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diff --git a/36672.txt b/36672.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0c771a --- /dev/null +++ b/36672.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6999 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tripping with the Tucker Twins, by Nell Speed + +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: Tripping with the Tucker Twins + +Author: Nell Speed + +Release Date: July 9, 2011 [EBook #36672] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRIPPING WITH THE TUCKER TWINS *** + + + + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, +Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: The room we girls were to occupy was a great square +chamber with a large window looking on a cobbled street. + +(_Frontis_) (_Tripping with the Tucker Twins_)] + + + + +TRIPPING WITH THE TUCKER TWINS + +BY NELL SPEED + + AUTHOR OF + "The Molly Brown Series," "The Carter + Girls Series," etc. + +[Illustration] + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + Publishers New York + Printed in U. S. A. + + + + + Copyright, 1919, + BY + HURST & COMPANY, INC. + + + MADE IN U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. ASSETS AND LIABILITIES 5 + II. EARNING A LIVING 24 + III. A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT 38 + IV. WHAT ZEBEDEE SAID 48 + V. A TRIP TO CHARLESTON 64 + VI. THROUGH THE GRILLE 82 + VII. THE ABANDONED HOTEL 98 + VIII. TUCKER TACT 111 + IX. CHURCHYARDS 124 + X. THE HEAVENLY VISION 143 + XI. THE GUITAR 161 + XII. MORAL COURAGE 172 + XIII. ENGAGING BOARD 189 + XIV. THE CLERK OF THE COUNCIL 206 + XV. WHO WON THE BET? 215 + XVI. LETTERS 231 + XVII. MISS ARABELLA 244 + XVIII. A CHANCE FOR LOUIS 261 + XIX. A RED, RED ROSE 280 + XX. MORE LETTERS 287 + XXI. THE SUMMING UP 300 + + + + +Tripping with the Tucker Twins + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ASSETS AND LIABILITIES + + +After our boarding-school burned on that memorable night in March, it +seemed foolish to start to school again so late in the season; at least +it seemed so to the Tucker twins and me. Their father and mine were +rather inclined to think we had better enter some institute of learning +in Richmond or take extra classes, do something besides loaf; but we +earnestly pleaded to be let off for the rest of the year, and they +succumbed to our entreaties. + +My ankle gave me a good deal of trouble. You remember, no doubt, how I +sprained it getting out of the second-story window when the false alarm +of fire rang, the afternoon before the real _bona fide_ fire. Dee's +first aid to the injured was all very well for the time being, but when +we arrived in Richmond a surgeon had to be called to attend to it, and +the ankle was put in plaster. + +"A sprain can be much more serious than a break," the surgeon said +solemnly as he looked at the much swollen foot and ankle. "I shall have +to take an X-ray of this to be sure no bones are broken, and then, young +lady, you will have to be quiet for some days, how many I can't yet +tell." + +Never having been disabled in my life, I had no idea how irksome it +could become. On no account to put your foot to the ground and to feel +perfectly well is about as hard a job as could be given me, an active +country girl. Father came up from Milton and heartily agreed with the +surgeon in charge. + +"I have set a carload of broken legs in my time and bandaged a wagonful +of ankles, and I am sure I have had less trouble from the legs than the +ankles. It is because, as a rule, a sprain is not treated seriously +enough. Now, honey, you have got to sit still and take it." + +I sat still all right, although it nearly killed me to do it. Not even +crutches were allowed for a week for fear I might be tempted to bear my +weight on the offending member. + +The Tuckers, father and twins, were goodness itself to me. I was afraid +to express a wish, because no matter how preposterous it was they would +immediately rush off and try to get whatever silly thing I had in a +careless moment expressed a desire for. For instance, one day Dum came +in enthusiastic over a new drugstore drink she had discovered: + +"Vanilla ice cream with fresh pineapple mixed up with it, orange syrup +and lots of bubbly soda! The best mess you ever sucked through a straw!" + +"Ummm-ummm! Sounds good to me! When I can trust this old limb of Satan I +am going to make straight for that drugstore and drink three of them." + +Mr. Tucker had just arrived from the newspaper office where he labored +many hours a day. He must have been tired sometimes, but he never looked +it and never complained of work. Eternal youth seemed to belong to him, +and undying energy. + +"Good? I think it sounds awful!" he exclaimed. "You girls must astonish +your poor little insides with the impossible mixtures you put in 'em." + +"I think it sounds fine, and I am surely going to have three of them +just as soon as I can toddle." + +Mr. Tucker laughed and left the room, and I wearily resumed a not very +interesting book I was reading while Dum followed her father. I read on, +hoping to come to something better. I fancy not more than ten minutes +had elapsed when father and daughter burst into the room, Dum carrying +two foaming soda-water glasses and Zebedee one. The dauntless pair had +actually cranked up Henry Ford, as they dubbed their little old +automobile, and speeded down to the drugstore where they knew how to +make that particular mixture, and brought them back to me. + +"Your blood be on your own head if you drink them. They look pizen to +me." + +But drink them I did, all three, much to the wonderment of Zebedee, who +declared that girls were fearfully and wonderfully made. I did feel +slightly fizzly, but after my kind friends had brought them to me and +even braved the danger of arrest and fine for speeding, trying to get +the drinks to me with the foam on, I felt it was up to me to show my +appreciation. The only way to show it was to drink the soda. What if I +did burst in the effort? + +The Tucker twins and I were almost seventeen, our birthdays coming quite +near together, and their father, now Zebedee to all of us, was about +thirty-seven, I think, almost thirty-eight. The Tuckers were so +irresponsible in some ways that I often felt myself to be older than any +of them, although I was certainly not very staid myself. Zebedee always +declared he was just grown up enough to keep out of debt, but keep out +of debt he would no matter what temptations he had to withstand. +Tweedles regarded debt as the only lawful state, and hard they found it +to keep within their allowance, but the one time when Zebedee was really +severe was when they exceeded that allowance. Dum was worse about it +than Dee, as her artistic temperament made it hard for her to keep up +with money. + +"It just goes, and I don't know where!" she would exclaim. + +When we got back to Richmond after the fire, one day when Zebedee was in +Norfolk attending a convention of newspaper men, to be gone several +days, the sisters realized that a day of reckoning had arrived and they +must take stock of their assets and liabilities. Each one had borrowed +small sums from various friends at school, intending to pay back out of +allowances forthcoming, and also expecting to realize large sums from +old clothes that our washerwoman would sell on commission to the colored +contingent in the village. Colored people for some unknown reason would +much rather have clothes that have been worn by white people than new +ones out of shops. Of course the fire had interrupted this traffic and +Tweedles never expected to see the money owed them by our washerwoman's +clients. + +"I could have worn that corduroy skirt for months longer, but I thought +I could get two dollars and a half for it at least and help get out of +debt," wailed Dee. + +"And I just loved my blue linen shirtwaist and the frayed cuffs hardly +showed at all, and now the old washerwoman has got my shirt and the +fifty cents, too--to say nothing of my old-rose dinner dress that I am +scared to death about every night for fear Zebedee will ask me why I +don't wear it. He always liked the color of it so much," and Dum looked +ready to weep. + +"Well, girls, count it all up and see where you stand; maybe I can lend +you enough to get you out," I said. + +"You sound like we were in jail," declared Dee ruefully. "I don't see +how on earth you keep on top so yourself. You seem to do as many things +as we do and always pay your share, and still you don't get in debt." + +"I don't know how it is," I laughed, "unless I am like the Yankee who +left his wife a large fortune, much to the astonishment of his +neighbors, who did not know he had anything. When questioned as to the +way her husband had made the money, the wife said: 'Wal, you see my +husband was powerful fond of oysters, and whenever he went up to the +city he just didn't get any.' You girls don't know how free you are with +money. If you buy a paper that costs a penny you always say, 'Keep the +change!' And then when a tip of ten cents is all that is necessary, you +invariably give twenty-five." + +"I know that's so," they contritely tweedled. + +"Count up and see where you're at," and then they figured in silence for +a few minutes. + +"I owe five dollars and seventy-three cents," said Dee, getting hers +added up first and emptying her purse; "I've got just thirty-seven +cents and a street car ticket between me and the penitentiary." + +"And I owe seven dollars and twenty-three cents and I haven't got +anything but a green trading stamp and a transfer to Ginter Park that I +did not use," and Dum searched in the corners of her purse for a +possible penny that might have escaped her. + +"I've three dollars and will have some more soon, as father is going to +send me a check for a spring suit. You let me pay you both out of debt." + +"We just can't. It only puts off the evil hour. We can't let you give us +the money, and how will we ever pay it back?" + +"Why don't you earn it?" I ventured. + +"Earn it! Splendid! But how? Dum earned fifty cents once making paper +dolls to sell at the Arts and Crafts, and Zebedee pays us both to dust +the books and put them back in the right places, something the +housemaids are incapable of doing; but this money we must earn without +letting Zebedee get on to it. Where's the morning paper?" + +But Dum had already got it and was poring over the want ads. Dee had to +content herself with the news section, while Dum monopolized the "Help +Wanted--Female" part. + +"What's this?" demanded Dee, reading headlines: "'Ordinance to prohibit +the drivers of jitney cars!' That is a sin and a shame. I can't see why +they can't let the poor men make a little money without issuing +ordinances. Oh, it is only under consideration! They may not pass it---- + +"By the great Jumping Jingo, I've got a scheme! I'm going to turn Henry +Ford into a jitney bus. Zebedee'll be away for two more days, and by the +time he comes back I bet I'll have enough to pay my debts and blow us +all to the swellest supper at Rueger's." + +Jitneys had just reached Richmond that spring, and every man or boy out +of work who could beg, borrow or steal an old tumbled-down car had gone +into the business of running a jitney. The streets were swarming with +them, and the public, pleased with the novelty, patronized them to the +neglect and chagrin of the trolleys. Of course there were some drivers +who would hardly have been trusted with coal carts, and there were many +accidents by reason of this. We adored the jitneys. Of course, I had not +been able to ride in them because of my ankle keeping me house-bound, +but I loved to see them swing around the corner, and always had my chair +or sofa in the bay window where I could get a good view of them. There +seemed to be such a happy, good-natured crowd of passengers; and +certainly many a shopgirl and workingman got to ride in a jitney who had +despaired before of ever being fortunate enough to get into an +automobile. The Tuckers were strong upholders of the poor man's rights +and patronized the jitneys whenever their own Henry Ford was out of +commission or in use by some other member of the family. + +"But what will your father say?" + +"More than likely he will say something that won't bear repetition, but +by that time I will have paid my debts." + +"But will they let girls run one?" + +"How are they going to help it? The ones who are running them are liable +to be stopped any day, but so far there are no laws one way or the other +about it, and I am going to get in my licks before they have time to +make any. Besides, I am not going to look very feminine." + +"That's what I get for being a pig and snatching up the want column +before you could get it. Now if I had let you have it like a lady I +could have got the jitney scheme first," grumbled Dum. + +"What difference does that make? You can go in on it, you goose!" + +"But I'm not going in. I think I ought to earn something my own way. +That was your scheme, and I am not going to butt in on it." + +"Well, you know you are welcome; but suit yourself." + +"But, Dee, you say you are not going to look very feminine. Surely you +are not going to wear pants?" I asked, aghast at what these Heavenly +Twins would do next. + +"Oh, no! I have no intention of landing in the pen. I'm just going to +make up the upper half to look mannish. I'll wear Zebedee's big coat, +which I tried to make him take to Norfolk with him and he wouldn't, just +to be stubborn. Now ain't I glad?" and she put it on to show how well it +fitted. "If it is a nice cool day I can keep the collar turned up so! +Now there is no law about a lady's hat, and I am going to wear Zebedee's +chauffeur's cap." She accordingly put it on, pulling it well down over +her ears. "Now all I need is a dirty face. I've never yet seen a jitney +driver who did not have a shady face. I wonder if I had not better just +acquire it by the natural method of gradual accumulation, or if I could +smudge it on tomorrow morning." + +By this time Dum and I were reduced to a pulp with the giggles. Dum had +for the time being abandoned her search for a lucrative job and had +entered with zest into her sister's plans. + +"Your hair is too lumpy-looking under your cap and it rides up too high +on your head." + +"Well, it shall have to be cut off then. It will grow out again." + +"Dee! No! You mustn't! That would make your father really angry. Plait +it in a tight rope and put it down your neck, inside your collar." + +No sooner said than done, and now the cap came down to meet the upturned +collar. + +"You must wear Zebedee's gloves and take off your ring. Your hands look +mighty sissy. You'll do fine if Henry Ford will just behave and you +don't have to get out to crank him. It's too bad about the pants. You +would be perfect if you could just wear pants. If you should have to get +out, it would sho' be a joke if you got arrested for wearing skirts. You +look terribly like a bad boy," and so she did. "And now I must get back +to the task of finding a job for myself," and Dum returned wearily to +the want column. Dee's delightful get-rich-quick scheme made everything +else seem very colorless. + +"'Wanted--A mother's helper to mind four children and wash dishes.' What +do you reckon the lazy thing would be doing while I was doing all that +for her? 'Wanted--Woman to wash only by the day.' Does the idiot think I +could keep it up all night? Here we are! 'Wanted--Twenty able-bodied +young women to apply between the hours of three and five p. m. to make +house-to-house canvass, selling a number of household novelties.'" Dum +grabbed her hat and began to draw on her gloves. "Here, Page, cut this +out for me. It is ten minutes to three now and I can just get there!" + +Dum was out of the house before we could say Jack Robinson, the clipping +from the want column grasped tightly in her hand and her chin set in its +determined, square, do-or-die lines. + +"When Dum looks like that she always gets what she goes after," said +Dee, looking admiringly after her twin as she jumped in Henry Ford, who +spent a large part of his waking life parked in front of the apartment +house or newspaper office. "Maybe going in a car, even a bum one like +Henry, will queer her game. If she will only have sense enough to stop a +little to one side of the place!" + +We waited in almost breathless silence for Dum's return, Dee +experimenting with her hair for the morrow's fray and I gazing out of +the window at the whirling jitneys skidding around the corner, making +hair-breadth escapes. + +"There she is!" and Henry Ford sure enough threaded his way jauntily +through the crowded street, turned himself about like a graceful skater +and parked himself in good order just one inch from the curb. The +Tuckers were all born chauffeurs, and, like most born chauffeurs or +riders or drivers, they showed their skill by going faster than the law +allows. They prided themselves on being able to go very close to things +without touching them, and indeed I have seen Henry Ford almost take the +buttons off the fat traffic cop at Seventh and Broad. That time Zebedee +was driving, and as he skimmed by the grinning policeman he called out: + +"If it had been after dinner I would have hit you," and the delighted +officer shook his fat sides and patted his bay window with its row of +gleaming buttons, showing he understood Mr. Tucker's joke. "There are +two classes of persons I always keep in with--policemen and cooks. You +can get into no very serious trouble when you have them on your side," +Zebedee had laughed gaily. + +"I've got a job! I've got a job!" cried Dum, almost breathless with +haste and excitement as she rushed into the room where Dee and I waited. + +"What is it?" + +"Selling household novelties, of course. I'm to report at eight in the +morning. I was the third girl to get in to see the boss. You never saw +such a pompadoured, gum-chewing crowd in your life. I felt so ladylike I +hardly knew myself. The boss was sure some household novelty himself. He +is fat and soft, looks powerful like a dough ball, wears button shoes +and an embroidered vest, curly black hair done up in a roach and stewed +prune eyes and a full set, upstairs and down, of false teeth that look +like + + "'Thirty white horses on a red hill, + Now they dance, now they prance, + Now they stand still.'" + +"But, Dum, what on earth are household novelties?" I gasped. + +"And how much are you to get?" demanded Dee. + +"One at a time! There is a whole bunch of novelties: one is a little +plug to keep windows from rattling; another a needle-threader; another a +silver polish; another a spot-knocker; a patent batty-cake turner that +makes the batty-cake do the flipflap by pressing a button--either for +cakes or omelettes; then there's Mrs. Rand----" + +"No, not really!" + +Mrs. Rand was a miscellaneous implement we had taken to boarding-school +that had been purchased from a street fakir and we had named for the +landlady at Willoughby Beach, who had been very irate over the Tuckers +having lost the one she had in the cottage they rented from her. It was +a combination apple-corer, can-opener, cheese-grater, potato-parer, and +what not. It was the kind of thing you could use for everything but the +things it was intended for. It was a great screw-driver and tack hammer +and invaluable to gouge things out of deep cracks. + +"I'll buy a Mrs. Rand with pleasure," I promised. "I have never ceased +to regret that I did not save ours in the fire and let the pincushion +Cousin Park Garnett gave me perish in the flames." + +"Well, that's one sale already! That means five cents. I get five cents +on every sale I make." + +"I'll take a batty-cake turner just to see it do the flipflap, if it +takes a whole trip of fares to pay for it." + +"Good for you, Dee! I'll ride in your jitney if my work takes me in the +West End." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EARNING A LIVING + + +We were up bright and early the next morning. I was dressed and tenderly +cared for, with my easy chair dragged into the bay window, where I could +command a view of the street east and west as far as the eye could +reach. A housemaid, whose duty it was in the morning to do up the +Tuckers' apartment, was cautioned to look in on me every half-hour to +see that I wanted for nothing. + +"Zebedee would kill us for leaving you this way," declared Dum as she +embraced me good-by. "Nothing but the exigencies of the case excuse us." + +"'My poverty and not my will consents,'" quoted Dee. "We'll be in for +lunch. We've got to eat, and it might just as well be here." The maid +was instructed to bring a generous supply of lunch up to the apartment +at one o'clock. "If we have it up here I won't have to wash my face. I +have worked so hard to make the dirt on it look casual that I can't +contemplate going all over it again." + +Of course my meals had to be brought up to me from the cafe because of +my old ankle, and the girls often had theirs brought up, too, although +they preferred going down as a rule. They insisted they missed too many +tricks by having them sent up. "No second and third helps to pie, and +the one help you get too dainty for us." + +"Look out the window for me every ten minutes or so and pray that Henry +won't get cranky and have to be cranked and have me expose my skirts to +the rude gaze of the public," begged Dee as she hugged me good-by. She +had to forego the kiss as she was afraid of rubbing off her dirty +make-up, and I was quite willing to have it thus. Brindle, her beloved +bulldog, was not so squeamish as I, however, and gave her an +affectionate and disastrous lick. "Brindle can keep you company, honey. +Good-by, darling," to the dog. "I'm going to take you down to your +household necessity, Dum, and I am going to do it for nothing, too. I am +loaded to the guards with gas. I reckon I won't put out my sign until I +get downtown. I'll start my trade from down there." + +Dum had lettered the jitney sign for her the evening before. It was most +artistic, done in large blue letters on white cardboard: + + ------------------ + | MONUMENT AVENUE | + | | + | 5c JITNEY 5c | + ------------------ + +Dee was not a day too soon in her venture, for already the authorities +were taking the matter of the jitney business in hand, and the privilege +of running a jitney without special license and a $5,000 bond was on the +verge of being withdrawn from the legion of owners of broken-down Fords. + +My morning was far from dull. The attentive maid came popping in every +few minutes, I had a pile of new magazines and papers, and there was the +never-dying excitement of watching for Dee and her blue-and-white sign. + +On her return trip, after taking Dum to the household necessities, she +had a lone passenger--certainly not enough money in that to pay for the +gas; but on the downtown trip she caught many an early worm, and her car +was actually running over. At that time there were no rules about +standing on the steps and overcrowding, and Dee had taken in every one +who had raised a finger. I counted thirty-five cents, which was going +some for a five-passenger car. Dee had a small plaid shawl which she had +wrapped around her legs to conceal her skirt. She looked as much like a +boy as Zebedee himself must have at her age. She never forgot to look up +at my window, and, on seeing me, would touch her cap in a most +gentlemanly way, a grin on her funny, dirty face. + +Up to nine-thirty her downtown trips were all crowded, while her +outgoing ones were but sparsely patronized. Then there was a lull in +her traffic until about eleven, when the shoppers began to pour +downtown. Women and babies! women and babies! Sometimes women and dogs! +Brindle, who never left the window, and seemed to be watching for Dee +and Henry Ford as eagerly as I was, resented the dogs very much. He felt +that his rightful place was in that car, and any dog who dared get in it +was to be disciplined through the window glass if he could not reach him +in any other way. + +Every time Dee raised her dirty face and grinned at us Brindle would +tremble all over with excitement and joy. I trembled, too, for fear that +he would break the great pane of glass, he scratched on it with such +vigor. + +Before the hordes of shoppers were disposed of the men and business +women began to jitney their way back to their homes for luncheon. It was +actually almost one o'clock. I could hardly believe it. The morning had +been fraught with excitement to me as I had kept account of Dee's +earnings, and in watching for her and keeping up with her gains I had +had little time for literature. + +At one o'clock sharp, Henry Ford, shorn of his gorgeous blue-and-white +placard, parked in front of the apartment house, and in a moment a +breathless and excited Dee was hugging first Brindle and then me, quite +careless of her make-up. + +"Gee, but I am tired and hungry! It is a sin to be wasting all those +fares. Just see how crowded the jitneys are! But I am so hungry I'm +fittin' to bust. Where's Dum? Here, count my earnings while I scrape off +enough dirt to eat." She poured into my lap a pile of silver and +nickels. + +"Four dollars and fifteen cents!" I called to her in the bathroom, where +she was punishing her begrimed face. "I counted more than that; I kept +watching and saw you every time you passed." + +"Oh, yes, I took a load of old soldiers out to the Soldiers' Home for +nothing. I gave them the time of their lives. They were so tickled, I +took them down and back again. That made sixty cents short." + +That was so like Dee and explained the many old men I had seen in the +car. + +Dum came bursting in just as the maid brought a tray laden with food. +"Lord love us, but I'm tired! I have had a rip-roaring time, though. I +can get off a spiel that would sell household novelties to Fiji +Islanders. Mrs. Rand has taken like hot cakes, and the batty-cake turner +went with it to turn those cakes." She had with her a disreputable-looking +canvas telescope that contained her samples. Her job was to go from +house to house and take orders, to be delivered later. Her pocket was +bursting with signed agreements to pay for said wares on delivery. +"Here, Page, please count 'em up and see how rich I am. What did you +make, Dee? I am dying to hear all about your morning! You tell first and +then I'll tell." + +"I made four dollars and fifteen cents. I can't tell you about my +morning now because I've got to eat with my mouth. I'm missing fares +until it makes me sick," and Dee jumped into her lunch with such vim +that Dum and I deemed it wiser to eat, too, for fear there would be +nothing left from the voracious jitneur. + +"Henry did not have to be cranked but once, and that was when we were at +the end of the line up at Robinson Street and there were no passengers +in. I bumped over a high car track, and you know how indignant that +makes old Henry. I was awfully glad I had just dumped my last fare. Not +a soul saw my skirts." This was mumbled with a full mouth as Dee +steadily stoked up, accomplishing in about ten minutes one of the +largest meals I ever saw. + +"Dee, I am afraid you will have apoplexy or something," Dum +remonstrated. + +But Dee declared that a workingman must eat a lot. She could easily +digest anything she could accommodate, and she was not quite full yet. +Finding I had not tasted my consomme, for being shut up as I was my +appetite was nothing to boast of, Dee drank it down on top of cocoanut +pie and currant jelly, the dessert she had just finished. + +"To fill up the cracks!" she exclaimed, and with a whirl she was out of +the apartment and back in her jitney once more, alert for fares. + +"Isn't she a great girl, though?" said Dum, a little wistfully. +"Four-fifteen was a good haul. Have you counted up my pledges yet?" + +"Yes, you have twenty-seven. At five cents apiece that makes one dollar +thirty-five cents. That's not a bad morning's work." + +"No, that's not so bad, and maybe I can do better this afternoon. I am +going to kick for another part of town tomorrow. They gave me the +swellest part of Franklin Street, and so many of the houses were where +our friends live that it was hard to be businesslike. I put it up to +them as a perfectly businesslike proposition, however, and would not let +them sign up unless they wanted my wares for their own sake, not mine. I +had an awful time with your cousin, Park Garnett. She made out she did +not know me, and I did not force my acquaintance on her, but I just +talked and talked and made her look at everything I had--Mrs. Rand, +batty-cake flapper, and all the needle-threaders, spot-knockers, and +silver polish--and, what's more, I did not leave her ugly, ponderous old +house until I had made her sign up for fifteen cents' worth of household +necessities--I mean fifteen cents for me. I expatiated on Mrs. Rand +until there was nothing for her to do but own one, and I played +battledore and shuttlecock with her ball of gray yarn (of course she was +knitting another shawl with purple scallops) and the batty-cake turner +until she was dizzy and would have signed up to get me out of the house, +I think. She bought some silver polish, too, because I took her fat old +pug up in my lap and showed her how much his collar needed rubbing. +Jeremiah, the blue-gummed butler, was fascinated by my wares, and kept +tiptoeing back into the room to fix the fire or pretend he heard the +bell or something. That put it into my head to make the rest of the +rounds in the backs of the houses, where the servants can see my +novelties, and I had fine luck. I am going to stick to the alleys and +back doors all afternoon." + +Dum was, as usual, perfectly open and straightforward, with absolutely +no idea of concealing her identity. I had not dreamed that she was +contemplating going into the homes of her friends and acquaintances with +her peddling job. I couldn't help wondering what Mr. Tucker would say to +it. He was accustomed to the scrapes of his progeny and used to say just +so long as they told the truth and kept out of jail, he could stand it; +but these new escapades did seem to be a little more serious than any +they had heretofore plunged into. They were certainly not doing anything +wrong from a moral standpoint, but they were giving Mrs. Grundy a chance +to do a lot of gabbling. I could not help laughing over Cousin Park, +although I secretly wished that Dum could have started her back-door +canvassing before she reached that ponderous edifice belonging to my +relative. It merely meant that Mrs. Garnett would have some tangible +grievance against my friends, for whom she held a prejudice that no +politeness on their part seemed to do away with. Certainly Zebedee had +been very kind and pleasant to her on several occasions, and he had been +quite attentive to her on that memorable picnic the summer before. He +had also done all that was required of him toward entertaining her +guest, Mabel Binks, in the early part of the winter. In fact, Tweedles +and I felt that he had done more than common politeness required toward +the amusement of that flashy young woman. + +"Did you tell Cousin Park I was in town?" I asked. + +"No, indeed; I never claimed acquaintance with her, I tell you! She made +out that she had never seen me before and I fell in with her mood and +just be'ed an agent, only that and nothing more. Sometimes I think maybe +she really did not know me. You know she won't wear glasses all the time +and I believe her eye-sight is bad." + +I devoutly hoped this to be the case. I had not informed Cousin Park of +my presence in Richmond and had father's consent to this concealment, as +we both of us knew that she would be tearing around and drag me out of +the Tuckers' apartment and incarcerate me in her prison-like mansion, +whether I would or no. Father and I felt the same way about her house. +Father always said he was afraid the butler, Jeremiah, would bite him, +and every one brought up by a mammy knew that "to be bit by a +blue-gummed nigger was certain death." Jeremiah was really a very nice +old man in spite of his lugubrious air of officiating at your funeral +while he was actually serving the very heavy viands with which Mrs. +Garnett's oiled walnut table was laden. + +"Maybe she didn't know you, after all," I ventured cheerfully. + +"Well, if she didn't or did, it is all one to me. I don't have to +deliver the novelties, as that is done by some trustworthy person +employed steadily by the boss, and in the meantime I have earned +fifteen cents at the funereal mansion. I must tear myself away now and +begin a systematic visiting of the back doors of the homes fronting +Monroe Park. Good-by, honey," and Dum, too, was gone. + +Brindle and I were left to watch for the meteoric appearances of Dee and +to get through the afternoon as best we might. + +Dee did a thriving business. As the afternoon went on she never passed +without a car full and sometimes running over. Her face was tense and as +often as not she forgot to look up and salute Brindle and me. + +"She will be a tired little girl when the day is over," I said to +Brindle, and he wagged his tail and snuffled his appreciation of my +noticing him. Dee had just passed, the back seat of Henry two-deep with +passengers and on the front seat a very dressy looking young woman who +seemed to be sitting very close to the stern young jitneur. That was one +of the times Dee had forgotten to look up and poor Brindle was in deep +distress. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT + + +It was almost dark and still the twins had not returned. The maid came +in and turned on the electric light and brought me the menu from the +cafe. I ordered a substantial dinner for the three of us and with the +assistance of the good-natured girl got myself into another dress and +smoothed myself up a bit. + +A quick step sounded in the hall just as I settled in my chair and the +maid went down to order dinner. Tweedles at last--one of them, anyhow! +It turned out to be Mr. Tucker, and I was covered with confusion! What +on earth was I to say to him? What business did he have coming home +before he was expected? + +"Hello, little friend! Where are those girls? You don't mean that both +of them have had the heartlessness to go out at one time and leave you +all by yourself? I wouldn't have thought it of them!" + +"Oh, they--they--I reckon they'll be in soon. I haven't been lonesome at +all. Brindle and I have been looking out of the window at the jitneys--" +dangerous ground! If the girls wanted to tell their father of their +escapades they were to be allowed to do so, but it was not my business. +Why didn't they come on in? I knew they would sooner or later divulge to +their beloved Zebedee, but they had certainly meant to get all over with +their schemes while he was away. + +"We weren't looking for you until day after tomorrow," I stammered. + +"Well, is that any reason why you shouldn't be glad to see me now?" + +"Oh, no! We are glad to see you--that is, I am." + +"That is to say, Tweedles will not be?" he questioned. + +"Of course they will be." Why, oh, why didn't they come on? + +Weary footsteps dragging along the hall and Dum appeared. Her hat was on +one side, not at a jaunty angle but just at that hopelessly out-of-plumb +slant. Her face was dirty enough to suit Dee's idea of a jitney driver. +Her hair was dishevelled and her shoes very dusty. + +"Oh, Page, only fifteen orders in all the afternoon and I am nearly +dead! I'll never be able to make a living peddling household no---- +What,--you!" and her mouth formed itself into a round O as she spied her +wonderful parent. + +"Yes, I!" + +"You!" + +"Yes, me! If you understand that better." + +"Oh!" + +"Is that all you can say when I chased back from the meeting in Norfolk +expecting to find three lone ladies so glad to see me? Page greets me +with an icy mitt, and now all you can say is 'You!' and 'Oh!' Where is +Dee? Maybe she will at least ask me how I am." + +More tired footsteps dragging along the hall, and in came Dee. + +"I am rolling in wealth but I am so tired that nobody had better say +'boo' to me or I'll weep." + +"'Boo!'" said Zebedee. + +"Oh, you?" and Dee proceeded to burst into tears which certainly did not +improve her begrimed countenance. + +"Great heavens! What is the matter?" he cried, turning fiercely on Dum. + +Dum did the most natural thing in the world for a poor little +half-orphan who had been trying to pay her debts by honest toil, selling +household novelties at back doors and tramping up and down cobble-stoned +alleys until she had worn a blister on her heel--she just burst out +crying, too. + +Zebedee looked hopelessly at me, evidently expecting me to be dissolved +in tears, too, but the ludicrous side of things had struck my risibles +and, willy-nilly, I succumbed to laughter. Brindle, however, was +sympathetic with his beloved mistress, and set up such a howling as +never was heard before. + +"By the great Jumping Jingo! What is the matter? Have I done something? +Is anybody dead? What do you mean, Dee, by having on my coat and cap? +What do you mean, Dum, by fifteen orders? Page, you can speak; tell me +what's up." + +"I--I----" + +"Go on and tell him, Page!" tweedled the twins, trying to control their +emotions. + +"Well, Tweedles got a little behind with their finances and the fire +came along at Gresham at a rather inopportune moment as they were +expecting to save up on allowances----" + +"And the old clothes! Don't forget the old clothes!" from a very +crumpled-up Dee. + +"They also were negotiating some sales with the laundress, of cast-off +clothing." Zebedee was looking me through and through with his ice-blue +eyes. I had never had the least fear of him from the moment I had met +him, but now I felt, to say the least, quite confused. He looked stern, +and his eyes, which had been only the color of blue, blue ice, but +always seemed warm, were now as cold as ice, too. + +"Well, go on!" + +"The fire broke out and now the old laundress has the clothes and the +money, too. So Tweedles were all broken up over owing so much money and +I suggested that they turn in and earn some." + +"You suggested it?" still very coldly. + +"Yes, I suggested it, and I would do the same thing again. I think it is +a great deal better for people to get to work and pay off their debts at +any honest labor than to keep on owing them----" + +I gulped and got red. I was tired of having Mr. Tucker look at me with +his cold expression of a criminal judge. I had done nothing wrong, and +neither had the girls, for that matter. I felt a great wave of anger +rising in me, and I stood up on my bad ankle, forgetting all about +having one, and faced my host, ready for battle. He looked rather +startled, and the twins stopped sobbing and began to dry their eyes on +two very grimy handkerchiefs. I do not often get very angry, but there +was something about being looked at as Zebedee looked at me, that made +me lose all control of myself. He made me feel that I was a bad little +girl while he considered himself a superior old gentleman. Now up to +this time the father of my two best friends had always treated me like a +grown-up young lady, and had never made me feel that there was any +difference to speak of between his age and mine, and he had no right +with one wave of his hand to put me back in the kindergarten class. + +"Why, Page----" + +"Don't 'Why, Page' me! You came back before we expected you and startled +us somewhat, as Tweedles hoped to get the money earned before you +returned. The girls are dead tired and need their dinner and kind +sympathy instead of being bullyragged----" + +"Page! Please! I only wanted to know how Tweedles went to work to make +all the money you say they owe. I am not a bit angry, not the least +little bit. I think you are very unkind to me." + +"Well, you looked at me so coldly and sneered so." + +"No! You are mistaken!" + +"Yes, you did, when I said I suggested it." + +"I am awfully sorry, little friend," and now his ice-blue eyes melted, +literally melted, as he, too, began to leak, as the Tuckers call their +free giving way to tears. You remember, it was a trait of the family. +They thought no more of weeping than of laughing or sneezing. They wept +when they felt weepy just as they laughed when anything amused them or +sneezed when they felt sneezy. + +"I tell you what you do, girls: you go on and wash up and change your +dresses, and then we'll have dinner, and after dinner we'll talk it all +over like sensible people without getting angry or huffy or anything +that we might get." Zebedee wiped his eyes and gave his girls a hug and +kiss in spite of their grimy, soiled countenances, and then he turned to +me as they flew to the bathroom to do his bidding. I had become +conscious of my ankle as I stood there disobeying the doctor's commands, +and now that it was all over I flopped back in my chair, feeling very +grateful for its support. + +"Now you have gone and put your weight on your foot and it is all my +fault." + +"Oh, no! Not at all!" + +"It is just as much my fault as that Tweedles came in worn out with +making a living and had dirty faces and were hungry----" + +"Nobody said that was your fault!" + +"Well, what was my fault, then?" + +"It was your fault for looking at me so disapprovingly. You were what +Tweedles call Mr. Tuckerish. You were so cold and grown-up and made me +feel so young and naughty, and as I had not done a thing on earth but +just suggest to the girls that they try to earn some money, not +specifying how they should go about it, it did seem hard that you should +be so hard on me. It hurt my feelings." + +"Well, on the other hand, little girl, how about my feelings? Here I had +come tearing home from Norfolk expecting to find three charming girls, +all of them overjoyed to see me, and what do I find? Nothing but 'What, +yous!' from first one and then the other--stammered greetings, and then +tears and flashing eyes and false accusations." + +At that I burst out laughing, and Zebedee did the same. It was such a +tempest in a teapot! I was ahead of him, however, and by my sudden anger +over nothing or almost nothing I had unwittingly turned his attention +from Tweedles and their misdemeanors, and now I was sure he would be +only amused over their escapade. + +"We are all of us mighty glad to have you back. I don't see what made +you think we weren't." + +"Foolish of me, wasn't it? I realize now that it was excess of emotion +and delight that made all of you behave as you did." