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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75509-0.txt b/75509-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45aa4b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/75509-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9229 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75509 *** + + + + + + CAROLYN OF THE SUNNY HEART + + BY RUTH BELMORE ENDICOTT + + AUTHOR OF + CAROLYN OF THE CORNERS + + ILLUSTRATED BY + EDWARD C. CASWELL + + NEW YORK + GROSSET & DUNLAP + PUBLISHERS + + COPYRIGHT, 1919 + BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + CONTENTS + + + I THE PALE LADY + + II A PROBLEM TO SOLVE + + III A NEW FRIEND + + IV A PUZZLE + + V THE RED-HAIRED GIRL--AND OTHERS + + VI A NEW BANGLE FOR PRINCE + + VII "IF I WERE RICH" + + VIII A GREAT DEAL HAPPENS + + IX THE GRIFFIN + + X CAROLYN MAY IS PUZZLED + + XI AT THE CORNERS + + XII NEW SCENES + + XIII WOODEN LEGS + + XIV THE DOG WITH THE BUSHY TAIL + + XV AN UNANSWERED QUERY + + XVI ARRIVALS + + XVII RENEWED ACQUAINTANCE + + XVIII THE NIGHT ALARM + + XIX A REMOVAL + + XX GREAT EXPECTATIONS + + XXI CROSS CURRENTS + + XXII THE COCKATOO MAN IN TROUBLE + + XXIII INTO MISCHIEF AND OUT + + XXIV HE TURNS UP AGAIN + + XXV ALMOST + + XXVI COUSIN OLY'S ACCIDENT + + XXVII TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS + + XXVIII "MURDER WILL OUT" + + XXIX BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION + + XXX IT ALL COMES OUT RIGHT + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + The little girl's interest was closely held + + "Wait--let me speak to her first, Carolyn!" + + "What did he do with the ten thousand dollars?" + + "You!" he said explosively + + + + + CAROLYN OF THE SUNNY HEART + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE PALE LADY + + +The craggy heights of upper Central Park trailed a skirt of afternoon +shadow across the narrow strip of greensward and the asphalt path. One +felt the chill of spring in the shadow; but the sunshine was warm and +odorous with budding shrubs and trees. + +The little girl in the blue tam-o'-shanter and the mongrel dog +straining at his leash sniffed these pungent odours with approbation. +The dog wrinkled his nose and sneezed softly. His little mistress +smiled and dimpled, saying aloud: + +"This is such a nice day, Princey! If the angels make each day new +for us, they must have taken par-_tic_-'lar pains with this one. Now, +Princey, you must _not_ do that!" + +The dog had made a playful dive for the wheel of a baby go-cart that +rolled across the path, and might have done it some damage with his +strong teeth. + +The child halted the runaway cart and wheeled it back to the settee +where it had stood, while Prince, his tongue a-loll and "smiling" +broadly, watched both his mistress and the strange woman who sat on +the bench with a baby in her lap. + +She was a very pale lady, and the baby did not seem well nourished, +either. He had wide eyes now for the dog, putting out his little hands +and cooing to Prince. + +"Thank you, my dear," the woman said sweetly; but she drew the baby +back hastily from the approach of the dog. + +"Oh, don't be afraid of Princey, ma'am," urged the little girl. "He +wouldn't hurt the baby. Why, Princey just _loves_ babies! Edna Price +has a little baby brother. That's why Edna didn't come to walk with us +today. She had to stay at home to mind Eldred. That's her baby's name. +I think it's a very pretty name. Edna's mamma got it out of a moving +picture. + +"Why," chattered on Prince's mistress, as the encouraged baby began +gaily to maul the dog's head and cropped ears, "they put Eldred right +down on the floor beside Princey, and the baby climbs all over him--and +sometimes goes to sleep on him. Isn't that funny?" and her own laugh +chimed out clearly. "And Prince behaves just as _goo-od_! He lies right +there and blinks his eyes and won't even snap at a fly for fear of +waking up the baby." + +"I see that your dog," said the pale lady, smiling, "is very +intelligent, as well as kind." + +"Oh, yes, ma'am," the little girl agreed. "He's not only intelligent. +He's quite interlectial. He knows lots more than other dogs." + +She was staring quite frankly at the pale lady, who had beautiful, +heavy coils of golden-red hair upon her shapely head. Her neck, slim +and graceful, seemed scarcely strong enough to hold the heavy head +erect, and it drooped like a flower above the cooing baby. Had she not +been so very, very thin and had she been granted some colour in her +cheeks, the little girl thought the lady would be beautiful indeed. + +The baby was pretty, too, in a delicate, fragile way. The little +girl was used to seeing sturdy, pink-cheeked, plump infants on her +block--and she knew them all. This little man was nothing at all like +Eldred Price, or Johnny O'Harrity's baby sister who lived in the +basement of their house. It seemed to the little girl that if she were +choosing a baby-- + +"Don't--don't you think you'd rather have a fatter baby?" she burst +forth at last. + +A little colour rose into the mother's pale cheek, and she hugged the +baby tighter for a moment. + +"Of course, I s'pose _some_-body's got to choose the thin babies, or +they wouldn't have any homes at all. But if we ever find a baby--my +mamma and I--I hope it will be a fat one." + +"We hope the little mannie will be big and fat and strong some day," +said the pale lady, and managed to smile again. + +The friendly little girl hitched herself up on the bench beside the +woman, her feet dangling almost a foot from the ground. + +"So there is no baby at your house," remarked the pale lady, bending +again over her own little one. + +"No, ma'am. There's just Princey and me and my papa and mamma, and +sometimes Aunty Rose Kennedy, who comes to our house from Sunrise Cove +and the Corners and stays with us. She's just gone back home now to +make her garden. She says she cert'nly would have a conniption fit if +she didn't dig in the dirt in the spring. She says it's in her blood, +you know. But she doesn't take anything for it like _I_ have to when it +comes spring. My mamma says a spring tonic's quite nec'sary." + +"I see," said the pale lady. "It must be nice to have a garden. But one +cannot have a garden in the city." + +"Oh, some folks can!" cried the child, her eyes shining. "I'm +'quainted with a very nice gentleman here in the park--his name is +Mr. M'Cooey--and he's got a lovely big garden up yonder," she added, +pointing to the heights. + +"There's going to be jonquils, and crocuses, and hy'cinths in it. He +told me so; and he ought to know, for he buried their feet in the +ground last fall. I saw him bury 'em. Princey wanted to dig 'em up; he +has always to be on his leash up in _that_ part of the park. + +"Mr. M'Cooey's awful glad to work in the garden again, now it's come +spring. In the winter he has to go around with a bag and spear papers +with a stick--_you_ know, papers and peanut bags where folks have been +feeding the squirrels. That's quite int'resting work, too. Mr. M'Cooey +let me try it once, and I speared a lot of papers for him." + +"I think you must make many friends, little girl," said the pale +lady--was it said wistfully? "Do you come to the park often?" + +"Oh, yes, ma'am! But lots of times we come very early in the morning, +when other folks aren't up. My papa and Princey and I. You see, my papa +gets home from his paper awful early, and sometimes when it's pleasant +I get up and we take a walk while mamma gets breakfast. + +"That's how I come to know Mr. M'Cooey and the policeman who lets +Princey run without his leash," the little girl proceeded. "_He's_ a +very nice man, too. His name is Mr. Lonergan, and he's got ten children +at home. And what do you s'pose? He says he wouldn't sell _one_ of them +for a million dollars, but he wouldn't give ten cents for another baby!" + +The child's laugh chimed out again. Even the pale lady must smile in +response. The baby crowed and pulled at the ears of the mongrel dog. +But the lengthening shadows warned the woman of the time. She shook out +the baby's blanket and wrapped his feet and limbs in it, laying the +little man over her shoulder as she rose. + +"I must take him home, my dear," she said to the little girl, who also +climbed down from the bench. "Do you go this way, too?" + +She turned toward the avenue, pushing the go-cart with her free hand. +The child and her dog accompanied her, the former still gaily talking. +The avenue crossing was a whirlpool of flying motors, of trucks and +cars passing on the wide crosstown street, and of pedestrians dodging +this way and that. There were, too, many homing baby carriages at this +hour. The traffic officer had his hands full. He really could not see +everything and everywhere at the same moment. + +The pale lady, seeing what she thought was a clearing in the tangle of +traffic, let the little go-cart slip over the edge of the curbing into +the gutter. The child suddenly screamed. + +"Oh, don't! Oh, don't! Princey, don't let her!" + +The dog uttered a single bark and seized the skirt of the pale lady +from behind. Around the corner into the avenue, making a sharp turn, +came a great motor-car--all shiny varnish, beautiful upholstering, and +polished nickel trimmings--a car which told of wealth and ease, and the +occupants of which seemed of a world quite apart from that of the pale +lady and her baby. + +The wheel of the motor-car crushed the go-cart against the curbing only +a second following the child's warning cry. The pale lady fell back +from the peril, the dog dragging upon her skirt. The baby, crowing and +fearless, confronted the man and woman in the tonneau of the car, which +was brought to a stop by the chauffeur within its own length. + +The little girl was breathless with excitement, but she was, too, +vastly observant. She noted that the man in the car was of a florid +complexion, grey-haired, and exceedingly stern looking. The lady was +very fashionably dressed and revealed a cold and selfish nature in her +manner and her gaze. Through a shell-mounted lorgnette she stared at +the baby held so high and shielding his trembling mother's face. + +"How could that person be so careless?" demanded this woman sharply. +"Suppose the child had been in the carriage? I shudder to think of it!" + +The pale lady withdrew from the vicinity of the motor-car. She seemed +only desirous of effacing herself in the crowd that was loitering and +curious. + +"Dear me!" proceeded the woman in the car, "people like that do not +deserve to have children. And it is a pretty child, too." Then she +added to her husband: "What will you do, Henry?" + +The little girl standing sturdily aside with her dog, and with strong +disapproval set upon her flowerlike face, had attracted the attention +of the man. He looked up. + +"The woman's gone!" he said. "She's a fool! Run away! Must be something +wrong with her. See here, child," he added harshly to Prince's little +mistress, "is she your mother, too?" + +"No, sir," said the little girl gravely. "She's just a friend of +mine. And I don't think it was nice at all of you to smash her baby's +carriage. You see, it will be no good at all any more." + +The woman put up her lorgnette again and stared disapprovingly at the +little girl. But her husband was much amused. + +"Indeed?" he said, grimly smiling. "So she is a friend of yours! And +who are you?" + +"Oh, I am Carolyn May Cameron," said the little girl, and mentioned the +name of the apartment house in which she lived, only a few blocks away. + +"Very well, Carolyn May Cameron," said the man, leaning from the car to +place in her hand a folded bank note, "give this money to your friend +and tell her to buy another go-cart with it." + +"Why should you?" objected the woman beside him. + +"Drive on, Ren," said the man briefly, and the motor-car rolled away, +leaving the amazed little girl with twenty dollars in one hand and the +leash of the mongrel dog in the other. + +Carolyn May did not know anything about the pale lady who had run +away--her name, nor where she lived. She did not see how she was going +to give that money to her. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + A PROBLEM TO SOLVE + + +A boy with a pair of crutches beside him sat on the steps of the +apartment house where Carolyn May lived. + +"'Lo, Carolyn May!" he said when the greatly, excited little girl and +the mongrel dog arrived, "Your Pop's got home." + +"Oh, Johnny O'Harrity, I am so glad!" she said with relief. "I'd most +forgotten this was his night for getting home early. So _much_ has +happened this afternoon," and she sighed ecstatically. + +"There's always something happening to you, Carolyn May, let you tell +it," said the janitor's boy, enviously. "What is it now?" + +"Oh, I couldn't stop to tell you all, Johnny," declared the little +girl, slipping Prince's leash and letting him free to scramble up the +steps. "Just the _won_-derfulest thing happened--" + +"Aw, pshaw!" scoffed the boy, unwilling to admit that a mere girl could +fall upon Adventure so easily. "Like my grandmother says, you're always +taking mice for monsters." + +"I'm not either!" gasped the little girl. "You are an awfully impolite +boy to say so--and I don't like mice! You just look at _that_, Johnny +O'Harrity!" and she thrust her hand clutching the twenty dollar bill +under his freckled nose. "What would you say if a man just gave you +that and you didn't know who it belonged to? So there!" + +She refolded the banknote and marched into the house with her head +in the air, leaving Johnny O'Harrity speechless. The possession of a +bill of such large denomination was too tangible evidence of "just the +_won_-derfulest thing" having happened for the young sceptic to doubt +longer. Visions of a wealth of ice-cream cones, lollipops and all-day +suckers danced in the lame boy's mental vision. + +"Aw, Carolyn, I didn't mean to make you mad!" he cried after her. "I +was only foolin'." + +But Carolyn May went on without reply. Perhaps she had reason to +suspect Johnny O'Harrity's disingenuousness. + +Prince was whining at the apartment door when she reached the top of +the two flights of stairs in the semi-lighted stairwell. She put a +dimpled finger on the annunciator button, and at once a muffled step +approached along the private hall of the Cameron apartment. It wasn't +mother's light and busy step, so Carolyn May shrank back beside the +doorframe and clapped a pink palm upon her mouth to smother the giggles +that immediately arose to her lips. + +The door opened. A man in his shirtsleeves, with a beard and twinkling +blue eyes, appeared in the opening. He peered sharply into the hall +and seemed not to recognize the small figure in the tam-o'-shanter, +although Prince slipped in between his legs with a joyful snuffle and +made his way kitchenward, from which direction certain delightful +odours proclaimed that dinner was in preparation. + +"How do you do, little girl?" said the man. "Did you wish to see +anybody in particular?" + +"Does--does Miss Carolyn May Cameron live here?" asked the little girl, +struggling to keep down the giggles. + +"Why, yes. She does live here--when she's at home," admitted the man +doubtfully. "But she isn't at home much." + +"When is she home the most?" asked Carolyn May, "for I'd like to see +her, please." + +"She's home the most when she's out the least," declared Mr. Cameron. +"Almost always she seems to be out when her papa comes home for his +once-a-week dinner." + +"Oh, Papa!" + +"Oh, Snuggy!" + +So the make-believe ended as she flung herself into his arms and he +caught her up bodily and hugged her--oh, so tightly!--to his breast. + +"It will be hard sledding, as your Uncle Joe would say, Snuggy, when +you are too big for me to pick up this way," he declared, bearing her +off to the front room, there to reseat himself in an arm-chair and hold +her on his lap. + +"Shall I ever be as big as that?" Carolyn asked, rather seriously. + +Her father laughed, and then Carolyn May suddenly remembered her +"_won_-derfulest" happening. + +"See here, Papa Cameron!" she cried, and opened her hand to reveal the +twenty dollar bill. + +"'Pitcher of George Washington!' as your friend, Tim the hackman, +says," cried her father, with dancing eyes. "Is there really so much +money in this work-a-day world? Twenty whole dollars? My!" + +"Oh," said Carolyn May, dimpling, "the man who gave it to me must have +lots more than this. He was an _awfully_ rich looking man." + +"And he gave it to _you_?" questioned her father, his curiosity excited. + +"Oh, yes, Papa. For a friend of mine. She's a pale lady, and the baby's +just as _sweet_! But he's awfully skinny. I should think she would +have choosed a fatter baby. And the man gave me this money for her +because he didn't run over the baby," went on Carolyn May with absolute +indifference to her persons and tenses. But Mr. Cameron was used to +what he called the little girl's "fearlessness in the use of the +English language." She was bound by few hard-and-fast rules of grammar. + +"Yes. I should think that would have pleased him quite twenty dollars' +worth," agreed Mr. Cameron. "But now suppose you tell me all about it, +Snuggy, from the very start. I think likely I shall get a clearer idea +of how my little girl became possessed of so much wealth." + +So Carolyn May went back to the pale lady and her baby on the bench +in the park, and how she and Prince had made their acquaintance. The +resultant adventure when the pale lady had wrecked her baby's go-cart +reminded Papa Cameron of the perils confronting his little daughter +whenever she went out on the streets. + +"It was a narrow escape," he said with a sigh. "I hope you, Snuggy, +are just as careful as you can be when you come to a crossing?" + +"Oh, yes, I am!" she cried. "And so is Princey. He barks if he sees +anything coming. And he grabbed the pale lady's skirt with his teeth. +But now, Papa Cameron, how shall I find her and give her this money for +a new baby carriage?" + +That was a question which was the text for much discussion around the +dinner table. Mamma Cameron was quite as deeply interested in the +problem as her husband and her little daughter. Mamma Cameron was a +very sweet looking woman, and a single glance was all one needed to be +assured that Carolyn May was her daughter. + +"The poor woman doubtless needs that twenty dollars, Lewis," she +said to Carolyn's father. "How careless people with plenty of money +sometimes are!" + +"Careless in giving away money to small girls, Hannah?" asked Mr. +Cameron quizzically; "or careless in running their cars?" + +"Careless in thinking that the giving of twenty dollars in this case +absolves them from all responsibility. It would seem as if that man did +not care whether the money ever reached the woman or not. He considered +his conscience salved." + +"Perhaps you are right, my dear," rejoined Mr. Cameron. "The more +reason, then, why we should carry through his good intention. We must +find the pale lady." + +"Of course we must!" cried Carolyn May with enthusiasm. "Shall we put +an advertisement in your paper?" + +"'Advertising pays'--we are agreed on that," said her father, smiling. +"But in this case we may assume that a less bald method of publicity +had better be tried first. Did you never see the pale lady in the park +before, Snuggy?" + +"No, Papa, never before. But, then, she might come there often just the +same. You know, Princey and I don't often go there in the afternoon." + +"Perhaps you and Mamma can go tomorrow and look for her," Mr. Cameron +suggested. "She cannot live far away, or she would not have been +sitting in that particular quarter of Central Park. And we may assume, +also, that her home is in an easterly direction, as that was the way +she was going when the automobile literally crossed her path." + +"I wonder who the people were in the auto, Lewis," said Mrs. Cameron. + +"It is not likely that we shall learn that," her husband replied. "But +Carolyn's friend, the pale lady, we must find. + +"Carolyn's suggestion of advertising in the paper may not be far +out of the way," he pursued. "A personal, advising the pale lady to +communicate with the advertiser, and mentioning the incident and the +fact that she will learn something to her financial advantage, would +possibly attract her attention. We'll see about that later." + +"Maybe we'll have to send for Uncle Joe Stagg to find her," put in +Carolyn May excitedly. "You know, he found Miss Mandy and me when +the whole forest was burning up, and brought us safe back to the +Corners."[1] + +[Footnote 1: See "Carolyn of the Corners."] + +"It shocks me," her mother said, with a sigh, "to remember what dangers +the child experienced while we were away, Lewis. Sometimes I feel that +I cannot bear to have her out of my sight again." + +"Yes, our Snuggy has experienced perils by flood and fire with a +vengeance. I had no idea, Hannah," he went on, "that my assignment to +an Italian post for the _Beacon_ was to result in so much excitement +and adventure for Carolyn May. When our reported loss with the +_Dunraven_ seemed a fact, of course there was nothing for Mr. Price to +do but to send Snuggy to your brother." + +Carolyn May was busy with her dinner and her own particular thoughts. +Her parents could speak freely before her at the moment. + +"I believe her going to the Corners was the making of Joseph Stagg," +said Mrs. Cameron thoughtfully. + +"At least, it was his making over," her husband rejoined, with a +boylike grin. + +"He had been a business automaton almost, it seems to me, since I could +remember," said Hannah Cameron. "Now, how he has changed!" + +"I fancy," said Carolyn May's father, with a little smile, "that Miss +Amanda Parlow, 'that was,' as the Corner folks say, has had something +to do with the metamorphosis of Joe Stagg." + +"But Carolyn began it. Joseph Stagg would never have awakened and +married Mandy if it had not been for our child. Never! Even Aunty Rose +Kennedy says that." + +"She certainly is a wonderful little matchmaker," chuckled the man. +"They have much to thank her for, Hannah. No wonder they are so eager +to have you and the child spend a part of the summer at Sunrise Cove +and the Corners. + +"But, now! about this twenty dollar bill, and the pale lady. Will you +be able to give some time to it, Hannah?" + +"I certainly will try, Lewis. But I do not think Carolyn May should +carry that money about herself." + +Mr. Cameron tapped his breast pocket. "It is in my wallet right now," +he said. "Let the pale lady be found and we will soon put the money +into her hands. Still, the responsibility lies heavily upon the Cameron +family until the actual owner of the twenty dollar note comes to light." + +"Of course we shall find her, Papa," Carolyn May said with assurance. +"Princey and I and mamma are sure to meet the pale lady. And mamma will +just _love_ her I know. She is a very, very nice lady." + +"And that is also her opinion of Bridget Dorgan who comes to do the +scrubbing and smells of beer," sighed Mrs. Cameron aside. "Sometimes +I really think, Lewis, that Carolyn May's taste in friendships is +altogether too catholic." + +Her husband merely chuckled. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + A NEW FRIEND + + +The next day was a holiday, so Carolyn May did not have to get up at +half past seven and hurry to school. Nevertheless she and Prince were +early abroad. + +Prince always kept perfect count of the school days. That was one +reason why Carolyn May was so sure he was "quite an interlectial dog." +On the school days when the little girl started forth, Prince went +only to the apartment door with her. But on this morning he ran ahead +down the stairs, leaping and barking and wagging his ridiculous tail, +confident that he and his little mistress were going for a walk. + +The moment Carolyn May reached the vestibule and snapped the leash on +to Prince's collar, the little girl exclaimed: + +"Oh, dear, me! where's the funeral?" + +"There ain't no fun'ral, Car'lyn May," vouch-safed Johnny O'Harrity who +stood poised on his crutches at the bottom of the steps. + +"Has the ambulance come for somebody, then?" demanded Carolyn May. + +"Naw! There ain't no amb'lance!" + +"What _is_ the matter?" cried the little girl, gazing in amazement at +the throng of children around the door. It seemed as though half of +those about her own age living on the block were present. And how they +all eyed Carolyn May! + +"What ever is the matter?" she repeated. "Have--have I done anything?" + +"Come on, Car'lyn May," said one bolder child--a girl with red hair and +a hole in her stocking. "You're goin' down to the candy store, ain't +you?" + +"Why, no," said Carolyn May. + +"I bet she's goin' to the drug store first off. _I_ would," declared +another, a boy this time. + +"Why--why--" + +"Let's go over to Maxey's. You get lots more for your money at Maxey's +than you do at the drug store." + +"For--goodness--gracious--sake!" gasped Carolyn May. "Who ever told you +I was going to give all you children a treat? Of course I'm not! Why, +I couldn't! I've only got ten cents, and five of that's for Prince's +dinner." + +"Aw, stingy!" went up the cry. "We know you've got lots of money, +Carolyn May." + +"Who says so?" flashed back the badgered little girl. Then her gaze +fell upon the face of the janitor's boy. "Johnny O'Harrity!" she +gasped. "I do believe you've been telling stories about me." + +"Ain't nuther," snapped the lame boy. "I seen all that money that man +gave you." + +"He said it was two hundred dollars, Carolyn May," put in the +red-haired girl. + +"Oh! Oh!" exploded Carolyn May. + +"Never!" snarled Johnny. "I said it was twenty. I saw it. Carolyn May +said a man gave it to her." + +"And of course the stingy thing wants to spend it all on herself," +sneered the red-haired girl. + +"Why, if I really had twenty dollars, of course I would treat you all," +admitted Carolyn May, with an expansive smile. "Wouldn't it be nice? We +could all have ice-cream cones. I'd just love to! But of course that +money the man gave me for my friend doesn't belong to me." + +"Stingy! Stingy!" was the unbelieving chorus. + +For a moment Carolyn May almost "clouded up." She was hurt as well as +angered. Finally indignation over-rode the smart of the attack. + +"Why, Johnny O'Harrity, you are a good-for-nothing! I told you that +money was given to me for a friend. It never belonged to me at all." +Then she went on to the clamorous urchins surrounding her and Prince: +"I'd like to treat you, but I can't--and that's just all there is to +it. But I shouldn't s'pose you'd _expect_ such a thing. Why! I'm not +even acquainted with some of you," and she looked sternly and directly +at the red-haired girl. + +With Prince tugging at his leash she walked through the disappointed +crowd. The red-haired girl made a face at her, but nobody dared touch +Carolyn May when Prince was with her. + +She held her head very high and her sweet eyes flashed. She would not +show them how bad she felt. And she did feel bad, for the far-flung cry +of "Stingy!" hurt her generous little soul. Carolyn May was learning a +lesson--the lesson of the evanescence of popularity. + +"That mean, _mean_ Johnny O'Harrity!" she told Prince. "Just as his +grandma says, he is a 'good-for-nothing.' I don't believe I shall give +him a single, solitary treat ever again, so there!" + +Yet half an hour later, when she returned with Prince's meat scraps +in a paper and a bag of candy for which she had expended her own +five cents, the wobegone picture of the lame boy huddled down on the +apartment house steps, smote the little girl to the quick. + +Misled by Johnny's tale of treasure, the other children had deserted +the janitor's boy. Because he wore a brace on his foot and could only +hobble around, the others did not care much to play with Johnny. He had +to use his wits to gain their companionship even for a little while. +His tale of Carolyn May's wealth had brought him a certain publicity +for a brief time. Now he was marooned, like a shipwrecked sailor, on +the apartment house steps. + +He turned his head away as the little girl and her dog came blithely +along the walk. Carolyn May's sunny nature had asserted itself again. +The cloud had passed. She saw that Johnny had been crying. There was a +mark on his face, too, where somebody had slapped him. Carolyn May was +sure it had been that red-haired girl! + +No boy wishes to be openly sympathized with when he has been unmanly +enough to weep--and pitied by a girl least of all. Johnny O'Harrity +looked determinedly away as Carolyn May mounted the steps. + +The little girl hesitated above him, looking down on his huddled +figure. Then, after releasing the eager Prince, who at once darted into +the vestibule, she opened the paper bag and transferred some of the +candy to her pocket. + +Then she dropped the bag with a goodly share of sweets in it right into +Johnny's cap as it lay in his lap, and immediately ran, giggling, into +the house. + +When Papa Cameron went downtown that day, Carolyn May went with him. It +was a holiday jaunt indeed when she was allowed to go to his office. +Later, her mother would go downtown, too, and they expected to shop +together. The delights of shopping in the big department stores never +palled on Carolyn May. + +One never knows what may happen in this world. That, Carolyn May often +said, was what made it so very delightful. If one went forth expecting +to coast downhill and it proved to be warm enough to pick violets, she +only considered it a pleasant surprise. The unexpected gave zest to +existence. + +This day the unexpected surely happened, and it became a day long to be +remembered by Carolyn May. + +Mr. Cameron's position on the _Beacon_ was that of city editor. First +he was busy looking over the clippings from the other papers which the +exchange editors had put upon his desk, and then with his assignment +book. Not many reporters had as yet put in an appearance, and Carolyn +May was free to wander about the big room, which was always a delight +to her. + +Everybody knew her, or made believe they did. Even the copy boys +grinned at Carolyn May, and the make-up man, whose hands were so +terribly grimy, was her particular friend. + +Wandering back to her father's big flat-topped desk, she was in season +to see him greet a young man who had quickly followed his card in from +the gate where the messenger sat. + +"Mr. Bassett?" questioned the city editor, scanning the caller rather +doubtfully. + +The young man was not unattractive looking. He possessed a wealth of +waving brown hair which he tossed back now and then from his broad brow +by a quick, nervous gesture. His expression was frank, and if he was +not exactly a handsome lad he certainly was good to look upon. + +There was nothing dissipated in his appearance; yet his clothing was +shabby, and a brilliant shine attempted to hide the ravages time had +made on his footwear. His whole manner and presence spoke loudly of +"putting his best foot forward." + +"Mr. Bassett?" repeated Carolyn May's father. "You are, I take it, a +son of Mr. Henry Bassett, of Wall Street fame?" + +"I haven't come to you boasting of my family connections--or +otherwise," replied the young man. "I cannot very well help my name, +and there is nothing about it of which I am ashamed. I am here on my +own behalf, to ask you for a chance, not as Henry Bassett's son, but as +Joe Bassett, Yale graduate, and quite unafraid of work. I am willing to +do anything that's clean." + +"You have not been very successful since leaving college?" Mr. Cameron +suggested. + +"You can easily guess that," the caller said bitterly. "But I do not +consider myself a failure," he quickly added. "Merely, all the holes I +have found have been round; and I am a square peg, Mr. Cameron." + +"I see," said the city editor, nodding. "And why do you think you have +the germ of journalism within you? Many aspirants become failures in +this field, first of all." + +"Then give me credit for the grace of originality," answered Bassett. +"I have tried almost everything else first. But of course I can write +English. I wrote with a certain facility for the college press. I heard +of a vacancy here. Mr. Mudge sent me to you, Mr. Cameron. If you can--" + +"Oh! I will give you a trial," Mr. Cameron answered quickly. "Let me +see, Mr. Bassett; you are a married man, are you not? Sit down." + +For some reason the applicant flushed slowly as he took the creaky +chair at the end of the editor's desk. "I have that honour," he said +briefly. + +"Excuse me one moment," said Carolyn May's father as his telephone rang +and he put the receiver to his ear. The little girl drew nearer. Mr. +Joe Bassett caught her eye and Carolyn smiled and flushed. + +"Who are you, little girl?" the young man asked. + +Carolyn May told him. She was usually quite frank with new +acquaintances, though never bold. She approved of Mr. Joe Bassett, +and began to chatter to him very companionably. Perhaps Mr. Cameron +neglected to give the young man his immediate attention purposely for a +few moments that he might watch Carolyn May's way with him. The little +girl's father often said that he was willing to rely on Carolyn May's +intuition. + +The city editor looked up from his assignment book at length. + +"Here!" he said. "I take it you know the city well?" + +"Quite," said Bassett, giving his attention at once to Mr. Cameron. + +"Here's a matter that should make half a column of human interest +stuff. It is exclusive, too. The City News people evidently got nothing +of it." + +Briefly he related Carolyn May's adventure with the pale lady the +previous afternoon. + +"Here is the twenty dollar bill. Find the woman and give it to her. Get +her story. I have a hunch it will be worth telling. Little chance, of +course, of linking up the people who smashed her baby carriage with the +tale. Unless the traffic officer noted the automobile license number, +and that's not likely. + +"But," added Mr. Cameron, smiling, "I'll give you a side-partner to +help you. How would you like to go up to the park with Mr. Bassett, and +see if you can find your pale lady, Carolyn May?" + +"Oh! My! Yes!" ejaculated the little girl, her eyes shining. + +"I'll telephone mamma and she will postpone her shopping trip, I know. +Business before pleasure always," and Mr. Cameron smiled. "How about +it, Bassett? Will you take care of her to the upper end of the park? +Carolyn knows her way home from there." + +"At your orders, Mr. Cameron," said the young man, folding the banknote +and slipping it into a phantom-thin wallet as he rose to go. + +"Humph!" The editor scanned the young man's wardrobe again. "By the +way, stop at the cashier's window for an advance on expense account," +and he scribbled something on an order form and handed it to the new +reporter. + +"Mr. Bassett, get all the facts you can and weave them into a readable +story. No fancy writing. Our readers are plain people. There's nothing +likely to break today of any account, so I'll hold half a column for +you." + +The editor kissed Carolyn May and she started forth with Joe Bassett, +giving that young man her hand. + +"Oh, I do hope we find my lady friend," she said eagerly. "And her +baby! I know she will be pleased to have a new baby carriage. That one +that got broken was a second-hand one, I think. There's a man sells +'em, and lots of other second-hand things, only two or three blocks +away from where I live. The pale lady's carriage was awfully old and +shabby looking." + +Joe Bassett looked down at her curiously. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + A PUZZLE + + +Setting forth on this adventure promised to Carolyn May all that a +hazard of new fortunes ever yields the young. She accompanied the +_Beacon's_ new reporter with the conviction that "wonderful things" +were sure to happen. To find one particular mother and baby amid the +five and more million persons in the Greater City was, to her mind, a +simple thing. + +"And I couldn't be mistaken once I saw that pale lady," she confided to +Bassett, as they descended into the subway. "You see, she's got such +b-e-a-_u_-tiful hair! And the baby is just as cunning! But he's an +awfully thin little thing." + +"Your taste runs to plump babies, I fancy," suggested her companion, +and he smiled upon Carolyn May. There was a serious cast to his +countenance despite its naturally frank expression. + +"My!" exclaimed the little girl, "_all_ babies ought to be fat. If they +don't start out fat how can they ever hope to grow up to be big men and +women? I guess that's what the matter is with some of these awfully +thin people you see. They must have been skinny babies. + +"My Auntie Rose Kennedy--You don't know her, do you?" + +"I haven't that pleasure," he said. + +"Well, she's awfully nice. You'd like her. Though some folks think +she's stern--just at first. I did, myself," confessed Carolyn May. "And +if you'd seen her spank General Bolivar with a lath--" + +"Spank _who_ with _what_?" gasped Bassett, suddenly aroused by her +statement. + +"Why, yes. General Bolivar is Uncle Joe Stagg's big white turkey +gob-ble-er. And he chased me. So Aunty Bose spanked him with a lath. +She's very stern when she wants to be. But she had skinny babies. +'Puny' she says they were, all three of them. So they couldn't live to +grow up, and they've got three stones like three white lozenges in the +churchyard at the Corners." + +All this information rather staggered Joe Bassett. But he could not +help being amused by the little girl's chatter. While they rode uptown +on the subway train the journey was enlivened by similar monologues on +the part of Carolyn May. There had been times when Aunty Rose Kennedy +was wont to say that Carolyn's tongue "was hung in the middle and ran +at both ends." + +The two new friends left the subway and crossed the park to that glade +where the little girl had made the acquaintance of the pale lady the +day before. Early as was the hour in the afternoon there were already +many babies with their nurses and carriages about the benches bordering +the walks. + +"Of course," Carolyn May said, "we don't have to look for a carriage. +The pale lady won't have any, for it was all smashed. There! It was +right down yonder that Princey and I found the pale lady. Oh! There she +is!" + +"Where? Are you sure?" asked Bassett, feeling rather embarrassed. This +was his first attempt at such an interview as Mr. Cameron had proposed. +Suppose the "pale lady" should resent it? + +Carolyn May was pointing eagerly down the path to a woman sitting with +a baby in her lap, alone on a bench. The little girl might have started +off on a run to greet her friend the next moment, had not Bassett +detained her. + +"Wait!" he said, dropping a restraining hand upon her shoulder. He +had paled; now he flushed warmly. "Wait! Let me speak to her first, +Carolyn. Are you sure that is the lady of the accident?" + +[Illustration: "_Wait--let me speak to her first, Carolyn!_"] + +"Why, of _course_!" declared the child confidently. "Don't you see +she has no go-cart? And how pale she is? And how thin the baby is? Of +course I know her!" + +"Wait here, Carolyn," said Bassett, a strange tremour in his voice. "I +want to speak to the--er--the lady alone." + +Carolyn May, not altogether pleased, and somewhat puzzled as well, +watched the tall young man approach the pale lady. Bassett stood +between the child and her friend when the latter first looked up and +observed his approach. + +What she said, how she looked, or how Bassett looked and what he said, +the little girl had no means of knowing. But what followed quickly +filled Carolyn's small heart with trouble and her usually sunny face +began to cloud over. + +The pale lady rose from the bench with her baby. She and Bassett +seemed to be talking very earnestly together. They began to move slowly +down the walk--quite in the opposite direction from that point where +Carolyn May stood, as she had been told to stand. Disobedience was not +one of her sins. + +A lump rose in her throat. Salt tears stung the child's eyelids. She +beheld the pale lady and Mr. Bassett walk quite out of sight, and +neither of them turned to look at her! + +Of course Carolyn knew her way home. Mr. Bassett must know that, too, +for this was the spot where her adventure had occurred the previous +afternoon. He had been assigned to interview the pale lady and get her +story; he was not supposed to act as nursemaid for Carolyn May. + +But the latter felt very much hurt. Neither the pale lady nor Mr. +Bassett had asked her to join them! She wanted to hear all about it. +She wanted to see how the pale lady would look when she was given the +twenty dollar bank note for a new baby carriage. + +And they had ignored her--left her out of it entirely! She might never +know at all just how glad the pale lady was to receive the twenty +dollars. And-- + +They were out of sight! Carolyn suddenly came to life and started after +them. But when she reached the exit of the park and the busy avenue +crossing, Mr. Bassett and the pale lady and her baby were utterly gone. +Carolyn May went on home feeling very disconsolate indeed. + +But, after all, this was a holiday. She could not be unhappy for +long. Here was mamma ready to take her on the shopping tour after +all; and when Carolyn May had had her hands and face washed, and her +hair combed, and her ribbons freshened a bit, they set off, for the +department stores on One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, of course, +for it was too late to go "'way down town." + +There was plenty to see in Harlem's business mart, and the little girl +enjoyed herself. For she had money of her own to spend; Papa Cameron +saw to that. She bought a new rubber dog for Baby Eldred Price, and +a new "bangle" for Prince's collar, that being a fad just then among +local dog owners. + +"But you have bought yourself nothing, Carolyn May," said her mother. +"I thought you wanted one of those pretty lace collars such as Edna +wears? You have been looking at it and admiring it. Now, I fear," said +Mamma, seriously, "you have not enough money left from your allowance +to buy a collar equally as nice as your little friend's." + +"We-ell," the little girl said slowly, "I--I guess I won't care much. +You know, Mamma, I can look at Edna's just the same, and it's ever so +pretty. Why! I can enjoy it better seeing it on her than as if I wored +it myself. For you see," concluded this small philosopher, "I should +have to go to the looking-glass to see a collar on me; but when Edna +wears hers I can look at it all I like. Yes, it will be lots more +convenient." + +This was indeed a holiday, for, as Papa Cameron did not some home to +dinner, when the electric advertising signs began to sparkle on the +wide thoroughfare, the little girl and her mother went to the "very +nicest restaurant there was" for their evening meal, where there was a +"cute" little shaded lamp on each table, and an orchestra that played +lovely music while people danced on the open floor in the middle of the +great hall. + +The waiter who attended to the needs of Mrs. Cameron and Carolyn was a +very nice man indeed, the little girl thought. He saw to it that her +water glass was filled and he said "Yes, Mam'zelle" and "No, Mam'zelle" +with an air that made Carolyn feel thoroughly grown up. She shook hands +with the waiter when they departed, he was such a very nice man. + +She was very sleepy when they came out upon the busy street. The big +stores were closed and the theatre-going crowd jostled her. Even the +suggestion of her favourite moving picture house did not tempt her on +this night, and she fairly staggered the last few blocks, clinging to +her mother's hand; "and I never _did_ know just how I got to bed," she +told her father the next day. + +It had been quite a wonderful day to look back upon, despite her +disappointment about the pale lady and Mr. Joe Bassett. Regarding that, +Mr. Cameron had something to tell his wife when he sat down to the +breakfast table. It was Carolyn's and her mother's breakfast, but Mr. +Cameron's supper. + +"Of course, Carolyn May knew her way home from the park," her mother +said. "But Mr. Bassett seemed to take the fact too easily for granted +when he deserted her there. Or shall we lay it to the eagerness of the +unfledged reporter?" + +She had already heard the story of Joe Bassett and knew who he was and +as much about his personal affairs as her husband. + +Just why Mr. Henry Bassett, disrespectfully known far and wide as "the +Griffin of Wall Street," had disowned his son, the newspaper reading +public and the newspaper writers who catered to that public could +only surmise. One day Joe was high in favour in his father's office +downtown, as well as in the Riverside Drive mansion where the Bassetts +dwelt; the next, Joe was out in the world and frankly admitting to +friends who asked that he never expected to touch a cent of his +father's vast fortune or be received by him again. + +Of course one could surmise that the estrangement had something to +do with the younger Bassett's marriage, although that had occurred +after his break with his father. It was not the usual tawdry +rich-man's-son-and-stage-girl marriage. Young Mrs. Bassett was born and +brought up "to the purple" just as Joe had been. But her family had +lost its property and rumour kept whispering that the girl had nowhere +to turn but to that "easiest way" of marriage. + +It might be said that she had captured a rich man's son. But she had +wedded Joe Bassett after he had been disowned; and those knowing Henry +Bassett well said that he would not have put his son out of the house +without a good reason, and because of that good reason he would never +take him back. + +This was all two years old now. The general public had quite forgotten +the young Bassetts. + +"Or shall we lay it to the eagerness of the unfledged reporter?" Mrs. +Cameron had asked. + +"Scarcely that," observed her husband in a somewhat scornful tone of +voice. "Joe Bassett--no matter how smart a man his father is--will +never set the North River afire. At least, not in the newspaper field." + +"Tell me about it," said Hannah Cameron, for she was one of those wise +women who always retain a refreshing though not an undue interest in +their husband's work. Besides, before she married she had worked in the +_Beacon_ office and had never lost interest in the newspaper "game." + +"Can you imagine what the fellow said when he came back to the office +from that assignment? He was prompt enough. He wasted no time. And he +had the story--more of it than I expected him to get. He had in some +way discovered (and that's a mystery, too) the name of the man whose +automobile smashed the woman's baby carriage and who gave the twenty +dollar bill to Carolyn." + +"Oh! Who was that man, Papa?" asked the little girl, her interest, too, +aroused. + +"Why, Bassett would not tell me even that. Nor the name of your friend, +'the pale lady.' He got all the information needed to make a whacking +good story, but refused to turn it in and offered his resignation +instead, if I considered that necessary." + +"Oh!" cried Hannah Cameron, dropping her knife and fork to stare at her +husband. "Why did he do that?" + +"Because he said he considered it bald impudence to put the story of +the woman's private affairs into the papers for the public to read. +She had begged him not to print anything about it. I asked him how he +thought papers were made readable if not by just such stories, and he +told me if _that_ was newspaper work he could not do it." + +"It it is not without reason--his point," murmured Mrs. Cameron. + +Her husband smiled grimly. "I have always told you, Hannah, that you +lacked an essential for sound newspaper work--you possess no nose for +news. But Bassett was very high and mighty about it. Yet, somehow, I +like the fellow," the husband added, musingly. + +"I hope you were not obliged to discharge him," his wife said +seriously, and plainly more moved by her husband's story than she cared +to let him see. + +"No. I gave him another chance. Put him on police and City Hall work. +He cannot run against many people in that end of the game who will stir +his latent chivalry. He seemed much impressed by Carolyn's friend. Said +she was a lady and should not have her misfortunes spread upon the news +sheet. + +"He had sent the twenty dollar bill to the man who gave it to Carolyn +May. Somehow he discovered his identity. The woman refused to accept +the money. Bassett offered to make good the twenty if I did not believe +him; but it was impossible to distrust the young idiot." + +"That is a harsh word, Lewis," said Mrs. Cameron. + +"It fits him," her husband said in disgust. "No wonder Joe Bassett has +not got along any better." + +"But, Papa Cameron!" cried Carolyn May suddenly, "then my pale lady +won't have any new go-cart for her baby." + +"She will not buy it with that twenty dollars your friend in the +automobile gave you." + +"And--and maybe she can't get another at all! I wonder--Why!" exclaimed +the child, aghast, "we don't know where she lives or what her name is +at all, do we?" + +"Oh," said her mother kindly, "if you so easily found your pale lady +over there in the park yesterday, you will be able to see her again." + +To Carolyn's disappointment, however, she looked every afternoon in the +park for a week; but the pale lady and her baby did not reappear. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + THE RED-HAIRED GIRL--AND OTHERS + + +The red-haired girl became very soon Carolyn May's _b te noire_. She +had but recently moved into the neighbourhood and even the best of the +Harlem blocks sometimes have a sprinkling of ill-bred children. The +progeny of the vulgar is mixed in with well-behaved girls and boys both +at school and at play. + +The red-haired girl, who was called "Sade" by her fellows, soon led the +wilder children, both boys and girls, in all manner of mischief. She +had the shrillest voice and the liveliest legs in the neighbourhood. +She never, in fact, spoke otherwise than at top-register, and she +travelled like a comet--at full speed all the time. + +More, she was like a comet because of that flaming aura of hair when +she ran, was Sade. None of her mates called her "Comet" of course. +Instead they dubbed her "Ginger," "Brick-top," "Redney," "Scarlet," or +"Carrot-top." + +"Though," Carolyn May confessed to her father of this last, "I don't +just see why they call her 'carrot-top.' Carrots aren't red at the top. +I stopped at the vegetable stand on the corner and looked partic'lar. +The tops are green. It's the bottom that is red." + +However, Carolyn May herself called Sade none of these names. In the +first place she was much too polite and well taught. Again, she never +spoke to the red-haired girl if she could help it, for Sade called +Carolyn "stingy" and "stuck up" and made other derogatory remarks +calculated to grieve a child like Carolyn May. + +Not that Carolyn was what is known among children as a "softie." She +could take care of herself in most arguments. Children, if they attend +the mixed public schools, have to fight their way, and she had battled +up the educational heights as far as grade 3-A. + +She was looking forward now to her graduation in June from the 3-A +grade to the 4-B. The girls she knew in the latter division of her +school were almost grown up. At least, so Carolyn thought And she had +peeped into some of the books they studied and really, they seemed +so deep and "wonderful," that she feared her own father might have +difficulty in understanding them. + +Naturally Carolyn was beloved of her teachers. Sometimes they did +not altogether understand her. Her present teacher--a fluffy-haired, +short-skirted, rattle-pated creature, herself more of a child than many +of her pupils--delighted in saying that Carolyn was "so quaint." + +"And I don't think much of Miss Solomons calling me that," Carolyn said +to her mother. "I looked 'quaint' up in papa's Big Dick, and I'm _not_ +'antique looking.' Antiques and horribles, are what they have in the +Thanksgiving Day parades--and I ain't one." + +"Nor do you speak as though you were taught very well by Miss +Solomons," was her mother's comment. "I am sure she does not tell you +to say 'ain't.'" + +"M-m. No, ma'am. Perhaps she doesn't know herself if it's right or +not--when she calls me quaint. I _ain't quaint_! Oh, my! isn't that +funny? You only have to leave off that funny 'q' letter and it makes +'quaint' 'ain't.' 'Quaint' ain't right; and 'ain't' ain't right--" + +"Oh, dear me, Carolyn!" cried her mother, stopping both ears. "You +clatter just like a mill wheel. _Do_ stop." + +"Anyway," murmured the little girl, subsiding, "I don't like Miss +Solomons as I did Miss Minnie Lester, who taught the red schoolhouse at +the Corners." + +Carolyn was never through talking about the Corners and Sunrise Cove, +where Uncle Joe Stagg lived and had his hardware store, and all her +friends thereabout, as well as the adventures which had befallen her +while her father and mother were away. + +Yet she had plenty of friends about her Harlem home--as odd, perhaps, +and as curious a collection as she had found in the country where she +had spent the greater part of a year. The sunny heart of Carolyn May +appealed to almost everybody whom she met. + +There was Dominick, the "ice, wood and coal" man in the corner cellar. +She had been fain to call him at first (she was only a _very_ little +girl then, so she often said) the Nicewoodencoalman--all run together +just like that! + +"And he _is_ a 'nice' man as well as an 'ice' man," she declared. "He +has a nice wife, too, and a nice '_bambino_.' That's a baby. It is +Italian. I expect I'll learn all the Italian there is pretty soon if I +talk much with Dominick. + +"We've a little girl at our school, Maria Maretta, who is an Italian +I'm quite sure. Only she won't talk it for us. She says it's 'wop +talk' and she is an American. But Dominick talks Italian all the time. +He says: 'I sella da coal, sella da wood, sella da ice, an' maka da +mon'--maka nottings.' That is Italian. It is funny talk. It sounds +almost like a kind of English!" + +The butcher's clerk--whoever he might be--was always a friend of +Carolyn, for she had daily and serious discussions with him about +Prince's scraps. Carolyn "marketed" for her dog with the same care that +her mother selected provisions for their table. Otto, the butcher's +boy, was teaching her German. She could already say "_wie geht es_." + +"The child will be a linguist," observed Papa Cameron in his joking way. + +Mrs. Dorgan, the "scrub lady," who always spoke in a hoarse whisper +and was very devout if her calling upon the saints was any criterion, +was likewise well up on Carolyn's list of friends. Mrs. Dorgan was a +very mysterious woman, the little girl thought, for while she worked +she told Carolyn out of the corner of her mouth endless tales of her +relatives and how badly they treated her, and of her son Jimmy in the +Canadian army who was bound to be sent home before long by his general +because he had killed so many "av thim Germans that there won't be none +lift for the other byes to kill, at all at all, if they don't stop the +gossoon!" + +Carolyn was usually willing to go on errands, for in that way lay +adventure. Around the corner, up and across the avenue, and easterly +on another and much poorer block, was a small grocery and delicatessen +store much patronized by frugal housewives of the neighbourhood. + +The little girl never went to this store without taking Prince with +her. Prince was only a "mongorel," as Carolyn herself admitted. But he +had a fighting strain of blood in him and he was afraid of nothing that +went on four legs or two. + +But all dogs were not like Prince, as Carolyn May very well knew. On +one corner of the block where the delicatessen store was situated was a +very bad "store." Some corner "stores" were bad. Carolyn did not just +know how it was; but she knew it to be a fact. + +This particular "store" was such that she often crossed the street and +walked on the other side to avoid it, and recrossed again when she +arrived opposite the delicatessen shop. Sometimes a big pursy man with +a very red face and wearing a white apron stood outside the swinging +two-leaved door of the corner "store," while at his feet squatted a +blear-eyed bulldog of a dirty white colour. + +Now, a thoroughbred bulldog is never a coward and always a gentleman. +But the saloon man's fat dog was a crossbreed and had only the +bulldog's savage appearance without the faithfulness and kindness that +makes the bull an aristocrat among dogs. + +If one showed fear of the corner store dog that cowardly creature +bristled up directly, showed his ugly fangs, and put on so threatening +a front that the victim immediately felt himself in peril of his life. + +The mere appearance of the bowlegged dog with his undershot jaw and +hanging dewlaps "all a-slobber," frightened most of the neighbourhood +children to a respectful distance from his owner's place of business. +But sometimes they forgot and got a good scare, if nothing worse, by +coming too near the bulldog. It was said that once the ugly dog had +bitten a child and "Gus," the big man in the white apron, had had to +pay damages. + +One afternoon Carolyn May was sent by her mother to the delicatessen +store in question, and of course she took Prince on his leash. +Unfortunately when Carolyn came out of the house, there was the +red-haired girl with some of her friends right across the way. + +Now, there can be nothing that so fills the soul with rage, whether +one be eight years old or eighty, as to be made ridiculous in the eyes +of one's fellows. The more silly the means by which one is flouted and +belittled the sharper the smart. + +As soon as Sade saw Carolyn and her dog, she began to make faces. +These grimaces were ignored by Carolyn. She walked away in a manner +quite as dignified as that of Prince himself. Prince paid no attention +to "faces" made at him by other dogs unless he meant to punish his +opponents in proper fashion. Prince was no "bluffer." + +So Carolyn might have followed a much worse example than that set by +her dog. Sade continued to make faces; but finding the other armoured +against that she went to other extremes. + +The red-haired girl dared not come to close quarters. She was not above +pulling Carolyn's hair, or snatching her hair ribbons away, or even +slapping her. And there were plenty of missiles lying about to fling at +the girl whom Sade considered "too stuck up to live!" + +But there was Prince. Prince had never been seen to bite anybody--not +even a cat, though he delighted to chase them. But he had such a +threatening aspect when Carolyn appeared to be in danger that it was +a legend in the block that the mongrel had fairly "chewed up" several +tramps and a big fat policeman. + +It was known that a man delivering coal at the apartment where Carolyn +lived had offered to put a very black hand upon Carolyn's clean dress, +and when she squealed half in fear and half in fun, Prince had growled +terribly and showed a set of fearsome teeth which made the coal man +hastily retreat. + +Therefore the red-haired girl had a hearty respect for Prince. This did +not keep her on this afternoon from aping Carolyn from the safe side +of the street, walking as Carolyn was supposed to walk, "with her nose +in the air," picking her way daintily over the crossing, and otherwise +suggesting that Carolyn felt herself to be too good and much too "stuck +up" to yield her attention to ordinary folk. + +Carolyn May's face reddened and her eyes flashed, the hot rage of her +glance quite burning up the tear drops that started involuntarily. +The impudent Sade was followed by an ever increasing rabble of +children, much amused by the gyrations of the impish one and even more +entertained by the evident annoyance it caused Carolyn May. + +They strung out behind her and her dog, after turning the corner into +the avenue, in a sidewalk procession. The red-haired girl was now on +the same side of the street as her victim. First she was ahead of +Carolyn, then beside her, then behind her, almost walking in her steps. +The impish behaviour of Sade caused many of the passers-by to smile. + +Carolyn really felt bad! She could not reply to Sade's impudence in +kind. Not a word was said, and therefore the retort stinging was denied +her. And of course she would not attempt to strike the red-haired girl. + +If she quickened her steps the rabble would keep up. And Carolyn +May was no coward. She would not run from her enemy. But she was so +confused when she came to the corner of the block on which was the +delicatessen store, that, without thinking, she crossed over directly +toward the store where the white bulldog lived. + +It chanced that he was squatting like a great frog at his master's +feet, as the troop of children came toward him. The big brute raised +himself with a savage growl, but red-haired Sade did not see or hear +him. She was running backward just then in front of Carolyn, sticking +out a very red and pointed tongue and dancing up and down in a most +tantalizing manner. + +"Yah! Yah! Yah!" singsonged the red-haired girl. + +Why it is a fact that these syllables are the most impudent and +maddening of all cries, has never been explained. And how unanswerable +they are! + +Carolyn May kept steadily on, while the red-haired girl danced +backward. The avenue was crowded. Sade came close to the white bulldog. + +Suddenly there was a deep-throated growl, a wild shriek from Sade, and +a scramble and scratching of heavy paws on the sidewalk. + +Sade slipped, but in falling managed to escape the first dash of the +bulldog. The other children screamed and scattered like chickens when a +hawk is sighted. Carolyn was stricken motionless. + +The red-haired girl got away from the bulldog that first time, although +he tore a big mouthful from her skirt. But the man who owned him did +not succeed in calling him off. The creature knew the child was afraid +of him and took delight in giving pursuit. + +As poor Sade started running into the side street the bulldog followed. +The child was utterly terrified. The strength left her limbs. Falling +against the wall of the saloon she looked back, and, seeing the brute +coming, she sank down, helpless and in his power. + +The dog's master had not aroused himself to the seriousness of the +situation. Perhaps he was befuddled by some of his own stock-in-trade, +for he actually laughed as he waddled after the brute. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + A NEW BANGLE FOR PRINCE + + +A woman screamed somewhere from above. She was doubtless looking +down upon the corner and saw the frightened children scatter and the +grey-white bulldog charging upon the fallen Sade. That scream seemed to +awaken Carolyn May. + +She was no more courageous at heart, perhaps, than many of her +mates--many, even, of those who ran. Carolyn had been held spellbound +by the frightful picture of the bulldog attacking the red-haired girl. + +But the woman's scream and the straining of Prince at his leash, +awoke his little mistress. Prince had dragged her half way across the +sidewalk before she could beseech him to stop. + +"Prince! Prince! You mustn't!" + +Prince had usually quite ignored the saloon man's bulldog. He had taken +that creature's measure long since. The bulldog never even growled at +Prince as he passed by the corner. + +But suddenly Carolyn May's brave comrade took a vital interest in the +bigger brute. He dragged the little girl on as the bulldog made his +second dash for the unfortunate Sade. + +The red-haired girl was helpless. With all her daring and impishness, +her courage had never compassed such peril as this. She was first a +victim of her own terror, and now the victim of the bulldog's rage. + +"Come away from dot--you Fritz!" commanded the dog's owner, wheezingly, +and at last fearful of what the beast might do. + +For all the man might do to balk the bulldog's intention, however, he +might as well have been a mile away from his corner store. There was +just one individual who could save the red-haired girl. Carolyn May +suddenly realized that. + +"Oh, Prince!" she cried, and let go of the loop of Prince's leash. + +With a challenging roar--something between a bark and a growl--Prince +charged along the sidewalk. He dived fairly between the saloonkeeper's +bowed legs, and that astonished and frightened merchant was cast +ponderously on his back upon the sidewalk, his short legs in the air. + +Prince perhaps had long since in his doggish mind decided just how he +should tackle the white bulldog if ever he came to a clinch with him. +The bulldog wore a broad, rivet-studded collar which defended his most +vulnerable part--the throat. + +But there was another hold which quickly brings a fighting dog to grief +unless he is a thoroughbred. It will never be known what inspired +Prince to seize the white bulldog by one fore paw! + +The dog was on top of the fallen child, his slobbering jaws open. He +would have seized the tender morsel in another second had not Prince +made his grab first. + +In a riot of doggish sounds the two animals rolled over and over on the +sidewalk. The bulldog forgot his prey; but Prince did not forget his +object. He hung on with grimness, growling all the while and grinding +his antagonist's flesh and bones between his clamped jaws. + +The women and children near by scattered; even the red-haired girl +found renewed strength to rise and flee. But certain men ran up, +surrounding the fighting dogs in an eager group. The bulldog's owner +had risen and was yelling distractedly for somebody to "pull dot dog +off'n Fritz." + +Carolyn May saw a policeman running across the avenue toward the spot, +his stick gripped aggressively in his hand. He was a young, lean, +nattily uniformed policeman, one of the recently appointed patrolmen +whose lack of bulk and brute strength is made up to them in training, +science, and brains. + +Carolyn May knew this policeman. She did not want him to misunderstand +the situation and consider Prince at fault. + +"Oh, it's my dog! You know my dog, Mr. Policeman! And he isn't off his +leash!" + +"I get you, little girl," said the officer with twinkling eyes and +pushed his way into the centre of the wrangle. + +The owner of the bulldog was not very successfully kicking at Prince. +The bulldog was searching his soul for sounds to tell how bad he felt, +while Prince was still holding on. The officer bent over the struggling +dogs and dealt a single skilful blow with his stick. + +"Blockhead!" squealed the fat saloonkeeper. "You haf hit mein Fritz +yet!" + +"That's the one I meant to hit, Gus," said the officer, grimly, as the +white bulldog rolled over and immediately ceased struggling. + +Prince, seeing his antagonist _hors de combat_, unclamped his jaws and +stood back, eying his rival sharply, but not offering to attack again. +The officer secured the end of the leash and put it into Carolyn May's +hand. + +"You've been warned often enough, Gus, to keep your dog both muzzled +and on a leash. He might have chewed that red-haired kid to sausage +meat. You take your Fritz inside your saloon, or I'll call up the dog +wagon." + +The ill-mannered bulldog was twitching with all four feet and otherwise +gave signs of returning consciousness. His owner took the policeman's +advice, while the crowd thronged admiringly about Carolyn May and her +dog. + +Her fright having passed, Prince's mistress was very proud of him. Even +the policeman patted him, for he knew Prince quite as well as he did +Carolyn May. + +"That's a fine dawg," declared one woman from the tenement near by, her +arms akimbo as she looked at Prince, and who had a little plaid shawl +pinned tightly across her ample bosom. "Sure that mangy cur of Gus's +ought to been killed long ago. Would you sell your dawg, little girl?" + +"Oh, no, ma'am! I couldn't sell Princey," Carolyn May cried. "Why, he'd +be broken-hearted, I guess, if I did that." + +Prince shook himself and his bangles jangled. He was undoubtedly proud. +He knew well enough when he was being praised. + +"Sure the dawg should have a new bangle for the battle he fought," +said the woman who wished to buy him. "With the date on it, an' +commemoratin' his battle wid Gus's cur-dog. I'll give a quarter towards +it myself." + +"And I'll make the medal and engrave it," declared the man who made +keys and mended locks in the little shop next the corner saloon. + +Carolyn May never knew all those who subscribed to Prince's new bangle, +or just how it was done. But a few days later the "key man" came to +the Camerons' door and brought a very shiny medal and attached it to +Prince's collar. On it was stamped: + + PRINCE: A GOOD DOG + From His Friends + +Already a silver plate on Prince's collar commemorated "the brave deed" +he had performed at the Corners in saving Miss Minnie, Carolyn's dearly +beloved school teacher, from being robbed by a tramp. + +"That dog," remarked Mr. Cameron, "will soon have more medals than a +dock policeman." + +But this is quite ahead of our story. The red-haired girl had run home. +But Carolyn May had to go on to the delicatessen store and buy the +articles her mother had sent her for. And as though there had not been +enough excitement for one afternoon, she looked up curiously at the +woman beside her when she stood at the counter, and-- + +It was the pale lady with her baby in her arms! + +"Oh, my _dear_!" gasped Carolyn May. "This is just the most _wonderful_ +day! Do you know what Princey just did?" and she proceeded to tell the +pale lady all. + +Prince stood by "smiling" and with his tongue hanging out (Carolyn +never _could_ break him of that habit--which she felt was not exactly +polite--especially when he was happy) and the baby must needs maul his +ears and muzzle again. + +"I am quite sure he is a very brave and kind dog," the woman said; for +if she had a secret reason for not wishing to meet Carolyn again, how +could she hurt the child's feelings? Carolyn was quite determined to be +friends with her. + +"Prince loves your baby a whole lot," the little girl said wistfully, +"and I know he would like to come to see him." + +"You must bring Prince, then," said the pale lady, seriously. Yet her +eyes danced. "I will tell you how to get to where I live, Carolyn May. +But you must first ask your mother if you may come." + +"Oh, yes," agreed the little girl quickly. "I couldn't go anywhere +without asking mother first. But I know she'll let me come, and if +nothing happens we will come tomorrow afternoon." + +"Very well." + +The pale lady told her how to find the house and what floor she lived +on and in which tenement on that floor. It was on Park Avenue, but in +that section where the railroad is tracked on an elevated structure and +where the houses are very poor and unpleasantly situated. These facts +made slight impression on Carolyn's mind, however; and she went home +more excited over finding the pale lady again than about Prince's fight +with the white bulldog. + +The news of the latter semi-tragic happening had travelled before her. +Mrs. Cameron was on the point of setting forth to hunt for her little +daughter, for the children in the block were wildly excited over the +escape of the red-haired girl from the jaws of the bulldog. It was not +often that Mrs. Cameron allowed herself to be so worried regarding +Carolyn, for with Prince by her side the child was able to take +complete care of herself in any emergency. + +The red-haired girl was reported to be in hysterics; and she was +screaming that Carolyn May was being eaten up by Gus's big dog. + +"Why, of course not!" Carolyn said disgustedly. "Prince wouldn't have +let him, anyway. And he never even tried to bite me. Dear me! you can't +really believe a word that red-haired girl says--not even when she's +_historical_." + +But Prince had won for Carolyn deliverance from one great annoyance. +After what had happened even the ill-bred Sade could not bring herself +to the point of making faces at the brave dog's mistress. On the +way to school one day she presented Carolyn with a huge hothouse +tomato--brilliantly scarlet and embarrassingly juicy. + +This peace offering Carolyn felt herself obliged to accept; yet she +had not the first idea what use to make of it. She never ate tomatoes +except with a dressing on them that her mamma made. She could not eat +it "raw" in any case, for if she tried to set her teeth in it the +juice would surely squirt out all over her dress "and everything." + +Sade, embarrassed by her own generous impulse, ran shrieking away the +moment she had placed the tomato in Carolyn's hand; so the latter could +not give it back. And she could not make up her mind to give it to any +of her other schoolmates. + +To drop it in the gutter was against Carolyn's idea of civic neatness. +So she found herself entering the schoolhouse with the plump and +overripe tomato still in her possession. + +There was Miss Solomons. Public school teachers, especially those of +the lower grades, are the recipients of all manner of gifts from their +loyal and adoring pupils. Sometimes the ledge of Miss Solomons' desk +held a long row of such bestowed articles of commerce, and there were +several gifts there now. + +The red-haired girl was not in Carolyn May's grade and would never +know. The little girl marched up to Miss Solomons' desk and gravely +deposited the big and squashy tomato with the collection of gifts +already on parade. + +"This is for you, Miss Solomons," she said seriously, and went on to +her seat. + +The startled Miss Solomons was sure after that that Carolyn May was +more "quaint" than ever. + +"What shall we do," asked Hannah Cameron of her husband, "about letting +Carolyn May go to call on her 'pale lady,' as she calls the woman? You +know, that block is in a very poor and dirty section." + +"Um! Maybe. But the pale lady is not likely to be a dirty lady, even +if she is poor. Otherwise I could not imagine Joe Bassett's extreme +chivalry in her case. For, after all is said and done, dirt cannot +inspire such feelings. Nor does Carolyn May ever take one of her sudden +and violent fancies for anybody who is not clean and neatly dressed." + +"Yes. I know," admitted his wife, but continuing in deep thought. + +"Besides," added Carolyn's father, "there's Prince. Prince has a +deep-rooted prejudice against people who are ragged and dirty. With +Prince I have no doubt she will be as safe on that particular block as +on any other in New York." + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + "IF I WERE RICH" + + +After school the next day, as Carolyn had promised, she took Prince to +call on the pale lady's baby. + +Little did she mark the locality as being fearsome or unpleasant. +She was in Prince's care, and Carolyn May usually found something +interesting, and therefore pleasant, wherever she went. + +Here were children of all ages, and so many, many babies! Of course +they were dirty-faced and raggedly clothed in most instances. Quite in +contrast to the babies on her own block or most of those she saw in the +park when she went there to walk. + +"I s'pose," thought the observant little girl, "that these children are +so dirty because their mothers have so many to take care of. While they +are washing one baby the others are getting dirty in this awfully dirty +street. So, if they keep on all day washing them, they would never +be all clean at once! But," admitted the philosophical Carolyn May, +slowly, "it's funny not to see _any_ clean babies here at all. I wonder +where those are that have just been scrubbed." + +The house, the number of which the pale lady had given the little girl, +seemed slightly less disreputable than many of its neighbours. It was +merely a slice of the brick block, but had been recently painted. +There were four apartments on each floor, two in front and two in the +rear. + +The pale lady lived in one of the rear apartments, one flight up from +the street. The children who crowded the stairway made way for Prince +and watched him narrowly. Without him Carolyn might have found some +difficulty in getting up to the pale lady's rooms. + +She might, too, have found some of these children as unpleasant as the +red-haired Sade had been, had Prince not been her companion. But, as it +was, she went boldly to the pale lady's door and knocked. + +The latter welcomed Carolyn and Prince cheerfully. Her little, dark +rooms were scrupulously clean; but in the kitchen, to which the lady +took her small friend, the evidences of poverty were not to be hidden. + +The kitchen had two big windows overlooking a littered and dirty +backyard. These windows were really the only ones of any account in +the place; for those of the sitting room and bedroom between looked +out into airshafts. The smells of cooking and boiling clothes rose +through the house, and odours from the yard were such that it was far +pleasanter to keep the windows closed than open. + +The lady, with her beautiful hair, her beautifully clean and +sweet-smelling skin, her well-cared-for hands, her warm if rather +wistful smile, all appealed strongly to the little girl. Poor as the +pale lady must be, Carolyn saw that she was quite as careful of her +personal appearance as was her own mamma. And the baby was as sweet as +a rose! + +They put him down on the floor on a folded quilt and let him play with +Prince to his heart's content. Meanwhile the pale lady and Carolyn +became very well acquainted. + +Of course, it began with babies; but "babies" is such a fruitful +subject for discussion that they branched off into a dozen topics, all +leading from, or appertaining to, babies. Carolyn could not remember +much about her own babyhood--and that was funny, she said, because she +certainly ought to be the one to recall most clearly what happened to +her at that time. But she had known about babies, she told the pale +lady, "for years and years." + +"You see," she said, "there is always somebody in our apartment house +who has a new baby. Why! it's so surprising, sometimes. There's Mrs. +Price and Edna. Edna's my par-_tic_'lar friend, you know. They had no +more idea of finding Baby Eldred than nothing 'tall. Why! Edna wasn't +even at home when the baby came--and she certainly wouldn't have gone +to Brooklyn to her auntie's to stay for a week that time, if she or her +mother had had any _idea_ that they were to find Baby Eldred. + +"No! It's really quite startling when you come to think of it. +I said to my mamma that I really wouldn't want to be alone in +our house if _we_ found a baby. Suppose I opened my closet door +and--and--there--he--was! Wouldn't it startle you?" + +"I am sure it would be quite shocking," admitted the pale lady gravely. + +For her part she told Carolyn a great many things about her baby, and +how much she and his father thought of him. His father she called +"Laird" and that, Carolyn presumed, was his surname. Bridget Dorgan +always spoke of her husband as "Dorgan." Carolyn rather thought that +some men did not possess any given names at all. Her own father was +particularly rich in that he had two. + +So "Mrs. Laird" and "Baby Laird" the pale lady and her baby became in +Carolyn May's mind, and she chattered about them so much at home that +soon Mr. Cameron and Carolyn's mother spoke of the little girl's new +friend as "Mrs. Laird." + +Her little daughter having shown herself to be so enamoured of her new +friend, Mrs. Cameron would most certainly have soon visited the pale +lady; but just at this time she was extremely busy preparing for the +summer. It had been decided that she and Carolyn should spend the long +vacation away from the hot city. + +Mr. Cameron's increased salary now made these plans possible. Besides, +his wife and child were to go to a seaside resort, Block Island, which +he could easily visit for the week end himself. + +It was planned, however, that Carolyn and her mother should spend the +first fortnight of the long vacation at the Corners, and the little +girl looked forward more eagerly to that than to the unknown delights +of the ocean-girt island they were later to visit. + +Mrs. Cameron's sewing machine was very busy, and Carolyn May had to +spend what seemed to her long, long hours being fitted and refitted +with the pretty summer frocks that her mother made for her. Carolyn was +delighted with all these new fineries, but she confessed she found the +trying-on process very trying indeed. + +"You see, my arms and legs get so squirmy," she said to Papa Cameron. +"I can just feel worms crawling and creeping all under my skin, and up +and down my whole body. Of course, I know they aren't really worms. +Mamma says they are nerves. But if they feel like worms they might as +well be worms, I should think." + +"My goodness!" gasped Papa Cameron, entering into the spirit of his +little daughter's imaginings, as he almost always did, "you wouldn't +really want to know that you were _wormy_, would you, Snuggy? My +goodness! Just like a wormy chestnut, or a wormy apple! I couldn't love +a wormy little girl, I am afraid." + +Carolyn, sitting on his lap, allowed herself to shudder deliciously at +the thought. + +"Mamma says the nerves are under my skin and that they spread all over +me, like a fine net. Like a hair-net, I spect. And if they were worms +crawling under my skin I don't believe they would feel any worse." + +So Carolyn's visits with her dog to the pale lady were curtailed +because of the dressmaking activities. Nevertheless, within the +following few weeks the little girl became very good friends indeed +with Mrs. Laird. She never saw Mr. Laird, but they often spoke of him, +for the pale lady evidently loved him very much and believed heartily +that he was a much more worthy man than their circumstances seemed to +suggest. What Mr. Laird did for a living Carolyn was never told; but it +was evident he did not earn much money. The pale lady was continually +taking medicine, so the doctor must get a good part of what her husband +earned; and the baby had cost a great deal, of course. + +"Yes; they always do," agreed Carolyn May, commenting upon this final +fact. "It seems just as though nobody ever finds a baby that doesn't +need a doctor, and nurses, and clothes, and a baby carriage, and a +whole lot of things. It would be lots nicer," observed Carolyn May, +stating an obvious fact as though it were quite original, "if babies +were left right outside your door in a nice carriage all dressed up, +and with a boxful of clothes. Then there wouldn't be a single, sol'tary +thing to worry about." + +"I believe, Carolyn May," said the pale lady, laughing faintly, "that +if you could make this old world over you would have things much more +nicely arranged than they now are. I am sure we should all be happier." + +"Oh, as for being happy," said the little girl, "that is altogether in +our own hands. So my papa says. It's just like burning a tiny, tiny +candle in a very dark place, he says. Never mind how small the light +is, right close to it there is plenty to see by. We may not light up +the whole big world with our little candle; but we can light ourselves, +anyway. Papa Cameron," added the small philosopher, who came honestly +enough by her optimism, "says always to look out and up, never to look +inside us at our troubles. You know," and the giggles bubbled up and +the little girl's eyes danced. "You know, he always says he works for +the firm of 'Grin and Bearit' and so, no matter what happens, he is +prepared for it. + +"It's an awful nice way to be," added the little girl. "My papa's a +real comferble man to have about the house. My mamma often says so." + +The pale lady thought that cheerful little Carolyn was most "comferble" +to have around one too. In spite of the frock fittings the child came +frequently, if only for half an hour at a time. + +The pale lady went out but seldom with her baby. Although he was such +a "skinny" child in Carolyn's opinion, the baby was a good deal of a +burden for the frail mother. And lacking a carriage now, it was too +great a task for her to carry the baby as far as Central Park. + +The little girl wanted very much to know why Mrs. Laird would not use +the twenty-dollar bill sent her by the rich man with which to buy +another go-cart; but she was too polite to ask. Indeed, although she +realized that her new friend was poor, she said or did nothing to show +that she noticed the deficiencies in housekeeping arrangements and the +like that were so apparent in the pale lady's apartment. The latter +might have felt much embarrassed had Mrs. Cameron called; but one could +not experience that feeling for long with friendly little Carolyn May. + +The weather was growing hotter and harder to bear. The sun poured into +the kitchen windows of the cramped little apartment in the afternoon +and made the place almost stifling. The big-eyed baby showed the +effects of the heat, and the pale lady grew more pale and wan every +day. + +Carolyn May's visits, however, cheered her friend immensely. Sometimes +the little girl carried some plaything she had bought for the baby with +her own money. She saw that, unlike other babies she knew--Eldred Price +for instance--the pale lady's baby woefully lacked toys. + +Then, on several occasions, she brought sweets which her mother made, +carrying the confection carefully in a flowered bowl and wrapped in a +damask napkin under the outside cover of paper. They had a little feast +in the pale lady's kitchen at such times, all four of them; for of +course Prince had to have his share. He certainly had a sweet tooth! + +"Only, if he wouldn't gollop everything down so!" sighed his little +mistress. "One lick of his tongue and a swallow, and his share is gone. +And then he begs with his eyes and mouth all the time you are eating +your share. It's no use. You can't teach a dog much etiquette, I guess." + +They played games as well as gossiped. Carolyn had one favourite +"solitaire" game which she had made up herself and which she often +played on rainy days when she might not go out and when her mother was +too busy to stop her work to play with her. It was a most fascinating +form of exercise for the imagination, for Carolyn called it, "If I Were +Rich" and it consisted of "spending money in your mind." + +"You know," she told the pale lady, "I could spend a million if I had +the time. And it's lots of fun to 'supposing.' Why! I guess half the +fun in the world is 'supposing' about things." + +But Carolyn was too generous to wish to enjoy entirely this imaginary +good fortune. + +"You tell what you'd buy, and where you'd live, and how many servants +and all you'd have, if you owned a million, million dollars," she urged +the lady. + +"That must be a great deal of money, Carolyn May," said the other +thoughtfully. She had a bit of sewing in her lap--oh! something ever so +coarse and commonplace. And she let her white hands remain idle while +she stared out through the window at a picture the little girl could +not see. + +"That must be a great deal of money," she repeated. + +"What would you do with part of it?" asked Carolyn. "What kind of house +would you live in?" + +"Oh, I can see the house, Carolyn May," sighed the pale lady. "It would +be a big, sprawling, brown stone house with white pillars before it +holding up a veranda roof at the level of the second floor windows. +And, oh! the cool, wide veranda itself, deep and quiet, with chairs and +benches and swinging seats. It was lovely in the hot weather." + +"Yes, yes," said the little girl. "That would be nice! I like hammocks +and swings." + +"And a maid to wheel out the tea wagon in the afternoon, and _real_ +orange-pekoe tea and cupcakes made by Margaret--" + +"Who is Marg'ret?" asked Carolyn May quickly. + +"Oh!" said the pale lady. "That is what I will call a dear old nurse +who, perhaps, has been in the family for years and years. And she +makes lovely cupcakes." + +"Like my Aunty Rose Kennedy. _She_ makes jumbles, too," said Carolyn, +nodding. "Yes?" + +"And a beautiful, old, shady lawn sloping down to the river, the far +bank of which rises in terraces of green forest and grey rock on, oh! +the most beautiful stretch of the Hudson. And in the cool of the day a +lovely, smoothly running car would come around from the garage and we +would go to drive in it, over the hills and far away--sometimes as far, +even, as Poughkeepsie. + +"Sometimes we would stop for dinner at a roadside hotel, where there +was music and dancing. And often we went to the Country Club and there +we had regular parties." + +"I _love_ parties!" gasped Carolyn, with shining eyes and clasping her +hands. + +"Do you?" almost whispered the pale lady, still with her vision +set upon things a great way off. Her baby was asleep. So was +Prince--brokenly--on the floor at their feet. It was hot in the +kitchen, and Prince twitched his legs and occasionally snapped at a fly. + +"Do you?" the pale lady repeated. "It was at a party given for me by +some friends that I first met Laird. Then--_then_--the beautiful old +home was already lost; the dear old people who had owned it and who +had brought me up to know nothing but the good things of life, had +lost their all--everything had been swept away, and they had died, +broken-hearted. Other friends had taken me in--for a time. I met +Laird. Of course I _had_ to marry. All my friends said so. There was +nothing else for me to do--absolutely penniless as I was. But," and +she smiled suddenly, and it was such a lovely, revealing smile that +Carolyn, too, broke into smiles, "they did not have to urge me to marry +Laird. I loved him from the first, you see." + +"Oh, yes," said Carolyn May, earnestly. "That is just how it was with +my Uncle Joe Stagg and Miss Amanda Parlow. _They_ were loving each +other for years an' years and at last they just _had_ to get married." + +"We did not have to wait years and years," said Carolyn's friend. +"People said we ought, for Laird--well! he had nothing at all when I +married him but his two bare hands. But he is going to earn plenty for +us--for Baby and me--some day." + +She sighed. She looked around the poor room. All the glory of +remembrance went out of her face and her eyes misted with unbidden +tears. It was some time before she spoke again and the game of "If I +Were Rich" was ended for that afternoon. + +"But," said Carolyn May, in telling her mother all about it, "my pale +lady must have been truly rich once. She don't have to supposing when +she plays my game. She lived in a great house--big as the public +library down on Fifth Avenue, I guess--only without those funny lions +in front. And she had automobiles and _every_thing. + +"But of course," concluded the little girl, within whose breast stirred +already the true instinct of motherhood, "I s'pose she thinks Baby +Laird makes up for everything she's lost." + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + A GREAT DEAL HAPPENS + + +There was a mystery about the pale lady, and a mystery delighted +Carolyn May just as it delights something like nine-tenths of the human +race. The mystery of the fourth dimension, or perpetual motion, or the +problems of alchemy thrill the scientific mind no more than do their +neighbours' secrets interest the ordinary person. + +The little girl wanted very much to know why the pale lady's husband +was so poor. Even if she had been poor, Laird, as the pale lady called +him, must have come of wealthy people; or how had she met him at the +party given by her friends? + +Now, this was rather an involved thought for a little girl to work out +in her mind; but Carolyn May's was not an ordinary child's mind. She +was no prodigy. However, she had spent most of her time with grown +folk. She had few playmates of her own age. And her father made Carolyn +May much his companion. + +"Now, think it out for yourself, Snuggy," was often his answer when +the little girl came to him with a question. If she sometimes came to +a conclusion more astonishing than illuminating, Mr. Cameron merely +chuckled and told her mother that the exercise of Carolyn's imagination +was good for her. + +"I really do not think it needs exercising, Lewis," Hannah Cameron once +said seriously. "She was playing 'having visitors' the other day when +it rained and she was kept in, and I allowed her to 'receive' in the +parlour. But when I went in myself after a while there really wasn't +a chair I could sit on. She had filled them all with her imaginary +friends and objected strenuously to my sitting in their laps!" + +"Ha! ha!" laughed her husband. "Why didn't you try holding one of her +callers in _your_ lap?" + +"I never thought of that," answered Mrs. Cameron. "It is plain to +be seen from which side of the family Carolyn May gets her gift of +imagination." + +The little girl exercised this trait much on the affairs of the pale +lady during the next few weeks. She saw the bald poverty of the young +couple and yet realized that they were people to whom one could not +offer charity of any description. + +"Of course, Mamma," she said, "we can give papa's old clothes to Mrs. +Dorgan and even some of my outgrown frocks to Mrs. O'Harrity, in the +basement, for little Elsie. But somehow--I _guess_--it wouldn't be nice +to offer Mrs. Laird one of your dresses that you could spare." + +"I appreciate the fact that your friend cannot be very well helped in +that way," mused Mrs. Cameron. "Her refusing the twenty-dollar bill for +a new baby go-cart showed that." + +There were a multitude of interests in Carolyn May's busy life just +now. The end of the school term was in close view. And preparations for +the long outing away from the city greatly delighted the child. + +"I wish you and the baby were going with us," she said to the pale lady +one day, just before the school graduating exercises. It was probably +the last time Carolyn May and Prince would be able to call on the pale +lady until their return to the city in the autumn. + +"I sincerely wish we were, Carolyn May," said the young woman, with a +tired sigh. + +She had just laid her baby on the bed and spread a fly net over him. +She was more pale than ever today and her head seemed so heavy with +its red-gold hair piled so high, that it drooped like a broken-stemmed +flower. + +"You know," said the little girl, "our house is lots cooler than +_this_; yet we are going away and you--_you_, I s'pose, can't go?" + +"Oh, no!" murmured her friend. "Laird cannot compass it this summer, I +fear. There are too many bills. We _must_ catch up--" + +She stopped. Carolyn looked up suddenly, for the pale lady did not +speak again. She saw her sinking slowly sideways from her chair to the +floor. + +"Oh!" screamed the little girl, and then muffled the cry behind her +palm for fear of waking the baby. + +She sprang from her own chair to lean above her friend who had sunk to +the floor in a heap, her hair tumbling down and straying all about her +head and shoulders. + +"Oh! Oh! Don't!" gasped the little girl. + +She ventured to touch the pale lady's arm. Then she tried to shake +her by it, and the lax body of the young woman slipped down further +from its leaning posture against the chair. Oh! It seemed, dreadful to +Carolyn May. + +She had never seen anybody faint before. The pale lady might be dead! + +And whom should she tell? Whom ask for help? The little girl had not +the least idea what to do in this emergency. It seemed just as though +her friend were dead and she was left alone with her. + +There was nobody near to whom Carolyn could speak. She was actually +afraid of the rough people in the house. She knew that the pale lady +had absolutely nothing to do with her neighbours. Whether this was a +wise way to do or not, Mrs. Laird never even replied when spoken to by +the people in the house. + +Carolyn began quietly to sob herself. That was her nervousness. But she +did not lose her self-control. + +She knew that some help must be brought to the pale lady. A doctor +ought to come. Carolyn knew no doctor save the Camerons' own family +physician and he lived far over on the West Side. + +The poor woman lay so white and helpless that the child's heart was +torn with pity for her. Somebody must come--and "somebody" meant Mamma +Cameron! There was nobody else in the world, she thought, who would +know so well what to do for the pale lady in this event. + +She started for the door, and of course Prince followed her. He had +been snuffing questioningly at the fallen young woman. + +"No, Prince," sobbed little Carolyn May. "You can't come. You must stay +here while I run for Mamma. Watch her, Prince! Wait--that's a good +dog--till I come back with Mamma Cameron." + +She unlocked the door and withdrew the key from the lock. She knew the +pale lady always kept herself locked in and she could not leave her +now, even with Prince on guard, with the door unfastened. + +Slipping out into the half-darkened, ill-smelling hall, the child +quickly inserted the key in the lock again and turned it. Then she +pocketed the key and ran lightly to the head of the stairway. Without +Prince she really was afraid of the children who flocked about the +house; but the venture must be made alone for the pale lady's sake. + +Fortunately the stairway to the street door chanced to be clear. She +stole down it and had almost reached the lower floor when a door there +opened. She had a glimpse of a tawdry interior, and a slovenly woman +holding the door open for a caller to pass out. + +Carolyn May stopped, shivering. The man coming out of the apartment +was very well dressed--a sharp-featured, dark man with eyebrows that +met above his aquiline nose, and the eyes beneath them so keen and +threatening in their glance that when they were turned on Carolyn May +she could not for the moment move from where she stood. + +"There's a young one that goes up to see 'em frequent, sir," shrilled +the woman. "He an' she goes in an' out without a word to us--like we +was the dirt under their feet. But that kid knows 'em." + +The man looked at Carolyn May with more curiosity. "She doesn't seem to +belong around here," he said. + +"No more than them. She's all that ever's come to see 'em, since they +lived here, so fur as I know." + +The man turned his back upon the child, and Carolyn May hurried down +the few remaining steps and out of the door of the tenement house. The +shrieking, dirty children were playing on other steps. She got away +without further delay. + +She was still sobbing and tears were trickling down Carolyn May's face +as she ran through the streets toward home. She pictured to herself +all the time the pale lady, senseless and helpless upon the floor of +the hot kitchen, with her beautiful hair flowing about her. The very +worst that could happen to her friend the little girl believed to have +occurred. + +So when she arrived at home at last she was scarcely able to explain +the trouble. As it chanced, it was Papa Cameron's afternoon at home--he +had one partial holiday each week--and it was he who met Carolyn and +caught her up in his arms when she sank, sobbing and moaning, at the +entrance to their apartment. + +"My little Snuggy!" he cried, "what is the matter?" + +"Where is Prince?" asked Carolyn's mother. "What has become of the dog, +do you suppose, Lewis?" + +"Prince--Prince--is--is--watching her!" sobbed the child. + +"Watching _who_?" demanded the man anxiously. + +Carolyn was able to tell them in broken sentences what had +happened--how she had left the pale lady and her baby with Prince on +guard. She showed them the key to the apartment. + +"And the poor woman locked in there all alone!" exclaimed Hannah +Cameron, hurrying to put on her street things. "I must go over there +at once. Probably she should have a doctor, too. It may be no ordinary +faint. Of course her husband will not be at home at this hour." + +"What does he do?" asked Mr. Cameron, curiously. "Do you know?" + +His wife glanced at him rather oddly. "I can guess," she said. "And I +am pretty sure my guess is right." But that did not explain the matter +in the least, as far as Mr. Cameron could see. + +"Well, you and Carolyn go on," he said, "and I'll bring a doctor with +me. If she is as frail and delicate a woman as Snuggy intimates she +shouldn't be living in such a place, anyway. I wonder what sort of chap +her husband is and what he is thinking of to keep her and her baby in +that place." + +"Oh, Papa!" said Carolyn, with another sob, "they can't help it. Mr. +Laird don't earn enough to send them away for the summer, and they have +lots of bills to pay. My pale lady told me so." + +"'Mr. Laird'!" repeated Mrs. Cameron, in a peculiar tone. "I shouldn't +wonder. Come, Carolyn May. Can you show me the nearest way to your +friend's house, do you think?" + +The little girl had recovered from her fright now. She was so anxious +about the pale lady that she would have run all the way back as fast +as she had run home; only Mamma Cameron held her by the hand and +restrained her. + +Although the sun was going down it was a stifling day. What air was +stirring seemed to blow from a red hot furnace lying somewhere to the +west of the panting city. In the shade the unfortunate occupants of the +close tenements sought relief on steps and even on the sidewalks. + +Crying babies, quarrelling children, chattering women of several +races, raised a clatter to deafen one. Hawkers peddled the remains of +vegetables and fruit that had once been fresh, but were now over-ripe, +and fast decaying. Vendors of the tempting if not too cleanly made + + "Tutti-frutti, penny a lump, + The more you eat, the more you want!" + +clanged their bells at every corner. Penny slices of red watermelon +wilting under fly nets adorned every fruit stand. The cheap drinks of +soda-water and other so-called "temperance beverages" flaunted their +colourings and flavours at tiny stands; and the lemonade that never +knew a lemon or any other citrus fruit was everywhere present. + +Left to themselves the ignorant would breed pestilence as they did in +the Middle Ages. But the better informed have learned to defend their +own health by forcing some rules of sanitation on the slums. The most +refreshing and grateful attempt to counteract heat and disease were the +"White Wings," flushing down the streets with fire hose, while the +half-naked children danced, screaming, in the way of the flood. + +Carolyn May and her mother reached the house where the pale lady lived. +The slovenly woman whom the child had seen bidding the sharp-faced man +good-bye at her door, now sat upon the steps. She stared impudently at +Mrs. Cameron as she and the child mounted past her and went up to the +second floor. + +As the key rattled in the lock of the pale lady's door Prince barked. +Then he whined a welcome to his little mistress and to Mrs. Cameron. + +"_What_ a place!" gasped Carolyn's mother. "It is worse than I thought. +I never should have let you come here, Carolyn May." + +But the baby had begun to whimper from the bed and Carolyn ran to +soothe him. Her mother was immediately stricken by the appearance of +the young woman, lying unconscious and forlorn on the kitchen floor. +She noted the cleanliness of the room and the neatness of the woman's +dress; but the sun streaming into the kitchen windows, and the flies +and the smells from out of doors, horrified Hannah Cameron. + +She brought water and knelt beside the young woman to lave her face +and hands. But the pale lady was not to be so easily roused. Her heart +merely fluttered. Her lips were colourless. Her eyes remained closed. + +Mrs. Cameron was anxious for her husband to come with the doctor. And +she desired Mr. Cameron's presence for another reason. She looked +about the apartment for something that might identify this young +couple--that might prove her suspicions true; suspicions that she had +felt from the very first. She found the evidence she looked for. + +Carolyn May was playing with the baby and keeping him quiet when her +father and a neighbouring doctor came. She brought the baby out into +the kitchen and sat down with him in her lap while Prince crouched +beside her. He knew that something had gone altogether wrong with his +little mistress' friend. + +They raised the pale lady and placed her on the bed. Mrs. Cameron +helped the physician loosen and remove her clothing. + +But first she showed Mr. Cameron the marriage certificate she had found +in a Bible on a side table. + +"My goodness! will wonders never cease?" murmured Carolyn's father. +"And I never suspected it!" + +"It is what I believed must be the fact ever since you told me how Mr. +Bassett acted regarding his first assignment on the _Beacon_. Now go +out and telephone to the office, Lewis, and have him come up here at +once." + +She went back to the bedside where the physician was some time in +bringing the patient to her senses. + +"A very nervous and frail person, Mrs. Cameron," the medical man said. +"No more fit to live in a place like this than a butterfly is fit to +live in a cage." + +"And you know, Prince," murmured Carolyn May who overheard this +professional statement, "butterflies aren't even like birds. Of course, +butterflies would just pine away, like Aunty Rose Kennedy's babies, if +they were caged up." + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + THE GRIFFIN + + +The doctor went away and came back again before the pale lady's +husband, for whom Mr. Cameron telephoned, arrived at the little +apartment. The patient was then better, but still very weak. + +"A general breakdown," said the physician to Mr. Cameron. "No more than +I expected. I have treated her now and then--and the baby. He is a fine +little fellow, but not robust. How could he be? + +"I've got to tell that young man a thing or two. He can't keep this +woman and the child here--" + +"And why does he? I happen to know that he is earning a fair salary," +Mr. Cameron said. + +"Yes. He is--_now_. But they are burdened with debts. At the time the +baby was born they got very deeply into debt. You can see what sort +they are. Come of wealthy families, both of them. Trouble somewhere. +And the young folks did not know how to help themselves, nor what to +do. Not as poor people do. After all, the poor have the best of it when +it comes to work and living," said the practical physician. + +"This young fool had to have a specialist for his wife when the baby +came. And those fellows don't work for nothing, and have to have cash +on the nail. And with the specialist came the day and night nurses and +all that folderol. They did not live here then, I can assure you. Nor +did I attend the woman and her child until after they did come here. + +"At first, I presume, people made it easy for him to go into debt +because of his father's name. But when he had spent all he had, and +gone in as deep as he could to make her and the baby comfortable, the +girl finally awoke to the situation. She is a good deal of a woman, +frail as she appears. She insisted in curtailing and cutting down +expenses. Oh, they are both as square as can be; but she has the push +and determination, after all. + +"They are paying their debts now. She insists on it. They do not owe me +anything--not a penny. I would not take money for this call. I am no +specialist," said the medical practitioner, bitterly. "But I feel it my +duty to talk straight out to the young man. If his wife and baby remain +here it will be the undertaker, not the doctor, who will be called!" + +"I'm going to tell him a thing or two myself," promised Mr. Cameron +huskily. + +But when Joe Bassett ran up the narrow stairway and burst into the +crowded kitchen to face the doctor and Carolyn's father, neither of +those gentlemen could really scold the young fellow. That he was +very, very anxious about his wife and child was plainly shown in his +countenance and his manner. + +"Is she--is she--" + +"She's better," said the doctor briskly. "For the time being. Your +friends here--especially the lady--have done all they can for your +wife. A doctor can't do much, Mr. Bassett. I have told Mrs. Bassett +so before. The city is no place for her and your baby through the hot +weather. The summer is only beginning. Find some way of getting them +out of this place--and at once. That is all I can tell you. You are +likely to lose them both if you do not take this advice." + +"That advice is harder to take, Doctor, than your medicine," said +Bassett faintly. "I will do my best--" + +"And why did you not tell me?" demanded Carolyn's father, as the busy +medical man made off. "My wife suspected who Carolyn's 'pale lady' was. +But I did not dream-- + +"See here, Bassett! Something must be done about this at once. Your +wife and baby must get out of here. It is evident she is not used to +the city's heat, and most certainly she is not used to such a locality +and such a house as _this_." + +"Don't you suppose I know all that?" groaned the young man. "But fixed +as we are--" + +"Are you in debt?" demanded Mr. Cameron bluntly. + +"Yes." + +"And have you worried about the bills you owe?" + +"Of course." + +"Let the other fellow do the worrying," was Mr. Cameron's iconoclastic +declaration. "To sacrifice your wife and child for the sake of paying +debts is nothing less than a crime." + +"But she is so very anxious for us to pay those bills." + +"Put your foot down. Be boss in your own house for once!" exclaimed +Mr. Cameron, smiling rather grimly. "I am usually in favour of a woman +having her own way--she almost always gets it in any case. But this is +a matter about which your wife's judgment cannot be trusted. See what +you can do, and I'll talk with you again tomorrow, Bassett. I see Mrs. +Cameron is about ready to go. Something must be done about it." + +Carolyn had been standing by, the loop of Prince's leash in her hand, +and staring with all her might at Joe Bassett. At last she ejaculated: + +"Then your _real_ name is Mr. Laird! I never!" + +The young man was too much troubled at the moment to give Carolyn any +answer. The latter and her father and Prince went down to the sidewalk +to wait for Mrs. Cameron to join them; where they were eyed by the +neighbours and the children, who considered the Camerons as beings from +another world. + +Carolyn and her parents had their dinner in a restaurant that evening, +for it was altogether too late to get it at home. Carolyn May might +have enjoyed the occasion more had she not been so sleepy; and Prince +sank frankly into slumber under the restaurant table, and snored. + +So the little girl did not hear all that was said by her father and +mother regarding the young couple whose troubles seemed to be forced +upon the Camerons' attention; nor did the little girl understand the +plans made at the time for the Bassetts. + +However, Mr. Cameron left for downtown much earlier than usual the next +morning. First of all he telephoned to a certain Wall Street office +and after a great deal of trouble he obtained the favour of a tentative +appointment with the great man known as the Griffin of Wall Street. + +"An interview with St. Peter at the heavenly portals would be little +more difficult to arrange," Mr. Cameron told his wife, "than an +appointment with the Griffin." Only that the magnate had found from +long experience that it was the part of wisdom to treat the newspaper +representatives well, was Mr. Cameron able to get the attention of one +of Mr. Henry Bassett's secretaries. + +This individual the newspaper editor had first to see when he reached +the offices of the Griffin. He was a sharp-featured man, very dark and +with black eyebrows stenciled distinctly over his nose. + +"You did not explain your business very clearly to me over the 'phone, +Mr. Cameron," said the secretary. "Only because you are from the +_Beacon_ did I take the chance of having you come here; but Mr. Bassett +does not know yet that you wish to see him." + +"My business with him is quite a personal matter, Mr.