102CHAPTER IX
The next two days were busy ones. There were a great many last little things to be done, and Julia Cloud would have worked herself out, had not the children interfered and carried her off for a ride every little while. The intervening Sabbath was spent at Ellen Robinson’s. The handsome hand-bag and wallet served to keep Ellen from being very disagreeable. In fact, at the last, when she began to realize that Julia was really going away, and would not be down at the old house any more for her to burden and torment, she really revealed a gleam of affection for her, and quite worried poor Julia with thinking that perhaps, after all, she ought not to go away so far from her only sister. When Ellen sat down on the bare stairs in the old hall Monday morning, and gave vent to a real sob at parting, Julia had a swift vision of her little sister years ago sitting on that same stair weeping from a fall, and herself comforting her; and she put her arms around Ellen, and kissed her for the first time in many reticent years.
But at last they were off, having handed over the keys to the new tenant, and Julia Cloud leaned back on the luxurious cushions and laughed. Not from mirth, for there were tears in her eyes; and not from nervousness, for she was never subject to hysteria; but just from sheer excitement and joy to think that she was really going out in the world at last to see things and live a life of her own.
103
The two young people felt it, and laughed with her, until the blackbirds, swirling in a rustling chorus overhead on their way south, seemed to be joining in, and a little squirrel whisked across the road and sat up inquiringly on a log framed in scarlet leaves.
They went straight to the city, for Mr. Luddington had promised to meet them there and confer with them further about their plans. But, when they reached the hotel, they found only a telegram from him saying that business had held him longer than he expected and that he should have to arrange to meet them farther along in their journey. He suggested three colleges, either one of which he should favor, and outlined their journey to take in a stop at each. He promised to communicate with them later, and gave his own address in case they decided to remain at either the first or the second place visited.
“Now,” said Julia Cloud after the telegram was disposed of, “I want to get a new dress and a few things before we go any farther. I know you children don’t like these old black things, and we might as well start out right. It won’t take me long, and I shall be ready to go on my way right after lunch.”
Leslie was delighted, and the two spent two hours of happiness in shopping, while Allison drove to a garage to have his car looked over thoroughly, and laid in a supply of good things for the journey. He also spent a profitable half-hour studying a road-map and asking questions concerning the journey.
They tried to make Julia Cloud take a nap before they started, but she declared she would rather rest104in the car; and so they started off, feeling like three children going to find the end of the rainbow.
It was a wonderful afternoon. The air was like wine, and the autumn foliage was in all its glory. As they flew along, it seemed as if they were leaving all care behind. A soft pink color grew in Julia Cloud’s cheeks, and she sat with her hands folded and her eyes bright with the beauty of the day.
“Oh, but you’re a beauty, Cloudy, dear!” exclaimed Leslie suddenly. “See her, Allison! Just look at her. Isn’t she great? She was all right in those black things, of course, but she’s wonderful in the gray things!”
For Julia Cloud had laid aside in the very bottom of her new trunk the prim black serge that Ellen had bought, and the black funeral gloves and coat and hat; and she was wearing a lovely soft gray wool jersey dress with white collar and cuffs. The big gray coat was nestled by her side ready for use when the wind grew colder, and she was wearing the new gray hat and gloves, and looked a lady every inch. Allison turned slowly, and gave her a look that made her blush like a girl.
“I should say sheisgreat! She’s a peach!” he agreed. “That hat is a cracker jack! It looks like a pigeon’s wing. I like it; don’t you, Cloudy? But say, Leslie, she’s something more than a beauty. She’s a good scout. That’s what she is. Do you realize she hasn’t opened her lips about the car once? ’Member the time I took Mrs. Luddington down to the office for Guardy, how she squeaked every time another car105went by, and cautioned me to be careful and go slow, and asked me how many times I had ever driven before, and if I wasn’t exceeding the speed-limit, and no end of things? But Cloudy hasn’t batted an eye. She just sits there as if she was riding a cloud and enjoyed it.”
“Well, I do,” said Julia Cloud, laughing; “and I never thought of being afraid. I didn’t know enough to. Ought I to? Because I’m having such a good time that I’m afraid I’d forget to be frightened.”
“That’s what I said. You’re a good sport. I believe you like to go fast.”
Julia Cloud admitted shamedly that she did.
“He’s a splendid driver, and so am I,” Leslie explained earnestly. “Guardy had us taught ages ago, and we’re driven a lot; only of course we didn’t have our own car. We just had the regular car that belongs to the house. But we made that work some. And Allison took a full course in cars. He knows how to repair them, and put them together, and everything.”
