diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-8.txt | 8020 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 152185 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 493913 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-h/31200-h.htm | 8249 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-h/images/i-017.jpg | bin | 0 -> 91128 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-h/images/i-077.jpg | bin | 0 -> 41119 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-h/images/i-112.jpg | bin | 0 -> 94208 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-h/images/i-184.jpg | bin | 0 -> 55310 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200-h/images/i-fpc.jpg | bin | 0 -> 46510 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200.txt | 8020 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 31200.zip | bin | 0 -> 152163 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
14 files changed, 24305 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31200-8.txt b/31200-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c9e16a --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8020 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted, by Katharine +Ellis Barrett, Illustrated by Sears Gallagher + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted + + +Author: Katharine Ellis Barrett + + + +Release Date: February 1, 2010 [eBook #31200] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.fadedpage.com) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 31200-h.htm or 31200-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31200/31200-h/31200-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31200/31200-h.zip) + + + + + +The Wide Awake Girls Series + +THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED + +by + +KATHARINE RUTH ELLIS + +Author of "The Wide Awake Girls" + +Illustrated from drawings by Sears Gallagher + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "'Here is a little souvenir for you, Judge Arthur.'" +Frontispiece. See page 266.] + + + +Boston +Little, Brown, and Company + +Copyright, 1909, +By Little, Brown, and Company. +All rights reserved + +Printers +S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A. + + + + +To + +GLADYS GODDARD + +who has been the friend of many boys and girls +this book is affectionately inscribed. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The author wishes to acknowledge gratefully the kindness of Messrs. +Houghton, Mifflin and Company in allowing her to use the poem +_Vantage_, by Josephine Preston Peabody in this book. She also +thanks Miss Margaret Sherwood for consenting to a similar use of her +poem, _Indian Summer_. + +Books for girls are frankly suggestive, their value lying in their +kindling power. Among the girls of all sorts who may read this story, +there will be, here and there, one who loves right words. It is for the +sake of such an occasional reader that the poems mentioned have been +included. The schools sometimes lead their pupils to believe that +English literature, like Latin, belongs to the past. But there are, here +and now, "musicians of the word" who, partly because they are living, +can touch our hearts as none of the dead-and-gone ones can. If through +these pages some girl finds her way to the little green volume of +_Singing Leaves_, or the sweet stories of _Daphne_ and _King +Sylvaine and Queen Aimée_, Catherine Smith and her friends will have +done the world of girls a service worth the doing. + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. CATHERINE'S INSPIRATION 3 + II. GETTING STARTED 15 + III. ORGANIZATION 28 + IV. WITH PAIL AND BROOM 46 + V. A DAY OFF 58 + VI. THE OPENING 71 + VII. A PARTY AT POLLY'S 86 + VIII. A FORTUNATE MEETING 101 + IX. LANDING 109 + X. THE MAKING OF A COMPACT 120 + XI. BROOKMEADOW 133 + XII. ARRIVAL AT WINSTED 151 + XIII. CAUGHT IN A SHOWER 164 + XIV. AN INTERLUDE 176 + XV. SUNDAY SCHOOL 186 + XVI. ALICE ON THE WAY 203 + XVII. FINDING A VOCATION 212 + XVIII. DOCTOR'S ORDERS 221 + XIX. JOURNALISM 246 + XX. THE THREE R's 254 + XXI. THE LAST PARTY 271 + XXII. AUF WIEDERSEHEN 284 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + "Here is a little souvenir for you, Judge Arthur" Frontispiece + + Page + + "We must find a good place for it" 17 + "How much for your tickets?" 77 + "Sure I am not too heavy, Karl?" 112 + Frieda was telling a story and the others were + listening attentively 184 + + + + +PART ONE + +STARTING A LIBRARY + + + + +THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +CATHERINE'S INSPIRATION + + +"Alma Mater, Dexter darling, do re mi--O dear! It's much harder to write +than I supposed. I wonder why! When your heart is full of love, why +should it be hard to express it?" + +Catherine Smith, sitting on the top step of the porch of her home, Three +Gables, bent her red-gold head over the pad of paper on her knee and +wrote painfully, her forehead puckered earnestly. She had been a year at +college and was just beginning her summer vacation. All through the busy +year, full of delightful new experiences, she had looked forward to the +leisure of summer, in which she might adequately declare her devotion to +the college which had been her mother's and was now her own. From the +day, the June before, when she had gone there to visit her friend, +Hannah Eldred, she had felt a keen sense of "belonging," especially +pleasant because her frail health had compelled her to lead a somewhat +secluded life at home, and she had not felt really acquainted with the +young people in the little town of Winsted, where she had always lived. + +Now all that was changing. At college she had been forced to conquer her +shyness, and, to her delight, she soon found that the boys and girls at +home were more than glad to receive her into their circle upon equal +terms. Her physician parents were everybody's friends, and Catherine, +who adored her father and mother, was eager to show herself worthy to be +their daughter. In order to do so, she reasoned, she must be of real +service to the town and to her college. The only way she had thought of +so far was to write an Alma Mater song, expressive not only of the +rapturous loyalty of undergraduates, but of the graver love of alumnæ +like her mother. + +"It is very hard," she sighed. "It must be stately and yet not heavy. O +me! And here comes Algernon." + +With a resigned air she folded her scribbled papers and thrust her +pencil into the coil of red braids encircling her head. Algernon +Swinburne, ever since his foolish mother had christened him for the +poet, had, by turns, amused and wearied his fellow-citizens. While +Catherine had lived apart, she had been spared his lengthy visits, but +with the pleasures of social life had come its penalties and she was now +on Algernon's list and obliged to spend frequent hours in his really +trying society. He came up the long walk now with a curious springing +gait, and Catherine tried to summon a hospitable smile to her lips. + +Algernon refused a chair. He always appeared to be just going, "and +yet," as Polly Osgood said with a groan, "he almost never goes!" He +perched uncomfortably upon the railing and opened fire at once. + +"Have you seen the last _North American Review_?" + +Catherine confessed that she had not. + +"There was a corking article in it on municipal corruption, comparing +San Francisco, New York and Pittsburg as to graft, police efficiency and +so on. They say Pittsburg spends two million dollars a year--" + +"My upper legs is going barefoot." + +Catherine lifted her eyes with a flash of pleasure. Elsmere Swinburne +was the occasional relief from his big brother's monotony. Catherine +loved little folk, and though Elsmere was known to be a rascal who would +have tried the patience of Job, she somehow always found forgiveness for +his enormities, and a delighted appreciation for his funny sayings. Just +now he stood proudly before her, his hands in his pockets, his eyes +fixed upon his fashionably clad little legs, with bruised brown knees +showing above new half-hose. + +"My mamma buyed 'em for me. Her buys me everything." + +Catherine smiled, but shook her head a little. Mrs. Swinburne was a +source of grief to all her neighbors, because of her persistent refusal +to allow Algernon the chance at college that he desired, and even more +because of her unwise indulgence of her younger son's lightest wishes. + +Algernon cleared his throat and took up the thread of his narrative. +"Pittsburg, this fellow Chapman in the _Review_ says, spends two +million dollars a year on--" + +"Talking, talking, all the time Algy talking," Elsmere broke in. +"_I_ want to talk. Tell Caffrin 'bout my cat-pussy. Her awful sick. +Her--" + +Catherine sprang up. Elsmere's conversation often needed to be +suppressed. + +"Let's play tennis. Algernon, will you get the balls and rackets? You +know where they are,--just inside the hall there. And Elsmere may run +after balls for us. He can, so nicely!" + +Algernon obeyed the unexpected request patiently, and when he was gone, +Catherine averted her face for the space of a minute. What she had hoped +for came to pass, and when Algernon returned, his small brother had +quietly vanished. "The older one may be monotonous, but the younger one +is positively dangerous," Catherine thought to herself, as she took the +balls from Algernon, saying: + +"Let's not play, after all. It's so very warm and Elsmere thought he +didn't want to run after balls. You don't mind, do you?" + +"Why, no, I wasn't keen about playing," and Algernon, unconscious of the +maneuver he had helped to execute, dropped back upon the railing and +continued his _résumé_ of the _North American_ article. + +Catherine, meanwhile, having slipped the balls one by one into the +pocket of her steamer chair, rested her long white hands upon the chair +arms and sat quietly, hearing nothing of Mr. Chapman's statistics, her +brown eyes dreamily fixed upon the sloping lawn, but seeing instead the +Dexter campus, across which girls were moving, as she loved best to see +them, in pretty light gowns on the way to evening chapel. Among them all +her thought rested most lovingly upon a little girl with a plain face +and big round glasses. "You dear old Alice!" she murmured, almost aloud, +and roused herself guiltily to hear Algernon saying: + +"There are a lot of wide-awake men in Pittsburg." + +"Wide-awake girls in Winsted!" + +This time Catherine really did speak aloud, and Algernon looked up in +surprised inquiry. + +"I beg your pardon," she said contritely. "It was very rude of me, but +you set me off, yourself. The Wide Awake Girls are really going to be in +Winsted this summer. Don't you know about them?" as Algernon still +looked puzzled. + +"Why, no. All the Winsted girls seem wide-awake enough, I should say." + +"But I'm the only one who has a right to be called so in capital +letters. I'll tell you all about it, but it has been such an important +part of my life for the last year and more, that I forget every one who +knows me doesn't know about it all. + +"You see, about two years ago, when I was fifteen and Hannah Eldred, who +lives in Massachusetts, was not quite fourteen, she wrote a letter to +_Wide-Awake_, the magazine, you know, asking for correspondents. +And I answered it. Several other girls did, too. One was Alice Prescott, +who lives out in Washington, and another was Frieda Lange, of Berlin, +whose mother had known Mrs. Eldred in Germany years ago. Hannah kept on +writing to the three of us, and before the end of the year she had met +us all and really lived with each of us in turn. It doesn't sound +probable, but it came about naturally enough. The Eldreds went to Berlin +for a few months and boarded at the Langes'. Then Mrs. Eldred's mother +was taken ill, and they had to come back to this country. The +grandmother lived over here at Delmar, and Father was called in +consultation and brought Hannah back to stay with me a little while; and +then, as her mother couldn't leave, they sent Hannah to Dexter, to the +preparatory department, and there she found Alice, whom she had lost +sight of for a long time. Then when I went to Dexter, I learned to know +Alice, and this year Frieda Lange is coming to America to school and she +is going to Dexter, too. Hannah is coming out for a few weeks' visit +here before college opens, and I'm going to try to get Alice at the same +time, for we've never all four been together. I am so eager about it +that I can't keep my mind on anything else very long, so that's why I +said 'Wide Awake Girls in Winsted' aloud. Isn't it an interesting +story?" + +"Coincidences are always interesting," said Algernon. "And I think a +great many things that go by the name of telepathy are nothing more. I'm +keeping a record of peculiar coincidences that come under my notice. +I'll put these down, about the two happening to go to the same college, +and about the German and American girls finding their mothers were +acquainted." He produced a note-book to make an entry. + +"You can't include the last one," Catherine protested. "It was because +Mrs. Lange recognized Hannah from the letter that Frieda wrote. But the +meeting between Alice and Hannah was mere chance." + +Algernon closed his note-book and went placidly on as if Catherine's +story had not interrupted him: + +"As I was saying, those men in Pittsburg--" + +The telephone bell rang and Catherine went into the house to answer it. + +"I'll have to be excused, Algernon," she said, coming back a minute +later. "Father wants something of me. You can tell me the rest another +time." + +Then, as Algernon slowly got off the porch, she added impulsively: + +"I marvel just to see you walk, Algernon. You know so very much! You +seem to me to be a veritable walking library." + +Algernon twisted his body uncomfortably and flushed. + +"I'd be more use to Winsted if I were a real one," he said, with a +wistful sound in his voice that made Catherine look at him sharply. She +waved him a smiling good-by as he went down the walk, and then turned to +her father's desk to look up some papers he wanted. Her mind, however, +still dwelt on that unexpected shade in Algernon's tone. + +"I've thought of him as a mere talking machine instead of a human +being," she said to herself reproachfully. "I must make a salmon scallop +for Father's supper. Inga doesn't know how to do anything but scramble +eggs and boil potatoes, and Father's tired, I know by his voice. It +sounded tired, but Algernon's was lonely. I wonder--" + +Dr. Harlow Smith and his wife, Dr. Helen, drove up to their pretty +gabled house on the hill slope a few minutes later, their faces lighting +with pleasure as the tall girl in a blue apron came out to meet them. +The stable-boy came to take the horse, and Catherine escorted her +parents to the house. While they made themselves ready for supper, she +put the last orderly touches to the table in the panelled dining-room, +and was ready for them with kisses when they arrived. + +The silent grace over, Catherine spoke: + +"Eat and be filled, dearly beloved, because I have a new project and I +need you to be enthusiastic." + +"What is it this time?" asked Dr. Harlow, serving the golden scallop +generously. "You have shown diplomacy in your choice of a dish, if I am +the one you wish to wheedle." + +Dr. Helen, pouring yellow cream from a fat silver jug into thin +hexagonal cups, sent an interested glance across the table at her +daughter. + +"Tell us," she said. + +"It's quite new," said Catherine, hesitating a little. "In fact it's not +a half-hour old, but I do believe it is a good plan. You know Algernon +Swinburne?" + +"We have met him," agreed Dr. Harlow cautiously. + +"So had I!" said Catherine with sudden spirit, "and this afternoon it +came to me that I didn't know him at all. All any of us ever do to +Algernon is to avoid him,--those of us who don't laugh at him. And he's +lonely, Father! Lonely!" + +"Did he tell you so?" + +"No. But I suddenly knew. I've seen homesick girls at college, +and--and--well, there was a little while, just a little while, when I +was getting strong enough to do things, and before Hannah came to visit, +that I felt that way myself, so I know." + +Dr. Helen's look was like a pressure of the hand, and she answered +gently: + +"I think you are very likely right, Catherine. And this plan of yours is +to make Algernon less lonely?" + +"Do you think he knows he's lonely?" asked Dr. Harlow. "I've thought the +boy had good stuff in him, and if he should ever wake up to the fact +that he's a bore, he might amount to something worth while. You don't +think he has, do you?" + +"Not exactly," Catherine confessed, remembering the note-book's +appearance at the end of her little story. "But I think he has an +inkling that he might be of more use. I told him he was a walking +library. He does know such an amazing amount, you know! And he said +Winsted would be better off if it had a real library instead of his +kind; and then it flashed into my mind how he would love living among +books, and how fine it would be for the town if all that knowledge of +his could be used--" + +"Like wasted water power?" suggested her father. + +"Yes. That's just it. He has read more than any one in this town, except +you, Father dear, and you are very old-fashioned in your reading. You +never heard of some of the modern books that Algernon knows all about. +Why couldn't we start a library and have Algernon run it? It would make +people appreciate him." + +"It would keep him occupied at certain hours, and assure you of freedom +from his calls," said Dr. Harlow, but Catherine was in earnest and +refused to be teased. + +"Wouldn't it be practical, really, Mother? Algernon can't go away to +school. His mother isn't willing, you know, and he needs to be here to +look after Elsmere. But he could study there, and lots of towns as small +as this do have libraries." + +The doorbell rang and Dr. Harlow went to answer it. + +"Some one to see you, Catherine," he said, returning. + +Catherine found Algernon himself standing in the doorway, his big pale +eyes full of distress. + +"Excuse my coming just at supper time," he said, "but I've lost Elsmere. +No one seems to have seen him since we did this afternoon, and I thought +perhaps you would remember which direction he went in. It was while I +was in the house he disappeared, you know. He almost always comes home +for meals!" + +Catherine meditated. "I didn't see him go. I was looking at some papers, +and when I glanced up he wasn't there. Let's go out on the porch again, +and think. You had been sitting on the railing and I was in the steamer +chair--O Elsmere Swinburne, where have you been?" + +Out from under the porch, rubbing eyes and yawning, came a rumpled +little figure, bits of straw and dead leaves clinging to him, and a big +red Irish setter following. + +Algernon bent down and gathered the baby figure up with a tenderness +that made Catherine's heart beat more quickly, as she picked the straws +from the stylish shoes and socks, and the barefoot upper legs. + +"Where were you?" she repeated. + +"Hotspur's house, all cozy," sighed Elsmere. "Warm house. Did go to +sleep. Bosquitoes bite me. Bite my legs. I want my supper," and drooping +over his tall brother's shoulders he fell asleep again. + +"Come around to-morrow afternoon early, Algernon," said Catherine, as he +moved away with his burden. "I have a plan I want you to help me carry +out. I know you'll like it. It's something nice for you and Winsted." + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +GETTING STARTED + + +By fifteen minutes past three the next day, Algernon and Catherine had +definitely decided that Winsted was to have a library, and that they +were to devote their own energies to the cause and persuade as many as +possible of their acquaintances to join them. + +"The Boat Club will go in for it as a committee of the whole," said +Algernon. + +"The Three R's will be interested," said Catherine, "though it is not +Rest, Recreation or Refreshment!" + +"And all the churches." + +"And the school teachers." + +"And there are Miss Ainsworth's novels." + +"Algernon, how perfectly splendid! Do you suppose she would let us have +them?" + +"I don't see why not. They simply stand there, never opened. She can't +any more than refuse. I'll ask her." + +"And I'll go with you. Let's do it right this minute." + +As she spoke, Catherine sprang up, and Algernon, his usual inertia +overcome, plunged down the walk beside her. + +"We must find a good place for it, before we get many books collected. +We could use Father's twenty-five dollars for rent, of course, but it +would be so much nicer if some one would give us a room." + +"Let me see. There's that little frame shop where the red-haired +milliner used to be. We might get that. It's no good for business, away +off up the street that way." + +"Be careful what you say about red hair," warned Catherine. "Who owns +the building?" + +"Judge Arthur. He's a public-spirited man. He'll let us have it cheap +anyway." + +"Good! O, I am so happy and excited about it I feel like one of Hannah +Eldred's squeals; I'm afraid if she were here I'd join her in one. Here +we are at Miss Ainsworth's. Are you sure we dare ask her?" + +Before the prim white house set back from the street, Catherine's +buoyancy suffered a collapse. She had been inside that house, calling, +with her mother, but to go there--or anywhere--on a begging errand! Here +Algernon's long familiarity with rebuffs proved of value. + +[Illustration: "'We must find a good place for it.'"--_Page 17._] + +"Of course, we dare. Come on, or I'll go alone if you don't want to." + +"No, no, I'll come," Catherine answered hastily. She had counted, +without conceit, on her own popularity to offset Algernon's handicap. +The daughter of the Doctors Smith could not be turned coldly away. And +after all, Miss Ainsworth's novels might better be read than standing +idle. Two years ago, a young bicyclist had sprained an ankle at Miss +Ainsworth's door, and she had promptly taken him in and cared for him, +scornfully refusing pay. Therefore the youth, upon returning to his +home, had sent out to her a great box full of modern fiction, an article +which he had deeply and vainly desired while under her roof. Miss +Ainsworth had never been given to the reading of novels. Her life had +been quite too busy for such frivolities, and now her eyes were making +it impossible for her to read without using glasses, which, as a +confession of frailty, she despised. So the books stood, new and +unopened, in a fascinating row upon the "secretary" shelf. No one so far +had ventured to ask for them. It had been reserved for these young +adventurers to demand them in the name of public spirit. + +"We will have your name put inside them, Miss Ainsworth, on a neat +little card,--'Gift of Miss Anna Ainsworth,' you know. Just as they do +in large libraries," Catherine explained persuasively, when Algernon had +stated the object of their call, and Miss Ainsworth was regarding them +in a silence which they took to be ominous. + +"And your name will go down in the records with Dr. Smith's as one of +the first contributors to the library. We intend to keep very full +records and have them buried under the corner stone of the new building +when we get it. We hope to get a Carnegie building, you know," Algernon +went on calmly while Catherine caught her breath. "He always insists +that the townspeople do their share." + +"The young people will use the library if we have good novels," +Catherine put in helpfully, when Algernon's imagination showed signs of +exhaustion. "And then we can get them to reading more serious books by +and by." + +Then Catherine too, subsided, and the clock behind its painted glass +door ticked obtrusively. Presently Miss Ainsworth opened her thin lips. + +"I'm perfectly willin' 't you should have the books," she said grimly. +"They ain't no manner o' use to me, and never was. I don't care to have +my name wrote inside 'em, though. And I ain't perticular about havin' it +buried under any corner stones. But I'll be much obliged if you'll take +'em away soon, for I've just subscribed to a set of me-mores of +missionaries an agent was sellin' yesterday, and I'd like that top shelf +to put 'em on." + +The enthusiasts, feeling a trifle quenched, but yet pleased at having +accomplished their purpose, rose and withdrew with what grace they could +summon, mingling thanks with promises to remove the undesired literature +as soon as possible. + +"Now for Judge Arthur and the building," sighed Catherine, as they +reached the street again. "He can't be any more gloomy about it than she +was, and maybe he'll do what we want." + +The judge was not in his office, so they sat down to wait in the stuffy +room where dusty books and papers sprawled and spilled over desk, table +and the top of a big black safe. Algernon attached himself to a grimy +magazine, having first jotted down Miss Ainsworth's gift in his +ever-present note-book. Catherine, looking about her, soon found herself +unable to restrain her housewifely fingers. She was busily sweeping the +dust off the big table with a dilapidated feather duster, and putting +the papers into trim piles when the door opened and Judge Arthur, little +and weazened and gray, slipped softly in. + +"There!" said Catherine half aloud. "That is infinitely better. I wish I +dared throw half of these papers away. I know they're perfectly +worthless." She took a step toward the big wire basket, as though to +bring it conveniently near. + +"Not to-day, Miss Catherine," and the judge took her hand and bowed over +it. "Is this what they teach you at college?" + +Catherine laughed. She had never been afraid of Judge Arthur. + +"They teach us all the womanly graces, Your Honor," she answered, "and +not least among them is tidiness. I should have had you looking +beautifully neat in another five minutes." + +Judge Arthur shivered. "And you would doubtless have made a bonfire of +this," picking up one dog's-eared document, "old Mr. Witherton's will; +and this, a deed to an estate; and this, a bit of important evidence in +a criminal case." + +"Well," Catherine argued, "they shouldn't be left about so carelessly, +under paper-weights and ash-trays. I do want to do some housecleaning +for you, Judge Arthur. That's why I'm here this afternoon. Not just an +office, either, but a whole building." + +The judge placed a chair for her, dusting it elaborately with Mr. +Witherton's will as he did so. + +"Tell me all about it," he invited. + +Catherine took the chair, her fresh white gown contrasting as sharply +with its shabby leather as her warm youth did with the judge's withered +look. He watched her with keen, appreciating eyes. Algernon in his +corner read on, and Catherine thought best not to disturb him. Men found +it harder to meet Algernon on fair ground than women did. + +The judge asked a pertinent question or two as Catherine unfolded the +great scheme; then he drew a check-book from under a broken-backed +dictionary. + +"There is another twenty-five for your project," he said, as he signed +his name with a flourish surprisingly big for so cramped a little man; +"and the room is at your disposal for six months, rent free. I would +have it cleaned, but you seem to delight in doing such work yourself. I +can assure you that the Three R's will back you up. The next meeting is +called for a week from to-day." + +Catherine's face wore its blithest smile. "You are a dear to do so +much," she declared. "I was sure you'd be interested. If you ever want +any cleaning done, _anywhere_, please let me do it!" + +Algernon had to be aroused almost forcibly, and Catherine carried him +away, still so lost in the article on the jury system he had been +reading that he could not quite take in the wonderful success of the +call. He followed Catherine's eager steps to the little square frame +building a few blocks up Main Street, and turned the key she gave him. +It was a dingy little room, all dirt and cobwebs. A few old straw hats +and wire frames piled among some big green boxes indicated the last +occupant's business, and a scurrying of tiny feet, only too clearly, the +present occupants' nature. Catherine lifted her nose in dainty scorn, +and her skirts in private apprehension. + +"We shall have to get a lot of girls and come down here to-morrow and +clean up; but let's get out for now," she said, and Algernon consented. + +They strolled along the street till they came to the little park, and +there, sitting on its one green bench, talked over their list of assets. + +"I keep having ideas all the time," cried Catherine. "Listen! We must go +over to Hampton and visit the library there, and find out how they do +things. When can you?" + +"Any time. I was just thinking I must ask Mr. Morse to give us a good +write-up." + +"Of course. He'll be interested. Let's go over now. Or perhaps you'd +better go alone. I don't know him, and I never was in a newspaper +office." + +"Afraid of the devil?" jested Algernon, getting up and leaving her. +Catherine watched him disappear into the office across the street. + +"He walks better already," she thought with pride. "And he never made +such a frivolous remark as that before. I do think this library will be +the making of Algernon." + +Back he came in a minute or two, with a promise of plenty of space in +the _Courier_, and a free atlas. + +"One they had in the office, of course; but we ought to have one, and +every little helps. He was awfully interested and said it would be a +fine thing for the town, and he'd boost every way he could." + +"Aren't people lovely?" sighed Catherine rapturously. "I believe even +Miss Ainsworth was more enthusiastic than she appeared to be. And we +haven't even mentioned it to the Boat Club yet." + +"Or the Three R's. They are chiefly Boat Club fathers and mothers." + +"We must see the school superintendent." + +"The ministers will announce it in the churches." + +"Yes, we must see them to-morrow. O dear, I am so tired! What time is it +anyway?" + +Algernon drew a big watch from his pocket. + +"Six-fifteen." + +Catherine started up in horror. + +"O! And I forgot all about helping with supper. What will mother think?" + +Algernon watched her hasten away up the hill, and turned toward his own +home with some anxiety. He had to coax his mother to take an interest in +the new undertaking, and wished the operation over, but he squared his +shoulders and determined to do his best and do it that very evening. + +Catherine, for her part, spent the evening discussing the plan with her +already sympathetic mother. + +"It almost takes my breath away, Mother dear," she confided as they sat +on the porch in the dusk, watching the fireflies, "the way people fall +in with suggestions. It didn't occur to me before that _I_ could +start things going. But at college I had only to see that something +should be done, and then to say so; and it almost always was done. And I +was more surprised than anybody!" + +Dr. Helen smiled, and put out her hand to stroke Catherine's head, which +rested on her knee. + +"They were pretty good ideas, I judge." + +"They were perfectly simple ones. Just little things like having the +mail-boxes assigned alphabetically, instead of by the numbers of the +rooms. It saved the mail girls a lot of work, and Miss Watkins was glad +of the suggestion. I helped Alice sort mail, you know,--she does it to +help pay her way. And then the little notices on the bulletin board were +always getting lost under the big ones, and I was on a Students' +committee and often had notices to post, and I got them to make a rule +that all notices should be written on a certain size sheet, and the +board looks much neater now. And then there weren't any door-blocks. +Aunt Clara told me that they had them at Vassar, little pads hanging +outside your door, with a pencil attached, and if you are out, your +callers leave their messages, you know. It seemed as though we needed +something like that, for some of us don't like walking into people's +rooms, and hunting around for paper. So I started that, and they all +took it up in no time. They were only little things, but it was +remembering a lot of little things like that that made me dare try to +get the library. It's what we need, and I do believe it's going to come +easily." + +"Mr. Kittredge asked me to-day if I thought you would take the infant +class in the Sunday-school for the summer. Mrs. Henley is to be away. I +told him I'd ask you." Dr. Helen waited. + +Catherine was silent a moment. + +"Do you know, Mother, it seems as though you just get started doing one +thing and you see another one ahead of you. If I am going around asking +every one to help the library, I don't see how I can refuse to help when +I'm asked! But I never did teach anybody. Who is in the class?" + +"I asked him that. He says some of the children are rather old for it, +but the school is too small, or rather the teachers are too few, to make +another class. So the ages run from the Osgood twins--" + +"O, Peter and Perdita! I do love them. They are such a droll little +pair. I beg your pardon, dear. I didn't mean to interrupt. From Peter +and Perdita to--to Elsmere, possibly?" + +Dr. Helen laughed. "Exactly! Could you undertake Elsmere?" + +Catherine sat up straight. "Yes, I could. Elsmere is unlucky, just as +Algernon is. Everybody expects to be bored by Algernon and bothered or +shocked by Elsmere. I know he is a little 'limb o' Satan,' but if I'm +going to take one brother on my shoulders, I might as well take them +both. When does Mr. Kittredge want me to begin?" + +"Not this week. You can go and see Mrs. Henley and talk it over with +her. You're showing a fine public spirit, Daughter mine, but let me +suggest that you really can't do much work for the town this summer, +especially if you expect to entertain guests! I don't approve of +vacations that are busier than the school year!" + +"O, the library won't take long to start, if it starts at all. And +Algernon will run it and his being busy will give me several extra hours +weekly! And the children will only be Sundays. I promised Alice I'd do +some Bible study this summer, anyway, and it might as well be done for +that. She thought I was something of a heathen because I knew +Shakespeare better than the Bible." + +"That only means you know Shakespeare very well, however. By the way, +would you like that little old set in the guest-room for your library? I +put it there, because there wasn't a shelf free anywhere else, and we +are rather overstocked with the gentleman's writings in the rest of the +house. Clara Lyndesay laughed at finding them there. She says she is +going to write an essay some day on guest-room literature, and its +implications." + +Catherine laughed, too. "It would be delicious if she did. I wish she +would write things, Mother, and not just paint pictures. Do you suppose +there's any hope of her coming back to this country this summer?" + +"I shouldn't be greatly surprised. She plans to spend some weeks on the +Isle of Wight, and that is so near this side that perhaps we can lure +her over. An aunt left her a place in New England, you know, which she +means to fit up for a studio sometime. Father should be coming home now. +Let's go down to the corner and see if we can see him. O, my daughter!" +as Catherine sprang up and took her mother's arm, "how you have grown +beyond me!" + +"It's just my head that's above you," said Catherine, tucking her +mother's arm into her own. "It's the fashion nowadays for girls to be +taller than their mothers, but they don't begin to come up to them in +mind and manners. Miss Eliot told us so in History!" + +"How about their hearts?" asked Dr. Helen. + +"I don't know about the other girls', but my heart is just as high as my +mother's!" And Catherine bent her head the least little bit, and kissed +her mother's cheek, as Dr. Harlow, turning the corner, met them. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +ORGANIZATION + + +The "stub" train on the Central was due to leave Winsted at 7:30. +Catherine, having reluctantly left the washing of the breakfast dishes +to the reckless Inga, to whom their quaint blue pattern was as naught, +hurried down the hill and reached the dingy little station as the train +shambled in. Algernon, full of good cheer, because his mother had taken +it into her head to approve his undertaking, gallantly helped her +aboard, and began at once to show a list of questions he had ready to +ask the Hampton librarian. + +The train stood still a little longer while a few milk cans were put on, +then whistled, puffed and pulled slowly out. Hampton was only a short +distance from Winsted, and Catherine and Algernon soon got off the +train, and made their way to the library where they were welcomed by the +kindly librarian and her young assistant, who proved to be a Dexter +graduate. + +The "stub" train meanwhile jogged and jolted on its way, carrying with +it, fast asleep, the little "limb o' Satan" known as Elsmere Swinburne. +Elsmere could sleep anywhere on the slightest provocation. Deeming it +unwise to make his presence known to his brother until the train was +started beyond recall, he had curled up on a seat behind a large family, +and while waiting his opportunity had fallen asleep. The conductor, +taking him to be one of the overflow from the family in front, paid no +attention to him until after they had left. Then he tried to rouse the +child. + +"Wake up, kid! Here, you've gone past your station. Wake up, I say! Gee! +We're running a sleeper on this train to-day, all right," as Elsmere, +lifted by the collar, only sank heavily back on the seat when released. + +The conductor, goaded by the jests of the passengers, yelled in the +boy's ear, to no avail. Just as he was abandoning the task in wrath, the +child suddenly popped up, wide awake and interested. + +"I want zwieback," he announced. + +Mrs. Swinburne, having read in a child-study book that dry food was +bone-building, had brought her youngest up on long crumbly strips of +zwieback, and he was seldom seen without one. + +"What you givin' us?" asked the conductor. + +"I want zwieback," answered Elsmere cheerfully, in the persistent tone +he had learned to value for its efficacy. + +"Where was your ma goin'?" asked the conductor. + +"I want zwieback," replied Elsmere. + +"Let me try," suggested a soft-voiced little lady. "I talked with his +mother quite a bit while she was on. Want to find your mamma, little +boy, and go to Grandma's and play with all the pigs and chickies?" + +"I want zwieback." + +"You talked with the woman, did you?" said the conductor. "Did you find +out what her name was?" + +"Let me see. Yes. It's Peters. She was talking about going to his +folks', two miles out of Edgewater. She'll be worried to death about +this one." + +"I should think she might be," remarked the conductor grimly, "for fear +he'd come back. Here, you young Sweebock, you get off here." + +Elsmere obligingly followed to the platform and suffered himself to be +given into the custody of the station agent, to whom he presented his +petition for food. + +"A little weak in the upper story," explained the conductor. "His ma had +about as many as she could manage and gettin' off at Edgewater she +forgot this one. Name's Peters, stayin' with old Mis' Peters, two miles +from Edgewater. You wire 'em to meet the express, and then you pass him +back. Tell McWhire not to let him get to sleepin'. He ain't an easy +proposition, when he's gone to Bylow, now I tell you," and the conductor +of No. 5 swung himself aboard. + +Elsmere had the time of his life in the two hours before the arrival of +the noon express. The station agent was a sociable soul. He had a +guinea-pig in a box, so delightful to observe that Elsmere forgot his +desire for zwieback and became conversational. He told the agent +the history of the polly-wogs he had raised "till they was all +froggies, only one was deaded." He showed the place where he had +cut his finger in the mower-lawn. He explained how fond he was of +back-horse-saddle-riding, and declared his intention of some day having +"frickers," caressing the agent's own sandy growth with great +admiration. He tried to perform on the telegraph instrument and cried +"Boo" with all his strength at a lady, peering in at the ticket window. +Altogether, Elsmere found traveling very much to his taste. The noon +express stopped for a minute, he was thrust aboard the last car, and a +few minutes later, according to instructions, the newsboy put him off at +Edgewater, with a cheery: + +"Here y'are, Bub, and there's Ma and Gramma." + +Elsmere had taken a fancy to the newsboy and did not at all wish to stop +at Edgewater. He ran down the track after the retreating train, howling +miserably. + +As for "Ma and Gramma," they had been overtaken by the dispatch just as +they were starting to drive out to the farm, and had come in great +perplexity to the station. The wailing baby running down the track +suggested nothing to them, and the agent could give them no +satisfaction. He was locking up his office. There was not another train +to stop till No. 5 should return toward evening. So, still bewildered, +Mrs. Peters and her mother-in-law gave up their fruitless errand and +drove away, taking with them a problem for a lifetime's pondering. + +Elsmere, as the train vanished around a curve, sat down on the track for +a while and listened to his own howls. Tiring of that amusement +presently, he strolled back to the station. Outwardly it looked much +like that hospitable one where he had enjoyed life earlier in the day. +This one, however, offered no entertainment beyond wandering about the +platform and the unoccupied waiting-room. Across the street was a little +restaurant. There were pies in the window. + +Elsmere obeyed the summons. + +"Pie," he said, presenting his nose to the edge of the lunch counter. + +"Don't you monkey with anything," snapped a girl from behind the +counter. + +"I'm aren't a monkey. I'm are a boy. Want pie," Elsmere answered +sweetly. + +"You can't get pie without money," said the girl. + +Elsmere felt in his pocket and produced a quarter. Whatever his +failings, Elsmere had a redeeming trait of forehandedness, and had +always on hand a hoard of articles which might be useful in an hour of +need. The quarter bought respect at once and plenty of pie, also a +sandwich, a tall glass of milk and a big "rubber doughnut." + +When he had satisfied his hunger, the traveller returned to the depot, +and, lying comfortably in the shade of a baggage truck, indulged in a +siesta, a sleep so light this time, however, that the rolling back of +the baggage-room door shattered it. + +Sitting up, Elsmere watched the baggage-man get a tin trunk and a canvas +telescope ready for shipping. Presently the stub train arrived, stopped, +and while the conductor and the agent were exchanging gossip, Elsmere +got inconspicuously aboard, and stowed himself away in a corner, so +successfully that it was not till the brakeman called "Hampton" that the +conductor discovered him. + +Swearing softly and scratching his head in mystification, the conductor +stood in the aisle staring at the ubiquitous babe, when a double cry +arose: + +"Elsmere, where in thunder?" + +"Hullo, Algy!" + +The young assistant, who had accompanied Catherine to the station +for the sake of talking over mutual friends at Dexter, looked up in +surprise as the dignified youth who had impressed her greatly by his +intelligence and earnestness suddenly stooped and lifted a dirty, +tear-and-pie-stained little boy in his arms. Catherine laughed. Elsmere +could not greatly surprise her. + +"Miss Adams," she said, "you have shown your interest in the new Winsted +library. Let me introduce you to its mascot." + + * * * * * + +The morning after the Hampton expedition, Catherine struggled awake from +dreams of book-lined trains, with Miss Adams and Elsmere as engineer and +fireman, to open her eyes gratefully upon the substantial reality of her +own great room in its fresh bareness. At the foot of her big carved bed, +the broad window open to its utmost seemed to bring all out-of-doors +within the room. A squirrel whisked his tail across the sill as he +scurried in and out of the branches of the window-oak where a grosbeak +and a wren chatted sociably. The sunshine through the leafy boughs +lighted the bare floor and rested on the great writing table in the +center of the room and on the high dark dresser. Catherine's gaze, +following the light, rested at last upon the low bookcases filling the +chimney corners. + +"I can spare one _Child's Garden of Verses_," she mused, "and that +second _Little Women_. I wish they could have the Walter Crane and +Kate Greenaway picture-books, but I couldn't possibly let them go. I +loved those little urchins in the children's room,--especially that +curly-headed little boy reading a bound _Wide-Awake_--O!" She sat +up in bed and tossed her thick braids back. "I wonder if I ought? Or +even if I could?" Out of bed she slipped, and crossed the room to the +bookcases. Opening one, she ran her finger-tips tenderly along the stout +backs of a row of dark red volumes. "My very own _Wide-Awakes_! +What a storehouse they would be for the little folk! They needn't be +allowed to circulate, so they'd not wear out badly. They could just come +in and read them there. I was going to give them my little +rocking-chair, anyhow. O, dear! I'm afraid I'm really going to let them +have you, you dear, dear books. It would be selfish to keep you up here +all the time, when I almost never open you. Nobody shall have this one, +though, with Hannah's letter in it." + +She turned the pages of one of the latest volumes and paused at a neat +little paragraph: + + "_Dear Wide-Awake:_ + + "I have been taking you ever since I was a child. I will be + fourteen my next birthday. I like you very much. I would like to + correspond with any one who is about my age. I have no brothers + and sisters, and get very lonely. I have read all Miss Alcott, + but I wish she had let Jo marry Laurie. I like the + _Wide-Awake_ stories. Please have a good long one about + boarding-school in the next number. I like Dickens, but I can't + bear Scott. I know John Gilpin and Baby Bell by heart, and I am + in the eighth grade. I like skating and rowing. There is a fine + pond near us. + + "Your loving reader, + + "Violet Ethelyn Eldred. + + "P. S. Nobody knows that I am writing this letter, so please + print it soon to surprise them." + +Catherine kissed the page and closed the book. "Isn't it too +unbelievable that that queer little letter with that ridiculous fancy +name at the end should have done so much? Violet Ethelyn Eldred! It +hasn't nearly so pleasant a sound to me now as Hannah. And the child +thought no one would write to her if she signed her own name,--it was so +'homely'! Ah me! I suppose I should be getting dressed instead of +sitting about in the sunshine, mooning. I wonder if Inga will remember +the muffins for breakfast." + + * * * * * + +"Polly Osgood wants to see you, Catherine." + +Catherine, busily sorting linen in the up-stairs linen room a little +later in the morning, leaned over the railing in answer to her mother's +announcement from the hall below. + +"O, Polly, do come on up. I've a little more to do and we might just as +well talk while I'm at it. Have you called the Boat Club meeting?" + +Polly Osgood came running up the stairs. She was a slender little girl +with big blue eyes and yellow hair. + +"Yes," she answered brightly. "I've called it at ten. It's almost that +now. Tom can't come, of course; he's always so busy daytimes, but I +think all the others will be there." + +"Hasn't Bert something to keep him?" + +"Not just now," Polly laughed. "He substituted in the post-office last +week, and the week before that in a hardware store, but just now he says +nobody seems to need him, and he's reading law in private." + +"He's such a goose," and Catherine put two mated pillow-cases together +with a little pat. "Inga never knows enough to put things in pairs, and +Mother wouldn't dare begin to look them over. If she should do anything +so domestic, half Winsted would break out with mumps or chickenpox. +Where did you say we'd have the meeting?" + +"At the boat house. We might as well use it, now we have it. But I +didn't know you broke out with mumps." + +"That's only figurative. Polly, why have you gone back to braids and +bows? You look very infantile for a real Wellesley sophomore." + +"I got tired of the bird-cages and puffs, and decided I'd go back to +nature. Besides, playing around with Peter and Perdita you need +something stationary. They work dreadful havoc with a stylish coiffure." + +"I wonder if I'd have to put my hair down just to teach them on Sundays? +Mrs. Henley is going away, you know, and I've been asked to take her +class." + +"O, I do hope you will," cried Polly. "You would have a civilising +influence on Perdita, and she needs it. Peter keeps her in order so well +she never _does_ anything very bad, but she is potentially a little +terror." + +"She always seems very mild when I see her," commented Catherine, +patting her piles into straight lines. "But you can't always tell about +people by looking at them. I, for instance, have all my life been +expected to be lady-like, just because when I was little I hadn't +strength enough to be naughty. And many and many a time I have felt like +doing something wild and shocking!" + +"Why, Catherine Smith!" exclaimed Polly in amazement. "You always seemed +to me a sort of beautiful princess up here on the hill, and, good as any +of the rest of us might try to be, we never could hope to be as good as +you. Have you honestly ever wanted to be bad?" + +Catherine laughed, a funny little gurgling laugh. "I honestly have--not +wicked you know, but--well, reckless! And I never had the courage to do +anything very startling till last year at college." + +She stopped and laughed again. + +"Tell me," Polly insisted. "I'll never tell. What did you do? Was it +fun? Tell me!" + +Catherine's eyes twinkled. "I made up my mind that it was my one chance, +for no one there belonged to me, and my tiresome reputation for +propriety hadn't had time to get started. So one day I got up late, and +was late to breakfast, and cut a class, and--" She laughed so hard that +Polly wanted to shake her. "O, Polly it was such a ridiculous thing to +do! I talked slang and chewed gum!" + +Polly gasped. "Did you like it? What made you stop?" + +"People. They were so astonished. And, besides, I hated the gum. Inez +Dolliver used to chew it with such gusto that I thought it must be +rather good. And the slang sounded so easy and,--O! lighthearted, you +know, and friendly. When you and Hannah Eldred use it, it never seems +offensive, just pleasant and gay. But everyone looked so worried and +puzzled all day at me, that I decided to stop. And next day they seemed +so relieved. I told Dy-the Allen later about it (she's the dearest +thing!) and she was very philosophical. She told me it wasn't becoming +to my general character, just as pink wasn't becoming to my hair. I told +her I had always loved pink, and wanted to wear it, and she suggested +that I wear it at night. It wouldn't show in the dark and it was an +innocent desire; and perhaps if I did that, I'd not want to use slang or +chew gum. I didn't, after I had tried once, anyhow! Polly Osgood, here +we are sitting around and I'm telling you foolish stories about myself, +when we ought to be discussing library matters." + +"The other was more interesting," sighed Polly. "I'm going to give up +slang myself soon. I never did chew gum! But I've been terribly bored +lately by some rather flip young creatures I've had to see more or less, +and I decided to cut it out and talk plain English. What are you smiling +at?" + +Then, as her own earnest sentences came back to her, she reddened a +little, and joined Catherine in smiling. "Isn't that a fright? I mean, +isn't that startling? I didn't know I used it so much. Do you suppose I +can cure myself and still have time and attention to give to starting +the library? It's time we were down there now." + +"All right. I'm ready, as soon as I get my hat. Do you ever wear them at +college?" + +"Never. Now while we go along, tell me just what your idea is. What did +the Hampton ladies say?" + +Catherine thrust her hatpins in, as she hurried down the steps. + +"They advised having some club take it up, for a time at least, and they +thought it would be nice to have it be the Boat Club instead of a +literary one, because the literary ones often have a spirit of +competition, and if one of them started the library the others might not +feel inclined to use it." + +"I see, and the Boat Club, besides being unsectarian and +interdenominational and non-partisan, has a lot of waste enthusiasm and +energy that might just as well be put to work. Father says he is sure +that when the thing is really running, the council will vote a tax and +take it off our hands. You are sure Algernon can run it? I thought it +took years of special training." + +"It does," Catherine answered gravely, "but we could not afford a +trained librarian, and Algernon is intelligent and will study. Miss +Adams gave him hints as to books to get, and she will help him. He can +go over there when he gets into difficulties. She seemed to like him. +They talked about all sorts of technical things,--Algernon had a lot of +information stowed away in his head, of course,--and she didn't seem +bored at all." + +"I've often thought I shouldn't be, if I knew anything about the +subjects he talks about," confessed Polly. "There are Bertha and Agnes." +She trilled to the two girls ahead, who turned and waited. + +On the flat roof of the boat house half a dozen members of the club were +assembled. Polly hastened to take her seat and call the meeting to +order. + +"Max Penfield will act as secretary, and we shall expect the minutes +done in the most approved University style. Archie Bradly, will you +please state the object of the meeting?" + +"Fo' de lan's sake, no!" ejaculated Archie, sitting up and shutting his +knife. "That's the very thing I came to find out!" + +"Very well," said Polly, twinkling. "Then, of course, you will pay close +attention. It will do you more good than carving Andover on the benches. +There's not much space left on them, now, and it's still early in the +season. Catherine, will you tell us the object of the meeting? Ouch!" +for Archie had reached lazily behind her and given one of her yellow +braids a gentle yank. + +"You all know, already," began Catherine, "except perhaps Archie! We've +talked it over with the older people, and they think it's perfectly +practical, only some one or some organization has to take it in charge." + +"What's 'it'?" asked Archie innocently. + +"Why, the library. The Boat Club is going to see that Winsted has a +public library." + +"Turn into Carnegies?" inquired Max, doing a sketch of Geraldine +Winthrop on the margin of the secretary's book. + +"Not exactly. We haven't got our own dock built yet, and I don't think +we are in a position to endow libraries. But I mean we can work and +talk--" + +"Talking's work," complained Archie. "That's redundancy." + +"It is, when you keep interrupting," cried Bertha Davis. "Go on, +Catherine. Don't mind him. Just how can we work?" + +"Well, the room will have to be cleaned thoroughly, and we girls can do +most of that if the boys will help a little. And there will have to be +some plain shelves put up for the books." + +"Me for the carpenter job!" cried a long-legged youth who had lain thus +far in the shade of his own hat, in entire silence and apparent +unconsciousness. "It's just what I want to cure my brain fever." + +"Overstudy? Or overwork reading postals last week?" asked Agnes, smiling +into Bert's half-shut eyes. + +"It's more likely fatty degeneration of the brain, if it's Bert Wyman +that has it," said an emphatic voice, and a spruce energetic maiden +joined the group. "I just got in on the 10:10, and Mother said you were +all over here. What's before the house?" + +"Nothing. We're all on the house," explained Archie dryly, but Polly +answered the question with careful courtesy. Dorcas listened. + +"Very well," she said, when Polly finished. "If it is in order, I move +you, Madam President, that we proceed to clean the library at once." + +"O, Dorcas, not to-day!" groaned two or three, while Max remarked in an +aside to no one that if it was in order it shouldn't need cleaning. + +"Why not to-day?" asked Dorcas briskly. "How you-all can loaf around the +way you do is more than I can comprehend. Dot, your hair is coming +down." + +Dot, who was called Dot, because she was a dot, though her parents had +intended her to go through life as Geraldine, lifted her eyebrows +slightly, and removing her four hairpins, shook down her hair and did it +up again. The process took four seconds. + +"I'd rather have Dot's curls than Dorcas' brains," growled Bert to +Agnes, who reproached him with a look. + +While Dorcas' motion was waiting for a second, there came down the road +two pretty girls, in fluffy gowns, their white sunshades tilted +charmingly. Max slammed the secretary's book shut. + +"Hurry up and let's adjourn," he said, and Archie, suddenly energetic, +seconded the motion and carried it, so far as it concerned himself, by +going out to meet the newcomers and invite them to go canoeing at once. +Max followed suit, and the meeting broke up unceremoniously, but with a +sense of valuable achievement. + +Dorcas, uttering harsh judgments upon the parliamentary methods of Polly +Osgood, and, by inference, of all Wellesley College, attached herself to +Bertha and Agnes for the homeward walk. + +"See here, Dorcas Morehouse," said Bertha so suddenly that her sister +and Dorcas jumped. "If you think that just because you have been to +Chicago University for a quarter, you are going to run us all, this +summer, you are mightily mistaken. Agnes and Dot and I never went away +to school, and neither did Bess nor Winifred, but we aren't stupid, and +we won't have you patronizing us. Catherine Smith is intellectual enough +for any one, and she never snubs or patronizes; and as for Polly Osgood, +you wouldn't dare _hint_ a criticism of Wellesley if she were +within hearing, and you know it. So there! If this library scheme is +good enough for them, it is for the rest of us, and if you don't like +it, you can just stay out of it!" + +Whereupon, Bertha, having delivered herself, even more to her own +astonishment than to any one else's, turned at the first corner and +walked rapidly away, leaving her embarrassed sister to placate the +wrathful Dorcas in any way her gentle heart suggested. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +WITH PAIL AND BROOM + + +"Please forscuse me. Here's the key," and Elsmere held out to Catherine +the aforesaid article, his honeyed voice and polite words matched by a +cherubic smile. + +"The key?" asked Catherine. "O, the key to the library. How did you get +it?" + +"Algy give it to me. I Algy's little help-boy," smiled the cherub. + +Catherine tried to take the key, but it refused to come. + +"What's the matter?" she asked. "It seems to be caught." + +Elsmere squirmed a little. "Tieded," he murmured, and Catherine, bending +closer to investigate, discovered that the key was so secured to the +child's apparel that sharp steel was necessary to sever the connection. + +"Algy hasn't too much confidence in his little help-boy, after all," she +thought. "Thank you, Elsmere. Now run along home like a good boy." + +"No, Elsmere go, too, like a good boy. I help." + +Catherine sighed. The library was to be cleaned that morning as soon as +the girls could be spared by their respective mothers. She had been +waiting for Algernon to bring the key, and had counted on his muscular +assistance in the labor before her. Now, instead, she had only the key, +and that almost as hopelessly affixed to Elsmere as it had been before +she cut it loose. She took up her bundle of rags, scrubbing-brush and +soap resignedly, and calling "Good-by" to Dr. Helen started off down the +hill. On the way she stopped for Agnes, who came out with a broom. +Polly, bearing a pail, met them at the corner. At the library they found +Bertha, mop-laden, pressing her nose against the pane to see inside. + +"Hello!" she called to them. "How can we get hot water?" + +"Let's go over to Henderson's and borrow a little oil stove for a few +hours, and we'll heat the water in this pail. One of you might go to the +pump in the park and get it full now. Whose broom?" touching one, +leaning by the window. + +"Dot's. She came and went off again. Bert passed, driving a ten-cent +express and she hailed him and they've gone over to Mr. Kittredge's to +get the books he promised." + +"The crazy children! Where will we ever put books to-day, with the room +in such a state?" + +Catherine fitted the key to the lock, and the band of cleaners entered, +unrolled their big aprons and began, with much energy and good nature, +to sweep down the walls and ceiling and gather the milliner's rubbish +into two big baskets found in the shed. Elsmere picked over the pile, +making rapturous discoveries. + +"Aren't these very small bushel baskets?" asked Agnes. "They fill up so +fast." + +"They're just about the average size, I think," remarked Catherine. +"They don't vary much more than yardsticks do in length! But I do wish +some of those lazy boys were here to carry them out and empty them for +us." + +"What's that?" asked Max's voice in the doorway. Immaculate in white +flannels, with Bess by his side, bewilderingly beruffled, he viewed the +scene before him dispassionately. + +Catherine and Agnes, red and warm and somewhat dishevelled, returned the +gaze for a moment silently. In that moment an entirely natural +resentment was forced into outward pleasantness. + +"We were just wishing some one was here to make a bonfire of this +_débris_ for us," said Catherine cheerfully, "but never mind. There +comes Polly with a man from Henderson's, and he'll take it out." + +"All right. Wish you luck. We'd stop and help, only we've got to meet +Arch and Win, and we're late already. So long!" and Max lifted his cap, +Bess waved her sunshade, and the two went around the corner out of +sight. + +The man from Henderson's did some lifting very willingly, rescued what +was left of the water Bertha was tugging from the park, lighted the +stove and even stayed to poke the bonfire he made for them in the +street, and keep it from spreading. + +"It's a good thing," he said, as he went away amid a chorus of "Thank +you." "Everybody'd ought to help all they can." + +"I'd like to make him a member of the club," growled Polly, "and turn +one or two people I could mention out." + +"Dorcas doesn't seem so zealous as she did yesterday," remarked +Catherine. "I hope she isn't angry, because we didn't fall in with her +suggestions." + +Bertha looked conscious, and stole a glance at Agnes, but said nothing. +Catherine, catching the look, laughed. + +"Father says Dorcas does us all a lot of good, as a counter-irritant. +Whenever we begin to feel a little cross with each other, we all turn in +and feel very cross with Dorcas. I was simply raging when Max and Bess +sailed by in their purple and fine linen, but at least they hadn't +pretended to be interested, and Dorcas--" + +"She may be busy," said Agnes. "There's a lot of work at their house, +and Dorcas usually does her share. I'll say that much for her, though +she does make me awfully angry sometimes. Where is Elsmere? He might go +over to the store and get something to polish this window-glass with." + +"I don't know. Elsmere! Elsmere! Where are you? Come here, dear." No +response. + +"O, never mind," sighed Catherine wearily. "I'm not responsible for him. +It is a relief to have him out of the way for a while. I wanted to send +him home before, but he had such a sweet lady-like way with him this +morning, I couldn't bring myself to. Girls! Hark!" + +The four laborers had dropped upon a long box to rest a few minutes from +their toil. Their low voices had been the only sound. Now distinctly, in +a remote corner of the room, could be heard a little scratch, scratch. +Then across the floor, serene and fearless, "right where I had been +sweeping," Catherine said later with a shiver, ran a small gray mouse. + +With one accord the four tucked their skirts about them and sat closer. +No one spoke, but each measured the distance to the door with an +accurate eye. And then, silently, but with haste, they beat a swift +retreat. + +The fair wide street before them, the door shut behind them, they drew +deep breaths of relief, though each avoided the others' eyes. + +"Some girls wouldn't mind going right up and killing it," said Polly, +"but I simply could not." + +"Nor I," said Catherine firmly. "I could go to battle or the stake like +Joan of Arc, but I draw the line at mice." + +"What's the matter? What are you all out here for? I thought you came to +clean." + +It was Dorcas, of course. The girls hung their heads with shame, and +Bertha, who had defied her so boldly when last they met, answered with +meekness. + +"We did. But there's a mouse." + +Dorcas looked them all over with an expression of deep scorn. + +"Give me the key," she said, and it was given to her. + +Then the fearful ones flattened their faces against the unwashed +window-pane to see what would happen. The little gray creature placidly +nibbled a tidbit in a corner. Dorcas approached him. He lifted his head +and regarded her. She faltered a little and glanced behind her. She even +felt hastily of her skirts. The respect in the watching faces lightened +a little. Every woman is born knowing how mice delight to hide in +skirts. + +After a moment Dorcas opened the door and came out, passed the group of +watchers without a word and crossed the street to Henderson's. Coming +back a minute later with a trap, she re-entered the room, set the trap +and waited. So did the others, breathless, clinging to each other. Bert +and Dot, driving up on their ten-cent express, saw that something +unusual was going on, and drove quietly around into the alley. Peeping +in at the back window, they took in the situation quickly: Dorcas on one +side of the room, the little gray mouse on the other, the trap between. +The silence lasted for several seconds. Then came a sharp crack! And +Dorcas, throwing her arm across her eyes, ran out of the room with a +shriek and fell upon Agnes, who was nearest. + +"He's killed," she sobbed. "I--I saw him!" + +"So he is," soothed Agnes. "None of the rest of us would have dared set +the trap, if we had been bright enough to think of it. There! It was +harrowing, but it's all over now." + +"No, no," shuddered Dorcas. "He's in there yet, and he's _dead_!" + +Catherine spied Bert's two mischievous eyes looking around the corner of +the building. In an instant she had despatched him to clear the room of +its horror, and was bringing Dot, a protesting prisoner, to join the +group. + +"Where did you come from?" asked every one, while Dorcas collected +herself. + +"O, our chariot's just outside," answered Dot. "We saw you all peeping +in, so we drove around behind to have a look ourselves. Got there in +time to see the final fatality. Dorcas was heroic until she won. Are you +girls honestly afraid of mice?" + +"I am of live ones," confessed Catherine. + +"I am of dead ones," said Dorcas. + +"Dead or alive, they, 'turn my blood to ice within me, and make the +breath of my heart wax pale,' as the lecturer said last night," said +Polly. "But now that you dare-devil people have cleared the field for +action, we may as well go in and scrub. We'd only just finished +sweeping. Dot, you may take the death-bed boards. And, O, there comes +Bert, back from the funeral. As President of the Winsted Boat Club and +Library Association, I hereby appoint you and Geraldine Winthrop a +Standing Mouse Committee with full power to act." + +"Dorcas to be official executioner, I trust," and Bert held the door +open for Dorcas, bowing low as she passed. + +That afternoon the B. C. & L. A. gathered in force. Even Tom Davis, +brother of Bertha and Agnes, asked for a half-day's vacation and helped +Algernon whitewash. Bert had impressed Max into carpentering, and the +work of bookcase-building went on noisily inside the shed. The girls sat +on the weedy patch of ground outside, sewing sash curtains. + +"It would be quicker to make them on the machine at home, but not nearly +so much fun," said Agnes. "How many books did you and Bert gather up +this morning, Dot?" + +"Fifty-three volumes besides Miss Ainsworth's. Those were already over +here in the shed. Where is Archie?" + +"He and Winifred are coming. They were going to bring a rug Win's mother +said we could have, and two lamps." + +"They will enjoy carrying them over this hot afternoon!" said Bess, +deftly hemming a curtain. "But it can't be so bad as this morning. +Girls, we had a perfectly dreadful time. It was all on account of that +terrible little Swinburne boy. You see, we thought we'd take the big +Penfield boat, instead of the canoes, and just as we were pushing off, +that child stepped into the boat from the dock and announced serenely +that he was going boating-ride. He did look dear, and quite clean, and +we all knew that it was hard to make him change his mind, so we let him +come. He sat very still and was as good as gold till we had got a long +way from home, and then he began." + +Catherine sighed appreciatively. "I can imagine, Bess dear. But do tell +us." + +"You can't imagine. Nobody could. He talked a blue streak. And the +things he said! He asked what he was made of, and how God got the eyes +in. He told about somebody's having a tooth out and went into dreadful +details. And then he got off on a worse tack, and asked Archie where his +wife was, and when Archie said he wasn't married, he sighed and looked +so sorry, and said: 'Wasn't you _ever_ marwied, Archie? Not even +once?' He simply spoiled our morning. It wasn't so much what he did say, +as what we thought he might be going to. We had to turn around and come +home long before we wanted to, just on account of that child." + +"If you had only thought to have Win sing to him," said Catherine. "He +will drop off to sleep with the least assistance, even when he seems +widest awake, and Win's lullabies are irresistible. There! that's the +last curtain. And there come Archie and Win with a donkey-cart, +and--why, what do you think they have? It can't be just a rug and two +lamps." + +Every one broke off work to go to meet the donkey-cart, a low, long, box +affair, with Winifred and Archie on the seat, and a quantity of +furniture and boxes in the back. + +Algernon, still holding a brush, took the donkey by the bridle and +backed him up. + +"There, unload everything. It's all right. I sent these folks after +them. Didn't have time to go myself. Yes, yes, they belong here. The +Three R's sent the table." + +With eager exclamations, the boys and girls unloaded six chairs, an oak +table, a rocker, a box spilling over with stationery and colored cards, +a miscellaneous lot of books, two neat rugs and half a dozen lamps of a +variety of styles and shapes. + +"The Three R's gave the table and chairs," explained Algernon, "and Mrs. +Kittredge said to call at her house for the rocker and some of those +lamps. And these other things I bought. Miss Crockett over at Hampton +told me what to order and they came to-day, and I opened them up at the +house." + +Catherine came up beside Algernon and watched him unpack the boxes of +cards, pens, paper clips, mending tissue, paste, shears and other new +and shining articles. She was distinctly surprised. A large share of +their little capital must have gone into these purchases. And Algernon +had told no one, not even herself, that he was buying them. + +Dorcas caught up a sheet of the paper. + +"It seems to me it's rather fresh of you to spend the association's +money for paper with your name on it, without knowing whether the +permanent organization will want you or not." + +The glow faded from Algernon's eyes. The consideration with which he had +been treated these last few days had taught him to estimate properly the +tolerance which had been all he had received before. Catherine, even, +looked puzzled and not quite pleased. + +"O, I say," he protested sadly. "You don't think I'd go and spend the +public money, do you? I thought it would be fun to have these things all +ready. I didn't know you'd rather have had me give the money and let the +rest of you send in the order. I just did it for my share,--I'm awfully +sorry." + +Catherine lifted her head brightly. + +"Indeed, you did exactly right. None of us would have known half so +wisely how to use it. What did I tell you people? How many towns have +librarians who work without pay, and furnish all their materials +besides?" + +Bert suddenly mounted the seat of the donkey-cart. + +"What's the matter with the Boat Club?" he inquired hoarsely. + +"We're all right," modestly replied the Boat Club, boys and girls +together. + +"What's the matter with the Three R's?" + +"They're all right." + +"What's the matter with the library?" + +"It's all right." + +"And now three cheers and a tiger for A. Swinburne, librarian. Hip, hip, +hooray!" + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +A DAY OFF + + +"Not going over to the library to work to-day?" + +"Not this morning. Mother Nature says I'd better not." + +Dr. Helen put her hand on her daughter's forehead. "Too tired?" she +queried, with a note of anxiety in her voice. It had been only in the +last year or so that Catherine had been well enough to do the things +other girls did, and she was always on the lookout for indications of +over-exertion. + +"No," answered Catherine, pulling her mother's firm strong hand down to +her lips and kissing it. "And I don't intend to become so. Things can +wait for a day, or the others can go on without me. I'm going to be a +private citizen and stay at home and mend. Can't you sit and sew too, +Mother?" + +"Perhaps I can for half an hour," said Dr. Helen, "and you certainly +need to give your clothes some attention. When you go up stairs to get +your things, bring down that brown silk waist, and I'll make the collar +over for you." + +In a few minutes the two were cozily settled in the little alcove off +the big book-lined living-room, a pleasant breeze bringing morning +freshness in by way of an open window. + +"Mother," said Catherine suddenly, "you and Father have brought me up +very differently from most girls." + +"How?" + +"Why, about taking care of myself. Some of the really nice girls seem to +think it's perfectly all right to be sick, even when it could have been +avoided. And some of them think it's rather fine to be ailing." + +"Do you mean they want to be petted? That's natural enough." + +"Not just that. I don't mind that. But Dy-the Allen--" + +"Stop a minute, Catherine. Once for all, what is her ridiculous name? I +have wanted to know for nearly a year and never think to ask." + +Catherine laughed. "She was christened Edith, but when she was in High +School she had a silly streak and wrote it with a 'y' for the 'i' and an +'e' on the end, so her brother called her E-dy-the, the way it looks, +you know, just to tease her, and it turned into Dy-the and stayed that, +though she signs herself Edith. She is one of the very dearest girls I +ever knew, and how we shall get along without her next year at Dexter is +more than I can guess. All the little preps adore her. But that was the +very thing that made me crossest about her carelessness. She would go +out in the snow with little thin dancing slippers on and lace stockings, +and then take a horrible cold and be ill for days, and shut herself up +in her room and have everybody bringing her flowers and meals and +writing her notes. And then all her little satellites did similar things +and it made a lot of bother for everybody. Little Hilda went to see a +measles child because she thought it was fine to be reckless the way +Dy-the is, and then she gave it to her roommate and two other girls. I +got quite angry once and let Dy-the know just how it looked to me. I +told her she ought to be ashamed to disobey Nature and be sent to bed +for it, and she only laughed and quoted things from Stevenson about +people who live on tepid milk and wear tin shoes. I told her Stevenson +certainly tried to look out for his own health, for all that, but I +couldn't make her think it a serious matter at all. She just laughed. +She's such a dear, she doesn't know how to be angry, Dy-the doesn't," +and Catherine smiled, in spite of her own earnestness, at the visions +the name brought to her mind. + +"Here comes somebody else of the dear variety," said Dr. Helen. "Go and +let Polly in." + +"She doesn't need to be let in," said that young person, appearing with +the words. "She let her own self in. I'm on an errand, Catriona darling. +I want your mother's advice and yours. What do you think of a regular +library opening, with refreshments and all that? And have people bring +books for admission fees?" + +"Do sit down, Polly, and rest for a minute. You look as though you +expected to be called to the telephone." + +Polly dropped, sighing, into a comfortable chair. + +"It does feel good to let down for a minute," she admitted. "I get so +into the habit of tearing through space at college that I can't stop +rushing for a month after I get home, and this library business has kept +me jumping. I suppose the public could get on a day or two longer +without it, seeing they have so many years. I worked all day yesterday +with Algernon, and then in the evening it was too hot to stay in the +house, and the mosquitoes were so thick outside that it was harder work +trying to keep comfortable than anything I had done all day." + +"They are worse than ever this year," sighed Dr. Helen, "and, really, I +think they are harder to bear when we all know that a little +public-spirited co-operation would rid us of them. Can't you get the +people who draw books at the new library to agree to sprinkle the +breeding-places with oil?" + +Polly suddenly chuckled. "I beg your pardon, Dr. Helen, for being rude, +but I just remembered a woman who addressed an open air meeting on the +campus this spring. She was a missionary returned from somewhere and she +appeared at one of the houses and wanted to talk, so we got a few girls +together on the lawn to hear her. The mosquitoes were simply unbearable. +We all sat there slapping ourselves and making grabs at the air, and +trying to look interested, and then she opened her Bible and read about +being encompassed about with a cloud of witnesses: That was bad enough, +when you could see them settling all about us like a great dotted veil, +but nobody cracked a smile until she gave out the hymn. And that, if you +please, was 'My soul be on thy guard, ten thousand foes arise!' You know +how it goes." And Polly sang: + + "'Ne'er think the vict'ry won, + Nor once at ease sit down, + Thy arduous work will not be done + Till thou obtain thy crown.'" + +"She might have asked for 'Christian, up and smite them,'" said Dr. +Helen. "Now, children, I should like nothing better than to sit and hear +college yarns all the morning, but I have an office hour to keep. +Catherine, did you tell Inga to order peas for dinner?" + +"That reminds me," said Polly, springing up. "Mamma wanted me to do some +marketing before I came home, and I was forgetting it entirely. And I +haven't found out yet what you think of the opening!" + +"I should think it would be a good way to advertise it and get people +interested. We ought to get a lot of books, too, though they wouldn't +all be worth much. Are you going to work to-day? I decided I'd have to +take a day off." + +"I don't believe any one will go down. Win won't, because Max has gone +up to Madison to take a re in Trig and she won't bother about anything +when he's not around. Dorcas said she'd see to the card-pockets at +home--her Sunday-school class will do it, poor infants! And Bertha and +Agnes have to help their mother because she's going to have the Ladies' +Aid this afternoon. They are the best pair of workers I ever saw." + +"Aren't they? Bess was fine about the curtains, too. She is so +changeable, though, that I don't know what to think of her." + +"Only a question of whether there's a man body about, my dear," said +Polly oracularly. "Many a girl is all right and sensible when there are +just girls around, but let a lad heave in sight, and the whole situation +is altered. I've known Bess since she came to Winsted in a ruffled white +apron, and no one can teach me anything about her. Now, having dissected +all my friends, I think I really must do my marketing." + +"We haven't said anything about Dot, the dear," said Catherine, +following Polly to the door. + +"Dot, the dear," echoed Polly. "That's all there is to say about her. +Good-by, honey. To-morrow we'll go at it for a grand finale. That was +the name of the last piece in my first music book, and I always like to +say it. It sounds so complete, someway. You don't know, Catherine," and +Polly stopped on the last step to look up at her tall friend, "how +pleasant it makes things to have you in them. I'm just loving this +library work, and so are the rest of us. Playing with you is like having +one's Sunday doll all the week, or as if the princess in the fairy +stories had turned into a real mortal. Good-by this time for truly +true!" + +Humming a Wellesley song, Polly was off down the walk at a brisk pace, +and Catherine, who had answered her last words with a look more +expressive than speech, stood watching her a minute, and then went +happily back to her mending. + +The grocer's boy, who arrived with the peas a little later, also brought +the mail. He was devoted to Inga and enjoyed doing gratuitous favors for +the doctor's family for her sake. Inga brought in two letters to +Catherine, who joyfully dropped her darning and tore them open. + +"_Belovedest Goldilocks;_" the first began, in Hannah Eldred's +writing, not much improved in the two years she and Catherine had been +corresponding. + +"We are here at the shore for the summer, or that part of it which must +pass before I come flying out to you with Frieda. Mamma and I are here +all the time and Dad and Herr Karl come out for Sundays. + +"People are so puzzled about Karl. I say over and over: 'No, not my +tutor. No, not a cousin. Not even a ward of my father's. Just a German +boy we learned to know in Berlin, and now a student at Harvard. Yes, we +met him quite simply. He lived in the apartment under us, and he had +hurt his leg and couldn't walk, and we used to entertain him. Frieda +Lange and I did. It was at her house we were staying. His father is Herr +Director Von Arndtheim, and they are very respectable!' People at a +summer resort, even a little one, are the curiousest in the world, +_I_ think! + +"Who do you think is coming to spend a few days with us next week? Nice +old Inez! I'm awfully glad she is coming, but honestly I do hope she has +learned to put her clothes on straight and to keep her room tidy. She's +so good, and so faithful that I love her anyhow, but Mother does like +neat guests dreadfully well! She would love you for a guest, Catherine. +But there! You always are just ex-actly right, without the tiniest +drawback,--unless Dexter has changed you. Has it? + +"I feel as though I were having my second childhood. It was so nice to +be at college that term with the grown-up girls, and now I have to go +with infants like little Hilda and Gertrude, only not so nice. I had +first year Math in High School, you know, last year, and my German Prof +regarded me as a babe and wouldn't let me read things because I wasn't +old enough--things that weren't suitable for children. Frieda's mother +has never let her read a love story, you know, and this man has the same +idea! He talked to me, the stiffest conversation lessons you ever heard. +It was like the dialogues in Ruskin. I wonder what he would think if he +should hear Karl and me sometimes. We jabber it all the time, he and +Mamma and I. Dad won't let us when he's around, so we talk English then, +and that instructs Karl. He's good except for his pronunciation. You +should hear him do the Harvard yell! He rolls the 'r's' so far he almost +loses them. They are even worse than you-ers, my western de-ar. + +"We are going to have a hop to-night, a really hop, and I am going. They +can't put me off with the children because I haven't any nurse or +governess, and there aren't any other girls between infants and real +young ladies. The hop won't be very big, because there are only a few +families (it's not a fashionable place, you know), but we'll have a +perfectly good time all the same. I am so pleased to be going as a +_Herrschaft_, and I have a darling new frock for this and +everything. It's a soft rosy silk with tiny tight rosebuds all over it. +And I have a little wreath of buds to wear in my hair. There are two or +three awfully nice people coming over. One of Karl's classmates at +Harvard, and two boys from the Tech and a nice curly-haired freshman +from Dartmouth. And there is a Smith girl, perfectly charming, and a +rather frumpy one from Wellesley who knows your Polly Osgood, or rather +knows who she is. This girl's name is Violet, and I saw a letter +addressed to her and her middle initial was E, and I asked if her name +was Ethelyn, but she said it was Emma! + +"I _wish_ you could see my little hop-gown. And the dear wreath. It +makes me think of Ivy-Planting Day at Dexter and the way the seniors +sang 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.' Wasn't Lilian the sweetest +thing? She is studying in Boston this year, you know, and I saw her +once. And weren't the little pig-tailed preps dear with their pink +doves, I mean pink-ribboned doves? That was your pretty idea, my +beautiful Catherine. I never could have thought of anything so lovely. + +"I'm almost at the bottom of the inkstand, and I haven't told you yet +what I started to write about. But Mamma has written your mother, so +it's all right. Frieda is to land the last of July, and I'm going to +take her out to you as soon after that as your mother and mine think +best. I think she will need a long time to get acquainted, don't you? I +know you will love each other, but she must know you thoroughly before +college opens. It is tantalizing to think of you and her and Alice all +being together. I do think I ought to be there, too, since I was the one +who introduced you to each other. I'd like to keep Frieda with me next +year, but every one seems to think the best place for her is right in +the dormitory with the other girls,--and of course, it will be easier +for her out there than in any of the big colleges nearer us. She is so +obstinate she wouldn't learn English if she were near any one who could +talk anything she would recognize for German. What most of the girls at +college talk for that, she wouldn't know from Choctaw. + +"Lots of love to the dear doctors, and for yourself bushels and quarts +and pecks. I had a card from Miss Lyndesay from the Isle of Wight +yesterday. + +"Now I must shut, as Frieda said in her last letter! + + "Your loving Hannah." + +Catherine gathered up the scattered pages of this voluminous letter and +then opened the slender one which had accompanied it. This bore a far +western postmark, and its neat little pages resembled copperplate. + +"_My Dear Roommate:_ + +"I'm waiting for a youth to whom I am to give a toot lesson. He is very +stupid. I have him in Greek and English literature. In Greek he +translates the word for Lord, 'Cyrus.' We have been reading the New +Testament, and you can think how very oddly that would come in, in some +passages! And in an English test he assured me that Milton wrote +_Pilgrim's Progress_, and the author of Bacon's _Essays_ was +Charles Lamb. He makes me wonder whether I shall have courage enough to +tackle teaching as a profession, if tutoring is so difficult. But I like +his money very well, and Mother is going away for a real vacation and +will take Cora, and that couldn't happen if I hadn't found work this +summer. + +"I have a Sunday-school class, too, and that is entertaining, at least. +It is at a mission, and such queer dirty little chaps as are in it! + +"I started in to teach them an alphabet of Christian graces, or +desirable qualities. The first week we had A for Attention, and the +second, B for Bravery, and the third week I thought they all had the +idea, and asked them to guess what C would be. They thought very hard, +and then one piped out: 'Cabbages!' The same little boy told me that the +priests burned _insects_ in the temple! + +"My whole letter seems to be nothing but my pupils' absurdities. But +really I have very little else to write about that would interest any +one. I'm busy all day, and too tired at night to read or write. I take +more pleasure getting acquainted with my darling little brother Jack +again, than in anything else I do. He has been Ariel now for a week, and +it's very convenient, for there are many errands to be done. He sleeps +at night in a cow-slip bell, very romantically, but I have no hope the +spell will last. He will be a robber chief or a street-car conductor +next week. The poetry in his system is in streaks, not continuous. O! +that reminds me--and it's the last 'bright saying' I shall quote in this +letter, I promise you! He asked me rather shyly the other day what +poetry was, and after I had attempted to explain, he said: 'It's queer, +Allie. I thought it was chickens!' + +"Here comes my pupil, looking very sad. I wish he didn't regard me as an +old, old woman. I suppose I seem so to him, but I do hate to feel for +two hours a day that I have lost all my youth. + +"When does Hannah come? And Frieda? I am all eagerness to see her. Did +you carry my embroidered waist home with you by any chance? I can't find +it, and I really need it. + +"My love to your mother, always. + + "Faithfully yours, + + "Alice Barbara." + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +THE OPENING + + +The opening of the library had been vigorously advertised. Bert and Dot +had wheeled the country roads over within a radius of three miles from +town, posting bills of announcement. The ministers urged it upon their +congregations as a civic duty to attend. At social gatherings the week +before nothing else was talked of. And everybody was going to bring +books. + +"Such a lot of trash as we'll get!" groaned Dorcas. + +"I know it," assented Polly, "but they will all take an interest, and +that is what we are after now. Once properly established, we can buy +good books, and these old ones will just stand idle or wear out or get +lost or something." + +"I don't think it's very appropriate to serve refreshments," objected +Dorcas once more. "And Algernon doesn't think it is a dignified way to +do." + +"O, well," put in Catherine, appeasingly. "Mrs. Graham says, you know, +that we'll 'have to get people pretty well educated readin' our +encyclopedias and dictionaries before they'll think anything's worth +goin' to that there ain't somethin' to eat at!' And Mrs. Graham is going +to take charge of all that part, anyhow, so I don't feel like finding +fault. There won't be any expense, with everything contributed." + +"They might have given the money instead of ice-cream and cakes." + +"O, Dorcas, Dorcas, you would expect people to be all made over. Did you +ever read Stevenson's fable of the reformer who thought the first step +in reforming the world was to abolish mankind? Let's not worry about it. +I know it's going to be a success. Isn't this room the cleanest spot you +ever saw?" And Catherine threw back her arms with a gesture to rest her +tired shoulders, and looked about her with affection and pride. Bare +white walls, with one good engraving, loaned by Judge Arthur, for +ornament; plain shelves with rows of neat books, their orderly labels +smiling like sets of teeth; the reading-table in the exact center of the +room, with three chairs in military array on each side of it, and a few +contributed magazines in mathematical piles between two student lamps; +and last, Algernon's small charging desk, with its mysterious cards and +rubber stamps under one of the bracket lamps, shining from the polishing +Agnes had just given it. + +"Isn't it spick and span?" repeated Catherine, sitting down with +precision in the arm-chair, discovered in somebody's attic. + +"Ye-es," answered Dot slowly, dropping upon one of the arms. "But for +all its cleanness it's about as bare and as inviting as the contagious +ward of a hospital, or the dining-room of a state's prison." + +"Don't say discouraging things like that, Dot dear," pleaded Agnes, +taking the other arm and snuggling her head against Catherine's cheek. +"A library isn't supposed to be a parlor, and that engraving is really +valuable." + +"I'd rather have a chromo that comes with soap, myself," said Bert. "Its +cold steely look only adds to that hygienic and sanitary aspect Dot +detected. It makes me homesick for sunflowers and red flannel." + +"I have an idea," and Dorcas rose and departed with her usual +abruptness. + +As she went out of the door, Bess came in. + +"O dear!" she said. "Are you all here? I hoped nobody would be." + +"Shall we withdraw?" asked Bert. "We were just commenting on the +barrenness of this place, but your presence causes it to blossom as the +rainbow. We bask in the refulgence." + +Bess laughed. "That's really what I came for, to prettify it a little. +It seemed such a pity not to have anything bright and attractive on the +walls, so I made this at odd minutes. Do you all like it? I was going to +put it up and surprise you." + +She unrolled a big parcel she carried and the others, crowding around to +see, looked upon a beautifully illuminated motto: + + "God be thanked for books." + +"Bess, you are an inspired angel," cried Polly, while Catherine gave her +a squeeze which was meant to express pleasure and also compunction for +more than one reflection that Bess was not doing her share for the +library. + +"And here comes another," exclaimed Agnes, running to open the door for +Dorcas, staggering under the weight of a great armful of golden glow. + +"Dorcas, you must have taken every stalk you had!" + +"Well, and whose business is it, I'd like to know?" asked Dorcas briskly +and justly. Polly shrugged her shoulders, but helped Bertha to find +receptacles for the bright flowers, continuing to exclaim over their +beauty, in spite of Dorcas' apparent indifference. It had not been +Algernon alone who had been misunderstood at the beginning of the +library campaign in Winsted. The flowers arranged effectively, and the +motto given a place where it could be read from all parts of the room, +the workers trudged off to their respective homes to make elaborate +toilets before the "party" should begin. + +Seven o'clock found the lamps lighted inside the little building, and +Japanese lanterns making the freshly-mown weed patch a festive place, +with little tables set for the ice-cream and cake which were to be +served from the shed, leaving the library proper, clean and crumbless. +Bess and Winifred, with their attendant squires, were to act as Mrs. +Graham's lieutenants outside, and the other members of the club were +variously on duty within. Dr. Helen assisted Algernon and the school +superintendent in receiving--an unsectarian combination warranted to +disturb no prejudice. Bertha, with a book and pen, was ready at the +reading-table to receive and register gifts. Catherine sat at Algernon's +desk to issue cards, and take in the annual fee of fifty cents. The +other girls and boys were "floating," ready to entertain the guests, to +explain the whole scheme, and see to it that every one was invited to +the lawn for "light refreshments and ice-cream" as the _Courier_ +had announced. + +The fathers and mothers of the Boat Club were early arrivals, looking +with proud amused eyes upon their spotless sons and daughters in their +disinterested public zeal. First of all came Mrs. Swinburne in a long +black net gown elaborately spangled, her hair coquettishly arranged in a +Janice Meredith curl, several years out of date, a slender ivory-sticked +fan, somewhat broken, swaying from her belt by a long ribbon. She +plainly felt that her entrance should excite attention and was by no +means disappointed. Dot and Polly took her in charge and stood by with +grave courteous faces while she gave Bertha her contribution, wrapped up +in tissue paper and white ribbon. + +"It's a copy of _The Ring and The Book_ I got for Elsmere's +Christmas last year. I wanted so to read it. I am devoted to Byron. But +Algernon gave me the _Complete Works_, so that I felt I could give +this away to advantage. It is a little damaged. The dear child uses his +books to build stables with, but I knew that the public would not mind." + +She arched her eyebrows in surprise when Catherine asked fifty cents for +the card she made out for her. "As Algernon's mother, really, Miss +Catherine, I did not expect--" and Catherine, catching Algernon's +imploring glance from his position between the doctor and the +superintendent, murmured an apology and gave the card. + +Then Mrs. Swinburne sank delicately into the arm-chair, and rested her +eyes upon the scene before her. + +It was soon sufficiently animated. A whole family arrived at once, +climbing out of a big farm wagon. Dot beckoned to Bert. + +[Illustration: "'How much for your tickets?'"--_Page 77._] + +"It's that man we talked to out on the Ridge Road." + +"Is this your liberry?" asked a mighty voice from the doorway. "Where's +the young fellow that invited us to come in this evening? O, it's you, +is it? I didn't recognize you with those clothes on. Men folks didn't +wear white pants in my day. Well, Mother, come along in. I guess they +won't nobody bite you." + +With this encouragement, a little washed-out looking woman slipped +uncomfortably in, six children of various degrees of awkwardness +stumbling after her, studiously avoiding the outstretched hands of the +receiving committee. Dr. Helen stepped forward and took the woman's +hand. The wan face under the dusty black straw hat lighted with the +smile that Catherine loved to see her mother call forth. + +"Clary," said the little woman proudly, "here's the doctor. Let her see +how fat and well you be. Not much like she was that winter!" + +Clary's father, meanwhile, was walking about the room with a tread that +rattled the lamp-shades. He looked the books over with an air of wisdom, +listened to Bert's talk in silence, and presently drew up at the desk +where Catherine sat waiting for customers. + +"How much for your tickets?" + +"Fifty cents." + +"Family rates?" + +Catherine met the unforeseen question promptly. + +"Where there are more than three in a family, the tickets are only +thirty-five cents apiece." + +"So. Well, give me one," and he drew a handful of small change from his +pocket. "Holcomb's the name. Chester G. Holcomb." + +Catherine inscribed the name in her pretty even hand upon a blue card, +numbered it 2, and handed it to her patron. He laid down thirty-five +cents and turned away. + +"O," said Catherine, flushing softly. "You didn't understand. It is only +when you get three cards that they are cheap like that." + +Chester Holcomb, known as the biggest miser in the county, grunted. + +"You said if they was more than three in the family, and they's six +children besides ma and me. I knowed there was some skin game about this +thing, somewheres. Here's your ticket and you give me back my money." + +Catherine, almost as near tears as she had ever been in her singularly +well-controlled existence, obeyed him. + +"Good evening, Chester." Dr. Harlow had been standing near, and now +decided to take a hand. "Let me introduce my daughter. Catherine, this +is Mr. Holcomb, of whom you've heard us speak." + +"The father of the dear twin babies?" asked Catherine, with a grateful +throb for her father's help. + +"That's them yonder," answered Chester Holcomb, swelling proudly. "Mate, +bring the twins here, so't the doctor's gal can see 'em. Weighed five +pounds when they was born, and look at 'em now! Best fatted live stock +on the farm, I say, Doctor." And Mr. Holcomb's great laugh at his own +witticism filled the room. Catherine, meanwhile, with the sincerity of a +girl who really loves all babies, admired the plump twins to such a +degree that their father felt himself melting with benevolence. + +"Mate," he said suddenly, "think you'd like to read any of these here +books? Doc, make you acquainted with my daughter Sadie. Graduated from +the district school this spring and goin' to town High School this fall. +Guess the' ain't any of the readin'-matter here that's beyond Sadie! +Here, Miss, give us three of them tickets,--that one I had and two more. +Mrs. Chester Holcomb and Miss Sadie Ditto. There! Keep the change," and +gathering up the three cards, he threw a silver dollar heavily upon the +table and turned away. Catherine and her father looked at each other and +laughed outright. + +"No man has ever got the best of Chester in a bargain," said Dr. Harlow, +"and I judge no woman ever will! Allow me to make up the deficit. It has +been worth more than that as entertainment!" + +By this time the room was full. It was a motley crowd, as all classes of +Winsted were represented. The would-be Smart Set in rather elaborate +hats and gowns, mingled with the quieter Three R's, and their own maid +servants and the "gentlemen friends" of the latter. All the standbys, +who are always on hand at church doings and the County Fair, were out in +force. There was the oldest inhabitant, bestowing his presence with the +"nunc dimittis" air which had characterized him since old age had given +him the distinction vainly sought in other fields. There was old Mis' +Tuttle in her best black and orange bonnet, and Emeline Winslow with her +wig over one ear and a bouquet of artificial flowers under glass as her +contribution. With her came Grandma Hopkins, whose name was the only +nimble thing about her;--ponderous and elephantine, she had once, in +calling upon a fragile little old lady, stumbled in the doorway and +fallen upon her hostess, whose brittle bones had snapped under the +strain. Polly and Dorcas constituted themselves a committee to look out +for the elderly ones, taking great pains to keep Grandma Hopkins in open +spaces where a fall would do little damage. There was a very bony woman +with a smile which was surprising, it was so soft and radiant. She +brought a fat story of the Bible for the children, and offered Algernon +flowers from her garden for all summer. "Flowers are good for the soul +and the mind as well as books," she explained, "and if so be some one +comes in and can't find the book they want, 'twon't hurt 'em to see a +posy." + +There was the Sloan family, decked out in the leavings of a milliner's +shop and bringing as offering a worn copy of one of Mary J. Holmes' +novels. There was a good-hearted lady, so disastrously given to +expressing enthusiasm by embracing anyone within her reach that the +heroes and heroines of the evening fought shy of her, and Tom made her +well-known tendency an excuse for withdrawing altogether and going out +to the fence behind the building where he could overlook the festive +scene and smoke a cigar surreptitiously. Not least "among those present" +was the ubiquitous reporter for the _Courier_, biting his pencil +and using abbreviations in his notes with such freedom that the +list of gifts, when finally published, contained such startling +entries as: _Eliza and her Germ Garden_, and _The Victorious +Anthropology_. + +"I felt as though I were in a dream half the time," sighed Polly, when +the crowd had dwindled to "the immediate mourners" as Max put it, and +these were sitting wearily at the messy little tables, dipping idle +spoons into the melted cream that had been with difficulty saved for +them. "I kept on smiling and explaining and telling people to go to +Catherine for cards and to Bertha to leave their gifts, and half the +time I didn't know what I was saying or who was talking to me. Bert came +up once and asked me to tell him which door he came in at, and I tried +to find out for him, before I tumbled--before I saw the point, I mean. I +never was so exhausted in all my life." + +"Poor Algernon," said Tom. "You're just beginning your work. Every one +of those hundred and sixty-seven cards will be in to-morrow to draw out +a book. You ought to keep open for a week every day." + +"Three times a week, with evenings, will be enough," replied A. +Swinburne, librarian. "There's a big job on those books that came in +to-night. How many were there finally, Bertha?" + +"Ninety-six. About twenty are worth putting labels on," answered Bertha +cheerfully. "I'm a little inclined to think that that part of our plan +was a mistake." + +"I don't believe it," said Dot. "There was one old duck who brought a +German primer, and he strutted around as though he owned the place. I'm +sure he'll use it constantly." + +"He seemed to think he ought to have a card free, because he gave it," +put in Catherine. "I remember him! He wasn't the only one, though. They +all--or a lot of them--seemed to think they ought to be able to draw any +number of books on one card, and they don't like the idea of fines at +all. I don't envy you, Algernon!" + +"We ought to have called ourselves the Looking For Trouble Club," +groaned Archie. "We haven't had a decent Boat Club picnic since we got +into this mess. And look at all this place to clean up to-morrow! I'm +about dead with work, already. I don't know about the rest of you." + +The rest had strength enough for a chorus of hoots and jeers at "His +Laziness," who had adorned the scene of their labor for a few minutes +now and then, but for the most part had stayed strictly away. + +"I've saved your lives, anyway," declared Archie cheerfully, when their +derision had spent itself. "And I'm going to again. I hired a lovely +scrub-lady to come to-morrow and make this spot look shipshape--" + +"O, Archie!" cried the girls, "you beautiful boy!" + +"Don't interrupt," said the beautiful boy sternly. "I am going to +vindicate myself. Polly Osgood, didn't that tennis game Friday morning +save you from collapse? How about that little canoe jaunt on the quiet +yesterday, Catherine? Bess needed a drive Thursday, and Winifred did +more good to the public by singing to me all that hot evening than the +rest of you did slaving away over some gooey job or other. Dorcas let me +reward her Sunday-school kids by a hay-rack ride, and she went along to +take care of us. Agnes and Bertha got interrupted on their way down here +one morning, and let themselves be persuaded to take a country walk +instead, to show me birds' nests for a course I'm not ever going to take +next year. And as for Dot,--O, Dot was shamelessly ready to go off any +old time with any old body. But you all would have been nervous wrecks +by now without me. And you call me names, like an ungrateful populace!" + +It was a mirth-provoking series of revelations. "Archie has shown +himself a most artistic sly-boots," said Catherine. "I never had more +delicious conscience pangs than I did on that canoe-ride." + +"So it was with me," declared Polly. "And I never dared say anything +sarcastic about the other girls not turning up every time, because I +felt so guilty myself." + +"So did I!" cried Bertha and Agnes together. + +"Well, so didn't I!" exclaimed Dot. "I was perfectly free to say all the +time that I didn't intend to spend my whole summer or even ten days of +it working harder than I do winters. I move that Archie be given a vote +of thanks for introducing the Rest Cure into the Boat Club, and also a +vote of admiration for the beauty of his dissimulation." + +"I second the motion," said Archie himself, "and amend it to include +going home. Want any help in locking up, Al?" + +"No, thanks," said Algernon, hearing for the first time a nickname that +any fellow might have had applied to himself. "Good night, all of you. +I'll take good care of things, you can count on that." + +As the rest drifted in pairs and threes toward their homes, a +well-content young man set the reading-chairs in their places, put out +the low-burning lamps, turned the key in the lock, and walked briskly +away, happier than he had ever been. + +Even so early, Catherine's inspiration had shown itself a true one. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +A PARTY AT POLLY'S + + +"Where you goin', Algy?" + +Algernon, half-way down the walk, turned at these words, high and clear, +floating down from upper regions. + +In the balcony on the second floor Elsmere, clad airily in white +night-drawers, leaned pensively over the railing. + +"To the party, you know. Go back to bed, Sonny." + +"But the party is to Peter and Perdita's, over there,--" with a gesture +across the street. "Why do you be goin' that way?" The fat little arm +waved in an opposite direction. + +"I'm going to get Catherine. Do go in, now, Elsmere. I'll tell you all +about the party in the morning," and Algernon hastened down the street, +bouncing more than usual in his effort to get out of reach of that +penetrating little voice. + +"Why," it called after him, "why? Doesn't Caffrine know the way to Peter +and Perdita's house? What you goin' to get her _for_?" + +The neighbors on their porches smiled, and Algernon reddened as he +rushed along. + +Elsmere, abandoned, still draped himself over the railing and watched +his brother's rapid walk. + +"Springs!" he murmured at last, as though he had solved a knotty +problem. "Algy walks like a spring seat!" + +Then with a lighted candle Elsmere proceeded to make some preparations +for an evening of festivity. The party at the Osgoods' was so near that +Peter had assured him the music for the porch dancing would reach him +even more clearly in his balcony chamber than if he were a really +invited guest and on the spot. Peter had further coached him in the +method of preparing porches for dancing, and Elsmere had secreted a +candle and matches early in the evening, waiting only till Algernon was +safely away to apply them. His floor nicely waxed, he curled down in a +corner of the balcony to watch the arriving guests, and unexpectedly +fell asleep. + +"Walk on your heels, why don't you?" + +Algernon, escorting Catherine, made this suggestion as she picked her +way across a narrow muddy crossing, her white party skirts gathered in +one hand. Catherine, poising with difficulty on the toe of one foot, +turned and looked at him. + +"It just muddies my heels, and then my heels muddy my skirts. Of course, +you boys with trousers--" then, toppling, she righted herself and leaped +across the last puddle. + +"Trousers," said Algernon, getting to her side again, "were worn in +Abyssinia as early as--" + +Catherine heaved a mighty sigh. + +"It's like going out for a stroll with the _Century Book of Facts_ +to walk with you, Algernon Swinburne," she declared suddenly. "Do you +think in statistics party-nights, even? Haven't you any uninstructive +thoughts for warm evenings?" + +Algernon regarded her silently. + +"Am I such a bore?" he asked quietly. + +Catherine caught her breath. She recalled swiftly her father's having +said: "If Algernon should once find out that he was a bore, it would +probably cure him. He has a lot of sense." And here he was finding it +out, on her hands, just because she had, for once, made her groaning +comment on his conversation audibly instead of to herself! + +It was a serious moment. + +"Listen, Algernon," she said, feeling for words. "I wasn't very polite +to say what I did, but I'm not going to take it back now. It's really +wonderful how you know so much, and people who use the library are +appreciating it. But you see, you've lived by yourself all these years, +accumulating information, and when you get among people you do have a +little way of handing it out to them whether they want it or not. It's +as though Mr. Graham should take potatoes and onions to church and pass +them around to the congregation! They might be very nice potatoes and +onions! I know how it is, because until Hannah Eldred came and woke me +up, I used to do nothing but read poetry and cook, and I know I quoted +Shakespeare to the girls when they came to see me, and it made them +nervous, so they didn't come often. Have you ever noticed how Polly +does? She's always interested in what every one says, and she always +'catches on.' She doesn't try to run the conversation, while Dorcas--" + +"Dorcas hits you over the head with a club, and then when you're stunned +she sits down on you and talks to the others! Am I like her?" + +Catherine laughed outright. + +"That's very 'wink-ed' of you, Algernon, as Elsmere would say, but it +truly does just about describe it. You never do that way yourself, but +you do open up and read aloud, so to speak, in company sometimes, in a +way that is disconcerting. Now, what could one say to a statement about +Abyssinian trousers, for instance, when one is just peacefully walking +along, going to a party?" + +Algernon straightened his shoulders. + +"Much obliged," he said briefly. "I've been doing a little observing on +my own account lately, since I've been around with the rest of you so +much, and what you tell me fits, all right. I guess I can cut out the +information! I say, doesn't the Osgood place look fine?" + +The great porch at the Osgoods' "palatial residence," as the Winsted +_Courier_ always faithfully referred to the house, was alight with +square pink lanterns. A long strip of carpet ran out to the sidewalk, +and as she stepped upon it, Catherine put her hair back with a quick +gesture and smiled up at her tall companion. + +"I tell you, I'm proud to make my entrance by the side of the real +Librarian of the Winsted City Library." + +"Leave your scarf here, Catriona darling," said Polly, greeting her +guests in the doorway. "You don't need to prink. Mother, Father, here +are Catherine and Algernon." + +Mrs. Osgood came forward and took Catherine's hand with ceremony. Then +she turned to Algernon. + +"This is really an occasion. I am delighted, in my new capacity as +Trustee, to salute the Founder and the Mainstay of our Library." + +"O!" protested Catherine. "But isn't it perfectly lovely the way the +council did take up with the idea? Was there any hitch at all about it?" + +"Not the least," said Mr. Osgood. "You never saw anything smoother. You +young folks certainly struck this town with this library scheme of yours +at the psychological moment. The council was all for it. The tax was +voted, and directors appointed as though it had been talked up for +years." + +"And Bertha is a trustee," cried Catherine, seeing Bertha in the group +beyond. "O, Bertha dear, do use your influence to keep Algernon in +office!" + +Everybody laughed at that, and Mrs. Osgood threw up her hands. + +"We can't help ourselves! No one can ever underbid him, except by paying +for the privilege. Algernon won't take a salary." + +Algernon flushed uneasily. "I haven't earned one yet," he muttered. "And +besides, salaries for public positions--" + +Some choice fact was refused utterance there, for Algernon, seeing +Catherine's eye upon him, swallowed his harmless 'statistic' and lapsed +into silence. + +"Where are Bess and Archie?" fussed Polly. "Every one else is here, and +we do want to begin dancing. I wonder what can have kept them." + +"Here they are," called some one. "Hurry up, you two. You're the +latest." + +"We've brought our excuse with us," and Archie set down before Mrs. +Osgood a bulky newspaper parcel. Bess, smiling mysteriously, refused to +answer inquiries, and when the greetings were over Archie produced a +knife and started to cut the string. + +"Tell them the story first, Archie," suggested Bess. + +"You think it would be more dramatic? Well, maybe so, maybe so. Ladies +and Gentlemen: I have here a gift for the Winsted Public Library. It +comes most appropriately on this evening, when the original supporters +of that institution are celebrating their release from its +responsibility! Miss Symonds," indicating Bess with a graceful curve of +his thumb, "and myself were proceeding hither to join you. Our way led +us past the spacious edifice dedicated now to the Cause of Learning and +Recreation, having once been given over to hats, and later still, as +many now present remember, to rats! The library is, as some of you are +aware, not open on Wednesday evenings. Therefore we were surprised to +see standing before the door in an attitude of patient expectancy, a +rustic gentleman, bearing in his arm this identical parcel. We hesitated +and then remarked courteously to the gentleman that there was small hope +of his obtaining satisfaction at that particular portal before to-morrow +afternoon. His face fell. Seeing which phenomenon, Miss Symonds," again +the thumb curve, "being of a kindly nature, offered sympathy to the +disappointed reader. He opened his heart to us--and also his bundle. It +seems he was not there to borrow books, but to bestow blessings. The +article herein contained was destined by his wife, its maker, to adorn +the library's walls." + +"He said," interrupted Bess, "that he was sure we didn't have anything +like it, because his wife invented it, and he didn't know as there was +another in the world, even. He seemed to think the library was a kind of +museum and every one was sending things, and he and 'wife' wanted to, +too. He was a dear old man. So clean, and he wore a red shawl around his +neck this hot night--" Bess tossed her own bare head at the thought, and +fanned her pretty white shoulders. "Do show it to them, Archie, and +don't make fun. He really thought we would think it was lovely, and it +certainly is unusual." + +"Open it, open it!" + +Archie dropped to one knee, cut the string, and, removing one paper +after another, lifted slowly a hoop bound in red wool, from which +depended twenty fat little birds made of scraps of velvet. + +Silence and bewilderment. Then, "What's it for?" faltered some one. + +"We must explain it," said Bess laughing. "They don't understand. +Neither did we, at first. It's not for anything. It's just an ornament, +a beautiful parlor ornament. And you hang it from the chandelier and set +it swinging. So!" She illustrated and the gay little birds bobbed +merrily up and down. + +"They are hung on spiral wires of different lengths, you see, to make +them more lifelike and natural." + +Every one was full of delight and amusement now, and one hand after +another poked the poor little birds till they bobbed to a degree +dangerous to their shoe-button eyes. + +"It's a variation of the Japanese wind-bell motif," said Mrs. Osgood. +"But I shall wish I were not a trustee, if I must act on such problems +as that." + +Algernon took the hoop and put it back into its wrappings. + +"I'll write and thank him," he said, "and I don't see any objection to +it. The children will love it. I know Elsmere would." + +"We can keep it up for a while and not hurt his feelings," said Bertha, +and as Polly at the piano began to play a waltz, the boys chose partners +and the porch filled with dancing couples. + +It proved, however, rather warm for dancing. Polly and Winifred took +turns at the piano, but before long every one was willing to sit and +rest. + +"Play that pretty last one again, Polly, and let us listen," begged +Bess. "It's too warm to stir, but you play that so beautifully." + +Polly obligingly seated herself at the piano once more in the broad open +window. The light tripping music, unmarred by the sound of sliding feet, +floated over the lawn and across the street and up into the Swinburne +balcony. Suddenly the lazy group on the Osgood veranda caught sight of a +flickering flame high in the neighboring house. Algernon started up, but +Bertha restrained him. + +"Watch!" she said. "It's Elsmere. I saw him." + +The candle was stuck upon the railing of the balcony. Then capering +about, in little white night-drawers, to the sound of the music, Elsmere +danced, bare-toed, upon his well-waxed floor, the unconscious observed +of all observers. Applause long and hearty rewarded his efforts, and +also brought Maggie to the rescue. As she pounced upon him and knocked +the sputtering candle to the ground, Peter and Perdita, splendid in +starched white linen, appeared in the doorway behind "the party" and +invited every one to come and draw bows and arrows. + +Peter held a quiver of arrows, tied with bright ribbons "for the +ladies." His sister at his side offered "the gentlemen" a fine +assortment of bows, with varicolored bow-strings. Bows and arrows mated, +the hunters marched in pairs to the screened-in breakfast room, looking +out over the river. + +At each end of the table was a chafing-dish, and in the center was a +huge cabbage surmounted by two natural-looking bunnies. + +Each marksman tried his luck, and the cabbage was soon riddled, but it +was reserved for Bert, with Dorcas' arrow, to knock one rabbit over +backward. Thereupon Bert and Dorcas were immediately swathed in great +aprons and installed behind the chafing-dishes to show their skill as +cooks. Fortunately both were competent, and though much hampered by +advice and witticisms, by the time Peter and Perdita had passed the +rabbit salad, radishes and olives interspersed with artichokes and +little china bunnies, the critical moment had passed, and creamy messes +were ready to be ladled forth upon wafers, and consumed in eloquent +silence. + +When, at last, there was nothing left but a few leathery strings, and +even Archie declared his spirit alone was willing, Polly rapped on the +table with the handle of a big spoon and called the meeting to order. + +"Miss Smith has an announcement to make." + +Everybody looked at Catherine. Her eyes were shining and her face was +all aglow with pleasure. + +"I'm going to have company and I want you all to know it, and come and +get acquainted." + +"Who is it?" asked some one. + +"The rest of the Wide Awake girls." + +"What?" "All of them?" "All of you together?" "Not the German one?" "Is +Hannah Eldred coming?" + +The girls all talked together, and the boys looked mystified. + +"I wish some one would enlighten me," said Max helplessly. "Who are the +Wide Awake girls?" + +"Why, Max! Didn't you ever take _Wide-Awake_?" + +"The magazine? Sure thing. What of it? Does Catherine want us to +subscribe? After an ivory manicure set or a lawn-mower premium?" + +"No, no. Listen, Max, and any of the rest of you who are so ignorant as +not to know about the Wide Awake girls. Hannah Eldred advertised for +friends once, and Catherine and a little girl in Germany and one out +West answered. And the German one proved to be the daughter of a +long-lost friend of Hannah's mother, and the one out West turned up at +Dexter, rooming next door, when she went there, and now she rooms with +Catherine. Did you ever hear such a tale in your life? If you were to +read such a string of facts in a book, you wouldn't believe it." + +"No more you would," commented Max. "I'm not at all sure I believe it, +as it is. Are they all coming at once, Catherine?" + +"Not quite. Hannah and Frieda will be here in a week or two, and Alice +as soon after as she can. They are all of them the _dearest_ +girls!" + +"Pretty?" asked Archie. + +"Wait and see," laughed Catherine. "They'll make their own impression, +but I want you all to be friends as we are." + +"We'll do our best to entertain them," said Bert. "Distinguished +foreigners don't come our way every day. I move you, Madam President, +that we make these Wide Awake young ladies honorary members of the +Club." + +The motion was put and carried with a round of applause, and a few +minutes later the Boat Club meeting was informally adjourned. + +Algernon, reaching home at midnight, stole into his brother's room and +hung the bird-hoop near his bedside. With characteristic perverseness +Elsmere, a sound sleeper by day, was easily wakened at night, and, as +Algernon slipped out of the room, he sat up and watched the birds +bobbing in the moonlight. Presently he dropped back on his pillow, +sleepily content. + +"Springs!" he said, "like Algy walks." + + + + +PART TWO + +THE COMING OF FRIEDA + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +A FORTUNATE MEETING + + +On the day of Polly's party, far away in the village of Ventnor on the +Isle of Wight, some one was thinking of the young people of Winsted and +their library undertaking. + +A tall woman walked swiftly along the road toward Freshwater, enjoying +its charming variety, the sudden glimpses of sea beyond the chalk +cliffs, the quaint cottages and lanes, and at a certain bend the trees +she loved better than all the rest, with ivy running over the ground and +up the mighty trunks. There was a radiance about Clara Lyndesay which +seemed to make whatever she looked upon more beautiful than it had been +before. No one had ever been able to analyze it, to decide how much was +due to the sunny hair, how much to the blue eyes, and the smile that +suggested sweet wistful things that never could be told, and how much to +her own deep inner peace. "The beauty of you certainly helps the +goodness make its impression," Dr. Helen said to her once, "and yet I am +half inclined to believe that it is the goodness that makes the beauty!" + +Just now there was no analyst at hand, no one, in fact, but a stout +small boy, driving a butcher's cart. He felt the force of the charm, +however uncritically, and grabbed his cap from his head as he drew up +beside the lady. + +"The landlady down there asked me to give you these here, thank you!" He +handed out two letters, and then clucked to his horse in an embarrassed +fashion as Miss Lyndesay thanked him. + +"They came after you left, and she said you'd be wanting them, thank +you!" And he drove on, leaving the source of his emotion quite +unconscious of him or it, intent upon opening the first of the letters. + +"They are too long to read as I walk," she said, and chose a comfortable +secluded spot to sit. "Let me think. It was a year ago in March that I +saw Hannah first, there at Three Gables, when she had just come back +from Germany, and was homesick and missed her mother so. She did +Catherine as much good as Catherine did her. They are a pair of charming +children, as different as April and October. I think I will save +Hannah's letter for the last. It's sure to be exciting, and Catherine's +should be read in a calm spirit." Accordingly she opened Catherine's and +glancing with a smile over the tabulated statement of the health of the +various members of the family, regularly included since her complaint +that no such information was ever granted her, began to read the letter +proper: + +"_Dearest Aunt Clara:_ + +"Algernon is away at a district meeting. I believe that is what he calls +it. He is quite elated over the opportunity and Polly and I are taking +charge of the library while he is gone. I hardly see Algernon any more. +He is so busy all the time, and he is simply sought after. People seem +to think he is an infallible authority, now that he is librarian, and he +does seem to know everything. He reads everything and has an intelligent +way of telling what you want to know. I'm quite impressed by him, +myself. Of course, he talks technicalities a lot, and he acts grieved +sometimes because the rest of us don't take the library quite so +seriously as he does. The others are rather tired of it by now, except +Polly and Bertha and Agnes. I really enjoy it, and I come in often +nowadays, because I know when Hannah and Frieda get here, I won't have +so much time for it. The children are fond of Algernon and he remembers +the funny things they say and tells them--(it's the first time he ever +had anything amusing to say on any subject!)--Peter Osgood wanted _The +Wail of the Sandal Swag_, and a little girl asked for _Timothy +Squst_. (If that's how you spell it. It rhymed with 'crust.') The +children aren't the only funny ones. A man came in this afternoon and +asked for _Edith Breed_, and it proved he wanted _He That Eateth +Bread With Me_, and one forlorn-looking creature handed me a slip of +paper with _Doan the Dark_ written on it, and she meant _Joan of +Arc!_ + +"_Later._ I had to stop there to wait on a whole group. I don't +understand why they always come in hordes. They don't seem to be +connected at all, but there are always times when there is no one here +and then suddenly an influx. + +"Just now the room is empty again. I wish you could see it. It is a dear +little room and now that it is being really used, doesn't have that bare +look it had at first. We fixed up a darling Children's Corner, with some +child pictures cut from a magazine and framed, and a little round table +Polly used to have, and my own little rocker. The window is a sunny one, +and the little curtains look so fresh and dainty. Almost always there is +some child or other sitting there looking at pictures or reading. + +"_Later again._ Dearest, dearest Aunt Clara! My eyes are all full +of happy tears. I can't write clearly. I came home from the library a +little tired and quite willing to let Polly take it for the evening. And +here on the porch was the box, the blessed box, addressed to me. Of +course, I wasn't too tired to open it! O, you dear darling! We have +needed color in that bare little place so much, and here is this +beautiful glowing picture just full of story suggestions. There never +was a child born who could look at that, and not go dreaming off into +all sorts of fairy tales. It makes me so happy to think you care enough +about our little library to give your own beautiful work. I wanted to go +right down and hang it, but I called Polly up on the 'phone and she came +over, and said I should keep it this evening to look at, and we'd hang +it when Algernon comes back to-morrow. She is delighted, too, and +Algernon will be, and he will send you a formal letter of thanks, but +nobody can be so pleased as I am, because you are my almost-truly aunt, +you know. + +"I do hope you can feel the thanks I'm sending you across all that big +salt water!" + + * * * * * + +Clara Lyndesay's own eyes misted a little. + +"That little study isn't deserving of such glowing words," she said to +herself. "Now I must see what my other childie has to say. Their letters +are growing more similar. Catherine's association with other girls is +giving her a more open manner, and Hannah is growing a bit more mature. +Still,--" her eyes fell upon the wild slant of the writing before her, +"I suspect she never will be quite grown up, and this particular time +she doesn't show the maturity alarmingly! This letter looks as excited +as the one she wrote from Dexter when she was upset about sororities +last year." + +"_Darling Lady Love of Mine:_ + +"Are you in Ventnor still? Shall you be there the 23d? I don't know what +I shall do, if you leave the Isle of Wight before the 27th. I wanted to +cable, but father thought it was unnecessary and of course I couldn't +afford to do it on my own account. They charge terribly for cabling. And +this letter may not reach you till you are gone, or _they_ are. O +_dear!_ It just worries me to death to think about it. And there +you are so near and I have wanted you and Frieda to meet so long. You +may even be passing each other on the street or somewhere and not +recognizing each other. _Have_ you seen her? You'd surely know her, +if you stopped to think, for Mother always said she looks like Mona Lisa +and you'd notice Mona Lisa if you saw her. Even if she did have on a +sailor suit too big for her, and a funny soup-bowl hat. Only perhaps she +doesn't wear such things now. It's two years since I saw her, almost, +that is, and I don't know how she dresses. + +"Aunt Clara! I was just going to sign my name and read this over and I +haven't told you what I was writing for at all. You will think me a +dreadful rattlebrain! It's just that we got a post card to-day from the +Langes saying that they were on the Isle of Wight for several days, and +I thought right away that you simply must meet them. It's such a little +island! They wrote from Ryde. O, I'll enclose the postal. It will tell +you all about where they are to be, and you will try your very hardest +to see them, won't you? You couldn't help loving them, every one, dear +Frau Marie and the funny Herr Professor. And nothing is far in England. + + "Your loving loving Hannah." + +"P. S. I wrote Frieda to look for you." + + * * * * * + +The blue eyes were full of laughter this time. + +"Rattlebrain! I should say so. And of course,--yes, she did forget to +enclose the postal. It's a wonder she didn't cable. Now here am I, +exhorted to meet three German people of whom I know these facts: +Professor Lange of Berlin, the Frau Professor and their daughter Frieda, +who looks like Mona Lisa and--perhaps--wears sailor suits too large for +her and a funny soup-bowl hat. Were in Ryde some time ago, and, I judge, +expected to be on the Isle until the 27th. To-day is the 26th. Well, I'm +afraid, Hannah dear, you'll have to learn to keep your head a little +better, when you wish to carry out your pleasant ideas. I wonder what +she wrote to Frieda." + +She rose from her seat on the ivy-covered grass, and strolled leisurely +back toward her hotel. The afternoon light was low and the little church +she passed on her way seemed more than usually quaint and inviting. +Half-way by, she turned irresolutely, then entered the churchyard. + +A local guide was showing a party of tourists about. + +Miss Lyndesay was turning away to avoid them, when a deep _"Ach, +so!"_ followed by a feminine _"Wunderhübsch! Ganz malerisch!"_ +fell on her ear. She looked more closely at the little group. A +gentleman in a long linen duster, with a loosely rolled umbrella under +his arm, was gazing at the church most earnestly. He stepped back to get +a better view, and colliding with a mossy headstone, turned and bowed to +it politely with an apology. The little woman at his side paid no +attention to him or to the guide, but followed with her eyes a plump +young girl in a sailor-suit, who was stooping to gather flowers. + +"Frieda," she called, "pluck not those blossoms!" + +Miss Lyndesay approached the young girl. Mona Lisa's inscrutable eyes +and elusive smile looked up from below an impossible hat. + +"I was looking for you, Frieda," said Miss Lyndesay. "But Hannah said +you were in Ryde." + +"Yesterday, gracious lady," said Frieda, ducking in a courtesy, "but +to-day, no. We have sought you, too, and vainly. _Vater_, +_Mütterchen_, behold Hannah's beloved lady. We have found ourselves +at last!" + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +LANDING + + +"O Dear! It seems as though I couldn't wait a minute longer. It takes +such an eternity for them to get in. Do you think you can see her, Karl? +Take the glasses and look. See if you don't think that little red speck +in the bow is her?" + +"After the verb 'to be'--" + +"O, bother, Karl! You are fussier about my English than my German." + +The tall fair young man smiled, but answered stubbornly: "It's a fact, +Hannah, you are more careless about English than about German. Not in +grammar only, but in pronunciation. How is a poor foreigner to guess +that 'sumpn' for instance means 'something'?" + +"If it didn't mean anything, I wouldn't say it," retorted Hannah +saucily. "Is there any other criticism you have to make upon my use of +my native tongue, Mr. Germany?" + +"You drop your final 'g' occasionally, and always your final 'r'," went +on the accuser. + +Hannah laughed. "You can't hear an 'r' unless it's rolled over the +tongue like macaroni, Karl Von Arndtheim! Just wait till you hear the +western girls talk, and you'll be satisfied. Look! Look! It's as much as +an inch nearer. Give me the glasses again. I do believe that's Frieda. +No, not the red one, but the blue one with the veil floating. Can you +see?" + +Karl pushed his way through the crowd, drawing Hannah safely along into +a little open space at one side. Stationing himself against a pile of +boxes, he helped her climb to the top and support herself by clinging to +his shoulder. + +"There, child, you can sit and watch, and she'll see you better than if +you were mixed up in the crowd. Put up that sunshade and wave it. She +will think you are a great blue bird ready to fly out and meet her." + +"I wish I were a gull. I'd fly right to her dear shoulder and peck her +cheek. But are you sure I'm not too heavy, Karl? This thing is wobbly +and I lean on you awfully for such a fat lady as I am." + +"I can endure it! I say, Hannah, now she is so nearly here, I'm +beginning to get excited myself. _Die niedliche Kleine!_ It doesn't +seem two years ago that you youngsters used to send cakes and things +down to my window from yours. You were a pair of ministering angels." + +"Wasn't it fun? Poor Karl! I did pity you so, cooped up in the house +that way. And you played the violin like an angel yourself, like a +grieving one." + +"Well, we've all given up the angel hypothesis by this time, though it +was useful in getting us interested in each other. There! This time I +see her, not in red nor in blue, but in brown. See! She is jumping up +and down and waving to us." + +The moments that followed while the great vessel swung heavily into +place alongside the pier, and the ropes were made fast, and the +gangplank was flung across, seemed interminable to impatient Hannah. +Frieda was almost the first to land, and as she stepped on shore, she +found herself lifted in a mighty hug, which she returned with all the +strength of two muscular arms, gasping little cries of "_Ach, meine +Hannah!_" as she did so. + +When the embracing stopped for a moment, Karl stepped forward, hat in +hand, to greet Frieda in his turn. She seized his hand and wrung it, +repeating: "_Ach_, my heart could burst for gladness. My dears! My +dears! But where is Miss Lyndesay?" + +"Miss Lyndesay?" cried Hannah, looking wildly about. "Not my Miss +Lyndesay?" But as she spoke, some one bent down and kissed her mouth, +rounded with amazement. + +"Yes, your Miss Lyndesay, and Frieda's guardian for the present. We must +get out of the crowd a little, Hannah, and then we can tell you all +about it. Is this Mr. Von Arndtheim? I think I shall have to introduce +myself. Will you find the way to our trunks, please? I had the hand +luggage taken off at once. It's fortunate we both belong in L." + +Somehow the little group made its way inside the great roofed-over place +where the customs inspectors were doing their disagreeable duty to +trunks and suitcases. Under a great black "L" Karl soon had Miss +Lyndesay's and Frieda's trunks opened and passed upon, while Hannah +struggled to collect her wits, and control her unspeakable rapture. +Frieda was intent upon seeing that no harm was done her belongings, +which were piled up about her, umbrella, hand-bags, a carryall, a +shawl-strap, a brown linen roll with _Gute Reise_ embroidered on +it, and a long trunk with rounded edges. She resented the inspector's +opening anything, but Miss Lyndesay and Karl ignored her protest and at +last the ordeal was over, and all four were seated in a carriage, +driving to the club where they were to lunch with Miss Lyndesay. + +[Illustration: "'Sure I am not too heavy, Karl?'"--_Page 112._] + +"Frieda! Frieda! Put your head back in here!" said the harassed guardian +of that head, in a tone of mingled amusement and weariness. "If you get +her safely to Mrs. Eldred to-night, Mr. Von Arndtheim, you will do well. +Frieda has escaped various sorts of peril on the voyage, rather by +miraculous intervention than by any skill of mine as chaperon. Tell me, +Hannah dear, how are your family?" + +Hannah had been sitting very quietly beside her beloved lady, too dazed +yet to realize her unexpected good fortune. She squeezed the gloved hand +hard now and answered mechanically, her eyes telling the feelings that +were surging within her. + +"That is good. We left Frieda's parents well, too, and quite content +after some excitement. You see, they had made plans for Frieda to come +with an English friend of theirs, who was obliged only a few days before +sailing-time to change her plans. Then the Professor thought he might +send Frieda in the captain's care, but that distressed Frau Lange, and +they were on the point of giving it up altogether when they happened to +tell me about it. I had been intending to come over soon, anyhow, and +could easily arrange to take their friend's place, and did so gladly. It +was a much more interesting passage than I have usually known!" + +Miss Lyndesay smiled at Frieda and Frieda smiled in return, but had +almost immediately to be drawn forcibly into the carriage by Karl. + +"You can see enough of America without putting your head out," he +suggested. "It is an interesting country, but not worth so much effort, +I assure you." + +They were driving down Commonwealth Avenue by this time, and even +Frieda's Berlin had never shown her a pleasanter and more decorous +street. Karl thought, as she leaned forward, that she was trying to get +a better view of the trumpeting angels on the spire of the church they +were passing, but he was destined to be undeceived. + +"I care nothing for America," said Frieda scornfully. "But I do not +trust that man. I cannot see all my _Handgepäck_, only the ends of +two bags. Let us stop him and count them!" + +"Americans don't steal!" said Hannah hotly. + +"Neither do Germans!" cried Frieda, and Karl looked at the two with +consternation. + +"See here, _Kinder_," he put in. "This is a little too much like +old times. You are two years older now, and shouldn't be so +belligerent." + +"Bell-i-gerent?" Frieda fumbled in her coat pocket and brought out a +little red book. "I do not know that word. I will seek him." + +"O, dear," moaned Hannah. "Are you going around seeking words in a +dictionary all the time, Frieda? I'll put a stop to that, you'd better +believe." + +Miss Lyndesay watched the little scene in silence. On the way across the +ocean she had wondered more than once what effect Frieda's decidedly +young and aggressive nature would have on Hannah, whom she knew to be +easily affected by her companions. + +"Catherine will have her hands full, keeping them soothed," she thought +now, and was glad when the carriage stopped before the familiar house +with the mail-box between the posts, and Karl helped her out. + +"B-e-l-l-i-g-e-r-e-n-t!" spelled Frieda triumphantly, stumbling out of +the carriage, "'Inclined to fight; war-like; pug-na-cious--' Ah!" + +Her eyes fell upon the _Handgepäck_. "_Eins, zwei, drei, vier, +fünf,--wo denn? So! fünf, sechs. Es sind alle hier!