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diff --git a/31507.txt b/31507.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc8acb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/31507.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7858 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Peggy Raymond's Vacation, by Harriet L. +(Harriet Lummis) Smith + + +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: Peggy Raymond's Vacation + or Friendly Terrace Transplanted + + +Author: Harriet L. (Harriet Lummis) Smith + + + +Release Date: March 4, 2010 [eBook #31507] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY RAYMOND'S VACATION*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +PEGGY RAYMOND'S VACATION + + * * * * * * + +Stories by + +HARRIET LUMMIS SMITH + +Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms $2.00 +(Trade Mark) + +Pollyanna's Jewels $2.00 +(Trade Mark) + +Pollyanna's Debt of Honor $2.00 +(Trade Mark) + +The Uncertain Glory $2.00 + +Pat and Pal $2.00 + +The Peggy Raymond Series, each $1.75 + + Peggy Raymond's Success + or The Girls of Friendly Terrace. + + Peggy Raymond's Vacation + or Friendly Terrace Transplanted. + + Peggy Raymond's School Days + or Old Girls and New. + + Peggy Raymond's Friendly Terrace Quartette. + + Peggy Raymond's Way + or Blossom Time at Friendly Terrace. + +In Preparation + +Pollyanna's Western Adventure $2.00 +(Trade Mark) + + * * * * * * + + +PEGGY RAYMOND'S VACATION + +Or Friendly Terrace Transplanted + +by + +HARRIET LUMMIS SMITH + +Author of + "Peggy Raymond's Success," "Peggy Raymond's Schooldays," + "Peggy Raymond at 'The Poplars,'" "Peggy Raymond's Way." + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + +A. L. Burt Company +Publishers New York + +Published by arrangement with L. C. Page & Company. + +Printed in U. S. A. + +Copyright, 1913 +By The Page Company +All rights reserved + + + + +CONTENTS + + Chapter Page + I. THE EXODUS 1 + II. A COTTAGE RE-CHRISTENED 18 + III. GETTING ACQUAINTED 33 + IV. A STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY 51 + V. A SAFE AND SANE FOURTH 69 + VI. THE PICNIC 90 + VII. THE COTTAGE BESIEGED 107 + VIII. HOBO TO THE RESCUE 125 + IX. RUTH IN THE ROLE OF HEROINE 143 + X. MRS. SNOOKS' EDUCATION 161 + XI. DOROTHY GETS INTO MISCHIEF 175 + XII. THE NEW LUCY 190 + XIII. A BENEFIT PERFORMANCE 205 + XIV. AUNT ABIGAIL IS MISLAID 218 + XV. PRISCILLA'S LOOKING-GLASS 233 + XVI. PEGGY MAKES A SPEECH 247 + XVII. A PLAIN TALK 262 + XVIII. THE CASTAWAYS 275 + XIX. THE RESCUE 292 + XX. HOME SWEET HOME 307 + + + + +PEGGY RAYMOND'S VACATION + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE EXODUS + + +"Do you know, Peggy Raymond, that you haven't made a remark for +three-quarters of an hour, unless somebody asked you a question?--and, +even then, your answers didn't fit." + +It was mid-June, and as happens not unfrequently in the month +acknowledging allegiance to both seasons, spring had plunged headlong +into summer, with no preparatory gradations from breezy coolness to +sultry days and oppressive nights. Friendly Terrace wore an air of +relaxation. School was over till September, and now that the bugbear of +final examinations was disposed of, no one seemed possessed of +sufficient energy to attempt anything more strenuous than wielding a +palm-leaf fan. + +On Amy Lassell's front porch a quartet of wilted girls lounged about in +attitudes expressive of indolent ease. Tall Priscilla occupied the +hammock, and Ruth was ensconced in a willow rocking-chair, with a +hassock at her feet. Peggy had made herself comfortable on the top step, +with sofa cushions tucked skilfully at the small of her back, and behind +her head. Amy herself sat cross-legged like a Turk on the porch floor +and fanned vigorously to supplement the efforts of the lazy breeze. + +Peggy, pondering her friend's accusation with languid interest, dimpled +into a smile which acknowledged its correctness. "Yes, you're right, +Amy," she admitted. "And, if you want to know the reason, it's only that +my thoughts were wandering. The fact is, girls, I'm just hankering for +the country." + +"Then what's the matter--" + +The suggestion on the tip of Amy's tongue never got any farther, for +Peggy, seemingly certain that it would prove inadequate, shook her head +with a vigor hardly to be expected from her general air of lassitude. + +"No, Amy! I don't mean going to the park, or taking a trolley ride out +to one of the suburbs. What I want is the sure-enough country, without +any sidewalks, you know, and with roads that wind, and old hens clucking +around, and cow-bells tinkling off in the pastures, and oceans of +room--" + +"And sunsets where the sun goes down behind green trees, instead of +peoples' houses," Ruth interrupted dreamily. "And birds singing like mad +to wake you up in the morning." + +"Yes, and berries growing alongside the road, where you can help +yourself," broke in Amy with animation. "And apples and nuts lying +around under the trees, and green corn that melts in your mouth, and--" + +"Not all at the same time, though." The correction came from Priscilla's +hammock. "You wouldn't find many nuts dropping from the trees at this +time of the year." + +Before Amy could reply, the conversation was interrupted by the +appearance of the most universally popular visitor ever gracing Friendly +Terrace by his presence. He came often, without any danger of wearing +out his welcome. Every household watched for his arrival, and felt +injured if he passed without stopping. On Amy's porch four necks craned, +the better to view his advance, and four pairs of eyes were expectant. + +"If there's anything for me," observed Peggy hopefully, "mother'll wave, +I know." But Mrs. Raymond, who sat sewing on her own porch, opened the +solitary letter the postman handed her, and proceeded to acquaint +herself with its contents in full view of the watchers on the other side +of the street. + +"This must be Mother's Day," Amy exclaimed disapprovingly, when, a +moment later, she accepted from the letter-carrier's hand a fat blue +envelope directed to Mrs. Gibson Lassell. But, in spite of her rather +resentful tone, she scrambled to her feet, and carried the letter +through to the shaded back room where her mother lay on the couch, with +a glass of ice-tea beside her, devoting herself to the business of +keeping cool. + +Some time passed before Amy's return. Priscilla's hammock barely stirred +and the rhythmic creak of Ruth's rocking-chair grew gradually less +frequent. Peggy, cuddling down among the cushions, let her thoughts +stray again to the joys of being without sidewalks, and all that was +implied in such a lack. The porch with the silent trio would not have +seemed out of place in that enchanted country where the sleeping +princess and her subjects dreamed away a hundred years. + +All at once there was a rush, a slam, a series of little rapturous +squeals. The Amy who had carried the blue envelope indoors, had been +mysteriously replaced by a young person so bubbling over with animation +as to be unable, apparently, to express herself, except by ecstatic +gurgles and a mad capering about the porch. + +Had a crisp October breeze all at once dissipated the languors of the +June day, the effect on the occupants of the porch could hardly have +been more immediate. Priscilla came out of the hammock with a bound. +Peggy's cushions rolled to the bottom of the steps, as Peggy leaped to +her feet. And so precipitately did Ruth arise, that her rocking-chair +went over backward, and narrowly escaped breaking a front window. + +"Amy Lassell!" Peggy seized her friend by the shoulders and gave her a +vigorous shake. "Stop acting this crazy way, and tell us what's +happened." + +"Talk of fairy godmothers!" gasped Amy, coherent at last. "Talk of +dreams coming true! Oh, girls!" + +"What is it?" Three exasperated voices screamed the question, and even +Amy began to realize that her explanation had lacked lucidity. She tried +again. + +"That letter, you know. It's the strangest coincidence I ever heard of. +But haven't you noticed lots of times--" + +"Oh, Amy," Ruth implored, "do let that part wait, and get to the point." + +"Why, this is the point. That letter was from an old friend of mother's, +Mrs. Leighton. She has a home up in the country, Sweet Fern Cottage I +think they call it, or is it Sweet Briar--" + +"Sweet chocolate, perhaps," suggested Priscilla with gentle sarcasm. +"One will do as well as another. Go on." + +"It's the real country, Peggy, for you have to take a four-mile stage +ride to get to the railway station. And Mrs. Leighton wanted to know if +some of us wouldn't like to use the cottage, as she is going to Europe +this summer. And, right away, mother said it would be so nice for us +girls to have it." + +The clamor that broke out made further explanations impossible. It was +Amy's turn to be superior. + +"Girls, if you all keep talking at once, how can I ever tell you the +rest? The cottage is all furnished, Mrs. Leighton says, and we would +only have to bring bedding and towels, and things of that sort. And she +says you can buy milk and vegetables very reasonably of the farmers in +the neighborhood, so it wouldn't be expensive when we divided it up +among us." + +"We could do the cooking ourselves," interrupted Peggy. + +"Of course. Mrs. Leighton takes up her own servants, but if we found +somebody to do our washing, and scrub us up occasionally, we could +manage the rest." + +For half an hour the excited planning went on, and then four +enthusiastic girls separated to subject the enterprise to the more +cautious consideration of fathers and mothers. And that was the end of +listlessness on Friendly Terrace for that hot wave, at least. At almost +any hour of day, one might see a girl running across the street, or +bursting into another girl's house without warning, in order to set +forth some new and brilliant idea which had just popped into her head, +or to ask advice on some perplexing point, or to answer the objections +somebody had raised. Though only four families on the Terrace were +personally interested in the solution of the problem, the whole +neighborhood took it up. It was generally agreed that the girls had +worked hard in school, and were tired, and a summer in what Peggy called +"the sure-enough country" would be the best thing in the world for them +all. + +Elaine Marshall, whom Peggy waylaid as she came home from her work, not +long after the plan had been broached, gave it her immediate approval, +pluckily trying to hide her consternation at the thought of Friendly +Terrace without Peggy. But, in spite of her brave fluency, something in +her eyes betrayed her, as she knew when Peggy slipped an arm about her +waist and hugged her remorsefully. + +"Now, Peggy Raymond, don't go to being sorry for me, and spoiling your +fun. You mustn't fancy you're so indispensable," she ended with a feeble +laugh. + +"If only you had two months' vacation, instead of two weeks," mourned +Peggy. + +"I'm lucky to get two weeks, when I've been in your uncle's office such +a little while. And, anyway, Peggy, I couldn't leave home for long as +things are, even if my vacation lasted all summer." + +And it really was Elaine Marshall, speaking in that cheery, +matter-of-fact tone, scorning the luxury of self-pity, conquering the +temptation to look on herself as an object of sympathy. Peggy regarded +her with affectionate admiration, quite unaware how important a factor +she herself had been in bringing about a transformation almost beyond +belief. + +After twenty-four hours of reflection Friendly Terrace was practically a +unit on the question. The fathers saw no reason why the girls should not +go, and the mothers found a variety of reasons why they should. The +question of a chaperon had been a temporary stumbling-block, for none of +the mothers especially concerned had felt that she could be spared from +home. But before the difficulty had begun to seem serious, Amy had +exclaimed: "I believe Aunt Abigail would jump at the chance." + +"Aunt Abigail!" Priscilla repeated, with a thoughtful frown. "I don't +remember ever hearing you speak of her." + +"She's father's aunt, you know, but I always call her Aunt Abigail." + +There was a pause. "Then she must be a good deal like a grandmother," +Ruth hinted delicately. + +"Why, yes. Aunt Abigail is seventy-five or six, I don't remember which." + +Priscilla and Ruth looked at Peggy, their manner implying that the +crisis demanded the exercise of her undeniable tact. Peggy made a brave +effort to be equal to the emergency. + +"Don't you think, Amy, dear," she hazarded, "that it would be a little +trying to the nerves of an old lady to chaperon a lot of noisy girls--" + +Amy's burst of laughter was such an unexpected interruption that Peggy's +considerate appeal halted midway and the other girls stared. And Amy +screwing her eyes tightly shut, as was her habit when highly amused, +finished her laugh at her leisure, before she deigned an explanation. + +"You'd know how funny that sounded if you'd ever seen Aunt Abigail. +She's along in her seventies, so I suppose you would call her old, but +in a good many ways she's as young as we are--Oh, yes, younger, as young +as Peggy's Dorothy." + +There was something fascinating in the idea of a chaperon, characterized +by such singular extremes. The girls listened breathlessly. + +"Mother says it's all because she's lived in such an unusual way. You +see, her husband was an artist, and they used to travel around +everywhere. Sometimes they'd board at a hotel, and sometimes they'd have +rooms, and do light housekeeping, and, then again, they'd camp, and live +in a tent for months at a time. And Aunt Abigail hasn't any idea of +getting up to breakfast at any special hour, or being on hand to +dinner." + +The expression of anxious interest was fading gradually from the faces +of the three listeners, and cheerful anticipation was taking its place. + +"She forgets everything she promises to do," Amy continued. "It isn't +because she's old, either. She's been that way ever since mother can +remember. She's always losing things, and getting into the most awful +scrapes. We should have to look after her, just as if she were a child. +And then she's the jolliest soul you ever knew, and she's a regular +Arabian Nights' entertainment when it comes to telling stories." + +After the vision of a nervous old lady who would demand that the house +be very quiet, and get into a nervous flutter if a meal were delayed +fifteen minutes, Amy's realistic sketch was immensely appealing. +"Girls," Peggy exclaimed, "I move we invite Aunt Abigail to chaperon our +crowd!" And the motion was carried not only unanimously, but with an +enthusiasm Aunt Abigail would certainly have found gratifying, though it +might have surprised her, in view of her grand-niece's candid statement. + +Peggy had pleaded to be allowed to take Dorothy along. "I can't bear to +think of that darling child spending July and August in a fourth-floor +flat, looking down on the tops of street-cars. And I don't think she'd +bother you girls a bit." + +"Bother!" cried Amy generously. "We need something to fall back on for +rainy days, and Dorothy's a picnic in herself. Between her and Aunt +Abigail we'll be entertained whatever happens." + +Priscilla, too, had suggested an addition to the party. "You've heard me +speak of Claire Fendall, girls. I saw a good deal of her at the +conservatory, and she's as sweet as she can be. Well, we've talked of +her visiting me this vacation, and I don't feel quite like announcing +that I'm going off for the entire summer without asking her if she'd +like to go too." + +The girls had fallen in with the suggestion with the thoughtless +cordiality characteristic of their years. It was Amy who suggested later +to Peggy that sometimes she thought there was such a thing as a girl's +being _too_ sweet. "I met Claire Fendall once when I went with +Priscilla to a recital," Amy remarked. "And--Oh, well, I'm not one of +the people who like honey for breakfast every morning of the year." But +the only reply this Delphic utterance called forth from Peggy was a +reproachful pinch. + +In a week's time they were ready. A special delivery letter had carried +to Mrs. Leighton the grateful acceptance of her offer, and the keys had +come by express the following day, rattling about in a tin box, and with +the tantalizing air of secrecy and suggestiveness which always attaches +itself to a bunch of keys. Aunt Abigail had been invited to chaperon the +party and had accepted by telegraph. Peggy's father had made an excuse +for a business trip to New York, and had brought his small granddaughter +home with him, full of the liveliest anticipation regarding her summer. +And Priscilla had received a twenty-page letter from Claire Fendall, +declaring that it would be perfectly heavenly to spend two months +anywhere in Priscilla's society, and that nothing in the world could +possibly prevent her from coming. + +There had been no time during that week for lounging on porches, or +swinging in hammocks. Afternoon naps were sternly eliminated from the +daily program, and the day began early enough to satisfy the originator +of the maxim which gives us to understand that early rising is +synonymous with health, wealth and wisdom. Trunks were packed, amid +prolonged discussion as to what to take and what to leave behind. The +mothers, as is the way of mothers the world over, insisted on warm +flannels, and wraps, rubbers and rain-coats, to provide for all extremes +of weather. Peggy's suggestion that the country was a fine place for +wearing out old clothes, had been received with enthusiasm, and faded +ginghams and lawns of a bygone style, far outnumbered the new frocks +with which the Terrace girls had made ready for the season. + +The June day appointed for the departure dawned with such radiant +brightness that all along the Terrace it was accepted as a good omen. +Early and hurried breakfasts were in order in a number of homes. Dorothy +viewing her oatmeal with an air of disfavor, launched into the +discussion of a subject which had occupied her thoughts for some time. + +"Aunt Peggy, if I should see a bear up in the country, do you s'pose I'd +be 'fraid? I'd jus' say to him, 'Scat, you old bear!'" + +"Eat your oatmeal, Dorothy." Peggy's voice betrayed that her excitement +was almost equal to Dorothy's own. "There aren't any bears where we're +going." + +"Ain't there?" Dorothy's tone indicated regretful surprise. "I guess God +jus' forgot to make 'em," she sighed, and fell to watching her +grandmother's efforts to make the oatmeal more tempting, by adding +another sprinkling of sugar to a dish already honey-sweet. + +But even such a disappointment as this could not continue in the face of +the thrilling nearness of departure. The trunks had gone to the station +the night before, and now upon the porches of the various houses, +suitcases, travelling bags, and nondescript rolls of shawls and steamer +rugs began to make their appearance. Conversations were carried on +across the street in a fashion that might have been annoying if +everybody along the Terrace had not been astir to see the girls off. +Elaine Marshall already dressed for the office, slipped through the +opening in the hedge which separated her home from Peggy's, and took +possession of a shawl-strap and umbrella. + +"Of course I'm going to the station with you," she said, replying to +Peggy's look. "There'll be room enough, won't there, if Dorothy sits in +my lap?" + +"I guess you'd better hold Aunt Peggy 'stead of me," Dorothy objected +promptly, "'cause I'm going to have a birf-day pretty soon, and I'm +getting to be a big girl." And then she forgot her offended dignity, for +the hacks were in sight. + +It was well that these conveyances had arrived early, for the process of +saying good-by was not a rapid one. There were so many kisses to be +exchanged, so many last cautions to be given, so many promises to write +often to be repeated,--reckless promises which if literally fulfilled +would have required the services of an extra mail-carrier for Friendly +Terrace--so many anxious inquiries as to the whereabouts of somebody's +suitcase or box of luncheon, to say nothing of Amy's discovery at the +last minute that she had left her railway ticket in the drawer of her +writing desk, that for a time the outlook for ever getting started was +gloomy indeed. But at last they were safely stowed away, and while the +girls threw kisses in the direction of upper windows, where dishevelled +heads were appearing, and little groups on doorsteps and porches waved +handkerchiefs, and "Good-by" sounded on one side of the street and then +on the other, like an echo gone distraught, the foremost driver cracked +his whip and they were off. + +"My gracious me," a pleasantly garrulous old lady said to Mrs. Raymond +half an hour later, "ain't it going to be lonesome without that bunch of +girls. It's the first time I ever knew Friendly Terrace to seem +deserted." + +"It will seem a little lonely, I imagine," Mrs. Raymond answered +cheerily, and then she went indoors and found a dark corner where she +could wipe her eyes unseen. But when Dick came around to express his +opinion as to the team that would win the pennant that season, she was +able to give him as interested attention as if two long months were not +to elapse before she saw Peggy again. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A COTTAGE RE-CHRISTENED + + +The stage creaked up the slope. The four horses, sedate enough during +the long drive, wound up with a flourish, the off-leader prancing, and +all four making that final exhibition of untamed spirit, which is the +stage-driver's secret. And from the body of the vehicle arose a chorus +of voices. + +"Is this it? Oh, girls, this can't really be it!" + +The stage-driver took it on himself to answer the question. + +"You asked for Leighton's place, and this here's it. Now, if you want +suthin' else, all you've got to do is to say so." He folded his arms +with the air of being only too well accustomed to the vagaries of city +people, an implication which his passengers were too elated to notice. +They scrambled out, not waiting for his assistance, Peggy first, +extending a hand to Aunt Abigail, who waved it briskly aside, and jumped +off the steps like a girl. Her bright dark eyes--she never used +spectacles except for reading--twinkled gaily. And her cheeks +crisscrossed with innumerable fine wrinkles, were as rosy as winter +apples. + +Dorothy followed Aunt Abigail, flinging herself headlong into Peggy's +extended arms, and then wriggling free to satisfy herself as to what the +country was like, as well as to scan the landscape for a possible bear. +The others crowded after, and the stage-driver relenting, began to throw +off the trunks. + +The Leighton cottage was a rambling structure, suggesting a series of +architectural after-thoughts. Its location could hardly have been +surpassed, for it stood on a rise of ground so that in any direction one +looked across fertile valleys to encircling hills. A porch ran about +three sides of the house, shaded here and there by vines. In spite of a +certain look of neglect, emphasized by the straggling branches of the +untrimmed vines, and the cobwebs everywhere visible, its appearance was +distinctly prepossessing. + +"Going to get these doors open any time to-day?" asked the stage-driver, +apparently struggling for resignation. + +"The keys, Aunt Abigail!" Amy cried. + +"Bless you, child, I haven't any keys!" the old lady answered. Then, +with no apparent loss of serenity, "Oh, yes, I do remember that you +handed them to me. But I haven't an idea where they are now." + +The girls looked reproachfully at Amy. After having set forth the +peculiarities of her relative in such detail, she should have known +better than to have entrusted her with anything as important as keys. +But clearly it was no time for recrimination, and after a moment all of +them were following Peggy's example, and hastily examining the various +articles of hand luggage which contained Aunt Abigail's belongings. +Owing to the old lady's habitual forgetfulness these were numerous, for +the articles which had been left out when her trunk was packed had made +the journey in shawlstraps and large pasteboard boxes. Just as every one +had become thoroughly convinced that the keys had been left behind in +Friendly Terrace, Dorothy made a discovery. + +"I hear bells," she announced dreamily, "little tinkly bells like +fairies." + +Aunt Abigail jumped, and this time everybody's ears were sharp enough to +hear the fairy-like chime. + +"Of course," cried Aunt Abigail beaming. "They're in the pocket. I told +my dressmaker that if I was the only woman in the United States to boast +a pocket, I wouldn't be satisfied without one. I will say for her +though, that she located it in the most inaccessible place she could +possibly have chosen. Girls, come and help me find it." + +Aunt Abigail stood resignedly, while a group of girls made a rush, like +hounds attacking a stag. The pocket was located without much difficulty, +though some valuable time was expended in finding the opening. At last +the keys were produced in triumph, the front door was unlocked, and the +stage-driver grunting disdainfully, carried in the trunks. + +Indoors the cottage lived up to the promise of its exterior. The front +door opened into a big living-room furnished comfortably, though simply, +and with a large brick fireplace at one end. Beyond this were the +dining-room and kitchen, with store-room and pantry, and a long woodshed +running off to one side. The second floor consisted of a number of small +bedrooms, each with just enough in the way of furnishings to provide for +the comfort of the occupants, without adding to housekeeping cares. From +this story a staircase of ladder-like steepness, led up to an unfinished +garret, empty, except for a few pieces of dilapidated furniture and +sundry piles of magazines and paper-covered books, which had undoubtedly +contributed to the entertainment of the cottagers in past seasons. + +Thanks to an early start, it was little past noon when the arrivals from +Friendly Terrace took possession. Luncheon was first in order. The dust +of the winter having been removed from the dining-table, various +alluring pasteboard boxes were placed upon it, and seven hungry people +ranged themselves in expectant rows. The piles of sandwiches melted away +as if by magic, and as they disappeared, the rooms silent for so long, +echoed to the whole-hearted laughter which is the best of all aids to +digestion. + +The meal over, the trunks were ransacked for old dresses, gingham +aprons, and sweeping caps, and under Peggy's leadership, the girls fell +to work. + +"Now we'll divide up, so as not to get in each other's way. Priscilla, +suppose you and Claire take the up-stairs rooms. Ruth and I will start +here in the living-room, and Amy--where is Amy, anyway?" + +Amy's sudden appearance in the doorway was the signal for a general +shriek of protest. The evening before, her father had presented her with +a kodak, which she now pointed toward the group of girls in their +house-maid's uniforms, with the air of a hold-up man, demanding one's +money or one's life. + +"Oh, don't please," cried Claire, cowering and hiding her face. She wore +her gingham apron with an unaccustomed air, and had looked askance at +the sweeping cap, before she had followed the example of the other +girls, and pulled it over her soft, brown hair. "Please don't take my +picture," she implored in a doleful whimper. "I look like such a +fright." + +"Oh, do stand in a row with your brooms and mops over your shoulders," +pleaded Amy. "You look perfectly dear--and so picturesque." + +Peggy perceived that Claire's consternation was real, and sternly +checked her friend. "Amy Lassell, put that camera away, and get to work. +It will be time enough to take pictures when this house is fit to sleep +in." + +By four o'clock at least a superficial order had been secured. The fresh +breezes blowing from the windows on all sides, had aided the efforts of +the girl housekeepers in banishing dust and mustiness, and they were +ready to wait another day for the luxury of clean windows. By this time, +too, most of the girls were frankly sleepy, for the prospect of an early +start had interfered seriously with the night's rest of some of them, +and the freshly aired, newly made beds presented an irresistible +temptation. + +The indefatigable Peggy however, emerging from the wash-bowl as glowing +as a rose, scorned the suggestion of a nap. "Couldn't think of wasting +this gorgeous afternoon that way. I'm going over to the farmhouse Mrs. +Leighton spoke of, and make arrangements about eggs, butter, milk, and +all that sort of thing." + +"And fresh vegetables too," exclaimed Amy with surprising animation, +considering that she was in the middle of a tremendous yawn. + +"Yes, of course. And girls, if the farmer's wife will make our bread, I +think it will be lots more sensible to buy it of her, than to bother +with baking." + +"Oh, you fix things up just as you think best," exclaimed Priscilla. +"The rest of us will stand by whatever you agree to." A drowsy murmur of +corroboration went the rounds, and Peggy, making open mock of them all +for a company of "sleepy-heads," went blithely on her way toward the +particular column of smoke which she felt sure was issuing from the +chimney of the Cole farmhouse. + +A very comfortable, pleasant farmhouse it was, though quite eclipsed by +the big red barn which loomed up in the background. Something in the +appearance of the front door suggested to Peggy that it was not intended +for daily use, and she made her way around to the side and knocked. A +child not far from Dorothy's age, with straight black hair, and elfish +eyes, opened the door, looked her over, and shrieked a staccato summons. + +"Ro-set-ta! Ro-set-ta Muriel!" + +"Well, what do you want?" demanded a rather querulous voice, and at the +end of the hall appeared the figure of a slender girl, her abundant +yellow hair brought down over her forehead to the eyebrows, and tied in +place by a blue ribbon looped up at one side in a flaunting bow. Her +frock of cheap blue silk was made in the extreme of the mode, and as she +rustled forward, Peggy found herself thinking that she was as unlike as +possible to her preconceived ideas of a farmer's daughter. As for +Rosetta Muriel, she looked Peggy over with the unspoken thought, "Well, +I'd like to know if she calls them city styles." + +Peggy, in a two-year-old gingham, quite unaware that her appearance was +disappointing, cheerfully explained her errand and was invited to walk +in. Mrs. Cole, a stout, motherly woman, readily agreed to supply the +party at the cottage with the necessary provisions, including bread, +twice a week. And having dispatched the business which concerned the +crowd, Peggy broached a little private enterprise of her own. + +"Mrs. Cole, I thought I'd like to try my luck at raising some chickens +this summer. Just in a very small way, of course," she added, reading +doubt in the eyes of the farmer's wife. "If you'll sell me an old hen +and a setting of eggs, that will be enough for the first season." + +"'Tisn't an extry good time, you know," said Mrs. Cole. "Pretty near +July. But, if you'd like to try it, I daresay we've got some hens that +want to set." + +"The old yellow hen's a-settin'," exclaimed the little girl who had +listened with greedy interest to every word of the conversation. Rosetta +Muriel looked wearily out of the window, as if she found herself bored +by the choice of topics. + +"Yes, seems to me I did hear your pa say something about the old yellow +wanting to set, and him trying to break it up." + +"He drove her out of the woodshed three times yesterday," said the +little girl. "And Joe tried to throw water on her, but she flew off +a-squawking and Joe splashed the water over himself." She broke into a +delighted giggle at the recollection of Joe's discomfiture, and Peggy +smiled in sympathy with her evident enjoyment. Peggy's heart was tender +to all children, and this small, communicative creature was so nearly +Dorothy's size as to appeal to her especially. + +"I think you are about the age of my little niece," said Peggy in her +usual friendly fashion. "You must come to play with her some day. You +see, she is the only little girl among a lot of big ones, and she might +get lonely." + +"I'll come along with you this afternoon," said the child readily, +whereat Rosetta Muriel uttered a horrified gasp, and her mother hastily +interposed. + +"Annie Cole! You won't do any such thing. Folks that snap up invitations +like a chicken does a grasshopper, ain't going to be asked out very +often." + +It was arranged that Peggy should carry home a basket of provisions for +the evening meal, and that Joe should come over in the morning with a +larger supply, bringing at the same time the yellow hen who was desirous +of assuming the cares of a family. During the discussion of these +practical matters, Rosetta Muriel had maintained a disdainful silence. +But when Mrs. Cole went to pack a basket, the daughter, for the first +time, took an active part in the conversation. + +"I guess you'll find it pretty dull up here, with no moving picture +shows nor nothing." + +Peggy disclaimed the idea in haste. "Dull! I think it's perfectly +lovely. I couldn't think of missing anything up here, except folks, you +know." + +"Moving pictures ain't any rarity to me," said Rosetta Muriel, trying to +appear sophisticated. "I've seen 'em lots of times. But I get awfully +tired of the country. I've got a friend who clerks in a store in your +town. Maybe you know her. Her name's Cummings, Gladys Cummings." + +Peggy had never met Miss Cummings, and said so. Rosetta Muriel went on +with her description. + +"It's an awful stylish store where she works, Case and Rosenstein's. And +Gladys, she's awfully stylish, too. She looks as if she'd just stepped +out of a fashion plate." And something in her inflection suggested even +to Peggy that from Rosetta Muriel's standpoint, she had failed to live +up to her opportunities. Certainly in a gingham frock two seasons old, +and faded by frequent washings, Peggy did not remotely suggest those +large-eyed ladies of willowy figure, so seldom met with outside the +sheets of fashion periodicals. + +"I'll be glad to call on you some day soon," said Rosetta Muriel +following Peggy to the door. And Peggy, basket in hand, assured her that +she would be welcome, and so made her escape. The air was sweet with +myriad unfamiliar fragrances. Over in the west, the cloudless blue of +the sky was streaked with bands of pink. Peggy reached the road, +guiltless of sidewalks, and winding, according to specifications, and +broke into a little song as she walked along its dusty edge. Such a +beautiful world as it was, and such a beautiful summer as it was going +to be. "If I couldn't sing," exclaimed Peggy, breaking off in the middle +of her refrain, "I believe I should burst." + +Something rustled the grass behind her, and she turned her head. A gaunt +dog, of no particular breed, had been following her stealthily, but at +her movement he stopped short, apparently ready to take to flight at any +indication of hostility on her part. He was by no means a handsome +animal, but his big, yellowish-brown eyes had the look of pathetic +appeal which is the badge of the homeless, whether dogs or men. + +That hunted look, and a little propitiating wag of the tail, which was +not so much a wag as a suggestion of what he might do if encouraged, +went to Peggy's heart. "Poor fellow!" she exclaimed, and the mischief +was done. Instantly the dog had classified her. She was not the +stone-throwing sort of person, who said "get out." He bounded forward +and pressed his head against her so insinuatingly that Peggy found it +impossible not to pat it, then gave a little expressive whimper, and +fell back at her heels. Whenever Peggy looked behind, during the +remainder of her walk, he was following as closely and almost as +silently as a shadow. + +Peggy had the time to get supper preparations well under way before the +other girls made their appearance, pink and drowsy-eyed after their long +naps. Priscilla was the first to come down, and she started at the sight +of the tawny body stretched upon the doorstep. + +"Mercy, Peggy. What's that?" + +"It's a dog, poor thing, and the thinnest beast I ever imagined." + +"I hope you haven't been giving him anything to eat, Peggy." + +The flush in Peggy's cheeks was undoubtedly due to the heat of a blazing +wood-fire. "I guess we won't miss a few dried-up sandwiches," she said +with spirit. + +"Oh, it isn't that. It's only that if you feed him, we'll never get rid +of him. Doesn't he look dirty though, like a regular tramp?" + +The other girls slipped down one by one, and if there were any truth in +the saying that many cooks spoil the broth, Peggy's anticipations for +the supper she had planned, would never have been realized. The meal was +almost ready to be put on the table, when Amy appeared, demanding +anxiously what she should do to help. + +"We really don't need you a mite," Peggy assured, with a laugh. "But I'd +hate to disappoint such industry. Come here and stir this milk gravy so +it won't burn." + +Amy moved to her post of duty without any unbecoming alacrity. + +"I'm not industrious," she retorted. "And I don't want to be. I intend +to work when you girls make me and that's all. This is my vacation and +I'm going to use it recuperating." + +"I really can't see the need myself," Claire whispered to Priscilla, but +Priscilla did not return her smile. Amy's plumpness was a joke which Amy +enjoyed as well as anybody, but Claire's covered whisper seemed to put +another face on it. Priscilla bent over a loaf of bread on the board and +sliced away with an impassive face. + +"And that reminds me," continued Amy cheerfully, "that I feel like +re-naming this cottage for the season. Mrs. Leighton wouldn't care what +we called it." + +"Why, I think Sweet Briar Cottage is a beautiful name," Claire +protested. + +"I think so, too. But it's too dressy to suit my ideas. I'm sure I never +could live up to it. Say, girls, I move we call it Dolittle Cottage." + +And, in spite of Claire's manifest disapproval, the motion was carried. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +GETTING ACQUAINTED + + +The squawking of the yellow hen served as an alarm-clock for the late +sleepers in Dolittle Cottage the next morning. Peggy who was up, but was +loitering over her toilet, in a most un-Peggy-like fashion, scrambled +frantically into her clothes and went flying down-stairs. As she threw +open the kitchen door, a gaunt dog seated on the top step, greeted her +with a courteous waggle, quite as if he were the head of the +establishment and bent on doing the honors. + +"He wouldn't let me come no nearer," said a lanky, grinning individual +who stood at a respectful distance, with a basket on either arm. "Looks +like he'd adopted you." + +"Yes, it does rather look that way," returned Peggy, and bestowed an +appreciative pat on the dog's head. It might have been her imagination, +but she fancied that a few hours of belonging somewhere, had wrought a +marked change in him. If he had been human, she would have said that he +seemed more self-respecting. He neither cringed nor cowered, but +scrutinized Farmer Cole's hired man with an alert gravity, as if +demanding that he show his credentials. + +"Mis' Cole sent you over this here truck," Joe explained, "and she says +she'll have Annie bring the bread, after she's through baking. Where +d'you want this hen?" + +Peggy led the way to the woodshed, improving the opportunity to sound +Joe on the subject of raising chickens. And that unsophisticated youth, +who in the beginning of the interview had seemed as painfully conscious +of his hands and feet, as if these appendages were brand new, and he had +not had time to get accustomed to having them about, lost his +embarrassment in view of her evident teachableness, and fairly swamped +her with information. + +The eighteen eggs for the setting were in a little basket by themselves. +Peggy hung over them breathlessly, and saw in fancy eighteen balls of +yellow down, teetering on toothpick legs. Then her imagination leaped +ahead, and the cream-colored eggs had become eighteen lusty, +pin-feathered fowls, worth forty cents a pound in city markets. Peggy's +heart gave a jubilant flutter. Many a fortune had started, she was sure, +with less than that basket of eggs. + +The work dragged in Dolittle Cottage that morning. It was not that there +was so much to do, but there were so many distractions. Peggy's business +enterprise had been the occasion of much animated comment at the +breakfast table, and when Peggy mixed some corn meal and carried it out +to the woodshed, the girls dropped their various tasks and came flocking +after her. The yellow hen was already on her eggs, and she ruffled her +feathers in a hostile fashion at the approach of her new owner. Peggy +placed her offering conveniently near the nest, raised a warning finger +to the chattering girls, as if there had been a baby asleep in the +soap-box the yellow hen was occupying, and then tiptoed off, with an air +of exaggerated caution. + +"You see, she's very excited and nervous," Peggy explained, in a subdued +voice. "But Joe said she was hungry, and I guess she'll get off the eggs +long enough to eat. Sh! She's coming now!" + +The yellow hen had indeed yielded to the temptation of Peggy's +hasty-pudding. She popped out of the box, gobbled a little of the corn +meal, took one or two hasty swallows of water, and then rushed back to +her maternal duties. The girls broke into irreverent giggles. + +"I shouldn't call her a beauty," Ruth declared, as the yellow hen +settled down on her eggs, spreading out her feathers till she looked as +large as a small turkey. + +"Her legs remind me of feather dusters," Amy remarked pertly. + +"It looks to me as if she were trying to revive the fashion of +pantalets," suggested Priscilla. + +Peggy was forced to join in the general laugh. "Her legs may not be much +to look at, girls," she admitted, "but those feathers are a sign of +Breed." And with this master-stroke she led the way back to the kitchen, +the dog, who had followed them into the woodshed, with every appearance +of being at home, stalking at her heels. + +"Peggy," Priscilla inquired suspiciously, "have you fed that dog again +this morning?" + +"He's a splendid watch-dog," replied Peggy, evading a direct answer. "He +wouldn't let Joe come near the house." + +"I suppose that means you've decided to add a dog to your menagerie." + +"I don't think I've been consulted about it," laughed Peggy. "He took +matters into his own hands,--or, I should say, teeth." + +"Probably you've named him already." + +"Of course. His name is Hobo," answered Peggy on the spur of the moment, +and Priscilla replied with dignity that he looked the part, and returned +to her cooling dish water. + +"It really isn't safe picking up a strange dog that way," Claire +murmured, sympathetically, as she reached for a dish towel. "He might +turn on us at any minute." Priscilla whose criticism had been only half +serious, found the implication annoying, and when, under her stress of +feeling, she set a tumbler down hard, and cracked it, the experience did +not tend to relieve her sense of vexation. + +"Girls," Ruth, who was sweeping the porch, put her head in the door, +"there's a boy here who wants to know if we'd like some fresh fish." + +Various exclamations sounding up-stairs and down, indicated that the +proposition was a welcome one, and Peggy stepped out of the back door to +interview the dealer. A boy in nondescript costume, with a brimless +straw hat on the back of his head, held up a string of fish without +speaking. + +"Yes, I think I'll like them if they're fresh and cheap," said Peggy +firmly, resolved to be business-like. + +It appeared that the fish had been caught that morning and the price +impressed Peggy as extremely reasonable. She was about to conclude the +bargain when Priscilla's echoing whisper summoned her to the screen +door. + +"Peggy, tell him we'll buy fish of him several times a week if he'll +clean them. Fish scales are so messy and awful." + +Peggy thought well of the proposition, and the young fisherman offered +no objection. With a grunt of acquiescence he seated himself on the +steps, pulled out his pocket knife and began operations. Then as Hobo +took his stand where he could view proceedings, the boy turned abruptly +to Peggy. She saw that his brown eyes were keen, and his features +clear-cut. "Why, if he'd only fix up a little," she thought with +surprise, "he'd be quite nice looking." + +"That your dog?" the boy was demanding, and Peggy hesitated, then +laughed as she remembered her conversation with Priscilla. + +"He seems to think so," she acknowledged. "He followed me home last +night, and he doesn't have any intention of going away, as far as +anybody can see." + +"That dog hasn't had a square deal," said the boy with sudden heat. +"Dogs don't have as a rule, but this one's worse off than most. He used +to belong to some folks who lived on the Drierston pike, raised him from +a puppy they had, and he saved one of the kids from drowning, one time. +More fool he, I say." + +Peggy gasped an expostulation. The boy silenced her with a vindictive +gesture of the hand that held the knife. + +"You wait till I tell you. Their house burned down and they moved off +and they just left the dog behind, as if he had been rubbish. That was +more'n a year ago. And ever since he's been sneaking and skulking and +stealing his victuals, and been stoned and driven off with whips, and +shot at till it's a wonder he don't go 'round biting everybody he sees." + +It was evident that Hobo's lot had been a hard one, and that through no +fault of his own. "Poor fellow," Peggy said, resolving to atone, as far +as a few weeks of kindness could, for that dreadful year of +homelessness. "You seem to like animals," she remarked, finding Hobo's +champion oddly interesting. + +The boy cut off the head of a fish with a crunch. "I'd ought to," he +returned grimly. "I've got to like something and I don't like folks." + +"What folks do you mean?" + +"Don't like any folks," the boy persisted, and slashed on savagely. + +Peggy was not prepared to believe in such universal misanthropy on the +part of one so young. She guessed it to be a pose, and resolved that she +would not encourage it by appearing shocked. "I don't