level with the bed, and then, very gently and gradually, draw her over +on to it. Wheeling across the room was always painful, but sitting in +the window and looking out at the clouds, the people going by, and the +children playing in the snow, was delightful. How delightful nobody +knows, excepting those who, like Katy, have lain for six months in bed, +without a peep at the outside world. Every day she grew brighter and +more cheerful. +</P> + +<P> +"How jolly Santa Claus was this year!" She happened to say one day, when +she was talking with Cecy. "I wish another Saint would come and pay us a +visit. But I don't know any more, except Cousin Helen, and she can't." +</P> + +<P> +"There's St. Valentine," suggested Cecy. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure enough. What a bright thought!" cried Katy, clapping her hands. +"Oh, Cecy, let's do something funny on Valentine's-Day! Such a good idea +has just popped into my mind." +</P> + +<P> +So the two girls put their heads together and held a long, mysterious +confabulation. What it was about, we shall see farther on. +</P> + +<P> +Valentine's-Day was the next Friday. When the children came home from +school on Thursday afternoon, Aunt Izzie met them, and, to their great +surprise, told them that Cecy was come to drink tea, and they must all +go up stairs and be made nice. +</P> + +<P> +"But Cecy comes most every day," remarked Dorry, who didn't see the +connection between this fact and having his face washed. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—but to-night you are to take tea in Katy's room," said Aunt Izzie; +"here are the invitations: one for each of you." +</P> + +<P> +Sure enough, there was a neat little note for each, requesting the +pleasure of their company at "Queen Katharine's Palace," that afternoon, +at six o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +This put quite a different aspect on the affair. The children scampered +up stairs, and pretty soon, all nicely brushed and washed, they were +knocking formally at the door of the "Palace." How fine it sounded! +</P> + +<P> +The room looked bright and inviting. Katy, in her chair, sat close to +the fire, Cecy was beside her, and there was a round table all set out +with a white cloth and mugs of milk and biscuit, and strawberry-Jam and +doughnuts. In the middle was a loaf of frosted cake. There was something +on the icing which looked like pink letters, and Clover, leaning +forward, read aloud, "St. Valentine." +</P> + +<P> +"What's that for?" asked Dorry. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you know this is St. Valentine's-Eve," replied Katy. "Debbie +remembered it, I guess, so she put that on." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing more was said about St. Valentine just then. But when the last +pink letter of his name had been eaten, and the supper had been cleared +away, suddenly, as the children sat by the fire, there was a loud rap +at the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Who can that be?" said Katy; "please see, Clover!" +</P> + +<P> +So Clover opened the door. There stood Bridget, trying very hard not to +laugh, and holding a letter in her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a note as has come for you, Miss Clover," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"For <I>me</I>!" cried Clover, much amazed. Then she shut the door, and +brought the note to the table. +</P> + +<P> +"How very funny!" she exclaimed, as she looked at the envelope, which +was a green and white one. There was something hard inside. Clover broke +the seal. Out tumbled a small green velvet pincushion made in the shape +of a clover-leaf, with a tiny stem of wire wound with green silk. Pinned +to the cushion was a paper, with these verses: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Some people love roses well,<BR> + Tulips, gayly dressed,<BR> + Some love violets blue and sweet,—<BR> + I love Clover best.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Though she has a modest air,<BR> + Though no grace she boast,<BR> + Though no gardener call her fair,<BR> + I love Clover most.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Butterfly may pass her by,<BR> + He is but a rover,<BR> + I'm a faithful, loving Bee—<BR> + And I stick to Clover."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +This was the first valentine Clover had ever had. She was perfectly +enchanted. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, who <I>do</I> you suppose sent it?" she cried. +</P> + +<P> +But before anybody could answer, there came another loud knock at +the door, which made them all jump. Behold, Bridget again, with a +second letter! +</P> + +<P> +"It's for you, Miss Elsie, this time," she said with a grin. +</P> + +<P> +There was an instant rush from all the children, and the envelope was +torn open in the twinkling of an eye. Inside was a little ivory seal +with "Elsie" on it in old English letters, and these rhymes: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "I know a little girl,<BR> + She is very dear to me,<BR> + She is just as sweet as honey<BR> + When she chooses so to be,<BR> + And her name begins with E, and ends with E.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "She has brown hair which curls,<BR> + And black eyes for to see<BR> + With, teeth like tiny pearls,<BR> + And dimples, one, two—three,<BR> + And her name begins with E, and ends with E.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Her little feet run faster<BR> + Than other feet can flee,<BR> + As she brushes quickly past, her<BR> + Voice hums like a bee,<BR> + And her name begins with E, and ends with E.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Do you ask me why I love her?<BR> + Then I shall answer thee,<BR> + Because I can't help loving,<BR> + She is so sweet to me,<BR> + This little girl whose name begins and ends with 'E.'"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"It's just like a fairy story," said Elsie, whose eyes had grown as +big as saucers from surprise, while these verses were being read +aloud by Cecy. +</P> + +<P> +Another knock. This time there was a perfect handful of letters. +Everybody had one. Katy, to her great surprise, had <I>two</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what <I>can</I> this be?" she said. But when she peeped into the second +one, she saw Cousin Helen's handwriting, and she put it into her pocket, +till the valentines should be read. +</P> + +<P> +Dorry's was opened first. It had the picture of a pie at the +top—I ought to explain that Dorry had lately been having a siege +with the dentist. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Little Jack Horner<BR> + Sat in his corner,<BR> + Eating his Christmas pie,<BR> + When a sudden grimace<BR> + Spread over his face,<BR> + And he began loudly to cry.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "His tender Mamma<BR> + Heard the sound from afar,<BR> + And hastened to comfort her child;<BR> + 'What aileth my John?'<BR> + She inquired in a tone<BR> + Which belied her question mild.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "'Oh, Mother,' he said,<BR> + 'Every tooth in my head<BR> + Jumps and aches and is loose, O my!<BR> + And it hurts me to eat<BR> + Anything that is sweet—<BR> + So what <I>will</I> become of my pie?'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "It were vain to describe<BR> + How he roared and he cried,<BR> + And howled like a miniature tempest;<BR> + Suffice it to say,<BR> + That the very next day<BR> + He had all his teeth pulled by a dentist!"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +This valentine made the children laugh for a long time. Johnnie's +envelope held a paper doll named "Red Riding-Hood." These were +the verses: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "I send you my picture, dear Johnnie, to show<BR> + That I'm just as alive as you,<BR> + And that you needn't cry over my fate<BR> + Any more, as you used to do.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "The wolf didn't hurt me at all that day,<BR> + For I kicked and fought and cried,<BR> + Till he dropped me out of his mouth, and ran<BR> + Away in the woods to hide.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "And Grandma and I have lived ever since<BR> + In the little brown house so small,<BR> + And churned fresh butter and made cream cheeses,<BR> + Nor seen the wolf at all.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "So cry no more for fear I am eaten,<BR> + The naughty wolf is shot,<BR> + And if you will come to tea some evening<BR> + You shall see for yourself I'm not."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Johnnie was immensely pleased at this, for Red Riding-Hood was a great +favorite of hers. +</P> + +<P> +Philly had a bit of india-rubber in his letter, which was written with +very black ink on a big sheet of foolscap: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "I was once a naughty man,<BR> + And I hid beneath the bed,<BR> + To steal your india-rubbers,<BR> + But I chewed them up instead.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Then you called out, 'Who is there?'<BR> + I was thrown most in a fit,<BR> + And I let the india-rubbers fall—<BR> + All but this little bit.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "I'm sorry for my naughty ways,<BR> + And now, to make amends,<BR> + I send the chewed piece back again,<BR> + And beg we may be friends.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "ROBBER."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"Just listen to mine," said Cecy, who had all along pretended to be as +much surprised as anybody, and now behaved as if she could hardly wait +till Philly's was finished. Then she read aloud: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"TO CECY. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "If I were a bird<BR> + And you were a bird,<BR> + What would we do?<BR> + Why you should be little and I would be big,<BR> + And, side by side on a cherry-tree twig,<BR> + We'd kiss with our yellow bills, and coo—<BR> + That's what we'd do!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "If I were a fish<BR> + And you were a fish,<BR> + What would we do?<BR> + We'd frolic, and whisk our little tails,<BR> + And play all sorts of tricks with the whales,<BR> + And call on the oysters, and order a 'stew,'<BR> + That's what we'd do!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "If I were a bee<BR> + And you were a bee,<BR> + What would we do?<BR> + We'd find a home in a breezy wood,<BR> + And store it with honey sweet and good.<BR> + You should feed me and I would feed you,<BR> + That's what we'd do!<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "VALENTINE."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"I think that's the prettiest of all," said Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't," said Elsie. "I think mine is the prettiest. Cecy didn't have +any seal in hers, either." And she fondled the little seal, which all +this time she had held in her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Katy, you ought to have read yours first because you are the oldest," +said Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"Mine isn't much," replied Katy, and she read: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "The rose is red the violet blue,<BR> + Sugar is sweet, and so are you."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"What a mean valentine!" cried Elsie, with flashing eyes. "It's a real +shame, Katy! You ought to have had the best of all." +</P> + +<P> +Katy could hardly keep from laughing. The fact was that the verses for +the others had taken so long, that no time had been left for writing a +valentine to herself. So, thinking it would excite suspicion to have +none, she had scribbled this old rhyme at the last moment. +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't very nice," she said, trying to look as pensive as she could, +"but never mind." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a shame!" repeated Elsie, petting her very hard to make up for the +injustice. +</P> + +<P> +"Hasn't it been a funny evening?" said John; and Dorry replied, "Yes; we +never had such good times before Katy was sick, did we?" +</P> + +<P> +Katy heard this with a mingled feeling of pleasure and pain. "I think +the children do love me a little more of late," she said to herself. +"But, oh, why couldn't I be good to them when I was well and strong!" +</P> + +<P> +She didn't open Cousin Helen's letter until the rest were all gone to +bed. I think somebody must have written and told about the valentine +party, for instead of a note there were these verses in Cousin Helen's +own clear, pretty hand. It wasn't a valentine, because it was too +solemn, as Katy explained to Clover, next day. "But," she added, "it is +a great deal beautifuller than any valentine that ever was written." And +Clover thought so too. +</P> + +<P> +These were the verses: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "IN SCHOOL.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "I used to go to a bright school<BR> + Where Youth and Frolic taught in turn;<BR> + But idle scholar that I was,<BR> + I liked to play, I would not learn;<BR> + So the Great Teacher did ordain<BR> + That I should try the School of Pain.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "One of the infant class I am<BR> + With little, easy lessons, set<BR> + In a great book; the higher class<BR> + Have harder ones than I, and yet<BR> + I find mine hard, and can't restrain<BR> + My tears while studying thus with Pain.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "There are two Teachers in the school,<BR> + One has a gentle voice and low,<BR> + And smiles upon her scholars, as<BR> + She softly passes to and fro.<BR> + Her name is Love; 'tis very plain<BR> + She shuns the sharper teacher, Pain.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Or so I sometimes think; and then,<BR> + At other times, they meet and kiss,<BR> + And look so strangely like, that I<BR> + Am puzzled to tell how it is,<BR> + Or whence the change which makes it vain<BR> + To guess if it be—Love or Pain.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "They tell me if I study well,<BR> + And learn my lessons, I shall be<BR> + Moved upward to that higher class<BR> + Where dear Love teaches constantly;<BR> + And I work hard, in hopes to gain<BR> + Reward, and get away from Pain.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Yet Pain is sometimes kind, and helps<BR> + Me on when I am very dull;<BR> + I thank him often in my heart;<BR> + But Love is far more beautiful;<BR> + Under her tender, gentle reign<BR> + I must learn faster than of Pain.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "So I will do my very best,<BR> + Nor chide the clock, nor call it slow;<BR> + That when the Teacher calls me up<BR> + To see if I am fit to go,<BR> + I may to Love's high class attain,<BR> + And bid a sweet good-by to Pain."<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A NEW LESSON TO LEARN +</H4> + +<P> +It was a long time before the children ceased to talk and laugh over +that jolly evening. Dorry declared he wished there could be a +Valentine's-Day every week. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think St. Valentine would be tired of writing verses?" asked +Katy. But she, too, had enjoyed the frolic, and the bright recollection +helped her along through the rest of the long, cold winter. +</P> + +<P> +Spring opened late that year, but the Summer, when it came, was a warm +one. Katy felt the heat very much. She could not change her seat and +follow the breeze about from window to window as other people could. The +long burning days left her weak and parched. She hung her head, and +seemed to wilt like the flowers in the garden-beds. Indeed she was worse +off than they, for every evening Alexander gave them a watering with the +hose, while nobody was able to bring a watering-pot and pour out what +she needed—a shower of cold, fresh air. +</P> + +<P> +It wasn't easy to be good-humored under these circumstances, and one +could hardly have blamed Katy if she had sometimes forgotten her +resolutions and been cross and fretful. But she didn't—not very often. +Now and then bad days came, when she was discouraged and forlorn. But +Katy's long year of schooling had taught her self-control, and, as a +general thing, her discomforts were borne patiently. She could not help +growing pale and thin however, and Papa saw with concern that, as the +summer went on, she became too languid to read, or study, or sew, and +just sat hour after hour, with folded hands, gazing wistfully out of +the window. +</P> + +<P> +He tried the experiment of taking her to drive. But the motion of the +carriage, and the being lifted in and out, brought on so much pain, that +Katy begged that he would not ask her to go again. So there was nothing +to be done but wait for cooler weather. The summer dragged on, and all +who loved Katy rejoiced when it was over. +</P> + +<P> +When September came, with cool mornings and nights, and fresh breezes, +smelling of pine woods, and hill-tops, all things seemed to revive, and +Katy with them. She began to crochet and to read. After a while she +collected her books again, and tried to study as Cousin Helen had +advised. But so many idle weeks made it seem harder work than ever. One +day she asked Papa to let her take French lessons. +</P> + +<P> +"You see I'm forgetting all I knew," she said, "and Clover is going to +begin this term, and I don't like that she should get so far ahead of +me. Don't you think Mr. Bergèr would be willing to come here, Papa? He +does go to houses sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +"I think he would if we asked him," said Dr. Carr, pleased to see Katy +waking up with something like life again. +</P> + +<P> +So the arrangement was made. Mr. Bergèr came twice every week, and sat +beside the big chair, correcting Katy's exercises and practising her in +the verbs and pronunciation. He was a lively little old Frenchman, and +knew how to make lesson-time pleasant. +</P> + +<P> +"You take more pain than you used, Mademoiselle," he said one day; "if +you go on so, you shall be my best scholar. And if to hurt the back make +you study, it would be well that some other of my young ladies shall do +the same." +</P> + +<P> +Katy laughed. But in spite of Mr. Bergèr and his lessons, and in spite +of her endeavors to keep cheerful and busy, this second winter was +harder than the first. It is often so with sick people. There is a sort +of excitement in being ill which helps along just at the beginning. But +as months go on, and everything grows an old story, and one day follows +another day, all just alike and all tiresome, courage is apt to flag and +spirits to grow dull. Spring seemed a long, long way off whenever Katy +thought about it. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish something would happen," she often said to herself. And +something was about to happen. But she little guessed what it was +going to be. +</P> + +<P> +"Katy!" said Clover, coming in one day in November, "do you know where +the camphor is? Aunt Izzie has got <I>such</I> a headache." +</P> + +<P> +"No," replied Katy, "I don't. Or—wait—Clover, it seems to me that +Debby came for it the other day. Perhaps if you look in her room +you'll find it." +</P> + +<P> +"How very queer!" she soliloquized, when Clover was gone; "I never knew +Aunt Izzie to have a headache before." +</P> + +<P> +"How is Aunt Izzie?" she asked, when Papa came in at noon. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't know. She has some fever and a bad pain in her head. I +have told her that she had better lie still, and not try to get up this +evening. Old Mary will come in to undress you, Katy. You won't mind, +will you, dear?" +</P> + +<P> +"N-o!" said Katy, reluctantly. But she did mind. Aunt Izzie had grown +used to her and her ways. Nobody else suited her so well. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems so strange to have to explain just how every little thing is +to be done," she remarked to Clover, rather petulantly. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed stranger yet, when the next day, and the next, and the next +after that passed, and still no Aunt Izzie came near her. Blessings +brighten as they take their flight. Katy began to appreciate for the +first time how much she had learned to rely on her aunt. She missed her +dreadfully. +</P> + +<P> +"When <I>is</I> Aunt Izzie going to get well?" she asked her father; "I want +her so much." +</P> + +<P> +"We all want her," said Dr. Carr, who looked disturbed and anxious. +</P> + +<P> +"Is she very sick?" asked Katy, struck by the expression of his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Pretty sick, I'm afraid," he replied. "I'm going to get a regular nurse +to take care of her." +</P> + +<P> +Aunt Izzie's attack proved to be typhoid fever. The doctors said that +the house must be kept quiet, so John, and Dorry, and Phil were sent +over to Mrs. Hall's to stay. Elsie and Clover were to have gone too, but +they begged so hard, and made so many promises of good behavior, that +finally Papa permitted them to remain. The dear little things stole +about the house on tiptoe, as quietly as mice, whispering to each other, +and waiting on Katy, who would have been lonely enough without them, for +everybody else was absorbed in Aunt Izzie. +</P> + +<P> +It was a confused, melancholy time. The three girls didn't know much +about sickness, but Papa's grave face, and the hushed house, weighed +upon their spirits, and they missed the children very much. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh dear!" sighed Elsie. "How I wish Aunt Izzie would hurry and +get well." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll be real good to her when she does, won't we?" said Clover. "I +never mean to leave my rubbers in the hat-stand any more, because she +don't like to have me. And I shall pick up the croquet-balls and put +them in the box every night." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," added Elsie, "so will I, when she gets well." +</P> + +<P> +It never occurred to either of them that perhaps Aunt Izzie might not +get well. Little people are apt to feel as if grown folks are so strong +and so big, that nothing can possibly happen to them. +</P> + +<P> +Katy was more anxious. Still she did not fairly realize the danger. So +it came like a sudden and violent shock to her, when, one morning on +waking up, she found old Mary crying quietly beside the bed, with her +apron at her eyes. Aunt Izzie had died in the night! +</P> + +<P> +All their kind, penitent thoughts of her; their resolutions to +please—their plans for obeying her wishes and saving her trouble, were +too late! For the first time, the three girls, sobbing in each other's +arms, realized what a good friend Aunt Izzie had been to them. Her +worrying ways were all forgotten now. They could only remember the many +kind things she had done for them since they were little children. How +they wished that they had never teased her, never said sharp words about +her to each other! But it was no use to wish. +</P> + +<P> +"What shall we do without Aunt Izzie?" thought Katy, as she cried +herself to sleep that night. And the question came into her mind again +and again, after the funeral was over and the little ones had come back +from Mrs. Hall's, and things began to go on in their usual manner. +</P> + +<P> +For several days she saw almost nothing of her father. Clover reported +that he looked very tired and scarcely said a word. +</P> + +<P> +"Did Papa eat any dinner?" asked Katy, one afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +"Not much. He said he wasn't hungry. And Mrs. Jackson's boy came for him +before we were through." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh dear!" sighed Katy, "I do hope <I>he</I> isn't going to be sick. How it +rains! Clovy, I wish you'd run down and get out his slippers and put +them by the fire to warm. Oh, and ask Debby to make some cream-toast for +tea! Papa likes cream-toast." +</P> + +<P> +After tea, Dr. Carr came up stairs to sit a while in Katy's room. He +often did so, but this was the first time since Aunt Izzie's death. +</P> + +<P> +Katy studied his face anxiously. It seemed to her that it had grown +older of late, and there was a sad look upon it, which made her heart +ache. She longed to do something for him, but all she could do was to +poke the fire bright, and then to possess herself of his hand, and +stroke it gently with both hers. It wasn't much, to be sure, but I think +Papa liked it. +</P> + +<P> +"What have you been about all day?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing, much," said Katy. "I studied my French lesson this +morning. And after school, Elsie and John brought in their patchwork, +and we had a 'Bee.' That's all." +</P> + +<P> +"I've been thinking how we are to manage about the housekeeping," said +Dr. Carr. "Of course we shall have to get somebody to come and take +charge. But it isn't easy to find just the right person. Mrs. Hall knows +of a woman who might do, but she is out West, just now, and it will be a +week or two before we can hear from her. Do you think you can get on as +you are for a few days?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Papa!" cried Katy, in dismay, "must we have anybody?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, how did you suppose we were going to arrange it? Clover is much +too young for a housekeeper. And beside, she is at school all day." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know—I hadn't thought about it," said Katy, in a +perplexed tone. +</P> + +<P> +But she did think about it—all that evening, and the first thing when +she woke in the morning. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa," she said, the next time she got him to herself, "I've been +thinking over what you were saying last night, about getting somebody to +keep the house, you know. And I wish you wouldn't. I wish you would let +<I>me</I> try. Really and truly, I think I could manage." +</P> + +<P> +"But how?" asked Dr. Carr, much surprised. "I really don't see. If you +were well and strong, perhaps—but even then you would be pretty young +for such a charge, Katy." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be fourteen in two weeks," said Katy, drawing herself up in her +chair as straight as she could. "And if I <I>were</I> well, Papa, I should be +going to school, you know, and then of course I couldn't. No, I'll tell +you my plan. I've been thinking about it all day. Debby and Bridget have +been with us so long, that they know all Aunt Izzie's ways, and they're +such good women, that all they want is just to be told a little now and +then. Now, why couldn't they come up to me when anything is wanted—just +as well as to have me go down to them? Clover and old Mary will keep +watch, you know, and see if anything is wrong. And you wouldn't mind if +things were a little crooked just at first, would you? because, you +know, I should be learning all the time. Do let me try! It will be real +nice to have something to think about as I sit up here alone, so much +better than having a stranger in the house who doesn't know the children +or anything. I am sure it will make me happier. Please say 'Yes,' Papa, +please do!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's too much for you, a great deal too much," replied Dr. Carr. But it +was not easy to resist Katy's "Please! Please!" and after a while it +ended with— +</P> + +<P> +"Well, darling, you may try, though I am doubtful as to the result of +the experiment. I will tell Mrs. Hall to put off writing to Wisconsin +for a month, and we will see. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor child, anything to take her thoughts off herself!" he muttered, as +he walked down stairs. "She'll be glad enough to give the thing up by +the end of the month." +</P> + +<P> +But Papa was mistaken. At the end of a month Katy was eager to go on. +So he said, +</P> + +<P> +"Very well—she might try it till Spring." +</P> + +<P> +It was not such hard work as it sounds. Katy had plenty of quiet +thinking-time for one thing. The children were at school all day, and +few visitors came to interrupt her, so she could plan out her hours and +keep to the plans. That is a great help to a housekeeper. +</P> + +<P> +Then Aunt Izzie's regular, punctual ways were so well understood by the +servants, that the house seemed almost to keep itself. As Katy had said, +all Debby and Bridget needed was a little "telling" now and then. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as breakfast was over, and the dishes were washed and put away, +Debby would tie on a clean apron, and come up stairs for orders. At +first Katy thought this great fun. But after ordering dinner a good many +times, it began to grow tiresome. She never saw the dishes after they +were cooked; and, being inexperienced, it seemed impossible to think of +things enough to make a variety. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see—there is roast beef—leg of mutton—boiled chicken," she +would say, counting on her fingers, "roast beef—leg of mutton—boiled +chicken. Debby, you might roast the chickens. Dear!—I wish somebody +would invent a new animal! Where all the things to eat are gone to, I +can't imagine!" +</P> + +<P> +Then Katy would send for every recipe-book in the house, and pore over +them by the hour, till her appetite was as completely gone as if she had +swallowed twenty dinners. Poor Debby learned to dread these books. She +would stand by the door with her pleasant red face drawn up into a +pucker, while Katy read aloud some impossible-sounding rule. +</P> + +<P> +"This looks as if it were delicious, Debby, I wish you'd try it: Take a +gallon of oysters, a pint of beef stock, sixteen soda crackers, the +juice of two lemons, four cloves, a glass of white wine, a sprig of +marjoram, a sprig of thyme, a sprig of bay, a sliced shalott—" +</P> + +<P> +"Please, Miss Katy, what's them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, don't you know, Debby? It must be something quite common, for it's +in almost all the recipes." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Miss Katy, I never heard tell of it before. Miss Carr never gave me +no shell-outs at all at all!" +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me, how provoking!" Katy would cry, flapping over the leaves of +her book; "then we must try something else." +</P> + +<P> +Poor Debby! If she hadn't loved Katy so dearly, I think her patience +must have given way. But she bore her trials meekly, except for an +occasional grumble when alone with Bridget. Dr. Carr had to eat a great +many queer things in those days. But he didn't mind, and as for the +children, they enjoyed it. Dinner-time became quite exciting, when +nobody could tell exactly what any dish on the table was made of. Dorry, +who was a sort of Dr. Livingstone where strange articles of food were +concerned, usually made the first experiment, and if he said that it was +good, the rest followed suit. +</P> + +<P> +After a while Katy grew wiser. She ceased teasing Debby to try new +things, and the Carr family went back to plain roast and boiled, much to +the advantage of all concerned. But then another series of experiments +began. Katy got hold of a book upon "The Stomach," and was seized with a +rage for wholesome food. She entreated Clover and the other children to +give up sugar, and butter, and gravy, and pudding-sauce, and buckwheat +cakes, and pies, and almost everything else that they particularly +liked. Boiled rice seemed to her the most sensible dessert, and she kept +the family on it until finally John and Dorry started a rebellion, and +Dr. Carr was forced to interfere. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, you are overdoing it sadly," he said, as Katy opened her book +and prepared to explain her views; "I am glad to have the children eat +simple food—but really, boiled rice five times in a week is too much." +</P> + +<P> +Katy sighed, but submitted. Later, as the Spring came on, she had a fit +of over-anxiousness, and was always sending Clover down to ask Debby if +her bread was not burning, or if she was sure that the pickles were not +fermenting in their jars? She also fidgeted the children about wearing +india-rubbers, and keeping on their coats, and behaved altogether as if +the cares of the world were on her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +But all these were but the natural mistakes of a beginner. Katy was too +much in earnest not to improve. Month by month she learned how to +manage a little better, and a little better still. Matters went on more +smoothly. Her cares ceased to fret her. Dr. Carr watching the +increasing brightness of her face and manner, felt that the experiment +was a success. Nothing more was said about "somebody else," and Katy, +sitting up stairs in her big chair, held the threads of the house +firmly in her hands. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +TWO YEARS AFTERWARD +</H4> + +<P> +It was a pleasant morning in early June. A warm wind was rustling the +trees, which were covered thickly with half-opened leaves, and looked +like fountains of green spray thrown high into the air. Dr. Carr's front +door stood wide open. Through the parlor window came the sound of piano +practice, and on the steps, under the budding roses, sat a small figure, +busily sewing. +</P> + +<P> +This was Clover, little Clover still, though more than two years had +passed since we saw her last, and she was now over fourteen. Clover was +never intended to be tall. Her eyes were as blue and sweet as ever, and +her apple-blossom cheeks as pink. But the brown pig-tails were pinned up +into a round knot, and the childish face had gained almost a womanly +look. Old Mary declared that Miss Clover was getting quite +young-ladyfied, and "Miss Clover" was quite aware of the fact, and +mightily pleased with it. It delighted her to turn up her hair; and she +was very particular about having her dresses made to come below the tops +of her boots. She had also left off ruffles, and wore narrow collars +instead, and little cuffs with sleeve-buttons to fasten them. These +sleeve-buttons, which were a present from Cousin Helen, Clover liked +best of all her things. Papa said that he was sure she took them to bed +with her, but of course that was only a joke, though she certainly was +never seen without them in the daytime. She glanced frequently at these +beloved buttons as she sat sewing, and every now and then laid down her +work to twist them into a better position, or give them an affectionate +pat with her forefinger. +</P> + +<P> +Pretty soon the side-gate swung open, and Philly came round the corner +of the house. He had grown into a big boy. All his pretty baby curls +were cut off, and his frocks had given place to jacket and trousers. In +his hand he held something. What, Clover could not see. +</P> + +<P> +"What's that?" she said, as he reached the steps. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going up stairs to ask Katy if these are ripe," replied Phil, +exhibiting some currants faintly streaked with red. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course they're not ripe!" said Clover, putting one into her +mouth. "Can't you tell by the taste? They're as green as can be." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care, if Katy says they're ripe I shall eat 'em," answered +Phil, defiantly, marching into the house. +</P> + +<P> +"What did Philly want?" asked Elsie, opening the parlor door as Phil +went up stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Only to know if the currants are ripe enough to eat." +</P> + +<P> +"How particular he always is about asking now!" said Elsie; "he's afraid +of another dose of salts." +</P> + +<P> +"I should think he would be," replied Clover, laughing. "Johnnie says +she never was so scared in her life as when Papa called them, and they +looked up, and saw him standing there with the bottle in one hand and a +spoon in the other!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," went on Elsie, "and you know Dorry held his in his mouth for ever +so long, and then went round the corner of the house and spat it out! +Papa said he had a good mind to make him take another spoonful, but he +remembered that after all Dorry had the bad taste a great deal longer +than the others, so he didn't. I think it was an <I>awful</I> punishment, +don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but it was a good one, for none of them have ever touched the +green gooseberries since. Have you got through practising? It doesn't +seem like an hour yet." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it isn't—it's only twenty-five minutes. But Katy told me not to +sit more than half an hour at a time without getting up and running +round to rest. I'm going to walk twice down to the gate, and twice back. +I promised her I would." And Elsie set off, clapping her hands briskly +before and behind her as she walked. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—what is Bridget doing in Papa's room?" she asked, as she came back +the second time. "She's flapping things out of the window. Are the girls +up there? I thought they were cleaning the dining-room." +</P> + +<P> +"They're doing both. Katy said it was such a good chance, having Papa +away, that she would have both the carpets taken up at once. There isn't +going to be any dinner today, only just bread and butter, and milk, and +cold ham, up in Katy's room, because Debby is helping too, so as to get +through and save Papa all the fuss. And see," exhibiting her sewing, +"Katy's making a new cover for Papa's pincushion, and I'm hemming the +ruffle to go round it." +</P> + +<P> +"How nicely you hem!" said Elsie. "I wish I had something for Papa's +room too. There's my washstand mats—but the one for the soap-dish isn't +finished. Do you suppose, if Katy would excuse me from the rest of my +practising, I could get it done? I've a great mind to go and ask her." +</P> + +<P> +"There's her bell!" said Clover, as a little tinkle sounded up stairs; +"I'll ask her, if you like." +</P> + +<P> +"No, let me go. I'll see what she wants." But Clover was already +half-way across the hall, and the two girls ran up side by side. There +was often a little strife between them as to which should answer Katy's +bell. Both liked to wait on her so much. +</P> + +<P> +Katy came to meet them as they entered. Not on her feet: that, alas! was +still