CHAPTER XIIUNCLE JOHN ARRIVES

CHAPTER XIIUNCLE JOHN ARRIVES

The next great thing to look for was the return of Uncle John. He was not one to waste his time, and he had been able to arrange his affairs more quickly than Mrs. Law had dared to hope, for he wrote that they might look for him the latter part of November, and Mrs. Law busied herself in making her preparations to leave the Dallas place.

There had been a sharp frost, which even the chrysanthemums had not withstood, so the garden looked bare and dreary. The arbor vitæ hedge alone kept its green, and as Cassy stood looking at the wisps of straw which covered the rose-bushes, she told herself that she really felt less sorry to leave than she had ever thought she could. The prospect of that other garden near to Eleanor and to May Garland, that cottage which overlooked a shining strip of river, and in sight of which were the purple hills, all this madeher feel that she was to gain more than she was to lose.

“Although I am going away, I shall always love you very, very much, you dear garden,” she whispered. “I will never forget you, and you must take good care of my mouse and my spiders, and some day I will come back and see you, roses, dear, when you come out of your funny little straw houses. In a few days we shall all be gone and I will be outside your brick wall, you dear garden.”

She walked slowly back to the house, though Jerry was calling: “Hurry, hurry, Cassy.” Then it suddenly occurred to her that maybe her Uncle John had come, and she ran very fast up the garden path towards the house. Sure enough, that was why Jerry had called, for before she had reached the porch steps she was caught up by a pair of strong arms and her own clasped her uncle’s neck.

“I am so glad, so glad to see you, you dear, dearest uncle,” she said.

“And I am glad to see my little lassie again. I was homesick for her many a time, my little Cassy.”

“And you’ll never, never go back there again.”

“Not unless I take you with me. When you’re a young lady, perhaps, we’ll all go over and have a look at things together.”

Cassy gave him a hug and he put her down.

There was much to talk about, so much to do and to see that for the next week they seemed in a whirl. First there was a mysterious package of presents which Uncle John had brought with him, and which was found to contain a piece of soft wool material, a true Scotch plaid, for a new frock for Cassy, and a new doll from London, which Cassy admired very much, but which she played with only on special occasions, for her beloved Flora was not to be cast aside for any newcomer. For Jerry there was a suit of Scotch tweed and a little silver watch, while for Mrs. Law there was a piece of silk for a new gown and some other things, mementoes of her childhood, a bit of heather, a pin in which was set a Scotch pebble, and a lot of photographs of her old home and the surrounding country. These last were a great source of pleasure to the children, especially to Cassy, who sat anddreamed over them, imagining her mother a tiny child with her sturdy little brother by her side playing in that home over the sea.

The very next day after his arrival Uncle John went to look at the place upon which they had all set their hearts.

“I can scarcely wait till he comes back, can you, mother?” said Jerry.

“Don’t you want dreadfully to go there?” asked Cassy.

“Not dreadfully. I should be content anywhere, I think, with my dear children and my brother; but for your sakes, my darlings, I’d like to go.”

“Then I think we will,” said Cassy, “for Uncle John loves me very much, and I told him I’d be dreadfully disappointed if he didn’t like the place.”

Her mother laughed.

“I think then he’ll try very hard to like it.”

“Isn’t it funny when he went away he was John McClure, and when he came back he was John Kennedy; I like him best to be John Kennedy, because he has a part of my name,” said Cassy.

She was right in supposing that her uncle would try to like the place, and it is quite true also, that Rock’s eagerness and Cassy’s desire in the matter had much to do with his decision. At all events when he did return that evening, he told them that he had not only bought the place, but that he had set the painters and carpenters to work, and that he wanted his sister and Cassy to go down town with him the next day to choose the papers for the walls, and that he hoped in a couple of weeks they could move in.

“I’ve a deal of work to get done before spring,” he said, “and so I can’t afford to lose any time, besides I have so set my heart on a little home for us all that I am as impatient as the children.”

“I’m glad you are impatient,” said Cassy with satisfaction.

The choosing of the wall papers was a most bewildering and fascinating work, and when Cassy saw a certain design of roses on a cream ground she begged to have that for her room.

“And what am I to have?” asked her uncle.

Cassy gravely considered chrysanthemums and buttercups and purple clematis.