think you show +very good taste," she observed calmly, "disliking everybody in a lump +that way. There are as many kinds of people as there are birds or +flowers." + +"You ask any of the folks 'round here about Jerry Morton," the boy +exclaimed. "They'll tell you what a good-for-nothing lazy-bones he is. +They'll say he isn't worth the powder and shot to blow him up with." + +Peggy did some rapid thinking. "Are you Jerry Morton?" + +"You bet I am." His tone was defiant. + +"Oh, I see," said Peggy to herself. "People don't like him, and so he +fancies that he doesn't like people." This explanation which, by the +way, fits more misanthropes than Jerry, resulted in making Peggy sorry +for the boy in spite of the unbecoming sullenness of his face at that +moment. + +"Well, Jerry," she said gently, "if your neighbors think that of you, +I'm sure they are as much mistaken as you are in what you think of +them." She counted out the change into his hand. "This is Thursday, +isn't it? Can you bring us some more fish Saturday?" + +"Yes, I'll bring 'em," said the boy in a more subdued fashion than he +had yet spoken. He dropped his earnings into his pocket uncounted, and +went away without a good-by. Peggy carried the fish indoors, and was +greeted by mocking laughter. + +"You've added one tramp to the establishment," said Priscilla, shaking a +warning finger in her friend's absorbed face; "don't try to annex +another." + +Peggy was too much in earnest to notice the banter. "That poor boy! He +thinks he hates everybody, and I guess the trouble is that he wants to +be liked. I'm going to ask Mrs. Cole or some other nice, motherly person +about him." Then her eyes fell upon the clock and she uttered an +exclamation of dismay. + +"Girls, where does the time go to? I meant to suggest that we go +berrying this morning, but now we've got to wait till after dinner. I +hope there are no naps to be taken this afternoon. I'm going berrying if +I have to go alone." + +"You can count on me, darling," Amy cried, flinging her arms about +Peggy's neck. And Dorothy chimed in bravely, "An' you can count on me, +Aunt Peggy. But--but what are you going to bury?" + +While Peggy was explaining, Claire laid her hand on Priscilla's arm, and +looked tenderly into her eyes. + +"We're going for a walk, you know. You promised last evening." + +Priscilla looked up in surprise. + +"Why, I know I said we'd take a walk. But this will be a walk and a lot +of fun beside." + +"But, don't you see," Claire leaned toward her and spoke rapidly, "it +can't take the place of strolling through the woods just with you alone? +There are so many of us girls that I'm simply hungry to have you to +myself. I've just been living on the thought of it ever since you +promised me last night." + +"Very well," said Priscilla compressing her lips. She resolved to be +very careful what she said to Claire, if any casual remark could be +construed into a binding promise. With dismay she realized that it was +not yet twenty-four hours since their arrival, and already Claire's +demonstrations of affection were becoming irksome. + +If she had cherished the hope that Claire would relent, she was destined +to disappointment. An early dinner was eaten, and the dishes washed with +an alacrity in agreeable contrast to the dilatory methods of the +morning. Then the party divided, Claire and Priscilla going off in the +direction of the woods--Priscilla walking with more than her usual +erectness--while the others took the route to the pastures where the +raspberries grew, Peggy having ascertained their exact location in her +talk with Joe that morning. + +The array of tin pails with the berrying party suggested the probability +that the occupants of Dolittle Cottage would eat nothing but raspberries +for a week. Aunt Abigail and Dorothy had insisted on equipping +themselves with the largest size of pail, though it was noticeable that +when they were once in the pasture, most of the berries they gathered +went into their mouths. And in this they were undoubtedly wise, for a +raspberry fresh from the bushes, warmed by the sun, and fragrant as a +rose, with perhaps a blood-red drop of fairy wine in its delicate cup, +is vastly superior to its subdued, civilized self, served in a glass +dish and smothered in sugar. + +It was not long before Aunt Abigail and Dorothy were taking their ease +under a tree and placidly eating a few berries which had found a +temporary respite at the bottom of their pails. Ruth picked with +painstaking conscientiousness, and Peggy with the enjoyment which +converts industry into an art. As for Amy, she wandered about the +pasture always sure that the next spot was a more promising field of +operations than the nearer. She was some distance from the others when +her search was rewarded by the discovery of a clump of bushes unusually +full. + +"There!" exclaimed Amy triumphantly, as if answering the argument of her +almost empty pail. "I knew I'd find them thicker. Peggy--oh, Peg--" + +Her summons broke off in a startled squeal. There was a rustle on the +other side of the bushes, and Amy took a flying leap which landed her on +her knees with her overturned pail beside her. She screamed again, and a +girl in a gingham dress and sunbonnet of the same material, ran out from +behind the leafy screen. + +"Oh, I'm sorry if I frightened you," she exclaimed. "I hope you're not +hurt." + +Amy scrambled to her feet with a sigh of immense relief. + +"No, indeed, and I shouldn't have been scared only I thought it was a +cow." + +The grave young face set in the depths of the sunbonnet broke into a +smile that quite transformed it. + +"Even if it had been," the girl suggested, "it wouldn't have been so +very dangerous, you know." + +"Maybe not." Amy's tone was dubious. And then as Peggy and Ruth came +hurrying to the spot, she turned to give them an explanation of the +scream which had summoned them in such haste. All four laughed together, +and the girl in the sunbonnet had an odd sense of being well acquainted +with the friendly invaders. + +"I suppose introductions are in order," Amy rattled on, "but, you see, I +don't know your name." + +"I'm Lucy Haines." + +"Well, this is Peggy Raymond, our mistress of ceremonies, and this is +Ruth Wylie, who thinks everything that Peggy does is exactly right, and +I'm the scatterbrain of the lot." + +Lucy Haines looked a little bewildered as she met the girls' smiles, +when Peggy came to the rescue. "A crowd of us are in Mrs. Leighton's +cottage for the summer, and this is our first berrying. Don't you think +I've had good luck?" She tilted her pail to show its contents, and Lucy +Haines admired as in duty bound. + +"Let's see how you've done," suggested Amy, and Lucy brought from the +other side of the raspberry bushes a large-sized milk-pail so heaping +full that the topmost berries looked as if they were contemplating +escape. The girls exclaimed in chorus. + +"You don't mean that you've picked those all yourself," cried Amy, +remembering the scanty harvest she had spilled in her tumble. + +"Your family must be very fond of raspberries," observed Ruth. + +"Raspberry jam, I suppose," said the practical Peggy, but the sunbonnet +negatived the suggestion by a slow shake. + +"No. It's not that. I pick berries for pay. I send them into the city on +the express train every night as long as the season lasts. I want to go +to school," she ended rather abruptly, "and I'm ready to do anything I +can to make a little money." + +"And did you really pick them all to-day?" persisted Amy, eyeing the +milk-pail respectfully. "It would take me a year, at the least +calculation." + +Lucy Haines smiled gravely at the extravagance. "I've been doing it all +my life," she said. "That makes a difference." + +"Then you've lived here always?" + +"Yes, and my mother before me, and her mother, too. When I was a little +girl I used to love to hear grandmother tell how one time she was +picking blackberries in this very pasture, and she heard a sound and +peered around the bush. And there sat a brown bear, eating berries as +fast as he could." + +"I'm glad Dorothy isn't around to hear that story," Peggy cried +laughing; "she'd be sure it was bears whenever anything rustled." But +Amy's face was serious. + +"That's worse than cows!" she exclaimed. "The next time I hear a noise +on the other side of a bush, I shan't even dare to scream." + +Lucy Haines shifted her pail from her left hand to her right. "Well, I +guess I'll call my stint done for to-day. Good-by!" + +"Good-by," the others echoed, and Peggy added, with her friendly smile, +"I suppose we'll see you again some day. I hope so, I'm sure." + +She repeated the wish a little later, as the sunbonnet went out of sight +over the brow of the hill. "Because she seems such a nice sort of girl. +I'm going to like this place, I know. There are such interesting people +in it." + +"Oh, Peggy," Amy cried with a teasing laugh, "you know you'd like any +place, and you find all kinds of people interesting." And then because +the sight of Lucy Haines' full pail had made them somewhat dissatisfied +with the results of their own efforts, they all fell to picking with a +tremendous display of industry. + +Priscilla and Claire were on the porch when the others came home laden +with their spoils. Claire wore a noticeable air of complacency, but +Priscilla looked a little tired and despondent. All through their stroll +Claire had harped on the joy of being by themselves at last, and had +insisted on walking with her arm about Priscilla's waist, which on a +narrow path was inconvenient, to say the least. Priscilla was rather +ashamed to acknowledge even to herself that she found Claire's devotion +wearisome. Of course, Claire was a very sweet girl, but it was so easy +to have a surfeit of sweets. + +"I hope you left a few on the bushes," she said rather resentfully, when +the berry-pickers had recounted their experiences with an enthusiasm +which gave to the expedition through the pasture the glamor of real +adventure, "I'd like the fun of picking some real berries myself." + +"We might go to-morrow," Claire suggested in a careful undertone. +Priscilla's face flushed, and Peggy seeing her look of annoyance, +created a diversion by springing to her feet. + +"Time to get supper. I'm as hungry as a wolf, now that I stop to think +about it. How does cornbread and fried fish strike the crowd?" + +"O Peggy," Priscilla forgot her vexation in the importance of the +announcement to be made, "the frying-pan has been borrowed!" + +"Borrowed!" Peggy stood motionless in her astonishment. "But who--but +why--" + +"It's a woman who lives down the road a way. I suppose she's what you +call a neighbor up here. What did she say her name was, Claire?" + +"Snooks. Mrs. Snooks." + +"Oh, yes. And she was very much interested in everything about us, and +asked all kinds of questions. But she came especially to borrow the +frying-pan. Can you get along without it, Peggy?" + +"Why, if you can't have what you want, you can always make something +else do," returned Peggy, unconsciously formulating one of the axioms in +her philosophy of life. "But a frying-pan seems such a strange thing to +borrow, Priscilla. She must have one of her own, and it's not a thing +one's likely to mislay. However," she added hastily, as if fearful of +seeming to blame the over-generous lender, "we'll get along. Well just +forget that we ever had a frying-pan, and that it was borrowed." + +But, as Peggy was soon to learn, it was not going to be an easy matter +to forget Mrs. Snooks. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY + + +From the very start the big brick fireplace in the living-room had held +an irresistible fascination for the Terrace girls, accustomed as they +were to the unromantic register. And when five days of their outing had +passed and no fire had been kindled on the blackened hearth, Priscilla +thought they were missing golden opportunities, and said so. + +"The last of June isn't the best time in the year for open fires," +suggested Peggy. "But I do think that to-night seems a little cooler. +Perhaps we might have a fire and not swelter." + +"We could roast apples, couldn't we?" Amy cried. "And chestnuts. Only +there aren't any chestnuts." + +"And just a few very wormy apples," added Ruth. "But we can tell +stories, and sit around in a circle, and not have any light in the room, +except the light of the fire." + +The prospect was so alluring that supper was dispatched in haste, and +one or two of the girls went so far as to suggest letting the dishes +wait over till the next day. But as Peggy expressed horror at this +unhousewifely proceeding, and Amy called attention to the fact that +left-over dishes are doubly hard to wash, the motion failed to carry. +Five pairs of busy hands made short work of the necessary task, and when +the dishes were out of the way, and Peggy was conducting Dorothy +up-stairs to bed, the others made a rush to the woodshed and filled +their gingham aprons with pine knots and shavings. + +Dorothy suspecting delights from which she was to be excluded, was +inclined to make slow work of undressing, and relieved the tedium of the +process by frantic demonstrations of affection. "Wish you'd go to bed +with me, Aunt Peggy. 'Cause I love you so awfully." + +"Oh, this isn't bedtime for big girls. They won't be sleepy for a long +while yet." + +"I won't be sleepy for a long while, either. Won't you sit beside my +bed, Aunt Peggy, 'cause I'm 'fraid. If a bear should come--" + +"Oh, Dorothy, don't think so much about bears. Think about the little +angels that watch good children when they are asleep." + +Dorothy fell into a fit of musing. "I wish those little angels would +play with me when I was awake, 'stead of watching me when I was asleep. +Say, Aunt Peggy, which would you rather have, wings or roller-skates?" + +Peggy steered the conversation away from this delicate question to +Dorothy's prayers, which Dorothy galloped through with cheerful +irreverence. On the "Amen" her eyes flashed open. + +"Now, Aunt Peggy, you've got to tack down my eyelids, same as my mamma +does." + +"Why, of course." Peggy patiently kissed the long-lashed lids shut, +stimulated by Dorothy's cheerfully impersonal comments on her +performance, and even drove a few extra "tacks," in quite unnecessary +spots, as, for example, the corners of Dorothy's roguish mouth, and the +dimple showing in the curve of her pink cheek. And by that time even +Dorothy could think of no further excuses for detaining her. + +Down-stairs the preliminary steps to the realization of the romance of a +real wood fire on a real hearth had proved prosaic enough. In the +beginning the fire had frankly sulked, and instead of blazing up +brightly, had emitted clouds of smoke out of all proportion to its size. +Every one was coughing as Peggy came into the room, and handkerchiefs +were busy wiping tears from brimming eyes, so that outwardly the scene +was anything but joyous. But the draught from the open windows finally +stimulated the lazy chimney to greater exertions, and just as Peggy +crossed the threshold, a brave little flame leaped up from the smoking, +smouldering mass, and a cheery crackle made music plainly audible above +the chorus of coughing. + +"Lovely!" cried Peggy, and warmed her hands at the blaze as if it had +been midwinter. "As long as I didn't have any of the trouble of making +the fire, I'll brush up the shavings and things." + +"I'm not sure but you've got the worst end of it," remarked Priscilla, +casting a dismayed glance about her. "How in the world did shavings get +scattered over this room from one end to the other?" + +As no one had anything to offer in explanation, Peggy went to find the +dustpan and was absent for some minutes. By this time the fire was +blazing merrily, and throwing off an amount of heat quite unnecessary +for a mild June evening. Even while the girls were exchanging +congratulations on their success, it was to be noticed that they did not +form a compact circle about the fireplace, but sat in the most remote +corners of the room, and fanned themselves with newspapers. + +"It's the strangest thing," announced Peggy returning, "I can't find the +dustpan high or low." + +Amy jumped. "Didn't she bring it back?" + +"Who? Not Mrs Snooks?" + +"Yes, she came when you'd gone to pay Mrs. Cole, and she said she'd send +her little girl back with it in half an hour or so." + +"It's certainly strange," said Peggy, giving evidences of exasperation, +"that when we've only one of a thing, that's exactly what Mrs. Snooks +wants to borrow. Of course it's nice for neighbors to help one another +out, especially in a place like this where you are so far from a store. +If it was baking-powder, I wouldn't say a word. But a dustpan." + +"It was baking-powder yesterday," suggested Amy. "Sweep the shavings +into a corner, Peg, and let's start on the stories. Now, Aunt Abigail, +here's your chance to shine." + +"Oh, yes, Aunt Abigail," echoed Peggy, for it had early been decided +that Amy should not be allowed a monopoly in the use of that +affectionate title. "We've heard you were the best ever, since the woman +in the Arabian Nights--what was her name--Scheherezade,--and we want to +know if Amy was exaggerating." + +Aunt Abigail smiled complacently. + +"What sort of story do you want?" she asked. "Something pathetic, or a +story of adventure, or a humorous story or a ghost story or--" + +An approving shout interrupted her. "Oh, a ghost story, Aunt Abigail!" + +Priscilla clapped her hands. "Isn't this simply perfect! The firelight +on the wall, and shadows flickering, and then a ghost story to crown +everything. Do make it a creepy one, Aunt Abigail." + +Aunt Abigail hardly needed urging along that line. She had been an +omnivorous reader all her days, and from books, as well as from what she +had picked up on her travels, she had acquired an unsurpassed collection +of weird incidents which she now began to recount with dramatic effect. +The girls sat spellbound, and when, at the conclusion of the first +story, a faint little wail sounded from the distance, the general start +was indicative of tense nerves. + +But it was only Dorothy, awake and standing at the head of the stairs. +"Aunt Peggy!" + +"Go back to bed, darling." + +"But, Aunt Peggy, what d'you s'pose those little angels have done now? +They've bited me right on my fourhead." + +"Oh, my!" Peggy ran up the stairs, to a justly aggrieved Dorothy, +indicating an inflamed lump on her forehead, as a proof of misplaced +confidence. Peggy lit the candle and after some search discovered a +swollen mosquito, perched on the head of Dorothy's bed, ready to resume +operations at the first opportunity. Gluttony had lessened his natural +agility, and at Peggy's avenging hand he paid the penalty of his crime. +Peggy lingered to correct Dorothy's misapprehension, and then went +down-stairs, to find another blood-curdling tale in progress, and the +girls sitting breathless, while the firelight threw fantastic shapes +upon the wall, and the shadows looked startlingly black by contrast. + +Ten o'clock was the sensible bedtime decided on in Dolittle Cottage, but +on this occasion the big clock chimed ten unheeded. Apparently Aunt +Abigail's repertoire was far from being exhausted. She had rung the +changes on all the familiar horrors in a dozen stories, and yet no one +seemed willing to have her stop. It was quarter of eleven when Peggy +remarked reluctantly: "Girls, if we're going to get up any time +to-morrow, we'd better-be going to bed." + +The suggestion was not received with enthusiasm. Priscilla declared that +she wasn't a bit sleepy, and the others all echoed the statement. Then +Aunt Abigail was appealed to, for just one more, and complied without +any pretence of reluctance. Aunt Abigail was enjoying herself hugely, +and it was characteristic of her amiable irresponsibility that it never +occurred to her that there might be undesirable consequences, from thus +stimulating the vivid imaginations of a party of sensitive girls. + +It was very near midnight when at last they filed up-stairs to bed. The +fire was out, after having played its part so efficiently as to render +it necessary to open to its widest extent every door and window in the +cottage. It was a rather silent crowd that climbed the stairs. The girls +went to their respective rooms without any of the laughter and gay +chatter which usually characterized the hour of retiring. Peggy said to +herself that they were all too tired to talk. + +But Amy knew better. While Peggy shared Dorothy's quarters, and +Priscilla and Claire occupied the room next to Aunt Abigail's, Amy and +Ruth were tucked into a snug little box of a bedroom on the opposite +side of the hall. As Amy hastily lighted the candle on the little table +at the side of the bed, she turned a perturbed face on her roommate. + +"Oh, why did I let her do it?" she exclaimed tragically. "Why did I ever +listen? I know I'm not going to sleep a wink to-night." + +"Why, Amy, what nonsense!" Ruth remonstrated, but she was aware that her +heartbeats had quickened. It was one thing to listen to Aunt Abigail's +harrowing recitals, in a room made cheerful by firelight and +companionship, and another to recall the same horrors in comparative +solitude. "You're not foolish enough to believe in things of that sort," +Ruth remarked, with a brave effort to maintain her air of superiority. + +"No, I'm not foolish enough to _believe_ in them," Amy +acknowledged, "but I'm foolish enough so they scare me dreadfully. Oh, +dear! Won't I be glad when it is to-morrow!" + +She repeated the wish a little later, when both girls were in bed, and +Ruth answered her a trifle tartly that it _was_ very nearly +to-morrow, and that she wanted to go to sleep some time before morning, +if Amy didn't. Then for a matter of thirty minutes silence reigned. The +hour was late and the girls were tired. In spite of her gloomy prophecy, +Amy was surprised and pleased to find a delicious drowsiness creeping +over her. + +All at once she sat up in bed. "Ruth," she exclaimed in a frightened +whisper, "what was that?" + +"What was what?" + +"That rustling noise." + +"O, Amy!" Ruth's whispered exclamation conveyed an extraordinary amount +of exasperation for three syllables. And then as Amy remained up-right, +staring intently into the darkness, Ruth was conscious of a curious +pricking of the scalp. For she herself distinctly heard the sound to +which Amy referred, and, truth to tell, it was not unlike the rustling +of the unseen garments which had figured so frequently in the stories to +which they had lately been listening. + +"I can hear it as plain as anything, Amy. Do you suppose it is the +maple-tree back of the window?" + +"Of course it's the maple-tree," Ruth replied in a husky whisper. How +she envied Amy. Amy frankly acknowledged to being a coward, and poor +Ruth wished that she herself did not have a reputation for courage to +sustain. For certainly that sound was not the whisper of the wind in the +boughs of the maple. It was in the room, apparently at the foot of the +bed. + +A long silence followed Ruth's bravely mendacious assurance. Amy lay +down at length and drew the coverlet over her head. The thumping of +Ruth's heart gradually steadied into an ordinary beat. Just as she was +telling herself that Amy's foolish fancies had made her nervous, and she +had imagined the peculiar sound, her heart jumped again. Amy's shivering +body suddenly huddled against hers, gave convincing testimony to the +fact that Ruth's ears were not the only ones to catch something unusual. + +"What do you suppose it is?" choked Amy. + +This time Ruth made no attempt to hold the maple-tree responsible. "I +don't know," she whispered. The sound that vibrated through the room was +such as might be produced if a finger-nail were drawn across the window +screen. The thought entered Ruth's mind, that perhaps some one was +trying to enter the room by the window, and supernatural horrors paled +beside this possibility. + +But this demonstration also was succeeded by a puzzling silence. +Gradually the tense muscles of the two frightened girls relaxed, and +they ventured to exchange perplexed comments on the mysterious +interruptions to the peace of the night. "It certainly was the screen," +declared Amy. "Do you suppose that the wind blowing through it could +make a noise like that?" + +Ruth did not think it likely, but forbore to say so, and after half an +hour of quiet, weariness again asserted itself and she began to feel +agreeably drowsy. Then Amy caught her arm and with the startled pinch, +Ruth's hopes of sleep were indefinitely postponed. + +"There it is again," said Amy, her teeth fairly chattering. "There's +that rustling." + +"Sh!" Ruth whispered back and her hand found Amy's in the dark. This +time the rustling continued. It was a curiously elusive sound, as +difficult to locate as to understand. At one minute it seemed at the +foot of the bed, and again off in the corner of the room, and once Ruth +was almost sure that it was over her head. And that was the time when it +seemed to her that her heart must stop beating. + +"Ruth!" Amy snatched away her hand in her consternation. "Ruth--I'm +going to sneeze!" + +"You mustn't!" protested Ruth panic-stricken. What appalling +consequences were to be apprehended from so rash an act, she herself +could not have told. But she was certain that if Amy sneezed, her own +self-control would give way, and she would scream. "Smother it," she +commanded fiercely. + +Amy grasped the sheet in a heroic effort to obey, but she was too late. +She sneezed, and to poor Ruth's unstrung nerves, the sound was only to +be compared in volume to a peal of thunder. The mysterious rustling +ceased, and just outside the door a board creaked. + +"Girls!" The tentative whisper stole softly through the half-open door. +"Girls, are you awake?" + +"Oh, Peggy!" There was untold relief in that brief welcome. Peggy's +presence brought a sense of reinforcement, even against supernatural +terrors. Noiselessly Peggy crept into the room, and perched on the edge +of the bed. Considering the lateness of the hour, her air was peculiarly +alert. + +"I knew by Amy's sneeze that she was awake, too, and I thought I'd come +in. I never had such a wakeful night in my life." + +"Have you been hearing things, too?" demanded Amy, with an immediate +accession of respect for her own fears if Peggy shared them. + +Peggy hesitated. "Well, it hasn't seemed as quiet as most of the +nights," she replied, evasively. + +"Rustling in all the corners, and the screen twanging, that's what we've +had," exclaimed Ruth in an excited whisper. + +Peggy's silence indicated that such phenomena did not surprise her. "I +suppose," she remarked at length, in her most judicial manner, "that we +all got nervous over those uncanny stories, and so we're ready to +imagine--Oh!" + +Something had swooped by her, almost brushing her cheek, and stirring +her hair with the breeze made by its passing. Peggy's muffled shriek had +two echoes. + +"What is it?" demanded Amy, a hysterical catch in her voice. "Oh, Peggy, +what has happened?" And Peggy's only reply was a stern demand for the +matches. + +The little candle, flaring up at last, showed nothing unusual, unless +three girls wide awake at half-past two in the morning could be included +under that head. Peggy stared incredulously about the empty room, and +then faced her friends. + +"Girls, I don't know what ails us all," said Peggy honestly, "but I'm +pretty sure none of us will go to sleep till daylight. So, if you've no +objection, I'm going to sit here and talk till the sun's up." + +Nobody had any objection. In fact, with the little candle flickering on +the table, and Peggy sitting at the foot of the bed, discussing +commonplace things, Amy and Ruth felt an immediate accession of courage. +Luckily their time of waiting was not long. Daybreak comes early on a +summer morning, and by the time the candle was burned to the socket, the +pale daylight had stolen into the room and all three watchers were +certain that they could go to sleep. + +It seemed to Peggy that she had barely dozed off, before Dorothy awoke +her. Dorothy was standing by the window with one stocking on. When +Dorothy's toilet had progressed to the point of putting on one stocking, +she generally thought of something else more interesting. + +"Oh, Dorothy dear," implored poor Peggy, turning on her pillow, "it +can't be time to get up yet." + +Dorothy crossed the room, and stood beside the bed. "Aunt Peggy," she +inquired gravely, "did you ever see a mousie with an umbrella?" + +"A mouse--with an umbrella!" repeated Peggy stupidly, wondering if she +were too sleepy to understand, or if Dorothy were only talking nonsense. +"Of course not." + +"Well, I did. There's one hanging to our screen." + +Peggy arose with alacrity. Suspended head downward from the screen, was +indeed a mouse-like shape, with the folded wings of a gnome, which +Dorothy had not unnaturally mistaken for an umbrella. Apparently the +little creature had passed an active night, and was now enjoying his +well-earned repose. Peggy took one look and crossed the hall with a +bound. Amy and Ruth were sound asleep, but Peggy was too excited to be +merciful. + +"Girls! Girls! Come quick and see our ghost before it wakes up!" + +The startling summons brought the sleepers to their feet in a twinkling +and when Peggy introduced the explanation of the night's mystery, there +was a good deal of shame-faced laughter. Tacitly the girls agreed that +the joke would be more enjoyable if its circulation were strictly +limited, and even when at the breakfast-table Aunt Abigail remarked that +she never saw such air for producing sound sleep, three heavy-eyed girls +exchanged glances, and kept their own counsel. + +But a little later Dorothy was anxious for enlightenment on a point in +natural history. "Aunt Peggy, what makes you call a mousie a goose?" + +"Why, I didn't, dear. A mouse and a goose aren't the least bit alike." + +"But I heard you say it, Aunt Peggy. When I showed you the mousie, you +ran and said, 'Here's our goose.'" + +As good luck would have it, Ruth and Amy were the only ones to overhear +the remark, and Peggy was not called upon to satisfy more than Dorothy's +curiosity. + +"That funny little thing that looks like a mouse, Dorothy, except for +its horrid black wings, is called a bat. And the goose was only Aunt +Peggy." + +"And Ruth, another," remarked the owner of that name. + +"And I was Number Three. Three gooses instead of three graces," was +Amy's addition, after which the three laughed in the fashion which +Dorothy found so mystifying, and consequently objectionable. + +That was not the last of the story-telling evenings by any means. Aunt +Abigail had abundant opportunity to display her _repertoire_. She +told pathetic stories, which brought the tears to the girls' eyes, and +funny stories, which made them laugh until they cried, and the most +thrilling tales of adventure. But she was never called upon to duplicate +her early success. In the opinion of her entire audience, apparently, +one night of ghost stories was enough for the entire summer. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A SAFE AND SANE FOURTH + + +"The three-legged race is what I'm dying to see," Amy declared. "It +sounds so mysterious, you know, like some new kind of quadruped. No, I +don't mean that," she added hastily, as Peggy laughed. "Quadrupeds have +to have four legs, don't they? Well, anyway, it sounds like something +queer." + +The village celebration of the approaching Fourth of July had for some +days been the chief topic of conversation in Dolittle Cottage. The idea +of a picnic, with the whole community invited, was in itself a startling +innovation to girls who were city-bred, and the entertainment promised +in the shape of various contests, winding up with a baseball game +between the "Fats" and the "Leans" appealed to them all, more or less +strongly. Peggy, with that faculty for picking up information which +would have made her an unqualified success as a newspaper reporter, was +continually announcing new items of interest, that Farmer Cole's Joe was +to pitch for the "Leans," or that Jerry Morton had won the potato race +the previous Fourth, and meant to enter again, or that Rosetta Muriel +disdained the promiscuous appeal of the picnic, but thought she might +bring herself to view the fireworks in the evening. + +The morning of the third was for the most part given up to preparing the +picnic luncheon, and Jerry Morton, who sampled Peggy's doughnuts still +hot from the kettle, carried away a new-born respect for the +accomplishments of that versatile young person. Mrs. Snooks, too, +arriving when the house was fragrant with the mingled odors of blueberry +turnovers, spiced cake and gingersnaps, sniffed appreciatively, and lost +no time in expressing her surprise. + +"Well, I want to know. I've heard tell that city folks most generally +bought their cake and stuff, instead of baking it. Dreadful shiftless +way, I call it. I just dropped in to see if you could let me have half a +pail of lard and a table-spoonful of soda." + +Even the generous Peggy rejoiced that the opportunity to say no had +arrived at last. + +"I've just used up the last of the lard, Mrs. Snooks, and we haven't +thought to get any soda yet." + +"You don't mean to tell me that you've been getting along without +baking-soda," exclaimed Mrs. Snooks with unconcealed disappointment. +"Well, well! Young folks are certainly thoughtless. And here you've used +up all your lard, and to-morrow the Fourth, and the store shut." From +all appearances Mrs. Snooks was having something of a struggle to +control her irritation at such evidences of short-sightedness. It was +clear, however, that her efforts had been crowned with success, when she +announced with an explosive sigh, "Well, if you haven't lard or +baking-soda, I'll take a cup of granulated sugar, and a ball of darning +cotton. Yes, black, I guess, though if you're out of black, 'most any +color will do." + +It was certainly disappointing when after such preparations and +anticipations, the girls were waked on the morning of the Fourth by the +beating of rain on the roof. The most optimistic of weather prophets +could have seen no promise of clearing in the lowering sky. The girls +had roused a little early, in honor of the occasion, and they came +down-stairs with gloomy faces, and over the oatmeal and bacon exchanged +condolences. "To think that the first really rainy day had to be the +Fourth," scolded Priscilla. "And when we had made up our minds to be so +patriotic, too." + +"And that three-legged race," mourned Amy. "Probably I'll never get a +chance to see another. Peggy, I warn you that when you look +so--preposterously cheerful, it makes me feel like throwing something." + +Peggy laughed, and helped herself to toast. "I was only thinking that if +we were going to keep the Fourth of July indoors, we'd have to have a +flag of some sort." + +"You don't mean you'd go three miles in this rain after a flag, Peggy. +And, anyway, the store would be closed for the Fourth." + +"Oh, I didn't mean to buy one. I thought we'd make it." + +"Make a flag!" exclaimed Claire Fendall. "Who ever heard of such a +thing?" + +"Betsy Ross did it," Peggy reminded her. "Let's us hurry through the +dishes and see if we can't do as much." + +Even though the prospect of emulating Betsy Ross was an unsatisfactory +substitute for the anticipated excitements of the day, Peggy's +suggestion was noticeably successful in raising the drooping spirits of +the crowd. The work of the morning was dispatched in haste, and the +girls flocked to the living-room where a fire less ambitious than their +first attempt had been kindled on the hearth. Peggy had produced a +large-sized white towel from her trunk, and she at once began to explain +her plan. + +"This will do for a foundation, girls. It's soft and it will drape +nicely. Now all we need is a blue patch in one corner, and red stripes. +Who's got any red ribbon?" + +"I've got that red ribbon I use for a sash," responded Amy. "But I'd +hate to have it cut." + +"Oh, we won't need to cut it. You see, this flag is going to be draped +over the fireplace, so its shortcomings won't be in evidence, and we'll +turn the ribbon on the side that doesn't show. Bring me all the red +ribbons in the house. Amy's sash won't be enough." + +So with much animated discussion, the flag grew apace. Nobody was +exactly sure whether the outer stripe should be red or white, and for +economical reasons, Peggy decided on the latter. "We'll begin with +white, girls, for that will make seven white stripes and only six red +ones. And we've got plenty of white towel, while red ribbon is a little +scarce." + +Another perplexing question arose when Peggy had sacrificed the dark +blue sailor collar of an old blouse, to form the blue field in the upper +corner of the flag. "Now we can cut white stars out of paper and sew +them on," exclaimed Peggy, standing back to admire her handiwork. "How +many are there, anyway?" + +Nobody was able to answer. Peggy gazed around the circle with a mingling +of indignation and incredulity. + +"What! All of us high school girls and not know how many states there +are in the Union! This is really awful. Aunt Abigail, _you_ must +know." + +"Dear me, child," replied Aunt Abigail serenely, "I have an impression +that there were in the neighborhood of thirty-six at the time of the +Centennial Exposition. And since then I've lost track." + +"I wonder if we could count them up," mused Peggy, wrinkling her +forehead. "Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont--" + +"What's the use?" protested Amy. "Who counts the stars on the flag, +anyway? We'll crowd in forty or fifty, enough to pretty well cover the +blue, and it will look all right." + +Ruth had a suggestion to offer. "As long as this is a sort of Betsy Ross +flag, why not have thirteen stars, just as she had?" + +As this proposal afforded a satisfactory solution to the difficulty, the +thirteen stars were promptly cut from white paper and sewed in place, +and the finished flag was draped above the fireplace. Peggy's +anticipations in regard to its shortcomings had been realized. The red +stripes were not of uniform width, or of the same shade, and the blue +field was a trifle small in proportion to the size of the flag, owing to +the limitations of the original sailor collar. Yet when it was in place, +with the stripes composed of Dorothy's hair-ribbons drawn up +artistically, so that the wrinkles didn't show, the effect was most +impressive. And along with their pride in their success, the girls +experienced that indescribable thrill which is the heart's response to +the challenge of our national emblem. + +"Now, girls," Peggy was looking at the clock, "we've got time for just +one thing more before we start to get dinner. Each one of us must write +a patriotic conundrum, and then we'll put them around at each other's +plates, and we'll have to guess them before we can eat a mouthful." + +The girls groaned in a dismay half real, half assumed. "I don't see how +a conundrum _can_ be patriotic," objected Claire. + +"Oh, if it's about your native land, or George Washington, or the flag, +it'll do," conceded Peggy, and the words were hardly out of her mouth +when Amy made a dart for the writing desk. "Oh, let me have a pencil, +quick," she begged, "before I forget it." + +"You don't mean that you've thought of one already!" Ruth cried, but the +radiant satisfaction on Amy's countenance was answer enough. With an +expression of mingled wonder and envy, Ruth found a pencil and scrap of +paper, and set to work to produce her own conundrum in the allotted half +hour. With the exception of Amy, none of the girls could boast of any +inspiration for the task. Every face wore an expression of stern and +relentless absorption, in striking contrast to Amy's air of carefree +content. + +The ample provision made for a picnic dinner the previous day rendered +the preparation of the midday meal unusually easy, and the girls +gathered at the dinner-table less eager to sample the pressed meat and +potato chips than to examine the folded slips of paper placed under each +plate. Peggy was the first to unfold hers. + +"Why is Peggy like Betsy Ross?" she read aloud. "Oh, Amy Lassell! No +wonder it only took a half minute." Her tone was reproachful, but Amy +beamed upon the company with no decrease of complacency. + +"That's what I call a good conundrum," she declared; "it's patriotic, +and it's easy to guess. The trouble with most conundrums is that nobody +can guess them except the people who make them." + +"That's the case with this one, I think," said Aunt Abigail, +scrutinizing her conundrum through her lorgnette. "What do you make of +this? At the top of the paper are the letters W. P. H. and underneath is +the question 'Why are these letters like the Father of his country?'" + +It was some time before any ray of light was thrown on this dark +mystery. "Whoever made it up will have to explain it," Amy declared for +the tenth time. "It's Peggy, of course, for she hasn't helped in the +guessing. Now, my conundrum--" + +"Wait," cried Priscilla, sitting up suddenly, "I know. First in war--" + +"To be sure _W_ is first in war, and _P_ first in peace. A +little far-fetched, but not bad for a beginner," said Aunt Abigail +patronizingly, while Ruth patted Priscilla's tall head, not without +difficulty, and Amy read aloud. "'What is the most important of the +United States?' New York, I suppose, though of course I like my own +state lots better." + +"No, it's _matrimony_." In her haste to explain, Ruth forgot to +wait for the guesses that might come nearer the mark. "But I can't see +that it's particularly patriotic, though it is about our native land, +and I'm dreadfully afraid it's not so very original." + +"Original enough. Even in Solomon's time there was nothing new under the +sun," Peggy consoled her. "Now, Priscilla." But Priscilla had colored +fiercely on unfolding her paper and crumpled it in her hand. Even if she +had not instantly recognized the handwriting she would have had no +difficulty in ascribing the sentiment to its rightful source. + +"Who is it that I love better than my native land? Can my dearest +Priscilla guess?" + +"Read yours, Claire," Peggy said hastily, interrupting Amy who was about +to protest against the suppression of a single conundrum, and Claire +read obediently, "Why was Martha Washington like the captain of a ship?" +It was Peggy who distinguished herself by suggesting, "Because +Washington was her second mate," and Priscilla, whose flushed cheeks +were rapidly regaining their natural hue, pronounced the answer correct. +"Rather suspicious," Amy declared. "Priscilla guesses Peggy's, and +Peggy, Priscilla's. Looks as if it was all fixed up beforehand. Well, +Ruth, yours is the last." + +The last conundrum proved to be the most puzzling. "What battle of the +Revolution is like a weather-cock?" Various explanations of the +mysterious affinity were offered, and each in turn rejected. Aunt +Abigail, the author, was finally appealed to. + +"Why, dear me!" Aunt Abigail smiled upon the circle of interested faces. +"I haven't the slightest idea, but I was sure that if _any_ battle +of the Revolution was the least bit like a weather-cock, one of you +smart young folks would find it out." + +After this auspicious beginning, the cheeriness of the midday meal was +in pleasing contrast to the gloom of breakfast. Even Amy forgot to mourn +over missing the three-legged race, and Ruth, who, under Graham's +tutelage, had become an ardent devotee of baseball, was reconciled to +her failure to witness the unique contest between the Fats and the +Leans. The morning had passed so rapidly, and so pleasantly on the +whole, that every one was inclined to be hopeful regarding the remainder +of the day, and to wait with tranquillity the further unfoldment of +Peggy's plans. + +When dinner was over, the dining-room in order, and the last shining +dish replaced on the cupboard shelves, expectant eyes turned in Peggy's +direction, as if to ask "What next?" And Peggy, as was her custom, +promptly rose to the occasion. + +"Now for this afternoon--" + +A reverberating rap immediately behind her, caused Peggy to turn with a +start and throw open the door, whereupon the figure on the step entered +without waiting for an invitation. It was Jerry Morton, but a Jerry +startlingly unlike his every-day self. Even the fact that he was +dripping with rain could not obscure the magnificence of his toilet, +including very pointed tan shoes, and a hand-painted necktie. Under his +coat was partially concealed some bulging object which gave him an +appearance singularly unsymmetrical. + +Peggy was the first to recover herself. "Why, good afternoon, Jerry. But +I guess we shan't want any fish to-day." + +"You don't suppose I'd sell fish on the Fourth, do you?" demanded Jerry +with the impressive scorn of a patriot misjudged. "I thought maybe you'd +like--like a little music, seeing it's raining cats and dogs." He had +thrown apart his soaked coat as he spoke, and the bulging object proved +to be a banjo, in a little flannel case, which Jerry hastily removed, +twanging the strings of the instrument in his anxiety to ascertain the +effect of the dampness on their constitution. + +"Music! Why, that's very nice of you, Jerry. Come into the next room and +let me introduce you to Mrs. Tyler." Peggy was a little in doubt as to +the light in which Aunt Abigail would regard this unceremonious call +from the youthful fish-vender. But the shrewd old lady was familiar with +the customs of too many lands, not to be able to accommodate herself to +the democratic simplicity of a country community. She gave Jerry her +hand, insisted that he should take a seat by the fire, where his damp +clothing would gradually dry, and forthwith called for "Dixie." And +hardly was the stirring melody well under way before the girls were +keeping time with toes and fingers, and a general animation was +replacing the temporary frigidity induced by Jerry's advent. Jerry +really played surprisingly well, and on a stormy day such an +accomplishment stands its possessor in good stead. + +But it was not left to Jerry to uphold the reputation of the community +for sociability. The ringing of the front-door bell interrupted "The +Suwannee River," and Peggy, who was nearest the door, jumped up to +answer the summons, while Hobo, a little ahead of her as usual, stood +with his nose to the crack, gravely attentive, as if to satisfy himself +as to the intentions of the new arrival. This time the open door +revealed Rosetta Muriel, struggling to lower a refractory umbrella, with +her hat tipped rakishly over one eye. + +"Why, how do you do?" exclaimed Peggy, attempting to conceal her +surprise under an effusive cordiality. "Come right in." But Rosetta +Muriel was not to be hurried. She closed her umbrella, righted her hat, +and began fumbling in a little beaded bag which dangled from her wrist. +All the heads were turned wonderingly toward the open door before she +produced the object of her search, a gilt-edged card, upon which was +written with many elaborate flourishes, "Miss Rosetta Muriel Cole." + +Peggy gazing upon this work of art, began to realize the importance of +the occasion. Rosetta Muriel was making a call. "Will you walk in?" +Peggy repeated, this time with proper decorum, and the caller entered +and was presented to each of the company in order. + +"Pleased to meet you," said Rosetta Muriel, primly, in acknowledgment of +each introduction, but when Jerry's turn came, both she and Peggy varied +from the usual formula. "Of course you know Jerry Morton," Peggy said, +and Rosetta Muriel admitted the impeachment, with the stiffest of bows. +If not pleased at meeting Jerry, it was evident that she was surprised +to find him in Dolittle Cottage, and apparently quite at home. + +The music ceased temporarily and conversation took its place. Rosetta +Muriel, invited to lay aside her hat, declined with dignity and +commented on the weather. After full justice had been done to that +serviceable theme, Peggy introduced another. + +"We've met such a nice girl several times when we've been picking +berries. I suppose you know her?