“Shall I let her go, Cloudy?” asked Allison eagerly. “Will you be afraid?”
“I should love it,” said Julia Cloud eagerly, and then with a sober look at the boy: “Don’t do anything crazy, dear! Don’t do anything that you oughtn’t to do.”
“Of course not!” said Allison gravely, sitting up with a manly look in his handsome young face. And by the look he gave her she knew that she had put him upon his honor, and she knew that he would take no risks now that she had trusted him. If she had been106a squealing, hectoring kind of woman, he might have been challenged into taking risks, but not here, when she trusted him and the responsibility was all his.
Julia Cloud, as she drew a long breath and prepared, to enjoy the flight down the white ribbon of road, up a hill and down another, registered the thought that here was a clew to this boy’s character. Trust him, and he would be faithful. Distrust him, and you wouldn’t be anywhere. It did not come to her in words that way, but rather as a subconscious fact that was incorporated into her soul, and gave her a solid and sure feeling about her boy. She had seen all that in his eyes.
He turned around presently, and told her how fast they had been going; and her eyes were shining as brightly as Leslie’s.
“You’re a pretty good pard, Cloudy,” he said. “We’ll make you a member of the gang and take you everywhere. See! You’re being initiated now, and you’re making good right along. I knew we did a good thing when we came after you. Didn’t we, Les?”
And Leslie turned and flung herself into Julia Cloud’s arms with one of her enthusiastic hugs.
It was just evening when they entered the little town about twenty miles from a larger city, where was located a seat of learning, co-educational, which had been highly recommended to Mr. Luddington, and which seemed to him to have a great many good points in its favor.
The sign-posts warned them of their approach; and the three sat silently watching, judging the place from the outskirts. Big square houses and lawns multiplied107as they progressed. Some streets had fences. Substantial churches rose here and there, and the college grounds became visible as they neared the centre of the town. The buildings were spacious and attractive, with tall old elms and maples shading the broad walks. There was an ideal chapel of dark-red stone with arches and a wonderful belfry, and one could easily imagine young men and maidens flitting here and there.
The two young people studied the scene as the car drove slowly by, and said nothing. Allison went on to the other end of town till the houses grew farther apart, and nothing had been said. Then Leslie drew a big sigh.
“Turn around, brother, and let’s go back past there again.”
Allison turned around, and drove slowly by the college grounds again.
“There are tennis-courts at the back,” said Leslie, “and that looks like a gym over there. Do you suppose that’s the athletic field over at the back?”
They drove slowly around the block, and Julia Cloud sat silently, trying to think of herself in this strange environment, and feeling suddenly chilly and alone. There would be a lot of strange people to meet, and the children would be off at college all day. She hadn’t thought of that.
“Try some of the side streets,” ordered Leslie; “I haven’t seen our house yet.”
They came to the business part of the town, and found the stopping-place suggested in Mr. Luddington’s directions.
108
“We can’t tell much about it to-night,” said Allison gravely. “I guess we better get some supper and let Cloudy Jewel get rested for a while. Then to-morrow we can look around.”
They were wise words, and Julia Cloud assented at once; but it was quite plain that neither he nor Leslie was much elated at the place.
Allison slipped out for a walk through the college grounds after the others had gone to their rooms, and came back whistling gravely.
“He doesn’t like it, Cloudy,” whispered Leslie as the sound floated in through the transom. “He won’t have anything to do with it. You see!”
“What makes you think so, dear? He’s whistling. That sounds as if he liked it.”
“Yes, but look what he’s whistling. He always begins on ‘The Long, Long Trail’ if he isn’t pleased or has to wait when he’s in a hurry to get anywhere. Now, if he had been pleased, you would have heard ‘One grasshopper hopped right over th’ other grasshopper’s back.’ I can always tell. Well, I don’t care; do you, Cloudy? There’s plenty of other colleges, and I didn’t see our house in any of the streets we went through, did you?”
Julia Cloud had to confess that she had not been in love with anything she had seen yet.
“Well, then, what’s the use of going over the old college? I say let’s beat it in the morning.”
But Julia Cloud would not hear to that. She said they must be fair even to a college, and Mr. Luddington would want them to look the place over thoroughly109while they were there. So after breakfast the two reluctant young people went with Julia Cloud to make investigation.
