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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42768 ***
+
+MUCH ADO ABOUT PETER
+
+BY
+JEAN WEBSTER
+
+AUTHOR OF
+DADDY LONG-LEGS,
+DEAR ENEMY, ETC.
+
+[Illustration: Decoration]
+
+NEW YORK
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+
+[Illustration: " ... PLUNGED INTO A RECKLESS FLIRTATION WITH MARY, THE
+CHAMBERMAID"]
+
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
+INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY THE S. S. MCCLURE COMPANY
+COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY THE CROWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY
+COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE PHILLIPS PUBLISHING COMPANY
+COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY HAMPTON'S BROADWAY MAGAZINE
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+PUBLISHED, MARCH, 1909
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                        PAGE
+   I. Gervie Zame, Gervie Door                    3
+
+  II. The Ruffled Frock                          33
+
+ III. Their Innocent Diversions                  57
+
+  IV. Dignity and the Elephant                   81
+
+   V. The Rise of Vittorio                      113
+
+  VI. Held for Ransom                           139
+
+ VII. George Washington's Understudy            175
+
+VIII. A Usurped Prerogative                     209
+
+  IX. Mrs. Carter as Fate                       243
+
+   X. A Parable for Husbands                    281
+
+
+
+
+Much Ado About Peter
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+GERVIE ZAME, GERVIE DOOR
+
+
+Peter and Billy, the two upper grooms at Willowbrook, were polishing the
+sides of the tall mail phaeton with chamois-skin rubbers and whistling,
+each a different tune, as they worked. So intent were they upon this
+musical controversy that they were not aware of Mrs. Carter's approach
+until her shadow darkened the carriage-house doorway. She gathered up
+her skirts in both hands and gingerly stepped inside. Peter had been
+swashing water about with a liberal hand, and the carriage-house floor
+was damp.
+
+"Where is Joe?" she inquired.
+
+"He's out in the runway, ma'am, jumpin' Blue Gipsy. Shall I call him,
+ma'am?" Billy answered, as the question appeared to be addressed to him.
+
+"No matter," said Mrs. Carter, "one of you will do as well."
+
+She advanced into the room, walking as nearly as possible on her heels.
+It was something of a feat; Mrs. Carter was not so light as she had been
+twenty-five years before. Peter followed her movements with a shade of
+speculative wonder in his eye; should she slip it would be an
+undignified exhibition. There was even a shade of hope beneath his
+respectful gaze.
+
+"Why do you use so much water, Peter? Is it necessary to get the floor
+so wet?"
+
+"It runs off, ma'am."
+
+"It is very unpleasant to walk in."
+
+Peter winked at Billy with his off eye, and stood at attention until she
+should have finished her examination of the newly washed phæton.
+
+"The cushions are dripping wet," she observed.
+
+"I washed 'em on purpose, ma'am. They was spattered thick with mud."
+
+"There is danger of spoiling the leather if you put on too much water."
+
+She turned to an inspection of the rest of the room, sniffing dubiously
+in the corner where the harness greasing was carried on, and lifting her
+skirts a trifle higher.
+
+"It's disgustingly dirty," she commented, "but I suppose you can't help
+it."
+
+"Axle grease _is_ sort o' black," Peter agreed graciously.
+
+"Well," she resumed, returning to her errand with an appearance of
+reluctance, "I want you, William--or Peter either, it doesn't matter
+which--to drive into the village this evening to meet the eight-fifteen
+train from the city. I am expecting a new maid. Take Trixy and the
+buckboard and bring her trunk out with you. Eight-fifteen, remember,"
+she added as she turned toward the doorway. "Be sure to be on time, for
+she won't know what to do."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Peter and Billy in chorus.
+
+They watched in silence her gradual retreat to the house. She stopped
+once or twice to examine critically a clipped shrub or a freshly spaded
+flower-bed, but she finally passed out of hearing. Billy uttered an
+eloquent grunt; while Peter hitched up his trousers in both hands and
+commenced a tour of the room on his heels.
+
+"William," he squeaked in a high falsetto, "you've spilt a great deal
+more water than is necessary on this here floor. You'd ought to be more
+careful; it will warp the boards."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Billy with a grin.
+
+"An' goodness me! What is this horrid stuff in this box?" He sniffed
+daintily at the harness grease. "How many times must I tell you,
+William, that I don't want anything like that on _my_ harnesses? I want
+them washed in nice, clean soap an' water, with a little dash of
+_ee-oo-dee cologne_."
+
+Billy applauded with appreciation.
+
+"An' now, Peter," Peter resumed, addressing an imaginary self, "I am
+expectin' a new maid to-night--a pretty little French maid just like
+Annette. I am sure that she will like you better than any o' the other
+men, so I wish you to meet her at the eight-fifteen train. Be sure to be
+on time, for the poor little thing won't know what to do."
+
+"No, you don't," interrupted Billy. "She told me to meet her."
+
+"She didn't either," said Peter, quickly reassuming his proper person.
+"She said either of us, which ever was most convenient, an' I've got to
+go into town anyway on an errand for Miss Ethel."
+
+"She said me," maintained Billy, "an' I'm goin' to."
+
+"Aw, are you?" jeered Peter. "You'll walk, then. I'm takin' Trixy with
+me."
+
+"Hey, Joe," called Billy, as the coachman's steps were heard approaching
+down the length of the stable, "Mrs. Carter come out here an' said I was
+to meet a new maid to-night, an' Pete says he's goin' to. Just come an'
+tell him to mind 'is own business."
+
+Joe appeared in the doorway, with a cap cocked on the side of his head,
+and a short bull-dog pipe in his mouth. It was strictly against the
+rules to smoke in the stables, but Joe had been autocrat so long that he
+made his own rules. He could trust himself--but woe to the groom who so
+much as scratched a safety-match within his domain.
+
+"A new maid is it?" he inquired, as a grin of comprehension leisurely
+spread itself across his good-natured rubicund face. "I s'pose you're
+thinking it's pretty near your turn, hey, Billy?"
+
+"I don't care nothin' about new maids," said Billy, sulkily, "but Mrs.
+Carter said me."
+
+"You're awful particular all of a sudden about obeying orders," said
+Joe. "I don't care which one of you fetches out the new maid," he added.
+"I s'pose if Pete wants to, he's got the first say."
+
+The Carter stables were ruled by a hierarchy with Joe at the head, the
+order of precedence being based upon a union of seniority and merit. Joe
+had ruled for twelve years. He had held the position so long that he had
+insidiously come to believe in the divine right of coachmen. Nothing
+short of a revolution could have dislodged him against his will; in a
+year or so, however, he was planning to abdicate in order to start a
+livery stable of his own. The money was even now waiting in the bank.
+Peter, who had commenced as stable-boy ten years before, was
+heir-presumptive to the place, and the shadow of his future greatness
+was already upon him. Billy, who had served but a few meagre months at
+Willowbrook, did not realize that the highest honours are obtained only
+after a painful novitiate. He saw no reason why he should not be
+coachman another year just as much as Peter; in fact, he saw several
+reasons why he should be. He drove as well, he was better looking--he
+told himself--and he was infinitely larger. To Billy's simple
+understanding it was quantity, not quality, that makes the man. He
+resented Peter's assumption of superiority, and he intended, when
+opportunity should present itself, to take it out of Peter.
+
+"I don't care about fetchin' out the new maid any more than Billy,"
+Peter nonchalantly threw off after a prolonged pause, "only I've got to
+take a note to the Holidays for Miss Ethel, and I'd just as lief stop at
+the station; it won't be much out o' me way."
+
+"All right," said Joe. "Suit yourself."
+
+Peter smiled slightly as he fell to work again, humming under his
+breath a song that was peculiarly aggravating to Billy. "_Je vous aime,
+je vous adore_," it ran. Peter trilled it, "_Gervie zame, gervie door_,"
+but it answered the purpose quite as well as if it had been pronounced
+with the best Parisian accent.
+
+
+The last maid--the one who had left four days before--had been French,
+and during her three weeks' reign at Willowbrook she had stirred to its
+foundations every unattached masculine heart on the premises. Even
+Simpkins, the elderly English butler, had unbent and smiled foolishly
+when she coquettishly chucked him under the chin in passing through the
+hall. Mary, the chambermaid, had been a witness to this tender passage,
+and poor Simpkins's dignity ever since had walked on shaky ground. But
+Annette's charms had conquered more than Simpkins. Tom, the gardener,
+had spent the entire three weeks of her stay in puttering about the
+shrubs that grew in the vicinity of the house; while the stablemen had
+frankly prostrated themselves--with the exception of Joe, who was
+married and not open to Gallic allurements. It was evident from the
+first, however, that Peter and Billy were the favoured ones. For two
+weeks the race between them had been even, and then Peter had slowly,
+but perceptibly, pulled ahead.
+
+He had returned one morning from an errand to the house with a new song
+upon his lips. It was in the French language. He sang it through several
+times with insistent and tender emphasis. Billy maintained a proud
+silence as long as curiosity would permit; finally he inquired gruffly:
+
+"What's that you're givin' us?"
+
+"It's a song," said Peter, modestly. "Annette taught it to me," and he
+hummed it through again.
+
+"What does it mean?"
+
+Peter's rendering was free.
+
+"It means," he said, "I don't love no one but you, me dear."
+
+This episode was the beginning of strained relations between the two.
+There is no telling how far their differences would have gone, had the
+firebrand not been suddenly removed.
+
+One morning Joe was kept waiting under the _porte-cochère_ unusually
+long for Mrs. Carter to start on her daily progress to the village, but
+instead of Mrs. Carter, finally, his passenger was Annette--bound to the
+station with her belongings piled about her. Joe had a wife of his own,
+and it was none of his affair what happened to Annette, but he had
+observed the signs of the weather among his underlings, and he was
+interested on their account to know the wherefore of the business.
+Annette, however--for a French woman--was undemonstrative. All that Joe
+gathered in return for his sympathetic questions (they were sympathetic;
+Joe was human even if he was married) was a series of indignant sniffs,
+and the assertion that she was going because she wanted to go. She
+wouldn't work any longer in a place like that; Mrs. Carter was an old
+cat, and Miss Ethel was a young one. She finished with some idiomatic
+French, the context of which Joe did not gather.
+
+Billy received the news of the departure with unaffected delight, and
+Peter with philosophy. After all, Annette had only had three weeks in
+which to do her work, and three weeks was too short a space for even the
+most fetching of French maids to stamp a very deep impression upon
+Peter's roving fancy. Four days had passed and his wound was nearly
+healed. He was able to sit up and look about again by the time that Mrs.
+Carter ordered the meeting of the second maid. Ordinarily the grooms
+would not have been so eager to receive the assignment of an unallotted
+task, but the memory of Annette still rankled, and it was felt between
+them that the long drive from the station was a golden opportunity for
+gaining a solid start in the newcomer's affections.
+
+The stablemen did not eat with the house servants; Joe's wife furnished
+their meals in the coachman's cottage. That evening Peter scrambled
+through his supper in evident haste. He had an important engagement, he
+explained, with a meaning glance toward Billy. He did take time between
+mouthfuls, however, to remark on the fact that it was going to be a
+beautiful moonlight night, just a "foin" time for a drive.
+
+An hour later, Billy having somewhat sulkily hitched Trixy to the
+buckboard under Joe's direction, Peter swaggered in with pink and white
+freshly shaven face, smelling of bay-rum and the barber's, with shining
+top-hat and boots, and spotless white breeches, looking as immaculate a
+groom as could be found within a hundred miles of New York. He jauntily
+took his seat, waved his whip toward Billy and Joe, and touched up Trixy
+with a grin of farewell.
+
+Later in the evening the men were lounging in a clump of laurels at one
+side of the carriage-house, where a hammock and several battered veranda
+chairs had drifted out from the house for the use of the stable hands.
+Simpkins, who occasionally unbent sufficiently to join them, was with
+the party to-night, and he heard the story of Peter's latest perfidy.
+Simpkins could sympathize with Billy; his own sensibilities had been
+sadly lacerated in the matter of Annette. Joe leaned back and smoked
+comfortably, lending his voice occasionally to the extent of a grunt.
+The grooms' differences were nothing to him, but they served their
+purpose as amusement.
+
+Presently the roll of wheels sounded on the gravel, and they all
+strained forward with alert interest. The driveway leading to the back
+door swerved broadly past the laurels, and--as Peter had remarked--it
+was a bright moonlight night. The cart came into view, bowling fast,
+Peter as stiff as a ramrod staring straight ahead, while beside him sat
+a brawny Negro woman twice his size, with rolling black eyes and
+gleaming white teeth. An explosion sounded from the laurels, and Peter,
+who knew what it meant, cut Trixy viciously.
+
+He dumped his passenger's box upon the back veranda with a thud, and
+drove on to the stables where he unhitched poor patient little Trixy in
+a most unsympathetic fashion. Billy strolled in while he was still
+engaged with her harness. Peter affected not to notice him. Billy
+commenced to hum, "_Je vous aime, je vous adore_." He was no French
+scholar; he had not had Peter's advantages, but the tune alone was
+sufficiently suggestive.
+
+"Aw, dry up," said Peter.
+
+"Pleasant moonlight night," said Billy.
+
+Peter threw the harness on to the hook with a vicious turn that landed
+the most of it on the floor, and stumped upstairs to his room over the
+carriage-house.
+
+For the next few days Peter's life was rendered a burden. Billy and Joe
+and Simpkins and Tom, even good-natured Nora in the kitchen, never met
+him without covert allusions to the affair. The gardener at Jasper
+Place, next door, called over the hedge one morning to inquire if they
+didn't have a new maid at their house. On the third day after the
+arrival the matter reached its logical conclusion.
+
+"Hey, Pete," Billy called up to him in the loft where he was pitching
+down hay for the horses. "Come down here quick; there's some one wants
+to see you."
+
+Peter clambered down wearing an expectant look, and was confronted by
+the three grinning faces of Billy, Tom, and David McKenna, the gardener
+from Jasper Place.
+
+"It was Miss Johnsing," said Billy. "She was in a hurry an' said she
+couldn't wait, but she'd like to have you meet her on the back stoop.
+She's got a new song she wants to teach you."
+
+Peter took off his coat and looked Billy over for a soft spot on which
+to begin. Billy took off his coat and accepted the challenge, while
+David, who was a true Scotchman in his love of war, delightedly
+suggested that they withdraw to a more secluded spot. The four trooped
+in silence to a clump of willow trees in the lower pasture, Peter grimly
+marching ahead.
+
+Billy was a huge, loose-jointed fellow who looked as if he could have
+picked up little Peter and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of
+flour. Peter was slight and wiry and quick. He had once intended to be a
+jockey, but in spite of an anxious avoidance of potatoes and other
+fattening food-stuffs, he had steadily grown away from it. When he
+finally reached one hundred and sixty-six pounds he relinquished his
+ambition forever. Those one hundred and sixty-six pounds were so
+beautifully distributed, however, that the casual observer would never
+have guessed their presence, and many a weightier man had found to his
+sorrow that Peter did not belong to the class he looked.
+
+The hostilities opened with Billy's good-natured remark: "I don't want
+to hurt you, Petey. I just want to teach you manners."
+
+Ten minutes later Peter had taught him manners, and was striding across
+the fields to work off his surplus energy, while Billy, whose florid
+face had taken on a livelier tinge, was comforting a fast-swelling eye
+at the drinking trough.
+
+It was the last that Peter heard of the maid, except for a mild lecture
+from Joe. "See here, Pete," he was greeted upon his return, "I'm given
+to understand that you've been fighting for your lady-love. I just want
+you to remember one thing, young man, and that is that I won't have no
+fighting about these premises in business hours. You've laid up Billy
+for the day, and you can go and do his work."
+
+Three weeks rolled over the head of "Miss Johnsing," and then she, too,
+departed. It developed that a husband had returned from a vacation on
+"the island" and wished to settle down to family life again. A week
+passed at Willowbrook without a parlour-maid, and then one day, as Peter
+returned from the lower meadow where he had been trying to entice a
+reluctant colt into putting its head into the halter, he was hailed by
+Joe with:
+
+"Say, Pete, Mrs. Carter sent out word that you're to go to the station
+to-night and fetch out a new maid."
+
+"Aw, go on," said Peter.
+
+"That's straight."
+
+"If there's a new maid comin' Billy can get her. I ain't interested in
+maids."
+
+"Them's orders," said Joe. "'Tell Peter,' she says, 'that he's to drive
+in with the buckboard and meet the eight-fifteen train from the city.
+I'm expectin' a new maid,' she says, but she neglected to mention what
+colour she was expectin' her to be."
+
+Peter grunted by way of answer, and Joe chuckled audibly as he hitched
+up his trousers and rolled off toward his own house to tell his wife the
+joke. The subject was covertly alluded to at supper that night, with
+various speculations as to the colour, nationality, and possible size of
+the newcomer. Peter emphatically stated his intention of not going near
+the blame station. When the train hour approached, however, the stables
+were conspicuously empty, and there was nothing for him to do but
+swallow his assertion and meet the maid.
+
+As he drove down the hill toward the station he saw that the
+eight-fifteen train was already in, but he noted the fact without
+emotion. He was not going to hurry himself for all the maids in
+creation; she could just wait until he got there. He drew up beside the
+platform and sat surveying the people with mild curiosity until such
+time as the maid chose to search him out. But his pulses suddenly
+quickened as he heard a clear voice, with an adorable suggestion of
+brogue behind it, inquire of the station-master:
+
+"Will you tell me, sor, how I'll be gettin' to Mr. Jerome B. Carter's?"
+
+"Here's one of the Carter rigs now," said the man.
+
+The girl turned quickly and faced Peter, and all his confused senses
+told him that she was pretty--prettier than Annette--pretty beyond all
+precedent. Her eyes were blue, and her hair was black and her colour was
+the colour that comes from a childhood spent out of doors in County
+Cork.
+
+He hastily scrambled out of his seat and touched his hat. "Beggin' yer
+pardon, ma'am, are ye the new maid? Mrs. Carter sent me to fetch ye out.
+If ye'll gi' me yer check, ma'am, I'll get yer trunk."
+
+The girl gave up her check silently, quite abashed by this very dressy
+young groom. She had served during the two years of her American
+experience as "second girl" in a brown-stone house in a side street, and
+though she had often watched men of Peter's kind from a bench by the
+park driveway, she had never in her life come so near to one as this.
+While he was searching for her trunk, she hastily climbed into the cart
+and moved to the extreme end of the left side of the seat, lest the
+apparition should return and offer assistance. She sat up very stiffly,
+wondering meanwhile, with a beating heart, if he would talk or just
+stare straight ahead the way they did in the park.
+
+Peter helped the baggage-man lift in her trunk, and as he did it he
+paused to take a good square look. "Gee, but Billy will want to kick
+himself!" was his delighted inward comment as he clambered up beside her
+and gathered the reins in his hands. They drove up the hill without
+speaking, but once Peter shot a sidewise glance at her at the same
+moment that she looked at him, and they both turned pink. This was
+embarrassing, but reassuring. He was, then, nothing but a man in spite
+of his clothes, and with a man she knew how to deal.
+
+A full moon was rising above the trees and the twilight was fading into
+dusk. As Billy had justly observed at the supper table, it was a fine
+night in which to get acquainted. The four miles between the station and
+Willowbrook suddenly dwindled into insignificance in Peter's sight, and
+at the top of the hill he turned Trixy's head in exactly the wrong
+direction.
+
+"If ye have no objections," he observed, "we'll drive the long way by
+the beach because the roads is better."
+
+The new maid had no objections, or at least she did not voice any, and
+they rolled along between the fragrant hedgerows in silence. Peter was
+laboriously framing to himself an opening remark, and he found nothing
+ludicrous in the situation; but to the girl, whose Irish sense of humour
+was inordinately developed, it appeared very funny to be riding alone
+beside a live, breathing groom, in top-hat and shining boots, who turned
+red when you looked at him.
+
+She suddenly broke into a laugh--a low, clear, bubbling laugh that
+lodged itself in Peter's receptive heart. He looked around a moment with
+a slightly startled air, and then, as his eyes met hers, he too laughed.
+It instantly cleared the atmosphere. He pulled Trixy to a walk and faced
+her. His laborious introductory speech was forgotten; he went to the
+point with a sigh of relief.
+
+"I guess we're goin' to like each other--you an' me," he said softly.
+
+The moon was shining and the hawthorn flowers were sweet. Annie's eyes
+looked back at him rather shyly, and her dimples trembled just below the
+surface. Peter hastily turned his eyes away lest he look too long.
+
+"Me name's Peter," he said, "Peter Malone. Tell me yours, so we'll be
+feelin' acquainted."
+
+"Annie O'Reilly."
+
+"Annie O'Reilly," he repeated. "There's the right swing to it. 'Tis
+better than Annette."
+
+"Annette?" inquired Annie.
+
+She had perceived that he was a man; he now perceived that she was a
+woman, and that Annette's name might better not have been mentioned.
+
+"Ah, Annette," he said carelessly, "a parlour-maid we had a while ago;
+an' mighty glad we was to be rid of her," he added cannily.
+
+"Why?" asked Annie.
+
+"She was French; she had a temper."
+
+"I'm Irish; I have a temper--will ye be glad to be rid o' me?"
+
+"Oh, an' I'm Irish meself," laughed Peter, with a broader brogue than
+usual. "'Tis not Irish tempers I'm fearin'. Thim I c'n manage."
+
+When they turned in at the gates of Willowbrook--some half an hour later
+than they were due, owing to Peter's extemporaneous route by the
+beach--he slowed Trixy to a walk that he might point out to his
+companion the interesting features of her new home. As they passed the
+laurels they were deeply engaged in converse, and a heavy and respectful
+silence hung about the region.
+
+"Good night, Mr. Malone," said Annie, as he deposited her trunk on the
+back veranda. "'Tis obliged to ye I am for bringin' me out."
+
+"Oh, drop the Mister Malone!" he grinned. "Peter's me name. Good night,
+Annie. I hope as ye'll like it. It won't be my fault if ye don't."
+
+He touched his hat, and swinging himself to the seat, drove whistling to
+the stables. He unhitched Trixy and gave her a handful of salt. "Here,
+old girl, what are ye tryin' to do?" he asked as she rubbed her nose
+against his shoulder, and he started her toward her stall with a
+friendly whack on the back. As he was putting away her harness, Billy
+lounged in, bent on no errand in particular. Peter threw him a careless
+nod, and breaking off his whistling in the middle of a bar, he fell to
+humming softly a familiar tune. "_Gervie zame, gervie door_," was the
+song that he sang.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE RUFFLED FROCK
+
+
+It was the Fourth of July, and Annie was hurrying with her work in order
+to get out and celebrate. She had no particular form of celebration in
+view, but she had a strong feeling that holidays, particularly Fourths
+of July, ought to be celebrated; and she was revolving in her mind
+several possible projects, in all of which Peter figured largely. Aside
+from its being the Fourth of July, it was Thursday, and Thursday was
+Peter's afternoon off. She put away the last of the dishes with a gay
+little burst of song as she glanced through the window at the beckoning
+outside world. It was a bright sunshiny day with a refreshing breeze
+blowing from the sea. The blue waters of the bay, sparkling at the foot
+of the lower meadow, were dotted over with white sailboats.
+
+"Do ye want anything more of me, Nora?" she asked.
+
+"No, be off with you, child," said Nora, good-naturedly. "I'll finish
+puttin' to rights meself," and she gathered up the dish-towels and
+carried them into the laundry.
+
+Annie paused by the screen door leading on to the back veranda, and
+stood regarding the stables speculatively. She was wondering what would
+be the most diplomatic way of approaching Peter. Her speculations were
+suddenly interrupted by the appearance in the kitchen of Miss Ethel,
+with a very beruffled white muslin frock in her arms.
+
+"Annie," she said, "you'll have to wash this dress. I forgot to have
+Kate do it yesterday, and I want to wear it to-night. Have it ready by
+five o'clock and be careful about the lace."
+
+She threw the frock across the back of a chair, and ran on out of doors
+to join a laughing crowd of young people about the tennis-court. Annie
+stood in the middle of the floor and watched her with a fast-clouding
+brow.
+
+"An' never so much as said please!" she muttered to herself. She walked
+over and picked up the frock. It was very elaborate with ruffles and
+tucks and lace insertion; its ironing meant a good two hours' work.
+Ironing muslin gowns on a Fourth of July was not Annie's business. She
+turned it about slowly and her eyes filled with tears--not of sorrow for
+the lost afternoon, but of anger at the injustice of demanding such work
+from her on such a day.
+
+Presently Nora came in again. She paused in the doorway, her arms
+akimbo, and regarded Annie.
+
+"What's that you've got?" she inquired.
+
+Then the floodgates of Annie's wrath were opened and she poured out her
+tale.
+
+"Don't you mind it, Annie darlin'," said Nora, trying to comfort her.
+"Miss Ethel didn't mean nothin'. She was in a hurry, likely, an' she
+didn't stop to think."
+
+"Didn't think! Why can't she wear some other dress? She's got a whole
+room just full o' dresses, an' she has to have that special one ironed
+at a minute's notice. An' Kate comin' three days in the week! It isn't
+my place to wash--that isn't what Mrs. Carter engaged me for--I wouldn't
+'a' minded so much if she'd asked it as a favour, but she just ordered
+me as if washin' was me work. On Fourth o' July, too, an' Mrs. Carter
+tellin' me I could have the afternoon off--an' all those ruffles--'have
+it done by five o'clock,' she says, an' goes out to play."
+
+Annie threw the dress in a fluffy pile in the middle of the floor.
+
+"I shan't do it! I won't be ordered about that way by Miss Ethel or
+anybody else."
+
+"I'd do it for you meself, Annie, but I couldn't iron that waist no
+more 'n a kangaroo. But you just get to work on it; you iron beautiful
+and it won't take you long when you once begin."
+
+"Won't take me long? It'll take me the whole afternoon; it'll take me
+forever. I shan't touch it!"
+
+Annie's eyes wandered out of doors again. The sunshine seemed brighter,
+the songs of the birds louder, the glimpse of the bay more enticing.
+And, as she looked, Peter came sauntering out from the stables--Peter in
+his town clothes, freshly shaven, with a new red necktie and a flower in
+his buttonhole. He was coming toward the kitchen.
+
+Annie's lips trembled and she kicked the dress spitefully.
+
+Peter appeared in the doorway. He, too, had been revolving projects for
+the fitting celebration of the day, and he wished tentatively to broach
+them to Annie.
+
+"What's up?" he inquired, looking from Annie's flushed cheeks to Nora's
+troubled eyes.
+
+Annie repeated the story, growing more and more aggrieved as she dwelt
+upon her wrongs. "An' never so much as said please," she finished.
+
+"That's nothin'--ye mustn't mind it, Annie. Miss Ethel ain't used to
+sayin' please." Peter was gropingly endeavouring to soothe her. "I
+remember times when she was a little girl she'd be so sassy, that, Lor',
+me fingers was itchin' to shake her! But I knowed she didn't mean
+nothin', so I just touches me hat an' swallows it. She's used to
+orderin', Annie, an' ye mustn't mind her."
+
+"Well, I ain't used to takin' orders like that, an' what's more, I
+won't! 'Have it done by five o'clock,' she says, an' it's half past two,
+now. An' all them ruffles! I hate ruffles, an' I won't touch it after
+the way she talked. Not if she goes down on her knees to me, I won't."
+
+"Aw, Annie," remonstrated Peter, "what's the use in kickin' up a fuss?
+Miss Ethel's awful kind hearted when she thinks about it."
+
+"Kind hearted!" Annie sniffed. "I guess she can afford to be kind
+hearted, havin' people wait on her from mornin' to night an' never doin'
+a thing she doesn't want to do. I wish she had to iron once, an' she
+could just see how she likes it."
+
+"She gave you a bran' new dress last week," reminded Nora.
+
+"Yes, an' why? 'Cause when I was dustin' her room she happened to be
+tryin' it on an' it didn't fit, an' she threw it down on the floor an'
+said: 'I won't wear that thing! You can have it, Annie.'"
+
+"The time you burned your hand with her chafing-dish she 'most cried
+when she saw how blistered it was, an' wrapped it up herself, an'
+brought you some stuff in a silver box to put on it."
+
+For a moment Annie showed signs of relenting, but as her glance fell
+upon the dress again, she hardened. "She tipped the alcohol over me
+herself an' she'd ought to be sorry. I'd be willin' to do her a favour,
+but I _won't_ be ordered around. She just pokes it at me as if I was an
+ironing machine. An' this the Fourth o' July, an' Mrs. Carter tellin' me
+I could go out. She has enough dresses to last from now till she's gray,
+an' I just won't touch it!"
+
+"You won't touch what?" asked Mrs. Carter, appearing in the doorway. She
+glanced from the girl's angry face to the rumpled frock upon the floor.
+They told their own story. "What's the meaning of this, Annie?" she
+asked sharply.
+
+Annie looked sulky. She stared at the floor a moment without answering,
+while Peter's and Nora's eyes anxiously scanned Mrs. Carter's face.
+Finally she replied:
+
+"You said I could go out this afternoon, ma'am, an' just as I was
+gettin' ready, Miss Ethel came in an' said I was to wash that dress
+before five o'clock."
+
+"I am sorry about your afternoon," said Mrs. Carter. "Miss Ethel didn't
+know about it, but you may go to-morrow afternoon instead."
+
+"I was wantin' to go to-day," said Annie. "I'm willin' enough to do me
+own work, ma'am, but it isn't me place to wash."
+
+Mrs. Carter's mouth became a straight line.
+
+"Annie, I never allow my servants to dictate as to what is their work
+and what is not. When I engage you, I expect you to do whatever you are
+asked. This is a very easy place; you are allowed to go out a great
+deal, and you have very little work to do. But when something extra
+comes up outside your regular work, I expect you to do it willingly and
+as a matter of course. Miss Ethel has been very kind to you; you can do
+her a favour in return."
+
+"I wouldn't mind doin' it as a favour, but she just walks in an' orders
+it as if it was me regular place to wash."
+
+"And I order it also," said Mrs. Carter. "You may wash that dress and
+have it done by five o'clock, or else you may pack your trunk and go."
+She turned with a firm tread and walked out of the room.
+
+Annie looked after her with flashing eyes.
+
+"She orders it too, does she? Well, I won't do it, an' I won't, an' I
+_won't_!" She dropped down in a chair at one end of the table and hid
+her head in her arms.
+
+Peter cast an anxious glance at Nora; he did not know how to deal with
+Annie's case. Had she been an obstinate stable-boy, he would have taken
+her out behind the barn and thrashed reason into her with a leather
+strap. He awkwardly laid his hand on her shoulder.
+
+"Aw, Annie, wash the dress; there's a good girl. It won't take ye very
+long, an' then we'll go down t' the beach to-night to see the fireworks.
+Miss Ethel didn't mean nothin'. What's the use o' makin' trouble?"
+
+"It's no more my place to wash than it is Simpkins's," she sobbed. "Why
+didn't she ask him to do it? I won't stay in a place like this where
+they order you around like a dog. I'll pack me trunk, I will."