--Lucy Haines." + +"I know who you mean," replied Rosetta Muriel coldly. "She ain't in +society, you know." + +"Not in--" + +"Not in society," firmly repeated Rosetta Muriel. "She used to come to +my house sometimes, but that was before I came out. After you come out +you've got to be more careful about who you associate with." + +An awestruck silence followed the enunciation of this social law, and +Rosetta Muriel addressed herself to Priscilla, whose aristocratic +bearing seemed to impress her favorably. "Do you know Mrs. Sidney +Dillingham?" + +Priscilla stared at this familiar mention of one of the society leaders +in her own city. "Why, I never met her, if that's what you mean. I know +her by sight. I've seen her at several concerts." + +"I suppose you know she's entertaining Sir Albert Driscoll at her +Newport house this summer. Quite a feather in her cap, ain't it?" + +Priscilla replied with a gasp that she supposed it was, and looked +appealingly at Peggy. Peggy's responsive attempt to bring the +conversation back to normal levels, proved quite unsuccessful. Rosetta +Muriel was determined to impress her new acquaintances with her +knowledge of customs of the Four Hundred, and indeed it was evident that +she had studied the society columns of the New York papers, with an +industry worthy a better cause. Peggy at length grew desperate. + +"As long as it's Fourth of July, wouldn't it be nice to sing some +patriotic songs? You can play 'America,' can't you, Jerry?" + +"Well, I guess," said Jerry, with unfeigned relief, and he struck a +resounding chord. After Rosetta Muriel, and the atmosphere of tawdry +pretense surrounding her, it was a relief to every one to launch into +the splendid words, + + "My country, 'tis of thee." + +Amy, who did not know one tune from another, sang at the top of her +voice. Aunt Abigail hummed the air in a cracked soprano, with traces of +bygone sweetness. Priscilla's silvery notes soared flute-like above the +others, and even Rosetta Muriel joined after a brief hesitation, +probably due to her uncertainty as to whether this was customary in the +best society, on the occasion of a formal call. + +"That went splendidly," declared Peggy, her face aglow, when the last +verse had filled the room with melody. "Now, what about 'The Star +Spangled Banner?' Can you play that, Jerry? It's a lot harder than the +other." + +"You bet it's harder, but I can play it all right." Jerry instantly +proved his boast by striking the introductory chords, winding up with an +ambitious flourish. "Now," he said, with a nod, and the chorus burst out +lustily, Priscilla's voice leading. + + "O, say, can you see by the dawn's early light, + What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming." + +The chorus, strong on the first line, weakened on the second. Priscilla +sang through the third alone, and then came to a full stop. Jerry +drummed a few further chords, and broke off to demand, "What's the +matter?" + +"Why, I've forgotten just how that goes," cried Priscilla. "What is the +next, anyway?" + +After a protracted struggle, in which each girl racked her memory and +contributed such fragments as she could recall, four lines were patched +into comparative completeness. But, beyond this, their allied efforts +could not carry them. For the second time that day, Peggy included +herself in her stern denunciation. + +"It's perfectly appalling. We didn't know how many states there were, we +didn't know about the stripes on the flag, and now we don't know 'The +Star Spangled Banner.' It's a disgrace. Not a single person in this room +knows 'The Star Spangled Banner.'" + +"I do," said Jerry Morton. + +"Oh, all right. You can teach it to the rest of us, then," declared +Peggy, and for the next hour the drilling went forward relentlessly. The +company repeated each verse in chorus till there was no sign of doubt or +hesitation, and then sang it through. When the verses had been mastered +separately, the entire song was rendered with telling effect. Aunt +Abigail clapped her hands. + +"I've often wondered why the English and the Germans were so much better +posted on their national songs than we are. If all patriotic young +Americans took this sensible way of spending a rainy Fourth of July, our +critics would have one less arrow in their quiver." + +The afternoon was well advanced, and Rosetta Muriel rose to make her +farewells, expressing an enjoyment which was perhaps a concession to her +sense of propriety, rather than a perfectly spontaneous expression of +feeling. Rosetta Muriel found the girls of Dolittle Cottage strangely +puzzling. She had prepared herself to meet these city visitors on their +own ground, and instead of holding her own, she had it all her own way. +Apparently she was the only one of the company who could claim with any +show of reason, to be an authority on the doings of the smart set. + +After supper, while the rain still pounded unweariedly on the roof, Aunt +Abigail told the story of a high-spirited young ancestress, who had +lived back in the colonial times, and in the stirring days of '76 had +pitted her wits against one of King George's officers, and won from him +a concession which was perhaps equally a tribute to her beauty and her +brains. It was one of the stories which cannot be re-told too often, +full of the audacious courage of gallant youth, and the listening girls +felt a vicarious pride in the daring of their countrywoman of bygone +days. As for Amy, she straightened herself so as to give the effect of +having grown suddenly taller. + +"_My_ ancestress," she observed with fitting pride. "How many times +my great-grandmother was she, Aunt Abigail? It's no wonder I'm a little +out of the ordinary." + +In spite of a disheartening beginning, it had been a very satisfactory +Fourth. Up-stairs, as the girls made ready for bed, Ruth voiced the +general opinion. "For a safe and sane Fourth, it hasn't been half bad." + +Peggy who had crossed the hall, to combine sociability with the ceremony +of taking down her hair, brushed her refractory locks with energy. + +"I wish they'd never tacked that on to the Fourth of July," she said. +"So many things are safe and sane, darning stockings, for instance. The +Fourth of July ought to be a lot more. It ought to be jolly, and to +teach you something, and make you think. And this Fourth has come pretty +near all three." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PICNIC + + +Though the Fourth of July picnic had failed to materialize, it was +responsible for turning the thoughts of the girls in a new direction. In +the beginning of their stay the cottage porch with its shading vines and +inspiring view, had satisfied them completely, but the magic of the word +"picnic" had awakened a longing to come a little closer to the heart of +things. + +"I'm tired of eating off a table," Amy declared. "I want to sit on the +grass, and pick ants out of my sandwiches, and feel as if I was really +in the country. What's the matter with a picnic?" + +As far as could be gathered, nothing was the matter with this +time-honored festivity, and plans and preparations began. The latter +were on a somewhat less elaborate scale than those undertaken in honor +of the Fourth, partly because Peggy, who easily ranked as chief cook, +had undertaken to find a desirable picnic-ground and secure a suitable +vehicle for transporting the party. The double responsibility proved +engrossing, and the cooking which went on in her absence was less +inspirational in its character, and certainly less successful, than when +Peggy was at the helm. + +As Farmer Cole's carry-all could not accommodate the party, a farm wagon +with three seats, and abundant space for baskets, was put at their +disposal, along with two horses of sedate and chastened mien. But Peggy +looked at them askance. Peggy laid no claim to skill in horsemanship, +and though lack of confidence was not one of her failings, she would +almost as readily have undertaken to manage a team of giraffes, as this +stolid pair, with their ruminative eyes, and drooping heads. + +"I--I don't suppose they're likely to run away, are they?" questioned +Peggy, making a brave effort to speak with nonchalance. + +Joe, to whom the question was addressed, grinned broadly. + +"If you can make 'em run," he replied, "by licking 'em or scaring 'em or +anything else, I'll see you get a medal. Why, Bess here is twenty-three +years old." He struck the animal a resounding smack upon the flank which +demonstration caused Bess to prick one ear reflectively. "Her frisky +days are over," continued Joe, "and Nat ain't much better. A baby in +arms could drive 'em." + +In spite of such encouraging assurances, Peggy did not feel at all +certain of her ability to manage the double team on hilly country roads. +Priscilla's father kept a horse, it was true, but he was a rather +spirited animal, and neither Priscilla nor her mother ever attempted to +drive him. "They'll all insist on my driving," thought Peggy, as she +turned her face toward Dolittle Cottage. "And what if I should drive +into a gully and spill them out? I've half a mind to go back and see if +Mr. Cole can possibly spare Joe." + +But before Peggy had time to retrace her steps, a somewhat familiar +figure came into view at the turn of the road, a girl in a sunbonnet, +with a tin pail in either hand. Peggy hurried forward to greet her, +rejoicing in a possible solution of her problem. + +"Oh, good afternoon. Do you know how to drive?" + +Lucy Haines looked as surprised as if she had been questioned as to her +ability to button her own shoes. "Why, of course," she answered staring. + +"I thought so. Then don't you want to go on a picnic with us to-morrow +and drive the horses? Joe says a baby could manage them, but I don't +feel equal to it, and I'm sure the other girls won't. If you'll come," +added Peggy with sudden inspiration, "we'll have a berry-picking bee, +and all fall to and help you, to make up for your squandering a day on +us." + +"Oh, you wouldn't have to do that," protested Lucy; "I'd love to go if I +could really help you." + +With all her powers of intuition, Peggy was far from guessing what her +impulsive invitation meant to this ambitious girl whose life had been +pathetically bare of pleasure. The girls of Dolittle Cottage would have +been vastly surprised had they known how carefree and opulent they +seemed to Lucy, whose rapt absorption in the task of realizing her +ambition involved the danger that she would forget how to enjoy herself. +Had Peggy's invitation come in any other way, the chances are that Lucy +would have declined it, her sensitive pride rendering her suspicious of +kindnesses uncalled-for, from her point of view. It was quite another +matter when she was asked to do a favor. + +A team and a responsible driver having been secured for the morrow, +Peggy returned to the cottage highly elated over her success, and lent +her aid to the disheartened cooks. When Joe drove the plodding team up +to the cottage on the following morning, the array of baskets on the +porch promised satisfaction for the appetites of double the number +awaiting his coming. Lucy Haines sat in the hammock beside Peggy, her +sunbonnet replaced by a little black hat, which had done service through +the dust of many summers, and originally was better suited for a woman +of fifty than a girl of seventeen. Peggy studying this new friend's +clear-cut profile and fresh coloring, could not help wondering how Lucy +would look in a really girlish costume. She was of the opinion that +under such circumstances she would be actually pretty. + +"Fine morning for your shindig," remarked Joe, who had long before lost +all traces of bashfulness in Peggy's presence. "Don't you get them +horses to speeding, now, so's you'll be arrested for fast driving." He +chuckled gleefully over this thunder-bolt of wit, and bethought himself +to add, "How's your chickens coming on?" + +"Why, it isn't time for them to hatch for ten days yet. The old hen has +broken three of the eggs. Don't you think that is pretty clumsy?" + +"Clumsy, if it ain't worse. You'd better keep an eye on her. Sometimes +they break their eggs a-purpose just to eat 'em." And having opened +Peggy's eyes to the dark perfidy possible to the nature of the yellow +hen, Joe departed whistling, and the gay party climbed aboard. Peggy sat +on the front seat with Lucy, Dorothy snuggling between them, and +reflected on the surprising distance from the seat to the ground, and on +the appalling size of the clumsy hoofs of the farmhorses. She was glad +Lucy was on hand to take up the lines with such a business-like air, and +that the responsibility of driving did not devolve on herself. + +The picnic-grounds Mrs. Cole had especially recommended were several +miles away, though the winding road on either hand gave such charming +glimpses of shady groves, with sunlight filtering through the leaves, +and of a placid river, with silver birches all along its bank, like +nymphs who had come down to the water to drink, that it really seemed as +if almost any place where they cared to stop would be an admirable +picnic-ground. But Lucy appealed to, agreed with Mrs. Cole, that Day's +Woods were worth the drive, and the horses plodded on, now stimulated to +a trot, by Lucy's exertions, but dropping into a walk again as soon as +she relaxed her efforts. + +As the day had all of July's brightness with an exhilarating tang in the +breeze, not always characteristic of this sultry month, nobody was in a +hurry. And, in spite of the deliberate progress of the team, and the +fact that the springs of the wagon left something to be desired, it was +hardly a welcome surprise when Lucy suddenly turned the horses up a +rough bit of road, climbing the hill with such ambitious directness that +several muffled screams sounded from the rear of the wagon, and Dorothy +clutched Peggy's arm, evidently under the impression that she was likely +to go over backward. + +"It's all right," Lucy explained hastily, suppressing a smile at +indications of alarm so unaccountable from her standpoint. "It's a +little steep, but we'll be at the top in a minute." Indeed, Bess and +Nat, laying aside the lassitude which throughout the drive had +momentarily suggested the possibility of their deciding to lie down, +struggled bravely up the slope. + +"Here we are," announced Lucy, as the wagon jolted over a stump still +standing in the road, and turned to the left under a sentinel oak whose +low-growing branches seemed to be reaching for trophies in the shape of +hats or locks of hair. "This is the place at last." As a matter of fact, +Day's Woods needed no voucher. Now that they were on the spot, the girls +were positive that no other place would have satisfied them. + +The wagon had halted on a stretch of partially cleared pasture where the +early summer flowers were much in evidence. Not far away was a splendid +grove, chestnuts mingling with oak and maple, and the trees far enough +apart so that the grass had a chance to flourish at their roots. The +pleasant sound of running water, without which no landscape is complete, +rose from a ravine to the right, its rocky sides feathered with delicate +ferns. With little shrieks of rapture, the girls ran from one point of +beauty to another, while Lucy unharnessed, her efforts supplemented by +willing, though awkward assistance on Peggy's part. + +Contrary to the habit of most picnic parties, which eat on arriving at +their destination, regardless of the hour, the delights of exploration +for a time rendered these picnickers oblivious to the clamorous voice of +appetite. It was Dorothy who first turned the thoughts of the company in +the more practical direction by announcing plaintively, "My stomach is +so hungry that it hurts, Aunt Peggy. I wish I had the teentiest bit of a +sandwidge." + +"Poor dear," cried Peggy, "I believe I'm hungry myself." And then with +surprising unanimity, each picnicker from Aunt Abigail down, declared +herself on the verge of starvation. The big baskets were taken from the +wagon, a red and white checked table-cloth spread upon the grass, and +various appetizing viands set out in order. From one of the springs +which sent a trickling tribute down the sides of the ravine to the brook +below, water was brought for the lemonade. + +Lucy Haines, who had lent deft assistance, had barely seated herself +upon the grass, before she was on her feet again. "The sun's got at poor +old Bess already," she said, as Peggy glanced up inquiringly. "I'll have +to tie her in the shade, or I can't enjoy my luncheon." + +Bess, who was gazing on the landscape with lack-lustre eyes, submitted +to be led into the shade of a big maple, without evidencing any especial +appreciation of Lucy's thoughtfulness. Lucy tied the halter to the snake +fence, and returned to the group on the grass, who were already +justifying their claims regarding their appetite by an indiscriminate +slaughter of sandwiches. + +"After we've eaten--I don't want you to look like a row of Indian famine +sufferers--I'm going to take a picture of the crowd," announced Amy. +"Don't you think it's nice to have little souvenirs of such good times? +Pass the stuffed eggs to Lucy, somebody. She hasn't eaten anything." + +"I've made a pretty good beginning, I think," said Lucy with the grave +smile which made her seem a score of years older than her light-hearted +companions. She helped herself to an egg, and immediately dropped it on +the table-cloth and sprang to her feet. "Oh, dear!" she exclaimed in a +tone of consternation. + +The others rose as hastily. Farmer Cole's Bess was stamping frantically, +and pulling on her halter in a way that bore eloquent testimony to the +stability of Lucy's knots. + +"I've tied her close to a hornets' nest," explained Lucy, her voice +still indicating dismay. "She's stamped about and stirred them up. Well, +there's only one thing to do. She's got to be untied before things are +any worse." + +"Wait!" Peggy had seized her arm. "If you go over there you'll get +stung." + +"But if we leave her alone, she'll plunge around, and as likely as not +she'll be stung to death." + +"I'm going with you. Perhaps I can keep the hornets off while you untie +her. What can I fight them with? Oh, look! This box cover will be just +the thing." + +"I'm going, too," said Priscilla quietly. Claire uttered a stifled +shriek and caught her friend's arm protestingly. Priscilla shook her +off. + +"Don't be silly," she said sharply. "Do let me alone, Claire. Now +where's that other box cover?" She snatched it up and ran in pursuit of +the intrepid pair advancing toward the animated scene under the +maple-tree. + +"I really think we ought to get further away," said Ruth in alarm. "Oh, +hush, Dorothy!" For Dorothy who had felt the contagion of the general +excitement, and whose fears were complicated by a harrowing uncertainty +as to whether a hornet might not be distantly related to a bear, had +burst into noisy weeping. + +The desirability of retreat had presented itself forcefully to the +others. Claire, in spite of her anxiety over Priscilla's fate, was not +averse to getting further away from the scene of the combat, and Aunt +Abigail was already hurrying toward the woods, with an agility which +discredited her claim to having long passed the prescribed three-score +years and ten. + +"Aren't you coming, Amy?" Ruth cried, seizing the weeping Dorothy by the +hand. "What are you waiting for?" She turned her head, and for a moment +stood transfixed, as if astonishment had produced a temporary paralysis. + +"Amy Lassell," she choked, "I--I think you're just heartless." + +Instead of joining in the retreat, or lending aid to the attacking +party, Amy had snatched up her camera, and was bending over the finder +in an absorption which rendered her quite oblivious to Ruth's +denunciation. She was, indeed, excusable for thinking that the scene +under the maple would make a spirited and unusual photograph. Old Bess +was rearing and plunging with a coltish animation quite inconsistent +with the dignity of her twenty-three years. Priscilla and Peggy, armed +with the tin covers of the boxes which had contained the cake and +sandwiches, were striking wildly at the advance guard of the hornet +army. And Lucy, in her efforts to get at the halter, without coming in +contact with Bess's heels or being seriously stung, was dodging about in +a fashion calculated to awaken despair in the breast of a photographer. + +"If only they would stand still a minute," groaned Amy, too absorbed in +her undertaking seriously to consider the consequences of a literal +fulfilment of her wish. But apparently nothing was further from the +thought of those participating in the pantomime than standing still. The +hornets, stirred to activity by Bess's incautious stamping close to +their quarters, were rising like sparks from a bonfire. Bess was making +a spectacular though not altogether successful effort to stand on her +head, while the agility displayed by Peggy and Priscilla would have +gratified their teacher of gymnastics in the high school, had she been +present to witness the performance. + +Before Lucy was able to reach the fence, the hitching strap had given +away under the unusual strain, sending old Bess to her knees. But with +no trace of the stiffness of age, she was up in an instant and galloping +across the pasture, a number of enraged hornets in hot pursuit. At the +crucial moment Amy's finger pressed the button, thus preserving a record +of a fact which needed to be substantiated by even more convincing +evidence than the testimony of eight disinterested witnesses. Now that +it was no longer a question of Bess's safety, the courageous trio who +had gone to her rescue, betook themselves to flight. + +At the edge of the woods they reconnoitred. The hornets had apparently +given up the pursuit and were circling about their endangered castle, +ready to sound the alarm in case of hostile approach. Considering that +they had advanced into the enemy's camp, so to speak, the girls had come +off very well. Lucy had been stung twice, to be sure, and Peggy once, +while Priscilla's right eye was rapidly closing in testimony to the +effectiveness of the dagger thrusts of the vindictive little warriors. +But it might easily have been much worse. + +Claire, who had rushed forward to greet the returning heroines, put her +hands before her eyes at the sight of Priscilla's unsymmetrical +countenance. "You're hurt," she shrieked. "Oh, do you suppose you'll be +blind?" + +"Blind! What nonsense," returned Priscilla brusquely. "The sting is +right over my eyebrow." But the reassuring statement failed to appease +Claire's apprehensions. After inquiring hysterically of each of the +company in turn, as to the probability that Priscilla would lose her +sight, Claire succumbed to tears, and for twenty minutes absorbed the +attention of the picnic party. Priscilla, it must be confessed, stood +somewhat aloof, confining her assistance to remarking at intervals that +something, not defined, was too silly for words. But the others were +more sympathetic and in course of time Claire's sobs became gradually +less violent, and leaning against Peggy's shoulder, she was able to say +faintly that she was sorry to be so foolish and upset everything. + +"Where'd _you_ get stung?" demanded Dorothy, who, now that her +earlier fears were assuaged, was inclined to look upon the excitement as +a pleasing variation on the hackneyed forms of entertainment. Then, +without waiting for an answer, "Aunt Peggy, do you s'pose those hornets +have eated up all that nice gingerbread?" + +"Oh, our luncheon!" Peggy cried. "I'd forgotten that we hadn't more than +started. Let's bring everything up here and finish in peace." + +Leaving Claire to the ministrations of Dorothy and Aunt Abigail, the +others started off to put Peggy's suggestion into execution, Lucy +walking at Peggy's side. "I'm awfully sorry I spoiled your picnic," she +said in a constrained voice. + +"Spoiled the picnic? You?" + +"Yes, it was all my fault, for tying Bess so near that hornets' nest. I +suppose I should have been more careful, but the bushes were thick all +around it, and I never noticed." + +Peggy patted her arm reassuringly. "It wasn't your fault a bit, and the +picnic isn't spoiled. We've time for lots of fun yet, and besides, +little exciting things like this rather add spice. When we go home and +tell about the good times we've had, we'll mention that hornets' nest +one of the first things." + +It was a cheerful view to be taken by a girl with a painful lump on her +arm--still swelling--as Lucy was in a position to appreciate. Yet +Peggy's confidence was comforting, and Lucy helping to remove the +remnants of the picnic feast, to a safe distance from the restless +hornets, was conscious of an appreciable rise in spirits. + +The remainder of the day justified Peggy's optimism. Bess was captured +at the further end of the pasture, where she was grazing placidly amid +the stumps, with nothing in her demeanor to suggest her brief relapse +into youthful agility. The girls picked flowers and ferns, explored the +ravine and made friendly advances to a family of gray squirrels who +chattered angrily at them from the boughs overhead, apparently under the +impression that they were the owners of the wood which these noisy human +creatures were invading. Then they drove home in the golden light of the +sunset, and sang all the way. And Lucy Haines carried into her dreams a +memory of cheery friendliness and wholesome fun which was a novelty in +her staid and often sombre recollections. + +Joe only grinned when Peggy announced herself as a candidate for the +medal he had promised. It was not till a week later, when the print +which chronicled old Bess's display of spirit was exhibited, that he was +convinced. He stood with mouth open, and eyes distended, incredulity +slowly giving way to conviction. + +"Well, it _is_ old Bess, galloping off like a two-year-old. You +must have fired off a cannon at her heels. Think of old Bess, legging it +in that style! That there picture had ought to be framed." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE COTTAGE BESIEGED + + +Peggy was in high spirits. Ever since her first meeting with Lucy Haines +she had been haunted by a growing desire to find some practical way of +showing her sympathy for the hard-working, ambitious girl. With Peggy +the longing to be helpful was like hunger or thirst, a keen craving +whose satisfaction brought a pleasure equally keen. + +On the drive home after the picnic Peggy had questioned Lucy as to the +price she received for her berries, and Lucy's answer had caused her to +open her eyes. "Why, that's queer. We pay twice as much at home." + +"Yes, I know. It's the same way with farmers' stuff. The commission men +get a big part of the profits," Lucy explained. + +"It doesn't seem fair when you have to stand hours in the hot sun +picking, and all they have to do is to set the boxes where folks will +see them, and they sell like hot cakes. Wouldn't it be nice--" Peggy +stopped abruptly, and gave herself up to formulating a delightful, and +as it seemed to her, a perfectly feasible plan, namely that a part of +Lucy's berries at least, should be shipped directly to Friendly Terrace, +and sold at the market price, Lucy to receive the entire proceeds less +the expense of transportation. + +Tired as she was after the exertions and excitement of that eventful +picnic, Peggy could not sleep till she had written a letter to her +mother describing her brilliant scheme in detail. Two days later, the +Rural Free Delivery wagon brought encouraging news. Dick had canvassed +the houses on both sides the Terrace, and nearly every housekeeper had +fallen in with Peggy's plan. Every one seemed pleased at the prospect of +getting berries picked only the day before, and Dick, in spite of his +responsibilities as first baseman for the Junior Giants, readily +undertook to see that the fruit reached its various destinations safely. + +But even now Peggy was not satisfied. "You see, girls," she explained to +the interested circle around the supper-table, "it's just preserving +time, and the Terrace folks will be glad to buy more berries than Lucy +can possibly pick. Let's have a bee and help her out. She took a day off +to drive us to the picnic, and it's only fair that we should take a day +to work for her." + +It was not necessary for Peggy to use her persuasive arts to induce the +others to agree to the plan. Berry-picking as an occupation had lost its +charm for most of them, but berry-picking with the generous purpose +Peggy had suggested, was quite another matter. After they had calculated +Lucy's probable profits for a single day, if she could be sure of five +or six volunteer helpers, enthusiasm ran high. Claire's pensive hope, +voiced with a sigh, that it wouldn't be too blisteringly hot, was passed +over without comment. + +It was decided to carry a picnic luncheon to the berry pasture and have +the hearty meal of the day after their return. Aunt Abigail though +heartily approving the plan, begged off from joining the party. "Dorothy +and I are not quite old enough yet to be of much assistance," she said +with a funny little grimace. "We lack the patience that will come with +years." + +"But, Aunt Abigail," Ruth protested, "you couldn't stay here all by +yourself. You'd be lonely." + +Aunt Abigail's laugh indicated derision. "It'll be a pleasant sensation. +Why, you chatter-boxes keep things in such an uproar that I haven't had +a chance for quiet, connected thought since I landed here. Go along. I +shall be glad to be rid of you." + +The season for the red raspberries was nearly over, but the blackberries +were ripening fast. "My, but I'm glad they're not blueberries," Amy +confided to Peggy. "Think of picking a six-quart pail full of +shoe-buttons, or what amounts to that. Now, blackberries count up." + +The adage that many hands make light work was never better exemplified +than on that July day in the berry pasture. Even Lucy lost a little of +her air of stern resolution and found herself curiously observant of her +surroundings, as if she were regarding them through the unaccustomed +eyes of girls who were city bred. She even joined, though with all the +awkwardness of a novice, in the gay chatter which went on about the +laden bushes. Lucy had always looked on picking berries as a serious +business, like life itself. She was a little astonished to see these +girls turning it into play, leavening it with laughter. Lucy had been +brought up on the saying, 'duty first, pleasure afterward,' though in +her particular case, duty engrossed the day so completely that pleasure +was of a necessity postponed to some indefinite future. It was a new +idea to her that the two might be blended without injury to either. + +Hobo who had insisted on joining the party against Claire's protests, +for she rather boasted of the fact that she was afraid of dogs, divided +his attention equally between Peggy and Dorothy. Peggy he adored, but he +had an air of feeling responsible for Dorothy, and as she scampered +about the pasture, Hobo followed her, not with any pretext of devotion, +but much as a faithful nurse-maid might have done. The girls laughed at +his conscientious air as they laughed at everything Dorothy said. It +seemed to Lucy she had never seen people who found so many things to +laugh about. She wondered how it would seem if gaiety were the habit of +life instead of the rare exception. + +But though the berry-picking went on with none of the relentless haste +which would properly characterize contestants in a Marathon race, though +blackened lips gave convincing testimony that all the berries had not +found their way into the shining pails, though the incessant talk and +almost incessant laughter were suggestive of a flock of blackbirds, and +though luncheon turned into a protracted feast, which left only crumbs +for the ants and squirrels, yet the pails filled up before Lucy's eyes. +And when the declining July sun intimated that he for one had done about +enough for a day, the little group in the berry pasture had reason to be +well satisfied with their efforts. + +"Can't you smell the blackberry jam cooking on Friendly Terrace day +after to-morrow?" demanded Peggy, as she stood beaming over the full +pails. "Haven't we done splendidly?" + +All the others were in a mood equally jubilant. Lucy Haines looked from +one glowing face to another, and felt a queer tightening in the muscles +of her throat. It was not so much their help that touched her. She had +been helping other people all her life, in her grave, conscientious +fashion. But she had always thought of sympathy as a rather sombre +thing, extended when some one died in the family or on like sorrowful +occasions. That day she saw it in a different guise, smiling, radiant, +something for which one could not say thank you, but which warmed one's +heart through and through, nevertheless. She almost forgot to count up +what that berrying-bee would mean to her in dollars and cents, it had +meant so much more in other things. + +It was a noisy, talkative file of girls who having escorted Lucy to her +home, and left the back doorstep covered with berry pails, turned their +faces toward Dolittle Cottage. The day spent in the open air had made +them hungry. Peggy was invited to divulge her intentions concerning +supper and her proposed _menu_ aroused enthusiasm. + +"I wonder if Aunt Abigail has missed us?" remarked Ruth, who hated above +all things to be left alone for five minutes, so that her thoughts had +invested Aunt Abigail's solitude with a pathos which the independent old +lady would have instantly resented. + +Amy took it on herself to answer. "No, indeed. That's the best thing +about Aunt Abigail. She likes people and she's always happy in a crowd, +but she's never lonely when she's by herself. If there's something +around to read she wouldn't mind if she didn't have anybody to speak to +for a week." + +Dolittle Cottage was in sight by now. The girls' eyes scanned the porch +for a lounging figure absorbed in a book or magazine. "She isn't +outside, is she?" remarked Peggy. "I hope she isn't trying to get +supper." + +"I hope so, too," agreed Amy fervently. "I've tried Aunt Abigail's +cooking once or twice." Whether it was due to the hope of arresting Aunt +Abigail's supper preparations, before they had gone too far, or because +of some other undefined anxiety, the line advanced on the double-quick. + +As they drew nearer the cottage, something peculiar in its appearance +gradually became evident. It had a forsaken look, such as it had +presented on the day of their arrival. Peggy was the first to discover +the explanation of the mysterious change. + +"Why, she's got all the shutters closed!" + +Peggy was not mistaken. As a rule, every door and window in the cottage +stood wide open, except during heavy storms. Now its tightly shuttered +windows and closed doors gave it the look of being unoccupied. + +Surprise, and perhaps a vague, unformulated anxiety, had quickened the +lagging feet of the girls, so that when they came up the gravel walk +leading to the door of the cottage, they were almost running. Peggy who +was a little in the lead, was the first to reach the door. She turned +the knob quickly, pushed till she was red in the face, gave the door a +sharp shake and then stood staring blankly. "It's locked!" she +exclaimed. + +"I'll try the back door." Amy started for the rear of the cottage, but +the nimble Priscilla was ahead of her, and when Amy came panting to the +back doorstep, met her with the startling news, "This is locked, too. Do +you suppose she's gone away?" + +"I don't know where she'd go unless it was to borrow something of Mrs. +Snooks," Amy though puzzled was not really anxious, as she was only too +familiar with Aunt Abigail's eccentric possibilities. "We'll knock as +hard as we can," she suggested. "Maybe she lay down to take a nap and +overslept." + +A vigorous tattoo began forthwith on the back door, to be reinforced +presently by the ringing of the front door bell. Had Aunt Abigail been a +rival of the celebrated Seven Sleepers the combined tumult would have +been pretty sure to arouse her. Priscilla and Amy at length desisted, +and returning to the front of the house, met the other girls coming to +the rear. By this time every face was anxious. + +"There's just a chance that the woodshed door is open," said Peggy. +"Though she's locked everything up so carefully that I don't think it's +likely." A moment's investigation showed that this door, too, was firmly +bolted, and Peggy returned to the sober girls grouped under the +dining-room window. "She must have gone somewhere," Peggy said. "Do you +suppose she could have got tired of staying here all day by herself, and +tried to find us in the pasture and lost her way?" + +The suggestion struck a little chill through the listeners. The locked +house, the setting sun, the mystery of Aunt Abigail's disappearance had +all combined to dissipate their previous cheerfulness. In addition to +their anxiety about Aunt Abigail, certain unformulated doubts regarding +their chances for supper and bed, weighed upon their spirits. + +"Look!" cried Amy suddenly. "Look!" and pointed a directing finger +upward. The shutter of one of the bedroom windows was conducting itself +very strangely, now opening a trifle, and then slamming to as if it had +suddenly changed its mind. But presently it opened sufficiently wide to +give the watchers below a glimpse of snowy hair, arranged in a rather +elaborate combination of coils and puffs. + +"Aunt Abigail!" Amy shrieked, "oh, Aunt Abigail!" Her cry was echoed by +the voices of the others, Dorothy's treble sounding clearly above the +rest. The shutter opened again, and an unmistakable Aunt Abigail looked +down. + +"Who's there?" + +"Why, it's us!" Grammatical accuracy ceases to be important when people +are tired and hungry, and, if the truth must be confessed, a little out +of temper. "Do come down, and let us in." + +"Are you sure there's nobody else." + +The girls looked over their shoulders. The gathering dark began to seem +unfriendly. Dorothy hid her face in Peggy's skirts. + +"Why, of course there is nobody else here." It was Amy who gave the +answer, though her statement ended in an interrogative upward note as if +it asked a question. + +"Then come to the front door." Aunt Abigail's head disappeared and the +shutter closed. A minute or two later the front door opened just far +enough to admit one girl at a time, and when a subdued procession had +filed in, it closed sharply, and was locked and bolted without an +instant's delay. + +Every one realized that the situation was serious. "What's happened?" +exclaimed several voices with anxious unanimity, while Peggy hurried to +light the lamp, the dreariness of the shuttered house proving depressing +to the spirits, as well as a practical inconvenience. + +"Girls!" Aunt Abigail spoke with the air of one who realizes the +importance of what she has to tell. "I have had a very singular +experience this afternoon. I am not a timid woman, but I must confess I +feel quite upset." + +"Oh, dear! I felt all the time as though we shouldn't go off and leave +you by yourself," cried Ruth, and the old lady patted her hand as if +grateful for the impulsive outburst. + +"I got along very well the early part of the day. I found some +interesting books in the garret and read till nearly two. Then I made +myself a cup of tea, and after luncheon I thought I would take a nap. +The screened doors were shut and hasped, but the windows were all open. +Any one could have entered without difficulty." + +Even on the memorable evening when she had entertained her listeners +with ghost stories, Aunt Abigail's tones had not been more +blood-curdling. The girls listened with open mouths. + +"I was dreaming that I was captured by pirates, and one of them had put +me in a chest, along with some of their booty, and was nailing down the +lid. When I waked I could still hear the hammering, and for a moment I +didn't know where I was. Then I realized that some one was knocking and +I went to the window, and called, 'Who is it and what do you want?' And +instantly two tramps appeared." + +The girls uttered an exclamation. "If only we'd left you Hobo," Peggy +cried. + +"I'm afraid he wouldn't have been much protection against two such +ruffians. Each one of them carried a heavy stick, and I dare say they +were armed beside. As soon as I saw them, I called for them to go away, +that I had nothing for them, but they were bold enough to stay and argue +the point." + +"What did they say, Aunt Abigail?" + +"Don't ask me. I kept my self-possession perfectly, but at the same time +I was excited, and didn't understand what they were saying. I presume +they were demanding food and money and I kept declaring that I would +give them nothing. At last they gave up and went off in the direction of +Mrs. Snooks, and then I rushed down-stairs and locked everything up just +as you found it." + +It was clear that Aunt Abigail had found her experience trying. She was +pale and seemed very unlike her usual composed self. Conscience stricken +over having left her by herself, the girls petted her and asked +innumerable questions, few of which Aunt Abigail was able to answer. But +she described her unwelcome callers in detail, and Peggy found herself +thinking that they bore more than a superficial resemblance to the +desperadoes of Treasure Island. She could not help wondering if Aunt +Abigail's lively imagination, excited first by her reading, and then by +her vivid dream, had not added some touches to the picture. + +"Well, girls," Peggy said at length, in a tone surprisingly +matter-of-fact considering the circumstances, "I guess supper is the +next thing in order. After we've had something to eat--" + +She stopped abruptly. A loud knocking at the back door echoed through +the cottage. Amy uttered a scream, clapping her hands over her mouth +instantly, to stifle the sound. The others instinctively moved closer to +one another, exchanging frightened glances. Hobo growled softly, the +hair on his neck bristling and giving him a peculiarly savage +appearance. + +The knocking broke off for a moment, and then was resumed. "They've come +back," said Aunt Abigail. + +"Why, perhaps it's only Mrs. Snooks come to borrow something," Peggy was +beginning hopefully, when out at the rear of the cottage somebody +laughed. Whatever the cause of the unseemly merriment, Mrs. Snooks was +not responsible for it. Peggy's sudden anger went to her head. She felt +as if she had forgotten the meaning of fear. "I'm going to tell them," +she exclaimed, "that if they don't go away, I'll set the dog on them." + +She marched out into the kitchen, Hobo following, and as she reached the +door, the knocking began for the third time. "If you don't go away," +shouted Peggy through the keyhole, "my dog--" + +A burst of laughter interrupted her. "Oh, come off, Peggy Raymond," +cried a voice outside. "Open this door quick, if you know what's best +for yourself." + +Peggy's cry of joy was echoed by a rapturous shriek from Ruth, for the +girls had courageously followed Peggy, as she advanced to hold parley +with the besiegers, with an air of resolute determination worthy of Joan +of Arc. Peggy fumbled at locks, bolts and catches, for Aunt Abigail had +neglected no precaution, and the instant the door was opened, Ruth threw +herself into the arms of a tall young fellow who walked in with the air +of thinking that it was high time for him to be accorded the privilege. + +"Oh, Graham, I never was so glad to see anybody! Some tramps scared us +almost to death." + +"Tramps! Oh, nonsense!" returned Graham, with a collegian's instant +readiness to belittle the fears of his feminine relatives. "Come on in, +Jack. It seems to be safe. You know Jack Rynson," he added over his +sister's shoulder to Peggy, who nodded and turned to shake hands with +another young man, who seemed a little uncertain as to his welcome. + +But unmindful of her manners, Ruth was protesting. "It isn't nonsense, +Graham. It's true. Two tramps were here this afternoon, shouting all +kinds of threats at Aunt Abigail." + +"Tramps," repeated Graham, and glanced at his friend. "What sort of +looking chaps were they?" + +"Oh, perfectly villainous. And each one had a great club of some sort +and a bundle on his back." + +Graham broke into a roar of laughter, in which Jack Rynson joined, +though it should be reckoned to the latter's credit that he was making +an evident effort not to seem amused. + +"Talk of the journalistic imagination," shouted Graham. "Why, Jack, you +newspaper fellows could get all sorts of points from these girls. We +were the tramps, Ruth. So much obliged for your kind comments on our +personal appearance." + +Gradually Graham's incredulous listeners were driven to accept his +assurance. The arrival of the two young men when Aunt Abigail's thoughts +were full of the horrors of her dream, had led her to see the +good-looking boys, equipped with packs and walking sticks, in a most +sinister light. The "tramps" were taken into the front room and +introduced, Hobo, who had all of a dog's intuitive suspicion of old +clothes, sniffing disapprovingly at their heels. + +The laugh was against Aunt Abigail as she herself owned. "I would have +taken my oath," she remarked reflectively, "that one of you had only one +eye, and a scar that ran the length of his cheek. It shows that even if +I'm not as young as I was, my imagination is still active. But you had +packs on your backs. What has become of the clubs and packs?" + +Graham explained that they had taken rooms at a farmhouse a little way +down the road, and had left their belongings there. "We're out for a +long tramp," Graham explained. "We mean to make several stops of a few +days each, and we didn't know any better place to begin than right +here." + +"Are you staying with Mrs. Cole?" asked Peggy, and Graham shook his +head. "No, the name wasn't Cole. It was--let's see." + +Jack Rynson helped him out. "Snooks, I believe." + +"That's it, Mrs. Snooks," agreed Graham, and then looked about him +astonished, for the entire company, including Aunt Abigail, was helpless +with laughter. + +"She'll borrow your walking stick for a clothes pole," said Peggy, when +she was able to speak, "and your pack for a footstool. She'll borrow +everything you've got, and then be provoked because you haven't more." + +It is a question whether anybody would have thought of supper if it had +not been for Dorothy, who retired into a corner to weep. Questioned +regarding her tears, she replied that she wanted her mother. "Homesick," +some one said significantly. + +"Hungry!" cried Peggy, with one of her flashes of intuition. "And what +wonder! Just look at the clock! Girls, let's see how quick we can get +something ready." + +The meal though less ambitious than that which Peggy had originally +planned, was satisfying. And it was not till the next day that the girls +learned that the two young men who did such abundant justice to the +bounty of Dolittle Cottage, had eaten another supper at Mrs. Snooks, a +little over an hour earlier. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +HOBO TO THE RESCUE + + +Life at Dolittle Cottage had been anything but uneventful, even before +the arrival of Graham and his friend. But it must be confessed that the +presence of the two young men added appreciably to the agreeable +excitements and diversions of the days. For upwards of twenty-four hours +the girls had maintained the superiority of first arrivals, and then to +their surprise, found the tables turned and that they were being +introduced to spots whose charms they had never discovered, and to +pleasures as yet untried. + +Jerry Morton bringing his fish as usual, looked askance at the two young +fellows, taking their ease in the porch hammocks, and received with +marked ungraciousness Peggy's suggestion that he should act as their +guide to some point where the fishing was good. + +"I never could get on with swells," said Jerry, with his customary +frankness. "Let 'em fish out of your cistern. Them city dudes will catch +as much there as anywhere." + +Peggy restrained her laughter with difficulty. It seemed rather hard +that Graham and Jack, attiring themselves in garments so old as barely +to be presentable should yet be designated by a term of such unbounded +contempt. Privately, Peggy thought Aunt Abigail had come nearer the +mark, and that the boys bore a more striking resemblance to tramps than +to city dudes. + +Wisely she made no effort to defend her friends. "Of course, if you are +too busy," she said indifferently, "we can make some other arrangement. +Perhaps Mr. Cole would spare Joe--" + +"Oh, I'll take 'em," interrupted Jerry, still sulkily, though he looked +a little ashamed of himself. "I'll show 'em where the fish are, and if +they come home with nothing but their tackle, don't blame me." + +But the fishing excursion was more successful than Jerry's gloomy hints +gave ground for anticipating. The boys brought back so many fish that +thrifty Peggy racked her brains to find ways of disposing of them all. +Jerry, for his part, carried home a new idea of "city dudes" and their +ways. These clear-eyed, clean-minded young fellows had not treated him +as an inferior, nor had they committed the offence still less +pardonable, from Jerry's standpoint, of condescending to his level. As +fishermen, too, they had showed no mean skill, and from dislike and +mistrust, Jerry had at length been brought to grudging admiration and +reluctant respect. + +The favorable impression was not all on one side, however. As Graham +cleaned his fish--the girls lightening his labors, by sitting around in +an appreciative circle--he suddenly checked his operations to exclaim: +"Say, do you know, that fellow's a wonder!" + +"Who? Not Jerry Morton?" Ruth's tone was rather scandalized, for Ruth +did not share Peggy's faculty for finding all kinds of people +interesting, and had a not uncommon weakness for good clothes and +conventional manners. + +"Yes, Jerry. Why, he's a walking encyclopedia! He knows everything about +the trees and plants growing around here, except their scientific names. +And it's the same way with birds. He's learned it all first-hand, +instead of out of books, you see. His eyes and his ears too, are as +sharp as an Indian's! Pity that there isn't a better prospect of his +amounting to something." + +Peggy was delighted with the opportunity to discuss Jerry's case with +some one inclined to appreciate the boy's good qualities. "He's got +started wrong," she explained. "He's not really lazy, but he seems lazy +to the people here. They think he's worthless and he resents that, and +so he fancies he hates everybody. You see, he hasn't any father or +mother. He lives with his grandmother and she--" + +"Dear me! How do you pick up so much about that sort of people?" +demanded Claire, suppressing a yawn rather unsuccessfully. Claire found +such topics of conversation far from entertaining, and was perfectly +willing that Peggy should realize this fact. But Peggy herself was too +interested to suspect that Claire was bored. + +"Oh, I asked Mrs. Cole about him," she replied. "Graham, I wish you'd +talk to him if you get a chance, and try to wake up his ambition. It's a +shame for such a bright boy to grow up with the reputation of being a +loafer." + +Graham shook his head. "Guess I wouldn't be much of a success as a home +missionary. You'd better try your hand on him yourself, Peggy." + +"Me? Oh, I do," Peggy answered simply. "But, perhaps he'd think more of +it coming from a boy." And Graham reaching for another fish, reflected +that a girl like Peggy Raymond could not even go away for a summer +vacation without framing innumerable little plots for helping people, +with or without their cooperation. Ruth had told him of the +berrying-bee, and mentioned casually that Peggy was going to give Lucy +Haines lessons in algebra. At the same time she was puzzling her head +over the possibility of turning the good-for-nothing of the community +into a useful citizen. Humility was not Graham's dominant +characteristic, but for the moment the popular young collegian had a +queer and uncomfortable sense of amounting to very little. + +Dorothy rescued him from this unwonted self-depreciation by bursting on +the scene with eyes distended to their widest. "Aunt Peggy, your old +hen's scolding--and scolding." + +"Now, Dorothy, you mustn't go near her nest." + +"I stood 'way off by the door and jus' looked at her an' she talked as +cross as anything." + +"Oh, I wonder--What day is it, anyway?" Peggy disappeared through the +open door of the woodshed, to have her jubilant suspicions instantly +confirmed. The yellow hen was in a mood of extreme agitation, and a +shrill peeping from beneath her ruffled feathers furnished the +explanation of her disquiet. + +Peggy herself was hardly more composed, and her excitement was +contagious. All plans for the remainder of the afternoon were instantly +forgotten till Peggy's chickens should be ushered from their egg-shell +prison-houses into the world of sunshine. Peggy had fortified herself +against this hour by asking advice of Mrs. Cole and Joe, and all the +other experts in the neighborhood, but now she realized the appalling +gulf between theory and practise. The demeanor of the yellow hen +convinced her that everything was going wrong, and she felt pathetically +unequal to doing ever so little toward making it come right. + +Yet, in spite of Peggy's forebodings, one chicken after another was +rescued from beneath the wings of the perturbed foster-mother, and +placed in a carefully prepared basket set behind the kitchen stove. The +girls, eager for a peep at the new arrivals, failed to wax enthusiastic +after their curiosity had been satisfied. Amy voiced the general +disappointment when she said regretfully, "I hadn't an idea they looked +like that to start with. I thought they'd be fluffy and cute, like the +chickens on Easter cards." Peggy, who had herself found the appearance +of the wobbly, shrill-voiced mites a distinct shock, said bravely that +they would undoubtedly be prettier when they were older. + +After six chickens had been placed in the basket, silence reigned in the +nest. The yellow hen settled down on her remaining eggs, emitting, at +intervals, an agitated cluck. Peggy vibrated between the woodshed and +the covered basket behind the stove, like an erratic pendulum. The other +girls, weary at last of waiting for more chickens, trooped to the +living-room, and Graham, who like many young gentlemen of twenty, could +on occasion conduct himself like a boy half that age, sought to create a +diversion by tickling his sister. + +Ruth was agonizingly sensitive to this form of torture. A forefinger +extended with a threatening waggle was sufficient to rob her of every +vestige of self-control, while the play of her brother's fingers over +her ribs reduced her instantly to grovelling submission. To do Graham +justice, he was quite unable to appreciate the fact that this pastime +cost Ruth real suffering. He would have put his hand into the fire +before he would have struck his sister, yet he frequently subjected her +to misery compared to which a blow would have been welcome. + +With a sudden freakish reversion to the prankishness of a growing boy, +Graham pointed his finger at Ruth, who instantly screamed. The girls +looking on, laughed, and there was some excuse for their amusement. The +spectacle of the sensible Ruth, shrinking and shrieking over nothing +more alarming than an agitated forefinger, was ridiculous enough to be +funny. Graham, encouraged by the laughter, took a step toward his sister +who instantly burst into incoherent appeals and protests. + +"Oh, Graham, please, Graham! Oh, dear! Oh! Oh! Oh!" + +Hobo, lying on the porch outside, leaped to his feet. Hobo keenly felt +the responsibility of the family he had adopted. He subjected all new +arrivals to a careful scrutiny which marked him sufficiently as the +guardian of the household. But never before in his three weeks of +domesticity, had the need for his services seemed as urgent as now. + +Barking excitedly, Hobo ran to the nearest window, raised himself on his +hind-legs, his forepaws resting on the outer sill, and looked in. The +scene which met his eyes confirmed his worst suspicions. Ruth, standing +in the middle of the room, cowered and pleaded, while the teasing +brother prolonged the fun by touching her lightly now and then, finding +her writhing protests eminently diverting. + +Outside, Hobo barked his warning. The girls turned to the window and the +laughter broke out afresh. The dog's eyes shone with a bluish light, +like burnished steel. The hair on his neck bristled threateningly. As +Graham looked up, Hobo's upper lip drew back in a menacing fashion, +showing his teeth. + +"That dog would be an ugly customer in a fight," remarked Graham +casually, not averse to teasing a barking dog as well as a screaming +girl. He caught Ruth by the arm as she edged away, and tickled her +again. Ruth's responsive shriek was ear-splitting. + +Hobo's head disappeared from the window. The dog ran back, crouching for +a spring. Unluckily the screen had been removed from that particular +window the previous day, when Peggy had discovered a break through which +the flies were entering, and the window itself had been lowered till the +necessary repairs could be made. Just as Graham was beginning to think +that the fun was losing its zest, a heavy body launched itself against +the glass. + +Hobo was a large dog, and since he had become a member of the family at +Dolittle Cottage the hollows of his gaunt frame had been filling out +rapidly. With such a projectile hurled against a window, the result +could not be in doubt. There was a startling crash. Pieces of glass flew +in all directions, and Hobo, bleeding from several wounds, struggled +through the splintered aperture made by the force of his spring, and +leaped at the young man who had disturbed the peace of the cottage. + +For all Hobo's injuries, there was plenty of fight in him yet, and the +consequences might have been serious if Peggy had not arrived upon the +scene at the critical moment. Her stern command, "Down, Hobo! Down, +sir!" emphasized by stamps of her foot had a magical effect. The poor, +bleeding, bewildered creature, who had stopped at nothing to protect a +member of the household which commanded his fealty, recognized in Peggy +the ultimate authority. The tense muscles, bent for a spring, instantly +relaxed. The lip dropped over the bared teeth. With a whimper the poor +brute crouched at Peggy's feet, and Peggy saw with sickened dismay that +the blood was oozing from gashes in the dog's neck. + +"Graham!" she gasped. "Oh, Graham! He's hurt! He's bleeding dreadfully!" + +Graham's temporary lapse into the sins of his youth was over. He was +again a young college man, and thoroughly ashamed of himself. The +amusement he had found in teasing Ruth suddenly seemed inexplicable, in +view of this tragic culmination. Flushing and awkward, he stood looking +on while Peggy bent over the wounded dog, unable to restrain her tears. +But when she attempted to remove a splinter of glass from the gash for +which it was responsible, Graham uttered a startled protest. + +"I wouldn't try that, Peggy. He's likely to bite you." + +"Oh, he won't bite me," Peggy returned confidently. "He knows I'm his +friend, don't you, poor old fellow?" Hobo, realizing that the loved +voice was addressing him, even though the trend of the question was +beyond his comprehension, gave a feeble flop of his tail, and raised to +Peggy's face eyes full of loyalty and trust. + +The living-room became a hospital forthwith. Those of the girls who were +affected with unpleasant qualms at the sight of blood, fled +precipitately, while the others lent aid to Peggy, who had taken upon +herself the double role of operating surgeon and chief nurse. Several +ugly splinters of glass were removed from the bleeding neck, and the +wounds bathed and bandaged. Graham's usefulness in the operation was +confined to offering advice; for once, when he had extended his hand to +assist Peggy, the light of battle had again kindled in Hobo's eyes, and +a low, rumbling growl had voiced his objections to any ministrations +from so objectionable a source. + +When Peggy's patient was swathed in bandages, till he looked as if he +might be suffering from a severe attack of sore throat, Peggy called him +out into the woodshed, where an inviting bed had been made ready for +him. Hobo stretched himself upon the folded rug with a groan startlingly +human. It was clear that the loss of blood had weakened him, and his +gaze directed to Peggy was full of pathetic questioning and dumb appeal. + +"I believe I'll run over to the Coles, and ask them if there is anything +more we can do," Peggy said, looking as unhappy as she felt. "They know +so much about all kinds of animals. I've taken care of Taffy in his +attacks of distemper, and once he had a dreadful fight with another dog, +and came home all torn. But he didn't bleed like this." + +"I'll walk over with you," said Graham, only too ready to show his +penitence, and Dorothy, who had an innate antipathy to being left +behind, also proffered her services as escort. + +Accordingly the trio set forth, Dorothy declining to follow the path but +circling around the others, like an erratic planet, revolving about twin +suns. Graham, who felt personally responsible for the shadow clouding +Peggy's bright face, lost no time in apologizing. + +"Peggy, it's a shame for me to upset things so. You'll all wish that we +had got discouraged over Mrs. Tyler's reception, and gone on without +stopping." + +"Why, no, Graham," Peggy protested. "Nobody could have dreamed that +anything like this would happen." + +Graham was not in a mood to spare himself. "Perhaps not, but there +wasn't any excuse for teasing poor Ruth almost into hysterics. It's the +kind of fun a red Indian might be expected to enjoy." + +Peggy was so inclined to agree with this diagnosis that she found it +impossible to be as comforting as she would have liked. "I often wonder +how it is that we all think teasing is fun," she said. "Girls are just +as bad as boys. In fact, I think their kind of teasing is even more +cruel sometimes. It's queer, when we stop to think of it, that anybody +can get real satisfaction out of making some one else miserable, or even +uncomfortable." + +"It's beastly," Graham declared with feeling. "I'm going to stop teasing +Ruth, that's sure. It seems so ridiculous to have her scream and wriggle +if I point my finger at her, that I can't realize that it isn't all a +joke. But, I suppose, it is serious enough from her point of view, and +I'm going to quit." + +The walk to Farmer Cole's, enlivened by similar expressions of penitence +and good resolutions, was a very edifying excursion, and Peggy, in her +sympathy for Graham, almost forgot her anxiety concerning Hobo. She was +further relieved when the case was laid before Farmer Cole. + +"Oh, he'll get over it all right," said that authority encouragingly. +"Being a cur dog, that way. Now, if you buy a highbred animal, and pay a +fancy price, it goes under at the least little thing. Never knew it to +fail. But to kill a cur, you've got to blow him up with dynamite." + +"But they _do_ die," objected Peggy, who found it difficult to +accept the farmer's optimistic view, much as she wished to. + +"Old age," said Farmer Cole. "That's all. A few scratches like that +ain't going to hurt a cur. But I paid through my nose for a blooded colt +a few years back, and 'twarn't a week before he cut himself on barbed +wire, and bled to death." + +"It won't do any harm for her to use some of the salve," said Mrs. Cole, +and went to her medicine closet in search of the remedy. Rosetta Muriel +smoothed her hair, with a motion that set her bracelets jingling, and +cast a provocative glance at Graham. Rosetta Muriel admired Graham +extremely. In spite of his shabby clothing, there was about him the +indefinable air which Jerry had recognized and which had led him to +classify the young man as a "city dude." + +"I should have thought that Raymond girl would have put on something +more stylisher," reflected Rosetta Muriel, casting a disapproving glance +at Peggy's gingham. "I haven't seen her in a nice dress yet." Had she +been in Peggy's place, she would have known better how to improve her +opportunities, she felt sure. + +Owing to Hobo's injuries, the event which up to the time of the accident +had seemed to Peggy so tremendously important, had been quite cast in +the shade. She recalled it as Mrs. Cole brought out the salve. "Oh, I +didn't tell you. My chickens have hatched." + +"Turned out pretty well, did they?" asked Mrs. Cole, smiling at Peggy +benevolently. Peggy was an immense favorite with the good woman, a fact +which Rosetta Muriel recognized with irritated wonder. She asked herself +frequently why it was that folks got so crazy over that Raymond girl, +"with no style to speak of." + +"There's only six hatched yet. I've put them in a basket just as you +said. The old hen is on the other eggs." + +"Maybe six will be all," said Mrs. Cole. "That thunder-storm day before +yesterday was pretty rough on eggs 'most ready to hatch." + +Six chickens, instead of eighteen! An air-castle fell with such a crash +that it almost seemed to Peggy as if the little group about her must be +aware of its downfall. Then she took a long breath. "Well, even six, at +forty cents a pound, won't be so bad for a start," said Peggy to +herself. + +Mrs. Cole looked admiringly after the young people as they took their +departure, Dorothy and Annie racing on ahead. "They're what I call a +handsome pair," she exclaimed. + +Rosetta Muriel objected. "He's awful swell, but she ain't a bit. Look at +her gingham dress." + +"Seems to me that her gingham dress is just the thing for running around +in the woods and fields," said Mrs. Cole, who did not often pluck up +courage sufficiently to oppose her own opinions to her daughter's +superior wisdom. "I've seen her fixed up in white of an evening, and +looking like a picture. But, as far as that goes," she concluded +resolutely, "there's so much to her face, just as if her head was +crammed full of bright ideas, and her heart of kind thoughts, that you +get to looking at her, and forget what she's wearing. An' I guess that +young man thinks so, too." + +The closing sentence silenced the retort on Rosetta Muriel's lips. Her +mother had voiced her own suspicions. As a rule, the sophisticated +Rosetta Muriel had very little respect for her mother's opinions, but, +in this case, her views happened to coincide with some inward doubts of +her own. Rosetta Muriel wondered if it were possible, after all, that +sweetness and intelligence written in a girl's face, might count for +more than some other things. + +Farmer Cole's optimism regarding Hobo was justified. For that very +evening as the young folks ranged themselves in a semi-circle for the +flash-light picture, on which Amy had set her heart, Hobo appeared, +looking very interesting in his big collar of bandages, and squeezed +himself into the very front of the circle, with a dog's deep-rooted +aversion to being left out of anything. Poor Hobo! He was inexperienced +in the matter of flash-lights, and that eventful day was to end in still +another shock. For when the powder was touched off and the room was +illumined by the lurid glare, high above the inevitable chorus of +screams and laughter, sounded Hobo's yelp of terrified surprise. He left +the room with his tail between his legs, and never again, while the +summer lasted, could he be induced to face Amy's camera. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +RUTH IN THE ROLE OF HEROINE + + +The boys' stay was almost at an end. There had been a number of "last +days," indeed, and Graham declared that he felt like a popular _prima +donna_ with a farewell tour once a year. "Jack and I hate like the +mischief to go," he acknowledged frankly, "but for all it's so jolly +here, you can't exactly call it a walking tour, and that's what we set +out for. So to-morrow is positively our last appearance." + +They had been sitting around the fire in the front room when Graham made +the announcement, and forthwith it was unanimously decided that the +closing day of the boys' visit must be a red-letter occasion in the +annals of the summer. Enough suggestions were offered to provide a +week's entertainment for people who object to taking their pleasures +strenuously. In addition to outlining plans for the morrow, it had been +tacitly agreed to make the most of the present, and this had resulted in +their sitting up very late and clearing among them several platters of +fudge, which Amy had thoughtfully made ready. It was that fudge which +Ruth recalled about five o'clock the next morning,--recalled with an +aversion which by rapid degrees became loathing. + +"I ought to have known better," thought poor Ruth, failing to find any +especial consolation in the reflection that she herself was responsible +for her present misery. "I didn't eat half as much as Amy, though." She +pressed her hands to her throbbing temples and groaned. "It's Graham's +last day, and I'm going to be sick and spoil everything." + +She entertained herself for some moments by picturing the consternation +with which her announcement would be received. "You'll have to go +without me to-day. I've got such a headache that I can't do a thing." +But, of course, they would not go without her. They would sit on the +porch and discuss regretfully the good times they would have had if +nothing had interfered. + +All at once Ruth came to a magnificent resolve. She would not spoil the +pleasure of Graham's last day. She would not allow the shadow of her +indisposition to cloud the enjoyment of the others. She would bear her +sufferings in silence. The resolution was such a relief that she almost +fancied that the pain in her head was a little easier. She turned her +pillow, pressed her hot cheek to its refreshing coolness, and proceeded +to enjoy contemplating herself in the role of a heroine. + +After two wretched hours in which the only alleviating feature was her +heroic resolve that her suffering should affect no one but herself Ruth +fell asleep. And almost immediately, as she thought with indignation, +she was waked by Peggy, who stood over her, holding fast to her shoulder +and shaking her vigorously at intervals, as she cried: "Oh, you +sleepy-head! Aren't you ever going to get up?" + +"Don't, Peggy!" Ruth's tone did not reflect the cheeriness of Peggy's +greeting. She jerked away with a feeling of aggrieved resentment. To be +shaken awake was something she had not bargained for, in mapping out her +course of action. How her head did ache, to be sure. If Peggy had only +let her sleep a couple of hours longer in all probability she would have +felt much better. + +But Peggy had no intention of letting anybody sleep. "Get up this +minute, both of you," she insisted. "We've got oceans to do to-day, and +everybody must hustle." + +Ruth reluctantly obeying the summons, clutched the bed post to steady +herself. Her head swam. The pain was fiercer, now that she was standing. +It was all very well for Peggy to talk of hustling. Probably if her own +head ached distractingly she would be satisfied with a less strenuous +word. + +"See you later, but not late, if you please." Peggy shot out of the +room, and the door slammed to behind her breezy departure. Ruth started +and shuddered. She had a feeling, which she would have recognized as +unreasonable if she had stopped to analyze it, that she would have +expected more consideration from Peggy. + +But worse was coming. The boys had been invited to breakfast, in order +that the day's festivities might begin as early as possible, and so +ardent had been their response that Peggy found them on the porch when +she came down-stairs. She threw the door open and gazed at them +commiseratingly. "Hungry?" + +"Starved," Graham looked at his watch and sighed. "We've been here a +trifle over two hours." + +"Nothing of the sort, Miss Peggy," exclaimed Jack. "It's hardly half an +hour." + +"Half an hour is bad enough. We all overslept. If you'd like, you may +hurry things by setting the table, while I mix the griddle-cakes." + +Graham smacked his lips. "Maple sirup?" he asked insinuatingly, and at +Peggy's nod, he indulged in frantic demonstrations of delight. Jack +looked at him disapprovingly. "From your actions I should judge you to +be about eight years old." + +"'Tis the griddle-cake doth make children of us all," parodied Graham +recklessly, not at all abashed by his friend's criticism. "Come on, +Jack. I'm going to set the table, and I shall need your housewifely +aid." + +When the girls came flocking down, the table was set, although not +altogether in the conventional fashion, and from the kitchen issued the +odor of frying pan-cakes, agreeable or otherwise, according to one's +mood. Graham sniffed it as ecstatically as if it had been the fragrance +of a rose-garden. Ruth hastily found her way to the open door, and tried +to think of something beside food. + +"Ruth!" It was Peggy's voice sounding from the kitchen. Ruth looked +resolutely ahead, and did not move. There was Amy and Priscilla and +Claire to choose from. If she didn't answer, Peggy would of course +summon another assistant. + +"Ruth!" + +"Don't you hear Peggy calling you, Ruth?" Graham asked peremptorily. And +again Ruth's mood was resentful. How unkind and unfeeling everybody +seemed. The tears started to her eyes as she crossed the room. In the +kitchen Peggy was turning cakes on the smoking griddle, her cheeks +glowing from her exertion over the blazing fire. + +"Here, Ruth. Watch these cakes, will you, while I see to the hash? I +wonder if those boys have got enough dishes on the table to eat out of. +And push back the coffee pot please. The coffee's done, anyway." + +"Is breakfast nearly ready?" Graham put his head through the door. "I +told you I was starving you remember, three-quarters of an hour back. +Now the pangs of hunger are less cruel, but I'm gradually growing +weaker." + +"You're a pathetic figure for a famine sufferer," scoffed Peggy. "Oh, +Ruth, that cake is burning." + +"Upon my word, Ruth," exclaimed Graham, with mock severity, "that's +inexcusable. Burning up a perfectly good pan-cake when your brother is +suffering from hunger." It was of course, in keeping with the nonsense +he had been talking all the morning, but to poor Ruth it seemed as if he +were really finding fault. + +"I'm doing the best I can," she replied rather sharply, and Peggy +noticed the suppressed irritation of her tone and wondered. Then, as +Graham advanced into the kitchen with the intention of helping to carry +in the breakfast, Ruth backed into a corner and screamed. + +"What on earth is the matter now?" Graham knew the answer to his +question, even before he asked it, and was irritated. If it was amusing +to make Ruth scream by pointing his finger in her direction, when he was +in a teasing mood, it was extremely annoying to have her suspect him of +such intentions when his conscience was altogether clear, when indeed, +with Peggy as a witness, he had solemnly renounced all such diversions +forever. "What are you making such a fuss about?" he insisted, as Ruth +did not answer. + +"You were going to tickle me." + +"Nothing of the sort. Oh, say! The rest of those cakes are burning up. +Peggy, you'd better get somebody to help you who will attend to her +business." + +Peggy saved the situation by telling Graham he could take in the hash, +and that there was so much batter that a few scorched cakes would never +be missed. "You carry in the coffee,--will you, Ruth?" said Peggy, and +improved the opportunity to resume her former position by the griddle. +Ruth understood the manoeuvre, and her heart swelled. Evidently Peggy +thought she couldn't do anything right, not even turn a griddle-cake +when it was brown. And Graham was actually cross. She began to think it +did not pay to be heroic in order to spare the feelings of such +inconsiderate people. + +Poor Ruth could not eat. She sipped her coffee and played with her fork, +expecting every moment that some one would notice that her food had not +been touched and inquire the reason. To tell the truth, Ruth had reached +the point where she would not have been averse to such an inquiry, and +the attendant necessity of explanation. It was much pleasanter, she had +decided, to have people know you were feeling sick, and trying to be +brave about it, than to suffer in heroic silence, sustained only by your +own sense of virtue. But, to her surprise and disappointment, no +questions were asked. The gay party surrounding the breakfast-table was +too engrossed with satisfying clamorous appetites, and discussing the +day's program, to notice that one of the number was not eating. This +confirmed Ruth's impression, that it was, after all, a selfish, if not a +heartless world. + +"Now, Peggy," began Priscilla, when the last plate of golden-brown cakes +had failed to melt away after the fashion of their predecessors, "nobody +can eat another thing. As long as you got the breakfast, Ruth and I will +wash the dishes." + +"And Claire and I will make the beds," said Amy, "while Peggy attends to +the menagerie." Amy had always continued the disrespectful custom of +referring to Peggy's poultry yard as the menagerie. + +"It won't take me ten minutes to attend to the chickens and Hobo, too." +Peggy left the table, and went blithely out to the small coop, shaped +like a pyramid, with slats nailed across the front, where the yellow hen +exercised maternal supervision over six chickens. Whether or not the +thunder-storm was responsible, Mrs. Cole's foreboding regarding the +other nine eggs had been justified by the outcome. But to make up for +this disappointment, the six chickens which had hatched had turned out +to be as downy and yellow and generally fascinating as the chickens +favored by the artists who design Easter cards, and this agreeable +surprise had enabled the optimistic Peggy to take an entirely cheerful +view of the situation. + +It was a shock to the others when a wailing cry came to their ears from +the vicinity of the chicken coop. Priscilla, who was just filling her +dish-pan with steaming water, set the kettle down so hastily as narrowly +to escape scalding herself, and ran to the scene of the excitement. The +others followed with the exception of Ruth, who was glad of the +opportunity to drop into a chair and press her hands to her throbbing +temples. + +The cause of Peggy's cry of distress was at once apparent. She stood +beside the coop, a motionless ball of down on her open palm. Below the +yellow hen scratched blithely and clucked to her diminished family. + +"She did it herself," cried the exasperated Peggy. "She deliberately +stood on top of it and crushed the life out of it. When I came out it +was too far gone to peep, and she was looking around as if she wondered +where the noise had come from. But by the time I could make her move, +the poor little thing was dead." + +It was the general verdict that the conduct of the yellow hen was +reprehensible in the extreme. The comments passed upon her would have +been sufficient to make her wince, had she been a hen of any +sensibility. But regardless of the disapproval so openly expressed, she +continued to scratch and summon her brood, with every indication of +being perfectly satisfied with herself. + + "Six little Indians stole honey from a hive, + A busy bee got after one and then there were but five." + +Peggy looked at Graham as if she did not know whether to laugh or be +angry. Being Peggy, she, of course, settled the question in favor of the +first-named alternative, though even as she dimpled, she told Graham +severely that it was nothing to laugh about. + +"As I understand it, the tragedy has only been hastened," said the +teasing Graham. "You designed the chicken for the butcher, didn't you? +And now let's feed this unnatural mother before she gets hungry and eats +up the other five." + +The appetite of the yellow hen was not the least impaired by the family +disaster. She gobbled down her corn meal with a dispatch which argued +indifference to the possibility that there might not be enough left for +her offspring. Then while Peggy and Graham made ready a little grave for +the victim of maternal clumsiness, the others flocked back to the house +discussing the calamity. Reluctantly Ruth resumed her duties, and her +sense of resentment grew rapidly, as she listened to the excited chatter +of her companions. All this fuss about a dead chicken, and not a word of +sympathy for her sufferings. Ruth was rapidly approaching the point of +extreme unreasonableness. + +A long walk was the first of the festivities scheduled for the eventful +last day. The boys had discovered a view that they were very anxious to +have the others see, and even Aunt Abigail, who was not a great success +as a pedestrian, had decided to go along. Ruth was putting on her wide +brimmed shade hat, when a wave of faintness swept over her, and for a +minute everything turned black. Then she recovered herself, and saw a +white face with unnaturally large eyes staring back at her from the +mirror. + +"I--I don't believe I'll go," said Ruth in an uncertain voice, in which +there was no suggestion of heroism. + +"Go?" Amy was down on her hands and knees, looking for a pin in the +cracks of the floor. "Of course you'll go. Don't be grumpy." + +Grumpy! And after she had endured so much to avoid casting a shadow over +the spirits of the party. Ruth frowned on her, but in silence. It seemed +to her that she had never before realized the amount of selfishness in +the world. Nobody cared what she suffered. Her dearest friends, her own +brother were prodigies of inconsiderateness. With an effort she kept +back the burning tears of self pity, and tottered down the stairs, +prepared to endure the martyrdom of a long walk under the July sun. + +"Ruth," called Peggy from the pantry, "just help me with these +sandwiches, will you?" They were coming home for the midday meal, but +Peggy had determined to carry along a few sandwiches, as country-grown +appetites seemed independent of the limitations of those appetites with +which she was best acquainted. + +Ruth rose to obey. But her indisposition was becoming more than a match +for her will. She was half way across the room, when she halted, swayed, +and crumpled up in a little helpless heap. Graham was too late to save +her from falling, but he had her in his arms almost as soon as she +touched the floor, and carried her to the couch, turning pale himself at +the sight of her colorless face. + +From all directions the girls came running. As usual, Peggy took +command. + +"She's fainted, Graham, that's all. Bring some water. We must get the +sofa cushions out from under her head. Bring that palm-leaf fan, Amy. +There, she's coming to already." + +The eyelids of the forlorn heroine had indeed fluttered encouragingly. A +moment later Ruth opened her eyes. As her languid gaze travelled around +the circle of faces, she saw consternation written on each one. Peggy +patted her hand tenderly. + +"Don't try to speak, darling. You fainted, that's all." + +"Could you drink a little water, dearie," coaxed Priscilla, bending over +her, glass in hand. + +"Here, let me lift her." Graham rushed forward, thankful for the +opportunity to do something, as he found the sense of helplessness +characteristic of his sex in all such crises extremely galling. + +Ruth felt it incumbent on herself to relieve the general anxiety. "It's +only one of my headaches," she explained faintly. "I ought to have given +up to it. But I hated to spoil Graham's last day." + +There was a little chorus of mingled disapproval and admiration. "You +dear plucky thing!" cried Peggy. "And here I've been ordering you around +all the morning. Those pan-cakes must have been torture." + +"As if Jack and I wouldn't have waited over another day!" exclaimed +Graham in a tone of disgust. "We'd rather have waited a week, than have +you put yourself through like this," He smoothed her ruffled hair with +awkward tenderness, and Amy, carried away by her emotions, fanned so +vehemently that she tapped the patient on the nose, and was sharply +reprimanded. + +The tears Ruth had been holding back all the morning could no longer be +restrained. They overran her trembling lids, and streamed down her +cheeks. The little murmurs of soothing sympathy were redoubled, though +Graham walked off quickly to the window and stood looking out with a +stern, fixed gaze, as if the landscape had suddenly become of absorbing +interest. But Ruth's tears were not wrung from her by suffering. They +were tears of penitence and honest shame. How dear and kind every one +was! How cruelly she had misjudged the world when she had called it +inconsiderate. And the course of conduct which in the morning had seemed +to her admirable and heroic, suddenly appeared foolish in the extreme. +The faint tinge of color showing in her white cheeks was not an +indication of returning strength so much as of mortification. + +The departure of Jack and Graham was immediately put off till Ruth +should be well enough to take part in the fun which was to serve as a +climax to the visit. For the remainder of the day, Ruth found herself +the centre of attraction in Dolittle Cottage. She lay at ease on the +couch, with wet compresses on her forehead. The shutters were closed to +keep out the sunshine. Every one walked on tiptoe, and spoke in subdued +accents. Even the fly-away Dorothy sought the invalid at frequent +intervals to murmur, "Poor Rufie! Poor Rufie," and to pat Ruth's arm +with a sympathetic little hand. Now that it had gained its point, the +headache decreased in severity, but had the pain been far more violent, +Ruth would have minded it less than sundry pangs of conscience which +would not allow her to forget that she really was undeserving of all +this tender consideration. + +By the end of the afternoon she was able to sit up and to share in the +general excitement which welcomed Amy on her return from the village. +Several days before, Amy had carried down a roll of films to be +developed at the local photographer's, and was now bringing back a neat +little package of prints. "Oh, the flash-light picture is here, isn't +it?" exclaimed Ruth, to whose chair the package had been brought +immediately, while the others stood around awaiting their turn. "I want +to see that first." + +Amy looked a trifle discomfited. + +"Yes, it's here," she replied. "But the photographer said if I wanted to +be a success I'd have to learn to flatter people more. He said that he +learned that long ago." + +The flash-light picture was certainly far from flattering. The brilliant +light had caused every pair of eyes to roll heavenward, till only the +whites were visible, so that the group looked not unlike a company of +inmates of a blind asylum, posing for a photograph. But the missing eyes +were not the only startling features of this remarkable picture. Several +mouths were open to their widest extent, and except for the face of Jack +Rynson, who was a young man with an unusual capacity for self-control, +every countenance was convulsed by an agitation whose exciting cause was +left to the imagination of the beholder. + +Ruth laughed over the flash-light picture till she cried, and declared +that it had almost cured her headache. When Graham helped her up the +stairs that night, she startled him by leaning up against him to laugh +again. "I was thinking of Claire's picture in the flash-light," she +explained, as her brother looked down at her anxiously. "Poor Claire! +I'm afraid she felt more like crying than laughing." + +"'Tisn't every girl that's as plucky as my little sister," said Graham, +tightening his clasp about her. Ruth's laughter ended abruptly. "Oh, +don't, Graham," she pleaded, as if distressed by his praise. "If you +only knew--" And there she stopped. It was quite enough for Ruth Wylie +to know the true inwardness of that day; a day, Ruth was certain, that +would never, never be duplicated in her experience. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +MRS. SNOOKS' EDUCATION + + +For the next few days Ruth continued to be the centre of the life of the +cottage. All the fun was planned with due regard to her lack of +strength. At almost every meal some little extra delicacy appeared +beside her plate. Whatever impatience Graham and Jack may have felt over +the further postponement of their tramp, they concealed the feeling with +remarkable tact. There was little danger however, that the unusual +attentions showered on Ruth would turn her head, as she had a +counter-irritant in the shape of a firm conviction that she did not +deserve any of this spontaneous kindness. + +It was a day or two after her unsuccessful attempt to enact the role of +heroine that Graham arrived at the cottage at an early hour and in a +noticeable state of indignation. In spite of Ruth's protests that she +was quite well enough to assist in the work of the morning, the girls +had unanimously scoffed at the suggestion, and had forcibly seated her +in one of the porch rockers and thrust a late magazine in her hands. But +by the time Graham arrived, the magazine had slipped to the floor and +Ruth sitting with folded hands, was able to give her brother her +undivided attention. + +"It's the most extraordinary thing," Graham sat down on the steps at +Ruth's feet, and fanned his flushed face with his hat. "Have you missed +anything that belongs to you, lately?" + +"Why, no! Have you found anything?" + +"That's what I'm going to tell you. To start at the beginning, the first +night Jack and I slept at Mrs. Snooks', we weren't warm enough. There +weren't many covers on the bed, and in this hilly country the nights are +cool, even when the days are pretty warm. So, in the morning, I spoke to +Mrs. Snooks, and said we'd like some extra bedding, and she promised to +attend to it." + +Ruth's face had crinkled suddenly into a smile of comprehension, which +Graham was too absorbed to notice. + +"Well, that night a steamer rug appeared on the bed. It wasn't exactly a +success. You know a steamer rug's too narrow to cover two people +properly. If it was over Jack, I was left out in the cold, and _vice +versa_. We had to take turns shivering. After one of us got to the +point where his teeth chattered, he'd snatch the rug off the other +fellow and warm up. But it wasn't till this morning that I took any +particular notice of that rug. And Ruth, it belongs to us!" + +Graham looked at his sister with an air of expecting her to be greatly +surprised. Translating her smile into an expression of incredulity, he +began to prove his assertion. + +"Yes, I know it sounds absurd, but I'm not mistaken, Ruth. I suppose two +rugs might be of the same pattern, but it's hardly likely they would +have the identical ink-spots. Don't you remember how I spilled the ink +on that rug when I was getting over the measles? And down in the corner +is part of a tag Uncle John had sewed on, when he borrowed it for his +trip abroad. The 'Wylie' is torn off but 'John G.' is left. And now the +question is--" + +Ruth's laughter could no longer be restrained. "Oh, Graham, she borrowed +it." + +"Borrowed it!" repeated the amazed Graham. "Well, I like that." + +"She rushed down here the morning after you came and said she had an +extra bed to make, and would we lend her a little bedding. Of course we +didn't have any bedding to spare. We'd only brought enough for ourselves +and hardly that, for it's cooler here than we expected. But the steamer +rug was lying around and we thought we could let her take that." + +"But she must have bedding of her own," insisted Graham. "What does she +do in the winter time?" + +"That's the funny thing about Mrs. Snooks. She borrows dust-pans, and +flat-irons and all sorts of necessary things and you feel sure that she +hasn't been doing without them all her life. And the queerest part of +all is that she acts so aggrieved if we refuse. If we tell her that +we're out of sugar, she seems as indignant as if we kept a store, and it +was our business to have sugar for everybody." + +Peggy came out on the porch at that moment, and listened with interest, +not unmixed with indignation, to Graham's account of his discovery. +"Sometimes I think the trouble with that woman is that she's formed an +appetite for borrowing, just like an appetite for drugs, you know." +Peggy laughed as she added, "Perhaps I ought not to say a great deal +just now, as long as I'm going borrowing myself. I've just discovered +that we haven't any ginger in the house, and I've set my heart on +gingerbread for dinner." + +"Why don't you borrow it of Mrs. Snooks?" cried Ruth. "It's time we were +getting a little return for what we've lent her." + +Peggy hesitated. "I don't know why I shouldn't," she acknowledged +frankly. "If it isn't very convenient for her to lend it, perhaps she'll +realize that her borrowing may inconvenience other people sometimes." + +It was while Peggy was absent on this errand that the plot was formed. +Gradually the group on the piazza had increased till only Peggy and +Dorothy were missing. Not unnaturally the conversation concerned itself +with Mrs. Snooks' peculiarities, and the undeniable disadvantages of +having her for a neighbor. Graham's story of the steamer rug was matched +by equally harrowing tales of useful articles borrowed with the promise +of an immediate return, and missed when wanted most. + +"Peggy imagines that she's going to teach Mrs. Snooks a lesson by +borrowing a little ginger of her," Ruth said with a shake of her head. +"It's my opinion it'll take a good deal more than that to teach Mrs. +Snooks anything." + +A sudden mischievous light illumined Amy's eyes. "Let's give her a real +lesson," she cried. "Let's show her how it seems to have your neighbors +always borrowing things. Peggy's gone after a little ginger, you say?" + +"Yes," nodded Ruth fascinated by the possibilities she saw unfolding in +Amy's plan. + +"Well, when Peggy gets home, I'll go down and do some borrowing. And it +won't be anything like ginger, you understand. I'll pick out some real +useful article, that she'll miss every minute. That's the way she does. +And when I get back, Priscilla will take her turn." + +Had Peggy been present it is doubtful whether the project would have +been received with such unanimous enthusiasm. Peggy's softness of heart +interfered sadly, at times, with her theories of discipline. But in her +absence the conspiracy against Mrs. Snooks' peace of mind was discussed +and elaborated without a dissenting voice. Even Aunt Abigail tacitly +approved, and Jack Rynson, who, it appeared, had been solicited to lend +a handkerchief and a black necktie, that Mr. Snooks might be properly +attired for attending a funeral in the village, gave the schemers the +benefit of several valuable suggestions. + +Peggy made her appearance dimpling with amusement, and was greeted with +a shout of interrogation. "Did you get it?" cried half a dozen voices in +chorus. + +"Yes, I got it, but you never saw anybody so surprised and unwilling. +She hinted and fussed, and dropped hints that she'd been thinking of +making gingerbread for supper herself. It really made me uncomfortable +to take it, but I felt it was time that she had a lesson." + +"High time!" agreed Amy with a droll glance at her fellow-conspirators. +The unsuspecting Peggy looked about with mild surprise on the laughing +group. "Well, we're sure of our gingerbread, anyway," she said and +passed into the house. Amy was instantly on her feet. + +"Oh, Amy," exclaimed Ruth, half admiringly, and half in remonstrance, +"do you really dare?" + +"Dare? Why, I don't need any great amount of courage. I'm only Number +Two. It's Number Five or Number Six who'll have to be brave." Amy went +gaily down the path, and Peggy as she stirred the soda into the +molasses, wondered at the laughter on the front porch and reflected that +the crowd was in unusually jolly spirits. + +About the time that the gingerbread was beginning to diffuse its savory +odors through the house, Amy returned. A glance at her triumphant face +furnished sufficient proof that her undertaking had been successful, +even without the silent testimony of a large object concealed by a +napkin, and carried with ostentatious care. "Oh, Amy, what have you +there?" cried Priscilla, finding some difficulty in making her voice +heard above the chorus of exclamations and laughter. + +"An apple-pie." Amy's tone indicated immense satisfaction with herself. + +"Amy, not really? You couldn't!" Ruth protested, choking with laughter. + +"Seeing's believing, isn't it?" Amy whisked off the napkin, and revealed +the pie still steaming. When order was sufficiently restored, she told +her story. + +"I hadn't exactly made up my mind what I'd ask for, but the minute I was +inside the kitchen, I saw the pie set in the window to cool and I +decided on that. Poor Mrs. Snooks couldn't believe her ears. She asked +me over twice, and then she said she'd never heard of anybody's +borrowing a pie. And I said that we happened to be out of pies, and were +going to have company to dinner. You and Jack will have to stay," she +added to Graham, who accepted with as profound a bow as if he had not +been counting confidently on the invitation. + +"Did she act very cross?" questioned Priscilla, who was beginning to +wonder if Mrs. Snooks' education had not progressed sufficiently for +that day, without any further assistance. + +"Oh, not particularly. She looked rather sad, and you couldn't call her +manner obliging, but it isn't likely that she'd say very much, +considering that she's borrowed something from us once a day on an +average, ever since we came." + +"I wish you'd let me take my turn next," said Claire a little nervously. +"I don't want to wait till she gets to the exploding point, and then be +the one to be blown up." + +"Oh, go ahead, I don't mind." As a matter of fact, Priscilla shared +Claire's qualms, but would not for the world have admitted as much. Ruth +watched Claire moving down the path, reluctance apparent in every step, +and declared that it didn't seem fair. "You girls are bearding the +lioness in her den and I'm having all the fun without doing a thing. +Aunt Abigail and I are the lucky ones." + +"Bless you, child, I'm going to take my turn," said the old lady, with a +twinkle in her eye which indicated that her requisition on the +generosity of Mrs. Snooks would mark a distinct advance in the education +of that lady. "I'm going when Priscilla gets back." + +But, as it happened, Aunt Abigail was not called on to redeem her boast. +Claire returned with a small package of salt, folded up in brown paper, +her courage having failed her when it came to the point of requesting +the loan of a more useful article. Priscilla, having joined in the +scoffing called out by this evidence of faint-heartedness, was on her +guard against a similar display of timidity. + +Mrs. Snooks was ironing as Priscilla appeared in the doorway, and the +flush that stained her sallow cheeks was not altogether due to the +proximity of a glowing stove. + +"Mrs. Snooks," Priscilla began, finding the ordeal rather more trying +than she had expected, "I've come to see if you'll lend us your +coffee-pot till to-morrow." + +Mrs. Snooks tested her flat-iron with a damp forefinger, and then +resumed her work. Her answer was so long coming that Priscilla began to +wonder if she were not intending to reply. + +"There's been a good deal of borrowing 'round in this neighborhood first +and last," Mrs. Snooks remarked at length, with impressive dignity. "And +lately I've been laying in a considerable stock of new things, including +a coffee-pot. I've made up my mind that I'll neither borrow nor lend. +While I don't like to seem unneighborly," concluded Mrs. Snooks, setting +down her flat-iron with a startling thud, "it's a matter of principle. +I've done the last lending or borrowing that I'm a-going to." + +It was apparent that Amy's ruse had worked, and that Mrs. Snooks had +learned her lesson, but it needed the girls' united efforts to dissuade +Aunt Abigail from following up Priscilla's visit, by a call of her own. +Aunt Abigail argued that in order to make the effects of the lesson +permanent, it was necessary to "rub it in." From a hint she finally let +fall, the girls gathered that she was disappointed in not being able to +carry out a brilliant idea that had flashed into her mind while the plot +was developing. + +"What was it you were going to borrow, Aunt Abigail?" Ruth asked, but +Aunt Abigail shook her head. "If I had succeeded in getting it from Mrs. +Snooks," she replied, "you should have known. Not otherwise." And as +Peggy who happened out on the porch at that moment, threw the weight of +her influence on the side of those who were protesting against any +further visits to Mrs. Snooks, it seemed probable that the curiosity of +the company would remain ungratified. Aunt Abigail was an old lady +abundantly able to keep her own counsel. + +Peggy viewed the apple-pie with an air of disquiet. "Now, we'll have to +buy some apples, right away. We're out." + +"Well, what of it?" + +"Why, we must make a pie in the morning to return to Mrs. Snooks." + +"Return!" cried Amy. "Why, Peggy, you're going to ruin everything. This +is 'spoiling the Egyptians.' What did Mrs. Snooks ever return that we +didn't send for?" As Peggy refused to alter her determination, a little +murmur of dissatisfaction arose. + +"I think we're getting the worst of that bargain," Jack Rynson said with +feeling. "Swapping one of Miss Peggy's pies, for one of Mrs. Snooks'. +I've tried both, and I ought to know." + +"Then we'll send it back just as it is," declared Amy with another happy +inspiration. "We'll change it to another plate, and she won't know +whether it is her pie or not. And, even if she suspects the truth, what +difference does it make?" + +This brilliant idea was actually carried out, after some demurring on +the part of Peggy, who was afraid that Mrs. Snooks' feelings might be +hurt. Graham was delegated to return the pie and did so that evening, +with a suitable expression of thanks which Mrs. Snooks received without +returning the usual assurance that every one concerned was perfectly +welcome. + +Graham turning to go up-stairs, halted by the door. "Oh, by the way, +Mrs. Snooks, if you could let me have--" + +"I'm entirely out," replied Mrs. Snooks, without waiting for him to +finish. + +Graham stared. Then he understood that Mrs. Snooks was suspecting him of +complicity in the plot, and his amusement came very near getting the +better of his politeness. In his effort not to laugh, his handsome young +face flushed a not unbecoming scarlet. + +"It was only that I lost a button on the way home, Mrs. Snooks, and I +thought if you would--" + +"I've lent my last spool of thread," said Mrs. Snooks, "and I haven't a +needle to my name. Henney dropped my thimble down the well last week, +and as for buttons, the only ones I own are on the children's clothes. +But if you want any of them things, Mr. Wylie, you'll find a right good +assortment at Dowd's. He keeps a good stock, if 'tis nothing but a +country store." + +Graham thanked her and went to his room. He reflected that Mrs. Snooks +had not only learned her lesson, but had applied it, which is not always +the case with promising pupils. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +DOROTHY GETS INTO MISCHIEF + + +The experiment which had marked such an advance in the education of Mrs. +Snooks had proved equally beneficial to Ruth's health. There is no +panacea like laughter. Since Ruth had been spared the ordeal of +requesting the loan of any of Mrs. Snooks' belongings, her enjoyment of +the situation had been unqualified and she had laughed most of the day, +and even waked once or twice during the night to find herself still +chuckling. By morning her manner had lost every trace of lassitude and +her assurance that she felt as well as ever was accepted by the +household without question. + +The final obstacle in the way of the boys' long deferred tramp was now +removed. Still another last day was celebrated with fitting ceremonies, +and the Snooks' roof sheltered the wanderers for positively the last +time. Graham and Jack had made their farewells the previous evening, as +they were to start early, and Ruth's suggestion of rising to see them +off was immediately vetoed by her brother. + +"You won't do any such thing. Why should you miss two or three hours of +sleep for the sake of saying good-by to-morrow morning, when you can +just as well say it to-night?" Yet for all his masculine assumption of +superiority to sentiment Graham was conscious of a little pang of +disappointment as he and Jack passed Dolittle Cottage, in the dewy +freshness of the summer morning. He had more than half expected to see a +hand or two flutter at a window, in token that their departure was not +unnoticed. + +"'How can I bear to leave thee,'" hummed Jack under his breath, and his +smile was a little mischievous. Graham regarded him disdainfully, and +Jack, breaking off his song, hastened to say: "Well, they're as nice a +crowd of girls as we'd find anywhere, if we tramped from here to the +Pacific coast." + +"You're right about that," Graham returned, mollified, and then the +boys, turning the bend of the road, halted as abruptly as if a +highwayman had checked their advance. For hidden from sight by a tangled +thicket of underbrush and vines, five girls in white shirt-waists and +short skirts were waiting their arrival. The girls shrieked delightedly +at the amazement depicted on the countenances of the two knights of the +road. + +"Now, don't try to pretend that you were expecting this all the time. +You know you never thought of it," Ruth cried, slipping her hand through +her brother's arm, and giving it a fond squeeze. + +"Of course I never thought of it. Only a girl could originate such a +brilliant idea." The assumed sarcasm of Graham's rejoinder could not +conceal his pleasure, and Ruth flashed a satisfied glance at Peggy, who +met it with a twinkle of understanding. + +"We're only going to walk about a mile," explained Peggy, as the +procession moved forward. "We know you want to make a record, your first +day out. And, besides, we haven't had a real breakfast yet, only +crackers and milk." + +It was a long mile that they traversed before parting company, as the +girls found when they came to retrace their steps. Familiar as they +thought themselves with the vicinity, the sunrise world was full of +delightful surprises. There was magic in the air, and the winding road +lured them ahead, as if it had been an enchanted path leading to +fairyland. + +"I wish somebody'd go away early every morning," Amy sighed from a full +heart, "and give us an excuse for getting up early. To think of sleeping +away hours like this." + +"It's a pity we didn't leave long ago," suggested Jack Rynson, between +whom and Amy there existed a sort of armed truce, "so that you could +discover what a country morning was like." But before Amy could form a +sufficiently withering reply, a tiny bird, perched on the topmost bough +of a neighboring tree, had burst into such music that the little party +stood silenced, and even playful bickering was forgotten. + +Something of the magic of the morning vanished, it must be confessed, +when the farewells could no longer be postponed, and the girls turned +their faces toward Dolittle Cottage. "The worst of nice things," said +Ruth crossly, "is that you miss them so when they stop." + +"It's only half-past six now," announced Priscilla, consulting her +watch. "Goodness! What are we going to do with a day as long as this?" + +"I know what I'm going to do with part of it," said Peggy. "I'm going to +give Lucy Haines a good boost on her algebra. There's been so much going +on since the boys came, that she's felt shy about dropping in. Afraid of +interfering, you know. But I sent word to her by Jerry, yesterday, that +I should expect her this afternoon." + +As it proved, it was not a difficult matter to occupy the long day, +since each hour brought its own occupation and a little to spare. At the +threshold of the cottage they were met by startling news, Dorothy +hurrying out importantly to make the announcement. + +"One of your little chickens has goned to Heaven, Aunt Peggy. A big bird +angel took it." + +"What on earth does she mean?" Peggy demanded in a perplexity not +unnatural, considering the highly idealized character of Dorothy's +report. It was left to Aunt Abigail to translate the catastrophe into +prose. The Dolittle Cottagers were not the only early risers that fine +morning. A big hawk, up betimes, and looking for his breakfast, had +selected as a choice tit-bit, one of the yellow hen's fast diminishing +brood. Peggy felt that she could have borne it better had it not been +for the unimpaired cheerfulness of the yellow hen's demeanor. + +The discussion of the tragedy delayed breakfast, and when the household +finally gathered about the round table, it was a little after the +regular breakfast hour rather than earlier. And, as sometimes happens, +dinner seemed to follow close on the heels of breakfast, and directly +after dinner, came Lucy Haines. Lucy's manner of accepting a kindness +always betrayed a little hesitancy, as if her independent spirit dreaded +the possibility of incurring too heavy a weight of obligation. But +usually after a little time in Peggy's society, that air of constraint +disappeared, greatly to Peggy's satisfaction. + +That afternoon session was a protracted one. Lucy's attempt to master +algebra without a teacher, had been not unlike the efforts of a mariner +to navigate without a chart. Lucy's little craft had struck many a reef, +and was aground hard and fast, when the tug "Peggy" steamed up +alongside. The fascination of discovering a key to mysteries seemingly +impenetrable rendered Lucy as oblivious to the flight of time as Peggy +herself. When the girls on the porch called in to ask the time, and +Peggy glancing at the clock in the corner, replied that it was half-past +four, Lucy let her book drop in her consternation. Instantly her face +was aflame. + +"Oh, it can't be," she said in dismay. "I can't have been here three +hours. What must you think of me?" + +Peggy looked at her in a surprise more soothing to the girl's sensitive +pride than any amount of polite protest. + +"Why, I've enjoyed every minute," she said simply. "And I think we're +beginning to see daylight, don't you?" + +"Indeed I do. I didn't believe that such puzzling things could get so +clear in one afternoon. And I can't begin to thank you." Lucy gathered +up her belongings and made a hasty exit, while Peggy followed her out +upon the porch. + +"Hasn't Dorothy come yet, girls? Then wait a minute." This last to Lucy. +"I'll get my hat and walk part way with you. I told Dorothy she might +play with little Annie Cole this afternoon but it's time she was home." + +The two girls had covered about half the distance to the farmhouse, when +they were met by Rosetta Muriel who nodded, cordially to Peggy, and +stiffly to her companion. "We thought it was time Annie was coming +home," she explained. "Ma said you folks would get tired having her +'round. So I was just going for her." + +The color had receded from Peggy's face in the course of this +explanation. "Annie! Why, I thought--" + +"Ma told her she could go over to play with Dorothy. Didn't she come?" + +"Why, I haven't seen her. I told Dorothy she might go to play with +Annie." + +There was a frightened catch in Peggy's voice. Rosetta Muriel hastened +to reassure her, though with a distinct touch of patronage. + +"It's nothing to get fidgety about. Those young ones are up to some +mischief, that's all. Our Annie's a whole team all by herself as far as +cutting up goes, and I guess your Dorothy is another of the same kind." + +"But where can they be?" faltered poor Peggy, too engrossed with that +all-important question to be concerned as to the implied criticism of +her small kinswoman. + +"Oh, they're about the farm somewhere, I s'pose. You needn't worry. That +Annie of ours is always getting into the awfulest scrapes, but, you see, +she hasn't been killed yet." + +With this modified comfort, Rosetta Muriel led the searching party. +Peggy followed, looking rather white in spite of repeatedly assuring +herself that the children were sure to be safe. Lucy Haines brought up +the rear, because she could not bear to go her way till Peggy's anxiety +was relieved. + +The investigation of several of Annie's favorite haunts proved +fruitless, and Rosetta Muriel began to show signs of temper. "Looks like +they've gone down to the pond. That's a good quarter of a mile, and I've +got on satin slippers." She held out an unsuitably clad foot for Peggy +to admire, but Peggy was thinking of other matters than French heeled +slippers. "The pond! Is it very deep?" + +"No, indeed. But ma don't like--" + +Lucy Haines interrupted the explanation by a stifled cry, which from a +girl so self-controlled meant more than a fit of hysterical screaming on +the part of one differently constituted. Peggy whirled about. + +In the adjoining pasture separated from them by a low stone wall, was a +fantastic spectacle, worthy a midsummer night's dream. Down the slope, +snorting as he ran, galloped a full sized boar, his formidable tusks +grotesquely emphasizing his terrified demeanor. The fairy-like figure +perched on his back and holding fast by his ears, was Dorothy. And +behind ran Annie, plying a switch and shouting commands intended to +hasten the speed of the frightened charger. + +As if she were in a dream, Peggy heard behind her the horrified whisper +of Rosetta Muriel. "They'll be killed!" gasped the girl. "Why, that +boar's dangerous!" Then her fear found voice and she screamed. At the +sound Annie looked up, and halted in her tracks. Dorothy, too, lifted +her eyes and straightway fell off her flying steed. And the boar, +apparently uncertain as to what might happen next, lost no time in +putting space between himself and his late tormentors. He turned and +galloped up the slope in a frenzy of fear highly ludicrous under the +circumstances. Unluckily none of the lookers-on were in a mood to +appreciate the humor of the situation. + +Peggy reached Dorothy about the time that the fallen equestrienne was +picking herself up, her face rueful, for she realized that the hour of +reckoning had come. A moment later Rosetta Muriel had pounced on Annie, +and, as an indication of sisterly authority, was boxing both ears +impartially. + +"You little piece! You might have been killed, and it would have served +you right. I don't believe you'll ever be anything better than a tomboy +as long as you live. If I was ma, I'd lick these tricks out of you, you +bet." + +The frantic child, between her sister's blows and angry words, was more +like a furious little animal than a human being. Struggling in Rosetta +Muriel's grip, her face crimson with passion, she showed herself ready +to use tooth and nail indiscriminately in order to free herself. For all +her advantage in size and strength, Rosetta Muriel was unable to cope +with so ferocious an antagonist. She solved the problem by giving Annie +a violent push, as she released her hold. The child struck the ground at +some distance and with a force which brought Peggy's heart into her +mouth. But immediately Annie scrambled to her feet, her face scratched +and bleeding, and started toward home, screaming as she went, though +less from pain than from anger. + +"That brat!" cried Rosetta Muriel breathing fast. Then her eyes fell on +Peggy, standing in disdainful quiet, and her expression showed +uncertainty. Rosetta Muriel was hardly capable of appreciating that for +one in a fit of passion to attempt to correct a child is the height of +absurdity, but she recognized the indignation Peggy took no pains to +hide. + +"Does seem sometimes," observed Rosetta Muriel with an unsuccessful +effort to regain the air of languor which she imagined the badge of good +breeding, "as if nothing I could do would make a lady out of that young +one." + +"I should think not," replied Peggy, and it was not her fault if Rosetta +Muriel thought the remark ambiguous. "Good night," she added hastily and +turned away, fearful that a longer interview would bring her to the +point of speaking her mind with a plainness hardly allowable on slight +acquaintance. Like many people noted for tact and consideration, Peggy, +when driven to frankness, left nothing unsaid that would throw light on +the situation. + +Dorothy walked at her aunt's side with chastened step. In the chaos of +feeling into which Rosetta Muriel's unwise discipline had plunged her +small sister, there was little chance for the voice of Annie's +conscience to make itself heard. But Dorothy, on the other hand, was the +prey of conscientious qualms. She had been naughty. Annie's angry big +sister had said they might have been killed, which, from Dorothy's +standpoint, was censurable in the extreme. + +"Aunt Peggy," she began at last, in such a forlorn little pipe that +Peggy was forced to steel herself against an immediate softening of +heart. "Aunt Peggy, I guess you'd better whip me. If you send me to bed +'thout any supper it wouldn't make me a good girl a bit, 'cause me and +Annie ate lots of cookies and I don't want any supper, anyway." + +Peggy studied the sunset earnestly before she could trust herself to +reply. + +"Dorothy, how often have you and Annie done what you did to-day?" + +Dorothy was not certain, but it was evident that the diversion had been +tried on several occasions and Peggy's heart almost stood still, +realizing the peril to which the children had exposed themselves. +Without doubt their immunity was due to their very audacity. Apparently +the boar had not connected these fearless mites with human beings whom +he knew to be vulnerable, but had fancied them sportive elves, against +whom his tusks would be powerless. Peggy registered a vow not to let +Dorothy out of her sight again while the summer lasted. + +"Why didn't you tell Aunt Peggy what you and Annie were playing?" + +The candid Dorothy had an instant reply. "'Cause I didn't want you to +make me stop." It was clear that the sin had not been one of ignorance. +Peggy resolved to act upon Dorothy's counsel. + +After the two reached home, the story had so many tellings that there +seemed a little danger of Dorothy's penitence evaporating in +self-importance. "I had the last turn, anyway," she boasted; "and he +runned faster with me on his back, too." + +"Oh, if I'd only been there with my camera," lamented Amy. "Think what a +snap-shot it would have made." Then as Peggy frowned at her behind +Dorothy's shoulder, she subsided with a grimace of comprehension. + +As Dorothy climbed the stairs to bed, it was understood that the hour of +retribution had arrived. Dorothy wept softly while undressing, and +uttered agonizing shrieks as she underwent her chastisement. Down-stairs +the girls looked at one another aghast, and Hobo whined uneasily, as if +asking permission to interfere. Then the uproar ended abruptly, and +Dorothy climbing upon Peggy's knee, pledged herself solemnly never again +to ride boar-back, a promise which stands more than an even chance of +being religiously kept. + +Altogether Peggy was inclined to regard her methods of discipline as +highly successful. It was not till a penitent and altogether adorable +Dorothy had been tucked into bed, and kissed uncounted times, that doubt +assailed her. She was moving toward the stairs, when a small voice +arrested her steps. + +"Aunt Peggy," Dorothy said dreamily, "you don't spank as hard as my +mamma does. You whipped me just the way Hobo whips himself with his +tail." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE NEW LUCY + + +In the week that followed, the education of Lucy Haines progressed +rapidly. After that first afternoon when the time had slipped away +without her knowing it, she kept her eye on the clock and was careful +not to over-stay the hour. But as she came every day, and her enthusiasm +for learning fully matched Peggy's enthusiasm for teaching, the results +were all that could be wished. + +Then one afternoon her pupil failed to appear, and Peggy wondered. A +second afternoon brought neither Lucy nor an explanation of her absence. +"I'm afraid she's sick," said Peggy, who never thought of a +discreditable explanation for anything till there was no help for it. + +"Sick of algebra, more likely," suggested Claire. "I thought such zeal +wouldn't last." + +"She doesn't seem like that sort of a girl," declared Amy, who was +developing a tendency to disagree with Claire on every possible pretext. +"She's one of the stickers, or I don't know one when I see it." + +A little assenting murmur went the rounds, and Claire glanced +reproachfully at Priscilla, who had sided against her. "Two souls with +but a single thought," represented Claire's ideal of friendship. That +two people could love each other devotedly, and yet disagree on a +variety of subjects, was beyond her comprehension. She was ready at a +moment's notice to cast aside her personal convictions, and agree with +Priscilla, whatever stand the latter cared to take, and it seemed hard, +in view of such unquestioning loyalty, that Priscilla should persist in +having opinions of her own. + +But Claire's hour of triumph was on its way. When Jerry Morton came in +the morning with a string of freshly caught fish, he produced from the +depths of an over-worked pocket a folded paper, which, to judge from its +worn and soiled appearance, had served as a hair-curler or in some +equally trying capacity. This he handed to Peggy, who regarded it with +natural misgiving. + +"That Haines girl sent it," Jerry explained. "I put it in the pocket +where I carry the bait, but I guess the inside is all right." + +Thus encouraged, Peggy unfolded the dingy scrap, but the changes of her +expressive face did not bear out Jerry's optimistic conjecture that the +"inside" was all right. Judging from Peggy's crestfallen air, it was all +wrong. The note was not written in Lucy's usual regular hand. The +letters straggled, the lines zig-zagged across the page, and the name +signed was almost an unintelligible scrawl. But Peggy thought less of +these superficial matters than of the unwelcome news communicated. + + "Dear Friend:--I shan't come to study algebra any more. I've given + up the idea of going to school any longer. I thank you very much + for trying to help me, but it's no use. + + "Yours truly, + "Lucy Haines." + +"I thought it was something like that," Claire remarked triumphantly +when the note was read aloud, and she reflected with some satisfaction +that she alone had suggested the rightful explanation of Lucy's action. + +"I must say I'm disappointed in that girl," declared Peggy, absently +smoothing out the crumpled paper. Her bright face was clouded. +"Wednesday she was just as interested and ambitious as she could be. And +now she's given up. It doesn't seem like her." + +"I must say she doesn't show a great deal of gratitude," exclaimed Ruth, +always ready to rush to Peggy's defence. "Here you've been using your +vacation to teach her, when you might have been enjoying yourself, and +then all at once she gets tired of it. It doesn't seem to occur to her +that if you were like most girls, you'd be the one to give up." + +The expression of Peggy's face suggested that she was rather absorbed in +her own thoughts, and giving but scant heed to the words of her +champion. + +"Do you know, girls," she said slowly, "I'm going over to see Lucy and +find out what this means." + +There was a chorus of protests. "Don't you do it, Peggy," Amy cried +indignantly. And Priscilla remarked, "I wouldn't tease her into +accepting a kindness that she hadn't the sense to appreciate." + +"It was too much for you to do anyway," Ruth chimed in. "I think it's a +good thing she's tired of it, myself." But Peggy was not to be dissuaded +from her purpose. Under the uncompromising statements of the bald little +note, there was something that claimed her sympathy. Even the straggling +lines, so little suggestive of the Lucy Haines she knew, carried the +suggestion of appeal. "I'm not going to coax her into doing anything," +Peggy explained. "But--" and this with unmistakable firmness--"I'm going +to find out." + +After dinner, when the other girls were indulging in afternoon naps, or +lounging on the porch, Peggy donned a broad-brimmed shade hat, and with +Hobo at her heels, started toward Lucy's home. The zig-zag path crossing +the pastures was both shorter and pleasanter than the road, and Peggy +rather enjoyed getting the better of such obstacles as snake fences and +brooks that must be crossed on stepping stones. Such things gave to an +otherwise prosaic ramble the fine flavor of adventure. + +She was flushed and warm, and looking, had she known it, unusually +pretty, with her moist hair curling in rings about her forehead, when +she came in sight of Lucy's home, a straggling cottage which would have +been improved by paint and the services of a carpenter. Both lacks were +partially concealed by vines which climbed over its sagging porch, and +tall rows of hollyhocks, generously screening with their showy beauty +its weather-beaten sides. A girl was in the back yard chopping wood, a +rather slatternly girl with disordered hair. Peggy descended on her +briskly to ask if Lucy were at home. + +Hatchet in hand, the girl faced about. Peggy's head whirled. She made a +confused effort to recall whether Lucy had ever mentioned a sister, a +sister considerably older, and not nearly so nice. Then her momentary +confusion passed, and she realized she was facing Lucy herself. The +shock of her discovery showed in her voice as she exclaimed, "Why, it's +you!" + +"Of course," said Lucy a little coldly, but she cast a half-apologetic +downward glance at her untidy dress, and her color rose. With obvious +reluctance she asked, "Won't you come in?" + +Peggy was conscious of a thrill of righteous indignation. She stood very +straight and her eyes met those of the other girl squarely. "Lucy, are +you angry with me?" + +Lucy Haines did not answer immediately. Her bared throat twitched +hysterically and all at once the eyes which looked into Peggy's brimmed +over. + +"Don't, please!" she said in a choked voice. "Me angry! Why, you're the +kindest girl I ever dreamed of. Till I'm dead I'll love to think about +you and how good you are. But it's no use." + +Peggy seated herself on the woodpile. Her native cheerfulness had +returned with a rush. + +"Now, Lucy Haines, let's talk like two sensible people. If I'm as nice +as all that, you ought to be willing to trust me a little. What's the +reason it's no use? What's made all the difference since Wednesday?" + +Lucy's silence was like a barrier between them. If it had not been for +the tears upon her cheeks, Peggy would have been inclined to distrust +her memory of that momentary softening. The girl's confidence came at +last reluctantly, as if dragged from depths far under the surface, like +water raised in buckets from a well. + +"My money's gone." + +Peggy had an uncomfortable feeling that she must grope her way. "Your +money's gone?" she repeated, to gain time. + +"Yes, the money I've been saving up. The money that was to help me get +through school next year. You know how I've worked this summer. And +there isn't a thing to show for it." + +"How much was it?" + +"Forty dollars." + +All at once Peggy felt an insane desire to laugh. The impulse was +without doubt, purely nervous. For though there seemed to her a +surprising discrepancy between the sum named and the despair for which +it was responsible, the humorous aspect of the case was not the one +which would naturally appeal to a disposition like Peggy's. Desperately +she fought against the impulse, coughed, bit her twitching lips, and +finally acknowledged defeat in a little hysterical giggle. Lucy stared +at her, too astonished to be angry. + +"There!" Now that the mischief was done, Peggy felt serious enough to +meet all the requirements of the case. "I've laughed and I'm glad of it. +For it's a joke. Forty dollars! A girl as bright as you are, ready to +sell out for forty dollars. It's enough to make anybody laugh." + +Lucy put her hand to her forehead. "But it was all I had," she said +rather piteously. + +"All you had. But not all you can get. Why, I had a friend who went into +a business office last winter. She's earning forty dollars a month now, +and they'll raise her after she's been with them a year. Forty dollars +means a month's work for a beginner. You've lost a month, and you talk +as if everything had been lost." + +The rear door of the cottage opened, and a young man appeared, a +distinctly unprepossessing young man, whose shabby clothing somehow +suggested a corresponding shabbiness of soul. He stood irresolute for a +moment, then turned and struck off across the fields, his shambling gait +increasing the unfavorable impression that Peggy had instantly formed. + +Lucy regarded her visitor with burning eyes. + +"I didn't mean to tell anybody," she said. "I thought my pride wouldn't +let me, but what's the use of my being proud? That was my brother, and +he drinks. I guess you'd know it to look at him, wouldn't you? It was he +who stole my money. That's the kind of people I belong to." + +Peggy got to her feet. She had an odd feeling that she could not do her +subject justice sitting on a woodpile, with her feet dangling. + +"Lucy Haines," she said with a severity partly contradicted by the +kindness of her eyes, "I'm ashamed of you. I can tell just by the little +I know of you, what kind of ancestors you had, and you ought to be +thankful for them every day you live. Think of all the sickly people in +the world, that can't more than half live at best, and you with your +splendid, strong body. And think of the stupid ones, who try to learn +and can't, and you seeing through everything like a flash. I know what +kind of people you belong to, Lucy Haines, and you ought to be proud and +thankful, too." + +The immediate effect of this outburst was a surprise. Lucy Haines sat +down on the chopping-block and began to cry. She cried as if the pent-up +sorrows of her life were at last finding outlet, cried as if she never +meant to stop. Peggy in her dismay tried coaxing, scolding, petting, +each in turn, and at last gave up the vain endeavor, and took her old +place on the woodpile, to wait till Lucy should have come to the end of +her tears. + +At last the figure in the soiled calico was no longer shaken by +convulsive sobs. Lucy turned toward the patient watcher on the woodpile, +and in spite of her swollen lids and blood-shot eyes, Peggy knew it was +the old Lucy looking up at her. "Well?" she demanded cheerfully. "It's +all right, isn't it?" + +"Yes," Lucy agreed hesitatingly. "I'm going to try again, if that's what +you mean." + +"And you'll come to-morrow?" + +"Yes, I'll come to-morrow, if you're not too disgusted to bother with me +any longer," said Lucy humbly. + +"Well, it's time for Hobo and me to be going home." Peggy jumped to her +feet, crossed briskly to the unkempt figure, and stooping, kissed a +tear-stained cheek. And then Lucy's arms went about her, and clasped her +close in passionate gratitude. + +"Peggy Raymond," said a stifled voice, "I can't do anything to pay you +back, but this. I promise you I'll make you proud of me yet. You were +ashamed of me to-day, but if I live, I'll make you proud of me." And +Peggy had one more bewildering impression to add to the varied catalogue +of characteristics which made up the Lucy Haines, whom she was beginning +to think she had never known till that day. + +In spite of this triumphant conclusion to her enterprise, Peggy returned +to the cottage heavy of heart. There is always a danger that the +sensitive and sympathetic will find the revelation of the misery in the +world overwhelming, bringing the temptation to shut one's eyes to +suffering, or else in its contemplation, to lose the joy out of life. +And as it only takes an added drop to cause a full cup to brim over, +Peggy's dejection reached the overflowing point, through no other agency +than the yellow hen. + +The girls all noticed that Peggy was silent, as well as uncommunicative. +She fenced skilfully to evade direct answers to their questions, but she +did not seem inclined to introduce new topics of conversation. And when +Amy called her from the kitchen, where she and Ruth were getting supper, +Peggy sat staring abstractedly ahead of her till the call was repeated. + +Priscilla glanced up from her magazine. "Say, Peggy, the girls are +calling you. Probably they are having trouble with the muffins." + +"Oh, I didn't hear," Peggy sprang to her feet, and went hastily through +the house to the kitchen. But it was not domestic difficulties which +accounted for Amy's summons. She stood at the window, flattening her +nose against the screen. + +"Peggy, I wish you'd tell me what this old vixen is about. Is she trying +to punish one of the chickens, or is it only a game?" + +For ten days past the yellow hen had been freed from the restraints of +the coop, and by day had led her brood in adventurous quest of +grasshoppers, and at sunset had conducted them to the waiting nest in +the rear of the woodshed. But at the present moment, a peculiar scene +was being enacted. At the open door of the woodshed, a sleepy brood +huddled close, awaiting the return of their mother, who with an air of +determination was pursuing a squawking chick, running as if for his +life. + +Around the cherry-tree they circled, once, twice, thrice. Then the +pursuer overtook her foster-child, and pecked him savagely. It was not a +game. + +The yellow hen strutted off in the direction of her peeping brood, +clucking complacently, as if she congratulated herself on solving some +problem satisfactorily. The poor little outcast followed with a piteous +pipe, which caused the Spartan mother to turn and repeat her admonition. + +For a moment Peggy was at a loss for an explanation. Then she +understood. "I know," she cried. "He's a different breed from the +others, and he's outgrown them, and the senseless old creature thinks he +doesn't belong to her. She's just got to be nice to him, that's all." + +But Peggy's efforts at discipline were unavailing. The speckled chicken +surreptitiously introduced under the yellow hen's hovering wings, +enjoyed the briefest possible period of maternal protection. Before +Peggy could get back into the house, the yellow hen was chasing him all +around the woodshed, and Peggy found it necessary to make him +comfortable for the night in a basket set behind the stove. + +And this was the little drop which made her cup overflow. The forlorn +peeping of the outcast chicken seemed to blend with poor Lucy's sobs. +Peggy wondered if it could be that the voice of earth's suffering was +like the hum of the insects on a summer night, so constant that one +might not hear it at all, but an overwhelming chorus if one listened. + +"Peggy Raymond, do you think you're coming down with anything?" Amy +demanded crossly, at half-past nine o'clock that evening. "Because +you're about as much like yourself as chalk is like cheese." + +Peggy stood up. + +"No, I'm not coming _down with_ anything," she said lightly, "but +I'm going _up to_ something, and that's my bed. I believe I'm +sleepy." + +Before she climbed the stairs, she went out into the kitchen to be sure +that the speckled chicken was comfortable. As she touched the basket he +answered with a soft, comfortable sound like the coo of a baby, or the +chirp of a sleepy little bird, the sound that speaks of warmth and +contentment. Peggy stood beside the basket thinking. + +"There! I knew something was wrong." Amy had followed her friend out +into the kitchen. "You're crying over that chicken. Why, you silly Peg!" + +But Amy had misinterpreted the moist eyes. That little contented sound +from the basket back of the stove had brought a message to Peggy. She +had made the chicken comfortable in spite of its unnatural mother. She +had rekindled ambition in Lucy's heart in spite of her thieving brother. +All at once Peggy understood that the compensation for insight is the +joy of helpfulness. It was not meant for any heart to bear the burden of +earth's grief, but only to lighten it as one can, and be glad. + +And so, after all, Peggy went up to bed comforted. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A BENEFIT PERFORMANCE + + +Peggy had a bright idea. Any one familiar with the Peggy disposition +would have guessed as much from a number of infallible signs. There were +periods of abstraction, characterized by long silences or random +replies. There were thoughtful little frowns, and sudden dimpling +smiles, all for no reason apparent. And when Peggy reached the point of +saying to herself in a confidential undertone, "There! That's just the +thing!" speculation ran riot in Dolittle Cottage. + +But though the guessing was both varied and ingenious, it was all wide +of the mark. The announcement of Peggy's project at the breakfast-table +one morning took everybody by surprise. "Look here, girls," began Peggy, +betraying a degree of nervous excitement in her reckless salting of her +scrambled eggs, "what would you think of our giving a benefit +performance?" + +"Performance of what?" asked half the table. And the other half wanted +to know, "Whose benefit?" Peggy answered the last question first. + +"Lucy Haines'. She's had--that is, she isn't going to have some of the +money she was counting on for next year," Peggy flattered herself that +this discreet statement gave no hint of the heartache and humiliation +poor Lucy had undergone. "And even if we didn't make very much, a little +would help her out." + +"But, Peggy, what could we do?" cried Amy, setting down her glass of +milk with an emphasis that sent part of its contents splashing over the +brim. "None of us sing any to speak of, except Priscilla, and she and +Claire are the only ones who play. I don't see--" + +"Well, I've been wondering why we couldn't repeat that little farce we +gave at school last June. It wouldn't be much work, for we all know our +parts. Beside ours, there was only one that amounted to anything. I +thought maybe Claire would take that. The other characters have so +little to do that we could easily pick up girls for the parts. Lucy +herself might take one." + +"And Rosetta Muriel," suggested Amy, rather maliciously. It was so +seldom Peggy really disliked anybody that the temptation to make +frequent mention of their pretentious neighbor was too much for Amy's +fun-loving disposition. Unconsciously Peggy's face assumed an expression +suggestive of just having swallowed a dose of quinine. "I suppose so," +she agreed grudgingly, and Amy indulged in a wicked chuckle. + +"But where could we give it, Peggy?" Ruth asked with animation. It was +easy to see that the suggestion had made a most favorable impression on +the company. The little comedy had been given during commencement week +and had proved the most popular feature of that festive period. The +performers had not had time to forget their parts, and a very few +rehearsals would be sufficient to assure a smooth presentation. Peggy, +delighted with the friendly reception accorded her plan, continued her +explanation. + +"Why, I think they'll let us have it in the schoolhouse. It's just +standing empty all summer. I'll have to see Mr. Robbins about that, Mr. +Silas Robbins. He's the committee man who hires teachers, and everything +of that sort. And, of course, Lucy ought to know what we are planning +before we do anything further. It won't be necessary to have her name +put in the paper, or anything like that, but I'm sure the people will be +more interested if they know it is a benefit for one of their own +girls." + +Lucy Haines, on learning the latest of Peggy's schemes for her advantage +seemed rather overwhelmed. As a matter of fact, she exaggerated the +generosity of the girls who had so cordially endorsed Peggy's plan. The +summer days were all very delightful, but the presentation of the little +play promised that agreeable variety without which all pleasures pall. +Indeed, Lucy's expression of gratitude, fervent if not fluent, rendered +Priscilla really uncomfortable. + +"I wish you'd make her understand, Peggy," she said, "that though we're +awfully glad to help her, we're not a collection of philanthropists. I'm +afraid she doesn't understand that this play is going to be lots of +fun." + +Other misunderstandings had to be cleared up before everything was +running smoothly. When Peggy called on Mr. Silas Robbins, and stated her +errand, that excellent man failed to grasp her explanation, and took her +for the manager of a theatrical troupe. + +"You don't mean that you're running a show at your age! I call it a +shame. You don't look a day older than my Ettie. Haven't you got a home +and folks, child, or what is it that's druv you into this dog's life?" + +Of course it was necessary for Peggy to begin at the beginning, and in +the course of twenty minutes or so, the good man began to understand. As +the extent of his blunder gradually dawned upon him, he threw back his +head and broke into a hearty guffaw whose enjoyment was contagious. +Peggy joined him, and then there was an exultant note in her laughter. +Observation had taught her that when a man is laughing, it is one of the +hardest things in the world for him to say no. + +"Now, suppose we start over again, and go kind of slow," said Mr. Silas +Robbins. "I've got as far as this, that you're all high-school girls and +want to give a show. It would take a reg'lar racehorse of a brain to +keep up with that tongue of yourn." + +Peggy's further explanations were characterized by the utmost +deliberation, so that Mr. Robbins had time to ask any questions that +occurred to him, and the outcome justified her expectation. Not only did +she secure the use of the school building, but Mr. Silas Robbins agreed +to purchase tickets for himself and family. + +"And to think I took you for a perfessional," said Mr. Robbins, smiling +very broadly as he turned back to his waiting horses. "If there's +anything in your show funnier'n that, it'll be wuth the price. Going to +ask a quarter, be you? That's right. Folks don't appreciate a cheap +ten-cent show, the way they do one they've got to pay a good price for." + +Peggy met a similarly cordial reception at the office of the _Weekly +Arena_, the country paper, on which she was relying for free +advertising. Mr. Smart, the editor, was a careworn little man, whose +frayed and faded business suit suggested that too many subscriptions +were paid in potatoes and cord wood, and too few in the coin of the +realm. He agreed to her request with a readiness Peggy thought +wonderfully kind, though it would have surprised her less, had she +realized with what eagerness Mr. Smart was continually seeking items +with a news value. + +"I'll make one or two references to it in this issue," Mr. Smart +promised, "to sort of pique curiosity, you know. And next week you might +give me a little write-up of the thing. Outline the plot, without giving +away the surprises, and put it on thick about its being funny. It +_is_ funny, ain't it?" + +"Oh, yes, very." + +"That's the talk," said Mr. Smart approvingly. "I don't know how it is +with city people. Sometimes it seems to me that they must like to have +their feelings harrowed up, judging from the kind of plays they go to +see. But here in the country, we like to get our money's worth of +laughing. And, by the way, I suppose you understand, Miss, that it's +customary for the Press to receive two complimentary tickets." + +Notwithstanding this cordial and valuable support, Peggy was to find +that the lot of an actor-manager is not altogether free from thorns. +Claire had obligingly agreed to accept the vacant _role_ in the +cast, but after one reading of the little play, a marked decrease in her +enthusiasm was observable. + +"Do you know I don't like the part of _Adelaide_ a bit," she +confided to Priscilla. "I'd like to play _Hazel_. I'm going to ask +Amy if she'd mind changing with me." + +Priscilla stared. + +"Of course she'd mind. She knows her part and has played it once. You +couldn't ask her to learn a new one just because you prefer hers." + +Claire's air of depression became more marked. + +"Priscilla," she quavered, "I don't see how I'm going to play that part. +I don't know how I'll endure it." + +Priscilla's amazement grew. "Why, what's wrong with it? I think it's +particularly cute." + +"Why, we're quarrelling every minute, you and I. And at the end of the +second act, you say--" Claire's voice died away in a dejected whimper. +But there was little balm for her grievance in Priscilla's unfeeling +laughter. + +"Well, what of it? There's nothing real about it. A quarrel in a play +isn't anything." + +"It's something to me," replied Claire, in tones nicely balanced between +despondency and tenderness. "When I think of your glaring at me and +saying such cruel, cruel things, it seems as if it would almost kill +me." She found her handkerchief, and actually shed a few tears, while +Priscilla choked down her exasperation, and tried to answer with fitting +nonchalance. + +"Sorry you feel that way. We might ask Dorothea Clarke, the girl who +took the part before, to come up for a week, just to play it. Though I +must say," concluded Priscilla, her irritation getting the better of her +good resolutions, "that your idea impresses me as too silly for words." + +The suggestion that Claire's cooperation was not necessary to the +success of the undertaking was all that was needed. Claire had no +intention of being reduced to the position of an on-looker, while the +others enjoyed the fun and reaped the plaudits of the enterprise. +Nothing more was heard of Claire's giving up her part, but in the +rehearsals she showed such a total lack of spirit, and played the +_role_ assigned her with so unmistakable an air of injury, that +patient Peggy was driven to the verge of desperation. + +Nor were her troubles confined to Claire. Rosetta Muriel who had been +offered an unexacting part in the cast, confided to Peggy her intentions +in regard to costume. "I'm going to have an apple-green silk. The +skirt'll be scant, of course, and draped a little right here. And which +do you think would be stylisher, a square neck or--" + +Peggy had by now recovered herself sufficiently to interrupt. "Why, +you're cast for a parlor-maid." + +"I know it," said Rosetta Muriel, indifferently. + +"You can't dress in apple-green silk. You ought to have a plain black +dress and a little white apron." + +Rosetta Muriel flushed and tossed her head. + +"I don't know what difference that makes. If you're going on the stage +you want to look as nice as you can, I should think." + +"One can look very nice in a black dress and a white apron. I'm going to +be a frumpy old woman, with the worst rig you ever saw. But of course," +concluded Peggy firmly, perceiving that Rosetta Muriel was inclined to +argue the point, "If you'd rather not take the part, I can probably find +some one else. But whoever takes it, will have to be dressed suitably." + +That argument was as effective with Rosetta Muriel as it had been with +Claire. She yielded as the other girl had done, and as ungraciously. +"It's easy enough to see through that," she told herself angrily. "Those +city girls want to be the whole thing. They're afraid to let me dress up +nice, for fear folks will look at somebody else." And it argues well for +the strength of Rosetta Muriel's vanity that for the moment she actually +believed her preposterous charge. + +Plans for the play absorbed the leisure of the cottagers. Little else +was talked of. To Jerry Morton had been assigned the responsibility of +organizing an orchestra of local talent, and he came twice a day or +oftener, to report progress or ask counsel. The tan shoes, whose +excessively pointed toes betrayed that probably they were as old, if not +older than Jerry himself, but which in Jerry's estimation were +synonymous with unpretentious elegance, appeared so frequently that the +razor-like tips began to look somewhat scarred and battered, as if they +might perhaps retire from active service in ten years' time, or so. But +the tan shoes were not Jerry's only concession to the social amenities. +An unwonted attention was given to grimy knuckles and finger-nails. More +than once he made his appearance with his usually frowsy hair as sleek +as the coat of a water rat, and dripping, in further likeness to the +animal mentioned. Peggy, whose original interest in Jerry had been +intensified by the favorable impression he had made on Graham, hailed +these signs of awakening with satisfaction, and laid plans to bring +about still more startling changes. + +The little comedy did not require much in the way of scenery. But to +present even a simple home scene on the schoolhouse platform, +necessitated considerable planning, to say nothing of hard work. +Arrangements were made for extra benches to put back of the battered +desks, for the _Weekly Arena_ had exhibited a noble determination +to earn the two complimentary tickets, and Peggy felt sure of a full +house. Farmer Cole had agreed to lend Joe for the important day, and it +looked as if the hired man would not find his post a sinecure. + +"If ever a place was misnamed," Aunt Abigail remarked one day, "this is +the spot. Dolittle Cottage. Do-_little_ Cottage," she repeated, +with an emphasis calculated to make her meaning apparent to the most +obtuse. "In the course of a few weeks we have become a preparatory +school and an orphan asylum." She looked significantly at Peggy who sat +on the steps, feeding the speckled chicken from a spoon. "And our last +development is a theatrical agency. Well, I can't say that it is exactly +my idea of a quiet, restful summer." + +The hour of preparation was at its height, and the great occasion less +than a week away, when Peggy received news which sent her already +buoyant spirits climbing like a rocket. The rural delivery had brought +her several letters, and as Priscilla noticed, she pounced first on a +missive in a business-like envelope, with a typewritten address. She had +hardly read two lines before she interrupted herself with a joyous +squeal. + +"Girls, isn't it glorious! Elaine is coming Saturday." + +"Elaine! Why, I thought she said she couldn't." Priscilla's answer was a +little less spontaneous than usual. + +"Her mother and Grace have been invited somewhere, and they insisted on +her coming here. She's worked so hard, and they feel she needs a +change." Peggy was reading down the page, her bright face aglow with +anticipation, but Priscilla's look indicated no corresponding pleasure, +and she answered with a non-committal murmur, when Peggy added, "She'll +be here for the play. I'm so glad." + +And Priscilla struggling to express a degree of satisfaction in the +prospect, did not guess how soon she would echo Peggy's words from the +bottom of her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +AUNT ABIGAIL IS MISLAID + + +The little country schoolhouse had been the scene of varied activity +that morning. Even in term time, when the battered desks were occupied, +it is a question whether a forenoon's program would have been more +strenuous. Equipped with tape-measures the girls had calculated to a +nicety just how much furniture the platform could accommodate, and still +give the performers room to make their entrances and exits without +colliding with the armchair or overturning the small table. The question +of extra benches had also come up for consideration, and the girls had +demonstrated to their complete satisfaction that two people of ordinary +size could be seated comfortably at each desk. Absorbed in these +fascinating calculations, they had failed to notice how rapidly the time +was passing, till Dorothy began to complain of being hungry. + +"You're as good as an alarm-clock," declared Priscilla, consulting her +watch. "It's half-past eleven, Peggy." + +"Is it? Then we mustn't wait another minute. If Aunt Abigail is back +from her walk, she may be hungry too." Aunt Abigail had been invited to +attend the preliminary inspection of the schoolroom, but had declined, +frankly avowing her preference for a walk. Jerry had told her of a +somewhat rare fern growing half a mile from the cottage, and Aunt +Abigail who intermittently was an enthusiastic amateur botanist had +professed a desire to see this particular species in its native haunts. + +"Don't hurry, Peg," pleaded Amy, as the procession headed for the +cottage at a more rapid pace than Amy approved on a summer morning. +"It's more than likely that she isn't home yet. You know she never +thinks anything about the time if she's interested." + +As Amy's conjecture was based on an intimate knowledge of Aunt Abigail's +peculiarities, no one was surprised to find it correct. The front door +of the cottage was locked, and the key was hanging on a nail in full +view, a custom of the trusting community which had gradually come into +favor at Dolittle Cottage. The girls trooped indoors, and preparations +for dinner began forthwith, even Dorothy lending her aid. Dorothy loved +to shell peas, that ordinarily prosaic task being enlivened by the +certainty that she would drop at least two-thirds of the agile +vegetables, and be compelled to pursue them into the most unlikely +hiding-places. + +The peas were shelled at last, and Dorothy comforted for the untimely +fate of several luckless spheres which had rolled under the feet of +preoccupied workers, and, according to Dorothy, had been "scrunched." +Another twenty minutes and Peggy announced that dinner was ready. "If +Aunt Abigail would only come. Things won't be so good if they wait." + +"I won't be so good if _I_ wait, either," Dorothy declared. "'Cause +it makes me cross to get hungry." + +Dorothy was provided with an aid to uprightness in the shape of a slice +of bread and butter, and the others seated themselves on the porch to +await Aunt Abigail's return. It is an open secret that time spent in +waiting invariably drags. The wittiest find their ideas deserting them +under such circumstances. The most congenial friends have nothing to say +to each other. There are, as a rule, any number of things one can do +while one is waiting, but unluckily there is nothing one feels inclined +to do. Up till one o'clock conversation was spasmodic. For the next half +hour silence reigned, and each face became expressive of a sense of +injury and patient suffering. At quarter of two, open revolt was +reached. + +"Peggy, how much longer are you going to wait?" Amy demanded. +"Everything is probably spoiled by now." + +Peggy did her best to be encouraging. "Oh, not exactly spoiled. But it +doesn't do a dinner any good to wait an hour or two after it is cooked." + +"Why not sit down? She's sure to be here by the time we're fairly +started," suggested Ruth. + +"I'd as soon wait as not." Claire's face was angelically patient. "I +haven't a bit of appetite any more. I suppose it's because my head +always begins to ache so if I don't eat at the regular hour." + +Peggy rose to her feet rather hastily. "Come on," she said briskly. +"We'll begin. Probably that'll be just the way to bring her." And she +wondered why it was that Claire's patient sweetness was so much more +trying than Amy's fretful complaint. + +But the device for bringing Aunt Abigail home proved unsuccessful. Peggy +put her dinner on the back of the stove to keep warm, and it was still +simmering, undisturbed, when the platter and the various serving dishes +on the table had been scraped clean, for the loss of appetite of which +Claire complained was by no means universal. The work of clearing the +table and washing the dishes was usually protracted, for every other +minute some one ran out on the porch to see if Aunt Abigail were +approaching. By three o'clock a general uneasiness began to make itself +evident. + +"I believe I'll go over to the place where those ferns grow," Peggy +declared. "Even if she's forgotten all about her dinner, it can't be +good for her to go so long without eating. Don't you want to come with +me, Amy?" + +Amy, who seemed less concerned than any of the company, blithely +accepted the invitation. "We'll probably find her with a great armful of +ferns and her hat tipped over one ear, and she'll be perfectly +astonished to know that it's after twelve o'clock. Oh, you don't know +Aunt Abigail as well as I do." + +But though they searched the section of the woods Jerry had designated +as the _habitat_ of the rare fern, and called Aunt Abigail's name +at frequent intervals, there was no answer, nor did they find anything +to indicate that there had been an earlier visitor to the locality. +Amy's confidence seemed a little shaken by this discovery and she made +no objection to the rapidity of their return to the cottage. Ruth came +hurrying out to meet them. "Has she come?" Amy called, her voice +betraying her change of mood. + +"No. Haven't you found her?" It was of course an unnecessary question, +for the anxious faces of the two girls would have told that their quest +had been unsuccessful, even if their failure had not been sufficiently +demonstrated by the fact that Aunt Abigail was not accompanying them. + +"We'd better go right over to Coles'," Peggy said after a minute's +pause. "Perhaps Mrs. Cole found she was alone, and asked her to dinner." + +"I've been there," was Ruth's disappointing reply. "And I went down to +Mrs. Snooks', too. I thought Aunt Abigail might have gone there to +borrow something. You know she was so unwilling to give up the idea. But +Mrs. Snooks was sitting out on the porch, and she said she hadn't seen +her." + +The others had gathered around them as they stood talking. The speckled +chicken, who, as a result of being brought up "by hand," was developing +an extravagant fondness for human society, came up peeping shrilly, +evidently under the impression that in so sizable a gathering, there +must be some one who had nothing better to do than minister to his +wants. Hobo, too, made his appearance, and he alone of the company gave +no sign of mental disturbance. Amy pushed him away impatiently as he +rubbed against her, the effect of worry on Amy's temperament having the +not unusual result of making her short-tempered. Then a bright idea +flashed into her head. + +"Peggy, maybe he could track her." + +"Who could?" + +"Why, Hobo. We can let him smell something Aunt Abigail has worn, and +then if he's any good, he ought to be able to follow the trail. I don't +see how we're going to hunt for her, unless we try something like that." + +Peggy did not regard the suggestion in a particularly hopeful light, but +at the same time she had nothing better to suggest. To continue the +search for Aunt Abigail without a single clue as to the direction she +had taken, was not unlike looking for the proverbial needle in the +haymow. Accordingly, Peggy followed without protest, while the other +girls, relieved by the mere suggestion of a definite program, hurried +into the house and up the stairs to Aunt Abigail's room. A moment later +they reappeared, each bearing something selected from Aunt Abigail's +belongings. + +The various articles were deposited in a circle about Hobo, as if he had +been a heathen idol, and Aunt Abigail's worsted shawl and silk work-bag, +votive offerings. Hobo did not in the least understand the meaning of +this new game, but he was pleased to find himself the centre of +attention, and thumped his tail against the porch with a sound like +persistent knocking. + +"I don't believe I'd give him this," exclaimed Peggy, picking up the +work-bag and sniffing thoughtfully. "It smells so strong of peppermint +that it's likely to mislead him." + +"She always carried peppermint drops in that bag," said Amy. The use of +the past tense was such an unconscious admission of fearing the worst, +that the girls looked at one another aghast. And then Peggy, with a +desperate realization that something must be done, and that immediately, +seized the worsted shawl, and knelt down before Hobo. "Find her, good +fellow," she urged, holding the wrap close to the dog's nose. + +Over the fleecy mound, Hobo regarded Peggy with bright, intelligent +eyes. "He's smelling of it," said a thrilled voice in the background. + +"Yes, and he looks as if he understood," cried another voice. "See how +his eyes shine." + +Even Peggy's doubts were vanishing before Hobo's air of absorbed +attention. "Find her, Hobo," she insisted. "Find Aunt Abigail." + +The little group stood breathless, while Hobo descended the steps, and +nose to earth, followed the winding gravelled path for half its +distance. Then taking an abrupt turn, he struck off across the lawn. +Their hearts in their mouths the girls hurried after. Peggy heard +Priscilla just behind her, saying that it was perfectly wonderful. +Priscilla had always retained a trace of her first disapproval of Hobo's +admission into the family circle, and even at that anxious moment, Peggy +felt a little thrill of satisfaction over the fact that the wisdom of +her charity had been vindicated. + +Hobo ambled across the lawn, stopped abruptly at the foot of the +pear-tree, and there seated himself, looking up into the branches, and +wagging his tail, with an air of having abundantly satisfied his own +expectations. Peggy's efforts to induce him to take up the trail were +useless. Familiar as they all were with Aunt Abigail's eccentricities, +it was impossible to believe that she had improved the occasion of their +absence to climb a pear-tree, especially as its fruit had been gathered +weeks earlier. Moreover, even granting the possibility of so erratic a +proceeding, she must have descended from her perch, unless she had +continued her journey by airship. Peggy brought the worsted shawl, and +renewed her appeals and commands, while Hobo continued to wag his tail, +apparently under the impression that he was being praised for some +remarkable achievement. + +"There's no use wasting any more time," Amy cried at last, "on a dog as +stupid as that one." + +"He never pretended to be a bloodhound," said Peggy, her sense of +justice driving her to the defence of her protege. And then she dropped +the shawl and ran to meet Jerry Morton, whose cheery whistle usually +announced his coming some time in advance of his actual arrival. + +Jerry had come to ask the opinion of the company as to the advisability +of occupying the second intermission by a banjo duet. But before he +could introduce the subject, his attention was claimed by the news of +Aunt Abigail's mysterious disappearance. As all the girls talked at +once, the resulting explanation was somewhat confused, and Jerry +gathered the impression that Hobo was being held responsible for driving +Aunt Abigail into the pear-tree. Corrected on this point, his face +suddenly acquired an expression of extreme seriousness. + +"I saw long 'bout noon--but 'tain't likely that had anything to do with +it." + +"What was it?" cried the girls in chorus, each conscious of a chilly +sensation in the neighborhood of the spine. And Amy added fiercely, "If +you know anything, Jerry, tell it quick! We're losing lots of time." + +"Well, it was a band of gypsies." + +There was a minute of awed silence. "But you don't think--" Amy began, +and paused helplessly. + +"I don't think anything but--well, they had three wagons--you know the +kind--and in the bottom of the last one, I could see somebody lying +stretched out and all covered over with a blanket. I thought most likely +one of the men had been drinking and was just sleeping it off. But, of +course--" + +Jerry paused, overwhelmed at the sight of the horror depicted on the +faces of his auditors. Vainly he racked his brain for a less harassing +explanation of the fact that Aunt Abigail had disappeared some time +during the forenoon, and at five o'clock was still missing. Peggy, her +lips very white, attempted to reassure herself and the others, by +attacking the theory he had suggested. + +"But, Jerry, what would gypsies want with an old lady like Aunt Abigail? +I thought they only stole babies." + +"Yes, and they come back after a while and claim their fathers' +estates," chimed in Amy hysterically. + +Jerry would have liked to be consoling, but did not see his way clear to +that end. He accordingly observed that real gypsies would steal anything +they could lay their hands on. And when he had finished this expression +of his inmost convictions, Amy burst into tears. + +"Oh, why are we wasting time?" she cried. "We ought to get Mr. Cole and +Joe and all the men around to drive after those people and see who was +under that blanket. Oh, dear. Oh, dear!" + +Dorothy was pulling Peggy's skirt. "Aunt Peggy! Aunt Peggy, listen!" + +"Oh, hush, Dorothy. I can't attend to you." + +"But listen, Aunt Peggy--" + +"Dorothy, you're a naughty girl. I can't listen." + +Dorothy too burst into sobs. "I just wanted to tell you," she wailed, +"that Aunt Abigail was a-sitting on the porch." + +Peggy spun about. The astonishing news was true. On the porch sat Aunt +Abigail, swaying slightly in one of the willow rockers, with her +meditative gaze fixed on the western sky. After the first inevitable +half minutes of stupefaction, there was a wild rush for the house. + +"It seems to me I never saw the sky prettier," was Aunt Abigail's +astonishing beginning. But no one was in the mood to join her in +discussing the beauties of nature. "Where have you been?" was the cry +echoed from lip to lip. + +Aunt Abigail smoothed a wrinkle in her skirt, and for the first time +since undertaking the chaperonage of the Terrace girls, she looked a +trifle discomfited. + +"I found such an interesting story in the garret," she said, "a +continued story it was, and it ran through an entire year, fifty-two +numbers. I had a little difficulty in finding every instalment, but I +succeeded at last. You girls will enjoy reading it. I am afraid--" Aunt +Abigail glanced uneasily at the rosy west, and left the sentence +unfinished. "I hope," she said instead, "that you didn't wait dinner for +me." + +"But the door was locked," said Peggy, finding it almost impossible to +believe that their alarm had been groundless. + +"Yes. I thought it wasn't quite safe to leave the door unlocked, when I +would be in the third story, but I didn't want to have to hurry down to +let you in. I locked the front door on the outside, and hung up the key. +Then I went in by the back door and locked it on the inside." + +"And you mean that you've been in the garret all these hours?" cried Amy +in accents of exasperation. Her face gave no hint of its usual +easy-going good-nature. Though the tears were still undried upon her +cheeks, ominous lightning played in her eyes. It really looked as if she +could not easily forgive Aunt Abigail for her failure to be kidnapped by +gypsies. + +And just at the right moment somebody giggled. Among other benefits that +laughter confers on the race, it not infrequently serves as a lightning +conductor. With all the anxiety they had suffered, the situation was +ludicrous nevertheless. While they had agonized below stairs, Aunt +Abigail had sat on the garret floor, absorbed in a sensational serial +story, oblivious to everything but the next chapter. An uncontrollable +titter went the rounds. It gained volume, like a seaward flowing brook. +It swelled to a roar. And Amy, who for a moment had stood silent and +disdainful, as if she defied the current to sweep her off her feet, gave +up all at once, and laughed with the rest. + +Aunt Abigail laughed too, though more as if she wished to appear +companionable than because she really saw the joke. When the silence of +exhaustion followed the uproar, and the girls were wiping their wet eyes +and each avoiding the glances of her neighbor, for fear of going off +into another paroxysm, Aunt Abigail made a remark which helped to +explain her failure to enter into the fun. + +"I really hope you didn't wait dinner," repeated Aunt Abigail politely. +"And if--if it's the same to the rest of you, I vote for an early +supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +PRISCILLA'S LOOKING-GLASS + + +"In less than twenty-four hours Elaine will be here." + +"You've been saying that for a week," Priscilla commented tartly. The +two girls had the porch to themselves, Priscilla stretched her lazy +length in the hammock, while Peggy had curled herself into the biggest +chair in a position which only a kitten or a school girl could by any +possibility consider comfortable. Life at Dolittle Cottage was not +favorable to _tete-a-tetes_, and Priscilla found ground for a +grievance in the fact that on one of the rare occasions when they were +alone together, Peggy should occupy the time in discussing the +approaching visit of another friend. Though Priscilla had been making a +gallant fight against her besetting weakness, it occasionally took her +off her guard. + +"If I've been saying that for a week," observed Peggy with unruffled +good nature, "I've been talking nonsense. For this is the first day it's +been true." + +"Don't be silly, Peggy. You know perfectly well what I mean. For a week +you haven't been able to talk of anything but Elaine's coming." + +Peggy made no reply. There was a critical note in the accusation which +she found vaguely irritating, and it seemed to her the wisest course to +let the matter drop where it was. But Priscilla was in the unreasonable +mood when even silence is sufficient ground for resentment. + +"Dear me, Peggy, I didn't mean to reduce you to absolute dumbness. By +all means talk of Elaine, if that's the only topic of interest." + +"See here, Priscilla!" Peggy straightened herself, an unwonted color in +her cheeks. For all her sweetness of disposition, she had a temper of +her own, and was perhaps no less lovable on that account. "I thought +we'd settled this thing long ago. You know I'm fond of Elaine," she went +on steadily, "and after her hard year, I'm delighted that she can have +an outing up here with the rest of us. It isn't anything I'm ashamed of, +and it isn't anything you've a right to call me to account for. I don't +care any the less for you because I care for Elaine, too." + +There are few better tests of character than its response to frankness. +A girl of another sort would have found in this straightforward speech +additional cause for umbrage. Priscilla showed that her faults were only +superficial after all, by her immediate surrender. + +"Oh, Peggy," she exclaimed, a choke in her voice. "You don't need to +tell me that. I don't know what ails me sometimes. I should think you'd +lose all patience with me." + +A tear splashed down upon her cheek, and Peggy, surprised and touched, +leaned forward to pat the heaving shoulder consolingly. "Never mind, +dear. We won't say another word about it." + +"Just one more," pleaded Priscilla. "You know, Peggy, that even when I'm +hateful, I love you better than anybody in the world except my father +and mother. But if you weren't the dearest girl on earth--" + +The screen door flew open, and slammed shut with an explosive effect +which might have startled listeners unused to such phenomena. But in a +cottage filled with young folks, doors are so likely to slam that this +miniature thunder-clap did not cause either head to turn. It was rather +the singular silence following which led Peggy to lift her eyes, and it +was the expression on Peggy's face which brought Priscilla to the +realization that something out of the ordinary was taking place. + +Claire stood by the screen door, her hands clenched, her face scarlet, +her whole demeanor indicating the intensity of her struggle for +self-control. Priscilla looked at her aghast, all sorts of alarming +speculations racing through her mind. "Oh, what is the matter?" she +cried. + +"I heard every word." + +"You heard--" Priscilla broke off, and turned on Peggy a blank face. "Do +you know what she means? What has she heard?" + +"Oh, you needn't try to get out of it," Claire's voice was suddenly +shrill and rasping. "So Miss Peggy Raymond is the dearest girl on earth, +is she, and you love her better than anybody in the world! It won't do +any good for you to deny it." + +"I haven't any intention of denying it," Priscilla replied, choosing her +words with care. Instantly she knew that this meant the end of the +friendship, which had by degrees become a burden rather than a joy. +Claire's exactions, her extravagant protests of an affection which in +its expression proved itself to be nothing but self-love, had been the +one discordant note in the summer's harmony. To have the unreal bond +dissolved, even in so drastic a fashion, came as a relief. "I haven't +any wish to deny it," Priscilla repeated, as Claire gasped hysterically. +"Everybody who knows me knows that Peggy's my best friend." + +"And what about me?" The tragic tone of Claire's inquiry threw its +absurdity into temporary eclipse. "I'm nobody, I suppose. I can just be +set aside when it suits your pleasure. And you called yourself my +friend." + +"Why, Claire," Peggy began, throwing herself into the breach with her +usual irresistible impulse toward peacemaking, but, to the angry girl, +this well-meant interference was additional provocation. "Oh, don't you +say anything," she cried, turning savagely on the would-be pacificator. +"You ought to be satisfied. It's all your fault." + +"My fault!" The accusation was too preposterous to be taken seriously. +Peggy could not keep from smiling. + +"Oh, yes, I don't wonder that you laugh," exclaimed Claire, finding in +that involuntary twitching of the lips new fuel for her wrath. "It's +what you've been plotting all the time, and now you've done it, so, of +course, you're satisfied." + +Peggy's impulse to laughter had passed. She turned rather pale, and sat +silent, not deigning to reply to such a charge, while Claire rushed on +recklessly. "Of course, after this, nothing would induce me to stay in +this house another night." + +"I should hope not," remarked Priscilla with deadly coldness. She might +have forgiven Claire's attack on herself, but such treatment of Peggy +was not to be overlooked. The eyes of the two girls met like clashing +swords. + +But in spite of Claire's declaration that nothing would induce her to +spend another night at Dolittle Cottage, when it was ascertained that +the first train on which she could take her departure left at ten +o'clock next morning, she did not seek the hospitality of Mrs. Snooks' +roof, nor even suggest sleeping on the lawn. After her first paroxysm of +anger was over, she became abnormally and painfully polite, begged +everybody's pardon for nothing at all, and proffered extravagant thanks +for the simplest service. She declined to come down to supper on the +pretext that she was too busy packing. And when Peggy carried up a +well-laden tray, Claire received her with courteous protests. + +"Oh, dear me! You shouldn't have done that. I had no idea of your taking +any trouble on my account. I'm not at all hungry, you know." Claire +would have given much for sufficient strength of will to refuse to taste +another morsel of food in Dolittle Cottage, but being angry is, +unluckily, no safeguard against being hungry. + +As a matter of fact, the voice of Claire's appetite was too insistent to +allow her to give herself the satisfaction of haughtily declining to +profit by Peggy's thoughtfulness. "Just set the tray down anywhere," she +continued, packing ostentatiously, "and if I get time and feel like it, +I'll eat a mouthful." And Peggy departed, relieved by her sincere +conviction that no one in the cottage would go to bed without a +satisfactory evening meal. + +As Claire was to leave at ten, and Elaine arrived at eleven, it was but +natural that the girls who were to meet the new arrival should accompany +the departing guest on the four-mile drive to the station. Indeed, if +they depended on the stage, it was necessary that they should go +together, as this conveyance made but one trip a day in each direction. +Peggy did not wish to delegate to any of the other girls the +responsibility of meeting Elaine, whom she regarded as her especial +guest, and since Claire had come to the cottage on Priscilla's +invitation, Peggy felt that it devolved on Priscilla to see her off, in +spite of the unfortunate termination of the visit. + +"As for seeing her off, I shall be glad enough to do that," declared +Priscilla, who, now that her tongue was loosed, was atoning for many +days of repression. "But, Peggy, I don't see how I can stand a four-mile +drive with that girl." + +"I'll be there too, honey, and with the stage driver listening to every +word, we can't talk about anything except the scenery. Please come, +Priscilla. Don't give her any excuse for thinking that you haven't done +everything that could possibly be expected of you." + +Accordingly, the stage calling the next morning found three passengers +awaiting its arrival, and the keenly observant driver, who occasionally +turned his head, and proffered an observation, in case the conversation +languished, must have formed an entirely new conception of girls of +seventeen. Had they all been seventy, and the merest acquaintances, they +could not have treated one another with more precise politeness, nor +have conversed with greater decorum. Altogether, Priscilla had some show +of reason for referring later to the drive as "ghastly." Unluckily, +Claire's train was thirty minutes late, and the tension was accordingly +prolonged for that length of time. As Peggy attempted to make +conversation out of such material as the weather and the time Claire +would reach home, Priscilla was reflecting that if she were obliged to +wait much longer she would disgrace herself either by laughing or by +crying, or by indulging in both diversions at one and the same moment. + +But the whistle sounded in time to save Priscilla's hardly tried +self-control. The girls shook hands primly. Peggy and Priscilla wished +Claire a pleasant journey. Claire replied by effusive thanks. At length, +to the relief of all three, she handed her suitcase to an obsequious +porter and stepped aboard the Pullman. + +"Now be ready," Peggy cried, clutching Priscilla's arm. "Wave your hand +if she looks out." But Claire did not deign so much as a glance at her +late companions, and the train which bore her out of the heart of the +green hills, carried her forever out of the lives of the two who watched +her departure. + +The girls seated themselves on one of the station benches to await +Elaine's train. Peggy was a little sober, for unjustified as she knew +Claire's suspicions to be, she could not help asking herself how it was +that she had gained so little of Claire's confidence in a summer's +association. And Priscilla's face, too, was overcast, but for a +different reason. + +"Peggy," she exclaimed abruptly, "do you know I feel as if I'd been +looking at myself in the mirror." + +"Then you ought to feel more cheerful than you look," returned Peggy +with a sweeping glance, and a smile, designed to express her conviction +that Priscilla was an unusually handsome girl. + +But Priscilla was not to be turned aside by the little compliment. "It +isn't any reason to be cheerful. I mean, Peggy, that this affair with +Claire has just helped to show me what I'm like myself." + +Peggy broke into excited protests, to which Priscilla listened unmoved. + +"It's exactly the same thing. I've been jealous of Elaine in just the +same way she has been jealous of you. And both of us called it love, +when all the time it was just the meanest kind of selfishness. I wonder +why it is that your faults never look very bad till you see them in +somebody else." + +"If you imagine that you're like Claire Fendall," interjected Peggy, +seething with indignation, "you're badly mistaken, that's all." + +But glad as Priscilla would have been to accept the comforting assurance +she shook her head with decision. "It's exactly the same thing," she +insisted. "But I really hope--Why, Peggy, what's the matter?" + +If Peggy's convulsive movement had not been sufficient to account for +the startled question, the expression of her face was abundant ground +for the inquiry. "Why, Peggy," Priscilla repeated in real consternation, +"what is it? What has happened?" + +"I never thought of it till this minute. She's spoiled everything." + +"Who? Claire? What has she spoiled?" + +"Our play," groaned Peggy. "It comes off on Tuesday, and has been +advertised in the last three issues of the _Arena_. We can't +possibly find anybody to take her place. What are we going to do?" + +"Dorothea Clarke played it last June. Why not telegraph for her to come +up. We just can't have a fizzle at the last minute." + +"Why, Dolly Clarke is in California! Somebody spoke of it in a letter +only last week." Peggy groaned again. "I wonder if Claire didn't think +that her going would spoil everything. Or if she just didn't care." + +Priscilla was inclined to favor the latter hypothesis, yet even in her +resentment she realized that any amount of criticism of Claire would not +save the situation. Vainly the girls grappled with the problem, to end +by looking at each other despairingly. + +When Elaine stepped off the train at eleven o'clock she was immediately +conscious of missing something in her welcome. It was not that Peggy did +not seem glad to see her, for the steadfast eyes that met her own were +beaming with affection. Priscilla too was unusually cordial. And yet +Elaine missed something, the spontaneous overflowing of light hearts. + +"What is it?" she asked, looking from one to the other, as the stage +driver went for her little trunk. "Is anybody ill? Is anything wrong? +Somehow you look--" + +Peggy and Priscilla exchanged glances. Peggy laughed. + +"We might as well tell her now as later. Perhaps when that's off our +minds, we'll be able to think of something else. You know, I wrote you +about the benefit we got up for Lucy Haines." + +"Yes, I know." + +"Well, we're going to give the little farce we learned for commencement +week. It happened that we four girls took all the principal parts but +one, and Claire Fendall agreed to take that. You were at one of our +rehearsals last spring, weren't you? Well, this was Adelaide's part." + +"Yes, I remember. The girl who was always losing her temper over +things." + +"Well, unluckily, Claire lost her temper over something, and went home +just an hour ago. And the play is for Tuesday night. We can't possibly +postpone it, because there is no way of getting word to the people. The +paper only comes out once a week. Did you ever hear of anything so +dreadful?" + +Elaine was musing. "If I remember, it isn't such a very long part." + +"Why, it isn't as long as Priscilla's or mine, but Adelaide is one of +the leading characters. She couldn't possibly be left out." + +"I didn't mean that. I was only going to suggest--" Elaine hesitated, +with a little of her old-time shyness. "I was only going to say that if +you couldn't do any better, I'd take the part." + +"Take the part?" Peggy looked at her friend in an amazement which +temporarily obscured her gratitude. "But we give the thing Tuesday +night." + +"Yes, I know." Elaine smiled a little at the conflict of hope and +incredulity written on Peggy's expressive face. "But I really have a +very quick memory, Peggy, though I don't retain things as long as lots +of other people. And before I came to Friendly Terrace I took part in +school theatricals quite often. I can't promise to distinguish myself, +but I'm sure I can get through the part and save the day." + +And then, to Elaine's secret amazement, it was Priscilla's arm that went +about her waist, and Priscilla's voice that cried, with a thrill of +sincerity there was no mistaking: + +"Oh, Peggy, isn't it splendid to have her here?