They went through the classrooms and the chapel and the library and gymnasiums. They visited the science halls and workshops. They even climbed up to the observatory, and took a squint at the big telescope, and then they came down and went with a real-estate dealer to see some houses. But at twelve o’clock they came back to their boarding-house with a sigh of relief, ate a good dinner, and, climbing into their car, shook the dust of the town, as it were, from their feet.
“It may be a very nice town, but it’s not the town for me,” chanted Leslie, nestling back among the cushions.
“Here, too!” said Allison, letting the car ride out under full power over the smooth country road. But, though Julia Cloud questioned several times, she could get no explanation except Allison’s terse “Too provincial,” whatever he meant by that. She doubted whether he knew himself. She wondered whether it were that they each felt the same homesick feeling that she had experienced.
They stayed that night at a little country inn, and started on their way again at early morning, for they had a long journey before them to reach the second place that Mr. Luddington had suggested. Late that afternoon they stopped in a small city, and decided to rest until morning; for the children wanted to stretch their limbs, and they felt that their aunt was very weary though she declared she was only sleepy.
110
The sun had quite gone down the next evening, and the twilight was beginning to settle over everything as they drove at last into the second college town of their tour, and the church bells were pealing for prayer meeting. Church bells! The thought of them sent a thrill through Julia Cloud’s heart. There was somehow a familiar, home-like sound to them that made her think of the prayer meetings that had cheered her heart through many lonely days.
It had really been for many years her one outing to go to prayer meeting. Even after her mother had become bedridden she had always insisted on Julia’s going off to prayer meeting, and a neighbor who was lame and sometimes stayed with her would come hobbling in and send her off. The old cracked church bell at home had always sounded sweet to her ears because it meant that this hour was her own quiet time to go away alone and rest. And it had been real heart-rest always, even though sometimes the meetings themselves had been wofully prosy. There had always been the pleasant little chat and the warm hand-shake afterwards, and then the going home again beneath the stars with a bit of the last hymn in one’s soul to sing one to sleep with,
“Nearer, my God, to Thee,Nearer to Thee;E’en though it be a crossThat raiseth me;”
and the burden had grown less, and her heart had grown light with the promise of her Father. Those meetings had been to Julia Cloud very real meetings111with her Christ; and now, as the evening bells pealed out, her heart leaped to meet and answer the call.
“Oh! I’d like to go to prayer meeting!” she said impulsively as they passed the lighted church, and saw a few faithful going in at the door.
“Do you mean it?” asked Allison, bringing the car to a stop. “Do youmeanit, Cloudy? Then let’s go. We can size the people up, and see if we like their looks. I guess we can stand a prayer meeting unless you are too tired.”
With the eagerness of a child Julia Cloud got out of the car and went into the house of the Lord. It was like a bit of heaven to her. She didn’t realize what a bore it might be to her two companions.
It was a good little meeting as such meetings go. Very little enthusiasm, very few present, mostly elders and their wives, with an old saint or two almost at the journey’s end, and a dignified white-haired minister, who said some good things in a drony, sleepy tone. The piano was played by a homely young woman who wore unfashionable clothes, and made frightful mistakes in the bass occasionally; but that did not seem to trouble the singers, who sang with the heart rather than with their voices.
Allison sat solemnly, and refrained from looking at his sister; but both stole occasional glances at their aunt, and admired her new clothes and the beautiful light on her face. For Julia Cloud felt as if she were glimpsing into heaven and seeing her Lord in this bit of communion with some of His saints; and, when she bowed her head in the closing prayer, she was thanking112Him for all His mercies in bringing this wonderful change into her gray life, and giving her these two dear children to love her and be loved by her. As she rose to come out, her face was glorified by that vision on the mount.
The gentle-faced minister came and spoke to them, and welcomed them to the church, although Allison told him quite curtly that they were only passing through the town; but Julia Cloud trod the neat brown ingrain carpet of the aisle as if it were golden pavement.
“Of all the stupid places!” said Allison as they got into the car. “What do they have prayer meetings for, anyway? Did you manage to keep awake, Cloudy?”
And suddenly like a pall there fell upon Julia Cloud’s bright soul the realization that these children did not, would not, feel as she did about such things. They had probably never been taught to love the house of God, and how was she ever to make them see? Perhaps it had been prosy and dull to one who did not hear the Lord’s voice behind the Bible words. Perhaps the old minister had been long and tiresome, and the children were weary with the journey and sleepy; she ought not to have let them stop now; and she began to say how sorry she was. But, when they saw from her words that she had really enjoyed that dull little meeting, they were silent.
