diff --git "a/data/test/15562.txt" "b/data/test/15562.txt" --- "a/data/test/15562.txt" +++ "b/data/test/15562.txt" @@ -1,5387 +1,5387 @@ - - -E-text prepared by Al Haines - - - -THE S. W. F. CLUB - -by - -CAROLINE E. JACOBS - -Author of _Joan of Jupiter Inn_, _Joan's Jolly Vacation_, -_Patricia_, etc. - -The Goldsmith Publishing Co. -Cleveland, Ohio -George W. Jacobs & Company - -1912 - - - - - - - -CONTENTS - -CHAPTER - - I PAULINE'S FLAG - II THE MAPLES - III UNCLE PAUL'S ANSWER - IV BEGINNINGS - V BEDELIA - VI PERSONALLY CONDUCTED - VII HILARY'S TURN - VIII SNAP-SHOTS - IX AT THE MANOR - X THE END OF SUMMER - - - - -CHAPTER I - -PAULINE'S FLAG - -Pauline dropped the napkin she was hemming and, leaning back in her -chair, stared soberly down into the rain-swept garden. - -Overhead, Patience was having a "clarin' up scrape" in her particular -corner of the big garret, to the tune of "There's a Good Time Coming." - -Pauline drew a quick breath; probably, there was a good time -coming--any number of them--only they were not coming her way; they -would go right by on the main road, they always did. - -"'There's a good time coming,'" Patience insisted shrilly, "'Help it -on! Help it on!'" - -Pauline drew another quick breath. She would help them on! If they -would none of them stop on their own account, they must be flagged. -And--yes, she would do it--right now. - -Getting up, she brought her writing-portfolio from the closet, clearing -a place for it on the little table before the window. Then her eyes -went back to the dreary, rain-soaked garden. How did one begin a -letter to an uncle one had never seen; and of whom one meant to ask a -great favor? - -But at last, after more than one false start, the letter got itself -written, after a fashion. - -Pauline read it over to herself, a little dissatisfied pucker between -her brows:-- - - -_Mr. Paul Almy Shaw, - New York City, New York_. - -MY DEAR UNCLE PAUL: First, I should like you to understand that -neither father nor mother know that I am writing this letter to you; -and that if they did, I think they would forbid it; and I should like -you to believe, too, that if it were not for Hilary I should not dream -of writing it. You know so little about us, that perhaps you do not -remember which of us Hilary is. She comes next to me, and is just -thirteen. She hasn't been well for a long time, not since she had to -leave school last winter, and the doctor says that what she needs is a -thorough change. Mother and I have talked it over and over, but we -simply can't manage it. I would try to earn some money, but I haven't -a single accomplishment; besides I don't see how I could leave home, -and anyway it would take so long, and Hilary needs a change now. And -so I am writing to ask you to please help us out a little. I do hope -you won't be angry at my asking; and I hope very, very much, that you -will answer favorably. - - I remain, - Very respectfully, - PAULINE ALMY SHAW. -WINTON, VT., May Sixteenth. - - -Pauline laughed rather nervously as she slipped her letter into an -envelope and addressed it. It wasn't a very big flag, but perhaps it -would serve her purpose. - -Tucking the letter into her blouse, Pauline ran down-stairs to the -sitting-room, where her mother and Hilary were. "I'm going down to the -post-office, mother," she said; "any errands?" - -"My dear, in this rain?" - -"There won't be any mail for us, Paul," Hilary said, glancing -listlessly up from the book she was trying to read; "you'll only get -all wet and uncomfortable for nothing." - -Pauline's gray eyes were dancing; "No," she agreed, "I don't suppose -there will be any mail for us--to-day; but I want a walk. It won't -hurt me, mother. I love to be out in the rain." - -And all the way down the slippery village street the girl's eyes -continued to dance with excitement. It was so much to have actually -started her ball rolling; and, at the moment, it seemed that Uncle Paul -must send it bounding back in the promptest and most delightful of -letters. He had never married, and somewhere down at the bottom of his -apparently crusty, old heart he must have kept a soft spot for the -children of his only brother. - -Thus Pauline's imagination ran on, until near the post-office she met -her father. The whole family had just finished a tour of the West in -Mr. Paul Shaw's private car--of course, he must have a private car, -wasn't he a big railroad man?--and Pauline had come back to Winton long -enough to gather up her skirts a little more firmly when she saw Mr. -Shaw struggling up the hill against the wind. - -"Pauline!" he stopped, straightening his tall, scholarly figure. "What -brought you out in such a storm?" - -With a sudden feeling of uneasiness, Pauline wondered what he would say -if she were to explain exactly what it was that had brought her out. -With an impulse towards at least a half-confession, she said hurriedly, -"I wanted to post a letter I'd just written; I'll be home almost as -soon as you are, father." - -Then she ran on down the street. All at once she felt her courage -weakening; unless she got her letter posted immediately she felt she -should end by tearing it up. - -When it had slipped from her sight through the narrow slit labeled -"LETTERS," she stood a moment, almost wishing it were possible to get -it back again. - -She went home rather slowly. Should she confess at once, or wait until -Uncle Paul's answer came? It should be here inside of a week, surely; -and if it were favorable--and, oh, it must be favorable--would not that -in itself seem to justify her in what she had done? - -On the front piazza, Patience was waiting for her, a look of mischief -in her blue eyes. Patience was ten, a red-haired, freckled slip of a -girl. She danced about Pauline now. "Why didn't you tell me you were -going out so I could've gone, too? And what have you been up to, Paul -Shaw? Something! You needn't tell me you haven't." - -"I'm not going to tell you anything," Pauline answered, going on into -the house. The study door was half open, and when she had taken off -her things, Pauline stood a moment a little uncertainly outside it. -Then suddenly, much to her small sister's disgust, she went in, closing -the door behind her. - -Mr. Shaw was leaning back in his big chair at one corner of the -fireplace. "Well," he asked, looking up, "did you get your letter in -in time, my dear?" - -"Oh, it wasn't the time." Pauline sat down on a low bench at the other -end of the fireplace. "It was that I wanted to feel that it was really -mailed. Did you ever feel that way about a letter, father? And as if, -if you didn't hurry and get it in--you wouldn't--mail it?" - -Something in her tone made her father glance at her more closely; it -was very like the tone in which Patience was apt to make her rather -numerous confessions. Then it occurred to him, that, whether by -accident or design, she was sitting on the very stool on which Patience -usually placed herself at such times, and which had gained thereby the -name of "the stool of penitence." - -"Yes," he answered, "I have written such letters once or twice in my -life." - -Pauline stooped to straighten out the hearth rug. "Father," she said -abruptly; "I have been writing to Uncle Paul." She drew a sharp breath -of relief. - -"You have been writing to your Uncle Paul! About what, Pauline?" - -And Pauline told him. When she had finished, Mr. Shaw sat for some -moments without speaking, his eyes on the fire. - -"It didn't seem very--wrong, at the time," Pauline ventured. "I had to -do something for Hilary." - -"Why did you not consult your mother, or myself, before taking such a -step, Pauline?" - -"I was afraid--if I did--that you would--forbid it; and I was so -anxious to do something. It's nearly a month now since Dr. Brice said -Hilary must have a change. We used to have such good times -together--Hilary and I--but we never have fun anymore--she doesn't care -about anything; and to-day it seemed as if I couldn't bear it any -longer, so I wrote. I--I am sorry, if you're displeased with me, -father, and yet, if Uncle Paul writes back favorably, I'm afraid I -can't help being glad I wrote." - -Mr. Shaw rose, lighting the low reading-lamp, standing on the study -table. "You are frank enough after the event, at least, Pauline. To -be equally so, I am displeased; displeased and exceedingly annoyed. -However, we will let the matter rest where it is until you have heard -from your uncle, I should advise your saying nothing to your sisters -until his reply comes. I am afraid you will find it disappointing." - -Pauline flushed. "I never intended telling Hilary anything about it -unless I had good news for her; as for Patience--" - -Out in the hall again, with the study door closed behind her, Pauline -stood a moment choking back a sudden lump in her throat. Would Uncle -Paul treat her letter as a mere piece of school-girl impertinence, as -father seemed to? - -From the sitting-room came an impatient summons. "Paul, will you never -come!" - -"What is it, Hilary?" Pauline asked, coming to sit at one end of the -old sofa. - -"That's what I want to know," Hilary answered from the other end. -"Impatience says you've been writing all sorts of mysterious letters -this afternoon, and that you came home just now looking like---" - -"Well, like what?" - -"Like you'd been up to something--and weren't quite sure how the -grown-ups were going to take it," Patience explained from the rug -before the fire. - -"How do you know I have been writing--anything?" Pauline asked. - -"There, you see!" Patience turned to Hilary, "she doesn't deny it!" - -"I'm not taking the trouble to deny or confirm little girl nonsense," -Pauline declared. "But what makes you think I've been writing letters?" - -"Oh, 'by the pricking of my thumbs'!" Patience rolled over, and -resting her sharp little chin in her hands, stared up at her sisters -from under her mop of short red curls. "Pen! Ink! Paper! And such a -lot of torn-up scraps! It's really very simple!" - -But Pauline was on her way to the dining-room. "Terribly convincing, -isn't it?" Her tone should have squelched Patience, but it didn't. - -"You can't fool me!" that young person retorted. "I know you've been -up to something! And I'm pretty sure father doesn't approve, from the -way you waited out there in the hall just now." - -Pauline did not answer; she was busy laying the cloth for supper. -"Anything up, Paul?" Hilary urged, following her sister out to the -dining-room. - -"The barometer--a very little; I shouldn't wonder if we had a clear day -to-morrow." - -"You are as provoking as Impatience! But I needn't have asked; nothing -worth while ever does happen to us." - -"You know perfectly well, Pauline Almy Shaw!" Patience proclaimed, -from the curtained archway between the rooms. "You know perfectly -well, that the ev'dence against you is most in-crim-i-na-ting!" -Patience delighted in big words. - -"Hilary," Pauline broke in, "I forgot to tell you, I met Mrs. Dane this -morning; she wants us to get up a social--'If the young ladies at the -parsonage will,' and so forth." - -"I hate socials! Besides, there aren't any 'young ladies' at the -parsonage; or, at any rate, only one. I shan't have to be a young lady -for two years yet." - -"Most in-crim-i-na-ting!" Patience repeated insistently; "you wrote." - -Pauline turned abruptly and going into the pantry began taking down the -cups and saucers for the table. As soon as Hilary had gone back to the -sitting-room, she called softly, "Patty, O Patty!" - -Patience grinned wickedly; she was seldom called Patty, least of all by -Pauline. "Well?" she answered. - -"Come here--please," and when Patience was safely inside the pantry, -Pauline shut the door gently--"Now see here, Impatience--" - -"That isn't what you called me just now!" - -"Patty then--Listen, suppose--suppose I have been--trying to do -something to--to help Hilary to get well; can't you see that I wouldn't -want her to know, until I was sure, really sure, it was going to come -to something?" - -Patience gave a little jump of excitement. "How jolly! But who have -you been writing to--about it, Paul!" - -"I haven't said that--" - -"See here, Paul, I'll play fair, if you do; but if you go trying to act -any 'grown-up sister' business I'll--" - -And Pauline capitulated. "I can't tell you about it yet, Patty; father -said not to. I want you to promise not to ask questions, or say -anything about it, before Hilary. We don't want her to get all worked -up, thinking something nice is going to happen, and then maybe have her -disappointed." - -"Will it be nice--very nice?" - -"I hope so." - -"And will I be in it?" - -"I don't know. I don't know what it'll be, or when it'll be." - -"Oh, dear! I wish you did. I can't think who it is you wrote to, -Paul. And why didn't father like your doing it?" - -"I haven't said that he--" - -"Paul, you're very tiresome. Didn't he know you were going to do it?" - -Pauline gathered up her cups and saucers without answering. - -"Then he didn't," Patience observed. "Does mother know about it?" - -"I mean to tell her as soon as I get a good chance," Pauline said -impatiently, going back to the dining-room. - -When she returned a few moments later, she found Patience still in the -pantry, sitting thoughtfully on the old, blue sugar bucket. "I know," -Patience announced triumphantly. "You've been writing to Uncle Paul!" - -Pauline gasped and fled to the kitchen; there were times when flight -was the better part of discretion, in dealing with the youngest member -of the Shaw family. - -On the whole, Patience behaved very well that evening, only, on going -to bid her father good-night, did she ask anxiously, how long it took -to send a letter to New York and get an answer. - -"That depends considerably upon the promptness with which the party -written to answers the letter," Mr. Shaw told her. - -"A week?" Patience questioned. - -"Probably--if not longer." - -Patience sighed. - -"Have _you_ been writing a letter to someone in New York?" her father -asked. - -"No, indeed," the child said gravely, "but," she looked up, answering -his glance. "Paul didn't tell me, father; I--guessed. Uncle Paul does -live in New York, doesn't he?" - -"Yes," Mr. Shaw answered, almost sharply. "Now run to bed, my dear." - -But when the stairs were reached. Patience most certainly did not run. -"I think people are very queer," she said to herself, "they seem to -think _ten_ years isn't a bit more grown-up than six or seven." - -"Mummy," she asked, when later her mother came to take away her light, -"father and Uncle Paul are brethren, aren't they?" - -"My dear! What put that into your head?" - -"Aren't they?" - -"Certainly, dear." - -"Then why don't they 'dwell together in unity'?" - -"Patience!" Mrs. Shaw stared down at the sharp inquisitive little face. - -"Why don't they?" Patience persisted. If persistency be a virtue, -Patience was to be highly commended. - -"My dear, who has said that they do not?" - -Patience shrugged; as if things had always to be said. "But, mummy--" - -"Go to sleep now, dear." Mrs. Shaw bent to kiss her good-night. - -"All the same," Patience confided to the darkness, "I know they don't." -She gave a little shiver of delight--something very mysterious was -afoot evidently. - -Out on the landing, Mrs. Shaw found Pauline waiting for her. "Come -into your room, mother, please, I've started up the fire; I want to -tell you something." - -"I thought as much," her mother answered. She sat down in the big -armchair and Pauline drew up before the fire. "I've been expecting it -all the evening." - -Pauline dropped down on the floor, her head against her mother's knee. -"This family is dreadfully keen-sighted. Mother dear, please don't be -angry--" and Pauline made confession. - -When she had finished, Mrs. Shaw sat for some moments, as her husband -had done, her eyes on the fire. "You told him that we could not manage -it, Pauline?" she said at last. "My dear, how could you!" - -"But, mother dear, I was--desperate; something has to be done -for--Hilary, and I had to do it!" - -"Do you suppose your father and I do not realize that quite as well as -you do, Pauline?" - -"You and I have talked it over and over, and father never -says--anything." - -"Not to you, perhaps; but he is giving the matter very careful -consideration, and later he hopes--" - -"Mother dear, that is so indefinite!" Pauline broke in. "And I can't -see--Father is Uncle Paul's only brother! If I were rich, and Hilary -were not and needed things, I would want her to let me know." - -"It is possible, that under certain conditions, Hilary would not wish -you to know." Mrs. Shaw hesitated, then she said slowly, "You know, -Pauline, that your uncle is much older than your father; so much older, -that he seemed to stand--when your father was a boy--more in the light -of a father to him, than an older brother. He was much opposed to your -father's going into the ministry, he wanted him to go into business -with him. He is a strong-willed man, and does not easily relinquish -any plan of his own making. It went hard with him, when your father -refused to yield; later, when your father received the call to this -parish, your uncle quite as strongly opposed his accepting it--burying -himself alive in a little out-of-the-way hole, he called it. It came -to the point, finally, on your uncle's insisting on his making it a -choice between himself and Winton. He refused to ever come near the -place and the two or three letters your father wrote at first remained -unanswered. The breach between them has been one of the hardest trials -your father has had to bear." - -"Oh," Pauline cried miserably, "what a horrid interfering thing father -must think me! Rushing in where I had no right to! I wish I'd -known--I just thought--you see, father speaks of Uncle Paul now and -then--that maybe they'd only--grown apart--and that if Uncle Paul knew! -But perhaps my letter will get lost. It would serve me right; and yet, -if it does, I'm afraid I can't help feeling somewhat disappointed--on -Hilary's account." - -Her mother smiled. "We can only wait and see. I would rather you said -nothing of what I have been telling you to either Hilary or Patience, -Pauline." - -"I won't, Mother Shaw. It seems I have a lot of secrets from Hilary. -And I won't write any more such letters without consulting you or -father, you can depend on that." - -Mr. Paul Shaw's answer did not come within the allotted week. It was -the longest week Pauline had ever known; and when the second went by -and still no word from her uncle, the waiting and uncertainty became -very hard to bear, all the harder, that her usual confidant, Hilary, -must not be allowed to suspect anything. - -The weather had turned suddenly warm, and Hilary's listlessness had -increased proportionately, which probably accounted for the dying out -of what little interest she had felt at first in Patience's "mysterious -letter." - -Patience, herself, was doing her best to play fair; fortunately, she -was in school the greater part of the day, else the strain upon her -powers of self-control might have proved too heavy. - -"Mother," Pauline said one evening, lingering in her mother's room, -after Hilary had gone to bed, "I don't believe Uncle Paul means -answering at all. I wish I'd never asked him to do anything." - -"So do I, Pauline. Still it is rather early yet for you to give up -hope. It's hard waiting, I know, dear, but that is something we all -have to learn to do, sooner or later." - -"I don't think 'no news is good news,'" Pauline said; then she -brightened. "Oh, Mother Shaw! Suppose the letter is on the way now, -and that Hilary is to have a sea voyage! You'd have to go, too." - -"Pauline, Pauline, not so fast! Listen, dear, we might send Hilary out -to The Maples for a week or two. Mrs. Boyd would be delighted to have -her; and it wouldn't be too far away, in case we should be getting her -ready for that--sea voyage." - -"I don't believe she'd care to go; it's quieter than here at home." - -"But it would be a change. I believe I'll suggest it to her in the -morning." - -But when Mrs. Shaw did suggest it the next morning, Hilary was quite of -Pauline's opinion. "I shouldn't like it a bit, mother! It would be -worse than home--duller, I mean; and Mrs. Boyd would fuss over me so," -she said impatiently. - -"You used to like going there, Hilary." - -"Mother, you can't want me to go." - -"I think it might do you good, Hilary. I should like you to try it." - -"Please, mother, I don't see the use of bothering with little half-way -things." - -"I do, Hilary, when they are the only ones within reach." - -The girl moved restlessly, settling her hammock cushions; then she lay -looking out over the sunny garden with discontented eyes. - -It was a large old-fashioned garden, separated on the further side by a -low hedge from the old ivy-covered church. On the back steps of the -church, Sextoness Jane was shaking out her duster. She was old and -gray and insignificant looking; her duties as sexton, in which she had -succeeded her father, were her great delight. The will with which she -sang and worked now seemed to have in it something of reproach for the -girl stretched out idly in the hammock. Nothing more than half-way -things, and not too many of those, had ever come Sextoness Jane's way. -Yet she was singing now over her work. - -Hilary moved impatiently, turning her back on the garden and the bent -old figure moving about in the church beyond; but, somehow, she -couldn't turn her back on what that bent old figure had suddenly come -to stand for. - -Fifteen minutes later, she sat up, pushing herself slowly back and -forth. "I wish Jane had chosen any other morning to clean the church -in, Mother Shaw!" she protested with spirit. - -Her mother looked up from her mending. "Why, dear? It is her regular -day." - -"Couldn't she do it, I wonder, on an irregular day! Anyhow, if she -had, I shouldn't have to go to The Maples this afternoon. Must I take -a trunk, mother?" - -"Hilary! But what has Jane to do with your going?" - -"Pretty nearly everything, I reckon. Must I, mother?" - -"No, indeed, dear; and you are not to go at all, unless you can do it -willingly." - -"Oh, I'm fairly resigned; don't press me too hard, Mother Shaw. I -think I'll go tell Paul now." - -"Well," Pauline said, "I'm glad you've decided to go, Hilary. I--that -is, maybe it won't be for very long." - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE MAPLES - -That afternoon Pauline drove Hilary out to the big, busy, pleasant -farm, called The Maples. - -As they jogged slowly down the one principal street of the sleepy, old -town, Pauline tried to imagine that presently they would turn off down -the by-road, leading to the station. Through the still air came the -sound of the afternoon train, panting and puffing to be off with as -much importance as the big train, which later, it would connect with -down at the junction. - -"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you thinking about?" - -Pauline slapped the reins lightly across old Fanny's plump sides. "Oh, -different things--traveling for one." Suppose Uncle Paul's letter -should come in this afternoon's mail! That she would find it waiting -for her when she got home! - -"So was I," Hilary said. "I was wishing that you and I were going off -on that train, Paul." - -"Where to?" Paul asked. After all, it couldn't do any harm--Hilary -would think it one of their "pretend" talks, and it would he nice to -have some definite basis to build on later. - -"Anywhere," Hilary answered. "I would like to go to the seashore -somewhere; but most anywhere, where there were people and interesting -things to do and see, would do." - -"Yes," Pauline agreed. - -"There's Josie," Hilary said, and her sister drew rein, as a girl came -to the edge of the walk to speak to them. - -"Going away?" she asked, catching sight of the valise. - -"Only out to the Boyds'," Pauline told her, "to leave Hilary." - -Josie shifted the strap of school-books under her arm impatiently. -"'Only!'" she repeated. "Well, I just wish I was going, too; it's a -deal pleasanter out there, than in a stuffy school room these days." - -"It's stupid--and you both know it," Hilary protested. She glanced -enviously at Josie's strap of hooks. "And when school closes, you'll -be through for good, Josie Brice. We shan't finish together, after -all, now." - -"Oh, I'm not through yet," Josie assured her. "Father'll be going out -past The Maples Saturday morning, I'll get him to take me along." - -Hilary brightened. "Don't forget," she urged, and as she and Pauline -drove on, she added, "I suppose I can stick it out for a week." - -"Well, I should think as much. _Will_ you go on, Fanny!" Pauline -slapped the dignified, complacent Fanny with rather more severity than -before. "She's one great mass of laziness," she declared. "Father's -spoiled her a great deal more than he ever has any of us." - -It was a three-mile drive from the village to The Maples, through -pleasant winding roads, hardly deserving of a more important title than -lane. Now and then, from the top of a low hill, they caught a glimpse -of the great lake beyond, shining in the afternoon sunlight, a little -ruffled by the light breeze sweeping down to it from the mountains -bordering it on the further side. - -Hilary leaned back in the wide shaded gig; she looked tired, and yet -the new touch of color in her cheeks was not altogether due to -weariness. "The ride's done you good," Pauline said. - -"I wonder what there'll be for supper," Hilary remarked. "You'll stay, -Paul?" - -"If you promise to eat a good one." It was comforting to have Hilary -actually wondering what they would have. - -They had reached the broad avenue of maples leading from the road up to -the house. It was a long, low, weather-stained house, breathing an -unmistakable air of generous and warm-hearted hospitality. Pauline -never came to it, without a sense of pity for the kindly elderly -couple, who were so fond of young folks, and who had none of their own. - -Mrs. Boyd had seen them coming, and she came out to meet them, as they -turned into the dooryard. And an old dog, sunning himself on the -doorstep, rose with a slow wag of welcome. - -"Mother's sent you something she was sure you would like to have," -Pauline said. "Please, will you take in a visitor for a few days?" she -added, laying a hand on Hilary's. - -"You've brought Hilary out to stop?" Mrs. Boyd cried delightedly. "Now -I call that mighty good of your mother. You come right 'long in, both -of you: you're sure you can't stop, too, Pauline?" - -"Only to supper, thank you." - -Mrs. Boyd had the big valise out from under the seat by now. "Come -right 'long in," she repeated. "You're tired, aren't you, Hilary? But -a good night's rest'll set you up wonderful. Take her into the spare -room, Pauline. Dear me, I must have felt you was coming, seeing that I -aired it out beautiful only this morning. I'll go call Mr. Boyd to -take Fanny to the barn." - -"Isn't she the dearest thing!" Pauline declared, as she and Hilary went -indoors. - -The spare room was back of the parlor, a large comfortable room, with -broad windows facing south and west, and a small vine-covered porch all -its own on the south side of the room. - -Pauline pulled forward a great chintz-cushioned rocker, putting her -sister into it, and opened the porch door. Beyond lay a wide, sloping -meadow and beyond the meadow, the lake sparkled and rippled in the -sunshine. - -"If you're not contented here, Hilary Shaw!" Pauline said, standing in -the low doorway. "Suppose you pretend you've never been here before! -I reckon you'd travel a long ways to find a nicer place to stay in." - -"I shouldn't doubt it if you were going to stay with me, Paul; I know -I'm going to be homesick." - -Pauline stretched out a hand to Captain, the old dog, who had come -around to pay his compliments. Captain liked visitors--when he was -convinced that they really were visitors, not peddlers, nor agents, -quite as well as his master and mistress did. "You'd be homesick -enough, if you really were off on your travels--you'd better get used -to it. Hadn't she, Captain?" Pauline went to unpack the valise, -opening the drawers of the old-fashioned mahogany bureau with a little -breath of pleasure. "Lavender! Hilary." - -Hilary smiled, catching some of her sister's enthusiasm. She leaned -back among her cushions, her eyes on the stretch of shining water at -the far end of the pasture. "I wish you were going to be here, Paul, -so that we could go rowing. I wonder if I'll ever feel as if I could -row again, myself." - -"Of course you will, and a great deal sooner than you think." Pauline -hung Hilary's dressing-gown across the foot of the high double bed. -"Now I think you're all settled, ma'am, and I hope to your -satisfaction. Isn't it a veritable 'chamber of peace,' Hilary?" - -Through the open door and windows came the distant tinkle of a cow -bell, and other farm sounds. There came, too, the scent of the early -May pinks growing in the borders of Mrs. Boyd's old-fashioned flower -beds. Already the peace and quiet of the house, the homely comfort, -had done Hilary good; the thought of the long simple days to come, were -not so depressing as they had seemed when thought of that morning. - -"Bless me, I'd forgotten, but I've a bit of news for you," Mrs. Boyd -said, coming in, a moment or so later; "the manor's taken for the -summer." - -"Really?" Pauline cried, "why it's been empty for ever and ever so -long." - -The manor was an old rambling stone house, standing a little back from -a bit of sandy beach, that jutted out into the lake about a mile from -The Maples. It was a pleasant place, with a tiny grove of its own, and -good-sized garden, which, year after year, in spite of neglect, was -bright with old-fashioned hardy annuals planted long ago, when the -manor had been something more than an old neglected house, at the mercy -of a chance tenant. - -"Just a father and daughter. They've got old Betsy Todd to look after -them," Mrs. Boyd went on. "The girl's about your age, Hilary. You -wasn't looking to find company of that sort so near, was you?" - -Hilary looked interested. "No," she answered. "But, after all, the -manor's a mile away." - -"Oh, she's back and forth every day--for milk, or one thing or another; -she's terribly interested in the farm; father's taken a great notion to -her. She'll be over after supper, you'll see; and then I'll make you -acquainted with her." - -"Are they city people?" Pauline asked. - -"From New York!" Mrs. Boyd told her proudly. From her air one would -have supposed she had planned the whole affair expressly for Hilary's -benefit. "Their name's Dayre." - -"What is the girl's first name?" Pauline questioned. - -"Shirley; it's a queer name for a girl, to my thinking." - -"Is she pretty?" Pauline went on. - -"Not according to my notions; father says she is. She's thin and dark, -and I never did see such a mane of hair--and it ain't always too tidy, -neither--but she has got nice eyes and a nice friendly way of talking. -Looks to me, like she hasn't been brought up by a woman." - -"She sounds--interesting," Pauline said, and when Mrs. Boyd had left -them, to make a few changes in her supper arrangements, Pauline turned -eagerly to Hilary. "You're in luck, Hilary Shaw! The newest kind of -new people; even if it isn't a new place!" - -"How do you know they'll, or rather, she'll, want to know me?" Hilary -asked, with one of those sudden changes of mood an invalid often shows, -"or I her? We haven't seen her yet. Paul, do you suppose Mrs. Boyd -would mind letting me have supper in here?" - -"Oh, Hilary, she's laid the table in the living-room! I heard her -doing it. She'd be ever so disappointed." - -"Well," Hilary said, "come on then." - -Out in the living-room, they found Mr. Boyd waiting for them, and so -heartily glad to see them, that Hilary's momentary impatience vanished. -To Pauline's delight, she really brought quite an appetite to her -supper. - -"You should've come out here long ago, Hilary," Mr. Boyd told her, and -he insisted on her having a second helping of the creamed toast, -prepared especially in her honor. - -Before supper was over. Captain's deep-toned bark proclaimed a -newcomer, or newcomers, seeing that it was answered immediately by a -medley of shrill barks, in the midst of which a girl's voice sounded -authoritively--"Quiet, Phil! Pat, I'm ashamed of you! Pudgey, if -you're not good instantly, you shall stay at home to-morrow night!" - -A moment later, the owner of the voice appeared at the porch door, "May -I come in, Mrs. Boyd?" she asked. - -"Come right in, Miss Shirley. I've a couple of young friends here, I -want you should get acquainted with," Mrs. Boyd cried. - -"You ain't had your supper yet, have you, Miss Shirley?" Mr. Boyd asked. - -"Father and I had tea out on the lake," Shirley answered, "but I'm -hungry enough again by now, for a slice of Mrs. Boyd's bread and -butter." - -And presently, she was seated at the table, chatting away with Paul and -Hilary, as if they were old acquaintances, asking Mr. Boyd various -questions about farm matters and answering Mrs. Boyd's questions -regarding Betsy Todd and her doings, with the most delightful air of -good comradeship imaginable. - -"Oh, me!" Pauline pushed hack her chair regretfully, "I simply must -go, it'll be dark before I get home, as it is." - -"I reckon it will, deary," Mrs. Boyd agreed, "so I won't urge you to -stay longer. Father, you just whistle to Colin to bring Fanny 'round." - -Hilary followed her sister into the bedroom. "You'll be over soon, -Paul?" - -Pauline, putting on her hat before the glass, turned quickly. "As soon -as I can. Hilary, don't you like her?" - -Hilary balanced herself on the arm of the big, old-fashioned rocker. -"I think so. Anyway, I love to watch her talk; she talks all over her -face." - -They went out to the gig, where Mr. and Mrs. Boyd and Shirley were -standing. Shirley was feeding Fanny with handfuls of fresh grass. -"Isn't she a fat old dear!" she said. - -"She's a fat old poke!" Pauline returned. "Mayn't I give you a lift? -I can go 'round by the manor road 's well as not." - -Shirley accepted readily, settling herself in the gig, and balancing -her pail of milk on her knee carefully. - -"Good-by," Pauline called. "Mind, you're to be ever and ever so much -better, next time I come, Hilary." - -"Your sister has been sick?" Shirley asked, her voice full of -sympathetic interest. - -"Not sick--exactly; just run down and listless." - -Shirley leaned a little forward, drawing in long breaths of the clear -evening air. "I don't see how anyone can ever get run down--here, in -this air; I'm hardly indoors at all. Father and I have our meals out -on the porch. You ought to have seen Betsy Todd's face, the first time -I proposed it. 'Ain't the dining-room to your liking, miss?'" she -asked. - -"Betsy Todd's a queer old thing," Pauline commented. "Father has the -worst time, getting her to come to church." - -"We were there last Sunday," Shirley said. "I'm afraid we were rather -late; it's a pretty old church, isn't it? I suppose you live in that -square white house next to it?" - -"Yes," Pauline answered. "Father came to Winton just after he was -married, so we girls have never lived anywhere else nor been anywhere -else--that counted. Any really big city, I mean. We're dreadfully -tired of Winton--Hilary, especially." - -"It's a mighty pretty place." - -"I suppose so." Pauline slapped old Fanny impatiently. "Will you go -on!" - -Fanny was making forward most reluctantly; the Boyd barn had been very -much to her liking. Now, as the three dogs made a swift rush at her -leaping and barking around her, she gave a snort of disgust, quickening -her pace involuntarily. - -"Don't call them off, please!" Pauline begged Shirley. "She isn't in -the least scared, and it's perfectly refreshing to find that she can -move." - -"All the same, discipline must be maintained," Shirley insisted; and at -her command the dogs fell behind. - -"Have you been here long?" Pauline asked. - -"About two weeks. We were going further up the lake--just on a -sketching trip,--and we saw this house from the deck of the boat; it -looked so delightful, and so deserted and lonely, that we came back -from the next landing to see about it. We took it at once and sent for -a lot of traps from the studio at home, they aren't here yet." - -Pauline looked her interest. It seemed a very odd, attractive way of -doing things, no long tiresome plannings of ways and means beforehand. -Suppose--when Uncle Paul's letter came--they could set off in such -fashion, with no definite point in view, and stop wherever they felt -like it. - -"I can't think," Shirley went on, "how such a charming old place came -to be standing idle." - -"Isn't it rather--run down?" - -"Not enough to matter--really. I want father to buy it, and do what is -needed to it, without making it all new and snug looking. The sunsets -from that front lawn are gorgeous, don't you think so?" - -"Yes," Pauline agreed, "I haven't been over there in two years. We -used to have picnics near there." - -"I hope you will again, this summer, and invite father and me. We -adore picnics; we've had several since we came--he and I and the dogs. -The dogs do love picnics so, too." - -Pauline had given up wanting to hurry Fanny; what a lot she would have -to tell her mother when she got home. - -She was sorry when a turn in the road brought them within sight of the -old manor house. "There's father!" Shirley said, nodding to a figure -coming towards them across a field. The dogs were off to meet him -directly, with shrill barks of pleasure. - -"May I get down here, please?" Shirley asked. "Thank you very much for -the lift; and I am so glad to have met you and your sister, Miss Shaw. -You'll both come and see me soon, won't you?" - -"We'd love to," Pauline answered heartily; "'cross lots, it's not so -very far over here from the parsonage, and," she hesitated, -"you--you'll be seeing Hilary quite often, while she's at The Maples, -perhaps?" - -"I hope so. Father's on the lookout for a horse and rig for me, and -then she and I can have some drives together. She will know where to -find the prettiest roads." - -"Oh, she would enjoy that," Pauline said eagerly, and as she drove on, -she turned more than once to glance back at the tall, slender figure -crossing the field. Shirley seemed to walk as if the mere act of -walking were in itself a pleasure. Pauline thought she had never -before known anyone who appeared so alive from head to foot. - -"Go 'long, Fanny!" she commanded; she was in a hurry to get home now, -with her burden of news. It seemed to her as if she had been away a -long while, so much had happened in the meantime. - -At the parsonage gate, Pauline found Patience waiting for her. "You -have taken your time, Paul Shaw!" the child said, climbing in beside -her sister. - -"Fanny's time, you mean!" - -"It hasn't come yet!" Patience said protestingly. "I went for the mail -myself this afternoon, so I know!" - -"Oh, well, perhaps it will to-morrow," Pauline answered, with so little -of real concern in her voice, that Patience wondered. "Suppose you -take Fanny on to the barn. Mother's home, isn't she?" - -Patience glanced at her sharply. "You've got something--particular--to -tell mother! O Paul, please wait 'til I come. Is it about--" - -"You're getting to look more like an interrogation point every day, -Impatience!" Pauline told her, getting down from the gig. - -Patience sniffed. "If nobody ever asked questions, nobody'd ever know -anything!" she declared. - -"Is mother home?" Pauline asked again. - -"Who's asking things now!" Patience drew the reins up tightly and -bouncing up and down on the carriage seat, called sharply--"Hi yi! Hi -yi!" - -It was the one method that never failed to rouse Fanny's indignation, -producing, for the moment, the desired effect; still, as Pauline said, -it was hardly a proceeding that Hilary or she could adopt, or, least of -all, their father. - -As she trotted briskly off to the barn now, the very tilt of Fanny's -ears expressed injured dignity. Dignity was Fanny's strong point; -that, and the ability to cover less ground in an afternoon than any -other horse in Winton. The small human being at the other end of those -taut reins might have known she would have needed no urging barnwards. - -"Maybe you don't like it," Patience observed, "but that makes no -difference--'s long's it's for your good. You're a very unchristiany -horse, Fanny Shaw. And I'll 'hi yi' you every time I get a chance; so -now go on." - -However Patience was indoors in time to hear all but the very beginning -of Pauline's story of her afternoon's experience. "I told you," she -broke in, "that I saw a nice girl at church last Sunday--in Mrs. -Dobson's pew; and Mrs. Dobson kept looking at her out of the corner of -her eyes all the tune, 'stead of paying attention to what father was -saying; and Miranda says, ten to one. Sally Dobson comes out in--" - -"That will do, Patience," her mother said, "if you are going to -interrupt in this fashion, you must run away." - -Patience subsided reluctantly, her blue eyes most expressive. - -"Isn't it nice for Hilary, mother? Now she'll be contented to stay a -week or two, don't you think?" Pauline said. - -"I hope so, dear. Yes, it is very nice." - -"She was looking better already, mother; brighter, you know." - -"Mummy, is asking a perfectly necessary question 'interrupting'?'" - -"Perhaps not, dear, if there is only one," smiled Mrs. Shaw. - -"Mayn't I, please, go with Paul and Hilary when they go to call on that -girl?" - -"On whom, Patience?" - -Patience wriggled impatiently; grown people were certainly very trying -at times. "On Paul's and Hilary's new friend, mummy." - -"Not the first time, Patience; possibly later--" - -Patience shrugged. "By and by," she observed, addressing the room at -large, "when Paul and Hilary are married, I'll be Miss Shaw! And -then--" the thought appeared to give her considerable comfort. - -"And maybe, Towser," she confided later, as the two sat together on the -side porch, "maybe--some day--you and I'll go to call on them on our -own account. I'm not sure it isn't your duty to call on those -dogs--you lived here first, and I can't see why it isn't mine--to call -on that girl. Father says, we should always hasten to welcome the -stranger; and they sound dreadfully interesting." - -Towser blinked a sleepy acquiescence. In spite of his years, he still -followed blindly where Patience led, though the consequences were -frequently disastrous. - -It was the next afternoon that Pauline, reading in the garden, heard an -eager little voice calling excitedly, "Paul, where are you! It's come! -It's come! I brought it up from the office myself!" - -Pauline sprang up. "Here I am, Patience! Hurry!" - -"Well, I like that!" Patience said, coming across the lawn. "Hurry! -Haven't I run every inch of the way home!" She waved the letter above -her head--"'Miss Pauline A. Shaw!' It's type-written! O Paul, aren't -you going to read it out here!" - -For Pauline, catching the letter from her, had run into the house, -crying--"Mother! O Mother Shaw!" - - - - -CHAPTER III - -UNCLE PAUL'S ANSWER - -"Mother! O mother, where are you!" Pauline cried, and on Mrs. Shaw's -answering from her own room, she ran on up-stairs. "O Mother Shaw! -It's come at last!" she announced breathlessly. - -"So I thought--when I heard Patience calling just now. Pauline, dear, -try not to be too disappointed if--" - -"You open it, mother--please! Now it's really come, I'm--afraid to." -Pauline held out her letter. - -"No, dear, it is addressed to you," Mrs. Shaw answered quietly. - -And Pauline, a good deal sobered by the gravity with which her mother -had received the news, sat down on the wide window seat, near her -mother's chair, tearing open the envelope. As she spread out the heavy -businesslike sheet of paper within, a small folded enclosure fell from -it into her lap. - -"Oh, mother!" Pauline caught up the narrow blue slip. She had never -received a check from anyone before. "Mother! listen!" and she read -aloud, "'Pay to the order of Miss Pauline A. Shaw, the sum of -twenty-five dollars.'" - -Twenty-five dollars! One ought to be able to do a good deal with -twenty-five dollars! - -"Goodness me!" Patience exclaimed. She had followed her sister -up-stairs, after a discreet interval, curling herself up unobtrusively -in a big chair just inside the doorway. "Can you do what you like with -it, Paul?" - -But Pauline was bending over the letter, a bright spot of color on each -cheek. Presently, she handed it to her mother. "I wish--I'd never -written to him! Read it, mother!" - -And Mrs. Shaw read, as follows-- - - - NEW YORK CITY, May 31, 19--. - -_Miss Pauline A. Shaw, - Winton, Vt._ - -MY DEAR NIECE: Yours of May 16th to hand. I am sorry to learn that -your sister Hilary appears to be in such poor health at present. Such -being the case, however, it would seem to me that home was the best -place for her. I do not at all approve of this modern fashion of -running about the country, on any and every pretext. Also, if I -remember correctly, your father has frequently described Winton to me -as a place of great natural charms, and peculiarly adapted to those -suffering from so-called nervous disorders. - -Altogether, I do not feel inclined to comply with your request to make -it possible for your sister to leave home, in search of change and -recreation. Instead, beginning with this letter, I will forward you -each month during the summer, the sum of twenty-five dollars, to be -used in procuring for your sisters and yourself--I understand, there is -a third child--such simple and healthful diversions as your parents may -approve, the only conditions I make, being, that at no time shall any -of your pleasure trips take you further than ten miles from home, and -that you keep me informed, from time to time, how this plan of mine is -succeeding. - -Trusting this may prove satisfactory, - - Very respectfully, - PAUL A. SHAW. - - -"What do you think, mother?" Pauline asked, as Mrs. Shaw finished -reading. "Isn't it a very--queer sort of letter?" - -"It is an extremely characteristic one, dear." - -"I think," Patience could contain herself no longer, "that you are the -inconsideratest persons! You know I'm perfectly wild to know what's in -that letter!" - -"Run away now, Patience," her mother said. "You shall hear about it -later," and when Patience had obeyed--not very willingly, Mrs. Shaw -turned again to Pauline. "We must show this to your father, before -making any plans in regard to it, dear." - -"He's coming now. You show it to him, please, mother." - -When her mother had gone down-stairs, Pauline still sat there in the -window seat, looking soberly out across the lawn to the village street, -with its double rows of tall, old trees. So her flag had served little -purpose after all! That change for Hilary was still as uncertain, as -much a vague part of the future, as it had ever been. - -It seemed to the girl, at the moment, as if she fairly hated Winton. -As though Hilary and she did not already know every stick and stone in -it, had not long ago exhausted all its possibilities! - -New people might think it "quaint" and "pretty" but they had not lived -here all their lives. And, besides, she had expressly told Uncle Paul -that the doctor had said that Hilary needed a change. - -She was still brooding over the downfall of her hopes, when her mother -called to her from the garden. Pauline went down, feeling that it -mattered very little what her father's decision had been--it could make -so little difference to them, either way. - -Mrs. Shaw was on the bench under the old elm, that stood midway between -parsonage and church. She had been rereading Uncle Paul's letter, and -to Pauline's wonder, there was something like a smile of amusement in -her eyes. - -"Well, mother?" the girl asked. - -"Well, dear, your father and I have talked the matter over, and we have -decided to allow you to accept your uncle's offer." - -"But that--hateful condition! How is Hilary to get a chance--here in -Winton?" - -"Who was it that I heard saying, only this morning, Pauline, that even -if Uncle Paul didn't agree, she really believed we might manage to have -a very pleasant summer here at home?" - -"I know--but still, now that we know definitely--" - -"We can go to work definitely to do even better." - -"But how, mother!" - -"That is what we must think over. Suppose you put your wits to work -right now. I must go down to Jane's for a few moments. After all, -Pauline, those promised twenty-fives can be used very pleasantly--even -in Winton." - -"But it will still be Winton." - -"Winton may develop some unexplored corners, some new outlooks." - -Pauline looked rather doubtful; then, catching sight of a small -dejected-looking little figure in the swing, under the big cherry-tree -at the foot of the lawn, she asked, "I suppose I may tell Patience now, -mother? She really has been very good all this time of waiting." - -"She certainly has. Only, not too many details, Pauline. Patience is -of such a confiding disposition." - -"Patience," Pauline called, "suppose we go see if there aren't some -strawberries ripe?" - -Patience ran off for a basket. Strawberries! As if she didn't know -they were only a pretext. Grown people were assuredly very queer--but -sometimes, it was necessary to humor, their little whims and ways. - -"I don't believe they are ripe yet," she said, skipping along beside -her sister. "O Paul, is it--nice?" - -"Mother thinks so!" - -"Don't you?" - -"Maybe I will--after a while. Hilary isn't to go away." - -"Is that what you wrote and asked Uncle Paul? And didn't you ask for -us all to go?" - -"Certainly not--we're not sick," said Pauline, laughing. - -"Miranda says what Hilary needs is a good herb tonic!" - -"Miranda doesn't know everything." - -"What is Uncle Paul going to do then?" - -"Send some money every month--to have good times with at home." - -"One of those blue paper things?" - -"I suppose so," Pauline laughed. - -"And _you_ don't call that _nice_! Well of all the ungratefullest -girls! Is it for us _all_ to have good times with? Or just Hilary?" - -"All of us. Of course, Hilary must come first." - -Patience fairly jumped up and down with excitement. "When will they -begin, and what will they be like? O Paul, just think of the good -times we've had _without_ any money 't all! Aren't we the luckiest -girls!" - -They had reached the strawberry-bed and Patience dropped down in the -grass beside it, her hands clasped around her knees. "Good times in -Winton will be a lot better than good times anywhere else. Winton's -such a nice sociable place." - -Pauline settled herself on the top rail of the fence bordering the -garden at the back. Patience's enthusiasm was infectious. "What sort -of good times do you mean?" she asked. - -"Picnics!" - -"We have such a lot of picnics--year after year!" - -"A nice picnic is always sort of new. Miranda does put up such -beautiful lunches. O Paul, couldn't we afford chocolate layer cake -_every_ time, now?" - -"You goosey!" Pauline laughed again heartily. - -"And maybe there'll be an excursion somewhere's, and by'n'by there'll -be the town fair. Paul, there's a ripe berry! And another and--" - -"See here, hold on, Impatience!" Pauline protested, as the berries -disappeared, one after another, down Patience's small throat. -"Perhaps, if you stop eating them all, we can get enough for mother's -and father's supper." - -"Maybe they went and hurried to get ripe for to-night, so we could -celebrate," Patience suggested. "Paul, mayn't I go with you next time -you go over to The Maples?" - -"We'll see what mother says." - -"I hate 'we'll see's'!" Patience declared, reaching so far over after a -particularly tempting berry, that she lost her balance, and fell face -down among them. - -"Oh, dear!" she sighed, as her sister came to her assistance, -"something always seems to happen clean-apron afternoon! Paul, -wouldn't it be a 'good time,' if Miranda would agree not to scold 'bout -perfectly unavoidable accidents once this whole summer?" - -"Who's to do the deciding as to the unavoidableness?" Pauline asked. -"Come on, Patience, we've got about all the ripe ones, and it must be -time for you to lay the supper-table." - -"Not laying supper-tables would be another good time," Patience -answered. "We did get enough, didn't we? I'll hull them." - -"I wonder," Pauline said, more as if speaking to herself, "whether -maybe mother wouldn't think it good to have Jane in now and then--for -extra work? Not supper-tables, young lady." - -"Jane would love it. She likes to work with Miranda--she says -Miranda's such a nice lady. Do you think she is, Paul?" - -"I'm thinking about other things just now." - -"I don't--There's mother. Goodness, Miranda's got the cloth on!" -And away sped the child. - -To Patience's astonishment, nothing was said at supper, either of Uncle -Paul's letter, or the wonderful things it was to lead to. Mr. Shaw -kept his wife engaged with parish subjects and Pauline appeared lost in -thoughts of her own. Patience fidgeted as openly as she dared. Of all -queer grown-ups--and it looked as though most grown-ups were more or -less queer--father was certainly the queerest. Of course, he knew -about the letter; and how could he go on talking about stupid, -uninteresting matters--like the Ladies' Aid and the new hymn books? - -Even the first strawberries of the season passed unnoticed, as far as -he was concerned, though Mrs. Shaw gave Patience a little smiling nod, -in recognition of them. - -"Mother," Pauline exclaimed, the moment her father had gone back to his -study, "I've been thinking--Suppose we get Hilary to pretend--that -coming home is coming to a _new_ place? That she is coming to visit -us? We'll think up all the interesting things to do, that we can, and -the pretty places to show her." - -"That would be a good plan, Pauline." - -"And if she's company, she'll have to have the spare room," Patience -added. - -"Jolly for you, Patience!" Pauline said. "Only, mother, Hilary doesn't -like the spare room; she says it's the dreariest room in the house." - -"If she's company, she'll have to pretend to like it, it wouldn't be -good manners not to," Patience observed. The prospect opening out -ahead of them seemed full of delightful possibilities. "I hope Miranda -catches on to the game, and gives us pound-cake and hot biscuits for -supper ever so often, and doesn't call me to do things, when I'm busy -entertaining 'the company.'" - -"Mother," Pauline broke in--"do keep quiet. Impatience--couldn't we do -the spare room over--there's that twenty-five dollars? We've planned -it so often." - -"We might make some alterations, dear--at least." - -"We'll take stock the first thing to-morrow