--?" + +"Inness," finished the secretary. + +"Mr. Inness. A private matter entirely." + +"You mean it is something personal concerning yourself, Mr. Cameron?" + +"Not at all. It is intimately connected with Mr. Bassett's affairs. So +intimately, indeed, that I could not possibly explain it to you, Mr. +Inness." + +The man was evidently of a mind to bid Mr. Cameron curtly begone. Yet +the _Beacon_ was a powerful party organ, and just at this time the +Griffin had political ends to serve. Although Mr. Cameron did not ask +for the interview in the name of his paper, Inness was a cautious man. +That is why he had held his lucrative situation with the Griffin for +ten years or more. + +"I will take your card, Mr. Cameron," he said at last, holding out his +hand for the caller's bit of pasteboard. "But I cannot promise you an +interview under the circumstances. Mr. Bassett does not like mysteries." + +"No. He is not going to like this one," rejoined the editor. "Nor do I +like it. But I feel it to be my duty to see him." + +"Mr. Cameron," said Inness dryly, "I would not possess your +overpowering sense of duty for worlds," and he walked out of the +reception room with the card in his hand. + +Had the newspaper man come on his own behalf he might have felt some +trepidation; but consideration for Joe Bassett and his wife and baby +had brought him to the Griffin's office, and he felt no burden of a +personal nature upon his mind. When Inness finally beckoned him from +the door of the private suite, the caller went quite cheerfully to +meet the man whose reputation for being a Tartar was as broad as his +financial activities were known. + +Mr. Henry Bassett beat no round of the bushes; he came directly to the +point. "You are John Lewis Cameron, of the _Beacon_," he said. "I do +not know you. Inness says your call is not on business for your paper. +What do you want?" + +"I wish to interest you, Mr. Bassett, in the needs of an unfortunate +family in which I am interested--but because of no ordinary charitable +instinct upon my part or yours. I am no charity collector, nor is this +case of destitution one that can be brought to the attention of anybody +but yourself." + +"What do you mean?" demanded the Griffin roughly. "Mrs. Bassett usually +attends to all such matters. I do not consider myself a judge of their +worth." + +"There are certain elements in this matter which preclude my speaking +to anybody but you about it, Mr. Bassett." + +The financier looked startled. His continued silence enabled Mr. +Cameron to go on: + +"The people I speak of are a man and his wife and child. They are +not ordinary people. I have not known much about them until lately. +I find that they live in a frightfully unpleasant neighbourhood, +that their surroundings are most uncongenial, and that they lack all +the luxuries--even those necessities--which people of respectable +bringing-up must have." + +"Why do you tell me all this?" demanded the millionaire. + +"Because it concerns you, concerns you deeply. The young woman and +her baby may not live through the summer if she is obliged to stay in +that horrible apartment which is the best her husband has been able to +afford." + +"Who is he?" shot in Henry Bassett. + +"He is your son. And his wife and your grandchild are dying in that +place they live in. What are you going to do about it?" + +The change that came over Henry Bassett's face shook even Mr. Cameron. +The editor's experience with all sorts and conditions of men enabled +him to hide his own feelings well; so he merely stared back into the +passion-distorted countenance of the Wall Street man. + +"You dare to come to me from that cur? He has sent you to try to +squeeze money out of me--for himself and that wretched woman, and her +ill-begotten brat?" + +"You are quite wrong, Mr. Bassett," his caller said coldly. "Your +son has no idea that I have come to you in his behalf. Nor does your +daughter-in-law know of it. I merely believe that you should be told +their circumstances." + +Henry Bassett actually snorted. He tried to speak, but for the moment +his rage would not let him. + +"The boy is doing the very best he can. He has not yet made any very +great success it is true. He happens at present to be working on the +_Beacon_. That is how I come to know something about his circumstances. +He got woefully into debt when your grandchild was born, and is still +struggling to square himself with his creditors." + +"Bah!" suddenly roared the rich man, starting half out of his chair +and unable to control himself further. "What did he do with the ten +thousand dollars he had when he walked out of my house determined to +marry that wasteful, useless, luxury-loving woman? Oh, I knew what she +was and I knew what she would bring him to." + +[Illustration: "_What did he do with the ten thousand dollars?_"] + +The phrases came raspingly from Henry Bassett's lips. It was plain +that he felt deeply his son's defection. But the mention of ten +thousand dollars-- + +"The boy is a fool," went on the millionaire. "Worse, he is a knave. +But she made him that. The story was brought to me how he hung about +certain cheap brokerage houses all that first winter that he left +me. That is where that ill-gotten money went. He gambled it away, of +course. Ten thousand wouldn't suit My Lady! She must have more, and +the young fool doubtless tried to pyramid his capital--and lost it, +instead, and as he deserved. + +"Sin brings its own punishment," said the millionaire harshly but +impressively. "That boy was determined to marry against my command and +his mother's wishes. The girl was nothing but a flibbertigibbet--a +useless baggage. She had been brought up by Wetherby Gaines and his +foolish wife to do nothing; and when they were dead she had nothing. +All she could do was to lead my son into extravagance. + +"To please her--to meet her extravagant demands--he tried to double +that stolen ten thousand in the market." + +"_Stolen?_" gasped Mr. Cameron. + +The millionaire was silent. He licked his lips, glaring at his visitor +like a wolf. In his rage he had gone farther and said more than he had +intended. But he was too angry to retract or deny the truth. + +"You have learned something that I have not even told to my wife," he +said hoarsely. "It is a shame that I shall never get over. When I +threatened that boy with dismissal from his home if he insisted upon +marrying the girl, he knew I had brought ten thousand dollars home for +a special purpose. It was in the library safe which he knew how to open +as well as I did. + +"He made his choice and left the house the next morning. When he was +gone I found the money had gone with him. _That_ is what this woman you +prate of brought my son to. Fool he was, but never knave before! If it +had not been for her luxurious tastes and her wasteful extravagance, he +would never have taken that money. He was crazy about her. And nothing +but ready money would buy her for him. That is the sum and substance of +the sordid affair. + +"There! I have never told a soul before of this fact, not even his +mother. And I trust to your honour not to repeat it. But do not come to +me for charity for that boy, or for the woman who has wasted his life. +They are nothing to me--nor will they ever be! I long since washed my +hands of them." + + + + + CHAPTER X + + CAROLYN MAY IS PUZZLED + + +The closing day of Carolyn May's school was so close at hand that she +could not get to see the pale lady again. There was, too, something +about the Bassetts, whom the little girl knew as "the Lairds," that +made further association with them quite impossible as far as Carolyn +was concerned. + +She could not at all understand it. She heard more of the discussion +between her father and mother about the "Lairds" than her parents +dreamed. And she was vastly puzzled thereby. + +Carolyn learned that Mr. Bassett, or Mr. Laird, or whatever his real +name was, had done something very wrong indeed. Papa Cameron considered +him unworthy of any help or consideration whatsoever. Nor could Mamma +Cameron, after hearing the report of his interview with the Griffin, +disagree with her husband on this point. + +Be that as it may, the little girl could not understand why the pale +lady and the poor little baby should be made to suffer for Mr. Laird's +wrongdoing. Mrs. Laird was in a very bad way and her baby was panting +his life out in those close, hot rooms. + +Hannah Cameron had even suggested that evening after Carolyn's friend +had suffered such a serious turn, that the little family be allowed to +occupy the Cameron apartment while she and Carolyn were away in the +country and at the seashore. But after Papa Cameron had interviewed the +father of Joe Bassett, nothing more was said about that. + +"I have offered Joseph Laird Bassett the loan of a hundred dollars, if +he will take it, to get his wife and child out of that place and to +send them out of town. That, I think, Hannah, should end our interest +in their affairs. Like enough I shall never see the hundred again. If +he had ten thousand dollars, come by either honestly or dishonestly, +and wasted it gambling in stocks, he is not much to be pitied." + +"Oh, the poor baby!" murmured Carolyn's mother. + +"I know. But there are thousands of other babies in this city quite as +deserving of pity. And to help a wastrel like Joe, and that woman who +is evidently the cause of his downfall, seems to me to be positively +wrong. Such a fellow as he, is not to be trusted in any particular. I +shall watch him very closely as long as he remains with the _Beacon_. +And unless he shows more promise than he has so far, he won't last +long." + +"The poor woman!" murmured his wife. + +"As for _that_," said Papa Cameron, "taking all Henry Bassett says +about her with more than a grain of salt, it was her influence that +caused Joe Bassett's downfall. And--well, it makes me wonder now what +ever became of that twenty-dollar note I gave him for the broken +go-cart. We don't know that it was returned to the man who gave it to +Carolyn. Not at all! Of course, it was his wife's to do with as she +pleased. But--but--Well! I am sorry Snuggy ever got acquainted with +her." + +"It is what I have always said," declared Hannah Cameron. "Letting her +go about so much alone, with only Prince, as we do, and picking up +acquaintances just as she sees fit, is all wrong." + +"Oh, now, Mamma!" exclaimed Mr. Cameron. "Snuggy doesn't often pick 'em +wrong." + +This all puzzled Carolyn May very much. The poor little baby! And the +pale lady whom she had last seen so weak and wan! Why should they be +made to suffer if Mr. Laird had been naughty? Why, it was just as +though Prince should be punished because _she_ did wrong! + +Faithful as Carolyn May was in her friendships, she could not give her +thoughts entirely to the pale lady and her troubles just at this time. +Carolyn and her particular friend, Edna Price, who lived across the +hall from the Camerons, were having dresses made for graduation day, +just alike. Their mothers had used the same pattern in cutting out the +frocks, the material was the same, the trimming was the same, and the +only difference was in the hue of the broad sashes the little girls +wore--Edna's being cherry-red and Carolyn's blue. + +"If we aren't twins," Carolyn observed, "our dresses are. So of course +they must have different coloured ribbons so as to tell 'em apart." + +Carolyn May stood well in her classes. She was, indeed, a prize +scholar, and even Johnny O'Harrity had to admit her high standing. + +"For Johnny, you know," whispered Carolyn to her mother, as they came +home from the school exercises, "didn't get a prize at all. He only got +horrible mention!" + +The very next day Carolyn and her mother and Prince started for the +country. The apartment was made dark for the summer, with covers on the +furniture, and each picture in its own particular fly net. + +It seemed too bad that the comparatively cool rooms would be almost +disused while the pale lady and her baby must suffer so in their hot +little apartment. For Carolyn had learned that "Mr. Laird" had refused +the loan of the hundred dollars her papa had offered him. + +"I don't know why," Mr. Cameron told Carolyn's mother. "He certainly +can't hope to get more out of me by holding off. I don't understand +the fellow. He seems as proud as Lucifer; yet he certainly cannot be +trusted, according to his own father's story. And the Griffin must know +what he is talking about." + +Mr. Cameron was only to sleep in their apartment, taking all his +meals out of the house. Later, when Carolyn and her mother would be +established at the island summer resort where a reservation had been +made for them at a hotel, Mr. Cameron would sometimes spend Saturday +and part of Sunday with them. + +This going away for the long vacation was a gay adventure indeed for +Carolyn May. She began to meet people she knew almost as soon as they +started. There was the nice man in the baggage car who had taken Prince +under his special protection when first the little girl and her dog +entrained for Sunrise Cove and the Corners. That time Carolyn had to +ride in the baggage coach a part of the way herself, to keep Prince +quiet. + +But the dog was an old traveller now, and he settled down quite +resignedly in the car when Carolyn and her father went back to the +coach where Mrs. Cameron and the little girl were established for the +long ride. + +Papa Cameron kissed them and bade them a cheerful good-bye. He expected +to see them at Block Island in a fortnight. The long train, filled +with vacationists for the most part, pulled out of the Grand Central +Terminal. On the platform of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street +station stood Edna Price and her mother and lame Johnny O'Harrity who +had insisted on coming to bid Carolyn May good-bye. + +"And it's a wonder that red-haired Sade Gompretz isn't here, too," +sniffed Carolyn. "I know she _would_ be if she had known about it." + +But she waved gaily to her friends as the train quickly started again. +They were really off now. The conductor came through to punch their +tickets, and who should he prove to be but the same conductor who had +been so very kind to Carolyn on a previous occasion when the little +girl had run away from Sunrise Cove, all alone and so very, very +miserable. + +All such troubles were ancient history now to Carolyn May. She had, +indeed, almost forgotten about that adventure. But she had not +forgotten any of her friends, however, and late in the afternoon, +when they arrived at the Sunrise Cove station the little girl was all +eagerness to get out and hail those whom she knew so well. + +Of course, first of all there was Uncle Joe Stagg, looking wonderfully +young and prosperous, ready to hand them into Tim the hackman's turnout +for the drive to the Corners. + +"You're looking well, Hannah," said Uncle Joe. "And if Car'lyn looked +any better we should have to take her to the doctor at once." + +"Pitcher of George Washington!" gasped the hack driver, "how that +young 'un has growed! And here's Prince that tackled that consarned +wood-pussy that time. Lively as one of his own fleas, ain't he? Wal, +Hannah Stagg, I admire to see ye. This here model of yourn is better +knowed in Sunrise Cove and at the Corners than ever you was when you +was a gal." + +"Yes, Uncle Tim. I fancy Carolyn is more popular up here than I ever +was. But, then, Carolyn May is popular everywhere." + +The little girl did not notice this. She rode with half of her body out +of the carriage window, waving her hand and calling greetings to people +whom she knew along the main street. + +And when they came to Uncle Joe's hardware store there was Chet +Gormley, one huge and complete smile, standing on the porch beside the +agricultural tools and rolls of poultry netting, and looking, as Uncle +Joe said, almost as fat as a rake handle. He wore a starched white suit +and a flowing red tie and shoes that were very yellow. It was evident +that Chet had dressed for the occasion. + +"Oh, Chet," cried Carolyn May, "how nice you look! And you've +gro-o-own--" + +"Up and down ways--ye-as," agreed the gangling youth. "They don't make +overalls no longer than I be now. Maw's got to buy bed tickin' and make +'em for me herself if I grow any more." + +While Mr. Stagg was in the store for a moment and Hannah Cameron was +speaking with somebody she knew through the other window of Tim's hack, +Chet drew near to Carolyn May and confided to her: + +"You see how your uncle trusts things to me now, don't you? Sometimes +I'm here all day by myself. Why, if I didn't know my job as well as +I do, folks might think Mr. Joseph Stagg was neglectin' his business +since he got married." + +"Oh, I am sure you are perfectly able to tend the store, Chet," said +the little girl admiringly. + +"Of course. I'm ready any time Mr. Stagg wants to change the sign to +'Stagg and Gormley' to do my full share," declared the lanky youth, +nodding his head seriously. + +If Chet really was of as much importance as he thought he was to the +hardware dealer, the latter could not have done business when the youth +was not in the store. Nevertheless, Chet was to be commended for his +faithfulness and for the interest he took in his employer's affairs. + +It was very surprising to see Joseph Stagg leave the store a full two +hours before supper time and ride home with his sister and Carolyn, as +though such neglect of business was quite a matter of course. + +Carolyn was kept busy nodding to people on the way, or calling out +greetings to them. Mrs. Maine, the dressmaker, peered near-sightedly +through her blinds as they drove by, and Carolyn could imagine the +woman biting off her threads and her words together, as she commented +on the arrival of the little girl and her mother. + +A few steps beyond the dressmaker's was Jedidiah Parlow's carpenter +shop. And here Tim, the hackman, positively had to stop, for the +carpenter was Mrs. Amanda Stagg's father and one of Carolyn's very +closest friends. + +"I declare, Hannah!" Mr. Parlow said, warmly shaking the hand of the +woman he had known as a girl, "you'd be a sight for sore eyes in any +case. But you air twice welcome, comin' as you do with Car'lyn. Car'lyn +May jest about owns us, up along this road, and no two ways about it!" + +Carolyn kissed his wrinkled cheek warmly. "I hope you've got lots of +nice long, curly shavings for me and Prince, Mr. Parlow," said the +little girl. "I'm going to bring Freda Payne, too, and we'll play in +your shavings--if you please." + +"You shall have 'em," replied the old carpenter, his eyes twinkling. +"If there ain't enough I'll shave up a hull spruce board for ye." + +As Tim, the hackman, drove on Mrs. Cameron mentioned to her brother the +change she observed in Mr. Jedidiah Parlow. + +"And it's no 'leventh hour conversion, Hannah, that your Car'lyn +brought about in his case--believe me!" said Mr. Stagg energetically. +"He's a vigorous old man yet. He's taken in a worthy woman and her son +to do for him, and keeps on about his work just as he used when Mandy +was with him. Only a sight more pleasant and neighbourly. Mandy says +her father's taken a new lease on life." + +Prince was growing more restive as they approached the little hamlet +of the Corners. He was out and in the hack half a dozen times, and +finally, when Hiram Lardner's blacksmith shop and the store and the +church and parsonage came into view, the dog ran barking ahead, +displaying the fact that he recognized the locality. + +When Tim's hack stopped before the Stagg homestead they heard a great +commotion among the poultry in the rear--the cackling of hens, quacking +of ducks, the honking of the big gander, the squawking of guinea fowl, +and over all the "Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!" of General Bolivar, the +White Holland turkey. + +"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Carolyn May, flashing out of the carriage. +"That bad, _bad_ Prince has run to talk to the hens and all, and he +ought to _know_ by this time that they don't like him. And old Bolivar +will chase him and maybe get spanked again, if Aunty Rose hears it." + +She started around the house on the run to quell the panic among the +feathered denizens of the rear premises, and to scold Prince. Aunty +Rose did not appear and the little girl thought she must be at her own +little house around the corner from the Stagg homestead. And where +was Aunt Mandy? There was nobody on the back porch to welcome their +arrival! + +She heard Uncle Joe and her mother coming around from the front of the +house. The main door of the Stagg homestead was seldom opened, except +when the minister came to call. Carolyn bounded upon the porch, with +Prince crazily barking beside her. And then with her hand upon the +latch she halted, transfixed by a sound from within the kitchen. + +"Down, Prince! Be still!" Carolyn May murmured, with a gesture to +silence the dog. She clutched the latch almost as though to keep +herself from falling, and her ear remained close to the panel. + +She heard it again--a thin, wailing sound that signalled unmistakably +the discomfort of an infant. Then came the tap, tap, tapping of a +soft-shod foot upon the kitchen floor and the crooning voice of Aunty +Rose. + +Carolyn burst open the door. Round-eyed and quite speechless for the +moment, she peered in at the picture there displayed. + +The old woman, in her very plain, quakerish garb, sat in a low chair by +the dresser, with a squirming bundle which she was jogging on her knee. +At her elbow was a cup and spoon, and the smell of anise was strong in +the room. + +"A baby!" gasped Carolyn May. "Oh, Aunty Rose Kennedy! where _did_ you +find a baby?" + +Aunty Rose smiled kindly above the infant's puckered little face. + +"Come here, Car'lyn May," she said, "and look at your little cousin. +Her name is Car'lyn, too." + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + AT THE CORNERS + + +"Oh! Aunty Rose Kennedy!" cried the little girl, finally recovering her +voice. "I wondered and _wondered_ why you didn't come back to us. It +wasn't your garden that kept you up here at the Corners, now was it?" + +"Not altogether, Carolyn May. Your Aunt Mandy couldn't take care of +this sweet little girl all by herself," replied Mrs. Kennedy. "You see, +there is something, after all, for old Aunty Rose to do in the world +besides sitting down to twiddle her thumbs." + +In came Mamma Cameron and Uncle Joe with the bags then, and the baby +was made much of. That she should have a real, live baby named after +her quite amazed as well as delighted Carolyn May. The baby cousin was +named "Carolyn Amanda." + +"That sounds ever so pretty," stated the little girl. "I'm going to +write Edna about it right away. You see, she couldn't have their baby +named after her because it was a boy. Isn't it nice, Mamma Cam'ron, +that there is another girl in our family?" + +Later she was allowed to go in to see her Aunt Mandy, who was propped +up in bed and looked very pretty in cap and bedgown. Mrs. Joseph +Stagg's face fairly shone her delight when Aunty Rose brought in the +baby to her; and it was plain now why Uncle Joe looked so proud and +happy. + +"You see," he said seriously to Carolyn, "we found that we could not +get along at all in this big old house without a little girl in it. +Your being here for so long quite spoiled Amanda and me for living +without young company. So we got a Carolyn of our own." + +"Yes. And weren't you lucky?" observed Carolyn May. "For you might have +found a boy, you know." + +She hoped the new Carolyn would be as happy as she had been for some +months at the old homestead. + +On the very next morning the little girl began to run about the Corners +to renew acquaintance with all the neighbours, while Prince chased +ancient feline enemies and became friendly again with the dogs of the +hamlet, which he had not seen for more than a year. + +Carolyn must needs search out Freda Payne, who had been her dearest +school friend when she had attended the red schoolhouse; and with Freda +she went to call on Miss Minnie, who had been their much loved teacher +but was now married to the school committeeman who most frequently came +to visit the school. + +"There!" said Carolyn May wisely. "I always thought something would +come of _that_." + +Miss Minnie warmly welcomed Prince, as well as the little girls, for +she had reason to feel friendly toward Carolyn's dog. + +Then, when dinner was over, and the baby was asleep, Carolyn and her +"cayenne friend," as Chet Gormley had once called Prince, went over +into the churchyard. Already the shadows of the church and its steeple +had begun to lengthen. The windows of the minister's study looked out +upon this quiet nook; chancing to glance up from his work the Reverend +Afton Driggs saw a familiar little figure digging industriously with +a trowel about the three little lozenge-shaped stones that marked the +graves of Aunty Rose Kennedy's little ones who were too "puny" to grow +up and around the bigger stone, "sacred to the memory of Frank Kennedy, +beloved spouse." + +"If I believed in ghosts, I surely should think I saw one now," said +the minister, putting his head out of the window. "Is it really, truly +you, Carolyn May?" + +Carolyn laughed delightedly. Everybody seemed so glad to see her! She +came to stand beneath the window and reached up to the minister a +rather grubby hand. + +"And are you still in the 'Look Up' business, Carolyn May?" he asked. +"Still brightening the world? Still seeing the sunshine and blue sky +rather than the grey clouds and gloomy days?" + +"Why, Mr. Driggs!" cried Carolyn, aghast, "there aren't any such days. +Leastways, I never see 'em. You know, there is always so much that's +pleasant going on that I forget to think of anything unpleasant." + +Yet that was not altogether so. There was one thing deep in the child's +heart that pricked her thought frequently. Hers was not a nature, +however, to thrust her own troubles upon the attention of others. + +This particular thing was a very real trouble, nevertheless. She +continued to think of the pale lady and her baby. That they should +have to remain in the hot city and in that hopelessly uncomfortable +apartment, caused the child positive heartache. + +The worst of it was, it was a case in which Carolyn could not +interfere, no matter how good her intentions might be. Papa Cameron was +seldom as stern as he was in his decision to do nothing more for Mr. +and Mrs. Laird and Baby Laird. The pale lady's husband must have done +something very dreadful, or Carolyn's father would not have come to the +determination he had. + +The memory of her poor friends and their unfortunate situation thrust +itself into the way of Carolyn May's enjoyment more frequently than +even her mother dreamed. Faithful little soul that she was, in the +midst of a most enjoyable time--when she and Freda Payne were revelling +in the delights of a "shavings party" at Mr. Parlow's carpenter shop, +for instance--thought of the pale lady and her baby made Carolyn +suddenly grave. + +"What _is_ the matter, Car'lyn May?" demanded Freda. "_Don't_ look like +that--so big eyed and all--all--Well! my grandmother would say somebody +must be walking on your grave when you look like that." + +"Why!" said Carolyn May, "I haven't any grave--yet. Uncle Joe owns a +lot in the churchyard at the Corners, and so does Aunty Rose. But I +haven't picked out _my_ grave yet. Why, of course not! I shan't need a +grave for ever and ever so long. + +"But I was just thinking when you spoke to me, Freda." + +"What ever were you thinking about?" demanded her friend, to whom +Carolyn was always a source of wonder because of her "oddities." + +"Why," said Carolyn May very earnestly, "I was thinking how too bad it +is that folks who do wrong don't have to go off by themselves and keep +away from the good folks. Then good folks wouldn't have to suffer for +the bad folks' doin's." + +"Why--!" squealed Freda. "That's dividin' the sheep from the goats, +like it says in the Bible. And that can't be done till we get to +heaven." + +"Can't it?" murmured Carolyn. + +"Of course not! And I guess it's wicked for you to even think of its +bein' done now," added Freda complacently. + +"Oh, dear!" sighed her little friend. "It does seem an awful long while +to wait for lots of sensible things to be done. It's too bad we can't +have 'em changed for the better here, and not have to wait till we get +to heaven." + +Such unorthodox doctrines as this quite shocked Freda; but there was +something daring and enticing about Carolyn's flights of fancy even +upon religious subjects. The little country girl wondered if all +city-born girls were like Carolyn May. The latter had become noted +for her "imagination" during the few months she had attended the red +schoolhouse at the Corners. + +What other little girl, indeed, could have found so much to "supposing" +with the wealth of shavings that were to be found in Mr. Parlow's +carpenter shop? When the two were about to start for home they were +trimmed with the long curly shavings--to say nothing of Prince--to an +extent to amaze the beholder. Amos Bartlett, who came along from the +direction of the Cove, was very greatly astonished when he first beheld +the decorated little girls and the dog. + +"I declare to Peter!" Amos ejaculated, big-eyed, "I didn't see you +girls under them shavin's--not at first. How-do, Car'lyn?" + +"Thank you," said the visitor to the Corners, "I'm well. Your nose is +just as big as ever, isn't it, Amos?" + +The small boy felt of it to make sure before he answered: "Seems to be." + +"Where've you been, Amos?" asked Freda. + +Amos displayed the music roll under his arm. "To Miss Spellman's," he +said. "Maw makes me go ev'ry week. Take lessons. I hate it!" + +"Piano lessons?" cried Carolyn May. "Oh!" + +"He don't like it," Freda explained with disgust. "I'd be just _crazy_ +'bout it if my mother'd let me take of Miss Spellman. But we haven't +any piano." + +"Aw, it's all bosh!" whined Amos. "I'd ruther pound a dishpan with a +hammer. My maw thinks she can make a _mu_-sican out o' me. I dunno what +it's all about. Whad you think Miss Spellman told me to find out today?" + +"What?" chorused the little girls. + +"She asked me--now, le's see--it was how many carrots there are in a +bushel." + +"What?" Freda gasped. "How many carrots in a bushel? She never!" + +"Did so!" declared Amos, more confident the moment his statement was +doubted. "That's what she asked me. And I've got to find out before +next week." + +"What's carrots got to do with music?" demanded the stunned Freda. + +But Carolyn began to giggle. She clapped a hand over her own lips to +stifle the laughter that would well up to them; but her shavings-curls +shook as though disturbed by a stiff breeze. + +"What's the matter with you?" asked Freda, while the none-too-bright +Amos stared, round-eyed, at Carolyn. + +"Why! Why!" gasped the latter. "Miss Spellman didn't ask about +_carrots_. Now did she really, Amos? Wasn't it about _beets_?" + +"Wal," drawled he of the big nose, "it was 'bout some vegertable." + +"I want to know what beets have got to do with music then?" Freda cried. + +"She asked him," explained the other little girl, much amused, "how +many beats there were in the measure. Now, didn't she, Amos Bartlett?" + +"Guess she did," admitted the abashed small boy. "But what's the +diff'rence? Ev'rything about pianner playin' is foolish." + +Mr. Jedidiah Parlow, an amused but until now a silent auditor, observed: + +"Miz Bartlett's got a crazy notion she can make that Amos a musical +prodigal. Amos'll make it 'bout the time pigs fly--but pigs air mighty +onsartain birds." + +With Amos the little girls and Prince started back along the dusty but +pleasant road to the Corners. It was nearly two years since Carolyn +May had first walked this way to the carpenter shop to play in Mr. +Parlow's shavings. Everything along the road seemed just the same as in +that long past time. Perhaps it was the very same squirrel Prince had +then chased that he set out after now, full yelp, and scattering his +ornaments of shavings to the four winds. + +"I don't know how it is," his little mistress observed, "but Prince +never _will_ learn that he can't climb trees and lamp-posts. If a cat +runs up a post he thinks he can get her by jumping. And see him now, +trying to climb that tree after that squirrel! I'm ashamed of you, +Princey Cameron. You act just as if you didn't have good sense." + +Behind them sounded the harsh roar of a heavy touring car. Automobiles +were not plentiful in the roads about Sunrise Cove and the Corners. The +condition of the highways themselves were the cause of that. Where much +timber-hauling is done the roads are always deeply rutted and otherwise +badly cut up. + +So Carolyn, with the less sophisticated country children, stood aside +to watch the big car pass. To their surprise it slowed down and was +finally halted by the driver right beside them. + +The driver was a liveried chauffeur. Carolyn stared at him with growing +wonder in her eyes. The only passenger sat beside the driver, and he +it was who first spoke: + +"Are you sure you do not know this road, Ren?" + +"I'm all up in the air, Boss, like I tol' you," the chauffeur said, +clipping his words as a French Canadian often does. "And these roads! +They will rattle the fine car of M'sieu to little bits." + +"We won't do that," drawled the other. "The Old Man would say +something, sure enough. Here, children! How far is it to a service +station?" + +Amos was dumb. Freda looked at Carolyn for advice upon this weighty +point. Freda had never heard of an automobile service station. + +Carolyn May tore her gaze away from the liveried chauffeur and looked +at the man who had asked the question, only to be stricken with further +amazement. + +The driver of the car called René she had recognized as the chauffeur +of those "awfully rich people" who had smashed the pale lady's go-cart! +And the dark-faced, unpleasant looking man beside him on the front +seat, Carolyn identified too. She had seen him the day on which the +pale lady had fainted. The man had come out of one of the apartments +under that of the Lairds, and had turned his keen gaze upon the little +girl in what Carolyn had thought at the time a threatening way. + +He did not recognize the little girl now. He merely repeated his +question more sharply. "These backwoods kids," he said, _sotto voce_, +to René, "are all dumb." + +Carolyn heard this and she did not like it at all. Indeed, she did not +like the dark man, with his very black brows and saturnine expression +of countenance. But she said politely: + +"There aren't many automobiles go this way; but Mr. Hiram Lardner, that +keeps the blacksmith shop, has got a sign out, 'Autos Repaired,' and +you can buy gasoline at Mr. Albert Sprague's store." + +"Where's that?" asked the man. + +"At the Corners. You know, Mr. Albert Sprague; the storekeeper. His +father, Mr. Jackson Sprague, is the oldest inhabitant." + +"Ha!" laughed the dark man shortly. "I've read of him in the papers +then." + +"Oh, yes," Carolyn said placidly. "And maybe you saw his picture, too. +He took ten bottles of Wormwood Bitters and they cured him." + +"What of?" chuckled the man. "Cured him of being the oldest inhabitant?" + +"Oh, no, sir. I guess he's always been that, for he looks dreadfully +old. But the bitters cured him of whatever it was ailed him. He didn't +say just what it was. You know: 'Doctors were of no avail, and he gave +up hope at the early age of sixty-two. But at eighty-seven he is still +hale and hearty and lays his wonderful preservation exclusively to +Wormwood Bitters. Copyright.' He let me read the article once, that he +had cut out of the Wormwood Farmers' Almanac." + +The dark man was grinning widely by this time--and he was not used much +to smiling, it was evident. He said: + +"You young ones jump on the runningboard--and hang on--and show Ren +where to drive to this blacksmith who can repair automobiles." + +"Oh, you can't miss of it!" blurted out Amos Bartlett. But Freda +smacked her palm over his mouth in a hurry. + +"Hush, you!" she ordered in a fierce whisper. "Don't you want to ride +on that shiny thing?" + +The three stepped up and clung to the machine. They would have been +doubly delighted, especially the little girls, to have ridden in the +tonneau, the upholstery of which was all shrouded with linen covers. +But the dark man did not offer them this superlative pleasure. + +The big car started, and Prince, who had been sitting on his tail with +his tongue lolling out, started likewise and ran, barking, beside the +automobile. The road was rough and the car bumped up and down a good +deal; but René did not drive fast, although the children thought it a +very exciting ride indeed. + +In five minutes they reached the Corners. As the big car came to a +halt, Mr. Lardner, in leather apron and with his shoeing hammer in his +hand, came to the door of his shop, deep within which the forge fire +glowed like an unwinking eye. + +"Oh, Mr. Lardner!" cried Carolyn May, "we brought you a customer." + +"Much obleeged to you, Car'lyn May," the blacksmith said, smiling, and +then gave his attention to René and the matter the chauffeur wished +attended to. + +Amos remained to gape at the car, at its occupants, and at the +blacksmith repairing it. But the two little girls walked away. + +"My!" sighed Freda Payne, "I don't see how you can talk to folks as +you do, Car'lyn May. I'm just tongue-tied when I see strangers. You +certainly have got the gift of gab!" + +Carolyn might have framed some retort to this rather uncomplimentary +statement; but at the moment her thoughts were fixed upon a puzzling +problem. + +It was surprising to see here at the Corners the car and chauffeur of +the rich man who had given her the twenty-dollar bank note for the +pale lady. It was likewise astonishing to see here the keen-eyed, +dark-complexioned man who had made an unpleasant impression upon her +mind the day the pale lady had fainted. + +To see the two together was a still more amazing fact! + +Disturbed as little Carolyn May's mind had been on the occasion when +she had first seen the saturnine looking man, she remembered now +something important about the incident. The man had been talking with +the pale lady's neighbour about the Lairds themselves, when Carolyn +came down the stairs. + +The dark man was interested in the Lairds. His presence here, in this +handsome automobile, and with the chauffeur of the rich man who had +smashed the Lairds' baby go-cart, linked him with the owner of the +automobile. + +This was a mystery--a mystery that piqued Carolyn's curiosity just +as had the mystery about the identity of the Lairds and their baby. +Had there not been so much going on at the Stagg homestead and in the +neighbourhood, the little girl certainly would have conferred with +Mamma Cameron about it. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + NEW SCENES + + +"'Flow Gently, Sweet Afton' certainly gave us a sermon out of the +common today," declared Uncle Joe on Sunday, after meeting. "And I +believe I can see Car'lyn May's fine Italian hand in it." + +"Why, Uncle Joe!" cried the little girl. "Neither of my hands is +Italian. I'm 'Merican, through and through! Besides," she added +thoughtfully, "most of the Italians--Dominick, the ice-coal-and-wood +man, and Angelo, the fruit man, and the man that goes through our +street with the ice-cream-cone cart--most always have got dirty hands. +Mine _never_ get as dirty as an Italian hand." + +But at that, perhaps Uncle Joe was right about the sermon. If +the Reverend Afton Driggs was influenced by the prattle of the +sunny-hearted Carolyn, he was not the only one so brightened by the +little girl's second coming to the Corners. + +"I declare!" Mrs. Hiram Lardner was heard to say, "that young 'un gets +ev'rybody on the broad grin. And she's as good as she can be. Though +that ain't sayin' Car'lyn ain't a reg'lar ticket when she wants to be. +I don't forget how she encouraged Amos Bartlett to taste our soft-soap +that time, thinking it was a hogshead of merlasses." + +In this brief visit, however, Carolyn May managed to get into no +mischief of a serious nature. For one thing, a great deal of her time +during the fortnight was given to Baby Carolyn Amanda. Much as she +had enjoyed taking care of Baby Laird, her little cousin was a more +delightful plaything than the pale lady's baby. + +In the first place, Carolyn Amanda quite filled the little girl's idea +of what an infant should be. She was no "skinny" baby. And she was good +as good! + +Then Carolyn had to call on all her old friends about Sunrise Cove +and the Corners. She positively had to spend an afternoon with Chet +Gormley's mother; and she took tea there as well. Mrs. Gormley's belief +in the ultimate business success of her son, now that Mr. Stagg seemed +to consider him of some importance in the hardware store, was more than +touching. Much as Carolyn May liked Chet she realized that he was, like +his mother, just a little "queer." Mr. Jedidiah Parlow observed: + +"If that Chet Gormley ain't a ha'f-innocent 'tain't his mother's fault. +She's been fillin' up his head with fool idees ever since he got into +short pants. My soul! Does seem a pity that some boys has to have +mothers at all. If they could have two fathers instead, they'd turn out +some good in the world, I vow!" But, then, Mr. Parlow made out that he +was a regular woman hater and could only see their foibles. + +But Mrs. Gormley was undeniably silly about Chet. + +"Of course," Chet's mother said to Carolyn May, eying the little girl +with a birdlike slyness, "I don't s'pose Mr. Stagg's ready to make +Chet a full partner in the store right at first. But I guess he's +dreadful keen about keepin' Chet satisfied, ain't he?" + +"Oh, I am sure Uncle Joe thinks a great deal of Chet," the little girl +agreed kindly. + +"Um-m! Yes!" Mrs. Gormley said, and nodded her head seriously, but +a good deal like one of those automatons Carolyn had often seen in +candy-store windows. "Last Christmas he raised Chet's wages a whole +ha'f dollar a week and now he's promised him another raise this Fourth. +That's two raises in a year." + +"Isn't that nice!" exclaimed her visitor. + +"And if he keeps on," said the sanguine mother, "it'll soon be cheaper +for Mr. Stagg to make Chet a partner in the business than to pay him a +salary." + +That the woman (and perhaps Chet himself) expected the good offices +of Carolyn May to help boost the boy in the estimation of Mr. Joseph +Stagg, did not detract from the fact that they both loved the little +girl and were delighted by having her to tea. She was regaled with the +very nicest eatables from Mrs. Gormley's larder; and Prince was given a +great platter of chicken bones which were really only half picked. + +Chet walked home with Carolyn to the Corners after supper. It made her +feel very much grown up. Never had she been escorted home by a boy +before. She had to write Edna Price about it the very next day. + + "UNCLE JOES AT THE CORNERS, JULEY 1. + + "_Dear Edna_: + + "I am havvin a awful good time with Mamma and Aunty Rose and we hav + got a luvly Baby. Its lots fater than the pal lady's Baby I tole + you about. And it truly blongs to my Uncel Joe and Mis Mandy. But + its just as good as mine whil I stay hear they sed so. + + "But we wont be hear fore much longer but will be gon to blok Iland + like I tole you where you are cummin to see me and we will play in + the sand and ro botes. But not go fishin for I dont like wurms. + + "There is a boy hear. His name is Chett Gormley. He works for Uncel + Joe. He cam home last nite with me from his mother house and she + calld him my boo. But he is not a boo--he is only Chett. He is a + nice boy and awful tall and this will be all--" + +"Why!" gasped Carolyn May at this point. "Isn't that funny? _That +rhymes!_ I never knew before I was a poet. + + "'He's awful tall. + And this will be all.' + +My!" + +The letter was signed and sent to Edna Price just as Carolyn wrote it; +for, although she was rather weak in spelling, the little girl, as her +mother saw, made her meaning quite plain save, perhaps, in the matter +of Chet Gormley being a "boo." + +And now the visit to the Corners had drawn to its end. Carolyn had had +such a good time that she would have postponed, had it been her own +will, the journey out of the woods, across the pleasant plains and +through the rich valleys of Massachusetts, and so finally down to Rhode +Island's former summer capital by the sea. + +It was by no means an unadventurous journey, and the day and night +they spent at Newport was long to be remembered, too. Almost anything +can happen when one travels with a dog like Prince. + +There was a rule of the hotel at which Carolyn and her mother stopped +which forbade dogs in the rooms of the guests, and the management +undertook to make them leave Prince in some part of the rear premises. + +"I don't believe he'll be good down there," Carolyn May said to the +white-waistcoated and very precise-looking managerial person who +insisted on leading Prince away. "He never will make a mite of trouble +if he is with us. He's quite used to living with us. But to be tied +up--down in a cellar--Well! I just _know_ he won't be good." + +"Sorry, little girl," said the stiff and haughty manager. "But rules +are rules." + +When next they saw the man he was neither "stiffly starched" nor +haughty looking. His white vest and immaculate shirtfront were much +ruffled--and so was his temper. His black coat and trousers were a +sight! + +"Here!" he gasped, struggling at the far end of Prince's leash, having +pounded on the door of the room in which Mrs. Cameron and the little +girl were just going to bed. "Take this dog. Dog! He's a hyena! I would +not turn an unprotected woman and child out of my house at this hour of +the night; but I would not allow this dog to remain here over another +night for anything or for any money." + +Prince possibly proved his "hyena strain" by laughing just as plainly +as a dog could laugh. Seeing that his little mistress and her mother +were all right in this strange place, he immediately curled down on +a mat at the foot of the bed and blinked his eyes at them all in an +apathetic way. + +"I told you," said Carolyn's small voice, "that I just _knew_ he +wouldn't be good in an old cellar." + +"You may shut the door," said Carolyn's mother rather sternly to the +man. "You will hear nothing from the dog for the rest of the night." + +The man backed out rather abashed. But wherever they went the +succeeding morning they were obliged to take Prince with them. He was +_persona non grata_ at that hotel. + +It was a most delightful day, and they set sail for Block Island at the +very pleasantest hour of it. The little steamer sailed out of the bay, +passed the Dumplings and Fort Adams, breasting the heavy groundswell +running between Point Judith on the mainland and Sands Point, the +extreme northern tip of Block Island. + +Lying but twenty-five miles or so from Newport, the island soon came +into view; and the sun-bathed Crescent Beach and the Clay Cliffs of +divers hues offered a very attractive picture to the passengers on the +steamboat. + +They swept past the reach of the Neck in sight of the stony beach of it +and of the crescent-curled bathing beach with its sands hard enough to +drive upon with a brake and pair of horses; and so around the end of +the breakwater into the Old Harbour. Along the main street and up on +the hills behind the little hamlet, were the freshly painted hotels and +boarding houses, making a colourful picture. + +Backed up to the wharf where the steamboat docked were several +brakes from the larger hotels, as well as a collection of surreys and +carryalls as quaint as Tim the hackman's vehicle at Sunrise Cove. The +island was no place for automobiles. There was a single street-car +running during the summer months from the South Side to the bathing +beach and the New Harbour at the Great Salt Pond. + +Carolyn May and Prince, on the upper deck of the steamboat, were deeply +interested while the vessel approached the landing. The clang of the +bellbuoy at the mouth of the harbour excited Prince, and the little +girl was obliged to speak sternly to him to make him cease barking. + +"That's not a fire engine bell, Princey," she told the excited beast. +"Why! they don't have fire department automobiles 'way out here in the +ocean. I should think you'd have more sense." + +The men and boys who drove the buses and other vehicles were a +nondescript lot in appearance; but most of them wore yachting caps +and were dressed in a seamanlike way that distinguished them from the +visitors to the island. One old man caught Carolyn's eager attention +because of a certain physical peculiarity, if for no other reason. + +His was a sturdy if undersized body. His face was tanned by salt winds +and tropical sun to a deep, mahogany hue. He wore a fringe of grey +beard masking his throat from ear to ear, but his lips and cheeks were +scrupulously shaven. He moved smartly and was dressed neatly; and those +observant persons who were familiar with his type would never have +mistaken him for anything but the ex-navalman he was. + +He wore a cap, on the band of which was printed "_Truefelt House_" and +he stood beside the rear step of the bus on the roof-sign of which the +name of the hotel was repeated in black letters. + +Somehow his roving, humorous eye caught that of Carolyn May. It +twinkled at once a friendly greeting. He waved a brown hand on the +back of which, even at that distance, she could see the deep indigo +markings of a tattooed pattern. He was one of the friendliest looking +persons the little girl had ever seen. Even Prince smiled widely at the +brown-faced man and uttered a sharp bark of greeting. + +Aside from the pleasant countenance of the man from the Truefelt House +and his attractive manner, there was that particular thing about him +that interested Carolyn May immensely. The right leg of his breeches +was rolled up more than half way to his knee, revealing the varnished, +brass-ferruled end of a wooden leg braced firmly upon the wharf. + +"Why," murmured Carolyn, wide-eyed, "he's a wooden-legged man! How +funny! I wonder how long he has had that wooden leg and--and if it +hurts him much." + +It did not appear to inconvenience the man a great deal, for he got to +the head of the gangplank when it was run aboard as sprily as anybody. + +"Truefelt House! Truefelt House, Ma'am!" he was saying, when Carolyn +May and her mother came up the plank. + +A salesman with two big sample cases was just ahead of the Camerons, +and he thrust the heavy valises at the wooden-legged man. + +"Here you are," he said. "I'm for the Truefelt House." + +"And so is the lady and the leetle gal. Am I right, Ma'am?" queried +the wooden-legged man. "Lemme have _your_ bag. That's it. You go right +ahead, Mister," he added to the travelling man. "The good Lord has +blessed ye with two arms and two laigs, _as_ yet. There's the bus just +ahead of ye." + +Prince, in his eagerness, came near to getting his leash tangled around +the man's wooden leg. + +"Belay there!" sang out the bus driver. "You take a turn around that +spar, dog, an' ye'll likely lay me on my beam ends. What do you call +him when he's to home, Sissy?" he asked Carolyn. + +"He's Prince. And if you please," said the little girl politely but +with emphasis, "I'm _not_ 'Sissy.' I am Carolyn May Cameron. And this +is my mamma." + +"Proud to know ye, Ma'am," said the wooden-legged man. "I'm bussin' +jest now for Ben Truefelt and his marm who run the Truefelt House +since his dad died. _I'm_ Ozias Littlefield. One o' the 'riginal +Littlefields. They moved on to this island while the Injuns was still +here, an' helped cut down all the timber so's to ketch an' kill the +savages the better, I cal'late. + +"You git right aboard, Ma'am," he added, helping Mrs. Cameron up the +rear step of the bus after the salesman. "Yaas'm; you can give me your +checks. A man with _two_ laigs'll come down after the trunks when them +deckhan's of Cap'n Ball set 'em off on to the wharf. You'm welcome, I +am sure, Ma'am." + +"Now, leetle gal," he added, "you want to ride on the front seat with +me?" + +"Oh!" and Carolyn's eyes danced. "But there's Prince." + +"He can ride up there, too," declared Mr. Littlefield, and stubbed +around to the front of the bus. He lifted Carolyn up on to the high +seat, and grabbing Prince by the collar and his stump of a tail, tossed +him sprawling after her. + +"Make him sit up side o' ye, leetle gal," said Mr. Littlefield, +and, securing the lines from the backs of the patient horses, began +clambering up himself. "I ain't so graceful as one o' these here +gazelles they tell about," he added. "I'm more like a crab--look one +way and travel t'other. But I manage to git there." + +He ended, puffing a little, and falling upon the hard cushion of +the seat with his left foot on the brake release and the wooden leg +sticking straight out over the fat back of the nigh horse. + +"All right astarn?" he called. "For we're goin' to cast off." + +"All clear here, Skipper," said the salesman. "You can haul up your +mudhook." + +"And you can haul in your slack," retorted the wooden-legged man. "I +remember you from a previous v'y'ge, young man. I dunno as Mr. Ben'll +want you an' your bags at all at the Truefelt House after you fillin' +the sugar bowls out'n the salt crock and the salt cellars vice varsy. +Fun is fun; but some people's idee of fun ought to bring 'em to the +gallus. + +"Come up, Trouble! Hi, Worry! Shack along now. I guess we don't git no +more passengers this tide." + +The fat, sleek horses awoke and ambled through the broad esplanade +before the docks. Carolyn was greatly interested in all she saw; but +particularly was she interested in the wooden-legged man and how he +came to have a wooden leg. + +The horses, Worry and Trouble, drew the bus across the main street, +along the landward side of which were set most of the hamlet's shops, +the post-office, and some of the smaller hotels; while the other side +of the street dropped easily away to the harbour beach. They rattled +through a lane where the occupants of the fishermen's cottages could +almost shake hands from opposite doorstones; and then up a little +green rise into the premises of the Truefelt House--a sprawling frame +building with a porch on two sides and a big cupola on the roof with a +quarterdeck-walk outside the cupola. + +Captain Solon Truefelt, who had built the house when he retired from +the sea, had still to pace his quarterdeck in all weathers. From the +cupola he could overlook the whole island and the surrounding seas +through an old-fashioned jointed telescope, that still hung in beckets +up in the glass-encased hut on the roof-top. + +The Truefelt House was comfortably and well built, and had been +modernized to meet the requirements of the present generation of summer +visitors. Captain Solon's daughter-in-law and his grandson now managed +the hotel to much better advantage than had the old sea captain; and +the Truefelt fortunes were on the march. + +Mr. Littlefield hopped down sprily, having halted Worry and Trouble +before the main entrance of the hotel, and lifted down Carolyn. There +was a sprinkling of guests on the porch who showed the usual vague +interest of summering people in the arrival of additional guests. The +little girl and the dog perhaps attracted rather unfavourable comment +in some quarters. Other people's children and dogs are generally +considered a nuisance. + +A brisk young man, bare-headed, came out to greet Mrs. Cameron, whom +he helped descend with her bag from the bus. He nodded coolly to the +salesman and said to the lady: + +"Your rooms are ready for you, Mrs. Cameron. I understand from your +husband that he will be with us on Saturday?" + +"If he is permitted," Carolyn's mother agreed, following Mr. Ben +Truefelt, who had relieved her of the bag. + +The little girl and Prince lingered. Carolyn was watching the +wooden-legged man climbing back to the driver's seat. + +"He couldn't have been _born_ with it," Carolyn May murmured. "I wonder +where he got it?" + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + WOODEN LEGS + + +Really, there was a great deal at and about the Truefelt House besides +wooden legs for Carolyn May to be interested in; but it must be +confessed that her mind was more set on Captain Ozias Littlefield's +artificial limb than upon the soughing of the surf along the beaches, +the salt tang of the breeze, the passing in continual procession off +shore of sail and steam vessels, or the lovely view of rolling country +from the windows of her mother's room on the second floor of the hotel. + +They went down to dinner, and Carolyn listened for the _step, clump! +step, clump!_ of Mr. Littlefield's passage through the hall and out +on the porch more faithfully than she attended to her meal. The +wooden-legged man not only "bussed," as he called it, for the Truefelt +House, but he acted as handy man. He cleaned the porches early in the +morning, Carolyn learned; and at the dinner hour he put on a white +apron and a black coat, and served those guests who lingered on the +porch and desired refreshments from the café. + +The Truefelt House, indeed, was short-handed. + +"Part the crew mutinied a week ago an' desarted the ship," Mr. +Littlefield was heard to say to a group of guests on the porch after +dinner. "Mr. Ben has to act as his own clerk as well as checker at the +kitchen door. And the Good Book does say that a man can't sarve two +masters--not an' suit both on 'em." + +Mrs. Truefelt bustled about making her guests welcome. She was a +motherly but shrewd-faced, woman. She clipped her words when she spoke +and had the true island intonation, although she had been a "foreigner" +when she married Ben's father. She had a kindly pat on the head for +Prince, hugged Carolyn, and expressed herself in most friendly fashion +to Mrs. Cameron. + +"It used to be, when Ben was at college, that we could get plenty of +good help in summer. He brought the boys right over to the island from +New Haven. Some of them were glad of the job between college terms, and +others just came for the fun of it. Why! once we had for a clerk all +one summer the son of one of the wealthiest men in Wall Street." + +"Indeed?" responded Mrs. Cameron. "What was his name?" + +"Why, the other boys called him 'Griffin Junior.' I declare! I don't +remember his real name. You know how boys are--always calling each +other out o' name. Why! they called my Ben 'Quahaug' because he was +naterally such a silent feller. Like his Grandfather Solon Truefelt. +It positive is a cross for Ben to talk to folks like he has to when he +acts as clerk. I heard him say only today that he'd give a pretty penny +to have Grif here again." + +Carolyn's mother displayed a warmer interest in the matter than one +might have expected a mere guest of the hotel to feel. + +"Do you not remember the young man's name?" she asked again. + +"Him they called 'Griffin Junior'? I declare! No. I'll ask Ben," said +Mrs. Truefelt, bustling away. + +Sunrise the next morning saw Carolyn May and Prince awake and at one of +the windows in Mamma's big room where they could watch the seafog roll +away before the red, level rays of the sun just then appearing above +the sea-line. As the fog fled and the smooth sea came into view, its +surface seemed to be a sheet of glass. + +"Oh, Princey!" gasped Carolyn May, "I believe we could walk right out +on it. I just believe we could do that very thing!" + +Prince sniffed. That did not appeal much to him--walking on the water. +He might have enjoyed, nevertheless, a plunge into the sea. At this +present time, however, he wanted his usual morning run. + +Carolyn hastened the completion of her toilet. As a usual thing she +compassed all the buttons and buttonholes herself. Mamma was still +asleep. The little girl and the dog crept out of the room as softly as +possible. + +But once down the stairs they dashed for the out-of-doors in noisy +delight. It was then Carolyn learned that her friend of the wooden leg, +Captain Ozias Littlefield, washed down and holystoned the decks, as he +called it, at this early hour. + +There he was with both trouser-legs rolled up to his knees, exposing +one _bona fide_ leg with an anklet of blue and red tattooing, and the +varnished "peg-leg" which was strapped to the stump of the other leg at +the knee. He first scrubbed, or "holystoned," the porch in sections, +and then washed it down with a garden hose. + +"Mornin', leetle gal," he said cheerfully. "How are you and your dog?" + +"Very well, I thank you," said Carolyn May, wishing much that she felt +herself sufficiently acquainted with Captain Littlefield to ask him, +point-blank, how he came to have a wooden leg. But she did ask: "Can I +go anywhere I want to?" + +"I guess so. All but into the kitchen. Don't you put your head in there +this airly. The cook--'chef' he likes us to call him--gets up with a +grouch. I've noticed--dunno why it is!--most cooks at sea are grouchy. +And if you wanter git into a flare with a woman ashore, you try to +moor alongside o' one on bakin' day. Been me that had to decide this +here present war," went on Mr. Littlefield, "I'd recruit all the cooks +and send 'em over against them Germans right at the start. Cooks is +fighters, take it from me." + +"Oh, dear me!" murmured Carolyn, "I hope nobody'll have to go to war +from over here. If we were in the war, wouldn't it be dang'rous for +us to stay 'way out here in the ocean? Maybe submarine boats would +surround the island. _Then_ what would we do?" + +"Jest like a whaleboat surrounded by sharks? Uh-huh! That would be +tough, leetle gal, and no mistake." Then his eyes twinkled and he +favoured her with a sly smile. "Never mind. Won't never be no war _on_ +this island." + +"Oh! Are you sure?" demanded Carolyn May. + +"Sure as sure." + +"Why not?" asked she, falling into the trap. + +"'Cause there's so many Littlefields here that the Motts and the Allens +couldn't never Dodge the Balls," chuckled the wooden-legged man. "Ye +won't jest understand that till ye get acquainted with more folks here. +But the Balls and the Motts, and the Allens, and the Dodges, to say +nothin' of us Littlefields, purt' nigh inhabit this island and all the +outskirts thereof." + +Carolyn May laughed politely, although she did not understand the +punning on the islanders' family names. She and Prince ran off the +porch and found a rutted path leading through the fields behind the +hotel. A long way to the southward and outlined clearly in the morning +light was the shaft of the South, or Highland, Light. To the right hand +and near the middle of the island was another shaft with long arms +attached. Carolyn had seen pictures of windmills. There was one in Papa +Cameron's _Don Quixote_. Carolyn knew she would like to go to that +windmill and see the miller grind corn. Beyond the mill, and on the +highest point of land of any she could see, was a tower with a railed +platform built around the top of it. + +Prince found something much nearer at hand to interest him; he ran into +a flock of young turkeys and became almost cross-eyed trying to follow +them all as they scattered. + +"Now, Princey!" exclaimed Carolyn, as he came back to her much abashed +under the lash of her tongue. "Are you _always_ going to be bad like +that when you see anything that wears feathers? I am ashamed of you! +Now we have come to a new place, you must behave. Nobody will love you +at all if you are so obnox-u-ous." + +That last word, perhaps, quenched the dog's ardour. He walked back to +the hotel with his little mistress in a very sedate fashion. Others of +the guests were up and out now. There were sounds from kitchenward that +announced the fact that breakfast was in preparation. + +She did not see Captain Littlefield; but from the front porch Carolyn +heard the _step, clump! step, clump!_ of a man with a wooden leg. She +thought it must be her friend walking up and down the "for'ard deck" in +the morning sunshine. + +Prince evidently thought it was the friendly captain, too. He dashed +around the corner of the house, and the next moment there was a vocal +explosion that might have shocked more sophisticated ears than those of +Carolyn May. + +"What the Dancin' Doolittles is this here?" bawled a shrill and +unmelodious voice. "Get out, you brute! Scat, I say!" + +Carolyn hastened to the rescue. She knew it could never be Captain +Littlefield. And she was right. Her friend was not in sight. + +Instead, gyrating about in a clumsy circle on the front porch was a +tall man with a very red face, a great white moustache, and a topknot +of white hair that made him look like an angry cockatoo. + +This old man, whose fiery eyes and great beak added to his birdlike +appearance, was dancing about on one slippered foot, while his +other leg, finished with a wooden limb much like that of Captain +Littlefield's, was thrust out in a mad attempt to keep Prince at a +distance. + +"Get out, you brute!" he bawled, almost overturning himself in another +attempt to kick the dog. + +His white linen suit flapped about his lean body like dishcloths +hangin' on a pole in a strong breeze. Prince, much excited and enraged +by the attack made upon him by the old man, dashed in just as Carolyn +appeared and fastened his teeth upon the part of the "peg-leg" that +would have been the ankle had the limb been of actual flesh and bone. + +"Whoo! Scat!" shouted the red-faced man, continuing to hop about on his +sound foot. + +"Prince!" shrieked Carolyn May. + +But Prince hung right on to the wooden leg, and as the old fellow swung +around he fairly lifted the dog from the porch and swung him in a +circle, too. + +The hullabaloo aroused everybody on the lower floor of the hotel, and +maids, waiters, and kitchen help, as well as the early risen guests, +came running to the front porch. + +Lastly appeared Captain Ozias Littlefield, who had been shaving and had +one side of his face masked with lather, while he flourished his razor +in his hand. + +"Belay all!" cried he, clumping forward. "What's afoul the ship hawse +now?" + +"Take this dog off'n me, Ozy Littlefield!" shouted the red-faced man. +"Gimme that razor and I'll near 'bout chop his head off!" + +At that terrible threat Carolyn shrieked again. Prince held his firm +grip on the leg, and the red-faced man kicked out more strenuously +than before. He actually kicked himself over backward and landed with a +crash on the porch floor. + +The straps holding the wooden leg to the stump of his real leg broke, +and the dog flew off at a tangent, still gripping the timber in his +jaws. + +"What th' Dancing Doolittles!" yelled the old fellow, lying there on +his back. "Now see what that dog's done." + +"Fer the land's sake, Oly! what kind of a conniption fit do you call +_this_? Can't you keep out o' trouble long enough for me to git +shaved an' rid up a mite? I told ye I'd be right out," declared the +exasperated Captain Littlefield. "Gimme your hand and let me help you +up." + +"No use gettin' up with only one laig, Ozy," complained the overturned +one. "Git me that timber-toe away from that savage beast. What ye +keepin' here--a menagerie 'stead of a hotel, I wanter know?" + +"Since ever I knowed ye, Oly Littlefield--an' that was when both of us +was in petticuts--you've allus managed to git into trouble more'n any +other human bein' I ever met up with. Sit up in this chair like I tell +ye, an' I'll git yer laig all right." + +Captain Littlefield showed a great deal of latent muscular strength in +lifting the bigger man into one of the porch chairs. There he left him, +fuming and fussing, while he went to the rescue of the wooden leg. + +Carolyn had snapped the leash to Prince's collar and the dog was merely +mumbling the wooden leg. He evidently considered the whole business +some kind of new play. The little girl's face was almost as red as +that of the old fellow who had lost his leg. She felt sure that the +trouble had not been of Prince's making; but she feared everybody would +blame him. + +"Don't you fret yourself, Sissy," said Captain Littlefield, kindly. +"Cousin Oly ain't responsible for what he does and says, anyway. He'd +oughter been a cook. He's got the temper of one, sure 'nough." + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + THE DOG WITH THE BUSHY TAIL + + +The trouble was all over long before Mamma Cameron came down; and to +Carolyn's relief nobody seemed to think her dog was much to blame save +the cockatoo looking man, Mr. Oliver Littlefield. + +Captain Ozias patched up the broken straps of his cousin's wooden leg, +finished shaving himself, and stumped off with "Oly" as he called his +cousin, toward the beach. It seemed that the two old men lived together +in a little house that belonged to Mr. Oliver Littlefield, and had done +so ever since Captain Ozias had retired from the sea. + +"He's as dumb and helpless about housekeepin'," Carolyn heard one of +the women say, "as though he had lost a hand instead of a laig. If +'twarn't for Cap'n Ozy, Oliver Littlefield'd never have a decent mess +o' victuals." + +"That's right," agreed another of the hotel "help." "If Cap'n +Littlefield hadn't come home to the island 'bout the time Oliver's wife +died, I reckon he'd ha' starved to death down there in that little +house o' his. For nobody would ha' gone there to housekeep for him. +He's jest as pleasant to get along with, Oly Littlefield is, as a wild +tagger." + +Captain Littlefield came clumping back to the hotel before Carolyn went +in with her mother to breakfast, and with rather a rueful grin on his +mahogany face. + +"Jes' like I told you," he said to Mr. Ben Truefelt. "Never see sech a +gump in all my born days. He was all out o' merlasses an' couldn't find +the stopper to the 'lasses jug. Went plumb crazy 'bout it, as usual. +I found the 'lasses jug stopper stickin' in the vinegar jug, an' the +vinegar jug plug on the dresser right in plain sight. It does git past +me how the good Lord makes some folks so helpless. They might's well +stay in swaddlin' clo'es all their lives an' be done with it." + +All this might be very interesting, thought Carolyn, but it did +not explain the great mystery. And that mystery had doubled within +the hour. If the little girl had desired to know how Captain Ozias +Littlefield lost his leg, how much greater was her longing to know how +both he and his cousin had lost their legs! Captain Littlefield wore +a timber extension on the stump of his right leg, while Mr. Oliver +Littlefield wore a similar extension on the stump of his left leg. + +How did they both come to lose their limbs? It was amazing! + +"Oh, Mr. Ben!" she finally called to Mr. Truefelt, addressing him as +most of the hotel employ s did. "Oh, Mr. Ben," she went on, "how ever +did Captain Littlefield and his cousin _both_ come to lose their legs?" + +"Mighty careless of 'em, wasn't it, Miss Carolyn?" returned the young +man, chuckling. "So you are curious about the 'Double O's,' are you?" + +"The 'Double O's'?" repeated the little girl. + +"That is what we call them. Oliver and Ozias--Oly and Ozy. And they are +both just as funny in their different ways as they can be. But how they +happened to both have wooden legs--well, that I could not tell you, +for I don't know. I'm not altogether sure that they were not born with +them." + +"Born with wooden legs?" gasped Carolyn. "I--nev-er--did--_hear_ of +such a thing! I don't believe that can be so, Mr. Ben." + +"Well, to tell the truth, my dear," said Mr. Ben Truefelt, "neither did +I ever hear of folks being born that way. It would be curious, wouldn't +it? But the first I can remember of either of the Double O's, they had +those timber-toes strapped to 'em. And I never heard say how they got +'em. Why don't you ask them?" + +"Oh, I couldn't do that! Not on such short acquaintance!" murmured +Carolyn. + +"No?" + +"_Could_ I?" + +"I don't know just how well you think you've got to know a person +before you can ask him how he came to have an artificial limb," said +Mr. Ben seriously. "Perhaps it would be best to refrain from any such +inquisition of Mr. Oliver Littlefield. Mr. Oliver is noted for his +short temper. But Cap'n Ozy is all right. You might ask him almost any +time, I should say. He is quite domesticated," concluded Mr. Ben. + +But for the moment, and suddenly, Carolyn May's thought was switched to +something entirely different. She sighed. + +"I felt real 'quainted with my pale lady almost at first," she said. +"You don't know my pale lady, Mr. Ben, and her baby. Oh, dear! They +can't come to Block Island." + +"Why not?" asked Mr. Ben, smiling down upon her. "We still have some +rooms vacant at the Truefelt House." + +"Oh, dear me, no!" said Carolyn, shaking her head. "They couldn't come. +Not this summer. You see, they are too poor." + +"Oh!" + +"Yes. He isn't earning enough for them to go away for a vacation. But +the doctor says she and the baby should get out of the city. It's +dreadful. You ought to see that baby. He's such a skinny little thing." + +Ben Truefelt glanced up to see Mrs. Cameron standing by them. He bade +Carolyn's mother a courteous good-morning and asked her how she had +slept with rather boyish diffidence. Then he added, quickly: + +"Oh, Mrs. Cameron, mother told me she thought you were interested in +one of my college friends who clerked for us here at the Truefelt House +for a season. It was after our junior year. He was in my class, good +old Grif was." + +"'Grif'?" repeated Carolyn's mother. + +"That's what we called him," Ben Truefelt said with a smile. "And +'Griffin Junior.' Very disrespectful of us, Mrs. Cameron. But college +boys aren't strong on respect, you know. The newspapers called Grif's +father 'the Griffin of Wall Street,' so we called him 'Griffin +Junior.'" + +"Do you speak of Mr. Joe Bassett?" demanded Carolyn's mother. + +"Yes, Mrs. Cameron." + +"I chanced to overhear what my little girl was saying to you," she +continued. "Do you know, Mr. Truefelt, she was speaking of Joe +Bassett's wife and child?" + +He stared at her, his very good brown eyes opening more widely and the +smile quite gone from his face. + +"You do not really mean that, Mrs. Cameron? This 'pale lady' the little +girl speaks of and the 'skinny' baby? Can they be Joe Bassett's wife +and child?" + +"Exactly. Did you not know that he married two years ago against his +father's command, and was disowned?" + +"Good old Grif? Never!" + +"Not only that, but there was something about his break with his +father," said Hannah Cameron cautiously, "that has put him in bad +odour. Nor has he been successful in anything that he has undertaken. +I happen to know that he is about to lose his position on the New York +_Beacon_, where he has lately been working as reporter. He is not a +good reporter." + +"By George!" exclaimed Ben Truefelt with vigour, "he made a mighty good +hotel clerk, and I wish I had him right now." + +"That is my reason for speaking to you," went on Mrs. Cameron quickly. +"His wife and child are suffering in the hot city. I believe he loves +them. If they could all three come here--" + +"If Grif will do it, I'm sure mother will agree," the young man said. + +"You understand, do you not," said Carolyn's mother, "that I do not +recommend Mr. Bassett? I cannot vouch for his character." + +"Why, nobody need recommend Grif to me, Mrs. Cameron. I know him. I +can't imagine why he broke with his father; but whatever Grif says will +go a long way with me. You see, I knew him for years. And if there is +any time in life when fellows get to know each other, it is in those +college years." + +"I am glad to hear you say that," Hannah Cameron observed. She had not +felt that her husband's decision regarding the Bassetts was altogether +right. "I hope you will get them here quickly. I will give you the +address, and you might send a special delivery letter--" + +"I'll do better than that," said Ben Truefelt eagerly. "I'll go right +over to the Weather Bureau and cable. I'll tell him to drop everything +and bring his wife and child right over here. Think of old Grif a +family man!" added the young fellow, boyishly. + +"We'll find a place for Mrs. Bassett and the baby with some of the +islanders over on the West Side, where board is cheap. They'll get +plenty of fresh milk and eggs and fish and vegetables. I'll go and tell +mother. I'm a thousand times obliged, Mrs. Cameron." + +Carolyn had been playing with Prince during this conversation. Now her +mother called the child to come in to breakfast. + +"What would you say, Carolyn May," she asked the little girl, "if your +pale lady and her baby and her husband should come here for the summer?" + +"Oh--ee! Truly, Mamma?" + +"Truly." + +"My! wouldn't that be nice?" exclaimed Carolyn. "And I could push the +baby around in his carriage--Oh, no, I couldn't! He hasn't any carriage +now!" + +"Perhaps we can find means of supplying that deficiency," said her +mother. + +Mr. Ben Truefelt came back from the cable office, where the weather +signal flags were displayed on a pole, about the time Carolyn and her +mother were ready to go for a stroll to the post-office. He bore the +reply to his cable in his hand, and flourished it joyfully. + +"See here!" he cried. "It's all settled. The dishwashers and the rest +of the crew can walk out on us all they please. I'd rather wash dishes +and wait on table than be clerk. Grif is coming." + +He held out the message so that Mrs. Cameron could read it: + + "You're on. Thursday boat." + +"I cabled him fifty on account, and it seems he didn't take long +to make up his mind," said Mr. Ben. "I guess he isn't in love with +reporting." + +He went on to tell Mrs. Truefelt of what he considered their good +fortune, while Carolyn May and her mother, with Prince off his leash, +went down into the Old Harbour, as the village around the docks was +called. + +Picture postal cards were the very first thing to buy. Carolyn wanted +to purchase a number of every island scene she saw, and send them +broadcast through the mails to all her friends in New York and the +Corners and around Sunrise Cove. Fortunately for the over-burdened +post-office department her purse would not compass her desire, so she +had to content herself with a much more modest selection. + +"Well, when my papa comes, he can buy 'em all," sighed Carolyn. "We'll +send the rest then. I do want to send that picture of the ocean to Amos +Bartlett. You know, he's the boy that told Miss Minnie in school that +he didn't believe the world was round, 'cause if it was, the ocean +would slide off. And that picture will show him that the ocean hasn't +slid yet." + +Prince was having a joyous time running at large; but being a good +tempered dog he paid little attention to the island dogs that chanced +to challenge him. As they walked past a fish cleaning shanty, however, +Prince made a discovery that quite startled him. + +There was a big basket on the stone before the door of the hut that +seemed filled with wet seaweed. The inquisitive Prince was about to +run his muzzle inquiringly into this sea herbage. Suddenly out of the +middle of it appeared a pair of clashing claws, just the colour of the +seaweed. + +Prince jumped back and barked. The lobster waved its claws in a most +threatening fashion, and Carolyn could now see all its hard-shelled +body nestling in the seaweed. The pointed, funny nose, with its long +feelers waving about, was plainly visible; and the jointed claws +clashed a challenge that Prince was altogether too wise to accept. + +"There, now, Princey Cameron," exclaimed Carolyn, "see what you've +done! You've woke up that poor fish when maybe he wanted to sleep. And +he came near to catching you. You'd better not fool with him. Come +away!" + +Her mother was walking on, her parasol spread to shelter her from the +sun's rays that were now getting uncomfortably warm. But Prince had +suddenly a new source of interest. A big dog with a bushy tail came +dashing across the road and stopped abruptly beside Prince and the +lobster basket. + +The bigger dog's plume was waving gently, but whether in friendly +greeting or not, was hard to decide. His eyes were red and fierce, and +he was much bigger than Prince. + +"I _do_ wish you'd come away, Princey!" said the little girl anxiously. +"I b'lieve he's one of those treachersome dogs that you never know what +they mean--There!" + +The dog with the bushy tail snapped at Prince without any provocation +whatever. + +"Oh! You stop that!" cried Carolyn, stamping her foot. + +Prince had growled a warning and jumped; then he put his nose to the +snarling muzzle of the bushy-tailed dog. The latter was not very brave. +He was just a bully, after all. He backed away from Prince and his tail +drooped. Unfortunately it drooped directly across the lobster basket. + +The lobster played no favourites. It made no difference to it which dog +was punished for arousing him. It reached up both claws and clamped +them with true lobster-like tenacity to the bushy tail. + +Then was there a great to-do. Yelp upon yelp was emitted by the dog +with the bushy tail as he started for home with a three pound lobster +attached to his tail. The dog went so fast and so wildly that the +lobster never hit the ground for twenty yards, and then only to bound +into the air again and sail on with the panic-stricken animal. + +The owner of the lobster plunged out of the shack, wildly demanding: + +"Who's that? Who took my lobster?" + +"I'm sure, Mister, you can't blame Prince," said Carolyn May, with +severity. "_He_ wouldn't steal your lobster, anyway. And of course he +hasn't got a long enough tail for a lobster to get hold of." + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + AN UNANSWERED QUERY + + +Carolyn could scarcely wait in patience for Thursday to come and the +pale lady and her baby to arrive at the island. But meanwhile there +were many things to occupy her time and to interest her. + +She and mamma went to the bathing beach every afternoon, donning their +bathing suits in their room and riding over to the beach with other +hotel guests in the bus, driven by Captain Littlefield. He waited and +drove them back to the Truefelt House if the bathers did not linger too +long. The hotel bus must never miss the boats at both the Old and the +New Harbour. + +Carolyn had been to the Coney Island beaches several times and was +familiar with the surf. But this Block Island beach was never crowded, +all the people on it were always kindly, friendly people, and the water +was free from any kind of rubbish. + +Prince was having the time of his life. He was in and out of the +water, racing on the sands, barking at the waves that chased him up +the strand, plunging into the rough little seas to bring out bits of +wood that were thrown in for him to retrieve, and otherwise behaving as +though the sea had been made particularly for him. + +Of course he got into trouble. He almost always did. Prince never +could learn anything save through experience. + +Once there were little schools of pinky-white jelly-fish in the surf, +and the surfman who was so wonderfully brown all over his body, and who +went without a hat no matter how hot the sun was, told everybody to +keep away from the pests because they stung all flesh that they touched. + +Of course Carolyn knew enough to mind what he said; but would Prince +keep away from those very innocent looking, helpless appearing things? +No, indeed! Prince had to dash right in and try to nose the jelly-fish +out of the way. He couldn't bite them, for the moment he tried to shut +his jaws on them they slid right out from between his teeth; he could +not step on them and hold them down; and he could not easily drag them +ashore. + +"That dog of yours will be sorry enough, little lady," warned the +surfman, speaking to Carolyn May. + +Carolyn and her mother really had to cut their bath short that day so +as to take the dog away. By and by his muzzle was hot and feverish +and he pawed at it in a way to show that it smarted. He was a very +miserable looking dog indeed all that evening, and Carolyn went down +and begged cracked ice for him. She improvised an icebag out of her +bathing cap and tried to fix it on Prince's muzzle. + +But, sting as his cheeks and lips undoubtedly did, the cracked ice did +not please the dog and he did not take kindly to the bathing cap. + +"There! He always _did_ hate a muzzle," Carolyn sighed. "He thinks +this is some kind of a muzzle. I guess I'll have to sit right here by +him all night, Mamma Cameron, and sponge off his poor nose with the ice +water." + +She fell asleep doing this, and her mother picked her up and put +her into bed. Prince was all right in the morning; but he was wary +thereafter of anything floating in the surf. + +One morning Carolyn rode over to the West Side with Captain +Littlefield, who went to make arrangements for the boarding of the pale +lady and her baby when they should arrive. Captain Littlefield drove +Worry alone on this journey, attached to a single-seated buckboard. +Carolyn sat beside the wooden-legged man on the seat and Prince +crouched between them, clinging on "with teeth and toenails," as the +captain said, when the buckboard bumped more than usual over the rough +road. + +During the journey across the hilly island Carolyn and Captain +Littlefield became good friends. And yet, the important query that +fretted the little girl's mind was hard to come at. It seemed so +very illbred, as she had been taught, to remark upon the personal +peculiarities of "grown-ups." + +Finally the subject was fairly jolted to the surface. As the buckboard +went over a particularly rugged "thank-you-ma'am" in the road, the +wooden-legged man was all but thrown off the seat and his artificial +limb waved wildly before he got his balance again. + +"Oh!" cried Carolyn. + +"Purt' near went overboard that time, didn't I?" he chuckled. "Tell the +truth, a feller with a wooden laig ought to be lashed with a lubber +line in a rough sea like this." + +"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!" burst forth the little girl, unable to +hold in the question any longer, "how do people get wooden legs?" + +"How do they get 'em? Why, they buy 'em," said he, his eyes suddenly +twinkling. + +"Oh! But I mean, why do they have to wear them?" + +"To keep 'em from listin' to stab'board or port, as the case may +be--whichever side they need the timber-toe on." + +"Yes. I know. But I mean," Carolyn desperately tried to explain, "how +do they come to lose their real legs so's to have to buy wooden ones?" + +"Oh! Ah! I see," Captain Littlefield said with much gravity. "There's +sev'ral ways a feller might lose a laig. Why, I did see a man +once't--he was in a show at New York--that was born without laigs. They +forgot, an' just attached his ankles to his waist, as ye might say. But +he was what they call a freak." + +"Yes, sir," said Carolyn, breathlessly. "But you an' Mr. Oliver +Littlefield didn't get born that way, did you?" + +"Me an' Oly? I sh'd say not! Why, Oly, when he was a kid no older than +you, was the fastest runner of his age on the island. Yes-sir-ree-sir! +He didn't sport no timber-toe then. An' _me_--Why! when I was +apprenticed in the Navy I could go up the shrouds quicker'n a cat. I +was always first top-man on a sailing craft. Yes, indeedy! I was some +spry, leetle gal." + +"Git up, Worry!" + +He seemed to consider the subject closed. But Carolyn's appetite for +information was only whetted. + +"Oh! But how _do_ they lose legs, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield?" she begged. + +"Wal, now! Not like lobsters lose their claws. Ye know, lobsters git to +fightin' an' shed a claw now and then. But new ones grow on. Ye often +see lobsters with one big foreclaw and a little one on t'other side." + +"I'm not much acquainted with lobsters," admitted Carolyn May. "Only I +saw that big dog take one home on his tail the other day." + +"Oh, yes," chuckled Captain Ozias. "That was Tulliver Hicks' lobster. +And he went over to Dave-Ed Mott's, that owns that dog, and tried to +collect for the lobster. Couldn't collect the lobster itself, for it +got battered to smash on the stones 'fore the dog fetched his moorings. + +"They had quite an argument, Tulliver Hicks and Dave-Ed did, as to +whether Dave-Ed owed Tulliver for the lobster, or Tulliver owed Dave-Ed +for damage to the dog. The dog got under the barn floor and ain't come +out since; and he was a right sassy dog afore that lobster got a holt +on him." + +"The poor dog!" the little girl murmured. But she was not at all +satisfied. Captain Littlefield had not given her the information she so +very much desired. She ventured again: "I didn't really s'pose folks +could lose legs and have 'em grow on again like lobsters. But how do +they lose 'em?" + +"I knew a feller once't," said the captain ruminatively, "that got his +mudhook caught so't the chain parted when he tried to git it up again. +He'd anchored, ye see, right over a sunken reef. This here was down in +the Caribbean Sea and he had oughter knowed better than to go overboard +in them waters. 'Tain't safe for nobody but niggers to go over the side +thereabout. Sharks will nose right in among niggers, but they'll take a +white man ev'ry time. + +"Wal, this feller counted his anchor wuth more to him than his body was +to his fam'ly, and he dropped a weighted line overboard and skinned +off his clo'es and slid down to the rocky bottom with a jackbar in his +hand. Jest as he thought, a fluke of the anchor was squeezed in under a +big scale of the reef, and he started to pry it out. + +"Whilst he was workin'--and, mind you, he had to work mighty fast, +for a minute and a ha'f without air was his limit--he seen a shadow +overhead. For a second he thought 'twas the schooner driftin' over him. +But when he glanced around he seen it was a shark--a big, blunt-nosed +critter that was slantin' right down toward him, and was a'ready turned +on his side, and opening his jaws." + +"Oh!" gasped Carolyn May, her eyes big with that delightful horror that +is always roused by such tales of adventure. + +"Yep. Reg'lar shark, he was," said Captain Littlefield, pursing his +lips and nodding his head. "And he come down at this feller I tell ye +of, with a full head o' steam. + +"Warn't no use to fight. A feller can't use a ten-pound steel bar, +under five fathom o' blue water, to punch out the teeth of a +man-eatin' shark. Nos-sir!" + +Carolyn May did not understand all this. But the thrill of the story +held her just the same. + +"And did he eat him?" she asked. + +"Did that schooner skipper eat the shark?" responded Captain +Littlefield, his eyes twinkling. "Nop. He'd been too much of a mouthful +for the skipper. Nor the shark didn't eat all of that skipper. The +skipper dropped his bar and sprung up'ard on a slant, tryin' to go over +the head of the shark. + +"But the tarnal critter whirled over and took a nip at the man as he +shot up to the surface. Crunch! Jest one bite was all that was needed. +That feller was foreshortened on one side just like 'twas done with a +pair o' sheers." + +"Oh, dear me!" murmured Carolyn May. "What a wicked, wicked shark!" + +"You'm right, leetle gal," agreed Captain Littlefield. "He was some +wicked. He likely swum with a school of other sharks; but 'twarn't no +Sunday School," and the sailor chuckled. "If that feller hadn't come +right up in the bight of a rope that trailed overboard, he'd never +escaped as he did. His mates hauled him in, they trimmed his laig off +neater than the shark done it, tied the arteries, an' he got over it. +'Twarn't a method of amputation that the doctors would recommend, I +guess. Anyway, that's how come of the way that feller lost his laig." + +Carolyn was a good deal puzzled as well as interested. + +"That wasn't you, was it, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield?" she asked. "You +didn't have your leg bit off by a shark, did you?" + +"Oh, bless you, no!" said the captain. "No, indeedy." + +"Was it your cousin, Mr. Oly Littlefield?" + +"Oh, no!" again the sailor assured her. "Oly never seen a shark unless +it was caught in the pound nets at Dorris Cove. Ah! Well, here we be," +he added, turning Worry in at a long lane that wound up between rocky +pastures fenced with stone, toward a little house that was set at the +very edge of the bank against which the Atlantic surf moaned. "Here's +Barzilla Ball's place, and I cal'late that's Molly Icivilla herself out +in her bean patch. If your friends--the lady and the baby--can get to +stay here, they'll be treated fine, for Molly I. Ball is as good a cook +as they make on this island, and she's well tempered." + +The young woman in the sunbonnet saw the visitors coming, and left her +hoe in the garden and came up toward the house. It was a low-roofed +cottage with a great chimney in the middle of the roof which itself +sloped down almost to the top of the doorframe. The walls were of +unhewn stone quarried from the island. The house was evidently very low +ceiled, and most of the rooms were on the first floor, which was but a +step up from the ground. There was no cellar, and the loft was lighted +by one small window in either peak of the end walls. + +There was a small barn, a shed, a chicken house, and drying racks for +fish in the grassy yard. Everything was very clean and neat, the grass +was the greenest grass in the world, Carolyn May thought, and the +contrast between it and the white-washed buildings was startling. + +Green and white, with the blue, tumbling sea beyond and the white +froth dashing over the can-buoy half-way to Montauk Point--as +Captain Littlefield pointed out to his small passenger--and with the +blue of the sky overhead, made almost a poster-picture of the land +and sea-scape. The fresh gale with the strong tang of salt in it +expanded the little girl's lungs. Her eyes shone and her cheeks were +delightfully flushed. Miss Ball, looking at her, lost her heart to +Carolyn May at once. + +"Where'd you get that little girl, Ozy Littlefield?" she asked. "She's +an off child, I warrant." + +"She's stoppin' over to Truefelt's," said the captain. "How be ye, +Molly I.?" + +"Fair to middlin'. How's the rheumatics in your wooden leg, Ozy?" + +"I get a kink in it now and then," said the captain with gravity. "Get +any boarders yet, Molly I.?" + +"No. Them folks I had last summer, the children got the measles, so +they can't travel. And I certain sure was glad. Children are all right; +but measly ones--How are you, little girl? What's your name?" and she +came closer to the buckboard to smile at Carolyn. + +She was a broad-faced, stocky, good-natured girl, "rising thirty," as +the islanders would say. She was unfreckled because of the shelter +of the blue-checked sunbonnet. She had a strong, uncorseted figure +and wore a pair of men's brogans to work in. She smiled so warmly at +Carolyn May that the little girl could not help returning it with +interest, as she politely replied: + +"I'm Carolyn May Cameron, and I am living with my mamma at Mrs. +Truefelt's house, and my papa is coming here Saturday to see us." + +"I want to know!" was Miss Ball's observation. + +"Say!" said the captain. "Ann Truefelt wants to know if you'll take in +a woman and a baby, Molly I.? The man is going to clerk for us--be our +new supercargo, as ye might say." + +"I declare! Is that what you come for, Ozy? I thought you was looking +for Barzilla, and he's out in the _Snatch It_ today." + +"Swordfishin'?" + +"Yes. If them auxilary engines folks so favour now don't scare all the +swordfish as far as the Georges. Now, are you sure Miz Truefelt wants I +should take these folks?" + +"You got the room and the time to do it, ain't you?" demanded Captain +Littlefield. + +"I s'pose so. What kind o' folks are they?" + +"Oh," put in Carolyn, unable longer to keep still, "if you only would +just take the pale lady and her baby! I know they'd get well and strong +here. And you'd like 'em, too, Miss Eyeball. The baby's just as _cute_." + +"Huh!" fairly grunted the island girl, her black eyes flashing an +accusing glance at the amused captain. "So you had to tell even this +little girl that poor joke, did you? I'm most tempted to marry the +first man that comes along so's to get shet of it. Can't understand +what my mother an' father were thinking of to put that 'I' in the +middle of my name. They were right sensible people in other ways, too. +'Peared to be, anyway." + +"I cal'late," agreed Captain Littlefield, still grinning. "But how +'bout them folks to board, Molly I.?" + +"When they comin'?" demanded Miss Ball, more briskly. + +"Thursday." + +"And you know 'em, do you, little girl?" she asked Carolyn, smiling +again. + +"Oh, yes'm. And you will just _love_ the baby!" + +"Shouldn't wonder. Well, you bring 'em over, Ozy. I'll have the place +rid up and ready for 'em." Then she said to Carolyn: "Don't you want a +drink of milk, little girl? And a slice of warm loaf with sweet butter +on it?" + +It was mid-forenoon, and it seemed a long time since breakfast and a +longer time still to lunch. + +"Oh, yes, ma'am," the little girl cried, and she hopped down gaily from +the buckboard, with Prince leaping and barking beside her. + +"I don't know about that dog," said Miss Ball. "Does he bite?" + +"Only other dogs if they pitch on him--and his food," declared Carolyn +earnestly. "He never eats humans." + +"Well, I sh'd hope not!" chuckled Miss Ball. + +She led the little girl (and of course, Prince) into the kitchen. Out +of this opened a small milk-room with shelves of rough-hewn stone. She +skimmed a pan of milk by drawing the leathery sheet of yellow cream +together with two spoons and lifting it bodily into the waiting cream +jar. Then she poured the milk into a tall glass pitcher where it almost +foamed over. + +It was cool and sweet when Carolyn put her lips to the glass Molly Ball +handed her. On the corner of the kitchen table the island girl set the +great steamed brown "loaf," a slice of which she buttered and placed +before her little guest. Bakery brown bread was well enough known to +the little city girl; but this was made of windmill ground cornmeal and +rye meal, and had a flavour that she had never tasted before. + +Prince likewise approved of Miss Ball's cooking, for he sampled a well +buttered piece of the loaf. + +"I see he only acts savage at his food," said the island girl, +complacently feeding Prince bits of buttered loaf with her fingers. +"He's a nice dog." + +Naturally Carolyn's heart warmed toward her for that opinion. Miss +Molly "Eyeball" seemed a very delightful acquaintance indeed. She was +one of those persons, like the pale lady, to whom Carolyn May was +immediately drawn. + +The little girl peeped out of the kitchen door at Captain Littlefield +smoking his pipe, shrugged far down in the seat of the buckboard, with +his wooden leg sticking almost straight up into the air. She whispered +to the island girl: + +"Oh, say! Do you know how Mr. Cap'n Littlefield lost his leg? Say! do +you?" + +"Why, no. I don't know that. When he came home here to the island to +settle down he had that wooden leg and he'd had it, they say, some +years. He's told enough yarns about it to fill a book; but I don't +b'lieve anybody ever got the rights of it from him. Ozy Littlefield can +be as close-mouthed as a clam if he wants to be." + +"Oh, dear!" sighed the disappointed little girl. "And don't you know +how the other Mr. Littlefield lost _his_ leg?" + +"Oly Littlefield? Land's sake! He _says_ he was powder-monkey with +Farragut, runnin' the Mississippi blockade in the Civil War, and lost +it then. That would make him 'bout eighty years old, if he was a day," +said Miss Ball. "But anybody can see he ain't more'n sixty or so. +I guess Oly Littlefield is a dog-awful story-teller--that's what I +guess. But everybody on the island seems to have forgot--if they ever +knew--just when and how Oly come by that wooden laig. + +"I can't remember when Oly didn't have it, 'cept the time he lay down +an' fell asleep over on Dicken's Point, and some of the West Side +school children stole the laig and Oly stayed there all night before +he was found. He roared for help half the night, but the folks at +Dickenses thought it was a seal roarin' on the rocks, and paid no +'tention to him till daybreak." + +Carolyn May shook her head in much disappointment. The mystery of +the wooden legs seemed just as puzzling--and quite as unlikely to be +solved--as ever. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + ARRIVALS + + +I was sometimes a sharp race for the bus drivers from the Old Harbour +to the New Harbour and return, when the two regular boats came in. But +on Thursday the boat due to make the breach of the Great Salt Pond +and disembark her passengers at the New Harbour landing, was sighted +almost an hour before the boat from Newport came into view. So there +was plenty of time for Captain Littlefield to drive over with Worry and +Trouble to meet the new clerk of the Truefelt House and his family; and +the captain took Carolyn and Prince on the driver's seat with him. + +"I'm so excited!" said Carolyn May, fairly bounding up and down on the +slippery cushion. "To think that my pale lady and her baby are really, +truly coming here to Block Island for the summer! Do you know, Mr. +Cap'n Littlefield, this island is a very nice place and the folks on it +are awfully nice--most of them, anyway; but there's not anybody just +like my pale lady. _You'll_ see!" + +It was quite true that Captain Littlefield had never seen many people +like Baby Laird's mother, as Carolyn insisted upon calling her friend +when her husband helped her off the boat and into the hotel bus. And +the poor little baby! They were both at the point of exhaustion. + +"Dear little Carolyn May," murmured the pale lady, snuggling the little +girl beside her upon the seat of the bus. "It was so dear of you to +remember us. I feel already that I shall get better--Baby Laird, too." + +Even her husband seemed to think that Carolyn had much to do with +opening the way for their coming to the island. He shook hands gravely +with the little girl. + +"I fancy your father is right, Carolyn," he said. "You are prone to +interfere in everybody's affairs, but always to a good end. I thank you +for recalling me to Ben Truefelt's mind." + +"Oh, but I didn't do that!" cried the little girl honestly. "He +'membered you his own self. Mr. Cap'n Littlefield says the crew +mutinied, includin' the supercargo, and Mr. Ben just _hates_ to talk to +folks--" + +"Yes. I know he always was a regular quahaug," observed the pale lady's +husband, smiling. + +"Why!" murmured the little girl; "not a _reg'lar_ quahaug, you know. +That's a clam; and Mr. Ben's got legs like any other party--'ceptin' +Mr. Cap'n Littlefield and his Cousin Oly. They both have wooden sticks +on one side for legs." + +Motherly Mrs. Truefelt welcomed the pale lady and her baby very kindly +indeed. A room for the little family was found for that night. Mrs. +Cameron, too, greeted Carolyn's friend warmly. "Mr. Laird," as Carolyn +insisted upon calling the new clerk, went to work at once, to Mr. Ben +Truefelt's open satisfaction. + +The next morning the wooden-legged man drove the pale lady and her +little one over to Barzilla Ball's place in the two-seated buckboard; +and of course Carolyn May and Prince went, too. + +"It's got so," said Captain Littlefield to the baby's mother, "that I +dunno as I could steer a proper course about this island 'nless I had +this young 'un with me--an' the dog. They are gre't comp'ny, for a +fact." + +"Carolyn May is the friendliest little soul alive," replied the pale +lady, her wan countenance lighting with appreciation. + +"Ain't she, jest?" agreed the wooden-legged man. "I dunno but if she +had a chance't she might cure Cousin Oly of the megrums--an' Oly's some +settled in his ways! Dunno how poor old Sue-Betsey ever got along with +him all the ten year they was married and livin' together. But they do +say," and his eyes began to twinkle, "that when Oly got too much upsot +for even her to stand, she useter steal his wooden leg and go out to +the neighbours to get shet of Oly's tongue." + +"Then," said the pale lady in some wonderment, "you are not the only +member of your family that has the misfortune to need an artificial +limb?" + +"Tell ye what," chuckled the captain, "wooden laigs do run in our +family, an' no mistake. There air Littlefields that have a full suit +o' limbs; but Oly an' me--Wal, it does seem as though we'd been mighty +careless, or sumpin'. Both on us air shy a laig. But we manage to git +on purt' well considerin', as the feller said." + +Carolyn listened with stretched ears to the wooden-legged man's speech; +but not a hint did he drop about the catastrophe that cost him--and +Cousin Oly--the missing limb. It was a mystery! + +The ride across the island was just as delightful as it had been +before, and they were as warmly welcomed at the Ball cottage. Besides +Molly Icivilla, her brother was present. He was a tall, pleasant, good +looking young man, dressed in brown sea boots and a blue guernsey, with +a tarpaulin pushed back from his sea-browned face. He sat in the sun +mending a seine. + +While his sister ushered the pale lady into the little house on the +edge of the bluff, Captain Littlefield and Barzilla talked, Carolyn and +her dog standing by with much interest in the net-mending. + +"How ye makin' out with the _Snatch It_, this season, Barzilla?" asked +the wooden-legged man. "They tell me swordfish is leavin' the island +waters an' gettin' to be as scurce as hen's teeth." + +"I dunno, Ozy," said the younger man. "Swordfish made our livin' in +my father's time an' in poor old gran'ther's time. They were both +swordfishers; and I would be sorry to change, myself. Seems as though +what was good enough for them ought to be good enough for me." + +"Times is changed, Barzilla--and fashions with it," said the captain. + +"True as you're born!" agreed Mr. Ball. "But swordfish don't change +none. They are still to be found sleepin' on top of the water, and can +be come upon in the same old way as when the first double-ender ever +put out o' this port. + +"While them fellers from Nantucket and the Cape go out to the Georges +in their steam tugs and put out dories an' crews to fight for the +swordfish, I can take one man in the old _Snatch It_, creep up on a +fish like I was shown by my father, an' put an iron in him from the +pulpit nine times out o' ten. Them noisy tugs scare off the fish half +the time, and the dories lose 'em. Change of fashion ain't always an +improvement, Ozy." + +"No. You'm right there," agreed Captain Littlefield. "But them +rattle-de-bang motor boats and sech seem to be drivin' all the fish off +shore." + +"I can foller 'em, Ozy. I can foller 'em in the _Snatch It_. Let them +furriners with their motor boats go after the tunny fish if they +want. They're nothin' more than blackfish, an' we didn't use to think +blackfish was wuth more'n pilot-whales. But for swordfish there's +always a market." + +"Yes, yes. You'm right, Barzilla," agreed the wooden-legged man again. +"But it's a short season." + +"'Twouldn't be a short season if I had capital," said Mr. Ball, +nodding his head with confidence. "I guess you are right on one point, +Ozy. Fashions do change. If I could salt down swordfish like they do +mack'rel--Wal! no use talkin' 'bout it. They do so at New London, and +make money on't. No reason why we couldn't do it here. We're nearer +the banks. The fish are out there. I ain't satisfied to be just a +fisherman, I admit, and live all my life on potatoes and pollock." + +"Uh-huh! But 'taters and pollock are a sight better than nothing," +chuckled Captain Littlefield. "That's a dish that no true islander +will deny, Barzilla. Well, we'd better be gettin' home, leetle gal. I +'spect ye'll be over here to see Molly I. and Barzilla often enough, +now't your friends have come here to stop." + +"Oh, yes, sir, if I may," said Carolyn, shaking hands with the young +fisherman. But it was to Captain Littlefield she addressed the question +that was troubling her mind. She asked it before the buckboard rattled +out of the lane: + +"Mr. Cap'n Littlefield, do swordfishes have real swords?" + +"You'd think so," he responded. "An' purt' average savage with 'em they +be, too." + +"But swords are kept in scabbards. Mr. Price, Edna's father, has got +one. He b'longs to the Knights of Pythias. And if the swordfish's sword +is in a scabbard, how does he manage to draw it? Not with his _fin_?" + +"My cracky, what a young 'un!" chuckled Captain Littlefield. "No. +'Tain't rigged jest that way. Ye see, he has his sword on his nose." + +"Oh! Mis-ter--Cap'n--Littlefield!" gasped Carolyn May, shocked by this +statement, for it seemed utterly impossible. + +"Sure thing," he said. "Why, that isn't so wonderful, is it? Look at an +elephant's trunk. Ain't that spliced on to his nose? Wal, a swordfish's +sword is spliced on same way. And it's some sword, too! I've seen 'em +two-three feet long." + +"Dear me! Isn't that funny?" gasped Carolyn. "Fishes with swords! Do +any of 'em have guns, I wonder?" + +"Wal, I ain't never seen 'em myself. But they do say that in Australia +there's a fish that shoots drops of water like bullets and knocks +down little birds an' insects along the banks of the streams. And of +course," he added, ruminatively, "there's whales. They shoot a stream +of spray right up through their blowholes. I've been near enough in a +whaleboat more'n once to git showered by that--an' with blood, too, in +a death waller." + +Carolyn May thought all this, of course, very wonderful; and in her +estimation Captain Ozias Littlefield was a very entertaining man. So +different from his cousin! + +She saw the cockatoo-looking old fellow down in the Old Harbour more +than once. He usually carried a cane and a basket, and he always shook +the former threateningly at Prince. + +"But don't you and your dog pay Oly a mite of attention," Captain Ozias +advised. "His bark is a whole lot worse than his bite, in any case. And +after all, I shouldn't wonder if he'd be glad to be friends with ye, +only he's stuffy and won't play." + +For it did fret Carolyn that anybody should not like her--and Prince. +She was happiest when she could temper all about her with her own +sunniness. She felt that Mr. Oliver Littlefield, like his cousin, must +be a very interesting man to be friends with--if only for the reason +that he, too, had a wooden leg! + +The excitement of the coming of the pale lady and her family to +the island, and she and the baby being settled on Friday at the +Ball cottage on the West Side, was merely the forerunner of greater +excitement for Carolyn May. She had not seen Papa Cameron for almost +three weeks, and now he was expected to arrive on the Saturday boat +that connected with the Long Island train at Sag Harbour. + +They walked over to the New Harbour landing, for the _Shinnecock_ was +late, and Captain Littlefield, with Worry and Trouble, was detained at +the other dock. The sparkling blue waters of the Great Salt Pond were +dotted with the fishing boats and pleasure craft at their moorings. + +Barzilla Ball came ashore in a dory from his _Snatch It_ that lay +at her moorings in the well protected harbour--almost the last +double-ender to be built at the island and still in commission. As her +description implied, she was as sharp at one end as she was at the +other. + +Barzilla halted to speak to Carolyn and Prince, and thereby became +acquainted with Mrs. Cameron. He was a pleasant young man with more +than ordinary intelligence. + +"You'll be coming over to the West Side to see us, you and the little +girl, now your friends are with my sister," the fisherman said. "We'll +be proud to have you come." + +"Thank you, Mr. Ball. I shall find some means of getting to your house, +I have no doubt. Carolyn considers it quite the nicest house she has +ever seen, and wants to live in one situated just like it--right over +the ocean." + +"Yes. Great-gran'ther Ball built it so's he'd be sure to hear the surf +and know when the wind changed at night. I wonder if he wasn't hard +o' hearing?" said Barzilla, smiling. "Sometimes the sea cuts up so we +can't hear ourselves think." + +"But, dear me!" said Carolyn May, "how handy it is to go bathing. All +you have to do, I guess, Mamma, is to jump out of the window in your +bathing suit, and there you are!" + +"There you would be, or thereabout," chuckled the fisherman. "So, your +daddy is coming on the _Shinnecock_ today, is he?" + +The gaze of Carolyn's eyes scarcely left the steamboat that was now +coming through the breach. She nodded joyfully. + +"Oh, yes!" she said. "He is coming. And he will bring us things. And +we'll go walking. And he'll buy picture post-cards. Why, there's just +loads and _loads_ of folks I want to send them to." + +There were a number of summer people gathered at the dock when the boat +made her landing. The hotel vehicles came racing over from the Old +Harbour where the Newport boat had already landed her passengers. + +Mr. Cameron had been waving to Carolyn and her mother, and to Prince, +from the upper deck with his paper, and he was now one of the first +ashore. He carried a good-sized hamper, as well as his bag. And how +glad Carolyn was to see him! + +"Dear me, Papa Cameron," she declared, "it seems almost as though I'd +grown up since I saw you. Don't I _look_ different?" + +"I would scarcely have known you, Snuggy, if you had not been with +mamma and Prince," he told her with gravity. "And my! you look almost +like a red Indian. Are you sure, mamma, that you haven't changed our +Carolyn May for an Indian papoose?" + +"'Papoose!' How very ridiculous!" laughed the little girl. "Why, a +papoose is an Indian baby, and they keep them strapped to a board and +carry them on their backs like soldiers do knapsacks. And they never +cry." + +"Who never cry? The knapsacks or the soldiers?" demanded her father, +looking very much surprised. + +"The papooses never cry. You know soldiers don't cry, Papa Cameron," +admonished Carolyn May. + +She was very eager to introduce him to her particular friend, the +wooden-legged Captain Littlefield; but there was so much confusion +and so many passengers for the Truefelt House bus, that the Camerons +decided to ride over in one of the carryalls. So Mr. Cameron's +introduction to Ozias was postponed. + +With their bags they got into a rather creaking old vehicle driven by a +boy whom Carolyn already knew as Tommy Trivett, and who was about the +age--and almost the gangling length--of Chet Gormley at Sunrise Cove. +She begged the privilege of having Prince with her on the front seat, +and he finally managed to scramble in by himself over the front wheel +and squat down between his little mistress and Tommy Trivett. + +"Old Oly Littlefield," drawled the youthful driver, "says this dog o' +yourn oughter be shot." + +"Oh--ee! he wouldn't be so wicked, would he?" gasped Carolyn. + +"Says he's dang'rous to be runnin' at large. Says he'll carry the marks +of the dog's teeth to his grave. And if he gits hydrophoby the Town of +New Shoreham'll hafter pay damages to his heirs an' assigns, for ever +an' ever, amen!" + +"My!" said Carolyn, "you sound just like you were in church, don't you? +But if Mr. Oly Littlefield runs mad 'cause Prince bit his wooden leg, +do you s'pose he'll be much diff'rent from what he us'ally is? Mr. +Captain Littlefield says his Cousin Oly is most always mad." + +"He! he!" chuckled Tommy Trivett. "Ozy ought to know. Ozy has summered +and wintered him now a good many years. If I'd been your dog, I'd ha' +nipped a piece out o' Oly's sound laig--that's what I'd've done." + +Carolyn May looked sideways at the not altogether prepossessing Tommy. + +"Well," she said, with evident relief in her tone, "you're not my dog, +are you?" + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + RENEWED ACQUAINTANCE + + +Mr. Cameron's stay at the Truefelt House was brief enough. He returned +to New York by boat and train on Sunday evening. Nevertheless he found +time for a serious conversation with the new clerk of the hotel. + +"This chance for the wife and baby to be here, Bassett, is +providential," the newspaper editor said. "I hope the summer on the +island will do them a world of good. But when the season closes--" + +"I've got that on my mind," groaned Joe Bassett. "Very true, Mr. +Cameron, I shall be just as much at sea, then, as ever. If I could once +get into something that would be steady and make us a living! Of course +I thank you for the chance on the _Beacon_ that you gave me. I know I +am not fitted for that sort of work. I might try for a situation as +clerk at some winter resort hotel." + +"You might," agreed Mr. Cameron gravely. "I do not feel that I can +advise you. What I have to speak to you about is a telephone call that +came for you after you left the _Beacon_ offices the other day." + +"Yes? Of what nature was the call? I thought I had settled all my +affairs as far as they could be settled before accepting Ben's offer +here," and the young man flushed. + +"The person who called you seemed to know nothing regarding your +intention of coming to Block Island. He said his name was Inness." + +"'Inness'?" repeated Bassett in a puzzled tone. + +"He said you would remember him," said Mr. Cameron, watching the hotel +clerk warily. "His message was, that if you would consider leaving New +York--leaving the East, in fact--there was an opening for you at a +distance. He spoke of the climate as probably being beneficial to Mrs. +Bassett." + +"Inness said that?" responded the hotel clerk. + +"You know who he is?" + +"I know him very well," answered the other slowly. "But I do not +understand his sudden interest in me or his knowledge of the state of +Mrs. Bassett's health. That he should feel any interest in my affairs +whatever surprises me." + +The flush did not die out of his cheek. Mr. Cameron did not seek to +draw the young man's confidence. + +"I merely repeat what he said over the telephone. He seemed to think +you would know how to communicate with him if you wished to do so." + +"I presume I do," admitted the clerk thoughtfully. "But--I wonder what +is behind it? I never have considered Inness a friend of mine." And +there the conversation came to an end. + +"He is the Griffin's secretary--that Inness," said Carolyn's father, +speaking to her mother about it afterward. "Whether the inquiry over +the 'phone was instigated by Mr. Bassett or not, of course I do not +know. Perhaps the Griffin wants to get Joe out of the way. If anything +should really happen to the young woman or her baby the newspapers +would probably get hold of it and rake up all the scandal. These +wealthy people do not like to have such affairs aired in the public +press." + +"And do you suppose that is all Mr. Bassett cares about his son, and +his wife and child?" queried Hannah Cameron thoughtfully. + +"I wish you had heard him when I put young Joe's situation up to him +that time. The Griffin is as hard as nails. Yet it might fret him to +have the young fellow so near if anything happened to him. Or, perhaps, +he may be trying to save Joe's mother unpleasant knowledge of the son's +affairs." + +"I wonder what sort of woman the older Mrs. Bassett is?" Mrs. Cameron +murmured. "Does she care nothing about her son and his wife and baby?" + +"The less we know about it--or worry about it--the better, I fancy," +returned Mr. Cameron. + +"But isn't that a very selfish way of looking at it, Lewis?" sighed his +wife. However, she said no more about the Bassetts at the time. + +When Carolyn got up on Monday for her early morning run with Prince, +her father's visit to the island seemed almost like a dream. He had +brought her a new sun hat and some goodies; but now that he was gone +she missed him as she had missed him for all the three weeks since she +had left New York. + +"When we get real rich, Princey," she told her closest companion, "Papa +Cameron will have vacations just like _we_ do. Then we shall all be +together all the time." + +There was so much to interest her almost every hour of the day that +Carolyn was seldom unhappy. The corroding thoughts of the pale lady and +her baby were blessedly removed. That very Monday she and Prince went +with mamma in the buckboard, drawn by a hired horse, across the island +to the Ball cottage to call on the hotel clerk's wife. Hannah Cameron +being herself a country-bred girl had not forgotten how to drive. + +The pale lady's husband was to walk across the island three or four +evenings each week to be with his family, and altogether the pale +lady was happier. She had been brought up in luxury and had known +nothing of poverty until her marriage, but she was not a complaining, +fault-finding person. That she and her baby had a chance for life +again, and that her husband had work, were two blessings for which she +could not fail to be thankful. + +Yet there was a weight upon the pale lady's mind and this fact was +observed by more than Carolyn. How could young Mrs. Bassett escape +anxiety under the circumstances? + +As her husband had admitted to Mr. Cameron, their outlook for the +future was very, very uncertain. Nor did the offer made Joe Bassett +by Inness, his father's secretary, encourage the pale lady much. To +go away--far, far away from familiar surroundings--is not a cheering +thought. + +In addition, she was quite sure the offer was made her husband merely +for the purpose of getting them out of the way. His father desired +them all at a distance. Even the innocent little baby! He wished not +to run the chance of having his son and the latter's family where he +might cross their path. In no other way could she look at this offer of +distant employment. + +There was, too, in the young woman's mind a corroding thought. It had +begun troubling her soon after her marriage. + +It had been a reckless marriage. She was forced to admit this. She +would not have untied the knot the Church had tied; but she feared she +had done Joe a wrong in wedding him. + +They loved. They were happy despite their poverty--especially after the +baby came. But she realized that Joe, like herself, had been brought +up to do nothing useful. His naturally sweet disposition had been all +that saved him, under his mother's indulgence, from being a perfectly +useless member of society. + +As it was he lacked initiative, self-confidence, and real ability to +work. He was not lazy, but nothing he had as yet undertaken seemed +fitted to such business talents as he might possess. + +Baby Laird's mother, therefore, was by no means relieved of her mental +trouble by coming to the island. If one's mind is not at peace one may +not gain much benefit from the most healthful surroundings. She was too +anxious of mind to absorb energy and happiness in these new and better +conditions. Baby Laird almost immediately began to improve; but his +mother remained the pale lady. + +Carolyn considered Barzilla Ball and his sister, Molly I., very +interesting persons. By this time she had learned her mistake and +knew that the island girl's surname was not "Eyeball." Molly Icivilla, +however, seemed to the little Carolyn to be a very odd name. + +Most island names, however, appeared to be rather odd. The parents +seemed to have tricked the children out with queer given names, while +local custom added to the peculiar nomenclature. + +The little girl began to understand Captain Littlefield's joke about +the impossibility of carrying on a war on Block Island. The families +had so intermarried that it was difficult to distinguish some of the +men and their wives from other couples of the same surname. + +Perhaps that is why Miss Ball's parents had called her "Icivilla"; +there was not likely to be another with that name on the island--or +anywhere else. + +On this Monday evening the Camerons remained to supper and did not +start homeward until after the pale lady's husband arrived. He and +Barzilla Ball were already good friends, and they sat down on the stone +bench beside the cottage door to discuss the swordfishing business. +Barzilla was pretty nearly a man of one idea. At least, his mind and +heart were set upon the trade he followed. + +It was a clear and starlit evening, and sleepy as Carolyn May was, she +managed to stay awake during most of the ride back to the hotel to +watch the stars which hung between sky and sea and seemed almost within +touch if one might climb the steeple of the West Side church. + +"If we could climb up that steeple, Princey and me," she prattled to +her mother, "I believe we might catch that star--see! It winked at me +then." + +"Why, Carolyn! You don't really suppose that you are of so much +importance that the star sees you and you alone, do you?" asked her +mother curiously. + +The little girl was quite warmly argumentative. "Why not, Mamma?" she +asked. "Look at all those stars up there. Surely there are enough to +go around. Papa says there are millions and millions in the Milky Way +alone. There! That star winked at me again." And she finally fell +asleep on the buckboard seat trying to count the "winks" with which the +star favoured her. + +It was the very next day that Carolyn experienced a curious +adventure--a meeting that she could scarcely believe was real, much +as she was given to the expectation of strange adventures. As she +ran on the bathing beach with Prince she came face to face with the +stern looking man whose automobile she had seen for a second time at +the Corners, and who had given her at their first meeting outside of +Central Park a twenty dollar bank note for the pale lady. + +His appearance rather shocked the little girl for a few moments. She +stopped stock-still on the sands while Prince raced wildly ahead of +her. The man was walking with his cigar and cane beside a wheel chair +in which was being rolled by a negro the haughty looking woman whom +Carolyn May supposed must be the man's wife. + +They passed the little girl in her dripping bathing suit and cap +without a second glance. Of course, they would not know Carolyn May +again; but she could not forget them so easily. The incident of the +wrecked go-cart had been too exciting for her ever to forget it, she +was sure. + +The chair rolled on, away from the line of bathing houses, leaving +scarcely a mark upon the hard strand. Prince came racing back to his +little mistress and stopped for a moment to make friends with these new +people whom he had not observed before. + +The stern looking man relaxed sufficiently to drag his cane on the sand +for the mongrel to jump at. The querulous voice of the woman in the +chair was almost immediately raised in complaint: + +"Drive that dog away, George! He is wet, and if he shakes himself he +will spoil my gown." + +The coloured man left the back of the chair to drive Prince away. The +latter was all for play--and perhaps he noted a twinkle in the eye +of the man, who continued to drag his cane. Prince barked and made a +playful dive for the coloured man's shoes. + +"Ma soul an' body!" gasped the serving man. "Dat dawg'll sho' 'nuff eat +me up!" + +"Oh, no, he won't!" cried Carolyn. "He's had his dinner. Prince, don't +do that! Come here, Prince." + +The gentleman turned, then, to look at the child. He smiled as the +mongrel returned to the side of his little mistress. + +"Who are you?" he asked. "Do you and your dog come from the sea?" + +"No, sir," said Carolyn. "We come from New York." + +"Well, well! Then this is not a little mermaid and her dog!" went on +the man. + +"Oh, no, sir! I know what mermaids are. They have tails." + +"Well, your dog has a tail. At least, an apology for one," said the +man, his eyes still twinkling. "It may be that he is a merdog." + +"Come away, George," said the woman. + +The coloured man promptly pushed on the chair; but the gentleman +lingered, smiling at Carolyn. + +"Did I ever see you before?" he asked, curiously. + +"Oh, yes, sir!" Carolyn replied. + +"I thought there was something familiar about you--or your dog," he +said whimsically. "Where did I have the pleasure of meeting you before, +young lady?" + +"It wasn't a pleasure," returned the little girl frankly. "You smashed +my pale lady's baby's go-cart." + +"What!" exclaimed the man, and a rising flush altered the expression of +his grey face. "Are you _that_ child?" + +"Yes, sir. You gave me twenty dollars for my pale lady." + +"And who sent it back to me?" the man demanded sharply. + +"Indeed, I didn't, sir," said Carolyn May, rather startled by his sharp +tone. + +"But it was returned, with an impudent note. 'Money cannot pay for +everything.'" + +"I--I don't know anything about that," stammered the little girl. "I +think maybe Mr. Laird is too proud to take money from anybody." + +"'Laird,' eh? So _that's_ the name, is it?" and the gentleman suddenly +calmed himself. "Proud, indeed? Are you sure your friends are not +planning to bring a shyster's suit against me?" + +Carolyn stared. She did not know what the man meant. But she saw his +momentary anger was passing. + +"Well," he said, "you are no party to it at least. I am glad to have +met you again, little girl. Are you staying on the island for long?" + +"Oh, yes, sir. Me and mamma and Prince are going to live here all +summer. And my papa comes here over Sunday, when he can." + +"I shall see you again, then," said the man, and moved on. + +Carolyn May was quite full of this curious adventure when she rejoined +her mother. + +"I wish," she said thoughtfully, "that he had given my pale lady +another go-cart instead of a twenty dollar bill. Then she could not so +easily have sent it back, could she?" + +"Perhaps not," agreed her mother. + +"And then, you see," went on the little girl, "I could go over there to +Miss Molly I. Ball's house and wheel Baby Laird out along the path. You +know, there's an awful nice path there right along on top of that bank, +where the life saving men walk. It's just as _smooth_! And I could +wheel him there." + +"Maybe we can find a carriage here on the island," said her mother. +"Even a secondhand one would do, don't you think?" + +"Why, yes. Baby Laird wouldn't mind, I'm sure," said Carolyn May, +eagerly. "Let us look for a secondhand store." + +Better than that, they asked Captain Ozias Littlefield, and he knew +almost at once just where a baby carriage could be bought. + +"Miz John-Will Mott has got a baby cart. Had it when her Stella Ietta +was little. Stella I. is married five-six year now, and it looks as +though she'll never need a baby shay. You leave it to me, Miz Cameron, +and I'll git it for you cheap. If Miz Mott suspected an off woman +wanted that old carriage, the price would go up like one o' these her +hydroplanes ye see, yes-sir-ree-sir! 'Cordin' to her doctrine, summer +visitors was made to be gouged. If all us islanders was like that +woman, Block Island would be a howlin' wilderness in summer, as well as +winter--and the visitors would do the howlin'!" + +Captain Ozias made the bargain, and the baby carriage, in very good +condition, was sent over to the West Side cottage for Baby Laird's +use. The hotel clerk warmly thanked Carolyn and her mother for their +thoughtfulness. + +"I believe this little girl is our good angel," he said. "She is a +ministering spirit and nothing very bad can happen where she is." + +It seemed that the hotel clerk was rather a poor prophet; that was +proved to be the case before the next morning. + +Carolyn had been sleeping as soundly for hours as a little girl could +sleep in her small room off Mrs. Cameron's larger one. Prince usually +curled down on the rug beside his little mistress's bed; but now she +heard him pattering about over the straw matting that covered the +floors of both rooms. His claws made a scratchy sound on the matting, +and he trotted from door to window and from window to door. + +It had been cool when they went to bed, with rain and a fresh gale +blowing; so the windows were only open an inch or two at bottom and +top. Prince went to the hall door and crouched down, sniffing at the +crack. Then he whined. + +"Prince!" said the little girl sleepily. "Come here. You'll wake mamma." + +He seemed to come to her reluctantly, squatted down beside her bed +and laid his head on the coverlet where her hand could rest lightly +upon his muzzle. Then she fell asleep again and she dreamed a very +unpleasant dream. She dreamed two men came into her room and took hold +of her. One held her body so that she could not squirm and the other +put his hand over her mouth and nose so that she could not breathe. +Carolyn knew the men. They were the chauffeur of the man who had given +her the twenty-dollar bill for the pale lady and the dark man with the +very black eyes and eyebrows--both of whom she had last seen at the +Corners when she visited Uncle Joe Stagg. The black-browed man was he +who in her dream put his hand over her mouth. + +The little girl woke up struggling and trying to scream. She was very +much frightened, and when she got her eyes open she was even more +surprised than she was terrified. + +It really was very difficult for her to breathe. There was a feeling of +oppression on her chest. She could not see very clearly, for the air +was thick and there was a strange, lurid glow in it. Prince had dropped +down upon the mat and was curled in a round ball. He was sleeping +sterterously. + +"Oh, Mamma! Mamma Cameron!" Carolyn called, panting for the breath +which, when she drew it in, seemed to hurt her. + +She could not hear her mother at all. She crept out of bed, and almost +fell over Prince, who roused with none of his usual promptness. He, +too, seemed oppressed by the stifling quality of the atmosphere in the +rooms. + +"Mamma! Oh, Mamma Cameron!" sobbed the little girl again. + +She was very much frightened as she stumbled into the larger chamber +with Prince whining and coughing at her heels. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + THE NIGHT ALARM + + +At first the light was so hazy in her mother's bedroom that Carolyn +May was not sure she was in bed. And when the little girl did see her, +Mamma Cameron lay so still that she was the more frightened. + +Carolyn remembered how the pale lady looked that time she fainted in +her hot little apartment. Mamma Cameron lay just as still in the bed, +one bare arm outside the covering, her face strangely buried in the +pillow. The room was filled with a choking, yellowish vapour. + +The child seized her mother's shoulder suddenly--desperately--and with +both hands tried to shake her. The woman's body lay limp and seemingly +lifeless. The gasping cry of the terrified little girl did not arouse +her in the least. She made no sound, nor did she move! + +"Oh! Oh!" choked Carolyn. "Princey, something awful's happened to +mamma!" + +She stumbled to the nearest window. It was open barely a crack at the +bottom; but the sash was easily raised, even by the child's failing +strength. A rush of cool, salt air swept into Carolyn's face. It +revived her, for the little girl herself had been almost overcome by +the stifling vapour. + +Prince got his forepaws on the windowsill, sniffed the breeze, and +uttered a short, enquiring bark. + +"Hush! You mustn't, Prince," commanded the child, remembering the +necessity for keeping the dog quiet at night in the hotel room. + +Then she turned abruptly from the window. She must get help for mamma. +Something bad had happened, and Carolyn's thoughts turned to the +doctor, who she knew was staying in the Truefelt House. + +She knew where his office was--at the other end of the house, on this +same floor, and around the front stairwell in a side corridor. He was a +very nice man, Doctor Warren, so thought Carolyn. + +She had reached the door into the hall by this time and was fumbling +with the key and bolt. It did not seem so hard to breathe now. Prince +was coughing softly right behind her. + +When the door opened, quite suddenly, Carolyn almost screamed aloud. +But the necessity for closing her mouth and eyes instantly stifled her +involuntary cry. The hotel corridor was filled with yellow smoke! + +There had been a squall from the east before midnight, and somebody had +shut the hall windows against the beating rain. The middle of the house +thereby was made a closed compartment when the first floor doors were +shut, and the smoke was so thick that the little girl was very much +terrified. + +She dropped to the floor. Prince crouched with her and coughed. + +"Princey," she choked, admonishingly, "if you don't stop you'll wake up +everybody in the house." + +The open window across mamma's room created a draught that sucked the +smoke out of the corridor. And it was not so thick near the floor. On +her hands and knees Carolyn May could breathe with much greater ease. + +She crept out of the room under the rolling cloud of smoke, and moved +on all fours along the cocoa-runner through the middle of the hall. +There were two lamps burning here; but they were turned low, anyway, +and gave little light. The yellow murk caused by the smoke made every +object appear queer. + +Although the draught through Mrs. Cameron's room began at once to clear +the smoke out of the corridor, more was rolling up the open stairway. +From below Carolyn heard a strange crackling sound. There was a growing +light down there, too. + +But the child did not at all understand it. She was thinking mainly +of Mamma Cameron and that she must get the doctor to her as soon as +possible. + +The dog crept close after her as she scrambled over the cocoa-matting. +He hung his muzzle near the floor. Instinct told Prince that the yellow +cloud which rolled above them was not good to breathe. + +Left to himself the dog surely would have howled and barked to betray +his fear. But he was usually obedient to his little mistress's word, +and Carolyn had warned him to keep silence. + +Her tender little feet and knees were scratched by the harsh matting. +She could see but a little way through the murk. But she scrambled +along just as bravely, and just as fast, as she could. + +Soon she rounded the stairwell and found the side corridor into which +the doctor's office opened. All these rooms on either hand were +occupied; but nobody in the hotel save herself and Prince seemed to +have been aroused. + +In this side hall the stifling smoke was not so thick. There was a +window at the end and it was open at the top. Therefore some fresh air +was being sucked in from outside. + +Carolyn May had no thought for these things; merely the difficulty of +breathing troubled the child. + +Here was the doctor's door. She could not mistake it, for he had a +little sign on it: "E. Warren, M.D." She knew that those two letters at +the end stood for "medical doctor;" although Johnny O'Harrity, the lame +boy at home, had once told her they stood for "More Drugs." + +The little girl, panting and sobbing, stood up against the door and +began to batter upon it with both plump fists. + +"Doctor Warren! Doctor Warren! Please, _please_, Doctor Warren, open +the door!" + +Her cry was not very loud, nor did her fists make any great noise; but +the physician was used to calls in the night. Or perhaps he, too, was +troubled in his sleep by the growing volume of smoke from below stairs +which was, by now, penetrating the rooms even as far from the kitchen +as this. + +"What's the matter? Great Scott! where's all the smoke from?" demanded +Dr. Warren, appearing in his robe and slippers, and forgetting to +remove the tasselled nightcap from his bald head, which during the day +and in public was usually covered by a brown toupé. + +He saw the little girl and her dog almost under his feet. + +"What do you want, child? Why, it's little Carolyn May!" for there was +scarcely a person about the hotel who did not know her. + +"Oh, Dr. Warren! Come to mamma! Please come to mamma!" + +"What's all the smoke about? Where's the fire?" cried the doctor. +"What's the matter with your mother, child?" + +"She won't speak to me. I can't wake her up," and Carolyn burst into +frightened sobs. + +"My goodness, child!" The doctor was already at the corner of the +corridor. He saw the main hall full of swirling smoke while from +below the crackling of flames was unmistakable. To Carolyn's shocked +amazement the physician began to shout: + +"Fire! Fire! Fire!" + +"Why--why, Dr. Warren!" choked Carolyn May. "You'll wake everybody up +in the house." + +Prince, encouraged by the physician's outbreak, began barking and +running up and down the hall. Immediately there were sounds indicating +that some, at least, of the hotel guests were aroused. Two or three +doors were opened and the occupants of the rooms, in greater or less +dishabille, showed themselves anxious to know what the cries meant. + +The clouds of smoke swirling about in the hall told the story +immediately, for it set everybody to coughing. Much as he must have +been anxious regarding his own possessions, Dr. Warren first ran to +Mrs. Cameron's room, with Carolyn and Prince close behind him. The +atmosphere in that chamber had cleared somewhat, but Carolyn's mother +was not aroused. + +The physician used drastic measures in this case. He seized the water +pitcher and drenched Mrs. Cameron's pillow with its contents as he +dashed the water into her face. + +"Oh!" shrieked Carolyn. "You--you've drown-ded her!" + +Her mother awoke, sputtering and gasping. The doctor was now shaking +her energetically by the shoulder. + +"Get up and dress! The hotel is in flames, Mrs. Cameron! Look out for +your child!" + +"Oh, Carolyn! Carolyn!" cried the frightened woman, as the excited +doctor dashed from the room. + +"I'm here! I'm here, Mamma!" Carolyn assured her. "Me and Prince are +both here." + +Mr. Ben Truefelt, in his shirt and trousers, appeared for a moment at +the door. + +"All right, Mrs. Cameron," he said cheerfully. "There's time for you to +dress and throw your things into your trunk. The fire is confined to +the kitchen ell and the cellar under it. I don't think we shall have to +get out of the main building. But it is best to pack your things and be +on the safe side." + +He disappeared. They heard a great deal of shouting outside. Some kind +of fire apparatus had arrived, and a great crowd of the neighbours and +people from other hotels. + +Mrs. Cameron, once she was awake, and despite the effects of the smoke, +which she still felt, was eminently practical. When she and Carolyn +were dressed she did not hurry out of the room, panic-stricken. She +followed Mr. Ben's advice and packed her trunks and locked them. + +Then she took Carolyn by the hand and they started for the main +stairway, followed by Prince. Most of the other guests had already got +out of the hotel--some of them in rather light attire. + +The doors and windows having been opened on the first floor, the hall +and stairway were relieved of most of the smoke. But the fire was still +being fought in the rear premises. + +When Carolyn and her mother came forth they were hailed by many of +their acquaintances. + +"Oh, isn't this terrible, Mrs. Cameron?" said one nervous woman. "That +such a catastrophe should happen to us here!" + +"It truly is a serious affair; but it might have been much worse," said +the little girl's mother. + +"We might have been smothered in our beds," agreed another guest. "A +fire is an awful thing." + +"But," cried Carolyn May, almost plaintively, "I didn't see any fire. +Why! that fire that burned up the woods at Uncle Joe Stagg's house just +flamed right up and burned _everything_." + +"I am glad this is not that kind of fire," her mother said quickly. + +Just then Dr. Warren came out, staggering under the weight of two great +bags. + +"I thought I'd better make sure of my drugstore, anyway," he said. "No +knowing when you folks will need my services. How do you feel now, +Mrs. Cameron?" + +"Not very sprightly," she told him. "I believe I must have been almost +asphyxiated." + +"I believe you!" he agreed. "And here," the doctor added, patting +Carolyn's shoulder, "is the little girl who perhaps saved more of us +from the same fate. She came pounding at my door to tell me her mamma +was sick, in just the nick of time." + +Everybody had to hear the story then of the rousing of the doctor by +Carolyn and Prince. They praised her so much that the little girl felt +uncomfortable, although like most children, Carolyn May could absorb a +vast amount of praise. + +The larger crowd was around at the back of the hotel, and she and +Prince ran there to watch the fight against the fire. It had originated +in the cellar. The dynamo room was gutted and the electric plant put +out of commission. The flames, too, had swept the kitchen and pantries. + +In the rooms above the kitchen, the help slept. Even Captain +Littlefield had a room here which he occupied during the season, for +his services were needed both early and late. + +The wooden-legged man was now greatly excited. He was stumping about, +talking loudly and mopping his brow with a bandanna. Somebody caught +him by the sleeve and stayed his steps. + +"Why, Ozy! you act like you warn't all here." + +"You'm right. I ain't all here," declared Captain Littlefield. "My +Sunday-go-to-meeting laig is up there in that dratted room, burnin' up +so fur as I know." + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + A REMOVAL + + +The fire was finally put out without even the loss of Captain Ozias +Littlefield's spare artificial limb; but the kitchen ell was entirely +gutted. + +Little but smoke-damage was done to the main part of the hotel; but +the whole house must be redecorated before it could be made really +habitable. And with the kitchen unusable the season was ruined for Mrs. +Truefelt and her son. They could not care properly for their guests. + +They did not hurry away those who could not at once obtain new +lodgings; but most of the guests were able to get accommodations at +other hotels and boarding houses. + +The new clerk was not in the hotel when the fire occurred. He had been +across the island with his family at Barzilla Ball's place; and he came +to Mrs. Cameron at once, when he arrived and heard what had happened, +to remind her of the fact that the Balls had room for other boarders if +she and Carolyn could get along without hotel accommodations. + +"I had thought of Molly Ball," Carolyn's mother said. "After all, I +believe I should be just as contented there; and I am sure Mr. Cameron +would not mind." + +"The Balls are very kind people," remarked the clerk. + +"I agree with you. Do you suppose Molly would take us?" + +"Why don't you go over at once and ask her? Somebody may get ahead of +you. My wife would be delighted to have you and your little girl for +company. I am very sorry this has happened. It is going to bother Mrs. +Bassett greatly, I fear, when she learns of it. She--she does not get +along as well as I hoped, Mrs. Cameron." + +"I am sorry for that," Carolyn's mother returned. "Let us hope for +improvement." + +Bassett was greatly disturbed, Mrs. Cameron could see, by the +catastrophe. As he had said, it seemed that he was playing in very hard +luck. Scarcely was he settled in his position as clerk of the hotel +when he was again out of work. + +"Old Mr. Trouble seems camping close on my trail, Ben," he said to his +friend whimsically. "I am a Jonah." + +Carolyn's mother prepared their possessions for removal and then +engaged Tommy Trivett (Captain Littlefield being busy) to drive her and +Carolyn and Prince over to the West Side. They reached the Ball place +before noon, bringing the first news of the hotel fire. + +"And can you take us poor, burned-out people in, Molly Ball?" asked +Carolyn's mother. "Carolyn and me--to say nothing of the dog?" + +"My soul and body!" ejaculated the capable island girl, "I'll take you +in, Miz Cameron, and do for you as best I can. But this ain't no St. +Regicide like you New York people are used to." + +"But, Molly," laughed Carolyn's mother, "do you know, I never was in +the St. Regis? I promise not to compare your accommodations to their +disparagement even with those of the Truefelt House." + +So an agreement was made, and the Camerons were established in two of +those very delightful old-fashioned rooms overlooking the sea at the +back of the cottage, out of the windows of which Carolyn had suggested +they might jump for a bath. + +But the Ball cottage was not quite so near the edge of the bank as that +implied. The unfenced brink of the fifty foot precipice, however, was +only a few yards away. Along its ragged verge ran a hard path, deeply +worn by many feet. To the south was the West Side life saving station. +The surfmen followed this beaten path to the breach of the Great Salt +Pond where there was a key-box on a post. They could shout across the +strait there to the patrol from the new life saving station near Sands +Point. In the other direction they met the Old Harbour patrol at a +point on the South Side. + +But Carolyn thought little of these coast guards just now. She was +running about getting more thoroughly acquainted than heretofore with +the immediate vicinity of the Ball cottage. + +"Come on, Princey," she said to her dog blithely. "We've got to look +down and see where's the best path to the shore. Miss Molly says +sometimes the edge of this hill falls down on to the shore. We'll have +to be careful 'bout that." + +However, it did not appear that the sea had bitten a mouthful out of +the bluff of late, although the edge was very ragged and broken. The +patrol path was not broken, and at present the sea at the foot of the +cliff seemed comparatively quiet. + +They sat down on the edge of the cliff, the little girl and the dog, +and watched the sea hissing among the fallen boulders below. These +great and small stones--bushels of them the size of one's fist, but +many as large as a wagon, and several as big as moving vans or small +houses--littered the shore as far as Carolyn could see in either +direction. + +The sands below high water mark were packed as hard and as smooth as +a road by the action of the tide. Above this mark the loose sand was +filled with all manner of rubbish--driftwood, much of which was the +remains of wrecked boats; big shells torn from the bottom of the sea in +storms and tossed here by the breakers; all manner of dried seaweeds +and other sea cultch. + +Carolyn's eyes sparkled, while Prince sniffed the airs off the ocean +and found no scent of "good hunting" in them. But as they went back +around the house the two friends found something that promised real +sport to Prince. + +Up out of a grass bed at the side of the house sprang a little creature +that amazed Carolyn quite as much as it did Prince--all bandy legs, +jerking head, and bleating voice. It started at a stumbling run away +from the newcomers, and naturally Prince wanted to investigate. + +"Stop, Princey!" commanded his mistress. "Don't you chase that poor +little--little--well, whatever it is! It's got such a curly coat. And +hasn't it a funny, ugly black nose? I--never--did--see!" + +"Baa-a-a!" bleated the hobbling creature, turning to stare at the +little girl and her dog with quite as much curiosity as they stared at +it. + +Molly I. Ball suddenly appeared at the corner of the house. + +"Don't let your dog chase Nebuchadnezzar," she cried. + +"Goodness gracious me!" gasped Carolyn May, "is _that_ what he is? It +sounds too big for him, Miss Molly." + +"What sounds too big?" + +"That you called him," declared the little girl. "_Is_ he one?" + +"Is he one what?" demanded the puzzled Molly. + +"Why, a 'nebuchad--chad'--Well, whatever it was you called him?" + +"Nebuchadnezzar?" repeated Molly Ball, laughing. "That's his name. But +he's a lamb. Didn't you ever see a lamb before?" + +"A lamb? My!" cried the little city girl. "I never saw one before 'cept +in the butcher shop with all his--his clothes off. And then it don't +look like _that_." + +"No. I imagine not," said Molly Ball. "Come here, Nebby! Coo! Coo! Coo!" + +She approached the funny little creature that stood with all four long +legs braced apart, head down, and looking as though undecided whether +to run or to butt. + +"I've seen goats up in the Bronx," murmured Carolyn May. "I've seen +the--the herd of sheep in Central Park. But I guess there weren't any +lambs with 'em. Oh, isn't he funny?" + +"He gits around almost as graceful as Ozy Littlefield, don't he?" +laughed Molly Ball. "Here, Nebby!" + +"Why did you call him that awful name? Nebuchad--What is it?" + +"Nebuchadnezzar." + +"That's it," smiled the little girl, who loved the sound of long words +even if she could not pronounce them. "Why did you?" + +"Because he eats grass," declared Molly I., enigmatically. + +"Oh!" + +Carolyn May gave her close attention to the lamb. She made Prince +"lie down and be good" while she gathered a handful of juicy grass +and approached Nebuchadnezzar, who was now nuzzling in Molly Ball's +apron as she squatted down, and was letting her scratch his ears and +"buttons." + +"See," said his mistress. "Those buttons will be horns some day. He's +going to have funny little curly horns, and if he gets old enough he'll +stamp his little hoofs when he is mad and will butt right into a stone +wall." + +"Oh! He must have a temper almost as bad as Mr. Oly Littlefield's," +murmured the astonished Carolyn. + +"Shouldn't wonder," agreed Molly. "Now, you pat him, Carolyn." + +"Won't he bite?" + +"No. Nor butt. Not yet," laughed the island girl. "And by and by when I +salt 'em, you shall go with me and see our whole flock. Nebuchadnezzar +was a late spring lamb and his mother died. He's a cosset." + +Carolyn's eyes grew big and she exclaimed emphatically: "Oh, Miss +Molly! Why, that can't be so!" + +"What ain't so?" + +"What you just said. This Nebu--Nebu--Well, what-you-call-him, can't be +a corset, for that's what ladies wear." + +"Oh, bless you!" laughed Molly I. "Nebby ain't that kind of a corset. +He's a cosset lamb--brought up by hand. He was tagging me about the +kitchen and milk-room for two months. It's only lately he's lived out +of doors and I named him Nebuchadnezzar. I sartain sure was glad to see +him take to eatin' grass the way he done. He's a right smart lamb." + +"Have you any more like him, Miss Molly?" asked the little girl. + +"Not just like him. All this year's lambs are pretty well grown but +him. But they were like him when they were little. He looks all laigs +an' wool now; but he'll be a goodly sized critter next winter." + +As she had been promised, Carolyn went late in the afternoon with +Miss Molly Ball to salt the sheep in a rocky hollow which was out of +sight of the house on the bluff. There were more than a score of the +grey-brown creatures cropping the short grass and the tall weeds that +grew between the rocks. + +"If our sheep pasture had many more rocks in it," complained Molly I., +"we'd have to file the sheep's noses so't they could feed between the +rocks." + +"Amos Bartlett tried _that_," cried Carolyn. "He's got _such_ a big +nose, you know. But it only made his nose sore and bigger than ever." + +Miss Ball chuckled. "Maybe it wouldn't do much good, child. And the +sheep clean up the pastures pretty good. That's what we keep 'em for +on the island--to have 'em eat up the wild carrot. They like it; but I +don't believe nothing else in the world does. It's all over the farm." + +She showed the little girl the stalky plant, with its flat flowers. +Carolyn thought it very pretty. + +"Pretty is, as pretty does," quoted Miss Molly. "That tarnal weed don't +look pretty to me. Comin' from church t'other Sunday I picked more'n +twenty dif'rent kinds of wild carrot. If it keeps on there won't be +nothin' else growin' on the island but it." + +If Carolyn had been busy while she stayed at the hotel, now her time +was even more fully occupied. It was quite surprising how much there +was to do and to see and to talk about around the little house on the +bluff. + +The Balls had a horse and a cow and chickens and turkeys, as well as +Nebuchadnezzar and all his relations. There were a surprising number of +things Carolyn and Prince could "help" about. + +The little girl soon learned how to feed the flock of poultry which +Molly I. kept fenced in for the good of their souls and the garden. The +turkeys ran at large, of course. But turkeys do not scratch and they +can be trusted to chase bugs through the garden rows without destroying +the crops. + +She watched Barzilla curry Beppo, the old horse, named for a Portuguese +fisherman who had once lived near Dorris Cove. When Molly I. milked the +cow, Carolyn stood by and watched the milk stream into the pail as she +had watched Aunty Rose Kennedy milk the cow at the Corners. + +On the mornings that Barzilla Ball went out in the _Snatch It_ to the +fishing grounds, he and his sister got up while it was still pitch +dark and Molly made him coffee and put up a big lunch of cooked food, +for neither Barzilla nor the man who went with him as "crew" on the +double-ender, would have time to cook much after they got outside. + +Carolyn May awoke and pattered out into the kitchen in her bedroom +slippers and bathrobe to watch sleepily these preparations, to drink a +sip of Barzilla's coffee, and be kissed by him when he went away with +his oilskins, the basket, and other "gear" over his arm, while the +stars were burning still brightly in the velvet sky. + +Then she would cuddle into Molly I.'s bed with the island girl and go +to sleep again until it was time for "all hands and the cook" to be +called, as Molly expressed it. + +All these joys were in addition to being with the pale lady and Mamma +Cameron for part of every day, and wheeling Baby Laird out in the +carriage that had been purchased for that little man. + +The pale lady did not go far with the baby, and she rested much of the +day. It did seem (and even Carolyn May remarked it) that the good +Island air, and Molly Ball's cooking, and the quiet existence they all +enjoyed, did not do the baby's mother very much good. The baby himself, +however, grew rosy and hearty as the days passed. + +Carolyn had become so fond of her little cousin at the Corners, Carolyn +Amanda, that she missed her sorely. Now she revelled in the delights of +Baby Laird's bath, of his being dressed fresh and sweet afterward, in +the getting of him to sleep after his bottle, and finally in pushing +him about in his carriage. + +It was while she was engaged in this last occupation one day, soon +after she had taken up her abode in the cottage on the bluff, that +she met again the man and his wife who had already so puzzled and +interested her. + +She had wheeled Baby Laird down the long lane to the public road, and +with Prince was about to turn around and retrace her steps, when a +two-seated carriage drawn by a pair of sleek horses and driven by the +liveried negro whom Carolyn had previously seen pushing the wheelchair +on the sands, came suddenly into view around a spur of Beacon Hill. She +knew the carriage came from one of the larger hotels. + +On the back seat were the man with whom she considered herself quite +well acquainted, and his very unhappy looking wife. It seemed to the +sunny-hearted Carolyn as though the poor lady needed cheering up, and +she smiled up at her as the carriage came near with her very bravest +smile. + +The woman in the carriage, who had been so languid and so distrait the +moment before, became suddenly interested in Carolyn and the baby, and +even the man sat up with quick attention and signalled the driver to +stop. + +"Hullo!" the man said. "So I find you again, do I? Let me see: Your +name is Carrie, isn't it?" + +"Carolyn May, if you please, sir," the little girl said. + +"To be sure! Carolyn May. And do you live away over here with your +mamma?" + +"We do now, sir. Since the hotel got burned," explained the child. + +"Why! the little girl must have been turned out of the Truefelt House," +said the woman, showing some interest. "And the baby!" + +"Oh, no, ma'am," said Carolyn May, politely but firmly. "Baby Laird +wasn't in our hotel when it got burned. He was right up there, where +mamma and I are staying now," and she pointed to the Ball cottage. + +"What a quaint old place," said the woman. But her gaze came back to +the baby, who was awake and playing in his carriage. "Whose child is +that, little girl? Is it your brother?" + +"Oh, no, ma'am. He's just a friend of mine," explained Carolyn May. + +The baby laughed up into the woman's face. He even dropped his rubber +dog and put out his hands as though to be taken up. The woman in the +carriage leaned forward, and for the moment the mask of discontent +seemed to drop from her countenance. Even Carolyn saw the change and +wondered. + +"The dear!" murmured the woman. "What an attractive child!" she added +to her husband. "Do you know, he reminds me--Ah, see him laugh! Just as +friendly as--as my baby used to be. Not afraid of strangers at all, is +he?" + +The stern man looked straight ahead, over the horse's ears, and across +the fourteen-mile stretch of blue water to where the sun shone on the +white staff of the old Montauk Light. + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + GREAT EXPECTATIONS + + +Of course, Mrs. Cameron had written all the particulars of the fire at +the hotel to her husband, and how Carolyn May and Prince had alarmed +the household and perhaps saved her mamma's life. + +Mrs. Cameron did not believe it was wise to praise the little girl too +much for her part in the affair, or to allow others to do so. Besides, +Carolyn did not understand what she had done, or the full degree of +peril they had all escaped. + +The hotel fire had been different from that forest fire at the Corners, +of which Carolyn so often spoke. The little girl had seen the ravening +flames then lick up the vegetation of the woods and sweep devouringly +over the acres and acres of ground. The flames of the hotel fire had +been scarcely visible. + +Papa Cameron, learning of his family's change of lodging, had to come +back to the island the very next Saturday to make sure that Snuggy and +mamma, herself, were safe. Barzilla chanced to have the time, and he +drove Beppo over to the landing to meet the _Shinnecock_ and bring Mr. +Cameron to the little house on the bluff. + +They picked up Joe Bassett at the Old Harbour where Barzilla bought +provisions, and the three men rode back to the West Side together. + +"This fire at the Truefelt House makes it bad for you, Bassett," +Carolyn's father said sympathetically. + +"Didn't I say I was Jonahed?" returned the young man, and there was a +note of bitterness in his voice that the newspaper editor had not heard +before. "We have another week's work at the hotel, clearing up. Ben +Truefelt is very decent about it. But after next Saturday----" + +"Nothing doing, eh?" + +"And so far as I can see, nothing doing on the whole island for me," +Bassett said. "All the hotels have their clerks for the season, of +course. I declare! I envy Barzilla, here." + +The fisherman laughed. "Maybe you wouldn't envy me if you had my job." + +"I'm not so sure of that," Bassett returned. "At least, you're sure of +your bite and sup. You've salted your fish for next season. Your crops +are growing. You are making a tidy little bale of wool. You'll have a +sheep to salt down if you want it. You've turkeys to sell--and turkeys +are rare birds nowadays. I tell you, Mr. Cameron, I've been thinking +that these Block Islanders are well off." + +"Perhaps we don't all know it," said Barzilla, dryly. + +"All they lack on this island is ambition," Mr. Cameron said, looking +rather doubtfully at Joe Bassett. "I am afraid we city folks would +easily fall into the _dolce far niente_ life if we settled here. The +islanders work; we would look on." + +"You don't haf to look on," put in Barzilla. "A smart man like Mr. +Bassett--with a little money--could get into something here that would +pay him well." + +"That 'with' is in the way, Barzilla," Bassett said wearily. + +"What is the scheme?" asked Mr. Cameron with curiosity. + +"Oh," said Bassett more cheerfully, "Barzilla's got a good idea, no +doubt. Let him explain it to you sometime, Mr. Cameron. But as I tell +him, it's nothing to interest me," and his tone dropped again. "I'll +have to write to Inness and take up his offer." + +"Ah!" ejaculated the editor. "Have you already heard from your friend?" + +"From Inness? Yes. I wrote him. He tells me that there is a mining +company in Arizona with the directors of which he has some influence. +There is a clerkship open there. It will give us a livelihood; and I +suppose the climate would be all right for my wife." + +"There ain't no finer climate in the world than this we got right +here--summer _an'_ winter," Mr. Ball declared with vehemence. "Why! you +can see your baby grow." + +"It is true," said Joe Bassett with gravity. "I can see life coming +back to the baby, Mr. Cameron. I wish his mother showed equal +improvement." + +"It's a far way to Arizona," observed the editor. "Do you think that +climate would do more for your wife, Bassett?" + +"I do not know." + +"It will cost a lot to get there." + +"That--that is another thing," observed young Bassett hesitatingly. +"Inness offers to pay our fares." + +"Yes? Is there any reason why he should want to get you out of the +way--out of New York?" asked Mr. Cameron curiously. + +"Well, not exactly. But it may be that somebody whose mouthpiece he +is, prefers to have me at a distance," replied Bassett, and then fell +silent. + +Carolyn's father thought he understood that. He said to his wife that +evening after Carolyn was in bed and asleep: + +"I am not sure that my interview that time with the Griffin did +any real good; but it is bearing fruit, I believe. Through this +man Inness--and he did not impress me as being a very pleasant +person--Bassett is trying to send the young fellow somewhere, well out +of the way, where he and his little family will have a chance for their +lives at least." + +"I am sorry they are not to remain here," Mrs. Cameron remarked. "The +girl is a lovely creature, and, despite her bringing up, her character +seems unspoiled." + +"That does not gibe with what the Griffin stated as his opinion. He +said her extravagance was the cause of Joe's downfall--that she was a +perfectly useless creature." + +"I am convinced he knows very little about her," declared Hannah +Cameron with vigour. "She's nothing like that. For a girl brought up as +she was, she is doing wonderfully well. And she has a heart of gold. I +believe he maligns her." + +"Well, it's too bad. But what can we do? There's no chance for Joe +Bassett on this island." + +"Nor am I sure that is so," rejoined his wife slowly. "He and Mr. Ball +have become great friends. Molly says she never saw her brother take to +anybody as he has to Mr. Bassett." + +"Humph! I don't suppose Bassett can do Barzilla any harm." + +"Oh, Lewis!" + +"There's no use talking," her husband said emphatically. "I cannot so +easily forget what the Griffin said. He was talking about his own son. +Ten thousand dollars was stolen and wasted in the bucket shops along +the fringe of the financial district. I believe it is the truth, for +I have talked with some of the boys who cover the district and they +declare Joe Bassett was hanging about certain brokers' offices down +there for some weeks after his father turned him out." + +"I hate to believe it," murmured Mrs. Cameron. + +"The young fellow is all wrong. He's such an attractive chap that I +don't wonder Barzilla Ball is interested in him. Perhaps I should put a +flea in his ear." + +"Don't do that, Lewis!" cried his wife. "I admit that, in this case, +you are not your brother's keeper; neither is it your duty to tell +tales out of school that may injure the poor fellow. Now, promise me!" + +"I am sure," said Mr. Cameron, "that I do not wish to say anything to +hurt Joe Bassett. Let others find out about him, as we did." + +"And did we find out the truth, I wonder?" Carolyn's mother thought. +But she did not utter this aloud. + + * * * * * + +When Mr. Cameron came to the island the next time, he brought with +him Edna Price to stay a week with Carolyn. There had been great +preparations made for the visit of Carolyn May's "partic'lar friend," +and great expectations in the little girl's mind regarding that visit. + +By this time Carolyn was quite used to the little oddities of speech, +characteristic of the native Block Islander. She knew that they looked +upon people from off the island, too, as being quite as foreign as +though they came from Europe! + +Being born and bred upon a bit of land quite disconnected from the +mainland, breeds an oddly independent and aloof people--a people who +are prone to have their own peculiar outlook upon life and to hold +almost a code of morals of their own. + +Carolyn was widening her acquaintance every day with the neighbours. +There was a cross-country path over stiles and through stone fences, +winding through the various farms from Dorris Cove to the Free Baptist +Church, and everybody who passed the house took toll of Carolyn May's +friendliness. On Sunday, before and after service, that path was dotted +with members of the congregation who almost all lingered at the Ball +place for a neighbourly chat. + +Week days there were occasional passersby who followed the footpath +along the edge of the bluff, beaten originally by the feet of the coast +patrol. Had it not been the season when the life saving service men, +with the exception of the captain of the crew who lived at the station +all the year round, were relieved from duty, Carolyn would have already +added the surfmen to her growing list of acquaintances. + +As it was, she considered that some of the neighbours she knew very +well. There was Aunt Ardelia Dodge and her husband, Uncle Smith Dodge, +an elderly couple whose place adjoined the Balls' on the north. The +Dodges owned an old carryall, and when it was known that Edna was +coming, Mrs. Cameron borrowed this vehicle to bring her husband and +the little visitor from the landing, Barzilla's buckboard having but a +single seat. + +As the ancient vehicle had not been in use for some time, it must first +be backed down into the "tughole" behind the Dodge barn for the wheels +to soak a couple of days, or the spokes might have rattled out of the +rims and hubs. + +The tughole was a shallow patch of black water where the ducks and +geese played. It was not a natural pond, but one of those innumerable +artificial pools made by the cutting of peat for fuel in the old days +before coal was brought in any quantity to the island. + +There is no wood for fuel on Block Island save what may be cast on the +beaches by the tides. There are few trees, and those mostly of stunted +growth. Heavily timbered when the first settlers came, their unwisdom +and thriftlessness made of the beautiful if rocky island almost a +barren waste. + +Carolyn learned what the little black pools were, and why they were +called "tugholes." She knew what peat was. Papa Cameron had told her +all about the age-long growth of coal, and peat was coal which had not +been put under sufficient pressure to make it hard. + +"Them old fellers," said Uncle Smith Dodge, who was old enough himself +in all good conscience, Carolyn thought, "called it 'tug,' 'cause they +had ter tug it out'n them hollers an' up to the houses on stone drags. +Oh, I can 'member when some of 'em still cut an' stacked tug, an' +ev'rybody had a tughouse instead of a coalshed." + +However, they soaked the wheels of the old carryall so the spokes would +not rattle, washed the top and cushions, and otherwise made the vehicle +presentable. On Saturday afternoon they harnessed Beppo between the +shafts, and Mrs. Cameron and Carolyn drove over to meet Papa Cameron +and Carolyn's little friend. + +All the farms they passed were cut up into small fields with stone +fences between--everywhere stone walls and heaps of stones which were +turned up by the plough each spring. + +"Where _do_ all the stones come from?" wondered Carolyn May. + +Some of the walls were broad and so well built that one might have +driven an ox-team on them; others were only windrows of stone seemingly +thrown together to get them out of the open, more than for any other +purpose. + +There were some post-and-wire barriers supplementing the stone walls, +especially around the sheep pastures; for sheep will breach if they +can; and where one sheep goes the whole silly flock will follow--even +if it is over a cliff into the sea. + +"Back there in Bible times," said Barzilla, "they had to make that +drove of pigs they tell about crazy to get 'em to run into the sea. But +sheep'll jest naturally run into the sea, or into any old place, get an +old bell-wether to lead 'em." This, while he was mending a break in his +sheep pasture fence. + +Mrs. Cameron and Carolyn arrived safely at the landing with the ancient +rig and Barzilla's plodding pony. Before the steamboat was half way +across the Great Salt Pond Carolyn saw her father and the red-coated +figure of Edna Price by his side. Carolyn and Prince fairly danced upon +the stringpiece of the wharf in impatience at the steamer's deliberate +approach. + +Mr. Oly Littlefield, in his starched linen suit, scowled at Carolyn and +shook a threatening cane at Prince. + +"That dratted dog ought to be in the town pound," he declared. "Chawin' +up people's laigs! Might jest as well turn a wild tagger loose in the +c'mmunity, I swan!" + +"He's got his eye on you now, Oly," chuckled one of the idlers, as +Prince turned that way. "I b'lieve I'd speak a little less upshus of +the critter. I don't doubt he's got it in for you." + +The wooden-legged man drifted away from the dog's vicinity, viciously +stabbing the wharf with his cane. But Prince and his little mistress +paid very little attention just then to Captain Littlefield's crotchety +cousin. + +The _Shinnecock_ bumped gently into the piles, then ground them +harshly against her side as the mooring lines tightened. A bell jangled +in the engineroom. The wheels ceased turning. + +"Oh, Car'lyn May!" Edna's voice came down from the upper deck so +clearly that everybody on the dock heard--and most of them laughed. +"Oh, Car'lyn May! Johnny O'Harrity's cat's got five kittens, only they +drowned four of them in the wash tub; and that red-haired Sade Gompretz +has sent you an all-day sucker." + + + + + CHAPTER XXI + + CROSS CURRENTS + + +Carolyn May had seen her friend and his wife, who had become interested +in Baby Laird, on several occasions since they had first driven by the +Ball place. They often came over to the West Side in a hotel carriage, +and always stopped at the bottom of the lane where it debouched upon +the public highway. + +Carolyn would usually spy them if she did not chance to be wheeling the +baby that way; and if he was asleep or with his mother she would run +down alone to speak with her friends. Even the woman unbent to Carolyn +May--who could resist the little girl's sunny ways?--and she was openly +interested in Baby Laird. + +"How is the little dear?" she would ask eagerly, if the baby was not to +be seen on that particular occasion. "He reminds me so much of my own +little one--years and years ago." + +The little girl felt there was something about the woman's own baby +that was not to be talked about. Her husband looked very stern and +never said a word about it. Perhaps, like Aunty Rose Kennedy's three +little ones, this woman's baby had been too puny to grow up. + +Carolyn's mother--nor the pale lady--asked few questions regarding +these new friends of Carolyn's. The child became acquainted with so +many people. And Carolyn never chanced to mention that the couple in +the hotel turnout were the same whose automobile had crushed the pale +lady's baby go-cart in New York. + +Molly I. informed her boarders that "those folks Car'lyn's struck up +such an acquaintance with stop at the Orowoc House and have a suite of +rooms and a maid for her and what they call a vally for him, b'sides +that black man. They're richer'n a clam-flat at low water." + +Now that Edna had come to spend the week, Carolyn was so busy that +she almost forgot these newer friends. And as Edna was "fed up," as +Barzilla called it, on baby-minding, her own Brother Eldred being her +immediate care at home, the little girls did not spend much time with +the pale lady's little one. + +There really was a great deal to show Edna. Even the cow was a wonder +to the little city girl, who had never seen milk drawn from anything +save a bottle or a can. + +"And I can't see, Carolyn, why she has horns, or why she mews all +night," remarked Edna. + +"Why, Edna Prince! Flory Ball doesn't _mew_; it's cats that mew. And +what you heard last night wasn't a cow anyway. It was foggy out at sea, +and that was the steam foghorn at the South Light. Barzilla told me." + +"Well, I don't care. It sounded just like that cow," declared Edna. + +They played in their bathing suits for part of every pleasant day. +Carolyn was as brown as a berry; but Edna had to be careful about +getting sunburned. + +There was a path down the face of the bluff behind the cottage that led +to a smooth stretch of beach. Mamma Cameron and Baby Laird's mother, +with sometimes Molly I., took their dip with the little girls on this +beach. But Carolyn and Edna were forbidden to descend the bluff alone. + +There was a wealth of treasure along the shore, shells, pebbles, +seaweeds--the drift and flotsam of the flowing tide that twice each day +took the island in its arms. + +Talk about Mr. Jedidiah Farlow's shavings! Why, the seaweeds were made +a hundred times more decorative than ever shavings could be. + +There were lacy kinds that made splendid veils and collars for +the little girls; and kinds with green and purple fronds like the +leaves of palm trees; thick, leathery sea-green weed that could be +cut into different shapes with a sharp knife. Then there was that +kind of seaweed that had seed pods which, when partly dried, popped +delightfully; while tangled in the various growths were all manner of +odd little shells and deep-sea monsters. Why! Carolyn even found a +seahorse about four inches long. + +And how Prince tore up and down the beach! He found other monsters +than those the little girls came across--horseshoe crabs for one +thing, which Carolyn had no idea were good to eat until Molly I. +rescued several live ones from the surf and they ate them, prepared +deliciously, for supper. No ordinary softshell crab is the equal of +these monsters. + +Then Carolyn and Edna had an awful fright. Prince saw something in the +surf and went in after it. + +"Oh, see that thing!" cried Edna. "It's got a round, shiny head." + +"Why," responded Carolyn, "it must be a rubber ball." + +But when Prince tried to seize it, they saw a short arm thrown into the +air as though the Thing were mutely pleading for rescue. + +"Oh!" shrieked Edna. "It's a baby!" + +"Come back here, Prince!" commanded Carolyn, fully as horrified as her +friend. + +"A drowned baby!" moaned Edna, covering her eyes. + +"Maybe it isn't drowned," gasped Carolyn. "Prince!" + +Prince returned to the shore. The Thing whirled around and around in +a miniature whirlpool; then another incoming breaker rolled the Thing +almost to the little girls' feet. Prince barked at it wildly. + +"Sh! Hush, Princey!" begged his little mistress. "If it's _dead_--But, +then, maybe it isn't dead." + +"Oh, it must be," wailed Edna. + +"Maybe not. There are Water Babies, you know. Papa read about them out +of a book to me. And a little chimney-sweep, who wanted to be clean, +was washed all nice and made round and rosy and just like a land baby, +because he'd never had a chance before to get a bath." + +Edna listened to this with both ears; but she looked at the Thing in +the surf with both eyes. + +"It is black," she said. "Maybe it is another chimney-sweep trying to +get clean. But--but, it looks _awful_ dead!" + +The Thing retreated with the receding surf to meet another incoming +wave. The pebbles scratched and squeaked as they rolled down the +strand, as if it might have been the voice of the Thing crying for help. + +"Oh, it can't be that it is alive!" whispered Edna. "But see! See its +arm waving!" + +The Thing rolled over again and again. The incoming wave caught it and +lifted it high upon its front. The little girls saw almost all of the +Thing for a moment. + +"Oh!" shrieked Edna. "It's got a tail!" + +"It's a baby mermaid," murmured Carolyn May, all but stricken dumb by +this discovery. + +"Do you believe so?" demanded her friend. "And is it alive?" + +"It can't be," said Carolyn. "Else it would be swimming. And it +wouldn't let us see him. You know, my papa says it is almost as hard to +see mermaids as it is to see sea serpents--and the sea serpents only +come around when it is a very dull season at the seaside resorts. I am +sure _this_ is a good season at Block Island. See how many people there +are here." + +"The poor baby!" crooned Edna. "The poor mermaid baby! Isn't it awful?" + +The sea rolled in and deposited the dead Thing almost at the feet of +the two little girls. Prince could not restrain himself any longer, +and he leaped upon the body and held it down so it could not slide back +with the tide. + +At that moment a voice startled the little girls, and there was Captain +Ozias Littlefield, with a short handled clam hoe in a basket on his +arm, stumping along the hard sand toward them. The staff of his wooden +leg made strange holes in the beach beside his shoe print, as though +some prehistoric monster had passed that way. + +"Hullo, little girls--and little dog!" he said jovially. "How fare ye?" + +"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!" cried Carolyn almost in tears. "Come and +look at this poor little dead merbaby." + +"Dead _what_?" gasped the old sailor. + +"Merbaby." + +"Er--_mer_--Oh, my soul and body! Ye mean a mermaid's young 'un?" + +"Yes, sir. And the poor thing's dead. Don't worry it, Princey. It's +_half_ human, anyway, even if it has got a tail and such short arms." + +"Them arms is flippers. That's a fur seal," said the wooden-legged +captain. "Got his foolish head battered on the rocks somehow. Or mebbe +he was hit by a propeller. Them critters air awful cur'ous. Don't seem +to know enough to keep out of trouble. If seals had any sense at all +they wouldn't go year after year to the same rookery to sit and wait +for the sealers to come and knock 'em over the head with iron clubs." + +"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!" exclaimed Carolyn, yet much relieved to +learn that the dead Thing was not even "half human," "do wicked men do +that to the poor seals?" + +"I dunno how wicked they be. A livin's a livin' wherever and however +you make it. And I bet your marm's got a sealskin coat or cape or muff +or somethin'." + +"A coat?" cried Carolyn in wonder. "Oh! Is that what they make sealskin +coats out of?" + +"Takes more'n one skin to make a proper coat for a lady as big as your +marm." + +"Oh, I'm sure she doesn't know that sealskins come from things that +look so like dead babies. I'm sure she doesn't." + +"_My_ mamma," said Edna virtuously, "hasn't got a sealskin coat. She's +got a ponyskin." + +"Well!" ejaculated Carolyn quickly, "don't you s'pose it hurts a pony +to be skinned just as much as it does a seal?" + +She then proceeded to introduce Edna to the captain. He told them that +as the fire had relieved him of his job at the Truefelt House, he and +"Cousin Oly" had come across the island, as they did every spring and +fall, to catch and cure fish for the winter. + +"We're stopping in old Beppo's shack down by Dorris Cove," he said. +"It's rigged kind of Portugoosy; but it's all right in fair weather or +foul. Course, Oly kicks. He'd kick if his feet was tied--Hi cracky! he +ain't got but one foot _to_ tie, has he?" and the captain stubbed away, +chuckling. + +The little girls did not immediately lose their interest in the dead +seal. + +"It looks _so_ much like humans," Carolyn said. "See its poor eyes! +Aren't they beautiful, Edna? And so sad." + +"Well, anybody's eyes would be sad if they were dead," declared her +friend. + +"I don't think it's decent to let the poor thing lie here. He _might_ +have been a Water Baby, you know. Let's bury it," said Carolyn. + +And so they dug with their shovels a deep, deep hole in the loose sand +above highwater mark. Prince helped in this, for he could dig faster +and throw out more sand with his feet and nose than both little girls +could with their shovels. There they laid the poor dead seal and made +a mound over him. They covered the mound with shells and pebbles and +seaweed in a very decorative pattern, and so left the seal to his long +rest. + +The children were not, however, engaged always in such beach pursuits +during that week of Edna's visit. They raced the downs between the Ball +cottage and the Free Baptist Church like wild colts. They rolled down +the smooth, moss-covered sides of the many hollows (the moss was grey +and had tiny red blossoms); and once Edna rolled right into the Dodges' +tughole and frightened all the ducks and geese playing there. And she +_was_ in a mess! + +They made a chum of Nebuchadnezzar, and when he grew used to having +Prince around, he showed himself to be a lively playfellow indeed. He +was fast learning to butt, and on one occasion he almost butted Carolyn +into the barn cellar through the trapdoor behind old Beppo's stall. + +One day they met on the road with their negro driver, the couple who +were Carolyn May's friends. Carolyn ran back to the cottage to get +Baby Laird, who was awake, and wheeled him down to the highroad, that +the woman might see him and hold him in her arms. She had brought him +a beautiful rattle made of walrus ivory--"scrimshaw work," Captain +Littlefield would have called it--which she had bought of a Portuguese +fisherman who lived on the South Side. + +Edna thought the woman quite a wonderful person, and could not keep her +gaze off her rich garments, her jewels, and her beautifully manicured +hands. + +That she was a semi-invalid was quite evident, and even the children +understood that her fault-finding and nervousness arose from mental +and bodily troubles. Her husband was vastly patient with her; he +never crossed her even by a word. It seemed as though she must have +everything she desired, they were so very wealthy. _She_ did not have +to play "If I Were Rich," Carolyn thought! + +Carolyn had had many interesting conversations with the man whenever +they met. On one occasion she said to him: + +"Do you know, I saw your big, fine car this summer and you weren't in +it?" + +"Before you left New York, do you mean?" + +"Oh, no, sir," said Carolyn May. "I saw it while I was up at my Uncle +Joe Stagg's, at the Corners." + +"And where, pray, is 'the Corners'?" + +"Why, that's where Uncle Joe lives. It's near Sunrise Cove. He sells +hardware and ploughs and things in his store at Sunrise Cove." + +"Indeed? And are you sure it was my machine you saw?" asked the man, +with curiosity. + +"Oh, yes, sir. Your chauffeur was with it, and another gentleman." + +"What sort of looking man was he?" asked Carolyn's friend, and his face +grew much more stern in its expression. + +The little girl explained, prattling away about the dark-browed man and +his personal peculiarities without the first idea that she was "telling +tales out of school"; for she would have scorned to be a "tattle-tale" +had she realized. She did wonder, however, what her friend meant when +he muttered: + +"It was more than an ordinary joy ride that took them away up +there--and René was not at the bottom of it. I'll look into _that_. +Somebody will have to explain." + +He put aside his ill-temper in a moment. There was a plan for a picnic +the next day but one. Evidently it was a plan he and his wife had +already talked over. They would come for the children in the morning +and drive them to the South Light, there to have a picnic luncheon. + +Of course, Mrs. Cameron had to be asked if Carolyn and Edna could go, +and the former raced up to the cottage and led her mother down by the +hand to give her permission for the outing. It was evident that the +haughty looking woman approved of Carolyn's mother. + +Mrs. Cameron had heard Carolyn talk so much about these people that +she felt quite as though she knew them. And yet, she did not even know +their name. As neither the man nor the woman mentioned it, she felt +some embarrassment at the thought of asking them, pointblank, for that +information. She had heard enough about them from Molly Ball and other +Island people. They were by far the wealthiest and most important +guests at the Orowoc House. + +She might have been more curious had Carolyn not failed to mention the +fact that these very people were those whose motor-car had crushed +Baby Laird's go-cart so many weeks before. The invalid's interest in +the pale lady's baby, however, did cause Mrs. Cameron some thought at +a later time. She could see no reason for refusing to allow the little +girls to accompany these people on the proposed outing. + +"I would love to take the baby, too; but that, I fear, would be +impossible," the invalid said. "Do you think his mother would consent?" + +"I am afraid not. She is watching up there for his return now," said +Mrs. Cameron, smiling, and drawing the woman's attention to the figure +of Baby Laird's mother with the fresh gale blowing her skirts about her +as she stood by the house on the bluff. + +"Ah, yes," rejoined the invalid, looking at the pale lady's figure in +the distance carelessly. "Remarkable what fine children some of these +island women have. This baby looks much as my own son did when he was +this child's age." + +Her husband cleared his throat and said sharply: + +"We shall have to be going. We will stop for the little girls about +eleven. Good afternoon. Drive on, George." + +The coloured man drove on. Not until they had quite gone did Hannah +Cameron remember that she had not explained that Baby Laird was not a +Block Island child. + + + + + CHAPTER XXII + + THE COCKATOO MAN IN TROUBLE + + +The knowledge that the Double O's (Captain Ozias Littlefield and his +cousin, Oliver) were near by, excited again Carolyn May's curiosity +regarding the artificial limbs worn by the two old men. She easily +interested Edna in the mystery, for Edna possessed her full share of +inquisitiveness. They determined to make a combined raid upon the +"Portugoosy" cabin by Dorris Cove and attempt to extort the longed-for +confidences from the Cousins Littlefield. + +Mrs. Cameron would not allow the little girls to walk along the beach +as far as Beppo's hut; but after many careful directions from Molly +Ball and admonitions from Carolyn's mother, they started for that +attractive point by way of the patrol path above the beach. + +There were several houses to pass in this direction, and the little +girls had to go over or through many stiles. At most of the houses +Carolyn was acquainted, for the neighbourhood women had learned to +appreciate the quaint little "off" girl. + +Aunt Ardelia Dodge never saw Carolyn near her house but that she made +offering of the contents of her doughnut crock to tempt the little girl +to "stop awhile." To Aunt Ardelia's mind a child's stomach was as an +aching void, only to be appeased by continual "stuffing." + +"You an' your little friend set right down on the doorstun an' I'll +pop a hot doughnut into each o' your laps in a minute," declared the +generous old woman. "Lucky you come along just as you did. This is +Thursday and I always fry doughnuts on Thursday. Jest like I bake beans +an' steam loaf on Sat'day. + +"Smith, he never kin see why I have reg'lar days for cookin' sartain +things. But if a body don't have some method in doin' things, where'll +they be? That's what _I_ say. Man's work is always helter-skelter, an' +ketch-as-ketch-can. They air always waitin' on the weather, or on the +tide, or on the moon, or some sech foolishness. Men's work is never +systematic--nor judgmatic, neither." + +"Oh, but my papa goes very regular to his work," objected Carolyn May. +"He goes downtown at just a certain time, and gets back home at a +certain time. Don't he, Edna? And your papa, too." + +Edna nodded vigorously; but her mouth was too full of hot doughnut at +the moment to agree audibly. + +"Wal, I wish't I'd married an off man, then," said Aunt Ardelia. "For +Smith never did 'preciate reg'larity, not even in cookin'. Why!" +chuckled the voluble woman, "there was one time Smith Dodge took it +inter his head he didn't want beans on a Sat'day night. Puffictly +foolish idee. _Every_body has baked beans for Sat'day night supper. But +men will git them fits. It's the way the good Lord made 'em, I cal'late. + +"'Ardely,' says he to me, 'I'm plumb sick o' smellin' beans ev'ry time +I come nigh the house on Sat'day afternoon. Can't we have suthin' else +for Sat'day supper for once't--fried sounds, or pollock an' potaters, +or even fishcakes or chowder? This here reg'larity is a-drivin' of me +wild.' + +"I jest laughed at him. No use gettin' mad with a man. If ye do, ye can +scratch yerself and get glad again. So I baked beans jest like I always +do on Sat'days. + +"An' when Smith, he come up from the shore where he'd been stackin' +seaweed an' smelt the beans, he never says nothin', but he washes up, +an' shaves, an' puts on his Sunday-go-to-meetin' clo'es, and says he: + +"'I'm goin' over to Lucy Ann Mott's for supper, Ardely. An' I'll +prob'bly stop the night.' + +"So he went off. I knowed what he went for. He cal'lated he'd 'scape +eatin' beans one Sat'day night. Lucy Ann's his niece. She thinks a +heap o' Smith Dodge, an' Smith thinks a heap o' her. They was all glad +to see him. When he come up into the yard Lucy Ann run to put another +plate on the table, and says she: + +"'You'm more than welcome, Uncle Smith. I'm jest a-goin' to take a pot +o' beans out o' the oven. I hope they air as good as A'nt Ardely's?' + +"Wal," chuckled the old woman, "ain't nothin' cramped about Uncle +Smith's brains, if he has got tar on his breeches. He spoke right up +quick-like, an' says he: + +"'Lucy Ann, I can't stop along o' you folks to supper, though I'm just +as obleeged. I was on my way to Peke Rose's, an' I got to see Peke +about somethin' afore dark. Jest stopped here to pass the time o' day.' + +"So he goes on to Peke's. Peke's wife," continued Aunt Ardelia, "is a +might' good cook. Smith cal'lated he'd struck on good when he reached +Peke's jest as they was settin' down to supper. + +"'Set right up with us, Uncle Smith,' says Peke, givin' him a cheer. +They all hailed him like he was a sight for sore eyes, and he got +seated an' Peke axed Smith to ax a blessin'. + +"An' when he opened his eyes after axin' that blessin', what d'ye +s'pose he seen on the table right in front of him? A big, fat, brown +beanpot!" chuckled Aunt Ardelia. + +"Oh!" Carolyn's mouth was as round as the hole in the fresh doughnut +the old woman dropped into her napkin-covered lap. + +"But Smith Dodge," continued the narrator of this tale, "he warn't to +be overdone that-a-way. He'd set out to find somethin' b'sides beans, +and after supper he went on to Mrs. John-Ed Allen's. John-Ed is Smith's +nevvy. They was all for havin' Uncle Smith stop all night an' they +would take him to church, come Sunday mornin', in their surrey. So he +stopped. + +"Come Sunday mornin' he was up airly same as common," pursued Aunt +Ardelia, "an' whad he see but Mrs. John-Ed puttin' the beanpot into +the oven to warm up for breakfast! Smith, he was so mad, he never said +a word but hiked right out cross-lots, intendin' to come home. But he +come by Peter Littlefield's, an' Peter hailed him and he couldn't get +away, and they sot him down to a big breakfast of pork _an'_ beans!" +and Aunt Ardelia went off into such a gale of chuckles that she could +scarcely fork the brown doughnuts out of the smoking fat. + +"He sez to me, Smith did, after he come home, 'No use, Ardely. Nobody +can't say _I_ don't know beans! I'm full an' plenty acquainted with +'em. They say "variety is the spice o' life." There ain't no spice left +in life on this island. I cal'late ev'ry woman from Sands P'int to the +heel of the Killies has her mind sot on baked beans for Sat'day night +an' Sunday.'" + +The little girls listened to the story of Uncle Smith's revolt with +less appreciation, perhaps, than more mature persons might; but they +appreciated Aunt Ardelia's doughnuts to the full. + +Carolyn with her friend and Prince went on toward the cove and the +cabin where the Double O's were staying. The shack stood at the foot +of one slope of the great, barren sand hill which shut out the view +of Dorris Cove from the south. The children and the dog followed the +patrol path, which here dipped to the shore, and skirted the hill and +soon came to the fisherman's shack. + +It was empty. The door stood open and they could see all the interior. +There were the two berths in which the cousins slept, both neatly made +up with the cornhusk pillows plumped at the heads. The floor was swept +and the little round pot-stove was well polished. The Double O's were +as neat housekeepers as one could wish. + +But there were some things which had not been changed since the +departure of the original owner of the shack. Several religious +pictures were tacked to the walls and there was a harpoon hung in +beckets over the fireplace, for Beppo had been a famous boat-steerer in +the old whaling days and that harpoon had "struck on" to many a deep +sea monster. + +Beside the mantel was a tiny altar and a figure of the Virgin hanging +on the wall before which Beppo had burned a candle now and then +in gratitude for favours received or expected. These oddities of +furnishings were why Captain Ozias Littlefield had called the hut +"Portugoosy." + +"But I guess we can't go in," said Carolyn to her friend, "for Mr. +Cap'n Littlefield isn't here." + +"And can't we find out about his wooden leg?" + +"Doesn't seem so," admitted the equally disappointed Carolyn. + +"What'll we do, then?" asked Edna. "I wanted to see both their wooden +legs. Are they just alike, Car'lyn?" + +"Why, no," confessed her friend. "Their wooden legs aren't just alike. +You see, one's a lefthand leg and the other's a righthand leg." + +"Goodness! What's the difference?" + +"Why, I don't suppose they can swap them, do you?" Carolyn replied, +using an expression she had picked up from her longshore friends. "A +right leg wouldn't fit on a left stump, would it?" + +"Why not?" demanded Edna, inclined to argue the point. + +Just then Prince, who had run around a spur of the hill, began to bark. +A high-pitched, explosive voice was raised, warning the dog off: + +"Don't you come a-nigh me, you pesky critter you! Git out!" + +"Oh, dear me!" gasped Carolyn. "There's Mr. Oly Littlefield now--and +he's _mad_. Prince!" she shrieked, and set off for the hidden spot +where the cockatoo man and the mongrel had clashed. The path led up +behind the fisherman's shanty and around the spur of the sand hill. In +half a minute the two little girls were in sight of the wrangle. + +Prince was bounding about the angry, red-faced old fellow, and barking. +The cockatoo man was endeavouring to reach the dog with his cane. + +Suddenly he over-reached himself in trying to hit Prince, and to +save his balance, dropped the basket of groceries with which he had +evidently walked from the Center, where the nearest store was. + +The basket turned over and spilled out every package in it; and some +of the packages burst. A hail of beans went hopping down the slant of +the hill. Ground coffee, sugar, flour and what looked like hominy-grits +mixed with the sand for yards around. Four lemons bounded down the +hill, and Prince gave chase, perhaps thinking they were yellow rats. + +"Prince! Prince, you behave!" cried Carolyn May. + +"Dancin' Doolittles!" yelled Mr. Oly Littlefield. "Will ye look at that +now? Ev'rything broke loose an' cast adrift. I vow! if they could, I +wish't them lemons would p'ison that dratted dog. What'll Ozy say to +this mess?" + +Again he made a rush at Prince, who had returned at his mistress' call. +Carolyn cried out again, for the heavy cane came near to hitting the +dog. But disaster rode fast upon the old fellow's incautious attack. +His wooden leg sank into the sand beside the path, and Mr. Littlefield +was all but pitched headlong down the hill. + +To save himself he threw his body sideways and wrenched the leg free. +But that was only a momentary help. He could not regain his balance, +and the force with which he dragged the wooden leg from the sand threw +him too far in the other direction. + +"Dancin' Doolittles!" he blared, striving to recover himself. "Hi! Drat +that dog!" + +His wooden leg kicked straight out. He pawed at the empty air with both +hands, dropping his cane, which followed the basket and the groceries, +hippity-hop, down the hill. + +For an old man, and a wooden-legged man, Mr. Oliver Littlefield proved +to be very agile. He made a wild leap, and landed in the soft sand. +His wooden leg sank in this until he was more than knee deep in the +shifting comminuted rock on that side, while his right leg was bent +under him. + +And in this position the catastrophe caught him. In his dancing around +and stabbing the shifting sand with his wooden leg he started an +avalanche. Carolyn May was the first to see the slide coming and she +screamed: + +"Oh! Come away, Princey, quick! You'll be drownd-ed in the sand!" + +Several tons of the hill started slowly, and then with a _swish_ +like the sound of the surf, spread out and surrounded the struggling +cockatoo man. It buried him to his waist. + +Prince was fairly barking his head off. The little girls, quite out of +the line of the avalanche, could only dance up and down and squeal. +At this tragic juncture even the explosive ejaculation of "Dancing +Doolittles!" failed to relieve the feelings of Mr. Oly Littlefield. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + INTO MISCHIEF AND OUT + + +The cockatoo looking man, as Carolyn May often called Mr. Oly +Littlefield, was for once stricken dumb, as well as helpless. His +hat had flown off his head and followed his cane, the basket, the +groceries, and the bouncing lemons down the hill. But he was stuck +right where he had landed in the sand and the avalanche was piling up +around him. + +He sat in such a position, with his left leg completely buried and his +right drawn up, that he could not of his own strength drag his body out +of the sand. He might just as well have tried to lift himself out by +his bootstraps! + +The old fellow's face was really growing pale. The situation was +not laughable in the least to him. And as far as the children were +concerned, they were very much frightened. + +The sand was still sliding down all about him, and he was slowly being +buried, deeper and deeper. He could not see anybody to help him, for +from this angle of the hill no dwelling was in sight. + +At Dorris Cove were two fish houses, and he could see their roofs, and +the dories drawn well up on the shore. The poundmen, however, had drawn +the traps long since and gone home. Aside from the two little girls and +the dog, Mr. Oly Littlefield was alone. + +"In the name o' the Dancin' Doolittles!" he groaned. "I'm complete' +swamped here and no two ways about it. How'm I ever goin' to get out?" + +It did look as though his chance for escape was very slim. The sands +kept running down, and the more he struggled the deeper he seemed to +slide--just as though he were in a quicksand. + +"What ever shall we do?" cried Edna. "Oh, Carolyn, he's going to be all +buried up!" + +"He mustn't! He mustn't!" shrieked Carolyn quite as loudly, and she ran +toward the half-entombed man. + +Her light feet did not greatly disturb the sliding sand. Besides, she +addressed herself to the cockatoo man from the side of the path where +the hill had not fallen. Edna followed her friend's example, and both +little girls seized upon his right hand and dragged at him, while he +fought with his left to loosen his body from the engulfing sand. + +Even Prince helped. He seized Mr. Oly Littlefield by the tail of his +short linen coat. He almost dragged the coat over the man's head; but +the buttons held and the dog was of some aid in pulling the cockatoo +man out of the pit. + +He managed to raise himself a little and then fell sideways, prying his +wooden leg from the sand. The little girls, with screams, fell over +backward as the cockatoo man came free. Prince lost his hold on the +coat and slithered half way down the hill. + +"Oh! _Oh!