“Well, Cloudy, I’ll hand it to you,” said Allison at last. “If you could stand that meeting and enjoy it, you’re some Christian! But I’m glad for one that we went if you liked it; and I guess, if you can go a113football game now and then, I ought to be able to stand a prayer meeting. So now here goes for seeing the town. It’s only nine o’clock, and I believe that’s the college up there on the hill where all those lights are. Shall we drive up there?”
The car slipped through the pleasant evening streets, turning a corner, slowing up at a crossing to take a view of the town, and keeping all the time in view the clusters of lights on the hill, which Allison conceived to be the college. Suddenly Leslie leaned forward, and cried:
“O Allison, stop! Stop! There it is, just there on the right. And it’s for sale, too! Oh, let’s get right out and get the name of the agent, so we won’t lose it again.”
Allison stopped the car suddenly, and turned to look. There in the full blaze of an electric arc-light, nestled among shrubbery and tall trees, with a smooth terrace in front, was a beautiful little cottage of white stone, with a pink roof, and windows everywhere.
“Why, that’s not the college, Les; what’s the matter with you?” said Allison, putting his hand on the starter again. “Better wake up. Don’t you know a college when you don’t see one?”
“College nothing!” said his sister. “That’s our house. That’s ourhome, Allison. The very house I’ve dreamed of. It looks a little like the houses in California, and it is the very thing. Now, there’s no use; you’ve got to get out and get that agent’s name, or I’ll jump out myself, and get lost, and walk the rest of the way!”
114
“It is lovely!” said Julia Cloud, leaning over to look. “But it looks expensive, and you wouldn’t want tobuya house, you know, dear; for you might not stay.”
“Oh, yes, we would if we liked it. And, besides, houses can be sold again when you get done with them, though I’d never want to sell that! It’s a perfect little duck. Allison, will you get out or shall I?”
“Oh, I’m game,” said Allison, getting out and jumping the hedge into the pretty yard.
He took out his pencil, and wrote down the address in his note-book, stepped up the terrace and glanced about, then went close to the street sign, and found out what corner it was near.
“It is a pippin, sure thing,” he said as he sprang into the car again; “but, Leslie, for the love of Mike, don’t find any more houses to-night! I’m hungry as a bear. That prayer meeting was one too many for me; I’m going to make for the nearest restaurant; and then, if you want to go house-hunting after that, all right; but I’m going to find the eats first.”
They asked a group of boys where the restaurant was, and one pointed to an open door from which light was streaming forth.
“There’s the pie-shop,” they said, and the party descended hungry and happy with the delicious uncertainty of having found a dream of a house in the dark, and wondering what it would turn out to be in the daytime. They inquired the way to the inn, and decided to stop further investigations until morning.
115CHAPTER X
They were all very weary, and slept well that night; but, strange to say, Allison, who was the sleepy-head, awoke first, and was out looking the town over before the others had thought of awaking. He came back to breakfast eager and impatient.
“We don’t need to go any farther,” he declared. “It’s a peach of a place. There’s a creek that reaches up in the woods for miles; and they have canoes and skating and a swimming-hole; and there are tennis-courts everywhere; and it’s only eleven miles from the city. I say we just camp here, and not bother about going on to the other place. I’m satisfied. If that house is big enough, it’s just the thing.”
“But have you been to the college?”
“No, but I asked about it. They have intercollegiate games and frats, and I guess it’s all right. It has a peach of a campus, too, and a Carnegie library with chimes–––”
“Well, but, dear, you aren’t going to college just for those things.”
“Oh, the college’ll be all right. Guardy wouldn’t have suggested it if it wasn’t. But we’ll go up there this morning and look around.”
“Now, children, don’t get your heart set on it before you know all about it. You know that house may be quite impossible.”
“Now, Cloudy!” put in Leslie. “You know Allison told you you were a good sport. You mustn’t begin by116preaching before you find out. If it isn’t all right, why, of course we don’t want it; so let’s have the fun of thinking it is till we prove it isn’t––or it is.”
Julia Cloud looked into the laughing, happy eyes, and yielded with a smile.
“Of course,” she said, “that’s reasonable. I’m agreed to that. But there’s one thing: you know we’re bound to go on to the other college, because Mr. Luddington expects us; and we can come back here again if we like this better.”
“Oh, we can wire him to come here,” said Leslie. “Now, let’s go! First to that house, please, because I’m so afraid somebody will buy it before we get the option on it. I’ve heard that houses are very scarce in the East just now, and people are snapping them up. I read that on the back of that old man’s paper at the next table to ours this morning.”