morning. I suppose we -can't really start in before Monday." - -"Hardly, seeing that it is Friday night." - -They were still talking this new idea over, though Patience had been -sent to bed, when Mr. Shaw came in from a visit to a sick parishioner. -"We've got the most beautiful scheme on hand, father," Pauline told -him, wheeling forward his favorite chair. She hoped he would sit down -and talk things over with them, instead of going on to the study; it -wouldn't be half as nice, if he stayed outside of everything. - -"New schemes appear to be rampant these days," Mr. Shaw said, but he -settled himself comfortably in the big chair, quite as though he meant -to stay with them. "What is this particular one?" - -He listened, while Pauline explained, really listened, instead of -merely seeming to. "It does appear an excellent idea," he said; "but -why should it be Hilary only, who is to try to see Winton with new eyes -this summer? Suppose we were all to do so?" - -Pauline clapped her hands softly. "Then you'll help us? And we'll all -pretend. Maybe Uncle Paul's thought isn't such a bad one, after all." - -"Paul always believed in developing the opportunities nearest hand," -Mr. Shaw answered. He stroked the head Towser laid against his knee. -"Your mother and I will be the gainers--if we keep all our girls at -home, and still achieve the desired end." - -Pauline glanced up quickly. How could she have thought him -unheeding--indifferent? - -"Somehow, I think it will work out all right," she said. "Anyhow, -we're going to try it, aren't we. Mother Shaw? Patience thinks it the -best idea ever, there'll be no urging needed there." - -Pauline went up to bed that night feeling strangely happy. For one -thing the uncertainty was over, and if they set to work to make this -summer full of interest, to break up the monotony and routine that -Hilary found so irksome, the result must be satisfactory. And lastly, -there was the comforting conviction, that whatever displeasure her -father had felt at first, at her taking the law into her own hands in -such unforeseen fashion, had disappeared now; and he was not going to -stay "outside of things," that was sure. - -The next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, Pauline ran up-stairs -to the spare room. She threw open the shutters of the four windows, -letting in the fresh morning air. The side windows faced west, and -looked out across the pleasant tree-shaded yard to the church; those at -the front faced south, overlooking the broad village street. - -In the bright sunlight, the big square room stood forth in all its prim -orderliness. "It is ugly," Pauline decided, shaking her head -disapprovingly, but it had possibilities. No room, with four such -generous windows and--for the fire-board must come out--such a wide -deep fireplace, could be without them. - -She turned, as her mother came in, duly attended by Patience. "It is -hideous, isn't it, mother? The paper, I mean--and the carpet isn't -much better. It did very well, I suppose, for the visiting -ministers--probably they're too busy thinking over their sermons to -notice--but for Hilary--" - -Mrs. Shaw smiled. "Perhaps you are right, dear. As to the -unattractiveness of the paper--" - -"We must repaper--that's sure; plain green, with a little touch of -color in the border, and, oh, Mother Shaw, wouldn't a green and white -matting be lovely?" - -"And expensive, Pauline." - -"It wouldn't take all the twenty-five, I'm sure. Miranda'll do the -papering, I know. She did the study last year. Mother, couldn't we -have Jane in for the washing and ironing this week, and let Miranda get -right at this room? I'll help with the ironing, too." - -"I suppose so, dear. Miranda is rather fussy about letting other -people do her regular work, you know." - -"I'll ask her." - -"And remember, Pauline, each day is going to bring new demands--don't -put all your eggs into one basket." - -"I won't. We needn't spend anything on this room except for the paper -and matting." - -Half an hour later, Pauline was on her way down to the village store -for samples of paper. She had already settled the matter with Miranda, -over the wiping of the breakfast dishes. - -Miranda had lived with the Shaws ever since Pauline was a baby, and was -a very important member of the family, both in her own and their -opinion. She was tall and gaunt, and somewhat severe looking; however, -in her case, looks were deceptive. It would never have occurred to -Miranda that the Shaws' interests were not her interests--she -considered herself an important factor in the upbringing of the three -young people. If she had a favorite, it was probably Hilary. - -"Hmn," she said, when Pauline broached the subject of the spare room, -"what put that notion in your head, I'd like to know! That paper ain't -got a tear in it!" - -So Pauline went further, telling her something of Uncle Paul's letter -and how they hoped to carry his suggestion out. - -Miranda stood still, her hands in the dish water--"That's your pa's own -brother, ain't it?" - -Pauline nodded. "And Miranda--" - -"I reckon he ain't much like the minister. Well, me an' Sarah Jane -ain't the least bit alike--if we are sisters. I guess I can manage -'bout the papering. But it does go 'gainst me, having that sexton -woman in. Still, I reckon you can't be content, 'till we get started. -Looking for the old gentleman up, later, be you?" - -"For whom?" Pauline asked. - -"Your pa's brother. The minister's getting on, and the other one's -considerable older, I understand." - -"I don't think he will be up," Pauline answered; she hadn't thought of -that before. Suppose he should come! She wondered what he would be -like. - -Half way down the street, Pauline was overtaken by her younger sister. -"Are you going to get the new things now, Paul?" she asked eagerly. - -"Of course not, just get some samples." - -"There's always such a lot of getting ready first," Patience sighed. -"Paul, mother says I may go with you to-morrow afternoon." - -"All right," Pauline agreed. "Only, you've got to promise not to 'hi -yi' at Fanny all the way." - -"I won't--all the way." - -"And--Impatience?" - -"Yes?" - -"You needn't say what we want the new paper for, or anything about what -we are planning to do--in the store I mean." - -"Mr. Ward would be mighty interested." - -"I dare say." - -"Miranda says you're beginning to put on considerable airs, since -you've been turning your hair up, Paul Shaw. When I put my hair up, -I'm going on being just as nice and friendly with folks, as before, -you'll see." - -Pauline laughed, which was not at all to Patience's liking. "All the -same, mind what I say," she warned. - -"Can I help choose?" Patience asked, as they reached the store. - -"If you like." Pauline went through to the little annex devoted to -wall papers and carpetings. It was rather musty and dull in there, -Patience thought; she would have liked to make a slow round of the -whole store, exchanging greetings and various confidences with the -other occupants. The store was a busy place on Saturday morning, and -Patience knew every man, woman and child in Winton. - -They had got their samples and Pauline was lingering before a new line -of summer dressgoods just received, when the young fellow in charge of -the post-office and telegraph station called to her: "I say, Miss Shaw, -here's a message just come for you." - -"For me--" Pauline took it wonderingly. Her hands were trembling, she -had never received a telegram before--Was Hilary? Then she laughed at -herself. To have sent a message, Mr. Boyd would have first been -obliged to come in to Winton. - -Out on the sidewalk, she tore open the envelope, not heeding Patience's -curious demands. It was from her uncle, and read-- - -"Have some one meet the afternoon train Saturday, am sending you an aid -towards your summer's outings." - -"Oh," Pauline said, "do hurry, Patience. I want to get home as fast as -I can." - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -BEGINNINGS - -Sunday afternoon, Pauline and Patience drove over to The Maples to see -Hilary. They stopped, as they went by, at the postoffice for Pauline -to mail a letter to her uncle, which was something in the nature of a -very enthusiastic postscript to the one she had written him Friday -night, acknowledging and thanking him for his cheque, and telling him -of the plans already under discussion. - -"And now," Patience said, as they turned out of the wide main street, -"we're really off. I reckon Hilary'll be looking for us, don't you?" - -"I presume she will," Pauline answered. - -"Maybe she'll want to come back with us." - -"Oh, I don't believe so. She knows mother wants her to stay the week -out. Listen, Patty--" - -Patience sat up and took notice. When people Pattied her, it generally -meant they had a favor to ask, or something of the sort. - -"Remember, you're to be very careful not to let Hilary -suspect--anything." - -"About the room and--?" - -"I mean--everything." - -"Won't she like it--all, when she does know?" - -"Well, rather!" - -Patience wriggled excitedly. "It's like having a fairy godmother, -isn't it? And three wishes? If you'd had three wishes, Paul, wouldn't -you've chosen--" - -"You'd better begin quieting down, Patience, or Hilary can't help -suspecting something." - -Patience drew a long breath. "If she knew--she wouldn't stay a single -day longer, would she?" - -"That's one reason why she mustn't know." - -"When will you tell her; or is mother going to?" - -"I don't know yet. See here, Patience, you may drive--if you won't hi -yi." - -"Please, Paul, let me, when we get to the avenue. It's stupid coming -to a place, like Fanny'd gone to sleep." - -"Not before--and only once then," Pauline stipulated, and Patience -possessed her soul in at least a faint semblance of patience until they -turned into the avenue of maples. Then she suddenly tightened her hold -on the reins, bounced excitedly up and down, crying sharply--"Hi yi!" - -Fanny instantly pricked up her ears, and, what was more to the purpose, -actually started into what might almost have been called a trot. -"There! you see!" Patience said proudly, as they turned into the yard. - -Hilary came down the porch steps. "I heard Impatience urging her -Rosinante on," she laughed. "Why didn't you let her drive all the way, -Paul? I've been watching for you since dinner." - -"We've been pretty nearly since dinner getting here, it seems to me," -Patience declared. "We had to wait for Paul to write a letter first -to--" - -"Are you alone?" Pauline broke in hurriedly, asking the first question -that came into her mind. - -Hilary smiled ruefully. "Not exactly. Mr. Boyd's asleep in the -sitting-room, and Mrs. Boyd's taking a nap up-stairs in her own room." - -"You poor child!" Pauline said. "Jump out, Patience!" - -"_Have_ you brought me something to read? I've finished both the books -I brought with me, and gone through a lot of magazines--queer old -things, that Mrs. Boyd took years and years ago." - -"Then you've done very wrong," Pauline told her severely, leading Fanny -over to a shady spot at one side of the yard and tying her to the -fence--a quite unnecessary act, as nothing would have induced Fanny to -take her departure unsolicited. - -"Guess!" Pauline came back, carrying a small paper-covered parcel. -"Father sent it to you. He was over at Vergennes yesterday." - -"Oh!" Hilary cried, taking it eagerly and sitting down on the steps. -"It's a book, of course." Even more than her sisters, she had -inherited her father's love of books, and a new book was an event at -the parsonage. "Oh," she cried again, taking off the paper and -disclosing the pretty tartan cover within, "O Paul! It's 'Penelope's -Progress.' Don't you remember those bits we read in those odd -magazines Josie lent us? And how we wanted to read it all?" - -Pauline nodded. "I reckon mother told father about it; I saw her -following him out to the gig yesterday morning." - -They went around to the little porch leading from Hilary's room, always -a pleasant spot in the afternoons. - -"Why," Patience exclaimed, "it's like an out-door parlor, isn't it?" - -There was a big braided mat on the floor of the porch, its colors -rather faded by time and use, but looking none the worse for that, a -couple of rockers, a low stool, and a small table, covered with a bit -of bright cretonne. On it stood a blue and white pitcher filled with -field flowers, beside it lay one or two magazines. Just outside, -extending from one of the porch posts to the limb of an old cherry -tree, hung Hilary's hammock, gay with cushions. - -"Shirley did it yesterday afternoon," Hilary explained. "She was over -here a good while. Mrs. Boyd let us have the things and the chintz for -the cushions, Shirley made them, and we filled them with hay." - -Pauline, sitting on the edge of the low porch, looked about her with -appreciative eyes. "How pleasant and cozy it is, and after all, it -only took a little time and trouble." - -Hilary laid her new book on the table. "How soon do you suppose we can -go over to the manor, Paul? I imagine the Dayres have fixed it up -mighty pretty. Mr. Dayre was over here, last night. He and Shirley -are ever so--chummy. He's Shirley Putnam Dayre, and she's Shirley -Putnam Dayre, Junior. So he calls her 'Junior' and she calls him -'Senior.' They're just like brother and sister. He's an artist, -they've been everywhere together. And, Paul, they think Winton is -delightful. Mr. Dayre says the village street, with its great -overhanging trees, and old-fashioned houses, is a picture in itself, -particularly up at our end, with the church, all ivy-covered. He means -to paint the church sometime this summer." - -"It would make a pretty picture," Pauline said thoughtfully. "Hilary, -I wonder--" - -"So do I," Hilary said. "Still, after all, one would like to see -different places--" - -"And love only one," Pauline added; she turned to her sister. "You are -better, aren't you--already?" - -"I surely am. Shirley's promised to take me out on the lake soon. -She's going to be friends with us, Paul--really friends. She says we -must call her 'Shirley,' that she doesn't like 'Miss Dayre,' she hears -it so seldom." - -"I think it's nice--being called 'Miss,'" Patience remarked, from where -she had curled herself up in the hammock. "I suppose she doesn't want -it, because she can have it--I'd love to be called 'Miss Shaw.'" - -"Hilary," Pauline said, "would you mind very much, if you couldn't go -away this summer?" - -"It wouldn't do much good if I did, would it?" - -"The not minding would--to mother and the rest of us--" - -"And if you knew what--" Patience began excitedly. - -"Don't you want to go find Captain, Impatience?" Pauline asked hastily, -and Patience, feeling that she had made a false move, went with most -unusual meekness. - -"Know what?" Hilary asked. - -"I--shouldn't wonder, if the child had some sort of scheme on hand," -Pauline said, she hoped she wasn't--prevaricating; after all, Patience -probably did have some scheme in her head--she usually had. - -"I haven't thought much about going away the last day or so," Hilary -said. "I suppose it's the feeling better, and, then, the getting to -know Shirley." - -"I'm glad of that." Pauline sat silent for some moments; she was -watching a fat bumble bee buzzing in and out among the flowers in the -garden. It was always still, over here at the farm, but to-day, it -seemed a different sort of stillness, as if bees and birds and flowers -knew that it was Sunday afternoon. - -"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you smiling to yourself about?" - -"Was I smiling? I didn't know it. I guess because it is so nice and -peaceful here and because--Hilary, let's start a club--the 'S. W. F. -Club.'" - -"The what?" - -"The 'S. W. F. Club.' No, I shan't tell you what the letters stand -for! You've got to think it out for yourself." - -"A real club, Paul?" - -"Indeed, yes." - -"Who's to belong?" - -"Oh, lots of folks. Josie and Tom, and you and I--and I think, maybe, -mother and father." - -"Father! To belong to a club!" - -"It was he who put the idea into my head." - -Hilary came to sit beside her sister on the step. "Paul, I've a -feeling that there is something--up! And it isn't the barometer!" - -"Where did you get it?" - -"From you." - -Pauline sprang up. "Feelings are very unreliable things to go by, but -I've one just now--that if we don't hunt Impatience up pretty -quick--there will be something doing." - -They found Patience sitting on the barn floor, utterly regardless of -her white frock. A whole family of kittens were about her. - -"Aren't they dears!" Patience demanded. - -"Mrs. Boyd says I may have my choice, to take home with me," Hilary -said. The parsonage cat had died the fall before, and had had no -successor as yet. - -Patience held up a small coal-black one. "Choose this, Hilary! -Miranda says a black cat brings luck, though it don't look like we -needed any black cats to bring--" - -"I like the black and white one," Pauline interposed, just touching -Patience with the tip of her shoe. - -"Maybe Mrs. Boyd would give us each one, that would leave one for her," -Patience suggested cheerfully. - -"I imagine mother would have something to say to that," Pauline told -her. "Was Josie over yesterday, Hilary?" - -Hilary nodded. "In the morning." - -As they were going back to the house, they met Mr. Boyd, on his way to -pay his regular weekly visit to the far pasture. - -"Going to salt the colts?" Patience asked. "Please, mayn't I come?" - -"There won't be time, Patience," Pauline said. - -"Not time!" Mr. Boyd objected, "I'll be back to supper, and you girls -are going to stay to supper." He carried Patience off with him, -declaring that he wasn't sure he should let her go home at all, he -meant to keep her altogether some day, and why not to-night? - -"Oh, I couldn't stay to-night," the child assured him earnestly. "Of -course, I couldn't ever stay for always, but by'n'by, when--there isn't -so much going on at home--there's such a lot of things keep happening -at home now, only don't tell Hilary, please--maybe, I could come make -you a truly visit." - -Indoors, Pauline and Hilary found Mrs. Boyd down-stairs again from her -nap. "You ain't come after Hilary?" she questioned anxiously. - -"Only to see her," Pauline answered, and while she helped Mrs. Boyd get -supper, she confided to her the story of Uncle Paul's letter and the -plans already under way. - -Mrs. Boyd was much interested. "Bless me, it'll do her a heap of good, -you'll see, my dear. I'm not sure, I don't agree with your uncle, when -all's said and done, home's the best place for young folks." - -Just before Pauline and Patience went home that evening, Mrs. Boyd -beckoned Pauline mysteriously into the best parlor. "I always meant -her to have them some day--she being my god-child--and maybe they'll do -her as much good now, as any time, she'll want to fix up a bit now and -then, most likely. Shirley had on a string of them last night, but not -to compare with these." Mrs. Boyd was kneeling before a trunk in the -parlor closet, and presently she put a little square shell box into -Pauline's bands. "Box and all, just like they came to me--you know, -they were my grandmother's--but Hilary's a real careful sort of girl." - -"But, Mrs. Boyd--I'm not sure that mother would--" Pauline knew quite -well what was in the box. - -"That's all right! You just slip them in Hilary's top drawer, where -she'll come across them without expecting it. Deary me, I never wear -them, and as I say, I've always meant to give them to her some day." - -"She'll be perfectly delighted--and they'll look so pretty. Hilary's -got a mighty pretty neck, I think." Pauline went out to the gig, the -little box hidden carefully in her blouse, feeling that Patience was -right and that these were very fairy-story sort of days. - -"You'll be over again soon, won't you?" Hilary urged. - -"We're going to be tre-men-dous-ly busy," Patience began, but her -sister cut her short. - -"As soon as I can, Hilary. Mind you go on getting better." - - -By Monday noon, the spare room had lost its look of prim order. In the -afternoon, Pauline and her mother went down to the store to buy the -matting. There was not much choice to be had, and the only green and -white there was, was considerably beyond the limit they had allowed -themselves. - -"Never mind," Pauline said cheerfully, "plain white will look ever so -cool and pretty--perhaps, the green would fade. I'm going to believe -so." - -Over a low wicker sewing-chair, she did linger longingly; it would look -so nice beside one of the west windows. She meant to place a low table -for books and work between those side windows. In the end, prudence -won the day, and surely, the new paper and matting were enough to be -grateful for in themselves. - -By the next afternoon the paper was on and the matting down. Pauline -was up garret rummaging, when she heard someone calling her from the -foot of the stairs. "I'm here, Josie," she called back, and her friend -came running up. - -"What are you doing?" she asked. - -Pauline held up an armful of old-fashioned chintz. - -"Oh, how pretty!" Josie exclaimed. "It makes one think of high-waisted -dresses, and minuets and things like that." - -Pauline laughed. "They were my great-grandmother's bed curtains." - -"Goodness! What are you going to do with them?" - -"I'm not sure mother will let me do anything. I came across them just -now in looking for some green silk she said I might have to cover -Hilary's pin-cushion with." - -"For the new room? Patience has been doing the honors of the new paper -and matting--it's going to be lovely, I think." - -Pauline scrambled to her feet, shaking out the chintz: "If only mother -would--it's pink and green--let's go ask her." - -"What do you want to do with it, Pauline?" Mrs. Shaw asked. - -"I haven't thought that far--use it for draperies of some kind, I -suppose," the girl answered. - -They were standing in the middle of the big, empty room. Suddenly, -Josie gave a quick exclamation, pointing to the bare corner between the -front and side windows. "Wouldn't a cozy corner be delightful--with -cover and cushions of the chintz?" - -"May we, mother?" Pauline begged in a coaxing tone. - -"I suppose so, dear--only where is the bench part to come from?" - -"Tom'll make the frame for it, I'll go get him this minute," Josie -answered. - -"And you might use that single mattress from up garret," Mrs. Shaw -suggested. - -Pauline ran up to inspect it, and to see what other treasures might be -forthcoming. The garret was a big, shadowy place, extending over the -whole house, and was lumber room, play place and general refuge, all in -one. - -Presently, from under the eaves, she drew forward a little -old-fashioned sewing-chair, discarded on the giving out of its cane -seat. "But I could tack a piece of burlap on and cover it with a -cushion," Pauline decided, and bore it down in triumph to the new room, -where Tom Brice was already making his measurements for the cozy corner. - -Josie was on the floor, measuring for the cover. "Isn't it fun, Paul? -Tom says it won't take long to do his part." - -Tom straightened himself, slipping his rule into his pocket. "I don't -see what you want it for, though," he said. - -"'Yours not to reason why--'" Pauline told him. "We see, and so will -Hilary. Don't you and Josie want to join the new club--the 'S. W. F. -Club'?" - -"Society of Willing Females, I suppose?" Tom remarked. - -"It sounds like some sort of sewing circle," Josie said. - -Pauline sat down in one of the wide window places. "I'm not sure it -might not take in both. It is--'The Seeing Winton First Club.'" - -Josie looked as though she didn't quite understand, but Tom whistled -softly. "What else have you been doing for the past fifteen years, if -you please, ma'am?" he asked quizzically. - -Pauline laughed. "One ought to know a place rather thoroughly in -fifteen years, I suppose; but--I'm hoping we can make it seem at least -a little bit new and different this summer--for Hilary. You see, we -shan't be able to send her away, and so, I thought, perhaps, if we -tried looking at Winton--with new eyes--" - -"I see," Josie cried. "I think it's a splendiferous ideal" - -"And, I thought, if we formed a sort of club among ourselves and worked -together--" - -"Listen," Josie interrupted again, "we'll make it a condition of -membership, that each one must, in turn, think up something pleasant to -do." - -"Is the membership to be limited?" Tom asked. - -Pauline smiled. "It will be so--necessarily--won't it?" For Winton -was not rich in young people. - -"There will be enough of us," Josie declared hopefully. - -"Like the model dinner party?" her brother asked. "Not less than the -Graces, nor more than the Muses." - -And so the new club was formed then and there. There were to be no -regular and formal meetings, no dues, nor fines, and each member was to -consider himself, or herself, an active member of the programme -committee. - -Tom, as the oldest member of their immediate circle of friends, was -chosen president before that first meeting adjourned; no other officers -were considered necessary at the time. And being president, to him was -promptly delegated the honor--despite his vigorous protests--of -arranging for their first outing and notifying the other members--yet -to be. - -"But," he expostulated, "what's a fellow to think up--in a hole like -this?" - -"Winton isn't a hole!" his sister protested. It was one of the chief -occupations of Josie's life at present, to contradict all such -heretical utterances on Tom's part. He was to go away that fall to -commence his studies for the medical profession, for it was Dr. Brice's -great desire that, later, his son should assist him in his practice. -But, so far, Tom though wanting to follow his father's profession, was -firm in his determination, not to follow it in Winton. - -"And remember," Pauline said, as the three went down-stairs together, -"that it's the first step that counts--and to think up something very -delightful, Tom." - -"It mustn't be a picnic, I suppose? Hilary won't be up to picnics yet -awhile." - -"N-no, and we want to begin soon. She'll be back Friday, I think," -Pauline answered. - -By Wednesday night the spare room was ready for the expected guest. -"It's as if someone had waved a fairy wand over it, isn't it?" Patience -said delightedly. "Hilary'll be so surprised." - -"I think she will and--pleased." Pauline gave one of the cushions in -the cozy corner a straightening touch, and drew the window -shades--Miranda had taken them down and turned them--a little lower. - -"It's a regular company room, isn't it?" Patience said joyously. - -The minister drove over to The Maples himself on Friday afternoon to -bring Hilary home. - -"Remember," Patience pointed a warning forefinger at him, just as he -was starting, "not a single solitary hint!" - -"Not a single solitary one," he promised. - -As he turned out of the gate. Patience drew a long breath. "Well, -he's off at last! But, oh, dear, however can we wait 'til he gets -back?" - - - - -CHAPTER V - -BEDELIA - -It was five o'clock that afternoon when Patience, perched, a little -white-clad sentry, on the gate-post, announced joyously--"They're -coming! They're coming!" - -Patience was as excited as if the expected "guest" were one in fact, as -well as name. It was fun to be playing a game of make-believe, in -which the elders took part. - -As the gig drew up before the steps, Hilary looked eagerly out. "Will -you tell me," she demanded, "why father insisted on coming 'round the -lower road, by the depot--he didn't stop, and he didn't get any parcel? -And when I asked him, he just laughed and looked mysterious." - -"He went," Pauline answered, "because we asked him to--company usually -comes by train--real out-of-town company, you know." - -"Like visiting ministers and returned missionaries," Patience explained. - -Hilary looked thoroughly bewildered. "But are you expecting company? -You must be," she glanced from one to another, "you're all dressed up," - -"We were expecting some, dear," her mother told her, "but she has -arrived." - -"Don't you see? You're it!" Patience danced excitedly about her sister. - -"I'm the company!" Hilary said wonderingly. Then her eyes lighted up. -"I understand! How perfectly dear of you all." - -Mrs. Shaw patted the hand Hilary slipped into hers. "You have come -back a good deal better than you went, my dear. The change has done -you good." - -"And it didn't turn out a stupid--half-way affair, after all," Hilary -declared. "I've had a lovely time. Only, I simply had to come home, I -felt somehow--that--that--" - -"We were expecting company?" Pauline laughed. "And you wanted to be -here?" - -"I reckon that was it," Hilary agreed. As she sat there, resting a -moment, before going up-stairs, she hardly seemed the same girl who had -gone away so reluctantly only eight days before. The change of scene, -the outdoor life, the new friendship, bringing with it new interests, -had worked wonders, - -"And now," Pauline suggested, taking up her sister's valise, "perhaps -you would like to go up to your room--visitors generally do." - -"To rest after your journey, you know," Patience prompted. Patience -believed in playing one's part down to the minutest detail. - -"Thank you," Hilary answered, with quite the proper note of formality -in her voice, "if you don't mind; though I did not find the trip as -fatiguing as I had expected." - -But from the door, she turned back to give her mother a second and most -uncompany-like hug. "It is good to be home, Mother Shaw! And please, -you don't want to pack me off again anywhere right away--at least, all -by myself?" - -"Not right away," her mother answered, kissing her. - -"I guess you will think it is good to be home, when you -know--everything," Patience announced, accompanying her sisters -up-stairs, but on the outside of the banisters. - -"Patty!" Pauline protested laughingly--"Was there ever such a child for -letting things out!" - -"I haven't!" the child exclaimed, "only now--it can't make any -difference." - -"There is mystery in the very air!" Hilary insisted. "Oh, what have -you all been up to?" - -"You're not to go in there!" Patience cried, as Hilary stopped before -the door of her own and Pauline's room. - -"Of course you're not," Pauline told her. "It strikes me, for -company--you're making yourself very much at home! Walking into -peoples' rooms." She led the way along the hall to the spare room, -throwing the door wide open. - -"Oh!" Hilary cried, then stood quite still on the threshold, looking -about her with wide, wondering eyes. - -The spare room was grim and gray no longer. Hilary felt as if she must -be in some strange, delightful dream. The cool green of the wall -paper, with the soft touch of pink in ceiling and border, the fresh -white matting, the cozy corner opposite--with its delicate -old-fashioned chintz drapery and big cushions, the new toilet -covers--white over green, the fresh curtains at the windows, the -cushioned window seats, the low table and sewing-chair, even her own -narrow white bed, with its new ruffled spread, all went to make a room -as strange to her, as it was charming and unexpected. - -"Oh," she said again, turning to her mother, who had followed them -up-stairs, and stood waiting just outside the door. "How perfectly -lovely it all is--but it isn't for me?" - -"Of course it is," Patience said. "Aren't you company--you aren't just -Hilary now, you're 'Miss Shaw' and you're here on a visit; and there's -company asked to supper to-morrow night, and it's going to be such fun!" - -Hilary's color came and went. It was something deeper and better than -fun. She understood now why they had done this--why Pauline had said -that--about her not going away; there was a sudden lump in the girl's -throat--she was glad, so glad, she had said that downstairs----about -not wanting to go away. - -And when her mother and Patience had gone down-stairs again and Pauline -had begun to unpack the valise, as she had unpacked it a week ago at -The Maples, Hilary sat in the low chair by one of the west windows, her -hands folded in her lap, looking about this new room of hers. - -"There," Pauline said presently, "I believe that's all now--you'd -better lie down, Hilary--I'm afraid you're tired." - -"No, I'm not; at any rate, not very. I'll lie down if you like, only I -know I shan't be able to sleep." - -Pauline lowered the pillow and threw a light cover over her. "There's -something in the top drawer of the dresser," she said, "but you're not -to look at it until you've lain down at least half an hour." - -"I feel as if I were in an enchanted palace,", Hilary said, "with so -many delightful surprises being sprung on me all the while." After -Pauline had gone, she lay watching the slight swaying of the wild roses -in the tall jar on the hearth. The wild roses ran rampant in the -little lane leading from the back of the church down past the old -cottage where Sextoness Jane lived. Jane had brought these with her -that morning, as her contribution to the new room. - -To Hilary, as to Patience, it seemed as if a magic wand had been waved, -transforming the old dull room into a place for a girl to live and -dream in. But for her, the name of the wand was Love. - -There must be no more impatient longings, no fretful repinings, she -told herself now. She must not be slow to play her part in this new -game that had been originated all for her. - -The half-hour up, she slipped from the bed and began unbuttoning her -blue-print frock. Being company, it stood to reason she must dress for -supper. But first, she must find out what was in the upper drawer. - -The first glimpse of the little shell box, told her that. There were -tears in Hilary's gray eyes, as she stood slipping the gold beads -slowly through her fingers. How good everyone was to her; for the -first time some understanding of the bright side even of sickness--and -she had not been really sick, only run-down--and, yes, she had been -cross and horrid, lots of times--came to her. - -"I'll go over just as soon as I can and thank her," the girl thought, -clasping the beads about her neck, "and I'll keep them always and -always." - -A little later, she came down-stairs all in white, a spray of the pink -and white wild roses in her belt, her soft, fair hair freshly brushed -and braided. She had been rather neglectful of her hair lately. - -There was no one on the front piazza but her father, and he looked up -from his book with a smile of pleasure. "My dear, how well you are -looking! It is certainly good to see you at home again, and quite your -old self." - -Hilary came to sit on the arm of his chair. "It is good to be at home -again. I suppose you know all the wonderful surprises I found waiting -me?" - -"Supper's ready," Patience proclaimed from the doorway. "Please come, -because--" she caught herself up, putting a hand into Hilary's, "I'll -show you where to sit, Miss Shaw." - -Hilary laughed. "How old are you, my dear?" she asked, in the tone -frequently used by visiting ministers. - -"I'm a good deal older than I'm treated generally," Patience answered. -"Do you like Winton?" - -"I am sure I shall like it very much." Hilary slipped into the chair -Patience drew forward politely. "The company side of the table--sure -enough," she laughed. - -"It isn't proper to say things to yourself sort of low down in your -voice," Patience reproved her, then at a warning glance from her mother -subsided into silence as the minister took his place. - -For to-night, at least, Miranda had amply fulfilled Patience's hopes, -as to company suppers. And she, too, played her part in the new game, -calling Hilary "Miss," and never by any chance intimating that she had -seen her before. - -"Did you go over to the manor to see Shirley?" Patience asked. - -Hilary shook her head. "I promised her Pauline and I would be over -soon. We may have Fanny some afternoon, mayn't we, father?" - -Patience's blue eyes danced. "They can't have Fanny, can they, -father?" she nodded at him knowingly. - -Hilary eyed her questioningly. "What is the matter, Patience?" - -"Nothing is the matter with her," Pauline said hurriedly. "Don't pay -any attention to her." - -"Only, if you would hurry," Patience implored. "I--I can't wait much -longer!" - -"Wait!" Hilary asked. "For what?" - -Patience pushed back her chair. "For--Well, if you just knew what for, -Hilary Shaw, you'd do some pretty tall hustling!" - -"Patience!" her father said reprovingly. - -"May I be excused, mother?" Patience asked. "I'll wait out on the -porch." - -And Mrs. Shaw replied most willingly that she might. - -"Is there anything more--to see, I mean, not to eat?" Hilary asked. "I -don't see how there can be." - -"Are you through?" Pauline answered. "Because, if you are, I'll show -you." - -"It was sent to Paul," Patience called, from the hall door. "But she -says, of course, it was meant for us all; and I think, myself, she's -right about that." - -"Is it--alive?" Hilary asked. - -"'It' was--before supper," Pauline told her. "I certainly hope nothing -has happened to--'it' since then." - -"A dog?" Hilary suggested. - -"Wait and see; by the way, where's that kitten?" - -"She's to follow in a few days; she was a bit too young to leave home -just yet." - -"I've got the sugar!" Patience called. - -Hilary stopped short at the foot of the porch steps. Patience's -remark, if it had not absolutely let the cat out of the bag, had at -least opened the bag. "Paul, it can't be--" - -"In the Shaw's dictionary, at present, there doesn't appear to be any -such word as can't," Pauline declared. "Come on---after all, you know, -the only way to find out--is to find out." - -Patience had danced on ahead down the path to the barn. She stood -waiting for them now in the broad open doorway, her whole small person -one animated exclamation point, while Towser, just home from a -leisurely round of afternoon visits, came forward to meet Hilary, -wagging a dignified welcome. - -"If you don't hurry, I'll 'hi yi' you, like I do Fanny!" Patience -warned them. She moved to one side, to let Hilary go on into the barn. -"Now!" she demanded, "isn't that something more?" - -From the stall beside Fanny's, a horse's head reached inquiringly out -for the sugar with which already she had come to associate the frequent -visits of these new friends. She was a pretty, well-made, little mare, -light sorrel, with white markings, and with a slender, intelligent face. - -Hilary stood motionless, too surprised to speak. - -"Her name's Bedelia," Patience said, doing the honors. "She's very -clever, she knows us all already. Fanny hasn't been very polite to -her, and she knows it--Bedelia does, I mean--sometimes, when Fanny -isn't looking, I've caught Bedelia sort of laughing at her--and I don't -blame her one bit. And, oh, Hilary, she can go--there's no need to 'hi -yi' her." - -"But--" Hilary turned to Pauline. - -"Uncle Paul sent her," Pauline explained. "She came last Saturday -afternoon. One of the men from Uncle Paul's place in the country -brought her. She was born and bred at River Lawn--that's Uncle Paul's -place--he says." - -Hilary stroked the glossy neck gently, if Pauline had said the Sultan -of Turkey, instead of Uncle Paul, she could hardly have been more -surprised. "Uncle Paul--sent her to you!" she said slowly. - -"To _us_." - -"Bless me, that isn't all he sent," Patience exclaimed. It seemed to -Patience that they never would get to the end of their story. "You -just come look at this, Hilary Shaw!" she ran on through the opening -connecting carriage-house with stable. - -"Oh!" Hilary cried, following with Pauline. - -Beside the minister's shabby old gig, stood the smartest of smart -traps, and hanging on the wall behind it, a pretty russet harness, with -silver mountings. - -Hilary sat down on an old saw horse; she felt again as though she must -be dreaming. - -"There isn't another such cute rig in town, Jim says so," Patience -said. Jim was the stable boy. "It beats Bell Ward's all to pieces." - -"But why--I mean, how did Uncle Paul ever come to send it to us?" -Hilary said. Of course one had always known that there -was--somewhere--a person named Uncle Paul; but he had appeared about as -remote and indefinite a being as--that same Sultan of Turkey, for -instance. - -"After all, why shouldn't he?" Pauline answered. - -"But I don't believe he would've if Paul had not written to him that -time," Patience added. "Maybe next time I tell you anything, you'll -believe me, Hilary Shaw." - -But Hilary was staring at Pauline. "You didn't write to Uncle Paul?" - -"I'm afraid I did." - -"Was--was that the letter--you remember, that afternoon?" - -"I rather think I do remember." - -"Paul, how did you ever dare?" - -"I was in the mood to dare anything that day." - -"And did he answer; but of course he did." - -"Yes--he answered. Though not right away." - -"Was it a nice letter? Did he mind your having written? Paul, you -didn't ask him to send you--these," Hilary waved her hand rather -vaguely. - -"Hardly--he did that all on his own. It wasn't a bad sort of letter, -I'll tell you about it by and by. We can go to the manor in style now, -can't we--even if father can't spare Fanny. Bedelia's perfectly -gentle, I've driven her a little ways once or twice, to make sure. -Father insisted on going with me. We created quite a sensation down -street, I assure you." - -"And Mrs. Dane said," Patience cut in, "that in her young days, -clergymen didn't go kiting 'bout the country in such high-fangled rigs." - -"Never mind what Mrs. Dane said, or didn't say," Pauline told her. - -"Miranda says, what Mrs. Dane hasn't got to say on any subject, -wouldn't make you tired listening to it." - -"Patience, if you don't stop repeating what everyone says, I shall--" - -"If you speak to mother--then you'll be repeating," Patience declared. -"Maybe, I oughtn't to have said those things before--company." - -"I think we'd better go back to the house now," Pauline suggested. - -"Sextoness Jane says," Patience remarked, "that she'd have sure admired -to have a horse and rig like that, when she was a girl. She says, she -doesn't suppose you'll be passing by her house very often." - -"And, now, please," Hilary pleaded, when she had been established in -her hammock on the side porch, with her mother in her chair close by, -and Pauline sitting on the steps, "I want to hear--everything. I'm -what Miranda calls 'fair mazed.'" - -So Pauline told nearly everything, blurring some of the details a -little and getting to that twenty-five dollars a month, with which they -were to do so much, as quickly as possible. - -"O Paul, really," Hilary sat up among her cushions--"Why, it'll -be--riches, won't it?" - -"It seems so." - -"But--Oh, I'm afraid you've spent all the first twenty-five on me; and -that's not a fair division--is it, Mother Shaw?" - -"We used it quite according to Hoyle," Pauline insisted. "We got our -fun that way, didn't we, Mother Shaw?" - -Their mother smiled. "I know I did." - -"All the same, after this, you've simply got to 'drink fair, Betsy,' so -remember," Hilary warned them. - -"Bedtime, Patience," Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience got slowly out of her -big, wicker armchair. - -"I did think--seeing there was company,--that probably you'd like me to -stay up a little later to-night." - -"If the 'company' takes my advice, she'll go, too," her mother answered. - -"The 'company' thinks she will." Hilary slipped out of the hammock. -"Mother, do you suppose Miranda's gone to bed yet?" - -"I'll go see," Patience offered, willing to postpone the inevitable for -even those few moments longer. - -"What do you want with Miranda?" Pauline asked. - -"To do something for me." - -"Can't I do it?" - -"No--and it must be done to-night. Mother, what are you smiling over?" - -"I thought it would be that way, dear." - -"Miranda's coming," Patience called. "She'd just taken her back -hair down, and she's waiting to twist it up again. She's got awful -funny back hair." - -"Patience! Patience!" her mother said reprovingly. - -"I mean, there's such a little--" - -"Go up-stairs and get yourself ready for bed at once." - -Miranda was waiting in the spare room. "You ain't took sick, Hilary?" - -Hilary shook her head. "Please, Miranda, if it wouldn't be too much -trouble, will you bring Pauline's bed in here?" - -"I guessed as much," Miranda said, moving Hilary's bed to one side. - -"Hilary--wouldn't you truly rather have a room to yourself--for a -change?" Pauline asked. - -"I have had one to myself--for eight days--and, now I'm going back to -the old way." Sitting among the cushions of the cozy corner, Hilary -superintended operations, and when the two single white beds were -standing side by side, in their accustomed fashion, the covers turned -back for the night, she nodded in satisfied manner. "Thank you so -much, Miranda; that's as it should be. Go get your things, Paul. -To-morrow, you must move in regularly. Upper drawer between us, and -the rest share and share alike, you know." - -Patience, who had hit upon the happy expedient of braiding her -hair--braids, when there were a lot of them, took a long time--got -slowly up from the hearth rug, her head a sight to behold, with its -tiny, hornlike red braids sticking out in every direction. "I suppose -I'd better be going. I wish I had someone to talk to, after I'd gone -to bed." And a deep sigh escaped her. - -Pauline kissed the wistful little face. "Never mind, old girl, you -know you'd never stay awake long enough to talk to anyone." - -She and Hilary stayed awake talking, however, until Pauline's prudence -got the better of her joy in having her sister back in more senses than -one. It was so long since they had had such a delightful bedtime talk. - -"Seeing Winton First Club," Hilary said musingly. "Paul, you're ever -so clever. Shirley insisted those letters stood for 'Suppression of -Woman's Foibles Club'; and Mr. Dayre suggested they meant, 'Sweet Wild -Flowers.'" - -"You've simply got to go to sleep now, Hilary, else mother'll come and -take me away." - -Hilary sighed blissfully. "I'll never say again--that nothing ever -happens to us." - - -Tom and Josie came to supper the next night. Shirley was there, too, -she had stopped in on her way to the post-office with her father that -afternoon, to ask how Hilary was, and been captured and kept to supper -and the first club meeting that followed. - -Hilary had been sure she would like to join, and Shirley's prompt and -delighted acceptance of their invitation proved her right. - -"I've only got five names on my list," Tom said, as the young folks -settled themselves on the porch after supper. "I suppose we'll think -of others later." - -"That'll make ten, counting us five, to begin with," Pauline said. - -"Bell and Jack Ward," Tom took out his list, "the Dixon boys and Edna -Ray. That's all." - -"I'd just like to know where I come in, Tom Brice!" Patience demanded, -her voice vibrant with indignation. - -"Upon my word! I didn't suppose--" - -"I am to belong! Ain't I, Paul?" - -"But Patty--" - -"If you're going to say no, you needn't Patty me!" - -"We'll see what mother thinks," Hilary suggested. "You wouldn't want -to be the only little girl to belong?" - -"I shouldn't mind," Patience assured her, then feeling pretty sure that -Pauline was getting ready to tell her to run away, she decided to -retire on her own account. That blissful time, when she should be -"Miss Shaw," had one drawback, which never failed to assert itself at -times like these--there would be no younger sister subject to her -authority. - -"Have you decided what we are to do?" Pauline asked Tom, when Patience -had gone. - -"I should say I had. You'll be up to a ride by next Thursday, Hilary? -Not a very long ride." - -"I'm sure I shall," Hilary answered eagerly. "Where are we going?" - -"That's telling." - -"He won't even tell me," Josie said. - -Tom's eyes twinkled. "You're none of you to know until next Thursday. -Say, at four o'clock." - -"Oh," Shirley said, "I think it's going to be the nicest club that ever -was." - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -PERSONALLY CONDUCTED - -"Am I late?" Shirley asked, as Pauline came down the steps to meet her -Thursday afternoon. - -"No, indeed, it still wants five minutes to four. Will you come in, or -shall we wait out here? Hilary is under bond not to make her -appearance until the last minute." - -"Out here, please," Shirley answered, sitting down on the upper step. -"What a delightful old garden this is. Father has at last succeeded in -finding me my nag, horses appear to be at a premium in Winton, and even -if he isn't first cousin to your Bedelia, I'm coming to take you and -Hilary to drive some afternoon. Father got me a surrey, because, -later, we're expecting some of the boys up, and we'll need a two-seated -rig." - -"We're coming to take you driving, too," Pauline said. "Just at -present, it doesn't seem as if the summer would be long enough for all -the things we mean to do in it." - -"And you don't know yet, what we are to do this afternoon?" - -"Only, that it's to be a drive and, afterwards, supper at the Brices'. -That's all Josie, herself, knows about it. Tom had to take her and -Mrs. Brice into so much of his confidence." - -Through the drowsy stillness of the summer afternoon, came the notes of -a horn, sounding nearer and nearer. A moment later, a stage drawn by -two of the hotel horses turned in at the parsonage drive at a fine -speed, drawing up before the steps where Pauline and Shirley were -sitting, with considerable nourish. Beside the driver sat Tom, in long -linen duster, the megaphone belonging to the school team in one hand. -Along each side of the stage was a length of white cloth, on which was -lettered-- - - SEEING WINTON STAGE - -As the stage stopped, Tom sprang down, a most businesslike air on his -boyish face. - -"This is the Shaw residence, I believe?" he asked, consulting a piece -of paper. - -"I--I reckon so," Pauline answered, too taken aback to know quite what -she was saying. - -"All right!" Tom said. "I understand--" - -"Then it's a good deal more than I do," Pauline cut in. - -"That there are several young people here desirous of joining our -little sight-seeing trip this afternoon." - -From around the corner of the house at that moment peeped a small -freckled face, the owner of which was decidedly very desirous of -joining that trip. Only a deep sense of personal injury kept Patience -from coming forward,--she wasn't going where she wasn't wanted--but -some day--they'd see! - -Shirley clapped her hands delightedly. "How perfectly jolly! Oh, I am -glad you asked me to join the club." - -"I'll go tell Hilary!" Pauline said. "Tom, however--" - -"I beg your pardon, Miss?" - -Pauline laughed and turned away. - -"Oh, I say, Paul," Tom dropped his mask of pretended dignity, "let the -Imp come with us--this time." - -Pauline looked doubtful. She, as well as Tom, had caught sight of that -small flushed face, on which longing and indignation had been so -plainly written. "I'm not sure that mother will--" she began, "But -I'll see." - -"Tell her--just this first time," Tom urged, and Shirley added, "She -would love it so." - -"Mother says," Pauline reported presently, "that Patience may go _this_ -time--only we'll have to wait while she gets ready." - -From an upper window came an eager voice. "I'm most ready now!" - -"She'll never forget it--as long as she lives," Shirley said, "and if -she hadn't gone she would never've forgotten _that_." - -"Nor let us--for one while," Pauline remarked--"I'd a good deal rather -work with than against that young lady." - -Hilary came down then, looking ready and eager for the outing. She had -been out in the trap with Pauline several times; once, even as far as -the manor to call upon Shirley. - -"Why," she exclaimed, "you've brought the Folly! Tom, how ever did you -manage it?" - -"Beg pardon, Miss?" - -Hilary shrugged her shoulders, coming nearer for a closer inspection of -the big lumbering stage. It had been new, when the present proprietor -of the hotel, then a young man, now a middle-aged one, had come into -his inheritance. Fresh back from a winter in town, he had indulged -high hopes of booming his sleepy little village as a summer resort, and -had ordered the stage--since christened the Folly--for the convenience -and enjoyment of the guests--who had never come. A long idle lifetime -the Folly had passed in the hotel carriage-house; used so seldom, as to -make that using a village event, but never allowed to fall into -disrepair, through some fancy of its owner. - -As Tom opened the door at the back now, handing his guests in with much -ceremony, Hilary laughed softly. "It doesn't seem quite--respectful to -actually sit down in the poor old thing. I wonder, if it's more -indignant, or pleased, at being dragged out into the light of day for a -parcel of young folks?" - -"'Butchered to make a Roman Holiday'?" Shirley laughed. - -At that moment Patience appeared, rather breathless--but not half as -much so as Miranda, who had been drawn into service, and now appeared -also--"You ain't half buttoned up behind, Patience!" she protested, -"and your hair ribbon's not tied fit to be seen.