“Which do you like best?” she asked.

“Yours,” he returned.

The shopman unrolled another paper, and Cassy gave a little scream of delight.

“You can have the other,” she cried, for here were morning-glories, delicately trailing up a creamy white paper; curling tendrils, heart shaped leaves, and all, looked so very natural.

“I’ll agree,” said her uncle. “I will take the roses,” and so with buttercups for Jerry and chrysanthemums for Mrs. Law they were all satisfied.

Then came the buying of furniture, for Mrs. Law’s poor little stock would go only a very little way towards being enough, and next there were carpets and curtains and many other things, and finally there came a day when Mrs. Law went up to the cottage with her brother to set up the furniture which had been unpacked and stood ready to be placed in the different rooms.

At last came the time when they were to leave the Dallas place to take possession of their new home. Martha had been on hand for several days getting Mrs. Dallas’s rooms all in order,uncovering the furniture and pictures and getting out the ornaments; the upholsterers had been at work putting up the curtains and putting down the carpets and rugs so that the house, when they left it, appeared very much as it did that day when Cassy had first seen it, and was less familiar to her than it had been in its summer aspect. Along the garden walks gusts of wind were sweeping the dry leaves and it looked wintry and cold out there.

“I’d rather see our purple hills and the river than brick walls; we have ever so much more view,” said Cassy, triumphantly.

“You are getting very top-lofty,” returned her mother. “I remember a little girl who, not a year ago, thought it would be paradise to get inside this place, and now she thinks it is rather contracted.”

“Oh, but I love it, too, though I like my own home better.” She sat with folded hands looking very thoughtful after this. Her mother watched her for a little while.

“A penny for your thoughts,” she said, gaily. She was often quite gay and smiling these days, different from that quiet, patient, gentle motherwho had always smiled so sadly and who had to work so hard for her children.

Cassy held out her hand.

“The penny, please,” she said. “I was thinking about Mrs. Boyle and the parrot and Billy Miles and all those people, and I was wondering whether I ought to go and say good-bye to them.”

“Do you want to?”

“Not exactly. I do for some reasons.”

“What reasons?” Her mother looked at her with a half smile.

“I believe you know, mother.” She hung her head. “I would like them to know we are going to have our own lovely little home, and I would like to show off before the girls a little.”

“That’s what I was afraid of. It is perfectly natural that you should feel so, but after all I think I wouldn’t do it. Jerry has let the boys know of all the pleasant things that have happened and I think we need not do any more.”

“I think after all I’m rather glad not to. I never, never want to see that back yard again; do you?”

“No, my dear, no.”

Cassy’s Uncle John had already gone up to take possession of the new home and was there to welcome them when they arrived. He had bought a comfortable dayton and a pair of strong horses and was at the station to meet them. Cassy’s heart beat so fast and she was so overcome when they came within sight of the house that she slipped down on the floor of the dayton and buried her face in her mother’s lap. Mrs. Law laid her hand gently on the child’s. She understood the excitable, intense nature.

John Kennedy, looking over his shoulder at the back seat, missed his little niece.

“Where’s Cassy?” he asked.

She lifted her head and he saw her trembling lips and moist eyes.

“Not crying, Cassy?” he said.

“I’m not crying because I am sorry, Uncle John, but I’m so glad I can’t help it.”

As they stopped before the gate, after turning in from the long lane, there came a shout and a hallo, and around the corner of the house came Rock, Eleanor, May Garland and Bubbles, all capering about in delight and calling out a dozen things before the newcomers had left theirplaces. Jerry was the first to scramble down. He viewed the house now spick and span in its new coat of paint.

“My, doesn’t it look fine?” he cried. And he made a rush for the porch.

“May and I were coming down for you in the pony carriage, but we thought maybe you’d rather ride up in your uncle’s new dayton,” Eleanor said to Cassy, who hadn’t a word to say. She only looked from one to the other smiling. “We haven’t been all over the house yet,” Eleanor went on to say. “Your uncle said you would like to show it to us yourself. Isn’t it funny that we’ve got to learn to call him Mr. Kennedy?”

They all went in and Cassy led them from room to room. It was all neat and comfortable with no attempt at show, but very cheerful and homelike, “just as a cottage should be,” Mrs. Law had said.