All three of them having the hearts of children, they went at once to hunt up the agent before ever they got even a glimpse of the halls of learning standing brave and fair on the hillside in the morning sunshine. “Because there are plenty more colleges,” said Leslie; “but there is only one home for us, and I believe we’ve found it, if it looks half as pretty in the daylight as it did at night.”
It took only a few minutes to find the agent and get the key of the house, and presently they were standing on the terrace gazing with delight at the house.
It was indeed a lovely little dwelling. It was built of stone, and then painted white, but the roof and gables were tiled with great pink tiles, giving an odd little foreign look to it, something like Anne Hathaway’s cottage in general contour, Leslie declared.
117
The top of the terrace was pink-tiled, too, and all the porches were paved with tiles. The house itself seemed filled with windows all around. Allison unlocked the door, and they exclaimed with pleasure as he threw it wide open and they stepped in. The sunshine was flooding the great living-room from every direction, it seemed. To begin with, the room was very large, and gave the effect of being a sun-parlor because of its white panelled walls and its many windows. Straight across from the front door on the opposite side of the room opened a small hallway or passage with stairs leading up to a platform where more windows shed a beautiful light down the stairs on walls papered with strange tropical birds in delicate old-fashioned tracery.
To the right through a wide white arch from the living-room was a charming white dining-room with little, high, leaded-paned windows over the spot for the sideboard and long windows in front.
To the left was an enormous stone fireplace with high mantel-shelf of stone and the chimney above. The fire-opening was wide enough for an old Yule log, and on either side of it were double glass doors opening into a long porch room, which also had a fireplace on the opposite side of the chimney, and was completely shut in by long casement windows.
Up-stairs there were four large bedrooms and a little hall room that could be used for a sewing-room or den, or an extra bedroom, besides a neat little maid’s room in a notch on the half-way landing, and two bathrooms, white-tiled and delightful, tucked away in between things. Then Leslie opened a glass door in the very prettiest room of all, which she and Allison immediately118decided must belong to their aunt, and exclaimed in delight; for here nestled between the gables, with a tiled wall all about it, was a delightful housetop or uncovered porch, so situated among the trees that it was entirely shut in from the world.
It was perfect! They stood and looked at one another in delight, and for the time the college was forgotten. Then Allison dashed away, and came back eagerly almost immediately.
“There’s a garage!” he said, “just behind the kitchen, a regular robin’s nest of a one, white with pink tiles just like the house, and a pebbled drive. Say, it must be some fool of a guy that would sell this. Isn’t it just a crackerjack?”
“My dear,” put in Julia Cloud, “it can’t help being very expensive–––”
“Now, Cloudy, remember!” said Leslie, holding up her finger in mock rebuke. “Just wait and see! And, anyhow, you don’t know Guardy Lud. If he could see us located in a peach of a home like this, he’d go back to his growley old dear of a wife with happy tears rolling down his nice old cheeks. Allison, you go talk to that agent, and you give him a hundred dollars if you’ve got it left––here, I guess I’ve got some, too––just to bind the bargain till Guardy gets here. And say, you go see if you can’t get Guardy on the ’phone. I don’t want to go a step farther. Couldn’t you be happy here, Cloudy, with that fireplace, and that prayer meeting to go to? I wouldn’t mind going with you sometimes when I didn’t have to study.”
Julia Cloud stooped, and kissed the eager face, and whispered, “Very happy, darling!”
119
And then they went to the agent again and the telephone.
“Guardy Lud” proved himself quite equal to the occasion by agreeing to come on at once and approve their choice, and promised to be there before evening.
“I knew he would,” said Leslie happily, as they seated themselves in the car again for the pleasant run to the college.
They found the dean in his office, and Allison was taken with him at once.
“He isn’t much like that musty little guy in the other college. He looked like a wet hen!” growled Allison in a low tone to his sister and aunt, while the dean was out in the hall talking to a student. “I like him, don’t you?” and Julia Cloud sat wondering what the boy’s standards could be that he could judge so suddenly and enthusiastically. Yet she had to admit herself that she liked this man, tall and grave with a pleasant twinkle hidden away in his wine-brown eyes and around the corners of his firm mouth. She felt satisfied that here was a man who would be both wise and just.
They made the rounds of the college buildings and campus with growing enthusiasm, and then drove back to the inn to lunch with hearty appetites.