only a far-off possibility; but in a chair with large wheels, with +which she was rolling herself across the room. This chair was a great +comfort to her. Sitting in it, she could get to her closet and her +bureau-drawers, and help herself to what she wanted without troubling +anybody. It was only lately that she had been able to use it. Dr. Carr +considered her doing so as a hopeful sign, but he had never told Katy +this. She had grown accustomed to her invalid life at last, and was +cheerful in it, and he thought it unwise to make her restless, by +exciting hopes which might after all end in fresh disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +She met the girls with a bright smile as they came in, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Clovy, it was you I rang for! I am troubled for fear Bridget will +meddle with the things on Papa's table. You know he likes them to be +left just so. Will you please go and remind her that she is not to +touch them at all? After the carpet is put down, I want you to dust the +table, so as to be sure that everything is put back in the same place. +Will you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I will!" said Clover, who was a born housewife, and dearly +loved to act as Katy's prime minister. +</P> + +<P> +"Sha'n't I fetch you the pincushion too, while I'm there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh yes, please do! I want to measure." +</P> + +<P> +"Katy," said Elsie, "those mats of mine are most done, and I would like +to finish them and put them on Papa's washstand before he comes back. +Mayn't I stop practising now, and bring my crochet up here instead?" +</P> + +<P> +"Will there be plenty of time to learn the new exercise before Miss +Phillips comes, if you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think so, plenty. She doesn't come till Friday, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then it seems to me that you might just as well as not. And +Elsie, dear, run into papa's room first, and bring me the drawer out of +his table. I want to put that in order myself." +</P> + +<P> +Elsie went cheerfully. She laid the drawer across Katy's lap, and Katy +began to dust and arrange the contents. Pretty soon Clover joined them. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's the cushion," she said. "Now we'll have a nice quiet time all by +ourselves, won't we? I like this sort of day, when nobody comes in to +interrupt us." +</P> + +<P> +Somebody tapped at the door, as she spoke. Katy called out, "Come!" And +in marched a tall, broad-shouldered lad, with a solemn, sensible face, +and a little clock carried carefully in both his hands. This was Dorry. +He has grown and improved very much since we saw him last, and is +turning out clever in several ways. Among the rest, he has developed a +strong turn for mechanics. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's your clock, Katy," he said. "I've got it fixed so that it +strikes all right. Only you must be careful not to hit the striker when +you start the pendulum." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you, really?" said Katy. "Why, Dorry, you're a genius! I'm ever so +much obliged." +</P> + +<P> +"It's four minutes to eleven now," went on Dorry. "So it'll strike +pretty soon. I guess I'd better stay and hear it, so as to be sure that +it is right. That is," he added politely, "unless you're busy, and would +rather not." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm never too busy to want you, old fellow," said Katy, stroking his +arm. "Here, this drawer is arranged now. Don't you want to carry it +into Papa's room and put it back into the table? Your hands are +stronger than Elsie's." +</P> + +<P> +Dorry looked gratified. When he came back the clock was just beginning +to strike. +</P> + +<P> +"There!" he exclaimed; "that's splendid, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +But alas! the clock did not stop at eleven. It went on—Twelve, +Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen! +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me!" said Clover, "what does all this mean? It must be day after +to-morrow, at least." +</P> + +<P> +Dorry stared with open mouth at the clock, which was still striking +as though it would split its sides. Elsie, screaming with laughter, +kept count. +</P> + +<P> +"Thirty, Thirty-one—Oh, Dorry! Thirty-two! Thirty-three! Thirty-four!" +</P> + +<P> +"You've bewitched it, Dorry!" said Katy, as much entertained as the +rest. +</P> + +<P> +Then they all began counting. Dorry seized the clock—shook it, slapped +it, turned it upside-down. But still the sharp, vibrating sounds +continued, as if the clock, having got its own way for once, meant to go +on till it was tired out. At last, at the one-hundred-and-thirtieth +stroke, it suddenly ceased; and Dorry, with a red, amazed countenance, +faced the laughing company. +</P> + +<P> +"It's very queer," he said, "but I'm sure it's not because of anything I +did. I can fix it, though, if you'll let me try again. May I, Katy? I'll +promise not to hurt it." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Katy hesitated. Clover pulled her sleeve, and +whispered, "Don't!" Then seeing the mortification on Dorry's face, +she made up her mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! take it, Dorry. I'm sure you'll be careful. But if I were you, I'd +carry it down to Wetherell's first of all, and talk it over with them. +Together you could hit on just the right thing. Don't you think so?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps," said Dorry; "yes, I think I will." Then he departed with the +clock under his arm, while Clover called after him teasingly, "Lunch at +132 o'clock; don't forget!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I won't!" said Dorry. Two years before he would not have borne to +be laughed at so good-naturedly. +</P> + +<P> +"How could you let him take your clock again?" said Clover, as soon as +the door was shut. "He'll spoil it. And you think so much of it." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought he would feel mortified if I didn't let him try," replied +Katy, quietly, "I don't believe he'll hurt it. Wetherell's man likes +Dorry, and he'll show him what to do." +</P> + +<P> +"You were real good to do it," responded Clover; "but if it had been +mine I don't think I could." +</P> + +<P> +Just then the door flew open, and Johnnie rushed in, two years taller, +but otherwise looking exactly as she used to do. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Katy!" she gasped, "won't you please tell Philly not to wash the +chickens in the rain-water tub? He's put in every one of Speckle's, and +is just beginning on Dame Durden's. I'm afraid one little yellow one is +dead already—" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, he mustn't—of course he mustn't!" said Katy; "what made him think +of such a thing?" +</P> + +<P> +"He says they're dirty, because they've just come out of egg-shells! And +he insists that the yellow on them is yolk-of-egg. I told him it wasn't, +but he wouldn't listen to me." And Johnnie wrung her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Clover!" cried Katy, "won't you run down and ask Philly to come up to +me? Speak pleasantly, you know!" +</P> + +<P> +"I spoke pleasantly—real pleasantly, but it wasn't any use," said +Johnnie, on whom the wrongs of the chicks had evidently made a deep +impression. +</P> + +<P> +"What a mischief Phil is getting to be!" said Elsie. "Papa says his name +ought to be Pickle." +</P> + +<P> +"Pickles turn out very nice sometimes, you know," replied Katy, +laughing. +</P> + +<P> +Pretty soon Philly came up, escorted by Clover. He looked a little +defiant, but Katy understood how to manage him. She lifted him into her +lap, which, big boy as he was, he liked extremely; and talked to him so +affectionately about the poor little shivering chicks, that his heart +was quite melted. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't mean to hurt 'em, really and truly," he said, "but they were +all dirty and yellow—with egg, you know, and I thought you'd like me to +clean 'em up." +</P> + +<P> +"But that wasn't egg, Philly—it was dear little clean feathers, like a +canary-bird's wings." +</P> + +<P> +"Was it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And now the chickies are as cold and forlorn as you would feel if +you tumbled into a pond and nobody gave you any dry clothes. Don't you +think you ought to go and warm them?" +</P> + +<P> +"How?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—in your hands, very gently. And then I would let them run round +in the sun." +</P> + +<P> +"I will!" said Philly, getting down from her lap. "Only kiss me first, +because I didn't mean to, you know!"—Philly was very fond of Katy. Miss +Petingill said it was wonderful to see how that child let himself be +managed. But I think the secret was that Katy didn't "manage," but tried +to be always kind and loving, and considerate of Phil's feelings. +</P> + +<P> +Before the echo of Phil's boots had fairly died away on the stairs, +old Mary put her head into the door. There was a distressed expression +on her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Katy," she said, "I wish <I>you'd</I> speak to Alexander about putting +the woodshed in order. I don't think you know how bad it looks." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't suppose I do," said Katy, smiling, and then sighing. She had +never seen the wood-shed since the day of her fall from the swing. +"Never mind, Mary, I'll talk to Alexander about it, and he shall make it +all nice." +</P> + +<P> +Mary trotted down stairs satisfied. But in the course of a few minutes +she was up again. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a man come with a box of soap, Miss Katy, and here's the bill. +He says it's resated." +</P> + +<P> +It took Katy a little time to find her purse, and then she wanted +her pencil and account book, and Elsie had to move from her seat at +the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh dear!" she said, "I wish people wouldn't keep coming and +interrupting us. Who'll be the next, I wonder?" +</P> + +<P> +She was not left to wonder long. Almost as she spoke, there was another +knock at the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in!" said Katy, rather wearily. The door opened. +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I?" said a voice. There was a rustle of skirts, a clatter of +boot-heels, and Imogen Clark swept into the room. Katy could not think +who it was, at first. She had not seen Imogen for almost two years. +</P> + +<P> +"I found the front door open," explained Imogen, in her high-pitched +voice, "and as nobody seemed to hear when I rang the bell, I ventured to +come right up stairs. I hope I'm not interrupting anything private?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," said Katy, politely. "Elsie, dear, move up that low chair, +please. Do sit down, Imogen! I'm sorry nobody answered your ring, but +the servants are cleaning house to-day, and I suppose they didn't hear." +</P> + +<P> +So Imogen sat down and began to rattle on in her usual manner, while +Elsie, from behind Katy's chair, took a wide-awake survey of her dress. +It was of cheap material, but very gorgeously made and trimmed, with +flounces and puffs, and Imogen wore a jet necklace and long black +ear-rings, which jingled and clicked when she waved her head about. She +still had the little round curls stuck on to her cheeks, and Elsie +wondered anew what kept them in their places. +</P> + +<P> +By and by the object of Imogen's visit came out. She had called to say +good-by. The Clark family were all going back to Jacksonville to live. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever see the Brigand again?" asked Clover, who had never +forgotten that eventful tale told in the parlor. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Imogen, "several times. And I get letters from him quite +often. He writes <I>beau</I>tiful letters. I wish I had one with me, so that +I could read you a little bit. You would enjoy it, I know. Let me +see—perhaps I have." And she put her hand into her pocket. Sure enough +there <I>was</I> a letter. Clover couldn't help suspecting that Imogen knew +it all the time. +</P> + +<P> +The Brigand seemed to write a bold, black hand, and his note-paper and +envelope was just like anybody else's. But perhaps his band had +surprised a pedlar with a box of stationery. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me see," said Imogen, running her eye down the page. "'Adored +Imogen'—that wouldn't interest you—hm, hm, hm—ah, here's something! +'I took dinner at the Rock House on Christmas. It was lonesome without +you. I had roast turkey, roast goose, roast beef, mince pie, plum +pudding, and nuts and raisins. A pretty good dinner, was it not? But +nothing tastes first-rate when friends are away.'" +</P> + +<P> +Katy and Clover stared, as well they might. Such language from a +Brigand! +</P> + +<P> +"John Billings has bought a new horse," continued Imogen; "hm, hm, +hm—him. I don't think there is anything else you'd care about. Oh, yes! +just here, at the end, is some poetry: +</P> + +<P> + "'Come, little dove, with azure wing,<BR> + And brood upon my breast,'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"That's sweet, ain't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hasn't he reformed?" said Clover; "he writes as if he had." +</P> + +<P> +"Reformed!" cried Imogen, with a toss of the jingling ear-rings. "He was +always just as good as he could be!" +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing to be said in reply to this. Katy felt her lips +twitch, and for fear she should be rude, and laugh out, she began to +talk as fast as she could about something else. All the time she found +herself taking measure of Imogen, and thinking—"Did I ever really like +her? How queer! Oh, what a wise man Papa is!" +</P> + +<P> +Imogen stayed half an hour. Then she took her leave. +</P> + +<P> +"She never asked how you were!" cried Elsie, indignantly; "I noticed, +and she didn't—not once." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh well—I suppose she forgot. We were talking about her, not about +me," replied Katy. +</P> + +<P> +The little group settled down again to their work. This time half an +hour went by without any more interruptions. Then the door bell rang, +and Bridget, with a disturbed face, came up stairs. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Katy," she said, "it's old Mrs. Worrett, and I reckon's she's +come to spend the day, for she's brought her bag. What ever shall I +tell her?" +</P> + +<P> +Katy looked dismayed. "Oh dear!" she said, "how unlucky. What can we +do?" +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Worrett was an old friend of Aunt Izzie's, who lived in the +country, about six miles from Burnet, and was in the habit of coming to +Dr. Carr's for lunch, on days when shopping or other business brought +her into town. This did not occur often; and, as it happened, Katy had +never had to entertain her before. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell her ye're busy, and can't see her," suggested Bridget; "there's no +dinner nor nothing, you know." +</P> + +<P> +The Katy of two years ago would probably have jumped at this idea. But +the Katy of to-day was more considerate. +</P> + +<P> +"N-o," she said; "I don't like to do that. We must just make the best of +it, Bridget. Run down, Clover, dear, that's a good girl! and tell Mrs. +Worrett that the dining-room is all in confusion, but that we're going +to have lunch here, and, after she's rested, I should be glad to have +her come up. And, oh, Clovy! give her a fan the first thing. She'll be +<I>so</I> hot. Bridget, you can bring up the luncheon just the same, only +take out some canned peaches, by way of a dessert, and make Mrs. Worrett +a cup of tea. She drinks tea always, I believe. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't bear to send the poor old lady away when she has come so far," +she explained to Elsie, after the others were gone. "Pull the +rocking-chair a little this way, Elsie. And oh! push all those little +chairs back against the wall. Mrs. Worrett broke down in one the last +time she was here—don't you recollect?" +</P> + +<P> +It took some time to cool Mrs. Worrett off, so nearly twenty minutes +passed before a heavy, creaking step on the stairs announced that the +guest was on her way up. Elsie began to giggle. Mrs. Worrett always made +her giggle. Katy had just time to give her a warning glance before the +door opened. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Worrett was the most enormously fat person ever seen. Nobody dared +to guess how much she weighed, but she looked as if it might be a +thousand pounds. Her face was extremely red. In the coldest weather she +appeared hot, and on a mild day she seemed absolutely ready to melt. Her +bonnet-strings were flying loose as she came in, and she fanned herself +all the way across the room, which shook as she walked. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, my dear," she said, as she plumped herself into the +rocking-chair, "and how do you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, thank you," replied Katy, thinking that she never saw Mrs. +Worrett look half so fat before, and wondering how she <I>was</I> to +entertain her. +</P> + +<P> +"And how's your Pa?" inquired Mrs. Worrett. Katy answered politely, and +then asked after Mrs. Worrett's own health. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm so's to be round," was the reply, which had the effect of +sending Elsie off into a fit of convulsive laughter behind Katy's chair. +</P> + +<P> +"I had business at the bank," continued the visitor, "and I thought +while I was about it I'd step up to Miss Petingill's and see if I +couldn't get her to come and let out my black silk. It was made quite a +piece back, and I seem to have fleshed up since then, for I can't make +the hooks and eyes meet at all. But when I got there, she was out, so +I'd my walk for nothing. Do you know where she's sewing now?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Katy, feeling her chair shake, and keeping her own +countenance with difficulty, "she was here for three days last week to +make Johnnie a school-dress. But I haven't heard anything about her +since. Elsie, don't you want to run down stairs and ask Bridget to +bring a—a—a glass of iced water for Mrs. Worrett? She looks warm +after her walk." +</P> + +<P> +Elsie, dreadfully ashamed, made a bolt from the room, and hid herself in +the hall closet to have her laugh out. She came back after a while, with +a perfectly straight face. Luncheon was brought up. Mrs. Worrett made a +good meal, and seemed to enjoy everything. She was so comfortable that +she never stirred till four o'clock! Oh, how long that afternoon did +seem to the poor girls, sitting there and trying to think of something +to say to their vast visitor! +</P> + +<P> +At last Mrs. Worrett got out of her chair, and prepared to depart. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she said, tying her bonnet-strings, "I've had a good rest, and +feel all the better for it. Ain't some of you young folks coming out to +see me one of these days? I'd like to have you, first-rate, if you will. +'Tain't every girl would know how to take care of a fat old woman, and +make her feel to home, as you have me, Katy. I wish your aunt could see +you all as you are now. She'd be right pleased; I know that." +</P> + +<P> +Somehow, this sentence rang pleasantly in Katy's ears. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! don't laugh at her," she said later in the evening, when the +children, after their tea in the clean, fresh-smelling dining-room, were +come up to sit with her, and Cecy, in her pretty pink lawn and white +shawl, had dropped in to spend an hour or two; "she's a real kind old +woman, and I don't like to have you. It isn't her fault that she's fat. +And Aunt Izzie was fond of her, you know. It is doing something for her +when we can show a little attention to one of her friends. I was sorry +when she came, but now it's over, I'm glad." +</P> + +<P> +"It feels so nice when it stops aching," quoted Elsie, mischievously, +while Cecy whispered to Clover. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't Katy sweet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't she!" replied Clover. "I wish I was half so good. Sometimes I +think I shall really be sorry if she ever gets well. She's such a dear +old darling to us all, sitting there in her chair, that it wouldn't seem +so nice to have her anywhere else. But then, I know it's horrid in me. +And I don't believe she'd be different, or grow slam-bang and horrid, +like some of the girls, even if she were well." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course she wouldn't!" replied Cecy. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +AT LAST +</H4> + +<P> +It was about six weeks after this, that one day, Clover and Elsie were +busy down stairs, they were startled by the sound of Katy's bell ringing +in a sudden and agitated manner. Both ran up two steps at a time, to see +what was wanted. +</P> + +<P> +Katy sat in her chair, looking very much flushed and excited. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, girls!" she exclaimed, "what do you think? I stood up!" +</P> + +<P> +"What?" cried Clover and Elsie. +</P> + +<P> +"I really did! I stood up on my feet! by myself!" +</P> + +<P> +The others were too much astonished to speak, so Katy went on +explaining. +</P> + +<P> +"It was all at once, you see. Suddenly, I had the feeling that if I +tried I could, and almost before I thought, I <I>did</I> try, and there I +was, up and out of the chair. Only I kept hold of the arm all the time! +I don't know how I got back, I was so frightened. Oh, girls!"—and Katy +buried her face in her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think I shall ever be able to do it again?" she asked, looking +up with wet eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, of course you will!" said Clover; while Elsie danced about, crying +out anxiously: "Be careful! Do be careful!" +</P> + +<P> +Katy tried, but the spring was gone. She could not move out of the chair +at all. She began to wonder if she had dreamed the whole thing. +</P> + +<P> +But next day, when Clover happened to be in the room, she heard a sudden +exclamation, and turning, there stood Katy, absolutely on her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa! papa!" shrieked Clover, rushing down stairs. "Dorry, John, +Elsie—come! Come and see!" +</P> + +<P> +Papa was out, but all the rest crowded up at once. This time Katy found +no trouble in "doing it again." It seemed as if her will had been +asleep; and now that it had waked up, the limbs recognized its orders +and obeyed them. +</P> + +<P> +When Papa came in, he was as much excited as any of the children. He +walked round and round the chair, questioning Katy and making her stand +up and sit down. +</P> + +<P> +"Am I really going to get well?" she asked, almost in a whisper. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, my love, I think you are," replied Dr. Carr, seizing Phil and +giving him a toss into the air. None of the children had ever before +seen Papa behave so like a boy. But pretty soon, noticing Katy's burning +cheeks and excited eyes, he calmed himself, sent the others all away, +and sat down to soothe and quiet her with gentle words. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it is coming, my darling," he said, "but it will take time, and +you must have a great deal of patience. After being such a good child +all the years, I am sure you won't fail now. Remember, any imprudence +will put you back. You must be content to gain a very little at a time. +There is no royal road to walking any more than there is to learning. +Every baby finds that out." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Papa!" said Katy, "it's no matter if it takes a year—if only I get +well at last." +</P> + +<P> +How happy she was that night—too happy to sleep. Papa noticed the dark +circles under her eyes in the morning, and shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"You must be careful," he told her, "or you'll be laid up again. A +course of fever would put you back for years." +</P> + +<P> +Katy knew Papa was right, and she was careful, though it was by no +means easy to be so with that new life tingling in every limb. Her +progress was slow, as Dr. Carr had predicted. At first she only stood +on her feet a few seconds, then a minute, then five minutes, holding +tightly all the while by the chair. Next she ventured to let go the +chair, and stand alone. After that she began to walk a step at a time, +pushing a chair before her, as children do when they are learning the +use of their feet. Clover and Elsie hovered about her as she moved, +like anxious mammas. It was droll, and a little pitiful, to see tall +Katy with her feeble, unsteady progress, and the active figures of the +little sisters following her protectingly. But Katy did not consider it +either droll or pitiful; to her it was simply delightful—the most +delightful thing possible. No baby of a year old was ever prouder of +his first steps than she. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually she grew adventurous, and ventured on a bolder flight. +Clover, running up stairs one day to her own room, stood transfixed at +the sight of Katy sitting there, flushed, panting, but enjoying the +surprise she caused. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," she explained, in an apologizing tone, "I was seized with a +desire to explore. It is such a time since I saw any room but my own! +But oh dear, how long that hall is! I had forgotten it could be so long. +I shall have to take a good rest before I go back." +</P> + +<P> +Katy did take a good rest, but she was very tired next day. The +experiment, however, did no harm. In the course of two or three weeks, +she was able to walk all over the second story. +</P> + +<P> +This was a great enjoyment. It was like reading an interesting book to +see all the new things, and the little changes. She was forever +wondering over something. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Dorry," she would say, "what a pretty book-shelf! When did +you get it?" +</P> + +<P> +"That old thing! Why, I've had it two years. Didn't I ever tell you +about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps you did," Katy would reply, "but you see I never saw it before, +so it made no impression." +</P> + +<P> +By the end of August she was grown so strong, that she began to talk +about going down stairs. But Papa said, "Wait." +</P> + +<P> +"It will tire you much more than walking about on a level," he +explained, "you had better put it off a little while—till you are quite +sure of your feet." +</P> + +<P> +"I think so too," said Clover; "and beside, I want to have the house all +put in order and made nice, before your sharp eyes see it, Mrs. +Housekeeper. Oh, I'll tell you! Such a beautiful idea has come into my +head! You shall fix a day to come down, Katy, and we'll be all ready for +you, and have a 'celebration' among ourselves. That would be just +lovely! How soon may she, Papa?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well—in ten days, I should say, it might be safe." +</P> + +<P> +"Ten days! that will bring it to the seventh of September, won't it?" +said Katy. "Then Papa, if I may, I'll come down stairs the first time +on the eighth. It was Mamma's birthday, you know," she added in a +lower voice. +</P> + +<P> +So it was settled. "How delicious!" cried Clover, skipping about and +clapping her hands: "I never, never, never <I>did</I> hear of anything so +perfectly lovely. Papa, when are you coming down stairs? I want to speak +to you <I>dreadfully</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"Right away—rather than have my coat-tails pulled off," answered Dr. +Carr, laughing, and they went away together. Katy sat looking out of the +window in a peaceful, happy mood. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" she thought, "can it really be? Is School going to 'let out,' just +as Cousin Helen's hymn said? Am I going to 'Bid a sweet good-bye to +Pain?' But there was Love in the Pain. I see it now. How good the dear +Teacher has been to me!" +</P> + +<P> +Clover seemed to be very busy all the rest of that week. She was "having +windows washed," she said, but this explanation hardly accounted for her +long absences, and the mysterious exultation on her face, not to mention +certain sounds of hammering and sawing which came from down stairs. The +other children had evidently been warned to say nothing; for once or +twice Philly broke out with, "Oh, Katy!" and then hushed himself up, +saying, "I 'most forgot!" Katy grew very curious. But she saw that the +secret, whatever it was, gave immense satisfaction to everybody except +herself; so, though she longed to know, she concluded not to spoil the +fun by asking any questions. +</P> + +<P> +At last it wanted but one day of the important occasion. +</P> + +<P> +"See," said Katy, as Clover came into the room a little before tea-time. +"Miss Petingill has brought home my new dress. I'm going to wear it for +the first time to go down stairs in." +</P> + +<P> +"How pretty!" said Clover, examining the dress, which was a soft, +dove-colored cashmere, trimmed with ribbon of the same shade. "But Katy, +I came up to shut your door. Bridget's going to sweep the hall, and I +don't want the dust to fly in, because your room was brushed this +morning, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"What a queer time to sweep a hall!" said Katy, wonderingly. "Why don't +you make her wait till morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she can't! There are—she has—I mean there will be other things +for her to do to-morrow. It's a great deal more convenient that she +should do it now. Don't worry, Katy, darling, but just keep your door +shut. You will, won't you? Promise me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said Katy, more and more amazed, but yielding to Clover's +eagerness, "I'll keep it shut." Her curiosity was excited. She took a +book and tried to read, but the letters danced up and down before her +eyes, and she couldn't help listening. Bridget was making a most +ostentatious noise with her broom, but through it all, Katy seemed to +hear other sounds—feet on the stairs, doors opening and shutting—once, +a stifled giggle. How queer it all was! +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind," she said, resolutely stopping her ears, "I shall know all +about it to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +To-morrow dawned fresh and fair—the very ideal of a September day. +</P> + +<P> +"Katy!" said Clover, as she came in from the garden with her hands full +of flowers, "that dress of yours is sweet. You never looked so nice +before in your life!" And she stuck a beautiful carnation pink under +Katy's breast-pin and fastened another in her hair. +</P> + +<P> +"There!" she said, "now you're adorned. Papa is coming up in a few +minutes to take you down." +</P> + +<P> +Just then Elsie and Johnnie came in. They had on their best frocks. So +had Clover. It was evidently a festival-day to all the house. Cecy +followed, invited over for the special purpose of seeing Katy walk down +stairs. She, too, had on a new frock. +</P> + +<P> +"How fine we are!" said Clover, as she remarked this magnificence. "Turn +round, Cecy—a panier, I do declare—and a sash! You are getting awfully +grown up, Miss Hall." +</P> + +<P> +"None of us will ever be so 'grown up' as Katy," said Cecy, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +And now Papa appeared. Very slowly they all went down stairs, Katy +leaning on Papa, with Dorry on her other side, and the girls behind, +while Philly clattered ahead. And there were Debby and Bridget and +Alexander, peeping out of the kitchen door to watch her, and dear old +Mary with her apron at her eyes crying for joy. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the front door is open!" said Katy, in a delighted tone. "How nice! +And what a pretty oil-cloth. That's new since I was here." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't stop to look at <I>that</I>!" cried Philly, who seemed in a great +hurry about something. "It isn't new. It's been there ever and ever so +long! Come into the parlor instead." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" said Papa, "dinner isn't quite ready yet, you'll have time to +rest a little after your walk down stairs. You have borne it admirably, +Katy. Are you very tired?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit!" replied Katy, cheerfully. "I could do it alone, I think. +Oh! the bookcase door has been mended! How nice it looks." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't wait, oh, don't wait!" repeated Phil, in an agony of impatience. +</P> + +<P> +So they moved on. Papa opened the parlor door. Katy took one step into +the room—then stopped. The color flashed over her face, and she held +by the door-knob to support herself. What was it that she saw? +</P> + +<P> +Not merely the room itself, with its fresh muslin curtains and vases of +flowers. Nor even the wide, beautiful window which had been cut toward +the sun, or the inviting little couch and table which stood there, +evidently for her. No, there was something else! The sofa was pulled out +and there upon it, supported by pillows, her bright eyes turned to the +door, lay—Cousin Helen! When she saw Katy, she held out her arms. +</P> + +<P> +Clover and Cecy agreed afterward that they never were so frightened in +their lives as at this moment; for Katy, forgetting her weakness, let go +of Papa's arm, and absolutely <I>ran</I> toward the sofa. "Oh, Cousin Helen! +dear, dear Cousin Helen!" she cried. Then she tumbled down by the sofa +somehow, the two pairs of arms and the two faces met, and for a moment +or two not a word more was heard from anybody. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't a nice 'prise?" shouted Philly, turning a somerset by way of +relieving his feelings, while John and Dorry executed a sort of +war-dance round the sofa. +</P> + +<P> +Phil's voice seemed to break the spell of silence, and a perfect hubbub +of questions and exclamations began. +</P> + +<P> +It appeared that this happy thought of getting Cousin Helen to the +"Celebration," was Clover's. She it was who had proposed it to Papa, +and made all the arrangements. And, artful puss! she had set Bridget +to sweep the hall, on purpose that Katy might not hear the noise of +the arrival. +</P> + +<P> +"Cousin Helen's going to stay three weeks this time—isn't that nice?" +asked Elsie, while Clover anxiously questioned: "Are you sure that you +didn't suspect? Not one bit? Not the least tiny, weeny mite?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed—not the least. How could I suspect anything so perfectly +delightful?" And Katy gave Cousin Helen another rapturous kiss. +</P> + +<P> +Such a short day as that seemed! There was so much to see, to ask about, +to talk over, that the hours flew, and evening dropped upon them all +like another great surprise. +</P> + +<P> +Cousin Helen was perhaps the happiest of the party. Beside the +pleasure of knowing Katy to be almost well again, she had the +additional enjoyment of seeing for herself how many changes for the +better had taken place, during the four years, among the little +cousins she loved so much. +</P> + +<P> +It was very interesting to watch them all. Elsie and Dorry seemed to +her the most improved of the family. Elsie had quite lost her plaintive +look and little injured tone, and was as bright and beaming a maiden of +twelve as any one could wish to see. Dorry's moody face had grown open +and sensible, and his manners were good-humored and obliging. He was +still a sober boy, and not specially quick in catching an idea, but he +promised to turn out a valuable man. And to him, as to all the other +children, Katy was evidently the centre and the sun. They all revolved +about her, and trusted her for everything. Cousin Helen looked on as +Phil came in crying, after a hard tumble, and was consoled; as Johnnie +whispered an important secret, and Elsie begged for help in her work. +She saw Katy meet them all pleasantly and sweetly, without a bit of the +dictatorial elder-sister in her manner, and with none of her old, +impetuous tone. And best of all, she saw the change in Katy's own face: +the gentle expression of her eyes, the womanly look, the pleasant +voice, the politeness, the tact in advising the others, without seeming +to advise. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Katy," she said a day or two after her arrival, "this visit is a +great pleasure to me—you can't think how great. It is such a contrast +to the last I made, when you were so sick, and everybody so sad. Do you +remember?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I do! And how good you were, and how you helped me! I shall +never forget that." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad! But what I could do was very little. You have been learning +by yourself all this time. And Katy, darling, I want to tell you how +pleased I am to see how bravely you have worked your way up. I can +perceive it in everything—in Papa, in the children, in yourself. You +have won the place, which, you recollect, I once told you an invalid +should try to gain, of being to everybody 'The Heart of the House.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Cousin Helen, don't!" said Katy, her eyes filling with sudden +tears. "I haven't been brave. You can't think how badly I sometimes have +behaved—how cross and ungrateful I am, and how stupid and slow. Every +day I see things which ought to be done, and I don't do them. It's too +delightful to have you praise me—but you mustn't. I don't deserve it." +</P> + +<P> +But although she said she didn't deserve it I think that Katy did! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of What Katy Did, by Susan Coolidge + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT KATY DID *** + +***** This file should be named 8994-h.htm or 8994-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/8/9/9/8994/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Suzanne L. Shell, Charles +Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +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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