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diff --git a/75755-0.txt b/75755-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..775faaa --- /dev/null +++ b/75755-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4924 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75755 *** + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: She jumped and looked up and directly into the grey +eyes of the mysterious boy. (_See Page 68_)] + + + + JANET + + A TWIN + + + BY + + DOROTHY WHITEHILL + + + + ILLUSTRATED BY + THELMA GOOCH + + + + GROSSET & DUNLAP + PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + + + + Copyright, 1920, + by + BARSE & CO. + + + MADE IN U. S. A. + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER + + I A Glimpse of Janet + II On the Widows' Wale + III Mrs. Todd Intervenes + IV Janet's Kingdom + V Nor Like Other Girls + VI The Fair + VII A Stranger in the Kingdom + VIII Under Arrest + IX The Mysterious Owner + X Peter + XI Another Letter + XII Janet's Passenger + XIII The Greatest Surprise in the World + XIV A Long Day + XV The Day at Last + XVI A Day Together + XVII At The Rectory for Tea + XVIII A Full Cup of Happiness + XIX Twins Indeed + XX Good-By + XXI Conclusion + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +She jumped and looked up and directly into the gray eyes of the +mysterious boy ... _Frontispiece_ + +For a long minute there was silence, and then Mrs. Page did something +she was rarely ever seen to do; she smiled + +"You're not teasing me, are you?" she asked, and her voice trembled + +A keen observer might have thought it odd that he chose the blue +chiffon dress to rub against instead of the white one + + + + +JANET, A TWIN + + + +CHAPTER I + +A GLIMPSE OF JANET + +It was an every-day sort of a looking road, broad and dusty and flat. +It ran straight across the landscape and ended abruptly in a merger +of blue sky and sparkling sea. On either side of it sandy soil +dotted with clusters of dwarfed scrub oaks stretched out into +limitless space. There was an uninteresting sameness about its sunny +dustiness that discouraged all hope of adventure. + +But on a late September afternoon it was the setting of a little +scene that marked the turning place in the life of Janet Page. + +The drowsy quiet was broken first by the short, excited bark of a +dog, a crackle of leaves and a snapping of twigs in the scrub oak, +and then several things happened in quick succession. + +A long snake scuttled into the road, a wiry little Irish terrier +bounded after it, followed by a whirling fury of starched petticoats, +long slender legs and an immense red bow. + +This was Janet. + +A tiny cloud of dust curtained them all for a minute; when it +settled, it disclosed a rigid tableau. Janet held the dog's collar +in one strong little brown hand, and with the other and the aid of +one foot she grasped the snake. + +"Do something!" she demanded excitedly, as she turned angry eyes +toward a fat, roly-poly figure that still remained partially hidden +by the scrub oak, watching the scene with an expression of fear and +distaste in his pale blue eyes. + +This was Harry Waters. + +"What do you want me to do?" he asked sulkily. + +Janet was too much occupied to look at him, but her voice expressed +the contempt she felt. + +"You might take Boru," she suggested. + +Harry made a wide detour and, snatching the dog, retreated hurriedly +back to the side of the road. + +"You're not going to kill him," he said nervously, and he pointed a +trembling finger at the wriggling snake. + +For answer, Janet picked up a large stone. Harry turned his face +away. He wanted to put his fingers in his ears so that he would not +hear the soft thud that followed, but the frantic dog made that +impossible. + +"Come on back," Janet said at last; "he's quite dead, and I've thrown +him into the bushes, so you won't even have to look at him." Her +voice sounded very grown up and patronizing, and Harry justly +resented it. + +"Now look here, Janet Page," he exploded; "you needn't put on airs. +It's not such a big thing to kill a snake anyway," he finished +lamely. "I could have done it only I didn't see any sense in it; +even if it had bitten Boru, it wouldn't have hurt him any." Harry +was trying hard to justify an act that he hardly understood himself. +He was a nice boy, two years Janet's senior, and until to-day he had +never let her forget his advantage. + +He tried to assert it now. + +"You see, I'm older than you are and I've got lots more sense. I +knew that a snake like that couldn't really hurt a dog and so I +just--" He paused, and under Janet's cool gaze he blushed very +slowly, right up to the roots of his hair. + +"Why don't you tell the truth?" she asked quietly. "You know you are +afraid of snakes." + +"Well, what if I am?" Harry shifted his feet uncomfortably. "I +can't help it, can I? Anyway, your grandmother says--" + +"Never mind what my grandmother says," Janet interrupted angrily. "I +know it all by heart. She says you are a very mannerly little boy; +that's because you never forget to take off your hat when you go into +her room. And she says you're respectful; that's because you always +say 'yes, ma'm; no ma'm; thank you, ma'm,' and she says you always +look tidy, and that's because you never climb trees and always wear +shoes and stockings, no matter how hot it is, and--" + +"Can't help it if my mother makes me, can I?" Harry blazed out. + +Janet paused to consider. + +"No, I don't suppose you can," she said at last; "only somehow I wish +you were different." Her gaze traveled slowly from his round-toed +boots to his neatly brushed hair; a dreamy look came into her eyes, +and the little flecks of gold in the soft-brown iris caught the sun's +rays and glistened. She sighed profoundly. + +"But if you couldn't kill a snake," she said, speaking more to +herself than to him, "why, you couldn't ever kill a dragon, you see; +nor ride a coal-black charger, nor fight for your lady's favor--" +Her brow wrinkled in a puzzled frown, but it cleared almost at once. +"I was forgetting," she laughed; "you wouldn't want to anyway, so it +doesn't matter; that is, not so very much." + +She looked around her for Boru; he was busily investigating the +remains of the snake in the bushes, but at her whistle he trotted +obediently to her heel, and together they walked off down the road. + +Harry, after a miserable minute of indecision, followed. + +They walked in silence, Janet a little ahead, until they reached the +road that ran along the waterfront and passed the white gate of the +old Page house. + +"Aren't you going to go with me any more!" Harry asked forlornly. + +Janet stopped and looked at him. + +"Maybe." + +"When?" + +"Don't know." + +"Well, I don't care if you don't; you're just a girl anyway." +Harry's lip trembled ever so slightly and he turned on his heel and +hurried off, trying to hold his head high. + +Janet swung on the gate for a few minutes and watched him until a +bend in the road hid him from view, then she went up the long flight +of stone steps. + +The Page house crowned the terrace above. It was big, somber and +very old. To Janet it seemed to be very tired, too, as though it had +waited and watched a long time for the sea, whose waves beat +incessantly on the shore below, to yield some secret now long +forgotten by the living world. + +Four stern columns guarded the square porch and the old-fashioned, +ivory-white door with its leaded fan lights and heavy knocker. Janet +slipped noiselessly into the wide hall that reflected the glow of +polished mahogany and soft afternoon sunlight. Just as she tiptoed +across the thick rag rugs and was half way up the stairs, the big +grandfather clock boomed three, and as if in echo to it a voice, +quavering but still clear and penetrating, called: + +"Is that you, Janet?" + +Janet had a sudden and unheard of wish not to answer, but she +conquered it and replied at once: + +"Yes, grandmother, it's me." Before the words had had time to float +down the stairs she was conscious of her mistake. "Drat the personal +pronoun anyway," she said to herself; "now I will catch it." + +"Janet, I called you," the voice came again, and Janet started +guiltily. + +"I'm coming, grandmother," she answered, and walked primly back +downstairs. + +Mrs. Page's room was on the first floor at the back of the house away +from the sea and overlooking a trim little garden. An old-fashioned +sleigh bed stood between the windows, and in the very middle of it a +little old lady, wearing an immense cap, sat propped up against half +a dozen pillows. + +This was Mrs. Page, Janet's grandmother. She was perhaps the most +feared and certainly the most respected woman in Old Chester, and +although she had been bedridden for as many years as Janet could +remember she took a lively interest in the affairs of the community, +and no important step was ever taken until Cap'n Page's widow was +consulted. Her advice had a way of sounding very much like a command. + +Janet knew the room by heart. She could have told the location of +everything in it with her eyes blindfolded, so she wasted no time in +looking about her but went straight up to the bed and sat down on the +low chair, where all Mrs. Page's callers sat. It was placed so that +she could see them without twisting her neck; a thing she +particularly disliked having to do. + +"You called me, grandmother?" + +Two steely blue eyes opened slowly, and seemed to bore into the soft +depth of Janet's brown ones. + +"I did; there can be no doubt of that; nor, I may add, of your reply." + +For perhaps the first time in her life Janet interrupted her. + +"I know I said me instead of I, but I was thinking of something else +and I forgot," she exclaimed impatiently. + +"And may I ask what you were thinking of?" Mrs. Page inquired in +surprise. + +Janet frowned and shook her head. "It's not the slightest use to, +for you'd never, never understand. You see, it was something +entirely different from all this." She looked around the immaculate +room and shook her head again, this time in despair. + +Mrs. Page lifted herself on to one elbow and looked at her +grand-daughter carefully for a full minute. + +"Janet," she said severely, "what has come over you?" + +There was a long pause, for Janet did not reply. She was watching a +butterfly out in the garden and trying to decide what it was he was +whispering to that big floppy rose. + +Mrs. Page settled back into her pillows and pulled the coverlet well +up under her chin. + +"You may go," she said, pointing a bony finger toward the door. "I +am about to write to your brother. I regret that I will have to tell +him that you are not only careless but rude." + +"Yes, grandmother." Janet stood up, and after she had carefully +straightened the chair upon which she had been sitting she walked +quietly out of the room. + +Once in the hall, with the door closed, a tiny sigh escaped her. She +leaned up against the old clock and stared at a patch of sunlight on +the rug; Two big round tears rolled down her cheeks unnoticed. + +Boru came over inquisitively from his place by the stairs and licked +her hand. She dropped to her knees beside him and hugged him +impulsively. + +"Come along, old fellow," she whispered. "Let's go up to the +'widow's walk' and think it all out. I guess grandmother is right; +something has come over me." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ON THE WIDOWS' WALK + +"But just what is it?" she mused a few minutes later, as she settled +herself comfortably and pulled Boru's shaggy head down to her knee. + +The "widows' walk" was Janet's favorite place in which to think +things out, for it was on the flat roof of the house, away from any +possible interruptions. Martha, the old servant, had long ago given +up attempting the rickety stairs that led to it. It was in itself a +rather dangerous spot. Many of the boards that went to make the +platform were broken or badly rotted from long exposure to wind and +rain. The railing that ran around it was in the last stage of decay. +But there was something about it, perhaps the feeling of being up +among the tree tops, that made Janet disregard its dangers. + +As a rule, she was content to sit and gaze out to sea and "pretend." +The name, "widows' walk," opened up so many avenues of imaginings. +She often saw the ghosts of the poor distracted women of long ago, +pacing up and down, their eyes always turned toward the sea, +searching for a familiar masthead. Old Chester had once been a +famous fishing village, and the roof of every house along the shore +was topped by some sort of observatory. Sometimes it was a square +glass cupola, but more often it was a wooden walk, such as crowned +the Page house, and because in so many, many cases the looked-for +boats never did return to harbor, these walks unhappily came to be +called "widows' walks." + +To-day, however, Janet had no time for fancy. Something inside her +head and her heart was demanding to be put into words. + +"I wonder what is the matter with me!" she said again. "I feel +awfully different. I suppose I'm unhappy. Am I, do you think!" + +If any one had accused Janet of talking to herself she would have +resented it hotly, but it was characteristic of her to pour out her +troubles to the ever-patient and understanding Boru. + +"I'm lonely, for one thing," she confided as she pulled one velvety +soft ear. "Of course any one but you would say that was silly, for I +have Harry to play with, and then there are the Blake children." Two +well-behaved, very clean and very shiny girls filled her imagination +for an instant, but she dismissed them with a frown. "They don't +count, because they simply won't play the way I want to. Harry is a +boy, and I do--no, I did like him a little better, but you know, old +fellow, that after the way he acted to-day about the snake, I +just--well, he is a scare-cat and that's all there is about it." + +Boru's eyes, almost as brown as his mistress's, looked up in solemn +confirmation of her last remark. + +Her thoughts wandered for a minute and then came back to the original +idea. + +"I guess lonely isn't just exactly the word, but it's something a lot +like it. I want some one to be with who is more like me--" She +broke off suddenly, "I wish I had a sister," she whispered softly. +Her arm tightened around Boru's neck, and she buried her head in his +shaggy coat. Then quite suddenly she sat bolt upright, and her eyes +flashed. "I'm mad, too; mad all the way through at everything and +everybody except you,"--Boru acknowledged the exception with an +affectionate lick--"and I think the person I'm the very maddest at is +my big brother Thomas. He's not a bit the kind of a brother to +have." She jumped up suddenly, and the breeze coming in from the +water took the skirt of her gingham dress and flapped it as it would +a sail. + +"Boru, do you know what I am going to do!" she demanded very +seriously. + +Boru was a little surprised and disturbed at being so unceremoniously +upset but he cocked one ear expectantly. + +"I'm going to write and tell him so," she announced defiantly. + +Her determination did not leave her even when she was seated at her +big desk, where everything was arranged in perfect order for letter +writing. Janet had written her brother at stated intervals during +her thirteen years, but each and every letter had always been +carefully read and corrected by her grandmother. Stiff and formal +notes were the result. As for answers, she had never received any, +as far back as she could remember, but a brief typewritten note +reached her grandmother twice a year and stated, rather than said, +that Thomas was well and that the ranch in far-away Arizona was as +successful as could be expected under the conditions of the present +year. True, he never forgot to send his love to Janet, but Janet, +from early childhood, had had a very decided idea about that sort of +love. To-day she meant to make that idea known. + +With a great deal of care and precision she selected an especially +clean sheet of paper and a square and very businesslike envelope, put +a new gold pen in her penholder and set to work. The first words she +wrote were "Dear Thomas," then she stopped. There were so many +things she wanted to say. She looked to Boru for inspiration He was +gazing thoughtfully at a fly that was crawling along the floor; the +instant it started to fly he pounced on it. Janet laughed. "Thanks, +Boru; that is just what I'll do myself; I'll gobble Thomas up all at +once." She turned back to her desk and wrote under the "Dear Thomas: + + +"I have been meaning to write to you for ever so long and to say just +what I wanted to, and so I might as well tell you right away that +grandmother is not going to see this letter at all. It's just from +me to you, and I'm not going to be particular about grammar or blots. +The most 'special things I have to say are all questions, and then +some other things that are not very nice. Perhaps I'd better start +with those. The first one is that I think you would be a lot nicer +if you called yourself Tom or Tommy, instead of Thomas. Of course I +don't know what you look like, for the only picture we have of you is +a baby one that I know you would perfectly hate, but I think you are +short and frown a lot, and I hope you haven't a beard but I'm afraid +you have. I just told Boru, that's my dog, but you probably wouldn't +like him, that you were not a bit what a big brother ought to be, and +I really don't think you are, and I might as well say that you would +have been much more of a comfort to me if you'd been a sister. + +"The questions I want to ask you are: What do you do in Arizona, and +are you ever coming home, and do you ride horseback, and don't you +like to be with lots of people instead of just with a few that some +one else chooses for you, and what would you think of a boy who was +afraid of snakes? If you say that he's a sensible boy--that's what +grandmother would say--I'll never like you, never. + +"If I only knew you and you were nice like the boys in the books I +read, how many things we could talk over! I could ask you about all +the things that really matter--the things that grandmother won't even +let me mention. Thomas, I'm really not too young to be told things. +I'd grow up all in a minute if I could be with girls my own age. But +I don't expect you'll understand, so I won't write any more. I've +said some of the things I wanted to and that makes me feel a little +tit better." + + +She hesitated over the ending, and finally decided just to sign her +name. Then without reading over what she had written, lest her +resolve weaken, she folded up the paper and put it into its envelope. + +Boru's tail thumping on the floor made her conscious of steps outside +her door, and she hastily finished writing the address and slipped +the letter into her pocket just as Martha opened her door. + +"Now, Miss Janet, not dressed for your tea, and it almost six +o'clock, and Mrs. Waters with your grandmother and wanting to see +you! Tut, tut!" Martha shook her gray head in real despair. She +was a kindly old woman, who had served faithfully all her life, but +because it was so simple for her to do what was expected of her +always she had never understood how hard it was sometimes for others; +but she was never cross and usually contented herself with saying, +"Tut, tut!" in her mild old voice at all Janet's failings. + +"What does Mrs. Waters want me for?" Janet asked. A vision of +Harry's mother retailing the afternoon's adventure with the snake +made her heart sink. + +"I couldn't say, my dear," Martha replied placidly. "Your +grandmother sent me to get you. Here now, brush up your hair a bit. +Are your hands clean?" + +Janet submitted to being tidied up, and then hurried downstairs to +her grandmother's room. + +Mrs. Waters was seated in the visitor's chair, her back to the door, +but she turned around as Janet entered and smiled a welcome. Mrs. +Page spoke: + +"Janet, what is all this I hear about your knowing how to take care +of sick dogs?" she inquired crossly. + +Janet hesitated. She did know a good deal about the care of all +animals, but she was at a loss as to how to explain her knowledge to +her grandmother. + +"Well, do you or don't you know anything about them?" Mrs. Page +insisted impatiently. + +"Yes, I do know about them." Janet's reply came so quickly that it +surprised herself. + +Her grandmother looked at her for a long minute and then nodded her +head. "Very well; go with Mrs. Waters and do what you can for her +dog," she said sharply, and then to indicate that the interview was +at an end she turned her back on her visitors. + +Mrs. Waters took Janet's arm and hurried out of the room. She was a +timid little woman, very easily silenced, and she still spoke in a +half whisper when they were out of the house. + +"It's Roy, my dear, our English setter; he has hurt his paw, and the +veterinary is away," she explained. + +Janet gave a mighty sigh of relief. Harry had not told tales. She +smiled at his mother reassuringly. + +"Poor old fellow. I hope I can do something to help him." + +"Oh, I'm sure you can. Harry says you are wonderful with animals," +Mrs. Waters replied. "Roy is such a valuable dog," she added. + +They reached the Waters' cottage, just off the main street of the +little village, and Janet followed Mrs. Waters around to the barn. +Before the door was opened, she could hear the low moan of an animal +in pain. Once inside, she knelt down beside Roy and patted him. He +gave her the affectionate welcome, always awarded a true dog lover. + +She examined his paw and found the trouble to be a deeply embedded +splinter. + +"May I have a darning needle? she asked. Mrs. Waters hurried to the +house to get it. Janet busied herself filling a basin with clear +spring water, and she took the towel from its roller on the kitchen +porch. + +"Here it is, my dear," Mrs. Waters said, "and a bottle of peroxide. +You don't mind if I don't stay, do you! I'd be sure to faint." + +Janet smiled. "No indeed. I can get along quite well alone," she +said, and knelt to her task. + +For the next few minutes she was absorbed in her work. The splinter +was in deep, and it was hard to make Roy lie still. She was about to +give up in despair when a voice, almost at her elbow, said: + +"Here, let me help." + +She turned quickly, startled, and saw a boy about fifteen, very +shabbily dressed in old blue overalls and a torn straw hat. His +hair, burnt by the sun, was almost red, and his eyes were a clear +gray. Janet was too astonished to speak, but with a nod she accepted +his offer to help, and they worked in silence until the splinter was +out and the wound carefully bathed. + +"I guess I'll let him lick it," Janet said, putting aside the bandage +Mrs. Waters had given her. The boy nodded. + +"Best way," he said. "Do you know horses as well as dogs!" he +inquired slowly. + +"No, we haven't any, you see," Janet replied, as she gathered up the +things and started for the house. + +"Too bad." The boy spoke with a drawl that had nothing of laziness +in it but a good deal of dreamy calculation. He leaned over and +patted Roy. "Good night, old fellow," he said, and without a word +more to Janet he disappeared as quietly as he had come. + +Janet went on into the house, wondering who he could be, but for some +reason she did not ask Mrs. Waters, perhaps because that good lady +was too busy thanking her. + +"I think you are so clever, dearie," she said warmly. "I wonder +where Harry can be. It's dark, and he ought to see you home." + +"Oh, don't bother Harry," Janet protested. "I'll run all the way and +I'll be there in no time. I'll be down to see Roy to-morrow." + +As soon as she was out of sight of the cottage she did run. It was +quite chilly, and the salt wind in her face made her blood tingle, +and all the worries of the day faded away with the last glow of the +sunset. It was not until she was undressing for bed, several hours +later, that she remembered her letter. Her time had been taken up +thinking about the strange boy who had come so quietly to her aid. +When she went to the pocket of her dress to look for it, it was not +there. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MRS. TODD INTERVENES + +"What are you in such a hurry with your breakfast for, child?" +Martha, her hands on her big hips, stood in the doorway between the +dining-room and the kitchen, and looked at Janet with mild curiosity. + +It was a gray, misty morning, with a salty taste and feel to +everything. Janet looked up from her place where, with the +assistance of Boru, she was finishing the last strip of bacon on her +plate. + +"I want to go over to the Waters' to see how Roy is," she explained +only half truthfully, for her thoughts were almost entirely centered +on the hope of finding the letter she had lost the night before. + +"Well, dearie me, that's no reason for bolting your food," Martha +protested, but she let the matter drop and went back into her kitchen. + +Without waiting to stop at her grandmother's room, Janet hurried out +of the house and started for the village. She kept her eyes on the +road, but the Waters' cottage was reached without a sign of the +missing white envelope. + +Harry was lurking in the doorway of the barn, and Janet called a +cheery greeting to him. There was no sign of the boy with the torn +straw hat. + +"How's my patient" she asked. + +"Ah, he's all right." Harry was still a little resentful, for he was +thinking of the snake. Janet had completely forgotten it. + +Roy, at the first sound of her voice, got up from his place in the +hay and wagged his tail. Janet knelt and inspected the paw. + +"It's a whole lot better, isn't it, old fellow?" she asked as she +patted him. "Keep it clean and don't walk on it," she advised +seriously. + +Harry, watching her, laughed. + +"You'd think Roy was a human being to hear you go on. He doesn't +know what you're talking about," he said. + +Janet did not reply, but she smiled into the dog's eyes, and Harry +had an uncomfortable feeling that they were both laughing at him. + +As she talked, Janet made a careful search for the letter but it was +nowhere to be seen, and with a sinking feeling at her heart she +realized that some one must have found it. But whom? She knelt on +the floor beside Roy, and the thought worried her brain. If Mrs. +Waters had it she would, of course, take it to Mrs. Page and +then--she shrugged her shoulders. It was foolish to worry over it +anyway, until something happened. It would be a simple matter to +write another, but somehow the spirit that had prompted her to revolt +the day before was gone. + +"What are you doing anyway?"--Harry interrupted her musings. She +gave a characteristic little shrug and jumped up. + +"Nothing much," she replied, laughing. + +Harry had been doing some thinking himself for the last few minutes, +and he had come to the decision that it never paid to get mad at +Janet, for no matter how cross you acted she never even bothered to +notice you. So it was with a very different tone of voice that he +asked as she started for home: + +"Do you care if I go along with you?" + +"No, come on if you want to," Janet replied, and together they walked +down the path. + +"Let's stop at the post office," Janet suggested, her thoughts, in +spite of her determination to forget it, still on the letter. + +As they neared the little, low, red-brick building almost covered by +dark green ivy that served as post office and general store for Old +Chester, they noticed a horse and cart with bright yellow wheels +drawn up at the curb. The harness was new and shining, and the +horse, a beautiful sorrel with slender legs, tossed his head +impatiently. + +"Why, who does that belong to?" Janet exclaimed. + +"Dunno," Harry was not particularly interested. "Guess it's Mrs. +Todd's. I heard mother talking about her last night. She is +visiting at the rectory, 'cause she's a cousin or something of Mrs. +Blake's." The door of the post office opened and he lowered his +voice. "Here she comes now." + +Janet looked up and saw a tall, mannish-looking woman, dressed in a +rough serge suit and heavy boots, coming toward them. She had on a +soft gray felt hat without any trimming, and she carried a market +basket over her arm. Her eyes were small but they were so very blue +and penetrating that Janet felt they must be making holes in the back +of her head. + +"Hello, whose children are you?" she demanded rather than asked as +she put her basket into the cart She turned to Harry. "You're Harry +Waters. I know but you." She scrutinized Janet, and suddenly her +face softened and she put one big hand on her slender shoulder. + +"You're a Page," she said. "The Pages all have straight short noses. +Wait a minute and let me think. Haven't you a sister?" + +Janet shook her head and smiled. It was a merry smile, for she +suddenly realized that she liked this queer, outspoken woman very +much. + +"No, I haven't a sister," she replied. "I wish I had. I have a +brother and a grandmother, and I think that's all, except Boru." She +looked down at the dog who was sniffing at the stranger's skirts. +"Your horse is a beauty," she added shyly. + +"Like him? So do I. Suppose you drive me home; that is, to the +rectory. I am staying there, and my name is Ann Todd. Here you are! +Jump in, Harry. If you can wind up those fat legs of yours you will +just fit in the back." + +Janet had hard work not to show her surprise, for it was even greater +than her delight. She had never, in all her short life, met any one +who out off their sentences as though they were clipping threads and +who made up their minds so quickly. + +They reached the rectory before she could think of anything to say, +and then all she could stammer was, "Oh, thank you ever so much; it +was simply thrilling." + +Alice and Mildred Blake were sitting in the tiny little flower +garden, both busy with yards of green bunting which they were sewing +together in long strips. They looked up in surprise as they saw +Janet and Harry. + +"Oh, Janet, will your grandmother really let you; isn't that +wonderful!" they exclaimed. + +Janet was utterly bewildered. "What are you talking about!" she +demanded. "Will my grandmother let me do what!" + +Alice and Mildred looked at each other in confusion, and then at Mrs. +Todd. + +"We thought--" Alice began. + +"Cousin Ann and mother said--" finished Mildred. + +Mrs. Todd laughed heartily at their embarrassment and put her arm +around Janet. + +"Perhaps I can explain," she said. "The girls are talking about the +church fair. Their mother said something last night about your +grandmother's never letting you take any part in it, and I said that +I would undertake to see that you came this year, and so I will." +Her jaw snapped with such decision as she said these words that Janet +almost jumped. + +"That's awfully nice of you," she replied politely, "but +grandmother's mind is rather hard to change. I never try." + +"Why won't she let you?" Alice asked timidly. + +"I hardly remember,"--Janet laughed. "It's so long since I ceased to +come. I was ten then and I thought it would be such fun, but--well, +I didn't, and I've never asked since. I think being out late was one +of the reasons." + +"Humph!" was all Mrs. Todd had to say, but a few minutes later she +offered to drive Janet home. + +"And I'll stop in and say 'how do you do,' too, while I'm there," she +decided. + +On the way, as they bowled along the soft sandy road, Janet worried a +little. It was luncheon time, and her grandmother never saw visitors +until after three o'clock, but it would be quite useless even to try +to explain this to Mrs. Todd, for in her own way she was just as +positive and determined as the eccentric Mrs. Page. + +"Grim as ever,"--Mrs. Todd laughed as the house came into view. +"It's twenty years since I opened that front door but, bless my soul, +I know that everything is going to be just the same." + +"Why, did you ever live here!" Janet looked at her companion in +surprise. + +"I did, and I was in this house almost as much as I was in my own. +Your father and I were the best of friends." + +"Oh!" was all Janet had time to say, before Martha appeared at the +door. + +Mrs. Todd nodded to her and tied the horse to the garden gate and +walked slowly up the narrow, moss-grown walk, a whimsical smile on +her thin face. + +Martha was speechless, and Janet had to laugh as she watched her curl +one end of her apron into a hard little knot. + +"Well, Martha,"--Mrs. Todd held out her hand--"don't look as though +you had seen a ghost." + +Martha managed to say something, but she was quite powerless to stop +the visitor from striding into the house and walking unannounced into +Mrs. Page's room. + +Janet sat down on the stone seat in the garden and waited. Boru +stretched out on the path at her feet and panted after his run. Not +a sound came from the house. + +Janet did not try to imagine what was going on in her grandmother's +room. She was conscious that a big change had come into her life, +and she dimly realized that in the future she would spend more time +in thinking than she had ever spent before. It seemed as though she +was conscious of the world around her, and instead of just accepting +it she felt that she was a part of it. + +"Janet Page," she said aloud, and stared hard at the old sun-dial. +Suddenly Boru barked, and she jumped as though she had been wakened +from a dream. The dog rushed to the corner of the garden, and Janet +looked up just in time to see the rim of a torn straw hat disappear +over the wall. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +JANET'S KINGDOM + +Janet did not have time to investigate further, for at that moment +Martha beckoned her mysteriously into the house. It was plain to be +seen that the old servant was greatly disturbed. + +"What's the matter!" Janet inquired in a whisper, for she caught some +of the suspense. + +"Oh, Miss Janet, whatever shall we do?" Martha exclaimed. "Mrs. Todd +walked into your grandmother's room, and they have been arguing ever +since. Your grandmother will have a turn I know, and yet I don't +dare to interrupt them. What shall I do?" + +It was a proof of the Great Change to be consulted, and Janet smiled +with something like pride. + +"I shouldn't do anything if I were you," she replied quietly. +"Perhaps they are not arguing any more. They may just be talking; +they're old friends, you know." + +Martha shot a quick glance toward the closed door. "Old friends," +she said, and then, thinking better of it, she did not finish the +sentence, but said instead, "Sit down to your luncheon, child, do; +it's getting cold and there's no reason to wait." + +Janet nodded and went into the dining-room. She took a long time +over her chops and sweet potatoes, but she finished without hearing +the door to her grandmother's room open. + +Martha was almost in tears. "Your grandmother has had no luncheon," +she protested. "Dearie me, what shall I do?" + +"Take my advice and wait until she calls you," Janet advised. "You +know she doesn't like to be disturbed. I'm going out," she added. +"No, Boru, you can't come to-day; stay home, like a good dog." + +Boru buried his head in his paws and with a very mournful expression +watched her leave. He knew that there was one mysterious place to +which he was never allowed to accompany his mistress, and he resented +it. He was right in guessing that she was going there to-day. + +Janet left the house by the door that led to the steps and down to +the sea road. The water looked sparkling blue and inviting, and she +hurried along until she came to a small dock, very much the worse for +age. She untied a row boat and found two broken oars that were +hidden in the tall grass beside the road. There was no one in sight +as she pushed off, and only a few sails were visible flapping smartly +out beyond the harbor. + +Her cheeks were flushed as she sent the old boat skimming over the +water, for she was on her way to her secret kingdom. Though she had +sailed to it many times there was always the chance of discovery, and +that added zest to the adventure. + +The point of land toward which she was heading was quite a distance +off, and looked to be rather a desolate island. It was, in reality, +however, a part of the mainland, for the bay came in, and the land +around it was shaped like a big hook. There were a few fishing huts +along the shore, and farther inland low farms nestled into the hills. + +Janet chose a certain cove to land in and pulled her boat safely up +on shore, and then she started off at a brisk walk. At this +particular point of the beach the sand dunes were very high, and she +was screened from sight except from the water front. She walked for +about a quarter of a mile and then began to climb. Up above her on a +rising knoll of ground a little way beyond the sand dunes was an old +gray house. It was large and very rambling, but it was tumbling +down. The roof sagged at one end, and the two big chimneys were +crumbling to ruin. There was not a sign of life anywhere about it or +in the many ramshackled farm buildings that evidently belonged to it. +All the windows were boarded up but one, a very small one that led +into the cellar. Janet pushed it open gently and slid down as far as +she could and then dropped. It was very dark and very musty. She +groped her way to the rickety stairs as quickly as she could. The +door at the top opened with a groan as she pushed, and she was in a +long, low-ceilinged kitchen. Rain had come down through the leaky +roof and rusted the stove, the furniture was covered with dust, and a +forlorn china cup with its handle broken lay dejectedly on one corner +of the table. + +Janet glanced hurriedly about her, to make sure that no one had been +in the room since she had, and then hurried into the front hall. +Some heavy pieces of furniture were partly covered by torn and dirty +sheets; they looked like ghosts in the dim light that filtered in +through the boarded windows. Janet, in spite of the many times that +she had passed them, could not repress a shiver, and she gave a sigh +of relief as she closed the door of another room behind her. She was +in her kingdom at last, and she surveyed it with sparkling eyes. It +was a long room with a low ceiling that ran the length of the house. +In the center along one side was a huge fireplace. Each one of the +six windows had a broad window seat. There was very little +furniture, and none of it was covered by dust sheets. In +consequence, the stuffing was coming out of several of the chairs and +a puddle of water had sopped into the big horsehair sofa. The only +human looking thing in the room was a pair of gloves on one end of +the table. They were badly mildewed and they looked very limp and +lifeless, but they had belonged to some one of the mysterious owners +of the house, and Janet always nodded to them with mock respect. It +was the books that made the room a kingdom. Rows and rows of them +lined the walls from floor to ceiling. Some of them were damp and +moldy but they were all readable, and that was all that mattered to +Janet, though she sometimes cried over a broken binding and patted it +quite as she would have stroked a hurt puppy. + +"Well, my darlings, I have come back to you," she said as she slipped +to her knees before a corner bookcase, "and I want you to be very +kind to me and take me far, far away to--" She let her hand wander +over the backs of the books until it rested on one, "Greece," she +finished, as she read the title. + +She made herself as comfortable as possible in one of the window +seats, and for an hour she was so engrossed in the old fables and the +stirring tales of the gods that she forgot the time. It was only +when the light through the chink of the boarding grew too dim to see +that she realized with a start that it was getting late. + +"And I never looked up about Roy's paw in that animal book!" she +exclaimed. Had Mrs. Page heard her, she might have understood where +she had learned so much about the care of dogs. + +Janet hurriedly put her book back and went to the bookcase across the +room to find what she wanted. + +"That's funny," she said. "I thought I left it--why, I did; here's +the place where it belongs." An empty hole on the bottom shelf +confronted her, and looked as if the smiling row had lost a tooth. + +Without exactly knowing why, Janet was frightened. She had looked +upon this room as so particularly hers for so long that there was +something uncanny in the thought that some one else had dared to +trespass. + +"Perhaps I put it back somewhere else." She tried to comfort herself +with this thought, but she could not get rid of the queer feeling +that some other hands were touching her loves, and that other eyes +were seeing into her enchanted pages. + +She puzzled over it as she rowed home, but it was impossible to come +to any conclusion. + +Martha was waiting for her in the hall; her face was even whiter than +it had been earlier in the day. + +"Miss Janet, you're back, thank goodness; your grandmother has been +calling for you all afternoon." + +"When did Mrs. Todd leave!" Janet enquired. + +"She hasn't left at all," Martha gasped. "She's sat in there the +whole blessed day. Only an hour ago she came into my kitchen as +smiling as you please, and said she and Mrs. Page would have a cup of +tea and some toast and jam. I took it in, and, well, Miss Janet, +it's beyond me; indeed it is!" + +"But, Martha, why shouldn't they have tea? Grandmother always has it +for her guests." Janet laughed. + +Martha sighed profoundly. + +"If you knew all that I know of those two and then to see them +smiling and laughing together," Martha shook her head, unable to give +vent to her feelings in mere words. + +Janet raced upstairs and changed her dress, and in a very few minutes +she was knocking at her grandmother's door. + +"Oh, it's you, is it, dear child!" Mrs. Todd called as she entered. +"I was hoping you would get back in time to drive me home." + +"Ann, don't presume too far," Mrs. Page said tartly. "Janet, where +have you been?" + +Janet decided that the change in her grandmother was not as great as +Martha had led her to suppose, so she answered as she always did. + +"I have been out most of the time." + +"To whom are you speaking!" Mrs. Page inquired. + +Janet sighed and blushed a little; it was not like her grandmother to +find fault before people. + +"I'm sorry, 'I have been out most of the time, grandmother,'" she +corrected, but a second later she almost laughed aloud for she was +sure she had heard Mrs. Todd say "fiddlesticks" under her breath. + +"I wanted you all afternoon," Mrs. Page went on. "However, we will +let that pass. Mrs. Todd wishes you to help this year at the church +fair and I have given my consent under one condition--that you are +home here by nine o'clock." + +"Ten," corrected Mrs. Todd crisply. + +"What did you say, Ann?" Mrs. Page's eyes flashed. + +"I said ten," Mrs. Todd repeated. "Ten was the hour we agreed on. +And now I must be going, as my eyes are not what they used to be and +these new roads puzzle me. I must ask you to let Janet drive me +home." + +For a long minute there was silence, and then Mrs. Page did something +she was rarely ever seen to do; she smiled. + +[Illustration: For a long minute there was silence, and then Mrs. +Page did sometning she was rarely ever seen to do; she smiled.] + +"You are a very smart woman, Ann Todd, and I'm a very old one. Have +your own way, but remember your promise," she said. + +The drive through the twilight was wonderful, for Mrs. Todd let Janet +do the driving while she sat back and talked. + +"You're a funny youngster," she said when they were half way to the +village. "You haven't asked me a single question." + +"About grandmother, do you mean?" Janet laughed. "I didn't have to. +You see, you made her let me go and that's all that matters." + +"Aren't aren't you curious to know how?" + +Janet shook her head. + +"Well, I'll tell you. I bullied her. + +"Your grandmother is a very remarkable woman," she added after a +silence that lasted until they were turning into the driveway of the +rectory grounds. + +"I think she is too," Janet said loyally, "and every one is sure to +like her when they know and understand her." + +Mrs. Todd got out at the carriage block. "Bless the child," she said +almost tenderly, but a second later, as she was going up the steps, +she said in her usual brisk manner, "Come 'round to-morrow and see +me; we'll have a chat." + +Janet gave the horse over to the hired man and walked slowly home. +She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she reached the end of the +garden wall before she knew it. + +The sound of an automobile made her hurry to the side of the road. +Motors were not very common in Old Chester, for it was away from the +beaten track and the roads were very bad. Janet was a little ashamed +of her interest in them, but she could never resist staring at them. +The one that was approaching now had powerful searchlights, and she +watched them, fascinated. It looked as though they were sweeping +right on to her very feet. Suddenly they fell across the corner of +the garden wall. It was only for a minute, but it was long enough to +illuminate a patch of ground and to bring out into sharp relief a +torn straw hat and a thick book bound in dull blue, embossed with a +gold dog. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS + +"My dear, you look tired out!" Mrs. Blake exclaimed the next morning, +when Janet, very flushed and blown, presented herself at the rectory. +"What have you been doing?" + +"Oh, it's an awfully windy morning, but I'm not really tired," Janet +replied. + +"Yes, it's blowing a gale and it must be hard to walk," Mrs. Blake +agreed. "It's bad enough down here, but it must be dreadful up at +your house. I can't be glad enough that we are not on the shore; the +sound of the waves would depress me so," she added as she gave a +little shudder and held the door open for Janet to come in. + +Janet did not bother to tell her that she had battled with those same +waves in a leaky boat not half an hour ago, for she knew Mrs. Blake +would not understand the importance of replacing a certain book in a +certain shelf, nor would she see anything funny in the sight of a +torn straw hat lying beside a pair of old gloves. But Janet had a +very vivid imagination, and she had rowed over that morning to the +Kingdom in order to replace the animal book and further to confuse +the mysterious boy, she had left his hat on the library table. Her +only regret was that she would not be there to see his expression +when he found it. There could be no doubt now that he knew the +secrets of the deserted house--the hat and book proved it. But +Janet, remembering the look in his gray eyes and the way he had +patted Roy, could not find it in her heart to be angry. + +A bright fire burned in the rectory living room, and Alice and +Mildred were sitting beside it. They were still working over the +green bunting. + +Janet's heart sank. She hated to sew, for her fingers, in spite of +Martha's patient teachings, insisted on acting like thumbs. + +"What would you like to do, my dear?" Mrs. Blake inquired sweetly. +"Will you help the girls or would you rather do something else?" + +"I'll do whatever you like," Janet said hesitatingly, "but I think +perhaps I could do something else better than I could sew. I'm not +very good at sewing, you see." + +Alice and Mildred looked up in shocked surprise. + +"Don't you like to sew?" Mildred said incredulously. + +Janet flushed. "No, I don't," she said bluntly. + +"How odd!" Mildred and Alice exclaimed together. "We love it." + +"Daughters!" Mrs. Blake warned, for she had caught the suggestion of +scorn in their voices, and she was quick to notice Janet's flush. + +At that moment the door from the dining-room opened, and Mrs. Todd +entered. Her cheeks were flushed, and her narrow little eyes seemed +brighter than ever. + +"Morning everybody," she greeted, smiling at Janet. "You look very +cozy in here, but you also look very stuffy. What's the matter, +Janet!" + +"Nothing, only I'm afraid I'm not going to be much of a help," Janet +confessed. "I don't like to sew, you see." Janet always said "you +see" when she was embarrassed. + +"Neither do I,"--Mrs. Todd laughed. "Had to do too much of it when I +was a child." + +"Perhaps we can find something else for Janet to do," Mrs. Blake +interposed. + +"Why, of course, we can. Come with me, Janet. We'll rig up the +fishing pond." + +Janet waited until she was well away from the library before she +asked what a fishing pond was. She was used to doing all the +explaining and all of the leading when it came to playing with other +girls, she had played so seldom with them, and this new and scornful +attitude of the Blakes made her unreasonably angry. She knew that if +she were competing in climbing trees or rowing--anything that took +courage--she would be their superior. But when it was a question of +sewing, she had to admit herself beaten. The thought made her very +unhappy, for above everything else