_ OH!" shrieked Edna in crescendo. + +"It's all over!" Carolyn gasped. + +"What the Dancin' Doolittles!" ejaculated the old fellow. "And _now_ +who's to go back and git more groceries, I want to know? I wish't I'd +let Ozy do it in the first place." + +Carolyn expected him to turn his wrath upon, them--especially upon +Prince. She stood off a little, clutching Edna's hand, and staring at +him. The cockatoo man turned his head stiffly, where he sat on the +hillside with his wooden leg sticking straight out before him, and +blinked at the children and the dog. + +"I declare to man!" he said. "You young 'uns was good to me. Even that +dog, I reckon he meant well by me, though I think he's tored the coat +purt' near off my back. I thank ye! Merciful--Dancin'--Doolittles!" as +he rose to an erect position. "How'll I git my basket--_an'_ my cane?" + +He really was much subdued, and Carolyn May began to feel sympathetic. + +"Oh, sir! we'll help you if you'll let us," she cried. + +"I ain't in a position to object, I reckon," returned Mr. Littlefield +dryly. + +They ran after the basket and his cane, and even picked up the lemons. +But most of the dry groceries he had bought were under the loose sand +that was still pouring down the hillside in various little streams. Mr. +Littlefield accepted his possessions with good grace and thanked the +little girls. + +"I'll hobble on to the shack and wait for Ozy to come back from the +fishin'. I declare! I ain't able now to make another v'y'ge to Peleg +Rose's store and back again--nossir! Much obleeged to you, I'm sure, +leetle gals. Good-bye." + +He hobbled down the path toward the cabin on the shore. Edna grabbed +Carolyn's arm and shook her. + +"Oh, Carolyn May! _Now_ is the time to ask him." + +"Ask him what?" + +"How he came to have that wooden leg?" + +"Oh, no," Carolyn said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't ask him that _now_. +Maybe Mr. Littlefield wouldn't like to talk about his wooden leg just +when it got him into so much trouble," she added with tact. "I guess +we'd better ask Mr. Cap'n Littlefield first." + +They did not, however, have the opportunity to put the query to the +captain at that time. He was not at the shore cabin, and his cousin was +in no mood to entertain visitors. + +So the little girls and Prince plodded home again. Knowing the way by +the highroad, they followed that instead of the patrol path, although +it was longer. The dusty road brought them around by Barzilla's sheep +pasture which at one end was separated by a stone wall only from the +highway. + +"Oh, dear, me, Car'lyn!" exclaimed Edna. "Look at all those sheep." + +A flock of a score or more was milling in the road. A black-faced old +ewe was trying to lead the flock over or through the stone wall into +the Ball pasture. + +"My goodness, won't Miss Molly be sot all aback!" cried Carolyn, +repeating an expression she had lately learned and thought well of. +"Those are all Nebuchadnezzar's relations." + +"How do you know?" asked her friend. + +"Of course they are. Don't you see they've all got black faces? And +they are trying to get into our pasture! And they can't, the poor +things!" + +"That big sheep is going to push that rock over. If it can do it," Edna +said as "judgmatically" as Aunt Ardelia Dodge would have said it, "they +can all go through the wall." + +"Let's help 'em," Carolyn suggested. + +"Let's," agreed Edna promptly. + +So, telling Prince to stay back and behave, the children ran up along +the toppling stone wall. The old ewe backed away and stamped her feet. + +"Do you s'pose it'll bite, Carolyn?" murmured Edna, stopping and +preparing to withdraw at any further sign of antagonism on the part of +the black-faced ewe. + +"Certainly not," declared Carolyn. "It's got only one set of teeth, +anyway." + +"The poor thing! Is it as old as all that?" queried Edna, who was not +as familiar with the split-hoof herbivorous animals as Carolyn claimed +to be. "It must be as old as old Mrs. Junkins at home, for she hasn't +got but a few teeth left, and she says they don't hit!" + +"This sheep'll never hurt you," Carolyn bravely declared, and she +approached the stone on the wall. Seeing that it was already wabbling, +she managed to push it over into the pasture without any great +difficulty. It rolled down a little gully, and several other stones +followed it, for the wall was built in a very haphazard fashion. + +She stepped back, and at once the old ewe dashed for the opening. She +plunged through, and the other sheep, old and young, crowding and +bleating, followed after. + +"I s'pose," said Carolyn, seriously, "we ought to stop up that place +again so that they can't get out." + +"But we can't lift those stones," objected Edna. "We've done enough," +the little visitor added, taking credit for what Carolyn had really +accomplished alone. + +"I guess that's so. Well, let's hurry and tell Miss Molly. She can lift +them. Miss Molly's awful strong." + +The sheep were now feeding composedly, and were heading down the +hollow, the other end of which could not be seen from the roadside. The +little girls quickened their steps and turned up the Ball lane. As they +approached the cottage Molly I. came out to ask: + +"Did you children see Abel Mott's sheep along the road anywhere? +They've broke out again." + +"Oh, no," Carolyn assured her. "We only saw your sheep. They had got +out of the pasture." + +"Nonsense, child!" said Molly I. "I saw our sheep grazin' up in this +end of our pasture not ha'f an hour ago." + +"Oh, no, Miss Molly, you couldn't," Carolyn said earnestly. "They +were all out in the road and trying their hardest to get into your +pasture-lot. So I helped 'em." + +"You helped 'em?" + +"Yes. I threw down a stone so that they could get through the wall, and +they all went through--just as slick! But Edna and I couldn't put up +the stone again. It was too big." + +"For the land's sake!" exclaimed Molly I., and she started across the +fields toward the pasture, dishcloth in hand. The little girls trotted +with her, realizing that something was wrong but not understanding what. + +They came in sight of the upper end of the pasture. There were the two +flocks of sheep feeding together, and hopelessly mixed! + +"Now you _have_ done it, children," said Molly Ball, in despair. "It'll +take Barzilla a full day to separate them an' git Abel Mott's out into +the road again. Abel will never lift his hand to sort 'em out. His +pasture is poor anyway, and he don't mind how long his sheep stay away +from home, if they come back with their fleece on. He's mighty careful +'bout foldin' them when it comes shearin' time." + +"Oh!" gasped Carolyn, at last. "Did--did I let in the wrong sheeps?" + +"I cal'late you did. But they likely would ha' broke in somewhere," +said the island girl more mildly. "Don't fret about it, child." + +But Carolyn May was a good deal chagrined that she should have made +such a mistake. + +"Sheeps are so much alike," she complained to Edna. "Even +Nebuchadnezzar is getting to look like all his relations. And those +sheeps of Mr. Abel Mott acted just like they belonged in that pasture." + +"Next time," Edna said, solemnly, "I wouldn't turn a herd of giraffes +into one of these lots." + +"But goodness!" cried Carolyn, "you wouldn't find giraffes on Block +Island." + +Nobody scolded them much for the mistake, and everybody was vastly +amused by the little girls' account of Mr. Oly Littlefield's mishap. + +Baby Laird's papa was no longer going to the Old Harbour daily, for +there was nothing more he could do for Mr. Ben Truefelt about the +hotel. He began to go out with Barzilla in the _Snatch It_, and they +were sometimes gone the better part of two days. + +The pale lady, as Carolyn always thought of her friend, continued to +look worried and Carolyn heard now and then hints of the departure of +the trio for some distant place. The thought of losing the pale lady +and Baby Laird made the little girl feel very sad. To stop to think of +unpleasant possibilities, however, was not Carolyn May's way. She had +a firm belief in the silver lining to every cloud. She hoped her pale +lady and Baby Laird and his father would not be obliged to go so far +away that she could not see them _some_ times. + +"Don't you s'pose I could come in the cars to see you at Arizona?" she +asked the baby's mother wistfully. "You know, I went all the way to +Sunrise Cove alone once; and I came back home from there by myself--me +and Princey. I'm sure I wouldn't lose my way." + +"Ah, but Arizona is much, much farther away than your uncle's house," +sighed the pale lady. + +"Oh! Farther away than Block Island is from New York?" + +"Yes, my dear." + +"Then Arizona must be almost as far as Heaven!" gasped Carolyn. "And +Aunty Rose Kennedy says that's a 'fur ways.' Won't I see you and Baby +Laird, ever, again?" + +"I cannot say, my dear--I cannot say," said her friend faintly. "I feel +that if we go we shall leave what few friends we have--and all hope, +even--behind." + +The little girl was moved by the pale lady's sorrow; but she did not +understand just what this speech meant. And there really was so much +to enjoy that she could not always give her thought to her friends' +troubles. + +Here was the picnic, for instance, which had been set for the next +morning. How could Carolyn remember much else when she and Edna went to +bed that night in Carolyn's little room at the back of the Ball cottage? + +The surf grumbled on the shore below the window. She only had to sit +up in bed beside the sleeping Edna to see the blinking lamps of the +lighthouses on the Long Island shore. The stars spattered the firmament +thickly. + +"Oh, it's going to be a clear day tomorrow," whispered Carolyn May with +a happy little bounce. "We'll have a nawful nice time at the picnic." + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV + + HE TURNS UP AGAIN + + +At the Orowoc House the largest and best furnished of the private +suites was occupied by Carolyn's stern looking friend and his wife. +The latter's maid, who was a French-woman, slept in the room next to +her mistress. The valet and George, the coloured man, were otherwise +bestowed. + +For two hours each morning--from eight to ten--and after a plain and +ample breakfast, the master of the wealth which this style of living +revealed, sat in the room he used personally, at a table on which was a +telephone. The hotel help discussed with much gusto what it must have +cost to have a private wire to his New York office opened for those two +hours. With certain memoranda and a notebook before him, this master +of men and gold called his secretaries and managers, one by one, and +gave them instructions for the day. Each made his report, too, of the +previous twenty-four hour's activities. The master jotted down his +notes and finally conversed at some length with his chief secretary. + +After that he was free to spend the remainder of the day with his wife. +He refused to answer any telephone call save during those two hours, +and mail and telegraph messages piled up on his table as they pleased. +He gave them not even a glance until the next morning. This was the +busy man's vacation time. He had spent several summer weeks in this +fashion for three years--ever since that time when the haughty lady had +become such a burden to him and to herself. + +The day following his conversation with Carolyn May wherein she had +spoken of his automobile being at the Corners, this master of men sent +a special message to one of his employ s in his New York office: + + "Come here with René and the _White Streak_, tomorrow." + +There was no explanatory phrase attached to the message. This man was +not in the habit of explaining in any case. + +Therefore a little before noon the next day a forty foot turbine launch +was sighted off the neck, heading islandwards with a bone in her teeth. +She was painted white, she was as narrow as a shark, and her speed was +something to marvel at as she approached the narrow waterway that the +islanders called "the breach." + +Beating up for the same point was the _Snatch It_, Barzilla Ball's +double-ender. She had been out to the banks since the previous morning, +and Barzilla proposed to put his catch aboard the New London steam +smack that left the port that afternoon. It was this handling of his +catch by a middleman that rasped the young fisherman on the raw. It was +too far for the _Snatch It_ to make market herself. + +"Look at that thing coming, Mr. Bassett," said Barzilla, "She throws up +a wave two feet high, if it's an inch." + +"Turbine," returned Baby Laird's father. "I used to--Well, they are +fast craft. If your boat had a quarter of her speed, Barzilla, you'd be +fixed good." + +"Ain't it so? Le's see which of us will make the breach first." + +He shifted his helm a little. Bassett went forward, in readiness to +drop the jib when the _Snatch It_ shot into the narrow waterway. He +had been used to sailing boats and small yachts since boyhood, and his +previous summers at Block Island had added to his sea-knowledge until, +as Barzilla said, he was as good as any "blooded banker." Barzilla had +let his crew go and insisted on paying Joe Bassett instead. + +The latter kept a curious gaze upon the _White Streak_, which indeed +did leave a white streak in her wake as well as push a foaming wave +before her. The city man was not long puzzled as to the turbine's +identity; but he was amazed by seeing her in these waters. + +"I've seen that thing before," drawled Barzilla. "Her owner's some big +bug. Looks like she was sent for an' was trying to git there, eh?" + +"She can travel. But surely her owner isn't on Block Island?" + +"Dunno. Ain't heard. Mebbe he's aboard her now." + +Bassett turned his back on the swiftly sailing launch, which shot +across the bows of the double-ender and took the strait in advance. +The _Snatch It_ had to tack and beat across the pond to the steam +trawler, the skipper of which was buying fish and lobsters for the New +London market. The turbine had already docked. + +The moment the _White Streak_ was tied up, the saturnine man whom +Carolyn May had twice had occasion to observe, landed and set his feet +toward the Orowoc House. René, who acted as engineer of the turbine as +he did chauffeur of the large car, was left aboard with two Japanese +boys who made up the crew. + +The black-browed man addressed himself to the clerk of the hotel with +an assurance that made that functionary give him his best attention. He +asked for the man so well known in the financial world, and mentioned +his own name. + +"He expects me. Shall I go right up?" he asked. + +"I am sorry, sir. The gentleman and his lady have just gone to +drive--not ten minutes ago. They'll remain all day. I am instructed to +tell you that they will lunch at the South Light and that you are to +come across the island and meet him there. First they drive to the West +Side, I understand. You can hire a rig, sir." + +"I know the island," said the dark man, briefly. "I'll walk." + +The hotel carriage had appeared according to promise at the lower +end of the Ball lane on this forenoon. Carolyn and Edna, with Prince +barking madly before them, raced down from the cottage in the dooryard +of which Mrs. Cameron, the baby's mother, and Molly Ball stood to +watch the departure of the picnic party. + +"I presume it is perfectly safe to let the children go with those +people," Carolyn's mother said. "They seem very nice--and somehow I +pity that woman. She looks so unhappy and discontented, except when she +is talking to Carolyn or playing with your baby," she added, smiling at +the pale lady. + +"Land sake! you needn't fret 'bout them," declared the confident Molly +I. "If they've taken a shine to the baby, Miz Bassett, mebbe they'll +do something harnsome for him. You read 'bout rich folks doing such +things." + +"But," murmured the baby's mother, hugging him more closely at the +thought, "we do not want people to patronize us, Laird and I. Even for +the baby's sake. We will not always be poor. I am sure if Laird once +gets into some business for which he is really fitted our hard times +will be over. We do not wish to be objects of charity." + +"Wal, I dunno," said the practical island girl. "Wouldn't call it +charity. What you get is so much gained, 'cording to my notion. I'm as +independent as the next one; but these folks that have got too much +money ought to be let to spend it. And if they wanted to spend it on me +or mine, I sh'd let 'em!" + +"Here come the Block Island Indians!" exclaimed the man in the +carriage. "Think you can stand such a wild crew for all day, Mother?" + +"Let them climb right in here by me," said his wife, moving over on +the rear seat of the carriage to make room for the little girls, and +smiling more warmly upon them than Carolyn remembered having seen her +smile before. "I only wish Baby Laird were coming too." + +"Oh, I _know_ he'd be glad to come," said Carolyn, getting into the +carriage after Edna. "But, you see, he wouldn't have his bottle. And +it's awfully important that he should have his bottle on time, you +know." + +"It's awfully important that we _all_ have our meals on time," said +their host, laughing. "That is why I had the hotel people pack that +hamper for us that is strapped on behind." + +That was a wonderfully interesting drive for the little girls. The +man seemed to know quite as much about Block Island as Captain Ozias +Littlefield. + +The road took them within sight of the West Side life-saving station; +but they did not stop there on this occasion. They drove on past the +stone cottage and the strip of stone wall built by the last Indian who +lived on the island. His forefathers had owned Block Island in the +beginning and called it Manisses. This last Indian had built stone +fences all his life and built them so well that they would never fall +unless the island suffered an earthquake shock. + +There were a good many gates to open and shut during the drive, for +the party passed through private property most of the way to the +lighthouse. They viewed all that was visible of the ancient wreck of +the _Killies_, and the black reefs and dashing waves along the south +shore of the island looked dangerous even to the little girls. + +"What an awful thing it would be if a ship sailed right in here and +bumped its nose on these rocks!" Edna exclaimed. "I wouldn't want to +see _that_." + +"I guess the folks couldn't jump ashore from, the ship, could they?" +queried Carolyn. + +"Not very well," their friend and host agreed. "That is why they have +life savers all around the island. The life savers help to get people +off the wrecks--when there are any wrecks." + +"My goodness!" Edna gasped. "I shall be scared to go home. Suppose the +steamboat is wrecked? Why don't they have railroads running to this +island? Then there would be no ships wrecked here." + +"Why, how you talk, Edna Price!" said Carolyn. "They can't build +railroads on _water_!" + +"One of these ox teams would be safe to ride over here on, wouldn't +it?" chuckled their host. + +"But there isn't any _street_," cried Carolyn again with emphasis. +"Why, that's just as ridiculous as Edna wanting a railroad built!" + +"Perhaps it is," admitted her friend meekly. + +They came at length to the wind-blown downs and the lighthouse. The +face of the bluff here was very steep and rocky. The Atlantic billows +rolled in ponderously from the open sea and dashed their spray in +places half way to the brink of the bank. Out at sea many great sailing +ships as well as steam-propelled craft went past--coastwise ships and +those European-bound and returning from distant ports. + +There were naval vessels in sight, too--several submarine chasers and a +destroyer or two; while in the distance a smudge of smoke against the +sky, the children were told, marked the swift passage of a dreadnaught. + +Then their friend took them to the lighthouse, the keeper of which +treated them very nicely indeed. He allowed them to climb to the lamp +room and showed them all about the working of the great lantern. They +went out on the gallery, too, and the keeper let them look through his +glasses at a triangular white spot which he said was the riding sail of +the lightship on Nantucket Shoals, thirty miles from the island. + +Beside the lighthouse itself was another building in which was housed +the fog siren--that solemn-toned horn the voice of which Edna had at +first believed was the "mewing" of a cow. And when she had seen the +mechanism that governed it, Edna declared that it "ought to sound as +loud as an elephant, let alone a cow." + +"But you never heard an elephant, Edna Price!" cried Carolyn. "How do +you know an elephant's voice is any louder than a cow's?" + +"My goodness! Isn't an elephant bigger?" + +"Why, voices don't go according to size. Baby Laird, when he wants to, +can scream louder than _I_ can--and he isn't half as big," said the +philosophical Carolyn. "And that old bullfrog in Uncle Smith Dodge's +tughole can make more noise when he barks than Prince." + +They might have had to argue the case before their host had there not +been a welcome call to dinner by the shining-faced George, who had +spread a cloth upon a flat rock in the shade of another rock, and under +his mistress' direction set forth such a repast that the little girls' +eyes sparkled when they saw it. + +"Isn't it nice to be rich?" Edna whispered to Carolyn. "Oh, how I love +that salad! And lady fingers! Dear me, Car'lyn May, don't you wish you +could eat every day like this?" + +"No," responded Carolyn, promptly. "For I know I should make myself +sick if I did. This is a party, and parties would be no fun if we had +'em ev'ry day." + +This practical statement brought no rejoinder from Carolyn's friend, +for she was staring at a stranger who was approaching. Carolyn turned +her head to look, too. It was the saturnine man who had unpleasantly +impressed Carolyn on two previous occasions--once at the Corners and +once in the poor tenement house in New York where Baby Laird had lived. + +"Ah! Here he is now!" their host said quickly, and rose to meet the +newcomer. Although he seemed to have expected the saturnine man, +Carolyn did not think his employer was glad to see him. His brow bent +sternly. + +What they at first said the little girls did not hear, for they met +some yards from the flat rock at which the party was lunching. The lady +gave the person who had interrupted their repast no attention whatever. + +But suddenly Carolyn heard her name called. She looked over her +shoulder and saw her friend beckoning to her. + +"My husband wishes to speak to you, child," said the lady. + +Carolyn May got up, excused herself politely, and ran to join her host +and the dark-browed fellow. The latter stared at the little girl with +surprise as well as chagrin, when she drew near. + +"I recognize your informant," he said harshly, turning from the child +to his employer. "Heaven--and René--only know where we were. Up in some +backwoods settlement. We were actually lost, sir. Otherwise we would +not have got so far off the right trail to Boston." + +"Boston! You were no more on the road to Boston where you were due, +than you were to the moon," said the gentleman sharply. "You knew +better--both you and René. Go back to the dock and wait till I return +tonight. I'll have something to say to you then." + +He turned his back on the dark complexioned man, whose brow was more +deeply corrugated than usual. The latter's angry gaze was fixed upon +Carolyn and it seemed to threaten the unconscious child. Had she +observed this malevolent glance the little girl might have recalled the +dream she had had regarding this man and the chauffeur the night the +Truefelt House caught fire. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV + + ALMOST + + +Barzilla Ball was, like most single-minded people, thoroughly confident +that the project he had evolved regarding the swordfishing industry +had no flaw in it. And perhaps it was perfect. As Joe Bassett pointed +out, Barzilla made his sole mistake in determining that he, Bassett, +was turned up by the plough of Good Luck particularly to be the partner +Barzilla was looking for. + +"You don't have to repeat your patter in relation to the swordfishing +game to me. I believe it all," Bassett said, as they landed after +mooring the _Snatch It_ at her buoy. "And if I had the money I would +strike hands with you on the spot." + +"That's what I want to hear you say, Mr. Bassett," declared the +swordfisher. + +"But what good does it do you--or me? That 'if' is in the way. You need +a partner with at least two thousand dollars. Where would I get such a +sum?" + +"I don't know, Mr. Bassett. But I feel that you could get it if you +would only believe you could." + +"Great Scott! You talk like Carolyn's father. He was for ever telling +me while I was on the _Beacon_ that I had no self-confidence. But I +can't go up to a man and knock him down and take his purse away from +him," and he laughed rather bitterly. + +"I dunno," drawled Barzilla, "but even that would be less of a sin +than lettin' opportunity slip right by you without a-grabbing of his +fetlock." + +"Forelock you mean, Barzilla." + +"Fetlock, _or_ forelock--it amounts to the same. Gettin' a strangle +hold on opportunity is the meanin'. And that's what you ought to be +doin' of right now." + +"How?" + +"You've got slathers of friends. You went to college with a bunch of +men who have plenty of money. You can borrow on your bare word more +than I could scrape together by givin' my note to ev'ry man on the +island." + +"The responsibility would be more than I could bear, Barzilla," Joe +Bassett answered quietly. "I have been neck deep in debt. I still owe +some money. Believe me, I would starve--and so would my wife--rather +than be borne down by the weight of debt again." + +"But this is a dead-open-an'-shut business proposition." + +"May be. I believe it is. But who could I go to who is within reach to +ask for money? On this island, for instance?" + +"How 'bout Ben Truefelt?" + +"Ben's got his hands full after that fire in his hotel." + +"I s'pose so. Wish't you knowed the big bug Carolyn's goin' picnickin' +with, today. They say he's got plenty o' money." + +"Who are those people?" asked Bassett curiously. + +"I dunno. He's a mighty st'arn lookin' old guy. I'm so desp'rit, Mr. +Bassett, I'm near 'bout tempted to tackle him on my own hook nex' time +I see him talkin' to Car'lyn May. And his wife's so stuck on that baby +o' yourn--" + +"Good heavens, Barzilla! I can't make profit because those people are +interested in little Laird," cried Bassett in something like horror. It +seemed his wife's opinion and his own were much alike on this point. + +The two young men, having tramped across the island with their gear, +on approaching the lane leading up to the cottage on the bluff saw the +hotel carriage standing in the highroad. Carolyn and Edna had come +home from the picnic. The moneyed man sat on the front seat beside the +driver. + +"There he is now!" exclaimed Barzilla. "And they say he's so rich that +two thousand wouldn't be a fleabite to him." + +"You don't realize how tender the financial skin of the wealthy may be. +It sometimes seems that the more money a man has the more he groans +over a fleabite." + +But Bassett gazed at the man in the carriage with keen scrutiny. When +Barzilla again glanced at him the former hotel clerk had pulled the +peak of his tarpaulin over his face and did not look again in the +direction of the carriage. Indeed, taking a short-cut path over the +roadside ditch, he headed toward the house without further word. + +The fisherman approached the carriage with curiosity. Carolyn had run +up for Baby Laird and he was now crowing and kicking in the lady's +arms. Carolyn was saying to their host: + +"We're awf'ly obliged, Edna and me, for the picnic. It was one of the +very nicest parties I was ever to." + +"Yes," agreed Edna, who was suddenly tongue-tied. + +"We never would have seen so much of this island if it hadn't been for +you," continued Carolyn May. "And I think it is an awfully interesting +place, don't you, sir?" + +"If you mean that it is as dead as a doornail, and therefore an ideal +place for a vacation, I agree with you," said her friend, grimly +smiling. "Have you ever sailed around the island--seen it from all +sides?" + +"Oh, no, sir. Barzilla's going to take us out in his _Snatch It_ some +day when he isn't swordfishin'. But he hasn't got to it, yet. Why! +here's Barzilla now." + +"The baby's father, Henry," the lady whispered. Baby Laird was putting +out his arms to the broadly-smiling fisherman who could not fail to be +a favourite with the little man. + +"You've a fine baby here," said Carolyn's friend. + +"I cal'late we have," replied Barzilla, coming nearer to the carriage. +"Your servant, Marm." + +The invalid bowed. "The little girl says you are a swordfisher," +continued the man, who never found any other man too uninteresting to +talk to--on his vacations! + +"I am," agreed Barzilla. "Got the last double-ender ever built in this +port." + +"Is it still a paying business?" + +"It makes us a livelihood. But 'twould pay better if me an' my partner +had the capital we need to build a shed for saltin' swordfish when the +market's low, and so go at it right." + +"That your partner?" asked the man, nodding toward the departing Joe +Bassett. + +"Yes, sir. And a mighty nice feller, if he is a city man. You know, we +don't us'ally think much of off men about boat _an'_ gear. But he's all +right. If he had two thousand dollars to put into my scheme I cal'late +he'd be put' nigh perfect," said Barzilla, smiling again broadly. + +Carolyn's friend continued to stare after the figure plodding up the +lane toward the cottage on the bluff. The baby, in his eagerness, +almost leaped into Barzilla's arms. + +"He knows his father, it seems," said the woman, in a more friendly +tone than was usually her way. + +"I cal'late he do, Marm," said Barzilla politely. "But I ain't his +father." + +"No?" she said in well-bred surprise. + +"No, Marm. There goes his pop," pointing to Joe Bassett in the +distance. "This little Tom-cod's an off child. But he's might' nice +folks." + +"Who is his father?" asked the woman quickly, staring now as did her +husband after the figure plodding up the lane. + +"My partner, Marm," replied Barzilla, simply. "Or, he would be my +partner, fair _an'_ full, if he could scrape together 'bout two +thousand dollars to put into the firm against my _Snatch It_ and my +'know how.'" + +The woman turned swiftly to look at her husband. "The dear little +baby!" she murmured. + +There must have been something more in her look and tone than was +apparent in the mere words she said, for the man spoke to Barzilla as +the carriage rolled away: + +"Tell Mr. Laird to come to see me. I may be able to help you boys out. +I take a flyer sometimes for old times' sake. I was longshore-bred, +myself." + +"Good-bye! Good-bye!" shouted the children after the carriage. + +Barzilla said: "He ain't got Mr. Bassett's name jest right, has he? +But, hi gummy! looks though there might be a chance't for us to git +what we want. Glad I spoke as I did." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Cameron came again, and when he returned to New York on Sunday +afternoon, Edna went home with him. She departed with one desire +unsatisfied. There had been no opportunity for the little girls to make +another attempt to unveil the mystery of the Double O's wooden legs. + +"But you just keep at 'em till they tell you, Carolyn May," commanded +Edna. "I shall expect to hear all about 'em when you come back home. To +think of it! Two cousins and both wearing wooden legs. I never _did_!" + +Carolyn and her mother and Prince drove over to the dock in Uncle Smith +Dodge's carriage to see Edna and Papa Cameron off. + +The _White Streak_ still lay in the Great Salt Pond; but Carolyn saw +nothing of her friends who were staying at the Orowoc House. And the +turbine meant nothing to her, for she did not see the dark complexioned +man or René about the dock. + +The little girl might have been rather lonesome when Edna was gone, +except that there was so very much to do about the cottage on the +bluff--and elsewhere. She had always Prince and Nebuchadnezzar to play +with; and when she could go down on the shore, there were so many +curious things to find and to make playthings of that the child seldom +thought about being lonely. + +She realized that there was something wrong with her friends, "the pale +lady" and her husband. It came to the little girl's mind that Baby +Laird's father was supposed to have done something very wrong when they +were all at home in New York. Her papa had been very angry with him for +it and Carolyn wondered if he had "done it again." + +The baby's mother often talked very seriously with Baby Laird's father. +Even Barzilla looked oddly at him. Once Carolyn heard the fisherman say: + +"Looks to me like 'twas your chance't, Mr. Bassett. Old Man +Opportunity, like we was talking about once, is right where you can +grab his fetlock." + +But the young man shook his head silently and his eyes were so grave +and sad that, had he not been such a very, very naughty man Carolyn +would certainly have tried to comfort him. Even the pale lady seemed +to think he was not doing the right thing in refusing to approach the +capitalist at the Orowoc House as he had been bidden; so how could +Carolyn seek to sympathize with Mr. Joe Bassett? + +She sat with the pale lady and her baby more than she had before. Was +it because the child felt that her hopeful chatter and the radiance of +her sunny heart was helpful to her sorrowful friend? Even her mother +was often puzzled to know just what went on in Carolyn May's busy brain. + +These days the little girl did not play "If I Were Rich" in the pale +lady's hearing. It seemed to Carolyn May that her friend's heartache +and despair was so closely connected with her husband's lack of money +that the mere suggestion of her former state of wealth might add to the +pale lady's unhappiness. + +And that she was unhappy none could doubt who saw her. The pallor +of her cheek, her feebleness, and her mental as well as physical +weariness, were so marked that everybody noticed it. Molly Ball said +she never knew an "off" person to come to the island and seem to get so +little good of it as Baby Laird's mother. + +The crew were now recalled to the life saving station, and Captain +Ozias Littlefield sent word by one of the surfmen that he was going to +be at home at the Portuguese's cabin on a certain day, for he and Oly +had a boatload of pollock to split and salt. Carolyn was invited to +visit the shack and stay "over chowder time." Barzilla was going down +to the cove for a wagon load of shack fish to bury under the seaweed +pile for next year's garden fertilizer; and the little girl rode with +him behind Beppo, the pony. + +At a certain point on the road Barzilla stopped the pony to let Carolyn +get down. She was going across the spur of the sandhill by the path on +which Mr. Oly Littlefield had once come to grief. This was the nearer +way to the cabin. + +For once Prince was content to trail at his mistress' heels. He had +trotted all the way behind Barzilla's empty wagon, and Barzilla was in +a hurry and had urged the pony. + +So Carolyn was the first to come in sight of the open beach. She could +see the roof of the fisherman's shanty; but nearer--right under the +bank where she stopped suddenly--two men sprawled. + +Carolyn could see them plainly. They had evidently been walking the +beach and had thrown themselves down in this sheltered place to rest. +She knew them both--René, the chauffeur, and the dark man whom Carolyn +May so disliked. + +She squatted down in the sand, with a warning hand upon the back of +Prince's neck. She had a feeling that she did not wish to let these men +know that she was so near to them. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI + + COUSIN OLY'S ACCIDENT + + +Carolyn May had no intention of eavesdropping. She was not that sort +of little girl. If she listened on occasion to what her elders were +saying, she had perfect confidence in her right to do so; for Mamma +and Papa Cameron never indulged in those regrettable half-speeches and +hints which so often serve to impress little folk with the very things +that they are expected not to hear. + +If Carolyn's mother and father had anything private to discuss, they +discussed it privately. + +In addition, if Carolyn May chanced to report what she might hear, it +was done in no spirit of tale bearing. Even in the matter of telling +her friend that she had seen his motor-car at the Corners, Carolyn had +been perfectly innocent of guile. + +Here was the man she so disliked--not to say feared--and the chauffeur, +again. She kept Prince quiet. After his long run behind the pony the +dog was quite willing to go to sleep in the sand. Carolyn was tempted +to go back by the path to the road, and so follow Barzilla Ball and +Beppo around to the shore where the pound fishermen brought in the fish +from the nets. + +The two men below her were talking. René said: + +"But I get nothing, Boss! I only run the risk of giving M'sieu offence +and losing my job." + +"Get nothing?" ejaculated the dark man in evident anger. "I saw Calvin +Cummings hand you a hundred dollars in crisp twenties when he and his +friends left us at Sunrise Cove. What do you mean--get nothing?" + +"Ha! A hundred dol'?" cried the French Canadian excitedly. "And what +is that compare' with what you make in that deal of the paper-pulp +mills, Boss? Think you I do not understand what you are about? Ha! Cal +Cummings and his crowd let you in on it on the ground floor, eh? You +make the big money while me, René Miett, have to satisfy myself with +the tip--is it not?" + +He talked so queerly and so excitedly, that the little girl's interest +was held closely and she remained where she was. But of course she did +not understand all that the two were talking about. + +[Illustration: _The little girl's interest was closely held._] + +"I have to take risks, too--greater than yours, René," the dark man +said, by his tone evidently wearied of the chauffeur's complaints. + +"I lose my job, maybe." + +"And so may I. Especially if the old man finds out who sold him out to +the Cummings crowd in that matter of the pulp-mills," and the speaker +laughed shortly. "He's in no pleasant mood just now. He is keeping me +here at the hotel muddling over accounts like any junior clerk, while +his secret agents I am sure are going through my office accounts, if +not my private papers. He is suspicious." + +"Ah!" + +"He trusts nobody--you know that--since--Well, since the time we both +have reason to remember, René." + +"Sure. I 'member," growled the other sourly. "Who does not? And there +you won a fortune, while I--" + +The dark man sprang up angrily. He used words that showed his wrath but +that made no lasting impression on Carolyn May's innocent mind. + +"And you had five hundred that time for merely keeping your mouth +shut," he finished. "Ungrateful dog!" + +"While you got ten thousand dollars, eh?" snarled René. "I believe +it! I haf always believe' it. The money came from the bank, and +M'sieu was most particular about it. Then we go a second time for ten +thousand--Oh, yes! I am convince' you got that first ten thousand dol', +Boss. I cannot believe the young one, he take it. No!" + +"What if I did?" demanded the other. "Do you think ten thousand dollars +lasts forever?" + +"Not when a man lives as you do, Boss. If M'sieu knew--" + +"If he knew the truth about that ten thousand dollars we would both +lose our jobs," growled the dark man. "And he hates to lose even ten +cents--let alone ten thousand dollars." + +"Who would not shrink from losing that sum? Ah!" groaned René, as they +walked away. + +Carolyn May had heard the sum of "ten thousand dollars" repeated +so often that she was not likely to forget it at once, nor the +circumstances under which she had heard it. It was clear in her mind, +too, that in some way her friend who lived at the Orowoc House had lost +the sum of money in question. + +She waited until the chauffeur and the saturnine man had walked some +distance away before she ran down to the beach and around the foot of +the hill to the cabin. + +The two wooden-legged men were hard at work splitting and salting the +dory load of pollock they had obtained the day before. There was a big +tub of salt water by the cabin door into which the fish were thrown as +fast as Captain Littlefield gutted and split them. Mr. Oly Littlefield +was salting the split fish, fresh from the tub, and stacking them under +the lean-to, in tiers. In a few days the fish would be spread on the +drying racks for more complete curing. + +"Here's the leetle gal and the dog," said Captain Littlefield jovially. +"How fare ye?" + +"Oh, I am very well, I thank you, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield," she said. "I +hope you are well--and your Cousin Oly?" + +"I'm purt' pert," said the other wooden-legged man very graciously for +him. "Thank ye." + +Prince went and snuffed at the cockatoo man's wooden leg, and he made +no objection to the dog's familiarity. Carolyn May thought he must be +quite changed from what he used to be! Perhaps his having been buried +in the sand had served a good purpose. + +The remainder of the fish were soon split and salted and stacked. The +vicinity was redolent enough of fishy odours; but Carolyn May had +become pretty well used to such smells since she had begun her sojourn +on Block Island. + +The cousins dragged the skids of offal down to the outgoing tide and +dumped it into the water. Then they washed out the tubs and cleaned up +about the cabin, making all "shipshape," as Captain Ozias said. + +"Sailors make purt' good housekeepers, they tell me," said the captain. +"Of course, Oly don't count. He never was no sailor. Most sailin' he +ever done was goin' out in that _Snatch It_ of Barzilla's. 'Twas Enos +Ball, Barzilla's father, sailed the _Snatch It_ in them days. Oly was +by way of bein' a swordfisher till his accident." + +"What accident?" asked Carolyn eagerly. "When he lost his leg?" + +"Yep. When he lost one of 'em," returned Captain Littlefield placidly. + +"Oh, Mister Cap'n Littlefield! he hasn't got _two_ wooden legs." + +"Who said he had? Oh, I see! This here accident wasn't the cause of +Oly wearing that timber-toe of his'n. Nossir!" chuckled the captain. +"'Twarn't no accident that cost Oly his left laig." + +"Oh!" murmured Carolyn, in much disappointment. She had thought she +was on the verge of learning just how Cousin Oly, at least, came to be +a cripple. But Captain Littlefield's reminiscence seemed to take him +right away from that subject. + +"Ye see, Oly had an accident, and he ain't never been swordfishin' +since." The cockatoo man had stubbed off with a pail to a neighbour's +for milk, while the captain peeled onions and potatoes for the +chowder. "Fact is, he ain't no gre't love for salt water noways. One of +the few Littlefields that ain't got more salt water than blood in their +veins, I do assure ye! Wal, he was lucky to have a leetle prop'ty left +him, Oly was, an' Sue-Betsey that he married had some cash-in-bank. So +he's purt' well fixed. + +"Some folks is that way," said the philosophical captain; "while some +is like me--hafter work right along, fair weather or foul. Reckon if +I'd lost both laigs an' my arms inter the bargain, I'd had to work for +my pollock an' p'taters, jest the same." + +Captain Littlefield said it cheerfully and went on before Carolyn could +interpose a single question. + +"Yep. Oly used to go out in the _Snatch It_. He never was no good in +the pulpit--natcherly--'cause of his wooden laig." + +"In the pulpit, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield?" queried Carolyn in surprise. +"Do you mean _preaching_? Like Elder Knox at the Free Baptist Church?" + +"My soul and small fish hooks! No!" chuckled the captain. "Pulpit's the +thing Barzilla leans up against when he harpoons a fish." + +"Oh! I know," said Carolyn May, nodding. "I've seen Barzilla's boat. +You mean that stalky thing up in front." + +"Exactly," agreed Captain Ozias. "Oly's wooden laig wouldn't let him +balance out on the sprit that-a-way. But he can pull a dory as well as +the next man. He'd set himself out with a harpoon an' line and a pair +of oars, and he made his sheer _and_ keep, with Enos Ball. + +"Then one time Oly seen a swordfish an' Cap'n Enos seen another from +the crosstrees. Enos headed for his critter; but nothin' would do but +Oly had to slip overboard in his dory an' row t'other way. Ye know how +con-_tra_-ry he is. + +"Wal, Oly pulled up close on his fish--an' no denyin' a dory is fur +quieter than a sailin' boat to make the kill from. Swordfishes have got +the sharpest ears. + +"Oly stood up, balanced his harpoon, braced his old timber-toe ag'in +the thwart, an' jest before the boat nosed that swordfish's flipper, +Oly made his cast. 'Twas a purty one, an' the harpoon held for fair. + +"He dropped back onto the thwart and grabbed his oars. Them swordfishes +is lively critters, leetle gal. They sure be," pursued the captain. +"They don't sulk none when ye strike on. They fling themselves about +like a whale in its death-flurry." + +"The poor thing!" murmured Carolyn. + +"You better save your sympathy for Oly," chuckled the story-teller. +"Wait till I tell ye. That fish sounded. A swordfish with an iron in +him is a mighty onsartain critter. Oly pulled hard, but he didn't know +where the swordfish was. Jest the same the fish had spotted that dory." + +"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield! what happened to the swordfish?" asked +Carolyn, excitedly. + +Captain Littlefield chuckled once more. "Still more worried about +that critter than ye be about Oly, eh? Well, he done purt' well, the +swordfish did. He come right up underneath that dory and drove his +sword smash through her bottom-boards like 'twas a _see_-gar box. Oly +had his feet braced an' was pullin' like all kildee. Up come that sword +an' spears bottom-boards an' Oly's laig, jest like ye'd spear a pickle +on a fork." + +"Oh!" + +"An' there the sword stuck fast," pursued the captain. "The fish, he +wriggled an' tried to pull out again, shakin' the dory like a dog +playin' with a dishcloth. An' Oly was hung fast to the sword--couldn't +think o' nothin' to do but to hang onto the sides of the dory an' yell +blue murder!" + +"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield! was it his _good_ leg that got stabbed by +the swordfish's sword?" + +"No, no! 'Twas his wooden laig, I tell ye. Held the critter's sword +jammed through the thick of the timber. He made such a hullabaloo that +Enos and the crew seen what was up an' they left the critter they was +stalkin' an' made sail for Oly's dory. But there's no knowin' what a +swordfish'll do when he gets to lashin' around permisc'ous like. + +"This one Oly had struck onto was a big feller. Oly's got the sword +to home now--two foot, four inches and a ha'f. That's somethin' of a +sword. An' 'twas jammed tight through the bottom of the dory and Oly's +laig. + +"'Cast loose, Oly!' yelled Cap'n Enos when the _Snatch It_ comes near. +But Oly was rattled. All he seemed able to do was to grab the oars +again and pull hard's he could. + +"An' him pullin' one way and the swordfish jerkin' t'other, somethin' +was bound to give, fin'ly. An' what give fust, was the straps of Oly's +laig." + +"Oh, my!" gasped the little girl. + +"Yep. He was cast loose for fair. He went over back'ard in the dory, +his good laig and the stump of t'other one _an'_ the oars, kicking up +in the air. The swordfish twitched that dory crosswise of the seas. +'Nother minute an' she was swamped an' Oly Littlefield was overboard." + +"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!" + +"That's right. That's what happened. And the water was mighty wet, +too," chuckled the narrator of the tale. "Ye know how a one-laiged man +swims--without his laig on him? Jest as graceful as a flat-bottomed +scow goin' through a tide-rip. + +"And the dory was sinkin' and fair drownin' of that swordfish," he +went on. "While ev'ry time Oly came bobbin' up an' got his head out o' +water, he bawled to Cap'n Enos and the crew to save his oars and the +dory. Nev' mind the swordfish an' him." + +"Dear me! And were they drowned after all?" queried the little girl. + +"Wal, Oly warn't. And they saved his oars an' most of his gear. But +they had to grapple the dory with a kedge anchor and tore it purt' +near to pieces floatin' it. The swordfish tore himself loose from both +harpoon and his sword, and so got away." + +"My, my!" gasped Carolyn May. "Wasn't that exciting?" + +"I sh'd say 'twas. 'Twas too much for Oly. He never did go swordfishin' +again after that accident. It cost him a new laig, ye see." + +"But--but _that_ wasn't how he came to lose his real leg," observed the +little girl. + +"Who? Oly? I sh'd say not," agreed Captain Littlefield. "No, no! He'd +long had a wooden laig when he got mixed up with that swordfish." + +"But how _did_ he lose his leg?" cried Carolyn May, with desperation. + +"Why, I declare!" exclaimed the captain, but with a twinkle in his eyes +that she did not see. "He never said a word about it to me, for a fac'. +One time I come home from sea on shore leave from the old _Sandusky_, +and here Oly was hoppin' 'round on one laig. I dunno as I ever axed him +what he done with his good laig." + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII + + TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS + + +Captain Ozias Littlefield's lack of curiosity regarding his cousin's +wooden leg might have impressed a more mature mind than Carolyn May's +as being rather suspicious. The little girl had suffered so many +disappointments in this very matter that she merely sighed and hoped +for a better occasion. + +For here came Mr. Oly Littlefield himself with the pail of milk, and +the matter could not be further discussed. While the captain had been +relating the swordfish story he had put the chowder kettle on the +pot-stove in which a brisk fire of driftwood was burning, and was +trying out the pork. + +Into the hot fat went the sliced onions to be browned to a golden +hue; then the clam liquor into which when it was boiling the captain +dumped the potatoes cut into cubes. When these were almost tender the +chopped clams were put in, the mess was seasoned, and the scalded milk +added carefully that it might not curdle in the chowder. When this was +simmering several ship's biscuits were thrown in and the covered pot +set upon the stove shelf until the seasoning should be well worked +through the chowder. + +"This here's a re'l fisherman's chowder," Mr. Oly Littlefield said. "I +can make it myself but it never turns out same's Ozy's does. I'm like +either to scorch mine or curdle it. There's a knack about gittin' it +jest right, I don't dispute." + +"There's a knack about doin' most things," said the captain dryly. "And +it's practice gives ye the knack. Ye never did have the patience to +l'arn a thing right, Oly." + +The cousins wrangled in an apathetic way all through the meal. But +Carolyn May knew that was their habit, and perhaps they would not have +been happy had they lived together in perfect peace. + +Altogether the little girl spent a very pleasant day with the Double +O's, and Captain Littlefield "set her a piece on the way" when she +started homeward along the patrol path. + +They met Surfman Number Two, who was the captain's nephew, walking +his beat to the key-box at the breach, having set forth from the +life-saving station at four o'clock. It was foggy off at sea, and he +said it would be thick inshore in an hour or so. + +"This leetle gal will get to Barzilla's long before that," said Captain +Littlefield. "So I'll stub back along o' you, Cephas. Good-bye, +Car'lyn." + +"Good-bye, sir," said Carolyn May. "And I had a _naw_ful nice time with +you and Mr. Oly. Come on, Princey! We must run home now." + +"Guess 'twill be safe 'nough to let the child go home alone?" said the +captain to Cephas. + +"Ain't nobody but Island folks along yon', 'cept two fellers 't took +supper with us at the station," said Cephas. "Nice 'nough men, fur off +folks. Give us all _see_-gars. I notice they set off after me an' Alec +Rose started out on our beats at eight bells. Yon's them, now." + +He waved his hand. Two figures were coming over the distant rise beyond +Barzilla Ball's cottage, at that distance seeming no larger than +Carolyn May herself. The little girl and the dog were running blithely, +following the patrol path. + +"All right," returned Captain Littlefield, and turned back along the +beaten track with his nephew. + +The little girl and her dog had passed Uncle Smith Dodge's house before +she noticed the two men approaching. Although the dusk was falling, she +recognized the saturnine man at that distance. + +Now, Carolyn May was no "'fraid-cat." She would have scorned such a +title had any of her schoolmates flung it at her. But that dark-faced +man with his black, thick brows and glittering eyes, made her shudder. +Nor did she like René much, and she soon recognized the chauffeur as +the second man coming along the path. + +She ran back of Uncle Smith's calf pen to hide until the two men should +have passed. From that spot she suddenly observed a third man who had +just climbed from the beach. It was Baby Laird's father, and he was +headed homeward, too. She was about to join him, when the two others +showed that they knew and were about to speak to the baby's father. + +It was the saturnine man who addressed himself to Joe Bassett, while +René held back. + +"Well, well!" he said, advancing with hand outstretched. "I wondered +why I did not run across you. I declare! You look well. Brown as a +berry. It must agree with you here. And the wife and baby?" + +"Are well," said the young man. He quite ignored the extended hand of +the secretary. His glance went to the chauffeur and he nodded. "Howdy, +René?" he said. + +"Thank you, sir. I enjoy my health," the French Canadian said; but he +did not draw near. + +"I failed to hear from you in regard to that proposition I was enabled +to make you, Mr. Joe," the other man said, dropping his voice. "That +Arizona proposition is still open for you." + +"The offer was inspired, I presume?" young Bassett ventured. + +"Naturally I could not have spoken of the mining company's need without +his permission," was the reply. + +"And if I do not accept?" + +"Mr. Joe," said the man, urgently, "you know without being told by +me that when the old man is determined on a thing he will carry it +through, in spite of everything. If he has made up his mind that you +and yours will suit him better in Arizona than here, to Arizona you'll +go, or you'll be sorry." + +"If I can make my living here in the East--Why! Inness, I've a chance +to stay right here on this island and go into partnership with a man in +a good, paying business." + +"If you do you'll be sorry," snapped the secretary. "And perhaps your +partner will suffer, too. The old man is ruthless--you know that! Once +he is determined--" + +Joe Bassett's head had come up like that of a spurred horse, and his +shoulders squared themselves with a gesture of decision. + +"Who is he, that he should rule all the world?" he demanded hotly. +"I'll not be driven, Inness!" + +"You mean you do not wish to be driven," said the other, with sarcasm. +"But he will reach you." + +"Let him try." + +"You make my duty very unpleasant," said the dark man, in a different +tone. "You know that what I am told to do I must do." + +"Yes. I know your kind," returned Bassett, not without a sneer. "If the +lion hunts, the jackal follows the trail." + +"Is that the best word you have for a man who would be your friend, Mr. +Bassett?" exclaimed the secretary, with anger. + +"I think it is," Bassett said coldly. "I doubt your friendship, Inness. +I have always doubted it. And I don't feel like being driven from +pillar to post by anybody. If I suffer him to do this to me now, he'll +do it again if he feels so inclined. If he is going to hound me, let +him begin it here--around New York, where he is known and I am known. +You can give him that word, if you like." + +"I tell you right now," Inness returned warmly, "that if you try to +establish yourself in any way on this island, for instance, he will +ruin you, and whoever you are in partnership with." + +"It was quite unintentional, I assure you, that I selected this island +to live on. He never used to come here. With half a dozen summer homes +to select from, what brings him to Block Island, I wonder?" + +"It is his wife, I believe. She doesn't care for the old places," said +the secretary. + +"Oh!" and Bassett turned away his face that the other should not see +its expression. After a moment Inness said: + +"I'd like a straight answer, Mr. Joe. Will you take this chance +I--_we_--offer you?" + +"You have had a straight answer. It is, 'No.'" + +Bassett turned on his heel and pushed on along the patrol path toward +the Ball cottage. The secretary and René stood for a minute whispering +and looking after him before they moved in the opposite direction. The +seafog was now trailing in long whisps over the edge of the bluff. The +night was falling. + +Not until the two were quite hidden in the mist did Carolyn May come +out of hiding. She had not heard much of what passed between the +secretary and Joe Bassett, and she had not understood what it signified +at all. But she felt that she could not join Baby Laird's father on the +way home. + +Besides, if the baby's father was mixed up with that dark-complexioned +man whom she so disliked, she felt that she could speak to nobody +regarding this meeting on the patrol path. + +It did not, however, cause her to forget the ten thousand dollars she +had heard the secretary and René talking about earlier in the day. To +Carolyn, who loved to play the game of "If I Were Rich," ten thousand +dollars opened a vista of possibilities that fed her imagination for +several days. + +She had gained the impression from what the two men had said that her +friend at the Orowoc House had lost the ten thousand dollars. She +wondered if he knew he had lost it. Perhaps he had so much money that +he couldn't count it all, and he had not yet missed the ten thousand in +question. + +If she or the pale lady had ten thousand dollars, how much they could +do with it! Why, perhaps the pale lady could buy back the beautiful +old home she had more than once told Carolyn about--the rambling old +Colonial house with the pillars in front and the lawn slanting down to +the Hudson River. And she could go to Country Clubs, and have parties, +and ride in automobiles, just as she had before she had married Baby +Laird's father. + +Sometimes Carolyn May had wondered if her friend was not just a little +sorry that she had ever married at all. She had been so poor, and had +seen so much trouble since that time. And she was still so beautiful, +with her shining hair and delicate complexion, that it seemed almost +wicked (Carolyn had heard her mother say this) that the pale lady could +not wear clothes befitting her beauty. + +Here they were--the "Lairds," as Carolyn May always thought of +them--living again almost from hand to mouth; for what the man could do +for Barzilla barely paid for their food and lodging. In the evening he +often sat alone on the stone bench outside the cottage smoking, and did +not even speak to the pale lady, nor to anybody else. + +Indeed, he must have done something very, very wrong, Carolyn thought +sadly, for everybody to so look at him askance. She was tempted--her +tender little heart was fairly wrenched by the sight of his silent +woe--to climb up beside him and try to give him comfort. But somehow, +from the very first, Carolyn of the Sunny Heart had found Joe Bassett +difficult. He was one who shrank from revealing his heart even to a +child. + +She understood that it was money matters that troubled him. If they +only had that ten thousand dollars those two men had talked about! If +the pale lady had so much money, the little girl was sure, she would +buy nothing less than a gold carriage for Baby Laird and a beautiful +fur robe to put in it for the winter. And then the baby's father could +do what Barzilla wanted him to do, whatever that was, and they would +all be happy again. + +"Wouldn't you?" she asked the pale lady one day, as she sat beside her +and the baby was asleep. + +Carolyn had been thinking so hard about the ten thousand dollars and +about her friend's trouble, that she came out plump with this query +without realizing that she spoke aloud. + +"Wouldn't I what, Carolyn May?" asked the pale lady from the hammock. + +"Be happy again if you had all that money?" said the child. + +"I do not know what you are talking about, my dear," the pale lady +confessed. + +"Oh, of course you don't!" exclaimed Carolyn, laughing. "What am I +thinking of? _You_ don't know about that ten thousand dollars, do you?" + +"What ten thousand dollars, child?" + +"That my friend from the Orowoc House lost." + +"Your friend--Did he tell you he lost such a sum?" the pale lady asked +with surprise. + +"Oh, no! Maybe he doesn't know about it. But I do." + +"Goodness, Carolyn May!" exclaimed her friend, "how could you learn +such a secret if the gentleman did not tell you himself? And you don't +suppose for a moment that he could lose such a sum without knowing it?" + +"Why, I'm sure," the little girl explained, "that those two men who +know all about it never told him." + +The pale lady saw that there really was something in this matter +besides a flight of Carolyn's imagination. She tried to get at the +foundation of the little girl's surprising statement. + +On her part Carolyn May endeavoured to explain about the dark-browed +man and René the chauffeur. The little girl felt some embarrassment, as +she had all along, about speaking of the time when her friend's baby +carriage was wrecked by the automobile that René drove, so she slurred +over that fact now. The pale lady did not grasp the significance of +the couple at the Orowoc House being the same who had occupied the +automobile when the accident near Central Park had happened. + +She did, however, gain the idea that there were men about of whom +Carolyn felt some fear. She did not wish to create any anxiety in +Mrs. Cameron's mind by speaking to her about it. But when her husband +came home, she took him into her confidence regarding Carolyn May's +remarkable story. + +"I wonder if it is quite safe for her to run about this wild country as +she does?" was her concluding observation. "Those men--" + +Joe Bassett had a suspicion as to who the two men were, in spite of the +description Carolyn had given his wife: "One of them's a dark, scowly +man, and the other talks funny." + +"I'll look them up," Bassett said hastily to his wife. "I do not think +they are people who will harm Carolyn May." + +"But what do you suppose it was they were talking about when she +overheard them? Ten thousand dollars! Can they be intending to rob that +man at the Orowoc House?" + +"More likely they have robbed him already," her husband said. "But I +will look into it, if you are afraid for Carolyn. I won't go out with +Barzilla tomorrow." + +"Oh, Laird! Can't we possibly meet Barzilla's offer? 'Great trees from +little acorns grow,' you know, my dear," and she tried to smile. "A +fish-packing business may lead to greater things. And this seems so +good a chance for you--" + +"But if we have no money, Girl?" + +"Isn't it possible for you to borrow it of any friend? Oh, my dear! I +shrink from that journey to Arizona. Think! if we got there and were +stranded? This may be a trick of that man you call Inness. You know, +Laird, you do not trust him." + +"True. But his employer must be behind the offer. It is the first +spark of interest he has shown in our affairs since I left home." + +"And is it interest in our well-being now?" she cried. "Oh! I wish I +could believe it, Laird. But I am afraid of your father--I am! I am!" + +"Hush, Girl! Don't talk that way. Yet, I have no means of knowing what +is in his mind regarding us," he added, sadly. + +"Why, Laird!" she cried desperately, "the man who thinks so much of +Carolyn and whose wife has taken such a fancy to the baby would be more +our friend than your father. Why won't you go to see him at the Orowoc +House? Barzilla says he made an open offer to help you--" + +"Without knowing who I am," interrupted Bassett hoarsely. + +"What of that? Are you too proud to accept a business favour--for _my_ +sake? For Baby Laird's sake?" + +"You know whether I love you or not, Girl," he said, his voice broken, +but turning his face aside that she should not see his emotion. "If it +was possible I would do as you--and Barzilla--ask. I will accept what +my father offers me, through Inness, if I must; but I cannot beg money +of any man. And to go to the Orowoc House on such an errand would be +begging." + +She said no more. Her beautiful eyes filled and she bent her head, +hiding her face from him. Bassett stared down at her with strange +yearning in his countenance. Yet he whispered: "I cannot do that--I +cannot!" + +It was a significant moment in their lives. After that even Carolyn +May saw that there was a rift in the bond of perfect love and +confidence that had heretofore existed between the pale lady and her +husband. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII + + "MURDER WILL OUT" + + +The sunny heart of Carolyn was vastly troubled by the unhappiness she +saw about her. As Aunty Rose Kennedy would have said, "everything was +at sixes and sevens." + +"And I truly-looly wish we hadn't come away from there, Mamma Cam'ron," +she sighed. + +"Come away from where, dear?" her mother asked. + +"From the Corners, and Uncle Joe, and Aunt Mandy, and Aunty Rose +Kennedy, and Freda, and dear little Car'lyn Mandy, too! I love Baby +Laird; but Car'lyn Amanda is our owniest own--isn't she?" + +"Well," agreed her mother, "she is a near relative, at least." + +"Yes. She is a relative of ours, isn't she? And you can do more for +relatives--and they can do more for you--than other folks. Now, +wouldn't it be nice if my friend at the Orowoc House was a relative of +Baby Laird's father? _Then_ he could go to him and get all the money he +wanted--couldn't he?" + +"Sh! It isn't nice to talk about other people's private affairs, +Carolyn," admonished her mother. + +"Why, mamma! 'tisn't private affairs, is it? It's the pale lady's +affairs and Mr. Laird's affairs. And both Miss Molly and Barzilla are +int'rested in it. And I'm sure Papa Cam'ron and you and me are awf'ly +anxious 'bout Mr. Laird getting money so he can salt swordfish with +Barzilla. + +"So if he was related to my friend at the Orowoc House I guess likely +he could go to him and get the money he wants. Barzilla thinks so," +concluded Carolyn. + +Her mother's curiosity was suddenly aroused again. + +"Carolyn May," she asked, "what is that gentleman's name?" + +"My friend?" the little girl asked complacently. + +"Yes." + +"His name is Henry. That is what the lady calls him. I heard her." + +"I mean his last name." + +"Oh, I never did ask him that," confessed Carolyn May. "Must _all_ +folks have last names? My friend's wife doesn't call him by it, like +Mrs. Bridget Dorgan calls her husband." + +"No; I presume she doesn't," smiled Mrs. Cameron. "Really, I suppose I +should know more about these people with whom you spend so much time," +she added reflectively. + +"Why, my _dear_!" her little daughter exclaimed, "I know just _lots_ +about them. They live on a street named Riverside Drive. Didn't Papa +Cam'ron take me and Prince there, Mamma? And I am to come to see them +there after we all go back home in the fall. And they have a great big +automobile, and the lady will come after me in it. She said she would. +And bring me home again. Of course, if you are willing, Mamma. It is a +be-a-u-ti-ful automobile. You just ought to see it." + +"But Carolyn May!" gasped her mother in surprise. "Where did you ever +see that automobile?" + +"Why, that is so!" laughed the little girl. "I never told you 'bout +that, did I? I forgot. Why, Mamma Cam'ron, this man and his wife are +those people whose auto ran down my pale lady's go-cart. Don't you +'member? Wasn't it funny that they came to Block Island for the summer, +too? And of course they didn't _mean_ to smash Baby Laird's carriage. I +didn't say anything to my pale lady 'bout their being the same folks," +added the thoughtful little girl, "because maybe she would be afraid to +have Baby Laird with them. But they just _love_ babies. The lady had +one herself once--a baby boy like Laird. But--but I guess she must have +lost it, from what she said. Just like Aunty Rose lost her three, you +know, Mamma." + +"Those people ran down the baby's go-cart with their car?" murmured +Mrs. Cameron. "And to whom Joe Bassett returned the twenty dollars +the man gave Carolyn? He was not too proud to accept a carriage from +Carolyn and me; but he refused assistance from those people! How did +Mr. Bassett know to whom the money should be returned? Ah! his wife +must have recognized the couple," decided Mrs. Cameron. "I declare! +if these are the same people, then the Bassetts know their identity. +If Mr. Bassett would not accept the twenty dollars for the wrecked +carriage, of course he would accept no greater favour from that man. + +"It is plain who they are," she decided, though, not aloud. "Lewis must +be told about it. I wish he were here right now to advise me." + +But Carolyn's father was not expected for another fortnight. Meanwhile +there was something that might arise to force Joe Bassett and his wife +and baby to leave Block Island hurriedly. + +Bassett was grim-lipped, if not sullen looking. He was a man whose +nature it was to bear trouble alone and silently. He might, Mrs. +Cameron feared, accept the Arizona offer and start with his family for +the West almost any day. + +Carolyn May did not suspect this possibility as being at all immediate. +She felt deeply for "the Lairds" nevertheless, and did all that her +sunny heart dictated in the matter of cheerful prattle and friendly +acts for the pale lady and her baby. + +She was a very thoughtful little girl these days, too. The ten thousand +dollars she had heard the secretary and René talking about made a +lasting impression on her mind; and because the pale lady was in such +trouble because of the lack of money, it was only natural that thought +of the money loss of the man at the Orowoc House should be continually +stirring in her busy brain. + +"It is wonderful--" Carolyn said to him the next time she saw him. He +was driving alone with his negro coachman on this occasion. She climbed +into the back of the hotel carriage with him to ride to the life-saving +station, Mamma Cameron having given her permission. "It's wonderful +what folks can do with money," she went on. + +"Indeed?" questioned the man with sudden harshness. "Are you +money-mad, too, my little lady?" + +"Oh, no! _I'm_ not mad at all. I'm just as _pleasant_," explained +Carolyn, rather puzzled. "But sometimes, you know, I spend money in my +'magination. I call it playing 'If I Were Rich.' And my pale lady used +to play it with me. Only, she did used to be rich her own self, and she +can tell all about it." + +"You are speaking of the baby's mother?" he asked with sudden +attention. "Isn't that what you called the woman whose carriage our car +crushed that time in New York? 'The pale lady'?" + +"Oh, yes, sir." + +"And was it she who sent back that twenty dollar bill to me?" he +demanded, eying the child curiously. + +"I guess her husband sent it back." + +"Mr. Laird?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Proud, are they?" snapped the man. "Can they afford pride, I wonder?" + +But Carolyn May could not answer that. She only said slowly: + +"Well, the pale lady doesn't care to play my game any more. I spect +it's 'cause they want real money so bad that she don't feel like +talking 'bout make-believe money." + +"What do they want money for?" asked her friend. + +"I don't just know. But it's something Barzilla wants him to do, I +guess, and he can't do it without money--quite a lot of money," said +Carolyn innocently. "Of course, _I've_ got some money myself. But the +pale lady and her husband aren't folks you could _give_ money to. They +are not like Johnny O'Harrity's folks who live in our basement." + +"No?" + +"No, indeed! They--they respect themselves too much, my mamma says. But +my! they could do lots if they had--well--maybe ten thousand dollars." + +"Quite a sum, for a fact. What would you do, Carolyn May, if you had +that amount of money?" + +"Oh!" the little girl cried suddenly. "There's that ten thousand +dollars that you lost. You 'member that?" + +The change of expression in her friend's face would have startled the +little girl had she seen it. It was full half a minute before he spoke +again. + +"What do you know about that, Carolyn?" he asked harshly. + +"Why, I thought _you_ must know about it!" she prattled on. "But those +men spoke as though maybe you didn't." + +"What men?" + +"The one who works for you--that came to the picnic, you know. +You 'member? The dark, scowly man. And that other one who is your +chauffeur." + +"My secretary and René? Tell me what they said," the man commanded +sternly. "When did you hear them talking--and where?" + +"Why," explained Carolyn, fearing now that she had done or said +something altogether wrong, "it was when I went down to call on the +wooden-legged gentlemen at the Portugoosy cabin." + +"The--the _who_? And _where_ were you going?" demanded the man in +amazement. + +"Why, don't you know Mr. Cap'n Littlefield and his Cousin Oly? They're +real int'resting characters. That's what my papa calls 'em. And they've +got wooden legs. But I don't know _how_ they got 'em," continued the +little girl, "'cepting that they buy new ones when the old ones are +worn out. And Mr. Cap'n Littlefield keeps a spare one that he only +wears, so he says, on 'state and date occasions.'" + +"Indeed!" murmured her friend. + +"And that Portugoosy cabin is where Beppo used to live. Not Barzilla's +pony, Beppo, but the man the pony is named after," added Carolyn May, +eagerly. "Mr. Cap'n Littlefield and his cousin are living over there at +the cabin just now." + +"Hold on!" urged the man from the Orowoc House finally. "There is +something that interests me more. About this ten thousand dollars you +were talking of." + +"Yes, sir?" + +"Are you sure they said ten thousand, Carolyn May?" + +"Oh, yes, sir!" + +"And that it was money belonging to me?" + +"My! didn't you know 'bout it at all?" she asked in surprise. "Just +think! Those two men knew all about it and never told you." + +"Inness and René?" demanded the man, his brow clouded again. + +"Oh, yes, sir!" + +"You must tell me," said her friend very seriously, "just what they +said about the ten thousand dollars. It is something I must be sure of, +my dear. All this time I have thought--Well, I have charged, perhaps, +an innocent person with a terrible crime." He said this to himself +rather than to the little girl and his countenance displayed more +emotion than ever she had seen in it before. "Tell me all they said." + +"Oh, I'm afraid I couldn't tell all," began Carolyn May. + +"Listen!" exclaimed he eagerly. "Did they speak as though I had already +lost the ten thousand dollars, or was about to lose it?" + +"Oh, it's money you lost a long time ago. 'Cause the dark, scowly man +told your chauffeur that he had spent it all. He _must_ be a bad man to +spend money that you lost, without saying anything to you about it." + +"Undoubtedly he is," said her friend grimly. He encouraged Carolyn +May to repeat all that she could remember of the conversation of the +two men. He listened patiently to a deal of inconsequential prattle; +but he finally got at the meat in the nut. He considered the result +in information worth his effort. Being of a sharp, as well as a +suspicious, mind, there was now constructed in his understanding an +almost perfect theory regarding the loss of a certain ten thousand +dollars, thought of which had long seared his memory. + +He hardened his heart against his two unfaithful employ s while he +listened to the child's story. They were still within his reach. He +was the more bitter because the circumstantial evidence of the crime +had pointed toward his own son. + +"I'll get at René," he muttered. "I'll make him tell me all!" + +Now, René was a weakling. Pressure brought to bear upon the chauffeur +must quickly bring to light the truth. "Murder will out" is an old and +true saying. Time brings most crime to the surface, and in this case +its revelation must free the innocent of all suspicion connected with +the loss of the ten thousand dollars! + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX + + BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION + + +If her friend was disturbed in his secret thoughts by the little girl's +prattle about the ten thousand dollars that had been lost, Carolyn +was not likely to know it. Especially when a visit to the life-saving +station was in view. + +By this time the coast guard crew--captain, cook and all hands--were +Carolyn May's friends, and Prince had his own plate of scraps by the +kitchen door of the station. + +The visitors were in time for drill. Carolyn's friend held his +stop-watch at practice. From the captain's word "Go!" to the second the +supposed wrecked mariner (in this case the station cook) was landed in +the breeches-buoy, the time was just over three minutes. + +It was very exciting, and Prince raced the sands, barking with all his +might at the man flying through the air in the life-saving apparatus. +Then they tried it all over and Cephas, Captain Littlefield's nephew, +brought Carolyn in on the buoy, the aerial ride delighted her greatly. + +"My! I must tell Edna all about this," she panted. "Edna was afraid to +be wrecked; but _I_ never shall be again. I think it must be just fun!" + +"Like enough! Like enough!" said Cephas. "Just the same, leetle gal, +you're some safer ashore than on a wreck." + +Afterward Carolyn's friend told the negro to drive slowly back along +the road and wait at the foot of Barzilla Ball's lane. + +"The little girl and I will walk back along the shore and I will climb +up over the bluff at the cottage and meet you," the man said to the +driver. + +"Oh, goody! Goody!" cried Carolyn May, clapping her hands. "That will +be ever so nice!" + +She had no suspicion that what she had said about the pale lady and +her baby and the pale lady's husband, had stirred any curiosity in +the man's mind. But this topic held quite as important a place in his +thoughts at the time as the mystery of the ten thousand dollars. + +He wanted to know what manner of people these Lairds were. Because of +the baby, his wife had become deeply interested in them. Baby Laird +reminded her so much, she said, of her own "Baby Joe" of a quarter of +a century before. And, then, that this stranger baby should bear her +own child's middle name--that piqued his wife's curiosity; although, to +tell the truth, Carolyn May's friend had never given it his attention +before. + +In addition, he had given Barzilla Ball an invitation for the baby's +father to come to see him, and the man had not appeared. There was +something in that which the capitalist could not understand. Usually +people did not have to be coaxed when he offered financial favours. + +They walked along the shore as the red sun slipped down into a feather +bed of cloud resting on the sea and on Montauk. + + "'Red in the morning, + Sailors take warning; + Red at night, + Sailors delight,'" + +chanted Carolyn, repeating what Barzilla had taught her. She clung to +her friend's forefinger and skipped joyfully along the sand. + +He looked down at her with a grim smile playing about his lips. He +thought that this child was actually the first whom he had ever had +time to get acquainted with. In the case of his own son he had been too +busy--too eager at money-getting--to know much about him. + +His wife talked now, in her nervous, irresponsible way, of "her baby." +It was a fact. The son of their house had been her baby; never his; for +he had been in no mood to give the lad a father's care. + +When he was grown (and a manly fellow he was, no thanks to his father) +the latter had found the young man as stubborn a character as he was +himself. If he was the "Old Griffin," this boy just out of college was +"Young Grif." He was not to be ordered about as the man was in the +habit of ordering his employ s. + +The trouble had begun there and then. An order to the son was like a +lash across the withers of an unbroken and high-spirited colt. The old +man realized the trouble, but believed it could be mended. Now he knew +he had taken his son into his own hands too late. His character was +already moulded. + +Yet the Griffin would not blame the mother. It was his own fault that +the boy was not an automaton--as were his employ s, even his managers. +The Griffin had become used to unquestioned obedience, and to silence +when he spoke. His son did not fit into that system. + +And so, after all, it was more because his son was not what he expected +him to be than anything else, that bred discord between them. The girl +was but an excuse. + +It was true that the girl came of stock that the Griffin could not +tolerate. The man who had brought her up as his own and who, in dying, +left her portionless, had been one the Griffin hated--and he was a good +hater. + +To put forth a command and find his son as unbendable as cast iron +to his will, had utterly enraged him. He had threatened dismissal +from house and fortune. Joe had coolly taken him at his word. It was +maddening. But the matter might have been eased over. The boy was not +then married. And for his mother's sake the Griffin would have gone far +on the road to a better understanding. + +Then came the discovery of the missing ten thousand dollars. As +he had so fiercely told Carolyn's father, that ended all hope of +reconciliation. Yet he could not tell the boy's mother about it. Their +son a thief? Better to bear her frequent complaints and accusations of +harshness to the boy, than to tell the mother who bore him that he had +turned out a thief. + +So this man, who commanded men and gold and affairs, and who was a +vast power in the financial world, was not happy. He worked as he +always had; but he worked without an object in view--for the mere sake +of working. He often told his wife that he "hung on because he couldn't +let go," like a drowning man to a rope. Money, power, notoriety--all, +all were Dead Sea fruit. There was nobody to enjoy it after him, for +he had spent much to make it legally impossible for a _thief_ ever to +benefit by his or his wife's death. + +He walked on the beach with the prattling Carolyn and remembered it +all. It was a mile and a half to the foot of the path up the bluff +behind the Ball cottage; but they were not long on the smooth way. Late +in the afternoon as it was, Molly Ball's boarders were still on the +beach. + +"Oh, there's Mamma Cameron!" cried Carolyn May. "And the baby and his +mamma." + +She broke away from her friend to run with Prince to her mother. Baby +Laird lay upon his mother's lap where she sat on a weed-covered rock. +Her back was to the man as he approached. All he saw was the graceful +curve of her shoulder and the aureole of red-gold hair surrounding the +head that bent so lovingly from the slender neck above the baby. + +The man halted. Curious as he was about these people, he hesitated to +force himself upon them. If the Lairds did not wish to be befriended by +him or by his wife, the situation would be made rather difficult if he +approached them unbidden. + +He had never been able to understand why that twenty dollar bill was +sent back to him with the brusque note accompanying it. With his usual +suspicion of all mankind, at the time he had presumed the woman and her +husband, whose baby go-cart had been wrecked, planned to begin suit for +damages. + +When nothing like that happened, and when, later, he discovered those +same people were these whom he was willing to help at his wife's +request, his interest was further aroused. + +That baby! He remembered keenly, as he stood here unnoticed, of once +looking down at his own baby son, years before, as the laughing, +crowing infant lay just as this one did across his mother's lap. That +was before men had begun to call him the Griffin of Wall Street. + +The tenderer feelings of the man's nature were stirred. Opening his +heart to little Carolyn, who at first had only amused him and piqued +his curiosity, had made a breach for thoughts other than those of mere +business to enter in. He had learned of late to smile at her prattle, +therefore he could now smile down upon the baby. + +The Griffin cleared his throat. + +"Beg pardon, young woman. So you are the baby's mother?" he asked +mildly. + +She sprang up with a half-stifled scream, startled from her reverie. +She clutched the baby to her breast as though she feared for his safety +as she whirled to face the man. + +Which of them was the more amazed as they stared at each other it would +have been difficult to tell. But as the young woman shrank from him, +the Griffin's scowl grew black. + +"_You?_" he said, explosively. + +[Illustration: _"You!" he said, explosively._] + +She feared him. She stepped back, ever so lightly, holding her baby +tight, _tight_. But the little one, recognizing a friend, put out both +his arms and crowed. + +The baby's mother had but seldom before seen her husband's father. And +on those few occasions he had shown himself so plainly her enemy that +there was good reason why she should be frightened in his presence. + +Besides, was he not attempting through his secretary, Inness, to +cut her and her husband and baby off from the few friends they had +remaining--to drive them across the continent that they might not by +chance cross his path? + +These thoughts, bruising her heart for days, had brought the young +woman--gently as she had been bred--to the border of revolt. It +was this man's fault--and his wife's fault--that Joe Bassett was +unsuccessful, was timid, and was hopeless under trial. He had been +brought up to a life of ease, and his only rugged trait was that +of stubbornness. He would not be driven. But that stubbornness of +character had not yet been transformed, she thought, into a firmness +and determination to win against any odds. + +She laid her husband's faults, which of late had seemed so magnified, +entirely to his parents. She not alone feared this hard-featured, +grey-faced man who stood before her; but she displayed a rooted dislike +for him. + +While the baby put out his hands and babbled to the Griffin, the young +woman retired from his vicinity. Carolyn and Prince came romping +back, the child's eyes aglow, her cheeks flushed, and all alive with +happiness and love--a contrast to his own emotions that the man could +not fail to mark. + +"Oh, I've been having the best-est time!" the little girl cried to the +baby's mother. "Me and my friend's been to the life saving station. And +just think! I've been saved from a wreck (course, 'twas a make-believe +wreck) and Cephas gave me a ride in an aeroplane made like a big pair +of pants. What do you know about that?" + +She had seized the Griffin's hand with both of hers and swung upon it. +Her confidence in his kindness and the baby's evident approval of the +man, made Mrs. Joe Bassett take thought. + +If the children so loved him, he could not be utterly bad after all. + +She began to look at him with more speculative eyes. He was Joe's +father. There must be some of Joe's better traits in his character. And +she had loved Joe at the very first for his single-heartedness and his +gentle manner. + +The baby, squirming in her arms, tried to go to his grandfather once +more. She observed in the man's eyes the reflection of unshed tears! +That grim face was but a mask, after all. Back of the man's apparent +harshness his nature was softening to the influence of childish +affection. + +The baby and Carolyn May! + +The young woman began to appreciate what was going on beneath the +surface of the Griffin's rugged nature. + + + + + CHAPTER XXX + + IT ALL COMES OUT RIGHT + + +Upon that tableau, flying down the steep path with a step lighter than +she had heard it for many a long day, came the pale lady's husband--or, +as Carolyn May would call him to the end, "Baby Laird's father." + +"Girl," he cried, "I've put it through! Barzilla is up there trying to +make Molly I. understand the good news. I wrote Harvey Deering and he +made no bones of lending me the money. I could not tell you until I +was sure. We'll not have to go to Arizona after all. Harvey has sent +a certified check for two thousand and his blessing, and the firm of +Bassett and Ball is already born. By gad! Whom have we here?" + +His wife had stumbled against him, her strength going from her; he +caught both her and the baby in his arms. He flashed a second glance at +the man who stood before them so straight and uncompromising--but much +greyer and older than when Joe Bassett had seen his father last. + +"So, I have been making friends with my own grandson, have I?" said the +Griffin grimly. "And without knowing it!" + +"I fancied so," Joe Bassett replied. "I only discovered the other day +that it was you and the _mater_ who had taken such a liking to little +Laird. My wife didn't know." + +"'Laird,' eh? We never called _you_ that, Joe. I'd almost forgotten you +had a middle name. Humph!" muttered his father. "And this is why the +baby's father did not come to see me to talk over a loan, is it?" + +"It is," responded his son shortly. + +"Your mother is awfully taken with the baby, Joe," said the older man, +almost wistfully. "She has been quite cut-up that his father would +accept no favour from me." + +"How about if she had known who I was?" asked the young man bitterly. + +"Come away, Laird!" begged the pale lady. + +"Hold on!" ejaculated the Griffin, harshly. "Am I a bear that I should +bite the child, perhaps?" + +There was a momentary twinkle in Joe Bassett's eye. The success he had +achieved in raising the money needed for his partnership with Barzilla +had lent him a new confidence. + +"You're a Griffin, sir," he said. "That's worse than a bear. And once, +you must remember, you came near running down the baby with your +automobile. His mother received a shock at that time from which she has +not even now wholly recovered." + +"So I did! I remember well enough. And the money I gave little Carolyn +for her, _you_ returned!" + +"We could scarcely accept anything under the circumstances," Joe +Bassett said, stiffly. "For the same reason I have refused your offer, +through Inness, of that position in Arizona." + +"What offer?" demanded his father. "I made you no offer through Inness. +That scalawag has been up to other mischief, has he? But was that man +Cameron's visit to me on your behalf unknown to you, Joe?" + +"Cameron? You mean Carolyn's father?" demanded Joe Bassett in surprise. +"I know nothing of it." + +"Ha! It might have been the child's father," exclaimed the Griffin. "I +had not remembered _that_ was her last name." + +He turned to look at the little girl who was now dragging her mother +forward. Mrs. Cameron had already seen that her suspicions were +correct. She hesitated to approach the Bassetts at this moment; but +Carolyn May was insistent. + +"Oh, please, sir!" she cried to the Griffin. "My mamma wants to thank +you too for giving me such a splendid time." + +"This is the baby's grandfather?" Mrs. Cameron observed quietly. "I +see!" + +"Let me introduce my father," said Joe Bassett. "I think," he added, +with a warmer smile than usual, "that this lady and her husband are our +very good friends. I know Carolyn May is." + +The Griffin was fast recovering his composure. He offered his hand +again to Carolyn May and she clung to it with both of hers. + +"I fancy Carolyn is a friend to almost everybody," he remarked. "Your +mother, Joe, has been much more cheerful of late because of this little +girl--and the baby. You won't deny her the pleasure of seeing the boy +frequently, will you?" and he looked directly at the pale lady when +he made this humble request. It was a good deal to ask under the +circumstances, and the Griffin seemed to realize it. + +Joe Bassett likewise looked down into his wife's face. Perhaps what +they had suffered--all their trials and difficulties--could be traced +directly to the harshness of this grey old man. But the very worst he +had thought of his son and the girl beside him, _they would never know_! + +Little Carolyn suddenly felt the tenseness of the situation without +understanding what it meant. She let go of the Griffin's hand with one +of her own and reached for that of the pale lady, hanging timidly at +her side. + +"Why!" she cried, "you didn't interduce my pale lady to my friend, Mr. +Laird. _This_ is the baby's mother, you know, sir," and the child drew +the fragile hand of the pale lady into that of the Griffin. + + * * * * * + +A group gathered in the grassy yard before the Ball cottage on an +afternoon not long thereafter showed that the younger Bassetts, if of +independent spirit, held no rancour in their hearts regarding the elder +Bassetts. + +In the group sat the three women, the grandmother with the baby in her +lap, while his mother and Mrs. Cameron sewed. Molly Ball was getting +supper for all, to be served when Barzilla and Joe Bassett should +return from the fishing. + +"I used to wait like this for Henry to come home from work," the +elder Mrs. Bassett said reflectively, with a smile upon her lips that +altogether softened her haughty look. "We lived in a seaboard village, +too, and we were much poorer than we are now--and much happier." + +Her husband and Carolyn, with Prince and Nebuchadnezzar trailing them, +went hand in hand to meet the young men who were already in sight. + +"And Baby Laird and his mamma and papa are going to live right here +with Molly and Barzilla all winter. Won't that be fine?" Carolyn cried. +"I 'most wish we were going to stay here, too. It's a lovely place, I +think." + +"Humph! No bath in the winter," said her friend, but more to himself +than to her. "Don't see how they can stand it. But I'm going to build +a house for 'em right on the shoulder of Beacon Hill yonder. They +can't help my doing that, even if Joe is stubborn about beginning for +himself--laying the foundation of his own fortune. + +"Yet, why not?" added the man ruminatively. "Swordfish may be just as +good a foundation as coopering. I made barrels for the herring fishers +when I began." + +Carolyn scarcely appreciated this, and she ran ahead to greet the two +younger men. She came back swinging on one of Barzilla's great, brown +hands. The elder Bassett got into step with his son, who carried his +oilskins and other gear on one arm. They loitered behind the others. + +"I would have sent Inness where he belonged, Joe, if it wasn't for +raking up the whole scandal. It would make a mess in the papers. And he +was scheming to get you as far out of the way as Arizona! He feared +we'd meet. He has been selling me out to the Cal Cummings crowd, too. +René got everything off his chest when once I put the screws on him. So +all I could really do was to discharge both of them. + +"René I hired over again," he added rather ruefully. "I didn't know +where to find another chauffeur as good, or one who could handle the +_White Streak_ as well. And he was very penitent." + + * * * * * + +Carolyn May was a full week bidding good-bye to everybody with whom she +had become acquainted on the island. + +"Never did see such a young 'un for cheerin' a body up," declared Aunt +Ardelia Dodge. "Smith an' me will miss her like she was a grandchild. +And she's a sight better than any of Smith's grandchildren ever dared +to be. You'm right. His branch of the Dodges ain't none too smart." + +The wooden-legged Littlefields had gone back to their little cottage +near the Old Harbour; but Carolyn May spent an afternoon with them +before her departure for New York. She felt that she had a duty to +perform, and that she could ignore it no longer. Edna would expect her +to bring the information she craved and, polite or not, the little girl +felt that she just had to ask again about those wooden legs. + +"How did Oly come to have his'n?" Captain Ozias repeated. "Wal, I'll +tell ye, if ye promise not to say a word to him about it. For it does +make him mad. 'Twarn't no accident at all--like I told you once. +_Any_body could have told Oly he was fixin' for broken bones--only +they'd 've said 'twas his neck he'd break, 'stead of his laig. + +"Ye see that high, rocky head up yonder?" pointing to the rise of the +bluff almost behind the little cottage. "Wal, Oly would come down that +hill 'stead o' goin' 'round by the path proper, when he'd been to the +store. 'Twas a short cut. An' he took it on a winter's evening, when +'twas mistin' an' freezin'; an' he slipped." + +"Oh!" cried Carolyn. "And did he fall right down here?" + +"That's what he done. And he laid out 'most all night, unconscious. +Then he woke up and blatted and one of the surfmen from Station One +heard him and gathered him in. But that, and the delay in gettin' a +surgeon from the Main, and all, made it necessary fin'ly to ampertate. +So since then Oly's hopped around on a wooden stump. + +"And me? Why, I don't talk none about it, leetle gal. 'Tain't nothin' +to crow over, as ye might say. I went through the Battle of Manila +'thout gittin' hurt; I was aboard the old _Olympia_ when she made her +dash from ocean to ocean so's to git into the fightin' around Cuby. I +was at the Battle of Santiago. All them, an' never got a scratch! + +"But after I was mustered out o' the Navy and went into merchant +service and commanded my own three-stick windjammer, I was ashore at +Punta Arenas one trip and went to a feller's shop to sharpen some +knives, and what happens but a grin'stone fell on that laig and busted +it all to flinders!" + +"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!" + +"Yep. That's the rights of it. I don't talk none about it--no more +than Oly talks about his laig. Ye see, an' ol' feller longshore with +a wooden laig is expected to be a hero. But there ain't nothin' a +mite heroic 'bout neither me nor Oly Littlefield. We was just plumb +unlucky--that's all!" + + * * * * * + +The elder Bassetts were going to remain longer. The season had ended, +and the Orowoc House would have closed as did most of the other hotels. +But a man with the money and the influence, to say nothing of the +determination (he called it "stubbornness" when it was repeated in his +son), that the Griffin possessed, would have changed the laws of the +Medes and Persians! He and his wife were comfortable where they were; +he could run to New York in a few hours in the _White Streak_ when it +was necessary. So they remained, and at least a part of the hotel help +remained likewise. + +He wanted to see the foundation laid for the house he purposed to build +for his son. It was to be of island stone in the rough to the eaves of +the bungalow roof. That house, on a shoulder of the highest hill on the +island, would be seen for miles at sea and probably would be the most +expensive dwelling that a swordfisherman ever lived in. + +His son, however, was in business with Barzilla in earnest. A +comfortable and cheaply-built shack on the shore of Dorris Cove would +satisfy the firm at first. That was being erected, too. Joe Bassett +gave more attention to the building of that shack than he did to the +plans for the bungalow. + +"Business before pleasure," said the young man. "I've learned that +lesson." + +"There is something in Joe Bassett," Carolyn's father observed to his +wife. "I didn't think much of him at first. In spite of the shadow that +overhung his character, though, I believe you, Hannah, thought well of +him." + +"I could not believe that Joe Bassett was what his father said he was," +Carolyn's mother said softly. + +"Well, guess the Griffin is sorry enough now that he ever said it, or +ever believed it. He thought that nobody but he or Joe could open that +library safe; but Inness was smarter than he knew. He had duplicate +keys and copies of the combinations of safe-locks. He had been sifting +the most secret matters of the elder Bassett for years. And he went +free after all! + +"That was bad. But I don't suppose Mr. Bassett could bring himself to +giving us newspaper chaps such a fat bit of news as it would have been. +Well, all's well that ends well!" + +"But all wells don't end well," interposed Carolyn, who had only heard +and understood a part of what her father said. "You see, there's Uncle +Smith Dodge's well. He's been digging it, off an' on Aunt Ardelia says, +ever since they was married; and that was an _awful_ long time ago. +And he ain't never struck water yet, 'ceptin' when it rains into it. +It does seem, she says, Aunt Ardelia does, that a woman could ha' done +better--or she'd a-filled up the hole!" + +"Carolyn May!" gasped Mamma Cameron. "It is time we take the child +back, Papa Cameron, or I am very much afraid she'll never speak English +again." + +Papa Cameron only laughed, and said: + +"Snuggy, you are a budding feminist, without a doubt." But Carolyn May +did not know what that meant. + + + THE END + + * * * * * + + [Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation left as printed.] + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75509 *** diff --git a/75509-h/75509-h.htm b/75509-h/75509-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6953620 --- /dev/null +++ b/75509-h/75509-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9465 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Carolyn of the Sunny Heart | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +.caption p +{ + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + margin: 0.25em 0; + font-weight: bold; +} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; +} + +div.titlepage p { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; + margin-top: 3em; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: 1px dashed;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} + +.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph1 { font-size: x-large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph2 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph3 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph3 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75509 ***</div> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>CAROLYN OF THE SUNNY HEART</h1> + +<p class="ph1">BY RUTH BELMORE ENDICOTT</p> + +<p>AUTHOR OF<br> +CAROLYN OF THE CORNERS</p> + +<p>ILLUSTRATED BY<br> +EDWARD C. CASWELL</p> + +<p>NEW YORK<br> +GROSSET & DUNLAP<br> +PUBLISHERS</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1919<br> +By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.</span></p> + +<p><i>All rights reserved</i></p> + + +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr">I.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">The Pale Lady</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">II.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">A Problem to Solve</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">III.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">A New Friend</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">A Puzzle</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">V.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">The Red-Haired Girl—and Others</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">A New Bangle for Prince</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">"<span class="smcap">If I Were Rich</span>"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">VIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">A Great Deal Happens</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">IX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">The Griffin</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">X.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">Carolyn May Is Puzzled</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">At the Corners</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">New Scenes</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">Wooden Legs</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><span class="smcap">The Dog with the Bushy Tail</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">An Unanswered Query</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><span class="smcap">Arrivals</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><span class="smcap">Renewed Acquaintance</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XVIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><span class="smcap">The Night Alarm</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XIX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><span class="smcap">A Removal</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><span class="smcap">Great Expectations</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><span class="smcap">Cross Currents</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><span class="smcap">The Cockatoo Man in Trouble</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><span class="smcap">Into Mischief and Out</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><span class="smcap">He Turns Up Again</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXV.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><span class="smcap">Almost</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVI.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><span class="smcap">Cousin Oly's Accident</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><span class="smcap">Ten Thousand Dollars</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXVIII.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">"<span class="smcap">Murder Will Out</span>"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXIX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><span class="smcap">Both Sides of the Question</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">XXX.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><span class="smcap">It All Comes Out Right</span></a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdl"><a href="#illus1">The little girl's interest was closely held</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl"><a href="#illus2">"Wait—let me speak to her first, Carolyn!"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl"><a href="#illus3">"What did he do with the ten thousand dollars?"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdl"><a href="#illus4">"You!" he said explosively</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<h2>CAROLYN OF THE SUNNY HEART</h2> + + + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE PALE LADY</p> + + +<p>The craggy heights of upper Central Park trailed a skirt of afternoon +shadow across the narrow strip of greensward and the asphalt path. One +felt the chill of spring in the shadow; but the sunshine was warm and +odorous with budding shrubs and trees.</p> + +<p>The little girl in the blue tam-o'-shanter and the mongrel dog +straining at his leash sniffed these pungent odours with approbation. +The dog wrinkled his nose and sneezed softly. His little mistress +smiled and dimpled, saying aloud:</p> + +<p>"This is such a nice day, Princey! If the angels make each day new +for us, they must have taken par-<i>tic</i>-'lar pains with this one. Now, +Princey, you must <i>not</i> do that!"</p> + +<p>The dog had made a playful dive for the wheel of a baby go-cart that +rolled across the path, and might have done it some damage with his +strong teeth.</p> + +<p>The child halted the runaway cart and wheeled it back to the settee +where it had stood, while Prince, his tongue a-loll and "smiling" +broadly, watched both his mistress and the strange woman who sat on +the bench with a baby in her lap.</p> + +<p>She was a very pale lady, and the baby did not seem well nourished, +either. He had wide eyes now for the dog, putting out his little hands +and cooing to Prince.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, my dear," the woman said sweetly; but she drew the baby +back hastily from the approach of the dog.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't be afraid of Princey, ma'am," urged the little girl. "He +wouldn't hurt the baby. Why, Princey just <i>loves</i> babies! Edna Price +has a little baby brother. That's why Edna didn't come to walk with us +today. She had to stay at home to mind Eldred. That's her baby's name. +I think it's a very pretty name. Edna's mamma got it out of a moving +picture.</p> + +<p>"Why," chattered on Prince's mistress, as the encouraged baby began +gaily to maul the dog's head and cropped ears, "they put Eldred right +down on the floor beside Princey, and the baby climbs all over him—and +sometimes goes to sleep on him. Isn't that funny?" and her own laugh +chimed out clearly. "And Prince behaves just as <i>goo-od</i>! He lies right +there and blinks his eyes and won't even snap at a fly for fear of +waking up the baby."</p> + +<p>"I see that your dog," said the pale lady, smiling, "is very +intelligent, as well as kind."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, ma'am," the little girl agreed. "He's not only intelligent. +He's quite interlectial. He knows lots more than other dogs."</p> + +<p>She was staring quite frankly at the pale lady, who had beautiful, +heavy coils of golden-red hair upon her shapely head. Her neck, slim +and graceful, seemed scarcely strong enough to hold the heavy head +erect, and it drooped like a flower above the cooing baby. Had she not +been so very, very thin and had she been granted some colour in her +cheeks, the little girl thought the lady would be beautiful indeed.</p> + +<p>The baby was pretty, too, in a delicate, fragile way. The little +girl was used to seeing sturdy, pink-cheeked, plump infants on her +block—and she knew them all. This little man was nothing at all like +Eldred Price, or Johnny O'Harrity's baby sister who lived in the +basement of their house. It seemed to the little girl that if she were +choosing a baby—</p> + +<p>"Don't—don't you think you'd rather have a fatter baby?" she burst +forth at last.</p> + +<p>A little colour rose into the mother's pale cheek, and she hugged the +baby tighter for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I s'pose <i>some</i>-body's got to choose the thin babies, or +they wouldn't have any homes at all. But if we ever find a baby—my +mamma and I—I hope it will be a fat one."</p> + +<p>"We hope the little mannie will be big and fat and strong some day," +said the pale lady, and managed to smile again.</p> + +<p>The friendly little girl hitched herself up on the bench beside the +woman, her feet dangling almost a foot from the ground.</p> + +<p>"So there is no baby at your house," remarked the pale lady, bending +again over her own little one.</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am. There's just Princey and me and my papa and mamma, and +sometimes Aunty Rose Kennedy, who comes to our house from Sunrise Cove +and the Corners and stays with us. She's just gone back home now to +make her garden. She says she cert'nly would have a conniption fit if +she didn't dig in the dirt in the spring. She says it's in her blood, +you know. But she doesn't take anything for it like <i>I</i> have to when it +comes spring. My mamma says a spring tonic's quite nec'sary."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the pale lady. "It must be nice to have a garden. But one +cannot have a garden in the city."</p> + +<p>"Oh, some folks can!" cried the child, her eyes shining. "I'm +'quainted with a very nice gentleman here in the park—his name is +Mr. M'Cooey—and he's got a lovely big garden up yonder," she added, +pointing to the heights.</p> + +<p>"There's going to be jonquils, and crocuses, and hy'cinths in it. He +told me so; and he ought to know, for he buried their feet in the +ground last fall. I saw him bury 'em. Princey wanted to dig 'em up; he +has always to be on his leash up in <i>that</i> part of the park.</p> + +<p>"Mr. M'Cooey's awful glad to work in the garden again, now it's come +spring. In the winter he has to go around with a bag and spear papers +with a stick—<i>you</i> know, papers and peanut bags where folks have been +feeding the squirrels. That's quite int'resting work, too. Mr. M'Cooey +let me try it once, and I speared a lot of papers for him."</p> + +<p>"I think you must make many friends, little girl," said the pale +lady—was it said wistfully? "Do you come to the park often?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, ma'am! But lots of times we come very early in the morning, +when other folks aren't up. My papa and Princey and I. You see, my papa +gets home from his paper awful early, and sometimes when it's pleasant +I get up and we take a walk while mamma gets breakfast.</p> + +<p>"That's how I come to know Mr. M'Cooey and the policeman who lets +Princey run without his leash," the little girl proceeded. "<i>He's</i> a +very nice man, too. His name is Mr. Lonergan, and he's got ten children +at home. And what do you s'pose? He says he wouldn't sell <i>one</i> of them +for a million dollars, but he wouldn't give ten cents for another baby!"</p> + +<p>The child's laugh chimed out again. Even the pale lady must smile in +response. The baby crowed and pulled at the ears of the mongrel dog. +But the lengthening shadows warned the woman of the time. She shook out +the baby's blanket and wrapped his feet and limbs in it, laying the +little man over her shoulder as she rose.</p> + +<p>"I must take him home, my dear," she said to the little girl, who also +climbed down from the bench. "Do you go this way, too?"</p> + +<p>She turned toward the avenue, pushing the go-cart with her free hand. +The child and her dog accompanied her, the former still gaily talking. +The avenue crossing was a whirlpool of flying motors, of trucks and +cars passing on the wide crosstown street, and of pedestrians dodging +this way and that. There were, too, many homing baby carriages at this +hour. The traffic officer had his hands full. He really could not see +everything and everywhere at the same moment.</p> + +<p>The pale lady, seeing what she thought was a clearing in the tangle of +traffic, let the little go-cart slip over the edge of the curbing into +the gutter. The child suddenly screamed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't! Oh, don't! Princey, don't let her!"</p> + +<p>The dog uttered a single bark and seized the skirt of the pale lady +from behind. Around the corner into the avenue, making a sharp turn, +came a great motor-car—all shiny varnish, beautiful upholstering, and +polished nickel trimmings—a car which told of wealth and ease, and the +occupants of which seemed of a world quite apart from that of the pale +lady and her baby.</p> + +<p>The wheel of the motor-car crushed the go-cart against the curbing only +a second following the child's warning cry. The pale lady fell back +from the peril, the dog dragging upon her skirt. The baby, crowing and +fearless, confronted the man and woman in the tonneau of the car, which +was brought to a stop by the chauffeur within its own length.</p> + +<p>The little girl was breathless with excitement, but she was, too, +vastly observant. She noted that the man in the car was of a florid +complexion, grey-haired, and exceedingly stern looking. The lady was +very fashionably dressed and revealed a cold and selfish nature in her +manner and her gaze. Through a shell-mounted lorgnette she stared at +the baby held so high and shielding his trembling mother's face.</p> + +<p>"How could that person be so careless?" demanded this woman sharply. +"Suppose the child had been in the carriage? I shudder to think of it!"</p> + +<p>The pale lady withdrew from the vicinity of the motor-car. She seemed +only desirous of effacing herself in the crowd that was loitering and +curious.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" proceeded the woman in the car, "people like that do not +deserve to have children. And it is a pretty child, too." Then she +added to her husband: "What will you do, Henry?"</p> + +<p>The little girl standing sturdily aside with her dog, and with strong +disapproval set upon her flowerlike face, had attracted the attention +of the man. He looked up.</p> + +<p>"The woman's gone!" he said. "She's a fool! Run away! Must be something +wrong with her. See here, child," he added harshly to Prince's little +mistress, "is she your mother, too?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said the little girl gravely. "She's just a friend of +mine. And I don't think it was nice at all of you to smash her baby's +carriage. You see, it will be no good at all any more."</p> + +<p>The woman put up her lorgnette again and stared disapprovingly at the +little girl. But her husband was much amused.</p> + +<p>"Indeed?" he said, grimly smiling. "So she is a friend of yours! And +who are you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am Carolyn May Cameron," said the little girl, and mentioned the +name of the apartment house in which she lived, only a few blocks away.</p> + +<p>"Very well, Carolyn May Cameron," said the man, leaning from the car to +place in her hand a folded bank note, "give this money to your friend +and tell her to buy another go-cart with it."</p> + +<p>"Why should you?" objected the woman beside him.</p> + +<p>"Drive on, Ren," said the man briefly, and the motor-car rolled away, +leaving the amazed little girl with twenty dollars in one hand and the +leash of the mongrel dog in the other.