--My sakes, to think of -anyone ever having named that young one _Patience_!" - -"I'll overhaul her, Miranda," Pauline comforted her. "Come here, -Patience." - -"Please, I am to sit up in front with you, ain't I, Tom?" Patience -urged. "You and I always get on so beautifully together, you know." - -Tom relaxed a second time. "I don't see how I can refuse after that," -and the over-hauling process being completed, Patience climbed up to -the high front seat, where she beamed down on the rest with such a look -of joyful content that they could only smile back in response. - -From the doorway, came a warning voice. "Not too far, Tom, for Hilary; -and remember, Patience, what you have promised me." - -"All right, Mrs. Shaw," Tom assured her, and Patience nodded her head -assentingly. - -From the parsonage, they went first to the doctor's. Josie was waiting -for them at the gate, and as they drew up before it, with horn blowing, -and horses almost prancing--the proprietor of the hotel had given them -his best horses, in honor of the Folly--she stared from her brother to -the stage, with its white placard, with much the same look of wonder in -her eyes as Pauline and Hilary had shown. - -"Miss Brice?" Tom was consulting his list again. - -"So that's what you've been concocting, Tom Brice!" Josie answered. - -Tom's face was as sober as his manner. "I am afraid we are a little -behind scheduled time, being unavoidably delayed." - -"He means they had to wait for me to get ready," Patience explained. -"You didn't expect to see me along, did you, Josie?" And she smiled -blandly. - -"I don't know what I did expect--certainly, not this." Josie took her -place in the stage, not altogether sure whether the etiquette of the -occasion allowed of her recognizing its other inmates, or not. - -But Pauline nodded politely. "Good afternoon. Lovely day, isn't it?" -she remarked, while Shirley asked, if she had ever made this trip -before. - -"Not in this way," Josie answered. "I've never ridden in the Folly -before. Have you, Paul?" - -"Once, from the depot to the hotel, when I was a youngster, about -Impatience's age. You remember, Hilary?" - -"Of course I do. Uncle Jerry took me up in front." Uncle Jerry was -the name the owner of the stage went by in Winton. "He'd had a lot of -Boston people up, and had been showing them around." - -"This reminds me of the time father and I did our own New York in one -of those big 'Seeing New York' motors," Shirley said. "I came home -feeling almost as if we'd been making a trip 'round some foreign city." - -"Tom can't make Winton seem foreign," Josie declared. - -There were three more houses to stop at, lower down the street. From -windows and porches all along the route, laughing, curious faces stared -wonderingly after them, while a small body-guard of children sprang up -as if by magic to attend them on their way. This added greatly to the -delight of Patience, who smiled condescendingly down upon various -intimates, blissfully conscious of the envy she was exciting in their -breasts. It was delightful to be one of the club for a time, at least. - -"And now, if you please, Ladies and Gentlemen," Tom had closed the door -to upon the last of his party, "we will drive first to The Vermont -House, a hostelry well known throughout the surrounding country, and -conducted by one of Vermont's best known and honored sons." - -"Hear! Hear!" Jack Ward cried. "I say, Tom, get that off again where -Uncle Jerry can hear it, and you'll always be sure of his vote." - -They had reached the rambling old hotel, from the front porch of which -Uncle Jerry himself, surveyed them genially. - -"Ladies and Gentlemen," standing up, Tom turned to face the occupants -of the stage, his megaphone, carried merely as a badge of office, -raised like a conductor's baton, "I wish to impress upon your minds -that the building now before you--liberal rates for the season--is -chiefly remarkable for never having sheltered the Father of His -Country." - -"Now how do you know that?" Uncle Jerry protested. "Ain't that North -Chamber called the 'Washington room'?" - -"Oh, but that's because the first proprietor's first wife occupied that -room--and she was famous for her Washington pie," Tom answered readily. -"I assure you, sir, that any and all information which I shall have the -honor to impart to these strangers within our gates may be relied upon -for its accuracy." He gave the driver the word, and the Folly -continued on its way, stopping presently before a little -story-and-a-half cottage not far below the hotel and on a level with -the street. - -"This cottage, my young friends," Tom said impressively, "should -be--and I trust is--enshrined deep within the hearts of all true -Wintonites. Latterly, it has come to be called the Barker cottage, but -its real title is 'The Flag House'; so called, because from that humble -porch, the first Stars and Stripes ever seen in Winton flung its colors -to the breeze. The original flag is still in possession of a lineal -descendant of its first owner, who is, unfortunately, not an inhabitant -of this town." The boyish gravity of tone and manner was not all -assumed now. - -No one spoke for a moment; eleven pairs of young eyes were looking out -at the little weather-stained building with new interest. "I thought," -Bell Ward said at last, "that they called it the _flag_ place, because -someone of that name had used to live there." - -"So did I," Hilary said. - -As the stage moved on, Shirley leaned back for another look. "I shall -get father to come and sketch it," she said. "Isn't it the quaintest -old place?" - -"We will now proceed," Tom announced, "to the village green, where I -shall have the pleasure of relating to you certain anecdotes regarding -the part it played in the early life of this interesting old village." - -"Not too many, old man," Tracy Dixon suggested hurriedly, "or it may -prove a one-sided pleasure." - -The green lay in the center of the town,--a wide, open space, with -flagstaff in the middle; fine old elms bordered it on all four sides. -The Vermont House faced it, on the north, and on the opposite side -stood the general store, belonging to Mr. Ward, with one or two smaller -places of business. - -"The business section" of the town, Tom called it, and quite failed to -notice Tracy's lament that he had not brought his opera glasses with -him. "Really, you know," Tracy explained to his companions, "I should -have liked awfully to see it. I'm mighty interested in business -sections." - -"Cut that out," his brother Bob commanded, "the chap up in front is -getting ready to hold forth again." - -They were simple enough, those anecdotes, that "the chap up in front" -told them; but in the telling, the boy's voice lost again all touch of -mock gravity. His listeners, sitting there in the June sunshine, -looking out across the old green, flecked with the waving tree shadows, -and bright with the buttercups nodding here and there, seemed to see -those men and boys drilling there in the far-off summer twilights; to -hear the sharp words of command; the sound of fife and drum. And the -familiar names mentioned more than once, well-known village names, -names belonging to their own families in some instances, served to -deepen the impression. - -"Why," Edna Ray said slowly, "they're like the things one learns at -school; somehow, they make one realize that there truly was a -Revolutionary War. Wherever did you pick up such a lot of town -history, Tom?" - -"That's telling," Tom answered. - -Back up the broad, main street they went, past the pleasant village -houses, with their bright, well-kept dooryards, under the -wide-spreading trees beneath which so many generations of young folks -had come and gone; past the square, white parsonage, with its setting -of green lawn; past the old stone church, and on out into the by-roads -of the village, catching now and then a glimpse of the great lake -beyond; and now and then, down some lane, a bit of the street they had -left. They saw it all with eyes that for once had lost the -indifference of long familiarity, and were swift to catch instead its -quiet, restful beauty, helped in this, perhaps, by Shirley's very real -admiration. - -The ride ended at Dr. Brice's gate, and here Tom dropped his mantle of -authority, handing all further responsibility as to the entertainment -of the party over to his sister. - -Hilary was carried off to rest until supper time, and the rest -scattered about the garden, a veritable rose garden on that June -afternoon, roses being Dr. Brice's pet hobby. - -"It must be lovely to _live_ in the country," Shirley said, dropping -down on the grass before the doctor's favorite _La France_, and laying -her face against the soft, pink petals of a half-blown bud. - -Edna eyed her curiously. She had rather resented the admittance of -this city girl into their set. Shirley's skirt and blouse were of -white linen, there was a knot of red under the broad sailor collar, she -was hatless and the dark hair,--never kept too closely within -bounds--was tossed and blown; there was certainly nothing especially -cityfied in either appearance or manner. - -"That's the way I feel about the city," Edna said slowly, "it must be -lovely to live _there_." - -Shirley laughed. "It is. I reckon just being alive anywhere such days -as these ought to content one. You haven't been over to the manor -lately, have you? I mean since we came there. We're really getting -the garden to look like a garden. Reclaiming the wilderness, father -calls it. You'll come over now, won't you--the club, I mean?" - -"Why, of course," Edna answered, she thought she would like to go. "I -suppose you've been over to the forts?" - -"Lots of times--father's ever so interested in them, and it's just a -pleasant row across, after supper." - -"I have fasted too long, I must eat again," Tom remarked, coming across -the lawn. "Miss Dayre, may I have the honor?" - -"Are you conductor, or merely club president now?" Shirley asked. - -"Oh, I've dropped into private life again. There comes Hilary--doesn't -look much like an invalid, does she?" - -"But she didn't look very well the first time I saw her," Shirley -answered. - -The long supper table was laid under the apple trees at the foot of the -garden, which in itself served to turn the occasion into a festive -affair. - -"You've given us a bully send-off, Mr. President," Bob declared. "It's -going to be sort of hard for the rest of us to keep up with you." - -"By the way," Tom said, "Dr. Brice--some of you may have heard of -him--would like to become an honorary member of this club. Any -contrary votes?" - -"What's an honorary member?" Patience asked. Patience had been -remarkably good that afternoon--so good that Pauline began to feel -worried, dreading the reaction. - -"One who has all the fun and none of the work," Tracy explained, a -merry twinkle in his brown eyes. - -Patience considered the matter. "I shouldn't mind the work; but mother -won't let me join regularly--mother takes notions now and then--but, -please mayn't I be an honorary member?" - -"Onery, you mean, young lady!" Tracy corrected. - -Patience flashed a pair of scornful eyes at him. "Father says punning -is the very lowest form of--" - -"Never mind, Patience," Pauline said, "we haven't answered Tom yet. I -vote we extend our thanks to the doctor for being willing to join." - -"He isn't a bit more willing than I am," Patience observed. There was -a general laugh among the real members, then Tom said, "If a Shaw votes -for a Brice, I don't very well see how a Brice can refuse to vote for a -Shaw." - -"The motion is carried," Bob seconded him. - -"Subject to mother's consent," Pauline added, a quite unnecessary bit -of elder sisterly interference, Patience thought. - -"And now, even if it is telling on yourself, suppose you own up, old -man?" Jack Ward turned to Tom. "You see we don't in the least credit -you with having produced all that village history from your own stores -of knowledge." - -"I never said you need to," Tom answered, "even the idea was not -altogether original with me." - -Patience suddenly leaned forward, her face all alight with interest. -"I love my love with an A," she said slowly, "because he's an--author." - -Tom whistled. "Well, of all the uncanny young ones!" - -"It's very simple," Patience said loftily. - -"So it is, Imp," Tracy exclaimed; "I love him with an A, because he's -an--A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N!" - -"I took him to the sign of The Apple Tree," Bell took up the thread. - -"And fed him (mentally) on subjects--antedeluvian, or almost so," -Hilary added. - -"What _are_ you talking about?" Edna asked impatiently. - -"Mr. Allen," Pauline told her. - -"I saw him and Tom walking down the back lane the other night," -Patience explained. Patience felt that she had won her right to belong -to the club now--they'd see she wasn't just a silly little girl. -"Father says he--I don't mean Tom--" - -"We didn't suppose you did," Tracy laughed. - -"Knows more history than any other man in the state; especially, the -history of the state." - -"Mr. Allen!" Shirley exclaimed. "T. C. Allen! Why, father and I read -one of his books just the other week. It's mighty interesting. Does -he live in Winton?" - -"He surely does," Bob grinned, "and every little while he comes up to -school and puts us through our paces. It's his boast that he was born, -bred and educated right in Vermont. He isn't a bad old buck--if he -wouldn't pester a fellow with too many questions." - -"He lives out beyond us," Hilary told Shirley. "There's a great apple -tree right in front of the gate. He has an old house-keeper to look -after him. I wish you could see his books--he's literally surrounded -with them." - -"Not storybooks," Patience added. "He says, they're books full of -stories, if one's a mind to look for them." - -"Please," Edna protested, "let's change the subject. Are we to have -badges, or not?" - -"Pins," Bell suggested. - -"Pins would have to be made to order," Pauline objected, "and would be -more or less expensive." - -"And it's an unwritten by-law of this club, that we shall go to no -unnecessary expense," Tom insisted. - -"But--" Bell began. - -"Oh, I know what you're thinking," Tom broke in, "but Uncle Jerry -didn't charge for the stage--he said he was only too glad to have the -poor thing used--'twas a dull life for her, shut up in the -carriage-house year in and year out." - -"The Folly isn't a she," Patience protested. - -"Folly generally is feminine," Tracy said, "and so--" - -"And he let us have the horses, too--for our initial outing," Tom went -on. "Said the stage wouldn't be of much use without them." - -"Three cheers for Uncle Jerry!" Bob Dixon cried. "Let's make him an -honorary member." - -"But the badges," Edna said. "I never saw such people for going off at -tangents." - -"Ribbon would be pretty," Shirley suggested, "with the name of the club -in gilt letters. I can letter pretty well." - -Her suggestion was received with general acclamation, and after much -discussion, as to color, dark blue was decided on. - -"Blue goes rather well with red," Tom said, "and as two of our members -have red hair," his glance went from Patience to Pauline. - -"I move we adjourn, the president's getting personal," Pauline pushed -back her chair. - -"Who's turn is it to be next?" Jack asked. - -They drew lots with blades of grass; it fell to Hilary. "I warn you," -she said, "that I can't come up to Tom." - -Then the first meeting of the new club broke up, the members going -their various ways. Shirley went as far as the parsonage, where she -was to wait for her father. - -"I've had a beautiful time," she said warmly. "And I've thought what -to do when my turn comes. Only, I think you'll have to let father in -as an honorary, I'll need him to help me out." - -"We'll be only too glad," Pauline said heartily. "This club's growing -fast, isn't it? Have you decided, Hilary?" - -Hilary shook her head, "N-not exactly; I've sort of an idea." - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -HILARY'S TURN - -Pauline and Hilary were up in their own room, the "new room," as it had -come to be called, deep in the discussion of certain samples that had -come in that morning's mail. - -Uncle Paul's second check was due before long now, and then there were -to be new summer dresses, or rather the goods for them, one apiece all -around. - -"Because, of course," Pauline said, turning the pretty scraps over, -"Mother Shaw's got to have one, too. We'll have to get it--on the -side--or she'll declare she doesn't need it, and she does." - -"Just the goods won't come to so very much," Hilary said. - -"No, indeed, and mother and I can make them." - -"We certainly got a lot out of that other check, or rather, you and -mother did," Hilary went on. "And it isn't all gone?" - -"Pretty nearly, except the little we decided to lay by each month. But -we did stretch it out in a good many directions. I don't suppose any -of the other twenty-fives will seem quite so big." - -"But there won't be such big things to get with them," Hilary said, -"except these muslins." - -"It's unspeakably delightful to have money for the little unnecessary -things, isn't it?" Pauline rejoiced. - -That first check had really gone a long ways. After buying the matting -and paper, there had been quite a fair sum left; enough to pay for two -magazine subscriptions, one a review that Mr. Shaw had long wanted to -take, another, one of the best of the current monthlies; and to lay in -quite a store of new ribbons and pretty turnovers, and several yards of -silkaline to make cushion covers for the side porch, for Pauline, -taking hint from Hilary's out-door parlor at the farm, had been quick -to make the most of their own deep, vine-shaded side porch at the -parsonage. - -The front piazza belonged in a measure to the general public, there -were too many people coming and going to make it private enough for a -family gathering place. But the side porch was different, broad and -square, only two or three steps from the ground; it was their favorite -gathering place all through the long, hot summers. - -With a strip of carpet for the floor, a small table resurrected from -the garret, a bench and three wicker rockers, freshly painted green, -and Hilary's hammock, rich in pillows, Pauline felt that their porch -was one to be proud of. To Patience had been entrusted the care of -keeping the old blue and white Canton bowl filled with fresh flowers, -and there were generally books and papers on the table. And they might -have done it all before, Pauline thought now, if they had stopped to -think. - -"Have you decided?" Hilary asked her, glancing at the sober face bent -over the samples. - -"I believe I'd forgotten all about them; I think I'll choose this--" -Pauline held up a sample of blue and white striped dimity. - -"That _is_ pretty." - -"You can have it, if you like." - -"Oh, no, I'll have the pink." - -"And the lavender dot, for Mother Shaw?" - -"Yes," Hilary agreed. - -"Patience had better have straight white, it'll be in the wash so -often." - -"Why not let her choose for herself, Paul?" Hilary suggested. - -"Hilary! Oh, Hilary Shaw!" Patience called excitedly, at that moment -from downstairs. - -"Up here!" Hilary called back, and Patience came hurrying up, stumbling -more than once in her eagerness. The next moment, she pushed wide the -door of the "new room." "See what's come! It's addressed to you, -Hilary--it came by express--Jed brought it up from the depot!" Jed was -the village expressman. - -She deposited her burden on the table beside Hilary. It was a -good-sized, square box, and with all that delightful air of mystery -about it that such packages usually have. - -"What do you suppose it is, Paul?" Hilary cried. "Why, I've never had -anything come unexpectedly, like this, before." - -"A whole lot of things are happening to us that never've happened -before," Patience said. "See, it's from Uncle Paul!" she pointed to -the address at the upper left-hand corner of the package. "Oh, Hilary, -let me open it, please, I'll go get the tack hammer." - -"Tell mother to come," Hilary said. - -"Maybe it's books, Paul!" she added, as Patience scampered off. - -Pauline lifted the box. "It doesn't seem quite heavy enough for books." - -"But what else could it be?" - -Pauline laughed. "It isn't another Bedelia, at all events. It could -be almost anything. Hilary, I believe Uncle Paul is really glad I -wrote to him." - -"Well, I'm not exactly sorry," Hilary declared. - -"Mother can't come yet," Patience explained, reappearing. "She says -not to wait. It's that tiresome Mrs. Dane; she just seems to know when -we don't want her, and then to come--only, I suppose if she waited 'til -we did want to see her, she'd never get here." - -"Mother didn't say that. Impatience, and you'd better not let her hear -you saying it," Pauline warned. - -But Patience was busy with the tack hammer. "You can take the inside -covers off," she said to Hilary. - -"Thanks, awfully," Hilary murmured. - -"It'll be my turn next, won't it?" Patience dropped the tack hammer, -and wrenched off the cover of the box--"Go ahead, Hilary! Oh, how slow -you are!" - -For Hilary was going about her share of the unpacking in the most -leisurely way. "I want to guess first," she said. "Such a lot of -wrappings! It must be something breakable." - -"A picture, maybe," Pauline suggested. Patience dropped cross-legged -on the floor. "Then I don't think Uncle Paul's such a very sensible -sort of person," she said. - -"No, not pictures!" Hilary lifted something from within the box, "but -something to get pictures with. See, Paul!" - -"A camera! Oh, Hilary!" - -"And not a little tiny one." Patience leaned over to examine the box. -"It's a three and a quarter by four and a quarter. We can have fun -now, can't we?" Patience believed firmly in the cooperative principle. - -"Tom'll show you how to use it," Pauline said. "He fixed up a dark -room last fall, you know, for himself." - -"And here are all the doings." Patience came to investigate the -further contents of the express package. "Films and those funny little -pans for developing in, and all." - -Inside the camera was a message to the effect that Mr. Shaw hoped his -niece would be pleased with his present and that it would add to the -summer's pleasures, - -"He's getting real uncley, isn't he?" Patience observed. Then she -caught sight of the samples Pauline had let fall. "Oh, how pretty! -Are they for dresses for us?" - -"They'd make pretty scant ones, I'd say," Pauline, answered. - -"Silly!" Patience spread the bright scraps out on her blue checked -gingham apron. "I just bet you've been choosing! Why didn't you call -me?" - -"To help us choose?" Pauline asked, with a laugh. - -But at the present moment, her small sister was quite impervious to -sarcasm. "I think I'll have this," she pointed to a white ground, -closely sprinkled with vivid green dots. - -"Carrots and greens!" Pauline declared, glancing at her sister's red -curls. "You'd look like an animated boiled dinner! If you please, who -said anything about your choosing?" - -"You look ever so nice in all white, Patty," Hilary said hastily. - -"Have you and Paul chosen all white?" - -"N-no." - -"Then I shan't!" She looked up quickly, her blue eyes very persuasive. -"I don't very often have a brand new, just-out-of-the-store dress, do -I?" - -Pauline laughed. "Only don't let it be the green then. Good, here's -mother, at last!" - -"Mummy, is blue or green better?" Patience demanded. - -Mrs. Shaw examined and duly admired the camera, and decided in favor of -a blue dot; then she said, "Mrs. Boyd is down-stairs, Hilary." - -"How nice!" Hilary jumped up. "I want to see her most particularly." - -"Bless me, child!" Mrs. Boyd exclaimed, as Hilary came into the -sitting-room, "how you are getting on! Why, you don't look like the -same girl of three weeks back." - -Hilary sat down beside her on the sofa. "I've got a most tremendous -favor to ask, Mrs. Boyd." - -"I'm glad to hear that! I hear you young folks are having fine times -lately. Shirley was telling me about the club the other night." - -"It's about the club--and it's in two parts; first, won't you and Mr. -Boyd be honorary members?--That means you can come to the good times if -you like, you know.--And the other is--you see, it's my turn next--" -And when Pauline came down, she found the two deep in consultation. - -The next afternoon, Patience carried out her long-intended plan of -calling at the manor. Mrs. Shaw was from home for the day, Pauline and -Hilary were out in the trap with Tom and Josie and the camera. "So -there's really no one to ask permission of, Towser," Patience -explained, as they started off down the back lane. "Father's got the -study door closed, of course that means he mustn't be disturbed for -anything unless it's absolutely necessary." - -Towser wagged comprehendingly. He was quite ready for a ramble this -bright afternoon, especially a ramble 'cross lots. - -Shirley and her father were not at home, neither--which was even more -disappointing--were any of the dogs; so, after a short chat with Betsy -Todd, considerably curtailed by that body's too frankly expressed -wonder that Patience should've been allowed to come unattended by any -of her elders, she and Towser wandered home again. - -In the lane, they met Sextoness Jane, sitting on the roadside, under a -shady tree. She and Patience exchanged views on parish matters, -discussed the new club, and had an all-round good gossip. - -"My sakes!" Jane said, her faded eyes bright with interest, "it must -seem like Christmas all the time up to your house." She looked past -Patience to the old church beyond, around which her life had centered -itself for so many years. "There weren't ever such doings at the -parsonage--nor anywhere else, what I knowed of--when I was a girl. -Why, that Bedelia horse! Seems like she give an air to the whole -place--so pretty and high-stepping--it's most's good's a circus--not -that I've ever been to a circus, but I've hear tell on them--just to -see her go prancing by." - -"I think," Patience said that evening, as they were all sitting on the -porch in the twilight, "I think that Jane would like awfully to belong -to our club." - -"Have you started a club, too?" Pauline teased. - -Patience tossed her red head. "'The S. W. F. Club,' I mean; and you -know it, Paul Shaw. When I get to be fifteen, I shan't act half so -silly as some folks." - -"What ever put that idea in your head?" Hilary asked. It was one of -Hilary's chief missions in life to act as intermediary between her -younger and older sister. - -"Oh, I just gathered it, from what she said. Towser and I met her this -afternoon, on our way home from the manor." - -"From where, Patience?" her mother asked quickly, with that faculty for -taking hold of the wrong end of a remark, that Patience had had -occasion to deplore more than once. - -And in the diversion this caused, Sextoness Jane was forgotten. - - -"Here comes Mr. Boyd, Hilary!" Pauline called from the foot of the -stairs. - -Hilary finished tying the knot of cherry ribbon at her throat, then -snatching up her big sun-hat from the bed, she ran down-stairs. - -Before the side door, stood the big wagon, in which Mr. Boyd had driven -over from the farm, its bottom well filled with fresh straw. For -Hilary's outing was to be a cherry picnic at The Maples, with supper -under the trees, and a drive home later by moonlight. - -Shirley had brought over the badges a day or two before; the blue -ribbon, with its gilt lettering, gave an added touch to the girls' -white dresses and cherry ribbons. - -Mr. Dayre had been duly made an honorary member. He and Shirley were -to meet the rest of the party at the farm. As for Patience H. M., as -Tom called her, she had been walking very softly the past few days. -There had been no long rambles without permission, no making calls on -her own account. There _had_ been a private interview between herself -and Mr. Boyd, whom she had met, not altogether by chance, down street -the day before. - -The result was that, at the present moment, Patience--white-frocked, -blue-badged, cherry-ribboned--was sitting demurely in one corner of the -big wagon. - -Mr. Boyd chuckled as he glanced down at her; a body'd have to get up -pretty early in the morning to get ahead of that youngster. Though not -in white, nor wearing cherry ribbons, Mr. Boyd sported his badge with -much complacency. Winton was looking up, decidedly. 'Twasn't such a -slow old place, after all. - -"All ready?" he asked, as Pauline slipped a couple of big pasteboard -boxes under the wagon seat, and threw in some shawls for the coming -home. - -"All ready. Good-by, Mother Shaw. Remember, you and father have got -to come with us one of these days. I guess if Mr. Boyd can take a -holiday you can." - -"Good-by," Hilary called, and Patience waved joyously. "This'll make -two times," she comforted herself, "and two times ought to be enough to -establish what father calls 'a precedent.'" - -They stopped at the four other houses in turn; then Mr. Boyd touched -his horses up lightly, rattling them along at a good rate out on to the -road leading to the lake and so to The Maples. - -There was plenty of fun and laughter by the way. They had gone -picnicking together so many summers, this same crowd, had had so many -good times together. "And yet it seems different, this year, doesn't -it?" Bell said. "We really aren't doing new things--exactly, still -they seem so." - -Tracy touched his badge. "These are the 'Blue Ribbon Brand,' best -goods in the market." - -"Come to think of it, there aren't so very many new things one can do," -Tom remarked. - -"Not in Winton, at any rate," Bob added. - -"If anyone dares say anything derogatory to Winton, on this, or any -other, outing of the 'S. W. F. Club,' he, or she, will get into -trouble," Josie said sternly. - -Mrs. Boyd was waiting for them on the steps, Shirley close by, while a -glimpse of a white umbrella seen through the trees told that Mr. Dayre -was not far off. - -"It's the best cherry season in years," Mrs. Boyd declared, as the -young folks came laughing and crowding about her. She was a prime -favorite with them all. "My, how nice you look! Those badges are -mighty pretty." - -"Where's yours?" Pauline demanded. - -"It's in my top drawer, dear. Looks like I'm too old to go wearing -such things, though 'twas ever so good in you to send me one." - -"Hilary," Pauline turned to her sister, "I'm sure Mrs. Boyd'll let you -go to her top drawer. Not a stroke of business does this club do, -until this particular member has her badge on." - -"Now," Tom asked, when that little matter had been attended to, "what's -the order of the day?" - -"I hope you've worn old dresses?" Mrs. Boyd said. - -"I haven't, ma'am," Tracy announced. - -"Order!" Bob called. - -"Eat all you like--so long's you don't get sick--and each pick a nice -basket to take home," Mrs. Boyd explained. There were no cherries -anywhere else quite so big and fine, as those at The Maples. - -"You to command, we to obey!" Tracy declared. - -"Boys to pick, girls to pick up," Tom ordered, as they scattered about -among the big, bountifully laden trees. - - "For cherry time, - Is merry time," - -Shirley improvised, catching the cluster of great red and white -cherries Jack tossed down to her. - -Even more than the rest of the young folks, Shirley was getting the -good of this happy, out-door summer, with its quiet pleasures and -restful sense of home life. She had never known anything before like -it. It was very different, certainly, from the studio life in New -York, different from the sketching rambles she had taken other summers -with her father. They were delightful, too, and it was pleasant to -think of going back to them again--some day; but just at present, it -was good to be a girl among other girls, interested in all the simple, -homely things each day brought up. - -And her father was content, too, else how could she have been so? It -was doing him no end of good. Painting a little, sketching a little, -reading and idling a good deal, and through it all, immensely amused at -the enthusiasm with which his daughter threw herself into the village -life. "I shall begin to think soon, that you were born and raised in -Winton," he had said to her that very morning, as she came in fresh -from a conference with Betsy Todd. Betsy might be spending her summer -in a rather out-of-the-way spot, and her rheumatism might prevent her -from getting into town--as she expressed it--but very little went on -that Betsy did not hear of, and she was not one to keep her news to -herself. - -"So shall I," Shirley had laughed back. She wondered now, if Pauline -or Hilary would enjoy a studio winter, as much as she was reveling in -her Winton summer? She decided that probably they would. - -Cherry time _was_ merry time that afternoon. Of course. Bob fell out -of one of the trees, but Bob was so used to tumbling, and the others -were so used to having him tumble, that no one paid much attention to -it; and equally, of course, Patience tore her dress and had to be taken -in hand by Mrs. Boyd. - -"Every rose must have its thorns, you know, kid," Tracy told her, as -she was borne away for this enforced retirement. "We'll leave a few -cherries, 'gainst you get back." - -Patience elevated her small freckled nose, she was an adept at it. "I -reckon they will be mighty few--if you have anything to do with it." - -"You're having a fine time, aren't you, Senior?" Shirley asked, as Mr. -Dayre came scrambling down from his tree; he had been routed from his -sketching and pressed into service by his indefatigable daughter. - -"Scrumptious! Shirley, you've got a fine color--only it's laid on in -spots." - -"You're spattery, too," she retorted. "I must go help lay out the -supper now." - -"Will anyone want supper, after so many cherries?" Mr. Dayre asked. - -"Will they?" Pauline laughed. "Well, you just wait and see." - -Some of the boys brought the table from the house, stretching it out to -its uttermost length. The girls laid the cloth, Mrs. Boyd provided, -and unpacked the boxes stacked on the porch. From the kitchen came an -appetizing odor of hot coffee. Hilary and Bell went off after flowers -for the center of the table. - -"We'll put one at each place, suggestive of the person--like a place -card," Hilary proposed. - -"Here's a daisy for Mrs. Boyd," Bell laughed. - -"Let's give that to Mr. Boyd and cut her one of these old-fashioned -spice pinks," Hilary said. - -"Better put a bit of pepper-grass for the Imp," Tracy suggested, as the -girls went from place to place up and down the long table. - -"Paul's to have a ," Hilary insisted. She remembered how, if it -hadn't been for Pauline's "thought" that wet May afternoon, everything -would still be as dull and dreary as it was then. - -At her own place she found a spray of belated wild roses, Tom had laid -there, the pink of their petals not more delicate than the soft color -coming and going in the girl's face. - -"We've brought for-get-me-not for you, Shirley," Bell said, "so that -you won't forget us when you get back to the city." - -"As if I were likely to!" Shirley exclaimed. - -"Sound the call to supper, sonny!" Tom told Bob, and Bob, raising the -farm dinner-horn, sounded it with a will, making the girls cover their -ears with their hands and bringing the boys up with a rush. - -"It's a beautiful picnic, isn't it?" Patience said, reappearing in time -to slip into place with the rest. - -"And after supper, I will read you the club song," Tracy announced. - -"Are we to have a club song?" Edna asked. - -"We are." - -"Read it now, son--while we eat," Tom suggested. - -Tracy rose promptly--"Mind you save me a few scraps then. First, it -isn't original--" - -"All the better," Jack commented. - -"Hush up, and listen-- - - "'A cheerful world?--It surely is. - And if you understand your biz - You'll taboo the worry worm, - And cultivate the happy germ. - - "'It's a habit to be happy, - Just as much as to be scrappy. - So put the frown away awhile, - And try a little sunny smile.'" - -There was a generous round of applause. Tracy tossed the scrap of -paper across the table to Bell. "Put it to music, before the next -round-up, if you please." - -Bell nodded. "I'll do my best." - -"We've got a club song and a club badge, and we ought to have a club -motto," Josie said. - -"It's right to your hand, in your song," her brother answered. "'It's -a habit to be happy.'" - -"Good!" Pauline seconded him, and the motto was at once adopted. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -SNAP-SHOTS - -Bell Ward set the new song to music, a light, catchy tune, easy to pick -up. It took immediately, the boys whistled it, as they came and went, -and the girls hummed it. Patience, with cheerful impartiality, did -both, in season and out of season. - -It certainly looked as though it were getting to be a habit to be happy -among a good many persons in Winton that summer. The spirit of the new -club seemed in the very atmosphere. - -A rivalry, keen but generous, sprang up between the club members in the -matter of discovering new ways of "Seeing Winton," or, failing that, of -giving a new touch to the old familiar ones. - -There were many informal and unexpected outings, besides the club's -regular ones, sometimes amongst all the members, often among two or -three of them. - -Frequently, Shirley drove over in the surrey, and she and Pauline and -Hilary, with sometimes one of the other girls, would go for long -rambling drives along the quiet country roads, or out beside the lake. -Shirley generally brought her sketch-book and there were pleasant -stoppings here and there. - -And there were few days on which Bedelia and the trap were not out, -Bedelia enjoying the brisk trots about the country quite as much as her -companions. - -Hilary soon earned the title of "the kodak fiend," Josie declaring she -took pictures in her sleep, and that "Have me; have my camera," was -Hilary's present motto. Certainly, the camera was in evidence at all -the outings, and so far, Hilary had fewer failures to her account than -most beginners. Her "picture diary" she called the big scrap-book in -which was mounted her record of the summer's doings. - -Those doings were proving both numerous and delightful. Mr. Shaw, as -an honorary member, had invited the club to a fishing party, which had -been an immense success. The doctor had followed it by a moonlight -drive along the lake and across on the old sail ferry to the New York -side, keeping strictly within that ten-mile-from-home limit, though -covering considerably more than ten miles in the coming and going. - -There had been picnics of every description, to all the points of -interest and charm in and about the village; an old-time supper at the -Wards', at which the club members had appeared in old-fashioned -costumes; a strawberry supper on the church lawn, to which all the -church were invited, and which went off rather better than some of the -sociables had in times past. - -As the Winton _Weekly News_ declared proudly, it was the gayest summer -the village had known in years. Mr. Paul Shaw's theory about -developing home resources was proving a sound one in this instance at -least. - -Hilary had long since forgotten that she had ever been an invalid, had -indeed, sometimes, to be reminded of that fact. She had quite -discarded the little "company" fiction, except now and then, by way of -a joke. "Who'd want to be company?" she protested. "I'd rather be one -of the family these days." - -"That's all very well," Patience retorted, "when you're getting all the -good of being both. You've got the company room." Patience had not -found her summer quite as cloudless as some of her elders; being an -honorary member had not meant _all_ of the fun in her case. She wished -very much that it were possible to grow up in a single night, thus -wiping out forever that drawback of being "a little girl." - -Still, on the whole, she managed to get a fair share of the fun going -on and quite agreed with the editor of the _Weekly News_, going so far -as to tell him so when she met him down street. She had a very kindly -feeling in her heart for the pleasant spoken little editor; had he not -given her her full honors every time she had had the joy of being -"among those present"? - -There had been three of those checks from Uncle Paul; it was wonderful -how far each had been made to go. It was possible nowadays to send for -a new book, when the reviews were more than especially tempting. There -had also been a tea-table added to the other attractions of the side -porch, not an expensive affair, but the little Japanese cups and -saucers were both pretty and delicate, as was the rest of the service; -while Miranda's cream cookies and sponge cakes were, as Shirley -declared, good enough to be framed. Even the minister appeared now and -then of an afternoon, during tea hour, and the young people, gathered -on the porch, began to find him a very pleasant addition to their -little company, he and they getting acquainted, as they had never -gotten acquainted before. - -Sextoness Jane came every week now to help with the ironing, which -meant greater freedom in the matter of wash dresses; and also, to -Sextoness Jane herself, the certainty of a day's outing every week. To -Sextoness Jane, those Tuesdays at the parsonage were little short of a -dissipation. Miranda, unbending in the face of such sincere and humble -admiration, was truly gracious. The glimpses the little bent, old -sextoness got of the young folks, the sense of life going on about her, -were as good as a play, to quote her own simile, confided of an evening -to Tobias, her great black cat, the only other inmate of the old -cottage. - -"I reckon Uncle Paul would be rather surprised," Pauline said one -evening, "if he could know all the queer sorts of ways in which we use -his money. But the little easings-up do count for so much." - -"Indeed they do," Hilary agreed warmly, "though it hasn't all gone for -easings-ups, as you call them, either." She had sat down right in the -middle of getting ready for bed, to revel in her ribbon box; she so -loved pretty ribbons! - -The committee on finances, as Pauline called her mother, Hilary, and -herself, held frequent meetings. "And there's always one thing," the -girl would declare proudly, "the treasury is never entirely empty." - -She kept faithful account of all money received and spent; each month a -certain amount was laid away for the "rainy day"--which meant, really, -the time when the checks should cease to come---"for, you know, Uncle -Paul only promised them for the _summer_," Pauline reminded the others, -and herself, rather frequently. Nor was all of the remainder ever -quite used up before the coming of the next check. - -"You're quite a business woman, my dear," Mr. Shaw said once, smiling -over the carefully recorded entries in the little account-book she -showed him. "We must have named you rightly." - -She wrote regularly to her uncle; her letters unconsciously growing -more friendly and informal from week to week. They were bright, vivid -letters, more so than Pauline had any idea of. Through them, Mr. Paul -Shaw felt himself becoming very well acquainted with these young -relatives whom he had never seen, and in whom, as the weeks went by, he -felt himself growing more and more interested. - -Without realizing it, he got into the habit of looking forward to that -weekly letter; the girl wrote a nice clear hand, there didn't seem to -be any nonsense about her, and she had a way of going right to her -point that was most satisfactory. It seemed sometimes as if he could -see the old white parsonage and ivy-covered church; the broad -tree-shaded lawns; the outdoor parlor, with the young people gathered -about the tea-table; Bedelia, picking her way along the quiet country -roads; the great lake in all its moods; the manor house. - -Sometimes Pauline would enclose one or two of Hilary's snap-shots of -places, or persons. At one of these, taken the day of the fishing -picnic, and under which Hilary had written "The best catch of the -season," Mr. Paul Shaw looked long and intently. Somehow he had never -pictured Phil to himself as middle-aged. If anyone had told him, when -the lad was a boy, that the time would come when they would be like -strangers to each other--Mr. Paul Shaw slipped the snap-shot and letter -back into their envelope. - -It was that afternoon that he spent considerable time over a catalogue -devoted entirely to sporting goods; and it was a fortnight later that -Patience came flying down the garden path to where Pauline and Hilary -were leaning over the fence, paying a morning call to Bedelia, sunning -herself in the back pasture. - -"You'll never guess what's come _this_ time! And Jed says he reckons -he can haul it out this afternoon if you're set on it! And it's -addressed to the 'Misses Shaw,' so that means it's _mine, too_!" -Patience dropped on the grass, quite out of breath. - -The "it" proved to be a row-boat with a double set of oar-locks, a -perfect boat for the lake, strong and safe, but trig and neat of -outline. - -Hilary named it the "Surprise" at first sight, and Tom was sent for at -once to paint the name in red letters to look well against the white -background and to match the boat's red trimmings. - -Its launching was an event. Some of the young people had boats over at -the lake, rather weather-beaten, tubby affairs, Bell declared them, -after the coming of the "Surprise." A general overhauling took place -immediately, the girls adopted simple boating dresses--red and white, -which were their boating colors. A new zest was given to the water -picnics, Bedelia learning to know the lake road very well. - -August had come before they fairly realized that their summer was more -than well under way. In little more than a month the long vacation -would be over. Tom and Josie were to go to Boston to school; Bell to -Vergennes. - -"There'll never be another summer quite like it!" Hilary said one -morning. "I can't bear to think of its being over." - -"It isn't--yet," Pauline answered. - -"Tom's coming," Patience heralded from the gate, and Hilary ran indoors -for hat and camera. - -"Where are you off to this morning?" Pauline asked, as her sister came -out again. - -"Out by the Cross-roads' Meeting-House," Tom answered. "Hilary has -designs on it, I believe." - -"You'd better come, too, Paul," Hilary urged. "It's a glorious morning -for a walk." - -"I'm going to help mother cut out; perhaps I'll come to meet you with -Bedelia 'long towards noon. You wait at Meeting-House Hill." - -"_I'm_ not going to be busy this morning," Patience insinuated. - -"Oh, yes you are, young lady," Pauline told her. "Mother said you were -to weed the aster bed." - -Patience looked longingly after the two starting gayly off down the -path, their cameras swung over their shoulders, then she looked -disgustedly at the aster bed. It was quite the biggest of the smaller -beds.--She didn't see what people wanted to plant so many asters for; -she had never cared much for asters, she felt she should care even less -about them in the future. Tiresome, stiff affairs! - -By the time Tom and Hilary reached the old Cross-Roads' Meeting-House -that morning, after a long roundabout ramble, Hilary, for one, was -quite willing to sit down and wait for Pauline and the trap, and eat -the great, juicy blackberries Tom gathered for her from the bushes -along the road. - -It had rained during the night and the air was crisp and fresh, with a -hint of the coming fall. "Summer's surely on the down grade," Tom -said, throwing himself on the bank beside Hilary. - -"So Paul and I were lamenting this morning. I don't suppose it matters -as much to you folks who are going off to school." - -"Still it means another summer over," Tom said soberly. He was rather -sorry that it was so--there could never be another summer quite so -jolly and carefree. "And the breaking up of the club, I suppose?" - -"I don't see why we need call it a break--just a discontinuance, for a -time." - -"And why that, even? There'll be a lot of you left, to keep it going." - -"Y-yes, but with three, or perhaps more, out, I reckon we'll have to -postpone the next installment until another summer." - -Tom went off then for more berries, and Hilary sat leaning back against -the trunk of the big tree crowning the top of Meeting-House Hill, her -eyes rather thoughtful. From where she sat, she had a full view of -both roads for some distance and, just beyond, the little hamlet -scattered about the old meeting-house. - -Before the gate of one of the houses stood a familiar gig, and -presently, as she sat watching, Dr. Brice came down the narrow -flower-bordered path, followed by a woman. At the gate both stopped; -the woman was saying something, her anxious, drawn face seeming out of -keeping with the cheery freshness of the morning and the flowers -nodding their bright heads about her. - -As the doctor stood listening, his old shabby medicine case in his -hand, with face bent to the troubled one raised to his, and bearing -indicating grave sympathy and understanding, Hilary reached for her -camera. - -"Upon my word! Isn't the poor pater exempt?" Tom laughed, coming back. - -"I want it for the book Josie and I are making for you to take away -with you, 'Winton Snap-shots.' We'll call it 'The Country Doctor.'" - -Tom looked at the gig, moving slowly off down the road now. He hated -to say so, but he wished Hilary would not put that particular snap-shot -in. He had a foreboding that it was going to make him a bit -uncomfortable--later--when the time for decision came; though, as for -that, he had already decided--beyond thought of change. He wished that -the pater hadn't set his heart on his coming back here to practice--and -he wished, too, that Hilary hadn't taken that photo. - -"Paul's late," he said presently. - -"I'm afraid she isn't coming." - -"It's past twelve," Tom glanced at the sun. "Maybe we'd better walk on -a bit." - -But they had walked a considerable bit, all the way to the parsonage, -in fact, before they saw anything of Pauline. There, she met them at -the gate. "Have you seen any trace of Patience--and Bedelia?" she -asked eagerly. - -"Patience and Bedelia?" Hilary repeated wonderingly. - -"They're both missing, and it's pretty safe guessing they're together." - -"But Patience would never dare--" - -"Wouldn't she!" Pauline exclaimed. "Jim brought Bedelia 'round about -eleven and when I came out a few moments later, she was gone and so was -Patience. Jim's out looking for them. We traced them as far as the -Lake road." - -"I'll go hunt, too," Tom offered. "Don't you worry, Paul; she'll turn -up all right--couldn't down the Imp, if you tried." - -"But she's never driven Bedelia alone; and Bedelia's not Fanny." - -However, half an hour later, Patience drove calmly into the yard, -Towser on the seat beside her, and if there was something very like -anxiety in her glance, there was distinct triumph in the way she -carried her small, bare head. - -"We've had a beautiful drive!" she announced, smiling pleasantly from -her high seat, at the worried, indignant group on the porch. "I tell -you, there isn't any need to 'hi-yi' this horse!" - -"My sakes!" Miranda declared. "Did you ever hear the beat of that!" - -"Get down, Patience!" Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience climbed obediently -down. She bore the prompt banishment to her own room which followed, -with seeming indifference. Certainly, it was not unexpected; but when -Hilary brought her dinner up to her presently, she found her sitting on -the floor, her head on the bed. It was only a few days now to -Shirley's turn and it was going to be such a nice turn. Patience felt -that for once Patience Shaw had certainly acted most unwisely. - -"Patty, how could you!" Hilary put the tray on the table and sitting -down on the bed, took the tumbled head on her knee. "We've been so -worried! You see, Bedelia isn't like Fanny!" - -"That's why I wanted to get a chance to drive her by myself for once! -She went beautifully! out on the Lake road I just let her loose!" For -the moment, pride in her recent performance routed all contrition from -Patience's voice--"I tell you, folks I passed just stared!" - -"Patience, how--" - -"I wasn't scared the least bit; and, of course, Bedelia knew it. Uncle -Jerry says they always know when you're scared, and if Mr. Allen is the -most up in history of any man in Vermont, Uncle Jerry is the most in -horses." - -Hilary felt that the conversation was hardly proceeding upon the lines -her mother would have approved of, especially under present -circumstances. "That has nothing to do with it, you know, Patience," -she said, striving to be properly severe. - -"I think it has--everything. I think it's nice not being scared of -things. You're sort of timid 'bout things, aren't you, Hilary?" - -Hilary made a movement to rise. - -"Oh, please," Patience begged. "It's going to be such a dreadful long -afternoon--all alone." - -"But I can't stay, mother would not want--" - -"Just for a minute. I--I want to tell you something. I--coming back, -I met Jane, and I gave her a lift home--and she did love it so--she -says she's never ridden before behind a horse that really went as if it -enjoyed it as much as she did. That was some good out of being bad, -wasn't it? And--I told you--ever'n' ever so long ago, that I was -mighty sure Jane'd just be tickled to death to belong to our club. I -think you might ask her--I don't see why she shouldn't like Seeing -Winton, same's we do--she doesn't ever have fun--and she'll be dead -pretty soon. She's getting along, Jane is--it'd make me mad's anything -to have to die 'fore I'd had any fun to speak of. Jane's really very -good company--when you draw her out--she just needs drawing out--Jane -does. Seems to me, she remembers every funeral and wedding and -everything--that's ever taken place in Winton." Patience stopped, -sheer out of breath, but there was an oddly serious look on her little -eager face. - -Hilary stroked back the tangled red curls. "Maybe you're right, Patty; -maybe we have been selfish with our good times. I'll have to go now, -dear. You--I may tell mother--that you are sorry--truly, Patty?" - -Patience nodded. "But I reckon, it's a good deal on account of -Shirley's turn," she explained. - -Hilary bit her lip. - -"You don't suppose you could fix that up with mother? You're pretty -good at fixing things up with mother, Hilary." - -"Since how long?" Hilary laughed, but when she had closed the door, she -opened it again to stick her head in. "I'll try, Patty, at any rate," -she promised. - -She went down-stairs rather thoughtful. Mrs. Shaw was busy in the -study and Pauline had gone out on an errand. Hilary went up-stairs -again, going to sit by one of the side windows in the "new room." - -Over at the church, Sextoness Jane was making ready for the regular -weekly prayer meeting; never a service was held in the church that she -did not set all in order. Through one of the open windows, Hilary -caught sight of the bunch of flowers on the reading-desk. Jane had -brought them with her from home. Presently, the old woman herself came -to the window to shake her dust-cloth, standing there a moment, leaning -a little out, her eyes turned to the parsonage. Pauline was coming up -the path, Shirley and Bell were with her. They were laughing and -talking, the bright young voices making a pleasant break in the quiet -of the garden. It seemed to Hilary, as if she could catch the wistful -look in Jane's faded eyes, a look only half consciously so, as if the -old woman reached out vaguely for something that her own youth had been -without and that only lately she had come to feel the lack of. - -A quick lump came into the girl's throat. Life had seemed so bright -and full of untried possibilities only that very morning, up there on -Meeting-House Hill, with the wind in one's face; and then had come that -woman, following the doctor down from the path. Life was surely -anything but bright for her this crisp August day--and now here was -Jane. And presently--at the moment it seemed very near indeed to -Hilary--she and Paul and all of them would be old and, perhaps, -unhappy. And then it would be good to remember--that they had tried to -share the fun and laughter of this summer of theirs with others. - -Hilary thought of the piece of old tapestry hanging on the studio wall -over at the manor--of the interwoven threads--the dark as necessary to -the pattern as the bright. Perhaps they had need of Sextoness Jane, of -the interweaving of her life into theirs--of the interweaving of all -the village lives going on about them--quite as much as those more -sober lives needed the brightening touch of theirs. - -"Hilary! O Hilary!" Pauline called. - -"I'm coming," Hilary answered, and went slowly down to where the others -were waiting on the porch. - -"Has anything happened?" Pauline asked. - -"I've been having a think--and I've come to the conclusion that we're a -selfish, self-absorbed set." - -"Mother Shaw!" Pauline went to the study window, "please come out here. -Hilary's calling us names, and that isn't polite." - -Mrs. Shaw came. "I hope not very bad names," she said. - -Hilary swung slowly back and forth in the hammock. "I didn't mean it -that way--it's only--" She told what Patience had said about Jane's -joining the club, and then, rather reluctantly, a little of what she -had been thinking. - -"I think Hilary's right," Shirley declared. "Let's form a deputation -and go right over and ask the poor old soul to join here and now." - -"I would never've thought of it," Bell said. "But I don't suppose I've -ever given Jane a thought, anyway." - -"Patty's mighty cute--for all she's such a terror at times," Pauline -admitted. "She knows a lot about the people here--and it's just -because she's interested in them." - -"Come on," Shirley said, jumping up. "We're going to have another -honorary member." - -"I think it would be kind, girls," Mrs. Shaw said gravely. "Jane will -feel herself immensely flattered, and I know of no one who upholds the -honor of Winton more honestly or persistently." - -"And please, Mrs. Shaw," Shirley coaxed, "when we come back, mayn't -Patience Shaw, H. M., come down and have tea with us?" - -"I hardly think--" - -"Please, Mother Shaw," Hilary broke in; "after all--she started this, -you know. That sort of counterbalances the other, doesn't it?" - -"Well, we'll see," her mother laughed. - -Pauline ran to get one of the extra badges with which Shirley had -provided her, and then the four girls went across to the church. - -Sextoness Jane was just locking the back door--not the least important -part of the afternoon's duties with her--as they came through the -opening in the hedge. "Good afternoon," she said cheerily, "was you -wanting to go inside?" - -"No," Pauline answered, "we came over to invite you to join our club. -We thought, maybe, you'd like to?" - -"My Land!" Jane stared from one to another of them. "And wear one of -them blue-ribbon affairs?" - -"Yes, indeed," Shirley laughed. "See, here it is," and she pointed to -the one in Pauline's hand. - -Sextoness Jane came down the steps. "Me, I ain't never wore a badge! -Not once in all my life! Oncet, when I was a little youngster, 'most -like Patience, teacher, she got up some sort of May doings. We was all -to wear white dresses and red, white and blue ribbons--very night -before, I come down with the mumps. Looks like I always come down when -I ought to've stayed up!" - -"But you won't come down with anything this time," Pauline pinned the -blue badge on the waist of Jane's black and white calico. "Now you're -an honorary member of 'The S. W. F. Club.'" - -Jane passed a hand over it softly. "My Land!" was all she could say. - -She was still stroking it softly as she walked slowly away towards -home. My, wouldn't Tobias be interested! - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -AT THE MANOR - - "'All the names I know from nurse: - Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse, - Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock, - And the Lady Hollyhock,'" - -Patience chanted, moving slowly about the parsonage garden, hands full -of flowers, and the big basket, lying on the grass beyond, almost full. - -Behind her, now running at full speed, now stopping suddenly, back -lifted, tail erect, came Lucky, the black kitten from The Maples. -Lucky had been an inmate of the parsonage for some weeks now and was -thriving famously in her adopted home. Towser tolerated her with the -indifference due such a small, insignificant creature, and she -alternately bullied and patronized Towser. - -"We haven't shepherd's purse, nor lady's smock, that I know of, Lucky," -Patience said, glancing back at the kitten, at that moment threatening -battle at a polite nodding Sweet William, "but you can see for yourself -that we have hollyhocks, while as for bachelor's buttons! Just look at -that big, blue bunch in one corner of the basket." - -It was the morning of the day of Shirley's turn and Pauline was -hurrying to get ready to go over and help decorate the manor. She was -singing, too; from the open windows of the "new room" came the words-- - - "'A cheerful world?