_" + +"There!" said Hannah. "I told you the man wouldn't steal!" + +Frieda opened her lips to answer, but Karl caught up all the luggage he +could carry and led the way to the steps where Miss Lyndesay was +waiting, and the two girls followed him, forgetting national disputes in +common interest in their surroundings, as they had done more than once +before. + +At luncheon in the pretty club dining-room, Frieda ate industriously and +silently, as Hannah remembered seeing her do of old. Hannah herself did +justice to the good dishes, though she could hardly take her eyes from +Miss Lyndesay's beautiful face, and could think of nothing whatever to +say on any subject. Karl and his hostess chatted pleasantly and liked +each other warmly. After luncheon, Karl went out to send cablegrams, and +Miss Lyndesay took the girls up to the attractive white and green room +which had been assigned to her. + +"Can't you come out home with us?" asked Hannah wistfully. "I know Mamma +would love to have you. She couldn't come in to meet the boat, because +we've been at the shore until two days ago, and she was getting the +house open; and Dad was too busy, so they sent me down with Karl. But I +know if they were here, they would beg you to come. Can't you, please?" + +Miss Lyndesay took Hannah into her arms and kissed the warm red cheeks. +As she did so, she saw a queer little look of annoyance cross Frieda's +face, and she put out her arm and drew Frieda close, too. + +"I'd like nothing better than to be with both of you for days and days. +Think how I shall miss my little roommate! But I must stay in town a day +or two to do some necessary shopping. You know, I am going to spend the +rest of the summer in Brookmeadow, a beautiful little village, not far +from your home, Hannah. I'm going to fit up a studio there, out of an +old house I own. And listen, both of you! Before Frieda goes out West, +you two are to come over and spend a day and night with me in my home +there. Shall you like that?" + +The sunshine on their faces answered her, but Hannah's grew wistful +again. + +"You are going to be so near my home all summer, and I'm going away, +myself." + +"But you are going to Winsted and Catherine. Don't forget that. And I +shall be at Brookmeadow still when you come home. Hannah, Hannah, +haven't you learned yet that one can't have everything that is +delightful all at once?" + +"I suppose you mean about sorrows making you appreciate blessings and so +on," pouted Hannah. "But I don't believe it. I know I could be happy all +the time, if I could have all the things I want just when I want them!" + +Miss Lyndesay did not smile. "Perhaps you could!" she said slowly. "You +will never have a chance to prove it. It's not within the limits of +possibility. But I had an idea, Hannah, that you were one of the people +who could manage pretty well to be happy with things as they came." + +Hannah flushed and buried her face on Miss Lyndesay's shoulder. Frieda +looked restless. + +"_Bitte, sprechen Sie mal Deutsch_," she said suddenly. "_Es tut +mir furchtbar weh, immer Englisch zu hören!_" + +Quick as a flash Hannah's head came up, and she laughed a delicious +laugh. "Poor Frieda," she said in German, "does it hurt you awfully to +hear English all the time? There! There! I know how you feel. Did you +talk German to her coming over, Miss Lyndesay?" + +Miss Lyndesay looked guilty. "I'm afraid I did. You see, it was such a +fine opportunity for me to practise, and I didn't want her to be +homesick, as well as--" + +"I was not seasick," declared Frieda stoutly, and both the others +laughed. + +"I have crossed the seas full many times," said Clara Lyndesay smiling, +"but never have I known any one who was seasick! But to change the +subject, it's almost time for Karl to be back to take you to the train, +children; and Frieda has a spot on her coat which I can remove if you +will open my suitcase, Hannah, and bring me the little bottle of benzine +in the left-hand corner. Mrs. Eldred must not think I have brought her +an untidy little _Mädchen_!" + +They spent a cozy half hour chatting in German or English, as the spirit +or their respective inabilities moved them, and when Karl arrived to +escort them to the station, they were in a blithe mood, which even the +ordeal of parting from Miss Lyndesay did not shake. + +"You are coming very soon to visit me," she said, as she kissed them +good-by, "and you are both to be good until then, and not belligerent. +Remember you are children no longer." + +"Aren't you a child any longer, Frieda?" asked Hannah with interest, as +they entered the carriage. + +"Indeed, I am not. Did you not see that I make no more _Knixes_?" + +"That's so. Isn't it fun not to? Don't you ever forget?" + +"Only once. When I met Miss Lyndesay in the churchyard," said Frieda, +dwelling on the memory. + +"No wonder!" said Karl. "I would salaam before her, myself." + +"So would I!" agreed Hannah. "But Frieda, then, if you are no longer a +child, at last you have a will?" + +Frieda nodded her head emphatically. + +"Now," she said, "I have a will." + +And Karl, looking into her sturdy face, into the eyes which he had +sometimes seen dancing with mischief, sometimes flashing anger, and +sometimes brimming with sorrow, murmured a prayer under his breath, for +gracious guidance for that new-claimed "will." + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +THE MAKING OF A COMPACT + + +At the end of the short railway journey, Mr. Eldred met the girls and +conducted them to the house where Mrs. Eldred waited with a +heart-warming welcome for her little guest. + +It was a pretty home and Frieda felt the charm of it instantly as she +went up stairs with Hannah to the little square room which she was to +occupy. At the same time, however, she felt strange and out of place. +She was conscious of a contrast between her own hat and Hannah's, +between her heavy wool dress and Hannah's blue linen suit, between her +strong, serviceable--and ugly--shoes, and Hannah's pumps, also strong +and serviceable, but far from ugly. The six pieces of hand luggage and +the queer steamer trunk, when deposited in the center of the little +room, with its crisp ruffled curtains, and its plain mahogany furniture, +disturbed the harmony that had reigned before from the etching over the +bed to the bowl of ferns on the table. Hannah was friendly and beaming, +and not at all belligerent. Mrs. Eldred was all sweet, cheery +thoughtfulness, but Frieda looking at herself in the oval mirror of the +dressing-table, felt a sudden throb of pity for the girl she saw there. + +Hannah helped her remove her thick jacket, tucked it and her hat away in +the closet, piled up the bags and asked for the trunk key. + +"_Mutter hat uns immer gesagt, alles an seinen Ort zu legen_," she +said in a kind of chant. Frieda looked up, her eyes brightening with +fun. + +"Mother always told us to gargle every morning and use plenty of +tooth-powder," she said, and Hannah shrieked with glee. + +"O, have you been learning English out of that ridiculous Edith and Mary +book, too? I hoped you would have it, and we can do beautiful dialogues +in German and English. I've always wanted to, but I never knew any one +who could do the responses. I'll be Edith and you can be Mary." + +Mrs. Eldred came in as Hannah flung the lid of the trunk back. Frieda's +fun died away as she reached into a little pocket and took out a letter. + +"It's for you, Tante Edith," she said, holding it as though she loved +it. "It's from my mother--" and the tears came into her eyes as she said +the word. Mrs. Eldred and Hannah exchanged glances of understanding, and +Hannah caught up the water pitcher. + +"I'll get this full of warm water for you," she said briskly, "and you +must hurry and get ready to come down stairs, for we are going to have +_Kaffee_ just as you do in Berlin. Won't that be fun?" + +"Mamma can comfort her," she thought to herself, as she emptied the +pitcher which Sarah had filled a few minutes before, and refilled it +with water a shade cooler. "I'll leave them alone a few minutes and go +down and see about the coffee. I know she will like those little currant +cakes of Sarah's." + +Frieda, however, seemed little inclined to ask consolation from Mrs. +Eldred. She stood helplessly looking into her trunk, and Mrs. Eldred, +feeling suddenly shy, looked helplessly at her. The clouded, silent face +was so different from Hannah's. + +"Aren't you rather warm, dear, with that heavy gown on? Let's find +something thinner to slip on before we go down stairs." + +Frieda stooped, rummaged a minute, and then produced a dress of pink +cotton, fussily trimmed with lace and ribbons. "This is thinner," she +said, stonily. + +"That will do though it is rather fine for home dinner," said Mrs. +Eldred gently. "But put it on, if you will, dear. I'll tell that +forgetful Hannah to bring your water at once. O, I see, she left it +outside the door. There! If you want any help, just call me. I'll go +into my own room across the hall and read your mother's letter." She +wanted to kiss the child, but Frieda's manner forbade it. + +The pink frock had alarmed Mrs. Eldred. "Clothes make such a difference +to girls," she thought in distress. "How can I help her? She will be +proud and shy, and sure to think I am criticising her mother's taste. +Dear Marie!" Whereupon she wisely suspended her puzzling and read the +letter. + +"I am sending Frieda with as few new clothes as possible, my dear Edith, +relying upon your taste and kindness to fit her out with what she needs. +I remember how differently you dressed when you came to Heidelberg, and +how odd Hannah's clothes looked to Frieda's friends, and I want Frieda +to start without a handicap. American girls are less accustomed to +seeing foreigners than German girls are, and a little difference in the +way of dressing might make a great difference in happiness. I am afraid +my Frieda will be peculiar in many ways that cannot be remedied, so once +more I ask you, will you choose for her a simple outfit such as Hannah +herself would approve, and make me more than ever your grateful debtor?" + +Mrs. Eldred sighed with relief. The solution of one difficulty in sight, +she felt braver about all others. It was a theory of hers that food and +clothes were more important to happiness than most of the subtleties +poets and philosophers write about. "Homesickness is very often hunger, +and _Weltschmerz_ can frequently be cured by a becoming frock, or +brought on by an ill-fitting one," she meditated, as she fastened the +pink and lace for Frieda. + +Downstairs Hannah was busily setting forth upon a round table an +appetizing array of cakes and cookies with a copper pot of coffee. Mr. +Eldred had arranged to be present at this unwonted function, and Hannah +chattered to him as she worked. + +"Be sure you shake hands with her often, Daddy dear," she admonished +him. "She is used to so very many hand-shakings a day, you know, and we +mustn't cut her down to none at all, the very first thing. It's little +matters like that that make you homesick. And homesickness is agony, +Father. I know, for I've been through it." + +Mr. Eldred pinched the plump cheek which showed no trace of past +anguish, and Hannah seated herself upon his knee, being watchful of the +pleats of her skirt as she did so! + +"There's one good thing," she philosophized. "She can't miss her father +as I should miss you, for he is so absent-minded that he really doesn't +know her from the furniture. For all she is such a mischief inside, she +acts so quiet-like and well-behaved around the house that she might +almost as well be a sofa and done with it. And they have plenty of +sofas, so he won't miss her and she won't miss him so very much, +either." + +"You imply that if you were better behaved, you would not miss me so +much when we are separated! It's sufficiently complicated. I suppose you +pine for my fearful reprimands?" + +That was such a delightful joke that they both laughed aloud and Mrs. +Eldred and Frieda were quite in the room before they realized it, and +sprang up to greet them with cordiality, if not with the ceremony Hannah +had planned for. + +Those first days Frieda lived in a busy whirl. Hannah, once at home, and +recovered from the excitement of the day in Boston, was ashamed of her +conduct on that occasion, and tried to make up for it by all sorts of +thoughtful attentions to Frieda, which, with the shade of formality they +involved, added a little to the loneliness they were meant to combat. +Mrs. Eldred, giving up, or suspending for a time, the apparently +hopeless task of winning Frieda's confidence, attended to her wardrobe +with a rapidity and fervor which astonished Frieda, accustomed to long +deliberations on such matters, and no reckless buying. Even the pretty +frocks and hats and shoes did not please her. She felt loyalty demanded +that she should wear the things she had brought from home, and it was +not till Mrs. Eldred had given her her mother's letter to read that she +consented to lay aside the German garments. Mr. Eldred took her about +the city, and thoroughly enjoyed her comments on things American, a +scorn thinly veiled by polite phrases, or by an expressive silence. + +She was silent most of the time, for the language was her greatest +obstacle. She remembered vividly the superior feeling she had had in +Berlin, when she had watched Mr. Eldred wrestle with a conditional or +had heard Mrs. Eldred struggle to pronounce "ch." It was not nearly so +pleasant to be struggling one's self, with a quite senseless "th," for +instance. Her heart filled with rage when she caught Hannah listening +intently to her carefully enunciated words, and then saying suddenly +with relief, "O!" as their meaning dawned upon her. Frieda had been at +the head of her class in English. + +"It's really because you pronounce so very well," Hannah explained +apologetically, on one of these occasions. "You are so much more exact +than we ever think of being, that it gives an unfamiliar sound to words. +And besides, yours is English English and ours is United States." + +"But English English must be best," protested Frieda, and Hannah forgot +Miss Lyndesay's warning and "flared up" for a minute, but immediately +recollected herself, and ordered an ice-cream soda as a peace-offering, +notwithstanding the fact that Frieda found the taste disagreeable. + +"You'll like it, when you are used to it," she said comfortingly. "You +don't have them at home, you know." + +"No," growled Frieda, choking on a spoonful. "And I'm glad we don't. +Sundaes aren't so bad, but the name is foolish! I do not wonder Miss +Lyndesay lives most of the time in Europe!" + +The fifth day matters came to a climax. Karl had come over from +Cambridge to spend Sunday. Hannah and he seemed to be on the best of +terms. They talked English faster than Frieda could understand, and they +seemed to have an endless stock of jokes that had no meaning for her. +Suddenly, after sitting with a brow like a thunder-cloud for a while, +listening to them and declining to join in the fun, she started up and +ran up stairs with a swift pounding gait that recalled to Hannah the way +she used to tear madly off to school in the morning, fearful of being +late. + +Karl and Hannah, left behind, looked solemnly at each other. Karl +whistled. + +"_Die Kleine_ is irritated about something," he remarked. + +"I don't wonder," said Hannah sympathizingly. "I always remember when +it's too late to do any differently. She felt left out, I suppose, and +you know you do use a terrible amount of slang, nowadays. I'm awfully +ashamed of us, Karl!" + +Karl pondered a moment. Then he said: "I'll fix it up all right. Here, +you take this note up to Frieda. Just shove it under the door, if she +won't let you in." + +He wrote a few lines on a card and gave it to Hannah, who promptly ran +away up stairs with it. Then Karl went into the study and telephoned a +garage. + +In a few minutes, Frieda, shy and somewhat red-eyed, came down stairs. +Hannah was nowhere to be seen, and Mrs. Eldred was out for the +afternoon. At the door was a snorting automobile, with seats for just +two. + +"I knew Hannah would forgive us if we ran away by our two selves," said +Karl in German, meeting Frieda in the hall, and conducting her out to +the machine. "She knows enough about being in a foreign country to +understand that sometimes you want to be with your very own people. +There! I'll have this thing running like a charm in about a minute. Sure +you're not afraid to go out alone with me? I've learned a good deal +about this kind of thing lately. It's one of the courses I'm taking at +Harvard. Here we go!" And there they went, speeding down the street at a +rate that made a policeman, half asleep on the corner, look about him +with a start. Frieda's eyes shone, and she began to feel better. + +Karl had evidently acquitted himself well in his course in motoring. He +drove skilfully and easily, and they were soon outside the city in a +pleasant country road. Almost any place would have seemed pleasant to +Frieda just then, though, for Karl was talking cheerily, merrily, +talking in German, talking of topics she knew about, and talking +exclusively to her. She discovered that the day was much more of a day +than she had thought. There was a quality in the air she had not noticed +earlier in the afternoon. Presently she even became confidential. Karl, +with eyes and hands busy, guiding the machine, bent an attentive ear as +Frieda poured out her suppressed irritation of days. + +"They think it is such a fine country, Karl. I cannot understand them. +If they had never travelled--but they have been over Europe! They have +been in Berlin! And still they find matter for admiration in this dirty +little city with its buildings all heights, and its no trees anywhere +except in the parks. Where are their beautiful statues? Where is their +Victory Avenue? Where are their bridges? _Ach!_ It is a poor cheap +country. Tante Edith and Mr. Eldred are heavenly kind, and Hannah I have +loved with a great love, but they have very little taste, and no sense +at all." + +Karl puckered up his lips in a low whistle, and Frieda blushed. + +"I did not mean to say that, Karl," she said penitently. "I am their +guest. They are heavenly kind, yes. _But_ I do not like the +country." + +It was a beautiful shady road they had come into then, and the hills at +the end of it showed gracious curves. + +"This reminds me," said Karl meditatively, "of a place I went through +near the Rhine one summer vacation. It's really quite as charming, I +believe. Look here, Frieda. I'm interested in the impression you make in +this country. You're going to spend this year with a lot of girls who +don't know much about Germany or Germans, and I don't mind telling you +that I'm rather anxious to have you do us credit." + +"I shall do Germany credit, everywhere," answered Frieda stoutly, but +somewhat perturbed. + +"I'd like to think that," answered Karl, "and on the whole I guess it's +true, but if you keep on this way, I'm not so sure of it. You are +sitting here this afternoon making general statements about America when +you have seen only one of the less important cities. That doesn't strike +me as the way one should judge. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing +Professor Lange would do. He is very accurate and careful in his +judgments. And next, you haven't shown much enthusiasm over the things +the Eldreds have done for you the last day or two. Now, I never knew any +one who was so unfailingly appreciative as Frau Professor Lange." + +Frieda pouted. "But Hannah shows off." + +"Shows off? Frieda, I'm afraid your sense of humor is rather one-sided. +Hannah may take advantage of your not understanding perfectly, but who +taught her that that sort of thing was funny? Who told her the brass +plate over the barber's door meant that cakes were for sale there, so +that she almost went in to buy one?" + +Frieda chuckled. "It was not long I could fool her. She soon learned too +much. Besides, my mother would not let me." + +"You still think it was justifiable and humorous, I notice. But what +would you have said if Hannah had told you to say: 'So am I' when +strangers said: 'I am glad to meet you'? That was what some one told me, +when I first began talking English." + +"If Hannah should tell me wrong, I would tell her what I think of her!" +blazed Frieda. "But you need not lecture any more, Karl. I understand, +and I will be good. I will be better than Hannah. I will be better than +yourself, than the saints, even. I will admire all things. Behold the +ravishing country! The wonder of that sky! Not Italy, not Spain has such +a dull gray color! The beauty of the dirty streets! The charm of the +crowded street-cars! Only five cents a ride, sitting upon the laps of +others! I will no longer sew on Sunday. I will never ask for beer. I +will eat every morning little dry cushions of curled grain. I will rock +madly. I will--" + +"Hold on, Frieda!" shouted Karl. "Don't reform so fast. I can't keep +within speaking distance of you. You know, the reason I scolded you so +hard was because I sometimes feel just as you do about the whole +country!" + +Frieda put out her hand. "Let us make a compact. For the honor of +Germany, we will be scrupulously careful of what we say about America, +but sometimes, all by ourselves, we can say just what we feel like +saying." Karl took her hand solemnly. "It's a bargain, and you are a +Cor-r-rker-r-r!" + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +BROOKMEADOW + + +Clara Lyndesay stood in the doorway of her Brookmeadow house, listening +for the coming trolley. As she waited, she looked about her with +satisfaction. + +The big square house, freshly painted white, with green blinds at the +windows, stood just at the edge of the broad elm-shaded road, known as +the Albany Road because it had been, in stage-coach days, the main line +between Albany and Boston. Just opposite the house was a broad meadow +with a single elm in the center, and a clear line of hills for +background. Boulder walls enclosed the meadow, and vines ran riot over +them. The artist, looking, drew a deep breath. + +"'The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground. Yea, I have a goodly +heritage,'" she thought to herself. "I think I shall call my +wander-years over, and settle down here as Aunt Abigail hoped I would, +and care for her old mahogany as she did, painting a picture now and +then from my own doorway. The doorway itself is the most beautiful thing +about the house," she added, stepping down the flagged path, to view it +for the hundredth time that week. Brookmeadow houses were famous for +their wonderful old doorways, with carved lintels, and this was not +surpassed by any of them. + +Its owner's contemplation was cut short by the far-off whir of the +trolley, sounding clearly through the still morning. Miss Lyndesay +walked quickly along the curving road to the Common where she was to +receive her guests. Reaching the long narrow green, where a few cows +nibbled placidly as in the days when a green in the center of the +village was a necessary defensive measure, she walked idly up and down. +The straggling road under the great elms passed the plain white +meeting-house, dating from 1813, the Academy with its belfry, the little +general store and post-office combined, and wound out of sight between +dignified old houses, "like Aunt Abigail's--mine now," she corrected her +thought happily. No one was in sight. Up the road came the trolley, +jogging comfortably along. It stopped at the Common and its two +passengers almost fell into the arms that waited to receive them. + +"O-eeeeee!" sighed Hannah, getting as close to Miss Lyndesay as she +could on one side, while Frieda did the same on the other with a similar +ejaculation. + +"Two blue girls this time!" exclaimed Miss Lyndesay. "That is a very +becoming suit, Frieda," and then forestalling any answer, for she had +known of Frau Lange's letter to Mrs. Eldred and had guessed that Frieda +would not take altogether kindly to the new clothes, she inquired of +Hannah as to the health of her father and mother. + +"They're all right," answered Hannah briefly. "And I am so glad to be +here! Isn't it just the dearest, sleepiest place you ever saw in all +your life?" + +"Is it your first visit here?" asked Miss Lyndesay. "I supposed you knew +these villages by heart." + +"I don't," confessed Hannah. "I go to school all winter, and in the +summer we go to the shore, and we haven't any aunts or grandmothers or +things like that living around here, so I don't see places like this +except in passing through them." + +"Well, you have a sort of aunt and grandmother combined living in +Brookmeadow now, and I shall expect you to visit her often. How does it +seem to you, Frieda?" + +"It's bigger than I thought it would be," answered Frieda. "Hannah said +it was a _Dorf_. I thought there would be only two or three houses, +and many little huts all close together, but we passed many houses." + +"It is a good thing for you to see a New England village," said Miss +Lyndesay, "as part of the education you came for. And when you get out +to Wisconsin, you will think you are in a different country altogether." + +"I did," laughed Hannah. "Why, it looked as though it had been laid out +with a ruler, and the trees were so little I felt as though they ought +to be in flower-pots." + +"Not the beech woods, surely?" + +"Dear me, no. But in the town itself. The beech woods are real forest. +Is this the house? O, Aunt Clara, wouldn't Catherine _love_ it?" + +Miss Lyndesay was so unused to the house, herself, that she took a keen +delight in showing the girls all over it, taking them from one big room +into another, and telling them how to appreciate the fine old furniture. + +"The hangings are all new," she explained. "Aunt Abigail's taste was not +like her heart! She kept the old furniture, but she had gaudy +wall-papers and thick lace curtains, and I have had them all replaced. +They aren't done yet, everywhere, but these main rooms are. And she had +the fireplace bricked up and a stove in the living-room. I found these +andirons in the garret." + +"O, let's see the garret," begged Hannah. "We haven't any, with old +things in it, I mean. You know our house is only a little older than I +am, and mother came from the West and she didn't have heirlooms, and +father had nothing whatever when they started. I should think this house +would have been full of treasures." + +"It was. I found several good chairs and a desk in the garret. I shall +have them refinished as soon as I can get around to it. There is a trunk +that I have only peeped into. I saved it for you girls to open. But you +must come out into the garden now, while the sun is there." + +Frieda had taken only a moderate interest in the house, but when they +entered the tangled garden, German exclamations poured from her lips in +a rapturous stream. + +"_Himmlisch! Reizend! Famos! Ach, wie wunderhübsch! Was nennt man +dies? Und dies?_" She flew from one blossom to another, sniffing, +admiring, and asking questions about those that were unknown to her, +naming the others in German, and altogether showing a degree of +enthusiasm which nothing American had hitherto been able to arouse in +her. It was not because of Karl's compact, but because of her mighty +love of flowers. She seemed to forget the others as she knelt before a +little white tea-rose, kissing it and calling it pretty names. + +Miss Lyndesay and Hannah watched her. + +"Now she seems more like herself," said Hannah frowning, "the way she +was in Berlin. I wish she would stay that way!" + +Miss Lyndesay looked at Hannah searchingly. + +"Frieda," she called, "will you gather flowers for the luncheon table, +please? Hannah is going to pick raspberries with me. I have a most +beautiful old glass bowl to put them in." + +Frieda undertook the task assigned her joyfully, and Hannah followed +Miss Lyndesay to the kitchen, where Aunt Abigail's old servant, +inherited with the house, supplied them with pails for the +berry-picking. The bushes were at the other end of the garden, where +they could speak without being overheard. + +Miss Lyndesay said nothing at first, but she had not long to wait. +Hannah had poured out her puzzles and worries in letters to this friend +often, since the evening at Three Gables, long ago, when she had poured +them out in words and tears, and found comfort. + +It was a torrent of words this time, but Miss Lyndesay, listening, +distinguished between essentials and non-essentials by a divine gift +which had always been hers. + +"She doesn't seem the same Frieda," declared Hannah, at last. "I don't +feel acquainted with her. Mamma says it is just because everything is +new and strange to her. She hasn't criticised things since she and Karl +went off together for a little trip the other day, but she looks bored +or unhappy and I don't know what to do. I was a stranger when we were +together before, but I'm sure I didn't act so, and I don't see why she +should now. So there!" + +"Did you go to Germany alone?" Miss Lyndesay put the question casually, +and Hannah looked up, surprised. + +"Why, no. Dad and Mamma were there all the time, of course. I couldn't +have lived without them--O! I see what you mean," and the berries +dropped slowly into the half-full pail while Hannah meditated. + +Clara Lyndesay, observing her bent face, felt satisfied. It was not the +first time she had seen Hannah Eldred come out of a quandary with very +little help. + +"She doesn't do things by halves, either," she thought. "Frieda won't +have such a lonely time from now on." Aloud she said: + +"I wondered, when I heard you speak to Frieda in that careful +explanatory way, as you might to a child who had been left in your care +rather against your will, if you seemed just natural to Frieda! Frau +Lange realized that there was some risk in sending Frieda over here. She +told me that she knew young girls changed rapidly in tastes and ideals, +and it might be that you two would not care so much for each other now. +But she hoped, for the sake of the friendship between your mother and +herself, that the two years would prove not to have separated you +greatly. I assured her that, while there might be some little difficulty +at first, you would probably come out better friends than ever. There! I +think we have quite enough berries. If you will just take them in to +Evangeline, I'll see about Frieda's flowers. You'll find a pitcher of +shrub on the ice, and goblets on the tray all ready to bring out. We'll +arrange the flowers on the back stoop, I think, and you might bring us +some refreshment there." + +Frieda had gathered flowers eagerly, but without much discrimination. +Miss Lyndesay helped her sort them and make several bouquets instead of +one variegated one, talking with her the while of incidents of their +journey, till Frieda was entirely at her ease. By the time Hannah came +out with the cool drink, the slight constraint that had existed for days +between Frieda and herself seemed to have vanished. Joyfully, Hannah +entered into the new spirit, and when Miss Lyndesay went in to answer +Evangeline's questions about luncheon, her guests were bubbling with +mirth over some reminiscence of their Berlin days. + +Immediately after luncheon, a caller arrived, with the obvious intention +of spending some time. Miss Lyndesay gave the girls a trunk key and sent +them off to do their garret exploring by themselves, giving them +permission to do whatever they liked with anything they might find. They +climbed the polished stairs, with arms interlaced, chattering in German +and English mixed, and reached the big shadowy garret out of breath. The +trunks were piled in a cobwebby corner, and their key proved to belong +to the lowest one in the pile. That meant much mighty tugging, but at +last the encumbering ones were removed and they turned the key in the +lock and lifted the heavy lid. + +"O!" They spoke softly and leaned over, clinging to each other with +excitement. In the top tray lay a doll dressed as if for a wedding. She +wore a white satin gown, short-waisted, with a long panel down the +front, embroidered with tiny pearls and gold thread. Her little feet +were adorned with high-heeled slippers of white silk, also embroidered +in the tiny pearls. A necklace of shining stones, and two little +earrings made them gasp with delight. In the soft wavy hair was a high +shell comb. The little lady held a book in her clasped hands, and her +eyes, half closed, looked sleepily out from under long eyelashes. + +"See! Here is a card," said Frieda, touching the soft folds of yellowed +tissue paper that lay around the little figure in the tray. + +Hannah lifted the card with awe, and read: "The doll of Millicent +Wadsworth, as she dressed it on her own Wedding Day, to be put aside and +never played with more. The Bishop said it was a sinful Waste to dress +her so, but my Husband said he did not care!" + +"What a reckless man My Husband was!" said Hannah, looking back at the +doll once more. "Think of playing with dolls up to your wedding day! I +wonder how old she was." + +"Let's look in the other trays," suggested Frieda. They removed the top +one carefully, to find almost as delightful treasures in the next. Quite +as delightful, perhaps, for here was the little Millicent's +wedding-gown, with her slippers and necklace and high shell comb, all +like those the doll wore. Here, too, was a card, but written in an older +hand: + +"The Wedding Clothes of Millicent Wadsworth Berryfield, married on the +16th anniversary of her birth to John Berryfield, Esq., a Devoted Lover +and Husband. She died three months and two days after of an Unknown +Malady. John Berryfield returned to England, leaving these, Her +Possessions, to be kept sacredly till he should come after them." + +"It's dated almost a hundred years ago. Of course, he is dead too, now. +I wonder if she pined for her doll to play with." + +Frieda, leaving speculation to Hannah, was taking the pretty garments +out, one by one. + +"Here is another dress!" she exclaimed. "A pink one. O, Hannah, you +would look so pretty in this!" She held it up, quaint in style as the +other, with a little train, flowered silk over a straight front panel of +plain pink, tight sleeves with a little puff at the shoulder. + +"I wonder--Do you suppose we dare try them on? They look almost big +enough." + +"Of course, we dare. Miss Lyndesay told us to do what we liked and she +had peeped into this trunk, so she knew what was in it. We will be as +careful as careful can be." + +They piled their arms with the delicate old fabrics and carried them +down to their own room where they proceeded to dress up. It was not an +easy process, for they dared not tug too hard, and Millicent had been +slenderer than they, though quite as tall. The little slippers defied +them, and the necklace of pearls they did not touch. "I think her +husband gave her that, and no one else should ever wear it," said +Hannah, and Frieda agreed. + +By the time they had finished dressing, they were flushed and rosy. They +stole out into the hall and peered over the banisters to see if the +caller showed signs of departure. Miss Lyndesay was just closing the +door upon her. As she turned back, she heard steps on the stairs and, +looking up, saw a sight she loved always afterward to remember. Two +little Old World ladies, one in white and brocade, the other in flowered +pink satin, came down the winding stairs, their eyes bright with +excitement, their hair rough, and the big blue hair-ribbons, which they +had quite forgotten to remove, showing incongruously above their minuet +gowns. + +"O you pretty children!" cried Miss Lyndesay. "Millicent herself wasn't +sweeter, I'm sure, when the Bishop married her off to John. Why didn't +you bring the doll?" + +"We were afraid we'd drop her," said Hannah, stepping to the floor. +"There! I'm glad I'm safely down. You can't think what awkward skirts +these are to walk in. O!" + +For as she turned, Frieda stepped on her train, and with shrieks both +fell to the floor, splitting their hundred-year-old seams. + +Miss Lyndesay helped them up, laughing at their rueful faces, and +kissing away the tears that would come at the sight of the havoc they +had wrought. + +"Cheer up, dear hearts! It was purest accident. And Millicent's pretty +gowns have served their purposes long ago. I've no doubt they can be put +together again well enough, and in any case you must not care! I forbid +it. Come, let's get back into our own century, and take a walk before +the sun goes down. I have no end of pretty by-paths to show you." + +That evening, there was enough chill in the air for a small fire in the +living-room fireplace, and Miss Lyndesay seated herself before it on a +high-backed settle, with a girl on either side of her. + +"If I didn't remember that one of the things Hannah liked me for first +was my habit of sitting quietly without work," she said, "I should be +tempted to improve these minutes by finishing the carving design I am +making to go over the fireplace." + +"What is it? Let us see it, and maybe we'll let you. You have such a +peaceful way of working you don't make me nervous as some people do." + +"It is there on the desk." + +Hannah brought the brown paper, and she and Frieda bent over it +together. + +"L-a-e," spelled Hannah, but Frieda looked up, delighted. + +"I know. _Laetus sorte mea!_ It means 'Happy in my lot!' It is in +the book Tante Edith sent me for my birthday, about the little cripple." + +"O, yes, _The Story of a Short Life_. I've read that, too," said +Hannah, "but I didn't recognize it just at first. I should think, if it +is to be your motto, you'd have to change the gender and make it +'_laeta_,' Aunt Clara." + +Miss Lyndesay laughed. "I'm glad you both know the story. I expected +Hannah to, but hardly Frieda. Did you read it all by yourself, dear?" + +"Yes," answered Frieda proudly. "I have read seven English books, and I +like that best. Mother and I made a list of Poor Things the way Leonard +did." + +"O, how nice!" cried Hannah. "Did you put Bertha's lame sister on it?" + +"Yes, and Onkel Heinrich's brother who can not see and is always +cheerful, and the little woman who sells string and roses in the shop +under us, and Edna Helm who had to stop school and go to work because +her father couldn't afford to take care of her." + +"Poor Edna!" said Hannah. "I liked her best of all your friends. I'm +going to start a Poor Things book myself, when I get home." + +"Have you ever heard of the Guild of Brave Poor Things in England?" +asked Miss Lyndesay, and as the girls showed their interest she went on +to tell them of the organization which took its name and its motive from +Mrs. Ewing's little story, and has grown into a large organization with +industrial schools and shops. + +"So all these people, boys and men and women and girls who cannot work +in factories, because of some infirmity, are enabled to make beautiful +things and to sell them. I bought some of their doll furniture when I +was last in London. Let me see. Yes, it was in the box I unpacked +yesterday." + +"Let me get it," begged Frieda, and as soon as she had been told where +to look she was off. She came quickly back again bringing a doll's +white-wood bed, strong and well-made as the fine old furniture which had +outlived Aunt Abigail and her parents. + +"It is just right for Millicent's doll," cried Frieda, as she brought it +in. "Couldn't we put her in it, Tante Clara, to make up for having torn +the pretty dresses?" + +"Indeed you may. I had no one in mind to give it to, but bought it +because I had enjoyed visiting the school at Chailey." + +"Can all the cripples make pretty things like this?" asked Hannah, +wondering, as Frieda placed the bed in her hands. + +"O, no, only a very few. But the Guild of Brave Poor Things does many +other things, besides establishing the schools. All maimed persons may +belong, and the guild makes investigations, finds out if they can be +helped by surgery, and, if not, tries to make their lives happier in +every possible way. Of course, those of them who can use their hands are +happier doing so than they could be in any other way. Every Friday +afternoon, from three to six, they meet in the settlement rooms and have +music and games and reading, and hear talks on interesting subjects by +ladies and gentlemen who are glad to tell them of their particular lines +of work. Then they have a short service of prayer--" + +"Do they sing the tug-of-war hymn?" asked Hannah eagerly. "I remember +about that better than anything else in the book." + +"Yes, they almost always sing that. I heard them, myself," and Miss +Lyndesay's eyes grew sweeter at the thought. "I have never heard +anything more affecting than that singing: + + "'Who best can drink His cup of woe, + Triumphant over pain, + Who patient bears His cross below, + He follows in His train.'" + +Frieda and Hannah were still as she finished speaking, and all three sat +looking at the fire for a few moments in silence. Presently Hannah said +softly: + +"And _they_ have _'Laetus sorte mea'_ for a motto? I can see +how you could take it, Aunt Clara, for of course you have everything +anybody could want. You are well and beautiful and good, and have money +and talent and friends." + +Miss Lyndesay was silent and Hannah, who had been studying the flames +reflectively, looked up presently to see why she made no reply. There +was a grave expression on her face, and Hannah's grew startled. + +Miss Lyndesay, seeing the look of alarm in the child's eyes, smiled and +took her hand. + +"Would you give up your father and mother for any or all of those +things, Hannah dear?" she said. + +_"O!"_ cried Hannah in a hurt frightened tone, and Frieda suddenly +choked back a sob. + +Miss Lyndesay lifted her head quickly. + +"Girls, do you realize the absurdity of us? Here we started out +discussing: 'Happy in my lot' and in a few minutes we have grown sad +with the burden of sorrow of half the world and our own individual +troubles besides! That is anything but wise, isn't it? I didn't intend +to preach to you when I invited you to Brookmeadow. But since we are on +the subject, let's say a little more and then drop it. I do want you to +remember that while the people who seem fortunate often have something +to bear that offsets most of the pleasant circumstances of their lives, +at the same time, many people who seem to have nothing to be glad about +are persistently and genuinely joyful. The sad folk meet sadness +everywhere, and the glad folk find gladness. Let me read you something, +written by Sister Grace, who founded the order of Brave Poor Things +about the time you girls were born, and then I refuse to say or hear +another solemn word this evening!" + +She took up a little pamphlet and read aloud: + +"To bear pain cheerfully, to take defeat nobly, to be constant and +loyal, to be brave and happy with the odds dead against us, to be full +of sympathy and tenderness--these are gifts which mark out the truly +great." + +"Now let's put Millicent's doll to bed," suggested Frieda, who disliked +solemnity and saw that Hannah was still staring into the fire. Miss +Lyndesay seconded the motion, and, taking candles, the three mounted +into the garret, sought out the old trunk and brought the beautiful doll +down stairs. There, by the fire, they laid her gently down on a soft +blanket in the pretty bed which was exactly the right size. + +Then Evangeline appeared with a corn-popper and a sack of corn, and the +half-hour before bedtime passed quickly and merrily away. + +When Aunt Clara had tucked her guests into the big four-poster, they +cuddled close to each other, forgetting the friction of the last few +days in present comfort, sleepily grateful for the glimpse they had had +that day of difficulties and griefs much greater than any of their own, +and each resolving to be happy in her lot. + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +ARRIVAL AT WINSTED + + +Mr. and Mrs. Eldred turned away from the station, from which the through +Chicago train had just pulled out, carrying with it two passengers for +Winsted, Wisconsin. + +"Well, I'm glad that's over," said Mrs. Eldred aloud. "I always feel +sorry for Hannah when she has to say good-by. She does suffer so over +it, but she recovers quickly." + +"She seems to be acquiring a comfortable philosophy," remarked Mr. +Eldred, as he looked at his watch and then up the street where his car +was not in sight. "She told me that the world was fixed wrong, because +it ought to be possible to be with all of one's beloveds at the same +time. 'But,' she added sagely, 'that's probably Heaven.'" + +"'Earth being so good, would Heaven seem best?'" quoted Hannah's mother, +smiling. "We have all had to stay our hearts with that thought, I +suppose. I am much more content about both girls, since Karl and Miss +Lyndesay took them in hand. For a few days I really feared that the +adjustment might be too much for them. But Karl worked some magic spell +over Frieda, and Miss Lyndesay charmed Hannah. I must go over to +Brookmeadow this very week, and pay my respects to that remarkable +woman." + +"Some mothers would be jealous of such an outside influence," suggested +Mr. Eldred, glancing fondly at his pretty little wife. + +"Then they are very unwise," declared that lady decisively. "I remember +my own girlhood well enough to know that there were certain crises +through which my mother could not help me as well as an outsider, simply +because she was my mother. I'm not in the least afraid that any one +could be dearer to Hannah than I am, and she is such a bundle of +contradictions, of sweet impulses and rebelliousness, that I'm heartily +glad of all the help I can get in bringing her up. There's my car. Do +try to come home to luncheon. I'll be missing my lively children and +their German-English patois!" + +The two girls on the train had settled themselves cosily with the aid of +a porter rendered over-zealous by Mr. Eldred's generosity, and were +watching the flying scenery and the other passengers with interest. +Frieda was not eager to arrive at her journey's end. She already missed +Karl and the friendly Eldreds, who had seemed nearer her own parents +than any one else in this strange country could. The prospect before her +was not wholly pleasant. Hannah had spent so much energy in singing the +praises of Dexter College, Alice Prescott and Catherine Smith, that +Frieda's desire to see them was distinctly modified by a jealous feeling +that such perfections must be somewhat tiresome. She was much more +interested in watching a bride and groom across the aisle, and in making +comments on American trains, some of which, according to her compact +with Karl, she kept to herself, meaning to unburden her mind in the +first letter she should write him. Others of a favorable sort she made +aloud to Hannah, who received them graciously, on behalf of the nation. +The day wore away not unpleasantly, but when the gas was lighted and the +bride frankly rested her head upon the bridegroom's shoulder, a mighty +homesickness swept over Frieda. She could barely choke down her food in +the dining-car, and hated a waiter for watching her with a white-toothed +smile. The porter was making up berths when they returned and the +proceeding scandalized her, accustomed as she was to the decency of +compartment trains. + +Forgetting her promise, she spoke her disgust: + +"Ladies and gentlemen like pots of marmalade on shelves in a cupboard!" + +Hannah only laughed and scrambled up to the top shelf with the agility +of a squirrel, leaving Frieda to solitude and unsuspected misery. + +The porter and the grinning waiter would not be forgotten. Their +blackness combined with the close warm atmosphere to alarm her. She +dared not undress, and when she tried to lie down, she felt as though +she should choke. The darkness seemed to her sleepy but resisting mind +to be taking on human shape. With her eyes closed she saw it develop +pink fingernails and gleaming teeth and eyeballs. Her real distrust of +anything foreign was made keener by her homesickness. At last she fell +into an uneasy sleep, clutching her purse and her gold beads tightly. At +each station she woke with a jerk and a horrible conviction that the +train had been wrecked and she was the sole survivor. Sometimes she put +her hand up and felt of the wooden wall over her head for assurance that +the upper berth to which Hannah had blithely committed herself had not +treacherously closed. There were subdued rustlings in the aisle now and +then, and quick brushings past her curtains which made her sit up, +gasping, her eyes staring into the dark and her heart thumping. Frieda +Lange crawled out of her tumbled berth next morning, certain that life +could have in store for her nothing more hideous than her first night in +an American sleeping-car. + +Hannah, on the other hand, having "slept like a top, the way you ought +to in an upper berth," as she said with a gleeful laugh, and having made +her toilet with the lucky ease which seemed one of her characteristics, +was full of good spirits, and joyous anticipations. Winsted seemed very +near, and her bubbling joy over the prospect of seeing Catherine added +to Frieda's gloom. They went into the dining-car to breakfast, where +Frieda was so unfortunate as to be shot from her seat as the train +dashed around a curve, a glass of milk following her, anointing her hair +and face in a manner calculated to ruffle the serenest temper. Hannah +and the too friendly waiter helped her up with an effort at +self-control, but Frieda had mislaid her sense of humor. + +The change of cars in Chicago was accomplished simply, Hannah thoroughly +enjoying leading the way and Frieda sulkily following. It would have +taken more than a fit of sulks on Frieda's part to have quenched +Hannah's joy in life that day, however, and she rattled on of the +pleasures coming, scarcely noticing Frieda's failure to respond. + +"Winsted!" + +Hannah was out of the car almost before it stopped. Frieda, delayed by +other passengers who pushed in ahead of her, saw the rapturous meeting +between her own Hannah and a tall sweet-faced girl with red-gold hair, +whose beauty she was obliged to admit, though she did so gloomily. "I +hoped she would be homely," she growled to herself as she stepped down +to the platform, and suffered Catherine to kiss her cheek. + +"Let's walk," suggested Catherine. "It's much too beautiful a day to be +cooped in a bus. I'll have your bags sent up. O, Hannah, my darling, +I've been waiting ages for you! And for you, too, Frieda," she added +shyly. + +But Frieda was regarding the wrinkled pleats in her dress, and was +conscious that her hair was still wet with milk; therefore she only +mumbled something and stalked along beside the others who, in their +delight at seeing each other, quickly forgot her, and chattered away in +English, with many little bursts of laughter. + +Dr. Helen was out when they reached the pretty house on the hillside. +Catherine led Frieda to the big rose guest-chamber, and then carried +Hannah off across the wide hall to her own room and the little +dressing-room opening from it, which Hannah had occupied on her first +visit a year and a half before. The trunks arrived at once, and Hannah +immediately began to unpack, Catherine sitting on the edge of the bed +and exclaiming over every new frock as it came out. Frieda, left alone, +because she had only partly understood the invitation the others gave +her to join them, and had wilfully refused the part she had understood, +was wretched indeed. She sat stiffly on a straight mahogany chair, and +wished with all her might that she had never been born, or at least, if +that mistake had been inevitable, that she had never left her native +land. + +Suddenly there came a quick tap at the door and Hannah, not waiting for +a "Come," ran in and tossed a parcel into her lap. + +"What? Aren't you dressed yet? Do hurry. Karl asked me to give you this +as soon as we got here. Did Catherine show you your bath-room? You have +one all to yourself; isn't that lovely? It's the most beautiful house, +anyway. O, what dear roses on the dressing-table! Wasn't it just like +Catherine to put them there? Hurry up. Dr. Helen will be here pretty +soon, and Polly Osgood and Dot Winthrop are coming over to see us. I'd +put on that white poplin skirt and the waist with the blue butterfly bow +at your throat. You look awfully fetching in that. Yes, Catherine, I'm +coming," and she flew out, tossing a kiss to Frieda. + +In her excitement she had spoken in English, and the compliment was +quite lost on Frieda who had not yet learned the meaning of "fetching." +That young person's sulks were not dissipated by the call, accordingly, +and there is no telling what depths of obstinate misery she might have +reached, had not Karl's parcel fallen to the floor and called attention +to itself. With a manner which suggested to her mirror that life was +distinctly not worth while, Frieda lifted the object and drearily +removed the wrappings. + +From a small carved frame Karl's clear honest face looked out at her, +and a card in the corner read--in German--"Remember the compact, +Comrade!" + +Like a flash brightness came back to Frieda's face. Good cheer was much +more natural to her than moroseness. From the face in the picture she +turned her gaze to the tousled reflection in the mirror. "The Fatherland +is not much honored by such a representative!" she said, and began +taking down her hair with a fine energy. + +In the living-room downstairs teacups were clinking, and girls' voices, +subdued and sweet, mingled with laughter. Hannah, her back to the door, +was talking merrily to Dot, to whom she had taken an instantaneous +liking; Catherine bent anxiously over the tea-tray on the wicker table +in the window when Polly, from the comfortable depths of a low chair, +looked up and saw on the landing of the stairs a picture that made her +catch her breath. + +Frieda, in a pale pink mull gown, with roses in her long soft sash, her +yellow braids wound into a garland around her head, her cheeks burning +with shyness, and her big eyes looking wistful and sweet, stood waiting. +Polly sprang up with a soft little "O!" Catherine, looking up, smiled a +welcome, but Polly went forward and taking Frieda's hands in both of +hers, said eagerly: "We've been waiting and waiting for you, Frieda." + +Dot was introduced, but her usual self-possession promptly deserted her. +"I always feel as though I ought to shout to a foreigner," she had +confessed to Hannah, "and in order not to do that, I just have to keep +still." Catherine, who had felt a little rebuffed by Frieda's chilly +manner at the station, and Hannah, not quite sure what the present mood +might indicate, were both willing to leave to Polly the rôle she had +undertaken. Frieda sat quite near her, and watched her pretty bright +movements with gentle interest, maintaining a silence meanwhile only +surpassed in completeness by Dot's. Hannah rattled on, but there was a +hollowness in the rattle that made Catherine's hostess heart falter. She +was never fluent, herself. Her gentle art consisted in making her guests +entertain themselves and each other. + +Then Dr. Helen came in, big, strong and competent, socially and in every +other way. + +Her welcome to Frieda would have warmed an iceberg's heart. She hugged +Hannah, and gave her right hand to Polly and the left to Dot. "Give me a +taste of your tea, Daughter," she said, as she took off her gloves and +her hat and seated herself. "It will take something as strong as tea to +heal my weary spirit this afternoon. I've just had an emergency call." + +Dr. Helen's eyes smiled reminiscently, and Dot awoke. + +"Do tell us, do, do, Dr. Helen," she pleaded. "I know it's something +funny, by the twinkle in your eye. And we'll never, never tell." + +Dr. Helen tasted her tea leisurely, and added a slice of lemon. + +"I don't tell tales about my patients, but there is no sense in a rule +that isn't transgressed once in a while. You wouldn't know it was a +rule! And I do believe you girls will enjoy this and never tell." + +"You 'give us credit for more discretion than you have, yourself?'" +quoted Catherine. + +"If you like to put it that way! I was overtaken on my way home to greet +these visitors by a messenger from Mrs. Swinburne, saying that Elsmere +was very ill. It is a wonder that he has lived as long as he has, with +his reckless tendencies and such erratic care. So I hastened over to the +house. Mrs. Swinburne was in a mild state of hysterics, and it was some +time before I could quiet her enough to learn the difficulty. Then my +alarm vanished, changed to wrath, would perhaps be more accurate. +Elsmere had eaten all her pills! They were pills that would not have +hurt a cat. Mrs. Swinburne's ailments are of a nature to require very +weak remedies." + +"Bread and butter?" asked Dot, with a twinkle as merry as the doctor's +own. + +"Something of that sort! But Elsmere did not know that. They might have +been morphia or arsenic for all he knew. The principle in his case was +the same. His mother said 'no symptoms had set in as yet,' but she +wanted me to administer an antidote at once. I couldn't refuse her!" + +"Mother! What did you do?" + +"First I caused the patient to be removed to his own room and the doors +to be closed. Then I gave him a sound scolding and a good smart +spanking." + +"O dear Doctor Helen!" sighed Polly softly, while Dot clapped her hands +with glee, and even Catherine showed signs of satisfaction. + +"Did his mother hear you?" + +"If she had, I was prepared to tell her it was necessary to restore the +circulation. I was afraid the child might howl, but it was a new +experience to him and he took it so very pleasantly that I am now +worried for fear he liked it!" Dr Helen set down her teacup and turned +to Frieda. "You will think me a barbarous physician, Frieda, but really +this boy has needed discipline for a long time, and there is no one to +give it to him. His pranks are often dangerous." + +"Like the building of a fire under the barn to keep his cat warm." + +"Yes, and making a ladder of kindling wood and climbing up to the second +story on it." + +"He is a pretty naughty boy," finished Dr. Helen, "and a very sweet +attractive one withal. I hope I made it clear to-day, that he is not to +go about eating medicine. Now I must hear how Mrs. Eldred is, and what +sort of a journey you had. Did Catherine make you properly comfortable?" + +Hannah drew close to Dr. Helen and cuddled her hand as she answered. +Then she suddenly said: "O, you know, Frieda and I saw Miss Lyndesay +just before we came away. Do tell about it, Frieda." + +Frieda's face lighted at the name. "She is very wonderful," she said +shyly. "She said: 'Let me greet myself to them.' She finds herself well, +and her house is beautiful." + +"I am so glad. Thank you very much for bringing us direct word from her. +See! this is the portrait she painted of Catherine some time ago." And +Dr. Helen took Frieda a little apart to get a good light on the painting +of Catherine and Hotspur, almost the only picture the big room with its +walls of books contained. It developed that Frieda was very fond of dogs +and her rapture over the picture made it necessary to call in the +original, who instantly recognized in her a discriminating soul. Frieda +dropped down on the leather window-seat and fondled his tawny sides with +the deepest feeling of rest she had had in two days. "He understands +me," she thought, with almost passionate gratitude. + +Polly and Dot bade her good-by in a few minutes. "I'm going to ask you +to go out on the river with me and talk German to me all alone. I've +studied it in college," said Polly, "and I do want to see whether I can +understand a real German. We won't let Catherine or Hannah go. I should +be afraid to try before them, but I don't believe I should be at all +afraid of you." + +Frieda caught Polly's hand in hers, and suddenly carried it to her lips +and kissed it. Polly reddened a little, while Dot turned abruptly away +and made her adieux to Catherine and Hannah. + +"Isn't she a dear?" sighed Polly, as she and Dot went down the walk. "I +do think she's as charming as a picture in a sweet old-fashioned book, +and I want to learn to read the printing that describes the picture." + +"Well, you may for all of me," replied Dot. "But I don't believe I'd +ever feel safe with her. I felt all hands and feet, and if she should +ever kiss my hand!" + +"She won't!" laughed Polly. "You needn't fear! I wonder how the boys +will like her. She is unusually good-looking, and her clothes are +delightful. And I like her eyes. There is fun in her somewhere. You mark +my words, Dot Winthrop. Once she learns English, there'll be something +doing. There's nothing colorless or monotonous about Frieda Lange." + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +CAUGHT IN A SHOWER + + +The three girls, "just the right number, one for each gable," as Dr. +Harlow said, had been very busy that morning. Their beds made, Catherine +had gone down to market, while Frieda dusted the living-room, and Hannah +swept the porches. + +"I like doing things like this," said Frieda suddenly, as she came to +the doorway, and shook her duster energetically. "Do you remember the +time we got our own supper in Berlin, Hannah?" + +"Indeed I do," said Hannah heartily, leaning on her broom. "You look +awfully pretty this morning, Frieda, in that plaid gingham. Are you +going off with Polly, as usual? I don't see you at all, it seems to me." + +"You have Catherine," answered Frieda. "Polly is learning German." + +"And you are learning English. I can see that you have improved a lot +this week. But you are getting pretty slangy. It would be better for you +to learn from Catherine than from Polly." + +Frieda shook her head firmly. "I am in awe of Catherine," she announced, +"and with you I feel weary talking English, for I know you can talk +German. But Polly cannot do any other, and I must talk with her. She is +delightsome." + +"So is Catherine," said Hannah, looking at Frieda wistfully. It was a +worry to her that these two who were to be together all the next year +should be so slow in getting acquainted. "One is obstinate and the other +is shy, and I don't know when they will get over it," she sighed to +herself, as Frieda, seeing Catherine come up the walk, disappeared into +the house. + +Catherine was breathless with her quick climb and her many parcels. She +dropped into a chair on the porch, and took off her hat to fan herself. + +"There is the funniest woman on the street," she said. "I know she is an +agent, and I suppose she'll be here soon; but I've got to shell these +peas and I want to do it out here, so I shan't run from her. Won't you +bring out some pans for the peas when you take your broom in, Hannah? +I'm too weary to move." + +Hannah, on her way after pans, persuaded Frieda to come out and help +shell peas, and all three were soon busily at work. + +Suddenly Catherine snapped a pea at Hannah to attract her attention. + +"My agent!" she whispered, as a woman in a loose flowing gown marched +toward them. + +She mounted the steps and, stooping over Catherine, snapped something +around her neck. + +"There!" she said, straightening herself. "That will never come off." + +All three girls gasped. Catherine clutched at the offending article and +the peas rolled in all directions. + +"It's a collar," said the woman triumphantly. "You can wear it forever. +Just put a fresh ribbon over it now and then, and you're always dressed. +Only fifteen cents. I'll try one on you, Miss--" and before Hannah could +utter a protest she was caught in the celluloid trap as Catherine had +been. Speechless they faced each other. With a little gasp Frieda +slipped over the porch railing and disappeared around the corner of the +house. Hotspur came bounding after her and she patted him, and hugged +him and laughed and laughed. + +"A collar just like yours, Hotspur dear," she told him in German. "And +it will never come off! Catherine, the Saint, the Perfect, the +Inviolate, sitting there looking like a--in English, like an idiom! O, +Hotspur, dear, it has done me good. I have wished I could want to laugh +at her. Now I shan't be so afraid of her ever again. Come! we must go. +It's time for our row." And Frieda danced off across a little wood path +which was a short-cut to the boat-house. + +Polly was waiting, and in a very few minutes the "Minnehaha" was +launched. It was a beautiful day, the river rippling with waves and +twinkling with reflections of trees, but the ardent oarswomen saw +neither the beauty surrounding them nor the black clouds threatening. +They were practising for a race. Neither spoke. They pulled with long +steady strokes in perfect time. Suddenly Frieda's oar flopped and +"caught a crab." The bow at the same moment struck the bank, and a great +scrambling tearing sound followed. In a fright the girls huddled +together in the bottom of the boat, not daring to look up. + +"O, pshaw! It's only a cow, more afraid than we were. She made all that +noise just tearing up the bank." + +"I thought it was an earthshake," sighed Frieda, leaning back and +resting. "That was one hundred strokes without missing. I didn't know +the bank was so near." + +"Neither did I. That's the trouble with us, Frieda. We get so interested +in rowing that we forget to steer." + +"We steered into a steer that time." + +"O, Frieda! You ought not to be allowed to make jokes in English, you +make such bad ones." + +Frieda smiled cheerfully. "Ten days ago I thought I should never make a +joke in any language, or laugh at one again. I was very sorrowful when I +came here, Polly." + +"I didn't dream it," answered Polly. "You looked very sweet when I first +saw you, and I thought you kept still because you didn't care to talk! +But we have had a lot of fun these days, haven't we? I feel as though I +had known you a long time. Wish you were going to Wellesley." + +"So do I. It would be delightful, with you there and Karl and Hannah so +near. But my parents decided for me. Karl will go to see you, though." + +"That's nice. Really, Frieda, you will find it's lots easier at a small +college than a large one at first. And you can come on East afterward. +Dexter is fine, and you'll have such a start, going in as Catherine's +friend." + +Frieda grimaced. + +"If every one there is as beautiful and--_apart_ as Catherine is, I +shan't get on very well. Catherine is like a saint. She could never +understand wickedness as you and Hannah do." + +"Thanks very much!" Polly answered dryly. "But you take my word for it, +Catherine isn't just a saint. There is fun in her, too, though not on +the surface. You may always feel as though she were a beautiful picture +or poem but you won't like her the less for that. She's not +stand-offish. She's just different. My dear, I felt a drop." + +"So did I. And there's another." Straightway the heavens opened and a +deluge descended, most of it, it seemed, aiming for the small rowboat at +the pasture's edge. + +The thin roof of boughs which had hidden from their view the swiftly +gathering clouds was wholly inadequate to the task of sheltering them +from the contents of the clouds. Great cracks of lightning showed in the +dark sky, and thunder rattled and roared and rumbled and burst. + +Polly looked grave. + +"We'll drown if we stay here, and we could never row home. Look at the +waves! And if we stay here, we're also liable to be struck by lightning. +Let's leave the boat and make for that farmhouse across the pasture." + +"I'm afraider of the cow," said Frieda. "But I'll go. We can hide the +oars and oar-locks in the bushes." + +Progress across the pasture was difficult, but when the road beyond was +reached, both looked aghast at the muddy stream of it. + +Frieda rolled under the fence and stepped boldly in. Polly, gasping with +laughter, started to climb over. + +"You might as well roll," advised Frieda. "You can't wetten yourself +more than you are already, and it is pleasant to roll." + +"That's a matter of taste!" panted Polly, balancing herself on the top +of the fence. + +Suddenly Frieda gave a little shriek. Polly instantly fell forward into +the mud, her skirt catching on all the barbs in the fence and rending +itself horribly. Frieda, full of wild exclamations of pity and remorse, +helped her up and wiped the thickest of the mud from her once piquant +face. + +"It was the cow," she confessed. "I saw him coming from afar and I +squealed. I did not know it would make you tumble, but I had to squeal. +I fear cows. I have great alarm before them." + +"I forgive you," Polly was weak with mirth. "But we've got to get into +that house and telephone for some one to come out from town and take us +home. We could never walk in these roads, and I should tie myself all up +in knots if I walked in this shredded skirt. One more little spurt, +Frieda, and we're at the kitchen door!" + +It looked for a minute as though they would never get beyond the door. +The respectable lady who met them there was scarcely to blame if she +judged a little by outward appearance. Polly's efforts to be suave were +discounted by the muddy look of her eye, and the fact that water was +dripping from her hair into her face. + +"Won't you please let us come in and telephone for a carriage, and then +wait for it?" she pleaded. "I will gladly pay for the use of the +'phone." Then it came over her sickeningly that she had no money with +her. + +"I'm Polly Osgood," she said. "My father is the Osgood of Osgood and +Brown, Lawyers." + +"You don't say! Come right in. I'm Amanda B. Mills, and Lawyer Osgood +has been my counsel for twenty-one years and more. I'd never a-kept you +waitin' out there a minute, if I'd known 'twas you. Is this your sister? +Don't wipe your shoes. Come right in. There's other folks been caught in +this rain, too." + +She stepped back, still speaking, and invited them into the kitchen. +Polly and Frieda, stumbling a little, blinded as they were by the water +dripping from their hair, followed her. As they entered the room, there +was a moment's silence, then a burst of laughter and exclamations. + +"For the love of Mike!" + +"Where did you rain down from?" + +"O dear, O dear! You ridiculous boys!" + +"What a guy you do look, Polly!" + +And slowly out of the babel of voices came a deep solemn: +"_Donnerwetter!_" It was not a lady-like expression for a nice +little German girl to use, but she knew that to American ears it sounded +more harmless than her usual expletives, and, besides, she felt that if +ever an occasion had warranted emphasis this was it. She and Polly, +dripping, draggled, ragged, confronted with Algernon, Max, Bert and +Archie, almost as wet, grouped about Amanda B. Mills' kitchen stove! + +Mrs. Mills' astonishment at the boisterous greeting given her latest +guests by the earlier ones was so manifest that Polly hastened to make +all clear with introductions. + +"How do you happen to be here?" she asked, as she finished, and Archie +had made a Chesterfieldian bow, though the blue from his Andover cap had +run into his fair hair. + +"Fishing," answered Bert. "We drove out from town with our old nag, +hitched her to a tree and fished. Thunder and lightning always rile the +beast, and she just broke her tie-strap and oozed off home, and left us +in her wake. We got this far, walking, but the road was such a juicy +mess we decided to stop and telephone for some one to come out after +us." + +"That's what I am going to do. Where is the telephone, Mrs. Mills?" + +"O, do allow us to have the pleasure," begged Max. "They said they'd +send out the 'light bearers' wagon,' and it's warranted to hold six. +Besides it will be here in twenty minutes, and a private equipage would +take longer." + +"Well--it's awfully kind of you, I'm sure! Aren't you afraid we'll make +you wetter, though, if we ride in the same carriage? I am flooding the +floor at this moment. It's terrible, Mrs. Mills. Isn't there a shed we +could go into, and not make such a lot of work for you?" + +"Deary me, Miss Osgood, it's a pleasure to me to have you here. But I +wisht you'd come into the parlor, all of you, you and your friends. I'll +lay papers down on the carpet, and you can just walk in." + +They all protested, but as it soon became clear that it was as much a +desire to display the beauties of her room as hospitality that prompted +the invitation, they yielded and filed damply along the newspaper path +into the gaudy parlor. The rain had stopped as suddenly as it had come +up, and the sun was shining through the flowers in the lace curtains at +the windows, and striking the bright pink morning-glory of the +graphophone, which was the most conspicuous object in the room. Mrs. +Mills, preceding her wet guests, turned the track a little past the +telephone, resplendent in oak and nickel, so that the whole procession +could be inside the room at once. Then she called their respectful +attention to her framed marriage certificate, and a similar document +declaring the late Jacob Quincy Mills a Grand Something or Other in some +lodge. Beneath these, on a shelf, were two tall lava jars filled with +pampas grass, a pink china vase and a wreath of Easter lilies made of +spangled paper. + +"I'd like to show you the pictures in the family album," said Mrs. Mills +hospitably, resting her hand upon the fat plush volume on the center +table, "but I don't see how more'n two or three of you can look at it at +a time." She frowned a moment, puzzled. Then her face lighted. "I'll +just set the graphophone goin' for the rest of you to entertain +yourselves with," she said eagerly, and in a moment the room was filled +with the wheezing and strident strains of "You Look Good to Father," +against which Mrs. Mills raised her own voice in explanatory remarks to +Archie and Frieda, who happened to be within the album's range: + +"This is Mr. Mills' sister's first husband. That was their baby that +died. This here is Miss Evelyn Mills of Chicago. She's a singer there at +the Orpheum. She was my husband's own cousin, once removed. This was my +father's aunt,--" and so on. + +"Look at Algernon," whispered Max to Polly. "He's as contented as a +lamb. He's learning all there is to know about poultry, and doesn't even +know that infernal machine is going or that Mr. Mills had any +relatives." And sure enough Algernon, standing beside the bookcase, on a +portion of the newspaper track, was reading, even devouring, the pages +of a scientific farming journal, with an expression of perfect +satisfaction on his face. + +The long half hour came at last to an end. Mrs. Mills conducted the +procession back to the kitchen, helped tuck the girls into the robes, +and disclaiming all right to their earnest thanks, watched the wagon out +of sight. + +"Which is worse, a soaking or a fourth-class phonograph?" queried Archie +from his corner. + +Bert, humming "Waltz me Around Again, Willie," paused to remark: + +"Why, I rather liked that. Didn't the rest of you?" + +Polly shivered, not with cold alone. + +"There is one song we all like, Bert," she suggested. "Let's sing it now +to keep our lungs from freezing. There's water enough all about to make +it appropriate!" + +And in a minute four big male voices were shouting out the Boat Club +song, Polly's soprano sweet and clear over the rest, while Frieda smiled +encouragement over the edge of the robe in which she was wrapped to her +chin. + + "We are the Winsted Boat Club, + Dip the oar, dip the oar! + We are the Winsted Boat Club, + Push out from shore! + + "We are the Winsted Boat Club, + Paddle light, paddle light! + A-drifting, a-drifting beneath + The sunset bright!" + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +AN INTERLUDE + + +Algernon suffered more serious consequences from his wetting than the +others did from theirs. His cold the next day prevented him from even +attempting to go to the library. He wrote a note to Bertha, asking her +to take his place, and then, groaning over his inability to get to the +telephone, coaxed Elsmere to his side and sewed the note and the key to +his blouse. + +"You cross your heart and hope to die you'll go straight to Bertha's and +give her the key?" + +"Cross my heart. Hope die. And you'll give me six candies and a +rocking-horse, and a 'lectric light and a house for my pigeons, and--" + +"I'll give you something nice when you've done the errand, not before. +Now hurry. The library can't open till you get there. Think of it! All +those people who want books waiting for you!" Coughing, Algernon fell +back upon his hated pillows, and watched his messenger set out, more in +hope than in confidence. + +It was Fate that prevented Elsmere's fulfilling the trust, or rather, +realizing the hope, for though he did go straight to Bertha's house, he +did not find her there. The maid who opened the door proved +uncommunicative on the subject of Bertha's whereabouts, and Elsmere +sauntered away, undecided what to do next. Ten feet from the gate, he +stumbled upon a cat. At once a beautiful thought came to him. His own +cat-pussy had gone away, tired of abuse and starvation irregularly +combined with affection in the form of embraces and sugar, and Elsmere's +heart had grieved for her. Here was another, and he could find out by +actual experiment whether the velvet birds in the library would deceive +her. Clutching the spitting, clawing creature to his bosom, he trotted +off to the library. + +The door, of course, was locked. At first this fact discouraged Elsmere. +Then he suddenly remembered that he alone possessed means of entrance. +Putting the cat down on the pavement and stepping firmly on her tail to +retain her, he fitted the key and triumphantly turned it in the lock. + +Once inside, he carried kitty to the closet where the birds at present +hung, but his experiment was unsatisfactory, for she dug into his cheek +with a fury which rendered it necessary to abandon the attempt. When the +outraged animal had fled down the street, Elsmere looked about for fresh +interests. He was in a mood to recognize opportunities, and the +unprotected condition of Algernon's desk was suggestive. Never was a +librarian more hostile to little prying fingers than A. Swinburne of the +Winsted City Library. Elsmere felt a certain constraint, even alone with +opportunity. + +The door opened and a very small person came in and walked over to the +desk. + +"What you want?" asked Elsmere gravely. + +"Want a book." + +"All right." Elsmere walked to the shelves, took down a large volume of +Sheridan's Memoirs, and handed it to the child. Plainly much impressed +by the size of her booty, she wrapped her arms about it and walked out, +with admiring glances at Elsmere over her shoulder. Elsmere was pleased. +That was easy. He climbed into Algernon's chair. There were plenty of +things to amuse one. Rubber stamps hold infinite possibilities of +entertainment. So do colored cards arranged in trays. Elsmere shifted +them all about, and stamped the date on everything in sight. + +Then came more Public, Mrs. Kittredge's maid this time, returning a book +and not wishing more. In fact, she laid down the book and departed with +such would-be inconspicuous swiftness that if Elsmere had been more +experienced, he would have known at once that the book was overdue. + +Then there was a lull. Even forbidden pleasure palls in time, if no one +comes to remonstrate, and Elsmere was beginning to consider going home, +when three boys, strolling that way, pressed their noses against the +window-pane. Then they wandered in. + +"What's the kid doin' in the liberrian's chair?" asked one. Elsmere +maintained a dignified silence, stamping the date rapidly and inkily on +a pile of fresh catalog cards. + +"Say, kid, where's the liberrian?" + +"I'm liberrian." + +"O, come off. Where's the real one? The feller that knows it all, and +walks like a seesaw." + +"That's Algy," said Elsmere, with fraternal recognition. "Algy's sick. +I'm liberrian." + +His questioner looked at him keenly. + +"I say, kids, let's us be liberrians. You put the little feller out." + +The obedient henchmen put the howling Elsmere down from his seat, and +exalted their chief. + +"I'm it," said that worthy. "You pick out books you want, and I'll fix +'em up." + +The others, nothing loath, picked out certain extra-illustrated volumes +which Algernon did not allow to circulate, and presented them at the +desk, where they helped the presiding official to "fix 'em up" according +to methods suggested by intuition combined with a little observation. + +"Say, now it's my turn," said one of the subordinates. "You git down and +let me. Does that chair screw 'round?" + +It did, and in the ensuing scuffle, it not only screwed around but the +top fell off, carrying three boys and an assortment of inks with it. + +At the same moment, Max and Archie entered to while away an idle +half-hour with the daily paper. + +The big boys were prompt, but the little boys were prompter. The back +door swung on its hinges and Max and Archie, puffing, ejaculating and +wrathful, gave over attempts at capture for efforts at repair, Max going +off to hunt up Algernon, while Archie gathered up scattered cards and +mopped up the ink with dust-cloths. + +Seeking Algernon, Max ran across Mrs. Osgood making calls. Hearing his +tale, she went back with him to the scene of disaster, and her capable +fingers soon brought about some appearance of order, though the +intricacies of card systems were beyond her. + +"I'd like to know who the rascals are that did it," she said with +emphasis; "and I can't see how they got in. Where do you suppose +Algernon is?" + +"He caught cold yesterday," Archie told her, "but it doesn't seem +possible that he would send down anybody who would go off and leave the +place open. I saw the little Weed boy, but I didn't know the other two. +They lit out like lightning, and I didn't care to chase them all up Main +Street. I was going to the Smiths' to have a cup of tea!" Archie looked +ruefully at his soiled garments and dark blue hands. "I wonder if we +couldn't get Bertha to come in here. She knows the ins and outs of all +these fancy arrangements." + +"Berfa isn't to home," remarked a clear sweet voice from the closet. +"Fat's why I had to be liberrian!" + +Max threw open the door. Elsmere, on the wood-box, was contentedly +jiggling the velvet birds, which had been the first cause of all the +excitement. + +At the sight of Max's angry face, he jumped up. "I got to go," he said +hastily. "I'm awful busy. Must find my cat-pussy. I losted her when she +scratched me." + +"Sensible cat," growled Archie, taking Elsmere by the collar. "I wish +she had losted you. Here, Mrs. Osgood, this seems to be the key to the +mystery. At least it's the key to something." He lifted the key dangling +from Elsmere's blouse. + +"Algy sewed it on me," explained the child. + +Mrs. Osgood sighed. "So Algernon is sick, and he sent you after Bertha, +and she wasn't at home. I see. Max, you and Archie needn't wait. I'll +take the responsibility of closing the library for to-day, and I'd like +a private talk with this young gentleman, if you are willing." + +Elsmere's eyes brightened. + +"Will you pank me?" he asked hopefully. "Dr. Helen pank me when I eat +pills. _So!_" In his effort to illustrate, he bent so nearly double +that he fell over on his nose, and set it bleeding. Max and Archie +caught up their hats and fled, leaving Mrs. Osgood to act upon +inspiration. + +Half an hour later, having by strenuous effort regained something of +their former freshness of appearance, the two boys dropped in upon the +group on the Three Gables lawn. They stopped a minute to take in the +details of the pretty picture. Under a great apple tree, Catherine had +set her tea-table with its pretty accessories. In comfortable chairs +about it, sat the Boat Club girls, embroidering soft colored things or +simply "visiting." Frieda was telling a story, and the others were +listening attentively as she stumbled a little now and then in her +desire to express herself rapidly. + +"And he was there in the water, all the above part of him, and I held +his waist. I pulled greatly and in he came lickety split, and what do +you think he said? 'I big fish, Frieda. Pull me in and fy me.'" + +"That was Elsmere, I'll wager," cried Max, approaching with Archie and +giving Catherine his hand. "I'm glad you were talking about him, Miss +Frieda, for we're full of the subject. He never said the expected thing +in his life. Drowning and spanking are what he needs; the only trouble +is that he likes nothing better. But he's beaten his record to-day," and +while Archie dropped upon a rug near Hotspur, and incidentally near +Bess, who was prettier than ever, and working on an Andover pillow, Max +received a cup of tea from Catherine's hands and told his story of the +afternoon's episode to a deeply interested audience. + +"Poor Algernon!" sighed Polly. "That will make him so much extra work, +and he must have his patience tried by that dreadful baby all the time." + +"Does no one punish Elsmere except the neighbors?" asked Frieda, whose +opinion of the lawlessness of American children was being strengthened +daily by Elsmere's performances. Winifred answered, laughing. + +"His mother made up her mind to, once. She told me about it. She told +him she would not be his mother that day for he had been so bad she was +ashamed to own him. Some one had told her that was a sure way to crush a +child. But Elsmere was only interested. He called her 'Mamma' and 'Mummy +dear' to catch her napping, but she wouldn't answer. By and by a caller +came in, and Elsmere walked up to her and pointed at his mother and +said: 'This isn't my mother. She is just Mrs. Swinburne, but I love +her!' And Mrs. Swinburne picked him up and kissed him and cried, and I +don't believe she ever tried again to make him mind." + +"I'm glad Perdita and Peter are such a biddable sort," said Polly. "I +don't know what we'd do with two little imps around. They are quite +good, almost always. Perdita is mischievous, but Peter keeps her +straight. He seems to feel the whole burden of her. If she starts to do +anything naughty, he says: 'Perdita, you mustn't,' and Perdita doesn't." + +"It's lucky Perdita hasn't Elsmere for a brother," suggested Dot. +"There'd be no living in Winsted if she had, for even Peter can't keep a +wicked look out of her eye at times." + +"Room for a tired man in your party, children?" Dr. Harlow joined the +group. Max vacated the long chair he was occupying, and every one +welcomed the doctor with a word or smile. They all loved him, and +nothing pleased them better than to have him spend an hour with them. +To-day, he was plainly tired, and while Catherine prepared tea for him, +Frieda whispered to Hannah. + +"I wonder if he would," said Hannah. "Winifred, will you sing, if I +bring out my fiddle?" + +[Illustration: "Frieda was telling a story and the others were listening +attentively."--_Page 184._] + +Winifred never refused to sing, and Hannah slipped into the house, tuned +her dear Geige and brought it out. Then she played very softly, while +Winifred's sweet voice sang one quiet song after another. Dr. Harlow's +tired face relaxed and, leaning back in the chair, he presently dropped +off to sleep. The young people were very still, and Winifred smiled +softly as she sang. Dr. Helen, coming out from the office after an +interview with a wearying patient, stood in her turn watching. The blues +and pinks and greens of the girls' frocks, the boys' white flannels and +the great tree spreading above them, made a pretty background and +setting for the central group of Hannah bending her brown head earnestly +over her violin, and Winifred lifting her delicate little face while she +sang. + +"Bravo!" shouted a big voice behind Dr. Helen. Bert, on his way home +from one of his spasmodic "jobs," dropped in to say "Hello!" and +incidentally break the spell. Dr. Harlow woke and looked guiltily about +him. His wife joined him, and Max and Archie shook the kinks out of +their long legs, as the girls began to gather up their sewing and +flutter about Catherine with good-bys. + +"I say, Miss Hannah," said Bert, making his way to her. "I didn't know +you played. That's a jolly little fiddle you've got there. Do you know +the Merry Widow waltzes?" + +Hannah laughed. "I don't," she confessed, "but perhaps I could learn +them. Bring them up some time and I'll try." + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +SUNDAY SCHOOL + + +"Hannah, are you awake?" + +Hannah turned over, and opened an eye uncertainly. + +"No, I guess so." + +"Well, do wake up and look at me. Isn't it awful?" + +Hannah unscrewed the other eye, and blinked blindly for a minute. + +"What is it?" she asked, yawning. + +"My cheek. Can't you see? Toothache. It's all swollen up, and it hurts." + +Hannah roused herself a little more, then shut her eyes quickly. She +didn't want to laugh at Catherine. + +"Can't you do anything for it?" + +"I suppose so, but it won't go down in time for Sunday-school, and who +will take my class?" + +Hannah groaned. "Who would ever get up in the middle of the night and +worry about a Sunday-school class, when they had a toothache? It's +unnormal! Go back to bed, unless there is something I can do for you. +Can't I call your mother?" + +"No, there's no use bothering her. I know what to do well enough, but I +am so worried about the class." + +"O, go along to sleep. I'll take your old class." + +Hannah was asleep herself before Catherine had finished sighing with +grateful relief and returned to her own room. + +An hour later, Hannah woke with a start to the consciousness that +something unpleasant had happened. Almost immediately that vagueness +gave way to irritating clearness. She got up and peeped into Catherine's +room. She was sleeping, but the swollen cheek left no room for hope that +the whole episode was a nightmare. Hannah dressed quietly, frowning the +while at her unconsidered offer of the early morning. + +"I do think this town would be twice as nice if there weren't any +children in it. They spoil everything. I never taught anybody anything +in all my life. And I never went to Sunday-school either, except in +Germany. She will just have to get some one else," she fussed. "A +promise like that doesn't count. I was so sleepy I didn't know what I +was saying." + +With unwelcome plainness she recalled the facts that Dorcas and Polly +had classes of their own, Bertha and Agnes were out of town, and Dot and +Win and Bess belonged to another denomination. + +"Why couldn't she have waited till Alice came? She's always ready for +things like that. O, dear. I suppose I'll have to try. Catherine would +keep a promise herself, if she made it in delirium tremens!" + +She stole down stairs before any one was stirring, save Inga in the +kitchen, found a Bible and took it over to the window-seat, where she +opened it gingerly. + +"I wonder where they begin," she thought. "Might as well look Genesis +over first, to refresh my memory." She spread the thin pages open, and +began to read. Outside the open window the birds were noisily +celebrating the sunny morning. Inga ground the coffee. A bell rang for +early service somewhere. Hannah's eyes wandered from the page. + +"'And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.' It sounds +just like poetry," she thought. "But what could I tell youngsters about +it? They would be sure to want to know just how the waters were kept off +the firmaments. I hope--no, I know, Elsmere _is_ in that class!" In +silent horror, Hannah sat staring out of the window. Memories of +Catherine's Sunday dinner talk swarmed back into her mind. She had +thought the stories amusing: how Elsmere had chewed gum and put it into +the collection envelope; how Perdita Osgood had described in vivid +detail her seasickness of a summer before; how the little Hamilton girl +had asked personal and embarrassing questions of Catherine herself. It +had sounded funny, when Catherine told the tales in her quiet way,--but +to be alone with them for an hour! Hannah's heart failed her entirely. +She shut the Bible and marched up to Catherine's room. Catherine was +dressing, as far away from the mirror as possible. + +"Hannah, dear," she called, seeing the brown hair and blue eyes through +a crack in the door. "Do come in. You don't know what a dear you were to +take that class. I went straight to sleep, and didn't mind the pain +nearly so much after that. It worried me so. You see, the Sunday-school +is so small and I had been over and over it in my mind, and couldn't +think of any one who would do. It's the last class any one is ever +willing to take." + +"Why?" asked Hannah, her prepared refusal suspended. + +"O, because it's so big, and there are all ages of little people in it. +But you'll do beautifully. Children always love you. Do you know what +the lesson is?" + +Hannah hesitated. Then a glance at Catherine's distorted face made her +ashamed of herself, and she answered bravely: + +"No. What is it? I'll have to study up a lot." + +"You'll find plenty of material in those leaflets and books in the pile +there on the table by my Bible. It's about the Good Shepherd. And if +you're going down, will you ask mother to come in before breakfast? I +don't believe I've been doing the right things." + +So Hannah, laden with Helps and Hints, went slowly down stairs again, +and after having sent Dr. Helen up to see her afflicted daughter, +resumed her place in the window-seat and put her mind resolutely on the +subject of the lesson. + +"'Bring in the 23rd Psalm,'" she read in one suggestion. "That's good. I +know that much and I can make them repeat it the whole hour, if nothing +else comes into my head. How is she, Dr. Helen?" + +Dr. Helen smiled ruefully. "She will be all right after a while, but it +is a pity, isn't it? You were a good girl to relieve her mind about that +class. She cares so much about it. Good morning, Frieda! _Hast du gut +geschlafen?_" + +The Three Gables household was a church-going one. Hannah, in her white +gown with sweet-peas scattered over it, met the doctors in the hall. + +"Is Frieda late?" she asked, putting on her gloves. "It isn't like her." + +"No, but she begged so hard to stay with Catherine whose state seems to +waken deeps of pity in her, that I couldn't refuse. She said she would +do anything for her, even to reading poetry!" + +They all laughed, for Frieda's English reading was distinctly lacking in +smoothness, and her rendering of poetry would doubtless be harrowing. + +"That would hurt Catherine more than the toothache," said Hannah, "but +they will find something better to do," and she walked sedately down the +path between the doctors, her Bible and Quarterly in her hands, +wondering if martyrs on the way to the stake chatted on indifferent +topics, and noticed birds and bees and grasshoppers. + +Meanwhile Catherine and Frieda up stairs were surprising themselves and +each other. The first glimpse of Catherine's swollen cheek had roused +Frieda's sense of mirth, but compassion for physical pain followed +quickly. + +"_Ach weh! Weh! Schade! Schade!_" she had murmured in a deep +sympathetic tone, which Catherine found unexpectedly soothing. +Accustomed as she had always been to brisk remedial measures, and beyond +those, to wordless pity and a deliberate ignoring of the evil, she was +interested and touched by this demonstration. She had felt shy with +Frieda from the first, wishing so earnestly to know her well and win her +love that she could not be perfectly simple and natural with her. This +shyness had combined with the little aloofness, which every one felt in +Catherine, to shut Frieda's heart. But this morning the barriers were +down. Catherine, instead of being perfect, exquisite, was nothing short +of hideous. The agent had proved that she could look absurd. Here she +was shown mortal to the point of needing help from Frieda. What made +Hannah feel awkward and useless, caused Frieda to come to the front, +competent and tender. She made Catherine cozy with pillows, and sat +beside her, speaking, in tones which carried healing and comfort, of all +sorts of interesting and delightful things and places. She told stories +of her school in Germany, of her home and Hannah's visit, of her little +friend who had been to a birthday party at the palace, of the strange +"church social" to which Hannah had taken her in Berlin, of her rides +with Herr Karl in the Tiergarten, rapturous descriptions of the +Tiergarten itself, dropping unconsciously into German phrases, her eyes +shining and her cheeks taking on an unwontedly charming color, while +Catherine lay and listened, entranced, as though she were in a world +where pain had no power. + +It was not so pleasant at the little gray church. Hannah, all through +the sermon, wrestled mentally with the parable. It seemed to her it was +a very slippery parable! She would no sooner highly resolve to hold it +till she had wrenched its moral from it, and reduced that moral to terms +which the youngest babe could surely comprehend, than she would find +that the elusive subject had slipped from her grasp, and her whole mind +would be fixed upon the problem of how long it would take a fly to crawl +all the way across the expansive back of Mrs. Graham, who sat in the pew +in front. + +She went through the service like a well-constructed automaton, rising, +sitting, singing even, with no notion of what she was doing or why she +was doing it. She bowed her head with the others for the benediction, +and then the soft stirring and cheerful tones of greeting about her, +told her that her hour was come. + +The superintendent directed her to "Miss Smith's class." To her final +dismay, she found that that meant a seat on the platform in full view of +the congregation. The little church was barely more than a chapel, and +the chorus choir had two pews upon the platform. Here, it seemed, for +purposes of segregation, Catherine held her flock during the +interminable opening exercises, after which she led them to their own +room in the basement. As one in a dream, Hannah went to the seat pointed +out to her. Margaret Kittredge and Peter and Perdita were already +present. The little Hamilton girl came in with two unknown others. Then +more and more. The little girls settled themselves fussily, getting up +frequently to crush their stiff starchy skirts into place. Their +wide-brimmed hats interfered when they moved and they were never still. +The little boys huddled together, and punched each other without motive, +crowding each other off the seat, and showing the pennies they held in +their moist little palms. + +The superintendent tapped his bell. The noisy groups of the +Sunday-school at large lapsed into an approach to order, the teachers +staring consciously ahead with an excess of propriety, and the children +alertly refraining from anything more riotous than fumbling with +hymn-books. Hannah's own charges felt the change in the atmosphere, and +quietness fell upon them. She welcomed it gratefully, aware that it was +in no wise due to her own effort, and spreading a hymn-book open for the +first song, stooped to allow the small boy next her to look on, then +lent her voice as freely as she could to the chirping chorus. As the +exercises continued, she became rather more accustomed to her prominent +seat, and, inspired by Dorcas Morehouse's austere countenance in the +front row below her, she even turned once and looked down the squirming +row beside her, shaking her head gravely at Perdita, who was showing +signs of uprising. Peter caught the look of reproach and passed it on to +his twin with interest, hauling her into her place with a tug which +resulted in a loud parting of gathers. The Bible reading over, +"birthdays" were called for, and the little Hamilton girl trotted +importantly forward to the superintendent's table, where she let seven +pennies drop from her fat fingers into a yawning frog, receiving in +exchange a printed text. Acknowledging this courtesy with a jerky bow, +she switched her way back to the pew she had left, and crumpled herself +into a space not half wide enough to hold her. The minister rose to lead +in prayer. Hannah bowed her head devoutly, trusting in the power of +example. She was conscious of the heavy breathing of Margaret beside +her, due to the unwonted strain of pressing her chin close to her chest. +The minister's voice droned on and on, but Hannah was sending up a +fervent petition of her own, and for a brief space heard nothing. +Then--Bang! "I want to sit by Her." There was a thud of falling bodies, +and Elsmere, late but ardent, plumped himself into the place at Hannah's +right, from which he had forcibly removed a little boy with fat red +legs, which were now waving in the air. Hannah felt herself as red as +the evicted legs, and as the prayer came to an abrupt stop, would have +given worlds to be able to flee and hide her mortified face. + +At a tap from the bell in the superintendent's hand, the class slipped +to the floor, shook out its skirts and grasped its caps. The organ +started up wheezily, and every one burst into song: "See the mighty host +advancing, Satan leading on!" as Hannah, heading the wiggling line of +wandering-eyed children, got somehow off the platform and into a little +basement room which had been equipped for primary work with chairs of +varying heights, a great colored chart and a mission map. + +There she breathed more freely. Whatever the next half-hour had in store +for her, she would at least be alone with it. These fifteen wigglers had +become part of her. She must blush for them as for herself, but they +were not onlookers, anyhow. The mere absence of Dorcas' gaze was +refreshment. + +There was a brief period of settling into chairs, some mild squabbling +over two desirable blue ones, a little dispute as to the privilege of +passing the envelope, and at last Hannah found that something definite +was expected of her. The chart showed a brightly-colored shepherd +holding in his arms a weak lamb. + +"Say, won't that lamb kick him? They're awful leggy," suggested an +interested youth in the first row. + +"I seen a lamb onct," announced his neighbor, rocking perilously on the +two back legs of her chair. "It was a ram lamb and it butted me in my +stomach, it did. Hurt. Hurt awful." + +"Huh!" grunted Perdita. "I don't believe it hurt as much as when my +mother sewed my finger in the sewing-machine. Did your stomach bleed?" + +"Children," said Hannah desperately. "Don't talk, please. No, Peter, not +another word from anybody. Now who can tell the Golden Text?" + +Dead silence. + +"Doesn't any one know the Golden Text?" + +"Miss Smith doesn't do that way," suggested some one. "She always says: +'Peter, you may tell us the Golden Text.'" + +"Very well," agreed Hannah hurriedly. "Peter, you may tell us the Golden +Text." + +"Let me," cried Elsmere. "I know 'bout lambs. Mary had a little lamb, +fleeciswhitissnow." + +"Elsmere," said Hannah sternly. "I asked Peter to tell us the Golden +Text." + +"Mine is a walker," said Peter loudly. + +Hannah looked mystified. + +"Pooh!" remarked the Hamilton girl loftily. "That ain't this Sunday's. +'Wine is a mocker' was to-morrow's. 'Tain't this Sunday's." + +"What is this Sunday's?" asked Hannah hopefully. "Doesn't anybody know? +'I am'--don't you remember? 'I am the good--': + +"I am the good--" Peter got so far and then stopped, stolid. + +"I know," cried Elsmere once more. "Put in his thumb, pull out a plum, +good boy am I!" + +The others snickered, and Hannah bit her lip. "No. 'I am the good +shepherd.' It was Jesus who said it. Now all of you say it together." + +Lamblike, they followed her lead, and she succeeded in passing over +several minutes. But they soon grew restive again, and one little hand +pawed the air. + +"Well, what is it?" + +"The Grahams is coming to our house to dinner." + +"That's nice. Now we will talk about the shepherd psalm. How many of you +know it?" + +There was a moment of doubt. "Shall not want?" ventured one of the older +ones presently. + +"Yes, that's it exactly," said Hannah gladly. "You've all heard it lots +of times. Now I'll recite it for you, and then you can tell me what it +means." + +With the Bible prudently open to save her from any possible +embarrassment at a sudden lapse of memory, she began slowly to recite +the psalm, pausing for explanatory comments as she went along. + +"I was in a valley onct," said a sleepy boy, who had contributed nothing +so far to the morning's entertainment. "I fell off'n the dock and the +boat was clost up to me, and that was a valley." + +"How'd you get out?" asked several with interest. + +"Man pulled me out," and the speaker subsided. + +Hannah stole a glance at her watch, as she finished the psalm. She had +strung it out as long as she could, but there were still several minutes +to dispose of. + +"Now I wonder who can tell me what that was all about?" she asked, with +feigned sprightliness. "I think you can, the little girl with the red +dress. What's your name? O, yes, Gwendolen." + +Every one turned to look at Gwendolen. She stuck her finger in her +mouth, presumably to stem the tide of speech, for as she withdrew it the +words fell out over one another all in one breath. + +"Don't want anyfing to eat. Lay down in the grass an' roll. Put kerosene +on my head. Can't git any more in my cup, all spillin' over." + +The door opened and once more the superintendent tapped his bell. +Hannah, with a deep sigh of thankfulness, marshalled her troop and drove +them back to their place, taking her martyr's seat in their midst. + +Through the reading of the secretary's report and the singing of three +stanzas of the closing hymn, they behaved fairly well, subdued by the +drowsy atmosphere of air unchanged since the morning service. The last +stanza of the hymn was nearly sung. Elsmere rose to his feet and plucked +Peter by the hair of his head. Hannah cast an appealing glance at the +superintendent, who was nearer the offender than herself. He took a +quick stride forward, with his hand uplifted, just as the last wailing +sound of the hymn died away. His hand on Elsmere's collar, he observed +the congregation standing with bowed heads. They had misinterpreted his +gesture. Casting a look of understanding at Hannah, gripping Elsmere +tightly, he pronounced the expected benediction, and as the audience +broke up into home-going groups, set the boy down with emphasis. + +"We don't usually close with a prayer," he said to Hannah, "but they +thought that was what I meant, when I stepped forward. I nearly +throttled the child but--" + +"I think you will be forgiven," said Hannah firmly. "Miss Smith will be +here next Sunday, but I, I am thankful to say, shall not!" + + + + +PART THREE + +TOGETHER AT LAST + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +ALICE ON THE WAY + + +Out on a Dakota prairie, in a corner of a motionless Pullman sat a short +girl in a plain blue suit, her grey eyes behind thick glasses bent upon +the pages of a red leather book. + +"'Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise +for the spirit of heaviness.'" She read the words over and over, and the +book fell from her hands as she looked out on the limitless fields. +"'Beauty for ashes.' What a striking way of putting it! 'The oil of +joy'--why, I wonder what we are stopping here so long for. It doesn't +look like a station." + +And suddenly Alice Prescott sat up straight and looked about her, alert +and alive. + +The porter came slowly in response to her repeated ring. "What's the +matter? Why, there's an engine off the track a little ways off, and our +crew and engine has gone to help. No, nobody hurt. Just a freight +engine. Don't know how long. Mebbe one hour. Mebbe two." + +"But I'll miss my connections!" + +"Too bad, Miss." The porter looked at her with lazy curiosity. The train +had already been at a standstill for ten minutes, and every other woman +on the car had put him through a catechism long ago. This girl looked +awake and practical. How could a porter understand that the mere beauty +of words and ideas could render one unconscious to delays in +transportation? + +Alice rose and walked up and down the aisle. Three women, rather +overdressed, were playing cards in a remote section. A man slept in a +corner. She went to the door, and seeing groups of passengers standing +outside along the track, jumped down from the high step and walked a +little, tasting the fresh air with pleasure. The country offered nothing +to her gaze. Her eye, accustomed to mountains, found endless level +stretches harrowing rather than soothing. She recalled a Dakota girl at +Dexter who was always telling of the beauty of the prairie, and longing +for it. "I suppose it's a matter of habit," she thought to herself. +"There is certainly something that kindles your imagination in such a +sight. It would be dreary if it weren't cultivated, but it must be +wonderful to see a whole country reclaimed from wildness and made +productive. 'Beauty for ashes' O!" and with a little shiver of pleasure, +she repeated the lines that had so charmed her a few minutes before. +"'The spirit of heaviness.' What a strange thing to include in the same +message with the vengeance of the Lord! It makes blues and dullness seem +so important. It doesn't say anything here about Christ's coming to heal +bodily suffering or sin, and it does explicitly say he is to cure the +blues. Isn't that interesting?" + +Her walk had brought her to the first of the line of day-coaches by this +time, and she glanced up at the listless faces leaned against the dirty +window-panes. As she passed, each pair of eyes rested wearily on her +figure. Suddenly a thought struck her. Blues and dullness! Where were +they ever more to the fore than here? She entered the car impulsively +and stood looking people over. She spoke to the nearest woman. + +"It's a nuisance having to wait so, isn't it? Wouldn't you like to come +out for a little walk?" + +"No," snapped the woman, "I wouldn't." Alice flushed, then smiled and +went on down the aisle. Evidently her mission of good fairy was not +going to be successful at the start. "Some people want to be 'heavy,'" +she thought. "I'll take some one who looks as though she wanted to be +lightened up. Here's one." + +The red-eyed cindery young woman who was curled up in her seat, dabbing +her cheeks with a smeary handkerchief, looked as though any change would +be a welcome one. Alice stopped resolutely. "Can I do anything for you?" +she asked, not at all sure of her reception. + +The girl lifted her eyes and swallowed a sob. "Nobud-d-dy can," she +wailed; "I'm going to be m-m-married!" + +Alice's face twitched. "Won't you tell me about it?" she asked. +"Cheering folks up" was proving an intricate business. "If the garment +of praise doesn't fit any one," she thought, "I'll just have to carry it +back and wear it myself." + +The bride gulped and spoke again: + +"It's to be to-night and I've missed my train at the Junction already, +and I don't know what to do. Everybody was invited and the supper won't +keep, and I lost my solid silver hatpin, anyway." + +"Can't you come out and walk with me?" suggested Alice. "The air will +make you feel better. Bathe your eyes and come." + +Still tearful, but manifestly a little relieved, the bride obeyed and, +once out on the prairie, poured forth her tale. She had at the last +moment decided she could not bear to be married without a veil, and had +gone early in the morning to the nearest town to invest her last money +in that frivolity. Fate was against her, however, for there were no +veils in the shops, and a persuasive milliner had induced her to give up +her cherished notion and buy a hat instead. "And I'm most sure the +ribbon's cotton-back," she sighed. "I don't know why I bought it, +anyway. That's always the way with me. I think I know what I'll get, and +then they coax me into getting something different. Once I went down +town to buy me a pair of black stockings, and I got an Alice blue silk +waist, instead. Stephen he thinks it's funny and he says he'll see to +the shopping when we're married. I wisht he'd come to-day." + +"Wouldn't it be fun if he had?" said Alice. "There is a minister on the +train, and we could have had a lovely wedding out here!" + +This romantic idea cheered them both for a time, but its power was +brief. There were signs of a tear-shower imminent, and Alice was at her +wits' end for devices to adjust that garment of praise to fit. + +Then came a great inspiration. "Let's walk to the Junction," she +exclaimed. "I'll go with you, and you can get a team there, and drive +home." + +"But you'd miss your train." + +"O, no, I wouldn't. It has to come right along there behind us, and I +could jump on the cow-catcher if it came; but it can't come without an +engine, and there isn't one in sight, and it's only two miles to your +Junction, you say. That won't be anything of a walk. Go and get your +hat-box." + +The hat-box was not all. Though the journey was to be only a short one, +the bride had taken a satchel with her of a type Alice especially +loathed. This was a trifle, however, to a spirit so bent on adventure, +and Alice seized the "grip" and started off at a brisk pace. + +"I can't walk so fast," said the bride fretfully. "My shoes hurt." + +Alice looked from her own broad-soled street shoes to the high-heeled, +misshapen things on her companion's feet. The latter looked at them, +too, with pride and affection. "I'm going to wear them at the wedding +and I thought that, being they was so tight, I'd best break 'em in a +little first." + +"I see," and Alice moderated her own pace to the hobbling gait of the +wedding slippers. Two miles seemed more of an undertaking now and she +began to wonder if she had been rash in her suggestion. "I'll carry it +through," she said to herself. "I know I can, and I won't back down. +We'll get tired if we keep going without rests," she said aloud. "So +let's walk ten minutes and then rest. You can tell by your watch." + +The bride brightened at the allusion to the great plated and chased +timepiece suspended from a rhinestone dove very near to her breast-bone. +"Steve give me that when we was first engaged," she explained, and Alice +smiled indulgently. "He give me my bracelet for Christmas, and all his +friends give me bangles." She jingled the thing proudly as she spoke. +"There's thirty-four of 'em." + +"Thirty-four friends! He must be a popular man!" said Alice. + +"O, he is, awful. And he's the handsomest! You just ought to see him." + +"The garment of praise is settling into place without a wrinkle," +thought Alice. "I hope she won't take it all, for I may need a corner of +it myself, to console me for this abominable bag, and the tinkle of that +bracelet. I suppose she would think it was finer than the jade one Mrs. +Langdon gave me. And I wonder what she would think if she knew my +necklace was under my dress, so it wouldn't show in travelling. O, well, +she's a nice little thing, and I hope Steve will be good to her." + +"I'm afraid you'll be all beat out helping me," said the bride +remorsefully, as they paused once more for a rest. "I don't know how +I'll ever thank you, anyhow." + +"O, that's all right," and Alice seized the bag and bore it mightily +forward. + +"O, dear," sighed the bride presently. "There's somebody driving this +way. I wish they was going the other, and would give us a lift." + +The black speck down the road, which here ran alongside the track, +expanded rapidly, developing into a smart buggy with two good horses, +and a man driving. He leaned forward as he neared them, and suddenly +reined in the horses with a jerk. + +"Great Guns!" he shouted, throwing the reins over the dashboard, and +leaping out over the wheel. + +"It's Steve," cried the bride in a rapture, and Alice pinched herself +with delight as Steve embraced his lady. + +"However in the world did you get off here?" he asked, releasing her +enough to reply. + +"How did you?" she answered, and he laughed, "O, I thought I'd drive +over to the Junction to meet you and carry you home, and I heard about +the train being stalled out here and couldn't get out for hours, so I +drove on, that's all. But the idea of you hoofing it in!" He put his +head back and laughed loudly. + +His fiancée then remembered Alice and introduced her, telling Steve of +her kind interest. He was all cordiality, and offered to give her a ride +back to the train. + +"No, no," she protested. "I love to walk. And do hurry along home and +have the wedding. I'm so glad it all turned out all right; and you're +feeling happier, aren't you?" she asked the girl. + +Steve put his arm around his little bride gently. "I guess she won't +ever feel bad again. I shan't let her go off alone any more. And thank +you for what you done. I shan't forget it. Say, couldn't you stop off +now for the wedding?" + +"O, do," begged the bride, and Alice had to refuse tenderly. She watched +them get into the buggy, and drive happily away, waving to her as they +did so. Then she turned back to her train, and her own car. + +One of the card-playing women was tired and inclined to be sociable. So +Alice sat with her, by invitation, and listened to the history of her +family's diseases and operations, and her difficulties with servants, +till the train was started once more and the rumble of the cars resumed +their interrupted song of "Getting nearer, getting nearer." + +"I must hear it that way every minute," Alice thought, as she took her +own seat again, and while the lamps were lighted, watched in the windows +not the rushing landscape but her own face. "It would be so easy to hear +'Getting farther,' and think of leaving home for nine whole months, but +I'll just remember Hannah and Catherine and Frieda and dear Dexter,--and +that will keep the garment from slipping off my shoulders." + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +FINDING A VOCATION + + +On the second afternoon after Alice's arrival, the four girls walked +down to the post-office to mail their letters, Catherine having written +to Miss Lyndesay, while the other three wrote to their mothers. Now, +pleasantly conscious of duty performed, they strolled idly along the +street. + +It was "library afternoon" and Catherine had a book to exchange for a +busy neighbor, who much enjoyed the library privileges, but seldom had +time to choose her own books. The girls turned in at the library door, +which was hospitably open. Several people were waiting at the desk, +while Algernon busily attended to their wants. Catherine laid down her +book and went over to the fiction shelves to find something to take its +place. The other girls wandered about, looking at the soldierly rows of +books, and at the effective picture bulletin which Bess had made to +celebrate the Fourth of July, a list of patriotic books under crossed +flags,--turned the pages of the half dozen magazines on the +reading-table, and then, by common consent gathered in the little alcove +devoted to children's books. + +"Three copies of _Alice in Wonderland_!" exclaimed Alice. "That +seems a rather large proportion!" + +Catherine, who had secured _Friendship Village_, and was rejoicing +in her good fortune, answered the criticism. + +"You see, each member of the club selected a book for the first order, +and Dot and Max both chose _Alice_ and neither would give up, so we +finally ordered two; and then somebody gave us a copy afterward." + +"What did you choose?" + +Catherine laughed. "Can't you guess?" + +Hannah pounced on a big copy of Pyle's _Robin Hood_. + +"This, of course. Do you remember how you gave it to me to read the +first evening I was at your house?" + +Frieda had been looking the shelves over as if seeking something, and +now straightened up, disappointed. + +"Nowhere is there the _Laetus Sorte Mea_ book," she said sadly. + +"That's so!" exclaimed Catherine, regretfully. "We'll put it on the +suggestion list at once. Do you see any other lack, any of you?" + +They all laughed, looking about at the few hundred volumes on the +shelves, but Frieda said earnestly: + +"There are many Germans here, Dr. Harlow told me. And the older ones +cannot read English. Can they have no share in the library?" + +"That's right," said Alice. "They are taxpayers and I should think you +ought to get a few German books every year, Catherine. It's done in +other places." + +Algernon was at liberty for a moment, and came over to the group. + +"Are we talking too much?" asked Catherine. + +"No, no. There's no one at the reading-table. What are you discussing?" + +"Frieda thinks there should be German books here for the people in town +who can't read English." + +"There ought," said Algernon gravely. "But I don't know what to order. I +don't want to start out with Goethe and Schiller. I asked the German +minister, and he gave a list of religious books, but that isn't what we +want, either." + +Frieda's eyes shone. "Please let me make you a list," she said eagerly. +"And I have two or three books in my trunk which I would gladly give, O, +gladly." + +Algernon's pleasure was as great as her own. + +"That would be simply bully! We can order one each time we send for new +books, and it won't be long before we have a good supply. I say, +Catherine, would you mind taking the desk for a few minutes? There come +the program committee of the Study Club, and I ought to be free to talk +with them." + +Catherine consented willingly, always liking to manipulate the simple +machinery of the loan desk. Frieda sat down at once with a pencil and +paper to make out her list, and Alice and Hannah helped themselves to +magazines and waited. + +Catherine looked about her at the little room and her heart swelled with +pride and pleasure. So much had come of her thought of making Algernon +useful. He was already quite a different person, with a dignity that +became him well. The pile of cards in the charging tray before her +showed that the library was being used by a goodly number of borrowers. +The program committee was evidence that part, at least, of its use, was +for more than mere recreation. + +"O, I am so glad, so glad!" sang Catherine's heart. "There are so many +things to be glad about. And see my dear, dear Wide-Awakes. I think they +really are the most beautiful girls I ever beheld!" + +A stranger might have thought that rather an extravagant speech, for +Catherine herself was the only one of the four who could be called +beautiful. But Frieda's face was unusual and interesting, Alice's sweet, +though plain, and Hannah's the sort that always called for a second +glance and a smile of pleasure. + +"Have you anything in the library on the Past, the Present and the +Future?" asked a voice, and Catherine stopped her musing. + +"The what?" she asked, not believing her ears. She had been thinking of +the past, the present and the future as she watched her three friends' +faces, but that was quite a different matter. + +"I have to write a paper on that subject," said a complacent young +woman, rather showily dressed, "and I thought I'd maybe better read up +on it a little." + +"I should think it would be wise," murmured Catherine. "But I hardly +know--the Past, the Present, and the Future of what?" + +"Why, not of anything. Just the Past, the Present and the Future," said +the other, with a shade of impatience in her tone. "Maybe I'd better +wait till the real librarian is at liberty. He always knows what to give +out." + +"Perhaps that would be best," faltered Catherine. "It is such a very +large subject, you know." + +"Yes, that's why I chose it. I like a large subject. There is so much +more to say on it. I wrote on 'Woman' last year, but it wasn't broad +enough!" + +A little girl, who came in wanting a fairy story, gave Catherine a +chance to turn away and hide her amusement. The child wanted to know +what the story was about, and before Catherine realized what she was +doing, she had her arm about the little girl's waist, and, kneeling +beside the low table, was showing her the pictures in a beautiful +illustrated _Tanglewood Tales_, telling the story of Persephone as +that sweet sad tale has seldom been told. + +Some one came in and wanted a book, but Catherine did not know it. +Alice, who had had some library experience at college, stepped quietly +to the desk and served the customer. Hannah dropped her magazine and +stole nearer the alcove, listening to the story. Frieda looked up from +her writing, as Catherine's voice, full of wistfulness, came to her ear: + +"And Mother Ceres wandered and wandered over the face of the earth, but +there was not any Persephone anywhere. And the grass forgot to grow, and +the flowers forgot to blossom, and the wheat withered and died, for +Mother Ceres' heart was broken. How could she care for other things, +when Persephone was gone?" + +The members of the program committee, one by one, paused in their busy +searching through Poole's Index, and waited while the sweet voice went +on: + +"And poor little Persephone was lonely down in the dark king's palace +underground. She pined and pined, and would not eat or be comforted. And +the poor King was sad, too. He wanted a little girl so badly, you know, +and now that he had found one, he could not make her happy. It is a +terrible thing not to be able to make people happy!" + +The little girl cuddling close to Catherine, her eyes turning only from +the pictured page to Catherine's face, sighed softly. + +Algernon, watching and listening to the story of the tempting +pomegranate, suddenly drew a deep breath, and his face lighted up as it +always did when a new idea came to him. + +"And then Quicksilver hurried her away, past the fierce dog with the +three terrible heads, and up to the world again. Such a dry parched +world! Not any green grass, not a single, flower. Not a single +corn-stalk or spear of wheat. And poor old Mother Ceres sitting at home +on her door-step, weary and sad and hopeless, wishing for her own little +girl. And what do you think? As Persephone and Quicksilver walked along, +pretty fast, you may be sure, for you can think how eager the little +girl was to see her dear mother again, all along the sides of the path +where they walked, the grass turned green and the flowers began to +blossom and nod, and the corn-stalks lifted up their heads and waved new +tassels, and the wheat sprang up, and the trees put out fresh leaves, +and the birds sang, and the little dried-up brooks began to run and +ripple over stones. And Mother Ceres, sitting and looking out over the +dry brown world, suddenly saw a green glow over everything and she stood +up, very angry, and said: 'Does the earth disobey me? I said that if the +earth should ever grow green again, it should be along the path by which +my daughter should come back to my arms.' + +"And then a sweet child voice said: 'Open your arms, dear Mother, for I +have come back to you, and all the earth is green and blossoming!'" + +The little girl threw her arms around Catherine's neck and kissed her. + +"O, I'm so glad she came back," she cried. "Tell me about it again." + +Catherine smiled but her eyes were dreamy still. Algernon made his way +over to her. + +"You found my vocation for me," he said eagerly, "and now I've found +yours. We'll have a story-hour in this library hereafter,--with bars up +to keep the grown-ups out! You're better than the professional I heard +at Madison." + +Catherine looked bewildered, but Alice took her hand and squeezed it. + +"I knew you could. I heard you once 'telling' to Jonathan Edwards out +under the hemlocks when you thought no one else was listening. It's a +glorious gift, dear, and I feel sure you'll do wonders with it some day. +See! Hannah and Frieda are almost crying! Come on, girls. She doesn't +even know what she has done. We'll have to take her home and have her +mother explain it!" + +Catherine revived from her dazed condition sufficiently to protest +against being led out of the door, and the four went gayly up the hill +together; but Catherine's mind was intent on the suggestion which +Algernon had made. "Professional? Work? A vocation? Anything so simple +and delightful, and _natural_ as telling stories? Could _I_ do +something that would make lots of people happier and better, as Aunt +Clara's pictures do, and Mother's work and Father's?" The bliss of the +idea was quite too much for her, and she broke away from the others, +exclaiming: + +"I'll race you all to the porch steps. One, two, three, scramble!" + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +DOCTOR'S ORDERS + + +Dr. Helen, dismissing her last patient at the office door, glanced into +the waiting-room. To her surprise, she saw Alice sitting there with a +magazine in her hand. + +"Why, my dear, what is wrong? Are you ill? Come in here." Alice rose and +followed her into the little white room. + +"Nothing is wrong. I wanted to see you alone for a few minutes, and I +thought this was the best way to do it. Are you quite free now?" + +"Entirely. Sit down in this comfortable chair. I was startled. To have +you fall ill after a week with us would be distressing." + +"It has been such a dear week!" sighed Alice. "And I've rested all the +time and have loved being with the girls. No, I'm quite well. But I had +a letter from Mrs. Langdon, at Dexter, you know, just before I left +home, and she told me I might tell you, if I cared to, what she has +never let me tell any one outside the family,--that is, that I am one of +the girls she is helping through college. I'm glad she said I might, for +I've often wished Catherine knew, and it will be next best if you do." + +"It is a rather trying condition of Mrs. Langdon's," said Dr. Helen +sympathetically, "and sometimes creates difficult situations for the +girls concerned, but I long ago gave up hope that she would ever change +her ways. I quite understand how you feel, because, during my last two +years at Dexter, I was one of her girls, too." + +"You?" Alice's tone expressed the deepest surprise, and Dr. Helen +continued. + +"My father could not afford to send me, and I earned the money for my +first two years, and was struggling along, trying to spend several hours +a day earning money and at the same time to keep up with my work, when +Mrs. Langdon, who was staying at home that winter, heard about me from +friends. She helped me finish my college course, and gave me substantial +aid in taking my professional course. I repaid the money afterward, but +I couldn't repay the kindness." + +"She is wonderfully kind," said Alice, "though her queer ways make you +forget it sometimes. I had had letters from her before I left home the +first year, of course, about the business part, and I went on, feeling +that I wasn't going entirely among strangers, but she paid no attention +to me at all. It was only by chance that I met her in the spring through +Hannah." + +"Poor child! You must have been much disappointed and very lonely at +first. But she is a friend worth having, in spite of her peculiarities. +I am glad she let you share your secret with me. Did she say anything +about her own health when she wrote? I almost never hear from her." + +"Not a word. But she asked me to call on her old friend, Madam +Kittredge, while I was here." + +"She is our pastor's mother, a beautiful woman, and nearly blind. You +must certainly call. Catherine always makes the rounds of the old ladies +among our patients once a summer, and she loves to go to Madam +Kittredge's. She must take you. I wonder--What is that? Come!" + +A rustling of skirts and the sound of whispers was heard in the +waiting-room. In answer to the doctor's invitation, the door was slowly +opened, and Hannah put her head in at the crack, Frieda's appearing just +below it, and Catherine's just above. + +"Well, here you are!" cried Hannah. "We've been searching the house from +attic to cellar for Alice, and finally had an inspiration and came +here." + +"Anything so exclusive as this," remarked Catherine, as she entered, +"makes the rest of us jealous." + +"Fearfully chealous," said Frieda earnestly, putting her arm around +Alice's neck, and perching on the arm of her chair. + +Hannah and Catherine sat down on the window-seat, pushing the curtains +out of the way as they did so. + +"Mother really wanted to have her office curtains made of antiseptic +gauze," said Catherine. "Why don't you two say anything?" + +"You interrupted me just as I was having an inspiration," said her +mother. + +"O, what a pity," sighed Hannah. "Because Catherine is bored." + +"Bored? Catherine? Did she tell you so?" + +"Yes, I did," said Catherine stoutly. "I knew they were, too; and I +thought if I owned up that I was, they would say they were, but they +won't." + +"Incorruptible politeness!" said Dr. Helen. "How do you account for your +own sudden ennui?" + +"It's not just to-day," said Catherine. "I really think my life is +rather dull, anyhow. Of course, having the girls here is quite an event, +but I wish there were big, exciting things I had to do or see to. +Mending, and helping Inga make salads and beds, and even going to +college is tiresome. Just what every one else does. And the worst of it +is that every one expects me to be enthusiastic all the time!" + +They all laughed at Catherine's disconsolate tone, but Dr. Helen looked +professional. "This heat is enough to make any one cross," she said. "I +suppose the rest of you feel the same way, but, being guests, don't dare +say so?" + +"Do prescribe for us, Dr. Helen," begged Hannah. "I don't feel +especially bored just now, but I often do. Going to Europe was the only +event in my life!" + +"And going to college in mine!" said Alice. + +"Coming here is all that has ever happened to me," said Frieda solemnly. + +"You poor things! It is a serious state of affairs. I suppose you pine +for kidnappers, or lovers or financial difficulties or fearful illnesses +or Arctic explorations." + +"Exactly!" cried Catherine. "Especially the last, on a day like this. +But, really, Mother, of course, I don't feel as I said more than once in +a great while, and I was talking to amuse myself; but can't you suggest +something for us to do this afternoon? The more we lie around and keep +cool, the warmer we grow. The Boat Club seems to have tired of picnics, +and I want to do something while Alice is here,--something really +interesting and pleasant to remember, something we didn't plan +ourselves." + +"Yes, do tell us something," the others pleaded. + +Dr. Helen drew a prescription pad to her. + +"Don't talk," she said, "while I am thinking. I'll undertake the case, +if you will all agree to follow orders exactly, and in case of a +relapse, to remember and act upon the spirit of to-day's prescription." + +"Agreed!" they chorused, and then sat in silence and watched her hand as +it moved over the little sheets. These she folded like powder-papers, +endorsed on the outside, and handed over to her patients. + +"To be taken at half-past three o'clock, in good spirits and your +prettiest afternoon frock," read Hannah. "I didn't suppose that you +would prescribe spirits, Dr. Helen! What does yours say, Catherine?" + +"They are all alike on the outside," said Dr. Helen. "Now run away and +play. I have telephoning to do, and mustn't be bothered." + +They bent over her for kisses and danced away, looking anything but +bored. + +At half-past three, dressed according to orders, they gathered on the +porch, and at a signal opened their little papers. + +There was a minute of silence, and then their eyes met, annoyed and yet +amused a little. + +Hannah spoke first. + +"Evidently the rest of you aren't any more fascinated than I am! I +didn't count on going off all by myself to see a stranger! But we asked +for a prescription, and we all promised to follow it, so here goes. +Doctors always give disagreeable medicine!" + +"Mine isn't unpleasant, except that I have to do it alone," said Alice. +"Which way does Madam Kittredge live, Catherine?" + +"Two doors beyond Dot's, where we were yesterday. You can't miss it. I +wish I could go with you, but let's hurry up and get back. Do you know +the way to yours, Frieda?" + +"It tells the way plainly enough," said Frieda, grumbling a little. "But +I think I wish I were a scientific Christian, like the ones you told me +about!" + +The others laughed sympathetically. + +"Too late to save yourself now," said Hannah. "Go ahead and get it over, +and then we'll get even with Dr. Helen some way for playing us such a +mischievous trick. Good-by. I have to go down town for mine." + +Dr. Helen from her window watched them separate, and smiled. A few +minutes later Bert appeared, looking for some one to amuse him. + +The doctor told him of the malady that had seized her maidens, and of +their quest for healing. + +"It's an epidemic," said Bert solemnly. "I've got it bad, and I saw Arch +an hour ago, and he was so low he couldn't even smile. Said he was going +to cut out paper dolls or string buttons, if this kept up. Can't you +prescribe for us, Doctor?" + +"Why, yes. Get Archie and bring him up here to supper this evening. Tell +him he needn't smile. Perhaps my ladies-errant may have stories to tell +that will ease your pain a little!" + +Bert joyfully undertook to bring Archie, and set off at once while Dr. +Helen gave Inga instructions for an especially festive supper, and with +her own hands prepared a frozen dessert. + +The four girls, who had barely slept apart in the week since Alice's +arrival, were now walking along widely separate paths, each one feeling +oddly alone, and yet not wholly disliking the sensation. Catherine, +well-used to her mother's ways and beliefs, smiled to herself as she +went off to tell stories and play cat's cradle with the washerwoman's +little girl, who had a "spine" and had to be "kep' quiet with high +epidemics somethin' fierce." + +"It's just like Mother," she thought. "She knew I was peevish and really +needed to be alone. Just as she used to send me to my 'boudoir' to pout +by myself when I was little. The hours with the girls seem so precious +that I can't bear to lose one, but I suppose I did need to be alone. You +know, Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Oakkitten, as Frieda would call you, what +George Herbert said: + + 'By all means use sometimes to be alone. + Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear.' + +"You needn't scamper away up the tree so fast. I'm not going to stay +round here long enough to interfere with your looking over your +spiritual wardrobe. I wonder if your soul wears soft gray fur?" And the +story-teller walked quickly on through the woods, chanting to herself: +"Old world, how beautiful thou art!" and planning for an unusually +effective dénouement for the tale of the Three Little Pigs. + +Hannah, traversing the blistering length of Main Street, had arrived at +the gloomy brick building labelled Hotel, and had inquired for Mrs. +Tracy of whom her prescription told her this much: "Travelling man's +wife, convalescent after long severe illness." + +Mrs. Tracy would receive her in her room, and Hannah followed the +proprietor, who was also bell-boy and head waiter, up the shabby stairs, +feeling decidedly foolish, but determined not to give up. + +Once inside the room, she forgot her own feelings. It was a most doleful +place, with ugly walls, cheap stained furniture and huge figured +curtains; but she was met by a sweet-faced young woman in a soft blue +négligée. + +"Dr. Helen telephoned me that you were coming," she said, taking +Hannah's hand and looking into her eyes with a bright look that made +Hannah feel interested at once. + +"Will you take the place of honor?" She indicated a stiff little settee, +upholstered in magenta cotton velvet. + +"It must be what the _Courier_ advertisement meant, when it spoke +of furniture, 'warranted upholstered,'" said Hannah seating herself, and +smiling her most merry smile at her attractive little hostess. + +The thin face almost dimpled with pleasure. + +"So you read the _Courier_, too! Mr. Tracy bought back numbers of +it to amuse me, and I've collected the most delightful clippings. You +see, I'm alone so much. The nurse wasn't very entertaining, and my +husband has to be away all the week, and I have to have some one to +laugh with, or at least, something to laugh at!" + +"What fun!" said Hannah. "Do show me your clippings." + +"I was just pasting in a birth notice when you came," said Mrs. Tracy, +lifting a small scrap-book from a table. "It's about as good as +anything. 'Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Kling are the proud parents of a fine baby +girl. Present indications are that the lovely lump intends to stay.'" + +"O!" Hannah shrieked and leaned forward to look. Mrs. Tracy handed her +the book. + +"That's why I cut them out and paste them. No one would believe them, +otherwise. Here is a gem of music criticism: 'As he stepped to the edge +of the platform, the word Artist came to every lip. His natural pathos +mingled with his baritone in such a manner that it was impossible to +tell where one left off and the other began. And in his dramatic +numbers, the writhings of his face showed the convulsive agonies of a +soul in pain.'" + +"One of my friends told me about a singer coming to a little village, +and they described her appearance and her dress, and wound up the +paragraph by saying: 'The soloist wore white shoes. No other stage +decorations were necessary.'" + +"Delightful--unless it was deliberate wit! As it was in a Kansas paper, +which spoke of some one's 'blowing large chunks of melody out of a +flute.' But the charm of these Winsted gems is the entire +unconsciousness of the writer. For instance, here: 'The élite lingerie +of Winsted invited their gentleman friends to a leap-year ball!'" + +"O, see here!" cried Hannah, turning the pages joyfully. "'The hall was +decorated with syringe blossoms!'" + +"Only a misprint, and I saw in a Chicago paper the other day that one of +the fashionable ladies wore a gown with a gold-colored y-o-l-k. This is +partly a misprint, too, 'easy _hairs_ were scattered about with a +lavish hand.' But I think it would take a hand that was powerful as well +as lavish, to scatter easy chairs very generally! That was the same +party where the hostess and her daughters 'dispensed with the +refreshments in the dining-room!' But I am not going to keep you +laughing over the _Courier_ all the afternoon," and Mrs. Tracy +tried to take the book away from Hannah. + +"Just one more," she begged. "Listen! 