Those Dale Girls Part 9

"We'll have the grandest old times that ever happened, just like we did when you were here before.

"Do you know I'd almost forgotten to tell you the thing I began this letter for-my birthday party. I know you want to hear about it! It was a surprise party, and such fun! To begin with, it was such a pretty day that I wanted to be out every minute, so I took a long ride with father in the morning, and spent most of the afternoon in the pasture with George Was.h.i.+ngton, he and I trying to do tricks on Gypsie the way you did, Hester. I said we were _on_ Gypsie, but it was mostly _off_, for she didn't take to our circus performance at all and threw me twice, way over her head, and George Was.h.i.+ngton no end of times. He just loved it, and capered around and grinned and made absurd remarks until my sides ached with laughing. Just as I was actually succeeding in standing upon Gyp bareback, mummie spied me from her window, and of course that put an end to everything. She said she saw no reason why I should celebrate my eighteenth birthday by breaking my neck, and I expect she was right-but oh, it was fun!

"When I came in to dress for supper, father called me one side and told me to put on my pink organdie (the one you liked so much, you know), because it would please mummie; so I did and mummie wore her claret-colored velvet and I picked two of my pet pink roses-one for Mummie's hair and the other for father's b.u.t.tonhole, and we all looked very gay and festive and I thought it was lovely to be eighteen, especially as mummie had given me that beautiful pearl ring of hers which she always said I should have when I was a young lady.

"Well, about nine o'clock, when mummie and I were in the midst of a game of backgammon, there was a crunching noise out in the driveway and I thought some one was coming to call. Then I heard laughter and a lot of people talking, and father went to the door, and let in a whole crowd calling for me. I was too surprised to understand, even when father explained that the neighborhood was giving me a surprise party. (I found out afterward, girls, that he got up the whole thing-he vowed them all to secrecy, because he didn't want me to know he had a hand in it, but Lillie Blake told me-Lil never has secrets from me.)

"Well, we danced in the big hall most of the evening, while the older people played cards, and we did have a jolly time, and there was a stranger here-he was staying with the Blakes and you'd never guess where he's from-Radnor! He's very fascinating, but he's old-he must be at least thirty! I know that wouldn't seem old to you, but it does to me, and I felt very shy with him at first until I found out he came from Radnor, and then I just pelted him with questions about you, and he didn't know you at all! I could have wept! But I talked on about you just the same, and I was dying to tell him about your work, for I think it's so n.o.ble of you, but mummie has forbidden my mentioning it to any one, and, of course, I wouldn't disobey her. He got the ring in my birthday cake, girls; wasn't that the funniest thing? Lillie Blake teased him to give it to her, but he wouldn't, and slipped it in his pocket out of sight.

I know he enjoyed hearing me talk about you, because he stayed with me a good part of the evening, and Teddie Carroll got cross and sulked in the corner. Isn't he the silliest thing?

"Good-by, you old darlings, and don't forget your little cousin,

"Nannie."

Julie smiled as she put down the letter. "Isn't she a darling, Hester? I don't wonder they call her 'Kitten,' she purrs so. And she's so ingenuous! Imagine her thinking that a man stayed about with her because she talked about us. He evidently took a fancy to her-the dear little thing! I wonder who he was."

"She has forgotten to mention his name," said Hester, "but it does not much matter. Come, Julie, we must switch our thoughts up from Virginia, or we'll never get to work to-day."

Julie went over to a shelf and stuck the two letters behind a clock. "It is an inspiration to work," she said, "when we know people are thinking of us and loving us. That money, dear, is a G.o.dsend. We had scarcely enough left to market another day."

Julie, who was self-appointed buyer, had been racking her brains to know how they should get through another day without running into debt-a contingency of which they had a horror. They had stopped all their father's accounts and were unanimous in agreeing that they would go without that for which they could not pay cash. Accordingly they went without a great deal.

In her first experience of marketing Julie was aghast to find that meats which she regarded as a common necessity cost so much that she was forced to act upon the butcher's suggestion that it was "stew meat" she wanted. It was _not_ what she wanted, but she took it meekly and ate it with pretended relish, for Bridget took pride in serving a genuine Irish stew.

It was characteristic of the Dales that they never did things by halves, and they threw themselves with tremendous energy into their work, which was developing, though still slowly. Orders for wine jelly and cake came in from people unknown to them, and they knew that Dr. Ware's influence was working for their good. Miss Ware, too, though outwardly antagonistic, had carried out her intention of taking Hester's cake to the Sewing Cla.s.s, with the result that the hostess of the next meeting had ordered all her cake from them for that occasion.