--It surely is - And if you understand your biz - You'll taboo the worry worm, - And cultivate the happy germ.'" - -To which piece of good advice, Patience promptly whistled back the gay -refrain. - -On the back porch, Sextoness Jane--called in for an extra half-day--was -ironing the white dresses to be worn that afternoon. And presently, -Patience, her basket quite full and stowed away in the trap waiting -before the side door, strolled around to interview her. - -"I suppose you're going this afternoon?" she asked. - -Jane looked up from waxing her iron. "Well, I was sort of calculating -on going over for a bit; Miss Shirley having laid particular stress on -my coming and this being the first reg'lar doings since I joined the -club. I told her and Pauline they mustn't look for me to go junketing -'round with them all the while, seeing I'm in office--so to speak--and -my time pretty well taken up with my work. I reckon you're going?" - -"I--" Patience edged nearer the porch. Behind Jane stood the tall -clothes-horse, with its burden of freshly ironed white things. At -sight of a short, white frock, very crisp and immaculate, the blood -rushed to the child's face, then as quickly receded.--After all, it -would have had to be ironed for Sunday and--well, mother certainly had -been very non-committal the past few days--ever since that escapade -with Bedelia, in fact--regarding her youngest daughter's hopes and -fears for this all-important afternoon. And Patience had been wise -enough not to press the matter. - -"But, oh, I do wonder if Hilary has--" Patience went back to the side -porch. Hilary was there talking to Bedelia. "You--you have fixed it -up?" the child inquired anxiously. - -Hilary looked gravely unconscious. "Fixed it up?" she repeated. - -"About this afternoon--with mother?" - -"Oh, yes! Mother's going; so is father." - -Patience repressed a sudden desire to stamp her foot, and Hilary, -seeing the real doubt and longing in her face, relented. "Mother wants -to see you, Patty. I rather think there are to be conditions." - -Patience darted off. From the doorway, she looked back--"I just knew -you wouldn't go back on me, Hilary! I'll love you forever'n' ever." - -Pauline came out a moment later, drawing on her driving gloves. "I -feel like a story-book girl, going driving this time in the morning, in -a trap like this. I wish you were coming, too, Hilary." - -"Oh, I'm like the delicate story-book girl, who has to rest, so as to -be ready for the dissipations that are to come later. I look the part, -don't I?" - -Pauline looked down into the laughing, sun-browned face. "If Uncle -Paul were to see you now, he might find it hard to believe I -hadn't--exaggerated that time." - -"Well, it's your fault--and his, or was, in the beginning. You've a -fine basket of flowers to take; Patience has done herself proud this -morning." - -"It's wonderful how well that young lady can behave--at times." - -"Oh, she's young yet! When I hear mother tell how like her you used to -be, I don't feel too discouraged about Patty." - -"That strikes me as rather a double-edged sort of speech," Pauline -gathered up the reins. "Good-by, and don't get too tired." - -Shirley's turn was to be a combination studio tea and lawn-party, to -which all club members, both regular and honorary, not to mention their -relatives and friends, had been bidden. Following this, was to be a -high tea for the regular members. - -"That's Senior's share," Shirley had explained to Pauline. "He insists -that it's up to him to do something." - -Mr. Dayre was on very good terms with the "S. W. F. Club." As for -Shirley, after the first, no one had ever thought of her as an outsider. - -It was hard now, Pauline thought, as she drove briskly along, the lake -breeze in her face, and the sound of Bedelia's quick trotting forming a -pleasant accompaniment to her, thoughts, very hard, to realize how soon -the summer would be over. But perhaps--as Hilary said--next summer -would mean the taking up again of this year's good times and -interests,--Shirley talked of coming back. As for the winter--Pauline -had in mind several plans for the winter. Those of the club members to -stay behind must get together some day and talk them over. One thing -was certain, the club motto must be lived up to bravely. If not in one -way, why in another. There must be no slipping back into the old -dreary rut and routine. It lay with themselves as to what their winter -should be. - -"And there's fine sleighing here, Bedelia," she said. "We'll get the -old cutter out and give it a coat of paint." - -Bedelia tossed her head, as if she heard in imagination the gay -jingling of the sleighbells. - -"But, in the meantime, here is the manor," Pauline laughed, "and it's -the prettiest August day that ever was, and lawn-parties and such -festivities are afoot, not sleighing parties." - -The manor stood facing the lake with its back to the road, a broad -sloping lawn surrounded it on three sides, with the garden at the back. - -For so many seasons, it had stood lonely and neglected, that Pauline -never came near it now, without rejoicing afresh in its altered aspect. -Even the sight of Betsy Todd's dish towels, drying on the currant -bushes at one side of the back door, added their touch to the sense of -pleasant, homely life that seemed to envelop the old house nowadays. - -Shirley came to the gate, as Pauline drew up, Phil, Pat and Pudgey in -close attention. "I have to keep an eye on them," she told Pauline. -"They've just had their baths, and they're simply wild to get out in -the middle of the road and roll. I've told them no self-respecting dog -would wish to come to a lawn-party in anything but the freshest of -white coats, but I'm afraid they're not very self-respecting." - -"Patience is sure Towser's heart is heavy because he is not to come; -she has promised him a lawn-party on his own account, and that no -grown-ups shall be invited. She's sent you the promised flowers, and -hinted--more or less plainly--that she would have been quite willing to -deliver them in person." - -"Why didn't you bring her? Oh, but I'm afraid you've robbed yourself!" - -"Oh, no, we haven't. Mother says, flowers grow with picking." - -"Come on around front," Shirley suggested. "The boys have been putting -the awning up." - -"The boys" were three of Mr. Dayre's fellow artists, who had come up a -day or two before, on a visit to the manor. One of them, at any rate, -deserved Shirley's title. He came forward now. "Looks pretty nice, -doesn't it?" he said, with a wave of the hand towards the red and white -striped awning, placed at the further edge of the lawn. - -Shirley smiled her approval, and introduced him to Pauline, adding that -Miss Shaw was the real founder of their club. - -"It's a might jolly sort of club, too," young Oram said. - -"That is exactly what it has turned out to be," Pauline laughed. "Are -the vases ready, Shirley?" - -Shirley brought the tray of empty flower vases out on the veranda, and -sent Harry Oram for a bucket of fresh water. "Harry is to make the -salad," she explained to Pauline, as he came back. "Before he leaves -the manor he will have developed into a fairly useful member of -society." - -"You've never eaten one of my salads, Miss Shaw," Harry said. "When -you have, you'll think all your previous life an empty dream." - -"It's much more likely her later life will prove a nightmare,--for a -while, at least," Shirley declared. "Still, Paul, Harry does make them -rather well. Betsy Todd, I am sorry to say, doesn't approve of him. -But there are so many persons and things she doesn't approve of; -lawn-parties among the latter." - -Pauline nodded sympathetically; she knew Betsy Todd of old. Her wonder -was, that the Dayres had been able to put up with her so long, and she -said so. - -"'Hobson's choice,'" Shirley answered, with a little shrug. "She isn't -much like our old Therese at home, is she, Harry? But nothing would -tempt Therese away from her beloved New York. 'Vairmon! Nevaire have -I heard of zat place!' she told Harry, when he interviewed her for us. -Senior's gone to Vergennes--on business thoughts intent, or I hope they -are. He's under strict orders not to 'discover a single bit' along the -way, and to get back as quickly as possible." - -"You see how beautifully she has us all in training?" Harry said to -Pauline. - -Pauline laughed. Suddenly she looked up from her flowers with sobered -face. "I wonder," she said slowly, "if you know what it's meant to -us--you're being here this summer, Shirley? Sometimes things do fit in -just right after all. It's helped out wonderfully this summer, having -you here and the manor open." - -"Pauline has a fairy-story uncle down in New York," Shirley turned to -Harry. "You've heard of him--Mr. Paul Shaw." - -"Well,--rather! I've met him, once or twice--he didn't strike me as -much of a believer in fairy tales." - -"He's made us believe in them," Pauline answered. - -"I think Senior might have provided me with such a delightful sort of -uncle," Shirley observed. "I told him so, but he says, while he's -awfully sorry I didn't mention it before, he's afraid it's too late -now." - -"Uncle Paul sent us Bedelia," Pauline told the rather perplexed-looking -Harry, "and the row-boat and the camera and--oh, other things." - -"Because he wanted them to have a nice, jolly summer," Shirley -explained. "Pauline's sister had been sick and needed brightening up." - -"You don't think he's looking around for a nephew to adopt, do you?" -Harry inquired. "A well-intentioned, intelligent young man--with no -end of talent." - -"For making salads," Shirley added with a sly smile. - -"Oh, well, you know," Harry remarked casually, "these are what Senior -calls my 'salad days.'" - -Whereupon Shirley rose without a word, carrying off her vases of -flowers. - - -The party at the manor was, like all the club affairs, a decided -success. Never had the old place looked so gay and animated, since -those far-off days of its early glory. - -The young people coming and going--the girls in their light dresses and -bright ribbons made a pleasant place of the lawn, with its background -of shining water. The tennis court, at one side of the house, was one -of the favorite gathering spots; there were one or two boats out on the -lake. The pleasant informality of the whole affair proved its greatest -charm. - -Mr. Allen was there, pointing out to his host the supposed end of the -subterranean passage said to connect the point on which the manor stood -with the old ruined French fort over on the New York side. The -minister was having a quiet chat with the doctor, who had made a -special point of being there. Mothers of club members were exchanging -notes and congratulating each other on the good comradeship and general -air of contentment among the young people. Sextoness Jane was there, -in all the glory of her best dress--one of Mrs. Shaw's handed-down -summer ones--and with any amount of items picked up to carry home to -Tobias, who was certain to expect a full account of this most unusual -dissipation on his mistress's part. Even Betsy Todd condescended to -put on her black woolen--usually reserved for church and funerals--and -walk about among the other guests; but always, with an air that told -plainly how little she approved of such goings on. The Boyds were -there, their badges in full evidence. And last, though far from least, -in her own estimation, Patience was there, very crisp and white and on -her best behavior,--for, setting aside those conditions mother had seen -fit to burden her with, was the delightful fact that Shirley had asked -her to help serve tea. - -The principal tea-table was in the studio, though there was a second -one, presided over by Pauline and Bell, out under the awning at the -edge of the lawn. - -Patience thought the studio the very nicest room she had ever been in. -It was long and low--in reality, the old dancing-hall, for the manor -had been built after the pattern of its first owner's English home; and -in the deep, recessed windows, facing the lake, many a bepatched and -powdered little belle of Colonial days had coquetted across her fan -with her bravely-clad partner. - -Mr. Dayre had thrown out an extra window at one end, at right angles to -the great stone fireplace, banked to-day with golden rod, thereby -securing the desired north light. - -On the easel, stood a nearly finished painting,--a sunny corner of the -old manor kitchen, with Betsy Todd in lilac print gown, peeling apples -by the open window, through which one caught a glimpse of the tall -hollyhocks in the garden beyond. - -Before this portrait, Patience found Sextoness Jane standing in mute -astonishment. - -"Betsy looks like she was just going to say--'take your hands out of -the dish!' doesn't she?" Patience commented. Betsy had once helped out -at the parsonage, during a brief illness of Miranda's, and the young -lady knew whereof she spoke. - -"I'd never've thought," Jane said slowly, "that anyone'd get that fond -of Sister Todd--as to want a picture of her!" - -"Oh, it's because she's such a character, you know," Patience explained -serenely. Jane was so good about letting one explain things. "'A -perfect character,' I heard one of those artist men say so." - -Jane shook her head dubiously. "Not what I'd call a 'perfect' -character--not that I've got anything against Sister Todd; but she's -too fond of finding out a body's faults." - -Patience went off then in search of empty tea-cups. She was having a -beautiful time; at present only one cloud overshadowed her horizon. -Already some tiresome folks were beginning to think about going. There -was the talk of chores to be done, suppers to get, and with the -breaking up, must come an end to her share in the party. For mother, -though approached in the most delicate fashion, had proved obdurate -regarding the further festivity to follow. Had mother been willing to -consider the matter, Patience would have cheerfully undertaken to -procure the necessary invitation. Shirley was a very obliging girl. - -"And really, my dears," she said, addressing the three P's -collectively, "it does seem a pity to have to go home before the fun's -all over. And I could manage it--Bob would take me out rowing--if I -coaxed--he rows very slowly. I don't suppose, for one moment, that we -would get back in time. I believe--" For fully three minutes, -Patience sat quite still in one of the studio window seats, oblivious -of the chatter going on all about her; then into her blue eyes came a -look not seen there very often--"No," she said sternly, shaking her -head at Phil, much to his surprise, for he wasn't doing anything. -"No--it wouldn't be _square_--and there would be the most awful to-do -afterwards." - -When a moment or two later, Mrs. Shaw called to her to come, that -father was waiting, Patience responded with a very good grace. But Mr. -Dayre caught the wistful look in the child's face. "Bless me," he said -heartily. "You're not going to take Patience home with you, Mrs. Shaw? -Let her stay for the tea--the young people won't keep late hours, I -assure you." - -"But I think--" Mrs. Shaw began very soberly. - -"Sometimes, I find it quite as well not to think things over," Mr. -Dayre suggested. "Why, dear me, I'd quite counted on Patience's being -here. You see, I'm not a regular member, either; and I want someone to -keep me in countenance." - -So presently, Hilary felt a hand slipped eagerly into hers. "I'm -staying! I'm staying!" an excited little voice announced. "And oh, I -just love Mr. Dayre!" - -Then Patience went back to her window seat to play the delightful game -of "making believe" she hadn't stayed. She imagined that instead, she -was sitting between father and mother in the gig, bubbling over with -the desire to "hi-yi" at Fanny, picking her slow way along. - -The studio was empty, even the dogs were outside, speeding the parting -guests with more zeal than discretion. But after awhile Harry Oram -strolled in. - -"I'm staying!" Patience announced. She approved of Harry. "You're an -artist, too, aren't you?" she remarked. - -"So kind of you to say so," Harry murmured. "I have heard grave doubts -expressed on the subject by my too impartial friends." - -"I mean to be one when I grow up," Patience told him, "so's I can have -a room like this--with just rugs on the floor; rugs slide so -nicely--and window seats and things all cluttery." - -"May I come and have tea with you? I'd like it awfully." - -"It'll be really tea--not pretend kind," Patience said. "But I'll have -that sort for any children who may come. Hilary takes pictures--she -doesn't make them though. Made pictures are nicer, aren't they?" - -"Some of them." Harry glanced through the open doorway, to where -Hilary sat resting. She was "making" a picture now, he thought to -himself, in her white dress, under the big tree, her pretty hair -forming a frame about her thoughtful face. Taking a portfolio from a -table near by, he went out to where Hilary sat. - -"Your small sister says you take pictures," he said, drawing a chair up -beside hers, "so I thought perhaps you'd let me show you these--they -were taken by a friend of mine." - -"Oh, but mine aren't anything like these! These are beautiful!" -Hilary bent over the photographs he handed her; marveling over their -soft tones. They were mostly bits of landscape, with here and there a -water view and one or two fleecy cloud effects. It hardly seemed as -though they could be really photographs. - -"I've never done anything like these!" she said regretfully. "I wish I -could--there are some beautiful views about here that would make -charming pictures." - -"She didn't in the beginning," Harry said, "She's lame; it was an -accident, but she can never be quite well again, so she took this up, -as an amusement at first, but now it's going to be her profession." - -Hilary bent over the photographs again. "And you really think--anyone -could learn to do it?" - -"No, not anyone; but I don't see why the right sort of person couldn't." - -"I wonder--if I could develop into the right sort." - -"May I come and see what you have done--and talk it over?" Harry asked. -"Since this friend of mine took it up, I'm ever so interested in camera -work." - -"Indeed you may," Hilary answered. She had never thought of her camera -holding such possibilities within it, of its growing into something -better and more satisfying than a mere playmate of the moment. - -"Rested?" Pauline asked, coming up. "Supper's nearly ready." - -"I wasn't very tired. Paul, come and look at these." - -Supper was served on the lawn; the pleasantest, most informal, of -affairs, the presence of the older members of the party serving to turn -the gay give and take of the young folks into deeper and wider -channels, and Shirley's frequent though involuntary--"Do you remember, -Senior?" calling out more than one vivid bit of travel, of description -of places, known to most of them only through books. - -Later, down on the lower end of the lawn, with the moon making a path -of silver along the water, and the soft hush of the summer night over -everything, Shirley brought out her guitar, singing for them strange -folk-songs, picked up in her rambles with her father. Afterwards, the -whole party sang songs that they all knew, ending up at last with the -club song. - -"'It's a habit to be happy,'" the fresh young voices chorused, sending -the tune far out across the lake; and presently, from a boat on its -further side, it was whistled back to them. - -"Who is it, I wonder?" Edna said, - -"Give it up," Tom answered. "Someone who's heard it--there've been -plenty of opportunities for folks to hear it." - -"Well it isn't a bad gospel to scatter broadcast," Bob remarked. - -"And maybe it's someone who doesn't live about here, and he will go -away taking our tune with him, for other people to catch up," Hilary -suggested. - -"But if he only has the tune and not the words," Josie objected, "what -use will that be?" - -"The spirit of the words is in the tune," Pauline said. "No one could -whistle or sing it and stay grumpy." - -"They'd have to 'put the frown away awhile, and try a little sunny -smile,' wouldn't they?" Patience observed. - -Patience had been a model of behavior all the evening. Mother would be -sure to ask if she had been good, when they got home. That was one of -those aggravating questions that only time could relieve her from. No -one ever asked Paul, or Hilary, that--when they'd been anywhere. - -As Mr. Dayre had promised, the party broke up early, going off in the -various rigs they had come in. Tom and Josie went in the trap with the -Shaws. "It's been perfectly lovely--all of it," Josie said, looking -back along the road they were leaving. "Every good time we have seems -the best one yet." - -"You wait 'til my turn comes," Pauline told her. "I've such a scheme -in my head." - -"Am I in it?" Patience begged. She was in front, between Tom, who was -driving, and Hilary, then she leaned forward, they were nearly home, -and the lights of the parsonage showed through the trees. "There's a -light in the parlor--there's company!" - -Pauline looked, too. "And one up in our old room, Hilary. Goodness, -it must be a visiting minister! I didn't know father was expecting -anyone." - -"I bet you!" Patience jumped excitedly up and down. "I just bet it -isn't any visiting minister--but a visiting--uncle! I feel it in my -bones, as Miranda says." - -"Nonsense!" Pauline declared. - -"Maybe it isn't nonsense, Paul!" Hilary said. - -"I feel it in my bones," Patience repeated. "I just _knew_ Uncle Paul -would come up--a story-book uncle would be sure to." - -"Well, here we are," Tom laughed. "You'll know for certain pretty -quick." - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE END OF SUMMER - -It was Uncle Paul, and perhaps no one -was more surprised at his unexpected coming, -than he himself. - -That snap-shot of Hilary's had considerable -to do with it; bringing home to him the -sudden realization of the passing of the years. -For the first time, he had allowed himself to -face the fact that it was some time now since -he had crossed the summit of the hill, and that -under present conditions, his old age promised -to be a lonely, cheerless affair. - -He had never had much to do with young -people; but, all at once, it seemed to him that -it might prove worth his while to cultivate -the closer acquaintance of these nieces of his. -Pauline, in particular, struck him as likely to -improve upon a nearer acquaintance. And -that afternoon, as he rode up Broadway, he -found himself wondering how she would -enjoy the ride; and all the sights and wonders -of the great city. - -Later, over his solitary dinner, he suddenly -decided to run up to Winton the next day. -He would not wire them, he would rather like -to take Phil by surprise. - -So he had arrived at the parsonage, -driving up in Jed's solitary hack, and much plied -with information, general and personal, on the -way, just as the minister and his wife reached -home from the manor. - -"And, oh, my! Doesn't father look -tickled to death!" Patience declared, coming -in to her sisters' room that night, ostensibly -to have an obstinate knot untied, but inwardly -determined to make a third at the usual -bedtime talk for that once, at least. It wasn't -often they all came up together. - -"He looks mighty glad," Pauline said. - -"And isn't it funny, bearing him called -Phil?" Patience curled herself up in the -cozy corner. "I never've thought of father -as Phil." - -Hilary paused in the braiding of her long -hair. "I'm glad we've got to know him--Uncle -Paul, I mean--through his letters, and -all the lovely things he's done for us; else, I -think I'd have been very much afraid of him." - -"So am I," Pauline assented. "I see now -what Mr. Oram meant--he doesn't look as if -he believed much in fairy stories. But I like -his looks--he's so nice and tall and straight." - -"He used to have red hair, before it turned -gray," Hilary said, "so that must be a family -trait; your chin's like his, Paul, too,--so -square and determined." - -"Is mine?" Patience demanded. - -"You cut to bed, youngster," Pauline -commanded. "You're losing all your beauty -sleep; and really, you know--" - -Patience went to stand before the mirror. -"Maybe I ain't--pretty--yet; but I'm going -to be--some day. Mr. Dayre says he likes -red hair, I asked him. He says for me not to -worry; I'll have them all sitting up and taking notice yet." - -At which Pauline bore promptly down -upon her, escorting her in person to the door -of her own room. "And you'd better get to -bed pretty quickly, too, Hilary," she advised, -coming back. "You've had enough excitement for one day." - - -Mr. Paul Shaw stayed a week; it was a -busy week for the parsonage folk and for -some other people besides. Before it was -over, the story-book uncle had come to know -his nieces and Winton fairly thoroughly; -while they, on their side, had grown very well -acquainted with the tall, rather silent man, -who had a fashion of suggesting the most -delightful things to do in the most matter-of-fact manner. - -There were one or two trips decidedly -outside that ten-mile limit, including an all day -sail up the lake, stopping for the night at a -hotel on the New York shore and returning -by the next day's boat. There was a visit to -Vergennes, which took in a round of the shops, -a concert, and another night away from home. - -"Was there ever such a week!" Hilary -sighed blissfully one morning, as she and her -uncle waited on the porch for Bedelia and -the trap. Hilary was to drive him over to -The Maples for dinner. - -"Or such a summer altogether," Pauline -added, from just inside the study window. - -"Then Winton has possibilities?" Mr. Shaw asked. - -"I should think it has; we ought to be -eternally grateful to you for making us find -them out," Pauline declared. - -Mr. Shaw smiled, more as if to himself. "I -daresay they're not all exhausted yet." - -"Perhaps," Hilary said slowly, "some -places are like some people, the longer and -better you know them, the more you keep -finding out in them to like." - -"Father says," Pauline suggested, "that one -finds, as a rule, what one is looking for." - -"Here we are," her uncle exclaimed, as -Patience appeared, driving Bedelia. "Do you -know," he said, as he and Hilary turned out -into the wide village street, "I haven't seen the -schoolhouse yet?" - -"We can go around that way. It isn't -much of a building," Hilary answered. - -"I suppose it serves its purpose." - -"It is said to be a very good school for the -size of the place." Hilary turned Bedelia -up the little by-road, leading to the old -weather-beaten schoolhouse, standing back -from the road in an open space of bare ground. - -"You and Pauline are through here?" her uncle asked. - -"Paul is. I would've been this June, if I -hadn't broken down last winter." - -"You will be able to go on this fall?" - -"Yes, indeed. Dr. Brice said so the other -day. He says, if all his patients got on so -well, by not following his advice, he'd have -to shut up shop, but that, fortunately for -him, they haven't all got a wise uncle down in -New York, to offer counter-advice." - -"Each in his turn," Mr. Shaw remarked, -adding, "and Pauline considers herself through school?" - -"I--I suppose so. I know she would like -to go on--but we've no higher school here and--She -read last winter, quite a little, with -father. Pauline's ever so clever." - -"Supposing you both had an opportunity--for -it must be both, or neither, I judge--and -the powers that be consented--how about -going away to school this winter?" - -Hilary dropped the reins. "Oh!" she -cried, "you mean--" - -"I have a trick of meaning what I say," her -uncle said, smiling at her. - -"I wish I could say--what I want to--and -can't find words for--" Hilary said. - -"We haven't consulted the higher authorities -yet, you know." - -"And--Oh, I don't see how mother could -get on without us, even if--" - -"Mothers have a knack at getting along -without a good many things--when it means -helping their young folks on a bit," -Mr. Shaw remarked. "I'll have a talk with her -and your father to-night." - -That evening, pacing up and down the -front veranda with his brother, Mr. Shaw -said, with his customary abruptness, "You -seem to have fitted in here, Phil,--perhaps, you -were in the right of it, after all. I take it -you haven't had such a hard time, in some ways." - -The minister did not answer immediately. -Looking back nearly twenty years, he told -himself, that he did not regret that early -choice of his. He had fitted into the life here; -he and his people had grown together. It had -not always been smooth sailing and more than -once, especially the past year or so, his -narrow means had pressed him sorely, but on the -whole, he had found his lines cast in a -pleasant place, and was not disposed to rebel -against his heritage. - -"Yes," he said, at last, "I have fitted in; -too easily, perhaps. I never was ambitious, -you know." - -"Except in the accumulating of books," his -brother suggested. - -The minister smiled. "I have not been -able to give unlimited rein even to that mild -ambition. Fortunately, the rarer the -opportunity, the greater the pleasure it brings -with it--and the old books never lose their charm." - -Mr. Paul Shaw flicked the ashes from his -cigar. "And the girls--you expect them to -fit in, too?" - -"It is their home." A note the elder -brother knew of old sounded in the younger -man's voice. - -"Don't mount your high horse just yet, -Phil," he said. "I'm not going to rub you up -the wrong way--at least, I don't mean to; but -you were always an uncommonly hard chap to -handle--in some matters. I grant you, it is -their home and not a had sort of home for a -girl to grow up in." Mr. Shaw stood for a -moment at the head of the steps, looking off -down the peaceful, shadowy street. It had -been a pleasant week; he had enjoyed it -wonderfully. He meant to have many more such. -But to live here always! Already the city -was calling to him; he was homesick for its -rush and bustle, the sense of life and movement. - -"You and I stand as far apart to-day, in -some matters, Phil, as we did twenty--thirty -years ago," he said presently, "and that eldest -daughter of yours--I'm a fair hand at reading -character or I shouldn't be where I am to-day, -if I were not--is more like me than you." - -"So I have come to think--lately." - -"That second girl takes after you; she -would never have written that letter to me -last May." - -"No, Hilary would not have at the time--" - -"Oh, I can guess how you felt about it at -the time. But, look here, Phil, you've got -over that--surely? After all, I like to think -now that Pauline only hurried on the -inevitable." Mr. Paul Shaw laid his hand on the -minister's shoulder. "Nearly twenty years is -a pretty big piece out of a lifetime. I see now -how much I have been losing all these years." - -"It has been a long time, Paul; and, -perhaps, I have been to blame in not trying more -persistently to heal the breach between us. I -assure you that I have regretted it daily." - -"You always did have a lot more pride in -your make-up than a man of your profession -has any right to allow himself, Phil. But if -you like, I'm prepared to point out to you -right now how you can make it up to me. -Here comes Lady Shaw and we won't -waste time getting to business." - -That night, as Pauline and Hilary were in -their own room, busily discussing, for by no -means the first time that day, what Uncle Paul -had said to Hilary that morning, and just -how he had looked, when he said it, and was -it at all possible that father would consent, -and so on, _ad libitum_, their mother tapped at the door. - -Pauline ran to open it. "Good news, or -not?" she demanded. "Yes, or no, Mother Shaw?" - -"That is how you take it," Mrs. Shaw -answered. She was glad, very glad, that this -unforeseen opportunity should be given her -daughters; and yet--it meant the first break -in the home circle, the first leaving home for them. - - -Mr. Paul Shaw left the next morning. -"I'll try and run up for a day or two, before -the girls go to school," he promised his -sister-in-law. "Let me know, as soon as you have -decided _where_ to send them." - -Patience was divided in her opinion, as to -this new plan. It would be lonesome without -Paul and Hilary; but then, for the time -being, she would be, to all intents and purposes, -"Miss Shaw." Also, Bedelia was not going -to boarding-school--on the whole, the -arrangement had its advantages. Of course, -later, she would have her turn at school--Patience -meant to devote a good deal of her -winter's reading to boarding-school stories. - -She told Sextoness Jane so, when that -person appeared, just before supper time. - -Jane looked impressed. "A lot of things -keep happening to you folks right along," she -observed. "Nothing's ever happened to me, -'cept mumps--and things of that sort; you -wouldn't call them interesting. The girls to home?" - -"They're 'round on the porch, looking at -some photos Mr. Oram's brought over; and -he's looking at Hilary's. Hilary's going in -for some other kind of picture taking. I wish -she'd leave her camera home, when she goes to -school. Do you want to speak to them about -anything particular?" - -"I'll wait a bit," Jane sat down on the -garden-bench beside Patience. - -"There, he's gone!" the latter said, as the -front gate clicked a few moments later. "O -Paul!" she called, "You're wanted, Paul!" - -"You and Hilary going to be busy -tonight?" Jane asked, as Pauline came across -the lawn. - -"Not that I know of." - -"I ain't," Patience remarked. - -"Well," Jane said, "it ain't prayer-meeting -night, and it ain't young peoples' night and it -ain't choir practice night, so I thought maybe -you'd like me to take my turn at showing you -something. Not all the club--like's not they -wouldn't care for it, but if you think they -would, why, you can show it to them sometime." - -"Just we three then?" Pauline asked. -"Hilary and I can go." - -"So can I--if you tell mother you want me -to," Patience put in. - -"Is it far?" her sister questioned Jane. - -"A good two miles--we'd best walk--we -can rest after we get there. Maybe, if you -like, you'd better ask Tom and Josie. Your -ma'll be better satisfied if he goes along, I -reckon. I'll come for you at about half-past -seven." - -"All right, thank you ever so much," Pauline -said, and went to tell Hilary, closely -pursued by Patience. However, Mrs. Shaw -vetoed Pauline's proposition that Patience -should make one of the party. - -"Not every time, my dear," she explained. - -Promptly at half-past seven Jane -appeared. "All ready?" she said, as the four -young people came to meet her. "You don't -want to go expecting anything out of the -common. Like's not, you've all seen it a heap -of times, but maybe not to take particular -notice of it." - -She led the way through the garden to the -lane running past her cottage, where Tobias -sat in solitary dignity on the doorstep, down -the lane to where it merged in to what was -nothing more than a field path. - -"Are we going to the lake?" Hilary asked. - -Jane nodded. - -"But not out on the water," Josie said. -"You're taking us too far below the pier for that." - -Jane smiled quietly. "It'll be on the water--what -you're going to see," she was getting -a good deal of pleasure out of her small -mystery, and when they reached the low shore, -fringed with the tall sea-grass, she took her -party a few steps along it to where an old log -lay a little back from the water. "I reckon -we'll have to wait a bit," she said, "but it'll -be 'long directly." - -They sat down in a row, the young people -rather mystified. Apparently the broad -expanse of almost motionless water was quite -deserted. There was a light breeze blowing -and the soft swishing of the tiny waves against -the bank was the only sound to break the -stillness; the sky above the long irregular range -of mountains on the New York side, still wore -its sunset colors, the lake below sending hack -a faint reflection of them. - -But presently these faded until only the -afterglow was left, to merge in turn into the -soft summer twilight, through which the stars -began to glimpse, one by one. - -The little group had been mostly silent, -each busy with his or her thoughts; so far as -the young people were concerned, happy -thoughts enough; for if the closing of each -day brought their summer nearer to its -ending, the fall would bring with it new -experiences, an entering of new scenes. - -"There!" Sextoness Jane broke the silence, -pointing up the lake, to where a tiny point of -red showed like a low-hung star through the -gathering darkness. Moment by moment, -other lights came into view, silently, steadily, -until it seemed like some long, gliding -sea-serpent, creeping down towards them through -the night. - -"A tow!" Josie cried under her breath. - -They had all seen it, times without number, -before. The long line of canal boats being -towed down the lake to the canal below; the -red lanterns at either end of each boat -showing as they came. But to-night, infected -perhaps, by the pride, the evident delight, in -Jane's voice, the old familiar sight held them -with the new interest the past months had -brought to bear upon so many old, familiar things. - -"It is--wonderful," Pauline said at last. -"It might be a scene from--fairyland, almost." - -"Me--I love to see them come stealing long -like that through the dark," Jane said slowly -and a little hesitatingly. It was odd to be -telling confidences to anyone except Tobias. -"I don't know where they come from, nor -where they're a-going to. Many's the night -I walk over here just on the chance of seeing -one. Mostly, this time of year, you're pretty -likely to catch one. When I was younger, I -used to sit and fancy myself going aboard on -one of them and setting off for strange parts. -I wasn't looking to settle down here in Winton -all my days; but I reckon, maybe, it's just's -well--anyhow, when I got the freedom to -travel, I'd got out of the notion of it--and -perhaps, there's no telling, I might have been -terribly disappointed. And there ain't any -hindrance 'gainst my setting off--in my own -mind--every time I sits here and watches a -tow go down the lake. I've seen a heap of -big churches in my travels--it's mostly easier -'magining about them--churches are pretty -much alike I reckon, though I ain't seen many, I'll admit." - -No one answered for a moment, but Jane, -used to Tobias for a listener, did not mind. -Then in the darkness, Hilary laid a hand -softly over the work-worn ones clasped on -Jane's lap. It was hard to imagine Jane -young and full of youthful fancies and -longings; yet years ago there had been a Jane--not -Sextoness Jane then--who had found -Winton dull and dreary and had longed to get -away. But for her, there had been no one to -wave the magic wand, that should transform -the little Vermont village into a place filled -with new and unexplored charms. Never in -all Jane's many summers, had she known one -like this summer of theirs; and for them--the -wonder was by no means over--the years -ahead were bright with untold possibilities. -Hilary sighed for very happiness, wondering -if she were the same girl who had rocked -listlessly in the hammock that June morning, -protesting that she didn't care for "half-way" things. - -"Tired?" Pauline asked. - -"I was thinking," her sister answered. - -"Well, the tow's gone." Jane got up to go. - -"I'm ever so glad we came, thank you so -much, Jane," Pauline said heartily. - -"I wonder what'll have happened by the -time we all see our next tow go down," Josie -said, as they started towards home. - -"We may see a good many more than one -before the general exodus," her brother answered. - -"But we won't have time to come watch for -them. Oh, Paul, just think, only a little -while now--" - -Tom slipped into step with Hilary, a little -behind the others. "I never supposed the old -soul had it in her," he said, glancing to where -Jane trudged heavily on ahead. "Still, I -suppose she was young--once; though I've never -thought of her being so before." - -"Yes," Hilary said. "I wonder,--maybe, -she's been better off, after all, right, here at -home. She wouldn't have got to be -Sextoness Jane anywhere else, probably." - -Tom glanced at her quickly. "Is there a -hidden meaning--subject to be carefully avoided?" - -Hilary laughed. "As you like." - -"So you and Paul are off on your travels, too?" - -"Yes, though I can hardly believe it yet." - -"And just as glad to go as any of us." - -"Oh, but we're coming back--after we've -been taught all manner of necessary things." - -"Edna'll be the only one of you girls left -behind; it's rough on her." - -"It certainly is; we'll all have to write her -heaps of letters." - -"Much time there'll be for letter-writing, -outside of the home ones," Tom said. - -"Speaking of time," Josie turned towards -them, "we're going to be busier than any bee -ever dreamed of being, before or since Dr. Watts." - -They certainly were busy days that -followed. So many of the young folks were -going off that fall that a good many of the -meetings of "The S. W. F. Club" resolved -themselves into sewing-bees, for the girl members only. - -"If we'd known how jolly they were, we'd -have tried them before," Bell declared one -morning, dropping down on the rug Pauline -had spread under the trees at one end of the -parsonage lawn. - -Patience, pulling bastings with a business-like -air, nodded her curly head wisely. "Miranda says, -folks mostly get 'round to enjoying -their blessings 'bout the time they come to lose them." - -"Has the all-important question been -settled yet, Paul?" Edna asked, looking up from -her work. She might not be going away to -school, but even so, that did not debar one -from new fall clothes at home. - -"They're coming to Vergennes with me," -Bell said. "Then we can all come home -together Friday nights." - -"They're coming to Boston with me," Josie -corrected, "then we'll be back together for -Thanksgiving." - -Shirley, meekly taking her first sewing -lessons under Pauline's instructions, and frankly -declaring that she didn't at all like them, -dropped the hem she was turning. "They're -coming to New York with me; and in the -between-times we'll have such fun that they'll -never want to come home." - -Pauline laughed. "It looks as though -Hilary and I would have a busy winter -between you all. It is a comfort to know where -we are going." - -"Remember!" she warned, when later the -party broke up. "Four o'clock Friday afternoon! Sharp!" - -"Are we going out in a blaze of glory?" -Bell questioned. - -"You might tell us where we are going, -now, Paul," Josie urged. - -Pauline shook her head. "You wait until -Friday, like good little girls. Mind, you all -bring wraps; it'll be chilly coming home." - -Pauline's turn was to be the final wind-up -of the club's regular outings. No one outside -the home folks, excepting Tom, had been -taken into her confidence--it had been -necessary to press him into service. And when, on -Friday afternoon, the young people gathered -at the parsonage, all but those named were -still in the dark. - -Besides the regular members, Mrs. Shaw, -Mr. Dayre, Mr. Allen, Harry Oram and Patience -were there; the minister and Dr. Brice -had promised to join the party later if possible. - -As a rule, the club picnics were cooperative -affairs; but to-day the members, by special -request, arrived empty-handed. Mr. Paul -Shaw, learning that Pauline's turn was yet to -come, had insisted on having a share in it. - -"I am greatly interested in this club," he -had explained. "I like results, and I think," -he glanced at Hilary's bright happy face, -"that the 'S. W. F. Club' has achieved at least -one very good result." - -And on the morning before the eventful -Friday, a hamper had arrived from New -York, the watching of the unpacking of which -had again transformed Patience, for the time, -from an interrogation to an exclamation point. - -"It's a beautiful hamper," she explained to -Towser. "It truly is--because father says, -it's the inner, not the outer, self that makes -for real beauty, or ugliness; and it certainly -was the inside of that hamper that counted. -I wish you were going, Towser. See here, -suppose you follow on kind of quietly -to-morrow afternoon--don't show up too soon, and -I guess I can manage it." - -Which piece of advice Towser must have -understood. At any rate, he acted upon it to -the best of his ability, following the party at a -discreet distance through the garden and down -the road towards the lake; and only when the -halt at the pier came, did he venture near, the -most insinuating of dogs. - -And so successfully did Patience manage -it, that when the last boat-load pushed off -from shore, Towser sat erect on the narrow -bow seat, blandly surveying his fellow -voyagers. "He does so love picnics," Patience -explained to Mr. Dayre, "and this is -the last particular one for the season. I kind -of thought he'd go along and I slipped in a -little paper of bones." - -From the boat ahead came the chorus. -"We're out on the wide ocean sailing." - -"Not much!" Bob declared. "I wish we -were--the water's quiet as a mill-pond this afternoon." - -For the great lake, appreciating perhaps -the importance of the occasion, had of its many -moods chosen to wear this afternoon its -sweetest, most beguiling one, and lay, a broad -stretch of sparkling, rippling water, between -its curving shores. - -Beyond, the range of mountains rose dark -and somber against the cloud-flecked sky, -their tops softened by the light haze that told -of coming autumn. - -And presently, from boat to boat, went the -call, "We're going to Port Edward! Why -didn't we guess?" - -"But that's not _in_ Winton," Edna protested. - -"Of it, if not in it," Jack Ward assured them. - -"Do you reckon you can show us anything -new about that old fort, Paul Shaw?" Tracy -demanded. "Why, I could go all over it -blindfolded." - -"Not to show the new--to unfold the old," -Pauline told him. - -"That sounds like a quotation." - -"It is--in substance," Pauline looked across -her shoulder to where Mr. Allen sat, -imparting information to Harry Oram. - -"So that's why you asked the old fellow," -Tracy said. "Was that kind?" - -They were rounding the slender point on -which the tall, white lighthouse stood, and -entering the little cove where visitors to the fort -usually beached their boats. - -A few rods farther inland, rose the tall, -grass-covered, circular embankment, -surrounding the crumbling, gray walls, the outer -shells of the old barracks. - -At the entrance to the enclosure, Tom -suddenly stepped ahead, barring the way. "No -passing within this fort without the -counter-sign," he declared. "Martial law, this afternoon." - -It was Bell who discovered it. "'It's a -habit to be happy,'" she suggested, and Tom -drew back for her to enter. But one by one, -he exacted the password from each. - -Inside, within the shade of those old, gray -walls, a camp-fire had been built and -camp-kettle swung, hammocks had been hung under -the trees and when cushions were scattered -here and there the one-time fort bore anything -but a martial air. - -But something of the spirit of the past must -have been in the air that afternoon, or perhaps, -the spirit of the coming changes; for this -picnic--though by no means lacking in charm--was -not as gay and filled with light-hearted -chaff as usual. There was more talking in -quiet groups, or really serious searching for -some trace of those long-ago days of storm and stress. - -With the coming of evening, the fire was -lighted and the cloth laid within range of its -flickering shadows. The night breeze had -sprung up and from outside the sloping -embankment they caught the sound of the waves -breaking on the beach. True to their -promise, the minister and Dr. Brice appeared at -the time appointed and were eagerly welcomed -by the young people. - -Supper was a long, delightful affair that -night, with much talk of the days when the -fort had been devoted to far other purposes -than the present; and the young people, -listening to the tales Mr. Allen told in his quiet yet -strangely vivid way, seemed to hear the slow -creeping on of the boats outside and to be -listening in the pauses of the wind for the -approach of the enemy. - -"I'll take it back, Paul," Tracy told her, as -they were repacking the baskets. "Even the -old fort has developed new interests." - -"And next summer the 'S. W. F. Club' will -continue its good work," Jack said. - -Going back, Pauline found herself sitting -in the stern of one of the boats, beside her -father. The club members were singing the -club song. But Pauline's thoughts had -suddenly gone back to that wet May afternoon. - -She could see the dreary, rain-swept garden, -hear the beating of the drops on the -window-panes. How long ago and remote it all -seemed; how far from the hopeless discontent, -the vague longings, the real anxiety of that -time, she and Hilary had traveled. She -looked up impulsively. "There's one thing," -she said, "we've had one summer that I shall -always feel would be worth reliving. And -we're going to have more of them." - -"I am glad to hear that," Mr. Shaw said. - -Pauline looked about her--the lanterns at -the ends of the boats threw dancing lights out -across the water, no longer quiet; overhead, -the sky was bright with stars. "Everything -is so beautiful," the girl said slowly. "One -seems to feel it more--every day." - -"'The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the -Lord hath made even both of them,'" her -father quoted gravely. - -Pauline drew a quick breath. "The -hearing ear and the seeing eye"--it was a good -thought to take with them--out into the new -life, among the new scenes. One would need -them everywhere--out in the world, as well as -in Winton. And then, from the boat just -ahead, sounded Patience's clear -treble,--"'There's a Good Time Coming.'" - - - + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +THE S. W. F. CLUB + +by + +CAROLINE E. JACOBS + +Author of _Joan of Jupiter Inn_, _Joan's Jolly Vacation_, +_Patricia_, etc. + +The Goldsmith Publishing Co. +Cleveland, Ohio +George W. Jacobs & Company + +1912 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I PAULINE'S FLAG + II THE MAPLES + III UNCLE PAUL'S ANSWER + IV BEGINNINGS + V BEDELIA + VI PERSONALLY CONDUCTED + VII HILARY'S TURN + VIII SNAP-SHOTS + IX AT THE MANOR + X THE END OF SUMMER + + + + +CHAPTER I + +PAULINE'S FLAG + +Pauline dropped the napkin she was hemming and, leaning back in her +chair, stared soberly down into the rain-swept garden. + +Overhead, Patience was having a "clarin' up scrape" in her particular +corner of the big garret, to the tune of "There's a Good Time Coming." + +Pauline drew a quick breath; probably, there was a good time +coming--any number of them--only they were not coming her way; they +would go right by on the main road, they always did. + +"'There's a good time coming,'" Patience insisted shrilly, "'Help it +on! Help it on!'" + +Pauline drew another quick breath. She would help them on! If they +would none of them stop on their own account, they must be flagged. +And--yes, she would do it--right now. + +Getting up, she brought her writing-portfolio from the closet, clearing +a place for it on the little table before the window. Then her eyes +went back to the dreary, rain-soaked garden. How did one begin a +letter to an uncle one had never seen; and of whom one meant to ask a +great favor? + +But at last, after more than one false start, the letter got itself +written, after a fashion. + +Pauline read it over to herself, a little dissatisfied pucker between +her brows:-- + + +_Mr. Paul Almy Shaw, + New York City, New York_. + +MY DEAR UNCLE PAUL: First, I should like you to understand that +neither father nor mother know that I am writing this letter to you; +and that if they did, I think they would forbid it; and I should like +you to believe, too, that if it were not for Hilary I should not dream +of writing it. You know so little about us, that perhaps you do not +remember which of us Hilary is. She comes next to me, and is just +thirteen. She hasn't been well for a long time, not since she had to +leave school last winter, and the doctor says that what she needs is a +thorough change. Mother and I have talked it over and over, but we +simply can't manage it. I would try to earn some money, but I haven't +a single accomplishment; besides I don't see how I could leave home, +and anyway it would take so long, and Hilary needs a change now. And +so I am writing to ask you to please help us out a little. I do hope +you won't be angry at my asking; and I hope very, very much, that you +will answer favorably. + + I remain, + Very respectfully, + PAULINE ALMY SHAW. +WINTON, VT., May Sixteenth. + + +Pauline laughed rather nervously as she slipped her letter into an +envelope and addressed it. It wasn't a very big flag, but perhaps it +would serve her purpose. + +Tucking the letter into her blouse, Pauline ran down-stairs to the +sitting-room, where her mother and Hilary were. "I'm going down to the +post-office, mother," she said; "any errands?" + +"My dear, in this rain?" + +"There won't be any mail for us, Paul," Hilary said, glancing +listlessly up from the book she was trying to read; "you'll only get +all wet and uncomfortable for nothing." + +Pauline's gray eyes were dancing; "No," she agreed, "I don't suppose +there will be any mail for us--to-day; but I want a walk. It won't +hurt me, mother. I love to be out in the rain." + +And all the way down the slippery village street the girl's eyes +continued to dance with excitement. It was so much to have actually +started her ball rolling; and, at the moment, it seemed that Uncle Paul +must send it bounding back in the promptest and most delightful of +letters. He had never married, and somewhere down at the bottom of his +apparently crusty, old heart he must have kept a soft spot for the +children of his only brother. + +Thus Pauline's imagination ran on, until near the post-office she met +her father. The whole family had just finished a tour of the West in +Mr. Paul Shaw's private car--of course, he must have a private car, +wasn't he a big railroad man?