“Let’s go down to the house, and measure things, and look around once more,” proposed Leslie. “Then we can come back and wait here for Guardy. We mustn’t be away when he arrives, for he’ll want to get everything fixed up and get away. I know him. Allison, did you get a time-table?”
Allison produced one from his coat-pocket, and they studied the trains, and decided that there was no120possibility of the arrival of their guardian until three o’clock, and probably not until five.
“That’s all right,” said Leslie. “Cloudy and I’ll stay here from three to five, and you can meet the trains; but first I want the dimensions of those rooms, so Cloudy and I can plan. We’ve got a whole lot to do before college opens, and we can’t spare a minute. O Cloudy! I’m so happy! Isn’t that house just a duck?”
They went to the village store, bought a foot-rule, a yardstick, and a tape-measure, and repaired to the house. Allison took the foot-rule by masculine right; Julia Cloud said she felt more at home with the tape-measure; and Leslie preferred the yardstick. With pencil and paper they went to work, making a diagram of each room, with spaces between windows and doors for furniture, taking it room by room.
“We’ve got to know about length of curtains, and whether furniture will fit in,” declared Leslie wisely. “I’ve thought it all out nights in the sleeper on the way over here. Just think! Isn’t it going to be fun furnishing the whole house? You know, Cloudy, I didn’t have hardly anything sent, because it really wasn’t worth while. We sort of wanted to leave the house at home just as it was when Mamma was living, to come back to sometimes; and so we let it to an old gentleman, a friend of Grandfather’s and Guardy’s, who has only himself and his wife and servants, and will take beautiful care of it. But I went around and picked out anything I wanted, rugs and pictures and some bric-à-brac, and a few bits of old mahogany that I love, just small things that would pack easily. Guardy said we might buy our own things. He set a limit121on our spending, of course; but he said it would be good experience for us to learn how to buy wisely inside a certain sum.”
Julia Cloud went around like one in a dream with her new tape-measure, setting down careful figures, and feeling like a child playing dolls again. It was almost three o’clock when they finally finished their measurements, and Allison hurried them back to the inn, and repaired to the station to meet trains.
Leslie made her aunt lie down on the bed, supposedly for a nap; but no one could have taken a nap even if he had wanted to––which Julia Cloud did not––with an eager, excited girl sitting beside the bed, just fluttering with ideas about couches and pillows and furniture and curtains.
“We’ll have a great deep couch, with air-cushions on the seat and back, and put it in the middle of the living-room facing the fireplace, won’t we, Cloudy? And what color do you think would be pretty for the cushions? I guess blue, deep, dark-blue brocaded velvet, or something soft that will tone well with the mahogany woodwork. I love mahogany in a white room, don’t you, Cloudy? And I had a great big blue Chinese rug sent over that I think will do nicely for there. You like blue, don’t you, Cloudy?” she finished anxiously. “Because I want to have you like it more even than we do.”
“Oh, I love it!” gasped Julia Cloud, trying to set her mind to revel in extravagant desires without compunction. She was not used to considering life in terms of Chinese rugs or mahogany and brocade velvet.
“I’d like the curtains next the windows to be all alike all over the house, wouldn’t you? Just sheer,122soft, creamy white. And then inner curtains of Chinese silk or something like that. We’d want blue in the living-room, of course, if we had the blue rugs and couch, and oh! old rose, I guess, in the dining-room, or perhaps mahogany color or tan. Green for that sun-porch room! That’s it, and lots of willow chairs and tables! And rush mats on the tiled floor! Oh! Aren’t we having fun, Cloudy, dear? Now, I’ll write out a list of things we have to buy while you take a nap.”
And so it went on the whole afternoon, until the sound of a distant whistle warned them that the five-o’clock train was coming in and they must be prepared to meet Mr. Luddington.
According to programme they hurried into their wraps, and went down to the piazza, to wait for the car. None too soon, for Allison was already driving around the curve in front of the door, and Mr. Luddington sat beside him, radiating satisfaction. Anything that pleased his adorable wards pleased him, but this especially so, for he was in a hurry to respond to the many telegrams summoning him home to California, and the quicker this little household was settled, the sooner he might leave them.
They drove at once, of course, to the house, Allison and Leslie talking fast and eagerly every minute of the way, their eyes bright and their faces beautiful with enthusiasm; and Mr. Luddington could only sit and listen, and smile over their heads at Julia Cloud, who was smiling also, and who in her new silvery garments looked to him all the more a lady and fit to play mother to his wards.