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May did not know anything about the pale lady who had run +away—her name, nor where she lived. She did not see how she was going +to give that money to her.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">A PROBLEM TO SOLVE</p> + + +<p>A boy with a pair of crutches beside him sat on the steps of the +apartment house where Carolyn May lived.</p> + +<p>"'Lo, Carolyn May!" he said when the greatly, excited little girl and +the mongrel dog arrived, "Your Pop's got home."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Johnny O'Harrity, I am so glad!" she said with relief. "I'd most +forgotten this was his night for getting home early. So <i>much</i> has +happened this afternoon," and she sighed ecstatically.</p> + +<p>"There's always something happening to you, Carolyn May, let you tell +it," said the janitor's boy, enviously. "What is it now?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I couldn't stop to tell you all, Johnny," declared the little +girl, slipping Prince's leash and letting him free to scramble up the +steps. "Just the <i>won</i>-derfulest thing happened—"</p> + +<p>"Aw, pshaw!" scoffed the boy, unwilling to admit that a mere girl could +fall upon Adventure so easily. "Like my grandmother says, you're always +taking mice for monsters."</p> + +<p>"I'm not either!" gasped the little girl. "You are an awfully impolite +boy to say so—and I don't like mice! You just look at <i>that</i>, Johnny +O'Harrity!" and she thrust her hand clutching the twenty dollar bill +under his freckled nose. "What would you say if a man just gave you +that and you didn't know who it belonged to? So there!"</p> + +<p>She refolded the banknote and marched into the house with her head +in the air, leaving Johnny O'Harrity speechless. The possession of a +bill of such large denomination was too tangible evidence of "just the +<i>won</i>-derfulest thing" having happened for the young sceptic to doubt +longer. Visions of a wealth of ice-cream cones, lollipops and all-day +suckers danced in the lame boy's mental vision.</p> + +<p>"Aw, Carolyn, I didn't mean to make you mad!" he cried after her. "I +was only foolin'."</p> + +<p>But Carolyn May went on without reply. Perhaps she had reason to +suspect Johnny O'Harrity's disingenuousness.</p> + +<p>Prince was whining at the apartment door when she reached the top of +the two flights of stairs in the semi-lighted stairwell. She put a +dimpled finger on the annunciator button, and at once a muffled step +approached along the private hall of the Cameron apartment. It wasn't +mother's light and busy step, so Carolyn May shrank back beside the +doorframe and clapped a pink palm upon her mouth to smother the giggles +that immediately arose to her lips.</p> + +<p>The door opened. A man in his shirtsleeves, with a beard and twinkling +blue eyes, appeared in the opening. He peered sharply into the hall +and seemed not to recognize the small figure in the tam-o'-shanter, +although Prince slipped in between his legs with a joyful snuffle and +made his way kitchenward, from which direction certain delightful +odours proclaimed that dinner was in preparation.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, little girl?" said the man. "Did you wish to see +anybody in particular?"</p> + +<p>"Does—does Miss Carolyn May Cameron live here?" asked the little girl, +struggling to keep down the giggles.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes. She does live here—when she's at home," admitted the man +doubtfully. "But she isn't at home much."</p> + +<p>"When is she home the most?" asked Carolyn May, "for I'd like to see +her, please."</p> + +<p>"She's home the most when she's out the least," declared Mr. Cameron. +"Almost always she seems to be out when her papa comes home for his +once-a-week dinner."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Papa!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Snuggy!"</p> + +<p>So the make-believe ended as she flung herself into his arms and he +caught her up bodily and hugged her—oh, so tightly!—to his breast.</p> + +<p>"It will be hard sledding, as your Uncle Joe would say, Snuggy, when +you are too big for me to pick up this way," he declared, bearing her +off to the front room, there to reseat himself in an arm-chair and hold +her on his lap.</p> + +<p>"Shall I ever be as big as that?" Carolyn asked, rather seriously.</p> + +<p>Her father laughed, and then Carolyn May suddenly remembered her +"<i>won</i>-derfulest" happening.</p> + +<p>"See here, Papa Cameron!" she cried, and opened her hand to reveal the +twenty dollar bill.</p> + +<p>"'Pitcher of George Washington!' as your friend, Tim the hackman, +says," cried her father, with dancing eyes. "Is there really so much +money in this work-a-day world? Twenty whole dollars? My!"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Carolyn May, dimpling, "the man who gave it to me must have +lots more than this. He was an <i>awfully</i> rich looking man."</p> + +<p>"And he gave it to <i>you</i>?" questioned her father, his curiosity excited.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, Papa. For a friend of mine. She's a pale lady, and the baby's +just as <i>sweet</i>! But he's awfully skinny. I should think she would +have choosed a fatter baby. And the man gave me this money for her +because he didn't run over the baby," went on Carolyn May with absolute +indifference to her persons and tenses. But Mr. Cameron was used to +what he called the little girl's "fearlessness in the use of the +English language." She was bound by few hard-and-fast rules of grammar.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I should think that would have pleased him quite twenty dollars' +worth," agreed Mr. Cameron. "But now suppose you tell me all about it, +Snuggy, from the very start. I think likely I shall get a clearer idea +of how my little girl became possessed of so much wealth."</p> + +<p>So Carolyn May went back to the pale lady and her baby on the bench +in the park, and how she and Prince had made their acquaintance. The +resultant adventure when the pale lady had wrecked her baby's go-cart +reminded Papa Cameron of the perils confronting his little daughter +whenever she went out on the streets.</p> + +<p>"It was a narrow escape," he said with a sigh. "I hope you, Snuggy, +are just as careful as you can be when you come to a crossing?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I am!" she cried. "And so is Princey. He barks if he sees +anything coming. And he grabbed the pale lady's skirt with his teeth. +But now, Papa Cameron, how shall I find her and give her this money for +a new baby carriage?"</p> + +<p>That was a question which was the text for much discussion around the +dinner table. Mamma Cameron was quite as deeply interested in the +problem as her husband and her little daughter. Mamma Cameron was a +very sweet looking woman, and a single glance was all one needed to be +assured that Carolyn May was her daughter.</p> + +<p>"The poor woman doubtless needs that twenty dollars, Lewis," she +said to Carolyn's father. "How careless people with plenty of money +sometimes are!"</p> + +<p>"Careless in giving away money to small girls, Hannah?" asked Mr. +Cameron quizzically; "or careless in running their cars?"</p> + +<p>"Careless in thinking that the giving of twenty dollars in this case +absolves them from all responsibility. It would seem as if that man did +not care whether the money ever reached the woman or not. He considered +his conscience salved."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are right, my dear," rejoined Mr. Cameron. "The more +reason, then, why we should carry through his good intention. We must +find the pale lady."</p> + +<p>"Of course we must!" cried Carolyn May with enthusiasm. "Shall we put +an advertisement in your paper?"</p> + +<p>"'Advertising pays'—we are agreed on that," said her father, smiling. +"But in this case we may assume that a less bald method of publicity +had better be tried first. Did you never see the pale lady in the park +before, Snuggy?"</p> + +<p>"No, Papa, never before. But, then, she might come there often just the +same. You know, Princey and I don't often go there in the afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you and Mamma can go tomorrow and look for her," Mr. Cameron +suggested. "She cannot live far away, or she would not have been +sitting in that particular quarter of Central Park. And we may assume, +also, that her home is in an easterly direction, as that was the way +she was going when the automobile literally crossed her path."</p> + +<p>"I wonder who the people were in the auto, Lewis," said Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"It is not likely that we shall learn that," her husband replied. "But +Carolyn's friend, the pale lady, we must find.</p> + +<p>"Carolyn's suggestion of advertising in the paper may not be far +out of the way," he pursued. "A personal, advising the pale lady to +communicate with the advertiser, and mentioning the incident and the +fact that she will learn something to her financial advantage, would +possibly attract her attention. We'll see about that later."</p> + +<p>"Maybe we'll have to send for Uncle Joe Stagg to find her," put in +Carolyn May excitedly. "You know, he found Miss Mandy and me when +the whole forest was burning up, and brought us safe back to the +Corners."<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>"It shocks me," her mother said, with a sigh, "to remember what dangers +the child experienced while we were away, Lewis. Sometimes I feel that +I cannot bear to have her out of my sight again."</p> + +<p>"Yes, our Snuggy has experienced perils by flood and fire with a +vengeance. I had no idea, Hannah," he went on, "that my assignment to +an Italian post for the <i>Beacon</i> was to result in so much excitement +and adventure for Carolyn May. When our reported loss with the +<i>Dunraven</i> seemed a fact, of course there was nothing for Mr. Price to +do but to send Snuggy to your brother."</p> + +<p>Carolyn May was busy with her dinner and her own particular thoughts. +Her parents could speak freely before her at the moment.</p> + +<p>"I believe her going to the Corners was the making of Joseph Stagg," +said Mrs. Cameron thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"At least, it was his making over," her husband rejoined, with a +boylike grin.</p> + +<p>"He had been a business automaton almost, it seems to me, since I could +remember," said Hannah Cameron. "Now, how he has changed!"</p> + +<p>"I fancy," said Carolyn May's father, with a little smile, "that Miss +Amanda Parlow, 'that was,' as the Corner folks say, has had something +to do with the metamorphosis of Joe Stagg."</p> + +<p>"But Carolyn began it. Joseph Stagg would never have awakened and +married Mandy if it had not been for our child. Never! Even Aunty Rose +Kennedy says that."</p> + +<p>"She certainly is a wonderful little matchmaker," chuckled the man. +"They have much to thank her for, Hannah. No wonder they are so eager +to have you and the child spend a part of the summer at Sunrise Cove +and the Corners.</p> + +<p>"But, now! about this twenty dollar bill, and the pale lady. Will you +be able to give some time to it, Hannah?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly will try, Lewis. But I do not think Carolyn May should +carry that money about herself."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cameron tapped his breast pocket. "It is in my wallet right now," +he said. "Let the pale lady be found and we will soon put the money +into her hands. Still, the responsibility lies heavily upon the Cameron +family until the actual owner of the twenty dollar note comes to light."</p> + +<p>"Of course we shall find her, Papa," Carolyn May said with assurance. +"Princey and I and mamma are sure to meet the pale lady. And mamma will +just <i>love</i> her I know. She is a very, very nice lady."</p> + +<p>"And that is also her opinion of Bridget Dorgan who comes to do the +scrubbing and smells of beer," sighed Mrs. Cameron aside. "Sometimes +I really think, Lewis, that Carolyn May's taste in friendships is +altogether too catholic."</p> + +<p>Her husband merely chuckled.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">A NEW FRIEND</p> + + +<p>The next day was a holiday, so Carolyn May did not have to get up at +half past seven and hurry to school. Nevertheless she and Prince were +early abroad.</p> + +<p>Prince always kept perfect count of the school days. That was one +reason why Carolyn May was so sure he was "quite an interlectial dog." +On the school days when the little girl started forth, Prince went +only to the apartment door with her. But on this morning he ran ahead +down the stairs, leaping and barking and wagging his ridiculous tail, +confident that he and his little mistress were going for a walk.</p> + +<p>The moment Carolyn May reached the vestibule and snapped the leash on +to Prince's collar, the little girl exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, me! where's the funeral?"</p> + +<p>"There ain't no fun'ral, Car'lyn May," vouch-safed Johnny O'Harrity who +stood poised on his crutches at the bottom of the steps.</p> + +<p>"Has the ambulance come for somebody, then?" demanded Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>"Naw! There ain't no amb'lance!"</p> + +<p>"What <i>is</i> the matter?" cried the little girl, gazing in amazement at +the throng of children around the door. It seemed as though half of +those about her own age living on the block were present. And how they +all eyed Carolyn May!</p> + +<p>"What ever is the matter?" she repeated. "Have—have I done anything?"</p> + +<p>"Come on, Car'lyn May," said one bolder child—a girl with red hair and +a hole in her stocking. "You're goin' down to the candy store, ain't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no," said Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>"I bet she's goin' to the drug store first off. <i>I</i> would," declared +another, a boy this time.</p> + +<p>"Why—why—"</p> + +<p>"Let's go over to Maxey's. You get lots more for your money at Maxey's +than you do at the drug store."</p> + +<p>"For—goodness—gracious—sake!" gasped Carolyn May. "Who ever told you +I was going to give all you children a treat? Of course I'm not! Why, +I couldn't! I've only got ten cents, and five of that's for Prince's +dinner."</p> + +<p>"Aw, stingy!" went up the cry. "We know you've got lots of money, +Carolyn May."</p> + +<p>"Who says so?" flashed back the badgered little girl. Then her gaze +fell upon the face of the janitor's boy. "Johnny O'Harrity!" she +gasped. "I do believe you've been telling stories about me."</p> + +<p>"Ain't nuther," snapped the lame boy. "I seen all that money that man +gave you."</p> + +<p>"He said it was two hundred dollars, Carolyn May," put in the +red-haired girl.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh!" exploded Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>"Never!" snarled Johnny. "I said it was twenty. I saw it. Carolyn May +said a man gave it to her."</p> + +<p>"And of course the stingy thing wants to spend it all on herself," +sneered the red-haired girl.</p> + +<p>"Why, if I really had twenty dollars, of course I would treat you all," +admitted Carolyn May, with an expansive smile. "Wouldn't it be nice? We +could all have ice-cream cones. I'd just love to! But of course that +money the man gave me for my friend doesn't belong to me."</p> + +<p>"Stingy! Stingy!" was the unbelieving chorus.</p> + +<p>For a moment Carolyn May almost "clouded up." She was hurt as well as +angered. Finally indignation over-rode the smart of the attack.</p> + +<p>"Why, Johnny O'Harrity, you are a good-for-nothing! I told you that +money was given to me for a friend. It never belonged to me at all." +Then she went on to the clamorous urchins surrounding her and Prince: +"I'd like to treat you, but I can't—and that's just all there is to +it. But I shouldn't s'pose you'd <i>expect</i> such a thing. Why! I'm not +even acquainted with some of you," and she looked sternly and directly +at the red-haired girl.</p> + +<p>With Prince tugging at his leash she walked through the disappointed +crowd. The red-haired girl made a face at her, but nobody dared touch +Carolyn May when Prince was with her.</p> + +<p>She held her head very high and her sweet eyes flashed. She would not +show them how bad she felt. And she did feel bad, for the far-flung cry +of "Stingy!" hurt her generous little soul. Carolyn May was learning a +lesson—the lesson of the evanescence of popularity.</p> + +<p>"That mean, <i>mean</i> Johnny O'Harrity!" she told Prince. "Just as his +grandma says, he is a 'good-for-nothing.' I don't believe I shall give +him a single, solitary treat ever again, so there!"</p> + +<p>Yet half an hour later, when she returned with Prince's meat scraps +in a paper and a bag of candy for which she had expended her own +five cents, the wobegone picture of the lame boy huddled down on the +apartment house steps, smote the little girl to the quick.</p> + +<p>Misled by Johnny's tale of treasure, the other children had deserted +the janitor's boy. Because he wore a brace on his foot and could only +hobble around, the others did not care much to play with Johnny. He had +to use his wits to gain their companionship even for a little while. +His tale of Carolyn May's wealth had brought him a certain publicity +for a brief time. Now he was marooned, like a shipwrecked sailor, on +the apartment house steps.</p> + +<p>He turned his head away as the little girl and her dog came blithely +along the walk. Carolyn May's sunny nature had asserted itself again. +The cloud had passed. She saw that Johnny had been crying. There was a +mark on his face, too, where somebody had slapped him. Carolyn May was +sure it had been that red-haired girl!</p> + +<p>No boy wishes to be openly sympathized with when he has been unmanly +enough to weep—and pitied by a girl least of all. Johnny O'Harrity +looked determinedly away as Carolyn May mounted the steps.</p> + +<p>The little girl hesitated above him, looking down on his huddled +figure. Then, after releasing the eager Prince, who at once darted into +the vestibule, she opened the paper bag and transferred some of the +candy to her pocket.</p> + +<p>Then she dropped the bag with a goodly share of sweets in it right into +Johnny's cap as it lay in his lap, and immediately ran, giggling, into +the house.</p> + +<p>When Papa Cameron went downtown that day, Carolyn May went with him. It +was a holiday jaunt indeed when she was allowed to go to his office. +Later, her mother would go downtown, too, and they expected to shop +together. The delights of shopping in the big department stores never +palled on Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>One never knows what may happen in this world. That, Carolyn May often +said, was what made it so very delightful. If one went forth expecting +to coast downhill and it proved to be warm enough to pick violets, she +only considered it a pleasant surprise. The unexpected gave zest to +existence.</p> + +<p>This day the unexpected surely happened, and it became a day long to be +remembered by Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cameron's position on the <i>Beacon</i> was that of city editor. First +he was busy looking over the clippings from the other papers which the +exchange editors had put upon his desk, and then with his assignment +book. Not many reporters had as yet put in an appearance, and Carolyn +May was free to wander about the big room, which was always a delight +to her.</p> + +<p>Everybody knew her, or made believe they did. Even the copy boys +grinned at Carolyn May, and the make-up man, whose hands were so +terribly grimy, was her particular friend.</p> + +<p>Wandering back to her father's big flat-topped desk, she was in season +to see him greet a young man who had quickly followed his card in from +the gate where the messenger sat.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bassett?" questioned the city editor, scanning the caller rather +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>The young man was not unattractive looking. He possessed a wealth of +waving brown hair which he tossed back now and then from his broad brow +by a quick, nervous gesture. His expression was frank, and if he was +not exactly a handsome lad he certainly was good to look upon.</p> + +<p>There was nothing dissipated in his appearance; yet his clothing was +shabby, and a brilliant shine attempted to hide the ravages time had +made on his footwear. His whole manner and presence spoke loudly of +"putting his best foot forward."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bassett?" repeated Carolyn May's father. "You are, I take it, a +son of Mr. Henry Bassett, of Wall Street fame?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't come to you boasting of my family connections—or +otherwise," replied the young man. "I cannot very well help my name, +and there is nothing about it of which I am ashamed. I am here on my +own behalf, to ask you for a chance, not as Henry Bassett's son, but as +Joe Bassett, Yale graduate, and quite unafraid of work. I am willing to +do anything that's clean."</p> + +<p>"You have not been very successful since leaving college?" Mr. Cameron +suggested.</p> + +<p>"You can easily guess that," the caller said bitterly. "But I do not +consider myself a failure," he quickly added. "Merely, all the holes I +have found have been round; and I am a square peg, Mr. Cameron."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the city editor, nodding. "And why do you think you have +the germ of journalism within you? Many aspirants become failures in +this field, first of all."</p> + +<p>"Then give me credit for the grace of originality," answered Bassett. +"I have tried almost everything else first. But of course I can write +English. I wrote with a certain facility for the college press. I heard +of a vacancy here. Mr. Mudge sent me to you, Mr. Cameron. If you can—"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I will give you a trial," Mr. Cameron answered quickly. "Let me +see, Mr. Bassett; you are a married man, are you not? Sit down."</p> + +<p>For some reason the applicant flushed slowly as he took the creaky +chair at the end of the editor's desk. "I have that honour," he said +briefly.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me one moment," said Carolyn May's father as his telephone rang +and he put the receiver to his ear. The little girl drew nearer. Mr. +Joe Bassett caught her eye and Carolyn smiled and flushed.</p> + +<p>"Who are you, little girl?" the young man asked.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May told him. She was usually quite frank with new +acquaintances, though never bold. She approved of Mr. Joe Bassett, +and began to chatter to him very companionably. Perhaps Mr. Cameron +neglected to give the young man his immediate attention purposely for a +few moments that he might watch Carolyn May's way with him. The little +girl's father often said that he was willing to rely on Carolyn May's +intuition.</p> + +<p>The city editor looked up from his assignment book at length.</p> + +<p>"Here!" he said. "I take it you know the city well?"</p> + +<p>"Quite," said Bassett, giving his attention at once to Mr. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Here's a matter that should make half a column of human interest +stuff. It is exclusive, too. The City News people evidently got nothing +of it."</p> + +<p>Briefly he related Carolyn May's adventure with the pale lady the +previous afternoon.</p> + +<p>"Here is the twenty dollar bill. Find the woman and give it to her. Get +her story. I have a hunch it will be worth telling. Little chance, of +course, of linking up the people who smashed her baby carriage with the +tale. Unless the traffic officer noted the automobile license number, +and that's not likely.</p> + +<p>"But," added Mr. Cameron, smiling, "I'll give you a side-partner to +help you. How would you like to go up to the park with Mr. Bassett, and +see if you can find your pale lady, Carolyn May?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! My! Yes!" ejaculated the little girl, her eyes shining.</p> + +<p>"I'll telephone mamma and she will postpone her shopping trip, I know. +Business before pleasure always," and Mr. Cameron smiled. "How about +it, Bassett? Will you take care of her to the upper end of the park? +Carolyn knows her way home from there."</p> + +<p>"At your orders, Mr. Cameron," said the young man, folding the banknote +and slipping it into a phantom-thin wallet as he rose to go.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" The editor scanned the young man's wardrobe again. "By the +way, stop at the cashier's window for an advance on expense account," +and he scribbled something on an order form and handed it to the new +reporter.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bassett, get all the facts you can and weave them into a readable +story. No fancy writing. Our readers are plain people. There's nothing +likely to break today of any account, so I'll hold half a column for +you."</p> + +<p>The editor kissed Carolyn May and she started forth with Joe Bassett, +giving that young man her hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I do hope we find my lady friend," she said eagerly. "And her +baby! I know she will be pleased to have a new baby carriage. That one +that got broken was a second-hand one, I think. There's a man sells +'em, and lots of other second-hand things, only two or three blocks +away from where I live. The pale lady's carriage was awfully old and +shabby looking."</p> + +<p>Joe Bassett looked down at her curiously.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">A PUZZLE</p> + + +<p>Setting forth on this adventure promised to Carolyn May all that a +hazard of new fortunes ever yields the young. She accompanied the +<i>Beacon's</i> new reporter with the conviction that "wonderful things" +were sure to happen. To find one particular mother and baby amid the +five and more million persons in the Greater City was, to her mind, a +simple thing.</p> + +<p>"And I couldn't be mistaken once I saw that pale lady," she confided to +Bassett, as they descended into the subway. "You see, she's got such +b-e-a-<i>u</i>-tiful hair! And the baby is just as cunning! But he's an +awfully thin little thing."</p> + +<p>"Your taste runs to plump babies, I fancy," suggested her companion, +and he smiled upon Carolyn May. There was a serious cast to his +countenance despite its naturally frank expression.</p> + +<p>"My!" exclaimed the little girl, "<i>all</i> babies ought to be fat. If they +don't start out fat how can they ever hope to grow up to be big men and +women? I guess that's what the matter is with some of these awfully +thin people you see. They must have been skinny babies.</p> + +<p>"My Auntie Rose Kennedy—You don't know her, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't that pleasure," he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, she's awfully nice. You'd like her. Though some folks think +she's stern—just at first. I did, myself," confessed Carolyn May. "And +if you'd seen her spank General Bolivar with a lath—"</p> + +<p>"Spank <i>who</i> with <i>what</i>?" gasped Bassett, suddenly aroused by her +statement.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes. General Bolivar is Uncle Joe Stagg's big white turkey +gob-ble-er. And he chased me. So Aunty Bose spanked him with a lath. +She's very stern when she wants to be. But she had skinny babies. +'Puny' she says they were, all three of them. So they couldn't live to +grow up, and they've got three stones like three white lozenges in the +churchyard at the Corners."</p> + +<p>All this information rather staggered Joe Bassett. But he could not +help being amused by the little girl's chatter. While they rode uptown +on the subway train the journey was enlivened by similar monologues on +the part of Carolyn May. There had been times when Aunty Rose Kennedy +was wont to say that Carolyn's tongue "was hung in the middle and ran +at both ends."</p> + +<p>The two new friends left the subway and crossed the park to that glade +where the little girl had made the acquaintance of the pale lady the +day before. Early as was the hour in the afternoon there were already +many babies with their nurses and carriages about the benches bordering +the walks.</p> + +<p>"Of course," Carolyn May said, "we don't have to look for a carriage. +The pale lady won't have any, for it was all smashed. There! It was +right down yonder that Princey and I found the pale lady. Oh! There she +is!"</p> + +<p>"Where? Are you sure?" asked Bassett, feeling rather embarrassed. This +was his first attempt at such an interview as Mr. Cameron had proposed. +Suppose the "pale lady" should resent it?</p> + +<p>Carolyn May was pointing eagerly down the path to a woman sitting with +a baby in her lap, alone on a bench. The little girl might have started +off on a run to greet her friend the next moment, had not Bassett +detained her.</p> + +<p>"Wait!" he said, dropping a restraining hand upon her shoulder. He +had paled; now he flushed warmly. "Wait! Let me speak to her first, +Carolyn. Are you sure that is the lady of the accident?"</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt="" id="illus2"> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"<i>Wait—let me speak to her first, Carolyn!</i>"</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>"Why, of <i>course</i>!" declared the child confidently. "Don't you see +she has no go-cart? And how pale she is? And how thin the baby is? Of +course I know her!"</p> + +<p>"Wait here, Carolyn," said Bassett, a strange tremour in his voice. "I +want to speak to the—er—the lady alone."</p> + +<p>Carolyn May, not altogether pleased, and somewhat puzzled as well, +watched the tall young man approach the pale lady. Bassett stood +between the child and her friend when the latter first looked up and +observed his approach.</p> + +<p>What she said, how she looked, or how Bassett looked and what he said, +the little girl had no means of knowing. But what followed quickly +filled Carolyn's small heart with trouble and her usually sunny face +began to cloud over.</p> + +<p>The pale lady rose from the bench with her baby. She and Bassett +seemed to be talking very earnestly together. They began to move slowly +down the walk—quite in the opposite direction from that point where +Carolyn May stood, as she had been told to stand. Disobedience was not +one of her sins.</p> + +<p>A lump rose in her throat. Salt tears stung the child's eyelids. She +beheld the pale lady and Mr. Bassett walk quite out of sight, and +neither of them turned to look at her!</p> + +<p>Of course Carolyn knew her way home. Mr. Bassett must know that, too, +for this was the spot where her adventure had occurred the previous +afternoon. He had been assigned to interview the pale lady and get her +story; he was not supposed to act as nursemaid for Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>But the latter felt very much hurt. Neither the pale lady nor Mr. +Bassett had asked her to join them! She wanted to hear all about it. +She wanted to see how the pale lady would look when she was given the +twenty dollar bank note for a new baby carriage.</p> + +<p>And they had ignored her—left her out of it entirely! She might never +know at all just how glad the pale lady was to receive the twenty +dollars. And—</p> + +<p>They were out of sight! Carolyn suddenly came to life and started after +them. But when she reached the exit of the park and the busy avenue +crossing, Mr. Bassett and the pale lady and her baby were utterly gone. +Carolyn May went on home feeling very disconsolate indeed.</p> + +<p>But, after all, this was a holiday. She could not be unhappy for +long. Here was mamma ready to take her on the shopping tour after +all; and when Carolyn May had had her hands and face washed, and her +hair combed, and her ribbons freshened a bit, they set off, for the +department stores on One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, of course, +for it was too late to go "'way down town."</p> + +<p>There was plenty to see in Harlem's business mart, and the little girl +enjoyed herself. For she had money of her own to spend; Papa Cameron +saw to that. She bought a new rubber dog for Baby Eldred Price, and +a new "bangle" for Prince's collar, that being a fad just then among +local dog owners.</p> + +<p>"But you have bought yourself nothing, Carolyn May," said her mother. +"I thought you wanted one of those pretty lace collars such as Edna +wears? You have been looking at it and admiring it. Now, I fear," said +Mamma, seriously, "you have not enough money left from your allowance +to buy a collar equally as nice as your little friend's."</p> + +<p>"We-ell," the little girl said slowly, "I—I guess I won't care much. +You know, Mamma, I can look at Edna's just the same, and it's ever so +pretty. Why! I can enjoy it better seeing it on her than as if I wored +it myself. For you see," concluded this small philosopher, "I should +have to go to the looking-glass to see a collar on me; but when Edna +wears hers I can look at it all I like. Yes, it will be lots more +convenient."</p> + +<p>This was indeed a holiday, for, as Papa Cameron did not some home to +dinner, when the electric advertising signs began to sparkle on the +wide thoroughfare, the little girl and her mother went to the "very +nicest restaurant there was" for their evening meal, where there was a +"cute" little shaded lamp on each table, and an orchestra that played +lovely music while people danced on the open floor in the middle of the +great hall.</p> + +<p>The waiter who attended to the needs of Mrs. Cameron and Carolyn was a +very nice man indeed, the little girl thought. He saw to it that her +water glass was filled and he said "Yes, Mam'zelle" and "No, Mam'zelle" +with an air that made Carolyn feel thoroughly grown up. She shook hands +with the waiter when they departed, he was such a very nice man.</p> + +<p>She was very sleepy when they came out upon the busy street. The big +stores were closed and the theatre-going crowd jostled her. Even the +suggestion of her favourite moving picture house did not tempt her on +this night, and she fairly staggered the last few blocks, clinging to +her mother's hand; "and I never <i>did</i> know just how I got to bed," she +told her father the next day.</p> + +<p>It had been quite a wonderful day to look back upon, despite her +disappointment about the pale lady and Mr. Joe Bassett. Regarding that, +Mr. Cameron had something to tell his wife when he sat down to the +breakfast table. It was Carolyn's and her mother's breakfast, but Mr. +Cameron's supper.</p> + +<p>"Of course, Carolyn May knew her way home from the park," her mother +said. "But Mr. Bassett seemed to take the fact too easily for granted +when he deserted her there. Or shall we lay it to the eagerness of the +unfledged reporter?"</p> + +<p>She had already heard the story of Joe Bassett and knew who he was and +as much about his personal affairs as her husband.</p> + +<p>Just why Mr. Henry Bassett, disrespectfully known far and wide as "the +Griffin of Wall Street," had disowned his son, the newspaper reading +public and the newspaper writers who catered to that public could +only surmise. One day Joe was high in favour in his father's office +downtown, as well as in the Riverside Drive mansion where the Bassetts +dwelt; the next, Joe was out in the world and frankly admitting to +friends who asked that he never expected to touch a cent of his +father's vast fortune or be received by him again.</p> + +<p>Of course one could surmise that the estrangement had something to +do with the younger Bassett's marriage, although that had occurred +after his break with his father. It was not the usual tawdry +rich-man's-son-and-stage-girl marriage. Young Mrs. Bassett was born and +brought up "to the purple" just as Joe had been. But her family had +lost its property and rumour kept whispering that the girl had nowhere +to turn but to that "easiest way" of marriage.</p> + +<p>It might be said that she had captured a rich man's son. But she had +wedded Joe Bassett after he had been disowned; and those knowing Henry +Bassett well said that he would not have put his son out of the house +without a good reason, and because of that good reason he would never +take him back.</p> + +<p>This was all two years old now. The general public had quite forgotten +the young Bassetts.</p> + +<p>"Or shall we lay it to the eagerness of the unfledged reporter?" Mrs. +Cameron had asked.</p> + +<p>"Scarcely that," observed her husband in a somewhat scornful tone of +voice. "Joe Bassett—no matter how smart a man his father is—will +never set the North River afire. At least, not in the newspaper field."</p> + +<p>"Tell me about it," said Hannah Cameron, for she was one of those wise +women who always retain a refreshing though not an undue interest in +their husband's work. Besides, before she married she had worked in the +<i>Beacon</i> office and had never lost interest in the newspaper "game."</p> + +<p>"Can you imagine what the fellow said when he came back to the office +from that assignment? He was prompt enough. He wasted no time. And he +had the story—more of it than I expected him to get. He had in some +way discovered (and that's a mystery, too) the name of the man whose +automobile smashed the woman's baby carriage and who gave the twenty +dollar bill to Carolyn."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Who was that man, Papa?" asked the little girl, her interest, too, +aroused.</p> + +<p>"Why, Bassett would not tell me even that. Nor the name of your friend, +'the pale lady.' He got all the information needed to make a whacking +good story, but refused to turn it in and offered his resignation +instead, if I considered that necessary."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Hannah Cameron, dropping her knife and fork to stare at her +husband. "Why did he do that?"</p> + +<p>"Because he said he considered it bald impudence to put the story of +the woman's private affairs into the papers for the public to read. +She had begged him not to print anything about it. I asked him how he +thought papers were made readable if not by just such stories, and he +told me if <i>that</i> was newspaper work he could not do it."</p> + +<p>"It it is not without reason—his point," murmured Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>Her husband smiled grimly. "I have always told you, Hannah, that you +lacked an essential for sound newspaper work—you possess no nose for +news. But Bassett was very high and mighty about it. Yet, somehow, I +like the fellow," the husband added, musingly.</p> + +<p>"I hope you were not obliged to discharge him," his wife said +seriously, and plainly more moved by her husband's story than she cared +to let him see.</p> + +<p>"No. I gave him another chance. Put him on police and City Hall work. +He cannot run against many people in that end of the game who will stir +his latent chivalry. He seemed much impressed by Carolyn's friend. Said +she was a lady and should not have her misfortunes spread upon the news +sheet.</p> + +<p>"He had sent the twenty dollar bill to the man who gave it to Carolyn +May. Somehow he discovered his identity. The woman refused to accept +the money. Bassett offered to make good the twenty if I did not believe +him; but it was impossible to distrust the young idiot."</p> + +<p>"That is a harsh word, Lewis," said Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"It fits him," her husband said in disgust. "No wonder Joe Bassett has +not got along any better."</p> + +<p>"But, Papa Cameron!" cried Carolyn May suddenly, "then my pale lady +won't have any new go-cart for her baby."</p> + +<p>"She will not buy it with that twenty dollars your friend in the +automobile gave you."</p> + +<p>"And—and maybe she can't get another at all! I wonder—Why!" exclaimed +the child, aghast, "we don't know where she lives or what her name is +at all, do we?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said her mother kindly, "if you so easily found your pale lady +over there in the park yesterday, you will be able to see her again."</p> + +<p>To Carolyn's disappointment, however, she looked every afternoon in the +park for a week; but the pale lady and her baby did not reappear.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE RED-HAIRED GIRL—AND OTHERS</p> + + +<p>The red-haired girl became very soon Carolyn May's <i>b te noire</i>. She +had but recently moved into the neighbourhood and even the best of the +Harlem blocks sometimes have a sprinkling of ill-bred children. The +progeny of the vulgar is mixed in with well-behaved girls and boys both +at school and at play.</p> + +<p>The red-haired girl, who was called "Sade" by her fellows, soon led the +wilder children, both boys and girls, in all manner of mischief. She +had the shrillest voice and the liveliest legs in the neighbourhood. +She never, in fact, spoke otherwise than at top-register, and she +travelled like a comet—at full speed all the time.</p> + +<p>More, she was like a comet because of that flaming aura of hair when +she ran, was Sade. None of her mates called her "Comet" of course. +Instead they dubbed her "Ginger," "Brick-top," "Redney," "Scarlet," or +"Carrot-top."</p> + +<p>"Though," Carolyn May confessed to her father of this last, "I don't +just see why they call her 'carrot-top.' Carrots aren't red at the top. +I stopped at the vegetable stand on the corner and looked partic'lar. +The tops are green. It's the bottom that is red."</p> + +<p>However, Carolyn May herself called Sade none of these names. In the +first place she was much too polite and well taught. Again, she never +spoke to the red-haired girl if she could help it, for Sade called +Carolyn "stingy" and "stuck up" and made other derogatory remarks +calculated to grieve a child like Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>Not that Carolyn was what is known among children as a "softie." She +could take care of herself in most arguments. Children, if they attend +the mixed public schools, have to fight their way, and she had battled +up the educational heights as far as grade 3-A.</p> + +<p>She was looking forward now to her graduation in June from the 3-A +grade to the 4-B. The girls she knew in the latter division of her +school were almost grown up. At least, so Carolyn thought And she had +peeped into some of the books they studied and really, they seemed +so deep and "wonderful," that she feared her own father might have +difficulty in understanding them.</p> + +<p>Naturally Carolyn was beloved of her teachers. Sometimes they did +not altogether understand her. Her present teacher—a fluffy-haired, +short-skirted, rattle-pated creature, herself more of a child than many +of her pupils—delighted in saying that Carolyn was "so quaint."</p> + +<p>"And I don't think much of Miss Solomons calling me that," Carolyn said +to her mother. "I looked 'quaint' up in papa's Big Dick, and I'm <i>not</i> +'antique looking.' Antiques and horribles, are what they have in the +Thanksgiving Day parades—and I ain't one."</p> + +<p>"Nor do you speak as though you were taught very well by Miss +Solomons," was her mother's comment. "I am sure she does not tell you +to say 'ain't.'"</p> + +<p>"M-m. No, ma'am. Perhaps she doesn't know herself if it's right or +not—when she calls me quaint. I <i>ain't quaint</i>! Oh, my! isn't that +funny? You only have to leave off that funny 'q' letter and it makes +'quaint' 'ain't.' 'Quaint' ain't right; and 'ain't' ain't right—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me, Carolyn!" cried her mother, stopping both ears. "You +clatter just like a mill wheel. <i>Do</i> stop."</p> + +<p>"Anyway," murmured the little girl, subsiding, "I don't like Miss +Solomons as I did Miss Minnie Lester, who taught the red schoolhouse at +the Corners."</p> + +<p>Carolyn was never through talking about the Corners and Sunrise Cove, +where Uncle Joe Stagg lived and had his hardware store, and all her +friends thereabout, as well as the adventures which had befallen her +while her father and mother were away.</p> + +<p>Yet she had plenty of friends about her Harlem home—as odd, perhaps, +and as curious a collection as she had found in the country where she +had spent the greater part of a year. The sunny heart of Carolyn May +appealed to almost everybody whom she met.</p> + +<p>There was Dominick, the "ice, wood and coal" man in the corner cellar. +She had been fain to call him at first (she was only a <i>very</i> little +girl then, so she often said) the Nicewoodencoalman—all run together +just like that!</p> + +<p>"And he <i>is</i> a 'nice' man as well as an 'ice' man," she declared. "He +has a nice wife, too, and a nice '<i>bambino</i>.' That's a baby. It is +Italian. I expect I'll learn all the Italian there is pretty soon if I +talk much with Dominick.</p> + +<p>"We've a little girl at our school, Maria Maretta, who is an Italian +I'm quite sure. Only she won't talk it for us. She says it's 'wop +talk' and she is an American. But Dominick talks Italian all the time. +He says: 'I sella da coal, sella da wood, sella da ice, an' maka da +mon'—maka nottings.' That is Italian. It is funny talk. It sounds +almost like a kind of English!"</p> + +<p>The butcher's clerk—whoever he might be—was always a friend of +Carolyn, for she had daily and serious discussions with him about +Prince's scraps. Carolyn "marketed" for her dog with the same care that +her mother selected provisions for their table. Otto, the butcher's +boy, was teaching her German. She could already say "<i>wie geht es</i>."</p> + +<p>"The child will be a linguist," observed Papa Cameron in his joking way.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dorgan, the "scrub lady," who always spoke in a hoarse whisper +and was very devout if her calling upon the saints was any criterion, +was likewise well up on Carolyn's list of friends. Mrs. Dorgan was a +very mysterious woman, the little girl thought, for while she worked +she told Carolyn out of the corner of her mouth endless tales of her +relatives and how badly they treated her, and of her son Jimmy in the +Canadian army who was bound to be sent home before long by his general +because he had killed so many "av thim Germans that there won't be none +lift for the other byes to kill, at all at all, if they don't stop the +gossoon!"</p> + +<p>Carolyn was usually willing to go on errands, for in that way lay +adventure. Around the corner, up and across the avenue, and easterly +on another and much poorer block, was a small grocery and delicatessen +store much patronized by frugal housewives of the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>The little girl never went to this store without taking Prince with +her. Prince was only a "mongorel," as Carolyn herself admitted. But he +had a fighting strain of blood in him and he was afraid of nothing that +went on four legs or two.</p> + +<p>But all dogs were not like Prince, as Carolyn May very well knew. On +one corner of the block where the delicatessen store was situated was a +very bad "store." Some corner "stores" were bad. Carolyn did not just +know how it was; but she knew it to be a fact.</p> + +<p>This particular "store" was such that she often crossed the street and +walked on the other side to avoid it, and recrossed again when she +arrived opposite the delicatessen shop. Sometimes a big pursy man with +a very red face and wearing a white apron stood outside the swinging +two-leaved door of the corner "store," while at his feet squatted a +blear-eyed bulldog of a dirty white colour.</p> + +<p>Now, a thoroughbred bulldog is never a coward and always a gentleman. +But the saloon man's fat dog was a crossbreed and had only the +bulldog's savage appearance without the faithfulness and kindness that +makes the bull an aristocrat among dogs.</p> + +<p>If one showed fear of the corner store dog that cowardly creature +bristled up directly, showed his ugly fangs, and put on so threatening +a front that the victim immediately felt himself in peril of his life.</p> + +<p>The mere appearance of the bowlegged dog with his undershot jaw and +hanging dewlaps "all a-slobber," frightened most of the neighbourhood +children to a respectful distance from his owner's place of business. +But sometimes they forgot and got a good scare, if nothing worse, by +coming too near the bulldog. It was said that once the ugly dog had +bitten a child and "Gus," the big man in the white apron, had had to +pay damages.</p> + +<p>One afternoon Carolyn May was sent by her mother to the delicatessen +store in question, and of course she took Prince on his leash. +Unfortunately when Carolyn came out of the house, there was the +red-haired girl with some of her friends right across the way.</p> + +<p>Now, there can be nothing that so fills the soul with rage, whether +one be eight years old or eighty, as to be made ridiculous in the eyes +of one's fellows. The more silly the means by which one is flouted and +belittled the sharper the smart.</p> + +<p>As soon as Sade saw Carolyn and her dog, she began to make faces. +These grimaces were ignored by Carolyn. She walked away in a manner +quite as dignified as that of Prince himself. Prince paid no attention +to "faces" made at him by other dogs unless he meant to punish his +opponents in proper fashion. Prince was no "bluffer."</p> + +<p>So Carolyn might have followed a much worse example than that set by +her dog. Sade continued to make faces; but finding the other armoured +against that she went to other extremes.</p> + +<p>The red-haired girl dared not come to close quarters. She was not above +pulling Carolyn's hair, or snatching her hair ribbons away, or even +slapping her. And there were plenty of missiles lying about to fling at +the girl whom Sade considered "too stuck up to live!"</p> + +<p>But there was Prince. Prince had never been seen to bite anybody—not +even a cat, though he delighted to chase them. But he had such a +threatening aspect when Carolyn appeared to be in danger that it was +a legend in the block that the mongrel had fairly "chewed up" several +tramps and a big fat policeman.</p> + +<p>It was known that a man delivering coal at the apartment where Carolyn +lived had offered to put a very black hand upon Carolyn's clean dress, +and when she squealed half in fear and half in fun, Prince had growled +terribly and showed a set of fearsome teeth which made the coal man +hastily retreat.</p> + +<p>Therefore the red-haired girl had a hearty respect for Prince. This did +not keep her on this afternoon from aping Carolyn from the safe side +of the street, walking as Carolyn was supposed to walk, "with her nose +in the air," picking her way daintily over the crossing, and otherwise +suggesting that Carolyn felt herself to be too good and much too "stuck +up" to yield her attention to ordinary folk.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May's face reddened and her eyes flashed, the hot rage of her +glance quite burning up the tear drops that started involuntarily. +The impudent Sade was followed by an ever increasing rabble of +children, much amused by the gyrations of the impish one and even more +entertained by the evident annoyance it caused Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>They strung out behind her and her dog, after turning the corner into +the avenue, in a sidewalk procession. The red-haired girl was now on +the same side of the street as her victim. First she was ahead of +Carolyn, then beside her, then behind her, almost walking in her steps. +The impish behaviour of Sade caused many of the passers-by to smile.</p> + +<p>Carolyn really felt bad! She could not reply to Sade's impudence in +kind. Not a word was said, and therefore the retort stinging was denied +her. And of course she would not attempt to strike the red-haired girl.</p> + +<p>If she quickened her steps the rabble would keep up. And Carolyn +May was no coward. She would not run from her enemy. But she was so +confused when she came to the corner of the block on which was the +delicatessen store, that, without thinking, she crossed over directly +toward the store where the white bulldog lived.</p> + +<p>It chanced that he was squatting like a great frog at his master's +feet, as the troop of children came toward him. The big brute raised +himself with a savage growl, but red-haired Sade did not see or hear +him. She was running backward just then in front of Carolyn, sticking +out a very red and pointed tongue and dancing up and down in a most +tantalizing manner.</p> + +<p>"Yah! Yah! Yah!" singsonged the red-haired girl.</p> + +<p>Why it is a fact that these syllables are the most impudent and +maddening of all cries, has never been explained. And how unanswerable +they are!</p> + +<p>Carolyn May kept steadily on, while the red-haired girl danced +backward. The avenue was crowded. Sade came close to the white bulldog.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a deep-throated growl, a wild shriek from Sade, and +a scramble and scratching of heavy paws on the sidewalk.</p> + +<p>Sade slipped, but in falling managed to escape the first dash of the +bulldog. The other children screamed and scattered like chickens when a +hawk is sighted. Carolyn was stricken motionless.</p> + +<p>The red-haired girl got away from the bulldog that first time, although +he tore a big mouthful from her skirt. But the man who owned him did +not succeed in calling him off. The creature knew the child was afraid +of him and took delight in giving pursuit.</p> + +<p>As poor Sade started running into the side street the bulldog followed. +The child was utterly terrified. The strength left her limbs. Falling +against the wall of the saloon she looked back, and, seeing the brute +coming, she sank down, helpless and in his power.</p> + +<p>The dog's master had not aroused himself to the seriousness of the +situation. Perhaps he was befuddled by some of his own stock-in-trade, +for he actually laughed as he waddled after the brute.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">A NEW BANGLE FOR PRINCE</p> + + +<p>A woman screamed somewhere from above. She was doubtless looking +down upon the corner and saw the frightened children scatter and the +grey-white bulldog charging upon the fallen Sade. That scream seemed to +awaken Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>She was no more courageous at heart, perhaps, than many of her +mates—many, even, of those who ran. Carolyn had been held spellbound +by the frightful picture of the bulldog attacking the red-haired girl.</p> + +<p>But the woman's scream and the straining of Prince at his leash, +awoke his little mistress. Prince had dragged her half way across the +sidewalk before she could beseech him to stop.</p> + +<p>"Prince! Prince! You mustn't!"</p> + +<p>Prince had usually quite ignored the saloon man's bulldog. He had taken +that creature's measure long since. The bulldog never even growled at +Prince as he passed by the corner.</p> + +<p>But suddenly Carolyn May's brave comrade took a vital interest in the +bigger brute. He dragged the little girl on as the bulldog made his +second dash for the unfortunate Sade.</p> + +<p>The red-haired girl was helpless. With all her daring and impishness, +her courage had never compassed such peril as this. She was first a +victim of her own terror, and now the victim of the bulldog's rage.</p> + +<p>"Come away from dot—you Fritz!" commanded the dog's owner, wheezingly, +and at last fearful of what the beast might do.</p> + +<p>For all the man might do to balk the bulldog's intention, however, he +might as well have been a mile away from his corner store. There was +just one individual who could save the red-haired girl. Carolyn May +suddenly realized that.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Prince!" she cried, and let go of the loop of Prince's leash.</p> + +<p>With a challenging roar—something between a bark and a growl—Prince +charged along the sidewalk. He dived fairly between the saloonkeeper's +bowed legs, and that astonished and frightened merchant was cast +ponderously on his back upon the sidewalk, his short legs in the air.</p> + +<p>Prince perhaps had long since in his doggish mind decided just how he +should tackle the white bulldog if ever he came to a clinch with him. +The bulldog wore a broad, rivet-studded collar which defended his most +vulnerable part—the throat.</p> + +<p>But there was another hold which quickly brings a fighting dog to grief +unless he is a thoroughbred. It will never be known what inspired +Prince to seize the white bulldog by one fore paw!</p> + +<p>The dog was on top of the fallen child, his slobbering jaws open. He +would have seized the tender morsel in another second had not Prince +made his grab first.</p> + +<p>In a riot of doggish sounds the two animals rolled over and over on the +sidewalk. The bulldog forgot his prey; but Prince did not forget his +object. He hung on with grimness, growling all the while and grinding +his antagonist's flesh and bones between his clamped jaws.</p> + +<p>The women and children near by scattered; even the red-haired girl +found renewed strength to rise and flee. But certain men ran up, +surrounding the fighting dogs in an eager group. The bulldog's owner +had risen and was yelling distractedly for somebody to "pull dot dog +off'n Fritz."</p> + +<p>Carolyn May saw a policeman running across the avenue toward the spot, +his stick gripped aggressively in his hand. He was a young, lean, +nattily uniformed policeman, one of the recently appointed patrolmen +whose lack of bulk and brute strength is made up to them in training, +science, and brains.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May knew this policeman. She did not want him to misunderstand +the situation and consider Prince at fault.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's my dog! You know my dog, Mr. Policeman! And he isn't off his +leash!"</p> + +<p>"I get you, little girl," said the officer with twinkling eyes and +pushed his way into the centre of the wrangle.</p> + +<p>The owner of the bulldog was not very successfully kicking at Prince. +The bulldog was searching his soul for sounds to tell how bad he felt, +while Prince was still holding on. The officer bent over the struggling +dogs and dealt a single skilful blow with his stick.</p> + +<p>"Blockhead!" squealed the fat saloonkeeper. "You haf hit mein Fritz +yet!"</p> + +<p>"That's the one I meant to hit, Gus," said the officer, grimly, as the +white bulldog rolled over and immediately ceased struggling.</p> + +<p>Prince, seeing his antagonist <i>hors de combat</i>, unclamped his jaws and +stood back, eying his rival sharply, but not offering to attack again. +The officer secured the end of the leash and put it into Carolyn May's +hand.</p> + +<p>"You've been warned often enough, Gus, to keep your dog both muzzled +and on a leash. He might have chewed that red-haired kid to sausage +meat. You take your Fritz inside your saloon, or I'll call up the dog +wagon."</p> + +<p>The ill-mannered bulldog was twitching with all four feet and otherwise +gave signs of returning consciousness. His owner took the policeman's +advice, while the crowd thronged admiringly about Carolyn May and her +dog.</p> + +<p>Her fright having passed, Prince's mistress was very proud of him. Even +the policeman patted him, for he knew Prince quite as well as he did +Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>"That's a fine dawg," declared one woman from the tenement near by, her +arms akimbo as she looked at Prince, and who had a little plaid shawl +pinned tightly across her ample bosom. "Sure that mangy cur of Gus's +ought to been killed long ago. Would you sell your dawg, little girl?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, ma'am! I couldn't sell Princey," Carolyn May cried. "Why, he'd +be broken-hearted, I guess, if I did that."</p> + +<p>Prince shook himself and his bangles jangled. He was undoubtedly proud. +He knew well enough when he was being praised.</p> + +<p>"Sure the dawg should have a new bangle for the battle he fought," +said the woman who wished to buy him. "With the date on it, an' +commemoratin' his battle wid Gus's cur-dog. I'll give a quarter towards +it myself."</p> + +<p>"And I'll make the medal and engrave it," declared the man who made +keys and mended locks in the little shop next the corner saloon.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May never knew all those who subscribed to Prince's new bangle, +or just how it was done. But a few days later the "key man" came to +the Camerons' door and brought a very shiny medal and attached it to +Prince's collar. On it was stamped:</p> + + +<p class="ph3"><i>PRINCE: A GOOD DOG</i><br> +<i>From His Friends</i></p> + + +<p>Already a silver plate on Prince's collar commemorated "the brave deed" +he had performed at the Corners in saving Miss Minnie, Carolyn's dearly +beloved school teacher, from being robbed by a tramp.</p> + +<p>"That dog," remarked Mr. Cameron, "will soon have more medals than a +dock policeman."</p> + +<p>But this is quite ahead of our story. The red-haired girl had run home. +But Carolyn May had to go on to the delicatessen store and buy the +articles her mother had sent her for. And as though there had not been +enough excitement for one afternoon, she looked up curiously at the +woman beside her when she stood at the counter, and—</p> + +<p>It was the pale lady with her baby in her arms!</p> + +<p>"Oh, my <i>dear</i>!" gasped Carolyn May. "This is just the most <i>wonderful</i> +day! Do you know what Princey just did?" and she proceeded to tell the +pale lady all.</p> + +<p>Prince stood by "smiling" and with his tongue hanging out (Carolyn +never <i>could</i> break him of that habit—which she felt was not exactly +polite—especially when he was happy) and the baby must needs maul his +ears and muzzle again.</p> + +<p>"I am quite sure he is a very brave and kind dog," the woman said; for +if she had a secret reason for not wishing to meet Carolyn again, how +could she hurt the child's feelings? Carolyn was quite determined to be +friends with her.</p> + +<p>"Prince loves your baby a whole lot," the little girl said wistfully, +"and I know he would like to come to see him."</p> + +<p>"You must bring Prince, then," said the pale lady, seriously. Yet her +eyes danced. "I will tell you how to get to where I live, Carolyn May. +But you must first ask your mother if you may come."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," agreed the little girl quickly. "I couldn't go anywhere +without asking mother first. But I know she'll let me come, and if +nothing happens we will come tomorrow afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Very well."</p> + +<p>The pale lady told her how to find the house and what floor she lived +on and in which tenement on that floor. It was on Park Avenue, but in +that section where the railroad is tracked on an elevated structure and +where the houses are very poor and unpleasantly situated. These facts +made slight impression on Carolyn's mind, however; and she went home +more excited over finding the pale lady again than about Prince's fight +with the white bulldog.</p> + +<p>The news of the latter semi-tragic happening had travelled before her. +Mrs. Cameron was on the point of setting forth to hunt for her little +daughter, for the children in the block were wildly excited over the +escape of the red-haired girl from the jaws of the bulldog. It was not +often that Mrs. Cameron allowed herself to be so worried regarding +Carolyn, for with Prince by her side the child was able to take +complete care of herself in any emergency.</p> + +<p>The red-haired girl was reported to be in hysterics; and she was +screaming that Carolyn May was being eaten up by Gus's big dog.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course not!" Carolyn said disgustedly. "Prince wouldn't have +let him, anyway. And he never even tried to bite me. Dear me! you can't +really believe a word that red-haired girl says—not even when she's +<i>historical</i>."</p> + +<p>But Prince had won for Carolyn deliverance from one great annoyance. +After what had happened even the ill-bred Sade could not bring herself +to the point of making faces at the brave dog's mistress. On the +way to school one day she presented Carolyn with a huge hothouse +tomato—brilliantly scarlet and embarrassingly juicy.</p> + +<p>This peace offering Carolyn felt herself obliged to accept; yet she +had not the first idea what use to make of it. She never ate tomatoes +except with a dressing on them that her mamma made. She could not eat +it "raw" in any case, for if she tried to set her teeth in it the +juice would surely squirt out all over her dress "and everything."</p> + +<p>Sade, embarrassed by her own generous impulse, ran shrieking away the +moment she had placed the tomato in Carolyn's hand; so the latter could +not give it back. And she could not make up her mind to give it to any +of her other schoolmates.</p> + +<p>To drop it in the gutter was against Carolyn's idea of civic neatness. +So she found herself entering the schoolhouse with the plump and +overripe tomato still in her possession.</p> + +<p>There was Miss Solomons. Public school teachers, especially those of +the lower grades, are the recipients of all manner of gifts from their +loyal and adoring pupils. Sometimes the ledge of Miss Solomons' desk +held a long row of such bestowed articles of commerce, and there were +several gifts there now.</p> + +<p>The red-haired girl was not in Carolyn May's grade and would never +know. The little girl marched up to Miss Solomons' desk and gravely +deposited the big and squashy tomato with the collection of gifts +already on parade.</p> + +<p>"This is for you, Miss Solomons," she said seriously, and went on to +her seat.</p> + +<p>The startled Miss Solomons was sure after that that Carolyn May was +more "quaint" than ever.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do," asked Hannah Cameron of her husband, "about letting +Carolyn May go to call on her 'pale lady,' as she calls the woman? You +know, that block is in a very poor and dirty section."</p> + +<p>"Um! Maybe. But the pale lady is not likely to be a dirty lady, even +if she is poor. Otherwise I could not imagine Joe Bassett's extreme +chivalry in her case. For, after all is said and done, dirt cannot +inspire such feelings. Nor does Carolyn May ever take one of her sudden +and violent fancies for anybody who is not clean and neatly dressed."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I know," admitted his wife, but continuing in deep thought.</p> + +<p>"Besides," added Carolyn's father, "there's Prince. Prince has a +deep-rooted prejudice against people who are ragged and dirty. With +Prince I have no doubt she will be as safe on that particular block as +on any other in New York."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">"IF I WERE RICH"</p> + + +<p>After school the next day, as Carolyn had promised, she took Prince to +call on the pale lady's baby.</p> + +<p>Little did she mark the locality as being fearsome or unpleasant. +She was in Prince's care, and Carolyn May usually found something +interesting, and therefore pleasant, wherever she went.</p> + +<p>Here were children of all ages, and so many, many babies! Of course +they were dirty-faced and raggedly clothed in most instances. Quite in +contrast to the babies on her own block or most of those she saw in the +park when she went there to walk.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose," thought the observant little girl, "that these children are +so dirty because their mothers have so many to take care of. While they +are washing one baby the others are getting dirty in this awfully dirty +street. So, if they keep on all day washing them, they would never +be all clean at once! But," admitted the philosophical Carolyn May, +slowly, "it's funny not to see <i>any</i> clean babies here at all. I wonder +where those are that have just been scrubbed."</p> + +<p>The house, the number of which the pale lady had given the little girl, +seemed slightly less disreputable than many of its neighbours. It was +merely a slice of the brick block, but had been recently painted. +There were four apartments on each floor, two in front and two in the +rear.</p> + +<p>The pale lady lived in one of the rear apartments, one flight up from +the street. The children who crowded the stairway made way for Prince +and watched him narrowly. Without him Carolyn might have found some +difficulty in getting up to the pale lady's rooms.</p> + +<p>She might, too, have found some of these children as unpleasant as the +red-haired Sade had been, had Prince not been her companion. But, as it +was, she went boldly to the pale lady's door and knocked.</p> + +<p>The latter welcomed Carolyn and Prince cheerfully. Her little, dark +rooms were scrupulously clean; but in the kitchen, to which the lady +took her small friend, the evidences of poverty were not to be hidden.</p> + +<p>The kitchen had two big windows overlooking a littered and dirty +backyard. These windows were really the only ones of any account in +the place; for those of the sitting room and bedroom between looked +out into airshafts. The smells of cooking and boiling clothes rose +through the house, and odours from the yard were such that it was far +pleasanter to keep the windows closed than open.</p> + +<p>The lady, with her beautiful hair, her beautifully clean and +sweet-smelling skin, her well-cared-for hands, her warm if rather +wistful smile, all appealed strongly to the little girl. Poor as the +pale lady must be, Carolyn saw that she was quite as careful of her +personal appearance as was her own mamma. And the baby was as sweet as +a rose!</p> + +<p>They put him down on the floor on a folded quilt and let him play with +Prince to his heart's content. Meanwhile the pale lady and Carolyn +became very well acquainted.</p> + +<p>Of course, it began with babies; but "babies" is such a fruitful +subject for discussion that they branched off into a dozen topics, all +leading from, or appertaining to, babies. Carolyn could not remember +much about her own babyhood—and that was funny, she said, because she +certainly ought to be the one to recall most clearly what happened to +her at that time. But she had known about babies, she told the pale +lady, "for years and years."</p> + +<p>"You see," she said, "there is always somebody in our apartment house +who has a new baby. Why! it's so surprising, sometimes. There's Mrs. +Price and Edna. Edna's my par-<i>tic</i>'lar friend, you know. They had no +more idea of finding Baby Eldred than nothing 'tall. Why! Edna wasn't +even at home when the baby came—and she certainly wouldn't have gone +to Brooklyn to her auntie's to stay for a week that time, if she or her +mother had had any <i>idea</i> that they were to find Baby Eldred.</p> + +<p>"No! It's really quite startling when you come to think of it. +I said to my mamma that I really wouldn't want to be alone in +our house if <i>we</i> found a baby. Suppose I opened my closet door +and—and—there—he—was! Wouldn't it startle you?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure it would be quite shocking," admitted the pale lady gravely.</p> + +<p>For her part she told Carolyn a great many things about her baby, and +how much she and his father thought of him. His father she called +"Laird" and that, Carolyn presumed, was his surname. Bridget Dorgan +always spoke of her husband as "Dorgan." Carolyn rather thought that +some men did not possess any given names at all. Her own father was +particularly rich in that he had two.</p> + +<p>So "Mrs. Laird" and "Baby Laird" the pale lady and her baby became in +Carolyn May's mind, and she chattered about them so much at home that +soon Mr. Cameron and Carolyn's mother spoke of the little girl's new +friend as "Mrs. Laird."</p> + +<p>Her little daughter having shown herself to be so enamoured of her new +friend, Mrs. Cameron would most certainly have soon visited the pale +lady; but just at this time she was extremely busy preparing for the +summer. It had been decided that she and Carolyn should spend the long +vacation away from the hot city.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cameron's increased salary now made these plans possible. Besides, +his wife and child were to go to a seaside resort, Block Island, which +he could easily visit for the week end himself.</p> + +<p>It was planned, however, that Carolyn and her mother should spend the +first fortnight of the long vacation at the Corners, and the little +girl looked forward more eagerly to that than to the unknown delights +of the ocean-girt island they were later to visit.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron's sewing machine was very busy, and Carolyn May had to +spend what seemed to her long, long hours being fitted and refitted +with the pretty summer frocks that her mother made for her. Carolyn was +delighted with all these new fineries, but she confessed she found the +trying-on process very trying indeed.</p> + +<p>"You see, my arms and legs get so squirmy," she said to Papa Cameron. +"I can just feel worms crawling and creeping all under my skin, and up +and down my whole body. Of course, I know they aren't really worms. +Mamma says they are nerves. But if they feel like worms they might as +well be worms, I should think."</p> + +<p>"My goodness!" gasped Papa Cameron, entering into the spirit of his +little daughter's imaginings, as he almost always did, "you wouldn't +really want to know that you were <i>wormy</i>, would you, Snuggy? My +goodness! Just like a wormy chestnut, or a wormy apple! I couldn't love +a wormy little girl, I am afraid."</p> + +<p>Carolyn, sitting on his lap, allowed herself to shudder deliciously at +the thought.</p> + +<p>"Mamma says the nerves are under my skin and that they spread all over +me, like a fine net. Like a hair-net, I spect. And if they were worms +crawling under my skin I don't believe they would feel any worse."</p> + +<p>So Carolyn's visits with her dog to the pale lady were curtailed +because of the dressmaking activities. Nevertheless, within the +following few weeks the little girl became very good friends indeed +with Mrs. Laird. She never saw Mr. Laird, but they often spoke of him, +for the pale lady evidently loved him very much and believed heartily +that he was a much more worthy man than their circumstances seemed to +suggest. What Mr. Laird did for a living Carolyn was never told; but it +was evident he did not earn much money. The pale lady was continually +taking medicine, so the doctor must get a good part of what her husband +earned; and the baby had cost a great deal, of course.</p> + +<p>"Yes; they always do," agreed Carolyn May, commenting upon this final +fact. "It seems just as though nobody ever finds a baby that doesn't +need a doctor, and nurses, and clothes, and a baby carriage, and a +whole lot of things. It would be lots nicer," observed Carolyn May, +stating an obvious fact as though it were quite original, "if babies +were left right outside your door in a nice carriage all dressed up, +and with a boxful of clothes. Then there wouldn't be a single, sol'tary +thing to worry about."</p> + +<p>"I believe, Carolyn May," said the pale lady, laughing faintly, "that +if you could make this old world over you would have things much more +nicely arranged than they now are. I am sure we should all be happier."</p> + +<p>"Oh, as for being happy," said the little girl, "that is altogether in +our own hands. So my papa says. It's just like burning a tiny, tiny +candle in a very dark place, he says. Never mind how small the light +is, right close to it there is plenty to see by. We may not light up +the whole big world with our little candle; but we can light ourselves, +anyway. Papa Cameron," added the small philosopher, who came honestly +enough by her optimism, "says always to look out and up, never to look +inside us at our troubles. You know," and the giggles bubbled up and +the little girl's eyes danced. "You know, he always says he works for +the firm of 'Grin and Bearit' and so, no matter what happens, he is +prepared for it.</p> + +<p>"It's an awful nice way to be," added the little girl. "My papa's a +real comferble man to have about the house. My mamma often says so."</p> + +<p>The pale lady thought that cheerful little Carolyn was most "comferble" +to have around one too. In spite of the frock fittings the child came +frequently, if only for half an hour at a time.</p> + +<p>The pale lady went out but seldom with her baby. Although he was such +a "skinny" child in Carolyn's opinion, the baby was a good deal of a +burden for the frail mother. And lacking a carriage now, it was too +great a task for her to carry the baby as far as Central Park.</p> + +<p>The little girl wanted very much to know why Mrs. Laird would not use +the twenty-dollar bill sent her by the rich man with which to buy +another go-cart; but she was too polite to ask. Indeed, although she +realized that her new friend was poor, she said or did nothing to show +that she noticed the deficiencies in housekeeping arrangements and the +like that were so apparent in the pale lady's apartment. The latter +might have felt much embarrassed had Mrs. Cameron called; but one could +not experience that feeling for long with friendly little Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>The weather was growing hotter and harder to bear. The sun poured into +the kitchen windows of the cramped little apartment in the afternoon +and made the place almost stifling. The big-eyed baby showed the +effects of the heat, and the pale lady grew more pale and wan every +day.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May's visits, however, cheered her friend immensely. Sometimes +the little girl carried some plaything she had bought for the baby with +her own money. She saw that, unlike other babies she knew—Eldred Price +for instance—the pale lady's baby woefully lacked toys.</p> + +<p>Then, on several occasions, she brought sweets which her mother made, +carrying the confection carefully in a flowered bowl and wrapped in a +damask napkin under the outside cover of paper. They had a little feast +in the pale lady's kitchen at such times, all four of them; for of +course Prince had to have his share. He certainly had a sweet tooth!</p> + +<p>"Only, if he wouldn't gollop everything down so!" sighed his little +mistress. "One lick of his tongue and a swallow, and his share is gone. +And then he begs with his eyes and mouth all the time you are eating +your share. It's no use. You can't teach a dog much etiquette, I guess."</p> + +<p>They played games as well as gossiped. Carolyn had one favourite +"solitaire" game which she had made up herself and which she often +played on rainy days when she might not go out and when her mother was +too busy to stop her work to play with her. It was a most fascinating +form of exercise for the imagination, for Carolyn called it, "If I Were +Rich" and it consisted of "spending money in your mind."</p> + +<p>"You know," she told the pale lady, "I could spend a million if I had +the time. And it's lots of fun to 'supposing.' Why! I guess half the +fun in the world is 'supposing' about things."</p> + +<p>But Carolyn was too generous to wish to enjoy entirely this imaginary +good fortune.</p> + +<p>"You tell what you'd buy, and where you'd live, and how many servants +and all you'd have, if you owned a million, million dollars," she urged +the lady.</p> + +<p>"That must be a great deal of money, Carolyn May," said the other +thoughtfully. She had a bit of sewing in her lap—oh! something ever so +coarse and commonplace. And she let her white hands remain idle while +she stared out through the window at a picture the little girl could +not see.</p> + +<p>"That must be a great deal of money," she repeated.</p> + +<p>"What would you do with part of it?" asked Carolyn. "What kind of house +would you live in?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can see the house, Carolyn May," sighed the pale lady. "It would +be a big, sprawling, brown stone house with white pillars before it +holding up a veranda roof at the level of the second floor windows. +And, oh! the cool, wide veranda itself, deep and quiet, with chairs and +benches and swinging seats. It was lovely in the hot weather."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," said the little girl. "That would be nice! I like hammocks +and swings."</p> + +<p>"And a maid to wheel out the tea wagon in the afternoon, and <i>real</i> +orange-pekoe tea and cupcakes made by Margaret—"</p> + +<p>"Who is Marg'ret?" asked Carolyn May quickly.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the pale lady. "That is what I will call a dear old nurse +who, perhaps, has been in the family for years and years. And she +makes lovely cupcakes."</p> + +<p>"Like my Aunty Rose Kennedy. <i>She</i> makes jumbles, too," said Carolyn, +nodding. "Yes?"</p> + +<p>"And a beautiful, old, shady lawn sloping down to the river, the far +bank of which rises in terraces of green forest and grey rock on, oh! +the most beautiful stretch of the Hudson. And in the cool of the day a +lovely, smoothly running car would come around from the garage and we +would go to drive in it, over the hills and far away—sometimes as far, +even, as Poughkeepsie.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes we would stop for dinner at a roadside hotel, where there +was music and dancing. And often we went to the Country Club and there +we had regular parties."</p> + +<p>"I <i>love</i> parties!" gasped Carolyn, with shining eyes and clasping her +hands.</p> + +<p>"Do you?" almost whispered the pale lady, still with her vision +set upon things a great way off. Her baby was asleep. So was +Prince—brokenly—on the floor at their feet. It was hot in the +kitchen, and Prince twitched his legs and occasionally snapped at a fly.</p> + +<p>"Do you?" the pale lady repeated. "It was at a party given for me by +some friends that I first met Laird. Then—<i>then</i>—the beautiful old +home was already lost; the dear old people who had owned it and who +had brought me up to know nothing but the good things of life, had +lost their all—everything had been swept away, and they had died, +broken-hearted. Other friends had taken me in—for a time. I met +Laird. Of course I <i>had</i> to marry. All my friends said so. There was +nothing else for me to do—absolutely penniless as I was. But," and +she smiled suddenly, and it was such a lovely, revealing smile that +Carolyn, too, broke into smiles, "they did not have to urge me to marry +Laird. I loved him from the first, you see."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Carolyn May, earnestly. "That is just how it was with +my Uncle Joe Stagg and Miss Amanda Parlow. <i>They</i> were loving each +other for years an' years and at last they just <i>had</i> to get married."</p> + +<p>"We did not have to wait years and years," said Carolyn's friend. +"People said we ought, for Laird—well! he had nothing at all when I +married him but his two bare hands. But he is going to earn plenty for +us—for Baby and me—some day."</p> + +<p>She sighed. She looked around the poor room. All the glory of +remembrance went out of her face and her eyes misted with unbidden +tears. It was some time before she spoke again and the game of "If I +Were Rich" was ended for that afternoon.</p> + +<p>"But," said Carolyn May, in telling her mother all about it, "my pale +lady must have been truly rich once. She don't have to supposing when +she plays my game. She lived in a great house—big as the public +library down on Fifth Avenue, I guess—only without those funny lions +in front. And she had automobiles and <i>every</i>thing.</p> + +<p>"But of course," concluded the little girl, within whose breast stirred +already the true instinct of motherhood, "I s'pose she thinks Baby +Laird makes up for everything she's lost."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">A GREAT DEAL HAPPENS</p> + + +<p>There was a mystery about the pale lady, and a mystery delighted +Carolyn May just as it delights something like nine-tenths of the human +race. The mystery of the fourth dimension, or perpetual motion, or the +problems of alchemy thrill the scientific mind no more than do their +neighbours' secrets interest the ordinary person.</p> + +<p>The little girl wanted very much to know why the pale lady's husband +was so poor. Even if she had been poor, Laird, as the pale lady called +him, must have come of wealthy people; or how had she met him at the +party given by her friends?</p> + +<p>Now, this was rather an involved thought for a little girl to work out +in her mind; but Carolyn May's was not an ordinary child's mind. She +was no prodigy. However, she had spent most of her time with grown +folk. She had few playmates of her own age. And her father made Carolyn +May much his companion.</p> + +<p>"Now, think it out for yourself, Snuggy," was often his answer when +the little girl came to him with a question. If she sometimes came to +a conclusion more astonishing than illuminating, Mr. Cameron merely +chuckled and told her mother that the exercise of Carolyn's imagination +was good for her.</p> + +<p>"I really do not think it needs exercising, Lewis," Hannah Cameron once +said seriously. "She was playing 'having visitors' the other day when +it rained and she was kept in, and I allowed her to 'receive' in the +parlour. But when I went in myself after a while there really wasn't +a chair I could sit on. She had filled them all with her imaginary +friends and objected strenuously to my sitting in their laps!"</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha!" laughed her husband. "Why didn't you try holding one of her +callers in <i>your</i> lap?"</p> + +<p>"I never thought of that," answered Mrs. Cameron. "It is plain to +be seen from which side of the family Carolyn May gets her gift of +imagination."</p> + +<p>The little girl exercised this trait much on the affairs of the pale +lady during the next few weeks. She saw the bald poverty of the young +couple and yet realized that they were people to whom one could not +offer charity of any description.</p> + +<p>"Of course, Mamma," she said, "we can give papa's old clothes to Mrs. +Dorgan and even some of my outgrown frocks to Mrs. O'Harrity, in the +basement, for little Elsie. But somehow—I <i>guess</i>—it wouldn't be nice +to offer Mrs. Laird one of your dresses that you could spare."</p> + +<p>"I appreciate the fact that your friend cannot be very well helped in +that way," mused Mrs. Cameron. "Her refusing the twenty-dollar bill for +a new baby go-cart showed that."</p> + +<p>There were a multitude of interests in Carolyn May's busy life just +now. The end of the school term was in close view. And preparations for +the long outing away from the city greatly delighted the child.</p> + +<p>"I wish you and the baby were going with us," she said to the pale lady +one day, just before the school graduating exercises. It was probably +the last time Carolyn May and Prince would be able to call on the pale +lady until their return to the city in the autumn.</p> + +<p>"I sincerely wish we were, Carolyn May," said the young woman, with a +tired sigh.</p> + +<p>She had just laid her baby on the bed and spread a fly net over him. +She was more pale than ever today and her head seemed so heavy with +its red-gold hair piled so high, that it drooped like a broken-stemmed +flower.</p> + +<p>"You know," said the little girl, "our house is lots cooler than +<i>this</i>; yet we are going away and you—<i>you</i>, I s'pose, can't go?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" murmured her friend. "Laird cannot compass it this summer, I +fear. There are too many bills. We <i>must</i> catch up—"</p> + +<p>She stopped. Carolyn looked up suddenly, for the pale lady did not +speak again. She saw her sinking slowly sideways from her chair to the +floor.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" screamed the little girl, and then muffled the cry behind her +palm for fear of waking the baby.</p> + +<p>She sprang from her own chair to lean above her friend who had sunk to +the floor in a heap, her hair tumbling down and straying all about her +head and shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh! Don't!" gasped the little girl.</p> + +<p>She ventured to touch the pale lady's arm. Then she tried to shake +her by it, and the lax body of the young woman slipped down further +from its leaning posture against the chair. Oh! It seemed, dreadful to +Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>She had never seen anybody faint before. The pale lady might be dead!</p> + +<p>And whom should she tell? Whom ask for help? The little girl had not +the least idea what to do in this emergency. It seemed just as though +her friend were dead and she was left alone with her.</p> + +<p>There was nobody near to whom Carolyn could speak. She was actually +afraid of the rough people in the house. She knew that the pale lady +had absolutely nothing to do with her neighbours. Whether this was a +wise way to do or not, Mrs. Laird never even replied when spoken to by +the people in the house.</p> + +<p>Carolyn began quietly to sob herself. That was her nervousness. But she +did not lose her self-control.</p> + +<p>She knew that some help must be brought to the pale lady. A doctor +ought to come. Carolyn knew no doctor save the Camerons' own family +physician and he lived far over on the West Side.</p> + +<p>The poor woman lay so white and helpless that the child's heart was +torn with pity for her. Somebody must come—and "somebody" meant Mamma +Cameron! There was nobody else in the world, she thought, who would +know so well what to do for the pale lady in this event.</p> + +<p>She started for the door, and of course Prince followed her. He had +been snuffing questioningly at the fallen young woman.</p> + +<p>"No, Prince," sobbed little Carolyn May. "You can't come. You must stay +here while I run for Mamma. Watch her, Prince! Wait—that's a good +dog—till I come back with Mamma Cameron."</p> + +<p>She unlocked the door and withdrew the key from the lock. She knew the +pale lady always kept herself locked in and she could not leave her +now, even with Prince on guard, with the door unfastened.</p> + +<p>Slipping out into the half-darkened, ill-smelling hall, the child +quickly inserted the key in the lock again and turned it. Then she +pocketed the key and ran lightly to the head of the stairway. Without +Prince she really was afraid of the children who flocked about the +house; but the venture must be made alone for the pale lady's sake.</p> + +<p>Fortunately the stairway to the street door chanced to be clear. She +stole down it and had almost reached the lower floor when a door there +opened. She had a glimpse of a tawdry interior, and a slovenly woman +holding the door open for a caller to pass out.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May stopped, shivering. The man coming out of the apartment +was very well dressed—a sharp-featured, dark man with eyebrows that +met above his aquiline nose, and the eyes beneath them so keen and +threatening in their glance that when they were turned on Carolyn May +she could not for the moment move from where she stood.</p> + +<p>"There's a young one that goes up to see 'em frequent, sir," shrilled +the woman. "He an' she goes in an' out without a word to us—like we +was the dirt under their feet. But that kid knows 'em."</p> + +<p>The man looked at Carolyn May with more curiosity. "She doesn't seem to +belong around here," he said.</p> + +<p>"No more than them. She's all that ever's come to see 'em, since they +lived here, so fur as I know."</p> + +<p>The man turned his back upon the child, and Carolyn May hurried down +the few remaining steps and out of the door of the tenement house. The +shrieking, dirty children were playing on other steps. She got away +without further delay.</p> + +<p>She was still sobbing and tears were trickling down Carolyn May's face +as she ran through the streets toward home. She pictured to herself +all the time the pale lady, senseless and helpless upon the floor of +the hot kitchen, with her beautiful hair flowing about her. The very +worst that could happen to her friend the little girl believed to have +occurred.</p> + +<p>So when she arrived at home at last she was scarcely able to explain +the trouble. As it chanced, it was Papa Cameron's afternoon at home—he +had one partial holiday each week—and it was he who met Carolyn and +caught her up in his arms when she sank, sobbing and moaning, at the +entrance to their apartment.</p> + +<p>"My little Snuggy!" he cried, "what is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Where is Prince?" asked Carolyn's mother. "What has become of the dog, +do you suppose, Lewis?"</p> + +<p>"Prince—Prince—is—is—watching her!" sobbed the child.</p> + +<p>"Watching <i>who</i>?" demanded the man anxiously.</p> + +<p>Carolyn was able to tell them in broken sentences what had +happened—how she had left the pale lady and her baby with Prince on +guard. She showed them the key to the apartment.</p> + +<p>"And the poor woman locked in there all alone!" exclaimed Hannah +Cameron, hurrying to put on her street things. "I must go over there +at once. Probably she should have a doctor, too. It may be no ordinary +faint. Of course her husband will not be at home at this hour."</p> + +<p>"What does he do?" asked Mr. Cameron, curiously. "Do you know?"</p> + +<p>His wife glanced at him rather oddly. "I can guess," she said. "And I +am pretty sure my guess is right." But that did not explain the matter +in the least, as far as Mr. Cameron could see.</p> + +<p>"Well, you and Carolyn go on," he said, "and I'll bring a doctor with +me. If she is as frail and delicate a woman as Snuggy intimates she +shouldn't be living in such a place, anyway. I wonder what sort of chap +her husband is and what he is thinking of to keep her and her baby in +that place."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Papa!" said Carolyn, with another sob, "they can't help it. Mr. +Laird don't earn enough to send them away for the summer, and they have +lots of bills to pay. My pale lady told me so."</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Laird'!" repeated Mrs. Cameron, in a peculiar tone. "I shouldn't +wonder. Come, Carolyn May. Can you show me the nearest way to your +friend's house, do you think?"</p> + +<p>The little girl had recovered from her fright now. She was so anxious +about the pale lady that she would have run all the way back as fast +as she had run home; only Mamma Cameron held her by the hand and +restrained her.</p> + +<p>Although the sun was going down it was a stifling day. What air was +stirring seemed to blow from a red hot furnace lying somewhere to the +west of the panting city. In the shade the unfortunate occupants of the +close tenements sought relief on steps and even on the sidewalks.</p> + +<p>Crying babies, quarrelling children, chattering women of several +races, raised a clatter to deafen one. Hawkers peddled the remains of +vegetables and fruit that had once been fresh, but were now over-ripe, +and fast decaying. Vendors of the tempting if not too cleanly made</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">"Tutti-frutti, penny a lump,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The more you eat, the more you want!"</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>clanged their bells at every corner. Penny slices of red watermelon +wilting under fly nets adorned every fruit stand. The cheap drinks of +soda-water and other so-called "temperance beverages" flaunted their +colourings and flavours at tiny stands; and the lemonade that never +knew a lemon or any other citrus fruit was everywhere present.</p> + +<p>Left to themselves the ignorant would breed pestilence as they did in +the Middle Ages. But the better informed have learned to defend their +own health by forcing some rules of sanitation on the slums. The most +refreshing and grateful attempt to counteract heat and disease were the +"White Wings," flushing down the streets with fire hose, while the +half-naked children danced, screaming, in the way of the flood.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May and her mother reached the house where the pale lady lived. +The slovenly woman whom the child had seen bidding the sharp-faced man +good-bye at her door, now sat upon the steps. She stared impudently at +Mrs. Cameron as she and the child mounted past her and went up to the +second floor.</p> + +<p>As the key rattled in the lock of the pale lady's door Prince barked. +Then he whined a welcome to his little mistress and to Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"<i>What</i> a place!" gasped Carolyn's mother. "It is worse than I thought. +I never should have let you come here, Carolyn May."</p> + +<p>But the baby had begun to whimper from the bed and Carolyn ran to +soothe him. Her mother was immediately stricken by the appearance of +the young woman, lying unconscious and forlorn on the kitchen floor. +She noted the cleanliness of the room and the neatness of the woman's +dress; but the sun streaming into the kitchen windows, and the flies +and the smells from out of doors, horrified Hannah Cameron.</p> + +<p>She brought water and knelt beside the young woman to lave her face +and hands. But the pale lady was not to be so easily roused. Her heart +merely fluttered. Her lips were colourless. Her eyes remained closed.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron was anxious for her husband to come with the doctor. And +she desired Mr. Cameron's presence for another reason. She looked +about the apartment for something that might identify this young +couple—that might prove her suspicions true; suspicions that she had +felt from the very first. She found the evidence she looked for.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May was playing with the baby and keeping him quiet when her +father and a neighbouring doctor came. She brought the baby out into +the kitchen and sat down with him in her lap while Prince crouched +beside her. He knew that something had gone altogether wrong with his +little mistress' friend.</p> + +<p>They raised the pale lady and placed her on the bed. Mrs. Cameron +helped the physician loosen and remove her clothing.</p> + +<p>But first she showed Mr. Cameron the marriage certificate she had found +in a Bible on a side table.</p> + +<p>"My goodness! will wonders never cease?" murmured Carolyn's father. +"And I never suspected it!"</p> + +<p>"It is what I believed must be the fact ever since you told me how Mr. +Bassett acted regarding his first assignment on the <i>Beacon</i>. Now go +out and telephone to the office, Lewis, and have him come up here at +once."</p> + +<p>She went back to the bedside where the physician was some time in +bringing the patient to her senses.</p> + +<p>"A very nervous and frail person, Mrs. Cameron," the medical man said. +"No more fit to live in a place like this than a butterfly is fit to +live in a cage."</p> + +<p>"And you know, Prince," murmured Carolyn May who overheard this +professional statement, "butterflies aren't even like birds. Of course, +butterflies would just pine away, like Aunty Rose Kennedy's babies, if +they were caged up."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE GRIFFIN</p> + + +<p>The doctor went away and came back again before the pale lady's +husband, for whom Mr. Cameron telephoned, arrived at the little +apartment. The patient was then better, but still very weak.</p> + +<p>"A general breakdown," said the physician to Mr. Cameron. "No more than +I expected. I have treated her now and then—and the baby. He is a fine +little fellow, but not robust. How could he be?</p> + +<p>"I've got to tell that young man a thing or two. He can't keep this +woman and the child here—"</p> + +<p>"And why does he? I happen to know that he is earning a fair salary," +Mr. Cameron said.</p> + +<p>"Yes. He is—<i>now</i>. But they are burdened with debts. At the time the +baby was born they got very deeply into debt. You can see what sort +they are. Come of wealthy families, both of them. Trouble somewhere. +And the young folks did not know how to help themselves, nor what to +do. Not as poor people do. After all, the poor have the best of it when +it comes to work and living," said the practical physician.</p> + +<p>"This young fool had to have a specialist for his wife when the baby +came. And those fellows don't work for nothing, and have to have cash +on the nail. And with the specialist came the day and night nurses and +all that folderol. They did not live here then, I can assure you. Nor +did I attend the woman and her child until after they did come here.</p> + +<p>"At first, I presume, people made it easy for him to go into debt +because of his father's name. But when he had spent all he had, and +gone in as deep as he could to make her and the baby comfortable, the +girl finally awoke to the situation. She is a good deal of a woman, +frail as she appears. She insisted in curtailing and cutting down +expenses. Oh, they are both as square as can be; but she has the push +and determination, after all.</p> + +<p>"They are paying their debts now. She insists on it. They do not owe me +anything—not a penny. I would not take money for this call. I am no +specialist," said the medical practitioner, bitterly. "But I feel it my +duty to talk straight out to the young man. If his wife and baby remain +here it will be the undertaker, not the doctor, who will be called!"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to tell him a thing or two myself," promised Mr. Cameron +huskily.</p> + +<p>But when Joe Bassett ran up the narrow stairway and burst into the +crowded kitchen to face the doctor and Carolyn's father, neither of +those gentlemen could really scold the young fellow. That he was +very, very anxious about his wife and child was plainly shown in his +countenance and his manner.</p> + +<p>"Is she—is she—"</p> + +<p>"She's better," said the doctor briskly. "For the time being. Your +friends here—especially the lady—have done all they can for your +wife. A doctor can't do much, Mr. Bassett. I have told Mrs. Bassett +so before. The city is no place for her and your baby through the hot +weather. The summer is only beginning. Find some way of getting them +out of this place—and at once. That is all I can tell you. You are +likely to lose them both if you do not take this advice."</p> + +<p>"That advice is harder to take, Doctor, than your medicine," said +Bassett faintly. "I will do my best—"</p> + +<p>"And why did you not tell me?" demanded Carolyn's father, as the busy +medical man made off. "My wife suspected who Carolyn's 'pale lady' was. +But I did not dream—</p> + +<p>"See here, Bassett! Something must be done about this at once. Your +wife and baby must get out of here. It is evident she is not used to +the city's heat, and most certainly she is not used to such a locality +and such a house as <i>this</i>."</p> + +<p>"Don't you suppose I know all that?" groaned the young man. "But fixed +as we are—"</p> + +<p>"Are you in debt?" demanded Mr. Cameron bluntly.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And have you worried about the bills you owe?"</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>"Let the other fellow do the worrying," was Mr. Cameron's iconoclastic +declaration. "To sacrifice your wife and child for the sake of paying +debts is nothing less than a crime."</p> + +<p>"But she is so very anxious for us to pay those bills."</p> + +<p>"Put your foot down. Be boss in your own house for once!" exclaimed +Mr. Cameron, smiling rather grimly. "I am usually in favour of a woman +having her own way—she almost always gets it in any case. But this is +a matter about which your wife's judgment cannot be trusted. See what +you can do, and I'll talk with you again tomorrow, Bassett. I see Mrs. +Cameron is about ready to go. Something must be done about it."</p> + +<p>Carolyn had been standing by, the loop of Prince's leash in her hand, +and staring with all her might at Joe Bassett. At last she ejaculated:</p> + +<p>"Then your <i>real</i> name is Mr. Laird! I never!"</p> + +<p>The young man was too much troubled at the moment to give Carolyn any +answer. The latter and her father and Prince went down to the sidewalk +to wait for Mrs. Cameron to join them; where they were eyed by the +neighbours and the children, who considered the Camerons as beings from +another world.</p> + +<p>Carolyn and her parents had their dinner in a restaurant that evening, +for it was altogether too late to get it at home. Carolyn May might +have enjoyed the occasion more had she not been so sleepy; and Prince +sank frankly into slumber under the restaurant table, and snored.</p> + +<p>So the little girl did not hear all that was said by her father and +mother regarding the young couple whose troubles seemed to be forced +upon the Camerons' attention; nor did the little girl understand the +plans made at the time for the Bassetts.</p> + +<p>However, Mr. Cameron left for downtown much earlier than usual the next +morning. First of all he telephoned to a certain Wall Street office +and after a great deal of trouble he obtained the favour of a tentative +appointment with the great man known as the Griffin of Wall Street.</p> + +<p>"An interview with St. Peter at the heavenly portals would be little +more difficult to arrange," Mr. Cameron told his wife, "than an +appointment with the Griffin." Only that the magnate had found from +long experience that it was the part of wisdom to treat the newspaper +representatives well, was Mr. Cameron able to get the attention of one +of Mr. Henry Bassett's secretaries.</p> + +<p>This individual the newspaper editor had first to see when he reached +the offices of the Griffin. He was a sharp-featured man, very dark and +with black eyebrows stenciled distinctly over his nose.</p> + +<p>"You did not explain your business very clearly to me over the 'phone, +Mr. Cameron," said the secretary. "Only because you are from the +<i>Beacon</i> did I take the chance of having you come here; but Mr. Bassett +does not know yet that you wish to see him."</p> + +<p>"My business with him is quite a personal matter, Mr.—?"</p> + +<p>"Inness," finished the secretary.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Inness. A private matter entirely."</p> + +<p>"You mean it is something personal concerning yourself, Mr. Cameron?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. It is intimately connected with Mr. Bassett's affairs. So +intimately, indeed, that I could not possibly explain it to you, Mr. +Inness."</p> + +<p>The man was evidently of a mind to bid Mr. Cameron curtly begone. Yet +the <i>Beacon</i> was a powerful party organ, and just at this time the +Griffin had political ends to serve. Although Mr. Cameron did not ask +for the interview in the name of his paper, Inness was a cautious man. +That is why he had held his lucrative situation with the Griffin for +ten years or more.</p> + +<p>"I will take your card, Mr. Cameron," he said at last, holding out his +hand for the caller's bit of pasteboard. "But I cannot promise you an +interview under the circumstances. Mr. Bassett does not like mysteries."</p> + +<p>"No. He is not going to like this one," rejoined the editor. "Nor do I +like it. But I feel it to be my duty to see him."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cameron," said Inness dryly, "I would not possess your +overpowering sense of duty for worlds," and he walked out of the +reception room with the card in his hand.</p> + +<p>Had the newspaper man come on his own behalf he might have felt some +trepidation; but consideration for Joe Bassett and his wife and baby +had brought him to the Griffin's office, and he felt no burden of a +personal nature upon his mind. When Inness finally beckoned him from +the door of the private suite, the caller went quite cheerfully to +meet the man whose reputation for being a Tartar was as broad as his +financial activities were known.