+
+Nora and Peter regarded each other helplessly. They furtively
+sympathized with Annie, but they did not dare to do it openly, as
+sympathy only fanned the flames, and they both knew that Mrs. Carter,
+having pronounced her ultimatum, would stand by it. Annie must wash that
+dress before five o'clock, or Annie must go. At the thought of her
+going, Peter fetched a deep sigh, and two frowning lines appeared on his
+brow. She had been there only four weeks, but Willowbrook would never
+again be Willowbrook without her. Presently the silence was broken by
+the sound of generous footsteps flapping across the back veranda, and
+Ellen, the cook at Mr. Jasper's, appeared in the doorway.
+
+"Good afternoon to ye, Nora, an' I wants to borrow a drop o' vanilla. I
+ardered it two days ago, an' that fool of a grocer's b'y----what's the
+matter wit' Annie?" she asked, her good-natured laughing face taking on
+a look of concern as she gazed at the tableau before her.
+
+Nora and Peter between them explained. Annie, meanwhile, paid no
+attention to the recital of her wrongs; only her heaving shoulders were
+eloquent. Ellen hearkened to the story with ready sympathy.
+
+"Oh, it's a shame, it is, an' on Fort' o' July! We all has our troubles
+in this world." She sighed heavily and winked at Peter and Nora while
+she pushed them toward the door. "Get out wit' ye, the two of yez, an'
+lave her to me," she whispered.
+
+Ellen reached down and picked up the dress. "'Tis somethin' awful the
+things people will be puttin' on ye, if ye give 'em the chance. 'Tis a
+shame to ask any human bein' to wash a dress like that wit' all them
+ruffles an' lace fixin's. I think it's bad enough to have to wash Mr.
+Harry's shirts, but if he took to havin' lace set in 'em, I'd be leavin'
+pretty quick. An' ye not trained to laundry work either! I don't see how
+Miss Ethel had the nerve to ask it. She must be awful over-reachin'.
+She'll be settin' ye to play the piano next for her to dance by."
+
+Annie raised a tear-stained face.
+
+"I could do it," she said sulkily. "I can wash as good as Kate; Miss
+Ethel said I could. It's not the work I'm mindin' if she'd ask me
+decent. But she just throws it at me with never so much as please."
+
+"I don't blame ye for leavin'; I would, too." Ellen suddenly had an
+inspiration, and she plumped down in a chair at the opposite end of the
+table. "I'm goin' to leave meself!" she announced. "I won't be put upon
+either. An' what do ye think Mr. Jasper is after telephonin' out this
+afternoon? He's bringin' company to dinner--three strange min I niver
+set eyes on before--an' he's sint a fish home by Patrick, a blue fish
+he's after catchin'. It's in the ice-box now an' we're to have it for
+dinner, he says, an' I wit' me dinner all planned. I don't mind havin'
+soup, an' roast, an' salad, an' dessert, but I _won't_ have soup, _an'
+fish_, an' roast, an' salad, an' dessert. If there was as many to do the
+work at our house as there is over here, I wouldn't say nothin', but
+wit' only me an' George--an' him not so much as touchin' a thing but the
+silver an' the glasses--it's too much, it is. George 'ud see me buried
+under a mountain o' dishes before he'd lift a finger to help."
+
+Ellen paused with a pathetic snivel while she wiped her eyes on a corner
+of her apron. Annie raised her head and regarded her sympathetically.
+
+"Soup, an' fish, an' roast, an' salad, an' dessert, an' three strange
+min into the bargain, an' all the dishes to wash, an' the fish not even
+cleaned. True it is that troubles niver come single; they're married an'
+has children. Ivery siparate scale o' that blue fish did I take off
+wit' me own hands, an' not a word o' thanks do I get. I slaves for those
+two min till me fingers is worn to the bone, an' not a sign do they
+give; but just let the meat be too done, or the bottles not cold, an'
+then I hears quick enough! 'Tis the way wit' min; they're an ungrateful
+set. Ye can work an' work till ye're like to drop, an' they swallows it
+all an' niver blinks. It ud be different if there was a woman around.
+I've often wished as Mr. Harry had a wife like Miss Ethel, so smilin'
+an' pretty 't is a pleasure to watch her. Oh, an' I wouldn't mind
+workin' a little extra now an' then for her--but five courses an' no one
+but me to do the dishes! It's goin' I am. I'll give notice to-night."
+
+Ellen broke down and wept into her apron while Annie attempted some
+feeble consolation.
+
+"I've worked there thirteen years!" Ellen sobbed. "Since before Mrs.
+Jasper died, when Mr. Harry was only a b'y. 'Tis the only home I've
+got, an' I don't want to leave."
+
+"Then what makes you?" Annie asked.
+
+"Because I won't be put upon--soup, an' fish, an' roast, an' salad, an'
+dessert is too much to ask of any human bein'. The dishes won't be done
+till ten o'clock, an' it's Fort' o' Ju-l-y-y." Ellen's voice trailed
+into a wail. Her imagination was vivid; by this time she fully believed
+in her wrongs. They cried in unison a few minutes, Ellen murmuring
+brokenly: "Soup, an' fish, an' roast, an' salad, an' dessert, an' it's
+all the home I've got.
+
+"You don't have company very often," said Annie consolingly.
+
+"That we don't!" cried Ellen. "An' the house is so lonesome an' shut up
+'tis like a tomb to live in. If there was dancin' an' singin' an'
+laughin' the way there is over here I'd be glad enough. Wit' Mr. Jasper
+an' Mr. Harry so quiet an' frownin' an never sayin' a word--Oh, if I had
+someone like Miss Ethel to do for 'tis willin' enough I'd be to iron
+her dresses. That night she had her party an' I come over to help, an'
+you an' Pete was dancin' in the kitchen to the music, an' after the
+guests was served we had a table set out on the back veranda--'tis then
+I was wishin' I lived in a place like this. An' Miss Ethel come out when
+we was eatin' an' asked was we tired an' said thank you for sittin' up
+so late, an' she was glad if we was havin' a good time, too."
+
+Annie sighed, and her eyes wandered somewhat guiltily to the dress on
+the floor.
+
+"Mrs. Carter orders me around just as if I was a machine," she
+reiterated, in a tone of self-defence.
+
+"An' it's orderin' around ye've got to learn to take in this world,"
+said Ellen. "If ye occasionally get a 'thank ye,' thrown in, ye can
+think yourself lucky--it's more 'n I get. I've darned Mr. Harry's socks
+for eleven years, an' never a word o' notice does he take--I'm doubtin'
+he even knows they're darned. 'Tis a thankless world, Annie dear.
+Thirteen years I've worked for the Jaspers, an' on top o' that to ask me
+for soup, an' fish, an' roast, an' salad, an' dessert on a Fort' o' July
+night!"
+
+Ellen showed signs of breaking down again and Annie hastily interposed.
+
+"Don't cry about it, Ellen; it's too bad, it is, but Mr. Jasper likely
+didn't think what a lot o' trouble he was makin'. He ain't never washed
+no dishes an' he don't know what it's like. I'll come over an' help you
+do them."
+
+"But ye won't be here. Ye're goin' yerself," Ellen blubbered.
+
+Annie was silent.
+
+"Thirteen years an' 'tis the only home I've got."
+
+"Don't go, Ellen," Annie begged.
+
+"Soup, an' fish, an' roast----"
+
+"I'll stay if you will!"
+
+Ellen heaved a final shuddering sigh and wiped her eyes.
+
+"Ye'll have to hurry, Annie, if ye're goin' to get that dress done by
+five o'clock. Come on!" she cried, jumping to her feet. "I'll help ye.
+Ye take the waist and I'll take the skirt, an' we'll see which one gets
+done first. It just needs a little rubbin' out an' we'll iron it damp."
+
+Five minutes later, Peter and Nora, who had been sitting on the back
+steps, waiting patiently for Ellen's diplomacy to bear fruit, returned
+to the laundry. They found Ellen at one tub and Annie at another--up to
+her elbows in the soap suds, her cheeks still flushed, but a smile
+beginning to break through.
+
+"Ellen's helpin' me," she said in rather sheepish explanation.
+
+"An' she's comin' over to wash the dishes for me to-night," Ellen chimed
+in. "We're havin' soup, an' fish, an' roast, an'----"
+
+Peter clapped his hand over his mouth and Nora cast him a warning look.
+
+"You're goin' to the beach with Pete to see the fireworks, that's where
+you're goin' to-night," she said. "I'll help Ellen with her dishes."
+
+"Thank ye, Nora," said Ellen. "'Tis a kind heart ye've got, an' that's
+more 'n I can say for Mr. Jasper, for all I've worked for 'im thirteen
+years. 'Tis soup, an' fish, an' roast, an' salad, an' dessert the man's
+after wantin' for dinner to-night, an' no one but me to wash a kettle.
+If it wasn't for Annie, I'd be leavin', I would." Ellen wrung the skirt
+out and splashed it up and down in the rinsing water. "An' now while
+this dress is dryin' ready to iron, I'll just run home an' stir up a bit
+o' puddin' for dessert, if ye'll be lendin' me some vanilla, Nora dear.
+That fool of a grocery b'y----"
+
+"Oh, take your vanilla an' get along wit' you! We've had all we wants o'
+your soup an' your fish an' the rest o' your fixin's."
+
+Nora dived into the pantry after the bottle, while the attention of the
+others was attracted by a gay laugh outside the window. Annie's face
+clouded at the sound, and they all looked out.
+
+Miss Ethel was coming across the lawn on her way to the bay. Mr. Lane,
+who was visiting at Willowbrook, strolled at her side, dressed in white
+boating flannels with some oars over his shoulder. A little way behind
+walked Mr. Harry, a second pair of oars over his shoulder, and his eyes
+somewhat surlily bent on the ground. Miss Ethel, pretty and smiling in
+her light summer gown, was talking vivaciously to Mr. Lane, apparently
+having forgotten that Mr. Harry existed.
+
+"I'd show her pretty quick if I was Mr. Harry!" Ellen muttered
+vindictively.
+
+Miss Ethel paused and shaded her eyes with her hand.
+
+"It's awfully sunny!" she complained. "I'm afraid I want a hat." She
+glanced back over her shoulder. "Harry," she called, "run back and get
+my hat. I think I left it on the front veranda, or maybe at the
+tennis-court. We'll wait for you at the landing."
+
+For a moment Mr. Harry looked black at this peremptory dismissal; but he
+bowed politely, and whirling about strode back to the house while Miss
+Ethel and Mr. Lane went on laughing down the hill.
+
+"An' she never so much as said please!" whispered Annie.
+
+"I'll be darned if I'd do it," said Peter.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THEIR INNOCENT DIVERSIONS
+
+
+"We got three kids visitin' to our house, and there won't be nothin'
+left o' Willowbrook by the time they goes away. Hold up, Trixy! What are
+ye tryin' to do?"
+
+Peter paused to hook the line out from under Trixy's tail, and then
+re-cocking his hat at a comfortable angle and crossing his legs, he
+settled himself for conversation. Peter loved to talk and he loved an
+audience; he was essentially a social animal. His listeners were two
+brother coachmen and a bandy-legged young groom, who were waiting, like
+himself, for "ladies' morning" to draw to its usual placid
+termination--sandwiches and lemonade on the club veranda after a not too
+heated putting contest on the first green.
+
+"Yes, we got three visitin' kids; with Master Bobby it makes four, and
+I ain't drawed an easy breath since the mornin' they arrived. They keep
+up such an everlastin' racket that the people in the house can't stand
+them, an' we've had them in the stables most o' the time. Mrs. Brainard,
+that's their mother, is Mr. Carter's sister, and I can tell ye she makes
+herself to home.
+
+"That's her over there with the lavender dress and the parasol"--he
+jerked his head in the direction of a gaily dressed group of ladies
+trailing across the links in the direction of the first green. "She's
+mournin' for her husband--light mournin', that is; he's dead two years."
+
+"She picked me the first day to look after the la-ads. 'Peter,' she
+says, 'me dear boys are cr-razy to play in the stables, but I can't help
+worryin' for fear they'll get under the horses' feet. I have perfect
+confidence in you,' she says, 'and I'll put them under yer special
+care. Just keep yer eye on the la-ads an' see that they don't get
+hur-rt.'
+
+"'Thank ye, ma'am,' says I, flattered by the attention, I'll do the best
+I can.' I hadn't made the acquaintance o' the little darlin's yet, or I
+would 'a' chucked me job on the spot.
+
+"Master Augustus--he's the youngest--has gold curls an' blue eyes and a
+smile as innocint as honey. He's the kind the ladies stops an' kisses,
+and asks, 'Whose little boy is you?' At the first glance ye'd think to
+see a couple o' wings sproutin' out behind, but when ye knowed him
+intimately, ye'd look for the horns an' tail. I've pulled that little
+divvil three times out o' the duck pond, and I've fished him out from
+the grain chute with a boat hook. I couldn't tell ye the number o' trees
+he's climbed after birds' eggs and got stuck in the top of; we keeps a
+groom an' ladder on tap, so to speak. One afternoon I caught the four o'
+them smokin' cigarettes made o' dried corn silk up in the hay loft as
+comfortable as ye please--'tis many a stable-boy as has been bounced for
+less. Between them they finished up the dope the vet'rinary surgeon left
+when Blue Gipsy had the heaves, thinkin' it was whisky--an' serves them
+right, I say. I didn't tell on 'em, though, when the doctor asked what I
+thought the trouble was; I said I guessed it was green apples.
+
+"But them's only the minor divarsions that occupy their leisure; they're
+nothin' to the things they think of when they really get down to
+business. The first thing they done was to pretend the victoria was a
+pirate ship; an' they scratched the paint all up a-tryin' to board her.
+Joe turned 'em out o' doors to play, an' they dug up the whole o' the
+strawberry bed huntin' for hidden treasure. Their next move was to take
+off their shoes an' stockin's, turn their clothes wrong side out, an'
+dirty up their faces with huckleberry juice--ye would have sworn they
+was a lot o' jabberin' Dagoes. They went beggin' in all the houses o'
+the neighbourhood, includin' Willowbrook, an' Nora never knew them an'
+give them some cold potatoes.
+
+"One day last week they nearly broke their blame young necks slidin'
+down the waggon-shed roof on a greased tea-tray. There's a pile o' straw
+at the bottom that kind of acted as a buffer, but Master Augustus didn't
+steer straight an' went over the edge. 'Twas only a drop o' four feet,
+but he come up lookin' damaged.
+
+"That ain't the worst though. Last Sunday afternoon they frightened the
+cow into hysterics playin' she was a bull, an' they was matydoors or
+torydoors, or whatever ye call them. They stuck pins into her with paper
+windmills on the end, and she ain't give more 'n six quarts at any
+milkin' since. I was mad, I was, an' I marched 'em to the house an' tole
+their mother.
+
+"'It grieves me,' she says, 'to think that me boys should be so
+troublesome; but they didn't mean to be cruel to the poor dumb brute.
+They're spirited la-ads,' she says, 'an' their imaginations run away wid
+them. What they needs is intilligent direction. Ye should try,' she
+says, 'to enter into the spirit o' their innocint divarsions; an' when
+ye see them doin' somethin' dangerous, gintly turn their thoughts into
+another channel. Their grattytood,' she says, 'will pay ye for yer
+trouble.'
+
+"'Wery well, ma'am,' says I, not too enthusiastic, 'I'll do the best I
+can,' and I bows meself out. I've been superintendin' their innocint
+divarsions ever since, and if there's any one as wants the job, I'll
+turn it over to him quick."
+
+Peter paused to back his horses farther into the shade; then having
+climbed down and taken a drink at a near-by hydrant, he resumed his seat
+and the conversation.
+
+"But ye should have seen them this mornin' when I drove off! They was a
+sight if there ever was one. Joe's away with Mr. Carter and I'm takin'
+charge for the day. When I went into the carriage-house to give Billy
+orders about hitchin' up, what should I find but them precious little
+lambkins gambolin' around in stri-ped bathin' trunks, an' not another
+stitch. They was further engaged in paintin' their skins where the
+trunks left off--an' that was the most o' them--with a copper colour
+foundation and a trimmin' o' black stripes.
+
+"'Holy Saint Patrick!' says I. 'What the divvil are ye up to now?'
+
+"'Whoop!' says Master Bobby. 'We'll scalp ye and eat yer heart. We're
+Comanche braves,' he says, 'an' we're gettin' ready for the war-path.'
+
+"'Ye look more like zebras,' says I, 'escaped from a menagerie.'
+
+"'Wait till we get our feathers on,' he says, 'an' Pete,' he adds, 'will
+you do me back? There's a place in the middle that I can't reach.'
+
+"Wid that he turns a pink an' white surface a yawnin' for decoration,
+an' presses a can o' axle grease in me hands. And I'll be darned if them
+young imps hadn't covered their skins with axle grease and red brass
+polish, an' for variety, a touch o' bluing they'd got off Nora in the
+kitchen. An' they smelt--Gee! they smelt like a triple extract harness
+shop. I tole them I thought they'd be havin' trouble when they was ready
+to return to the haunts o' the pale-face; but Master Bobby said their
+clothes would cover it up.
+
+"I done the job. I don't set up to be a mural artist, and I ain't
+braggin', but I will say as Master Bobby's back beat any signboard ye
+ever see when I finished the decoratin'. I fastened some chicken
+feathers in their hair, and I hunted out some tomahawks in the lumber
+room, an' they let out a war-whoop that raised the roof, an' scalped me
+out o' grattytood.
+
+"'Now see here,' says I to Master Bobby, 'in return for helpin' along
+yer innocint amusements, will ye promise to do yer scalpin' in the
+paddock, an' not come near the stables? 'Cause me floor is clean,' I
+says, 'and I don't want no blood spattered on it. 'Tis hard to wash up,'
+I says. I was, ye'll observe, gintly turnin' their thoughts into another
+channel, like their mother recommended. An' they promised sweet as
+cherubs. She was right; they're spirited la-ads, an' they won't be
+driven. 'Tis best to use diplomacy.
+
+"I left them crawlin' on all fours through the bushes by the duck pond,
+shootin' arrers in the air as innocint as ye please. I dunno, though,
+how long 'twill last. I tole Billy to keep an eye on them, and I s'pose
+when I get back, I'll find his head decoratin' the hitchin'-post an' his
+hair danglin' from their belts."
+
+A movement of farewell on the club veranda brought the men back to their
+official selves. Peter straightened his hat, stiffened his back, and
+gathered up the reins.
+
+"So long, Mike," he remarked as he backed into the driveway. "I'll see
+ye to-morrow at the Daughters o' the Revolution; and if ye hear of
+anyone," he added, "as is wantin' a combination coachman an' first class
+nursemaid, give them my address. I'm lookin' for an easier place."
+
+"Peter," said Mrs. Carter, as they trotted out of the club-house gateway
+and swung on to the smooth macadam of the homeward road, "I meant to ask
+you what the children were doing this morning. Have they been amusing
+themselves?"
+
+"Yes, they've been amusin' themselves. They was playin' Indian, ma'am,
+with chicken feathers in their heads." He wisely suppressed the
+remainder of the costume. "I found them some tomahawks in the lumber
+room, an' the last I see o' them they was in the paddock scalpin' each
+other as happy as ye please."
+
+"Those delicious boys!" murmured their mother. "I never know what they
+will think of next. It is such a relief to get them into the country,
+where they can have plenty of room to play and I can be sure they are
+not in mischief. They are so exuberant, that when we are stopping in a
+summer hotel I am always uneasy for fear they may disturb the guests."
+
+The carriage had turned into the Willowbrook grounds, and was decorously
+rolling along between the smooth green lawns bordered by coloured
+foliage, the two ladies reclining against the cushions in placid
+contemplation of the summer noonday, when suddenly an ebullition of
+shouting and crying burst out across the shrubbery in the direction of
+the stables. It was not the mere joyous effervescence of animal spirits
+that had been gladdening Willowbrook for the past two weeks. There was
+an unmistakable note of alarm, a hoarser undertone, as of men joining in
+the tocsin. Peter pulled the horses sharply to their haunches and
+cocked his head to listen, while the ladies leaned forward in a flutter
+of dismay.
+
+"Something has happened to my precious boys! Drive on quick, Peter,"
+Mrs. Brainard gasped.
+
+Peter used his whip and they approached the house at a gallop. The
+trouble was evident by now. Heavy clouds of smoke were curling up from
+among the willow trees while the cry of "Fire! Fire!" filled the air.
+
+"Thank heaven it ain't the stables!" ejaculated Peter, as his eye
+anxiously studied the direction. "'Tis the waggon-shed--an' the
+buckboard's in it an' all the farmin' tools."
+
+People were running from every side. Two men from Jasper Place came
+puffing through the hole in the hedge, dragging a garden hose behind
+them, while the house servants, bare-headed and excited, swarmed out
+from the back veranda.
+
+"Annie! Annie!" called Mrs. Carter as the panting horses were dragged to
+a standstill, "turn on the fire alarm. Go to the telephone and call the
+engine house."
+
+"Simpkins has done it, ma'am," called Annie over her shoulder, as she
+hurried on. "Ow! What's that?" she added with a scream of astonished
+terror, as a red and black striped figure, with a row of ragged feathers
+waving in a fringe about its ears, burst from the shrubbery and butted
+plump against her.
+
+"Bobby!" gasped his mother, as after a moment of shocked hesitation she
+recognized her son. Bobby waved his arms and set up a howl. An
+expression of terror was plainly visible struggling through the
+war-paint.
+
+"Pete, Billy, Patrick! Quick! Quick! We can't untie him and he's
+burning! We didn't mean to burn him," he added quickly. "It's an
+accident."
+
+"Burn what?" cried Mrs. Carter.
+
+"Augustus," Bobby sobbed.
+
+And to the horror-stricken group was borne a shrill falsetto wail:
+"Help! H-e-l-p! They're burning me at the s-t-a-k-e!"--a wail apparently
+of mortal anguish, though an unexcited listener would have detected in
+the tones more of anger than of pain.
+
+Mrs. Brainard, with a frenzied shriek, threw away her lavender parasol
+and dashed in the direction of the sounds. Peter jumped from the box and
+overtook her. He was first upon the spot. The waggon-shed roof was a
+blazing mass; the straw pile beneath it was sending up a stifling cloud
+of blue smoke, and the dry surrounding grass was crackling in a swiftly
+widening circle. But in the centre of the conflagration there still
+remained a little oasis of green, where a young willow sapling rose
+defiantly from the flames. And as the smoke blew momentarily to one
+side, the writhing figure of Augustus came to view lashed firmly to the
+tree trunk, his hands above his head. With the arrival of spectators he
+finished struggling and assumed an expression of stoicism that would
+have done credit to a true Comanche.
+
+"My boy! My boy!" shrieked Mrs. Brainard, running forward with
+outstretched arms, as the smoke again closed around him.
+
+Peter caught her. "Stand back, ma'am. For heaven's sake, stand back!
+Ye'll ketch yer dress. He ain't hurt none; the fire ain't reached him.
+I'll save him," and whipping out his knife, Peter dashed into the smoke.
+He returned three minutes later, a mass of stripes and mingled grease
+kicking in his arms.
+
+Mrs. Brainard, who had closed her eyes preparing to faint, opened them
+again and looked at Augustus. He was a muddy copper colour with here and
+there a vivid touch of blue, and he exuded a peculiarly blent odour of
+brass polish and smoke.
+
+"Is--is he dead?" she gasped.
+
+"He's quite lively, ma'am," said Peter, grimly struggling to hold him.
+
+She opened her arms with a sob of relief, and received the boy, grease
+and smoke and all; while the three remaining braves modestly tried to
+efface themselves.
+
+"Robert," said Mrs. Carter, laying a detaining hand on her son's
+tri-coloured shoulder, "what is the meaning of this outrageous affair?"
+
+Bobby dug his eyes with his greasy fists and whimpered.
+
+"We just tied him to the stake and pretended to burn him. And then we
+sat down to smoke a pipe of peace, and I guess maybe the straw caught
+fire."
+
+"It did--apparently," said his mother; her tone carried a suggestion of
+worse to come.
+
+Peter, having hastily organized a fire brigade, succeeded in saving the
+buckboard and a few of the farming tools, but the building itself was
+beyond salvation. The wood was dry and thoroughly seasoned, and the
+feeble stream of water from the garden hose served to increase the smoke
+rather than to lessen the flames. The men finally fell back in a
+panting circle and watched it burn.
+
+"Gee!" ejaculated Peter, "I'm glad it was the waggon-shed. It might have
+been the stables."
+
+"Or the house," added Mrs. Carter.
+
+"Or Augustus!" breathed Mrs. Brainard.
+
+The roof fell in with a crash, and the flames leaped up to surround it.
+A mild cheer broke from the spectators; since there was nothing more to
+be done, they might as well enjoy the bonfire. The cheer was echoed by
+an answering shout at the end of the avenue, and a moment later the Sea
+Garth volunteer hook and ladder company dashed into sight, drawn by two
+foam-covered horses, the firemen still struggling into belated uniforms.
+
+They came to a stand; half a dozen men tore off the nearest ladder and
+dragged it to the burning building. There, they hesitated dubiously. It
+was clearly an impossible feat to lean a thirty-foot ladder against a
+one-story waggon-shed whose roof had fallen in. Their chief, an
+impressive figure in a scarlet shirt and a rubber helmet, advanced to
+take command. He grasped the painful situation, and for a moment he
+looked dashed. The next moment, however, he had regained his poise, and
+announced, in a tone of triumph; "We'll save the stables!"
+
+Mrs. Carter stepped forward with a voice of protest.
+
+"Oh, no, I beg of you! It isn't necessary. The sparks are flying in the
+other direction. My own men have fortunately been able to cope with the
+fire, and while I am very much obliged for your trouble, there is no
+necessity for further aid."
+
+"Madam," said the chief, "the wind is likely to change at any moment,
+and a single spark falling on that shingle roof would sweep away every
+building on the place. I am sorry to be disobliging, but it is my duty
+to protect your property." He waved her aside and issued his orders. For
+the first time in her life Mrs. Carter found that she was not master on
+her own place.
+
+Five minutes later half a dozen ladders were resting against the main
+edifice of the stables, while the bucket brigade was happily splashing
+the contents of the duck pond over the shingle roof.
+
+This precautionary measure was barely under way, when a second shouting
+and clanging of bells announced the approach of the Sea Garth Volunteer
+Hose Company No. 1. They did not possess horses and their progress had
+of necessity been slower. Accompanied by an excited escort of barefooted
+boys, they swept like a tidal wave across shaven lawns and flowered
+borders.
+
+"Keep them back! Keep them back!" wailed Mrs. Carter, in a sudden access
+of helplessness. "Peter, William, stop them! Thank them and send them
+home." She accosted the hook and ladder chief. "Tell them it's all over.
+Tell them that you yourself have already done everything that's
+necessary."
+
+"Sorry, Mrs. Carter, but it's impossible. There hasn't been a fire in
+this town for the last three months, and then it was only a false alarm.
+They're sore enough as it is because we got here first. A little water
+won't hurt anything; we're in need of rain. You go in the house, Mrs.
+Carter, and trust to me. I won't let them do any more damage than
+necessary."
+
+The hose company bore down upon the scene of confusion that surrounded
+the wrecked waggon-shed with an air of pleased expectancy. Their faces
+fell as they caught sight of the pitiable size of the fire; but the new
+chief, with quickly reviving cheerfulness, usurped dictatorship, and
+soon had a generous stream of water playing upon the embers.
+
+Mrs. Carter, with a last plaintive appeal to Peter to get rid of them,
+resumed her natural aloofness; and she and Mrs. Brainard trailed their
+smoke-grimed splendour toward the house, driving the vanquished braves
+before them.
+
+When, finally, the last spark was irretrievably dead, the duck pond was
+nearly dry and everything else was wet, the firemen reloaded their
+ladders and hose, their buckets and rubber helmets, and noisily trundled
+away. The Willowbrook contingent sat down and mopped their grimy brows.
+
+"Will you look at my flower-beds?" mourned Tom. "Walked right over 'em,
+they did."
+
+"An' will ye look at the clothes on the line?" cried Nora. "They walked
+slap through them wid their dir-rty hands."
+
+"Go and look at the carriage-house floor," Peter growled. "They turned a
+three-inch stream o' water in at the front door; it looks as if the
+flood o' Arrerat had struck us. If I ever ketch that lobster of a fire
+chief out alone, I'll teach 'im 'is dooty, I will." He paused to examine
+his person. "Gee! but I blistered me hands." He carried the examination
+further. "An' these is me best pants," he muttered. "The next time I
+helps along their innocint divarsions, I'll get me life insured."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+DIGNITY AND THE ELEPHANT
+
+
+"Come in!"
+
+Peter opened the library door and advanced with awkward hesitation.
+Behind his respectfully blank expression there was visible a touch of
+anxiety; he was not clear in his own mind as to the reason for this
+peremptory summons to the house. It might mean that he was to be
+rewarded for having saved Master Augustus's life and the contents of the
+waggon-shed; it might mean that he was to be censured for any one of a
+dozen innocent and unpremeditated faults. But Mr. Carter's expression as
+he turned from the writing table banished all doubt as to the meaning of
+the interview. His bearing contained no suggestion of honourable mention
+to come.
+
+"Close the door," he said dryly.
+
+Peter closed the door and stood at attention, grasping with nervous
+fingers the brim of his hat. Mr. Carter allowed a painful silence to
+follow while he sat frowning down at a newspaper spread on the table
+before him. Peter, having studied his master's face, lowered his
+troubled eyes to the headlines of the paper:
+
+
+     COMANCHE BRAVES ON THE WAR PATH
+
+        FIRE THREATENS DESTRUCTION
+       TO JEROME B. CARTER'S ESTATE
+
+
+"This has been a very shocking affair," Mr. Carter began, in a tone of
+impressive emphasis. "The damage, fortunately, was slight, but the
+principle remains the same as if every building on the place had burned.
+The blame on the surface rests with the boys who started the fire; and,"
+he added, with a touch of grimness, "they have been fittingly punished.
+But I find, upon looking into the matter, that the blame does not stop
+with them. I have here a copy of a New York evening paper of
+an--uh--sensational order, giving a grossly exaggerated account of the
+incident. There is one particular, however, in regard to which they do
+not exaggerate--exaggeration being impossible--and that is in their
+description of the outrageous apparel which my son and my nephews were
+wearing at the time."
+
+Mr. Carter adjusted his glasses and picked up the paper, his frown
+darkening as he glanced rapidly down the column. A facetious young
+reporter had made the best of a good story.
+
+"'Volunteer firemen--Gallant behaviour of Chief McDougal--Threatened
+tragedy--H'm----" His eye lighted on the offending paragraph, and he
+settled himself to read.
+
+"'Conspicuous among those present were the authors of the conflagration,
+Master Robert Carter, twelve-year-old son of Jerome B. Carter, and his
+three cousins, sons of John D. Brainard, of Philadelphia. Whatever may
+be said of Philadelphians in general, there is nothing slow about the
+Brainard boys. In the character of Comanche braves the four were clothed
+in simple but effective costumes of black and red war-paint. The paint,
+we are informed, was composed of axle grease and brass polish, and had
+been artistically laid on by one Peter Malone, who occupies the position
+of head groom in the Carter stables. Young Malone has missed his
+calling. His talents point to the field of decorative art.'"