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +PEGGY MAKES A SPEECH + + +The great occasion was at hand. Assisted by Joe and Jerry, the girls had +spent most of the day in the schoolhouse, with results that surprised +themselves. The platform had been slightly enlarged, to meet the +exigencies of a dramatic representation. Curtains of various colors and +material provided dressing-rooms for the actors, on either side of the +stage. A screen brought from Dolittle Cottage hid from view the +blackboards back of the spot usually occupied by the teacher's desk. A +rug covered the pine boards of the platform, while a few chairs, a small +table and a fern in a brass jardinier produced the homelike effect the +girls were after. Jerry was immensely proud of the curtain, which, +thanks to the pulleys he had arranged, worked as smoothly as if it had +been a professional curtain, instead of belonging strictly to the +amateur class. Peggy suspected that down in his heart Jerry believed +that curtain to be the most important and appealing feature of the +prospective entertainment. + +While the girls labored at the schoolhouse, Elaine sat on the porch of +Dolittle Cottage, and studied her part with such fixed attention as to +be completely oblivious to the charm of her surroundings. When Peggy +came hurrying home to look after the dinner she groaned +self-reproachfully at the sight of Elaine's furrowed brow, and silently +moving lips. + +"It's a perfect shame! You came up here for a rest, and the first thing +we do is to set you to work--and such hard work." + +"Two days of it won't hurt me," Elaine returned buoyantly. "And you +know, Peggy, I'm ever so glad to help out." But it was quite unlikely +that Peggy realized the satisfaction Elaine experienced in the knowledge +that her opportune arrival meant the success of Peggy's scheme. Elaine +had a deep-rooted antipathy to being under obligations, a characteristic +which has its root in wholesome independence, though it may easily be +carried too far. Nothing could have promised better for her enjoyment of +her little holiday than this unexpected opportunity to turn the tables +on her hostesses, and become the benefactor. + +Although two days seemed a very short time for mastering her part, +Elaine felt confident that she would make no serious slip. Her memory +was quick, and responded to the spur of necessity. If her attention +wandered even for a minute, she caught herself up, realizing how much +depended on her application. Luckily the _role_ appealed to her, +and for that reason was more readily memorized. Though she had prefaced +her offer with the assurance that she should not distinguish herself in +the part, she began to be hopeful that she would be able to do more than +repeat the lines mechanically. + +As the critical hour approached, Elaine was perhaps the least nervous of +any of the household, and she gleaned more than a little amusement from +the efforts of the others to reassure her. "You know I'll be right there +with the book," said Aunt Abigail, who had accepted the important post +of official prompter. "So it won't be a serious matter if you forget." +The others had similar encouragement to offer, some of it mingled with +good counsel. "Don't lose your head if you get tangled up," Peggy warned +her. "Because the rest of us know our parts perfectly, and we can go on +with it, even if something is left out." And Elaine, while agreeing not +to lose her head, promised herself the satisfaction of surprising the +doubters. + +Early as the girls reached the schoolhouse, they were not the first +arrivals. Farmer Cole's Joe, transformed almost beyond recognition, by +what he would have designated as a "boiled shirt" and a high collar, had +already quite a little pile of tickets and silver ranged on the table +before him. Jerry and his orchestra were in their places. Jerry's +hand-painted necktie was, of course, in evidence, while the pointed +shoes creaked whenever he moved, as if in protest against the exacting +service that was being required of them at their time of life. The +Dolittle Cottage girls hurried past the observant eyes, and in the +improvised dressing-rooms found Lucy and Rosetta Muriel awaiting them. +Resentfully Rosetta Muriel had dressed according to Peggy's +specifications, black dress and ruffled white apron, with a jaunty cap +perched on her fair hair. Then she had viewed herself in the mirror and +had experienced the surprise of her life. + +"Why, I look real pretty!" exclaimed Rosetta Muriel staring, but there +was no vanity in the observation. Rosetta Muriel announced it as a +scientist would proclaim the news of some discovery in physics. She +tested the accuracy of her impression by the help of a hand-mirror. She +had not been mistaken. "I really look pretty," repeated Rosetta Muriel, +and, for the first time in her life, realized the aesthetic possibilities +of simplicity. + +Her lingering grudge against Peggy in part dissipated by her scientific +discovery, vanished completely when Peggy removed the rain-coat and the +heavy veil which had obscured her charms. Peggy's make-up was very +successful in effacing every suggestion of youth and girlish prettiness. +Artistically designed wrinkles made her look seventy-five at the least +computation, and suggested in addition, a quarrelsome disposition. +Rosetta Muriel took one look, and gave way to giggles. + +"My goodness, but you _are_ a sight," said Rosetta Muriel, entirely +forgiving Peggy for the prohibition of the apple-green silk. "Is that a +wig you've got on?" + +"Nothing but corn-starch," replied Peggy, piling her wraps in the +corner. "Now, Elaine, you see, Aunt Abigail will sit right here, so you +needn't be one bit nervous about forgetting. Hear the people coming. I +believe we're going to have a full house." + +This pleasant expectancy was confirmed by the continued and increasing +shuffling of feet over the bare schoolhouse floor and the hum of voices. +The time of waiting was somewhat trying for all the performers, +especially for the novices. Lucy Haines, whose part consisted of a dozen +sentences or less, grew gradually paler and paler, till she looked like +anything but a footlight favorite. Rosetta Muriel smoothed her apron and +adjusted her cap with the regularity of clockwork, till it began to look +as if both these serviceable articles would be worn out before the +little bell gave the signal for drawing the curtain. + +All at once the hum of voices outside took on a menacing volume. Behind +the curtain the girls were unable to distinguish a word, but judging +from the sound, an altercation was in progress. "What can be the +matter?" demanded Peggy, turning a startled face on the others. + +"Nothing to worry about, child," said Aunt Abigail soothingly. "Probably +some of those young farmers are having some noisy fun." But the loud +voices did not impress Peggy as suggesting good-natured nonsense. And +her apprehensions were presently confirmed by Jerry Morton, who slipped +under the curtains and came hurrying toward her. The boy's face was +flushed, and he was breathing fast. + +"It's that Cherry Creek crowd," he exclaimed. "They're going to spoil +everything." + +"The Cherry Creek crowd?" Peggy repeated in bewilderment. "Oh, I +remember." Vaguely she recalled the little settlement scattered along +the banks of Cherry Creek and taking its name from that unassuming +stream. In the opinion of Peggy's neighbors, the young people of Cherry +Creek were a distinctly inferior class. Peggy had been inclined to set +this down to prejudice. In view of the demonstrations outside, she began +to think that possibly she had been mistaken. + +"A crowd of 'em drove over," continued the exasperated Jerry, "and +more's coming. And they say they won't pay any admission, 'less they can +have seats. They say it's our business to have seats for everybody, the +way we've been advertising this here show." + +In spirit Peggy groaned. It appeared that the too obliging _Weekly +Arena_ had overshot the mark. + +"It's going to spoil everything to have them standing up there at the +back of the room," repeated Jerry. "They'll get to fooling, and +shuffling 'round. They wouldn't like anything better than to upset the +whole show. I'll bet that's what they came for." + +"What are we going to do?" Peggy wrinkled her brows in the effort to +decide the question. + +"Joe says he's ready to take a hand in throwing out the whole bunch. +There's some of our fellows here, good and husky, who'll help. But he +says if we do that, we ought to do it quick, before the rest of the +crowd gets here." + +"Certainly _not_." And as Peggy vetoed one suggestion, her groping +brain seized on another. "Jerry, how far is Cherry Creek?" + +"Eight miles, the nearest houses. Why can't they stay to home and get up +their own shows, 'stead of coming all this way to spoil ourn?" + +Peggy's answer was unexpected. She pushed past Jerry, mounted to the +platform, and pulling aside the curtain, stepped out before the uneasy +audience. A characteristic of leadership is the ability to dispense with +advice in a crisis. At that minute Peggy did not need to ask whether she +were right. + +The clamorous voices died down at her appearance. There was an instant +of astonished silence, and then a roar of laughter. The laugh was +something on which Peggy had not counted, and for a moment, she was +completely bewildered. Peggy was on too good terms with her fellow +beings to be afraid of them in bulk, but she had forgotten that her +grotesque appearance would naturally create amusement, and the roar of +laughter took her unawares. For the first and only time in her life, she +knew the meaning of stage-fright. + +Then her momentary confusion passed. The faces which for a long moment +had seemed blended in one gigantic face, jeering and unfriendly, +regained their individuality. She saw them looking up at her with +interest. The uproar was quieting. She took a fresh grip on her +self-control, and as she regained the mastery of herself, she knew that +she was mistress of the situation. + +"Ladies and Gentlemen!" + +The clear, girlish voice, in combination with Peggy's aged appearance, +was incongruous enough to create further laughter, had the audience not +been too interested to hear what she was about to say, again to +interrupt. + +"Ladies and Gentlemen, first of all, I want to thank you for coming. All +of you know, I'm pretty sure, that the proceeds of this entertainment go +to help one of your own girls who wants an education. And the way you've +turned out shows how glad you all are to help." + +She paused an instant, to be sure that the time had come to broach her +proposition. The aspect of her listeners was reassuring. Nearly every +face raised to hers was smiling. Even the Cherry Creekers wore an air of +conscious virtue. + +"But, Ladies and Gentlemen, there is one little embarrassment we hadn't +counted on, an embarrassment of riches, you might call it. There are too +many people here for the schoolhouse. A number are standing, and it +would be impossible for them to enjoy an entertainment as long as this +without having seats." + +The smiles vanished as Peggy approached the delicate point. The Cherry +Creekers no longer looked virtuous, but rather defiant. + +"Now, I'm going to make a suggestion, Ladies and Gentlemen. Part of our +audience has come quite a long way. We don't want them to go home +without seeing what they came for. But you who live near could come out +to-morrow night. Now I'm going to ask those of you who live in the +neighborhood to give your seats up to the friends who have come so far +for the sake of helping us." (Sensation in the audience.) "Your money +will be returned as you pass out, and we shall hope to see every one of +you here to-morrow evening. Positively no postponement, Ladies and +Gentlemen, on account of the weather." + +The silence that followed was of the briefest possible duration. In nine +cases out of ten, a frank, tactful appeal to the generosity of an +American crowd proves successful. Somebody started to clap, and all at +once the schoolhouse shook with applause, even the disappointed +succumbing to the contagion and clapping as enthusiastically as any one. +And then when Mr. Silas Robbins rose to his feet and ushered his wife +and daughter from the building, the crisis was safely past. + +What with returning the money of half the audience, and receiving the +quarters of the other half, for the Cherry Creek crowd was making haste +to pay up, Farmer Cole's Joe had his hands full. He reached for his +money box as the Robbins family filed past, but the head of the house +checked him with a genial gesture. + +"Never you mind the money, Joe," said Mr. Robbins. "That girl's speech +was wuth it. She's a corker." He chuckled admiringly. "The way she can +get 'round folks and make 'em do as she says beats the Dutch. If she was +a boy now, it's dollars to doughnuts that she'd get to be president." He +went on his way, still chuckling, and at the door encountered the second +delegation from Cherry Creek. + +It was doubtless due to the earlier excitements of the evening that +Peggy came so near disaster later. They had reached the second act most +successfully, and the audience had laughed at every suggestion of a +joke, and when the curtain was drawn, had joined in tumultuous applause, +piercing cat-calls blending euphoniously with the clapping of hands, and +the stamping of feet. And then Peggy, who knew the entire comedy from +beginning to end, and could have taken any part at five minutes' notice, +stumbled in her lines, and to her horror, found her mind a blank. + +She looked toward Aunt Abigail, but unluckily the prompter had been so +carried away by her enjoyment of the presentation, that she was +listening delightedly, quite unmindful of her professional duties. As +she met Peggy's appealing gaze, she started violently, and an excited +flutter of leaves conveyed to Peggy the unwelcome information that Aunt +Abigail had lost her place. + +Oddly enough, it was Elaine who came to the rescue. In playing her part, +practically without rehearsals, Elaine had found it necessary to +familiarize herself with the general dialogue of the little comedy. +While the other girls stood stricken dumb by the realization that Peggy +had forgotten, the opening sentence of the deferred speech flashed into +Elaine's mind. "'But I demand the proof,'" she said in a sharp whisper. + +Instantly Peggy was herself again. "But I demand the proof," she cried, +and swept commandingly toward the centre of the stage. The pause, which +had seemed such a long hiatus to the little group on the platform, was +hardly noticed by the audience. Aunt Abigail glued her eyes to the page +and did not look away again till the next intermission. Peggy gave +herself a mental shaking and her fellow actors took a long breath, while +the audience laughed delightedly, quite unaware of the little by-play. + +Not till the second act was finished, and Jerry's orchestra was +rendering a spirited Spanish fandango, a score of feet beating time, did +Peggy find opportunity to express her sense of obligation. + +"You darling!" She caught Elaine in her arms, and hugged her mightily. +"That's twice you've pulled us out of a hole. If the audience knew all +that we do, they'd pick Adelaide for the star of this performance." And +indeed, considering the disadvantages under which Elaine had labored, +Peggy's generous tribute was hardly exaggerated. + +The play was repeated on the second evening to an equally crowded and +appreciative house. Indeed, the audience which had obligingly retired in +favor of the visitors from a distance, reaped the reward of its +generosity, for the second performance was distinctly better than the +first. Lucy and Rosetta Muriel, who had gained confidence from one +public appearance, spoke their few lines in distinct, audible voices, +which was as much as the parts required. Elaine had had one more day to +study her part, and was able to do it better justice than on the +preceding evening. As for Peggy, since her thoughts were not distracted +by the necessity of making a speech, she was in as little danger of +forgetting her lines, as of forgetting her name. + +On the whole, they had every reason to congratulate one another, and +when the audience had dispersed, the performers lingered with a few +outsiders especially interested, to say again and again, how well +everything had gone off, and how pleased every one had seemed. And Joe +added convincing testimony to the correctness of the verdict. + +"When folks pay more than they've _got_ to pay for a thing, it +comes pretty near being a success. Why, there was a half a dozen said to +me they didn't care for no change, and two of 'em were Cherry Creekers. +What do you think of that? And Deacon Bliss, he paid three admissions +with a five-dollar bill, and said it was all right." + +"How much do you think we've made, Joe?" Peggy asked. + +"Well, I've just been counting it up. The tickets cost a dollar fifty, +and Jerry spent a little for wire and stuff for the curtain. But I guess +you've got, above all that, as much as forty dollars." + +Peggy turned and looked at Lucy Haines. Silently Lucy looked back at +her. And without a word on the part of either, it was plain that one had +spoken and the other answered. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A PLAIN TALK + + +There was trouble in the poultry yard. Whether over-indulgence in a +grasshopper diet was accountable, or the responsibility was to be laid +at the door of early morning rambles through damp grass, Peggy was not +sure, but the condition of the three chickens still under the charge of +the yellow hen was plainly alarming. The wretched little creatures +hardly had strength to peep, still less to follow their energetic mother +on the excursions she showed no intention of relinquishing, out of +regard to the health of her family. Peggy found it necessary again to +confine her to the small coop she had occupied previously, and the +yellow hen indicated her dissatisfaction with the cramped quarters. +While she thrust her long neck through the slats and scolded +clamorously, her family of three stood about in varying attitudes of +dejection, indifferent to the corn-meal mush Peggy spread lavishly +before them. + +The neighborhood authorities, whom Peggy naturally consulted, pronounced +the chickens suffering from "pip" and prescribed weird remedies. Jerry +Morton was appealed to along with the rest, and surprised Peggy by +professing complete ignorance of the subject. + +"I've heard my grandmother talk about the pip, but I don't know what +it's like. I don't know nothing about chickens anyway." + +"That's queer," remarked Peggy musingly, "when you know so much about +birds." + +"Oh, birds!" The boy's face lighted up. "Birds is different. They've got +their own way of doing things, and one kind ain't any more like another +than folks is. You ought to see a pair of old birds teaching a young one +to fly. If he hasn't got spunk enough to get out of the nest himself, +they'll push him over, and then they'll fly around him, and keep on +talking and talking and saying how easy it is, and show him how. And +then when he tries they praise him up, as if he was a perfect wonder, +and he begins to think he's pretty smart himself." Jerry chuckled, as if +recalling such a scene as he was so vividly describing, and Peggy +watched him thoughtfully but without speaking. She had learned long +before that Jerry was most likely to discuss the subjects nearest his +heart when stimulated by silent attention. + +"Some people talk as if folks was the only things with sense," Jerry +continued, "but seems to me they've got about the least. Why, you can't +lose a bird or a bee. And the orneriest little spider knows enough to +play dead if you poke him. Inside he's pretty near scared to death, but +he's got too much sense to cut and run the way a man would. He curls up +his legs, and makes himself look withered up, so you'll say, 'Oh, +shucks! he's dead already. What's the use of killing him over again?'" + +Peggy's smile proved her to be paying close attention, and Jerry went +on. "Now, most folks think one bird's as good as another. Why, there's +thieves and robbers among birds same as men. A blue-jay's one of the +worst, and my, how the other birds hate him! Once I saw a whole crowd of +'em chasing a jay. It was a reg'lar bird mob, all kinds in it, thrushes +and cat-birds, and robins, and song-sparrows. They were all small birds +'longside of the jay, but together they were too much for him, I can +tell you. And he dodged and ducked around till he see 'twasn't no use, +and then he dropped what he'd stole and they let him go." + +"And what had he stolen?" asked Peggy. + +"A little bird just hatched out of some nest. You needn't tell me that +birds don't have a language. The father and mother, they hollered to +some of their neighbors that a jay was 'round kidnapping, and the chase +started. And every bird they met, they'd say, 'Come on, boys! Let's make +it hot for this old robber.' And they did too." Jerry caught himself up, +and cast a suspicious glance at Peggy's attentive face. He had early +learned to keep to himself the dialogues he imagined as taking place +between his friends of field and forest, as any attempts at confidence +on his part had invariably called out derision or reproof. He was glad +to assure himself that Peggy was listening respectfully, though he +realized that her silence had lured him on to say much more than he had +intended. + +"Jerry," remarked Peggy, breaking the brief pause that had fallen +between them, "did you ever hear of Audubon?" + +"What's that? Do you mean the language for everybody to learn, so that +Japs and Dagoes and us folks can talk together, same as if we'd been +raised 'longside each other?" + +"Oh, no! That's Volapuk you're talking about, Jerry. Audubon was a man." + +"Oh!" Apparently Jerry had lost interest. + +"And the reason I wondered if you knew about him is that sometimes you +remind me of him." + +"Oh!" And the change in Jerry's inflection showed the change in his +mental attitude. + +"Yes, he loved birds just as you do. Dick had to write a composition +about Audubon last spring, and I helped him in reading up for it. That's +how I happen to know so much about him." + +With this preface Peggy began. The life of the great ornithologist would +need to be told very unsympathetically, not to be a dramatic and +appealing recital. The story of the enthusiast who found no toil irksome +which furthered his research, however unreliable he might prove in the +humdrum occupation of earning a livelihood, was calculated to impress +the boy who realized that his matter-of-fact neighbors had long before +catalogued him as a thriftless ne'er-do-well. The great man's hardships, +his persistence, and his prosperous and honored old age, made up a +fascinating story. Peggy, noticing the effect upon her listener, was +more than satisfied. + +"Well, he got there, didn't he?" Jerry kicked a pebble out of his way, +and frowned reflectively. "I guess the folks that thought him a +good-for-nothing must 'a' been surprised." + +"But there were a great many who believed in him," Peggy suggested. "I +think he was very fortunate in his friends. In fact, that was one of the +things that helped him. He made friends wherever he went." + +"Well, that ain't like me." Jerry's tone indicated a grim satisfaction +in the extent of his unpopularity, which Peggy recognized as a bad sign. + +"That's a pity," she said gravely. "Because nobody's big enough to get +along all by himself. Everybody needs friends to help him." + +Jerry became meditative. That he had rightly interpreted the meaning of +Peggy's story, and applied it as she wished, was apparent when he broke +out impatiently, "Why, if I should try to draw pictures of birds, folks +would just laugh at me. I couldn't make 'em look like anything." + +"No, I suppose not. Audubon had to learn. That's another mistake of +yours, Jerry, to think that you can get along without books and +teachers. You've found out a lot by yourself, but that's no reason why +you shouldn't have the help of all the things other people have been +discovering. It's just as I said about friends. Everybody can help, and +everybody needs to be helped." + +"I'm too old to go to school," Jerry replied despondently. And the +answer, coupled with his dejected manner, was to Peggy an indication of +a success she had hardly dared to hope for. Jerry realized his lacks. +The armor of his complacency had been pierced. Then there was hope for +him. + +"How old are you, Jerry?" + +"Sixteen in September." He hung his head, as if ashamed of his advanced +years. And at Peggy's laugh, his face flushed hotly. + +"The reason that sounds so funny," Peggy explained, "is because I was +thinking of a friend of my father's. He's a college professor, and +sometimes he comes to visit us in his vacation. He was twenty when he +first learned to read and write. How's that for a late start? And see +where he's got to!" + +Jerry leaned toward her confidentially. "It's this way," he said. "I +wouldn't mind going to school if it 'twasn't for ringing in with a lot +of kids. I couldn't stand that, you know." He looked at Peggy, expectant +of her ready sympathy. But to his surprise, her lip had curled slightly. +"Oh, of course," she said, "if you're afraid--" + +"Afraid!" Jerry flung back his head. "Me! I'm not afraid of nothing. Did +I ever show you the rattle I got off that big snake I killed? That +doesn't look much as if I was easy scared." + +"I didn't know," returned Peggy, quite unmoved, "but that you might be +afraid of being made fun of." + +Jerry had nothing to say. Peggy proceeded to occupy the interval of +silence. + +"A boy graduated at one of our high schools a year ago, who had plenty +of pluck, I thought. He came from Russia, a Jew, you know, and when he +got here he couldn't speak a word of English. He was fourteen then, and +they started him in the first grade. That was the only thing to do, I +suppose. Well, it really was a funny sight to see him going into school +with those first-grade tots. He was a big boy for his age, and he had to +curl himself up to sit at one of those tiny desks, so he must have been +awfully uncomfortable. And, of course, it looked queer. If he'd been a +cowardly sort of boy," observed Peggy significantly, "I suppose he would +have given up." + +Jerry made no comment, unless an uneasy movement might have been +interpreted as such. + +"But he didn't give up, and after a few months he was promoted to the +second grade. And it took him even less time to get into the third. And +then it got so that we'd ask every morning what grade David had been +promoted to. Instead of laughing at him, everybody was proud of him." + +Still no comment on Jerry's part. + +"Well, as I said, he graduated from the high school a year ago last +spring. He stood second in his class. The boy who was ahead of him is +the son of a circuit judge. David was nineteen. In five years he had +gone from the very beginning to the end of the high school course. Now +he's in college, and I don't know what he'll do after he graduates, but +I'm sure it will be something fine. Don't you think that's better than +being afraid of being laughed at, and settling down to be an ignorant +laborer all his life?" + +"Oh, I guess it's all right, if he felt like it." Jerry spoke with an +elaborate carelessness. "Well, I must be going." There was a trace of +resentment in his tone, more than a trace in his heart. Jerry's high +opinion of Peggy had originally sprung from her appreciation of his good +qualities. It was a rather painful surprise to find that she recognized +his lacks. In fact, Jerry was inclined to think that she exaggerated +them. + +"I ain't no coward, just because I don't want to be cooped up in school +with a lot of kids," he told himself angrily, as he walked away. Yet his +morning's talk with Peggy had clouded his spirits. Long before Jerry had +come to accept with cheerful philosophy the disapproval of his +neighbors. They understood crops and dairying. He understood birds and +trees, and, in his own opinion, he was at no disadvantage in the +comparison, but rather the opposite. He regarded their knowledge as +humdrum, and it did not disturb him that they looked on his acquisitions +as worthless. + +But with Peggy it was different. The naturalist who had impoverished +himself in his eagerness to study birds, she had held up to his +admiration as a great man. Jerry was sure that his neighbors would not +so estimate him. They would call him "shiftless," the adjective that had +been applied times without number to Jerry himself. Peggy approved such +research, and yet she found fault with him. She thought he needed the +help of the schools, of books, of friends. Undoubtedly she had implied +that he was a coward. Jerry winced at the recollection. + +"I don't have to go to school just to please her," Jerry boasted, but +his declaration of independence failed to assuage that curious +uneasiness that was almost pain. He had disappointed a friend. His +effort to forget that fact in manufacturing resentment against Peggy +proved quite unsuccessful. + +As for Peggy, she watched the vanishing figure rather ruefully, and was +inclined to think her morning's effort wasted, if not worse. Like most +amateur gardeners, Peggy was fond of immediate results. She liked to see +shoots starting when the seed had hardly touched the soil, leaf and +blossom following with miraculous swiftness. Nature's slow processes +were trying to the patience. Peggy watched Jerry out of sight, and then, +her face unusually thoughtful, made her way to the front porch which +presented an unusually populous appearance that morning. The day was +rather warm, and a forenoon of idleness had appealed to the household as +preferable to a more strenuous form of entertainment. + +"Aren't they any better?" asked Elaine, noticing the gravity of her +friend's face, but misinterpreting it. + +"Who? Oh, the chickens." Peggy roused herself. "I can't say that I see +any improvement. And if there's anything that looks more sickly than a +sick chicken, I don't know its name." + +"Well, anyway, Freckles is perfectly healthy," Ruth said encouragingly. +"And it's all the more to your credit because you brought him up +yourself." Some time before, the speckled chicken had asserted his +individuality to such an extent that a name had seemed a necessity, and +after considerable canvassing of the matter, "Freckles" had received a +majority vote. Freckles had long ceased to impress the observer as a +pathetic object. He was an energetic, pin-feathery creature, noted +equally for his appetite and his pugnacity. Dorothy who had not +hesitated to bestride Farmer Cole's boar, and was absolutely fearless as +far as Hobo was concerned, retreated panic-stricken before Freckles' +advances. For owing to reasons not apparent, Freckles found an +irresistible temptation in Dorothy's slim, black-stockinged legs. + +Peggy shooed away the persistent Freckles, who had given up his designs +upon the gravel walk at her approach, and was pecking frantically at her +shoe-buttons, evidently under the impression that they were good to eat. +"Oh, he's healthy enough," she replied. "It begins to look as if he'd be +all I'd have to show for my poultry raising experiment, and I had it all +planned out how I'd spend the money for the whole eighteen chickens." +Peggy joined in the laugh against herself before she added cheerily: +"Well, even if air-castles tumble down, it's fun to build them." + +"And to build them over again," suggested Aunt Abigail with a smile. +"Like castles little children build out of blocks." + +It was fortunate that Peggy was able to take so philosophic a view of +the situation, for, before night, two of the little sufferers had +succumbed to their malady, and the yellow fowl, who could not wholly +disclaim responsibility for the misfortunes of her family, was left a +hen with one chicken. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE CASTAWAYS + + +It really began to look as if Jerry were seriously offended. For several +days there had been no fresh fish at Dolittle Cottage. Peggy reproached +herself for having gone too fast. "I ought to have told him about +Audubon and David and let it soak in awhile. But when he started to talk +about going to school, there didn't seem any way out of saying what I +thought." + +Jerry's prolonged absence was very annoying to Peggy. Five minutes face +to face, she felt sure, would straighten out the tangle. Peggy had a not +unreasonable confidence in the efficacy of kindly frankness. If Jerry +once understood the friendliness of her criticism, it was impossible +that he should cherish a grudge against her. + +As a matter of fact, the mood which accounted for Jerry's aloofness was +no more puzzling to Peggy than to Jerry himself. His first resentment of +her criticism had burned itself out for lack of fuel, and had been +succeeded by a restlessness unappeased by hours of tramping and +climbing. For the first time since he could remember, Jerry found +himself looking ahead, questioning the future. In spite of his real +ability and his freedom from the more outbreaking faults, Jerry had been +progressing steadily toward utter worthlessness, by the simple but +effective method of always obeying the whim of the moment. The old +grandmother with whom he lived had long before given up all attempt to +control the boy, who was generally good-natured when allowed to do +exactly as he pleased. Jerry enjoyed himself, kept busy in his own way +and returned the disapproval of the community with interest. + +Under the influence of the girls at Dolittle Cottage, and of Peggy in +particular, Jerry's attitude toward the world had been gradually +changing. He found to his surprise that he liked to be liked. The +courteous attitude of these strangers had raised him in his own +estimation. The frequent appearance of the hand-painted necktie and the +pointed shoes--both of which had belonged to Jerry's father--was +indicative of a change that went deep. + +The part he had taken in Lucy Haines' benefit had also had its share in +his development. Strange to say, the extent of Jerry's musical +attainments had proved a surprise, even to the people who had known him +from babyhood, and he had received more compliments since that occasion +than had fallen to his lot in his previous sixteen years of existence. +Whereupon Jerry made the discovery that the praise and admiration of +one's fellows is pleasanter than their disapproval, and his youthful +cynicism had weakened accordingly. + +The effect of Peggy's words on this new-born complacency was the havoc +of a hailstorm on premature buds. Just as he was beginning to enjoy the +flavor of approbation, his attention had been directed to his lacks and +shortcomings. He stayed away from Dolittle Cottage because his last +visit had been responsible for this present uneasy discomfort. He fished +and hunted, rose early, and wandered late, without succeeding in the +effort which older and wiser people have undertaken with equally poor +success, the attempt to escape from one's self. + +One of the Snooks children was waiting for him when he came home late +one afternoon. Mrs. Snooks had hesitated when Peggy had asked to use one +of the boys as a messenger, not being sure that the loaning of her +offspring for such a purpose was not contrary to her newly acquired +principles. The casual mention on Peggy's part of a dime to be awarded +the messenger, had settled the question satisfactorily, and little Andy +Snooks, digging his bare toes into the yielding earth, at last found the +chance to do his errand. + +"They's going to Snake River, them city girls. And She says--" Jerry did +not find the pronoun ambiguous--"She says will you drive 'em?" + +"I'm going to be busy." + +Little Andy stared unbelievingly. + +"They's baking turnovers and things. She gave me a cooky with a crinkled +edge. 'Twas good, too, you bet." + +"You tell 'em I'll be busy." Jerry pushed past Andy and entered the +house. He was astonished at the turmoil of his spirit. "Wish she'd let +me alone," he said fiercely. "I'm not bothering her none. I don't see +why she can't leave me be." + +Peggy received the concise report of her messenger with a little grimace +which hid a real disappointment. + +"The silly boy!" she mused. "Next time I'll go myself. I simply won't +stand his sulking. It's too absurd." Then she gave her attention to the +more immediate problem. + +"Well, girls, Jerry won't drive us and Lucy can't." Lucy Haines was +devoting herself to making her meagre wardrobe ready for the opening of +school, and for her a holiday was out of the question. "Now, what are we +going to do? Give it up?" + +An indignant chorus negatived that suggestion. "I used to know something +about driving," said Elaine, who seemed to have developed a remarkable +faculty for filling vacancies of almost any description. "But I +shouldn't like to try to manage spirited horses. Now what are you all +laughing at?" + +"You could hardly call Nat and Bess spirited," Peggy replied, when she +could make herself heard. "Not if you keep them away from hornets' +nests, anyway." She explained her qualification by telling the story of +the other memorable picnic, and the description of the two old horses +which Farmer Cole had placed at the disposal of the cottagers entirely +relieved Elaine's uncertainty. + +"I'll do it, then. I seem to be a regular Jack-at-a-pinch," she laughed. + +"You're an emergency girl, and I'm proud of you," Peggy declared. "The +wonder of it is that we've been able to get along without you this +summer. Now that you're here, you seem indispensable." + +Accordingly it happened that Jerry Morton, from a point of concealment +in the underbrush, watched a farm-wagon rattle past the following +morning, the faces of the occupants indicating high spirits, their +voices blending jubilantly, in spite of his rejection of the chance to +share the day's pleasure. "The new one's driving," Jerry said to +himself. "But then, they could tie the lines to the whip stock and them +two old plugs would take 'em there all right, just so they didn't fall +down on the way." It was a relief to him to know that his refusal had +not detracted from the pleasure of the company, and yet he was +inconsistent enough to resent the gay chatter and the unclouded +cheeriness of the smiling faces. He plunged back into the woods, well +aware that his surreptitious glimpse had not helped to ease that inner +disquiet. + +The drive scheduled for the morning was longer than that to Day's Woods, +but the charm of their destination was worth the extra effort. The spot +to which they had been directed was a knoll on the river's edge, crowned +by tall pine-trees, whose needles formed a fragrant carpet. Snake River +was an erratic stream, which, to judge from appearances, lived up to the +principle of always following the line of the least resistance. It +turned and twisted in fantastic curves, suggesting that the name Snake +River might have been applied because of its serpentine windings. +Charming little islands dotted its course, like green beads strung +irregularly upon a silver cord. To add to its attractions, there was a +dwelling near the knoll, with a barn where their horses could be cared +for, and the white-haired, rheumatic old man who led Nat and Bess away +to their well-earned oats, pointed out two canoes, fastened to a silver +birch at the river's edge, which could be rented for the moderate sum of +ten cents apiece for the entire day. + +As on all well-conducted picnics, luncheon came early, and then followed +the diversions which invariably contribute to the pleasure of such +festive occasions. The girls strolled in the woods, picked the showy, +scentless flowers, which had replaced the small, fragrant blossoms of +springtime, and took little excursions on the river, two to a canoe. The +strength of the current was something of a surprise. Ruth and Amy +floating down the stream, and barely dipping their paddles into the +water, had exclaimed over the ease of propelling the little bark. But +the attempt to return to their starting-point had proved that the +smoothly flowing water had a will of its own. The paddles were plied +vigorously, and the girls reached the birch-tree with little beads of +moisture showing at their temples, and an unusual color in their cheeks. + +"Another time I'd paddle up stream and float down," exclaimed Amy, +stepping ashore, and fanning herself with her hat. "I want my hard times +at the start. But who would have supposed that there was such a current +in this lazy old river?" + +Characteristically Peggy defended the reputation of the stream. "It's +not lazy a bit. Up here it winds around a good deal, but that's only its +playtime. Just a mile or two below are the falls, and I think the power +is carried quite a long way to some town for electric lights and that +sort of thing. So Snake River's really a worker." + +The drowsy hour of the afternoon had arrived. The breeze which had been +so fresh in the early morning had died down. The pine-trees on the knoll +rustled softly, and the sound was as soothing as a lullaby. "I believe +I'll feel better for a nap," said Aunt Abigail, and forthwith settled +herself on a steamer rug, spread out invitingly. The suggestion proved +popular, and the younger members of the party followed her example, +except that most of them stretched out luxuriously on the pine needles, +sun-warmed and fragrant. + +Dorothy looked about on the somnolent gathering with dismay. "Aunt +Peggy, I don't like sleepy picnics. I want to play tag." + +"Oh, it's too hot for tag, and, besides, you always squeal so when +you're caught that it would wake everybody up. Don't you want a tiny bit +of a nap?" Either because of the force of example, or because the +languor of the summer day was too much even for her energy, Peggy +herself was frankly sleepy. + +"But I can have naps to my house." Dorothy's chin quivered in her +disappointment, and Peggy surrendered with a laugh. + +"Naps are a kind of fun you can have almost anywhere, can't you, dear? +Well, we mustn't play tag, but we'll take one of the canoes and go on a +nice little expedition all by ourselves." + +Dorothy's face was radiant over the prospect of stealing a march on the +sleepers. She was on her feet in a moment, tiptoeing her way with +exaggerated caution. Amy opening one eye, saw the buoyant little figure +trip past, and wondered vaguely what was up, though in her state of +comfortable lethargy it seemed altogether too much trouble to inquire. + +"Now, you must sit as quiet as a mouse," warned Peggy, lifting Dorothy +into the canoe. "For these boats are the tippy kind. And this time we'll +go up stream instead of down." + +The twisting, winding river was unexpectedly alluring. Every bend Peggy +paddled past, the point just above beckoned her onward. Her temporary +drowsiness had disappeared, and she enjoyed her sense of discovery and +the exercise which was vigorous without being exhausting. Knowing that +the return would be both swift and easy, she did not hesitate to yield +to her new-born zeal for exploration, especially as Dorothy's face was +expressive of unalloyed satisfaction. + +"How pretty the river is here," Peggy exclaimed at last, breaking a +long, happy silence. "Prettier than below, if anything. Dorothy, aren't +you glad we're not sleeping away our chance to see all this?" + +"My mamma puts me to bed when I'm _naughty_," replied Dorothy, +thereby explaining her inability to regard sleep as a diversion. "And +I've been a good girl to-day." + +"We've both been good girls," boasted Peggy. "Too good to be sent to +bed. And oh, Dorothy, see that darling little island! What do you say to +landing and exploring?" + +Dorothy was ready to agree to anything which promised novelty and +excitement. Accordingly, Peggy paddled into the welcoming arms of a +miniature harbor, tied her craft to a convenient willow, and helped her +small niece ashore. + +Islands had always possessed for Peggy a peculiar fascination. The +smaller they were the better, from her standpoint, since with the larger +it was always necessary to remind one's self that they were not a part +of the mainland. On this particular island it was quite impossible to +forget for a moment that you were entirely surrounded by water. + +Peggy pursued her discoveries with zest. Considering its detached and +lonely state, the little island had conformed surprisingly to the ways +of the mainland. Peggy found flowers of the same varieties that she had +picked in the woods back of the knoll a little earlier. A blackberry +vine was heavily hung with fruit, though some of the berries were dry +and withered. Peggy noticed a bird's nest in a more exposed location +than the little builder would have chosen elsewhere, she was sure, and +she thought of the deductions Jerry would have drawn from this fact, and +smiled while she sighed. Poor Jerry! She must take him in hand, and +settle this absurd misunderstanding. + +"Aunt Peggy," piped Dorothy, trotting at her heels, "let's not 'splore +any longer. I don't like 'sploring." + +"Oh, I don't want to stop till I've seen everything, Dorothy. Be a good +girl and don't fret." + +But Dorothy did not feel like being a good girl. One of her rare wilful +moods had taken possession of her. She stood motionless, scowling at +Peggy's unconscious back, and then her little face overcast and +rebellious, she turned and made her way down to the willow and the +waiting canoe. The latter moved gently as the water rippled past. It +seemed to Dorothy to be tugging at its fastenings with an impatience +that matched her own. + +"You don't like 'sploring either, do you?" she said, addressing the +canoe in a confidential undertone. "And--and it's very naughty of Aunt +Peggy to want her own way all the time. I guess she'd be s'prised if we +went off and left her." + +The canoe repeated its wordless invitation. Dorothy drew closer, cast a +defiant glance behind her, and then set one small foot firmly on the +bottom of the uncertain craft. The responsive lurch was so unexpected +that she went over in a heap, luckily landing in the bottom of the +canoe, instead of in Snake River. She sat up, feeling a little +frightened, and under the necessity of excusing herself. + +"There, I didn't disobey Aunt Peggy, 'cept with one foot. I guess that +old canoe pulled me in its own self." + +Her complacency vanished with a startling discovery. The canoe had been +carelessly tied and the jar of her tumble had loosened it altogether. +Yielding to the current it began to move down the stream, and Dorothy's +alarm found vent in an ear-splitting shriek. + +"Aunt Peggy! Aunt Peggy!" + +Peggy came crashing through the bushes, startled by the summons, and yet +scarcely prepared for the sight which met her eyes. And then so rapidly +did things happen, that there seemed to be no time to be frightened. +For, at the first glimpse of her rescuer, foolish little Dorothy sprang +to her feet. As a matter of course the canoe overturned, throwing her +into the water. + +Peggy's instinctive leap took no account of the depth of the stream. She +could have drowned with Dorothy. It was quite impossible for her to +stand by and look on while Dorothy drowned. Luckily the water, though +deep at this point, was not over her head. She floundered to her feet +choking and blowing, and clutched desperately at a small, damp object +the current was sweeping past her. Instantly two arms went about her +neck in a frantic embrace. + +"Dorothy, don't hold so tight. I can't breathe." + +The appeal was useless. Dorothy was beyond heeding any admonition but +that of the blind instinct of self-preservation. Peggy would not have +believed that there was such strength in the slender little arms. +Gasping, and with reeling senses, she edged step by step nearer the +shore, groping with her disengaged hand for the sloping bit of beach +where she could deposit her burden. When at length her fingers came in +contact with the pebbly edge the bright summer world was a black mist +before her unseeing eyes. + +Luckily the contact with mother earth suggested to Dorothy that here was +something more stable than the swaying support to which she had been +clinging so desperately. Her hold relaxed, and a minute later she was +scrambling up the slope into the grass and bushes, caring for nothing +except to get as far as possible from the terrible water. Peggy caught +her breath, waited an instant for brain and vision to clear, and then, +with the aid of the obliging willow, climbed dripping from the stream. +For a minute or two she gave herself up to the luxury of being +frightened. Shuddering and sick, she gazed over her shoulder at the +rippling water, while one monotonous thought repeated itself over and +over in her brain like a chant. "She might have been drowned. I might +have been drowned. We might both have been drowned." Peggy was conscious +of an overwhelming, panic-stricken longing for her mother. + +Dorothy was sitting back in the bushes, crying with a lustiness which +suggested that no serious consequences were to be apprehended from her +plunge bath, beyond the possibility of taking cold. "I don't like +'sploring islands," she sobbed. "Let's go back, Aunt Peggy." + +Peggy turned sharply. Down the stream floated the overturned canoe, +already at a distance which made its recapture hopeless. A little in +advance was a white straw hat, a pert bow acting as a sail. Not till +that moment had it occurred to Peggy that her troubles were not yet +over. Her gratitude for her escape from death was tempered by irritated +dismay. + +"Why, Dorothy, we can't go back! We've got to wait till they come for +us. How provoking!" + +Nothing was to be gained by fretting, however, and luckily other matters +were soon absorbing Peggy's attention. She wrung the water from +Dorothy's drenched hair and clothing, and set her in the sun to dry, a +forlorn little figure of a mermaid. And then she performed a like +service for herself, stopping at intervals to lift her voice in a +ringing "Hal-loo!" + +"Oh, dear! We're going to be so late getting home," scolded Peggy. +"It'll be dark, and none of us know the roads very well." She looked +longingly at the point around which at any moment a canoe might appear. +"It's going to take some time to land us," she reflected, "as long as +these canoes can't carry any more than two. Oh, dear, Dorothy! How much +trouble you've made." And the pensive mermaid wept again, with the +submissive penitence which disarms censure. + +Over in the west above the treetops, the sky grew pink, deepened to +crimson, paled to ashes-of-roses. The sparkling lights on the water were +snuffed out one by one. The air was full of sounds, shrill-voiced +insects cheeping, the pipe of frogs, the twittering of birds seeking +their nests. + +The downward droop of the corners of Dorothy's mouth became more +pronounced. + +"I don't like that noise," she protested. "It sounds as if things were +all crying." + +Peggy hugged the little penitent close. She did not like the sound +herself. "You're pretty near dry, aren't you?" she said, trying to speak +lightly. + +Dorothy's answer was a grieved whimper, "Aunt Peggy, when are they +coming for us?" + +"I don't know, dear." The resolute cheerfulness of Peggy's tone gave no +hint of her inward perturbation. What did it mean, she asked herself. +What were the girls thinking of? It was growing dark. She tightened her +clasp about Dorothy and the disconsolate little maid snuggled her damp +head against Peggy's shoulder, and forgot her troubles in sleep. + +Little flickering lights began to play about the island, as the +fire-flies lit their fairy lamps. Overhead the stars came out. The warm +wind of the summer night sighed through the treetops, and the sad chorus +of humble earthly pipers answered from below. It seemed to Peggy as if +the dear familiar world with its cheery homes and friendly faces, had +been blotted out, and Dorothy and herself were alone on an unfamiliar +earth. Yet with all the strange, terrifying loneliness, the stars had +never seemed so bright nor the heavenly Father so near. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE RESCUE + + +The picnickers had slept late. Elaine was the first to wake, and she lay +for a moment staring at the tranquil sky above her, unable to understand +why she was not viewing the ceiling of her bedroom on Friendly Terrace. +Then recollection came, and she raised herself on her elbow just as Amy +opened her eyes. + +"Did Peggy call?" inquired Amy stretching lazily. "Is it time to wake +up?" + +"I didn't hear Peggy," Elaine admitted. "But I should say that it was +high time for us to be stirring, unless we're going to spend the night +here." + +At the sound of voices, one sleeper after another gave signs of +returning animation. Priscilla sat up languidly, glanced at the little +watch she wore on a leather strap about her wrist, and uttered a +surprised exclamation. + +"Why, it's five o'clock! I thought Peggy said we were to start back at +five." + +"We've slept away all the afternoon," Amy commented in some vexation, as +she jumped to her feet with an energy in striking contrast to her late +lassitude. "I don't see why Peggy didn't wake us." + +"Perhaps she didn't know how late it was getting." Priscilla, too, was +on her feet. "Peggy!" she called. "Oh, Peggy!" and then stood listening +vainly for the reply. + +"She took Dorothy and went somewhere," Amy explained. "That was the last +thing I saw. Oh, Peggy! Peggy Raymond!" + +Repeated calls were fruitless. "Perhaps she went to the barn to see +about the horses," was Aunt Abigail's contribution to the jumble of +suggestions, and Priscilla and Ruth promptly volunteered to test its +accuracy. They found that the rheumatic old man had Nat and Bess already +harnessed. + +"Somebody said you wanted 'em for five o'clock," he explained. "'Twasn't +neither of you two. A pretty girl in white." + +"Oh, yes, Peggy! But we can't find her. We thought perhaps she'd been +down here." + +As the rheumatic old man was unable to give them news of Peggy, the +girls returned to their companions at a pace which unconsciously grew +more and more rapid, as they discussed the situation. "Good joke on +Peggy," Ruth said with a little laugh. "Because she's always the one +that's on hand, no matter who's late." + +"Yes, it's certainly a joke on Peggy." And Priscilla also laughed with a +determined heartiness. But with all her air of amusement, she was +conscious of a vague uneasiness. + +Just as they reached the knoll they were met by Amy and Elaine. "She's +out in one of the canoes," Amy said quickly, before the others could +explain that their search had been without success. + +"Oh!" Priscilla's sigh was expressive of relief. "Well, she'd better +come in now. The old man has harnessed, and it's quite a little after +five." + +"We couldn't see her anywhere." Elaine took up the story as Amy was +silent. "But one of the canoes is gone, so, of course, she's taken +Dorothy for a little ride." + +The girls were chattering like blackbirds as they went down the slope to +the river. Elaine recalled Peggy's fondness for the water, and Amy +remarked that it was almost a relief to have Peggy behindhand for once, +she had such a mania for looking out for everybody else. The other girls +contributed observations equally important, and each tried to hide from +the others, if not from herself, the fact that her persistent and +voluble cheerfulness was designed to silence the uneasy whisperings of +an anxiety that was waxing stronger, moment by moment. + +Aunt Abigail was standing at the water's edge, straining her old eyes +this way and that. For the first time that summer she looked her full +age. + +"Call again, girls!" she commanded peremptorily. "It isn't at all like +Peggy to be so late, and worry us this way. I don't like it." + +It was really a relief to have some one voice an anxiety so that they +could all unite in demonstrating its utter unreasonableness. But to +relieve Aunt Abigail's mind, they shouted in chorus, "Peggy! Peg-gy +Raymond!" and heard as they listened, the echo repeating their summons +more and more faintly with each reiteration. That was all. No answering +cheery hail. No musical dip of the paddle in the stream. + +It was during one of these tense moments of listening that Elaine +started violently, and in spite of the sunburn, which in her case had +not had time to deepen into tan, she turned pale. Instantly she was +bombarded by excited questions. + +"What was it? What did you see, Elaine?" + +"Why, I guess it's nothing. You look, girls, that dark thing on the +water way over. It isn't--it can't be--" + +But it _was_ an overturned canoe. The rheumatic old man who had +come up with the team towed it ashore, in the wake of its sister bark. +As if in a dreadful dream, the girls heard the quavering tones of the +old voice, his gray head shaking the while. + +"Two of 'em, you say. The pretty girl in white and the little one. And +me a-waiting on, for I don't know what. It don't seem fair, somehow." + +It was ten o'clock that evening when Jerry Morton heard the news. Ill +tidings travel fast, even without the help of modern invention. One of +the Snooks boys, not Andy but Elisha, an older brother, brought the +word, and his manner was suggestive of a certain complacency as if he +felt that his own importance was increased by his momentous tidings. He +found Jerry sitting on the steps, though it was long past bedtime, his +chin on his hand, and his unblinking gaze fixed upon the stars, as if he +were trying to stare them out of countenance. + +"I don't b'lieve you've heard about the drownding." + +"What d'ye mean?" Jerry's head lifted, yet his response was less +dramatic than Elisha had hoped for. + +"You know that Raymond girl, up to the Cottage. Well, she--" + +With a cry, Jerry pounced upon his informer. The terrified Elisha +struggled to free himself, gasping disconnected protests. "'Twasn't +me--I didn't do it--Snake River--" + +"If you're lying to me," warned Jerry, coming to his senses and +loosening his hold, "you'll be sorry. Mighty sorry." + +Elisha crossed his heart in proof of his veracity. "And if you don't +b'lieve me, go over to Cole's and ask them." + +The advice seemed good. Jerry took to his heels. It was a mistake, of +course, either one of 'Lish Snooks' lies, or else a mistake. Yet a +horrible doubt rose in the midst of his assertions of confidence, like +the head of a snake lifted amid a bed of flowers. + +At the Cole farmhouse every one was astir. Mrs. Cole who had just +returned from Dolittle Cottage, and was going back to spend the night, +after attending to some necessary household tasks, was crying softly as +she worked and talked. + +"Those poor children! Seems as if they couldn't take in what had +happened. They're dazed like. The one that looks delicate, Ruth, had a +bad fainting spell, and the plump little one, she breaks down and cries +every now and then, but the other two, they sit around white and still, +not saying a word or shedding a tear. 'Tain't natural. The Lord meant +tears to ease our hearts, when the load's too heavy to bear. It worries +me when I see folks taking their trouble dry-eyed." + +"How are they going to let their folks know, ma?" asked Rosetta Muriel, +her voice strangely subdued. The sudden tragedy had stirred her shallow +nature to its depths. Though a small mirror hung against the wall at a +convenient distance, she did not glance in its direction. For an hour +she had not smoothed her hair, nor pulled her ribbon bow into jaunty +erectness, nor indicated by any other of the familiar forms of +self-betrayal the all-absorbing importance of her personal appearance. +Her hands lay idle in her lap, and her face was pale, under her +dishevelled hair. + +"Joe'll drive over to the station with a telegram the first thing in the +morning," Mrs. Cole replied. "We could telephone by going to Corney +Lee's, but I don't know why the poor souls shouldn't have one more night +of quiet sleep, for they can't take anything earlier than the morning +train anyway. And, besides, a telegram kind of brings its own warning, +but to go to the 'phone when the bell rings, and hear news like this, +must be 'most more than flesh and blood can bear." + +Her gaze wandered to the boy standing by the door. "You'll go over with +the rest of the men in the morning, won't you, Jerry?" she asked. "I +guess there won't be many sleeping late to-morrow." + +Jerry had refused a chair, but had stayed on, listening to such meagre +information as was to be had, the discovery of the overturned canoe, and +later of Peggy's hat, stained and water-soaked. As to the cause of the +catastrophe no one could be sure, though Mrs. Cole hazarded a guess. +"That little Dorothy was as full of caper as a colt, and anything as +ticklish as a canoe ain't safe for a child of that sort." + +Looking at Jerry, the good woman was almost startled by the drawn misery +of the boy's white face. She had not credited him with such keen +sensibilities. + +"You'd better go home and get to bed, Jerry," she said kindly. "The men +are going to start as soon as it's light enough, and you'd ought to get +a good sleep first." + +Jerry slipped through the door without replying. Indeed he had hardly +spoken since he had uttered his threat against 'Lish Snooks. As he +stepped out into the night, he began to run, though his face was not set +toward home, and his confused thoughts recognized no especial +destination. But fast as he ran, the realization of what had happened +kept pace with him, and when at last he tripped over a tangle of vines, +and went sprawling, he made no effort to rise, but lay motionless, his +hot tears falling on the grass. + +He could never tell her. That was the bitterest drop in his cup of +grief. The words he might have said yesterday could not be spoken now. +It had been in his power to make her glad, to bring a sparkle into her +eyes. He had had his chance and refused it. Alas! the sorrowful wisdom +that one day had brought, a wisdom that had come too late for him to +profit by it. + +He did not know how long he lay there, his tears mingling with the +falling dew. He struggled to his feet at last, limping a little, for the +fall had been severe, and went on his way, still without conscious +purpose. And when long after a silvery expanse shone ahead of him, he +did not realize for the moment that his aimless wanderings had brought +him to Snake River. He stumbled on till he reached the edge of the +stream and saw in the black shadow of the trees a dugout half filled +with water. For the first time in his night of wandering, a vague +purpose took shape in his throbbing brain. + +This was Snake River. And here was his boat awaiting him. He would take +it and drift down the stream, meeting the men in the morning. There was +no moon, but the night was clear and starlit, and except for the shadows +cast by the trees on the bank, the river looked a luminous highway. +Though he did not know the hour, he felt sure that it could not be long +before the east began to grow light with the first promise of the +sunrise. It would not be worth while to go home. + +He fell to bailing the awkward craft, and found a certain relief in the +necessity for methodical work. The water trickled in again, to be sure, +but less rapidly than he could empty it out. He plugged the largest +crevice with his handkerchief, untied the rotting rope, and pushed out +from under the shadows into the centre of the stream. Then he let the +current have its way, using an oar now and then to keep the dugout from +floating ashore, or going aground on one of the numerous islands which +started out of the water as if to bar his progress. Except as he roused +himself for this purpose, he sat huddled on his seat without moving, his +head resting on his folded arms. + +The birds discovered that the morning was coming before Jerry found it +out. Jubilant notes of welcome to the new day sounded above his head. He +straightened himself, and made an effort to throw off the lethargy which +had succeeded his paroxysms of grief. The horizon in the east was banded +with yellow, and overhead the sky blushed rosily. He looked about him +and tried to locate himself. + +"Guess I must be just back of Denbeigh's farm. Yes, that's their +windmill. I'd better row awhile. I'm a good way from Pine Knoll yet." +Again he bailed out the boat and took up the oars. The dugout moved +ahead like a plodding farm-horse that feels the spur and responds +reluctantly. + +Morning was coming as radiantly as if there were no sorrow in the world. +With dull incredulity Jerry watched the sky kindle and the earth flash +awake. It hurt him, all this glow and sparkle, this sweetness in the +air, and the sound of the birds singing. He thought how Peggy would have +loved it all and his throat ached, and he lifted his hand to his eyes to +clear his vision. Then he pulled hard on his left oar, for the current +was swinging him around toward a little island that rose suddenly out of +the mist like an apparition. + +All at once a figure stood out against the tangled green, a slender +figure in white. Jerry dropped both oars, and put his hands before his +eyes. When he looked again the vision had not vanished. Its hand moved +in an appealing gesture. + +Jerry found himself rowing frantically, a hope in his heart so like +madness that he dared not let himself think what it was that he hoped +for. The dugout crashed against the willow where Peggy had tied her +canoe the afternoon before. And in the unreal light of the dawn, a pale, +tremulous Peggy stretched out her arms with a cry. "Oh, it's Jerry! Oh, +Jerry, how came it to be you?" It had been a night of weeping for many, +but Peggy's tears had waited till now. + +"Oh, such a time, Jerry! The canoe tipped over, and spilled Dorothy into +the river, and I don't know how I ever got her out. And then we couldn't +get away, and I screamed till I was hoarse, but nobody came. Oh, Jerry! +I'm so glad!" + +Jerry's answer seemed a trifle irrelevant. But he said the things he was +certain could not be postponed another instant. + +"Look here! I'm going back to school. I've been a coward, just like you +said, but now I'm going to start out same as David did, and stick to it +like that other fellow--I forget his name--and say! I'm--I'm sorry." He +was out of breath when he finished, as if he had been straining every +muscle to raise the weight, crushing, overwhelming, that had been lifted +from his heart. + +They picked up Dorothy without awaking her, and Jerry pulled hard for +the bank. "We'll go straight up through the woods. There's a house not +quarter of a mile back. Prob'ly they'll all be up and around. You see, +the men were going to start early this morning, so's to--so's to--" +Jerry floundered, his pale face suddenly flushing scarlet, and Peggy +understood. + +"Oh, Jerry!" Her voice dropped to a shocked whisper. "Oh, Jerry, they +thought we were drowned." Then she uttered a little pained cry. "And at +home, too? Do they know?" + +"Joe's going to telegraph first thing this morning." + +"He mustn't," Peggy cried fiercely. "I can't bear it. I won't bear it to +have mother hurt so." Unconsciously her arm tightened about Dorothy, +till the child roused with a little cry. + +Jerry looked at the sun. "I guess we'll be in time to stop him," he +reassured her. "Don't you fret." And then, as the boat bumped against +the bank, "Here, I'll take the baby." + +Jerry's conjecture proved correct. There was a light in the kitchen of +the farmhouse, where the farmer's wife was preparing breakfast for the +men hurrying through their morning tasks to be ready for the sombre +duties awaiting them. At the sight of Jerry, with Dorothy in his arms, +Peggy dragging wearily behind, the men guessed the truth, and the trio +was welcomed with such shouts that Dorothy woke up in earnest. As for +Peggy, she could hardly keep back the tears at the rejoicing of these +total strangers over the safety of Dorothy and herself. + +Jerry had thought this problem out in the toilsome climb from the river. +"Say, I want the fastest horse you've got. They're going to telegraph +this morning to her folks and I've got to stop 'em." + +The farmer nodded comprehendingly. "I've got a three-year-old that's a +pretty speedy proposition. Ain't really broken, though. Think you can +manage him, son?" + +"'Course I can." In his new-born zeal for atonement, Jerry felt himself +equal to the management of an airship. The three-year-old was +accordingly interrupted in her breakfast, expressing her dissatisfaction +by laying her ears close to her head. And as she was hurriedly saddled, +Jerry added, "You'll get 'em home as soon as you can, won't you? I guess +by their looks they're pretty near beat out." + +"We sure will." The farmer cleared his throat, for his deep voice had +suddenly grown husky. "Driving the two of 'em home alive and well is a +good deal pleasanter job than I'd bargained for this morning. Now look +out for this here vixen," he continued, dropping suddenly from the plane +of sentiment to the prosaic levels, "for she'll throw you if she can." + +And while Peggy was making an effort to eat the breakfast the farmer's +wife insisted on her sharing, a clatter of hoofs under the window told +of Jerry's departure. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +HOME SWEET HOME + + +"Joy cometh in the morning." At Dolittle Cottage white-faced, +sad-hearted girls had crept up-stairs to bed, and some of them had slept +and waked moaning, and others had lain wide-eyed and still through the +long hours, thankful for the relief of tears which now and then ran down +their hot cheeks and wet their pillows. But when the dawn came, nature +had its way, and the last watcher fell into the heavy sleep of +exhaustion. + +Apparently they all waked at once. Down-stairs was a clamor of uplifted +voices, strange, choking cries, sounds that almost made the heart stop +beating. And then above the tumult, a shrill fretful pipe that to the +strained ears of the listeners was the sweetest of all sweet music. + +"Make Hobo stop, Aunt Peggy. He's a-tickling me with his tongue." + +Pandemonium reigned in Dolittle Cottage. There was a wild rush of +white-robed figures for the hall, just as a girl in a dress that had +once been white, and with dark circles under her eyes, came flying up +the stairs. Peggy forgot her aching limbs and weariness in the transport +of that moment. And then there was a little time of silence, broken only +by the sound of happy sobbing, and everybody was kissing everybody else, +without assigning any especial reason, and laughing through glad tears. + +The appearance of Mrs. Cole, with Dorothy in her arms, was the signal +for another outbreak, and perhaps Dorothy's manifest ill-humor was +fortunate on the whole, for something of the sort was needed to bring +the excited household down to the wholesome plane of every-day living. +Camping out did not agree with Dorothy. She had caught a slight cold +from her wetting, and her night's rest had been far from satisfactory. +And now to be seized and passed from hand to hand like a box of candy, +while people kissed and cried over her, was too much for her long-tried +temper. She screamed and struggled and finally put a stop to further +affectionate demonstrations by slapping Amy with one hand, while with +the other she knocked off Aunt Abigail's spectacles. + +"She's tired to death, poor little angel," cried Mrs. Cole, generously +ignoring the fact that Dorothy's conduct was the reverse of angelic. +"She wants to get to bed and to sleep, and so do the rest of you, before +Lucy and me have the lot sick on our hands." + +"Oh, I couldn't sleep," protested Peggy, "and I want to wait till Jerry +comes, and find out if he stopped Joe from sending that telegram." + +"And we're dying to hear everything that's happened," Amy cried, "and, +besides, I'm afraid to go to sleep for fear I'll dream that this is only +a dream." + +But Mrs. Cole was firm, and Lucy Haines, who had come to the cottage +before sunrise, added her entreaties to the older woman's insistence. +Then everybody discovered that Peggy was very pale, and Dorothy did some +more slapping, and Mrs. Cole's motion was carried. Although every girl +of them, and Aunt Abigail as well, had protested her utter inability to +sleep, it was not fifteen minutes before absolute quiet reigned in the +second story of the cottage. Wheels ground up the driveway again and +again, and penetrating, if kindly, voices made inquiries under the open +windows, but none of the sleepers waked till noon. + +Jerry Morton, coming to report the success of his mission, was more than +a little disappointed not to secure an immediate interview with Peggy. +But Lucy, who was peeling potatoes in anticipation of the time when +hunger should act as an alarm clock, in the hushed second story, bade +him sit down and wait. "I know she'll want to see you. She was so +worried for fear the news would get to her mother." + +"Well, it came mighty near it, I can tell you. Joe was just ahead of me. +When I got in he was saying to the operator, 'Rush this, will you?' and +I grabbed his coat and said nix." Jerry's tired face lighted up with +satisfaction, and Lucy regarded him rather enviously. It seemed to her +that Jerry was getting more than his share. He had found the castaways, +and had spared Friendly Terrace the shock of the mistaken news, while +Lucy with equally good will, was forced to content herself with peeling +potatoes and like humble services. + +"How did you ever come to think of looking for them?" she asked, wishing +that the happy idea had occurred to her, instead of to Jerry. + +"I didn't. 'Twas just a stroke of luck." Jerry told the story of his +night's wandering, a recital as interesting to himself as to Lucy, for +as yet he had hardly had time to formulate the record of what had +happened. Before they had exhausted the fascinating theme there were +sounds overhead which told that the late sleepers were at last astir. + +They kept open house at Dolittle Cottage that afternoon. The country +community, aroused by the news of the supposed tragedy, and then by the +word that all was well, gave itself up to rejoicing. Vehicles of every +description creaked up the driveway, bringing whole families to offer +their congratulations. Though farm work was pressing, Mr. Silas Robbins +drove over with his wife and daughter, and patted Peggy's shoulder, and +pinched Dorothy's cheek. Luckily a morning in bed had done much to +restore Dorothy to her normal mood, and though she bestowed a withering +glance upon the gentleman who had taken this liberty, she did not +retaliate in the fashion Peggy feared. + +"Couldn't think of letting _you_ get drowned, you know," remarked +Mr. Robbins with ponderous humor. "A girl who can speechify the way you +can, might get to be president some day, if the women's rights folks +should win out. I don't say," concluded Mr. Robbins, with the air of +making a great concession, "that I mightn't vote for you myself." + +Mr. Smart, too, dropped in to secure additional information for the +write-up, which he informed Peggy would appear in the next issue of the +_Weekly Arena_. "Though but a country editor," said Mr. Smart +feelingly, "I believe that the Press ought to be reliable, and I'm doing +my part to make it so. No yellow journalism in the _Arena_." And he +showed a little natural disappointment on discovering that even this +assurance did not reconcile Peggy to the prospect of figuring as a +newspaper heroine. + +One of the surprises of the day was Mrs. Snooks' appearance. Never since +her education had been taken in hand by the occupants of Dolittle +Cottage, had she darkened its doors. But now she came smiling, and with +an evident determination to regard bygones as bygones. For when she had +expatiated at some length on the effect of Elisha's harrowing news upon +her nerves, and had repeated in great detail what she had said to Mr. +Snooks, and what Mr. Snooks had said to her, she gave a crowning proof +of magnanimity. + +"Now, I've got to be getting back home. Mr. Snooks is a wonderful +good-natured man, but he likes his victuals on time, same as most +men-folks. I wonder if you could lend me a loaf of bread? I was just +that worked up this morning that I didn't get 'round to set sponge." + +The bread-box was well filled, thanks to Mrs. Cole, and Peggy insisted +on accompanying Mrs. Snooks to the kitchen and picking out the largest +loaf. She also suggested that Mrs. Snooks should take home a sample of +the new breakfast food they all liked so much. As they parted on the +doorstep Peggy was sure that the last shadow of their misunderstanding +had lifted, for Mrs. Snooks turned to say, "I got a new cooky cutter +from the tin peddler the other day--real pretty. And any time you'd like +to use it, you're perfectly welcome." + +Even then the surprises of the eventful day were not over. For late in +the afternoon, when the kindly strangers occupying the porch chairs were +just announcing that they guessed they'd have to move on, two figures +came up the walk at a swinging pace. Ruth who was a little in the +background was the first to notice them, and she was on her feet in a +moment, with a glad cry. There was a general movement in the direction +of the new arrivals, but Ruth was the first to reach them. + +"Oh, Graham! Oh, Graham! You don't know--" + +"Yes, I've heard all about it," Graham said in a voice not quite +natural. The two boys on their way back to the city had stopped for +dinner at the farmhouse where Peggy had taken breakfast, and had been +favored with all the details of what Jack called the "near tragedy," +though his effort at facetiousness was far from expressing his real +feelings. + +It was distinctly disappointing to the girls to find that their visitors +planned to continue their trip next morning. "My vacation's up +Saturday," explained Jack Rynson. "And Graham thinks he's loafed as long +as he should." + +"And Elaine is going to-morrow," sighed Peggy. "I almost wish--" She +checked herself abruptly. + +"Dear old Friendly Terrace," Amy murmured. "Seems as if we'd been away a +year." + +"Well, we'll be starting in ten days or so," said Priscilla, with an air +of trying to make the best of things. + +Peggy flashed a surprised glance about the circle. "Girls, why, girls! I +believe we'd all like to go home to-morrow! Then let's." + +There was no doubt as to the popularity of the suggestion. The strain of +those few hours when shadows darker than those of night hung over +Dolittle Cottage, had implanted in the hearts of all the longing for +home. In the clamor of eager voices there was no dissent, only +questioning whether so hasty a departure were possible. And when this +was decided in the affirmative, hilarity reigned. + +"You must all stay to supper," Peggy declared, overflowing in joyous +hospitality. "There won't be enough of anything to go around, but +there's any amount of things that must be eaten." Graham and Jack +accepted the invitation as a matter of course, and Lucy and Jerry +yielded, after considerable insistence on Peggy's part. And on the faces +which surrounded the dinner-table, lengthened for the occasion by an +extra leaf, there was little to call to mind the black dream of the +night. + +It was an unusual supper in many ways. There were only half a dozen ears +of corn, and the lima beans served out a teaspoonful to a plate. It was +understood that whoever preferred sardines to corned beef might have his +choice, but that it was a breach of etiquette to take both. However, +since several varieties of jellies and preserves graced the table, and +there was an abundance of Mrs. Cole's delicious bread, both white and +brown, there was no danger that any one would rise from the meal with +his hunger unsatisfied. + +Peggy was busy planning while she ate. "Oh, dear, what in the world am I +going to do with Hobo? I won't leave him without a home, that's sure. +And I don't know what Taffy'll say to me if I bring back another dog." + +"I'll take him off your hands," said Jack Rynson. + +Peggy leaned toward him with shining eyes. "Really? And would you like +him? For I don't want you to take him just to oblige me." + +Jack made haste to defend himself against such a charge. His home, it +seemed, was on the outskirts of the city, and his mother sometimes +complained that it was lonely, and would be glad, Jack was sure, of a +good watch-dog. "And I'll get Graham to give him a certificate on that +score," concluded Jack, with a meaning smile in the direction of his +friend, who was always easily teased by references to the time when Hobo +had rushed to the defence of Graham's sister against Graham himself. + +"Oh, that's such a load off my mind," Peggy declared. "He can go with +you to-morrow, can't he? And now there's one thing more, and that's his +name." + +"Yes?" Jack looked a little puzzled. + +"I named him myself, and I've been ashamed of it ever since. For he +never was a tramp dog, really. He wanted a home all the time, and people +of his own to love and protect and be faithful to. And, if you don't +mind, before he goes I'd like to change his name to Hero." + +The emphasis on the last word roused Hobo, who was sleeping in the next +room. Perhaps his ear was not sufficiently trained to the niceties of +the English language to distinguish between this name and the other by +which he had been addressed all summer. Be that as it may, in an instant +he was at Peggy's elbow, looking up into her face, and wagging his tail. + +"I believe he knows," cried Peggy, while the table shouted. The new name +was unanimously endorsed, and with his re-christening, Peggy's canine +protege discarded the last survival of his life as a wanderer. + +"And now about the chickens," continued Peggy, whose face had lost its +look of weariness in overflowing satisfaction. "I'm going to give them +to you, Lucy. I'm sorry there's only three of them, but--" + +"Two," Amy interrupted in a plaintive undertone from the other side of +the table. + +Peggy stared. "What! Has anything happened to Freckles?" + +"No, he's all right. And so's the yellow hen, of course. But, Peggy, the +other chicken has disappeared. Lucy noticed this morning that it was +gone, and when all those people were here, she and I hunted everywhere. +And the old hen keeps on scratching and clucking just the same." + +Peggy's countenance reflected the disgust of Amy's voice. "It isn't much +of a gift, Lucy. That yellow hen is really the worst apology for a +mother I ever imagined. Freckles is a nice chicken, but he's got some +very bad faults. He _will_ come into the house whenever the screen +door is left open, and he seems to have a perfect mania for picking +shoe-buttons and shoe-strings. I suppose it's because of the way he's +been brought up, but he's so fond of human society that he makes a +perfect nuisance of himself." + +"Chicken pie would cure all those faults," suggested Graham, and they +all laughed again at Peggy's expression of horror. "Didn't you tell me +they'd bring forty cents a pound," the young man persisted, teasingly. + +"Yes, but that was before I got acquainted with them. I couldn't turn +even the yellow hen into chicken pie, much as I dislike her. The wonder +to me," Peggy ended thoughtfully, "is that anybody ever makes money out +of raising chickens." + +Between the supper and the early bedtime there was much to be done. +Trunks were packed, except for the bedding and similar articles, which +could not be dispensed with before the morning. The remnants of the +groceries were bestowed on Mrs. Snooks, and some matters which the girls +did not have time to attend to were left in charge of the capable Mrs. +Cole. Against everybody's protest, Peggy insisted on running over to the +Cole farmhouse to say good-by. Graham acted as her escort, and the two +were admitted by Rosetta Muriel, at the sight of whom Peggy gave an +involuntary start. + +"Do you like it?" asked Rosetta Muriel, immediately interested. The fair +hair which she usually arranged so elaborately, was parted and drawn +back rather primly over her ears, giving her face a suggestion of +refinement which was becoming, if a little misleading. + +Peggy was glad she could answer in the affirmative. "Indeed, I do. The +simple styles are so pretty, I think." + +"There was a picture of Adelaide Lacey in the paper, with her hair done +this way. She's going to marry a duke, you know." It was characteristic +of Rosetta Muriel thus to excuse her lapse into simplicity, but though +the ingenuous explanation was the truth, it was not the whole truth. +Even Rosetta Muriel was not quite the same girl for having come in +contact with Peggy Raymond, and her poor little undeveloped, unlovely +self was reaching out gropingly to things a shade higher than those +which hitherto had satisfied her. + +The news of the hasty departure was magically diffused. Amy said +afterward that she began to understand what they meant when they talked +about wireless telegraphy. For as the stage rattled and bumped along the +dusty highway the next morning, figures appeared at the windows, +handkerchiefs fluttered, and hands were waved in greeting and farewell. +In many a harvest field, too, work halted briefly, while battered hats +swung above the heads of the wearers, as a substitute for a good-by. And +at the station, to the girls' astonishment, quite a company had +collected in honor of their departure. + +Graham and Jack had deferred their start till they had put the girls on +the train, and they regarded the gathering in amazement. "Sure they're +not waiting for a circus train?" Graham demanded. "Are you responsible +for all this? Rather looks to me, Jack, as if we weren't quite as +indispensable as we fancied." + +The stage was never early, and the girls hardly had time to make the +rounds before the whistle of the train was heard. "Come back next +summer," cried Mrs. Cole, catching Peggy in her arms, and giving her a +motherly squeeze. "I declare it'll make me so homesick to drive by the +cottage, with you girls gone, that I shan't know how to stand it." + +Peggy was saying good-by all over again, but she saved her two special +favorites for the last. "Now, Lucy," she cried, her hands upon the +shoulders of the pale girl, whose compressed lips showed the effort she +was making far self-control, "you must write me now and then. I want to +know just how you're getting along." + +"Yes, I'll write," Lucy promised. "But you mustn't worry about me. I'm +not going to get discouraged again, no matter what happens." The train +was coming to a snorting halt and Peggy had time for just one more word. + +"Good-by, Jerry. Don't forget." + +The girls scrambled aboard, followed by a chorus of good-byes. "What's +this? Old Home week?" asked an interested old gentleman, dropping his +newspaper and crossing the aisle, to get a better view of the crowd on +the platform. And, meanwhile, Amy was tugging at the window, crying +excitedly, "Oh, help me, quick, Peggy, or it'll be too late." + +The window yielded to the girls' combined persuasion. Amy's camera +appeared in the opening, and a little click sounded just as the train +began to move. "Oh, I hope it'll be good," cried Amy, whose successes +and failures had been so evenly balanced that her attitude toward each +new effort was one of hopeful uncertainty. "It would be so nice to have +something to remember them by." But Peggy, looking back on the station +platform, was sure that she needed no aid to remembrance, Amy's camera +might be out of focus, and the plate blurred and indistinct, as so often +happened, but the picture of those upturned, friendly faces was printed +upon Peggy's heart, a lasting possession. + +"Well, old man!" It was Jack Rynson speaking over Graham's shoulder. +"Guess we might as well start. Come on, Hobo--beg pardon, Hero." And the +dog who had whimperingly watched the train which bore Peggy out of +sight, only restrained by Jack's hand on his collar from rushing in +pursuit, yielded to the inevitable, and followed his new master with the +curious loyalty which does not change, no matter how often its object +changes. + +The people were breaking up into groups of twos and threes, and moving +away, but Lucy Haines and Jerry stood motionless, their gaze following +the vanishing speck which was the south-bound train. Then slowly Lucy's +head turned. She had never been friendly with Jerry Morton. She had +shared the disapproval of the community, intensified by her inherent +inability to understand the temperament so unlike her own. Yet all at +once she found herself feeling responsible for him. To be helped means +an obligation to help, at least to unselfish natures. + +She went toward Jerry half reluctantly. But when she was near enough to +see that he was swallowing hard, apparently in the effort to remove some +obstruction in his throat which would not "down," the discovery seemed +to create a bond between them. Her voice was eager and sympathetic as +she said: "It's fine that you're going to start school again, Jerry. And +if I can help you with anything, I'll be glad to." She hesitated, and +then, in spite of her natural reserve, she added: "We mustn't disappoint +her, either of us." + +Jerry had to swallow yet again before he could reply. But his answer +rang out with a manful sincerity which would have gladdened Peggy's +heart had she heard it. + +"Disappoint her! Not on your life!" + + + + +SAVE THE WRAPPER! + +If you have enjoyed reading about the adventures of the new friends you +have made in this book and would like to read more clean, wholesome +stories of their entertaining experiences, turn to the book jacket--on +the inside of it, a comprehensive list of Burt's fine series of +carefully selected books for young people has been placed for your +convenience. + +_Orders for these books, placed with your bookstore or sent to the +Publishers, will receive prompt attention._ + + + + +THE ANN STERLING SERIES + +By HARRIET PYNE GROVE + +Stories of Ranch and College Life For Girls 12 to 16 Years + +Handsome Cloth Binding with Attractive Jackets in Color + +ANN STERLING + +The strange gift of Old Never-Run, an Indian whom she has befriended, +brings exciting events into Ann's life. + +THE COURAGE OF ANN + +Ann makes many new, worthwhile friends during her first year at Forest +Hill College. + +ANN AND THE JOLLY SIX + +At the close of their Freshman year Ann and the Jolly Six enjoy a +house party at the Sterling's mountain ranch. + +ANN CROSSES A SECRET TRAIL + +The Sterling family, with a group of friends, spend a thrilling +vacation under the southern Pines of Florida. + +ANN'S SEARCH REWARDED + +In solving the disappearance of her father, Ann finds exciting +adventures, Indians and bandits in the West. + +ANN'S AMBITIONS + +The end of her Senior year at Forest Hill brings a whirl of new events +into the career of "Ann of the Singing Fingers." + +ANN'S STERLING HEART + +Ann returns home, after completing a busy year of musical study +abroad. + +A. L. BURT COMPANY, Publishers, 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK + + + + +THE GREYCLIFF GIRLS SERIES + +By HARRIET PYNE GROVE + +Stories of Adventure, Fun, Study and Personalities of girls attending +Greycliff School. + +For Girls 10 to 15 Years + +PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH + +POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + +Cloth bound, with Individual Jackets in Color. + + CATHALINA AT GREYCLIFF + THE GIRLS OF GREYCLIFF + GREYCLIFF WINGS + GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN CAMP + GREYCLIFF HEROINES + GREYCLIFF GIRLS IN GEORGIA + GREYCLIFF GIRLS' RANCHING + GREYCLIFF GIRLS' GREAT ADVENTURE + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers + +A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK + + + + +MARJORIE DEAN POST-GRADUATE SERIES + +By PAULINE LESTER + +Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean High School and College Series. + +All Cloth Bound. Copyright Titles. + +With Individual Jackets in Colors. + +PRICE, 50 CENTS EACH + +POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + MARJORIE DEAN, POST GRADUATE + MARJORIE DEAN, MARVELOUS MANAGER + MARJORIE DEAN AT HAMILTON ARMS + MARJORIE DEAN'S ROMANCE + MARJORIE DEAN MACY + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers + +A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK + + + + +THE VIRGINIA DAVIS SERIES + +By GRACE MAY NORTH + +Clean, Wholesome Stories of Ranch Life. For Girls 12 to 16 Years. + +All Clothbound. + +With Individual Jackets in Colors. + +PRICE, 75 CENTS EACH + +POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + VIRGINIA OF V. M. RANCH + VIRGINIA AT VINE HAVEN + VIRGINIA'S ADVENTURE CLUB + VIRGINIA'S RANCH NEIGHBORS + VIRGINIA'S ROMANCE + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers + +A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK + + + + +PRINCESS POLLY SERIES + +By AMY BROOKS + +Author of "Dorothy Dainty" series, Etc. Stories of Sweet-Tempered, +Sunny, Lovable Little "Princess Polly." For girls 12 to 16 years. + +Each Volume Illustrated. + +Cloth Bound + +With Individual Jackets in Colors. + +PRICE, 75 CENTS EACH + +POSTAGE 10c EXTRA + + PRINCESS POLLY + PRINCESS POLLY'S PLAYMATES + PRINCESS POLLY AT SCHOOL + PRINCESS POLLY BY THE SEA + PRINCESS POLLY'S GAY WINTER + PRINCESS POLLY AT PLAY + PRINCESS POLLY AT CLIFFMORE + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent on receipt of price by the Publishers + +A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E. 23d St., NEW YORK + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY RAYMOND'S VACATION*** + + +******* This file should be named 31507.txt or 31507.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/5/0/31507 + + + +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. 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