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WHAT ZEBEDEE SAID + + +We ate dinner very quietly. The twins began to perk up a bit in the +salad course, and by the time we got to Brown Betty and the Roman punch +they were quite themselves, except for a langour that might have come +from overeating as much as from overexertion. + +Zebedee avoided the subject of money-making with great tact. He had much +to tell us of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gordon and their little home in +Norfolk and their happiness and hospitality. Mrs. Gordon was or had been +our beloved Miss Cox, a teacher at Gresham. She had married Mr. Gordon +at Willoughby Beach the summer before while she was chaperoning us, and +all of us felt that we had been instrumental in making the match and +were in a measure responsible for the great happiness of the couple. + +The maid had removed all traces of dinner and we were seated snugly +around the drop light on the library table, a table that had been +converted into a dinner table when the Tuckers decided to dine in their +apartment, which boasted no housekeeping arrangements. There was a deep +silence broken only by a smothered yawn from Dee. Running a jitney for +almost eleven hours is some sleep-provoker. + +"Well, girls, aren't you going to take your poor old father in out of +the cold?" and Zebedee looked appealingly at his daughters. + +"Well, it was this way----" they started in the same breath. + +"One at a time, please! Dum, you begin." + +"Well, you see I owe seven dollars and twenty-three cents to different +girls at Gresham and I didn't have a red cent and no telling how long +before allowances are due, so I just thought I'd try to earn something. +I found an ad for twenty young women to sell household novelties and so +I applied for the job." + +"That was rather ambitious as a starter. Were you going to be all twenty +right from the first?" + +"Silly and flippant! I got the job, at least one twentieth of it, and +started out this morning at eight o'clock. I am to get five cents on +every sale. I went up and down Franklin and Grace streets all morning, +going in the front doors, but this afternoon I tried the back doors +because naturally the servants are more interested in these labor-saving +devices than the mistresses; besides, I saw so many people we know when +I went in the front way that I was afraid if they bought from me they +would do it from pity or something, and I wanted to be very businesslike +and create a burning desire for the really excellent articles I am +selling. I didn't want to hold up anyone." + +"That's right!" I was trembling for what Zebedee would say about Dum's +meeting all the friends on her canvassing jaunt, but I realized that I +did not really know that gentleman as well as I thought I did. He did +not seem to mind in the least if perhaps everyone in Richmond knew that +one of his girls had been out going from house to house in the most +fashionable residential districts selling batty-cake flappers and +spot-knockers. + +"I have made in all on commissions two dollars and ten cents, I think. I +have completely worn out my shoes on the cobblestones in the alleys and +have got a blister on my heel as big as all my commissions put +together." + +"Have you collected your money yet?" + +"No! I don't get it until the goods are delivered and my customers pay +up." + +"How long does your job last?" + +"Oh, until the whole town is combed with a fine tooth comb. Our boss +wants every lady in Richmond to have the advantage of these household +novelties." Dum unconsciously took on the tone usual with the +house-to-house canvasser. + +Zebedee gave a smile but there was no divining what his real thoughts +were any more than if he had been the Sphynx herself. He looked to me +rather like a man who was seeing a real good show and was deeply +interested but reserving his final opinion of the merits of the actors +and the playwright until the curtain. + +"Now, Dee, let's hear from you!" + +"Well,--while Dum was looking at the want column, I saw on the front +page that the poor men who run jitneys were in a fair way to be crowded +out of their business by all kinds of ordinances and things that were +likely to be put on them." + +"Yes, they won't have long to run without giving bonds, etc." + +"I just knew how much you felt for the poor men and approved of their +venture, and so I just decided I'd run a jitney myself for a day or so +and get myself out of debt. I owe five dollars and seventy-three cents +to schoolmates and did not have but thirty-seven cents and a street car +ticket. I wanted to let Dum in on my scheme but she said she would get +out and earn her own money. I did not dream I could make so much, and +indeed I couldn't have, if I had not speeded like fun. The cops knew +Henry in spite of his sign, and I believe they knew me through the dirt +and make-up, and they never once stopped me. + +"Of course I had to run in high a lot and it took gas, but I am going to +pay for that out of my earnings. I made four dollars and fifteen cents +this morning and I have not counted yet what I took in this afternoon." +She turned the pockets of her father's greatcoat inside out into my lap +and the bills and coin made such a showing that I thought it no wonder +she had announced she was rolling in wealth. I counted six dollars and +thirty-five cents. That made ten dollars and fifty cents for the day's +work. + +"I think being a jitneur is mighty hard work. There is a nerve-racking +something about it that sho' does you up. In the first place there are +always some idiots on board, the kind that rock the boat, and they will +sit on the doors and are liable at any time to go spinning into the +street. Then there are some old ladies who always drop their nickels and +then you stand chugging away, scared to death for fear Henry will give +up the ghost, and that means getting out to crank up when you have got +on skirts and don't want to flaunt them." + +"I have been wondering what you did about your skirts." + +"Did nothing! Just ignored them! I didn't have to crank up but once this +morning, and that was when I hit a hole out on Robinson Street and Henry +blinked out; but I had just got rid of my last fare and no one saw my +disgrace. This afternoon I had awful bad luck. There were three funerals +and every single one of them crossed my route and I had to wait for them +to pass. You know how Henry gets mad and stops playing when he has to +stand still too long--well, every one of those funerals got me in bad. +One of them I was glad to see, as I was having an awful time. A girl +dressed up to beat the band had got on the front seat with me and she +was lollapalusing all over me, and I had no room to drive. She would +talk to me, although I never encouraged her with anything sweeter than a +grunt. I had made an awful mash and was up against it. She got me so +hacked I let a fare get away from me,--man just got out and walked off +without paying. I felt like Rosalind must have felt when Phebe pursued +her or like Viola when Olivia got soft, but this girl was more of the +Phebe type. I was afraid she was going to spend the afternoon with Henry +and me. She had just intimated that she would go on downtown with us +again and make a round trip when we struck the funeral. Henry chugged +away and then stopped off short. I dropped the plaid shawl I had my +skirts wrapped up in and climbed over the foolish virgin, and I tell you +I blessed the day I was born a girl then. I wish you could have seen the +minx. I cranked up and climbed back, and there was no more lollapalusing +from her. She scrouged herself over into her own corner and laughed a +scornful laugh. The people on the back seat had been amused by her +goings-on before, but when they found out I was a girl, they roared with +laughter and my mash got out on the next corner. She gave me a dime and +told me I could keep the change, so I did not lose anything after all +from the man who sneaked off." + +"You didn't really keep it?" exclaimed Dum. + +"Keep it! O course I did! It would have been very melodramatic to hurl +it after her. I was not driving a jitney for my health. I was out for +money--rocks--spondulix--tin--the coin--and that idiot's dime was just +as good as any man's. Besides, she had taken up more than her share of +room and owed me something for letting the sneak get off. + +"That dollar bill! I bet you can't guess who paid me that,--Mrs. Barton +Alston. She got in and handed me the dollar and said: 'Here, boy! Just +ride me until that is used up!' It was ten round trips so she was with +me a good part of the afternoon. She said she never did get out in +automobiles much these days, that her friends sometimes come and drive +her out to the cemetery, but she is tired of graveyards and wants to +cheer up some. She told me all this when we were having a little spin +alone, but I heard her telling some of the fares the same thing. She was +real nice and jolly and took people on her lap and did the honors of the +jitneys with as much graciousness as she used to entertain before they +lost their money. I was sorry she was so broad-beamed, as it was +difficult to get three on the seat while she stayed with me, and of +course when you are running a jitney every inch counts. When her ten +round trips were up, I hated to tell her and took her another for luck. +Some day let's go get her, Zebedee, and take her out to the Country Club +or something and give her a good time. She is mighty tired of being +supposed to be in retirement, mourning for Mr. Alston. She never did +recognize me, although I talked to her quite freely. She called me 'Boy' +all the time. Gee whilikins, but she can talk!" + +"There are others!" put in Dum. "Do you know you have not stopped once +for half-an-hour?" + +"Well, I'm not out of gas yet." + +"No, I reckon not! You are some self-starter, too. Nobody has to get out +and crank you up and persuade you to get going. Funerals don't stop you. +You go in high all the time, go so fast a traffic cop can't see your +number." + +"Well, I'm afraid I have monopolized the conversation some but it has +been a very exciting day. I'm going to divide up with you, Dum. I +believe between us we can get all of those debts paid." + +"Oh, Dee, that would be too good of you!" + +"Nonsense! You worked just as hard as I did. I believe in an equal +distribution of wealth. Count up, Page, and see where we stand." + +"Let's see! You made ten dollars and fifty cents; Dum made two dollars +and ten cents--that makes twelve dollars and sixty cents. You owe five +dollars and seventy-three cents--Dum owes seven dollars and twenty-three +cents. That makes twelve dollars and ninety-six cents. You are +thirty-six cents short." + +"Oh, but I've got thirty-seven cents and a street car ticket. That +leaves a penny over, to say nothing of the ticket. Hurrah! Hurrah!" and +those irresponsible Tuckers, all three of them, got up and danced the +lobster quadrille with me in the middle. When they stopped, completely +out of breath, Dee exclaimed: + +"Oh, Zebedee! I am awfully sorry, but I am afraid you will have to pay +for the gas after all. I charged it." + +And all Zebedee said was: "I'll be----" and just as Dee said would be +the case, what he said does not bear repetition and certainly is not to +be printed. + +Mrs. Barton Alston had many a treat from the Tuckers. Dum did not +collect her two dollars and ten cents until she had made many trips to +the boss. He tried to persuade her to accept a steady job with him as an +agent for household novelties, and while she naturally could not do it, +she declared it gave her a very comfortable feeling that if she should +have to earn her living there was at least one avenue open to her. + +The day after Dee's success as a jitneur the paper came out with +headlines that the jitneys were no longer within the law. Bonds must be +furnished, licenses must be paid, etc. Dee had been not a day too soon +in her venture. + +Zebedee never said one word of reproach to Tweedles. When he gave voice +to the unprintable remark above he was through. + +"I know I ought to do something about it," he moaned to me several days +after when he caught me alone. "It was a very risky thing for both of my +girls--they might have got in no end of scrapes--but what am I to do? If +I row with them and get Mr. Tuckerish even you get out with me, and +somehow I feel as long as the girls tell me everything, that they can't +get into very serious mischief. I know I have not done my part by them. +If I had been the right kind of unselfish father I would have married +long ago when they were tiny little tots and have had some good, +sensible woman bring them up." + +"They don't look at it that way." + +"Well, you could hardly expect them to 'kiss the rod'." + +I laughed aloud at that. + +"What's the matter?" + +"I am wondering what the 'good, sensible woman' would think at being +called a rod. I wonder if there is any woman good enough to undertake +the job of rod." + +"Perhaps not," he said ruefully. "You see when my little Virginia died, +all my friends and hers got busy and found a roomful of worthy ladies +that they considered the proper persons to marry me and bring up the +twins, but all of them were rather rod-like in a way, and somehow I +never could make up my mind to kiss 'em either. The trouble about me is +I can't grow up, and anyone whom my friends consider a suitable age for +me now, I look upon as a kind of mother to me." + +"I think Tweedles are getting on pretty well without a stepmother," I +managed to say. I felt about as bad as the twins themselves would have +at the thought of Zebedee's marrying again. "They never do anything too +bad to tell you, but they do lots of things I fancy they would not tell +a stepmother." + +"Well, little friend, if you think that, I reckon I'll worry along 'in +single blessedness' for a while yet." + +The Tucker Twins had been living in dread of a stepmother ever since +they had been conscious of living at all. It was a theme with all of +their relations and friends and one that was aired on every occasion. +"Jeffry Tucker should marry again!" was the cry and sometimes the battle +cry of every chaperone in Richmond. As Mr. Tucker said, it was always +some good, settled lady who needed a home and was willing to put up with +the twins who was selected as his mate. + +"I don't want to run an old ladies' home. If I ever marry I shall do it +for some reason besides furnishing a stepmother to my family and giving +a haven of refuge to some deserving lady." + +"I don't want to seem disloyal to Dum and Dee, but I think it might be +rather salutary if you talk to them just as you have to me, I mean about +stepmothers and things. It might make them a little more circumspect." + +"All right, I'll try; but I am afraid I have cried 'Wolf!' too often and +they would just laugh at me." + +Tweedles did listen to him quite seriously when he broached the subject +of his duty to marry again and give them the proper chaperonage. + +"Oh, Zebedee, please don't talk about such terrible things. We'll be +good and learn how to sew," wailed Dum. "I'm going to make some shirts +the very first thing." + +"Oh please, please spare me! I couldn't bear for you to get so good that +I'd have to wear home-made shirts!" And so the threat of a stepmother +was withdrawn for the time being. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A TRIP TO CHARLESTON + + +My ankle improved rapidly and in another week I was able to walk and +still another to dance. I had been patience itself, so my friends +declared, and I am glad they thought so. I had really been impatience +itself but had kept it to myself. + +"Girls, I've got a scheme!" exclaimed Zebedee one evening after dinner. +"I want to send a special correspondent to South Carolina to write up +the political situation and I am thinking about sending myself. If I do, +I am going to take all of you. I have written your father, Page, and an +answer came from him today. He says you may go, as he knows it would do +you good. I haven't said anything about it to you girls until I was sure +I could work it." + +"Oh goody, goody, goody! Where will we go first?" + +"Charleston first! I may leave you there awhile, as I have to do some +knocking around, but it will not be for very long, not more than a day +at a time." + +We plunged into shopping the very next day. Father had sent me a check +for necessary clothes, and the all-important matter had to be attended +to speedily. + +"Let's get all of our things exactly alike and pass for triplets! It +would be such a scream on Zebedee," suggested Dee. + +"Triplets, much! We'd just look like a blooming orphan asylum and get in +a book. It seems to me that every book I pick up lately is about orphan +asylums. Chauffeurs and orphans and aviators form the theme for every +book or magazine story I read. No, indeed! Let's get our clothes just as +different as possible," said Dum, rapidly turning the pages in _Vogue_. + +"All right. Then we can wear each other's. I'm going to get brown." + +"I'm crazy for dark green, if you don't think it will make my freckles +show on my nose too much. My nose and its freckles are a great trial to +me." + +"Nonsense! You've got the cutest nose in Virginia and Zebedee says he +likes freckles," said Dee, always tactful. + +"Well, he can have them, I'm sure I don't want them. What color are you +going to get, Dum?" + +"Anything but blue. There is a refinement about blue that I can't stand +right now. I want something dashing and indicative of my sentiments of +its being my bounden duty to have a good time." + +"Red?" + +"No, red's too obvious! I think I'll get lavender or mauve. Then I can +wear violets (when I can get them). I think lavender suits my mood all +right. It is kind of widowish and widows when they get into lavender are +always out for a good time. I tell you when widows get to widding they +are mighty attractive. I don't see why they don't stay in their pretty +white crepe linings, though. They are so terribly becoming. I mean to +make a stunning widow some day." + +"First catch your flea before you kill him," taunted Dee. + +"Well, I can't see the use in having your hair grow in a widow's peak on +your forehead if you can't ever be a widow. It seems such a waste." + +"There's time yet! You are only seventeen," I laughed. + +"Seventeen is old enough to know what style suits me best. Weeds are my +proper environment." + +In spite of Dum's conviction about weeds she purchased a most becoming +and suitably youthful suit in a soft mauve. Dee got exactly the same +style in brown and I in green. We deviated in hats, however, and each +girl thought her own was the prettiest, which is a great test of hats. +Hats are like treats at soda fountains: you usually wish you had ordered +something you didn't order and something your neighbor did. + +Spring was late in making its appearance in Virginia that year, but +since we were going to South Carolina we bravely donned our new suits +and hats. Zebedee declared he was proud of us, we were so stylish. + +"I have a great mind to grow some whiskers so people won't think I am +your little nephew," he said as he settled us in our section. The three +of us girls were to occupy one section, two below and one above, lots to +be cast how we were to dispose ourselves. + +"Nephew, much! You've got three gray hairs in your part now," declared +Dee. + +"Each of you is responsible for one of them." Mr. Tucker often classed +me with his own girls and really when I was with them I seemed to be a +member of the family. He treated me with a little more deference than he +did Tweedles because he said I seemed to be older. I was really a few +days younger. + +Dee got the upper berth in the casting of lots and Dum and I slept in +the lower, at least, Dum slept. I was conscious of much jerking and +bumping of the train, and Dum seemed to be demonstrating the batty-cake +flipflapper all night. + +We had left Richmond with a belated sprinkling of snow, but as we were +nearing Charleston at about five-thirty in the morning we ran through a +fine big thunder storm, and then torrents of rain descended, beating +against the windows. Of course some bromide who got off the train with +us, said something about "the back-bone of winter." + +What a rain! It seemed to be coming down in sheets, and such a thing as +keeping dry was out of the question. Tweedles and I regretted our new +spring suits and straw hats, but since we had been so foolhardy as to +travel in them we had to make the best of it and trust to luck that they +would not spot. + +The train had reached Charleston at six and by rights it should have +been dawn, but it was as dark as pitch owing to the thunder clouds that +hung low over the city. + +Zebedee hustled us into a creaking, swaying bus that reminded us +somewhat of the one at Gresham. Other travelers were there ahead of us +and as everyone was rather damp the odor of the closed vehicle was +somewhat wet-doggish. + +We rattled over the cobblestones through narrow streets, every now +and then glimpsing some picturesque bit of wall when we came to one +of the few and far between lamp posts. But it was generally very dim +and would have been dreary had we not been in a frame of mind to +enjoy everything we saw and to look at life with what Dee called +"Behind-the-clouds-the-sun's-still-shining" spirit. + +The bus turned into better lighted streets with smoother paving. + +"Meeting Street," read Dum from a sign. "Doesn't that sound romantic? Do +you reckon it means lovers meet here?" + +"It may, but I am very much afraid it just means the many churches that +abound on this street," laughed Zebedee. + +I wondered who the people were in the bus with us, but they seemed to +take no interest at all in us. There were two pale old ladies in black +crepe veils drawn partly over their faces; a dignified old gentleman in +a low-cut vest and a very high collar with turned-down flaps that seemed +especially designed to ease his double chin; and a young girl about +sixteen or seventeen who had evidently been in a day coach all night and +was much rumpled and tousled therefrom. She seemed to belong to the +pompous old gentleman, at least I gathered as much, as I had seen him +meet her at the station and noticed he gave her a fatherly peck of +greeting. Not a word did they utter however on that bumpy bus ride, and +although the two pale old ladies in crepe veils had stiffly inclined +their shrouded heads as father and daughter entered the vehicle and they +in turn had acknowledged the bow, not one word passed their lips. +Evidently a public conveyance was not the proper place for +Charlestonians to converse. The girl, who was very pretty in spite of +being so tired and dishevelled, smiled a sympathetic smile when Dum +enthused over Meeting Street. I had a feeling if we could get her by +herself she would chatter away like any other girl. + +Perhaps the old man won't be so stiff when he gets his breakfast. It is +hard to be limber on a wet morning and an empty stomach. When one has so +much stomach it must be especially hard to have it empty, I thought. + +It seemed very impertinent of the omnibus to bump this dignified old +gentleman so unmercifully. He held on to his stomach with both hands, an +expression of indignation on his pompous countenance, while his double +chin wobbled in a manner that must have been very trying to his dignity. + +The pale old ladies in crepe veils took their bumping with great +elegance and composure. When the sudden turning of a corner hurled one +of them from her seat plump into Zebedee's arms, if she was the least +disconcerted she did not show it. A crisp "I beg your pardon!" was all +she said as she resumed her seat. She did pull the crepe veil entirely +over her face, however, as though to conceal from the vulgar gaze any +emotion that she might have felt. Of course we giggled. We always +giggled at any excuse, fancied or real. The pretty girl giggled, too, +but turned it into a cough as her father pivoted his fat little person +around and looked at her in evident astonishment. + +The bus backed up to our hotel where a grinning porter was in readiness +to capture our bags. Our fellow travelers were evidently relieved at our +departure. I saw through the window that both ladies put back their +stuffy veils and that the old gentleman relaxed his dignified bearing +somewhat and entered into conversation with them. The young girl, +however, peered rather wistfully through the drenched pane at us as we +gaily took possession of the hotel lobby. + +"Wasn't she sweet! Maybe we will see her again sometime," said Dee. + +"I couldn't see her at all from where I sat," declared Zebedee. "Her old +father's embonpoint obstructed my view." + +The hotel where Zebedee had decided to take us was not the newest and +most fashionable in Charleston, but he had heard it was the most typical +and that the cooking was quite good. It had been built years before the +famous earthquake, and had still marks of that calamity. The floors, +many of them, had a down-hill tendency, and there were cracks under the +doors and I believe not one right angle in a single wall of the house. + +The room we girls were to occupy was a great square chamber with a large +window looking out on a cobbled street. There were picturesque doors, +and walls with mysterious shuttered windows, where one could +occasionally see eyes peering forth. It is against the Charleston code +of manners to open shutters or raise the blinds of windows that look out +on the street. + +The floor of our room was on a decided slant and this caused a very +amusing accident. There was a large armchair with broad substantial +rockers into which Dum sank to rest her weary bones until breakfast. The +chair was pointed down-hill and over Dum went backwards, and nothing in +the world but her fine new spring hat saved her from getting a terrible +bump on her head. + +"It's like living in the Tower of Pisa!" she exclaimed as we pulled her +up. + +"You had better remember to rock up-hill next time," admonished Dee. "I +bet you, we will all develop a mountain leg living on such a slant. But +isn't it fascinating? As soon as breakfast is over, let's go out and +explore. I want to peep in the shutters all along the way and see what +everybody is having for breakfast and going to have for dinner." + +"That's just the way I feel! If anything is shut, I want to peep in. If +it is locked, I want to get in." + +Our hotel was run on the American plan and our grinning waiter insisted +upon bringing us everything on the bill of fare. I think he saw in +Zebedee the possibilities of a liberal tip. In South Carolina there is a +law against tipping. In all of the rooms of hotels the guests are +reminded of this by large printed placards, but like most laws of the +kind it seems made only to be broken. + +"The tight-wads who kicked against tipping the poor colored servants now +have the law on their side and can get out of it gracefully, but the +people who tip because they feel that the servants have earned some +little acknowledgment of their faithful services, go on tipping just as +though no law had been made," said Zebedee, as he slipped some silver +under the side of his plate in view of the watching darky, who pounced +upon it with a practiced hand, while making a feint of removing finger +bowls. + +"I am going to turn you girls loose now to find your way around and seek +out the wonders of Charleston. I have work to do and politicians to +see." + +"All right! Don't worry about us!" tweedled the twins. + +"I want to get a map of the city first," said Dee, "so we can get our +bearings," but Dum and I cried down this project. + +"Let's find out things for ourselves and then get a map and guide book +to verify us. It's lots more fun to go at it that way." + +"Well, all I know is that this hotel is on Meeting Street, and on our +right is Church Street and on our left King. The street under your +window is Queen, and if you walk south down Meeting you come to the +Battery. You can't get lost and can't get in any trouble unless you try +to climb the spiked fences or get over the walls covered with broken +bottles. I'll meet you at luncheon at one," and Zebedee took himself off +to find out things from some of the political lights of the city. + +We were left to our own devices. The sun had come out and if we had not +been in the rain we would not have believed it could have come down in +such torrents only a short while ago. Our dresses did not spot. + +"Let's not go in any place this morning but just walk around and see +from the outside. It would be low of us to do the graveyards and things +without Zebedee. He loves those things and will want to see them," said +Dee. + +It was a strange taste for one so cheerful, but it was the truth that +Mr. Tucker was especially fond of poking around musty old churches and +reading epitaphs on tombstones. + +We walked to St. Michael's, looking longingly through the iron gates at +the quaint old tombstones, but refrained from going in for Zebedee's +sake. We passed many beautiful old houses, some of them in perfect +repair, brave in fresh paint, with trimmed hedges and gravel walks in +their lovely old gardens that we could see by peering through the +wrought-iron gates. Some of the houses, though, looked as though they +had not been painted since the Revolution, and their gardens were grown +up with weeds, with ragged, untrimmed hedges and neglected paths. + +Almost every house, big or little, boasts a southern gallery or porch. +The houses are built right on the street, but the large door opens from +the street to the porch and not to the house. The gardens are to the +side and back, and, as a rule, are surrounded by great brick walls with +either iron spikes across the top or ferocious broken bottles cemented +to the bricks. The windows, opening on the street, are kept shuttered +closely, and iron bars give you to understand that there is no breaking +into Charleston society by night or day. The corners of the houses, +where the porches are, also are protected from possible interlopers by +great iron spikes, a foot long and sharp enough to pierce the hide of a +rhinoceros. The porches are also shuttered, partly to protect the +inmates from the rude gaze of the passer-by and partly to protect them +from the ruder gaze of the southern sun. + +There was almost no one on the street. The Charleston men had gone to +their places of business, leisurely to pursue a desultory living, and +Charleston ladies do not go on the street in the morning, so we were +afterwards told. We met several darkies crying their wares and saw an +occasional housewife making a furtive purchase from some of these +hucksters. These ladies, we judged, only came out because their +establishments did not boast servants. As a rule, however, the old cooks +seemed to do the buying. + +The Charleston darky has a very peculiar lingo, so peculiar, in fact, +that Tweedles and I found it difficult to understand. It is very +different from the speech of our Virginia negroes. They seem to clip +the words off very short, and their voices are lighter and higher than +our colored people's. + +A shrimp seller was very interesting to us. We did not know what he had +or what he was calling, and followed him down the street trying to find +out. He held up high on his open hand a great flat basket and he sounded +as though he were trying to give a college yell: + +"Rah, rah, rah, Shrimpy! Rah, rah, Shrimpy! Rah!" + +"What on earth are you selling?" asked Dum. + +"Rah shrimp! Rah shrimp! Buysome, Missy! Buysome, Missy!" + +Then we saw his squirming wares and understood. + +"But we couldn't do anything with raw shrimps," we declared regretfully. + +"Well den, Missy lak nig sing fer heh?" + +"Why, yes, that would be fine," and the boy held high his basket of +squirming raw shrimps and sang in a strange falsetto the following +song: + + "Shrimpy, Shrimpy; rah, rah, Shrimpy! + Who wants Shrimp ter-day? + When you hear de Shrimp man holler, + Better come dis way. + + "Shrimpy, Shrimpy; rah, rah, Shrimpy! + Sho' I'll heap de plate. + Ain't I see my gal dere waitin' + Stannin' by de gate? + + "Shrimpy, Shrimpy; rah, rah, Shrimpy! + All de cooks in town, + When I holler 'I got Shrimpy' + Mus' be tunnin' roun'." + +We applauded him vigorously and each one gave him a dime, thereby doing +a very foolish thing, as ever after during our stay in Charleston we +were pursued by the little darkies who wanted to sing to us. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THROUGH THE GRILLE + + +None of us had ever been so far south before and the palmetto trees were +a great astonishment to us. + +"They don't look natural to me, somehow," declared Dum, "but kind of +manufactured. The trunks with that strange criss-cross effect might have +been made by kindergarten children and as for the leaves--I don't +believe they are real." + +"It does seem ridiculous for people to have these great things twenty +feet high, growing in their back yards when we nurse them with such care +at home and are so proud if we can get one to grow three feet. Mammy +Susan has a palm, 'pa'm' she calls it, that she has tenderly cared for +for four years and it is only about up to my waist now. I wish she could +see these trees." + +"I feel like the lady from Minnesota who came on a visit to Richmond and +was so overcome by the magnolia trees. She remarked: 'I have never seen +such large rubber plants.' But don't these palmetto trees have a strange +swishy sound? They make me feel like 'somebody's a-comin',' kind of +creepy." + +Dee was peering into a garden belonging to one of the old houses that +had not known paint since the Revolution. The garden, however, was not +neglected but evidently cared for with loving hands. There were borders +of snowdrops and violets; purple and white hyacinths primly marked the +narrow gravel walk, and clumps of rhododendron and oleander were so well +placed that one felt that a landscape gardener must have had the +planting of them. Two large palmetto trees stood like sentinels on each +side of the wrought-iron gate, which was hung from great square brick +pillars. A massive brick wall surrounded the garden with an uninviting +coping of ferocious spikes. + +We had our faces close to the grille trying to see a little more of the +garden while the above conversation was going on. All of us longed to +get in like Alice in Wonderland. How to do it was the problem! + +If that we could see was so enchanting, what we couldn't see must be +even more so. + + "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard + Are sweeter; therefore ye pipes play on." + +No doubt it was very rude of us to stand there peering in, but we were +so enthralled by the beauty of the garden and so filled with the desire +to get in that we forgot Mr. Manners entirely. Just as Dee said that the +palmetto trees made her feel like somebody was coming, somebody did +come. We heard a voice, a very irate voice indeed, behind the wall +declaiming in masculine tones: + +"There is no use in discussing the matter further, Claire! I tell you I +shall never give my consent to Louis' going into such a profession. +Planting gardens, forsooth! That is work for negroes, negroes directed +by women." + +"But, papa, it is a very honorable profession, and Louis has such a love +for flowers and such marvelous taste in arranging them. Just see what he +has done for our garden! He could do the same for others, and already he +is being sought by some of the wealthy persons of Charleston to direct +the planting of their gardens." + +The second voice evidently belonged to a young girl. There was a sweet +girlishness about it and the soft, light accent of the Charlestonian was +very marked. I don't know how to give an idea of how she said +Charleston, but there was no R in it and in its place I might almost put +an I. "Chailston" is as near as I can come and that seems 'way off. + +"Bah! Pish! _Nouveau riches! Parvenues!