+
+A fleeting grin swept over Peter's face. It struck him, for the
+hundredth time, that there was a singular absence of a sense of humour
+in the Carter family. But he quickly recomposed his features. Mr. Carter
+had laid the paper down again, and was waiting. Peter glanced dubiously
+about the room, and finally ventured in a tone of conciliation:
+
+"It weren't so shockin' as the paper made out, sir. They was wearin'
+stri-ped bathin' trunks and a row o' chicken feathers in addition to the
+grease."
+
+Mr. Carter waved the remark aside as irrelevant.
+
+"That has nothing to do with the point. The question which I am
+discussing is the fact that you painted my son with axle grease. I am
+not only shocked, but astonished. I have always entertained the highest
+opinion of your sense of propriety and fitness. I should have believed
+this story a pure fabrication on the part of an unprincipled reporter,
+had I not heard it corroborated from Master Bobby's own lips. Before
+passing judgment it is only right that I hear your version of the
+affair. What have you to say?"
+
+Peter shifted his weight uneasily. An invitation to tell a story rarely
+found him wanting, but he liked to feel that his audience was with him,
+and in the present instance Mr. Carter's manner was not surcharged with
+sympathy.
+
+"Well, sir," he began, with an apologetic cough, "If ye'll excuse me
+mentionin' it, them three Brainard boys is young limbs o' Satan, every
+one o' them. Their badness, so to speak, is catchin', an' Master Bobby's
+got it. 'Tis demoralizin', sir, to have them about; I'm losin' me own
+sense o' right an' wrong."
+
+"Very well," said Mr. Carter, impatiently, "what I want to hear about is
+this Indian business."
+
+"Yes, sir, I'm comin' to it, sir. Yesterday mornin' I got an order early
+to drive Mrs. Carter to the country club, an' when I went into the
+carriage-house to see about hitchin' up, what should I find but them
+four little div----"
+
+Peter caught Mr. Carter's eye, and hastily altered his sentence.
+
+"I found the four young gentlemen, sir, dressed in stri-ped bathin'
+trunks, engaged in paintin' their skins with axle grease ready for the
+war-path. They'd got two cans on before I seen 'em, and all I done was
+Master Bobby's back an' Master Wallace's legs. I mistrusted it wouldn't
+come off, sir, and I told 'em as much; but they was already so nearly
+covered that it seemed a pity to spoil the sport. Ye see, I was mindin'
+what their mother said about takin' a sympathetic interest in their
+innocint divarsions."
+
+"And this struck you as an innocent diversion?"
+
+"Comparatively speakin', sir. None o' their divarsions strikes me as
+fittin' for a Sunday-school."
+
+"Go on," said Mr. Carter, sharply.
+
+Peter fumbled with his hat. He was finding his employer's mood a trifle
+difficult.
+
+"It weren't my fault about the fire, sir. When I drove off they was
+playin' in the paddock as innocint as ye please. How should I know that
+as soon as me back was turned they'd be takin' it into their heads to
+burn Master Augustus at the stake? It ain't no ordinary intilligence,
+sir, that can keep up wid them. And as for the damage, there wouldn't
+'a' been none, aside from losin' the waggon-shed, if it weren't for that
+meddlin' fire department. Ye see for yerself the mess they made."
+
+He came to a sudden pause, and then added with an air of reviving
+cheerfulness:
+
+"'T was bad, sir, but it might have been worse. We saved the buckboard,
+an' we saved the garden tools, to say nothin' o' Master Augustus."
+
+Mr. Carter grunted slightly, and a silence followed, during which Peter
+glanced tentatively toward the door; but as his companion gave no sign
+that the interview was at an end, he waited. Mr. Carter's eye had
+meanwhile travelled back to the paper, and his frown was gathering anew.
+He finally faced the groom with the deliberative air of a counsellor
+summing up a case.
+
+"And you think it consonant with the dignity of my position that a New
+York paper should be able to print such a statement as that in regard to
+my son?"
+
+Peter smiled dubiously and mopped his brow, but as no politic answer
+occurred to him, he continued silent.
+
+"There is another matter which I wish to speak of," added Mr. Carter,
+with a fresh assumption of sternness. "I am informed that you called the
+boys, in their presence," he paused, as though it were painful for him
+to repeat such malodorous words--"_damned little devils!_ Is that so?"
+
+Peter sighed heavily.
+
+"I don't know, sir. I might 'a' said it without thinkin'. I was excited
+when I see the roof a blazin' and I may have spoke me mind."
+
+"Are you not aware, Peter, that such language should never, under any
+circumstances, be used in Master Bobby's presence?"
+
+"Yes, sir, but if ye'll pardon the liberty, sir, there's times when the
+Angel Gabriel himself would swear in Master Bobby's presence."
+
+"That will do, Peter. I won't bandy words with you any further; but I
+wish this to be a warning. You are now head groom--I was even
+considering, as you know well, the advisability of advancing you still
+further. Whether or not I do so will depend upon yourself. I regret to
+say that this episode has shaken my confidence."
+
+There was a sudden flaring of anger in Peter's eyes. He recalled the
+long years of honest service he had given Mr. Carter, a service in which
+his employer's interest had always been his own; and his Irish sense of
+justice rebelled. It was on his tongue to say: "I've worked ten years at
+Willowbrook, and I've always done my best. If my best is not good
+enough, you'll have to look for another man. Good evening, sir."
+
+But he caught the words before they were spoken. Since Annie had come to
+Willowbrook, Peter's outlook on life had changed. If a secret dream
+concerning himself and her and the coachman's cottage were ever to come
+true, he must swallow his pride and practise wisdom. His mouth took a
+straighter line, and he listened to the remainder of his master's homily
+with his eyes bent sulkily on the floor.
+
+"Had it been one of the other grooms who was guilty of using such
+language before my son, and of committing such an--er--unpardonable
+breach of decorum as to paint him with axle grease, I should have
+discharged the man on the spot. Your past record has saved you, but I
+warn you that it will not save you a second time. In future, I shall
+expect you to set an example to the under stablemen. You never find me
+forgetting the dignity of my position; let me see that you remember the
+dignity of yours. You may go now."
+
+Mr. Carter dismissed him with a nod, and turned back to the desk.
+
+Annie was waiting in the kitchen to hear the history of the interview.
+Peter stalked through the room without a word, his face set in ominous
+lines. She followed him to the back veranda, and caught him by the coat
+lapel.
+
+"What's the matter, Petey? What are you mad at? Didn't he thank you for
+savin' the things?"
+
+"Thank nothin'," Peter growled. "Do the Carters ever thank you? All the
+blame is fixed on me for the things them little divvels do--_damn_
+little divvels--that's what they are. 'An' is it fittin',' says he,
+'that ye should use such language before Master Bobby?' Lor'! I wish he
+could hear the language Master Bobby used before me the time he fell
+into Trixy's manger. I'd like to meet Mr. Carter in the open once, as
+man to man. I'd knock him out in the first round with me right hand tied
+behind me."
+
+Peter was clearly fighting mad.
+
+"I'd like to get a whack at that reporter what wrote that paper. Young
+Malone has missed his callin', has he? I'd show him where young Malone's
+talents lie; I'd knock him into the middle o' next week. 'Gallant work
+o' Chief McDougal.' Bloomin' lobster in a rubber helmet. I'll teach him
+his dooty if I ever ketch him out alone. It was me as saved the
+buckboard an' all the tools, an' Master Augustus in the bargain--wish
+I'd let him burn, I do. 'An',' says Mr. Carter, 'do ye think it
+consonant wid the dignity o' me position,' he says, 'that me son should
+be painted with axle grease--me--the Honourable Jerome B. Carter,
+Esquire?' His dignity! Take away his money an' his dignity, an' there
+wouldn't be enough of him left to fill a half-pint measure. I'll get it
+back at him; you see if I don't. I risks me life and I burns me best
+pants, an' that's all the thanks I get!"
+
+
+A week had passed over Willowbrook. The charred ruins of the waggon-shed
+had been carted to the barnyard; the Comanche braves had become white
+again--though in the course of it they had lost a layer of skin--and
+the subject of axle grease and brass polish had been allowed to fade
+into the past. Mr. Carter, having once eased his mind, had banished all
+rancour from his thoughts. Being a lawyer, with influence in high
+places, he had received an unexpectedly adequate insurance, and he was
+beginning to regard the matter as a funny after-dinner story. But Peter
+persisted in being sulky. Though his blistered hands were healed, his
+wounded feelings were still sore. As he drove his employer to and from
+the train, he no longer permitted himself the usual friendly chatter;
+his answers to all queries were respectful but not cordial. Peter was
+steadfastly determined to keep Mr. Carter in his place. Meanwhile, he
+was looking longingly for the chance to "get it back." And suddenly the
+chance presented itself--fairly walked into his hands--a revenge of such
+thorough-going appropriateness that Peter would have held himself a fool
+to let it slip.
+
+The yearly circus had arrived--the Nevin Brothers' Company of Trick
+Animals and Acrobats--and every billboard in the village was blazing
+with pictures of Rajah, the largest elephant in captivity. The Nevin
+Brothers confined themselves to one-night stands. On the day of the
+performance, Peter, having driven Mr. Carter to the station, stopped on
+his way home at Scanlan's to have the shoe tightened on Trixy's off hind
+foot. The shop was just around the corner from the vacant lot where the
+tents were going up, and while he was waiting, Peter strolled across to
+watch.
+
+To his surprise and gratification he discovered that the elephant
+trainer was a boyhood friend. Arm in arm with this distinguished person,
+he passed by the curious crowd of onlookers into the animal tent for a
+private view of Rajah. Once inside, and out of sight, it transpired that
+his friend would be obliged if Peter could lend him a dollar. Peter
+fortunately had only fifty cents about him; but the friend accepted
+this, with the murmured apology that the boss was slow in forwarding
+their wages. He more than paid the debt, however, by presenting Peter
+with a pass for himself and "lady," and Peter drove home in a pleasant
+glow of pride and expectation.
+
+He submitted the pass to Annie, and drove on to the stables, casually
+informing the groom who helped him unhitch that he had gone to school
+with Rajah's trainer, and wished he had a dollar for every time he'd
+licked him.
+
+Toward seven o'clock that evening, as Peter was happily changing from
+plum-coloured livery into checked town clothes, a telephone call came
+out from the house, ordering the waggonette and the runabout. "Yes, sir,
+in fifteen minutes, sir," said Peter into the mouthpiece, but what he
+added to the stable boy would scarcely have been fit for Master Bobby's
+presence. He tumbled back into his official clothes, and hurried to the
+kitchen to break the news to Annie.
+
+"It's all up with us," said Peter gloomily. "They've ordered out the two
+rigs, and both Billy an' me has to go--if it had only been ten minutes
+earlier they'd uv caught Joe before he got off."
+
+"'T is a pity, it is, an' you with the lovely pass!" she mourned.
+
+"Why the dickens should they take it into their heads to go drivin'
+around the country at this time o' night?" he growled.
+
+"They're goin' to the circus themselves!" said Annie. "Miss Ethel's
+after havin' a dinner party; I was helpin' Simpkins pass the things, and
+I heard them plannin' it. The whole crowd's goin'--all but Mrs. Carter;
+she don't like the smell o' the animals. But Mr. Carter's goin' and all
+four boys--Master Augustus was in bed an' they got him up an' dressed
+him. They're laughin' an' carryin' on till you'd think they was crazy.
+Mr. Harry Jasper pretended he was a polar bear, an' was eatin' Master
+Augustus up."
+
+"Mr. Carter's goin'?" asked Peter, with a show of incredulity. "An' does
+he think it consonant wid the dignity o' his position to be attendin'
+circuses? I wouldn't 'a' believed it of him!"
+
+"He's goin' to help chaperon 'em."
+
+"I'm glad it ain't for pleasure. I'd hate to think o' the Honourable
+Jerome B. Carter descendin' so low."
+
+"I'm to serve supper to 'em when they come home, an' I'll have somethin'
+waitin' for you on the back stoop, Pete," she called after him as he
+turned away.
+
+Peter and Billy deposited their passengers at the entrance of the main
+tent, and withdrew to hitch the horses to the fence railing. A number of
+miscellaneous vehicles were drawn up around them--mud-spattered farmers'
+waggons, livery "buggies"--but private carriages with liveried coachmen
+were conspicuously lacking. Peter could not, accordingly, while away the
+tedium of waiting with the usual pleasant gossip; as for opening a
+conversation with Billy, he would as soon have thought of opening one
+with the nearest hitching-post. Billy's ideas were on a par with Billy's
+sparring, and in either case it was a waste of breath to bother with
+him.
+
+Peter sat for a time watching the crowd push about the entrance, the
+pass burning in his pocket. Then he climbed down, examined the harness,
+patted the horses, and glanced wistfully toward the flaming torches at
+either side of the door.
+
+"Say, Bill," he remarked in an offhand tone, "you stay here and watch
+these horses till I come back. I'm just goin' to step in an' see me
+friend the elephant trainer a minute. Sit on the lap robes, and keep yer
+eye on the whips; there's likely to be a lot o' sneak thieves around."
+He started off, and then paused to add, "If ye leaves them horses, I'll
+come back an' give ye the worst tannin' ye ever had in yer life."
+
+He presented his pass and was admitted. The show had not begun. A couple
+of clowns were throwing sawdust at each other in the ring, but this was
+palpably a mere overture to keep the audience in a pleasant frame of
+mind until the grand opening march of all the animals and all the
+players--advertised to take place promptly at eight, but already twenty
+minutes overdue. Peter, aware that it would not be wise to let his
+master see him, made himself as inconspicuous as possible. Hidden behind
+the broad back of a German saloon-keeper, he drifted with the crowd into
+the side tent, where the animals were kept.
+
+Here, vociferous showmen were urging a hesitating public to enter the
+side-shows, containing the cream of the exhibit, and only ten cents
+extra. Vendors of peanuts and popcorn and all-day-suckers were adding to
+the babel, while the chatter of monkeys and the surly grumbling of a big
+lion formed an intoxicating undertone.
+
+Across the tent, gathered in a laughing group about the elephant, Peter
+caught sight of the Willowbrook party--the ladies in fluffy, light
+gowns and opera coats, the gentlemen in immaculate evening clothes. They
+were conspicuously out of their element, but were having a very good
+time. The bystanders had left them in a group apart, and were granting
+them as much attention as Rajah himself. The elephant, in scarlet and
+gold trappings, with a canopied platform on his back, was accepting
+popcorn balls from Master Augustus's hand, and Master Augustus was
+squealing his delight. Above the other noises Peter could hear his
+former schoolmate declaiming in impressive tones:
+
+"Fourteen years old, and the largest elephant in captivity. Weighs over
+eight thousand pounds, and eats five tons of hay a month. He measures
+nine feet to the shoulders, and ain't got his full growth yet. Step up
+the ladder, ladies and gentlemen, and get a bird's-eye view from the
+top. Don't be bashful; there's not the slightest danger."
+
+Mr. Harry Jasper and Master Bobby accepted the invitation. They mounted
+the somewhat shaky flight of steps, sat for a moment on the red velvet
+seat, and with a debonair bow to the laughing onlookers, descended
+safely to the ground. They then urged Mr. Carter up, but he emphatically
+refused; his dignity, it was clear, could not stand the strain.
+
+"Step up, sir," the showman insisted. "You can't get any idea of his
+size from the ground. There's not the slightest danger. He's as playful
+as a kitten when he's feeling well."
+
+Miss Ethel and one of the young men pushed Mr. Carter forward; and
+finally, with a fatuous smile of condescension, he gave his overcoat to
+Master Bobby to hold, his walking-stick to Master Augustus, and having
+settled his silk hat firmly on his head, he began climbing with careful
+deliberation.
+
+Peter, hidden in the crowd, fingering in his pocket the dollar he had
+intended to spend, suddenly had an infernal prompting. His revenge
+spread itself before him in tempting array. For one sane moment he
+struggled with the thought, but his unconquerable sense of humour
+overthrew all hesitation. He slipped around behind Rajah and beckoned to
+the trainer. All eyes were fixed upon Mr. Carter's shining hat as it
+slowly rose above the level of the crowd. The two men held a hurried
+consultation in a whisper; the bill inconspicuously changed hands, and
+Peter, unobserved, sank into the crowd again. The trainer issued a brief
+order to one of the bandmen and resumed his position at Rajah's head.
+
+Mr. Carter had by this time gained the top, and with one foot on the
+platform and the other on the upper round of the ladder was approvingly
+taking his bird's-eye view, with murmured exclamations to those below.
+
+"Stupendous! He must measure six feet across--and not reached his full
+growth! A wonderful specimen--really wonderful."
+
+Rajah suddenly transferred his weight from one side to the other, and
+the ladder shook unsteadily. Mr. Carter, with an apprehensive glance at
+the ground, prepared to descend; but the keeper shouted in a tone of
+evident alarm:
+
+"Take your foot off the ladder, sir! Sit down. For heaven's sake, sit
+down!"
+
+The ladder wavered under his feet, and Mr. Carter waited for no
+explanations. With a frenzied grasp at the red and gold trappings he sat
+down, and the ladder fell with a thud, leaving him marooned on Rajah's
+back. On the instant the band struck into "Yankee Doodle," and Rajah,
+with a toss of his head and an excited shake of his whole frame, fell
+into a ponderous two-step.
+
+"Stop him! Hold him! The ladder--bring the ladder!" shouted Mr. Carter.
+His voice was drowned in the blare of trumpets.
+
+Without giving ear to further orders, the elephant plunged toward the
+opening between the two tents and danced into the ring at the head of a
+long line of gilded waggons and gaudy floats. The grand opening march
+of all the players and all the animals had begun.
+
+Peter looked at the Willowbrook party. They were leaning on each other's
+shoulders, weak with laughter. He took one glance into the ring, where
+Mr. Carter's aristocratic profile was rising and falling in jerky
+harmony with the music. And in the shadow of the lion cage Peter
+collapsed; he rocked back and forth, hugging himself in an ecstasy of
+mirth. "Gee! Oh, gee!" he gasped. "Will ye look at the dignity of his
+position now?" In one perfect, soul-satisfying moment past slights were
+blotted out, and those booked for the future were forgiven.
+
+Rajah completed the circuit and two-stepped back into the animal tent
+drunk with glory. Half a dozen hands held the ladder while Mr. Carter,
+white with rage, descended to the ground. The language which he used to
+the keepers, Peter noted with concern, should never have been spoken in
+Master Bobby's presence.
+
+The elephant trainer waited patiently until the gentleman stopped for
+breath, then he took off his hat and suggested in a tone of deprecation:
+
+"Beg your pardon, sir, but the price for leading the grand march is
+fifty cents at the evening performance."
+
+"I'll have you arrested--I'll swear out an injunction and stop the whole
+show!" thundered Mr. Carter, as he stalked toward the entrance.
+
+Peter, coming to a sudden appreciation of his own peril, slipped out
+behind him. He ran smack into Billy who was hovering about the door.
+
+"So I caught ye," hissed Peter. "Get back to them horses as fast as ye
+can," and he started on a run, shoving Billy before him. Mr. Carter,
+fortunately not knowing where to find the carriages, was blundering
+around on the other side.
+
+"What's yer hurry?" gasped Billy.
+
+"Get up and shut up," said Peter sententiously, as he shot him toward
+the waggonette. "An' ye can thank the saints for a whole skin. We ain't
+neither of us left our seats to-night--d'ye hear?"
+
+To Billy's amazement, Peter jumped into the runabout, and fell asleep. A
+second later Mr. Carter loomed beside them.
+
+"Peter? William?"
+
+His tone brought them to attention with a jerk. Peter straightened his
+hat and blinked.
+
+"What, sir? Yes, sir! Beg pardon, sir; I must 'a' been asleep."
+
+Mr. Carter leaped to the seat beside him.
+
+"Drive to the police station," he ordered, in a tone that sent
+apprehensive chills chasing up Billy's back.
+
+"Yes, sir. Whoa, Trixy! Back, b-a-c-k. Get up!" he cut her with the
+whip, and they rolled from the circle of flaring torches into the outer
+darkness.
+
+"She's a trifle skittish, sir," said Peter, in his old-time
+conversational tone. "The noise o' the clappin' was somethin' awful; it
+frightened the horses, sir."
+
+Mr. Carter grunted by way of response, and Peter in the darkness hugged
+himself and smiled. He was once more brimming with cordial good-will
+toward all the world. Mr. Carter, however, was too angry to keep still,
+and he presently burst into a denunciation of the whole race of showmen,
+employing a breadth of vocabulary that Peter had never dreamed him
+capable of.
+
+"Yes, sir," the groom affably agreed, "It's true what ye say. They're
+fakes, every one of them, an' this show to-night, sir, is the biggest
+fake of all. The way they do people is somethin' awful. Fifty cents they
+charges to get in, an' twenty-five more for reserved seats. Extra for
+each of the side shows, an' there ain't nothin' in them, sir. Peanuts is
+ten cents a pint when ye can buy them at any stand for five, an' their
+popcorn balls is stale. I've quit goin' to shows meself. I spent a
+dollar in five minutes at the last one, sir. I had a good time and I
+ain't regrettin' the money, but 'tis expensive for a poor man."
+
+Mr. Carter grunted.
+
+"The worst sell I ever heard of, though," Peter added genially, "is
+chargin' fifty cents to ride the elephant in the openin' grand march. Ye
+wouldn't think it possible that anybody'd want to do it, but they tells
+me that never a night goes by but somebody turns up so forgettin' of his
+dignity----"
+
+Mr. Carter glanced at Peter with a look of quick suspicion. The groom
+leaned forward, and with innocent solicitude examined Trixy's gait.
+
+"Whoa, steady, ole girl! She's limpin' again in her off hind foot. They
+never shoe her right at Scanlan's, sir. Don't ye think I'd better take
+her down to Gafney's in the mornin'?"
+
+They were approaching the station house. Peter glanced sideways at his
+companion, and picked up the conversation with a deprecatory cough.
+
+"Yes, sir, the show's a fake, sir, an' no mistake. But if I was you,
+sir, I wouldn't be too hard on 'em. 'Twouldn't be a popular move. If
+ye're thinkin' of runnin' for judge," Peter broke off and started anew.
+"If ye'll excuse me tellin' it, sir, I heard 'em sayin' in Callahan's
+saloon the other day that they guessed ye was a better man than Judge
+Benedict all right, but that ye was too stuck up. They didn't care about
+votin' for a man who thought he was too good to mix with them. An' so,
+sir, you're appearin' at the circus so familiar like was a politic
+move--meanin' no offence. I know ye didn't do it on purpose, sir, but
+it'll bring ye votes."
+
+He drew up before the station house in a wide curve, and cramped the
+wheels and waited.
+
+Mr. Carter appeared lost in thought. Finally he roused himself to say:
+
+"Well, after all, perhaps there isn't any use. You may drive back and
+pick up the others. I've changed my mind."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RISE OF VITTORIO
+
+
+David MacKenna, the gardener at Jasper Place, was a Scotchman of the
+Scotch. He was truculent when sober, and actively pugnacious when drunk.
+It may be said to his credit that he was not drunk very often, and that
+when he was drunk he was canny enough to keep out of Mr. Jasper's way.
+But one night, after a prolonged political discussion at Callahan's
+saloon, he was unsteadily steering homeward across the side lawn just as
+Mr. Harry and two friends who were visiting him emerged from the gap in
+the hedge that divided Jasper Place from Willowbrook. The gentlemen were
+returning from a dinner, and were clothed in evening dress. They in no
+wise resembled tramps; but David's vision was blurred and his fighting
+blood was up. He possessed himself of an armful of damp sods, and warily
+advanced to the attack. He was not in a condition to aim very straight,
+but the three shining shirt-fronts made an easy mark. Before his victims
+had recovered from the suddenness of the onslaught sufficiently to
+protect themselves, he had demolished three dress suits.
+
+The next morning David was dismissed. The other workers, both at Jasper
+Place and Willowbrook, appreciated the justice of the sentence, but were
+sorry to see him go. David's argumentative temper and David's ready
+fists had added zest to social intercourse. They feared that his
+successor would be of a milder type, and less entertaining. The
+successor came some three days later, and Peter, observing his arrival
+across the hedge, paid an early call on Patrick to see what he was like.
+Peter returned to Willowbrook disgusted.
+
+"He's a Dago! A jabberin' Dago out of a ditch. He can't talk more'n ten
+words, an' he don't understand what they means. Mr. Harry picked him
+all right for a peaceable citizen who won't be spoilin' no dress suits.
+He ain't got a drop o' fight in him. Ye call him a liar, an' he smiles
+an' says, 'Sank you!'"
+
+Vittorio set about the weeding of his flower-beds with the sunny
+patience bred of love. Whatever were his failings in English and the
+war-like arts, at least he understood his business. Mr. Harry watched
+his protégé with pleased approval. He had always admired the Italian
+character theoretically, but this was the first time that he had ever
+put his admiration to the actual test; and he congratulated himself upon
+finding at last the ideal gardener with the pastoral soul that he had
+long been seeking. Mr. Harry had no racial prejudices himself, and he
+took it for granted that others were as broad.
+
+Vittorio's pastoral soul, however, won less approval among his
+fellow-workers. Peter did not share Mr. Harry's enthusiasm for the
+Italian race, and Peter largely swayed public opinion both at Jasper
+Place and Willowbrook.
+
+"It's somethin' awful," he declared, "the way this country's gettin'
+cluttered up with Dagoes. There ought to be a law against lettin' 'em
+come in."
+
+In so far as he was concerned, Peter refused to let Vittorio come in;
+and the man was consigned to social darkness and the companionship of
+his plants. He did not seem to mind this ostracism, however, but
+whistled and sang at his work with unabated cheerfulness. His baby
+English shortly became the butt of everybody's ridicule, but as he never
+understood the jokes, he bore no grudge. The only matter in which he
+showed the slightest personal prejudice was the fact that they all
+persisted in calling him "Tony."
+
+"My name no Tony," he would patiently explain half a dozen times a day.
+"My name Vittorio Emanuele, same-a de king."
+
+Tony, however, he remained.
+
+The man's chief anxiety was to learn English, and he was childishly
+grateful to anyone who helped him. The stablemen took a delighted
+interest in his education; it was considered especially funny to teach
+him scurrilous slang. "Come off your perch, you old fool," was one of
+the phrases he patiently committed to memory, and later repeated to Mr.
+Harry with smiling pride at his own progress.
+
+Mr. Harry spoke to Peter on the subject.
+
+"Yes, sir," Peter agreed easily, "it's disgustin', the language these
+Dagoes picks up. I can't imagine where they hears it, sir. They're that
+familiar, ye can't pound no manners into them."
+
+Mr. Harry wisely dropped the matter. He knew Peter, and he thought it
+safest to let Vittorio work out his own salvation.
+
+Several of the practical jokes at the man's expense should, logically,
+have ended in a fight. Had he taken up the gauntlet, even at the expense
+of a whipping, they would have respected him--in so far as Irishmen can
+respect an Italian--but nothing could goad him into action. He swallowed
+insults with a smiling zest, as though he liked their taste. This
+unfailing peaceableness was held to be the more disgraceful in that he
+was a strongly built fellow, quite capable of standing up for his
+rights.
+
+"He ain't so bad looking," Annie commented one day, as she and Peter
+strolled up to the hedge and inspected the new gardener at work with the
+clipping-shears. "And, at least, he's tall--that's something. They're
+usually so little, them Eye-talians."
+
+"Huh!" said Peter, "size ain't no merit. The less there is of an
+Eye-talian, the better. His bigness don't help along his courage none.
+Ye're a coward, Tony. D'ye hear that?"
+
+Their comments had been made with perfect freedom in Vittorio's
+presence, while he hummed a tune from "Fra Diavolo" in smiling
+unconcern. Unless one couched one's insults in kindergarten language
+and fired them straight into his face, they passed him by unscathed.
+
+"Ye're a coward, Tony," Peter repeated.
+
+"Cow-ward?" Vittorio broke off his song and beamed upon them with a
+flash of black eyes and white teeth. "How you mean, cow-ward? No
+understand."
+
+"A coward," Peter patiently explained, "is a man who's afraid to
+fight--like you. Eye-talians are cowards. They don't dare stand up man
+to man an' take what's comin' to 'em. When they've got a grudge to pay,
+they creeps up in the night an' sticks a knife in yer back. That's bein'
+a coward."
+
+The insulting significance of this escaped Vittorio, but he clung to the
+word delightedly. "Cow-ward, cow-ward," he repeated, to fix the
+syllables in his mind. "Nice word! Sank you." Then, as a glimmering of
+Peter's insinuation finally penetrated, he shook his head and laughed.
+The charge amused him. "Me no cow-ward!" he declared. "No afraid fight,
+but no like-a fight. Too hard work." He shrugged his shoulders and
+spread out his hands. "More easy take care-a flower."
+
+The subtlety of this explanation was lost upon Peter, and the two went
+their ways; the one happily engaged with his weeding and his pruning,
+the other looking on across the hedge contemptuously scornful.
+
+Peter's ideal of the highest human attainment was to become a "true
+sport." His vocabulary was intensive rather than extensive, and the few
+words it contained meant much. The term "true sport" connoted all
+desirable qualities. Abstractly, it signified ability, daring,
+initiative, force; it meant that the bearer attacked the world with
+easy, conquering grace, and--surest test of all--that he faced defeat no
+less than success with a high heart. Concretely, a true sport could play
+polo and ride to hounds, could drive a motor-car or a four-in-hand or
+sail a boat, could shoot or swim or box. All of these things, and
+several others, Mr. Harry Jasper could do. It was from observing him
+that Peter's definition had gained such precision.
+
+The billiard-room mantelpiece at Jasper Place held a row of silver cups,
+relics of Mr. Harry's college days. The hall at Jasper Place testified
+to Mr. Harry's prowess with the rifle. A moose head decorated the arch,
+a grizzly bear skin stretched before the hearth, and a crocodile's head
+plucked from the mud of its native Nile emerged grinning from the
+chimney-piece. Some day Mr. Harry was going to India after a tiger skin
+to put over the couch; in the meanwhile he contented himself with
+duck-shooting on Great South Bay, or an occasional dip into the
+Adirondacks.
+
+Patrick had accompanied him on the last of these trips, and it had been
+a long-standing promise that Peter should go on the next. Their camp was
+to be in Canada this year, as soon as the open season for caribou
+arrived. Peter's heart was set on a caribou of his own, and as the
+summer wore to an end his practice with the rifle was assiduous.
+
+Mr. Harry had set up a target down on the Jasper beach--a long strip of
+muddy gravel which the inlet, at low tide, left bare--and had given the
+men permission to shoot. One Saturday afternoon Patrick and Peter and
+Billy were gathered on the beach amusing themselves with a rifle and a
+fresh box of cartridges. The target was a good two hundred yards away.
+With a light rifle, such as the men were using, it was a very pretty
+shot to hit one of the outer rings, the bull's-eye, through anything but
+a lucky fluke, being almost impossible.
+
+"Mr. Harry's givin' us a run for our money," Peter grumbled, after
+splashing the water behind the target several times in a vain attempt to
+get his range. "Ye'd better keep out, Billy. This ain't no easy steps
+for little feet."
+
+But Billy, with his usual aplomb, insisted upon trying. After his
+second shot Peter derisively shouted:
+
+"Look out, Pat! It ain't safe to stand behind him; he's likely to hit
+'most anything except the mark."