</p> + +<p>Mr. Henry Bassett beat no round of the bushes; he came directly to the +point. "You are John Lewis Cameron, of the <i>Beacon</i>," he said. "I do +not know you. Inness says your call is not on business for your paper. +What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"I wish to interest you, Mr. Bassett, in the needs of an unfortunate +family in which I am interested—but because of no ordinary charitable +instinct upon my part or yours. I am no charity collector, nor is this +case of destitution one that can be brought to the attention of anybody +but yourself."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" demanded the Griffin roughly. "Mrs. Bassett usually +attends to all such matters. I do not consider myself a judge of their +worth."</p> + +<p>"There are certain elements in this matter which preclude my speaking +to anybody but you about it, Mr. Bassett."</p> + +<p>The financier looked startled. His continued silence enabled Mr. +Cameron to go on:</p> + +<p>"The people I speak of are a man and his wife and child. They are +not ordinary people. I have not known much about them until lately. +I find that they live in a frightfully unpleasant neighbourhood, +that their surroundings are most uncongenial, and that they lack all +the luxuries—even those necessities—which people of respectable +bringing-up must have."</p> + +<p>"Why do you tell me all this?" demanded the millionaire.</p> + +<p>"Because it concerns you, concerns you deeply. The young woman and +her baby may not live through the summer if she is obliged to stay in +that horrible apartment which is the best her husband has been able to +afford."</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" shot in Henry Bassett.</p> + +<p>"He is your son. And his wife and your grandchild are dying in that +place they live in. What are you going to do about it?"</p> + +<p>The change that came over Henry Bassett's face shook even Mr. Cameron. +The editor's experience with all sorts and conditions of men enabled +him to hide his own feelings well; so he merely stared back into the +passion-distorted countenance of the Wall Street man.</p> + +<p>"You dare to come to me from that cur? He has sent you to try to +squeeze money out of me—for himself and that wretched woman, and her +ill-begotten brat?"</p> + +<p>"You are quite wrong, Mr. Bassett," his caller said coldly. "Your +son has no idea that I have come to you in his behalf. Nor does your +daughter-in-law know of it. I merely believe that you should be told +their circumstances."</p> + +<p>Henry Bassett actually snorted. He tried to speak, but for the moment +his rage would not let him.</p> + +<p>"The boy is doing the very best he can. He has not yet made any very +great success it is true. He happens at present to be working on the +<i>Beacon</i>. That is how I come to know something about his circumstances. +He got woefully into debt when your grandchild was born, and is still +struggling to square himself with his creditors."</p> + +<p>"Bah!" suddenly roared the rich man, starting half out of his chair +and unable to control himself further. "What did he do with the ten +thousand dollars he had when he walked out of my house determined to +marry that wasteful, useless, luxury-loving woman? Oh, I knew what she +was and I knew what she would bring him to."</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt="" id="illus3"> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"<i>What did he do with the ten thousand dollars?</i>"</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>The phrases came raspingly from Henry Bassett's lips. It was plain +that he felt deeply his son's defection. But the mention of ten +thousand dollars—</p> + +<p>"The boy is a fool," went on the millionaire. "Worse, he is a knave. +But she made him that. The story was brought to me how he hung about +certain cheap brokerage houses all that first winter that he left +me. That is where that ill-gotten money went. He gambled it away, of +course. Ten thousand wouldn't suit My Lady! She must have more, and +the young fool doubtless tried to pyramid his capital—and lost it, +instead, and as he deserved.</p> + +<p>"Sin brings its own punishment," said the millionaire harshly but +impressively. "That boy was determined to marry against my command and +his mother's wishes. The girl was nothing but a flibbertigibbet—a +useless baggage. She had been brought up by Wetherby Gaines and his +foolish wife to do nothing; and when they were dead she had nothing. +All she could do was to lead my son into extravagance.</p> + +<p>"To please her—to meet her extravagant demands—he tried to double +that stolen ten thousand in the market."</p> + +<p>"<i>Stolen?</i>" gasped Mr. Cameron.</p> + +<p>The millionaire was silent. He licked his lips, glaring at his visitor +like a wolf. In his rage he had gone farther and said more than he had +intended. But he was too angry to retract or deny the truth.</p> + +<p>"You have learned something that I have not even told to my wife," he +said hoarsely. "It is a shame that I shall never get over. When I +threatened that boy with dismissal from his home if he insisted upon +marrying the girl, he knew I had brought ten thousand dollars home for +a special purpose. It was in the library safe which he knew how to open +as well as I did.</p> + +<p>"He made his choice and left the house the next morning. When he was +gone I found the money had gone with him. <i>That</i> is what this woman you +prate of brought my son to. Fool he was, but never knave before! If it +had not been for her luxurious tastes and her wasteful extravagance, he +would never have taken that money. He was crazy about her. And nothing +but ready money would buy her for him. That is the sum and substance of +the sordid affair.</p> + +<p>"There! I have never told a soul before of this fact, not even his +mother. And I trust to your honour not to repeat it. But do not come to +me for charity for that boy, or for the woman who has wasted his life. +They are nothing to me—nor will they ever be! I long since washed my +hands of them."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">CAROLYN MAY IS PUZZLED</p> + + +<p>The closing day of Carolyn May's school was so close at hand that she +could not get to see the pale lady again. There was, too, something +about the Bassetts, whom the little girl knew as "the Lairds," that +made further association with them quite impossible as far as Carolyn +was concerned.</p> + +<p>She could not at all understand it. She heard more of the discussion +between her father and mother about the "Lairds" than her parents +dreamed. And she was vastly puzzled thereby.</p> + +<p>Carolyn learned that Mr. Bassett, or Mr. Laird, or whatever his real +name was, had done something very wrong indeed. Papa Cameron considered +him unworthy of any help or consideration whatsoever. Nor could Mamma +Cameron, after hearing the report of his interview with the Griffin, +disagree with her husband on this point.</p> + +<p>Be that as it may, the little girl could not understand why the pale +lady and the poor little baby should be made to suffer for Mr. Laird's +wrongdoing. Mrs. Laird was in a very bad way and her baby was panting +his life out in those close, hot rooms.</p> + +<p>Hannah Cameron had even suggested that evening after Carolyn's friend +had suffered such a serious turn, that the little family be allowed to +occupy the Cameron apartment while she and Carolyn were away in the +country and at the seashore. But after Papa Cameron had interviewed the +father of Joe Bassett, nothing more was said about that.</p> + +<p>"I have offered Joseph Laird Bassett the loan of a hundred dollars, if +he will take it, to get his wife and child out of that place and to +send them out of town. That, I think, Hannah, should end our interest +in their affairs. Like enough I shall never see the hundred again. If +he had ten thousand dollars, come by either honestly or dishonestly, +and wasted it gambling in stocks, he is not much to be pitied."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the poor baby!" murmured Carolyn's mother.</p> + +<p>"I know. But there are thousands of other babies in this city quite as +deserving of pity. And to help a wastrel like Joe, and that woman who +is evidently the cause of his downfall, seems to me to be positively +wrong. Such a fellow as he, is not to be trusted in any particular. I +shall watch him very closely as long as he remains with the <i>Beacon</i>. +And unless he shows more promise than he has so far, he won't last +long."</p> + +<p>"The poor woman!" murmured his wife.</p> + +<p>"As for <i>that</i>," said Papa Cameron, "taking all Henry Bassett says +about her with more than a grain of salt, it was her influence that +caused Joe Bassett's downfall. And—well, it makes me wonder now what +ever became of that twenty-dollar note I gave him for the broken +go-cart. We don't know that it was returned to the man who gave it to +Carolyn. Not at all! Of course, it was his wife's to do with as she +pleased. But—but—Well! I am sorry Snuggy ever got acquainted with +her."</p> + +<p>"It is what I have always said," declared Hannah Cameron. "Letting her +go about so much alone, with only Prince, as we do, and picking up +acquaintances just as she sees fit, is all wrong."</p> + +<p>"Oh, now, Mamma!" exclaimed Mr. Cameron. "Snuggy doesn't often pick 'em +wrong."</p> + +<p>This all puzzled Carolyn May very much. The poor little baby! And the +pale lady whom she had last seen so weak and wan! Why should they be +made to suffer if Mr. Laird had been naughty? Why, it was just as +though Prince should be punished because <i>she</i> did wrong!</p> + +<p>Faithful as Carolyn May was in her friendships, she could not give her +thoughts entirely to the pale lady and her troubles just at this time. +Carolyn and her particular friend, Edna Price, who lived across the +hall from the Camerons, were having dresses made for graduation day, +just alike. Their mothers had used the same pattern in cutting out the +frocks, the material was the same, the trimming was the same, and the +only difference was in the hue of the broad sashes the little girls +wore—Edna's being cherry-red and Carolyn's blue.</p> + +<p>"If we aren't twins," Carolyn observed, "our dresses are. So of course +they must have different coloured ribbons so as to tell 'em apart."</p> + +<p>Carolyn May stood well in her classes. She was, indeed, a prize +scholar, and even Johnny O'Harrity had to admit her high standing.</p> + +<p>"For Johnny, you know," whispered Carolyn to her mother, as they came +home from the school exercises, "didn't get a prize at all. He only got +horrible mention!"</p> + +<p>The very next day Carolyn and her mother and Prince started for the +country. The apartment was made dark for the summer, with covers on the +furniture, and each picture in its own particular fly net.</p> + +<p>It seemed too bad that the comparatively cool rooms would be almost +disused while the pale lady and her baby must suffer so in their hot +little apartment. For Carolyn had learned that "Mr. Laird" had refused +the loan of the hundred dollars her papa had offered him.</p> + +<p>"I don't know why," Mr. Cameron told Carolyn's mother. "He certainly +can't hope to get more out of me by holding off. I don't understand +the fellow. He seems as proud as Lucifer; yet he certainly cannot be +trusted, according to his own father's story. And the Griffin must know +what he is talking about."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cameron was only to sleep in their apartment, taking all his +meals out of the house. Later, when Carolyn and her mother would be +established at the island summer resort where a reservation had been +made for them at a hotel, Mr. Cameron would sometimes spend Saturday +and part of Sunday with them.</p> + +<p>This going away for the long vacation was a gay adventure indeed for +Carolyn May. She began to meet people she knew almost as soon as they +started. There was the nice man in the baggage car who had taken Prince +under his special protection when first the little girl and her dog +entrained for Sunrise Cove and the Corners. That time Carolyn had to +ride in the baggage coach a part of the way herself, to keep Prince +quiet.</p> + +<p>But the dog was an old traveller now, and he settled down quite +resignedly in the car when Carolyn and her father went back to the +coach where Mrs. Cameron and the little girl were established for the +long ride.</p> + +<p>Papa Cameron kissed them and bade them a cheerful good-bye. He expected +to see them at Block Island in a fortnight. The long train, filled +with vacationists for the most part, pulled out of the Grand Central +Terminal. On the platform of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street +station stood Edna Price and her mother and lame Johnny O'Harrity who +had insisted on coming to bid Carolyn May good-bye.</p> + +<p>"And it's a wonder that red-haired Sade Gompretz isn't here, too," +sniffed Carolyn. "I know she <i>would</i> be if she had known about it."</p> + +<p>But she waved gaily to her friends as the train quickly started again. +They were really off now. The conductor came through to punch their +tickets, and who should he prove to be but the same conductor who had +been so very kind to Carolyn on a previous occasion when the little +girl had run away from Sunrise Cove, all alone and so very, very +miserable.</p> + +<p>All such troubles were ancient history now to Carolyn May. She had, +indeed, almost forgotten about that adventure. But she had not +forgotten any of her friends, however, and late in the afternoon, +when they arrived at the Sunrise Cove station the little girl was all +eagerness to get out and hail those whom she knew so well.</p> + +<p>Of course, first of all there was Uncle Joe Stagg, looking wonderfully +young and prosperous, ready to hand them into Tim the hackman's turnout +for the drive to the Corners.</p> + +<p>"You're looking well, Hannah," said Uncle Joe. "And if Car'lyn looked +any better we should have to take her to the doctor at once."</p> + +<p>"Pitcher of George Washington!" gasped the hack driver, "how that +young 'un has growed! And here's Prince that tackled that consarned +wood-pussy that time. Lively as one of his own fleas, ain't he? Wal, +Hannah Stagg, I admire to see ye. This here model of yourn is better +knowed in Sunrise Cove and at the Corners than ever you was when you +was a gal."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Uncle Tim. I fancy Carolyn is more popular up here than I ever +was. But, then, Carolyn May is popular everywhere."</p> + +<p>The little girl did not notice this. She rode with half of her body out +of the carriage window, waving her hand and calling greetings to people +whom she knew along the main street.</p> + +<p>And when they came to Uncle Joe's hardware store there was Chet +Gormley, one huge and complete smile, standing on the porch beside the +agricultural tools and rolls of poultry netting, and looking, as Uncle +Joe said, almost as fat as a rake handle. He wore a starched white suit +and a flowing red tie and shoes that were very yellow. It was evident +that Chet had dressed for the occasion.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Chet," cried Carolyn May, "how nice you look! And you've +gro-o-own—"</p> + +<p>"Up and down ways—ye-as," agreed the gangling youth. "They don't make +overalls no longer than I be now. Maw's got to buy bed tickin' and make +'em for me herself if I grow any more."</p> + +<p>While Mr. Stagg was in the store for a moment and Hannah Cameron was +speaking with somebody she knew through the other window of Tim's hack, +Chet drew near to Carolyn May and confided to her:</p> + +<p>"You see how your uncle trusts things to me now, don't you? Sometimes +I'm here all day by myself. Why, if I didn't know my job as well as +I do, folks might think Mr. Joseph Stagg was neglectin' his business +since he got married."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am sure you are perfectly able to tend the store, Chet," said +the little girl admiringly.</p> + +<p>"Of course. I'm ready any time Mr. Stagg wants to change the sign to +'Stagg and Gormley' to do my full share," declared the lanky youth, +nodding his head seriously.</p> + +<p>If Chet really was of as much importance as he thought he was to the +hardware dealer, the latter could not have done business when the youth +was not in the store. Nevertheless, Chet was to be commended for his +faithfulness and for the interest he took in his employer's affairs.</p> + +<p>It was very surprising to see Joseph Stagg leave the store a full two +hours before supper time and ride home with his sister and Carolyn, as +though such neglect of business was quite a matter of course.</p> + +<p>Carolyn was kept busy nodding to people on the way, or calling out +greetings to them. Mrs. Maine, the dressmaker, peered near-sightedly +through her blinds as they drove by, and Carolyn could imagine the +woman biting off her threads and her words together, as she commented +on the arrival of the little girl and her mother.</p> + +<p>A few steps beyond the dressmaker's was Jedidiah Parlow's carpenter +shop. And here Tim, the hackman, positively had to stop, for the +carpenter was Mrs. Amanda Stagg's father and one of Carolyn's very +closest friends.</p> + +<p>"I declare, Hannah!" Mr. Parlow said, warmly shaking the hand of the +woman he had known as a girl, "you'd be a sight for sore eyes in any +case. But you air twice welcome, comin' as you do with Car'lyn. Car'lyn +May jest about owns us, up along this road, and no two ways about it!"</p> + +<p>Carolyn kissed his wrinkled cheek warmly. "I hope you've got lots of +nice long, curly shavings for me and Prince, Mr. Parlow," said the +little girl. "I'm going to bring Freda Payne, too, and we'll play in +your shavings—if you please."</p> + +<p>"You shall have 'em," replied the old carpenter, his eyes twinkling. +"If there ain't enough I'll shave up a hull spruce board for ye."</p> + +<p>As Tim, the hackman, drove on Mrs. Cameron mentioned to her brother the +change she observed in Mr. Jedidiah Parlow.</p> + +<p>"And it's no 'leventh hour conversion, Hannah, that your Car'lyn +brought about in his case—believe me!" said Mr. Stagg energetically. +"He's a vigorous old man yet. He's taken in a worthy woman and her son +to do for him, and keeps on about his work just as he used when Mandy +was with him. Only a sight more pleasant and neighbourly. Mandy says +her father's taken a new lease on life."</p> + +<p>Prince was growing more restive as they approached the little hamlet +of the Corners. He was out and in the hack half a dozen times, and +finally, when Hiram Lardner's blacksmith shop and the store and the +church and parsonage came into view, the dog ran barking ahead, +displaying the fact that he recognized the locality.</p> + +<p>When Tim's hack stopped before the Stagg homestead they heard a great +commotion among the poultry in the rear—the cackling of hens, quacking +of ducks, the honking of the big gander, the squawking of guinea fowl, +and over all the "Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!" of General Bolivar, the +White Holland turkey.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Carolyn May, flashing out of the carriage. +"That bad, <i>bad</i> Prince has run to talk to the hens and all, and he +ought to <i>know</i> by this time that they don't like him. And old Bolivar +will chase him and maybe get spanked again, if Aunty Rose hears it."</p> + +<p>She started around the house on the run to quell the panic among the +feathered denizens of the rear premises, and to scold Prince. Aunty +Rose did not appear and the little girl thought she must be at her own +little house around the corner from the Stagg homestead. And where +was Aunt Mandy? There was nobody on the back porch to welcome their +arrival!</p> + +<p>She heard Uncle Joe and her mother coming around from the front of the +house. The main door of the Stagg homestead was seldom opened, except +when the minister came to call. Carolyn bounded upon the porch, with +Prince crazily barking beside her. And then with her hand upon the +latch she halted, transfixed by a sound from within the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Down, Prince! Be still!" Carolyn May murmured, with a gesture to +silence the dog. She clutched the latch almost as though to keep +herself from falling, and her ear remained close to the panel.</p> + +<p>She heard it again—a thin, wailing sound that signalled unmistakably +the discomfort of an infant. Then came the tap, tap, tapping of a +soft-shod foot upon the kitchen floor and the crooning voice of Aunty +Rose.</p> + +<p>Carolyn burst open the door. Round-eyed and quite speechless for the +moment, she peered in at the picture there displayed.</p> + +<p>The old woman, in her very plain, quakerish garb, sat in a low chair by +the dresser, with a squirming bundle which she was jogging on her knee. +At her elbow was a cup and spoon, and the smell of anise was strong in +the room.</p> + +<p>"A baby!" gasped Carolyn May. "Oh, Aunty Rose Kennedy! where <i>did</i> you +find a baby?"</p> + +<p>Aunty Rose smiled kindly above the infant's puckered little face.</p> + +<p>"Come here, Car'lyn May," she said, "and look at your little cousin. +Her name is Car'lyn, too."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">AT THE CORNERS</p> + + +<p>"Oh! Aunty Rose Kennedy!" cried the little girl, finally recovering her +voice. "I wondered and <i>wondered</i> why you didn't come back to us. It +wasn't your garden that kept you up here at the Corners, now was it?"</p> + +<p>"Not altogether, Carolyn May. Your Aunt Mandy couldn't take care of +this sweet little girl all by herself," replied Mrs. Kennedy. "You see, +there is something, after all, for old Aunty Rose to do in the world +besides sitting down to twiddle her thumbs."</p> + +<p>In came Mamma Cameron and Uncle Joe with the bags then, and the baby +was made much of. That she should have a real, live baby named after +her quite amazed as well as delighted Carolyn May. The baby cousin was +named "Carolyn Amanda."</p> + +<p>"That sounds ever so pretty," stated the little girl. "I'm going to +write Edna about it right away. You see, she couldn't have their baby +named after her because it was a boy. Isn't it nice, Mamma Cam'ron, +that there is another girl in our family?"</p> + +<p>Later she was allowed to go in to see her Aunt Mandy, who was propped +up in bed and looked very pretty in cap and bedgown. Mrs. Joseph +Stagg's face fairly shone her delight when Aunty Rose brought in the +baby to her; and it was plain now why Uncle Joe looked so proud and +happy.</p> + +<p>"You see," he said seriously to Carolyn, "we found that we could not +get along at all in this big old house without a little girl in it. +Your being here for so long quite spoiled Amanda and me for living +without young company. So we got a Carolyn of our own."</p> + +<p>"Yes. And weren't you lucky?" observed Carolyn May. "For you might have +found a boy, you know."</p> + +<p>She hoped the new Carolyn would be as happy as she had been for some +months at the old homestead.</p> + +<p>On the very next morning the little girl began to run about the Corners +to renew acquaintance with all the neighbours, while Prince chased +ancient feline enemies and became friendly again with the dogs of the +hamlet, which he had not seen for more than a year.</p> + +<p>Carolyn must needs search out Freda Payne, who had been her dearest +school friend when she had attended the red schoolhouse; and with Freda +she went to call on Miss Minnie, who had been their much loved teacher +but was now married to the school committeeman who most frequently came +to visit the school.</p> + +<p>"There!" said Carolyn May wisely. "I always thought something would +come of <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p>Miss Minnie warmly welcomed Prince, as well as the little girls, for +she had reason to feel friendly toward Carolyn's dog.</p> + +<p>Then, when dinner was over, and the baby was asleep, Carolyn and her +"cayenne friend," as Chet Gormley had once called Prince, went over +into the churchyard. Already the shadows of the church and its steeple +had begun to lengthen. The windows of the minister's study looked out +upon this quiet nook; chancing to glance up from his work the Reverend +Afton Driggs saw a familiar little figure digging industriously with +a trowel about the three little lozenge-shaped stones that marked the +graves of Aunty Rose Kennedy's little ones who were too "puny" to grow +up and around the bigger stone, "sacred to the memory of Frank Kennedy, +beloved spouse."</p> + +<p>"If I believed in ghosts, I surely should think I saw one now," said +the minister, putting his head out of the window. "Is it really, truly +you, Carolyn May?"</p> + +<p>Carolyn laughed delightedly. Everybody seemed so glad to see her! She +came to stand beneath the window and reached up to the minister a +rather grubby hand.</p> + +<p>"And are you still in the 'Look Up' business, Carolyn May?" he asked. +"Still brightening the world? Still seeing the sunshine and blue sky +rather than the grey clouds and gloomy days?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Driggs!" cried Carolyn, aghast, "there aren't any such days. +Leastways, I never see 'em. You know, there is always so much that's +pleasant going on that I forget to think of anything unpleasant."</p> + +<p>Yet that was not altogether so. There was one thing deep in the child's +heart that pricked her thought frequently. Hers was not a nature, +however, to thrust her own troubles upon the attention of others.</p> + +<p>This particular thing was a very real trouble, nevertheless. She +continued to think of the pale lady and her baby. That they should +have to remain in the hot city and in that hopelessly uncomfortable +apartment, caused the child positive heartache.</p> + +<p>The worst of it was, it was a case in which Carolyn could not +interfere, no matter how good her intentions might be. Papa Cameron was +seldom as stern as he was in his decision to do nothing more for Mr. +and Mrs. Laird and Baby Laird. The pale lady's husband must have done +something very dreadful, or Carolyn's father would not have come to the +determination he had.</p> + +<p>The memory of her poor friends and their unfortunate situation thrust +itself into the way of Carolyn May's enjoyment more frequently than +even her mother dreamed. Faithful little soul that she was, in the +midst of a most enjoyable time—when she and Freda Payne were revelling +in the delights of a "shavings party" at Mr. Parlow's carpenter shop, +for instance—thought of the pale lady and her baby made Carolyn +suddenly grave.</p> + +<p>"What <i>is</i> the matter, Car'lyn May?" demanded Freda. "<i>Don't</i> look like +that—so big eyed and all—all—Well! my grandmother would say somebody +must be walking on your grave when you look like that."</p> + +<p>"Why!" said Carolyn May, "I haven't any grave—yet. Uncle Joe owns a +lot in the churchyard at the Corners, and so does Aunty Rose. But I +haven't picked out <i>my</i> grave yet. Why, of course not! I shan't need a +grave for ever and ever so long.</p> + +<p>"But I was just thinking when you spoke to me, Freda."</p> + +<p>"What ever were you thinking about?" demanded her friend, to whom +Carolyn was always a source of wonder because of her "oddities."</p> + +<p>"Why," said Carolyn May very earnestly, "I was thinking how too bad it +is that folks who do wrong don't have to go off by themselves and keep +away from the good folks. Then good folks wouldn't have to suffer for +the bad folks' doin's."</p> + +<p>"Why—!" squealed Freda. "That's dividin' the sheep from the goats, +like it says in the Bible. And that can't be done till we get to +heaven."</p> + +<p>"Can't it?" murmured Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"Of course not! And I guess it's wicked for you to even think of its +bein' done now," added Freda complacently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" sighed her little friend. "It does seem an awful long while +to wait for lots of sensible things to be done. It's too bad we can't +have 'em changed for the better here, and not have to wait till we get +to heaven."</p> + +<p>Such unorthodox doctrines as this quite shocked Freda; but there was +something daring and enticing about Carolyn's flights of fancy even +upon religious subjects. The little country girl wondered if all +city-born girls were like Carolyn May. The latter had become noted +for her "imagination" during the few months she had attended the red +schoolhouse at the Corners.</p> + +<p>What other little girl, indeed, could have found so much to "supposing" +with the wealth of shavings that were to be found in Mr. Parlow's +carpenter shop? When the two were about to start for home they were +trimmed with the long curly shavings—to say nothing of Prince—to an +extent to amaze the beholder. Amos Bartlett, who came along from the +direction of the Cove, was very greatly astonished when he first beheld +the decorated little girls and the dog.</p> + +<p>"I declare to Peter!" Amos ejaculated, big-eyed, "I didn't see you +girls under them shavin's—not at first. How-do, Car'lyn?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said the visitor to the Corners, "I'm well. Your nose is +just as big as ever, isn't it, Amos?"</p> + +<p>The small boy felt of it to make sure before he answered: "Seems to be."</p> + +<p>"Where've you been, Amos?" asked Freda.</p> + +<p>Amos displayed the music roll under his arm. "To Miss Spellman's," he +said. "Maw makes me go ev'ry week. Take lessons. I hate it!"</p> + +<p>"Piano lessons?" cried Carolyn May. "Oh!"</p> + +<p>"He don't like it," Freda explained with disgust. "I'd be just <i>crazy</i> +'bout it if my mother'd let me take of Miss Spellman. But we haven't +any piano."</p> + +<p>"Aw, it's all bosh!" whined Amos. "I'd ruther pound a dishpan with a +hammer. My maw thinks she can make a <i>mu</i>-sican out o' me. I dunno what +it's all about. Whad you think Miss Spellman told me to find out today?"</p> + +<p>"What?" chorused the little girls.</p> + +<p>"She asked me—now, le's see—it was how many carrots there are in a +bushel."</p> + +<p>"What?" Freda gasped. "How many carrots in a bushel? She never!"</p> + +<p>"Did so!" declared Amos, more confident the moment his statement was +doubted. "That's what she asked me. And I've got to find out before +next week."</p> + +<p>"What's carrots got to do with music?" demanded the stunned Freda.</p> + +<p>But Carolyn began to giggle. She clapped a hand over her own lips to +stifle the laughter that would well up to them; but her shavings-curls +shook as though disturbed by a stiff breeze.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you?" asked Freda, while the none-too-bright +Amos stared, round-eyed, at Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"Why! Why!" gasped the latter. "Miss Spellman didn't ask about +<i>carrots</i>. Now did she really, Amos? Wasn't it about <i>beets</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Wal," drawled he of the big nose, "it was 'bout some vegertable."</p> + +<p>"I want to know what beets have got to do with music then?" Freda cried.</p> + +<p>"She asked him," explained the other little girl, much amused, "how +many beats there were in the measure. Now, didn't she, Amos Bartlett?"</p> + +<p>"Guess she did," admitted the abashed small boy. "But what's the +diff'rence? Ev'rything about pianner playin' is foolish."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jedidiah Parlow, an amused but until now a silent auditor, observed:</p> + +<p>"Miz Bartlett's got a crazy notion she can make that Amos a musical +prodigal. Amos'll make it 'bout the time pigs fly—but pigs air mighty +onsartain birds."</p> + +<p>With Amos the little girls and Prince started back along the dusty but +pleasant road to the Corners. It was nearly two years since Carolyn +May had first walked this way to the carpenter shop to play in Mr. +Parlow's shavings. Everything along the road seemed just the same as in +that long past time. Perhaps it was the very same squirrel Prince had +then chased that he set out after now, full yelp, and scattering his +ornaments of shavings to the four winds.</p> + +<p>"I don't know how it is," his little mistress observed, "but Prince +never <i>will</i> learn that he can't climb trees and lamp-posts. If a cat +runs up a post he thinks he can get her by jumping. And see him now, +trying to climb that tree after that squirrel! I'm ashamed of you, +Princey Cameron. You act just as if you didn't have good sense."</p> + +<p>Behind them sounded the harsh roar of a heavy touring car. Automobiles +were not plentiful in the roads about Sunrise Cove and the Corners. The +condition of the highways themselves were the cause of that. Where much +timber-hauling is done the roads are always deeply rutted and otherwise +badly cut up.</p> + +<p>So Carolyn, with the less sophisticated country children, stood aside +to watch the big car pass. To their surprise it slowed down and was +finally halted by the driver right beside them.</p> + +<p>The driver was a liveried chauffeur. Carolyn stared at him with growing +wonder in her eyes. The only passenger sat beside the driver, and he +it was who first spoke:</p> + +<p>"Are you sure you do not know this road, Ren?"</p> + +<p>"I'm all up in the air, Boss, like I tol' you," the chauffeur said, +clipping his words as a French Canadian often does. "And these roads! +They will rattle the fine car of M'sieu to little bits."</p> + +<p>"We won't do that," drawled the other. "The Old Man would say +something, sure enough. Here, children! How far is it to a service +station?"</p> + +<p>Amos was dumb. Freda looked at Carolyn for advice upon this weighty +point. Freda had never heard of an automobile service station.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May tore her gaze away from the liveried chauffeur and looked +at the man who had asked the question, only to be stricken with further +amazement.</p> + +<p>The driver of the car called René she had recognized as the chauffeur +of those "awfully rich people" who had smashed the pale lady's go-cart! +And the dark-faced, unpleasant looking man beside him on the front +seat, Carolyn identified too. She had seen him the day on which the +pale lady had fainted. The man had come out of one of the apartments +under that of the Lairds, and had turned his keen gaze upon the little +girl in what Carolyn had thought at the time a threatening way.</p> + +<p>He did not recognize the little girl now. He merely repeated his +question more sharply. "These backwoods kids," he said, <i>sotto voce</i>, +to René, "are all dumb."</p> + +<p>Carolyn heard this and she did not like it at all. Indeed, she did not +like the dark man, with his very black brows and saturnine expression +of countenance. But she said politely:</p> + +<p>"There aren't many automobiles go this way; but Mr. Hiram Lardner, that +keeps the blacksmith shop, has got a sign out, 'Autos Repaired,' and +you can buy gasoline at Mr. Albert Sprague's store."</p> + +<p>"Where's that?" asked the man.</p> + +<p>"At the Corners. You know, Mr. Albert Sprague; the storekeeper. His +father, Mr. Jackson Sprague, is the oldest inhabitant."</p> + +<p>"Ha!" laughed the dark man shortly. "I've read of him in the papers +then."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," Carolyn said placidly. "And maybe you saw his picture, too. +He took ten bottles of Wormwood Bitters and they cured him."</p> + +<p>"What of?" chuckled the man. "Cured him of being the oldest inhabitant?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sir. I guess he's always been that, for he looks dreadfully +old. But the bitters cured him of whatever it was ailed him. He didn't +say just what it was. You know: 'Doctors were of no avail, and he gave +up hope at the early age of sixty-two. But at eighty-seven he is still +hale and hearty and lays his wonderful preservation exclusively to +Wormwood Bitters. Copyright.' He let me read the article once, that he +had cut out of the Wormwood Farmers' Almanac."</p> + +<p>The dark man was grinning widely by this time—and he was not used much +to smiling, it was evident. He said:</p> + +<p>"You young ones jump on the runningboard—and hang on—and show Ren +where to drive to this blacksmith who can repair automobiles."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you can't miss of it!" blurted out Amos Bartlett. But Freda +smacked her palm over his mouth in a hurry.</p> + +<p>"Hush, you!" she ordered in a fierce whisper. "Don't you want to ride +on that shiny thing?"</p> + +<p>The three stepped up and clung to the machine. They would have been +doubly delighted, especially the little girls, to have ridden in the +tonneau, the upholstery of which was all shrouded with linen covers. +But the dark man did not offer them this superlative pleasure.</p> + +<p>The big car started, and Prince, who had been sitting on his tail with +his tongue lolling out, started likewise and ran, barking, beside the +automobile. The road was rough and the car bumped up and down a good +deal; but René did not drive fast, although the children thought it a +very exciting ride indeed.</p> + +<p>In five minutes they reached the Corners. As the big car came to a +halt, Mr. Lardner, in leather apron and with his shoeing hammer in his +hand, came to the door of his shop, deep within which the forge fire +glowed like an unwinking eye.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Lardner!" cried Carolyn May, "we brought you a customer."</p> + +<p>"Much obleeged to you, Car'lyn May," the blacksmith said, smiling, and +then gave his attention to René and the matter the chauffeur wished +attended to.</p> + +<p>Amos remained to gape at the car, at its occupants, and at the +blacksmith repairing it. But the two little girls walked away.</p> + +<p>"My!" sighed Freda Payne, "I don't see how you can talk to folks as +you do, Car'lyn May. I'm just tongue-tied when I see strangers. You +certainly have got the gift of gab!"</p> + +<p>Carolyn might have framed some retort to this rather uncomplimentary +statement; but at the moment her thoughts were fixed upon a puzzling +problem.</p> + +<p>It was surprising to see here at the Corners the car and chauffeur of +the rich man who had given her the twenty-dollar bank note for the +pale lady. It was likewise astonishing to see here the keen-eyed, +dark-complexioned man who had made an unpleasant impression upon her +mind the day the pale lady had fainted.</p> + +<p>To see the two together was a still more amazing fact!</p> + +<p>Disturbed as little Carolyn May's mind had been on the occasion when +she had first seen the saturnine looking man, she remembered now +something important about the incident. The man had been talking with +the pale lady's neighbour about the Lairds themselves, when Carolyn +came down the stairs.</p> + +<p>The dark man was interested in the Lairds. His presence here, in this +handsome automobile, and with the chauffeur of the rich man who had +smashed the Lairds' baby go-cart, linked him with the owner of the +automobile.</p> + +<p>This was a mystery—a mystery that piqued Carolyn's curiosity just +as had the mystery about the identity of the Lairds and their baby. +Had there not been so much going on at the Stagg homestead and in the +neighbourhood, the little girl certainly would have conferred with +Mamma Cameron about it.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">NEW SCENES</p> + + +<p>"'Flow Gently, Sweet Afton' certainly gave us a sermon out of the +common today," declared Uncle Joe on Sunday, after meeting. "And I +believe I can see Car'lyn May's fine Italian hand in it."</p> + +<p>"Why, Uncle Joe!" cried the little girl. "Neither of my hands is +Italian. I'm 'Merican, through and through! Besides," she added +thoughtfully, "most of the Italians—Dominick, the ice-coal-and-wood +man, and Angelo, the fruit man, and the man that goes through our +street with the ice-cream-cone cart—most always have got dirty hands. +Mine <i>never</i> get as dirty as an Italian hand."</p> + +<p>But at that, perhaps Uncle Joe was right about the sermon. If +the Reverend Afton Driggs was influenced by the prattle of the +sunny-hearted Carolyn, he was not the only one so brightened by the +little girl's second coming to the Corners.</p> + +<p>"I declare!" Mrs. Hiram Lardner was heard to say, "that young 'un gets +ev'rybody on the broad grin. And she's as good as she can be. Though +that ain't sayin' Car'lyn ain't a reg'lar ticket when she wants to be. +I don't forget how she encouraged Amos Bartlett to taste our soft-soap +that time, thinking it was a hogshead of merlasses."</p> + +<p>In this brief visit, however, Carolyn May managed to get into no +mischief of a serious nature. For one thing, a great deal of her time +during the fortnight was given to Baby Carolyn Amanda. Much as she +had enjoyed taking care of Baby Laird, her little cousin was a more +delightful plaything than the pale lady's baby.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Carolyn Amanda quite filled the little girl's idea +of what an infant should be. She was no "skinny" baby. And she was good +as good!</p> + +<p>Then Carolyn had to call on all her old friends about Sunrise Cove +and the Corners. She positively had to spend an afternoon with Chet +Gormley's mother; and she took tea there as well. Mrs. Gormley's belief +in the ultimate business success of her son, now that Mr. Stagg seemed +to consider him of some importance in the hardware store, was more than +touching. Much as Carolyn May liked Chet she realized that he was, like +his mother, just a little "queer." Mr. Jedidiah Parlow observed:</p> + +<p>"If that Chet Gormley ain't a ha'f-innocent 'tain't his mother's fault. +She's been fillin' up his head with fool idees ever since he got into +short pants. My soul! Does seem a pity that some boys has to have +mothers at all. If they could have two fathers instead, they'd turn out +some good in the world, I vow!" But, then, Mr. Parlow made out that he +was a regular woman hater and could only see their foibles.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Gormley was undeniably silly about Chet.</p> + +<p>"Of course," Chet's mother said to Carolyn May, eying the little girl +with a birdlike slyness, "I don't s'pose Mr. Stagg's ready to make +Chet a full partner in the store right at first. But I guess he's +dreadful keen about keepin' Chet satisfied, ain't he?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am sure Uncle Joe thinks a great deal of Chet," the little girl +agreed kindly.</p> + +<p>"Um-m! Yes!" Mrs. Gormley said, and nodded her head seriously, but +a good deal like one of those automatons Carolyn had often seen in +candy-store windows. "Last Christmas he raised Chet's wages a whole +ha'f dollar a week and now he's promised him another raise this Fourth. +That's two raises in a year."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that nice!" exclaimed her visitor.</p> + +<p>"And if he keeps on," said the sanguine mother, "it'll soon be cheaper +for Mr. Stagg to make Chet a partner in the business than to pay him a +salary."</p> + +<p>That the woman (and perhaps Chet himself) expected the good offices +of Carolyn May to help boost the boy in the estimation of Mr. Joseph +Stagg, did not detract from the fact that they both loved the little +girl and were delighted by having her to tea. She was regaled with the +very nicest eatables from Mrs. Gormley's larder; and Prince was given a +great platter of chicken bones which were really only half picked.</p> + +<p>Chet walked home with Carolyn to the Corners after supper. It made her +feel very much grown up. Never had she been escorted home by a boy +before. She had to write Edna Price about it the very next day.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Uncle Joes at the Corners, Juley 1.</span></p> + +<p>"<i>Dear Edna</i>:</p> + +<p>"I am havvin a awful good time with Mamma and Aunty Rose and we hav +got a luvly Baby. Its lots fater than the pal lady's Baby I tole you +about. And it truly blongs to my Uncel Joe and Mis Mandy. But its just +as good as mine whil I stay hear they sed so.</p> + +<p>"But we wont be hear fore much longer but will be gon to blok Iland +like I tole you where you are cummin to see me and we will play in the +sand and ro botes. But not go fishin for I dont like wurms.</p> + +<p>"There is a boy hear. His name is Chett Gormley. He works for Uncel +Joe. He cam home last nite with me from his mother house and she calld +him my boo. But he is not a boo—he is only Chett. He is a nice boy +and awful tall and this will be all—"</p> +</div> + +<p>"Why!" gasped Carolyn May at this point. "Isn't that funny? <i>That +rhymes!</i> I never knew before I was a poet.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">"'He's awful tall.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And this will be all.'</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>My!"</p> + +<p>The letter was signed and sent to Edna Price just as Carolyn wrote it; +for, although she was rather weak in spelling, the little girl, as her +mother saw, made her meaning quite plain save, perhaps, in the matter +of Chet Gormley being a "boo."</p> + +<p>And now the visit to the Corners had drawn to its end. Carolyn had had +such a good time that she would have postponed, had it been her own +will, the journey out of the woods, across the pleasant plains and +through the rich valleys of Massachusetts, and so finally down to Rhode +Island's former summer capital by the sea.</p> + +<p>It was by no means an unadventurous journey, and the day and night +they spent at Newport was long to be remembered, too. Almost anything +can happen when one travels with a dog like Prince.</p> + +<p>There was a rule of the hotel at which Carolyn and her mother stopped +which forbade dogs in the rooms of the guests, and the management +undertook to make them leave Prince in some part of the rear premises.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe he'll be good down there," Carolyn May said to the +white-waistcoated and very precise-looking managerial person who +insisted on leading Prince away. "He never will make a mite of trouble +if he is with us. He's quite used to living with us. But to be tied +up—down in a cellar—Well! I just <i>know</i> he won't be good."</p> + +<p>"Sorry, little girl," said the stiff and haughty manager. "But rules +are rules."</p> + +<p>When next they saw the man he was neither "stiffly starched" nor +haughty looking. His white vest and immaculate shirtfront were much +ruffled—and so was his temper. His black coat and trousers were a +sight!</p> + +<p>"Here!" he gasped, struggling at the far end of Prince's leash, having +pounded on the door of the room in which Mrs. Cameron and the little +girl were just going to bed. "Take this dog. Dog! He's a hyena! I would +not turn an unprotected woman and child out of my house at this hour of +the night; but I would not allow this dog to remain here over another +night for anything or for any money."</p> + +<p>Prince possibly proved his "hyena strain" by laughing just as plainly +as a dog could laugh. Seeing that his little mistress and her mother +were all right in this strange place, he immediately curled down on +a mat at the foot of the bed and blinked his eyes at them all in an +apathetic way.</p> + +<p>"I told you," said Carolyn's small voice, "that I just <i>knew</i> he +wouldn't be good in an old cellar."</p> + +<p>"You may shut the door," said Carolyn's mother rather sternly to the +man. "You will hear nothing from the dog for the rest of the night."</p> + +<p>The man backed out rather abashed. But wherever they went the +succeeding morning they were obliged to take Prince with them. He was +<i>persona non grata</i> at that hotel.</p> + +<p>It was a most delightful day, and they set sail for Block Island at the +very pleasantest hour of it. The little steamer sailed out of the bay, +passed the Dumplings and Fort Adams, breasting the heavy groundswell +running between Point Judith on the mainland and Sands Point, the +extreme northern tip of Block Island.</p> + +<p>Lying but twenty-five miles or so from Newport, the island soon came +into view; and the sun-bathed Crescent Beach and the Clay Cliffs of +divers hues offered a very attractive picture to the passengers on the +steamboat.</p> + +<p>They swept past the reach of the Neck in sight of the stony beach of it +and of the crescent-curled bathing beach with its sands hard enough to +drive upon with a brake and pair of horses; and so around the end of +the breakwater into the Old Harbour. Along the main street and up on +the hills behind the little hamlet, were the freshly painted hotels and +boarding houses, making a colourful picture.</p> + +<p>Backed up to the wharf where the steamboat docked were several +brakes from the larger hotels, as well as a collection of surreys and +carryalls as quaint as Tim the hackman's vehicle at Sunrise Cove. The +island was no place for automobiles. There was a single street-car +running during the summer months from the South Side to the bathing +beach and the New Harbour at the Great Salt Pond.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May and Prince, on the upper deck of the steamboat, were deeply +interested while the vessel approached the landing. The clang of the +bellbuoy at the mouth of the harbour excited Prince, and the little +girl was obliged to speak sternly to him to make him cease barking.</p> + +<p>"That's not a fire engine bell, Princey," she told the excited beast. +"Why! they don't have fire department automobiles 'way out here in the +ocean. I should think you'd have more sense."</p> + +<p>The men and boys who drove the buses and other vehicles were a +nondescript lot in appearance; but most of them wore yachting caps +and were dressed in a seamanlike way that distinguished them from the +visitors to the island. One old man caught Carolyn's eager attention +because of a certain physical peculiarity, if for no other reason.</p> + +<p>His was a sturdy if undersized body. His face was tanned by salt winds +and tropical sun to a deep, mahogany hue. He wore a fringe of grey +beard masking his throat from ear to ear, but his lips and cheeks were +scrupulously shaven. He moved smartly and was dressed neatly; and those +observant persons who were familiar with his type would never have +mistaken him for anything but the ex-navalman he was.</p> + +<p>He wore a cap, on the band of which was printed "<i>Truefelt House</i>" and +he stood beside the rear step of the bus on the roof-sign of which the +name of the hotel was repeated in black letters.</p> + +<p>Somehow his roving, humorous eye caught that of Carolyn May. It +twinkled at once a friendly greeting. He waved a brown hand on the +back of which, even at that distance, she could see the deep indigo +markings of a tattooed pattern. He was one of the friendliest looking +persons the little girl had ever seen. Even Prince smiled widely at the +brown-faced man and uttered a sharp bark of greeting.</p> + +<p>Aside from the pleasant countenance of the man from the Truefelt House +and his attractive manner, there was that particular thing about him +that interested Carolyn May immensely. The right leg of his breeches +was rolled up more than half way to his knee, revealing the varnished, +brass-ferruled end of a wooden leg braced firmly upon the wharf.</p> + +<p>"Why," murmured Carolyn, wide-eyed, "he's a wooden-legged man! How +funny! I wonder how long he has had that wooden leg and—and if it +hurts him much."</p> + +<p>It did not appear to inconvenience the man a great deal, for he got to +the head of the gangplank when it was run aboard as sprily as anybody.</p> + +<p>"Truefelt House! Truefelt House, Ma'am!" he was saying, when Carolyn +May and her mother came up the plank.</p> + +<p>A salesman with two big sample cases was just ahead of the Camerons, +and he thrust the heavy valises at the wooden-legged man.</p> + +<p>"Here you are," he said. "I'm for the Truefelt House."</p> + +<p>"And so is the lady and the leetle gal. Am I right, Ma'am?" queried +the wooden-legged man. "Lemme have <i>your</i> bag. That's it. You go right +ahead, Mister," he added to the travelling man. "The good Lord has +blessed ye with two arms and two laigs, <i>as</i> yet. There's the bus just +ahead of ye."</p> + +<p>Prince, in his eagerness, came near to getting his leash tangled around +the man's wooden leg.</p> + +<p>"Belay there!" sang out the bus driver. "You take a turn around that +spar, dog, an' ye'll likely lay me on my beam ends. What do you call +him when he's to home, Sissy?" he asked Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"He's Prince. And if you please," said the little girl politely but +with emphasis, "I'm <i>not</i> 'Sissy.' I am Carolyn May Cameron. And this +is my mamma."</p> + +<p>"Proud to know ye, Ma'am," said the wooden-legged man. "I'm bussin' +jest now for Ben Truefelt and his marm who run the Truefelt House +since his dad died. <i>I'm</i> Ozias Littlefield. One o' the 'riginal +Littlefields. They moved on to this island while the Injuns was still +here, an' helped cut down all the timber so's to ketch an' kill the +savages the better, I cal'late.</p> + +<p>"You git right aboard, Ma'am," he added, helping Mrs. Cameron up the +rear step of the bus after the salesman. "Yaas'm; you can give me your +checks. A man with <i>two</i> laigs'll come down after the trunks when them +deckhan's of Cap'n Ball set 'em off on to the wharf. You'm welcome, I +am sure, Ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Now, leetle gal," he added, "you want to ride on the front seat with +me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" and Carolyn's eyes danced. "But there's Prince."</p> + +<p>"He can ride up there, too," declared Mr. Littlefield, and stubbed +around to the front of the bus. He lifted Carolyn up on to the high +seat, and grabbing Prince by the collar and his stump of a tail, tossed +him sprawling after her.</p> + +<p>"Make him sit up side o' ye, leetle gal," said Mr. Littlefield, +and, securing the lines from the backs of the patient horses, began +clambering up himself. "I ain't so graceful as one o' these here +gazelles they tell about," he added. "I'm more like a crab—look one +way and travel t'other. But I manage to git there."</p> + +<p>He ended, puffing a little, and falling upon the hard cushion of +the seat with his left foot on the brake release and the wooden leg +sticking straight out over the fat back of the nigh horse.</p> + +<p>"All right astarn?" he called. "For we're goin' to cast off."</p> + +<p>"All clear here, Skipper," said the salesman. "You can haul up your +mudhook."</p> + +<p>"And you can haul in your slack," retorted the wooden-legged man. "I +remember you from a previous v'y'ge, young man. I dunno as Mr. Ben'll +want you an' your bags at all at the Truefelt House after you fillin' +the sugar bowls out'n the salt crock and the salt cellars vice varsy. +Fun is fun; but some people's idee of fun ought to bring 'em to the +gallus.</p> + +<p>"Come up, Trouble! Hi, Worry! Shack along now. I guess we don't git no +more passengers this tide."</p> + +<p>The fat, sleek horses awoke and ambled through the broad esplanade +before the docks. Carolyn was greatly interested in all she saw; but +particularly was she interested in the wooden-legged man and how he +came to have a wooden leg.</p> + +<p>The horses, Worry and Trouble, drew the bus across the main street, +along the landward side of which were set most of the hamlet's shops, +the post-office, and some of the smaller hotels; while the other side +of the street dropped easily away to the harbour beach. They rattled +through a lane where the occupants of the fishermen's cottages could +almost shake hands from opposite doorstones; and then up a little +green rise into the premises of the Truefelt House—a sprawling frame +building with a porch on two sides and a big cupola on the roof with a +quarterdeck-walk outside the cupola.</p> + +<p>Captain Solon Truefelt, who had built the house when he retired from +the sea, had still to pace his quarterdeck in all weathers. From the +cupola he could overlook the whole island and the surrounding seas +through an old-fashioned jointed telescope, that still hung in beckets +up in the glass-encased hut on the roof-top.</p> + +<p>The Truefelt House was comfortably and well built, and had been +modernized to meet the requirements of the present generation of summer +visitors. Captain Solon's daughter-in-law and his grandson now managed +the hotel to much better advantage than had the old sea captain; and +the Truefelt fortunes were on the march.</p> + +<p>Mr. Littlefield hopped down sprily, having halted Worry and Trouble +before the main entrance of the hotel, and lifted down Carolyn. There +was a sprinkling of guests on the porch who showed the usual vague +interest of summering people in the arrival of additional guests. The +little girl and the dog perhaps attracted rather unfavourable comment +in some quarters. Other people's children and dogs are generally +considered a nuisance.</p> + +<p>A brisk young man, bare-headed, came out to greet Mrs. Cameron, whom +he helped descend with her bag from the bus. He nodded coolly to the +salesman and said to the lady:</p> + +<p>"Your rooms are ready for you, Mrs. Cameron. I understand from your +husband that he will be with us on Saturday?"</p> + +<p>"If he is permitted," Carolyn's mother agreed, following Mr. Ben +Truefelt, who had relieved her of the bag.</p> + +<p>The little girl and Prince lingered. Carolyn was watching the +wooden-legged man climbing back to the driver's seat.</p> + +<p>"He couldn't have been <i>born</i> with it," Carolyn May murmured. "I wonder +where he got it?"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">WOODEN LEGS</p> + + +<p>Really, there was a great deal at and about the Truefelt House besides +wooden legs for Carolyn May to be interested in; but it must be +confessed that her mind was more set on Captain Ozias Littlefield's +artificial limb than upon the soughing of the surf along the beaches, +the salt tang of the breeze, the passing in continual procession off +shore of sail and steam vessels, or the lovely view of rolling country +from the windows of her mother's room on the second floor of the hotel.</p> + +<p>They went down to dinner, and Carolyn listened for the <i>step, clump! +step, clump!</i> of Mr. Littlefield's passage through the hall and out +on the porch more faithfully than she attended to her meal. The +wooden-legged man not only "bussed," as he called it, for the Truefelt +House, but he acted as handy man. He cleaned the porches early in the +morning, Carolyn learned; and at the dinner hour he put on a white +apron and a black coat, and served those guests who lingered on the +porch and desired refreshments from the café.</p> + +<p>The Truefelt House, indeed, was short-handed.</p> + +<p>"Part the crew mutinied a week ago an' desarted the ship," Mr. +Littlefield was heard to say to a group of guests on the porch after +dinner. "Mr. Ben has to act as his own clerk as well as checker at the +kitchen door. And the Good Book does say that a man can't sarve two +masters—not an' suit both on 'em."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Truefelt bustled about making her guests welcome. She was a +motherly but shrewd-faced, woman. She clipped her words when she spoke +and had the true island intonation, although she had been a "foreigner" +when she married Ben's father. She had a kindly pat on the head for +Prince, hugged Carolyn, and expressed herself in most friendly fashion +to Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"It used to be, when Ben was at college, that we could get plenty of +good help in summer. He brought the boys right over to the island from +New Haven. Some of them were glad of the job between college terms, and +others just came for the fun of it. Why! once we had for a clerk all +one summer the son of one of the wealthiest men in Wall Street."</p> + +<p>"Indeed?" responded Mrs. Cameron. "What was his name?"</p> + +<p>"Why, the other boys called him 'Griffin Junior.' I declare! I don't +remember his real name. You know how boys are—always calling each +other out o' name. Why! they called my Ben 'Quahaug' because he was +naterally such a silent feller. Like his Grandfather Solon Truefelt. +It positive is a cross for Ben to talk to folks like he has to when he +acts as clerk. I heard him say only today that he'd give a pretty penny +to have Grif here again."</p> + +<p>Carolyn's mother displayed a warmer interest in the matter than one +might have expected a mere guest of the hotel to feel.</p> + +<p>"Do you not remember the young man's name?" she asked again.</p> + +<p>"Him they called 'Griffin Junior'? I declare! No. I'll ask Ben," said +Mrs. Truefelt, bustling away.</p> + +<p>Sunrise the next morning saw Carolyn May and Prince awake and at one of +the windows in Mamma's big room where they could watch the seafog roll +away before the red, level rays of the sun just then appearing above +the sea-line. As the fog fled and the smooth sea came into view, its +surface seemed to be a sheet of glass.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Princey!" gasped Carolyn May, "I believe we could walk right out +on it. I just believe we could do that very thing!"</p> + +<p>Prince sniffed. That did not appeal much to him—walking on the water. +He might have enjoyed, nevertheless, a plunge into the sea. At this +present time, however, he wanted his usual morning run.</p> + +<p>Carolyn hastened the completion of her toilet. As a usual thing she +compassed all the buttons and buttonholes herself. Mamma was still +asleep. The little girl and the dog crept out of the room as softly as +possible.</p> + +<p>But once down the stairs they dashed for the out-of-doors in noisy +delight. It was then Carolyn learned that her friend of the wooden leg, +Captain Ozias Littlefield, washed down and holystoned the decks, as he +called it, at this early hour.</p> + +<p>There he was with both trouser-legs rolled up to his knees, exposing +one <i>bona fide</i> leg with an anklet of blue and red tattooing, and the +varnished "peg-leg" which was strapped to the stump of the other leg at +the knee. He first scrubbed, or "holystoned," the porch in sections, +and then washed it down with a garden hose.</p> + +<p>"Mornin', leetle gal," he said cheerfully. "How are you and your dog?"</p> + +<p>"Very well, I thank you," said Carolyn May, wishing much that she felt +herself sufficiently acquainted with Captain Littlefield to ask him, +point-blank, how he came to have a wooden leg. But she did ask: "Can I +go anywhere I want to?"</p> + +<p>"I guess so. All but into the kitchen. Don't you put your head in there +this airly. The cook—'chef' he likes us to call him—gets up with a +grouch. I've noticed—dunno why it is!—most cooks at sea are grouchy. +And if you wanter git into a flare with a woman ashore, you try to +moor alongside o' one on bakin' day. Been me that had to decide this +here present war," went on Mr. Littlefield, "I'd recruit all the cooks +and send 'em over against them Germans right at the start. Cooks is +fighters, take it from me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me!" murmured Carolyn, "I hope nobody'll have to go to war +from over here. If we were in the war, wouldn't it be dang'rous for +us to stay 'way out here in the ocean? Maybe submarine boats would +surround the island. <i>Then</i> what would we do?"</p> + +<p>"Jest like a whaleboat surrounded by sharks? Uh-huh! That would be +tough, leetle gal, and no mistake." Then his eyes twinkled and he +favoured her with a sly smile. "Never mind. Won't never be no war <i>on</i> +this island."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Are you sure?" demanded Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>"Sure as sure."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked she, falling into the trap.</p> + +<p>"'Cause there's so many Littlefields here that the Motts and the Allens +couldn't never Dodge the Balls," chuckled the wooden-legged man. "Ye +won't jest understand that till ye get acquainted with more folks here. +But the Balls and the Motts, and the Allens, and the Dodges, to say +nothin' of us Littlefields, purt' nigh inhabit this island and all the +outskirts thereof."</p> + +<p>Carolyn May laughed politely, although she did not understand the +punning on the islanders' family names. She and Prince ran off the +porch and found a rutted path leading through the fields behind the +hotel. A long way to the southward and outlined clearly in the morning +light was the shaft of the South, or Highland, Light. To the right hand +and near the middle of the island was another shaft with long arms +attached. Carolyn had seen pictures of windmills. There was one in Papa +Cameron's <i>Don Quixote</i>. Carolyn knew she would like to go to that +windmill and see the miller grind corn. Beyond the mill, and on the +highest point of land of any she could see, was a tower with a railed +platform built around the top of it.</p> + +<p>Prince found something much nearer at hand to interest him; he ran into +a flock of young turkeys and became almost cross-eyed trying to follow +them all as they scattered.</p> + +<p>"Now, Princey!" exclaimed Carolyn, as he came back to her much abashed +under the lash of her tongue. "Are you <i>always</i> going to be bad like +that when you see anything that wears feathers? I am ashamed of you! +Now we have come to a new place, you must behave. Nobody will love you +at all if you are so obnox-u-ous."</p> + +<p>That last word, perhaps, quenched the dog's ardour. He walked back to +the hotel with his little mistress in a very sedate fashion. Others of +the guests were up and out now. There were sounds from kitchenward that +announced the fact that breakfast was in preparation.</p> + +<p>She did not see Captain Littlefield; but from the front porch Carolyn +heard the <i>step, clump! step, clump!</i> of a man with a wooden leg. She +thought it must be her friend walking up and down the "for'ard deck" in +the morning sunshine.</p> + +<p>Prince evidently thought it was the friendly captain, too. He dashed +around the corner of the house, and the next moment there was a vocal +explosion that might have shocked more sophisticated ears than those of +Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>"What the Dancin' Doolittles is this here?" bawled a shrill and +unmelodious voice. "Get out, you brute! Scat, I say!"</p> + +<p>Carolyn hastened to the rescue. She knew it could never be Captain +Littlefield. And she was right. Her friend was not in sight.</p> + +<p>Instead, gyrating about in a clumsy circle on the front porch was a +tall man with a very red face, a great white moustache, and a topknot +of white hair that made him look like an angry cockatoo.</p> + +<p>This old man, whose fiery eyes and great beak added to his birdlike +appearance, was dancing about on one slippered foot, while his +other leg, finished with a wooden limb much like that of Captain +Littlefield's, was thrust out in a mad attempt to keep Prince at a +distance.</p> + +<p>"Get out, you brute!" he bawled, almost overturning himself in another +attempt to kick the dog.</p> + +<p>His white linen suit flapped about his lean body like dishcloths +hangin' on a pole in a strong breeze. Prince, much excited and enraged +by the attack made upon him by the old man, dashed in just as Carolyn +appeared and fastened his teeth upon the part of the "peg-leg" that +would have been the ankle had the limb been of actual flesh and bone.</p> + +<p>"Whoo! Scat!" shouted the red-faced man, continuing to hop about on his +sound foot.</p> + +<p>"Prince!" shrieked Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>But Prince hung right on to the wooden leg, and as the old fellow swung +around he fairly lifted the dog from the porch and swung him in a +circle, too.</p> + +<p>The hullabaloo aroused everybody on the lower floor of the hotel, and +maids, waiters, and kitchen help, as well as the early risen guests, +came running to the front porch.</p> + +<p>Lastly appeared Captain Ozias Littlefield, who had been shaving and had +one side of his face masked with lather, while he flourished his razor +in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Belay all!" cried he, clumping forward. "What's afoul the ship hawse +now?"</p> + +<p>"Take this dog off'n me, Ozy Littlefield!" shouted the red-faced man. +"Gimme that razor and I'll near 'bout chop his head off!"</p> + +<p>At that terrible threat Carolyn shrieked again. Prince held his firm +grip on the leg, and the red-faced man kicked out more strenuously +than before. He actually kicked himself over backward and landed with a +crash on the porch floor.</p> + +<p>The straps holding the wooden leg to the stump of his real leg broke, +and the dog flew off at a tangent, still gripping the timber in his +jaws.</p> + +<p>"What th' Dancing Doolittles!" yelled the old fellow, lying there on +his back. "Now see what that dog's done."</p> + +<p>"Fer the land's sake, Oly! what kind of a conniption fit do you call +<i>this</i>? Can't you keep out o' trouble long enough for me to git +shaved an' rid up a mite? I told ye I'd be right out," declared the +exasperated Captain Littlefield. "Gimme your hand and let me help you +up."</p> + +<p>"No use gettin' up with only one laig, Ozy," complained the overturned +one. "Git me that timber-toe away from that savage beast. What ye +keepin' here—a menagerie 'stead of a hotel, I wanter know?"</p> + +<p>"Since ever I knowed ye, Oly Littlefield—an' that was when both of us +was in petticuts—you've allus managed to git into trouble more'n any +other human bein' I ever met up with. Sit up in this chair like I tell +ye, an' I'll git yer laig all right."</p> + +<p>Captain Littlefield showed a great deal of latent muscular strength in +lifting the bigger man into one of the porch chairs. There he left him, +fuming and fussing, while he went to the rescue of the wooden leg.</p> + +<p>Carolyn had snapped the leash to Prince's collar and the dog was merely +mumbling the wooden leg. He evidently considered the whole business +some kind of new play. The little girl's face was almost as red as +that of the old fellow who had lost his leg. She felt sure that the +trouble had not been of Prince's making; but she feared everybody would +blame him.</p> + +<p>"Don't you fret yourself, Sissy," said Captain Littlefield, kindly. +"Cousin Oly ain't responsible for what he does and says, anyway. He'd +oughter been a cook. He's got the temper of one, sure 'nough."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE DOG WITH THE BUSHY TAIL</p> + + +<p>The trouble was all over long before Mamma Cameron came down; and to +Carolyn's relief nobody seemed to think her dog was much to blame save +the cockatoo looking man, Mr. Oliver Littlefield.</p> + +<p>Captain Ozias patched up the broken straps of his cousin's wooden leg, +finished shaving himself, and stumped off with "Oly" as he called his +cousin, toward the beach. It seemed that the two old men lived together +in a little house that belonged to Mr. Oliver Littlefield, and had done +so ever since Captain Ozias had retired from the sea.</p> + +<p>"He's as dumb and helpless about housekeepin'," Carolyn heard one of +the women say, "as though he had lost a hand instead of a laig. If +'twarn't for Cap'n Ozy, Oliver Littlefield'd never have a decent mess +o' victuals."</p> + +<p>"That's right," agreed another of the hotel "help." "If Cap'n +Littlefield hadn't come home to the island 'bout the time Oliver's wife +died, I reckon he'd ha' starved to death down there in that little +house o' his. For nobody would ha' gone there to housekeep for him. +He's jest as pleasant to get along with, Oly Littlefield is, as a wild +tagger."</p> + +<p>Captain Littlefield came clumping back to the hotel before Carolyn went +in with her mother to breakfast, and with rather a rueful grin on his +mahogany face.</p> + +<p>"Jes' like I told you," he said to Mr. Ben Truefelt. "Never see sech a +gump in all my born days. He was all out o' merlasses an' couldn't find +the stopper to the 'lasses jug. Went plumb crazy 'bout it, as usual. +I found the 'lasses jug stopper stickin' in the vinegar jug, an' the +vinegar jug plug on the dresser right in plain sight. It does git past +me how the good Lord makes some folks so helpless. They might's well +stay in swaddlin' clo'es all their lives an' be done with it."</p> + +<p>All this might be very interesting, thought Carolyn, but it did +not explain the great mystery. And that mystery had doubled within +the hour. If the little girl had desired to know how Captain Ozias +Littlefield lost his leg, how much greater was her longing to know how +both he and his cousin had lost their legs! Captain Littlefield wore +a timber extension on the stump of his right leg, while Mr. Oliver +Littlefield wore a similar extension on the stump of his left leg.</p> + +<p>How did they both come to lose their limbs? It was amazing!</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Ben!" she finally called to Mr. Truefelt, addressing him as +most of the hotel employ s did. "Oh, Mr. Ben," she went on, "how ever +did Captain Littlefield and his cousin <i>both</i> come to lose their legs?"</p> + +<p>"Mighty careless of 'em, wasn't it, Miss Carolyn?" returned the young +man, chuckling. "So you are curious about the 'Double O's,' are you?"</p> + +<p>"The 'Double O's'?" repeated the little girl.</p> + +<p>"That is what we call them. Oliver and Ozias—Oly and Ozy. And they are +both just as funny in their different ways as they can be. But how they +happened to both have wooden legs—well, that I could not tell you, +for I don't know. I'm not altogether sure that they were not born with +them."</p> + +<p>"Born with wooden legs?" gasped Carolyn. "I—nev-er—did—<i>hear</i> of +such a thing! I don't believe that can be so, Mr. Ben."</p> + +<p>"Well, to tell the truth, my dear," said Mr. Ben Truefelt, "neither did +I ever hear of folks being born that way. It would be curious, wouldn't +it? But the first I can remember of either of the Double O's, they had +those timber-toes strapped to 'em. And I never heard say how they got +'em. Why don't you ask them?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I couldn't do that! Not on such short acquaintance!" murmured +Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"No?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Could</i> I?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know just how well you think you've got to know a person +before you can ask him how he came to have an artificial limb," said +Mr. Ben seriously. "Perhaps it would be best to refrain from any such +inquisition of Mr. Oliver Littlefield. Mr. Oliver is noted for his +short temper. But Cap'n Ozy is all right. You might ask him almost any +time, I should say. He is quite domesticated," concluded Mr. Ben.</p> + +<p>But for the moment, and suddenly, Carolyn May's thought was switched to +something entirely different. She sighed.</p> + +<p>"I felt real 'quainted with my pale lady almost at first," she said. +"You don't know my pale lady, Mr. Ben, and her baby. Oh, dear! They +can't come to Block Island."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Mr. Ben, smiling down upon her. "We still have some +rooms vacant at the Truefelt House."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me, no!" said Carolyn, shaking her head. "They couldn't come. +Not this summer. You see, they are too poor."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He isn't earning enough for them to go away for a vacation. But +the doctor says she and the baby should get out of the city. It's +dreadful. You ought to see that baby. He's such a skinny little thing."</p> + +<p>Ben Truefelt glanced up to see Mrs. Cameron standing by them. He bade +Carolyn's mother a courteous good-morning and asked her how she had +slept with rather boyish diffidence. Then he added, quickly:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Cameron, mother told me she thought you were interested in +one of my college friends who clerked for us here at the Truefelt House +for a season. It was after our junior year. He was in my class, good +old Grif was."</p> + +<p>"'Grif'?" repeated Carolyn's mother.</p> + +<p>"That's what we called him," Ben Truefelt said with a smile. "And +'Griffin Junior.' Very disrespectful of us, Mrs. Cameron. But college +boys aren't strong on respect, you know. The newspapers called Grif's +father 'the Griffin of Wall Street,' so we called him 'Griffin +Junior.'"</p> + +<p>"Do you speak of Mr. Joe Bassett?" demanded Carolyn's mother.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Cameron."</p> + +<p>"I chanced to overhear what my little girl was saying to you," she +continued. "Do you know, Mr. Truefelt, she was speaking of Joe +Bassett's wife and child?"</p> + +<p>He stared at her, his very good brown eyes opening more widely and the +smile quite gone from his face.</p> + +<p>"You do not really mean that, Mrs. Cameron? This 'pale lady' the little +girl speaks of and the 'skinny' baby? Can they be Joe Bassett's wife +and child?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Did you not know that he married two years ago against his +father's command, and was disowned?"</p> + +<p>"Good old Grif? Never!"</p> + +<p>"Not only that, but there was something about his break with his +father," said Hannah Cameron cautiously, "that has put him in bad +odour. Nor has he been successful in anything that he has undertaken. +I happen to know that he is about to lose his position on the New York +<i>Beacon</i>, where he has lately been working as reporter. He is not a +good reporter."</p> + +<p>"By George!" exclaimed Ben Truefelt with vigour, "he made a mighty good +hotel clerk, and I wish I had him right now."</p> + +<p>"That is my reason for speaking to you," went on Mrs. Cameron quickly. +"His wife and child are suffering in the hot city. I believe he loves +them. If they could all three come here—"</p> + +<p>"If Grif will do it, I'm sure mother will agree," the young man said.</p> + +<p>"You understand, do you not," said Carolyn's mother, "that I do not +recommend Mr. Bassett? I cannot vouch for his character."</p> + +<p>"Why, nobody need recommend Grif to me, Mrs. Cameron. I know him. I +can't imagine why he broke with his father; but whatever Grif says will +go a long way with me. You see, I knew him for years. And if there is +any time in life when fellows get to know each other, it is in those +college years."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear you say that," Hannah Cameron observed. She had not +felt that her husband's decision regarding the Bassetts was altogether +right. "I hope you will get them here quickly. I will give you the +address, and you might send a special delivery letter—"</p> + +<p>"I'll do better than that," said Ben Truefelt eagerly. "I'll go right +over to the Weather Bureau and cable. I'll tell him to drop everything +and bring his wife and child right over here. Think of old Grif a +family man!" added the young fellow, boyishly.</p> + +<p>"We'll find a place for Mrs. Bassett and the baby with some of the +islanders over on the West Side, where board is cheap. They'll get +plenty of fresh milk and eggs and fish and vegetables. I'll go and tell +mother. I'm a thousand times obliged, Mrs. Cameron."</p> + +<p>Carolyn had been playing with Prince during this conversation. Now her +mother called the child to come in to breakfast.</p> + +<p>"What would you say, Carolyn May," she asked the little girl, "if your +pale lady and her baby and her husband should come here for the summer?"</p> + +<p>"Oh—ee! Truly, Mamma?"</p> + +<p>"Truly."</p> + +<p>"My! wouldn't that be nice?" exclaimed Carolyn. "And I could push the +baby around in his carriage—Oh, no, I couldn't! He hasn't any carriage +now!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we can find means of supplying that deficiency," said her +mother.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ben Truefelt came back from the cable office, where the weather +signal flags were displayed on a pole, about the time Carolyn and her +mother were ready to go for a stroll to the post-office. He bore the +reply to his cable in his hand, and flourished it joyfully.</p> + +<p>"See here!" he cried. "It's all settled. The dishwashers and the rest +of the crew can walk out on us all they please. I'd rather wash dishes +and wait on table than be clerk. Grif is coming."</p> + +<p>He held out the message so that Mrs. Cameron could read it:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"You're on. Thursday boat."</p> +</div> + +<p>"I cabled him fifty on account, and it seems he didn't take long +to make up his mind," said Mr. Ben. "I guess he isn't in love with +reporting."</p> + +<p>He went on to tell Mrs. Truefelt of what he considered their good +fortune, while Carolyn May and her mother, with Prince off his leash, +went down into the Old Harbour, as the village around the docks was +called.</p> + +<p>Picture postal cards were the very first thing to buy. Carolyn wanted +to purchase a number of every island scene she saw, and send them +broadcast through the mails to all her friends in New York and the +Corners and around Sunrise Cove. Fortunately for the over-burdened +post-office department her purse would not compass her desire, so she +had to content herself with a much more modest selection.</p> + +<p>"Well, when my papa comes, he can buy 'em all," sighed Carolyn. "We'll +send the rest then. I do want to send that picture of the ocean to Amos +Bartlett. You know, he's the boy that told Miss Minnie in school that +he didn't believe the world was round, 'cause if it was, the ocean +would slide off. And that picture will show him that the ocean hasn't +slid yet."</p> + +<p>Prince was having a joyous time running at large; but being a good +tempered dog he paid little attention to the island dogs that chanced +to challenge him. As they walked past a fish cleaning shanty, however, +Prince made a discovery that quite startled him.</p> + +<p>There was a big basket on the stone before the door of the hut that +seemed filled with wet seaweed. The inquisitive Prince was about to +run his muzzle inquiringly into this sea herbage. Suddenly out of the +middle of it appeared a pair of clashing claws, just the colour of the +seaweed.</p> + +<p>Prince jumped back and barked. The lobster waved its claws in a most +threatening fashion, and Carolyn could now see all its hard-shelled +body nestling in the seaweed. The pointed, funny nose, with its long +feelers waving about, was plainly visible; and the jointed claws +clashed a challenge that Prince was altogether too wise to accept.</p> + +<p>"There, now, Princey Cameron," exclaimed Carolyn, "see what you've +done! You've woke up that poor fish when maybe he wanted to sleep. And +he came near to catching you. You'd better not fool with him. Come +away!"</p> + +<p>Her mother was walking on, her parasol spread to shelter her from the +sun's rays that were now getting uncomfortably warm. But Prince had +suddenly a new source of interest. A big dog with a bushy tail came +dashing across the road and stopped abruptly beside Prince and the +lobster basket.</p> + +<p>The bigger dog's plume was waving gently, but whether in friendly +greeting or not, was hard to decide. His eyes were red and fierce, and +he was much bigger than Prince.</p> + +<p>"I <i>do</i> wish you'd come away, Princey!" said the little girl anxiously. +"I b'lieve he's one of those treachersome dogs that you never know what +they mean—There!"</p> + +<p>The dog with the bushy tail snapped at Prince without any provocation +whatever.</p> + +<p>"Oh! You stop that!" cried Carolyn, stamping her foot.</p> + +<p>Prince had growled a warning and jumped; then he put his nose to the +snarling muzzle of the bushy-tailed dog. The latter was not very brave. +He was just a bully, after all. He backed away from Prince and his tail +drooped. Unfortunately it drooped directly across the lobster basket.</p> + +<p>The lobster played no favourites. It made no difference to it which dog +was punished for arousing him. It reached up both claws and clamped +them with true lobster-like tenacity to the bushy tail.</p> + +<p>Then was there a great to-do. Yelp upon yelp was emitted by the dog +with the bushy tail as he started for home with a three pound lobster +attached to his tail. The dog went so fast and so wildly that the +lobster never hit the ground for twenty yards, and then only to bound +into the air again and sail on with the panic-stricken animal.</p> + +<p>The owner of the lobster plunged out of the shack, wildly demanding:</p> + +<p>"Who's that? Who took my lobster?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure, Mister, you can't blame Prince," said Carolyn May, with +severity. "<i>He</i> wouldn't steal your lobster, anyway. And of course he +hasn't got a long enough tail for a lobster to get hold of."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">AN UNANSWERED QUERY</p> + + +<p>Carolyn could scarcely wait in patience for Thursday to come and the +pale lady and her baby to arrive at the island. But meanwhile there +were many things to occupy her time and to interest her.</p> + +<p>She and mamma went to the bathing beach every afternoon, donning their +bathing suits in their room and riding over to the beach with other +hotel guests in the bus, driven by Captain Littlefield. He waited and +drove them back to the Truefelt House if the bathers did not linger too +long. The hotel bus must never miss the boats at both the Old and the +New Harbour.</p> + +<p>Carolyn had been to the Coney Island beaches several times and was +familiar with the surf. But this Block Island beach was never crowded, +all the people on it were always kindly, friendly people, and the water +was free from any kind of rubbish.</p> + +<p>Prince was having the time of his life. He was in and out of the +water, racing on the sands, barking at the waves that chased him up +the strand, plunging into the rough little seas to bring out bits of +wood that were thrown in for him to retrieve, and otherwise behaving as +though the sea had been made particularly for him.</p> + +<p>Of course he got into trouble. He almost always did. Prince never +could learn anything save through experience.</p> + +<p>Once there were little schools of pinky-white jelly-fish in the surf, +and the surfman who was so wonderfully brown all over his body, and who +went without a hat no matter how hot the sun was, told everybody to +keep away from the pests because they stung all flesh that they touched.</p> + +<p>Of course Carolyn knew enough to mind what he said; but would Prince +keep away from those very innocent looking, helpless appearing things? +No, indeed! Prince had to dash right in and try to nose the jelly-fish +out of the way. He couldn't bite them, for the moment he tried to shut +his jaws on them they slid right out from between his teeth; he could +not step on them and hold them down; and he could not easily drag them +ashore.</p> + +<p>"That dog of yours will be sorry enough, little lady," warned the +surfman, speaking to Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>Carolyn and her mother really had to cut their bath short that day so +as to take the dog away. By and by his muzzle was hot and feverish +and he pawed at it in a way to show that it smarted. He was a very +miserable looking dog indeed all that evening, and Carolyn went down +and begged cracked ice for him. She improvised an icebag out of her +bathing cap and tried to fix it on Prince's muzzle.</p> + +<p>But, sting as his cheeks and lips undoubtedly did, the cracked ice did +not please the dog and he did not take kindly to the bathing cap.</p> + +<p>"There! He always <i>did</i> hate a muzzle," Carolyn sighed. "He thinks +this is some kind of a muzzle. I guess I'll have to sit right here by +him all night, Mamma Cameron, and sponge off his poor nose with the ice +water."</p> + +<p>She fell asleep doing this, and her mother picked her up and put +her into bed. Prince was all right in the morning; but he was wary +thereafter of anything floating in the surf.</p> + +<p>One morning Carolyn rode over to the West Side with Captain +Littlefield, who went to make arrangements for the boarding of the pale +lady and her baby when they should arrive. Captain Littlefield drove +Worry alone on this journey, attached to a single-seated buckboard. +Carolyn sat beside the wooden-legged man on the seat and Prince +crouched between them, clinging on "with teeth and toenails," as the +captain said, when the buckboard bumped more than usual over the rough +road.</p> + +<p>During the journey across the hilly island Carolyn and Captain +Littlefield became good friends. And yet, the important query that +fretted the little girl's mind was hard to come at. It seemed so +very illbred, as she had been taught, to remark upon the personal +peculiarities of "grown-ups."</p> + +<p>Finally the subject was fairly jolted to the surface. As the buckboard +went over a particularly rugged "thank-you-ma'am" in the road, the +wooden-legged man was all but thrown off the seat and his artificial +limb waved wildly before he got his balance again.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"Purt' near went overboard that time, didn't I?" he chuckled. "Tell the +truth, a feller with a wooden laig ought to be lashed with a lubber +line in a rough sea like this."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!" burst forth the little girl, unable to +hold in the question any longer, "how do people get wooden legs?"</p> + +<p>"How do they get 'em? Why, they buy 'em," said he, his eyes suddenly +twinkling.</p> + +<p>"Oh! But I mean, why do they have to wear them?"</p> + +<p>"To keep 'em from listin' to stab'board or port, as the case may +be—whichever side they need the timber-toe on."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I know. But I mean," Carolyn desperately tried to explain, "how +do they come to lose their real legs so's to have to buy wooden ones?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Ah! I see," Captain Littlefield said with much gravity. "There's +sev'ral ways a feller might lose a laig. Why, I did see a man +once't—he was in a show at New York—that was born without laigs. They +forgot, an' just attached his ankles to his waist, as ye might say. But +he was what they call a freak."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Carolyn, breathlessly. "But you an' Mr. Oliver +Littlefield didn't get born that way, did you?"</p> + +<p>"Me an' Oly? I sh'd say not! Why, Oly, when he was a kid no older than +you, was the fastest runner of his age on the island. Yes-sir-ree-sir! +He didn't sport no timber-toe then. An' <i>me</i>—Why! when I was +apprenticed in the Navy I could go up the shrouds quicker'n a cat. I +was always first top-man on a sailing craft. Yes, indeedy! I was some +spry, leetle gal."</p> + +<p>"Git up, Worry!"</p> + +<p>He seemed to consider the subject closed. But Carolyn's appetite for +information was only whetted.</p> + +<p>"Oh! But how <i>do</i> they lose legs, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield?" she begged.</p> + +<p>"Wal, now! Not like lobsters lose their claws. Ye know, lobsters git to +fightin' an' shed a claw now and then. But new ones grow on. Ye often +see lobsters with one big foreclaw and a little one on t'other side."</p> + +<p>"I'm not much acquainted with lobsters," admitted Carolyn May. "Only I +saw that big dog take one home on his tail the other day."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," chuckled Captain Ozias. "That was Tulliver Hicks' lobster. +And he went over to Dave-Ed Mott's, that owns that dog, and tried to +collect for the lobster. Couldn't collect the lobster itself, for it +got battered to smash on the stones 'fore the dog fetched his moorings.</p> + +<p>"They had quite an argument, Tulliver Hicks and Dave-Ed did, as to +whether Dave-Ed owed Tulliver for the lobster, or Tulliver owed Dave-Ed +for damage to the dog. The dog got under the barn floor and ain't come +out since; and he was a right sassy dog afore that lobster got a holt +on him."</p> + +<p>"The poor dog!" the little girl murmured. But she was not at all +satisfied. Captain Littlefield had not given her the information she so +very much desired. She ventured again: "I didn't really s'pose folks +could lose legs and have 'em grow on again like lobsters. But how do +they lose 'em?"</p> + +<p>"I knew a feller once't," said the captain ruminatively, "that got his +mudhook caught so't the chain parted when he tried to git it up again. +He'd anchored, ye see, right over a sunken reef. This here was down in +the Caribbean Sea and he had oughter knowed better than to go overboard +in them waters. 'Tain't safe for nobody but niggers to go over the side +thereabout. Sharks will nose right in among niggers, but they'll take a +white man ev'ry time.</p> + +<p>"Wal, this feller counted his anchor wuth more to him than his body was +to his fam'ly, and he dropped a weighted line overboard and skinned +off his clo'es and slid down to the rocky bottom with a jackbar in his +hand. Jest as he thought, a fluke of the anchor was squeezed in under a +big scale of the reef, and he started to pry it out.</p> + +<p>"Whilst he was workin'—and, mind you, he had to work mighty fast, +for a minute and a ha'f without air was his limit—he seen a shadow +overhead. For a second he thought 'twas the schooner driftin' over him. +But when he glanced around he seen it was a shark—a big, blunt-nosed +critter that was slantin' right down toward him, and was a'ready turned +on his side, and opening his jaws."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" gasped Carolyn May, her eyes big with that delightful horror that +is always roused by such tales of adventure.</p> + +<p>"Yep. Reg'lar shark, he was," said Captain Littlefield, pursing his +lips and nodding his head. "And he come down at this feller I tell ye +of, with a full head o' steam.</p> + +<p>"Warn't no use to fight. A feller can't use a ten-pound steel bar, +under five fathom o' blue water, to punch out the teeth of a +man-eatin' shark. Nos-sir!"</p> + +<p>Carolyn May did not understand all this. But the thrill of the story +held her just the same.</p> + +<p>"And did he eat him?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Did that schooner skipper eat the shark?" responded Captain +Littlefield, his eyes twinkling. "Nop. He'd been too much of a mouthful +for the skipper. Nor the shark didn't eat all of that skipper. The +skipper dropped his bar and sprung up'ard on a slant, tryin' to go over +the head of the shark.</p> + +<p>"But the tarnal critter whirled over and took a nip at the man as he +shot up to the surface. Crunch! Jest one bite was all that was needed. +That feller was foreshortened on one side just like 'twas done with a +pair o' sheers."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me!" murmured Carolyn May. "What a wicked, wicked shark!"</p> + +<p>"You'm right, leetle gal," agreed Captain Littlefield. "He was some +wicked. He likely swum with a school of other sharks; but 'twarn't no +Sunday School," and the sailor chuckled. "If that feller hadn't come +right up in the bight of a rope that trailed overboard, he'd never +escaped as he did. His mates hauled him in, they trimmed his laig off +neater than the shark done it, tied the arteries, an' he got over it. +'Twarn't a method of amputation that the doctors would recommend, I +guess. Anyway, that's how come of the way that feller lost his laig."</p> + +<p>Carolyn was a good deal puzzled as well as interested.</p> + +<p>"That wasn't you, was it, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield?" she asked. "You +didn't have your leg bit off by a shark, did you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, bless you, no!" said the captain. "No, indeedy."</p> + +<p>"Was it your cousin, Mr. Oly Littlefield?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" again the sailor assured her. "Oly never seen a shark unless +it was caught in the pound nets at Dorris Cove. Ah! Well, here we be," +he added, turning Worry in at a long lane that wound up between rocky +pastures fenced with stone, toward a little house that was set at the +very edge of the bank against which the Atlantic surf moaned. "Here's +Barzilla Ball's place, and I cal'late that's Molly Icivilla herself out +in her bean patch. If your friends—the lady and the baby—can get to +stay here, they'll be treated fine, for Molly I. Ball is as good a cook +as they make on this island, and she's well tempered."</p> + +<p>The young woman in the sunbonnet saw the visitors coming, and left her +hoe in the garden and came up toward the house. It was a low-roofed +cottage with a great chimney in the middle of the roof which itself +sloped down almost to the top of the doorframe. The walls were of +unhewn stone quarried from the island. The house was evidently very low +ceiled, and most of the rooms were on the first floor, which was but a +step up from the ground. There was no cellar, and the loft was lighted +by one small window in either peak of the end walls.</p> + +<p>There was a small barn, a shed, a chicken house, and drying racks for +fish in the grassy yard. Everything was very clean and neat, the grass +was the greenest grass in the world, Carolyn May thought, and the +contrast between it and the white-washed buildings was startling.</p> + +<p>Green and white, with the blue, tumbling sea beyond and the white +froth dashing over the can-buoy half-way to Montauk Point—as +Captain Littlefield pointed out to his small passenger—and with the +blue of the sky overhead, made almost a poster-picture of the land +and sea-scape. The fresh gale with the strong tang of salt in it +expanded the little girl's lungs. Her eyes shone and her cheeks were +delightfully flushed. Miss Ball, looking at her, lost her heart to +Carolyn May at once.</p> + +<p>"Where'd you get that little girl, Ozy Littlefield?" she asked. "She's +an off child, I warrant."</p> + +<p>"She's stoppin' over to Truefelt's," said the captain. "How be ye, +Molly I.?"</p> + +<p>"Fair to middlin'. How's the rheumatics in your wooden leg, Ozy?"</p> + +<p>"I get a kink in it now and then," said the captain with gravity. "Get +any boarders yet, Molly I.?"</p> + +<p>"No. Them folks I had last summer, the children got the measles, so +they can't travel. And I certain sure was glad. Children are all right; +but measly ones—How are you, little girl? What's your name?" and she +came closer to the buckboard to smile at Carolyn.</p> + +<p>She was a broad-faced, stocky, good-natured girl, "rising thirty," as +the islanders would say. She was unfreckled because of the shelter +of the blue-checked sunbonnet. She had a strong, uncorseted figure +and wore a pair of men's brogans to work in. She smiled so warmly at +Carolyn May that the little girl could not help returning it with +interest, as she politely replied:</p> + +<p>"I'm Carolyn May Cameron, and I am living with my mamma at Mrs. +Truefelt's house, and my papa is coming here Saturday to see us."</p> + +<p>"I want to know!" was Miss Ball's observation.</p> + +<p>"Say!" said the captain. "Ann Truefelt wants to know if you'll take in +a woman and a baby, Molly I.? The man is going to clerk for us—be our +new supercargo, as ye might say."</p> + +<p>"I declare! Is that what you come for, Ozy? I thought you was looking +for Barzilla, and he's out in the <i>Snatch It</i> today."</p> + +<p>"Swordfishin'?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. If them auxilary engines folks so favour now don't scare all the +swordfish as far as the Georges. Now, are you sure Miz Truefelt wants I +should take these folks?"</p> + +<p>"You got the room and the time to do it, ain't you?" demanded Captain +Littlefield.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose so. What kind o' folks are they?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," put in Carolyn, unable longer to keep still, "if you only would +just take the pale lady and her baby! I know they'd get well and strong +here. And you'd like 'em, too, Miss Eyeball. The baby's just as <i>cute</i>."</p> + +<p>"Huh!" fairly grunted the island girl, her black eyes flashing an +accusing glance at the amused captain. "So you had to tell even this +little girl that poor joke, did you? I'm most tempted to marry the +first man that comes along so's to get shet of it. Can't understand +what my mother an' father were thinking of to put that 'I' in the +middle of my name. They were right sensible people in other ways, too. +'Peared to be, anyway."</p> + +<p>"I cal'late," agreed Captain Littlefield, still grinning. "But how +'bout them folks to board, Molly I.?"</p> + +<p>"When they comin'?" demanded Miss Ball, more briskly.</p> + +<p>"Thursday."</p> + +<p>"And you know 'em, do you, little girl?" she asked Carolyn, smiling +again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes'm. And you will just <i>love</i> the baby!"</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder. Well, you bring 'em over, Ozy. I'll have the place +rid up and ready for 'em." Then she said to Carolyn: "Don't you want a +drink of milk, little girl? And a slice of warm loaf with sweet butter +on it?"</p> + +<p>It was mid-forenoon, and it seemed a long time since breakfast and a +longer time still to lunch.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, ma'am," the little girl cried, and she hopped down gaily from +the buckboard, with Prince leaping and barking beside her.</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that dog," said Miss Ball. "Does he bite?"</p> + +<p>"Only other dogs if they pitch on him—and his food," declared Carolyn +earnestly. "He never eats humans."</p> + +<p>"Well, I sh'd hope not!" chuckled Miss Ball.</p> + +<p>She led the little girl (and of course, Prince) into the kitchen. Out +of this opened a small milk-room with shelves of rough-hewn stone. She +skimmed a pan of milk by drawing the leathery sheet of yellow cream +together with two spoons and lifting it bodily into the waiting cream +jar. Then she poured the milk into a tall glass pitcher where it almost +foamed over.</p> + +<p>It was cool and sweet when Carolyn put her lips to the glass Molly Ball +handed her. On the corner of the kitchen table the island girl set the +great steamed brown "loaf," a slice of which she buttered and placed +before her little guest. Bakery brown bread was well enough known to +the little city girl; but this was made of windmill ground cornmeal and +rye meal, and had a flavour that she had never tasted before.</p> + +<p>Prince likewise approved of Miss Ball's cooking, for he sampled a well +buttered piece of the loaf.</p> + +<p>"I see he only acts savage at his food," said the island girl, +complacently feeding Prince bits of buttered loaf with her fingers. +"He's a nice dog."</p> + +<p>Naturally Carolyn's heart warmed toward her for that opinion. Miss +Molly "Eyeball" seemed a very delightful acquaintance indeed. She was +one of those persons, like the pale lady, to whom Carolyn May was +immediately drawn.</p> + +<p>The little girl peeped out of the kitchen door at Captain Littlefield +smoking his pipe, shrugged far down in the seat of the buckboard, with +his wooden leg sticking almost straight up into the air. She whispered +to the island girl:</p> + +<p>"Oh, say! Do you know how Mr. Cap'n Littlefield lost his leg? Say! do +you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no. I don't know that. When he came home here to the island to +settle down he had that wooden leg and he'd had it, they say, some +years. He's told enough yarns about it to fill a book; but I don't +b'lieve anybody ever got the rights of it from him. Ozy Littlefield can +be as close-mouthed as a clam if he wants to be."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" sighed the disappointed little girl. "And don't you know +how the other Mr. Littlefield lost <i>his</i> leg?"</p> + +<p>"Oly Littlefield? Land's sake! He <i>says</i> he was powder-monkey with +Farragut, runnin' the Mississippi blockade in the Civil War, and lost +it then. That would make him 'bout eighty years old, if he was a day," +said Miss Ball. "But anybody can see he ain't more'n sixty or so. +I guess Oly Littlefield is a dog-awful story-teller—that's what I +guess. But everybody on the island seems to have forgot—if they ever +knew—just when and how Oly come by that wooden laig.</p> + +<p>"I can't remember when Oly didn't have it, 'cept the time he lay down +an' fell asleep over on Dicken's Point, and some of the West Side +school children stole the laig and Oly stayed there all night before +he was found. He roared for help half the night, but the folks at +Dickenses thought it was a seal roarin' on the rocks, and paid no +'tention to him till daybreak."</p> + +<p>Carolyn May shook her head in much disappointment. The mystery of +the wooden legs seemed just as puzzling—and quite as unlikely to be +solved—as ever.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">ARRIVALS</p> + + +<p>I was sometimes a sharp race for the bus drivers from the Old Harbour +to the New Harbour and return, when the two regular boats came in. But +on Thursday the boat due to make the breach of the Great Salt Pond +and disembark her passengers at the New Harbour landing, was sighted +almost an hour before the boat from Newport came into view. So there +was plenty of time for Captain Littlefield to drive over with Worry and +Trouble to meet the new clerk of the Truefelt House and his family; and +the captain took Carolyn and Prince on the driver's seat with him.</p> + +<p>"I'm so excited!" said Carolyn May, fairly bounding up and down on the +slippery cushion. "To think that my pale lady and her baby are really, +truly coming here to Block Island for the summer! Do you know, Mr. +Cap'n Littlefield, this island is a very nice place and the folks on it +are awfully nice—most of them, anyway; but there's not anybody just +like my pale lady. <i>You'll</i> see!"</p> + +<p>It was quite true that Captain Littlefield had never seen many people +like Baby Laird's mother, as Carolyn insisted upon calling her friend +when her husband helped her off the boat and into the hotel bus. And +the poor little baby! They were both at the point of exhaustion.</p> + +<p>"Dear little Carolyn May," murmured the pale lady, snuggling the little +girl beside her upon the seat of the bus. "It was so dear of you to +remember us. I feel already that I shall get better—Baby Laird, too."</p> + +<p>Even her husband seemed to think that Carolyn had much to do with +opening the way for their coming to the island. He shook hands gravely +with the little girl.</p> + +<p>"I fancy your father is right, Carolyn," he said. "You are prone to +interfere in everybody's affairs, but always to a good end. I thank you +for recalling me to Ben Truefelt's mind."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I didn't do that!" cried the little girl honestly. "He +'membered you his own self. Mr. Cap'n Littlefield says the crew +mutinied, includin' the supercargo, and Mr. Ben just <i>hates</i> to talk to +folks—"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I know he always was a regular quahaug," observed the pale lady's +husband, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Why!" murmured the little girl; "not a <i>reg'lar</i> quahaug, you know. +That's a clam; and Mr. Ben's got legs like any other party—'ceptin' +Mr. Cap'n Littlefield and his Cousin Oly. They both have wooden sticks +on one side for legs."</p> + +<p>Motherly Mrs. Truefelt welcomed the pale lady and her baby very kindly +indeed. A room for the little family was found for that night. Mrs. +Cameron, too, greeted Carolyn's friend warmly. "Mr. Laird," as Carolyn +insisted upon calling the new clerk, went to work at once, to Mr. Ben +Truefelt's open satisfaction.</p> + +<p>The next morning the wooden-legged man drove the pale lady and her +little one over to Barzilla Ball's place in the two-seated buckboard; +and of course Carolyn May and Prince went, too.</p> + +<p>"It's got so," said Captain Littlefield to the baby's mother, "that I +dunno as I could steer a proper course about this island 'nless I had +this young 'un with me—an' the dog. They are gre't comp'ny, for a +fact."</p> + +<p>"Carolyn May is the friendliest little soul alive," replied the pale +lady, her wan countenance lighting with appreciation.</p> + +<p>"Ain't she, jest?" agreed the wooden-legged man. "I dunno but if she +had a chance't she might cure Cousin Oly of the megrums—an' Oly's some +settled in his ways! Dunno how poor old Sue-Betsey ever got along with +him all the ten year they was married and livin' together. But they do +say," and his eyes began to twinkle, "that when Oly got too much upsot +for even her to stand, she useter steal his wooden leg and go out to +the neighbours to get shet of Oly's tongue."