This order they were getting to work on now, and Julie remarked that she wished white cake were not so much in demand, for the continued increase of left-over yolks was appalling.

"Bridget has made them into omelette at least twice a day lately, until it seems to me I can't stand the sight of them, Hester. And the more we have to make frosting the worse it gets. Either we've got to throw them away in rank extravagance or keep on eating them and die. I wish we could think of something to do with them!"

"If we only could afford to buy oil, Bridget would make us some salad-dressing."

"But we can't afford it. Poor Bridget, that is her one accomplishment.

She says she learned it from mamma, who was famous for it."

"Good gracious, Julie!" the practical Hester e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "don't take to 'reminiscing' with that far-away look in your eyes. You'll be weighing salt instead of sugar."

"I am not 'reminiscing'-I am thinking. Why can't we make mayonnaise and sell it?"

"What!"

"Don't drop dead with astonishment, you chief cook and bottle-washer, because _I_ have an idea. What do you think of it?"

"Ye G.o.ds, but wouldn't that be a scheme! Bridget could teach us-you know how Daddy's friends always said they never got such salads at any other table!"

"Don't 'reminisce,' my dear."

"We'll get the grocers to sell it," disdaining to notice the pretended rebuke, "just as they do pickles and things. We'll put it up in nice bottles, and--"

"Wouldn't it be rather clever to learn how to make it first?"

interrupting this flight into future possibilities.

"Bridget, Bridget, come here!" called Hester.

Bridget, who was brus.h.i.+ng up the sick-room, came down the little hall and entered the kitchen.

"Do you see all those?" cried Hester, pointing to a bowl full of yolks standing on the table. "Now if you had your own way, what would you do with them?'

"Make 'em into mayonnaise, miss."

"Of course you would, you extravagant creature! Well, that is just what we want you to do. Tell her, Julie-it is your scheme."

An amazed and delighted Bridget heard the girl unfold her plan.

"Shure it's a wonder yez are, Miss Julie, the two of yez, an' my dressin' can't be beat. Could I be after showin' yez how this mornin'?"

"I'll go straight into the grocery now and get a bottle of oil,"

exclaimed Julie, and calling Peter Snooks, she was off in five minutes.

She noticed as she went down the stairs that the door of the apartment underneath them was ajar, and to her astonishment Peter Snooks, that most well-behaved of dogs, thrust his nose into the crack and vanished.

She stood a moment irresolute; then called peremptorily: "Snooks, Peter Snooks! come here this minute!"

No dog appeared, and she was about to raise her voice for the second time when from the darkness of the inner hall she heard some one say-"Do you mind coming in just a minute? Your little dog is making friends with me, and I can't come to you."

She followed the voice to the front room, where a boy lay in a wheeled chair, while beside him sat Peter Snooks on his hind legs, putting out his paw to shake hands in his most approved manner. At sight of his mistress he curled his tail under and crawled to her guiltily. "Don't scold him, please," said the boy; "it's my fault. I've been wanting to know him this ever so long."

There was something so appealing in the boy's voice and so penitent in the way Peter Snooks looked up at her that she patted the little rascal, and said brightly:

"I never knew him to play truant before; but if you and he have made friends I shan't apologize for his intrusion or mine."

"Oh no! don't," said the boy. "I've watched you from the window ever since you came here to live, and I feel somehow as if I sort of knew you."

"Are you ill?" she asked, gently.

"Broke my hip two months ago," he said. "It's a long time mending."

"Oh! I am so sorry-I know how hard it must be-my father is-is ill, too." She never could bring herself to put into words her father's actual condition.

"I wish you would sit down," the boy said. "Mother may be in any moment.

You can't think how it cheers a fellow up to see somebody." He spoke hesitatingly, as if he feared to show too great pleasure lest he give her offense.

"I can't stop, thank you," said Julie, suddenly remembering her errand, "but if you are lonely and would like to have me, I will leave Peter Snooks awhile with you-he's no end of company."

"Oh! would you, really?" The boy's eyes glistened. "I wish mother were here; she'd know how to-to thank you."

At that moment a small, frail woman, gowned in black, entered the room.

"Why, mother," exclaimed the boy, turning to her a flushed, eager face, "I was just wis.h.i.+ng for you. This is the young lady that lives upstairs, you know."