+
+Billy good-naturedly retired and engaged himself in keeping score. The
+rivalry between Peter and Patrick was keen. The latter was the older
+hand at rifle-shooting, but Peter was the younger man and possessed the
+keener eye. As soon as they became accustomed to their distance they
+pulled into line, and the contest grew spirited. Presently Vittorio, a
+garden hoe in hand, came loping across the meadow, attracted by the
+shots. When he saw what was toward, he dropped down on the bank and
+interestedly watched the match. Patrick had been ahead, but his last
+shot went wild and splashed the water to the left of the target. Peter
+made the inner ring and pulled the score up even. He was in an elated
+frame of mind.
+
+"Hello, Tony!" he called with unwonted affability as he paused to
+reload. "See that shot? Pretty near hit the bull's-eye. You don't know
+how to shoot--no? Eye-talians use knives. Americans use guns."
+
+Vittorio smiled back, pleased at being so freely included in the
+conversation.
+
+"I shoot-a more good dat. You no shoot-a straight; no hit middle." His
+tone was not boastful; he merely dropped the remark as an unimpassioned
+statement of fact.
+
+Peter had raised the rifle to his shoulder; he lowered it again to
+stare.
+
+"What are ye givin' us?" he demanded. "Ye think ye can shoot better'n
+me?"
+
+Vittorio shrugged. He had no desire to hurt Peter's feelings, but at the
+same time he saw no occasion to lie.
+
+"Course I shoot-a more good dat," he responded genially. "I shoot-a long
+time. You no learn how like-a me."
+
+"Here," said Peter, stretching the rifle toward the man, "let me see ye
+do it, then! Either put up or shut up. I'll show ye that it ain't so
+easy as it looks."
+
+Vittorio sprang to his feet with an air of surprised delight.
+
+"You let-a me shoot? Sank you! Sank you ver' moch." He took the rifle in
+his hand and caressed the barrel with a touch almost loving. His eyes
+were eager as a child's.
+
+"Here, you, Tony," Peter warned, "don't get funny with that gun! Point
+it at the target."
+
+Vittorio raised the rifle and squinted along the barrel; then, as an
+idea occurred to him, he lowered it again and faced the three men with
+his always sunny smile. He had a sporting proposition to make.
+
+"You shoot-a more good me, my name Tony. I shoot-a more good you, my
+name Vittorio Emanuele, same-a de king. You call me Vittorio, I
+understand, I come; you call me Tony, I no understand, no come."
+
+Peter, whatever his prejudices, was true to his ideals.
+
+"It's a bargain, Tony. Ye beat me shootin' and I'll call ye any bloomin'
+thing ye please--providin' I can twist me tongue to it."
+
+Vittorio's eyes sought Patrick's. He removed the pipe from his mouth and
+grunted.
+
+"All-a right!" said Vittorio. "We shoot-a free time. First me, den you,
+den you, den me again, like dat."
+
+Without more ado he threw the gun to his shoulder, and, scarcely seeming
+to sight, fired, and snapped out the empty cartridge. As the smoke
+cleared the three strained forward in open-mouthed astonishment. He had
+hit the target squarely in the centre.
+
+"By gum! he's done it!" Peter gasped; then, after an astonished silence,
+"Nothin' but luck--he can't do it again. Gi' me the gun."
+
+Peter's surprise had not steadied his nerves; his shot went far astray,
+and he silently passed the rifle to Patrick. Patrick laid down his
+pipe, planted his feet firmly, and made the inner ring. He passed the
+rifle on to Vittorio, and resumed his pipe. Patrick was a phlegmatic
+soul; it took a decided shock to rouse him to words.
+
+"Let's see ye do it again," said Peter.
+
+Vittorio raised the rifle and did it again. His manner was entirely
+composed; he scored bull's-eyes as a matter of course.
+
+Peter's feelings by now were too complicated for words. He studied the
+nonchalant Vittorio a moment in baffled bewilderment, then stepped
+forward without remark to take his turn. He sighted long and carefully,
+and scored the outer ring. He offered the rifle to Patrick, who waved it
+away.
+
+"I'm out."
+
+"Don't back down," said Peter. "Ye've got two more tries. If ye let him
+beat us he'll be so darned cocky there won't be no livin' with him."
+
+Patrick copied the Italian's shrug and passed the rifle on. Vittorio
+advanced for his third turn under the keenly suspicious scrutiny of six
+eyes. They could not divine how such shooting could be accomplished by
+trickery, but, still more, they could not divine how it could be
+accomplished without. Vittorio sighted more carefully this time, but he
+made his bull's-eye with unabated precision.
+
+"Dat make-a free time," he observed, relinquishing the rifle with a
+regretful sigh.
+
+"Guess I've had enough," said Peter. "You're Vittorio Emanuele, same-a
+de king, all right. We don't appear to trot in your class. How'd ye
+learn?"
+
+"All Italian mans know how shoot--learn in de army. I shoot-a long time.
+Shoot-a Afric'."
+
+"Africa!" said Peter. "You been in Africa?"
+
+"Two time," Vittorio nodded.
+
+"What'd ye shoot there--lions?"
+
+"No, no lion." Vittorio raised his shoulders with a deprecatory air.
+"Just man."
+
+"Oh!" said Peter. His tone was noticeably subdued.
+
+Mr. Harry Jasper, also attracted by the shooting, came strolling along
+the beach to see how the match was going, but arrived too late to
+witness Vittorio's spectacular exhibit. Mr. Harry considered himself a
+pretty good shot; he had often beaten Peter, and Peter entertained a
+slightly malicious desire to see him worsted once at his own game.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Harry!" he called carelessly. "We've been tryin' our hands at
+yer target, like ye said we might, an' this here new gardener-man come
+along an' wanted to have a try. He's a surprisin' good shot for an
+Eye-talian. Ye wouldn't believe it, but he beat Pat an' he beat me.
+Would you mind shootin' with him once? I'd like to show him what
+Americans can do."
+
+Peter's tone was a touch over-careless. Mr. Harry glanced at him
+suspiciously, and from him to Vittorio, who was looking on with amiable
+aloofness, quite unaware that he was the subject of discussion. Mr.
+Harry had not been entirely blind to the trials of David's peaceable
+successor, and he was glad to see that the man was coming to the top.
+
+"So he's beaten you? How does that happen, Peter? I thought you prided
+yourself on your shooting."
+
+"I'm a little out o' practice," said Peter.
+
+Mr. Harry ran his eye over Vittorio's well-set-up figure.
+
+"Served in the army, Vittorio?"
+
+"Si, signore, five year."
+
+"What corps--_Bersaglieri_?"
+
+"Si, si!" Vittorio's face was alight. "I b'long _Bersaglieri_. How you
+know?"
+
+"Thank you for your interest, Peter," Mr. Harry laughed. "I don't
+believe I'll shoot with him to-day. I'm a little out of practice
+myself."
+
+Peter's face was mystified.
+
+"The _Bersaglieri_," Mr. Harry explained, "are the sharpshooters of the
+Italian army, and a well-trained lot they are. You and I, Peter, are
+amateurs; we don't enter matches against them when we know what we're
+about."
+
+"He didn't tell me nothin' about bein' a sharpshooter," said Peter,
+sulkily. "He said he learned in Africa."
+
+"Africa?" Mr. Harry echoed. "Did you go through the campaign in
+Abyssinia, Vittorio?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"Surely not at Adowa?"
+
+A quick shadow crossed his face.
+
+"Si, signore," he said, simply; "I fight at Adowa."
+
+"Good heavens!" Mr. Harry cried. "The fellow's fought against Menelik
+and the dervishes." He faced the other three, his hand on Vittorio's
+shoulder.
+
+"You don't know what that means? You never heard of Adowa? It means that
+this chap here has been through the fiercest battle ever fought on
+African soil. He was beaten--the odds against him were too heavy--but it
+was one of the bravest defeats in history. The Italians for three days
+had been marching across burning deserts in a hostile country, on half
+rations, and with almost no water. At the end of that time they
+accomplished a forced march of twenty miles by night, across hills and
+ravines so rough that the cannon had frequently to be carried by hand.
+Then, as they were, worn out and hungry, hopeless as to the outcome,
+they were asked to face an enemy six times larger than themselves--not a
+civilized enemy, mind you, but howling dervishes--and they did it
+without flinching. There's not a man who went through Adowa but came out
+a hero."
+
+Vittorio had watched his face; here and there he had caught a word. He
+suddenly threw out his arms in a spasm of excitement, his eyes blazing
+at the memory of the fight.
+
+"Dat's right! Menelik bad king--bad war. No like-a dose peoples--me. I
+shoot-a fast like dis." He snatched up the rifle and crouched behind a
+rock; in pantomime he killed a dozen of the foe in as many seconds. He
+threw the rifle away and sprang to his feet. "Not enough cartridges! No
+can shoot-a more. Den I get-a wound; lie like-a dis." He dropped his
+arms and drooped his head. "How you say? Tired? Yes, ver' tired like-a
+baby. _Santissima Virgine!_ No can move, I bleed so moch. Sun ver'
+hot--no water--ver' t'irsty. Den come-a dose peoples. Dey cut-a me up."
+
+He tore open his shirt. A broad scar extended from his shoulder across
+his breast. He lifted his hair and showed a scar behind his ear, another
+on his forehead.
+
+"Si, signore, all over my body dey cut-a me up!"
+
+Mr. Harry frowned.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know. It was terrible! You put up a great fight,
+Vittorio--sorry you didn't do for 'em. You are brave chaps, you
+Italians. It's a great thing to have gone through Adowa, something to be
+proud of all your life. I am glad to know you were there." He glanced at
+Peter sharply, then nodded and turned away.
+
+Peter studied Vittorio, a new look in his eyes. The man's momentary
+excitement had vanished; he was his old, placid, sunny self again.
+
+"I guess we made a mistake," said Peter, and he held out his hand.
+
+Vittorio obligingly shook it, since that seemed to be expected, but he
+did it with smiling uncomprehension. He had never known that he had been
+insulted, and he did not realize that amends were necessary. A pause
+followed while the three men gazed at Vittorio, and Vittorio gazed at
+the sun, slanting toward the western horizon.
+
+"Six 'clock!" he exclaimed, coming to a sudden realization that duty
+called. "I go water flower." He shouldered his hoe and turned away, but
+paused to add, his eyes wistfully on the rifle: "You let-a me shoot some
+ovver day? Sank you. Goo'-bye."
+
+Peter looked after him and shook his head.
+
+"An' to think he's a Dago! I s'pose if ye could understand what they was
+jabberin' about, half the time, ye'd find they was talkin' as sensible
+as anybody else. 'Tis funny," he mused, "how much people is alike, no
+matter what country they comes from." He picked up the rifle and stuffed
+the cartridges into his pocket. "Get a move on ye, Billy. 'Tis time we
+was feedin' them horses."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+HELD FOR RANSOM
+
+
+Peter, from being a care-free, irresponsible young groom, suddenly found
+himself beset with many and multiform anxieties. It commenced with Joe's
+falling through the trap-door in the ice-house and breaking his leg.
+While he was in the hospital impatiently recovering, Peter was put in
+command of the stables. The accident happened only a short time after
+the burning of the waggon-shed, and Peter was determined to retrieve his
+good name in Mr. Carter's sight. The axle grease episode remained a
+black spot in his career. The three Brainard boys were still at
+Willowbrook, but their visit was to come to an end in a week, and in the
+meantime they, too, were in a chastened mood. Peter marked out a diamond
+in the lower meadow, and with infinite relief saw them devote
+themselves to the innocent pursuit of base-ball. If their enthusiasm
+could only be made to last out the week, he felt that the waggon-shed
+would be cheap at the price.
+
+But though the boys were providentially quiescent, Peter's private
+affairs were not moving so smoothly. He had another reason besides mere
+ambition for wishing to prove himself capable of taking command in that
+uncertain future when Joe should resign. Heretofore, the prospect of
+being coachman, absolute ruler of three grooms and two stableboys, had
+been sufficient goal in itself; but of late, visions of the coachman's
+cottage, vine-covered, with a gay little garden in front, and Annie
+sewing on the porch, had supplanted the old picture of himself haughtily
+ordering about his five underlings. He had not, however, ventured to
+suggest this dream to Annie. His usual daring impudence, which had
+endeared him to her predecessors, seemed to have deserted him, and he
+became tongue-tied in her presence. Peter had been possessed before by
+many errant fancies, but never by an obsession such as this. He went
+about his work blind to everything but the memory of her face. When he
+peered into the oat-bin it was Annie that he saw; she smiled back at him
+from the polished sides of the mail phaeton and the bottom of every
+bucket of water. She made him happy and miserable, exultant and fearful,
+all at once. Poor badgered Peter knew now what it felt like to be a
+brook-trout when a skilful angler is managing the reel.
+
+This alternate hope and fear was sufficiently upsetting for one whose
+whole mind should have been upon his duties, but it was nothing to the
+state that followed. Their quarrel fell from a clear sky. He had taken
+her, one Sunday afternoon, to a popular amusement resort, a trolley
+ride's distance from Willowbrook, and had suggested refreshments in a
+place he remembered from the year before. It was called the "Heart of
+Asia," and represented, so the man with the megaphone announced, the
+harem of a native prince. The room was hung with vivid draperies of gold
+and crimson, and dimly lighted by coloured lanterns suspended from the
+ceiling. The refreshments were served by maidens billed as "Circassian
+Beauties," but whose speech betrayed a Celtic origin.
+
+Peter picked out a secluded table and ordered striped ice-cream. He had
+thought the place particularly conducive to romance, but Annie was too
+excited over her first introduction to the glamour of the East to give
+attention to anything but her surroundings.
+
+"Ain't she wonderful?" Annie whispered, as a Circassian Beauty, in green
+and gold, trailed across her field of vision.
+
+Peter shrugged in blasé, man-of-the-world fashion.
+
+"'Tis the paint an' powder an' clothes an' lights," he said sceptically.
+"Out in the daylight, with her own clothes on, she wouldn't look so
+different from you."
+
+This was not a strictly politic rejoinder, but he meant it well, and for
+the moment Annie was too dazzled to be in a carping mood. The gorgeous
+creature drew near, and set their ice-cream upon the table. She was
+turning away, after a casual glance to make sure that they had spoons
+and ice-water and paper napkins, when her eyes lighted upon Peter. Her
+second glance was not so casual; it lingered for a moment on his face.
+Peter had never visited the place but once in his life, and that the
+summer before, when he had spent an inconsequential half hour in
+chaffing the girl who served him. The incident had completely faded from
+his mind; but the girl had a diabolical memory and a love of mischief.
+
+"Hello, Peter Malone!" she laughed. "You haven't been around much
+lately. I guess you don't care for me any more."
+
+Peter's face--for no reason on earth but that he felt Annie's
+questioning eyes upon him--took on a lively red. Annie transferred her
+gaze and studied the Circassian Beauty at close range. After some
+further reminiscences, audaciously expansive on her part, gruffly
+monosyllabic on Peter's, the girl withdrew with a farewell laugh over
+her shoulder; and Annie's eyes returned to Peter, an ominous sparkle in
+their depths.
+
+"I've had all I want o' this place," she observed, pushing away her dish
+of ice-cream.
+
+Peter followed her outside, aware of a chilly change in the atmosphere.
+He anxiously ventured on an explanation, but the more he explained, the
+more undue prominence the incident acquired.
+
+"Ye needn't be apologizin'," said Annie, in an entirely friendly tone.
+"Ye've got a perfect right to go anywhere ye please, an' know anyone ye
+please. It's none o' my business."
+
+She bade him good-night with an air of cheerful aloofness, thanking him
+politely for an "interestin' afternoon." Her manner suggested that there
+was nothing to quarrel about; she had been mistaken in her estimate of
+Peter, but that was not his fault; in the future she would be more
+clear-seeing. This wholly reasonable attitude failed to put Peter at his
+ease. He passed a wakeful night, divided between profanity when he
+thought of the Circassian Beauty, and anxiety when he thought of Annie.
+
+In the morning the plot thickened.
+
+A fourth youngster was spending a few days at Willowbrook--another
+Brainard, cousin to the three who were already there; but,
+providentially, he was only thirteen months old, and had not learned to
+walk. Peter accepted the arrival without concern, never dreaming that
+this young gentleman's presence could in any degree affect his own peace
+of mind. The baby, however, had lost his nurse, and while they were
+searching a new one Annie volunteered to act as substitute. The morning
+after her visit to the Heart of Asia saw her ensconced on a rustic bench
+under an apple tree on the lawn, the perambulator at her side. The tree
+was secluded from the house by a mass of shrubbery, but was plainly
+visible from the stables. It was also closely adjacent to the grounds of
+Jasper Place, and this morning, by a fortuitous circumstance, Vittorio
+was clipping the hedge.
+
+It had never entered Peter's mind to regard Vittorio as a possible
+rival; but now it suddenly occurred to him that the man was good
+looking--not according to his own ideals, but in a theatrical, exotic
+fashion, sure to catch a woman's eye. It also occurred to him that
+Vittorio's conversation was diverting--again from a woman's point of
+view. There was something piquant in the spectacle of a
+broad-shouldered, full-grown man conversing in the baby accents of a
+child of three. Peter went about his work that day, bitterly aware of
+the by-play going on under the apple tree. Annie had undertaken the
+task of teaching Vittorio English, and the lessons were punctuated by
+the clear ring of her merry laugh.
+
+In the evening the man was enticed to the back veranda, where he sat on
+the top step singing serenades to his own accompaniment on the mandolin,
+while the maids listened in rapt delight. Even Miss Ethel added her
+applause; overhearing the music, she haled Vittorio and his mandolin and
+Italian love songs to the front veranda to entertain her guests. Peter,
+who had never been invited to entertain Miss Ethel's guests, swallowed
+this latest triumph with what grace he might. The irony of the matter
+was that it had been Peter himself who had first rescued Vittorio from
+social obscurity, and who had insisted to the other sceptical ones that
+the man was "all right," in spite of the misfortune of having been born
+in Italy instead of in Ireland. He had not hoped to be taken so
+completely at his word.
+
+In this sympathetic atmosphere Vittorio expanded like a flower in the
+sunlight. He had suddenly become a social lion. His funny sayings were
+passed from mouth to mouth, and everybody on the place commenced
+conversing in Italian-English.
+
+"Eh, Peta!" Billy hailed him one afternoon, "Mees Effel, she want-a go
+ride. She want-a you go too. I saddle dose horsa?"
+
+"Aw, let up!" Peter growled. "We hears enough Dago talk without them as
+knows decent English havin' to make fools o' theirselves."
+
+While Peter's private troubles were thus heavy upon him, his official
+responsibility increased. Mr. Carter was called away on business. On the
+morning of the departure, as they were starting for the station, Miss
+Ethel ran after them with a forgotten umbrella. "Take care of yourself,
+dad!" She kissed him good-bye, and stood on the veranda waving her
+handkerchief until the carriage was out of sight. Mr. Carter settled
+himself against the cushions with a sigh.
+
+"What a world this would be without women!" he murmured.
+
+"Yes, sir," Peter agreed gloomily, "an', beggin' yer pardon, what a hell
+of a world it is with 'em, sir."
+
+The following few days strengthened this opinion. Vittorio's education
+progressed, while Annie still maintained her attitude of superior
+aloofness. Her manner was friendly--exactly as friendly to Peter as to
+any of the other men. The intangibility of the quarrel was what made it
+hardest to bear. Could he have punched some one it would have eased his
+mind, but in all fairness he was forced to acknowledge that the "Dago"
+was not to blame. The advances were blatantly from Annie's side.
+
+In the meantime, however, a new complication had developed, which acted
+in a measure as a counter irritant. Mr. Carter's train was barely out
+of hearing, when the most extraordinary amount of petty thieving
+commenced. Nothing could be laid down anywhere about the place but that
+it immediately disappeared. There had been a number of Armenian women in
+the neighbourhood selling lace, and Peter would have suspected these had
+not the list of stolen articles been so unusual. It comprised the
+clothes-line, half a dozen sheets and the wash-boiler, six jars of jam
+from the cellar, and some bread and cake from the pantry window, a
+bundle of stakes for training the tomato plants, and Master Wallace's
+spelling book (he was having to study through vacation, and he bore the
+loss with composure), a Japanese umbrella-holder from the front veranda,
+a pair of lap-robes from the stable, and last, most uncanny touch of
+all, the family Bible! This had stood on the under shelf of the table in
+the library window, where it could be reached easily from the outside;
+but, as Peter dazedly inquired of the world in general, "Why the divvil
+should anyone be wantin' to take a Bible? It can't do him no good when
+it's stolen."
+
+It was Annie who had discovered this last depredation in the course of
+her daily dusting. As yet the family had not noticed the loss of any of
+the articles, and Peter, fearing that the matter might reflect upon his
+own generalship, had hesitated about reporting it; none of the things
+were very valuable, and he had daily expected to find the thief. The
+boys knew, however, and took an open delight in the situation. Anything
+approaching a mystery was food and drink to them. They abandoned
+base-ball, and gave themselves over entirely to a consideration of the
+puzzle.
+
+The day the lap-robes disappeared, they were gathered in a group outside
+the stable, Peter tipped back in an old armchair pulling furiously at
+his pipe, with a double frown the length of his brow, the four boys
+occupying the bench in an excited, chattering row.
+
+"Perhaps the place is haunted!" Master Jerome put forth the suggestion
+with wide eyes.
+
+"Haunted nothin'," Peter growled. "It was a pretty live ghost that got
+off with them lap-robes durin' the two minutes the stable was empty."
+
+"They were the old ones," Bobby consoled him. "At least it was kind of
+him not to take the best ones when they were just as convenient."
+
+"Do you fink it's gypsies?" Master Augustus asked the question with a
+fearful glance over his shoulder. He had been told that gypsies carried
+off bad little boys.
+
+"I don't know what it is," Peter said sullenly, "but if I ever ketches
+anybody snooping about this place who has no business to snoop----" The
+sentence ended in a threatening silence.
+
+The four boys looked at one another and shuddered delightedly.
+
+"It's like a book," Master Wallace declared. "The miscreant has foiled
+us at every turn."
+
+"Let's form a detective bureau!" Bobby rose to the occasion. "You can
+be chief of the local police, Peter. And since you find the mystery
+beyond your power to solve, you have called to your aid a private
+detective force--that's us. Jerome and Wallace and me can be detectives,
+and Augustus can be a policeman."
+
+"I want to be a detective, too," objected Augustus.
+
+"It's nice to be a policeman," soothed Bobby. "When we've tracked down
+the thief, we'll call to you and say, 'Officer, handcuff this man!' and
+you'll snap 'em on his wrist and lead him to jail."
+
+"All right!" agreed Augustus. "Give 'em to me."
+
+"Later, when we're on his track," said Bobby. "Now, Peter, you ought to
+plan a campaign. 'Course, you aren't expected to find out anything, the
+local police never do; but nominally we're under your orders, so you
+must tell us to shadow some one."
+
+Peter had been staring into space only half at tending to their
+prattle. Bobby jogged his elbow.
+
+"Pay attention, Peter! We're waiting for orders. You ought to detail two
+plain-clothes men to watch the gates, and I think it would be well to
+shadow Vittorio. He's a foreigner, you know; maybe he b'longs to the
+Black Hand. I shouldn't wonder if he was planning to blow up the
+stables. Only," he added, as an afterthought, "it's sort of hard
+shadowing a man who stands by the hedge all day talking to Annie."
+
+Peter's frown darkened as his gaze sought the rustic bench under the
+apple tree. He had little spirit left for the boys' diversions, but he
+roused himself to say:
+
+"I'll turn the details o' the case over to you, Master Bobby. Guard the
+gates, an' shadow anyone that seems suspicious. I'm drivin' Joe's wife
+to the hospital this afternoon; ye can report at six o'clock, when I
+gets back."
+
+The four rose and saluted; they held a whispered consultation, and
+crept warily away in different directions. Peter watched them out of
+sight with a wan smile, then turned inside to hitch up. The ladies of
+the family were spending the day in the city on a midsummer shopping
+expedition, so he had no fear of any demands issuing from the house. He
+called the under-groom, gave him strict orders not to leave the stables
+alone a minute, and drove on to the cottage to pick up Joe's wife. She
+packed a basket for the invalid into the back of the cart, and climbed
+up beside Peter.
+
+"I'm fetching him out something to eat," she explained. "They don't give
+him nourishment enough for a kitten. A man of Joe's size can't keep up
+his strength on beef tea and soft-boiled eggs."
+
+As they drove through the gate, a small figure sprang out from the
+bushes in front of the astonished Trixy's head.
+
+"I'm sorry to detain you," said Bobby, with dignified aloofness--his
+expression suggested that he had never seen Peter before--"but my
+orders are to search every person leaving the premises."
+
+"Lord love you, Master Bobby! What are you playing at now?" inquired
+Joe's wife with wide-eyed amazement.
+
+"I am Robert Carter, of the Secret Service," said Bobby, icily, as he
+walked to the rear of the buckboard and commenced his search. "Ha! What
+is this?" He raised the towel that covered the basket and suspiciously
+peered inside. It contained two pies, a quantity of doughnuts, and a jar
+of cherry preserves. "Madam, may I ask where you obtained these
+articles?" His manner was so stern that she stammered her reply with an
+air of convicted guilt.
+
+"I--I made them myself. They're for Joe in the hospital."
+
+"H'm!" said Bobby. "As they are for charitable purposes, I will not
+confiscate the entire lot." He gravely abstracted two of the most
+sugary doughnuts and transferred them to his pocket. "These will be
+sufficient to exhibit at headquarters with a description of the rest.
+Please favour me with your names and addresses."
+
+Peter complied in all seriousness. Evidently, his was a case of dual
+personality; he represented the local police only when he was not acting
+as coachman. He drove on with an amused grin. After all, the boys and
+their escapades added to the dull routine of daily life a spice of
+adventure which most twentieth century households lacked; the
+entertainment they furnished paid for the trouble they caused.
+
+Three hours later Peter set down Joe's wife at the door of the cottage
+and drove on to the stables. As he rounded the corner, he perceived an
+excited group gathered under the apple tree where he had left Annie and
+her kindergarten class.
+
+"There he is!" cried Nora. "Peter! Come here quick."
+
+Peter threw the lines to an adjacent groom--the one who had been told
+not to leave the stables--and hurriedly joined the circle. He found
+Annie collapsed on her bench beside the baby-carriage, rocking back and
+forth, and sobbing convulsively, while the other servants crowded about
+her.
+
+"What's the matter?" he gasped.
+
+"They've stolen the baby!" Annie wailed.
+
+Peter felt a cold chill run up his back as he peered into the empty
+carriage. For a moment he was silent, struggling to grasp the full
+horror of the fact; then he laid a hand, none too lightly, on Annie's
+shoulder, and shook her into a state of coherence.
+
+"Stop yer noise an' tell me when it happened."
+
+"Just now! Just a few minutes ago. The baby was asleep, an' Vittorio, he
+had some new flowers in the farther bed, an' he wanted me to tell him
+their name. I wasn't gone more'n five minutes, an' when I come back I
+peeked in to see if the baby was all right, an' the carriage was empty!
+We've hunted everywhere. He's gone--stolen just like the lap-robes."
+
+Annie buried her head in her arms and commenced sobbing anew. Peter's
+face reflected the blankness of the others.
+
+"Lord! This is awful! What will its mother be sayin'?"
+
+Annie's sobs increased at this agonizing thought.
+
+"It's them Armenian-lace women," Nora put in. "Master Bobby says they're
+gypsies, and are always stealing babies and holding them for ransom."
+
+"Haven't ye done anything?" he cried. "Didn't ye telephone for the
+p'lice?"
+
+"Master Bobby wouldn't let us. He says the local police are blind as
+bats and what we need are detectives. An' above all, he says, we must
+not let it get into the papers; his father is awful mad when anything
+gets into the papers. Leave it to him, he says, and he'll have the
+gypsies shadowed."
+
+"This ain't no time for play," growled Peter, whirling toward the house
+and the telephone. "What's that?" He stopped as his eye lighted upon a
+vivid sheet of paper lying on the ground.
+
+"It was pinned to the p-pillow," Annie sobbed.
+
+Peter snatched it up and stared for a moment in blank amazement. The
+words were printed in staggering characters, a bright vermilion in tone.
+
+
+     PLACE TEN THOUSAN DOUBBLOONS
+     IN GOLD IN THE HOLLO OAK
+     BEFORE SUN RISE AND
+     YOUR BABY SHALL BE
+     RISTORED FAIL AND
+     YOU WONT NEVER SEE
+     HIM AGEN!!
+     BLOOD! BLOOD!
+
+
+A flash of illumination swept over Peter's face.
+
+There was an old barn at the end of the lane that had been moved back
+when the new stables were built. A few days before, Peter, himself
+unobserved, had seen Wallace knock three times on the door, and had
+heard a voice from inside respond:
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"A friend," said Wallace.
+
+"Give the countersign."
+
+"Blood!"
+
+"Pass in," said the voice.
+
+The door had opened six inches while Wallace squeezed through. Peter had
+supposed it merely their latest play, unintelligible but harmless; now,
+however, he commenced putting two and two together. Evidently, his was
+not the only case of dual personality.
+
+"Gee! I'm a fool not to have thought of it," he muttered.
+
+"Oh, Pete!" Annie implored. "Do you know where he is?"
+
+Peter controlled his features and gravely shook his head.
+
+"I can't say as I do, exactly, but this here paper furnishes a clue. I
+think p'raps I can find the baby without calling in the p'lice." He
+faced the others. "Go back to the house and watch out that none o' them
+gypsy women comes prowlin' around." He waited until they were out of
+hearing, then he sat down on the bench by Annie. "I'll find the kid on
+just one condition--ye're to let that Dago alone. D'ye understand?"
+
+"Get the baby, hurry--please! I'll talk to you afterward."
+
+"I think I'll be talkin' just a second now. Ye know well enough I never
+had nothin' to do with that Circassian Beauty girl."
+
+"Yes, yes, Pete! I believe you. I know you didn't. Please go."
+
+"Stop thinkin' o' the kid a minute an' listen to me." He reached over
+and grasped her firmly by the wrist. "If I fetches him back without no
+hurt before his mother gets home, will everything be just the same
+between us as before I took ye to that infernal Heart of Asia?"
+
+"Yes, Pete, honest--I promise." Her lips trembled momentarily into a
+smile. "I knew you didn't have nothing to do with her. I just wanted to
+make you mad."
+
+His grasp tightened.
+
+"Ye succeeded all right."
+
+"Ow, Pete, let me go! You hurt."
+
+He dropped her wrist and rose to his feet.
+
+"Mind, now, this is on the straight. I finds the kid an' we're friends
+again."
+
+She nodded and smiled into his eyes. Peter smiled back, and swung off,
+whistling, down the lane. A rustling behind the hedge, and a scampering
+of feet, warned him that the enemy had posted scouts. He stilled his
+whistle and approached the old barn warily. It presented a blank face
+when he arrived; the door was shut and locked. He pounded three times. A
+startled movement occurred inside, but no challenge. He pounded again,
+more insistently, pushing with his shoulder until there was the sound of
+straining timber.