'Mrs. Gray's speech was replete +with wit, wisdom and winsome ways.' O dear, Mrs. Tracy! I never saw +anything so funny as this book in all my life!" + +"The trouble with it is that it gets one started on a certain line, and +it is very hard to get away from it." + +"Like telling funny names you have heard," suggested Hannah. "Alice and +Catherine and Frieda and I got to telling those last night, and we +laughed so long and so hard that Dr. Helen came up and put us to bed!" + +"Did you have any funnier than Pearl Button?" + +"Not really?" protested Hannah. "Alice swore she knew one girl called +Dusk Delight Dinwiddie, because she was born at twilight and they +thought she was delightful. That was what we were laughing over when Dr. +Helen came in, and she stopped long enough to tell us of a college +acquaintance of hers named Revelation Rasmussen, who married Will Kelly, +and an Ella G. Gray whom they nick-named 'Country Churchyard'!" + +"What jolly times you girls must be having," said Mrs. Tracy. "You see, +I know all about you. Dr. Helen--I began calling her Dr. Smith, but I +couldn't keep it up--has told me all sorts of interesting stories, and +those about you four are the most entertaining. I listen to all your +doings as though you were characters in a serial story. You don't mind, +I hope?" + +"Mind? Of course not. We aren't story-book girls at all, though, but +very flesh-and-bloody! Why didn't Dr. Helen tell us about you before, +and let us come to see you?" + +"It has only been a little while that I have felt like seeing people, +and when she suggested sending her daughter, I told her not to, for I +didn't want your fun interrupted. And I remember when I was your age, I +dreaded calling on sick people. I always felt as though I ought to carry +them tracts or--" + +"Wine jelly," finished Hannah. "Yes, that's the way I felt a little, +to-day. I was afraid I'd not be able to think of anything to say, and I +planned to offer to read to you." + +"That was very good of you, but I've read and been read to so much that +I'm glad of other occupations. The nurse exhausted the library's +resources. Then I took up picture puzzles. Mr. Tracy brings them out to +me every week, but we both get cross about them because they interest us +so that we spend half his precious day over them! Just now I am trying +to teach myself to knit, out of a book, and I'm in a dreadful tangle. I +think the chamber-maid knows how, and I mean to ask her." + +"O, let me bring Frieda in to show you. She knows how to do all such +things, and would dearly love to. And you ought to meet all your story +characters and see if we are like what you imagined. I must go now, for +Dr. Helen expressly said that I wasn't to stay long, and I know you are +tired." + +"I'll soon be rested, and it has been such fun to have you. Wait! Let me +give you one of my roses!" + +Hannah took the rose, and then put out her hand for good-by. There was +something so sweet and winning about the white little face, where tired +lines were showing in spite of the smile, that Hannah impulsively bent +over and kissed it; and then, promising to come next day with Frieda, +she flew down the corridor and out into the street, entirely recovered +from her ennui of the morning. + +Frieda, meanwhile, was following minute directions which led her at last +to a tiny cottage by the riverside. She went up the walk and rapped on +the door. No one answered. A second attempt was as unsuccessful, and +Frieda turned away, half ready to give up this strange errand which she +did not quite fancy. Dr. Helen had asked her to go to this house and buy +flowers! It did not look like a florist's. There was a garden behind the +house, though. She decided to go back there before giving up. Dr. Helen +usually was wise. + +Behind the house was a neat, neat garden, with vegetables and berry +bushes and gorgeous flowers of every kind. There were little trees +whitewashed up to the branches, and whitewashed stones marked the +corners of the paths. Frieda stood looking about with pleasure, when she +saw coming down the path a little old lady with a black knitted shawl +over her head, and a little old man in carpet slippers, with a big pipe +in his mouth. They met her shyly and she put her errand in her +embarrassed English. The old lady shook her head and looked hopefully at +the old man. He shook his and grunted. Frieda tried once more. She +frequently had difficulty in making herself understood. This time she +used gestures, and made such an earnest effort to be clear that the old +people began to look worried. The old lady shook her head again and +then, turning to her husband, asked him something in German. Then there +was excitement! Frieda plunged into German with them, and the others, +delighted to find she knew their language, talked fast and faster. + +When she told them she was newly come from their beloved country, their +eyes filled with tears and they asked question after question. Leading +her to an arbor under the whitewashed trees, they made her sit down. The +little old lady hurried into the house and brought out _Kuchen_ and +beer. Frieda was blissful. They spoke good German, and had visited +Berlin. They were full of respect when they learned that Frieda's father +was a Herr Professor, for they themselves had been simple tradespeople. +In answer to her questions, they told her how their children had come to +America, had prospered, and had sent for the old parents. With sad +voices they explained their entire inability to adjust themselves to the +new country and the new ways. The language they had not even attempted +to acquire. At last, their sons had built this little cottage for them, +and, with a grandchild, who spoke both languages, to act as interpreter, +they lived peacefully and quietly on. + +"But we miss the old country sometimes," said the grandfather. "Our +neighbors and the pleasant evenings and the bands." + +"Don't you know the other Germans here?" asked Frieda. "Dr. Harlow tells +me there are many." + +"They are not from our part of Germany," said the little grandmother +gently. "And they are Methodists, while we are Lutherans." + +"But our sons come often to see us, and we have the garden and each +other," said the grandfather cheerfully. "And sometimes we get hold of a +German book or paper." + +"O!" cried Frieda delightedly. "There will be many German books for you +soon," and she told them eagerly about the library and the list of books +Algernon had already ordered at her suggestion. They listened with +intelligent interest, and exchanged looks of pleasure at the thought of +such a storehouse to draw on in the long winter evenings, "when the +garden takes its nap," as the little Frau said lovingly. + +The sun was perceptibly lower when Frieda rose to go. Then she +remembered Dr. Helen's errand. The faces of her host and hostess shone +at the name. "Heavenly kind! Yes! She had done much for them. They would +send her flowers gladly, but sell them to her? Never!" + +With big shears they cut great stalks of everything the garden +contained, and, piling Frieda's arms with blossoms, while she uttered +protests and exclamations of delight, they escorted her to the gate. +There, in spite of her boasted emancipation from childhood, she dropped +a courtesy and left them, crying "_Ade!_" as long as they could see +her. + +At the supper table at Three Gables, Dr. Helen, with Bert on one side, +and Archie on the other, called on each girl in turn for her story of +the afternoon. + +Alice's turn came last. + +"It was such a beautiful prescription!" she said. "I went to see Madam +Kittredge. Her daughter took me up to her big room furnished with old +mahogany heirlooms that made me feel as though I were in New England. +And there in an arm-chair sat the most beautiful white-haired woman I +ever saw. She is quite imposing and grand, but her smile saves her from +being awesome. I loved her at first sight, and was not shy about staying +alone with her. You would hardly know she is blind, would you? And she +is perfectly delightful. She asked about Mrs. Langdon, and told me some +droll stories of her odd ways, even when she was a young girl. She and +Mrs. Langdon and another girl were together a great deal when they were +young, and now they live within a radius of a hundred miles, but she +says they never travel, so it might almost as well be a thousand. One is +blind and one is lame and the third is deaf! She laughed about it as +though it were not sad at all. The deaf one has been quite ill recently, +and Madam Kittredge is making the prettiest present for her. She says +Mrs. Langdon writes regular letters to them both, but Madam Kittredge +can reply only by dictation, or by sending little gifts, and she takes +the greatest pleasure in doing that. She showed me what she was getting +ready for 'Matty,' as she calls the one who lives in Milwaukee. It +seemed so queer to hear her speak of Mrs. Langdon as 'Sue'! If you +should see her once,--" turning to Bert, who sat beside her,--"you would +appreciate it. She is almost a fierce-looking old lady, and she says the +most startlingly frank things if she chooses. I don't believe any +ordinary person could help being a little afraid of Mrs. Langdon, but +Madam Kittredge seems to think her a delicious joke. But I started to +tell about the present. You see, this Matty is all alone in the world. +She never married and she hasn't much money, and she just loves pretty +things, especially pretty colors. And so Madam Kittredge is sending her +a rainbow basket. It ought to have seemed pathetic to see her handling +the colored things and hear her telling about the pleasure she was sure +her friend would take in them, when she couldn't see them herself, but +somehow it wasn't. She doesn't seem to think of herself at all, and so +she doesn't make other people. She said she made excellent use of her +sight while she had it, and can picture everything clearly now. The +basket itself was beautiful, a big green sweet-grass scrap basket, with +a great green bow. And inside were six parcels, each tied with a bow of +ribbon, so that all the rainbow shades are there. The friend is to draw +one each day for a week. Mrs. Kittredge undid them and let me look. She +says she likes the feel of the soft paper and ribbon. First was a little +red rose bush in a pot--" + +"Is she going to send the thing that way? How can she?" + +"I asked, myself, and she smiled and said she allowed herself some +extravagances, and one was to carry out her little ideas like that +without minding if they did cost rather more doing it her way. She said +her friend would enjoy the rose ten times as much coming that way as she +would if it were ordered from a Milwaukee florist, so she's sending it. +I like her independent spirit!" + +"It might take an independent fortune as well," remarked Dr. Harlow, +"but Madam Kittredge is fortunate enough to have that, or its +equivalent, and she uses a good proportion of it in conventional +charities, so she is safe from criticism if she chooses to assist the +express companies. Perhaps she's a stockholder in one, for all I know! +What did she have for orange, Alice?" + +"A box of tangerines, with those tiny, tiny ones like doll oranges; I +forget what you call them. They looked so pretty in a nest of green. The +yellow parcel was a little sunset picture, only a little colored +photograph, she said, but with a charming glow. The basket itself was +for the green stripe in the rainbow, and there was a lovely pale blue +knitted scarf, which Madam Kittredge made herself. The indigo bothered +her, but she sent her daughter searching everywhere till she found a +beautiful Persian pattern ribbon with an indigo ground, and she made +that up into sachets with violet scent." + +"That finished off two at once," said Hannah. "If I were Matty, I'd +object. I thought you said there were six parcels." + +"One of the sachets was done up with dark blue ribbon and the other with +violet. But there was still another parcel, a white one, the prettiest +of all, for it held skeins of all the soft shades of embroidery silk you +ever saw in a white silk case. I don't see how any one could help liking +to look at them. Madam Kittredge said that what suggested the whole idea +to her was Matty's writing about how she enjoyed having colored silk +samples to look at, as she lay in bed. She does embroidery, too, when +she is well enough, so she will like the silks to use, by and by." + +"What a charming basket!" Catherine drew a deep breath of pleasure. "I +should love to see it." + +"She said she shouldn't send it for a day or two, so if you go in +to-morrow, you can. I'm sure she'd love to have you. She wanted one more +thing to make it complete. You see, without intending it, she had put in +something for every sense but hearing. There was color and fragrance and +touch and taste, and she said she wanted to get some music into it, and +she couldn't think how. Of course her friend is deaf, but that didn't +matter. She said her mind's ear was as true as ever, and she wanted her +to _hear_ something out of that basket. And wasn't it lovely! I +happened to think of something which she said would do exactly!" + +"What?" "Tell us!" "Think of having a hand in such a pretty present!" +The other girls leaned forward eagerly, and the boys looked almost as +interested. Alice went on a trifle shyly, as she came to tell her own +part. + +"I suggested some little poem full of color words, and that delighted +her and she thought a minute. I didn't know any, and I wished Catherine +were there with her headful! But Madam Kittredge has a headful of her +own. She had me get out two or three books and look up some that she +thought might do, but they didn't just suit her; and then she had me +open her clipping book and hunt for one called _Indian Summer_. It +was just the thing and I loved it the minute I read it. She let me copy +it for her, and make an illuminated initial with her water-colors. She +seems to have everything imaginable in that big roomy desk of hers. I +was glad of the chance to copy it, for I could learn it and I want to +keep it always." + +"Please recite it for us," said Dr. Helen, and, the others all joining +in her request with words or looks, Alice repeated the beautiful lines +lovingly: + + "Faint blue the distant hills before, + Yellow the harvest lands behind; + Wayfarers we upon the path + The thistledown goes out to find. + + "On naked branch and empty nest, + The woodland's blended gold and red, + Dim glory lies which autumn shares + With faces of the newly dead. + + "Tender this moment of the year + To eyes that seek and feet that roam; + It is the lifting of the latch, + A footstep on the flags of home. + + "Now may the peace of withered grass + And goldenrod abide with you; + Abide with me--for what is death? + Pall of a leaf against the blue." + +Feeling that a benediction had been pronounced, they all adjourned to +the porch, Dr. Harlow sitting down by Archie and chatting with him in a +friendly way about his own Andover experiences years before, while the +girls talked quietly with Bert, who had dropped his nonsense for the +time. Dr. Helen was sitting a little apart, but by and by Hannah slipped +over to her chair. + +"I'm not so very clever about things," she said, "and I always like to +have them explained. So won't you tell me just what you meant by this +afternoon? You know we all promised to use the prescription again, if we +needed it." + +"Yes," said Dr. Helen encouragingly, and waited. + +"Well. You might have meant several things. You might just have meant +that we needed a change. We had been sitting about and wishing it was +cooler and talking nonsense and gossip--almost!--and we hadn't been +doing anything useful. Perhaps you wanted us to find out that we'd be +happier if we did something for some one else, even if it looked +disagreeable at first. I've always had that preached to me!" + +"I didn't preach!" objected Dr. Helen. + +"No, you prescribed. That's your way of preaching, though. You set us to +preaching to ourselves, and it's much more objectionable. I can shut my +ears when other people preach to me, but I can't get away from myself! +But I was wondering if, perhaps, besides all that, you didn't want us to +see how cheerful and happy some people manage to be without much to make +them so. Even that little girl with the spine plays she is an enchanted +princess, Catherine says, and has lovely times, winding balls of yarn +and cutting paper chains. She has to get a certain number of them done +before the enchantment will be broken. I know who suggested that idea to +her," said Hannah, looking searchingly into the doctor's face. "I've +found out a lot of things this afternoon about you, professionally. +Perhaps _that_ was what you were after! Just advertising!" + +Dr. Helen's laugh at this brought Dr. Harlow over to her; and Archie +joined the other group. + +"Go on, Hannah," said Dr. Helen, seeing Hannah hesitate a little. "Dr. +Harlow will be interested in your analysis of my prescription." + +"I wasn't going to analyse it any more, but I was just thinking that +whichever you meant, they were really all of them the same thing Miss +Lyndesay meant when she talked to us about being _laetus_, I mean, +_laetae sorte mea_, I mean _nostra_!" + +Dr. Harlow chuckled softly, but Dr. Helen put a kiss on the sweet mouth +with the earnest curve. + +"When you finish school, Hannah," suggested Dr. Harlow, "you can come +out here and help us in the office, making up prescriptions for +spiritually afflicted folk--we've all got to take up that line nowadays, +you know--and handling the Latin end of the business. Helen never was +strong on Latin. She translated '_E pluribus unum_' as 'One too +many' when she was young!" + +The boys got up to leave, and the doctor's raillery was checked, but +Hannah pondered over it as she went up to bed. About midnight she heard +him closing the doors for the night, and, slipping her bright kimono +over her night-dress, she stole out into the hall and half-way down +stairs. + +"Dr. Harlow," she called softly, and the doctor looked up to see her +leaning over the banister, her curly brown braids falling forward. + +"I know now why you laughed," she said. "It should be _sortibus_. +_Laetae sortibus nostra!_ O, dear no, _nostris_. I guess I'd +rather do the surgery, and let you attend to the Latin!" + +"Perhaps it would be wise!" said Dr. Harlow. + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + +JOURNALISM + + +"I'm glad you're all here. I'm in the deuce of a mess, and I want to be +helped out." + +So speaking, Max seated himself upon a porch settee and waited for +expressions of sympathy and curiosity from the girls before him. When he +had received them, he deigned to give a few details. + +"You know, I'm to be editor of the college paper next year, and Morse +has promised me all summer that when he went away for two weeks' +vacation, he'd let me take his place. Well, he went last week and I got +out the Courier. It was a good number, too. I don't suppose any of you +noticed the difference?" + +"I remember hearing father say the editorial was especially good," said +Catherine. + +"And I heard Mrs. Tracy bewailing the fact when I went in to see her +yesterday, that the paper had lost all its spice, and there wasn't a +single ridiculous item in it, not even a funny typographical mistake, so +I'm sure you ought to feel complimented," said Hannah. + +"It's true enough, but that's just where my pickle comes in," said Max +gloomily. "I didn't tell any one about it, because I wanted to carry it +through without any one's knowing. But the reporter has struck, because +I blue-pencilled his notes. He says no college boy is going to tamper +with his work, and he's just calmly left; and what's worse, his brother +has withdrawn an 'ad' which means quite a loss for Morse. I see now why +Morse let so many things go by!" + +"That is a pity!" said Catherine sympathetically, while the others +declared themselves in stronger terms. Max looked gratified. "Now what I +want of you girls is to help me gather up news and make the next paper +better than any issue has been since that young puppy came on it. And +I'll get 'ads' enough to offset the brother's withdrawal, and a new +subscription if I have to pay for it myself. I want to leave things in +at least as good shape as I found them. Jenkins will come back again as +soon as Morse does. He loves to write his wild stuff, and is only +willing to stop for a week, because he feels important, acting insulted. +Probably thought I'd eat humble pie and raise his salary, too. Why, he +had the Ortmeyer-Rawlins wedding fixed out with a scare-head THE WAY OF +ALL FLESH! And started it out with a quotation from Shakespeare or +somebody about Love looking with the mind, not with the eyes! The bride +and all her male relatives would have been down at the office with +sticks. She's a pretty girl, you know!" + +"It would have been worse, if she hadn't been," said Alice. "What else +did you cut out? It sounds like my pupils' work. I'll help you +blue-pencil. It's just my line." + +"The other things weren't funny, just poor constructions and general +flatness, personals that were too personal, you know, and that sort of +thing. But he had a rhapsody on Dawn all worked up that he wanted to run +in, this week. It began: 'When I arise at daybreak, a thousand +quotations surge into my mind!' The fellow is daft on quoting. He sits +with his feet on the desk and reads Bartlett by the hour. Well, I'm rid +of him, and I'm looking for substitutes." + +"I'd like nothing better than reporting," said Hannah. "I'll interview +the prominent strangers who come to town and get their views on things. +Imagine me strutting around the hotel lobby, getting acquainted!" And +Hannah assumed the swaggering manner which she fancied characteristic of +reporters. + +"The only prominent stranger in town is Frieda," laughed Max. "You'll +have to get her opinion of American education or the tariff." + +"That's easy. I know all Frieda's opinions. If they are favorable, she +gives them out plainly, and if they aren't she keeps still, so it's no +work to guess at them. I wish I could do like she does!" she added, with +a sudden earnest tone in her voice. + +"I'll blue-pencil all your reportings, if you use such grammar as 'like +she does!'" said Alice sternly. + +"Then I'll get mad and resign as Jenkins did!" answered Hannah. "I guess +I know the privileges of a reporter!" + +"Do you think you could get the news?" asked Max. "I suppose I could +manage alone, but I'd like to have the paper fuller and better than +ever, and I thought if you girls would go in, we could have a lark out +of it, and not tell the rest." + +"Indeed we can get news!" cried Catherine. "If you let us tell Mother +and Father, they can give us news which will be perfectly legitimate, +and Hannah and I have some calls to make. Frieda doesn't want to go, and +Alice wasn't here when these girls called. They are some of the gossippy +kind, and we'll let them talk and report as much as seems fair. And the +Three B's meet here this week, and we can make a good society column +thing of that." + +"Why not have Algernon give you library notes?" suggested Alice. + +"He does, always, but he would be glad to do something extra, I'm sure," +said Max. "I don't know but it would be a good plan to take him in on +this. He's in a position to gather news easily." + +"I don't see how I can help," said Frieda, sadly. + +"If you'll tell me something interesting about German schools," said +Alice, "I'll write it up, and that will go in as our contribution. You +could make room for it, couldn't you, Mr. Editor?" + +"Indeed, I could. I'd be mighty glad to get it. It would be better than +filling up with poetry, the way they often do. By the way, I did cut out +a poem of the reporter's. I forgot all about that. Wonder where it is," +and he began searching in his pockets. + +"That's what made him angry," cried Catherine. "Anybody would be angry +at that. Was it a very bad poem?" + +"I can't remember much of it. Only it had a refrain every two inches of +'My woe! My woe!' + + 'I cannot tell the world my woe,' + +was the way it began, and then he went straight ahead to try to do that +very thing. Here! I've got a scrap of it. + + 'Things are seldom what they seem, + Nor is Life what its livers dream, + My woe, my woe!'" + +The audience shouted with laughter, but Catherine looked sympathetic. + +"Poor boy!" she said. "He probably loved his quotations and his poetry, +and had looked forward to Mr. Morse's being away to have a beautiful +time with the paper. I don't blame him for resigning and eating his +heart out. Not a poem of mine will I send you, Mr. Penfield, or any of +your hard-hearted staff. I'll confine myself to finding out what's +happening in Winsted, and leave the head-lines to your own inventive +genius." + +Two days later, the editorial staff of the Courier had an impromptu +meeting in the library. Max had come in to ask Algernon for notes, and +Catherine and Hannah were waiting for Frieda and Alice to join them to +go to a tea at Dot's. + +"We've called on the biggest gossips we could find," called Hannah +cheerfully, as Max came in, "and I've got at least ten items." She +showed a note-book which slipped inside her card-case. + +"She was dreadful!" said Catherine. "She would stop and make notes +before we had got a block away from the house, for fear she would +forget, and asked questions that made me hold my breath." + +"Well," Hannah defended herself. "I wanted details. I don't want just +little bare sentences. And Catherine was just as bad. She took such an +interest in the new people who had moved in next door to the +Galleghers', that I know the Gallegher girls were almost scandalized." + +Max ran his eye over Hannah's list of news items approvingly. "That's a +fine start. Can't you do some more calls?" + +Catherine shook her head. "No, we don't know any more of the very +gossippy kind, but we are going to a tea at Dot's, and we'll make a +society note of that. How are the editorials coming?" + +Max made a wry face. "I declare, I'm pretty nearly stumped. At college +there always seemed to be a lot of vital matters to discuss. But here +there isn't anything after a little spiel on the crops and a paragraph +on politics. I don't dare go in heavy there, for I'm not sure just what +Morse's position is, and don't want to commit him. I can't think of any +public enterprise to work up, or any nuisance to be suppressed." + +"I wish you'd suppress mosquitoes and flies," said Hannah, brushing away +one of the latter insects, and petting a swollen place on her wrist. + +"Why not write an editorial on it?" suggested Catherine. "You can give +him material to read, can't you, Algernon?" + +Algernon came over to the corner where the three were talking in tones +fitting a library. + +"What's that? O, indeed, yes," and the boy's face lightened with +pleasure as he found some one really desiring information of a worthy +nature. "I'll get you something right away. There was an article in a +last month's magazine." + +"I could do elegant head-lines," said Max: + + "KEROSENE THE KONQUEROR! + MOSQUITOES MASSACRED! + THE FLIGHT OF THE FLY!" + +As Algernon brought the magazine and a book, Alice and Frieda arrived in +their party raiment, and, bidding the boys good-by, the four girls +drifted out and down the street looking like pretty butterflies. + +Max lingered for a few minutes' chat with Algernon about the paper, +telling him some of his difficulties and desires. Algernon's store of +information proved of value here, too, and Max accepted gratefully a +hint or two about the mechanical part of the work. + +"I say, Swinburne," he said suddenly, as he got up to go, taking fly and +mosquito literature with him, "couldn't you get off and run up to +Madison for a few days this fall? I'd like to show you around and have +you meet some of the fellows. If I were you, I'd try to pass off a few +subjects. You could, without half trying, and perhaps you'd be able to +get up and take your degree some time." + +"Thanks," said Algernon, "I'll think about it," and Max went whistling +away; but Algernon, as he selected a fairy tale for the little Hamilton +girl, felt his heart light and his courage high. "I'll get to college +yet, as true as I'm alive," he said aloud, and the little Hamilton girl +looked up at him. "What did you say?" she asked. "I don't want true +stories, but fairy ones." + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY + +THE THREE R'S + + +The meeting of the Three R's the next evening was one of particular +importance. Not only to the eager reporters, who found that even Dot's +party would not spread out sufficiently to use up the space they had +allotted to social events, but to the club members themselves. It was +Judge Arthur's fiftieth birthday, and as he was a childless man, quite +alone in the world, his friendly neighbors were determined to make the +day memorable for him. The meeting was to be at Three Gables, so the +journalists were behind the scenes from the start. The only difficulty +in the way of their writing it up was that they were so busy all day +that there was not time to take a pen in hand. + +"I always see to the refreshments when they meet here," said Catherine +to her three helpers, as she appeared, wearing by Hannah's request, her +brown smock. "You can crack the nuts for the salad if you will, Frieda; +and Hannah, if you and Alice will get the dishes out of the way, that +would be the most help. Mother wants Inga to sweep the living-room, and +we can have a jolly time out here." + +"You ought to see the kitchen at Frieda's house," said Hannah, as she +made a fine suds in the rinsing pan and poured it over the glasses. +"What did you think of our black stoves and things, Frieda?" + +"I saw one in the American church first, you know." + +Hannah smiled at the diplomatic evasion. "You are the nicest thing I +ever saw, Frieda. You don't say anything unfavorable of anything any +more. When I was at your house I kept criticising the whole country. But +you are so polite,--as polite as Karl!" + +Frieda looked pleased, but she only said sedately: "We were children +when you were in Berlin, Hannah. Now it is proper for us to act like +grown-ups." + +"You were awfully grown-up in that pillow fight last night!" + +Instantly the mask of primness vanished from Frieda's face, and roguish +twinkles showed themselves. + +"Don't let me ever catch you turning prig, Frieda Lange," advised +Hannah. "And now don't ask me what a prig is, for I don't know in +German, and there's no way here to find out. What else are you going to +have for eats, Catherine?" + +Catherine shuddered. "I suppose you'd think I was a prig if I told you +how I hate that word 'eats,' so I won't tell you! The chief thing +to-night is the birthday cake, of course. And Inga is going to make +grape-fruit sherbet. It's so nice with a little tang of tartness to it, +you know. And we'll have olive sandwiches with the salad and coffee. You +can all help with those!" + +"It's such fun to help," said Alice. "At home there are so many of us, +and no maid at all, you know, and we have awfully jolly times, really. +Mother is cook and she has a different scullery-maid for each meal. And +the rest of us divide up the rooms, and so on. The boys are great +workers, too. Even little Jack brings in kindlings and wipes the silver. +He plays the knives are men, and the forks their wives and the spoons +the little children." + +"O, so did I, always," cried Catherine. "And it used to worry me +dreadfully not to know positively that the proper couples were together. +Once I tied them all neatly with different colored silks, but Mother +didn't approve. Through with the nuts so soon, Frieda? Then you can +begin on the sandwiches." + +"Ach! The butter is too difficult!" + +"Cream it, then. So!" and Alice illustrated. "I'll go to work on these, +too, while Hannah puts away the dishes, for I don't know where they +belong." + +"All right," said Catherine. "But please don't talk, any of you, for a +few minutes. I don't want to lose a word that any of you say, and I'm +afraid the cake may suffer." + +Dr. Helen stopped at the door and looked in at the group of silent +workers. They all threw her kisses, and she went smiling on her way. + +"I wish I had four of my own," she thought to herself. "How the other +mothers must be missing them! Four more interesting and delightful girls +I never have known. Hannah has grown more mature since I saw her last, +and Frieda is distinctly unique. Alice is the kind you can tie to. But I +really think, without prejudice, my Catherine is a shade sweeter and +steadier and more responsible than all the rest!" + +By five o'clock the house was all ready. The decorations were great +masses of goldenrod which Bert and Polly had gathered. Frieda had +suggested tying them with bows of red ribbon, whereat the others had +shrieked with horror and tried to Americanize her color sense a little. +She approved of the birthday cake, and was interested in the big tin +circle which held fifty candle-sockets, and would slip over the cake as +it rested on a tray. Winding this circle with smilax proved a task just +to Frieda's mind, and she worked at it with Hannah's help, while Alice +and Catherine planned the "recreation" for the evening. + +"I'm so glad," said Catherine, stretching a little, "that we don't have +to get the Rest ready for them. Refreshments and Recreation are enough +to provide!" + +"You need the Rest yourself," said Hannah. "I think it was a shame that +out-of-town call had to come for your mother this afternoon. She would +have enjoyed these things, and she looked so tired." + +"I know. But I'm so glad she could go away and feel sure I'd carry +things through. You don't know what a comfort that is to me! Whenever I +feel discouraged about things, I always pluck up spirit by remembering +that I'm really useful to her. I couldn't practise medicine myself, you +know, but there have been lots of things Mother couldn't have done, if I +hadn't been here to help at home. I wish she could be here this +afternoon, though, for she is so clever at foolishnesses like this." + +"You're clever enough at it, yourself," growled Hannah. "I don't see how +you can do it. You and Alice make me sick with envy. You can cook and +manage and tutor and make rhymes and everything, and I can't do much of +anything!" + +"How about playing the violin?" suggested Alice. + +"I can't do that," said Frieda suddenly. "I cannot do one thing. O, +there comes Dr. Helen, after all! We were wishing you were here," and +Frieda sprang up and ran to meet the doctor. The others followed her and +in an instant Dr. Helen found her arms full of welcoming girls. + +"I met a messenger on the way, telling me that I need not come, and I'll +admit it was a relief. I knew you'd get on all right, but I did want a +finger in the pie. There! You may put my hat and coat away, Hannah, if +you will, and I'll get right to work. How prettily you are putting that +smilax on, Frieda!" + +"That's right to cheer Frieda up, Mother," said Catherine. "She was just +saying that she couldn't do anything." + +"Frieda was saying that? I thought you embroidered that wonderful apron +yourself?" + +"O, of course, but that is only _Handarbeit_," said Frieda. + +"Hand work is highly valued these days," remarked the doctor. "If you +could teach Catherine to sew so well, Frieda, I should be even prouder +of her than I am now. But it must not distress you when you find that +there is some one thing you can't do. No one does everything well. It's +one of my pet theories that for every talent one has, there is some +other he hasn't. It's part of the balancing of the world. Think how very +disagreeable it would be if there were one person who could do +everything, and some one else who could do nothing at all." + +"Don't you think there are some people who can't do anything?" asked +Alice. + +"Not really. Some people never seem to find their special line. I've +known people so perverse they wouldn't do what they could, simply +because they would have preferred something else. But I'm a firm +believer that every one has a gift." + +"Is _Handarbeit_ a gift?" asked Frieda, looking with respect at the +graceful vine twining over the shoulder of her blue apron. + +"Indeed it is," said Dr. Helen. "And it is a gift more widely +distributed than everybody knows. If you can, do help Catherine to +discover that it is one of hers!" + +"She helped me find out that I liked to sew," said Hannah. "I hated the +sight of a needle before I went to Germany. But I didn't know you hated +sewing, Catherine." + +"I don't," Catherine answered tranquilly. "But there are always so many +other things to do, and there is so much to read. It makes me shiver to +think that I have only three years more at Dexter, and I haven't begun +to read all I want to. I'd like to move over to the library and stay +there." + +"That's a serious criticism of your college life, Catherine," said Dr. +Helen. + +Hannah giggled. "I suppose there is a library at Dexter, but I was there +a whole term, and never went inside it once!" + +Everybody laughed. "Well," said Dr. Helen, "that was the other extreme. +But I suppose if you young people were all-wise and learned, there'd be +no point in sending you to college at all. And the world would be much +more monotonous if it were filled with grown-ups! What a conflagration +those red candles will make, Frieda!" + +Catherine had left her seat and gone across the room to the poetry +section of the bookcase, and was now turning the pages of a small green +book. + +"Listen to this Singing Leaf, Mother! + + "'The wisest finding that I have + Is very young, no doubt, + Yet many a man must needs grow old + Before he finds it out. + + "'How happily it comes about-- + And I was never told!-- + That we must all be young awhile + Before we _can_ be old!'" + +Dr. Helen laughed. "That is certainly very appropriate, and a good close +to our rather sermonizing talk. I suppose fifty-year-old birthday +parties should lead one to serious thinking! But now show me how far +your nonsense rhyming has progressed. It's nearly supper time." + + * * * * * + +The Three R's were early comers and late stayers. Before the summer +twilight was over, they had gathered in force. Alice, counting, suddenly +said: + +"Why, there are just forty-nine. Wouldn't it be fun if just one more +should come?" + +"Who isn't here?" asked some one. "Perhaps there will be one other, +though almost everybody has come." + +"The Judge himself isn't here yet," said Dr. Harlow. "He'll make the +fiftieth. There he is! Let's line up, and give him a royal welcome!" + +The suggestion "took," and the little judge came up the walk, bowing on +all sides, and smiling. As he reached the door and shook hands with Dr. +Harlow and Dr. Helen, he looked about him peeringly. "Where's my girl?" +he asked. + +"Here I am," said Catherine, "and here is a little souvenir for you, +Judge Arthur, with wishes for many returns of the day." She presented +with a flourish, a huge feather duster adorned with a great green bow. +That was the signal and the others at once produced parcels of all sizes +and shapes, and bestowed them upon the judge, who opened them under a +rapid fire of friendly wit. + +The special form of recreation offered for the evening was called +"Strange Compounds." Catherine had taken the idea from the nonsense +verses which had been spreading over the country as generally as the +limericks of a few years before. The guests grouped themselves at little +tables, and some, with shears and pages cut from old natural histories, +geographies or poultry and live stock journals, created grotesque +illustrations for the verses descriptive of the hippopotamustang and the +kangarooster and other strange beasts which Catherine and Alice +concocted during the afternoon. Others labored over historical +combinations and the deeds of Bathrobespierre were sung in limpid +strains, and the plaintive history of Old Black Joan of Archæology set +every one off into a gale of mirth. The Three R's had done so many +foolish things together in the many years since their beginning as a +club, that they were ready to laugh before a joke was thought of, and in +that atmosphere of appreciation the frailest wit was bound to flourish. +Mrs. Osgood headed a party of gardeners whose attempts at grafting +produced such startling results as cro-custards and gerani-umbrellas. +When some one requested help in developing the theme of a disaster, +Judge Arthur shouted from the animal table that he had attempted to draw +a wild-cat-astrophe and the picture would probably do for both! + +Just in time to save them all from mental collapse, the white-gowned +maidens brought in the dainty salad, sandwiches and cups of fragrant +coffee. Then the noble birthday cake, wreathed in scarlet flame, was set +before the judge, the candles blown out with good wishes, and the cake +cut and served with the ice. + +Dr. Harlow rose to announce that the prize for the most complete +compound was given to Mr. Kittredge, who had conceived of a +"pigeon-toad, with a lovely long dove-tail, and a pot-pied waistcoat +ringed and streaked, and a sweet dove-cot-ton veil." Frieda and Hannah +came solemnly into the room, bearing a crate, from the top of which +appeared the head of a rooster, with a big bow of ribbon around its +neck. They set it down before the minister amid the shouts of the +assembled company. + +"You may crow as much as you like, Sir," said the doctor, "but this +fellow will beat you." And straightway, as though primed for his part, +the rooster opened his mouth and filled the room with a long and lusty +cock-a-doodle-doo! + +"I was so afraid they would hear him before we brought him in," said +Frieda to the girls, as the four gathered on the window-seat. "He kept +growing and growing out there!" and then she looked bewildered at the +others' sudden mirth. Her peculiarities of pronunciation were so few +that the girls could never learn to expect them, and this, added to the +other nonsense of the evening, was too much for even Catherine's +self-control. + +"I never saw grown-up people do such funny things," said Hannah, in +order to cover their laughter. "Do they always act this way, Catherine?" + +"O, no, indeed. I never saw them put in a whole evening quite so +foolishly before. I didn't know whether they would take the idea up or +not, but Judge Arthur loves to laugh, and lately mother said they had +had quite stupid commonplace meetings,--cards and talking politics and +literary and musical programs,--and she wanted something entirely +different. They're a lot of dears, anyway! The younger set wouldn't +think of laughing so hard and being so hilarious, even the Boat Club; +and you should see the formal dignified parties that the Galleghers and +those girls give! They go in carriages and the dancing doesn't begin +till nine, though every one has a six o'clock supper and almost goes to +sleep waiting for it to be stylishly late to go. Max and Archie and Bess +and Win always go, and sometimes the rest of us get in, but we hardly +feel acquainted with each other when we meet in such surroundings. +Polly's mother told her she ought to entertain that crowd a while ago, +because she was 'indebted,' and she planned a luncheon party, and at the +last minute changed her mind and got up a Boat Club picnic instead. That +was the last picnic before you girls came." + +"I've heard so much about those jolly picnics," said Hannah, "and we +haven't been to one!" + +"I know. Isn't it odd that it happens so? But we'll have one the night +before we go back to college. The moon will be full, and the boys have +all the plans made. There! They're beginning to leave." And Catherine +went forward to help her mother's guests find hats and scarfs. + +"I never heard Catherine talk so much at once before," said Frieda +lazily. "She looks beautiful to-night, too,--to boot!" She had just +heard that phrase and though a little uncertain as to its exact +significance, took pleasure in inserting it here and there in her +speech. + +"She's a darling dear," assented Alice, "and so is Dr. Helen, to boot! +Now let's help Inga clear things away and go to bed." + +A half-hour later, Frieda and Alice in the guest-room were sound asleep, +and Hannah in her little bed was sleeping likewise. But Catherine was +sitting by the window writing, by moon and candle light, notes for the +_Courier_, due to appear to-morrow, and still lacking at least two +columns! She wrote slowly and conscientiously, trying to be clear and +simple, and yet not so unlike the usual style of the _Courier_ as +to excite comment. Presently she finished and, resting her elbows on the +window-sill, looked out into the night. Capella twinkled at her and she +leaned out to identify such of her beloved constellations as she could. + +The house stood high on a hillside, and overlooked the streets of the +little town. Suddenly through the trees Catherine saw the gleam of a +moving lantern, then another and a third. She heard a voice call, and an +answer from a distance. + +"I wonder what it means?" she thought, watching and listening. "It +sounds and looks very mysterious. _The Courier!_" + +The recently acquired news instinct recognized in this mystery of voices +and moving lights at the dead of night a possible "scoop" for her paper. +To be sure, her paper was the only one in Winsted, but that did not +matter. She got up, and taking a long light cloak from the closet threw +it over her shoulders, drawing the silk hood over her head. Then she +stole out into the corridor and down the stairs, her party skirts +rustling, and the boards now and then creaking under her stockinged +feet. Down stairs she stopped, put on her pumps, and then let herself +out, closing the door softly behind her. + +Outside everything was very still. Catherine felt a little frightened +and foolish. But having started, she would not turn back. Resolutely she +went down the walk in the direction in which she had seen the lights. + +"I might take Hotspur, though," she thought, and turned back toward his +house under the porch. The big dog sprang up to meet her, and leaped +upon her, then drew her toward his kennel. Puzzled, Catherine followed +him, and once there, knelt down and looked inside. Curled on the straw +inside the roomy doghouse were two little figures. She pulled at them +and called. Suddenly one sat up and said: "Mamma! Peter!" + +"Perdita Osgood! what are you doing here?" and Catherine drew a sleepy +dishevelled-looking little girl out and into her arms. Perdita blinked +and woke entirely. + +"Elsmere and me went journeying," she said, "and we stayed all night in +Hotspur's house, so bears wouldn't get us." + +Then Catherine remembered the other slumberer, and dragged Elsmere out +with more force than gentleness. + +"I see now what the lights and the calling were," she said. "They +discovered that the children were not at home, and were out looking for +them. Poor Polly and poor Algernon! Elsmere, wake up here, and come +along home this minute. There, Perdita, I'll carry you, you sleepy, +naughty little girl. Elsmere, come along. Give me your hand." + +Down the hill they went, and through the short cut to the Osgood house, +Elsmere running beside Catherine, who walked as rapidly as though +Perdita had no weight, Hotspur leaping and bounding alongside. + +In the path, through a little grove, they saw a twinkling lantern and +Catherine called: + +"Polly, Algernon! They're here! I'm bringing them home." With a rush the +lantern-bearers were upon her, and Perdita was taken from her arms into +Mr. Osgood's, while Algernon, husky and faint with relief, picked up his +brother and listened to Catherine's story. She followed the others to +the Osgoods', where Polly and Mrs. Osgood were waiting in suspense. +Perdita had been put to bed as usual, but when Mrs. Osgood came home +from the Three R's party she had gone in to tuck the children up, and +kiss them good night. Perdita was not there, and they searched the house +before they thought of being alarmed. Not finding her anywhere, they had +roused Peter and questioned him. He could only say: "I say, 'Perdita, +Perdita, stay home with Peter. Elsmere bad boy.'" + +That suggested Elsmere, and investigation showed that, though he had not +been missed at home, he was not there. Then the men had taken lanterns, +and gone out to search. + +No one was more distressed than Peter. "I'd ought to tooken care of +Perdita better," he would sob. "I'd ought to watched her better." + +"There, there, boy," Catherine and Polly soothed him. "You did your +best, and she's home now, all safe, and won't go journeying again, ever. +She didn't like Hotspur's house, and she will stay home with Peter." + +"O, Catherine," sighed Polly. "You are an only child, and you don't know +what agonies you can have over your brothers and sisters. It seems to me +ever since Peter and Perdita were born I've been worrying about one or +both of them!" + +"Poor Polly!" said Catherine sympathetically. "But I don't suppose you'd +give me your share in them, would you?" + +Polly caught Peter close, and hugged him till he protested and drew away +from her. + +"Kiss me," she begged. + +"I did," said Peter. + +"Kiss me again." + +"I did twice," said Peter. "I want to go to bed. Aw-ful sleepy!" and, +with a yawn that set the others to imitating him, he stumbled off toward +the stairs, in his little night clothes. Polly followed to make him +comfortable, while Mr. Osgood took Catherine home. + +"You did us a great service to-night, my dear," he said, as he lifted +his hat to say good night, when she had reached her home porch. "But I +haven't learned yet how you happened to find them." + +"I was out reporting for the _Courier_," she told him and then, +laughing softly at his astonished expression, explained her meaning. +"And though I did find out the news, I can't write it up," she sighed. +"I know how real journalists feel when they have to sacrifice a scoop +for reasons of delicacy." + +"The _Courier_ shall not suffer!" said Mr. Osgood. "Since it was +for its sake that you went out, I'll have to see that Max gets a little +assistance. My profession doesn't advertise, but I have some influence +with one or two concerns that do, and I'll see that your next number is +full of something more profitable to the management than harrowing +accounts of midnight searches for missing babies!" + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + +THE LAST PARTY + + +Rain. + +Rain. + +Rain. + +"It's beastly," said Alice, with her nose pressed to the window-pane, +watching the cold drifting downpour. + +"Let's go in and see if the others are awake." + +So Frieda put on her heavy leather slippers, lined with figured satin +and edged with fur, and a very bunchy bathrobe, and followed Alice's +kimonoed figure across the wide corridor to Catherine's room. + +They pushed the door softly open and entered. + +Then they exchanged glances of mischief. Dr. Helen did not believe in +girls sleeping two in a bed, but Alice had found the big mahogany bed in +the guest-room lonely, and Frieda had found the cot narrow; so they had +made a law for themselves and slept together; and here, in Catherine's +four-poster, were also two heads, one auburn and one brown. + +"Wake up, you two!" said Alice, tickling Hannah's plump cheek, while +Frieda tweaked the pink bow from Catherine's bronze braids. + +"Time to take off your pink bow, dear. It's daylight and it looks worse +than goldenrod with red ribbon." + +"Ouch! You needn't have given that last yank. I'm awake. Hannah!" + +Hannah sighed and turned over. "Don't bother me," she said. "I didn't +get to sleep last night until this morning." + +"Why aren't you in your own room and bed?" asked Frieda severely. + +"I'll wager you two slept together, yourselves," said Catherine. "O, +Hannah, do wake up! It's raining!" + +"Yes, that's what we came to tell you," said Alice. "We've just been +watching it wash away our beautiful moonlight picnic." + +Hannah sat up and looked out. + +"Isn't it beastly?" she remarked. + +"I should call it foul," said Catherine, beginning to comb out her great +braids. + +"Why not fish-ous?" suggested Alice mischievously, whereupon Hannah +pitched a pillow at her. + +"Ow! Look out for my glasses!" + +"Well, don't make such flat puns then. I believe you sleep with your +glasses on. How funny they must look staring away in the dark. There +goes the rising-bell. I'll beat every one of you to breakfast." + +Dr. Helen was not sorry to see the rain. An all afternoon picnic, with +the evening and a late-rising moon added, did not seem to her a wise +plan for the day before going back to college,--"though I do dislike +putting a damper on your pleasure," she said at breakfast. + +"There's a damper on this one," sighed Catherine. "Alice has not been up +the river yet, and the other girls haven't been to one real Boat Club +picnic. Mother!" and an inspired look came into Catherine's eyes, "why +couldn't we have our picnic in the library instead? It would be as +appropriate a way to end this summer as on the river, and this is one of +the closed evenings. Don't you think we could?" + +The other girls held their breath with eagerness, while Dr. Helen +considered. + +"I don't see any objection," she said presently. "I suppose that would +be more fun than having them all come here?" + +"O, heaps more," cried Hannah. "It would be the jolliest kind of a +lark." + +"Would the Board be willing?" suggested Alice. + +"I'm sure of that," said Catherine. "Algernon will be the hardest to +persuade, for he feels as though the library were almost holy ground, +but I'll interview him at once." + +The telephone was kept busy for the next half-hour; by its means +everything was arranged, and every one notified, and the girls went to +work making preparations for the supper. Polly and Dot came over in the +afternoon and the time slipped quickly by, trunk-packing and +sandwich-making being mingled in what seemed to the doctor, some of the +time, an almost hopeless jumble. At last the sounds of talk and laughter +and running up and down stairs ceased. The boys had arrived to carry +baskets, and a rain-coated procession tramped gayly off, waving good-bys +now and then to the two doctors standing in the window. + +"It hardly seems as though Catherine could be the same girl," said her +father. "She is so eager and full of fun." + +"But she keeps her quaint sweet dignity all the same," answered Dr. +Helen softly. "She will never lose her characteristic charm, and it is +such a comfort to have her well enough to wish to eat a cold supper in +that bare little room!" + +"Can't they heat the place?" asked Dr. Harlow sharply. + +"O, yes," his wife assured him, "and they have all solemnly promised me +to dry their skirts as soon as they get there! Hannah always contrives +to get into puddles." + +"_She's_ not much changed," chuckled the little doctor. "Her +language is as funny now and then as Frieda's. She told me they were +going to relegate themselves on watermelon this evening!" + +"It was a fortunate day for us when Catherine found her," and Dr. +Helen's eyes smiled, as they always did when Hannah's image came before +her mind. "And, do you know, I am very much pleased with Alice. She has +the honestest eyes, and her manners are as unconscious and simple as can +be. I should like to see her mother." + +"Father's not so important, of course! But I agree with you, she's the +true blue sort. It's Frieda for me, though. Of all inscrutable +countenances, hers is the most. I believe she is, on the whole, the most +unforeseen young person I have ever had dealings with, and in whatever +direction she may choose to let herself out, in the future, she will do +something interesting, or 'I shall astonish'!" + +At which quotation from the young lady in question, they both laughed, +and went out to their own supper, not at all sorry to have a quiet +evening alone. + +It was not a quiet evening in the little library. Behind the drawn +shades, the boys and girls were busy spreading the long reading-table +with a white cloth, setting out upon it the motley collection of plates, +cups and silver ware which came out of the various picnic baskets, and +an equally motley, but very appetizing, array of good things to eat. +Winifred had laden Max with a chafing-dish, all legs and handles, he +declared, and with this at one end, Bess' little copper teakettle at the +other, Dorcas' asters for centerpiece and Polly's red-shaded candles at +accurate intervals between, the whole effect was "very festival," as +Frieda said admiringly. + +As a finishing touch, Bertha and Algernon, official hosts, walked around +the table laying typewritten catalog cards at each place. + +The others swarmed around instantly, examining and commenting. + +"Cunning!" "Real library place cards!" "What a pretty idea!" "But +_what_ do they mean?" + +Algernon and Bertha only laughed. + +"No one can sit down till he has found his proper place," said Algernon +sternly. "This is a well-conducted library!" + +"They all have the same number," cried Bert. "I'm on to that. See! It's +the date, fixed up to look like the mystic symbols they mark the books +with. 190.9 Se 16. September 16th, 1909. That's so much, gained. Now +some of you others can figure out the rest. I've done my share." + +The others wandered around the table, picking up the cards and laying +them down again. + +"_Brightness, or Beauty_," read Polly, disgustedly. "Imagine any +one of us owning up to that! Of course, we all know we have them both, +but who is going to claim them?" + +"It's going to be a conflict between modesty and hunger soon, I can see +that," said Archie. + +"_Peace_ and _Purity_ are all well enough. If I could find a +half-way sort like _Perfect Honesty_ or _Genius_, I'd stop +there! What's this? _Bright Raven!_ I tell you, it's a game, made +out of book titles. But I'll be jiggered if I ever heard of one of +them." + +"I never did, either," said Dorcas, shortly. "They must have hunted +around in very queer places to find things that none of us know. _Star +of the Sea_, though, does sound familiar. Isn't it one of +Tennyson's?" + +Bertha choked and turned away, avoiding Algernon's eye. + +"Hurry up, and find yours, the rest of you," said Tom suddenly, "I'm +fixed and I'm ready to eat." + +Every one pounced upon him, to discover that he had chosen to install +himself at a place marked _The Whiskered One_. + +"I'm the only fellow here who ever wore a mustache," he said, "so it's +plain, though rather far-fetched." + +"It's not your place, though, Tom, truly," said Bertha. "I'm afraid +we'll have to help. The librarian always does help stupid people." + +"We won't ask him, though! If you two were bright enough to make these +cards, we'll figure out the meanings or go without our supper," said +Polly decisively, and the girls echoed her, though the boys groaned, and +Max helped himself to a sandwich. + +"Now, listen," said Polly. "I'm president of this club, and I call you +all to order. I'll read the cards, one after another and you must all +think, and perhaps we'll be able to get on to the system--I mean, to +understand it." + +Every one struck an attitude and waited while Polly walked up one side +of the table and down the other, reading aloud in order: + + "_The Whiskered One._ + _Chastity._ + _Star of the Sea._ + _A Twin._ + _Consecrated to God._ + _Extremely Bold; or Holy Prince._ + _Peace._ + _A Lover of Peace._ + _Brightness, or Beauty._ + _The Greatest One._ + _Purity._ + _The Woman Strong with the Spear._ + _Bright Raven._ + _Grace._ + _A Gazelle._ + _A Princess of Noble Birth._" + +When she had finished, there was a moment's silence and then everybody +but Hannah burst out laughing. + +With a little "O!" she flew across the room to the big dictionary, and +opening it toward the back, dropped on her knees before it. + +"I have it!" she cried joyfully. "I used to study and study the meanings +of names when I was a youngster, and here they are. Mine means Grace and +I know where I'm going to sit, and the rest of you can find out in a +minute." + +The long delayed supper was at last eaten, and sitting idly around the +table, with watermelon rinds before them, the young people talked over +the summer which seemed already closed. + +"We've accomplished a lot, haven't we?" said Polly. "I'm really proud of +the Boat Club this year. It never used to stand for anything but its own +fun before, but from now on it will be a recognized factor in Winsted +life." + +"Bully for you, Polly!" said Bert. "I never heard any one say 'factor' +offhand like that. It's one of the words I've always held sacred to +special topics and theses and such." + +"Like 'objective' and 'subjective'?" asked Polly. "I always feel about +those as the old lady did about her pies, after she labelled them T. M." + +"What did she label them like that for?" asked Frieda, leaning forward +from her seat between Winifred and Archie. + +"O, dear," sighed Bert in mock despair. "Frieda has made us explain all +the old jokes we knew this summer, and I don't see how that one was +overlooked. Did you ever hear the riddle about when a door is not a +door, Frieda?" + +"Yes," said Frieda good-naturedly. "It was in an English book I learned. +There was a whole chapter on riddles, and the answers were printed +upside down!" + +"That dear Edith and Mary book!" cried Hannah. "Such a fine lot of +riddles as there were! I think you and I ought to give a copy of that +book to the library, Frieda!" + +"That reminds me," exclaimed Algernon. "We have had gifts to-day. I +saved them to tell you when you should all be listening, for they came +to us through our honorary members, the Wide-Awakes." + +"Hear!" "Hear!" shouted Max, but Polly rapped the meeting to order. +Alice and Hannah and Catherine and Frieda looked puzzled, and the others +interested, as Algernon went on. + +"Mr. Kittredge told me to-day that they had voted to give the +Sunday-school library books to us, as he thought the public library much +more important than theirs, and they wanted to help all they could, +following the good example of several of the Sunday-school teachers. +That's a compliment to Dorcas and Catherine, both. So that's one of the +four 'notorious Wide-Awakes,' as Mr. Graham calls them. And then a Mr. +Tracy came in with his arms full of boxes, and said that his wife had +been ill here at the hotel for some weeks, and she had amused herself +during her convalescence with working on picture puzzles; now she was +well and going away, she did not want to take them with her, and, as the +Winsted Library had been a great help to her, she would like to give +them these six or seven puzzles, to be loaned to people like books. She +said she thought a small library like this where the librarian knew +every one personally, could easily handle such a department, for +convalescents and lonely old people. Pictures and games and all such +things might be included, to be loaned at the librarian's discretion, +only." + +"What a good idea!" cried Polly, "but how do the Wide-Awakes come in on +that?" + +"Just this way. Mrs. Tracy said that if we would let her name the +collection, she would be glad to add to it from time to time. And when +we consented, as, of course, we did, she said she wanted it called The +Hannah Eldred Department." + +"Three cheers for Mrs. Tracy!" shouted Bert, and Max sprang to his feet +and led off with a right good will. Then followed cheers for Hannah, for +Catherine, for the Wide-Awakes and the Boat Club. When the noise +subsided, Algernon took the floor again. + +"That's not all, either! You know, most of you, that Frieda started the +German part of the library, giving some books and an invaluable list; +but none of you know what Miss Prescott told me a day or two ago. It is +a secret, but I think she will let me tell it now, just for +completeness, won't you, Miss Prescott?" + +Alice blushed and smiled. + +"If you really wish, but I don't like to be thanked for what is only a +promise as yet." + +"Never mind about that. It will be more than a promise soon. Miss +Prescott does very clever designing, and she heard me lamenting the fact +that we have no book-plate for the library, and most kindly offered to +furnish one." + +"I'll submit it to my teacher in designing," said Alice shyly, "and then +Mr. Swinburne will present it to the Board to accept or reject as they +see fit. You're not bound to take it, but I did want to help along +somehow!" + +"We ought to do that cheering all over again," said Archie, "but I move +you, Madam President, that Miss Lange and Miss Prescott consider +themselves specially included in the yells of a moment ago, and that the +meeting proceed to sing the Boat Club song." + +The passers-by, if there had been any, must have wondered at the joyous +burst of song that followed this remark. As a matter of fact, however, +there were no passers-by at all. The rain had washed the streets clear, +and the corner lights, glimmering faintly through the wet, fell on one +figure only. + +Standing before the library window, holding a great cotton umbrella over +his head, and peering patiently through a crack between the casing and +the shade, was a small boy, in an overcoat several sizes too large for +him. + +Agnes' seat was near the window. Suddenly she saw a small nose and an +inquiring eye pressed against the crack. + +"Look!" she said, and all eyes followed her gesture. + +Bert sprang to open the door and drag the dripping little figure in. +Polly and Catherine quickly took off the great coat and shut the vast +umbrella. Then they drew the little chap to the table, where Bertha had +a plate of goodies ready for him. + +"Attention, everybody!" + +Max sprang to his feet. + +"Sing to the air of the Boat Club Song: + + "He is the Boat Club mascot, + Give a cheer! give a cheer! + For the Boat Club mascot, + Elsmere! Elsmere!" + +"Do it again!" cried Elsmere, brandishing a fork and making Bertha +dodge, "Give a cheer, Elsmere! Boat Club stomach! Give a cheer!" + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + +AUF WIEDERSEHEN + + +Such a bustling place as Three Gables was on that Friday morning! + +"It seems a pity that you can't stay till Monday, when college really +opens," said Dr. Helen, pressing out a filmy waist in the dining-room, +where the four girls were gathered, setting last stitches. + +"But the new girls who have come on early and those who have had to take +'exams' are just the ones who need cheering up, and we are the official +Comfort Committee, aren't we, Alice?" + +Alice, fastening the thread after sewing in a fresh ruche, nodded. "Got +to keep the blues away, or perish trying to," she said. "And Hannah has +to be home before Monday. And Frieda needs a day or two to get settled. +Hilda said she'd come back to-day, and they could get their room in +order before Sunday. I'm so glad you're going to room with Hilda, Frieda +dear. She's such a darling child." + +"Is she still given to crushes?" asked Hannah. "She fairly worshiped +Lilian Burton's door-sill when I was there." + +"Crushes are going out of fashion at Dexter," said Catherine +emphatically. "And one of the reasons I thought it would be good for +Hilda to room with Frieda was that Frieda has too much sense to indulge +in them, and she will keep Hilda suppressed." + +"Catherine, you have such a positive manner when you talk about Dexter," +said Hannah thoughtfully. "You'll be House President senior year. O, +dear!" for Frieda, in getting up to help Dr. Helen fold up the +ironing-board, had brushed by Hannah's chair, and a fat little button +bag rolling to the floor had emptied its contents all over the room. + +"Such a lot of buttons, Hannah!" exclaimed Dr. Helen, stooping to help +gather them up. + +Hannah laughed. "Mamma was so surprised when I came back from Dexter +because there were as many in it as when I went, and I told her there +were more because I had put in all the buttons that had come off while I +was there! And then she was shocked!" + +The doorbell rang and Inga came in with a big parcel for Catherine with +Grandma Hopkins' compliments. Catherine opened it, wondering, and the +others dropped their work. + +"A cake! Did you ever in your life? And I already have Mrs. Graham's +jelly, and Mr. Graham's bag of nuts, and old Mrs. Hitchcock's jar of +preserves! Mother, how can I ever thank them all?" + +"How can you ever get them all transported to Dexter, is what I'm +wondering! Do they always send girls off to school with food for the +term, Catherine?" asked Hannah. + +"Well, I had cookies and mince pie to take last year, after my trunk was +packed. Mother persuaded me to leave the pie, but I was sorry afterward. +And one of Polly's mother's friends baked a chicken for her to carry all +the way to Wellesley! People are so kind! How do you suppose I can carry +this cake, though, Mother? It's such an awkward shape, and I couldn't +pack it with my clothes!" + +"Do you remember how Inez brought a pail of honey in her trunk," put in +Alice, "and how it leaked out all over everything she had?" + +"I'll put the cake into a stout hat-box, and fasten a heavy cord and a +handle on it, and you can get it there safely, I think. You won't have +to carry it, except just getting on and off the train." Dr. Helen +hurried off to see to that bit of packing, herself. + +Bertha, Agnes and Dot, and even Dorcas, found excuses to drop in at the +house that morning. Win and Bess promised to be at the train. On the way +home from school three or four of Catherine's Sunday-school children ran +in to say good-by. Polly was in and out a dozen times, and Peter and +Perdita came together to present a beautiful photograph of themselves in +their newest garments and shiniest shoes. Dinner was interrupted by the +trunkman's arrival, and Dr. Harlow had to keep a watchful eye upon each +girl to see that she did not forget to eat. + +Algernon and Bert came to escort the party to the station, and they +started out merrily enough. When they reached the sidewalk, Catherine +turned and ran back to the house for a private farewell to her mother, +who preferred saying good-by there instead of going to the station. +College seemed suddenly robbed of its pleasure, and the length of days +between September and Thanksgiving intolerable, but they were used to +helping each other be brave, and they blinked away the tears and parted +smiling, Catherine turning frequently to wave good-bys till the house +was lost in the trees. + +It was quite like a reception at the station. While Dr. Harlow attended +to ticket-buying, the young people clustered together, talking at random +and laughing easily. + +"It will be so lonely without you all," sighed Bess. "All the other +college folk will be off by Tuesday at the latest, and here we shall +languish!" + +"You'll not have much time to languish if you assist in the +kindergarten, Winifred," said Catherine affectionately. "I'm so glad you +are going to do it! You'll make them sing like little nightingales. O, +Bess, you go right by Grandma Hopkins' on the way home, don't you? Would +you mind running in and telling her that the cake got off all right? +I'll write her, of course, but I know she will want to know. Algernon! +You don't mean it? Miss Ainsworth drawing her own novels! How perfectly +delicious! O Max, there you are! What did Mr. Morse say? Was he pleased +with the way we handled the paper?" + +"Seemed to be. How I wish I were still on, to be able to write up your +departure fittingly! I say, who's that odd little pair over there? They +seem to be looking this way as if they wanted something." + +The others turned and Frieda, who had been standing in a dreary silence, +listening to the chatter of all these dear boys and girls whom she was +leaving perhaps forever, suddenly ran across the platform to where a +little old lady in black with a knitted shawl over her head, and a +little old man in ill-fitting clothes were standing. + +"We came to tell our little friend good-by," "And to wish her _Gute +Reise!_" They spoke in a kind of duet. + +"Here are a few poor blossoms from our garden--" + +"That you forget not the old people--" + +"And a trifle of _Kuchen_ that I made myself--" + +"And this I have carved for you, to put your pens on--" + +Frieda, beaming and exclaiming her gratitude, made a pretty picture and +the young people, observing her and hearing the rapid German, felt that +they were seeing her in a better light than they had before, much as +they had already learned to like and enjoy her. + +Dot clung to Hannah, and the gentle Agnes, who had found Alice +incredibly congenial, walked arm in arm with her a little apart from the +others, while Catherine in the center of the group held her father's arm +fast. + +They were off at last. + +"I thought that child in the back seat was Elsmere," sighed Catherine, +starting up and dropping back again, relieved. "That child actually gets +on my mind so that I expect to see him everywhere." + +"Algernon tied him up, or he would have been there. He is a little +rascal. It was a relief to me to have Perdita live up to her name and +reputation, though," said Hannah. "I heard about her all summer as a +little mischief, and I never saw her do an indecorous thing. I didn't +_see_ her do that." + +"Well, you may mark my words," said Catherine, "before you have grown +many years older you will hear astonishing tales of Perdita Osgood. +Peter's influence will not always keep her in check. Polly told me that +yesterday she tried to vaccinate the cat, with a mixture of ground chalk +and vinegar! Peter came for help to prevent her!" + +"American children are pretty bad, aren't they, Frieda?" said Alice +mischievously, for Frieda's lips were set sternly. + +"Don't make her say so," pleaded Hannah teasingly. "She has made such a +beautiful record." + +Frieda flushed a little, but slipped her hand into her pocket and felt +there the shape of the little carved frame of Karl's picture and held +her tongue once more. She would not quarrel with Hannah in this last +hour for anything! + +"Next year," Hannah said thoughtfully, "I am surely coming to Dexter, +and you three are to get the fire-wall room for us, and we'll live in +glory and rapture." + +"If it were only _this_ year!" Alice moaned out the words, and the +others sighed with her. The excitement of getting off had died, and they +were becoming painfully aware of the separation that was approaching +with every revolution of the wheels. + +There were other passengers in the car, but they felt peculiarly alone, +none the less. It was a curious tie that bound them. They felt that +their friendship, so oddly started, had something more vital in it than +most school-girl relations. They had all been sorry to leave bright, +lovable Polly, but still, so long as they four stayed together, nothing +could matter very much. + +"O, dear," sighed Hannah aloud. "I do think I spend all my time getting +along without somebody or other!" + +"'We meet so seldom, yet we surely part so often,'" quoted Catherine +musingly. + +"O, Catherine, my darling, if you dare begin on that sad Rossetti +woman!" cried Alice. "You don't know how dreadful she is about it, +Hannah! She goes about for days with a distant sad look in her eyes and, +if she is spoken to suddenly, she says, 'When I was dead my spirit +turned,' or 'Does the road wind uphill all the way? Yes, to the very +end!' or something equally doleful. I feel as though some one were dying +in the next room, and I do believe I'll hide the book." + +"It won't do you any good," remarked Catherine serenely. "I know almost +all of her by heart. But you must admit, Allie, that I do say cheerful +things at times. You got sick of the Jumblies last year." + +"They were as idiotic as the Rossetti lady, in another way. We'll never +agree on such subjects, Catherine!" + +"Well, anyhow, Catherine isn't going to read so much poetry this year," +said Hannah. + +"And Hannah is going to read more," rejoined Catherine, at which Hannah +made a wry face and set them all laughing. + +"Dexter!" + +"Already? O, Hannah darling, how can we ever let you go on without us?" + +All three were kissing her, but Hannah laughed at their sorrowful faces. + +"I'll go out on the platform with you. And I'll carry the hat-box, +Catrina. Shall you have a spread to-night? Oh! it's the same dear +little, queer little station! And there's Miss Eliot, and Dy-the Allen! +Glory! Glory! Glory! Dy-the, going on this train? Joy and rapture! I +should have died of loneliness!" + +And Hannah plunged down the steps and threw out her arms to embrace +Dy-the, when thud! out fell the bottom of the hat-box, and with it +Grandma Hopkins' lovely cake! + +Miss Eliot looked into the distressed blue eyes and laughed. + +"Just the same Hannah!" she said. "Dy-the, take good care of her and +don't let her get lost in Chicago. Now, child, introduce me to your +Frieda and get back on the train at once." + +"Here she is," said Hannah, casting one more sad look at the shattered +cake, over which a baggage-man had rolled a heavy truck. "And, Frieda, +Miss Eliot is the one to go to, always, when you need anything, from +shoe-strings to a scolding. O, Catherine, I'm so sorry. I just wanted to +help!" + +Catherine caught her in a mighty hug. + +"Never you mind one minute. It would have given us indigestion, and it +was so funny to see it go smash! Give your father my love, won't you, +darling? And Aunt Clara, when you see her." + +"And write from the very first station," said Alice. "I'm so glad Dy-the +is going to be with you." + +"Give Karl my greetings," said Frieda, holding on to Hannah's hand +tightly. "And O, ever my love to Tante Edith and Uncle Edward!" + +"Come, Babe, not another minute," and Dy-the, little but determined, +plucked Hannah from detaining arms, and set her firmly on the platform +of the rear car. There, as the train glided out, she stood, her eyes +fixed upon the little group of three with arms around each other. + +"Good-by! Good-by!" she called and they answered. Then Frieda ran a +little nearer, holding out her arms in a pleading gesture, and over the +noise of the retreating train their voices rang out together: + +"_Auf Wiedersehen!_" + +"_Auf glückliches Wiedersehen!_" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED*** + + +******* This file should be named 31200-8.txt or 31200-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/2/0/31200 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/31200-8.zip b/31200-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae5a93c --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-8.zip diff --git a/31200-h.zip b/31200-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5bd514 --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-h.zip diff --git a/31200-h/31200-h.htm b/31200-h/31200-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6eea26 --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-h/31200-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8249 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" > +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted, by Katharine Ellis Barrett</title> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;} +p {margin-top:1ex; margin-bottom:0; text-indent:0; text-align:justify; padding-left:2ex; padding-right:2ex;} +p + p {margin-top:1ex;} +.pagenum {display:none;} +.pncolor {color:inherit;} +@media screen { +hr.pb {margin:30px 0; width:100%; border:none; border-top:thin dashed silver;} +.pagenum {display:inline; font-size:x-small; text-align:right; text-indent:0; +position:absolute; right:2%; padding:1px 3px; font-style:normal; +font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none; +background-color:inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} +.pncolor {color:silver;} +} +h1,h2 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal;} +h1 {font-size:1.5em; margin-top:4ex; margin-bottom:2ex;} +h1.pg {text-align:center; font-weight:bold; font-size:190%; margin-top:0ex; margin-bottom:0ex;} +h2 {font-size:1.4em; margin-top:4ex; margin-bottom:2ex;} +a {text-decoration:none;} +div.toc a {text-decoration:underline;} +div.loi a {text-decoration:underline;} +p.c {text-align:center;} +p.caption {font-size:smaller;} +div.bquote {font-size:1.0em; margin:5px 5%;} +div.titlepage {margin-bottom:4px; margin-top:4px;} +div.titlepage p {text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} +.tar {text-align:right;} +.fss {font-size:0.8em;} +.fs08 {font-size:0.8em;} +.fs12 {font-size:1.2em;} +.fs14 {font-size:1.4em;} +.fs18 {font-size:1.8em;} +.mt00 {margin-top:0;} +.mt05 {margin-top:5px;} +.mt40 {margin-top:40px;} +.mb05 {margin-bottom:5px;} +.mb10 {margin-bottom:10px;} +.mb20 {margin-bottom:20px;} +.mb40 {margin-bottom:40px;} +.mb60 {margin-bottom:60px;} +.mr60 {margin-right:60px;} +.i {font-style:italic;} +.sc {font-variant:small-caps;} +hr.tp {border:none; border-bottom:1px solid gray; height: 1px; width: 60%; text-align: center; margin: 0 20% 0 20%;} +hr.tb10 {border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; height:1px; width:20%; text-align:center; margin:5px 40%;} +hr.tb80 {border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; height: 1px; width: 80%; text-align: center; margin: 15px auto;} +hr.pb {margin:30px 0; width:100%; border:none; border-top:thin dashed silver;} +@media handheld { +hr.pb {border:none; page-break-after:always; margin-top:4em;} +} +div.figcenter {text-align:center; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;} +div.figcenter p {text-align:center;} +p.center {text-align:center; text-indent:0em;} +p.caption {font-size:smaller;} +p.tp {font-size:1em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:center; text-indent:0em;} +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; clear:both;} +td.tcol1 {text-align:right; padding-right:1ex; vertical-align:top;} +td.tcol2 {text-align:left; padding-right:2ex; vertical-align:top; font-variant:small-caps;} +td.tcol2n {text-align:left; padding-right:2ex; vertical-align:top;} +td.tcol3 {text-align:right; padding-right:2ex; vertical-align:bottom;} +span.h2fs {font-size:smaller;} +div.bquote {font-size:1.0em; margin:5px 5%;} +div.bquote p {text-indent:0em; margin-bottom:4px; margin-top:4px;} +div.poetry {text-indent:0em; margin-left:2em; margin-bottom:4px; margin-top:4px;} + + .center { text-align: center; } + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted, by Katharine +Ellis Barrett, Illustrated by Sears Gallagher</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted</p> +<p>Author: Katharine Ellis Barrett</p> +<p>Release Date: February 1, 2010 [eBook #31200]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3 class="center">E-text prepared by Roger Frank<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.fadedpage.com)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/i-fpc.jpg' id="img001" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'>“‘Here is a little souvenir for you, Judge +Arthur.’”<br /> +<span class='sc'>Frontispiece.</span>        <i>See page</i> 266. +</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='titlepage'> +<p class='sc mb05'>The Wide Awake Girls Series</p> +<hr class='tp' /> +<p class='fs18 mt40'>THE</p> +<p class='fs18'>WIDE AWAKE GIRLS</p> +<p class='fs18 mb40'>IN WINSTED</p> +<p>BY</p> +<p class='fs14 mb10'>KATHARINE RUTH ELLIS</p> +<p class='mb40'>Author of “The Wide Awake Girls”</p> +<p><i>Illustrated from drawings by</i></p> +<p class='fs12 mb60'>SEARS GALLAGHER</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class='fs12'>Boston</p> +<p class='fs12'>Little, Brown, and Company</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='titlepage'> +<p><i>Copyright,</i> 1909,<br /> +<span class='sc'>By Little, Brown, and Company.</span></p> +<hr class='tb10' /> +<p class='i mb60'>All rights reserved</p> +<p>Printers<br /> +<span class='sc'>S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='titlepage'> +<p class='i'>To</p> +<p class='i mt05 mb05'>GLADYS GODDARD</p> +<p class='i'>who has been the friend of many boys and girls<br /> +this book is affectionately inscribed.</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='center mb20 fs14'>PREFACE</p> + +<p>The author wishes to acknowledge gratefully the kindness of Messrs. Houghton, +Mifflin and Company in allowing her to use the poem <i>Vantage</i>, by Josephine +Preston Peabody in this book. She also thanks Miss Margaret Sherwood for +consenting to a similar use of her poem, <i>Indian Summer</i>.</p> + +<p>Books for girls are frankly suggestive, their value lying in their kindling +power. Among the girls of all sorts who may read this story, there will be, here +and there, one who loves right words. It is for the sake of such an occasional +reader that the poems mentioned have been included. The schools sometimes lead +their pupils to believe that English literature, like Latin, belongs to the +past. But there are, here and now, “musicians of the word” who, +partly because they are living, can touch our hearts as none of the +dead-and-gone ones can. If through these pages some girl finds her way to the +little green volume of <i>Singing Leaves</i>, or the sweet stories of +<i>Daphne</i> and <i>King Sylvaine and Queen Aimée</i>, Catherine Smith and her +friends will have done the world of girls a service worth the doing.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='center mb20 fs12'>CONTENTS</p> + +<table summary='TOC'> +<tr><td class='tcol1 fss'>CHAPTER</td><td></td><td class='tcol3 fss'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>I.</td><td class='tcol2'>Catherine’s Inspiration</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_1'>3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>II.</td><td class='tcol2'>Getting Started</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_2'>15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>III.</td><td class='tcol2'>Organization</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_3'>28</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>IV.</td><td class='tcol2'>With Pail and Broom</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_4'>46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>V.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Day Off</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_5'>58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>VI.</td><td class='tcol2'>The Opening</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_6'>71</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>VII.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Party at Polly’s</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_7'>86</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>VIII.</td><td class='tcol2'>A Fortunate Meeting</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_8'>101</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>IX.</td><td class='tcol2'>Landing</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_9'>109</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>X.</td><td class='tcol2'>The Making of a Compact</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_10'>120</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XI.</td><td class='tcol2'>Brookmeadow</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_11'>133</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XII.</td><td class='tcol2'>Arrival at Winsted</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_12'>151</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIII.</td><td class='tcol2'>Caught in a Shower</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_13'>164</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIV.</td><td class='tcol2'>An Interlude</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_14'>176</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XV.</td><td class='tcol2'>Sunday School</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_15'>186</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVI.</td><td class='tcol2'>Alice on the Way</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_16'>203</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVII.</td><td class='tcol2'>Finding a Vocation</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_17'>212</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XVIII.</td><td class='tcol2'>Doctor’s Orders</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_18'>221</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XIX.</td><td class='tcol2'>Journalism</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_19'>246</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XX.</td><td class='tcol2'>The Three R’s</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_20'>254</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXI.</td><td class='tcol2'>The Last Party</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_21'>271</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol1'>XXII.</td><td class='tcol2'>Auf Wiedersehen</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#link_22'>284</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='center mb20 fs12'>ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<table summary='TOC'> +<tr><td class='tcol2n'>“Here is a little souvenir for you, Judge Arthur”</td><td class='tcol3 i'><a href='#img001'>Frontispiece</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol3 fs08' colspan="2">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol2n'>“We must find a good place for it”</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#img002'>17</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol2n'>“How much for your tickets?”</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#img003'>77</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol2n'>“Sure I am not too heavy, Karl?”</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#img004'>112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class='tcol2n'>Frieda was telling a story and the others were listening attentively</td><td class='tcol3'><a href='#img005'>184</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='center fs14'>PART ONE</p> +<p class='center fs14'>STARTING A LIBRARY</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<h1>THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED</h1> + +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3'></a>3</span><a id='link_1'></a>CHAPTER ONE<br /><span class='h2fs'>CATHERINE’S INSPIRATION</span></h2> + +<p>“Alma Mater, Dexter darling, do re mi–O dear! It’s much +harder to write than I supposed. I wonder why! When your heart is full of love, +why should it be hard to express it?”</p> + +<p>Catherine Smith, sitting on the top step of the porch of her home, Three +Gables, bent her red-gold head over the pad of paper on her knee and wrote +painfully, her forehead puckered earnestly. She had been a year at college and +was just beginning her summer vacation. All through the busy year, full of +delightful new experiences, she had looked forward to the leisure of summer, in +which she might adequately declare her devotion to the college which had been +her mother’s and was now her own. From the day, the June before, when she +had gone there to visit her friend, Hannah Eldred, she had felt a keen sense of +“belonging,” especially pleasant because her frail health had +compelled her to lead a somewhat secluded life at home, and she had not felt +really acquainted with the young people in <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_4'></a>4</span> the little town of Winsted, where she had always +lived.</p> + +<p>Now all that was changing. At college she had been forced to conquer her +shyness, and, to her delight, she soon found that the boys and girls at home +were more than glad to receive her into their circle upon equal terms. Her +physician parents were everybody’s friends, and Catherine, who adored her +father and mother, was eager to show herself worthy to be their daughter. In +order to do so, she reasoned, she must be of real service to the town and to her +college. The only way she had thought of so far was to write an Alma Mater song, +expressive not only of the rapturous loyalty of undergraduates, but of the +graver love of alumnæ like her mother.</p> + +<p>“It is very hard,” she sighed. “It must be stately and yet +not heavy. O me! And here comes Algernon.”</p> + +<p>With a resigned air she folded her scribbled papers and thrust her pencil +into the coil of red braids encircling her head. Algernon Swinburne, ever since +his foolish mother had christened him for the poet, had, by turns, amused and +wearied his fellow-citizens. While Catherine had lived apart, she had been +spared his lengthy visits, but with the pleasures of social life had come its +penalties and she was now on Algernon’s list and obliged to spend frequent +hours in his really trying society. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_5'></a>5</span> He came up the long walk now with a curious springing +gait, and Catherine tried to summon a hospitable smile to her lips.</p> + +<p>Algernon refused a chair. He always appeared to be just going, “and +yet,” as Polly Osgood said with a groan, “he almost never +goes!” He perched uncomfortably upon the railing and opened fire at +once.</p> + +<p>“Have you seen the last <i>North American Review</i>?”</p> + +<p>Catherine confessed that she had not.</p> + +<p>“There was a corking article in it on municipal corruption, comparing +San Francisco, New York and Pittsburg as to graft, police efficiency and so on. +They say Pittsburg spends two million dollars a year–”</p> + +<p>“My upper legs is going barefoot.”</p> + +<p>Catherine lifted her eyes with a flash of pleasure. Elsmere Swinburne was the +occasional relief from his big brother’s monotony. Catherine loved little +folk, and though Elsmere was known to be a rascal who would have tried the +patience of Job, she somehow always found forgiveness for his enormities, and a +delighted appreciation for his funny sayings. Just now he stood proudly before +her, his hands in his pockets, his eyes fixed upon his fashionably clad little +legs, with bruised brown knees showing above new half-hose.</p> + +<p>“My mamma buyed ’em for me. Her buys me everything.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6'></a>6</span>Catherine smiled, +but shook her head a little. Mrs. Swinburne was a source of grief to all her +neighbors, because of her persistent refusal to allow Algernon the chance at +college that he desired, and even more because of her unwise indulgence of her +younger son’s lightest wishes.</p> + +<p>Algernon cleared his throat and took up the thread of his narrative. +“Pittsburg, this fellow Chapman in the <i>Review</i> says, spends two +million dollars a year on–”</p> + +<p>“Talking, talking, all the time Algy talking,” Elsmere broke in. +“<i>I</i> want to talk. Tell Caffrin ’bout my cat-pussy. Her awful +sick. Her–”</p> + +<p>Catherine sprang up. Elsmere’s conversation often needed to be +suppressed.</p> + +<p>“Let’s play tennis. Algernon, will you get the balls and rackets? +You know where they are,–just inside the hall there. And Elsmere may run +after balls for us. He can, so nicely!”</p> + +<p>Algernon obeyed the unexpected request patiently, and when he was gone, +Catherine averted her face for the space of a minute. What she had hoped for +came to pass, and when Algernon returned, his small brother had quietly +vanished. “The older one may be monotonous, but the younger one is +positively dangerous,” Catherine thought to herself, as she took the balls +from Algernon, saying:</p> + +<p>“Let’s not play, after all. It’s so very warm <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span> and Elsmere thought he +didn’t want to run after balls. You don’t mind, do you?”</p> + +<p>“Why, no, I wasn’t keen about playing,” and Algernon, +unconscious of the maneuver he had helped to execute, dropped back upon the +railing and continued his <i>résumé</i> of the <i>North American</i> +article.</p> + +<p>Catherine, meanwhile, having slipped the balls one by one into the pocket of +her steamer chair, rested her long white hands upon the chair arms and sat +quietly, hearing nothing of Mr. Chapman’s statistics, her brown eyes +dreamily fixed upon the sloping lawn, but seeing instead the Dexter campus, +across which girls were moving, as she loved best to see them, in pretty light +gowns on the way to evening chapel. Among them all her thought rested most +lovingly upon a little girl with a plain face and big round glasses. “You +dear old Alice!” she murmured, almost aloud, and roused herself guiltily +to hear Algernon saying:</p> + +<p>“There are a lot of wide-awake men in Pittsburg.”</p> + +<p>“Wide-awake girls in Winsted!”</p> + +<p>This time Catherine really did speak aloud, and Algernon looked up in +surprised inquiry.</p> + +<p>“I beg your pardon,” she said contritely. “It was very rude +of me, but you set me off, yourself. The Wide Awake Girls are really going to be +in Winsted this summer. Don’t you know about them?” as Algernon +still looked puzzled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8'></a>8</span>“Why, no. All +the Winsted girls seem wide-awake enough, I should say.”</p> + +<p>“But I’m the only one who has a right to be called so in capital +letters. I’ll tell you all about it, but it has been such an important +part of my life for the last year and more, that I forget every one who knows me +doesn’t know about it all.</p> + +<p>“You see, about two years ago, when I was fifteen and Hannah Eldred, +who lives in Massachusetts, was not quite fourteen, she wrote a letter to +<i>Wide-Awake</i>, the magazine, you know, asking for correspondents. And I +answered it. Several other girls did, too. One was Alice Prescott, who lives out +in Washington, and another was Frieda Lange, of Berlin, whose mother had known +Mrs. Eldred in Germany years ago. Hannah kept on writing to the three of us, and +before the end of the year she had met us all and really lived with each of us +in turn. It doesn’t sound probable, but it came about naturally enough. +The Eldreds went to Berlin for a few months and boarded at the Langes’. +Then Mrs. Eldred’s mother was taken ill, and they had to come back to this +country. The grandmother lived over here at Delmar, and Father was called in +consultation and brought Hannah back to stay with me a little while; and then, +as her mother couldn’t leave, they sent Hannah to Dexter, to the +preparatory department, and there she found Alice, whom she had lost sight of +for a long <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9'></a>9</span> time. Then +when I went to Dexter, I learned to know Alice, and this year Frieda Lange is +coming to America to school and she is going to Dexter, too. Hannah is coming +out for a few weeks’ visit here before college opens, and I’m going +to try to get Alice at the same time, for we’ve never all four been +together. I am so eager about it that I can’t keep my mind on anything +else very long, so that’s why I said ‘Wide Awake Girls in Winsted’ +aloud. Isn’t it an interesting story?”</p> + +<p>“Coincidences are always interesting,” said Algernon. “And +I think a great many things that go by the name of telepathy are nothing more. +I’m keeping a record of peculiar coincidences that come under my notice. +I’ll put these down, about the two happening to go to the same college, +and about the German and American girls finding their mothers were +acquainted.” He produced a note-book to make an entry.</p> + +<p>“You can’t include the last one,” Catherine protested. +“It was because Mrs. Lange recognized Hannah from the letter that Frieda +wrote. But the meeting between Alice and Hannah was mere chance.”</p> + +<p>Algernon closed his note-book and went placidly on as if Catherine’s +story had not interrupted him:</p> + +<p>“As I was saying, those men in Pittsburg–”</p> + +<p>The telephone bell rang and Catherine went into the house to answer it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10'></a>10</span>“I’ll +have to be excused, Algernon,” she said, coming back a minute later. +“Father wants something of me. You can tell me the rest another +time.”</p> + +<p>Then, as Algernon slowly got off the porch, she added impulsively:</p> + +<p>“I marvel just to see you walk, Algernon. You know so very much! You +seem to me to be a veritable walking library.”</p> + +<p>Algernon twisted his body uncomfortably and flushed.</p> + +<p>“I’d be more use to Winsted if I were a real one,” he said, +with a wistful sound in his voice that made Catherine look at him sharply. She +waved him a smiling good-by as he went down the walk, and then turned to her +father’s desk to look up some papers he wanted. Her mind, however, still +dwelt on that unexpected shade in Algernon’s tone.</p> + +<p>“I’ve thought of him as a mere talking machine instead of a human +being,” she said to herself reproachfully. “I must make a salmon +scallop for Father’s supper. Inga doesn’t know how to do anything +but scramble eggs and boil potatoes, and Father’s tired, I know by his +voice. It sounded tired, but Algernon’s was lonely. I +wonder–”</p> + +<p>Dr. Harlow Smith and his wife, Dr. Helen, drove up to their pretty gabled +house on the hill slope a few minutes later, their faces lighting with pleasure +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span> as the tall girl in +a blue apron came out to meet them. The stable-boy came to take the horse, and +Catherine escorted her parents to the house. While they made themselves ready +for supper, she put the last orderly touches to the table in the panelled +dining-room, and was ready for them with kisses when they arrived.</p> + +<p>The silent grace over, Catherine spoke:</p> + +<p>“Eat and be filled, dearly beloved, because I have a new project and I +need you to be enthusiastic.”</p> + +<p>“What is it this time?” asked Dr. Harlow, serving the golden +scallop generously. “You have shown diplomacy in your choice of a dish, if +I am the one you wish to wheedle.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen, pouring yellow cream from a fat silver jug into thin hexagonal +cups, sent an interested glance across the table at her daughter.</p> + +<p>“Tell us,” she said.</p> + +<p>“It’s quite new,” said Catherine, hesitating a little. +“In fact it’s not a half-hour old, but I do believe it is a good +plan. You know Algernon Swinburne?”</p> + +<p>“We have met him,” agreed Dr. Harlow cautiously.</p> + +<p>“So had I!” said Catherine with sudden spirit, “and this +afternoon it came to me that I didn’t know him at all. All any of us ever +do to Algernon is to avoid him,–those of us who don’t laugh at him. +And he’s lonely, Father! Lonely!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span>“Did he tell +you so?”</p> + +<p>“No. But I suddenly knew. I’ve seen homesick girls at college, +and–and–well, there was a little while, just a little while, when I +was getting strong enough to do things, and before Hannah came to visit, that I +felt that way myself, so I know.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen’s look was like a pressure of the hand, and she answered +gently:</p> + +<p>“I think you are very likely right, Catherine. And this plan of yours +is to make Algernon less lonely?”</p> + +<p>“Do you think he knows he’s lonely?” asked Dr. Harlow. +“I’ve thought the boy had good stuff in him, and if he should ever +wake up to the fact that he’s a bore, he might amount to something worth +while. You don’t think he has, do you?”</p> + +<p>“Not exactly,” Catherine confessed, remembering the +note-book’s appearance at the end of her little story. “But I think +he has an inkling that he might be of more use. I told him he was a walking +library. He does know such an amazing amount, you know! And he said Winsted +would be better off if it had a real library instead of his kind; and then it +flashed into my mind how he would love living among books, and how fine it would +be for the town if all that knowledge of his could be used–”</p> + +<p>“Like wasted water power?” suggested her father.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span>“Yes. +That’s just it. He has read more than any one in this town, except you, +Father dear, and you are very old-fashioned in your reading. You never heard of +some of the modern books that Algernon knows all about. Why couldn’t we +start a library and have Algernon run it? It would make people appreciate +him.”</p> + +<p>“It would keep him occupied at certain hours, and assure you of freedom +from his calls,” said Dr. Harlow, but Catherine was in earnest and refused +to be teased.</p> + +<p>“Wouldn’t it be practical, really, Mother? Algernon can’t +go away to school. His mother isn’t willing, you know, and he needs to be +here to look after Elsmere. But he could study there, and lots of towns as small +as this do have libraries.”</p> + +<p>The doorbell rang and Dr. Harlow went to answer it.</p> + +<p>“Some one to see you, Catherine,” he said, returning.</p> + +<p>Catherine found Algernon himself standing in the doorway, his big pale eyes +full of distress.</p> + +<p>“Excuse my coming just at supper time,” he said, “but +I’ve lost Elsmere. No one seems to have seen him since we did this +afternoon, and I thought perhaps you would remember which direction he went in. +It was while I was in the house he disappeared, you know. He almost always comes +home for meals!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span>Catherine +meditated. “I didn’t see him go. I was looking at some papers, and +when I glanced up he wasn’t there. Let’s go out on the porch again, +and think. You had been sitting on the railing and I was in the steamer +chair–O Elsmere Swinburne, where have you been?”</p> + +<p>Out from under the porch, rubbing eyes and yawning, came a rumpled little +figure, bits of straw and dead leaves clinging to him, and a big red Irish +setter following.</p> + +<p>Algernon bent down and gathered the baby figure up with a tenderness that +made Catherine’s heart beat more quickly, as she picked the straws from +the stylish shoes and socks, and the barefoot upper legs.</p> + +<p>“Where were you?” she repeated.</p> + +<p>“Hotspur’s house, all cozy,” sighed Elsmere. “Warm +house. Did go to sleep. Bosquitoes bite me. Bite my legs. I want my +supper,” and drooping over his tall brother’s shoulders he fell +asleep again.</p> + +<p>“Come around to-morrow afternoon early, Algernon,” said +Catherine, as he moved away with his burden. “I have a plan I want you to +help me carry out. I know you’ll like it. It’s something nice for +you and Winsted.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span><a id='link_2'></a>CHAPTER TWO<br /><span class='h2fs'>GETTING STARTED</span></h2> + +<p>By fifteen minutes past three the next day, Algernon and Catherine had +definitely decided that Winsted was to have a library, and that they were to +devote their own energies to the cause and persuade as many as possible of their +acquaintances to join them.</p> + +<p>“The Boat Club will go in for it as a committee of the whole,” +said Algernon.</p> + +<p>“The Three R’s will be interested,” said Catherine, +“though it is not Rest, Recreation or Refreshment!”</p> + +<p>“And all the churches.”</p> + +<p>“And the school teachers.”</p> + +<p>“And there are Miss Ainsworth’s novels.”</p> + +<p>“Algernon, how perfectly splendid! Do you suppose she would let us have +them?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why not. They simply stand there, never opened. She +can’t any more than refuse. I’ll ask her.”</p> + +<p>“And I’ll go with you. Let’s do it right this +minute.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span>As she spoke, +Catherine sprang up, and Algernon, his usual inertia overcome, plunged down the +walk beside her.</p> + +<p>“We must find a good place for it, before we get many books collected. +We could use Father’s twenty-five dollars for rent, of course, but it +would be so much nicer if some one would give us a room.”</p> + +<p>“Let me see. There’s that little frame shop where the red-haired +milliner used to be. We might get that. It’s no good for business, away +off up the street that way.”</p> + +<p>“Be careful what you say about red hair,” warned Catherine. +“Who owns the building?”</p> + +<p>“Judge Arthur. He’s a public-spirited man. He’ll let us +have it cheap anyway.”</p> + +<p>“Good! O, I am so happy and excited about it I feel like one of Hannah +Eldred’s squeals; I’m afraid if she were here I’d join her in +one. Here we are at Miss Ainsworth’s. Are you sure we dare ask +her?”</p> + +<p>Before the prim white house set back from the street, Catherine’s +buoyancy suffered a collapse. She had been inside that house, calling, with her +mother, but to go there–or anywhere–on a begging errand! Here +Algernon’s long familiarity with rebuffs proved of value.</p> + +<p>“Of course, we dare. Come on, or I’ll go alone if you don’t +want to.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/i-017.jpg' id="img002" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'>“‘We must find a good place for +it.’”–<i>Page</i> 17.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span>“No, no, +I’ll come,” Catherine answered hastily. She had counted, without +conceit, on her own popularity to offset Algernon’s handicap. The daughter +of the Doctors Smith could not be turned coldly away. And after all, Miss +Ainsworth’s novels might better be read than standing idle. Two years ago, +a young bicyclist had sprained an ankle at Miss Ainsworth’s door, and she +had promptly taken him in and cared for him, scornfully refusing pay. Therefore +the youth, upon returning to his home, had sent out to her a great box full of +modern fiction, an article which he had deeply and vainly desired while under +her roof. Miss Ainsworth had never been given to the reading of novels. Her life +had been quite too busy for such frivolities, and now her eyes were making it +impossible for her to read without using glasses, which, as a confession of +frailty, she despised. So the books stood, new and unopened, in a fascinating +row upon the “secretary” shelf. No one so far had ventured to ask +for them. It had been reserved for these young adventurers to demand them in the +name of public spirit.</p> + +<p>“We will have your name put inside them, Miss Ainsworth, on a neat +little card,–‘Gift of Miss Anna Ainsworth,’ you know. Just as they +do in large libraries,” Catherine explained persuasively, when Algernon +had stated the object of their call, and Miss Ainsworth was regarding them in a +silence which they took to be ominous.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span>“And your +name will go down in the records with Dr. Smith’s as one of the first +contributors to the library. We intend to keep very full records and have them +buried under the corner stone of the new building when we get it. We hope to get +a Carnegie building, you know,” Algernon went on calmly while Catherine +caught her breath. “He always insists that the townspeople do their +share.”</p> + +<p>“The young people will use the library if we have good novels,” +Catherine put in helpfully, when Algernon’s imagination showed signs of +exhaustion. “And then we can get them to reading more serious books by and +by.”</p> + +<p>Then Catherine too, subsided, and the clock behind its painted glass door +ticked obtrusively. Presently Miss Ainsworth opened her thin lips.</p> + +<p>“I’m perfectly willin’ ’t you should have the +books,” she said grimly. “They ain’t no manner o’ use to +me, and never was. I don’t care to have my name wrote inside ’em, +though. And I ain’t perticular about havin’ it buried under any +corner stones. But I’ll be much obliged if you’ll take ’em +away soon, for I’ve just subscribed to a set of me-mores of missionaries +an agent was sellin’ yesterday, and I’d like that top shelf to put +’em on.”</p> + +<p>The enthusiasts, feeling a trifle quenched, but yet pleased at having +accomplished their purpose, rose and withdrew with what grace they could <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19'></a>19</span> summon, mingling thanks +with promises to remove the undesired literature as soon as possible.</p> + +<p>“Now for Judge Arthur and the building,” sighed Catherine, as +they reached the street again. “He can’t be any more gloomy about it +than she was, and maybe he’ll do what we want.”</p> + +<p>The judge was not in his office, so they sat down to wait in the stuffy room +where dusty books and papers sprawled and spilled over desk, table and the top +of a big black safe. Algernon attached himself to a grimy magazine, having first +jotted down Miss Ainsworth’s gift in his ever-present note-book. +Catherine, looking about her, soon found herself unable to restrain her +housewifely fingers. She was busily sweeping the dust off the big table with a +dilapidated feather duster, and putting the papers into trim piles when the door +opened and Judge Arthur, little and weazened and gray, slipped softly in.</p> + +<p>“There!” said Catherine half aloud. “That is infinitely +better. I wish I dared throw half of these papers away. I know they’re +perfectly worthless.” She took a step toward the big wire basket, as +though to bring it conveniently near.</p> + +<p>“Not to-day, Miss Catherine,” and the judge took her hand and +bowed over it. “Is this what they teach you at college?”</p> + +<p>Catherine laughed. She had never been afraid of Judge Arthur.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span>“They teach +us all the womanly graces, Your Honor,” she answered, “and not least +among them is tidiness. I should have had you looking beautifully neat in +another five minutes.”</p> + +<p>Judge Arthur shivered. “And you would doubtless have made a bonfire of +this,” picking up one dog’s-eared document, “old Mr. +Witherton’s will; and this, a deed to an estate; and this, a bit of +important evidence in a criminal case.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” Catherine argued, “they shouldn’t be left +about so carelessly, under paper-weights and ash-trays. I do want to do some +housecleaning for you, Judge Arthur. That’s why I’m here this +afternoon. Not just an office, either, but a whole building.”</p> + +<p>The judge placed a chair for her, dusting it elaborately with Mr. +Witherton’s will as he did so.</p> + +<p>“Tell me all about it,” he invited.</p> + +<p>Catherine took the chair, her fresh white gown contrasting as sharply with +its shabby leather as her warm youth did with the judge’s withered look. +He watched her with keen, appreciating eyes. Algernon in his corner read on, and +Catherine thought best not to disturb him. Men found it harder to meet Algernon +on fair ground than women did.</p> + +<p>The judge asked a pertinent question or two as Catherine unfolded the great +scheme; then he drew a check-book from under a broken-backed dictionary.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span>“There is +another twenty-five for your project,” he said, as he signed his name with +a flourish surprisingly big for so cramped a little man; “and the room is +at your disposal for six months, rent free. I would have it cleaned, but you +seem to delight in doing such work yourself. I can assure you that the Three +R’s will back you up. The next meeting is called for a week from +to-day.”</p> + +<p>Catherine’s face wore its blithest smile. “You are a dear to do +so much,” she declared. “I was sure you’d be interested. If +you ever want any cleaning done, <i>anywhere</i>, please let me do +it!”</p> + +<p>Algernon had to be aroused almost forcibly, and Catherine carried him away, +still so lost in the article on the jury system he had been reading that he +could not quite take in the wonderful success of the call. He followed +Catherine’s eager steps to the little square frame building a few blocks +up Main Street, and turned the key she gave him. It was a dingy little room, all +dirt and cobwebs. A few old straw hats and wire frames piled among some big +green boxes indicated the last occupant’s business, and a scurrying of +tiny feet, only too clearly, the present occupants’ nature. Catherine +lifted her nose in dainty scorn, and her skirts in private apprehension.</p> + +<p>“We shall have to get a lot of girls and come down here to-morrow and +clean up; but let’s get out for now,” she said, and Algernon +consented.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span>They strolled +along the street till they came to the little park, and there, sitting on its +one green bench, talked over their list of assets.</p> + +<p>“I keep having ideas all the time,” cried Catherine. +“Listen! We must go over to Hampton and visit the library there, and find +out how they do things. When can you?”</p> + +<p>“Any time. I was just thinking I must ask Mr. Morse to give us a good +write-up.”</p> + +<p>“Of course. He’ll be interested. Let’s go over now. Or +perhaps you’d better go alone. I don’t know him, and I never was in +a newspaper office.”</p> + +<p>“Afraid of the devil?” jested Algernon, getting up and leaving +her. Catherine watched him disappear into the office across the street.</p> + +<p>“He walks better already,” she thought with pride. “And he +never made such a frivolous remark as that before. I do think this library will +be the making of Algernon.”</p> + +<p>Back he came in a minute or two, with a promise of plenty of space in the +<i>Courier</i>, and a free atlas.</p> + +<p>“One they had in the office, of course; but we ought to have one, and +every little helps. He was awfully interested and said it would be a fine thing +for the town, and he’d boost every way he could.”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t people lovely?” sighed Catherine rapturously. +“I believe even Miss Ainsworth was more enthusiastic than she appeared to +be. And we haven’t even mentioned it to the Boat Club yet.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span>“Or the +Three R’s. They are chiefly Boat Club fathers and mothers.”</p> + +<p>“We must see the school superintendent.”</p> + +<p>“The ministers will announce it in the churches.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, we must see them to-morrow. O dear, I am so tired! What time is +it anyway?”</p> + +<p>Algernon drew a big watch from his pocket.</p> + +<p>“Six-fifteen.”</p> + +<p>Catherine started up in horror.</p> + +<p>“O! And I forgot all about helping with supper. What will mother +think?”</p> + +<p>Algernon watched her hasten away up the hill, and turned toward his own home +with some anxiety. He had to coax his mother to take an interest in the new +undertaking, and wished the operation over, but he squared his shoulders and +determined to do his best and do it that very evening.</p> + +<p>Catherine, for her part, spent the evening discussing the plan with her +already sympathetic mother.</p> + +<p>“It almost takes my breath away, Mother dear,” she confided as +they sat on the porch in the dusk, watching the fireflies, “the way people +fall in with suggestions. It didn’t occur to me before that <i>I</i> could +start things going. But at college I had only to see that something should be +done, and then to say so; and it almost always was done. And I was more +surprised than anybody!”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen smiled, and put out her hand to stroke Catherine’s head, +which rested on her knee.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span>“They were +pretty good ideas, I judge.”</p> + +<p>“They were perfectly simple ones. Just little things like having the +mail-boxes assigned alphabetically, instead of by the numbers of the rooms. It +saved the mail girls a lot of work, and Miss Watkins was glad of the suggestion. +I helped Alice sort mail, you know,–she does it to help pay her way. And +then the little notices on the bulletin board were always getting lost under the +big ones, and I was on a Students’ committee and often had notices to +post, and I got them to make a rule that all notices should be written on a +certain size sheet, and the board looks much neater now. And then there +weren’t any door-blocks. Aunt Clara told me that they had them at Vassar, +little pads hanging outside your door, with a pencil attached, and if you are +out, your callers leave their messages, you know. It seemed as though we needed +something like that, for some of us don’t like walking into people’s +rooms, and hunting around for paper. So I started that, and they all took it up +in no time. They were only little things, but it was remembering a lot of little +things like that that made me dare try to get the library. It’s what we +need, and I do believe it’s going to come easily.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Kittredge asked me to-day if I thought you would take the infant +class in the Sunday-school for the summer. Mrs. Henley is to be away. I told him +I’d ask you.” Dr. Helen waited.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span>Catherine was +silent a moment.</p> + +<p>“Do you know, Mother, it seems as though you just get started doing one +thing and you see another one ahead of you. If I am going around asking every +one to help the library, I don’t see how I can refuse to help when +I’m asked! But I never did teach anybody. Who is in the class?”</p> + +<p>“I asked him that. He says some of the children are rather old for it, +but the school is too small, or rather the teachers are too few, to make another +class. So the ages run from the Osgood twins–”</p> + +<p>“O, Peter and Perdita! I do love them. They are such a droll little +pair. I beg your pardon, dear. I didn’t mean to interrupt. From Peter and +Perdita to–to Elsmere, possibly?”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen laughed. “Exactly! Could you undertake Elsmere?”</p> + +<p>Catherine sat up straight. “Yes, I could. Elsmere is unlucky, just as +Algernon is. Everybody expects to be bored by Algernon and bothered or shocked +by Elsmere. I know he is a little ‘limb o’ Satan,’ but if I’m +going to take one brother on my shoulders, I might as well take them both. When +does Mr. Kittredge want me to begin?”</p> + +<p>“Not this week. You can go and see Mrs. Henley and talk it over with +her. You’re showing a fine public spirit, Daughter mine, but let me +suggest that you really can’t do much work for the town this summer, +especially if you expect to entertain <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_26'></a>26</span> guests! I don’t approve of vacations that are +busier than the school year!”</p> + +<p>“O, the library won’t take long to start, if it starts at all. +And Algernon will run it and his being busy will give me several extra hours +weekly! And the children will only be Sundays. I promised Alice I’d do +some Bible study this summer, anyway, and it might as well be done for that. She +thought I was something of a heathen because I knew Shakespeare better than the +Bible.”</p> + +<p>“That only means you know Shakespeare very well, however. By the way, +would you like that little old set in the guest-room for your library? I put it +there, because there wasn’t a shelf free anywhere else, and we are rather +overstocked with the gentleman’s writings in the rest of the house. Clara +Lyndesay laughed at finding them there. She says she is going to write an essay +some day on guest-room literature, and its implications.”</p> + +<p>Catherine laughed, too. “It would be delicious if she did. I wish she +would write things, Mother, and not just paint pictures. Do you suppose +there’s any hope of her coming back to this country this +summer?”</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t be greatly surprised. She plans to spend some weeks +on the Isle of Wight, and that is so near this side that perhaps we can lure her +over. An aunt left her a place in New England, you know, which she means to fit +up for a studio <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span> +sometime. Father should be coming home now. Let’s go down to the corner +and see if we can see him. O, my daughter!” as Catherine sprang up and +took her mother’s arm, “how you have grown beyond me!”</p> + +<p>“It’s just my head that’s above you,” said Catherine, +tucking her mother’s arm into her own. “It’s the fashion +nowadays for girls to be taller than their mothers, but they don’t begin +to come up to them in mind and manners. Miss Eliot told us so in +History!”</p> + +<p>“How about their hearts?” asked Dr. Helen.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know about the other girls’, but my heart is just +as high as my mother’s!” And Catherine bent her head the least +little bit, and kissed her mother’s cheek, as Dr. Harlow, turning the +corner, met them.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span><a id='link_3'></a>CHAPTER THREE<br /><span class='h2fs'>ORGANIZATION</span></h2> + +<p>The “stub” train on the Central was due to leave Winsted at 7:30. +Catherine, having reluctantly left the washing of the breakfast dishes to the +reckless Inga, to whom their quaint blue pattern was as naught, hurried down the +hill and reached the dingy little station as the train shambled in. Algernon, +full of good cheer, because his mother had taken it into her head to approve his +undertaking, gallantly helped her aboard, and began at once to show a list of +questions he had ready to ask the Hampton librarian.</p> + +<p>The train stood still a little longer while a few milk cans were put on, then +whistled, puffed and pulled slowly out. Hampton was only a short distance from +Winsted, and Catherine and Algernon soon got off the train, and made their way +to the library where they were welcomed by the kindly librarian and her young +assistant, who proved to be a Dexter graduate.</p> + +<p>The “stub” train meanwhile jogged and jolted on its way, carrying +with it, fast asleep, the little <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_29'></a>29</span> “limb o’ Satan” known as Elsmere +Swinburne. Elsmere could sleep anywhere on the slightest provocation. Deeming it +unwise to make his presence known to his brother until the train was started +beyond recall, he had curled up on a seat behind a large family, and while +waiting his opportunity had fallen asleep. The conductor, taking him to be one +of the overflow from the family in front, paid no attention to him until after +they had left. Then he tried to rouse the child.</p> + +<p>“Wake up, kid! Here, you’ve gone past your station. Wake up, I +say! Gee! We’re running a sleeper on this train to-day, all right,” +as Elsmere, lifted by the collar, only sank heavily back on the seat when +released.</p> + +<p>The conductor, goaded by the jests of the passengers, yelled in the +boy’s ear, to no avail. Just as he was abandoning the task in wrath, the +child suddenly popped up, wide awake and interested.</p> + +<p>“I want zwieback,” he announced.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Swinburne, having read in a child-study book that dry food was +bone-building, had brought her youngest up on long crumbly strips of zwieback, +and he was seldom seen without one.</p> + +<p>“What you givin’ us?” asked the conductor.</p> + +<p>“I want zwieback,” answered Elsmere cheerfully, in the persistent +tone he had learned to value for its efficacy.</p> + +<p>“Where was your ma goin’?” asked the conductor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span>“I want +zwieback,” replied Elsmere.</p> + +<p>“Let me try,” suggested a soft-voiced little lady. “I +talked with his mother quite a bit while she was on. Want to find your mamma, +little boy, and go to Grandma’s and play with all the pigs and +chickies?”</p> + +<p>“I want zwieback.”</p> + +<p>“You talked with the woman, did you?” said the conductor. +“Did you find out what her name was?”</p> + +<p>“Let me see. Yes. It’s Peters. She was talking about going to his +folks’, two miles out of Edgewater. She’ll be worried to death about +this one.”</p> + +<p>“I should think she might be,” remarked the conductor grimly, +“for fear he’d come back. Here, you young Sweebock, you get off +here.”</p> + +<p>Elsmere obligingly followed to the platform and suffered himself to be given +into the custody of the station agent, to whom he presented his petition for +food.</p> + +<p>“A little weak in the upper story,” explained the conductor. +“His ma had about as many as she could manage and gettin’ off at +Edgewater she forgot this one. Name’s Peters, stayin’ with old +Mis’ Peters, two miles from Edgewater. You wire ’em to meet the +express, and then you pass him back. Tell McWhire not to let him get to +sleepin’. He ain’t an easy proposition, when he’s gone to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span> Bylow, now I tell +you,” and the conductor of No. 5 swung himself aboard.</p> + +<p>Elsmere had the time of his life in the two hours before the arrival of the +noon express. The station agent was a sociable soul. He had a guinea-pig in a +box, so delightful to observe that Elsmere forgot his desire for zwieback and +became conversational. He told the agent the history of the polly-wogs he had +raised “till they was all froggies, only one was deaded.” He showed +the place where he had cut his finger in the mower-lawn. He explained how fond +he was of back-horse-saddle-riding, and declared his intention of some day +having “frickers,” caressing the agent’s own sandy growth with +great admiration. He tried to perform on the telegraph instrument and cried +“Boo” with all his strength at a lady, peering in at the ticket +window. Altogether, Elsmere found traveling very much to his taste. The noon +express stopped for a minute, he was thrust aboard the last car, and a few +minutes later, according to instructions, the newsboy put him off at Edgewater, +with a cheery:</p> + +<p>“Here y’are, Bub, and there’s Ma and Gramma.”</p> + +<p>Elsmere had taken a fancy to the newsboy and did not at all wish to stop at +Edgewater. He ran down the track after the retreating train, howling +miserably.</p> + +<p>As for “Ma and Gramma,” they had been overtaken by the dispatch +just as they were starting <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_32'></a>32</span> to drive out to the farm, and had come in great +perplexity to the station. The wailing baby running down the track suggested +nothing to them, and the agent could give them no satisfaction. He was locking +up his office. There was not another train to stop till No. 5 should return +toward evening. So, still bewildered, Mrs. Peters and her mother-in-law gave up +their fruitless errand and drove away, taking with them a problem for a +lifetime’s pondering.</p> + +<p>Elsmere, as the train vanished around a curve, sat down on the track for a +while and listened to his own howls. Tiring of that amusement presently, he +strolled back to the station. Outwardly it looked much like that hospitable one +where he had enjoyed life earlier in the day. This one, however, offered no +entertainment beyond wandering about the platform and the unoccupied +waiting-room. Across the street was a little restaurant. There were pies in the +window.</p> + +<p>Elsmere obeyed the summons.</p> + +<p>“Pie,” he said, presenting his nose to the edge of the lunch +counter.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you monkey with anything,” snapped a girl from +behind the counter.</p> + +<p>“I’m aren’t a monkey. I’m are a boy. Want pie,” +Elsmere answered sweetly.</p> + +<p>“You can’t get pie without money,” said the girl.</p> + +<p>Elsmere felt in his pocket and produced a quarter. <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span> Whatever his failings, Elsmere had a +redeeming trait of forehandedness, and had always on hand a hoard of articles +which might be useful in an hour of need. The quarter bought respect at once and +plenty of pie, also a sandwich, a tall glass of milk and a big “rubber +doughnut.”</p> + +<p>When he had satisfied his hunger, the traveller returned to the depot, and, +lying comfortably in the shade of a baggage truck, indulged in a siesta, a sleep +so light this time, however, that the rolling back of the baggage-room door +shattered it.</p> + +<p>Sitting up, Elsmere watched the baggage-man get a tin trunk and a canvas +telescope ready for shipping. Presently the stub train arrived, stopped, and +while the conductor and the agent were exchanging gossip, Elsmere got +inconspicuously aboard, and stowed himself away in a corner, so successfully +that it was not till the brakeman called “Hampton” that the +conductor discovered him.</p> + +<p>Swearing softly and scratching his head in mystification, the conductor stood +in the aisle staring at the ubiquitous babe, when a double cry arose:</p> + +<p>“Elsmere, where in thunder?”</p> + +<p>“Hullo, Algy!”</p> + +<p>The young assistant, who had accompanied Catherine to the station for the +sake of talking over mutual friends at Dexter, looked up in surprise as the +dignified youth who had impressed her greatly by his intelligence and +earnestness suddenly <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span> +stooped and lifted a dirty, tear-and-pie-stained little boy in his arms. +Catherine laughed. Elsmere could not greatly surprise her.</p> + +<p>“Miss Adams,” she said, “you have shown your interest in +the new Winsted library. Let me introduce you to its mascot.”</p> + +<hr class='tb80' /> + +<p>The morning after the Hampton expedition, Catherine struggled awake from +dreams of book-lined trains, with Miss Adams and Elsmere as engineer and +fireman, to open her eyes gratefully upon the substantial reality of her own +great room in its fresh bareness. At the foot of her big carved bed, the broad +window open to its utmost seemed to bring all out-of-doors within the room. A +squirrel whisked his tail across the sill as he scurried in and out of the +branches of the window-oak where a grosbeak and a wren chatted sociably. The +sunshine through the leafy boughs lighted the bare floor and rested on the great +writing table in the center of the room and on the high dark dresser. +Catherine’s gaze, following the light, rested at last upon the low +bookcases filling the chimney corners.</p> + +<p>“I can spare one <i>Child’s Garden of Verses</i>,” she +mused, “and that second <i>Little Women</i>. I wish they could have the +Walter Crane and Kate Greenaway picture-books, but I couldn’t possibly let +them go. I loved those little urchins in the children’s +room,–especially that curly-headed little <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_35'></a>35</span> boy reading a bound <i>Wide-Awake</i>–O!” +She sat up in bed and tossed her thick braids back. “I wonder if I ought? +Or even if I could?” Out of bed she slipped, and crossed the room to the +bookcases. Opening one, she ran her finger-tips tenderly along the stout backs +of a row of dark red volumes. “My very own <i>Wide-Awakes</i>! What a +storehouse they would be for the little folk! They needn’t be allowed to +circulate, so they’d not wear out badly. They could just come in and read +them there. I was going to give them my little rocking-chair, anyhow. O, dear! +I’m afraid I’m really going to let them have you, you dear, dear +books. It would be selfish to keep you up here all the time, when I almost never +open you. Nobody shall have this one, though, with Hannah’s letter in +it.”</p> + +<p>She turned the pages of one of the latest volumes and paused at a neat little +paragraph:</p> + +<div class='bquote'> +<p>“<i>Dear Wide-Awake:</i></p> + +<p>“I have been taking you ever since I was a child. I will be fourteen my +next birthday. I like you very much. I would like to correspond with any one who +is about my age. I have no brothers and sisters, and get very lonely. I have +read all Miss Alcott, but I wish she had let Jo marry Laurie. I like the +<i>Wide-Awake</i> stories. Please have a good long one about boarding-school +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span>in the next number. I +like Dickens, but I can’t bear Scott. I know John Gilpin and Baby Bell by +heart, and I am in the eighth grade. I like skating and rowing. There is a fine +pond near us.</p> + +<p class='tar mr60'>“Your loving reader,</p> + +<p class='tar'>“<span class='sc'>Violet Ethelyn +Eldred</span>.</p> + +<p>“P. S. Nobody knows that I am writing this letter, so please print it +soon to surprise them.”</p> </div><!-- block quote --> + +<p>Catherine kissed the page and closed the book. “Isn’t it too +unbelievable that that queer little letter with that ridiculous fancy name at +the end should have done so much? Violet Ethelyn Eldred! It hasn’t nearly +so pleasant a sound to me now as Hannah. And the child thought no one would +write to her if she signed her own name,–it was so ‘homely’! Ah me! +I suppose I should be getting dressed instead of sitting about in the sunshine, +mooning. I wonder if Inga will remember the muffins for breakfast.”</p> + +<hr class='tb80' /> + +<p>“Polly Osgood wants to see you, Catherine.”</p> + +<p>Catherine, busily sorting linen in the up-stairs linen room a little later in +the morning, leaned over the railing in answer to her mother’s +announcement from the hall below.</p> + +<p>“O, Polly, do come on up. I’ve a little more <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span> to do and we might just as well talk +while I’m at it. Have you called the Boat Club meeting?”</p> + +<p>Polly Osgood came running up the stairs. She was a slender little girl with +big blue eyes and yellow hair.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” she answered brightly. “I’ve called it at ten. +It’s almost that now. Tom can’t come, of course; he’s always +so busy daytimes, but I think all the others will be there.”</p> + +<p>“Hasn’t Bert something to keep him?”</p> + +<p>“Not just now,” Polly laughed. “He substituted in the +post-office last week, and the week before that in a hardware store, but just +now he says nobody seems to need him, and he’s reading law in +private.”</p> + +<p>“He’s such a goose,” and Catherine put two mated +pillow-cases together with a little pat. “Inga never knows enough to put +things in pairs, and Mother wouldn’t dare begin to look them over. If she +should do anything so domestic, half Winsted would break out with mumps or +chickenpox. Where did you say we’d have the meeting?”</p> + +<p>“At the boat house. We might as well use it, now we have it. But I +didn’t know you broke out with mumps.”</p> + +<p>“That’s only figurative. Polly, why have you gone back to braids +and bows? You look very infantile for a real Wellesley sophomore.”</p> + +<p>“I got tired of the bird-cages and puffs, and <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span> decided I’d go back to nature. +Besides, playing around with Peter and Perdita you need something stationary. +They work dreadful havoc with a stylish coiffure.”</p> + +<p>“I wonder if I’d have to put my hair down just to teach them on +Sundays? Mrs. Henley is going away, you know, and I’ve been asked to take +her class.”</p> + +<p>“O, I do hope you will,” cried Polly. “You would have a +civilising influence on Perdita, and she needs it. Peter keeps her in order so +well she never <i>does</i> anything very bad, but she is potentially a little +terror.”</p> + +<p>“She always seems very mild when I see her,” commented Catherine, +patting her piles into straight lines. “But you can’t always tell +about people by looking at them. I, for instance, have all my life been expected +to be lady-like, just because when I was little I hadn’t strength enough +to be naughty. And many and many a time I have felt like doing something wild +and shocking!”</p> + +<p>“Why, Catherine Smith!” exclaimed Polly in amazement. “You +always seemed to me a sort of beautiful princess up here on the hill, and, good +as any of the rest of us might try to be, we never could hope to be as good as +you. Have you honestly ever wanted to be bad?”</p> + +<p>Catherine laughed, a funny little gurgling laugh. “I honestly +have–not wicked you know, but–well, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_39'></a>39</span> reckless! And I never had the courage to do anything +very startling till last year at college.”