</p> + +<p>"Then," said the pale lady in some wonderment, "you are not the only +member of your family that has the misfortune to need an artificial +limb?"</p> + +<p>"Tell ye what," chuckled the captain, "wooden laigs do run in our +family, an' no mistake. There air Littlefields that have a full suit +o' limbs; but Oly an' me—Wal, it does seem as though we'd been mighty +careless, or sumpin'. Both on us air shy a laig. But we manage to git +on purt' well considerin', as the feller said."</p> + +<p>Carolyn listened with stretched ears to the wooden-legged man's speech; +but not a hint did he drop about the catastrophe that cost him—and +Cousin Oly—the missing limb. It was a mystery!</p> + +<p>The ride across the island was just as delightful as it had been +before, and they were as warmly welcomed at the Ball cottage. Besides +Molly Icivilla, her brother was present. He was a tall, pleasant, good +looking young man, dressed in brown sea boots and a blue guernsey, with +a tarpaulin pushed back from his sea-browned face. He sat in the sun +mending a seine.</p> + +<p>While his sister ushered the pale lady into the little house on the +edge of the bluff, Captain Littlefield and Barzilla talked, Carolyn and +her dog standing by with much interest in the net-mending.</p> + +<p>"How ye makin' out with the <i>Snatch It</i>, this season, Barzilla?" asked +the wooden-legged man. "They tell me swordfish is leavin' the island +waters an' gettin' to be as scurce as hen's teeth."</p> + +<p>"I dunno, Ozy," said the younger man. "Swordfish made our livin' in +my father's time an' in poor old gran'ther's time. They were both +swordfishers; and I would be sorry to change, myself. Seems as though +what was good enough for them ought to be good enough for me."</p> + +<p>"Times is changed, Barzilla—and fashions with it," said the captain.</p> + +<p>"True as you're born!" agreed Mr. Ball. "But swordfish don't change +none. They are still to be found sleepin' on top of the water, and can +be come upon in the same old way as when the first double-ender ever +put out o' this port.</p> + +<p>"While them fellers from Nantucket and the Cape go out to the Georges +in their steam tugs and put out dories an' crews to fight for the +swordfish, I can take one man in the old <i>Snatch It</i>, creep up on a +fish like I was shown by my father, an' put an iron in him from the +pulpit nine times out o' ten. Them noisy tugs scare off the fish half +the time, and the dories lose 'em. Change of fashion ain't always an +improvement, Ozy."</p> + +<p>"No. You'm right there," agreed Captain Littlefield. "But them +rattle-de-bang motor boats and sech seem to be drivin' all the fish off +shore."</p> + +<p>"I can foller 'em, Ozy. I can foller 'em in the <i>Snatch It</i>. Let them +furriners with their motor boats go after the tunny fish if they +want. They're nothin' more than blackfish, an' we didn't use to think +blackfish was wuth more'n pilot-whales. But for swordfish there's +always a market."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. You'm right, Barzilla," agreed the wooden-legged man again. +"But it's a short season."</p> + +<p>"'Twouldn't be a short season if I had capital," said Mr. Ball, +nodding his head with confidence. "I guess you are right on one point, +Ozy. Fashions do change. If I could salt down swordfish like they do +mack'rel—Wal! no use talkin' 'bout it. They do so at New London, and +make money on't. No reason why we couldn't do it here. We're nearer +the banks. The fish are out there. I ain't satisfied to be just a +fisherman, I admit, and live all my life on potatoes and pollock."</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh! But 'taters and pollock are a sight better than nothing," +chuckled Captain Littlefield. "That's a dish that no true islander +will deny, Barzilla. Well, we'd better be gettin' home, leetle gal. I +'spect ye'll be over here to see Molly I. and Barzilla often enough, +now't your friends have come here to stop."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir, if I may," said Carolyn, shaking hands with the young +fisherman. But it was to Captain Littlefield she addressed the question +that was troubling her mind. She asked it before the buckboard rattled +out of the lane:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cap'n Littlefield, do swordfishes have real swords?"</p> + +<p>"You'd think so," he responded. "An' purt' average savage with 'em they +be, too."</p> + +<p>"But swords are kept in scabbards. Mr. Price, Edna's father, has got +one. He b'longs to the Knights of Pythias. And if the swordfish's sword +is in a scabbard, how does he manage to draw it? Not with his <i>fin</i>?"</p> + +<p>"My cracky, what a young 'un!" chuckled Captain Littlefield. "No. +'Tain't rigged jest that way. Ye see, he has his sword on his nose."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Mis-ter—Cap'n—Littlefield!" gasped Carolyn May, shocked by this +statement, for it seemed utterly impossible.</p> + +<p>"Sure thing," he said. "Why, that isn't so wonderful, is it? Look at an +elephant's trunk. Ain't that spliced on to his nose? Wal, a swordfish's +sword is spliced on same way. And it's some sword, too! I've seen 'em +two-three feet long."</p> + +<p>"Dear me! Isn't that funny?" gasped Carolyn. "Fishes with swords! Do +any of 'em have guns, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"Wal, I ain't never seen 'em myself. But they do say that in Australia +there's a fish that shoots drops of water like bullets and knocks +down little birds an' insects along the banks of the streams. And of +course," he added, ruminatively, "there's whales. They shoot a stream +of spray right up through their blowholes. I've been near enough in a +whaleboat more'n once to git showered by that—an' with blood, too, in +a death waller."</p> + +<p>Carolyn May thought all this, of course, very wonderful; and in her +estimation Captain Ozias Littlefield was a very entertaining man. So +different from his cousin!</p> + +<p>She saw the cockatoo-looking old fellow down in the Old Harbour more +than once. He usually carried a cane and a basket, and he always shook +the former threateningly at Prince.</p> + +<p>"But don't you and your dog pay Oly a mite of attention," Captain Ozias +advised. "His bark is a whole lot worse than his bite, in any case. And +after all, I shouldn't wonder if he'd be glad to be friends with ye, +only he's stuffy and won't play."</p> + +<p>For it did fret Carolyn that anybody should not like her—and Prince. +She was happiest when she could temper all about her with her own +sunniness. She felt that Mr. Oliver Littlefield, like his cousin, must +be a very interesting man to be friends with—if only for the reason +that he, too, had a wooden leg!</p> + +<p>The excitement of the coming of the pale lady and her family to +the island, and she and the baby being settled on Friday at the +Ball cottage on the West Side, was merely the forerunner of greater +excitement for Carolyn May. She had not seen Papa Cameron for almost +three weeks, and now he was expected to arrive on the Saturday boat +that connected with the Long Island train at Sag Harbour.</p> + +<p>They walked over to the New Harbour landing, for the <i>Shinnecock</i> was +late, and Captain Littlefield, with Worry and Trouble, was detained at +the other dock. The sparkling blue waters of the Great Salt Pond were +dotted with the fishing boats and pleasure craft at their moorings.</p> + +<p>Barzilla Ball came ashore in a dory from his <i>Snatch It</i> that lay +at her moorings in the well protected harbour—almost the last +double-ender to be built at the island and still in commission. As her +description implied, she was as sharp at one end as she was at the +other.</p> + +<p>Barzilla halted to speak to Carolyn and Prince, and thereby became +acquainted with Mrs. Cameron. He was a pleasant young man with more +than ordinary intelligence.</p> + +<p>"You'll be coming over to the West Side to see us, you and the little +girl, now your friends are with my sister," the fisherman said. "We'll +be proud to have you come."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Ball. I shall find some means of getting to your house, +I have no doubt. Carolyn considers it quite the nicest house she has +ever seen, and wants to live in one situated just like it—right over +the ocean."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Great-gran'ther Ball built it so's he'd be sure to hear the surf +and know when the wind changed at night. I wonder if he wasn't hard +o' hearing?" said Barzilla, smiling. "Sometimes the sea cuts up so we +can't hear ourselves think."</p> + +<p>"But, dear me!" said Carolyn May, "how handy it is to go bathing. All +you have to do, I guess, Mamma, is to jump out of the window in your +bathing suit, and there you are!"</p> + +<p>"There you would be, or thereabout," chuckled the fisherman. "So, your +daddy is coming on the <i>Shinnecock</i> today, is he?"</p> + +<p>The gaze of Carolyn's eyes scarcely left the steamboat that was now +coming through the breach. She nodded joyfully.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" she said. "He is coming. And he will bring us things. And +we'll go walking. And he'll buy picture post-cards. Why, there's just +loads and <i>loads</i> of folks I want to send them to."</p> + +<p>There were a number of summer people gathered at the dock when the boat +made her landing. The hotel vehicles came racing over from the Old +Harbour where the Newport boat had already landed her passengers.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cameron had been waving to Carolyn and her mother, and to Prince, +from the upper deck with his paper, and he was now one of the first +ashore. He carried a good-sized hamper, as well as his bag. And how +glad Carolyn was to see him!</p> + +<p>"Dear me, Papa Cameron," she declared, "it seems almost as though I'd +grown up since I saw you. Don't I <i>look</i> different?"</p> + +<p>"I would scarcely have known you, Snuggy, if you had not been with +mamma and Prince," he told her with gravity. "And my! you look almost +like a red Indian. Are you sure, mamma, that you haven't changed our +Carolyn May for an Indian papoose?"</p> + +<p>"'Papoose!' How very ridiculous!" laughed the little girl. "Why, a +papoose is an Indian baby, and they keep them strapped to a board and +carry them on their backs like soldiers do knapsacks. And they never +cry."</p> + +<p>"Who never cry? The knapsacks or the soldiers?" demanded her father, +looking very much surprised.</p> + +<p>"The papooses never cry. You know soldiers don't cry, Papa Cameron," +admonished Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>She was very eager to introduce him to her particular friend, the +wooden-legged Captain Littlefield; but there was so much confusion +and so many passengers for the Truefelt House bus, that the Camerons +decided to ride over in one of the carryalls. So Mr. Cameron's +introduction to Ozias was postponed.</p> + +<p>With their bags they got into a rather creaking old vehicle driven by a +boy whom Carolyn already knew as Tommy Trivett, and who was about the +age—and almost the gangling length—of Chet Gormley at Sunrise Cove. +She begged the privilege of having Prince with her on the front seat, +and he finally managed to scramble in by himself over the front wheel +and squat down between his little mistress and Tommy Trivett.</p> + +<p>"Old Oly Littlefield," drawled the youthful driver, "says this dog o' +yourn oughter be shot."</p> + +<p>"Oh—ee! he wouldn't be so wicked, would he?" gasped Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"Says he's dang'rous to be runnin' at large. Says he'll carry the marks +of the dog's teeth to his grave. And if he gits hydrophoby the Town of +New Shoreham'll hafter pay damages to his heirs an' assigns, for ever +an' ever, amen!"</p> + +<p>"My!" said Carolyn, "you sound just like you were in church, don't you? +But if Mr. Oly Littlefield runs mad 'cause Prince bit his wooden leg, +do you s'pose he'll be much diff'rent from what he us'ally is? Mr. +Captain Littlefield says his Cousin Oly is most always mad."</p> + +<p>"He! he!" chuckled Tommy Trivett. "Ozy ought to know. Ozy has summered +and wintered him now a good many years. If I'd been your dog, I'd ha' +nipped a piece out o' Oly's sound laig—that's what I'd've done."</p> + +<p>Carolyn May looked sideways at the not altogether prepossessing Tommy.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, with evident relief in her tone, "you're not my dog, +are you?"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">RENEWED ACQUAINTANCE</p> + + +<p>Mr. Cameron's stay at the Truefelt House was brief enough. He returned +to New York by boat and train on Sunday evening. Nevertheless he found +time for a serious conversation with the new clerk of the hotel.</p> + +<p>"This chance for the wife and baby to be here, Bassett, is +providential," the newspaper editor said. "I hope the summer on the +island will do them a world of good. But when the season closes—"</p> + +<p>"I've got that on my mind," groaned Joe Bassett. "Very true, Mr. +Cameron, I shall be just as much at sea, then, as ever. If I could once +get into something that would be steady and make us a living! Of course +I thank you for the chance on the <i>Beacon</i> that you gave me. I know I +am not fitted for that sort of work. I might try for a situation as +clerk at some winter resort hotel."</p> + +<p>"You might," agreed Mr. Cameron gravely. "I do not feel that I can +advise you. What I have to speak to you about is a telephone call that +came for you after you left the <i>Beacon</i> offices the other day."</p> + +<p>"Yes? Of what nature was the call? I thought I had settled all my +affairs as far as they could be settled before accepting Ben's offer +here," and the young man flushed.</p> + +<p>"The person who called you seemed to know nothing regarding your +intention of coming to Block Island. He said his name was Inness."</p> + +<p>"'Inness'?" repeated Bassett in a puzzled tone.</p> + +<p>"He said you would remember him," said Mr. Cameron, watching the hotel +clerk warily. "His message was, that if you would consider leaving New +York—leaving the East, in fact—there was an opening for you at a +distance. He spoke of the climate as probably being beneficial to Mrs. +Bassett."</p> + +<p>"Inness said that?" responded the hotel clerk.</p> + +<p>"You know who he is?"</p> + +<p>"I know him very well," answered the other slowly. "But I do not +understand his sudden interest in me or his knowledge of the state of +Mrs. Bassett's health. That he should feel any interest in my affairs +whatever surprises me."</p> + +<p>The flush did not die out of his cheek. Mr. Cameron did not seek to +draw the young man's confidence.</p> + +<p>"I merely repeat what he said over the telephone. He seemed to think +you would know how to communicate with him if you wished to do so."</p> + +<p>"I presume I do," admitted the clerk thoughtfully. "But—I wonder what +is behind it? I never have considered Inness a friend of mine." And +there the conversation came to an end.</p> + +<p>"He is the Griffin's secretary—that Inness," said Carolyn's father, +speaking to her mother about it afterward. "Whether the inquiry over +the 'phone was instigated by Mr. Bassett or not, of course I do not +know. Perhaps the Griffin wants to get Joe out of the way. If anything +should really happen to the young woman or her baby the newspapers +would probably get hold of it and rake up all the scandal. These +wealthy people do not like to have such affairs aired in the public +press."</p> + +<p>"And do you suppose that is all Mr. Bassett cares about his son, and +his wife and child?" queried Hannah Cameron thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I wish you had heard him when I put young Joe's situation up to him +that time. The Griffin is as hard as nails. Yet it might fret him to +have the young fellow so near if anything happened to him. Or, perhaps, +he may be trying to save Joe's mother unpleasant knowledge of the son's +affairs."</p> + +<p>"I wonder what sort of woman the older Mrs. Bassett is?" Mrs. Cameron +murmured. "Does she care nothing about her son and his wife and baby?"</p> + +<p>"The less we know about it—or worry about it—the better, I fancy," +returned Mr. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"But isn't that a very selfish way of looking at it, Lewis?" sighed his +wife. However, she said no more about the Bassetts at the time.</p> + +<p>When Carolyn got up on Monday for her early morning run with Prince, +her father's visit to the island seemed almost like a dream. He had +brought her a new sun hat and some goodies; but now that he was gone +she missed him as she had missed him for all the three weeks since she +had left New York.</p> + +<p>"When we get real rich, Princey," she told her closest companion, "Papa +Cameron will have vacations just like <i>we</i> do. Then we shall all be +together all the time."</p> + +<p>There was so much to interest her almost every hour of the day that +Carolyn was seldom unhappy. The corroding thoughts of the pale lady and +her baby were blessedly removed. That very Monday she and Prince went +with mamma in the buckboard, drawn by a hired horse, across the island +to the Ball cottage to call on the hotel clerk's wife. Hannah Cameron +being herself a country-bred girl had not forgotten how to drive.</p> + +<p>The pale lady's husband was to walk across the island three or four +evenings each week to be with his family, and altogether the pale +lady was happier. She had been brought up in luxury and had known +nothing of poverty until her marriage, but she was not a complaining, +fault-finding person. That she and her baby had a chance for life +again, and that her husband had work, were two blessings for which she +could not fail to be thankful.</p> + +<p>Yet there was a weight upon the pale lady's mind and this fact was +observed by more than Carolyn. How could young Mrs. Bassett escape +anxiety under the circumstances?</p> + +<p>As her husband had admitted to Mr. Cameron, their outlook for the +future was very, very uncertain. Nor did the offer made Joe Bassett +by Inness, his father's secretary, encourage the pale lady much. To +go away—far, far away from familiar surroundings—is not a cheering +thought.</p> + +<p>In addition, she was quite sure the offer was made her husband merely +for the purpose of getting them out of the way. His father desired +them all at a distance. Even the innocent little baby! He wished not +to run the chance of having his son and the latter's family where he +might cross their path. In no other way could she look at this offer of +distant employment.</p> + +<p>There was, too, in the young woman's mind a corroding thought. It had +begun troubling her soon after her marriage.</p> + +<p>It had been a reckless marriage. She was forced to admit this. She +would not have untied the knot the Church had tied; but she feared she +had done Joe a wrong in wedding him.</p> + +<p>They loved. They were happy despite their poverty—especially after the +baby came. But she realized that Joe, like herself, had been brought +up to do nothing useful. His naturally sweet disposition had been all +that saved him, under his mother's indulgence, from being a perfectly +useless member of society.</p> + +<p>As it was he lacked initiative, self-confidence, and real ability to +work. He was not lazy, but nothing he had as yet undertaken seemed +fitted to such business talents as he might possess.</p> + +<p>Baby Laird's mother, therefore, was by no means relieved of her mental +trouble by coming to the island. If one's mind is not at peace one may +not gain much benefit from the most healthful surroundings. She was too +anxious of mind to absorb energy and happiness in these new and better +conditions. Baby Laird almost immediately began to improve; but his +mother remained the pale lady.</p> + +<p>Carolyn considered Barzilla Ball and his sister, Molly I., very +interesting persons. By this time she had learned her mistake and +knew that the island girl's surname was not "Eyeball." Molly Icivilla, +however, seemed to the little Carolyn to be a very odd name.</p> + +<p>Most island names, however, appeared to be rather odd. The parents +seemed to have tricked the children out with queer given names, while +local custom added to the peculiar nomenclature.</p> + +<p>The little girl began to understand Captain Littlefield's joke about +the impossibility of carrying on a war on Block Island. The families +had so intermarried that it was difficult to distinguish some of the +men and their wives from other couples of the same surname.</p> + +<p>Perhaps that is why Miss Ball's parents had called her "Icivilla"; +there was not likely to be another with that name on the island—or +anywhere else.</p> + +<p>On this Monday evening the Camerons remained to supper and did not +start homeward until after the pale lady's husband arrived. He and +Barzilla Ball were already good friends, and they sat down on the stone +bench beside the cottage door to discuss the swordfishing business. +Barzilla was pretty nearly a man of one idea. At least, his mind and +heart were set upon the trade he followed.</p> + +<p>It was a clear and starlit evening, and sleepy as Carolyn May was, she +managed to stay awake during most of the ride back to the hotel to +watch the stars which hung between sky and sea and seemed almost within +touch if one might climb the steeple of the West Side church.</p> + +<p>"If we could climb up that steeple, Princey and me," she prattled to +her mother, "I believe we might catch that star—see! It winked at me +then."</p> + +<p>"Why, Carolyn! You don't really suppose that you are of so much +importance that the star sees you and you alone, do you?" asked her +mother curiously.</p> + +<p>The little girl was quite warmly argumentative. "Why not, Mamma?" she +asked. "Look at all those stars up there. Surely there are enough to +go around. Papa says there are millions and millions in the Milky Way +alone. There! That star winked at me again." And she finally fell +asleep on the buckboard seat trying to count the "winks" with which the +star favoured her.</p> + +<p>It was the very next day that Carolyn experienced a curious +adventure—a meeting that she could scarcely believe was real, much +as she was given to the expectation of strange adventures. As she +ran on the bathing beach with Prince she came face to face with the +stern looking man whose automobile she had seen for a second time at +the Corners, and who had given her at their first meeting outside of +Central Park a twenty dollar bank note for the pale lady.</p> + +<p>His appearance rather shocked the little girl for a few moments. She +stopped stock-still on the sands while Prince raced wildly ahead of +her. The man was walking with his cigar and cane beside a wheel chair +in which was being rolled by a negro the haughty looking woman whom +Carolyn May supposed must be the man's wife.</p> + +<p>They passed the little girl in her dripping bathing suit and cap +without a second glance. Of course, they would not know Carolyn May +again; but she could not forget them so easily. The incident of the +wrecked go-cart had been too exciting for her ever to forget it, she +was sure.</p> + +<p>The chair rolled on, away from the line of bathing houses, leaving +scarcely a mark upon the hard strand. Prince came racing back to his +little mistress and stopped for a moment to make friends with these new +people whom he had not observed before.</p> + +<p>The stern looking man relaxed sufficiently to drag his cane on the sand +for the mongrel to jump at. The querulous voice of the woman in the +chair was almost immediately raised in complaint:</p> + +<p>"Drive that dog away, George! He is wet, and if he shakes himself he +will spoil my gown."</p> + +<p>The coloured man left the back of the chair to drive Prince away. The +latter was all for play—and perhaps he noted a twinkle in the eye +of the man, who continued to drag his cane. Prince barked and made a +playful dive for the coloured man's shoes.</p> + +<p>"Ma soul an' body!" gasped the serving man. "Dat dawg'll sho' 'nuff eat +me up!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, he won't!" cried Carolyn. "He's had his dinner. Prince, don't +do that! Come here, Prince."</p> + +<p>The gentleman turned, then, to look at the child. He smiled as the +mongrel returned to the side of his little mistress.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" he asked. "Do you and your dog come from the sea?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said Carolyn. "We come from New York."</p> + +<p>"Well, well! Then this is not a little mermaid and her dog!" went on +the man.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sir! I know what mermaids are. They have tails."</p> + +<p>"Well, your dog has a tail. At least, an apology for one," said the +man, his eyes still twinkling. "It may be that he is a merdog."</p> + +<p>"Come away, George," said the woman.</p> + +<p>The coloured man promptly pushed on the chair; but the gentleman +lingered, smiling at Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"Did I ever see you before?" he asked, curiously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir!" Carolyn replied.</p> + +<p>"I thought there was something familiar about you—or your dog," he +said whimsically. "Where did I have the pleasure of meeting you before, +young lady?"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't a pleasure," returned the little girl frankly. "You smashed +my pale lady's baby's go-cart."</p> + +<p>"What!" exclaimed the man, and a rising flush altered the expression of +his grey face. "Are you <i>that</i> child?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. You gave me twenty dollars for my pale lady."</p> + +<p>"And who sent it back to me?" the man demanded sharply.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I didn't, sir," said Carolyn May, rather startled by his sharp +tone.</p> + +<p>"But it was returned, with an impudent note. 'Money cannot pay for +everything.'"</p> + +<p>"I—I don't know anything about that," stammered the little girl. "I +think maybe Mr. Laird is too proud to take money from anybody."</p> + +<p>"'Laird,' eh? So <i>that's</i> the name, is it?" and the gentleman suddenly +calmed himself. "Proud, indeed? Are you sure your friends are not +planning to bring a shyster's suit against me?"</p> + +<p>Carolyn stared. She did not know what the man meant. But she saw his +momentary anger was passing.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "you are no party to it at least. I am glad to have +met you again, little girl. Are you staying on the island for long?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir. Me and mamma and Prince are going to live here all +summer. And my papa comes here over Sunday, when he can."</p> + +<p>"I shall see you again, then," said the man, and moved on.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May was quite full of this curious adventure when she rejoined +her mother.</p> + +<p>"I wish," she said thoughtfully, "that he had given my pale lady +another go-cart instead of a twenty dollar bill. Then she could not so +easily have sent it back, could she?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," agreed her mother.</p> + +<p>"And then, you see," went on the little girl, "I could go over there to +Miss Molly I. Ball's house and wheel Baby Laird out along the path. You +know, there's an awful nice path there right along on top of that bank, +where the life saving men walk. It's just as <i>smooth</i>! And I could +wheel him there."</p> + +<p>"Maybe we can find a carriage here on the island," said her mother. +"Even a secondhand one would do, don't you think?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes. Baby Laird wouldn't mind, I'm sure," said Carolyn May, +eagerly. "Let us look for a secondhand store."</p> + +<p>Better than that, they asked Captain Ozias Littlefield, and he knew +almost at once just where a baby carriage could be bought.</p> + +<p>"Miz John-Will Mott has got a baby cart. Had it when her Stella Ietta +was little. Stella I. is married five-six year now, and it looks as +though she'll never need a baby shay. You leave it to me, Miz Cameron, +and I'll git it for you cheap. If Miz Mott suspected an off woman +wanted that old carriage, the price would go up like one o' these her +hydroplanes ye see, yes-sir-ree-sir! 'Cordin' to her doctrine, summer +visitors was made to be gouged. If all us islanders was like that +woman, Block Island would be a howlin' wilderness in summer, as well as +winter—and the visitors would do the howlin'!"</p> + +<p>Captain Ozias made the bargain, and the baby carriage, in very good +condition, was sent over to the West Side cottage for Baby Laird's +use. The hotel clerk warmly thanked Carolyn and her mother for their +thoughtfulness.</p> + +<p>"I believe this little girl is our good angel," he said. "She is a +ministering spirit and nothing very bad can happen where she is."</p> + +<p>It seemed that the hotel clerk was rather a poor prophet; that was +proved to be the case before the next morning.</p> + +<p>Carolyn had been sleeping as soundly for hours as a little girl could +sleep in her small room off Mrs. Cameron's larger one. Prince usually +curled down on the rug beside his little mistress's bed; but now she +heard him pattering about over the straw matting that covered the +floors of both rooms. His claws made a scratchy sound on the matting, +and he trotted from door to window and from window to door.</p> + +<p>It had been cool when they went to bed, with rain and a fresh gale +blowing; so the windows were only open an inch or two at bottom and +top. Prince went to the hall door and crouched down, sniffing at the +crack. Then he whined.</p> + +<p>"Prince!" said the little girl sleepily. "Come here. You'll wake mamma."</p> + +<p>He seemed to come to her reluctantly, squatted down beside her bed +and laid his head on the coverlet where her hand could rest lightly +upon his muzzle. Then she fell asleep again and she dreamed a very +unpleasant dream. She dreamed two men came into her room and took hold +of her. One held her body so that she could not squirm and the other +put his hand over her mouth and nose so that she could not breathe. +Carolyn knew the men. They were the chauffeur of the man who had given +her the twenty-dollar bill for the pale lady and the dark man with the +very black eyes and eyebrows—both of whom she had last seen at the +Corners when she visited Uncle Joe Stagg. The black-browed man was he +who in her dream put his hand over her mouth.</p> + +<p>The little girl woke up struggling and trying to scream. She was very +much frightened, and when she got her eyes open she was even more +surprised than she was terrified.</p> + +<p>It really was very difficult for her to breathe. There was a feeling of +oppression on her chest. She could not see very clearly, for the air +was thick and there was a strange, lurid glow in it. Prince had dropped +down upon the mat and was curled in a round ball. He was sleeping +sterterously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mamma! Mamma Cameron!" Carolyn called, panting for the breath +which, when she drew it in, seemed to hurt her.</p> + +<p>She could not hear her mother at all. She crept out of bed, and almost +fell over Prince, who roused with none of his usual promptness. He, +too, seemed oppressed by the stifling quality of the atmosphere in the +rooms.</p> + +<p>"Mamma! Oh, Mamma Cameron!" sobbed the little girl again.</p> + +<p>She was very much frightened as she stumbled into the larger chamber +with Prince whining and coughing at her heels.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE NIGHT ALARM</p> + + +<p>At first the light was so hazy in her mother's bedroom that Carolyn +May was not sure she was in bed. And when the little girl did see her, +Mamma Cameron lay so still that she was the more frightened.</p> + +<p>Carolyn remembered how the pale lady looked that time she fainted in +her hot little apartment. Mamma Cameron lay just as still in the bed, +one bare arm outside the covering, her face strangely buried in the +pillow. The room was filled with a choking, yellowish vapour.</p> + +<p>The child seized her mother's shoulder suddenly—desperately—and with +both hands tried to shake her. The woman's body lay limp and seemingly +lifeless. The gasping cry of the terrified little girl did not arouse +her in the least. She made no sound, nor did she move!</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh!" choked Carolyn. "Princey, something awful's happened to +mamma!"</p> + +<p>She stumbled to the nearest window. It was open barely a crack at the +bottom; but the sash was easily raised, even by the child's failing +strength. A rush of cool, salt air swept into Carolyn's face. It +revived her, for the little girl herself had been almost overcome by +the stifling vapour.</p> + +<p>Prince got his forepaws on the windowsill, sniffed the breeze, and +uttered a short, enquiring bark.</p> + +<p>"Hush! You mustn't, Prince," commanded the child, remembering the +necessity for keeping the dog quiet at night in the hotel room.</p> + +<p>Then she turned abruptly from the window. She must get help for mamma. +Something bad had happened, and Carolyn's thoughts turned to the +doctor, who she knew was staying in the Truefelt House.</p> + +<p>She knew where his office was—at the other end of the house, on this +same floor, and around the front stairwell in a side corridor. He was a +very nice man, Doctor Warren, so thought Carolyn.</p> + +<p>She had reached the door into the hall by this time and was fumbling +with the key and bolt. It did not seem so hard to breathe now. Prince +was coughing softly right behind her.</p> + +<p>When the door opened, quite suddenly, Carolyn almost screamed aloud. +But the necessity for closing her mouth and eyes instantly stifled her +involuntary cry. The hotel corridor was filled with yellow smoke!</p> + +<p>There had been a squall from the east before midnight, and somebody had +shut the hall windows against the beating rain. The middle of the house +thereby was made a closed compartment when the first floor doors were +shut, and the smoke was so thick that the little girl was very much +terrified.</p> + +<p>She dropped to the floor. Prince crouched with her and coughed.</p> + +<p>"Princey," she choked, admonishingly, "if you don't stop you'll wake up +everybody in the house."</p> + +<p>The open window across mamma's room created a draught that sucked the +smoke out of the corridor. And it was not so thick near the floor. On +her hands and knees Carolyn May could breathe with much greater ease.</p> + +<p>She crept out of the room under the rolling cloud of smoke, and moved +on all fours along the cocoa-runner through the middle of the hall. +There were two lamps burning here; but they were turned low, anyway, +and gave little light. The yellow murk caused by the smoke made every +object appear queer.</p> + +<p>Although the draught through Mrs. Cameron's room began at once to clear +the smoke out of the corridor, more was rolling up the open stairway. +From below Carolyn heard a strange crackling sound. There was a growing +light down there, too.</p> + +<p>But the child did not at all understand it. She was thinking mainly +of Mamma Cameron and that she must get the doctor to her as soon as +possible.</p> + +<p>The dog crept close after her as she scrambled over the cocoa-matting. +He hung his muzzle near the floor. Instinct told Prince that the yellow +cloud which rolled above them was not good to breathe.</p> + +<p>Left to himself the dog surely would have howled and barked to betray +his fear. But he was usually obedient to his little mistress's word, +and Carolyn had warned him to keep silence.</p> + +<p>Her tender little feet and knees were scratched by the harsh matting. +She could see but a little way through the murk. But she scrambled +along just as bravely, and just as fast, as she could.</p> + +<p>Soon she rounded the stairwell and found the side corridor into which +the doctor's office opened. All these rooms on either hand were +occupied; but nobody in the hotel save herself and Prince seemed to +have been aroused.</p> + +<p>In this side hall the stifling smoke was not so thick. There was a +window at the end and it was open at the top. Therefore some fresh air +was being sucked in from outside.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May had no thought for these things; merely the difficulty of +breathing troubled the child.</p> + +<p>Here was the doctor's door. She could not mistake it, for he had a +little sign on it: "E. Warren, M.D." She knew that those two letters at +the end stood for "medical doctor;" although Johnny O'Harrity, the lame +boy at home, had once told her they stood for "More Drugs."</p> + +<p>The little girl, panting and sobbing, stood up against the door and +began to batter upon it with both plump fists.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Warren! Doctor Warren! Please, <i>please</i>, Doctor Warren, open +the door!"</p> + +<p>Her cry was not very loud, nor did her fists make any great noise; but +the physician was used to calls in the night. Or perhaps he, too, was +troubled in his sleep by the growing volume of smoke from below stairs +which was, by now, penetrating the rooms even as far from the kitchen +as this.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter? Great Scott! where's all the smoke from?" demanded +Dr. Warren, appearing in his robe and slippers, and forgetting to +remove the tasselled nightcap from his bald head, which during the day +and in public was usually covered by a brown toupé.</p> + +<p>He saw the little girl and her dog almost under his feet.</p> + +<p>"What do you want, child? Why, it's little Carolyn May!" for there was +scarcely a person about the hotel who did not know her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dr. Warren! Come to mamma! Please come to mamma!"</p> + +<p>"What's all the smoke about? Where's the fire?" cried the doctor. +"What's the matter with your mother, child?"</p> + +<p>"She won't speak to me. I can't wake her up," and Carolyn burst into +frightened sobs.</p> + +<p>"My goodness, child!" The doctor was already at the corner of the +corridor. He saw the main hall full of swirling smoke while from +below the crackling of flames was unmistakable. To Carolyn's shocked +amazement the physician began to shout:</p> + +<p>"Fire! Fire! Fire!"</p> + +<p>"Why—why, Dr. Warren!" choked Carolyn May. "You'll wake everybody up +in the house."</p> + +<p>Prince, encouraged by the physician's outbreak, began barking and +running up and down the hall. Immediately there were sounds indicating +that some, at least, of the hotel guests were aroused. Two or three +doors were opened and the occupants of the rooms, in greater or less +dishabille, showed themselves anxious to know what the cries meant.</p> + +<p>The clouds of smoke swirling about in the hall told the story +immediately, for it set everybody to coughing. Much as he must have +been anxious regarding his own possessions, Dr. Warren first ran to +Mrs. Cameron's room, with Carolyn and Prince close behind him. The +atmosphere in that chamber had cleared somewhat, but Carolyn's mother +was not aroused.</p> + +<p>The physician used drastic measures in this case. He seized the water +pitcher and drenched Mrs. Cameron's pillow with its contents as he +dashed the water into her face.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" shrieked Carolyn. "You—you've drown-ded her!"</p> + +<p>Her mother awoke, sputtering and gasping. The doctor was now shaking +her energetically by the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Get up and dress! The hotel is in flames, Mrs. Cameron! Look out for +your child!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Carolyn! Carolyn!" cried the frightened woman, as the excited +doctor dashed from the room.</p> + +<p>"I'm here! I'm here, Mamma!" Carolyn assured her. "Me and Prince are +both here."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ben Truefelt, in his shirt and trousers, appeared for a moment at +the door.</p> + +<p>"All right, Mrs. Cameron," he said cheerfully. "There's time for you to +dress and throw your things into your trunk. The fire is confined to +the kitchen ell and the cellar under it. I don't think we shall have to +get out of the main building. But it is best to pack your things and be +on the safe side."</p> + +<p>He disappeared. They heard a great deal of shouting outside. Some kind +of fire apparatus had arrived, and a great crowd of the neighbours and +people from other hotels.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron, once she was awake, and despite the effects of the smoke, +which she still felt, was eminently practical. When she and Carolyn +were dressed she did not hurry out of the room, panic-stricken. She +followed Mr. Ben's advice and packed her trunks and locked them.</p> + +<p>Then she took Carolyn by the hand and they started for the main +stairway, followed by Prince. Most of the other guests had already got +out of the hotel—some of them in rather light attire.</p> + +<p>The doors and windows having been opened on the first floor, the hall +and stairway were relieved of most of the smoke. But the fire was still +being fought in the rear premises.</p> + +<p>When Carolyn and her mother came forth they were hailed by many of +their acquaintances.</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't this terrible, Mrs. Cameron?" said one nervous woman. "That +such a catastrophe should happen to us here!"</p> + +<p>"It truly is a serious affair; but it might have been much worse," said +the little girl's mother.</p> + +<p>"We might have been smothered in our beds," agreed another guest. "A +fire is an awful thing."</p> + +<p>"But," cried Carolyn May, almost plaintively, "I didn't see any fire. +Why! that fire that burned up the woods at Uncle Joe Stagg's house just +flamed right up and burned <i>everything</i>."</p> + +<p>"I am glad this is not that kind of fire," her mother said quickly.</p> + +<p>Just then Dr. Warren came out, staggering under the weight of two great +bags.</p> + +<p>"I thought I'd better make sure of my drugstore, anyway," he said. "No +knowing when you folks will need my services. How do you feel now, +Mrs. Cameron?"</p> + +<p>"Not very sprightly," she told him. "I believe I must have been almost +asphyxiated."</p> + +<p>"I believe you!" he agreed. "And here," the doctor added, patting +Carolyn's shoulder, "is the little girl who perhaps saved more of us +from the same fate. She came pounding at my door to tell me her mamma +was sick, in just the nick of time."</p> + +<p>Everybody had to hear the story then of the rousing of the doctor by +Carolyn and Prince. They praised her so much that the little girl felt +uncomfortable, although like most children, Carolyn May could absorb a +vast amount of praise.</p> + +<p>The larger crowd was around at the back of the hotel, and she and +Prince ran there to watch the fight against the fire. It had originated +in the cellar. The dynamo room was gutted and the electric plant put +out of commission. The flames, too, had swept the kitchen and pantries.</p> + +<p>In the rooms above the kitchen, the help slept. Even Captain +Littlefield had a room here which he occupied during the season, for +his services were needed both early and late.</p> + +<p>The wooden-legged man was now greatly excited. He was stumping about, +talking loudly and mopping his brow with a bandanna. Somebody caught +him by the sleeve and stayed his steps.</p> + +<p>"Why, Ozy! you act like you warn't all here."</p> + +<p>"You'm right. I ain't all here," declared Captain Littlefield. "My +Sunday-go-to-meeting laig is up there in that dratted room, burnin' up +so fur as I know."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">A REMOVAL</p> + + +<p>The fire was finally put out without even the loss of Captain Ozias +Littlefield's spare artificial limb; but the kitchen ell was entirely +gutted.</p> + +<p>Little but smoke-damage was done to the main part of the hotel; but +the whole house must be redecorated before it could be made really +habitable. And with the kitchen unusable the season was ruined for Mrs. +Truefelt and her son. They could not care properly for their guests.</p> + +<p>They did not hurry away those who could not at once obtain new +lodgings; but most of the guests were able to get accommodations at +other hotels and boarding houses.</p> + +<p>The new clerk was not in the hotel when the fire occurred. He had been +across the island with his family at Barzilla Ball's place; and he came +to Mrs. Cameron at once, when he arrived and heard what had happened, +to remind her of the fact that the Balls had room for other boarders if +she and Carolyn could get along without hotel accommodations.</p> + +<p>"I had thought of Molly Ball," Carolyn's mother said. "After all, I +believe I should be just as contented there; and I am sure Mr. Cameron +would not mind."</p> + +<p>"The Balls are very kind people," remarked the clerk.</p> + +<p>"I agree with you. Do you suppose Molly would take us?"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go over at once and ask her? Somebody may get ahead of +you. My wife would be delighted to have you and your little girl for +company. I am very sorry this has happened. It is going to bother Mrs. +Bassett greatly, I fear, when she learns of it. She—she does not get +along as well as I hoped, Mrs. Cameron."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for that," Carolyn's mother returned. "Let us hope for +improvement."</p> + +<p>Bassett was greatly disturbed, Mrs. Cameron could see, by the +catastrophe. As he had said, it seemed that he was playing in very hard +luck. Scarcely was he settled in his position as clerk of the hotel +when he was again out of work.</p> + +<p>"Old Mr. Trouble seems camping close on my trail, Ben," he said to his +friend whimsically. "I am a Jonah."</p> + +<p>Carolyn's mother prepared their possessions for removal and then +engaged Tommy Trivett (Captain Littlefield being busy) to drive her and +Carolyn and Prince over to the West Side. They reached the Ball place +before noon, bringing the first news of the hotel fire.</p> + +<p>"And can you take us poor, burned-out people in, Molly Ball?" asked +Carolyn's mother. "Carolyn and me—to say nothing of the dog?"</p> + +<p>"My soul and body!" ejaculated the capable island girl, "I'll take you +in, Miz Cameron, and do for you as best I can. But this ain't no St. +Regicide like you New York people are used to."</p> + +<p>"But, Molly," laughed Carolyn's mother, "do you know, I never was in +the St. Regis? I promise not to compare your accommodations to their +disparagement even with those of the Truefelt House."</p> + +<p>So an agreement was made, and the Camerons were established in two of +those very delightful old-fashioned rooms overlooking the sea at the +back of the cottage, out of the windows of which Carolyn had suggested +they might jump for a bath.</p> + +<p>But the Ball cottage was not quite so near the edge of the bank as that +implied. The unfenced brink of the fifty foot precipice, however, was +only a few yards away. Along its ragged verge ran a hard path, deeply +worn by many feet. To the south was the West Side life saving station. +The surfmen followed this beaten path to the breach of the Great Salt +Pond where there was a key-box on a post. They could shout across the +strait there to the patrol from the new life saving station near Sands +Point. In the other direction they met the Old Harbour patrol at a +point on the South Side.</p> + +<p>But Carolyn thought little of these coast guards just now. She was +running about getting more thoroughly acquainted than heretofore with +the immediate vicinity of the Ball cottage.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Princey," she said to her dog blithely. "We've got to look +down and see where's the best path to the shore. Miss Molly says +sometimes the edge of this hill falls down on to the shore. We'll have +to be careful 'bout that."</p> + +<p>However, it did not appear that the sea had bitten a mouthful out of +the bluff of late, although the edge was very ragged and broken. The +patrol path was not broken, and at present the sea at the foot of the +cliff seemed comparatively quiet.</p> + +<p>They sat down on the edge of the cliff, the little girl and the dog, +and watched the sea hissing among the fallen boulders below. These +great and small stones—bushels of them the size of one's fist, but +many as large as a wagon, and several as big as moving vans or small +houses—littered the shore as far as Carolyn could see in either +direction.</p> + +<p>The sands below high water mark were packed as hard and as smooth as +a road by the action of the tide. Above this mark the loose sand was +filled with all manner of rubbish—driftwood, much of which was the +remains of wrecked boats; big shells torn from the bottom of the sea in +storms and tossed here by the breakers; all manner of dried seaweeds +and other sea cultch.</p> + +<p>Carolyn's eyes sparkled, while Prince sniffed the airs off the ocean +and found no scent of "good hunting" in them. But as they went back +around the house the two friends found something that promised real +sport to Prince.</p> + +<p>Up out of a grass bed at the side of the house sprang a little creature +that amazed Carolyn quite as much as it did Prince—all bandy legs, +jerking head, and bleating voice. It started at a stumbling run away +from the newcomers, and naturally Prince wanted to investigate.</p> + +<p>"Stop, Princey!" commanded his mistress. "Don't you chase that poor +little—little—well, whatever it is! It's got such a curly coat. And +hasn't it a funny, ugly black nose? I—never—did—see!"</p> + +<p>"Baa-a-a!" bleated the hobbling creature, turning to stare at the +little girl and her dog with quite as much curiosity as they stared at +it.</p> + +<p>Molly I. Ball suddenly appeared at the corner of the house.</p> + +<p>"Don't let your dog chase Nebuchadnezzar," she cried.</p> + +<p>"Goodness gracious me!" gasped Carolyn May, "is <i>that</i> what he is? It +sounds too big for him, Miss Molly."</p> + +<p>"What sounds too big?"</p> + +<p>"That you called him," declared the little girl. "<i>Is</i> he one?"</p> + +<p>"Is he one what?" demanded the puzzled Molly.</p> + +<p>"Why, a 'nebuchad—chad'—Well, whatever it was you called him?"</p> + +<p>"Nebuchadnezzar?" repeated Molly Ball, laughing. "That's his name. But +he's a lamb. Didn't you ever see a lamb before?"</p> + +<p>"A lamb? My!" cried the little city girl. "I never saw one before 'cept +in the butcher shop with all his—his clothes off. And then it don't +look like <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p>"No. I imagine not," said Molly Ball. "Come here, Nebby! Coo! Coo! Coo!"</p> + +<p>She approached the funny little creature that stood with all four long +legs braced apart, head down, and looking as though undecided whether +to run or to butt.</p> + +<p>"I've seen goats up in the Bronx," murmured Carolyn May. "I've seen +the—the herd of sheep in Central Park. But I guess there weren't any +lambs with 'em. Oh, isn't he funny?"</p> + +<p>"He gits around almost as graceful as Ozy Littlefield, don't he?" +laughed Molly Ball. "Here, Nebby!"</p> + +<p>"Why did you call him that awful name? Nebuchad—What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Nebuchadnezzar."</p> + +<p>"That's it," smiled the little girl, who loved the sound of long words +even if she could not pronounce them. "Why did you?"</p> + +<p>"Because he eats grass," declared Molly I., enigmatically.</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>Carolyn May gave her close attention to the lamb. She made Prince +"lie down and be good" while she gathered a handful of juicy grass +and approached Nebuchadnezzar, who was now nuzzling in Molly Ball's +apron as she squatted down, and was letting her scratch his ears and +"buttons."</p> + +<p>"See," said his mistress. "Those buttons will be horns some day. He's +going to have funny little curly horns, and if he gets old enough he'll +stamp his little hoofs when he is mad and will butt right into a stone +wall."</p> + +<p>"Oh! He must have a temper almost as bad as Mr. Oly Littlefield's," +murmured the astonished Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder," agreed Molly. "Now, you pat him, Carolyn."</p> + +<p>"Won't he bite?"</p> + +<p>"No. Nor butt. Not yet," laughed the island girl. "And by and by when I +salt 'em, you shall go with me and see our whole flock. Nebuchadnezzar +was a late spring lamb and his mother died. He's a cosset."</p> + +<p>Carolyn's eyes grew big and she exclaimed emphatically: "Oh, Miss +Molly! Why, that can't be so!"</p> + +<p>"What ain't so?"</p> + +<p>"What you just said. This Nebu—Nebu—Well, what-you-call-him, can't be +a corset, for that's what ladies wear."</p> + +<p>"Oh, bless you!" laughed Molly I. "Nebby ain't that kind of a corset. +He's a cosset lamb—brought up by hand. He was tagging me about the +kitchen and milk-room for two months. It's only lately he's lived out +of doors and I named him Nebuchadnezzar. I sartain sure was glad to see +him take to eatin' grass the way he done. He's a right smart lamb."</p> + +<p>"Have you any more like him, Miss Molly?" asked the little girl.</p> + +<p>"Not just like him. All this year's lambs are pretty well grown but +him. But they were like him when they were little. He looks all laigs +an' wool now; but he'll be a goodly sized critter next winter."</p> + +<p>As she had been promised, Carolyn went late in the afternoon with +Miss Molly Ball to salt the sheep in a rocky hollow which was out of +sight of the house on the bluff. There were more than a score of the +grey-brown creatures cropping the short grass and the tall weeds that +grew between the rocks.</p> + +<p>"If our sheep pasture had many more rocks in it," complained Molly I., +"we'd have to file the sheep's noses so't they could feed between the +rocks."</p> + +<p>"Amos Bartlett tried <i>that</i>," cried Carolyn. "He's got <i>such</i> a big +nose, you know. But it only made his nose sore and bigger than ever."</p> + +<p>Miss Ball chuckled. "Maybe it wouldn't do much good, child. And the +sheep clean up the pastures pretty good. That's what we keep 'em for +on the island—to have 'em eat up the wild carrot. They like it; but I +don't believe nothing else in the world does. It's all over the farm."</p> + +<p>She showed the little girl the stalky plant, with its flat flowers. +Carolyn thought it very pretty.</p> + +<p>"Pretty is, as pretty does," quoted Miss Molly. "That tarnal weed don't +look pretty to me. Comin' from church t'other Sunday I picked more'n +twenty dif'rent kinds of wild carrot. If it keeps on there won't be +nothin' else growin' on the island but it."</p> + +<p>If Carolyn had been busy while she stayed at the hotel, now her time +was even more fully occupied. It was quite surprising how much there +was to do and to see and to talk about around the little house on the +bluff.</p> + +<p>The Balls had a horse and a cow and chickens and turkeys, as well as +Nebuchadnezzar and all his relations. There were a surprising number of +things Carolyn and Prince could "help" about.</p> + +<p>The little girl soon learned how to feed the flock of poultry which +Molly I. kept fenced in for the good of their souls and the garden. The +turkeys ran at large, of course. But turkeys do not scratch and they +can be trusted to chase bugs through the garden rows without destroying +the crops.</p> + +<p>She watched Barzilla curry Beppo, the old horse, named for a Portuguese +fisherman who had once lived near Dorris Cove. When Molly I. milked the +cow, Carolyn stood by and watched the milk stream into the pail as she +had watched Aunty Rose Kennedy milk the cow at the Corners.</p> + +<p>On the mornings that Barzilla Ball went out in the <i>Snatch It</i> to the +fishing grounds, he and his sister got up while it was still pitch +dark and Molly made him coffee and put up a big lunch of cooked food, +for neither Barzilla nor the man who went with him as "crew" on the +double-ender, would have time to cook much after they got outside.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May awoke and pattered out into the kitchen in her bedroom +slippers and bathrobe to watch sleepily these preparations, to drink a +sip of Barzilla's coffee, and be kissed by him when he went away with +his oilskins, the basket, and other "gear" over his arm, while the +stars were burning still brightly in the velvet sky.</p> + +<p>Then she would cuddle into Molly I.'s bed with the island girl and go +to sleep again until it was time for "all hands and the cook" to be +called, as Molly expressed it.</p> + +<p>All these joys were in addition to being with the pale lady and Mamma +Cameron for part of every day, and wheeling Baby Laird out in the +carriage that had been purchased for that little man.</p> + +<p>The pale lady did not go far with the baby, and she rested much of the +day. It did seem (and even Carolyn May remarked it) that the good +Island air, and Molly Ball's cooking, and the quiet existence they all +enjoyed, did not do the baby's mother very much good. The baby himself, +however, grew rosy and hearty as the days passed.</p> + +<p>Carolyn had become so fond of her little cousin at the Corners, Carolyn +Amanda, that she missed her sorely. Now she revelled in the delights of +Baby Laird's bath, of his being dressed fresh and sweet afterward, in +the getting of him to sleep after his bottle, and finally in pushing +him about in his carriage.</p> + +<p>It was while she was engaged in this last occupation one day, soon +after she had taken up her abode in the cottage on the bluff, that +she met again the man and his wife who had already so puzzled and +interested her.</p> + +<p>She had wheeled Baby Laird down the long lane to the public road, and +with Prince was about to turn around and retrace her steps, when a +two-seated carriage drawn by a pair of sleek horses and driven by the +liveried negro whom Carolyn had previously seen pushing the wheelchair +on the sands, came suddenly into view around a spur of Beacon Hill. She +knew the carriage came from one of the larger hotels.</p> + +<p>On the back seat were the man with whom she considered herself quite +well acquainted, and his very unhappy looking wife. It seemed to the +sunny-hearted Carolyn as though the poor lady needed cheering up, and +she smiled up at her as the carriage came near with her very bravest +smile.</p> + +<p>The woman in the carriage, who had been so languid and so distrait the +moment before, became suddenly interested in Carolyn and the baby, and +even the man sat up with quick attention and signalled the driver to +stop.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" the man said. "So I find you again, do I? Let me see: Your +name is Carrie, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Carolyn May, if you please, sir," the little girl said.</p> + +<p>"To be sure! Carolyn May. And do you live away over here with your +mamma?"</p> + +<p>"We do now, sir. Since the hotel got burned," explained the child.</p> + +<p>"Why! the little girl must have been turned out of the Truefelt House," +said the woman, showing some interest. "And the baby!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, ma'am," said Carolyn May, politely but firmly. "Baby Laird +wasn't in our hotel when it got burned. He was right up there, where +mamma and I are staying now," and she pointed to the Ball cottage.</p> + +<p>"What a quaint old place," said the woman. But her gaze came back to +the baby, who was awake and playing in his carriage. "Whose child is +that, little girl? Is it your brother?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, ma'am. He's just a friend of mine," explained Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>The baby laughed up into the woman's face. He even dropped his rubber +dog and put out his hands as though to be taken up. The woman in the +carriage leaned forward, and for the moment the mask of discontent +seemed to drop from her countenance. Even Carolyn saw the change and +wondered.</p> + +<p>"The dear!" murmured the woman. "What an attractive child!" she added +to her husband. "Do you know, he reminds me—Ah, see him laugh! Just as +friendly as—as my baby used to be. Not afraid of strangers at all, is +he?"</p> + +<p>The stern man looked straight ahead, over the horse's ears, and across +the fourteen-mile stretch of blue water to where the sun shone on the +white staff of the old Montauk Light.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">GREAT EXPECTATIONS</p> + + +<p>Of course, Mrs. Cameron had written all the particulars of the fire at +the hotel to her husband, and how Carolyn May and Prince had alarmed +the household and perhaps saved her mamma's life.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron did not believe it was wise to praise the little girl too +much for her part in the affair, or to allow others to do so. Besides, +Carolyn did not understand what she had done, or the full degree of +peril they had all escaped.</p> + +<p>The hotel fire had been different from that forest fire at the Corners, +of which Carolyn so often spoke. The little girl had seen the ravening +flames then lick up the vegetation of the woods and sweep devouringly +over the acres and acres of ground. The flames of the hotel fire had +been scarcely visible.</p> + +<p>Papa Cameron, learning of his family's change of lodging, had to come +back to the island the very next Saturday to make sure that Snuggy and +mamma, herself, were safe. Barzilla chanced to have the time, and he +drove Beppo over to the landing to meet the <i>Shinnecock</i> and bring Mr. +Cameron to the little house on the bluff.</p> + +<p>They picked up Joe Bassett at the Old Harbour where Barzilla bought +provisions, and the three men rode back to the West Side together.</p> + +<p>"This fire at the Truefelt House makes it bad for you, Bassett," +Carolyn's father said sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"Didn't I say I was Jonahed?" returned the young man, and there was a +note of bitterness in his voice that the newspaper editor had not heard +before. "We have another week's work at the hotel, clearing up. Ben +Truefelt is very decent about it. But after next Saturday——"</p> + +<p>"Nothing doing, eh?"</p> + +<p>"And so far as I can see, nothing doing on the whole island for me," +Bassett said. "All the hotels have their clerks for the season, of +course. I declare! I envy Barzilla, here."</p> + +<p>The fisherman laughed. "Maybe you wouldn't envy me if you had my job."</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure of that," Bassett returned. "At least, you're sure of +your bite and sup. You've salted your fish for next season. Your crops +are growing. You are making a tidy little bale of wool. You'll have a +sheep to salt down if you want it. You've turkeys to sell—and turkeys +are rare birds nowadays. I tell you, Mr. Cameron, I've been thinking +that these Block Islanders are well off."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we don't all know it," said Barzilla, dryly.</p> + +<p>"All they lack on this island is ambition," Mr. Cameron said, looking +rather doubtfully at Joe Bassett. "I am afraid we city folks would +easily fall into the <i>dolce far niente</i> life if we settled here. The +islanders work; we would look on."</p> + +<p>"You don't haf to look on," put in Barzilla. "A smart man like Mr. +Bassett—with a little money—could get into something here that would +pay him well."</p> + +<p>"That 'with' is in the way, Barzilla," Bassett said wearily.</p> + +<p>"What is the scheme?" asked Mr. Cameron with curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Bassett more cheerfully, "Barzilla's got a good idea, no +doubt. Let him explain it to you sometime, Mr. Cameron. But as I tell +him, it's nothing to interest me," and his tone dropped again. "I'll +have to write to Inness and take up his offer."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" ejaculated the editor. "Have you already heard from your friend?"</p> + +<p>"From Inness? Yes. I wrote him. He tells me that there is a mining +company in Arizona with the directors of which he has some influence. +There is a clerkship open there. It will give us a livelihood; and I +suppose the climate would be all right for my wife."</p> + +<p>"There ain't no finer climate in the world than this we got right +here—summer <i>an'</i> winter," Mr. Ball declared with vehemence. "Why! you +can see your baby grow."</p> + +<p>"It is true," said Joe Bassett with gravity. "I can see life coming +back to the baby, Mr. Cameron. I wish his mother showed equal +improvement."</p> + +<p>"It's a far way to Arizona," observed the editor. "Do you think that +climate would do more for your wife, Bassett?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know."</p> + +<p>"It will cost a lot to get there."</p> + +<p>"That—that is another thing," observed young Bassett hesitatingly. +"Inness offers to pay our fares."</p> + +<p>"Yes? Is there any reason why he should want to get you out of the +way—out of New York?" asked Mr. Cameron curiously.</p> + +<p>"Well, not exactly. But it may be that somebody whose mouthpiece he +is, prefers to have me at a distance," replied Bassett, and then fell +silent.</p> + +<p>Carolyn's father thought he understood that. He said to his wife that +evening after Carolyn was in bed and asleep:</p> + +<p>"I am not sure that my interview that time with the Griffin did +any real good; but it is bearing fruit, I believe. Through this +man Inness—and he did not impress me as being a very pleasant +person—Bassett is trying to send the young fellow somewhere, well out +of the way, where he and his little family will have a chance for their +lives at least."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry they are not to remain here," Mrs. Cameron remarked. "The +girl is a lovely creature, and, despite her bringing up, her character +seems unspoiled."</p> + +<p>"That does not gibe with what the Griffin stated as his opinion. He +said her extravagance was the cause of Joe's downfall—that she was a +perfectly useless creature."</p> + +<p>"I am convinced he knows very little about her," declared Hannah +Cameron with vigour. "She's nothing like that. For a girl brought up as +she was, she is doing wonderfully well. And she has a heart of gold. I +believe he maligns her."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's too bad. But what can we do? There's no chance for Joe +Bassett on this island."</p> + +<p>"Nor am I sure that is so," rejoined his wife slowly. "He and Mr. Ball +have become great friends. Molly says she never saw her brother take to +anybody as he has to Mr. Bassett."</p> + +<p>"Humph! I don't suppose Bassett can do Barzilla any harm."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lewis!"</p> + +<p>"There's no use talking," her husband said emphatically. "I cannot so +easily forget what the Griffin said. He was talking about his own son. +Ten thousand dollars was stolen and wasted in the bucket shops along +the fringe of the financial district. I believe it is the truth, for +I have talked with some of the boys who cover the district and they +declare Joe Bassett was hanging about certain brokers' offices down +there for some weeks after his father turned him out."</p> + +<p>"I hate to believe it," murmured Mrs. Cameron.</p> + +<p>"The young fellow is all wrong. He's such an attractive chap that I +don't wonder Barzilla Ball is interested in him. Perhaps I should put a +flea in his ear."</p> + +<p>"Don't do that, Lewis!" cried his wife. "I admit that, in this case, +you are not your brother's keeper; neither is it your duty to tell +tales out of school that may injure the poor fellow. Now, promise me!"</p> + +<p>"I am sure," said Mr. Cameron, "that I do not wish to say anything to +hurt Joe Bassett. Let others find out about him, as we did."</p> + +<p>"And did we find out the truth, I wonder?" Carolyn's mother thought. +But she did not utter this aloud.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>When Mr. Cameron came to the island the next time, he brought with +him Edna Price to stay a week with Carolyn. There had been great +preparations made for the visit of Carolyn May's "partic'lar friend," +and great expectations in the little girl's mind regarding that visit.</p> + +<p>By this time Carolyn was quite used to the little oddities of speech, +characteristic of the native Block Islander. She knew that they looked +upon people from off the island, too, as being quite as foreign as +though they came from Europe!</p> + +<p>Being born and bred upon a bit of land quite disconnected from the +mainland, breeds an oddly independent and aloof people—a people who +are prone to have their own peculiar outlook upon life and to hold +almost a code of morals of their own.</p> + +<p>Carolyn was widening her acquaintance every day with the neighbours. +There was a cross-country path over stiles and through stone fences, +winding through the various farms from Dorris Cove to the Free Baptist +Church, and everybody who passed the house took toll of Carolyn May's +friendliness. On Sunday, before and after service, that path was dotted +with members of the congregation who almost all lingered at the Ball +place for a neighbourly chat.</p> + +<p>Week days there were occasional passersby who followed the footpath +along the edge of the bluff, beaten originally by the feet of the coast +patrol. Had it not been the season when the life saving service men, +with the exception of the captain of the crew who lived at the station +all the year round, were relieved from duty, Carolyn would have already +added the surfmen to her growing list of acquaintances.</p> + +<p>As it was, she considered that some of the neighbours she knew very +well. There was Aunt Ardelia Dodge and her husband, Uncle Smith Dodge, +an elderly couple whose place adjoined the Balls' on the north. The +Dodges owned an old carryall, and when it was known that Edna was +coming, Mrs. Cameron borrowed this vehicle to bring her husband and +the little visitor from the landing, Barzilla's buckboard having but a +single seat.</p> + +<p>As the ancient vehicle had not been in use for some time, it must first +be backed down into the "tughole" behind the Dodge barn for the wheels +to soak a couple of days, or the spokes might have rattled out of the +rims and hubs.</p> + +<p>The tughole was a shallow patch of black water where the ducks and +geese played. It was not a natural pond, but one of those innumerable +artificial pools made by the cutting of peat for fuel in the old days +before coal was brought in any quantity to the island.</p> + +<p>There is no wood for fuel on Block Island save what may be cast on the +beaches by the tides. There are few trees, and those mostly of stunted +growth. Heavily timbered when the first settlers came, their unwisdom +and thriftlessness made of the beautiful if rocky island almost a +barren waste.</p> + +<p>Carolyn learned what the little black pools were, and why they were +called "tugholes." She knew what peat was. Papa Cameron had told her +all about the age-long growth of coal, and peat was coal which had not +been put under sufficient pressure to make it hard.</p> + +<p>"Them old fellers," said Uncle Smith Dodge, who was old enough himself +in all good conscience, Carolyn thought, "called it 'tug,' 'cause they +had ter tug it out'n them hollers an' up to the houses on stone drags. +Oh, I can 'member when some of 'em still cut an' stacked tug, an' +ev'rybody had a tughouse instead of a coalshed."</p> + +<p>However, they soaked the wheels of the old carryall so the spokes would +not rattle, washed the top and cushions, and otherwise made the vehicle +presentable. On Saturday afternoon they harnessed Beppo between the +shafts, and Mrs. Cameron and Carolyn drove over to meet Papa Cameron +and Carolyn's little friend.</p> + +<p>All the farms they passed were cut up into small fields with stone +fences between—everywhere stone walls and heaps of stones which were +turned up by the plough each spring.</p> + +<p>"Where <i>do</i> all the stones come from?" wondered Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>Some of the walls were broad and so well built that one might have +driven an ox-team on them; others were only windrows of stone seemingly +thrown together to get them out of the open, more than for any other +purpose.</p> + +<p>There were some post-and-wire barriers supplementing the stone walls, +especially around the sheep pastures; for sheep will breach if they +can; and where one sheep goes the whole silly flock will follow—even +if it is over a cliff into the sea.</p> + +<p>"Back there in Bible times," said Barzilla, "they had to make that +drove of pigs they tell about crazy to get 'em to run into the sea. But +sheep'll jest naturally run into the sea, or into any old place, get an +old bell-wether to lead 'em." This, while he was mending a break in his +sheep pasture fence.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron and Carolyn arrived safely at the landing with the ancient +rig and Barzilla's plodding pony. Before the steamboat was half way +across the Great Salt Pond Carolyn saw her father and the red-coated +figure of Edna Price by his side. Carolyn and Prince fairly danced upon +the stringpiece of the wharf in impatience at the steamer's deliberate +approach.</p> + +<p>Mr. Oly Littlefield, in his starched linen suit, scowled at Carolyn and +shook a threatening cane at Prince.</p> + +<p>"That dratted dog ought to be in the town pound," he declared. "Chawin' +up people's laigs! Might jest as well turn a wild tagger loose in the +c'mmunity, I swan!"</p> + +<p>"He's got his eye on you now, Oly," chuckled one of the idlers, as +Prince turned that way. "I b'lieve I'd speak a little less upshus of +the critter. I don't doubt he's got it in for you."</p> + +<p>The wooden-legged man drifted away from the dog's vicinity, viciously +stabbing the wharf with his cane. But Prince and his little mistress +paid very little attention just then to Captain Littlefield's crotchety +cousin.</p> + +<p>The <i>Shinnecock</i> bumped gently into the piles, then ground them +harshly against her side as the mooring lines tightened. A bell jangled +in the engineroom. The wheels ceased turning.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Car'lyn May!" Edna's voice came down from the upper deck so +clearly that everybody on the dock heard—and most of them laughed. +"Oh, Car'lyn May! Johnny O'Harrity's cat's got five kittens, only they +drowned four of them in the wash tub; and that red-haired Sade Gompretz +has sent you an all-day sucker."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">CROSS CURRENTS</p> + + +<p>Carolyn May had seen her friend and his wife, who had become interested +in Baby Laird, on several occasions since they had first driven by the +Ball place. They often came over to the West Side in a hotel carriage, +and always stopped at the bottom of the lane where it debouched upon +the public highway.</p> + +<p>Carolyn would usually spy them if she did not chance to be wheeling the +baby that way; and if he was asleep or with his mother she would run +down alone to speak with her friends. Even the woman unbent to Carolyn +May—who could resist the little girl's sunny ways?—and she was openly +interested in Baby Laird.</p> + +<p>"How is the little dear?" she would ask eagerly, if the baby was not to +be seen on that particular occasion. "He reminds me so much of my own +little one—years and years ago."</p> + +<p>The little girl felt there was something about the woman's own baby +that was not to be talked about. Her husband looked very stern and +never said a word about it. Perhaps, like Aunty Rose Kennedy's three +little ones, this woman's baby had been too puny to grow up.</p> + +<p>Carolyn's mother—nor the pale lady—asked few questions regarding +these new friends of Carolyn's. The child became acquainted with so +many people. And Carolyn never chanced to mention that the couple in +the hotel turnout were the same whose automobile had crushed the pale +lady's baby go-cart in New York.</p> + +<p>Molly I. informed her boarders that "those folks Car'lyn's struck up +such an acquaintance with stop at the Orowoc House and have a suite of +rooms and a maid for her and what they call a vally for him, b'sides +that black man. They're richer'n a clam-flat at low water."</p> + +<p>Now that Edna had come to spend the week, Carolyn was so busy that +she almost forgot these newer friends. And as Edna was "fed up," as +Barzilla called it, on baby-minding, her own Brother Eldred being her +immediate care at home, the little girls did not spend much time with +the pale lady's little one.</p> + +<p>There really was a great deal to show Edna. Even the cow was a wonder +to the little city girl, who had never seen milk drawn from anything +save a bottle or a can.</p> + +<p>"And I can't see, Carolyn, why she has horns, or why she mews all +night," remarked Edna.</p> + +<p>"Why, Edna Prince! Flory Ball doesn't <i>mew</i>; it's cats that mew. And +what you heard last night wasn't a cow anyway. It was foggy out at sea, +and that was the steam foghorn at the South Light. Barzilla told me."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't care. It sounded just like that cow," declared Edna.</p> + +<p>They played in their bathing suits for part of every pleasant day. +Carolyn was as brown as a berry; but Edna had to be careful about +getting sunburned.</p> + +<p>There was a path down the face of the bluff behind the cottage that led +to a smooth stretch of beach. Mamma Cameron and Baby Laird's mother, +with sometimes Molly I., took their dip with the little girls on this +beach. But Carolyn and Edna were forbidden to descend the bluff alone.</p> + +<p>There was a wealth of treasure along the shore, shells, pebbles, +seaweeds—the drift and flotsam of the flowing tide that twice each day +took the island in its arms.</p> + +<p>Talk about Mr. Jedidiah Farlow's shavings! Why, the seaweeds were made +a hundred times more decorative than ever shavings could be.</p> + +<p>There were lacy kinds that made splendid veils and collars for +the little girls; and kinds with green and purple fronds like the +leaves of palm trees; thick, leathery sea-green weed that could be +cut into different shapes with a sharp knife. Then there was that +kind of seaweed that had seed pods which, when partly dried, popped +delightfully; while tangled in the various growths were all manner of +odd little shells and deep-sea monsters. Why! Carolyn even found a +seahorse about four inches long.</p> + +<p>And how Prince tore up and down the beach! He found other monsters +than those the little girls came across—horseshoe crabs for one +thing, which Carolyn had no idea were good to eat until Molly I. +rescued several live ones from the surf and they ate them, prepared +deliciously, for supper. No ordinary softshell crab is the equal of +these monsters.</p> + +<p>Then Carolyn and Edna had an awful fright. Prince saw something in the +surf and went in after it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, see that thing!" cried Edna. "It's got a round, shiny head."</p> + +<p>"Why," responded Carolyn, "it must be a rubber ball."</p> + +<p>But when Prince tried to seize it, they saw a short arm thrown into the +air as though the Thing were mutely pleading for rescue.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" shrieked Edna. "It's a baby!"</p> + +<p>"Come back here, Prince!" commanded Carolyn, fully as horrified as her +friend.</p> + +<p>"A drowned baby!" moaned Edna, covering her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Maybe it isn't drowned," gasped Carolyn. "Prince!"</p> + +<p>Prince returned to the shore. The Thing whirled around and around in +a miniature whirlpool; then another incoming breaker rolled the Thing +almost to the little girls' feet. Prince barked at it wildly.</p> + +<p>"Sh! Hush, Princey!" begged his little mistress. "If it's <i>dead</i>—But, +then, maybe it isn't dead."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it must be," wailed Edna.</p> + +<p>"Maybe not. There are Water Babies, you know. Papa read about them out +of a book to me. And a little chimney-sweep, who wanted to be clean, +was washed all nice and made round and rosy and just like a land baby, +because he'd never had a chance before to get a bath."</p> + +<p>Edna listened to this with both ears; but she looked at the Thing in +the surf with both eyes.</p> + +<p>"It is black," she said. "Maybe it is another chimney-sweep trying to +get clean. But—but, it looks <i>awful</i> dead!"</p> + +<p>The Thing retreated with the receding surf to meet another incoming +wave. The pebbles scratched and squeaked as they rolled down the +strand, as if it might have been the voice of the Thing crying for help.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it can't be that it is alive!" whispered Edna. "But see! See its +arm waving!"</p> + +<p>The Thing rolled over again and again. The incoming wave caught it and +lifted it high upon its front. The little girls saw almost all of the +Thing for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" shrieked Edna. "It's got a tail!"</p> + +<p>"It's a baby mermaid," murmured Carolyn May, all but stricken dumb by +this discovery.</p> + +<p>"Do you believe so?" demanded her friend. "And is it alive?"</p> + +<p>"It can't be," said Carolyn. "Else it would be swimming. And it +wouldn't let us see him. You know, my papa says it is almost as hard to +see mermaids as it is to see sea serpents—and the sea serpents only +come around when it is a very dull season at the seaside resorts. I am +sure <i>this</i> is a good season at Block Island. See how many people there +are here."</p> + +<p>"The poor baby!" crooned Edna. "The poor mermaid baby! Isn't it awful?"</p> + +<p>The sea rolled in and deposited the dead Thing almost at the feet of +the two little girls. Prince could not restrain himself any longer, +and he leaped upon the body and held it down so it could not slide back +with the tide.</p> + +<p>At that moment a voice startled the little girls, and there was Captain +Ozias Littlefield, with a short handled clam hoe in a basket on his +arm, stumping along the hard sand toward them. The staff of his wooden +leg made strange holes in the beach beside his shoe print, as though +some prehistoric monster had passed that way.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, little girls—and little dog!" he said jovially. "How fare ye?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!" cried Carolyn almost in tears. "Come and +look at this poor little dead merbaby."</p> + +<p>"Dead <i>what</i>?" gasped the old sailor.</p> + +<p>"Merbaby."</p> + +<p>"Er—<i>mer</i>—Oh, my soul and body! Ye mean a mermaid's young 'un?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. And the poor thing's dead. Don't worry it, Princey. It's +<i>half</i> human, anyway, even if it has got a tail and such short arms."</p> + +<p>"Them arms is flippers. That's a fur seal," said the wooden-legged +captain. "Got his foolish head battered on the rocks somehow. Or mebbe +he was hit by a propeller. Them critters air awful cur'ous. Don't seem +to know enough to keep out of trouble. If seals had any sense at all +they wouldn't go year after year to the same rookery to sit and wait +for the sealers to come and knock 'em over the head with iron clubs."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!" exclaimed Carolyn, yet much relieved to +learn that the dead Thing was not even "half human," "do wicked men do +that to the poor seals?"</p> + +<p>"I dunno how wicked they be. A livin's a livin' wherever and however +you make it. And I bet your marm's got a sealskin coat or cape or muff +or somethin'."</p> + +<p>"A coat?" cried Carolyn in wonder. "Oh! Is that what they make sealskin +coats out of?"</p> + +<p>"Takes more'n one skin to make a proper coat for a lady as big as your +marm."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm sure she doesn't know that sealskins come from things that +look so like dead babies. I'm sure she doesn't."</p> + +<p>"<i>My</i> mamma," said Edna virtuously, "hasn't got a sealskin coat. She's +got a ponyskin."</p> + +<p>"Well!" ejaculated Carolyn quickly, "don't you s'pose it hurts a pony +to be skinned just as much as it does a seal?"</p> + +<p>She then proceeded to introduce Edna to the captain. He told them that +as the fire had relieved him of his job at the Truefelt House, he and +"Cousin Oly" had come across the island, as they did every spring and +fall, to catch and cure fish for the winter.</p> + +<p>"We're stopping in old Beppo's shack down by Dorris Cove," he said. +"It's rigged kind of Portugoosy; but it's all right in fair weather or +foul. Course, Oly kicks. He'd kick if his feet was tied—Hi cracky! he +ain't got but one foot <i>to</i> tie, has he?" and the captain stubbed away, +chuckling.</p> + +<p>The little girls did not immediately lose their interest in the dead +seal.</p> + +<p>"It looks <i>so</i> much like humans," Carolyn said. "See its poor eyes! +Aren't they beautiful, Edna? And so sad."</p> + +<p>"Well, anybody's eyes would be sad if they were dead," declared her +friend.</p> + +<p>"I don't think it's decent to let the poor thing lie here. He <i>might</i> +have been a Water Baby, you know. Let's bury it," said Carolyn.</p> + +<p>And so they dug with their shovels a deep, deep hole in the loose sand +above highwater mark. Prince helped in this, for he could dig faster +and throw out more sand with his feet and nose than both little girls +could with their shovels. There they laid the poor dead seal and made +a mound over him. They covered the mound with shells and pebbles and +seaweed in a very decorative pattern, and so left the seal to his long +rest.</p> + +<p>The children were not, however, engaged always in such beach pursuits +during that week of Edna's visit. They raced the downs between the Ball +cottage and the Free Baptist Church like wild colts. They rolled down +the smooth, moss-covered sides of the many hollows (the moss was grey +and had tiny red blossoms); and once Edna rolled right into the Dodges' +tughole and frightened all the ducks and geese playing there. And she +<i>was</i> in a mess!</p> + +<p>They made a chum of Nebuchadnezzar, and when he grew used to having +Prince around, he showed himself to be a lively playfellow indeed. He +was fast learning to butt, and on one occasion he almost butted Carolyn +into the barn cellar through the trapdoor behind old Beppo's stall.</p> + +<p>One day they met on the road with their negro driver, the couple who +were Carolyn May's friends. Carolyn ran back to the cottage to get +Baby Laird, who was awake, and wheeled him down to the highroad, that +the woman might see him and hold him in her arms. She had brought him +a beautiful rattle made of walrus ivory—"scrimshaw work," Captain +Littlefield would have called it—which she had bought of a Portuguese +fisherman who lived on the South Side.</p> + +<p>Edna thought the woman quite a wonderful person, and could not keep her +gaze off her rich garments, her jewels, and her beautifully manicured +hands.</p> + +<p>That she was a semi-invalid was quite evident, and even the children +understood that her fault-finding and nervousness arose from mental +and bodily troubles. Her husband was vastly patient with her; he +never crossed her even by a word. It seemed as though she must have +everything she desired, they were so very wealthy. <i>She</i> did not have +to play "If I Were Rich," Carolyn thought!</p> + +<p>Carolyn had had many interesting conversations with the man whenever +they met. On one occasion she said to him:</p> + +<p>"Do you know, I saw your big, fine car this summer and you weren't in +it?"</p> + +<p>"Before you left New York, do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sir," said Carolyn May. "I saw it while I was up at my Uncle +Joe Stagg's, at the Corners."</p> + +<p>"And where, pray, is 'the Corners'?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that's where Uncle Joe lives. It's near Sunrise Cove. He sells +hardware and ploughs and things in his store at Sunrise Cove."</p> + +<p>"Indeed? And are you sure it was my machine you saw?" asked the man, +with curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir. Your chauffeur was with it, and another gentleman."</p> + +<p>"What sort of looking man was he?" asked Carolyn's friend, and his face +grew much more stern in its expression.</p> + +<p>The little girl explained, prattling away about the dark-browed man and +his personal peculiarities without the first idea that she was "telling +tales out of school"; for she would have scorned to be a "tattle-tale" +had she realized. She did wonder, however, what her friend meant when +he muttered:</p> + +<p>"It was more than an ordinary joy ride that took them away up +there—and René was not at the bottom of it. I'll look into <i>that</i>. +Somebody will have to explain."</p> + +<p>He put aside his ill-temper in a moment. There was a plan for a picnic +the next day but one. Evidently it was a plan he and his wife had +already talked over. They would come for the children in the morning +and drive them to the South Light, there to have a picnic luncheon.</p> + +<p>Of course, Mrs. Cameron had to be asked if Carolyn and Edna could go, +and the former raced up to the cottage and led her mother down by the +hand to give her permission for the outing. It was evident that the +haughty looking woman approved of Carolyn's mother.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron had heard Carolyn talk so much about these people that +she felt quite as though she knew them. And yet, she did not even know +their name. As neither the man nor the woman mentioned it, she felt +some embarrassment at the thought of asking them, pointblank, for that +information. She had heard enough about them from Molly Ball and other +Island people. They were by far the wealthiest and most important +guests at the Orowoc House.</p> + +<p>She might have been more curious had Carolyn not failed to mention the +fact that these very people were those whose motor-car had crushed +Baby Laird's go-cart so many weeks before. The invalid's interest in +the pale lady's baby, however, did cause Mrs. Cameron some thought at +a later time. She could see no reason for refusing to allow the little +girls to accompany these people on the proposed outing.</p> + +<p>"I would love to take the baby, too; but that, I fear, would be +impossible," the invalid said. "Do you think his mother would consent?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not. She is watching up there for his return now," said +Mrs. Cameron, smiling, and drawing the woman's attention to the figure +of Baby Laird's mother with the fresh gale blowing her skirts about her +as she stood by the house on the bluff.</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes," rejoined the invalid, looking at the pale lady's figure in +the distance carelessly. "Remarkable what fine children some of these +island women have. This baby looks much as my own son did when he was +this child's age."</p> + +<p>Her husband cleared his throat and said sharply:</p> + +<p>"We shall have to be going. We will stop for the little girls about +eleven. Good afternoon. Drive on, George."</p> + +<p>The coloured man drove on. Not until they had quite gone did Hannah +Cameron remember that she had not explained that Baby Laird was not a +Block Island child.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">THE COCKATOO MAN IN TROUBLE</p> + + +<p>The knowledge that the Double O's (Captain Ozias Littlefield and his +cousin, Oliver) were near by, excited again Carolyn May's curiosity +regarding the artificial limbs worn by the two old men. She easily +interested Edna in the mystery, for Edna possessed her full share of +inquisitiveness. They determined to make a combined raid upon the +"Portugoosy" cabin by Dorris Cove and attempt to extort the longed-for +confidences from the Cousins Littlefield.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Cameron would not allow the little girls to walk along the beach +as far as Beppo's hut; but after many careful directions from Molly +Ball and admonitions from Carolyn's mother, they started for that +attractive point by way of the patrol path above the beach.</p> + +<p>There were several houses to pass in this direction, and the little +girls had to go over or through many stiles. At most of the houses +Carolyn was acquainted, for the neighbourhood women had learned to +appreciate the quaint little "off" girl.</p> + +<p>Aunt Ardelia Dodge never saw Carolyn near her house but that she made +offering of the contents of her doughnut crock to tempt the little girl +to "stop awhile." To Aunt Ardelia's mind a child's stomach was as an +aching void, only to be appeased by continual "stuffing."</p> + +<p>"You an' your little friend set right down on the doorstun an' I'll +pop a hot doughnut into each o' your laps in a minute," declared the +generous old woman. "Lucky you come along just as you did. This is +Thursday and I always fry doughnuts on Thursday. Jest like I bake beans +an' steam loaf on Sat'day.</p> + +<p>"Smith, he never kin see why I have reg'lar days for cookin' sartain +things. But if a body don't have some method in doin' things, where'll +they be? That's what <i>I</i> say. Man's work is always helter-skelter, an' +ketch-as-ketch-can. They air always waitin' on the weather, or on the +tide, or on the moon, or some sech foolishness. Men's work is never +systematic—nor judgmatic, neither."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but my papa goes very regular to his work," objected Carolyn May. +"He goes downtown at just a certain time, and gets back home at a +certain time. Don't he, Edna? And your papa, too."</p> + +<p>Edna nodded vigorously; but her mouth was too full of hot doughnut at +the moment to agree audibly.</p> + +<p>"Wal, I wish't I'd married an off man, then," said Aunt Ardelia. "For +Smith never did 'preciate reg'larity, not even in cookin'. Why!" +chuckled the voluble woman, "there was one time Smith Dodge took it +inter his head he didn't want beans on a Sat'day night. Puffictly +foolish idee. <i>Every</i>body has baked beans for Sat'day night supper. But +men will git them fits. It's the way the good Lord made 'em, I cal'late.</p> + +<p>"'Ardely,' says he to me, 'I'm plumb sick o' smellin' beans ev'ry time +I come nigh the house on Sat'day afternoon. Can't we have suthin' else +for Sat'day supper for once't—fried sounds, or pollock an' potaters, +or even fishcakes or chowder? This here reg'larity is a-drivin' of me +wild.'</p> + +<p>"I jest laughed at him. No use gettin' mad with a man. If ye do, ye can +scratch yerself and get glad again. So I baked beans jest like I always +do on Sat'days.</p> + +<p>"An' when Smith, he come up from the shore where he'd been stackin' +seaweed an' smelt the beans, he never says nothin', but he washes up, +an' shaves, an' puts on his Sunday-go-to-meetin' clo'es, and says he:</p> + +<p>"'I'm goin' over to Lucy Ann Mott's for supper, Ardely. An' I'll +prob'bly stop the night.'</p> + +<p>"So he went off. I knowed what he went for. He cal'lated he'd 'scape +eatin' beans one Sat'day night. Lucy Ann's his niece. She thinks a +heap o' Smith Dodge, an' Smith thinks a heap o' her. They was all glad +to see him. When he come up into the yard Lucy Ann run to put another +plate on the table, and says she:</p> + +<p>"'You'm more than welcome, Uncle Smith. I'm jest a-goin' to take a pot +o' beans out o' the oven. I hope they air as good as A'nt Ardely's?'</p> + +<p>"Wal," chuckled the old woman, "ain't nothin' cramped about Uncle +Smith's brains, if he has got tar on his breeches. He spoke right up +quick-like, an' says he:</p> + +<p>"'Lucy Ann, I can't stop along o' you folks to supper, though I'm just +as obleeged. I was on my way to Peke Rose's, an' I got to see Peke +about somethin' afore dark. Jest stopped here to pass the time o' day.'</p> + +<p>"So he goes on to Peke's. Peke's wife," continued Aunt Ardelia, "is a +might' good cook. Smith cal'lated he'd struck on good when he reached +Peke's jest as they was settin' down to supper.</p> + +<p>"'Set right up with us, Uncle Smith,' says Peke, givin' him a cheer. +They all hailed him like he was a sight for sore eyes, and he got +seated an' Peke axed Smith to ax a blessin'.</p> + +<p>"An' when he opened his eyes after axin' that blessin', what d'ye +s'pose he seen on the table right in front of him? A big, fat, brown +beanpot!" chuckled Aunt Ardelia.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" Carolyn's mouth was as round as the hole in the fresh doughnut +the old woman dropped into her napkin-covered lap.</p> + +<p>"But Smith Dodge," continued the narrator of this tale, "he warn't to +be overdone that-a-way. He'd set out to find somethin' b'sides beans, +and after supper he went on to Mrs. John-Ed Allen's. John-Ed is Smith's +nevvy. They was all for havin' Uncle Smith stop all night an' they +would take him to church, come Sunday mornin', in their surrey. So he +stopped.</p> + +<p>"Come Sunday mornin' he was up airly same as common," pursued Aunt +Ardelia, "an' whad he see but Mrs. John-Ed puttin' the beanpot into +the oven to warm up for breakfast! Smith, he was so mad, he never said +a word but hiked right out cross-lots, intendin' to come home. But he +come by Peter Littlefield's, an' Peter hailed him and he couldn't get +away, and they sot him down to a big breakfast of pork <i>an'</i> beans!" +and Aunt Ardelia went off into such a gale of chuckles that she could +scarcely fork the brown doughnuts out of the smoking fat.</p> + +<p>"He sez to me, Smith did, after he come home, 'No use, Ardely. Nobody +can't say <i>I</i> don't know beans! I'm full an' plenty acquainted with +'em. They say "variety is the spice o' life." There ain't no spice left +in life on this island. I cal'late ev'ry woman from Sands P'int to the +heel of the Killies has her mind sot on baked beans for Sat'day night +an' Sunday.'"</p> + +<p>The little girls listened to the story of Uncle Smith's revolt with +less appreciation, perhaps, than more mature persons might; but they +appreciated Aunt Ardelia's doughnuts to the full.</p> + +<p>Carolyn with her friend and Prince went on toward the cove and the +cabin where the Double O's were staying. The shack stood at the foot +of one slope of the great, barren sand hill which shut out the view +of Dorris Cove from the south. The children and the dog followed the +patrol path, which here dipped to the shore, and skirted the hill and +soon came to the fisherman's shack.</p> + +<p>It was empty. The door stood open and they could see all the interior. +There were the two berths in which the cousins slept, both neatly made +up with the cornhusk pillows plumped at the heads. The floor was swept +and the little round pot-stove was well polished. The Double O's were +as neat housekeepers as one could wish.</p> + +<p>But there were some things which had not been changed since the +departure of the original owner of the shack. Several religious +pictures were tacked to the walls and there was a harpoon hung in +beckets over the fireplace, for Beppo had been a famous boat-steerer in +the old whaling days and that harpoon had "struck on" to many a deep +sea monster.</p> + +<p>Beside the mantel was a tiny altar and a figure of the Virgin hanging +on the wall before which Beppo had burned a candle now and then +in gratitude for favours received or expected. These oddities of +furnishings were why Captain Ozias Littlefield had called the hut +"Portugoosy."</p> + +<p>"But I guess we can't go in," said Carolyn to her friend, "for Mr. +Cap'n Littlefield isn't here."</p> + +<p>"And can't we find out about his wooden leg?"</p> + +<p>"Doesn't seem so," admitted the equally disappointed Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"What'll we do, then?" asked Edna. "I wanted to see both their wooden +legs. Are they just alike, Car'lyn?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no," confessed her friend. "Their wooden legs aren't just alike. +You see, one's a lefthand leg and the other's a righthand leg."</p> + +<p>"Goodness! What's the difference?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I don't suppose they can swap them, do you?" Carolyn replied, +using an expression she had picked up from her longshore friends. "A +right leg wouldn't fit on a left stump, would it?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" demanded Edna, inclined to argue the point.</p> + +<p>Just then Prince, who had run around a spur of the hill, began to bark. +A high-pitched, explosive voice was raised, warning the dog off:</p> + +<p>"Don't you come a-nigh me, you pesky critter you! Git out!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me!" gasped Carolyn. "There's Mr. Oly Littlefield now—and +he's <i>mad</i>. Prince!" she shrieked, and set off for the hidden spot +where the cockatoo man and the mongrel had clashed. The path led up +behind the fisherman's shanty and around the spur of the sand hill. In +half a minute the two little girls were in sight of the wrangle.</p> + +<p>Prince was bounding about the angry, red-faced old fellow, and barking. +The cockatoo man was endeavouring to reach the dog with his cane.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he over-reached himself in trying to hit Prince, and to +save his balance, dropped the basket of groceries with which he had +evidently walked from the Center, where the nearest store was.</p> + +<p>The basket turned over and spilled out every package in it; and some +of the packages burst. A hail of beans went hopping down the slant of +the hill. Ground coffee, sugar, flour and what looked like hominy-grits +mixed with the sand for yards around. Four lemons bounded down the +hill, and Prince gave chase, perhaps thinking they were yellow rats.</p> + +<p>"Prince! Prince, you behave!" cried Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>"Dancin' Doolittles!" yelled Mr. Oly Littlefield. "Will ye look at that +now? Ev'rything broke loose an' cast adrift. I vow! if they could, I +wish't them lemons would p'ison that dratted dog. What'll Ozy say to +this mess?"</p> + +<p>Again he made a rush at Prince, who had returned at his mistress' call. +Carolyn cried out again, for the heavy cane came near to hitting the +dog. But disaster rode fast upon the old fellow's incautious attack. +His wooden leg sank into the sand beside the path, and Mr. Littlefield +was all but pitched headlong down the hill.</p> + +<p>To save himself he threw his body sideways and wrenched the leg free. +But that was only a momentary help. He could not regain his balance, +and the force with which he dragged the wooden leg from the sand threw +him too far in the other direction.</p> + +<p>"Dancin' Doolittles!" he blared, striving to recover himself. "Hi! Drat +that dog!"</p> + +<p>His wooden leg kicked straight out. He pawed at the empty air with both +hands, dropping his cane, which followed the basket and the groceries, +hippity-hop, down the hill.</p> + +<p>For an old man, and a wooden-legged man, Mr. Oliver Littlefield proved +to be very agile. He made a wild leap, and landed in the soft sand. +His wooden leg sank in this until he was more than knee deep in the +shifting comminuted rock on that side, while his right leg was bent +under him.</p> + +<p>And in this position the catastrophe caught him. In his dancing around +and stabbing the shifting sand with his wooden leg he started an +avalanche. Carolyn May was the first to see the slide coming and she +screamed:</p> + +<p>"Oh! Come away, Princey, quick! You'll be drownd-ed in the sand!"</p> + +<p>Several tons of the hill started slowly, and then with a <i>swish</i> +like the sound of the surf, spread out and surrounded the struggling +cockatoo man. It buried him to his waist.</p> + +<p>Prince was fairly barking his head off. The little girls, quite out of +the line of the avalanche, could only dance up and down and squeal. +At this tragic juncture even the explosive ejaculation of "Dancing +Doolittles!" failed to relieve the feelings of Mr. Oly Littlefield.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">INTO MISCHIEF AND OUT</p> + + +<p>The cockatoo looking man, as Carolyn May often called Mr. Oly +Littlefield, was for once stricken dumb, as well as helpless. His +hat had flown off his head and followed his cane, the basket, the +groceries, and the bouncing lemons down the hill. But he was stuck +right where he had landed in the sand and the avalanche was piling up +around him.</p> + +<p>He sat in such a position, with his left leg completely buried and his +right drawn up, that he could not of his own strength drag his body out +of the sand. He might just as well have tried to lift himself out by +his bootstraps!</p> + +<p>The old fellow's face was really growing pale. The situation was +not laughable in the least to him. And as far as the children were +concerned, they were very much frightened.</p> + +<p>The sand was still sliding down all about him, and he was slowly being +buried, deeper and deeper. He could not see anybody to help him, for +from this angle of the hill no dwelling was in sight.</p> + +<p>At Dorris Cove were two fish houses, and he could see their roofs, and +the dories drawn well up on the shore. The poundmen, however, had drawn +the traps long since and gone home. Aside from the two little girls and +the dog, Mr. Oly Littlefield was alone.</p> + +<p>"In the name o' the Dancin' Doolittles!" he groaned. "I'm complete' +swamped here and no two ways about it. How'm I ever goin' to get out?"</p> + +<p>It did look as though his chance for escape was very slim. The sands +kept running down, and the more he struggled the deeper he seemed to +slide—just as though he were in a quicksand.</p> + +<p>"What ever shall we do?" cried Edna. "Oh, Carolyn, he's going to be all +buried up!"</p> + +<p>"He mustn't! He mustn't!" shrieked Carolyn quite as loudly, and she ran +toward the half-entombed man.</p> + +<p>Her light feet did not greatly disturb the sliding sand. Besides, she +addressed herself to the cockatoo man from the side of the path where +the hill had not fallen. Edna followed her friend's example, and both +little girls seized upon his right hand and dragged at him, while he +fought with his left to loosen his body from the engulfing sand.</p> + +<p>Even Prince helped. He seized Mr. Oly Littlefield by the tail of his +short linen coat. He almost dragged the coat over the man's head; but +the buttons held and the dog was of some aid in pulling the cockatoo +man out of the pit.</p> + +<p>He managed to raise himself a little and then fell sideways, prying his +wooden leg from the sand. The little girls, with screams, fell over +backward as the cockatoo man came free. Prince lost his hold on the +coat and slithered half way down the hill.</p> + +<p>"Oh! <i>Oh!</i> OH!" shrieked Edna in crescendo.</p> + +<p>"It's all over!" Carolyn gasped.</p> + +<p>"What the Dancin' Doolittles!" ejaculated the old fellow. "And <i>now</i> +who's to go back and git more groceries, I want to know? I wish't I'd +let Ozy do it in the first place."</p> + +<p>Carolyn expected him to turn his wrath upon, them—especially upon +Prince. She stood off a little, clutching Edna's hand, and staring at +him. The cockatoo man turned his head stiffly, where he sat on the +hillside with his wooden leg sticking straight out before him, and +blinked at the children and the dog.</p> + +<p>"I declare to man!" he said. "You young 'uns was good to me. Even that +dog, I reckon he meant well by me, though I think he's tored the coat +purt' near off my back. I thank ye! Merciful—Dancin'—Doolittles!" as +he rose to an erect position. "How'll I git my basket—<i>an'</i> my cane?"</p> + +<p>He really was much subdued, and Carolyn May began to feel sympathetic.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir! we'll help you if you'll let us," she cried.</p> + +<p>"I ain't in a position to object, I reckon," returned Mr. Littlefield +dryly.</p> + +<p>They ran after the basket and his cane, and even picked up the lemons. +But most of the dry groceries he had bought were under the loose sand +that was still pouring down the hillside in various little streams. Mr. +Littlefield accepted his possessions with good grace and thanked the +little girls.