+
+"Who goes there? Give the countersign," issued from the keyhole in
+Master Augustus's tones.
+
+"Blood!" said Peter, with grim emphasis.
+
+A pause followed, during which he kept his ear to the crack. A whispered
+consultation was going on inside, then presently, a small window opened
+and Master Augustus's head appeared.
+
+"Oh, Pete! Is dat you?" There was relief in his tone. "Wait a minute an'
+I'll let you in. I was 'fraid it was gypsies."
+
+"Well, it ain't gypsies; it's the local p'lice on the track o' stolen
+goods. You open up that door an' be quick about it!"
+
+A long wait ensued while Augustus ineffectually fumbled with the lock,
+talking meanwhile to Peter in as loud a voice as possible to drown the
+sound of movement behind him. The door was finally flung wide, and Peter
+was received with a disarming smile. He stepped inside and peered about.
+
+"Where have ye hid the other boys?" he demanded.
+
+"I'm a p'liceman," lisped Augustus, with engaging inconsequence,
+"stationed here to guard de lane. I fought it was safest to keep de door
+locked for fear some more gypsy people might come along."
+
+"Where's the ladder gone to that loft?"
+
+"De ladder?" Augustus raised wide innocent eyes to the hole in the
+ceiling. "Maybe de same person stole de ladder as stole de ovver fings."
+
+"Maybe," Peter assented genially, as he squinted up through the opening.
+
+The end of the ladder was visible, also the end of a rope-ladder, easier
+to haul up in emergencies. The clothes-line at least was accounted for.
+Peter took off his coat, shoved a saw-horse under the opening, and
+sprang and caught the edge of the scuttle, while Augustus, in a frenzy
+of remonstrance, danced below and shouted warnings. After a few
+convulsive kicks Peter swung himself up and sat down on the edge of the
+scuttle to get his breath, while he took a preliminary survey of the
+room. There was no doubt but that he had tracked the robbers to their
+den. Opposite him, in letters a foot high, the legend sprawled the
+length of the wall:
+
+
+     TOM SAWYER'S ROBBER GANG
+
+
+As his eyes roved about the room they lit on one familiar object after
+another. The four walls were hung with sheets; two pirate flags of black
+broadcloth (he recognized his lap-robes) fluttered overhead; the centre
+of the room was occupied by the umbrella-stand, upside down, serving as
+a pedestal for the Bible, and the tomato stakes, made into cross swords,
+decorated the walls. The booty was there, but the thieves had escaped. A
+second, more thorough examination, however, betrayed in a shadowy
+corner, a slight bulging of the sheets, while sundry legs protruded
+from below. Peter stalked over, and laying a firm grasp on the nearest
+ankle, plucked out Master Wallace from behind the arras. He set the boy
+on his feet and shook him.
+
+"What have ye done with that baby?"
+
+Wallace dug his fists into his eyes and commenced to whimper. Peter
+tried another cast, and fetched out Master Bobby.
+
+"Hello, Pete!" said Bobby, with cheerful impudence.
+
+"You cough up that baby," said Peter.
+
+"He's in the wash-boiler." Bobby waved his hand airily toward the
+opposite end of the room.
+
+Peter, still grasping Bobby's collar with a touch unpleasantly firm,
+strode across and raised the lid. The baby was sleeping as peacefully as
+in his own perambulator.
+
+"We were just going to return him when you came." Bobby's voice
+contained an increasing note of anxiety. "We fed him and sterilized his
+milk just like Annie does. He's been having a bully time, laughing and
+crowing to beat the band. He likes adventures. It's terribly stupid
+lying all day in that carriage; a little change is good for his health."
+
+Peter shook his captive. "What's the meanin' o' this?" His gesture
+included the entire interior.
+
+"We're robbers," said Bobby, stanchly. "I'm Huck Finn, the Red-handed,
+and Jerome's Tom Sawyer, the Terror of the Plains. When we saw that baby
+left alone in the carriage, we thought we ought to teach Annie a lesson.
+We meant to turn into detectives pretty soon and raid this robber den
+and take the baby back. We were just getting ready to be detectives when
+you came."
+
+"This is one time the local police got in first," observed Peter.
+"What's that Bible for?"
+
+"To take our oaths on."
+
+"Huh! I guess yer mother will be havin' somethin' to say to that." He
+lowered the ladder and faced the robbers. There were three by this
+time: Jerome had emerged of his own accord. "I'll take the baby meself.
+Master Bobby, ye follow with the Bible; Master Jerome, ye rip the skull
+an' bones off them lap-robes, fold 'em up neat, an' put 'em in the
+closet where they b'long. I'll give ye just half an hour to break up
+this gang an' return the loot. Master Augustus!" Peter bellowed down the
+trap, "fetch four pairs o' handcuffs an' have these robbers at the
+p'lice station in half an hour to hear their sentence."
+
+He shouldered the baby with awkward care, and retraced his steps toward
+the house. Annie was still drooping on her bench. Peter approached
+softly from behind.
+
+"Here he is like I promised."
+
+"Oh, Pete! Is he hurt?" She snatched the child from his arms and
+commenced anxiously examining his limbs for injuries. The baby grabbed
+her hair and cooed. She covered him with kisses. "Where'd you find him?"
+
+"I found him--where I found him," said Peter, cannily, "an' don't ye be
+leavin' him alone again."
+
+"I won't! I can't never thank you enough."
+
+"Yes, ye can--by not flirtin' with that Dago any more."
+
+"I wasn't flirtin' with him; he don't care nothin' about me. All he
+wants is to learn to talk."
+
+Peter looked sceptical.
+
+"Honest, Pete! It's the livin' truth. I never flirted with no one,
+except--maybe you."
+
+Peter's face softened momentarily, but it hardened again as a shadow
+fell between them. Vittorio was standing on the other side of the hedge.
+
+"You find-a dat baby?" he inquired with an all-inclusive smile. As the
+fact was self-evident, nobody answered. Vittorio was a romantic soul; he
+caught the breath of sentiment in the air. "Annie you girl?" he inquired
+genially of Peter.
+
+Peter scowled without speaking.
+
+"I got-a girl too, name Marietta. Live-a Napoli. Some day I send-a
+money, she come Americ'; marry wif me. Nice girl, Marietta. Annie nice
+girl, too," he added, as a polite afterthought. "You marry wif her?"
+
+Peter's face cleared.
+
+"Some day, Vittorio, if she'll be havin' me." He stole a side glance at
+Annie. She rose with a quick flush.
+
+"Quit your foolin', Pete! 'Tis time this baby was getting his supper.
+Would you mind settin' his carriage on the porch? Good night, Vittorio."
+She tucked the baby under her arm and started, singing, for the house.
+
+Peter put up the carriage and sauntered toward the stables in the utmost
+good humour. He found Augustus with his prisoners drawn up in line,
+their wrists and ankles shackled together.
+
+Augustus saluted. "I caught free robbers," he observed. "De ovver one
+'scaped."
+
+Peter drew his face into an expression of judicial sternness. "What
+have ye got to say for yourselves?" he growled.
+
+There was silence for a moment, then Jerome ventured: "We're going away
+in three days. I shouldn't think at the very end you'd want to have hard
+feelings between us."
+
+"If you tell mother," Bobby added, "you'll get Annie into an awful lot
+of trouble. Annie's been good to me. I'd hate to have her get a
+scolding."
+
+Peter suppressed a grin.
+
+"Ten years at solitary confinement is what ye deserve," he announced,
+"but since there's extenuatin' circumstances, I'll let ye go free on
+parole--providin' ye play base-ball all the rest o' the time."
+
+"I say, Pete, you're bully!"
+
+"It's a bargain," said Peter. "_An' mind ye keep to it._ Officer, set
+free the prisoners."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+GEORGE WASHINGTON'S UNDERSTUDY
+
+
+"Wait a moment, Peter," Miss Ethel called from the veranda, as he was
+starting for the village with the daily marketing list. "I want you to
+drive around by Red Towers on your way home and leave this note for Mrs.
+Booth-Higby."
+
+"Very well, Miss Ethel." Peter reined in Trixy and received the note
+with a polite pull at his hat brim.
+
+"And, Peter, you might use a little discretion. That is--I don't want
+her to know----"
+
+"You trust me, Miss Ethel; I'll fix it."
+
+Her eyes met his for a second and she laughed. Peter's face also relaxed
+its official gravity as he pocketed the note and started off. He
+understood well the inner feelings with which she had penned its polite
+phrases. A battle had been waging in the Carter family on the subject of
+Mrs. Booth-Higby, and the presence of the invitation in Peter's pocket
+proved that Miss Ethel was vanquished.
+
+The invitation concerned a garden party to be given at Willowbrook on
+the evening of the fifteenth, with the Daughters of the Revolution as
+guests of honour, and amateur theatricals as entertainment. Peter knew
+all about it, having arduously assisted the village carpenter in the
+construction of rocks, boats, wigwams, log-cabins and primæval forests.
+He knew, also, that the chief attraction of the evening would not be the
+theatricals, but rather the presence of a young Irish earl who was
+visiting Mr. Harry Jasper. Miss Ethel was also entertaining guests, and
+the two households formed an exclusive party among themselves. The
+entire neighbourhood was agog at the idea of a live lord in their midst,
+but so far no one had seen him, except from a distance, as he was
+whirled past in Mr. Harry's motor, or trailed across the golf links in
+Miss Ethel's wake. She was planning to exhibit him publicly on the night
+of the garden party.
+
+The question of invitations had been difficult, particularly in the case
+of Mrs. Booth-Higby. In regard to this lady society was divided into two
+camps, comprising those who received her and those who did not. Miss
+Ethel was firm in her adherence to those who did not, but her father and
+mother had tacitly slipped over to the other camp--Mr. Carter being a
+corporation lawyer, and Mr. Booth-Higby a rising financier. Peter
+likewise knew all about this, Mrs. Carter and her daughter having
+discussed the matter through the length of a seven-mile drive, while he
+sedulously kept his eyes on the horses' ears, that the smile which would
+not be suppressed might at least be unobserved.
+
+Mrs. Carter had maintained that, since Mrs. Booth-Higby was a member of
+the Society, not to invite her would be too open a slight. Miss Ethel
+had replied that the party was purely a social affair--she could invite
+whom she pleased--and she had added some pointed details. The woman's
+maiden name, as everyone knew, was Maggie McGarrah, and her father,
+previous to his political career, had kept a saloon; she was odious,
+pushing, _nouveau riche_; she dyed her hair and pencilled her eyebrows,
+she didn't have a thought in the world beyond clothes, and she flirted
+outrageously with every man who came near. Peter's smile had broadened
+at this last item. It was, he shrewdly suspected, the keynote of the
+trouble. Miss Ethel had caught Mr. Harry Jasper paying too assiduous
+attention to Mrs. Booth-Higby's commands on the occasion of a recent
+polo game.
+
+Peter felt that when Mrs. Carter and her daughter matched wills, the
+result was pretty even betting, and his sporting instincts were aroused.
+He had been interested, upon delivering the invitations, to see that
+there was none for the Booth-Higbys; and now his interest was doubly
+keen at receiving it three days late. Miss Ethel had succumbed to the
+weight of superior argument.
+
+He turned in between the ornate gates of Red Towers--the two posts
+surmounted by lions upholding a mythical coat of arms--and drew up in
+the shadow of an imposing _porte-cochère_. A gay group of ladies and
+gentlemen were gathered in lounging chairs on the veranda, engaged with
+frosted glasses of mint julep; while Mrs. Booth-Higby herself, coifed
+and gowned as for an evening reception, was standing in the glass doors
+of the drawing-room. As her gaze fell upon Peter she strolled toward him
+with a voluminous rustle of draperies.
+
+"Whose man are you?" she inquired, with an air of languid condescension.
+
+Peter's face reddened slightly. The entire group had ceased their
+conversation to stare.
+
+"Mr. Jerome Carter's," he replied, fumbling for the note.
+
+"Ah!" said Mrs. Booth-Higby, with a lifting of the eyebrows.
+
+"It should have come three days ago," Peter glibly lied. "Miss Carter
+give me a lot o' them to deliver; this one must have slipped down the
+crack between the cushions an' got overlooked. We come across it this
+mornin' when we was washin' the buckboard, so I drove over with it on me
+way home from the marketin'. I hope that it ain't important, and that ye
+won't feel called upon to tell Miss Carter? It would get me into
+trouble, ma'am."
+
+Her face had cleared slightly during this recital; it was evident that
+she knew about the garden party, and had entertained emotions over the
+absence of her own invitation. She saw fit now to work off her stored-up
+anger upon the delinquent. Peter knew his place, and respectfully
+swallowed the scolding, but he did it with a cordial assent to Miss
+Ethel's description of the lady's character. She ended by bidding him
+wait for an answer. He heard her say, as she swept down the veranda:
+
+"Excuse me a moment while I answer this note. It's from Ethel Carter,
+Jerome Carter's daughter, you know"--evidently this was a name to
+conjure with--"an invitation to meet Lord Kiscadden. It should have come
+three days ago, but their man stupidly forgot to deliver it. He is
+begging me not to report him, though I feel that such carelessness
+really ought to be punished." She rustled on into the house, and Peter
+sat for twenty minutes flicking the flies from Trixy's legs.
+
+"An' she's a daughter o' Tim McGarrah!" he repeated to himself. There
+had been nothing snobbish about Tim; he was hail-fellow-well-met with
+every voter east of Broadway. "She's ashamed of him now," Peter
+reflected, "and won't let on she ever heard the name; but the old man
+was ten times more a gentleman than his daughter is a lady, for all his
+saloon!"
+
+His cogitations came to an end as Mrs. Booth-Higby rustled back, a
+delicately tinted envelope in her hand and a more indulgent smile upon
+her lips.
+
+"There are to be theatricals?" she inquired, in a note of forgiveness.
+
+"I believe so, ma'am."
+
+"Is Lord Kiscadden to take part?"
+
+"Can't say, ma'am."
+
+Peter, as scene-shifter, had had ample opportunity to study Lord
+Kiscadden's interpretation of the character of George Washington--his
+lordship, with a fine sense of humour, had himself selected the
+rôle--but at mention of the name, Peter's face was blank.
+
+"Is he to remain much longer at Jasper Place?" she persisted.
+
+"Haven't heard him say, ma'am."
+
+She abandoned her pursuit of news, handed him the note, and graciously
+added ten cents.
+
+Peter touched his hat gravely, murmured, "Thank ye, ma'am," and drove
+away. At the foot of the lawn the Booth-Higby peacock--supposedly a
+decoration for the Italian garden, but given to wandering out of
+bounds--trailed its plumage across his path. Peter shied his ten cents
+at the bird's head, with the muttered wish that the coin had been large
+enough really to accomplish damage.
+
+The day of the garden party showed a clear sky above, and Peter was up
+with the dawn and at work. Miss Ethel had appointed him her right-hand
+man, and though he had the entire stable and house force to help him, he
+found the responsibility wearing. He was feeling what it was to be a
+Captain of Industry. He superintended the raising of a supper tent on
+the lawn, strung coloured electric bulbs among the branches of the
+trees, saw the furniture moved out of the drawing-room and a hundred
+camp chairs moved in. He spent the afternoon shifting scenery for the
+dress rehearsal; but finally, close upon six, he shoved Plymouth Rock
+back into place for the first tableau, and, with a sigh of relief,
+turned toward the kitchen. He felt that he had earned a fifteen-minutes'
+chat with Annie.
+
+But fresh trouble awaited him. He found Mrs. Carter and Nora in anxious
+consultation. The ice-cream had not come; and the expressman, who had
+already met three trains, said that he could not deliver it now until
+morning.
+
+Mrs. Carter pounced upon Peter.
+
+"Is Miss Ethel through with you? Then drive to the station immediately
+and meet the six-twenty train. If it isn't on that, stop at Gunther's
+and tell them they will _have_ to make me seven gallons of ice-cream
+before ten o'clock to-night. It's disgraceful! I shall never engage
+Perry to cater again. And tell the expressman that I consider him very
+disobliging," she threw after him.
+
+An hour and a half later he dumped three kegs of ice and brine on the
+back veranda, and was turning away, cheered by the near hope of his
+long-postponed supper when Annie hailed him from the kitchen window.
+
+"Hey, Pete! Wait a minute. Miss Ethel said, as soon as you got back, for
+me to send you to the library."
+
+"What are they wantin' now?" he growled. "I'll be glad when that
+bloomin' young lord takes himself home to Ireland where he b'longs.
+Between picnics an' ridin' parties an' clambakes an' theatricals, I
+ain't had a chance to sit down since he come."
+
+Annie shoved a chair toward him.
+
+"Then now's your chance, for he's gone. A telegram came calling him
+away, an' Mr. Harry's just back from motoring him to the station."
+
+"Praise be to the saints!" said Peter, and he turned toward the library
+door.
+
+He found Miss Ethel, the two young ladies who were visiting her, and Mr.
+Harry Jasper gathered in a pensive group before the gauze screen that
+stretched across the front of the stage.
+
+"Here he is!" cried Miss Ethel, with an assumption of energy. "Put on
+this hat and wig, Peter, and stand behind the screen. I want to see what
+you look like."
+
+Peter apathetically complied. He had received so many extraordinary
+commands during the past few days that nothing stirred his curiosity.
+
+"Bully!" said Mr. Harry. "Never'd know him in the world."
+
+"We'll lower the lights," said Miss Ethel. "Fortunately the gauze is
+thick."
+
+"Peter," Mr. Harry faced him with an air of tragic portent, "a grave
+calamity has befallen the state. The rightful heir has been spirited
+away, and it's imperative that we find a substitute. I've often
+remarked, Peter, upon the striking resemblance between you and Lord
+Kiscadden. In that lies our only hope. It's a Prisoner of Zenda
+situation. Often occurs in novels. Do you think it might be carried out
+in real life?"
+
+"Can't say, sir," Peter blinked dazedly.
+
+"Be sensible, Harry!" Miss Ethel silenced him. "Peter, Lord Kiscadden
+has been suddenly called away, and it spoils our tableaux for this
+evening. Fortunately, he didn't have a speaking part. You've watched him
+rehearse--do you think you could take his place?"
+
+"Don't believe I could, ma'am." Peter's face did not betray enthusiasm.
+
+"You'll _have_ to do it!" said Miss Ethel. "It's too late now to find
+anyone else."
+
+"You're George Washington," Mr. Harry cut in. "Father of his country.
+Only man on earth who never told a lie--no one will recognize you in
+that part, Peter."
+
+"Here are the clothes." Miss Ethel bundled them into his arms. "You saw
+Lord Kiscadden this afternoon, so you know how they go. Be sure you get
+your wig on straight, and powder your face _thick_! It's half-past
+seven; you will have to dress immediately."
+
+"I ain't had no supper," Peter stolidly observed.
+
+"Annie will give you something to eat in the kitchen. We won't tell
+anybody except the few who are with you in the tableaux. The operetta
+cast have never seen Lord Kiscadden, and won't know the difference. The
+minute the tableaux are over you can disappear, and we will explain that
+you have been suddenly called away."
+
+A slow grin spread over Peter's face.
+
+"Are ye wantin' me to talk like him?" he inquired. His lordship's idiom
+had been the subject of much covert amusement among the servants; Peter
+could mimic it to perfection.
+
+"I don't quite ask that," Miss Ethel laughed, "but at least keep still.
+Don't talk at all except to us. You can pretend you are shy."
+
+"What did she want, Pete?" Annie inquired, with eager curiosity as he
+reappeared.
+
+Peter exhibited his clothes.
+
+"Don't speak to me so familiar! I'm Lord Kiscadden o' County Cark. Me
+family is straight descinded from the kings of Ireland, and I'm
+masqueradin' as George Washington who never told a lie."
+
+An hour later, Peter, in knee breeches and lace ruffles, with hat
+comfortably cocked toward his left ear, was sitting at ease on a corner
+of the kitchen table, dangling two buckled shoes into space, while a
+cigarette emerged at an acute angle from the corner of his mouth. His
+appearance suggested a very rakish caricature of the immortal first
+President. The maids were gathered in a giggling group about the young
+man, when Miss Ethel and Mr. Harry, also in costume, appeared in the
+kitchen door. The effect on George Washington was electrical; he removed
+his cigarette, slid to the floor, straightened his spinal column, and
+awaited orders.
+
+Mr. Harry carried a make-up box under his arm. He covered the groom's
+face with a layer of powder, redirected the curve of his eyebrows,
+added a touch of rouge, and stepped back to view the effect.
+
+"Perfect!" cried Miss Ethel. "No one on earth would recognize him."
+
+"Peter," Mr. Harry gravely schooled him, "these are your lines for the
+evening; say them after me: 'By Jove! Ripping! Oh, I say! Fancy, now!'"
+
+Peter unsmilingly repeated his lesson.
+
+"And no matter what anybody says to you, you are not to go beyond that.
+Understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I'll do me best, sir." There was an anxious gleam in Peter's
+eye; he was suddenly being assailed by stage fright.
+
+"Your first appearance is in the fourth tableau, where you say good-bye
+to your family before taking command of the army," Miss Ethel explained.
+"The moment it's over slip out to change your costume, and stay out
+until after the Declaration of Independence has been signed. Don't stand
+around the wings where people can talk to you. Now go and wait in the
+butler's pantry until you are called."
+
+Washington took an affecting leave of his family amid an interested
+rustling of programmes on the part of the audience; no one was unaware
+of the exalted identity of the hero. The applause was enthusiastic, and
+the curtain was twice raised. As it fell for the last time a group of
+historical personages from the operetta cast hovered about him with
+congratulatory whispers. One or two were in the secret, but the rest
+were not. Mr. Harry, as stage manager, waved them off.
+
+"Clear the boards for the next scene," he whispered hoarsely. "Here,
+Kiscadden, you'll have to hurry and dress. You cross the Delaware in ten
+minutes." With a hand on George Washington's shoulder he marched him
+off. "That was splendid, Peter," Mr. Harry whispered, as he shunted him
+into the butler's pantry. "Not a soul suspected. You stay here until you
+are wanted."
+
+The Delaware was crossed without mishap, also the night watch kept at
+Valley Forge. Washington and Lafayette crouched over their camp fire
+amidst driving snow, while the audience shivered in sympathy. But
+unluckily, these tableaux were followed by no change of costume, and
+several others intervened before Peter's next appearance. As he was
+anxiously trying to obliterate himself in the shadow of Plymouth Rock,
+he heard some one behind him whisper:
+
+"Let's cut out and have a smoke. It's deucedly hot in here."
+
+He turned to find Miles Standish of the operetta cast, with an insistent
+hand on his elbow. Miles Standish, in private life, was a young man
+whose horse Peter had held many a time, and whose tips were always
+generous.
+
+There seemed to be no polite means of escape, and Peter, with a
+suppressed grin, followed his companion to the veranda. It was lighted
+by a subdued glow from coloured lanterns, but there was an occasional
+patch of dimness. He picked out a comfortable chair and shoved it well
+into the shadow of a convenient palm. Standish produced
+cigars--twenty-five-cent Havanas, Peter noted appreciatively--and the
+two fell into conversation. Fortunately the young man aspired to the
+reputation of a _raconteur_, and he willingly bore most of the burden.
+Peter kept his own speeches as short as possible, manfully overcoming a
+tendency to end his sentences with "sir." An occasional interpolation of
+"By Jove!" or "I say!" in imitation of Lord Kiscadden's lazy drawl, was
+as far as he was required to go.
+
+He came out of the encounter with colours still flying; but a perilous
+ten minutes followed. As the two strolled back to the stage entrance,
+they were intercepted by a gay group of Pilgrim maids. Peter had coped
+successfully with one young man, but he realized that half a dozen
+young ladies were quite beyond his powers of repartee. One of them threw
+him a laughing compliment on his acting, and he felt himself growing
+pink as he murmured with a spasmodic gulp:
+
+"Yes, ma'am. Thank ye, ma'am--I say!"
+
+The orchestra saved the situation by striking into a rollicking
+quickstep that made talking difficult. The music in the end went to
+Peter's heels; and grasping a blue and buff coat tail in either hand, he
+favoured the company with an Irish jig. This served better than
+conversation; the laughter and applause were uproarious, bringing down
+upon them the wrath of the stage manager.
+
+"Here you people, _taisez-vous_! You're making such a racket they can
+hear you inside. Ah, Kiscadden! You're wanted on the stage; it's time
+for Cornwallis to surrender." Peter was marched out of danger's way.
+
+The surrender was followed by the operetta in which Miss Ethel was
+heroine. Her own affairs claimed her, but she paused long enough to
+whisper in George Washington's ear:
+
+"You may go now, Peter. You've done very nicely. Slip out through the
+butler's pantry where no one will see you. Change into your own clothes
+and help them in the kitchen about serving supper--but don't on _any_
+account step into the front part of the house again to-night."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Peter, meekly.
+
+He found the entrance to the butler's pantry blocked, and he dived into
+the empty conservatory, intending to pass thence to the veranda, and so
+get around to the kitchen the outside way. But as he reached the veranda
+door he ran face to face into Mrs. Booth-Higby. Peter quickly backed
+into a fern-hung nook to let her pass. The light was dim, but his
+costume was distinctive; after a moment of hesitating scrutiny she bore
+down upon him.
+
+"Oh, it's George Washington!--Lord Kiscadden, I should say. I see by the
+programme that your part is finished. It was so frightfully warm inside
+that I slipped out to get a breath of air. May I introduce myself? I am
+Mrs. Booth-Higby, of Red Towers. I trust that you will drop in often
+while you are in the neighbourhood. I have so wanted to have a chance to
+talk to you because you come from Ireland--dear old Ireland! I am Irish
+myself on the side that isn't Colonial, and I have a warm spot in my
+heart for everything green."
+
+Peter manfully bit back the only observation that occurred to him while
+the lady rattled on:
+
+"My Irish connection is three generations back--a younger son, you know,
+who came to make his way in a new land, and, having married into one of
+the old Colonial families, settled for good. But once Irish, always
+Irish, I say. My heart warms to the little ragamuffins in the street if
+they have a bit of the brogue. It's the call of the blood, I suppose.
+Shall we sit here? Or perhaps you have an engagement--don't let me keep
+you----"
+
+He summoned what breath was left and confusedly murmured: "Oh, I say!
+Ripping!"
+
+They settled themselves on a rustic bench, and Peter, possessing himself
+of her fan, slowly waved it to and fro in the nonchalant manner of Mr.
+Harry. Mrs. Booth-Higby, fortunately, was no less garrulous than Miles
+Standish had been, and she rattled on gaily, barely pausing for her
+companion's English interpolations.
+
+Peter's feelings were divided. He had the amused consciousness that he
+was being flirted with by the lady who, three days before, had so
+condescendingly given him ten cents. And he also had a chilly
+apprehension of the storm that would rise if by any mischance she
+discovered the hoax. But his fighting blood was up, and he was excited
+by past success. He abandoned his interjections and, venturing out for
+himself, recounted an anecdote of a fellow countryman in an excellent
+imitation of Irish brogue. The effort was received with flattering
+applause. After all, he reassured himself, this was not his funeral,
+Miss Ethel and Mr. Harry must bear all blame; with which care-free
+shifting of responsibility he settled himself to extract what amusement
+there might be in the situation.
+
+The curtain finally fell on the last act of the play, and a shuffling of
+feet and moving of chairs betokened that a general exodus would follow.
+Peter came back with a start to a realization of his predicament. While
+confidence in his powers of simulation had been rising steadily during
+the past half-hour, he still doubted his ability to deal with the
+audience _en masse_.
+
+But fortunately, the first two to appear in the conservatory were Miss
+Ethel and Mr. Harry, engaged entirely with their own affairs, all
+thought of the pseudo Kiscadden put from their minds. As they became
+aware of the couple in the fernery, they stopped short with a gasp of
+surprise.
+
+"Why, Pet----" Miss Ethel caught herself, and summoning a cordial tone
+added quickly: "Lord Kiscadden! A telegram came a long time ago--I
+thought you had received it? I'm afraid they stopped the boy in the
+kitchen."
+
+"Oh, I say, by Jove! Fancy now!" George Washington jumped hastily to his
+feet. "Pleased to know ye, ma'am," he added with a farewell duck of his
+head; and without waiting for further words, he vaulted the veranda
+railing and disappeared around the corner of the house. He lingered a
+moment in the shrubbery to hear her say:
+
+"Lord Kiscadden and I have been having such an interesting evening! What
+a delicious accent he has! You must bring him to Red Towers, Mr. Jasper.
+I feel that he really belongs to me more than to you; we have discovered
+that we are distant connections. It seems that his grandmother, the
+third Lady Kiscadden, was a McGarrah before she married. My own family
+name was McGarrah, and----"
+
+Peter put his hand over his mouth to stifle his feelings, and reeled
+toward the kitchen porch.
+
+An hour later, when supper was finished, Miss Ethel and Mr. Harry Jasper
+slipped away from the guests and turned toward the kitchen. They paused
+for a moment in the butler's pantry, arrested by the sound of Peter's
+voice as he discoursed in his richest brogue to an appreciative group of
+maids. His theme was the Daughters of the Revolution--he had evidently
+kept his ears open during his brief introduction to society.
+
+"Me father was a Malone, an' me mother was a Haggerty. The family
+settled in America in 1620 B. C., all me ancistors on both sides bein'
+first-cabin passengers on the _Mayflower_. We're straight discinded from
+Gov'nor Bradford, an' me fifth great-grandfather was the first man hung
+in the United States. Malone's a Scotch name--it used to be Douglas, but
+it got changed in the pronouncin'--an' Haggerty is Frinch. I'm eligible
+on both sides, an' me mother was a charter member. Yes, 'tis a great
+society; the object of it is to keep the country dimocratic."
+
+They pushed open the door and entered. Peter, restored to his own
+clothes, was seated before the kitchen table engaged, between sentences,
+with a soup plate full of ice-cream. He shuffled hastily to his feet as
+the two appeared, and with a somewhat guilty air studied their faces. He
+was trying to remember what he had said last.
+
+"Peter," Miss Ethel's voice was meant to be severe, "what have you been
+telling Mrs. Booth-Higby?"
+
+Peter shifted his weight anxiously from one foot to the other.
+
+"Nothin', ma'am."
+
+"Nothing--nonsense! She is going about telling everybody that she is
+Lord Kiscadden's cousin. She never made up any such impossible story as
+that without help."
+
+Miss Ethel's manner was sternly reproving, but Peter caught a gleam of
+malicious amusement in her eye. It occurred to him that she was not
+averse to an exhibition of Mrs. Booth-Higby's folly before Mr. Harry
+Jasper.
+
+"I wasn't to blame, Miss Ethel. I couldn't get out by the butler's
+pantry like ye told me because the Hartridge family was blockin' the
+way, and I knew they'd recognize me if I come within ten feet. So I
+thinks to meself, I'll go through the conservatory; but just as I
+reaches the door I runs plumb into Mrs. Booth-Higby.
+
+"'Oh, me dear Lord Kiscadden,' she says, 'you was the b'y I was wantin'
+to see! I must tell ye,' she says, 'how I've enjoyed yer actin'; 'twas
+great,' she says, 'ye was the best person in the whole show.' An' wid
+that she puts a hand on me arm an' never lets go for an hour and a
+quarter--ye know, Mr. Harry, how graspin' she is."