in the world Janet wanted to be +like other girls. Not the Blake girls, but the girl heroines she had +read of and dreamed of as friends in her Kingdom. + +Mrs. Todd noticed the worried expression on her face and did her best +to dispell it by giving her something else to think about. + +"A fish pond," she explained in answer to her question, "is a very +easy way of making people spend money. You put up a screen and sell +little wooden fish poles for ten cents. The buyer goes fishing over +the screen and some one ties a present to the end of the line." + +Mrs. Todd watched Janet closely, and laughed with delight as the +frown deepened on her face. + +"Well?" she inquired, "what do you think of it!" + +"Not very much," Janet answered truthfully. "Isn't there a better +way?" + +"I should think there would be,"--Mrs. Todd chuckled. "If you can +suggest one we'll change it and surprise them all." + +"Why not let them really fish?" + +"In water! What would you have them catch? Pincushions and tidies +wouldn't be improved by a ducking." + +Janet thought for a minute. They were in the Sunday-school rooms, +and she was sitting perched up on the high platform. + +"Why can't they catch things that come from the sea!" she suggested. + +"What, for instance!" + +"Oh, shells and coral and fishes and stones. They are every bit as +sensible as pincushions and so much prettier." + +"No doubt about that,"--Mrs. Todd laughed--"but where shall we get +them?" + +"Oh, we have just loads of them up in the attic; queer old shells +from all over the world that my great-grandfather, I think it was, +brought home with him." + +"But, my child, you can't give those away," Mrs. Todd protested. + +"Why not?" + +"Your grandmother--" + +"Oh, she wouldn't mind; she can't bear them. You know, she hates +anything that reminds her of the water." Janet looked at her +companion wonderingly. + +"Queer, isn't it?" she said. + +Mrs. Todd looked at her with a peculiar light in her steely eyes. +"Not under the circumstances," she said softly, but though Janet +waited she did not say any more. + +"I asked grandmother once, oh, long ago, if I might play with those +shells,"--Janet returned to the subject in hand--"and she said I +might do anything I liked with them as long as I kept them out of her +sight." + +Mrs. Todd seemed to consider the idea. Finally she said, + +"Well, bring them along with you this afternoon, and if they are of +no value we'll use them and surprise the neighborhood." + + +"They certainly are beauties," she said, when after luncheon Janet +had returned with a box full of queer old shells and rough bits of +coral. + +"They must have come a long way, to judge by the looks of them." + +"Well, I think my great-grandfather used to sail all the way 'round +the world," Janet replied. "Do you think they will do?" + +Mrs. Todd looked at her. "Do, child! Why, they will cause so much +excitement that our booth will be by far the most popular. The only +reason I hesitate is that I am afraid that some day you will be sorry +you were so generous." + +"But how silly,"--Janet laughed. "These are only a few of what we +have. There are heaps left in the attic." + +"Settled,"--Mrs. Todd laughed. "And now, Miss Original, will you +please tell me what other ideas you have lurking in the back of your +brain?" + +"Now you're teasing,"--Janet laughed. "There's nothing else to think +of, except the pond itself, and that ought to be easy. A big tub of +real sea water with pebbles and sand banked around it, and perhaps we +could borrow some of Mrs. Blake's palms. She has so many, and, oh, +well, we can make it look--now, you're laughing at me." + +"Not a bit of it," Mrs. Todd denied emphatically. "I am laughing +with you, and there's all the difference in the world between the +two. But I would like to know just where you got all your +imagination." + +For a minute Janet was tempted to tell the secret of the Kingdom, but +with a start she realized that it was no longer just her secret alone +and that in telling it she would almost be guilty of betraying a +confidence. + +The Sunday-school room was gradually filling up with people. Janet +knew them all and bowed politely to each in turn. For the most part +the women from the farms, who were bringing in their donations of +pies and cakes, stared at her with ill-concealed curiosity. Although +she did not know it, Janet was often the topic of conversation and +gossip at sewing bees. Women with daughters often spoke of her as +"that poor lonely child," and thought of her as different from other +girls. It was a decided shock to see her in eager consultation with +Mrs. Todd--a most important person--her cheeks ablaze and her eyes +sparkling, and having quite as good a time as any ordinary girl; and +acting for the most part with far less affectation than their own +children. + +But though Janet did not show it, she was conscious of the eyes upon +her, and it did make her uncomfortable. She was very much relieved +when Mrs. Todd stopped in the middle of a sentence and said: + +"Stuffy; let's go out and see about finding our landscape." + +Once outside, Janet drew a breath of relief. Harry Waters was +passing, and she hailed him with so much enthusiasm that he decided +that he was forgiven and he responded joyfully. + +"Want to help me this afternoon?" Janet inquired. "I want a big box +of sand, and Mrs. Todd says we may drive her horse and cart to the +shore. You get a box," she directed in her old manner. + +Harry was too delighted to be back into favor again to make any +objections and dashed off at once. + +Mrs. Todd nodded her head slowly and laughed. "Boys are better fun +than girls, eh?" she inquired. + +"Heaps," Janet replied, as she disappeared into the barn to assist in +the harnessing of Durward, Mrs. Todd's horse. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE FAIR + +The Sunday-school room was packed with people, but to an observant +eye it was noticeable that the greatest number were in the corner +under a silk canopy that looked like an Arab's shelter. Hanging +beside it on the wall was a sign, printed in orange and blue, that +read, + + COME AND FISH + IN THE INDIAN OCEAN + A SURPRISE FOR EVERYBODY + 10 CENTS A LINE + + +Beyond the tent a group of high palms pointed the way to the beach, +where a huge tub filled with water and reflecting myriads of little +pebbles was surrounded by a stretch of sand. Sticks with strings and +hooks attached stood ready, and to one side a mysterious mound +covered by a silk scarf invited the curiosity of the passersby. + +Mrs. Todd stood a little to one side and kept looking at her watch. +Mrs. Blake came over to her, and it was plain to be seen that they +were both worried. + +"What do you suppose is keeping her?" Mrs. Blake exclaimed. "It is +after four o'clock, and we must begin with the pond. Really, I think +it is most inconsiderate of her to keep us waiting. Of course, if +Mrs. Page has changed her mind--" + +"Mercy Page never changed her mind in her life," Mrs. Todd snapped. +"It is something very different than that, and I have a strong +suspicion what it is." She looked at a group of giggling girls who +were whispering to each other in one corner, and had one of them +turned at just that moment they would have wanted to run away, for +Mrs. Todd looked very stern and forbidding. + +"Let some one else start it," she said. "I'll help them; she may +come after all; who knows." + + +But Janet at that particular moment was rowing with all her might, +and she was rowing in the opposite direction from the church fair. + +Something glistened in both of her eyes and she stopped every now and +then to brush it away. Nothing in the world could have induced her +to turn around. + +She was hurt and very angry, and the one thought in her confused +little mind was to forget there ever was such a thing as a church +fair. + +This is what had happened. Harry and she had been busy in the early +part of the afternoon putting the finishing touches to their work, +when Janet found she wanted a pair of scissors. A number of girls +were decorating a booth across the room and she went over to borrow +theirs. She was hidden from them by a curtain of bunting. Just as +she was about to speak, she heard one of them say, + +"I don't care if she is Janet Page, I don't like her. She's not a +bit like other girls." And another voice answered, "I don't either; +she's so bossy." "Plain stuck up," a third voice added. + +Janet flushed crimson and fled. Harry remembered that she looked +awfully queer, he said, when he told Mrs. Todd later, "She said she +was going and not another word," he finished. + +Janet had indeed gone. She felt as though the world was falling +about her ears. Try as she could, she could not keep the hot tears +from coming. + +The brisk row did her good, and she started up the sand dunes with +her usual expectant step. By the time she was in sight of the house, +she was laughing at herself. + +"I may be different but I am not as bad as all that, and besides I +don't like those girls any better than they like me, so we're even." + +She decided to read about Mr. Micawber in "David Copperfield." He +always cheered her up when she was downhearted. + +The quiet of the old house soothed her feelings. She walked slowly +around to the cellar window and opened it softly. Just as she was +about to slip through it, a piece of tin hit her sharply on the nose. + +She jumped and looked up and directly into the gray eyes of the +mysterious boy. He was sitting on the edge of the sloping roof not +fifteen feet above her. + +"Hurt you?" he called down. + +"Not much," Janet answered, rubbing her nose, for it smarted. + +"Yes, it did; it's bleeding. Say, I'm awfully sorry. Wait a jiffy +and I'll be down." + +He slid near the edge and jumped to the ground almost beside her. + +They looked at each other and then burst out laughing. Janet held +her handkerchief up to her face and regarded him over the corner of +it. + +"What were you doing up there?" she inquired. "You nearly scared me +to death." + +"Well, I was kind of scared myself," the mysterious boy admitted. "I +was fixing the roof up a bit. It leaks onto the books now you know, +and I just happened to look down at you, I was so surprised that I +let the tin drop. + +"I found my hat," he added after a minute, and grinned sheepishly. + +"Whatever made you leave it by our fence?" Janet inquired. + +"Did you see me jump over your wall the other day?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I was bringing it to you then--" + +"And my dog barked at you." + +"No,--that is, he did, but that isn't what scared me. Your dog and I +are great friends. It was the woman that came out of the house. I +couldn't explain before her so I bolted." + +"Explain what?" + +"I wanted to show you something about taking a splinter out of a +dog's paw and a way to put on a bandage so that it won't come off." + +Janet laughed, and he joined in. + +"I was after the same book the other day and I couldn't imagine who +had taken it and then I found it beside your hat and I knew you must +come here too." + +"Have you been coming long?" + +"Two years." + +"Oh, I've been here six months, but I found it the first week I was +here." + +"Where do you live?" Janet inquired. + +The boy pointed down the hill. "At Vicker's farm," he answered. +"I'm staying there all this winter." He laughed self-consciously. +"I'm supposed to be weak or something, so Doc sent me here." + +"Who's Doc?" Janet inquired. + +"He was Dad's best friend, and now I guess he's mine. He sort of +looked out for me after Dad--after Dad went." + +Janet looked up at him quickly, for his voice had trembled. + +"I'm sorry," she said softly. "Let's go in and look up that part in +the animal book." + +She started to slide into the cellar, but he stopped her. + +"I know a better way than that. Come around here." He led her to +the old porch and took down two boards from one of the windows. +Janet crawled through and found herself in the Kingdom. + +"Oh, that is a lot better. Wonder why I never thought of it. It +saves going through the spooky kitchen, and I just perfectly hate +that ghostly hall." + +They sat down together on the floor and were soon engrossed by the +book before them. From discussing dogs and horses they turned to +other subjects, and before she realized it Janet was telling him why +she had not gone to the fair. + +She looked at him after she had finished. He was frowning. + +"It was rough, I'll grant you," he drawled slowly, "but you should +have stayed and faced the guns. There's never any sense in running +away." + +Janet felt very much ashamed of herself all at once, and a dozen +reasons why she should have stayed rushed into her mind. + +"It was cowardly of me," she exclaimed, "and I'm going back this very +minute." + +"Good for you; it won't be much fun, but you'll be glad you did it, I +guess. Say," he added after a pause, "will you be back to-morrow?" + +"Will, if I can." + +"And, say, you don't mind about my coming here, do you?" + +Janet had crawled through the window but she called back over her +shoulder, "No, I'm glad." A red head appeared in the opening. + +"My name's Peter Gibbs," he called. + +"Mine's Janet Page." + +"Good night, Janet." + +"Good night, Peter." + + +As the people came back to the Sunday-school room after the supper +that had been served in the gymnasium, many of them were astonished +to see Janet with Harry by the tent. Mrs. Blake was particularly so. + +"Why, Janet, where have you been? We were so worried about you!" she +exclaimed. "And what have you done to your nose?" + +"I cut it, Mrs. Blake," Janet answered, "and I am sorry to be late." + +"Why, you poor child; what a pity. It doesn't matter at all about +your being late." + +"Well, Janet, we thought you were lost, but I see you've found +yourself,"--Mrs. Todd came up and interrupted her cousin. Janet +looked at her blue eyes and knew she understood something of what she +had gone through. + +"Yes, Mrs. Todd," she replied gravely, "I think I have." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A STRANGER IN THE KINGDOM + +Janet halted in her climb up the steep bank at the back of the +deserted house and smiled down at the ground. The perfect outline of +a bare foot made a path ahead of her straight to the steps of the +porch. + +It was one of the warm, golden days that come sometimes in the fall, +as though the summer, being sorry to go, sent it to bid a last +regretful good-by. + +A week had passed since the fair, and during that time Janet had made +many trips to her Kingdom and she and Peter had become fast friends. +They read their favorite books aloud to each other and played a game +of "pretend" that would have been impossible to two people who had +not both understood the meaning of loneliness. + +To-day Janet found Peter deep in a thick, uninteresting-looking book, +but as she appeared in the window he closed it and jumped up. + +"Good morning, Princess," he greeted. "I thought you were never +coming, I chopped wood, fed the chickens and did all I could think of +so that I wouldn't be missed." + +"I couldn't get away a minute sooner,"--Janet made a comical face. +"Mrs. Blake came to see grandmother yesterday, and of course she had +to tell her that she was so surprised to learn that I didn't like to +sew. Grandmother didn't say much, but this morning she made me hem +some dish towels, for of course she knows I can sew passably well +when I want to. Now she'll show them to Mrs. Blake the next time she +comes." A note of affection crept into her voice as she added, +"Grandmother's like that." + +"What are you reading?" she inquired a minute later. + +"A book about sheep," Peter replied. "It's kind of dull, but I like +it. I imagine sometimes that I--" He hesitated and blushed. + +"What?" Janet encouraged. + +"Nothing, anyway you'd laugh at me if I told you." + +"I would not!" + +"Well--" + +"Well, what?" + +"Oh, it's just a crazy notion of mine, but I like to think sometimes +that I own this place, and then I plan what I'd do with it, and one +of the plans is to turn it into a sheep farm,"--he laughed +nervously--"I guess I'd better stop dreaming though and get to real +work now." + +Janet noticed that he laid stress on the word "now," and she looked +at him inquiringly. He pretended not to notice her. + +"Peter," she said finally, "it isn't nice to be mysterious. What +_is_ the matter with you?" + +Peter ran his fingers through his red hair but he did not reply. +Instead, he put the big book back on its shelf and went over to the +window. + +"It's awfully dark in here, don't you think? And it's so bully out +of doors. Let's go fishing," he suggested. + +Janet nodded. + +"All right; we won't catch anything but it will be fun anyway. Come +ahead." + +Peter led the way toward the shore and up to a dark green canoe. +Janet was properly excited; she had never been in a canoe before. +None of the girls she knew were at all interested in boating except +to go off in sailing parties for picnics, and because the bay was +very often rough and always dangerous none of the boys were allowed +to have them. She smiled as she remembered Mrs. Waters' terror when +Harry, the summer before, had screwed up his courage to ask for one. +Yet here was Peter acting as though the most ordinary thing in the +world was to go fishing in one. + +"What a beauty!" she exclaimed. "Is it yours?" + +Peter shook his head. "No, I found it over in our barn and I asked +Mr. Blunt if I could use it. He didn't think much of the idea, but +he said if I could make it watertight I could have it and welcome. A +summer boarder left it here a couple of years ago. Here you go; let +me help you in. Sorry I haven't any pillows," he apologized. + +Janet looked up at him and laughed. + +"What under the sun would I do with a pillow?" she exclaimed. + +"Stick it behind your back, of course. It makes it lots easier. +That is, most girls tuck 'em in all around, and they seem to like +it." Peter sometimes gave Janet a feeling that he was years and +years older than she by the way he talked of things, people and +places. + +"How do you know?" she inquired as she settled herself gingerly on +the floor of the canoe. + +"Seen them, by the dozens." + +"Where!" + +"Any place where there are canoes and girls,"--Peter grinned. "Dad +and I always paddled wherever and whenever we could, and we used to +laugh sometimes." + +"What at?" Janet was making no effort to hide her curiosity. + +Peter was busy turning the canoe around and did not answer at once. +Janet watched him, fascinated. He paddled so softly and yet with so +much strength that they skimmed along over the water as though they +were flying. Once out into the bay and headed for the mouth of a +small creek, where Peter decided was the place to fish, he returned +to the subject. + +"When I said just now we laughed," he explained, "I was thinking of +last summer. Dad and I took a trip up the Delaware River and of +course we passed lots of summer places on the way, and we'd see +fellows, about eighteen, out with girls all dressed up and sitting +all packed in with pillows. They looked all right, but I would hate +to have had them with us in some of the storms we pulled through and +some of the rocks we had to pass." + +"I see,"--Janet laughed, then she said hurriedly, "Peter, what an +exciting life you have had. I wish you'd tell me some more about it." + +Peter shrugged his shoulders. + +"Not so very," he said; "you see there was only Dad and me, and Dad +was a civil engineer and he had to be on the go most of the time. +Wherever there was a bridge being built or a railroad put through or +a dam built he was always there, and so naturally I was too. That +is, I shouldn't say naturally, because lots of people, especially +women, thought it was very strange, but Dad said I was all he had +left and he wasn't going to have me shut up in a school where he +could never see me, so along I went, and I tell you I had some grand +old times. But it's all over now and I guess I'll go to work." + +"Where!" Janet asked softly. + +"Out West, I guess. I like it out there, and Dad knew a lot of ranch +men that would give me a job. Dad always wanted me to be an +engineer, but that was before--" In spite of himself his voice broke +a little, and he paddled with extra zeal. + +"Oh, Peter, I'm sorry." Two big tears stood in Janet's eyes. "I +wish I hadn't asked you so many questions and started you +remembering." + +"Oh, I'm always doing that anyway,"--Peter tried to laugh. "And I +wanted to tell you about Dad anyway. Do you still feel like +fishing?" he inquired, abruptly changing the subject. + +"Not 'specially," Janet admitted, "I'd rather just paddle." + +"Want me to teach you how!" + +"Oh, would you!" + +"Of course. Here, wait a minute and we'll land and change places. I +wish I had another paddle, then you could paddle bow." + +The exchange of seats was made and the lessons began. Janet was an +apt pupil, and Peter, remembering his father's instructions of long +ago, did as well as instructor. Black clouds rolled up in the west +without their noticing them, and it was not until a faint peal of +thunder sounded that they realized that a storm was coming up. + +"Queer at this time of year, isn't it?" Peter asked, as Janet made +for the bank and he took the paddle again. + +Janet shook her head. + +"We have pretty bad ones sometimes in the fall; sort of breaking up +of summer, the fishermen say, and to-day has been hot, you know." + +"Well, there's no time to lose for it's coming fast. That creek's a +bad place; the trees hide the sky." Peter took long firm strokes, +and they were soon out into the bay. + +It was not long before the storm broke. A zig-zag of lightning and a +sharp growl of thunder, and then the rain--great drops of it. The +canoe bobbed up and down, but Peter managed to send it forward with +every stroke. Janet, though she would never have admitted it, was +thoroughly frightened, and Peter, kneeling in the stern, very calm +and even smiling, began to assume in her eyes the guise of a hero. + +After several strenuous minutes that seemed like as many hours they +landed just below the deserted house. + +"Let's go up and wait until it stops," Peter suggested as he turned +the canoe over. "You can't possibly row home in this." + +Janet nodded, and they trudged up the hill. They were laughing when +they reached the window. Once in the Kingdom with the rain shut out, +they felt very secure. Peter pointed up to the ceiling. + +"It doesn't leak any more, thank goodness." + +Janet felt her nose and smiled. "Then I don't suppose I ought to +mind this," she said. "It's still black and blue, and nobody can +understand how I ever managed to cut it just there." + +"Well, you can't expect me to say I'm sorry." Peter laughed. + +"You might say that you wished we had met under different +conditions," Janet suggested, but Peter wouldn't agree. + +"It was just right the way it was," he insisted. + +"I suppose so; anyway we'd never have had such fun together if we had +been introduced. Just imagine, 'Janet, I want you to meet Mr. Peter +Gibbs'; how silly it sounds." + +"Instead of 'Your royal highness, Princess of the Enchanted Kingdom, +allow me to introduce myself, Lord Carrot Tops. My calling-card is a +piece of tin, Bingo! Of course I didn't say all that but I thought +most of it." + +Peter laughed and Janet joined in. + +"Anyway the tin calling-card part is true," she said. + +They both laughed on heartily and then stopped short, their eyes on +the doorway of the room. + +A short fat little man, wearing a heavy gold watch chain and an old +fashioned soft black hat, stood frowning at them. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UNDER ARREST + +"Here's a pretty kettle of fish!" he exclaimed, bobbing his head up +and down; "what do you mean breaking into some one else's house like +burglars? Don't tell me you were hiding from the rain for I won't +believe you." + +Neither Peter nor Janet made any attempt to tell him anything. They +were both too startled. They stood frozen to the spot on which they +stood. + +"Nothing to say, eh?" the old man went on in his excited, squeeky +little voice. "Well, that's just as well. You'll come along with me +now, both of you." + +"Are you the owner of this house?" Peter was himself again, and +Janet marveled at the quiet manner in which he spoke. + +"Never you mind about that; you'll soon enough know." The old man +bustled toward them. Peter stepped in front of Janet. + +"Are you the owner of this house?" he demanded again. + +"Now look here, young fellow, don't give me any of your impertinence, +but come along quick." The quieter Peter's voice got the more +excited grew the little man. "What are your names, eh? Tell me +that," he squeaked. + +"We will do nothing of the kind," Peter said firmly. + +"What, what, what! You tell me at once and no more nonsense," the +old man fairly spluttered. + +"We refuse to tell our names to any one but the owner of this house." +By now, Peter was thoroughly enjoying himself, and he winked ever so +slightly at Janet. + +Janet was chuckling to herself, but not at Peter. She was wondering +what would happen if she did tell her name. From past experiences +she knew that from blustering the old man would apologize and offer +to take her home. But he might insist on arresting Peter, and +loyalty made her keep silent. + +The old man was getting very angry at Peter; he even stamped his foot +and his big gold chain jingled. + +"You come straight along and tell the owner then," he exploded, "and +you'll be sorry you didn't tell me first. I can promise you. I'm a +sheriff, and you are both under arrest. Now then, what have you got +to say?" + +Peter and Janet looked at each other, and Peter laughed. + +"We have nothing to say until we see the owner," he said. + +The sheriff turned on his heel. They followed him through the hall +and out of the back door, of which he had the key. A buggy was +standing in the woodshed, and they all got in. The rain had stopped +and soft mud spattered them as they drove along. + +"I'm awfully glad he isn't the owner," Peter whispered in Janet's ear. + +"Oh, so am I," she agreed, "but of course I knew he couldn't be and +look like that." + +The sheriff did not notice them in any way. His ridiculous little +fat face tried to look grim, but only succeeded in looking funny. He +was thinking very hard and wondering if the owner would approve of +his actions. He had not bothered to explain, when he said he was a +sheriff, that he was a retired one, without the slightest right in +the world to make an arrest. + +"Where does the owner live?" Peter inquired, breaking a silence that +had lasted a mile. + +"Never you mind where," the sheriff retorted; "all that concerns you +is that you will find the owner at my house to-day." + +Peter and Janet exchanged glances. + +"We're in for it," Peter whispered, "but it can't be very bad, and +anyway we will see him at last." + +"I'm almost sorry," Janet sighed. "He was always such a thrilling +mystery to me. Do you suppose those are his gloves on the library +table?" + +Peter did not have time to reply, for they were turning in at the +gate of a big farm, and the sheriff whipped up his horse to make a +gallant approach. + +Once on his own land he regained his assurance, and he opened the +door of the tool house as though it were a dungeon cell. + +"You'll wait in here," he directed. + +There was nothing else to do, so in they went, and Janet heard the +key grate in the rusty lock with a queer sinking feeling. But a look +at Peter's face made her swallow her fears and manage a little laugh. + +"What do you suppose will happen next?" she asked. + +"Nothing very terrible," Peter assured her. "You see, we never did +any harm to anything, and if we explain about the books, it ought to +be all right." + +"That will depend on the owner,"--Janet's voice sounded frightened in +spite of herself. "If he is nice, he will understand, and I suppose +he is if he owns the Kingdom; still, why doesn't he live in it?" + +"Why, that's the mystery,"--Peter laughed. "We will find out soon +enough. Mr. Sheriff is probably telling all about us now, and I +guess he is not saying anything to help our case much." + +Janet was silent for a minute, then she drew a long heartfelt sigh. + +"Oh, Peter, do you realize that we can never go to the Kingdom again? +It isn't enchanted any more; it's just a house that belongs to a man +that probably has a bald head and whiskers." + +"I hadn't thought of that," Peter said gravely. + +The door opened, and the little man stood before them again. + +"Come with me," he said, and led the way to the house. + +"He's not nearly so starchy," Janet whispered; "maybe he is nice +after all." + +"Of course he is," Peter assured her. + +They passed through a big clean kitchen, full of shiny pots and pans, +and then into a dark little hall. + +"Wait here," their guide directed, as he shoved them into a little +room that looked like an office. + +They waited, and a minute or two later the door opened. + +It would be hard to say just what either Peter or Janet imagined the +owner of the deserted house to resemble. Janet, when she thought of +the place as belonging to any one but herself, usually pictured a +modern King Arthur who would admit her claims as princess without +hesitation. Peter knew that it was a house that his father would +have loved, and he thought of the owner as a quiet gray-haired man in +consequence. They were neither of them prepared to see a woman. + +"Mrs. Todd!" Janet after a stupefied second fairly shouted the name, +and it was Peter's turn to be astonished. He looked from one to the +other and blushed a little; he realized it might be difficult to +explain to a woman, for Peter knew nothing about women. + +Mrs. Todd did not say anything. She stood in the doorway and laughed +and laughed. + +"Is it really your house?" Janet stammered, and she nodded. + +"Yes, it's my house, and perhaps you can tell me, for Mr. Simpson's +benefit, what you two were doing in it." + +Peter looked at Janet, and she started the explanation. + +"We weren't doing anything just when he found us," she said, "except +waiting for the rain to stop, but this wasn't the only time we've +been there. You see, I found it first, oh, ages ago, and I used to +row over and read in the Kingdom--I mean the library--" + +"What did you call it?" Mrs. Todd interrupted. + +"Oh, that was just my name for it. I always thought of it as 'The +Enchanted Kingdom' because of all the wonderful books first and then +because it was so old and deserted and spooky." Janet looked at +Peter and he nodded encouragement. + +"I only met Peter the other day; it was the very day of the fair. I +came over because--" + +"I know; go on about Peter," Mrs. Todd put in. + +"He was fixing the roof, and he dropped a piece of tin down on my +nose, and then, well, of course we began to talk, and he said he had +found the books, too, and so we went into the Kingdom, and it was +Peter that made me go back to the fair in spite of--" Janet stopped, +confused. + +Mrs. Todd surveyed the two before her. There was nothing left of her +laughter but the tiniest twinkle in her bright blue eyes. She +snapped open her old-fashioned watch, looked at the time, and snapped +it shut again. + +"It's late," she said. "Janet, I'll drive you home. Where do you +live?"--she turned to Peter. + +"At Blunt's farm. I work there," he answered her. + +"Humm, well, you won't have far to go. Good-by. I'll see you again, +and thanks for mending my roof," she added, as Peter hurried to the +door. + +He smiled at her over his shoulder. Janet went with him as far as +the gate. + +"It's funny, isn't it!" she laughed; "and of course she understands." + +"Guess she does," Peter admitted. "Good-by." + +"Until next time," Janet added. + +"Maybe," Peter hesitated and then finished, "Do you remember asking +me what the matter was this morning? Well, it's this. Doc is going +to Europe, and I won't let him leave me any money 'cause I know he +needs it all himself, so I've got to get work, and I think I'll be +starting soon." + +"But, Peter, I'll see you before you go," Janet exclaimed in dismay. + +"Maybe," Peter drawled as he had done the first time she had ever +seen him. "Anyway good-by for now." + +Janet watched him walk down the road until the twilight shadows +swallowed him up. There was something that felt like a lump in her +throat. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE MYSTERIOUS OWNER + +"And now, you amazing child, tell me all you know about Peter." Mrs. +Todd let her horse trot along unguided through the dusk and settled +back in her seat, with a look of amused expectation on her face. + +Janet plunged into a recital of Peter's life, or at least that +portion of it that she knew, and before very long the amusement +changed to interest and then to pity. Mrs. Todd was a splendid +listener and a very understanding woman. + +"What kinds of books does he like to read?" she asked, when Janet +paused for breath. + +"Everything in the library," Janet told her. "He laughs just as hard +at 'Alice in Wonderland' as he does over 'Robinhood and his +Merrymen,' but of course he likes Robinhood best, especially the part +about Little John. He likes the 'Idyls of the King' too, and he just +eats up history. To-day I found him reading a stuffy old book about +sheep. I think he would like to raise, or do whatever it is you do +to, sheep, but of course he can't now because of Doc." + +"And who is Doc?" Mrs. Todd inquired. + +Again Janet explained as best she could, and this time it was Mrs. +Todd's eyes that were wet. + +"Hum," she said after a little pause, "perhaps sheep would be a good +idea, I never thought of it myself. I'll talk to Peter about it." + +Janet sighed a long, happy sigh. + +"It's the most perfect fairy tale that ever came true," she said. +"Of all the people in the world that I would have chosen to be the +mysterious owner of the Enchanted Kingdom, you would be the first, +only I simply can't understand why I never knew or why you never +lived in it." + +Mrs. Todd sighed too, but hers was not a happy sigh. + +"My dear child," she said, "that is a very long and a very +disagreeable story, but perhaps I can tell you enough of it for you +to understand why I left my home and Old Chester. + +"When I was not so very many years older than you, say about +eighteen, your grandmother decided that I was to marry your father +Tom, and my parents thoroughly agreed to the plan. Your father and +I, however, did not. In fact I might say that we thoroughly +disapproved. We were the very best of friends, but we were both in +love with other people; Tom with your beautiful mother and I with Mr. +Todd. You know quite well how your grandmother acts when anybody +goes against her wishes, so I need only say that my father was just +about as stubborn and they had both determined on the match. Now +then! to make a very long story short, I ran away with Mr. Todd, and +that made them both, your grandmother and my father--my mother, bless +her dear heart, understood--very angry. Your grandmother said that I +was never to enter her house again. I never did until the other day +when I went with you. My father was just as severe and told me that +I could never come home with my husband. Well, of course, there was +never any idea of my returning without him, and so we stayed away and +traveled in every country under the sun and had the happiest three +years imaginable, and then he died." There was a long pause before +Mrs. Todd continued her story. + +"I went home after that with my baby boy and--oh, my dear child, you +will think this a very dismal tale, but it's best to finish it. My +baby died the next year, and I left the house, I thought, forever. +It was mine for my father had died the year after my marriage and +left it to me, but for so many years I had been unhappy there that I +determined never to come near it again. That was thirty years ago +and I have just come back. + +"To-day I determined to go and see how the old place looked, I was +afraid it would be in ruins. On my way I stopped in at the Simpsons +and there my courage failed. So, I sent Mr. Simpson up to look at it +and see if there was any chance of repairing it. I thought perhaps +if it were patched up and swept out and tidied a bit it would not be +as hard to return. Now I know I was a very silly and sentimental old +lady, and I will go myself to-morrow morning and see about hurrying +up the work of repairs. With two caretakers I am sure it has not +suffered too much." Mrs. Todd stopped as shortly as she had begun +and picked up the reins and chirruped to the horse, as though to say +the conversation was finished now and forever. + +Janet knew it was, and without quite understanding it she realized +the effort it had taken to tell it. She wanted to say something to +Mrs. Todd, but she knew there was nothing that could be put into +words, so she sat silent for the rest of the drive. This was the +second "story" she had heard that day, and the combination of the two +opened up a world beyond Old Chester and gave her a sudden glimpse of +life, its sorrows, its struggles, its joys and, above all, its +victories. The knowledge made her restless, but it made her happy +and above all expectant. + +If big things happened to the Mrs. Todds and the Peters in the world, +surely big things would come to her. + +Mrs. Todd stopped at the garden gate of the Pages and held out her +hand. + +"Good night, child," she said. "Don't think too much of all I have +told you, or, if you do, remember this: no matter how much sorrow +there is in this old world of ours, there is never a minute of it +that is not worth the living. And now, good night; go to your +Enchanted Kingdom whenever you like, it is more yours now than it +ever was." + +Janet held the big firm hand tight, but all she could find to say was +"thank you." There were a hundred questions that she wanted to ask, +and she finally found the words for the most important of them all. + +"Mrs. Todd," she asked softly, "did you know my mother?" + +Mrs. Todd looked at her intently for a long time and then she looked +at the light that always burned in Mrs. Page's room. + +"Yes, my child, I did, and I loved her; but then everybody did with +the exception of--" she hesitated; "no, that's not quite fair, so I +won't finish. Some day, with your grandmother's permission, I will +tell you all I can about her, and now hurry in and eat your dinner or +Martha will be having one of her nervous spells." + +Janet laughed, and squeezed Mrs. Todd's hand a little harder before +she let it go. + +"All right," she promised, "I just suddenly realized that I am as +hungry as a bear." + +Then Mrs. Todd did something that would have surprised her friends. +She leaned out of the carriage and kissed Janet. + +Martha was on the verge of a nervous spell, Janet found her looking +out of the front hall window. She tiptoed up behind her and said +"boo." + +"Miss Janet, you're home at last; wherever have you been!" Martha +exclaimed. "I have been worried to death over you out in that storm." + +"Oh, but I wasn't out in all of it,"--Janet laughed. "I've been +driving with Mrs. Todd." + +"I might have known that," Martha said, exasperation written large on +her face. "Ann Hitchens was always one to upset things. Here we've +been living in peace for years and the minute she comes back, oh, +deary me, everything's a-flutter and topsy-turvy, I wish she'd go +away again, I do indeed." + +"But she won't," Janet replied happily. "She is never going away +again, and I am so glad I could dance." + +Martha sniffed, and when Martha sniffed it was never necessary for +her to put her meaning into words. + +"Well, don't dance into your grandmother's room," she advised. "Walk +like a little lady and go at once. She has been worrying about you +all afternoon." + +Contrary to all expectations, Mrs. Page had nothing to say about the +lateness of the hour. She greeted Janet as usual, told her to wash +her hands and eat her dinner; then she turned her face to the wall, +her way of saying good night. + +Janet was about to leave the room, but something made her pause at +the foot of the bed. + +"Grandmother," she said slowly. + +"Well!" Mrs. Page sat up and looked at her. + +"Grandmother," Janet began again, "I am sorry if I worried you by +being out late." + +"Who told you I was worried?" Mrs. Page demanded. + +"Martha," Janet said. + +"Martha talks too much," Mrs. Page snapped. "I was worried, but you +are back now so don't talk any more about it." + +Janet left the room, closing the door very softly behind her. In the +hall she studied the grandfather's clock with apparent interest, but +it is a question whether she saw it at all. She was realizing for +the first time in her life that her grandmother was a very old lady. + +Martha called her, and she went in to her dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PETER + +Martha was cleaning house; rugs were hanging in the kitchen yard and +clouds of dust testified to the strength of her arm. Indoors all the +chairs were turned over, and white sheets covered the rest of the +furniture. Janet and Boru fled to the "widow's walk" to escape. + +"I hate house cleaning," Janet complained; "if I ever have a house of +my own I will go away on a trip and not come back until there's +enough dust to make things look comfy again." Boru, who had a marked +respect for Martha's broom, folded his paws over his nose and looked +sympathetic. + +"I wonder what will happen to-day," Janet went on; "everything has +been so exciting for the last few weeks that I love to wake up in the +morning. I wonder if it wasn't all a dream about Mrs. Todd and that +absurd little man and Peter. I don't really believe that I ever +paddled that canoe yesterday at all." + +A whistle interrupted her musings, and she leaned over the railing +and saw Harry Waters at the garden gate. + +"What do you want?" she called. + +It was a little time before Harry could locate her, but when he did +he beckoned. + +"Come on down." + +"All right, wait a minute,"--Janet sighed. Harry was not the form of +excitement she would have chosen for the day, but he was better than +talking to Boru or listening to Martha's beating the rugs. + +"Hello," she greeted when she had joined him in the garden. "How's +Roy?" + +"Oh, he's all right. He caught a rabbit the other day." Harry +bragged as though the credit were his. + +"I think that was horrid of him. That's just the trouble with those +hunting dogs,"--Janet flared up--"they are always catching some poor +little animal that never did anybody any harm. If Boru ever did such +a thing I would whip him good and hard, I can tell you." Boru hung +his head; no doubt the memory of countless innocent rabbits weighed +heavily on his doggish conscience. + +"Ah, shucks," Harry grumbled; "that's just like a girl. They make a +fuss and even kiss a dog if it gets a splinter in its paw, but the +minute one does something worth while they want to whip it." + +"Well, I don't like to think of a little dead bunny. They're so soft +and snuggly,"--Janet defended herself; "and I don't care who knows +it." + +"Scared!" The word was hardly out of Harry's mouth before he +regretted it. + +Janet eyed him with so much scorn that words were unnecessary. + +"If I were you, Harry," she said at length, but Harry interrupted her. + +"Oh, I know what you're thinking of, but that's different," he +protested; "my mother says so. Anyway, I didn't come over here to +argue," he finished crossly. + +Janet wanted to ask him what he had come over for, but she was just a +little ashamed of the way she had been acting. After all, Harry was +an old friend of hers, and it wasn't his fault that he was fat and +always complaining. She gave herself a little shake and smiled. + +"It is silly to scrap; let's go for a walk," she suggested. + +"All right, if you want to," Harry agreed, "but I came over to tell +you that there's a letter for you at the post office, and Miss Clark +says you haven't been for mail for over a week, and there are some +letters for your grandmother and a newspaper. I'd have brought them +to you but the old crosspatch wouldn't let me. She said I'd lose +them on the way, and she was responsible for the U.S. mail. I don't +think much of Miss Clark any--" Harry stopped rambling, and stared +at Janet. "Now what have I done!" he demanded. + +Janet marched off down the road, and he followed. + +"Gee, but you're queer lately!" he grumbled. + +Janet stopped to look at him. Her cheeks were bright red, and her +eyes danced with excitement. + +"Harry Waters," she said, "if I were a dog I think I'd bite you." + +The rest of the way to the village Harry had hard work keeping up +with her. + +At the post office, Miss Clark insisted on asking innumerable +questions about Mrs. Page. + +"You didn't come for the mail for such a long time that I said to my +sister last night, 'I wonder if Mrs. Page has had a turn,' so this +morning I told the Waters' boy to tell you that there were several +letters in your box--" + +"May I have them, please,"--Janet tried politely to stem the tide, +but Miss Clark did not even notice the interruption. + +"Time was when one letter a week was all most folks looked for, but, +lands sakes, nowadays with all these advertisements and picture +postcards, your box is full before you know it. Did you say your +grandmother was sick?" + +"No, she is quite well, thank you. Er--may I--?" Janet tried again, +and Miss Clark did walk over to the box. + +"Well, that's a blessing," she said over her shoulder. "I do think +that when a body must lie abed all day that they ought to have good +health except for that. Now when my aunt Lucy-- Why, I do +declare--" Miss Clark interrupted herself this time--"I clean forgot +to tell you there was a letter for you. It's from your brother. Now +that seems odd; he always writes to your grandmother, but this +certainly is for you. I can't imagine why it slipped my mind. I've +been thinking about it all week." + +"May I have it, please?" Janet held out her hand, and with apparent +reluctance Miss Clark gave her the little bundle of letters. She +took them, said a hasty thank you, and escaped from the post office +before there was time for any more conversation. + +She studied the envelope with its Arizona postmark and made sure that +it was directed to her. Then she tore it open to find a penciled +note inside that read: + + +"_Dear little Firebrand sister of mine:_ + +"I am almost everything that you accused me of being, except my +appearance, and that is a little better than you feared. To prove it +to you I am going to come in person to see you and then we can talk +over all those worrying things you spoke of. Until I get there +please try and think a little better of me than you have through all +your short, little life, and please believe that I am heartily +ashamed of myself, but that I solemnly promise to make up for it in +the future. + + "Your affectionate big brother, + "TOMMY." + + +Janet read the letter over three times and then she sat down on the +carriage block and read it again. + +Harry watched her and shook his head. He had no doubts now that +Janet was anything but an ordinary, and by ordinary he meant queer +and unreasonable, girl. + +"Now, what's the matter!" he asked again, this time very forlornly. + +"Matter?" Janet's laugh rang out happily. "Not a single thing in all +this wide wide world, Harry!" she exclaimed. + +"Then what are you crying about?" he demanded. + +Janet brushed away the two big tears that had filled her eyes, and +jumped up. + +"I'm not crying, silly," she denied hotly. "Anyway you wouldn't +understand. I'm going home. Good-by." + +"Well, I'm darn glad I can't," was Harry's parting, and he walked off +in the opposite direction. + +Janet read her letter all the way home. It was such a surprise, for +she had quite given up all hopes of ever finding the letter she had +written a month before. She had never entertained the idea of +receiving an answer, and such an answer, full of every sort of +promise. And he was coming, and coming soon. She consulted the +postmark and found that the letter had been in the post office six +days. + +The sight of Martha still patiently beating rugs was unbearable. She +hurried into the house and took the rest of the mail to her +grandmother. As she handed them to her, she saw to her surprise that +one of them was from her brother. Perhaps he was writing to tell her +that he was coming home, and that would make it unnecessary for her +to mention her letter. + +"A letter from your brother," Mrs. Page said solemnly. "Please wait, +Janet, and I will read you what he says." She opened the letter with +her customary precision and read it first to herself. Apparently she +thought better of her promise to read it aloud, for she folded it up +and put it back into its envelope. + +"Your brother is well," she said at last, "and he is coming home. +This letter is a week old so that I imagine he will be here before +long. Please tell Martha not to make so much noise in the hall and +don't say anything to any one about Thomas's proposed visit." + +"But, grandmother, why in the world not!" Janet could not help saying. + +"Because I dislike gossip," Mrs. Page snapped. "When he comes all +the village will know it; that will be soon enough." + +"Yes, grandmother." Janet left the room, but she forgot to tell +Martha not to make so much noise. The house was unbearable, and she +decided that even if she could not share her secret with Mrs. Todd, +it would be a comfort to go and see her and talk about the Enchanted +Kingdom. + +She was hardly on her way with the idea fixed in her mind when she +heard horse's hoofs coming toward, and after a minute she saw Mrs. +Todd in her carriage. She stopped her horse at sight of Janet, and +beckoned to her. + +Janet jumped in beside her. + +"I was just coming to see you," she said. "Have you been over to +your house this morning!" + +Mrs. Todd was plainly upset about something. She was frowning, and +there was not a spark of fun in her eyes. + +"No, child, I haven't," she answered. "I went over to find Peter +early this morning, and the Blunts told me he had gone away. They +said he had told them that he was going west and that he could not +leave any address, but he left a letter addressed to Dr. Peabody in +Boston. Now I happen to know Jack Peabody. He was a very dear +friend of my husband. Of course I haven't seen him in years but I am +going up to Boston this afternoon and give him Peter's letter, and +between us we ought to be able to find the boy. It's dreadful to +think of his hunting for work and with no money." + +"I think it's splendid," Janet said shyly. + +"That's because you are a silly, romantic child with your head full +of story-book nonsense," Mrs. Todd said briskly. "What I wanted to +see you about was to ask you if that foolish boy gave you any hint as +to where he was going." + +"No, indeed, he didn't," Janet said. "I didn't even dream he was +going. Oh, Mrs. Todd, do you think you really can find him!" she +asked suddenly. + +"There, there, child, don't worry your head about it," Mrs. Todd +comforted. "Of course we can. Peter's hair is too red to allow him +to run away unnoticed." + +Janet tried to smile, but it was difficult. The more she thought of +Peter's going, the more she realized how much she would miss him, and +half the joy in her brother's return was lost when she realized that +she could not introduce him to Peter. + +"Do you think you could manage Clinker,"--Mrs. Todd was speaking--"if +you do I wish you would drive over to Simpsons' this afternoon and +give him a letter for me." + +"Why, I think I could drive him," Janet replied. "I'll just let him +walk and I'll be awfully careful of him." + +"Very well, then, that's settled." Mrs. Todd spoke with her usual +briskness, and a little of the laughter returned to her eyes as she +added, "It will be a sorry dose for our friend the ex-sheriff, but I +think it will do him good." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ANOTHER LETTER + +At two o'clock Janet was waiting in front of the rectory. She was to +drive Mrs. Todd to the station and then go on to Simpsons' and +deliver the letter. Alice and Mildred came out on the steps to see +them off, and their faces mirrored their thoughts. Mrs. Todd had +never let them drive Clinker, and they could not understand why Janet +should be allowed the privilege. There was an air of mystery about +their cousin's sudden departure, and Janet holding the reins and +watching Clinker's ears importantly added to it. + +"When are you going to bring the carriage back?" Alice inquired. + +"Oh, I won't be late," Janet answered evasively. + +Mrs. Todd's "Hurry along now, child, or we'll miss the train," put a +stop to further questions. + +"I do hope you won't be away very long," Janet said softly when they +were on their way. "Something exciting, that I can't tell you about, +is going to happen, and I think I will simply die if you are not +here." + +"Mercy, child, you sound mysterious,"--Mrs. Todd laughed. "Why can't +you tell me about it?" + +Janet did not reply; it would sound so rude to say, "Grandmother +won't let me." + +Mrs. Todd understood her silence and laughed again. + +"Well, I can see that I'll have to come back and find out for myself +then," she said; "when is it going to happen?" + +"Soon, I hope," Janet told her. "It can't happen too soon for me." + +Mrs. Todd considered for a moment. "Of course I haven't the +slightest idea when I will come back. It all depends on when we find +that boy. Oh, but I shall give him such a talking to when I find +him. Why couldn't he have waited until to-morrow and saved all this +fuss?" + +"It was really to save fuss that he ran away," Janet reminded her. +"Poor Peter! I just hate to think that maybe he's hungry, but just +the same it was a splendid thing for him to do." + +"Splendid, fiddlesticks!" Mrs. Todd ejaculated, as they drew up to +the station platform. + +She said good-by very briskly, and Janet watched her, preceded by a +porter carrying her bags, get into the parlor car. Clinker did not +approve of the noisy engine, and she turned his head and started off +before the train pulled out. + +It was a long drive to the Simpsons', and she let the horse set his +own gait, and so it was well over an hour later before they reached +the Simpsons' place. Janet, remembering the style in which Mr. +Simpson had driven in the day before, touched up Clinker with the tip +of the whip and the cart swung into the gateway and rolled briskly +down the drive. + +Mr. Simpson came out of the barn at the sound of Clinker's hoofs, and +was as startled as Janet could have wished. + +"How do you do, Mr. Simpson!" she said in her sweetest manner. "I +have a letter for you here from Mrs. Todd. She asked me to deliver +it to you." She held out the envelope, and Mr. Simpson, after +carefully wiping his hands on his overalls and finding his glasses, +took it from her. + +"Where's Mrs. Todd herself?" he asked sulkily. + +"She had to go to Boston, so she won't be able to come over to the +house to-day," Janet explained. + +Mr. Simpson eyed her suspiciously, then he read the letter. Janet +watched his face, and at the sudden change of expression, she could +not repress a smile. + +"Are you Widow Page's granddaughter?" he inquired at last. + +Janet nodded and tried to look solemn. + +"Did you and that boy from Blunts' know all the time that the owner +of that house was Mrs. Todd!" + +This time Janet shook her head. + +"Did you have permission to go there when you liked!" + +"No." + +"Did you know I weren't no real sheriff!" + +"No." + +"Weren't you scared!" The question was asked with so much anxiety, +that Janet could not find it in her heart to disappoint the little +man before her. + +"Indeed I was," she said. "I was frightened to death. You see, you +looked so very severe that I thought at first you were the owner. It +was lucky for us, wasn't it, that Mrs. Todd did own it, for of course +she didn't mind a bit." + +Mr. Simpson stroked his chin slowly and tried to hide the smile of +satisfaction on his round face. + +"Waal," he said condescendingly, "I'm sorry I scared you, though I +must say neither of you looked very frightened; but, you see, I had +to do my duty as a one-time officer of the State." + +"Of course," Janet agreed. + +"I hope you'll tell Mrs. Page that I am sorry my duty lay in the +direction it did," he continued. "I wouldn't like to have her put +out with me." + +"I'll tell her," Janet laughed, and added, as she turned Clinker +around, "I am going to the house on the hill now, so please, if you +happen in as you did yesterday, ring the bell and let me know you're +coming. I'd hate to be frightened that way ever again." + +Mr. Simpson was now thoroughly sure that he was not the object of +ridicule, and he beamed upon Janet and all the autumn landscape. + +"Don't you worry, little lady," he chuckled; "now that I know who you +are I won't never question your right to be any place in this county, +and any time I can do you a service you just call on me and you'll +find I'm your man." + +Janet thanked him graciously and drove off, without giving herself +away by even a smile. Once on the road and out of earshot, however, +she laughed so heartily that Clinker pricked up his ears and started +to run. + +"There, there, old fellow, I didn't mean to frighten you,"--she +quieted him--"take your time and do stop frisking. It would be too +awful for words if you ran away and dumped me anywhere. Think what +Alice and Mildred would say." + +Clinker obligingly settled into a trot, and they were soon at the +entrance to the Enchanted Kingdom. Janet had never before approached +it from the land side, and she was surprised at the broad sweep of +driveway before her. The house and barns looked more imposing from +this side too. + +"It is truly a fairy castle," she said aloud. + +Clinker submitted to being tied under one of the sheds, and Janet +hurried around to the front porch. Mrs. Todd had offered her the key +Mr. Simpson had, but she had said she would rather go in the old way. + +Everything was very still, and somehow she felt the loneliness of it +all more than ever. The roof seemed to sag dejectedly, and a few +dead autumn leaves swishing in the wind against the front door added +to the unnatural dreariness. + +She shivered a little before she slipped through the window. She +wanted more than anything else in the world at that moment to hear +Peter's cheery "hello." + +Once in the library, she went straight to the books and ran her hand +over them as if to find consultation in their worn backs. She +finally selected a little book bound in red. It opened readily, more +readily than usual, at a little poem. Janet sat down on the floor +and started to read aloud to herself. There was something in the +rhythm that always comforted her when she was lonely. Surely Mrs. +Browning had understood much when she wrote "Little Ellie." Janet +read it idly: + + "Little Ellie sits alone + 'Mid the beeches of a meadow, + By a stream-side on the grass. + And the trees are showering down, + Doubles of their leaves in shadow + On her shining hair and face. + + "She has thrown her bonnet by + And her feet she has been dipping + In the shallow water's flow; + Now she holds them nakedly + In her hands all sleek and dripping + While she rocketh to and fro." + + "Little Ellie sits alone, + And the smile she has been using + Fills the silence like a speech, + While she thinks what shall be done + And the sweetest pleasure chooses + For her future within reach." + + +Many and many an afternoon Janet had read the beginning of the little +poem and then chosen the sweetest pleasure for herself and lost the +rest of the day in dreams. + +She looked up from the pages with a sigh, then her eyes fell on a +folded piece of paper lying on the floor beside her. She picked it +up and opened it. Idle curiosity gave place to excited interest as +she read: + + +"_Dear Princess:_ + +"I am sorry to go away without another good-by, but I must. Doc was +coming here to see me, and I knew if he talked to me I would give in +and that wouldn't be fair to either of us, and Dad would never +approve. I'm awfully glad you know the owner of the 'E.K.,' for now +I can always think of you there. + +"I left the canoe on the bank below your house, and I rowed your boat +back. When I get a job in the West I will write and tell you about +it if you want me to, and of course some day I will see you again. + +"Good-by again, and thanks for being such a good little pal. + +"PETER GIBBS." + + +Janet's eyes were blurred long before she came to the end of the +letter, and as she finished reading two big tears splashed on to the +book in her lap. + +She stood up and looked about the room forlornly; the old gloves were +gone from their accustomed place on the table. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +JANET'S PASSENGER + +Janet left the house by the cellar window instead of the easier way. +It would be hard to explain her reasons, but it was noticeable that +when she had safely climbed out and stood on the ground by the +window, she leaned over and picked up something and put it away +hastily in the pocket of her dress. A great many years were to pass +before she showed it to another soul. + +"Come along, Clinker," she said briskly, as she went to the shed. +"It's high time we were starting." She jumped into the cart, and +Clinker, only too delighted to start for home, set off at a brisk +pace. + +It was a long way by road back to the village, and it was dusk before +they neared it. As they came within sight of the railroad station +Janet heard a train pulling in, and remembering Clinker's dislike for +locomotives she slowed up to wait until it left the station. + +It was the train from Boston, and she could not help wishing that +Mrs. Todd and Peter were on it. + +When the last puff of the engine was lost in the distance, she drove +past the station very slowly. Of course there was no sign of Mrs. +Todd or Peter, and she drove on, disappointed in spite of herself. A +short stretch of wood made the road quite dark ahead of her for a +way. Clinker pricked up his ears as they entered it but Janet did +not pay any attention to him and was therefore thoroughly startled +when a voice, coming apparently from nowhere, called: + +"Wait a minute there, will you!" + +She pulled Clinker to a sudden stop and waited. A man walked out of +the shadows and came up to the cart. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, taking off his hat. "I didn't see it +was a lady driving." + +"Well, but what difference does that make?" Janet answered awkwardly. +"Won't I do?" + +The man laughed and showed a set of the whitest teeth Janet had ever +seen. + +"Well, as a matter of fact," he explained in his low voice, "I was +going to ask for a lift." + +Janet looked at him for a minute and decided she liked him, and +therefore it would not be necessary to treat him the way she usually +treated strangers. + +"Why can't I give you one?" she asked, laughing too. + +"Well, now, that's mighty nice of you, and I'm very much obliged," he +said. "My bag is a little too heavy to make walking any fun." He +got in with surprising quickness, and Janet started Clinker by a word. + +"That's a mighty fine horse you've got there," he said quietly. + +"Yes, isn't he a beauty! His name's Clinker," Janet replied. "He +doesn't belong to me, though. I only wish he did." + +They were out of the wood by now, and she turned to look at her +passenger. He was, to judge from the way he had to pull his knees +up, a very tall man and certainly he was handsome. His face was +burned a dark tan, and his eyes were set far apart and deep in his +head. His hat covered most of his hair, but Janet knew it was brown +like his eyes. There were lines at his temples that proved, if proof +were necessary, that he laughed a good deal. He had big broad +shoulders and nice long lean hands, that looked as though he could do +almost anything with them. + +"Well?" he asked, laughing, and Janet realized she had been staring. + +"I really couldn't help it, you see," she apologized, very much +confused. "Why, I've forgotten to ask you where you wanted to go?" +she added. + +"To a hotel if there is one," the man replied. + +"Oh, but there isn't," Janet laughed. "We have a boarding house +where most every one stays. The post mistress keeps it, but I'm +afraid you won't like it very much." + +The man considered for a minute or so, and then smiled and shrugged. + +"Then I must take the chance of being mistaken for a tramp in these +dusty clothes and go straight home." + +"Where's home?" Janet inquired. "I don't like to be inquisitive, but +we are almost to Main Street now." + +"Not at all, I didn't realize I hadn't introduced myself. I'm Tom +Page; perhaps you know my little sister Janet." + +Whatever Janet did no one will ever know, but Clinker, and he showed +his disapproval of it by almost jumping over the shafts. If Tom had +not caught the reins and made him come to order he might have +succeeded in running away. + +"Well, well, what happened?" he inquired, when Clinker was walking +quietly again. "I didn't see anything to frighten the animal, did +you?" + +"I--I did it," Janet gasped. "Can't you see! I'm Janet, and +you--oh, I know I'm dreaming." + +"You!" It was Tom's turn to be surprised. "Why, you can't be. +Janet is just a youngster and you are a very grown up young person." + +"But I'm Janet just the same, and, well--how do you do, Tom; I'm very +glad to see you." She held out her hand. + +"Bless your heart!" Tom put his arm around her and in spite of +Clinker gave her a hearty kiss. "What luck for us to meet like +this!"--he laughed--"and I had pictured it so differently, and you +are just about fifty times as nice as I thought you were going to be." + +"Well," Janet sighed happily, "you certainly are heaps nicer than _I_ +thought you were going to be." + +They turned the corner by the rectory, and Clinker, without asking +any one's permission, turned in at the gate. + +"We will have to leave the horse here," Janet explained. "He belongs +to Mrs. Todd. I was just doing an errand for her." + +"Mrs. Todd." Tom was thoughtful. "I seem to remember her--oh, +yes,"--and he laughed. "I'd like to meet her." + +"But she's in Boston," Janet replied. "She's only visiting at the +rectory." + +"Well, you'd better let me out anyway," Tom suggested. "I don't want +to meet anybody to-night. You rustle along, and I'll wait here." He +jumped out, and Janet hurried to the barn, where the hired man was +waiting to unhitch Clinker. + +Mrs. Blake came out on to the back porch. + +"Is that you, Janet?" she called. + +"Yes, Mrs. Blake, I was a little delayed in getting home. I hope you +haven't been worried," Janet replied. + +"Only a little uneasy," Mrs. Blake confessed; "won't you come in and +see the girls?" + +"Oh, not to-night, thank you. I must really hurry home." Janet +spoke with so much concern that Mrs. Blake did not urge her, and +after a hurried good night she was able to join Tom. + +"It's quite a long walk home," she apologized. "I wish I could have +driven all the way. Won't you let me help you with that bag!" + +Tom laughed his hearty, good-natured laugh, and caught his little +sister by the arm. + +"You little featherweight! I could carry you and the bag and never +know you were there. But we'll take it easy, and that will give us +more time to talk. First of all, how is grandmother?" + +"Oh, she's well; that is, of course, she is in bed always, but I +think she feels all right otherwise," Janet replied. + +"Yes, of course. I was forgetting. Let me see, who else is in the +house?" + +"Why, just Martha and me; that's all." + +"Any friends? Your letter sounded as though you were lonely." + +"I am sometimes," Janet confessed; "that is, I used to be. Lately I +haven't had time because there's been Peter and Mrs. Todd." + +"Who's Peter?" Tom inquired. "The boy that was afraid of snakes?" + +"Certainly not," Janet denied hotly; "that was Harry Waters." + +Tom started to ask a question, thought better of it, and said instead: + +"How about girls?" + +Janet did not reply at once. Her own mind was far from made up on +the subject, and it was difficult to answer Tom. + +"I don't know any girls, really," she replied slowly. "The ones I +have met didn't like me much, and I didn't like them. When I wrote +that letter to you I thought I wanted a girl friend more than +anything else in the world, but now I guess boys are better; anyway, +they don't say mean things behind your back." + +"All girls are not alike, little sister of mine. There are lots of +girls in the world that are just like you and you'd like them, even +better than you like boys." + +There was a long pause, and finally Janet said: + +"Tom, do you remember what I said in my letter about wishing you were +a sister instead of a brother?" + +"Even to the exact words,"--Tom laughed. "You said that I would be +much more of a comfort to you as a sister. That's what made me come +on at once. I wanted to prove that brothers are some use in the +world." + +"Don't tease," Janet begged. "I only reminded you of it so that I +could say I was sorry." + +"But you would like to have a sister too, wouldn't you?" Tom asked +anxiously. + +"Oh, of course,"--Janet laughed. "I'd like to have one too, but not +in place of you." + +"Then _that's_ all right,"--Tom gave her arm a tight squeeze. "Isn't +that our house?" he inquired, as the light from Mrs. Page's room +twinkled in the distance. + +"Why, yes, but how did you know?" Janet asked, surprised. + +"Oh, I was ten years old before I left for school," Tom explained. +"You were a tiny baby then." + +Janet lapsed into another thoughtful silence. + +"Tom," she said seriously, "why didn't you ever come back!" + +Tom's voice was very gentle as he answered her: + +"That, little sister of mine," he said, "is one of the many things I +am going to tell you about after I have talked to your grandmother." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE GREATEST SURPRISE IN THE WORLD + +Janet tiptoed down stairs and stole softly out into the garden. It +was very early in the morning, and even Martha was still asleep. But +there was no sleep for Janet. Her eyes had been wide open since the +first streak of pale light had fallen slantwise across her floor. +For hours she had tossed restlessly, and at last, unable to stand it +any longer, she had dressed. + +It was the morning after Tom's arrival. Janet thought over the +events of the night before and frowned. As soon as they had entered +the house he had gone straight to his grandmother's room, and she had +not seen him since. She and Martha had sat up until after ten and +then, very much against her will, she had gone to bed and listened +for a long time to the murmur of voices in the room below. At first +her grandmother's querulous tones had predominated, but after a while +Tom's low rumble sounded comfortingly in her ears, and she had +slipped off to sleep. + +This morning, as she thought about it, she tried to imagine all that +had been said behind that closed door, but she found it impossible. +Why there should be anything to discuss, she couldn't imaging. Other +people lived without an air of mystery surrounding them, and at this +moment of Janet's life she envied those people with all her heart. + +Once several years before she had asked her grandmother to tell her +about her mother and father. Mrs. Page had told her there was +nothing to tell, and had forbidden her ever to speak of the subject +again. She had looked so gray and sick as she said it that Janet had +been frightened, and she had never ventured to refer to it again +except to Martha, and all Martha could tell her was that her mother +had been a dear patient saint and her father the finest man that ever +lived. Janet had tried to picture them from this description, and up +until a year before she had been contented. Now she wanted to know +more. Mrs. Todd, too, had made her think. + +She looked up at Tom's window impatiently, and as she looked the +shade moved and Tom put his head out. + +"Hello!" he called down softly. "I knew you'd be up with the birds. +Wait a jiffy, and I'll be down with you." + +Janet threw him a kiss and told him to hurry. She listened, smiling, +as she heard him splash in the bathtub. It was not many minutes +before he was beside her, and they were seated on the old stone +garden bench. + +"How is my little grown-up sister this morning?" he inquired, as he +kissed her. + +"Tommy, please tell me everything," Janet begged. "I want to know so +badly." + +"Poor youngster,"--Tom patted her shoulder affectionately--"so you +shall, but first let me have a look at you, I hardly saw you last +night." He turned her face toward him and smiled down into her eyes. + +"Janet, what would you say if I told you that you had a sister?" he +asked slowly. + +"But--why, how silly! I wouldn't, believe you,"--Janet laughed. + +"Not if I told you quite seriously?" + +Janet jumped up from her seat and faced her brother. + +"Tommy, what do you mean?" she asked wonderingly. + +"Not only an ordinary sister," Tom continued, "but a twin sister." +He studied her anxiously. + +Janet was more bewildered than ever. + +"But I couldn't have, Tommy, and not know it." + +"It does sound unreasonable," Tom agreed, "but it's true. Do you +want me to tell you about her?" + +Janet put her hands on his shoulders and looked at him, still +doubtful and a little frightened. + +"You're not teasing me, are you?" she asked, and her voice trembled. + +[Illustration: "You're not teasing me, are you?" she asked, and her +voice trembled.] + +Tom stood up and put his arm around her, and they walked slowly down +the garden path. + +"No, honey, I'm not teasing you," he said quietly. "Let me try and +explain. + +"I will have to say some things about grandmother that I would rather +leave unsaid, but you must try and understand that although she is a +very unreasonable and selfish old lady she did what she thought was +right." + +"Of course,"--Janet nodded her head. + +"I thought that you must know all about mother and father, I never +dreamed she would refuse to answer your questions, and of course I +knew you would ask questions as soon as you began to think. I've +been a very selfish brother and I am heartily ashamed of myself, I +should have come home ages ago, but we'll let that pass now. + +"You know Mrs. Todd?" he paused, and Janet nodded. + +"Well, a long time ago grandmother decided that she was to marry +father, but father was in love with mother then; very, very much in +love with her." Tom smiled as he added, "And he married her. +Grandmother was furious, but she adored father and before long she +forgave him and he and mother came here to live. I guess grandmother +had to like mother in spite of herself, but she could never quite +forgive her for not being the girl she had chosen. I was born, and +then ten years later you and Phyllis came along." + +"Phyllis, oh, what a lovely name!" Janet exclaimed. + +"It was mother's name too," Tom told her, and went on with his story. +"One day when you were just tiny tots father and mother went out for +a sail. It was windy, and grandmother tried to persuade them not to +go, but mother laughed at the idea of danger and they went." Tom +paused and stroked Janet's soft hair. + +"They never came back, dear," he said gently. After a little he went +on: "When grandmother heard it she almost lost her mind from grief, +and she was sick for a long time. When she got better she had a +fixed idea in her head that it was mother's fault and she would not +let any one mention her name before her. Aunt Marjorie, mother's +sister, came down, and of course she wanted to take you and Phyllis +home with her, but grandmother wouldn't let her. She let her have +Phyllis, because she had been named for mother, but she kept you. +Aunt Marjorie was very angry and when she left grandmother told her +never to come back and never to write to you or to me. Of course +there was nothing for Aunt Mog to do but to agree. However, she +didn't keep her promise, for she used to write to me at school and +send me all kinds of things to eat. But I never saw her. +Grandmother sent me away to school, and because I was noisy in the +house she wouldn't let me come home for vacations. I was glad of it, +for some of the boys always took me to their houses and I had a much +better time. After I finished college I went west and for a while I +was so busy on my ranch that I forgot I had any sisters. I used to +write to grandmother now and again, as you know, and I sent my love +to you, you were quite right to object to that kind of love," he +added, laughing. + +"But how could you tell I wasn't the horrid prim thing that wrote +those letters that grandmother corrected,"--Janet was quick to defend +him against himself. "Did you ever write to Phyllis!" + +"Only at Christinas and after a while I stopped doing even that. She +was just a little kid and I was so far away. Aunt Mog writes me +whenever they move and change addresses. Bless her heart, I +shouldn't wonder if perhaps she'd guessed that some day we would all +want to be together. You'll love Aunt Mog; she's a dear." + +Janet walked back to the bench and sat down limply, her knees felt +shaky. + +"A sister," she said softly. + +"A twin," Tom corrected her, laughing. + +"It's the same thing, only better," Janet answered, and then she +laughed too. "Oh, Tommy, I'm so happy I think I'm going to cry like +an idiotic baby." + +"Cry ahead, I won't look," Tom promised, but Janet had too many +questions to ask to waste time crying. She swallowed hard, gave +herself a little shake, and no tears came. + +"Am I going to see Phyllis soon?" she inquired. + +"Just as soon as I can get ahold of Aunt Mog and arrange for them to +come down," Tom assured her. + +"Come down!" Janet exclaimed. "Will grandmother let them?" + +Tom smiled a peculiar sort of a smile. "Grandmother is going to +_ask_ them to come down," he said quietly. + +Janet looked at him in amazement. It was hard to imagine her +grandmother's giving in to anybody, but it was harder still to look +at Tom's mouth and imagine anybody not giving in to him. + +As they had talked, Martha had been busy about the kitchen, and the +sound of pots and pans and running water reached the garden. Finally +Tom sniffed. + +"Muffins," he exclaimed, "and I am as hungry as a bear. Come along +and let's find breakfast." + +Martha's excitement and bewilderment were such that it is a wonder +everything was not burned for breakfast, but her ability as a cook +was greater than any temporary shock, and the breakfast was delicious. + +Tom and Janet did it full justice. + +"It is such fun to have some one at the table to talk to," Janet +said, and Tom had a sudden vision of her sitting alone year after +year in the big dining-room, and once more he called himself a +thoroughly selfish brother and choked a little over his coffee. + +After breakfast Janet went to her grandmother's door and knocked as +she had always done. It was all a little different this morning and +she hesitated a second on the threshold before she went in. + +Mrs. Page, propped up as usual by countless pillows, looked smaller +and older than ever, and any feeling of resentment that Janet may +have felt disappeared and an understanding sympathy took its place. + +"Good morning, grandmother?" she said as usual. + +"Have you seen your brother?" Mrs. Page asked a little shakily. + +"Yes, grandmother, and he told me everything." Janet spoke very +gently. + +"Well, what have you to say about it? Come, speak up," Mrs. Page +fidgeted with the bed clothes. + +"I haven't anything to say," Janet answered. "Of course I am awfully +glad really to know Tom and I want more than anything in the world to +see my sister." + +"You do, eh? Very well, you shall; but if you don't like her, don't +blame me. I've tried to keep you away from unhappiness but now you +may do as you like." + +Janet thought of the lonely yet happy years, and she laid her hand on +her grandmother's that was nervously stroking the sheet. + +"I know you have, grandmother, and I am very grateful, truly I am; +and of course I will love Phyllis," she added with a gay little laugh. + +Tom was waiting for her in the garden with Boru. + +"Let's take a walk down to the village. I want to send off a wire +and then you can show me the sights," he suggested. + +"I'll take you over to the big house on the hill,"--Janet was eager +to be off. "Get your hat and let's start this minute. Oh, dear, +I've so many things to ask you and twice as many to tell you." + +"Thirteen years' worth,"--Tom laughed, and they set off. + +It was a glorious day, the wind blew the red-brown leaves in graceful +swirls, and the sunshine melted everything to a misty gold. + +It was surely a never-to-be-forgotten day in Janet's life. Tom told +her thrilling stories of the West and his own ranch, and in return +she confided all her secrets. He was interested, especially in +Peter, for he had heard of his father. He blessed Mrs. Todd secretly +for her interest in Janet, and his wish of the night before to meet +her took on a new significance. + +At the end of the day the "thirteen years" had very nearly been +bridged, and Tom's admiration for his little sister was only equalled +by her love for him. + +"Do you know, Janet," he said half seriously, as they climbed the +steps from the shore, "I'm not nearly as sorry as I was that I have +neglected you for so long. Left to yourself you have certainly made +a very acceptable little sister, and think how badly I might have +spoiled you." + +"Oh, do stop blaming yourself," Janet cried; "what is the use of +thinking about anything that is farther back than last night or +perhaps two weeks ago?" she corrected herself, thinking of Peter and +Mrs. Todd. + + + + +XIV + +A LONG DAY + +Some one was tapping the knocker on the porch below, and Janet +stopped in her work to listen. It was an unfamiliar sound, for most +callers came to the house by way of the garden. + +She tiptoed to the window and looked down. Alice and Mildred Blake +stood below her. She could see the tops of their brown felt hats. A +minute later she heard Martha let them in, and then call her from the +foot of the stairs. + +She looked about her in dismay. She was getting the front room ready +for Phyllis and Aunt Mog, and she did not want to be disturbed. + +"Miss Janet," Martha called again, and this time Janet answered. + +"Just a minute, Martha; I'll be right down." She flew to her room +and brushed her tossled hair and took off the huge apron of Martha's +that she was wearing. + +Alice and Mildred came forward to meet her together. + +"Oh, Janet!" they exclaimed in chorus, "we have just heard that your +sister is coming. Isn't it exciting! Miss Clark told mother, and +she sent us over to ask you if you wouldn't bring her and your +aunt--mother used to know her when they were girls--to tea just as +soon as they come." + +"Why, that's awfully nice of you,"--Janet was a little taken back. +"I'd be glad to." + +"When are they coming?" Alice queried. + +"To-morrow," Janet told them. "Tom went to New York last Monday and +he sent me a telegram saying they would all be here to-morrow." + +"Yes, so Miss Clark said." Mildred did not try to conceal the fact +that her sister's question was asked purely to make conversation. +The date and hour had been circulated freely about the village as +soon as Tom's wire had arrived. + +"How is Mrs. Todd?" Janet asked, to save Alice further embarrassment. + +The girls exchanged glances. + +"It's lucky you spoke of her or we might have forgotten to give you a +message she sent you in a letter to mother," Mildred said. "She said +to tell you that you could drive Clinker any time you liked and that +she would be very glad to have you exercise him." + +"How sweet of her!" Janet exclaimed. "She knows I love to drive. +I'll come this very afternoon and take him out." + +"We have our own horse, you know." Alice spoke with condescension, +although Janet knew quite well that only the rector ever drove the +ancient gray mare that kept Clinker company in the rectory barn. + +"I was tired of driving long ago," Mildred upheld her sister. "I +wish father would buy an automobile." + +"Do you?" Janet asked. "I don't believe I could ever love an +automobile." + +Mildred looked at her in surprise and turned to her sister. + +"We must go, Alice," she said. "Good-by, Janet; don't forget to +bring your sister to tea." + +"No, I won't, and thank you ever so much." Janet watched her +visitors until they reached the shore road below the house. She +marveled at the easy way in which they spoke of Phyllis and called +her "your sister" when she herself found it so hard to grow +accustomed to the relationship. Finally she went back to her work. + +The room that Phyllis and her aunt were to have was long and low +ceilinged. It ran the length of the front of the house. Six +latticed windows opened to the south and looked over the bay below. +It was a quaint room, hung in faded chintz and furnished with heavy +old mahogany. Janet was doing her best to make it shine. + +"I'll put some asters in a bowl on the table," she said to Boru, who +was watching operations from the doorway, "and then I think we will +be all ready. Are you going to like your new sister?" she asked +laughingly, as she dropped to her knee beside him and rubbed her +cheek against his shaggy coat. "You must, you know, because she's my +twin, but you mustn't love her as much as you do me." + +Boru got up and walked away, as though he considered that the only +way to answer such a silly remark. + +Janet sat on the floor where he had left her and cradled her chin in +her hand and gave herself up to sudden gloomy speculation. Suppose +Phyllis turned out to be like Alice and Mildred! The very idea +chilled her, and she stared dismally at the pretty room. + +"I don't suppose she'll have to like me just because she's my +sister," she said aloud; "perhaps she'll think I'm different too, or +maybe she'll think I'm countrified. Oh, dear, I almost wish she were +not coming." + +Boru came back and snuggled into her lap, and they sat quiet, both +busy with their own thoughts until Martha interrupted them. + +"There you are, Miss Janet. I knew you'd be tiring yourself out with +all this fixing. Come down to your lunch now; do, like a good child, +and let me do the rest." + +Janet got up slowly. + +"Oh, Martha, I don't feel a bit like eating," she said dolefully. + +"And no wonder, working yourself to death, poor lamb." Martha's arms +comforted her as they had done many times before, and from the +shelter of one broad shoulder Janet confessed her fears. + +"Martha, what will I do if Phyllis doesn't like me?" + +Martha may be said to have snorted in disgust. + +"Not like you!" she ejaculated; "but, my lamb, she's bound to; she's +your own mother's daughter and so, tell me now, how could she do +anything else?" She offered this method of reasoning as though it +were sure to cast out any doubts, and Janet gladly accepted it. + +"What a baby I am," she laughed, wiping her eyes; "look at Boru; he's +disgusted with me, and no wonder." + +"Come now and have your lunch," Martha insisted; "you'll see how +hungry you are after the first bite." + +Janet was hungry, and her spirits brightened with every mouthful. + +"I wish it were to-morrow," she said, as she lingered over her +cantaloupe. "I think I will die of suspense if I don't find +something to do. I thought I was going for a ride, but look, it's +raining." + +"And a good thing too," Martha replied emphatically. "I can't +understand Mrs. Todd letting you drive that horse of hers. Some day +it will run away and kill you, and then I wonder what she will say." + +Janet laughed in spite of herself at so dismal a picture, and got up +from the table. + +"Well, I won't die to-day, that's sure," she said. "I wish I could +think of something really interesting to do." + +Martha thought for a minute, and then a smile lit up her face. + +"Perhaps I can find something that will interest you," she said with +some hesitation. "Now that you know all about everything there can't +be any harm in it," she continued, lowering her voice. + +"In what?" Janet inquired. + +Martha beckoned to her mysteriously and led the way upstairs all the +way to the big attic. It was filled with old trunks and bits of +broken furniture and pictures, Janet had passed them many times on +her way to the "widow's walk" but she had never been curious enough +to give them a second thought. + +She watched Martha with interest as she pulled out a little old trunk +from one corner. From a bunch of keys that was hanging to one of the +rafters she selected the right one, and gave it to Janet. + +"There now, open that and see what you find," she said mysteriously. +"Now I must get back to my work," she added briskly and bustled down +the stairs, leaving Janet looking at the key in her hand. + +Boru patted up the stairs and sniffed the trunk. + +"What do you suppose we will find, old fellow?" Janet asked him, as +she fitted the key in the lock. + +At sight of the contents of the first tray she gave a little +exclamation of delight. It was filled with soft silks and laces, now +yellow with age. Janet lifted them out gently and discovered that +they were dresses. Old-fashioned little things. There was a pale +yellow one and a robin's-egg blue, made with hundreds of little tucks. + +Janet smoothed them out with reverent fingers, for she knew they had +belonged to her mother. + +The next tray held odds and ends, and Janet sat down on the floor and +lifted them out one by one. Packages of letters that almost fell to +pieces as she touched them, silk stockings of every color, and three +pairs of tiny slippers. She could hardly believe a foot was ever +small enough to fit them. + +She found a wooden box too, beautifully carved and filled with dozens +of sheer handkerchiefs and, best of all, a pile of books. She read +their titles eagerly; "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austin, Scott's +"Lady of the Lake," Shakespeare's "As You Like It" and a beautifully +bound copy of Mrs. Browning's poems. + +"Then mother loved 'Little Ellie' too!" she exclaimed. There was +something very wonderful in the knowledge. + +She put the books to one side and went on with her discoveries. +Toward the very bottom she found a chamois bag wrapped up in a yellow +piece of paper. Inside of it was a jeweler's black-leather case. +Janet's fingers trembled as she opened it. + +Lying on a bed of blue velvet was a miniature set in a gold frame, +and as she looked she gave a cry of astonishment. A face almost +exactly like her own smiled up at her. + +"Mother," she whispered softly. + +It was dusk before she left the attic, but when she did go down +stairs she went straight to Martha. + +"Did you know what was in that trunk?" she asked. + +Martha nodded. + +"I put them there myself," she said. "Did you have a happy +afternoon?" + +For answer, Janet threw her arms around her and hugged her tight. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE DAY AT LAST + +"If it rains to-morrow I think I shall die," Janet said as she got +ready for bed that night. + +She need have had no fears, for the next day dawned clear, with just +enough of autumn chill in the air to whip the color into your cheeks. +Tom's telegram had said that they would arrive by the same train that +he had come by. + +Janet wished it had been an earlier one, but the day passed more +quickly than she had hoped. In the morning she drove Clinker out +into the woods and came back with the cart full of brilliant autumn +leaves. + +As she drove back through the village it seemed as though every one +stopped her to ask when Phyllis was coming. She told them all, and +her excitement mounted every time she uttered the magic words but +toward afternoon the fear that had depressed her the day before +returned and she could not shake it off. She felt suddenly very shy. +When train time came it was all she could do not to fly to the +Enchanted Kingdom and hide, as she had done on the day of the fair. +She walked up and down the platform in a fever of excitement, and her +hands were icy cold. + +Old Mr. Jenkins came out from the ticket office to talk to her. + +"Quite a day for you, isn't it?" he asked with evident interest. +"Can't say as I ever heard of another case quite like it. To have a +twin sister that you never saw and didn't even know you had! I often +wondered when you'd find it out." + +"Did you know all about it?" Janet asked in surprise. + +"I should say I did." Mr. Jenkins nodded his head to give further +weight to his words. + +"I wonder why no one ever told me," Janet said more to herself than +to him. + +Mr. Jenkins chuckled. + +"I kinda guess all the folks that knew about it, knew your +grandmother didn't want it told, and perhaps you've noticed folks +have a way of doing things like she wants." + +"I suppose that was it," Janet agreed idly. "Isn't that the train?" +she asked a minute later as a faint rumble became audible. + +Mr. Jenkins consulted his watch. + +"Wouldn't wonder if it were," he said. "I'd better be getting the +mail bags ready." + +Janet couldn't very well ask him to wait, but she watched his +retreating figure with a sinking feeling around her heart. At least +he was somebody to talk to, and anything was better than being alone. +She could feel her heart pounding, and something in her throat seemed +to interfere with her breathing. + +Never did a train take so long to slow up and finally stop, but Janet +found herself suddenly wishing that it would take twice as long. + +The first person to alight was Tom, and he took time to wave to her +before he turned to help down a slender little lady dressed in pearl +gray. Janet started forward to meet them, and then stopped short for +she saw herself stepping off the train; eyes, hair, straight little +nose, even to the solitary dimple in the left cheek. She was +carrying a basket and she was laughing at Tom. Then she looked up +and stopped too. + +The Page twins stared at each other. + +"Janet!" Phyllis was the first to regain the power of speech. She +dropped her basket into Tom's arms and ran forward. + +The next thing Janet knew she was being kissed and hugged. + +"Oh, you adorable love!" Phyllis exclaimed rapturously. "Isn't it +all perfectly thrilling and fairy-taleish? I could just eat you +alive, I am so excited. Please say right away that you are going to +love me or I shall die of misery." + +Poor Janet! She had never heard so many adjectives in all her life +and the speed with which Phyllis rattled on dumbfounded her. Miss +Carter, Aunt Mog, came to her rescue. + +"Phyllis, my love, do stop talking and give some one else a chance to +say how do you do to Janet." She laughed. "Janet, my dear, I am +your Aunt Mog, and I am, oh, so very happy to see you." + +Janet kissed her and murmured, "Thank you." + +"Well, don't I get a kiss, little sister of mine?" Tom inquired in +his deep, good-natured voice. + +At the sound of it Janet found her tongue. + +"Of course you do!