</p> + +<p>She stopped and laughed again.</p> + +<p>“Tell me,” Polly insisted. “I’ll never tell. What did +you do? Was it fun? Tell me!”</p> + +<p>Catherine’s eyes twinkled. “I made up my mind that it was my one +chance, for no one there belonged to me, and my tiresome reputation for +propriety hadn’t had time to get started. So one day I got up late, and +was late to breakfast, and cut a class, and–” She laughed so hard +that Polly wanted to shake her. “O, Polly it was such a ridiculous thing +to do! I talked slang and chewed gum!”</p> + +<p>Polly gasped. “Did you like it? What made you stop?”</p> + +<p>“People. They were so astonished. And, besides, I hated the gum. Inez +Dolliver used to chew it with such gusto that I thought it must be rather good. +And the slang sounded so easy and,–O! lighthearted, you know, and +friendly. When you and Hannah Eldred use it, it never seems offensive, just +pleasant and gay. But everyone looked so worried and puzzled all day at me, that +I decided to stop. And next day they seemed so relieved. I told Dy-the Allen +later about it (she’s the dearest thing!) and she was very philosophical. +She told me it wasn’t becoming to my general character, just as pink +wasn’t becoming to my hair. I told <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_40'></a>40</span> her I had always loved pink, and wanted to wear it, +and she suggested that I wear it at night. It wouldn’t show in the dark +and it was an innocent desire; and perhaps if I did that, I’d not want to +use slang or chew gum. I didn’t, after I had tried once, anyhow! Polly +Osgood, here we are sitting around and I’m telling you foolish stories +about myself, when we ought to be discussing library matters.”</p> + +<p>“The other was more interesting,” sighed Polly. “I’m +going to give up slang myself soon. I never did chew gum! But I’ve been +terribly bored lately by some rather flip young creatures I’ve had to see +more or less, and I decided to cut it out and talk plain English. What are you +smiling at?”</p> + +<p>Then, as her own earnest sentences came back to her, she reddened a little, +and joined Catherine in smiling. “Isn’t that a fright? I mean, +isn’t that startling? I didn’t know I used it so much. Do you +suppose I can cure myself and still have time and attention to give to starting +the library? It’s time we were down there now.”</p> + +<p>“All right. I’m ready, as soon as I get my hat. Do you ever wear +them at college?”</p> + +<p>“Never. Now while we go along, tell me just what your idea is. What did +the Hampton ladies say?”</p> + +<p>Catherine thrust her hatpins in, as she hurried down the steps.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span>“They +advised having some club take it up, for a time at least, and they thought it +would be nice to have it be the Boat Club instead of a literary one, because the +literary ones often have a spirit of competition, and if one of them started the +library the others might not feel inclined to use it.”</p> + +<p>“I see, and the Boat Club, besides being unsectarian and +interdenominational and non-partisan, has a lot of waste enthusiasm and energy +that might just as well be put to work. Father says he is sure that when the +thing is really running, the council will vote a tax and take it off our hands. +You are sure Algernon can run it? I thought it took years of special +training.”</p> + +<p>“It does,” Catherine answered gravely, “but we could not +afford a trained librarian, and Algernon is intelligent and will study. Miss +Adams gave him hints as to books to get, and she will help him. He can go over +there when he gets into difficulties. She seemed to like him. They talked about +all sorts of technical things,–Algernon had a lot of information stowed +away in his head, of course,–and she didn’t seem bored at +all.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve often thought I shouldn’t be, if I knew anything +about the subjects he talks about,” confessed Polly. “There are +Bertha and Agnes.” She trilled to the two girls ahead, who turned and +waited.</p> + +<p>On the flat roof of the boat house half a dozen <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_42'></a>42</span> members of the club were assembled. Polly +hastened to take her seat and call the meeting to order.</p> + +<p>“Max Penfield will act as secretary, and we shall expect the minutes +done in the most approved University style. Archie Bradly, will you please state +the object of the meeting?”</p> + +<p>“Fo’ de lan’s sake, no!” ejaculated Archie, sitting +up and shutting his knife. “That’s the very thing I came to find +out!”</p> + +<p>“Very well,” said Polly, twinkling. “Then, of course, you +will pay close attention. It will do you more good than carving Andover on the +benches. There’s not much space left on them, now, and it’s still +early in the season. Catherine, will you tell us the object of the meeting? +Ouch!” for Archie had reached lazily behind her and given one of her +yellow braids a gentle yank.</p> + +<p>“You all know, already,” began Catherine, “except perhaps +Archie! We’ve talked it over with the older people, and they think +it’s perfectly practical, only some one or some organization has to take +it in charge.”</p> + +<p>“What’s ‘it’?” asked Archie innocently.</p> + +<p>“Why, the library. The Boat Club is going to see that Winsted has a +public library.”</p> + +<p>“Turn into Carnegies?” inquired Max, doing a sketch of Geraldine +Winthrop on the margin of the secretary’s book.</p> + +<p>“Not exactly. We haven’t got our own dock <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span> built yet, and I don’t think we are +in a position to endow libraries. But I mean we can work and +talk–”</p> + +<p>“Talking’s work,” complained Archie. “That’s +redundancy.”</p> + +<p>“It is, when you keep interrupting,” cried Bertha Davis. +“Go on, Catherine. Don’t mind him. Just how can we work?”</p> + +<p>“Well, the room will have to be cleaned thoroughly, and we girls can do +most of that if the boys will help a little. And there will have to be some +plain shelves put up for the books.”</p> + +<p>“Me for the carpenter job!” cried a long-legged youth who had +lain thus far in the shade of his own hat, in entire silence and apparent +unconsciousness. “It’s just what I want to cure my brain +fever.”</p> + +<p>“Overstudy? Or overwork reading postals last week?” asked Agnes, +smiling into Bert’s half-shut eyes.</p> + +<p>“It’s more likely fatty degeneration of the brain, if it’s +Bert Wyman that has it,” said an emphatic voice, and a spruce energetic +maiden joined the group. “I just got in on the 10:10, and Mother said you +were all over here. What’s before the house?”</p> + +<p>“Nothing. We’re all on the house,” explained Archie dryly, +but Polly answered the question with careful courtesy. Dorcas listened.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span>“Very +well,” she said, when Polly finished. “If it is in order, I move +you, Madam President, that we proceed to clean the library at once.”</p> + +<p>“O, Dorcas, not to-day!” groaned two or three, while Max remarked +in an aside to no one that if it was in order it shouldn’t need +cleaning.</p> + +<p>“Why not to-day?” asked Dorcas briskly. “How you-all can +loaf around the way you do is more than I can comprehend. Dot, your hair is +coming down.”</p> + +<p>Dot, who was called Dot, because she was a dot, though her parents had +intended her to go through life as Geraldine, lifted her eyebrows slightly, and +removing her four hairpins, shook down her hair and did it up again. The process +took four seconds.</p> + +<p>“I’d rather have Dot’s curls than Dorcas’ +brains,” growled Bert to Agnes, who reproached him with a look.</p> + +<p>While Dorcas’ motion was waiting for a second, there came down the road +two pretty girls, in fluffy gowns, their white sunshades tilted charmingly. Max +slammed the secretary’s book shut.</p> + +<p>“Hurry up and let’s adjourn,” he said, and Archie, suddenly +energetic, seconded the motion and carried it, so far as it concerned himself, +by going out to meet the newcomers and invite them to go canoeing at once. Max +followed suit, and the meeting broke up unceremoniously, but with a sense of +valuable achievement.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span>Dorcas, uttering +harsh judgments upon the parliamentary methods of Polly Osgood, and, by +inference, of all Wellesley College, attached herself to Bertha and Agnes for +the homeward walk.</p> + +<p>“See here, Dorcas Morehouse,” said Bertha so suddenly that her +sister and Dorcas jumped. “If you think that just because you have been to +Chicago University for a quarter, you are going to run us all, this summer, you +are mightily mistaken. Agnes and Dot and I never went away to school, and +neither did Bess nor Winifred, but we aren’t stupid, and we won’t +have you patronizing us. Catherine Smith is intellectual enough for any one, and +she never snubs or patronizes; and as for Polly Osgood, you wouldn’t dare +<i>hint</i> a criticism of Wellesley if she were within hearing, and you know +it. So there! If this library scheme is good enough for them, it is for the rest +of us, and if you don’t like it, you can just stay out of it!”</p> + +<p>Whereupon, Bertha, having delivered herself, even more to her own +astonishment than to any one else’s, turned at the first corner and walked +rapidly away, leaving her embarrassed sister to placate the wrathful Dorcas in +any way her gentle heart suggested.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span><a id='link_4'></a>CHAPTER FOUR<br /><span class='h2fs'>WITH PAIL AND BROOM</span></h2> + +<p>“Please forscuse me. Here’s the key,” and Elsmere held out +to Catherine the aforesaid article, his honeyed voice and polite words matched +by a cherubic smile.</p> + +<p>“The key?” asked Catherine. “O, the key to the library. How +did you get it?”</p> + +<p>“Algy give it to me. I Algy’s little help-boy,” smiled the +cherub.</p> + +<p>Catherine tried to take the key, but it refused to come.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter?” she asked. “It seems to be +caught.”</p> + +<p>Elsmere squirmed a little. “Tieded,” he murmured, and Catherine, +bending closer to investigate, discovered that the key was so secured to the +child’s apparel that sharp steel was necessary to sever the +connection.</p> + +<p>“Algy hasn’t too much confidence in his little help-boy, after +all,” she thought. “Thank you, Elsmere. Now run along home like a +good boy.”</p> + +<p>“No, Elsmere go, too, like a good boy. I help.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span>Catherine sighed. +The library was to be cleaned that morning as soon as the girls could be spared +by their respective mothers. She had been waiting for Algernon to bring the key, +and had counted on his muscular assistance in the labor before her. Now, +instead, she had only the key, and that almost as hopelessly affixed to Elsmere +as it had been before she cut it loose. She took up her bundle of rags, +scrubbing-brush and soap resignedly, and calling “Good-by” to Dr. +Helen started off down the hill. On the way she stopped for Agnes, who came out +with a broom. Polly, bearing a pail, met them at the corner. At the library they +found Bertha, mop-laden, pressing her nose against the pane to see inside.</p> + +<p>“Hello!” she called to them. “How can we get hot +water?”</p> + +<p>“Let’s go over to Henderson’s and borrow a little oil stove +for a few hours, and we’ll heat the water in this pail. One of you might +go to the pump in the park and get it full now. Whose broom?” touching +one, leaning by the window.</p> + +<p>“Dot’s. She came and went off again. Bert passed, driving a +ten-cent express and she hailed him and they’ve gone over to Mr. +Kittredge’s to get the books he promised.”</p> + +<p>“The crazy children! Where will we ever put books to-day, with the room +in such a state?”</p> + +<p>Catherine fitted the key to the lock, and the band <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span> of cleaners entered, unrolled their big +aprons and began, with much energy and good nature, to sweep down the walls and +ceiling and gather the milliner’s rubbish into two big baskets found in +the shed. Elsmere picked over the pile, making rapturous discoveries.</p> + +<p>“Aren’t these very small bushel baskets?” asked Agnes. +“They fill up so fast.”</p> + +<p>“They’re just about the average size, I think,” remarked +Catherine. “They don’t vary much more than yardsticks do in length! +But I do wish some of those lazy boys were here to carry them out and empty them +for us.”</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” asked Max’s voice in the doorway. +Immaculate in white flannels, with Bess by his side, bewilderingly beruffled, he +viewed the scene before him dispassionately.</p> + +<p>Catherine and Agnes, red and warm and somewhat dishevelled, returned the gaze +for a moment silently. In that moment an entirely natural resentment was forced +into outward pleasantness.</p> + +<p>“We were just wishing some one was here to make a bonfire of this +<i>débris</i> for us,” said Catherine cheerfully, “but never mind. +There comes Polly with a man from Henderson’s, and he’ll take it +out.”</p> + +<p>“All right. Wish you luck. We’d stop and help, only we’ve +got to meet Arch and Win, and we’re late already. So long!” and Max +lifted his cap, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span> Bess +waved her sunshade, and the two went around the corner out of sight.</p> + +<p>The man from Henderson’s did some lifting very willingly, rescued what +was left of the water Bertha was tugging from the park, lighted the stove and +even stayed to poke the bonfire he made for them in the street, and keep it from +spreading.</p> + +<p>“It’s a good thing,” he said, as he went away amid a chorus +of “Thank you.” “Everybody’d ought to help all they +can.”</p> + +<p>“I’d like to make him a member of the club,” growled Polly, +“and turn one or two people I could mention out.”</p> + +<p>“Dorcas doesn’t seem so zealous as she did yesterday,” +remarked Catherine. “I hope she isn’t angry, because we didn’t +fall in with her suggestions.”</p> + +<p>Bertha looked conscious, and stole a glance at Agnes, but said nothing. +Catherine, catching the look, laughed.</p> + +<p>“Father says Dorcas does us all a lot of good, as a counter-irritant. +Whenever we begin to feel a little cross with each other, we all turn in and +feel very cross with Dorcas. I was simply raging when Max and Bess sailed by in +their purple and fine linen, but at least they hadn’t pretended to be +interested, and Dorcas–”</p> + +<p>“She may be busy,” said Agnes. “There’s a lot of work +at their house, and Dorcas usually <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_50'></a>50</span> does her share. I’ll say that much for her, +though she does make me awfully angry sometimes. Where is Elsmere? He might go +over to the store and get something to polish this window-glass with.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know. Elsmere! Elsmere! Where are you? Come here, +dear.” No response.</p> + +<p>“O, never mind,” sighed Catherine wearily. “I’m not +responsible for him. It is a relief to have him out of the way for a while. I +wanted to send him home before, but he had such a sweet lady-like way with him +this morning, I couldn’t bring myself to. Girls! Hark!”</p> + +<p>The four laborers had dropped upon a long box to rest a few minutes from +their toil. Their low voices had been the only sound. Now distinctly, in a +remote corner of the room, could be heard a little scratch, scratch. Then across +the floor, serene and fearless, “right where I had been sweeping,” +Catherine said later with a shiver, ran a small gray mouse.</p> + +<p>With one accord the four tucked their skirts about them and sat closer. No +one spoke, but each measured the distance to the door with an accurate eye. And +then, silently, but with haste, they beat a swift retreat.</p> + +<p>The fair wide street before them, the door shut behind them, they drew deep +breaths of relief, though each avoided the others’ eyes.</p> + +<p>“Some girls wouldn’t mind going right up and <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span> killing it,” said Polly, “but +I simply could not.”</p> + +<p>“Nor I,” said Catherine firmly. “I could go to battle or +the stake like Joan of Arc, but I draw the line at mice.”</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter? What are you all out here for? I thought you +came to clean.”</p> + +<p>It was Dorcas, of course. The girls hung their heads with shame, and Bertha, +who had defied her so boldly when last they met, answered with meekness.</p> + +<p>“We did. But there’s a mouse.”</p> + +<p>Dorcas looked them all over with an expression of deep scorn.</p> + +<p>“Give me the key,” she said, and it was given to her.</p> + +<p>Then the fearful ones flattened their faces against the unwashed window-pane +to see what would happen. The little gray creature placidly nibbled a tidbit in +a corner. Dorcas approached him. He lifted his head and regarded her. She +faltered a little and glanced behind her. She even felt hastily of her skirts. +The respect in the watching faces lightened a little. Every woman is born +knowing how mice delight to hide in skirts.</p> + +<p>After a moment Dorcas opened the door and came out, passed the group of +watchers without a word and crossed the street to Henderson’s. Coming back +a minute later with a trap, she re-entered the room, set the trap and waited. So +did the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52'></a>52</span> others, +breathless, clinging to each other. Bert and Dot, driving up on their ten-cent +express, saw that something unusual was going on, and drove quietly around into +the alley. Peeping in at the back window, they took in the situation quickly: +Dorcas on one side of the room, the little gray mouse on the other, the trap +between. The silence lasted for several seconds. Then came a sharp crack! And +Dorcas, throwing her arm across her eyes, ran out of the room with a shriek and +fell upon Agnes, who was nearest.</p> + +<p>“He’s killed,” she sobbed. “I–I saw +him!”</p> + +<p>“So he is,” soothed Agnes. “None of the rest of us would +have dared set the trap, if we had been bright enough to think of it. There! It +was harrowing, but it’s all over now.”</p> + +<p>“No, no,” shuddered Dorcas. “He’s in there yet, and +he’s <i>dead</i>!”</p> + +<p>Catherine spied Bert’s two mischievous eyes looking around the corner +of the building. In an instant she had despatched him to clear the room of its +horror, and was bringing Dot, a protesting prisoner, to join the group.</p> + +<p>“Where did you come from?” asked every one, while Dorcas +collected herself.</p> + +<p>“O, our chariot’s just outside,” answered Dot. “We +saw you all peeping in, so we drove around behind to have a look ourselves. Got +there in time to see the final fatality. Dorcas was heroic <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span> until she won. Are you girls honestly +afraid of mice?”</p> + +<p>“I am of live ones,” confessed Catherine.</p> + +<p>“I am of dead ones,” said Dorcas.</p> + +<p>“Dead or alive, they, ‘turn my blood to ice within me, and make the +breath of my heart wax pale,’ as the lecturer said last night,” said +Polly. “But now that you dare-devil people have cleared the field for +action, we may as well go in and scrub. We’d only just finished sweeping. +Dot, you may take the death-bed boards. And, O, there comes Bert, back from the +funeral. As President of the Winsted Boat Club and Library Association, I hereby +appoint you and Geraldine Winthrop a Standing Mouse Committee with full power to +act.”</p> + +<p>“Dorcas to be official executioner, I trust,” and Bert held the +door open for Dorcas, bowing low as she passed.</p> + +<p>That afternoon the B. C. & L. A. gathered in force. Even Tom Davis, +brother of Bertha and Agnes, asked for a half-day’s vacation and helped +Algernon whitewash. Bert had impressed Max into carpentering, and the work of +bookcase-building went on noisily inside the shed. The girls sat on the weedy +patch of ground outside, sewing sash curtains.</p> + +<p>“It would be quicker to make them on the machine at home, but not +nearly so much fun,” <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_54'></a>54</span> said Agnes. “How many books did you and Bert +gather up this morning, Dot?”</p> + +<p>“Fifty-three volumes besides Miss Ainsworth’s. Those were already +over here in the shed. Where is Archie?”</p> + +<p>“He and Winifred are coming. They were going to bring a rug Win’s +mother said we could have, and two lamps.”</p> + +<p>“They will enjoy carrying them over this hot afternoon!” said +Bess, deftly hemming a curtain. “But it can’t be so bad as this +morning. Girls, we had a perfectly dreadful time. It was all on account of that +terrible little Swinburne boy. You see, we thought we’d take the big +Penfield boat, instead of the canoes, and just as we were pushing off, that +child stepped into the boat from the dock and announced serenely that he was +going boating-ride. He did look dear, and quite clean, and we all knew that it +was hard to make him change his mind, so we let him come. He sat very still and +was as good as gold till we had got a long way from home, and then he +began.”</p> + +<p>Catherine sighed appreciatively. “I can imagine, Bess dear. But do tell +us.”</p> + +<p>“You can’t imagine. Nobody could. He talked a blue streak. And +the things he said! He asked what he was made of, and how God got the eyes in. +He told about somebody’s having a tooth out and went into dreadful +details. And then he got <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_55'></a>55</span> off on a worse tack, and asked Archie where his wife +was, and when Archie said he wasn’t married, he sighed and looked so +sorry, and said: ‘Wasn’t you <i>ever</i> marwied, Archie? Not even +once?’ He simply spoiled our morning. It wasn’t so much what he did +say, as what we thought he might be going to. We had to turn around and come +home long before we wanted to, just on account of that child.”</p> + +<p>“If you had only thought to have Win sing to him,” said +Catherine. “He will drop off to sleep with the least assistance, even when +he seems widest awake, and Win’s lullabies are irresistible. There! +that’s the last curtain. And there come Archie and Win with a donkey-cart, +and–why, what do you think they have? It can’t be just a rug and two +lamps.”</p> + +<p>Every one broke off work to go to meet the donkey-cart, a low, long, box +affair, with Winifred and Archie on the seat, and a quantity of furniture and +boxes in the back.</p> + +<p>Algernon, still holding a brush, took the donkey by the bridle and backed him +up.</p> + +<p>“There, unload everything. It’s all right. I sent these folks +after them. Didn’t have time to go myself. Yes, yes, they belong here. The +Three R’s sent the table.”</p> + +<p>With eager exclamations, the boys and girls unloaded six chairs, an oak +table, a rocker, a box <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_56'></a>56</span> spilling over with stationery and colored cards, a +miscellaneous lot of books, two neat rugs and half a dozen lamps of a variety of +styles and shapes.</p> + +<p>“The Three R’s gave the table and chairs,” explained +Algernon, “and Mrs. Kittredge said to call at her house for the rocker and +some of those lamps. And these other things I bought. Miss Crockett over at +Hampton told me what to order and they came to-day, and I opened them up at the +house.”</p> + +<p>Catherine came up beside Algernon and watched him unpack the boxes of cards, +pens, paper clips, mending tissue, paste, shears and other new and shining +articles. She was distinctly surprised. A large share of their little capital +must have gone into these purchases. And Algernon had told no one, not even +herself, that he was buying them.</p> + +<p>Dorcas caught up a sheet of the paper.</p> + +<p>“It seems to me it’s rather fresh of you to spend the +association’s money for paper with your name on it, without knowing +whether the permanent organization will want you or not.”</p> + +<p>The glow faded from Algernon’s eyes. The consideration with which he +had been treated these last few days had taught him to estimate properly the +tolerance which had been all he had received before. Catherine, even, looked +puzzled and not quite pleased.</p> + +<p>“O, I say,” he protested sadly. “You don’t <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span> think I’d go and +spend the public money, do you? I thought it would be fun to have these things +all ready. I didn’t know you’d rather have had me give the money and +let the rest of you send in the order. I just did it for my +share,–I’m awfully sorry.”</p> + +<p>Catherine lifted her head brightly.</p> + +<p>“Indeed, you did exactly right. None of us would have known half so +wisely how to use it. What did I tell you people? How many towns have librarians +who work without pay, and furnish all their materials besides?”</p> + +<p>Bert suddenly mounted the seat of the donkey-cart.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with the Boat Club?” he inquired +hoarsely.</p> + +<p>“We’re all right,” modestly replied the Boat Club, boys and +girls together.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with the Three R’s?”</p> + +<p>“They’re all right.”</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with the library?”</p> + +<p>“It’s all right.”</p> + +<p>“And now three cheers and a tiger for A. Swinburne, librarian. Hip, +hip, hooray!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span><a id='link_5'></a>CHAPTER FIVE<br /><span class='h2fs'>A DAY OFF</span></h2> + +<p>“Not going over to the library to work to-day?”</p> + +<p>“Not this morning. Mother Nature says I’d better not.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen put her hand on her daughter’s forehead. “Too +tired?” she queried, with a note of anxiety in her voice. It had been only +in the last year or so that Catherine had been well enough to do the things +other girls did, and she was always on the lookout for indications of +over-exertion.</p> + +<p>“No,” answered Catherine, pulling her mother’s firm strong +hand down to her lips and kissing it. “And I don’t intend to become +so. Things can wait for a day, or the others can go on without me. I’m +going to be a private citizen and stay at home and mend. Can’t you sit and +sew too, Mother?”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps I can for half an hour,” said Dr. Helen, “and you +certainly need to give your clothes some attention. When you go up stairs to get +your things, bring down that brown silk waist, and I’ll make the collar +over for you.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59'></a>59</span>In a few minutes +the two were cozily settled in the little alcove off the big book-lined +living-room, a pleasant breeze bringing morning freshness in by way of an open +window.</p> + +<p>“Mother,” said Catherine suddenly, “you and Father have +brought me up very differently from most girls.”</p> + +<p>“How?”</p> + +<p>“Why, about taking care of myself. Some of the really nice girls seem +to think it’s perfectly all right to be sick, even when it could have been +avoided. And some of them think it’s rather fine to be ailing.”</p> + +<p>“Do you mean they want to be petted? That’s natural +enough.”</p> + +<p>“Not just that. I don’t mind that. But Dy-the +Allen–”</p> + +<p>“Stop a minute, Catherine. Once for all, what is her ridiculous name? I +have wanted to know for nearly a year and never think to ask.”</p> + +<p>Catherine laughed. “She was christened Edith, but when she was in High +School she had a silly streak and wrote it with a ‘y’ for the ‘i’ +and an ‘e’ on the end, so her brother called her E-dy-the, the way it +looks, you know, just to tease her, and it turned into Dy-the and stayed that, +though she signs herself Edith. She is one of the very dearest girls I ever +knew, and how we shall get along without her next year at Dexter is more than +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span> I can guess. All the +little preps adore her. But that was the very thing that made me crossest about +her carelessness. She would go out in the snow with little thin dancing slippers +on and lace stockings, and then take a horrible cold and be ill for days, and +shut herself up in her room and have everybody bringing her flowers and meals +and writing her notes. And then all her little satellites did similar things and +it made a lot of bother for everybody. Little Hilda went to see a measles child +because she thought it was fine to be reckless the way Dy-the is, and then she +gave it to her roommate and two other girls. I got quite angry once and let +Dy-the know just how it looked to me. I told her she ought to be ashamed to +disobey Nature and be sent to bed for it, and she only laughed and quoted things +from Stevenson about people who live on tepid milk and wear tin shoes. I told +her Stevenson certainly tried to look out for his own health, for all that, but +I couldn’t make her think it a serious matter at all. She just laughed. +She’s such a dear, she doesn’t know how to be angry, Dy-the +doesn’t,” and Catherine smiled, in spite of her own earnestness, at +the visions the name brought to her mind.</p> + +<p>“Here comes somebody else of the dear variety,” said Dr. Helen. +“Go and let Polly in.”</p> + +<p>“She doesn’t need to be let in,” said that young person, +appearing with the words. “She let her <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_61'></a>61</span> own self in. I’m on an errand, Catriona +darling. I want your mother’s advice and yours. What do you think of a +regular library opening, with refreshments and all that? And have people bring +books for admission fees?”</p> + +<p>“Do sit down, Polly, and rest for a minute. You look as though you +expected to be called to the telephone.”</p> + +<p>Polly dropped, sighing, into a comfortable chair.</p> + +<p>“It does feel good to let down for a minute,” she admitted. +“I get so into the habit of tearing through space at college that I +can’t stop rushing for a month after I get home, and this library business +has kept me jumping. I suppose the public could get on a day or two longer +without it, seeing they have so many years. I worked all day yesterday with +Algernon, and then in the evening it was too hot to stay in the house, and the +mosquitoes were so thick outside that it was harder work trying to keep +comfortable than anything I had done all day.”</p> + +<p>“They are worse than ever this year,” sighed Dr. Helen, +“and, really, I think they are harder to bear when we all know that a +little public-spirited co-operation would rid us of them. Can’t you get +the people who draw books at the new library to agree to sprinkle the +breeding-places with oil?”</p> + +<p>Polly suddenly chuckled. “I beg your pardon, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span> Dr. Helen, for being rude, but I just +remembered a woman who addressed an open air meeting on the campus this spring. +She was a missionary returned from somewhere and she appeared at one of the +houses and wanted to talk, so we got a few girls together on the lawn to hear +her. The mosquitoes were simply unbearable. We all sat there slapping ourselves +and making grabs at the air, and trying to look interested, and then she opened +her Bible and read about being encompassed about with a cloud of witnesses: That +was bad enough, when you could see them settling all about us like a great +dotted veil, but nobody cracked a smile until she gave out the hymn. And that, +if you please, was ‘My soul be on thy guard, ten thousand foes arise!’ You +know how it goes.” And Polly sang:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>“‘Ne’er think the vict’ry won,<br /> Nor once at ease sit +down,<br /> Thy arduous work will not be done<br /> Till thou +obtain thy crown.’”</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>“She might have asked for ‘Christian, up and smite them,’” +said Dr. Helen. “Now, children, I should like nothing better than to sit +and hear college yarns all the morning, but I have an office hour to keep. +Catherine, did you tell Inga to order peas for dinner?”</p> + +<p>“That reminds me,” said Polly, springing up. “Mamma wanted +me to do some marketing before <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_63'></a>63</span> I came home, and I was forgetting it entirely. And I +haven’t found out yet what you think of the opening!”</p> + +<p>“I should think it would be a good way to advertise it and get people +interested. We ought to get a lot of books, too, though they wouldn’t all +be worth much. Are you going to work to-day? I decided I’d have to take a +day off.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe any one will go down. Win won’t, because +Max has gone up to Madison to take a re in Trig and she won’t bother about +anything when he’s not around. Dorcas said she’d see to the +card-pockets at home–her Sunday-school class will do it, poor infants! And +Bertha and Agnes have to help their mother because she’s going to have the +Ladies’ Aid this afternoon. They are the best pair of workers I ever +saw.”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t they? Bess was fine about the curtains, too. She is so +changeable, though, that I don’t know what to think of her.”</p> + +<p>“Only a question of whether there’s a man body about, my +dear,” said Polly oracularly. “Many a girl is all right and sensible +when there are just girls around, but let a lad heave in sight, and the whole +situation is altered. I’ve known Bess since she came to Winsted in a +ruffled white apron, and no one can teach me anything about her. Now, having +dissected all my friends, I think I really must do my marketing.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span>“We +haven’t said anything about Dot, the dear,” said Catherine, +following Polly to the door.</p> + +<p>“Dot, the dear,” echoed Polly. “That’s all there is +to say about her. Good-by, honey. To-morrow we’ll go at it for a grand +finale. That was the name of the last piece in my first music book, and I always +like to say it. It sounds so complete, someway. You don’t know, +Catherine,” and Polly stopped on the last step to look up at her tall +friend, “how pleasant it makes things to have you in them. I’m just +loving this library work, and so are the rest of us. Playing with you is like +having one’s Sunday doll all the week, or as if the princess in the fairy +stories had turned into a real mortal. Good-by this time for truly +true!”</p> + +<p>Humming a Wellesley song, Polly was off down the walk at a brisk pace, and +Catherine, who had answered her last words with a look more expressive than +speech, stood watching her a minute, and then went happily back to her +mending.</p> + +<p>The grocer’s boy, who arrived with the peas a little later, also +brought the mail. He was devoted to Inga and enjoyed doing gratuitous favors for +the doctor’s family for her sake. Inga brought in two letters to +Catherine, who joyfully dropped her darning and tore them open.</p> + +<p>“<i>Belovedest Goldilocks;</i>” the first began, in Hannah +Eldred’s writing, not much improved in the two years she and Catherine had +been corresponding.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span>“We are here +at the shore for the summer, or that part of it which must pass before I come +flying out to you with Frieda. Mamma and I are here all the time and Dad and +Herr Karl come out for Sundays.</p> + +<p>“People are so puzzled about Karl. I say over and over: ‘No, not my +tutor. No, not a cousin. Not even a ward of my father’s. Just a German boy +we learned to know in Berlin, and now a student at Harvard. Yes, we met him +quite simply. He lived in the apartment under us, and he had hurt his leg and +couldn’t walk, and we used to entertain him. Frieda Lange and I did. It +was at her house we were staying. His father is Herr Director Von Arndtheim, and +they are very respectable!’ People at a summer resort, even a little one, +are the curiousest in the world, <i>I</i> think!</p> + +<p>“Who do you think is coming to spend a few days with us next week? Nice +old Inez! I’m awfully glad she is coming, but honestly I do hope she has +learned to put her clothes on straight and to keep her room tidy. She’s so +good, and so faithful that I love her anyhow, but Mother does like neat guests +dreadfully well! She would love you for a guest, Catherine. But there! You +always are just ex-actly right, without the tiniest drawback,–unless +Dexter has changed you. Has it?</p> + +<p>“I feel as though I were having my second childhood. It was so nice to +be at college that <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span> +term with the grown-up girls, and now I have to go with infants like little +Hilda and Gertrude, only not so nice. I had first year Math in High School, you +know, last year, and my German Prof regarded me as a babe and wouldn’t let +me read things because I wasn’t old enough–things that weren’t +suitable for children. Frieda’s mother has never let her read a love +story, you know, and this man has the same idea! He talked to me, the stiffest +conversation lessons you ever heard. It was like the dialogues in Ruskin. I +wonder what he would think if he should hear Karl and me sometimes. We jabber it +all the time, he and Mamma and I. Dad won’t let us when he’s around, +so we talk English then, and that instructs Karl. He’s good except for his +pronunciation. You should hear him do the Harvard yell! He rolls the +‘r’s’ so far he almost loses them. They are even worse than you-ers, +my western de-ar.</p> + +<p>“We are going to have a hop to-night, a really hop, and I am going. +They can’t put me off with the children because I haven’t any nurse +or governess, and there aren’t any other girls between infants and real +young ladies. The hop won’t be very big, because there are only a few +families (it’s not a fashionable place, you know), but we’ll have a +perfectly good time all the same. I am so pleased to be going as a +<i>Herrschaft</i>, and I have a darling new frock for this and everything. +It’s <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span> a soft +rosy silk with tiny tight rosebuds all over it. And I have a little wreath of +buds to wear in my hair. There are two or three awfully nice people coming over. +One of Karl’s classmates at Harvard, and two boys from the Tech and a nice +curly-haired freshman from Dartmouth. And there is a Smith girl, perfectly +charming, and a rather frumpy one from Wellesley who knows your Polly Osgood, or +rather knows who she is. This girl’s name is Violet, and I saw a letter +addressed to her and her middle initial was E, and I asked if her name was +Ethelyn, but she said it was Emma!</p> + +<p>“I <i>wish</i> you could see my little hop-gown. And the dear wreath. +It makes me think of Ivy-Planting Day at Dexter and the way the seniors sang +‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.’ Wasn’t Lilian the sweetest thing? +She is studying in Boston this year, you know, and I saw her once. And +weren’t the little pig-tailed preps dear with their pink doves, I mean +pink-ribboned doves? That was your pretty idea, my beautiful Catherine. I never +could have thought of anything so lovely.</p> + +<p>“I’m almost at the bottom of the inkstand, and I haven’t +told you yet what I started to write about. But Mamma has written your mother, +so it’s all right. Frieda is to land the last of July, and I’m going +to take her out to you as soon after that as your mother and mine think best. I +think she will need a long time to get acquainted, don’t you? <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span> I know you will love each +other, but she must know you thoroughly before college opens. It is tantalizing +to think of you and her and Alice all being together. I do think I ought to be +there, too, since I was the one who introduced you to each other. I’d like +to keep Frieda with me next year, but every one seems to think the best place +for her is right in the dormitory with the other girls,–and of course, it +will be easier for her out there than in any of the big colleges nearer us. She +is so obstinate she wouldn’t learn English if she were near any one who +could talk anything she would recognize for German. What most of the girls at +college talk for that, she wouldn’t know from Choctaw.</p> + +<p>“Lots of love to the dear doctors, and for yourself bushels and quarts +and pecks. I had a card from Miss Lyndesay from the Isle of Wight yesterday.</p> + +<p>“Now I must shut, as Frieda said in her last letter!</p> + +<p class='tar'>“Your loving <span class='sc'>Hannah</span>.”</p> + +<p>Catherine gathered up the scattered pages of this voluminous letter and then +opened the slender one which had accompanied it. This bore a far western +postmark, and its neat little pages resembled copperplate.</p> + +<div class='bquote'> +<p>“<i>My Dear Roommate:</i></p> + +<p>“I’m waiting for a youth to whom I am to <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span> give a toot lesson. He is very stupid. I +have him in Greek and English literature. In Greek he translates the word for +Lord, ‘Cyrus.’ We have been reading the New Testament, and you can think +how very oddly that would come in, in some passages! And in an English test he +assured me that Milton wrote <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i>, and the author of +Bacon’s <i>Essays</i> was Charles Lamb. He makes me wonder whether I shall +have courage enough to tackle teaching as a profession, if tutoring is so +difficult. But I like his money very well, and Mother is going away for a real +vacation and will take Cora, and that couldn’t happen if I hadn’t +found work this summer.</p> + +<p>“I have a Sunday-school class, too, and that is entertaining, at least. +It is at a mission, and such queer dirty little chaps as are in it!</p> + +<p>“I started in to teach them an alphabet of Christian graces, or +desirable qualities. The first week we had A for Attention, and the second, B +for Bravery, and the third week I thought they all had the idea, and asked them +to guess what C would be. They thought very hard, and then one piped out: +‘Cabbages!’ The same little boy told me that the priests burned +<i>insects</i> in the temple!</p> + +<p>“My whole letter seems to be nothing but my pupils’ absurdities. +But really I have very little else to write about that would interest any one. +I’m busy all day, and too tired at night to read or <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span> write. I take more pleasure getting +acquainted with my darling little brother Jack again, than in anything else I +do. He has been Ariel now for a week, and it’s very convenient, for there +are many errands to be done. He sleeps at night in a cow-slip bell, very +romantically, but I have no hope the spell will last. He will be a robber chief +or a street-car conductor next week. The poetry in his system is in streaks, not +continuous. O! that reminds me–and it’s the last ‘bright +saying’ I shall quote in this letter, I promise you! He asked me rather +shyly the other day what poetry was, and after I had attempted to explain, he +said: ‘It’s queer, Allie. I thought it was chickens!’</p> + +<p>“Here comes my pupil, looking very sad. I wish he didn’t regard +me as an old, old woman. I suppose I seem so to him, but I do hate to feel for +two hours a day that I have lost all my youth.</p> + +<p>“When does Hannah come? And Frieda? I am all eagerness to see her. Did +you carry my embroidered waist home with you by any chance? I can’t find +it, and I really need it.</p> + +<p>“My love to your mother, always.</p> +<p class='tar mb00 mr60'>“Faithfully yours,</p> +<p class='tar mt00 sc'>“Alice Barbara.”</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span><a id='link_6'></a>CHAPTER SIX<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE OPENING</span></h2> + +<p>The opening of the library had been vigorously advertised. Bert and Dot had +wheeled the country roads over within a radius of three miles from town, posting +bills of announcement. The ministers urged it upon their congregations as a +civic duty to attend. At social gatherings the week before nothing else was +talked of. And everybody was going to bring books.</p> + +<p>“Such a lot of trash as we’ll get!” groaned Dorcas.</p> + +<p>“I know it,” assented Polly, “but they will all take an +interest, and that is what we are after now. Once properly established, we can +buy good books, and these old ones will just stand idle or wear out or get lost +or something.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think it’s very appropriate to serve +refreshments,” objected Dorcas once more. “And Algernon +doesn’t think it is a dignified way to do.”</p> + +<p>“O, well,” put in Catherine, appeasingly. “Mrs. Graham +says, you know, that we’ll ‘have to get people pretty well educated +readin’ our <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span> +encyclopedias and dictionaries before they’ll think anything’s worth +goin’ to that there ain’t somethin’ to eat at!’ And Mrs. +Graham is going to take charge of all that part, anyhow, so I don’t feel +like finding fault. There won’t be any expense, with everything +contributed.”</p> + +<p>“They might have given the money instead of ice-cream and +cakes.”</p> + +<p>“O, Dorcas, Dorcas, you would expect people to be all made over. Did +you ever read Stevenson’s fable of the reformer who thought the first step +in reforming the world was to abolish mankind? Let’s not worry about it. I +know it’s going to be a success. Isn’t this room the cleanest spot +you ever saw?” And Catherine threw back her arms with a gesture to rest +her tired shoulders, and looked about her with affection and pride. Bare white +walls, with one good engraving, loaned by Judge Arthur, for ornament; plain +shelves with rows of neat books, their orderly labels smiling like sets of +teeth; the reading-table in the exact center of the room, with three chairs in +military array on each side of it, and a few contributed magazines in +mathematical piles between two student lamps; and last, Algernon’s small +charging desk, with its mysterious cards and rubber stamps under one of the +bracket lamps, shining from the polishing Agnes had just given it.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it spick and span?” repeated Catherine, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span> sitting down with +precision in the arm-chair, discovered in somebody’s attic.</p> + +<p>“Ye-es,” answered Dot slowly, dropping upon one of the arms. +“But for all its cleanness it’s about as bare and as inviting as the +contagious ward of a hospital, or the dining-room of a state’s +prison.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t say discouraging things like that, Dot dear,” +pleaded Agnes, taking the other arm and snuggling her head against +Catherine’s cheek. “A library isn’t supposed to be a parlor, +and that engraving is really valuable.”</p> + +<p>“I’d rather have a chromo that comes with soap, myself,” +said Bert. “Its cold steely look only adds to that hygienic and sanitary +aspect Dot detected. It makes me homesick for sunflowers and red +flannel.”</p> + +<p>“I have an idea,” and Dorcas rose and departed with her usual +abruptness.</p> + +<p>As she went out of the door, Bess came in.</p> + +<p>“O dear!” she said. “Are you all here? I hoped nobody would +be.”</p> + +<p>“Shall we withdraw?” asked Bert. “We were just commenting +on the barrenness of this place, but your presence causes it to blossom as the +rainbow. We bask in the refulgence.”</p> + +<p>Bess laughed. “That’s really what I came for, to prettify it a +little. It seemed such a pity not to have anything bright and attractive on the +walls, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span> so I made +this at odd minutes. Do you all like it? I was going to put it up and surprise +you.”</p> + +<p>She unrolled a big parcel she carried and the others, crowding around to see, +looked upon a beautifully illuminated motto:</p> + +<p>“<span class='sc'>God be thanked for books.</span>”</p> + +<p>“Bess, you are an inspired angel,” cried Polly, while Catherine +gave her a squeeze which was meant to express pleasure and also compunction for +more than one reflection that Bess was not doing her share for the library.</p> + +<p>“And here comes another,” exclaimed Agnes, running to open the +door for Dorcas, staggering under the weight of a great armful of golden +glow.</p> + +<p>“Dorcas, you must have taken every stalk you had!”</p> + +<p>“Well, and whose business is it, I’d like to know?” asked +Dorcas briskly and justly. Polly shrugged her shoulders, but helped Bertha to +find receptacles for the bright flowers, continuing to exclaim over their +beauty, in spite of Dorcas’ apparent indifference. It had not been +Algernon alone who had been misunderstood at the beginning of the library +campaign in Winsted. The flowers arranged effectively, and the motto given a +place where it could be read from all parts of the room, the workers trudged off +to their respective homes to make elaborate toilets before the +“party” should begin.</p> + +<p>Seven o’clock found the lamps lighted inside <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span> the little building, and Japanese +lanterns making the freshly-mown weed patch a festive place, with little tables +set for the ice-cream and cake which were to be served from the shed, leaving +the library proper, clean and crumbless. Bess and Winifred, with their attendant +squires, were to act as Mrs. Graham’s lieutenants outside, and the other +members of the club were variously on duty within. Dr. Helen assisted Algernon +and the school superintendent in receiving–an unsectarian combination +warranted to disturb no prejudice. Bertha, with a book and pen, was ready at the +reading-table to receive and register gifts. Catherine sat at Algernon’s +desk to issue cards, and take in the annual fee of fifty cents. The other girls +and boys were “floating,” ready to entertain the guests, to explain +the whole scheme, and see to it that every one was invited to the lawn for +“light refreshments and ice-cream” as the <i>Courier</i> had +announced.</p> + +<p>The fathers and mothers of the Boat Club were early arrivals, looking with +proud amused eyes upon their spotless sons and daughters in their disinterested +public zeal. First of all came Mrs. Swinburne in a long black net gown +elaborately spangled, her hair coquettishly arranged in a Janice Meredith curl, +several years out of date, a slender ivory-sticked fan, somewhat broken, swaying +from her belt by a long ribbon. She plainly felt that her entrance should excite +attention <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span> and was by +no means disappointed. Dot and Polly took her in charge and stood by with grave +courteous faces while she gave Bertha her contribution, wrapped up in tissue +paper and white ribbon.</p> + +<p>“It’s a copy of <i>The Ring and The Book</i> I got for +Elsmere’s Christmas last year. I wanted so to read it. I am devoted to +Byron. But Algernon gave me the <i>Complete Works</i>, so that I felt I could +give this away to advantage. It is a little damaged. The dear child uses his +books to build stables with, but I knew that the public would not +mind.”</p> + +<p>She arched her eyebrows in surprise when Catherine asked fifty cents for the +card she made out for her. “As Algernon’s mother, really, Miss +Catherine, I did not expect–” and Catherine, catching +Algernon’s imploring glance from his position between the doctor and the +superintendent, murmured an apology and gave the card.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Swinburne sank delicately into the arm-chair, and rested her eyes +upon the scene before her.</p> + +<p>It was soon sufficiently animated. A whole family arrived at once, climbing +out of a big farm wagon. Dot beckoned to Bert.</p> + +<p>“It’s that man we talked to out on the Ridge Road.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/i-077.jpg' id="img003" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'>“‘How much for your +tickets?’”–<i>Page</i> 77.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span>“Is this +your liberry?” asked a mighty voice from the doorway. “Where’s +the young fellow that invited us to come in this evening? O, it’s you, is +it? I didn’t recognize you with those clothes on. Men folks didn’t +wear white pants in my day. Well, Mother, come along in. I guess they +won’t nobody bite you.”</p> + +<p>With this encouragement, a little washed-out looking woman slipped +uncomfortably in, six children of various degrees of awkwardness stumbling after +her, studiously avoiding the outstretched hands of the receiving committee. Dr. +Helen stepped forward and took the woman’s hand. The wan face under the +dusty black straw hat lighted with the smile that Catherine loved to see her +mother call forth.</p> + +<p>“Clary,” said the little woman proudly, “here’s the +doctor. Let her see how fat and well you be. Not much like she was that +winter!”</p> + +<p>Clary’s father, meanwhile, was walking about the room with a tread that +rattled the lamp-shades. He looked the books over with an air of wisdom, +listened to Bert’s talk in silence, and presently drew up at the desk +where Catherine sat waiting for customers.</p> + +<p>“How much for your tickets?”</p> + +<p>“Fifty cents.”</p> + +<p>“Family rates?”</p> + +<p>Catherine met the unforeseen question promptly.</p> + +<p>“Where there are more than three in a family, the tickets are only +thirty-five cents apiece.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span>“So. Well, +give me one,” and he drew a handful of small change from his pocket. +“Holcomb’s the name. Chester G. Holcomb.”</p> + +<p>Catherine inscribed the name in her pretty even hand upon a blue card, +numbered it 2, and handed it to her patron. He laid down thirty-five cents and +turned away.</p> + +<p>“O,” said Catherine, flushing softly. “You didn’t +understand. It is only when you get three cards that they are cheap like +that.”</p> + +<p>Chester Holcomb, known as the biggest miser in the county, grunted.</p> + +<p>“You said if they was more than three in the family, and they’s +six children besides ma and me. I knowed there was some skin game about this +thing, somewheres. Here’s your ticket and you give me back my +money.”</p> + +<p>Catherine, almost as near tears as she had ever been in her singularly +well-controlled existence, obeyed him.</p> + +<p>“Good evening, Chester.” Dr. Harlow had been standing near, and +now decided to take a hand. “Let me introduce my daughter. Catherine, this +is Mr. Holcomb, of whom you’ve heard us speak.”</p> + +<p>“The father of the dear twin babies?” asked Catherine, with a +grateful throb for her father’s help.</p> + +<p>“That’s them yonder,” answered Chester Holcomb, swelling +proudly. “Mate, bring the twins <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_79'></a>79</span> here, so’t the doctor’s gal can see +’em. Weighed five pounds when they was born, and look at ’em now! +Best fatted live stock on the farm, I say, Doctor.” And Mr. +Holcomb’s great laugh at his own witticism filled the room. Catherine, +meanwhile, with the sincerity of a girl who really loves all babies, admired the +plump twins to such a degree that their father felt himself melting with +benevolence.</p> + +<p>“Mate,” he said suddenly, “think you’d like to read +any of these here books? Doc, make you acquainted with my daughter Sadie. +Graduated from the district school this spring and goin’ to town High +School this fall. Guess the’ ain’t any of the readin’-matter +here that’s beyond Sadie! Here, Miss, give us three of them +tickets,–that one I had and two more. Mrs. Chester Holcomb and Miss Sadie +Ditto. There! Keep the change,” and gathering up the three cards, he threw +a silver dollar heavily upon the table and turned away. Catherine and her father +looked at each other and laughed outright.</p> + +<p>“No man has ever got the best of Chester in a bargain,” said Dr. +Harlow, “and I judge no woman ever will! Allow me to make up the deficit. +It has been worth more than that as entertainment!”</p> + +<p>By this time the room was full. It was a motley crowd, as all classes of +Winsted were represented. The would-be Smart Set in rather elaborate hats <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span> and gowns, mingled with +the quieter Three R’s, and their own maid servants and the +“gentlemen friends” of the latter. All the standbys, who are always +on hand at church doings and the County Fair, were out in force. There was the +oldest inhabitant, bestowing his presence with the “nunc dimittis” +air which had characterized him since old age had given him the distinction +vainly sought in other fields. There was old Mis’ Tuttle in her best black +and orange bonnet, and Emeline Winslow with her wig over one ear and a bouquet +of artificial flowers under glass as her contribution. With her came Grandma +Hopkins, whose name was the only nimble thing about her;–ponderous and +elephantine, she had once, in calling upon a fragile little old lady, stumbled +in the doorway and fallen upon her hostess, whose brittle bones had snapped +under the strain. Polly and Dorcas constituted themselves a committee to look +out for the elderly ones, taking great pains to keep Grandma Hopkins in open +spaces where a fall would do little damage. There was a very bony woman with a +smile which was surprising, it was so soft and radiant. She brought a fat story +of the Bible for the children, and offered Algernon flowers from her garden for +all summer. “Flowers are good for the soul and the mind as well as +books,” she explained, “and if so be some one comes in and +can’t find the book they want, ’twon’t hurt ’em to see a +posy.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span>There was the +Sloan family, decked out in the leavings of a milliner’s shop and bringing +as offering a worn copy of one of Mary J. Holmes’ novels. There was a +good-hearted lady, so disastrously given to expressing enthusiasm by embracing +anyone within her reach that the heroes and heroines of the evening fought shy +of her, and Tom made her well-known tendency an excuse for withdrawing +altogether and going out to the fence behind the building where he could +overlook the festive scene and smoke a cigar surreptitiously. Not least +“among those present” was the ubiquitous reporter for the +<i>Courier</i>, biting his pencil and using abbreviations in his notes with such +freedom that the list of gifts, when finally published, contained such startling +entries as: <i>Eliza and her Germ Garden</i>, and <i>The Victorious +Anthropology</i>.</p> + +<p>“I felt as though I were in a dream half the time,” sighed Polly, +when the crowd had dwindled to “the immediate mourners” as Max put +it, and these were sitting wearily at the messy little tables, dipping idle +spoons into the melted cream that had been with difficulty saved for them. +“I kept on smiling and explaining and telling people to go to Catherine +for cards and to Bertha to leave their gifts, and half the time I didn’t +know what I was saying or who was talking to me. Bert came up once and asked me +to tell him which door he came in at, and I tried to find out for him, before I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span> tumbled–before +I saw the point, I mean. I never was so exhausted in all my life.”</p> + +<p>“Poor Algernon,” said Tom. “You’re just beginning +your work. Every one of those hundred and sixty-seven cards will be in to-morrow +to draw out a book. You ought to keep open for a week every day.”</p> + +<p>“Three times a week, with evenings, will be enough,” replied A. +Swinburne, librarian. “There’s a big job on those books that came in +to-night. How many were there finally, Bertha?”</p> + +<p>“Ninety-six. About twenty are worth putting labels on,” answered +Bertha cheerfully. “I’m a little inclined to think that that part of +our plan was a mistake.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe it,” said Dot. “There was one old +duck who brought a German primer, and he strutted around as though he owned the +place. I’m sure he’ll use it constantly.”</p> + +<p>“He seemed to think he ought to have a card free, because he gave +it,” put in Catherine. “I remember him! He wasn’t the only +one, though. They all–or a lot of them–seemed to think they ought to +be able to draw any number of books on one card, and they don’t like the +idea of fines at all. I don’t envy you, Algernon!”</p> + +<p>“We ought to have called ourselves the Looking For Trouble Club,” +groaned Archie. “We haven’t had a decent Boat Club picnic since we +got into <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span> this mess. +And look at all this place to clean up to-morrow! I’m about dead with +work, already. I don’t know about the rest of you.”</p> + +<p>The rest had strength enough for a chorus of hoots and jeers at “His +Laziness,” who had adorned the scene of their labor for a few minutes now +and then, but for the most part had stayed strictly away.</p> + +<p>“I’ve saved your lives, anyway,” declared Archie +cheerfully, when their derision had spent itself. “And I’m going to +again. I hired a lovely scrub-lady to come to-morrow and make this spot look +shipshape–”</p> + +<p>“O, Archie!” cried the girls, “you beautiful +boy!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t interrupt,” said the beautiful boy sternly. “I +am going to vindicate myself. Polly Osgood, didn’t that tennis game Friday +morning save you from collapse? How about that little canoe jaunt on the quiet +yesterday, Catherine? Bess needed a drive Thursday, and Winifred did more good +to the public by singing to me all that hot evening than the rest of you did +slaving away over some gooey job or other. Dorcas let me reward her +Sunday-school kids by a hay-rack ride, and she went along to take care of us. +Agnes and Bertha got interrupted on their way down here one morning, and let +themselves be persuaded to take a country walk instead, to show me birds’ +nests for a course I’m not ever going to take next year. And as for <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span> Dot,–O, Dot was +shamelessly ready to go off any old time with any old body. But you all would +have been nervous wrecks by now without me. And you call me names, like an +ungrateful populace!”</p> + +<p>It was a mirth-provoking series of revelations. “Archie has shown +himself a most artistic sly-boots,” said Catherine. “I never had +more delicious conscience pangs than I did on that canoe-ride.”</p> + +<p>“So it was with me,” declared Polly. “And I never dared say +anything sarcastic about the other girls not turning up every time, because I +felt so guilty myself.”</p> + +<p>“So did I!” cried Bertha and Agnes together.</p> + +<p>“Well, so didn’t I!” exclaimed Dot. “I was perfectly +free to say all the time that I didn’t intend to spend my whole summer or +even ten days of it working harder than I do winters. I move that Archie be +given a vote of thanks for introducing the Rest Cure into the Boat Club, and +also a vote of admiration for the beauty of his dissimulation.”</p> + +<p>“I second the motion,” said Archie himself, “and amend it +to include going home. Want any help in locking up, Al?”</p> + +<p>“No, thanks,” said Algernon, hearing for the first time a +nickname that any fellow might have had applied to himself. “Good night, +all of you. I’ll take good care of things, you can count on +that.”</p> + +<p>As the rest drifted in pairs and threes toward <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span> their homes, a well-content young man set +the reading-chairs in their places, put out the low-burning lamps, turned the +key in the lock, and walked briskly away, happier than he had ever been.</p> + +<p>Even so early, Catherine’s inspiration had shown itself a true one.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span><a id='link_7'></a>CHAPTER SEVEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>A PARTY AT POLLY’S</span></h2> + +<p>“Where you goin’, Algy?”</p> + +<p>Algernon, half-way down the walk, turned at these words, high and clear, +floating down from upper regions.</p> + +<p>In the balcony on the second floor Elsmere, clad airily in white +night-drawers, leaned pensively over the railing.</p> + +<p>“To the party, you know. Go back to bed, Sonny.”</p> + +<p>“But the party is to Peter and Perdita’s, over +there,–” with a gesture across the street. “Why do you be +goin’ that way?” The fat little arm waved in an opposite +direction.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to get Catherine. Do go in, now, Elsmere. I’ll +tell you all about the party in the morning,” and Algernon hastened down +the street, bouncing more than usual in his effort to get out of reach of that +penetrating little voice.</p> + +<p>“Why,” it called after him, “why? Doesn’t Caffrine +know the way to Peter and Perdita’s house? What you goin’ to get her +<i>for</i>?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span>The neighbors on +their porches smiled, and Algernon reddened as he rushed along.</p> + +<p>Elsmere, abandoned, still draped himself over the railing and watched his +brother’s rapid walk.</p> + +<p>“Springs!” he murmured at last, as though he had solved a knotty +problem. “Algy walks like a spring seat!”</p> + +<p>Then with a lighted candle Elsmere proceeded to make some preparations for an +evening of festivity. The party at the Osgoods’ was so near that Peter had +assured him the music for the porch dancing would reach him even more clearly in +his balcony chamber than if he were a really invited guest and on the spot. +Peter had further coached him in the method of preparing porches for dancing, +and Elsmere had secreted a candle and matches early in the evening, waiting only +till Algernon was safely away to apply them. His floor nicely waxed, he curled +down in a corner of the balcony to watch the arriving guests, and unexpectedly +fell asleep.</p> + +<p>“Walk on your heels, why don’t you?”</p> + +<p>Algernon, escorting Catherine, made this suggestion as she picked her way +across a narrow muddy crossing, her white party skirts gathered in one hand. +Catherine, poising with difficulty on the toe of one foot, turned and looked at +him.</p> + +<p>“It just muddies my heels, and then my heels muddy my skirts. Of +course, you boys with <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_88'></a>88</span> trousers–” then, toppling, she righted +herself and leaped across the last puddle.</p> + +<p>“Trousers,” said Algernon, getting to her side again, “were +worn in Abyssinia as early as–”</p> + +<p>Catherine heaved a mighty sigh.</p> + +<p>“It’s like going out for a stroll with the <i>Century Book of +Facts</i> to walk with you, Algernon Swinburne,” she declared suddenly. +“Do you think in statistics party-nights, even? Haven’t you any +uninstructive thoughts for warm evenings?”</p> + +<p>Algernon regarded her silently.</p> + +<p>“Am I such a bore?” he asked quietly.</p> + +<p>Catherine caught her breath. She recalled swiftly her father’s having +said: “If Algernon should once find out that he was a bore, it would +probably cure him. He has a lot of sense.” And here he was finding it out, +on her hands, just because she had, for once, made her groaning comment on his +conversation audibly instead of to herself!</p> + +<p>It was a serious moment.</p> + +<p>“Listen, Algernon,” she said, feeling for words. “I +wasn’t very polite to say what I did, but I’m not going to take it +back now. It’s really wonderful how you know so much, and people who use +the library are appreciating it. But you see, you’ve lived by yourself all +these years, accumulating information, and when you get among people you do have +a little way of handing it out to them whether they want it or not. It’s +as though Mr. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span> Graham +should take potatoes and onions to church and pass them around to the +congregation! They might be very nice potatoes and onions! I know how it is, +because until Hannah Eldred came and woke me up, I used to do nothing but read +poetry and cook, and I know I quoted Shakespeare to the girls when they came to +see me, and it made them nervous, so they didn’t come often. Have you ever +noticed how Polly does? She’s always interested in what every one says, +and she always ‘catches on.’ She doesn’t try to run the +conversation, while Dorcas–”</p> + +<p>“Dorcas hits you over the head with a club, and then when you’re +stunned she sits down on you and talks to the others! Am I like her?”</p> + +<p>Catherine laughed outright.</p> + +<p>“That’s very ‘wink-ed’ of you, Algernon, as Elsmere would +say, but it truly does just about describe it. You never do that way yourself, +but you do open up and read aloud, so to speak, in company sometimes, in a way +that is disconcerting. Now, what could one say to a statement about Abyssinian +trousers, for instance, when one is just peacefully walking along, going to a +party?”</p> + +<p>Algernon straightened his shoulders.</p> + +<p>“Much obliged,” he said briefly. “I’ve been doing a +little observing on my own account lately, since I’ve been around with the +rest of you so much, and what you tell me fits, all right. I guess I can <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90'></a>90</span> cut out the information! I +say, doesn’t the Osgood place look fine?”</p> + +<p>The great porch at the Osgoods’ “palatial residence,” as +the Winsted <i>Courier</i> always faithfully referred to the house, was alight +with square pink lanterns. A long strip of carpet ran out to the sidewalk, and +as she stepped upon it, Catherine put her hair back with a quick gesture and +smiled up at her tall companion.</p> + +<p>“I tell you, I’m proud to make my entrance by the side of the +real Librarian of the Winsted City Library.”</p> + +<p>“Leave your scarf here, Catriona darling,” said Polly, greeting +her guests in the doorway. “You don’t need to prink. Mother, Father, +here are Catherine and Algernon.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Osgood came forward and took Catherine’s hand with ceremony. Then +she turned to Algernon.</p> + +<p>“This is really an occasion. I am delighted, in my new capacity as +Trustee, to salute the Founder and the Mainstay of our Library.”</p> + +<p>“O!” protested Catherine. “But isn’t it perfectly +lovely the way the council did take up with the idea? Was there any hitch at all +about it?”</p> + +<p>“Not the least,” said Mr. Osgood. “You never saw anything +smoother. You young folks certainly struck this town with this library scheme of +yours at the psychological moment. The council was all for it. The tax was +voted, and directors <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span> +appointed as though it had been talked up for years.”</p> + +<p>“And Bertha is a trustee,” cried Catherine, seeing Bertha in the +group beyond. “O, Bertha dear, do use your influence to keep Algernon in +office!”</p> + +<p>Everybody laughed at that, and Mrs. Osgood threw up her hands.</p> + +<p>“We can’t help ourselves! No one can ever underbid him, except by +paying for the privilege. Algernon won’t take a salary.”</p> + +<p>Algernon flushed uneasily. “I haven’t earned one yet,” he +muttered. “And besides, salaries for public positions–”</p> + +<p>Some choice fact was refused utterance there, for Algernon, seeing +Catherine’s eye upon him, swallowed his harmless ‘statistic’ and +lapsed into silence.</p> + +<p>“Where are Bess and Archie?” fussed Polly. “Every one else +is here, and we do want to begin dancing. I wonder what can have kept +them.”</p> + +<p>“Here they are,” called some one. “Hurry up, you two. +You’re the latest.”</p> + +<p>“We’ve brought our excuse with us,” and Archie set down +before Mrs. Osgood a bulky newspaper parcel. Bess, smiling mysteriously, refused +to answer inquiries, and when the greetings were over Archie produced a knife +and started to cut the string.</p> + +<p>“Tell them the story first, Archie,” suggested Bess.</p> + +<p>“You think it would be more dramatic? Well, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span> maybe so, maybe so. Ladies and Gentlemen: +I have here a gift for the Winsted Public Library. It comes most appropriately +on this evening, when the original supporters of that institution are +celebrating their release from its responsibility! Miss Symonds,” +indicating Bess with a graceful curve of his thumb, “and myself were +proceeding hither to join you. Our way led us past the spacious edifice +dedicated now to the Cause of Learning and Recreation, having once been given +over to hats, and later still, as many now present remember, to rats! The +library is, as some of you are aware, not open on Wednesday evenings. Therefore +we were surprised to see standing before the door in an attitude of patient +expectancy, a rustic gentleman, bearing in his arm this identical parcel. We +hesitated and then remarked courteously to the gentleman that there was small +hope of his obtaining satisfaction at that particular portal before to-morrow +afternoon. His face fell. Seeing which phenomenon, Miss Symonds,” again +the thumb curve, “being of a kindly nature, offered sympathy to the +disappointed reader. He opened his heart to us–and also his bundle. It +seems he was not there to borrow books, but to bestow blessings. The article +herein contained was destined by his wife, its maker, to adorn the +library’s walls.”</p> + +<p>“He said,” interrupted Bess, “that he was sure we +didn’t have anything like it, because his wife <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span> invented it, and he didn’t know as +there was another in the world, even. He seemed to think the library was a kind +of museum and every one was sending things, and he and ‘wife’ wanted to, +too. He was a dear old man. So clean, and he wore a red shawl around his neck +this hot night–” Bess tossed her own bare head at the thought, and +fanned her pretty white shoulders. “Do show it to them, Archie, and +don’t make fun. He really thought we would think it was lovely, and it +certainly is unusual.”</p> + +<p>“Open it, open it!”</p> + +<p>Archie dropped to one knee, cut the string, and, removing one paper after +another, lifted slowly a hoop bound in red wool, from which depended twenty fat +little birds made of scraps of velvet.</p> + +<p>Silence and bewilderment. Then, “What’s it for?” faltered +some one.</p> + +<p>“We must explain it,” said Bess laughing. “They don’t +understand. Neither did we, at first. It’s not for anything. It’s +just an ornament, a beautiful parlor ornament. And you hang it from the +chandelier and set it swinging. So!” She illustrated and the gay little +birds bobbed merrily up and down.</p> + +<p>“They are hung on spiral wires of different lengths, you see, to make +them more lifelike and natural.”</p> + +<p>Every one was full of delight and amusement now, and one hand after another +poked the poor <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span> +little birds till they bobbed to a degree dangerous to their shoe-button +eyes.</p> + +<p>“It’s a variation of the Japanese wind-bell motif,” said +Mrs. Osgood. “But I shall wish I were not a trustee, if I must act on such +problems as that.”</p> + +<p>Algernon took the hoop and put it back into its wrappings.</p> + +<p>“I’ll write and thank him,” he said, “and I +don’t see any objection to it. The children will love it. I know Elsmere +would.”</p> + +<p>“We can keep it up for a while and not hurt his feelings,” said +Bertha, and as Polly at the piano began to play a waltz, the boys chose partners +and the porch filled with dancing couples.</p> + +<p>It proved, however, rather warm for dancing. Polly and Winifred took turns at +the piano, but before long every one was willing to sit and rest.</p> + +<p>“Play that pretty last one again, Polly, and let us listen,” +begged Bess. “It’s too warm to stir, but you play that so +beautifully.”</p> + +<p>Polly obligingly seated herself at the piano once more in the broad open +window. The light tripping music, unmarred by the sound of sliding feet, floated +over the lawn and across the street and up into the Swinburne balcony. Suddenly +the lazy group on the Osgood veranda caught sight of a flickering flame high in +the neighboring house. Algernon started up, but Bertha restrained him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_95'></a>95</span>“Watch!” she said. “It’s +Elsmere. I saw him.”</p> + +<p>The candle was stuck upon the railing of the balcony. Then capering about, in +little white night-drawers, to the sound of the music, Elsmere danced, +bare-toed, upon his well-waxed floor, the unconscious observed of all observers. +Applause long and hearty rewarded his efforts, and also brought Maggie to the +rescue. As she pounced upon him and knocked the sputtering candle to the ground, +Peter and Perdita, splendid in starched white linen, appeared in the doorway +behind “the party” and invited every one to come and draw bows and +arrows.</p> + +<p>Peter held a quiver of arrows, tied with bright ribbons “for the +ladies.” His sister at his side offered “the gentlemen” a fine +assortment of bows, with varicolored bow-strings. Bows and arrows mated, the +hunters marched in pairs to the screened-in breakfast room, looking out over the +river.</p> + +<p>At each end of the table was a chafing-dish, and in the center was a huge +cabbage surmounted by two natural-looking bunnies.</p> + +<p>Each marksman tried his luck, and the cabbage was soon riddled, but it was +reserved for Bert, with Dorcas’ arrow, to knock one rabbit over backward. +Thereupon Bert and Dorcas were immediately swathed in great aprons and installed +behind the chafing-dishes to show their skill as cooks. Fortunately both were +competent, and though <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_96'></a>96</span> much hampered by advice and witticisms, by the time +Peter and Perdita had passed the rabbit salad, radishes and olives interspersed +with artichokes and little china bunnies, the critical moment had passed, and +creamy messes were ready to be ladled forth upon wafers, and consumed in +eloquent silence.</p> + +<p>When, at last, there was nothing left but a few leathery strings, and even +Archie declared his spirit alone was willing, Polly rapped on the table with the +handle of a big spoon and called the meeting to order.</p> + +<p>“Miss Smith has an announcement to make.”</p> + +<p>Everybody looked at Catherine. Her eyes were shining and her face was all +aglow with pleasure.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to have company and I want you all to know it, and +come and get acquainted.”</p> + +<p>“Who is it?” asked some one.</p> + +<p>“The rest of the Wide Awake girls.”</p> + +<p>“What?” “All of them?” “All of you +together?” “Not the German one?” “Is Hannah Eldred +coming?”</p> + +<p>The girls all talked together, and the boys looked mystified.</p> + +<p>“I wish some one would enlighten me,” said Max helplessly. +“Who are the Wide Awake girls?”</p> + +<p>“Why, Max! Didn’t you ever take <i>Wide-Awake</i>?”</p> + +<p>“The magazine? Sure thing. What of it? Does <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span> Catherine want us to subscribe? After an +ivory manicure set or a lawn-mower premium?”</p> + +<p>“No, no. Listen, Max, and any of the rest of you who are so ignorant as +not to know about the Wide Awake girls. Hannah Eldred advertised for friends +once, and Catherine and a little girl in Germany and one out West answered. And +the German one proved to be the daughter of a long-lost friend of Hannah’s +mother, and the one out West turned up at Dexter, rooming next door, when she +went there, and now she rooms with Catherine. Did you ever hear such a tale in +your life? If you were to read such a string of facts in a book, you +wouldn’t believe it.”</p> + +<p>“No more you would,” commented Max. “I’m not at all +sure I believe it, as it is. Are they all coming at once, Catherine?”</p> + +<p>“Not quite. Hannah and Frieda will be here in a week or two, and Alice +as soon after as she can. They are all of them the <i>dearest</i> +girls!”</p> + +<p>“Pretty?” asked Archie.</p> + +<p>“Wait and see,” laughed Catherine. “They’ll make +their own impression, but I want you all to be friends as we are.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll do our best to entertain them,” said Bert. +“Distinguished foreigners don’t come our way every day. I move you, +Madam President, that we make these Wide Awake young ladies honorary members of +the Club.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span>The motion was put +and carried with a round of applause, and a few minutes later the Boat Club +meeting was informally adjourned.</p> + +<p>Algernon, reaching home at midnight, stole into his brother’s room and +hung the bird-hoop near his bedside. With characteristic perverseness Elsmere, a +sound sleeper by day, was easily wakened at night, and, as Algernon slipped out +of the room, he sat up and watched the birds bobbing in the moonlight. Presently +he dropped back on his pillow, sleepily content.</p> + +<p>“Springs!” he said, “like Algy walks.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='center fs14'>PART TWO</p> +<p class='center fs14'>THE COMING OF FRIEDA</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span><a id='link_8'></a>CHAPTER EIGHT<br /><span class='h2fs'>A FORTUNATE MEETING</span></h2> + +<p>On the day of Polly’s party, far away in the village of Ventnor on the +Isle of Wight, some one was thinking of the young people of Winsted and their +library undertaking.</p> + +<p>A tall woman walked swiftly along the road toward Freshwater, enjoying its +charming variety, the sudden glimpses of sea beyond the chalk cliffs, the quaint +cottages and lanes, and at a certain bend the trees she loved better than all +the rest, with ivy running over the ground and up the mighty trunks. There was a +radiance about Clara Lyndesay which seemed to make whatever she looked upon more +beautiful than it had been before. No one had ever been able to analyze it, to +decide how much was due to the sunny hair, how much to the blue eyes, and the +smile that suggested sweet wistful things that never could be told, and how much +to her own deep inner peace. “The beauty of you certainly helps the +goodness make its impression,” Dr. Helen said to her once, “and yet +I am half inclined to believe that it is the goodness that makes the +beauty!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span>Just now there +was no analyst at hand, no one, in fact, but a stout small boy, driving a +butcher’s cart. He felt the force of the charm, however uncritically, and +grabbed his cap from his head as he drew up beside the lady.</p> + +<p>“The landlady down there asked me to give you these here, thank +you!” He handed out two letters, and then clucked to his horse in an +embarrassed fashion as Miss Lyndesay thanked him.</p> + +<p>“They came after you left, and she said you’d be wanting them, +thank you!” And he drove on, leaving the source of his emotion quite +unconscious of him or it, intent upon opening the first of the letters.</p> + +<p>“They are too long to read as I walk,” she said, and chose a +comfortable secluded spot to sit. “Let me think. It was a year ago in +March that I saw Hannah first, there at Three Gables, when she had just come +back from Germany, and was homesick and missed her mother so. She did Catherine +as much good as Catherine did her. They are a pair of charming children, as +different as April and October. I think I will save Hannah’s letter for +the last. It’s sure to be exciting, and Catherine’s should be read +in a calm spirit.” Accordingly she opened Catherine’s and glancing +with a smile over the tabulated statement of the health of the various members +of the family, regularly included since her complaint that no such information +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103'></a>103</span> was ever granted +her, began to read the letter proper:</p> + +<div class='bquote'> +<p>“<i>Dearest Aunt Clara:</i></p> + +<p>“Algernon is away at a district meeting. I believe that is what he +calls it. He is quite elated over the opportunity and Polly and I are taking +charge of the library while he is gone. I hardly see Algernon any more. He is so +busy all the time, and he is simply sought after. People seem to think he is an +infallible authority, now that he is librarian, and he does seem to know +everything. He reads everything and has an intelligent way of telling what you +want to know. I’m quite impressed by him, myself. Of course, he talks +technicalities a lot, and he acts grieved sometimes because the rest of us +don’t take the library quite so seriously as he does. The others are +rather tired of it by now, except Polly and Bertha and Agnes. I really enjoy it, +and I come in often nowadays, because I know when Hannah and Frieda get here, I +won’t have so much time for it. The children are fond of Algernon and he +remembers the funny things they say and tells them–(it’s the first +time he ever had anything amusing to say on any subject!)–Peter Osgood +wanted <i>The Wail of the Sandal Swag</i>, and a little girl asked for +<i>Timothy Squst</i>. (If that’s how you spell it. It rhymed with +‘crust.’) The children aren’t the only funny <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span> ones. A man came in this afternoon and +asked for <i>Edith Breed</i>, and it proved he wanted <i>He That Eateth Bread +With Me</i>, and one forlorn-looking creature handed me a slip of paper with +<i>Doan the Dark</i> written on it, and she meant <i>Joan of Arc!</i></p> + +<p>“<i>Later.</i> I had to stop there to wait on a whole group. I +don’t understand why they always come in hordes. They don’t seem to +be connected at all, but there are always times when there is no one here and +then suddenly an influx.</p> + +<p>“Just now the room is empty again. I wish you could see it. It is a +dear little room and now that it is being really used, doesn’t have that +bare look it had at first. We fixed up a darling Children’s Corner, with +some child pictures cut from a magazine and framed, and a little round table +Polly used to have, and my own little rocker. The window is a sunny one, and the +little curtains look so fresh and dainty. Almost always there is some child or +other sitting there looking at pictures or reading.</p> + +<p>“<i>Later again.</i> Dearest, dearest Aunt Clara! My eyes are all full +of happy tears. I can’t write clearly. I came home from the library a +little tired and quite willing to let Polly take it for the evening. And here on +the porch was the box, the blessed box, addressed to me. Of course, I +wasn’t too tired to open it! O, you dear darling! We have needed color in +that bare little place so much, and here is this beautiful glowing picture just +full of story <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span> +suggestions. There never was a child born who could look at that, and not go +dreaming off into all sorts of fairy tales. It makes me so happy to think you +care enough about our little library to give your own beautiful work. I wanted +to go right down and hang it, but I called Polly up on the ’phone and she +came over, and said I should keep it this evening to look at, and we’d +hang it when Algernon comes back to-morrow. She is delighted, too, and Algernon +will be, and he will send you a formal letter of thanks, but nobody can be so +pleased as I am, because you are my almost-truly aunt, you know.</p> + +<p>“I do hope you can feel the thanks I’m sending you across all +that big salt water!”</p></div> + +<p>Clara Lyndesay’s own eyes misted a little.</p> + +<p>“That little study isn’t deserving of such glowing words,” +she said to herself. “Now I must see what my other childie has to say. +Their letters are growing more similar. Catherine’s association with other +girls is giving her a more open manner, and Hannah is growing a bit more mature. +Still,–” her eyes fell upon the wild slant of the writing before +her, “I suspect she never will be quite grown up, and this particular time +she doesn’t show the maturity alarmingly! This letter looks as excited as +the one she wrote from Dexter when she was upset about sororities last +year.”</p> + +<div class='bquote'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106'></a>106</span>“<i>Darling Lady Love of Mine:</i></p> + +<p>“Are you in Ventnor still? Shall you be there the 23d? I don’t +know what I shall do, if you leave the Isle of Wight before the 27th. I wanted +to cable, but father thought it was unnecessary and of course I couldn’t +afford to do it on my own account. They charge terribly for cabling. And this +letter may not reach you till you are gone, or <i>they</i> are. O <i>dear!</i> +It just worries me to death to think about it. And there you are so near and I +have wanted you and Frieda to meet so long. You may even be passing each other +on the street or somewhere and not recognizing each other. <i>Have</i> you seen +her? You’d surely know her, if you stopped to think, for Mother always +said she looks like Mona Lisa and you’d notice Mona Lisa if you saw her. +Even if she did have on a sailor suit too big for her, and a funny soup-bowl +hat. Only perhaps she doesn’t wear such things now. It’s two years +since I saw her, almost, that is, and I don’t know how she dresses.</p> + +<p>“Aunt Clara! I was just going to sign my name and read this over and I +haven’t told you what I was writing for at all. You will think me a +dreadful rattlebrain! It’s just that we got a post card to-day from the +Langes saying that they were on the Isle of Wight for several days, and I +thought right away that you simply must meet them. It’s such a little +island! They wrote from Ryde. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_107'></a>107</span> O, I’ll enclose the postal. It will tell you +all about where they are to be, and you will try your very hardest to see them, +won’t you? You couldn’t help loving them, every one, dear Frau Marie +and the funny Herr Professor. And nothing is far in England.</p> + +<p class='tar'>“Your loving loving <span class='sc'>Hannah</span>.”</p> +<p>“P. S. I wrote Frieda to look for you.”</p> + +</div> + +<p>The blue eyes were full of laughter this time.</p> + +<p>“Rattlebrain! I should say so. And of course,–yes, she did forget +to enclose the postal. It’s a wonder she didn’t cable. Now here am +I, exhorted to meet three German people of whom I know these facts: Professor +Lange of Berlin, the Frau Professor and their daughter Frieda, who looks like +Mona Lisa and–perhaps–wears sailor suits too large for her and a +funny soup-bowl hat. Were in Ryde some time ago, and, I judge, expected to be on +the Isle until the 27th. To-day is the 26th. Well, I’m afraid, Hannah +dear, you’ll have to learn to keep your head a little better, when you +wish to carry out your pleasant ideas. I wonder what she wrote to +Frieda.”</p> + +<p>She rose from her seat on the ivy-covered grass, and strolled leisurely back +toward her hotel. The afternoon light was low and the little church she passed +on her way seemed more than usually quaint <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_108'></a>108</span> and inviting. Half-way by, she turned irresolutely, +then entered the churchyard.</p> + +<p>A local guide was showing a party of tourists about.</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay was turning away to avoid them, when a deep <i>“Ach, +so!”</i> followed by a feminine <i>“Wunderhübsch! Ganz +malerisch!”</i> fell on her ear. She looked more closely at the little +group. A gentleman in a long linen duster, with a loosely rolled umbrella under +his arm, was gazing at the church most earnestly. He stepped back to get a +better view, and colliding with a mossy headstone, turned and bowed to it +politely with an apology. The little woman at his side paid no attention to him +or to the guide, but followed with her eyes a plump young girl in a sailor-suit, +who was stooping to gather flowers.</p> + +<p>“Frieda,” she called, “pluck not those blossoms!”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay approached the young girl. Mona Lisa’s inscrutable eyes +and elusive smile looked up from below an impossible hat.</p> + +<p>“I was looking for you, Frieda,” said Miss Lyndesay. “But +Hannah said you were in Ryde.”</p> + +<p>“Yesterday, gracious lady,” said Frieda, ducking in a courtesy, +“but to-day, no. We have sought you, too, and vainly. <i>Vater</i>, +<i>Mütterchen</i>, behold Hannah’s beloved lady. We have found ourselves +at last!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span><a id='link_9'></a>CHAPTER NINE<br /><span class='h2fs'>LANDING</span></h2> + +<p>“O Dear! It seems as though I couldn’t wait a minute longer. It +takes such an eternity for them to get in. Do you think you can see her, Karl? +Take the glasses and look. See if you don’t think that little red speck in +the bow is her?”</p> + +<p>“After the verb ‘to be’–”</p> + +<p>“O, bother, Karl! You are fussier about my English than my +German.”</p> + +<p>The tall fair young man smiled, but answered stubbornly: “It’s a +fact, Hannah, you are more careless about English than about German. Not in +grammar only, but in pronunciation. How is a poor foreigner to guess that +’sumpn’ for instance means ‘something’?”</p> + +<p>“If it didn’t mean anything, I wouldn’t say it,” +retorted Hannah saucily. “Is there any other criticism you have to make +upon my use of my native tongue, Mr. Germany?”</p> + +<p>“You drop your final ‘g’ occasionally, and always your final +‘r’,” went on the accuser.</p> + +<p>Hannah laughed. “You can’t hear an ‘r’ unless <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span> it’s rolled over +the tongue like macaroni, Karl Von Arndtheim! Just wait till you hear the +western girls talk, and you’ll be satisfied. Look! Look! It’s as +much as an inch nearer. Give me the glasses again. I do believe that’s +Frieda. No, not the red one, but the blue one with the veil floating. Can you +see?”</p> + +<p>Karl pushed his way through the crowd, drawing Hannah safely along into a +little open space at one side. Stationing himself against a pile of boxes, he +helped her climb to the top and support herself by clinging to his shoulder.</p> + +<p>“There, child, you can sit and watch, and she’ll see you better +than if you were mixed up in the crowd. Put up that sunshade and wave it. She +will think you are a great blue bird ready to fly out and meet her.”</p> + +<p>“I wish I were a gull. I’d fly right to her dear shoulder and +peck her cheek. But are you sure I’m not too heavy, Karl? This thing is +wobbly and I lean on you awfully for such a fat lady as I am.”</p> + +<p>“I can endure it! I say, Hannah, now she is so nearly here, I’m +beginning to get excited myself. <i>Die niedliche Kleine!</i> It doesn’t +seem two years ago that you youngsters used to send cakes and things down to my +window from yours. You were a pair of ministering angels.”</p> + +<p>“Wasn’t it fun? Poor Karl! I did pity you so, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span> cooped up in the house +that way. And you played the violin like an angel yourself, like a grieving +one.”</p> + +<p>“Well, we’ve all given up the angel hypothesis by this time, +though it was useful in getting us interested in each other. There! This time I +see her, not in red nor in blue, but in brown. See! She is jumping up and down +and waving to us.”</p> + +<p>The moments that followed while the great vessel swung heavily into place +alongside the pier, and the ropes were made fast, and the gangplank was flung +across, seemed interminable to impatient Hannah. Frieda was almost the first to +land, and as she stepped on shore, she found herself lifted in a mighty hug, +which she returned with all the strength of two muscular arms, gasping little +cries of “<i>Ach, meine Hannah!</i>” as she did so.</p> + +<p>When the embracing stopped for a moment, Karl stepped forward, hat in hand, +to greet Frieda in his turn. She seized his hand and wrung it, repeating: +“<i>Ach</i>, my heart could burst for gladness. My dears! My dears! But +where is Miss Lyndesay?”</p> + +<p>“Miss Lyndesay?” cried Hannah, looking wildly about. “Not +my Miss Lyndesay?” But as she spoke, some one bent down and kissed her +mouth, rounded with amazement.</p> + +<p>“Yes, your Miss Lyndesay, and Frieda’s guardian for the present. +We must get out of the crowd a little, Hannah, and then we can tell you all +about <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span> it. Is this +Mr. Von Arndtheim? I think I shall have to introduce myself. Will you find the +way to our trunks, please? I had the hand luggage taken off at once. It’s +fortunate we both belong in L.”</p> + +<p>Somehow the little group made its way inside the great roofed-over place +where the customs inspectors were doing their disagreeable duty to trunks and +suitcases. Under a great black “L” Karl soon had Miss +Lyndesay’s and Frieda’s trunks opened and passed upon, while Hannah +struggled to collect her wits, and control her unspeakable rapture. Frieda was +intent upon seeing that no harm was done her belongings, which were piled up +about her, umbrella, hand-bags, a carryall, a shawl-strap, a brown linen roll +with <i>Gute Reise</i> embroidered on it, and a long trunk with rounded edges. +She resented the inspector’s opening anything, but Miss Lyndesay and Karl +ignored her protest and at last the ordeal was over, and all four were seated in +a carriage, driving to the club where they were to lunch with Miss Lyndesay.</p> + +<p>“Frieda! Frieda! Put your head back in here!” said the harassed +guardian of that head, in a tone of mingled amusement and weariness. “If +you get her safely to Mrs. Eldred to-night, Mr. Von Arndtheim, you will do well. +Frieda has escaped various sorts of peril on the voyage, rather by miraculous +intervention than by any skill of mine as chaperon. Tell me, Hannah dear, how +are your family?”</p> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/i-112.jpg' id="img004" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'>“‘Sure I am not too heavy, +Karl?’”–<i>Page</i> 112.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span>Hannah had been +sitting very quietly beside her beloved lady, too dazed yet to realize her +unexpected good fortune. She squeezed the gloved hand hard now and answered +mechanically, her eyes telling the feelings that were surging within her.</p> + +<p>“That is good. We left Frieda’s parents well, too, and quite +content after some excitement. You see, they had made plans for Frieda to come +with an English friend of theirs, who was obliged only a few days before +sailing-time to change her plans. Then the Professor thought he might send +Frieda in the captain’s care, but that distressed Frau Lange, and they +were on the point of giving it up altogether when they happened to tell me about +it. I had been intending to come over soon, anyhow, and could easily arrange to +take their friend’s place, and did so gladly. It was a much more +interesting passage than I have usually known!”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay smiled at Frieda and Frieda smiled in return, but had almost +immediately to be drawn forcibly into the carriage by Karl.</p> + +<p>“You can see enough of America without putting your head out,” he +suggested. “It is an interesting country, but not worth so much effort, I +assure you.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span>They were +driving down Commonwealth Avenue by this time, and even Frieda’s Berlin +had never shown her a pleasanter and more decorous street. Karl thought, as she +leaned forward, that she was trying to get a better view of the trumpeting +angels on the spire of the church they were passing, but he was destined to be +undeceived.</p> + +<p>“I care nothing for America,” said Frieda scornfully. “But +I do not trust that man. I cannot see all my <i>Handgepäck</i>, only the ends of +two bags. Let us stop him and count them!”</p> + +<p>“Americans don’t steal!” said Hannah hotly.</p> + +<p>“Neither do Germans!” cried Frieda, and Karl looked at the two +with consternation.</p> + +<p>“See here, <i>Kinder</i>,” he put in. “This is a little too +much like old times. You are two years older now, and shouldn’t be so +belligerent.”</p> + +<p>“Bell-i-gerent?” Frieda fumbled in her coat pocket and brought +out a little red book. “I do not know that word. I will seek +him.”</p> + +<p>“O, dear,” moaned Hannah. “Are you going around seeking +words in a dictionary all the time, Frieda? I’ll put a stop to that, +you’d better believe.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay watched the little scene in silence. On the way across the +ocean she had wondered more than once what effect Frieda’s decidedly young +and aggressive nature would have on Hannah, whom she knew to be easily affected +by her companions.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span>“Catherine +will have her hands full, keeping them soothed,” she thought now, and was +glad when the carriage stopped before the familiar house with the mail-box +between the posts, and Karl helped her out.</p> + +<p>“B-e-l-l-i-g-e-r-e-n-t!” spelled Frieda triumphantly, stumbling +out of the carriage, “‘Inclined to fight; war-like; +pug-na-cious–’ Ah!”</p> + +<p>Her eyes fell upon the <i>Handgepäck</i>. “<i>Eins, zwei, drei, vier, +fünf,–wo denn? So! fünf, sechs. Es sind alle hier!</i>”</p> + +<p>“There!” said Hannah. “I told you the man wouldn’t +steal!”</p> + +<p>Frieda opened her lips to answer, but Karl caught up all the luggage he could +carry and led the way to the steps where Miss Lyndesay was waiting, and the two +girls followed him, forgetting national disputes in common interest in their +surroundings, as they had done more than once before.</p> + +<p>At luncheon in the pretty club dining-room, Frieda ate industriously and +silently, as Hannah remembered seeing her do of old. Hannah herself did justice +to the good dishes, though she could hardly take her eyes from Miss +Lyndesay’s beautiful face, and could think of nothing whatever to say on +any subject. Karl and his hostess chatted pleasantly and liked each other +warmly. After luncheon, Karl went out to send cablegrams, and <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span> Miss Lyndesay took the +girls up to the attractive white and green room which had been assigned to +her.</p> + +<p>“Can’t you come out home with us?” asked Hannah wistfully. +“I know Mamma would love to have you. She couldn’t come in to meet +the boat, because we’ve been at the shore until two days ago, and she was +getting the house open; and Dad was too busy, so they sent me down with Karl. +But I know if they were here, they would beg you to come. Can’t you, +please?”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay took Hannah into her arms and kissed the warm red cheeks. As +she did so, she saw a queer little look of annoyance cross Frieda’s face, +and she put out her arm and drew Frieda close, too.</p> + +<p>“I’d like nothing better than to be with both of you for days and +days. Think how I shall miss my little roommate! But I must stay in town a day +or two to do some necessary shopping. You know, I am going to spend the rest of +the summer in Brookmeadow, a beautiful little village, not far from your home, +Hannah. I’m going to fit up a studio there, out of an old house I own. And +listen, both of you! Before Frieda goes out West, you two are to come over and +spend a day and night with me in my home there. Shall you like that?”</p> + +<p>The sunshine on their faces answered her, but Hannah’s grew wistful +again.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span>“You are +going to be so near my home all summer, and I’m going away, +myself.”</p> + +<p>“But you are going to Winsted and Catherine. Don’t forget that. +And I shall be at Brookmeadow still when you come home. Hannah, Hannah, +haven’t you learned yet that one can’t have everything that is +delightful all at once?”</p> + +<p>“I suppose you mean about sorrows making you appreciate blessings and +so on,” pouted Hannah. “But I don’t believe it. I know I could +be happy all the time, if I could have all the things I want just when I want +them!”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay did not smile. “Perhaps you could!” she said +slowly. “You will never have a chance to prove it. It’s not within +the limits of possibility. But I had an idea, Hannah, that you were one of the +people who could manage pretty well to be happy with things as they +came.”</p> + +<p>Hannah flushed and buried her face on Miss Lyndesay’s shoulder. Frieda +looked restless.</p> + +<p>“<i>Bitte, sprechen Sie mal Deutsch</i>,” she said suddenly. +“<i>Es tut mir furchtbar weh, immer Englisch zu hören!</i>”</p> + +<p>Quick as a flash Hannah’s head came up, and she laughed a delicious +laugh. “Poor Frieda,” she said in German, “does it hurt you +awfully to hear English all the time? There! There! I know how you feel. Did you +talk German to her coming over, Miss Lyndesay?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span>Miss Lyndesay +looked guilty. “I’m afraid I did. You see, it was such a fine +opportunity for me to practise, and I didn’t want her to be homesick, as +well as–”</p> + +<p>“I was not seasick,” declared Frieda stoutly, and both the others +laughed.</p> + +<p>“I have crossed the seas full many times,” said Clara Lyndesay +smiling, “but never have I known any one who was seasick! But to change +the subject, it’s almost time for Karl to be back to take you to the +train, children; and Frieda has a spot on her coat which I can remove if you +will open my suitcase, Hannah, and bring me the little bottle of benzine in the +left-hand corner. Mrs. Eldred must not think I have brought her an untidy little +<i>Mädchen</i>!”</p> + +<p>They spent a cozy half hour chatting in German or English, as the spirit or +their respective inabilities moved them, and when Karl arrived to escort them to +the station, they were in a blithe mood, which even the ordeal of parting from +Miss Lyndesay did not shake.</p> + +<p>“You are coming very soon to visit me,” she said, as she kissed +them good-by, “and you are both to be good until then, and not +belligerent. Remember you are children no longer.”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t you a child any longer, Frieda?” asked Hannah with +interest, as they entered the carriage.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span>“Indeed, I +am not. Did you not see that I make no more <i>Knixes</i>?”</p> + +<p>“That’s so. Isn’t it fun not to? Don’t you ever +forget?”</p> + +<p>“Only once. When I met Miss Lyndesay in the churchyard,” said +Frieda, dwelling on the memory.</p> + +<p>“No wonder!” said Karl. “I would salaam before her, +myself.”</p> + +<p>“So would I!” agreed Hannah. “But Frieda, then, if you are +no longer a child, at last you have a will?”</p> + +<p>Frieda nodded her head emphatically.</p> + +<p>“Now,” she said, “I have a will.”</p> + +<p>And Karl, looking into her sturdy face, into the eyes which he had sometimes +seen dancing with mischief, sometimes flashing anger, and sometimes brimming +with sorrow, murmured a prayer under his breath, for gracious guidance for that +new-claimed “will.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span><a id='link_10'></a>CHAPTER TEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE MAKING OF A COMPACT</span></h2> + +<p>At the end of the short railway journey, Mr. Eldred met the girls and +conducted them to the house where Mrs. Eldred waited with a heart-warming +welcome for her little guest.</p> + +<p>It was a pretty home and Frieda felt the charm of it instantly as she went up +stairs with Hannah to the little square room which she was to occupy. At the +same time, however, she felt strange and out of place. She was conscious of a +contrast between her own hat and Hannah’s, between her heavy wool dress +and Hannah’s blue linen suit, between her strong, serviceable–and +ugly–shoes, and Hannah’s pumps, also strong and serviceable, but far +from ugly. The six pieces of hand luggage and the queer steamer trunk, when +deposited in the center of the little room, with its crisp ruffled curtains, and +its plain mahogany furniture, disturbed the harmony that had reigned before from +the etching over the bed to the bowl of ferns on the table. Hannah was friendly +and beaming, and not at all belligerent. Mrs. Eldred was all sweet, cheery +thoughtfulness, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span> +but Frieda looking at herself in the oval mirror of the dressing-table, felt a +sudden throb of pity for the girl she saw there.</p> + +<p>Hannah helped her remove her thick jacket, tucked it and her hat away in the +closet, piled up the bags and asked for the trunk key.</p> + +<p>“<i>Mutter hat uns immer gesagt, alles an seinen Ort zu +legen</i>,” she said in a kind of chant. Frieda looked up, her eyes +brightening with fun.</p> + +<p>“Mother always told us to gargle every morning and use plenty of +tooth-powder,” she said, and Hannah shrieked with glee.</p> + +<p>“O, have you been learning English out of that ridiculous Edith and +Mary book, too? I hoped you would have it, and we can do beautiful dialogues in +German and English. I’ve always wanted to, but I never knew any one who +could do the responses. I’ll be Edith and you can be Mary.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eldred came in as Hannah flung the lid of the trunk back. Frieda’s +fun died away as she reached into a little pocket and took out a letter.</p> + +<p>“It’s for you, Tante Edith,” she said, holding it as though +she loved it. “It’s from my mother–” and the tears came +into her eyes as she said the word. Mrs. Eldred and Hannah exchanged glances of +understanding, and Hannah caught up the water pitcher.</p> + +<p>“I’ll get this full of warm water for you,” she said +briskly, “and you must hurry and get ready <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span> to come down stairs, for we are going +to have <i>Kaffee</i> just as you do in Berlin. Won’t that be +fun?”</p> + +<p>“Mamma can comfort her,” she thought to herself, as she emptied +the pitcher which Sarah had filled a few minutes before, and refilled it with +water a shade cooler. “I’ll leave them alone a few minutes and go +down and see about the coffee. I know she will like those little currant cakes +of Sarah’s.”</p> + +<p>Frieda, however, seemed little inclined to ask consolation from Mrs. Eldred. +She stood helplessly looking into her trunk, and Mrs. Eldred, feeling suddenly +shy, looked helplessly at her. The clouded, silent face was so different from +Hannah’s.</p> + +<p>“Aren’t you rather warm, dear, with that heavy gown on? +Let’s find something thinner to slip on before we go down +stairs.”</p> + +<p>Frieda stooped, rummaged a minute, and then produced a dress of pink cotton, +fussily trimmed with lace and ribbons. “This is thinner,” she said, +stonily.</p> + +<p>“That will do though it is rather fine for home dinner,” said +Mrs. Eldred gently. “But put it on, if you will, dear. I’ll tell +that forgetful Hannah to bring your water at once. O, I see, she left it outside +the door. There! If you want any help, just call me. I’ll go into my own +room across the hall and read your mother’s letter.” She wanted to +kiss the child, but Frieda’s manner forbade it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span>The pink frock +had alarmed Mrs. Eldred. “Clothes make such a difference to girls,” +she thought in distress. “How can I help her? She will be proud and shy, +and sure to think I am criticising her mother’s taste. Dear Marie!” +Whereupon she wisely suspended her puzzling and read the letter.</p> + +<p>“I am sending Frieda with as few new clothes as possible, my dear +Edith, relying upon your taste and kindness to fit her out with what she needs. +I remember how differently you dressed when you came to Heidelberg, and how odd +Hannah’s clothes looked to Frieda’s friends, and I want Frieda to +start without a handicap. American girls are less accustomed to seeing +foreigners than German girls are, and a little difference in the way of dressing +might make a great difference in happiness. I am afraid my Frieda will be +peculiar in many ways that cannot be remedied, so once more I ask you, will you +choose for her a simple outfit such as Hannah herself would approve, and make me +more than ever your grateful debtor?”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Eldred sighed with relief. The solution of one difficulty in sight, she +felt braver about all others. It was a theory of hers that food and clothes were +more important to happiness than most of the subtleties poets and philosophers +write about. “Homesickness is very often hunger, and <i>Weltschmerz</i> +can <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span> frequently be +cured by a becoming frock, or brought on by an ill-fitting one,” she +meditated, as she fastened the pink and lace for Frieda.</p> + +<p>Downstairs Hannah was busily setting forth upon a round table an appetizing +array of cakes and cookies with a copper pot of coffee. Mr. Eldred had arranged +to be present at this unwonted function, and Hannah chattered to him as she +worked.</p> + +<p>“Be sure you shake hands with her often, Daddy dear,” she +admonished him. “She is used to so very many hand-shakings a day, you +know, and we mustn’t cut her down to none at all, the very first thing. +It’s little matters like that that make you homesick. And homesickness is +agony, Father. I know, for I’ve been through it.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Eldred pinched the plump cheek which showed no trace of past anguish, and +Hannah seated herself upon his knee, being watchful of the pleats of her skirt +as she did so!</p> + +<p>“There’s one good thing,” she philosophized. “She +can’t miss her father as I should miss you, for he is so absent-minded +that he really doesn’t know her from the furniture. For all she is such a +mischief inside, she acts so quiet-like and well-behaved around the house that +she might almost as well be a sofa and done with it. And they have plenty of +sofas, so he won’t miss her and she won’t miss him so very much, +either.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span>“You imply +that if you were better behaved, you would not miss me so much when we are +separated! It’s sufficiently complicated. I suppose you pine for my +fearful reprimands?”</p> + +<p>That was such a delightful joke that they both laughed aloud and Mrs. Eldred +and Frieda were quite in the room before they realized it, and sprang up to +greet them with cordiality, if not with the ceremony Hannah had planned for.</p> + +<p>Those first days Frieda lived in a busy whirl. Hannah, once at home, and +recovered from the excitement of the day in Boston, was ashamed of her conduct +on that occasion, and tried to make up for it by all sorts of thoughtful +attentions to Frieda, which, with the shade of formality they involved, added a +little to the loneliness they were meant to combat. Mrs. Eldred, giving up, or +suspending for a time, the apparently hopeless task of winning Frieda’s +confidence, attended to her wardrobe with a rapidity and fervor which astonished +Frieda, accustomed to long deliberations on such matters, and no reckless +buying. Even the pretty frocks and hats and shoes did not please her. She felt +loyalty demanded that she should wear the things she had brought from home, and +it was not till Mrs. Eldred had given her her mother’s letter to read that +she consented to lay aside the German garments. Mr. Eldred took her about the +city, and thoroughly enjoyed her comments on <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_126'></a>126</span> things American, a scorn thinly veiled by polite +phrases, or by an expressive silence.</p> + +<p>She was silent most of the time, for the language was her greatest obstacle. +She remembered vividly the superior feeling she had had in Berlin, when she had +watched Mr. Eldred wrestle with a conditional or had heard Mrs. Eldred struggle +to pronounce “ch.” It was not nearly so pleasant to be struggling +one’s self, with a quite senseless “th,” for instance. Her +heart filled with rage when she caught Hannah listening intently to her +carefully enunciated words, and then saying suddenly with relief, +“O!” as their meaning dawned upon her. Frieda had been at the head +of her class in English.</p> + +<p>“It’s really because you pronounce so very well,” Hannah +explained apologetically, on one of these occasions. “You are so much more +exact than we ever think of being, that it gives an unfamiliar sound to words. +And besides, yours is English English and ours is United States.”</p> + +<p>“But English English must be best,” protested Frieda, and Hannah +forgot Miss Lyndesay’s warning and “flared up” for a minute, +but immediately recollected herself, and ordered an ice-cream soda as a +peace-offering, notwithstanding the fact that Frieda found the taste +disagreeable.</p> + +<p>“You’ll like it, when you are used to it,” she said +comfortingly. “You don’t have them at home, you know.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_127'></a>127</span>“No,” growled Frieda, choking on a +spoonful. “And I’m glad we don’t. Sundaes aren’t so bad, +but the name is foolish! I do not wonder Miss Lyndesay lives most of the time in +Europe!”</p> + +<p>The fifth day matters came to a climax. Karl had come over from Cambridge to +spend Sunday. Hannah and he seemed to be on the best of terms. They talked +English faster than Frieda could understand, and they seemed to have an endless +stock of jokes that had no meaning for her. Suddenly, after sitting with a brow +like a thunder-cloud for a while, listening to them and declining to join in the +fun, she started up and ran up stairs with a swift pounding gait that recalled +to Hannah the way she used to tear madly off to school in the morning, fearful +of being late.</p> + +<p>Karl and Hannah, left behind, looked solemnly at each other. Karl +whistled.</p> + +<p>“<i>Die Kleine</i> is irritated about something,” he +remarked.</p> + +<p>“I don’t wonder,” said Hannah sympathizingly. “I +always remember when it’s too late to do any differently. She felt left +out, I suppose, and you know you do use a terrible amount of slang, nowadays. +I’m awfully ashamed of us, Karl!”</p> + +<p>Karl pondered a moment. Then he said: “I’ll fix it up all right. +Here, you take this note up to Frieda. Just shove it under the door, if she +won’t let you in.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span>He wrote a few +lines on a card and gave it to Hannah, who promptly ran away up stairs with it. +Then Karl went into the study and telephoned a garage.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes, Frieda, shy and somewhat red-eyed, came down stairs. Hannah +was nowhere to be seen, and Mrs. Eldred was out for the afternoon. At the door +was a snorting automobile, with seats for just two.</p> + +<p>“I knew Hannah would forgive us if we ran away by our two +selves,” said Karl in German, meeting Frieda in the hall, and conducting +her out to the machine. “She knows enough about being in a foreign country +to understand that sometimes you want to be with your very own people. There! +I’ll have this thing running like a charm in about a minute. Sure +you’re not afraid to go out alone with me? I’ve learned a good deal +about this kind of thing lately. It’s one of the courses I’m taking +at Harvard. Here we go!” And there they went, speeding down the street at +a rate that made a policeman, half asleep on the corner, look about him with a +start. Frieda’s eyes shone, and she began to feel better.</p> + +<p>Karl had evidently acquitted himself well in his course in motoring. He drove +skilfully and easily, and they were soon outside the city in a pleasant country +road. Almost any place would have seemed pleasant to Frieda just then, though, +for <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span> Karl was +talking cheerily, merrily, talking in German, talking of topics she knew about, +and talking exclusively to her. She discovered that the day was much more of a +day than she had thought. There was a quality in the air she had not noticed +earlier in the afternoon. Presently she even became confidential. Karl, with +eyes and hands busy, guiding the machine, bent an attentive ear as Frieda poured +out her suppressed irritation of days.</p> + +<p>“They think it is such a fine country, Karl. I cannot understand them. +If they had never travelled–but they have been over Europe! They have been +in Berlin! And still they find matter for admiration in this dirty little city +with its buildings all heights, and its no trees anywhere except in the parks. +Where are their beautiful statues? Where is their Victory Avenue? Where are +their bridges? <i>Ach!</i> It is a poor cheap country. Tante Edith and Mr. +Eldred are heavenly kind, and Hannah I have loved with a great love, but they +have very little taste, and no sense at all.”</p> + +<p>Karl puckered up his lips in a low whistle, and Frieda blushed.</p> + +<p>“I did not mean to say that, Karl,” she said penitently. “I +am their guest. They are heavenly kind, yes. <i>But</i> I do not like the +country.”</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful shady road they had come into then, and the hills at the +end of it showed gracious curves.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>“This +reminds me,” said Karl meditatively, “of a place I went through near +the Rhine one summer vacation. It’s really quite as charming, I believe. +Look here, Frieda. I’m interested in the impression you make in this +country. You’re going to spend this year with a lot of girls who +don’t know much about Germany or Germans, and I don’t mind telling +you that I’m rather anxious to have you do us credit.”</p> + +<p>“I shall do Germany credit, everywhere,” answered Frieda stoutly, +but somewhat perturbed.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to think that,” answered Karl, “and on the +whole I guess it’s true, but if you keep on this way, I’m not so +sure of it. You are sitting here this afternoon making general statements about +America when you have seen only one of the less important cities. That +doesn’t strike me as the way one should judge. It doesn’t seem like +the kind of thing Professor Lange would do. He is very accurate and careful in +his judgments. And next, you haven’t shown much enthusiasm over the things +the Eldreds have done for you the last day or two. Now, I never knew any one who +was so unfailingly appreciative as Frau Professor Lange.”</p> + +<p>Frieda pouted. “But Hannah shows off.”</p> + +<p>“Shows off? Frieda, I’m afraid your sense of humor is rather +one-sided. Hannah may take advantage of your not understanding perfectly, but +who taught her that that sort of thing was <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_131'></a>131</span> funny? Who told her the brass plate over the +barber’s door meant that cakes were for sale there, so that she almost +went in to buy one?”</p> + +<p>Frieda chuckled. “It was not long I could fool her. She soon learned +too much. Besides, my mother would not let me.”</p> + +<p>“You still think it was justifiable and humorous, I notice. But what +would you have said if Hannah had told you to say: ‘So am I’ when +strangers said: ‘I am glad to meet you’? That was what some one told me, +when I first began talking English.”</p> + +<p>“If Hannah should tell me wrong, I would tell her what I think of +her!” blazed Frieda. “But you need not lecture any more, Karl. I +understand, and I will be good. I will be better than Hannah. I will be better +than yourself, than the saints, even. I will admire all things. Behold the +ravishing country! The wonder of that sky! Not Italy, not Spain has such a dull +gray color! The beauty of the dirty streets! The charm of the crowded +street-cars! Only five cents a ride, sitting upon the laps of others! I will no +longer sew on Sunday. I will never ask for beer. I will eat every morning little +dry cushions of curled grain. I will rock madly. I will–”</p> + +<p>“Hold on, Frieda!” shouted Karl. “Don’t reform so +fast. I can’t keep within speaking distance of you. You know, the reason I +scolded you so hard was because I sometimes feel just as you do about the whole +country!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span>Frieda put out +her hand. “Let us make a compact. For the honor of Germany, we will be +scrupulously careful of what we say about America, but sometimes, all by +ourselves, we can say just what we feel like saying.” Karl took her hand +solemnly. “It’s a bargain, and you are a Cor-r-rker-r-r!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span><a id='link_11'></a>CHAPTER ELEVEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>BROOKMEADOW</span></h2> + +<p>Clara Lyndesay stood in the doorway of her Brookmeadow house, listening for +the coming trolley. As she waited, she looked about her with satisfaction.</p> + +<p>The big square house, freshly painted white, with green blinds at the +windows, stood just at the edge of the broad elm-shaded road, known as the +Albany Road because it had been, in stage-coach days, the main line between +Albany and Boston. Just opposite the house was a broad meadow with a single elm +in the center, and a clear line of hills for background. Boulder walls enclosed +the meadow, and vines ran riot over them. The artist, looking, drew a deep +breath.</p> + +<p>“‘The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground. Yea, I have a goodly +heritage,’” she thought to herself. “I think I shall call my +wander-years over, and settle down here as Aunt Abigail hoped I would, and care +for her old mahogany as she did, painting a picture now and then from my own +doorway. The doorway itself is the most beautiful <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span> thing about the house,” she +added, stepping down the flagged path, to view it for the hundredth time that +week. Brookmeadow houses were famous for their wonderful old doorways, with +carved lintels, and this was not surpassed by any of them.</p> + +<p>Its owner’s contemplation was cut short by the far-off whir of the +trolley, sounding clearly through the still morning. Miss Lyndesay walked +quickly along the curving road to the Common where she was to receive her +guests. Reaching the long narrow green, where a few cows nibbled placidly as in +the days when a green in the center of the village was a necessary defensive +measure, she walked idly up and down. The straggling road under the great elms +passed the plain white meeting-house, dating from 1813, the Academy with its +belfry, the little general store and post-office combined, and wound out of +sight between dignified old houses, “like Aunt Abigail’s–mine +now,” she corrected her thought happily. No one was in sight. Up the road +came the trolley, jogging comfortably along. It stopped at the Common and its +two passengers almost fell into the arms that waited to receive them.</p> + +<p>“O-eeeeee!” sighed Hannah, getting as close to Miss Lyndesay as +she could on one side, while Frieda did the same on the other with a similar +ejaculation.</p> + +<p>“Two blue girls this time!” exclaimed Miss Lyndesay. <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span> “That is a very +becoming suit, Frieda,” and then forestalling any answer, for she had +known of Frau Lange’s letter to Mrs. Eldred and had guessed that Frieda +would not take altogether kindly to the new clothes, she inquired of Hannah as +to the health of her father and mother.</p> + +<p>“They’re all right,” answered Hannah briefly. “And I +am so glad to be here! Isn’t it just the dearest, sleepiest place you ever +saw in all your life?”</p> + +<p>“Is it your first visit here?” asked Miss Lyndesay. “I +supposed you knew these villages by heart.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t,” confessed Hannah. “I go to school all +winter, and in the summer we go to the shore, and we haven’t any aunts or +grandmothers or things like that living around here, so I don’t see places +like this except in passing through them.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you have a sort of aunt and grandmother combined living in +Brookmeadow now, and I shall expect you to visit her often. How does it seem to +you, Frieda?”</p> + +<p>“It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” answered Frieda. +“Hannah said it was a <i>Dorf</i>. I thought there would be only two or +three houses, and many little huts all close together, but we passed many +houses.”</p> + +<p>“It is a good thing for you to see a New England village,” said +Miss Lyndesay, “as part of the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_136'></a>136</span> education you came for. And when you get out to +Wisconsin, you will think you are in a different country altogether.”</p> + +<p>“I did,” laughed Hannah. “Why, it looked as though it had +been laid out with a ruler, and the trees were so little I felt as though they +ought to be in flower-pots.”</p> + +<p>“Not the beech woods, surely?”</p> + +<p>“Dear me, no. But in the town itself. The beech woods are real forest. +Is this the house? O, Aunt Clara, wouldn’t Catherine <i>love</i> +it?”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay was so unused to the house, herself, that she took a keen +delight in showing the girls all over it, taking them from one big room into +another, and telling them how to appreciate the fine old furniture.</p> + +<p>“The hangings are all new,” she explained. “Aunt +Abigail’s taste was not like her heart! She kept the old furniture, but +she had gaudy wall-papers and thick lace curtains, and I have had them all +replaced. They aren’t done yet, everywhere, but these main rooms are. And +she had the fireplace bricked up and a stove in the living-room. I found these +andirons in the garret.”</p> + +<p>“O, let’s see the garret,” begged Hannah. “We +haven’t any, with old things in it, I mean. You know our house is only a +little older than I am, and mother came from the West and she didn’t have +heirlooms, and father had nothing whatever <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_137'></a>137</span> when they started. I should think this house would +have been full of treasures.”</p> + +<p>“It was. I found several good chairs and a desk in the garret. I shall +have them refinished as soon as I can get around to it. There is a trunk that I +have only peeped into. I saved it for you girls to open. But you must come out +into the garden now, while the sun is there.”</p> + +<p>Frieda had taken only a moderate interest in the house, but when they entered +the tangled garden, German exclamations poured from her lips in a rapturous +stream.</p> + +<p>“<i>Himmlisch! Reizend! Famos! Ach, wie wunderhübsch! Was nennt man +dies? Und dies?</i>” She flew from one blossom to another, sniffing, +admiring, and asking questions about those that were unknown to her, naming the +others in German, and altogether showing a degree of enthusiasm which nothing +American had hitherto been able to arouse in her. It was not because of +Karl’s compact, but because of her mighty love of flowers. She seemed to +forget the others as she knelt before a little white tea-rose, kissing it and +calling it pretty names.</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay and Hannah watched her.</p> + +<p>“Now she seems more like herself,” said Hannah frowning, +“the way she was in Berlin. I wish she would stay that way!”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay looked at Hannah searchingly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_138'></a>138</span>“Frieda,” she called, “will you +gather flowers for the luncheon table, please? Hannah is going to pick +raspberries with me. I have a most beautiful old glass bowl to put them +in.”</p> + +<p>Frieda undertook the task assigned her joyfully, and Hannah followed Miss +Lyndesay to the kitchen, where Aunt Abigail’s old servant, inherited with +the house, supplied them with pails for the berry-picking. The bushes were at +the other end of the garden, where they could speak without being overheard.</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay said nothing at first, but she had not long to wait. Hannah had +poured out her puzzles and worries in letters to this friend often, since the +evening at Three Gables, long ago, when she had poured them out in words and +tears, and found comfort.</p> + +<p>It was a torrent of words this time, but Miss Lyndesay, listening, +distinguished between essentials and non-essentials by a divine gift which had +always been hers.</p> + +<p>“She doesn’t seem the same Frieda,” declared Hannah, at +last. “I don’t feel acquainted with her. Mamma says it is just +because everything is new and strange to her. She hasn’t criticised things +since she and Karl went off together for a little trip the other day, but she +looks bored or unhappy and I don’t know what to do. I was a stranger when +we were together before, but I’m <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_139'></a>139</span> sure I didn’t act so, and I don’t see +why she should now. So there!”</p> + +<p>“Did you go to Germany alone?” Miss Lyndesay put the question +casually, and Hannah looked up, surprised.</p> + +<p>“Why, no. Dad and Mamma were there all the time, of course. I +couldn’t have lived without them–O! I see what you mean,” and +the berries dropped slowly into the half-full pail while Hannah meditated.</p> + +<p>Clara Lyndesay, observing her bent face, felt satisfied. It was not the first +time she had seen Hannah Eldred come out of a quandary with very little +help.</p> + +<p>“She doesn’t do things by halves, either,” she thought. +“Frieda won’t have such a lonely time from now on.” Aloud she +said:</p> + +<p>“I wondered, when I heard you speak to Frieda in that careful +explanatory way, as you might to a child who had been left in your care rather +against your will, if you seemed just natural to Frieda! Frau Lange realized +that there was some risk in sending Frieda over here. She told me that she knew +young girls changed rapidly in tastes and ideals, and it might be that you two +would not care so much for each other now. But she hoped, for the sake of the +friendship between your mother and herself, that the two years would prove not +to have separated you greatly. I assured her that, while <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span> there might be some little difficulty +at first, you would probably come out better friends than ever. There! I think +we have quite enough berries. If you will just take them in to Evangeline, +I’ll see about Frieda’s flowers. You’ll find a pitcher of +shrub on the ice, and goblets on the tray all ready to bring out. We’ll +arrange the flowers on the back stoop, I think, and you might bring us some +refreshment there.”</p> + +<p>Frieda had gathered flowers eagerly, but without much discrimination. Miss +Lyndesay helped her sort them and make several bouquets instead of one +variegated one, talking with her the while of incidents of their journey, till +Frieda was entirely at her ease. By the time Hannah came out with the cool +drink, the slight constraint that had existed for days between Frieda and +herself seemed to have vanished. Joyfully, Hannah entered into the new spirit, +and when Miss Lyndesay went in to answer Evangeline’s questions about +luncheon, her guests were bubbling with mirth over some reminiscence of their +Berlin days.</p> + +<p>Immediately after luncheon, a caller arrived, with the obvious intention of +spending some time. Miss Lyndesay gave the girls a trunk key and sent them off +to do their garret exploring by themselves, giving them permission to do +whatever they liked with anything they might find. They climbed the polished +stairs, with arms interlaced, chattering <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_141'></a>141</span> in German and English mixed, and reached the big +shadowy garret out of breath. The trunks were piled in a cobwebby corner, and +their key proved to belong to the lowest one in the pile. That meant much mighty +tugging, but at last the encumbering ones were removed and they turned the key +in the lock and lifted the heavy lid.</p> + +<p>“O!” They spoke softly and leaned over, clinging to each other +with excitement. In the top tray lay a doll dressed as if for a wedding. She +wore a white satin gown, short-waisted, with a long panel down the front, +embroidered with tiny pearls and gold thread. Her little feet were adorned with +high-heeled slippers of white silk, also embroidered in the tiny pearls. A +necklace of shining stones, and two little earrings made them gasp with delight. +In the soft wavy hair was a high shell comb. The little lady held a book in her +clasped hands, and her eyes, half closed, looked sleepily out from under long +eyelashes.</p> + +<p>“See! Here is a card,” said Frieda, touching the soft folds of +yellowed tissue paper that lay around the little figure in the tray.</p> + +<p>Hannah lifted the card with awe, and read: “The doll of Millicent +Wadsworth, as she dressed it on her own Wedding Day, to be put aside and never +played with more. The Bishop said it was a sinful Waste to dress her so, but my +Husband said he did not care!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span>“What a +reckless man My Husband was!” said Hannah, looking back at the doll once +more. “Think of playing with dolls up to your wedding day! I wonder how +old she was.”</p> + +<p>“Let’s look in the other trays,” suggested Frieda. They +removed the top one carefully, to find almost as delightful treasures in the +next. Quite as delightful, perhaps, for here was the little Millicent’s +wedding-gown, with her slippers and necklace and high shell comb, all like those +the doll wore. Here, too, was a card, but written in an older hand:</p> + +<p>“The Wedding Clothes of Millicent Wadsworth Berryfield, married on the +16th anniversary of her birth to John Berryfield, Esq., a Devoted Lover and +Husband. She died three months and two days after of an Unknown Malady. John +Berryfield returned to England, leaving these, Her Possessions, to be kept +sacredly till he should come after them.”</p> + +<p>“It’s dated almost a hundred years ago. Of course, he is dead +too, now. I wonder if she pined for her doll to play with.”</p> + +<p>Frieda, leaving speculation to Hannah, was taking the pretty garments out, +one by one.</p> + +<p>“Here is another dress!” she exclaimed. “A pink one. O, +Hannah, you would look so pretty in this!” She held it up, quaint in style +as the other, with a little train, flowered silk over a straight front panel of +plain pink, tight sleeves with a little puff at the shoulder.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143'></a>143</span>“I +wonder–Do you suppose we dare try them on? They look almost big +enough.”</p> + +<p>“Of course, we dare. Miss Lyndesay told us to do what we liked and she +had peeped into this trunk, so she knew what was in it. We will be as careful as +careful can be.”</p> + +<p>They piled their arms with the delicate old fabrics and carried them down to +their own room where they proceeded to dress up. It was not an easy process, for +they dared not tug too hard, and Millicent had been slenderer than they, though +quite as tall. The little slippers defied them, and the necklace of pearls they +did not touch. “I think her husband gave her that, and no one else should +ever wear it,” said Hannah, and Frieda agreed.</p> + +<p>By the time they had finished dressing, they were flushed and rosy. They +stole out into the hall and peered over the banisters to see if the caller +showed signs of departure. Miss Lyndesay was just closing the door upon her. As +she turned back, she heard steps on the stairs and, looking up, saw a sight she +loved always afterward to remember. Two little Old World ladies, one in white +and brocade, the other in flowered pink satin, came down the winding stairs, +their eyes bright with excitement, their hair rough, and the big blue +hair-ribbons, which they had quite forgotten to remove, showing incongruously +above their minuet gowns.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span>“O you +pretty children!” cried Miss Lyndesay. “Millicent herself +wasn’t sweeter, I’m sure, when the Bishop married her off to John. +Why didn’t you bring the doll?”</p> + +<p>“We were afraid we’d drop her,” said Hannah, stepping to +the floor. “There! I’m glad I’m safely down. You can’t +think what awkward skirts these are to walk in. O!”</p> + +<p>For as she turned, Frieda stepped on her train, and with shrieks both fell to +the floor, splitting their hundred-year-old seams.</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay helped them up, laughing at their rueful faces, and kissing +away the tears that would come at the sight of the havoc they had wrought.</p> + +<p>“Cheer up, dear hearts! It was purest accident. And Millicent’s +pretty gowns have served their purposes long ago. I’ve no doubt they can +be put together again well enough, and in any case you must not care! I forbid +it. Come, let’s get back into our own century, and take a walk before the +sun goes down. I have no end of pretty by-paths to show you.”</p> + +<p>That evening, there was enough chill in the air for a small fire in the +living-room fireplace, and Miss Lyndesay seated herself before it on a +high-backed settle, with a girl on either side of her.