+
+Peter appealed to him as one man to another.
+
+"She begun with askin' about me estate in dear old Ireland. Bein' only
+eighteen months old when I left it, I couldn't remember many details,
+but I used me imagination an' done the best I could. I told her there
+was two lions sittin' on the gate-posts holdin' me coat-of-arms in their
+paws; I told her there was two towers to the castle, and a peacock
+strollin' on the lawn; an' then f'r fear she'd be gettin' suspicious, I
+thought to change the subject. 'Yes, 'tis a beautiful house,' I says,
+'but it ain't so grand as some. The biggest place in the neighbourhood,'
+I says, 'is Castle McGarrah'--the name just popped into me head, Miss
+Ethel.
+
+"'McGarrah!' she says, 'that is me own name.'
+
+"'The divvil!' thinks I. 'I've put me foot in it now.' But 't was too
+late to go back. 'Possibly the same family,' says I, politely. 'The
+present owner, Sir Timothy McGarrah----'
+
+"'Timothy!' she says, 'that was me father's name, an' me grandfather's
+before him.'
+
+"'There's always one son in ivery gineration that carries it,' says I.
+
+"'Can it be possible?' she murmurs to herself.
+
+"'Me own grandmother was a daughter to the second Sir Timothy,' I says,
+'him as quarrelled with his youngest son an' drove him from home. Some
+says he went to Australia, an' some that he come to America. 'Twas fifty
+years ago, an' all trace is lost o' the lad.'
+
+"An' with that she says solemn like, 'The b'y was me grandfather! I see
+it all--he was a silent man an' he niver talked of his people; but I
+always felt there was a secret a preyin' on his mind. An' by that token
+we're cousins,' she says. 'I must insist that ye make Red Towers yer
+home while ye stay in America. Me husband,' she says, 'will enjoy yer
+acquaintance.'
+
+"An' while I was tryin' to tell her polite like that 't would be a
+pleasure, but unfortunately me engagements would require me presence in
+another place, you an' Mr. Harry come walkin' into the conservatory, and
+I made me escape."
+
+"What ever possessed you to tell such outrageous lies?" Miss Ethel
+gasped.
+
+"'Twas the clothes that done it, ma'am; bein' dressed as George
+Washington, I couldn't think o' nothin' true that was fit to say."
+
+Miss Ethel dropped limply into a chair, and leaning her head on the
+back, laughed until she cried.
+
+"Peter," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes, "I don't see but what
+I shall have to discharge you. I should never dare let you drive past
+Mrs. Booth-Higby's again."
+
+"There's nothin' to fear," said Peter, tranquilly. "She won't recognize
+me, ma'am. Mrs. Booth-Higby's eyes ain't focussed to see a groom."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+A USURPED PREROGATIVE
+
+
+Peter scooped a quart of oats into a box, took out the bottle of
+liniment the veterinary surgeon had left, and started, grumbling, for
+the lower meadow. Trixy had hurt her foot, and it was Billy's fault. A
+groom who knew no better than to tie a horse to a barbed-wire fence on a
+day when the flies were bad, ought, in Peter's estimation, to be
+discharged.
+
+He had some trouble in catching Trixy and applying the liniment, but he
+finally accomplished the matter, and dropped down to rest in the shade
+of the straggling hedge that divided the grounds of Willowbrook from
+Jasper Place. He lighted his pipe and fell to a lazy contemplation of
+the pasture--his thoughts neither of Trixy nor the cows nor anything
+else pertaining to his duties, but now as always playing with a
+glorified vision of Annie, the prettiest little parlour-maid in the
+whole wide world. He was completely lost to his surroundings, when the
+sound of pistol shots on the other side of the hedge recalled him to the
+present with a jerk.
+
+"What are them young devils up to now?" he muttered, as he raised
+himself to look through the branches.
+
+A group of boys was visible down on the Jasper beach, firing, somewhat
+wildly, toward a target they had set up on the bank. Peter squinted his
+eyes and peered closely; one of the boys was Bobby Carter, and Peter
+more than suspected that the revolver was his father's. The boy had been
+strictly forbidden to play with firearms, and Peter's first impulse was
+to interfere; but on second thoughts he hesitated. Bobby was very
+recently thirteen, and was feeling the importance of no longer being a
+little boy. He would not relish being told to come home and mind his
+father.
+
+While Peter stood hesitating, a sudden frightened squawk rang out, and
+he saw one of Mr. Jasper's guinea fowls fly a few feet into the air and
+plump heavily to the ground. At the same instant Patrick appeared at the
+top of the meadow, bearing down upon the scene of the crime, shouting
+menacingly as he advanced. The boys broke and ran. They came crashing
+through the hedge a few feet from Peter and made for cover in a clump of
+willows. Peter recognized them all--Bobby and Bert Holliday and the two
+Hartridge boys, the latter the horror of all well-regulated parents. He
+saw them part, the two Hartridge boys heading for the road, while Bobby
+and Bert Holliday turned toward the house, keeping warily under the
+bank, Bobby buttoning the revolver inside his jacket as he ran. Peter
+crouched under the branches and laid low; he had no desire to be called
+into the case as witness.
+
+Patrick panted up to the hedge and surveyed the empty stretch of meadow
+with a disappointed grunt. He caught a glimpse of the Hartridge boys as
+they climbed the fence into the high-road, but they were too far off for
+recognition. He mopped his brow and lumbered back to examine the body of
+the guinea fowl. Poor Patrick was neither so slender nor so young as
+when he entered Mr. Jasper's service twenty years before; as he daily
+watched Peter's troubles across the hedge, he thanked the saints that
+the Jasper family contained no boys.
+
+Peter waited till Patrick was well out of sight, when he rose and turned
+back toward the stables. He met Bobby and Bert Holliday in the lane,
+armed with a net, a basket, and a generous hunk of raw meat.
+
+"Hello, Pete!" Bobby hailed him cheerily. "We're going crabbing, Bert
+and me. If you hear Nora asking after some soup meat that strayed out of
+the refrigerator, don't let on you met it."
+
+"Trust me!" said Peter with an answering grin; but he turned and looked
+after the boys a trifle soberly.
+
+Bobby's escapade with the revolver was on a different plane from such
+mild misdemeanours as abstracting fishing bait from the kitchen. Peter
+felt keenly that Mr. Carter ought to know, but he shrank from the idea
+of telling. For one thing, he hated tale-bearing; for another, he had a
+presentiment as to the direction Bobby's punishment would take.
+
+As an indirect result of his thirteenth birthday, the boy was to have a
+new horse--not another pony, but a grown-up horse--provided always that
+he was good. Mr. Carter, being occupied with business out of town, had
+not been able to give the matter his immediate attention; and poor Bobby
+had been dwelling on the cold heights of virtue for nearly a month. He
+had undergone, a week or so before, a mild attack of three-day measles
+which he had borne with a sweet gentleness quite foreign to his nature.
+Peter had openly scouted the doctor's diagnosis of the case.
+
+"Rats!" he remarked to Annie, after viewing the boy's speckled surface.
+"That ain't measles. It's his natural badness working out. I knew it
+weren't healthy for him to be so good. If Mr. Carter don't make up his
+mind about that horse pretty soon the boy'll go into a decline."
+
+But at last the question was on the point of being settled. Mr. Carter,
+having visited every horse dealer in the neighbourhood, had, in his
+carefully methodical manner, almost made up his mind. The choice was a
+wiry little mustang, thin-limbed and built for running; he could give
+even Blue Gypsy some useful lessons in speed, and she had a racing
+pedigree four generations long. Peter had fallen in love with the
+mustang; he wanted it almost as much as Bobby. And he realized that
+these next few days were a critical period; if the boy were discovered
+in any black offence, the horse would be postponed until his fourteenth
+birthday. His father had an unerring sense of duty in the matter of
+punishments.
+
+It was Saturday and Mr. Carter would be out on the noon train. Peter
+drove to the station to meet him, still frowning over the question of
+Bobby and the revolver. He finally decided to warn the boy; there would
+be time enough to speak if the offence were repeated. Mr. Carter proved
+to be in an unusually genial frame of mind. He chatted all the way out
+on matters pertaining to the stables; and as they drew up at the
+_porte-cochère_ he paused to ask:
+
+"Ah, Peter, about this new mustang for Master Bobby, what do you think?"
+
+"He's a fine horse, sir, though I suspicion not too well broke. But he's
+got a good pair o' legs--I should say two pair, sir--an' sound wind.
+That's the main thing. We can finish his trainin' ourselves."
+
+"Then you advise me to get him?"
+
+"I should say that ye wouldn't be makin' no mistake. I'll be glad, sir,
+to see Master Bobby with a horse of his own. He's gettin' too heavy for
+Toddles."
+
+"Very well. I'll do it. You may have Blue Gypsy saddled immediately
+after luncheon and I will ride over to Shannon Farms and close the
+deal."
+
+At two o'clock Blue Gypsy stood pawing impatiently before the library
+door with Peter soothingly patting her neck. Mr. Carter paused on the
+steps to survey her shining coat with the complaisant approval of
+ownership.
+
+"Pretty good animal, isn't she, Peter?"
+
+"She is that," said Peter, heartily. "You'd search a long time
+before----"
+
+His sentence broke down in the middle as his eye wandered to the stretch
+of lawn beyond the hedge. Patrick was visible hurrying toward them, a
+white envelope waving in his hand, plainly bent on gaining the hole in
+the hedge and Mr. Carter's side before that gentleman's departure.
+Peter tried to cover his slip and induce his master to mount and ride
+off; but it was too late.
+
+"Here, Peter, just hold her a minute longer. I think that note is for
+me."
+
+Patrick with some difficulty squeezed himself through the hole--it had
+been made originally by Mr. Harry so that he might run over and call on
+Miss Ethel without having to go around; and Mr. Harry was thin. Patrick
+emerged with hair awry and puffing. He stood anxiously mopping his brow
+while Mr. Carter read the note. Peter likewise eyed his master with a
+touch of anxiety; he had a foreboding that the contents of the letter
+meant no good to the cause of the new mustang.
+
+Mr. Carter ran his eye down the page with a quickly gathering frown and
+then faced the man.
+
+"You saw my son shoot the guinea fowl?"
+
+"No, sir--that is, sir, I ain't sure. Mr. Jasper he asked me who I
+thought the boys was, and I told him I didn't get close enough to see,
+but I fancied one was Bobby Carter, because they run this way, and I
+thought I recognized Master Bobby's legs as he crawled under the hedge.
+I told Mr. Jasper it was only guess, but he was mad because she was one
+of his prize hens, and he said he'd just drop a line to you and let you
+investigate. It was dangerous, he said, if Master Bobby was playin' with
+firearms, and you'd ought to know it."
+
+"Yes, certainly; I understand."
+
+Mr. Carter raised his voice and called to the boy who was visible
+sprawling on a bench by the tennis-court.
+
+"Bobby! Come here."
+
+He pulled himself together with obedient haste and advanced to meet his
+father, somewhat apprehensively, as his eye fell upon Patrick.
+
+"Bobby, here is a note from Mr. Jasper. He says that some boys were
+shooting at a target on his beach this morning and killed one of his
+prize guinea fowls. He is not sure, but he thinks that you may have been
+one of them. How about it?"
+
+Bobby looked uncomprehending for a moment while he covertly studied
+Patrick. The man's air was apologetic; his accusation was evidently
+based upon suspicion rather than proof.
+
+"I went crabbing with Bert Holliday this morning," said Bobby.
+
+"Ah!" his father's face cleared, though he still maintained his stern
+tone. "I gave you strict orders, you remember, never to touch my
+revolver when I was not with you?"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"You never have touched it?"
+
+"No." Bobby's tone was barely audible.
+
+"Speak up! I can't hear you."
+
+"No!" snapped Bobby.
+
+"Don't act that way. I am not accusing you of anything. I merely wish to
+know the truth." Mr. Carter turned to Patrick, who was nervously
+fumbling with his hat. "You see, Patrick, you were mistaken. Tell Mr.
+Jasper that I am sorry about the guinea fowl, but that Master Bobby had
+nothing to do with the shooting."
+
+He dismissed the man with a nod, and mounted and rode away.
+
+Peter watched him out of sight, then he turned and crossed the lawn to
+the tennis-court. Bobby was back on his bench again engaged in carving
+his name on the handle of a racket, though his face, Peter noted, did
+not reflect much pleasure in the work. He glanced up carelessly as Peter
+approached, but as he caught the look in his eye, he flushed quickly,
+and with elaborate attention applied himself to shaping a "C."
+
+Peter sat down on the end of the bench and regarded him soberly. He was
+uncertain in his own mind how he ought to deal with the case, but that
+it must be dealt with, and drastically, he knew. Peter was by no means
+a Puritan. The boy could accomplish any amount of mischief--go crabbing
+instead of to Sunday-school, play fox and geese over the newly sprouted
+garden, break windows and hotbeds, steal cake from the pantry and
+peaches from Judge Benedict's orchard, and Peter would always shield
+him. His code of morals was broad, but where he did draw the line he
+drew it tight. Bobby's sins must be the sins of a gentleman, and Peter's
+definition of "gentleman" was old fashioned and strict.
+
+Bobby grew restless under the silent scrutiny.
+
+"What do you want?" he asked crossly. "If you don't look out you'll make
+me cut my hand."
+
+He closed the large blade with an easy air of unconcern, and opening a
+smaller one, fell to work again. The knife was equipped with five blades
+and a corkscrew; it was one of the dignities to which Bobby had attained
+on his recent birthday. Peter stretched out his hand and, taking
+possession of the knife, snapped it shut and returned it.
+
+"Put it in yer pocket an' pay attention to me."
+
+"Oh, don't bother, Pete. I'm busy."
+
+"Your father will be home before long," said Peter, significantly.
+
+"Well, fire ahead. What do you want?"
+
+"Ye told a lie--two o' them, to be accurate. Ye were one o' them boys
+that shot the chicken an' ye did have the pistol."
+
+"I didn't shoot his old chicken; it was Bert Holliday. And anyway he
+didn't mean to; it flew straight in front of the target just as he
+fired."
+
+"He had no business to be firin'. But it's not the chicken I'm mournin'
+about; it's the lie."
+
+"It's none of your business," said Bobby, sullenly.
+
+"Then I'll make it me business! Either ye goes to yer father an' tells
+him ye lied, or I will. Ye can take yer choice."
+
+"Peter," Bobby began to plead, "he'll not give me the mustang--you know
+he won't. I didn't mean to touch the revolver, but Bert forgot his air
+rifle, and the boys were waiting to have a shooting match. I won't do it
+again--honest, Peter--hope to die."
+
+"It ain't no use, Master Bobby. Ye can't wheedle me. Ye told a lie an'
+ye've got to be punished. Gentlemen don't tell lies--leastways, not
+direct. They hires a lawyer like Judge Benedict to do it for them. If ye
+keep on ye'll grow to be like the Judge yerself."
+
+Bobby smiled wanly. The Judge, as Peter knew well, was his chiefest
+aversion, owing to an unfortunate meeting under the peach trees.
+
+"You've told lots of lies yourself!"
+
+"There's different kinds o' lies," said Peter, "an' this is the kind
+that I don't tell. It ain't that I'm fond o' carrying tales," he added,
+"but that I wants to see ye grow up to be a thoroughbred."
+
+Bobby changed his tactics.
+
+"Father'll feel awfully bad; I hate to have him find it out."
+
+Peter suppressed a grin.
+
+"Boys ought always to be considerate o' their fathers' feelin's," he
+conceded.
+
+"And you know, Pete, that you want me to have the mustang. You said
+yourself that it was a shame for a big boy like me to be riding
+Toddles."
+
+Peter folded his arms and studied the distance a moment with thoughtful
+eyes; then he faced his companion with the air of pronouncing an
+ultimatum.
+
+"I'll tell ye what I'll do, Master Bobby, since ye're so anxious to save
+yer father's feelin's. I'll agree not to mention the matter, an' ye can
+take yer punishment from me at the end of a strap."
+
+Bobby stared.
+
+"Do you mean," he gasped, "that you want to whip me?"
+
+"Well, no, I can't say as I _want_ to, but I think it's me dooty. If ye
+was a stable-boy and I caught ye in a lie like that, I'd wallop ye till
+ye couldn't stand."
+
+"I never was whipped in my life!"
+
+"The more reason ye need it now. I've often thought, Master Bobby, that
+a thorough lickin' would do ye good."
+
+Bobby sprang to his feet.
+
+"Tell him if you want. I don't care!"
+
+"Just as ye please. He's over to Shannon Farms now buyin' the mustang.
+When he gets back an' finds his son is a liar and a coward, he'll be
+returnin' that horse by telephone."
+
+Bobby's flight was suspended while he hung wavering between indignation
+and desire.
+
+"There it is," said Peter. "I won't go back on me word. Either ye keeps
+a whole skin an' rides Toddles another year, or ye takes yer lickin'
+like a man an' gets the horse. Ye can have an hour to think it over."
+
+He rose and sauntered unconcernedly toward the stables. Bobby stared
+after him, several different emotions struggling for supremacy in his
+freckled face; then he plunged his hands deep into his pockets and
+turned down the lane with an attempt at a swagger as he passed the
+stable door. At the paddock gate Toddles poked his shaggy little head
+through the bars and whinnied insistently. But Bobby, instead of
+bestowing the expected lump of sugar, shoved him viciously with his
+elbow and scuffed on. He seated himself precariously on the top rail of
+the pasture fence and fell to digging holes in the wood with his new
+knife, cogitating meanwhile the two alternatives he had been invited to
+consider.
+
+They appealed to him as equally revolting. Only that morning he had
+carelessly informed the boys that his father was going to buy him a
+mustang--a brown and white circus mustang that was trained to stand on
+its hind legs. The humiliation of losing the horse was more than he
+could face. Yet, on the other hand, to be beaten like a stable-boy for
+telling a lie! He had boasted to the Hartridge boys, who did not enjoy
+such immunity, that he had never received a flogging in his life. He
+might have stood it from his father--but from Peter! Peter, who had
+always been his stanchest ally, who, on occasion, had even deviated from
+the strict truth himself in order to shield Bobby from justice. The boy
+already had his full quota of parents; he did not relish having Peter
+usurp the rôle.
+
+For thirty minutes he balanced on the fence, testing first one then the
+other of the horns of his dilemma. But suddenly he saw, across the
+fields where the high-road was visible, a horse and rider approaching at
+a quick canter. He slid down and walked with an air of grim resolution
+to the stables.
+
+Peter was in the harness-room busily engaged in cleaning out the closet.
+The floor was a litter of buckles and straps and horse medicine.
+
+"Well?" he inquired, as Bobby appeared in the door.
+
+"You can give me that licking if you want," said Bobby, "but I tell you
+now, _I'll pay you back_!"
+
+"All right!" said Peter, cheerfully, reaching for a strap that hung
+behind the door. "I'm ready if you are. We'll go down in the lower
+meadow where there won't be no interruption."
+
+He led the way and Bobby followed a dozen paces behind. They paused in a
+secluded clump of willows.
+
+"Take yer coat off," said Peter.
+
+Bobby cast him one appealing glance, but his face was adamant.
+
+"Take it off," he repeated.
+
+Bobby complied without a word, his own face growing white.
+
+Peter laid on the strap six times. He did not soften the blows in the
+slightest; it was exactly the same flogging that a stable-boy would have
+received under the same circumstances. Two tears slipped down Bobby's
+cheeks, but he set his jaw hard and took it like a man. Peter dropped
+the strap.
+
+"I'm sorry, Master Bobby. I didn't like it any better than you, but it
+had to be done. Are we friends?" he held out his hand.
+
+"No, we're not friends!" Bobby snapped. He turned his back and put on
+his coat; then he started for the house. "You'll be sorry," he threw
+over his shoulder.
+
+During the next few days Bobby ignored Peter. If he had any business in
+the neighbourhood of the stables he addressed himself ostentatiously to
+one of the under men. The rupture of their friendship did not pass
+unmarked, though the grooms soon found that it did not pay to be
+facetious on the subject. Billy, in return for some jocular comments,
+spent an afternoon in adding a superfluous lustre to already brilliant
+carriage lamps.
+
+The mustang arrived, was christened Apache, and assigned to a box stall.
+He possessed a slightly vicious eye and a tendency to buck, as two of
+the grooms found to their cost while trying to ride him bareback in the
+paddock. Peter shook his head dubiously as he watched the unseating of
+the second groom.
+
+"We'll put a curb bit on that horse. I don't just like his looks for a
+youngster to ride."
+
+"Huh!" said Billy, "Master Bobby ain't such a baby as everybody thinks;
+he can manage him all right."
+
+Word came out from the house that afternoon that Bobby was to try the
+new mustang. Billy saddled the horses--Apache, and Blue Gypsy for Miss
+Ethel, and a cob for Peter--and led them out, while Peter in his most
+immaculate riding clothes swaggered after. The maids were all on the
+back porch and the family at the _porte-cochère_ to watch the departure.
+Bobby would accept no assistance, but mounted from the ground with a
+fine air of pride. Apache plunged a trifle, but the boy was a horseman
+and he stuck to his saddle.
+
+"Be careful, Bobby," his mother warned.
+
+"You needn't worry about me," Bobby called back gaily. "I'm not afraid
+of any horse living!"
+
+Blue Gypsy never stood well, and Miss Ethel was already off. Bobby
+started to follow, but he wheeled about to say:
+
+"You come, Billy; I don't want Peter."
+
+"Bobby, dear," his mother expostulated, "you don't know the horse; it
+would be safer----"
+
+"I want Billy! I won't go if Peter has to come tagging along."
+
+Peter removed his foot from the stirrup and passed the horse over to the
+groom. The cavalcade clattered off and he walked slowly back to the
+stables. He felt the slight keenly. He could remember when he had held
+Bobby, a baby in short dresses, on the back of his father's hunter, when
+he had first taught the little hands to close about a bridle. And now,
+when the boy had his first horse, not to go! Peter's feeling for Bobby
+was almost paternal; the slight hurt not only his pride but his
+affections as well.
+
+He spent an hour puttering about the carriage room, whistling a cheerful
+two-step and vainly pretending to himself that he felt in a cheerful
+frame of mind. Then suddenly his music and his thoughts were interrupted
+by the ringing of the house telephone bell, long and insistently. He
+sprang to the instrument and heard Annie's voice, her words punctuated
+by frightened sobs.
+
+"Oh, Pete! Is that you? Something awful's happened. There's been an
+accident. Master Bobby's been throwed. The doctor's telephoned to get a
+room ready and have a nurse from the hospital here. You're to hitch up
+Arab as fast as you can and drive to the hospital after her. Oh, I hope
+he won't die!" she wailed.
+
+Peter dropped the receiver and ran to Arab's stall. He led him out and
+threw on the harness with hands that trembled so they could scarcely
+fasten a buckle.
+
+"Why can't I learn to mind me own business?" he groaned. "What right
+have I to be floggin' Master Bobby?"
+
+The young woman whom Peter brought back decided before the end of the
+drive that the man beside her was crazy. All that she could get in
+return for her inquiries as to the gravity of the accident was the
+incoherent assertion:
+
+"He's probably dead by now, ma'am, and if he is it's me that done it."
+
+As they turned in at the Willowbrook gate Peter strained forward to
+catch sight of the house. A strange coupé was drawn up before the
+_porte-cochère_. He involuntarily pulled Arab to a standstill and looked
+away, but the nurse reached out and grasped the reins.
+
+"Here, man, what is the matter with you? Hurry up! They may want me to
+help get the boy in."
+
+Peter drove on and sat staring woodenly while she sprang to the ground
+and hurried forward. Mrs. Carter and the maids were gathered in a
+frightened group on the steps. He could hear Miss Ethel inside the
+carriage calling wildly:
+
+"Do be quick! His head has commenced to bleed again."
+
+The driver climbed down to help the doctor lift him out. They jarred him
+going up the steps and he moaned slightly. Peter cursed the man's clumsy
+feet, though not for worlds could he himself have stirred to help them.
+The boy's head was bandaged with a towel, and he looked very limp and
+white, but he summoned a feeble smile at sight of his mother. They
+carried him in and the servants crowded after in an anxious effort to
+help.
+
+Peter drove on to the stables and put up Arab. In a few minutes Billy
+returned leading the two horses. He was frightened and excited; and he
+burst into an account of the accident while he was still half way down
+the drive.
+
+"It wasn't my fault," he called. "Miss Ethel said it wasn't my fault.
+We met a mowing-machine and Apache bolted. He threw the boy off against
+a stone wall, and by the time I reached 'em, Apache was eating grass in
+the next field and Master Bobby lying in the ditch with 'is head cut
+open."
+
+"I don't want to hear about it," Peter returned shortly. "Put them
+horses up and get out."
+
+He himself removed Apache's new saddle and bridle and drove him with a
+vicious whack into the stall. Billy took himself off to find a more
+appreciative audience, while Peter dropped down on a stool inside the
+stable door, and with his chin in his hands sat watching the house. He
+saw the nurse fling wide the blinds of Bobby's room and roll up the
+shades; he wondered with a choking sensation what they were doing to the
+boy that they needed so much light. He saw Annie come out and hang some
+towels on the line. The whole aspect of the place to Peter's sharpened
+senses wore an air of tragic bustle. No one came near to tell him how
+the boy was doing; he had not the courage to go to the house and ask. He
+sat dumbly waiting for something to happen while twilight faded into
+dusk. One of the stableboys came to call him to supper and he replied
+crossly that he didn't want any supper. Presently he heard a step
+scrunching on the gravel, and he looked up to find Annie coming toward
+him.
+
+"Is--is he dead?" he whispered.
+
+"He's not goin' to die. He's feelin' better now; they've sewed up the
+hole in his head. The doctor did it with a thread an' needle just like
+you'd sew a dress. He took ten stitches an' Master Bobby bled awful. He
+never cried once, though; he just got whiter an' whiter an' fainted
+away. Don't feel so bad, Pete, he's goin' to get well."
+
+She laid her hand caressingly on his hair and brushed it back from his
+forehead. He caught her hand and held it.
+
+"It's me that's to blame for his gettin' hurt. He won't never speak to
+me again."
+
+"Yes, he will; he's wantin' to speak to you now. They sent me out to
+fetch you."
+
+"Me?" he asked, shrinking back. "What's he wantin' with me?"
+
+"He's been out of his head an' callin' for you; he won't go to sleep
+till he sees you. The doctor said to fetch you in. Come on."
+
+Annie's manner was insistent and Peter rose and followed her.
+
+"Here he is," she whispered, pushing him ahead of her into the darkened
+room.
+
+Bobby made a half movement to turn as the door creaked, but a quick pain
+shot through his shoulder and he fell back with a little gasp.
+
+"Take care, Bobby," the nurse warned. "You mustn't move or you will hurt
+that bad arm." Her greeting to Peter was stern. "You may stay five
+minutes, and mind you don't get him excited!" She bent over the boy to
+loosen the bandage about his shoulder.
+
+"You go out," said Bobby, querulously. "I want to see Peter alone."
+
+"Yes, dear," she patted the bedclothes indulgently. "Remember, five
+minutes!" she added as she closed the door.
+
+The two left alone stared at each other rather consciously for a moment.
+They both felt that the occasion demanded something heroic in the way of
+a reconciliation, but it was the natural instinct of each to fly from
+sentiment. The sight of Bobby's pale face and bandaged head, however,
+had their effect on Peter's already overwrought nerves.
+
+"I'm a blunderin' fool!" he groaned. "I don't know why I can't never
+learn to attend to me own affairs. If I'd told yer father, as was me
+dooty, he'd never uv given ye that spotted devil of a horse."
+
+"You aren't to blame, Pete. I guess I was hurt for more punishment
+'cause I didn't take the first in the right spirit." He fumbled under
+his pillow and drew out the new five-bladed knife. "This is for a
+remembrance, and whenever you use it you will think 'it was me that
+cured Bobby Carter of telling lies.'"
+
+Peter received the gift with an air of hesitation.
+
+"I don't like to take it," he said, dubiously, "though I have a feelin'
+that perhaps I ought, for with five blades to choose from ye'll be
+cuttin' yer blamed young throat--I'd hate to be the cause of any more
+accidents." He balanced it thoughtfully in his palm. "But I'm thinkin,"
+he added softly, "that the corkscrew might be doin' as much damage to me
+as the five blades to you."
+
+Bobby grinned appreciatively, and held out his uninjured left hand.
+
+"Pete," he said, "if I promise never, never to tell any more lies, will
+you promise never, never to use that corkscrew?"
+
+"It's a bargain!" said Peter, grasping the boy's hand. "And I'm glad
+that we're friends again."
+
+They stared at each other solemnly, neither thinking of anything further
+to add, when Peter suddenly became aware of the ticking of the clock.
+
+"Holy Saint Patrick!" he ejaculated. "Me five minutes was up five
+minutes ago. I must be takin' me leave or that commandin' young woman
+will come back and eject me."
+
+He moved toward the door, but paused to throw over his shoulder:
+
+"I'd already promised the same to Annie, so ye needn't be takin' too
+much credit to yerself fer me conversion."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+MRS. CARTER AS FATE
+
+
+As the summer wore to an end, the course of affairs between Peter and
+Annie became a matter of interested comment among the other servants.
+They had all seen Peter recover from many incipient attacks of love, but
+this they unanimously diagnosed as the real thing. Joe and his wife
+talked the matter over upon his return from the hospital, and decided
+that the time had definitely come for the livery stable; Peter, in all
+fairness, had served as groom long enough. They would move out of the
+coachman's cottage the following spring, and give the young people a
+chance. Thus was the way open for a happy conclusion, and everyone was
+preparing to dance at the wedding, except Peter and Annie themselves.
+They alone were not certain as to the outcome. Neither was quite
+comfortably sure that the other was in earnest, and when it came to the
+point they were both a little shy. Annie, with laughing eyes, tempted
+Peter at every point, but when he showed a disposition to control
+matters himself, she precipitously fled.
+
+The two were standing on the back veranda one moonlight night, and Annie
+was engaged in pointing out to Peter the lady in the moon. Peter was
+either stubborn or stupid; he frankly declared that he saw no "loidy,"
+and didn't believe there was one. In her zeal in the cause of astronomy,
+Annie unwarily bent her head too near, and while her eyes were turned to
+the moon, Peter kissed her. She slapped him smartly, as a
+well-brought-up young woman should, and fled into the house before he
+could catch her. Peter, strong in his new-found courage, waited about in
+the hope that she would reappear; but she did not, and he finally took
+himself off to his room over the carriage-house, where he sat by the
+window gazing out at the moonlight for two hours or more before he
+remembered to go to bed. The slap had hurt neither him nor his feelings;
+he liked her the better for it. She wasn't really mad, he reflected
+happily, for she had laughed as she banged the door in his face.
+
+The next morning Peter went about his work with a singing heart and many
+a glance toward the kitchen windows. He swashed water over the stable
+floor and rubbed down the horses with a mind happily intent upon what he
+would say to Annie when he saw her. About ten o'clock Mrs. Carter
+ordered the victoria, but as the carriage horses were at the shop being
+shod, Joe sent Peter in to ask if Trixy and the phaeton would do as
+well.