_ What business have they to ask +a Gaillard to dig in their dirt? It is not many generations since they +have handled picks themselves and now they want to degrade one of the +first Charleston families." + +"But, papa, what is he to do? Louis is nineteen and you know there is no +money for college. He cannot be idle any longer. He must have a +profession." + +It was a strange thing that three girls who prided themselves on being +very honorable should have deliberately stopped there and listened to a +conversation not intended for their ears, but in talking over the matter +later we all agreed that we did not realize what we were doing. It +seemed like a bit out of a play, somehow: the setting of the garden, the +strange ante-bellum sentiments of the old gentleman and all. + +"What is he to do? There have never been but three ways for a gentleman +to earn a living: the Church, Law, the Army. Now, of course, the last +avenue is closed to a Southern gentleman as he could hardly ally himself +with the enemies of his land. The Church and the Law are all that are +left for one of our blood. Since, as you are so quick to inform me, +there is no money for Louis to go to college and a degree is quite +necessary for one expecting to advance himself by practice of law, I see +nothing for him to do but go into the ministry." + +"Louis be a preacher, papa! Why, he has not the least calling." + +"He has more calling to occupy a pulpit than to be down on his hands and +knees planting gardens for these vulgar Yankees." + +"But, papa, what pulpit? Are we not Huguenots? Has not Louis been +brought up in that faith and how could he preach any other? The Huguenot +church here is the only one in the United States, and it has only forty +members, and you know yourself now that so many of those members live in +other cities that we often have a congregation of only six, counting our +own family. There certainly is no room for him in that pulpit." + +And then the old man did what men often do when they are worsted in an +argument, he became very masculine and informed the girl that she had +much better attend to her household duties and leave man's business to +man. + +"But, papa, I must say one more thing,--I think Louis is very despondent +and needs encouragement. He hates to be idle and he is forced to be. I +was shocked by his appearance this morning. I am very sorry I went on +the visit to Aunt Maria. I am afraid he has needed me." + +Papa gave a snort and then we had a shock. He had evidently walked away +from Claire in disgust, and suddenly there loomed in sight a familiar +low-cut waistcoat enveloping the portly embonpoint of our early morning +companion in the bus. + +We did not wait to see his double chin. The glimpse we had of the +low-cut vest made us beat a hasty retreat. We walked down the street +with what dignity we could assume. + +"I'm pretty ashamed of myself," said Dum. + +"Me, too! Me, too!" from Dee and me. + +"I don't know what made us stay and listen, it was so thrilling somehow. +Aren't you sorry for Claire? And poor Louis! To think of having only one +profession open to you and that to be preaching to six persons including +your own family." + +"Yes, and no doubt there is already an incumbent," I suggested. "I'd +love to know Claire. Didn't she sound spunky and at the same time +respectful. I hope she can bring the old fat gentleman around." + +"She might bring him around, but she can't get around him, he's too +fat," laughed Dee. "I tell you I'd like to know Louis. I fancy he must +be interesting. Isn't their name romantic? Gaillard sounds like it ought +to go with poignard: Louis Gaillard drew his poignard and defended +himself from the cannaille." + +"Isn't it funny that we should have peeped into the very garden +belonging to the pretty rumpled girl in the bus? Now I s'pose we will +run against the pale old dames in the crepe veils." + +I had hardly spoken before we did run against the very old ladies. They +had darted out of a large shabby old house about a block from the +Gaillard's home and were in the act of purchasing "Rah, rah, rah, +Shrimpy! Shrimpy! Rah, rah, rah!" + +Their veils were off now but they still had an air of being shrouded in +crepe, although their dresses were made of black calico. It seemed to +take two of them to buy a dime's worth of shrimps, and the shrimp vender +stood patiently by while they picked over his wares. + +"They are quite small, Sam," complained the taller of the two. + +"Yes, Miss Laurens, but yer see dese hyar is shrimpys, dey ain't crabs, +nor yit laubsters." + +"Poor things! I just know they have a hard time getting along," sighed +Dee. "They look so frail and underfed. Just look back at their house! It +is simply huge. And look at their porches! Big enough for skating rinks! +Do you suppose those two little old ladies live there all by +themselves?" + +"I fancy they must have a lot of servants," ventured Dum. + +"Of course they haven't any or they wouldn't be buying shrimps +themselves. They live all alone in that great house and eat a dime's +worth of shrimps a day. They have just been off burying their last +relative who did not leave them a small legacy that they have, in a +perfectly decent and ladylike way, been looking forward to. I have +worked out their whole plot and mean to write 'em up some day." + +"Oh, Page, you are so clever! Do you really think that is the truth +about them? What are they going to do now?" asked Dum. + +"Do? Why, of course they are going to take boarders, 'paying guests.' +Don't you know that there are only two ways for a Charleston lady to +make a living? The men have three according to his Eminence of the Tum +Tum. Women as usual get the hot end of it and there are only two for +them: taking boarders and teaching school." + +"Well, I only wish we could go board there. I am dying to get into one +of these old houses. I bet they are lovely. Did you notice they had an +ugly, new, unpainted, board gate? I wonder where their wrought-iron one +is. They must have had one sometime. Their house looks as though a +beautiful gate must have gone with it." Dum had an eye open for artistic +things and the iron gate had taken her fancy more than anything we had +yet seen in Charleston. + +"When I write them up I am going to use that, too, in my story. Of +course they sold the gate to some of the _parvenu_ Yankees, that the old +gentleman scorned so. I can write a thrilling account of their going out +at night to bid the beautiful gates good-by forever, those gates that +had played such an important part in their lives. Through their portals +many a coach (claret-colored, I think, I will have the coaches be) has +rolled, bearing to their revels the belles of the sixties. (Everyone in +the sixties was a belle.) I have an idea that the smaller Miss Laurens +was once indiscreet enough to kiss her lover through the bars of that +gate but the taller one never got further than letting her young man +lightly touch her lily hand with his lips." + +"Oh, Page, you are so ridiculous to make up all of that about two snuffy +old ladies. Now I want you to write a real story about Claire and her +brother Louis. I am sure they are interesting without making up. I still +wish I could see Louis. I'd tell him to spunk up and go dig for the nice +people all he wants to. I know they are nice if they are only twice +removed from a pick and shovel, according to old Mr. Gaillard," said +Dee, ever democratic. + +We had reached the Battery, a beautiful spot with fine live-oaks and +palmettos. Spanish moss hung in festoons from some of the trees. It was +the first any of us had seen. + +"They say it finally kills the trees if too much of it grows on them, +but it is certainly beautiful," said Dum. + +"It is like these old traditions, worn out and senseless; a few of them +are all right and give a charm to the South, but when they envelop one +as they do his Eminence of the Tum Tum they simply prove deadly," +philosophized Dee. + +"Good for you, Dee! Please remember what you have just said and when I +get home I'm going to put it in my note book. It would come in dandy in +the story I am going to write about the old ladies and their gate." I +had started a note book at the instigation of Mr. Tucker, who said it +might prove invaluable to me in after years if I meant to write. + +I believe Charleston is the only city in the United States that has a +direct view of the ocean. You can look straight out from the Battery +between Fort Sumter and Sullivan's Island to the open sea. Fort Moultrie +is on Sullivan's Island and on the Battery is a fine statue of Sergeant +Jasper who stands with hand extended, pointing to the fort where he so +gallantly rescued and replaced the flag, with the words: "We cannot +fight without a flag!" + +Fort Sumter is a spot made famous by the war between the States. It was +bombarded in 1861 and I believe is noted as having stood more bombarding +than any port in history up to the time of Port Arthur. + +"Now don't you wish we had a guide book and map? I want to know what +those places are out in the harbor. Next time I am going to do my way!" +exclaimed Dee, but a kindly park policeman, the only living creature on +the Battery, told us all we could have got out of a guide book and more +perhaps. He pointed out where the steps had been that Princess Louise +descended to embark with her brilliant cortege after her memorable +visit to Charleston in '83. He showed us Sullivan's Island, nothing more +than a misty spot on the horizon, where Poe laid the scene of "The Gold +Bug." He led us up to the old gun from the _Keokuk_, patting it lovingly +and reverently. He was a charming old man and seemed to take a personal +interest in everything on the Battery. His accent was fine and had the +real Charleston softness. I wondered if he, too, did not belong to a +fine old family and unlike Mr. Gaillard had discovered that there were +more ways than three for a gentleman to earn a living. + +Next he showed us the bust of William Gilmore Simms, South Carolina's +great author, novelist, historian, poet. And then he put my mind +entirely at rest about his being somewhat out of his element in serving +as a park policeman by quoting Simms at length in his beautiful poem: + + +"THE GRAPE VINE SWING + + "Lithe and long as the serpent train, + Springing and clinging from tree to tree, + Now darting upward, now down again, + With a twist and a twirl that are strange to see; + Never took serpent a deadlier hold, + Never the cougar a wilder spring, + Strangling the oak with the boa's fold, + Spanning the beach with the condor's wing. + + "Yet no foe that we fear to seek, + The boy leaps wild to thy rude embrace; + Thy bulging arms bear as soft a cheek + As ever on lover's breast found place; + On thy waving train is a playful hold + Thou shalt never to lighter grasp persuade; + While a maiden sits in thy drooping fold, + And swings and sings in the noonday shade! + + "O giant strange of our Southern woods! + I dream of thee still in the well-known spot, + Though our vessel strains o'er the ocean floods, + And the Northern forest beholds thee not; + I think of thee still with a sweet regret, + As the cordage yields to my playful grasp, + Dost thou spring and cling in our woodlands yet? + Does the maiden still swing in thy giant clasp?" + +What a dear old man he was! We could hardly tear ourselves away, but it +was twelve o'clock and we had promised to meet Zebedee for a one o'clock +luncheon. We told him good-by, and promised to come to see him some more +and then made our way along the eastern walk of the Battery. + +The breezes always seem to be high down on the Charleston Battery, as it +is exposed to the four winds of heaven. The sky had clouded over again +and quite a sharp little east wind was blowing, whistling rather +dismally through the palmetto trees that grow all along the beautiful +street that runs beside the waterfront. + +Very handsome houses are on this street, with beautiful gardens. The +walls are not so high there, and we wondered if the owners were as +aristocratic as those enclosed by high walls. + +"Maybe every generation puts another layer of brick on the wall," +suggested Dee, and I made a mental reservation that that, too, would go +in my notebook about Charleston. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE ABANDONED HOTEL + + +As we followed this street, East Bay Street it is called, we came upon a +great old custard-colored house built right on the water's edge so that +the waves almost lapped its long pleasant galleries. + +"Isn't this a jolly place?" we cried, but when we got closer to it we +decided jolly was certainly not the name for it. + +The window panes of its many windows were missing or broken. The doors +were open and swinging in the strong breeze that seemed to develop +almost into a hurricane as it hit the exposed corner of the old +custard-colored house. A tattered awning was flapping continuously from +one end of the porch, an awning that had been gaily striped once, but +now was faded to a dull gray except one spot where it had wrapped +itself around one of the columns and in so doing, had protected a +portion of itself from the weather to bear witness to its former glory. + +"What a dismal place! What could it have been?" + +"It is open! Let's go in and see what we can see." + +"It is positively weird. I am afraid of ghosts in such a place even in +broad daylight," I declared half in earnest, but Tweedles wanted to go +in and I was never one to hang back when a possible adventure was on +foot. + +The creaking door swung in as if propelled by unseen hands and we found +ourselves in a hall of rather fine proportions with a broad stairway +leading up. Doors opening into this hall were also swinging in the wind, +so we entered the room to the right, the parlor, of course, we thought. +The paper was hanging in shreds from the wall, adding to the dismal +swishing sound that pervaded the whole building. From this room we +entered another hall that had a peculiar looking counter built on one +side. + +"What do you fancy this thing is for?" demanded Dum. + +"I've got it! I've got it!" exclaimed Dee. "This is an old inn or hotel +or something and that is the clerk's desk. Look, here is a row of hooks +for keys and here is a rusty key still hanging on the hook." + +"It must have been a delightful place to stay with such a view of the +harbor and those beautiful porches where one could sit and watch the +ships come in. This room next must have been the dining room, and see +where there is a little stage! That was for the musicians to sit on," +enthused Dum. + +"When they finished supper they put the tables against the wall and +danced like this," and Dee pirouetted around the dusty, rotting floor. + +"Isn't it awful to let a place like this go to pieces so? I don't +believe there is a whole pane of glass in the house, and I am sure no +door will stay shut. It's too gloomy for me; let's get out in the street +again," I begged. + +"You can go, but I am going upstairs before I leave. I should think a +would-be author would want to see all the things she could, and if there +are any ghosts meet them," and Dee started valiantly up the creaking +stairs. Of course Dum and I followed. + +A silence settled on us as we mounted. The wind that had been noisy +enough below was simply deafening the higher we got. The paper that was +hanging from the ceilings rattled ceaselessly and the wind was tugging +at what was still sticking tenaciously to some of the side walls making +a strange whistling sound. + +"Gee whiz! I feel like Jane Eyre!" whispered Dum. + +"No; 'The Fall of the House of Usher'!" I gasped. "Just think of such a +place as this being right here in sight of all those grand houses!" + +"I know it's haunted! I feel a presence!" and Dee stopped suddenly on +the landing. + +"Who's a 'fraid cat now?" I taunted. "Let the would-be author go in +front. 'Infirm of purpose, give me the dagger!'" + +At that Dee ran lightly on ahead of us and disappeared in a room to the +right. We followed in time to see her skirts vanishing through a door +beyond. + +"This must have been the bridal chamber, it is so grand. Just look at +the view of the harbor through this window," said Dum, still whispering, +as there was something about the place, a kind of gruesomeness, that +made one feel rather solemn. I thought of Poe's "Haunted Palace" and +whispered some of the stanzas to Dum, for the moment both of us +forgetting Dee, who had rushed off so precipitately. + + "'In the greenest of our valleys + By good angels tenanted, + Once a fair and stately palace-- + Radiant palace--reared its head. + In the monarch Thought's dominion, + It stood there; + Never seraph spread a pinion + Over fabric half so fair. + + "'But evil things in robes of sorrow, + Assailed the monarch's high estate; + (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow + Shall dawn upon him desolate!) + And round about his home, the glory + That blushed and bloomed + Is but a dim-remembered story + Of the old time entombed. + + "'And travelers now, within that valley, + Through the red-litten windows see + Vast forms that move fantastically + To a discordant melody; + While like a ghastly, rapid river, + Through the pale door + A hideous throng rush out forever, + And laugh--but smile no more.'" + +I had hardly finished the last stanza of what is to me the most ghastly +poem in the English language, when a strange blood-curdling shriek was +heard echoing through the rattle-trap old house. + +"Dee!" we shouted together and started on a run through the door where +we had last seen her new brown suit vanishing. It opened into a long +corridor with doors all down the side, evidently bedrooms. Numbers were +over the doors. All the doors were shut. Where was Dee? The wind had +stopped as quickly as it had started and the old house was as quiet as +the grave. + +"Dee! Dee!" we called. "Where are you, Dee?" + +Our voices sounded as though we had yelled down a well. No answer! My +eye fastened on the door with No. 13 over it. All of us have some +superstitions, and anyone brought up by a colored mammy is certain to +have many. + +"No. 13 is sure to be right," I thought, and pushed open the door. + +A strange sight met my gaze: Dee, with her arms thrown around a youth +who crouched on the floor, his face buried in his hands while his whole +frame was shaken with sobs! From the chandelier hung a rope with a noose +tied in the dangling end, and under it a pile of bricks carefully placed +as though some child had been building a house of blocks. The bricks had +evidently been taken from among others that were scattered over the +hearth near a chimney that had fallen in. + +Our relief at finding Dee and finding her unharmed was so great that +nothing mattered to us. Dee put her finger on her lips and we stopped +stock-still. The slender figure of the young man was still convulsed +with sobs, and Dee held him and soothed him as though he had been a baby +and she some grandmother. Finally he spoke, with his face still +covered: + +"Claire must never know!" Claire? Then this was Louis Gaillard! Dee had +said several times she would like to know him, but she had had no idea +of her idle wish being granted so quickly and in such a manner. When the +boy said "Claire must never know," Dee arose to the occasion as only Dee +could and said in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone: "No, Louis, I promise +you that Claire shall never know from me." This calling him by name at +the time did not seem strange to him. He was under such stress of +emotion that the use of his Christian name by an unknown young girl +seemed perfectly natural to the stricken youth. + +It seems that when Dee went on ahead of us while I was so +grandiloquently spouting poetry, she had flitted from room to room. The +doors had been open all along the corridor except in No. 13. She had had +a fancy to close them after each exploration until she had come to 13. +On opening that door she had met a sight to freeze her young blood, but +instead of freezing her young blood she had simply let out a most +normal and healthy yell. Louis Gaillard was standing on the pile of +bricks that he had placed with great precision under the chandelier, and +as Dee entered he was in the act of fitting the noose around his poor +young neck. His plan of course had been to slip the noose and then kick +the pile of bricks from under him and there to hang until he should die. + +The realization of what had occurred came to Dum and me without an +explanation, which Dee gave us later when we could be alone with her. +Dee, in the meantime, continued to pat the boy's shoulder and hold him +tight in her courageous arms until the sobs ceased and he finally looked +up. Then he slowly rose to his feet. He was a tall, slender youth, every +inch of him the aristocrat. His countenance was not weak, just +despondent. I could well fancy him to be very handsome, but now his +sombre eyes were red with weeping and his mouth trembling with emotion. + +"I don't know what made me be so wicked," he finally stammered. + +"I know. You are very despondent over your life. You are tired of +idleness and see no way to be occupied because your father opposes the +kind of thing you feel yourself fitted to do," and Dee, ordinarily the +kind of girl who hated lollapalusing, as she called it, took the boy's +nerveless hand in both of hers. She said afterwards she knew by instinct +that he needed flesh and blood to hang to, something tangible to keep +his reason from leaving him. He looked at her wonderingly and she +continued: "Claire has been away on a trip and while she was gone your +father has nagged you. He thinks working in flowers is not the work for +a Gaillard and wants you to be a lawyer or preacher. You have no money +to go to college, and he seems to think you can be a preacher without +the education necessary to be a lawyer--which is news to me. You have +offers to plant gardens right here in Charleston, but your father will +not permit you to do it. You have become despondent and have lost +appetite and are now suffering from a nervousness that makes you not +quite yourself." + +"But you--how do you know all this?" + +"I am ashamed to tell you how I know it. I am afraid you will never be +able to trust me if you know." + +"I not trust you! You seem like an angel from heaven to me." + +"Well, first let me introduce my sister and friend to you." + +Dee had a wonderful power of putting persons at their ease and now in +these circumstances, to say the least unconventional, she turned and +introduced us to Mr. Louis Gaillard with as much simplicity as she would +have shown at a tennis game or in a ball-room. He, with the polished +manners of his race, bowed low over our proffered hands. All of us +ignored the pile of bricks and the sinister rope hanging from the +chandelier. + +"We are twins and this is our best friend, Page Allison. We have got +some real long names, but Dum and Dee are the names we go by as a rule, +Dum and Dee Tucker. We are down here in Charleston with our father +Jeffry Tucker, Zebedee for short. And now I want you to do us a big +favor----" + +"Me? A favor for you?" Dee had proceeded rather rapidly and the dazed +young man had some difficulty in following her. + +"Yes, a favor! I want you, all of us want you, to come up to the hotel +and have lunch with us and meet Zebedee. It is lunch time now almost, +and we promised to be back in time,--you see, if you come with us, +Zebedee can't row with us about being late. He will be awfully cut up +over our being late--nothing makes him so cross. I know if you are with +us he will be unable to rag us. Just as soon as he gets something to eat +he will be all right." + +What was Dee driving at? Zebedee cross! Had she caught the young man's +malady and gone a little off her hooks? Dum and I looked at each other +wonderingly--then a light dawned on us: she wanted to get the young man +entirely away from this terrible room, and felt if she made him think +that he was to go along to protect us from an irate father, he would do +it from a sense of chivalry. Having more experience with an irate +father than any other kind, Louis was easily persuaded. + +"Certainly, if I can be of any assistance!" + +"Well, you can! Now let's hurry!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TUCKER TACT + + +It was quite a walk back to the hotel but we did it in an inconceivably +short time. It was only 1.10 as we stepped into the lobby. We walked +four abreast wherever the sidewalk permitted it and when we had to break +ranks we kept close together and chatted as gaily as usual. Louis was +very quiet but very courteous. The fresh air brought some color back to +his pale cheeks and the redness left his eyes. He was indeed a very +handsome youth. He seemed to be in a kind of daze and kept as close to +Dee as he could, as though he feared if she left him, he might again +find himself in the terrible dream from which she had awakened him. + +What was Dee to say to her father? How account for this young man? I was +constantly finding out things about the Tuckers that astonished me. The +thing that was constantly impressing me was their casualness. On this +occasion it was very marked. What father would simply accept a situation +as Zebedee did this one? We three girls had gone out in the morning to +his certain knowledge knowing not one single person in the whole city, +and here we were coming back late to lunch and bringing with us a +handsome, excited looking young man and introducing him as though we had +known him all our lives. + +Mr. Tucker greeted him hospitably and took him to his room while we went +to ours to doll up a bit for lunch. He had no opportunity to ask us +where we got him or what we meant by picking up forlorn-looking +aristocrats and bringing them home to lunch. He just trusted us. To be +trusted is one of the greatest incentives in the world to be +trustworthy. + +Anyone with half an eye could see that Louis Gaillard needed a friend, +and could also see that all of us had been under some excitement. +Zebedee not only had more than half an eye, but was Argus-eyed. Louis +must have been very much astonished at the irate old parent he had been +led to expect. Mr. Tucker never looked younger or more genial. He had +had a profitable morning himself, digging up political information that +he considered most valuable, and now he was through for the day and had +planned a delightful afternoon to be spent with us seeing the sights of +Charleston. + +"Was anyone in all the world ever so wonderful as our Zebedee?" asked +Dum as she smoothed her bronze black hair and straightened her collar, +getting ready for luncheon. + +"I'm so proud of him, but I knew he would do just this way! Not one +questioning glance! I know he is on tenter hooks all the time, too. The +cat that died of curiosity has got nothing on Zebedee. I tell you, Page, +Dum and I will walk into the dining room ahead with Louis and you make +out you are expecting a letter and stop at the desk and try to put him +wise. He is sure to wait for you." + +"All right! But must I tell him everything? It will take time." + +"Oh, don't go into detail, but just summarize. Give a synopsis of the +morning in a thumb-nail sketch. You can do it." + +"I can try." + +We found Mr. Tucker and the youth waiting for us in the lobby. The +appearance of the guest was much improved by soap and water and a hair +brush. Whose appearance is not? We started into the dining room, and as +per arrangement I had to go back to the desk. Zebedee of course went +with me, and the twins kept on with Louis. + +"I know you are not expecting a letter but want to tell me what's up," +he whispered. + +"Exactly! We were peeping into a garden and overheard the old fat man we +saw in the bus this morning telling the pretty daughter that he intended +that his son Louis should be a preacher at the Huguenot church here, +where they often have a congregation of only six, boasting a membership +of forty, many of them out-of-town members. Louis wants to be a +landscape gardener, anyhow, to plant gardens, for which he has a great +taste, but old Tum Tum thinks that is beneath the dignity of a Gaillard. +Claire, the daughter, was very uneasy about Louis, as he seemed +despondent. We were ashamed of having listened. Eavesdropping is not our +line, but we did it before we knew we were doing it." Zebedee smiled, +and I went on talking a mile a minute. "We walked around the Battery and +then went into an old deserted hotel, where all the doors were open and +all the windows gone. We wandered around and then went upstairs. + +"Dee left us and went down a long corridor, where the bedrooms were, and +when she got to Number Thirteen she went in and found Louis getting +ready to hang himself. The rope was on the chandelier, and he had a pile +of bricks to stand on. He was putting the noose on his neck when she +opened the door, and then she screamed bloody murder, and we heard her +and ran like rabbits until we got to Thirteen, and I knew it was the +right door just because it was Thirteen. We found poor Louis crouching +down on the floor, and Dee had her arms around him and was treating him +just like a poor little sick kitten. He was sobbing to beat the band, +and as soon as he could speak, he said: 'Claire must never know!' and +then we knew that he was the boy who wanted to plant gardens. Dee called +him Louis and talked to him in such a rational way that he pulled +himself together. He seemed like some one out of his head, but we +chatted away like we always do, and he kind of found himself. Dee asked +him to come home to lunch to protect us from your rage at our being +late. She knew you wouldn't mind, and she felt that if she put it up to +him that way he would think he ought to come. She said you would not +give way to anger before strangers. We are mighty proud of you for being +so--so--Zebedeeish about the whole thing." + +"Two minutes, by the clock!" cried Zebedee, when I stopped for breath. +"How I wish I had a reporter who could tell so much in such a short +time! I am mighty glad you approve of me, for I certainly approve of my +girls. Now we will go in and eat luncheon and Louis shall not know I +know a word. I will see what I can do to help him. Gee whiz! That would +make a great newspaper story, but I am a father first and then a +newspaper man." + +We actually got in and were seated at the table before Tweedles and +Louis had settled on what to order. Zebedee pretended to be very hungry +and to be angry, and only his sense of propriety with a guest present +seemed to hold back his rage at being kept waiting. He acted the irate, +hungry parent so well that we almost exploded. + +Louis ate like a starving man. As is often the case after a great +excitement, a desire for food had come to him. His appetite, however, +was not so much larger than ours. All of us were hungry, and I am afraid +the hotel management did not make much on running their place on the +American plan. Wherever there was a choice of viands, we ordered all of +them. + +"You must know Charleston pretty well, Mr. Gaillard, do you not?" asked +our host, when the first pangs of hunger were allayed. + +"Know it? I know every stone in it, and love it. But I do wish you would +not call me Mr. Gaillard." + +"All right, then, Louis! I wonder if you would not show us your +wonderful old city this afternoon--that is, all of it we could see in an +afternoon. You must not let us take up your time if you are occupied, +however." + +"I haven't a thing to do. I finished at the high school in February, and +have nothing to occupy me until the graduating exercises in June. I'd +think it a great honor and privilege to show you and the young ladies +all I can about Charleston," and Louis looked his delight at the +prospect. "I must let my sister know first, though. She may be wondering +where I am." + +"'Phone her!" tweedled the twins. + +"We haven't a telephone," simply. + +No telephone! + +We might have known to begin with that such a modern vulgarity as a +telephone would not be tolerated in the house belonging to his Eminence +of the Tum Tum. + +"You have plenty of time to walk down and tell her, and I think it would +be very nice if she would consent to come with you. We should be +overjoyed to have her join our party," said the ever hospitable Zebedee. + +"I should like that above all things if she can come." Of course we knew +that the obstacle to her coming would be the old father who would no +doubt demand our pedigrees before permitting a member of his family to +be seen on the street with us. "Mr. Tucker, I should like to have a few +minutes' talk with you when we finish luncheon." + +"I am through now, even if these insatiate monsters of mine have ordered +pie on top of apple dumpling, so you come on with me, Louis, while they +finish. No doubt they will be glad to get rid of us so they can order +another help all around." + +"What do you reckon he wants to say to Zebedee?" said Dee, biting a +comfortable wedge out of her pie, which, in the absence of Zebedee, she +picked up in her fingers to eat as pie should be eaten. + +"Why, he is going to tell him all about this morning. Don't you see, he +feels that maybe your father will not think he is a reliable person or +something; anyhow, he is such a gentleman that he knows the proper thing +to do is to make a clean breast of his acquaintance with us." + +"Well, now, how do you know that?" asked Dum. + +"I don't know it. I just imagine it." + +"Do you know, Page, I believe you will be an author. You've got so much +imagination." + +"It is just nothing but thinking what you would do in a person's place +provided you had the nature of that person. Now you are high-minded, +too; fancy yourself in Louis' place--what would you do?" + +"Go tell Zebedee all about it, of course." + +"Exactly! So would anyone if he expected to continue the acquaintance +begun in such a strange way." + +"I want to see Louis before he goes for his sister. You see, we never +did tell him how we happened to know his name and all about his affairs. +I must tell him that and also let him know that we came up in the bus +with his father and sister this morning. He can let her know something +about us without divulging the terrible thing that came so near +happening at the old hotel." Dee devoured the last morsel of pie and we +went to the parlor, where we found Zebedee clasping hands with Louis, +who was flushed and shiny-eyed but looked very happy. + +"Poor boy!" exclaimed Zebedee to me, as Dee turned to Louis and drew him +to a seat by the window. "He has told me the whole thing like the +gentleman he is. He says he must have been demented. He has been very +nervous lately, and all the time his sister was away his father has +nagged him to death, and this morning, evidently after you monkeys +listened to the talk in the garden, the old gentleman got him in a +corner and pronounced the ultimatum: either law or the ministry. Of +course, the ministry is out of the question, and the law means years of +waiting, even if he had the money to go to college. He could begin and +earn a livelihood tomorrow laying out these gardens and planting them, +but the obdurate parent says if he does not obey he will withdraw the +light of his countenance." + +"I'd say withdraw it; the sooner the better." + +"So would I; but I could not give that advice to Louis until I know more +about him and his people. I hope the sister can come." + +She did come, although I believe she did not inform her father of what +she was going to do. She was more than a year younger than her brother, +and he was evidently the pride of her heart. I prayed that she might +never know the terrible calamity that had come so near to her life. I +believe she could never have breathed a happy breath again as long as +she lived if that knowledge had been hers. + +Louis had just told her some Virginians whom he had met on the +Battery--Mr. Tucker, his two daughters and their friend--had made +friends with him, and had asked him to accompany them in their +sightseeing expedition and had suggested his bringing her. He let drop +that we had arrived that morning in the bus, and she immediately +concluded that we were her companions in misery on that wet, bumpy +drive. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CHURCHYARDS + + +Graveyards seemed a strange place to want to spend the afternoon after +our experience of the morning, but the cheerful Zebedee always made for +them, just as a sunbeam seems to be hunting up the dark and gloomy +corners. + +"Saint Michael's first, as that is the nearest," suggested Louis. + +We entered the churchyard through massive old iron gates, and, turning +to the right, followed Louis to perhaps the most unique grave stone in +the world: the headboard of an old cedar bed. It is a relic of 1770. The +story goes that the woman buried there insisted that her husband should +go to no trouble or expense to mark her grave. She said that she had +been very comfortable in that same bed and would rest very easy under +it and that it would soon rot away and leave her undisturbed. She little +dreamed that more than a century later that old cedar bed would be +preserved, seemingly in some miraculous way, and be intact while stones, +reverently placed at the same time, were crumbling away. + +"It seems like John Keats' epitaph: 'Here lies one whose name was writ +in water.' Keats thought he was dead to the world, and see how he lives; +and this poor woman's grave is the first one that tourists are taken to +see," I mused aloud. + +"I have often thought about this woman," said Claire, in her light, +musical voice. "I have an idea that she must have been very hard-worked +and perhaps longed for a few more minutes in bed every morning, and +maybe the husband routed her out, and when she died perhaps he felt +sorry he had not given her more rest." + +"You hear that, Page?" asked Dum. "You had better have some mercy on me +now. I may 'shuffle off this mortal coil' at any minute, and you will be +so sorry you didn't let me sleep just a little while longer." (It had +been my job ever since I started to room with the Tucker twins to be +the waker-up. It was a thankless job, too, and no sinecure.) "See that +my little brass bed is kept shiny, Zebedee dear." + +"I wonder why it is that no one ever seems to feel very sad or quiet in +old, old graveyards?" I asked, all of us laughing at Dum's brass bed. + +"I think it is because all the persons who suffered at the death of the +persons buried there are dead, too. No one feels very sorry for the +dead; it is the living that are left to mourn. Old cemeteries are to me +the most peaceful and cheerful spots one can visit," said Zebedee, +leaning over to decipher some quaint epitaph. + +"I think so, too!" exclaimed Claire, who had fitted herself into our +crowd with delightful ease. "New graves are the ones that break my +heart." + +Louis turned away to hide his emotion. He had been too near to the Great +Divide that very morning for talk of new-made graves and the sorrow of +loved ones not to move him. + +There was much of interest in that old burying ground, and Louis proved +an excellent cicerone. He told us that the church was started in 1752; +that the bells and organ and clock were imported from England, and that +the present organ had parts of the old organ incorporated in it. The +bells were seized during the Revolution and shipped and sold in England, +where they were purchased by a former Charleston merchant and shipped +back again. During the Civil War they were sent to Columbia for +safekeeping, but were so badly injured when Columbia was burned that +they had to be again sent to England and recast in the original mold. +They chimed out the hour while Louis was telling us about them as though +to prove to us their being well worth all the trouble to which they had +put the worthy citizens of Charleston. + +"Saint Philip's next, while we are in the churchly spirit," said Louis; +"and then the Huguenot church." + +St. Philip's was a little older than St. Michael's. The chimes for that +church were used for making cannon for the Confederacy, and for lack of +funds up to the present time they have not been replaced. On top of the +high steeple is a beacon light by which the ships find their way into +the harbor. + +We had noticed at the hotel, both at our very early breakfast and at +luncheon, a very charming couple who had attracted us greatly and who, +in turn, seemed interested in us. The man was a scholarly person with +kind, brown eyes, a very intelligent, comely countenance, and a tendency +to baldness right on top that rather added to his intellectual +appearance. His wife was quite pretty, young, and with a look of race +and breeding that was most striking. Her hair was red gold, and she had +perhaps the sweetest blue eyes I had ever beheld. Her eyes just matched +her blue linen shirtwaist. What had attracted me to the couple was not +only their interesting appearance, but the fact that they seemed to have +such a good time together. They talked not in the perfunctory way that +married persons often do, but with real spirit and interest. + +As we entered the cemetery of St. Philip's, across the street from the +church, we met this couple standing by the sarcophagus of the great +John C. Calhoun. The lady bowed to us sweetly, acknowledging, as it +were, having seen us in the hotel. We of course eagerly responded, +delighted at the encounter. We had discussed them at length, and almost +decided they were bride and groom; at least Tweedles had, but I thought +not. They were too much at their ease to be on their first trip +together, I declared, and of course got called a would-be author for my +assertion. + +"I hear there is a wonderful portrait of Calhoun by Healy in the City +Hall," said the gentleman to Zebedee, as he courteously moved for us to +read the inscription on the sarcophagus. + +"Yes, so I am told, but this young man who belongs to this interesting +city can tell us more about it," and in a little while all of us were +drawn into conversation with our chance acquaintances. + +Louis led us through the cemetery, telling us anything of note, and then +we followed him to the Huguenot church, accompanied by our new friends. + +A Huguenot church has stood on the site of the present one since 1667. +Many things have happened to the different buildings, but the present +one, an edifice of unusual beauty and dignity, has remained intact since +1845. The preacher, a dear old man of over eighty, who is totally blind, +has been pastor of this scanty flock for almost fifty years. He now +conducts the service from memory, and preaches wonderful, simple sermons +straight from his kind old heart. + +"Oh, Edwin, see what wonderful old names are on these tablets," enthused +the young wife--"Mazyck, Ravenel, Porcher, de Sasure, Huger, Cazanove, +L'Hommedieu, Marquand, Gaillard----" + +"Yes, dear, they sound like an echo from the Old World." + +"This Gaillard is our great, great grandfather, isn't he, Louis?" asked +Claire. "My brother knows so much more about such things than I do." + +"Oh, is your name Gaillard?" + +And then the introductions followed, Zebedee doing the honors, naming +all of us in turn; and then the gentleman told us that his name was +Edwin Green and introduced his wife. + +I fancy Claire and Louis had not been in the habit of picking up +acquaintances in this haphazard style, and the sensation was a new and +delightful one to them. The Tuckers and I always did it. We talked to +the people we met on trains and in parks, and many an item for my +notebook did I get in this way. Zebedee says he thinks it is all right +just so you don't pick out some flashy flatterer. Of course we never did +that, but confined our chance acquaintances to women and children or +nice old men, whose interest was purely fatherly. Making friends as we +had with Louis was different, as there was nothing to do but help him; +and his sex and age were not to be considered at such a time. + +"Are you to be in Charleston long?" asked Zebedee of Mr. Green. + +"I can't tell. We are fascinated by it, but long to get out of the hotel +and into some home." + +"If I knew of some nice quiet place, I would put my girls there for a +few days while I run over to Columbia on business. I can't leave them +alone in the hotel." + +"I should love to look after them, if you would trust me," said Mrs. +Green, flushing for fear Zebedee might think her pushing. + +"Trust you! Why, you are too kind to make such an offer!" exclaimed +Zebedee. + +"We have some friends who have just opened their house +for--for--guests," faltered Claire. "They live only a block from us, and +are very lovely ladies. We heard only this morning that they are +contemplating taking someone into their home." Tweedles and I exchanged +glances; mine was a triumphant one. The would-be author had hit the nail +on the head again. "Their name is Laurens." I knew it would be before +Claire spoke. + +"Oh, Miss Gaillard, if you could introduce us to those ladies we would +be so grateful to you!" said Zebedee. "You would like to stay there, +wouldn't you, girls?" + +"Yes! Yes!" + +"And Mrs. Green perhaps will decide to go there, too, and she will look +after you, will you not, Mrs. Green?" + +"I should be so happy to if the girls would like to have me for a +chaperone." + +"Oh, we'd love it! We've never had a chaperone in our lives but once, +and she got married," tweedled the twins. + +And so our compact was made, and Claire promised to see the Misses +Laurens in regard to our becoming her "paying guests." + +Mr. Green, who, as we found out afterward, was a professor of English at +the College of Wellington and had all kinds of degrees that entitled him +to be called Doctor, seemed rather amused at his wife's being a +chaperone. + +"She seems to me still to be nothing but a girl herself," he confided to +Zebedee, "although we have got a fine big girl of our own over a year +old, whom we have left in the care of my mother-in-law while we have +this much talked-of trip together." + +"Oh, have you got a baby? Do you know, Dum and I just stood Page down +that you were bride and groom!" + +"Molly, do you hear that? These young ladies thought we were newlyweds." + +"I didn't!" + +"And why didn't you?" smiled the young wife. + +"I noticed you gave separate orders at the table and did not have to +pretend to like the same things. I believe a bride and groom are afraid +to differ on even such a thing as food." + +"Oh, Edwin, do you hear that? Do you remember the unmerciful teasing +Kent gave you at Fontainbleu because you pretended to like the mustard +we got on our roast beef in the little English restaurant, just because +I like English mustard?" + +"Yes, I remember it very well, and I also remember lots of other things +at Fontainbleu besides the mustard." + +Mrs. Green blushed such a lovely pink at her husband's words that we +longed to hear what he did remember. + +"Kent is my brother--Kent Brown." + +"Oh! Oh!" tweedled the twins. "Are you Molly Brown of Kentucky?" + +"Yes, I was Molly Brown of Kentucky." + +"And did you go to Wellington?" I asked. + +"Yes, and I still go there, as my husband has the chair of English at +Wellington." + +"Girls! Girls! To think of our meeting Molly Brown of Kentucky! We have +been hearing of you all winter from our teacher of English at Gresham, +Miss Ball." + +"Mattie Ball! I have known her since my freshman year at college. Edwin, +you remember Mattie Ball, do you not?" + +"Of course I do. An excellent student! She had as keen an appreciation +of good literature as anyone I know of." + +"She used to tell us that she owed everything she knew to her professor +of English at Wellington," said Dee, who knew how to say the right thing +at the right time, and Professor Green's pleased countenance was proof +of her tact. + +Then Mrs. Green had to hear all about Miss Ball and the fire at Gresham, +which Tweedles related with great spirit, laying rather too much stress +on my bravery in arousing the school. + +"I deserve no more credit than did the geese whose hissing aroused the +Romans in ancient times," I declared. "Why don't you tell them how you +got Miss Plympton out of the window in her pink pajamas?" + +The Greens laughed so heartily at our adventures that we were spurred on +to recounting other happenings, telling of the many scrapes we had got +ourselves in. Claire listened in open-eyed astonishment. + +"It must be lovely to go to boarding-school," she said wistfully. + +"It sounds lovelier than it is. We tell about the scrapes and the fun, +but there are lots of times when it is nothing but one stupid thing +after another. It's lots lovelier just to be at home with your father." + +Claire shook her head doubtfully, and, remembering her father, we did +not wonder at her differing with Dum. + +"I have always held that home was the place for girls until they were +old enough for college," said Mrs. Green. "That is, if they mean to go +to college." + +"But we don't!" + +Zebedee and Professor Green had walked on ahead. Louis was sticking +close to Dee, so close that Dum whispered to me that he must think she +had him on a leash. Claire and Dum and I were having the pleasure of +flocking around Mrs. Green. + +"You see, we haven't got a piece of mother among us, and we had to go +somewhere, as Zebedee--that's our father, you know--had his hands so +full of us he couldn't ply his trade of getting out newspapers. Dee and +I are some improved since we first were sent off to school, and now that +Gresham is burned, we don't want to break into a new school. I tell you, +it is some job to break into a school. Page Allison lives in the +country, and she had to go to boarding-school or not at all." + +"Well, why don't you go to college now? Wellington would just suit you, +I am sure." + +"Somehow I have never been crazy to go to college. I want to do +something else. You see, I want to model. I feel as though I just had to +get my hands in clay and form things out of it." + +"And you?" said the sweet young woman, turning to me. + +This Molly Brown of Kentucky certainly had the charm of sympathy. You +found yourself telling her all kinds of things that you just couldn't +help telling her. She seemed so interested, and her eyes were so blue +and so true. + +"Oh, I mean to be a writer!" I blurted out. "That's the reason I don't +want to go to college. If I am going to write, I had better just write, +I think, and not wear myself to a frazzle over higher mathematics." + +"That's the way I used to feel. The only good I could ever get out of +that hated study was just knowing I had done my best. My best seemed so +feeble by the side of the real mathematicians that it was a constant +mortification to me. I used to call mathematics my hair shirt. No matter +how well I got along in other things, I was always conscious of a kind +of irritation that I was going to fail in that. I just did squeeze +through in the end, and that was by dint of wet towels around my head +and coaching and encouragement from my friends. I think it is quite +natural to dislike a subject that always makes you appear at your worst. +Certainly we are not fond of people who put us in that position!" + +I might have known our new friend would hate mathematics. I have never +yet been attracted very much by any woman who did get along very well in +it, except, of course, Miss Cox. I don't mean to say that female +mathematicians cannot be just as lovely and charming as any other +females, but I mean that I have never hit it off with them, somehow. + +"What are you going to write?" asked Claire. + +"Write short stories and long novels, when I find myself. I'm still +flopping around in a sea of words. Don't you write, Mrs. Green? It seems +to me Miss Ball said you did." + +"Yes, I write a little--that is, I write a lot, but I have published +only a little. I send and send to magazine after magazine. Every mail +is an event to me--either it brings back a manuscript or it doesn't +bring one, and sometimes it brings an acceptance slip, and then I carry +on like one demented. Edwin says he is jealous of the postman and wishes +Uncle Sam would have women deliver the mail." + +"It must be wonderful to get into a magazine. My only taste of it is +seeing myself in print in our school paper. Don't you write poetry, Mrs. +Green?" + +"Well, I have melted into verse, but I think prose is more in my line. +The first money I ever made was a prize for a real estate advertisement +in poetry, and of course after that I thought that I must 'lisp in +numbers' on all occasions; but it was always lisping. And you--do you +write poetry, too?" + +"Yes, she does," broke in Dum; "and Zebedee thinks it is bully poetry. +He said he was astonished that she could do it. And he is a newspaper +writer and knows." + +"I am sure he does. Some day we will have a tournament of poetry, and +you will show me yours and I will show you mine. And you, Miss Gaillard? +Are you counting upon going to college?" + +Mrs. Green turned to Claire, who had been very quiet as we strolled +along Church Street, on our way to Washington Park, which is a small +enclosure by the City Hall. + +"Oh, no, I--I will not pursue my studies any more. I keep house for my +father, who does not approve of higher education for women," and the +girl sighed in spite of herself. "I could not go, anyhow," she +continued, "as Louis and papa need me at home." + +Not one word of lack of money, which we knew was an insurmountable +obstacle with the Gaillards, but I believe a Charlestonian would as soon +speak of lack of ancestry as lack of money. Money is simply something +they don't mention except in the bosom of the family. They don't mention +ancestry much, either; not nearly as much as Virginians do. They seem to +take for granted that anyone they are on speaking terms with must be +well born or how did they get to be on speaking terms? + +The Gaillards left us at Washington Park as Claire thought she must +hurry back to her papa, who no doubt by that time was in a fret and a +fume over her long, unexplained absence. Mr. Gaillard was the type of +man who thought a woman's place was in her home from morning until +night, and any little excursion she might make from her home must be in +pursuit of his, the male's, happiness. Claire promised to see the Misses +Laurens and find out from them if we could get board in their very +exclusive home. Louis asked to be allowed to take us to other points of +interest on the morrow, and with feelings of mutual esteem we parted. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE HEAVENLY VISION + + +That little park in the heart of Charleston is a very delightful spot. +It is a tiny park, but every inch of it seems teeming with interest, +historical and poetical. In the center is the shaft erected by the +Washington Light Infantry to their dead in '61-'65. The obelisk is in +three sections of granite, representing the three companies. On the +steps of the square pedestal are cut the twelve great battles of the +war. + +Zebedee dared us to recite them, but we fell down most woefully, except +Dum, who named all but Secessionville. + +Little darkies were playing on the steps, running around the shaft and +shouting with glee as they bumped their hard heads together and rolled +down the steps. + +"Black rascals!" exclaimed Zebedee. "If it had not been for you, that +monument need never have been erected." + +But the little imps kept up their game with renewed glee, hoping to +attract the attention of the tourists. Tourists were simply made of +pennies, in the minds of the Charleston pickaninnies. Seeing we had +noticed them, they flocked to where we had settled ourselves on some +benches facing the monument and began in their peculiar South Carolina +lingo to demand something of us--what it was it took some penetration to +discover. There were five of them, about the raggedest little monkeys I +ever saw. Their clothes stayed on by some miracle of modesty, but every +now and then a streak of shiny black flesh could be glimpsed through the +interstices. (I got that word from Professor Green, which I put down in +my notebook for safekeeping.) + +"Do' white fo'ks wan' we-all sin' li'l' song?" + +"What?" from all of us. + +"Sin' li'l' song! La, la, la, tim chummy loo!" and the blackest and +sassiest and most dilapidated of them all opened his big mouth with its +gleaming teeth and let forth a quaint chant. + +"Oh, sing us a little song?" and we laughed aloud. + +"Why, yes, we do," assented Professor Green, "but don't get too close. +The acoustics would be better from a short distance, I am sure." + +"Edwin is enough of a Yankee not to like darkies coming too close," +laughed Mrs. Green. "You know a Northerner's interest in the race is +purely theoretical. When it comes right down to it, we Southerners are +the only ones who really understand them. I remember what one of the +leaders of the negroes said: 'A Northerner loves the negro but has no +use for a nigger, while a Southerner can't stand the negro but will do +anything on earth for a nigger.'" + +"That's right, I believe," said Zebedee; "but I must say I agree with +Doctor Green, and think under the circumstances that a short distance +will help the acoustics." + +The five song birds formed a half-circle a few feet from us, and, led by +the sassy black one, poured forth their souls in melody. The leader +seemed to be leader because he was the only one with shoes on. His shoes +were ladies' buttoned shoes, much too long and on the wrong feet, which +gave their proud possessor a peculiar twisted appearance. Having good +black legs of his own, he needed no stockings. + +"It must be a great convenience to be born with black legs," sighed Dee. +"You can go bare-legged when you've a mind to, and if you should be so +prissy as to wear stockings, when they get holes in them they wouldn't +show." + +The following is the song that the little boys sang, choosing it +evidently from a keen sense of humor and appreciation of fun: + + "How yer git on wid yer washin'? + 'Berry well,' yer say? + Better charge dem Yankee big price + Fo' dey gits away. + Dey is come hyar fer de wedder, + Pockets full ob money. + Some one got ter do dey washin', + Glad it's me, my honey. + Wen I ca'y in de basket, + Eb'y week I laff + Des ter see dem plunkin' out + Dollah an' a ha'f. + Co'se I ain't cha'ge home fo'ks dat, + Eben cuff an' collah, + Tro' in wid dey udder clo's-- + All wash fer a dollah. + Soon de Yankees will be gone, + An' jes de po' fo'ke here; + Cha'ge dem, honey, all yer kin + Ter las' yer trou' de year." + +When they finished this song, which was given in a high, peculiar, +chanting tune, the little boy of the shoes began to dance, cutting the +pigeon wing as well as it had ever been done on a vaudeville stage, I am +sure, while the other four patted with such spirit and in such excellent +time that Zebedee got up and danced a little _pas seul_, and Mrs. Green +declared it was all she could do to keep from joining him. + +"I learned to jig long before I did to waltz," she said, "and I find +myself returning to the wild when I hear good patting." + +"So did I," I said; "Tweedles can pat as well as a darky. We will have a +dancing match some day, too." + +The minstrels were remunerated beyond their dreams of avarice, and +cantered off joyfully to buy groun'-nut cakes from the old mauma on the +corner, where she sat with her basket of goodies on her lap, waving her +palmetto fan, between dozes, to scare away the flies. + +"Who's the old cove over there with the Venus de Milo effect of arms?" +asked Zebedee, pointing to a much-mutilated statue near the Meeting +Street entrance of the park. + +"Why, that's William Pitt. Louis Gaillard told me we would find it +here," explained Dee. "He said it was erected in seventeen-sixty-nine by +the citizens of Charleston in honor of his promoting the repeal of the +Stamp Act. His arm got knocked off by a cannon ball in the siege of +Charleston." + +"This over here is Valentine's bust of Henry Timrod," called Dum from a +very interesting-looking bronze statue that had attracted her artistic +eye all the time the little nigs were singing. + +"Timrod! Oh, Edwin, he is the one I am most interested in in all South +Carolina," and Mrs. Green joined Dum to view the bust from all angles. +Of course, all of us followed. + +"'Through clouds and through sunshine, in peace and in war, amid the +stress of poverty and the storm of civil strife, his soul never +faltered,'" read Mrs. Green from the inscription on the monument of one +of the truest poets of the South. "'To his poetic mission he was +faithful to the end. In life and in death he was "Not disobedient unto +the heavenly vision."'" + +I whipped out my little notebook and began feverishly to copy the +tribute. I found Mrs. Green doing the same thing in a similar little +book. + +"'Not disobedient to the heavenly vision'! I should like to have such a +thing on my monument. I used to think that just so I could make a lot of +money I wouldn't mind what kind of stuff I wrote; but now I do want to +live up to an ideal," she exclaimed to me. "Do you feel that way?" + +"I don't know whether I do or not. I don't believe I could stand the +stress of having my manuscript rejected time after time and the storm of +returning it again and again. I am afraid I'd be willing to have written +the Elsie books just to have made as much money as they say the author +of them has made. I know that sounds pretty bad, but----" + +"I understand, my dear. I fancy my feeling as I do is something that has +come to me just because the making of money is not of as much importance +to me as it used to be. There was a time in my girlhood when I would +have written Elsie books or even worse with joy just to make the money." + +"I can't quite believe it. You look so spirituelle, and I believe you +have always been obedient to the heavenly vision." + +"Look on this side," said my new friend, laughing and blushing in such a +girlish way that it seemed ridiculous to talk of her girlhood as though +it had passed. "This inscription is more utilitarian: + + "'This memorial has been erected with the proceeds + of the recent sale of a very large edition of the + author's poems, by the Timrod Memorial + Association, of South Carolina.' + +"and then: + + "'Genius, like Egypt's Monarch, timely wise, + Erects its own memorial ere it dies.' + +"Oh, Edwin, look! Here is the ode that mother sings to little Mildred, +here on the back of the monument. Mildred is my baby, you know," she +said, in explanation to us, "and mother sings the most charming things +to her." + +"Please read it to us, Molly; I didn't bring my glasses." + +That is what Professor Green said, but when we had known him longer we +found out he was not so very dependent on glasses that he could not read +an inscription carved in one-inch letters, but that he always made his +wife read aloud when he could. When she read poetry, it was music, +indeed. It seems he first realized what he felt for her when she read +the "Blessed Damosel" in his class at college. He had been her +instructor, as he had Miss Ball's. + +"This ode of Timrod's was sung for the first time on the occasion of +decorating the graves of the Confederate dead at Magnolia Cemetery, here +in Charleston, in sixty-seven, so I am told." + +No wonder Professor Edwin wanted his Molly to read the poem! Her voice +was the most wonderfully sympathetic and singularly fitted to the +reading of poetry that I have ever heard. I longed for my father to hear +her read. He could make me weep over poetry when I would go dry-eyed +through all kinds of trouble, and now Mrs. Green had the same power: + + "'Sleep sweetly in your humble graves, + Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause; + Though yet no marble column craves + The pilgrim here to pause. + + "'In seeds of laurel in the earth + The blossom of your fame is blown, + And somewhere, waiting for its birth, + The shaft is in the stone! + + "'Meanwhile, behalf the tardy years + Which keep in trust your storied tombs, + Behold! your sisters bring their tears, + And these memorial blooms. + + "'Small tributes! but your shades will smile + More proudly on these wreaths today, + Than when some cannon-moulded pile + Shall overlook this bay. + + "'Stoop, angels, hither from the skies! + There is no holier spot of ground + Than where defeated valor lies, + By mourning beauty crowned!'" + +We were all very quiet for a moment and then St. Michael's bells rang +out six-thirty o'clock, and in spite of poetical emotions we knew the +pangs of hunger were due and it was time for dinner. + +We were to sit together at a larger table that evening at dinner, to the +satisfaction of all of us. + +"It is a mutual mash," declared Dee, when we went to our room to don +dinner clothes. "The Greens seem to like us, and don't we just adore the +Greens, though!" + +"I believe I like him as much as I do her," said Dum. "Of course, he is +not so paintable. She makes me uncertain whether I want to be a sculptor +or a painter. I have been thinking how she would look in marble, and +while she has good bones, all right, and would show up fine in marble, +she would certainly lose out if she had to be pure white and could not +have that lovely flush and those blue, blue eyes and that red-gold +hair." + +"I don't see why you talk about Mrs. Green's bones!" exclaimed Dee, +rather indignantly. "I can't see that her bones are the least bit +prominent." + +"Well, goose, I mean her proportions. Beauty, to my mind, does not +amount to a row of pins if it is only skin deep; it's got to go clean +through to the bones." + +"Well, I don't believe it. I bet you Mrs. Green's skeleton would look +just like yours or mine or Miss Plympton's or anybody else's." + +"You flatter yourself." + +"Well, girls," I cried, feeling that pacific intervention was in order, +"there's no way to prove or disprove except by X-ray photography so long +as we have Mrs. Green on this mundane sphere. I certainly would not have +a row over it. Mrs. Green's bones are very pleasingly covered, to my way +of thinking." + +"They are beautiful bones, or their being well covered would not make +any difference. Just see here"--and Dum began rapidly sketching a skull +and then piling up hair on it and putting in a nose and lips, +etc.--"can't you see if the skull is out of proportion with a jimber jaw +and a bulging forehead that all the pretty skin on earth with hair like +gold in the sunset would not make it beautiful?" + +"Well, I know one thing," put in Dee: "I know you could take a hunk of +clay and start to make a mouse and then change your mind and keep on +piling clay on, and shaping it, and patting it, and moulding it until +you had turned it into a cat. If you can do that much, I should like to +know why the Almighty couldn't do the same thing. Couldn't He start with +chunky bones, and then fill them out and mould the flesh, pinching in +here and plumping out there until He had made a tall and slender +person?" + +"Dee, you make me tired--you argue like a Sunday School superintendent +who is thinking about turning into a preacher. The idea of the +Almighty's changing His mind to start out with! Don't you know that from +the very beginning of everything the Almighty has planned our +proportions, such as they are, and He would no more put a little on here +and pull a little off there than He would start to make a mouse and turn +it into a cat?" + +"All right, if you think a beauty doctor can do more than the Almighty, +then I think your theology needs looking after." + +"I know one thing," I said: "I know it is after seven and you will keep +your father waiting for his dinner when we already kept him waiting for +his luncheon. The Greens are to have dinner with us, and it is mighty +rude to keep them waiting." + +Tweedles hurriedly got into their dinner dresses and were only ten +minutes late, after all. + +"What made you girls so late?" demanded Zebedee, when we were seated +around the table, encouraging our appetites with soup, which is what the +domestic science lecturers say is all that soup does. + +"We were having a discussion, Dum and I. Page was the Dove of Peace, or +we would be going it yet." + +"Tell us what the discussion was about and we will forgive you," said +Professor Green. + +"It was about Mrs. Green's bones," blurted out Dum. + +"My bones! I thought I had them so well covered that casual observers +would not be conscious of them," laughed the beautiful skeleton, who +was radiant in a gray-blue crepe de chine dress that either gave the +selfsame color to her eyes or borrowed it from them, one could never +make out which. + +"Oh, we did not mean you were skinny," and Dum explained what the trend +of the argument had been, much to the amusement of the owner of the +bones in question and also of her husband and Zebedee. + +"Miss Dum's argument reminds me of something that Du Maurier says in +that rather remarkable little book, 'Trilby,'" said Professor Green. "He +says that Trilby's bones were beautiful, and even when she was in the +last stages of a wasting disease, the wonderful proportion of her bones +kept her beautiful." + +"There now, Dee, consider yourself beaten!" and Dee acknowledged her +defeat by helping Dum to the heart of the celery. + +We had a merry dinner and found our new friends as interesting as they +seemed to find us. We discussed everything from Shakespeare to the +movies. Professor Green was not a bit pedagogic, which was a great +comfort. Persons who teach so often work out of hours--teach all the +time. If preachers and teachers would join a union and make a compact +for an eight-hour workday, what a comfort it would be to the community +at large! + +"Edwin, Miss Allison----" + +"Please call me Page!" + +"Well, then, Page--it certainly does come more trippingly on my +tongue--Page is meaning to write, and she, too, is putting things down +in a notebook." + +"I advised that," said Mr. Tucker. "It seems to me that if from the +beginning I had only started a notebook, I would have a valuable +possession by now. As I get older my memory is not so good." + +When Zebedee talked about getting older it always made people laugh. He +sounded somehow as little boys do when they say what they are going to +do when they put on long pants. I fancy he and Professor Green were +about the same age, but he certainly looked younger. He must have been +born looking younger than ever a baby looked before, and eternal youth +was his. + +"I know a man in New York, newspaper man, who began systematically +keeping a scrap-book when he was a youth. He indexed it and compiled it +with much care, and now that he is quite an old man he actually gets his +living--and a very good living at that--out of that scrap-book," +declared Zebedee. "He has information at hand for almost any subject, +and the kind of intimate information one would not find in an +encyclopedia. He will get up an article on any subject the editors +demand, and that kind of handy man commands good pay." + +"It is certainly a good habit to form if you want to do certain kinds of +writing, but it takes a very strong will for a writer of fiction who +runs a notebook not to be coerced by that notebook. I mean in this way: +make the characters do certain things or say certain things just to lead +up to some anecdote that the author happens to have heard and jotted +down in his notebook. Anecdotes in books should happen just as +naturally as they do in life: come in because there is some reason for +them. The author who deliberately makes a setting for some good story +that has no bearing on the subject-matter is a bore just as the chronic +joke-teller is. If you can see the writer leading up to a joke, can see +the notebook method too plainly, it is bad art. I'd rather have +puns--they are at least spontaneous." + +"Please lend me your pencil, Zebedee," I entreated. + +"What are you going to do with it?" + +"Write down what Professor Green has just said in my notebook. I think +some day it may come in handy." + +"You mean as a warning to all young authors?" questioned the professor. + +"Oh, no, I think I may have my characters all sitting around a table at +a hotel in Charleston and gradually work up to the point and have some +one get it off." + +And Mrs. Green, also an advocate of the notebook system as a memory +jogger, applauded me for my sauciness to her wise husband. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GUITAR + + +"Page," whispered Dee to me, "do you know, I can't sleep tonight unless +I know that the awful rope hanging to that chandelier has been taken +away. I have a terrible feeling that Louis might get despondent again +and go back there and try to do the same thing. I can't call the thing +by name--it seems so horrible." + +I knew that Dee was still laboring under quite a strain. During dinner +she had been very quiet, and now that we had adjourned to the pleasant +courtyard on which the dining room opened, where the gentlemen were +indulging in coffee and cigars and the rest of us were contenting +ourselves with just coffee, she seemed to be nervous and fidgety. +Zebedee noticed it, too, and every now and then I caught him watching +her with some anxiety. + +To catch a young man in the nick of time and keep him from making away +with himself is cause for congratulation but not conducive to calmness, +when one happens to be only seventeen and not overly calm at that. + +"Why don't you tell your father?" I whispered back. + +"He'll think I am silly, and then, too, I don't want him to think that I +think Louis is likely to repeat his performance. It might give him an +idea that Louis is weak and make him lose interest in him. I don't +consider him weak, but he is so down in the mouth there is no telling +how the thing will work out. Can't you make up some plan? Couldn't we +sneak off and go down there? Would you be afraid?" + +"Afraid! Me? You know I am not afraid on the street, but I must say that +old custard-colored house is some gruesome." + +While I was wavering as to whether I could or couldn't go into the +deserted hotel at night with no one but Dee, Professor Green proposed +that all of us should take a walk down on the Battery. + +"There is a wonderful moon rising this minute over there in the ocean +and not one soul to welcome it." + +So we quickly got into some wraps, as we remembered what a breeze could +blow on the Battery, and Dee concealed under her coat her electric +flashlight and I put my scissors in my pocket. + +"We can shake the crowd and get our business attended to without +anyone's being the wiser," I whispered. + +A place that is ugly by day can be beautiful by moonlight, and a place +that is beautiful by day can be so wonderful by moonlight that it +positively hurts like certain strains of the violin in the "Humoresque" +or tones of a great contralto's voice. Charleston on that night was like +a dream city. We passed old St. Michael's churchyard, where the old +cedar bed loomed like a soft, dark shadow among the white tombstones. + +"How it shows up even at night!" said Zebedee. "It reminds me of what a +friend of mine once said: that the way to make yourself heard in a noisy +crowd and to attract the attention of everyone is to whisper. The noisy +crowd will be quiet in a moment and everybody will try to hear what you +are saying. The low-toned whisper of that old bedstead is heard above +all the clamor of the snow-white, high-toned tombstones." + +"Humph! Isn't our pa poetical tonight!" teased Dum. + +"I should say I am! I bet you are, too, but you are too old to confess +it. I glory in it." + +We turned down Tradd Street to Legare, which is, I fancy, the most +picturesque street in the United States. We had learned that afternoon +to pronounce Legare properly. We had naturally endeavored to give it the +finest French accent, but were quietly put on the right track by Claire +Gaillard. "Lagree" is the way, and now we aired our knowledge to the +Greens, who were pronouncing it wrong just as we had. + +"Tradd Street was named for the first male child born in the Colony, so +the guide-book tells me," said Mrs. Green. "If there were any females +born, they did not see fit to commemorate the fact." + +"Perhaps the early settlers did not consider the female of the race +anything to be walked on--maybe they were not the downtrodden sex that +they are in the present day. A street is no good except to walk on or +ride over, and surely a female's name would not be appropriate for such +an object. My wife is very jealous for the rights of women, whether they +be alive or dead," said Professor Green. + +"They might at least name something after us besides things to eat. +Sally Lunn and Lady Baltimore cake are not much of a showing, to my +mind," laughed Mrs. Green. + +"There's Elizabethan ruff, and de Medici collar, and Queen Anne cottage, +and Alice blue," I suggested. + +"Yes, and Catherine wheels, and Minnie balls, and Molly-coddles----" + +"I give up! I give up! I was thinking of Charleston and the first male +baby." + +And so we chatted on as we turned the corner into Legare. We soon came +to the beautiful Smyth gateway and then to the Simonton entrance. They +vie with each other in beauty of design. The shutters of all the houses +on the street were tightly closed, although it was a very mild evening, +but we could hear light laughter and gay talk from some of the walled +gardens; and occasionally through the grilles we caught glimpses of +girls in light dresses seated on garden benches among the palmettos and +magnolias, their attendant swains behaving very much as attendant swains +might behave in more prosaic surroundings. + +"I can't think of the girls who live in these walled gardens as ever +being dressed in anything but diaphanous gauze, playing perhaps with +grace hoops or tossing rose leaves in the air," said the professor. "It +seems like a picture world, somehow." + +"Yes, but behind the picture no doubt there is a dingy canvas and even +cobwebs, and maybe it is hung over an ugly old scar on the paper and has +to stay there to hide the eye-sore--there might even be a stovepipe hole +behind it," I said, sadly thinking of the Gaillards and how picturesque +they were and what sad things there were in their lives. + +"Mercy, how forlorn we are!" exclaimed Zebedee. "Let's cheer up and +merrily sing tra-la! Right around the corner here on King Street is the +old Pringle House. They say there has been more jollity and revel in +that mansion than almost anywhere in the South." + +The Pringle House looked very dignified and beautiful in the mellow +light that the moon cast over it. It is of very solid and simple design, +with broad, hospitable door and not quite so formidable a wall as some +of its neighbors; at least one can see the entrance without getting in a +flying machine. + +"Ike Marvel was married in that front parlor there--the room to the +right, I believe it was," said Professor Green. "I wonder if he wrote +his 'Reveries of a Bachelor' before or after the ceremony?" + +"I'd like to get in there and poke around," I sighed. + +"And so should I," chimed in Mrs. Green. "I am sure it is full of +possible plots and counterplots for you and me, my dear." + +"Do you young ladies know where the Misses Laurens live?" questioned the +professor. "We might take a view of our possible abode as 'paying +guests' and see how it looks by moonlight." + +And so we left the Pringle House and wended our way back to Meeting +Street, where we had only that morning seen the pale, sad ladies buying +ten cents' worth of shrimps and regretting that they were not as big as +lobsters. We hoped when they got the paying guests they would not be +quite so economical in their purchases. + +The house was still and dark except for a gleam of light from an upper +chamber. + +"A wax candle, I'll be bound, in an old silver candlestick!" I thought. + +The unpainted board gates were uncompromisingly ugly by moonlight as +well as by day; but the old house with its long galleries and chaste +front door was even more beautiful. + +"Oh, Edwin, do you think we will really get into that house? It is to me +even lovelier than the much-vaunted Pringle place. But how sad about +these gates! They look so new and ugly." + +"Page has a lovely story she has made up about the gates," said Dum. Dee +was still quiet, with little to say on that moonlight walk. "She is sure +the pale old ladies sold them for a fabulous sum to some rich Yankee. +She also says she knows the younger and less pale of the old ladies used +to kiss her beau through the grille of the old wrought-iron gate----" + +"Beau! Why, Dum Tucker, I never used such a word in connection with an +inmate of this old aristocratic mansion! I said lover. Beau, indeed! I +should as soon think of saying she was chewing gum or doing something +else equally plebeian." + +"Hush! Listen! I hear a guitar," from Zebedee. + +From the stillness of the garden behind the high brick wall where the +ugly board gate flaunted its newness we could hear the faint twanging of +a guitar. It sounded faint and cracked, but very sweet and true, and +then a plaintive old soprano voice began to sing. We were afraid to +breathe or move. It had the quality of a lunar rainbow it was once my +joy and privilege to behold: a reflection of a reflection, the raindrops +reflecting the moon, the moon reflecting the sun. I can give no idea of +that experience without repeating the song she sang. I could not +remember it, and had never seen it in print, but Professor Green, who +seemed to be a person who knew many things worth while knowing, told us +it was a poem of Dinah Maria Mulock Craik's, called "In Our Boat." He +sent me a copy of it after we got back to Richmond: + + "'Stars trembling o'er us and sunset before us, + Mountains in shadow and forests asleep; + Down the dim river we float on forever, + Speak not, ah, breathe not--there's peace on the deep. + + "'Come not, pale sorrow, flee till tomorrow; + Rest softly falling o'er eyelids that weep; + While down the river we float on forever, + Speak not, ah, breathe not--there's peace on the deep. + + "'As the waves cover the depths we glide over, + So let the past in forgetfulness sleep, + While down the river we float on forever, + Speak not, ah, breathe not--there's peace on the deep. + + "'Heaven shine above us, bless all that love us; + All whom we love in thy tenderness keep! + While down the river we float on forever, + Speak not, ah, breathe not--there's peace on the deep.'" + +Nobody said a word. We softly crept down the street. + +"Now you understand how we happened to listen when Claire and her father +were talking," I whispered to Zebedee. "It seemed no more real than this +old lady's song did." + +Zebedee wiped his eyes. Of course the song and its setting had made all +the Tuckers weep. Molly Brown was not dry-eyed, and one might have spied +a lunar rainbow in my eyes, too. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MORAL COURAGE + + +The Battery was wonderful, wonderful, and out of all whooping. The moon +was high up over the water, having made her debut sooner than Professor +Green had calculated. The tide was coming in, or rather rolling in, and +every wave seemed to rise up to catch a little kiss from the moon. The +palmettos were, as is their way, rustling and waving their leaves like +ladies of olden times in swishing silks using their fans as practiced +flirts. The live-oaks did very well as cavaliers bending gallantly to +catch the tender nothings of the coquettes. The Spanish moss on one +particularly twisted oak hung like a great beard from the chin of some +ancient, and as the slender palmetto swayed in the breeze and waved her +tresses provokingly near, the gray beard mingled with them for a moment. + +"The old rip!" exclaimed Zebedee to me. + +"Why, I was just thinking that! It does look just like an old man." + +Mr. Tucker and I, as no doubt I have remarked before, often came out +with exactly the same thought almost as though we were able to read each +other's minds. + +"Of course she should not have led him on if she did not want to be +kissed. She certainly came very near chucking him under the chin. A girl +can't expect a man to withstand temptation forever. Just because a man +is looked upon as a gray-bearded loon is no sign he feels like one." + +The others had gone on ahead and were standing under the monument of +Sergeant Jasper, who was still patiently pointing to Fort Moultrie. + +"Do you think it is a girl's fault always if a man kisses her?" + +"Well, no, not exactly. I certainly don't think it is a girl's fault for +being kissable--but it seems to me her instinct might tell her when she +is getting too kissable and she might--wear a veil--or do something to +protect the poor man a little." + +"Why should he not put on smoked glasses or look the other way? I can't +see that it is up to the poor palmetto." + +"Perhaps you are right," he said, more soberly, it seemed to me, than +the conversation warranted. "I am going to Columbia tomorrow," rather +sullenly. + +"Are you, really? Tweedles and I are going to miss you terribly. We do +wish you didn't have to go." + +"'We'! Can't you ever say I? Do you have to lump yourself with Dum and +Dee about everything?" + +What a funny, cross Zebedee this was! I looked at him in amazement. He +was quite wild-eyed, with a look on his face that was new to me. If I +had not known that he was a teetotaler, or almost one, I might have +thought he had been drinking. I must have presented a startled +appearance, for in a moment he pulled himself together. + +"Excuse me, Page! I think the moon must have gone to my head. The full +moon makes me act queer sometimes, anyhow. You have heard of persons +like that, haven't you? That's where lunatic got its name--Luna, the +moon, you know," he rattled on at a most astonishing pace. "How old do +you reckon Mrs. Green is? She looks very young. Do you think Professor +Green is as old as I am?" + +"Older, I should think; but then he is so--so--high-foreheaded it makes +him look older." + +"He was her teacher at college, so they tell me. She must have been +quite young when he first knew her." + +"Yes, she was only sixteen when she entered Wellington, I believe." + +"They seem very happy," with a deep sigh that made me feel so sorry for +him. + +"He must be thinking of his little Virginia," I thought. She had lived +only a year after her marriage and had been only nineteen when she +died--he only a year or so older. "I suspect the moonlight reminds him +of her. I know he did not mean to pick me up so sharply, and I am just +not going to notice it." + +Dee, who was biding her time hoping to get the crowd settled somewhere +so we could slip off to the custard-colored hotel, now called to us to +see the bust of William Gilmore Simms, and to tell her father about the +nice, aristocratic old policeman who had so enthralled us by reciting +the "Grape-Vine Swing" that morning. + +Finally, with much maneuvering on her part, everyone was seated on some +benches looking out over the water, with a clump of palmettos protecting +them from the wind and at the same time hiding the road to the old house +on the corner. Professor Green and Zebedee had entered into an amicable +discussion of the political situation, and Mrs. Green was in the midst +of an anecdote about her friend and sister-in-law, Judy Kean, now Mrs. +Kent Brown, an anecdote told especially for Dum's benefit, since it was +of art and artists. + +"Now's the time! Hurry!" whispered Dee. + +In a moment we had slipped away and were sprinting along the walk to the +custard-colored house. It was not much of a run, about two city blocks, +I fancy, and we did it in an incredibly short time. + +The old house looked very peaceful and still from without, but as we +entered the door we found that, as was its habit, a wind was imprisoned +in its walls and was whistling dolorously. The moonlight flooded the +hall and stairs, making it quite light. Dee clutched my hand, and we +went up those steps very quietly and quickly, through the bridal chamber +and on into the corridor beyond, on which the numbered doors opened. + +No. 13 was open! We paused for a moment as we approached it. Hark! +Certainly there was someone in the room. It seemed to me as though I +weighed a million pounds and had only the strength of a kitten. +Fascinated, we crept closer, although I do not see how the kitten in me +lifted the great weight I felt myself to have. There was a dim light in +the room from a small kerosene lantern. Louis Gaillard was there, +standing tiptoe upon the pile of bricks. Was he trying to fit that awful +noose around his neck again? I felt like screaming as Dee had in the +morning, but no sound would come from my dry throat. + +Louis' face, that could be seen in the light of the lantern, did not +look like the face of one who meant to make away with himself. There was +purpose in it, but it was the purpose of high resolve. Grasping the rope +as high up as he could with one hand, with the other he gave it a sharp +cut with a knife. Dee and I leaned against each other for support. The +rope was down, and now the thing for us to do was get out of that +building as fast as we could. Louis must never know we had been there. +We blessed the wind, which made such a noise rattling the shutters and +streamers of hanging wall paper that the boy remained absolutely +unconscious of our presence. He had begun to destroy the pile of bricks +as we crept away, taking them carefully back to the hearth where he had +found them. + +We sailed down the steps of that old hotel as hungry boarders might have +done in days gone by "when they heard the dinner bell." We were out on +the sea-wall and racing back to our friends before Louis had finished +with the bricks, I am sure. + +"Page," panted Dee, "don't you think Louis had lots of moral courage to +go back there where he had so nearly come to grief and take down that +rope and unpile those bricks?" + +"Courage! I should say he had! I was nearly scared to death when I saw +him there, weren't you?" + +"I have never gone through such a moment in my life. It was worse than +this morning, because this morning I did not know what to expect, while +tonight I almost knew what was coming--the worst. When I saw the lantern +and realized Louis was there, I could almost see him with the noose +around his neck!" + +Dee shivered and drew her coat more closely around her. Her face looked +pale and pinched in the moonlight, while I was all in a glow from our +race along the sea-wall. + +"Dee, I believe you are all in." + +"Oh, I'm all right--just a bit cold." + +"All right, much! You are having a chill this very minute--you are, +Dee--a nervous chill, and no wonder!" + +We had been gone such a short time that no one seemed to have missed us. +Professor Green was still on the subject of initiative and referendum, +and Mrs. Green had just finished a thrilling tale of art students' life +in Paris when we sank on the bench beside them. Dee was shaking like an +aspen, although she still insisted there was nothing the matter. + +"Zebedee, Dee must go home immediately. She is sick, I believe." + +"Dee sick?" and he sprang to his feet. "What's the matter with you, +honey? Where do you feel sick? What hurts you?" + +"Nothing! Oh, nothing!" and poor Dee's overwrought nerves snapped and +she went off into as nice a fit of hysterics as one could find outside +of a big boarding-school for girls. + +"Dee, Dee, please tell me what is the matter!" begged her frantic +father. + +"She can't talk, but I can! She must go home and be put to bed. She has +had too much excitement for one day." + +"Where have you and she just been?" rather sternly, while Dee sobbed on +with occasional giggles, Mrs. Brown and Dum taking turns patting her. + +"We have been back to the custard-colored house," I faltered. + +"Oh, you little geese! What did you want there, please?" + +"Dee could not sleep until she knew the rope was cut from the +chandelier. We went back to cut it down." + +"Oh, I see. Did you cut it down?" + +"No; Louis was there cutting it down when we got there. We didn't let +him see us. But at first when we saw him we thought--we +thought--maybe--he--he----" I could go no further. I could not voice our +apprehensions before the Greens, who knew nothing of our experience of +the morning. + +"You poor babies! Why didn't you ask me to attend to it?" + +"I wanted to, but Dee said you might think it was silly of us; and then +she did not want you to think that maybe Louis was not trustworthy. She +felt he needed all the friends he had--not to lose any." + +"Loyal old Dee! Now, honey baby, you put your arm around me and I'll put +my arm around you, and we will get over to the King Street car and be +back to the hotel in a jiffy. The rest of you can walk, if you want to." + +None of us wanted to, as we felt some uneasiness about Dee, although she +had calmed down to an occasional sob that might pass for a hiccough. We +piled on the trolley and were back at the hotel in short order. + +The good breeding of the Greens was very marked during this little +mix-up. Never once by word or look did they show the slightest curiosity +as to what we were talking about. They were kind and courteous and +anxious to help Dee have her chill and get over the hysterics, but that +was all. + +"Hadn't I better get a doctor for Dee?" poor Zebedee inquired, almost +distracted, as he always was when one of his girls had anything the +matter. + +"I really do not think so," said Mrs. Green. "If you will let me take +Dee in charge, I am sure I can pull her through. Doctor McLean, at +Wellington, complains that I have lessened his practice by taking charge +of so many cases where a doctor is not really needed." + +"You had better trust her, Tucker; she has healing in her wings." +(Professor Green and Zebedee had sealed their rapidly growing friendship +by calling each other Green and Tucker.) Tweedles always said that no +one ever called their father Mr. Tucker longer than twenty-four hours +unless he got to acting Mr. Tuckerish. + +So Mrs. Green came to our room and had Dee in bed after a good hot bath +and a dose of aromatic spirits of ammonia. She brought her own hot-water +bag and put it to her feet, and then, tucking her in, gave her a +motherly kiss. As she was certainly not very much older than we were, I +might have said big-sisterly, but there is a difference, and that kiss +was motherly. I know it was because I got one, too, and it seemed to me +to be the female gender of the kind father gives to me, only on rare +occasions, however, as we are not a very kissy family. + +"Now, dear, you must go to sleep and not dream even pleasant dreams. +Don't dream at all." + +And our kind friend prepared to leave us. + +"Well, I feel fine now--but--but--I can't go to sleep until I tell you +all about Louis and what happened today." + +"But, my dear, you need not tell me. I think you must be quiet now. You +see, I told your father I would be the doctor, and I must not let you do +things to excite you. Talking about a trying experience would be the +worst thing in the world for you." + +"But I have been thinking it all over and I feel that you and Professor +Green would be the ones of all others to take an interest in Louis and +advise what to do about him." + +"All right--in the morning!" + +"No! Tonight. I want you to talk it over with your husband tonight." + +"If you feel that way about it, just shut your eyes and go to sleep; Dum +and I will do the telling without your assistance," I said; and Dee, who +was in the last stages of exhaustion, gave in and was asleep almost +before we got the light off. + +Dum and I followed Mrs. Green to her room, where we told her the whole +frightful business. She was all interest and solicitude. + +"The poor boy! I just know Edwin will think of something to do for him. +Although Edwin has taught girls always, he does understand boys +thoroughly. If we can get board with the Laurens ladies we will be quite +near Louis and his sister, and as we get to know them we can find out +how to help the boy without hurting his pride. I think all of you girls +have shown the 'mettle of the pasture' in the way you have grappled with +this very trying occasion." + +"'Twas Dee! She thought of asking Louis to lunch and everything. Dee has +so much heart, I wonder she is not lop-sided," said Dum, who was as +upset as Zebedee over Dee's going to pieces. "You see, Dee and I have +lots of fusses, but it is almost always my fault, because I am so mean. +Dee is the most wonderfullest person in the world." + +Mrs. Green smiled and hugged the enthusiastic Dum. + +"Yes, I know what a sister can be. My sister, Mildred, is not my twin in +reality, but the Siamese twins cannot be closer than we are in spirit. I +hardly ever see her now, either, as she lives in the northwest and I am +at Wellington all winter and in Kentucky in the summer. Fortunately, +love can work by wireless at any distance, so absence does not affect +our affection for each other." + +We told our lovely lady good night, and then it was she gave us the +selfsame kind of kiss she had given Dee. + +"Doesn't it seem ridiculous that we have known her only since this +afternoon? I feel as though I had known her all my life. If I go to New +York to study at the League, she is going to have me meet her +sister-in-law, Mrs. Kent Brown. She is the one Miss Ball told us about +who got in such funny scrapes at college--you remember, Judy Kean, who +dyed her hair black?" + +Dum and I were in the elevator, on our way downstairs to hunt up Zebedee +to tell him how Dee was faring. We found him in the lobby, still talking +to Professor Green. He was greatly relieved that Dee was herself again, +and I assured him that by morning she would be better than herself. + +"I have been telling Green all about that poor Louis Gaillard," he +confessed. "I did not feel it to be a breach of confidence, after the +way Dee had flopped, letting the cat out of the bag half-way, anyhow; +besides, I want him to talk the matter over with his wife. I feel that +perhaps they will know how to help the boy." + +"Molly will, I feel sure. She always sees some way to help." + +Dum and I burst out laughing at Professor Green's words. + +"That is just what she said about you," I laughed. "Dee wanted us to +tell her all about Louis so she could talk it over with you, thinking +there might be something you could suggest about helping him, and she +said: 'Edwin will think of something to do for him. He understands boys +thoroughly, if he does teach girls.'" + +And so ended our first day in Charleston. What a day it had been! Rain +and sunshine, wind and moonlight, poetry and prose, fiction and fact! A +young life saved, and friendship born! Dee going off in hysterics, and +Dum and I so tired at last that we could hardly crawl back into the +elevator to be borne to our room! + +We found Dee sleeping like a baby, and in five minutes we were sleeping +like two more babies. I wonder if Louis Gaillard slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ENGAGING BOARD + + +Whether Louis slept or not on that night after his near-extinction, he +was with us early the next morning to bring the glad news that the +Misses Laurens would consent to receive us in their home. The Greens +were as delighted as we were. Zebedee was to take the first available +train to Columbia, and as Professor Green had some important mail to get +off, arrangements were left to the females. We were to call on the +Misses Laurens at eleven o'clock, accompanied by Claire Gaillard. + +"Just to think that we are actually going to live in that old house!" +exclaimed Mrs. Green, who was quite as enthusiastic over anything that +pleased her as any of us girls. "Do you think we can ever know the one +who sang, well enough to ask her to sing to us?" + +"I doubt it!" from Dum. "If they are as top-loftical in their home as +they were in the bus the other morning, I doubt their even speaking to +us. But I want to see their furniture and portraits whether they speak +to us or not. I bet that house is just running over with beautiful +things." + +Claire, whom we picked up at her home on the way to the Misses Laurens', +endeavored to prepare us for the stilted dignity of our prospective +hostesses. We had seen them in the bus and knew how they could conduct +themselves; but we had also seen them haggling for shrimps, so we knew +they had their weaknesses; and we had heard one of them sing, and knew +that she at least had a heart. + +In answer to the bell, which, by the way, was the old-fashioned pulling +kind that made a faint jangle 'way off in the most remote end of the +house, a gawky, extremely black girl opened the door that led from the +street to a great long porch or gallery. Steps from this porch led to a +tangled old garden with palmettos and magnolias shading the walks, sadly +neglected and grass-grown, that wound around flower beds long since +given over to their own sweet will. A fat stone Cupid, heavily draped in +cumbersome stone folds, was in the act of shooting an iron arrow at a +snub-nosed Psyche some ten feet from him. There was a sun-dial in the +center of the garden, and every now and then one spied an old stone +bench, crumbling and moss-grown, through the tangle of vines and shrubs. + +"Oh!" came from all of us with one accord. It was very lovely and very +pathetic, this old garden, so beautiful and so neglected and gone to +seed! + +"Louis is wild to restore it," whispered Claire. "You know, he can do +the most wonderful things with a garden." + +We did know, having peeped into their garden so rudely the day before, +but we kept very quiet about that. + +The gawky black girl plunged ahead of us and ushered us into the house +door. This door was smaller than the one on the street, but followed the +same chaste style of architecture. The hall was astonishingly narrow, +but the room we were told to "Jes' go in an' res' yo'se'fs in yander!" +we found to be of fine proportions, a lofty, spacious room. + +The fiddle-backed chairs and the spindle-legged tables and claw-footed +sofas in that room would have driven a collector green with envy. +Curtains hung at the windows that were fit for bridal veils, so fine +they were and so undoubtedly real. The portraits that lined the walls +were so numerous and so at home that somehow I felt it an impertinence +that I, a mere would-be boarder, should look at them. They belonged and +I didn't, and if by good luck I could obtain an introduction to them, +then I might make so bold as to raise my eyes to them, but not before. + +There was a dim, religious light in the room, and the portraits, many of +them needing varnishing and cleaning, had almost retired into their +backgrounds. They peered out at us in some indignation, those great +soldiers and statesmen, those belles and beauties. I don't know why it +is that ancestors always attained eminence and were great whatever they +tried to do, while descendants have to struggle along in mediocrity, no +matter how hard they try. + +The Misses Laurens glided into the room, and Claire introduced us. I +don't know how the girl had accounted for her acquaintance with us. +Perhaps she had not been compelled to account at all. We were received +with courtesy but with a strange aloofness that made me feel as though I +had just had the pleasure of being presented to one of the portraits, +not real flesh and blood. Arabella and Judith were their names. To our +astonishment the elder, Miss Arabella, turned out to be the sentimental +one with the voice, while Miss Judith, the younger, was the sterner of +the two and evidently the prime mover in this business of taking "paying +guests." Usually it is the younger sister who goes off to romance and +the elder who is more practical; at least, it is that way in fiction. + +"We have come to you, hoping you will take us to"--Mrs. Green, who was +spokesman for us, faltered; could she say "board" to those two? +Never!--"will let us come to stay with you." That was better. + +"We shall be very pleased to offer you the hospitality of our home +during your stay in Charleston," from Miss Judith. + +"Yes, we Charlestonians are always sorry when guests to our city have to +accept entertainment at a hostelry," fluttered Miss Arabella. "For a +long time the better element of our community was greatly opposed to the +establishment of such places. We argued that when visitors came to +Charleston, if they were distinguished and worthy they should be +entertained in private homes; and if they were not distinguished and not +worthy, we did not care for them to sojourn here under any +circumstances." + +"We are a party of six," continued Mrs. Green, doing her best to be +businesslike in the interview. "My husband and I, these three young +ladies, and Mr. Tucker, the father of these two," indicating Tweedles, +who were breathing heavily, a sure sign of laughter that must come +sooner or later. "Mr. Tucker is now in Columbia," she went on to +explain, "but will shortly return." + +"We shall be pleased to see him whenever his affairs permit him to leave +the capital of our State." + +"You will have room, then, for all of us?" + +"Certainly; we have entertained as many as twenty guests quite often. +Not recently; but we still can accommodate that number without +inconvenience or crowding." + +Miss Judith was spokesman now, while Miss Arabella glided from the room. +In a moment the ungainly girl who had opened the door came in, evidently +in response to a signal from the mistress, bearing a silver tray with a +Bohemian glass decanter and beautiful glasses with slender stems and a +plate of wafers that were so thin and delicate one could easily have +eaten a barrel of them without feeling stuffed. + +"That will do, Dilsey," said Miss Judith, evidently knowing better than +to trust the handmaiden, who certainly had the appearance of what Mammy +Susan called "a corn fiel' nigger," with the rare old Bohemian glass. +Miss Judith served us herself to apricot cordial, the most delicious +thing I ever tasted. "We brewed it ourselves from a recipe that has been +in our family for centuries," she said, with the simplicity that one +might use in saying "like the pies mother used to make." + +Still there was no talk of terms or question of our viewing our rooms. +Such things are not discussed with guests. The guests are simply given +the best the house affords, and of course are too well-bred to do +anything but be pleased. + +"When may we come?" ventured Dum. + +"At any time that suits your convenience." + +"After luncheon today, then, will be a good time," suggested Mrs. Green, +and I thought the two ladies breathed a small sigh of relief. Maybe they +thought the Philistines were already upon them and come to stay. + +"We three girls can sleep in one room!" I exclaimed, not having opened +my mouth before except to take in the cordial and wafers. My voice +sounded strange and harsh to me, somehow. + +"We are under no necessity for crowding," quietly from Miss Judith, who +looked at me, I thought, in disapproval. What business was it of guests +to dictate to the hostess what their sleeping arrangements should be? I +subsided. + +"You will have your boxes sent when it suits you. I am sorry we have no +one to send for them." A boarding-house keeper to send for your luggage! +What next? + +There seemed no reason to linger longer since the ladies made no move to +show us the rooms we were to occupy, and we all of us felt that to +mention money would be too brutal. Mrs. Green rose to take leave, and +all of us followed suit. + +"We will return at about four, if that is convenient." + +"We shall be pleased to see you at any time." + +We bowed, the ladies bowed, and the portraits seemed to incline their +painted heads a bit. + +Dilsey was standing in readiness to show us out of the street door, and +the sight of her grinning human countenance did me good. She at least +was alive. + +Once on the street, we looked at one another knowingly, but the presence +of Claire barred us from saying anything. We walked the block to her +house, talking of the pleasure it would be to be so near her, and +expressing to her our appreciation of the trouble she had taken to place +us with her friends. + +"Oh, we are too delighted to have you near," she declared. "Louis and I +can talk of nothing else. Of course we are hoping to see a great deal of +you." + +We wondered if the pompous old father seconded this, and how the young +Gaillards would get by with us. We were not, according to his ideas, +desirable acquaintances. At least we fancied we would not be. Surely, +however, Mrs. Green could pass muster anywhere. + +"Louis wants to take you to see the old oak in Magnolia Cemetery just as +soon as you feel like going." + +"Oh, we couldn't go to a cemetery without Zebedee," declared Dee. "He +loves them so!" + +"Well, how about the Magnolia Gardens this afternoon? He is eager to be +your guide there as well." + +"Is that where the azaleas are so beautiful?" asked Dum. + +"Yes, and they are just right to see now. I hear they were never more +beautiful than now." + +"See them without Zebedee? Never!" Dee still objected. "He adores +flowers as much as he does old tombstones." + +"Well, then, Sullivan's Island, where Poe's 'Gold Bug' was written?" +laughed Claire. + +"Go somewhere that is interesting on account of Edgar Allan Poe without +Zebedee! We could never be so heartless. Why, he knows Poe by heart." + +"Well, Dee, I don't see any place we could go without Zebedee, according +to you, unless it is back at school or to a dry goods shop." + +"Well, Virginia Tucker, we could go see some pictures or something close +by that he can run in on any time." + +"Certainly you could! There's the wonderful collection of paintings at +the City Hall," suggested Claire courteously, wondering a little, no +doubt, at Dee's persistency in waiting for her father for all +sight-seeing, and at her evident impatience with Dum. When the twins +called each other Virginia and Caroline, it was, as a rule, something +quite serious. So we settled on the City Hall as entertainment for the +afternoon before our installment in our new quarters. + +"Dum, I didn't mean to be grouchy," said the repentant Dee, as soon as +we got out of sight of Claire. "I was trying to head off a trip where +carfare would be necessary. You know Louis never has any money of his +own, and he would be wanting to pay for all of us, and I know would be +cut to the quick if we didn't let him. You see, Zebedee is so bumptious +he just naturally steps up and pays the fare before anybody else has +time even to dig down in their jeans." + +"My husband might have held his own with Louis," suggested Mrs. Green. + +"Yes, I know; I thought of that, but then I did not know whether he +would go or not. I think your husband is just lovely. I didn't mean +he'd be the kind to hang back." Dee spoke so ingenuously and sincerely +that the young wife had to forgive any fancied slight to her Edwin. + +It turned out, however, that Professor Green was still writing letters, +and had decided to spend the afternoon finishing them up, so he would +not have been able to hold his own digging in his jeans. It was like Dee +to think of that matter of carfare. She had so much sympathy for the +poor and miserable of creation that she seemed to be able to put herself +in their places as it were. I fancy there is no more miserable person on +earth than a youth who aspires to be squire of dames and has no money to +pay the fare. + +Professor Green was writing in the palmetto-shaded court of the hotel, +and had seen us from there as we came up the street. He begged us to +join him and tell him what success we had met with the Misses Laurens. + +"Oh, Edwin, it was lovely! You never saw such a beautiful old house and +furniture. The garden is a dream, has a sun-dial and stone benches and +statues!" + +"The portraits are splendid, and there was a Wedgewood pitcher on the +mantelpiece that I wouldn't trust Zebedee alone with if I were those +ladies," exclaimed Dum. + +"They had a lovely cat, too; so clean and soft, and he came to me in the +friendliest way," from Dee. + +"They gave us apricot cordial in Bohemian glass tumblers, and wafers you +could see through," I put in. + +"Well, all this sounds fine. How about the bedrooms? Were they +attractive, too?" + +"Bedrooms! We didn't see them." + +"Oh, then you expect to sleep on the stone benches, perhaps." + +"I wanted to ask to see them, but the ladies were so funny and stiff and +seemed to want us to pretend to be guests, so that naturally we just +pretended." + +"I see. You came to terms with them, however, of course." + +"Terms! You mean money terms? Why, Edwin, we could no more mention money +in their presence than we could rope in a house where the father has +been hanged." + +Professor Green went off into a fit of laughter that made me think that +after all maybe he was younger than Zebedee. He kissed his wife twice +right before us and in plain view of the passersby on Meeting Street, +but he couldn't help it. She was so adorably girlish in her reasons for +engaging board from Charleston aristocrats without even seeing the +bedrooms, and with absolutely no idea of what remuneration those +unbending dames would expect. + +"I did say that Tweedles and I could sleep three in a room, and I wish +you could have seen the way they jumped at me. It was Miss Judith. 