</p> + +<p>“If I didn’t remember that one of the things Hannah liked me for +first was my habit of sitting quietly without work,” she said, “I +should be <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span> tempted +to improve these minutes by finishing the carving design I am making to go over +the fireplace.”</p> + +<p>“What is it? Let us see it, and maybe we’ll let you. You have +such a peaceful way of working you don’t make me nervous as some people +do.”</p> + +<p>“It is there on the desk.”</p> + +<p>Hannah brought the brown paper, and she and Frieda bent over it together.</p> + +<p>“L-a-e,” spelled Hannah, but Frieda looked up, delighted.</p> + +<p>“I know. <i>Laetus sorte mea!</i> It means ‘Happy in my lot!’ It +is in the book Tante Edith sent me for my birthday, about the little +cripple.”</p> + +<p>“O, yes, <i>The Story of a Short Life</i>. I’ve read that, +too,” said Hannah, “but I didn’t recognize it just at first. I +should think, if it is to be your motto, you’d have to change the gender +and make it ’<i>laeta</i>,’ Aunt Clara.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay laughed. “I’m glad you both know the story. I +expected Hannah to, but hardly Frieda. Did you read it all by yourself, +dear?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” answered Frieda proudly. “I have read seven English +books, and I like that best. Mother and I made a list of Poor Things the way +Leonard did.”</p> + +<p>“O, how nice!” cried Hannah. “Did you put Bertha’s +lame sister on it?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and Onkel Heinrich’s brother who can not <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span> see and is always +cheerful, and the little woman who sells string and roses in the shop under us, +and Edna Helm who had to stop school and go to work because her father +couldn’t afford to take care of her.”</p> + +<p>“Poor Edna!” said Hannah. “I liked her best of all your +friends. I’m going to start a Poor Things book myself, when I get +home.”</p> + +<p>“Have you ever heard of the Guild of Brave Poor Things in +England?” asked Miss Lyndesay, and as the girls showed their interest she +went on to tell them of the organization which took its name and its motive from +Mrs. Ewing’s little story, and has grown into a large organization with +industrial schools and shops.</p> + +<p>“So all these people, boys and men and women and girls who cannot work +in factories, because of some infirmity, are enabled to make beautiful things +and to sell them. I bought some of their doll furniture when I was last in +London. Let me see. Yes, it was in the box I unpacked yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“Let me get it,” begged Frieda, and as soon as she had been told +where to look she was off. She came quickly back again bringing a doll’s +white-wood bed, strong and well-made as the fine old furniture which had +outlived Aunt Abigail and her parents.</p> + +<p>“It is just right for Millicent’s doll,” cried Frieda, as +she brought it in. “Couldn’t we put her in it, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span> Tante Clara, to make up for having torn +the pretty dresses?”</p> + +<p>“Indeed you may. I had no one in mind to give it to, but bought it +because I had enjoyed visiting the school at Chailey.”</p> + +<p>“Can all the cripples make pretty things like this?” asked +Hannah, wondering, as Frieda placed the bed in her hands.</p> + +<p>“O, no, only a very few. But the Guild of Brave Poor Things does many +other things, besides establishing the schools. All maimed persons may belong, +and the guild makes investigations, finds out if they can be helped by surgery, +and, if not, tries to make their lives happier in every possible way. Of course, +those of them who can use their hands are happier doing so than they could be in +any other way. Every Friday afternoon, from three to six, they meet in the +settlement rooms and have music and games and reading, and hear talks on +interesting subjects by ladies and gentlemen who are glad to tell them of their +particular lines of work. Then they have a short service of +prayer–”</p> + +<p>“Do they sing the tug-of-war hymn?” asked Hannah eagerly. +“I remember about that better than anything else in the book.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, they almost always sing that. I heard them, myself,” and +Miss Lyndesay’s eyes grew sweeter at the thought. “I have never +heard anything more affecting than that singing:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span>“‘Who best +can drink His cup of woe,<br /> Triumphant over +pain,<br /> Who patient bears His cross below,<br /> + He follows in His train.’”</p> </div><!-- +poetry --> + +<p>Frieda and Hannah were still as she finished speaking, and all three sat +looking at the fire for a few moments in silence. Presently Hannah said +softly:</p> + +<p>“And <i>they</i> have <i>‘Laetus sorte mea’</i> for a motto? I +can see how you could take it, Aunt Clara, for of course you have everything +anybody could want. You are well and beautiful and good, and have money and +talent and friends.”</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay was silent and Hannah, who had been studying the flames +reflectively, looked up presently to see why she made no reply. There was a +grave expression on her face, and Hannah’s grew startled.</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay, seeing the look of alarm in the child’s eyes, smiled and +took her hand.</p> + +<p>“Would you give up your father and mother for any or all of those +things, Hannah dear?” she said.</p> + +<p><i>“O!”</i> cried Hannah in a hurt frightened tone, and Frieda +suddenly choked back a sob.</p> + +<p>Miss Lyndesay lifted her head quickly.</p> + +<p>“Girls, do you realize the absurdity of us? Here we started out +discussing: ‘Happy in my lot’ and in a few minutes we have grown sad with +the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span> burden of +sorrow of half the world and our own individual troubles besides! That is +anything but wise, isn’t it? I didn’t intend to preach to you when I +invited you to Brookmeadow. But since we are on the subject, let’s say a +little more and then drop it. I do want you to remember that while the people +who seem fortunate often have something to bear that offsets most of the +pleasant circumstances of their lives, at the same time, many people who seem to +have nothing to be glad about are persistently and genuinely joyful. The sad +folk meet sadness everywhere, and the glad folk find gladness. Let me read you +something, written by Sister Grace, who founded the order of Brave Poor Things +about the time you girls were born, and then I refuse to say or hear another +solemn word this evening!”</p> + +<p>She took up a little pamphlet and read aloud:</p> + +<p>“To bear pain cheerfully, to take defeat nobly, to be constant and +loyal, to be brave and happy with the odds dead against us, to be full of +sympathy and tenderness–these are gifts which mark out the truly +great.”</p> + +<p>“Now let’s put Millicent’s doll to bed,” suggested +Frieda, who disliked solemnity and saw that Hannah was still staring into the +fire. Miss Lyndesay seconded the motion, and, taking candles, the three mounted +into the garret, sought out the old trunk and brought the beautiful doll down +stairs. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span> There, by +the fire, they laid her gently down on a soft blanket in the pretty bed which +was exactly the right size.</p> + +<p>Then Evangeline appeared with a corn-popper and a sack of corn, and the +half-hour before bedtime passed quickly and merrily away.</p> + +<p>When Aunt Clara had tucked her guests into the big four-poster, they cuddled +close to each other, forgetting the friction of the last few days in present +comfort, sleepily grateful for the glimpse they had had that day of difficulties +and griefs much greater than any of their own, and each resolving to be happy in +her lot.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span><a id='link_12'></a>CHAPTER TWELVE<br /><span class='h2fs'>ARRIVAL AT WINSTED</span></h2> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Eldred turned away from the station, from which the through +Chicago train had just pulled out, carrying with it two passengers for Winsted, +Wisconsin.</p> + +<p>“Well, I’m glad that’s over,” said Mrs. Eldred aloud. +“I always feel sorry for Hannah when she has to say good-by. She does +suffer so over it, but she recovers quickly.”</p> + +<p>“She seems to be acquiring a comfortable philosophy,” remarked +Mr. Eldred, as he looked at his watch and then up the street where his car was +not in sight. “She told me that the world was fixed wrong, because it +ought to be possible to be with all of one’s beloveds at the same time. +‘But,’ she added sagely, ‘that’s probably Heaven.’”</p> + +<p>“‘Earth being so good, would Heaven seem best?’” quoted +Hannah’s mother, smiling. “We have all had to stay our hearts with +that thought, I suppose. I am much more content about both girls, since Karl and +Miss Lyndesay took them in hand. For a few days I really feared that the <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span> adjustment might be too +much for them. But Karl worked some magic spell over Frieda, and Miss Lyndesay +charmed Hannah. I must go over to Brookmeadow this very week, and pay my +respects to that remarkable woman.”</p> + +<p>“Some mothers would be jealous of such an outside influence,” +suggested Mr. Eldred, glancing fondly at his pretty little wife.</p> + +<p>“Then they are very unwise,” declared that lady decisively. +“I remember my own girlhood well enough to know that there were certain +crises through which my mother could not help me as well as an outsider, simply +because she was my mother. I’m not in the least afraid that any one could +be dearer to Hannah than I am, and she is such a bundle of contradictions, of +sweet impulses and rebelliousness, that I’m heartily glad of all the help +I can get in bringing her up. There’s my car. Do try to come home to +luncheon. I’ll be missing my lively children and their German-English +patois!”</p> + +<p>The two girls on the train had settled themselves cosily with the aid of a +porter rendered over-zealous by Mr. Eldred’s generosity, and were watching +the flying scenery and the other passengers with interest. Frieda was not eager +to arrive at her journey’s end. She already missed Karl and the friendly +Eldreds, who had seemed nearer her own parents than any one else in this strange +country could. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span> The +prospect before her was not wholly pleasant. Hannah had spent so much energy in +singing the praises of Dexter College, Alice Prescott and Catherine Smith, that +Frieda’s desire to see them was distinctly modified by a jealous feeling +that such perfections must be somewhat tiresome. She was much more interested in +watching a bride and groom across the aisle, and in making comments on American +trains, some of which, according to her compact with Karl, she kept to herself, +meaning to unburden her mind in the first letter she should write him. Others of +a favorable sort she made aloud to Hannah, who received them graciously, on +behalf of the nation. The day wore away not unpleasantly, but when the gas was +lighted and the bride frankly rested her head upon the bridegroom’s +shoulder, a mighty homesickness swept over Frieda. She could barely choke down +her food in the dining-car, and hated a waiter for watching her with a +white-toothed smile. The porter was making up berths when they returned and the +proceeding scandalized her, accustomed as she was to the decency of compartment +trains.</p> + +<p>Forgetting her promise, she spoke her disgust:</p> + +<p>“Ladies and gentlemen like pots of marmalade on shelves in a +cupboard!”</p> + +<p>Hannah only laughed and scrambled up to the top shelf with the agility of a +squirrel, leaving Frieda to solitude and unsuspected misery.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span>The porter and +the grinning waiter would not be forgotten. Their blackness combined with the +close warm atmosphere to alarm her. She dared not undress, and when she tried to +lie down, she felt as though she should choke. The darkness seemed to her sleepy +but resisting mind to be taking on human shape. With her eyes closed she saw it +develop pink fingernails and gleaming teeth and eyeballs. Her real distrust of +anything foreign was made keener by her homesickness. At last she fell into an +uneasy sleep, clutching her purse and her gold beads tightly. At each station +she woke with a jerk and a horrible conviction that the train had been wrecked +and she was the sole survivor. Sometimes she put her hand up and felt of the +wooden wall over her head for assurance that the upper berth to which Hannah had +blithely committed herself had not treacherously closed. There were subdued +rustlings in the aisle now and then, and quick brushings past her curtains which +made her sit up, gasping, her eyes staring into the dark and her heart thumping. +Frieda Lange crawled out of her tumbled berth next morning, certain that life +could have in store for her nothing more hideous than her first night in an +American sleeping-car.</p> + +<p>Hannah, on the other hand, having “slept like a top, the way you ought +to in an upper berth,” as she said with a gleeful laugh, and having made +her toilet with the lucky ease which seemed one of <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span> her characteristics, was full of good +spirits, and joyous anticipations. Winsted seemed very near, and her bubbling +joy over the prospect of seeing Catherine added to Frieda’s gloom. They +went into the dining-car to breakfast, where Frieda was so unfortunate as to be +shot from her seat as the train dashed around a curve, a glass of milk following +her, anointing her hair and face in a manner calculated to ruffle the serenest +temper. Hannah and the too friendly waiter helped her up with an effort at +self-control, but Frieda had mislaid her sense of humor.</p> + +<p>The change of cars in Chicago was accomplished simply, Hannah thoroughly +enjoying leading the way and Frieda sulkily following. It would have taken more +than a fit of sulks on Frieda’s part to have quenched Hannah’s joy +in life that day, however, and she rattled on of the pleasures coming, scarcely +noticing Frieda’s failure to respond.</p> + +<p>“Winsted!”</p> + +<p>Hannah was out of the car almost before it stopped. Frieda, delayed by other +passengers who pushed in ahead of her, saw the rapturous meeting between her own +Hannah and a tall sweet-faced girl with red-gold hair, whose beauty she was +obliged to admit, though she did so gloomily. “I hoped she would be +homely,” she growled to herself as she stepped down to the platform, and +suffered Catherine to kiss her cheek.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_156'></a>156</span>“Let’s walk,” suggested Catherine. +“It’s much too beautiful a day to be cooped in a bus. I’ll +have your bags sent up. O, Hannah, my darling, I’ve been waiting ages for +you! And for you, too, Frieda,” she added shyly.</p> + +<p>But Frieda was regarding the wrinkled pleats in her dress, and was conscious +that her hair was still wet with milk; therefore she only mumbled something and +stalked along beside the others who, in their delight at seeing each other, +quickly forgot her, and chattered away in English, with many little bursts of +laughter.</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen was out when they reached the pretty house on the hillside. +Catherine led Frieda to the big rose guest-chamber, and then carried Hannah off +across the wide hall to her own room and the little dressing-room opening from +it, which Hannah had occupied on her first visit a year and a half before. The +trunks arrived at once, and Hannah immediately began to unpack, Catherine +sitting on the edge of the bed and exclaiming over every new frock as it came +out. Frieda, left alone, because she had only partly understood the invitation +the others gave her to join them, and had wilfully refused the part she had +understood, was wretched indeed. She sat stiffly on a straight mahogany chair, +and wished with all her might that she had never been born, or at least, if that +mistake had been inevitable, that she had never left her native land.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span>Suddenly there +came a quick tap at the door and Hannah, not waiting for a “Come,” +ran in and tossed a parcel into her lap.</p> + +<p>“What? Aren’t you dressed yet? Do hurry. Karl asked me to give +you this as soon as we got here. Did Catherine show you your bath-room? You have +one all to yourself; isn’t that lovely? It’s the most beautiful +house, anyway. O, what dear roses on the dressing-table! Wasn’t it just +like Catherine to put them there? Hurry up. Dr. Helen will be here pretty soon, +and Polly Osgood and Dot Winthrop are coming over to see us. I’d put on +that white poplin skirt and the waist with the blue butterfly bow at your +throat. You look awfully fetching in that. Yes, Catherine, I’m +coming,” and she flew out, tossing a kiss to Frieda.</p> + +<p>In her excitement she had spoken in English, and the compliment was quite +lost on Frieda who had not yet learned the meaning of “fetching.” +That young person’s sulks were not dissipated by the call, accordingly, +and there is no telling what depths of obstinate misery she might have reached, +had not Karl’s parcel fallen to the floor and called attention to itself. +With a manner which suggested to her mirror that life was distinctly not worth +while, Frieda lifted the object and drearily removed the wrappings.</p> + +<p>From a small carved frame Karl’s clear honest <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_158'></a>158</span> face looked out at her, and a card in +the corner read–in German–“Remember the compact, +Comrade!”</p> + +<p>Like a flash brightness came back to Frieda’s face. Good cheer was much +more natural to her than moroseness. From the face in the picture she turned her +gaze to the tousled reflection in the mirror. “The Fatherland is not much +honored by such a representative!” she said, and began taking down her +hair with a fine energy.</p> + +<p>In the living-room downstairs teacups were clinking, and girls’ voices, +subdued and sweet, mingled with laughter. Hannah, her back to the door, was +talking merrily to Dot, to whom she had taken an instantaneous liking; Catherine +bent anxiously over the tea-tray on the wicker table in the window when Polly, +from the comfortable depths of a low chair, looked up and saw on the landing of +the stairs a picture that made her catch her breath.</p> + +<p>Frieda, in a pale pink mull gown, with roses in her long soft sash, her +yellow braids wound into a garland around her head, her cheeks burning with +shyness, and her big eyes looking wistful and sweet, stood waiting. Polly sprang +up with a soft little “O!” Catherine, looking up, smiled a welcome, +but Polly went forward and taking Frieda’s hands in both of hers, said +eagerly: “We’ve been waiting and waiting for you, Frieda.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span>Dot was +introduced, but her usual self-possession promptly deserted her. “I always +feel as though I ought to shout to a foreigner,” she had confessed to +Hannah, “and in order not to do that, I just have to keep still.” +Catherine, who had felt a little rebuffed by Frieda’s chilly manner at the +station, and Hannah, not quite sure what the present mood might indicate, were +both willing to leave to Polly the rôle she had undertaken. Frieda sat quite +near her, and watched her pretty bright movements with gentle interest, +maintaining a silence meanwhile only surpassed in completeness by Dot’s. +Hannah rattled on, but there was a hollowness in the rattle that made +Catherine’s hostess heart falter. She was never fluent, herself. Her +gentle art consisted in making her guests entertain themselves and each +other.</p> + +<p>Then Dr. Helen came in, big, strong and competent, socially and in every +other way.</p> + +<p>Her welcome to Frieda would have warmed an iceberg’s heart. She hugged +Hannah, and gave her right hand to Polly and the left to Dot. “Give me a +taste of your tea, Daughter,” she said, as she took off her gloves and her +hat and seated herself. “It will take something as strong as tea to heal +my weary spirit this afternoon. I’ve just had an emergency +call.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen’s eyes smiled reminiscently, and Dot awoke.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span>“Do tell +us, do, do, Dr. Helen,” she pleaded. “I know it’s something +funny, by the twinkle in your eye. And we’ll never, never tell.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen tasted her tea leisurely, and added a slice of lemon.</p> + +<p>“I don’t tell tales about my patients, but there is no sense in a +rule that isn’t transgressed once in a while. You wouldn’t know it +was a rule! And I do believe you girls will enjoy this and never +tell.”</p> + +<p>“You ‘give us credit for more discretion than you have, +yourself?’” quoted Catherine.</p> + +<p>“If you like to put it that way! I was overtaken on my way home to +greet these visitors by a messenger from Mrs. Swinburne, saying that Elsmere was +very ill. It is a wonder that he has lived as long as he has, with his reckless +tendencies and such erratic care. So I hastened over to the house. Mrs. +Swinburne was in a mild state of hysterics, and it was some time before I could +quiet her enough to learn the difficulty. Then my alarm vanished, changed to +wrath, would perhaps be more accurate. Elsmere had eaten all her pills! They +were pills that would not have hurt a cat. Mrs. Swinburne’s ailments are +of a nature to require very weak remedies.”</p> + +<p>“Bread and butter?” asked Dot, with a twinkle as merry as the +doctor’s own.</p> + +<p>“Something of that sort! But Elsmere did not <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span> know that. They might have been morphia +or arsenic for all he knew. The principle in his case was the same. His mother +said ‘no symptoms had set in as yet,’ but she wanted me to administer an +antidote at once. I couldn’t refuse her!”</p> + +<p>“Mother! What did you do?”</p> + +<p>“First I caused the patient to be removed to his own room and the doors +to be closed. Then I gave him a sound scolding and a good smart +spanking.”</p> + +<p>“O dear Doctor Helen!” sighed Polly softly, while Dot clapped her +hands with glee, and even Catherine showed signs of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>“Did his mother hear you?”</p> + +<p>“If she had, I was prepared to tell her it was necessary to restore the +circulation. I was afraid the child might howl, but it was a new experience to +him and he took it so very pleasantly that I am now worried for fear he liked +it!” Dr Helen set down her teacup and turned to Frieda. “You will +think me a barbarous physician, Frieda, but really this boy has needed +discipline for a long time, and there is no one to give it to him. His pranks +are often dangerous.”</p> + +<p>“Like the building of a fire under the barn to keep his cat +warm.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and making a ladder of kindling wood and climbing up to the +second story on it.”</p> + +<p>“He is a pretty naughty boy,” finished Dr. <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_162'></a>162</span> Helen, “and a very sweet +attractive one withal. I hope I made it clear to-day, that he is not to go about +eating medicine. Now I must hear how Mrs. Eldred is, and what sort of a journey +you had. Did Catherine make you properly comfortable?”</p> + +<p>Hannah drew close to Dr. Helen and cuddled her hand as she answered. Then she +suddenly said: “O, you know, Frieda and I saw Miss Lyndesay just before we +came away. Do tell about it, Frieda.”</p> + +<p>Frieda’s face lighted at the name. “She is very wonderful,” +she said shyly. “She said: ‘Let me greet myself to them.’ She finds +herself well, and her house is beautiful.”</p> + +<p>“I am so glad. Thank you very much for bringing us direct word from +her. See! this is the portrait she painted of Catherine some time ago.” +And Dr. Helen took Frieda a little apart to get a good light on the painting of +Catherine and Hotspur, almost the only picture the big room with its walls of +books contained. It developed that Frieda was very fond of dogs and her rapture +over the picture made it necessary to call in the original, who instantly +recognized in her a discriminating soul. Frieda dropped down on the leather +window-seat and fondled his tawny sides with the deepest feeling of rest she had +had in two days. “He understands me,” she thought, with almost +passionate gratitude.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span>Polly and Dot +bade her good-by in a few minutes. “I’m going to ask you to go out +on the river with me and talk German to me all alone. I’ve studied it in +college,” said Polly, “and I do want to see whether I can understand +a real German. We won’t let Catherine or Hannah go. I should be afraid to +try before them, but I don’t believe I should be at all afraid of +you.”</p> + +<p>Frieda caught Polly’s hand in hers, and suddenly carried it to her lips +and kissed it. Polly reddened a little, while Dot turned abruptly away and made +her adieux to Catherine and Hannah.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t she a dear?” sighed Polly, as she and Dot went down +the walk. “I do think she’s as charming as a picture in a sweet +old-fashioned book, and I want to learn to read the printing that describes the +picture.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you may for all of me,” replied Dot. “But I +don’t believe I’d ever feel safe with her. I felt all hands and +feet, and if she should ever kiss my hand!”</p> + +<p>“She won’t!” laughed Polly. “You needn’t fear! +I wonder how the boys will like her. She is unusually good-looking, and her +clothes are delightful. And I like her eyes. There is fun in her somewhere. You +mark my words, Dot Winthrop. Once she learns English, there’ll be +something doing. There’s nothing colorless or monotonous about Frieda +Lange.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span><a id='link_13'></a>CHAPTER THIRTEEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>CAUGHT IN A SHOWER</span></h2> + +<p>The three girls, “just the right number, one for each gable,” as +Dr. Harlow said, had been very busy that morning. Their beds made, Catherine had +gone down to market, while Frieda dusted the living-room, and Hannah swept the +porches.</p> + +<p>“I like doing things like this,” said Frieda suddenly, as she +came to the doorway, and shook her duster energetically. “Do you remember +the time we got our own supper in Berlin, Hannah?”</p> + +<p>“Indeed I do,” said Hannah heartily, leaning on her broom. +“You look awfully pretty this morning, Frieda, in that plaid gingham. Are +you going off with Polly, as usual? I don’t see you at all, it seems to +me.”</p> + +<p>“You have Catherine,” answered Frieda. “Polly is learning +German.”</p> + +<p>“And you are learning English. I can see that you have improved a lot +this week. But you are getting pretty slangy. It would be better for you to +learn from Catherine than from Polly.”</p> + +<p>Frieda shook her head firmly. “I am in awe <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span> of Catherine,” she announced, +“and with you I feel weary talking English, for I know you can talk +German. But Polly cannot do any other, and I must talk with her. She is +delightsome.”</p> + +<p>“So is Catherine,” said Hannah, looking at Frieda wistfully. It +was a worry to her that these two who were to be together all the next year +should be so slow in getting acquainted. “One is obstinate and the other +is shy, and I don’t know when they will get over it,” she sighed to +herself, as Frieda, seeing Catherine come up the walk, disappeared into the +house.</p> + +<p>Catherine was breathless with her quick climb and her many parcels. She +dropped into a chair on the porch, and took off her hat to fan herself.</p> + +<p>“There is the funniest woman on the street,” she said. “I +know she is an agent, and I suppose she’ll be here soon; but I’ve +got to shell these peas and I want to do it out here, so I shan’t run from +her. Won’t you bring out some pans for the peas when you take your broom +in, Hannah? I’m too weary to move.”</p> + +<p>Hannah, on her way after pans, persuaded Frieda to come out and help shell +peas, and all three were soon busily at work.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Catherine snapped a pea at Hannah to attract her attention.</p> + +<p>“My agent!” she whispered, as a woman in a loose flowing gown +marched toward them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span>She mounted the +steps and, stooping over Catherine, snapped something around her neck.</p> + +<p>“There!” she said, straightening herself. “That will never +come off.”</p> + +<p>All three girls gasped. Catherine clutched at the offending article and the +peas rolled in all directions.</p> + +<p>“It’s a collar,” said the woman triumphantly. “You +can wear it forever. Just put a fresh ribbon over it now and then, and +you’re always dressed. Only fifteen cents. I’ll try one on you, +Miss–” and before Hannah could utter a protest she was caught in the +celluloid trap as Catherine had been. Speechless they faced each other. With a +little gasp Frieda slipped over the porch railing and disappeared around the +corner of the house. Hotspur came bounding after her and she patted him, and +hugged him and laughed and laughed.</p> + +<p>“A collar just like yours, Hotspur dear,” she told him in German. +“And it will never come off! Catherine, the Saint, the Perfect, the +Inviolate, sitting there looking like a–in English, like an idiom! O, +Hotspur, dear, it has done me good. I have wished I could want to laugh at her. +Now I shan’t be so afraid of her ever again. Come! we must go. It’s +time for our row.” And Frieda danced off across a little wood path which +was a short-cut to the boat-house.</p> + +<p>Polly was waiting, and in a very few minutes <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_167'></a>167</span> the “Minnehaha” was launched. It was a +beautiful day, the river rippling with waves and twinkling with reflections of +trees, but the ardent oarswomen saw neither the beauty surrounding them nor the +black clouds threatening. They were practising for a race. Neither spoke. They +pulled with long steady strokes in perfect time. Suddenly Frieda’s oar +flopped and “caught a crab.” The bow at the same moment struck the +bank, and a great scrambling tearing sound followed. In a fright the girls +huddled together in the bottom of the boat, not daring to look up.</p> + +<p>“O, pshaw! It’s only a cow, more afraid than we were. She made +all that noise just tearing up the bank.”</p> + +<p>“I thought it was an earthshake,” sighed Frieda, leaning back and +resting. “That was one hundred strokes without missing. I didn’t +know the bank was so near.”</p> + +<p>“Neither did I. That’s the trouble with us, Frieda. We get so +interested in rowing that we forget to steer.”</p> + +<p>“We steered into a steer that time.”</p> + +<p>“O, Frieda! You ought not to be allowed to make jokes in English, you +make such bad ones.”</p> + +<p>Frieda smiled cheerfully. “Ten days ago I thought I should never make a +joke in any language, or laugh at one again. I was very sorrowful when I came +here, Polly.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span>“I +didn’t dream it,” answered Polly. “You looked very sweet when +I first saw you, and I thought you kept still because you didn’t care to +talk! But we have had a lot of fun these days, haven’t we? I feel as +though I had known you a long time. Wish you were going to Wellesley.”</p> + +<p>“So do I. It would be delightful, with you there and Karl and Hannah so +near. But my parents decided for me. Karl will go to see you, though.”</p> + +<p>“That’s nice. Really, Frieda, you will find it’s lots +easier at a small college than a large one at first. And you can come on East +afterward. Dexter is fine, and you’ll have such a start, going in as +Catherine’s friend.”</p> + +<p>Frieda grimaced.</p> + +<p>“If every one there is as beautiful and–<i>apart</i> as Catherine +is, I shan’t get on very well. Catherine is like a saint. She could never +understand wickedness as you and Hannah do.”</p> + +<p>“Thanks very much!” Polly answered dryly. “But you take my +word for it, Catherine isn’t just a saint. There is fun in her, too, +though not on the surface. You may always feel as though she were a beautiful +picture or poem but you won’t like her the less for that. She’s not +stand-offish. She’s just different. My dear, I felt a drop.”</p> + +<p>“So did I. And there’s another.” Straightway <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span> the heavens opened and a +deluge descended, most of it, it seemed, aiming for the small rowboat at the +pasture’s edge.</p> + +<p>The thin roof of boughs which had hidden from their view the swiftly +gathering clouds was wholly inadequate to the task of sheltering them from the +contents of the clouds. Great cracks of lightning showed in the dark sky, and +thunder rattled and roared and rumbled and burst.</p> + +<p>Polly looked grave.</p> + +<p>“We’ll drown if we stay here, and we could never row home. Look +at the waves! And if we stay here, we’re also liable to be struck by +lightning. Let’s leave the boat and make for that farmhouse across the +pasture.”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraider of the cow,” said Frieda. “But +I’ll go. We can hide the oars and oar-locks in the bushes.”</p> + +<p>Progress across the pasture was difficult, but when the road beyond was +reached, both looked aghast at the muddy stream of it.</p> + +<p>Frieda rolled under the fence and stepped boldly in. Polly, gasping with +laughter, started to climb over.</p> + +<p>“You might as well roll,” advised Frieda. “You can’t +wetten yourself more than you are already, and it is pleasant to +roll.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a matter of taste!” panted Polly, balancing herself +on the top of the fence.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span>Suddenly Frieda +gave a little shriek. Polly instantly fell forward into the mud, her skirt +catching on all the barbs in the fence and rending itself horribly. Frieda, full +of wild exclamations of pity and remorse, helped her up and wiped the thickest +of the mud from her once piquant face.</p> + +<p>“It was the cow,” she confessed. “I saw him coming from +afar and I squealed. I did not know it would make you tumble, but I had to +squeal. I fear cows. I have great alarm before them.”</p> + +<p>“I forgive you,” Polly was weak with mirth. “But +we’ve got to get into that house and telephone for some one to come out +from town and take us home. We could never walk in these roads, and I should tie +myself all up in knots if I walked in this shredded skirt. One more little +spurt, Frieda, and we’re at the kitchen door!”</p> + +<p>It looked for a minute as though they would never get beyond the door. The +respectable lady who met them there was scarcely to blame if she judged a little +by outward appearance. Polly’s efforts to be suave were discounted by the +muddy look of her eye, and the fact that water was dripping from her hair into +her face.</p> + +<p>“Won’t you please let us come in and telephone for a carriage, +and then wait for it?” she pleaded. “I will gladly pay for the use +of the ’phone.” Then it came over her sickeningly that she had no +money with her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span>“I’m +Polly Osgood,” she said. “My father is the Osgood of Osgood and +Brown, Lawyers.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t say! Come right in. I’m Amanda B. Mills, and +Lawyer Osgood has been my counsel for twenty-one years and more. I’d never +a-kept you waitin’ out there a minute, if I’d known ’twas you. +Is this your sister? Don’t wipe your shoes. Come right in. There’s +other folks been caught in this rain, too.”</p> + +<p>She stepped back, still speaking, and invited them into the kitchen. Polly +and Frieda, stumbling a little, blinded as they were by the water dripping from +their hair, followed her. As they entered the room, there was a moment’s +silence, then a burst of laughter and exclamations.</p> + +<p>“For the love of Mike!”</p> + +<p>“Where did you rain down from?”</p> + +<p>“O dear, O dear! You ridiculous boys!”</p> + +<p>“What a guy you do look, Polly!”</p> + +<p>And slowly out of the babel of voices came a deep solemn: +“<i>Donnerwetter!</i>” It was not a lady-like expression for a nice +little German girl to use, but she knew that to American ears it sounded more +harmless than her usual expletives, and, besides, she felt that if ever an +occasion had warranted emphasis this was it. She and Polly, dripping, draggled, +ragged, confronted with Algernon, Max, Bert and Archie, almost as wet, grouped +about Amanda B. Mills’ kitchen stove!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span>Mrs. +Mills’ astonishment at the boisterous greeting given her latest guests by +the earlier ones was so manifest that Polly hastened to make all clear with +introductions.</p> + +<p>“How do you happen to be here?” she asked, as she finished, and +Archie had made a Chesterfieldian bow, though the blue from his Andover cap had +run into his fair hair.</p> + +<p>“Fishing,” answered Bert. “We drove out from town with our +old nag, hitched her to a tree and fished. Thunder and lightning always rile the +beast, and she just broke her tie-strap and oozed off home, and left us in her +wake. We got this far, walking, but the road was such a juicy mess we decided to +stop and telephone for some one to come out after us.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what I am going to do. Where is the telephone, Mrs. +Mills?”</p> + +<p>“O, do allow us to have the pleasure,” begged Max. “They +said they’d send out the ‘light bearers’ wagon,’ and +it’s warranted to hold six. Besides it will be here in twenty minutes, and +a private equipage would take longer.”</p> + +<p>“Well–it’s awfully kind of you, I’m sure! +Aren’t you afraid we’ll make you wetter, though, if we ride in the +same carriage? I am flooding the floor at this moment. It’s terrible, Mrs. +Mills. Isn’t there a shed we could go into, and not make such a lot of +work for you?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span>“Deary me, +Miss Osgood, it’s a pleasure to me to have you here. But I wisht +you’d come into the parlor, all of you, you and your friends. I’ll +lay papers down on the carpet, and you can just walk in.”</p> + +<p>They all protested, but as it soon became clear that it was as much a desire +to display the beauties of her room as hospitality that prompted the invitation, +they yielded and filed damply along the newspaper path into the gaudy parlor. +The rain had stopped as suddenly as it had come up, and the sun was shining +through the flowers in the lace curtains at the windows, and striking the bright +pink morning-glory of the graphophone, which was the most conspicuous object in +the room. Mrs. Mills, preceding her wet guests, turned the track a little past +the telephone, resplendent in oak and nickel, so that the whole procession could +be inside the room at once. Then she called their respectful attention to her +framed marriage certificate, and a similar document declaring the late Jacob +Quincy Mills a Grand Something or Other in some lodge. Beneath these, on a +shelf, were two tall lava jars filled with pampas grass, a pink china vase and a +wreath of Easter lilies made of spangled paper.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to show you the pictures in the family album,” +said Mrs. Mills hospitably, resting her hand upon the fat plush volume on the +center table, “but I don’t see how more’n two or three of you +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span> can look at it at +a time.” She frowned a moment, puzzled. Then her face lighted. +“I’ll just set the graphophone goin’ for the rest of you to +entertain yourselves with,” she said eagerly, and in a moment the room was +filled with the wheezing and strident strains of “You Look Good to +Father,” against which Mrs. Mills raised her own voice in explanatory +remarks to Archie and Frieda, who happened to be within the album’s +range:</p> + +<p>“This is Mr. Mills’ sister’s first husband. That was their +baby that died. This here is Miss Evelyn Mills of Chicago. She’s a singer +there at the Orpheum. She was my husband’s own cousin, once removed. This +was my father’s aunt,–” and so on.</p> + +<p>“Look at Algernon,” whispered Max to Polly. “He’s as +contented as a lamb. He’s learning all there is to know about poultry, and +doesn’t even know that infernal machine is going or that Mr. Mills had any +relatives.” And sure enough Algernon, standing beside the bookcase, on a +portion of the newspaper track, was reading, even devouring, the pages of a +scientific farming journal, with an expression of perfect satisfaction on his +face.</p> + +<p>The long half hour came at last to an end. Mrs. Mills conducted the +procession back to the kitchen, helped tuck the girls into the robes, and +disclaiming all right to their earnest thanks, watched the wagon out of +sight.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span>“Which is +worse, a soaking or a fourth-class phonograph?” queried Archie from his +corner.</p> + +<p>Bert, humming “Waltz me Around Again, Willie,” paused to +remark:</p> + +<p>“Why, I rather liked that. Didn’t the rest of you?”</p> + +<p>Polly shivered, not with cold alone.</p> + +<p>“There is one song we all like, Bert,” she suggested. +“Let’s sing it now to keep our lungs from freezing. There’s +water enough all about to make it appropriate!”</p> + +<p>And in a minute four big male voices were shouting out the Boat Club song, +Polly’s soprano sweet and clear over the rest, while Frieda smiled +encouragement over the edge of the robe in which she was wrapped to her +chin.</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>“We are the Winsted Boat Club,<br /> Dip the oar, dip the +oar!<br /> We are the Winsted Boat Club,<br /> Push out from +shore!<br />  <br /> “We are the Winsted Boat Club,<br /> + Paddle light, paddle light!<br /> A-drifting, a-drifting +beneath<br /> The sunset bright!”</p> </div><!-- poetry +--> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span><a id='link_14'></a>CHAPTER FOURTEEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>AN INTERLUDE</span></h2> + +<p>Algernon suffered more serious consequences from his wetting than the others +did from theirs. His cold the next day prevented him from even attempting to go +to the library. He wrote a note to Bertha, asking her to take his place, and +then, groaning over his inability to get to the telephone, coaxed Elsmere to his +side and sewed the note and the key to his blouse.</p> + +<p>“You cross your heart and hope to die you’ll go straight to +Bertha’s and give her the key?”</p> + +<p>“Cross my heart. Hope die. And you’ll give me six candies and a +rocking-horse, and a ’lectric light and a house for my pigeons, +and–”</p> + +<p>“I’ll give you something nice when you’ve done the errand, +not before. Now hurry. The library can’t open till you get there. Think of +it! All those people who want books waiting for you!” Coughing, Algernon +fell back upon his hated pillows, and watched his messenger set out, more in +hope than in confidence.</p> + +<p>It was Fate that prevented Elsmere’s fulfilling <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span> the trust, or rather, realizing the +hope, for though he did go straight to Bertha’s house, he did not find her +there. The maid who opened the door proved uncommunicative on the subject of +Bertha’s whereabouts, and Elsmere sauntered away, undecided what to do +next. Ten feet from the gate, he stumbled upon a cat. At once a beautiful +thought came to him. His own cat-pussy had gone away, tired of abuse and +starvation irregularly combined with affection in the form of embraces and +sugar, and Elsmere’s heart had grieved for her. Here was another, and he +could find out by actual experiment whether the velvet birds in the library +would deceive her. Clutching the spitting, clawing creature to his bosom, he +trotted off to the library.</p> + +<p>The door, of course, was locked. At first this fact discouraged Elsmere. Then +he suddenly remembered that he alone possessed means of entrance. Putting the +cat down on the pavement and stepping firmly on her tail to retain her, he +fitted the key and triumphantly turned it in the lock.</p> + +<p>Once inside, he carried kitty to the closet where the birds at present hung, +but his experiment was unsatisfactory, for she dug into his cheek with a fury +which rendered it necessary to abandon the attempt. When the outraged animal had +fled down the street, Elsmere looked about for fresh interests. He was in a mood +to recognize opportunities, and the unprotected condition of Algernon’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span> desk was +suggestive. Never was a librarian more hostile to little prying fingers than A. +Swinburne of the Winsted City Library. Elsmere felt a certain constraint, even +alone with opportunity.</p> + +<p>The door opened and a very small person came in and walked over to the +desk.</p> + +<p>“What you want?” asked Elsmere gravely.</p> + +<p>“Want a book.”</p> + +<p>“All right.” Elsmere walked to the shelves, took down a large +volume of Sheridan’s Memoirs, and handed it to the child. Plainly much +impressed by the size of her booty, she wrapped her arms about it and walked +out, with admiring glances at Elsmere over her shoulder. Elsmere was pleased. +That was easy. He climbed into Algernon’s chair. There were plenty of +things to amuse one. Rubber stamps hold infinite possibilities of entertainment. +So do colored cards arranged in trays. Elsmere shifted them all about, and +stamped the date on everything in sight.</p> + +<p>Then came more Public, Mrs. Kittredge’s maid this time, returning a +book and not wishing more. In fact, she laid down the book and departed with +such would-be inconspicuous swiftness that if Elsmere had been more experienced, +he would have known at once that the book was overdue.</p> + +<p>Then there was a lull. Even forbidden pleasure palls in time, if no one comes +to remonstrate, and Elsmere was beginning to consider going home, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span> when three boys, +strolling that way, pressed their noses against the window-pane. Then they +wandered in.</p> + +<p>“What’s the kid doin’ in the liberrian’s +chair?” asked one. Elsmere maintained a dignified silence, stamping the +date rapidly and inkily on a pile of fresh catalog cards.</p> + +<p>“Say, kid, where’s the liberrian?”</p> + +<p>“I’m liberrian.”</p> + +<p>“O, come off. Where’s the real one? The feller that knows it all, +and walks like a seesaw.”</p> + +<p>“That’s Algy,” said Elsmere, with fraternal recognition. +“Algy’s sick. I’m liberrian.”</p> + +<p>His questioner looked at him keenly.</p> + +<p>“I say, kids, let’s us be liberrians. You put the little feller +out.”</p> + +<p>The obedient henchmen put the howling Elsmere down from his seat, and exalted +their chief.</p> + +<p>“I’m it,” said that worthy. “You pick out books you +want, and I’ll fix ’em up.”</p> + +<p>The others, nothing loath, picked out certain extra-illustrated volumes which +Algernon did not allow to circulate, and presented them at the desk, where they +helped the presiding official to “fix ’em up” according to +methods suggested by intuition combined with a little observation.</p> + +<p>“Say, now it’s my turn,” said one of the subordinates. +“You git down and let me. Does that chair screw ’round?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span>It did, and in +the ensuing scuffle, it not only screwed around but the top fell off, carrying +three boys and an assortment of inks with it.</p> + +<p>At the same moment, Max and Archie entered to while away an idle half-hour +with the daily paper.</p> + +<p>The big boys were prompt, but the little boys were prompter. The back door +swung on its hinges and Max and Archie, puffing, ejaculating and wrathful, gave +over attempts at capture for efforts at repair, Max going off to hunt up +Algernon, while Archie gathered up scattered cards and mopped up the ink with +dust-cloths.</p> + +<p>Seeking Algernon, Max ran across Mrs. Osgood making calls. Hearing his tale, +she went back with him to the scene of disaster, and her capable fingers soon +brought about some appearance of order, though the intricacies of card systems +were beyond her.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to know who the rascals are that did it,” she +said with emphasis; “and I can’t see how they got in. Where do you +suppose Algernon is?”</p> + +<p>“He caught cold yesterday,” Archie told her, “but it +doesn’t seem possible that he would send down anybody who would go off and +leave the place open. I saw the little Weed boy, but I didn’t know the +other two. They lit out like lightning, and I didn’t care to chase them +all up Main Street. I was going to the Smiths’ to have a cup of +tea!” <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span> Archie +looked ruefully at his soiled garments and dark blue hands. “I wonder if +we couldn’t get Bertha to come in here. She knows the ins and outs of all +these fancy arrangements.”</p> + +<p>“Berfa isn’t to home,” remarked a clear sweet voice from +the closet. “Fat’s why I had to be liberrian!”</p> + +<p>Max threw open the door. Elsmere, on the wood-box, was contentedly jiggling +the velvet birds, which had been the first cause of all the excitement.</p> + +<p>At the sight of Max’s angry face, he jumped up. “I got to +go,” he said hastily. “I’m awful busy. Must find my cat-pussy. +I losted her when she scratched me.”</p> + +<p>“Sensible cat,” growled Archie, taking Elsmere by the collar. +“I wish she had losted you. Here, Mrs. Osgood, this seems to be the key to +the mystery. At least it’s the key to something.” He lifted the key +dangling from Elsmere’s blouse.</p> + +<p>“Algy sewed it on me,” explained the child.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Osgood sighed. “So Algernon is sick, and he sent you after Bertha, +and she wasn’t at home. I see. Max, you and Archie needn’t wait. +I’ll take the responsibility of closing the library for to-day, and +I’d like a private talk with this young gentleman, if you are +willing.”</p> + +<p>Elsmere’s eyes brightened.</p> + +<p>“Will you pank me?” he asked hopefully. “Dr. <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span> Helen pank me when I eat +pills. <i>So!</i>” In his effort to illustrate, he bent so nearly double +that he fell over on his nose, and set it bleeding. Max and Archie caught up +their hats and fled, leaving Mrs. Osgood to act upon inspiration.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later, having by strenuous effort regained something of their +former freshness of appearance, the two boys dropped in upon the group on the +Three Gables lawn. They stopped a minute to take in the details of the pretty +picture. Under a great apple tree, Catherine had set her tea-table with its +pretty accessories. In comfortable chairs about it, sat the Boat Club girls, +embroidering soft colored things or simply “visiting.” Frieda was +telling a story, and the others were listening attentively as she stumbled a +little now and then in her desire to express herself rapidly.</p> + +<p>“And he was there in the water, all the above part of him, and I held +his waist. I pulled greatly and in he came lickety split, and what do you think +he said? ‘I big fish, Frieda. Pull me in and fy me.’”</p> + +<p>“That was Elsmere, I’ll wager,” cried Max, approaching with +Archie and giving Catherine his hand. “I’m glad you were talking +about him, Miss Frieda, for we’re full of the subject. He never said the +expected thing in his life. Drowning and spanking are what he needs; the only +trouble is that he likes nothing better. But he’s beaten his record <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span> to-day,” and while +Archie dropped upon a rug near Hotspur, and incidentally near Bess, who was +prettier than ever, and working on an Andover pillow, Max received a cup of tea +from Catherine’s hands and told his story of the afternoon’s episode +to a deeply interested audience.</p> + +<p>“Poor Algernon!” sighed Polly. “That will make him so much +extra work, and he must have his patience tried by that dreadful baby all the +time.”</p> + +<p>“Does no one punish Elsmere except the neighbors?” asked Frieda, +whose opinion of the lawlessness of American children was being strengthened +daily by Elsmere’s performances. Winifred answered, laughing.</p> + +<p>“His mother made up her mind to, once. She told me about it. She told +him she would not be his mother that day for he had been so bad she was ashamed +to own him. Some one had told her that was a sure way to crush a child. But +Elsmere was only interested. He called her ‘Mamma’ and ‘Mummy dear’ +to catch her napping, but she wouldn’t answer. By and by a caller came in, +and Elsmere walked up to her and pointed at his mother and said: ‘This +isn’t my mother. She is just Mrs. Swinburne, but I love her!’ And +Mrs. Swinburne picked him up and kissed him and cried, and I don’t believe +she ever tried again to make him mind.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span>“I’m +glad Perdita and Peter are such a biddable sort,” said Polly. “I +don’t know what we’d do with two little imps around. They are quite +good, almost always. Perdita is mischievous, but Peter keeps her straight. He +seems to feel the whole burden of her. If she starts to do anything naughty, he +says: ‘Perdita, you mustn’t,’ and Perdita doesn’t.”</p> + +<p>“It’s lucky Perdita hasn’t Elsmere for a brother,” +suggested Dot. “There’d be no living in Winsted if she had, for even +Peter can’t keep a wicked look out of her eye at times.”</p> + +<p>“Room for a tired man in your party, children?” Dr. Harlow joined +the group. Max vacated the long chair he was occupying, and every one welcomed +the doctor with a word or smile. They all loved him, and nothing pleased them +better than to have him spend an hour with them. To-day, he was plainly tired, +and while Catherine prepared tea for him, Frieda whispered to Hannah.</p> + +<p>“I wonder if he would,” said Hannah. “Winifred, will you +sing, if I bring out my fiddle?”</p> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/i-184.jpg' id="img005" alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'>“Frieda was telling a story and the others were +listening attentively.”–<i>Page</i> 184.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span>Winifred never +refused to sing, and Hannah slipped into the house, tuned her dear Geige and +brought it out. Then she played very softly, while Winifred’s sweet voice +sang one quiet song after another. Dr. Harlow’s tired face relaxed and, +leaning back in the chair, he presently dropped off to sleep. The young people +were very still, and Winifred smiled softly as she sang. Dr. Helen, coming out +from the office after an interview with a wearying patient, stood in her turn +watching. The blues and pinks and greens of the girls’ frocks, the +boys’ white flannels and the great tree spreading above them, made a +pretty background and setting for the central group of Hannah bending her brown +head earnestly over her violin, and Winifred lifting her delicate little face +while she sang.</p> + +<p>“Bravo!” shouted a big voice behind Dr. Helen. Bert, on his way +home from one of his spasmodic “jobs,” dropped in to say +“Hello!” and incidentally break the spell. Dr. Harlow woke and +looked guiltily about him. His wife joined him, and Max and Archie shook the +kinks out of their long legs, as the girls began to gather up their sewing and +flutter about Catherine with good-bys.</p> + +<p>“I say, Miss Hannah,” said Bert, making his way to her. “I +didn’t know you played. That’s a jolly little fiddle you’ve +got there. Do you know the Merry Widow waltzes?”</p> + +<p>Hannah laughed. “I don’t,” she confessed, “but +perhaps I could learn them. Bring them up some time and I’ll +try.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span><a id='link_15'></a>CHAPTER FIFTEEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>SUNDAY SCHOOL</span></h2> + +<p>“Hannah, are you awake?”</p> + +<p>Hannah turned over, and opened an eye uncertainly.</p> + +<p>“No, I guess so.”</p> + +<p>“Well, do wake up and look at me. Isn’t it awful?”</p> + +<p>Hannah unscrewed the other eye, and blinked blindly for a minute.</p> + +<p>“What is it?” she asked, yawning.</p> + +<p>“My cheek. Can’t you see? Toothache. It’s all swollen up, +and it hurts.”</p> + +<p>Hannah roused herself a little more, then shut her eyes quickly. She +didn’t want to laugh at Catherine.</p> + +<p>“Can’t you do anything for it?”</p> + +<p>“I suppose so, but it won’t go down in time for Sunday-school, +and who will take my class?”</p> + +<p>Hannah groaned. “Who would ever get up in the middle of the night and +worry about a Sunday-school class, when they had a toothache? It’s +unnormal! Go back to bed, unless there is something I can do for you. +Can’t I call your mother?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span>“No, +there’s no use bothering her. I know what to do well enough, but I am so +worried about the class.”</p> + +<p>“O, go along to sleep. I’ll take your old class.”</p> + +<p>Hannah was asleep herself before Catherine had finished sighing with grateful +relief and returned to her own room.</p> + +<p>An hour later, Hannah woke with a start to the consciousness that something +unpleasant had happened. Almost immediately that vagueness gave way to +irritating clearness. She got up and peeped into Catherine’s room. She was +sleeping, but the swollen cheek left no room for hope that the whole episode was +a nightmare. Hannah dressed quietly, frowning the while at her unconsidered +offer of the early morning.</p> + +<p>“I do think this town would be twice as nice if there weren’t any +children in it. They spoil everything. I never taught anybody anything in all my +life. And I never went to Sunday-school either, except in Germany. She will just +have to get some one else,” she fussed. “A promise like that +doesn’t count. I was so sleepy I didn’t know what I was +saying.”</p> + +<p>With unwelcome plainness she recalled the facts that Dorcas and Polly had +classes of their own, Bertha and Agnes were out of town, and Dot and Win and +Bess belonged to another denomination.</p> + +<p>“Why couldn’t she have waited till Alice came? <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span> She’s always ready +for things like that. O, dear. I suppose I’ll have to try. Catherine would +keep a promise herself, if she made it in delirium tremens!”</p> + +<p>She stole down stairs before any one was stirring, save Inga in the kitchen, +found a Bible and took it over to the window-seat, where she opened it +gingerly.</p> + +<p>“I wonder where they begin,” she thought. “Might as well +look Genesis over first, to refresh my memory.” She spread the thin pages +open, and began to read. Outside the open window the birds were noisily +celebrating the sunny morning. Inga ground the coffee. A bell rang for early +service somewhere. Hannah’s eyes wandered from the page.</p> + +<p>“‘And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.’ It +sounds just like poetry,” she thought. “But what could I tell +youngsters about it? They would be sure to want to know just how the waters were +kept off the firmaments. I hope–no, I know, Elsmere <i>is</i> in that +class!” In silent horror, Hannah sat staring out of the window. Memories +of Catherine’s Sunday dinner talk swarmed back into her mind. She had +thought the stories amusing: how Elsmere had chewed gum and put it into the +collection envelope; how Perdita Osgood had described in vivid detail her +seasickness of a summer before; how the little Hamilton girl had asked personal +and embarrassing <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span> +questions of Catherine herself. It had sounded funny, when Catherine told the +tales in her quiet way,–but to be alone with them for an hour! +Hannah’s heart failed her entirely. She shut the Bible and marched up to +Catherine’s room. Catherine was dressing, as far away from the mirror as +possible.</p> + +<p>“Hannah, dear,” she called, seeing the brown hair and blue eyes +through a crack in the door. “Do come in. You don’t know what a dear +you were to take that class. I went straight to sleep, and didn’t mind the +pain nearly so much after that. It worried me so. You see, the Sunday-school is +so small and I had been over and over it in my mind, and couldn’t think of +any one who would do. It’s the last class any one is ever willing to +take.”</p> + +<p>“Why?” asked Hannah, her prepared refusal suspended.</p> + +<p>“O, because it’s so big, and there are all ages of little people +in it. But you’ll do beautifully. Children always love you. Do you know +what the lesson is?”</p> + +<p>Hannah hesitated. Then a glance at Catherine’s distorted face made her +ashamed of herself, and she answered bravely:</p> + +<p>“No. What is it? I’ll have to study up a lot.”</p> + +<p>“You’ll find plenty of material in those leaflets and books in +the pile there on the table by my <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_190'></a>190</span> Bible. It’s about the Good Shepherd. And if +you’re going down, will you ask mother to come in before breakfast? I +don’t believe I’ve been doing the right things.”</p> + +<p>So Hannah, laden with Helps and Hints, went slowly down stairs again, and +after having sent Dr. Helen up to see her afflicted daughter, resumed her place +in the window-seat and put her mind resolutely on the subject of the lesson.</p> + +<p>“‘Bring in the 23rd Psalm,’” she read in one suggestion. +“That’s good. I know that much and I can make them repeat it the +whole hour, if nothing else comes into my head. How is she, Dr. +Helen?”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen smiled ruefully. “She will be all right after a while, but it +is a pity, isn’t it? You were a good girl to relieve her mind about that +class. She cares so much about it. Good morning, Frieda! <i>Hast du gut +geschlafen?</i>”</p> + +<p>The Three Gables household was a church-going one. Hannah, in her white gown +with sweet-peas scattered over it, met the doctors in the hall.</p> + +<p>“Is Frieda late?” she asked, putting on her gloves. “It +isn’t like her.”</p> + +<p>“No, but she begged so hard to stay with Catherine whose state seems to +waken deeps of pity in her, that I couldn’t refuse. She said she would do +anything for her, even to reading poetry!”</p> + +<p>They all laughed, for Frieda’s English reading <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span> was distinctly lacking in smoothness, +and her rendering of poetry would doubtless be harrowing.</p> + +<p>“That would hurt Catherine more than the toothache,” said Hannah, +“but they will find something better to do,” and she walked sedately +down the path between the doctors, her Bible and Quarterly in her hands, +wondering if martyrs on the way to the stake chatted on indifferent topics, and +noticed birds and bees and grasshoppers.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Catherine and Frieda up stairs were surprising themselves and each +other. The first glimpse of Catherine’s swollen cheek had roused +Frieda’s sense of mirth, but compassion for physical pain followed +quickly.</p> + +<p>“<i>Ach weh! Weh! Schade! Schade!</i>” she had murmured in a deep +sympathetic tone, which Catherine found unexpectedly soothing. Accustomed as she +had always been to brisk remedial measures, and beyond those, to wordless pity +and a deliberate ignoring of the evil, she was interested and touched by this +demonstration. She had felt shy with Frieda from the first, wishing so earnestly +to know her well and win her love that she could not be perfectly simple and +natural with her. This shyness had combined with the little aloofness, which +every one felt in Catherine, to shut Frieda’s heart. But this morning the +barriers were down. Catherine, instead of being perfect, exquisite, was nothing +short of hideous. The agent had proved <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_192'></a>192</span> that she could look absurd. Here she was shown +mortal to the point of needing help from Frieda. What made Hannah feel awkward +and useless, caused Frieda to come to the front, competent and tender. She made +Catherine cozy with pillows, and sat beside her, speaking, in tones which +carried healing and comfort, of all sorts of interesting and delightful things +and places. She told stories of her school in Germany, of her home and +Hannah’s visit, of her little friend who had been to a birthday party at +the palace, of the strange “church social” to which Hannah had taken +her in Berlin, of her rides with Herr Karl in the Tiergarten, rapturous +descriptions of the Tiergarten itself, dropping unconsciously into German +phrases, her eyes shining and her cheeks taking on an unwontedly charming color, +while Catherine lay and listened, entranced, as though she were in a world where +pain had no power.</p> + +<p>It was not so pleasant at the little gray church. Hannah, all through the +sermon, wrestled mentally with the parable. It seemed to her it was a very +slippery parable! She would no sooner highly resolve to hold it till she had +wrenched its moral from it, and reduced that moral to terms which the youngest +babe could surely comprehend, than she would find that the elusive subject had +slipped from her grasp, and her whole mind would be fixed upon the problem of +how long it would take a fly to <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_193'></a>193</span> crawl all the way across the expansive back of Mrs. +Graham, who sat in the pew in front.</p> + +<p>She went through the service like a well-constructed automaton, rising, +sitting, singing even, with no notion of what she was doing or why she was doing +it. She bowed her head with the others for the benediction, and then the soft +stirring and cheerful tones of greeting about her, told her that her hour was +come.</p> + +<p>The superintendent directed her to “Miss Smith’s class.” To +her final dismay, she found that that meant a seat on the platform in full view +of the congregation. The little church was barely more than a chapel, and the +chorus choir had two pews upon the platform. Here, it seemed, for purposes of +segregation, Catherine held her flock during the interminable opening exercises, +after which she led them to their own room in the basement. As one in a dream, +Hannah went to the seat pointed out to her. Margaret Kittredge and Peter and +Perdita were already present. The little Hamilton girl came in with two unknown +others. Then more and more. The little girls settled themselves fussily, getting +up frequently to crush their stiff starchy skirts into place. Their wide-brimmed +hats interfered when they moved and they were never still. The little boys +huddled together, and punched each other without motive, crowding each other off +the seat, and showing the pennies they held in their moist little palms.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span>The +superintendent tapped his bell. The noisy groups of the Sunday-school at large +lapsed into an approach to order, the teachers staring consciously ahead with an +excess of propriety, and the children alertly refraining from anything more +riotous than fumbling with hymn-books. Hannah’s own charges felt the +change in the atmosphere, and quietness fell upon them. She welcomed it +gratefully, aware that it was in no wise due to her own effort, and spreading a +hymn-book open for the first song, stooped to allow the small boy next her to +look on, then lent her voice as freely as she could to the chirping chorus. As +the exercises continued, she became rather more accustomed to her prominent +seat, and, inspired by Dorcas Morehouse’s austere countenance in the front +row below her, she even turned once and looked down the squirming row beside +her, shaking her head gravely at Perdita, who was showing signs of uprising. +Peter caught the look of reproach and passed it on to his twin with interest, +hauling her into her place with a tug which resulted in a loud parting of +gathers. The Bible reading over, “birthdays” were called for, and +the little Hamilton girl trotted importantly forward to the +superintendent’s table, where she let seven pennies drop from her fat +fingers into a yawning frog, receiving in exchange a printed text. Acknowledging +this courtesy with a jerky bow, she switched her way back to the pew she had +left, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span> and crumpled +herself into a space not half wide enough to hold her. The minister rose to lead +in prayer. Hannah bowed her head devoutly, trusting in the power of example. She +was conscious of the heavy breathing of Margaret beside her, due to the unwonted +strain of pressing her chin close to her chest. The minister’s voice +droned on and on, but Hannah was sending up a fervent petition of her own, and +for a brief space heard nothing. Then–Bang! “I want to sit by +Her.” There was a thud of falling bodies, and Elsmere, late but ardent, +plumped himself into the place at Hannah’s right, from which he had +forcibly removed a little boy with fat red legs, which were now waving in the +air. Hannah felt herself as red as the evicted legs, and as the prayer came to +an abrupt stop, would have given worlds to be able to flee and hide her +mortified face.</p> + +<p>At a tap from the bell in the superintendent’s hand, the class slipped +to the floor, shook out its skirts and grasped its caps. The organ started up +wheezily, and every one burst into song: “See the mighty host advancing, +Satan leading on!” as Hannah, heading the wiggling line of wandering-eyed +children, got somehow off the platform and into a little basement room which had +been equipped for primary work with chairs of varying heights, a great colored +chart and a mission map.</p> + +<p>There she breathed more freely. Whatever the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_196'></a>196</span> next half-hour had in store for her, she would at +least be alone with it. These fifteen wigglers had become part of her. She must +blush for them as for herself, but they were not onlookers, anyhow. The mere +absence of Dorcas’ gaze was refreshment.</p> + +<p>There was a brief period of settling into chairs, some mild squabbling over +two desirable blue ones, a little dispute as to the privilege of passing the +envelope, and at last Hannah found that something definite was expected of her. +The chart showed a brightly-colored shepherd holding in his arms a weak +lamb.</p> + +<p>“Say, won’t that lamb kick him? They’re awful leggy,” +suggested an interested youth in the first row.</p> + +<p>“I seen a lamb onct,” announced his neighbor, rocking perilously +on the two back legs of her chair. “It was a ram lamb and it butted me in +my stomach, it did. Hurt. Hurt awful.”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” grunted Perdita. “I don’t believe it hurt as +much as when my mother sewed my finger in the sewing-machine. Did your stomach +bleed?”</p> + +<p>“Children,” said Hannah desperately. “Don’t talk, +please. No, Peter, not another word from anybody. Now who can tell the Golden +Text?”</p> + +<p>Dead silence.</p> + +<p>“Doesn’t any one know the Golden Text?”</p> + +<p>“Miss Smith doesn’t do that way,” suggested some one. +“She always says: ‘Peter, you may tell us the Golden +Text.’”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span>“Very +well,” agreed Hannah hurriedly. “Peter, you may tell us the Golden +Text.”</p> + +<p>“Let me,” cried Elsmere. “I know ’bout lambs. Mary +had a little lamb, fleeciswhitissnow.”</p> + +<p>“Elsmere,” said Hannah sternly. “I asked Peter to tell us +the Golden Text.”</p> + +<p>“Mine is a walker,” said Peter loudly.</p> + +<p>Hannah looked mystified.</p> + +<p>“Pooh!” remarked the Hamilton girl loftily. “That +ain’t this Sunday’s. ‘Wine is a mocker’ was to-morrow’s. +’Tain’t this Sunday’s.”</p> + +<p>“What is this Sunday’s?” asked Hannah hopefully. +“Doesn’t anybody know? ‘I am’–don’t you remember? +‘I am the good–’:</p> + +<p>“I am the good–” Peter got so far and then stopped, +stolid.</p> + +<p>“I know,” cried Elsmere once more. “Put in his thumb, pull +out a plum, good boy am I!”</p> + +<p>The others snickered, and Hannah bit her lip. “No. ‘I am the good +shepherd.’ It was Jesus who said it. Now all of you say it +together.”</p> + +<p>Lamblike, they followed her lead, and she succeeded in passing over several +minutes. But they soon grew restive again, and one little hand pawed the +air.</p> + +<p>“Well, what is it?”</p> + +<p>“The Grahams is coming to our house to dinner.”</p> + +<p>“That’s nice. Now we will talk about the shepherd psalm. How many +of you know it?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span>There was a +moment of doubt. “Shall not want?” ventured one of the older ones +presently.</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s it exactly,” said Hannah gladly. +“You’ve all heard it lots of times. Now I’ll recite it for +you, and then you can tell me what it means.”</p> + +<p>With the Bible prudently open to save her from any possible embarrassment at +a sudden lapse of memory, she began slowly to recite the psalm, pausing for +explanatory comments as she went along.</p> + +<p>“I was in a valley onct,” said a sleepy boy, who had contributed +nothing so far to the morning’s entertainment. “I fell off’n the +dock and the boat was clost up to me, and that was a valley.”</p> + +<p>“How’d you get out?” asked several with interest.</p> + +<p>“Man pulled me out,” and the speaker subsided.</p> + +<p>Hannah stole a glance at her watch, as she finished the psalm. She had strung +it out as long as she could, but there were still several minutes to dispose +of.</p> + +<p>“Now I wonder who can tell me what that was all about?” she +asked, with feigned sprightliness. “I think you can, the little girl with +the red dress. What’s your name? O, yes, Gwendolen.”</p> + +<p>Every one turned to look at Gwendolen. She stuck her finger in her mouth, +presumably to stem the tide of speech, for as she withdrew it the words fell out +over one another all in one breath.</p> + +<p>“Don’t want anyfing to eat. Lay down in the <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span> grass an’ roll. Put kerosene on +my head. Can’t git any more in my cup, all spillin’ over.”</p> + +<p>The door opened and once more the superintendent tapped his bell. Hannah, +with a deep sigh of thankfulness, marshalled her troop and drove them back to +their place, taking her martyr’s seat in their midst.</p> + +<p>Through the reading of the secretary’s report and the singing of three +stanzas of the closing hymn, they behaved fairly well, subdued by the drowsy +atmosphere of air unchanged since the morning service. The last stanza of the +hymn was nearly sung. Elsmere rose to his feet and plucked Peter by the hair of +his head. Hannah cast an appealing glance at the superintendent, who was nearer +the offender than herself. He took a quick stride forward, with his hand +uplifted, just as the last wailing sound of the hymn died away. His hand on +Elsmere’s collar, he observed the congregation standing with bowed heads. +They had misinterpreted his gesture. Casting a look of understanding at Hannah, +gripping Elsmere tightly, he pronounced the expected benediction, and as the +audience broke up into home-going groups, set the boy down with emphasis.</p> + +<p>“We don’t usually close with a prayer,” he said to Hannah, +“but they thought that was what I meant, when I stepped forward. I nearly +throttled the child but–”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span>“I think +you will be forgiven,” said Hannah firmly. “Miss Smith will be here +next Sunday, but I, I am thankful to say, shall not!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='center fs14'>PART THREE</p> +<p class='center fs14'>TOGETHER AT LAST</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span><a id='link_16'></a>CHAPTER SIXTEEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>ALICE ON THE WAY</span></h2> + +<p>Out on a Dakota prairie, in a corner of a motionless Pullman sat a short girl +in a plain blue suit, her grey eyes behind thick glasses bent upon the pages of +a red leather book.</p> + +<p>“‘Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise +for the spirit of heaviness.’” She read the words over and over, and +the book fell from her hands as she looked out on the limitless fields. +“‘Beauty for ashes.’ What a striking way of putting it! ‘The oil of +joy’–why, I wonder what we are stopping here so long for. It +doesn’t look like a station.”</p> + +<p>And suddenly Alice Prescott sat up straight and looked about her, alert and +alive.</p> + +<p>The porter came slowly in response to her repeated ring. “What’s +the matter? Why, there’s an engine off the track a little ways off, and +our crew and engine has gone to help. No, nobody hurt. Just a freight engine. +Don’t know how long. Mebbe one hour. Mebbe two.”</p> + +<p>“But I’ll miss my connections!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span>“Too bad, +Miss.” The porter looked at her with lazy curiosity. The train had already +been at a standstill for ten minutes, and every other woman on the car had put +him through a catechism long ago. This girl looked awake and practical. How +could a porter understand that the mere beauty of words and ideas could render +one unconscious to delays in transportation?</p> + +<p>Alice rose and walked up and down the aisle. Three women, rather overdressed, +were playing cards in a remote section. A man slept in a corner. She went to the +door, and seeing groups of passengers standing outside along the track, jumped +down from the high step and walked a little, tasting the fresh air with +pleasure. The country offered nothing to her gaze. Her eye, accustomed to +mountains, found endless level stretches harrowing rather than soothing. She +recalled a Dakota girl at Dexter who was always telling of the beauty of the +prairie, and longing for it. “I suppose it’s a matter of +habit,” she thought to herself. “There is certainly something that +kindles your imagination in such a sight. It would be dreary if it weren’t +cultivated, but it must be wonderful to see a whole country reclaimed from +wildness and made productive. ‘Beauty for ashes’ O!” and with a +little shiver of pleasure, she repeated the lines that had so charmed her a few +minutes before. “‘The spirit of heaviness.’ What a strange thing to +include in the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205'></a>205</span> +same message with the vengeance of the Lord! It makes blues and dullness seem so +important. It doesn’t say anything here about Christ’s coming to +heal bodily suffering or sin, and it does explicitly say he is to cure the +blues. Isn’t that interesting?”</p> + +<p>Her walk had brought her to the first of the line of day-coaches by this +time, and she glanced up at the listless faces leaned against the dirty +window-panes. As she passed, each pair of eyes rested wearily on her figure. +Suddenly a thought struck her. Blues and dullness! Where were they ever more to +the fore than here? She entered the car impulsively and stood looking people +over. She spoke to the nearest woman.</p> + +<p>“It’s a nuisance having to wait so, isn’t it? +Wouldn’t you like to come out for a little walk?”</p> + +<p>“No,” snapped the woman, “I wouldn’t.” Alice +flushed, then smiled and went on down the aisle. Evidently her mission of good +fairy was not going to be successful at the start. “Some people want to be +‘heavy,’” she thought. “I’ll take some one who looks as +though she wanted to be lightened up. Here’s one.”</p> + +<p>The red-eyed cindery young woman who was curled up in her seat, dabbing her +cheeks with a smeary handkerchief, looked as though any change would be a +welcome one. Alice stopped resolutely. “Can I do anything for you?” +she asked, not at all sure of her reception.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206'></a>206</span>The girl lifted +her eyes and swallowed a sob. “Nobud-d-dy can,” she wailed; +“I’m going to be m-m-married!”</p> + +<p>Alice’s face twitched. “Won’t you tell me about it?” +she asked. “Cheering folks up” was proving an intricate business. +“If the garment of praise doesn’t fit any one,” she thought, +“I’ll just have to carry it back and wear it myself.”</p> + +<p>The bride gulped and spoke again:</p> + +<p>“It’s to be to-night and I’ve missed my train at the +Junction already, and I don’t know what to do. Everybody was invited and +the supper won’t keep, and I lost my solid silver hatpin, +anyway.”</p> + +<p>“Can’t you come out and walk with me?” suggested Alice. +“The air will make you feel better. Bathe your eyes and come.”</p> + +<p>Still tearful, but manifestly a little relieved, the bride obeyed and, once +out on the prairie, poured forth her tale. She had at the last moment decided +she could not bear to be married without a veil, and had gone early in the +morning to the nearest town to invest her last money in that frivolity. Fate was +against her, however, for there were no veils in the shops, and a persuasive +milliner had induced her to give up her cherished notion and buy a hat instead. +“And I’m most sure the ribbon’s cotton-back,” she +sighed. “I don’t know why I bought it, anyway. That’s always +the way with me. I think I know what I’ll get, and then they <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span> coax me into getting +something different. Once I went down town to buy me a pair of black stockings, +and I got an Alice blue silk waist, instead. Stephen he thinks it’s funny +and he says he’ll see to the shopping when we’re married. I wisht +he’d come to-day.”</p> + +<p>“Wouldn’t it be fun if he had?” said Alice. “There is +a minister on the train, and we could have had a lovely wedding out +here!”</p> + +<p>This romantic idea cheered them both for a time, but its power was brief. +There were signs of a tear-shower imminent, and Alice was at her wits’ end +for devices to adjust that garment of praise to fit.</p> + +<p>Then came a great inspiration. “Let’s walk to the +Junction,” she exclaimed. “I’ll go with you, and you can get a +team there, and drive home.”</p> + +<p>“But you’d miss your train.”</p> + +<p>“O, no, I wouldn’t. It has to come right along there behind us, +and I could jump on the cow-catcher if it came; but it can’t come without +an engine, and there isn’t one in sight, and it’s only two miles to +your Junction, you say. That won’t be anything of a walk. Go and get your +hat-box.”</p> + +<p>The hat-box was not all. Though the journey was to be only a short one, the +bride had taken a satchel with her of a type Alice especially loathed. This was +a trifle, however, to a spirit so bent on adventure, and Alice seized the +“grip” and started off at a brisk pace.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span>“I +can’t walk so fast,” said the bride fretfully. “My shoes +hurt.”</p> + +<p>Alice looked from her own broad-soled street shoes to the high-heeled, +misshapen things on her companion’s feet. The latter looked at them, too, +with pride and affection. “I’m going to wear them at the wedding and +I thought that, being they was so tight, I’d best break ’em in a +little first.”</p> + +<p>“I see,” and Alice moderated her own pace to the hobbling gait of +the wedding slippers. Two miles seemed more of an undertaking now and she began +to wonder if she had been rash in her suggestion. “I’ll carry it +through,” she said to herself. “I know I can, and I won’t back +down. We’ll get tired if we keep going without rests,” she said +aloud. “So let’s walk ten minutes and then rest. You can tell by +your watch.”</p> + +<p>The bride brightened at the allusion to the great plated and chased timepiece +suspended from a rhinestone dove very near to her breast-bone. “Steve give +me that when we was first engaged,” she explained, and Alice smiled +indulgently. “He give me my bracelet for Christmas, and all his friends +give me bangles.” She jingled the thing proudly as she spoke. +“There’s thirty-four of ’em.”</p> + +<p>“Thirty-four friends! He must be a popular man!” said Alice.</p> + +<p>“O, he is, awful. And he’s the handsomest! You just ought to see +him.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209'></a>209</span>“The +garment of praise is settling into place without a wrinkle,” thought +Alice. “I hope she won’t take it all, for I may need a corner of it +myself, to console me for this abominable bag, and the tinkle of that bracelet. +I suppose she would think it was finer than the jade one Mrs. Langdon gave me. +And I wonder what she would think if she knew my necklace was under my dress, so +it wouldn’t show in travelling. O, well, she’s a nice little thing, +and I hope Steve will be good to her.”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid you’ll be all beat out helping me,” said +the bride remorsefully, as they paused once more for a rest. “I +don’t know how I’ll ever thank you, anyhow.”</p> + +<p>“O, that’s all right,” and Alice seized the bag and bore it +mightily forward.</p> + +<p>“O, dear,” sighed the bride presently. “There’s +somebody driving this way. I wish they was going the other, and would give us a +lift.”</p> + +<p>The black speck down the road, which here ran alongside the track, expanded +rapidly, developing into a smart buggy with two good horses, and a man driving. +He leaned forward as he neared them, and suddenly reined in the horses with a +jerk.</p> + +<p>“Great Guns!” he shouted, throwing the reins over the dashboard, +and leaping out over the wheel.</p> + +<p>“It’s Steve,” cried the bride in a rapture, and Alice +pinched herself with delight as Steve embraced his lady.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span>“However +in the world did you get off here?” he asked, releasing her enough to +reply.</p> + +<p>“How did you?” she answered, and he laughed, “O, I thought +I’d drive over to the Junction to meet you and carry you home, and I heard +about the train being stalled out here and couldn’t get out for hours, so +I drove on, that’s all. But the idea of you hoofing it in!” He put +his head back and laughed loudly.</p> + +<p>His fiancée then remembered Alice and introduced her, telling Steve of her +kind interest. He was all cordiality, and offered to give her a ride back to the +train.</p> + +<p>“No, no,” she protested. “I love to walk. And do hurry +along home and have the wedding. I’m so glad it all turned out all right; +and you’re feeling happier, aren’t you?” she asked the +girl.</p> + +<p>Steve put his arm around his little bride gently. “I guess she +won’t ever feel bad again. I shan’t let her go off alone any more. +And thank you for what you done. I shan’t forget it. Say, couldn’t +you stop off now for the wedding?”</p> + +<p>“O, do,” begged the bride, and Alice had to refuse tenderly. She +watched them get into the buggy, and drive happily away, waving to her as they +did so. Then she turned back to her train, and her own car.</p> + +<p>One of the card-playing women was tired and inclined to be sociable. So Alice +sat with her, by <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211'></a>211</span> +invitation, and listened to the history of her family’s diseases and +operations, and her difficulties with servants, till the train was started once +more and the rumble of the cars resumed their interrupted song of “Getting +nearer, getting nearer.”</p> + +<p>“I must hear it that way every minute,” Alice thought, as she +took her own seat again, and while the lamps were lighted, watched in the +windows not the rushing landscape but her own face. “It would be so easy +to hear ‘Getting farther,’ and think of leaving home for nine whole +months, but I’ll just remember Hannah and Catherine and Frieda and dear +Dexter,–and that will keep the garment from slipping off my +shoulders.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span><a id='link_17'></a>CHAPTER SEVENTEEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>FINDING A VOCATION</span></h2> + +<p>On the second afternoon after Alice’s arrival, the four girls walked +down to the post-office to mail their letters, Catherine having written to Miss +Lyndesay, while the other three wrote to their mothers. Now, pleasantly +conscious of duty performed, they strolled idly along the street.</p> + +<p>It was “library afternoon” and Catherine had a book to exchange +for a busy neighbor, who much enjoyed the library privileges, but seldom had +time to choose her own books. The girls turned in at the library door, which was +hospitably open. Several people were waiting at the desk, while Algernon busily +attended to their wants. Catherine laid down her book and went over to the +fiction shelves to find something to take its place. The other girls wandered +about, looking at the soldierly rows of books, and at the effective picture +bulletin which Bess had made to celebrate the Fourth of July, a list of +patriotic books under crossed flags,–turned the pages of the half dozen +magazines on the reading-table, and then, by common consent gathered <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span> in the little alcove +devoted to children’s books.</p> + +<p>“Three copies of <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>!” exclaimed Alice. +“That seems a rather large proportion!”</p> + +<p>Catherine, who had secured <i>Friendship Village</i>, and was rejoicing in +her good fortune, answered the criticism.</p> + +<p>“You see, each member of the club selected a book for the first order, +and Dot and Max both chose <i>Alice</i> and neither would give up, so we finally +ordered two; and then somebody gave us a copy afterward.”</p> + +<p>“What did you choose?”</p> + +<p>Catherine laughed. “Can’t you guess?”</p> + +<p>Hannah pounced on a big copy of Pyle’s <i>Robin Hood</i>.</p> + +<p>“This, of course. Do you remember how you gave it to me to read the +first evening I was at your house?”</p> + +<p>Frieda had been looking the shelves over as if seeking something, and now +straightened up, disappointed.</p> + +<p>“Nowhere is there the <i>Laetus Sorte Mea</i> book,” she said +sadly.</p> + +<p>“That’s so!” exclaimed Catherine, regretfully. +“We’ll put it on the suggestion list at once. Do you see any other +lack, any of you?”</p> + +<p>They all laughed, looking about at the few hundred volumes on the shelves, +but Frieda said earnestly:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214'></a>214</span>“There are +many Germans here, Dr. Harlow told me. And the older ones cannot read English. +Can they have no share in the library?”</p> + +<p>“That’s right,” said Alice. “They are taxpayers and I +should think you ought to get a few German books every year, Catherine. +It’s done in other places.”</p> + +<p>Algernon was at liberty for a moment, and came over to the group.</p> + +<p>“Are we talking too much?” asked Catherine.</p> + +<p>“No, no. There’s no one at the reading-table. What are you +discussing?”</p> + +<p>“Frieda thinks there should be German books here for the people in town +who can’t read English.”</p> + +<p>“There ought,” said Algernon gravely. “But I don’t +know what to order. I don’t want to start out with Goethe and Schiller. I +asked the German minister, and he gave a list of religious books, but that +isn’t what we want, either.”</p> + +<p>Frieda’s eyes shone. “Please let me make you a list,” she +said eagerly. “And I have two or three books in my trunk which I would +gladly give, O, gladly.”</p> + +<p>Algernon’s pleasure was as great as her own.</p> + +<p>“That would be simply bully! We can order one each time we send for new +books, and it won’t be long before we have a good supply. I say, +Catherine, would you mind taking the desk for a few minutes? There come the +program committee <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span> +of the Study Club, and I ought to be free to talk with them.”</p> + +<p>Catherine consented willingly, always liking to manipulate the simple +machinery of the loan desk. Frieda sat down at once with a pencil and paper to +make out her list, and Alice and Hannah helped themselves to magazines and +waited.</p> + +<p>Catherine looked about her at the little room and her heart swelled with +pride and pleasure. So much had come of her thought of making Algernon useful. +He was already quite a different person, with a dignity that became him well. +The pile of cards in the charging tray before her showed that the library was +being used by a goodly number of borrowers. The program committee was evidence +that part, at least, of its use, was for more than mere recreation.</p> + +<p>“O, I am so glad, so glad!” sang Catherine’s heart. +“There are so many things to be glad about. And see my dear, dear +Wide-Awakes. I think they really are the most beautiful girls I ever +beheld!”</p> + +<p>A stranger might have thought that rather an extravagant speech, for +Catherine herself was the only one of the four who could be called beautiful. +But Frieda’s face was unusual and interesting, Alice’s sweet, though +plain, and Hannah’s the sort that always called for a second glance and a +smile of pleasure.</p> + +<p>“Have you anything in the library on the Past, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span> the Present and the Future?” +asked a voice, and Catherine stopped her musing.</p> + +<p>“The what?” she asked, not believing her ears. She had been +thinking of the past, the present and the future as she watched her three +friends’ faces, but that was quite a different matter.</p> + +<p>“I have to write a paper on that subject,” said a complacent +young woman, rather showily dressed, “and I thought I’d maybe better +read up on it a little.”</p> + +<p>“I should think it would be wise,” murmured Catherine. “But +I hardly know–the Past, the Present, and the Future of what?”</p> + +<p>“Why, not of anything. Just the Past, the Present and the +Future,” said the other, with a shade of impatience in her tone. +“Maybe I’d better wait till the real librarian is at liberty. He +always knows what to give out.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps that would be best,” faltered Catherine. “It is +such a very large subject, you know.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s why I chose it. I like a large subject. There is so +much more to say on it. I wrote on ‘Woman’ last year, but it wasn’t +broad enough!”</p> + +<p>A little girl, who came in wanting a fairy story, gave Catherine a chance to +turn away and hide her amusement. The child wanted to know what the story was +about, and before Catherine realized what she was doing, she had her arm about +the little girl’s waist, and, kneeling beside the low <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_217'></a>217</span> table, was showing her the pictures in +a beautiful illustrated <i>Tanglewood Tales</i>, telling the story of Persephone +as that sweet sad tale has seldom been told.</p> + +<p>Some one came in and wanted a book, but Catherine did not know it. Alice, who +had had some library experience at college, stepped quietly to the desk and +served the customer. Hannah dropped her magazine and stole nearer the alcove, +listening to the story. Frieda looked up from her writing, as Catherine’s +voice, full of wistfulness, came to her ear:</p> + +<p>“And Mother Ceres wandered and wandered over the face of the earth, but +there was not any Persephone anywhere. And the grass forgot to grow, and the +flowers forgot to blossom, and the wheat withered and died, for Mother +Ceres’ heart was broken. How could she care for other things, when +Persephone was gone?”</p> + +<p>The members of the program committee, one by one, paused in their busy +searching through Poole’s Index, and waited while the sweet voice went +on:</p> + +<p>“And poor little Persephone was lonely down in the dark king’s +palace underground. She pined and pined, and would not eat or be comforted. And +the poor King was sad, too. He wanted a little girl so badly, you know, and now +that he had found one, he could not make her happy. It is a terrible thing not +to be able to make people happy!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218'></a>218</span>The little girl +cuddling close to Catherine, her eyes turning only from the pictured page to +Catherine’s face, sighed softly.</p> + +<p>Algernon, watching and listening to the story of the tempting pomegranate, +suddenly drew a deep breath, and his face lighted up as it always did when a new +idea came to him.</p> + +<p>“And then Quicksilver hurried her away, past the fierce dog with the +three terrible heads, and up to the world again. Such a dry parched world! Not +any green grass, not a single, flower. Not a single corn-stalk or spear of +wheat. And poor old Mother Ceres sitting at home on her door-step, weary and sad +and hopeless, wishing for her own little girl. And what do you think? As +Persephone and Quicksilver walked along, pretty fast, you may be sure, for you +can think how eager the little girl was to see her dear mother again, all along +the sides of the path where they walked, the grass turned green and the flowers +began to blossom and nod, and the corn-stalks lifted up their heads and waved +new tassels, and the wheat sprang up, and the trees put out fresh leaves, and +the birds sang, and the little dried-up brooks began to run and ripple over +stones. And Mother Ceres, sitting and looking out over the dry brown world, +suddenly saw a green glow over everything and she stood up, very angry, and +said: ‘Does the earth disobey me? I said that if the earth should ever grow +green again, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219'></a>219</span> it +should be along the path by which my daughter should come back to my +arms.’</p> + +<p>“And then a sweet child voice said: ‘Open your arms, dear Mother, for I +have come back to you, and all the earth is green and +blossoming!’”</p> + +<p>The little girl threw her arms around Catherine’s neck and kissed +her.</p> + +<p>“O, I’m so glad she came back,” she cried. “Tell me +about it again.”</p> + +<p>Catherine smiled but her eyes were dreamy still. Algernon made his way over +to her.</p> + +<p>“You found my vocation for me,” he said eagerly, “and now +I’ve found yours. We’ll have a story-hour in this library +hereafter,–with bars up to keep the grown-ups out! You’re better +than the professional I heard at Madison.”</p> + +<p>Catherine looked bewildered, but Alice took her hand and squeezed it.</p> + +<p>“I knew you could. I heard you once ‘telling’ to Jonathan Edwards +out under the hemlocks when you thought no one else was listening. It’s a +glorious gift, dear, and I feel sure you’ll do wonders with it some day. +See! Hannah and Frieda are almost crying! Come on, girls. She doesn’t even +know what she has done. We’ll have to take her home and have her mother +explain it!”</p> + +<p>Catherine revived from her dazed condition sufficiently to protest against +being led out of the door, and the four went gayly up the hill together; <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span> but Catherine’s +mind was intent on the suggestion which Algernon had made. “Professional? +Work? A vocation? Anything so simple and delightful, and <i>natural</i> as +telling stories? Could <i>I</i> do something that would make lots of people +happier and better, as Aunt Clara’s pictures do, and Mother’s work +and Father’s?” The bliss of the idea was quite too much for her, and +she broke away from the others, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>“I’ll race you all to the porch steps. One, two, three, +scramble!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221'></a>221</span><a id='link_18'></a>CHAPTER EIGHTEEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>DOCTOR’S ORDERS</span></h2> + +<p>Dr. Helen, dismissing her last patient at the office door, glanced into the +waiting-room. To her surprise, she saw Alice sitting there with a magazine in +her hand.</p> + +<p>“Why, my dear, what is wrong? Are you ill? Come in here.” Alice +rose and followed her into the little white room.</p> + +<p>“Nothing is wrong. I wanted to see you alone for a few minutes, and I +thought this was the best way to do it. Are you quite free now?”</p> + +<p>“Entirely. Sit down in this comfortable chair. I was startled. To have +you fall ill after a week with us would be distressing.”</p> + +<p>“It has been such a dear week!” sighed Alice. “And +I’ve rested all the time and have loved being with the girls. No, +I’m quite well. But I had a letter from Mrs. Langdon, at Dexter, you know, +just before I left home, and she told me I might tell you, if I cared to, what +she has never let me tell any one outside the family,–that is, that I am +one of the girls she is helping through college. I’m <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_222'></a>222</span> glad she said I might, for I’ve +often wished Catherine knew, and it will be next best if you do.”</p> + +<p>“It is a rather trying condition of Mrs. Langdon’s,” said +Dr. Helen sympathetically, “and sometimes creates difficult situations for +the girls concerned, but I long ago gave up hope that she would ever change her +ways. I quite understand how you feel, because, during my last two years at +Dexter, I was one of her girls, too.”</p> + +<p>“You?” Alice’s tone expressed the deepest surprise, and Dr. +Helen continued.</p> + +<p>“My father could not afford to send me, and I earned the money for my +first two years, and was struggling along, trying to spend several hours a day +earning money and at the same time to keep up with my work, when Mrs. Langdon, +who was staying at home that winter, heard about me from friends. She helped me +finish my college course, and gave me substantial aid in taking my professional +course. I repaid the money afterward, but I couldn’t repay the +kindness.”</p> + +<p>“She is wonderfully kind,” said Alice, “though her queer +ways make you forget it sometimes. I had had letters from her before I left home +the first year, of course, about the business part, and I went on, feeling that +I wasn’t going entirely among strangers, but she paid no attention to me +at all. It was only by chance that I met her in the spring through +Hannah.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223'></a>223</span>“Poor +child! You must have been much disappointed and very lonely at first. But she is +a friend worth having, in spite of her peculiarities. I am glad she let you +share your secret with me. Did she say anything about her own health when she +wrote? I almost never hear from her.”</p> + +<p>“Not a word. But she asked me to call on her old friend, Madam +Kittredge, while I was here.”</p> + +<p>“She is our pastor’s mother, a beautiful woman, and nearly blind. +You must certainly call. Catherine always makes the rounds of the old ladies +among our patients once a summer, and she loves to go to Madam +Kittredge’s. She must take you. I wonder–What is that? +Come!”</p> + +<p>A rustling of skirts and the sound of whispers was heard in the waiting-room. +In answer to the doctor’s invitation, the door was slowly opened, and +Hannah put her head in at the crack, Frieda’s appearing just below it, and +Catherine’s just above.</p> + +<p>“Well, here you are!” cried Hannah. “We’ve been +searching the house from attic to cellar for Alice, and finally had an +inspiration and came here.”</p> + +<p>“Anything so exclusive as this,” remarked Catherine, as she +entered, “makes the rest of us jealous.”</p> + +<p>“Fearfully chealous,” said Frieda earnestly, putting her arm +around Alice’s neck, and perching on the arm of her chair.</p> + +<p>Hannah and Catherine sat down on the window-seat, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_224'></a>224</span> pushing the curtains out of the way as +they did so.</p> + +<p>“Mother really wanted to have her office curtains made of antiseptic +gauze,” said Catherine. “Why don’t you two say +anything?”</p> + +<p>“You interrupted me just as I was having an inspiration,” said +her mother.</p> + +<p>“O, what a pity,” sighed Hannah. “Because Catherine is +bored.”</p> + +<p>“Bored? Catherine? Did she tell you so?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I did,” said Catherine stoutly. “I knew they were, +too; and I thought if I owned up that I was, they would say they were, but they +won’t.”</p> + +<p>“Incorruptible politeness!” said Dr. Helen. “How do you +account for your own sudden ennui?”</p> + +<p>“It’s not just to-day,” said Catherine. “I really +think my life is rather dull, anyhow. Of course, having the girls here is quite +an event, but I wish there were big, exciting things I had to do or see to. +Mending, and helping Inga make salads and beds, and even going to college is +tiresome. Just what every one else does. And the worst of it is that every one +expects me to be enthusiastic all the time!”</p> + +<p>They all laughed at Catherine’s disconsolate tone, but Dr. Helen looked +professional. “This heat is enough to make any one cross,” she said. +“I suppose the rest of you feel the same way, but, being guests, +don’t dare say so?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225'></a>225</span>“Do +prescribe for us, Dr. Helen,” begged Hannah. “I don’t feel +especially bored just now, but I often do. Going to Europe was the only event in +my life!”</p> + +<p>“And going to college in mine!” said Alice.</p> + +<p>“Coming here is all that has ever happened to me,” said Frieda +solemnly.</p> + +<p>“You poor things! It is a serious state of affairs. I suppose you pine +for kidnappers, or lovers or financial difficulties or fearful illnesses or +Arctic explorations.”</p> + +<p>“Exactly!” cried Catherine. “Especially the last, on a day +like this. But, really, Mother, of course, I don’t feel as I said more +than once in a great while, and I was talking to amuse myself; but can’t +you suggest something for us to do this afternoon? The more we lie around and +keep cool, the warmer we grow. The Boat Club seems to have tired of picnics, and +I want to do something while Alice is here,–something really interesting +and pleasant to remember, something we didn’t plan ourselves.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, do tell us something,” the others pleaded.</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen drew a prescription pad to her.</p> + +<p>“Don’t talk,” she said, “while I am thinking. +I’ll undertake the case, if you will all agree to follow orders exactly, +and in case of a relapse, to remember and act upon the spirit of to-day’s +prescription.”</p> + +<p>“Agreed!” they chorused, and then sat in silence <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226'></a>226</span> and watched her hand as +it moved over the little sheets. These she folded like powder-papers, endorsed +on the outside, and handed over to her patients.</p> + +<p>“To be taken at half-past three o’clock, in good spirits and your +prettiest afternoon frock,” read Hannah. “I didn’t suppose +that you would prescribe spirits, Dr. Helen! What does yours say, +Catherine?”</p> + +<p>“They are all alike on the outside,” said Dr. Helen. “Now +run away and play. I have telephoning to do, and mustn’t be +bothered.”</p> + +<p>They bent over her for kisses and danced away, looking anything but +bored.</p> + +<p>At half-past three, dressed according to orders, they gathered on the porch, +and at a signal opened their little papers.</p> + +<p>There was a minute of silence, and then their eyes met, annoyed and yet +amused a little.</p> + +<p>Hannah spoke first.</p> + +<p>“Evidently the rest of you aren’t any more fascinated than I am! +I didn’t count on going off all by myself to see a stranger! But we asked +for a prescription, and we all promised to follow it, so here goes. Doctors +always give disagreeable medicine!”</p> + +<p>“Mine isn’t unpleasant, except that I have to do it alone,” +said Alice. “Which way does Madam Kittredge live, Catherine?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227'></a>227</span>“Two doors +beyond Dot’s, where we were yesterday. You can’t miss it. I wish I +could go with you, but let’s hurry up and get back. Do you know the way to +yours, Frieda?”</p> + +<p>“It tells the way plainly enough,” said Frieda, grumbling a +little. “But I think I wish I were a scientific Christian, like the ones +you told me about!”</p> + +<p>The others laughed sympathetically.</p> + +<p>“Too late to save yourself now,” said Hannah. “Go ahead and +get it over, and then we’ll get even with Dr. Helen some way for playing +us such a mischievous trick. Good-by. I have to go down town for +mine.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen from her window watched them separate, and smiled. A few minutes +later Bert appeared, looking for some one to amuse him.</p> + +<p>The doctor told him of the malady that had seized her maidens, and of their +quest for healing.</p> + +<p>“It’s an epidemic,” said Bert solemnly. “I’ve +got it bad, and I saw Arch an hour ago, and he was so low he couldn’t even +smile. Said he was going to cut out paper dolls or string buttons, if this kept +up. Can’t you prescribe for us, Doctor?”</p> + +<p>“Why, yes. Get Archie and bring him up here to supper this evening. +Tell him he needn’t smile. Perhaps my ladies-errant may have stories to +tell that will ease your pain a little!”</p> + +<p>Bert joyfully undertook to bring Archie, and set <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_228'></a>228</span> off at once while Dr. Helen gave Inga +instructions for an especially festive supper, and with her own hands prepared a +frozen dessert.</p> + +<p>The four girls, who had barely slept apart in the week since Alice’s +arrival, were now walking along widely separate paths, each one feeling oddly +alone, and yet not wholly disliking the sensation. Catherine, well-used to her +mother’s ways and beliefs, smiled to herself as she went off to tell +stories and play cat’s cradle with the washerwoman’s little girl, +who had a “spine” and had to be “kep’ quiet with high +epidemics somethin’ fierce.”</p> + +<p>“It’s just like Mother,” she thought. “She knew I was +peevish and really needed to be alone. Just as she used to send me to my +‘boudoir’ to pout by myself when I was little. The hours with the girls +seem so precious that I can’t bear to lose one, but I suppose I did need +to be alone. You know, Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Oakkitten, as Frieda would call you, +what George Herbert said:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>‘By all means use sometimes to be alone.<br /> Salute thyself: see what thy +soul doth wear.’</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>“You needn’t scamper away up the tree so fast. I’m not +going to stay round here long enough to interfere with your looking over your +spiritual wardrobe. I wonder if your soul wears soft gray fur?” And the +story-teller walked quickly on through the woods, chanting to herself: +“Old world, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229'></a>229</span> +how beautiful thou art!” and planning for an unusually effective +dénouement for the tale of the Three Little Pigs.</p> + +<p>Hannah, traversing the blistering length of Main Street, had arrived at the +gloomy brick building labelled Hotel, and had inquired for Mrs. Tracy of whom +her prescription told her this much: “Travelling man’s wife, +convalescent after long severe illness.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Tracy would receive her in her room, and Hannah followed the proprietor, +who was also bell-boy and head waiter, up the shabby stairs, feeling decidedly +foolish, but determined not to give up.</p> + +<p>Once inside the room, she forgot her own feelings. It was a most doleful +place, with ugly walls, cheap stained furniture and huge figured curtains; but +she was met by a sweet-faced young woman in a soft blue négligée.</p> + +<p>“Dr. Helen telephoned me that you were coming,” she said, taking +Hannah’s hand and looking into her eyes with a bright look that made +Hannah feel interested at once.</p> + +<p>“Will you take the place of honor?” She indicated a stiff little +settee, upholstered in magenta cotton velvet.</p> + +<p>“It must be what the <i>Courier</i> advertisement meant, when it spoke +of furniture, ‘warranted upholstered,’” said Hannah seating herself, +and <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230'></a>230</span> smiling her +most merry smile at her attractive little hostess.</p> + +<p>The thin face almost dimpled with pleasure.</p> + +<p>“So you read the <i>Courier</i>, too! Mr. Tracy bought back numbers of +it to amuse me, and I’ve collected the most delightful clippings. You see, +I’m alone so much. The nurse wasn’t very entertaining, and my +husband has to be away all the week, and I have to have some one to laugh with, +or at least, something to laugh at!”</p> + +<p>“What fun!” said Hannah. “Do show me your +clippings.”</p> + +<p>“I was just pasting in a birth notice when you came,” said Mrs. +Tracy, lifting a small scrap-book from a table. “It’s about as good +as anything. ‘Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Kling are the proud parents of a fine baby girl. +Present indications are that the lovely lump intends to stay.’”</p> + +<p>“O!” Hannah shrieked and leaned forward to look. Mrs. Tracy +handed her the book.</p> + +<p>“That’s why I cut them out and paste them. No one would believe +them, otherwise. Here is a gem of music criticism: ‘As he stepped to the edge of +the platform, the word Artist came to every lip. His natural pathos mingled with +his baritone in such a manner that it was impossible to tell where one left off +and the other began. And in his dramatic numbers, the writhings of his face +showed the convulsive agonies of a soul in pain.’”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231'></a>231</span>“One of my +friends told me about a singer coming to a little village, and they described +her appearance and her dress, and wound up the paragraph by saying: ‘The soloist +wore white shoes. No other stage decorations were necessary.’”</p> + +<p>“Delightful–unless it was deliberate wit! As it was in a Kansas +paper, which spoke of some one’s ‘blowing large chunks of melody out of a +flute.’ But the charm of these Winsted gems is the entire unconsciousness +of the writer. For instance, here: ‘The élite lingerie of Winsted invited their +gentleman friends to a leap-year ball!’”</p> + +<p>“O, see here!” cried Hannah, turning the pages joyfully. +“‘The hall was decorated with syringe blossoms!’”</p> + +<p>“Only a misprint, and I saw in a Chicago paper the other day that one +of the fashionable ladies wore a gown with a gold-colored y-o-l-k. This is +partly a misprint, too, ‘easy <i>hairs</i> were scattered about with a lavish +hand.’ But I think it would take a hand that was powerful as well as +lavish, to scatter easy chairs very generally! That was the same party where the +hostess and her daughters ‘dispensed with the refreshments in the +dining-room!’ But I am not going to keep you laughing over the +<i>Courier</i> all the afternoon,” and Mrs. Tracy tried to take the book +away from Hannah.</p> + +<p>“Just one more,” she begged. “Listen! ‘Mrs. Gray’s +speech was replete with wit, wisdom and <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_232'></a>232</span> winsome ways.’ O dear, Mrs. Tracy! I never +saw anything so funny as this book in all my life!”</p> + +<p>“The trouble with it is that it gets one started on a certain line, and +it is very hard to get away from it.”</p> + +<p>“Like telling funny names you have heard,” suggested Hannah. +“Alice and Catherine and Frieda and I got to telling those last night, and +we laughed so long and so hard that Dr. Helen came up and put us to +bed!”</p> + +<p>“Did you have any funnier than Pearl Button?”</p> + +<p>“Not really?” protested Hannah. “Alice swore she knew one +girl called Dusk Delight Dinwiddie, because she was born at twilight and they +thought she was delightful. That was what we were laughing over when Dr. Helen +came in, and she stopped long enough to tell us of a college acquaintance of +hers named Revelation Rasmussen, who married Will Kelly, and an Ella G. Gray +whom they nick-named ‘Country Churchyard’!”</p> + +<p>“What jolly times you girls must be having,” said Mrs. Tracy. +“You see, I know all about you. Dr. Helen–I began calling her Dr. +Smith, but I couldn’t keep it up–has told me all sorts of +interesting stories, and those about you four are the most entertaining. I +listen to all your doings as though you were characters in a serial story. You +don’t mind, I hope?”</p> + +<p>“Mind? Of course not. We aren’t story-book <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_233'></a>233</span> girls at all, though, but very +flesh-and-bloody! Why didn’t Dr. Helen tell us about you before, and let +us come to see you?”</p> + +<p>“It has only been a little while that I have felt like seeing people, +and when she suggested sending her daughter, I told her not to, for I +didn’t want your fun interrupted. And I remember when I was your age, I +dreaded calling on sick people. I always felt as though I ought to carry them +tracts or–”</p> + +<p>“Wine jelly,” finished Hannah. “Yes, that’s the way I +felt a little, to-day. I was afraid I’d not be able to think of anything +to say, and I planned to offer to read to you.”</p> + +<p>“That was very good of you, but I’ve read and been read to so +much that I’m glad of other occupations. The nurse exhausted the +library’s resources. Then I took up picture puzzles. Mr. Tracy brings them +out to me every week, but we both get cross about them because they interest us +so that we spend half his precious day over them! Just now I am trying to teach +myself to knit, out of a book, and I’m in a dreadful tangle. I think the +chamber-maid knows how, and I mean to ask her.”</p> + +<p>“O, let me bring Frieda in to show you. She knows how to do all such +things, and would dearly love to. And you ought to meet all your story +characters and see if we are like what you imagined. I must go now, for Dr. +Helen expressly said that <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_234'></a>234</span> I wasn’t to stay long, and I know you are +tired.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll soon be rested, and it has been such fun to have you. Wait! +Let me give you one of my roses!”</p> + +<p>Hannah took the rose, and then put out her hand for good-by. There was +something so sweet and winning about the white little face, where tired lines +were showing in spite of the smile, that Hannah impulsively bent over and kissed +it; and then, promising to come next day with Frieda, she flew down the corridor +and out into the street, entirely recovered from her ennui of the morning.</p> + +<p>Frieda, meanwhile, was following minute directions which led her at last to a +tiny cottage by the riverside. She went up the walk and rapped on the door. No +one answered. A second attempt was as unsuccessful, and Frieda turned away, half +ready to give up this strange errand which she did not quite fancy. Dr. Helen +had asked her to go to this house and buy flowers! It did not look like a +florist’s. There was a garden behind the house, though. She decided to go +back there before giving up. Dr. Helen usually was wise.</p> + +<p>Behind the house was a neat, neat garden, with vegetables and berry bushes +and gorgeous flowers of every kind. There were little trees whitewashed up to +the branches, and whitewashed stones marked the corners of the paths. Frieda +stood looking about with pleasure, when she saw coming down <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_235'></a>235</span> the path a little old lady with a black +knitted shawl over her head, and a little old man in carpet slippers, with a big +pipe in his mouth. They met her shyly and she put her errand in her embarrassed +English. The old lady shook her head and looked hopefully at the old man. He +shook his and grunted. Frieda tried once more. She frequently had difficulty in +making herself understood. This time she used gestures, and made such an earnest +effort to be clear that the old people began to look worried. The old lady shook +her head again and then, turning to her husband, asked him something in German. +Then there was excitement! Frieda plunged into German with them, and the others, +delighted to find she knew their language, talked fast and faster.</p> + +<p>When she told them she was newly come from their beloved country, their eyes +filled with tears and they asked question after question. Leading her to an +arbor under the whitewashed trees, they made her sit down. The little old lady +hurried into the house and brought out <i>Kuchen</i> and beer. Frieda was +blissful. They spoke good German, and had visited Berlin. They were full of +respect when they learned that Frieda’s father was a Herr Professor, for +they themselves had been simple tradespeople. In answer to her questions, they +told her how their children had come to America, had prospered, and had sent for +the old parents. With sad voices <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_236'></a>236</span> they explained their entire inability to adjust +themselves to the new country and the new ways. The language they had not even +attempted to acquire. At last, their sons had built this little cottage for +them, and, with a grandchild, who spoke both languages, to act as interpreter, +they lived peacefully and quietly on.</p> + +<p>“But we miss the old country sometimes,” said the grandfather. +“Our neighbors and the pleasant evenings and the bands.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you know the other Germans here?” asked Frieda. +“Dr. Harlow tells me there are many.”</p> + +<p>“They are not from our part of Germany,” said the little +grandmother gently. “And they are Methodists, while we are +Lutherans.”</p> + +<p>“But our sons come often to see us, and we have the garden and each +other,” said the grandfather cheerfully. “And sometimes we get hold +of a German book or paper.”</p> + +<p>“O!” cried Frieda delightedly. “There will be many German +books for you soon,” and she told them eagerly about the library and the +list of books Algernon had already ordered at her suggestion. They listened with +intelligent interest, and exchanged looks of pleasure at the thought of such a +storehouse to draw on in the long winter evenings, “when the garden takes +its nap,” as the little Frau said lovingly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237'></a>237</span>The sun was +perceptibly lower when Frieda rose to go. Then she remembered Dr. Helen’s +errand. The faces of her host and hostess shone at the name. “Heavenly +kind! Yes! She had done much for them. They would send her flowers gladly, but +sell them to her? Never!”</p> + +<p>With big shears they cut great stalks of everything the garden contained, +and, piling Frieda’s arms with blossoms, while she uttered protests and +exclamations of delight, they escorted her to the gate. There, in spite of her +boasted emancipation from childhood, she dropped a courtesy and left them, +crying “<i>Ade!</i>” as long as they could see her.</p> + +<p>At the supper table at Three Gables, Dr. Helen, with Bert on one side, and +Archie on the other, called on each girl in turn for her story of the +afternoon.</p> + +<p>Alice’s turn came last.</p> + +<p>“It was such a beautiful prescription!” she said. “I went +to see Madam Kittredge. Her daughter took me up to her big room furnished with +old mahogany heirlooms that made me feel as though I were in New England. And +there in an arm-chair sat the most beautiful white-haired woman I ever saw. She +is quite imposing and grand, but her smile saves her from being awesome. I loved +her at first sight, and was not shy about staying alone with her. You would +hardly know she is blind, would you? And she is perfectly delightful. She asked +about Mrs. Langdon, and told me some droll <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_238'></a>238</span> stories of her odd ways, even when she was a young +girl. She and Mrs. Langdon and another girl were together a great deal when they +were young, and now they live within a radius of a hundred miles, but she says +they never travel, so it might almost as well be a thousand. One is blind and +one is lame and the third is deaf! She laughed about it as though it were not +sad at all. The deaf one has been quite ill recently, and Madam Kittredge is +making the prettiest present for her. She says Mrs. Langdon writes regular +letters to them both, but Madam Kittredge can reply only by dictation, or by +sending little gifts, and she takes the greatest pleasure in doing that. She +showed me what she was getting ready for ‘Matty,’ as she calls the one who +lives in Milwaukee. It seemed so queer to hear her speak of Mrs. Langdon as +‘Sue’! If you should see her once,–” turning to Bert, who sat +beside her,–“you would appreciate it. She is almost a fierce-looking +old lady, and she says the most startlingly frank things if she chooses. I +don’t believe any ordinary person could help being a little afraid of Mrs. +Langdon, but Madam Kittredge seems to think her a delicious joke. But I started +to tell about the present. You see, this Matty is all alone in the world. She +never married and she hasn’t much money, and she just loves pretty things, +especially pretty colors. And so Madam Kittredge is sending her a rainbow +basket. It <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239'></a>239</span> ought +to have seemed pathetic to see her handling the colored things and hear her +telling about the pleasure she was sure her friend would take in them, when she +couldn’t see them herself, but somehow it wasn’t. She doesn’t +seem to think of herself at all, and so she doesn’t make other people. She +said she made excellent use of her sight while she had it, and can picture +everything clearly now. The basket itself was beautiful, a big green sweet-grass +scrap basket, with a great green bow. And inside were six parcels, each tied +with a bow of ribbon, so that all the rainbow shades are there. The friend is to +draw one each day for a week. Mrs. Kittredge undid them and let me look. She +says she likes the feel of the soft paper and ribbon. First was a little red +rose bush in a pot–”</p> + +<p>“Is she going to send the thing that way? How can she?”</p> + +<p>“I asked, myself, and she smiled and said she allowed herself some +extravagances, and one was to carry out her little ideas like that without +minding if they did cost rather more doing it her way. She said her friend would +enjoy the rose ten times as much coming that way as she would if it were ordered +from a Milwaukee florist, so she’s sending it. I like her independent +spirit!”</p> + +<p>“It might take an independent fortune as well,” remarked Dr. +Harlow, “but Madam Kittredge is fortunate enough to have that, or its +equivalent, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240'></a>240</span> and +she uses a good proportion of it in conventional charities, so she is safe from +criticism if she chooses to assist the express companies. Perhaps she’s a +stockholder in one, for all I know! What did she have for orange, +Alice?”</p> + +<p>“A box of tangerines, with those tiny, tiny ones like doll oranges; I +forget what you call them. They looked so pretty in a nest of green. The yellow +parcel was a little sunset picture, only a little colored photograph, she said, +but with a charming glow. The basket itself was for the green stripe in the +rainbow, and there was a lovely pale blue knitted scarf, which Madam Kittredge +made herself. The indigo bothered her, but she sent her daughter searching +everywhere till she found a beautiful Persian pattern ribbon with an indigo +ground, and she made that up into sachets with violet scent.”</p> + +<p>“That finished off two at once,” said Hannah. “If I were +Matty, I’d object. I thought you said there were six parcels.”</p> + +<p>“One of the sachets was done up with dark blue ribbon and the other +with violet. But there was still another parcel, a white one, the prettiest of +all, for it held skeins of all the soft shades of embroidery silk you ever saw +in a white silk case. I don’t see how any one could help liking to look at +them. Madam Kittredge said that what suggested the whole idea to her was +Matty’s writing about how she enjoyed having colored silk samples <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241'></a>241</span> to look at, as she lay +in bed. She does embroidery, too, when she is well enough, so she will like the +silks to use, by and by.”</p> + +<p>“What a charming basket!” Catherine drew a deep breath of +pleasure. “I should love to see it.”</p> + +<p>“She said she shouldn’t send it for a day or two, so if you go in +to-morrow, you can. I’m sure she’d love to have you. She wanted one +more thing to make it complete. You see, without intending it, she had put in +something for every sense but hearing. There was color and fragrance and touch +and taste, and she said she wanted to get some music into it, and she +couldn’t think how. Of course her friend is deaf, but that didn’t +matter. She said her mind’s ear was as true as ever, and she wanted her to +<i>hear</i> something out of that basket. And wasn’t it lovely! I happened +to think of something which she said would do exactly!”</p> + +<p>“What?” “Tell us!” “Think of having a hand in +such a pretty present!” The other girls leaned forward eagerly, and the +boys looked almost as interested. Alice went on a trifle shyly, as she came to +tell her own part.</p> + +<p>“I suggested some little poem full of color words, and that delighted +her and she thought a minute. I didn’t know any, and I wished Catherine +were there with her headful! But Madam Kittredge has a headful of her own. She +had me get out two <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242'></a>242</span> +or three books and look up some that she thought might do, but they didn’t +just suit her; and then she had me open her clipping book and hunt for one +called <i>Indian Summer</i>. It was just the thing and I loved it the minute I +read it. She let me copy it for her, and make an illuminated initial with her +water-colors. She seems to have everything imaginable in that big roomy desk of +hers. I was glad of the chance to copy it, for I could learn it and I want to +keep it always.”</p> + +<p>“Please recite it for us,” said Dr. Helen, and, the others all +joining in her request with words or looks, Alice repeated the beautiful lines +lovingly:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>“Faint blue the distant hills before,<br /> Yellow the +harvest lands behind;<br /> Wayfarers we upon the path<br /> The +thistledown goes out to find.<br />  <br /> “On naked branch and +empty nest,<br /> The woodland’s blended gold and +red,<br /> Dim glory lies which autumn shares<br /> With faces +of the newly dead.<br />  <br /> “Tender this moment of the +year<br /> To eyes that seek and feet that roam;<br /> It is the +lifting of the latch,<br /> A footstep on the flags of +home.<br />  <br /> “Now may the peace of withered grass<br /> + And goldenrod abide with you;<br /> Abide with me–for what +is death?<br /> Pall of a leaf against the blue.”</p> +</div><!-- poetry --> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243'></a>243</span>Feeling that a +benediction had been pronounced, they all adjourned to the porch, Dr. Harlow +sitting down by Archie and chatting with him in a friendly way about his own +Andover experiences years before, while the girls talked quietly with Bert, who +had dropped his nonsense for the time. Dr. Helen was sitting a little apart, but +by and by Hannah slipped over to her chair.</p> + +<p>“I’m not so very clever about things,” she said, “and +I always like to have them explained. So won’t you tell me just what you +meant by this afternoon? You know we all promised to use the prescription again, +if we needed it.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Dr. Helen encouragingly, and waited.</p> + +<p>“Well. You might have meant several things. You might just have meant +that we needed a change. We had been sitting about and wishing it was cooler and +talking nonsense and gossip–almost!–and we hadn’t been doing +anything useful. Perhaps you wanted us to find out that we’d be happier if +we did something for some one else, even if it looked disagreeable at first. +I’ve always had that preached to me!”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t preach!” objected Dr. Helen.</p> + +<p>“No, you prescribed. That’s your way of preaching, though. You +set us to preaching to ourselves, and it’s much more objectionable. I can +shut my ears when other people preach to me, but I can’t get away from +myself! But I was wondering if, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_244'></a>244</span> perhaps, besides all that, you didn’t want us +to see how cheerful and happy some people manage to be without much to make them +so. Even that little girl with the spine plays she is an enchanted princess, +Catherine says, and has lovely times, winding balls of yarn and cutting paper +chains. She has to get a certain number of them done before the enchantment will +be broken. I know who suggested that idea to her,” said Hannah, looking +searchingly into the doctor’s face. “I’ve found out a lot of +things this afternoon about you, professionally. Perhaps <i>that</i> was what +you were after! Just advertising!”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen’s laugh at this brought Dr. Harlow over to her; and Archie +joined the other group.</p> + +<p>“Go on, Hannah,” said Dr. Helen, seeing Hannah hesitate a little. +“Dr. Harlow will be interested in your analysis of my +prescription.”</p> + +<p>“I wasn’t going to analyse it any more, but I was just thinking +that whichever you meant, they were really all of them the same thing Miss +Lyndesay meant when she talked to us about being <i>laetus</i>, I mean, +<i>laetae sorte mea</i>, I mean <i>nostra</i>!”</p> + +<p>Dr. Harlow chuckled softly, but Dr. Helen put a kiss on the sweet mouth with +the earnest curve.</p> + +<p>“When you finish school, Hannah,” suggested Dr. Harlow, +“you can come out here and help us in the office, making up prescriptions +for spiritually <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245'></a>245</span> +afflicted folk–we’ve all got to take up that line nowadays, you +know–and handling the Latin end of the business. Helen never was strong on +Latin. She translated ‘<i>E pluribus unum</i>’ as ‘One too +many’ when she was young!”</p> + +<p>The boys got up to leave, and the doctor’s raillery was checked, but +Hannah pondered over it as she went up to bed. About midnight she heard him +closing the doors for the night, and, slipping her bright kimono over her +night-dress, she stole out into the hall and half-way down stairs.</p> + +<p>“Dr. Harlow,” she called softly, and the doctor looked up to see +her leaning over the banister, her curly brown braids falling forward.</p> + +<p>“I know now why you laughed,” she said. “It should be +<i>sortibus</i>. <i>Laetae sortibus nostra!</i> O, dear no, <i>nostris</i>. I +guess I’d rather do the surgery, and let you attend to the +Latin!”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps it would be wise!” said Dr. Harlow.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246'></a>246</span><a id='link_19'></a>CHAPTER NINETEEN<br /><span class='h2fs'>JOURNALISM</span></h2> + +<p>“I’m glad you’re all here. I’m in the deuce of a +mess, and I want to be helped out.”</p> + +<p>So speaking, Max seated himself upon a porch settee and waited for +expressions of sympathy and curiosity from the girls before him. When he had +received them, he deigned to give a few details.</p> + +<p>“You know, I’m to be editor of the college paper next year, and +Morse has promised me all summer that when he went away for two weeks’ +vacation, he’d let me take his place. Well, he went last week and I got +out the Courier. It was a good number, too. I don’t suppose any of you +noticed the difference?”</p> + +<p>“I remember hearing father say the editorial was especially +good,” said Catherine.</p> + +<p>“And I heard Mrs. Tracy bewailing the fact when I went in to see her +yesterday, that the paper had lost all its spice, and there wasn’t a +single ridiculous item in it, not even a funny typographical mistake, so +I’m sure you ought to feel complimented,” said Hannah.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_247'></a>247</span>“It’s true enough, but that’s just +where my pickle comes in,” said Max gloomily. “I didn’t tell +any one about it, because I wanted to carry it through without any one’s +knowing. But the reporter has struck, because I blue-pencilled his notes. He +says no college boy is going to tamper with his work, and he’s just calmly +left; and what’s worse, his brother has withdrawn an ‘ad’ which +means quite a loss for Morse. I see now why Morse let so many things go +by!”</p> + +<p>“That is a pity!” said Catherine sympathetically, while the +others declared themselves in stronger terms. Max looked gratified. “Now +what I want of you girls is to help me gather up news and make the next paper +better than any issue has been since that young puppy came on it. And I’ll +get ‘ads’ enough to offset the brother’s withdrawal, and a new +subscription if I have to pay for it myself. I want to leave things in at least +as good shape as I found them. Jenkins will come back again as soon as Morse +does. He loves to write his wild stuff, and is only willing to stop for a week, +because he feels important, acting insulted. Probably thought I’d eat +humble pie and raise his salary, too. Why, he had the Ortmeyer-Rawlins wedding +fixed out with a scare-head THE WAY OF ALL FLESH! And started it out with a +quotation from Shakespeare or somebody about Love looking with the mind, not +with the eyes! The bride and all her male <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_248'></a>248</span> relatives would have been down at the office with +sticks. She’s a pretty girl, you know!”</p> + +<p>“It would have been worse, if she hadn’t been,” said Alice. +“What else did you cut out? It sounds like my pupils’ work. +I’ll help you blue-pencil. It’s just my line.”</p> + +<p>“The other things weren’t funny, just poor constructions and +general flatness, personals that were too personal, you know, and that sort of +thing. But he had a rhapsody on Dawn all worked up that he wanted to run in, +this week. It began: ‘When I arise at daybreak, a thousand quotations surge into +my mind!’ The fellow is daft on quoting. He sits with his feet on the desk +and reads Bartlett by the hour. Well, I’m rid of him, and I’m +looking for substitutes.”</p> + +<p>“I’d like nothing better than reporting,” said Hannah. +“I’ll interview the prominent strangers who come to town and get +their views on things. Imagine me strutting around the hotel lobby, getting +acquainted!” And Hannah assumed the swaggering manner which she fancied +characteristic of reporters.</p> + +<p>“The only prominent stranger in town is Frieda,” laughed Max. +“You’ll have to get her opinion of American education or the +tariff.”</p> + +<p>“That’s easy. I know all Frieda’s opinions. If they are +favorable, she gives them out plainly, and if they aren’t she keeps still, +so it’s no work <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_249'></a>249</span> to guess at them. I wish I could do like she +does!” she added, with a sudden earnest tone in her voice.</p> + +<p>“I’ll blue-pencil all your reportings, if you use such grammar as +‘like she does!’” said Alice sternly.</p> + +<p>“Then I’ll get mad and resign as Jenkins did!” answered +Hannah. “I guess I know the privileges of a reporter!”</p> + +<p>“Do you think you could get the news?” asked Max. “I +suppose I could manage alone, but I’d like to have the paper fuller and +better than ever, and I thought if you girls would go in, we could have a lark +out of it, and not tell the rest.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed we can get news!” cried Catherine. “If you let us +tell Mother and Father, they can give us news which will be perfectly +legitimate, and Hannah and I have some calls to make. Frieda doesn’t want +to go, and Alice wasn’t here when these girls called. They are some of the +gossippy kind, and we’ll let them talk and report as much as seems fair. +And the Three B’s meet here this week, and we can make a good society +column thing of that.”</p> + +<p>“Why not have Algernon give you library notes?” suggested +Alice.</p> + +<p>“He does, always, but he would be glad to do something extra, I’m +sure,” said Max. “I don’t know but it would be a good plan to +take him in on this. He’s in a position to gather news easily.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250'></a>250</span>“I +don’t see how I can help,” said Frieda, sadly.</p> + +<p>“If you’ll tell me something interesting about German +schools,” said Alice, “I’ll write it up, and that will go in +as our contribution. You could make room for it, couldn’t you, Mr. +Editor?”