+
+Peter dropped his sponge and started for the house at exactly the wrong
+moment for his future peace of mind. He arrived at the kitchen door just
+in time to see the man from the grocery put his packages on the table
+and his arms around Annie, and kiss her with a smack that resounded
+through the room and would, to Peter's outraged senses, resound through
+all time. Annie turned with a startled cry, and as her gaze fell upon
+Peter, her face paled before the look in his eyes. Without a word he
+whirled about and strode back to the stables with white lips and
+clenched fists, and murder in his heart for the grocer's man. He did not
+hear what Annie said to him, nor did he know that she locked herself in
+her room and cried; what he did know was that she had been making a fool
+of him, and that she flirted with every man who came along, and that
+that wasn't the kind of a girl he wanted to do with.
+
+Several days before, as Peter was driving Mr. Lane, who was visiting at
+Willowbrook again, and Master Bobby to the village, Annie had been
+sweeping the front veranda as they passed, and had thrown a friendly
+smile in the direction of the cart. The smile was intended for Peter,
+but Mr. Lane had caught it, and had remarked to Bobby:
+
+"That's a deuced pretty maid you've got there."
+
+"Annie's the bulliest maid we ever had," Bobby had returned
+appreciatively. "She swipes cake for me when Nora isn't looking."
+
+But Peter had frowned angrily, as he longingly sized up Mr. Lane, and
+wished he were not a gentleman so that he could punch him. It was none
+of Mr. Lane's business whether Annie was pretty or not.
+
+At that time Annie could do no wrong, and Peter had not thought of
+blaming her for Mr. Lane's too-open admiration, but now he wrathfully
+accused her of trying to flirt with gentlemen, than which, in Peter's
+estimation, she could do no worse. As he could take it out of neither of
+them in blood--which his soul thirsted for--he added it to the grocer's
+score, and his fingers fairly itched to be at work. The grocer was just
+the sort of man that he most enjoyed pummelling--big and florid, with
+curling hair, a black moustache, and a dimple in his chin.
+
+Annie, after her _contretemps_ with the grocer, passed a miserable day.
+In vain she tried to get a word with Peter; he was not to be seen. Billy
+was the groom who came to the house on all further errands from the
+stables. That evening she put on her prettiest frock and sat for two
+hours on the top step of the back veranda with her eyes turned
+expectantly toward the carriage-house, and then she went to bed and
+cried. Had she but known it, Peter was in a vacant lot back of Paddy
+Callahan's saloon, blissfully remodelling the features of the grocer's
+man.
+
+Annie passed a wakeful night, and the next morning she swallowed her
+pride and went to the stables in the hope of seeing Peter alone. Peter,
+too, in spite of his victory of the evening, had kept vigil through the
+night. He was listlessly currying one of the carriage horses when he
+saw Annie leave the house and come slowly down the walk toward the
+stables. His heart suddenly leaped to his mouth, but a moment later he
+was bending over the horse with his back to the door, whistling as
+merrily as though he had not a care in the world. He heard Annie's
+hesitating step on the threshold, and he smiled grimly to himself and
+whistled the louder.
+
+"Pete, I'm wantin' to speak to you, if ye're not busy."
+
+Peter glanced up with a well-assumed start of surprise. He looked Annie
+over, slowly and deliberately, and then turned back to the horse.
+
+"Aw, but I am busy," he returned. "Lift up!" he added to the horse, and
+he solicitously examined her foot.
+
+Annie waited patiently, struggling between a sense of pride which urged
+her to go back and never speak to Peter again, and a sense of shame
+which told her that she owed him an explanation.
+
+"Pete," she began, and there was a little catch in her voice which went
+to Peter's heart; in his effort to resist it and mete out due punishment
+for all the misery she had caused him, he was harder than he otherwise
+would have been. "Pete, I wanted to be tellin' ye that it wasn't my
+fault. He--he niver kissed me before, and I didn't know he was goin' to
+then."
+
+Peter shrugged.
+
+"Ye needn't be apologizin' to me. I ain't interested in yer amoors. If
+ye wants to be apologizin' to any one go an' do it to his wife."
+
+"His wife?" asked Annie.
+
+"Aye, his wife an' his three childern."
+
+"I didn't know he was married," said Annie, flushing again, "but 'tis no
+difference, for it weren't my fault. I niver acted a bit nicer to him
+than to anny other man, an' that's the truth."
+
+"Oh, ye're a lovely girl, ye are! Flirtin' around with other women's
+husbands, and lettin' every fool that comes along kiss ye if he wants
+to."
+
+"Ye needn't talk," cried Annie. "Ye did it yerself, an' ye're no better
+than the grocer man."
+
+"An' do ye think I'd a-done it if I hadn't knowed ye was willin?"
+
+Annie backed against the wall, and with flushed cheeks and blazing eyes,
+stared at him speechlessly, angry with herself at her powerlessness to
+say anything that would hurt him enough. As she stood there, Master
+Bobby and Mr. Lane came in on their way to visit the kennels. Mr. Lane
+looked curiously from the angry girl to the nonchalant groom, who had
+resumed his work, and was softly whistling under his breath. Master
+Bobby, being intent only upon puppies, passed on without noticing the
+two, but Mr. Lane glanced back over his shoulder at Annie's pretty
+flushed face, and paused to ask:
+
+"My dear girl, has that fellow been annoying you?"
+
+"No, no!" Annie said wildly. "Go away, Mr. Lane, please."
+
+Mr. Lane glanced from one to the other with a laugh. "Ah, I see! A
+lovers' quarrel," and he followed Master Bobby.
+
+Peter echoed his laugh, and in a tone which would have justified Mr.
+Lane in knocking him down had he heard.
+
+"So ye're his dear girl too, are ye? He's a nice gentleman, he is! Ye
+ought to be proud o' him."
+
+Annie straightened herself with her head thrown back.
+
+"Peter Malone," she burst out, "I came here to 'pologize, 'cause,
+without meanin' any harm, I thought as I'd hurt yer feelin's an' was
+owin' an explanation. I niver had anything to do with that groc'ry man
+nor any other man, an' ye know it as true as ye're standin' there.
+Instead o' believin' what I say like a gentleman would, ye insult me
+worse than anybody's iver done in the whole o' me life, an' I'll niver
+speak to ye again as long as I live." She choked down a sob, and with
+head erect turned and walked back to the house.
+
+The two had had differences before, but never anything like this. Peter,
+his arms dropped limply at his side, stood watching her go, while the
+words she had spoken rang in his ears. Suddenly a lump rose in his
+throat, and he leaned his head against the horse's neck.
+
+"Lord!" he whispered. "What have I done?"
+
+
+The week which followed was one of outward indifference and inward
+misery to both. Annie mourned when alone, but under the eyes of the
+stables she flirted openly and without conscience with one of the
+painters who was opportunely engaged in re-staining the shingle roof of
+the Jasper house. Peter watched her with a heavy heart, and formed a
+brave determination never to think of her again, and ended by thinking
+of her every minute of the day. He made one awkward attempt at
+reconciliation which was spurned, whereupon he, too, plunged into a
+reckless flirtation with Mary, the chambermaid, who was fat, and every
+day of thirty-five. As neither Peter nor Annie had any means of knowing
+how wretched this treatment was making the other, they got very little
+comfort from it.
+
+
+Annie sat at the kitchen table polishing silver with a sober face. It
+was six days since the grocery man's historic visit, and the war clouds
+showed no sign of lifting. There was a houseful of company at
+Willowbrook, and the work was mercifully distracting. Mary, this
+morning, had hung a long row of blankets and curtains on the line to
+air, for the sole purpose, Annie knew, of being near the stables. Peter
+was visible through the open window, greasing harness in the
+carriage-house doorway, and exchanging jocular remarks with Mary.
+Annie's eyes were out of doors oftener than upon her work. Nora, who
+was sitting on the back veranda shelling peas, remarked on Peter's newly
+awakened interest in the chambermaid, but as Annie did not answer, she
+very wisely changed the subject.
+
+"I guess that Mr. Lane what's visitin' here has got a heap o' money,"
+she called in tentatively.
+
+"I guess he has," Annie assented indifferently.
+
+"He seems to be pretty taken up with Miss Ethel. That was an awful
+becomin' pink dress she had on last night. Mrs. Carter would be pleased
+all right."
+
+Annie received this remark in silence, but Nora was not to be
+discouraged. She felt that this new freak of taciturnity on Annie's part
+was defrauding her of her rights. A maid whose duties call her to the
+front part of the house is in a position to supply more accurate gossip
+than it is given a cook to know, and it is her business to supply it.
+
+"Mr. Harry would feel awful, havin' growed up with her like," Nora
+continued. "He's a sight the best lookin' o' the two, and I'm thinkin'
+Miss Ethel knows it. It ud be convenient, too, havin' the places joined.
+The Jaspers has got money enough, an' him the only son. I guess they
+wouldn't starve if she did marry him. I've always noticed 'tis the
+people who has the most money as needs the most. I don't think much o'
+that Mr. Lane," she added.
+
+Annie suddenly woke up.
+
+"I don't neither. 'Tis too fresh he is."
+
+"That's what I'm thinkin' meself," said Nora, cordially. "An' I guess so
+does Mr. Harry. I'm after observin' that he hasn't been around much
+since Mr. Lane's been here."
+
+Annie's mind had wandered again. Her own affairs were requiring so much
+attention lately that Miss Ethel's were no longer a source of interest.
+Out in the stable Peter was proclaiming, in tones calculated to reach
+the kitchen, "There's only one girl in this world for me." Annie's lip
+quivered slightly as she heard him; a week before she had laughed at the
+same song, but as affairs stood now, it was insulting.
+
+The peas finished, Nora gathered the yellow bowl under her arm and
+returned to the kitchen, where she concentrated her attention upon Annie
+and the silver.
+
+"I'm thinkin' ye must be in love!" she declared. "Ye've cleaned that
+same spoon three times while I've been watchin', an' ye didn't count the
+plates right last night for dinner, an' ye forgot to give 'em any butter
+for breakfast."
+
+Annie blushed guiltily at this damning array of evidence, and then she
+laughed. "If it's in love I am whiniver I forget things, then I must
+a-been in love since I was out o' the cradle."
+
+"An' there's him as would be in love with you, if ye'd only act dacent
+to him--and I'm not meanin' the painter."
+
+Annie chose to overlook this remark, and Nora's sociability was
+suppressed by the entrance of Mrs. Carter.
+
+"We have decided to have a picnic supper at the beach to-night, Nora,"
+she said. "You will not have to get dinner for anyone but Mr. Carter."
+
+"Very well, ma'am."
+
+"I am sorry that it happens on your afternoon out, Annie," she added,
+turning to the maid, "but I shall need you at the picnic to help about
+serving."
+
+"Certainly, ma'am," said Annie. "I don't care about goin' out anyway."
+
+"We shall start early in the afternoon, but I want you to wait and help
+Nora with the sandwiches, and then Peter can drive you out about six
+o'clock in the dog-cart."
+
+Annie's face clouded precipitously.
+
+"Please, ma'am," she stammered, "I think--that is, if ye please----" she
+hesitated and looked about desperately. "I'm afraid if ye're after
+wantin' coffee, I can't make it right. I'm niver sure o' me coffee two
+times runnin', and I should hate to be spoilin' it when there's company.
+If ye could take Nora instead o' me, ma'am, I could just be gettin' the
+lovely dinner for Mr. Carter when he comes."
+
+"Why, Annie," she remonstrated, "you've always made excellent coffee
+before, and Nora doesn't wait on the table. Is it because you want to go
+out this afternoon? I am sorry, but you will have to wait until Miss
+Ethel's guests have gone."
+
+"No, ma'am," said Annie, hastily, "I'm not wantin' the afternoon, an'
+it's willin' I am to help Miss Ethel, only--only--will you tell Peter,
+ma'am, about the cart?" she finished lamely, "'cause if I tell him he's
+likely to be late."
+
+Mrs. Carter passed out of the kitchen door and crossed the lawn toward
+the stables, casting meanwhile a sharp eye about the premises to be sure
+that all was as it should be. Mary was shaking blankets with an air of
+deep absorption; Peter was industriously cleaning the already clean
+harness, and Joe could be heard inside officiously telling Billy to
+grease the other wheel and be quick about it. Unless Mrs. Carter
+approached very quietly indeed, she always found her servants oblivious
+to everything but their several duties. As she drew near the doorway,
+Peter rose from the harness and respectfully touched his cap with a very
+dirty hand, while the coachman, with a final order over his shoulder to
+a brow-beaten stable-boy, came forward hastily, and stood at attention.
+
+"Joe, we are going to have a picnic at the beach this afternoon, and I
+want you to have the horses ready at three o'clock. Miss Ethel, Mr.
+Lane, and Master Bobby will ride, and you will drive the rest of us in
+the waggonette."
+
+"Very well, ma'am," said Joe.
+
+"And Peter," she added, turning to the groom, "I want you to bring out
+the supper with Trixy and the dog-cart at five o'clock."
+
+"All right, ma'am," said Peter, saluting.
+
+"Be sure to be on time," she warned. "Stop at the kitchen for Annie and
+the hampers promptly at five."
+
+Peter's face suddenly darkened. He drew his mouth into a straight line,
+and looked sullenly down at the harness. "Beggin' yer pardon, ma'am," he
+mumbled, "I don't think--that is----" He scowled defiance at Joe, who
+grinned back appreciatively. "If it's just the same to ye, ma'am, I'd
+like to drive the waggonette an' let Joe fetch the lunch. If I'm to be
+coachman, ma'am, I'd sort o' like to get used to me dooties before he
+goes."
+
+Mrs. Carter was frankly puzzled; she could not imagine what had suddenly
+got into her servants this morning. A lady who has a grown daughter, of
+some attractions and many admirers, to chaperone, cannot be expected to
+keep _au courant_ of her servants' love affairs.
+
+"You have had a month in which to get used to your duties while Joe was
+in the hospital; that is sufficient for the present. Joe will drive the
+waggonette and you will follow with the supper--I wish you to help Tom
+put new netting in the screen-doors this afternoon."
+
+Her tone precluded argument. As soon as she was out of hearing, Joe
+remarked softly, "Now, if she'd only said Mary instead of Annie I
+'spose----"
+
+"Aw, let up," Peter growled, and he fell to rubbing in the grease with
+unnecessary vehemence. His misunderstanding with Annie was a subject he
+would stand no fooling about, even from his chief.
+
+At five o'clock, Peter, in a spotless top-hat and shining boots, looking
+as stiff as if he were clothed in steel armour, drew up before the
+kitchen door and piled the hampers and pails he found on the back
+veranda onto the seat beside him. He climbed to the box again with an
+air of finality, and gathering his reins together made a feint of
+starting.
+
+"Peter!" Nora called from the kitchen window. "Where is it ye're goin'?
+Wait for Annie."
+
+"Annie?" Peter looked as if he had never heard the name before.
+
+"Yes, Annie. Did ye think ye was to cook the supper yerself?"
+
+"I didn't think nothin'," said Peter. "Me orders was to stop for the
+lunch at five o'clock, an' I done it. If she wants to come along she'll
+have to sit on the back seat. I ain't a goin' to change these baskets
+again."
+
+Annie appeared in the doorway in time to hear this ungracious speech;
+she clambered up to the somewhat uncomfortable footman's seat in
+silence, and they drove off back to back, as stiff as twin ramrods.
+
+The cart rolled along over the smooth roads, past country clubs and
+summer cottages, and the only sign either of the two gave of being
+alive was an occasional vicious crack of the whip from Peter when
+patient little Trixy showed signs of wishing to take a quieter pace. At
+such times Annie would instinctively stretch out a deterring hand and
+form her mouth as if to say, "Please, Pete, don't whip her; she's doin'
+her best," and then suddenly remembering that formidable vow, would
+straighten up again and stare ahead with flushed cheeks.
+
+The beach was five miles away, and there is an element of ludicrousness
+in the spectacle of two people in one small dog-cart riding five miles
+without speaking. Annie's sense of humour was keen; it struggled hard
+with her sense of wrong. She was never an Indian to cherish vengeance;
+her anger could be fierce at the moment, but it rarely lasted. And Peter
+was sorry for what he had said, she reminded herself; he had already
+tried to make up. By the end of the second mile two dimples appeared in
+her cheeks. At the third mile she shut her mouth tight to keep a laugh
+from escaping. At the fourth mile she spoke.
+
+"Say, Pete, why don't ye talk to me? Are ye mad?"
+
+Peter had been gazing at Trixy's ears with an air of deep preoccupation,
+and he came back to the present with a start of surprise, apparently
+amazed at finding that he had a companion in the cart.
+
+"Ma'am?" he said.
+
+Annie glanced around at his uncompromising back.
+
+"Why don't ye say somethin'?" she repeated more faintly.
+
+"I ain't got nothin' to say."
+
+Annie's dimples gave way to an angry flush. Never, never, never again
+would she say a thing to him as long as she lived. The remainder of the
+drive was passed in a tumultuous silence. Peter, with grim mouth, kept
+his unseeing eyes on the road in front, and Annie, with burning cheeks,
+stared behind at the cloud of dust.
+
+When the cart arrived among the straggling cedar trees which bordered
+the beach, they found drawn up beside the Carter horses, Mr. Harry's
+hunter and a strange drag which betokened impromptu guests. Annie had
+barely time to wonder if the plates would go around and if there would
+be salad enough, when the cart was welcomed with joyful shouts by a
+crowd of hungry picnickers. She caught a glimpse on the edge of the
+group of Miss Ethel, debonair and smiling, in another new dress, with
+Mr. Lane scowling on one side of her and Mr. Harry on the other.
+Ordinarily, she would have taken a lively interest in such a situation,
+and would have had an appreciative fellow-feeling for Miss Ethel; but
+she saw it now with an unhappy sense that the blessings of this world in
+the shape of dresses and men are unevenly distributed.
+
+Annie usually accepted the pranks of the young ladies and gentlemen in
+good part, no matter how much extra trouble they caused; but to-day as
+she caught a plundering hand on one of the hampers, she called out
+sharply:
+
+"Master Bobby, you let that cake alone! Them olives are for supper."
+
+A general laugh greeted this outburst, and she turned away and began
+unpacking dishes with a bitter feeling of rebellion. Mrs. Carter bustled
+up, and having driven off the marauders, briskly took command.
+
+"Now, Peter, as soon as you have hitched Trixy, come back and help about
+the supper. Annie will tell you what to do."
+
+Annie cheered up slightly at this, and for the moment waived the letter
+of her vow. As Peter reluctantly reappeared, she ordered: "Get a pile o'
+drift wood and fix a place for the fire. Them are too big," she
+commented, as he returned with an armful of sticks. "Get some little
+pieces and be quick about it; you're too slow."
+
+Peter looked mutinous, but the eyes of Mrs. Carter were upon him, and he
+obeyed.
+
+"Now, take those two pails and go to the farm-house for water," Annie
+ordered.
+
+When he returned with the two heavy pails, cross and splashed, she
+fished out a bug or two with an air of dissatisfaction, and told him to
+build the fire. Peter built the fire, and, at Annie's suggestion, held
+the coffee-pot to keep it steady. He burnt his hands, and swore softly
+under his breath, and Annie laughed. Mrs. Carter, having started
+preparations, suddenly recalled her duties as hostess and hurried off
+again, leaving Annie to superintend the remainder alone.
+
+"Here, Peter," said Annie, "I want ye to open these cans o' sardines."
+
+Peter looked after the retreating figure of Mrs. Carter. She was well
+out of hearing; he took from his pocket a cigarette and leisurely
+regarded it.
+
+"I want these cans opened," Annie repeated more sharply.
+
+Peter lighted his cigarette.
+
+"I'll tell Mrs. Carter if ye don't."
+
+Peter threw himself down on the grass, and blowing a ring of smoke,
+looked dreamily off toward the ocean.
+
+Mrs. Carter showed no signs of coming back, and Annie saw that her brief
+dominion was over. She picked up the can-opener and jabbed it viciously
+into the tin. It slipped and cut an ugly gash in her finger. She uttered
+a little cry of pain, and turned pale at sight of the blood, and Peter
+laughed. She turned her back to keep him from seeing the tears of anger
+that filled her eyes, and for the third time she solemnly swore never,
+never, _never_ to speak to him again.
+
+The two served the supper with the same grim silence behind the scenes
+that they exhibited before the guests. When it was over, instead of
+eating with Joe and Peter, Annie commenced gathering up the dishes and
+repacking them in the hampers ready for departure. The two men laughed
+and joked between themselves, without taking any notice of her absence,
+and Annie angrily told herself that she wouldn't speak to Joe any more,
+either. Just as she had everything packed and was comforting herself
+with the thought that she would soon be back home, and the miserable day
+would be ended, Mrs. Carter reappeared.
+
+"Your coffee was excellent, Annie," she said, pleasantly, "and you and
+Peter served very nicely indeed. And now, instead of going home, I
+should like to have you wait and make some lemonade to be served later
+in the evening. It will be a beautiful moonlight night, and you and
+Peter can stay and enjoy yourselves."
+
+"Very well, ma'am," said Annie, dully.
+
+Peter, at this news, lighted another cigarette and strolled off with
+Joe, while Annie, who was growing apathetic under a culmination of
+troubles, busied herself in making the lemonade, and then sat down by
+her baskets to wait. She could see through the gathering dusk the merry
+crowd upon the beach, as they scattered about gathering driftwood for a
+fire. She heard every now and then, above the sound of the waves, a gay
+shout of laughter, and, nearer at hand, the restless stamping of the
+horses. She turned her back to the beach half pettishly, and sat
+watching Mr. Harry's sorrel as he nervously tossed his head and switched
+his tail, trying to keep off the sand flies. From that she fell to
+wondering how Mr. Harry happened to be there, and what Mr. Lane thought
+about it, and if there would be a fight. There probably would not, she
+reflected, with some regret, for gentlemen did not always fight when
+they should. (She had heard through the butcher's boy the story of
+Peter's prowess, and the knowledge had given some slight comfort.) Her
+reflections were suddenly interrupted by the sound of steps crashing
+toward her through the underbrush, and she looked up with a fast-beating
+heart. Her first thought was that it was Peter coming to make up, and
+she resolutely stiffened herself to withstand him, but a second glance
+showed her that it was Mr. Lane.
+
+"Where's Joe?" he demanded.
+
+"I don't know, Mr. Lane."
+
+"Where's Peter, then?"
+
+"I don't know. The two o' them hasn't been here since supper."
+
+"Well, damn it! I've got to find some one." Mr. Lane was evidently
+excited. "See here, Annie," he said, "you're a good girl. Just give a
+message to Mrs. Carter from me, will you, please? Tell her a boy rode
+out on a bicycle with a telegram calling me back to New York
+immediately, and I had to ride back to the house without finding her in
+order to catch the ten-o'clock train. Don't say anything to Miss Ethel,
+and here's something to buy a new dress. Good-bye."
+
+"Thank you, sir. Good-bye."
+
+He hastily rebuckled his horse's bridle, led him into the lane out of
+sight of the beach, and mounted and galloped off. Annie looked after
+him with wide eyes; his bearing was not very jaunty; she wondered if Mr.
+Harry had whipped him. It did not seem likely, for Mr. Lane was the
+larger of the two; but for the matter of that, she reflected, so was the
+grocer's man larger than Peter. She did not understand it, but she
+slipped the bill into her pocket with a shrug of her shoulders. She
+could afford to be philosophic over other people's troubles.
+
+It was growing dark in among the trees and she was beginning to feel
+very lonely. A big red moon was rising over the water, and a bright fire
+was crackling on the beach. The sound of singing was mingled with the
+beating of the surf. Annie wandered out from the shadow of the trees and
+strolled up the beach away from the camp-fire and the singers. Presently
+she dropped down in the shadow of a sand dune and sat with her chin in
+her hands pensively watching the black silhouettes against the fire. By
+and by she saw two figures strolling along the beach in her direction.
+She recognized them as Miss Ethel and Mr. Harry, and she crouched down
+behind the dune until they passed. She felt lonelier than ever as she
+watched them disappear, and the first thing she knew, she had buried her
+head in her arms and was crying to herself--but not very hard, for she
+was mindful of the ride home, and she did not wish to make her eyes red.
+Not for the world would she have let Peter know that she felt unhappy.
+
+Suddenly into the midst of her misery came the sound of scrunching sand
+and the smell of cigarette smoke. Then, without looking up, she felt
+that some one was standing over her and that that some one was Peter.
+She held her breath and waited like a little ostrich, with her head
+burrowed into the sand.
+
+Peter it was, and a mighty struggle was going on within his breast, but
+love is stronger than pride, and his Irish heart conquered in the end.
+
+He bent over and touched her shoulder lightly.
+
+"Annie!" he whispered.
+
+She held her breath and kept her face hidden.
+
+He dropped on his knee in the sand beside her. "Annie, darlin', don't be
+cryin'. Tell me what's the trouble." He forcibly transferred her head
+from the sand bank to his shoulder, and her tears trickled down his
+neck. "Is it yer finger that's hurtin' ye?"
+
+She raised a tear-stained face with a quick smile quivering through at
+this purely masculine suggestion.
+
+"It's not me finger; it's me feelin's," she breathed into his ear. Peter
+tightened his arms around her. "But they're not hurtin' any more," she
+added with a little laugh.
+
+"An' this time we'll be friends f'r always?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Gee!" he whispered. "I've been spendin' the week in hell thinkin' ye
+didn't care nothin' for me."
+
+"So uv I," said Annie.
+
+As they sat watching the rippling path of moonlight on the water, from
+far down the beach they could hear the voices singing, "It's the spring
+time of life and the world is all before us." Annie laughed happily as
+she listened.
+
+"I was wishin' a while ago that I was Miss Ethel 'cause she has
+everything she wants, but I don't wish it any more. She hasn't got you,
+Petey."
+
+"And I'm thinkin' she isn't wantin' me," said Peter, with his eyes on
+the beach above them, where Miss Ethel and Mr. Harry were coming toward
+them hand in hand. The two stopped suddenly as they caught sight of
+Annie and Peter and hastily dropped each others' hands. Then Miss Ethel
+ran forward with a conscious little laugh.
+
+"Annie, you shall be the first to congratulate me--but it's a secret;
+you mustn't tell a soul."
+
+Annie looked back with shining eyes. "I'm engaged, too," she whispered.
+
+"You dear!" said Miss Ethel, and she put her arm around her and kissed
+her.
+
+Peter and Mr. Harry stood a moment eyeing each other awkwardly, then
+they reached out across the gulf that separated them and shook hands.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+A PARABLE FOR HUSBANDS
+
+
+Blue Gipsy's filly had broken two pairs of shafts, kicked a hole through
+a dash-board, and endeavoured to take a fence carriage and all, in a
+fixed determination not to become a harness-horse. It was evident that
+she had chosen her career and meant to stick to it.
+
+"Break her to the shafts if you have to half kill her," Mr. Harry had
+said, but there were some things that Mr. Harry did not understand so
+well as Peter.
+
+"Where's the use in spoilin' a good jumper for the sake o' makin' a poor
+drivin' horse?" Peter had asked the trainer, and he had added that the
+master was talking through his hat.
+
+Peter had already explained the matter to Mr. Harry, but Mr. Harry was
+very much like the filly; when he had made up his mind he did not like
+to change. Peter decided to talk it over once more, however, before he
+risked another groom. The first groom had dislocated his shoulder, and
+he refused to have any further intercourse with Blue Gypsy's filly.
+
+Poor Peter felt himself growing old under the weight of his
+responsibilities. Three years before he had been a care-free groom at
+Willowbrook; now, since Miss Ethel had married Mr. Harry, he was
+coachman at Jasper Place, with seven horses and three men under him.
+Occasionally he gazed rather wistfully across the meadow to where the
+Willowbrook stables showed a red blur through the gray-green trees. He
+had served there eleven years as stable-boy and groom, and though he had
+more than once tasted the end of a strap under Joe's vigorous dominion,
+it had been a happily irresponsible life. Not that he wished the old
+time back, for that would mean that there would be no Annie waiting
+supper for him at night in the coachman's cottage, but he did wish
+sometimes that Mr. Harry had a little more common sense about managing
+horses. Blue Gypsy's filly trotting peaceably between shafts! It was in
+her blood to jump, and jump she would; you might as well train a bull
+pup to grow up a Japanese poodle and sleep on a satin cushion.
+
+Peter, pondering the matter, strolled over to the kitchen and inquired
+of Ellen where Mr. Harry was. Mr. Harry was in the library, she said,
+and Peter could go right through.
+
+The carpet was soft, and he made no noise. He did not mean to listen,
+but he had almost reached the library door before he realized and then
+he stood still, partly because he was dazed, and partly because he was
+interested.
+
+He did not know what had gone before, but the first thing he heard was
+Miss Ethel's voice, and though he could not see her, he knew from the
+tone what she looked like, with her head thrown back and her chin up and
+her eyes flashing.
+
+"I am the best judge of my own actions," she said, "and I shall receive
+whom I please. You always put the wrong interpretation on everything I
+do, and I am tired of your interfering. If you would go away and leave
+me alone it would be best for us both--I feel sometimes as though I
+never wanted to see you again."
+
+Then a long silence, and finally the cold, repressed tones of her
+husband asked: "Do you mean that?"
+
+She did not answer, except by a long indrawn sob of anger. Peter had
+heard that sound before, when she was a child, and he knew how it ought
+to be dealt with; but Mr. Harry did not; he was far too polite.
+
+After another silence he said quietly: "If I go, I go to stay--a long
+time."
+
+"Stay forever, if you like."
+
+Peter turned and tiptoed out, feeling unhappy and ashamed, as he had
+felt that other time when he had overheard. He went back to the stables,
+and sitting down with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands,
+he pondered the situation. If he were Mr. Harry for just ten minutes, he
+told himself fiercely, he would soon settle things; but Mr. Harry did
+not understand. When it came to managing horses he was too rough, as if
+they had no sense; and when it came to managing women, he was too easy,
+as if they were all sense. Peter sighed miserably. His heart ached for
+them both: for Miss Ethel, because he knew that she did not mean what
+she said, and would later be sorry; for Mr. Harry, because he knew that
+he did mean what he said--terribly and earnestly. Neither understood the
+other, and it was all such a muddle when just a little common sense
+would have made everything happy. Then he shrugged his shoulders and
+told himself that it was none of his business; that he guessed they
+could make up their quarrels without help from him. And he fell to
+scolding the stable-boy for mixing up the harness.
+
+In about half an hour, Oscar, the valet, came running out to the stables
+looking pleased and excited, with an order to get the runabout ready
+immediately to go to the station. Oscar was evidently bursting with
+news, but Peter pretended not to be interested, and kept on with his
+work without looking up.
+
+"The master's going in to New York and I follow to-night with his
+things, and to-morrow we sail for England! Maybe we'll go from there on
+a hunting trip to India--I'm to pack the guns. There's been trouble," he
+added significantly. "Mrs. Jasper's in her room with the door banged
+shut, and the master is pretty quiet and white-like about the gills."
+
+"Shut up an' mind yer own business," Peter snapped, and he led out the
+horses and began putting on the harness with hands that trembled.