“Well, now, now, now!” said Guardy Lud after they had gone carefully over every room and were123coming down-stairs again. “This is great! This certainly is great. I couldn’t have had it better if I’d made it to order, could I? And I certainly wish you were settled here, and I could stay long enough to take breakfast with you and enjoy some more of your excellent buckwheat cakes, Miss Cloud.” He turned with a gallant bow to Julia. “I hope you’ll teach my little girl here to bake them just like that, so she can make me some when she comes back to California to visit us again.”
They rode him around the town, through the college grounds, and then back to the inn for dinner. That evening they spent in discussion and business plans for the winter. The next morning they took Mr. Luddington up to the college, where he made final arrangements for the young people to be entered as students, and afterwards drove to the city. Mr. Luddington had one or two friends there to whom he wished to introduce them, that they might have some one near at hand to call upon in a time of need. He also took them all to a bank, and arranged their bank accounts so that they might draw what they needed at any time. After lunch he went with them to several of the largest stores, and opened a charge account for them. Then, with a warm hand-shake for Julia Cloud and an emotional good-by for the young people, he left them to rush for his train.
“We might stay in town to-night, and be ready to shop early in the morning,” proposed Leslie.
“No,” said Allison decidedly. “Cloudy looks worn to a frazzle, and I’m sick to death of the city. Let’s beat it back to where they have good air. We can go right to bed after dinner, and get up good and early,124and be here as soon as the stores are open. They don’t open till nine o’clock. I saw the signs on the doors everywhere.”
So back they went for a good night’s rest, and were up and at it early in the morning, scarcely noticing the way they rode, so interested were they in deciding how many chairs and beds and tables they needed to buy.
“Let’s get the curtains first, and then we can have the windows washed, and put them right up,” said Leslie, “and nobody can see in. I’m crazy to be shut into our own house, and feel that it belongs to us. We can select them while Allison’s gone to see what’s the matter with his engine.”
But, when Julia Cloud heard the stupendous price that was asked for ready-made curtains or curtains made to order, with fixtures and installation, she exclaimed in horror:
“Leslie! This is foolish. We can easily make them ourselves, and put them up for less than half the price. If I had only brought my sewing-machine! But it was all out of repair.”
“Could we really make them ourselves, Cloudy? Wouldn’t that be fun? We’ll get a sewing-machine, of course. We’ll need it for other things, too, sometimes, won’t we? Of course we’ll get one. We’ll buy that next. Now, how many yards of each of these do we need?”
In a few minutes the salesman had figured out how much was needed, counted the number of fixtures for doorways and windows, and arranged to send the package down to the car at a certain time later in the morning. Then they went at once and bought a sewing-machine, one that Julia Cloud knew all about and said125was the best and lightest on the market. Leslie was as pleased with the idea of learning to run it as if it had been a new toy and she a child.
“We’ll have it sent right to the little new house, and then we can go there evenings after we are through shopping, and sew. You can cut, and I can put in the hems, if you think I can do them well enough. We must get scissors and thread, a lot of it, and silk to match the colored curtains, too.”
They took the rooms one at a time, and furnished them, Allison joining them, and taking as much interest in the design of the furniture as if he had been a young bridegroom just setting up housekeeping for himself.
They had set aside a certain sum for each room so that they would not overstep their guardian’s limit, and with Julia Cloud to put on the brakes, and suggest simplicity, and decide what was in good taste for such a small village house, they easily came within the generous limit allowed them.
It was a great game for Julia Cloud to come out of her simple country life and plunge into this wholesale beautiful buying untroubled by a continual feeling that she must select the very cheapest without regard to taste or desire. It was wonderful; but it was wearying in spite of the delight, and so the little house was not all furnished in a day.
“Well, the living-room’s done, anyway, and the willow set for the porch room!” sighed Leslie, leaning back with a fling of weariness. “Now to-morrow we’ll do the dining-room.”
“To-morrow’s Sunday, Les; the stores aren’t open. Use your bean a little, child.”
“Sunday!”
126
Leslie’s beautiful face drew itself into a snarl of impatience, the first, really, that Julia Cloud had seen.
“Oh, darn!” said Leslie’s pretty lips. “Isn’t that too horrid? I forgot all about it. I wonder what they have to have Sunday for, anyway. It’s just a dull old bore!”
“O Leslie, darling!” said Julia Cloud, aghast, something in her heart growing suddenly heavy and sinking her down, down, so that she felt as if she could hardly hold her head up another minute.