--and Pauline had come back to Winton long +enough to gather up her skirts a little more firmly when she saw Mr. +Shaw struggling up the hill against the wind. + +"Pauline!" he stopped, straightening his tall, scholarly figure. "What +brought you out in such a storm?" + +With a sudden feeling of uneasiness, Pauline wondered what he would say +if she were to explain exactly what it was that had brought her out. +With an impulse towards at least a half-confession, she said hurriedly, +"I wanted to post a letter I'd just written; I'll be home almost as +soon as you are, father." + +Then she ran on down the street. All at once she felt her courage +weakening; unless she got her letter posted immediately she felt she +should end by tearing it up. + +When it had slipped from her sight through the narrow slit labeled +"LETTERS," she stood a moment, almost wishing it were possible to get +it back again. + +She went home rather slowly. Should she confess at once, or wait until +Uncle Paul's answer came? It should be here inside of a week, surely; +and if it were favorable--and, oh, it must be favorable--would not that +in itself seem to justify her in what she had done? + +On the front piazza, Patience was waiting for her, a look of mischief +in her blue eyes. Patience was ten, a red-haired, freckled slip of a +girl. She danced about Pauline now. "Why didn't you tell me you were +going out so I could've gone, too? And what have you been up to, Paul +Shaw? Something! You needn't tell me you haven't." + +"I'm not going to tell you anything," Pauline answered, going on into +the house. The study door was half open, and when she had taken off +her things, Pauline stood a moment a little uncertainly outside it. +Then suddenly, much to her small sister's disgust, she went in, closing +the door behind her. + +Mr. Shaw was leaning back in his big chair at one corner of the +fireplace. "Well," he asked, looking up, "did you get your letter in +in time, my dear?" + +"Oh, it wasn't the time." Pauline sat down on a low bench at the other +end of the fireplace. "It was that I wanted to feel that it was really +mailed. Did you ever feel that way about a letter, father? And as if, +if you didn't hurry and get it in--you wouldn't--mail it?" + +Something in her tone made her father glance at her more closely; it +was very like the tone in which Patience was apt to make her rather +numerous confessions. Then it occurred to him, that, whether by +accident or design, she was sitting on the very stool on which Patience +usually placed herself at such times, and which had gained thereby the +name of "the stool of penitence." + +"Yes," he answered, "I have written such letters once or twice in my +life." + +Pauline stooped to straighten out the hearth rug. "Father," she said +abruptly; "I have been writing to Uncle Paul." She drew a sharp breath +of relief. + +"You have been writing to your Uncle Paul! About what, Pauline?" + +And Pauline told him. When she had finished, Mr. Shaw sat for some +moments without speaking, his eyes on the fire. + +"It didn't seem very--wrong, at the time," Pauline ventured. "I had to +do something for Hilary." + +"Why did you not consult your mother, or myself, before taking such a +step, Pauline?" + +"I was afraid--if I did--that you would--forbid it; and I was so +anxious to do something. It's nearly a month now since Dr. Brice said +Hilary must have a change. We used to have such good times +together--Hilary and I--but we never have fun anymore--she doesn't care +about anything; and to-day it seemed as if I couldn't bear it any +longer, so I wrote. I--I am sorry, if you're displeased with me, +father, and yet, if Uncle Paul writes back favorably, I'm afraid I +can't help being glad I wrote." + +Mr. Shaw rose, lighting the low reading-lamp, standing on the study +table. "You are frank enough after the event, at least, Pauline. To +be equally so, I am displeased; displeased and exceedingly annoyed. +However, we will let the matter rest where it is until you have heard +from your uncle, I should advise your saying nothing to your sisters +until his reply comes. I am afraid you will find it disappointing." + +Pauline flushed. "I never intended telling Hilary anything about it +unless I had good news for her; as for Patience--" + +Out in the hall again, with the study door closed behind her, Pauline +stood a moment choking back a sudden lump in her throat. Would Uncle +Paul treat her letter as a mere piece of school-girl impertinence, as +father seemed to? + +From the sitting-room came an impatient summons. "Paul, will you never +come!" + +"What is it, Hilary?" Pauline asked, coming to sit at one end of the +old sofa. + +"That's what I want to know," Hilary answered from the other end. +"Impatience says you've been writing all sorts of mysterious letters +this afternoon, and that you came home just now looking like---" + +"Well, like what?" + +"Like you'd been up to something--and weren't quite sure how the +grown-ups were going to take it," Patience explained from the rug +before the fire. + +"How do you know I have been writing--anything?" Pauline asked. + +"There, you see!" Patience turned to Hilary, "she doesn't deny it!" + +"I'm not taking the trouble to deny or confirm little girl nonsense," +Pauline declared. "But what makes you think I've been writing letters?" + +"Oh, 'by the pricking of my thumbs'!" Patience rolled over, and +resting her sharp little chin in her hands, stared up at her sisters +from under her mop of short red curls. "Pen! Ink! Paper! And such a +lot of torn-up scraps! It's really very simple!" + +But Pauline was on her way to the dining-room. "Terribly convincing, +isn't it?" Her tone should have squelched Patience, but it didn't. + +"You can't fool me!" that young person retorted. "I know you've been +up to something! And I'm pretty sure father doesn't approve, from the +way you waited out there in the hall just now." + +Pauline did not answer; she was busy laying the cloth for supper. +"Anything up, Paul?" Hilary urged, following her sister out to the +dining-room. + +"The barometer--a very little; I shouldn't wonder if we had a clear day +to-morrow." + +"You are as provoking as Impatience! But I needn't have asked; nothing +worth while ever does happen to us." + +"You know perfectly well, Pauline Almy Shaw!" Patience proclaimed, +from the curtained archway between the rooms. "You know perfectly +well, that the ev'dence against you is most in-crim-i-na-ting!" +Patience delighted in big words. + +"Hilary," Pauline broke in, "I forgot to tell you, I met Mrs. Dane this +morning; she wants us to get up a social--'If the young ladies at the +parsonage will,' and so forth." + +"I hate socials! Besides, there aren't any 'young ladies' at the +parsonage; or, at any rate, only one. I shan't have to be a young lady +for two years yet." + +"Most in-crim-i-na-ting!" Patience repeated insistently; "you wrote." + +Pauline turned abruptly and going into the pantry began taking down the +cups and saucers for the table. As soon as Hilary had gone back to the +sitting-room, she called softly, "Patty, O Patty!" + +Patience grinned wickedly; she was seldom called Patty, least of all by +Pauline. "Well?" she answered. + +"Come here--please," and when Patience was safely inside the pantry, +Pauline shut the door gently--"Now see here, Impatience--" + +"That isn't what you called me just now!" + +"Patty then--Listen, suppose--suppose I have been--trying to do +something to--to help Hilary to get well; can't you see that I wouldn't +want her to know, until I was sure, really sure, it was going to come +to something?" + +Patience gave a little jump of excitement. "How jolly! But who have +you been writing to--about it, Paul!" + +"I haven't said that--" + +"See here, Paul, I'll play fair, if you do; but if you go trying to act +any 'grown-up sister' business I'll--" + +And Pauline capitulated. "I can't tell you about it yet, Patty; father +said not to. I want you to promise not to ask questions, or say +anything about it, before Hilary. We don't want her to get all worked +up, thinking something nice is going to happen, and then maybe have her +disappointed." + +"Will it be nice--very nice?" + +"I hope so." + +"And will I be in it?" + +"I don't know. I don't know what it'll be, or when it'll be." + +"Oh, dear! I wish you did. I can't think who it is you wrote to, +Paul. And why didn't father like your doing it?" + +"I haven't said that he--" + +"Paul, you're very tiresome. Didn't he know you were going to do it?" + +Pauline gathered up her cups and saucers without answering. + +"Then he didn't," Patience observed. "Does mother know about it?" + +"I mean to tell her as soon as I get a good chance," Pauline said +impatiently, going back to the dining-room. + +When she returned a few moments later, she found Patience still in the +pantry, sitting thoughtfully on the old, blue sugar bucket. "I know," +Patience announced triumphantly. "You've been writing to Uncle Paul!" + +Pauline gasped and fled to the kitchen; there were times when flight +was the better part of discretion, in dealing with the youngest member +of the Shaw family. + +On the whole, Patience behaved very well that evening, only, on going +to bid her father good-night, did she ask anxiously, how long it took +to send a letter to New York and get an answer. + +"That depends considerably upon the promptness with which the party +written to answers the letter," Mr. Shaw told her. + +"A week?" Patience questioned. + +"Probably--if not longer." + +Patience sighed. + +"Have _you_ been writing a letter to someone in New York?" her father +asked. + +"No, indeed," the child said gravely, "but," she looked up, answering +his glance. "Paul didn't tell me, father; I--guessed. Uncle Paul does +live in New York, doesn't he?" + +"Yes," Mr. Shaw answered, almost sharply. "Now run to bed, my dear." + +But when the stairs were reached. Patience most certainly did not run. +"I think people are very queer," she said to herself, "they seem to +think _ten_ years isn't a bit more grown-up than six or seven." + +"Mummy," she asked, when later her mother came to take away her light, +"father and Uncle Paul are brethren, aren't they?" + +"My dear! What put that into your head?" + +"Aren't they?" + +"Certainly, dear." + +"Then why don't they 'dwell together in unity'?" + +"Patience!" Mrs. Shaw stared down at the sharp inquisitive little face. + +"Why don't they?" Patience persisted. If persistency be a virtue, +Patience was to be highly commended. + +"My dear, who has said that they do not?" + +Patience shrugged; as if things had always to be said. "But, mummy--" + +"Go to sleep now, dear." Mrs. Shaw bent to kiss her good-night. + +"All the same," Patience confided to the darkness, "I know they don't." +She gave a little shiver of delight--something very mysterious was +afoot evidently. + +Out on the landing, Mrs. Shaw found Pauline waiting for her. "Come +into your room, mother, please, I've started up the fire; I want to +tell you something." + +"I thought as much," her mother answered. She sat down in the big +armchair and Pauline drew up before the fire. "I've been expecting it +all the evening." + +Pauline dropped down on the floor, her head against her mother's knee. +"This family is dreadfully keen-sighted. Mother dear, please don't be +angry--" and Pauline made confession. + +When she had finished, Mrs. Shaw sat for some moments, as her husband +had done, her eyes on the fire. "You told him that we could not manage +it, Pauline?" she said at last. "My dear, how could you!" + +"But, mother dear, I was--desperate; something has to be done +for--Hilary, and I had to do it!" + +"Do you suppose your father and I do not realize that quite as well as +you do, Pauline?" + +"You and I have talked it over and over, and father never +says--anything." + +"Not to you, perhaps; but he is giving the matter very careful +consideration, and later he hopes--" + +"Mother dear, that is so indefinite!" Pauline broke in. "And I can't +see--Father is Uncle Paul's only brother! If I were rich, and Hilary +were not and needed things, I would want her to let me know." + +"It is possible, that under certain conditions, Hilary would not wish +you to know." Mrs. Shaw hesitated, then she said slowly, "You know, +Pauline, that your uncle is much older than your father; so much older, +that he seemed to stand--when your father was a boy--more in the light +of a father to him, than an older brother. He was much opposed to your +father's going into the ministry, he wanted him to go into business +with him. He is a strong-willed man, and does not easily relinquish +any plan of his own making. It went hard with him, when your father +refused to yield; later, when your father received the call to this +parish, your uncle quite as strongly opposed his accepting it--burying +himself alive in a little out-of-the-way hole, he called it. It came +to the point, finally, on your uncle's insisting on his making it a +choice between himself and Winton. He refused to ever come near the +place and the two or three letters your father wrote at first remained +unanswered. The breach between them has been one of the hardest trials +your father has had to bear." + +"Oh," Pauline cried miserably, "what a horrid interfering thing father +must think me! Rushing in where I had no right to! I wish I'd +known--I just thought--you see, father speaks of Uncle Paul now and +then--that maybe they'd only--grown apart--and that if Uncle Paul knew! +But perhaps my letter will get lost. It would serve me right; and yet, +if it does, I'm afraid I can't help feeling somewhat disappointed--on +Hilary's account." + +Her mother smiled. "We can only wait and see. I would rather you said +nothing of what I have been telling you to either Hilary or Patience, +Pauline." + +"I won't, Mother Shaw. It seems I have a lot of secrets from Hilary. +And I won't write any more such letters without consulting you or +father, you can depend on that." + +Mr. Paul Shaw's answer did not come within the allotted week. It was +the longest week Pauline had ever known; and when the second went by +and still no word from her uncle, the waiting and uncertainty became +very hard to bear, all the harder, that her usual confidant, Hilary, +must not be allowed to suspect anything. + +The weather had turned suddenly warm, and Hilary's listlessness had +increased proportionately, which probably accounted for the dying out +of what little interest she had felt at first in Patience's "mysterious +letter." + +Patience, herself, was doing her best to play fair; fortunately, she +was in school the greater part of the day, else the strain upon her +powers of self-control might have proved too heavy. + +"Mother," Pauline said one evening, lingering in her mother's room, +after Hilary had gone to bed, "I don't believe Uncle Paul means +answering at all. I wish I'd never asked him to do anything." + +"So do I, Pauline. Still it is rather early yet for you to give up +hope. It's hard waiting, I know, dear, but that is something we all +have to learn to do, sooner or later." + +"I don't think 'no news is good news,'" Pauline said; then she +brightened. "Oh, Mother Shaw! Suppose the letter is on the way now, +and that Hilary is to have a sea voyage! You'd have to go, too." + +"Pauline, Pauline, not so fast! Listen, dear, we might send Hilary out +to The Maples for a week or two. Mrs. Boyd would be delighted to have +her; and it wouldn't be too far away, in case we should be getting her +ready for that--sea voyage." + +"I don't believe she'd care to go; it's quieter than here at home." + +"But it would be a change. I believe I'll suggest it to her in the +morning." + +But when Mrs. Shaw did suggest it the next morning, Hilary was quite of +Pauline's opinion. "I shouldn't like it a bit, mother! It would be +worse than home--duller, I mean; and Mrs. Boyd would fuss over me so," +she said impatiently. + +"You used to like going there, Hilary." + +"Mother, you can't want me to go." + +"I think it might do you good, Hilary. I should like you to try it." + +"Please, mother, I don't see the use of bothering with little half-way +things." + +"I do, Hilary, when they are the only ones within reach." + +The girl moved restlessly, settling her hammock cushions; then she lay +looking out over the sunny garden with discontented eyes. + +It was a large old-fashioned garden, separated on the further side by a +low hedge from the old ivy-covered church. On the back steps of the +church, Sextoness Jane was shaking out her duster. She was old and +gray and insignificant looking; her duties as sexton, in which she had +succeeded her father, were her great delight. The will with which she +sang and worked now seemed to have in it something of reproach for the +girl stretched out idly in the hammock. Nothing more than half-way +things, and not too many of those, had ever come Sextoness Jane's way. +Yet she was singing now over her work. + +Hilary moved impatiently, turning her back on the garden and the bent +old figure moving about in the church beyond; but, somehow, she +couldn't turn her back on what that bent old figure had suddenly come +to stand for. + +Fifteen minutes later, she sat up, pushing herself slowly back and +forth. "I wish Jane had chosen any other morning to clean the church +in, Mother Shaw!" she protested with spirit. + +Her mother looked up from her mending. "Why, dear? It is her regular +day." + +"Couldn't she do it, I wonder, on an irregular day! Anyhow, if she +had, I shouldn't have to go to The Maples this afternoon. Must I take +a trunk, mother?" + +"Hilary! But what has Jane to do with your going?" + +"Pretty nearly everything, I reckon. Must I, mother?" + +"No, indeed, dear; and you are not to go at all, unless you can do it +willingly." + +"Oh, I'm fairly resigned; don't press me too hard, Mother Shaw. I +think I'll go tell Paul now." + +"Well," Pauline said, "I'm glad you've decided to go, Hilary. I--that +is, maybe it won't be for very long." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE MAPLES + +That afternoon Pauline drove Hilary out to the big, busy, pleasant +farm, called The Maples. + +As they jogged slowly down the one principal street of the sleepy, old +town, Pauline tried to imagine that presently they would turn off down +the by-road, leading to the station. Through the still air came the +sound of the afternoon train, panting and puffing to be off with as +much importance as the big train, which later, it would connect with +down at the junction. + +"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you thinking about?" + +Pauline slapped the reins lightly across old Fanny's plump sides. "Oh, +different things--traveling for one." Suppose Uncle Paul's letter +should come in this afternoon's mail! That she would find it waiting +for her when she got home! + +"So was I," Hilary said. "I was wishing that you and I were going off +on that train, Paul." + +"Where to?" Paul asked. After all, it couldn't do any harm--Hilary +would think it one of their "pretend" talks, and it would he nice to +have some definite basis to build on later. + +"Anywhere," Hilary answered. "I would like to go to the seashore +somewhere; but most anywhere, where there were people and interesting +things to do and see, would do." + +"Yes," Pauline agreed. + +"There's Josie," Hilary said, and her sister drew rein, as a girl came +to the edge of the walk to speak to them. + +"Going away?" she asked, catching sight of the valise. + +"Only out to the Boyds'," Pauline told her, "to leave Hilary." + +Josie shifted the strap of school-books under her arm impatiently. +"'Only!'" she repeated. "Well, I just wish I was going, too; it's a +deal pleasanter out there, than in a stuffy school room these days." + +"It's stupid--and you both know it," Hilary protested. She glanced +enviously at Josie's strap of hooks. "And when school closes, you'll +be through for good, Josie Brice. We shan't finish together, after +all, now." + +"Oh, I'm not through yet," Josie assured her. "Father'll be going out +past The Maples Saturday morning, I'll get him to take me along." + +Hilary brightened. "Don't forget," she urged, and as she and Pauline +drove on, she added, "I suppose I can stick it out for a week." + +"Well, I should think as much. _Will_ you go on, Fanny!" Pauline +slapped the dignified, complacent Fanny with rather more severity than +before. "She's one great mass of laziness," she declared. "Father's +spoiled her a great deal more than he ever has any of us." + +It was a three-mile drive from the village to The Maples, through +pleasant winding roads, hardly deserving of a more important title than +lane. Now and then, from the top of a low hill, they caught a glimpse +of the great lake beyond, shining in the afternoon sunlight, a little +ruffled by the light breeze sweeping down to it from the mountains +bordering it on the further side. + +Hilary leaned back in the wide shaded gig; she looked tired, and yet +the new touch of color in her cheeks was not altogether due to +weariness. "The ride's done you good," Pauline said. + +"I wonder what there'll be for supper," Hilary remarked. "You'll stay, +Paul?" + +"If you promise to eat a good one." It was comforting to have Hilary +actually wondering what they would have. + +They had reached the broad avenue of maples leading from the road up to +the house. It was a long, low, weather-stained house, breathing an +unmistakable air of generous and warm-hearted hospitality. Pauline +never came to it, without a sense of pity for the kindly elderly +couple, who were so fond of young folks, and who had none of their own. + +Mrs. Boyd had seen them coming, and she came out to meet them, as they +turned into the dooryard. And an old dog, sunning himself on the +doorstep, rose with a slow wag of welcome. + +"Mother's sent you something she was sure you would like to have," +Pauline said. "Please, will you take in a visitor for a few days?" she +added, laying a hand on Hilary's. + +"You've brought Hilary out to stop?" Mrs. Boyd cried delightedly. "Now +I call that mighty good of your mother. You come right 'long in, both +of you: you're sure you can't stop, too, Pauline?" + +"Only to supper, thank you." + +Mrs. Boyd had the big valise out from under the seat by now. "Come +right 'long in," she repeated. "You're tired, aren't you, Hilary? But +a good night's rest'll set you up wonderful. Take her into the spare +room, Pauline. Dear me, I must have felt you was coming, seeing that I +aired it out beautiful only this morning. I'll go call Mr. Boyd to +take Fanny to the barn." + +"Isn't she the dearest thing!" Pauline declared, as she and Hilary went +indoors. + +The spare room was back of the parlor, a large comfortable room, with +broad windows facing south and west, and a small vine-covered porch all +its own on the south side of the room. + +Pauline pulled forward a great chintz-cushioned rocker, putting her +sister into it, and opened the porch door. Beyond lay a wide, sloping +meadow and beyond the meadow, the lake sparkled and rippled in the +sunshine. + +"If you're not contented here, Hilary Shaw!" Pauline said, standing in +the low doorway. "Suppose you pretend you've never been here before! +I reckon you'd travel a long ways to find a nicer place to stay in." + +"I shouldn't doubt it if you were going to stay with me, Paul; I know +I'm going to be homesick." + +Pauline stretched out a hand to Captain, the old dog, who had come +around to pay his compliments. Captain liked visitors--when he was +convinced that they really were visitors, not peddlers, nor agents, +quite as well as his master and mistress did. "You'd be homesick +enough, if you really were off on your travels--you'd better get used +to it. Hadn't she, Captain?" Pauline went to unpack the valise, +opening the drawers of the old-fashioned mahogany bureau with a little +breath of pleasure. "Lavender! Hilary." + +Hilary smiled, catching some of her sister's enthusiasm. She leaned +back among her cushions, her eyes on the stretch of shining water at +the far end of the pasture. "I wish you were going to be here, Paul, +so that we could go rowing. I wonder if I'll ever feel as if I could +row again, myself." + +"Of course you will, and a great deal sooner than you think." Pauline +hung Hilary's dressing-gown across the foot of the high double bed. +"Now I think you're all settled, ma'am, and I hope to your +satisfaction. Isn't it a veritable 'chamber of peace,' Hilary?" + +Through the open door and windows came the distant tinkle of a cow +bell, and other farm sounds. There came, too, the scent of the early +May pinks growing in the borders of Mrs. Boyd's old-fashioned flower +beds. Already the peace and quiet of the house, the homely comfort, +had done Hilary good; the thought of the long simple days to come, were +not so depressing as they had seemed when thought of that morning. + +"Bless me, I'd forgotten, but I've a bit of news for you," Mrs. Boyd +said, coming in, a moment or so later; "the manor's taken for the +summer." + +"Really?" Pauline cried, "why it's been empty for ever and ever so +long." + +The manor was an old rambling stone house, standing a little back from +a bit of sandy beach, that jutted out into the lake about a mile from +The Maples. It was a pleasant place, with a tiny grove of its own, and +good-sized garden, which, year after year, in spite of neglect, was +bright with old-fashioned hardy annuals planted long ago, when the +manor had been something more than an old neglected house, at the mercy +of a chance tenant. + +"Just a father and daughter. They've got old Betsy Todd to look after +them," Mrs. Boyd went on. "The girl's about your age, Hilary. You +wasn't looking to find company of that sort so near, was you?" + +Hilary looked interested. "No," she answered. "But, after all, the +manor's a mile away." + +"Oh, she's back and forth every day--for milk, or one thing or another; +she's terribly interested in the farm; father's taken a great notion to +her. She'll be over after supper, you'll see; and then I'll make you +acquainted with her." + +"Are they city people?" Pauline asked. + +"From New York!" Mrs. Boyd told her proudly. From her air one would +have supposed she had planned the whole affair expressly for Hilary's +benefit. "Their name's Dayre." + +"What is the girl's first name?" Pauline questioned. + +"Shirley; it's a queer name for a girl, to my thinking." + +"Is she pretty?" Pauline went on. + +"Not according to my notions; father says she is. She's thin and dark, +and I never did see such a mane of hair--and it ain't always too tidy, +neither--but she has got nice eyes and a nice friendly way of talking. +Looks to me, like she hasn't been brought up by a woman." + +"She sounds--interesting," Pauline said, and when Mrs. Boyd had left +them, to make a few changes in her supper arrangements, Pauline turned +eagerly to Hilary. "You're in luck, Hilary Shaw! The newest kind of +new people; even if it isn't a new place!" + +"How do you know they'll, or rather, she'll, want to know me?" Hilary +asked, with one of those sudden changes of mood an invalid often shows, +"or I her? We haven't seen her yet. Paul, do you suppose Mrs. Boyd +would mind letting me have supper in here?" + +"Oh, Hilary, she's laid the table in the living-room! I heard her +doing it. She'd be ever so disappointed." + +"Well," Hilary said, "come on then." + +Out in the living-room, they found Mr. Boyd waiting for them, and so +heartily glad to see them, that Hilary's momentary impatience vanished. +To Pauline's delight, she really brought quite an appetite to her +supper. + +"You should've come out here long ago, Hilary," Mr. Boyd told her, and +he insisted on her having a second helping of the creamed toast, +prepared especially in her honor. + +Before supper was over. Captain's deep-toned bark proclaimed a +newcomer, or newcomers, seeing that it was answered immediately by a +medley of shrill barks, in the midst of which a girl's voice sounded +authoritively--"Quiet, Phil! Pat, I'm ashamed of you! Pudgey, if +you're not good instantly, you shall stay at home to-morrow night!" + +A moment later, the owner of the voice appeared at the porch door, "May +I come in, Mrs. Boyd?" she asked. + +"Come right in, Miss Shirley. I've a couple of young friends here, I +want you should get acquainted with," Mrs. Boyd cried. + +"You ain't had your supper yet, have you, Miss Shirley?" Mr. Boyd asked. + +"Father and I had tea out on the lake," Shirley answered, "but I'm +hungry enough again by now, for a slice of Mrs. Boyd's bread and +butter." + +And presently, she was seated at the table, chatting away with Paul and +Hilary, as if they were old acquaintances, asking Mr. Boyd various +questions about farm matters and answering Mrs. Boyd's questions +regarding Betsy Todd and her doings, with the most delightful air of +good comradeship imaginable. + +"Oh, me!" Pauline pushed hack her chair regretfully, "I simply must +go, it'll be dark before I get home, as it is." + +"I reckon it will, deary," Mrs. Boyd agreed, "so I won't urge you to +stay longer. Father, you just whistle to Colin to bring Fanny 'round." + +Hilary followed her sister into the bedroom. "You'll be over soon, +Paul?" + +Pauline, putting on her hat before the glass, turned quickly. "As soon +as I can. Hilary, don't you like her?" + +Hilary balanced herself on the arm of the big, old-fashioned rocker. +"I think so. Anyway, I love to watch her talk; she talks all over her +face." + +They went out to the gig, where Mr. and Mrs. Boyd and Shirley were +standing. Shirley was feeding Fanny with handfuls of fresh grass. +"Isn't she a fat old dear!" she said. + +"She's a fat old poke!" Pauline returned. "Mayn't I give you a lift? +I can go 'round by the manor road 's well as not." + +Shirley accepted readily, settling herself in the gig, and balancing +her pail of milk on her knee carefully. + +"Good-by," Pauline called. "Mind, you're to be ever and ever so much +better, next time I come, Hilary." + +"Your sister has been sick?" Shirley asked, her voice full of +sympathetic interest. + +"Not sick--exactly; just run down and listless." + +Shirley leaned a little forward, drawing in long breaths of the clear +evening air. "I don't see how anyone can ever get run down--here, in +this air; I'm hardly indoors at all. Father and I have our meals out +on the porch. You ought to have seen Betsy Todd's face, the first time +I proposed it. 'Ain't the dining-room to your liking, miss?'" she +asked. + +"Betsy Todd's a queer old thing," Pauline commented. "Father has the +worst time, getting her to come to church." + +"We were there last Sunday," Shirley said. "I'm afraid we were rather +late; it's a pretty old church, isn't it? I suppose you live in that +square white house next to it?" + +"Yes," Pauline answered. "Father came to Winton just after he was +married, so we girls have never lived anywhere else nor been anywhere +else--that counted. Any really big city, I mean. We're dreadfully +tired of Winton--Hilary, especially." + +"It's a mighty pretty place." + +"I suppose so." Pauline slapped old Fanny impatiently. "Will you go +on!" + +Fanny was making forward most reluctantly; the Boyd barn had been very +much to her liking. Now, as the three dogs made a swift rush at her +leaping and barking around her, she gave a snort of disgust, quickening +her pace involuntarily. + +"Don't call them off, please!" Pauline begged Shirley. "She isn't in +the least scared, and it's perfectly refreshing to find that she can +move." + +"All the same, discipline must be maintained," Shirley insisted; and at +her command the dogs fell behind. + +"Have you been here long?" Pauline asked. + +"About two weeks. We were going further up the lake--just on a +sketching trip,--and we saw this house from the deck of the boat; it +looked so delightful, and so deserted and lonely, that we came back +from the next landing to see about it. We took it at once and sent for +a lot of traps from the studio at home, they aren't here yet." + +Pauline looked her interest. It seemed a very odd, attractive way of +doing things, no long tiresome plannings of ways and means beforehand. +Suppose--when Uncle Paul's letter came--they could set off in such +fashion, with no definite point in view, and stop wherever they felt +like it. + +"I can't think," Shirley went on, "how such a charming old place came +to be standing idle." + +"Isn't it rather--run down?" + +"Not enough to matter--really. I want father to buy it, and do what is +needed to it, without making it all new and snug looking. The sunsets +from that front lawn are gorgeous, don't you think so?" + +"Yes," Pauline agreed, "I haven't been over there in two years. We +used to have picnics near there." + +"I hope you will again, this summer, and invite father and me. We +adore picnics; we've had several since we came--he and I and the dogs. +The dogs do love picnics so, too." + +Pauline had given up wanting to hurry Fanny; what a lot she would have +to tell her mother when she got home. + +She was sorry when a turn in the road brought them within sight of the +old manor house. "There's father!" Shirley said, nodding to a figure +coming towards them across a field. The dogs were off to meet him +directly, with shrill barks of pleasure. + +"May I get down here, please?" Shirley asked. "Thank you very much for +the lift; and I am so glad to have met you and your sister, Miss Shaw. +You'll both come and see me soon, won't you?" + +"We'd love to," Pauline answered heartily; "'cross lots, it's not so +very far over here from the parsonage, and," she hesitated, +"you--you'll be seeing Hilary quite often, while she's at The Maples, +perhaps?" + +"I hope so. Father's on the lookout for a horse and rig for me, and +then she and I can have some drives together. She will know where to +find the prettiest roads." + +"Oh, she would enjoy that," Pauline said eagerly, and as she drove on, +she turned more than once to glance back at the tall, slender figure +crossing the field. Shirley seemed to walk as if the mere act of +walking were in itself a pleasure. Pauline thought she had never +before known anyone who appeared so alive from head to foot. + +"Go 'long, Fanny!" she commanded; she was in a hurry to get home now, +with her burden of news. It seemed to her as if she had been away a +long while, so much had happened in the meantime. + +At the parsonage gate, Pauline found Patience waiting for her. "You +have taken your time, Paul Shaw!" the child said, climbing in beside +her sister. + +"Fanny's time, you mean!" + +"It hasn't come yet!" Patience said protestingly. "I went for the mail +myself this afternoon, so I know!" + +"Oh, well, perhaps it will to-morrow," Pauline answered, with so little +of real concern in her voice, that Patience wondered. "Suppose you +take Fanny on to the barn. Mother's home, isn't she?" + +Patience glanced at her sharply. "You've got something--particular--to +tell mother! O Paul, please wait 'til I come. Is it about--" + +"You're getting to look more like an interrogation point every day, +Impatience!" Pauline told her, getting down from the gig. + +Patience sniffed. "If nobody ever asked questions, nobody'd ever know +anything!" she declared. + +"Is mother home?" Pauline asked again. + +"Who's asking things now!" Patience drew the reins up tightly and +bouncing up and down on the carriage seat, called sharply--"Hi yi! Hi +yi!" + +It was the one method that never failed to rouse Fanny's indignation, +producing, for the moment, the desired effect; still, as Pauline said, +it was hardly a proceeding that Hilary or she could adopt, or, least of +all, their father. + +As she trotted briskly off to the barn now, the very tilt of Fanny's +ears expressed injured dignity. Dignity was Fanny's strong point; +that, and the ability to cover less ground in an afternoon than any +other horse in Winton. The small human being at the other end of those +taut reins might have known she would have needed no urging barnwards. + +"Maybe you don't like it," Patience observed, "but that makes no +difference--'s long's it's for your good. You're a very unchristiany +horse, Fanny Shaw. And I'll 'hi yi' you every time I get a chance; so +now go on." + +However Patience was indoors in time to hear all but the very beginning +of Pauline's story of her afternoon's experience. "I told you," she +broke in, "that I saw a nice girl at church last Sunday--in Mrs. +Dobson's pew; and Mrs. Dobson kept looking at her out of the corner of +her eyes all the tune, 'stead of paying attention to what father was +saying; and Miranda says, ten to one. Sally Dobson comes out in--" + +"That will do, Patience," her mother said, "if you are going to +interrupt in this fashion, you must run away." + +Patience subsided reluctantly, her blue eyes most expressive. + +"Isn't it nice for Hilary, mother? Now she'll be contented to stay a +week or two, don't you think?" Pauline said. + +"I hope so, dear. Yes, it is very nice." + +"She was looking better already, mother; brighter, you know." + +"Mummy, is asking a perfectly necessary question 'interrupting'?'" + +"Perhaps not, dear, if there is only one," smiled Mrs. Shaw. + +"Mayn't I, please, go with Paul and Hilary when they go to call on that +girl?" + +"On whom, Patience?" + +Patience wriggled impatiently; grown people were certainly very trying +at times. "On Paul's and Hilary's new friend, mummy." + +"Not the first time, Patience; possibly later--" + +Patience shrugged. "By and by," she observed, addressing the room at +large, "when Paul and Hilary are married, I'll be Miss Shaw! And +then--" the thought appeared to give her considerable comfort. + +"And maybe, Towser," she confided later, as the two sat together on the +side porch, "maybe--some day--you and I'll go to call on them on our +own account. I'm not sure it isn't your duty to call on those +dogs--you lived here first, and I can't see why it isn't mine--to call +on that girl. Father says, we should always hasten to welcome the +stranger; and they sound dreadfully interesting." + +Towser blinked a sleepy acquiescence. In spite of his years, he still +followed blindly where Patience led, though the consequences were +frequently disastrous. + +It was the next afternoon that Pauline, reading in the garden, heard an +eager little voice calling excitedly, "Paul, where are you! It's come! +It's come! I brought it up from the office myself!" + +Pauline sprang up. "Here I am, Patience! Hurry!" + +"Well, I like that!" Patience said, coming across the lawn. "Hurry! +Haven't I run every inch of the way home!" She waved the letter above +her head--"'Miss Pauline A. Shaw!' It's type-written! O Paul, aren't +you going to read it out here!" + +For Pauline, catching the letter from her, had run into the house, +crying--"Mother! O Mother Shaw!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +UNCLE PAUL'S ANSWER + +"Mother! O mother, where are you!" Pauline cried, and on Mrs. Shaw's +answering from her own room, she ran on up-stairs. "O Mother Shaw! +It's come at last!" she announced breathlessly. + +"So I thought--when I heard Patience calling just now. Pauline, dear, +try not to be too disappointed if--" + +"You open it, mother--please! Now it's really come, I'm--afraid to." +Pauline held out her letter. + +"No, dear, it is addressed to you," Mrs. Shaw answered quietly. + +And Pauline, a good deal sobered by the gravity with which her mother +had received the news, sat down on the wide window seat, near her +mother's chair, tearing open the envelope. As she spread out the heavy +businesslike sheet of paper within, a small folded enclosure fell from +it into her lap. + +"Oh, mother!" Pauline caught up the narrow blue slip. She had never +received a check from anyone before. "Mother! listen!" and she read +aloud, "'Pay to the order of Miss Pauline A. Shaw, the sum of +twenty-five dollars.'" + +Twenty-five dollars! One ought to be able to do a good deal with +twenty-five dollars! + +"Goodness me!" Patience exclaimed. She had followed her sister +up-stairs, after a discreet interval, curling herself up unobtrusively +in a big chair just inside the doorway. "Can you do what you like with +it, Paul?" + +But Pauline was bending over the letter, a bright spot of color on each +cheek. Presently, she handed it to her mother. "I wish--I'd never +written to him! Read it, mother!" + +And Mrs. Shaw read, as follows-- + + + NEW YORK CITY, May 31, 19--. + +_Miss Pauline A. Shaw, + Winton, Vt._ + +MY DEAR NIECE: Yours of May 16th to hand. I am sorry to learn that +your sister Hilary appears to be in such poor health at present. Such +being the case, however, it would seem to me that home was the best +place for her. I do not at all approve of this modern fashion of +running about the country, on any and every pretext. Also, if I +remember correctly, your father has frequently described Winton to me +as a place of great natural charms, and peculiarly adapted to those +suffering from so-called nervous disorders. + +Altogether, I do not feel inclined to comply with your request to make +it possible for your sister to leave home, in search of change and +recreation. Instead, beginning with this letter, I will forward you +each month during the summer, the sum of twenty-five dollars, to be +used in procuring for your sisters and yourself--I understand, there is +a third child--such simple and healthful diversions as your parents may +approve, the only conditions I make, being, that at no time shall any +of your pleasure trips take you further than ten miles from home, and +that you keep me informed, from time to time, how this plan of mine is +succeeding. + +Trusting this may prove satisfactory, + + Very respectfully, + PAUL A. SHAW. + + +"What do you think, mother?" Pauline asked, as Mrs. Shaw finished +reading. "Isn't it a very--queer sort of letter?" + +"It is an extremely characteristic one, dear." + +"I think," Patience could contain herself no longer, "that you are the +inconsideratest persons! You know I'm perfectly wild to know what's in +that letter!" + +"Run away now, Patience," her mother said. "You shall hear about it +later," and when Patience had obeyed--not very willingly, Mrs. Shaw +turned again to Pauline. "We must show this to your father, before +making any plans in regard to it, dear." + +"He's coming now. You show it to him, please, mother." + +When her mother had gone down-stairs, Pauline still sat there in the +window seat, looking soberly out across the lawn to the village street, +with its double rows of tall, old trees. So her flag had served little +purpose after all! That change for Hilary was still as uncertain, as +much a vague part of the future, as it had ever been. + +It seemed to the girl, at the moment, as if she fairly hated Winton. +As though Hilary and she did not already know every stick and stone in +it, had not long ago exhausted all its possibilities! + +New people might think it "quaint" and "pretty" but they had not lived +here all their lives. And, besides, she had expressly told Uncle Paul +that the doctor had said that Hilary needed a change. + +She was still brooding over the downfall of her hopes, when her mother +called to her from the garden. Pauline went down, feeling that it +mattered very little what her father's decision had been--it could make +so little difference to them, either way. + +Mrs. Shaw was on the bench under the old elm, that stood midway between +parsonage and church. She had been rereading Uncle Paul's letter, and +to Pauline's wonder, there was something like a smile of amusement in +her eyes. + +"Well, mother?" the girl asked. + +"Well, dear, your father and I have talked the matter over, and we have +decided to allow you to accept your uncle's offer." + +"But that--hateful condition! How is Hilary to get a chance--here in +Winton?" + +"Who was it that I heard saying, only this morning, Pauline, that even +if Uncle Paul didn't agree, she really believed we might manage to have +a very pleasant summer here at home?" + +"I know--but still, now that we know definitely--" + +"We can go to work definitely to do even better." + +"But how, mother!" + +"That is what we must think over. Suppose you put your wits to work +right now. I must go down to Jane's for a few moments. After all, +Pauline, those promised twenty-fives can be used very pleasantly--even +in Winton." + +"But it will still be Winton." + +"Winton may develop some unexplored corners, some new outlooks." + +Pauline looked rather doubtful; then, catching sight of a small +dejected-looking little figure in the swing, under the big cherry-tree +at the foot of the lawn, she asked, "I suppose I may tell Patience now, +mother? She really has been very good all this time of waiting." + +"She certainly has. Only, not too many details, Pauline. Patience is +of such a confiding disposition." + +"Patience," Pauline called, "suppose we go see if there aren't some +strawberries ripe?" + +Patience ran off for a basket. Strawberries! As if she didn't know +they were only a pretext. Grown people were assuredly very queer--but +sometimes, it was necessary to humor, their little whims and ways. + +"I don't believe they are ripe yet," she said, skipping along beside +her sister. "O Paul, is it--nice?" + +"Mother thinks so!" + +"Don't you?" + +"Maybe I will--after a while. Hilary isn't to go away." + +"Is that what you wrote and asked Uncle Paul? And didn't you ask for +us all to go?" + +"Certainly not--we're not sick," said Pauline, laughing. + +"Miranda says what Hilary needs is a good herb tonic!" + +"Miranda doesn't know everything." + +"What is Uncle Paul going to do then?" + +"Send some money every month--to have good times with at home." + +"One of those blue paper things?" + +"I suppose so," Pauline laughed. + +"And _you_ don't call that _nice_! Well of all the ungratefullest +girls! Is it for us _all_ to have good times with? Or just Hilary?" + +"All of us. Of course, Hilary must come first." + +Patience fairly jumped up and down with excitement. "When will they +begin, and what will they be like? O Paul, just think of the good +times we've had _without_ any money 't all! Aren't we the luckiest +girls!" + +They had reached the strawberry-bed and Patience dropped down in the +grass beside it, her hands clasped around her knees. "Good times in +Winton will be a lot better than good times anywhere else. Winton's +such a nice sociable place." + +Pauline settled herself on the top rail of the fence bordering the +garden at the back. Patience's enthusiasm was infectious. "What sort +of good times do you mean?" she asked. + +"Picnics!" + +"We have such a lot of picnics--year after year!" + +"A nice picnic is always sort of new. Miranda does put up such +beautiful lunches. O Paul, couldn't we afford chocolate layer cake +_every_ time, now?" + +"You goosey!" Pauline laughed again heartily. + +"And maybe there'll be an excursion somewhere's, and by'n'by there'll +be the town fair. Paul, there's a ripe berry! And another and--" + +"See here, hold on, Impatience!" Pauline protested, as the berries +disappeared, one after another, down Patience's small throat. +"Perhaps, if you stop eating them all, we can get enough for mother's +and father's supper." + +"Maybe they went and hurried to get ripe for to-night, so we could +celebrate," Patience suggested. "Paul, mayn't I go with you next time +you go over to The Maples?" + +"We'll see what mother says." + +"I hate 'we'll see's'!" Patience declared, reaching so far over after a +particularly tempting berry, that she lost her balance, and fell face +down among them. + +"Oh, dear!" she sighed, as her sister came to her assistance, +"something always seems to happen clean-apron afternoon! Paul, +wouldn't it be a 'good time,' if Miranda would agree not to scold 'bout +perfectly unavoidable accidents once this whole summer?" + +"Who's to do the deciding as to the unavoidableness?" Pauline asked. +"Come on, Patience, we've got about all the ripe ones, and it must be +time for you to lay the supper-table." + +"Not laying supper-tables would be another good time," Patience +answered. "We did get enough, didn't we? I'll hull them." + +"I wonder," Pauline said, more as if speaking to herself, "whether +maybe mother wouldn't think it good to have Jane in now and then--for +extra work? Not supper-tables, young lady." + +"Jane would love it. She likes to work with Miranda--she says +Miranda's such a nice lady. Do you think she is, Paul?" + +"I'm thinking about other things just now." + +"I don't--There's mother. Goodness, Miranda's got the cloth on!" +And away sped the child. + +To Patience's astonishment, nothing was said at supper, either of Uncle +Paul's letter, or the wonderful things it was to lead to. Mr. Shaw +kept his wife engaged with parish subjects and Pauline appeared lost in +thoughts of her own. Patience fidgeted as openly as she dared. Of all +queer grown-ups--and it looked as though most grown-ups were more or +less queer--father was certainly the queerest. Of course, he knew +about the letter; and how could he go on talking about stupid, +uninteresting matters--like the Ladies' Aid and the new hymn books? + +Even the first strawberries of the season passed unnoticed, as far as +he was concerned, though Mrs. Shaw gave Patience a little smiling nod, +in recognition of them. + +"Mother," Pauline exclaimed, the moment her father had gone back to his +study, "I've been thinking--Suppose we get Hilary to pretend--that +coming home is coming to a _new_ place? That she is coming to visit +us? We'll think up all the interesting things to do, that we can, and +the pretty places to show her." + +"That would be a good plan, Pauline." + +"And if she's company, she'll have to have the spare room," Patience +added. + +"Jolly for you, Patience!" Pauline said. "Only, mother, Hilary doesn't +like the spare room; she says it's the dreariest room in the house." + +"If she's company, she'll have to pretend to like it, it wouldn't be +good manners not to," Patience observed. The prospect opening out +ahead of them seemed full of delightful possibilities. "I hope Miranda +catches on to the game, and gives us pound-cake and hot biscuits for +supper ever so often, and doesn't call me to do things, when I'm busy +entertaining 'the company.'" + +"Mother," Pauline broke in--"do keep quiet. Impatience--couldn't we do +the spare room over--there's that twenty-five dollars? We've planned +it so often." + +"We might make some alterations, dear--at least." + +"We'll take stock the first thing to-morrow morning. I suppose we +can't really start in before Monday." + +"Hardly, seeing that it is Friday night." + +They were still talking this new idea over, though Patience had been +sent to bed, when Mr. Shaw came in from a visit to a sick parishioner. +"We've got the most beautiful scheme on hand, father," Pauline told +him, wheeling forward his favorite chair. She hoped he would sit down +and talk things over with them, instead of going on to the study; it +wouldn't be half as nice, if he stayed outside of everything. + +"New schemes appear to be rampant these days," Mr. Shaw said, but he +settled himself comfortably in the big chair, quite as though he meant +to stay with them. "What is this particular one?" + +He listened, while Pauline explained, really listened, instead of +merely seeming to. "It does appear an excellent idea," he said; "but +why should it be Hilary only, who is to try to see Winton with new eyes +this summer? Suppose we were all to do so?" + +Pauline clapped her hands softly. "Then you'll help us? And we'll all +pretend. Maybe Uncle Paul's thought isn't such a bad one, after all." + +"Paul always believed in developing the opportunities nearest hand," +Mr. Shaw answered. He stroked the head Towser laid against his knee. +"Your mother and I will be the gainers--if we keep all our girls at +home, and still achieve the desired end." + +Pauline glanced up quickly. How could she have thought him +unheeding--indifferent? + +"Somehow, I think it will work out all right," she said. "Anyhow, +we're going to try it, aren't we. Mother Shaw? Patience thinks it the +best idea ever, there'll be no urging needed there." + +Pauline went up to bed that night feeling strangely happy. For one +thing the uncertainty was over, and if they set to work to make this +summer full of interest, to break up the monotony and routine that +Hilary found so irksome, the result must be satisfactory. And lastly, +there was the comforting conviction, that whatever displeasure her +father had felt at first, at her taking the law into her own hands in +such unforeseen fashion, had disappeared now; and he was not going to +stay "outside of things," that was sure. + +The next morning, as soon as breakfast was over, Pauline ran up-stairs +to the spare room. She threw open the shutters of the four windows, +letting in the fresh morning air. The side windows faced west, and +looked out across the pleasant tree-shaded yard to the church; those at +the front faced south, overlooking the broad village street. + +In the bright sunlight, the big square room stood forth in all its prim +orderliness. "It is ugly," Pauline decided, shaking her head +disapprovingly, but it had possibilities. No room, with four such +generous windows and--for the fire-board must come out--such a wide +deep fireplace, could be without them. + +She turned, as her mother came in, duly attended by Patience. "It is +hideous, isn't it, mother? The paper, I mean--and the carpet isn't +much better. It did very well, I suppose, for the visiting +ministers--probably they're too busy thinking over their sermons to +notice--but for Hilary--" + +Mrs. Shaw smiled. "Perhaps you are right, dear. As to the +unattractiveness of the paper--" + +"We must repaper--that's sure; plain green, with a little touch of +color in the border, and, oh, Mother Shaw, wouldn't a green and white +matting be lovely?" + +"And expensive, Pauline." + +"It wouldn't take all the twenty-five, I'm sure. Miranda'll do the +papering, I know. She did the study last year. Mother, couldn't we +have Jane in for the washing and ironing this week, and let Miranda get +right at this room? I'll help with the ironing, too." + +"I suppose so, dear. Miranda is rather fussy about letting other +people do her regular work, you know." + +"I'll ask her." + +"And remember, Pauline, each day is going to bring new demands--don't +put all your eggs into one basket." + +"I won't. We needn't spend anything on this room except for the paper +and matting." + +Half an hour later, Pauline was on her way down to the village store +for samples of paper. She had already settled the matter with Miranda, +over the wiping of the breakfast dishes. + +Miranda had lived with the Shaws ever since Pauline was a baby, and was +a very important member of the family, both in her own and their +opinion. She was tall and gaunt, and somewhat severe looking; however, +in her case, looks were deceptive. It would never have occurred to +Miranda that the Shaws' interests were not her interests--she +considered herself an important factor in the upbringing of the three +young people. If she had a favorite, it was probably Hilary. + +"Hmn," she said, when Pauline broached the subject of the spare room, +"what put that notion in your head, I'd like to know! That paper ain't +got a tear in it!" + +So Pauline went further, telling her something of Uncle Paul's letter +and how they hoped to carry his suggestion out. + +Miranda stood still, her hands in the dish water--"That's your pa's own +brother, ain't it?" + +Pauline nodded. "And Miranda--" + +"I reckon he ain't much like the minister. Well, me an' Sarah Jane +ain't the least bit alike--if we are sisters. I guess I can manage +'bout the papering. But it does go 'gainst me, having that sexton +woman in. Still, I reckon you can't be content, 'till we get started. +Looking for the old gentleman up, later, be you?" + +"For whom?" Pauline asked. + +"Your pa's brother. The minister's getting on, and the other one's +considerable older, I understand." + +"I don't think he will be up," Pauline answered; she hadn't thought of +that before. Suppose he should come! She wondered what he would be +like. + +Half way down the street, Pauline was overtaken by her younger sister. +"Are you going to get the new things now, Paul?" she asked eagerly. + +"Of course not, just get some samples." + +"There's always such a lot of getting ready first," Patience sighed. +"Paul, mother says I may go with you to-morrow afternoon." + +"All right," Pauline agreed. "Only, you've got to promise not to 'hi +yi' at Fanny all the way." + +"I won't--all the way." + +"And--Impatience?" + +"Yes?" + +"You needn't say what we want the new paper for, or anything about what +we are planning to do--in the store I mean." + +"Mr. Ward would be mighty interested." + +"I dare say." + +"Miranda says you're beginning to put on considerable airs, since +you've been turning your hair up, Paul Shaw. When I put my hair up, +I'm going on being just as nice and friendly with folks, as before, +you'll see." + +Pauline laughed, which was not at all to Patience's liking. "All the +same, mind what I say," she warned. + +"Can I help choose?" Patience asked, as they reached the store. + +"If you like." Pauline went through to the little annex devoted to +wall papers and carpetings. It was rather musty and dull in there, +Patience thought; she would have liked to make a slow round of the +whole store, exchanging greetings and various confidences with the +other occupants. The store was a busy place on Saturday morning, and +Patience knew every man, woman and child in Winton. + +They had got their samples and Pauline was lingering before a new line +of summer dressgoods just received, when the young fellow in charge of +the post-office and telegraph station called to her: "I say, Miss Shaw, +here's a message just come for you." + +"For me--" Pauline took it wonderingly. Her hands were trembling, she +had never received a telegram before--Was Hilary? Then she laughed at +herself. To have sent a message, Mr. Boyd would have first been +obliged to come in to Winton. + +Out on the sidewalk, she tore open the envelope, not heeding Patience's +curious demands. It was from her uncle, and read-- + +"Have some one meet the afternoon train Saturday, am sending you an aid +towards your summer's outings." + +"Oh," Pauline said, "do hurry, Patience. I want to get home as fast as +I can." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BEGINNINGS + +Sunday afternoon, Pauline and Patience drove over to The Maples to see +Hilary. They stopped, as they went by, at the postoffice for Pauline +to mail a letter to her uncle, which was something in the nature of a +very enthusiastic postscript to the one she had written him Friday +night, acknowledging and thanking him for his cheque, and telling him +of the plans already under discussion. + +"And now," Patience said, as they turned out of the wide main street, +"we're really off. I reckon Hilary'll be looking for us, don't you?" + +"I presume she will," Pauline answered. + +"Maybe she'll want to come back with us." + +"Oh, I don't believe so. She knows mother wants her to stay the week +out. Listen, Patty--" + +Patience sat up and took notice. When people Pattied her, it generally +meant they had a favor to ask, or something of the sort. + +"Remember, you're to be very careful not to let Hilary +suspect--anything." + +"About the room and--?" + +"I mean--everything." + +"Won't she like it--all, when she does know?" + +"Well, rather!" + +Patience wriggled excitedly. "It's like having a fairy godmother, +isn't it? And three wishes? If you'd had three wishes, Paul, wouldn't +you've chosen--" + +"You'd better begin quieting down, Patience, or Hilary can't help +suspecting something." + +Patience drew a long breath. "If she knew--she wouldn't stay a single +day longer, would she?" + +"That's one reason why she mustn't know." + +"When will you tell her; or is mother going to?" + +"I don't know yet. See here, Patience, you may drive--if you won't hi +yi." + +"Please, Paul, let me, when we get to the avenue. It's stupid coming +to a place, like Fanny'd gone to sleep." + +"Not before--and only once then," Pauline stipulated, and Patience +possessed her soul in at least a faint semblance of patience until they +turned into the avenue of maples. Then she suddenly tightened her hold +on the reins, bounced excitedly up and down, crying sharply--"Hi yi!" + +Fanny instantly pricked up her ears, and, what was more to the purpose, +actually started into what might almost have been called a trot. +"There! you see!" Patience said proudly, as they turned into the yard. + +Hilary came down the porch steps. "I heard Impatience urging her +Rosinante on," she laughed. "Why didn't you let her drive all the way, +Paul? I've been watching for you since dinner." + +"We've been pretty nearly since dinner getting here, it seems to me," +Patience declared. "We had to wait for Paul to write a letter first +to--" + +"Are you alone?" Pauline broke in hurriedly, asking the first question +that came into her mind. + +Hilary smiled ruefully. "Not exactly. Mr. Boyd's asleep in the +sitting-room, and Mrs. Boyd's taking a nap up-stairs in her own room." + +"You poor child!" Pauline said. "Jump out, Patience!" + +"_Have_ you brought me something to read? I've finished both the books +I brought with me, and gone through a lot of magazines--queer old +things, that Mrs. Boyd took years and years ago." + +"Then you've done very wrong," Pauline told her severely, leading Fanny +over to a shady spot at one side of the yard and tying her to the +fence--a quite unnecessary act, as nothing would have induced Fanny to +take her departure unsolicited. + +"Guess!" Pauline came back, carrying a small paper-covered parcel. +"Father sent it to you. He was over at Vergennes yesterday." + +"Oh!" Hilary cried, taking it eagerly and sitting down on the steps. +"It's a book, of course." Even more than her sisters, she had +inherited her father's love of books, and a new book was an event at +the parsonage. "Oh," she cried again, taking off the paper and +disclosing the pretty tartan cover within, "O Paul! It's 'Penelope's +Progress.' Don't you remember those bits we read in those odd +magazines Josie lent us? And how we wanted to read it all?" + +Pauline nodded. "I reckon mother told father about it; I saw her +following him out to the gig yesterday morning." + +They went around to the little porch leading from Hilary's room, always +a pleasant spot in the afternoons. + +"Why," Patience exclaimed, "it's like an out-door parlor, isn't it?" + +There was a big braided mat on the floor of the porch, its colors +rather faded by time and use, but looking none the worse for that, a +couple of rockers, a low stool, and a small table, covered with a bit +of bright cretonne. On it stood a blue and white pitcher filled with +field flowers, beside it lay one or two magazines. Just outside, +extending from one of the porch posts to the limb of an old cherry +tree, hung Hilary's hammock, gay with cushions. + +"Shirley did it yesterday afternoon," Hilary explained. "She was over +here a good while. Mrs. Boyd let us have the things and the chintz for +the cushions, Shirley made them, and we filled them with hay." + +Pauline, sitting on the edge of the low porch, looked about her with +appreciative eyes. "How pleasant and cozy it is, and after all, it +only took a little time and trouble." + +Hilary laid her new book on the table. "How soon do you suppose we can +go over to the manor, Paul? I imagine the Dayres have fixed it up +mighty pretty. Mr. Dayre was over here, last night. He and Shirley +are ever so--chummy. He's Shirley Putnam Dayre, and she's Shirley +Putnam Dayre, Junior. So he calls her 'Junior' and she calls him +'Senior.' They're just like brother and sister. He's an artist, +they've been everywhere together. And, Paul, they think Winton is +delightful. Mr. Dayre says the village street, with its great +overhanging trees, and old-fashioned houses, is a picture in itself, +particularly up at our end, with the church, all ivy-covered. He means +to paint the church sometime this summer." + +"It would make a pretty picture," Pauline said thoughtfully. "Hilary, +I wonder--" + +"So do I," Hilary said. "Still, after all, one would like to see +different places--" + +"And love only one," Pauline added; she turned to her sister. "You are +better, aren't you--already?" + +"I surely am. Shirley's promised to take me out on the lake soon. +She's going to be friends with us, Paul--really friends. She says we +must call her 'Shirley,' that she doesn't like 'Miss Dayre,' she hears +it so seldom." + +"I think it's nice--being called 'Miss,'" Patience remarked, from where +she had curled herself up in the hammock. "I suppose she doesn't want +it, because she can have it--I'd love to be called 'Miss Shaw.'" + +"Hilary," Pauline said, "would you mind very much, if you couldn't go +away this summer?" + +"It wouldn't do much good if I did, would it?" + +"The not minding would--to mother and the rest of us--" + +"And if you knew what--" Patience began excitedly. + +"Don't you want to go find Captain, Impatience?" Pauline asked hastily, +and Patience, feeling that she had made a false move, went with most +unusual meekness. + +"Know what?" Hilary asked. + +"I--shouldn't wonder, if the child had some sort of scheme on hand," +Pauline said, she hoped she wasn't--prevaricating; after all, Patience +probably did have some scheme in her head--she usually had. + +"I haven't thought much about going away the last day or so," Hilary +said. "I suppose it's the feeling better, and, then, the getting to +know Shirley." + +"I'm glad of that." Pauline sat silent for some moments; she was +watching a fat bumble bee buzzing in and out among the flowers in the +garden. It was always still, over here at the farm, but to-day, it +seemed a different sort of stillness, as if bees and birds and flowers +knew that it was Sunday afternoon. + +"Paul," Hilary asked suddenly, "what are you smiling to yourself about?" + +"Was I smiling? I didn't know it. I guess because it is so nice and +peaceful here and because--Hilary, let's start a club--the 'S. W. F. +Club.'" + +"The what?" + +"The 'S. W. F. Club.' No, I shan't tell you what the letters stand +for! You've got to think it out for yourself." + +"A real club, Paul?" + +"Indeed, yes." + +"Who's to belong?" + +"Oh, lots of folks. Josie and Tom, and you and I--and I think, maybe, +mother and father." + +"Father! To belong to a club!" + +"It was he who put the idea into my head." + +Hilary came to sit beside her sister on the step. "Paul, I've a +feeling that there is something--up! And it isn't the barometer!" + +"Where did you get it?" + +"From you." + +Pauline sprang up. "Feelings are very unreliable things to go by, but +I've one just now--that if we don't hunt Impatience up pretty +quick--there will be something doing." + +They found Patience sitting on the barn floor, utterly regardless of +her white frock. A whole family of kittens were about her. + +"Aren't they dears!" Patience demanded. + +"Mrs. Boyd says I may have my choice, to take home with me," Hilary +said. The parsonage cat had died the fall before, and had had no +successor as yet. + +Patience held up a small coal-black one. "Choose this, Hilary! +Miranda says a black cat brings luck, though it don't look like we +needed any black cats to bring--" + +"I like the black and white one," Pauline interposed, just touching +Patience with the tip of her shoe. + +"Maybe Mrs. Boyd would give us each one, that would leave one for her," +Patience suggested cheerfully. + +"I imagine mother would have something to say to that," Pauline told +her. "Was Josie over yesterday, Hilary?" + +Hilary nodded. "In the morning." + +As they were going back to the house, they met Mr. Boyd, on his way to +pay his regular weekly visit to the far pasture. + +"Going to salt the colts?" Patience asked. "Please, mayn't I come?" + +"There won't be time, Patience," Pauline said. + +"Not time!" Mr. Boyd objected, "I'll be back to supper, and you girls +are going to stay to supper." He carried Patience off with him, +declaring that he wasn't sure he should let her go home at all, he +meant to keep her altogether some day, and why not to-night? + +"Oh, I couldn't stay to-night," the child assured him earnestly. "Of +course, I couldn't ever stay for always, but by'n'by, when--there isn't +so much going on at home--there's such a lot of things keep happening +at home now, only don't tell Hilary, please--maybe, I could come make +you a truly visit." + +Indoors, Pauline and Hilary found Mrs. Boyd down-stairs again from her +nap. "You ain't come after Hilary?" she questioned anxiously. + +"Only to see her," Pauline answered, and while she helped Mrs. Boyd get +supper, she confided to her the story of Uncle Paul's letter and the +plans already under way. + +Mrs. Boyd was much interested. "Bless me, it'll do her a heap of good, +you'll see, my dear. I'm not sure, I don't agree with your uncle, when +all's said and done, home's the best place for young folks." + +Just before Pauline and Patience went home that evening, Mrs. Boyd +beckoned Pauline mysteriously into the best parlor. "I always meant +her to have them some day--she being my god-child--and maybe they'll do +her as much good now, as any time, she'll want to fix up a bit now and +then, most likely. Shirley had on a string of them last night, but not +to compare with these." Mrs. Boyd was kneeling before a trunk in the +parlor closet, and presently she put a little square shell box into +Pauline's bands. "Box and all, just like they came to me--you know, +they were my grandmother's--but Hilary's a real careful sort of girl." + +"But, Mrs. Boyd--I'm not sure that mother would--" Pauline knew quite +well what was in the box. + +"That's all right! You just slip them in Hilary's top drawer, where +she'll come across them without expecting it. Deary me, I never wear +them, and as I say, I've always meant to give them to her some day." + +"She'll be perfectly delighted--and they'll look so pretty. Hilary's +got a mighty pretty neck, I think." Pauline went out to the gig, the +little box hidden carefully in her blouse, feeling that Patience was +right and that these were very fairy-story sort of days. + +"You'll be over again soon, won't you?" Hilary urged. + +"We're going to be tre-men-dous-ly busy," Patience began, but her +sister cut her short. + +"As soon as I can, Hilary. Mind you go on getting better." + + +By Monday noon, the spare room had lost its look of prim order. In the +afternoon, Pauline and her mother went down to the store to buy the +matting. There was not much choice to be had, and the only green and +white there was, was considerably beyond the limit they had allowed +themselves. + +"Never mind," Pauline said cheerfully, "plain white will look ever so +cool and pretty--perhaps, the green would fade. I'm going to believe +so." + +Over a low wicker sewing-chair, she did linger longingly; it would look +so nice beside one of the west windows. She meant to place a low table +for books and work between those side windows. In the end, prudence +won the day, and surely, the new paper and matting were enough to be +grateful for in themselves. + +By the next afternoon the paper was on and the matting down. Pauline +was up garret rummaging, when she heard someone calling her from the +foot of the stairs. "I'm here, Josie," she called back, and her friend +came running up. + +"What are you doing?" she asked. + +Pauline held up an armful of old-fashioned chintz. + +"Oh, how pretty!" Josie exclaimed. "It makes one think of high-waisted +dresses, and minuets and things like that." + +Pauline laughed. "They were my great-grandmother's bed curtains." + +"Goodness! What are you going to do with them?" + +"I'm not sure mother will let me do anything. I came across them just +now in looking for some green silk she said I might have to cover +Hilary's pin-cushion with." + +"For the new room? Patience has been doing the honors of the new paper +and matting--it's going to be lovely, I think." + +Pauline scrambled to her feet, shaking out the chintz: "If only mother +would--it's pink and green--let's go ask her." + +"What do you want to do with it, Pauline?" Mrs. Shaw asked. + +"I haven't thought that far--use it for draperies of some kind, I +suppose," the girl answered. + +They were standing in the middle of the big, empty room. Suddenly, +Josie gave a quick exclamation, pointing to the bare corner between the +front and side windows. "Wouldn't a cozy corner be delightful--with +cover and cushions of the chintz?" + +"May we, mother?" Pauline begged in a coaxing tone. + +"I suppose so, dear--only where is the bench part to come from?" + +"Tom'll make the frame for it, I'll go get him this minute," Josie +answered. + +"And you might use that single mattress from up garret," Mrs. Shaw +suggested. + +Pauline ran up to inspect it, and to see what other treasures might be +forthcoming. The garret was a big, shadowy place, extending over the +whole house, and was lumber room, play place and general refuge, all in +one. + +Presently, from under the eaves, she drew forward a little +old-fashioned sewing-chair, discarded on the giving out of its cane +seat. "But I could tack a piece of burlap on and cover it with a +cushion," Pauline decided, and bore it down in triumph to the new room, +where Tom Brice was already making his measurements for the cozy corner. + +Josie was on the floor, measuring for the cover. "Isn't it fun, Paul? +Tom says it won't take long to do his part." + +Tom straightened himself, slipping his rule into his pocket. "I don't +see what you want it for, though," he said. + +"'Yours not to reason why--'" Pauline told him. "We see, and so will +Hilary. Don't you and Josie want to join the new club--the 'S. W. F. +Club'?" + +"Society of Willing Females, I suppose?" Tom remarked. + +"It sounds like some sort of sewing circle," Josie said. + +Pauline sat down in one of the wide window places. "I'm not sure it +might not take in both. It is--'The Seeing Winton First Club.'" + +Josie looked as though she didn't quite understand, but Tom whistled +softly. "What else have you been doing for the past fifteen years, if +you please, ma'am?" he asked quizzically. + +Pauline laughed. "One ought to know a place rather thoroughly in +fifteen years, I suppose; but--I'm hoping we can make it seem at least +a little bit new and different this summer--for Hilary. You see, we +shan't be able to send her away, and so, I thought, perhaps, if we +tried looking at Winton--with new eyes--" + +"I see," Josie cried. "I think it's a splendiferous ideal" + +"And, I thought, if we formed a sort of club among ourselves and worked +together--" + +"Listen," Josie interrupted again, "we'll make it a condition of +membership, that each one must, in turn, think up something pleasant to +do." + +"Is the membership to be limited?" Tom asked. + +Pauline smiled. "It will be so--necessarily--won't it?" For Winton +was not rich in young people. + +"There will be enough of us," Josie declared hopefully. + +"Like the model dinner party?" her brother asked. "Not less than the +Graces, nor more than the Muses." + +And so the new club was formed then and there. There were to be no +regular and formal meetings, no dues, nor fines, and each member was to +consider himself, or herself, an active member of the programme +committee. + +Tom, as the oldest member of their immediate circle of friends, was +chosen president before that first meeting adjourned; no other officers +were considered necessary at the time. And being president, to him was +promptly delegated the honor--despite his vigorous protests--of +arranging for their first outing and notifying the other members--yet +to be. + +"But," he expostulated, "what's a fellow to think up--in a hole like +this?" + +"Winton isn't a hole!" his sister protested. It was one of the chief +occupations of Josie's life at present, to contradict all such +heretical utterances on Tom's part. He was to go away that fall to +commence his studies for the medical profession, for it was Dr. Brice's +great desire that, later, his son should assist him in his practice. +But, so far, Tom though wanting to follow his father's profession, was +firm in his determination, not to follow it in Winton. + +"And remember," Pauline said, as the three went down-stairs together, +"that it's the first step that counts--and to think up something very +delightful, Tom." + +"It mustn't be a picnic, I suppose? Hilary won't be up to picnics yet +awhile." + +"N-no, and we want to begin soon. She'll be back Friday, I think," +Pauline answered. + +By Wednesday night the spare room was ready for the expected guest. +"It's as if someone had waved a fairy wand over it, isn't it?" Patience +said delightedly. "Hilary'll be so surprised." + +"I think she will and--pleased." Pauline gave one of the cushions in +the cozy corner a straightening touch, and drew the window +shades--Miranda had taken them down and turned them--a little lower. + +"It's a regular company room, isn't it?" Patience said joyously. + +The minister drove over to The Maples himself on Friday afternoon to +bring Hilary home. + +"Remember," Patience pointed a warning forefinger at him, just as he +was starting, "not a single solitary hint!" + +"Not a single solitary one," he promised. + +As he turned out of the gate. Patience drew a long breath. "Well, +he's off at last! But, oh, dear, however can we wait 'til he gets +back?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +BEDELIA + +It was five o'clock that afternoon when Patience, perched, a little +white-clad sentry, on the gate-post, announced joyously--"They're +coming! They're coming!" + +Patience was as excited as if the expected "guest" were one in fact, as +well as name. It was fun to be playing a game of make-believe, in +which the elders took part. + +As the gig drew up before the steps, Hilary looked eagerly out. "Will +you tell me," she demanded, "why father insisted on coming 'round the +lower road, by the depot--he didn't stop, and he didn't get any parcel? +And when I asked him, he just laughed and looked mysterious." + +"He went," Pauline answered, "because we asked him to--company usually +comes by train--real out-of-town company, you know." + +"Like visiting ministers and returned missionaries," Patience explained. + +Hilary looked thoroughly bewildered. "But are you expecting company? +You must be," she glanced from one to another, "you're all dressed up," + +"We were expecting some, dear," her mother told her, "but she has +arrived." + +"Don't you see? You're it!" Patience danced excitedly about her sister. + +"I'm the company!" Hilary said wonderingly. Then her eyes lighted up. +"I understand! How perfectly dear of you all." + +Mrs. Shaw patted the hand Hilary slipped into hers. "You have come +back a good deal better than you went, my dear. The change has done +you good." + +"And it didn't turn out a stupid--half-way affair, after all," Hilary +declared. "I've had a lovely time. Only, I simply had to come home, I +felt somehow--that--that--" + +"We were expecting company?" Pauline laughed. "And you wanted to be +here?" + +"I reckon that was it," Hilary agreed. As she sat there, resting a +moment, before going up-stairs, she hardly seemed the same girl who had +gone away so reluctantly only eight days before. The change of scene, +the outdoor life, the new friendship, bringing with it new interests, +had worked wonders, + +"And now," Pauline suggested, taking up her sister's valise, "perhaps +you would like to go up to your room--visitors generally do." + +"To rest after your journey, you know," Patience prompted. Patience +believed in playing one's part down to the minutest detail. + +"Thank you," Hilary answered, with quite the proper note of formality +in her voice, "if you don't mind; though I did not find the trip as +fatiguing as I had expected." + +But from the door, she turned back to give her mother a second and most +uncompany-like hug. "It is good to be home, Mother Shaw! And please, +you don't want to pack me off again anywhere right away--at least, all +by myself?" + +"Not right away," her mother answered, kissing her. + +"I guess you will think it is good to be home, when you +know--everything," Patience announced, accompanying her sisters +up-stairs, but on the outside of the banisters. + +"Patty!" Pauline protested laughingly--"Was there ever such a child for +letting things out!" + +"I haven't!" the child exclaimed, "only now--it can't make any +difference." + +"There is mystery in the very air!" Hilary insisted. "Oh, what have +you all been up to?" + +"You're not to go in there!" Patience cried, as Hilary stopped before +the door of her own and Pauline's room. + +"Of course you're not," Pauline told her. "It strikes me, for +company--you're making yourself very much at home! Walking into +peoples' rooms." She led the way along the hall to the spare room, +throwing the door wide open. + +"Oh!" Hilary cried, then stood quite still on the threshold, looking +about her with wide, wondering eyes. + +The spare room was grim and gray no longer. Hilary felt as if she must +be in some strange, delightful dream. The cool green of the wall +paper, with the soft touch of pink in ceiling and border, the fresh +white matting, the cozy corner opposite--with its delicate +old-fashioned chintz drapery and big cushions, the new toilet +covers--white over green, the fresh curtains at the windows, the +cushioned window seats, the low table and sewing-chair, even her own +narrow white bed, with its new ruffled spread, all went to make a room +as strange to her, as it was charming and unexpected. + +"Oh," she said again, turning to her mother, who had followed them +up-stairs, and stood waiting just outside the door. "How perfectly +lovely it all is--but it isn't for me?" + +"Of course it is," Patience said. "Aren't you company--you aren't just +Hilary now, you're 'Miss Shaw' and you're here on a visit; and there's +company asked to supper to-morrow night, and it's going to be such fun!" + +Hilary's color came and went. It was something deeper and better than +fun. She understood now why they had done this--why Pauline had said +that--about her not going away; there was a sudden lump in the girl's +throat--she was glad, so glad, she had said that downstairs----about +not wanting to go away. + +And when her mother and Patience had gone down-stairs again and Pauline +had begun to unpack the valise, as she had unpacked it a week ago at +The Maples, Hilary sat in the low chair by one of the west windows, her +hands folded in her lap, looking about this new room of hers. + +"There," Pauline said presently, "I believe that's all now--you'd +better lie down, Hilary--I'm afraid you're tired." + +"No, I'm not; at any rate, not very. I'll lie down if you like, only I +know I shan't be able to sleep." + +Pauline lowered the pillow and threw a light cover over her. "There's +something in the top drawer of the dresser," she said, "but you're not +to look at it until you've lain down at least half an hour." + +"I feel as if I were in an enchanted palace,", Hilary said, "with so +many delightful surprises being sprung on me all the while." After +Pauline had gone, she lay watching the slight swaying of the wild roses +in the tall jar on the hearth. The wild roses ran rampant in the +little lane leading from the back of the church down past the old +cottage where Sextoness Jane lived. Jane had brought these with her +that morning, as her contribution to the new room. + +To Hilary, as to Patience, it seemed as if a magic wand had been waved, +transforming the old dull room into a place for a girl to live and +dream in. But for her, the name of the wand was Love. + +There must be no more impatient longings, no fretful repinings, she +told herself now. She must not be slow to play her part in this new +game that had been originated all for her. + +The half-hour up, she slipped from the bed and began unbuttoning her +blue-print frock. Being company, it stood to reason she must dress for +supper. But first, she must find out what was in the upper drawer. + +The first glimpse of the little shell box, told her that. There were +tears in Hilary's gray eyes, as she stood slipping the gold beads +slowly through her fingers. How good everyone was to her; for the +first time some understanding of the bright side even of sickness--and +she had not been really sick, only run-down--and, yes, she had been +cross and horrid, lots of times--came to her. + +"I'll go over just as soon as I can and thank her," the girl thought, +clasping the beads about her neck, "and I'll keep them always and +always." + +A little later, she came down-stairs all in white, a spray of the pink +and white wild roses in her belt, her soft, fair hair freshly brushed +and braided. She had been rather neglectful of her hair lately. + +There was no one on the front piazza but her father, and he looked up +from his book with a smile of pleasure. "My dear, how well you are +looking! It is certainly good to see you at home again, and quite your +old self." + +Hilary came to sit on the arm of his chair. "It is good to be at home +again. I suppose you know all the wonderful surprises I found waiting +me?" + +"Supper's ready," Patience proclaimed from the doorway. "Please come, +because--" she caught herself up, putting a hand into Hilary's, "I'll +show you where to sit, Miss Shaw." + +Hilary laughed. "How old are you, my dear?" she asked, in the tone +frequently used by visiting ministers. + +"I'm a good deal older than I'm treated generally," Patience answered. +"Do you like Winton?" + +"I am sure I shall like it very much." Hilary slipped into the chair +Patience drew forward politely. "The company side of the table--sure +enough," she laughed. + +"It isn't proper to say things to yourself sort of low down in your +voice," Patience reproved her, then at a warning glance from her mother +subsided into silence as the minister took his place. + +For to-night, at least, Miranda had amply fulfilled Patience's hopes, +as to company suppers. And she, too, played her part in the new game, +calling Hilary "Miss," and never by any chance intimating that she had +seen her before. + +"Did you go over to the manor to see Shirley?" Patience asked. + +Hilary shook her head. "I promised her Pauline and I would be over +soon. We may have Fanny some afternoon, mayn't we, father?" + +Patience's blue eyes danced. "They can't have Fanny, can they, +father?" she nodded at him knowingly. + +Hilary eyed her questioningly. "What is the matter, Patience?" + +"Nothing is the matter with her," Pauline said hurriedly. "Don't pay +any attention to her." + +"Only, if you would hurry," Patience implored. "I--I can't wait much +longer!" + +"Wait!" Hilary asked. "For what?" + +Patience pushed back her chair. "For--Well, if you just knew what for, +Hilary Shaw, you'd do some pretty tall hustling!" + +"Patience!" her father said reprovingly. + +"May I be excused, mother?" Patience asked. "I'll wait out on the +porch." + +And Mrs. Shaw replied most willingly that she might. + +"Is there anything more--to see, I mean, not to eat?" Hilary asked. "I +don't see how there can be." + +"Are you through?" Pauline answered. "Because, if you are, I'll show +you." + +"It was sent to Paul," Patience called, from the hall door. "But she +says, of course, it was meant for us all; and I think, myself, she's +right about that." + +"Is it--alive?" Hilary asked. + +"'It' was--before supper," Pauline told her. "I certainly hope nothing +has happened to--'it' since then." + +"A dog?" Hilary suggested. + +"Wait and see; by the way, where's that kitten?" + +"She's to follow in a few days; she was a bit too young to leave home +just yet." + +"I've got the sugar!" Patience called. + +Hilary stopped short at the foot of the porch steps. Patience's +remark, if it had not absolutely let the cat out of the bag, had at +least opened the bag. "Paul, it can't be--" + +"In the Shaw's dictionary, at present, there doesn't appear to be any +such word as can't," Pauline declared. "Come on---after all, you know, +the only way to find out--is to find out." + +Patience had danced on ahead down the path to the barn. She stood +waiting for them now in the broad open doorway, her whole small person +one animated exclamation point, while Towser, just home from a +leisurely round of afternoon visits, came forward to meet Hilary, +wagging a dignified welcome. + +"If you don't hurry, I'll 'hi yi' you, like I do Fanny!" Patience +warned them. She moved to one side, to let Hilary go on into the barn. +"Now!" she demanded, "isn't that something more?" + +From the stall beside Fanny's, a horse's head reached inquiringly out +for the sugar with which already she had come to associate the frequent +visits of these new friends. She was a pretty, well-made, little mare, +light sorrel, with white markings, and with a slender, intelligent face. + +Hilary stood motionless, too surprised to speak. + +"Her name's Bedelia," Patience said, doing the honors. "She's very +clever, she knows us all already. Fanny hasn't been very polite to +her, and she knows it--Bedelia does, I mean--sometimes, when Fanny +isn't looking, I've caught Bedelia sort of laughing at her--and I don't +blame her one bit. And, oh, Hilary, she can go--there's no need to 'hi +yi' her." + +"But--" Hilary turned to Pauline. + +"Uncle Paul sent her," Pauline explained. "She came last Saturday +afternoon. One of the men from Uncle Paul's place in the country +brought her. She was born and bred at River Lawn--that's Uncle Paul's +place--he says." + +Hilary stroked the glossy neck gently, if Pauline had said the Sultan +of Turkey, instead of Uncle Paul, she could hardly have been more +surprised. "Uncle Paul--sent her to you!" she said slowly. + +"To _us_." + +"Bless me, that isn't all he sent," Patience exclaimed. It seemed to +Patience that they never would get to the end of their story. "You +just come look at this, Hilary Shaw!" she ran on through the opening +connecting carriage-house with stable. + +"Oh!" Hilary cried, following with Pauline. + +Beside the minister's shabby old gig, stood the smartest of smart +traps, and hanging on the wall behind it, a pretty russet harness, with +silver mountings. + +Hilary sat down on an old saw horse; she felt again as though she must +be dreaming. + +"There isn't another such cute rig in town, Jim says so," Patience +said. Jim was the stable boy. "It beats Bell Ward's all to pieces." + +"But why--I mean, how did Uncle Paul ever come to send it to us?" +Hilary said. Of course one had always known that there +was--somewhere--a person named Uncle Paul; but he had appeared about as +remote and indefinite a being as--that same Sultan of Turkey, for +instance. + +"After all, why shouldn't he?" Pauline answered. + +"But I don't believe he would've if Paul had not written to him that +time," Patience added. "Maybe next time I tell you anything, you'll +believe me, Hilary Shaw." + +But Hilary was staring at Pauline. "You didn't write to Uncle Paul?" + +"I'm afraid I did." + +"Was--was that the letter--you remember, that afternoon?" + +"I rather think I do remember." + +"Paul, how did you ever dare?" + +"I was in the mood to dare anything that day." + +"And did he answer; but of course he did." + +"Yes--he answered. Though not right away." + +"Was it a nice letter? Did he mind your having written? Paul, you +didn't ask him to send you--these," Hilary waved her hand rather +vaguely. + +"Hardly--he did that all on his own. It wasn't a bad sort of letter, +I'll tell you about it by and by. We can go to the manor in style now, +can't we--even if father can't spare Fanny. Bedelia's perfectly +gentle, I've driven her a little ways once or twice, to make sure. +Father insisted on going with me. We created quite a sensation down +street, I assure you." + +"And Mrs. Dane said," Patience cut in, "that in her young days, +clergymen didn't go kiting 'bout the country in such high-fangled rigs." + +"Never mind what Mrs. Dane said, or didn't say," Pauline told her. + +"Miranda says, what Mrs. Dane hasn't got to say on any subject, +wouldn't make you tired listening to it." + +"Patience, if you don't stop repeating what everyone says, I shall--" + +"If you speak to mother--then you'll be repeating," Patience declared. +"Maybe, I oughtn't to have said those things before--company." + +"I think we'd better go back to the house now," Pauline suggested. + +"Sextoness Jane says," Patience remarked, "that she'd have sure admired +to have a horse and rig like that, when she was a girl. She says, she +doesn't suppose you'll be passing by her house very often." + +"And, now, please," Hilary pleaded, when she had been established in +her hammock on the side porch, with her mother in her chair close by, +and Pauline sitting on the steps, "I want to hear--everything. I'm +what Miranda calls 'fair mazed.'" + +So Pauline told nearly everything, blurring some of the details a +little and getting to that twenty-five dollars a month, with which they +were to do so much, as quickly as possible. + +"O Paul, really," Hilary sat up among her cushions--"Why, it'll +be--riches, won't it?" + +"It seems so." + +"But--Oh, I'm afraid you've spent all the first twenty-five on me; and +that's not a fair division--is it, Mother Shaw?" + +"We used it quite according to Hoyle," Pauline insisted. "We got our +fun that way, didn't we, Mother Shaw?" + +Their mother smiled. "I know I did." + +"All the same, after this, you've simply got to 'drink fair, Betsy,' so +remember," Hilary warned them. + +"Bedtime, Patience," Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience got slowly out of her +big, wicker armchair. + +"I did think--seeing there was company,--that probably you'd like me to +stay up a little later to-night." + +"If the 'company' takes my advice, she'll go, too," her mother answered. + +"The 'company' thinks she will." Hilary slipped out of the hammock. +"Mother, do you suppose Miranda's gone to bed yet?" + +"I'll go see," Patience offered, willing to postpone the inevitable for +even those few moments longer. + +"What do you want with Miranda?" Pauline asked. + +"To do something for me." + +"Can't I do it?" + +"No--and it must be done to-night. Mother, what are you smiling over?" + +"I thought it would be that way, dear." + +"Miranda's coming," Patience called. "She'd just taken her back +hair down, and she's waiting to twist it up again. She's got awful +funny back hair." + +"Patience! Patience!" her mother said reprovingly. + +"I mean, there's such a little--" + +"Go up-stairs and get yourself ready for bed at once." + +Miranda was waiting in the spare room. "You ain't took sick, Hilary?" + +Hilary shook her head. "Please, Miranda, if it wouldn't be too much +trouble, will you bring Pauline's bed in here?" + +"I guessed as much," Miranda said, moving Hilary's bed to one side. + +"Hilary--wouldn't you truly rather have a room to yourself--for a +change?" Pauline asked. + +"I have had one to myself--for eight days--and, now I'm going back to +the old way." Sitting among the cushions of the cozy corner, Hilary +superintended operations, and when the two single white beds were +standing side by side, in their accustomed fashion, the covers turned +back for the night, she nodded in satisfied manner. "Thank you so +much, Miranda; that's as it should be. Go get your things, Paul. +To-morrow, you must move in regularly. Upper drawer between us, and +the rest share and share alike, you know." + +Patience, who had hit upon the happy expedient of braiding her +hair--braids, when there were a lot of them, took a long time--got +slowly up from the hearth rug, her head a sight to behold, with its +tiny, hornlike red braids sticking out in every direction. "I suppose +I'd better be going. I wish I had someone to talk to, after I'd gone +to bed." And a deep sigh escaped her. + +Pauline kissed the wistful little face. "Never mind, old girl, you +know you'd never stay awake long enough to talk to anyone." + +She and Hilary stayed awake talking, however, until Pauline's prudence +got the better of her joy in having her sister back in more senses than +one. It was so long since they had had such a delightful bedtime talk. + +"Seeing Winton First Club," Hilary said musingly. "Paul, you're ever +so clever. Shirley insisted those letters stood for 'Suppression of +Woman's Foibles Club'; and Mr. Dayre suggested they meant, 'Sweet Wild +Flowers.'" + +"You've simply got to go to sleep now, Hilary, else mother'll come and +take me away." + +Hilary sighed blissfully. "I'll never say again--that nothing ever +happens to us." + + +Tom and Josie came to supper the next night. Shirley was there, too, +she had stopped in on her way to the post-office with her father that +afternoon, to ask how Hilary was, and been captured and kept to supper +and the first club meeting that followed. + +Hilary had been sure she would like to join, and Shirley's prompt and +delighted acceptance of their invitation proved her right. + +"I've only got five names on my list," Tom said, as the young folks +settled themselves on the porch after supper. "I suppose we'll think +of others later." + +"That'll make ten, counting us five, to begin with," Pauline said. + +"Bell and Jack Ward," Tom took out his list, "the Dixon boys and Edna +Ray. That's all." + +"I'd just like to know where I come in, Tom Brice!" Patience demanded, +her voice vibrant with indignation. + +"Upon my word! I didn't suppose--" + +"I am to belong! Ain't I, Paul?" + +"But Patty--" + +"If you're going to say no, you needn't Patty me!" + +"We'll see what mother thinks," Hilary suggested. "You wouldn't want +to be the only little girl to belong?" + +"I shouldn't mind," Patience assured her, then feeling pretty sure that +Pauline was getting ready to tell her to run away, she decided to +retire on her own account. That blissful time, when she should be +"Miss Shaw," had one drawback, which never failed to assert itself at +times like these--there would be no younger sister subject to her +authority. + +"Have you decided what we are to do?" Pauline asked Tom, when Patience +had gone. + +"I should say I had. You'll be up to a ride by next Thursday, Hilary? +Not a very long ride." + +"I'm sure I shall," Hilary answered eagerly. "Where are we going?" + +"That's telling." + +"He won't even tell me," Josie said. + +Tom's eyes twinkled. "You're none of you to know until next Thursday. +Say, at four o'clock." + +"Oh," Shirley said, "I think it's going to be the nicest club that ever +was." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +PERSONALLY CONDUCTED + +"Am I late?" Shirley asked, as Pauline came down the steps to meet her +Thursday afternoon. + +"No, indeed, it still wants five minutes to four. Will you come in, or +shall we wait out here? Hilary is under bond not to make her +appearance until the last minute." + +"Out here, please," Shirley answered, sitting down on the upper step. +"What a delightful old garden this is. Father has at last succeeded in +finding me my nag, horses appear to be at a premium in Winton, and even +if he isn't first cousin to your Bedelia, I'm coming to take you and +Hilary to drive some afternoon. Father got me a surrey, because, +later, we're expecting some of the boys up, and we'll need a two-seated +rig." + +"We're coming to take you driving, too," Pauline said. "Just at +present, it doesn't seem as if the summer would be long enough for all +the things we mean to do in it." + +"And you don't know yet, what we are to do this afternoon?" + +"Only, that it's to be a drive and, afterwards, supper at the Brices'. +That's all Josie, herself, knows about it. Tom had to take her and +Mrs. Brice into so much of his confidence." + +Through the drowsy stillness of the summer afternoon, came the notes of +a horn, sounding nearer and nearer. A moment later, a stage drawn by +two of the hotel horses turned in at the parsonage drive at a fine +speed, drawing up before the steps where Pauline and Shirley were +sitting, with considerable nourish. Beside the driver sat Tom, in long +linen duster, the megaphone belonging to the school team in one hand. +Along each side of the stage was a length of white cloth, on which was +lettered-- + + SEEING WINTON STAGE + +As the stage stopped, Tom sprang down, a most businesslike air on his +boyish face. + +"This is the Shaw residence, I believe?" he asked, consulting a piece +of paper. + +"I--I reckon so," Pauline answered, too taken aback to know quite what +she was saying. + +"All right!" Tom said. "I understand--" + +"Then it's a good deal more than I do," Pauline cut in. + +"That there are several young people here desirous of joining our +little sight-seeing trip this afternoon." + +From around the corner of the house at that moment peeped a small +freckled face, the owner of which was decidedly very desirous of +joining that trip. Only a deep sense of personal injury kept Patience +from coming forward,--she wasn't going where she wasn't wanted--but +some day--they'd see! + +Shirley clapped her hands delightedly. "How perfectly jolly! Oh, I am +glad you asked me to join the club." + +"I'll go tell Hilary!" Pauline said. "Tom, however--" + +"I beg your pardon, Miss?" + +Pauline laughed and turned away. + +"Oh, I say, Paul," Tom dropped his mask of pretended dignity, "let the +Imp come with us--this time." + +Pauline looked doubtful. She, as well as Tom, had caught sight of that +small flushed face, on which longing and indignation had been so +plainly written. "I'm not sure that mother will--" she began, "But +I'll see." + +"Tell her--just this first time," Tom urged, and Shirley added, "She +would love it so." + +"Mother says," Pauline reported presently, "that Patience may go _this_ +time--only we'll have to wait while she gets ready." + +From an upper window came an eager voice. "I'm most ready now!" + +"She'll never forget it--as long as she lives," Shirley said, "and if +she hadn't gone she would never've forgotten _that_." + +"Nor let us--for one while," Pauline remarked--"I'd a good deal rather +work with than against that young lady." + +Hilary came down then, looking ready and eager for the outing. She had +been out in the trap with Pauline several times; once, even as far as +the manor to call upon Shirley. + +"Why," she exclaimed, "you've brought the Folly! Tom, how ever did you +manage it?" + +"Beg pardon, Miss?" + +Hilary shrugged her shoulders, coming nearer for a closer inspection of +the big lumbering stage. It had been new, when the present proprietor +of the hotel, then a young man, now a middle-aged one, had come into +his inheritance. Fresh back from a winter in town, he had indulged +high hopes of booming his sleepy little village as a summer resort, and +had ordered the stage--since christened the Folly--for the convenience +and enjoyment of the guests--who had never come. A long idle lifetime +the Folly had passed in the hotel carriage-house; used so seldom, as to +make that using a village event, but never allowed to fall into +disrepair, through some fancy of its owner. + +As Tom opened the door at the back now, handing his guests in with much +ceremony, Hilary laughed softly. "It doesn't seem quite--respectful to +actually sit down in the poor old thing. I wonder, if it's more +indignant, or pleased, at being dragged out into the light of day for a +parcel of young folks?" + +"'Butchered to make a Roman Holiday'?" Shirley laughed. + +At that moment Patience appeared, rather breathless--but not half as +much so as Miranda, who had been drawn into service, and now appeared +also--"You ain't half buttoned up behind, Patience!" she protested, +"and your hair ribbon's not tied fit to be seen.