</p> + +<p>“Indeed, I could. I’d be mighty glad to get it. It would be +better than filling up with poetry, the way they often do. By the way, I did cut +out a poem of the reporter’s. I forgot all about that. Wonder where it +is,” and he began searching in his pockets.</p> + +<p>“That’s what made him angry,” cried Catherine. +“Anybody would be angry at that. Was it a very bad poem?”</p> + +<p>“I can’t remember much of it. Only it had a refrain every two +inches of ‘My woe! My woe!’</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>‘I cannot tell the world my woe,’</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>was the way it began, and then he went straight ahead to try to do that very +thing. Here! I’ve got a scrap of it.</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>‘Things are seldom what they seem,<br /> Nor is Life what its livers +dream,<br /> My woe, my woe!’”</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>The audience shouted with laughter, but Catherine looked sympathetic.</p> + +<p>“Poor boy!” she said. “He probably loved his quotations and +his poetry, and had looked forward to Mr. Morse’s being away to have a +beautiful time <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251'></a>251</span> +with the paper. I don’t blame him for resigning and eating his heart out. +Not a poem of mine will I send you, Mr. Penfield, or any of your hard-hearted +staff. I’ll confine myself to finding out what’s happening in +Winsted, and leave the head-lines to your own inventive genius.”</p> + +<p>Two days later, the editorial staff of the Courier had an impromptu meeting +in the library. Max had come in to ask Algernon for notes, and Catherine and +Hannah were waiting for Frieda and Alice to join them to go to a tea at +Dot’s.</p> + +<p>“We’ve called on the biggest gossips we could find,” called +Hannah cheerfully, as Max came in, “and I’ve got at least ten +items.” She showed a note-book which slipped inside her card-case.</p> + +<p>“She was dreadful!” said Catherine. “She would stop and +make notes before we had got a block away from the house, for fear she would +forget, and asked questions that made me hold my breath.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” Hannah defended herself. “I wanted details. I +don’t want just little bare sentences. And Catherine was just as bad. She +took such an interest in the new people who had moved in next door to the +Galleghers’, that I know the Gallegher girls were almost +scandalized.”</p> + +<p>Max ran his eye over Hannah’s list of news items approvingly. +“That’s a fine start. Can’t you do some more calls?”</p> + +<p>Catherine shook her head. “No, we don’t know <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_252'></a>252</span> any more of the very gossippy kind, but +we are going to a tea at Dot’s, and we’ll make a society note of +that. How are the editorials coming?”</p> + +<p>Max made a wry face. “I declare, I’m pretty nearly stumped. At +college there always seemed to be a lot of vital matters to discuss. But here +there isn’t anything after a little spiel on the crops and a paragraph on +politics. I don’t dare go in heavy there, for I’m not sure just what +Morse’s position is, and don’t want to commit him. I can’t +think of any public enterprise to work up, or any nuisance to be +suppressed.”</p> + +<p>“I wish you’d suppress mosquitoes and flies,” said Hannah, +brushing away one of the latter insects, and petting a swollen place on her +wrist.</p> + +<p>“Why not write an editorial on it?” suggested Catherine. +“You can give him material to read, can’t you, Algernon?”</p> + +<p>Algernon came over to the corner where the three were talking in tones +fitting a library.</p> + +<p>“What’s that? O, indeed, yes,” and the boy’s face +lightened with pleasure as he found some one really desiring information of a +worthy nature. “I’ll get you something right away. There was an +article in a last month’s magazine.”</p> + +<p>“I could do elegant head-lines,” said Max:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>“KEROSENE THE KONQUEROR!<br /> MOSQUITOES MASSACRED!<br /> THE +FLIGHT OF THE FLY!”</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253'></a>253</span>As Algernon +brought the magazine and a book, Alice and Frieda arrived in their party +raiment, and, bidding the boys good-by, the four girls drifted out and down the +street looking like pretty butterflies.</p> + +<p>Max lingered for a few minutes’ chat with Algernon about the paper, +telling him some of his difficulties and desires. Algernon’s store of +information proved of value here, too, and Max accepted gratefully a hint or two +about the mechanical part of the work.</p> + +<p>“I say, Swinburne,” he said suddenly, as he got up to go, taking +fly and mosquito literature with him, “couldn’t you get off and run +up to Madison for a few days this fall? I’d like to show you around and +have you meet some of the fellows. If I were you, I’d try to pass off a +few subjects. You could, without half trying, and perhaps you’d be able to +get up and take your degree some time.”</p> + +<p>“Thanks,” said Algernon, “I’ll think about it,” +and Max went whistling away; but Algernon, as he selected a fairy tale for the +little Hamilton girl, felt his heart light and his courage high. +“I’ll get to college yet, as true as I’m alive,” he said +aloud, and the little Hamilton girl looked up at him. “What did you +say?” she asked. “I don’t want true stories, but fairy +ones.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254'></a>254</span><a id='link_20'></a>CHAPTER TWENTY<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE THREE R’S</span></h2> + +<p>The meeting of the Three R’s the next evening was one of particular +importance. Not only to the eager reporters, who found that even Dot’s +party would not spread out sufficiently to use up the space they had allotted to +social events, but to the club members themselves. It was Judge Arthur’s +fiftieth birthday, and as he was a childless man, quite alone in the world, his +friendly neighbors were determined to make the day memorable for him. The +meeting was to be at Three Gables, so the journalists were behind the scenes +from the start. The only difficulty in the way of their writing it up was that +they were so busy all day that there was not time to take a pen in hand.</p> + +<p>“I always see to the refreshments when they meet here,” said +Catherine to her three helpers, as she appeared, wearing by Hannah’s +request, her brown smock. “You can crack the nuts for the salad if you +will, Frieda; and Hannah, if you and Alice will get the dishes out of the way, +that would be the most help. Mother wants Inga to sweep <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_255'></a>255</span> the living-room, and we can have a +jolly time out here.”</p> + +<p>“You ought to see the kitchen at Frieda’s house,” said +Hannah, as she made a fine suds in the rinsing pan and poured it over the +glasses. “What did you think of our black stoves and things, +Frieda?”</p> + +<p>“I saw one in the American church first, you know.”</p> + +<p>Hannah smiled at the diplomatic evasion. “You are the nicest thing I +ever saw, Frieda. You don’t say anything unfavorable of anything any more. +When I was at your house I kept criticising the whole country. But you are so +polite,–as polite as Karl!”</p> + +<p>Frieda looked pleased, but she only said sedately: “We were children +when you were in Berlin, Hannah. Now it is proper for us to act like +grown-ups.”</p> + +<p>“You were awfully grown-up in that pillow fight last night!”</p> + +<p>Instantly the mask of primness vanished from Frieda’s face, and roguish +twinkles showed themselves.</p> + +<p>“Don’t let me ever catch you turning prig, Frieda Lange,” +advised Hannah. “And now don’t ask me what a prig is, for I +don’t know in German, and there’s no way here to find out. What else +are you going to have for eats, Catherine?”</p> + +<p>Catherine shuddered. “I suppose you’d think I was a prig if I +told you how I hate that word <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_256'></a>256</span> ‘eats,’ so I won’t tell you! The chief +thing to-night is the birthday cake, of course. And Inga is going to make +grape-fruit sherbet. It’s so nice with a little tang of tartness to it, +you know. And we’ll have olive sandwiches with the salad and coffee. You +can all help with those!”</p> + +<p>“It’s such fun to help,” said Alice. “At home there +are so many of us, and no maid at all, you know, and we have awfully jolly +times, really. Mother is cook and she has a different scullery-maid for each +meal. And the rest of us divide up the rooms, and so on. The boys are great +workers, too. Even little Jack brings in kindlings and wipes the silver. He +plays the knives are men, and the forks their wives and the spoons the little +children.”</p> + +<p>“O, so did I, always,” cried Catherine. “And it used to +worry me dreadfully not to know positively that the proper couples were +together. Once I tied them all neatly with different colored silks, but Mother +didn’t approve. Through with the nuts so soon, Frieda? Then you can begin +on the sandwiches.”</p> + +<p>“Ach! The butter is too difficult!”</p> + +<p>“Cream it, then. So!” and Alice illustrated. “I’ll go +to work on these, too, while Hannah puts away the dishes, for I don’t know +where they belong.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Catherine. “But please don’t talk, +any of you, for a few minutes. I don’t want <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_257'></a>257</span> to lose a word that any of you say, and +I’m afraid the cake may suffer.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen stopped at the door and looked in at the group of silent workers. +They all threw her kisses, and she went smiling on her way.</p> + +<p>“I wish I had four of my own,” she thought to herself. “How +the other mothers must be missing them! Four more interesting and delightful +girls I never have known. Hannah has grown more mature since I saw her last, and +Frieda is distinctly unique. Alice is the kind you can tie to. But I really +think, without prejudice, my Catherine is a shade sweeter and steadier and more +responsible than all the rest!”</p> + +<p>By five o’clock the house was all ready. The decorations were great +masses of goldenrod which Bert and Polly had gathered. Frieda had suggested +tying them with bows of red ribbon, whereat the others had shrieked with horror +and tried to Americanize her color sense a little. She approved of the birthday +cake, and was interested in the big tin circle which held fifty candle-sockets, +and would slip over the cake as it rested on a tray. Winding this circle with +smilax proved a task just to Frieda’s mind, and she worked at it with +Hannah’s help, while Alice and Catherine planned the +“recreation” for the evening.</p> + +<p>“I’m so glad,” said Catherine, stretching a little, +“that we don’t have to get the Rest ready for them. <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258'></a>258</span> Refreshments and +Recreation are enough to provide!”</p> + +<p>“You need the Rest yourself,” said Hannah. “I think it was +a shame that out-of-town call had to come for your mother this afternoon. She +would have enjoyed these things, and she looked so tired.”</p> + +<p>“I know. But I’m so glad she could go away and feel sure +I’d carry things through. You don’t know what a comfort that is to +me! Whenever I feel discouraged about things, I always pluck up spirit by +remembering that I’m really useful to her. I couldn’t practise +medicine myself, you know, but there have been lots of things Mother +couldn’t have done, if I hadn’t been here to help at home. I wish +she could be here this afternoon, though, for she is so clever at foolishnesses +like this.”</p> + +<p>“You’re clever enough at it, yourself,” growled Hannah. +“I don’t see how you can do it. You and Alice make me sick with +envy. You can cook and manage and tutor and make rhymes and everything, and I +can’t do much of anything!”</p> + +<p>“How about playing the violin?” suggested Alice.</p> + +<p>“I can’t do that,” said Frieda suddenly. “I cannot do +one thing. O, there comes Dr. Helen, after all! We were wishing you were +here,” and Frieda sprang up and ran to meet the doctor. The others +followed her and in an instant Dr. Helen found her arms full of welcoming +girls.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259'></a>259</span>“I met a +messenger on the way, telling me that I need not come, and I’ll admit it +was a relief. I knew you’d get on all right, but I did want a finger in +the pie. There! You may put my hat and coat away, Hannah, if you will, and +I’ll get right to work. How prettily you are putting that smilax on, +Frieda!”</p> + +<p>“That’s right to cheer Frieda up, Mother,” said Catherine. +“She was just saying that she couldn’t do anything.”</p> + +<p>“Frieda was saying that? I thought you embroidered that wonderful apron +yourself?”</p> + +<p>“O, of course, but that is only <i>Handarbeit</i>,” said +Frieda.</p> + +<p>“Hand work is highly valued these days,” remarked the doctor. +“If you could teach Catherine to sew so well, Frieda, I should be even +prouder of her than I am now. But it must not distress you when you find that +there is some one thing you can’t do. No one does everything well. +It’s one of my pet theories that for every talent one has, there is some +other he hasn’t. It’s part of the balancing of the world. Think how +very disagreeable it would be if there were one person who could do everything, +and some one else who could do nothing at all.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you think there are some people who can’t do +anything?” asked Alice.</p> + +<p>“Not really. Some people never seem to find <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_260'></a>260</span> their special line. I’ve known +people so perverse they wouldn’t do what they could, simply because they +would have preferred something else. But I’m a firm believer that every +one has a gift.”</p> + +<p>“Is <i>Handarbeit</i> a gift?” asked Frieda, looking with respect +at the graceful vine twining over the shoulder of her blue apron.</p> + +<p>“Indeed it is,” said Dr. Helen. “And it is a gift more +widely distributed than everybody knows. If you can, do help Catherine to +discover that it is one of hers!”</p> + +<p>“She helped me find out that I liked to sew,” said Hannah. +“I hated the sight of a needle before I went to Germany. But I +didn’t know you hated sewing, Catherine.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t,” Catherine answered tranquilly. “But there +are always so many other things to do, and there is so much to read. It makes me +shiver to think that I have only three years more at Dexter, and I haven’t +begun to read all I want to. I’d like to move over to the library and stay +there.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a serious criticism of your college life, +Catherine,” said Dr. Helen.</p> + +<p>Hannah giggled. “I suppose there is a library at Dexter, but I was +there a whole term, and never went inside it once!”</p> + +<p>Everybody laughed. “Well,” said Dr. Helen, “that was the +other extreme. But I suppose if you young people were all-wise and learned, +there’d <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261'></a>261</span> be +no point in sending you to college at all. And the world would be much more +monotonous if it were filled with grown-ups! What a conflagration those red +candles will make, Frieda!”</p> + +<p>Catherine had left her seat and gone across the room to the poetry section of +the bookcase, and was now turning the pages of a small green book.</p> + +<p>“Listen to this Singing Leaf, Mother!</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>“‘The wisest finding that I have<br /> Is very young, no +doubt,<br /> Yet many a man must needs grow old<br /> Before he +finds it out.<br />  <br /> “‘How happily it comes +about–<br /> And I was never told!–<br /> That we +must all be young awhile<br /> Before we <i>can</i> be +old!’”</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>Dr. Helen laughed. “That is certainly very appropriate, and a good +close to our rather sermonizing talk. I suppose fifty-year-old birthday parties +should lead one to serious thinking! But now show me how far your nonsense +rhyming has progressed. It’s nearly supper time.”</p> + +<hr class='tb80' /> + +<p>The Three R’s were early comers and late stayers. Before the summer +twilight was over, they had gathered in force. Alice, counting, suddenly +said:</p> + +<p>“Why, there are just forty-nine. Wouldn’t it be fun if just one +more should come?”</p> + +<p>“Who isn’t here?” asked some one. “Perhaps <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262'></a>262</span> there will be one other, +though almost everybody has come.”</p> + +<p>“The Judge himself isn’t here yet,” said Dr. Harlow. +“He’ll make the fiftieth. There he is! Let’s line up, and give +him a royal welcome!”</p> + +<p>The suggestion “took,” and the little judge came up the walk, +bowing on all sides, and smiling. As he reached the door and shook hands with +Dr. Harlow and Dr. Helen, he looked about him peeringly. “Where’s my +girl?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“Here I am,” said Catherine, “and here is a little souvenir +for you, Judge Arthur, with wishes for many returns of the day.” She +presented with a flourish, a huge feather duster adorned with a great green bow. +That was the signal and the others at once produced parcels of all sizes and +shapes, and bestowed them upon the judge, who opened them under a rapid fire of +friendly wit.</p> + +<p>The special form of recreation offered for the evening was called +“Strange Compounds.” Catherine had taken the idea from the nonsense +verses which had been spreading over the country as generally as the limericks +of a few years before. The guests grouped themselves at little tables, and some, +with shears and pages cut from old natural histories, geographies or poultry and +live stock journals, created grotesque illustrations for the verses descriptive +of the hippopotamustang and the kangarooster and other strange beasts which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263'></a>263</span> Catherine and +Alice concocted during the afternoon. Others labored over historical +combinations and the deeds of Bathrobespierre were sung in limpid strains, and +the plaintive history of Old Black Joan of Archæology set every one off into a +gale of mirth. The Three R’s had done so many foolish things together in +the many years since their beginning as a club, that they were ready to laugh +before a joke was thought of, and in that atmosphere of appreciation the +frailest wit was bound to flourish. Mrs. Osgood headed a party of gardeners +whose attempts at grafting produced such startling results as cro-custards and +gerani-umbrellas. When some one requested help in developing the theme of a +disaster, Judge Arthur shouted from the animal table that he had attempted to +draw a wild-cat-astrophe and the picture would probably do for both!</p> + +<p>Just in time to save them all from mental collapse, the white-gowned maidens +brought in the dainty salad, sandwiches and cups of fragrant coffee. Then the +noble birthday cake, wreathed in scarlet flame, was set before the judge, the +candles blown out with good wishes, and the cake cut and served with the +ice.</p> + +<p>Dr. Harlow rose to announce that the prize for the most complete compound was +given to Mr. Kittredge, who had conceived of a “pigeon-toad, with a lovely +long dove-tail, and a pot-pied waistcoat <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_264'></a>264</span> ringed and streaked, and a sweet dove-cot-ton +veil.” Frieda and Hannah came solemnly into the room, bearing a crate, +from the top of which appeared the head of a rooster, with a big bow of ribbon +around its neck. They set it down before the minister amid the shouts of the +assembled company.</p> + +<p>“You may crow as much as you like, Sir,” said the doctor, +“but this fellow will beat you.” And straightway, as though primed +for his part, the rooster opened his mouth and filled the room with a long and +lusty cock-a-doodle-doo!</p> + +<p>“I was so afraid they would hear him before we brought him in,” +said Frieda to the girls, as the four gathered on the window-seat. “He +kept growing and growing out there!” and then she looked bewildered at the +others’ sudden mirth. Her peculiarities of pronunciation were so few that +the girls could never learn to expect them, and this, added to the other +nonsense of the evening, was too much for even Catherine’s +self-control.</p> + +<p>“I never saw grown-up people do such funny things,” said Hannah, +in order to cover their laughter. “Do they always act this way, +Catherine?”</p> + +<p>“O, no, indeed. I never saw them put in a whole evening quite so +foolishly before. I didn’t know whether they would take the idea up or +not, but Judge Arthur loves to laugh, and lately mother said <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265'></a>265</span> they had had quite +stupid commonplace meetings,–cards and talking politics and literary and +musical programs,–and she wanted something entirely different. +They’re a lot of dears, anyway! The younger set wouldn’t think of +laughing so hard and being so hilarious, even the Boat Club; and you should see +the formal dignified parties that the Galleghers and those girls give! They go +in carriages and the dancing doesn’t begin till nine, though every one has +a six o’clock supper and almost goes to sleep waiting for it to be +stylishly late to go. Max and Archie and Bess and Win always go, and sometimes +the rest of us get in, but we hardly feel acquainted with each other when we +meet in such surroundings. Polly’s mother told her she ought to entertain +that crowd a while ago, because she was ‘indebted,’ and she planned a +luncheon party, and at the last minute changed her mind and got up a Boat Club +picnic instead. That was the last picnic before you girls came.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve heard so much about those jolly picnics,” said +Hannah, “and we haven’t been to one!”</p> + +<p>“I know. Isn’t it odd that it happens so? But we’ll have +one the night before we go back to college. The moon will be full, and the boys +have all the plans made. There! They’re beginning to leave.” And +Catherine went forward to help her mother’s guests find hats and +scarfs.</p> + +<p>“I never heard Catherine talk so much at once <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_266'></a>266</span> before,” said Frieda lazily. +“She looks beautiful to-night, too,–to boot!” She had just +heard that phrase and though a little uncertain as to its exact significance, +took pleasure in inserting it here and there in her speech.</p> + +<p>“She’s a darling dear,” assented Alice, “and so is +Dr. Helen, to boot! Now let’s help Inga clear things away and go to +bed.”</p> + +<p>A half-hour later, Frieda and Alice in the guest-room were sound asleep, and +Hannah in her little bed was sleeping likewise. But Catherine was sitting by the +window writing, by moon and candle light, notes for the <i>Courier</i>, due to +appear to-morrow, and still lacking at least two columns! She wrote slowly and +conscientiously, trying to be clear and simple, and yet not so unlike the usual +style of the <i>Courier</i> as to excite comment. Presently she finished and, +resting her elbows on the window-sill, looked out into the night. Capella +twinkled at her and she leaned out to identify such of her beloved +constellations as she could.</p> + +<p>The house stood high on a hillside, and overlooked the streets of the little +town. Suddenly through the trees Catherine saw the gleam of a moving lantern, +then another and a third. She heard a voice call, and an answer from a +distance.</p> + +<p>“I wonder what it means?” she thought, watching and listening. +“It sounds and looks very mysterious. <i>The Courier!</i>”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267'></a>267</span>The recently +acquired news instinct recognized in this mystery of voices and moving lights at +the dead of night a possible “scoop” for her paper. To be sure, her +paper was the only one in Winsted, but that did not matter. She got up, and +taking a long light cloak from the closet threw it over her shoulders, drawing +the silk hood over her head. Then she stole out into the corridor and down the +stairs, her party skirts rustling, and the boards now and then creaking under +her stockinged feet. Down stairs she stopped, put on her pumps, and then let +herself out, closing the door softly behind her.</p> + +<p>Outside everything was very still. Catherine felt a little frightened and +foolish. But having started, she would not turn back. Resolutely she went down +the walk in the direction in which she had seen the lights.</p> + +<p>“I might take Hotspur, though,” she thought, and turned back +toward his house under the porch. The big dog sprang up to meet her, and leaped +upon her, then drew her toward his kennel. Puzzled, Catherine followed him, and +once there, knelt down and looked inside. Curled on the straw inside the roomy +doghouse were two little figures. She pulled at them and called. Suddenly one +sat up and said: “Mamma! Peter!”</p> + +<p>“Perdita Osgood! what are you doing here?” and Catherine drew a +sleepy dishevelled-looking <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_268'></a>268</span> little girl out and into her arms. Perdita blinked +and woke entirely.</p> + +<p>“Elsmere and me went journeying,” she said, “and we stayed +all night in Hotspur’s house, so bears wouldn’t get us.”</p> + +<p>Then Catherine remembered the other slumberer, and dragged Elsmere out with +more force than gentleness.</p> + +<p>“I see now what the lights and the calling were,” she said. +“They discovered that the children were not at home, and were out looking +for them. Poor Polly and poor Algernon! Elsmere, wake up here, and come along +home this minute. There, Perdita, I’ll carry you, you sleepy, naughty +little girl. Elsmere, come along. Give me your hand.”</p> + +<p>Down the hill they went, and through the short cut to the Osgood house, +Elsmere running beside Catherine, who walked as rapidly as though Perdita had no +weight, Hotspur leaping and bounding alongside.</p> + +<p>In the path, through a little grove, they saw a twinkling lantern and +Catherine called:</p> + +<p>“Polly, Algernon! They’re here! I’m bringing them +home.” With a rush the lantern-bearers were upon her, and Perdita was +taken from her arms into Mr. Osgood’s, while Algernon, husky and faint +with relief, picked up his brother and listened to Catherine’s story. She +followed the others to the Osgoods’, where Polly and Mrs. Osgood were +waiting <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269'></a>269</span> in +suspense. Perdita had been put to bed as usual, but when Mrs. Osgood came home +from the Three R’s party she had gone in to tuck the children up, and kiss +them good night. Perdita was not there, and they searched the house before they +thought of being alarmed. Not finding her anywhere, they had roused Peter and +questioned him. He could only say: “I say, ‘Perdita, Perdita, stay home +with Peter. Elsmere bad boy.’”</p> + +<p>That suggested Elsmere, and investigation showed that, though he had not been +missed at home, he was not there. Then the men had taken lanterns, and gone out +to search.</p> + +<p>No one was more distressed than Peter. “I’d ought to tooken care +of Perdita better,” he would sob. “I’d ought to watched her +better.”</p> + +<p>“There, there, boy,” Catherine and Polly soothed him. “You +did your best, and she’s home now, all safe, and won’t go journeying +again, ever. She didn’t like Hotspur’s house, and she will stay home +with Peter.”</p> + +<p>“O, Catherine,” sighed Polly. “You are an only child, and +you don’t know what agonies you can have over your brothers and sisters. +It seems to me ever since Peter and Perdita were born I’ve been worrying +about one or both of them!”</p> + +<p>“Poor Polly!” said Catherine sympathetically. “But I +don’t suppose you’d give me your share in them, would +you?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270'></a>270</span>Polly caught +Peter close, and hugged him till he protested and drew away from her.</p> + +<p>“Kiss me,” she begged.</p> + +<p>“I did,” said Peter.</p> + +<p>“Kiss me again.”</p> + +<p>“I did twice,” said Peter. “I want to go to bed. Aw-ful +sleepy!” and, with a yawn that set the others to imitating him, he +stumbled off toward the stairs, in his little night clothes. Polly followed to +make him comfortable, while Mr. Osgood took Catherine home.</p> + +<p>“You did us a great service to-night, my dear,” he said, as he +lifted his hat to say good night, when she had reached her home porch. +“But I haven’t learned yet how you happened to find them.”</p> + +<p>“I was out reporting for the <i>Courier</i>,” she told him and +then, laughing softly at his astonished expression, explained her meaning. +“And though I did find out the news, I can’t write it up,” she +sighed. “I know how real journalists feel when they have to sacrifice a +scoop for reasons of delicacy.”</p> + +<p>“The <i>Courier</i> shall not suffer!” said Mr. Osgood. +“Since it was for its sake that you went out, I’ll have to see that +Max gets a little assistance. My profession doesn’t advertise, but I have +some influence with one or two concerns that do, and I’ll see that your +next number is full of something more profitable to the management than +harrowing accounts of midnight searches for missing babies!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271'></a>271</span><a id='link_21'></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE LAST PARTY</span></h2> + +<p>Rain.</p> + +<p>Rain.</p> + +<p>Rain.</p> + +<p>“It’s beastly,” said Alice, with her nose pressed to the +window-pane, watching the cold drifting downpour.</p> + +<p>“Let’s go in and see if the others are awake.”</p> + +<p>So Frieda put on her heavy leather slippers, lined with figured satin and +edged with fur, and a very bunchy bathrobe, and followed Alice’s kimonoed +figure across the wide corridor to Catherine’s room.</p> + +<p>They pushed the door softly open and entered.</p> + +<p>Then they exchanged glances of mischief. Dr. Helen did not believe in girls +sleeping two in a bed, but Alice had found the big mahogany bed in the +guest-room lonely, and Frieda had found the cot narrow; so they had made a law +for themselves and slept together; and here, in Catherine’s four-poster, +were also two heads, one auburn and one brown.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272'></a>272</span>“Wake up, +you two!” said Alice, tickling Hannah’s plump cheek, while Frieda +tweaked the pink bow from Catherine’s bronze braids.</p> + +<p>“Time to take off your pink bow, dear. It’s daylight and it looks +worse than goldenrod with red ribbon.”</p> + +<p>“Ouch! You needn’t have given that last yank. I’m awake. +Hannah!”</p> + +<p>Hannah sighed and turned over. “Don’t bother me,” she said. +“I didn’t get to sleep last night until this morning.”</p> + +<p>“Why aren’t you in your own room and bed?” asked Frieda +severely.</p> + +<p>“I’ll wager you two slept together, yourselves,” said +Catherine. “O, Hannah, do wake up! It’s raining!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s what we came to tell you,” said Alice. +“We’ve just been watching it wash away our beautiful moonlight +picnic.”</p> + +<p>Hannah sat up and looked out.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it beastly?” she remarked.</p> + +<p>“I should call it foul,” said Catherine, beginning to comb out +her great braids.</p> + +<p>“Why not fish-ous?” suggested Alice mischievously, whereupon +Hannah pitched a pillow at her.</p> + +<p>“Ow! Look out for my glasses!”</p> + +<p>“Well, don’t make such flat puns then. I believe you sleep with +your glasses on. How funny they must look staring away in the dark. There goes +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273'></a>273</span> the rising-bell. +I’ll beat every one of you to breakfast.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Helen was not sorry to see the rain. An all afternoon picnic, with the +evening and a late-rising moon added, did not seem to her a wise plan for the +day before going back to college,–“though I do dislike putting a +damper on your pleasure,” she said at breakfast.</p> + +<p>“There’s a damper on this one,” sighed Catherine. +“Alice has not been up the river yet, and the other girls haven’t +been to one real Boat Club picnic. Mother!” and an inspired look came into +Catherine’s eyes, “why couldn’t we have our picnic in the +library instead? It would be as appropriate a way to end this summer as on the +river, and this is one of the closed evenings. Don’t you think we +could?”</p> + +<p>The other girls held their breath with eagerness, while Dr. Helen +considered.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see any objection,” she said presently. “I +suppose that would be more fun than having them all come here?”</p> + +<p>“O, heaps more,” cried Hannah. “It would be the jolliest +kind of a lark.”</p> + +<p>“Would the Board be willing?” suggested Alice.</p> + +<p>“I’m sure of that,” said Catherine. “Algernon will be +the hardest to persuade, for he feels as though the library were almost holy +ground, but I’ll interview him at once.”</p> + +<p>The telephone was kept busy for the next half-hour; <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_274'></a>274</span> by its means everything was arranged, +and every one notified, and the girls went to work making preparations for the +supper. Polly and Dot came over in the afternoon and the time slipped quickly +by, trunk-packing and sandwich-making being mingled in what seemed to the +doctor, some of the time, an almost hopeless jumble. At last the sounds of talk +and laughter and running up and down stairs ceased. The boys had arrived to +carry baskets, and a rain-coated procession tramped gayly off, waving good-bys +now and then to the two doctors standing in the window.</p> + +<p>“It hardly seems as though Catherine could be the same girl,” +said her father. “She is so eager and full of fun.”</p> + +<p>“But she keeps her quaint sweet dignity all the same,” answered +Dr. Helen softly. “She will never lose her characteristic charm, and it is +such a comfort to have her well enough to wish to eat a cold supper in that bare +little room!”</p> + +<p>“Can’t they heat the place?” asked Dr. Harlow sharply.</p> + +<p>“O, yes,” his wife assured him, “and they have all solemnly +promised me to dry their skirts as soon as they get there! Hannah always +contrives to get into puddles.”</p> + +<p>“<i>She’s</i> not much changed,” chuckled the little +doctor. “Her language is as funny now and then as Frieda’s. She told +me they were going to <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_275'></a>275</span> relegate themselves on watermelon this +evening!”</p> + +<p>“It was a fortunate day for us when Catherine found her,” and Dr. +Helen’s eyes smiled, as they always did when Hannah’s image came +before her mind. “And, do you know, I am very much pleased with Alice. She +has the honestest eyes, and her manners are as unconscious and simple as can be. +I should like to see her mother.”</p> + +<p>“Father’s not so important, of course! But I agree with you, +she’s the true blue sort. It’s Frieda for me, though. Of all +inscrutable countenances, hers is the most. I believe she is, on the whole, the +most unforeseen young person I have ever had dealings with, and in whatever +direction she may choose to let herself out, in the future, she will do +something interesting, or ‘I shall astonish’!”</p> + +<p>At which quotation from the young lady in question, they both laughed, and +went out to their own supper, not at all sorry to have a quiet evening +alone.</p> + +<p>It was not a quiet evening in the little library. Behind the drawn shades, +the boys and girls were busy spreading the long reading-table with a white +cloth, setting out upon it the motley collection of plates, cups and silver ware +which came out of the various picnic baskets, and an equally motley, but very +appetizing, array of good things to eat. Winifred had laden Max with a +chafing-dish, all legs and handles, he declared, and with this at one end, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276'></a>276</span> Bess’ little +copper teakettle at the other, Dorcas’ asters for centerpiece and +Polly’s red-shaded candles at accurate intervals between, the whole effect +was “very festival,” as Frieda said admiringly.</p> + +<p>As a finishing touch, Bertha and Algernon, official hosts, walked around the +table laying typewritten catalog cards at each place.</p> + +<p>The others swarmed around instantly, examining and commenting.</p> + +<p>“Cunning!” “Real library place cards!” “What a +pretty idea!” “But <i>what</i> do they mean?”</p> + +<p>Algernon and Bertha only laughed.</p> + +<p>“No one can sit down till he has found his proper place,” said +Algernon sternly. “This is a well-conducted library!”</p> + +<p>“They all have the same number,” cried Bert. “I’m on +to that. See! It’s the date, fixed up to look like the mystic symbols they +mark the books with. 190.9 Se 16. September 16th, 1909. That’s so much, +gained. Now some of you others can figure out the rest. I’ve done my +share.”</p> + +<p>The others wandered around the table, picking up the cards and laying them +down again.</p> + +<p>“<i>Brightness, or Beauty</i>,” read Polly, disgustedly. +“Imagine any one of us owning up to that! Of course, we all know we have +them both, but who is going to claim them?”</p> + +<p>“It’s going to be a conflict between modesty and hunger soon, I +can see that,” said Archie.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_277'></a>277</span>“<i>Peace</i> and <i>Purity</i> are all well +enough. If I could find a half-way sort like <i>Perfect Honesty</i> or +<i>Genius</i>, I’d stop there! What’s this? <i>Bright Raven!</i> I +tell you, it’s a game, made out of book titles. But I’ll be jiggered +if I ever heard of one of them.”</p> + +<p>“I never did, either,” said Dorcas, shortly. “They must +have hunted around in very queer places to find things that none of us know. +<i>Star of the Sea</i>, though, does sound familiar. Isn’t it one of +Tennyson’s?”</p> + +<p>Bertha choked and turned away, avoiding Algernon’s eye.</p> + +<p>“Hurry up, and find yours, the rest of you,” said Tom suddenly, +“I’m fixed and I’m ready to eat.”</p> + +<p>Every one pounced upon him, to discover that he had chosen to install himself +at a place marked <i>The Whiskered One</i>.</p> + +<p>“I’m the only fellow here who ever wore a mustache,” he +said, “so it’s plain, though rather far-fetched.”</p> + +<p>“It’s not your place, though, Tom, truly,” said Bertha. +“I’m afraid we’ll have to help. The librarian always does help +stupid people.”</p> + +<p>“We won’t ask him, though! If you two were bright enough to make +these cards, we’ll figure out the meanings or go without our +supper,” said Polly decisively, and the girls echoed her, though the boys +groaned, and Max helped himself to a sandwich.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278'></a>278</span>“Now, +listen,” said Polly. “I’m president of this club, and I call +you all to order. I’ll read the cards, one after another and you must all +think, and perhaps we’ll be able to get on to the system–I mean, to +understand it.”</p> + +<p>Every one struck an attitude and waited while Polly walked up one side of the +table and down the other, reading aloud in order:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>“<i>The Whiskered One.</i><br /> <i>Chastity.</i><br /> <i>Star of +the Sea.</i><br /> <i>A Twin.</i><br /> <i>Consecrated to God.</i><br /> +<i>Extremely Bold; or Holy Prince.</i><br /> <i>Peace.</i><br /> <i>A Lover +of Peace.</i><br /> <i>Brightness, or Beauty.</i><br /> <i>The Greatest +One.</i><br /> <i>Purity.</i><br /> <i>The Woman Strong with the +Spear.</i><br /> <i>Bright Raven.</i><br /> <i>Grace.</i><br /> <i>A +Gazelle.</i><br /> <i>A Princess of Noble Birth.</i>”</p> </div><!-- +poetry --> + +<p>When she had finished, there was a moment’s silence and then everybody +but Hannah burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>With a little “O!” she flew across the room to the big +dictionary, and opening it toward the back, dropped on her knees before it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279'></a>279</span>“I have +it!” she cried joyfully. “I used to study and study the meanings of +names when I was a youngster, and here they are. Mine means Grace and I know +where I’m going to sit, and the rest of you can find out in a +minute.”</p> + +<p>The long delayed supper was at last eaten, and sitting idly around the table, +with watermelon rinds before them, the young people talked over the summer which +seemed already closed.</p> + +<p>“We’ve accomplished a lot, haven’t we?” said Polly. +“I’m really proud of the Boat Club this year. It never used to stand +for anything but its own fun before, but from now on it will be a recognized +factor in Winsted life.”</p> + +<p>“Bully for you, Polly!” said Bert. “I never heard any one +say ‘factor’ offhand like that. It’s one of the words I’ve +always held sacred to special topics and theses and such.”</p> + +<p>“Like ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’?” asked Polly. +“I always feel about those as the old lady did about her pies, after she +labelled them T. M.”</p> + +<p>“What did she label them like that for?” asked Frieda, leaning +forward from her seat between Winifred and Archie.</p> + +<p>“O, dear,” sighed Bert in mock despair. “Frieda has made us +explain all the old jokes we knew this summer, and I don’t see how that +one was overlooked. Did you ever hear the riddle about when a door is not a +door, Frieda?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_280'></a>280</span>“Yes,” said Frieda good-naturedly. +“It was in an English book I learned. There was a whole chapter on +riddles, and the answers were printed upside down!”</p> + +<p>“That dear Edith and Mary book!” cried Hannah. “Such a fine +lot of riddles as there were! I think you and I ought to give a copy of that +book to the library, Frieda!”</p> + +<p>“That reminds me,” exclaimed Algernon. “We have had gifts +to-day. I saved them to tell you when you should all be listening, for they came +to us through our honorary members, the Wide-Awakes.”</p> + +<p>“Hear!” “Hear!” shouted Max, but Polly rapped the +meeting to order. Alice and Hannah and Catherine and Frieda looked puzzled, and +the others interested, as Algernon went on.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Kittredge told me to-day that they had voted to give the +Sunday-school library books to us, as he thought the public library much more +important than theirs, and they wanted to help all they could, following the +good example of several of the Sunday-school teachers. That’s a compliment +to Dorcas and Catherine, both. So that’s one of the four ‘notorious +Wide-Awakes,’ as Mr. Graham calls them. And then a Mr. Tracy came in with +his arms full of boxes, and said that his wife had been ill here at the hotel +for some weeks, and she had amused herself during her convalescence <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281'></a>281</span> with working on picture +puzzles; now she was well and going away, she did not want to take them with +her, and, as the Winsted Library had been a great help to her, she would like to +give them these six or seven puzzles, to be loaned to people like books. She +said she thought a small library like this where the librarian knew every one +personally, could easily handle such a department, for convalescents and lonely +old people. Pictures and games and all such things might be included, to be +loaned at the librarian’s discretion, only.”</p> + +<p>“What a good idea!” cried Polly, “but how do the +Wide-Awakes come in on that?”</p> + +<p>“Just this way. Mrs. Tracy said that if we would let her name the +collection, she would be glad to add to it from time to time. And when we +consented, as, of course, we did, she said she wanted it called The Hannah +Eldred Department.”</p> + +<p>“Three cheers for Mrs. Tracy!” shouted Bert, and Max sprang to +his feet and led off with a right good will. Then followed cheers for Hannah, +for Catherine, for the Wide-Awakes and the Boat Club. When the noise subsided, +Algernon took the floor again.</p> + +<p>“That’s not all, either! You know, most of you, that Frieda +started the German part of the library, giving some books and an invaluable +list; but none of you know what Miss Prescott told me a day or two ago. It is a +secret, but I think she will let me <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_282'></a>282</span> tell it now, just for completeness, won’t +you, Miss Prescott?”</p> + +<p>Alice blushed and smiled.</p> + +<p>“If you really wish, but I don’t like to be thanked for what is +only a promise as yet.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind about that. It will be more than a promise soon. Miss +Prescott does very clever designing, and she heard me lamenting the fact that we +have no book-plate for the library, and most kindly offered to furnish +one.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll submit it to my teacher in designing,” said Alice +shyly, “and then Mr. Swinburne will present it to the Board to accept or +reject as they see fit. You’re not bound to take it, but I did want to +help along somehow!”</p> + +<p>“We ought to do that cheering all over again,” said Archie, +“but I move you, Madam President, that Miss Lange and Miss Prescott +consider themselves specially included in the yells of a moment ago, and that +the meeting proceed to sing the Boat Club song.”</p> + +<p>The passers-by, if there had been any, must have wondered at the joyous burst +of song that followed this remark. As a matter of fact, however, there were no +passers-by at all. The rain had washed the streets clear, and the corner lights, +glimmering faintly through the wet, fell on one figure only.</p> + +<p>Standing before the library window, holding a great cotton umbrella over his +head, and peering <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283'></a>283</span> +patiently through a crack between the casing and the shade, was a small boy, in +an overcoat several sizes too large for him.</p> + +<p>Agnes’ seat was near the window. Suddenly she saw a small nose and an +inquiring eye pressed against the crack.</p> + +<p>“Look!” she said, and all eyes followed her gesture.</p> + +<p>Bert sprang to open the door and drag the dripping little figure in. Polly +and Catherine quickly took off the great coat and shut the vast umbrella. Then +they drew the little chap to the table, where Bertha had a plate of goodies +ready for him.</p> + +<p>“Attention, everybody!”</p> + +<p>Max sprang to his feet.</p> + +<p>“Sing to the air of the Boat Club Song:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>“He is the Boat Club mascot,<br /> Give a cheer! give a +cheer!<br /> For the Boat Club mascot,<br /> Elsmere! +Elsmere!”</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>“Do it again!” cried Elsmere, brandishing a fork and making +Bertha dodge, “Give a cheer, Elsmere! Boat Club stomach! Give a +cheer!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284'></a>284</span><a id='link_22'></a>CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO<br /><span class='h2fs'>AUF WIEDERSEHEN</span></h2> + +<p>Such a bustling place as Three Gables was on that Friday morning!</p> + +<p>“It seems a pity that you can’t stay till Monday, when college +really opens,” said Dr. Helen, pressing out a filmy waist in the +dining-room, where the four girls were gathered, setting last stitches.</p> + +<p>“But the new girls who have come on early and those who have had to +take ‘exams’ are just the ones who need cheering up, and we are the +official Comfort Committee, aren’t we, Alice?”</p> + +<p>Alice, fastening the thread after sewing in a fresh ruche, nodded. “Got +to keep the blues away, or perish trying to,” she said. “And Hannah +has to be home before Monday. And Frieda needs a day or two to get settled. +Hilda said she’d come back to-day, and they could get their room in order +before Sunday. I’m so glad you’re going to room with Hilda, Frieda +dear. She’s such a darling child.”</p> + +<p>“Is she still given to crushes?” asked Hannah. “She fairly +worshiped Lilian Burton’s door-sill when I was there.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285'></a>285</span>“Crushes +are going out of fashion at Dexter,” said Catherine emphatically. +“And one of the reasons I thought it would be good for Hilda to room with +Frieda was that Frieda has too much sense to indulge in them, and she will keep +Hilda suppressed.”</p> + +<p>“Catherine, you have such a positive manner when you talk about +Dexter,” said Hannah thoughtfully. “You’ll be House President +senior year. O, dear!” for Frieda, in getting up to help Dr. Helen fold up +the ironing-board, had brushed by Hannah’s chair, and a fat little button +bag rolling to the floor had emptied its contents all over the room.</p> + +<p>“Such a lot of buttons, Hannah!” exclaimed Dr. Helen, stooping to +help gather them up.</p> + +<p>Hannah laughed. “Mamma was so surprised when I came back from Dexter +because there were as many in it as when I went, and I told her there were more +because I had put in all the buttons that had come off while I was there! And +then she was shocked!”</p> + +<p>The doorbell rang and Inga came in with a big parcel for Catherine with +Grandma Hopkins’ compliments. Catherine opened it, wondering, and the +others dropped their work.</p> + +<p>“A cake! Did you ever in your life? And I already have Mrs. +Graham’s jelly, and Mr. Graham’s bag of nuts, and old Mrs. +Hitchcock’s jar of preserves! Mother, how can I ever thank them +all?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286'></a>286</span>“How can +you ever get them all transported to Dexter, is what I’m wondering! Do +they always send girls off to school with food for the term, Catherine?” +asked Hannah.</p> + +<p>“Well, I had cookies and mince pie to take last year, after my trunk +was packed. Mother persuaded me to leave the pie, but I was sorry afterward. And +one of Polly’s mother’s friends baked a chicken for her to carry all +the way to Wellesley! People are so kind! How do you suppose I can carry this +cake, though, Mother? It’s such an awkward shape, and I couldn’t +pack it with my clothes!”</p> + +<p>“Do you remember how Inez brought a pail of honey in her trunk,” +put in Alice, “and how it leaked out all over everything she +had?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll put the cake into a stout hat-box, and fasten a heavy cord +and a handle on it, and you can get it there safely, I think. You won’t +have to carry it, except just getting on and off the train.” Dr. Helen +hurried off to see to that bit of packing, herself.</p> + +<p>Bertha, Agnes and Dot, and even Dorcas, found excuses to drop in at the house +that morning. Win and Bess promised to be at the train. On the way home from +school three or four of Catherine’s Sunday-school children ran in to say +good-by. Polly was in and out a dozen times, and Peter and Perdita came together +to present a beautiful photograph of themselves in their newest garments and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287'></a>287</span> shiniest shoes. +Dinner was interrupted by the trunkman’s arrival, and Dr. Harlow had to +keep a watchful eye upon each girl to see that she did not forget to eat.</p> + +<p>Algernon and Bert came to escort the party to the station, and they started +out merrily enough. When they reached the sidewalk, Catherine turned and ran +back to the house for a private farewell to her mother, who preferred saying +good-by there instead of going to the station. College seemed suddenly robbed of +its pleasure, and the length of days between September and Thanksgiving +intolerable, but they were used to helping each other be brave, and they blinked +away the tears and parted smiling, Catherine turning frequently to wave good-bys +till the house was lost in the trees.</p> + +<p>It was quite like a reception at the station. While Dr. Harlow attended to +ticket-buying, the young people clustered together, talking at random and +laughing easily.</p> + +<p>“It will be so lonely without you all,” sighed Bess. “All +the other college folk will be off by Tuesday at the latest, and here we shall +languish!”</p> + +<p>“You’ll not have much time to languish if you assist in the +kindergarten, Winifred,” said Catherine affectionately. “I’m +so glad you are going to do it! You’ll make them sing like little +nightingales. O, Bess, you go right by Grandma Hopkins’ on the way home, +don’t you? Would you mind running <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_288'></a>288</span> in and telling her that the cake got off all right? +I’ll write her, of course, but I know she will want to know. Algernon! You +don’t mean it? Miss Ainsworth drawing her own novels! How perfectly +delicious! O Max, there you are! What did Mr. Morse say? Was he pleased with the +way we handled the paper?”</p> + +<p>“Seemed to be. How I wish I were still on, to be able to write up your +departure fittingly! I say, who’s that odd little pair over there? They +seem to be looking this way as if they wanted something.”</p> + +<p>The others turned and Frieda, who had been standing in a dreary silence, +listening to the chatter of all these dear boys and girls whom she was leaving +perhaps forever, suddenly ran across the platform to where a little old lady in +black with a knitted shawl over her head, and a little old man in ill-fitting +clothes were standing.</p> + +<p>“We came to tell our little friend good-by,” “And to wish +her <i>Gute Reise!</i>” They spoke in a kind of duet.</p> + +<p>“Here are a few poor blossoms from our garden–”</p> + +<p>“That you forget not the old people–”</p> + +<p>“And a trifle of <i>Kuchen</i> that I made myself–”</p> + +<p>“And this I have carved for you, to put your pens on–”</p> + +<p>Frieda, beaming and exclaiming her gratitude, made a pretty picture and the +young people, observing her and hearing the rapid German, felt that they <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289'></a>289</span> were seeing her in a +better light than they had before, much as they had already learned to like and +enjoy her.</p> + +<p>Dot clung to Hannah, and the gentle Agnes, who had found Alice incredibly +congenial, walked arm in arm with her a little apart from the others, while +Catherine in the center of the group held her father’s arm fast.</p> + +<p>They were off at last.</p> + +<p>“I thought that child in the back seat was Elsmere,” sighed +Catherine, starting up and dropping back again, relieved. “That child +actually gets on my mind so that I expect to see him everywhere.”</p> + +<p>“Algernon tied him up, or he would have been there. He is a little +rascal. It was a relief to me to have Perdita live up to her name and +reputation, though,” said Hannah. “I heard about her all summer as a +little mischief, and I never saw her do an indecorous thing. I didn’t +<i>see</i> her do that.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you may mark my words,” said Catherine, “before you +have grown many years older you will hear astonishing tales of Perdita Osgood. +Peter’s influence will not always keep her in check. Polly told me that +yesterday she tried to vaccinate the cat, with a mixture of ground chalk and +vinegar! Peter came for help to prevent her!”</p> + +<p>“American children are pretty bad, aren’t they, Frieda?” +said Alice mischievously, for Frieda’s lips were set sternly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_290'></a>290</span>“Don’t make her say so,” pleaded +Hannah teasingly. “She has made such a beautiful record.”</p> + +<p>Frieda flushed a little, but slipped her hand into her pocket and felt there +the shape of the little carved frame of Karl’s picture and held her tongue +once more. She would not quarrel with Hannah in this last hour for anything!</p> + +<p>“Next year,” Hannah said thoughtfully, “I am surely coming +to Dexter, and you three are to get the fire-wall room for us, and we’ll +live in glory and rapture.”</p> + +<p>“If it were only <i>this</i> year!” Alice moaned out the words, +and the others sighed with her. The excitement of getting off had died, and they +were becoming painfully aware of the separation that was approaching with every +revolution of the wheels.</p> + +<p>There were other passengers in the car, but they felt peculiarly alone, none +the less. It was a curious tie that bound them. They felt that their friendship, +so oddly started, had something more vital in it than most school-girl +relations. They had all been sorry to leave bright, lovable Polly, but still, so +long as they four stayed together, nothing could matter very much.</p> + +<p>“O, dear,” sighed Hannah aloud. “I do think I spend all my +time getting along without somebody or other!”</p> + +<p>“‘We meet so seldom, yet we surely part so often,’” quoted +Catherine musingly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291'></a>291</span>“O, +Catherine, my darling, if you dare begin on that sad Rossetti woman!” +cried Alice. “You don’t know how dreadful she is about it, Hannah! +She goes about for days with a distant sad look in her eyes and, if she is +spoken to suddenly, she says, ‘When I was dead my spirit turned,’ or ‘Does +the road wind uphill all the way? Yes, to the very end!’ or something +equally doleful. I feel as though some one were dying in the next room, and I do +believe I’ll hide the book.”</p> + +<p>“It won’t do you any good,” remarked Catherine serenely. +“I know almost all of her by heart. But you must admit, Allie, that I do +say cheerful things at times. You got sick of the Jumblies last year.”</p> + +<p>“They were as idiotic as the Rossetti lady, in another way. We’ll +never agree on such subjects, Catherine!”</p> + +<p>“Well, anyhow, Catherine isn’t going to read so much poetry this +year,” said Hannah.</p> + +<p>“And Hannah is going to read more,” rejoined Catherine, at which +Hannah made a wry face and set them all laughing.</p> + +<p>“Dexter!”</p> + +<p>“Already? O, Hannah darling, how can we ever let you go on without +us?”</p> + +<p>All three were kissing her, but Hannah laughed at their sorrowful faces.</p> + +<p>“I’ll go out on the platform with you. And I’ll <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292'></a>292</span> carry the hat-box, +Catrina. Shall you have a spread to-night? Oh! it’s the same dear little, +queer little station! And there’s Miss Eliot, and Dy-the Allen! Glory! +Glory! Glory! Dy-the, going on this train? Joy and rapture! I should have died +of loneliness!”</p> + +<p>And Hannah plunged down the steps and threw out her arms to embrace Dy-the, +when thud! out fell the bottom of the hat-box, and with it Grandma +Hopkins’ lovely cake!</p> + +<p>Miss Eliot looked into the distressed blue eyes and laughed.</p> + +<p>“Just the same Hannah!” she said. “Dy-the, take good care +of her and don’t let her get lost in Chicago. Now, child, introduce me to +your Frieda and get back on the train at once.”</p> + +<p>“Here she is,” said Hannah, casting one more sad look at the +shattered cake, over which a baggage-man had rolled a heavy truck. “And, +Frieda, Miss Eliot is the one to go to, always, when you need anything, from +shoe-strings to a scolding. O, Catherine, I’m so sorry. I just wanted to +help!”</p> + +<p>Catherine caught her in a mighty hug.</p> + +<p>“Never you mind one minute. It would have given us indigestion, and it +was so funny to see it go smash! Give your father my love, won’t you, +darling? And Aunt Clara, when you see her.”</p> + +<p>“And write from the very first station,” said Alice. +“I’m so glad Dy-the is going to be with you.”</p> + +<p>“Give Karl my greetings,” said Frieda, holding <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293'></a>293</span> on to Hannah’s +hand tightly. “And O, ever my love to Tante Edith and Uncle +Edward!”</p> + +<p>“Come, Babe, not another minute,” and Dy-the, little but +determined, plucked Hannah from detaining arms, and set her firmly on the +platform of the rear car. There, as the train glided out, she stood, her eyes +fixed upon the little group of three with arms around each other.</p> + +<p>“Good-by! Good-by!” she called and they answered. Then Frieda ran +a little nearer, holding out her arms in a pleading gesture, and over the noise +of the retreating train their voices rang out together:</p> + +<p>“<i>Auf Wiedersehen!</i>”</p> + +<p>“<i>Auf glückliches Wiedersehen!</i>”</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 31200-h.txt or 31200-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/2/0/31200">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/0/31200</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/31200-h/images/i-017.jpg b/31200-h/images/i-017.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f609a7c --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-h/images/i-017.jpg diff --git a/31200-h/images/i-077.jpg b/31200-h/images/i-077.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c185b7e --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-h/images/i-077.jpg diff --git a/31200-h/images/i-112.jpg b/31200-h/images/i-112.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..59940e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-h/images/i-112.jpg diff --git a/31200-h/images/i-184.jpg b/31200-h/images/i-184.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..76e901a --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-h/images/i-184.jpg diff --git a/31200-h/images/i-fpc.jpg b/31200-h/images/i-fpc.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..87ace7d --- /dev/null +++ b/31200-h/images/i-fpc.jpg diff --git a/31200.txt b/31200.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e88453 --- /dev/null +++ b/31200.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8020 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted, by Katharine +Ellis Barrett, Illustrated by Sears Gallagher + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Wide Awake Girls in Winsted + + +Author: Katharine Ellis Barrett + + + +Release Date: February 1, 2010 [eBook #31200] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.fadedpage.com) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 31200-h.htm or 31200-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31200/31200-h/31200-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31200/31200-h.zip) + + + + + +The Wide Awake Girls Series + +THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED + +by + +KATHARINE RUTH ELLIS + +Author of "The Wide Awake Girls" + +Illustrated from drawings by Sears Gallagher + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "'Here is a little souvenir for you, Judge Arthur.'" +Frontispiece. See page 266.] + + + +Boston +Little, Brown, and Company + +Copyright, 1909, +By Little, Brown, and Company. +All rights reserved + +Printers +S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A. + + + + +To + +GLADYS GODDARD + +who has been the friend of many boys and girls +this book is affectionately inscribed. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The author wishes to acknowledge gratefully the kindness of Messrs. +Houghton, Mifflin and Company in allowing her to use the poem +_Vantage_, by Josephine Preston Peabody in this book. She also +thanks Miss Margaret Sherwood for consenting to a similar use of her +poem, _Indian Summer_. + +Books for girls are frankly suggestive, their value lying in their +kindling power. Among the girls of all sorts who may read this story, +there will be, here and there, one who loves right words. It is for the +sake of such an occasional reader that the poems mentioned have been +included. The schools sometimes lead their pupils to believe that +English literature, like Latin, belongs to the past. But there are, here +and now, "musicians of the word" who, partly because they are living, +can touch our hearts as none of the dead-and-gone ones can. If through +these pages some girl finds her way to the little green volume of +_Singing Leaves_, or the sweet stories of _Daphne_ and _King +Sylvaine and Queen Aimee_, Catherine Smith and her friends will have +done the world of girls a service worth the doing. + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. CATHERINE'S INSPIRATION 3 + II. GETTING STARTED 15 + III. ORGANIZATION 28 + IV. WITH PAIL AND BROOM 46 + V. A DAY OFF 58 + VI. THE OPENING 71 + VII. A PARTY AT POLLY'S 86 + VIII. A FORTUNATE MEETING 101 + IX. LANDING 109 + X. THE MAKING OF A COMPACT 120 + XI. BROOKMEADOW 133 + XII. ARRIVAL AT WINSTED 151 + XIII. CAUGHT IN A SHOWER 164 + XIV. AN INTERLUDE 176 + XV. SUNDAY SCHOOL 186 + XVI. ALICE ON THE WAY 203 + XVII. FINDING A VOCATION 212 + XVIII. DOCTOR'S ORDERS 221 + XIX. JOURNALISM 246 + XX. THE THREE R's 254 + XXI. THE LAST PARTY 271 + XXII. AUF WIEDERSEHEN 284 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + "Here is a little souvenir for you, Judge Arthur" Frontispiece + + Page + + "We must find a good place for it" 17 + "How much for your tickets?" 77 + "Sure I am not too heavy, Karl?" 112 + Frieda was telling a story and the others were + listening attentively 184 + + + + +PART ONE + +STARTING A LIBRARY + + + + +THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +CATHERINE'S INSPIRATION + + +"Alma Mater, Dexter darling, do re mi--O dear! It's much harder to write +than I supposed. I wonder why! When your heart is full of love, why +should it be hard to express it?" + +Catherine Smith, sitting on the top step of the porch of her home, Three +Gables, bent her red-gold head over the pad of paper on her knee and +wrote painfully, her forehead puckered earnestly. She had been a year at +college and was just beginning her summer vacation. All through the busy +year, full of delightful new experiences, she had looked forward to the +leisure of summer, in which she might adequately declare her devotion to +the college which had been her mother's and was now her own. From the +day, the June before, when she had gone there to visit her friend, +Hannah Eldred, she had felt a keen sense of "belonging," especially +pleasant because her frail health had compelled her to lead a somewhat +secluded life at home, and she had not felt really acquainted with the +young people in the little town of Winsted, where she had always lived. + +Now all that was changing. At college she had been forced to conquer her +shyness, and, to her delight, she soon found that the boys and girls at +home were more than glad to receive her into their circle upon equal +terms. Her physician parents were everybody's friends, and Catherine, +who adored her father and mother, was eager to show herself worthy to be +their daughter. In order to do so, she reasoned, she must be of real +service to the town and to her college. The only way she had thought of +so far was to write an Alma Mater song, expressive not only of the +rapturous loyalty of undergraduates, but of the graver love of alumnae +like her mother. + +"It is very hard," she sighed. "It must be stately and yet not heavy. O +me! And here comes Algernon." + +With a resigned air she folded her scribbled papers and thrust her +pencil into the coil of red braids encircling her head. Algernon +Swinburne, ever since his foolish mother had christened him for the +poet, had, by turns, amused and wearied his fellow-citizens. While +Catherine had lived apart, she had been spared his lengthy visits, but +with the pleasures of social life had come its penalties and she was now +on Algernon's list and obliged to spend frequent hours in his really +trying society. He came up the long walk now with a curious springing +gait, and Catherine tried to summon a hospitable smile to her lips. + +Algernon refused a chair. He always appeared to be just going, "and +yet," as Polly Osgood said with a groan, "he almost never goes!" He +perched uncomfortably upon the railing and opened fire at once. + +"Have you seen the last _North American Review_?" + +Catherine confessed that she had not. + +"There was a corking article in it on municipal corruption, comparing +San Francisco, New York and Pittsburg as to graft, police efficiency and +so on. They say Pittsburg spends two million dollars a year--" + +"My upper legs is going barefoot." + +Catherine lifted her eyes with a flash of pleasure. Elsmere Swinburne +was the occasional relief from his big brother's monotony. Catherine +loved little folk, and though Elsmere was known to be a rascal who would +have tried the patience of Job, she somehow always found forgiveness for +his enormities, and a delighted appreciation for his funny sayings. Just +now he stood proudly before her, his hands in his pockets, his eyes +fixed upon his fashionably clad little legs, with bruised brown knees +showing above new half-hose. + +"My mamma buyed 'em for me. Her buys me everything." + +Catherine smiled, but shook her head a little. Mrs. Swinburne was a +source of grief to all her neighbors, because of her persistent refusal +to allow Algernon the chance at college that he desired, and even more +because of her unwise indulgence of her younger son's lightest wishes. + +Algernon cleared his throat and took up the thread of his narrative. +"Pittsburg, this fellow Chapman in the _Review_ says, spends two +million dollars a year on--" + +"Talking, talking, all the time Algy talking," Elsmere broke in. +"_I_ want to talk. Tell Caffrin 'bout my cat-pussy. Her awful sick. +Her--" + +Catherine sprang up. Elsmere's conversation often needed to be +suppressed. + +"Let's play tennis. Algernon, will you get the balls and rackets? You +know where they are,--just inside the hall there. And Elsmere may run +after balls for us. He can, so nicely!" + +Algernon obeyed the unexpected request patiently, and when he was gone, +Catherine averted her face for the space of a minute. What she had hoped +for came to pass, and when Algernon returned, his small brother had +quietly vanished. "The older one may be monotonous, but the younger one +is positively dangerous," Catherine thought to herself, as she took the +balls from Algernon, saying: + +"Let's not play, after all. It's so very warm and Elsmere thought he +didn't want to run after balls. You don't mind, do you?" + +"Why, no, I wasn't keen about playing," and Algernon, unconscious of the +maneuver he had helped to execute, dropped back upon the railing and +continued his _resume_ of the _North American_ article. + +Catherine, meanwhile, having slipped the balls one by one into the +pocket of her steamer chair, rested her long white hands upon the chair +arms and sat quietly, hearing nothing of Mr. Chapman's statistics, her +brown eyes dreamily fixed upon the sloping lawn, but seeing instead the +Dexter campus, across which girls were moving, as she loved best to see +them, in pretty light gowns on the way to evening chapel. Among them all +her thought rested most lovingly upon a little girl with a plain face +and big round glasses. "You dear old Alice!" she murmured, almost aloud, +and roused herself guiltily to hear Algernon saying: + +"There are a lot of wide-awake men in Pittsburg." + +"Wide-awake girls in Winsted!" + +This time Catherine really did speak aloud, and Algernon looked up in +surprised inquiry. + +"I beg your pardon," she said contritely. "It was very rude of me, but +you set me off, yourself. The Wide Awake Girls are really going to be in +Winsted this summer. Don't you know about them?" as Algernon still +looked puzzled. + +"Why, no. All the Winsted girls seem wide-awake enough, I should say." + +"But I'm the only one who has a right to be called so in capital +letters. I'll tell you all about it, but it has been such an important +part of my life for the last year and more, that I forget every one who +knows me doesn't know about it all. + +"You see, about two years ago, when I was fifteen and Hannah Eldred, who +lives in Massachusetts, was not quite fourteen, she wrote a letter to +_Wide-Awake_, the magazine, you know, asking for correspondents. +And I answered it. Several other girls did, too. One was Alice Prescott, +who lives out in Washington, and another was Frieda Lange, of Berlin, +whose mother had known Mrs. Eldred in Germany years ago. Hannah kept on +writing to the three of us, and before the end of the year she had met +us all and really lived with each of us in turn. It doesn't sound +probable, but it came about naturally enough. The Eldreds went to Berlin +for a few months and boarded at the Langes'. Then Mrs. Eldred's mother +was taken ill, and they had to come back to this country. The +grandmother lived over here at Delmar, and Father was called in +consultation and brought Hannah back to stay with me a little while; and +then, as her mother couldn't leave, they sent Hannah to Dexter, to the +preparatory department, and there she found Alice, whom she had lost +sight of for a long time. Then when I went to Dexter, I learned to know +Alice, and this year Frieda Lange is coming to America to school and she +is going to Dexter, too. Hannah is coming out for a few weeks' visit +here before college opens, and I'm going to try to get Alice at the same +time, for we've never all four been together. I am so eager about it +that I can't keep my mind on anything else very long, so that's why I +said 'Wide Awake Girls in Winsted' aloud. Isn't it an interesting +story?" + +"Coincidences are always interesting," said Algernon. "And I think a +great many things that go by the name of telepathy are nothing more. I'm +keeping a record of peculiar coincidences that come under my notice. +I'll put these down, about the two happening to go to the same college, +and about the German and American girls finding their mothers were +acquainted." He produced a note-book to make an entry. + +"You can't include the last one," Catherine protested. "It was because +Mrs. Lange recognized Hannah from the letter that Frieda wrote. But the +meeting between Alice and Hannah was mere chance." + +Algernon closed his note-book and went placidly on as if Catherine's +story had not interrupted him: + +"As I was saying, those men in Pittsburg--" + +The telephone bell rang and Catherine went into the house to answer it. + +"I'll have to be excused, Algernon," she said, coming back a minute +later. "Father wants something of me. You can tell me the rest another +time." + +Then, as Algernon slowly got off the porch, she added impulsively: + +"I marvel just to see you walk, Algernon. You know so very much! You +seem to me to be a veritable walking library." + +Algernon twisted his body uncomfortably and flushed. + +"I'd be more use to Winsted if I were a real one," he said, with a +wistful sound in his voice that made Catherine look at him sharply. She +waved him a smiling good-by as he went down the walk, and then turned to +her father's desk to look up some papers he wanted. Her mind, however, +still dwelt on that unexpected shade in Algernon's tone. + +"I've thought of him as a mere talking machine instead of a human +being," she said to herself reproachfully. "I must make a salmon scallop +for Father's supper. Inga doesn't know how to do anything but scramble +eggs and boil potatoes, and Father's tired, I know by his voice. It +sounded tired, but Algernon's was lonely. I wonder--" + +Dr. Harlow Smith and his wife, Dr. Helen, drove up to their pretty +gabled house on the hill slope a few minutes later, their faces lighting +with pleasure as the tall girl in a blue apron came out to meet them. +The stable-boy came to take the horse, and Catherine escorted her +parents to the house. While they made themselves ready for supper, she +put the last orderly touches to the table in the panelled dining-room, +and was ready for them with kisses when they arrived. + +The silent grace over, Catherine spoke: + +"Eat and be filled, dearly beloved, because I have a new project and I +need you to be enthusiastic." + +"What is it this time?" asked Dr. Harlow, serving the golden scallop +generously. "You have shown diplomacy in your choice of a dish, if I am +the one you wish to wheedle." + +Dr. Helen, pouring yellow cream from a fat silver jug into thin +hexagonal cups, sent an interested glance across the table at her +daughter. + +"Tell us," she said. + +"It's quite new," said Catherine, hesitating a little. "In fact it's not +a half-hour old, but I do believe it is a good plan. You know Algernon +Swinburne?" + +"We have met him," agreed Dr. Harlow cautiously. + +"So had I!" said Catherine with sudden spirit, "and this afternoon it +came to me that I didn't know him at all. All any of us ever do to +Algernon is to avoid him,--those of us who don't laugh at him. And he's +lonely, Father! Lonely!" + +"Did he tell you so?" + +"No. But I suddenly knew. I've seen homesick girls at college, +and--and--well, there was a little while, just a little while, when I +was getting strong enough to do things, and before Hannah came to visit, +that I felt that way myself, so I know." + +Dr. Helen's look was like a pressure of the hand, and she answered +gently: + +"I think you are very likely right, Catherine. And this plan of yours is +to make Algernon less lonely?" + +"Do you think he knows he's lonely?" asked Dr. Harlow. "I've thought the +boy had good stuff in him, and if he should ever wake up to the fact +that he's a bore, he might amount to something worth while. You don't +think he has, do you?" + +"Not exactly," Catherine confessed, remembering the note-book's +appearance at the end of her little story. "But I think he has an +inkling that he might be of more use. I told him he was a walking +library. He does know such an amazing amount, you know! And he said +Winsted would be better off if it had a real library instead of his +kind; and then it flashed into my mind how he would love living among +books, and how fine it would be for the town if all that knowledge of +his could be used--" + +"Like wasted water power?" suggested her father. + +"Yes. That's just it. He has read more than any one in this town, except +you, Father dear, and you are very old-fashioned in your reading. You +never heard of some of the modern books that Algernon knows all about. +Why couldn't we start a library and have Algernon run it? It would make +people appreciate him." + +"It would keep him occupied at certain hours, and assure you of freedom +from his calls," said Dr. Harlow, but Catherine was in earnest and +refused to be teased. + +"Wouldn't it be practical, really, Mother? Algernon can't go away to +school. His mother isn't willing, you know, and he needs to be here to +look after Elsmere. But he could study there, and lots of towns as small +as this do have libraries." + +The doorbell rang and Dr. Harlow went to answer it. + +"Some one to see you, Catherine," he said, returning. + +Catherine found Algernon himself standing in the doorway, his big pale +eyes full of distress. + +"Excuse my coming just at supper time," he said, "but I've lost Elsmere. +No one seems to have seen him since we did this afternoon, and I thought +perhaps you would remember which direction he went in. It was while I +was in the house he disappeared, you know. He almost always comes home +for meals!" + +Catherine meditated. "I didn't see him go. I was looking at some papers, +and when I glanced up he wasn't there. Let's go out on the porch again, +and think. You had been sitting on the railing and I was in the steamer +chair--O Elsmere Swinburne, where have you been?" + +Out from under the porch, rubbing eyes and yawning, came a rumpled +little figure, bits of straw and dead leaves clinging to him, and a big +red Irish setter following. + +Algernon bent down and gathered the baby figure up with a tenderness +that made Catherine's heart beat more quickly, as she picked the straws +from the stylish shoes and socks, and the barefoot upper legs. + +"Where were you?" she repeated. + +"Hotspur's house, all cozy," sighed Elsmere. "Warm house. Did go to +sleep. Bosquitoes bite me. Bite my legs. I want my supper," and drooping +over his tall brother's shoulders he fell asleep again. + +"Come around to-morrow afternoon early, Algernon," said Catherine, as he +moved away with his burden. "I have a plan I want you to help me carry +out. I know you'll like it. It's something nice for you and Winsted." + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +GETTING STARTED + + +By fifteen minutes past three the next day, Algernon and Catherine had +definitely decided that Winsted was to have a library, and that they +were to devote their own energies to the cause and persuade as many as +possible of their acquaintances to join them. + +"The Boat Club will go in for it as a committee of the whole," said +Algernon. + +"The Three R's will be interested," said Catherine, "though it is not +Rest, Recreation or Refreshment!" + +"And all the churches." + +"And the school teachers." + +"And there are Miss Ainsworth's novels." + +"Algernon, how perfectly splendid! Do you suppose she would let us have +them?" + +"I don't see why not. They simply stand there, never opened. She can't +any more than refuse. I'll ask her." + +"And I'll go with you. Let's do it right this minute." + +As she spoke, Catherine sprang up, and Algernon, his usual inertia +overcome, plunged down the walk beside her. + +"We must find a good place for it, before we get many books collected. +We could use Father's twenty-five dollars for rent, of course, but it +would be so much nicer if some one would give us a room." + +"Let me see. There's that little frame shop where the red-haired +milliner used to be. We might get that. It's no good for business, away +off up the street that way." + +"Be careful what you say about red hair," warned Catherine. "Who owns +the building?" + +"Judge Arthur. He's a public-spirited man. He'll let us have it cheap +anyway." + +"Good! O, I am so happy and excited about it I feel like one of Hannah +Eldred's squeals; I'm afraid if she were here I'd join her in one. Here +we are at Miss Ainsworth's. Are you sure we dare ask her?" + +Before the prim white house set back from the street, Catherine's +buoyancy suffered a collapse. She had been inside that house, calling, +with her mother, but to go there--or anywhere--on a begging errand! Here +Algernon's long familiarity with rebuffs proved of value. + +[Illustration: "'We must find a good place for it.'"--_Page 17._] + +"Of course, we dare. Come on, or I'll go alone if you don't want to." + +"No, no, I'll come," Catherine answered hastily. She had counted, +without conceit, on her own popularity to offset Algernon's handicap. +The daughter of the Doctors Smith could not be turned coldly away. And +after all, Miss Ainsworth's novels might better be read than standing +idle. Two years ago, a young bicyclist had sprained an ankle at Miss +Ainsworth's door, and she had promptly taken him in and cared for him, +scornfully refusing pay. Therefore the youth, upon returning to his +home, had sent out to her a great box full of modern fiction, an article +which he had deeply and vainly desired while under her roof. Miss +Ainsworth had never been given to the reading of novels. Her life had +been quite too busy for such frivolities, and now her eyes were making +it impossible for her to read without using glasses, which, as a +confession of frailty, she despised. So the books stood, new and +unopened, in a fascinating row upon the "secretary" shelf. No one so far +had ventured to ask for them. It had been reserved for these young +adventurers to demand them in the name of public spirit. + +"We will have your name put inside them, Miss Ainsworth, on a neat +little card,--'Gift of Miss Anna Ainsworth,' you know. Just as they do +in large libraries," Catherine explained persuasively, when Algernon had +stated the object of their call, and Miss Ainsworth was regarding them +in a silence which they took to be ominous. + +"And your name will go down in the records with Dr. Smith's as one of +the first contributors to the library. We intend to keep very full +records and have them buried under the corner stone of the new building +when we get it. We hope to get a Carnegie building, you know," Algernon +went on calmly while Catherine caught her breath. "He always insists +that the townspeople do their share." + +"The young people will use the library if we have good novels," +Catherine put in helpfully, when Algernon's imagination showed signs of +exhaustion. "And then we can get them to reading more serious books by +and by." + +Then Catherine too, subsided, and the clock behind its painted glass +door ticked obtrusively. Presently Miss Ainsworth opened her thin lips. + +"I'm perfectly willin' 't you should have the books," she said grimly. +"They ain't no manner o' use to me, and never was. I don't care to have +my name wrote inside 'em, though. And I ain't perticular about havin' it +buried under any corner stones. But I'll be much obliged if you'll take +'em away soon, for I've just subscribed to a set of me-mores of +missionaries an agent was sellin' yesterday, and I'd like that top shelf +to put 'em on." + +The enthusiasts, feeling a trifle quenched, but yet pleased at having +accomplished their purpose, rose and withdrew with what grace they could +summon, mingling thanks with promises to remove the undesired literature +as soon as possible. + +"Now for Judge Arthur and the building," sighed Catherine, as they +reached the street again. "He can't be any more gloomy about it than she +was, and maybe he'll do what we want." + +The judge was not in his office, so they sat down to wait in the stuffy +room where dusty books and papers sprawled and spilled over desk, table +and the top of a big black safe. Algernon attached himself to a grimy +magazine, having first jotted down Miss Ainsworth's gift in his +ever-present note-book. Catherine, looking about her, soon found herself +unable to restrain her housewifely fingers. She was busily sweeping the +dust off the big table with a dilapidated feather duster, and putting +the papers into trim piles when the door opened and Judge Arthur, little +and weazened and gray, slipped softly in. + +"There!" said Catherine half aloud. "That is infinitely better. I wish I +dared throw half of these papers away. I know they're perfectly +worthless." She took a step toward the big wire basket, as though to +bring it conveniently near. + +"Not to-day, Miss Catherine," and the judge took her hand and bowed over +it. "Is this what they teach you at college?" + +Catherine laughed. She had never been afraid of Judge Arthur. + +"They teach us all the womanly graces, Your Honor," she answered, "and +not least among them is tidiness. I should have had you looking +beautifully neat in another five minutes." + +Judge Arthur shivered. "And you would doubtless have made a bonfire of +this," picking up one dog's-eared document, "old Mr. Witherton's will; +and this, a deed to an estate; and this, a bit of important evidence in +a criminal case." + +"Well," Catherine argued, "they shouldn't be left about so carelessly, +under paper-weights and ash-trays. I do want to do some housecleaning +for you, Judge Arthur. That's why I'm here this afternoon. Not just an +office, either, but a whole building." + +The judge placed a chair for her, dusting it elaborately with Mr. +Witherton's will as he did so. + +"Tell me all about it," he invited. + +Catherine took the chair, her fresh white gown contrasting as sharply +with its shabby leather as her warm youth did with the judge's withered +look. He watched her with keen, appreciating eyes. Algernon in his +corner read on, and Catherine thought best not to disturb him. Men found +it harder to meet Algernon on fair ground than women did. + +The judge asked a pertinent question or two as Catherine unfolded the +great scheme; then he drew a check-book from under a broken-backed +dictionary. + +"There is another twenty-five for your project," he said, as he signed +his name with a flourish surprisingly big for so cramped a little man; +"and the room is at your disposal for six months, rent free. I would +have it cleaned, but you seem to delight in doing such work yourself. I +can assure you that the Three R's will back you up. The next meeting is +called for a week from to-day." + +Catherine's face wore its blithest smile. "You are a dear to do so +much," she declared. "I was sure you'd be interested. If you ever want +any cleaning done, _anywhere_, please let me do it!" + +Algernon had to be aroused almost forcibly, and Catherine carried him +away, still so lost in the article on the jury system he had been +reading that he could not quite take in the wonderful success of the +call. He followed Catherine's eager steps to the little square frame +building a few blocks up Main Street, and turned the key she gave him. +It was a dingy little room, all dirt and cobwebs. A few old straw hats +and wire frames piled among some big green boxes indicated the last +occupant's business, and a scurrying of tiny feet, only too clearly, the +present occupants' nature. Catherine lifted her nose in dainty scorn, +and her skirts in private apprehension. + +"We shall have to get a lot of girls and come down here to-morrow and +clean up; but let's get out for now," she said, and Algernon consented. + +They strolled along the street till they came to the little park, and +there, sitting on its one green bench, talked over their list of assets. + +"I keep having ideas all the time," cried Catherine. "Listen! We must go +over to Hampton and visit the library there, and find out how they do +things. When can you?" + +"Any time. I was just thinking I must ask Mr. Morse to give us a good +write-up." + +"Of course. He'll be interested. Let's go over now. Or perhaps you'd +better go alone. I don't know him, and I never was in a newspaper +office." + +"Afraid of the devil?" jested Algernon, getting up and leaving her. +Catherine watched him disappear into the office across the street. + +"He walks better already," she thought with pride. "And he never made +such a frivolous remark as that before. I do think this library will be +the making of Algernon." + +Back he came in a minute or two, with a promise of plenty of space in +the _Courier_, and a free atlas. + +"One they had in the office, of course; but we ought to have one, and +every little helps. He was awfully interested and said it would be a +fine thing for the town, and he'd boost every way he could." + +"Aren't people lovely?" sighed Catherine rapturously. "I believe even +Miss Ainsworth was more enthusiastic than she appeared to be. And we +haven't even mentioned it to the Boat Club yet." + +"Or the Three R's. They are chiefly Boat Club fathers and mothers." + +"We must see the school superintendent." + +"The ministers will announce it in the churches." + +"Yes, we must see them to-morrow. O dear, I am so tired! What time is it +anyway?" + +Algernon drew a big watch from his pocket. + +"Six-fifteen." + +Catherine started up in horror. + +"O! And I forgot all about helping with supper. What will mother think?" + +Algernon watched her hasten away up the hill, and turned toward his own +home with some anxiety. He had to coax his mother to take an interest in +the new undertaking, and wished the operation over, but he squared his +shoulders and determined to do his best and do it that very evening. + +Catherine, for her part, spent the evening discussing the plan with her +already sympathetic mother. + +"It almost takes my breath away, Mother dear," she confided as they sat +on the porch in the dusk, watching the fireflies, "the way people fall +in with suggestions. It didn't occur to me before that _I_ could +start things going. But at college I had only to see that something +should be done, and then to say so; and it almost always was done. And I +was more surprised than anybody!" + +Dr. Helen smiled, and put out her hand to stroke Catherine's head, which +rested on her knee. + +"They were pretty good ideas, I judge." + +"They were perfectly simple ones. Just little things like having the +mail-boxes assigned alphabetically, instead of by the numbers of the +rooms. It saved the mail girls a lot of work, and Miss Watkins was glad +of the suggestion. I helped Alice sort mail, you know,--she does it to +help pay her way. And then the little notices on the bulletin board were +always getting lost under the big ones, and I was on a Students' +committee and often had notices to post, and I got them to make a rule +that all notices should be written on a certain size sheet, and the +board looks much neater now. And then there weren't any door-blocks. +Aunt Clara told me that they had them at Vassar, little pads hanging +outside your door, with a pencil attached, and if you are out, your +callers leave their messages, you know. It seemed as though we needed +something like that, for some of us don't like walking into people's +rooms, and hunting around for paper. So I started that, and they all +took it up in no time. They were only little things, but it was +remembering a lot of little things like that that made me dare try to +get the library. It's what we need, and I do believe it's going to come +easily." + +"Mr. Kittredge asked me to-day if I thought you would take the infant +class in the Sunday-school for the summer. Mrs. Henley is to be away. I +told him I'd ask you." Dr. Helen waited. + +Catherine was silent a moment. + +"Do you know, Mother, it seems as though you just get started doing one +thing and you see another one ahead of you. If I am going around asking +every one to help the library, I don't see how I can refuse to help when +I'm asked! But I never did teach anybody. Who is in the class?" + +"I asked him that. He says some of the children are rather old for it, +but the school is too small, or rather the teachers are too few, to make +another class. So the ages run from the Osgood twins--" + +"O, Peter and Perdita! I do love them. They are such a droll little +pair. I beg your pardon, dear. I didn't mean to interrupt. From Peter +and Perdita to--to Elsmere, possibly?" + +Dr. Helen laughed. "Exactly! Could you undertake Elsmere?" + +Catherine sat up straight. "Yes, I could. Elsmere is unlucky, just as +Algernon is. Everybody expects to be bored by Algernon and bothered or +shocked by Elsmere. I know he is a little 'limb o' Satan,' but if I'm +going to take one brother on my shoulders, I might as well take them +both. When does Mr. Kittredge want me to begin?" + +"Not this week. You can go and see Mrs. Henley and talk it over with +her. You're showing a fine public spirit, Daughter mine, but let me +suggest that you really can't do much work for the town this summer, +especially if you expect to entertain guests! I don't approve of +vacations that are busier than the school year!" + +"O, the library won't take long to start, if it starts at all. And +Algernon will run it and his being busy will give me several extra hours +weekly! And the children will only be Sundays. I promised Alice I'd do +some Bible study this summer, anyway, and it might as well be done for +that. She thought I was something of a heathen because I knew +Shakespeare better than the Bible." + +"That only means you know Shakespeare very well, however. By the way, +would you like that little old set in the guest-room for your library? I +put it there, because there wasn't a shelf free anywhere else, and we +are rather overstocked with the gentleman's writings in the rest of the +house. Clara Lyndesay laughed at finding them there. She says she is +going to write an essay some day on guest-room literature, and its +implications." + +Catherine laughed, too. "It would be delicious if she did. I wish she +would write things, Mother, and not just paint pictures. Do you suppose +there's any hope of her coming back to this country this summer?" + +"I shouldn't be greatly surprised. She plans to spend some weeks on the +Isle of Wight, and that is so near this side that perhaps we can lure +her over. An aunt left her a place in New England, you know, which she +means to fit up for a studio sometime. Father should be coming home now. +Let's go down to the corner and see if we can see him. O, my daughter!" +as Catherine sprang up and took her mother's arm, "how you have grown +beyond me!" + +"It's just my head that's above you," said Catherine, tucking her +mother's arm into her own. "It's the fashion nowadays for girls to be +taller than their mothers, but they don't begin to come up to them in +mind and manners. Miss Eliot told us so in History!" + +"How about their hearts?" asked Dr. Helen. + +"I don't know about the other girls', but my heart is just as high as my +mother's!" And Catherine bent her head the least little bit, and kissed +her mother's cheek, as Dr. Harlow, turning the corner, met them. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +ORGANIZATION + + +The "stub" train on the Central was due to leave Winsted at 7:30. +Catherine, having reluctantly left the washing of the breakfast dishes +to the reckless Inga, to whom their quaint blue pattern was as naught, +hurried down the hill and reached the dingy little station as the train +shambled in. Algernon, full of good cheer, because his mother had taken +it into her head to approve his undertaking, gallantly helped her +aboard, and began at once to show a list of questions he had ready to +ask the Hampton librarian. + +The train stood still a little longer while a few milk cans were put on, +then whistled, puffed and pulled slowly out. Hampton was only a short +distance from Winsted, and Catherine and Algernon soon got off the +train, and made their way to the library where they were welcomed by the +kindly librarian and her young assistant, who proved to be a Dexter +graduate. + +The "stub" train meanwhile jogged and jolted on its way, carrying with +it, fast asleep, the little "limb o' Satan" known as Elsmere Swinburne. +Elsmere could sleep anywhere on the slightest provocation. Deeming it +unwise to make his presence known to his brother until the train was +started beyond recall, he had curled up on a seat behind a large family, +and while waiting his opportunity had fallen asleep. The conductor, +taking him to be one of the overflow from the family in front, paid no +attention to him until after they had left. Then he tried to rouse the +child. + +"Wake up, kid! Here, you've gone past your station. Wake up, I say! Gee! +We're running a sleeper on this train to-day, all right," as Elsmere, +lifted by the collar, only sank heavily back on the seat when released. + +The conductor, goaded by the jests of the passengers, yelled in the +boy's ear, to no avail. Just as he was abandoning the task in wrath, the +child suddenly popped up, wide awake and interested. + +"I want zwieback," he announced. + +Mrs. Swinburne, having read in a child-study book that dry food was +bone-building, had brought her youngest up on long crumbly strips of +zwieback, and he was seldom seen without one. + +"What you givin' us?" asked the conductor. + +"I want zwieback," answered Elsmere cheerfully, in the persistent tone +he had learned to value for its efficacy. + +"Where was your ma goin'?" asked the conductor. + +"I want zwieback," replied Elsmere. + +"Let me try," suggested a soft-voiced little lady. "I talked with his +mother quite a bit while she was on. Want to find your mamma, little +boy, and go to Grandma's and play with all the pigs and chickies?" + +"I want zwieback." + +"You talked with the woman, did you?" said the conductor. "Did you find +out what her name was?" + +"Let me see. Yes. It's Peters. She was talking about going to his +folks', two miles out of Edgewater. She'll be worried to death about +this one." + +"I should think she might be," remarked the conductor grimly, "for fear +he'd come back. Here, you young Sweebock, you get off here." + +Elsmere obligingly followed to the platform and suffered himself to be +given into the custody of the station agent, to whom he presented his +petition for food. + +"A little weak in the upper story," explained the conductor. "His ma had +about as many as she could manage and gettin' off at Edgewater she +forgot this one. Name's Peters, stayin' with old Mis' Peters, two miles +from Edgewater. You wire 'em to meet the express, and then you pass him +back. Tell McWhire not to let him get to sleepin'. He ain't an easy +proposition, when he's gone to Bylow, now I tell you," and the conductor +of No. 5 swung himself aboard. + +Elsmere had the time of his life in the two hours before the arrival of +the noon express. The station agent was a sociable soul. He had a +guinea-pig in a box, so delightful to observe that Elsmere forgot his +desire for zwieback and became conversational. He told the agent +the history of the polly-wogs he had raised "till they was all +froggies, only one was deaded." He showed the place where he had +cut his finger in the mower-lawn. He explained how fond he was of +back-horse-saddle-riding, and declared his intention of some day having +"frickers," caressing the agent's own sandy growth with great +admiration. He tried to perform on the telegraph instrument and cried +"Boo" with all his strength at a lady, peering in at the ticket window. +Altogether, Elsmere found traveling very much to his taste. The noon +express stopped for a minute, he was thrust aboard the last car, and a +few minutes later, according to instructions, the newsboy put him off at +Edgewater, with a cheery: + +"Here y'are, Bub, and there's Ma and Gramma." + +Elsmere had taken a fancy to the newsboy and did not at all wish to stop +at Edgewater. He ran down the track after the retreating train, howling +miserably. + +As for "Ma and Gramma," they had been overtaken by the dispatch just as +they were starting to drive out to the farm, and had come in great +perplexity to the station. The wailing baby running down the track +suggested nothing to them, and the agent could give them no +satisfaction. He was locking up his office. There was not another train +to stop till No. 5 should return toward evening. So, still bewildered, +Mrs. Peters and her mother-in-law gave up their fruitless errand and +drove away, taking with them a problem for a lifetime's pondering. + +Elsmere, as the train vanished around a curve, sat down on the track for +a while and listened to his own howls. Tiring of that amusement +presently, he strolled back to the station. Outwardly it looked much +like that hospitable one where he had enjoyed life earlier in the day. +This one, however, offered no entertainment beyond wandering about the +platform and the unoccupied waiting-room. Across the street was a little +restaurant. There were pies in the window. + +Elsmere obeyed the summons. + +"Pie," he said, presenting his nose to the edge of the lunch counter. + +"Don't you monkey with anything," snapped a girl from behind the +counter. + +"I'm aren't a monkey. I'm are a boy. Want pie," Elsmere answered +sweetly. + +"You can't get pie without money," said the girl. + +Elsmere felt in his pocket and produced a quarter. Whatever his +failings, Elsmere had a redeeming trait of forehandedness, and had +always on hand a hoard of articles which might be useful in an hour of +need. The quarter bought respect at once and plenty of pie, also a +sandwich, a tall glass of milk and a big "rubber doughnut." + +When he had satisfied his hunger, the traveller returned to the depot, +and, lying comfortably in the shade of a baggage truck, indulged in a +siesta, a sleep so light this time, however, that the rolling back of +the baggage-room door shattered it. + +Sitting up, Elsmere watched the baggage-man get a tin trunk and a canvas +telescope ready for shipping. Presently the stub train arrived, stopped, +and while the conductor and the agent were exchanging gossip, Elsmere +got inconspicuously aboard, and stowed himself away in a corner, so +successfully that it was not till the brakeman called "Hampton" that the +conductor discovered him. + +Swearing softly and scratching his head in mystification, the conductor +stood in the aisle staring at the ubiquitous babe, when a double cry +arose: + +"Elsmere, where in thunder?" + +"Hullo, Algy!" + +The young assistant, who had accompanied Catherine to the station +for the sake of talking over mutual friends at Dexter, looked up in +surprise as the dignified youth who had impressed her greatly by his +intelligence and earnestness suddenly stooped and lifted a dirty, +tear-and-pie-stained little boy in his arms. Catherine laughed. Elsmere +could not greatly surprise her. + +"Miss Adams," she said, "you have shown your interest in the new Winsted +library. Let me introduce you to its mascot." + + * * * * * + +The morning after the Hampton expedition, Catherine struggled awake from +dreams of book-lined trains, with Miss Adams and Elsmere as engineer and +fireman, to open her eyes gratefully upon the substantial reality of her +own great room in its fresh bareness. At the foot of her big carved bed, +the broad window open to its utmost seemed to bring all out-of-doors +within the room. A squirrel whisked his tail across the sill as he +scurried in and out of the branches of the window-oak where a grosbeak +and a wren chatted sociably. The sunshine through the leafy boughs +lighted the bare floor and rested on the great writing table in the +center of the room and on the high dark dresser. Catherine's gaze, +following the light, rested at last upon the low bookcases filling the +chimney corners. + +"I can spare one _Child's Garden of Verses_," she mused, "and that +second _Little Women_. I wish they could have the Walter Crane and +Kate Greenaway picture-books, but I couldn't possibly let them go. I +loved those little urchins in the children's room,--especially that +curly-headed little boy reading a bound _Wide-Awake_--O!" She sat +up in bed and tossed her thick braids back. "I wonder if I ought? Or +even if I could?" Out of bed she slipped, and crossed the room to the +bookcases. Opening one, she ran her finger-tips tenderly along the stout +backs of a row of dark red volumes. "My very own _Wide-Awakes_! +What a storehouse they would be for the little folk! They needn't be +allowed to circulate, so they'd not wear out badly. They could just come +in and read them there. I was going to give them my little +rocking-chair, anyhow. O, dear! I'm afraid I'm really going to let them +have you, you dear, dear books. It would be selfish to keep you up here +all the time, when I almost never open you. Nobody shall have this one, +though, with Hannah's letter in it." + +She turned the pages of one of the latest volumes and paused at a neat +little paragraph: + + "_Dear Wide-Awake:_ + + "I have been taking you ever since I was a child. I will be + fourteen my next birthday. I like you very much. I would like to + correspond with any one who is about my age. I have no brothers + and sisters, and get very lonely. I have read all Miss Alcott, + but I wish she had let Jo marry Laurie. I like the + _Wide-Awake_ stories. Please have a good long one about + boarding-school in the next number. I like Dickens, but I can't + bear Scott. I know John Gilpin and Baby Bell by heart, and I am + in the eighth grade. I like skating and rowing. There is a fine + pond near us. + + "Your loving reader, + + "Violet Ethelyn Eldred. + + "P. S. Nobody knows that I am writing this letter, so please + print it soon to surprise them." + +Catherine kissed the page and closed the book. "Isn't it too +unbelievable that that queer little letter with that ridiculous fancy +name at the end should have done so much? Violet Ethelyn Eldred! It +hasn't nearly so pleasant a sound to me now as Hannah. And the child +thought no one would write to her if she signed her own name,--it was so +'homely'! Ah me! I suppose I should be getting dressed instead of +sitting about in the sunshine, mooning. I wonder if Inga will remember +the muffins for breakfast." + + * * * * * + +"Polly Osgood wants to see you, Catherine." + +Catherine, busily sorting linen in the up-stairs linen room a little +later in the morning, leaned over the railing in answer to her mother's +announcement from the hall below. + +"O, Polly, do come on up. I've a little more to do and we might just as +well talk while I'm at it. Have you called the Boat Club meeting?" + +Polly Osgood came running up the stairs. She was a slender little girl +with big blue eyes and yellow hair. + +"Yes," she answered brightly. "I've called it at ten. It's almost that +now. Tom can't come, of course; he's always so busy daytimes, but I +think all the others will be there." + +"Hasn't Bert something to keep him?" + +"Not just now," Polly laughed. "He substituted in the post-office last +week, and the week before that in a hardware store, but just now he says +nobody seems to need him, and he's reading law in private." + +"He's such a goose," and Catherine put two mated pillow-cases together +with a little pat. "Inga never knows enough to put things in pairs, and +Mother wouldn't dare begin to look them over. If she should do anything +so domestic, half Winsted would break out with mumps or chickenpox. +Where did you say we'd have the meeting?" + +"At the boat house. We might as well use it, now we have it. But I +didn't know you broke out with mumps." + +"That's only figurative. Polly, why have you gone back to braids and +bows? You look very infantile for a real Wellesley sophomore." + +"I got tired of the bird-cages and puffs, and decided I'd go back to +nature. Besides, playing around with Peter and Perdita you need +something stationary. They work dreadful havoc with a stylish coiffure." + +"I wonder if I'd have to put my hair down just to teach them on Sundays? +Mrs. Henley is going away, you know, and I've been asked to take her +class." + +"O, I do hope you will," cried Polly. "You would have a civilising +influence on Perdita, and she needs it. Peter keeps her in order so well +she never _does_ anything very bad, but she is potentially a little +terror." + +"She always seems very mild when I see her," commented Catherine, +patting her piles into straight lines. "But you can't always tell about +people by looking at them. I, for instance, have all my life been +expected to be lady-like, just because when I was little I hadn't +strength enough to be naughty. And many and many a time I have felt like +doing something wild and shocking!" + +"Why, Catherine Smith!" exclaimed Polly in amazement. "You always seemed +to me a sort of beautiful princess up here on the hill, and, good as any +of the rest of us might try to be, we never could hope to be as good as +you. Have you honestly ever wanted to be bad?" + +Catherine laughed, a funny little gurgling laugh. "I honestly have--not +wicked you know, but--well, reckless! And I never had the courage to do +anything very startling till last year at college." + +She stopped and laughed again. + +"Tell me," Polly insisted. "I'll never tell. What did you do? Was it +fun? Tell me!" + +Catherine's eyes twinkled. "I made up my mind that it was my one chance, +for no one there belonged to me, and my tiresome reputation for +propriety hadn't had time to get started. So one day I got up late, and +was late to breakfast, and cut a class, and--" She laughed so hard that +Polly wanted to shake her. "O, Polly it was such a ridiculous thing to +do! I talked slang and chewed gum!" + +Polly gasped. "Did you like it? What made you stop?" + +"People. They were so astonished. And, besides, I hated the gum. Inez +Dolliver used to chew it with such gusto that I thought it must be +rather good. And the slang sounded so easy and,--O! lighthearted, you +know, and friendly. When you and Hannah Eldred use it, it never seems +offensive, just pleasant and gay. But everyone looked so worried and +puzzled all day at me, that I decided to stop. And next day they seemed +so relieved. I told Dy-the Allen later about it (she's the dearest +thing!) and she was very philosophical. She told me it wasn't becoming +to my general character, just as pink wasn't becoming to my hair. I told +her I had always loved pink, and wanted to wear it, and she suggested +that I wear it at night. It wouldn't show in the dark and it was an +innocent desire; and perhaps if I did that, I'd not want to use slang or +chew gum. I didn't, after I had tried once, anyhow! Polly Osgood, here +we are sitting around and I'm telling you foolish stories about myself, +when we ought to be discussing library matters." + +"The other was more interesting," sighed Polly. "I'm going to give up +slang myself soon. I never did chew gum! But I've been terribly bored +lately by some rather flip young creatures I've had to see more or less, +and I decided to cut it out and talk plain English. What are you smiling +at?" + +Then, as her own earnest sentences came back to her, she reddened a +little, and joined Catherine in smiling. "Isn't that a fright? I mean, +isn't that startling? I didn't know I used it so much. Do you suppose I +can cure myself and still have time and attention to give to starting +the library? It's time we were down there now." + +"All right. I'm ready, as soon as I get my hat. Do you ever wear them at +college?" + +"Never. Now while we go along, tell me just what your idea is. What did +the Hampton ladies say?" + +Catherine thrust her hatpins in, as she hurried down the steps. + +"They advised having some club take it up, for a time at least, and they +thought it would be nice to have it be the Boat Club instead of a +literary one, because the literary ones often have a spirit of +competition, and if one of them started the library the others might not +feel inclined to use it." + +"I see, and the Boat Club, besides being unsectarian and +interdenominational and non-partisan, has a lot of waste enthusiasm and +energy that might just as well be put to work. Father says he is sure +that when the thing is really running, the council will vote a tax and +take it off our hands. You are sure Algernon can run it? I thought it +took years of special training." + +"It does," Catherine answered gravely, "but we could not afford a +trained librarian, and Algernon is intelligent and will study. Miss +Adams gave him hints as to books to get, and she will help him. He can +go over there when he gets into difficulties. She seemed to like him. +They talked about all sorts of technical things,--Algernon had a lot of +information stowed away in his head, of course,--and she didn't seem +bored at all." + +"I've often thought I shouldn't be, if I knew anything about the +subjects he talks about," confessed Polly. "There are Bertha and Agnes." +She trilled to the two girls ahead, who turned and waited. + +On the flat roof of the boat house half a dozen members of the club were +assembled. Polly hastened to take her seat and call the meeting to +order. + +"Max Penfield will act as secretary, and we shall expect the minutes +done in the most approved University style. Archie Bradly, will you +please state the object of the meeting?" + +"Fo' de lan's sake, no!" ejaculated Archie, sitting up and shutting his +knife. "That's the very thing I came to find out!" + +"Very well," said Polly, twinkling. "Then, of course, you will pay close +attention. It will do you more good than carving Andover on the benches. +There's not much space left on them, now, and it's still early in the +season. Catherine, will you tell us the object of the meeting? Ouch!" +for Archie had reached lazily behind her and given one of her yellow +braids a gentle yank. + +"You all know, already," began Catherine, "except perhaps Archie! We've +talked it over with the older people, and they think it's perfectly +practical, only some one or some organization has to take it in charge." + +"What's 'it'?" asked Archie innocently. + +"Why, the library. The Boat Club is going to see that Winsted has a +public library." + +"Turn into Carnegies?" inquired Max, doing a sketch of Geraldine +Winthrop on the margin of the secretary's book. + +"Not exactly. We haven't got our own dock built yet, and I don't think +we are in a position to endow libraries. But I mean we can work and +talk--" + +"Talking's work," complained Archie. "That's redundancy." + +"It is, when you keep interrupting," cried Bertha Davis. "Go on, +Catherine. Don't mind him. Just how can we work?" + +"Well, the room will have to be cleaned thoroughly, and we girls can do +most of that if the boys will help a little. And there will have to be +some plain shelves put up for the books." + +"Me for the carpenter job!" cried a long-legged youth who had lain thus +far in the shade of his own hat, in entire silence and apparent +unconsciousness. "It's just what I want to cure my brain fever." + +"Overstudy? Or overwork reading postals last week?" asked Agnes, smiling +into Bert's half-shut eyes. + +"It's more likely fatty degeneration of the brain, if it's Bert Wyman +that has it," said an emphatic voice, and a spruce energetic maiden +joined the group. "I just got in on the 10:10, and Mother said you were +all over here. What's before the house?" + +"Nothing. We're all on the house," explained Archie dryly, but Polly +answered the question with careful courtesy. Dorcas listened. + +"Very well," she said, when Polly finished. "If it is in order, I move +you, Madam President, that we proceed to clean the library at once." + +"O, Dorcas, not to-day!" groaned two or three, while Max remarked in an +aside to no one that if it was in order it shouldn't need cleaning. + +"Why not to-day?" asked Dorcas briskly. "How you-all can loaf around the +way you do is more than I can comprehend. Dot, your hair is coming +down." + +Dot, who was called Dot, because she was a dot, though her parents had +intended her to go through life as Geraldine, lifted her eyebrows +slightly, and removing her four hairpins, shook down her hair and did it +up again. The process took four seconds. + +"I'd rather have Dot's curls than Dorcas' brains," growled Bert to +Agnes, who reproached him with a look. + +While Dorcas' motion was waiting for a second, there came down the road +two pretty girls, in fluffy gowns, their white sunshades tilted +charmingly. Max slammed the secretary's book shut. + +"Hurry up and let's adjourn," he said, and Archie, suddenly energetic, +seconded the motion and carried it, so far as it concerned himself, by +going out to meet the newcomers and invite them to go canoeing at once. +Max followed suit, and the meeting broke up unceremoniously, but with a +sense of valuable achievement. + +Dorcas, uttering harsh judgments upon the parliamentary methods of Polly +Osgood, and, by inference, of all Wellesley College, attached herself to +Bertha and Agnes for the homeward walk. + +"See here, Dorcas Morehouse," said Bertha so suddenly that her sister +and Dorcas jumped. "If you think that just because you have been to +Chicago University for a quarter, you are going to run us all, this +summer, you are mightily mistaken. Agnes and Dot and I never went away +to school, and neither did Bess nor Winifred, but we aren't stupid, and +we won't have you patronizing us. Catherine Smith is intellectual enough +for any one, and she never snubs or patronizes; and as for Polly Osgood, +you wouldn't dare _hint_ a criticism of Wellesley if she were +within hearing, and you know it. So there! If this library scheme is +good enough for them, it is for the rest of us, and if you don't like +it, you can just stay out of it!" + +Whereupon, Bertha, having delivered herself, even more to her own +astonishment than to any one else's, turned at the first corner and +walked rapidly away, leaving her embarrassed sister to placate the +wrathful Dorcas in any way her gentle heart suggested. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +WITH PAIL AND BROOM + + +"Please forscuse me. Here's the key," and Elsmere held out to Catherine +the aforesaid article, his honeyed voice and polite words matched by a +cherubic smile. + +"The key?" asked Catherine. "O, the key to the library. How did you get +it?" + +"Algy give it to me. I Algy's little help-boy," smiled the cherub. + +Catherine tried to take the key, but it refused to come. + +"What's the matter?" she asked. "It seems to be caught." + +Elsmere squirmed a little. "Tieded," he murmured, and Catherine, bending +closer to investigate, discovered that the key was so secured to the +child's apparel that sharp steel was necessary to sever the connection. + +"Algy hasn't too much confidence in his little help-boy, after all," she +thought. "Thank you, Elsmere. Now run along home like a good boy." + +"No, Elsmere go, too, like a good boy. I help." + +Catherine sighed. The library was to be cleaned that morning as soon as +the girls could be spared by their respective mothers. She had been +waiting for Algernon to bring the key, and had counted on his muscular +assistance in the labor before her. Now, instead, she had only the key, +and that almost as hopelessly affixed to Elsmere as it had been before +she cut it loose. She took up her bundle of rags, scrubbing-brush and +soap resignedly, and calling "Good-by" to Dr. Helen started off down the +hill. On the way she stopped for Agnes, who came out with a broom. +Polly, bearing a pail, met them at the corner. At the library they found +Bertha, mop-laden, pressing her nose against the pane to see inside. + +"Hello!" she called to them. "How can we get hot water?" + +"Let's go over to Henderson's and borrow a little oil stove for a few +hours, and we'll heat the water in this pail. One of you might go to the +pump in the park and get it full now. Whose broom?" touching one, +leaning by the window. + +"Dot's. She came and went off again. Bert passed, driving a ten-cent +express and she hailed him and they've gone over to Mr. Kittredge's to +get the books he promised." + +"The crazy children! Where will we ever put books to-day, with the room +in such a state?" + +Catherine fitted the key to the lock, and the band of cleaners entered, +unrolled their big aprons and began, with much energy and good nature, +to sweep down the walls and ceiling and gather the milliner's rubbish +into two big baskets found in the shed. Elsmere picked over the pile, +making rapturous discoveries. + +"Aren't these very small bushel baskets?" asked Agnes. "They fill up so +fast." + +"They're just about the average size, I think," remarked Catherine. +"They don't vary much more than yardsticks do in length! But I do wish +some of those lazy boys were here to carry them out and empty them for +us." + +"What's that?" asked Max's voice in the doorway. Immaculate in white +flannels, with Bess by his side, bewilderingly beruffled, he viewed the +scene before him dispassionately. + +Catherine and Agnes, red and warm and somewhat dishevelled, returned the +gaze for a moment silently. In that moment an entirely natural +resentment was forced into outward pleasantness. + +"We were just wishing some one was here to make a bonfire of this +_debris_ for us," said Catherine cheerfully, "but never mind. There +comes Polly with a man from Henderson's, and he'll take it out." + +"All right. Wish you luck. We'd stop and help, only we've got to meet +Arch and Win, and we're late already. So long!" and Max lifted his cap, +Bess waved her sunshade, and the two went around the corner out of +sight. + +The man from Henderson's did some lifting very willingly, rescued what +was left of the water Bertha was tugging from the park, lighted the +stove and even stayed to poke the bonfire he made for them in the +street, and keep it from spreading. + +"It's a good thing," he said, as he went away amid a chorus of "Thank +you." "Everybody'd ought to help all they can." + +"I'd like to make him a member of the club," growled Polly, "and turn +one or two people I could mention out." + +"Dorcas doesn't seem so zealous as she did yesterday," remarked +Catherine. "I hope she isn't angry, because we didn't fall in with her +suggestions." + +Bertha looked conscious, and stole a glance at Agnes, but said nothing. +Catherine, catching the look, laughed. + +"Father says Dorcas does us all a lot of good, as a counter-irritant. +Whenever we begin to feel a little cross with each other, we all turn in +and feel very cross with Dorcas. I was simply raging when Max and Bess +sailed by in their purple and fine linen, but at least they hadn't +pretended to be interested, and Dorcas--" + +"She may be busy," said Agnes. "There's a lot of work at their house, +and Dorcas usually does her share. I'll say that much for her, though +she does make me awfully angry sometimes. Where is Elsmere? He might go +over to the store and get something to polish this window-glass with." + +"I don't know. Elsmere! Elsmere! Where are you? Come here, dear." No +response. + +"O, never mind," sighed Catherine wearily. "I'm not responsible for him. +It is a relief to have him out of the way for a while. I wanted to send +him home before, but he had such a sweet lady-like way with him this +morning, I couldn't bring myself to. Girls! Hark!" + +The four laborers had dropped upon a long box to rest a few minutes from +their toil. Their low voices had been the only sound. Now distinctly, in +a remote corner of the room, could be heard a little scratch, scratch. +Then across the floor, serene and fearless, "right where I had been +sweeping," Catherine said later with a shiver, ran a small gray mouse. + +With one accord the four tucked their skirts about them and sat closer. +No one spoke, but each measured the distance to the door with an +accurate eye. And then, silently, but with haste, they beat a swift +retreat. + +The fair wide street before them, the door shut behind them, they drew +deep breaths of relief, though each avoided the others' eyes. + +"Some girls wouldn't mind going right up and killing it," said Polly, +"but I simply could not." + +"Nor I," said Catherine firmly. "I could go to battle or the stake like +Joan of Arc, but I draw the line at mice." + +"What's the matter? What are you all out here for? I thought you came to +clean." + +It was Dorcas, of course. The girls hung their heads with shame, and +Bertha, who had defied her so boldly when last they met, answered with +meekness. + +"We did. But there's a mouse." + +Dorcas looked them all over with an expression of deep scorn. + +"Give me the key," she said, and it was given to her. + +Then the fearful ones flattened their faces against the unwashed +window-pane to see what would happen. The little gray creature placidly +nibbled a tidbit in a corner. Dorcas approached him. He lifted his head +and regarded her. She faltered a little and glanced behind her. She even +felt hastily of her skirts. The respect in the watching faces lightened +a little. Every woman is born knowing how mice delight to hide in +skirts. + +After a moment Dorcas opened the door and came out, passed the group of +watchers without a word and crossed the street to Henderson's. Coming +back a minute later with a trap, she re-entered the room, set the trap +and waited. So did the others, breathless, clinging to each other. Bert +and Dot, driving up on their ten-cent express, saw that something +unusual was going on, and drove quietly around into the alley. Peeping +in at the back window, they took in the situation quickly: Dorcas on one +side of the room, the little gray mouse on the other, the trap between. +The silence lasted for several seconds. Then came a sharp crack! And +Dorcas, throwing her arm across her eyes, ran out of the room with a +shriek and fell upon Agnes, who was nearest. + +"He's killed," she sobbed. "I--I saw him!" + +"So he is," soothed Agnes. "None of the rest of us would have dared set +the trap, if we had been bright enough to think of it. There! It was +harrowing, but it's all over now." + +"No, no," shuddered Dorcas. "He's in there yet, and he's _dead_!" + +Catherine spied Bert's two mischievous eyes looking around the corner of +the building. In an instant she had despatched him to clear the room of +its horror, and was bringing Dot, a protesting prisoner, to join the +group. + +"Where did you come from?" asked every one, while Dorcas collected +herself. + +"O, our chariot's just outside," answered Dot. "We saw you all peeping +in, so we drove around behind to have a look ourselves. Got there in +time to see the final fatality. Dorcas was heroic until she won. Are you +girls honestly afraid of mice?" + +"I am of live ones," confessed Catherine. + +"I am of dead ones," said Dorcas. + +"Dead or alive, they, 'turn my blood to ice within me, and make the +breath of my heart wax pale,' as the lecturer said last night," said +Polly. "But now that you dare-devil people have cleared the field for +action, we may as well go in and scrub. We'd only just finished +sweeping. Dot, you may take the death-bed boards. And, O, there comes +Bert, back from the funeral. As President of the Winsted Boat Club and +Library Association, I hereby appoint you and Geraldine Winthrop a +Standing Mouse Committee with full power to act." + +"Dorcas to be official executioner, I trust," and Bert held the door +open for Dorcas, bowing low as she passed. + +That afternoon the B. C. & L. A. gathered in force. Even Tom Davis, +brother of Bertha and Agnes, asked for a half-day's vacation and helped +Algernon whitewash. Bert had impressed Max into carpentering, and the +work of bookcase-building went on noisily inside the shed. The girls sat +on the weedy patch of ground outside, sewing sash curtains. + +"It would be quicker to make them on the machine at home, but not nearly +so much fun," said Agnes. "How many books did you and Bert gather up +this morning, Dot?" + +"Fifty-three volumes besides Miss Ainsworth's. Those were already over +here in the shed. Where is Archie?" + +"He and Winifred are coming. They were going to bring a rug Win's mother +said we could have, and two lamps." + +"They will enjoy carrying them over this hot afternoon!" said Bess, +deftly hemming a curtain. "But it can't be so bad as this morning. +Girls, we had a perfectly dreadful time. It was all on account of that +terrible little Swinburne boy. You see, we thought we'd take the big +Penfield boat, instead of the canoes, and just as we were pushing off, +that child stepped into the boat from the dock and announced serenely +that he was going boating-ride. He did look dear, and quite clean, and +we all knew that it was hard to make him change his mind, so we let him +come. He sat very still and was as good as gold till we had got a long +way from home, and then he began." + +Catherine sighed appreciatively. "I can imagine, Bess dear. But do tell +us." + +"You can't imagine. Nobody could. He talked a blue streak. And the +things he said! He asked what he was made of, and how God got the eyes +in. He told about somebody's having a tooth out and went into dreadful +details. And then he got off on a worse tack, and asked Archie where his +wife was, and when Archie said he wasn't married, he sighed and looked +so sorry, and said: 'Wasn't you _ever_ marwied, Archie? Not even +once?' He simply spoiled our morning. It wasn't so much what he did say, +as what we thought he might be going to. We had to turn around and come +home long before we wanted to, just on account of that child." + +"If you had only thought to have Win sing to him," said Catherine. "He +will drop off to sleep with the least assistance, even when he seems +widest awake, and Win's lullabies are irresistible. There! that's the +last curtain. And there come Archie and Win with a donkey-cart, +and--why, what do you think they have? It can't be just a rug and two +lamps." + +Every one broke off work to go to meet the donkey-cart, a low, long, box +affair, with Winifred and Archie on the seat, and a quantity of +furniture and boxes in the back. + +Algernon, still holding a brush, took the donkey by the bridle and +backed him up. + +"There, unload everything. It's all right. I sent these folks after +them. Didn't have time to go myself. Yes, yes, they belong here. The +Three R's sent the table." + +With eager exclamations, the boys and girls unloaded six chairs, an oak +table, a rocker, a box spilling over with stationery and colored cards, +a miscellaneous lot of books, two neat rugs and half a dozen lamps of a +variety of styles and shapes. + +"The Three R's gave the table and chairs," explained Algernon, "and Mrs. +Kittredge said to call at her house for the rocker and some of those +lamps. And these other things I bought. Miss Crockett over at Hampton +told me what to order and they came to-day, and I opened them up at the +house." + +Catherine came up beside Algernon and watched him unpack the boxes of +cards, pens, paper clips, mending tissue, paste, shears and other new +and shining articles. She was distinctly surprised. A large share of +their little capital must have gone into these purchases. And Algernon +had told no one, not even herself, that he was buying them. + +Dorcas caught up a sheet of the paper. + +"It seems to me it's rather fresh of you to spend the association's +money for paper with your name on it, without knowing whether the +permanent organization will want you or not." + +The glow faded from Algernon's eyes. The consideration with which he had +been treated these last few days had taught him to estimate properly the +tolerance which had been all he had received before. Catherine, even, +looked puzzled and not quite pleased. + +"O, I say," he protested sadly. "You don't think I'd go and spend the +public money, do you? I thought it would be fun to have these things all +ready. I didn't know you'd rather have had me give the money and let the +rest of you send in the order. I just did it for my share,--I'm awfully +sorry." + +Catherine lifted her head brightly. + +"Indeed, you did exactly right. None of us would have known half so +wisely how to use it. What did I tell you people? How many towns have +librarians who work without pay, and furnish all their materials +besides?" + +Bert suddenly mounted the seat of the donkey-cart. + +"What's the matter with the Boat Club?" he inquired hoarsely. + +"We're all right," modestly replied the Boat Club, boys and girls +together. + +"What's the matter with the Three R's?" + +"They're all right." + +"What's the matter with the library?" + +"It's all right." + +"And now three cheers and a tiger for A. Swinburne, librarian. Hip, hip, +hooray!" + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +A DAY OFF + + +"Not going over to the library to work to-day?" + +"Not this morning. Mother Nature says I'd better not." + +Dr. Helen put her hand on her daughter's forehead. "Too tired?" she +queried, with a note of anxiety in her voice. It had been only in the +last year or so that Catherine had been well enough to do the things +other girls did, and she was always on the lookout for indications of +over-exertion. + +"No," answered Catherine, pulling her mother's firm strong hand down to +her lips and kissing it. "And I don't intend to become so. Things can +wait for a day, or the others can go on without me. I'm going to be a +private citizen and stay at home and mend. Can't you sit and sew too, +Mother?" + +"Perhaps I can for half an hour," said Dr. Helen, "and you certainly +need to give your clothes some attention. When you go up stairs to get +your things, bring down that brown silk waist, and I'll make the collar +over for you." + +In a few minutes the two were cozily settled in the little alcove off +the big book-lined living-room, a pleasant breeze bringing morning +freshness in by way of an open window. + +"Mother," said Catherine suddenly, "you and Father have brought me up +very differently from most girls." + +"How?" + +"Why, about taking care of myself. Some of the really nice girls seem to +think it's perfectly all right to be sick, even when it could have been +avoided. And some of them think it's rather fine to be ailing." + +"Do you mean they want to be petted? That's natural enough." + +"Not just that. I don't mind that. But Dy-the Allen--" + +"Stop a minute, Catherine. Once for all, what is her ridiculous name? I +have wanted to know for nearly a year and never think to ask." + +Catherine laughed. "She was christened Edith, but when she was in High +School she had a silly streak and wrote it with a 'y' for the 'i' and an +'e' on the end, so her brother called her E-dy-the, the way it looks, +you know, just to tease her, and it turned into Dy-the and stayed that, +though she signs herself Edith. She is one of the very dearest girls I +ever knew, and how we shall get along without her next year at Dexter is +more than I can guess. All the little preps adore her. But that was the +very thing that made me crossest about her carelessness. She would go +out in the snow with little thin dancing slippers on and lace stockings, +and then take a horrible cold and be ill for days, and shut herself up +in her room and have everybody bringing her flowers and meals and +writing her notes. And then all her little satellites did similar things +and it made a lot of bother for everybody. Little Hilda went to see a +measles child because she thought it was fine to be reckless the way +Dy-the is, and then she gave it to her roommate and two other girls. I +got quite angry once and let Dy-the know just how it looked to me. I +told her she ought to be ashamed to disobey Nature and be sent to bed +for it, and she only laughed and quoted things from Stevenson about +people who live on tepid milk and wear tin shoes. I told her Stevenson +certainly tried to look out for his own health, for all that, but I +couldn't make her think it a serious matter at all. She just laughed. +She's such a dear, she doesn't know how to be angry, Dy-the doesn't," +and Catherine smiled, in spite of her own earnestness, at the visions +the name brought to her mind. + +"Here comes somebody else of the dear variety," said Dr. Helen. "Go and +let Polly in." + +"She doesn't need to be let in," said that young person, appearing with +the words. "She let her own self in. I'm on an errand, Catriona darling. +I want your mother's advice and yours. What do you think of a regular +library opening, with refreshments and all that? And have people bring +books for admission fees?" + +"Do sit down, Polly, and rest for a minute. You look as though you +expected to be called to the telephone." + +Polly dropped, sighing, into a comfortable chair. + +"It does feel good to let down for a minute," she admitted. "I get so +into the habit of tearing through space at college that I can't stop +rushing for a month after I get home, and this library business has kept +me jumping. I suppose the public could get on a day or two longer +without it, seeing they have so many years. I worked all day yesterday +with Algernon, and then in the evening it was too hot to stay in the +house, and the mosquitoes were so thick outside that it was harder work +trying to keep comfortable than anything I had done all day." + +"They are worse than ever this year," sighed Dr. Helen, "and, really, I +think they are harder to bear when we all know that a little +public-spirited co-operation would rid us of them. Can't you get the +people who draw books at the new library to agree to sprinkle the +breeding-places with oil?" + +Polly suddenly chuckled. "I beg your pardon, Dr. Helen, for being rude, +but I just remembered a woman who addressed an open air meeting on the +campus this spring. She was a missionary returned from somewhere and she +appeared at one of the houses and wanted to talk, so we got a few girls +together on the lawn to hear her. The mosquitoes were simply unbearable. +We all sat there slapping ourselves and making grabs at the air, and +trying to look interested, and then she opened her Bible and read about +being encompassed about with a cloud of witnesses: That was bad enough, +when you could see them settling all about us like a great dotted veil, +but nobody cracked a smile until she gave out the hymn. And that, if you +please, was 'My soul be on thy guard, ten thousand foes arise!' You know +how it goes." And Polly sang: + + "'Ne'er think the vict'ry won, + Nor once at ease sit down, + Thy arduous work will not be done + Till thou obtain thy crown.'" + +"She might have asked for 'Christian, up and smite them,'" said Dr. +Helen. "Now, children, I should like nothing better than to sit and hear +college yarns all the morning, but I have an office hour to keep. +Catherine, did you tell Inga to order peas for dinner?" + +"That reminds me," said Polly, springing up. "Mamma wanted me to do some +marketing before I came home, and I was forgetting it entirely. And I +haven't found out yet what you think of the opening!" + +"I should think it would be a good way to advertise it and get people +interested. We ought to get a lot of books, too, though they wouldn't +all be worth much. Are you going to work to-day? I decided I'd have to +take a day off." + +"I don't believe any one will go down. Win won't, because Max has gone +up to Madison to take a re in Trig and she won't bother about anything +when he's not around. Dorcas said she'd see to the card-pockets at +home--her Sunday-school class will do it, poor infants! And Bertha and +Agnes have to help their mother because she's going to have the Ladies' +Aid this afternoon. They are the best pair of workers I ever saw." + +"Aren't they? Bess was fine about the curtains, too. She is so +changeable, though, that I don't know what to think of her." + +"Only a question of whether there's a man body about, my dear," said +Polly oracularly. "Many a girl is all right and sensible when there are +just girls around, but let a lad heave in sight, and the whole situation +is altered. I've known Bess since she came to Winsted in a ruffled white +apron, and no one can teach me anything about her. Now, having dissected +all my friends, I think I really must do my marketing." + +"We haven't said anything about Dot, the dear," said Catherine, +following Polly to the door. + +"Dot, the dear," echoed Polly. "That's all there is to say about her. +Good-by, honey. To-morrow we'll go at it for a grand finale. That was +the name of the last piece in my first music book, and I always like to +say it. It sounds so complete, someway. You don't know, Catherine," and +Polly stopped on the last step to look up at her tall friend, "how +pleasant it makes things to have you in them. I'm just loving this +library work, and so are the rest of us. Playing with you is like having +one's Sunday doll all the week, or as if the princess in the fairy +stories had turned into a real mortal. Good-by this time for truly +true!" + +Humming a Wellesley song, Polly was off down the walk at a brisk pace, +and Catherine, who had answered her last words with a look more +expressive than speech, stood watching her a minute, and then went +happily back to her mending. + +The grocer's boy, who arrived with the peas a little later, also brought +the mail. He was devoted to Inga and enjoyed doing gratuitous favors for +the doctor's family for her sake. Inga brought in two letters to +Catherine, who joyfully dropped her darning and tore them open. + +"_Belovedest Goldilocks;_" the first began, in Hannah Eldred's +writing, not much improved in the two years she and Catherine had been +corresponding. + +"We are here at the shore for the summer, or that part of it which must +pass before I come flying out to you with Frieda. Mamma and I are here +all the time and Dad and Herr Karl come out for Sundays. + +"People are so puzzled about Karl. I say over and over: 'No, not my +tutor. No, not a cousin. Not even a ward of my father's. Just a German +boy we learned to know in Berlin, and now a student at Harvard. Yes, we +met him quite simply. He lived in the apartment under us, and he had +hurt his leg and couldn't walk, and we used to entertain him. Frieda +Lange and I did. It was at her house we were staying. His father is Herr +Director Von Arndtheim, and they are very respectable!' People at a +summer resort, even a little one, are the curiousest in the world, +_I_ think! + +"Who do you think is coming to spend a few days with us next week? Nice +old Inez! I'm awfully glad she is coming, but honestly I do hope she has +learned to put her clothes on straight and to keep her room tidy. She's +so good, and so faithful that I love her anyhow, but Mother does like +neat guests dreadfully well! She would love you for a guest, Catherine. +But there! You always are just ex-actly right, without the tiniest +drawback,--unless Dexter has changed you. Has it? + +"I feel as though I were having my second childhood. It was so nice to +be at college that term with the grown-up girls, and now I have to go +with infants like little Hilda and Gertrude, only not so nice. I had +first year Math in High School, you know, last year, and my German Prof +regarded me as a babe and wouldn't let me read things because I wasn't +old enough--things that weren't suitable for children. Frieda's mother +has never let her read a love story, you know, and this man has the same +idea! He talked to me, the stiffest conversation lessons you ever heard. +It was like the dialogues in Ruskin. I wonder what he would think if he +should hear Karl and me sometimes. We jabber it all the time, he and +Mamma and I. Dad won't let us when he's around, so we talk English then, +and that instructs Karl. He's good except for his pronunciation. You +should hear him do the Harvard yell! He rolls the 'r's' so far he almost +loses them. They are even worse than you-ers, my western de-ar. + +"We are going to have a hop to-night, a really hop, and I am going. They +can't put me off with the children because I haven't any nurse or +governess, and there aren't any other girls between infants and real +young ladies. The hop won't be very big, because there are only a few +families (it's not a fashionable place, you know), but we'll have a +perfectly good time all the same. I am so pleased to be going as a +_Herrschaft_, and I have a darling new frock for this and +everything. It's a soft rosy silk with tiny tight rosebuds all over it. +And I have a little wreath of buds to wear in my hair. There are two or +three awfully nice people coming over. One of Karl's classmates at +Harvard, and two boys from the Tech and a nice curly-haired freshman +from Dartmouth. And there is a Smith girl, perfectly charming, and a +rather frumpy one from Wellesley who knows your Polly Osgood, or rather +knows who she is. This girl's name is Violet, and I saw a letter +addressed to her and her middle initial was E, and I asked if her name +was Ethelyn, but she said it was Emma! + +"I _wish_ you could see my little hop-gown. And the dear wreath. It +makes me think of Ivy-Planting Day at Dexter and the way the seniors +sang 'Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.' Wasn't Lilian the sweetest +thing? She is studying in Boston this year, you know, and I saw her +once. And weren't the little pig-tailed preps dear with their pink +doves, I mean pink-ribboned doves? That was your pretty idea, my +beautiful Catherine. I never could have thought of anything so lovely. + +"I'm almost at the bottom of the inkstand, and I haven't told you yet +what I started to write about. But Mamma has written your mother, so +it's all right. Frieda is to land the last of July, and I'm going to +take her out to you as soon after that as your mother and mine think +best. I think she will need a long time to get acquainted, don't you? I +know you will love each other, but she must know you thoroughly before +college opens. It is tantalizing to think of you and her and Alice all +being together. I do think I ought to be there, too, since I was the one +who introduced you to each other. I'd like to keep Frieda with me next +year, but every one seems to think the best place for her is right in +the dormitory with the other girls,--and of course, it will be easier +for her out there than in any of the big colleges nearer us. She is so +obstinate she wouldn't learn English if she were near any one who could +talk anything she would recognize for German. What most of the girls at +college talk for that, she wouldn't know from Choctaw. + +"Lots of love to the dear doctors, and for yourself bushels and quarts +and pecks. I had a card from Miss Lyndesay from the Isle of Wight +yesterday. + +"Now I must shut, as Frieda said in her last letter! + + "Your loving Hannah." + +Catherine gathered up the scattered pages of this voluminous letter and +then opened the slender one which had accompanied it. This bore a far +western postmark, and its neat little pages resembled copperplate. + +"_My Dear Roommate:_ + +"I'm waiting for a youth to whom I am to give a toot lesson. He is very +stupid. I have him in Greek and English literature. In Greek he +translates the word for Lord, 'Cyrus.' We have been reading the New +Testament, and you can think how very oddly that would come in, in some +passages! And in an English test he assured me that Milton wrote +_Pilgrim's Progress_, and the author of Bacon's _Essays_ was +Charles Lamb. He makes me wonder whether I shall have courage enough to +tackle teaching as a profession, if tutoring is so difficult. But I like +his money very well, and Mother is going away for a real vacation and +will take Cora, and that couldn't happen if I hadn't found work this +summer. + +"I have a Sunday-school class, too, and that is entertaining, at least. +It is at a mission, and such queer dirty little chaps as are in it! + +"I started in to teach them an alphabet of Christian graces, or +desirable qualities. The first week we had A for Attention, and the +second, B for Bravery, and the third week I thought they all had the +idea, and asked them to guess what C would be. They thought very hard, +and then one piped out: 'Cabbages!' The same little boy told me that the +priests burned _insects_ in the temple! + +"My whole letter seems to be nothing but my pupils' absurdities. But +really I have very little else to write about that would interest any +one. I'm busy all day, and too tired at night to read or write. I take +more pleasure getting acquainted with my darling little brother Jack +again, than in anything else I do. He has been Ariel now for a week, and +it's very convenient, for there are many errands to be done. He sleeps +at night in a cow-slip bell, very romantically, but I have no hope the +spell will last. He will be a robber chief or a street-car conductor +next week. The poetry in his system is in streaks, not continuous. O! +that reminds me--and it's the last 'bright saying' I shall quote in this +letter, I promise you! He asked me rather shyly the other day what +poetry was, and after I had attempted to explain, he said: 'It's queer, +Allie. I thought it was chickens!' + +"Here comes my pupil, looking very sad. I wish he didn't regard me as an +old, old woman. I suppose I seem so to him, but I do hate to feel for +two hours a day that I have lost all my youth. + +"When does Hannah come? And Frieda? I am all eagerness to see her. Did +you carry my embroidered waist home with you by any chance? I can't find +it, and I really need it. + +"My love to your mother, always. + + "Faithfully yours, + + "Alice Barbara." + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +THE OPENING + + +The opening of the library had been vigorously advertised. Bert and Dot +had wheeled the country roads over within a radius of three miles from +town, posting bills of announcement. The ministers urged it upon their +congregations as a civic duty to attend. At social gatherings the week +before nothing else was talked of. And everybody was going to bring +books. + +"Such a lot of trash as we'll get!" groaned Dorcas. + +"I know it," assented Polly, "but they will all take an interest, and +that is what we are after now. Once properly established, we can buy +good books, and these old ones will just stand idle or wear out or get +lost or something." + +"I don't think it's very appropriate to serve refreshments," objected +Dorcas once more. "And Algernon doesn't think it is a dignified way to +do." + +"O, well," put in Catherine, appeasingly. "Mrs. Graham says, you know, +that we'll 'have to get people pretty well educated readin' our +encyclopedias and dictionaries before they'll think anything's worth +goin' to that there ain't somethin' to eat at!' And Mrs. Graham is going +to take charge of all that part, anyhow, so I don't feel like finding +fault. There won't be any expense, with everything contributed." + +"They might have given the money instead of ice-cream and cakes." + +"O, Dorcas, Dorcas, you would expect people to be all made over. Did you +ever read Stevenson's fable of the reformer who thought the first step +in reforming the world was to abolish mankind? Let's not worry about it. +I know it's going to be a success. Isn't this room the cleanest spot you +ever saw?" And Catherine threw back her arms with a gesture to rest her +tired shoulders, and looked about her with affection and pride. Bare +white walls, with one good engraving, loaned by Judge Arthur, for +ornament; plain shelves with rows of neat books, their orderly labels +smiling like sets of teeth; the reading-table in the exact center of the +room, with three chairs in military array on each side of it, and a few +contributed magazines in mathematical piles between two student lamps; +and last, Algernon's small charging desk, with its mysterious cards and +rubber stamps under one of the bracket lamps, shining from the polishing +Agnes had just given it. + +"Isn't it spick and span?" repeated Catherine, sitting down with +precision in the arm-chair, discovered in somebody's attic. + +"Ye-es," answered Dot slowly, dropping upon one of the arms. "But for +all its cleanness it's about as bare and as inviting as the contagious +ward of a hospital, or the dining-room of a state's prison." + +"Don't say discouraging things like that, Dot dear," pleaded Agnes, +taking the other arm and snuggling her head against Catherine's cheek. +"A library isn't supposed to be a parlor, and that engraving is really +valuable." + +"I'd rather have a chromo that comes with soap, myself," said Bert. "Its +cold steely look only adds to that hygienic and sanitary aspect Dot +detected. It makes me homesick for sunflowers and red flannel." + +"I have an idea," and Dorcas rose and departed with her usual +abruptness. + +As she went out of the door, Bess came in. + +"O dear!" she said. "Are you all here? I hoped nobody would be." + +"Shall we withdraw?" asked Bert. "We were just commenting on the +barrenness of this place, but your presence causes it to blossom as the +rainbow. We bask in the refulgence." + +Bess laughed. "That's really what I came for, to prettify it a little. +It seemed such a pity not to have anything bright and attractive on the +walls, so I made this at odd minutes. Do you all like it? I was going to +put it up and surprise you." + +She unrolled a big parcel she carried and the others, crowding around to +see, looked upon a beautifully illuminated motto: + + "God be thanked for books." + +"Bess, you are an inspired angel," cried Polly, while Catherine gave her +a squeeze which was meant to express pleasure and also compunction for +more than one reflection that Bess was not doing her share for the +library. + +"And here comes another," exclaimed Agnes, running to open the door for +Dorcas, staggering under the weight of a great armful of golden glow. + +"Dorcas, you must have taken every stalk you had!" + +"Well, and whose business is it, I'd like to know?" asked Dorcas briskly +and justly. Polly shrugged her shoulders, but helped Bertha to find +receptacles for the bright flowers, continuing to exclaim over their +beauty, in spite of Dorcas' apparent indifference. It had not been +Algernon alone who had been misunderstood at the beginning of the +library campaign in Winsted. The flowers arranged effectively, and the +motto given a place where it could be read from all parts of the room, +the workers trudged off to their respective homes to make elaborate +toilets before the "party" should begin. + +Seven o'clock found the lamps lighted inside the little building, and +Japanese lanterns making the freshly-mown weed patch a festive place, +with little tables set for the ice-cream and cake which were to be +served from the shed, leaving the library proper, clean and crumbless. +Bess and Winifred, with their attendant squires, were to act as Mrs. +Graham's lieutenants outside, and the other members of the club were +variously on duty within. Dr. Helen assisted Algernon and the school +superintendent in receiving--an unsectarian combination warranted to +disturb no prejudice. Bertha, with a book and pen, was ready at the +reading-table to receive and register gifts. Catherine sat at Algernon's +desk to issue cards, and take in the annual fee of fifty cents. The +other girls and boys were "floating," ready to entertain the guests, to +explain the whole scheme, and see to it that every one was invited to +the lawn for "light refreshments and ice-cream" as the _Courier_ +had announced. + +The fathers and mothers of the Boat Club were early arrivals, looking +with proud amused eyes upon their spotless sons and daughters in their +disinterested public zeal. First of all came Mrs. Swinburne in a long +black net gown elaborately spangled, her hair coquettishly arranged in a +Janice Meredith curl, several years out of date, a slender ivory-sticked +fan, somewhat broken, swaying from her belt by a long ribbon. She +plainly felt that her entrance should excite attention and was by no +means disappointed. Dot and Polly took her in charge and stood by with +grave courteous faces while she gave Bertha her contribution, wrapped up +in tissue paper and white ribbon. + +"It's a copy of _The Ring and The Book_ I got for Elsmere's +Christmas last year. I wanted so to read it. I am devoted to Byron. But +Algernon gave me the _Complete Works_, so that I felt I could give +this away to advantage. It is a little damaged. The dear child uses his +books to build stables with, but I knew that the public would not mind." + +She arched her eyebrows in surprise when Catherine asked fifty cents for +the card she made out for her. "As Algernon's mother, really, Miss +Catherine, I did not expect--" and Catherine, catching Algernon's +imploring glance from his position between the doctor and the +superintendent, murmured an apology and gave the card. + +Then Mrs. Swinburne sank delicately into the arm-chair, and rested her +eyes upon the scene before her. + +It was soon sufficiently animated. A whole family arrived at once, +climbing out of a big farm wagon. Dot beckoned to Bert. + +[Illustration: "'How much for your tickets?'"