</p> + +<p>"I'll hobble on to the shack and wait for Ozy to come back from the +fishin'. I declare! I ain't able now to make another v'y'ge to Peleg +Rose's store and back again—nossir! Much obleeged to you, I'm sure, +leetle gals. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>He hobbled down the path toward the cabin on the shore. Edna grabbed +Carolyn's arm and shook her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Carolyn May! <i>Now</i> is the time to ask him."</p> + +<p>"Ask him what?"</p> + +<p>"How he came to have that wooden leg?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," Carolyn said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't ask him that <i>now</i>. +Maybe Mr. Littlefield wouldn't like to talk about his wooden leg just +when it got him into so much trouble," she added with tact. "I guess +we'd better ask Mr. Cap'n Littlefield first."</p> + +<p>They did not, however, have the opportunity to put the query to the +captain at that time. He was not at the shore cabin, and his cousin was +in no mood to entertain visitors.</p> + +<p>So the little girls and Prince plodded home again. Knowing the way by +the highroad, they followed that instead of the patrol path, although +it was longer. The dusty road brought them around by Barzilla's sheep +pasture which at one end was separated by a stone wall only from the +highway.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, me, Car'lyn!" exclaimed Edna. "Look at all those sheep."</p> + +<p>A flock of a score or more was milling in the road. A black-faced old +ewe was trying to lead the flock over or through the stone wall into +the Ball pasture.</p> + +<p>"My goodness, won't Miss Molly be sot all aback!" cried Carolyn, +repeating an expression she had lately learned and thought well of. +"Those are all Nebuchadnezzar's relations."</p> + +<p>"How do you know?" asked her friend.</p> + +<p>"Of course they are. Don't you see they've all got black faces? And +they are trying to get into our pasture! And they can't, the poor +things!"</p> + +<p>"That big sheep is going to push that rock over. If it can do it," Edna +said as "judgmatically" as Aunt Ardelia Dodge would have said it, "they +can all go through the wall."</p> + +<p>"Let's help 'em," Carolyn suggested.</p> + +<p>"Let's," agreed Edna promptly.</p> + +<p>So, telling Prince to stay back and behave, the children ran up along +the toppling stone wall. The old ewe backed away and stamped her feet.</p> + +<p>"Do you s'pose it'll bite, Carolyn?" murmured Edna, stopping and +preparing to withdraw at any further sign of antagonism on the part of +the black-faced ewe.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," declared Carolyn. "It's got only one set of teeth, +anyway."</p> + +<p>"The poor thing! Is it as old as all that?" queried Edna, who was not +as familiar with the split-hoof herbivorous animals as Carolyn claimed +to be. "It must be as old as old Mrs. Junkins at home, for she hasn't +got but a few teeth left, and she says they don't hit!"</p> + +<p>"This sheep'll never hurt you," Carolyn bravely declared, and she +approached the stone on the wall. Seeing that it was already wabbling, +she managed to push it over into the pasture without any great +difficulty. It rolled down a little gully, and several other stones +followed it, for the wall was built in a very haphazard fashion.</p> + +<p>She stepped back, and at once the old ewe dashed for the opening. She +plunged through, and the other sheep, old and young, crowding and +bleating, followed after.</p> + +<p>"I s'pose," said Carolyn, seriously, "we ought to stop up that place +again so that they can't get out."</p> + +<p>"But we can't lift those stones," objected Edna. "We've done enough," +the little visitor added, taking credit for what Carolyn had really +accomplished alone.</p> + +<p>"I guess that's so. Well, let's hurry and tell Miss Molly. She can lift +them. Miss Molly's awful strong."</p> + +<p>The sheep were now feeding composedly, and were heading down the +hollow, the other end of which could not be seen from the roadside. The +little girls quickened their steps and turned up the Ball lane. As they +approached the cottage Molly I. came out to ask:</p> + +<p>"Did you children see Abel Mott's sheep along the road anywhere? +They've broke out again."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," Carolyn assured her. "We only saw your sheep. They had got +out of the pasture."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, child!" said Molly I. "I saw our sheep grazin' up in this +end of our pasture not ha'f an hour ago."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Miss Molly, you couldn't," Carolyn said earnestly. "They +were all out in the road and trying their hardest to get into your +pasture-lot. So I helped 'em."</p> + +<p>"You helped 'em?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I threw down a stone so that they could get through the wall, and +they all went through—just as slick! But Edna and I couldn't put up +the stone again. It was too big."</p> + +<p>"For the land's sake!" exclaimed Molly I., and she started across the +fields toward the pasture, dishcloth in hand. The little girls trotted +with her, realizing that something was wrong but not understanding what.</p> + +<p>They came in sight of the upper end of the pasture. There were the two +flocks of sheep feeding together, and hopelessly mixed!</p> + +<p>"Now you <i>have</i> done it, children," said Molly Ball, in despair. "It'll +take Barzilla a full day to separate them an' git Abel Mott's out into +the road again. Abel will never lift his hand to sort 'em out. His +pasture is poor anyway, and he don't mind how long his sheep stay away +from home, if they come back with their fleece on. He's mighty careful +'bout foldin' them when it comes shearin' time."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" gasped Carolyn, at last. "Did—did I let in the wrong sheeps?"</p> + +<p>"I cal'late you did. But they likely would ha' broke in somewhere," +said the island girl more mildly. "Don't fret about it, child."</p> + +<p>But Carolyn May was a good deal chagrined that she should have made +such a mistake.</p> + +<p>"Sheeps are so much alike," she complained to Edna. "Even +Nebuchadnezzar is getting to look like all his relations. And those +sheeps of Mr. Abel Mott acted just like they belonged in that pasture."</p> + +<p>"Next time," Edna said, solemnly, "I wouldn't turn a herd of giraffes +into one of these lots."</p> + +<p>"But goodness!" cried Carolyn, "you wouldn't find giraffes on Block +Island."</p> + +<p>Nobody scolded them much for the mistake, and everybody was vastly +amused by the little girls' account of Mr. Oly Littlefield's mishap.</p> + +<p>Baby Laird's papa was no longer going to the Old Harbour daily, for +there was nothing more he could do for Mr. Ben Truefelt about the +hotel. He began to go out with Barzilla in the <i>Snatch It</i>, and they +were sometimes gone the better part of two days.</p> + +<p>The pale lady, as Carolyn always thought of her friend, continued to +look worried and Carolyn heard now and then hints of the departure of +the trio for some distant place. The thought of losing the pale lady +and Baby Laird made the little girl feel very sad. To stop to think of +unpleasant possibilities, however, was not Carolyn May's way. She had +a firm belief in the silver lining to every cloud. She hoped her pale +lady and Baby Laird and his father would not be obliged to go so far +away that she could not see them <i>some</i> times.</p> + +<p>"Don't you s'pose I could come in the cars to see you at Arizona?" she +asked the baby's mother wistfully. "You know, I went all the way to +Sunrise Cove alone once; and I came back home from there by myself—me +and Princey. I'm sure I wouldn't lose my way."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but Arizona is much, much farther away than your uncle's house," +sighed the pale lady.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Farther away than Block Island is from New York?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear."</p> + +<p>"Then Arizona must be almost as far as Heaven!" gasped Carolyn. "And +Aunty Rose Kennedy says that's a 'fur ways.' Won't I see you and Baby +Laird, ever, again?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot say, my dear—I cannot say," said her friend faintly. "I feel +that if we go we shall leave what few friends we have—and all hope, +even—behind."</p> + +<p>The little girl was moved by the pale lady's sorrow; but she did not +understand just what this speech meant. And there really was so much +to enjoy that she could not always give her thought to her friends' +troubles.</p> + +<p>Here was the picnic, for instance, which had been set for the next +morning. How could Carolyn remember much else when she and Edna went to +bed that night in Carolyn's little room at the back of the Ball cottage?</p> + +<p>The surf grumbled on the shore below the window. She only had to sit +up in bed beside the sleeping Edna to see the blinking lamps of the +lighthouses on the Long Island shore. The stars spattered the firmament +thickly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's going to be a clear day tomorrow," whispered Carolyn May with +a happy little bounce. "We'll have a nawful nice time at the picnic."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">HE TURNS UP AGAIN</p> + + +<p>At the Orowoc House the largest and best furnished of the private +suites was occupied by Carolyn's stern looking friend and his wife. +The latter's maid, who was a French-woman, slept in the room next to +her mistress. The valet and George, the coloured man, were otherwise +bestowed.</p> + +<p>For two hours each morning—from eight to ten—and after a plain and +ample breakfast, the master of the wealth which this style of living +revealed, sat in the room he used personally, at a table on which was a +telephone. The hotel help discussed with much gusto what it must have +cost to have a private wire to his New York office opened for those two +hours. With certain memoranda and a notebook before him, this master +of men and gold called his secretaries and managers, one by one, and +gave them instructions for the day. Each made his report, too, of the +previous twenty-four hour's activities. The master jotted down his +notes and finally conversed at some length with his chief secretary.</p> + +<p>After that he was free to spend the remainder of the day with his wife. +He refused to answer any telephone call save during those two hours, +and mail and telegraph messages piled up on his table as they pleased. +He gave them not even a glance until the next morning. This was the +busy man's vacation time. He had spent several summer weeks in this +fashion for three years—ever since that time when the haughty lady had +become such a burden to him and to herself.</p> + +<p>The day following his conversation with Carolyn May wherein she had +spoken of his automobile being at the Corners, this master of men sent +a special message to one of his employ s in his New York office:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>"Come here with René and the <i>White Streak</i>, tomorrow."</p> +</div> + +<p>There was no explanatory phrase attached to the message. This man was +not in the habit of explaining in any case.</p> + +<p>Therefore a little before noon the next day a forty foot turbine launch +was sighted off the neck, heading islandwards with a bone in her teeth. +She was painted white, she was as narrow as a shark, and her speed was +something to marvel at as she approached the narrow waterway that the +islanders called "the breach."</p> + +<p>Beating up for the same point was the <i>Snatch It</i>, Barzilla Ball's +double-ender. She had been out to the banks since the previous morning, +and Barzilla proposed to put his catch aboard the New London steam +smack that left the port that afternoon. It was this handling of his +catch by a middleman that rasped the young fisherman on the raw. It was +too far for the <i>Snatch It</i> to make market herself.</p> + +<p>"Look at that thing coming, Mr. Bassett," said Barzilla, "She throws up +a wave two feet high, if it's an inch."</p> + +<p>"Turbine," returned Baby Laird's father. "I used to—Well, they are +fast craft. If your boat had a quarter of her speed, Barzilla, you'd be +fixed good."</p> + +<p>"Ain't it so? Le's see which of us will make the breach first."</p> + +<p>He shifted his helm a little. Bassett went forward, in readiness to +drop the jib when the <i>Snatch It</i> shot into the narrow waterway. He +had been used to sailing boats and small yachts since boyhood, and his +previous summers at Block Island had added to his sea-knowledge until, +as Barzilla said, he was as good as any "blooded banker." Barzilla had +let his crew go and insisted on paying Joe Bassett instead.</p> + +<p>The latter kept a curious gaze upon the <i>White Streak</i>, which indeed +did leave a white streak in her wake as well as push a foaming wave +before her. The city man was not long puzzled as to the turbine's +identity; but he was amazed by seeing her in these waters.</p> + +<p>"I've seen that thing before," drawled Barzilla. "Her owner's some big +bug. Looks like she was sent for an' was trying to git there, eh?"</p> + +<p>"She can travel. But surely her owner isn't on Block Island?"</p> + +<p>"Dunno. Ain't heard. Mebbe he's aboard her now."</p> + +<p>Bassett turned his back on the swiftly sailing launch, which shot +across the bows of the double-ender and took the strait in advance. +The <i>Snatch It</i> had to tack and beat across the pond to the steam +trawler, the skipper of which was buying fish and lobsters for the New +London market. The turbine had already docked.</p> + +<p>The moment the <i>White Streak</i> was tied up, the saturnine man whom +Carolyn May had twice had occasion to observe, landed and set his feet +toward the Orowoc House. René, who acted as engineer of the turbine as +he did chauffeur of the large car, was left aboard with two Japanese +boys who made up the crew.</p> + +<p>The black-browed man addressed himself to the clerk of the hotel with +an assurance that made that functionary give him his best attention. He +asked for the man so well known in the financial world, and mentioned +his own name.</p> + +<p>"He expects me. Shall I go right up?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry, sir. The gentleman and his lady have just gone to +drive—not ten minutes ago. They'll remain all day. I am instructed to +tell you that they will lunch at the South Light and that you are to +come across the island and meet him there. First they drive to the West +Side, I understand. You can hire a rig, sir."</p> + +<p>"I know the island," said the dark man, briefly. "I'll walk."</p> + +<p>The hotel carriage had appeared according to promise at the lower +end of the Ball lane on this forenoon. Carolyn and Edna, with Prince +barking madly before them, raced down from the cottage in the dooryard +of which Mrs. Cameron, the baby's mother, and Molly Ball stood to +watch the departure of the picnic party.</p> + +<p>"I presume it is perfectly safe to let the children go with those +people," Carolyn's mother said. "They seem very nice—and somehow I +pity that woman. She looks so unhappy and discontented, except when she +is talking to Carolyn or playing with your baby," she added, smiling at +the pale lady.</p> + +<p>"Land sake! you needn't fret 'bout them," declared the confident Molly +I. "If they've taken a shine to the baby, Miz Bassett, mebbe they'll +do something harnsome for him. You read 'bout rich folks doing such +things."</p> + +<p>"But," murmured the baby's mother, hugging him more closely at the +thought, "we do not want people to patronize us, Laird and I. Even for +the baby's sake. We will not always be poor. I am sure if Laird once +gets into some business for which he is really fitted our hard times +will be over. We do not wish to be objects of charity."</p> + +<p>"Wal, I dunno," said the practical island girl. "Wouldn't call it +charity. What you get is so much gained, 'cording to my notion. I'm as +independent as the next one; but these folks that have got too much +money ought to be let to spend it. And if they wanted to spend it on me +or mine, I sh'd let 'em!"</p> + +<p>"Here come the Block Island Indians!" exclaimed the man in the +carriage. "Think you can stand such a wild crew for all day, Mother?"</p> + +<p>"Let them climb right in here by me," said his wife, moving over on +the rear seat of the carriage to make room for the little girls, and +smiling more warmly upon them than Carolyn remembered having seen her +smile before. "I only wish Baby Laird were coming too."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I <i>know</i> he'd be glad to come," said Carolyn, getting into the +carriage after Edna. "But, you see, he wouldn't have his bottle. And +it's awfully important that he should have his bottle on time, you +know."</p> + +<p>"It's awfully important that we <i>all</i> have our meals on time," said +their host, laughing. "That is why I had the hotel people pack that +hamper for us that is strapped on behind."</p> + +<p>That was a wonderfully interesting drive for the little girls. The +man seemed to know quite as much about Block Island as Captain Ozias +Littlefield.</p> + +<p>The road took them within sight of the West Side life-saving station; +but they did not stop there on this occasion. They drove on past the +stone cottage and the strip of stone wall built by the last Indian who +lived on the island. His forefathers had owned Block Island in the +beginning and called it Manisses. This last Indian had built stone +fences all his life and built them so well that they would never fall +unless the island suffered an earthquake shock.</p> + +<p>There were a good many gates to open and shut during the drive, for +the party passed through private property most of the way to the +lighthouse. They viewed all that was visible of the ancient wreck of +the <i>Killies</i>, and the black reefs and dashing waves along the south +shore of the island looked dangerous even to the little girls.</p> + +<p>"What an awful thing it would be if a ship sailed right in here and +bumped its nose on these rocks!" Edna exclaimed. "I wouldn't want to +see <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p>"I guess the folks couldn't jump ashore from, the ship, could they?" +queried Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"Not very well," their friend and host agreed. "That is why they have +life savers all around the island. The life savers help to get people +off the wrecks—when there are any wrecks."</p> + +<p>"My goodness!" Edna gasped. "I shall be scared to go home. Suppose the +steamboat is wrecked? Why don't they have railroads running to this +island? Then there would be no ships wrecked here."</p> + +<p>"Why, how you talk, Edna Price!" said Carolyn. "They can't build +railroads on <i>water</i>!"</p> + +<p>"One of these ox teams would be safe to ride over here on, wouldn't +it?" chuckled their host.</p> + +<p>"But there isn't any <i>street</i>," cried Carolyn again with emphasis. +"Why, that's just as ridiculous as Edna wanting a railroad built!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is," admitted her friend meekly.</p> + +<p>They came at length to the wind-blown downs and the lighthouse. The +face of the bluff here was very steep and rocky. The Atlantic billows +rolled in ponderously from the open sea and dashed their spray in +places half way to the brink of the bank. Out at sea many great sailing +ships as well as steam-propelled craft went past—coastwise ships and +those European-bound and returning from distant ports.</p> + +<p>There were naval vessels in sight, too—several submarine chasers and a +destroyer or two; while in the distance a smudge of smoke against the +sky, the children were told, marked the swift passage of a dreadnaught.</p> + +<p>Then their friend took them to the lighthouse, the keeper of which +treated them very nicely indeed. He allowed them to climb to the lamp +room and showed them all about the working of the great lantern. They +went out on the gallery, too, and the keeper let them look through his +glasses at a triangular white spot which he said was the riding sail of +the lightship on Nantucket Shoals, thirty miles from the island.</p> + +<p>Beside the lighthouse itself was another building in which was housed +the fog siren—that solemn-toned horn the voice of which Edna had at +first believed was the "mewing" of a cow. And when she had seen the +mechanism that governed it, Edna declared that it "ought to sound as +loud as an elephant, let alone a cow."</p> + +<p>"But you never heard an elephant, Edna Price!" cried Carolyn. "How do +you know an elephant's voice is any louder than a cow's?"</p> + +<p>"My goodness! Isn't an elephant bigger?"</p> + +<p>"Why, voices don't go according to size. Baby Laird, when he wants to, +can scream louder than <i>I</i> can—and he isn't half as big," said the +philosophical Carolyn. "And that old bullfrog in Uncle Smith Dodge's +tughole can make more noise when he barks than Prince."</p> + +<p>They might have had to argue the case before their host had there not +been a welcome call to dinner by the shining-faced George, who had +spread a cloth upon a flat rock in the shade of another rock, and under +his mistress' direction set forth such a repast that the little girls' +eyes sparkled when they saw it.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it nice to be rich?" Edna whispered to Carolyn. "Oh, how I love +that salad! And lady fingers! Dear me, Car'lyn May, don't you wish you +could eat every day like this?"</p> + +<p>"No," responded Carolyn, promptly. "For I know I should make myself +sick if I did. This is a party, and parties would be no fun if we had +'em ev'ry day."</p> + +<p>This practical statement brought no rejoinder from Carolyn's friend, +for she was staring at a stranger who was approaching. Carolyn turned +her head to look, too. It was the saturnine man who had unpleasantly +impressed Carolyn on two previous occasions—once at the Corners and +once in the poor tenement house in New York where Baby Laird had lived.</p> + +<p>"Ah! Here he is now!" their host said quickly, and rose to meet the +newcomer. Although he seemed to have expected the saturnine man, +Carolyn did not think his employer was glad to see him. His brow bent +sternly.</p> + +<p>What they at first said the little girls did not hear, for they met +some yards from the flat rock at which the party was lunching. The lady +gave the person who had interrupted their repast no attention whatever.</p> + +<p>But suddenly Carolyn heard her name called. She looked over her +shoulder and saw her friend beckoning to her.</p> + +<p>"My husband wishes to speak to you, child," said the lady.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May got up, excused herself politely, and ran to join her host +and the dark-browed fellow. The latter stared at the little girl with +surprise as well as chagrin, when she drew near.</p> + +<p>"I recognize your informant," he said harshly, turning from the child +to his employer. "Heaven—and René—only know where we were. Up in some +backwoods settlement. We were actually lost, sir. Otherwise we would +not have got so far off the right trail to Boston."</p> + +<p>"Boston! You were no more on the road to Boston where you were due, +than you were to the moon," said the gentleman sharply. "You knew +better—both you and René. Go back to the dock and wait till I return +tonight. I'll have something to say to you then."</p> + +<p>He turned his back on the dark complexioned man, whose brow was more +deeply corrugated than usual. The latter's angry gaze was fixed upon +Carolyn and it seemed to threaten the unconscious child. Had she +observed this malevolent glance the little girl might have recalled the +dream she had had regarding this man and the chauffeur the night the +Truefelt House caught fire.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">ALMOST</p> + + +<p>Barzilla Ball was, like most single-minded people, thoroughly confident +that the project he had evolved regarding the swordfishing industry +had no flaw in it. And perhaps it was perfect. As Joe Bassett pointed +out, Barzilla made his sole mistake in determining that he, Bassett, +was turned up by the plough of Good Luck particularly to be the partner +Barzilla was looking for.</p> + +<p>"You don't have to repeat your patter in relation to the swordfishing +game to me. I believe it all," Bassett said, as they landed after +mooring the <i>Snatch It</i> at her buoy. "And if I had the money I would +strike hands with you on the spot."</p> + +<p>"That's what I want to hear you say, Mr. Bassett," declared the +swordfisher.</p> + +<p>"But what good does it do you—or me? That 'if' is in the way. You need +a partner with at least two thousand dollars. Where would I get such a +sum?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, Mr. Bassett. But I feel that you could get it if you +would only believe you could."</p> + +<p>"Great Scott! You talk like Carolyn's father. He was for ever telling +me while I was on the <i>Beacon</i> that I had no self-confidence. But I +can't go up to a man and knock him down and take his purse away from +him," and he laughed rather bitterly.</p> + +<p>"I dunno," drawled Barzilla, "but even that would be less of a sin +than lettin' opportunity slip right by you without a-grabbing of his +fetlock."</p> + +<p>"Forelock you mean, Barzilla."</p> + +<p>"Fetlock, <i>or</i> forelock—it amounts to the same. Gettin' a strangle +hold on opportunity is the meanin'. And that's what you ought to be +doin' of right now."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"You've got slathers of friends. You went to college with a bunch of +men who have plenty of money. You can borrow on your bare word more +than I could scrape together by givin' my note to ev'ry man on the +island."</p> + +<p>"The responsibility would be more than I could bear, Barzilla," Joe +Bassett answered quietly. "I have been neck deep in debt. I still owe +some money. Believe me, I would starve—and so would my wife—rather +than be borne down by the weight of debt again."</p> + +<p>"But this is a dead-open-an'-shut business proposition."</p> + +<p>"May be. I believe it is. But who could I go to who is within reach to +ask for money? On this island, for instance?"</p> + +<p>"How 'bout Ben Truefelt?"</p> + +<p>"Ben's got his hands full after that fire in his hotel."</p> + +<p>"I s'pose so. Wish't you knowed the big bug Carolyn's goin' picnickin' +with, today. They say he's got plenty o' money."</p> + +<p>"Who are those people?" asked Bassett curiously.</p> + +<p>"I dunno. He's a mighty st'arn lookin' old guy. I'm so desp'rit, Mr. +Bassett, I'm near 'bout tempted to tackle him on my own hook nex' time +I see him talkin' to Car'lyn May. And his wife's so stuck on that baby +o' yourn—"</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, Barzilla! I can't make profit because those people are +interested in little Laird," cried Bassett in something like horror. It +seemed his wife's opinion and his own were much alike on this point.</p> + +<p>The two young men, having tramped across the island with their gear, +on approaching the lane leading up to the cottage on the bluff saw the +hotel carriage standing in the highroad. Carolyn and Edna had come +home from the picnic. The moneyed man sat on the front seat beside the +driver.</p> + +<p>"There he is now!" exclaimed Barzilla. "And they say he's so rich that +two thousand wouldn't be a fleabite to him."</p> + +<p>"You don't realize how tender the financial skin of the wealthy may be. +It sometimes seems that the more money a man has the more he groans +over a fleabite."</p> + +<p>But Bassett gazed at the man in the carriage with keen scrutiny. When +Barzilla again glanced at him the former hotel clerk had pulled the +peak of his tarpaulin over his face and did not look again in the +direction of the carriage. Indeed, taking a short-cut path over the +roadside ditch, he headed toward the house without further word.</p> + +<p>The fisherman approached the carriage with curiosity. Carolyn had run +up for Baby Laird and he was now crowing and kicking in the lady's +arms. Carolyn was saying to their host:</p> + +<p>"We're awf'ly obliged, Edna and me, for the picnic. It was one of the +very nicest parties I was ever to."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Edna, who was suddenly tongue-tied.</p> + +<p>"We never would have seen so much of this island if it hadn't been for +you," continued Carolyn May. "And I think it is an awfully interesting +place, don't you, sir?"</p> + +<p>"If you mean that it is as dead as a doornail, and therefore an ideal +place for a vacation, I agree with you," said her friend, grimly +smiling. "Have you ever sailed around the island—seen it from all +sides?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sir. Barzilla's going to take us out in his <i>Snatch It</i> some +day when he isn't swordfishin'. But he hasn't got to it, yet. Why! +here's Barzilla now."</p> + +<p>"The baby's father, Henry," the lady whispered. Baby Laird was putting +out his arms to the broadly-smiling fisherman who could not fail to be +a favourite with the little man.</p> + +<p>"You've a fine baby here," said Carolyn's friend.</p> + +<p>"I cal'late we have," replied Barzilla, coming nearer to the carriage. +"Your servant, Marm."</p> + +<p>The invalid bowed. "The little girl says you are a swordfisher," +continued the man, who never found any other man too uninteresting to +talk to—on his vacations!</p> + +<p>"I am," agreed Barzilla. "Got the last double-ender ever built in this +port."</p> + +<p>"Is it still a paying business?"</p> + +<p>"It makes us a livelihood. But 'twould pay better if me an' my partner +had the capital we need to build a shed for saltin' swordfish when the +market's low, and so go at it right."</p> + +<p>"That your partner?" asked the man, nodding toward the departing Joe +Bassett.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. And a mighty nice feller, if he is a city man. You know, we +don't us'ally think much of off men about boat <i>an'</i> gear. But he's all +right. If he had two thousand dollars to put into my scheme I cal'late +he'd be put' nigh perfect," said Barzilla, smiling again broadly.</p> + +<p>Carolyn's friend continued to stare after the figure plodding up the +lane toward the cottage on the bluff. The baby, in his eagerness, +almost leaped into Barzilla's arms.</p> + +<p>"He knows his father, it seems," said the woman, in a more friendly +tone than was usually her way.</p> + +<p>"I cal'late he do, Marm," said Barzilla politely. "But I ain't his +father."</p> + +<p>"No?" she said in well-bred surprise.</p> + +<p>"No, Marm. There goes his pop," pointing to Joe Bassett in the +distance. "This little Tom-cod's an off child. But he's might' nice +folks."</p> + +<p>"Who is his father?" asked the woman quickly, staring now as did her +husband after the figure plodding up the lane.</p> + +<p>"My partner, Marm," replied Barzilla, simply. "Or, he would be my +partner, fair <i>an'</i> full, if he could scrape together 'bout two +thousand dollars to put into the firm against my <i>Snatch It</i> and my +'know how.'"</p> + +<p>The woman turned swiftly to look at her husband. "The dear little +baby!" she murmured.</p> + +<p>There must have been something more in her look and tone than was +apparent in the mere words she said, for the man spoke to Barzilla as +the carriage rolled away:</p> + +<p>"Tell Mr. Laird to come to see me. I may be able to help you boys out. +I take a flyer sometimes for old times' sake. I was longshore-bred, +myself."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye! Good-bye!" shouted the children after the carriage.</p> + +<p>Barzilla said: "He ain't got Mr. Bassett's name jest right, has he? +But, hi gummy! looks though there might be a chance't for us to git +what we want. Glad I spoke as I did."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Mr. Cameron came again, and when he returned to New York on Sunday +afternoon, Edna went home with him. She departed with one desire +unsatisfied. There had been no opportunity for the little girls to make +another attempt to unveil the mystery of the Double O's wooden legs.</p> + +<p>"But you just keep at 'em till they tell you, Carolyn May," commanded +Edna. "I shall expect to hear all about 'em when you come back home. To +think of it! Two cousins and both wearing wooden legs. I never <i>did</i>!"</p> + +<p>Carolyn and her mother and Prince drove over to the dock in Uncle Smith +Dodge's carriage to see Edna and Papa Cameron off.</p> + +<p>The <i>White Streak</i> still lay in the Great Salt Pond; but Carolyn saw +nothing of her friends who were staying at the Orowoc House. And the +turbine meant nothing to her, for she did not see the dark complexioned +man or René about the dock.</p> + +<p>The little girl might have been rather lonesome when Edna was gone, +except that there was so very much to do about the cottage on the +bluff—and elsewhere. She had always Prince and Nebuchadnezzar to play +with; and when she could go down on the shore, there were so many +curious things to find and to make playthings of that the child seldom +thought about being lonely.</p> + +<p>She realized that there was something wrong with her friends, "the pale +lady" and her husband. It came to the little girl's mind that Baby +Laird's father was supposed to have done something very wrong when they +were all at home in New York. Her papa had been very angry with him for +it and Carolyn wondered if he had "done it again."</p> + +<p>The baby's mother often talked very seriously with Baby Laird's father. +Even Barzilla looked oddly at him. Once Carolyn heard the fisherman say:</p> + +<p>"Looks to me like 'twas your chance't, Mr. Bassett. Old Man +Opportunity, like we was talking about once, is right where you can +grab his fetlock."</p> + +<p>But the young man shook his head silently and his eyes were so grave +and sad that, had he not been such a very, very naughty man Carolyn +would certainly have tried to comfort him. Even the pale lady seemed +to think he was not doing the right thing in refusing to approach the +capitalist at the Orowoc House as he had been bidden; so how could +Carolyn seek to sympathize with Mr. Joe Bassett?</p> + +<p>She sat with the pale lady and her baby more than she had before. Was +it because the child felt that her hopeful chatter and the radiance of +her sunny heart was helpful to her sorrowful friend? Even her mother +was often puzzled to know just what went on in Carolyn May's busy brain.</p> + +<p>These days the little girl did not play "If I Were Rich" in the pale +lady's hearing. It seemed to Carolyn May that her friend's heartache +and despair was so closely connected with her husband's lack of money +that the mere suggestion of her former state of wealth might add to the +pale lady's unhappiness.</p> + +<p>And that she was unhappy none could doubt who saw her. The pallor +of her cheek, her feebleness, and her mental as well as physical +weariness, were so marked that everybody noticed it. Molly Ball said +she never knew an "off" person to come to the island and seem to get so +little good of it as Baby Laird's mother.</p> + +<p>The crew were now recalled to the life saving station, and Captain +Ozias Littlefield sent word by one of the surfmen that he was going to +be at home at the Portuguese's cabin on a certain day, for he and Oly +had a boatload of pollock to split and salt. Carolyn was invited to +visit the shack and stay "over chowder time." Barzilla was going down +to the cove for a wagon load of shack fish to bury under the seaweed +pile for next year's garden fertilizer; and the little girl rode with +him behind Beppo, the pony.</p> + +<p>At a certain point on the road Barzilla stopped the pony to let Carolyn +get down. She was going across the spur of the sandhill by the path on +which Mr. Oly Littlefield had once come to grief. This was the nearer +way to the cabin.</p> + +<p>For once Prince was content to trail at his mistress' heels. He had +trotted all the way behind Barzilla's empty wagon, and Barzilla was in +a hurry and had urged the pony.</p> + +<p>So Carolyn was the first to come in sight of the open beach. She could +see the roof of the fisherman's shanty; but nearer—right under the +bank where she stopped suddenly—two men sprawled.</p> + +<p>Carolyn could see them plainly. They had evidently been walking the +beach and had thrown themselves down in this sheltered place to rest. +She knew them both—René, the chauffeur, and the dark man whom Carolyn +May so disliked.</p> + +<p>She squatted down in the sand, with a warning hand upon the back of +Prince's neck. She had a feeling that she did not wish to let these men +know that she was so near to them.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">COUSIN OLY'S ACCIDENT</p> + + +<p>Carolyn May had no intention of eavesdropping. She was not that sort +of little girl. If she listened on occasion to what her elders were +saying, she had perfect confidence in her right to do so; for Mamma +and Papa Cameron never indulged in those regrettable half-speeches and +hints which so often serve to impress little folk with the very things +that they are expected not to hear.</p> + +<p>If Carolyn's mother and father had anything private to discuss, they +discussed it privately.</p> + +<p>In addition, if Carolyn May chanced to report what she might hear, it +was done in no spirit of tale bearing. Even in the matter of telling +her friend that she had seen his motor-car at the Corners, Carolyn had +been perfectly innocent of guile.</p> + +<p>Here was the man she so disliked—not to say feared—and the chauffeur, +again. She kept Prince quiet. After his long run behind the pony the +dog was quite willing to go to sleep in the sand. Carolyn was tempted +to go back by the path to the road, and so follow Barzilla Ball and +Beppo around to the shore where the pound fishermen brought in the fish +from the nets.</p> + +<p>The two men below her were talking. René said:</p> + +<p>"But I get nothing, Boss! I only run the risk of giving M'sieu offence +and losing my job."</p> + +<p>"Get nothing?" ejaculated the dark man in evident anger. "I saw Calvin +Cummings hand you a hundred dollars in crisp twenties when he and his +friends left us at Sunrise Cove. What do you mean—get nothing?"</p> + +<p>"Ha! A hundred dol'?" cried the French Canadian excitedly. "And what +is that compare' with what you make in that deal of the paper-pulp +mills, Boss? Think you I do not understand what you are about? Ha! Cal +Cummings and his crowd let you in on it on the ground floor, eh? You +make the big money while me, René Miett, have to satisfy myself with +the tip—is it not?"</p> + +<p>He talked so queerly and so excitedly, that the little girl's interest +was held closely and she remained where she was. But of course she did +not understand all that the two were talking about.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt="" id="illus1"> + <div class="caption"> + <p><i>The little girl's interest was closely held.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>"I have to take risks, too—greater than yours, René," the dark man +said, by his tone evidently wearied of the chauffeur's complaints.</p> + +<p>"I lose my job, maybe."</p> + +<p>"And so may I. Especially if the old man finds out who sold him out to +the Cummings crowd in that matter of the pulp-mills," and the speaker +laughed shortly. "He's in no pleasant mood just now. He is keeping me +here at the hotel muddling over accounts like any junior clerk, while +his secret agents I am sure are going through my office accounts, if +not my private papers. He is suspicious."</p> + +<p>"Ah!"</p> + +<p>"He trusts nobody—you know that—since—Well, since the time we both +have reason to remember, René."</p> + +<p>"Sure. I 'member," growled the other sourly. "Who does not? And there +you won a fortune, while I—"</p> + +<p>The dark man sprang up angrily. He used words that showed his wrath but +that made no lasting impression on Carolyn May's innocent mind.</p> + +<p>"And you had five hundred that time for merely keeping your mouth +shut," he finished. "Ungrateful dog!"</p> + +<p>"While you got ten thousand dollars, eh?" snarled René. "I believe +it! I haf always believe' it. The money came from the bank, and +M'sieu was most particular about it. Then we go a second time for ten +thousand—Oh, yes! I am convince' you got that first ten thousand dol', +Boss. I cannot believe the young one, he take it. No!"</p> + +<p>"What if I did?" demanded the other. "Do you think ten thousand dollars +lasts forever?"</p> + +<p>"Not when a man lives as you do, Boss. If M'sieu knew—"</p> + +<p>"If he knew the truth about that ten thousand dollars we would both +lose our jobs," growled the dark man. "And he hates to lose even ten +cents—let alone ten thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"Who would not shrink from losing that sum? Ah!" groaned René, as they +walked away.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May had heard the sum of "ten thousand dollars" repeated +so often that she was not likely to forget it at once, nor the +circumstances under which she had heard it. It was clear in her mind, +too, that in some way her friend who lived at the Orowoc House had lost +the sum of money in question.</p> + +<p>She waited until the chauffeur and the saturnine man had walked some +distance away before she ran down to the beach and around the foot of +the hill to the cabin.</p> + +<p>The two wooden-legged men were hard at work splitting and salting the +dory load of pollock they had obtained the day before. There was a big +tub of salt water by the cabin door into which the fish were thrown as +fast as Captain Littlefield gutted and split them. Mr. Oly Littlefield +was salting the split fish, fresh from the tub, and stacking them under +the lean-to, in tiers. In a few days the fish would be spread on the +drying racks for more complete curing.</p> + +<p>"Here's the leetle gal and the dog," said Captain Littlefield jovially. +"How fare ye?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am very well, I thank you, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield," she said. "I +hope you are well—and your Cousin Oly?"</p> + +<p>"I'm purt' pert," said the other wooden-legged man very graciously for +him. "Thank ye."</p> + +<p>Prince went and snuffed at the cockatoo man's wooden leg, and he made +no objection to the dog's familiarity. Carolyn May thought he must be +quite changed from what he used to be! Perhaps his having been buried +in the sand had served a good purpose.</p> + +<p>The remainder of the fish were soon split and salted and stacked. The +vicinity was redolent enough of fishy odours; but Carolyn May had +become pretty well used to such smells since she had begun her sojourn +on Block Island.</p> + +<p>The cousins dragged the skids of offal down to the outgoing tide and +dumped it into the water. Then they washed out the tubs and cleaned up +about the cabin, making all "shipshape," as Captain Ozias said.</p> + +<p>"Sailors make purt' good housekeepers, they tell me," said the captain. +"Of course, Oly don't count. He never was no sailor. Most sailin' he +ever done was goin' out in that <i>Snatch It</i> of Barzilla's. 'Twas Enos +Ball, Barzilla's father, sailed the <i>Snatch It</i> in them days. Oly was +by way of bein' a swordfisher till his accident."</p> + +<p>"What accident?" asked Carolyn eagerly. "When he lost his leg?"</p> + +<p>"Yep. When he lost one of 'em," returned Captain Littlefield placidly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mister Cap'n Littlefield! he hasn't got <i>two</i> wooden legs."</p> + +<p>"Who said he had? Oh, I see! This here accident wasn't the cause of +Oly wearing that timber-toe of his'n. Nossir!" chuckled the captain. +"'Twarn't no accident that cost Oly his left laig."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" murmured Carolyn, in much disappointment. She had thought she +was on the verge of learning just how Cousin Oly, at least, came to be +a cripple. But Captain Littlefield's reminiscence seemed to take him +right away from that subject.</p> + +<p>"Ye see, Oly had an accident, and he ain't never been swordfishin' +since." The cockatoo man had stubbed off with a pail to a neighbour's +for milk, while the captain peeled onions and potatoes for the +chowder. "Fact is, he ain't no gre't love for salt water noways. One of +the few Littlefields that ain't got more salt water than blood in their +veins, I do assure ye! Wal, he was lucky to have a leetle prop'ty left +him, Oly was, an' Sue-Betsey that he married had some cash-in-bank. So +he's purt' well fixed.</p> + +<p>"Some folks is that way," said the philosophical captain; "while some +is like me—hafter work right along, fair weather or foul. Reckon if +I'd lost both laigs an' my arms inter the bargain, I'd had to work for +my pollock an' p'taters, jest the same."</p> + +<p>Captain Littlefield said it cheerfully and went on before Carolyn could +interpose a single question.</p> + +<p>"Yep. Oly used to go out in the <i>Snatch It</i>. He never was no good in +the pulpit—natcherly—'cause of his wooden laig."</p> + +<p>"In the pulpit, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield?" queried Carolyn in surprise. +"Do you mean <i>preaching</i>? Like Elder Knox at the Free Baptist Church?"</p> + +<p>"My soul and small fish hooks! No!" chuckled the captain. "Pulpit's the +thing Barzilla leans up against when he harpoons a fish."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I know," said Carolyn May, nodding. "I've seen Barzilla's boat. +You mean that stalky thing up in front."</p> + +<p>"Exactly," agreed Captain Ozias. "Oly's wooden laig wouldn't let him +balance out on the sprit that-a-way. But he can pull a dory as well as +the next man. He'd set himself out with a harpoon an' line and a pair +of oars, and he made his sheer <i>and</i> keep, with Enos Ball.</p> + +<p>"Then one time Oly seen a swordfish an' Cap'n Enos seen another from +the crosstrees. Enos headed for his critter; but nothin' would do but +Oly had to slip overboard in his dory an' row t'other way. Ye know how +con-<i>tra</i>-ry he is.</p> + +<p>"Wal, Oly pulled up close on his fish—an' no denyin' a dory is fur +quieter than a sailin' boat to make the kill from. Swordfishes have got +the sharpest ears.</p> + +<p>"Oly stood up, balanced his harpoon, braced his old timber-toe ag'in +the thwart, an' jest before the boat nosed that swordfish's flipper, +Oly made his cast. 'Twas a purty one, an' the harpoon held for fair.</p> + +<p>"He dropped back onto the thwart and grabbed his oars. Them swordfishes +is lively critters, leetle gal. They sure be," pursued the captain. +"They don't sulk none when ye strike on. They fling themselves about +like a whale in its death-flurry."</p> + +<p>"The poor thing!" murmured Carolyn.</p> + +<p>"You better save your sympathy for Oly," chuckled the story-teller. +"Wait till I tell ye. That fish sounded. A swordfish with an iron in +him is a mighty onsartain critter. Oly pulled hard, but he didn't know +where the swordfish was. Jest the same the fish had spotted that dory."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield! what happened to the swordfish?" asked +Carolyn, excitedly.</p> + +<p>Captain Littlefield chuckled once more. "Still more worried about +that critter than ye be about Oly, eh? Well, he done purt' well, the +swordfish did. He come right up underneath that dory and drove his +sword smash through her bottom-boards like 'twas a <i>see</i>-gar box. Oly +had his feet braced an' was pullin' like all kildee. Up come that sword +an' spears bottom-boards an' Oly's laig, jest like ye'd spear a pickle +on a fork."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"An' there the sword stuck fast," pursued the captain. "The fish, he +wriggled an' tried to pull out again, shakin' the dory like a dog +playin' with a dishcloth. An' Oly was hung fast to the sword—couldn't +think o' nothin' to do but to hang onto the sides of the dory an' yell +blue murder!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield! was it his <i>good</i> leg that got stabbed by +the swordfish's sword?"</p> + +<p>"No, no! 'Twas his wooden laig, I tell ye. Held the critter's sword +jammed through the thick of the timber. He made such a hullabaloo that +Enos and the crew seen what was up an' they left the critter they was +stalkin' an' made sail for Oly's dory. But there's no knowin' what a +swordfish'll do when he gets to lashin' around permisc'ous like.</p> + +<p>"This one Oly had struck onto was a big feller. Oly's got the sword +to home now—two foot, four inches and a ha'f. That's somethin' of a +sword. An' 'twas jammed tight through the bottom of the dory and Oly's +laig.</p> + +<p>"'Cast loose, Oly!' yelled Cap'n Enos when the <i>Snatch It</i> comes near. +But Oly was rattled. All he seemed able to do was to grab the oars +again and pull hard's he could.</p> + +<p>"An' him pullin' one way and the swordfish jerkin' t'other, somethin' +was bound to give, fin'ly. An' what give fust, was the straps of Oly's +laig."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my!" gasped the little girl.</p> + +<p>"Yep. He was cast loose for fair. He went over back'ard in the dory, +his good laig and the stump of t'other one <i>an'</i> the oars, kicking up +in the air. The swordfish twitched that dory crosswise of the seas. +'Nother minute an' she was swamped an' Oly Littlefield was overboard."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!"</p> + +<p>"That's right. That's what happened. And the water was mighty wet, +too," chuckled the narrator of the tale. "Ye know how a one-laiged man +swims—without his laig on him? Jest as graceful as a flat-bottomed +scow goin' through a tide-rip.</p> + +<p>"And the dory was sinkin' and fair drownin' of that swordfish," he +went on. "While ev'ry time Oly came bobbin' up an' got his head out o' +water, he bawled to Cap'n Enos and the crew to save his oars and the +dory. Nev' mind the swordfish an' him."</p> + +<p>"Dear me! And were they drowned after all?" queried the little girl.</p> + +<p>"Wal, Oly warn't. And they saved his oars an' most of his gear. But +they had to grapple the dory with a kedge anchor and tore it purt' +near to pieces floatin' it. The swordfish tore himself loose from both +harpoon and his sword, and so got away."</p> + +<p>"My, my!" gasped Carolyn May. "Wasn't that exciting?"</p> + +<p>"I sh'd say 'twas. 'Twas too much for Oly. He never did go swordfishin' +again after that accident. It cost him a new laig, ye see."</p> + +<p>"But—but <i>that</i> wasn't how he came to lose his real leg," observed the +little girl.</p> + +<p>"Who? Oly? I sh'd say not," agreed Captain Littlefield. "No, no! He'd +long had a wooden laig when he got mixed up with that swordfish."</p> + +<p>"But how <i>did</i> he lose his leg?" cried Carolyn May, with desperation.</p> + +<p>"Why, I declare!" exclaimed the captain, but with a twinkle in his eyes +that she did not see. "He never said a word about it to me, for a fac'. +One time I come home from sea on shore leave from the old <i>Sandusky</i>, +and here Oly was hoppin' 'round on one laig. I dunno as I ever axed him +what he done with his good laig."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS</p> + + +<p>Captain Ozias Littlefield's lack of curiosity regarding his cousin's +wooden leg might have impressed a more mature mind than Carolyn May's +as being rather suspicious. The little girl had suffered so many +disappointments in this very matter that she merely sighed and hoped +for a better occasion.</p> + +<p>For here came Mr. Oly Littlefield himself with the pail of milk, and +the matter could not be further discussed. While the captain had been +relating the swordfish story he had put the chowder kettle on the +pot-stove in which a brisk fire of driftwood was burning, and was +trying out the pork.</p> + +<p>Into the hot fat went the sliced onions to be browned to a golden +hue; then the clam liquor into which when it was boiling the captain +dumped the potatoes cut into cubes. When these were almost tender the +chopped clams were put in, the mess was seasoned, and the scalded milk +added carefully that it might not curdle in the chowder. When this was +simmering several ship's biscuits were thrown in and the covered pot +set upon the stove shelf until the seasoning should be well worked +through the chowder.</p> + +<p>"This here's a re'l fisherman's chowder," Mr. Oly Littlefield said. "I +can make it myself but it never turns out same's Ozy's does. I'm like +either to scorch mine or curdle it. There's a knack about gittin' it +jest right, I don't dispute."</p> + +<p>"There's a knack about doin' most things," said the captain dryly. "And +it's practice gives ye the knack. Ye never did have the patience to +l'arn a thing right, Oly."</p> + +<p>The cousins wrangled in an apathetic way all through the meal. But +Carolyn May knew that was their habit, and perhaps they would not have +been happy had they lived together in perfect peace.</p> + +<p>Altogether the little girl spent a very pleasant day with the Double +O's, and Captain Littlefield "set her a piece on the way" when she +started homeward along the patrol path.</p> + +<p>They met Surfman Number Two, who was the captain's nephew, walking +his beat to the key-box at the breach, having set forth from the +life-saving station at four o'clock. It was foggy off at sea, and he +said it would be thick inshore in an hour or so.</p> + +<p>"This leetle gal will get to Barzilla's long before that," said Captain +Littlefield. "So I'll stub back along o' you, Cephas. Good-bye, +Car'lyn."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, sir," said Carolyn May. "And I had a <i>naw</i>ful nice time with +you and Mr. Oly. Come on, Princey! We must run home now."</p> + +<p>"Guess 'twill be safe 'nough to let the child go home alone?" said the +captain to Cephas.</p> + +<p>"Ain't nobody but Island folks along yon', 'cept two fellers 't took +supper with us at the station," said Cephas. "Nice 'nough men, fur off +folks. Give us all <i>see</i>-gars. I notice they set off after me an' Alec +Rose started out on our beats at eight bells. Yon's them, now."</p> + +<p>He waved his hand. Two figures were coming over the distant rise beyond +Barzilla Ball's cottage, at that distance seeming no larger than +Carolyn May herself. The little girl and the dog were running blithely, +following the patrol path.</p> + +<p>"All right," returned Captain Littlefield, and turned back along the +beaten track with his nephew.</p> + +<p>The little girl and her dog had passed Uncle Smith Dodge's house before +she noticed the two men approaching. Although the dusk was falling, she +recognized the saturnine man at that distance.</p> + +<p>Now, Carolyn May was no "'fraid-cat." She would have scorned such a +title had any of her schoolmates flung it at her. But that dark-faced +man with his black, thick brows and glittering eyes, made her shudder. +Nor did she like René much, and she soon recognized the chauffeur as +the second man coming along the path.</p> + +<p>She ran back of Uncle Smith's calf pen to hide until the two men should +have passed. From that spot she suddenly observed a third man who had +just climbed from the beach. It was Baby Laird's father, and he was +headed homeward, too. She was about to join him, when the two others +showed that they knew and were about to speak to the baby's father.</p> + +<p>It was the saturnine man who addressed himself to Joe Bassett, while +René held back.</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" he said, advancing with hand outstretched. "I wondered +why I did not run across you. I declare! You look well. Brown as a +berry. It must agree with you here. And the wife and baby?"</p> + +<p>"Are well," said the young man. He quite ignored the extended hand of +the secretary. His glance went to the chauffeur and he nodded. "Howdy, +René?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir. I enjoy my health," the French Canadian said; but he +did not draw near.</p> + +<p>"I failed to hear from you in regard to that proposition I was enabled +to make you, Mr. Joe," the other man said, dropping his voice. "That +Arizona proposition is still open for you."</p> + +<p>"The offer was inspired, I presume?" young Bassett ventured.</p> + +<p>"Naturally I could not have spoken of the mining company's need without +his permission," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"And if I do not accept?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Joe," said the man, urgently, "you know without being told by +me that when the old man is determined on a thing he will carry it +through, in spite of everything. If he has made up his mind that you +and yours will suit him better in Arizona than here, to Arizona you'll +go, or you'll be sorry."</p> + +<p>"If I can make my living here in the East—Why! Inness, I've a chance +to stay right here on this island and go into partnership with a man in +a good, paying business."</p> + +<p>"If you do you'll be sorry," snapped the secretary. "And perhaps your +partner will suffer, too. The old man is ruthless—you know that! Once +he is determined—"</p> + +<p>Joe Bassett's head had come up like that of a spurred horse, and his +shoulders squared themselves with a gesture of decision.</p> + +<p>"Who is he, that he should rule all the world?" he demanded hotly. +"I'll not be driven, Inness!"</p> + +<p>"You mean you do not wish to be driven," said the other, with sarcasm. +"But he will reach you."</p> + +<p>"Let him try."</p> + +<p>"You make my duty very unpleasant," said the dark man, in a different +tone. "You know that what I am told to do I must do."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I know your kind," returned Bassett, not without a sneer. "If the +lion hunts, the jackal follows the trail."</p> + +<p>"Is that the best word you have for a man who would be your friend, Mr. +Bassett?" exclaimed the secretary, with anger.</p> + +<p>"I think it is," Bassett said coldly. "I doubt your friendship, Inness. +I have always doubted it. And I don't feel like being driven from +pillar to post by anybody. If I suffer him to do this to me now, he'll +do it again if he feels so inclined. If he is going to hound me, let +him begin it here—around New York, where he is known and I am known. +You can give him that word, if you like."</p> + +<p>"I tell you right now," Inness returned warmly, "that if you try to +establish yourself in any way on this island, for instance, he will +ruin you, and whoever you are in partnership with."</p> + +<p>"It was quite unintentional, I assure you, that I selected this island +to live on. He never used to come here. With half a dozen summer homes +to select from, what brings him to Block Island, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"It is his wife, I believe. She doesn't care for the old places," said +the secretary.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" and Bassett turned away his face that the other should not see +its expression. After a moment Inness said:</p> + +<p>"I'd like a straight answer, Mr. Joe. Will you take this chance +I—<i>we</i>—offer you?"</p> + +<p>"You have had a straight answer. It is, 'No.'"</p> + +<p>Bassett turned on his heel and pushed on along the patrol path toward +the Ball cottage. The secretary and René stood for a minute whispering +and looking after him before they moved in the opposite direction. The +seafog was now trailing in long whisps over the edge of the bluff. The +night was falling.</p> + +<p>Not until the two were quite hidden in the mist did Carolyn May come +out of hiding. She had not heard much of what passed between the +secretary and Joe Bassett, and she had not understood what it signified +at all. But she felt that she could not join Baby Laird's father on the +way home.</p> + +<p>Besides, if the baby's father was mixed up with that dark-complexioned +man whom she so disliked, she felt that she could speak to nobody +regarding this meeting on the patrol path.</p> + +<p>It did not, however, cause her to forget the ten thousand dollars she +had heard the secretary and René talking about earlier in the day. To +Carolyn, who loved to play the game of "If I Were Rich," ten thousand +dollars opened a vista of possibilities that fed her imagination for +several days.</p> + +<p>She had gained the impression from what the two men had said that her +friend at the Orowoc House had lost the ten thousand dollars. She +wondered if he knew he had lost it. Perhaps he had so much money that +he couldn't count it all, and he had not yet missed the ten thousand in +question.</p> + +<p>If she or the pale lady had ten thousand dollars, how much they could +do with it! Why, perhaps the pale lady could buy back the beautiful +old home she had more than once told Carolyn about—the rambling old +Colonial house with the pillars in front and the lawn slanting down to +the Hudson River. And she could go to Country Clubs, and have parties, +and ride in automobiles, just as she had before she had married Baby +Laird's father.</p> + +<p>Sometimes Carolyn May had wondered if her friend was not just a little +sorry that she had ever married at all. She had been so poor, and had +seen so much trouble since that time. And she was still so beautiful, +with her shining hair and delicate complexion, that it seemed almost +wicked (Carolyn had heard her mother say this) that the pale lady could +not wear clothes befitting her beauty.</p> + +<p>Here they were—the "Lairds," as Carolyn May always thought of +them—living again almost from hand to mouth; for what the man could do +for Barzilla barely paid for their food and lodging. In the evening he +often sat alone on the stone bench outside the cottage smoking, and did +not even speak to the pale lady, nor to anybody else.</p> + +<p>Indeed, he must have done something very, very wrong, Carolyn thought +sadly, for everybody to so look at him askance. She was tempted—her +tender little heart was fairly wrenched by the sight of his silent +woe—to climb up beside him and try to give him comfort. But somehow, +from the very first, Carolyn of the Sunny Heart had found Joe Bassett +difficult. He was one who shrank from revealing his heart even to a +child.</p> + +<p>She understood that it was money matters that troubled him. If they +only had that ten thousand dollars those two men had talked about! If +the pale lady had so much money, the little girl was sure, she would +buy nothing less than a gold carriage for Baby Laird and a beautiful +fur robe to put in it for the winter. And then the baby's father could +do what Barzilla wanted him to do, whatever that was, and they would +all be happy again.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't you?" she asked the pale lady one day, as she sat beside her +and the baby was asleep.</p> + +<p>Carolyn had been thinking so hard about the ten thousand dollars and +about her friend's trouble, that she came out plump with this query +without realizing that she spoke aloud.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't I what, Carolyn May?" asked the pale lady from the hammock.</p> + +<p>"Be happy again if you had all that money?" said the child.</p> + +<p>"I do not know what you are talking about, my dear," the pale lady +confessed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course you don't!" exclaimed Carolyn, laughing. "What am I +thinking of? <i>You</i> don't know about that ten thousand dollars, do you?"</p> + +<p>"What ten thousand dollars, child?"</p> + +<p>"That my friend from the Orowoc House lost."</p> + +<p>"Your friend—Did he tell you he lost such a sum?" the pale lady asked +with surprise.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! Maybe he doesn't know about it. But I do."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, Carolyn May!" exclaimed her friend, "how could you learn +such a secret if the gentleman did not tell you himself? And you don't +suppose for a moment that he could lose such a sum without knowing it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I'm sure," the little girl explained, "that those two men who +know all about it never told him."</p> + +<p>The pale lady saw that there really was something in this matter +besides a flight of Carolyn's imagination. She tried to get at the +foundation of the little girl's surprising statement.</p> + +<p>On her part Carolyn May endeavoured to explain about the dark-browed +man and René the chauffeur. The little girl felt some embarrassment, as +she had all along, about speaking of the time when her friend's baby +carriage was wrecked by the automobile that René drove, so she slurred +over that fact now. The pale lady did not grasp the significance of +the couple at the Orowoc House being the same who had occupied the +automobile when the accident near Central Park had happened.</p> + +<p>She did, however, gain the idea that there were men about of whom +Carolyn felt some fear. She did not wish to create any anxiety in +Mrs. Cameron's mind by speaking to her about it. But when her husband +came home, she took him into her confidence regarding Carolyn May's +remarkable story.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if it is quite safe for her to run about this wild country as +she does?" was her concluding observation. "Those men—"</p> + +<p>Joe Bassett had a suspicion as to who the two men were, in spite of the +description Carolyn had given his wife: "One of them's a dark, scowly +man, and the other talks funny."</p> + +<p>"I'll look them up," Bassett said hastily to his wife. "I do not think +they are people who will harm Carolyn May."</p> + +<p>"But what do you suppose it was they were talking about when she +overheard them? Ten thousand dollars! Can they be intending to rob that +man at the Orowoc House?"</p> + +<p>"More likely they have robbed him already," her husband said. "But I +will look into it, if you are afraid for Carolyn. I won't go out with +Barzilla tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Laird! Can't we possibly meet Barzilla's offer? 'Great trees from +little acorns grow,' you know, my dear," and she tried to smile. "A +fish-packing business may lead to greater things. And this seems so +good a chance for you—"</p> + +<p>"But if we have no money, Girl?"</p> + +<p>"Isn't it possible for you to borrow it of any friend? Oh, my dear! I +shrink from that journey to Arizona. Think! if we got there and were +stranded? This may be a trick of that man you call Inness. You know, +Laird, you do not trust him."</p> + +<p>"True. But his employer must be behind the offer. It is the first +spark of interest he has shown in our affairs since I left home."</p> + +<p>"And is it interest in our well-being now?" she cried. "Oh! I wish I +could believe it, Laird. But I am afraid of your father—I am! I am!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, Girl! Don't talk that way. Yet, I have no means of knowing what +is in his mind regarding us," he added, sadly.</p> + +<p>"Why, Laird!" she cried desperately, "the man who thinks so much of +Carolyn and whose wife has taken such a fancy to the baby would be more +our friend than your father. Why won't you go to see him at the Orowoc +House? Barzilla says he made an open offer to help you—"</p> + +<p>"Without knowing who I am," interrupted Bassett hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"What of that? Are you too proud to accept a business favour—for <i>my</i> +sake? For Baby Laird's sake?"</p> + +<p>"You know whether I love you or not, Girl," he said, his voice broken, +but turning his face aside that she should not see his emotion. "If it +was possible I would do as you—and Barzilla—ask. I will accept what +my father offers me, through Inness, if I must; but I cannot beg money +of any man. And to go to the Orowoc House on such an errand would be +begging."</p> + +<p>She said no more. Her beautiful eyes filled and she bent her head, +hiding her face from him. Bassett stared down at her with strange +yearning in his countenance. Yet he whispered: "I cannot do that—I +cannot!"</p> + +<p>It was a significant moment in their lives. After that even Carolyn +May saw that there was a rift in the bond of perfect love and +confidence that had heretofore existed between the pale lady and her +husband.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">"MURDER WILL OUT"</p> + + +<p>The sunny heart of Carolyn was vastly troubled by the unhappiness she +saw about her. As Aunty Rose Kennedy would have said, "everything was +at sixes and sevens."</p> + +<p>"And I truly-looly wish we hadn't come away from there, Mamma Cam'ron," +she sighed.</p> + +<p>"Come away from where, dear?" her mother asked.</p> + +<p>"From the Corners, and Uncle Joe, and Aunt Mandy, and Aunty Rose +Kennedy, and Freda, and dear little Car'lyn Mandy, too! I love Baby +Laird; but Car'lyn Amanda is our owniest own—isn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Well," agreed her mother, "she is a near relative, at least."</p> + +<p>"Yes. She is a relative of ours, isn't she? And you can do more for +relatives—and they can do more for you—than other folks. Now, +wouldn't it be nice if my friend at the Orowoc House was a relative of +Baby Laird's father? <i>Then</i> he could go to him and get all the money he +wanted—couldn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Sh! It isn't nice to talk about other people's private affairs, +Carolyn," admonished her mother.</p> + +<p>"Why, mamma! 'tisn't private affairs, is it? It's the pale lady's +affairs and Mr. Laird's affairs. And both Miss Molly and Barzilla are +int'rested in it. And I'm sure Papa Cam'ron and you and me are awf'ly +anxious 'bout Mr. Laird getting money so he can salt swordfish with +Barzilla.</p> + +<p>"So if he was related to my friend at the Orowoc House I guess likely +he could go to him and get the money he wants. Barzilla thinks so," +concluded Carolyn.</p> + +<p>Her mother's curiosity was suddenly aroused again.</p> + +<p>"Carolyn May," she asked, "what is that gentleman's name?"</p> + +<p>"My friend?" the little girl asked complacently.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"His name is Henry. That is what the lady calls him. I heard her."</p> + +<p>"I mean his last name."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I never did ask him that," confessed Carolyn May. "Must <i>all</i> +folks have last names? My friend's wife doesn't call him by it, like +Mrs. Bridget Dorgan calls her husband."</p> + +<p>"No; I presume she doesn't," smiled Mrs. Cameron. "Really, I suppose I +should know more about these people with whom you spend so much time," +she added reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Why, my <i>dear</i>!" her little daughter exclaimed, "I know just <i>lots</i> +about them. They live on a street named Riverside Drive. Didn't Papa +Cam'ron take me and Prince there, Mamma? And I am to come to see them +there after we all go back home in the fall. And they have a great big +automobile, and the lady will come after me in it. She said she would. +And bring me home again. Of course, if you are willing, Mamma. It is a +be-a-u-ti-ful automobile. You just ought to see it."</p> + +<p>"But Carolyn May!" gasped her mother in surprise. "Where did you ever +see that automobile?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that is so!" laughed the little girl. "I never told you 'bout +that, did I? I forgot. Why, Mamma Cam'ron, this man and his wife are +those people whose auto ran down my pale lady's go-cart. Don't you +'member? Wasn't it funny that they came to Block Island for the summer, +too? And of course they didn't <i>mean</i> to smash Baby Laird's carriage. I +didn't say anything to my pale lady 'bout their being the same folks," +added the thoughtful little girl, "because maybe she would be afraid to +have Baby Laird with them. But they just <i>love</i> babies. The lady had +one herself once—a baby boy like Laird. But—but I guess she must have +lost it, from what she said. Just like Aunty Rose lost her three, you +know, Mamma."</p> + +<p>"Those people ran down the baby's go-cart with their car?" murmured +Mrs. Cameron. "And to whom Joe Bassett returned the twenty dollars +the man gave Carolyn? He was not too proud to accept a carriage from +Carolyn and me; but he refused assistance from those people! How did +Mr. Bassett know to whom the money should be returned? Ah! his wife +must have recognized the couple," decided Mrs. Cameron. "I declare! +if these are the same people, then the Bassetts know their identity. +If Mr. Bassett would not accept the twenty dollars for the wrecked +carriage, of course he would accept no greater favour from that man.</p> + +<p>"It is plain who they are," she decided, though, not aloud. "Lewis must +be told about it. I wish he were here right now to advise me."</p> + +<p>But Carolyn's father was not expected for another fortnight. Meanwhile +there was something that might arise to force Joe Bassett and his wife +and baby to leave Block Island hurriedly.</p> + +<p>Bassett was grim-lipped, if not sullen looking. He was a man whose +nature it was to bear trouble alone and silently. He might, Mrs. +Cameron feared, accept the Arizona offer and start with his family for +the West almost any day.</p> + +<p>Carolyn May did not suspect this possibility as being at all immediate. +She felt deeply for "the Lairds" nevertheless, and did all that her +sunny heart dictated in the matter of cheerful prattle and friendly +acts for the pale lady and her baby.</p> + +<p>She was a very thoughtful little girl these days, too. The ten thousand +dollars she had heard the secretary and René talking about made a +lasting impression on her mind; and because the pale lady was in such +trouble because of the lack of money, it was only natural that thought +of the money loss of the man at the Orowoc House should be continually +stirring in her busy brain.</p> + +<p>"It is wonderful—" Carolyn said to him the next time she saw him. He +was driving alone with his negro coachman on this occasion. She climbed +into the back of the hotel carriage with him to ride to the life-saving +station, Mamma Cameron having given her permission. "It's wonderful +what folks can do with money," she went on.</p> + +<p>"Indeed?" questioned the man with sudden harshness. "Are you +money-mad, too, my little lady?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! <i>I'm</i> not mad at all. I'm just as <i>pleasant</i>," explained +Carolyn, rather puzzled. "But sometimes, you know, I spend money in my +'magination. I call it playing 'If I Were Rich.' And my pale lady used +to play it with me. Only, she did used to be rich her own self, and she +can tell all about it."</p> + +<p>"You are speaking of the baby's mother?" he asked with sudden +attention. "Isn't that what you called the woman whose carriage our car +crushed that time in New York? 'The pale lady'?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"And was it she who sent back that twenty dollar bill to me?" he +demanded, eying the child curiously.</p> + +<p>"I guess her husband sent it back."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Laird?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Proud, are they?" snapped the man. "Can they afford pride, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>But Carolyn May could not answer that. She only said slowly:</p> + +<p>"Well, the pale lady doesn't care to play my game any more. I spect +it's 'cause they want real money so bad that she don't feel like +talking 'bout make-believe money."</p> + +<p>"What do they want money for?" asked her friend.</p> + +<p>"I don't just know. But it's something Barzilla wants him to do, I +guess, and he can't do it without money—quite a lot of money," said +Carolyn innocently. "Of course, <i>I've</i> got some money myself. But the +pale lady and her husband aren't folks you could <i>give</i> money to. They +are not like Johnny O'Harrity's folks who live in our basement."</p> + +<p>"No?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed! They—they respect themselves too much, my mamma says. But +my! they could do lots if they had—well—maybe ten thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"Quite a sum, for a fact. What would you do, Carolyn May, if you had +that amount of money?"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" the little girl cried suddenly. "There's that ten thousand +dollars that you lost. You 'member that?"</p> + +<p>The change of expression in her friend's face would have startled the +little girl had she seen it. It was full half a minute before he spoke +again.</p> + +<p>"What do you know about that, Carolyn?" he asked harshly.</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought <i>you</i> must know about it!" she prattled on. "But those +men spoke as though maybe you didn't."</p> + +<p>"What men?"</p> + +<p>"The one who works for you—that came to the picnic, you know. +You 'member? The dark, scowly man. And that other one who is your +chauffeur."</p> + +<p>"My secretary and René? Tell me what they said," the man commanded +sternly. "When did you hear them talking—and where?"</p> + +<p>"Why," explained Carolyn, fearing now that she had done or said +something altogether wrong, "it was when I went down to call on the +wooden-legged gentlemen at the Portugoosy cabin."</p> + +<p>"The—the <i>who</i>? And <i>where</i> were you going?" demanded the man in +amazement.</p> + +<p>"Why, don't you know Mr. Cap'n Littlefield and his Cousin Oly? They're +real int'resting characters. That's what my papa calls 'em. And they've +got wooden legs. But I don't know <i>how</i> they got 'em," continued the +little girl, "'cepting that they buy new ones when the old ones are +worn out. And Mr. Cap'n Littlefield keeps a spare one that he only +wears, so he says, on 'state and date occasions.'"</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" murmured her friend.</p> + +<p>"And that Portugoosy cabin is where Beppo used to live. Not Barzilla's +pony, Beppo, but the man the pony is named after," added Carolyn May, +eagerly. "Mr. Cap'n Littlefield and his cousin are living over there at +the cabin just now."</p> + +<p>"Hold on!" urged the man from the Orowoc House finally. "There is +something that interests me more. About this ten thousand dollars you +were talking of."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Are you sure they said ten thousand, Carolyn May?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir!"</p> + +<p>"And that it was money belonging to me?"</p> + +<p>"My! didn't you know 'bout it at all?" she asked in surprise. "Just +think! Those two men knew all about it and never told you."</p> + +<p>"Inness and René?" demanded the man, his brow clouded again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir!"</p> + +<p>"You must tell me," said her friend very seriously, "just what they +said about the ten thousand dollars. It is something I must be sure of, +my dear. All this time I have thought—Well, I have charged, perhaps, +an innocent person with a terrible crime." He said this to himself +rather than to the little girl and his countenance displayed more +emotion than ever she had seen in it before. "Tell me all they said."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm afraid I couldn't tell all," began Carolyn May.</p> + +<p>"Listen!" exclaimed he eagerly. "Did they speak as though I had already +lost the ten thousand dollars, or was about to lose it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's money you lost a long time ago. 'Cause the dark, scowly man +told your chauffeur that he had spent it all. He <i>must</i> be a bad man to +spend money that you lost, without saying anything to you about it."</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly he is," said her friend grimly. He encouraged Carolyn +May to repeat all that she could remember of the conversation of the +two men. He listened patiently to a deal of inconsequential prattle; +but he finally got at the meat in the nut. He considered the result +in information worth his effort. Being of a sharp, as well as a +suspicious, mind, there was now constructed in his understanding an +almost perfect theory regarding the loss of a certain ten thousand +dollars, thought of which had long seared his memory.</p> + +<p>He hardened his heart against his two unfaithful employ s while he +listened to the child's story. They were still within his reach. He +was the more bitter because the circumstantial evidence of the crime +had pointed toward his own son.</p> + +<p>"I'll get at René," he muttered. "I'll make him tell me all!"</p> + +<p>Now, René was a weakling. Pressure brought to bear upon the chauffeur +must quickly bring to light the truth. "Murder will out" is an old and +true saying. Time brings most crime to the surface, and in this case +its revelation must free the innocent of all suspicion connected with +the loss of the ten thousand dollars!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION</p> + + +<p>If her friend was disturbed in his secret thoughts by the little girl's +prattle about the ten thousand dollars that had been lost, Carolyn +was not likely to know it. Especially when a visit to the life-saving +station was in view.</p> + +<p>By this time the coast guard crew—captain, cook and all hands—were +Carolyn May's friends, and Prince had his own plate of scraps by the +kitchen door of the station.</p> + +<p>The visitors were in time for drill. Carolyn's friend held his +stop-watch at practice. From the captain's word "Go!" to the second the +supposed wrecked mariner (in this case the station cook) was landed in +the breeches-buoy, the time was just over three minutes.</p> + +<p>It was very exciting, and Prince raced the sands, barking with all his +might at the man flying through the air in the life-saving apparatus. +Then they tried it all over and Cephas, Captain Littlefield's nephew, +brought Carolyn in on the buoy, the aerial ride delighted her greatly.</p> + +<p>"My! I must tell Edna all about this," she panted. "Edna was afraid to +be wrecked; but <i>I</i> never shall be again. I think it must be just fun!"</p> + +<p>"Like enough! Like enough!" said Cephas. "Just the same, leetle gal, +you're some safer ashore than on a wreck."</p> + +<p>Afterward Carolyn's friend told the negro to drive slowly back along +the road and wait at the foot of Barzilla Ball's lane.</p> + +<p>"The little girl and I will walk back along the shore and I will climb +up over the bluff at the cottage and meet you," the man said to the +driver.</p> + +<p>"Oh, goody! Goody!" cried Carolyn May, clapping her hands. "That will +be ever so nice!"</p> + +<p>She had no suspicion that what she had said about the pale lady and +her baby and the pale lady's husband, had stirred any curiosity in +the man's mind. But this topic held quite as important a place in his +thoughts at the time as the mystery of the ten thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>He wanted to know what manner of people these Lairds were. Because of +the baby, his wife had become deeply interested in them. Baby Laird +reminded her so much, she said, of her own "Baby Joe" of a quarter of +a century before. And, then, that this stranger baby should bear her +own child's middle name—that piqued his wife's curiosity; although, to +tell the truth, Carolyn May's friend had never given it his attention +before.</p> + +<p>In addition, he had given Barzilla Ball an invitation for the baby's +father to come to see him, and the man had not appeared. There was +something in that which the capitalist could not understand. Usually +people did not have to be coaxed when he offered financial favours.</p> + +<p>They walked along the shore as the red sun slipped down into a feather +bed of cloud resting on the sea and on Montauk.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">"'Red in the morning,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sailors take warning;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Red at night,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sailors delight,'"</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>chanted Carolyn, repeating what Barzilla had taught her. She clung to +her friend's forefinger and skipped joyfully along the sand.</p> + +<p>He looked down at her with a grim smile playing about his lips. He +thought that this child was actually the first whom he had ever had +time to get acquainted with. In the case of his own son he had been too +busy—too eager at money-getting—to know much about him.</p> + +<p>His wife talked now, in her nervous, irresponsible way, of "her baby." +It was a fact. The son of their house had been her baby; never his; for +he had been in no mood to give the lad a father's care.</p> + +<p>When he was grown (and a manly fellow he was, no thanks to his father) +the latter had found the young man as stubborn a character as he was +himself. If he was the "Old Griffin," this boy just out of college was +"Young Grif." He was not to be ordered about as the man was in the +habit of ordering his employ s.</p> + +<p>The trouble had begun there and then. An order to the son was like a +lash across the withers of an unbroken and high-spirited colt. The old +man realized the trouble, but believed it could be mended. Now he knew +he had taken his son into his own hands too late. His character was +already moulded.</p> + +<p>Yet the Griffin would not blame the mother. It was his own fault that +the boy was not an automaton—as were his employ s, even his managers. +The Griffin had become used to unquestioned obedience, and to silence +when he spoke. His son did not fit into that system.</p> + +<p>And so, after all, it was more because his son was not what he expected +him to be than anything else, that bred discord between them. The girl +was but an excuse.</p> + +<p>It was true that the girl came of stock that the Griffin could not +tolerate. The man who had brought her up as his own and who, in dying, +left her portionless, had been one the Griffin hated—and he was a good +hater.</p> + +<p>To put forth a command and find his son as unbendable as cast iron +to his will, had utterly enraged him. He had threatened dismissal +from house and fortune. Joe had coolly taken him at his word. It was +maddening. But the matter might have been eased over. The boy was not +then married. And for his mother's sake the Griffin would have gone far +on the road to a better understanding.</p> + +<p>Then came the discovery of the missing ten thousand dollars. As +he had so fiercely told Carolyn's father, that ended all hope of +reconciliation. Yet he could not tell the boy's mother about it. Their +son a thief? Better to bear her frequent complaints and accusations of +harshness to the boy, than to tell the mother who bore him that he had +turned out a thief.</p> + +<p>So this man, who commanded men and gold and affairs, and who was a +vast power in the financial world, was not happy. He worked as he +always had; but he worked without an object in view—for the mere sake +of working. He often told his wife that he "hung on because he couldn't +let go," like a drowning man to a rope. Money, power, notoriety—all, +all were Dead Sea fruit. There was nobody to enjoy it after him, for +he had spent much to make it legally impossible for a <i>thief</i> ever to +benefit by his or his wife's death.</p> + +<p>He walked on the beach with the prattling Carolyn and remembered it +all. It was a mile and a half to the foot of the path up the bluff +behind the Ball cottage; but they were not long on the smooth way. Late +in the afternoon as it was, Molly Ball's boarders were still on the +beach.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's Mamma Cameron!" cried Carolyn May. "And the baby and his +mamma."</p> + +<p>She broke away from her friend to run with Prince to her mother. Baby +Laird lay upon his mother's lap where she sat on a weed-covered rock. +Her back was to the man as he approached. All he saw was the graceful +curve of her shoulder and the aureole of red-gold hair surrounding the +head that bent so lovingly from the slender neck above the baby.</p> + +<p>The man halted. Curious as he was about these people, he hesitated to +force himself upon them. If the Lairds did not wish to be befriended by +him or by his wife, the situation would be made rather difficult if he +approached them unbidden.</p> + +<p>He had never been able to understand why that twenty dollar bill was +sent back to him with the brusque note accompanying it. With his usual +suspicion of all mankind, at the time he had presumed the woman and her +husband, whose baby go-cart had been wrecked, planned to begin suit for +damages.</p> + +<p>When nothing like that happened, and when, later, he discovered those +same people were these whom he was willing to help at his wife's +request, his interest was further aroused.</p> + +<p>That baby! He remembered keenly, as he stood here unnoticed, of once +looking down at his own baby son, years before, as the laughing, +crowing infant lay just as this one did across his mother's lap. That +was before men had begun to call him the Griffin of Wall Street.</p> + +<p>The tenderer feelings of the man's nature were stirred. Opening his +heart to little Carolyn, who at first had only amused him and piqued +his curiosity, had made a breach for thoughts other than those of mere +business to enter in. He had learned of late to smile at her prattle, +therefore he could now smile down upon the baby.</p> + +<p>The Griffin cleared his throat.</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, young woman. So you are the baby's mother?" he asked +mildly.</p> + +<p>She sprang up with a half-stifled scream, startled from her reverie. +She clutched the baby to her breast as though she feared for his safety +as she whirled to face the man.</p> + +<p>Which of them was the more amazed as they stared at each other it would +have been difficult to tell. But as the young woman shrank from him, +the Griffin's scowl grew black.</p> + +<p>"<i>You?</i>" he said, explosively.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt="" id="illus4"> + <div class="caption"> + <p><i>"You!" he said, explosively.</i></p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>She feared him. She stepped back, ever so lightly, holding her baby +tight, <i>tight</i>. But the little one, recognizing a friend, put out both +his arms and crowed.</p> + +<p>The baby's mother had but seldom before seen her husband's father. And +on those few occasions he had shown himself so plainly her enemy that +there was good reason why she should be frightened in his presence.</p> + +<p>Besides, was he not attempting through his secretary, Inness, to +cut her and her husband and baby off from the few friends they had +remaining—to drive them across the continent that they might not by +chance cross his path?</p> + +<p>These thoughts, bruising her heart for days, had brought the young +woman—gently as she had been bred—to the border of revolt. It +was this man's fault—and his wife's fault—that Joe Bassett was +unsuccessful, was timid, and was hopeless under trial. He had been +brought up to a life of ease, and his only rugged trait was that +of stubbornness. He would not be driven. But that stubbornness of +character had not yet been transformed, she thought, into a firmness +and determination to win against any odds.</p> + +<p>She laid her husband's faults, which of late had seemed so magnified, +entirely to his parents. She not alone feared this hard-featured, +grey-faced man who stood before her; but she displayed a rooted dislike +for him.</p> + +<p>While the baby put out his hands and babbled to the Griffin, the young +woman retired from his vicinity. Carolyn and Prince came romping +back, the child's eyes aglow, her cheeks flushed, and all alive with +happiness and love—a contrast to his own emotions that the man could +not fail to mark.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've been having the best-est time!" the little girl cried to the +baby's mother. "Me and my friend's been to the life saving station. And +just think! I've been saved from a wreck (course, 'twas a make-believe +wreck) and Cephas gave me a ride in an aeroplane made like a big pair +of pants. What do you know about that?"</p> + +<p>She had seized the Griffin's hand with both of hers and swung upon it. +Her confidence in his kindness and the baby's evident approval of the +man, made Mrs. Joe Bassett take thought.</p> + +<p>If the children so loved him, he could not be utterly bad after all.</p> + +<p>She began to look at him with more speculative eyes. He was Joe's +father. There must be some of Joe's better traits in his character. And +she had loved Joe at the very first for his single-heartedness and his +gentle manner.</p> + +<p>The baby, squirming in her arms, tried to go to his grandfather once +more. She observed in the man's eyes the reflection of unshed tears! +That grim face was but a mask, after all. Back of the man's apparent +harshness his nature was softening to the influence of childish +affection.</p> + +<p>The baby and Carolyn May!</p> + +<p>The young woman began to appreciate what was going on beneath the +surface of the Griffin's rugged nature.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX</h2> +</div> + +<p class="ph2">IT ALL COMES OUT RIGHT</p> + + +<p>Upon that tableau, flying down the steep path with a step lighter than +she had heard it for many a long day, came the pale lady's husband—or, +as Carolyn May would call him to the end, "Baby Laird's father."</p> + +<p>"Girl," he cried, "I've put it through! Barzilla is up there trying to +make Molly I. understand the good news. I wrote Harvey Deering and he +made no bones of lending me the money. I could not tell you until I +was sure. We'll not have to go to Arizona after all. Harvey has sent +a certified check for two thousand and his blessing, and the firm of +Bassett and Ball is already born. By gad! Whom have we here?"</p> + +<p>His wife had stumbled against him, her strength going from her; he +caught both her and the baby in his arms. He flashed a second glance at +the man who stood before them so straight and uncompromising—but much +greyer and older than when Joe Bassett had seen his father last.</p> + +<p>"So, I have been making friends with my own grandson, have I?" said the +Griffin grimly. "And without knowing it!"</p> + +<p>"I fancied so," Joe Bassett replied. "I only discovered the other day +that it was you and the <i>mater</i> who had taken such a liking to little +Laird. My wife didn't know."</p> + +<p>"'Laird,' eh? We never called <i>you</i> that, Joe. I'd almost forgotten you +had a middle name. Humph!" muttered his father. "And this is why the +baby's father did not come to see me to talk over a loan, is it?"</p> + +<p>"It is," responded his son shortly.</p> + +<p>"Your mother is awfully taken with the baby, Joe," said the older man, +almost wistfully. "She has been quite cut-up that his father would +accept no favour from me."</p> + +<p>"How about if she had known who I was?" asked the young man bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Come away, Laird!" begged the pale lady.</p> + +<p>"Hold on!" ejaculated the Griffin, harshly. "Am I a bear that I should +bite the child, perhaps?"</p> + +<p>There was a momentary twinkle in Joe Bassett's eye. The success he had +achieved in raising the money needed for his partnership with Barzilla +had lent him a new confidence.</p> + +<p>"You're a Griffin, sir," he said. "That's worse than a bear. And once, +you must remember, you came near running down the baby with your +automobile. His mother received a shock at that time from which she has +not even now wholly recovered."</p> + +<p>"So I did! I remember well enough. And the money I gave little Carolyn +for her, <i>you</i> returned!"</p> + +<p>"We could scarcely accept anything under the circumstances," Joe +Bassett said, stiffly. "For the same reason I have refused your offer, +through Inness, of that position in Arizona."</p> + +<p>"What offer?" demanded his father. "I made you no offer through Inness. +That scalawag has been up to other mischief, has he? But was that man +Cameron's visit to me on your behalf unknown to you, Joe?"</p> + +<p>"Cameron? You mean Carolyn's father?" demanded Joe Bassett in surprise. +"I know nothing of it."</p> + +<p>"Ha! It might have been the child's father," exclaimed the Griffin. "I +had not remembered <i>that</i> was her last name."</p> + +<p>He turned to look at the little girl who was now dragging her mother +forward. Mrs. Cameron had already seen that her suspicions were +correct. She hesitated to approach the Bassetts at this moment; but +Carolyn May was insistent.</p> + +<p>"Oh, please, sir!" she cried to the Griffin. "My mamma wants to thank +you too for giving me such a splendid time."</p> + +<p>"This is the baby's grandfather?" Mrs. Cameron observed quietly. "I +see!"</p> + +<p>"Let me introduce my father," said Joe Bassett. "I think," he added, +with a warmer smile than usual, "that this lady and her husband are our +very good friends. I know Carolyn May is."</p> + +<p>The Griffin was fast recovering his composure. He offered his hand +again to Carolyn May and she clung to it with both of hers.</p> + +<p>"I fancy Carolyn is a friend to almost everybody," he remarked. "Your +mother, Joe, has been much more cheerful of late because of this little +girl—and the baby. You won't deny her the pleasure of seeing the boy +frequently, will you?" and he looked directly at the pale lady when +he made this humble request. It was a good deal to ask under the +circumstances, and the Griffin seemed to realize it.</p> + +<p>Joe Bassett likewise looked down into his wife's face. Perhaps what +they had suffered—all their trials and difficulties—could be traced +directly to the harshness of this grey old man. But the very worst he +had thought of his son and the girl beside him, <i>they would never know</i>!</p> + +<p>Little Carolyn suddenly felt the tenseness of the situation without +understanding what it meant. She let go of the Griffin's hand with one +of her own and reached for that of the pale lady, hanging timidly at +her side.</p> + +<p>"Why!" she cried, "you didn't interduce my pale lady to my friend, Mr. +Laird. <i>This</i> is the baby's mother, you know, sir," and the child drew +the fragile hand of the pale lady into that of the Griffin.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>A group gathered in the grassy yard before the Ball cottage on an +afternoon not long thereafter showed that the younger Bassetts, if of +independent spirit, held no rancour in their hearts regarding the elder +Bassetts.</p> + +<p>In the group sat the three women, the grandmother with the baby in her +lap, while his mother and Mrs. Cameron sewed. Molly Ball was getting +supper for all, to be served when Barzilla and Joe Bassett should +return from the fishing.</p> + +<p>"I used to wait like this for Henry to come home from work," the +elder Mrs. Bassett said reflectively, with a smile upon her lips that +altogether softened her haughty look. "We lived in a seaboard village, +too, and we were much poorer than we are now—and much happier."</p> + +<p>Her husband and Carolyn, with Prince and Nebuchadnezzar trailing them, +went hand in hand to meet the young men who were already in sight.</p> + +<p>"And Baby Laird and his mamma and papa are going to live right here +with Molly and Barzilla all winter. Won't that be fine?" Carolyn cried. +"I 'most wish we were going to stay here, too. It's a lovely place, I +think."</p> + +<p>"Humph! No bath in the winter," said her friend, but more to himself +than to her. "Don't see how they can stand it. But I'm going to build +a house for 'em right on the shoulder of Beacon Hill yonder. They +can't help my doing that, even if Joe is stubborn about beginning for +himself—laying the foundation of his own fortune.</p> + +<p>"Yet, why not?" added the man ruminatively. "Swordfish may be just as +good a foundation as coopering. I made barrels for the herring fishers +when I began."</p> + +<p>Carolyn scarcely appreciated this, and she ran ahead to greet the two +younger men. She came back swinging on one of Barzilla's great, brown +hands. The elder Bassett got into step with his son, who carried his +oilskins and other gear on one arm. They loitered behind the others.</p> + +<p>"I would have sent Inness where he belonged, Joe, if it wasn't for +raking up the whole scandal. It would make a mess in the papers. And he +was scheming to get you as far out of the way as Arizona! He feared +we'd meet. He has been selling me out to the Cal Cummings crowd, too. +René got everything off his chest when once I put the screws on him. So +all I could really do was to discharge both of them.</p> + +<p>"René I hired over again," he added rather ruefully. "I didn't know +where to find another chauffeur as good, or one who could handle the +<i>White Streak</i> as well. And he was very penitent."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Carolyn May was a full week bidding good-bye to everybody with whom she +had become acquainted on the island.</p> + +<p>"Never did see such a young 'un for cheerin' a body up," declared Aunt +Ardelia Dodge. "Smith an' me will miss her like she was a grandchild. +And she's a sight better than any of Smith's grandchildren ever dared +to be. You'm right. His branch of the Dodges ain't none too smart."</p> + +<p>The wooden-legged Littlefields had gone back to their little cottage +near the Old Harbour; but Carolyn May spent an afternoon with them +before her departure for New York. She felt that she had a duty to +perform, and that she could ignore it no longer. Edna would expect her +to bring the information she craved and, polite or not, the little girl +felt that she just had to ask again about those wooden legs.</p> + +<p>"How did Oly come to have his'n?" Captain Ozias repeated. "Wal, I'll +tell ye, if ye promise not to say a word to him about it. For it does +make him mad. 'Twarn't no accident at all—like I told you once. +<i>Any</i>body could have told Oly he was fixin' for broken bones—only +they'd 've said 'twas his neck he'd break, 'stead of his laig.</p> + +<p>"Ye see that high, rocky head up yonder?" pointing to the rise of the +bluff almost behind the little cottage. "Wal, Oly would come down that +hill 'stead o' goin' 'round by the path proper, when he'd been to the +store. 'Twas a short cut. An' he took it on a winter's evening, when +'twas mistin' an' freezin'; an' he slipped."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Carolyn. "And did he fall right down here?"</p> + +<p>"That's what he done. And he laid out 'most all night, unconscious. +Then he woke up and blatted and one of the surfmen from Station One +heard him and gathered him in. But that, and the delay in gettin' a +surgeon from the Main, and all, made it necessary fin'ly to ampertate. +So since then Oly's hopped around on a wooden stump.</p> + +<p>"And me? Why, I don't talk none about it, leetle gal. 'Tain't nothin' +to crow over, as ye might say. I went through the Battle of Manila +'thout gittin' hurt; I was aboard the old <i>Olympia</i> when she made her +dash from ocean to ocean so's to git into the fightin' around Cuby. I +was at the Battle of Santiago. All them, an' never got a scratch!</p> + +<p>"But after I was mustered out o' the Navy and went into merchant +service and commanded my own three-stick windjammer, I was ashore at +Punta Arenas one trip and went to a feller's shop to sharpen some +knives, and what happens but a grin'stone fell on that laig and busted +it all to flinders!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Cap'n Littlefield!"</p> + +<p>"Yep. That's the rights of it. I don't talk none about it—no more +than Oly talks about his laig. Ye see, an' ol' feller longshore with +a wooden laig is expected to be a hero. But there ain't nothin' a +mite heroic 'bout neither me nor Oly Littlefield. We was just plumb +unlucky—that's all!"</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The elder Bassetts were going to remain longer. The season had ended, +and the Orowoc House would have closed as did most of the other hotels. +But a man with the money and the influence, to say nothing of the +determination (he called it "stubbornness" when it was repeated in his +son), that the Griffin possessed, would have changed the laws of the +Medes and Persians! He and his wife were comfortable where they were; +he could run to New York in a few hours in the <i>White Streak</i> when it +was necessary. So they remained, and at least a part of the hotel help +remained likewise.</p> + +<p>He wanted to see the foundation laid for the house he purposed to build +for his son. It was to be of island stone in the rough to the eaves of +the bungalow roof. That house, on a shoulder of the highest hill on the +island, would be seen for miles at sea and probably would be the most +expensive dwelling that a swordfisherman ever lived in.</p> + +<p>His son, however, was in business with Barzilla in earnest. A +comfortable and cheaply-built shack on the shore of Dorris Cove would +satisfy the firm at first. That was being erected, too. Joe Bassett +gave more attention to the building of that shack than he did to the +plans for the bungalow.</p> + +<p>"Business before pleasure," said the young man. "I've learned that +lesson."</p> + +<p>"There is something in Joe Bassett," Carolyn's father observed to his +wife. "I didn't think much of him at first. In spite of the shadow that +overhung his character, though, I believe you, Hannah, thought well of +him."</p> + +<p>"I could not believe that Joe Bassett was what his father said he was," +Carolyn's mother said softly.</p> + +<p>"Well, guess the Griffin is sorry enough now that he ever said it, or +ever believed it. He thought that nobody but he or Joe could open that +library safe; but Inness was smarter than he knew. He had duplicate +keys and copies of the combinations of safe-locks. He had been sifting +the most secret matters of the elder Bassett for years. And he went +free after all!</p> + +<p>"That was bad. But I don't suppose Mr. Bassett could bring himself to +giving us newspaper chaps such a fat bit of news as it would have been. +Well, all's well that ends well!"</p> + +<p>"But all wells don't end well," interposed Carolyn, who had only heard +and understood a part of what her father said. "You see, there's Uncle +Smith Dodge's well. He's been digging it, off an' on Aunt Ardelia says, +ever since they was married; and that was an <i>awful</i> long time ago. +And he ain't never struck water yet, 'ceptin' when it rains into it. +It does seem, she says, Aunt Ardelia does, that a woman could ha' done +better—or she'd a-filled up the hole!"</p> + +<p>"Carolyn May!" gasped Mamma Cameron. "It is time we take the child +back, Papa Cameron, or I am very much afraid she'll never speak English +again."</p> + +<p>Papa Cameron only laughed, and said:</p> + +<p>"Snuggy, you are a budding feminist, without a doubt." But Carolyn May +did not know what that meant.</p> + + +<p class="ph3">THE END</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> See "Carolyn of the Corners."</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph3">[Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation left as printed.]</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75509 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75509-h/images/cover.jpg b/75509-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc79f3b --- /dev/null +++ b/75509-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75509-h/images/illus1.jpg b/75509-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbf0d3a --- /dev/null +++ b/75509-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/75509-h/images/illus2.jpg b/75509-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c9577c --- /dev/null +++ b/75509-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/75509-h/images/illus3.jpg b/75509-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c494c6c --- /dev/null +++ b/75509-h/images/illus3.jpg diff --git a/75509-h/images/illus4.jpg b/75509-h/images/illus4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c39a3f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/75509-h/images/illus4.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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