When the house was fully viewed and they had peeped into all the closets and corners, Eleanor gave Rock a look and he said, “We’ve got something to show you out in the stable. Just wait a minute, you and Jerry, and then come outthere. You needn’t wait but five minutes.” Then the four visitors ran out, leaving Jerry and Cassy to wonder what was coming next.

They were so happy over all these delightful new things that as soon as the other children disappeared they hugged each other and danced up and down repeating in a singsong: “We’ve got a new home! We’ve got a new home!” for the want of something better to do and finding no other way to give vent to their feelings.

“It’s five minutes,” said Jerry, looking at his new watch. “Come on,” and they ran out to the stable, but, before they reached it, out came Rock bearing a Skye-terrier puppy in his arms. It was as much as possible like Ragged Robin and about the size he was when Jerry rescued him.

“It’s for you, old fellow,” said Rock, and then, boy-like, he turned away before Jerry could say a word of thanks.

After Rock came Eleanor carrying in her arms a dear little kitten with the bluest eyes and with soft gray fur. She gave it carefully into Cassy’s arms.

“Miss Morning-Glory told me that shethought you would like to have a kitty,” she said, laughing.

Then came May Garland, a little shy, but with eyes full of laughter. She had a basket in her hand.

“You can’t hold this, too,” she said, “but you see it is a little hen.” She opened the basket and Cassy laughed as the buff hen cocked her head to one side and made the remark: “Caw; caw!”

Not to be outdone by the others, Bubbles, chuckling and trying to swallow her laugh, held a small box in her hand. There was a scrambling and a scurrying inside. Cassy wondered what it could be.

“Miss Dimple say you lak mouses,” said Bubbles, “and I fetch yuh dis one.”

Cassy put her kitten into Eleanor’s arms.

“Hold it for me,” she said, “and don’t let it go.” She took the box, but too late heeded Bubbles’ warning. “Take keer!” for Miss Mouse giving a sudden spring lifted the lid of the box as Cassy was preparing to peep in, and leaping out scurried away out of sight as fast as she could go.

“Oh!” exclaimed Cassy dismayed and hardly aware of what had happened. But Bubbles threw up her hands and brought them together with a shout of delight. It was just the kind of sensation that she enjoyed.

“Ne’min’, Miss Cassy,” she said. “I reckons hit’s a good thing fo’ Miss Mouse she git away, fur de kitten mought git her.”

“Let’s make a house for the hen,” said Rock to Jerry who had followed up Rock and now had returned to see what all this fun was about.

“All right,” said Jerry, glad for some excuse to exercise his energies. “I’m going to keep the puppy right with me all the time. I tell you, he is a dandy. I am awfully glad to have him.”

“You’ll call him Ragged Robin, won’t you?”

“Yes, but I’ll call him Robin for short.”

The boys went into the stable to find something for the hen-coop, and the girls went to the house. They found a pleasant-looking, rosy-cheeked maid installed in the kitchen, and passing through they went on up to Cassy’s morning-glory room. But by the time the boys had settled the hen in her new home it was growinglate and the visitors took their leave with many friendly good-byes and neighborly invitations. Cassy watched them depart and then went to her mother.

Out of doors Jerry and his uncle were looking over the land on which would soon appear the rows of greenhouses. A shining line of silver showed through the trees, telling where the river was. Behind the purple hills the sun had set, and there was a gorgeous western sky. With her head on her mother’s shoulder Cassy watched the clouds of amethyst and gold and red.

“The sun has walked through his garden,” she said. “See all the bunches of flowers in the sky. Aren’t you so happy it most hurts you, mother?”

“I am very thankful and content,” she said.

“Monday morning Eleanor is going to call for me to take me to school; she is coming with her pony carriage. Isn’t it good of Uncle John to want me to go to that school? I must go and tell him. Kiss me, mother, I am going to find Uncle John.”

Her mother kissed her and presently saw herstepping carefully over the clods of earth, her face aglow with the rosy light from the sky. She was singing in a shrill little voice: “Home sweet home.” Jerry had forsaken his uncle and had gone to his beloved puppy, but Uncle John heard Cassy and held out his hand. She went to him and together they watched the daylight fade.

“But there’s such a beautiful to-morrow coming,” said Cassy, as they walked towards the cottage in the waning light.

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