“Well, Cloudy, dear, don’t you think it’s a bore yourself, truly? Come, now, own up. And I’m sure I don’t see what’s the use of it, do you? One can’t do a thing that’s nice. But I’ll tell you what we can do!” her eyes growing bright with eagerness again. “We’ll measure and cut all the curtains, and turn the hems up. And, Allison, you can put up the fixtures. If only the machine could have been sent up to-day, we could have had the curtains all done, couldn’t we, Cloudy?”
But Julia Cloud’s lips were white and trembling, and her sweet eyes had suddenly gone dark with trouble and apprehension.
“O Leslie, darling child!” she gasped again. “You don’t mean you would work on the Sabbath day!”
“Why, why not, Cloudy, dear? Is there anything wrong about that?”
127CHAPTER XI
Julia Cloud had a sudden feeling that everything was whirling beneath her––the very foundations of the earth. She drew a deep breath, and tried to steady herself, thinking in her heart that she must be very calm and not make any mistakes in this great crisis that had arisen. It flashed across her consciousness that she was a simple, old-fashioned woman, accustomed to old-fashioned ideas, living all her life in a little town where the line between the church and the world was strongly marked, where the traditions of Christianity were still held sacred in the hearts of many and where the customs of worldliness had not yet noticeably invaded. All the articles she had read in the religious press about the worldliness of the modern Sabbath, the terrible desecration of the day that had been dear and sacred to her all her life as being the time when she came closest to her Lord; all the struggle between the church and the world to keep the old laws rigidly; and all the sneers she had seen in the secular press against the fanatics who were trying to force the world back to Puritanism, came shivering to her mind in one great thrill of agony as she recognized that she was face to face with one of the biggest religious problems of the day, and must fight it out alone.
The beautiful life that had seemed to be opening out before her was not, then, to be all beauty. Behind the flowers of this new Eden there hid a serpent of temptation; and she, Julia Cloud, disciple of the Lord128Christ, was to be tried out to see what faith there was in her. For a moment she faltered, and closed her eyes, shuddering. How could she face it, she, who knew so little what to say and how to tell her quiet heart-beliefs? Why had she been placed in such a position? Why was there not some one wiser than she to guide the feet of these children into the straight and narrow way?
But only a moment she shrank thus. The voice of her Master seemed to speak in her heart as the wind whirled by the car and stirred the loose hair on her forehead. The voice that had been her guide through life was requiring her now to witness to these two whom she loved, as no other could do it, be they ever so wise; just because she loved them and loved Him, and was not pretending to be wise, only following. Then she drew a deep breath, reminded herself once more that she must be careful not to antagonize, and sat up gravely.
“Dear, it is God’s day, and I have always felt that He wanted us to make it holy for Him, keep worldly things out of it, you know. I wouldn’t feel that I could work on that day. Of course I have no right to say you shall not. I’m only your adviser and friend, you know. But I’d rather you wouldn’t, because I know God would rather you wouldn’t.”
Leslie pouted uneasily.
“How in the world could you know that?” she said almost crossly. She did love to carry out her projects, and hitherto Julia Cloud had put no hindrance in her way.
“Why, He said so in His book. He said, ‘Thou129shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter–––’”
“Oh, those are the old commandments, Cloudy, dear; and I’ve heard people, even ministers, say that they are out of date now. They don’t have anything to do with us nowadays.”
Julia Cloud looked still graver.
“God doesn’t change, Leslie. He is the same yesterday and to-day and forever. And He said that whoever took away from the meaning of the words of His book would have some terrible punishment, so that it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned.”
“Well, I think He’d be a perfectly horrid God to do that!” said Leslie. “I can’t see how you can believe any such old thing. It isn’t like you, Cloudy, dear; it’s just some old thing you were taught. You don’t like to be long-faced and unhappy one day in the week, you know you don’t.”
“Long-faced! Unhappy! Why, dear child, God doesn’t want the Sabbath to be that. He wants it to be the happiest day of all the week. I’m never unhappy on Sunday. I like it best of all.”
Suddenly Allison turned around, and looked at Julia Cloud, saw the white, strained look around her lips, the yearning light in her eyes, and had some swift man’s intuition about the true woman’s soul of her. For men, especially young men, do have these intuitions sometimes as well as women.
“Leslie,” he said gently, as if he had suddenly grown much older than his sister, “can’t you see you’re hurting Cloudy? Cut it out! If Cloudy likes Sunday, she shall have it the way she wants it.”