--_Page 77._] + +"It's that man we talked to out on the Ridge Road." + +"Is this your liberry?" asked a mighty voice from the doorway. "Where's +the young fellow that invited us to come in this evening? O, it's you, +is it? I didn't recognize you with those clothes on. Men folks didn't +wear white pants in my day. Well, Mother, come along in. I guess they +won't nobody bite you." + +With this encouragement, a little washed-out looking woman slipped +uncomfortably in, six children of various degrees of awkwardness +stumbling after her, studiously avoiding the outstretched hands of the +receiving committee. Dr. Helen stepped forward and took the woman's +hand. The wan face under the dusty black straw hat lighted with the +smile that Catherine loved to see her mother call forth. + +"Clary," said the little woman proudly, "here's the doctor. Let her see +how fat and well you be. Not much like she was that winter!" + +Clary's father, meanwhile, was walking about the room with a tread that +rattled the lamp-shades. He looked the books over with an air of wisdom, +listened to Bert's talk in silence, and presently drew up at the desk +where Catherine sat waiting for customers. + +"How much for your tickets?" + +"Fifty cents." + +"Family rates?" + +Catherine met the unforeseen question promptly. + +"Where there are more than three in a family, the tickets are only +thirty-five cents apiece." + +"So. Well, give me one," and he drew a handful of small change from his +pocket. "Holcomb's the name. Chester G. Holcomb." + +Catherine inscribed the name in her pretty even hand upon a blue card, +numbered it 2, and handed it to her patron. He laid down thirty-five +cents and turned away. + +"O," said Catherine, flushing softly. "You didn't understand. It is only +when you get three cards that they are cheap like that." + +Chester Holcomb, known as the biggest miser in the county, grunted. + +"You said if they was more than three in the family, and they's six +children besides ma and me. I knowed there was some skin game about this +thing, somewheres. Here's your ticket and you give me back my money." + +Catherine, almost as near tears as she had ever been in her singularly +well-controlled existence, obeyed him. + +"Good evening, Chester." Dr. Harlow had been standing near, and now +decided to take a hand. "Let me introduce my daughter. Catherine, this +is Mr. Holcomb, of whom you've heard us speak." + +"The father of the dear twin babies?" asked Catherine, with a grateful +throb for her father's help. + +"That's them yonder," answered Chester Holcomb, swelling proudly. "Mate, +bring the twins here, so't the doctor's gal can see 'em. Weighed five +pounds when they was born, and look at 'em now! Best fatted live stock +on the farm, I say, Doctor." And Mr. Holcomb's great laugh at his own +witticism filled the room. Catherine, meanwhile, with the sincerity of a +girl who really loves all babies, admired the plump twins to such a +degree that their father felt himself melting with benevolence. + +"Mate," he said suddenly, "think you'd like to read any of these here +books? Doc, make you acquainted with my daughter Sadie. Graduated from +the district school this spring and goin' to town High School this fall. +Guess the' ain't any of the readin'-matter here that's beyond Sadie! +Here, Miss, give us three of them tickets,--that one I had and two more. +Mrs. Chester Holcomb and Miss Sadie Ditto. There! Keep the change," and +gathering up the three cards, he threw a silver dollar heavily upon the +table and turned away. Catherine and her father looked at each other and +laughed outright. + +"No man has ever got the best of Chester in a bargain," said Dr. Harlow, +"and I judge no woman ever will! Allow me to make up the deficit. It has +been worth more than that as entertainment!" + +By this time the room was full. It was a motley crowd, as all classes of +Winsted were represented. The would-be Smart Set in rather elaborate +hats and gowns, mingled with the quieter Three R's, and their own maid +servants and the "gentlemen friends" of the latter. All the standbys, +who are always on hand at church doings and the County Fair, were out in +force. There was the oldest inhabitant, bestowing his presence with the +"nunc dimittis" air which had characterized him since old age had given +him the distinction vainly sought in other fields. There was old Mis' +Tuttle in her best black and orange bonnet, and Emeline Winslow with her +wig over one ear and a bouquet of artificial flowers under glass as her +contribution. With her came Grandma Hopkins, whose name was the only +nimble thing about her;--ponderous and elephantine, she had once, in +calling upon a fragile little old lady, stumbled in the doorway and +fallen upon her hostess, whose brittle bones had snapped under the +strain. Polly and Dorcas constituted themselves a committee to look out +for the elderly ones, taking great pains to keep Grandma Hopkins in open +spaces where a fall would do little damage. There was a very bony woman +with a smile which was surprising, it was so soft and radiant. She +brought a fat story of the Bible for the children, and offered Algernon +flowers from her garden for all summer. "Flowers are good for the soul +and the mind as well as books," she explained, "and if so be some one +comes in and can't find the book they want, 'twon't hurt 'em to see a +posy." + +There was the Sloan family, decked out in the leavings of a milliner's +shop and bringing as offering a worn copy of one of Mary J. Holmes' +novels. There was a good-hearted lady, so disastrously given to +expressing enthusiasm by embracing anyone within her reach that the +heroes and heroines of the evening fought shy of her, and Tom made her +well-known tendency an excuse for withdrawing altogether and going out +to the fence behind the building where he could overlook the festive +scene and smoke a cigar surreptitiously. Not least "among those present" +was the ubiquitous reporter for the _Courier_, biting his pencil +and using abbreviations in his notes with such freedom that the +list of gifts, when finally published, contained such startling +entries as: _Eliza and her Germ Garden_, and _The Victorious +Anthropology_. + +"I felt as though I were in a dream half the time," sighed Polly, when +the crowd had dwindled to "the immediate mourners" as Max put it, and +these were sitting wearily at the messy little tables, dipping idle +spoons into the melted cream that had been with difficulty saved for +them. "I kept on smiling and explaining and telling people to go to +Catherine for cards and to Bertha to leave their gifts, and half the +time I didn't know what I was saying or who was talking to me. Bert came +up once and asked me to tell him which door he came in at, and I tried +to find out for him, before I tumbled--before I saw the point, I mean. I +never was so exhausted in all my life." + +"Poor Algernon," said Tom. "You're just beginning your work. Every one +of those hundred and sixty-seven cards will be in to-morrow to draw out +a book. You ought to keep open for a week every day." + +"Three times a week, with evenings, will be enough," replied A. +Swinburne, librarian. "There's a big job on those books that came in +to-night. How many were there finally, Bertha?" + +"Ninety-six. About twenty are worth putting labels on," answered Bertha +cheerfully. "I'm a little inclined to think that that part of our plan +was a mistake." + +"I don't believe it," said Dot. "There was one old duck who brought a +German primer, and he strutted around as though he owned the place. I'm +sure he'll use it constantly." + +"He seemed to think he ought to have a card free, because he gave it," +put in Catherine. "I remember him! He wasn't the only one, though. They +all--or a lot of them--seemed to think they ought to be able to draw any +number of books on one card, and they don't like the idea of fines at +all. I don't envy you, Algernon!" + +"We ought to have called ourselves the Looking For Trouble Club," +groaned Archie. "We haven't had a decent Boat Club picnic since we got +into this mess. And look at all this place to clean up to-morrow! I'm +about dead with work, already. I don't know about the rest of you." + +The rest had strength enough for a chorus of hoots and jeers at "His +Laziness," who had adorned the scene of their labor for a few minutes +now and then, but for the most part had stayed strictly away. + +"I've saved your lives, anyway," declared Archie cheerfully, when their +derision had spent itself. "And I'm going to again. I hired a lovely +scrub-lady to come to-morrow and make this spot look shipshape--" + +"O, Archie!" cried the girls, "you beautiful boy!" + +"Don't interrupt," said the beautiful boy sternly. "I am going to +vindicate myself. Polly Osgood, didn't that tennis game Friday morning +save you from collapse? How about that little canoe jaunt on the quiet +yesterday, Catherine? Bess needed a drive Thursday, and Winifred did +more good to the public by singing to me all that hot evening than the +rest of you did slaving away over some gooey job or other. Dorcas let me +reward her Sunday-school kids by a hay-rack ride, and she went along to +take care of us. Agnes and Bertha got interrupted on their way down here +one morning, and let themselves be persuaded to take a country walk +instead, to show me birds' nests for a course I'm not ever going to take +next year. And as for Dot,--O, Dot was shamelessly ready to go off any +old time with any old body. But you all would have been nervous wrecks +by now without me. And you call me names, like an ungrateful populace!" + +It was a mirth-provoking series of revelations. "Archie has shown +himself a most artistic sly-boots," said Catherine. "I never had more +delicious conscience pangs than I did on that canoe-ride." + +"So it was with me," declared Polly. "And I never dared say anything +sarcastic about the other girls not turning up every time, because I +felt so guilty myself." + +"So did I!" cried Bertha and Agnes together. + +"Well, so didn't I!" exclaimed Dot. "I was perfectly free to say all the +time that I didn't intend to spend my whole summer or even ten days of +it working harder than I do winters. I move that Archie be given a vote +of thanks for introducing the Rest Cure into the Boat Club, and also a +vote of admiration for the beauty of his dissimulation." + +"I second the motion," said Archie himself, "and amend it to include +going home. Want any help in locking up, Al?" + +"No, thanks," said Algernon, hearing for the first time a nickname that +any fellow might have had applied to himself. "Good night, all of you. +I'll take good care of things, you can count on that." + +As the rest drifted in pairs and threes toward their homes, a +well-content young man set the reading-chairs in their places, put out +the low-burning lamps, turned the key in the lock, and walked briskly +away, happier than he had ever been. + +Even so early, Catherine's inspiration had shown itself a true one. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +A PARTY AT POLLY'S + + +"Where you goin', Algy?" + +Algernon, half-way down the walk, turned at these words, high and clear, +floating down from upper regions. + +In the balcony on the second floor Elsmere, clad airily in white +night-drawers, leaned pensively over the railing. + +"To the party, you know. Go back to bed, Sonny." + +"But the party is to Peter and Perdita's, over there,--" with a gesture +across the street. "Why do you be goin' that way?" The fat little arm +waved in an opposite direction. + +"I'm going to get Catherine. Do go in, now, Elsmere. I'll tell you all +about the party in the morning," and Algernon hastened down the street, +bouncing more than usual in his effort to get out of reach of that +penetrating little voice. + +"Why," it called after him, "why? Doesn't Caffrine know the way to Peter +and Perdita's house? What you goin' to get her _for_?" + +The neighbors on their porches smiled, and Algernon reddened as he +rushed along. + +Elsmere, abandoned, still draped himself over the railing and watched +his brother's rapid walk. + +"Springs!" he murmured at last, as though he had solved a knotty +problem. "Algy walks like a spring seat!" + +Then with a lighted candle Elsmere proceeded to make some preparations +for an evening of festivity. The party at the Osgoods' was so near that +Peter had assured him the music for the porch dancing would reach him +even more clearly in his balcony chamber than if he were a really +invited guest and on the spot. Peter had further coached him in the +method of preparing porches for dancing, and Elsmere had secreted a +candle and matches early in the evening, waiting only till Algernon was +safely away to apply them. His floor nicely waxed, he curled down in a +corner of the balcony to watch the arriving guests, and unexpectedly +fell asleep. + +"Walk on your heels, why don't you?" + +Algernon, escorting Catherine, made this suggestion as she picked her +way across a narrow muddy crossing, her white party skirts gathered in +one hand. Catherine, poising with difficulty on the toe of one foot, +turned and looked at him. + +"It just muddies my heels, and then my heels muddy my skirts. Of course, +you boys with trousers--" then, toppling, she righted herself and leaped +across the last puddle. + +"Trousers," said Algernon, getting to her side again, "were worn in +Abyssinia as early as--" + +Catherine heaved a mighty sigh. + +"It's like going out for a stroll with the _Century Book of Facts_ +to walk with you, Algernon Swinburne," she declared suddenly. "Do you +think in statistics party-nights, even? Haven't you any uninstructive +thoughts for warm evenings?" + +Algernon regarded her silently. + +"Am I such a bore?" he asked quietly. + +Catherine caught her breath. She recalled swiftly her father's having +said: "If Algernon should once find out that he was a bore, it would +probably cure him. He has a lot of sense." And here he was finding it +out, on her hands, just because she had, for once, made her groaning +comment on his conversation audibly instead of to herself! + +It was a serious moment. + +"Listen, Algernon," she said, feeling for words. "I wasn't very polite +to say what I did, but I'm not going to take it back now. It's really +wonderful how you know so much, and people who use the library are +appreciating it. But you see, you've lived by yourself all these years, +accumulating information, and when you get among people you do have a +little way of handing it out to them whether they want it or not. It's +as though Mr. Graham should take potatoes and onions to church and pass +them around to the congregation! They might be very nice potatoes and +onions! I know how it is, because until Hannah Eldred came and woke me +up, I used to do nothing but read poetry and cook, and I know I quoted +Shakespeare to the girls when they came to see me, and it made them +nervous, so they didn't come often. Have you ever noticed how Polly +does? She's always interested in what every one says, and she always +'catches on.' She doesn't try to run the conversation, while Dorcas--" + +"Dorcas hits you over the head with a club, and then when you're stunned +she sits down on you and talks to the others! Am I like her?" + +Catherine laughed outright. + +"That's very 'wink-ed' of you, Algernon, as Elsmere would say, but it +truly does just about describe it. You never do that way yourself, but +you do open up and read aloud, so to speak, in company sometimes, in a +way that is disconcerting. Now, what could one say to a statement about +Abyssinian trousers, for instance, when one is just peacefully walking +along, going to a party?" + +Algernon straightened his shoulders. + +"Much obliged," he said briefly. "I've been doing a little observing on +my own account lately, since I've been around with the rest of you so +much, and what you tell me fits, all right. I guess I can cut out the +information! I say, doesn't the Osgood place look fine?" + +The great porch at the Osgoods' "palatial residence," as the Winsted +_Courier_ always faithfully referred to the house, was alight with +square pink lanterns. A long strip of carpet ran out to the sidewalk, +and as she stepped upon it, Catherine put her hair back with a quick +gesture and smiled up at her tall companion. + +"I tell you, I'm proud to make my entrance by the side of the real +Librarian of the Winsted City Library." + +"Leave your scarf here, Catriona darling," said Polly, greeting her +guests in the doorway. "You don't need to prink. Mother, Father, here +are Catherine and Algernon." + +Mrs. Osgood came forward and took Catherine's hand with ceremony. Then +she turned to Algernon. + +"This is really an occasion. I am delighted, in my new capacity as +Trustee, to salute the Founder and the Mainstay of our Library." + +"O!" protested Catherine. "But isn't it perfectly lovely the way the +council did take up with the idea? Was there any hitch at all about it?" + +"Not the least," said Mr. Osgood. "You never saw anything smoother. You +young folks certainly struck this town with this library scheme of yours +at the psychological moment. The council was all for it. The tax was +voted, and directors appointed as though it had been talked up for +years." + +"And Bertha is a trustee," cried Catherine, seeing Bertha in the group +beyond. "O, Bertha dear, do use your influence to keep Algernon in +office!" + +Everybody laughed at that, and Mrs. Osgood threw up her hands. + +"We can't help ourselves! No one can ever underbid him, except by paying +for the privilege. Algernon won't take a salary." + +Algernon flushed uneasily. "I haven't earned one yet," he muttered. "And +besides, salaries for public positions--" + +Some choice fact was refused utterance there, for Algernon, seeing +Catherine's eye upon him, swallowed his harmless 'statistic' and lapsed +into silence. + +"Where are Bess and Archie?" fussed Polly. "Every one else is here, and +we do want to begin dancing. I wonder what can have kept them." + +"Here they are," called some one. "Hurry up, you two. You're the +latest." + +"We've brought our excuse with us," and Archie set down before Mrs. +Osgood a bulky newspaper parcel. Bess, smiling mysteriously, refused to +answer inquiries, and when the greetings were over Archie produced a +knife and started to cut the string. + +"Tell them the story first, Archie," suggested Bess. + +"You think it would be more dramatic? Well, maybe so, maybe so. Ladies +and Gentlemen: I have here a gift for the Winsted Public Library. It +comes most appropriately on this evening, when the original supporters +of that institution are celebrating their release from its +responsibility! Miss Symonds," indicating Bess with a graceful curve of +his thumb, "and myself were proceeding hither to join you. Our way led +us past the spacious edifice dedicated now to the Cause of Learning and +Recreation, having once been given over to hats, and later still, as +many now present remember, to rats! The library is, as some of you are +aware, not open on Wednesday evenings. Therefore we were surprised to +see standing before the door in an attitude of patient expectancy, a +rustic gentleman, bearing in his arm this identical parcel. We hesitated +and then remarked courteously to the gentleman that there was small hope +of his obtaining satisfaction at that particular portal before to-morrow +afternoon. His face fell. Seeing which phenomenon, Miss Symonds," again +the thumb curve, "being of a kindly nature, offered sympathy to the +disappointed reader. He opened his heart to us--and also his bundle. It +seems he was not there to borrow books, but to bestow blessings. The +article herein contained was destined by his wife, its maker, to adorn +the library's walls." + +"He said," interrupted Bess, "that he was sure we didn't have anything +like it, because his wife invented it, and he didn't know as there was +another in the world, even. He seemed to think the library was a kind of +museum and every one was sending things, and he and 'wife' wanted to, +too. He was a dear old man. So clean, and he wore a red shawl around his +neck this hot night--" Bess tossed her own bare head at the thought, and +fanned her pretty white shoulders. "Do show it to them, Archie, and +don't make fun. He really thought we would think it was lovely, and it +certainly is unusual." + +"Open it, open it!" + +Archie dropped to one knee, cut the string, and, removing one paper +after another, lifted slowly a hoop bound in red wool, from which +depended twenty fat little birds made of scraps of velvet. + +Silence and bewilderment. Then, "What's it for?" faltered some one. + +"We must explain it," said Bess laughing. "They don't understand. +Neither did we, at first. It's not for anything. It's just an ornament, +a beautiful parlor ornament. And you hang it from the chandelier and set +it swinging. So!" She illustrated and the gay little birds bobbed +merrily up and down. + +"They are hung on spiral wires of different lengths, you see, to make +them more lifelike and natural." + +Every one was full of delight and amusement now, and one hand after +another poked the poor little birds till they bobbed to a degree +dangerous to their shoe-button eyes. + +"It's a variation of the Japanese wind-bell motif," said Mrs. Osgood. +"But I shall wish I were not a trustee, if I must act on such problems +as that." + +Algernon took the hoop and put it back into its wrappings. + +"I'll write and thank him," he said, "and I don't see any objection to +it. The children will love it. I know Elsmere would." + +"We can keep it up for a while and not hurt his feelings," said Bertha, +and as Polly at the piano began to play a waltz, the boys chose partners +and the porch filled with dancing couples. + +It proved, however, rather warm for dancing. Polly and Winifred took +turns at the piano, but before long every one was willing to sit and +rest. + +"Play that pretty last one again, Polly, and let us listen," begged +Bess. "It's too warm to stir, but you play that so beautifully." + +Polly obligingly seated herself at the piano once more in the broad open +window. The light tripping music, unmarred by the sound of sliding feet, +floated over the lawn and across the street and up into the Swinburne +balcony. Suddenly the lazy group on the Osgood veranda caught sight of a +flickering flame high in the neighboring house. Algernon started up, but +Bertha restrained him. + +"Watch!" she said. "It's Elsmere. I saw him." + +The candle was stuck upon the railing of the balcony. Then capering +about, in little white night-drawers, to the sound of the music, Elsmere +danced, bare-toed, upon his well-waxed floor, the unconscious observed +of all observers. Applause long and hearty rewarded his efforts, and +also brought Maggie to the rescue. As she pounced upon him and knocked +the sputtering candle to the ground, Peter and Perdita, splendid in +starched white linen, appeared in the doorway behind "the party" and +invited every one to come and draw bows and arrows. + +Peter held a quiver of arrows, tied with bright ribbons "for the +ladies." His sister at his side offered "the gentlemen" a fine +assortment of bows, with varicolored bow-strings. Bows and arrows mated, +the hunters marched in pairs to the screened-in breakfast room, looking +out over the river. + +At each end of the table was a chafing-dish, and in the center was a +huge cabbage surmounted by two natural-looking bunnies. + +Each marksman tried his luck, and the cabbage was soon riddled, but it +was reserved for Bert, with Dorcas' arrow, to knock one rabbit over +backward. Thereupon Bert and Dorcas were immediately swathed in great +aprons and installed behind the chafing-dishes to show their skill as +cooks. Fortunately both were competent, and though much hampered by +advice and witticisms, by the time Peter and Perdita had passed the +rabbit salad, radishes and olives interspersed with artichokes and +little china bunnies, the critical moment had passed, and creamy messes +were ready to be ladled forth upon wafers, and consumed in eloquent +silence. + +When, at last, there was nothing left but a few leathery strings, and +even Archie declared his spirit alone was willing, Polly rapped on the +table with the handle of a big spoon and called the meeting to order. + +"Miss Smith has an announcement to make." + +Everybody looked at Catherine. Her eyes were shining and her face was +all aglow with pleasure. + +"I'm going to have company and I want you all to know it, and come and +get acquainted." + +"Who is it?" asked some one. + +"The rest of the Wide Awake girls." + +"What?" "All of them?" "All of you together?" "Not the German one?" "Is +Hannah Eldred coming?" + +The girls all talked together, and the boys looked mystified. + +"I wish some one would enlighten me," said Max helplessly. "Who are the +Wide Awake girls?" + +"Why, Max! Didn't you ever take _Wide-Awake_?" + +"The magazine? Sure thing. What of it? Does Catherine want us to +subscribe? After an ivory manicure set or a lawn-mower premium?" + +"No, no. Listen, Max, and any of the rest of you who are so ignorant as +not to know about the Wide Awake girls. Hannah Eldred advertised for +friends once, and Catherine and a little girl in Germany and one out +West answered. And the German one proved to be the daughter of a +long-lost friend of Hannah's mother, and the one out West turned up at +Dexter, rooming next door, when she went there, and now she rooms with +Catherine. Did you ever hear such a tale in your life? If you were to +read such a string of facts in a book, you wouldn't believe it." + +"No more you would," commented Max. "I'm not at all sure I believe it, +as it is. Are they all coming at once, Catherine?" + +"Not quite. Hannah and Frieda will be here in a week or two, and Alice +as soon after as she can. They are all of them the _dearest_ +girls!" + +"Pretty?" asked Archie. + +"Wait and see," laughed Catherine. "They'll make their own impression, +but I want you all to be friends as we are." + +"We'll do our best to entertain them," said Bert. "Distinguished +foreigners don't come our way every day. I move you, Madam President, +that we make these Wide Awake young ladies honorary members of the +Club." + +The motion was put and carried with a round of applause, and a few +minutes later the Boat Club meeting was informally adjourned. + +Algernon, reaching home at midnight, stole into his brother's room and +hung the bird-hoop near his bedside. With characteristic perverseness +Elsmere, a sound sleeper by day, was easily wakened at night, and, as +Algernon slipped out of the room, he sat up and watched the birds +bobbing in the moonlight. Presently he dropped back on his pillow, +sleepily content. + +"Springs!" he said, "like Algy walks." + + + + +PART TWO + +THE COMING OF FRIEDA + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +A FORTUNATE MEETING + + +On the day of Polly's party, far away in the village of Ventnor on the +Isle of Wight, some one was thinking of the young people of Winsted and +their library undertaking. + +A tall woman walked swiftly along the road toward Freshwater, enjoying +its charming variety, the sudden glimpses of sea beyond the chalk +cliffs, the quaint cottages and lanes, and at a certain bend the trees +she loved better than all the rest, with ivy running over the ground and +up the mighty trunks. There was a radiance about Clara Lyndesay which +seemed to make whatever she looked upon more beautiful than it had been +before. No one had ever been able to analyze it, to decide how much was +due to the sunny hair, how much to the blue eyes, and the smile that +suggested sweet wistful things that never could be told, and how much to +her own deep inner peace. "The beauty of you certainly helps the +goodness make its impression," Dr. Helen said to her once, "and yet I am +half inclined to believe that it is the goodness that makes the beauty!" + +Just now there was no analyst at hand, no one, in fact, but a stout +small boy, driving a butcher's cart. He felt the force of the charm, +however uncritically, and grabbed his cap from his head as he drew up +beside the lady. + +"The landlady down there asked me to give you these here, thank you!" He +handed out two letters, and then clucked to his horse in an embarrassed +fashion as Miss Lyndesay thanked him. + +"They came after you left, and she said you'd be wanting them, thank +you!" And he drove on, leaving the source of his emotion quite +unconscious of him or it, intent upon opening the first of the letters. + +"They are too long to read as I walk," she said, and chose a comfortable +secluded spot to sit. "Let me think. It was a year ago in March that I +saw Hannah first, there at Three Gables, when she had just come back +from Germany, and was homesick and missed her mother so. She did +Catherine as much good as Catherine did her. They are a pair of charming +children, as different as April and October. I think I will save +Hannah's letter for the last. It's sure to be exciting, and Catherine's +should be read in a calm spirit." Accordingly she opened Catherine's and +glancing with a smile over the tabulated statement of the health of the +various members of the family, regularly included since her complaint +that no such information was ever granted her, began to read the letter +proper: + +"_Dearest Aunt Clara:_ + +"Algernon is away at a district meeting. I believe that is what he calls +it. He is quite elated over the opportunity and Polly and I are taking +charge of the library while he is gone. I hardly see Algernon any more. +He is so busy all the time, and he is simply sought after. People seem +to think he is an infallible authority, now that he is librarian, and he +does seem to know everything. He reads everything and has an intelligent +way of telling what you want to know. I'm quite impressed by him, +myself. Of course, he talks technicalities a lot, and he acts grieved +sometimes because the rest of us don't take the library quite so +seriously as he does. The others are rather tired of it by now, except +Polly and Bertha and Agnes. I really enjoy it, and I come in often +nowadays, because I know when Hannah and Frieda get here, I won't have +so much time for it. The children are fond of Algernon and he remembers +the funny things they say and tells them--(it's the first time he ever +had anything amusing to say on any subject!)--Peter Osgood wanted _The +Wail of the Sandal Swag_, and a little girl asked for _Timothy +Squst_. (If that's how you spell it. It rhymed with 'crust.') The +children aren't the only funny ones. A man came in this afternoon and +asked for _Edith Breed_, and it proved he wanted _He That Eateth +Bread With Me_, and one forlorn-looking creature handed me a slip of +paper with _Doan the Dark_ written on it, and she meant _Joan of +Arc!_ + +"_Later._ I had to stop there to wait on a whole group. I don't +understand why they always come in hordes. They don't seem to be +connected at all, but there are always times when there is no one here +and then suddenly an influx. + +"Just now the room is empty again. I wish you could see it. It is a dear +little room and now that it is being really used, doesn't have that bare +look it had at first. We fixed up a darling Children's Corner, with some +child pictures cut from a magazine and framed, and a little round table +Polly used to have, and my own little rocker. The window is a sunny one, +and the little curtains look so fresh and dainty. Almost always there is +some child or other sitting there looking at pictures or reading. + +"_Later again._ Dearest, dearest Aunt Clara! My eyes are all full +of happy tears. I can't write clearly. I came home from the library a +little tired and quite willing to let Polly take it for the evening. And +here on the porch was the box, the blessed box, addressed to me. Of +course, I wasn't too tired to open it! O, you dear darling! We have +needed color in that bare little place so much, and here is this +beautiful glowing picture just full of story suggestions. There never +was a child born who could look at that, and not go dreaming off into +all sorts of fairy tales. It makes me so happy to think you care enough +about our little library to give your own beautiful work. I wanted to go +right down and hang it, but I called Polly up on the 'phone and she came +over, and said I should keep it this evening to look at, and we'd hang +it when Algernon comes back to-morrow. She is delighted, too, and +Algernon will be, and he will send you a formal letter of thanks, but +nobody can be so pleased as I am, because you are my almost-truly aunt, +you know. + +"I do hope you can feel the thanks I'm sending you across all that big +salt water!" + + * * * * * + +Clara Lyndesay's own eyes misted a little. + +"That little study isn't deserving of such glowing words," she said to +herself. "Now I must see what my other childie has to say. Their letters +are growing more similar. Catherine's association with other girls is +giving her a more open manner, and Hannah is growing a bit more mature. +Still,--" her eyes fell upon the wild slant of the writing before her, +"I suspect she never will be quite grown up, and this particular time +she doesn't show the maturity alarmingly! This letter looks as excited +as the one she wrote from Dexter when she was upset about sororities +last year." + +"_Darling Lady Love of Mine:_ + +"Are you in Ventnor still? Shall you be there the 23d? I don't know what +I shall do, if you leave the Isle of Wight before the 27th. I wanted to +cable, but father thought it was unnecessary and of course I couldn't +afford to do it on my own account. They charge terribly for cabling. And +this letter may not reach you till you are gone, or _they_ are. O +_dear!_ It just worries me to death to think about it. And there +you are so near and I have wanted you and Frieda to meet so long. You +may even be passing each other on the street or somewhere and not +recognizing each other. _Have_ you seen her? You'd surely know her, +if you stopped to think, for Mother always said she looks like Mona Lisa +and you'd notice Mona Lisa if you saw her. Even if she did have on a +sailor suit too big for her, and a funny soup-bowl hat. Only perhaps she +doesn't wear such things now. It's two years since I saw her, almost, +that is, and I don't know how she dresses. + +"Aunt Clara! I was just going to sign my name and read this over and I +haven't told you what I was writing for at all. You will think me a +dreadful rattlebrain! It's just that we got a post card to-day from the +Langes saying that they were on the Isle of Wight for several days, and +I thought right away that you simply must meet them. It's such a little +island! They wrote from Ryde. O, I'll enclose the postal. It will tell +you all about where they are to be, and you will try your very hardest +to see them, won't you? You couldn't help loving them, every one, dear +Frau Marie and the funny Herr Professor. And nothing is far in England. + + "Your loving loving Hannah." + +"P. S. I wrote Frieda to look for you." + + * * * * * + +The blue eyes were full of laughter this time. + +"Rattlebrain! I should say so. And of course,--yes, she did forget to +enclose the postal. It's a wonder she didn't cable. Now here am I, +exhorted to meet three German people of whom I know these facts: +Professor Lange of Berlin, the Frau Professor and their daughter Frieda, +who looks like Mona Lisa and--perhaps--wears sailor suits too large for +her and a funny soup-bowl hat. Were in Ryde some time ago, and, I judge, +expected to be on the Isle until the 27th. To-day is the 26th. Well, I'm +afraid, Hannah dear, you'll have to learn to keep your head a little +better, when you wish to carry out your pleasant ideas. I wonder what +she wrote to Frieda." + +She rose from her seat on the ivy-covered grass, and strolled leisurely +back toward her hotel. The afternoon light was low and the little church +she passed on her way seemed more than usually quaint and inviting. +Half-way by, she turned irresolutely, then entered the churchyard. + +A local guide was showing a party of tourists about. + +Miss Lyndesay was turning away to avoid them, when a deep _"Ach, +so!"_ followed by a feminine _"Wunderhuebsch! Ganz malerisch!"_ +fell on her ear. She looked more closely at the little group. A +gentleman in a long linen duster, with a loosely rolled umbrella under +his arm, was gazing at the church most earnestly. He stepped back to get +a better view, and colliding with a mossy headstone, turned and bowed to +it politely with an apology. The little woman at his side paid no +attention to him or to the guide, but followed with her eyes a plump +young girl in a sailor-suit, who was stooping to gather flowers. + +"Frieda," she called, "pluck not those blossoms!" + +Miss Lyndesay approached the young girl. Mona Lisa's inscrutable eyes +and elusive smile looked up from below an impossible hat. + +"I was looking for you, Frieda," said Miss Lyndesay. "But Hannah said +you were in Ryde." + +"Yesterday, gracious lady," said Frieda, ducking in a courtesy, "but +to-day, no. We have sought you, too, and vainly. _Vater_, +_Muetterchen_, behold Hannah's beloved lady. We have found ourselves +at last!" + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +LANDING + + +"O Dear! It seems as though I couldn't wait a minute longer. It takes +such an eternity for them to get in. Do you think you can see her, Karl? +Take the glasses and look. See if you don't think that little red speck +in the bow is her?" + +"After the verb 'to be'--" + +"O, bother, Karl! You are fussier about my English than my German." + +The tall fair young man smiled, but answered stubbornly: "It's a fact, +Hannah, you are more careless about English than about German. Not in +grammar only, but in pronunciation. How is a poor foreigner to guess +that 'sumpn' for instance means 'something'?" + +"If it didn't mean anything, I wouldn't say it," retorted Hannah +saucily. "Is there any other criticism you have to make upon my use of +my native tongue, Mr. Germany?" + +"You drop your final 'g' occasionally, and always your final 'r'," went +on the accuser. + +Hannah laughed. "You can't hear an 'r' unless it's rolled over the +tongue like macaroni, Karl Von Arndtheim! Just wait till you hear the +western girls talk, and you'll be satisfied. Look! Look! It's as much as +an inch nearer. Give me the glasses again. I do believe that's Frieda. +No, not the red one, but the blue one with the veil floating. Can you +see?" + +Karl pushed his way through the crowd, drawing Hannah safely along into +a little open space at one side. Stationing himself against a pile of +boxes, he helped her climb to the top and support herself by clinging to +his shoulder. + +"There, child, you can sit and watch, and she'll see you better than if +you were mixed up in the crowd. Put up that sunshade and wave it. She +will think you are a great blue bird ready to fly out and meet her." + +"I wish I were a gull. I'd fly right to her dear shoulder and peck her +cheek. But are you sure I'm not too heavy, Karl? This thing is wobbly +and I lean on you awfully for such a fat lady as I am." + +"I can endure it! I say, Hannah, now she is so nearly here, I'm +beginning to get excited myself. _Die niedliche Kleine!_ It doesn't +seem two years ago that you youngsters used to send cakes and things +down to my window from yours. You were a pair of ministering angels." + +"Wasn't it fun? Poor Karl! I did pity you so, cooped up in the house +that way. And you played the violin like an angel yourself, like a +grieving one." + +"Well, we've all given up the angel hypothesis by this time, though it +was useful in getting us interested in each other. There! This time I +see her, not in red nor in blue, but in brown. See! She is jumping up +and down and waving to us." + +The moments that followed while the great vessel swung heavily into +place alongside the pier, and the ropes were made fast, and the +gangplank was flung across, seemed interminable to impatient Hannah. +Frieda was almost the first to land, and as she stepped on shore, she +found herself lifted in a mighty hug, which she returned with all the +strength of two muscular arms, gasping little cries of "_Ach, meine +Hannah!_" as she did so. + +When the embracing stopped for a moment, Karl stepped forward, hat in +hand, to greet Frieda in his turn. She seized his hand and wrung it, +repeating: "_Ach_, my heart could burst for gladness. My dears! My +dears! But where is Miss Lyndesay?" + +"Miss Lyndesay?" cried Hannah, looking wildly about. "Not my Miss +Lyndesay?" But as she spoke, some one bent down and kissed her mouth, +rounded with amazement. + +"Yes, your Miss Lyndesay, and Frieda's guardian for the present. We must +get out of the crowd a little, Hannah, and then we can tell you all +about it. Is this Mr. Von Arndtheim? I think I shall have to introduce +myself. Will you find the way to our trunks, please? I had the hand +luggage taken off at once. It's fortunate we both belong in L." + +Somehow the little group made its way inside the great roofed-over place +where the customs inspectors were doing their disagreeable duty to +trunks and suitcases. Under a great black "L" Karl soon had Miss +Lyndesay's and Frieda's trunks opened and passed upon, while Hannah +struggled to collect her wits, and control her unspeakable rapture. +Frieda was intent upon seeing that no harm was done her belongings, +which were piled up about her, umbrella, hand-bags, a carryall, a +shawl-strap, a brown linen roll with _Gute Reise_ embroidered on +it, and a long trunk with rounded edges. She resented the inspector's +opening anything, but Miss Lyndesay and Karl ignored her protest and at +last the ordeal was over, and all four were seated in a carriage, +driving to the club where they were to lunch with Miss Lyndesay. + +[Illustration: "'Sure I am not too heavy, Karl?'"--_Page 112._] + +"Frieda! Frieda! Put your head back in here!" said the harassed guardian +of that head, in a tone of mingled amusement and weariness. "If you get +her safely to Mrs. Eldred to-night, Mr. Von Arndtheim, you will do well. +Frieda has escaped various sorts of peril on the voyage, rather by +miraculous intervention than by any skill of mine as chaperon. Tell me, +Hannah dear, how are your family?" + +Hannah had been sitting very quietly beside her beloved lady, too dazed +yet to realize her unexpected good fortune. She squeezed the gloved hand +hard now and answered mechanically, her eyes telling the feelings that +were surging within her. + +"That is good. We left Frieda's parents well, too, and quite content +after some excitement. You see, they had made plans for Frieda to come +with an English friend of theirs, who was obliged only a few days before +sailing-time to change her plans. Then the Professor thought he might +send Frieda in the captain's care, but that distressed Frau Lange, and +they were on the point of giving it up altogether when they happened to +tell me about it. I had been intending to come over soon, anyhow, and +could easily arrange to take their friend's place, and did so gladly. It +was a much more interesting passage than I have usually known!" + +Miss Lyndesay smiled at Frieda and Frieda smiled in return, but had +almost immediately to be drawn forcibly into the carriage by Karl. + +"You can see enough of America without putting your head out," he +suggested. "It is an interesting country, but not worth so much effort, +I assure you." + +They were driving down Commonwealth Avenue by this time, and even +Frieda's Berlin had never shown her a pleasanter and more decorous +street. Karl thought, as she leaned forward, that she was trying to get +a better view of the trumpeting angels on the spire of the church they +were passing, but he was destined to be undeceived. + +"I care nothing for America," said Frieda scornfully. "But I do not +trust that man. I cannot see all my _Handgepaeck_, only the ends of +two bags. Let us stop him and count them!" + +"Americans don't steal!" said Hannah hotly. + +"Neither do Germans!" cried Frieda, and Karl looked at the two with +consternation. + +"See here, _Kinder_," he put in. "This is a little too much like +old times. You are two years older now, and shouldn't be so +belligerent." + +"Bell-i-gerent?" Frieda fumbled in her coat pocket and brought out a +little red book. "I do not know that word. I will seek him." + +"O, dear," moaned Hannah. "Are you going around seeking words in a +dictionary all the time, Frieda? I'll put a stop to that, you'd better +believe." + +Miss Lyndesay watched the little scene in silence. On the way across the +ocean she had wondered more than once what effect Frieda's decidedly +young and aggressive nature would have on Hannah, whom she knew to be +easily affected by her companions. + +"Catherine will have her hands full, keeping them soothed," she thought +now, and was glad when the carriage stopped before the familiar house +with the mail-box between the posts, and Karl helped her out. + +"B-e-l-l-i-g-e-r-e-n-t!" spelled Frieda triumphantly, stumbling out of +the carriage, "'Inclined to fight; war-like; pug-na-cious--' Ah!" + +Her eyes fell upon the _Handgepaeck_. "_Eins, zwei, drei, vier, +fuenf,--wo denn? So! fuenf, sechs. Es sind alle hier!_" + +"There!" said Hannah. "I told you the man wouldn't steal!" + +Frieda opened her lips to answer, but Karl caught up all the luggage he +could carry and led the way to the steps where Miss Lyndesay was +waiting, and the two girls followed him, forgetting national disputes in +common interest in their surroundings, as they had done more than once +before. + +At luncheon in the pretty club dining-room, Frieda ate industriously and +silently, as Hannah remembered seeing her do of old. Hannah herself did +justice to the good dishes, though she could hardly take her eyes from +Miss Lyndesay's beautiful face, and could think of nothing whatever to +say on any subject. Karl and his hostess chatted pleasantly and liked +each other warmly. After luncheon, Karl went out to send cablegrams, and +Miss Lyndesay took the girls up to the attractive white and green room +which had been assigned to her. + +"Can't you come out home with us?" asked Hannah wistfully. "I know Mamma +would love to have you. She couldn't come in to meet the boat, because +we've been at the shore until two days ago, and she was getting the +house open; and Dad was too busy, so they sent me down with Karl. But I +know if they were here, they would beg you to come. Can't you, please?" + +Miss Lyndesay took Hannah into her arms and kissed the warm red cheeks. +As she did so, she saw a queer little look of annoyance cross Frieda's +face, and she put out her arm and drew Frieda close, too. + +"I'd like nothing better than to be with both of you for days and days. +Think how I shall miss my little roommate! But I must stay in town a day +or two to do some necessary shopping. You know, I am going to spend the +rest of the summer in Brookmeadow, a beautiful little village, not far +from your home, Hannah. I'm going to fit up a studio there, out of an +old house I own. And listen, both of you! Before Frieda goes out West, +you two are to come over and spend a day and night with me in my home +there. Shall you like that?" + +The sunshine on their faces answered her, but Hannah's grew wistful +again. + +"You are going to be so near my home all summer, and I'm going away, +myself." + +"But you are going to Winsted and Catherine. Don't forget that. And I +shall be at Brookmeadow still when you come home. Hannah, Hannah, +haven't you learned yet that one can't have everything that is +delightful all at once?" + +"I suppose you mean about sorrows making you appreciate blessings and so +on," pouted Hannah. "But I don't believe it. I know I could be happy all +the time, if I could have all the things I want just when I want them!" + +Miss Lyndesay did not smile. "Perhaps you could!" she said slowly. "You +will never have a chance to prove it. It's not within the limits of +possibility. But I had an idea, Hannah, that you were one of the people +who could manage pretty well to be happy with things as they came." + +Hannah flushed and buried her face on Miss Lyndesay's shoulder. Frieda +looked restless. + +"_Bitte, sprechen Sie mal Deutsch_," she said suddenly. "_Es tut +mir furchtbar weh, immer Englisch zu hoeren!_" + +Quick as a flash Hannah's head came up, and she laughed a delicious +laugh. "Poor Frieda," she said in German, "does it hurt you awfully to +hear English all the time? There! There! I know how you feel. Did you +talk German to her coming over, Miss Lyndesay?" + +Miss Lyndesay looked guilty. "I'm afraid I did. You see, it was such a +fine opportunity for me to practise, and I didn't want her to be +homesick, as well as--" + +"I was not seasick," declared Frieda stoutly, and both the others +laughed. + +"I have crossed the seas full many times," said Clara Lyndesay smiling, +"but never have I known any one who was seasick! But to change the +subject, it's almost time for Karl to be back to take you to the train, +children; and Frieda has a spot on her coat which I can remove if you +will open my suitcase, Hannah, and bring me the little bottle of benzine +in the left-hand corner. Mrs. Eldred must not think I have brought her +an untidy little _Maedchen_!" + +They spent a cozy half hour chatting in German or English, as the spirit +or their respective inabilities moved them, and when Karl arrived to +escort them to the station, they were in a blithe mood, which even the +ordeal of parting from Miss Lyndesay did not shake. + +"You are coming very soon to visit me," she said, as she kissed them +good-by, "and you are both to be good until then, and not belligerent. +Remember you are children no longer." + +"Aren't you a child any longer, Frieda?" asked Hannah with interest, as +they entered the carriage. + +"Indeed, I am not. Did you not see that I make no more _Knixes_?" + +"That's so. Isn't it fun not to? Don't you ever forget?" + +"Only once. When I met Miss Lyndesay in the churchyard," said Frieda, +dwelling on the memory. + +"No wonder!" said Karl. "I would salaam before her, myself." + +"So would I!" agreed Hannah. "But Frieda, then, if you are no longer a +child, at last you have a will?" + +Frieda nodded her head emphatically. + +"Now," she said, "I have a will." + +And Karl, looking into her sturdy face, into the eyes which he had +sometimes seen dancing with mischief, sometimes flashing anger, and +sometimes brimming with sorrow, murmured a prayer under his breath, for +gracious guidance for that new-claimed "will." + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +THE MAKING OF A COMPACT + + +At the end of the short railway journey, Mr. Eldred met the girls and +conducted them to the house where Mrs. Eldred waited with a +heart-warming welcome for her little guest. + +It was a pretty home and Frieda felt the charm of it instantly as she +went up stairs with Hannah to the little square room which she was to +occupy. At the same time, however, she felt strange and out of place. +She was conscious of a contrast between her own hat and Hannah's, +between her heavy wool dress and Hannah's blue linen suit, between her +strong, serviceable--and ugly--shoes, and Hannah's pumps, also strong +and serviceable, but far from ugly. The six pieces of hand luggage and +the queer steamer trunk, when deposited in the center of the little +room, with its crisp ruffled curtains, and its plain mahogany furniture, +disturbed the harmony that had reigned before from the etching over the +bed to the bowl of ferns on the table. Hannah was friendly and beaming, +and not at all belligerent. Mrs. Eldred was all sweet, cheery +thoughtfulness, but Frieda looking at herself in the oval mirror of the +dressing-table, felt a sudden throb of pity for the girl she saw there. + +Hannah helped her remove her thick jacket, tucked it and her hat away in +the closet, piled up the bags and asked for the trunk key. + +"_Mutter hat uns immer gesagt, alles an seinen Ort zu legen_," she +said in a kind of chant. Frieda looked up, her eyes brightening with +fun. + +"Mother always told us to gargle every morning and use plenty of +tooth-powder," she said, and Hannah shrieked with glee. + +"O, have you been learning English out of that ridiculous Edith and Mary +book, too? I hoped you would have it, and we can do beautiful dialogues +in German and English. I've always wanted to, but I never knew any one +who could do the responses. I'll be Edith and you can be Mary." + +Mrs. Eldred came in as Hannah flung the lid of the trunk back. Frieda's +fun died away as she reached into a little pocket and took out a letter. + +"It's for you, Tante Edith," she said, holding it as though she loved +it. "It's from my mother--" and the tears came into her eyes as she said +the word. Mrs. Eldred and Hannah exchanged glances of understanding, and +Hannah caught up the water pitcher. + +"I'll get this full of warm water for you," she said briskly, "and you +must hurry and get ready to come down stairs, for we are going to have +_Kaffee_ just as you do in Berlin. Won't that be fun?" + +"Mamma can comfort her," she thought to herself, as she emptied the +pitcher which Sarah had filled a few minutes before, and refilled it +with water a shade cooler. "I'll leave them alone a few minutes and go +down and see about the coffee. I know she will like those little currant +cakes of Sarah's." + +Frieda, however, seemed little inclined to ask consolation from Mrs. +Eldred. She stood helplessly looking into her trunk, and Mrs. Eldred, +feeling suddenly shy, looked helplessly at her. The clouded, silent face +was so different from Hannah's. + +"Aren't you rather warm, dear, with that heavy gown on? Let's find +something thinner to slip on before we go down stairs." + +Frieda stooped, rummaged a minute, and then produced a dress of pink +cotton, fussily trimmed with lace and ribbons. "This is thinner," she +said, stonily. + +"That will do though it is rather fine for home dinner," said Mrs. +Eldred gently. "But put it on, if you will, dear. I'll tell that +forgetful Hannah to bring your water at once. O, I see, she left it +outside the door. There! If you want any help, just call me. I'll go +into my own room across the hall and read your mother's letter." She +wanted to kiss the child, but Frieda's manner forbade it. + +The pink frock had alarmed Mrs. Eldred. "Clothes make such a difference +to girls," she thought in distress. "How can I help her? She will be +proud and shy, and sure to think I am criticising her mother's taste. +Dear Marie!" Whereupon she wisely suspended her puzzling and read the +letter. + +"I am sending Frieda with as few new clothes as possible, my dear Edith, +relying upon your taste and kindness to fit her out with what she needs. +I remember how differently you dressed when you came to Heidelberg, and +how odd Hannah's clothes looked to Frieda's friends, and I want Frieda +to start without a handicap. American girls are less accustomed to +seeing foreigners than German girls are, and a little difference in the +way of dressing might make a great difference in happiness. I am afraid +my Frieda will be peculiar in many ways that cannot be remedied, so once +more I ask you, will you choose for her a simple outfit such as Hannah +herself would approve, and make me more than ever your grateful debtor?" + +Mrs. Eldred sighed with relief. The solution of one difficulty in sight, +she felt braver about all others. It was a theory of hers that food and +clothes were more important to happiness than most of the subtleties +poets and philosophers write about. "Homesickness is very often hunger, +and _Weltschmerz_ can frequently be cured by a becoming frock, or +brought on by an ill-fitting one," she meditated, as she fastened the +pink and lace for Frieda. + +Downstairs Hannah was busily setting forth upon a round table an +appetizing array of cakes and cookies with a copper pot of coffee. Mr. +Eldred had arranged to be present at this unwonted function, and Hannah +chattered to him as she worked. + +"Be sure you shake hands with her often, Daddy dear," she admonished +him. "She is used to so very many hand-shakings a day, you know, and we +mustn't cut her down to none at all, the very first thing. It's little +matters like that that make you homesick. And homesickness is agony, +Father. I know, for I've been through it." + +Mr. Eldred pinched the plump cheek which showed no trace of past +anguish, and Hannah seated herself upon his knee, being watchful of the +pleats of her skirt as she did so! + +"There's one good thing," she philosophized. "She can't miss her father +as I should miss you, for he is so absent-minded that he really doesn't +know her from the furniture. For all she is such a mischief inside, she +acts so quiet-like and well-behaved around the house that she might +almost as well be a sofa and done with it. And they have plenty of +sofas, so he won't miss her and she won't miss him so very much, +either." + +"You imply that if you were better behaved, you would not miss me so +much when we are separated! It's sufficiently complicated. I suppose you +pine for my fearful reprimands?" + +That was such a delightful joke that they both laughed aloud and Mrs. +Eldred and Frieda were quite in the room before they realized it, and +sprang up to greet them with cordiality, if not with the ceremony Hannah +had planned for. + +Those first days Frieda lived in a busy whirl. Hannah, once at home, and +recovered from the excitement of the day in Boston, was ashamed of her +conduct on that occasion, and tried to make up for it by all sorts of +thoughtful attentions to Frieda, which, with the shade of formality they +involved, added a little to the loneliness they were meant to combat. +Mrs. Eldred, giving up, or suspending for a time, the apparently +hopeless task of winning Frieda's confidence, attended to her wardrobe +with a rapidity and fervor which astonished Frieda, accustomed to long +deliberations on such matters, and no reckless buying. Even the pretty +frocks and hats and shoes did not please her. She felt loyalty demanded +that she should wear the things she had brought from home, and it was +not till Mrs. Eldred had given her her mother's letter to read that she +consented to lay aside the German garments. Mr. Eldred took her about +the city, and thoroughly enjoyed her comments on things American, a +scorn thinly veiled by polite phrases, or by an expressive silence. + +She was silent most of the time, for the language was her greatest +obstacle. She remembered vividly the superior feeling she had had in +Berlin, when she had watched Mr. Eldred wrestle with a conditional or +had heard Mrs. Eldred struggle to pronounce "ch." It was not nearly so +pleasant to be struggling one's self, with a quite senseless "th," for +instance. Her heart filled with rage when she caught Hannah listening +intently to her carefully enunciated words, and then saying suddenly +with relief, "O!" as their meaning dawned upon her. Frieda had been at +the head of her class in English. + +"It's really because you pronounce so very well," Hannah explained +apologetically, on one of these occasions. "You are so much more exact +than we ever think of being, that it gives an unfamiliar sound to words. +And besides, yours is English English and ours is United States." + +"But English English must be best," protested Frieda, and Hannah forgot +Miss Lyndesay's warning and "flared up" for a minute, but immediately +recollected herself, and ordered an ice-cream soda as a peace-offering, +notwithstanding the fact that Frieda found the taste disagreeable. + +"You'll like it, when you are used to it," she said comfortingly. "You +don't have them at home, you know." + +"No," growled Frieda, choking on a spoonful. "And I'm glad we don't. +Sundaes aren't so bad, but the name is foolish! I do not wonder Miss +Lyndesay lives most of the time in Europe!" + +The fifth day matters came to a climax. Karl had come over from +Cambridge to spend Sunday. Hannah and he seemed to be on the best of +terms. They talked English faster than Frieda could understand, and they +seemed to have an endless stock of jokes that had no meaning for her. +Suddenly, after sitting with a brow like a thunder-cloud for a while, +listening to them and declining to join in the fun, she started up and +ran up stairs with a swift pounding gait that recalled to Hannah the way +she used to tear madly off to school in the morning, fearful of being +late. + +Karl and Hannah, left behind, looked solemnly at each other. Karl +whistled. + +"_Die Kleine_ is irritated about something," he remarked. + +"I don't wonder," said Hannah sympathizingly. "I always remember when +it's too late to do any differently. She felt left out, I suppose, and +you know you do use a terrible amount of slang, nowadays. I'm awfully +ashamed of us, Karl!" + +Karl pondered a moment. Then he said: "I'll fix it up all right. Here, +you take this note up to Frieda. Just shove it under the door, if she +won't let you in." + +He wrote a few lines on a card and gave it to Hannah, who promptly ran +away up stairs with it. Then Karl went into the study and telephoned a +garage. + +In a few minutes, Frieda, shy and somewhat red-eyed, came down stairs. +Hannah was nowhere to be seen, and Mrs. Eldred was out for the +afternoon. At the door was a snorting automobile, with seats for just +two. + +"I knew Hannah would forgive us if we ran away by our two selves," said +Karl in German, meeting Frieda in the hall, and conducting her out to +the machine. "She knows enough about being in a foreign country to +understand that sometimes you want to be with your very own people. +There! I'll have this thing running like a charm in about a minute. Sure +you're not afraid to go out alone with me? I've learned a good deal +about this kind of thing lately. It's one of the courses I'm taking at +Harvard. Here we go!" And there they went, speeding down the street at a +rate that made a policeman, half asleep on the corner, look about him +with a start. Frieda's eyes shone, and she began to feel better. + +Karl had evidently acquitted himself well in his course in motoring. He +drove skilfully and easily, and they were soon outside the city in a +pleasant country road. Almost any place would have seemed pleasant to +Frieda just then, though, for Karl was talking cheerily, merrily, +talking in German, talking of topics she knew about, and talking +exclusively to her. She discovered that the day was much more of a day +than she had thought. There was a quality in the air she had not noticed +earlier in the afternoon. Presently she even became confidential. Karl, +with eyes and hands busy, guiding the machine, bent an attentive ear as +Frieda poured out her suppressed irritation of days. + +"They think it is such a fine country, Karl. I cannot understand them. +If they had never travelled--but they have been over Europe! They have +been in Berlin! And still they find matter for admiration in this dirty +little city with its buildings all heights, and its no trees anywhere +except in the parks. Where are their beautiful statues? Where is their +Victory Avenue? Where are their bridges? _Ach!_ It is a poor cheap +country. Tante Edith and Mr. Eldred are heavenly kind, and Hannah I have +loved with a great love, but they have very little taste, and no sense +at all." + +Karl puckered up his lips in a low whistle, and Frieda blushed. + +"I did not mean to say that, Karl," she said penitently. "I am their +guest. They are heavenly kind, yes. _But_ I do not like the +country." + +It was a beautiful shady road they had come into then, and the hills at +the end of it showed gracious curves. + +"This reminds me," said Karl meditatively, "of a place I went through +near the Rhine one summer vacation. It's really quite as charming, I +believe. Look here, Frieda. I'm interested in the impression you make in +this country. You're going to spend this year with a lot of girls who +don't know much about Germany or Germans, and I don't mind telling you +that I'm rather anxious to have you do us credit." + +"I shall do Germany credit, everywhere," answered Frieda stoutly, but +somewhat perturbed. + +"I'd like to think that," answered Karl, "and on the whole I guess it's +true, but if you keep on this way, I'm not so sure of it. You are +sitting here this afternoon making general statements about America when +you have seen only one of the less important cities. That doesn't strike +me as the way one should judge. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing +Professor Lange would do. He is very accurate and careful in his +judgments. And next, you haven't shown much enthusiasm over the things +the Eldreds have done for you the last day or two. Now, I never knew any +one who was so unfailingly appreciative as Frau Professor Lange." + +Frieda pouted. "But Hannah shows off." + +"Shows off? Frieda, I'm afraid your sense of humor is rather one-sided. +Hannah may take advantage of your not understanding perfectly, but who +taught her that that sort of thing was funny? Who told her the brass +plate over the barber's door meant that cakes were for sale there, so +that she almost went in to buy one?" + +Frieda chuckled. "It was not long I could fool her. She soon learned too +much. Besides, my mother would not let me." + +"You still think it was justifiable and humorous, I notice. But what +would you have said if Hannah had told you to say: 'So am I' when +strangers said: 'I am glad to meet you'? That was what some one told me, +when I first began talking English." + +"If Hannah should tell me wrong, I would tell her what I think of her!" +blazed Frieda. "But you need not lecture any more, Karl. I understand, +and I will be good. I will be better than Hannah. I will be better than +yourself, than the saints, even. I will admire all things. Behold the +ravishing country! The wonder of that sky! Not Italy, not Spain has such +a dull gray color! The beauty of the dirty streets! The charm of the +crowded street-cars! Only five cents a ride, sitting upon the laps of +others! I will no longer sew on Sunday. I will never ask for beer. I +will eat every morning little dry cushions of curled grain. I will rock +madly. I will--" + +"Hold on, Frieda!" shouted Karl. "Don't reform so fast. I can't keep +within speaking distance of you. You know, the reason I scolded you so +hard was because I sometimes feel just as you do about the whole +country!" + +Frieda put out her hand. "Let us make a compact. For the honor of +Germany, we will be scrupulously careful of what we say about America, +but sometimes, all by ourselves, we can say just what we feel like +saying." Karl took her hand solemnly. "It's a bargain, and you are a +Cor-r-rker-r-r!" + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +BROOKMEADOW + + +Clara Lyndesay stood in the doorway of her Brookmeadow house, listening +for the coming trolley. As she waited, she looked about her with +satisfaction. + +The big square house, freshly painted white, with green blinds at the +windows, stood just at the edge of the broad elm-shaded road, known as +the Albany Road because it had been, in stage-coach days, the main line +between Albany and Boston. Just opposite the house was a broad meadow +with a single elm in the center, and a clear line of hills for +background. Boulder walls enclosed the meadow, and vines ran riot over +them. The artist, looking, drew a deep breath. + +"'The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground. Yea, I have a goodly +heritage,'" she thought to herself. "I think I shall call my +wander-years over, and settle down here as Aunt Abigail hoped I would, +and care for her old mahogany as she did, painting a picture now and +then from my own doorway. The doorway itself is the most beautiful thing +about the house," she added, stepping down the flagged path, to view it +for the hundredth time that week. Brookmeadow houses were famous for +their wonderful old doorways, with carved lintels, and this was not +surpassed by any of them. + +Its owner's contemplation was cut short by the far-off whir of the +trolley, sounding clearly through the still morning. Miss Lyndesay +walked quickly along the curving road to the Common where she was to +receive her guests. Reaching the long narrow green, where a few cows +nibbled placidly as in the days when a green in the center of the +village was a necessary defensive measure, she walked idly up and down. +The straggling road under the great elms passed the plain white +meeting-house, dating from 1813, the Academy with its belfry, the little +general store and post-office combined, and wound out of sight between +dignified old houses, "like Aunt Abigail's--mine now," she corrected her +thought happily. No one was in sight. Up the road came the trolley, +jogging comfortably along. It stopped at the Common and its two +passengers almost fell into the arms that waited to receive them. + +"O-eeeeee!" sighed Hannah, getting as close to Miss Lyndesay as she +could on one side, while Frieda did the same on the other with a similar +ejaculation. + +"Two blue girls this time!" exclaimed Miss Lyndesay. "That is a very +becoming suit, Frieda," and then forestalling any answer, for she had +known of Frau Lange's letter to Mrs. Eldred and had guessed that Frieda +would not take altogether kindly to the new clothes, she inquired of +Hannah as to the health of her father and mother. + +"They're all right," answered Hannah briefly. "And I am so glad to be +here! Isn't it just the dearest, sleepiest place you ever saw in all +your life?" + +"Is it your first visit here?" asked Miss Lyndesay. "I supposed you knew +these villages by heart." + +"I don't," confessed Hannah. "I go to school all winter, and in the +summer we go to the shore, and we haven't any aunts or grandmothers or +things like that living around here, so I don't see places like this +except in passing through them." + +"Well, you have a sort of aunt and grandmother combined living in +Brookmeadow now, and I shall expect you to visit her often. How does it +seem to you, Frieda?" + +"It's bigger than I thought it would be," answered Frieda. "Hannah said +it was a _Dorf_. I thought there would be only two or three houses, +and many little huts all close together, but we passed many houses." + +"It is a good thing for you to see a New England village," said Miss +Lyndesay, "as part of the education you came for. And when you get out +to Wisconsin, you will think you are in a different country altogether." + +"I did," laughed Hannah. "Why, it looked as though it had been laid out +with a ruler, and the trees were so little I felt as though they ought +to be in flower-pots." + +"Not the beech woods, surely?" + +"Dear me, no. But in the town itself. The beech woods are real forest. +Is this the house? O, Aunt Clara, wouldn't Catherine _love_ it?" + +Miss Lyndesay was so unused to the house, herself, that she took a keen +delight in showing the girls all over it, taking them from one big room +into another, and telling them how to appreciate the fine old furniture. + +"The hangings are all new," she explained. "Aunt Abigail's taste was not +like her heart! She kept the old furniture, but she had gaudy +wall-papers and thick lace curtains, and I have had them all replaced. +They aren't done yet, everywhere, but these main rooms are. And she had +the fireplace bricked up and a stove in the living-room. I found these +andirons in the garret." + +"O, let's see the garret," begged Hannah. "We haven't any, with old +things in it, I mean. You know our house is only a little older than I +am, and mother came from the West and she didn't have heirlooms, and +father had nothing whatever when they started. I should think this house +would have been full of treasures." + +"It was. I found several good chairs and a desk in the garret. I shall +have them refinished as soon as I can get around to it. There is a trunk +that I have only peeped into. I saved it for you girls to open. But you +must come out into the garden now, while the sun is there." + +Frieda had taken only a moderate interest in the house, but when they +entered the tangled garden, German exclamations poured from her lips in +a rapturous stream. + +"_Himmlisch! Reizend! Famos! Ach, wie wunderhuebsch! Was nennt man +dies? Und dies?_" She flew from one blossom to another, sniffing, +admiring, and asking questions about those that were unknown to her, +naming the others in German, and altogether showing a degree of +enthusiasm which nothing American had hitherto been able to arouse in +her. It was not because of Karl's compact, but because of her mighty +love of flowers. She seemed to forget the others as she knelt before a +little white tea-rose, kissing it and calling it pretty names. + +Miss Lyndesay and Hannah watched her. + +"Now she seems more like herself," said Hannah frowning, "the way she +was in Berlin. I wish she would stay that way!" + +Miss Lyndesay looked at Hannah searchingly. + +"Frieda," she called, "will you gather flowers for the luncheon table, +please? Hannah is going to pick raspberries with me. I have a most +beautiful old glass bowl to put them in." + +Frieda undertook the task assigned her joyfully, and Hannah followed +Miss Lyndesay to the kitchen, where Aunt Abigail's old servant, +inherited with the house, supplied them with pails for the +berry-picking. The bushes were at the other end of the garden, where +they could speak without being overheard. + +Miss Lyndesay said nothing at first, but she had not long to wait. +Hannah had poured out her puzzles and worries in letters to this friend +often, since the evening at Three Gables, long ago, when she had poured +them out in words and tears, and found comfort. + +It was a torrent of words this time, but Miss Lyndesay, listening, +distinguished between essentials and non-essentials by a divine gift +which had always been hers. + +"She doesn't seem the same Frieda," declared Hannah, at last. "I don't +feel acquainted with her. Mamma says it is just because everything is +new and strange to her. She hasn't criticised things since she and Karl +went off together for a little trip the other day, but she looks bored +or unhappy and I don't know what to do. I was a stranger when we were +together before, but I'm sure I didn't act so, and I don't see why she +should now. So there!" + +"Did you go to Germany alone?" Miss Lyndesay put the question casually, +and Hannah looked up, surprised. + +"Why, no. Dad and Mamma were there all the time, of course. I couldn't +have lived without them--O! I see what you mean," and the berries +dropped slowly into the half-full pail while Hannah meditated. + +Clara Lyndesay, observing her bent face, felt satisfied. It was not the +first time she had seen Hannah Eldred come out of a quandary with very +little help. + +"She doesn't do things by halves, either," she thought. "Frieda won't +have such a lonely time from now on." Aloud she said: + +"I wondered, when I heard you speak to Frieda in that careful +explanatory way, as you might to a child who had been left in your care +rather against your will, if you seemed just natural to Frieda! Frau +Lange realized that there was some risk in sending Frieda over here. She +told me that she knew young girls changed rapidly in tastes and ideals, +and it might be that you two would not care so much for each other now. +But she hoped, for the sake of the friendship between your mother and +herself, that the two years would prove not to have separated you +greatly. I assured her that, while there might be some little difficulty +at first, you would probably come out better friends than ever. There! I +think we have quite enough berries. If you will just take them in to +Evangeline, I'll see about Frieda's flowers. You'll find a pitcher of +shrub on the ice, and goblets on the tray all ready to bring out. We'll +arrange the flowers on the back stoop, I think, and you might bring us +some refreshment there." + +Frieda had gathered flowers eagerly, but without much discrimination. +Miss Lyndesay helped her sort them and make several bouquets instead of +one variegated one, talking with her the while of incidents of their +journey, till Frieda was entirely at her ease. By the time Hannah came +out with the cool drink, the slight constraint that had existed for days +between Frieda and herself seemed to have vanished. Joyfully, Hannah +entered into the new spirit, and when Miss Lyndesay went in to answer +Evangeline's questions about luncheon, her guests were bubbling with +mirth over some reminiscence of their Berlin days. + +Immediately after luncheon, a caller arrived, with the obvious intention +of spending some time. Miss Lyndesay gave the girls a trunk key and sent +them off to do their garret exploring by themselves, giving them +permission to do whatever they liked with anything they might find. They +climbed the polished stairs, with arms interlaced, chattering in German +and English mixed, and reached the big shadowy garret out of breath. The +trunks were piled in a cobwebby corner, and their key proved to belong +to the lowest one in the pile. That meant much mighty tugging, but at +last the encumbering ones were removed and they turned the key in the +lock and lifted the heavy lid. + +"O!" They spoke softly and leaned over, clinging to each other with +excitement. In the top tray lay a doll dressed as if for a wedding. She +wore a white satin gown, short-waisted, with a long panel down the +front, embroidered with tiny pearls and gold thread. Her little feet +were adorned with high-heeled slippers of white silk, also embroidered +in the tiny pearls. A necklace of shining stones, and two little +earrings made them gasp with delight. In the soft wavy hair was a high +shell comb. The little lady held a book in her clasped hands, and her +eyes, half closed, looked sleepily out from under long eyelashes. + +"See! Here is a card," said Frieda, touching the soft folds of yellowed +tissue paper that lay around the little figure in the tray. + +Hannah lifted the card with awe, and read: "The doll of Millicent +Wadsworth, as she dressed it on her own Wedding Day, to be put aside and +never played with more. The Bishop said it was a sinful Waste to dress +her so, but my Husband said he did not care!" + +"What a reckless man My Husband was!" said Hannah, looking back at the +doll once more. "Think of playing with dolls up to your wedding day! I +wonder how old she was." + +"Let's look in the other trays," suggested Frieda. They removed the top +one carefully, to find almost as delightful treasures in the next. Quite +as delightful, perhaps, for here was the little Millicent's +wedding-gown, with her slippers and necklace and high shell comb, all +like those the doll wore. Here, too, was a card, but written in an older +hand: + +"The Wedding Clothes of Millicent Wadsworth Berryfield, married on the +16th anniversary of her birth to John Berryfield, Esq., a Devoted Lover +and Husband. She died three months and two days after of an Unknown +Malady. John Berryfield returned to England, leaving these, Her +Possessions, to be kept sacredly till he should come after them." + +"It's dated almost a hundred years ago. Of course, he is dead too, now. +I wonder if she pined for her doll to play with." + +Frieda, leaving speculation to Hannah, was taking the pretty garments +out, one by one. + +"Here is another dress!" she exclaimed. "A pink one. O, Hannah, you +would look so pretty in this!" She held it up, quaint in style as the +other, with a little train, flowered silk over a straight front panel of +plain pink, tight sleeves with a little puff at the shoulder. + +"I wonder--Do you suppose we dare try them on? They look almost big +enough." + +"Of course, we dare. Miss Lyndesay told us to do what we liked and she +had peeped into this trunk, so she knew what was in it. We will be as +careful as careful can be." + +They piled their arms with the delicate old fabrics and carried them +down to their own room where they proceeded to dress up. It was not an +easy process, for they dared not tug too hard, and Millicent had been +slenderer than they, though quite as tall. The little slippers defied +them, and the necklace of pearls they did not touch. "I think her +husband gave her that, and no one else should ever wear it," said +Hannah, and Frieda agreed. + +By the time they had finished dressing, they were flushed and rosy. They +stole out into the hall and peered over the banisters to see if the +caller showed signs of departure. Miss Lyndesay was just closing the +door upon her. As she turned back, she heard steps on the stairs and, +looking up, saw a sight she loved always afterward to remember. Two +little Old World ladies, one in white and brocade, the other in flowered +pink satin, came down the winding stairs, their eyes bright with +excitement, their hair rough, and the big blue hair-ribbons, which they +had quite forgotten to remove, showing incongruously above their minuet +gowns. + +"O you pretty children!" cried Miss Lyndesay. "Millicent herself wasn't +sweeter, I'm sure, when the Bishop married her off to John. Why didn't +you bring the doll?" + +"We were afraid we'd drop her," said Hannah, stepping to the floor. +"There! I'm glad I'm safely down. You can't think what awkward skirts +these are to walk in. O!" + +For as she turned, Frieda stepped on her train, and with shrieks both +fell to the floor, splitting their hundred-year-old seams. + +Miss Lyndesay helped them up, laughing at their rueful faces, and +kissing away the tears that would come at the sight of the havoc they +had wrought. + +"Cheer up, dear hearts! It was purest accident. And Millicent's pretty +gowns have served their purposes long ago. I've no doubt they can be put +together again well enough, and in any case you must not care! I forbid +it. Come, let's get back into our own century, and take a walk before +the sun goes down. I have no end of pretty by-paths to show you." + +That evening, there was enough chill in the air for a small fire in the +living-room fireplace, and Miss Lyndesay seated herself before it on a +high-backed settle, with a girl on either side of her. + +"If I didn't remember that one of the things Hannah liked me for first +was my habit of sitting quietly without work," she said, "I should be +tempted to improve these minutes by finishing the carving design I am +making to go over the fireplace." + +"What is it? Let us see it, and maybe we'll let you. You have such a +peaceful way of working you don't make me nervous as some people do." + +"It is there on the desk." + +Hannah brought the brown paper, and she and Frieda bent over it +together. + +"L-a-e," spelled Hannah, but Frieda looked up, delighted. + +"I know. _Laetus sorte mea!_ It means 'Happy in my lot!' It is in +the book Tante Edith sent me for my birthday, about the little cripple." + +"O, yes, _The Story of a Short Life_. I've read that, too," said +Hannah, "but I didn't recognize it just at first. I should think, if it +is to be your motto, you'd have to change the gender and make it +'_laeta_,' Aunt Clara." + +Miss Lyndesay laughed. "I'm glad you both know the story. I expected +Hannah to, but hardly Frieda. Did you read it all by yourself, dear?" + +"Yes," answered Frieda proudly. "I have read seven English books, and I +like that best. Mother and I made a list of Poor Things the way Leonard +did." + +"O, how nice!" cried Hannah. "Did you put Bertha's lame sister on it?" + +"Yes, and Onkel Heinrich's brother who can not see and is always +cheerful, and the little woman who sells string and roses in the shop +under us, and Edna Helm who had to stop school and go to work because +her father couldn't afford to take care of her." + +"Poor Edna!" said Hannah. "I liked her best of all your friends. I'm +going to start a Poor Things book myself, when I get home." + +"Have you ever heard of the Guild of Brave Poor Things in England?" +asked Miss Lyndesay, and as the girls showed their interest she went on +to tell them of the organization which took its name and its motive from +Mrs. Ewing's little story, and has grown into a large organization with +industrial schools and shops. + +"So all these people, boys and men and women and girls who cannot work +in factories, because of some infirmity, are enabled to make beautiful +things and to sell them. I bought some of their doll furniture when I +was last in London. Let me see. Yes, it was in the box I unpacked +yesterday." + +"Let me get it," begged Frieda, and as soon as she had been told where +to look she was off. She came quickly back again bringing a doll's +white-wood bed, strong and well-made as the fine old furniture which had +outlived Aunt Abigail and her parents. + +"It is just right for Millicent's doll," cried Frieda, as she brought it +in. "Couldn't we put her in it, Tante Clara, to make up for having torn +the pretty dresses?" + +"Indeed you may. I had no one in mind to give it to, but bought it +because I had enjoyed visiting the school at Chailey." + +"Can all the cripples make pretty things like this?" asked Hannah, +wondering, as Frieda placed the bed in her hands. + +"O, no, only a very few. But the Guild of Brave Poor Things does many +other things, besides establishing the schools. All maimed persons may +belong, and the guild makes investigations, finds out if they can be +helped by surgery, and, if not, tries to make their lives happier in +every possible way. Of course, those of them who can use their hands are +happier doing so than they could be in any other way. Every Friday +afternoon, from three to six, they meet in the settlement rooms and have +music and games and reading, and hear talks on interesting subjects by +ladies and gentlemen who are glad to tell them of their particular lines +of work. Then they have a short service of prayer--" + +"Do they sing the tug-of-war hymn?" asked Hannah eagerly. "I remember +about that better than anything else in the book." + +"Yes, they almost always sing that. I heard them, myself," and Miss +Lyndesay's eyes grew sweeter at the thought. "I have never heard +anything more affecting than that singing: + + "'Who best can drink His cup of woe, + Triumphant over pain, + Who patient bears His cross below, + He follows in His train.'" + +Frieda and Hannah were still as she finished speaking, and all three sat +looking at the fire for a few moments in silence. Presently Hannah said +softly: + +"And _they_ have _'Laetus sorte mea'_ for a motto? I can see +how you could take it, Aunt Clara, for of course you have everything +anybody could want. You are well and beautiful and good, and have money +and talent and friends." + +Miss Lyndesay was silent and Hannah, who had been studying the flames +reflectively, looked up presently to see why she made no reply. There +was a grave expression on her face, and Hannah's grew startled. + +Miss Lyndesay, seeing the look of alarm in the child's eyes, smiled and +took her hand. + +"Would you give up your father and mother for any or all of those +things, Hannah dear?" she said. + +_"O!"_ cried Hannah in a hurt frightened tone, and Frieda suddenly +choked back a sob. + +Miss Lyndesay lifted her head quickly. + +"Girls, do you realize the absurdity of us? Here we started out +discussing: 'Happy in my lot' and in a few minutes we have grown sad +with the burden of sorrow of half the world and our own individual +troubles besides! That is anything but wise, isn't it? I didn't intend +to preach to you when I invited you to Brookmeadow. But since we are on +the subject, let's say a little more and then drop it. I do want you to +remember that while the people who seem fortunate often have something +to bear that offsets most of the pleasant circumstances of their lives, +at the same time, many people who seem to have nothing to be glad about +are persistently and genuinely joyful. The sad folk meet sadness +everywhere, and the glad folk find gladness. Let me read you something, +written by Sister Grace, who founded the order of Brave Poor Things +about the time you girls were born, and then I refuse to say or hear +another solemn word this evening!" + +She took up a little pamphlet and read aloud: + +"To bear pain cheerfully, to take defeat nobly, to be constant and +loyal, to be brave and happy with the odds dead against us, to be full +of sympathy and tenderness--these are gifts which mark out the truly +great." + +"Now let's put Millicent's doll to bed," suggested Frieda, who disliked +solemnity and saw that Hannah was still staring into the fire. Miss +Lyndesay seconded the motion, and, taking candles, the three mounted +into the garret, sought out the old trunk and brought the beautiful doll +down stairs. There, by the fire, they laid her gently down on a soft +blanket in the pretty bed which was exactly the right size. + +Then Evangeline appeared with a corn-popper and a sack of corn, and the +half-hour before bedtime passed quickly and merrily away. + +When Aunt Clara had tucked her guests into the big four-poster, they +cuddled close to each other, forgetting the friction of the last few +days in present comfort, sleepily grateful for the glimpse they had had +that day of difficulties and griefs much greater than any of their own, +and each resolving to be happy in her lot. + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +ARRIVAL AT WINSTED + + +Mr. and Mrs. Eldred turned away from the station, from which the through +Chicago train had just pulled out, carrying with it two passengers for +Winsted, Wisconsin. + +"Well, I'm glad that's over," said Mrs. Eldred aloud. "I always feel +sorry for Hannah when she has to say good-by. She does suffer so over +it, but she recovers quickly." + +"She seems to be acquiring a comfortable philosophy," remarked Mr. +Eldred, as he looked at his watch and then up the street where his car +was not in sight. "She told me that the world was fixed wrong, because +it ought to be possible to be with all of one's beloveds at the same +time. 'But,' she added sagely, 'that's probably Heaven.'" + +"'Earth being so good, would Heaven seem best?'" quoted Hannah's mother, +smiling. "We have all had to stay our hearts with that thought, I +suppose. I am much more content about both girls, since Karl and Miss +Lyndesay took them in hand. For a few days I really feared that the +adjustment might be too much for them. But Karl worked some magic spell +over Frieda, and Miss Lyndesay charmed Hannah. I must go over to +Brookmeadow this very week, and pay my respects to that remarkable +woman." + +"Some mothers would be jealous of such an outside influence," suggested +Mr. Eldred, glancing fondly at his pretty little wife. + +"Then they are very unwise," declared that lady decisively. "I remember +my own girlhood well enough to know that there were certain crises +through which my mother could not help me as well as an outsider, simply +because she was my mother. I'm not in the least afraid that any one +could be dearer to Hannah than I am, and she is such a bundle of +contradictions, of sweet impulses and rebelliousness, that I'm heartily +glad of all the help I can get in bringing her up. There's my car. Do +try to come home to luncheon. I'll be missing my lively children and +their German-English patois!" + +The two girls on the train had settled themselves cosily with the aid of +a porter rendered over-zealous by Mr. Eldred's generosity, and were +watching the flying scenery and the other passengers with interest. +Frieda was not eager to arrive at her journey's end. She already missed +Karl and the friendly Eldreds, who had seemed nearer her own parents +than any one else in this strange country could. The prospect before her +was not wholly pleasant. Hannah had spent so much energy in singing the +praises of Dexter College, Alice Prescott and Catherine Smith, that +Frieda's desire to see them was distinctly modified by a jealous feeling +that such perfections must be somewhat tiresome. She was much more +interested in watching a bride and groom across the aisle, and in making +comments on American trains, some of which, according to her compact +with Karl, she kept to herself, meaning to unburden her mind in the +first letter she should write him. Others of a favorable sort she made +aloud to Hannah, who received them graciously, on behalf of the nation. +The day wore away not unpleasantly, but when the gas was lighted and the +bride frankly rested her head upon the bridegroom's shoulder, a mighty +homesickness swept over Frieda. She could barely choke down her food in +the dining-car, and hated a waiter for watching her with a white-toothed +smile. The porter was making up berths when they returned and the +proceeding scandalized her, accustomed as she was to the decency of +compartment trains. + +Forgetting her promise, she spoke her disgust: + +"Ladies and gentlemen like pots of marmalade on shelves in a cupboard!" + +Hannah only laughed and scrambled up to the top shelf with the agility +of a squirrel, leaving Frieda to solitude and unsuspected misery. + +The porter and the grinning waiter would not be forgotten. Their +blackness combined with the close warm atmosphere to alarm her. She +dared not undress, and when she tried to lie down, she felt as though +she should choke. The darkness seemed to her sleepy but resisting mind +to be taking on human shape. With her eyes closed she saw it develop +pink fingernails and gleaming teeth and eyeballs. Her real distrust of +anything foreign was made keener by her homesickness. At last she fell +into an uneasy sleep, clutching her purse and her gold beads tightly. At +each station she woke with a jerk and a horrible conviction that the +train had been wrecked and she was the sole survivor. Sometimes she put +her hand up and felt of the wooden wall over her head for assurance that +the upper berth to which Hannah had blithely committed herself had not +treacherously closed. There were subdued rustlings in the aisle now and +then, and quick brushings past her curtains which made her sit up, +gasping, her eyes staring into the dark and her heart thumping. Frieda +Lange crawled out of her tumbled berth next morning, certain that life +could have in store for her nothing more hideous than her first night in +an American sleeping-car. + +Hannah, on the other hand, having "slept like a top, the way you ought +to in an upper berth," as she said with a gleeful laugh, and having made +her toilet with the lucky ease which seemed one of her characteristics, +was full of good spirits, and joyous anticipations. Winsted seemed very +near, and her bubbling joy over the prospect of seeing Catherine added +to Frieda's gloom. They went into the dining-car to breakfast, where +Frieda was so unfortunate as to be shot from her seat as the train +dashed around a curve, a glass of milk following her, anointing her hair +and face in a manner calculated to ruffle the serenest temper. Hannah +and the too friendly waiter helped her up with an effort at +self-control, but Frieda had mislaid her sense of humor. + +The change of cars in Chicago was accomplished simply, Hannah thoroughly +enjoying leading the way and Frieda sulkily following. It would have +taken more than a fit of sulks on Frieda's part to have quenched +Hannah's joy in life that day, however, and she rattled on of the +pleasures coming, scarcely noticing Frieda's failure to respond. + +"Winsted!" + +Hannah was out of the car almost before it stopped. Frieda, delayed by +other passengers who pushed in ahead of her, saw the rapturous meeting +between her own Hannah and a tall sweet-faced girl with red-gold hair, +whose beauty she was obliged to admit, though she did so gloomily. "I +hoped she would be homely," she growled to herself as she stepped down +to the platform, and suffered Catherine to kiss her cheek. + +"Let's walk," suggested Catherine. "It's much too beautiful a day to be +cooped in a bus. I'll have your bags sent up. O, Hannah, my darling, +I've been waiting ages for you! And for you, too, Frieda," she added +shyly. + +But Frieda was regarding the wrinkled pleats in her dress, and was +conscious that her hair was still wet with milk; therefore she only +mumbled something and stalked along beside the others who, in their +delight at seeing each other, quickly forgot her, and chattered away in +English, with many little bursts of laughter. + +Dr. Helen was out when they reached the pretty house on the hillside. +Catherine led Frieda to the big rose guest-chamber, and then carried +Hannah off across the wide hall to her own room and the little +dressing-room opening from it, which Hannah had occupied on her first +visit a year and a half before. The trunks arrived at once, and Hannah +immediately began to unpack, Catherine sitting on the edge of the bed +and exclaiming over every new frock as it came out. Frieda, left alone, +because she had only partly understood the invitation the others gave +her to join them, and had wilfully refused the part she had understood, +was wretched indeed. She sat stiffly on a straight mahogany chair, and +wished with all her might that she had never been born, or at least, if +that mistake had been inevitable, that she had never left her native +land. + +Suddenly there came a quick tap at the door and Hannah, not waiting for +a "Come," ran in and tossed a parcel into her lap. + +"What? Aren't you dressed yet? Do hurry. Karl asked me to give you this +as soon as we got here. Did Catherine show you your bath-room? You have +one all to yourself; isn't that lovely? It's the most beautiful house, +anyway. O, what dear roses on the dressing-table! Wasn't it just like +Catherine to put them there? Hurry up. Dr. Helen will be here pretty +soon, and Polly Osgood and Dot Winthrop are coming over to see us. I'd +put on that white poplin skirt and the waist with the blue butterfly bow +at your throat. You look awfully fetching in that. Yes, Catherine, I'm +coming," and she flew out, tossing a kiss to Frieda. + +In her excitement she had spoken in English, and the compliment was +quite lost on Frieda who had not yet learned the meaning of "fetching." +That young person's sulks were not dissipated by the call, accordingly, +and there is no telling what depths of obstinate misery she might have +reached, had not Karl's parcel fallen to the floor and called attention +to itself. With a manner which suggested to her mirror that life was +distinctly not worth while, Frieda lifted the object and drearily +removed the wrappings. + +From a small carved frame Karl's clear honest face looked out at her, +and a card in the corner read--in German--"Remember the compact, +Comrade!" + +Like a flash brightness came back to Frieda's face. Good cheer was much +more natural to her than moroseness. From the face in the picture she +turned her gaze to the tousled reflection in the mirror. "The Fatherland +is not much honored by such a representative!" she said, and began +taking down her hair with a fine energy. + +In the living-room downstairs teacups were clinking, and girls' voices, +subdued and sweet, mingled with laughter. Hannah, her back to the door, +was talking merrily to Dot, to whom she had taken an instantaneous +liking; Catherine bent anxiously over the tea-tray on the wicker table +in the window when Polly, from the comfortable depths of a low chair, +looked up and saw on the landing of the stairs a picture that made her +catch her breath. + +Frieda, in a pale pink mull gown, with roses in her long soft sash, her +yellow braids wound into a garland around her head, her cheeks burning +with shyness, and her big eyes looking wistful and sweet, stood waiting. +Polly sprang up with a soft little "O!" Catherine, looking up, smiled a +welcome, but Polly went forward and taking Frieda's hands in both of +hers, said eagerly: "We've been waiting and waiting for you, Frieda." + +Dot was introduced, but her usual self-possession promptly deserted her. +"I always feel as though I ought to shout to a foreigner," she had +confessed to Hannah, "and in order not to do that, I just have to keep +still." Catherine, who had felt a little rebuffed by Frieda's chilly +manner at the station, and Hannah, not quite sure what the present mood +might indicate, were both willing to leave to Polly the role she had +undertaken. Frieda sat quite near her, and watched her pretty bright +movements with gentle interest, maintaining a silence meanwhile only +surpassed in completeness by Dot's. Hannah rattled on, but there was a +hollowness in the rattle that made Catherine's hostess heart falter. She +was never fluent, herself. Her gentle art consisted in making her guests +entertain themselves and each other. + +Then Dr. Helen came in, big, strong and competent, socially and in every +other way. + +Her welcome to Frieda would have warmed an iceberg's heart. She hugged +Hannah, and gave her right hand to Polly and the left to Dot. "Give me a +taste of your tea, Daughter," she said, as she took off her gloves and +her hat and seated herself. "It will take something as strong as tea to +heal my weary spirit this afternoon. I've just had an emergency call." + +Dr. Helen's eyes smiled reminiscently, and Dot awoke. + +"Do tell us, do, do, Dr. Helen," she pleaded. "I know it's something +funny, by the twinkle in your eye. And we'll never, never tell." + +Dr. Helen tasted her tea leisurely, and added a slice of lemon. + +"I don't tell tales about my patients, but there is no sense in a rule +that isn't transgressed once in a while. You wouldn't know it was a +rule! And I do believe you girls will enjoy this and never tell." + +"You 'give us credit for more discretion than you have, yourself?'" +quoted Catherine. + +"If you like to put it that way! I was overtaken on my way home to greet +these visitors by a messenger from Mrs. Swinburne, saying that Elsmere +was very ill. It is a wonder that he has lived as long as he has, with +his reckless tendencies and such erratic care. So I hastened over to the +house. Mrs. Swinburne was in a mild state of hysterics, and it was some +time before I could quiet her enough to learn the difficulty. Then my +alarm vanished, changed to wrath, would perhaps be more accurate. +Elsmere had eaten all her pills! They were pills that would not have +hurt a cat. Mrs. Swinburne's ailments are of a nature to require very +weak remedies." + +"Bread and butter?" asked Dot, with a twinkle as merry as the doctor's +own. + +"Something of that sort! But Elsmere did not know that. They might have +been morphia or arsenic for all he knew. The principle in his case was +the same. His mother said 'no symptoms had set in as yet,' but she +wanted me to administer an antidote at once. I couldn't refuse her!" + +"Mother! What did you do?" + +"First I caused the patient to be removed to his own room and the doors +to be closed. Then I gave him a sound scolding and a good smart +spanking." + +"O dear Doctor Helen!" sighed Polly softly, while Dot clapped her hands +with glee, and even Catherine showed signs of satisfaction. + +"Did his mother hear you?" + +"If she had, I was prepared to tell her it was necessary to restore the +circulation. I was afraid the child might howl, but it was a new +experience to him and he took it so very pleasantly that I am now +worried for fear he liked it!" Dr Helen set down her teacup and turned +to Frieda. "You will think me a barbarous physician, Frieda, but really +this boy has needed discipline for a long time, and there is no one to +give it to him. His pranks are often dangerous." + +"Like the building of a fire under the barn to keep his cat warm." + +"Yes, and making a ladder of kindling wood and climbing up to the second +story on it." + +"He is a pretty naughty boy," finished Dr. Helen, "and a very sweet +attractive one withal. I hope I made it clear to-day, that he is not to +go about eating medicine. Now I must hear how Mrs. Eldred is, and what +sort of a journey you had. Did Catherine make you properly comfortable?" + +Hannah drew close to Dr. Helen and cuddled her hand as she answered. +Then she suddenly said: "O, you know, Frieda and I saw Miss Lyndesay +just before we came away. Do tell about it, Frieda." + +Frieda's face lighted at the name. "She is very wonderful," she said +shyly. "She said: 'Let me greet myself to them.' She finds herself well, +and her house is beautiful." + +"I am so glad. Thank you very much for bringing us direct word from her. +See! this is the portrait she painted of Catherine some time ago." And +Dr. Helen took Frieda a little apart to get a good light on the painting +of Catherine and Hotspur, almost the only picture the big room with its +walls of books contained. It developed that Frieda was very fond of dogs +and her rapture over the picture made it necessary to call in the +original, who instantly recognized in her a discriminating soul. Frieda +dropped down on the leather window-seat and fondled his tawny sides with +the deepest feeling of rest she had had in two days. "He understands +me," she thought, with almost passionate gratitude. + +Polly and Dot bade her good-by in a few minutes. "I'm going to ask you +to go out on the river with me and talk German to me all alone. I've +studied it in college," said Polly, "and I do want to see whether I can +understand a real German. We won't let Catherine or Hannah go. I should +be afraid to try before them, but I don't believe I should be at all +afraid of you." + +Frieda caught Polly's hand in hers, and suddenly carried it to her lips +and kissed it. Polly reddened a little, while Dot turned abruptly away +and made her adieux to Catherine and Hannah. + +"Isn't she a dear?" sighed Polly, as she and Dot went down the walk. "I +do think she's as charming as a picture in a sweet old-fashioned book, +and I want to learn to read the printing that describes the picture." + +"Well, you may for all of me," replied Dot. "But I don't believe I'd +ever feel safe with her. I felt all hands and feet, and if she should +ever kiss my hand!" + +"She won't!" laughed Polly. "You needn't fear! I wonder how the boys +will like her. She is unusually good-looking, and her clothes are +delightful. And I like her eyes. There is fun in her somewhere. You mark +my words, Dot Winthrop. Once she learns English, there'll be something +doing. There's nothing colorless or monotonous about Frieda Lange." + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +CAUGHT IN A SHOWER + + +The three girls, "just the right number, one for each gable," as Dr. +Harlow said, had been very busy that morning. Their beds made, Catherine +had gone down to market, while Frieda dusted the living-room, and Hannah +swept the porches. + +"I like doing things like this," said Frieda suddenly, as she came to +the doorway, and shook her duster energetically. "Do you remember the +time we got our own supper in Berlin, Hannah?" + +"Indeed I do," said Hannah heartily, leaning on her broom. "You look +awfully pretty this morning, Frieda, in that plaid gingham. Are you +going off with Polly, as usual? I don't see you at all, it seems to me." + +"You have Catherine," answered Frieda. "Polly is learning German." + +"And you are learning English. I can see that you have improved a lot +this week. But you are getting pretty slangy. It would be better for you +to learn from Catherine than from Polly." + +Frieda shook her head firmly. "I am in awe of Catherine," she announced, +"and with you I feel weary talking English, for I know you can talk +German. But Polly cannot do any other, and I must talk with her. She is +delightsome." + +"So is Catherine," said Hannah, looking at Frieda wistfully. It was a +worry to her that these two who were to be together all the next year +should be so slow in getting acquainted. "One is obstinate and the other +is shy, and I don't know when they will get over it," she sighed to +herself, as Frieda, seeing Catherine come up the walk, disappeared into +the house. + +Catherine was breathless with her quick climb and her many parcels. She +dropped into a chair on the porch, and took off her hat to fan herself. + +"There is the funniest woman on the street," she said. "I know she is an +agent, and I suppose she'll be here soon; but I've got to shell these +peas and I want to do it out here, so I shan't run from her. Won't you +bring out some pans for the peas when you take your broom in, Hannah? +I'm too weary to move." + +Hannah, on her way after pans, persuaded Frieda to come out and help +shell peas, and all three were soon busily at work. + +Suddenly Catherine snapped a pea at Hannah to attract her attention. + +"My agent!" she whispered, as a woman in a loose flowing gown marched +toward them. + +She mounted the steps and, stooping over Catherine, snapped something +around her neck. + +"There!" she said, straightening herself. "That will never come off." + +All three girls gasped. Catherine clutched at the offending article and +the peas rolled in all directions. + +"It's a collar," said the woman triumphantly. "You can wear it forever. +Just put a fresh ribbon over it now and then, and you're always dressed. +Only fifteen cents. I'll try one on you, Miss--" and before Hannah could +utter a protest she was caught in the celluloid trap as Catherine had +been. Speechless they faced each other. With a little gasp Frieda +slipped over the porch railing and disappeared around the corner of the +house. Hotspur came bounding after her and she patted him, and hugged +him and laughed and laughed. + +"A collar just like yours, Hotspur dear," she told him in German. "And +it will never come off! Catherine, the Saint, the Perfect, the +Inviolate, sitting there looking like a--in English, like an idiom! O, +Hotspur, dear, it has done me good. I have wished I could want to laugh +at her. Now I shan't be so afraid of her ever again. Come! we must go. +It's time for our row." And Frieda danced off across a little wood path +which was a short-cut to the boat-house. + +Polly was waiting, and in a very few minutes the "Minnehaha" was +launched. It was a beautiful day, the river rippling with waves and +twinkling with reflections of trees, but the ardent oarswomen saw +neither the beauty surrounding them nor the black clouds threatening. +They were practising for a race. Neither spoke. They pulled with long +steady strokes in perfect time. Suddenly Frieda's oar flopped and +"caught a crab." The bow at the same moment struck the bank, and a great +scrambling tearing sound followed. In a fright the girls huddled +together in the bottom of the boat, not daring to look up. + +"O, pshaw! It's only a cow, more afraid than we were. She made all that +noise just tearing up the bank." + +"I thought it was an earthshake," sighed Frieda, leaning back and +resting. "That was one hundred strokes without missing. I didn't know +the bank was so near." + +"Neither did I. That's the trouble with us, Frieda. We get so interested +in rowing that we forget to steer." + +"We steered into a steer that time." + +"O, Frieda! You ought not to be allowed to make jokes in English, you +make such bad ones." + +Frieda smiled cheerfully. "Ten days ago I thought I should never make a +joke in any language, or laugh at one again. I was very sorrowful when I +came here, Polly." + +"I didn't dream it," answered Polly. "You looked very sweet when I first +saw you, and I thought you kept still because you didn't care to talk! +But we have had a lot of fun these days, haven't we? I feel as though I +had known you a long time. Wish you were going to Wellesley." + +"So do I. It would be delightful, with you there and Karl and Hannah so +near. But my parents decided for me. Karl will go to see you, though." + +"That's nice. Really, Frieda, you will find it's lots easier at a small +college than a large one at first. And you can come on East afterward. +Dexter is fine, and you'll have such a start, going in as Catherine's +friend." + +Frieda grimaced. + +"If every one there is as beautiful and--_apart_ as Catherine is, I +shan't get on very well. Catherine is like a saint. She could never +understand wickedness as you and Hannah do." + +"Thanks very much!" Polly answered dryly. "But you take my word for it, +Catherine isn't just a saint. There is fun in her, too, though not on +the surface. You may always feel as though she were a beautiful picture +or poem but you won't like her the less for that. She's not +stand-offish. She's just different. My dear, I felt a drop." + +"So did I. And there's another." Straightway the heavens opened and a +deluge descended, most of it, it seemed, aiming for the small rowboat at +the pasture's edge. + +The thin roof of boughs which had hidden from their view the swiftly +gathering clouds was wholly inadequate to the task of sheltering them +from the contents of the clouds. Great cracks of lightning showed in the +dark sky, and thunder rattled and roared and rumbled and burst. + +Polly looked grave. + +"We'll drown if we stay here, and we could never row home. Look at the +waves! And if we stay here, we're also liable to be struck by lightning. +Let's leave the boat and make for that farmhouse across the pasture." + +"I'm afraider of the cow," said Frieda. "But I'll go. We can hide the +oars and oar-locks in the bushes." + +Progress across the pasture was difficult, but when the road beyond was +reached, both looked aghast at the muddy stream of it. + +Frieda rolled under the fence and stepped boldly in. Polly, gasping with +laughter, started to climb over. + +"You might as well roll," advised Frieda. "You can't wetten yourself +more than you are already, and it is pleasant to roll." + +"That's a matter of taste!" panted Polly, balancing herself on the top +of the fence. + +Suddenly Frieda gave a little shriek. Polly instantly fell forward into +the mud, her skirt catching on all the barbs in the fence and rending +itself horribly. Frieda, full of wild exclamations of pity and remorse, +helped her up and wiped the thickest of the mud from her once piquant +face. + +"It was the cow," she confessed. "I saw him coming from afar and I +squealed. I did not know it would make you tumble, but I had to squeal. +I fear cows. I have great alarm before them." + +"I forgive you," Polly was weak with mirth. "But we've got to get into +that house and telephone for some one to come out from town and take us +home. We could never walk in these roads, and I should tie myself all up +in knots if I walked in this shredded skirt. One more little spurt, +Frieda, and we're at the kitchen door!" + +It looked for a minute as though they would never get beyond the door. +The respectable lady who met them there was scarcely to blame if she +judged a little by outward appearance. Polly's efforts to be suave were +discounted by the muddy look of her eye, and the fact that water was +dripping from her hair into her face. + +"Won't you please let us come in and telephone for a carriage, and then +wait for it?" she pleaded. "I will gladly pay for the use of the +'phone." Then it came over her sickeningly that she had no money with +her. + +"I'm Polly Osgood," she said. "My father is the Osgood of Osgood and +Brown, Lawyers." + +"You don't say! Come right in. I'm Amanda B. Mills, and Lawyer Osgood +has been my counsel for twenty-one years and more. I'd never a-kept you +waitin' out there a minute, if I'd known 'twas you. Is this your sister? +Don't wipe your shoes. Come right in. There's other folks been caught in +this rain, too." + +She stepped back, still speaking, and invited them into the kitchen. +Polly and Frieda, stumbling a little, blinded as they were by the water +dripping from their hair, followed her. As they entered the room, there +was a moment's silence, then a burst of laughter and exclamations. + +"For the love of Mike!" + +"Where did you rain down from?" + +"O dear, O dear! You ridiculous boys!" + +"What a guy you do look, Polly!" + +And slowly out of the babel of voices came a deep solemn: +"_Donnerwetter!_" It was not a lady-like expression for a nice +little German girl to use, but she knew that to American ears it sounded +more harmless than her usual expletives, and, besides, she felt that if +ever an occasion had warranted emphasis this was it. She and Polly, +dripping, draggled, ragged, confronted with Algernon, Max, Bert and +Archie, almost as wet, grouped about Amanda B. Mills' kitchen stove! + +Mrs. Mills' astonishment at the boisterous greeting given her latest +guests by the earlier ones was so manifest that Polly hastened to make +all clear with introductions. + +"How do you happen to be here?" she asked, as she finished, and Archie +had made a Chesterfieldian bow, though the blue from his Andover cap had +run into his fair hair. + +"Fishing," answered Bert. "We drove out from town with our old nag, +hitched her to a tree and fished. Thunder and lightning always rile the +beast, and she just broke her tie-strap and oozed off home, and left us +in her wake. We got this far, walking, but the road was such a juicy +mess we decided to stop and telephone for some one to come out after +us." + +"That's what I am going to do. Where is the telephone, Mrs. Mills?" + +"O, do allow us to have the pleasure," begged Max. "They said they'd +send out the 'light bearers' wagon,' and it's warranted to hold six. +Besides it will be here in twenty minutes, and a private equipage would +take longer." + +"Well--it's awfully kind of you, I'm sure! Aren't you afraid we'll make +you wetter, though, if we ride in the same carriage? I am flooding the +floor at this moment. It's terrible, Mrs. Mills. Isn't there a shed we +could go into, and not make such a lot of work for you?" + +"Deary me, Miss Osgood, it's a pleasure to me to have you here. But I +wisht you'd come into the parlor, all of you, you and your friends. I'll +lay papers down on the carpet, and you can just walk in." + +They all protested, but as it soon became clear that it was as much a +desire to display the beauties of her room as hospitality that prompted +the invitation, they yielded and filed damply along the newspaper path +into the gaudy parlor. The rain had stopped as suddenly as it had come +up, and the sun was shining through the flowers in the lace curtains at +the windows, and striking the bright pink morning-glory of the +graphophone, which was the most conspicuous object in the room. Mrs. +Mills, preceding her wet guests, turned the track a little past the +telephone, resplendent in oak and nickel, so that the whole procession +could be inside the room at once. Then she called their respectful +attention to her framed marriage certificate, and a similar document +declaring the late Jacob Quincy Mills a Grand Something or Other in some +lodge. Beneath these, on a shelf, were two tall lava jars filled with +pampas grass, a pink china vase and a wreath of Easter lilies made of +spangled paper. + +"I'd like to show you the pictures in the family album," said Mrs. Mills +hospitably, resting her hand upon the fat plush volume on the center +table, "but I don't see how more'n two or three of you can look at it at +a time." She frowned a moment, puzzled. Then her face lighted. "I'll +just set the graphophone goin' for the rest of you to entertain +yourselves with," she said eagerly, and in a moment the room was filled +with the wheezing and strident strains of "You Look Good to Father," +against which Mrs. Mills raised her own voice in explanatory remarks to +Archie and Frieda, who happened to be within the album's range: + +"This is Mr. Mills' sister's first husband. That was their baby that +died. This here is Miss Evelyn Mills of Chicago. She's a singer there at +the Orpheum. She was my husband's own cousin, once removed. This was my +father's aunt,--" and so on. + +"Look at Algernon," whispered Max to Polly. "He's as contented as a +lamb. He's learning all there is to know about poultry, and doesn't even +know that infernal machine is going or that Mr. Mills had any +relatives." And sure enough Algernon, standing beside the bookcase, on a +portion of the newspaper track, was reading, even devouring, the pages +of a scientific farming journal, with an expression of perfect +satisfaction on his face. + +The long half hour came at last to an end. Mrs. Mills conducted the +procession back to the kitchen, helped tuck the girls into the robes, +and disclaiming all right to their earnest thanks, watched the wagon out +of sight. + +"Which is worse, a soaking or a fourth-class phonograph?" queried Archie +from his corner. + +Bert, humming "Waltz me Around Again, Willie," paused to remark: + +"Why, I rather liked that. Didn't the rest of you?" + +Polly shivered, not with cold alone. + +"There is one song we all like, Bert," she suggested. "Let's sing it now +to keep our lungs from freezing. There's water enough all about to make +it appropriate!" + +And in a minute four big male voices were shouting out the Boat Club +song, Polly's soprano sweet and clear over the rest, while Frieda smiled +encouragement over the edge of the robe in which she was wrapped to her +chin. + + "We are the Winsted Boat Club, + Dip the oar, dip the oar! + We are the Winsted Boat Club, + Push out from shore! + + "We are the Winsted Boat Club, + Paddle light, paddle light! + A-drifting, a-drifting beneath + The sunset bright!" + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +AN INTERLUDE + + +Algernon suffered more serious consequences from his wetting than the +others did from theirs. His cold the next day prevented him from even +attempting to go to the library. He wrote a note to Bertha, asking her +to take his place, and then, groaning over his inability to get to the +telephone, coaxed Elsmere to his side and sewed the note and the key to +his blouse. + +"You cross your heart and hope to die you'll go straight to Bertha's and +give her the key?" + +"Cross my heart. Hope die. And you'll give me six candies and a +rocking-horse, and a 'lectric light and a house for my pigeons, and--" + +"I'll give you something nice when you've done the errand, not before. +Now hurry. The library can't open till you get there. Think of it! All +those people who want books waiting for you!" Coughing, Algernon fell +back upon his hated pillows, and watched his messenger set out, more in +hope than in confidence. + +It was Fate that prevented Elsmere's fulfilling the trust, or rather, +realizing the hope, for though he did go straight to Bertha's house, he +did not find her there. The maid who opened the door proved +uncommunicative on the subject of Bertha's whereabouts, and Elsmere +sauntered away, undecided what to do next. Ten feet from the gate, he +stumbled upon a cat. At once a beautiful thought came to him. His own +cat-pussy had gone away, tired of abuse and starvation irregularly +combined with affection in the form of embraces and sugar, and Elsmere's +heart had grieved for her. Here was another, and he could find out by +actual experiment whether the velvet birds in the library would deceive +her. Clutching the spitting, clawing creature to his bosom, he trotted +off to the library. + +The door, of course, was locked. At first this fact discouraged Elsmere. +Then he suddenly remembered that he alone possessed means of entrance. +Putting the cat down on the pavement and stepping firmly on her tail to +retain her, he fitted the key and triumphantly turned it in the lock. + +Once inside, he carried kitty to the closet where the birds at present +hung, but his experiment was unsatisfactory, for she dug into his cheek +with a fury which rendered it necessary to abandon the attempt. When the +outraged animal had fled down the street, Elsmere looked about for fresh +interests. He was in a mood to recognize opportunities, and the +unprotected condition of Algernon's desk was suggestive. Never was a +librarian more hostile to little prying fingers than A. Swinburne of the +Winsted City Library. Elsmere felt a certain constraint, even alone with +opportunity. + +The door opened and a very small person came in and walked over to the +desk. + +"What you want?" asked Elsmere gravely. + +"Want a book." + +"All right." Elsmere walked to the shelves, took down a large volume of +Sheridan's Memoirs, and handed it to the child. Plainly much impressed +by the size of her booty, she wrapped her arms about it and walked out, +with admiring glances at Elsmere over her shoulder. Elsmere was pleased. +That was easy. He climbed into Algernon's chair. There were plenty of +things to amuse one. Rubber stamps hold infinite possibilities of +entertainment. So do colored cards arranged in trays. Elsmere shifted +them all about, and stamped the date on everything in sight. + +Then came more Public, Mrs. Kittredge's maid this time, returning a book +and not wishing more. In fact, she laid down the book and departed with +such would-be inconspicuous swiftness that if Elsmere had been more +experienced, he would have known at once that the book was overdue. + +Then there was a lull. Even forbidden pleasure palls in time, if no one +comes to remonstrate, and Elsmere was beginning to consider going home, +when three boys, strolling that way, pressed their noses against the +window-pane. Then they wandered in. + +"What's the kid doin' in the liberrian's chair?" asked one. Elsmere +maintained a dignified silence, stamping the date rapidly and inkily on +a pile of fresh catalog cards. + +"Say, kid, where's the liberrian?" + +"I'm liberrian." + +"O, come off. Where's the real one? The feller that knows it all, and +walks like a seesaw." + +"That's Algy," said Elsmere, with fraternal recognition. "Algy's sick. +I'm liberrian." + +His questioner looked at him keenly. + +"I say, kids, let's us be liberrians. You put the little feller out." + +The obedient henchmen put the howling Elsmere down from his seat, and +exalted their chief. + +"I'm it," said that worthy. "You pick out books you want, and I'll fix +'em up." + +The others, nothing loath, picked out certain extra-illustrated volumes +which Algernon did not allow to circulate, and presented them at the +desk, where they helped the presiding official to "fix 'em up" according +to methods suggested by intuition combined with a little observation. + +"Say, now it's my turn," said one of the subordinates. "You git down and +let me. Does that chair screw 'round?" + +It did, and in the ensuing scuffle, it not only screwed around but the +top fell off, carrying three boys and an assortment of inks with it. + +At the same moment, Max and Archie entered to while away an idle +half-hour with the daily paper. + +The big boys were prompt, but the little boys were prompter. The back +door swung on its hinges and Max and Archie, puffing, ejaculating and +wrathful, gave over attempts at capture for efforts at repair, Max going +off to hunt up Algernon, while Archie gathered up scattered cards and +mopped up the ink with dust-cloths. + +Seeking Algernon, Max ran across Mrs. Osgood making calls. Hearing his +tale, she went back with him to the scene of disaster, and her capable +fingers soon brought about some appearance of order, though the +intricacies of card systems were beyond her. + +"I'd like to know who the rascals are that did it," she said with +emphasis; "and I can't see how they got in. Where do you suppose +Algernon is?" + +"He caught cold yesterday," Archie told her, "but it doesn't seem +possible that he would send down anybody who would go off and leave the +place open. I saw the little Weed boy, but I didn't know the other two. +They lit out like lightning, and I didn't care to chase them all up Main +Street. I was going to the Smiths' to have a cup of tea!" Archie looked +ruefully at his soiled garments and dark blue hands. "I wonder if we +couldn't get Bertha to come in here. She knows the ins and outs of all +these fancy arrangements." + +"Berfa isn't to home," remarked a clear sweet voice from the closet. +"Fat's why I had to be liberrian!" + +Max threw open the door. Elsmere, on the wood-box, was contentedly +jiggling the velvet birds, which had been the first cause of all the +excitement. + +At the sight of Max's angry face, he jumped up. "I got to go," he said +hastily. "I'm awful busy. Must find my cat-pussy. I losted her when she +scratched me." + +"Sensible cat," growled Archie, taking Elsmere by the collar. "I wish +she had losted you. Here, Mrs. Osgood, this seems to be the key to the +mystery. At least it's the key to something." He lifted the key dangling +from Elsmere's blouse. + +"Algy sewed it on me," explained the child. + +Mrs. Osgood sighed. "So Algernon is sick, and he sent you after Bertha, +and she wasn't at home. I see. Max, you and Archie needn't wait. I'll +take the responsibility of closing the library for to-day, and I'd like +a private talk with this young gentleman, if you are willing." + +Elsmere's eyes brightened. + +"Will you pank me?" he asked hopefully. "Dr. Helen pank me when I eat +pills. _So!