'We +are under no necessity for crowding,'" I mimicked her. "I did not like +to insist, but of course I meant it might make our board a little +cheaper. If you had been there, you would have knuckled under just like +the rest of us." + +"Do you think it would be wise to go without knowing? I don't want to +seem mercenary with all of you high-minded ladies, but I do think there +would be a certain satisfaction in knowing just what one was paying for +sun-dials and wafers that can be seen through." + +"Well, then, you can do the asking! I can't. Was there ever a moment +when we could broach the subject, girls?" + +"Never!" we chorused loyally. + +"We will just go 'buying a pig in a poke,' as it were, and maybe after a +night on the garden bench I can muster up courage to ask them what I owe +them for the privilege," teased the professor. + +"I don't like betting on a certainty, but I don't believe you will be +able to do it, and am willing to wager almost anything that you can't +get yourself to the point any more than we could. You might ask Miss +Arabella, but if you tackle Miss Judith and she looks at you as she did +at me when I suggested three in a room, I bet you father's copy of +Timrod's poetry that you change the subject." + +"Done! I bet you the volume of J. Gordon Coogler's 'Purely Original +Verse' that I am living at the Maison Laurens on a purely business +basis within the next seven hours. I am going to settle it before +tonight." + +"Will it be Miss Judith?" I asked, fearing Miss Arabella might be the +cause of my losing the Timrod poetry, which I was anxious to write +father I had found for him at the second-hand book store. + +"Miss Judith and no other! I should feel very sneaky if I got my +information through the easier channel of Miss Arabella. Miss Judith, +and by seven o'clock." + +"I hope we will know before Zebedee comes back," said Dee. "We shall +never hear the last of it if he finds us boarding for untold sums." + +"I shall feel myself a failure as a chaperone surely," remarked Mrs. +Green. + +"We think you a tremendous success," tweedled the twins. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE CLERK OF THE COUNCIL + + +We had a wonderful time at the City Hall that afternoon with Louis. It +was quite near our hotel, so Dee's agony over Louis' feelings about +carfare was assuaged. + +My idea of a City Hall had always been that it was a very ugly and stiff +place where City Fathers wrangled about sewerage and garbage +collections, and whether they should or should not open up such and such +a street or close such and such an alley,--a place where taxes were paid +or evaded, and where one kicked about the size of the gas bill. + +The Charleston City Hall was quite different. There may have been places +where discontented persons contended about gas and taxes, but we did not +see them. We were told that Charleston had but recently gone through +what was a real riot on the subject of the election of the Mayor, but +there was a dignity and peace breathing from the very stones of that old +edifice that made us doubt the possibility of dissension having been +within its walls. + +City Fathers could not have mentioned such a thing as sewerage and +garbage in the presence of those wonderful and august portraits and +busts. As for opening streets that never had been opened before! Why do +it? And alleys that had always been closed! Let well enough alone. + +Louis Gaillard was quite a friend of the Clerk of the Council, a very +scholarly and interesting young man with a French name, who was kindness +itself in showing us the treasures of the City Hall. He knew and loved +every one of them, and Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, could not +have been more eloquent in praise of her jewels. He might well be proud +of them, as I doubt there being a more complete collection of things of +civic and historical interest in any City Hall in all the world, +certainly not in America. + +In the Mayor's office there hung a peculiarly interesting fragment of a +painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. It was Queen Anne's hand resting on a +crown. The rest of the picture had been cut away by some vandal after +the wonderful painting had gone through various vicissitudes during the +Revolutionary War. Queen Anne was always a dead, dull person to my mind, +and the only thing that ever interested me about her was the fact that +she did have a crown, and perhaps if the picture was to be destroyed the +crown was about the most interesting part to preserve. + +I don't want to sound like a guide-book, and I am afraid I might if I +tell of all the treasures in that Council Chamber. I must mention +Trumbull's portrait of Washington, however. It is very wonderful. The +great general stands in Continental uniform by his white charger, every +inch a soldier. + +"It does not look exactly like the Gilbert Stuart portraits," said Dum. + +"No," explained the young man ingenuously, "Stuart painted Washington +after he had false teeth, and that changed his appearance a great deal. +This picture is valued at $100,000, but of course no money could induce +the City of Charleston to part with it." + +Then there was Healy's portrait of John C. Calhoun, a wonderful +painting. Dum and Mrs. Green thought that from an artistic standpoint it +was of more value than the Trumbull portrait of Washington. I am frankly +ignorant of what is best in pictures, but I am trying to learn. I +certainly liked the Healy portrait very much, though. The hands were +wonderful, and Dum said that was a true test of painting; that if an +artist was not a top-notcher he could not draw hands, and usually made +the model sit on them or put them in his pocket, or if it happened to be +a woman, covered them up with drapery. The Clerk of the Council seemed +very much amused by Dum's remarks and delighted with her interest, and +we noticed he addressed most of his explanations to her while we trailed +along in their wake. + +There was a portrait of Francis Marion which rather amused us, as he is +dressed in uniform with a brigadier general's hat. Now we all knew that +Marion never wore anything more tony than a coon skin cap, and he looked +as funny as Daniel Boone would painted in a Tuxedo with an opera hat. + +Portraits of President Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, General +Moultrie, Beauregard, Wade Hampton, and five mayors who held the civic +reins of Charleston in troublous times adorn the walls. There were many +other Charlestonians of note whom their city had delighted to honor, but +I am afraid of getting too guide-booky if I dwell on them. + +The cablegram Queen Victoria sent at the time of the earthquake, +expressing her sympathy for the sufferers has been carefully preserved. +It is the original autograph copy, which, together with the letters from +Mayor Courtney, Secretary of State Bayard, and E. J. Phelps, United +States Minister to the Court of St. James, which were written in regard +to obtaining the original message, are embodied in a book and handsomely +bound. The message reads: + + "To the President of the United States: I desire + to express profound sympathy with the sufferers by + the late earthquake, and await with anxiety + further intelligence which, I hope, may show the + effects to have been less disastrous than + expected. + + (Signed) "VICTORIA, REGINA." + +We took leave of the very agreeable Clerk of the Council regretfully. He +had been so pleasant, and was so interesting that we hoped we might see +him again. + +"It seems a sin," sighed Dum, "to meet such a nice man as that and never +to see him again." + +"I always feel that I am going to meet persons like again," said Mrs. +Green; "if not here, in the hereafter. Kindred souls must manage to get +together or 'What's a heaven for?'" + +"That's the way I like to think of heaven, a place where you find the +persons you naturally like, not a place where you just naturally like +all the persons you meet. I don't see why just because you are good +enough to go to heaven you should lose all your discrimination. I could +go to heaven a million years and not like Mabel Binks. Cat!" and Dum +scowled. + +"Who is Mabel Binks?" laughed Mrs. Green. + +"Oh, she's a person Dee and I can't abide. Page hates her, too, only she +won't say so. She was at Gresham with us the first year we were there, +and she started in making a dead set at Zebedee and has kept it up ever +since." + +"Is she pretty?" + +"Oh, she's handsome enough in a kind of oochy-koochy style, but she is +too florid to suit me. There's a letter from her to Zebedee now. She's +always writing to him and trying to get him into something or other." + +"How do you know it's from her?" I asked. + +I was not very joyful myself when our one-time schoolmate made too free +with Mr. Tucker. I didn't really and truly think he cared a snap for +her, but I well knew how persistent effort on the part of a designing +female could eventually work wonders on the male heart. + +"How do I know? I'd like to know who but Mabel Binks writes on burnt +orange paper, with brown ink, with an envelope big enough to hold all +the documents in the City Hall, and that smelling like a demonstration +counter of cheap perfumes. I'd hate to think Zebedee could put up with +two female admirers as gaudy as she is." + +Dum always stormed like that when Mabel Binks was in question, or any +woman under fifty who happened to like her father. Dee was walking with +Louis or she, too, would have joined in the tirade against their _bete +noir_. + +"I shouldn't think you would feel the slightest uneasiness about your +father. I am sure you can trust his good taste if he should ever marry," +and Mrs. Green drew Dum to her. + +I didn't know about that. I thought it was quite possible for the wrong +person to hoodwink Zebedee into not knowing his taste from hers. I had +been brought up by Mammy Susan, who was somewhat of a cynic in her way, +and she used to say: + +"Th' ain't no countin' on what kin' er wife a widderman is goin' ter +pick out. One thing you may be sho' of, a man nebber picks out two +alike. If the fus' one was tall an' thin the nex' one is sho' ter be +sho't an' fat. I tell yer, men is pow'ful weak an' women is mighty +'suadin'." + +That phrase that Mammy Susan was so fond of, "Men is weak an' women is +'suadin'," made me tremble sometimes for what the father of the twins +might do. He had talked to me about marrying again, and had given me to +understand many times that Mabel Binks was not his style, but sometimes +I used to think that maybe "he doth protest too much." + +We were missing Zebedee greatly, and were very glad when we got back to +the hotel to learn from a long distance message that he would be with us +the next morning. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WHO WON THE BET? + + +We arrived at the Misses Laurens, bag and baggage, at the appointed +hour. Those ladies greeted us with studied courtesy, but it was evident +from their manner that they looked upon us as Yankee invaders. The fact +that Tweedles and I were from Virginia and Mrs. Green from Kentucky, all +of us with as good Confederate records as one could wish, had no weight +with them. We were all clumped as Northerners in their minds. But we +were guests under their ancestral roof and must be treated with +punctilious politeness. + +Tweedles and I were shown into two large adjoining rooms, the Greens +across the hall from us, with a room beyond theirs for Mr. Tucker. The +beds were great four-posters that looked as though there should be +little stepladders furnished to climb into them, like those the porter +brings you to scramble into an upper berth. + +"Just 'spose you should fall out of bed! 'Twould be sure death," +declared Dee. + +"Look at this mahogany candle-stand! Did you ever in all your life see +anything quite so lovely? And look, only look at this silver +candlestick! It looks like it had been looted from some old Spanish +church," and Dum reverently picked up the heavy old silver to examine +the quaint design beaten around its base. + +"But this wardrobe! I'm sure there's a skeleton in it hiding behind +rustling old silks. It is big enough to go to housekeeping in. I wonder +if Miss Arabella and Miss Judith ever played in it when they were +children." + +"Old Page, always romancing." + +"Well, if anyone is ever going to romance she would do it here. It +smells like romance even. I know there are jars of dried rose leaves in +every room. I am sure there is lavender in the sheets and I am positive +there is a ghost around somewhere." + +"Can you smell it, too? How does a ghost smell? Not like a rat, I hope," +teased Dee. + +"How are we going to sleep? If there is a ghost flaunting his fragrance +around, I hope I shall not draw the lonesome singleton," said Dum. + +"I'll take the room by myself," I said magnanimously, the truth of the +matter being that while I approved of our custom of drawing straws or +tossing up for everything, I was afraid that Dee might draw the lonesome +singleton, and I did not think that after the experience she had so +recently been through she should be put off by herself. I did not want +to say anything about my reasons, but decided that I would simply +install myself in the far room. + +"Are you aware of the fact, girls, that there is no gas in these rooms? +These candlesticks are not meant for ornaments, but to light us to our +couches. Shades of Bracken! I wonder if there is any plumbing!" Like +most persons born and brought up without plumbing, I thought more of it +than daily bread. I had my own great English bathtub at Bracken, but +plumbingless houses were not always equipped with individual tubs. + +"I thought of asking Miss Arabella where the bathroom was, but somehow +it was as difficult as asking her how much she charged for board, and I +could not muster courage," laughed Dee. + +"Where does that door go? If it is not locked, we might explore a +little." + +It yielded and proved to be the opening into an old-fashioned +dressing-room that had been converted into a bathroom as an +afterthought. It was big enough for four ordinary bathrooms, and had, +besides the copper-lined bathtub, with plumbing that must have been the +first to be installed in South Carolina, a wardrobe, bureau, washstand +and several chairs. Another door opening into a narrow hall must have +been meant for the other occupants of the house. + +"Thank goodness for the tub, even if it is reminiscent of a +preserving-kettle," I sighed. "I had visions of our making out with bird +dishes, and had begun to regret that I had not taken several more baths +at the hotel, where the arrangements were certainly perfect." + +"It's an awful pity a body can't save up cleanliness like she can save +up dirt," said Dee. "Wouldn't it be nice if we could take seven baths in +one day at a nice hotel and then come stay a week in a delightful old +house like this, delightful in every way but tubs, and not have to wash +all that time?" + +"I knew a girl in Richmond who was one of these once-a-weekers, and she +was going abroad for the summer and decided to get a Turkish bath before +sailing. Do you know she saved up two weeks so as to get her money's +worth? But we had better get unpacked and into our dinner dresses," and +Dum began to pull things out of her suitcase with her unpacking +manner--not calculated to improve the condition of clothes. + +We found Professor and Mrs. Green walking in the garden. + +"Edwin is as pleased as we were, and has forgiven us for not seeing the +bedrooms, now that he finds he shall not have to sleep on a stone bench. +We have a bed big enough for an old-fashioned family of fifteen to sleep +in. I hope you girls are comfortably placed." + +"Yes, indeed, beautifully!" we exclaimed in chorus. + +"Only look at this old sun-dial, Molly! '_Tempus Fugit_' carved around +it! I don't believe Time has flown here for many a year. I think he has +stood stock-still." + +The garden was wondrously sweet in the soft evening light. Waxen white +japonicas gleamed through the shrubbery and lilacs, lavender, purple and +white were in a perfect tangle, meeting overhead, almost concealing an +overgrown walk that led to a rustic summer house in the far corner. +Wherever there was nothing else, there was honeysuckle. It seemed to be +trying to over-run the place, but periwinkle was holding its own on the +ground, asserting itself with its darker green leaves, and snow balls +and syringa bushes, shaking off the honeysuckle that had tried to +smother and choke it, rose superior with their masses of whiteness. +Hyacinths, narcissi, lilies-of-the-valley, snowdrops and violets filled +the beds to overflowing, a floral struggle for the survival of the +fittest. + +"Won't Zebedee love it, though!" said Dee. "It seems almost as peaceful +as a graveyard. Listen! Listen! A mocking-bird!" + +"We might have known a mocking-bird would build here," whispered Mrs. +Green. "There he is on that oleander, and there's his mate still busy +with her household duties, carrying straw for her nest. It must be hard +to be a female bird and not to be able to pour forth your soul in song, +no matter how bursting you are with the joy of living. I always thought +that it was unfair. No doubt that little newlywed mocking-bird feels as +deeply as the male, but all she can do to show it is just drag straw and +hairs and build and build, and then sit patiently on her eggs, and then +teach the little ones to fly after she has worn herself to skin and bone +grubbing worms for them. No doubt if she should begin to sing she would +astonish her little husband to such an extent that he would call her a +suffragette, and tell her a lady bird's place was in her nest and he +could make noise enough for two, thank you!" + +"Well, it certainly would be a pity for her to sing if she couldn't +sing," objected Professor Green. "I suppose long ages of thinking she +couldn't sing has put her where she can't. Perhaps she can sing, and Mr. +Cock Mocking-Bird has told her she can't because he wants the floor, or +rather the swinging limb, himself." + +"Edwin is trying to get me into an argument on feminism, but the evening +is too perfect, and the mere male bird is singing too wonderfully to +tempt me to bring discord into the garden." + +"Have you talked business yet with either of the ladies, Professor +Green? I am getting ready to tell my Timrod good-by." + +"Well--er--not yet. I have not had an opportunity." + +"Why, Edwin, you have seen both of them several times since we arrived." + +"Yes, but the subject of our conversation was such that it did not seem +an appropriate time to broach the matter of board." + +All of us laughed at our masculine contingent's being as bad as we had +been, and I felt more secure than ever that father would get his Timrod +and I would own a volume of J. Gordon Coogler. + +Dilsey, the corn-field hand, almost fell down the steps announcing +supper. Of course we were hungry, and even though the garden was so +lovely we were glad to go to supper. We hoped its loveliness would keep, +and we knew that food could not be trusted to. + +The ladies of the house were dressed in stiff grosgrain silk. Mrs. Green +knew the name of the kind of silk; we had never seen it before. She said +she had an Aunt Clay in Kentucky who wore it on state occasions. They +did not look nearly so funereal, as they had bits of fine old lace in +necks and sleeves. Lace is a wonderful fabric for lightening up +sombreness. It can cheer up dripping black. + +It seems that I was wrong about the Misses Laurens having suffered +recent bereavement. They had the mourning habit. Claire Gaillard had +told us that they had had no deaths in the family for at least ten +years, but that they always wore mourning, poor old things. When we met +them in the bus, the morning of our arrival, they were not coming from +the funeral of a relative who had not left them the legacy they had been +counting on, as I had made up about them; on the contrary, they were +coming from the wedding of a young cousin in a neighboring town. So the +would-be author fell down that time in her surmises. Surely persons who +expect to figure in plots of stories have no business looking as though +they were coming from funerals when they have been to weddings. It is +hard on real authors to have to contend with such contrariness, and +simply impossible for would-bes. + +The dining-room was even lovelier than the parlor. The walls were +papered with a hunting scene that had faded very little, considering it +must have been there half a century. It was a peculiar paper that seemed +to have been varnished, no doubt thus preserving it. + +The sideboard was worth a king's ransom, whatever that is. It was not +the eternal Colonial that is of course beautiful, but it has come to the +pass that Americans think there is no other style worth considering. It +was very old Florentine, as were also the chairs and table. The carving +on the sideboard could only be equalled by the Cimabue gates, I am sure. +The chairs were upholstered in deep red Genoese velvet. It seems a +remote Huguenot ancestor had been United States Consul in Florence and +had brought home with him this dining-room furniture. There were no +pictures in this room, as with paper of that type pictures are out of +place, but polychrome sconces were hung at intervals, half a dozen in +all. The candles in them were not lighted, as it was still daylight, and +a great silver candelabrum on the table gave what additional light was +needed. + +The table was set with the finest Sevres china, cobweb mats and thin old +teaspoons that looked a little like the old ladies themselves. The +forks, however, were as big as two ordinary forks of the day; so big in +fact that one might have been forgiven if, like Sam Weller, he "handled +his wittles with cold steel." + +Miss Judith looked flushed, and I was afraid she had been cooking the +supper herself, while Miss Arabella had on a fresh thumb-stall that +suggested a possible burn on her thin, blue-veined old hand. Supper +consisted of fried chicken, hot rolls, four kinds of preserves, the +inevitable rice that is served twice a day in South Carolina, as though +to encourage home industries, and gravy, of course, to go on the rice, +another thing that is the rule in the best families, so I have been +told. + +It is very funny how different sections of the country establish their +aristocracy by the way certain favorite dishes are served. I heard a +lady from Plymouth, Massachusetts, say once that some of her townsmen +were not really very good people; they put too much molasses in their +baked beans. I am sure a South Carolinian would consider any one po' +white trash who liked rice cooked mushy and not dry with every grain +standing out like a pearl. Certainly anywhere in the South sugar in the +cornbread would label any family as not to the manor-born, while in the +North sugar in the cornbread is a regular thing, born or not born. + +Everything was delicious on that table, and the hostesses quite warmed +up into a pleasant glow of hospitality. It is difficult to be stiff, +even if you have swallowed a heredity poker, when gay, happy, hungry +young people are at your board, showing their appreciation of your +culinary skill by devouring everything handed to them. + +Dilsey waited on table as though it had been set on ploughed ground, +every now and then almost falling down in an imaginary furrow. The +Misses Laurens completely ignored her awkwardness, although in all +probability, being human, they were in agony for fear she would shoot +the rolls across the room, or pour the coffee down a guest's back or do +something else equally trying. Dilsey seemed delighted with her prowess, +and every time she safely landed some article of food to the destination +to which her mistresses had sent it, she gave a pleased cluck. She would +come up to you and lean over your shoulder in a really most engaging +manner, and say: + +"Now do hab a lil' mo' 'sarves! Try dem quinches dis time." + +She was especially lively with the "graby," and handed it every time +there was a lull in operations. Professor Green refused it so often that +it really became embarrassing, but still the girl persisted in her +endeavors. "Jes' lil' graby on yo' rice!" Finally Miss Arabella +interfered to prevent further persecution, and this is where Professor +Green "broke his 'lasses pitcher" with the Misses Laurens. + +"Perhaps you do not care for gravy," she suggested. "Won't you have some +butter on your rice? The butter to Professor Green, Dilsey." + +"Thank you, no butter! I should like some sugar and cream on my rice, +however. I am very fond of it that way." + +"Sugar and cream! On rice!" came in gasps from both ladies. + +Oh, ye gods and little fishes! What had our masculine contingent done? +Flown in the face of customs older than Time! Dilsey's awkward waiting, +taking boarders, nothing had upset the well-bred equanimity of these +descendants of ancestors like this awful alien fact. "Sugar on rice! +Cream on rice! The Yankees are upon us! Hide the spoons!" That was the +manner they had when almost tearfully they instructed Dilsey to pass the +rice, pass the sugar and cream. + +The professor ate it with about as much relish as Proserpine must have +eaten the dried-up pomegranate that Pluto obtained for her. He knew he +had done something terrible, but, man-like, he did not know just exactly +what it was. He knew that rice and sugar and cream were mixed up in it, +but how? Had he realized as I did that his request for a peculiar +combination of food had lost him the bet, perhaps it would have choked +him outright. It was a difficult feat to accomplish at best, to tackle +these old aristocrats on the subject of remuneration, but now that he +had done such a terribly plebeian thing as to want his rice mushy and +sweet, there was no possible way to get back in their good graces, +certainly no quick way of doing it. A reconstruction period would have +to be gone through with and then after much burying of many hatchets +perhaps cordial relations could be re-established. + +Professor Green looked scared and rather boyish. His Molly was bubbling +over with suppressed merriment, while Dum and I had to assume a deep +gloom to keep from exploding. Dee came to the rescue, of course, with +rhapsodies over the garden, jumping from that to the pictures in the +City Hall and back to praise Claire Gaillard, who was evidently a +favorite of the old ladies. + +The clock on the mantelpiece chimed seven and St. Michael's bells +verified its strike. I looked up at Professor Green as he choked down +the last of the fatal rice. + +"I'll give you another hour," I whispered. + +"Thank you, but I believe another year would not help me." + +I now own J. Gordon Coogler and father will have his Timrod, which, +after all, had never really been in jeopardy. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +LETTERS + + +From Mrs. Edwin Green to Mrs. Kent Brown, New York City. + + + MEETING STREET, + CHARLESTON, S. C., + April .., 19... + + MY DEAREST JUDY: + + No doubt you and Kent will be astonished to find + that Edwin and I are actually on the long + talked-of trip to this wonderful old city. Mother + is taking care of little Mildred in our absence, + and Dr. McLean is to be called if she sneezes or + coughs or does anything in the least out of the + way. She is such a blooming, rosy baby, and so + thoroughly normal that I am sure it is perfectly + safe to leave her. Mother says she is more like + Kent than any of her babies. + + Charleston is more delightful even than it has + been pictured. We only got here yesterday morning, + and already we love it as though we belonged here. + We went to a hotel for one night, but by rare good + chance have found board in one of the real old + Charleston homes. + + You will laugh when I tell you that after an + acquaintance of about twenty-four hours I find + myself the chaperone of three girls about + seventeen years old. I know you and Kent are + grinning and saying to each other: "Some more of + Molly's lame ducks!" but I can assure you they are + as far from being that as any girls you ever saw. + They are the Tucker twins, Dum and Dee, otherwise + known as Virginia and Caroline, and their friend, + Page Allison--all from Virginia. They have come + down here with Mr. Tucker, the father of the + twins, a newspaper man from Richmond, but he has + had to go to Columbia on his paper's business and + I volunteered to look after the girls in his + absence. He is a delightful man, and he and Edwin + are already Greening and Tuckering each other, + which means that they struck up quite a + friendship. He is the most absurdly young person + to be the father of these strapping twins. He + looks younger than Edwin, but I fancy he must be a + little older. You know Edwin's "high forehead" + makes him look older than he is. + + The Tucker twins are bright, handsome, generous, + original--everything you like to see in young + girls. Their mother died when they were tiny + babies and their young father has had the raising + of them. A pretty good job he has made of it, too, + although he declares he has done nothing toward + bringing them up but just remove obstacles. They + call their father Zebedee, because of the old joke + about "Who's the father of Zebedee's children?" + They say nobody ever believes he is their father. + Dum is most artistic, wants to be a sculptor. She + hopes to study in New York next winter. Dee is as + fond of lame ducks as you used to say I was, and + may make a trained nurse of herself, or perhaps a + veterinary surgeon. + + Their friend, Page Allison, is a delightful girl. + She is the daughter of a country doctor, and has + been the twins' room-mate at boarding school. By + the way, these girls had heard of you, and me too, + from Mattie Ball, who has been teaching them + English literature at Gresham. (Mattie had been + most complimentary to us both, so they have an + exalted idea of us.) Page is lots of fun. She is + in for anything that is going, but at the same + time acts as a kind of balance wheel for the + twins, who are a harum-scarum pair. Page has a + writing bee in her bonnet, which of course appeals + to me. You would have been amused to see both of + us whip out our notebooks to take down things that + we did not want to forget. Mr. Tucker is evidently + very much interested in this little girl, more + interested than he knows himself, and she is + perfectly unconscious of his feeling in any way + differently from the way he feels for his own + daughters. I may be mistaken, however. I know when + one is so happily married as I am it is a great + temptation to be constantly match-making. + + I fancy you and Kent are wondering why I should + go to as interesting a place as Charleston and + then find nothing to write about but three + schoolgirls. Charleston is thrilling indeed, but + you know I always did think more of people than + things. We are seeing the sights very + thoroughly--have deciphered every inscription on + the old tombstones in three cemeteries, and are + going tomorrow to Magnolia Cemetery. They say + there is the most wonderful old live oak tree + there in the world. + + Now that we are settled in a boarding-house, kept + by two old befo'-the-war ladies, we may stay here + quite a little while. Edwin needs this rest that + the Easter recess fortunately offered him. + + I wish I could picture these old ladies to you, + but they are too wonderful to try to describe. + Whistler's mother does not belong in the frame in + which her artist son placed her any more than + these ladies belong in this old house. They hate + boarders. You can see it in spite of their + punctilious manners and old-world courtesy. I + believe we are the first they have had, and if + they only knew how much nicer we are than most + boarders, I fancy they would not hate us quite so + much. Mother always says that being a boarder + changes one's whole nature--the gentlest and most + generous becoming stern and exacting. At any rate, + Edwin and I have not been boarders long enough to + become very hateful, and these three girls could + board forever and never become professionals in + that line. + + Please write to me soon. I am so glad Kent's firm + won the competition for that great hotel. Tell him + it is too bad I can't be there to tell him where + the closets ought to be and which way the doors + should open. He and I never agree on these points, + you remember. It is splendid that you keep up your + painting. I have no patience with these persons + who insist that a career and matrimony cannot go + hand in hand. Of course my little Mildred is very + engrossing, but I do not intend to let her take + every moment of the day and night. I find if I am + going to write, however, that I cannot sew, but + you know sewing was never one of my strong points. + Giving it up is like Huck Finn's giving up + stealing green persimmons. If occasionally, and + only occasionally, I can persuade a magazine to + see how worth printing one of my stories is, and I + can make an honest penny that way, it is surely no + extravagance to get someone to make Mildred's + little clothes and to buy mine ready-made. + + But Edwin is rearing and champing for me to go + walking with him, and I must also look up these + dear girls I am chaperoning, so good-by, my dear + sister-in-law. My best love to "that 'ere Kent," + as Aunt Mary used to call him. Poor old Aunt Mary! + How we shall miss her! + + Yours with all the love in the world, + MOLLY BROWN GREEN. + + +To Dr. James Allison, Milton, Va., from Page Allison. + + + MEETING STREET, + CHARLESTON, S. C. + + MY DEAREST FATHER: + + I can't get over how good it was in you to let me + go tripping with the Tuckers. It has been a + wonderful experience, and we are having the most + gorgeous time. Already, of course, we have plunged + into adventures, as is always the case if you + train with the Tucker twins. I am not going to + tell you of these adventures until I come back to + Bracken; they are too thrilling for mere pen and + ink. + + As you see by the above address, we have left the + hotel and are now installed in a boarding-house on + Meeting Street. It seems absurd to call such a + place a boarding-house--indeed, a sacrilege. It + has just become a boarding-house in the last + twelve hours, as I am sure we are the first + "paying guests" the poor Misses Laurens have ever + had. + + We are being chaperoned by a perfectly lovely + young woman, a Mrs. Edwin Green. She and her + husband were at the hotel and we scraped up an + acquaintance with them, and as Mr. Tucker had to + go over to Columbia on business she offered to + look after us while he was away. Tweedles and I + have not been chaperoned before to any great + extent, as Miss Cox was our one experience, and + we think chaperones are pretty nice, lots nicer + than we had been led to expect. Certainly no one + could be more charming than Miss Cox, unless it + were this lovely Mrs. Green. In the first place, + she is so sympathetic, then she is so kind, then + she is so pretty, then she is so intelligent and + so extremely well-bred,--on top of it all she has + married one of the nicest men I ever saw; he + really is almost as nice as Mr. Tucker and you. (I + should have said you and Mr. Tucker, but you were + an afterthought, as you well know!) + + Afterthought or not, I do wish you were here, my + dearest father. You would delight in the + quaintness of this old city. I am getting all the + postal cards I can find, which I will not send + you, but will bring you, and make you sit down and + listen to me while I tell you all about it. I am + also going to bring you a volume of Henry Timrod's + poetry, which you must duly appreciate, as it was + difficult to find it. It seems that although the + South Carolinians are very proud of him, none of + them have seen fit to get out a new edition of + his poetry, and the old editions are very + expensive. This I was told by the very pleasant + man who has opened a second-hand book shop here. + + I found a book there I was crazy to get for you, + but as it was a first edition, and that a limited + one, I could not afford it. By an amusing chance + it has since become my property. I will tell you + about that some day. It is entitled "Purely + Original Verse," by J. Gordon Coogler. He, too, + was a South Carolinian, and such ridiculous stuff + you have never imagined. The kind man who owned + the shop let me copy a few of the poems before I + dreamed of possessing the book. What do you think + of these? + + + A COUPLET + + Alas for the South, her books have grown fewer-- + She was never much given to literature. + + + BYRON + + Oh! thou immortal bard! + Men may condemn the song + That issued from thy heart sublime, + Yet alas! its music sweet + Has left an echo that will sound + Thro' the lone corridors of time. + + Thou immortal Byron! + Thy inspired genius + Let no man attempt to smother-- + May all that was good within thee + Be attributed to Heaven, + All that was evil--to thy mother. + + + A PRETTY GIRL + + On her beautiful face there are smiles of grace + That linger in beauty serene, + And there are no pimples encircling her dimples + As ever, as yet, I have seen. + + But, father dear, do not be too hard on this bard, + or you will come under this ban: + + Oh, jealous heart that seeks to belittle my gentle muse, + And blow your damnable bugle in my lonely ears; + You'll lie some day in expressing your recognition + Of this very song you disowned in other years. + + Surely you must have sympathy for the person who + could write the following stanza, especially when + your only child goes tripping with the Tuckers + when she ought to be down in the country with her + old father: + + I feel like some lone deserted lad, + Standing on the shore of life's great ocean, + Casting pebbles in its billows, as if to excite + Some past emotion. + + Please give Mammy Susan my dearest love. I wish + she could see the flower gardens down here. They + are very wonderful. Every house almost has + porch-boxes, and no place is too poor or mean to + have some bright flowers around it. We went + through some real slummy parts yesterday where no + one but darkies lived; beautiful old + foreign-looking houses that have belonged in days + gone by to the wealthy. I don't believe a single + window was without flowers. They were growing in + tomato cans and old broken jars and pots, but + flowers don't mind what they are in just so the + people who plant them love them and know how to + attend to them. They seemed to me to be making a + braver show than they do when they boast brass + jardinieres. + + I can't help thinking what Cousin Park Garnett + would say if she knew that Mr. Tucker had left us + alone in Charleston with a perfectly strange lady + to chaperone us. I reckon she would throw about a + million aristocratic fits. + + I don't know how long we will be here. It will + depend on Mr. Tucker. I think he needs a rest. He + seems to me to be not quite himself. I have + noticed that he is in a way irascible. That, you + know, is not like him, as there never was but one + better tempered man in all the world. You see, you + were not an afterthought this time, but came + first. + + I must stop now without telling you about the dear + ladies where we are boarding. They are like rare + editions of old forgotten poetry, or odd pieces of + china no one has used for generations but has kept + in a cabinet until one has forgotten whether they + are meant for tea or coffee. They are very + dignified with us, but I have a notion that the + Tucker twins will be able to limber 'em up by hook + or crook. I saw the younger one almost smile when + Dee took her cat in her arms. + + Your devoted daughter, + PAGE. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MISS ARABELLA + + +No ghosts came to disturb my slumbers in the great four-poster, but the +early morning sun awoke me long before Tweedles gave any indication of +coming to life. I thought for a while I was at Bracken. It must have +been the lavender in the sheets and the mocking-bird, who was singing +like Caruso just outside of my window. An odor will carry more +suggestion than any sight; and sound comes next, I believe. I lay there +wondering how long it would be before Mammy Susan would come bringing my +bath-water, devoutly praying she would not "het" it up, but let me have +it stinging cold from the well. + +The realization that I was in Charleston came over me gradually; also, +that no one would bring me bath-water, and that if I wanted first to go +in the preserving-kettle I had better get up and take it. I had to go +through the twins' room to get to the bathroom, and I found them +sleeping like infants, looking ridiculously alike with their eyes shut +and their chins snuggled down in the bed clothes. The squareness of +Dum's chin and the dimple in Dee's was more of a differentiation in +their case than even the eyes. Dum's were hazel while Dee's were gray, +but the shape and setting were similar, if not identical. I stood a +moment gazing at them, and it came over me with an added realization +what their friendship had meant to me; theirs and their father's. I had +known them according to the calendar only twenty months, not quite two +years, but counting time by "heart throbs," I had known them since the +beginning of time. God grant nothing should ever come between us! + +Mr. Tucker had certainly been a little snappy with me before he went to +Columbia, but I was never the kind to go around with a chip on my +shoulder hunting for trouble, so if it was an accident I was perfectly +willing to let it go at that. The truth of the matter was, that the +Tuckers had one and all spoiled me. They were so lovely to me on all +occasions that a slight let-up on the part of any one of them was more +noticeable because of their usual kindness. He was to come back that +day, and I was very glad, as indeed all of us were, although we were +expecting a good teasing for having so bravely undertaken the business +of getting board and then moving in without any business arrangement. + +The copper tub was not so bad, after all, and the Charleston water is +always a delight to bathe in. It is strangely soft, as though it had +just fallen from a summer cloud, and it has a peculiar sweetish taste. I +dressed in a great hurry and soon found myself in the garden. The sun +that had made his way into my window had not yet reached the garden, +because of the high wall. + + "One morning, very early, before the sun was up, + I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup; + But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head, + Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed." + +That was what I thought as I stepped out into that wonderful old garden. +There was a misty haze of early morning, and the freshness of the +new-born day that few persons know of. Early rising is a habit that it +is a pity ever to lose, and still it is something that the civilized +world seems to fight against. Children naturally wake early, but as one +grows older the sunrise is such a rarity that many grown-ups cannot +remember ever having seen this wonderful spectacle which takes place +every morning. + +Father says that one of the signs of advancing years is waking quite +early in the morning and not being able to go back to sleep. When he is +called in to doctor old persons, who complain of waking early, he always +tells them not to try to go back to sleep, but to get up and go out in +the morning and see how glorious Creation is. Nature may be asserting +herself in these old persons so they can get back some of the spirit of +childhood before they are called to the Great Beyond. He always tells +them to eat something, however, before they go to commune with Nature. + +The mocking-bird was not holding the fort alone that morning, as he had +the evening before. His little wife was still carrying building +materials for their home, and he was helping, but every now and then he +left off work, although he had heard no whistle blow to tell him it was +time to stop. Then such a stream of melody as he would pour forth would +put Caruso to the blush. Other birds were in the garden, and all of them +very busy. A tiny song sparrow had something to say with remarkable +volume considering his size, and Mr. Mocking-Bird listened intently, +determined to learn the new song. A thrush broke in and then a stylish +robin. I thought I heard the notes of a bobolink, but it turned out to +be the mocking-bird, who seemed intent on singing down all the others. +It reminded me rather of the sextette from "Lucia de Lammermoor" when +the artists all seem to be trying to outdo each other and still harmony +is the result. + +I had brought down all the combings from our three heads, well knowing +how the birds delight in hair as a building material. Of course Mammy +Susan had done her best all my life to keep me from letting birds get +any of my hair for nests, as it is supposed to be the very worst luck +that can befall one, and terrible headaches are sure to be the lot of a +person whose hair helps make a nest. Nevertheless, I had always sneaked +my hair to the birds at Bracken, and this morning, feeling sure that I +was the only person astir, I had quite openly brought a wad of hair, +Dum's burnished black, Dee's blue black, and my curly brown, all mingled +together. I put some on a lilac bush and some on the path where I +noticed the builders had found some straw and would no doubt soon spy +the more desirable material. + +"I wish I had some of Molly Brown's," I said to myself. We had got in +the habit of speaking of Mrs. Green as Molly Brown, and no doubt would +soon begin to call her Molly to her face. "Hers would make the dear +birds feel that they were weaving sunshine into their nests. I'm going +to ask her for some." + +I made my way very slowly and quietly, so as not to disturb the busy +homemakers, along the overgrown path to the summer house. + +I was mistaken in thinking I was the only human being astir in that +enchanted garden. As I lifted a great branch of snowballs that, heavy +with its own beauty, had fallen across the path, I saw that Miss +Arabella was before me. She was seated in the summer house. The great +gray cat was on the ground in front of her, looking up into her face +with a sly expression in his round, yellow eyes. + +"Now, Grimalkin, I give you fair warning. If you dare so much as look at +one of these birds I will shut you up in the house for the rest of the +day! You hear me, sir?" + +"Me-i-ou----!" and he tried to slink off, deceit in every curve of his +handsome body. + +"No, you don't, sir!" and with astonishing agility for an old lady who +had swallowed a hereditary poker, she swooped forward and caught the cat +up into her lap. How different this was from the Miss Arabella of the +evening before! Her soft gray hair, with a glint of gold in it, was all +loosened about her face. There was a little flush on her cheeks, and +instead of the sombre black dress she now wore a loose lavender +wrapper. If it had been possible to back out and get up the garden path +without being seen, I would have done it. I felt like Peeping Tom and +Lady Godiva. Somehow this was Miss Arabella's naked soul I had come on, +and I was afraid she would be terribly cut up. There was nothing for me, +however, but to speak. I made a little scratching on the path with my +toe and shook the snowball branch. She looked up, startled, and loosened +her hold on Grimalkin, who immediately took advantage of her and sprang +from her lap. This was no time for dignity! The cat at liberty in the +garden meant havoc for the nesting birds. + +"I'll catch him!" I cried, and then such a chase ensued! Grimalkin +thought all the world moved as slowly as the dear ladies who had raised +him, and at first scorned me as a pursuer, but I soon gave him to +understand that a country girl with gym training added to her natural +agility is a match for a fat old tomcat. I cornered him just as he +started up the high wall, and, catching him by the back of his neck, in +the proper place for a cat to be held, I carried him back to his +smiling mistress, who, all unmindful of his unsheathed claws, caught him +to her bosom, where he soon dropped asleep, purring away as though that +was where he meant to go all the time. + +"You are very kind! I am exceedingly grateful to you!" + +"Oh, not at all! It was my fault the cat got away. I thought I was all +alone in the garden and did not mean to come on you this way. I fancied +the birds and I were the only creatures awake." + +"I always come down in the garden very early in the morning. I can't +trust Grimalkin alone out here while the birds are nesting. After they +have hatched and the little ones can fly they can escape from him, he is +so fat, but I am always afraid he will drive the mocking-birds away. I +can't sleep in the early morning, anyhow. Do you usually arise so +early?" + +"Not always, but I am a country girl, and country people always get up +earlier than city people. My friends, the Tuckers, have to be dragged +out of bed unless there is some especial reason for getting up, and then +they are energetic enough. I did not disturb them this morning as they +were sleeping so peacefully." + +Miss Arabella had made a place for me on the stone bench, and was still +smiling at me in a very encouraging way. Perhaps she was as eager to +find out things about me as I was about her. + +"My sister was sleeping, too, at least she seemed to be trying to. Both +of us, as a rule, awaken very early, but she lies still trying to get +back to sleep, while I feel that it is best to get up and take advantage +of the beautiful morning light. You must excuse my being _en +deshabille_. I did not expect to be seen." + +"Oh, I think you look lovely!" + +She didn't mind a bit, but blushed and patted my hand. + +"I am very fond of young girls, but never see any nowadays but Claire +Gaillard. She is the only one who comes to our sad old house." + +"Sad! Not sad, it is too beautiful to be sad." + +"It is its very beauty that seems sad to me," she sighed. "And the +garden! I feel like a traitor to let it get so unkempt. I am not strong +enough to keep it weeded. All I have strength to do now is to keep +Grimalkin from devouring the birds. Judith thinks I am very foolish. She +lays more stress on having the furniture rubbed and keeping up the +inside of the house, but to me the garden and birds are more important. +I'd like to see the garden looking as it used to, with trim flower beds +and the dead wood all cut away." + +Miss Arabella seemed to forget I was there, or to forget I was a +stranger, perhaps. I am sure she had no intention of unburdening her +soul to me. She closed her eyes and I knew she was picturing the garden +as it had been years ago, and perhaps she was even seeing the lover of +the past as he looked when she kissed him through the gate. A thought +wave seemed to have gone from me to her. I no sooner put my mind on the +iron gates that I felt sure must have been where the ugly board ones +were now, ere she began talking of those very gates. The sun had +reached the garden now, and was lifting the soft mist that hung over it +like a tulle veil. I felt somehow that the veil of the past was being +lifted, too, and Miss Arabella was letting me catch a glimpse of her +true self. + +"I hate that ugly gate," she mused. "I miss the beautiful old grille +that had been there for so many years--where our friends and ancestors +had come and gone so often." + +"I was sure there must have been an iron gate there." + +"Yes, my dear, one of the most beautiful in Charleston. We had to let +something go. I thought the Stuart portrait of General Laurens would be +the best, but Judith felt that the gates would be the thing to give up. +She rather likes having the board ones that no one can see through. I +hate them, as I like to look out on the street sometimes. The gates were +very valuable, being wrought-iron of a most delicate and intricate +pattern. There was hardly a spot where one could so much as get a hand +through." I gasped here and had a vision of Miss Arabella, young and +beautiful, trying to get her hand through and ending by finding a place +where her rosy lips with some pouting could reach her lover, locked out +no doubt by a stern parent. "I don't know why I should speak of these +things to you, child. It would provoke sister Judith very much if she +knew----" + +"But she won't know," and I took the frail old hand in mine. "I long to +hear about the gates and the garden as it used to be. It is so lovely +now that I can well picture what it must have been. Please go right on +and tell me everything about it, and let me be your friend, as well as +Claire." + +And the old lady, with her eyes all soft, sat on the stone bench in that +early morning, the purring Grimalkin clasped with one hand and the other +holding mine, and told many wonderful tales of olden times. It was an +hour never to be forgotten by me. The birds hopped close to us, some in +search of the early worm and some intent on building material, stopping +every now and then to pour forth the joy of living in song. They seemed +to trust the lady of the garden to keep the enemy from them. + +I hoped the stern Miss Judith was sleeping peacefully, and would not +come stalking into our dreams like a great Grimalkin herself. Miss +Arabella was enjoying herself immensely. She lived in the past, and her +mind was like some old chest filled with faded souvenirs of a happier +time. She had opened this wonder-box for me and was having the time of +her life taking out treasure after treasure, shaking out the folds of +some rare silken memory, or unwrapping some quaintly set jewel of +experience. I listened entranced, only occasionally dropping a word to +show my interest or pressing the little hand, so thin now that perhaps +it might have slipped through the grille. + +Dilsey, opening the shutters of the dining-room, brought us back to the +present. The household was astir! Miss Judith must be up and doing by +now. The sun had found the garden out with his searching rays, and the +last bit of mist had disappeared. + +"My goodness! It must be getting quite late!" exclaimed my old new +friend. "I am afraid you are sadly bored with my tales," she added +penitently. + +"Bored! Why, Miss Arabella, it has been lovely. I do thank you for +talking to me and please do it some more." + +"Well, another morning then, child! I must hurry in now and dress myself +and be a sad old woman some more. I thank you for making me forget it +for once,--being a sad old woman, I mean." + +She certainly did not look like a sad old woman as she tripped down the +path to the house, her lavender draperies brushing the syringa and +lilacs as she passed. She seemed to me more to be the spirit of eternal +youth and spring. Miss Arabella might swathe herself in black again and +remember to respond to the hereditary poker, but I had glimpsed the real +Miss Arabella and knew now that the sad old woman was merely the body in +which a radiant spirit dwelt. It was this spirit that we had heard +singing that night in the garden, "Speak not, ah, breathe not--there's +peace on the deep." + +Tweedles were opening their eyes when I came in, and, uncovering their +chins, so they did not look so much alike. + +"Dressed already, Page?" yawned Dum. + +"Yes, dressed and out in the garden for hours! I took down all the +combings for the birds and they are crazy about them. Can't you hear +their hymn of thanksgiving?" + +"Pig! Why didn't you call me?" and Dee rolled out of bed to beat Dum to +the copper-kettle-like bathtub. + +"I hate to wake you up when I have to, and goodness knows I am not going +to do any gratuitous waking," I laughed. "Girls! I have had the time of +my life, and have got to know Miss Arabella real well. She is simply a +darling!" and I rummaged for my notebook. + +I was afraid to put off for a moment jotting down in my little book some +of the impressions of the morning. If I should forget anything Miss +Arabella had told me I would never forgive myself. I wrote like mad all +the time the twins were dressing, but it is strange about the things +Miss Arabella divulged to me that morning; although I know that what an +author or a would-be author hears in this life belongs to him, and is +his property to be twisted and turned in his writing as he sees fit to +use it, somehow those memories I have held sacred always, and I can't +believe in my writing I could ever get so hard-pressed that I'd feel at +liberty to make copy of what Miss Arabella told me on that enchanted +morning in the garden. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A CHANCE FOR LOUIS + + +Contrary to our expectations, Zebedee did not tease us at all for +engaging board without knowing what it was. He said he was in thorough +sympathy with all of us for shying at the subject, and for his part he +was perfectly willing to trust the dear old ladies to do exactly the +right thing. + +He blew in, his usual manner of arriving, while we were at luncheon, and +as we might have known, took the Misses Laurens by storm. The hereditary +pokers melted as if by magic and even Miss Judith succumbed to his +charms and promised to go to a moving picture show with him some night. +As for Miss Arabella: her poker was only an imitation one, anyhow, and +it did not take much to limber her up. It was rather astonishing, +though, to find her unbending to the extent that she and Zebedee sang +Gilbert and Sullivan operas together that evening in the garden, Zebedee +doing Dick Deadeye with his usual abandon and Miss Arabella singing: + + "I'm called little Buttercup, dear little Buttercup, + Though I could never tell why-- + But still I'm called Buttercup, dear little Buttercup, + Sweet little Buttercup, I." + +"I wouldn't be at all astonished to see Miss Judith dance a jig after +this," whispered Dum to me. "Isn't our young father a wonder?" + +He was certainly that. Professor Green looked on in envy and amazement, +still bitterly regretting the sugar-on-the-rice episode. It is a strange +thing what makes a "mixer." Professor Green was quite as kind as +Zebedee, and quite as eager to make people happy. He was as intelligent, +as well-bred, better educated, more traveled, but when the time came to +make old persons forget their dignity and years or make young persons +forget their youth and callowness, Zebedee certainly could put it all +over the learned professor. I remember hearing one of the twins say +that he could make crabs and ice cream agree, and surely I believe he +could. + +"I have never met any one like him but once," said Mrs. Green as the +singers finished a duet from "Pinafore" and began humming some tunes +from "Patience," while Miss Judith sat smiling, and even occasionally +supplying a missing word. "I used to know a young newspaper man named +Jimmy Lufton, and he could keep a crowd happy and make the most +impossible people mingle and enjoy themselves. It is only a very +kind-hearted person who can do it, but of course, having a kind heart +does not mean you have that power." + +"Thank you, my dear, for that," said Professor Green, smiling +whimsically if somewhat ruefully. "I remember very well how miserable +that very Jimmy Lufton made me on that hay ride we went on in Kentucky, +you remember, when it poured so that the creek almost carried us away, +four-horse wagon and all. He made everybody gay and happy but me. I was +so green with jealousy I almost sprouted." + +Mrs. Green blushed one of her adorable blushes that always made her look +so lovely, we did not blame her husband for gazing at her as though she +were a ripe peach and meant to be eaten up that moment. + +"If you girls go to New York to pursue your studies I am going to write +to Jimmy Lufton and send him a letter of introduction to you, that is, +if you would care to meet him." + +"If he is anything like Zebedee, I should say we would!" exclaimed Dee. + +"I don't mean he is like him in every way, but just that he has that +quality of mixing. I don't know how it is done. It is a talent as +elusive as that of a born mayonnaise maker. I have seen persons who +labored to have guests enjoy themselves, taking the greatest pains to +seat them a certain way and introduce subjects congenial to all present, +and still have the most dismal and doleful failures of parties; while +others seem to be perfectly haphazard in their methods, and with a +certain social charm make the lion and the lamb get on finely. The same +way with mayonnaise makers--some people can have the oil ice cold, the +eggs on ice for days, chill the bowl and the fork even, drop the oil in +half a minim at the time and beat and stir like the demented, and still +turn out runny dressing, not fit for axle grease. Others can waive all +precautions of having everything cold and pour in oil with perfect +recklessness, stirring leisurely, dump in vinegar or lemon at the +psychological moment with a pinch of salt and a dash of cayenne, and, +behold! a smooth, beautiful mayonnaise is the result." + +"Speaking of lemons! Who's here?" from Dum. + +It was his Eminence of the Tum Tum, in all the glory of a starched pique +vest, followed by Claire and Louis, both of them rather ill at ease in +their father's presence. Miss Judith introduced the paying and +non-paying guests with all the ceremony of a presentation at the Court +of St. James. + +"Now I am afraid Mr. Tucker's mayonnaise is going back on him," +whispered Mrs. Green to me; "I don't believe he and Jimmy Lufton +together could beat in that old man and make him into a smooth, +palatable mixture." + +But I was betting on Zebedee. + +Miss Judith and Miss Arabella were looking around for their pokers so +they could swallow them again, but Zebedee had hidden them, and with his +inimitable good nature and tact he drew old Mr. Gaillard into his +charmed circle. By some strange legerdemain he soon had the stiff old +man telling tales of Charleston before the earthquake. He drew from him +his opinion of the political situation of South Carolina and agreed with +him that it was a pity that politics was no longer a gentleman's game. I +happened to know that he felt it was the duty of every man to make it +his game, but he evidently deemed it not the part of wisdom to voice his +conviction to the old man. + +We had agreed that we would do all in our power to make Mr. Gaillard +like us, as in that way we hoped to be of some use to Louis. Zebedee and +Professor Green had been discussing the boy quite seriously that very +afternoon, and had thought of several ways to benefit him. They had +decided, however, to make friends with the father first and not spring +their plans too suddenly. + +Mr. Gaillard was evidently enjoying himself hugely. The Greens were most +flattering in their attention as he pompously recounted his tales. Mrs. +Green was looking her loveliest, and one could see with half an eye that +he soon began to direct his conversation to her. He pulled down his +starched vest that had an annoying way of riding up over his rotundity, +and smoothed his freshly shaven double chin with the air of being quite +a ladies' man. Tweedles and I drew Claire and Louis over to the summer +house away from their father's disconcerting presence. Their easy +manners returned then and we spent a merry, happy hour. + +Professor Green joined us after a while. He seemed anxious to make +friends with Louis and to fathom the boy. I felt sure he had some plan +for helping him and was sounding him, in a way. Louis was natural and +simple in his attitude toward Professor Green, and I could see was +making a very good impression. + +"You would like to go to college, would you not?" + +"Beyond everything. I am prepared to enter college now, but I am +nineteen and feel if I do not go soon it will be too late. I am rather +late graduating at the high school but had to miss a year because of an +illness." + +"I think nineteen is a very proper age to enter college," said the +professor kindly. "I wonder if you would like my old college, Exmoor? It +is a small college, but of excellent standing." + +"I am sure I should like any college," and Louis sighed. + +"I am commissioned by the faculty of Exmoor to find a young Southern +gentleman to take pity on a scholarship that has been endowed for their +college. It seems that this scholarship can only be used by a +Southerner, and he must be a gentleman born and bred. It was presented +four years ago by a man whose only son was rescued from drowning by a +daring young Southern boy. The father had more money than he could use, +and he wanted to send the brave youth to college to show in some measure +his appreciation of what he had done. To make the gift one that the boy +could not hesitate to accept, he established a permanent scholarship at +Exmoor. Of course no one is too proud or high-born to accept a +scholarship. That boy graduates this year with high honors after four +very creditable years at college, and now the faculty must find another +Southerner to fill his place. The president asked me to be on the +lookout for one while I am on this trip, and if you would like to take +it, I should be proud and gratified to be the means of presenting it to +you." + +Through this long speech Louis stood wide-eyed and flushed. Claire +caught him by one hand and impulsive Dee by the other. + +"Oh, sir!" was all he could falter. + +"You must, you must!" exclaimed Dee. + +"Louis, Louis, if you only can!" and Claire raised his hand to her +cheek. + +"But what will my father say?" + +"We are going to leave him to Mr. Tucker, at least he is going to +prepare the way. I have had a long talk with Tucker this afternoon, and +we have mapped out a plan of campaign." + +"But your father surely could have no objection," said Dum. "A +scholarship is something that everybody accepts." + +"But father is very--very--well--proud, I might say," and poor Claire +looked exceedingly uncomfortable. + +"Well, this can make him prouder than ever," I put in. "He can be proud +that his son is chosen to have this scholarship because of his being the +nice Southern gentleman he is." + +By this time Louis could command his voice, and he said: + +"I can hardly tell you, sir, how much I appreciate the interest you have +shown in me and your kindness in making this offer, and I hope to be +able to accept it. I wish it might have been because of something I am +in myself, and not just because I am the descendant of gentlemen." + +"But you are what you are partly because of that descent," I insisted. +"Persons of low extraction accomplish something in spite of it +sometimes; but I must say it is pleasant to have scholarships thrust +upon one because of being a Southern gentleman. I think in this day and +generation our ancestors do precious little for us--just sit back in +their gilt frames and make us uncomfortable--I am glad for some of them +to be getting to work." + +Louis laughed and said he didn't know but that I was right. We all of us +wanted to hear more of Exmoor, and Professor Green told us it was a +small college, quite old and of excellent standing among educators, and +that it was in walking distance of Wellington, where he occupied the +chair of English. It turned out, however, that the professor was a great +walker, and that Exmoor and Wellington were more than ten miles apart. + +"Exmoor has a very fine course in agriculture and one of the greatest +landscape gardeners in the United States is a graduate of that college, +and boasts that he got his start there." + +"Oh, Louis, that will be splendid, and you can specialize in that and +come back to Charleston and do all the things you dream of doing!" +exclaimed Dee, who still had Louis by the hand but was totally oblivious +of the fact. + +She was so excited over the offer Professor Green had made her friend +that she might even have hugged him without knowing she was doing it. +Louis was not quite so unconscious as Dee, but was making the best of +his opportunity. Dee's attitude toward Louis was very much one that she +had toward Oliver, the kitten she saved from drowning our first year at +boarding-school, a purely maternal feeling, looking upon herself as his +protector and elderly friend (being about two years his junior). Louis, +however, was tumbling head over heels in love with her, as Dum and I +could plainly see. There had not been many meetings, but when there were +he stuck much closer than a brother to her side. + +Claire could see it as plainly as we could, and no doubt went through +all the heartaches an only sister would. She evidently liked Dee very +much, however, and was willing to efface herself completely if it would +make Louis happy. But Dee would have been quite as astonished if the +kitten, Oliver, had stood up on his hind legs and sworn undying love for +her; or Pharaoh's daughter, if the infant Moses had burst forth in +amorous rhapsodies from his wicker basket after she had saved him from +the waters of the Nile. She dropped his hand to pick up Grimalkin, and I +am sure at the time she had no more sensations about the one than the +other. + +"If I might advise you young people," said Professor Green, "I think it +will be just as well to say nothing to your father yet about the +scholarship, but wait and Mr. Tucker and I will formally suggest it to +him and ask his permission." + +Of course the young Gaillards agreed heartily with Professor Green, and +glad they were, no doubt, to have the office of approaching their +pompous relative delegated to someone else. In the meantime, the pompous +relative was making himself vastly agreeable, and the two arch +conspirators, Molly and Zebedee, were doing all in their power to +flatter and soft-soap him with a view to gaining his confidence and +putting in an entering wedge toward helping his son. + +"Claire," said his Eminence of the Tum Tum, "have you extended an +invitation to tea in the garden of our home to the Misses Laurens and +their guests?" + +We had joined the rest of the party, attracted by the gay laughter and +evident enjoyment of the older members. + +"No, father," said Claire timidly. I haven't a doubt that he had told +her not to ask us until he found out whether we were worthy or not. "We +shall be most pleased to have all of you to afternoon tea tomorrow." + +Of course we were most pleased to accept, as no doubt that would be the +occasion on which Louis' fate would be decided. Zebedee and the +professor could put it up to him then. + +"Mrs. Green, I came mighty near hugging your husband tonight," declared +Dee, after the guests had departed and the dear old ladies had taken +their bedroom candles and gone to their Colonial couches, with strict +admonitions to Zebedee to lock up. Already they were trusting him with +that sacred rite of locking up. + +"Why did you only come near doing it?" laughed the young wife. + +"Well, I just grabbed Louis' hand instead. It was so dear of him to +think of giving the scholarship to Louis. He was so lovely and gentle in +his way of doing it, too. Now nothing lies between Louis and certain +success. I just know if he can get the chance he will do something with +himself. It will develop him to get away from his old father, too. How +could anybody grow with that--that ponderous weight on him?" + +"Mr. Gaillard is really not nearly so bad as I feared. He is very +agreeable and very gallant." + +"Oh, Molly darling, I did not think you would be taken in by flattery," +teased the husband. + +"But I did like him, not just because he flattered me, but because he +was very nice to Miss Judith and Miss Arabella, too, and because---- Oh, +just because!" + +The truth of the matter was that Mrs. Green had a tendency to like +everybody. It amounted to almost a fault with her, but since there were +degrees of liking and she did not like everybody in exactly the same +way, we could not quite put it down as a fault. I must say, though, that +I do like to see a little wholesome hatred possible in a character. I +like people, too, lots and loads of people, but there are some kinds of +people I just naturally don't like. I don't like horse-faced people with +their eyes set up too high in their heads; I don't like men who wear +club-toed button shoes, and I never could stand girls who toss their +curls. Now Mr. Gaillard did not come under any of those heads of hatred, +but somehow I did not like him one little bit: a case of Dr. Fell, I +fancy. + + "I do not like thee, Dr. Fell! + The reason why I cannot tell. + But one thing 'tis, I know full well-- + I do not like thee, Dr. Fell." + +Father had certain types he could not stand. I have heard him say: "I +can stand a fool; I can stand a fat fool; but a fat fool with a little +mouth I can't abide." I think Mr. Gaillard came under his ban. He was +fat and had a little mouth, and certainly while he was not a fool on all +subjects, he was a big enough fool on the subjects he was a fool on to +spread over all the things he was not a fool on. + +I dreaded going to tea with the Gaillards. I had a terrible feeling that +I might "sass" his Eminence of the Tum Tum. There was something about +the way he pulled down his vest and wiped off his chin that deprived me +of reason. I could well understand the temporary aberration that is the +plea of criminals who say that some instinct over which they have no +control compels them to commit murder. I could have punched Mr. Gaillard +one with all the joy on earth. + +"I feel the same way," declared Zebedee, when I voiced the above +sentiments to him. + +"Me, too! Me, too!" tweedled the twins. + +"Do you know, Green, I think if Mrs. Green likes Mr. Gaillard, she had +better broach the subject of the scholarship for Louis." + +"Oh, Mr. Tucker! You can do it so much better than I can." + +"Now I don't want to be a shirker and will do it with joy, as I don't +regard the old cove one way or the other. I'd just as soon ask him to +come be printer's devil on my newspaper as not. But this is the thing: +We want him to consent and let Louis have this chance, and I believe +your husband will bear me out that it is good psychology for a person +who really likes another to ask a favor rather than one who only +pretends to. Now you say you like Mr. Gaillard----" + +"So I do--that is, I don't dislike him, and I think he has some fine +points." + +"It would take an X-ray to discover them through all that plumpness," +put in Dee flippantly. + +"You, as the wife of the man who was commissioned by the President of +Exmoor to bestow this honor on a Southern boy, would be the appropriate +person, anyhow--that is, unless Green himself will do it." + +"Not I! I feel toward him just as Miss Page does, and speaking of +psychology--my astral body is at war with his astral body to such an +extent that a pricking in my thumb tells me he will grant no request of +mine and Molly must bell the cat." + +"All right! I am willing to do anything my lord and master puts on me, +if you really think I can succeed." + +"Succeed! Of course you can!" we chorused. + +"Tomorrow afternoon, then, when we have tea with them in their garden, +will be 'the time, the place, and the girl.' He will have to be nice +under his own vine and fig tree," suggested Zebedee. + +"There is one thing I ask of you," begged Dum. + +"And what is that? I feel myself to be very important," and Mrs. Green +wasted another beautiful blush. + +"Wear blue! Your own blue! I know he is the kind of old man who can't +resist a beautiful woman in blue." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A RED, RED ROSE + + +I don't know whether it was the blue of her eyes or her dress or perhaps +the fact that they matched so beautifully, but at any rate Mrs. Green +put the proposition up to Mr. Gaillard with such adroitness that he +consented to the scholarship, and so quickly that she could hardly +believe the battle was won. + +"I had not half used up my arguments," she said afterward, "and felt +that I must go on persuading when he was already persuaded." + +She had started out with the premises that of course he must feel sorry +for the benighted North, so sadly in need of the softening influence of +the South. She descanted on how a little leaven of good manners would +leaven a whole lump of bad manners, and how popular Southern students +were in Northern schools and colleges because of the good manners and +breeding they brought with them. (This was particularly hard on Mrs. +Green, as she firmly held the opinion that people were the same all over +the world, that good manners were the same everywhere. She felt, +however, that she would use any argument to make Mr. Gaillard see the +light.) + +She then told the story of the grateful man who had established the +scholarship at Exmoor for the four years of the academic course and +expatiated on his opinion of Southern youths. She lauded the college as +having turned out such good men. Gradually she got to the subject of +Louis and how close Wellington was to Exmoor, and before the old man +knew what he was doing he had consented to Louis' accepting the +scholarship. He did it with an air of having loaded the Yankees with +benefits in allowing one of his exalted position and azure blood to +stoop and mingle with them; but it made no difference to us what he felt +on the subject, just so he would let Louis accept. + +We were having tea in their lovely garden and Louis was showing us his +flowers while Mrs. Green was wheedling "papa." She looked so lovely I +verily believe the old gentleman would have accepted the scholarship +himself just to be only ten miles from her for four years. + +I believe Claire was even happier than Louis when "papa's" ultimatum was +pronounced. She was going to miss him more than even she could divine, +but her love for him was so deep that she was willing to give up +anything for him. Louis was glad and grateful, but the truth of the +matter was he was so taken up with Dee that mere college and +scholarships meant little to him. + +"His eyes look just like Brindle's when he looks at her that way," +sniffed Dum, who did not relish too much lovering toward her twin. "I +shouldn't be in the least astonished if he began to whine to be taken up +next." + +"Why, Dum, I thought you liked Louis!" + +"So I do. I like Brindle, too, and Oliver, the kitten; but I like them +in their places, and that is not everlastingly glued to Dee's side. I +must say I think he had better get out and hustle some before he comes +lollapalusing around Dee." I was awfully afraid someone would hear Dum, +and stirred my tea very loudly to drown her tirade. + +"But, Dum, Dee grabbed his hand herself last night; she said she did," I +whispered, trying to set the conversation in a lower tone. + +"Yes, I know that! But don't you reckon I saw him holding on to it for +dear life? He was mighty limp on Claire's side and mighty strenuous on +Dee's. When he had to put back a lock of hair, I saw him let go of his +sister's hand and swing to Dee's. And Dee with about as much feeling for +him as a wooden Indian!" + +The Tuckers were, father and daughters, very strict about one another's +admirers. I remembered how Dee had sniffed over Reginald Kent's +admiration for Dum, and Zebedee, too; and how Dum and Dee carried on +over any attention their father paid any female or any female paid him. +Zebedee had not yet scented out Louis as a possible lover, but when he +did I was sure to hear from him. They one and all brought their +grievances to me. I used to think if any of them ever should unite +themselves to anyone in the holy bonds of matrimony, they would have to +have a triple wedding to keep the persons the Tuckers were marrying from +getting their eyes scratched out. If they were all in the same boat, +they would have to behave and sit steady. + +In the meantime, Dee's influence over Louis was certainly a wholesome +one. Whether his love for her was of the undying brand or just the calf +kind, it was very sincere and ardent, so ardent that Dee must soon wake +up and realize that she had done a right serious thing when she put out +her girlish hand and drew back that poor boy's soul just as it was +getting ready for the journey to the Great Beyond. She was in a measure +responsible for him now, and the time would come when she would have to +be a woman and no longer a wooden Indian, have to treat Louis with a +different manner from the one she had for Brindle and Oliver; that is, +of course, provided Louis' love turned out to be the undying brand and +not the calf kind. When it was said that Dee Tucker treated anyone like +a dog, it meant the highest praise for that person. She treated all dogs +with a great deal more consideration than she did most people. + +Every flower Dee admired, Louis immediately wanted to give her, but she +persuaded him to let them go on blooming where they belonged. He had a +greenhouse in the back of the garden, where some wonderful roses bloomed +all the year round. A great Jaqueminot filled one side of the house, its +crimson blooms beautiful to behold. Louis cut one and brought it out to +Dee. I was glad I was the only one who heard him as he gave it to her, +as I am sure Dum would have "acted up," as Mammy Susan calls it. Dum had +gone to the tea table to put down her cup, and Mrs. Green had detained +her a moment, while I wandered on in the maze of gravel walks. An +oleander hid me from Louis and Dee as he handed her the marvelous open +rose, and with a voice that even a wooden Indian would have remarked, he +said: + + "When I send thee a red, red rose, + The sweetest flower on earth that grows, + Think, dear heart, how I love thee. + Listen to what the red rose saith + With its crimson leaf and fragrant breath: + 'Love, I am thine in life and death! + Oh, my love, doth thou love me?'" + +"Humph! Going some!" I thought, and backed down the walk, thereby +running into Dum, who smeared a lettuce sandwich on my back in the +encounter; but she did not know what I had heard. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MORE LETTERS + + +Mrs. Edwin Green, from Mrs. Kent Brown. + + + NEW YORK, April .., 19... + + MOLLY DARLING: + + Your letter was good to get. Kent and I had begun + to feel like -in-laws, it had been so long since + you had written. Mother Brown, the usually + faithful chronicler of all the doings and sayings + of the family, had cut us off with a postal. Now + that we know she is "keepin' keer" of little + Mildred, we can understand her silence better. + When Mother Brown does anything, she does it all + over, and I am sure when she is doing such a thing + as attend to anything so precious as her beloved + grandchild she has no time for mere letter + writing. + + Kent and I were greatly interested in what you had + to tell us of the charming Virginians you have met + in Charleston. It was almost uncanny, in a way, to + hear from you of these people, as we had just been + hearing of them from a very nice young man with + whom Kent has struck up an acquaintance at the Y. + M. C. A. gym, where Kent goes regularly to keep + from getting flabby. The young man's name is + Reginald Kent. It was the name Kent that they had + in common (one in front and one behind) that first + brought them together. They were always getting + mixed up on account of it, my Kent answering when + the other Kent was called, and vice versa. + + This young Mr. Kent is an illustrator and + advertising artist. He really is very clever and + very wide-awake. He was dining with us at the very + time that your letter was brought to me, on the + last mail. I had to open it and read part of it + aloud. He had just been telling us of some cousins + named Winn he visits in the country in Virginia, + and of some Richmond girls whom he has met staying + with Page Allison, and these girls are no other + than your Tucker twins. He says the first time he + met them he went on a deer hunt and that Miss Dum + Tucker actually shot a deer. I was slightly + incredulous, he thought, and to prove his story he + took out of his pocketbook two kodak pictures, one + of a very handsome, spirited-looking girl with her + hair coming down and a rifle raised to her + shoulder, and the other a fallen buck with a young + girl kneeling beside him, her arms around his neck + and her face buried on his shoulder. That one, he + said, was Miss Dee, who wept buckets over the + death of the buck, but managed afterward to + partake of some of the venison. + + I have an idea Mr. Reginald Kent thinks that Miss + Dum Tucker is about the most attractive person he + ever met. He is certainly very attractive himself, + singularly wholesome and clean in appearance and + mind. He seemed very happy at the prospect of this + paragon of a girl's coming to New York to study. I + will be very glad to be of any use to your friends + I can, and if they do decide to come I will find + board for them and mother them, too, if they need + it. I know you are grinning at the idea of my + mothering anything--I, the harum-scarum, the + flibberty-jibberty--but I am really very much + settled down. I am so steady and good that Kent is + afraid I am sick. + + Caroline is doing the work very well for us. I am + the envy of all the people we know because I can + boast a really, truly Kentucky Bluegrass cook. She + is awfully funny about New York, but I think is + beginning to like it very well. Gas scared her + nearly to death for a few days. She seemed to + think there was some kind of magic in it, and I + had to light the stove for her a million times a + day. I found she was just keeping it burning all + the time to save matches, and when I told her to + turn it out if she wasn't using it, she almost + cried, because, it seems, she was afraid of the + pop it gave when she lit it. Then she began + calling on me every time she wanted to light it, + but after a week or so of such humoring she has + learned to do it herself, and now everything is + going along swimmingly. I find she is saving the + burnt matches, though, to make some kind of + bracket with--something she saw back in + "Kaintucky." + + I think the greatest shock she ever had was when + she found out that in New York you had to pay for + onions. "I nebber hearn tell of no sich a place. + If'n you ain't made out ter grow none yo'se'f, + looks ter me lak some er yo' neighbors mought be + ginerous enough to gib yer a han'ful fer + seasonin', not fer fryin' or b'ilin'. I wouldn' + spec a whole mess er onions as a gif'--but it do + seem a shame ter hab ter buy a dash er seasonin'." + + She almost got her head knocked off with the + dumb-waiter the other day. She thought it was + down, and it was up, and she put her head in the + shaft to watch for it, all the time giving the + most vigorous pulling to the rope. The dumb-waiter + descended with great force and hit her squarely on + the top of the head. I heard a great bump and flew + to the kitchen. "Caroline! Caroline! What is the + matter?" I cried. "'Tain't nothin' much, Miss + Judy, but it mought 'a' been. That there + deaf-and-dumb dining-room servant done biffed me a + lick that pretty near knocked a hole in his flo'." + "Did it hurt very badly?" "No'm, it didn't ter say + hurt none. It jes' dizzified me a leetle. You see, + Miss Judy, it jes' hit me on the haid." + + Just on the head! + + I think Caroline is almost as much afraid of Aunt + Mary's disapproval now that the old woman is dead + as she was in her lifetime. Whenever she passes + the picture I did of Aunt Mary on the back porch + of Chatsworth shelling peas, she suddenly gets in + a great hurry. She is not as a rule very + energetic, but at the sight of Aunt Mary she gets + a great move on her. She came in the other day + from some jaunt she had been on, it being her + afternoon off, and said: "Looks lak wherever I + goes folks seem to 'vine I'm from de Souf. I ast a + colored gemman how he guessed it an' he said it + was my sof' accident what gimme away. I's goin' + ter try ter speak mo' Yankeefied an' see if'n I + can't pass fer Noo York." + + Caroline's first attempt at being Yankeefied was + almost fatal. She made friends with some of the + white maids in the apartment house, some + Scandinavians, and in her endeavor to become New + Yorky she swapped recipes with them, and the next + morning served for breakfast the result: corn + bread with sugar in it! You can picture Kent. + + Kent and I are seeing some very pleasant people, + but both of us are working very hard. I work every + morning at the Art Students' League from 9 to 12. + That means I leave the house with Kent. I go to + market on the way to the League and get back to + luncheon. Sometimes he comes in to luncheon, too, + but he is usually too busy. In the afternoon I sew + or read or go shopping or to the matinee, always + something to do in New York, and then we have + dinner at 6:30 and long, delightful evenings + together, usually at home; but sometimes we take + in a show and sometimes we dine at a restaurant. + We have callers in the evening often and also + return calls, but Kent is not much of a caller, as + you know. + + We have company to dinner, too, quite often now + that Caroline has found herself. Kent delights in + bringing home unexpected company. He has a notion + he is still living in Kentucky and that this + little two-by-four flat is Chatsworth itself. + Caroline is fortunately accustomed to it, but I am + afraid she will soon become corrupted by these + Scandinavians, who would not put up with it one + moment. Of course I don't mind how many companies + he brings home, and if we are short on rations I + can do like the immortal Mrs. Wiggs and just put a + little more water in the soup. This idiosyncrasy + of my young husband, however, has taught me to + keep a supply of canned soups, asparagus tips, + etc., in the store-room. My friends among the + young married set tell me they market day by day + and never have anything like that on the shelves + as it makes the servants wasteful. Maybe it does, + but I feel quite safe with Caroline and the canned + goods, as she has never yet learned how to use a + can-opener. + + Please give the learned professor my best love. + Kent sends his love to you both. This is such a + long letter I am sure it will take two stamps to + send it. + + Your ever devoted, + JUDY KEAN BROWN. + + +Page Allison from Dr. James Allison of Milton, Va.: + + + BRACKEN, April .., 19... + + MY DEAR DAUGHTER: + + Mammy Susan and I were very glad to hear from you. + You are a nice girl to write such a fine, long + letter to a mere afterthought. If you write that + splendid a letter to a mere afterthought, what + would you do for a beforethought? + + Your new friends sound delightful. I wish I might + know them. The only kick I have about being + nothing but a country doctor is that I meet so few + new people. Of course it is interesting work, and + I am not out of love with it, but sometimes I do + get a weeny, teeny bored with poor Sally Winn's + aches and pains, and wish either she had some new + aches or she could tell about them in a more + scintillating manner. Some new people are moving + into our neighborhood, the Carters. Of course, as + the name indicates, they are not new people except + to our neighborhood. They have taken the old + overseer's cottage on the Grantly estate, leased + it from the two Miss Grants for a year, and are + coming bag and baggage in a few days. I don't know + how many of them there are, but I believe it is + quite a family of girls and one or more boys and a + mother and father, one of them an invalid. More + pink pump water to be concocted by yours truly, I + fancy. I hope they will be agreeable, since no + doubt we will have to see something of them. The + cottage is in miserable repair, and I only hope it + will not tumble down on them. If they are coming + to our county for fresh air, they will get it + there winter and summer, as there are cracks in + the walls as big as those in a corn crib. Pretty + lawn, though, about the prettiest I know of + anywhere, and trees that make me think of + Tennyson's "immemorial elms." I shall not call on + these new neighbors until you come home--that is, + unless I am sent for to come and bring some pink + pump water. + + I have had a letter from General Price, Harvie's + grandfather, asking for the pleasure of your + company in the month of July on a house-party he + is giving his grandson. It is such a dignified, + ponderous epistle that I am afraid I shall have to + send to Richmond for the proper stationery with + which to reply. Nothing less than crested vellum + could possibly carry my acceptance. The King of + England could not observe more form were you being + invited to put in two weeks at Windsor. It is very + kind of him, however, to ask my little girl, and I + hope by the aid of the dictionary to express + myself with ease and verbosity in acknowledging + the honor. Of course you want to go? + + I shall be pleased to have the volume of Henry + Timrod's poems. I'd like to see the Coogler poems, + too. I enjoyed the extracts immensely. I have + often heard of him and remember reading some + reviews of his stuff when it came out years ago, + before you were born, but I have never seen any + of it. His efforts were so impossible that the + reviewers treated him, one and all, with mock + seriousness, and I believe I have heard he took + them all seriously and thought he was being + praised when they were only poking fun at him. It + is rather pathetic, I think, although of course he + was an awful blockhead. + + Mammy Susan was pleased at your account of the + flowers in Charleston, and hopes you can send her + a few clippin's. Her things are doing very well, + and her lemon verbena has grown so that I tell her + we shall have to build a lean-to to keep it in. + She misses you very much and is beginning to count + the days to the middle of May, when I assure her + you will be back with us. + + I hope your ankle is behaving itself. You do not + mention it, so I fancy it is. Please remember me + most kindly to all the Tuckers--father and + daughters. I hope you are not bothering Jeffry + Tucker by being with them too much. I think there + is such a thing as the best friend wearing out her + welcome by staying too long. I am sending you a + check for your expenses. You have not divulged + how much your board will be, but if I do not make + the check large enough, please inform me directly. + A sickly winter means a little more money in the + bank in the spring for a country doctor. Thank + goodness, however, the spring seems to be a + healthy one. I'd like to be a Chinese doctor and + be paid only when my patients stay well. Sometimes + it saddens me to feel that my living depends on + disease. + + Good-by, my dear little daughter. + FATHER. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE SUMMING UP + + +Charleston had taken a strong hold on all our affections. The spirit of +the place seemed to possess us as we lazed away the hours in Miss +Arabella's tangled old garden or in Louis' more combed and brushed one. +Our friendship for the Greens grew stronger and deeper, and we were soon +addressing Mrs. Green as Molly and her husband as 'Fessor. All of us +were staying in the beautiful old Southern city longer than we had +intended. Zebedee said he had no excuse for lingering longer, as he had +threshed out the political situation to his own satisfaction and the +dissatisfaction of the South Carolina "ring." He should be back on his +job in Richmond, but he said he felt like one of the lotus-eaters and +nothing much made any difference to him. + +'Fessor also had overstayed his holiday, but he declared that his +assistant at Wellington could do the work as well as he could, which +amused Molly greatly as she said it was the first time he had +acknowledged that his assistant could do anything at all; he looked upon +him usually as purely ornamental and not intended for use. + +I knew father and Mammy Susan were wondering if I had forgotten them +entirely, but my conscience, too, was lulled to rest, and I felt as +though I could spend the rest of my days dreaming and dozing. Tweedles, +of course, had nothing to do but stay with a light heart as no one was +expecting them home but poor Brindle; and as Brindle was left in care of +the elevator boy, who spoiled him outrageously, even treating him to ice +cream cones, I really believe he did not mind being left nearly so much +as Dee liked to think he did. + +Every day we lengthened our stay in Charleston was as another pearl on +the string to poor Louis, and to Claire, too, I think. Thanks to Molly +and Zebedee, his Eminence of the Tum Tum had accepted the whole crowd +as desirable, and that meant that we could see as much of his children +as we wanted to; and as we wanted to see them all the time, we did. + +We went on wonderful jaunts with them, and saw everything that could be +seen, Louis acting as guide. Sometimes we even persuaded one of the dear +old ladies to go with us. I am sure they saw things they had not seen +for a decade. We noticed one thing, that when Zebedee was along they +always left their pokers behind. + +Sullivan's Island thrilled us, and Dum and Zebedee tried to work out the +whole scene of Poe's "Gold Bug," but as the island is now a popular +summer resort, it was not an easy matter to do. + +There is no use in trying to describe the Magnolia Gardens. The azaleas +were in full bloom, and nowhere else in the world, I verily believe, is +there such a sight. Some of the bushes are thirty feet high and look +like giant bouquets. + +"I feel like the country woman at the circus the first time she saw a +hippopotamus," declared Zebedee; "I don't believe there's no sich +thing! It doesn't seem possible that these are growing plants and that +in Richmond at Easter I have had to pay five dollars for a little azalea +not much more than two feet high." + +The dark green of the magnolia and live-oak trees enhanced the glory of +the flowers. It was so beautiful it hurt. Molly said it made her feel as +she did the first time she ever saw an opera at the Metropolitan in New +York. It was her freshman year at Wellington, and she had been invited +to visit in New York during the Christmas holidays. + +"It was 'Madame Butterfly,' and the scenery was so wonderful to me I +could hardly listen to the music. I fancy cherry-blossom time in Japan +must be almost as beautiful as this, but I can't believe it is quite so +brilliant." + +Magnolia Cemetery, which is just outside of Charleston and which Dee had +refused to see without Zebedee, certainly would be a nice place to be +buried in. It was sadder to visit because of the new graves there, and +Zebedee had to abandon his usual cheerful graveyard spirits. He was +quite solemn and kept his hat off all the time. + +Louis skirted us around the outer edge of the cemetery first and saved +the great old oak for the last. It burst upon us with such force that as +a crowd we were left breathless. The beauty of the azaleas at Magnolia +gardens, compared to this hoary old monarch, were as a cheap obituary +poem to the twenty-third psalm. And in saying that I do not mean to +belittle the beauty of the gardens, but I have to put them in that +category to make a place high enough in the scale of comparison for that +tree. + +It was huge, but bent over with years like some old man, and one great +limb was resting on the ground, giving it the look of one kneeling in +prayer. The foliage was vigorous and glossy, deeper and richer in color +than that of many younger trees, just as the wonderful words of some +grand old man, John Burroughs or his ilk, will make the utterances of +younger men seem pale and feeble. + +In kneeling and coming so in touch with Mother Earth, this Father of the +Forest had borrowed of her fullness, and now his trunk and huge limbs +were covered with an exquisite ferny growth. Wild violets and anemones +bloomed happily in the crotches of his great arms, and I saw a tiny wild +strawberry ripening on his knee, having escaped the vigilance of the +many birds nesting in the upper branches. Spanish moss hung in festoons +from some of the limbs, seeming like a venerable beard. + +I have never had anything affect me as that tree did. It was so gallant +and brave, so kindly and beneficent! It had the spirit of youth and the +kindliness of old age; the playfulness of a child and the wisdom of +centuries. It must have seen the Indians crowded out by the white men; +looked out across the harbor at the storming of Fort Moultrie, and +almost a century later at the defence of Fort Sumter. Wars and rumors of +wars were nothing to this veteran. While we were there a perky wren +pounced down on the defenceless strawberry and gobbled it up, and I am +sure the gray beard thought no more of the gobbling up of the redmen +than he did of that red berry. His comparisons were of aeons and not of +decades or mere centuries. + +"There is no use in talking about it!" exclaimed Zebedee. "I've got to +climb that tree, if it means one hundred dollars' fine and a month in +jail." + +That was exactly the way I felt. It seemed to me as though I simply had +to get up that tree. The park policeman was nowhere in sight, and +Zebedee ran lightly up the bent back of the ancient giant, Dum after +him. It was easy climbing, and I would have followed suit in spite of my +ankle, that I could not yet quite trust, if I had not seen the helmet of +the policeman looming up over a near-by sepulchre. + +Claire was shocked at what seemed to her a desecration, but Louis said +afterward he knew just how Mr. Tucker felt. He had always wanted to get +up that tree, and he considered it a kind of homage due the old oak. +Trees were meant to climb, and it was no more a desecration to climb +one even if it did happen to be in a cemetery, than it was to smell a +rose that bloomed there. + +The policeman, all unconscious of the coons he had treed, came ambling +up and stood and talked to us for quite a while until Dee tactfully drew +him off to descant on the glories of the William Washington monument. +Zebedee and Dum sat very still in their leafy bower, so still that +Zebedee declared a bird came and tweaked some of Dum's hair out to help +line his nest; but Dum said he did it himself until she had to make a +noise like a catbird to make him stop. + +There is no telling what fine and punishment would have been imposed on +the miscreants. It was not that it was such a terribly naughty thing to +do, but just that it had never been done before. They slipped down, +however, while the policeman's back was turned and came up smiling +around the other side with the innocent expression a cat assumes when he +has been in the cream jug. + +"It was worth it," whispered Zebedee to me; "I am so sorry you couldn't +get up, too. The old fellow was glad to have us up there. He told me +that no children had climbed up to hug him for at least a hundred years. +I didn't tell him that I was grown up, but just let him treat me like a +little child. He didn't know the difference." + +"I shouldn't think he would," I laughed, "when there isn't any +difference." + + * * * * * + +And now it is time to stop, and I shall have to close my story of +Charleston. All of us wanted to dream on there forever. It had been a +wonderful time. We had made lifelong friends of Molly Brown and 'Fessor +Green. We had flopped into the lives of the Gaillards and expected to +stay. We had made our way into one of the most difficult and exclusive +homes in the city of exclusive homes, and Miss Judith and Miss Arabella +Laurens had taken us to their fluttering hearts. + +Their thin pocketbooks had also opened to take in a fair and generous +recompense for their kind hospitality--but it had been Zebedee and not +Edwin Green who had finally and tactfully completed our business +arrangements. + +Now Zebedee said he must get back to his newspaper. He felt it calling +him, as he had discovered an advertisement on the editorial page--a +crime in newspaperdom that was deserving of capital punishment. He must +get back and chop off somebody's head. + +Then 'Fessor Green began to fear his assistant was not able to do his +work, and Molly couldn't wait another day to see little Mildred, her +baby. I knew it was selfish for me to stay any longer from father, who +did have a stupid time of it when all was told. + +Dee began to feel that Brindle missed her. Dum said it was because Louis +had the same expression in his eyes that Brindle did and it made Dee +feel that she must get back to her pet. + +We parted from our friends with many assurances of meeting again. The +Greens asked us to visit them at Wellington or in Kentucky, where they +spent their summers, and of course we asked them to come see us in +Virginia. Molly was to send us letters of introduction to her friends +in New York, and Louis was planning to stop in Richmond on his way to +Exmoor. Parting was only planning for future meetings. + +I was to stay at Bracken for several months and then meet my friends at +Price's Landing, so sometime I shall tell you my experiences there, in +"A House Party with the Tucker Twins." + + +THE END + + + + +The Girl Scouts Series + +[Illustration: The Girl Scouts Canoe Trip by Edith Lavell] + + BY EDITH LAVELL + +A new copyright series of Girl Scouts stories by an author of wide +experience in Scouts' craft, as Director of Girl Scouts of Philadelphia. + + Clothbound, with Attractive Color Designs. + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH. + + THE GIRL SCOUTS AT MISS ALLEN'S SCHOOL + THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP + THE GIRL SCOUTS' GOOD TURN + THE GIRL SCOUTS' CANOE TRIP + THE GIRL SCOUTS' RIVALS + THE GIRL SCOUTS ON THE RANCH + THE GIRL SCOUTS' VACATION ADVENTURES + THE GIRL SCOUTS' MOTOR TRIP + + For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price + by the Publishers + + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK + + + + +Marjorie Dean High School Series + +[Illustration: Marjorie Dean HIGH-SCHOOL FRESHMAN] + + BY PAULINE LESTER + Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean College Series + +These are clean, wholesome stories that will be of great interest to all +girls of high school age. + + All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH + + MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN + MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE + MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR + MARJORIE DEAN, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR + + + For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price + by the Publishers + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK + + + + +Marjorie Dean College Series + +[Illustration: Marjorie Dean: College Sophomore] + + BY PAULINE LESTER. + Author of the Famous Marjorie Dean High School Series. + +Those who have read the Marjorie Dean High School Series will be eager +to read this new series, as Marjorie Dean continues to be the heroine in +these stories. + + All Clothbound. Copyright Titles. + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH. + + MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE FRESHMAN + MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE SOPHOMORE + MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE JUNIOR + MARJORIE DEAN, COLLEGE SENIOR + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +Publishers. + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + + 114-120 East 23rd Street New York + + + + +The Camp Fire Girls Series + +[Illustration: The Campfire Girls IN THE MAINE WOODS] + + By HILDEGARD G. FREY + + A Series of Outdoor Stories for + Girls 12 to 16 Years. + + All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles + + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The + Winnebagos go Camping. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo + Weavers. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic + Garden. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the + Road That Leads the Way. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS' LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The + House of the Open Door. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail + of the Seven Cedars. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify + Work. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top + with the Winnebagos. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The + Christmas Adventure at Carver House. + + THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down + Paddles. + + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +Publishers + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK + + + + +The Blue Grass Seminary Girls Series + +[Illustration: The Blue Grass Seminary Girls in the Mountains] + + BY CAROLYN JUDSON BURNETT + + For Girls 12 to 16 Years + All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH + + Splendid stories of the Adventures + of a Group of Charming Girls. + + THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' VACATION + ADVENTURES; or, Shirley Willing to the Rescue. + + THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS; + or, A Four Weeks' Tour with the Glee Club. + + THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS; + or, Shirley Willing on a Mission of Peace. + + THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS ON THE WATER; or, + Exciting Adventures on a Summerer's Cruise Through + the Panama Canal. + + + + +The Mildred Series + +[Illustration: Mildred at Home] + + BY MARTHA FINLEY + + For Girls 12 to 16 Years. + All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH + + A Companion Series to the famous + "Elsie" books by the same author. + + MILDRED KEITH + MILDRED AT ROSELAND + MILDRED AND ELSIE + MILDRED'S MARRIED LIFE + MILDRED AT HOME + MILDRED'S BOYS AND GIRLS + MILDRED'S NEW DAUGHTER + + For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price + by the Publishers + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK + + + + +The Radio Boys Series + +[Illustration: The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border] + + BY GERALD BRECKENRIDGE + + A new series of copyright titles for + boys of all ages. + + Cloth Bound, with Attractive Cover Designs + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH + + THE RADIO BOYS ON THE MEXICAN BORDER + THE RADIO BOYS ON SECRET SERVICE DUTY + THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE REVENUE GUARDS + THE RADIO BOYS' SEARCH FOR THE INCA'S TREASURE + THE RADIO BOYS RESCUE THE LOST ALASKA EXPEDITION + THE RADIO BOYS IN DARKEST AFRICA + THE RADIO BOYS SEEK THE LOST ATLANTIS + + + For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price + by the Publishers + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK + + + + +The Ranger Boys Series + +[Illustration: THE RANGER BOYS TO THE RESCUE ] + + BY CLAUDE H. LA BELLE + +A new series of copyright titles telling of the adventures of three boys +with the Forest Rangers in the state of Maine. + + Handsome Cloth Binding. + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH. + + THE RANGER BOYS TO THE RESCUE + THE RANGER BOYS FIND THE HERMIT + THE RANGER BOYS AND THE BORDER SMUGGLERS + THE RANGER BOYS OUTWIT THE TIMBER THIEVES + THE RANGER BOYS AND THEIR REWARD + + + For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by + the Publishers. + + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York + + + + +The Boy Troopers Series + +[Illustration: The BOY TROOPERS ON THE TRAIL] + + BY CLAIR W. HAYES + Author of the Famous "Boy Allies" Series. + +The adventures of two boys with the Pennsylvania State Police. + + All Copyrighted Titles. + Cloth Bound, with Attractive Cover Designs. + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH. + + THE BOY TROOPERS ON THE TRAIL + THE BOY TROOPERS IN THE NORTHWEST + THE BOY TROOPERS ON STRIKE DUTY + THE BOY TROOPERS AMONG THE WILD MOUNTAINEERS + + + For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by + the Publishers. + + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 East 23rd Street, New York + + + + +The Golden Boys Series + +[Illustration: The Golden Boys In the Maine Woods] + + BY L. P. WYMAN, PH.D. + Dean of Pennsylvania Military College. + +A new series of instructive copyright stories for boys of High School +Age. + + Handsome Cloth Binding. + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH. + + THE GOLDEN BOYS AND THEIR NEW ELECTRIC CELL + THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE FORTRESS + THE GOLDEN BOYS IN THE MAINE WOODS + THE GOLDEN BOYS WITH THE LUMBER JACKS + THE GOLDEN BOYS RESCUED BY RADIO + THE GOLDEN BOYS ALONG THE RIVER ALLAGASH + THE GOLDEN BOYS AT THE HAUNTED CAMP + + + For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price + by the Publishers + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK + + + + +The Jack Lorimer Series + +[Illustration: JACK LORIMER'S CHAMPIONS] + + BY WINN STANDISH + + For Boys 12 to 16 Years. + All Cloth Bound Copyright Titles + PRICE, 65 CENTS EACH + + CAPTAIN JACK LORIMER; or, The Young Athlete of + Millvale High. + + Jack Lorimer is a fine example of the all-around + American high-school boys. His fondness for clean, + honest sport of all kinds will strike a chord of + sympathy among athletic youths. + + + JACK LORIMER'S CHAMPIONS; or, Sports on Land and + Lake. + + There is a lively story woven in with the athletic + achievements, which are all right, since the book + has been O.K'd. by Chadwick, the Nestor of + American Sporting journalism. + + + JACK LORIMER'S HOLIDAYS; or, Millvale High in + Camp. + + It would be well not to put this book into a boy's + hands until the chores are finished, otherwise + they might be neglected. + + + JACK LORIMER'S SUBSTITUTE; or, The Acting Captain + of the Team. + + On the sporting side, this book takes up football, + wrestling, and tobogganing. There is a good deal + of fun in this book and plenty of action. + + + JACK LORIMER, FRESHMAN; or, From Millvale High to + Exmouth. + + Jack and some friends he makes crowd innumerable + happenings into an exciting freshman year at one + of the leading Eastern colleges. The book is + typical of the American college boy's life, and + there is a lively story, interwoven with feats on + the gridiron, hockey, basketball and other clean + honest sports for which Jack Lorimer stands. + + + For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price + by the Publishers + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + 114-120 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Varied hyphenation was retained. This includes words such as +sight-seeing and sightseeing. + +Page 10, "vllage" changed to "village" (in the village) + +Page 124, "Keat's" changed to "Keats'" (John Keats' epitaph) + +Page 164, two missing letters filled in blank space "Bal more" changed +to "Baltimore" (Lady Baltimore cake) + +Page 217, "perserving" changed to "preserving" (of a preserving-kettle) + +Page 259, word "I" inserted into text (If I should forget) + +Page 310 "ALLENS" changed to "ALLEN'S" (AT MISS ALLEN'S SCHOOL) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Tripping with the Tucker Twins, by Nell Speed + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRIPPING WITH THE TUCKER TWINS *** + +***** This file should be named 36672.txt or 36672.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/6/7/36672/ + +Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, +Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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