A House Party with the Tucker Twins Part 26

"Of course Gresham's burning down was most inopportune, as they would have been safely placed for another year there, but now that it is burned and not rebuilt yet----"

"We wouldn't go back there, anyhow, with that old Miss Plympton bossing things," a.s.serted Dum.

"Now what I want to find is some way to have them go on studying and learning and still not be bored to death," and Zebedee sat down.

"A Daniel come to judgment!" I whispered.

"Are you addressing the chair?" asked Father.

"No, I was just talking to myself."

"Of course, I want to study art more than anything in the world!"

exclaimed Dum, bouncing on her feet and forcing an acknowledgment from the chair before Dee had time to get it. "I can't see the use in burdening myself with Latin and math when I am nearly dead to model things."

"Well, you haven't overburdened yourself with knowledge yet, I am glad to say," teased her father.

"Are you addressing the chair?" asked our president sternly. "If not, pray do so."

"Well, Mr. President, I want to study physiology and anatomy," said Dee.

"And for the life of me I can't see what good ancient history and French would do me."

"And I want to be a writer, and it seems to me the best way to be one is--just to be one," I remarked.

"Exactly!" smiled Father.

"And now we want to talk over what is the best way for these girls to get what they want and still not be idle," said Mr. Tucker. "I should like to hear what our honored president has to say."

"Well, friends, this has kind of been sprung on me. I have been living in a kind of fool's paradise, thinking that maybe our girls knew enough to stop; but I see that I was wrong. Girls never know enough to stop.

I'll let my third do whatever you let your two-thirds do, if it isn't too wild."

"But, Father, I am going to stay right here at Bracken with you! You know you need me."

"Of course I need you, but you don't think I need you any more than Tucker needs his daughters. You will settle down soon enough and now is the time to gather material for writing. Things make an impression on you now that wouldn't when you are older. One can put off writing longer than getting experience," and Father drew me down on the arm of his chair.

"Where do you think these monkeys should go to get these varied industries they are longing for, Tucker?"

"New York, I should say."

CHAPTER XIX

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

NEW YORK! The very sound of the name thrilled me. It was all I could do to keep from following the twins in their demonstration of joy and grat.i.tude lavished on their father. I contented myself, however, by rumpling up my father's hair.

"When?" gasped Father, when I had finished with him.

"Immediately if not sooner!" said Zebedee, coming out unscathed from the embraces of his girls. "I have been thinking a lot about it and I really believe it would be the best thing for them. They can in a way find themselves, and they don't get in any more sc.r.a.pes without us than they do with us."

"That's so," agreed Father.

"Oh, we won't get in any sc.r.a.pes at all!" declared Dee.

"Not a single one, if you only trust us!" maintained Dum.

"I'm not going to take my oath upon it that you won't get into some, but if you talk over anything you are contemplating, in the way of adventure, with wise little Page, I don't believe your sc.r.a.pes will amount to much."

Zebedee always complimented me by insisting that my judgment was good, and for a wonder, the girls did not mind when he praised me. They were very jealous of their father's praise when it was laid on too thickly, except where I was concerned, but they agreed with him heartily when he lauded me to the skies.

"You shouldn't say that," I said, blus.h.i.+ng. "I might prove myself unworthy of the trust imposed in me,--and then what?"

"Then I shall have to declare myself at fault in character reading."

"But, Page, you know you always hold us down! When we get into trouble it is against your judgment. If we listen to you, we keep straight,"

said Dum.

"You mean I preach!"

"That's the funny thing about you, Page: you give us sage, grown-up advice without preaching. We wouldn't listen a minute if you preached."

"All right, I promise never to do that objectionable thing," I laughed.

"But really and truly, I don't think Father ought to afford this trip for me."

"Child, it's not a trip," and Father put his arm around me again. "It's part of your education. New York need not be such an expensive place if you girls go there with economical ideas in your heads, instead of extravagant ones."

"Certainly! We had better allowance them and that will be part of their training, as well as what they will get from the several schools. My girls know very little about finances and it is high time they learned.

Experience is the only way for them to learn, as whenever I try to instill in them principles of economy they say I am Mr. Tuckerish," and Zebedee tried to look stern.

The idea of his instilling principles of economy in anybody's mind was so funny all of us had to laugh. One thing Mr. Tucker insisted on was not spending money until you had it; but the minute you did have it, what was it meant for but to spend? "Easy come, easy go!" was the motto for the whole Tucker family.

"Oh, we will live so cheap I haven't a doubt we'll save oodlums of money!" cried Dum. "Mrs. Edwin Green told me a lot about how cheap one can live in Bohemia. She told us whenever we went to New York she was going to give us a letter of introduction to her brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Kent Brown."

Mrs. Edwin Green was the lovely young woman we had met in Charleston when we took our famous trip down there. She was a Miss Molly Brown of Kentucky who had married Professor Edwin Green of Wellington College.

They were the very nicest couple I ever knew and we became great friends with them. We corresponded with her and a letter from "Molly Brown" was highly prized by all of us.

"Yes, and she said we were to visit her at Wellington if we got anywhere near. Won't it be great?" and Dee danced around the library from pure glee.

"How will we live in New York?" I asked. "Shall we board or what?"

"Board, by all means! If you try to live any other way you will run into debt, I am afraid," said Zebedee.

"But we just naturally despise boarding," pouted Dum. "We've been boarding all our lives, it seems to me."

"But when you board, you are in a measure chaperoned," said her cautious parent.