_" In his effort to illustrate, he bent so nearly double +that he fell over on his nose, and set it bleeding. Max and Archie +caught up their hats and fled, leaving Mrs. Osgood to act upon +inspiration. + +Half an hour later, having by strenuous effort regained something of +their former freshness of appearance, the two boys dropped in upon the +group on the Three Gables lawn. They stopped a minute to take in the +details of the pretty picture. Under a great apple tree, Catherine had +set her tea-table with its pretty accessories. In comfortable chairs +about it, sat the Boat Club girls, embroidering soft colored things or +simply "visiting." Frieda was telling a story, and the others were +listening attentively as she stumbled a little now and then in her +desire to express herself rapidly. + +"And he was there in the water, all the above part of him, and I held +his waist. I pulled greatly and in he came lickety split, and what do +you think he said? 'I big fish, Frieda. Pull me in and fy me.'" + +"That was Elsmere, I'll wager," cried Max, approaching with Archie and +giving Catherine his hand. "I'm glad you were talking about him, Miss +Frieda, for we're full of the subject. He never said the expected thing +in his life. Drowning and spanking are what he needs; the only trouble +is that he likes nothing better. But he's beaten his record to-day," and +while Archie dropped upon a rug near Hotspur, and incidentally near +Bess, who was prettier than ever, and working on an Andover pillow, Max +received a cup of tea from Catherine's hands and told his story of the +afternoon's episode to a deeply interested audience. + +"Poor Algernon!" sighed Polly. "That will make him so much extra work, +and he must have his patience tried by that dreadful baby all the time." + +"Does no one punish Elsmere except the neighbors?" asked Frieda, whose +opinion of the lawlessness of American children was being strengthened +daily by Elsmere's performances. Winifred answered, laughing. + +"His mother made up her mind to, once. She told me about it. She told +him she would not be his mother that day for he had been so bad she was +ashamed to own him. Some one had told her that was a sure way to crush a +child. But Elsmere was only interested. He called her 'Mamma' and 'Mummy +dear' to catch her napping, but she wouldn't answer. By and by a caller +came in, and Elsmere walked up to her and pointed at his mother and +said: 'This isn't my mother. She is just Mrs. Swinburne, but I love +her!' And Mrs. Swinburne picked him up and kissed him and cried, and I +don't believe she ever tried again to make him mind." + +"I'm glad Perdita and Peter are such a biddable sort," said Polly. "I +don't know what we'd do with two little imps around. They are quite +good, almost always. Perdita is mischievous, but Peter keeps her +straight. He seems to feel the whole burden of her. If she starts to do +anything naughty, he says: 'Perdita, you mustn't,' and Perdita doesn't." + +"It's lucky Perdita hasn't Elsmere for a brother," suggested Dot. +"There'd be no living in Winsted if she had, for even Peter can't keep a +wicked look out of her eye at times." + +"Room for a tired man in your party, children?" Dr. Harlow joined the +group. Max vacated the long chair he was occupying, and every one +welcomed the doctor with a word or smile. They all loved him, and +nothing pleased them better than to have him spend an hour with them. +To-day, he was plainly tired, and while Catherine prepared tea for him, +Frieda whispered to Hannah. + +"I wonder if he would," said Hannah. "Winifred, will you sing, if I +bring out my fiddle?" + +[Illustration: "Frieda was telling a story and the others were listening +attentively."--_Page 184._] + +Winifred never refused to sing, and Hannah slipped into the house, tuned +her dear Geige and brought it out. Then she played very softly, while +Winifred's sweet voice sang one quiet song after another. Dr. Harlow's +tired face relaxed and, leaning back in the chair, he presently dropped +off to sleep. The young people were very still, and Winifred smiled +softly as she sang. Dr. Helen, coming out from the office after an +interview with a wearying patient, stood in her turn watching. The blues +and pinks and greens of the girls' frocks, the boys' white flannels and +the great tree spreading above them, made a pretty background and +setting for the central group of Hannah bending her brown head earnestly +over her violin, and Winifred lifting her delicate little face while she +sang. + +"Bravo!" shouted a big voice behind Dr. Helen. Bert, on his way home +from one of his spasmodic "jobs," dropped in to say "Hello!" and +incidentally break the spell. Dr. Harlow woke and looked guiltily about +him. His wife joined him, and Max and Archie shook the kinks out of +their long legs, as the girls began to gather up their sewing and +flutter about Catherine with good-bys. + +"I say, Miss Hannah," said Bert, making his way to her. "I didn't know +you played. That's a jolly little fiddle you've got there. Do you know +the Merry Widow waltzes?" + +Hannah laughed. "I don't," she confessed, "but perhaps I could learn +them. Bring them up some time and I'll try." + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +SUNDAY SCHOOL + + +"Hannah, are you awake?" + +Hannah turned over, and opened an eye uncertainly. + +"No, I guess so." + +"Well, do wake up and look at me. Isn't it awful?" + +Hannah unscrewed the other eye, and blinked blindly for a minute. + +"What is it?" she asked, yawning. + +"My cheek. Can't you see? Toothache. It's all swollen up, and it hurts." + +Hannah roused herself a little more, then shut her eyes quickly. She +didn't want to laugh at Catherine. + +"Can't you do anything for it?" + +"I suppose so, but it won't go down in time for Sunday-school, and who +will take my class?" + +Hannah groaned. "Who would ever get up in the middle of the night and +worry about a Sunday-school class, when they had a toothache? It's +unnormal! Go back to bed, unless there is something I can do for you. +Can't I call your mother?" + +"No, there's no use bothering her. I know what to do well enough, but I +am so worried about the class." + +"O, go along to sleep. I'll take your old class." + +Hannah was asleep herself before Catherine had finished sighing with +grateful relief and returned to her own room. + +An hour later, Hannah woke with a start to the consciousness that +something unpleasant had happened. Almost immediately that vagueness +gave way to irritating clearness. She got up and peeped into Catherine's +room. She was sleeping, but the swollen cheek left no room for hope that +the whole episode was a nightmare. Hannah dressed quietly, frowning the +while at her unconsidered offer of the early morning. + +"I do think this town would be twice as nice if there weren't any +children in it. They spoil everything. I never taught anybody anything +in all my life. And I never went to Sunday-school either, except in +Germany. She will just have to get some one else," she fussed. "A +promise like that doesn't count. I was so sleepy I didn't know what I +was saying." + +With unwelcome plainness she recalled the facts that Dorcas and Polly +had classes of their own, Bertha and Agnes were out of town, and Dot and +Win and Bess belonged to another denomination. + +"Why couldn't she have waited till Alice came? She's always ready for +things like that. O, dear. I suppose I'll have to try. Catherine would +keep a promise herself, if she made it in delirium tremens!" + +She stole down stairs before any one was stirring, save Inga in the +kitchen, found a Bible and took it over to the window-seat, where she +opened it gingerly. + +"I wonder where they begin," she thought. "Might as well look Genesis +over first, to refresh my memory." She spread the thin pages open, and +began to read. Outside the open window the birds were noisily +celebrating the sunny morning. Inga ground the coffee. A bell rang for +early service somewhere. Hannah's eyes wandered from the page. + +"'And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.' It sounds +just like poetry," she thought. "But what could I tell youngsters about +it? They would be sure to want to know just how the waters were kept off +the firmaments. I hope--no, I know, Elsmere _is_ in that class!" In +silent horror, Hannah sat staring out of the window. Memories of +Catherine's Sunday dinner talk swarmed back into her mind. She had +thought the stories amusing: how Elsmere had chewed gum and put it into +the collection envelope; how Perdita Osgood had described in vivid +detail her seasickness of a summer before; how the little Hamilton girl +had asked personal and embarrassing questions of Catherine herself. It +had sounded funny, when Catherine told the tales in her quiet way,--but +to be alone with them for an hour! Hannah's heart failed her entirely. +She shut the Bible and marched up to Catherine's room. Catherine was +dressing, as far away from the mirror as possible. + +"Hannah, dear," she called, seeing the brown hair and blue eyes through +a crack in the door. "Do come in. You don't know what a dear you were to +take that class. I went straight to sleep, and didn't mind the pain +nearly so much after that. It worried me so. You see, the Sunday-school +is so small and I had been over and over it in my mind, and couldn't +think of any one who would do. It's the last class any one is ever +willing to take." + +"Why?" asked Hannah, her prepared refusal suspended. + +"O, because it's so big, and there are all ages of little people in it. +But you'll do beautifully. Children always love you. Do you know what +the lesson is?" + +Hannah hesitated. Then a glance at Catherine's distorted face made her +ashamed of herself, and she answered bravely: + +"No. What is it? I'll have to study up a lot." + +"You'll find plenty of material in those leaflets and books in the pile +there on the table by my Bible. It's about the Good Shepherd. And if +you're going down, will you ask mother to come in before breakfast? I +don't believe I've been doing the right things." + +So Hannah, laden with Helps and Hints, went slowly down stairs again, +and after having sent Dr. Helen up to see her afflicted daughter, +resumed her place in the window-seat and put her mind resolutely on the +subject of the lesson. + +"'Bring in the 23rd Psalm,'" she read in one suggestion. "That's good. I +know that much and I can make them repeat it the whole hour, if nothing +else comes into my head. How is she, Dr. Helen?" + +Dr. Helen smiled ruefully. "She will be all right after a while, but it +is a pity, isn't it? You were a good girl to relieve her mind about that +class. She cares so much about it. Good morning, Frieda! _Hast du gut +geschlafen?_" + +The Three Gables household was a church-going one. Hannah, in her white +gown with sweet-peas scattered over it, met the doctors in the hall. + +"Is Frieda late?" she asked, putting on her gloves. "It isn't like her." + +"No, but she begged so hard to stay with Catherine whose state seems to +waken deeps of pity in her, that I couldn't refuse. She said she would +do anything for her, even to reading poetry!" + +They all laughed, for Frieda's English reading was distinctly lacking in +smoothness, and her rendering of poetry would doubtless be harrowing. + +"That would hurt Catherine more than the toothache," said Hannah, "but +they will find something better to do," and she walked sedately down the +path between the doctors, her Bible and Quarterly in her hands, +wondering if martyrs on the way to the stake chatted on indifferent +topics, and noticed birds and bees and grasshoppers. + +Meanwhile Catherine and Frieda up stairs were surprising themselves and +each other. The first glimpse of Catherine's swollen cheek had roused +Frieda's sense of mirth, but compassion for physical pain followed +quickly. + +"_Ach weh! Weh! Schade! Schade!_" she had murmured in a deep +sympathetic tone, which Catherine found unexpectedly soothing. +Accustomed as she had always been to brisk remedial measures, and beyond +those, to wordless pity and a deliberate ignoring of the evil, she was +interested and touched by this demonstration. She had felt shy with +Frieda from the first, wishing so earnestly to know her well and win her +love that she could not be perfectly simple and natural with her. This +shyness had combined with the little aloofness, which every one felt in +Catherine, to shut Frieda's heart. But this morning the barriers were +down. Catherine, instead of being perfect, exquisite, was nothing short +of hideous. The agent had proved that she could look absurd. Here she +was shown mortal to the point of needing help from Frieda. What made +Hannah feel awkward and useless, caused Frieda to come to the front, +competent and tender. She made Catherine cozy with pillows, and sat +beside her, speaking, in tones which carried healing and comfort, of all +sorts of interesting and delightful things and places. She told stories +of her school in Germany, of her home and Hannah's visit, of her little +friend who had been to a birthday party at the palace, of the strange +"church social" to which Hannah had taken her in Berlin, of her rides +with Herr Karl in the Tiergarten, rapturous descriptions of the +Tiergarten itself, dropping unconsciously into German phrases, her eyes +shining and her cheeks taking on an unwontedly charming color, while +Catherine lay and listened, entranced, as though she were in a world +where pain had no power. + +It was not so pleasant at the little gray church. Hannah, all through +the sermon, wrestled mentally with the parable. It seemed to her it was +a very slippery parable! She would no sooner highly resolve to hold it +till she had wrenched its moral from it, and reduced that moral to terms +which the youngest babe could surely comprehend, than she would find +that the elusive subject had slipped from her grasp, and her whole mind +would be fixed upon the problem of how long it would take a fly to crawl +all the way across the expansive back of Mrs. Graham, who sat in the pew +in front. + +She went through the service like a well-constructed automaton, rising, +sitting, singing even, with no notion of what she was doing or why she +was doing it. She bowed her head with the others for the benediction, +and then the soft stirring and cheerful tones of greeting about her, +told her that her hour was come. + +The superintendent directed her to "Miss Smith's class." To her final +dismay, she found that that meant a seat on the platform in full view of +the congregation. The little church was barely more than a chapel, and +the chorus choir had two pews upon the platform. Here, it seemed, for +purposes of segregation, Catherine held her flock during the +interminable opening exercises, after which she led them to their own +room in the basement. As one in a dream, Hannah went to the seat pointed +out to her. Margaret Kittredge and Peter and Perdita were already +present. The little Hamilton girl came in with two unknown others. Then +more and more. The little girls settled themselves fussily, getting up +frequently to crush their stiff starchy skirts into place. Their +wide-brimmed hats interfered when they moved and they were never still. +The little boys huddled together, and punched each other without motive, +crowding each other off the seat, and showing the pennies they held in +their moist little palms. + +The superintendent tapped his bell. The noisy groups of the +Sunday-school at large lapsed into an approach to order, the teachers +staring consciously ahead with an excess of propriety, and the children +alertly refraining from anything more riotous than fumbling with +hymn-books. Hannah's own charges felt the change in the atmosphere, and +quietness fell upon them. She welcomed it gratefully, aware that it was +in no wise due to her own effort, and spreading a hymn-book open for the +first song, stooped to allow the small boy next her to look on, then +lent her voice as freely as she could to the chirping chorus. As the +exercises continued, she became rather more accustomed to her prominent +seat, and, inspired by Dorcas Morehouse's austere countenance in the +front row below her, she even turned once and looked down the squirming +row beside her, shaking her head gravely at Perdita, who was showing +signs of uprising. Peter caught the look of reproach and passed it on to +his twin with interest, hauling her into her place with a tug which +resulted in a loud parting of gathers. The Bible reading over, +"birthdays" were called for, and the little Hamilton girl trotted +importantly forward to the superintendent's table, where she let seven +pennies drop from her fat fingers into a yawning frog, receiving in +exchange a printed text. Acknowledging this courtesy with a jerky bow, +she switched her way back to the pew she had left, and crumpled herself +into a space not half wide enough to hold her. The minister rose to lead +in prayer. Hannah bowed her head devoutly, trusting in the power of +example. She was conscious of the heavy breathing of Margaret beside +her, due to the unwonted strain of pressing her chin close to her chest. +The minister's voice droned on and on, but Hannah was sending up a +fervent petition of her own, and for a brief space heard nothing. +Then--Bang! "I want to sit by Her." There was a thud of falling bodies, +and Elsmere, late but ardent, plumped himself into the place at Hannah's +right, from which he had forcibly removed a little boy with fat red +legs, which were now waving in the air. Hannah felt herself as red as +the evicted legs, and as the prayer came to an abrupt stop, would have +given worlds to be able to flee and hide her mortified face. + +At a tap from the bell in the superintendent's hand, the class slipped +to the floor, shook out its skirts and grasped its caps. The organ +started up wheezily, and every one burst into song: "See the mighty host +advancing, Satan leading on!" as Hannah, heading the wiggling line of +wandering-eyed children, got somehow off the platform and into a little +basement room which had been equipped for primary work with chairs of +varying heights, a great colored chart and a mission map. + +There she breathed more freely. Whatever the next half-hour had in store +for her, she would at least be alone with it. These fifteen wigglers had +become part of her. She must blush for them as for herself, but they +were not onlookers, anyhow. The mere absence of Dorcas' gaze was +refreshment. + +There was a brief period of settling into chairs, some mild squabbling +over two desirable blue ones, a little dispute as to the privilege of +passing the envelope, and at last Hannah found that something definite +was expected of her. The chart showed a brightly-colored shepherd +holding in his arms a weak lamb. + +"Say, won't that lamb kick him? They're awful leggy," suggested an +interested youth in the first row. + +"I seen a lamb onct," announced his neighbor, rocking perilously on the +two back legs of her chair. "It was a ram lamb and it butted me in my +stomach, it did. Hurt. Hurt awful." + +"Huh!" grunted Perdita. "I don't believe it hurt as much as when my +mother sewed my finger in the sewing-machine. Did your stomach bleed?" + +"Children," said Hannah desperately. "Don't talk, please. No, Peter, not +another word from anybody. Now who can tell the Golden Text?" + +Dead silence. + +"Doesn't any one know the Golden Text?" + +"Miss Smith doesn't do that way," suggested some one. "She always says: +'Peter, you may tell us the Golden Text.'" + +"Very well," agreed Hannah hurriedly. "Peter, you may tell us the Golden +Text." + +"Let me," cried Elsmere. "I know 'bout lambs. Mary had a little lamb, +fleeciswhitissnow." + +"Elsmere," said Hannah sternly. "I asked Peter to tell us the Golden +Text." + +"Mine is a walker," said Peter loudly. + +Hannah looked mystified. + +"Pooh!" remarked the Hamilton girl loftily. "That ain't this Sunday's. +'Wine is a mocker' was to-morrow's. 'Tain't this Sunday's." + +"What is this Sunday's?" asked Hannah hopefully. "Doesn't anybody know? +'I am'--don't you remember? 'I am the good--': + +"I am the good--" Peter got so far and then stopped, stolid. + +"I know," cried Elsmere once more. "Put in his thumb, pull out a plum, +good boy am I!" + +The others snickered, and Hannah bit her lip. "No. 'I am the good +shepherd.' It was Jesus who said it. Now all of you say it together." + +Lamblike, they followed her lead, and she succeeded in passing over +several minutes. But they soon grew restive again, and one little hand +pawed the air. + +"Well, what is it?" + +"The Grahams is coming to our house to dinner." + +"That's nice. Now we will talk about the shepherd psalm. How many of you +know it?" + +There was a moment of doubt. "Shall not want?" ventured one of the older +ones presently. + +"Yes, that's it exactly," said Hannah gladly. "You've all heard it lots +of times. Now I'll recite it for you, and then you can tell me what it +means." + +With the Bible prudently open to save her from any possible +embarrassment at a sudden lapse of memory, she began slowly to recite +the psalm, pausing for explanatory comments as she went along. + +"I was in a valley onct," said a sleepy boy, who had contributed nothing +so far to the morning's entertainment. "I fell off'n the dock and the +boat was clost up to me, and that was a valley." + +"How'd you get out?" asked several with interest. + +"Man pulled me out," and the speaker subsided. + +Hannah stole a glance at her watch, as she finished the psalm. She had +strung it out as long as she could, but there were still several minutes +to dispose of. + +"Now I wonder who can tell me what that was all about?" she asked, with +feigned sprightliness. "I think you can, the little girl with the red +dress. What's your name? O, yes, Gwendolen." + +Every one turned to look at Gwendolen. She stuck her finger in her +mouth, presumably to stem the tide of speech, for as she withdrew it the +words fell out over one another all in one breath. + +"Don't want anyfing to eat. Lay down in the grass an' roll. Put kerosene +on my head. Can't git any more in my cup, all spillin' over." + +The door opened and once more the superintendent tapped his bell. +Hannah, with a deep sigh of thankfulness, marshalled her troop and drove +them back to their place, taking her martyr's seat in their midst. + +Through the reading of the secretary's report and the singing of three +stanzas of the closing hymn, they behaved fairly well, subdued by the +drowsy atmosphere of air unchanged since the morning service. The last +stanza of the hymn was nearly sung. Elsmere rose to his feet and plucked +Peter by the hair of his head. Hannah cast an appealing glance at the +superintendent, who was nearer the offender than herself. He took a +quick stride forward, with his hand uplifted, just as the last wailing +sound of the hymn died away. His hand on Elsmere's collar, he observed +the congregation standing with bowed heads. They had misinterpreted his +gesture. Casting a look of understanding at Hannah, gripping Elsmere +tightly, he pronounced the expected benediction, and as the audience +broke up into home-going groups, set the boy down with emphasis. + +"We don't usually close with a prayer," he said to Hannah, "but they +thought that was what I meant, when I stepped forward. I nearly +throttled the child but--" + +"I think you will be forgiven," said Hannah firmly. "Miss Smith will be +here next Sunday, but I, I am thankful to say, shall not!" + + + + +PART THREE + +TOGETHER AT LAST + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +ALICE ON THE WAY + + +Out on a Dakota prairie, in a corner of a motionless Pullman sat a short +girl in a plain blue suit, her grey eyes behind thick glasses bent upon +the pages of a red leather book. + +"'Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise +for the spirit of heaviness.'" She read the words over and over, and the +book fell from her hands as she looked out on the limitless fields. +"'Beauty for ashes.' What a striking way of putting it! 'The oil of +joy'--why, I wonder what we are stopping here so long for. It doesn't +look like a station." + +And suddenly Alice Prescott sat up straight and looked about her, alert +and alive. + +The porter came slowly in response to her repeated ring. "What's the +matter? Why, there's an engine off the track a little ways off, and our +crew and engine has gone to help. No, nobody hurt. Just a freight +engine. Don't know how long. Mebbe one hour. Mebbe two." + +"But I'll miss my connections!" + +"Too bad, Miss." The porter looked at her with lazy curiosity. The train +had already been at a standstill for ten minutes, and every other woman +on the car had put him through a catechism long ago. This girl looked +awake and practical. How could a porter understand that the mere beauty +of words and ideas could render one unconscious to delays in +transportation? + +Alice rose and walked up and down the aisle. Three women, rather +overdressed, were playing cards in a remote section. A man slept in a +corner. She went to the door, and seeing groups of passengers standing +outside along the track, jumped down from the high step and walked a +little, tasting the fresh air with pleasure. The country offered nothing +to her gaze. Her eye, accustomed to mountains, found endless level +stretches harrowing rather than soothing. She recalled a Dakota girl at +Dexter who was always telling of the beauty of the prairie, and longing +for it. "I suppose it's a matter of habit," she thought to herself. +"There is certainly something that kindles your imagination in such a +sight. It would be dreary if it weren't cultivated, but it must be +wonderful to see a whole country reclaimed from wildness and made +productive. 'Beauty for ashes' O!" and with a little shiver of pleasure, +she repeated the lines that had so charmed her a few minutes before. +"'The spirit of heaviness.' What a strange thing to include in the same +message with the vengeance of the Lord! It makes blues and dullness seem +so important. It doesn't say anything here about Christ's coming to heal +bodily suffering or sin, and it does explicitly say he is to cure the +blues. Isn't that interesting?" + +Her walk had brought her to the first of the line of day-coaches by this +time, and she glanced up at the listless faces leaned against the dirty +window-panes. As she passed, each pair of eyes rested wearily on her +figure. Suddenly a thought struck her. Blues and dullness! Where were +they ever more to the fore than here? She entered the car impulsively +and stood looking people over. She spoke to the nearest woman. + +"It's a nuisance having to wait so, isn't it? Wouldn't you like to come +out for a little walk?" + +"No," snapped the woman, "I wouldn't." Alice flushed, then smiled and +went on down the aisle. Evidently her mission of good fairy was not +going to be successful at the start. "Some people want to be 'heavy,'" +she thought. "I'll take some one who looks as though she wanted to be +lightened up. Here's one." + +The red-eyed cindery young woman who was curled up in her seat, dabbing +her cheeks with a smeary handkerchief, looked as though any change would +be a welcome one. Alice stopped resolutely. "Can I do anything for you?" +she asked, not at all sure of her reception. + +The girl lifted her eyes and swallowed a sob. "Nobud-d-dy can," she +wailed; "I'm going to be m-m-married!" + +Alice's face twitched. "Won't you tell me about it?" she asked. +"Cheering folks up" was proving an intricate business. "If the garment +of praise doesn't fit any one," she thought, "I'll just have to carry it +back and wear it myself." + +The bride gulped and spoke again: + +"It's to be to-night and I've missed my train at the Junction already, +and I don't know what to do. Everybody was invited and the supper won't +keep, and I lost my solid silver hatpin, anyway." + +"Can't you come out and walk with me?" suggested Alice. "The air will +make you feel better. Bathe your eyes and come." + +Still tearful, but manifestly a little relieved, the bride obeyed and, +once out on the prairie, poured forth her tale. She had at the last +moment decided she could not bear to be married without a veil, and had +gone early in the morning to the nearest town to invest her last money +in that frivolity. Fate was against her, however, for there were no +veils in the shops, and a persuasive milliner had induced her to give up +her cherished notion and buy a hat instead. "And I'm most sure the +ribbon's cotton-back," she sighed. "I don't know why I bought it, +anyway. That's always the way with me. I think I know what I'll get, and +then they coax me into getting something different. Once I went down +town to buy me a pair of black stockings, and I got an Alice blue silk +waist, instead. Stephen he thinks it's funny and he says he'll see to +the shopping when we're married. I wisht he'd come to-day." + +"Wouldn't it be fun if he had?" said Alice. "There is a minister on the +train, and we could have had a lovely wedding out here!" + +This romantic idea cheered them both for a time, but its power was +brief. There were signs of a tear-shower imminent, and Alice was at her +wits' end for devices to adjust that garment of praise to fit. + +Then came a great inspiration. "Let's walk to the Junction," she +exclaimed. "I'll go with you, and you can get a team there, and drive +home." + +"But you'd miss your train." + +"O, no, I wouldn't. It has to come right along there behind us, and I +could jump on the cow-catcher if it came; but it can't come without an +engine, and there isn't one in sight, and it's only two miles to your +Junction, you say. That won't be anything of a walk. Go and get your +hat-box." + +The hat-box was not all. Though the journey was to be only a short one, +the bride had taken a satchel with her of a type Alice especially +loathed. This was a trifle, however, to a spirit so bent on adventure, +and Alice seized the "grip" and started off at a brisk pace. + +"I can't walk so fast," said the bride fretfully. "My shoes hurt." + +Alice looked from her own broad-soled street shoes to the high-heeled, +misshapen things on her companion's feet. The latter looked at them, +too, with pride and affection. "I'm going to wear them at the wedding +and I thought that, being they was so tight, I'd best break 'em in a +little first." + +"I see," and Alice moderated her own pace to the hobbling gait of the +wedding slippers. Two miles seemed more of an undertaking now and she +began to wonder if she had been rash in her suggestion. "I'll carry it +through," she said to herself. "I know I can, and I won't back down. +We'll get tired if we keep going without rests," she said aloud. "So +let's walk ten minutes and then rest. You can tell by your watch." + +The bride brightened at the allusion to the great plated and chased +timepiece suspended from a rhinestone dove very near to her breast-bone. +"Steve give me that when we was first engaged," she explained, and Alice +smiled indulgently. "He give me my bracelet for Christmas, and all his +friends give me bangles." She jingled the thing proudly as she spoke. +"There's thirty-four of 'em." + +"Thirty-four friends! He must be a popular man!" said Alice. + +"O, he is, awful. And he's the handsomest! You just ought to see him." + +"The garment of praise is settling into place without a wrinkle," +thought Alice. "I hope she won't take it all, for I may need a corner of +it myself, to console me for this abominable bag, and the tinkle of that +bracelet. I suppose she would think it was finer than the jade one Mrs. +Langdon gave me. And I wonder what she would think if she knew my +necklace was under my dress, so it wouldn't show in travelling. O, well, +she's a nice little thing, and I hope Steve will be good to her." + +"I'm afraid you'll be all beat out helping me," said the bride +remorsefully, as they paused once more for a rest. "I don't know how +I'll ever thank you, anyhow." + +"O, that's all right," and Alice seized the bag and bore it mightily +forward. + +"O, dear," sighed the bride presently. "There's somebody driving this +way. I wish they was going the other, and would give us a lift." + +The black speck down the road, which here ran alongside the track, +expanded rapidly, developing into a smart buggy with two good horses, +and a man driving. He leaned forward as he neared them, and suddenly +reined in the horses with a jerk. + +"Great Guns!" he shouted, throwing the reins over the dashboard, and +leaping out over the wheel. + +"It's Steve," cried the bride in a rapture, and Alice pinched herself +with delight as Steve embraced his lady. + +"However in the world did you get off here?" he asked, releasing her +enough to reply. + +"How did you?" she answered, and he laughed, "O, I thought I'd drive +over to the Junction to meet you and carry you home, and I heard about +the train being stalled out here and couldn't get out for hours, so I +drove on, that's all. But the idea of you hoofing it in!" He put his +head back and laughed loudly. + +His fiancee then remembered Alice and introduced her, telling Steve of +her kind interest. He was all cordiality, and offered to give her a ride +back to the train. + +"No, no," she protested. "I love to walk. And do hurry along home and +have the wedding. I'm so glad it all turned out all right; and you're +feeling happier, aren't you?" she asked the girl. + +Steve put his arm around his little bride gently. "I guess she won't +ever feel bad again. I shan't let her go off alone any more. And thank +you for what you done. I shan't forget it. Say, couldn't you stop off +now for the wedding?" + +"O, do," begged the bride, and Alice had to refuse tenderly. She watched +them get into the buggy, and drive happily away, waving to her as they +did so. Then she turned back to her train, and her own car. + +One of the card-playing women was tired and inclined to be sociable. So +Alice sat with her, by invitation, and listened to the history of her +family's diseases and operations, and her difficulties with servants, +till the train was started once more and the rumble of the cars resumed +their interrupted song of "Getting nearer, getting nearer." + +"I must hear it that way every minute," Alice thought, as she took her +own seat again, and while the lamps were lighted, watched in the windows +not the rushing landscape but her own face. "It would be so easy to hear +'Getting farther,' and think of leaving home for nine whole months, but +I'll just remember Hannah and Catherine and Frieda and dear Dexter,--and +that will keep the garment from slipping off my shoulders." + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +FINDING A VOCATION + + +On the second afternoon after Alice's arrival, the four girls walked +down to the post-office to mail their letters, Catherine having written +to Miss Lyndesay, while the other three wrote to their mothers. Now, +pleasantly conscious of duty performed, they strolled idly along the +street. + +It was "library afternoon" and Catherine had a book to exchange for a +busy neighbor, who much enjoyed the library privileges, but seldom had +time to choose her own books. The girls turned in at the library door, +which was hospitably open. Several people were waiting at the desk, +while Algernon busily attended to their wants. Catherine laid down her +book and went over to the fiction shelves to find something to take its +place. The other girls wandered about, looking at the soldierly rows of +books, and at the effective picture bulletin which Bess had made to +celebrate the Fourth of July, a list of patriotic books under crossed +flags,--turned the pages of the half dozen magazines on the +reading-table, and then, by common consent gathered in the little alcove +devoted to children's books. + +"Three copies of _Alice in Wonderland_!" exclaimed Alice. "That +seems a rather large proportion!" + +Catherine, who had secured _Friendship Village_, and was rejoicing +in her good fortune, answered the criticism. + +"You see, each member of the club selected a book for the first order, +and Dot and Max both chose _Alice_ and neither would give up, so we +finally ordered two; and then somebody gave us a copy afterward." + +"What did you choose?" + +Catherine laughed. "Can't you guess?" + +Hannah pounced on a big copy of Pyle's _Robin Hood_. + +"This, of course. Do you remember how you gave it to me to read the +first evening I was at your house?" + +Frieda had been looking the shelves over as if seeking something, and +now straightened up, disappointed. + +"Nowhere is there the _Laetus Sorte Mea_ book," she said sadly. + +"That's so!" exclaimed Catherine, regretfully. "We'll put it on the +suggestion list at once. Do you see any other lack, any of you?" + +They all laughed, looking about at the few hundred volumes on the +shelves, but Frieda said earnestly: + +"There are many Germans here, Dr. Harlow told me. And the older ones +cannot read English. Can they have no share in the library?" + +"That's right," said Alice. "They are taxpayers and I should think you +ought to get a few German books every year, Catherine. It's done in +other places." + +Algernon was at liberty for a moment, and came over to the group. + +"Are we talking too much?" asked Catherine. + +"No, no. There's no one at the reading-table. What are you discussing?" + +"Frieda thinks there should be German books here for the people in town +who can't read English." + +"There ought," said Algernon gravely. "But I don't know what to order. I +don't want to start out with Goethe and Schiller. I asked the German +minister, and he gave a list of religious books, but that isn't what we +want, either." + +Frieda's eyes shone. "Please let me make you a list," she said eagerly. +"And I have two or three books in my trunk which I would gladly give, O, +gladly." + +Algernon's pleasure was as great as her own. + +"That would be simply bully! We can order one each time we send for new +books, and it won't be long before we have a good supply. I say, +Catherine, would you mind taking the desk for a few minutes? There come +the program committee of the Study Club, and I ought to be free to talk +with them." + +Catherine consented willingly, always liking to manipulate the simple +machinery of the loan desk. Frieda sat down at once with a pencil and +paper to make out her list, and Alice and Hannah helped themselves to +magazines and waited. + +Catherine looked about her at the little room and her heart swelled with +pride and pleasure. So much had come of her thought of making Algernon +useful. He was already quite a different person, with a dignity that +became him well. The pile of cards in the charging tray before her +showed that the library was being used by a goodly number of borrowers. +The program committee was evidence that part, at least, of its use, was +for more than mere recreation. + +"O, I am so glad, so glad!" sang Catherine's heart. "There are so many +things to be glad about. And see my dear, dear Wide-Awakes. I think they +really are the most beautiful girls I ever beheld!" + +A stranger might have thought that rather an extravagant speech, for +Catherine herself was the only one of the four who could be called +beautiful. But Frieda's face was unusual and interesting, Alice's sweet, +though plain, and Hannah's the sort that always called for a second +glance and a smile of pleasure. + +"Have you anything in the library on the Past, the Present and the +Future?" asked a voice, and Catherine stopped her musing. + +"The what?" she asked, not believing her ears. She had been thinking of +the past, the present and the future as she watched her three friends' +faces, but that was quite a different matter. + +"I have to write a paper on that subject," said a complacent young +woman, rather showily dressed, "and I thought I'd maybe better read up +on it a little." + +"I should think it would be wise," murmured Catherine. "But I hardly +know--the Past, the Present, and the Future of what?" + +"Why, not of anything. Just the Past, the Present and the Future," said +the other, with a shade of impatience in her tone. "Maybe I'd better +wait till the real librarian is at liberty. He always knows what to give +out." + +"Perhaps that would be best," faltered Catherine. "It is such a very +large subject, you know." + +"Yes, that's why I chose it. I like a large subject. There is so much +more to say on it. I wrote on 'Woman' last year, but it wasn't broad +enough!" + +A little girl, who came in wanting a fairy story, gave Catherine a +chance to turn away and hide her amusement. The child wanted to know +what the story was about, and before Catherine realized what she was +doing, she had her arm about the little girl's waist, and, kneeling +beside the low table, was showing her the pictures in a beautiful +illustrated _Tanglewood Tales_, telling the story of Persephone as +that sweet sad tale has seldom been told. + +Some one came in and wanted a book, but Catherine did not know it. +Alice, who had had some library experience at college, stepped quietly +to the desk and served the customer. Hannah dropped her magazine and +stole nearer the alcove, listening to the story. Frieda looked up from +her writing, as Catherine's voice, full of wistfulness, came to her ear: + +"And Mother Ceres wandered and wandered over the face of the earth, but +there was not any Persephone anywhere. And the grass forgot to grow, and +the flowers forgot to blossom, and the wheat withered and died, for +Mother Ceres' heart was broken. How could she care for other things, +when Persephone was gone?" + +The members of the program committee, one by one, paused in their busy +searching through Poole's Index, and waited while the sweet voice went +on: + +"And poor little Persephone was lonely down in the dark king's palace +underground. She pined and pined, and would not eat or be comforted. And +the poor King was sad, too. He wanted a little girl so badly, you know, +and now that he had found one, he could not make her happy. It is a +terrible thing not to be able to make people happy!" + +The little girl cuddling close to Catherine, her eyes turning only from +the pictured page to Catherine's face, sighed softly. + +Algernon, watching and listening to the story of the tempting +pomegranate, suddenly drew a deep breath, and his face lighted up as it +always did when a new idea came to him. + +"And then Quicksilver hurried her away, past the fierce dog with the +three terrible heads, and up to the world again. Such a dry parched +world! Not any green grass, not a single, flower. Not a single +corn-stalk or spear of wheat. And poor old Mother Ceres sitting at home +on her door-step, weary and sad and hopeless, wishing for her own little +girl. And what do you think? As Persephone and Quicksilver walked along, +pretty fast, you may be sure, for you can think how eager the little +girl was to see her dear mother again, all along the sides of the path +where they walked, the grass turned green and the flowers began to +blossom and nod, and the corn-stalks lifted up their heads and waved new +tassels, and the wheat sprang up, and the trees put out fresh leaves, +and the birds sang, and the little dried-up brooks began to run and +ripple over stones. And Mother Ceres, sitting and looking out over the +dry brown world, suddenly saw a green glow over everything and she stood +up, very angry, and said: 'Does the earth disobey me? I said that if the +earth should ever grow green again, it should be along the path by which +my daughter should come back to my arms.' + +"And then a sweet child voice said: 'Open your arms, dear Mother, for I +have come back to you, and all the earth is green and blossoming!'" + +The little girl threw her arms around Catherine's neck and kissed her. + +"O, I'm so glad she came back," she cried. "Tell me about it again." + +Catherine smiled but her eyes were dreamy still. Algernon made his way +over to her. + +"You found my vocation for me," he said eagerly, "and now I've found +yours. We'll have a story-hour in this library hereafter,--with bars up +to keep the grown-ups out! You're better than the professional I heard +at Madison." + +Catherine looked bewildered, but Alice took her hand and squeezed it. + +"I knew you could. I heard you once 'telling' to Jonathan Edwards out +under the hemlocks when you thought no one else was listening. It's a +glorious gift, dear, and I feel sure you'll do wonders with it some day. +See! Hannah and Frieda are almost crying! Come on, girls. She doesn't +even know what she has done. We'll have to take her home and have her +mother explain it!" + +Catherine revived from her dazed condition sufficiently to protest +against being led out of the door, and the four went gayly up the hill +together; but Catherine's mind was intent on the suggestion which +Algernon had made. "Professional? Work? A vocation? Anything so simple +and delightful, and _natural_ as telling stories? Could _I_ do +something that would make lots of people happier and better, as Aunt +Clara's pictures do, and Mother's work and Father's?" The bliss of the +idea was quite too much for her, and she broke away from the others, +exclaiming: + +"I'll race you all to the porch steps. One, two, three, scramble!" + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +DOCTOR'S ORDERS + + +Dr. Helen, dismissing her last patient at the office door, glanced into +the waiting-room. To her surprise, she saw Alice sitting there with a +magazine in her hand. + +"Why, my dear, what is wrong? Are you ill? Come in here." Alice rose and +followed her into the little white room. + +"Nothing is wrong. I wanted to see you alone for a few minutes, and I +thought this was the best way to do it. Are you quite free now?" + +"Entirely. Sit down in this comfortable chair. I was startled. To have +you fall ill after a week with us would be distressing." + +"It has been such a dear week!" sighed Alice. "And I've rested all the +time and have loved being with the girls. No, I'm quite well. But I had +a letter from Mrs. Langdon, at Dexter, you know, just before I left +home, and she told me I might tell you, if I cared to, what she has +never let me tell any one outside the family,--that is, that I am one of +the girls she is helping through college. I'm glad she said I might, for +I've often wished Catherine knew, and it will be next best if you do." + +"It is a rather trying condition of Mrs. Langdon's," said Dr. Helen +sympathetically, "and sometimes creates difficult situations for the +girls concerned, but I long ago gave up hope that she would ever change +her ways. I quite understand how you feel, because, during my last two +years at Dexter, I was one of her girls, too." + +"You?" Alice's tone expressed the deepest surprise, and Dr. Helen +continued. + +"My father could not afford to send me, and I earned the money for my +first two years, and was struggling along, trying to spend several hours +a day earning money and at the same time to keep up with my work, when +Mrs. Langdon, who was staying at home that winter, heard about me from +friends. She helped me finish my college course, and gave me substantial +aid in taking my professional course. I repaid the money afterward, but +I couldn't repay the kindness." + +"She is wonderfully kind," said Alice, "though her queer ways make you +forget it sometimes. I had had letters from her before I left home the +first year, of course, about the business part, and I went on, feeling +that I wasn't going entirely among strangers, but she paid no attention +to me at all. It was only by chance that I met her in the spring through +Hannah." + +"Poor child! You must have been much disappointed and very lonely at +first. But she is a friend worth having, in spite of her peculiarities. +I am glad she let you share your secret with me. Did she say anything +about her own health when she wrote? I almost never hear from her." + +"Not a word. But she asked me to call on her old friend, Madam +Kittredge, while I was here." + +"She is our pastor's mother, a beautiful woman, and nearly blind. You +must certainly call. Catherine always makes the rounds of the old ladies +among our patients once a summer, and she loves to go to Madam +Kittredge's. She must take you. I wonder--What is that? Come!" + +A rustling of skirts and the sound of whispers was heard in the +waiting-room. In answer to the doctor's invitation, the door was slowly +opened, and Hannah put her head in at the crack, Frieda's appearing just +below it, and Catherine's just above. + +"Well, here you are!" cried Hannah. "We've been searching the house from +attic to cellar for Alice, and finally had an inspiration and came +here." + +"Anything so exclusive as this," remarked Catherine, as she entered, +"makes the rest of us jealous." + +"Fearfully chealous," said Frieda earnestly, putting her arm around +Alice's neck, and perching on the arm of her chair. + +Hannah and Catherine sat down on the window-seat, pushing the curtains +out of the way as they did so. + +"Mother really wanted to have her office curtains made of antiseptic +gauze," said Catherine. "Why don't you two say anything?" + +"You interrupted me just as I was having an inspiration," said her +mother. + +"O, what a pity," sighed Hannah. "Because Catherine is bored." + +"Bored? Catherine? Did she tell you so?" + +"Yes, I did," said Catherine stoutly. "I knew they were, too; and I +thought if I owned up that I was, they would say they were, but they +won't." + +"Incorruptible politeness!" said Dr. Helen. "How do you account for your +own sudden ennui?" + +"It's not just to-day," said Catherine. "I really think my life is +rather dull, anyhow. Of course, having the girls here is quite an event, +but I wish there were big, exciting things I had to do or see to. +Mending, and helping Inga make salads and beds, and even going to +college is tiresome. Just what every one else does. And the worst of it +is that every one expects me to be enthusiastic all the time!" + +They all laughed at Catherine's disconsolate tone, but Dr. Helen looked +professional. "This heat is enough to make any one cross," she said. "I +suppose the rest of you feel the same way, but, being guests, don't dare +say so?" + +"Do prescribe for us, Dr. Helen," begged Hannah. "I don't feel +especially bored just now, but I often do. Going to Europe was the only +event in my life!" + +"And going to college in mine!" said Alice. + +"Coming here is all that has ever happened to me," said Frieda solemnly. + +"You poor things! It is a serious state of affairs. I suppose you pine +for kidnappers, or lovers or financial difficulties or fearful illnesses +or Arctic explorations." + +"Exactly!" cried Catherine. "Especially the last, on a day like this. +But, really, Mother, of course, I don't feel as I said more than once in +a great while, and I was talking to amuse myself; but can't you suggest +something for us to do this afternoon? The more we lie around and keep +cool, the warmer we grow. The Boat Club seems to have tired of picnics, +and I want to do something while Alice is here,--something really +interesting and pleasant to remember, something we didn't plan +ourselves." + +"Yes, do tell us something," the others pleaded. + +Dr. Helen drew a prescription pad to her. + +"Don't talk," she said, "while I am thinking. I'll undertake the case, +if you will all agree to follow orders exactly, and in case of a +relapse, to remember and act upon the spirit of to-day's prescription." + +"Agreed!" they chorused, and then sat in silence and watched her hand as +it moved over the little sheets. These she folded like powder-papers, +endorsed on the outside, and handed over to her patients. + +"To be taken at half-past three o'clock, in good spirits and your +prettiest afternoon frock," read Hannah. "I didn't suppose that you +would prescribe spirits, Dr. Helen! What does yours say, Catherine?" + +"They are all alike on the outside," said Dr. Helen. "Now run away and +play. I have telephoning to do, and mustn't be bothered." + +They bent over her for kisses and danced away, looking anything but +bored. + +At half-past three, dressed according to orders, they gathered on the +porch, and at a signal opened their little papers. + +There was a minute of silence, and then their eyes met, annoyed and yet +amused a little. + +Hannah spoke first. + +"Evidently the rest of you aren't any more fascinated than I am! I +didn't count on going off all by myself to see a stranger! But we asked +for a prescription, and we all promised to follow it, so here goes. +Doctors always give disagreeable medicine!" + +"Mine isn't unpleasant, except that I have to do it alone," said Alice. +"Which way does Madam Kittredge live, Catherine?" + +"Two doors beyond Dot's, where we were yesterday. You can't miss it. I +wish I could go with you, but let's hurry up and get back. Do you know +the way to yours, Frieda?" + +"It tells the way plainly enough," said Frieda, grumbling a little. "But +I think I wish I were a scientific Christian, like the ones you told me +about!" + +The others laughed sympathetically. + +"Too late to save yourself now," said Hannah. "Go ahead and get it over, +and then we'll get even with Dr. Helen some way for playing us such a +mischievous trick. Good-by. I have to go down town for mine." + +Dr. Helen from her window watched them separate, and smiled. A few +minutes later Bert appeared, looking for some one to amuse him. + +The doctor told him of the malady that had seized her maidens, and of +their quest for healing. + +"It's an epidemic," said Bert solemnly. "I've got it bad, and I saw Arch +an hour ago, and he was so low he couldn't even smile. Said he was going +to cut out paper dolls or string buttons, if this kept up. Can't you +prescribe for us, Doctor?" + +"Why, yes. Get Archie and bring him up here to supper this evening. Tell +him he needn't smile. Perhaps my ladies-errant may have stories to tell +that will ease your pain a little!" + +Bert joyfully undertook to bring Archie, and set off at once while Dr. +Helen gave Inga instructions for an especially festive supper, and with +her own hands prepared a frozen dessert. + +The four girls, who had barely slept apart in the week since Alice's +arrival, were now walking along widely separate paths, each one feeling +oddly alone, and yet not wholly disliking the sensation. Catherine, +well-used to her mother's ways and beliefs, smiled to herself as she +went off to tell stories and play cat's cradle with the washerwoman's +little girl, who had a "spine" and had to be "kep' quiet with high +epidemics somethin' fierce." + +"It's just like Mother," she thought. "She knew I was peevish and really +needed to be alone. Just as she used to send me to my 'boudoir' to pout +by myself when I was little. The hours with the girls seem so precious +that I can't bear to lose one, but I suppose I did need to be alone. You +know, Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Oakkitten, as Frieda would call you, what +George Herbert said: + + 'By all means use sometimes to be alone. + Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear.' + +"You needn't scamper away up the tree so fast. I'm not going to stay +round here long enough to interfere with your looking over your +spiritual wardrobe. I wonder if your soul wears soft gray fur?" And the +story-teller walked quickly on through the woods, chanting to herself: +"Old world, how beautiful thou art!" and planning for an unusually +effective denouement for the tale of the Three Little Pigs. + +Hannah, traversing the blistering length of Main Street, had arrived at +the gloomy brick building labelled Hotel, and had inquired for Mrs. +Tracy of whom her prescription told her this much: "Travelling man's +wife, convalescent after long severe illness." + +Mrs. Tracy would receive her in her room, and Hannah followed the +proprietor, who was also bell-boy and head waiter, up the shabby stairs, +feeling decidedly foolish, but determined not to give up. + +Once inside the room, she forgot her own feelings. It was a most doleful +place, with ugly walls, cheap stained furniture and huge figured +curtains; but she was met by a sweet-faced young woman in a soft blue +negligee. + +"Dr. Helen telephoned me that you were coming," she said, taking +Hannah's hand and looking into her eyes with a bright look that made +Hannah feel interested at once. + +"Will you take the place of honor?" She indicated a stiff little settee, +upholstered in magenta cotton velvet. + +"It must be what the _Courier_ advertisement meant, when it spoke +of furniture, 'warranted upholstered,'" said Hannah seating herself, and +smiling her most merry smile at her attractive little hostess. + +The thin face almost dimpled with pleasure. + +"So you read the _Courier_, too! Mr. Tracy bought back numbers of +it to amuse me, and I've collected the most delightful clippings. You +see, I'm alone so much. The nurse wasn't very entertaining, and my +husband has to be away all the week, and I have to have some one to +laugh with, or at least, something to laugh at!" + +"What fun!" said Hannah. "Do show me your clippings." + +"I was just pasting in a birth notice when you came," said Mrs. Tracy, +lifting a small scrap-book from a table. "It's about as good as +anything. 'Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Kling are the proud parents of a fine baby +girl. Present indications are that the lovely lump intends to stay.'" + +"O!" Hannah shrieked and leaned forward to look. Mrs. Tracy handed her +the book. + +"That's why I cut them out and paste them. No one would believe them, +otherwise. Here is a gem of music criticism: 'As he stepped to the edge +of the platform, the word Artist came to every lip. His natural pathos +mingled with his baritone in such a manner that it was impossible to +tell where one left off and the other began. And in his dramatic +numbers, the writhings of his face showed the convulsive agonies of a +soul in pain.'" + +"One of my friends told me about a singer coming to a little village, +and they described her appearance and her dress, and wound up the +paragraph by saying: 'The soloist wore white shoes. No other stage +decorations were necessary.'" + +"Delightful--unless it was deliberate wit! As it was in a Kansas paper, +which spoke of some one's 'blowing large chunks of melody out of a +flute.' But the charm of these Winsted gems is the entire +unconsciousness of the writer. For instance, here: 'The elite lingerie +of Winsted invited their gentleman friends to a leap-year ball!'" + +"O, see here!" cried Hannah, turning the pages joyfully. "'The hall was +decorated with syringe blossoms!'" + +"Only a misprint, and I saw in a Chicago paper the other day that one of +the fashionable ladies wore a gown with a gold-colored y-o-l-k. This is +partly a misprint, too, 'easy _hairs_ were scattered about with a +lavish hand.' But I think it would take a hand that was powerful as well +as lavish, to scatter easy chairs very generally! That was the same +party where the hostess and her daughters 'dispensed with the +refreshments in the dining-room!' But I am not going to keep you +laughing over the _Courier_ all the afternoon," and Mrs. Tracy +tried to take the book away from Hannah. + +"Just one more," she begged. "Listen! 'Mrs. Gray's speech was replete +with wit, wisdom and winsome ways.' O dear, Mrs. Tracy! I never saw +anything so funny as this book in all my life!" + +"The trouble with it is that it gets one started on a certain line, and +it is very hard to get away from it." + +"Like telling funny names you have heard," suggested Hannah. "Alice and +Catherine and Frieda and I got to telling those last night, and we +laughed so long and so hard that Dr. Helen came up and put us to bed!" + +"Did you have any funnier than Pearl Button?" + +"Not really?" protested Hannah. "Alice swore she knew one girl called +Dusk Delight Dinwiddie, because she was born at twilight and they +thought she was delightful. That was what we were laughing over when Dr. +Helen came in, and she stopped long enough to tell us of a college +acquaintance of hers named Revelation Rasmussen, who married Will Kelly, +and an Ella G. Gray whom they nick-named 'Country Churchyard'!" + +"What jolly times you girls must be having," said Mrs. Tracy. "You see, +I know all about you. Dr. Helen--I began calling her Dr. Smith, but I +couldn't keep it up--has told me all sorts of interesting stories, and +those about you four are the most entertaining. I listen to all your +doings as though you were characters in a serial story. You don't mind, +I hope?" + +"Mind? Of course not. We aren't story-book girls at all, though, but +very flesh-and-bloody! Why didn't Dr. Helen tell us about you before, +and let us come to see you?" + +"It has only been a little while that I have felt like seeing people, +and when she suggested sending her daughter, I told her not to, for I +didn't want your fun interrupted. And I remember when I was your age, I +dreaded calling on sick people. I always felt as though I ought to carry +them tracts or--" + +"Wine jelly," finished Hannah. "Yes, that's the way I felt a little, +to-day. I was afraid I'd not be able to think of anything to say, and I +planned to offer to read to you." + +"That was very good of you, but I've read and been read to so much that +I'm glad of other occupations. The nurse exhausted the library's +resources. Then I took up picture puzzles. Mr. Tracy brings them out to +me every week, but we both get cross about them because they interest us +so that we spend half his precious day over them! Just now I am trying +to teach myself to knit, out of a book, and I'm in a dreadful tangle. I +think the chamber-maid knows how, and I mean to ask her." + +"O, let me bring Frieda in to show you. She knows how to do all such +things, and would dearly love to. And you ought to meet all your story +characters and see if we are like what you imagined. I must go now, for +Dr. Helen expressly said that I wasn't to stay long, and I know you are +tired." + +"I'll soon be rested, and it has been such fun to have you. Wait! Let me +give you one of my roses!" + +Hannah took the rose, and then put out her hand for good-by. There was +something so sweet and winning about the white little face, where tired +lines were showing in spite of the smile, that Hannah impulsively bent +over and kissed it; and then, promising to come next day with Frieda, +she flew down the corridor and out into the street, entirely recovered +from her ennui of the morning. + +Frieda, meanwhile, was following minute directions which led her at last +to a tiny cottage by the riverside. She went up the walk and rapped on +the door. No one answered. A second attempt was as unsuccessful, and +Frieda turned away, half ready to give up this strange errand which she +did not quite fancy. Dr. Helen had asked her to go to this house and buy +flowers! It did not look like a florist's. There was a garden behind the +house, though. She decided to go back there before giving up. Dr. Helen +usually was wise. + +Behind the house was a neat, neat garden, with vegetables and berry +bushes and gorgeous flowers of every kind. There were little trees +whitewashed up to the branches, and whitewashed stones marked the +corners of the paths. Frieda stood looking about with pleasure, when she +saw coming down the path a little old lady with a black knitted shawl +over her head, and a little old man in carpet slippers, with a big pipe +in his mouth. They met her shyly and she put her errand in her +embarrassed English. The old lady shook her head and looked hopefully at +the old man. He shook his and grunted. Frieda tried once more. She +frequently had difficulty in making herself understood. This time she +used gestures, and made such an earnest effort to be clear that the old +people began to look worried. The old lady shook her head again and +then, turning to her husband, asked him something in German. Then there +was excitement! Frieda plunged into German with them, and the others, +delighted to find she knew their language, talked fast and faster. + +When she told them she was newly come from their beloved country, their +eyes filled with tears and they asked question after question. Leading +her to an arbor under the whitewashed trees, they made her sit down. The +little old lady hurried into the house and brought out _Kuchen_ and +beer. Frieda was blissful. They spoke good German, and had visited +Berlin. They were full of respect when they learned that Frieda's father +was a Herr Professor, for they themselves had been simple tradespeople. +In answer to her questions, they told her how their children had come to +America, had prospered, and had sent for the old parents. With sad +voices they explained their entire inability to adjust themselves to the +new country and the new ways. The language they had not even attempted +to acquire. At last, their sons had built this little cottage for them, +and, with a grandchild, who spoke both languages, to act as interpreter, +they lived peacefully and quietly on. + +"But we miss the old country sometimes," said the grandfather. "Our +neighbors and the pleasant evenings and the bands." + +"Don't you know the other Germans here?" asked Frieda. "Dr. Harlow tells +me there are many." + +"They are not from our part of Germany," said the little grandmother +gently. "And they are Methodists, while we are Lutherans." + +"But our sons come often to see us, and we have the garden and each +other," said the grandfather cheerfully. "And sometimes we get hold of a +German book or paper." + +"O!" cried Frieda delightedly. "There will be many German books for you +soon," and she told them eagerly about the library and the list of books +Algernon had already ordered at her suggestion. They listened with +intelligent interest, and exchanged looks of pleasure at the thought of +such a storehouse to draw on in the long winter evenings, "when the +garden takes its nap," as the little Frau said lovingly. + +The sun was perceptibly lower when Frieda rose to go. Then she +remembered Dr. Helen's errand. The faces of her host and hostess shone +at the name. "Heavenly kind! Yes! She had done much for them. They would +send her flowers gladly, but sell them to her? Never!" + +With big shears they cut great stalks of everything the garden +contained, and, piling Frieda's arms with blossoms, while she uttered +protests and exclamations of delight, they escorted her to the gate. +There, in spite of her boasted emancipation from childhood, she dropped +a courtesy and left them, crying "_Ade!_" as long as they could see +her. + +At the supper table at Three Gables, Dr. Helen, with Bert on one side, +and Archie on the other, called on each girl in turn for her story of +the afternoon. + +Alice's turn came last. + +"It was such a beautiful prescription!" she said. "I went to see Madam +Kittredge. Her daughter took me up to her big room furnished with old +mahogany heirlooms that made me feel as though I were in New England. +And there in an arm-chair sat the most beautiful white-haired woman I +ever saw. She is quite imposing and grand, but her smile saves her from +being awesome. I loved her at first sight, and was not shy about staying +alone with her. You would hardly know she is blind, would you? And she +is perfectly delightful. She asked about Mrs. Langdon, and told me some +droll stories of her odd ways, even when she was a young girl. She and +Mrs. Langdon and another girl were together a great deal when they were +young, and now they live within a radius of a hundred miles, but she +says they never travel, so it might almost as well be a thousand. One is +blind and one is lame and the third is deaf! She laughed about it as +though it were not sad at all. The deaf one has been quite ill recently, +and Madam Kittredge is making the prettiest present for her. She says +Mrs. Langdon writes regular letters to them both, but Madam Kittredge +can reply only by dictation, or by sending little gifts, and she takes +the greatest pleasure in doing that. She showed me what she was getting +ready for 'Matty,' as she calls the one who lives in Milwaukee. It +seemed so queer to hear her speak of Mrs. Langdon as 'Sue'! If you +should see her once,--" turning to Bert, who sat beside her,--"you would +appreciate it. She is almost a fierce-looking old lady, and she says the +most startlingly frank things if she chooses. I don't believe any +ordinary person could help being a little afraid of Mrs. Langdon, but +Madam Kittredge seems to think her a delicious joke. But I started to +tell about the present. You see, this Matty is all alone in the world. +She never married and she hasn't much money, and she just loves pretty +things, especially pretty colors. And so Madam Kittredge is sending her +a rainbow basket. It ought to have seemed pathetic to see her handling +the colored things and hear her telling about the pleasure she was sure +her friend would take in them, when she couldn't see them herself, but +somehow it wasn't. She doesn't seem to think of herself at all, and so +she doesn't make other people. She said she made excellent use of her +sight while she had it, and can picture everything clearly now. The +basket itself was beautiful, a big green sweet-grass scrap basket, with +a great green bow. And inside were six parcels, each tied with a bow of +ribbon, so that all the rainbow shades are there. The friend is to draw +one each day for a week. Mrs. Kittredge undid them and let me look. She +says she likes the feel of the soft paper and ribbon. First was a little +red rose bush in a pot--" + +"Is she going to send the thing that way? How can she?" + +"I asked, myself, and she smiled and said she allowed herself some +extravagances, and one was to carry out her little ideas like that +without minding if they did cost rather more doing it her way. She said +her friend would enjoy the rose ten times as much coming that way as she +would if it were ordered from a Milwaukee florist, so she's sending it. +I like her independent spirit!" + +"It might take an independent fortune as well," remarked Dr. Harlow, +"but Madam Kittredge is fortunate enough to have that, or its +equivalent, and she uses a good proportion of it in conventional +charities, so she is safe from criticism if she chooses to assist the +express companies. Perhaps she's a stockholder in one, for all I know! +What did she have for orange, Alice?" + +"A box of tangerines, with those tiny, tiny ones like doll oranges; I +forget what you call them. They looked so pretty in a nest of green. The +yellow parcel was a little sunset picture, only a little colored +photograph, she said, but with a charming glow. The basket itself was +for the green stripe in the rainbow, and there was a lovely pale blue +knitted scarf, which Madam Kittredge made herself. The indigo bothered +her, but she sent her daughter searching everywhere till she found a +beautiful Persian pattern ribbon with an indigo ground, and she made +that up into sachets with violet scent." + +"That finished off two at once," said Hannah. "If I were Matty, I'd +object. I thought you said there were six parcels." + +"One of the sachets was done up with dark blue ribbon and the other with +violet. But there was still another parcel, a white one, the prettiest +of all, for it held skeins of all the soft shades of embroidery silk you +ever saw in a white silk case. I don't see how any one could help liking +to look at them. Madam Kittredge said that what suggested the whole idea +to her was Matty's writing about how she enjoyed having colored silk +samples to look at, as she lay in bed. She does embroidery, too, when +she is well enough, so she will like the silks to use, by and by." + +"What a charming basket!" Catherine drew a deep breath of pleasure. "I +should love to see it." + +"She said she shouldn't send it for a day or two, so if you go in +to-morrow, you can. I'm sure she'd love to have you. She wanted one more +thing to make it complete. You see, without intending it, she had put in +something for every sense but hearing. There was color and fragrance and +touch and taste, and she said she wanted to get some music into it, and +she couldn't think how. Of course her friend is deaf, but that didn't +matter. She said her mind's ear was as true as ever, and she wanted her +to _hear_ something out of that basket. And wasn't it lovely! I +happened to think of something which she said would do exactly!" + +"What?" "Tell us!" "Think of having a hand in such a pretty present!" +The other girls leaned forward eagerly, and the boys looked almost as +interested. Alice went on a trifle shyly, as she came to tell her own +part. + +"I suggested some little poem full of color words, and that delighted +her and she thought a minute. I didn't know any, and I wished Catherine +were there with her headful! But Madam Kittredge has a headful of her +own. She had me get out two or three books and look up some that she +thought might do, but they didn't just suit her; and then she had me +open her clipping book and hunt for one called _Indian Summer_. It +was just the thing and I loved it the minute I read it. She let me copy +it for her, and make an illuminated initial with her water-colors. She +seems to have everything imaginable in that big roomy desk of hers. I +was glad of the chance to copy it, for I could learn it and I want to +keep it always." + +"Please recite it for us," said Dr. Helen, and, the others all joining +in her request with words or looks, Alice repeated the beautiful lines +lovingly: + + "Faint blue the distant hills before, + Yellow the harvest lands behind; + Wayfarers we upon the path + The thistledown goes out to find. + + "On naked branch and empty nest, + The woodland's blended gold and red, + Dim glory lies which autumn shares + With faces of the newly dead. + + "Tender this moment of the year + To eyes that seek and feet that roam; + It is the lifting of the latch, + A footstep on the flags of home. + + "Now may the peace of withered grass + And goldenrod abide with you; + Abide with me--for what is death? + Pall of a leaf against the blue." + +Feeling that a benediction had been pronounced, they all adjourned to +the porch, Dr. Harlow sitting down by Archie and chatting with him in a +friendly way about his own Andover experiences years before, while the +girls talked quietly with Bert, who had dropped his nonsense for the +time. Dr. Helen was sitting a little apart, but by and by Hannah slipped +over to her chair. + +"I'm not so very clever about things," she said, "and I always like to +have them explained. So won't you tell me just what you meant by this +afternoon? You know we all promised to use the prescription again, if we +needed it." + +"Yes," said Dr. Helen encouragingly, and waited. + +"Well. You might have meant several things. You might just have meant +that we needed a change. We had been sitting about and wishing it was +cooler and talking nonsense and gossip--almost!--and we hadn't been +doing anything useful. Perhaps you wanted us to find out that we'd be +happier if we did something for some one else, even if it looked +disagreeable at first. I've always had that preached to me!" + +"I didn't preach!" objected Dr. Helen. + +"No, you prescribed. That's your way of preaching, though. You set us to +preaching to ourselves, and it's much more objectionable. I can shut my +ears when other people preach to me, but I can't get away from myself! +But I was wondering if, perhaps, besides all that, you didn't want us to +see how cheerful and happy some people manage to be without much to make +them so. Even that little girl with the spine plays she is an enchanted +princess, Catherine says, and has lovely times, winding balls of yarn +and cutting paper chains. She has to get a certain number of them done +before the enchantment will be broken. I know who suggested that idea to +her," said Hannah, looking searchingly into the doctor's face. "I've +found out a lot of things this afternoon about you, professionally. +Perhaps _that_ was what you were after! Just advertising!" + +Dr. Helen's laugh at this brought Dr. Harlow over to her; and Archie +joined the other group. + +"Go on, Hannah," said Dr. Helen, seeing Hannah hesitate a little. "Dr. +Harlow will be interested in your analysis of my prescription." + +"I wasn't going to analyse it any more, but I was just thinking that +whichever you meant, they were really all of them the same thing Miss +Lyndesay meant when she talked to us about being _laetus_, I mean, +_laetae sorte mea_, I mean _nostra_!" + +Dr. Harlow chuckled softly, but Dr. Helen put a kiss on the sweet mouth +with the earnest curve. + +"When you finish school, Hannah," suggested Dr. Harlow, "you can come +out here and help us in the office, making up prescriptions for +spiritually afflicted folk--we've all got to take up that line nowadays, +you know--and handling the Latin end of the business. Helen never was +strong on Latin. She translated '_E pluribus unum_' as 'One too +many' when she was young!" + +The boys got up to leave, and the doctor's raillery was checked, but +Hannah pondered over it as she went up to bed. About midnight she heard +him closing the doors for the night, and, slipping her bright kimono +over her night-dress, she stole out into the hall and half-way down +stairs. + +"Dr. Harlow," she called softly, and the doctor looked up to see her +leaning over the banister, her curly brown braids falling forward. + +"I know now why you laughed," she said. "It should be _sortibus_. +_Laetae sortibus nostra!_ O, dear no, _nostris_. I guess I'd +rather do the surgery, and let you attend to the Latin!" + +"Perhaps it would be wise!" said Dr. Harlow. + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + +JOURNALISM + + +"I'm glad you're all here. I'm in the deuce of a mess, and I want to be +helped out." + +So speaking, Max seated himself upon a porch settee and waited for +expressions of sympathy and curiosity from the girls before him. When he +had received them, he deigned to give a few details. + +"You know, I'm to be editor of the college paper next year, and Morse +has promised me all summer that when he went away for two weeks' +vacation, he'd let me take his place. Well, he went last week and I got +out the Courier. It was a good number, too. I don't suppose any of you +noticed the difference?" + +"I remember hearing father say the editorial was especially good," said +Catherine. + +"And I heard Mrs. Tracy bewailing the fact when I went in to see her +yesterday, that the paper had lost all its spice, and there wasn't a +single ridiculous item in it, not even a funny typographical mistake, so +I'm sure you ought to feel complimented," said Hannah. + +"It's true enough, but that's just where my pickle comes in," said Max +gloomily. "I didn't tell any one about it, because I wanted to carry it +through without any one's knowing. But the reporter has struck, because +I blue-pencilled his notes. He says no college boy is going to tamper +with his work, and he's just calmly left; and what's worse, his brother +has withdrawn an 'ad' which means quite a loss for Morse. I see now why +Morse let so many things go by!" + +"That is a pity!" said Catherine sympathetically, while the others +declared themselves in stronger terms. Max looked gratified. "Now what I +want of you girls is to help me gather up news and make the next paper +better than any issue has been since that young puppy came on it. And +I'll get 'ads' enough to offset the brother's withdrawal, and a new +subscription if I have to pay for it myself. I want to leave things in +at least as good shape as I found them. Jenkins will come back again as +soon as Morse does. He loves to write his wild stuff, and is only +willing to stop for a week, because he feels important, acting insulted. +Probably thought I'd eat humble pie and raise his salary, too. Why, he +had the Ortmeyer-Rawlins wedding fixed out with a scare-head THE WAY OF +ALL FLESH! And started it out with a quotation from Shakespeare or +somebody about Love looking with the mind, not with the eyes! The bride +and all her male relatives would have been down at the office with +sticks. She's a pretty girl, you know!" + +"It would have been worse, if she hadn't been," said Alice. "What else +did you cut out? It sounds like my pupils' work. I'll help you +blue-pencil. It's just my line." + +"The other things weren't funny, just poor constructions and general +flatness, personals that were too personal, you know, and that sort of +thing. But he had a rhapsody on Dawn all worked up that he wanted to run +in, this week. It began: 'When I arise at daybreak, a thousand +quotations surge into my mind!' The fellow is daft on quoting. He sits +with his feet on the desk and reads Bartlett by the hour. Well, I'm rid +of him, and I'm looking for substitutes." + +"I'd like nothing better than reporting," said Hannah. "I'll interview +the prominent strangers who come to town and get their views on things. +Imagine me strutting around the hotel lobby, getting acquainted!" And +Hannah assumed the swaggering manner which she fancied characteristic of +reporters. + +"The only prominent stranger in town is Frieda," laughed Max. "You'll +have to get her opinion of American education or the tariff." + +"That's easy. I know all Frieda's opinions. If they are favorable, she +gives them out plainly, and if they aren't she keeps still, so it's no +work to guess at them. I wish I could do like she does!" she added, with +a sudden earnest tone in her voice. + +"I'll blue-pencil all your reportings, if you use such grammar as 'like +she does!'" said Alice sternly. + +"Then I'll get mad and resign as Jenkins did!" answered Hannah. "I guess +I know the privileges of a reporter!" + +"Do you think you could get the news?" asked Max. "I suppose I could +manage alone, but I'd like to have the paper fuller and better than +ever, and I thought if you girls would go in, we could have a lark out +of it, and not tell the rest." + +"Indeed we can get news!" cried Catherine. "If you let us tell Mother +and Father, they can give us news which will be perfectly legitimate, +and Hannah and I have some calls to make. Frieda doesn't want to go, and +Alice wasn't here when these girls called. They are some of the gossippy +kind, and we'll let them talk and report as much as seems fair. And the +Three B's meet here this week, and we can make a good society column +thing of that." + +"Why not have Algernon give you library notes?" suggested Alice. + +"He does, always, but he would be glad to do something extra, I'm sure," +said Max. "I don't know but it would be a good plan to take him in on +this. He's in a position to gather news easily." + +"I don't see how I can help," said Frieda, sadly. + +"If you'll tell me something interesting about German schools," said +Alice, "I'll write it up, and that will go in as our contribution. You +could make room for it, couldn't you, Mr. Editor?" + +"Indeed, I could. I'd be mighty glad to get it. It would be better than +filling up with poetry, the way they often do. By the way, I did cut out +a poem of the reporter's. I forgot all about that. Wonder where it is," +and he began searching in his pockets. + +"That's what made him angry," cried Catherine. "Anybody would be angry +at that. Was it a very bad poem?" + +"I can't remember much of it. Only it had a refrain every two inches of +'My woe! My woe!' + + 'I cannot tell the world my woe,' + +was the way it began, and then he went straight ahead to try to do that +very thing. Here! I've got a scrap of it. + + 'Things are seldom what they seem, + Nor is Life what its livers dream, + My woe, my woe!'" + +The audience shouted with laughter, but Catherine looked sympathetic. + +"Poor boy!" she said. "He probably loved his quotations and his poetry, +and had looked forward to Mr. Morse's being away to have a beautiful +time with the paper. I don't blame him for resigning and eating his +heart out. Not a poem of mine will I send you, Mr. Penfield, or any of +your hard-hearted staff. I'll confine myself to finding out what's +happening in Winsted, and leave the head-lines to your own inventive +genius." + +Two days later, the editorial staff of the Courier had an impromptu +meeting in the library. Max had come in to ask Algernon for notes, and +Catherine and Hannah were waiting for Frieda and Alice to join them to +go to a tea at Dot's. + +"We've called on the biggest gossips we could find," called Hannah +cheerfully, as Max came in, "and I've got at least ten items." She +showed a note-book which slipped inside her card-case. + +"She was dreadful!" said Catherine. "She would stop and make notes +before we had got a block away from the house, for fear she would +forget, and asked questions that made me hold my breath." + +"Well," Hannah defended herself. "I wanted details. I don't want just +little bare sentences. And Catherine was just as bad. She took such an +interest in the new people who had moved in next door to the +Galleghers', that I know the Gallegher girls were almost scandalized." + +Max ran his eye over Hannah's list of news items approvingly. "That's a +fine start. Can't you do some more calls?" + +Catherine shook her head. "No, we don't know any more of the very +gossippy kind, but we are going to a tea at Dot's, and we'll make a +society note of that. How are the editorials coming?" + +Max made a wry face. "I declare, I'm pretty nearly stumped. At college +there always seemed to be a lot of vital matters to discuss. But here +there isn't anything after a little spiel on the crops and a paragraph +on politics. I don't dare go in heavy there, for I'm not sure just what +Morse's position is, and don't want to commit him. I can't think of any +public enterprise to work up, or any nuisance to be suppressed." + +"I wish you'd suppress mosquitoes and flies," said Hannah, brushing away +one of the latter insects, and petting a swollen place on her wrist. + +"Why not write an editorial on it?" suggested Catherine. "You can give +him material to read, can't you, Algernon?" + +Algernon came over to the corner where the three were talking in tones +fitting a library. + +"What's that? O, indeed, yes," and the boy's face lightened with +pleasure as he found some one really desiring information of a worthy +nature. "I'll get you something right away. There was an article in a +last month's magazine." + +"I could do elegant head-lines," said Max: + + "KEROSENE THE KONQUEROR! + MOSQUITOES MASSACRED! + THE FLIGHT OF THE FLY!" + +As Algernon brought the magazine and a book, Alice and Frieda arrived in +their party raiment, and, bidding the boys good-by, the four girls +drifted out and down the street looking like pretty butterflies. + +Max lingered for a few minutes' chat with Algernon about the paper, +telling him some of his difficulties and desires. Algernon's store of +information proved of value here, too, and Max accepted gratefully a +hint or two about the mechanical part of the work. + +"I say, Swinburne," he said suddenly, as he got up to go, taking fly and +mosquito literature with him, "couldn't you get off and run up to +Madison for a few days this fall? I'd like to show you around and have +you meet some of the fellows. If I were you, I'd try to pass off a few +subjects. You could, without half trying, and perhaps you'd be able to +get up and take your degree some time." + +"Thanks," said Algernon, "I'll think about it," and Max went whistling +away; but Algernon, as he selected a fairy tale for the little Hamilton +girl, felt his heart light and his courage high. "I'll get to college +yet, as true as I'm alive," he said aloud, and the little Hamilton girl +looked up at him. "What did you say?" she asked. "I don't want true +stories, but fairy ones." + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY + +THE THREE R'S + + +The meeting of the Three R's the next evening was one of particular +importance. Not only to the eager reporters, who found that even Dot's +party would not spread out sufficiently to use up the space they had +allotted to social events, but to the club members themselves. It was +Judge Arthur's fiftieth birthday, and as he was a childless man, quite +alone in the world, his friendly neighbors were determined to make the +day memorable for him. The meeting was to be at Three Gables, so the +journalists were behind the scenes from the start. The only difficulty +in the way of their writing it up was that they were so busy all day +that there was not time to take a pen in hand. + +"I always see to the refreshments when they meet here," said Catherine +to her three helpers, as she appeared, wearing by Hannah's request, her +brown smock. "You can crack the nuts for the salad if you will, Frieda; +and Hannah, if you and Alice will get the dishes out of the way, that +would be the most help. Mother wants Inga to sweep the living-room, and +we can have a jolly time out here." + +"You ought to see the kitchen at Frieda's house," said Hannah, as she +made a fine suds in the rinsing pan and poured it over the glasses. +"What did you think of our black stoves and things, Frieda?" + +"I saw one in the American church first, you know." + +Hannah smiled at the diplomatic evasion. "You are the nicest thing I +ever saw, Frieda. You don't say anything unfavorable of anything any +more. When I was at your house I kept criticising the whole country. But +you are so polite,--as polite as Karl!" + +Frieda looked pleased, but she only said sedately: "We were children +when you were in Berlin, Hannah. Now it is proper for us to act like +grown-ups." + +"You were awfully grown-up in that pillow fight last night!" + +Instantly the mask of primness vanished from Frieda's face, and roguish +twinkles showed themselves. + +"Don't let me ever catch you turning prig, Frieda Lange," advised +Hannah. "And now don't ask me what a prig is, for I don't know in +German, and there's no way here to find out. What else are you going to +have for eats, Catherine?" + +Catherine shuddered. "I suppose you'd think I was a prig if I told you +how I hate that word 'eats,' so I won't tell you! The chief thing +to-night is the birthday cake, of course. And Inga is going to make +grape-fruit sherbet. It's so nice with a little tang of tartness to it, +you know. And we'll have olive sandwiches with the salad and coffee. You +can all help with those!" + +"It's such fun to help," said Alice. "At home there are so many of us, +and no maid at all, you know, and we have awfully jolly times, really. +Mother is cook and she has a different scullery-maid for each meal. And +the rest of us divide up the rooms, and so on. The boys are great +workers, too. Even little Jack brings in kindlings and wipes the silver. +He plays the knives are men, and the forks their wives and the spoons +the little children." + +"O, so did I, always," cried Catherine. "And it used to worry me +dreadfully not to know positively that the proper couples were together. +Once I tied them all neatly with different colored silks, but Mother +didn't approve. Through with the nuts so soon, Frieda? Then you can +begin on the sandwiches." + +"Ach! The butter is too difficult!" + +"Cream it, then. So!" and Alice illustrated. "I'll go to work on these, +too, while Hannah puts away the dishes, for I don't know where they +belong." + +"All right," said Catherine. "But please don't talk, any of you, for a +few minutes. I don't want to lose a word that any of you say, and I'm +afraid the cake may suffer." + +Dr. Helen stopped at the door and looked in at the group of silent +workers. They all threw her kisses, and she went smiling on her way. + +"I wish I had four of my own," she thought to herself. "How the other +mothers must be missing them! Four more interesting and delightful girls +I never have known. Hannah has grown more mature since I saw her last, +and Frieda is distinctly unique. Alice is the kind you can tie to. But I +really think, without prejudice, my Catherine is a shade sweeter and +steadier and more responsible than all the rest!" + +By five o'clock the house was all ready. The decorations were great +masses of goldenrod which Bert and Polly had gathered. Frieda had +suggested tying them with bows of red ribbon, whereat the others had +shrieked with horror and tried to Americanize her color sense a little. +She approved of the birthday cake, and was interested in the big tin +circle which held fifty candle-sockets, and would slip over the cake as +it rested on a tray. Winding this circle with smilax proved a task just +to Frieda's mind, and she worked at it with Hannah's help, while Alice +and Catherine planned the "recreation" for the evening. + +"I'm so glad," said Catherine, stretching a little, "that we don't have +to get the Rest ready for them. Refreshments and Recreation are enough +to provide!" + +"You need the Rest yourself," said Hannah. "I think it was a shame that +out-of-town call had to come for your mother this afternoon. She would +have enjoyed these things, and she looked so tired." + +"I know. But I'm so glad she could go away and feel sure I'd carry +things through. You don't know what a comfort that is to me! Whenever I +feel discouraged about things, I always pluck up spirit by remembering +that I'm really useful to her. I couldn't practise medicine myself, you +know, but there have been lots of things Mother couldn't have done, if I +hadn't been here to help at home. I wish she could be here this +afternoon, though, for she is so clever at foolishnesses like this." + +"You're clever enough at it, yourself," growled Hannah. "I don't see how +you can do it. You and Alice make me sick with envy. You can cook and +manage and tutor and make rhymes and everything, and I can't do much of +anything!" + +"How about playing the violin?" suggested Alice. + +"I can't do that," said Frieda suddenly. "I cannot do one thing. O, +there comes Dr. Helen, after all! We were wishing you were here," and +Frieda sprang up and ran to meet the doctor. The others followed her and +in an instant Dr. Helen found her arms full of welcoming girls. + +"I met a messenger on the way, telling me that I need not come, and I'll +admit it was a relief. I knew you'd get on all right, but I did want a +finger in the pie. There! You may put my hat and coat away, Hannah, if +you will, and I'll get right to work. How prettily you are putting that +smilax on, Frieda!" + +"That's right to cheer Frieda up, Mother," said Catherine. "She was just +saying that she couldn't do anything." + +"Frieda was saying that? I thought you embroidered that wonderful apron +yourself?" + +"O, of course, but that is only _Handarbeit_," said Frieda. + +"Hand work is highly valued these days," remarked the doctor. "If you +could teach Catherine to sew so well, Frieda, I should be even prouder +of her than I am now. But it must not distress you when you find that +there is some one thing you can't do. No one does everything well. It's +one of my pet theories that for every talent one has, there is some +other he hasn't. It's part of the balancing of the world. Think how very +disagreeable it would be if there were one person who could do +everything, and some one else who could do nothing at all." + +"Don't you think there are some people who can't do anything?" asked +Alice. + +"Not really. Some people never seem to find their special line. I've +known people so perverse they wouldn't do what they could, simply +because they would have preferred something else. But I'm a firm +believer that every one has a gift." + +"Is _Handarbeit_ a gift?" asked Frieda, looking with respect at the +graceful vine twining over the shoulder of her blue apron. + +"Indeed it is," said Dr. Helen. "And it is a gift more widely +distributed than everybody knows. If you can, do help Catherine to +discover that it is one of hers!" + +"She helped me find out that I liked to sew," said Hannah. "I hated the +sight of a needle before I went to Germany. But I didn't know you hated +sewing, Catherine." + +"I don't," Catherine answered tranquilly. "But there are always so many +other things to do, and there is so much to read. It makes me shiver to +think that I have only three years more at Dexter, and I haven't begun +to read all I want to. I'd like to move over to the library and stay +there." + +"That's a serious criticism of your college life, Catherine," said Dr. +Helen. + +Hannah giggled. "I suppose there is a library at Dexter, but I was there +a whole term, and never went inside it once!" + +Everybody laughed. "Well," said Dr. Helen, "that was the other extreme. +But I suppose if you young people were all-wise and learned, there'd be +no point in sending you to college at all. And the world would be much +more monotonous if it were filled with grown-ups! What a conflagration +those red candles will make, Frieda!" + +Catherine had left her seat and gone across the room to the poetry +section of the bookcase, and was now turning the pages of a small green +book. + +"Listen to this Singing Leaf, Mother! + + "'The wisest finding that I have + Is very young, no doubt, + Yet many a man must needs grow old + Before he finds it out. + + "'How happily it comes about-- + And I was never told!-- + That we must all be young awhile + Before we _can_ be old!'" + +Dr. Helen laughed. "That is certainly very appropriate, and a good close +to our rather sermonizing talk. I suppose fifty-year-old birthday +parties should lead one to serious thinking! But now show me how far +your nonsense rhyming has progressed. It's nearly supper time." + + * * * * * + +The Three R's were early comers and late stayers. Before the summer +twilight was over, they had gathered in force. Alice, counting, suddenly +said: + +"Why, there are just forty-nine. Wouldn't it be fun if just one more +should come?" + +"Who isn't here?" asked some one. "Perhaps there will be one other, +though almost everybody has come." + +"The Judge himself isn't here yet," said Dr. Harlow. "He'll make the +fiftieth. There he is! Let's line up, and give him a royal welcome!" + +The suggestion "took," and the little judge came up the walk, bowing on +all sides, and smiling. As he reached the door and shook hands with Dr. +Harlow and Dr. Helen, he looked about him peeringly. "Where's my girl?" +he asked. + +"Here I am," said Catherine, "and here is a little souvenir for you, +Judge Arthur, with wishes for many returns of the day." She presented +with a flourish, a huge feather duster adorned with a great green bow. +That was the signal and the others at once produced parcels of all sizes +and shapes, and bestowed them upon the judge, who opened them under a +rapid fire of friendly wit. + +The special form of recreation offered for the evening was called +"Strange Compounds." Catherine had taken the idea from the nonsense +verses which had been spreading over the country as generally as the +limericks of a few years before. The guests grouped themselves at little +tables, and some, with shears and pages cut from old natural histories, +geographies or poultry and live stock journals, created grotesque +illustrations for the verses descriptive of the hippopotamustang and the +kangarooster and other strange beasts which Catherine and Alice +concocted during the afternoon. Others labored over historical +combinations and the deeds of Bathrobespierre were sung in limpid +strains, and the plaintive history of Old Black Joan of Archaeology set +every one off into a gale of mirth. The Three R's had done so many +foolish things together in the many years since their beginning as a +club, that they were ready to laugh before a joke was thought of, and in +that atmosphere of appreciation the frailest wit was bound to flourish. +Mrs. Osgood headed a party of gardeners whose attempts at grafting +produced such startling results as cro-custards and gerani-umbrellas. +When some one requested help in developing the theme of a disaster, +Judge Arthur shouted from the animal table that he had attempted to draw +a wild-cat-astrophe and the picture would probably do for both! + +Just in time to save them all from mental collapse, the white-gowned +maidens brought in the dainty salad, sandwiches and cups of fragrant +coffee. Then the noble birthday cake, wreathed in scarlet flame, was set +before the judge, the candles blown out with good wishes, and the cake +cut and served with the ice. + +Dr. Harlow rose to announce that the prize for the most complete +compound was given to Mr. Kittredge, who had conceived of a +"pigeon-toad, with a lovely long dove-tail, and a pot-pied waistcoat +ringed and streaked, and a sweet dove-cot-ton veil." Frieda and Hannah +came solemnly into the room, bearing a crate, from the top of which +appeared the head of a rooster, with a big bow of ribbon around its +neck. They set it down before the minister amid the shouts of the +assembled company. + +"You may crow as much as you like, Sir," said the doctor, "but this +fellow will beat you." And straightway, as though primed for his part, +the rooster opened his mouth and filled the room with a long and lusty +cock-a-doodle-doo! + +"I was so afraid they would hear him before we brought him in," said +Frieda to the girls, as the four gathered on the window-seat. "He kept +growing and growing out there!" and then she looked bewildered at the +others' sudden mirth. Her peculiarities of pronunciation were so few +that the girls could never learn to expect them, and this, added to the +other nonsense of the evening, was too much for even Catherine's +self-control. + +"I never saw grown-up people do such funny things," said Hannah, in +order to cover their laughter. "Do they always act this way, Catherine?" + +"O, no, indeed. I never saw them put in a whole evening quite so +foolishly before. I didn't know whether they would take the idea up or +not, but Judge Arthur loves to laugh, and lately mother said they had +had quite stupid commonplace meetings,--cards and talking politics and +literary and musical programs,--and she wanted something entirely +different. They're a lot of dears, anyway! The younger set wouldn't +think of laughing so hard and being so hilarious, even the Boat Club; +and you should see the formal dignified parties that the Galleghers and +those girls give! They go in carriages and the dancing doesn't begin +till nine, though every one has a six o'clock supper and almost goes to +sleep waiting for it to be stylishly late to go. Max and Archie and Bess +and Win always go, and sometimes the rest of us get in, but we hardly +feel acquainted with each other when we meet in such surroundings. +Polly's mother told her she ought to entertain that crowd a while ago, +because she was 'indebted,' and she planned a luncheon party, and at the +last minute changed her mind and got up a Boat Club picnic instead. That +was the last picnic before you girls came." + +"I've heard so much about those jolly picnics," said Hannah, "and we +haven't been to one!" + +"I know. Isn't it odd that it happens so? But we'll have one the night +before we go back to college. The moon will be full, and the boys have +all the plans made. There! They're beginning to leave." And Catherine +went forward to help her mother's guests find hats and scarfs. + +"I never heard Catherine talk so much at once before," said Frieda +lazily. "She looks beautiful to-night, too,--to boot!" She had just +heard that phrase and though a little uncertain as to its exact +significance, took pleasure in inserting it here and there in her +speech. + +"She's a darling dear," assented Alice, "and so is Dr. Helen, to boot! +Now let's help Inga clear things away and go to bed." + +A half-hour later, Frieda and Alice in the guest-room were sound asleep, +and Hannah in her little bed was sleeping likewise. But Catherine was +sitting by the window writing, by moon and candle light, notes for the +_Courier_, due to appear to-morrow, and still lacking at least two +columns! She wrote slowly and conscientiously, trying to be clear and +simple, and yet not so unlike the usual style of the _Courier_ as +to excite comment. Presently she finished and, resting her elbows on the +window-sill, looked out into the night. Capella twinkled at her and she +leaned out to identify such of her beloved constellations as she could. + +The house stood high on a hillside, and overlooked the streets of the +little town. Suddenly through the trees Catherine saw the gleam of a +moving lantern, then another and a third. She heard a voice call, and an +answer from a distance. + +"I wonder what it means?" she thought, watching and listening. "It +sounds and looks very mysterious. _The Courier!_" + +The recently acquired news instinct recognized in this mystery of voices +and moving lights at the dead of night a possible "scoop" for her paper. +To be sure, her paper was the only one in Winsted, but that did not +matter. She got up, and taking a long light cloak from the closet threw +it over her shoulders, drawing the silk hood over her head. Then she +stole out into the corridor and down the stairs, her party skirts +rustling, and the boards now and then creaking under her stockinged +feet. Down stairs she stopped, put on her pumps, and then let herself +out, closing the door softly behind her. + +Outside everything was very still. Catherine felt a little frightened +and foolish. But having started, she would not turn back. Resolutely she +went down the walk in the direction in which she had seen the lights. + +"I might take Hotspur, though," she thought, and turned back toward his +house under the porch. The big dog sprang up to meet her, and leaped +upon her, then drew her toward his kennel. Puzzled, Catherine followed +him, and once there, knelt down and looked inside. Curled on the straw +inside the roomy doghouse were two little figures. She pulled at them +and called. Suddenly one sat up and said: "Mamma! Peter!" + +"Perdita Osgood! what are you doing here?" and Catherine drew a sleepy +dishevelled-looking little girl out and into her arms. Perdita blinked +and woke entirely. + +"Elsmere and me went journeying," she said, "and we stayed all night in +Hotspur's house, so bears wouldn't get us." + +Then Catherine remembered the other slumberer, and dragged Elsmere out +with more force than gentleness. + +"I see now what the lights and the calling were," she said. "They +discovered that the children were not at home, and were out looking for +them. Poor Polly and poor Algernon! Elsmere, wake up here, and come +along home this minute. There, Perdita, I'll carry you, you sleepy, +naughty little girl. Elsmere, come along. Give me your hand." + +Down the hill they went, and through the short cut to the Osgood house, +Elsmere running beside Catherine, who walked as rapidly as though +Perdita had no weight, Hotspur leaping and bounding alongside. + +In the path, through a little grove, they saw a twinkling lantern and +Catherine called: + +"Polly, Algernon! They're here! I'm bringing them home." With a rush the +lantern-bearers were upon her, and Perdita was taken from her arms into +Mr. Osgood's, while Algernon, husky and faint with relief, picked up his +brother and listened to Catherine's story. She followed the others to +the Osgoods', where Polly and Mrs. Osgood were waiting in suspense. +Perdita had been put to bed as usual, but when Mrs. Osgood came home +from the Three R's party she had gone in to tuck the children up, and +kiss them good night. Perdita was not there, and they searched the house +before they thought of being alarmed. Not finding her anywhere, they had +roused Peter and questioned him. He could only say: "I say, 'Perdita, +Perdita, stay home with Peter. Elsmere bad boy.'" + +That suggested Elsmere, and investigation showed that, though he had not +been missed at home, he was not there. Then the men had taken lanterns, +and gone out to search. + +No one was more distressed than Peter. "I'd ought to tooken care of +Perdita better," he would sob. "I'd ought to watched her better." + +"There, there, boy," Catherine and Polly soothed him. "You did your +best, and she's home now, all safe, and won't go journeying again, ever. +She didn't like Hotspur's house, and she will stay home with Peter." + +"O, Catherine," sighed Polly. "You are an only child, and you don't know +what agonies you can have over your brothers and sisters. It seems to me +ever since Peter and Perdita were born I've been worrying about one or +both of them!" + +"Poor Polly!" said Catherine sympathetically. "But I don't suppose you'd +give me your share in them, would you?" + +Polly caught Peter close, and hugged him till he protested and drew away +from her. + +"Kiss me," she begged. + +"I did," said Peter. + +"Kiss me again." + +"I did twice," said Peter. "I want to go to bed. Aw-ful sleepy!" and, +with a yawn that set the others to imitating him, he stumbled off toward +the stairs, in his little night clothes. Polly followed to make him +comfortable, while Mr. Osgood took Catherine home. + +"You did us a great service to-night, my dear," he said, as he lifted +his hat to say good night, when she had reached her home porch. "But I +haven't learned yet how you happened to find them." + +"I was out reporting for the _Courier_," she told him and then, +laughing softly at his astonished expression, explained her meaning. +"And though I did find out the news, I can't write it up," she sighed. +"I know how real journalists feel when they have to sacrifice a scoop +for reasons of delicacy." + +"The _Courier_ shall not suffer!" said Mr. Osgood. "Since it was +for its sake that you went out, I'll have to see that Max gets a little +assistance. My profession doesn't advertise, but I have some influence +with one or two concerns that do, and I'll see that your next number is +full of something more profitable to the management than harrowing +accounts of midnight searches for missing babies!" + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + +THE LAST PARTY + + +Rain. + +Rain. + +Rain. + +"It's beastly," said Alice, with her nose pressed to the window-pane, +watching the cold drifting downpour. + +"Let's go in and see if the others are awake." + +So Frieda put on her heavy leather slippers, lined with figured satin +and edged with fur, and a very bunchy bathrobe, and followed Alice's +kimonoed figure across the wide corridor to Catherine's room. + +They pushed the door softly open and entered. + +Then they exchanged glances of mischief. Dr. Helen did not believe in +girls sleeping two in a bed, but Alice had found the big mahogany bed in +the guest-room lonely, and Frieda had found the cot narrow; so they had +made a law for themselves and slept together; and here, in Catherine's +four-poster, were also two heads, one auburn and one brown. + +"Wake up, you two!" said Alice, tickling Hannah's plump cheek, while +Frieda tweaked the pink bow from Catherine's bronze braids. + +"Time to take off your pink bow, dear. It's daylight and it looks worse +than goldenrod with red ribbon." + +"Ouch! You needn't have given that last yank. I'm awake. Hannah!" + +Hannah sighed and turned over. "Don't bother me," she said. "I didn't +get to sleep last night until this morning." + +"Why aren't you in your own room and bed?" asked Frieda severely. + +"I'll wager you two slept together, yourselves," said Catherine. "O, +Hannah, do wake up! It's raining!" + +"Yes, that's what we came to tell you," said Alice. "We've just been +watching it wash away our beautiful moonlight picnic." + +Hannah sat up and looked out. + +"Isn't it beastly?" she remarked. + +"I should call it foul," said Catherine, beginning to comb out her great +braids. + +"Why not fish-ous?" suggested Alice mischievously, whereupon Hannah +pitched a pillow at her. + +"Ow! Look out for my glasses!" + +"Well, don't make such flat puns then. I believe you sleep with your +glasses on. How funny they must look staring away in the dark. There +goes the rising-bell. I'll beat every one of you to breakfast." + +Dr. Helen was not sorry to see the rain. An all afternoon picnic, with +the evening and a late-rising moon added, did not seem to her a wise +plan for the day before going back to college,--"though I do dislike +putting a damper on your pleasure," she said at breakfast. + +"There's a damper on this one," sighed Catherine. "Alice has not been up +the river yet, and the other girls haven't been to one real Boat Club +picnic. Mother!" and an inspired look came into Catherine's eyes, "why +couldn't we have our picnic in the library instead? It would be as +appropriate a way to end this summer as on the river, and this is one of +the closed evenings. Don't you think we could?" + +The other girls held their breath with eagerness, while Dr. Helen +considered. + +"I don't see any objection," she said presently. "I suppose that would +be more fun than having them all come here?" + +"O, heaps more," cried Hannah. "It would be the jolliest kind of a +lark." + +"Would the Board be willing?" suggested Alice. + +"I'm sure of that," said Catherine. "Algernon will be the hardest to +persuade, for he feels as though the library were almost holy ground, +but I'll interview him at once." + +The telephone was kept busy for the next half-hour; by its means +everything was arranged, and every one notified, and the girls went to +work making preparations for the supper. Polly and Dot came over in the +afternoon and the time slipped quickly by, trunk-packing and +sandwich-making being mingled in what seemed to the doctor, some of the +time, an almost hopeless jumble. At last the sounds of talk and laughter +and running up and down stairs ceased. The boys had arrived to carry +baskets, and a rain-coated procession tramped gayly off, waving good-bys +now and then to the two doctors standing in the window. + +"It hardly seems as though Catherine could be the same girl," said her +father. "She is so eager and full of fun." + +"But she keeps her quaint sweet dignity all the same," answered Dr. +Helen softly. "She will never lose her characteristic charm, and it is +such a comfort to have her well enough to wish to eat a cold supper in +that bare little room!" + +"Can't they heat the place?" asked Dr. Harlow sharply. + +"O, yes," his wife assured him, "and they have all solemnly promised me +to dry their skirts as soon as they get there! Hannah always contrives +to get into puddles." + +"_She's_ not much changed," chuckled the little doctor. "Her +language is as funny now and then as Frieda's. She told me they were +going to relegate themselves on watermelon this evening!" + +"It was a fortunate day for us when Catherine found her," and Dr. +Helen's eyes smiled, as they always did when Hannah's image came before +her mind. "And, do you know, I am very much pleased with Alice. She has +the honestest eyes, and her manners are as unconscious and simple as can +be. I should like to see her mother." + +"Father's not so important, of course! But I agree with you, she's the +true blue sort. It's Frieda for me, though. Of all inscrutable +countenances, hers is the most. I believe she is, on the whole, the most +unforeseen young person I have ever had dealings with, and in whatever +direction she may choose to let herself out, in the future, she will do +something interesting, or 'I shall astonish'!" + +At which quotation from the young lady in question, they both laughed, +and went out to their own supper, not at all sorry to have a quiet +evening alone. + +It was not a quiet evening in the little library. Behind the drawn +shades, the boys and girls were busy spreading the long reading-table +with a white cloth, setting out upon it the motley collection of plates, +cups and silver ware which came out of the various picnic baskets, and +an equally motley, but very appetizing, array of good things to eat. +Winifred had laden Max with a chafing-dish, all legs and handles, he +declared, and with this at one end, Bess' little copper teakettle at the +other, Dorcas' asters for centerpiece and Polly's red-shaded candles at +accurate intervals between, the whole effect was "very festival," as +Frieda said admiringly. + +As a finishing touch, Bertha and Algernon, official hosts, walked around +the table laying typewritten catalog cards at each place. + +The others swarmed around instantly, examining and commenting. + +"Cunning!" "Real library place cards!" "What a pretty idea!" "But +_what_ do they mean?" + +Algernon and Bertha only laughed. + +"No one can sit down till he has found his proper place," said Algernon +sternly. "This is a well-conducted library!" + +"They all have the same number," cried Bert. "I'm on to that. See! It's +the date, fixed up to look like the mystic symbols they mark the books +with. 190.9 Se 16. September 16th, 1909. That's so much, gained. Now +some of you others can figure out the rest. I've done my share." + +The others wandered around the table, picking up the cards and laying +them down again. + +"_Brightness, or Beauty_," read Polly, disgustedly. "Imagine any +one of us owning up to that! Of course, we all know we have them both, +but who is going to claim them?" + +"It's going to be a conflict between modesty and hunger soon, I can see +that," said Archie. + +"_Peace_ and _Purity_ are all well enough. If I could find a +half-way sort like _Perfect Honesty_ or _Genius_, I'd stop +there! What's this? _Bright Raven!_ I tell you, it's a game, made +out of book titles. But I'll be jiggered if I ever heard of one of +them." + +"I never did, either," said Dorcas, shortly. "They must have hunted +around in very queer places to find things that none of us know. _Star +of the Sea_, though, does sound familiar. Isn't it one of +Tennyson's?" + +Bertha choked and turned away, avoiding Algernon's eye. + +"Hurry up, and find yours, the rest of you," said Tom suddenly, "I'm +fixed and I'm ready to eat." + +Every one pounced upon him, to discover that he had chosen to install +himself at a place marked _The Whiskered One_. + +"I'm the only fellow here who ever wore a mustache," he said, "so it's +plain, though rather far-fetched." + +"It's not your place, though, Tom, truly," said Bertha. "I'm afraid +we'll have to help. The librarian always does help stupid people." + +"We won't ask him, though! If you two were bright enough to make these +cards, we'll figure out the meanings or go without our supper," said +Polly decisively, and the girls echoed her, though the boys groaned, and +Max helped himself to a sandwich. + +"Now, listen," said Polly. "I'm president of this club, and I call you +all to order. I'll read the cards, one after another and you must all +think, and perhaps we'll be able to get on to the system--I mean, to +understand it." + +Every one struck an attitude and waited while Polly walked up one side +of the table and down the other, reading aloud in order: + + "_The Whiskered One._ + _Chastity._ + _Star of the Sea._ + _A Twin._ + _Consecrated to God._ + _Extremely Bold; or Holy Prince._ + _Peace._ + _A Lover of Peace._ + _Brightness, or Beauty._ + _The Greatest One._ + _Purity._ + _The Woman Strong with the Spear._ + _Bright Raven._ + _Grace._ + _A Gazelle._ + _A Princess of Noble Birth._" + +When she had finished, there was a moment's silence and then everybody +but Hannah burst out laughing. + +With a little "O!" she flew across the room to the big dictionary, and +opening it toward the back, dropped on her knees before it. + +"I have it!" she cried joyfully. "I used to study and study the meanings +of names when I was a youngster, and here they are. Mine means Grace and +I know where I'm going to sit, and the rest of you can find out in a +minute." + +The long delayed supper was at last eaten, and sitting idly around the +table, with watermelon rinds before them, the young people talked over +the summer which seemed already closed. + +"We've accomplished a lot, haven't we?" said Polly. "I'm really proud of +the Boat Club this year. It never used to stand for anything but its own +fun before, but from now on it will be a recognized factor in Winsted +life." + +"Bully for you, Polly!" said Bert. "I never heard any one say 'factor' +offhand like that. It's one of the words I've always held sacred to +special topics and theses and such." + +"Like 'objective' and 'subjective'?" asked Polly. "I always feel about +those as the old lady did about her pies, after she labelled them T. M." + +"What did she label them like that for?" asked Frieda, leaning forward +from her seat between Winifred and Archie. + +"O, dear," sighed Bert in mock despair. "Frieda has made us explain all +the old jokes we knew this summer, and I don't see how that one was +overlooked. Did you ever hear the riddle about when a door is not a +door, Frieda?" + +"Yes," said Frieda good-naturedly. "It was in an English book I learned. +There was a whole chapter on riddles, and the answers were printed +upside down!" + +"That dear Edith and Mary book!" cried Hannah. "Such a fine lot of +riddles as there were! I think you and I ought to give a copy of that +book to the library, Frieda!" + +"That reminds me," exclaimed Algernon. "We have had gifts to-day. I +saved them to tell you when you should all be listening, for they came +to us through our honorary members, the Wide-Awakes." + +"Hear!" "Hear!" shouted Max, but Polly rapped the meeting to order. +Alice and Hannah and Catherine and Frieda looked puzzled, and the others +interested, as Algernon went on. + +"Mr. Kittredge told me to-day that they had voted to give the +Sunday-school library books to us, as he thought the public library much +more important than theirs, and they wanted to help all they could, +following the good example of several of the Sunday-school teachers. +That's a compliment to Dorcas and Catherine, both. So that's one of the +four 'notorious Wide-Awakes,' as Mr. Graham calls them. And then a Mr. +Tracy came in with his arms full of boxes, and said that his wife had +been ill here at the hotel for some weeks, and she had amused herself +during her convalescence with working on picture puzzles; now she was +well and going away, she did not want to take them with her, and, as the +Winsted Library had been a great help to her, she would like to give +them these six or seven puzzles, to be loaned to people like books. She +said she thought a small library like this where the librarian knew +every one personally, could easily handle such a department, for +convalescents and lonely old people. Pictures and games and all such +things might be included, to be loaned at the librarian's discretion, +only." + +"What a good idea!" cried Polly, "but how do the Wide-Awakes come in on +that?" + +"Just this way. Mrs. Tracy said that if we would let her name the +collection, she would be glad to add to it from time to time. And when +we consented, as, of course, we did, she said she wanted it called The +Hannah Eldred Department." + +"Three cheers for Mrs. Tracy!" shouted Bert, and Max sprang to his feet +and led off with a right good will. Then followed cheers for Hannah, for +Catherine, for the Wide-Awakes and the Boat Club. When the noise +subsided, Algernon took the floor again. + +"That's not all, either! You know, most of you, that Frieda started the +German part of the library, giving some books and an invaluable list; +but none of you know what Miss Prescott told me a day or two ago. It is +a secret, but I think she will let me tell it now, just for +completeness, won't you, Miss Prescott?" + +Alice blushed and smiled. + +"If you really wish, but I don't like to be thanked for what is only a +promise as yet." + +"Never mind about that. It will be more than a promise soon. Miss +Prescott does very clever designing, and she heard me lamenting the fact +that we have no book-plate for the library, and most kindly offered to +furnish one." + +"I'll submit it to my teacher in designing," said Alice shyly, "and then +Mr. Swinburne will present it to the Board to accept or reject as they +see fit. You're not bound to take it, but I did want to help along +somehow!" + +"We ought to do that cheering all over again," said Archie, "but I move +you, Madam President, that Miss Lange and Miss Prescott consider +themselves specially included in the yells of a moment ago, and that the +meeting proceed to sing the Boat Club song." + +The passers-by, if there had been any, must have wondered at the joyous +burst of song that followed this remark. As a matter of fact, however, +there were no passers-by at all. The rain had washed the streets clear, +and the corner lights, glimmering faintly through the wet, fell on one +figure only. + +Standing before the library window, holding a great cotton umbrella over +his head, and peering patiently through a crack between the casing and +the shade, was a small boy, in an overcoat several sizes too large for +him. + +Agnes' seat was near the window. Suddenly she saw a small nose and an +inquiring eye pressed against the crack. + +"Look!" she said, and all eyes followed her gesture. + +Bert sprang to open the door and drag the dripping little figure in. +Polly and Catherine quickly took off the great coat and shut the vast +umbrella. Then they drew the little chap to the table, where Bertha had +a plate of goodies ready for him. + +"Attention, everybody!" + +Max sprang to his feet. + +"Sing to the air of the Boat Club Song: + + "He is the Boat Club mascot, + Give a cheer! give a cheer! + For the Boat Club mascot, + Elsmere! Elsmere!" + +"Do it again!" cried Elsmere, brandishing a fork and making Bertha +dodge, "Give a cheer, Elsmere! Boat Club stomach! Give a cheer!" + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + +AUF WIEDERSEHEN + + +Such a bustling place as Three Gables was on that Friday morning! + +"It seems a pity that you can't stay till Monday, when college really +opens," said Dr. Helen, pressing out a filmy waist in the dining-room, +where the four girls were gathered, setting last stitches. + +"But the new girls who have come on early and those who have had to take +'exams' are just the ones who need cheering up, and we are the official +Comfort Committee, aren't we, Alice?" + +Alice, fastening the thread after sewing in a fresh ruche, nodded. "Got +to keep the blues away, or perish trying to," she said. "And Hannah has +to be home before Monday. And Frieda needs a day or two to get settled. +Hilda said she'd come back to-day, and they could get their room in +order before Sunday. I'm so glad you're going to room with Hilda, Frieda +dear. She's such a darling child." + +"Is she still given to crushes?" asked Hannah. "She fairly worshiped +Lilian Burton's door-sill when I was there." + +"Crushes are going out of fashion at Dexter," said Catherine +emphatically. "And one of the reasons I thought it would be good for +Hilda to room with Frieda was that Frieda has too much sense to indulge +in them, and she will keep Hilda suppressed." + +"Catherine, you have such a positive manner when you talk about Dexter," +said Hannah thoughtfully. "You'll be House President senior year. O, +dear!" for Frieda, in getting up to help Dr. Helen fold up the +ironing-board, had brushed by Hannah's chair, and a fat little button +bag rolling to the floor had emptied its contents all over the room. + +"Such a lot of buttons, Hannah!" exclaimed Dr. Helen, stooping to help +gather them up. + +Hannah laughed. "Mamma was so surprised when I came back from Dexter +because there were as many in it as when I went, and I told her there +were more because I had put in all the buttons that had come off while I +was there! And then she was shocked!" + +The doorbell rang and Inga came in with a big parcel for Catherine with +Grandma Hopkins' compliments. Catherine opened it, wondering, and the +others dropped their work. + +"A cake! Did you ever in your life? And I already have Mrs. Graham's +jelly, and Mr. Graham's bag of nuts, and old Mrs. Hitchcock's jar of +preserves! Mother, how can I ever thank them all?" + +"How can you ever get them all transported to Dexter, is what I'm +wondering! Do they always send girls off to school with food for the +term, Catherine?" asked Hannah. + +"Well, I had cookies and mince pie to take last year, after my trunk was +packed. Mother persuaded me to leave the pie, but I was sorry afterward. +And one of Polly's mother's friends baked a chicken for her to carry all +the way to Wellesley! People are so kind! How do you suppose I can carry +this cake, though, Mother? It's such an awkward shape, and I couldn't +pack it with my clothes!" + +"Do you remember how Inez brought a pail of honey in her trunk," put in +Alice, "and how it leaked out all over everything she had?" + +"I'll put the cake into a stout hat-box, and fasten a heavy cord and a +handle on it, and you can get it there safely, I think. You won't have +to carry it, except just getting on and off the train." Dr. Helen +hurried off to see to that bit of packing, herself. + +Bertha, Agnes and Dot, and even Dorcas, found excuses to drop in at the +house that morning. Win and Bess promised to be at the train. On the way +home from school three or four of Catherine's Sunday-school children ran +in to say good-by. Polly was in and out a dozen times, and Peter and +Perdita came together to present a beautiful photograph of themselves in +their newest garments and shiniest shoes. Dinner was interrupted by the +trunkman's arrival, and Dr. Harlow had to keep a watchful eye upon each +girl to see that she did not forget to eat. + +Algernon and Bert came to escort the party to the station, and they +started out merrily enough. When they reached the sidewalk, Catherine +turned and ran back to the house for a private farewell to her mother, +who preferred saying good-by there instead of going to the station. +College seemed suddenly robbed of its pleasure, and the length of days +between September and Thanksgiving intolerable, but they were used to +helping each other be brave, and they blinked away the tears and parted +smiling, Catherine turning frequently to wave good-bys till the house +was lost in the trees. + +It was quite like a reception at the station. While Dr. Harlow attended +to ticket-buying, the young people clustered together, talking at random +and laughing easily. + +"It will be so lonely without you all," sighed Bess. "All the other +college folk will be off by Tuesday at the latest, and here we shall +languish!" + +"You'll not have much time to languish if you assist in the +kindergarten, Winifred," said Catherine affectionately. "I'm so glad you +are going to do it! You'll make them sing like little nightingales. O, +Bess, you go right by Grandma Hopkins' on the way home, don't you? Would +you mind running in and telling her that the cake got off all right? +I'll write her, of course, but I know she will want to know. Algernon! +You don't mean it? Miss Ainsworth drawing her own novels! How perfectly +delicious! O Max, there you are! What did Mr. Morse say? Was he pleased +with the way we handled the paper?" + +"Seemed to be. How I wish I were still on, to be able to write up your +departure fittingly! I say, who's that odd little pair over there? They +seem to be looking this way as if they wanted something." + +The others turned and Frieda, who had been standing in a dreary silence, +listening to the chatter of all these dear boys and girls whom she was +leaving perhaps forever, suddenly ran across the platform to where a +little old lady in black with a knitted shawl over her head, and a +little old man in ill-fitting clothes were standing. + +"We came to tell our little friend good-by," "And to wish her _Gute +Reise!_" They spoke in a kind of duet. + +"Here are a few poor blossoms from our garden--" + +"That you forget not the old people--" + +"And a trifle of _Kuchen_ that I made myself--" + +"And this I have carved for you, to put your pens on--" + +Frieda, beaming and exclaiming her gratitude, made a pretty picture and +the young people, observing her and hearing the rapid German, felt that +they were seeing her in a better light than they had before, much as +they had already learned to like and enjoy her. + +Dot clung to Hannah, and the gentle Agnes, who had found Alice +incredibly congenial, walked arm in arm with her a little apart from the +others, while Catherine in the center of the group held her father's arm +fast. + +They were off at last. + +"I thought that child in the back seat was Elsmere," sighed Catherine, +starting up and dropping back again, relieved. "That child actually gets +on my mind so that I expect to see him everywhere." + +"Algernon tied him up, or he would have been there. He is a little +rascal. It was a relief to me to have Perdita live up to her name and +reputation, though," said Hannah. "I heard about her all summer as a +little mischief, and I never saw her do an indecorous thing. I didn't +_see_ her do that." + +"Well, you may mark my words," said Catherine, "before you have grown +many years older you will hear astonishing tales of Perdita Osgood. +Peter's influence will not always keep her in check. Polly told me that +yesterday she tried to vaccinate the cat, with a mixture of ground chalk +and vinegar! Peter came for help to prevent her!" + +"American children are pretty bad, aren't they, Frieda?" said Alice +mischievously, for Frieda's lips were set sternly. + +"Don't make her say so," pleaded Hannah teasingly. "She has made such a +beautiful record." + +Frieda flushed a little, but slipped her hand into her pocket and felt +there the shape of the little carved frame of Karl's picture and held +her tongue once more. She would not quarrel with Hannah in this last +hour for anything! + +"Next year," Hannah said thoughtfully, "I am surely coming to Dexter, +and you three are to get the fire-wall room for us, and we'll live in +glory and rapture." + +"If it were only _this_ year!" Alice moaned out the words, and the +others sighed with her. The excitement of getting off had died, and they +were becoming painfully aware of the separation that was approaching +with every revolution of the wheels. + +There were other passengers in the car, but they felt peculiarly alone, +none the less. It was a curious tie that bound them. They felt that +their friendship, so oddly started, had something more vital in it than +most school-girl relations. They had all been sorry to leave bright, +lovable Polly, but still, so long as they four stayed together, nothing +could matter very much. + +"O, dear," sighed Hannah aloud. "I do think I spend all my time getting +along without somebody or other!" + +"'We meet so seldom, yet we surely part so often,'" quoted Catherine +musingly. + +"O, Catherine, my darling, if you dare begin on that sad Rossetti +woman!" cried Alice. "You don't know how dreadful she is about it, +Hannah! She goes about for days with a distant sad look in her eyes and, +if she is spoken to suddenly, she says, 'When I was dead my spirit +turned,' or 'Does the road wind uphill all the way? Yes, to the very +end!' or something equally doleful. I feel as though some one were dying +in the next room, and I do believe I'll hide the book." + +"It won't do you any good," remarked Catherine serenely. "I know almost +all of her by heart. But you must admit, Allie, that I do say cheerful +things at times. You got sick of the Jumblies last year." + +"They were as idiotic as the Rossetti lady, in another way. We'll never +agree on such subjects, Catherine!" + +"Well, anyhow, Catherine isn't going to read so much poetry this year," +said Hannah. + +"And Hannah is going to read more," rejoined Catherine, at which Hannah +made a wry face and set them all laughing. + +"Dexter!" + +"Already? O, Hannah darling, how can we ever let you go on without us?" + +All three were kissing her, but Hannah laughed at their sorrowful faces. + +"I'll go out on the platform with you. And I'll carry the hat-box, +Catrina. Shall you have a spread to-night? Oh! it's the same dear +little, queer little station! And there's Miss Eliot, and Dy-the Allen! +Glory! Glory! Glory! Dy-the, going on this train? Joy and rapture! I +should have died of loneliness!" + +And Hannah plunged down the steps and threw out her arms to embrace +Dy-the, when thud! out fell the bottom of the hat-box, and with it +Grandma Hopkins' lovely cake! + +Miss Eliot looked into the distressed blue eyes and laughed. + +"Just the same Hannah!" she said. "Dy-the, take good care of her and +don't let her get lost in Chicago. Now, child, introduce me to your +Frieda and get back on the train at once." + +"Here she is," said Hannah, casting one more sad look at the shattered +cake, over which a baggage-man had rolled a heavy truck. "And, Frieda, +Miss Eliot is the one to go to, always, when you need anything, from +shoe-strings to a scolding. O, Catherine, I'm so sorry. I just wanted to +help!" + +Catherine caught her in a mighty hug. + +"Never you mind one minute. It would have given us indigestion, and it +was so funny to see it go smash! Give your father my love, won't you, +darling? And Aunt Clara, when you see her." + +"And write from the very first station," said Alice. "I'm so glad Dy-the +is going to be with you." + +"Give Karl my greetings," said Frieda, holding on to Hannah's hand +tightly. "And O, ever my love to Tante Edith and Uncle Edward!" + +"Come, Babe, not another minute," and Dy-the, little but determined, +plucked Hannah from detaining arms, and set her firmly on the platform +of the rear car. There, as the train glided out, she stood, her eyes +fixed upon the little group of three with arms around each other. + +"Good-by! Good-by!" she called and they answered. Then Frieda ran a +little nearer, holding out her arms in a pleading gesture, and over the +noise of the retreating train their voices rang out together: + +"_Auf Wiedersehen!_" + +"_Auf glueckliches Wiedersehen!_" + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIDE AWAKE GIRLS IN WINSTED*** + + +******* This file should be named 31200.txt or 31200.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/2/0/31200 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/31200.zip b/31200.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a33fef0 --- /dev/null +++ b/31200.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1acd92 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #31200 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31200) |