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I am so happy, I can't think +of anything to say," she confessed shyly. + +"You precious love, that's just exactly the way I feel!" Phyllis +could not keep still another instant. "There are all sorts of funny +little chills miming up and down my back and--oh, for goodness' +sakes, Tommy, what are you doing to Sir Galahad!" She snatched the +basket away from Tom and lifted out a huge tortoise-shell cat with a +big blue bow around his neck. + +Boru, who had been sniffing at Tom's side, gave a sudden jump, and +Janet caught him just in time to save the cat. + +"Get down, sir," she scolded, "and don't you dare to touch that cat. +Do you understand?" Boru slunk away with his tail between his legs. + +"Poor kitty, did he frighten you? I'm so sorry,"--Janet stroked the +ruffled fur comfortingly. + +Phyllis laughed. "What a time we will have with those two!" she +exclaimed; "but they'll make friends sooner or later. Sir Galahad is +just as much to blame as your dog. He has no manners when it comes +to dogs. Go back in your basket, you're in disgrace." + +"Let's make at least a start for home," Tom suggested. "I'm hungry." + +"There's a wagon to carry up your bags," Janet said, "but I'm afraid +we will have to walk." + +"Oh, yes, let's do start. I'm simply crazy to see the house and +grandmother and Martha. Here, Tommy, you carry puss, now that you +have no bags. I'm going to walk with Janet. You and Auntie Mogs can +bring up the rear." + +"You are going to do no such thing," her aunt contradicted her +smilingly. "I don't want Janet deaf by the time we reach the house, +and besides I want to talk to her myself." + +She took Janet's arm and started off, and Phyllis and Tom followed. + +"Phyllis doesn't always talk as much as this," she said as they +walked along; "she is just excited to-day." + +"Oh, but I love it," Janet said quickly. "She's--well she's +everything she said I was." She looked at her companion and smiled. +Miss Carter was a dainty little lady, Janet thought she looked as +though she had just stepped down from a Dresden vase, her cheeks were +such a soft shell pink and her eyes such a delicate china blue. +Unconsciously she looked down at her feet; they were nearly small +enough to fit the slippers in the trunk in the attic. + +"Oh, Janet, do tell me who lives in that cunning little house!" +Phyllis called. + +"The Waters," Janet told her; "that's Harry looking out of the barn +door." + +Phyllis laughed merrily. "Oh, but he's fat," she cried. "Do you +know him!" + +"Yes." + +"Like him?" + +"Not much." + +"Why!" + +"Isn't he the boy who is afraid of snakes?" Tom asked, laughing. + +"Yes." + +"Well, I don't blame him for that!" Phyllis exclaimed. "I'm scared +to death of the crawly things myself, but I do think he is a little +bit too fat." She chattered on and succeeded in monopolizing the +conversation until they reached the house. At the first glimpse of +it she went into ecstasies. + +"It's perfect," she announced from the garden gate. "Oh, Janet, do +love me so that I can stay here always. There's a real sundial! +Auntie Mogs, do look. Tommy, you never told me about it. And what +ducky little white flowers!" + +In the hall she was equally enthusiastic over the grandfather's clock +and the big brass warming pan. + +Martha met them at the door, arrayed in a stiff white apron, her face +shiny with soap applied vigorously. + +Before she had a chance to speak, Phyllis was shaking her hand. + +"You're Martha," she said. "I'm awfully glad to know you." + +Martha turned to Miss Carter. "She said that like Master Tom," she +said. + +Aunt Mog smiled. "Yes, she is very like her father," she said. "I +see it so often. It's queer, isn't it! Janet is more like her +mother." + +"She is, indeed, ma'm, even in her ways." Martha spoke proudly, and +she looked at Janet affectionately. + +"Won't you be coming up to your room? You must be tired." + +They all followed her upstairs, Phyllis leading the way and once more +carrying her cat. + +Tom brought up the rear, carrying the bags, which had arrived a few +minutes before from the station. + +"I must change my dress before I see grandmother," Phyllis said as +she opened a big suitcase, "but I won't be a minute, so stay and talk +to me while I wash in this adorable basin," she said to Janet. + +Aunt Mog took off her hat and with a smile, which neither of the +girls noticed, she slipped from the room and joined Tom at the foot +of the stairs. + +"It's quite perfect, as Phyllis says," she laughed, "and now suppose +I go in and say 'how do you do' to Mrs. Page." + +When the girls came down a few minutes later they heard voices and +Tom's hearty laugh. Janet sighed with relief and opened the door +softly. + +"Grandmother," she said in the hushed voice she always used in that +room, "here is Phyllis." + +Before Mrs. Page had had time really to look at her other +granddaughter, Phyllis had kissed her warmly on both cheeks and was +rattling on in her joyful way. + +"Grandmother, isn't this fun!" she demanded. "I'm so glad to see +you. Why, only just imagine, I never knew you existed until Tom came +out of the skies and told me about you and Janet. You can imagine, +can't you, how surprised I was, and of course I've been simply crazy +to see you ever since." + +"Phyllis dearest, be careful; I'm afraid you'll tire your grandmother +with so much chattering," Aunt Mog admonished gently. + +"Let the child alone, Marjorie," Mrs. Page snapped. + +"Oh, but I'm sorry," Phyllis was contrite at once, "I always forget, +and you know you don't look a bit sick, grandmother, even though you +are in bed. Here, let me shake up your pillows for you. They don't +look half puffy enough to be really comfortable." She suited the +action to the word, and in the twinkling of an eye the pillows were +re-arranged to her satisfaction. + +"Keep still a minute, child," Mrs. Page said not unkindly; "I want to +look at you." + +Phyllis smiled down at her, and stood as still as it was possible for +her. + +"I wish you would all leave me now," Mrs. Page said when she had +studied each of Phyllis's features in turn. "Come in and say good +night to me, child, when Janet comes." + +They left her, and the girls went into the garden. Janet was too +surprised to voice her thoughts, but Phyllis did not seem even to +know that she had done anything out of the ordinary. She dismissed +her grandmother with "she's really a love," and returned to more +important subjects. + +By evening she knew all about the Enchanted Kingdom, Peter, Mrs. Todd +and the Blake girls, and she had moved her suitcase into Janet's +room, "for--" she said--"what is the use of having a sister if you +can't sleep with her and talk over things with her in the dark." + +Miss Carter and Tom, sitting in the living-room before the fire, +heard the buzz of their voices late into the night. + +"How alike they are," she said, smiling. "And yet how absolutely +different." + +Tom nodded. "And to think they're both my sisters; bless 'em, do you +know, Auntie Mogs, I'm a very proud man this night!" + +Auntie Mogs leaned over and patted his hand in understanding. + +"They must never be separated again," she said with decision. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A DAY TOGETHER + +Janet kept her eyes tight closed the next morning, long after she was +awake. She was afraid to open them lest the memories that had +crowded into her consciousness should prove to be only dreams. +Phyllis was dancing inside of her eyelids, and she smiled at her and +closed her eyes tighter to keep her there. + +After a long while she turned over very quietly and listened. Some +one was breathing softly on the other side of the big bed. She +opened her eyes very slowly and found herself looking straight into +Phyllis's merry ones. + +They both laughed. Janet from relief, Phyllis from sheer joy. + +"I've been watching you for perfect hours. I thought you were never +going to wake up. I very nearly pinched you," Phyllis exclaimed. +"Isn't it time to get up!" + +"Yes, it's late, and, thank goodness, it's a beautiful day," Janet +replied. + +Phyllis bounded out of bed and pulled all the covers off of Janet. + +"Get up, you sleepy head, and I'll race you getting dressed!" she +challenged. + +Janet was up in a second and clothes flew in every direction. Martha +had left a big can of hot water in the hall outside their door, and +Phyllis was giggling so hard when she tried to pour it into the basin +that she splashed some of it on her bare toes. + +"Cricky, but that hurts!" she cried, sitting down on the side of the +bed to nurse it. Sir Galahad got up from his basket by the window to +come over and see what all the noise was about, and at the same time +Boru pushed open the door with his black muzzle. + +For an instant the two animals looked at each other, then Boru +growled and Sir Galahad arched his back and hissed. Janet and +Phyllis just caught them in time to avoid a scrap. + +Sir Galahad went back in his basket, and the lid was closed and Boru +was shut out into the hall. + +"What under the sun are we going to do with those two!" Phyllis +demanded. + +"They will just have to get used to each other, but I'm afraid it +won't be easy," Janet replied. "Boru hates cats." + +They finished their dressing and consulted Tom at breakfast. + +"I tell you what to do," he suggested. "You both go off somewhere +this morning and leave the live stock with me, when you come back +they will both be eating out of the same dish." + +Janet and Phyllis exchanged glances and shook their heads doubtfully, +but they decided to let him try, after they had made him solemnly +promise not to let any harm come to either of them. + +"Where shall we go!" Phyllis demanded. "Shall we take a walk!" + +"We might take a drive," Janet suggested. "Mrs. Todd sent me word +that I could have Clinker whenever I wanted him." + +"Of course, that's the very thing!" Phyllis enthused. "He is at the +rectory, isn't he! Let's go this very instant. I'm crazy to see +those Blake girls." + +Janet had an unhappy moment of doubt. Suppose Phyllis liked the +Blakes, what would she do then? But she led the way to the village. +She only showed that she was worried by being a little quieter than +usual. As Phyllis talked all the way, her silence was not noticeable. + +Alice and Mildred must have seen them coming down Main Street, for +they were at the gate to meet them. Janet introduced them and +waited. She expected Phyllis to enthuse as she had been doing ever +since her arrival, but a surprise awaited her. + +From the laughing, bright-eyed youngster Phyllis changed all in the +twinkling of an eye into a quiet self-possessed girl. + +"How do you do? I'm very glad to meet you." She shook hands with +Alice and nodded carelessly to Mildred. + +"We are going for a drive," she went on, still walking toward the +barn. "That is, Janet is going to do the driving, and I am going to +watch her in real envy." + +"Don't you know how to drive?" Alice inquired. "Mildred and I really +don't care for it, we've done so much of it." + +Janet watched Phyllis and waited, wondering what she would say to +such a silly snubbing. + +Phyllis looked at both the girls before her and a roguish grin tilted +up the corners of her mouth, and then she laughed. It was a merry +little laugh, but it made Alice feel very small and very +uncomfortable so that she would have given almost anything not to +have made her last silly remark. + +"Aren't you coming in!" Mildred asked hastily. "We'd love to have +you." + +"Not just now, thanks; we are going for a drive, you see." Phyllis +smiled and followed Janet into the barn, where the hired man was +already harnessing Clinker. Alice and Mildred stayed and talked +until they were ready to go. + +"You'll stop in on your way back, won't you?" Alice almost begged. + +"Oh, thanks, we will if we have time," Phyllis replied sweetly. + +Once on the main road and bowling along briskly, she laughed. + +"No wonder you don't like them!" she exclaimed. "Of all the sillies! +Why, Janet, they are what old-fashioned books call stuck up." She +laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks. "I wish we could +have them at school for about a month; they would learn so many +things, and how I'd love to help teach them." + +"If you think they're funny, what must you think of me?" Janet spoke, +without thinking and regretted it at once. + +Phyllis eyed her reproachfully. "I don't think that's a very nice +thing to say to your sister," she said slowly. "How could I think +you anything but the most wonderful girl in the world when I've been +longing for you all these years." + +"Longing for me?" Janet queried in surprise. + +"Yes, longing for you!" Phyllis returned with spirit, "and that's +more than you can say about me." + +"It's no such thing," Janet denied hotly. "I have wanted a sister +always. Why, I wrote Tom and told him I wished he'd been a girl +instead of a boy." + +"Oh, you darling, did you really?" Phyllis returned to her gay self +in a flash. "Isn't it just like a story? I wanting you, oh, so +much, and you wanting me, and now here we are. I don't see what in +the world we are fussing about, do you?" + +"Then let's stop," Janet said wisely. "Shall I drive you to Mrs. +Todd's house?" + +"Yes, do; I want to see the big room you were telling me about. +Auntie Mogs has a lovely library, so you won't miss your Kingdom so +very much when you come to town." + +"Come to town?" Janet inquired. "But I'm not going to town, am I?" + +"Of course you are," Phyllis insisted. "I heard Tommy and Auntie +Mogs talking about it on the train and again this morning. Gracious, +you don't suppose that now I've found you I'm going to ever let you +out of my sight, do you?" + +"But how can I go to town?" + +"Well, why in the world can't you?" + +"But grandmother?" + +"Oh, don't worry about that. Tommy will take care of it. Anyway +you're coming, and we are going to school together; and, oh, +Janet,"--Phyllis broke off impatiently--"aren't you the least little +bit excited about it?" + +"Excited! I could scream from excitement only I'm breathless, and my +mind is all upside down," Janet replied, laughing. + +"Well, thank goodness!"--Phyllis was comforted. "I was afraid you +really didn't want to come, and I was just having fits, for of course +I told all the girls about you, and they are nearly as excited as I +am. Where have you been going to school? I asked Tommy, but he +didn't know." + +"I've never been to school, real school, in my life," Janet +confessed. "Grandmother has always had a tutor come every day from +Swanet--that's the next town to us. I don't suppose I know very much +and I'll probably be years behind you, but perhaps I can catch up." + +"Years behind! Nonsense, I haven't any brains," Phyllis said, "and I +don't really care very much. The girls at school that are really +brainy are awfully stupid; that is--oh, you know what I mean." + +They were passing the Simpsons' house by now, and Janet saw a +familiar figure standing in the roadway. + +"Why, what do you suppose Harry Waters is doing so far from home?" +she inquired. + +Phyllis looked and laughed. "Oh, that's the fat boy we saw last +night, isn't it?" + +"Yes, but I never knew him to walk as far as this before,"--Janet was +puzzled. + +"Let's give him a lift back," Phyllis suggested. + +Janet called, and Harry waved in reply, but he did not come out to +them. + +"He's bashful," Janet laughed. "I'll chase him." She turned Clinker +in at the gate, and although Harry did his best to retreat to the +barn, they were soon beside him. + +"This is my sister Phyllis," Janet said. "Don't you want to drive +back with us?" + +Harry hung his head and mumbled something about walking. + +"What are you doing over here anyway?" Janet inquired. + +"Nothing," Harry replied sulkily. + +"Good." Phyllis spoke for the first time. "Then there is no reason +why you can't ride home with us; we were going on a little farther +but we can do that another day, can't we, Janet?" + +It was a new idea to Janet to put off going to the Enchanted Kingdom +for the sake of Harry's company, but she nodded and let down the flap +of the cart and Harry jumped in without another word. + +Phyllis turned her back to the horse and talked to him, though it +must be admitted it was a one-sided conversation, for Harry refused +to say more than "yes" or "no" in answer to her numerous questions. + +Janet, who knew him better than he knew himself, realized that he was +angry, but she was too much occupied with her driving to give any +assistance to Phyllis. + +When they reached the edge of the village Harry insisted upon jumping +down, and before they realized it he was lost to view in the scrub +oak by the side of the road. + +Phyllis turned around with an ejaculation of amazement. + +"Did you ever see such an extraordinary boy? What do you suppose is +the matter with him?" + +Janet laughed. + +"I can't imagine; it isn't like Harry to be mysterious," she said. + +"I thought I'd have to laugh the way he sat there and glowered at +me." Phyllis was frankly surprised that any one could withstand her +charms. + +"Well," she added with a sigh, "I suppose, now that we have spoiled +our chances of going to your Enchanted Kingdom we may as well stop in +to say how do you do to the Blakes." + +Janet was not enthusiastic over the proposal, but she agreed, with a +nod, and after Clinker was safely in the barn they went around to the +front porch and rang the bell. + +Alice came to the door. She was delighted to see them, and it was +evident she had not expected them to return so soon. She ushered +them into the living-room where a cheery fire was blazing in the +fireplace. Mrs. Blake and Mildred were sewing before it, and Mrs. +Blake greeted the girls with her usual sweet manner. + +They stayed until lunch time, and when they left they had given their +promise to return the next day at four o'clock. + +"We are not going to have a party," Mrs. Blake assured them, "but we +want to ask some of the ladies in to meet you and your aunt," she +spoke to Phyllis. + +"Are all the girls in Old Chester like the Blakes?" Phyllis inquired, +laughing. + +Janet made a little face. + +"They are," she replied dismally. + +Phyllis put her arm around her and hugged her tight. + +"You poor darling," she said; "no wonder you wanted a sister. Well, +you've got one, and we'll have a good time at their party. You see +if we won't." + +When they reached home a comical tableau greeted them. Tom was +sitting on the stone bench in the garden holding a plate of milk +between his knees. From one side Sir Galahad lapped daintily and +from the other, one ear cocked suspiciously, Boru's pink tongue was +greedily bespattering his black muzzle. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AT THE RECTORY FOR TEA + +The dining-room table at the rectory was laden with sandwiches and +baskets of cake. Mrs. Blake sat at one end pouring tea, and Mildred +and Alice took turns with the chocolate pot at the other. + +Mrs. Blake had not been entirely truthful when she had said that she +was not going to give a real party, for the people who walked in and +out of the two rooms gave an air of festivity that was rivaled only +by fairs and weddings in Old Chester. + +Miss Carter dressed in the palest of gray satin gowns was busy +renewing her many acquaintances, and Janet and Phyllis were the +center of a laughing group of girls and boys. + +Phyllis had on a dainty afternoon dress of dark blue chiffon, which +contrasted oddly with the more elaborately made summer dresses on the +other girls. + +Janet wore her customary white piqué dress with its broad belt of +black patent leather. Mrs. Page believed in simplicity, and as far +back as Janet could remember she had always owned just such a dress. +It served to wear to church and to the occasional meetings of the +Ladies' Aid Society that met in her grandmother's room. + +She was conscious this afternoon that its plainness marked her among +the other girls, and she looked at Phyllis with just a touch of envy +in her soft brown eyes. + +Aunty Mog from far across the room saw the look, and made a mental +note of it. + +There was a very small percentage of boys in comparison with the +girls, but among these Harry Waters stood out. His hair was brushed +back sleek against his bullet-shaped head, and the dotted Windsor +tie, that his mother had insisted on his wearing, accentuated his +fatness. + +Phyllis greeted him upon his arrival like an old friend and insisted +on his talking to her, although it was very apparent that Harry was +miserably embarrassed. Janet, who was busy at that moment talking +dogs to the old country doctor, watched them, and wondered that Harry +still carried with him his air of mystery. She determined to find +out what was the matter with him before the end of the afternoon. +She had not long to wait, before Harry gave her a clew. + +He refused refreshments! + +"But, Harry, surely you're going to have something," Mildred +insisted. She spoke more loudly than she had intended, and all eyes +turned toward her. + +Poor Harry turned very red and stammered. + +"But honestly, Mildred, I don't want it," he protested, almost in +tears. + +"I don't know what is the matter with Harry," Mrs. Waters confided to +the women around her; "he won't eat a thing, and he's so quiet." + +"But surely you'll have a piece of chocolate cake," Alice said and +she held a plate temptingly before him. But Harry was obdurate. He +shook his head, speech had left him minutes before, and looked about +him for a means of escape. + +Janet beckoned to him, and when they saw their chance they slipped +into the pantry and took refuge on the back stairs. + +"Now," Janet said sharply, "tell me what the matter is? I know +you're not sick." + +"Gee, of course I'm not. Can't a fellow refuse food without all this +fuss?" Harry complained bitterly. + +"Some could but not you; come on, tell me what's wrong. If you +don't, I'll guess anyway," Janet threatened. + +Harry eyed her dejectedly. + +"I suppose you will," he agreed. "Well, it's this then--I heard what +your sister said last night when you were coming back from the +station about--about--well, about me." + +Janet thought for a minute and then she laughed. It was not an +unkind laugh however, and Harry reluctantly joined in. + +"Is that why you refused refreshments?" she demanded, and Harry +nodded. + +"And that's what I was doing out at Simpsons too," he added. "I was +walking to reduce. I didn't want to ride home, but, gee, she +wouldn't let me off--" he stopped abruptly, for some one was pushing +open the door. It was Phyllis. + +"Here you are, you scamps!" she whispered. "I've been looking +everywhere for you. Changed your mind about that cake, Harry? I +brought you a piece in case you had." + +Harry looked miserably from the cake in her hand to her laughing +eyes, and once more shook his head in refusal. + +"All right then, I'll eat it." Phyllis broke the large piece in half +and handed one piece to Janet. "Here, Jan, you have to help me, and +now listen both of you. I've thought of the greatest idea that ever +was." + +She sat down between them on the step, and like Janet, rested her +chin in her hand. They looked so much alike that Harry could not +help laughing. + +"What's your idea?" Janet inquired. + +"Harry, can you keep a secret?" Phyllis demanded. + +"Sure I can. I'm not a girl," Harry answered defiantly. + +"Now what do you mean by that?" Phyllis sat up very straight, her +eyes bright with a challenge. + +"Well, you know girls can't keep secrets," he said crossly. + +"Very well,"--Phyllis dismissed the subject airily and sat munching +her cake with evident relish. + +"Aren't you going to tell us?" Harry asked sheepishly. + +"No, not you,"--Phyllis smiled at him sweetly and winked roguishly at +Janet. + +Harry got up and opened the door. + +"All right, don't then," he said angrily. "You're just exactly as +bad as Janet," he added, and the door shut behind him with a bang. + +Phyllis put her head on Janet's shoulder and laughed until she cried. + +"Poor Harry; that's the very worst thing he could think of to say to +you." Janet laughed almost as hard as her sister. "I bet he is +eating everything in sight this minute. He heard you say he was fat +and--well, now you can understand why he wouldn't eat." + +Phyllis was serious in a second. + +"Was that really the reason!" + +"Yes, but I shouldn't have told you." Janet was ashamed of having +betrayed a confidence. + +"I'm glad you did," Phyllis said slowly, "and I'm sorry I teased him, +but really he shouldn't talk about girls that way, and my idea will +really be lots more fun if no one knows it except ourselves." + +"What is it?" Janet inquired eagerly. + +Phyllis lowered her voice. + +"Grandmother told Auntie Mogs to ask any of these people to come to +our house to tea any afternoon she liked," she began; "to sort of +return this, you know. So she has asked them for Thursday. Now I +haven't talked to a single girl to-day that didn't say how different +we were and they made me furious until suddenly--" she lowered her +voice and the rest of the sentence was lost in the soft waves of +Janet's hair. It must have been amusing, for Janet's eyes sparkled +with suppressed merriment. + +When they joined the others a few minutes later they both looked very +demure, so much so in fact that Auntie Mogs, who knew Phyllis +thoroughly, knew that they were planning some mischief. + +Miss Clark had arrived during their absence and was apparently amazed +beyond speech at the striking resemblance between them. + +"I have seen many twins in my time!" she exclaimed, "but I never saw +anything so remarkable! Why, you could never in the world tell them +apart." + +"Oh, I think you could easily. They're not a bit alike," Alice said, +from the chocolate pot. + +Phyllis looked at Janet, and a swift glance of understanding and +amusement passed between them. + +"And, oh, Janet,"--Miss Clark was speaking again--"I almost forgot to +tell you that there is a letter in your box for you. Seems to me you +are getting lots of mail lately. I didn't recognize the handwriting." + +Again Phyllis and Janet exchanged glances, and this time their looks +said as plainly as words "Peter." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A FULL CUP OF HAPPINESS + +The letter was from Peter, as Janet had hoped. She opened it eagerly +and read: + + +"_Dear Janet:_ + +"Mrs. Todd says that I really ought to send you a telegram, but a +letter can say so much more, and I have a whole lot to say. + +"First of all, I came to Boston intending to get something to do as a +first step toward the West, but would you believe it whom should I +run into the day after I landed but Doc. He grabbed me by the arm, +and I felt the way I did the day Mr. Simpson appeared in the doorway +of the 'E.K.' He hardly spoke to me, but hustled me off to his +house, and there I found the explanation of his queer behavior. + +"Mrs. Todd was sitting in the office waiting for me! My ears still +tingle when I remember what she said! But I guess I deserved it. +And now comes the amazing part of my story. + +"I am going to school. She and Doc, who are old friends, by the way, +insist upon it. Then, next spring, one of my 'E.K.' schemes is +coming true. Mrs. Todd is going to let me raise sheep on her place. +This is all thanks to you, Princess, and some day I'm going to show +you that I am really grateful. + +"Mrs. Todd wants me to tell you that she will be back within a few +days, and she hopes it will be in time for your surprise. What is +your surprise? + + "Yours in the bonds of the E.K. + "PETER GIBBS." + + +Janet read the letter aloud to Phyllis and explained the parts of it +that she did not understand. + +"I knew Mrs. Todd would do something like that," Janet exclaimed, +delightedly. + +"She must be a dear," Phyllis said. "I'm crazy to meet her." + +It seemed to Janet that with this last good news her cup of happiness +was full to overflowing. + +The next few days passed all too hurriedly. They spent them out of +doors for the most part, either driving or paddling on the bay. + +Phyllis added admiration to her affection for Janet. It seemed to +her that she could do almost everything in the outdoor line and do it +well. As a city girl she marveled and predicted a great success in +athletics at school. + +The day before the tea was so warm and sunshiny that they decided to +have a picnic out in the woods. Martha packed them a basket filled +with twice as much as they needed, and they made an early start. + +They walked out into the country beyond the village, and Tom chose a +sheltered corner under the lee of a hill, and built a fire. Janet +helped him, and together they roasted potatoes and broiled a steak. +Auntie Mogs and Phyllis watched and offered suggestions. Phyllis +upset a jar of Martha's specially preserved peaches, but only Tom saw +her, and she scooped them back into the glass, only adding a pine +needle or two. + +"Tommy, don't you dare to tell," she whispered, and Tom, who had +dropped the steak only the minute before had to promise. + +It was a merry little party, and Tom kept them all laughing with +tales about picnics and camping trips out in the West. + +"Tommy, I think, now that you have found two new and perfectly nice +sisters, that the least you could do would be to invite them out to +pay you a visit," Phyllis suggested airily. + +"Oh, you do, eh?" Tom asked lazily. + +"Of course I do; don't you, Janet?"--Phyllis turned for support. + +"I do," Janet answered solemnly. + +"Children, you have no manners," Auntie Mogs chided. "If I were Tom, +I should never think of asking you now." + +"Just as I feel about it,"--Tom tried to make his voice sound very +dignified and cold and failed utterly. "I intended asking you all +next summer, but of course now I shall limit my invitation to just +you, Aunt Mog, and I do hope you will accept." + +"Indeed I will," Auntie Mogs answered laughingly. + +"Meanie," Phyllis teased. "If you ever did such a thing! But +seriously, Tommy, did you mean to ask us next summer?" + +"I did." + +"Then we'll accept with thanks; won't we, Janet?" + +"Oh, yes; can't we leave the day after school closes?" Janet +suggested. "There's no use in wasting time." + +"Or even before,"--Phyllis was not to be outdone. + +"Here, here," Tom protested, "not quite so fast. I accept your +acceptance of my ungiven invitation, but I insist on naming the day. + +"I stump you both to climb that tree over there," he added, pointing +to a tall pine; "the one who wins can have the last piece of cake." + +Both girls started for the tree. Janet was almost to the top before +Phyllis was half way up. As she climbed down again she noticed that +Phyllis was very white and standing perfectly still, holding tightly +to the trunk. + +"What's the matter!" she asked. + +Phyllis looked at her beseechingly. + +"Oh, Janet, I'm scared to death," she whispered. "I looked down and +now I am terribly dizzy; what shall I do!" + +Janet came close and took hold of her arm. + +"Keep your eyes on the sky," she directed. "Don't look down for even +a second and don't be afraid. I'm here and I won't let you fall." + +She dropped quickly to the branch below and took one of Phyllis's +ankles in her strong grasp. + +"Hold tight to the bough above and let your foot swing free, I'll put +it on a safe branch. There now, bring the other one down beside it." +In this way she helped her carefully and surely to the bottom. + +"Oh," Phyllis was almost in tears, "thank you, darling. I am quite +sure you saved my life. Oh, dear, I'm still dizzy." + +"Well, stand still a minute until you are better. There's no need +for Tommy to know. He'd be sure to tease," Janet whispered. + +"I don't care about Tom, but I hate being such a baby. You went way +to the top," Phyllis answered. + +"You tried, anyway," Janet consoled her, "and that's what counts." + +"You're a darling to say so, anyway," Phyllis said gratefully. "I +feel better now; let's go back." + +Tom held the cake out to Janet. + +"It's yours, you won by a dozen branches. What happened, Phyllis? +Did you get scared?" + +"Of course not," Janet answered for her. "I promised to go halves, +so what was the need of her climbing too,"--she held out a piece of +the cake, and Phyllis took it. + +"Oh, come, that's not fair," Tom protested. "You should eat every +bit of it yourself." + +"No, we're twins and we have to share everything," Janet insisted. +"Isn't that so, Phyllis?" + +Phyllis nodded seriously. + +"Everything," she said, and it sounded like a prophecy. + +On the way home Mrs. Todd called them as they passed the rectory. +She had only just returned, and she was so delighted at Janet's good +fortune that she kissed her, much to every one's surprise. + +"Please tell me about Peter," Janet whispered, when she had the +opportunity. + +"Peter is a rogue," Mrs. Todd answered, "but I can't help loving him, +and he has promised to be my right hand for the rest of my days. I +had a hard time making Dr. Peabody agree to my schemes, but I am a +very determined woman, once my mind is made up, and so he had to give +in finally." + +"What have you made your mind up to this time, Ann?" Miss Carter +inquired, from the other side of the room. + +"A red-headed boy," Mrs. Todd laughed. "I have seen enough of all my +friends with children to think about and I've made up my mind to have +one too. I wanted Janet, but I knew you'd find her some day, +Marjorie, and so I found Peter. He's alone and so am I. I think we +are going to have a very good time together--raising sheep," she +added with a twinkle in her eye. + +"Isn't it wonderful about Peter?" Janet asked as she walked home +beside her aunt. + +"Indeed it is, my dear," Auntie Mogs agreed. "Ann is a darling under +her bruskness, and she is very fond of you, dear." + +"Well, I love her too," Janet replied; "she has been so good to me." + +Miss Carter put her arm through hers and looked down at her with +serious eyes. + +"It would be difficult to imagine any one being anything else. Dear +little girl," she added tenderly, "you are very like your beautiful +mother. Do you think you could be happy with Phyllis and me? We +want you very much indeed." + +"Oh, Auntie Mogs," Janet said in a queer little voice, "I want you +too." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +TWINS INDEED + +Janet and Phyllis stood in the middle of Janet's room and looked at +each other. There was nothing apparently that was strange in their +appearance. One had on a dark blue, chiffon, afternoon dress and the +other a white piqué with a black belt. + +They joined hands and stood before the mirror, and then they both +began to laugh very hard. Boru, who had been dozing on the floor in +a patch of sunlight, got up and came over to them. A keen observer +might have thought it odd that he chose the blue chiffon dress to rub +up against instead of the white one. + +[Illustration: A keen observer might have thought it odd that he +chose the blue chiffon dress to rub against instead of the white one.] + +Phyllis noticed it and laughed again. + +"Funny how fond Boru is of me, isn't it?" she asked. Then they went +down stairs together. + +Auntie Mogs was busy arranging some flowers in a bowl. + +"Phyllis, help me with these, will you, dear!" + +The white dress stepped forward and then stood still, and the blue +chiffon was soon bending over the table. + +Martha came into the room, carrying a plate of tea biscuits. + +"Put these on the side table, Miss Janet, please," she said, and the +white dress did as she asked. + +"What is the matter with you children!" Auntie Mogs asked. "You are +so quiet." + +"Nothing at all," they both answered together. + +Tom came in and looked around hurriedly. + +"Nobody here yet! Then I'm going to have a cooky, a piece of cake +and some candy. Janet, dear little sister of mine, give me one of +those biscuits, or two if you insist." The white dress offered him +the plate and two brown eyes looked at him hard as he helped himself. +But he filled his pockets unconcernedly and turned toward the table. + +"Phyllis, other little sister of mine, have you a flower for my +button hole! I'm not going to be at your party, but I want to look +festive none the less." + +The blue dress stood very close to him as the flower was carefully +poked into place. + +"You are both very quiet this afternoon, it seems to me," he observed +critically, looking from one to the other. "What's the matter?" + +The girls began to laugh, and they kept it up until they had to lean +on each other for support. + +"Well, evidently something is very wrong indeed, but I didn't mean to +remind you of it. Are you going to do this often during the +afternoon?" + +Only suppressed gurgles answered him, and he marched off to his own +room in disgust. + +It was not long before the guests began to arrive. + +Miss Carter met them at the door, and the girls both shook hands with +each one and then went off for tea or cake, and each time the guest +said, "Thank you, Janet," to the white dress, and "That's very sweet +of you," to the blue one. And every now and then both girls would +disappear into the hall, laugh silently and return to their posts. + +The Blakes were among the first arrivals, and Mrs. Todd was with +them. Mildred and Alice were a little surprised that the wearer of +the white dress came up to them and said "hello!" in the friendliest +way. + +"Will you have a cup of tea and a biscuit? You ought to be hungry +after that long walk, or did you drive over? Oh, but of course you +didn't; I forgot you were tired of driving." The white dress +fluttered away to return a minute later with tea. + +"Here you are; can you manage all the plates?" + +"Why, of course," Mildred replied. "How nice it must be for you to +have your sister here," she said, smiling. + +"Oh, it is rather nice." + +"Rather nice!" Alice exclaimed. "I should think it would be a +perfect blessing." + +"Now, why a blessing?" + +"Why--why because it is some one for you to be with." Alice was +amazed. "You must have been awfully lonely before she came?" + +"Lonely--I? How silly!" + +"Well, but you never went with any of the girls except us now and +again, and naturally every one thought you must be lonely. Alice +isn't the only one who thought so," Mildred said vehemently. + +"Then every one was wrong. I never was lonely for a minute. I had +too many things to think about. Of course it is nice having a sister +that understands you, but even without her I would not be lonely." +The white dress drifted away at a sign from the hostess, and Alice +and Mildred were left looking at each other in pained surprise. They +were wearing their hair rolled up and tied at the back of their necks +for the first time, and they couldn't imagine why Janet had said +nothing about it. + +"How queer she is to-day," Mildred said. + +"And to think we always thought of her as lonely! I guess she didn't +come to see us any oftener because she didn't want to," Alice replied. + +Across the room, Miss Clark was talking to the wearer of the blue +dress. + +"Isn't it beautiful to think of your being here with Janet?" she +exclaimed. + +"Yes, it is splendid." + +"I suppose you will be carrying her back to the dreadful city with +you before long?" + +"Yes, I think we will go in a few weeks. School begins, you see, and +we mustn't be too late getting back." + +"What a change it will be for dear Janet!" Miss Clark continued. "I +can't say I altogether approve." + +"But why?" + +"Well, it will change her, and I hate to think of her getting +cityfied and filling her head with notions." Miss Clark did not +specify just exactly what notions were. + +"Of course you are very dear and sweet," she continued, "but you are +not at all like our Janet; though you look very much alike, I would +never confuse you for an instant." + +"Are you quite sure!" + +"Indeed I am, and I don't want to hurt your feelings when I say that +I hope you will not let Janet change too much." + +"Why, I think it will do her good to go to the city. She will meet +lots of nice girls and go to school, and certainly anything would be +better than being alone so much of the time as she is here. I hope +she learns to be like other girls when she gets to town." + +"Ah, well, I am afraid I can't agree with you," Miss Clark said +sadly. The blue dress hurried off to pass the cake to Mrs. Todd, who +was sitting alone in a corner. + +"Stay with me, child," Mrs. Todd said when she had helped herself. +"I want to look at you. I thought this afternoon that you were like +your father in manner,"--her blue eyes searched the brown ones. +Suddenly she frowned. "Hello, that's odd. No, I can't be wrong. +You little imps you, you've--" + +"Oh, do hush, please; some one might hear you, and not a soul has +even suspected, not even Auntie Mogs. How did you guess?" Janet +demanded. + +"Eyes," Mrs. Todd said shortly. "Yours have little tiny flecks of +gold in them, like your mother's. Phyllis's are clearer, less +dreamy, like her father's. I won't give you away." + +"Oh, thanks; you can't imagine what fun it is. I am hearing all +sorts of things about myself, and I can't wait to compare notes with +Phyllis." + +Opportunity came a little later when they met in the kitchen. +Phyllis repeated her numerous conversations, and Janet told her that +Mrs. Todd had guessed. + +"But she has promised not to say anything," she added. + +"Good; don't let's change even for dinner. I believe we could fool +Tommy and Auntie Mogs all evening," Phyllis chuckled. + +"It's lots of fun being you," Janet whispered, as they went back into +the dining-room. + +"Well, I love being you; it makes me wish I really were," Phyllis +answered. + +Dinner passed without their game being discovered, though their +occasional fits of laughter mystified Tommy and Auntie Mogs. They +might have gotten safely to bed without their knowing if it hadn't +been for Boru and Galahad. + +They came out into the garden after dinner, pretending not to notice +each other, for although Tom had succeeded in making them eat from +the same dish, they were by no means friends. + +Janet and Phyllis were walking up and down the center path. Sir +Galahad purred softly and looked up at his mistress. Phyllis leaned +down and picked him up in her aims. Janet let her hand rest on +Boru's head. + +Tom came out of the house just as they made a tableau by the old +sundial. + +At first he did not notice anything odd, but after a minute he said: + +"There's something wrong with the picture. I think it's your +dresses. They don't match your animals. Hold on a minute. I've got +it!" he exclaimed. "You've swapped clothes." + +"And you just found it out," Phyllis teased. + +Tom studied them for a minute and shook his head solemnly. + +"It's no wonder either; you are as alike as two peas in a pod, except +for the way you talk. What a lot of larks you will be able to have, +but I shouldn't wonder if you found it embarrassing when you got a +little older. Perhaps I had better brand you with your initials," he +suggested--then he added slowly, "Yes, I think on the whole it would +be a lot better for all concerned if I did." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +GOOD-BY + +One morning at the close of the visit Mrs. Page sent for Janet to +come to her. When she was seated in the chair by the bed, the old +lady looked at her for a long time before she said anything. When +she did speak, it was to ask a startling question. + +"Janet, do you love me?" she inquired shortly. + +Janet stared at her in surprise. + +"Well, do you or don't you?" Mrs. Page demanded. + +"Why, grandmother, of course I do," Janet replied quickly. + +"Why?" + +"Because you have always been kind to me and taken care of me, I +suppose," Janet said doubtfully. + +"Is that the only reason?" + +"N-no, I love you because you are my grandmother." + +"Do you love me as much as you do your Aunt Marjorie?" + +"Of course, but--" + +"But what!" + +"In a different way." + +"What do you mean by different way?" + +"Why, I hardly know how to put it into words,"--Janet hesitated. "I +love to be with Auntie Mogs and I like to have her put her arm around +me and kiss me." + +"I see," Mrs. Page spoke dryly, and laughed a short unpleasant laugh. + +"And you love me for the opposite reasons, eh!" she inquired. + +"I don't think they are opposite reasons," Janet replied. "I love +you--well, respectfully, and I like to think of your being here. I +think perhaps I'm proud that you are my grandmother." + +Mrs. Page seemed to think over what she had heard. + +"Well, it may surprise you to hear it," she said at last, "but I love +you. I love you very dearly. I have been a very selfish old woman +and perhaps I have not been very gentle with you. Tom says I +haven't. Certainly I have never kissed you and put my arm around +you, but I have always loved you. I want you to remember that. You +have always been very patient with me too, and I realize it. +Sometimes I've wished you would lose your temper, but now I'm glad +you didn't. Phyllis is more like her father than you are, but I +suppose that serves me right. I thought that I could love her the +first day I saw her. I do love her, but not as much as I love you. +You are the finer of the two and some day you'll prove it." + +She turned over and faced the wall Janet rose to go. + +"When I die,"--Mrs. Page spoke from the depth of the pillow--"I am +going to leave everything I have to you. I am telling you this +because you are going away, not because I think I am going to die. +Now you may go." + +Janet left the room, a queer feeling of regret in her heart. She +wanted to take her grandmother in her arms and kiss her as she knew +Phyllis would have done, but a restraint, born from the custom of +years, held her back, and she closed the door behind her, softly, as +she had always done. + +Phyllis was nowhere to be found, so Janet went up to the "widow's +walk" to think over what her grandmother had said. She found Tom +already there, smoking his pipe and reading. + +"Hello, what did grandmother want?" he inquired lazily. "You were +with her an awfully long time. Phyllis got tired of waiting for you +and went off for a walk with Harry Waters." + +"Tom,"--Janet spoke very seriously, and Tom put down his book to +listen--"when I go to the city with Phyllis and Auntie Mogs may I +come back and see grandmother whenever I want to?" + +"Why, certainly you may; what makes you ask?" Tom replied. + +"Because I think grandmother is sorry I am going; really sorry, I +mean, not just angry; and I think I ought to come back and see her +every once in a while," Janet told him. + +"Bless your heart, I think you are right. Auntie Mogs and I were +talking about the same thing only last night, and she said you could +all come up whenever she wanted you." Tom pulled her down beside him +and rumpled her hair. "Now are you satisfied?" he asked, laughing. + +Janet nodded. + +"Tell me all over again just what the plans are!" she said as she +settled herself comfortably. + +"I should think you would know them all by heart,"--Tom laughed. +"First of all you and Phyllis will have to be separated for a few +days. I don't see how you will ever bear it, but you must try. Then +Auntie Mogs and Phyllis will go down to the city and get ready for +your arrival. To hear Phyllis talk you would think that the walls of +your room were going to be hung in gold and that no one could see to +it but herself. + +"But to resume. As soon as everything is ready for your ladyship I +will take you down. I can picture your excitement now when you see +Auntie Mogs' library, and when you are comfortably settled I will +take a train West and start in rebuilding my modest shanty so that it +will be ready to receive you in the spring." + +Janet looked out over the water and tried to picture all Tom had +said, but she gave it up. + +"Do you know, Tommy," she said suddenly, "I made up my mind on this +very spot to write you that letter. Doesn't it seem funny to think +that we are sitting here now together?" + +"It does," Tom agreed slowly, "the only pity is that you didn't write +it before." + + +The remaining days passed rapidly, and the date set for the departure +came all too soon. + +"Of course it's only for a week," Phyllis said, as they stood on the +station platform, "but I feel as though it were years." + +"So do I," Janet replied sorrowfully. "I wish I could go home and +sleep until Thursday." + +"Make Tommy amuse you every minute, and don't you dare to forget me +even for a half a second," Phyllis warned her. "Oh, dear, here comes +the horrid old train! Kiss me again for good luck." + +Janet kissed her, and then turned to her aunt. + +"Good-by, Auntie Mogs," she said tearfully. + +"You two babies!" Miss Carter looked down at the two doleful faces +before her and laughed. "It's dreadful to be separated, especially +when you are twins, isn't it? But try and brace up, both of you, and +it will soon be over. Good-by for a little while, dearest child. +Tommy, take good care of her, won't you?" she added, as she said +good-by to him. + +"The very best; and we'll be down in one short little week," he +promised. + +They boarded the train, and Janet insisted on waiting until the last +puff of smoke curled up out of sight. + +"It is going to be the longest week of my life," she said dismally. + + +The house without Phyllis was unbearable, and Janet rowed over to the +Enchanted Kingdom to find consolation. She knew that the workmen +would be in possession the next day, and she wanted to have it all to +herself once more. + +She patted the books and said good-by to all her favorites. As she +knelt to read the title of one of them she noticed the volume that +she had found Peter reading their last memorable day together. She +took it from its shelf and opened it idly. Pictures of sheep and +diagrams of gates and fences did not interest her very much, and she +was just about to close it up when she had a sudden idea. + +She turned to the back of it, tore out a page that had nothing on it, +and with Peter's own pencil, which she found on the floor under the +sofa, she started to write. + +When she had finished her note read as follows: + + +"_Dear Peter:_ + +"I am saying good-by to the Enchanted Kingdom, for I am going away +next week. Of course I will write you letters to boarding school, +but I wanted to leave this for you to find the first time you come +back. + +"We had lots of good times together, didn't we? I suppose the next +time we see each other we won't want to pretend, so this is a last +good-by to Lord Carrot Tops from + + "THE PRINCESS OF THE + ENCHANTED KINGDOM." + + +When it was written, she folded it up and stuck it between the leaves +of the sheep book. Then she stood up to go. + +"Good-by, my wonderful Kingdom," she said. "I will always love you +better than any room in the world." She tiptoed to the window and +climbed out swiftly. + +As she ran down the hill, her eyes smarted and she did not look back. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CONCLUSION + +An ordinary train pulled in on an ordinary day at the Old Chester +station. A man and a girl, with soft brown eyes blurred by unshed +tears, entered the Pullman car and took the seats that the porter +showed them. Then the car started again, and the girl leaned out of +the window. + +"They are all there," she said. "Harry, Mrs. Todd, Mildred and +Alice, and Martha. I can't believe I'm really going away from them." + +"But you are, little sister of mine; you are going to a brand new +world, and I am anxious to hear what you and another little sister of +mine are going to do in it." + +"It's more her world than mine," the girl reminded him. + +"Yes, just as this was more your world than hers, but she came to +your world and liked it," the man replied. "Just as you are going to +like her world." + +"And before you know it, both worlds are going to be 'our world.'" + +The girl, who was Janet, looked out of the window and smiled, and the +train seemed to hurry them along. + + + +THE END + + + + +[Illustration: Left end paper] + + + +Illustration: Right end paper] + + + + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75755 *** |