--My sakes, to think of +anyone ever having named that young one _Patience_!" + +"I'll overhaul her, Miranda," Pauline comforted her. "Come here, +Patience." + +"Please, I am to sit up in front with you, ain't I, Tom?" Patience +urged. "You and I always get on so beautifully together, you know." + +Tom relaxed a second time. "I don't see how I can refuse after that," +and the over-hauling process being completed, Patience climbed up to +the high front seat, where she beamed down on the rest with such a look +of joyful content that they could only smile back in response. + +From the doorway, came a warning voice. "Not too far, Tom, for Hilary; +and remember, Patience, what you have promised me." + +"All right, Mrs. Shaw," Tom assured her, and Patience nodded her head +assentingly. + +From the parsonage, they went first to the doctor's. Josie was waiting +for them at the gate, and as they drew up before it, with horn blowing, +and horses almost prancing--the proprietor of the hotel had given them +his best horses, in honor of the Folly--she stared from her brother to +the stage, with its white placard, with much the same look of wonder in +her eyes as Pauline and Hilary had shown. + +"Miss Brice?" Tom was consulting his list again. + +"So that's what you've been concocting, Tom Brice!" Josie answered. + +Tom's face was as sober as his manner. "I am afraid we are a little +behind scheduled time, being unavoidably delayed." + +"He means they had to wait for me to get ready," Patience explained. +"You didn't expect to see me along, did you, Josie?" And she smiled +blandly. + +"I don't know what I did expect--certainly, not this." Josie took her +place in the stage, not altogether sure whether the etiquette of the +occasion allowed of her recognizing its other inmates, or not. + +But Pauline nodded politely. "Good afternoon. Lovely day, isn't it?" +she remarked, while Shirley asked, if she had ever made this trip +before. + +"Not in this way," Josie answered. "I've never ridden in the Folly +before. Have you, Paul?" + +"Once, from the depot to the hotel, when I was a youngster, about +Impatience's age. You remember, Hilary?" + +"Of course I do. Uncle Jerry took me up in front." Uncle Jerry was +the name the owner of the stage went by in Winton. "He'd had a lot of +Boston people up, and had been showing them around." + +"This reminds me of the time father and I did our own New York in one +of those big 'Seeing New York' motors," Shirley said. "I came home +feeling almost as if we'd been making a trip 'round some foreign city." + +"Tom can't make Winton seem foreign," Josie declared. + +There were three more houses to stop at, lower down the street. From +windows and porches all along the route, laughing, curious faces stared +wonderingly after them, while a small body-guard of children sprang up +as if by magic to attend them on their way. This added greatly to the +delight of Patience, who smiled condescendingly down upon various +intimates, blissfully conscious of the envy she was exciting in their +breasts. It was delightful to be one of the club for a time, at least. + +"And now, if you please, Ladies and Gentlemen," Tom had closed the door +to upon the last of his party, "we will drive first to The Vermont +House, a hostelry well known throughout the surrounding country, and +conducted by one of Vermont's best known and honored sons." + +"Hear! Hear!" Jack Ward cried. "I say, Tom, get that off again where +Uncle Jerry can hear it, and you'll always be sure of his vote." + +They had reached the rambling old hotel, from the front porch of which +Uncle Jerry himself, surveyed them genially. + +"Ladies and Gentlemen," standing up, Tom turned to face the occupants +of the stage, his megaphone, carried merely as a badge of office, +raised like a conductor's baton, "I wish to impress upon your minds +that the building now before you--liberal rates for the season--is +chiefly remarkable for never having sheltered the Father of His +Country." + +"Now how do you know that?" Uncle Jerry protested. "Ain't that North +Chamber called the 'Washington room'?" + +"Oh, but that's because the first proprietor's first wife occupied that +room--and she was famous for her Washington pie," Tom answered readily. +"I assure you, sir, that any and all information which I shall have the +honor to impart to these strangers within our gates may be relied upon +for its accuracy." He gave the driver the word, and the Folly +continued on its way, stopping presently before a little +story-and-a-half cottage not far below the hotel and on a level with +the street. + +"This cottage, my young friends," Tom said impressively, "should +be--and I trust is--enshrined deep within the hearts of all true +Wintonites. Latterly, it has come to be called the Barker cottage, but +its real title is 'The Flag House'; so called, because from that humble +porch, the first Stars and Stripes ever seen in Winton flung its colors +to the breeze. The original flag is still in possession of a lineal +descendant of its first owner, who is, unfortunately, not an inhabitant +of this town." The boyish gravity of tone and manner was not all +assumed now. + +No one spoke for a moment; eleven pairs of young eyes were looking out +at the little weather-stained building with new interest. "I thought," +Bell Ward said at last, "that they called it the _flag_ place, because +someone of that name had used to live there." + +"So did I," Hilary said. + +As the stage moved on, Shirley leaned back for another look. "I shall +get father to come and sketch it," she said. "Isn't it the quaintest +old place?" + +"We will now proceed," Tom announced, "to the village green, where I +shall have the pleasure of relating to you certain anecdotes regarding +the part it played in the early life of this interesting old village." + +"Not too many, old man," Tracy Dixon suggested hurriedly, "or it may +prove a one-sided pleasure." + +The green lay in the center of the town,--a wide, open space, with +flagstaff in the middle; fine old elms bordered it on all four sides. +The Vermont House faced it, on the north, and on the opposite side +stood the general store, belonging to Mr. Ward, with one or two smaller +places of business. + +"The business section" of the town, Tom called it, and quite failed to +notice Tracy's lament that he had not brought his opera glasses with +him. "Really, you know," Tracy explained to his companions, "I should +have liked awfully to see it. I'm mighty interested in business +sections." + +"Cut that out," his brother Bob commanded, "the chap up in front is +getting ready to hold forth again." + +They were simple enough, those anecdotes, that "the chap up in front" +told them; but in the telling, the boy's voice lost again all touch of +mock gravity. His listeners, sitting there in the June sunshine, +looking out across the old green, flecked with the waving tree shadows, +and bright with the buttercups nodding here and there, seemed to see +those men and boys drilling there in the far-off summer twilights; to +hear the sharp words of command; the sound of fife and drum. And the +familiar names mentioned more than once, well-known village names, +names belonging to their own families in some instances, served to +deepen the impression. + +"Why," Edna Ray said slowly, "they're like the things one learns at +school; somehow, they make one realize that there truly was a +Revolutionary War. Wherever did you pick up such a lot of town +history, Tom?" + +"That's telling," Tom answered. + +Back up the broad, main street they went, past the pleasant village +houses, with their bright, well-kept dooryards, under the +wide-spreading trees beneath which so many generations of young folks +had come and gone; past the square, white parsonage, with its setting +of green lawn; past the old stone church, and on out into the by-roads +of the village, catching now and then a glimpse of the great lake +beyond; and now and then, down some lane, a bit of the street they had +left. They saw it all with eyes that for once had lost the +indifference of long familiarity, and were swift to catch instead its +quiet, restful beauty, helped in this, perhaps, by Shirley's very real +admiration. + +The ride ended at Dr. Brice's gate, and here Tom dropped his mantle of +authority, handing all further responsibility as to the entertainment +of the party over to his sister. + +Hilary was carried off to rest until supper time, and the rest +scattered about the garden, a veritable rose garden on that June +afternoon, roses being Dr. Brice's pet hobby. + +"It must be lovely to _live_ in the country," Shirley said, dropping +down on the grass before the doctor's favorite _La France_, and laying +her face against the soft, pink petals of a half-blown bud. + +Edna eyed her curiously. She had rather resented the admittance of +this city girl into their set. Shirley's skirt and blouse were of +white linen, there was a knot of red under the broad sailor collar, she +was hatless and the dark hair,--never kept too closely within +bounds--was tossed and blown; there was certainly nothing especially +cityfied in either appearance or manner. + +"That's the way I feel about the city," Edna said slowly, "it must be +lovely to live _there_." + +Shirley laughed. "It is. I reckon just being alive anywhere such days +as these ought to content one. You haven't been over to the manor +lately, have you? I mean since we came there. We're really getting +the garden to look like a garden. Reclaiming the wilderness, father +calls it. You'll come over now, won't you--the club, I mean?" + +"Why, of course," Edna answered, she thought she would like to go. "I +suppose you've been over to the forts?" + +"Lots of times--father's ever so interested in them, and it's just a +pleasant row across, after supper." + +"I have fasted too long, I must eat again," Tom remarked, coming across +the lawn. "Miss Dayre, may I have the honor?" + +"Are you conductor, or merely club president now?" Shirley asked. + +"Oh, I've dropped into private life again. There comes Hilary--doesn't +look much like an invalid, does she?" + +"But she didn't look very well the first time I saw her," Shirley +answered. + +The long supper table was laid under the apple trees at the foot of the +garden, which in itself served to turn the occasion into a festive +affair. + +"You've given us a bully send-off, Mr. President," Bob declared. "It's +going to be sort of hard for the rest of us to keep up with you." + +"By the way," Tom said, "Dr. Brice--some of you may have heard of +him--would like to become an honorary member of this club. Any +contrary votes?" + +"What's an honorary member?" Patience asked. Patience had been +remarkably good that afternoon--so good that Pauline began to feel +worried, dreading the reaction. + +"One who has all the fun and none of the work," Tracy explained, a +merry twinkle in his brown eyes. + +Patience considered the matter. "I shouldn't mind the work; but mother +won't let me join regularly--mother takes notions now and then--but, +please mayn't I be an honorary member?" + +"Onery, you mean, young lady!" Tracy corrected. + +Patience flashed a pair of scornful eyes at him. "Father says punning +is the very lowest form of--" + +"Never mind, Patience," Pauline said, "we haven't answered Tom yet. I +vote we extend our thanks to the doctor for being willing to join." + +"He isn't a bit more willing than I am," Patience observed. There was +a general laugh among the real members, then Tom said, "If a Shaw votes +for a Brice, I don't very well see how a Brice can refuse to vote for a +Shaw." + +"The motion is carried," Bob seconded him. + +"Subject to mother's consent," Pauline added, a quite unnecessary bit +of elder sisterly interference, Patience thought. + +"And now, even if it is telling on yourself, suppose you own up, old +man?" Jack Ward turned to Tom. "You see we don't in the least credit +you with having produced all that village history from your own stores +of knowledge." + +"I never said you need to," Tom answered, "even the idea was not +altogether original with me." + +Patience suddenly leaned forward, her face all alight with interest. +"I love my love with an A," she said slowly, "because he's an--author." + +Tom whistled. "Well, of all the uncanny young ones!" + +"It's very simple," Patience said loftily. + +"So it is, Imp," Tracy exclaimed; "I love him with an A, because he's +an--A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N!" + +"I took him to the sign of The Apple Tree," Bell took up the thread. + +"And fed him (mentally) on subjects--antedeluvian, or almost so," +Hilary added. + +"What _are_ you talking about?" Edna asked impatiently. + +"Mr. Allen," Pauline told her. + +"I saw him and Tom walking down the back lane the other night," +Patience explained. Patience felt that she had won her right to belong +to the club now--they'd see she wasn't just a silly little girl. +"Father says he--I don't mean Tom--" + +"We didn't suppose you did," Tracy laughed. + +"Knows more history than any other man in the state; especially, the +history of the state." + +"Mr. Allen!" Shirley exclaimed. "T. C. Allen! Why, father and I read +one of his books just the other week. It's mighty interesting. Does +he live in Winton?" + +"He surely does," Bob grinned, "and every little while he comes up to +school and puts us through our paces. It's his boast that he was born, +bred and educated right in Vermont. He isn't a bad old buck--if he +wouldn't pester a fellow with too many questions." + +"He lives out beyond us," Hilary told Shirley. "There's a great apple +tree right in front of the gate. He has an old house-keeper to look +after him. I wish you could see his books--he's literally surrounded +with them." + +"Not storybooks," Patience added. "He says, they're books full of +stories, if one's a mind to look for them." + +"Please," Edna protested, "let's change the subject. Are we to have +badges, or not?" + +"Pins," Bell suggested. + +"Pins would have to be made to order," Pauline objected, "and would be +more or less expensive." + +"And it's an unwritten by-law of this club, that we shall go to no +unnecessary expense," Tom insisted. + +"But--" Bell began. + +"Oh, I know what you're thinking," Tom broke in, "but Uncle Jerry +didn't charge for the stage--he said he was only too glad to have the +poor thing used--'twas a dull life for her, shut up in the +carriage-house year in and year out." + +"The Folly isn't a she," Patience protested. + +"Folly generally is feminine," Tracy said, "and so--" + +"And he let us have the horses, too--for our initial outing," Tom went +on. "Said the stage wouldn't be of much use without them." + +"Three cheers for Uncle Jerry!" Bob Dixon cried. "Let's make him an +honorary member." + +"But the badges," Edna said. "I never saw such people for going off at +tangents." + +"Ribbon would be pretty," Shirley suggested, "with the name of the club +in gilt letters. I can letter pretty well." + +Her suggestion was received with general acclamation, and after much +discussion, as to color, dark blue was decided on. + +"Blue goes rather well with red," Tom said, "and as two of our members +have red hair," his glance went from Patience to Pauline. + +"I move we adjourn, the president's getting personal," Pauline pushed +back her chair. + +"Who's turn is it to be next?" Jack asked. + +They drew lots with blades of grass; it fell to Hilary. "I warn you," +she said, "that I can't come up to Tom." + +Then the first meeting of the new club broke up, the members going +their various ways. Shirley went as far as the parsonage, where she +was to wait for her father. + +"I've had a beautiful time," she said warmly. "And I've thought what +to do when my turn comes. Only, I think you'll have to let father in +as an honorary, I'll need him to help me out." + +"We'll be only too glad," Pauline said heartily. "This club's growing +fast, isn't it? Have you decided, Hilary?" + +Hilary shook her head, "N-not exactly; I've sort of an idea." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HILARY'S TURN + +Pauline and Hilary were up in their own room, the "new room," as it had +come to be called, deep in the discussion of certain samples that had +come in that morning's mail. + +Uncle Paul's second check was due before long now, and then there were +to be new summer dresses, or rather the goods for them, one apiece all +around. + +"Because, of course," Pauline said, turning the pretty scraps over, +"Mother Shaw's got to have one, too. We'll have to get it--on the +side--or she'll declare she doesn't need it, and she does." + +"Just the goods won't come to so very much," Hilary said. + +"No, indeed, and mother and I can make them." + +"We certainly got a lot out of that other check, or rather, you and +mother did," Hilary went on. "And it isn't all gone?" + +"Pretty nearly, except the little we decided to lay by each month. But +we did stretch it out in a good many directions. I don't suppose any +of the other twenty-fives will seem quite so big." + +"But there won't be such big things to get with them," Hilary said, +"except these muslins." + +"It's unspeakably delightful to have money for the little unnecessary +things, isn't it?" Pauline rejoiced. + +That first check had really gone a long ways. After buying the matting +and paper, there had been quite a fair sum left; enough to pay for two +magazine subscriptions, one a review that Mr. Shaw had long wanted to +take, another, one of the best of the current monthlies; and to lay in +quite a store of new ribbons and pretty turnovers, and several yards of +silkaline to make cushion covers for the side porch, for Pauline, +taking hint from Hilary's out-door parlor at the farm, had been quick +to make the most of their own deep, vine-shaded side porch at the +parsonage. + +The front piazza belonged in a measure to the general public, there +were too many people coming and going to make it private enough for a +family gathering place. But the side porch was different, broad and +square, only two or three steps from the ground; it was their favorite +gathering place all through the long, hot summers. + +With a strip of carpet for the floor, a small table resurrected from +the garret, a bench and three wicker rockers, freshly painted green, +and Hilary's hammock, rich in pillows, Pauline felt that their porch +was one to be proud of. To Patience had been entrusted the care of +keeping the old blue and white Canton bowl filled with fresh flowers, +and there were generally books and papers on the table. And they might +have done it all before, Pauline thought now, if they had stopped to +think. + +"Have you decided?" Hilary asked her, glancing at the sober face bent +over the samples. + +"I believe I'd forgotten all about them; I think I'll choose this--" +Pauline held up a sample of blue and white striped dimity. + +"That _is_ pretty." + +"You can have it, if you like." + +"Oh, no, I'll have the pink." + +"And the lavender dot, for Mother Shaw?" + +"Yes," Hilary agreed. + +"Patience had better have straight white, it'll be in the wash so +often." + +"Why not let her choose for herself, Paul?" Hilary suggested. + +"Hilary! Oh, Hilary Shaw!" Patience called excitedly, at that moment +from downstairs. + +"Up here!" Hilary called back, and Patience came hurrying up, stumbling +more than once in her eagerness. The next moment, she pushed wide the +door of the "new room." "See what's come! It's addressed to you, +Hilary--it came by express--Jed brought it up from the depot!" Jed was +the village expressman. + +She deposited her burden on the table beside Hilary. It was a +good-sized, square box, and with all that delightful air of mystery +about it that such packages usually have. + +"What do you suppose it is, Paul?" Hilary cried. "Why, I've never had +anything come unexpectedly, like this, before." + +"A whole lot of things are happening to us that never've happened +before," Patience said. "See, it's from Uncle Paul!" she pointed to +the address at the upper left-hand corner of the package. "Oh, Hilary, +let me open it, please, I'll go get the tack hammer." + +"Tell mother to come," Hilary said. + +"Maybe it's books, Paul!" she added, as Patience scampered off. + +Pauline lifted the box. "It doesn't seem quite heavy enough for books." + +"But what else could it be?" + +Pauline laughed. "It isn't another Bedelia, at all events. It could +be almost anything. Hilary, I believe Uncle Paul is really glad I +wrote to him." + +"Well, I'm not exactly sorry," Hilary declared. + +"Mother can't come yet," Patience explained, reappearing. "She says +not to wait. It's that tiresome Mrs. Dane; she just seems to know when +we don't want her, and then to come--only, I suppose if she waited 'til +we did want to see her, she'd never get here." + +"Mother didn't say that. Impatience, and you'd better not let her hear +you saying it," Pauline warned. + +But Patience was busy with the tack hammer. "You can take the inside +covers off," she said to Hilary. + +"Thanks, awfully," Hilary murmured. + +"It'll be my turn next, won't it?" Patience dropped the tack hammer, +and wrenched off the cover of the box--"Go ahead, Hilary! Oh, how slow +you are!" + +For Hilary was going about her share of the unpacking in the most +leisurely way. "I want to guess first," she said. "Such a lot of +wrappings! It must be something breakable." + +"A picture, maybe," Pauline suggested. Patience dropped cross-legged +on the floor. "Then I don't think Uncle Paul's such a very sensible +sort of person," she said. + +"No, not pictures!" Hilary lifted something from within the box, "but +something to get pictures with. See, Paul!" + +"A camera! Oh, Hilary!" + +"And not a little tiny one." Patience leaned over to examine the box. +"It's a three and a quarter by four and a quarter. We can have fun +now, can't we?" Patience believed firmly in the cooperative principle. + +"Tom'll show you how to use it," Pauline said. "He fixed up a dark +room last fall, you know, for himself." + +"And here are all the doings." Patience came to investigate the +further contents of the express package. "Films and those funny little +pans for developing in, and all." + +Inside the camera was a message to the effect that Mr. Shaw hoped his +niece would be pleased with his present and that it would add to the +summer's pleasures, + +"He's getting real uncley, isn't he?" Patience observed. Then she +caught sight of the samples Pauline had let fall. "Oh, how pretty! +Are they for dresses for us?" + +"They'd make pretty scant ones, I'd say," Pauline, answered. + +"Silly!" Patience spread the bright scraps out on her blue checked +gingham apron. "I just bet you've been choosing! Why didn't you call +me?" + +"To help us choose?" Pauline asked, with a laugh. + +But at the present moment, her small sister was quite impervious to +sarcasm. "I think I'll have this," she pointed to a white ground, +closely sprinkled with vivid green dots. + +"Carrots and greens!" Pauline declared, glancing at her sister's red +curls. "You'd look like an animated boiled dinner! If you please, who +said anything about your choosing?" + +"You look ever so nice in all white, Patty," Hilary said hastily. + +"Have you and Paul chosen all white?" + +"N-no." + +"Then I shan't!" She looked up quickly, her blue eyes very persuasive. +"I don't very often have a brand new, just-out-of-the-store dress, do +I?" + +Pauline laughed. "Only don't let it be the green then. Good, here's +mother, at last!" + +"Mummy, is blue or green better?" Patience demanded. + +Mrs. Shaw examined and duly admired the camera, and decided in favor of +a blue dot; then she said, "Mrs. Boyd is down-stairs, Hilary." + +"How nice!" Hilary jumped up. "I want to see her most particularly." + +"Bless me, child!" Mrs. Boyd exclaimed, as Hilary came into the +sitting-room, "how you are getting on! Why, you don't look like the +same girl of three weeks back." + +Hilary sat down beside her on the sofa. "I've got a most tremendous +favor to ask, Mrs. Boyd." + +"I'm glad to hear that! I hear you young folks are having fine times +lately. Shirley was telling me about the club the other night." + +"It's about the club--and it's in two parts; first, won't you and Mr. +Boyd be honorary members?--That means you can come to the good times if +you like, you know.--And the other is--you see, it's my turn next--" +And when Pauline came down, she found the two deep in consultation. + +The next afternoon, Patience carried out her long-intended plan of +calling at the manor. Mrs. Shaw was from home for the day, Pauline and +Hilary were out in the trap with Tom and Josie and the camera. "So +there's really no one to ask permission of, Towser," Patience +explained, as they started off down the back lane. "Father's got the +study door closed, of course that means he mustn't be disturbed for +anything unless it's absolutely necessary." + +Towser wagged comprehendingly. He was quite ready for a ramble this +bright afternoon, especially a ramble 'cross lots. + +Shirley and her father were not at home, neither--which was even more +disappointing--were any of the dogs; so, after a short chat with Betsy +Todd, considerably curtailed by that body's too frankly expressed +wonder that Patience should've been allowed to come unattended by any +of her elders, she and Towser wandered home again. + +In the lane, they met Sextoness Jane, sitting on the roadside, under a +shady tree. She and Patience exchanged views on parish matters, +discussed the new club, and had an all-round good gossip. + +"My sakes!" Jane said, her faded eyes bright with interest, "it must +seem like Christmas all the time up to your house." She looked past +Patience to the old church beyond, around which her life had centered +itself for so many years. "There weren't ever such doings at the +parsonage--nor anywhere else, what I knowed of--when I was a girl. +Why, that Bedelia horse! Seems like she give an air to the whole +place--so pretty and high-stepping--it's most's good's a circus--not +that I've ever been to a circus, but I've hear tell on them--just to +see her go prancing by." + +"I think," Patience said that evening, as they were all sitting on the +porch in the twilight, "I think that Jane would like awfully to belong +to our club." + +"Have you started a club, too?" Pauline teased. + +Patience tossed her red head. "'The S. W. F. Club,' I mean; and you +know it, Paul Shaw. When I get to be fifteen, I shan't act half so +silly as some folks." + +"What ever put that idea in your head?" Hilary asked. It was one of +Hilary's chief missions in life to act as intermediary between her +younger and older sister. + +"Oh, I just gathered it, from what she said. Towser and I met her this +afternoon, on our way home from the manor." + +"From where, Patience?" her mother asked quickly, with that faculty for +taking hold of the wrong end of a remark, that Patience had had +occasion to deplore more than once. + +And in the diversion this caused, Sextoness Jane was forgotten. + + +"Here comes Mr. Boyd, Hilary!" Pauline called from the foot of the +stairs. + +Hilary finished tying the knot of cherry ribbon at her throat, then +snatching up her big sun-hat from the bed, she ran down-stairs. + +Before the side door, stood the big wagon, in which Mr. Boyd had driven +over from the farm, its bottom well filled with fresh straw. For +Hilary's outing was to be a cherry picnic at The Maples, with supper +under the trees, and a drive home later by moonlight. + +Shirley had brought over the badges a day or two before; the blue +ribbon, with its gilt lettering, gave an added touch to the girls' +white dresses and cherry ribbons. + +Mr. Dayre had been duly made an honorary member. He and Shirley were +to meet the rest of the party at the farm. As for Patience H. M., as +Tom called her, she had been walking very softly the past few days. +There had been no long rambles without permission, no making calls on +her own account. There _had_ been a private interview between herself +and Mr. Boyd, whom she had met, not altogether by chance, down street +the day before. + +The result was that, at the present moment, Patience--white-frocked, +blue-badged, cherry-ribboned--was sitting demurely in one corner of the +big wagon. + +Mr. Boyd chuckled as he glanced down at her; a body'd have to get up +pretty early in the morning to get ahead of that youngster. Though not +in white, nor wearing cherry ribbons, Mr. Boyd sported his badge with +much complacency. Winton was looking up, decidedly. 'Twasn't such a +slow old place, after all. + +"All ready?" he asked, as Pauline slipped a couple of big pasteboard +boxes under the wagon seat, and threw in some shawls for the coming +home. + +"All ready. Good-by, Mother Shaw. Remember, you and father have got +to come with us one of these days. I guess if Mr. Boyd can take a +holiday you can." + +"Good-by," Hilary called, and Patience waved joyously. "This'll make +two times," she comforted herself, "and two times ought to be enough to +establish what father calls 'a precedent.'" + +They stopped at the four other houses in turn; then Mr. Boyd touched +his horses up lightly, rattling them along at a good rate out on to the +road leading to the lake and so to The Maples. + +There was plenty of fun and laughter by the way. They had gone +picnicking together so many summers, this same crowd, had had so many +good times together. "And yet it seems different, this year, doesn't +it?" Bell said. "We really aren't doing new things--exactly, still +they seem so." + +Tracy touched his badge. "These are the 'Blue Ribbon Brand,' best +goods in the market." + +"Come to think of it, there aren't so very many new things one can do," +Tom remarked. + +"Not in Winton, at any rate," Bob added. + +"If anyone dares say anything derogatory to Winton, on this, or any +other, outing of the 'S. W. F. Club,' he, or she, will get into +trouble," Josie said sternly. + +Mrs. Boyd was waiting for them on the steps, Shirley close by, while a +glimpse of a white umbrella seen through the trees told that Mr. Dayre +was not far off. + +"It's the best cherry season in years," Mrs. Boyd declared, as the +young folks came laughing and crowding about her. She was a prime +favorite with them all. "My, how nice you look! Those badges are +mighty pretty." + +"Where's yours?" Pauline demanded. + +"It's in my top drawer, dear. Looks like I'm too old to go wearing +such things, though 'twas ever so good in you to send me one." + +"Hilary," Pauline turned to her sister, "I'm sure Mrs. Boyd'll let you +go to her top drawer. Not a stroke of business does this club do, +until this particular member has her badge on." + +"Now," Tom asked, when that little matter had been attended to, "what's +the order of the day?" + +"I hope you've worn old dresses?" Mrs. Boyd said. + +"I haven't, ma'am," Tracy announced. + +"Order!" Bob called. + +"Eat all you like--so long's you don't get sick--and each pick a nice +basket to take home," Mrs. Boyd explained. There were no cherries +anywhere else quite so big and fine, as those at The Maples. + +"You to command, we to obey!" Tracy declared. + +"Boys to pick, girls to pick up," Tom ordered, as they scattered about +among the big, bountifully laden trees. + + "For cherry time, + Is merry time," + +Shirley improvised, catching the cluster of great red and white +cherries Jack tossed down to her. + +Even more than the rest of the young folks, Shirley was getting the +good of this happy, out-door summer, with its quiet pleasures and +restful sense of home life. She had never known anything before like +it. It was very different, certainly, from the studio life in New +York, different from the sketching rambles she had taken other summers +with her father. They were delightful, too, and it was pleasant to +think of going back to them again--some day; but just at present, it +was good to be a girl among other girls, interested in all the simple, +homely things each day brought up. + +And her father was content, too, else how could she have been so? It +was doing him no end of good. Painting a little, sketching a little, +reading and idling a good deal, and through it all, immensely amused at +the enthusiasm with which his daughter threw herself into the village +life. "I shall begin to think soon, that you were born and raised in +Winton," he had said to her that very morning, as she came in fresh +from a conference with Betsy Todd. Betsy might be spending her summer +in a rather out-of-the-way spot, and her rheumatism might prevent her +from getting into town--as she expressed it--but very little went on +that Betsy did not hear of, and she was not one to keep her news to +herself. + +"So shall I," Shirley had laughed back. She wondered now, if Pauline +or Hilary would enjoy a studio winter, as much as she was reveling in +her Winton summer? She decided that probably they would. + +Cherry time _was_ merry time that afternoon. Of course. Bob fell out +of one of the trees, but Bob was so used to tumbling, and the others +were so used to having him tumble, that no one paid much attention to +it; and equally, of course, Patience tore her dress and had to be taken +in hand by Mrs. Boyd. + +"Every rose must have its thorns, you know, kid," Tracy told her, as +she was borne away for this enforced retirement. "We'll leave a few +cherries, 'gainst you get back." + +Patience elevated her small freckled nose, she was an adept at it. "I +reckon they will be mighty few--if you have anything to do with it." + +"You're having a fine time, aren't you, Senior?" Shirley asked, as Mr. +Dayre came scrambling down from his tree; he had been routed from his +sketching and pressed into service by his indefatigable daughter. + +"Scrumptious! Shirley, you've got a fine color--only it's laid on in +spots." + +"You're spattery, too," she retorted. "I must go help lay out the +supper now." + +"Will anyone want supper, after so many cherries?" Mr. Dayre asked. + +"Will they?" Pauline laughed. "Well, you just wait and see." + +Some of the boys brought the table from the house, stretching it out to +its uttermost length. The girls laid the cloth, Mrs. Boyd provided, +and unpacked the boxes stacked on the porch. From the kitchen came an +appetizing odor of hot coffee. Hilary and Bell went off after flowers +for the center of the table. + +"We'll put one at each place, suggestive of the person--like a place +card," Hilary proposed. + +"Here's a daisy for Mrs. Boyd," Bell laughed. + +"Let's give that to Mr. Boyd and cut her one of these old-fashioned +spice pinks," Hilary said. + +"Better put a bit of pepper-grass for the Imp," Tracy suggested, as the +girls went from place to place up and down the long table. + +"Paul's to have a ," Hilary insisted. She remembered how, if it +hadn't been for Pauline's "thought" that wet May afternoon, everything +would still be as dull and dreary as it was then. + +At her own place she found a spray of belated wild roses, Tom had laid +there, the pink of their petals not more delicate than the soft color +coming and going in the girl's face. + +"We've brought for-get-me-not for you, Shirley," Bell said, "so that +you won't forget us when you get back to the city." + +"As if I were likely to!" Shirley exclaimed. + +"Sound the call to supper, sonny!" Tom told Bob, and Bob, raising the +farm dinner-horn, sounded it with a will, making the girls cover their +ears with their hands and bringing the boys up with a rush. + +"It's a beautiful picnic, isn't it?" Patience said, reappearing in time +to slip into place with the rest. + +"And after supper, I will read you the club song," Tracy announced. + +"Are we to have a club song?" Edna asked. + +"We are." + +"Read it now, son--while we eat," Tom suggested. + +Tracy rose promptly--"Mind you save me a few scraps then. First, it +isn't original--" + +"All the better," Jack commented. + +"Hush up, and listen-- + + "'A cheerful world?--It surely is. + And if you understand your biz + You'll taboo the worry worm, + And cultivate the happy germ. + + "'It's a habit to be happy, + Just as much as to be scrappy. + So put the frown away awhile, + And try a little sunny smile.'" + +There was a generous round of applause. Tracy tossed the scrap of +paper across the table to Bell. "Put it to music, before the next +round-up, if you please." + +Bell nodded. "I'll do my best." + +"We've got a club song and a club badge, and we ought to have a club +motto," Josie said. + +"It's right to your hand, in your song," her brother answered. "'It's +a habit to be happy.'" + +"Good!" Pauline seconded him, and the motto was at once adopted. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SNAP-SHOTS + +Bell Ward set the new song to music, a light, catchy tune, easy to pick +up. It took immediately, the boys whistled it, as they came and went, +and the girls hummed it. Patience, with cheerful impartiality, did +both, in season and out of season. + +It certainly looked as though it were getting to be a habit to be happy +among a good many persons in Winton that summer. The spirit of the new +club seemed in the very atmosphere. + +A rivalry, keen but generous, sprang up between the club members in the +matter of discovering new ways of "Seeing Winton," or, failing that, of +giving a new touch to the old familiar ones. + +There were many informal and unexpected outings, besides the club's +regular ones, sometimes amongst all the members, often among two or +three of them. + +Frequently, Shirley drove over in the surrey, and she and Pauline and +Hilary, with sometimes one of the other girls, would go for long +rambling drives along the quiet country roads, or out beside the lake. +Shirley generally brought her sketch-book and there were pleasant +stoppings here and there. + +And there were few days on which Bedelia and the trap were not out, +Bedelia enjoying the brisk trots about the country quite as much as her +companions. + +Hilary soon earned the title of "the kodak fiend," Josie declaring she +took pictures in her sleep, and that "Have me; have my camera," was +Hilary's present motto. Certainly, the camera was in evidence at all +the outings, and so far, Hilary had fewer failures to her account than +most beginners. Her "picture diary" she called the big scrap-book in +which was mounted her record of the summer's doings. + +Those doings were proving both numerous and delightful. Mr. Shaw, as +an honorary member, had invited the club to a fishing party, which had +been an immense success. The doctor had followed it by a moonlight +drive along the lake and across on the old sail ferry to the New York +side, keeping strictly within that ten-mile-from-home limit, though +covering considerably more than ten miles in the coming and going. + +There had been picnics of every description, to all the points of +interest and charm in and about the village; an old-time supper at the +Wards', at which the club members had appeared in old-fashioned +costumes; a strawberry supper on the church lawn, to which all the +church were invited, and which went off rather better than some of the +sociables had in times past. + +As the Winton _Weekly News_ declared proudly, it was the gayest summer +the village had known in years. Mr. Paul Shaw's theory about +developing home resources was proving a sound one in this instance at +least. + +Hilary had long since forgotten that she had ever been an invalid, had +indeed, sometimes, to be reminded of that fact. She had quite +discarded the little "company" fiction, except now and then, by way of +a joke. "Who'd want to be company?" she protested. "I'd rather be one +of the family these days." + +"That's all very well," Patience retorted, "when you're getting all the +good of being both. You've got the company room." Patience had not +found her summer quite as cloudless as some of her elders; being an +honorary member had not meant _all_ of the fun in her case. She wished +very much that it were possible to grow up in a single night, thus +wiping out forever that drawback of being "a little girl." + +Still, on the whole, she managed to get a fair share of the fun going +on and quite agreed with the editor of the _Weekly News_, going so far +as to tell him so when she met him down street. She had a very kindly +feeling in her heart for the pleasant spoken little editor; had he not +given her her full honors every time she had had the joy of being +"among those present"? + +There had been three of those checks from Uncle Paul; it was wonderful +how far each had been made to go. It was possible nowadays to send for +a new book, when the reviews were more than especially tempting. There +had also been a tea-table added to the other attractions of the side +porch, not an expensive affair, but the little Japanese cups and +saucers were both pretty and delicate, as was the rest of the service; +while Miranda's cream cookies and sponge cakes were, as Shirley +declared, good enough to be framed. Even the minister appeared now and +then of an afternoon, during tea hour, and the young people, gathered +on the porch, began to find him a very pleasant addition to their +little company, he and they getting acquainted, as they had never +gotten acquainted before. + +Sextoness Jane came every week now to help with the ironing, which +meant greater freedom in the matter of wash dresses; and also, to +Sextoness Jane herself, the certainty of a day's outing every week. To +Sextoness Jane, those Tuesdays at the parsonage were little short of a +dissipation. Miranda, unbending in the face of such sincere and humble +admiration, was truly gracious. The glimpses the little bent, old +sextoness got of the young folks, the sense of life going on about her, +were as good as a play, to quote her own simile, confided of an evening +to Tobias, her great black cat, the only other inmate of the old +cottage. + +"I reckon Uncle Paul would be rather surprised," Pauline said one +evening, "if he could know all the queer sorts of ways in which we use +his money. But the little easings-up do count for so much." + +"Indeed they do," Hilary agreed warmly, "though it hasn't all gone for +easings-ups, as you call them, either." She had sat down right in the +middle of getting ready for bed, to revel in her ribbon box; she so +loved pretty ribbons! + +The committee on finances, as Pauline called her mother, Hilary, and +herself, held frequent meetings. "And there's always one thing," the +girl would declare proudly, "the treasury is never entirely empty." + +She kept faithful account of all money received and spent; each month a +certain amount was laid away for the "rainy day"--which meant, really, +the time when the checks should cease to come---"for, you know, Uncle +Paul only promised them for the _summer_," Pauline reminded the others, +and herself, rather frequently. Nor was all of the remainder ever +quite used up before the coming of the next check. + +"You're quite a business woman, my dear," Mr. Shaw said once, smiling +over the carefully recorded entries in the little account-book she +showed him. "We must have named you rightly." + +She wrote regularly to her uncle; her letters unconsciously growing +more friendly and informal from week to week. They were bright, vivid +letters, more so than Pauline had any idea of. Through them, Mr. Paul +Shaw felt himself becoming very well acquainted with these young +relatives whom he had never seen, and in whom, as the weeks went by, he +felt himself growing more and more interested. + +Without realizing it, he got into the habit of looking forward to that +weekly letter; the girl wrote a nice clear hand, there didn't seem to +be any nonsense about her, and she had a way of going right to her +point that was most satisfactory. It seemed sometimes as if he could +see the old white parsonage and ivy-covered church; the broad +tree-shaded lawns; the outdoor parlor, with the young people gathered +about the tea-table; Bedelia, picking her way along the quiet country +roads; the great lake in all its moods; the manor house. + +Sometimes Pauline would enclose one or two of Hilary's snap-shots of +places, or persons. At one of these, taken the day of the fishing +picnic, and under which Hilary had written "The best catch of the +season," Mr. Paul Shaw looked long and intently. Somehow he had never +pictured Phil to himself as middle-aged. If anyone had told him, when +the lad was a boy, that the time would come when they would be like +strangers to each other--Mr. Paul Shaw slipped the snap-shot and letter +back into their envelope. + +It was that afternoon that he spent considerable time over a catalogue +devoted entirely to sporting goods; and it was a fortnight later that +Patience came flying down the garden path to where Pauline and Hilary +were leaning over the fence, paying a morning call to Bedelia, sunning +herself in the back pasture. + +"You'll never guess what's come _this_ time! And Jed says he reckons +he can haul it out this afternoon if you're set on it! And it's +addressed to the 'Misses Shaw,' so that means it's _mine, too_!" +Patience dropped on the grass, quite out of breath. + +The "it" proved to be a row-boat with a double set of oar-locks, a +perfect boat for the lake, strong and safe, but trig and neat of +outline. + +Hilary named it the "Surprise" at first sight, and Tom was sent for at +once to paint the name in red letters to look well against the white +background and to match the boat's red trimmings. + +Its launching was an event. Some of the young people had boats over at +the lake, rather weather-beaten, tubby affairs, Bell declared them, +after the coming of the "Surprise." A general overhauling took place +immediately, the girls adopted simple boating dresses--red and white, +which were their boating colors. A new zest was given to the water +picnics, Bedelia learning to know the lake road very well. + +August had come before they fairly realized that their summer was more +than well under way. In little more than a month the long vacation +would be over. Tom and Josie were to go to Boston to school; Bell to +Vergennes. + +"There'll never be another summer quite like it!" Hilary said one +morning. "I can't bear to think of its being over." + +"It isn't--yet," Pauline answered. + +"Tom's coming," Patience heralded from the gate, and Hilary ran indoors +for hat and camera. + +"Where are you off to this morning?" Pauline asked, as her sister came +out again. + +"Out by the Cross-roads' Meeting-House," Tom answered. "Hilary has +designs on it, I believe." + +"You'd better come, too, Paul," Hilary urged. "It's a glorious morning +for a walk." + +"I'm going to help mother cut out; perhaps I'll come to meet you with +Bedelia 'long towards noon. You wait at Meeting-House Hill." + +"_I'm_ not going to be busy this morning," Patience insinuated. + +"Oh, yes you are, young lady," Pauline told her. "Mother said you were +to weed the aster bed." + +Patience looked longingly after the two starting gayly off down the +path, their cameras swung over their shoulders, then she looked +disgustedly at the aster bed. It was quite the biggest of the smaller +beds.--She didn't see what people wanted to plant so many asters for; +she had never cared much for asters, she felt she should care even less +about them in the future. Tiresome, stiff affairs! + +By the time Tom and Hilary reached the old Cross-Roads' Meeting-House +that morning, after a long roundabout ramble, Hilary, for one, was +quite willing to sit down and wait for Pauline and the trap, and eat +the great, juicy blackberries Tom gathered for her from the bushes +along the road. + +It had rained during the night and the air was crisp and fresh, with a +hint of the coming fall. "Summer's surely on the down grade," Tom +said, throwing himself on the bank beside Hilary. + +"So Paul and I were lamenting this morning. I don't suppose it matters +as much to you folks who are going off to school." + +"Still it means another summer over," Tom said soberly. He was rather +sorry that it was so--there could never be another summer quite so +jolly and carefree. "And the breaking up of the club, I suppose?" + +"I don't see why we need call it a break--just a discontinuance, for a +time." + +"And why that, even? There'll be a lot of you left, to keep it going." + +"Y-yes, but with three, or perhaps more, out, I reckon we'll have to +postpone the next installment until another summer." + +Tom went off then for more berries, and Hilary sat leaning back against +the trunk of the big tree crowning the top of Meeting-House Hill, her +eyes rather thoughtful. From where she sat, she had a full view of +both roads for some distance and, just beyond, the little hamlet +scattered about the old meeting-house. + +Before the gate of one of the houses stood a familiar gig, and +presently, as she sat watching, Dr. Brice came down the narrow +flower-bordered path, followed by a woman. At the gate both stopped; +the woman was saying something, her anxious, drawn face seeming out of +keeping with the cheery freshness of the morning and the flowers +nodding their bright heads about her. + +As the doctor stood listening, his old shabby medicine case in his +hand, with face bent to the troubled one raised to his, and bearing +indicating grave sympathy and understanding, Hilary reached for her +camera. + +"Upon my word! Isn't the poor pater exempt?" Tom laughed, coming back. + +"I want it for the book Josie and I are making for you to take away +with you, 'Winton Snap-shots.' We'll call it 'The Country Doctor.'" + +Tom looked at the gig, moving slowly off down the road now. He hated +to say so, but he wished Hilary would not put that particular snap-shot +in. He had a foreboding that it was going to make him a bit +uncomfortable--later--when the time for decision came; though, as for +that, he had already decided--beyond thought of change. He wished that +the pater hadn't set his heart on his coming back here to practice--and +he wished, too, that Hilary hadn't taken that photo. + +"Paul's late," he said presently. + +"I'm afraid she isn't coming." + +"It's past twelve," Tom glanced at the sun. "Maybe we'd better walk on +a bit." + +But they had walked a considerable bit, all the way to the parsonage, +in fact, before they saw anything of Pauline. There, she met them at +the gate. "Have you seen any trace of Patience--and Bedelia?" she +asked eagerly. + +"Patience and Bedelia?" Hilary repeated wonderingly. + +"They're both missing, and it's pretty safe guessing they're together." + +"But Patience would never dare--" + +"Wouldn't she!" Pauline exclaimed. "Jim brought Bedelia 'round about +eleven and when I came out a few moments later, she was gone and so was +Patience. Jim's out looking for them. We traced them as far as the +Lake road." + +"I'll go hunt, too," Tom offered. "Don't you worry, Paul; she'll turn +up all right--couldn't down the Imp, if you tried." + +"But she's never driven Bedelia alone; and Bedelia's not Fanny." + +However, half an hour later, Patience drove calmly into the yard, +Towser on the seat beside her, and if there was something very like +anxiety in her glance, there was distinct triumph in the way she +carried her small, bare head. + +"We've had a beautiful drive!" she announced, smiling pleasantly from +her high seat, at the worried, indignant group on the porch. "I tell +you, there isn't any need to 'hi-yi' this horse!" + +"My sakes!" Miranda declared. "Did you ever hear the beat of that!" + +"Get down, Patience!" Mrs. Shaw said, and Patience climbed obediently +down. She bore the prompt banishment to her own room which followed, +with seeming indifference. Certainly, it was not unexpected; but when +Hilary brought her dinner up to her presently, she found her sitting on +the floor, her head on the bed. It was only a few days now to +Shirley's turn and it was going to be such a nice turn. Patience felt +that for once Patience Shaw had certainly acted most unwisely. + +"Patty, how could you!" Hilary put the tray on the table and sitting +down on the bed, took the tumbled head on her knee. "We've been so +worried! You see, Bedelia isn't like Fanny!" + +"That's why I wanted to get a chance to drive her by myself for once! +She went beautifully! out on the Lake road I just let her loose!" For +the moment, pride in her recent performance routed all contrition from +Patience's voice--"I tell you, folks I passed just stared!" + +"Patience, how--" + +"I wasn't scared the least bit; and, of course, Bedelia knew it. Uncle +Jerry says they always know when you're scared, and if Mr. Allen is the +most up in history of any man in Vermont, Uncle Jerry is the most in +horses." + +Hilary felt that the conversation was hardly proceeding upon the lines +her mother would have approved of, especially under present +circumstances. "That has nothing to do with it, you know, Patience," +she said, striving to be properly severe. + +"I think it has--everything. I think it's nice not being scared of +things. You're sort of timid 'bout things, aren't you, Hilary?" + +Hilary made a movement to rise. + +"Oh, please," Patience begged. "It's going to be such a dreadful long +afternoon--all alone." + +"But I can't stay, mother would not want--" + +"Just for a minute. I--I want to tell you something. I--coming back, +I met Jane, and I gave her a lift home--and she did love it so--she +says she's never ridden before behind a horse that really went as if it +enjoyed it as much as she did. That was some good out of being bad, +wasn't it? And--I told you--ever'n' ever so long ago, that I was +mighty sure Jane'd just be tickled to death to belong to our club. I +think you might ask her--I don't see why she shouldn't like Seeing +Winton, same's we do--she doesn't ever have fun--and she'll be dead +pretty soon. She's getting along, Jane is--it'd make me mad's anything +to have to die 'fore I'd had any fun to speak of. Jane's really very +good company--when you draw her out--she just needs drawing out--Jane +does. Seems to me, she remembers every funeral and wedding and +everything--that's ever taken place in Winton." Patience stopped, +sheer out of breath, but there was an oddly serious look on her little +eager face. + +Hilary stroked back the tangled red curls. "Maybe you're right, Patty; +maybe we have been selfish with our good times. I'll have to go now, +dear. You--I may tell mother--that you are sorry--truly, Patty?" + +Patience nodded. "But I reckon, it's a good deal on account of +Shirley's turn," she explained. + +Hilary bit her lip. + +"You don't suppose you could fix that up with mother? You're pretty +good at fixing things up with mother, Hilary." + +"Since how long?" Hilary laughed, but when she had closed the door, she +opened it again to stick her head in. "I'll try, Patty, at any rate," +she promised. + +She went down-stairs rather thoughtful. Mrs. Shaw was busy in the +study and Pauline had gone out on an errand. Hilary went up-stairs +again, going to sit by one of the side windows in the "new room." + +Over at the church, Sextoness Jane was making ready for the regular +weekly prayer meeting; never a service was held in the church that she +did not set all in order. Through one of the open windows, Hilary +caught sight of the bunch of flowers on the reading-desk. Jane had +brought them with her from home. Presently, the old woman herself came +to the window to shake her dust-cloth, standing there a moment, leaning +a little out, her eyes turned to the parsonage. Pauline was coming up +the path, Shirley and Bell were with her. They were laughing and +talking, the bright young voices making a pleasant break in the quiet +of the garden. It seemed to Hilary, as if she could catch the wistful +look in Jane's faded eyes, a look only half consciously so, as if the +old woman reached out vaguely for something that her own youth had been +without and that only lately she had come to feel the lack of. + +A quick lump came into the girl's throat. Life had seemed so bright +and full of untried possibilities only that very morning, up there on +Meeting-House Hill, with the wind in one's face; and then had come that +woman, following the doctor down from the path. Life was surely +anything but bright for her this crisp August day--and now here was +Jane. And presently--at the moment it seemed very near indeed to +Hilary--she and Paul and all of them would be old and, perhaps, +unhappy. And then it would be good to remember--that they had tried to +share the fun and laughter of this summer of theirs with others. + +Hilary thought of the piece of old tapestry hanging on the studio wall +over at the manor--of the interwoven threads--the dark as necessary to +the pattern as the bright. Perhaps they had need of Sextoness Jane, of +the interweaving of her life into theirs--of the interweaving of all +the village lives going on about them--quite as much as those more +sober lives needed the brightening touch of theirs. + +"Hilary! O Hilary!" Pauline called. + +"I'm coming," Hilary answered, and went slowly down to where the others +were waiting on the porch. + +"Has anything happened?" Pauline asked. + +"I've been having a think--and I've come to the conclusion that we're a +selfish, self-absorbed set." + +"Mother Shaw!" Pauline went to the study window, "please come out here. +Hilary's calling us names, and that isn't polite." + +Mrs. Shaw came. "I hope not very bad names," she said. + +Hilary swung slowly back and forth in the hammock. "I didn't mean it +that way--it's only--" She told what Patience had said about Jane's +joining the club, and then, rather reluctantly, a little of what she +had been thinking. + +"I think Hilary's right," Shirley declared. "Let's form a deputation +and go right over and ask the poor old soul to join here and now." + +"I would never've thought of it," Bell said. "But I don't suppose I've +ever given Jane a thought, anyway." + +"Patty's mighty cute--for all she's such a terror at times," Pauline +admitted. "She knows a lot about the people here--and it's just +because she's interested in them." + +"Come on," Shirley said, jumping up. "We're going to have another +honorary member." + +"I think it would be kind, girls," Mrs. Shaw said gravely. "Jane will +feel herself immensely flattered, and I know of no one who upholds the +honor of Winton more honestly or persistently." + +"And please, Mrs. Shaw," Shirley coaxed, "when we come back, mayn't +Patience Shaw, H. M., come down and have tea with us?" + +"I hardly think--" + +"Please, Mother Shaw," Hilary broke in; "after all--she started this, +you know. That sort of counterbalances the other, doesn't it?" + +"Well, we'll see," her mother laughed. + +Pauline ran to get one of the extra badges with which Shirley had +provided her, and then the four girls went across to the church. + +Sextoness Jane was just locking the back door--not the least important +part of the afternoon's duties with her--as they came through the +opening in the hedge. "Good afternoon," she said cheerily, "was you +wanting to go inside?" + +"No," Pauline answered, "we came over to invite you to join our club. +We thought, maybe, you'd like to?" + +"My Land!" Jane stared from one to another of them. "And wear one of +them blue-ribbon affairs?" + +"Yes, indeed," Shirley laughed. "See, here it is," and she pointed to +the one in Pauline's hand. + +Sextoness Jane came down the steps. "Me, I ain't never wore a badge! +Not once in all my life! Oncet, when I was a little youngster, 'most +like Patience, teacher, she got up some sort of May doings. We was all +to wear white dresses and red, white and blue ribbons--very night +before, I come down with the mumps. Looks like I always come down when +I ought to've stayed up!" + +"But you won't come down with anything this time," Pauline pinned the +blue badge on the waist of Jane's black and white calico. "Now you're +an honorary member of 'The S. W. F. Club.'" + +Jane passed a hand over it softly. "My Land!" was all she could say. + +She was still stroking it softly as she walked slowly away towards +home. My, wouldn't Tobias be interested! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AT THE MANOR + + "'All the names I know from nurse: + Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse, + Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock, + And the Lady Hollyhock,'" + +Patience chanted, moving slowly about the parsonage garden, hands full +of flowers, and the big basket, lying on the grass beyond, almost full. + +Behind her, now running at full speed, now stopping suddenly, back +lifted, tail erect, came Lucky, the black kitten from The Maples. +Lucky had been an inmate of the parsonage for some weeks now and was +thriving famously in her adopted home. Towser tolerated her with the +indifference due such a small, insignificant creature, and she +alternately bullied and patronized Towser. + +"We haven't shepherd's purse, nor lady's smock, that I know of, Lucky," +Patience said, glancing back at the kitten, at that moment threatening +battle at a polite nodding Sweet William, "but you can see for yourself +that we have hollyhocks, while as for bachelor's buttons! Just look at +that big, blue bunch in one corner of the basket." + +It was the morning of the day of Shirley's turn and Pauline was +hurrying to get ready to go over and help decorate the manor. She was +singing, too; from the open windows of the "new room" came the words-- + + "'A cheerful world?--It surely is + And if you understand your biz + You'll taboo the worry worm, + And cultivate the happy germ.'" + +To which piece of good advice, Patience promptly whistled back the gay +refrain. + +On the back porch, Sextoness Jane--called in for an extra half-day--was +ironing the white dresses to be worn that afternoon. And presently, +Patience, her basket quite full and stowed away in the trap waiting +before the side door, strolled around to interview her. + +"I suppose you're going this afternoon?" she asked. + +Jane looked up from waxing her iron. "Well, I was sort of calculating +on going over for a bit; Miss Shirley having laid particular stress on +my coming and this being the first reg'lar doings since I joined the +club. I told her and Pauline they mustn't look for me to go junketing +'round with them all the while, seeing I'm in office--so to speak--and +my time pretty well taken up with my work. I reckon you're going?" + +"I--" Patience edged nearer the porch. Behind Jane stood the tall +clothes-horse, with its burden of freshly ironed white things. At +sight of a short, white frock, very crisp and immaculate, the blood +rushed to the child's face, then as quickly receded.--After all, it +would have had to be ironed for Sunday and--well, mother certainly had +been very non-committal the past few days--ever since that escapade +with Bedelia, in fact--regarding her youngest daughter's hopes and +fears for this all-important afternoon. And Patience had been wise +enough not to press the matter. + +"But, oh, I do wonder if Hilary has--" Patience went back to the side +porch. Hilary was there talking to Bedelia. "You--you have fixed it +up?" the child inquired anxiously. + +Hilary looked gravely unconscious. "Fixed it up?" she repeated. + +"About this afternoon--with mother?" + +"Oh, yes! Mother's going; so is father." + +Patience repressed a sudden desire to stamp her foot, and Hilary, +seeing the real doubt and longing in her face, relented. "Mother wants +to see you, Patty. I rather think there are to be conditions." + +Patience darted off. From the doorway, she looked back--"I just knew +you wouldn't go back on me, Hilary! I'll love you forever'n' ever." + +Pauline came out a moment later, drawing on her driving gloves. "I +feel like a story-book girl, going driving this time in the morning, in +a trap like this. I wish you were coming, too, Hilary." + +"Oh, I'm like the delicate story-book girl, who has to rest, so as to +be ready for the dissipations that are to come later. I look the part, +don't I?" + +Pauline looked down into the laughing, sun-browned face. "If Uncle +Paul were to see you now, he might find it hard to believe I +hadn't--exaggerated that time." + +"Well, it's your fault--and his, or was, in the beginning. You've a +fine basket of flowers to take; Patience has done herself proud this +morning." + +"It's wonderful how well that young lady can behave--at times." + +"Oh, she's young yet! When I hear mother tell how like her you used to +be, I don't feel too discouraged about Patty." + +"That strikes me as rather a double-edged sort of speech," Pauline +gathered up the reins. "Good-by, and don't get too tired." + +Shirley's turn was to be a combination studio tea and lawn-party, to +which all club members, both regular and honorary, not to mention their +relatives and friends, had been bidden. Following this, was to be a +high tea for the regular members. + +"That's Senior's share," Shirley had explained to Pauline. "He insists +that it's up to him to do something." + +Mr. Dayre was on very good terms with the "S. W. F. Club." As for +Shirley, after the first, no one had ever thought of her as an outsider. + +It was hard now, Pauline thought, as she drove briskly along, the lake +breeze in her face, and the sound of Bedelia's quick trotting forming a +pleasant accompaniment to her, thoughts, very hard, to realize how soon +the summer would be over. But perhaps--as Hilary said--next summer +would mean the taking up again of this year's good times and +interests,--Shirley talked of coming back. As for the winter--Pauline +had in mind several plans for the winter. Those of the club members to +stay behind must get together some day and talk them over. One thing +was certain, the club motto must be lived up to bravely. If not in one +way, why in another. There must be no slipping back into the old +dreary rut and routine. It lay with themselves as to what their winter +should be. + +"And there's fine sleighing here, Bedelia," she said. "We'll get the +old cutter out and give it a coat of paint." + +Bedelia tossed her head, as if she heard in imagination the gay +jingling of the sleighbells. + +"But, in the meantime, here is the manor," Pauline laughed, "and it's +the prettiest August day that ever was, and lawn-parties and such +festivities are afoot, not sleighing parties." + +The manor stood facing the lake with its back to the road, a broad +sloping lawn surrounded it on three sides, with the garden at the back. + +For so many seasons, it had stood lonely and neglected, that Pauline +never came near it now, without rejoicing afresh in its altered aspect. +Even the sight of Betsy Todd's dish towels, drying on the currant +bushes at one side of the back door, added their touch to the sense of +pleasant, homely life that seemed to envelop the old house nowadays. + +Shirley came to the gate, as Pauline drew up, Phil, Pat and Pudgey in +close attention. "I have to keep an eye on them," she told Pauline. +"They've just had their baths, and they're simply wild to get out in +the middle of the road and roll. I've told them no self-respecting dog +would wish to come to a lawn-party in anything but the freshest of +white coats, but I'm afraid they're not very self-respecting." + +"Patience is sure Towser's heart is heavy because he is not to come; +she has promised him a lawn-party on his own account, and that no +grown-ups shall be invited. She's sent you the promised flowers, and +hinted--more or less plainly--that she would have been quite willing to +deliver them in person." + +"Why didn't you bring her? Oh, but I'm afraid you've robbed yourself!" + +"Oh, no, we haven't. Mother says, flowers grow with picking." + +"Come on around front," Shirley suggested. "The boys have been putting +the awning up." + +"The boys" were three of Mr. Dayre's fellow artists, who had come up a +day or two before, on a visit to the manor. One of them, at any rate, +deserved Shirley's title. He came forward now. "Looks pretty nice, +doesn't it?" he said, with a wave of the hand towards the red and white +striped awning, placed at the further edge of the lawn. + +Shirley smiled her approval, and introduced him to Pauline, adding that +Miss Shaw was the real founder of their club. + +"It's a might jolly sort of club, too," young Oram said. + +"That is exactly what it has turned out to be," Pauline laughed. "Are +the vases ready, Shirley?" + +Shirley brought the tray of empty flower vases out on the veranda, and +sent Harry Oram for a bucket of fresh water. "Harry is to make the +salad," she explained to Pauline, as he came back. "Before he leaves +the manor he will have developed into a fairly useful member of +society." + +"You've never eaten one of my salads, Miss Shaw," Harry said. "When +you have, you'll think all your previous life an empty dream." + +"It's much more likely her later life will prove a nightmare,--for a +while, at least," Shirley declared. "Still, Paul, Harry does make them +rather well. Betsy Todd, I am sorry to say, doesn't approve of him. +But there are so many persons and things she doesn't approve of; +lawn-parties among the latter." + +Pauline nodded sympathetically; she knew Betsy Todd of old. Her wonder +was, that the Dayres had been able to put up with her so long, and she +said so. + +"'Hobson's choice,'" Shirley answered, with a little shrug. "She isn't +much like our old Therese at home, is she, Harry? But nothing would +tempt Therese away from her beloved New York. 'Vairmon! Nevaire have +I heard of zat place!' she told Harry, when he interviewed her for us. +Senior's gone to Vergennes--on business thoughts intent, or I hope they +are. He's under strict orders not to 'discover a single bit' along the +way, and to get back as quickly as possible." + +"You see how beautifully she has us all in training?" Harry said to +Pauline. + +Pauline laughed. Suddenly she looked up from her flowers with sobered +face. "I wonder," she said slowly, "if you know what it's meant to +us--you're being here this summer, Shirley? Sometimes things do fit in +just right after all. It's helped out wonderfully this summer, having +you here and the manor open." + +"Pauline has a fairy-story uncle down in New York," Shirley turned to +Harry. "You've heard of him--Mr. Paul Shaw." + +"Well,--rather! I've met him, once or twice--he didn't strike me as +much of a believer in fairy tales." + +"He's made us believe in them," Pauline answered. + +"I think Senior might have provided me with such a delightful sort of +uncle," Shirley observed. "I told him so, but he says, while he's +awfully sorry I didn't mention it before, he's afraid it's too late +now." + +"Uncle Paul sent us Bedelia," Pauline told the rather perplexed-looking +Harry, "and the row-boat and the camera and--oh, other things." + +"Because he wanted them to have a nice, jolly summer," Shirley +explained. "Pauline's sister had been sick and needed brightening up." + +"You don't think he's looking around for a nephew to adopt, do you?" +Harry inquired. "A well-intentioned, intelligent young man--with no +end of talent." + +"For making salads," Shirley added with a sly smile. + +"Oh, well, you know," Harry remarked casually, "these are what Senior +calls my 'salad days.'" + +Whereupon Shirley rose without a word, carrying off her vases of +flowers. + + +The party at the manor was, like all the club affairs, a decided +success. Never had the old place looked so gay and animated, since +those far-off days of its early glory. + +The young people coming and going--the girls in their light dresses and +bright ribbons made a pleasant place of the lawn, with its background +of shining water. The tennis court, at one side of the house, was one +of the favorite gathering spots; there were one or two boats out on the +lake. The pleasant informality of the whole affair proved its greatest +charm. + +Mr. Allen was there, pointing out to his host the supposed end of the +subterranean passage said to connect the point on which the manor stood +with the old ruined French fort over on the New York side. The +minister was having a quiet chat with the doctor, who had made a +special point of being there. Mothers of club members were exchanging +notes and congratulating each other on the good comradeship and general +air of contentment among the young people. Sextoness Jane was there, +in all the glory of her best dress--one of Mrs. Shaw's handed-down +summer ones--and with any amount of items picked up to carry home to +Tobias, who was certain to expect a full account of this most unusual +dissipation on his mistress's part. Even Betsy Todd condescended to +put on her black woolen--usually reserved for church and funerals--and +walk about among the other guests; but always, with an air that told +plainly how little she approved of such goings on. The Boyds were +there, their badges in full evidence. And last, though far from least, +in her own estimation, Patience was there, very crisp and white and on +her best behavior,--for, setting aside those conditions mother had seen +fit to burden her with, was the delightful fact that Shirley had asked +her to help serve tea. + +The principal tea-table was in the studio, though there was a second +one, presided over by Pauline and Bell, out under the awning at the +edge of the lawn. + +Patience thought the studio the very nicest room she had ever been in. +It was long and low--in reality, the old dancing-hall, for the manor +had been built after the pattern of its first owner's English home; and +in the deep, recessed windows, facing the lake, many a bepatched and +powdered little belle of Colonial days had coquetted across her fan +with her bravely-clad partner. + +Mr. Dayre had thrown out an extra window at one end, at right angles to +the great stone fireplace, banked to-day with golden rod, thereby +securing the desired north light. + +On the easel, stood a nearly finished painting,--a sunny corner of the +old manor kitchen, with Betsy Todd in lilac print gown, peeling apples +by the open window, through which one caught a glimpse of the tall +hollyhocks in the garden beyond. + +Before this portrait, Patience found Sextoness Jane standing in mute +astonishment. + +"Betsy looks like she was just going to say--'take your hands out of +the dish!' doesn't she?" Patience commented. Betsy had once helped out +at the parsonage, during a brief illness of Miranda's, and the young +lady knew whereof she spoke. + +"I'd never've thought," Jane said slowly, "that anyone'd get that fond +of Sister Todd--as to want a picture of her!" + +"Oh, it's because she's such a character, you know," Patience explained +serenely. Jane was so good about letting one explain things. "'A +perfect character,' I heard one of those artist men say so." + +Jane shook her head dubiously. "Not what I'd call a 'perfect' +character--not that I've got anything against Sister Todd; but she's +too fond of finding out a body's faults." + +Patience went off then in search of empty tea-cups. She was having a +beautiful time; at present only one cloud overshadowed her horizon. +Already some tiresome folks were beginning to think about going. There +was the talk of chores to be done, suppers to get, and with the +breaking up, must come an end to her share in the party. For mother, +though approached in the most delicate fashion, had proved obdurate +regarding the further festivity to follow. Had mother been willing to +consider the matter, Patience would have cheerfully undertaken to +procure the necessary invitation. Shirley was a very obliging girl. + +"And really, my dears," she said, addressing the three P's +collectively, "it does seem a pity to have to go home before the fun's +all over. And I could manage it--Bob would take me out rowing--if I +coaxed--he rows very slowly. I don't suppose, for one moment, that we +would get back in time. I believe--" For fully three minutes, +Patience sat quite still in one of the studio window seats, oblivious +of the chatter going on all about her; then into her blue eyes came a +look not seen there very often--"No," she said sternly, shaking her +head at Phil, much to his surprise, for he wasn't doing anything. +"No--it wouldn't be _square_--and there would be the most awful to-do +afterwards." + +When a moment or two later, Mrs. Shaw called to her to come, that +father was waiting, Patience responded with a very good grace. But Mr. +Dayre caught the wistful look in the child's face. "Bless me," he said +heartily. "You're not going to take Patience home with you, Mrs. Shaw? +Let her stay for the tea--the young people won't keep late hours, I +assure you." + +"But I think--" Mrs. Shaw began very soberly. + +"Sometimes, I find it quite as well not to think things over," Mr. +Dayre suggested. "Why, dear me, I'd quite counted on Patience's being +here. You see, I'm not a regular member, either; and I want someone to +keep me in countenance." + +So presently, Hilary felt a hand slipped eagerly into hers. "I'm +staying! I'm staying!" an excited little voice announced. "And oh, I +just love Mr. Dayre!" + +Then Patience went back to her window seat to play the delightful game +of "making believe" she hadn't stayed. She imagined that instead, she +was sitting between father and mother in the gig, bubbling over with +the desire to "hi-yi" at Fanny, picking her slow way along. + +The studio was empty, even the dogs were outside, speeding the parting +guests with more zeal than discretion. But after awhile Harry Oram +strolled in. + +"I'm staying!" Patience announced. She approved of Harry. "You're an +artist, too, aren't you?" she remarked. + +"So kind of you to say so," Harry murmured. "I have heard grave doubts +expressed on the subject by my too impartial friends." + +"I mean to be one when I grow up," Patience told him, "so's I can have +a room like this--with just rugs on the floor; rugs slide so +nicely--and window seats and things all cluttery." + +"May I come and have tea with you? I'd like it awfully." + +"It'll be really tea--not pretend kind," Patience said. "But I'll have +that sort for any children who may come. Hilary takes pictures--she +doesn't make them though. Made pictures are nicer, aren't they?" + +"Some of them." Harry glanced through the open doorway, to where +Hilary sat resting. She was "making" a picture now, he thought to +himself, in her white dress, under the big tree, her pretty hair +forming a frame about her thoughtful face. Taking a portfolio from a +table near by, he went out to where Hilary sat. + +"Your small sister says you take pictures," he said, drawing a chair up +beside hers, "so I thought perhaps you'd let me show you these--they +were taken by a friend of mine." + +"Oh, but mine aren't anything like these! These are beautiful!" +Hilary bent over the photographs he handed her; marveling over their +soft tones. They were mostly bits of landscape, with here and there a +water view and one or two fleecy cloud effects. It hardly seemed as +though they could be really photographs. + +"I've never done anything like these!" she said regretfully. "I wish I +could--there are some beautiful views about here that would make +charming pictures." + +"She didn't in the beginning," Harry said, "She's lame; it was an +accident, but she can never be quite well again, so she took this up, +as an amusement at first, but now it's going to be her profession." + +Hilary bent over the photographs again. "And you really think--anyone +could learn to do it?" + +"No, not anyone; but I don't see why the right sort of person couldn't." + +"I wonder--if I could develop into the right sort." + +"May I come and see what you have done--and talk it over?" Harry asked. +"Since this friend of mine took it up, I'm ever so interested in camera +work." + +"Indeed you may," Hilary answered. She had never thought of her camera +holding such possibilities within it, of its growing into something +better and more satisfying than a mere playmate of the moment. + +"Rested?" Pauline asked, coming up. "Supper's nearly ready." + +"I wasn't very tired. Paul, come and look at these." + +Supper was served on the lawn; the pleasantest, most informal, of +affairs, the presence of the older members of the party serving to turn +the gay give and take of the young folks into deeper and wider +channels, and Shirley's frequent though involuntary--"Do you remember, +Senior?" calling out more than one vivid bit of travel, of description +of places, known to most of them only through books. + +Later, down on the lower end of the lawn, with the moon making a path +of silver along the water, and the soft hush of the summer night over +everything, Shirley brought out her guitar, singing for them strange +folk-songs, picked up in her rambles with her father. Afterwards, the +whole party sang songs that they all knew, ending up at last with the +club song. + +"'It's a habit to be happy,'" the fresh young voices chorused, sending +the tune far out across the lake; and presently, from a boat on its +further side, it was whistled back to them. + +"Who is it, I wonder?" Edna said, + +"Give it up," Tom answered. "Someone who's heard it--there've been +plenty of opportunities for folks to hear it." + +"Well it isn't a bad gospel to scatter broadcast," Bob remarked. + +"And maybe it's someone who doesn't live about here, and he will go +away taking our tune with him, for other people to catch up," Hilary +suggested. + +"But if he only has the tune and not the words," Josie objected, "what +use will that be?" + +"The spirit of the words is in the tune," Pauline said. "No one could +whistle or sing it and stay grumpy." + +"They'd have to 'put the frown away awhile, and try a little sunny +smile,' wouldn't they?" Patience observed. + +Patience had been a model of behavior all the evening. Mother would be +sure to ask if she had been good, when they got home. That was one of +those aggravating questions that only time could relieve her from. No +one ever asked Paul, or Hilary, that--when they'd been anywhere. + +As Mr. Dayre had promised, the party broke up early, going off in the +various rigs they had come in. Tom and Josie went in the trap with the +Shaws. "It's been perfectly lovely--all of it," Josie said, looking +back along the road they were leaving. "Every good time we have seems +the best one yet." + +"You wait 'til my turn comes," Pauline told her. "I've such a scheme +in my head." + +"Am I in it?" Patience begged. She was in front, between Tom, who was +driving, and Hilary, then she leaned forward, they were nearly home, +and the lights of the parsonage showed through the trees. "There's a +light in the parlor--there's company!" + +Pauline looked, too. "And one up in our old room, Hilary. Goodness, +it must be a visiting minister! I didn't know father was expecting +anyone." + +"I bet you!" Patience jumped excitedly up and down. "I just bet it +isn't any visiting minister--but a visiting--uncle! I feel it in my +bones, as Miranda says." + +"Nonsense!" Pauline declared. + +"Maybe it isn't nonsense, Paul!" Hilary said. + +"I feel it in my bones," Patience repeated. "I just _knew_ Uncle Paul +would come up--a story-book uncle would be sure to." + +"Well, here we are," Tom laughed. "You'll know for certain pretty +quick." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE END OF SUMMER + +It was Uncle Paul, and perhaps no one +was more surprised at his unexpected coming, +than he himself. + +That snap-shot of Hilary's had considerable +to do with it; bringing home to him the +sudden realization of the passing of the years. +For the first time, he had allowed himself to +face the fact that it was some time now since +he had crossed the summit of the hill, and that +under present conditions, his old age promised +to be a lonely, cheerless affair. + +He had never had much to do with young +people; but, all at once, it seemed to him that +it might prove worth his while to cultivate +the closer acquaintance of these nieces of his. +Pauline, in particular, struck him as likely to +improve upon a nearer acquaintance. And +that afternoon, as he rode up Broadway, he +found himself wondering how she would +enjoy the ride; and all the sights and wonders +of the great city. + +Later, over his solitary dinner, he suddenly +decided to run up to Winton the next day. +He would not wire them, he would rather like +to take Phil by surprise. + +So he had arrived at the parsonage, +driving up in Jed's solitary hack, and much plied +with information, general and personal, on the +way, just as the minister and his wife reached +home from the manor. + +"And, oh, my! Doesn't father look +tickled to death!" Patience declared, coming +in to her sisters' room that night, ostensibly +to have an obstinate knot untied, but inwardly +determined to make a third at the usual +bedtime talk for that once, at least. It wasn't +often they all came up together. + +"He looks mighty glad," Pauline said. + +"And isn't it funny, bearing him called +Phil?" Patience curled herself up in the +cozy corner. "I never've thought of father +as Phil." + +Hilary paused in the braiding of her long +hair. "I'm glad we've got to know him--Uncle +Paul, I mean--through his letters, and +all the lovely things he's done for us; else, I +think I'd have been very much afraid of him." + +"So am I," Pauline assented. "I see now +what Mr. Oram meant--he doesn't look as if +he believed much in fairy stories. But I like +his looks--he's so nice and tall and straight." + +"He used to have red hair, before it turned +gray," Hilary said, "so that must be a family +trait; your chin's like his, Paul, too,--so +square and determined." + +"Is mine?" Patience demanded. + +"You cut to bed, youngster," Pauline +commanded. "You're losing all your beauty +sleep; and really, you know--" + +Patience went to stand before the mirror. +"Maybe I ain't--pretty--yet; but I'm going +to be--some day. Mr. Dayre says he likes +red hair, I asked him. He says for me not to +worry; I'll have them all sitting up and taking notice yet." + +At which Pauline bore promptly down +upon her, escorting her in person to the door +of her own room. "And you'd better get to +bed pretty quickly, too, Hilary," she advised, +coming back. "You've had enough excitement for one day." + + +Mr. Paul Shaw stayed a week; it was a +busy week for the parsonage folk and for +some other people besides. Before it was +over, the story-book uncle had come to know +his nieces and Winton fairly thoroughly; +while they, on their side, had grown very well +acquainted with the tall, rather silent man, +who had a fashion of suggesting the most +delightful things to do in the most matter-of-fact manner. + +There were one or two trips decidedly +outside that ten-mile limit, including an all day +sail up the lake, stopping for the night at a +hotel on the New York shore and returning +by the next day's boat. There was a visit to +Vergennes, which took in a round of the shops, +a concert, and another night away from home. + +"Was there ever such a week!" Hilary +sighed blissfully one morning, as she and her +uncle waited on the porch for Bedelia and +the trap. Hilary was to drive him over to +The Maples for dinner. + +"Or such a summer altogether," Pauline +added, from just inside the study window. + +"Then Winton has possibilities?" Mr. Shaw asked. + +"I should think it has; we ought to be +eternally grateful to you for making us find +them out," Pauline declared. + +Mr. Shaw smiled, more as if to himself. "I +daresay they're not all exhausted yet." + +"Perhaps," Hilary said slowly, "some +places are like some people, the longer and +better you know them, the more you keep +finding out in them to like." + +"Father says," Pauline suggested, "that one +finds, as a rule, what one is looking for." + +"Here we are," her uncle exclaimed, as +Patience appeared, driving Bedelia. "Do you +know," he said, as he and Hilary turned out +into the wide village street, "I haven't seen the +schoolhouse yet?" + +"We can go around that way. It isn't +much of a building," Hilary answered. + +"I suppose it serves its purpose." + +"It is said to be a very good school for the +size of the place." Hilary turned Bedelia +up the little by-road, leading to the old +weather-beaten schoolhouse, standing back +from the road in an open space of bare ground. + +"You and Pauline are through here?" her uncle asked. + +"Paul is. I would've been this June, if I +hadn't broken down last winter." + +"You will be able to go on this fall?" + +"Yes, indeed. Dr. Brice said so the other +day. He says, if all his patients got on so +well, by not following his advice, he'd have +to shut up shop, but that, fortunately for +him, they haven't all got a wise uncle down in +New York, to offer counter-advice." + +"Each in his turn," Mr. Shaw remarked, +adding, "and Pauline considers herself through school?" + +"I--I suppose so. I know she would like +to go on--but we've no higher school here and--She +read last winter, quite a little, with +father. Pauline's ever so clever." + +"Supposing you both had an opportunity--for +it must be both, or neither, I judge--and +the powers that be consented--how about +going away to school this winter?" + +Hilary dropped the reins. "Oh!" she +cried, "you mean--" + +"I have a trick of meaning what I say," her +uncle said, smiling at her. + +"I wish I could say--what I want to--and +can't find words for--" Hilary said. + +"We haven't consulted the higher authorities +yet, you know." + +"And--Oh, I don't see how mother could +get on without us, even if--" + +"Mothers have a knack at getting along +without a good many things--when it means +helping their young folks on a bit," +Mr. Shaw remarked. "I'll have a talk with her +and your father to-night." + +That evening, pacing up and down the +front veranda with his brother, Mr. Shaw +said, with his customary abruptness, "You +seem to have fitted in here, Phil,--perhaps, you +were in the right of it, after all. I take it +you haven't had such a hard time, in some ways." + +The minister did not answer immediately. +Looking back nearly twenty years, he told +himself, that he did not regret that early +choice of his. He had fitted into the life here; +he and his people had grown together. It had +not always been smooth sailing and more than +once, especially the past year or so, his +narrow means had pressed him sorely, but on the +whole, he had found his lines cast in a +pleasant place, and was not disposed to rebel +against his heritage. + +"Yes," he said, at last, "I have fitted in; +too easily, perhaps. I never was ambitious, +you know." + +"Except in the accumulating of books," his +brother suggested. + +The minister smiled. "I have not been +able to give unlimited rein even to that mild +ambition. Fortunately, the rarer the +opportunity, the greater the pleasure it brings +with it--and the old books never lose their charm." + +Mr. Paul Shaw flicked the ashes from his +cigar. "And the girls--you expect them to +fit in, too?" + +"It is their home." A note the elder +brother knew of old sounded in the younger +man's voice. + +"Don't mount your high horse just yet, +Phil," he said. "I'm not going to rub you up +the wrong way--at least, I don't mean to; but +you were always an uncommonly hard chap to +handle--in some matters. I grant you, it is +their home and not a had sort of home for a +girl to grow up in." Mr. Shaw stood for a +moment at the head of the steps, looking off +down the peaceful, shadowy street. It had +been a pleasant week; he had enjoyed it +wonderfully. He meant to have many more such. +But to live here always! Already the city +was calling to him; he was homesick for its +rush and bustle, the sense of life and movement. + +"You and I stand as far apart to-day, in +some matters, Phil, as we did twenty--thirty +years ago," he said presently, "and that eldest +daughter of yours--I'm a fair hand at reading +character or I shouldn't be where I am to-day, +if I were not--is more like me than you." + +"So I have come to think--lately." + +"That second girl takes after you; she +would never have written that letter to me +last May." + +"No, Hilary would not have at the time--" + +"Oh, I can guess how you felt about it at +the time. But, look here, Phil, you've got +over that--surely? After all, I like to think +now that Pauline only hurried on the +inevitable." Mr. Paul Shaw laid his hand on the +minister's shoulder. "Nearly twenty years is +a pretty big piece out of a lifetime. I see now +how much I have been losing all these years." + +"It has been a long time, Paul; and, +perhaps, I have been to blame in not trying more +persistently to heal the breach between us. I +assure you that I have regretted it daily." + +"You always did have a lot more pride in +your make-up than a man of your profession +has any right to allow himself, Phil. But if +you like, I'm prepared to point out to you +right now how you can make it up to me. +Here comes Lady Shaw and we won't +waste time getting to business." + +That night, as Pauline and Hilary were in +their own room, busily discussing, for by no +means the first time that day, what Uncle Paul +had said to Hilary that morning, and just +how he had looked, when he said it, and was +it at all possible that father would consent, +and so on, _ad libitum_, their mother tapped at the door. + +Pauline ran to open it. "Good news, or +not?" she demanded. "Yes, or no, Mother Shaw?" + +"That is how you take it," Mrs. Shaw +answered. She was glad, very glad, that this +unforeseen opportunity should be given her +daughters; and yet--it meant the first break +in the home circle, the first leaving home for them. + + +Mr. Paul Shaw left the next morning. +"I'll try and run up for a day or two, before +the girls go to school," he promised his +sister-in-law. "Let me know, as soon as you have +decided _where_ to send them." + +Patience was divided in her opinion, as to +this new plan. It would be lonesome without +Paul and Hilary; but then, for the time +being, she would be, to all intents and purposes, +"Miss Shaw." Also, Bedelia was not going +to boarding-school--on the whole, the +arrangement had its advantages. Of course, +later, she would have her turn at school--Patience +meant to devote a good deal of her +winter's reading to boarding-school stories. + +She told Sextoness Jane so, when that +person appeared, just before supper time. + +Jane looked impressed. "A lot of things +keep happening to you folks right along," she +observed. "Nothing's ever happened to me, +'cept mumps--and things of that sort; you +wouldn't call them interesting. The girls to home?" + +"They're 'round on the porch, looking at +some photos Mr. Oram's brought over; and +he's looking at Hilary's. Hilary's going in +for some other kind of picture taking. I wish +she'd leave her camera home, when she goes to +school. Do you want to speak to them about +anything particular?" + +"I'll wait a bit," Jane sat down on the +garden-bench beside Patience. + +"There, he's gone!" the latter said, as the +front gate clicked a few moments later. "O +Paul!" she called, "You're wanted, Paul!" + +"You and Hilary going to be busy +tonight?" Jane asked, as Pauline came across +the lawn. + +"Not that I know of." + +"I ain't," Patience remarked. + +"Well," Jane said, "it ain't prayer-meeting +night, and it ain't young peoples' night and it +ain't choir practice night, so I thought maybe +you'd like me to take my turn at showing you +something. Not all the club--like's not they +wouldn't care for it, but if you think they +would, why, you can show it to them sometime." + +"Just we three then?" Pauline asked. +"Hilary and I can go." + +"So can I--if you tell mother you want me +to," Patience put in. + +"Is it far?" her sister questioned Jane. + +"A good two miles--we'd best walk--we +can rest after we get there. Maybe, if you +like, you'd better ask Tom and Josie. Your +ma'll be better satisfied if he goes along, I +reckon. I'll come for you at about half-past +seven." + +"All right, thank you ever so much," Pauline +said, and went to tell Hilary, closely +pursued by Patience. However, Mrs. Shaw +vetoed Pauline's proposition that Patience +should make one of the party. + +"Not every time, my dear," she explained. + +Promptly at half-past seven Jane +appeared. "All ready?" she said, as the four +young people came to meet her. "You don't +want to go expecting anything out of the +common. Like's not, you've all seen it a heap +of times, but maybe not to take particular +notice of it." + +She led the way through the garden to the +lane running past her cottage, where Tobias +sat in solitary dignity on the doorstep, down +the lane to where it merged in to what was +nothing more than a field path. + +"Are we going to the lake?" Hilary asked. + +Jane nodded. + +"But not out on the water," Josie said. +"You're taking us too far below the pier for that." + +Jane smiled quietly. "It'll be on the water--what +you're going to see," she was getting +a good deal of pleasure out of her small +mystery, and when they reached the low shore, +fringed with the tall sea-grass, she took her +party a few steps along it to where an old log +lay a little back from the water. "I reckon +we'll have to wait a bit," she said, "but it'll +be 'long directly." + +They sat down in a row, the young people +rather mystified. Apparently the broad +expanse of almost motionless water was quite +deserted. There was a light breeze blowing +and the soft swishing of the tiny waves against +the bank was the only sound to break the +stillness; the sky above the long irregular range +of mountains on the New York side, still wore +its sunset colors, the lake below sending hack +a faint reflection of them. + +But presently these faded until only the +afterglow was left, to merge in turn into the +soft summer twilight, through which the stars +began to glimpse, one by one. + +The little group had been mostly silent, +each busy with his or her thoughts; so far as +the young people were concerned, happy +thoughts enough; for if the closing of each +day brought their summer nearer to its +ending, the fall would bring with it new +experiences, an entering of new scenes. + +"There!" Sextoness Jane broke the silence, +pointing up the lake, to where a tiny point of +red showed like a low-hung star through the +gathering darkness. Moment by moment, +other lights came into view, silently, steadily, +until it seemed like some long, gliding +sea-serpent, creeping down towards them through +the night. + +"A tow!" Josie cried under her breath. + +They had all seen it, times without number, +before. The long line of canal boats being +towed down the lake to the canal below; the +red lanterns at either end of each boat +showing as they came. But to-night, infected +perhaps, by the pride, the evident delight, in +Jane's voice, the old familiar sight held them +with the new interest the past months had +brought to bear upon so many old, familiar things. + +"It is--wonderful," Pauline said at last. +"It might be a scene from--fairyland, almost." + +"Me--I love to see them come stealing long +like that through the dark," Jane said slowly +and a little hesitatingly. It was odd to be +telling confidences to anyone except Tobias. +"I don't know where they come from, nor +where they're a-going to. Many's the night +I walk over here just on the chance of seeing +one. Mostly, this time of year, you're pretty +likely to catch one. When I was younger, I +used to sit and fancy myself going aboard on +one of them and setting off for strange parts. +I wasn't looking to settle down here in Winton +all my days; but I reckon, maybe, it's just's +well--anyhow, when I got the freedom to +travel, I'd got out of the notion of it--and +perhaps, there's no telling, I might have been +terribly disappointed. And there ain't any +hindrance 'gainst my setting off--in my own +mind--every time I sits here and watches a +tow go down the lake. I've seen a heap of +big churches in my travels--it's mostly easier +'magining about them--churches are pretty +much alike I reckon, though I ain't seen many, I'll admit." + +No one answered for a moment, but Jane, +used to Tobias for a listener, did not mind. +Then in the darkness, Hilary laid a hand +softly over the work-worn ones clasped on +Jane's lap. It was hard to imagine Jane +young and full of youthful fancies and +longings; yet years ago there had been a Jane--not +Sextoness Jane then--who had found +Winton dull and dreary and had longed to get +away. But for her, there had been no one to +wave the magic wand, that should transform +the little Vermont village into a place filled +with new and unexplored charms. Never in +all Jane's many summers, had she known one +like this summer of theirs; and for them--the +wonder was by no means over--the years +ahead were bright with untold possibilities. +Hilary sighed for very happiness, wondering +if she were the same girl who had rocked +listlessly in the hammock that June morning, +protesting that she didn't care for "half-way" things. + +"Tired?" Pauline asked. + +"I was thinking," her sister answered. + +"Well, the tow's gone." Jane got up to go. + +"I'm ever so glad we came, thank you so +much, Jane," Pauline said heartily. + +"I wonder what'll have happened by the +time we all see our next tow go down," Josie +said, as they started towards home. + +"We may see a good many more than one +before the general exodus," her brother answered. + +"But we won't have time to come watch for +them. Oh, Paul, just think, only a little +while now--" + +Tom slipped into step with Hilary, a little +behind the others. "I never supposed the old +soul had it in her," he said, glancing to where +Jane trudged heavily on ahead. "Still, I +suppose she was young--once; though I've never +thought of her being so before." + +"Yes," Hilary said. "I wonder,--maybe, +she's been better off, after all, right, here at +home. She wouldn't have got to be +Sextoness Jane anywhere else, probably." + +Tom glanced at her quickly. "Is there a +hidden meaning--subject to be carefully avoided?" + +Hilary laughed. "As you like." + +"So you and Paul are off on your travels, too?" + +"Yes, though I can hardly believe it yet." + +"And just as glad to go as any of us." + +"Oh, but we're coming back--after we've +been taught all manner of necessary things." + +"Edna'll be the only one of you girls left +behind; it's rough on her." + +"It certainly is; we'll all have to write her +heaps of letters." + +"Much time there'll be for letter-writing, +outside of the home ones," Tom said. + +"Speaking of time," Josie turned towards +them, "we're going to be busier than any bee +ever dreamed of being, before or since Dr. Watts." + +They certainly were busy days that +followed. So many of the young folks were +going off that fall that a good many of the +meetings of "The S. W. F. Club" resolved +themselves into sewing-bees, for the girl members only. + +"If we'd known how jolly they were, we'd +have tried them before," Bell declared one +morning, dropping down on the rug Pauline +had spread under the trees at one end of the +parsonage lawn. + +Patience, pulling bastings with a business-like +air, nodded her curly head wisely. "Miranda says, +folks mostly get 'round to enjoying +their blessings 'bout the time they come to lose them." + +"Has the all-important question been +settled yet, Paul?" Edna asked, looking up from +her work. She might not be going away to +school, but even so, that did not debar one +from new fall clothes at home. + +"They're coming to Vergennes with me," +Bell said. "Then we can all come home +together Friday nights." + +"They're coming to Boston with me," Josie +corrected, "then we'll be back together for +Thanksgiving." + +Shirley, meekly taking her first sewing +lessons under Pauline's instructions, and frankly +declaring that she didn't at all like them, +dropped the hem she was turning. "They're +coming to New York with me; and in the +between-times we'll have such fun that they'll +never want to come home." + +Pauline laughed. "It looks as though +Hilary and I would have a busy winter +between you all. It is a comfort to know where +we are going." + +"Remember!" she warned, when later the +party broke up. "Four o'clock Friday afternoon! Sharp!" + +"Are we going out in a blaze of glory?" +Bell questioned. + +"You might tell us where we are going, +now, Paul," Josie urged. + +Pauline shook her head. "You wait until +Friday, like good little girls. Mind, you all +bring wraps; it'll be chilly coming home." + +Pauline's turn was to be the final wind-up +of the club's regular outings. No one outside +the home folks, excepting Tom, had been +taken into her confidence--it had been +necessary to press him into service. And when, on +Friday afternoon, the young people gathered +at the parsonage, all but those named were +still in the dark. + +Besides the regular members, Mrs. Shaw, +Mr. Dayre, Mr. Allen, Harry Oram and Patience +were there; the minister and Dr. Brice +had promised to join the party later if possible. + +As a rule, the club picnics were cooperative +affairs; but to-day the members, by special +request, arrived empty-handed. Mr. Paul +Shaw, learning that Pauline's turn was yet to +come, had insisted on having a share in it. + +"I am greatly interested in this club," he +had explained. "I like results, and I think," +he glanced at Hilary's bright happy face, +"that the 'S. W. F. Club' has achieved at least +one very good result." + +And on the morning before the eventful +Friday, a hamper had arrived from New +York, the watching of the unpacking of which +had again transformed Patience, for the time, +from an interrogation to an exclamation point. + +"It's a beautiful hamper," she explained to +Towser. "It truly is--because father says, +it's the inner, not the outer, self that makes +for real beauty, or ugliness; and it certainly +was the inside of that hamper that counted. +I wish you were going, Towser. See here, +suppose you follow on kind of quietly +to-morrow afternoon--don't show up too soon, and +I guess I can manage it." + +Which piece of advice Towser must have +understood. At any rate, he acted upon it to +the best of his ability, following the party at a +discreet distance through the garden and down +the road towards the lake; and only when the +halt at the pier came, did he venture near, the +most insinuating of dogs. + +And so successfully did Patience manage +it, that when the last boat-load pushed off +from shore, Towser sat erect on the narrow +bow seat, blandly surveying his fellow +voyagers. "He does so love picnics," Patience +explained to Mr. Dayre, "and this is +the last particular one for the season. I kind +of thought he'd go along and I slipped in a +little paper of bones." + +From the boat ahead came the chorus. +"We're out on the wide ocean sailing." + +"Not much!" Bob declared. "I wish we +were--the water's quiet as a mill-pond this afternoon." + +For the great lake, appreciating perhaps +the importance of the occasion, had of its many +moods chosen to wear this afternoon its +sweetest, most beguiling one, and lay, a broad +stretch of sparkling, rippling water, between +its curving shores. + +Beyond, the range of mountains rose dark +and somber against the cloud-flecked sky, +their tops softened by the light haze that told +of coming autumn. + +And presently, from boat to boat, went the +call, "We're going to Port Edward! Why +didn't we guess?" + +"But that's not _in_ Winton," Edna protested. + +"Of it, if not in it," Jack Ward assured them. + +"Do you reckon you can show us anything +new about that old fort, Paul Shaw?" Tracy +demanded. "Why, I could go all over it +blindfolded." + +"Not to show the new--to unfold the old," +Pauline told him. + +"That sounds like a quotation." + +"It is--in substance," Pauline looked across +her shoulder to where Mr. Allen sat, +imparting information to Harry Oram. + +"So that's why you asked the old fellow," +Tracy said. "Was that kind?" + +They were rounding the slender point on +which the tall, white lighthouse stood, and +entering the little cove where visitors to the fort +usually beached their boats. + +A few rods farther inland, rose the tall, +grass-covered, circular embankment, +surrounding the crumbling, gray walls, the outer +shells of the old barracks. + +At the entrance to the enclosure, Tom +suddenly stepped ahead, barring the way. "No +passing within this fort without the +counter-sign," he declared. "Martial law, this afternoon." + +It was Bell who discovered it. "'It's a +habit to be happy,'" she suggested, and Tom +drew back for her to enter. But one by one, +he exacted the password from each. + +Inside, within the shade of those old, gray +walls, a camp-fire had been built and +camp-kettle swung, hammocks had been hung under +the trees and when cushions were scattered +here and there the one-time fort bore anything +but a martial air. + +But something of the spirit of the past must +have been in the air that afternoon, or perhaps, +the spirit of the coming changes; for this +picnic--though by no means lacking in charm--was +not as gay and filled with light-hearted +chaff as usual. There was more talking in +quiet groups, or really serious searching for +some trace of those long-ago days of storm and stress. + +With the coming of evening, the fire was +lighted and the cloth laid within range of its +flickering shadows. The night breeze had +sprung up and from outside the sloping +embankment they caught the sound of the waves +breaking on the beach. True to their +promise, the minister and Dr. Brice appeared at +the time appointed and were eagerly welcomed +by the young people. + +Supper was a long, delightful affair that +night, with much talk of the days when the +fort had been devoted to far other purposes +than the present; and the young people, +listening to the tales Mr. Allen told in his quiet yet +strangely vivid way, seemed to hear the slow +creeping on of the boats outside and to be +listening in the pauses of the wind for the +approach of the enemy. + +"I'll take it back, Paul," Tracy told her, as +they were repacking the baskets. "Even the +old fort has developed new interests." + +"And next summer the 'S. W. F. Club' will +continue its good work," Jack said. + +Going back, Pauline found herself sitting +in the stern of one of the boats, beside her +father. The club members were singing the +club song. But Pauline's thoughts had +suddenly gone back to that wet May afternoon. + +She could see the dreary, rain-swept garden, +hear the beating of the drops on the +window-panes. How long ago and remote it all +seemed; how far from the hopeless discontent, +the vague longings, the real anxiety of that +time, she and Hilary had traveled. She +looked up impulsively. "There's one thing," +she said, "we've had one summer that I shall +always feel would be worth reliving. And +we're going to have more of them." + +"I am glad to hear that," Mr. Shaw said. + +Pauline looked about her--the lanterns at +the ends of the boats threw dancing lights out +across the water, no longer quiet; overhead, +the sky was bright with stars. "Everything +is so beautiful," the girl said slowly. "One +seems to feel it more--every day." + +"'The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the +Lord hath made even both of them,'" her +father quoted gravely. + +Pauline drew a quick breath. "The +hearing ear and the seeing eye"--it was a good +thought to take with them--out into the new +life, among the new scenes. One would need +them everywhere--out in the world, as well as +in Winton. And then, from the boat just +ahead, sounded Patience's clear +treble,--"'There's a Good Time Coming.'" + + + *** \ No newline at end of file