+
+As he drew up at the stepping-stone, Mr. Harry jumped in. "Well,
+Peter," he said, in a voice which was meant to be cheerful, but was a
+very poor imitation, "we must drive fast if we're to make the
+four-thirty train."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Peter, briskly clicking to the horses, and for once he
+thanked his stars that the station was four miles away. A great resolve
+had been growing in his mind, and it required some time and a good deal
+of courage to carry it out. He glanced sideways at the grim, pale face
+beside him, and cleared his throat uneasily.
+
+"Beggin' yer pardon," he began, "I was at the library door to ask about
+the filly, an' without meanin' to, I heard why you was goin' away."
+
+A quick flush spread over Mr. Harry's face, and he glanced angrily at
+his coachman.
+
+"The devil!" he muttered.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Peter. "I suppose ye'll be dischargin' me, Mr. Harry,
+for speakin', but I feel it's me dooty, and I can't keep quiet. Beggin'
+yer pardon, sir, I've knowed Miss Ethel longer than you have. I was
+servin' at Willowbrook all the time that ye was in boardin' school an'
+college. Her hair was hangin' down her back an' she was drivin' a pony
+cart when I first come. I watched her grow and I know her ways--there
+was times, sir, when she was most uncommon troublesome. She's the kind
+of a woman as needs managin', and if ye'll excuse me for sayin' so, it
+takes a man to do it. Ye're too quiet an' gentleman-like, Mr. Harry.
+Though I guess she likes to have ye act like a gentleman, when ye can't
+do both she'd rather have ye act like a man. If I was her husband----"
+
+"You forget yourself, Peter!"
+
+"Yes, sir. Beg yer pardon, sir, but as I was sayin', if I was her
+husband, I'd let her see who was master pretty quick, an' she'd like me
+the better. And if she ever told me she would be glad for me to go away
+an' never come back, I'd look at her black like with me arms folded,
+and I'd say: 'Ye would, would ye? In that case I'll stay right here an'
+niver go away.' An' then she'd be so mad she'd put her head down on the
+back o' the chair an' cry, deep like, the way she always did when she
+couldn't have what she wanted, an' I'd wait with a frown on me brow, an'
+when she got through she'd be all over it, an' would ask me pardon
+sorrowful like; an' I'd wait a while an' let it soak in, an' then I'd
+forgive her."
+
+Mr. Harry stared at Peter, too amazed to speak.
+
+"Yes, sir," Peter resumed, "I've watched Miss Ethel grow up, and I knows
+her like her own mother, as ye might say. I've drove her to and from the
+town for thirteen years, and I've rode after her many miles on
+horseback, an' when she felt like it she would talk to me as chatty as
+if I weren't a groom. She was always that way with the servants; she
+took an interest in our troubles, an' we all liked her spite o' the
+fact that she was a bit over-rulin'."
+
+Mr. Harry knit his brows and stared ahead without speaking, and Peter
+glanced at him uneasily and hesitated.
+
+"There's another thing I'd like to tell ye, sir, though I'm not sure how
+ye'll take it."
+
+"Don't hesitate on my account," murmured Mr. Harry, ironically. "Say
+anything you please, Peter."
+
+"Well, sir, I guess ye may have forgotten, but I was the groom ye took
+with ye that time before ye was married when ye an' Miss Ethel went to
+see the old wreck."
+
+Mr. Harry looked at Peter with a quick, haughty stare; but Peter was
+examining the end of his whip and did not see.
+
+"An' ye left me an' the cart, sir, under the bank, if ye'll remember,
+an' ye didn't walk far enough away, an' ye spoke pretty loud, and I
+couldn't help hearin' ye."
+
+"Damn your impertinence!" said Mr. Harry.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Peter. "I never told no one, not even me wife, but I
+understood after that how things was goin'. An' when ye went away
+travellin' so sudden, I s'picioned ye wasn't feelin' very merry over the
+trip; an' I watched Miss Ethel, and I was sure she wasn't feelin' merry,
+for all she tried mighty hard to make people think she was. When they
+was lookin', sir, she laughed an' flirted most outrageous with them
+young men as used to be visitin' at Willowbrook, but I knew, sir, that
+she didn't care a snap of her finger for any o' them, for in between
+times she used to take long rides on the beach, with me followin' at a
+distance--at a very respectful distance; she wasn't noticin' my troubles
+then, she had too many of her own. When there weren't no one on the
+beach she'd leave me the horses an' walk off by herself, an' sit on a
+sand dune, an' put her chin in her hand an' stare at the water till the
+horses was that crazy with the sand flies I could scarcely hold 'em. An'
+sometimes she'd put her head down an' cry soft like, fit to break a
+man's heart, and I'd walk the horses off, with me hands just
+itchin'--beggin' yer pardon, sir, to get a holt o' you, for I knew that
+ye was the cause."
+
+"You know a great deal too much," said Mr. Harry, dryly.
+
+"A groom learns considerable without meanin' to, and it's lucky his
+masters is if he knows how to keep his mouth shut. As I was sayin', Mr.
+Harry, I knew all the time she was longin' for ye, but was too proud to
+let ye know. If ye'll allow the impertinence, sir, ye made a mistake in
+the way ye took her at her word. She loved ye too much not to be willin'
+to forgive ye for everything; and if ye'd only understood her an'
+handled her right, she wouldn't 'a' throwed ye over."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean, if ye'll excuse me speakin' allegorical like, as she's the kind
+of a woman as needs a sharp bit and a steady hand on the bridle, an'
+when she bolts a touch o' the lash--not too much, for she wouldn't stand
+it, but enough to let her see who's master. I've known some women an'
+many horses, sir, an' I've noticed as the blooded ones is alike in both.
+If ye 'll excuse me mentionin' it, Miss Ethel was badly broke, sir. She
+was given the rein when she needed the whip, but for all that, she's a
+thoroughbred, sir, an' that's the main thing."
+
+Peter imperceptibly slowed his horses.
+
+"If ye don't mind, Mr. Harry, I'd like to tell ye a little story. It
+happened six or seven years ago when ye was away at college, and if Miss
+Ethel is a bit unreasonable now, she was more unreasonable then. It was
+when the old master first bought Blue Gypsy--as was a devil if there
+ever was one. One afternoon Miss Ethel takes it into her head she wants
+to try the new mare, so she orders her out, with me to follow. What does
+she do but make straight for the beach, sir, an' gallop along on the
+hard sand close to the water-line. It was an awful windy day late in
+October, with the clouds hangin' low an' the waves dashin' high, and
+everything sort o' empty an' lonesome. Blue Gypsy wasn't used to the
+water, an' she was so scared she was 'most crazy, rearin' an' plungin'
+till ye would a swore she had a dozen legs--not much of a horse for a
+lady, but Miss Ethel could ride all right. She kept Blue Gypsy's head to
+the wind an' galloped four or five miles up the beach, with me poundin'
+along behind, hangin' on to me hat for dear life.
+
+"'Twas ebb-tide, but time for the flood, and I was beginning to think
+we'd better go back, unless we wanted to plough through the loose
+shingle high up, which is mighty hard on a horse, sir. But when we come
+to the Neck, Miss Ethel rode straight on; I didn't like the looks of it
+much, but I didn't say nothin' for the Neck's never under water an'
+there weren't no danger. But what does she do when we comes to the end
+o' the Neck, but turn to ride across the inlet to the mainland, which
+ye can do easy enough at low tide, but never at high. The sand was
+already gettin' oozy, an' with the wind blowin' off the sea the tide was
+risin' fast. Ye know what it would 'a' meant, sir, if she'd gone out an'
+got caught. An' what with that unknown devil of a Blue Gypsy she was
+ridin', there was no tellin' when it would happen.
+
+"'Miss Ethel,' I calls, sort o' commandin' like, for I was too excited
+for politeness, 'ye can't go across.'
+
+"She turns around an' stares at me haughty, an' goes on.
+
+"I gallops up an' says: 'The tide's a risin', Miss Ethel, an' the inlet
+isn't safe.'
+
+"She looks me over cool an' says: 'It is perfectly safe. I am goin' to
+ride across; if you are afraid, Peter, you may go home.'
+
+"With that she whips up an' starts off. I was after her in a minute,
+gallopin' up beside her, an' before she knew what I was doin' I reaches
+out me hand an' grabs hold o' the bridle an' turns Blue Gypsy's head. I
+didn't like to do it, for it seemed awful familiar, but with people as
+contrary as they is, sir, ye've got to be familiar sometimes, if ye're
+goin' to do any good in the world.
+
+"Well, Mr. Harry, as ye can believe, she didn't like it, an' she calls
+out sharp and imperative for me to let go. But I hangs on an' begins to
+gallop, an' with that she raises her crop an' cuts me over the hand as
+hard as she can. It hurt considerable, but I held on an' didn't say
+nothin', an' she raised her arm to strike again. But just at that moment
+a wave broke almost at the horses' feet, an' Blue Gypsy reared, an' Miss
+Ethel, who wasn't expectin' it, almost lost her balance an' the crop
+dropped on the sand.
+
+"'Peter,' she says, 'go back an' get me that crop.'
+
+"But by that time I'd got the bit in me teeth, sir, an' I just
+laughs--ugly like--an' keeps holt o' the bridle an' gallops on. Well,
+sir, then she was 'most crazy, an' she tries to shake off me arm with
+her fist, but she might as well have tried to shake down a tree. I looks
+at her, an' smiles to meself impertinent, an' keeps on. An' she looks
+all around, desperate like, hopin' to see someone within call, but the
+beach was empty, an' there wasn't nothin' she could do, I bein' so much
+stronger."
+
+"You brute!" said Mr. Harry.
+
+"I was savin' her life," said Peter. "An' when she saw she couldn't do
+nothin' she kind o' sobbed down low to herself an' said, soft like:
+'_I'll discharge you, Peter, when we get home._'
+
+"I touches me hat an' says as polite as ye please: 'Very well, miss, but
+we ain't home yet, miss, and I'm boss for the present.'
+
+"With that a great big wave comes swash up against the horses' legs, an'
+lucky it is that I had a holt o' the bridle, for Blue Gypsy would 'a'
+thrown her sure. An' after I got her back on her four legs--Blue Gypsy,
+sir--an' we was goin' on again, Miss Ethel throws a look over her
+shoulder at the inlet which was all under water, an' then she looks down
+at me hand that had a great big red welt across it, an' she said so low
+I could scarce hear her over the waves:
+
+"'You can take your hand away, Peter. I'll ride straight home.'
+
+"I knew she meant it, but me hand was burnin' like fire, and I'd got me
+temper up, so I looks at her doubtin' like, as if I couldn't believe
+her, an' she turns red an' says, 'Can't ye trust me, Peter?' an' with
+that I touches me hat an' falls behind.
+
+"An' when we got back, sir, and I got off at the porter-ker-cher to help
+her dismount, what does she do but take me big red hand in both o' hers,
+an' she looks at the scar, an' then she looks in me eyes, an' she says,
+like as ye hit straight from the shoulder, sir, 'Peter,' she says, 'I'm
+sorry I struck you. Will ye forgive me?' she says.
+
+"An' I touches me hat an' says: 'Certainly, miss. Don't mention it,
+miss,' an' we was friends after that.
+
+"An' that's the reason, Mr. Harry, I hate to see ye go off an'--beggin'
+yer pardon--make a fool o' yerself. For she loves ye true, sir, like as
+Annie loves me, an' I know, sir, if she took it hard before ye was
+married, it ud near kill her now. Ye mustn't mind what she says when
+she's angry, for she just thinks o' the worst things she can to hurt yer
+feelin's, but Lord! sir, she don't mean it no more'n a rabbit, an' if
+ye'll give her half a chance and don't act like an iceberg she'll want
+to make up. Me an' Annie, Mr. Harry, we pulls together lovely. I'm the
+boss in some things, an' she's the boss in others; I lets her think she
+can manage me, an' she lets me think I can manage her--and I can, sir.
+Sometimes we have little quarrels, but it's mostly for the joy o' makin'
+up, an' we're that happy, sir, that we wants to see everyone else
+happy."
+
+The horses had slowed to a walk, but Mr. Harry did not notice it. A
+smile was beginning to struggle with the hard lines about his mouth.
+
+"Well, Peter," he said, "you've preached quite a sermon. What would you
+advise?"
+
+"That ye go back an' take a firm hold o' the bridle, sir, an' if she
+uses the whip, just hold on hard an' don't let on that it hurts."
+
+Mr. Harry looked at Peter and the smile spread to his eyes. "And then
+when she drops it," he asked, "just laugh and ride on?"
+
+Peter coughed a deprecatory cough.
+
+"Beggin' yer pardon, Mr. Harry, I think if I was in your place I'd pick
+it up an' keep it meself. It might come in handy in case of
+emergencies."
+
+Mr. Harry threw back his head in a quick, boyish laugh, and reaching
+over he took the lines and turned the horses' heads.
+
+"Peter," he said, "you may be elemental, but I half suspect you're
+right."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_"The Books You Like to Read at the Price You Like to Pay"_
+
+
+_There Are Two Sides to Everything_----
+
+--including the wrapper which covers every Grosset & Dunlap book. When
+you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected
+list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent
+writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset &
+Dunlap book wrapper.
+
+You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from--books for
+every mood and every taste and every pocket-book.
+
+_Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to
+the publishers for a complete catalog._
+
+
+_There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book for every mood and for every taste_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+B. M. BOWER'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
+
+
+     CHIP OF THE FLYING U. Wherein the love affairs of Chip and Della
+     Whitman are charmingly and humorously told.
+
+     THE HAPPY FAMILY. A lively and amusing story, dealing with the
+     adventures of eighteen jovial, big hearted Montana cowboys.
+
+     HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT. Describing a gay party of Easterners who
+     exchange a cottage at Newport for a Montana ranch-house.
+
+     THE RANGE DWELLERS. Spirited action, a range feud between two
+     families, and a Romeo and Juliet courtship make this a bright,
+     jolly story.
+
+     THE LURE OF THE DIM TRAILS. A vivid portrayal of the experience
+     of an Eastern author among the cowboys.
+
+     THE LONESOME TRAIL. A little branch of sage brush and the
+     recollection of a pair of large brown eyes upset "Weary" Davidson's
+     plans.
+
+     THE LONG SHADOW. A vigorous Western story, sparkling with the
+     free outdoor life of a mountain ranch. It is a fine love story.
+
+     GOOD INDIAN. A stirring romance of life on an Idaho ranch.
+
+     FLYING U RANCH. Another delightful story about Chip and his pals.
+
+     THE FLYING U'S LAST STAND. An amusing account of Chip and the
+     other boys opposing a party of school teachers.
+
+     THE UPHILL CLIMB. A story of a mountain ranch and of a man's hard
+     fight on the uphill road to manliness.
+
+     THE PHANTOM HERD. The title of a moving-picture staged in New
+     Mexico by the "Flying U" boys.
+
+     THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX. The "Flying U" boys stage a fake bank
+     robbery for film purposes which precedes a real one for lust of
+     gold.
+
+     THE GRINGOS. A story of love and adventure on a ranch in
+     California.
+
+     STARR OF THE DESERT. A New Mexico ranch story of mystery and
+     adventure.
+
+     THE LOOKOUT MAN. A Northern California story full of action,
+     excitement and love.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ZANE GREY'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE MAN OF THE FOREST
+THE DESERT OF WHEAT
+THE U. P. TRAIL
+WILDFIRE
+THE BORDER LEGION
+THE RAINBOW TRAIL
+THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT
+RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE
+THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS
+THE LAST OF THE PLAINSMEN
+THE LONE STAR RANGER
+DESERT GOLD
+BETTY ZANE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LAST OF THE GREAT SCOUTS
+
+The life story of "Buffalo Bill" by his sister Helen Cody Wetmore, with
+Foreword and conclusion by Zane Grey.
+
+
+ZANE GREY'S BOOKS FOR BOYS
+
+KEN WARD IN THE JUNGLE
+THE YOUNG LION HUNTER
+THE YOUNG FORESTER
+THE YOUNG PITCHER
+THE SHORT STOP
+THE RED-HEADED OUTFIELD AND OTHER BASEBALL STORIES
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD'S
+
+STORIES OF ADVENTURE
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+
+THE RIVER'S END
+
+A story of the Royal Mounted Police.
+
+
+THE GOLDEN SNARE
+
+Thrilling adventures in the Far Northland.
+
+
+NOMADS OF THE NORTH
+
+The story of a bear-cub and a dog.
+
+
+KAZAN
+
+The tale of a "quarter-strain wolf and three-quarters husky" torn
+between the call of the human and his wild mate.
+
+
+BAREE, SON OF KAZAN
+
+The story of the son of the blind Grey Wolf and the gallant part he
+played in the lives of a man and a woman.
+
+
+THE COURAGE OF CAPTAIN PLUM
+
+The story of the King of Beaver Island, a Mormon colony, and his battle
+with Captain Plum.
+
+
+THE DANGER TRAIL
+
+A tale of love, Indian vengeance, and a mystery of the North.
+
+
+THE HUNTED WOMAN
+
+A tale of a great fight in the "valley of gold" for a woman.
+
+
+THE FLOWER OF THE NORTH
+
+The story of Fort o' God, where the wild flavor of the wilderness is
+blended with the courtly atmosphere of France.
+
+
+THE GRIZZLY KING
+
+The story of Thor, the big grizzly.
+
+
+ISOBEL
+
+A love story of the Far North.
+
+
+THE WOLF HUNTERS
+
+A thrilling tale of adventure in the Canadian wilderness.
+
+
+THE GOLD HUNTERS
+
+The story of adventure in the Hudson Bay wilds.
+
+
+THE COURAGE OF MARGE O'DOONE
+
+Filled with exciting incidents in the land of strong men and women.
+
+
+BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY
+
+A thrilling story of the Far North. The great Photoplay was made from
+this book.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+EDGAR RICE BURROUGH'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+
+TARZAN THE UNTAMED
+
+Tells of Tarzan's return to the life of the ape-man in his search for
+vengeance on those who took from him his wife and home.
+
+
+JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN
+
+Records the many wonderful exploits by which Tarzan proves his right to
+ape kingship.
+
+
+A PRINCESS OF MARS
+
+Forty-three million miles from the earth--a succession of the weirdest
+and most astounding adventures in fiction. John Carter, American, finds
+himself on the planet Mars, battling for a beautiful woman, with the
+Green Men of Mars, terrible creatures fifteen feet high, mounted on
+horses like dragons.
+
+
+THE GODS OF MARS
+
+Continuing John Carter's adventures on the Planet Mars, in which he does
+battle against the ferocious "plant men," creatures whose mighty tails
+swished their victims to instant death, and defies Issus, the terrible
+Goddess of Death, whom all Mars worships and reveres.
+
+
+THE WARLORD OF MARS
+
+Old acquaintances, made in the two other stories, reappear, Tars Tarkas,
+Tardos Mors and others. There is a happy ending to the story in the
+union of the Warlord, the title conferred upon John Carter, with Dejah
+Thoris.
+
+
+THUVIA, MAID OF MARS
+
+The fourth volume of the series. The story centers around the adventures
+of Carthoris, the son of John Carter and Thuvia, daughter of a Martian
+Emperor.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MYRTLE REED'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.
+
+
+LAVENDER AND OLD LACE.
+
+A charming story of a quaint corner of New England. The story centers
+round the coming of love to the young people on the staff of a
+newspaper--and is one of the sweetest and quaintest of old-fashioned
+love stories.
+
+
+FLOWER OF THE DUSK.
+
+A crippled daughter struggles to keep up the deception of riches for the
+comfort of a blind father. Through the aid of an heiress and her surgeon
+lover both father and daughter are cured.
+
+
+MASTER OF THE VINEYARD.
+
+A pathetic love story of a young girl, Rosemary. The teacher of the
+country school, who is also master of the vineyard, comes to know her
+through her desire for books. She is happy in his love till another
+woman comes into his life. But happiness comes to Rosemary at last.
+
+
+OLD ROSE AND SILVER.
+
+A love story,--sentimental and humorous,--with the plot subordinate to
+the character delineation of its quaint people and to the exquisite
+descriptions of picturesque spots.
+
+
+A WEAVER OF DREAMS.
+
+This story tells of the love-affairs of three young people, with an
+old-fashioned romance in the background.
+
+
+A SPINNER IN THE SUN.
+
+An old-fashioned love story of a veiled lady who lives in solitude.
+There is a mystery that throws over it the glamour of romance.
+
+
+THE MASTER'S VIOLIN.
+
+A love story in a musical atmosphere. An old German virtuoso consents to
+take for his pupil a youth who proves to have an aptitude for technique,
+but not the soul of an artist. But a girl comes into his life, and
+through his passionate love for her his soul awakes.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+NOVELS OF FRONTIER LIFE BY
+
+WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+
+MAVERICKS
+
+A tale of the western frontier, where the "rustler" abounds. One of the
+sweetest love stories ever told.
+
+
+A TEXAS RANGER
+
+How a member of the border police saved the life of an innocent man,
+followed fugitive to Wyoming, and then passed through deadly peril to
+ultimate happiness.
+
+
+WYOMING
+
+In this vivid story the author brings out the turbid life of the
+frontier with all its engaging dash and vigor.
+
+
+RIDGWAY OF MONTANA
+
+The scene is laid in the mining centers of Montana, where politics and
+mining industries are the religion of the country.
+
+
+BUCKY O'CONNOR
+
+Every chapter teems with wholesome, stirring adventures, replete with
+the dashing spirit of the border.
+
+
+CROOKED TRAILS AND STRAIGHT
+
+A story of Arizona; of swift-riding men and daring outlaws; of a bitter
+feud between cattle-men and sheep-herders.
+
+
+BRAND BLOTTERS
+
+A story of the turbid life of the frontier with a charming love interest
+running through its pages.
+
+
+STEVE YEAGER
+
+A story brimful of excitement, with enough gun-play and adventures to
+suit anyone.
+
+
+A DAUGHTER OF THE DONS
+
+A Western story of romance and adventure, comprising a vivacious and
+stirring tale.
+
+
+THE HIGHGRADER
+
+A breezy, pleasant and amusing love story of Western mining life.
+
+
+THE PIRATE OF PANAMA
+
+A tale of old-time pirates and of modern love, hate and adventure.
+
+
+THE YUKON TRAIL
+
+A crisply entertaining love story in the land where might makes right.
+
+
+THE VISION SPLENDID
+
+In which two cousins are contestants for the same prizes; political
+honors and the hand of a girl.
+
+
+THE SHERIFF'S SON
+
+The hero finally conquers both himself and his enemies and wins the love
+of a wonderful girl.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ELEANOR H. PORTER'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+
+JUST DAVID
+
+The tale of a loveable boy and the place he comes to fill in the hearts
+of the gruff farmer folk to whose care he is left.
+
+
+THE ROAD TO UNDERSTANDING
+
+A compelling romance of love and marriage.
+
+
+OH, MONEY! MONEY!
+
+Stanley Fulton, a wealthy bachelor, to test the dispositions of his
+relatives, sends them each a check for $100,000, and then as plain John
+Smith comes among them to watch the result of his experiment.
+
+
+SIX STAR RANCH
+
+A wholesome story of a club of six girls and their summer on Six Star
+Ranch.
+
+
+DAWN
+
+The story of a blind boy whose courage leads him through the gulf of
+despair into a final victory gained by dedicating his life to the
+service of blind soldiers.
+
+
+ACROSS THE YEARS
+
+Short stories of our own kind and of our own people. Contains some of
+the best writing Mrs. Porter has done.
+
+
+THE TANGLED THREADS
+
+In these stories we find the concentrated charm and tenderness of all
+her other books.
+
+
+THE TIE THAT BINDS
+
+Intensely human stories told with Mrs. Porter's wonderful talent for
+warm and vivid character drawing.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE NOVELS OF WINSTON CHURCHILL
+
+
+THE INSIDE OF THE CUP. Illustrated by Howard Giles.
+
+The Reverend John Hodder is called to a fashionable church in a
+middle-western city. He knows little of modern problems and in his
+theology is as orthodox as the rich men who control his church could
+desire. But the facts of modern life are thrust upon him; an awakening
+follows and in the end he works out a solution.
+
+
+A FAR COUNTRY. Illustrated by Herman Pfeifer.
+
+This novel is concerned with big problems of the day. As _The Inside of
+the Cup_ gets down to the essentials in its discussion of religion, so
+_A Far Country_ deals in a story that is intense and dramatic, with
+other vital issues confronting the twentieth century.
+
+
+A MODERN CHRONICLE. Illustrated by J. H. Gardner Soper.
+
+This, Mr. Churchill's first great presentation of the Eternal Feminine,
+is throughout a profound study of a fascinating young American woman. It
+is frankly a modern love story.
+
+
+MR. CREWE'S CAREER. Illus. by A. I. Keller and Kinneys.
+
+A new England state is under the political domination of a railway and
+Mr. Crewe, a millionaire, seizes a moment when the cause of the people
+is being espoused by an ardent young attorney, to further his own
+interest in a political way. The daughter of the railway president plays
+no small part in the situation.
+
+
+THE CROSSING. Illustrated by S. Adamson and L. Bay.
+
+Describing the battle of Fort Moultrie, the blazing of the Kentucky
+wilderness, the expedition of Clark and his handful of followers in
+Illinois, the beginning of civilization along the Ohio and Mississippi,
+and the treasonable schemes against Washington.
+
+
+CONISTON. Illustrated by Florence Scovel Shinn.
+
+A deft blending of love and politics. A New Englander is the hero, a
+crude man who rose to political prominence by his own powers, and then
+surrendered all for the love of a woman.
+
+
+THE CELEBRITY. An episode.
+
+An inimitable bit of comedy describing an interchange of personalities
+between a celebrated author and a bicycle salesman. It is the purest,
+keenest fun--and is American to the core.
+
+
+THE CRISIS. Illustrated with scenes from the Photo-Play.
+
+A book that presents the great crisis in our national life with splendid
+power and with a sympathy, a sincerity, and a patriotism that are
+inspiring.
+
+
+RICHARD CARVEL. Illustrated by Malcolm Frazer.
+
+An historical novel which gives a real and vivid picture of Colonial
+times, and is good, clean, spirited reading in all its phases and
+interesting throughout.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"STORM COUNTRY" BOOKS BY
+
+GRACE MILLER WHITE
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+
+JUDY OF ROGUES' HARBOR
+
+Judy's untutored ideas of God, her love of wild things, her faith in
+life are quite as inspiring as those of Tess. Her faith and sincerity
+catch at your heart strings. This book has all of the mystery and tense
+action of the other Storm Country books.
+
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY
+
+It was as Tess, beautiful, wild, impetuous, that Mary Pickford made her
+reputation as a motion picture actress. How love acts upon a temperament
+such as hers--a temperament that makes a woman an angel or an outcast,
+according to the character of the man she loves--is the theme of the
+story.
+
+
+THE SECRET OF THE STORM COUNTRY
+
+The sequel to "Tess of the Storm Country," with the same wild
+background, with its half-gypsy life of the squatters--tempestuous,
+passionate, brooding. Tess learns the "secret" of her birth and finds
+happiness and love through her boundless faith in life.
+
+
+FROM THE VALLEY OF THE MISSING
+
+A haunting story with its scene laid near the country familiar to
+readers of "Tess of the Storm Country."
+
+
+ROSE O' PARADISE
+
+"Jinny" Singleton, wild, lovely, lonely, but with a passionate yearning
+for music, grows up in the house of Lafe Grandoken, a crippled cobbler
+of the Storm Country. Her romance is full of power and glory and
+tenderness.
+
+
+_Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction_
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY
+
+GENE STRATTON-PORTER
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+LADDIE.
+
+Illustrated by Herman Pfeifer.
+
+This is a bright, cheery tale with the scenes laid in Indiana. The story
+is told by Little Sister, the youngest member of a large family, but it
+is concerned not so much with childish doings as with the love affairs
+of older members of the family. Chief among them is that of Laddie, the
+older brother whom Little Sister adores, and the Princess, an English
+girl who has come to live in the neighborhood and about whose family
+there hangs a mystery. There is a wedding midway in the book and a
+double wedding at the close.
+
+
+THE HARVESTER. Illustrated by W. L. Jacobs.
+
+"The Harvester," David Langston, is a man of the woods and fields, who
+draws his living from the prodigal hand of Mother Nature herself. If the
+book had nothing in it but the splendid figure of this man it would be
+notable. But when the Girl comes to his "Medicine Woods," and the
+Harvester's whole being realizes that this is the highest point of life
+which has come to him--there begins a romance of the rarest idyllic
+quality.
+
+
+FRECKLES. Decorations by E. Stetson Crawford.
+
+Freckles is a nameless waif when the tale opens, but the way in which he
+takes hold of life; the nature friendships he forms in the great
+Limberlost Swamp; the manner in which everyone who meets him succumbs to
+the charm of his engaging personality; and his love-story with "The
+Angel" are full of real sentiment.
+
+
+A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST.
+
+Illustrated by Wladyslaw T. Brenda.
+
+The story of a girl of the Michigan woods; a buoyant, lovable type of
+the self-reliant American. Her philosophy is one of love and kindness
+towards all things; her hope is never dimmed. And by the sheer beauty of
+her soul, and the purity of her vision, she wins from barren and
+unpromising surroundings those rewards of high courage.
+
+
+AT THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW.
+
+Illustrations in colors by Oliver Kemp.
+
+The scene of this charming love story is laid in Central Indiana. The
+story is one of devoted friendship, and tender self-sacrificing love.
+The novel is brimful of the most beautiful word painting of nature, and
+its pathos and tender sentiment will endear it to all.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE NOVELS OF IRVING BACHELLER
+
+Full of the real atmosphere of American home life.
+
+
+THE HAND-MADE GENTLEMAN. With a double-page frontispiece.
+
+The son of a wash-woman begins re-making himself socially and imparts
+his system to his numerous friends. A story of rural New York with an
+appreciation of American types only possible from the pen of a humor
+loving American.
+
+
+DARREL OF THE BLESSED ISLES. With illustrations by Arthur I. Keller.
+
+A tale of the North Country. In Darrel, the clock tinker, wit,
+philosopher and man of mystery, is portrayed a force held in fetters and
+covered with obscurity, yet strong to make its way, and widely felt.
+
+
+D'RI AND I: A Tale of Daring Deeds in the Second War with the British.
+Illustrated by F. C. Yohn.
+
+"D'ri" was a mighty hunter, quaint, rugged, wise, truthful. He fights
+magnificently on the Lawrence, and is a striking figure in this
+enthusiastic romance of early America.
+
+
+EBEN HOLDEN: A Tale of the North Country.
+
+A story of the hardy wood-choppers of Vermont, who founded their homes
+in the Adirondack wilderness. "Eben," the hero, is a bachelor with an
+imagination that is a very wilderness of oddities.
+
+
+SILAS STRONG: Emperor of the Woods.
+
+A simple account of one summer life, as it was lived in a part of the
+Adirondacks. Silas Strong is a woodland philosopher, and his camp is the
+scene of an impressive little love story.
+
+
+VERGILIUS: A Tale of the Coming of Christ.
+
+A thrilling and beautiful story of two young Roman Patricians whose
+great and perilous love in the reign of Augustus leads them through the
+momentous, exciting events that marked the year just preceding the birth
+of Christ.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Much Ado About Peter, by Jean Webster
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42768 ***