CHAPTER XAcross Water
CHAPTER XAcross Water
Itwas some time before the two little girls met, for Mrs. Loomis could not make up her mind to allow Jessie to go over to the yellow house, while Miss Betty and Miss Eloise appreciated the fact that there was reason for hard feelings against Adele, and moreover thought that nothing would make the little sinner realize her misdoing more than such a punishment as a separation from Jessie. Mrs. Loomis had not failed to get daily reports of Adele’s progress and sent her over many dainties while she was in bed, so that Adele’s remorse was all the greater.
Jessie answered the note by saying she was very sorry about the kitten, but she did not refer to Peter Pan nor to Playmate Polly. For a whole week she was obliged to spend her time with her old companions, for the boys returned to school as expected, so Eb and the gray kitten were a great source of solace. Eb took a greatfancy to Cloudy, and it was very funny to see him, with outspread wings, hopping after the prancing kitten who was in no way afraid of him, and who would give him little impertinent dabs when he came too near. He infinitely preferred Cloudy to the chickens.
Finally when a week had gone by, and Jessie, who had avoided the brook for some days, was again playing with Peter Pan and Playmate Polly, she looked across the little stream to see a wistful pair of dark eyes gazing at her. “Oh, Adele!” she cried, “are you able to come out again?”
A flashing smile changed the expression of Adele’s face. “I was so afraid you wouldn’t speak to me,” she exclaimed. “I can’t come over, for I am trying awfully hard to be good. Can’t you come to this side?”
“I’m afraid not,” replied Jessie slowly, “but perhaps if each stays on her own side we can have some sort of play and won’t be disobedient either.”
“I think that will be lovely,” cried Adele. “What can we play? I can use only my right arm, you know.”
“Will it be a long time before you can use the other?” asked Jessie interestedly.
“Not so very, very long. The doctor says it is doing very well indeed, but oh, Jessie, it has been awful without you.”
“Are you having lessons?”
“No, not yet. Aunt Betty hasn’t said anything about that, and—and,” the tears came to her eyes, “if you are not there I shall hate lessons worse than ever. I was getting so I didn’t mind them.”
“It is too bad,” returned Jessie.
“I suppose your mother thinks I am too wicked for you to play with,” remarked Adele after an awkward pause.
“Well,—not exactly,” Jessie wondered how she could explain, “but you see she is afraid we’ll get into some mischief.”
“I know, I know,” returned Adele. “I suppose I am very wicked, but I shall never want to be good if we can’t be friends.”
Jessie pondered for a moment over this speech. It made her feel a great responsibility. She wondered if her mother knew that Adele was in danger of becoming very, very wicked, if it wouldmake any difference in her decision about their friendship. Certainly it was a subject that needed to be discussed, and it should be done that very night when Jessie and her mother had their last little talk before Mrs. Loomis kissed her daughter good-night. For the present it would be best not to talk about it, and so she said, “I’ll tell you what we can do; we can send boats back and forth to each other. You can stay on one end of the log and I will stay on the other.”
“If I come to the middle, will you come and kiss me?” asked Adele.
Jessie thought there could be no harm in doing that upon strictly neutral ground. “But we mustn’t stay there,” she concluded.
“Oh, no, we won’t stay there,” agreed Jessie. So they proceeded to the middle of the log that spanned the brook, fervently kissed one another, and then retreated each to her own side.
“I’ll get some chips,” said Jessie, “and throw some over to you. We ought to have some string, too. Oh, I know where there is some; in the grotto I had a little ball of it the other day, and I put it there to keep it safe.”
“Is the grotto just the same?” asked Adelewistfully. “I should so love to see it. I wish I could come over just for a minute. Do you think I might?”
Jessie shook her head decidedly. “No, I don’t think you ought. Of course I’d love to have you, but it would be disobeying; even doing it once would be disobeying.”
“It is very hard to be perfectly good,” returned Adele woefully.
“Yes, it is,” sighed Jessie, “but when we are sure a thing is wrong we ought not to do it. Sometimes you aren’t quite sure, and sometimes you forget. Forgetting is my worst sin,” she added solemnly.
“I don’t know what mine is, my very worst, I mean. When I begin to think about them I am afraid to go to bed at night.”
“Oh! Mother always——” began Jessie and then she remembered that there was no mother to whom Adele could unburden her conscience and from whom she could receive loving advice and comfort. She therefore changed the subject quickly. “I am going to get the string and the chips,” she said, “and I will send you over a load of persimmons. Do you like them? I broughtsome with me this morning. They are so good now that we have had frost. I don’t suppose I can send more than one or two at a time.”
Adele was delighted at the prospect of receiving such a valuable cargo which by dint of a long switch Jessie managed to pilot safely over to a spot where Adele could reach it. The second expedition was not so successful, however, but was lost in the raging torrent before it was half-way across. When a vessel is only six inches long it is very hard to navigate among the whirlpools of an uncertain stream. Nevertheless at least half a dozen persimmons reached the other shore and were duly consumed by the person to whom they were consigned.
“There will be chestnuts pretty soon,” said Jessie. “I shouldn’t wonder if there were some now. We might go and get some. Oh, I forgot they are on this side. Never mind, I will get Sam to gather some and to-morrow I can send you over a lot. I can put them in a basket and tie the basket on a long pole and in that way I can reach them over to you. Oh, I wonder if the boys took all those they gathered. I am goingto the barn to see, and if they didn’t I’ll bring all I can. Just wait a minute.”
She ran off to the barn and pretty soon came back. She stopped on the way to put something in the grotto, and then went on to the brook with a small covered basket. “I’d better tie it on this pole,” she said, “for it might fall off. It is full of chestnuts. When you have emptied them send the basket back to me, and I will put something else in it.”
“What will you put in it?” asked Adele watching Jessie tie the basket securely to the pole.
“That is a secret,” said Jessie laughing.
By going upon the log she was able to reach far enough so that Adele could get the basket which was unfastened and sent back after it had been emptied of its contents. “I think you were lovely to send me all these,” said Adele delightedly.
“Oh, we shall have plenty more,” Jessie told her. “Sam says there are lots down in the big field. You shall have some of those, too. Now be very careful when you untie the basket this time. It isn’t for you to keep always, but only for a little while.”
While Adele was puzzling over this, Jessie went off to the grotto from which she abstracted something. She kept her back to Adele, and was some time in getting the basket settled to suit her. “I am just crazy to see what it is,” said Adele excitedly.
Jessie laughed and this time went further out upon the log carrying the pole very carefully and reaching it out to where Adele stood at the other end of the log. “Go a little further away when you open the basket,” she suggested, and Adele, wondering, obeyed.
She opened the lid of the basket and peeped in. “Oh!” she cried, “how lovely!”
“He has only come for a visit,” said Jessie hurriedly. “His name is Cloudy, you know. I thought you might like to see him.”
“Isn’t he a darling?” said Adele snuggling the kitten up against her face.
Jessie watched her with a serious countenance. Presently she said rather breathlessly, “Would you like to call him half yours? I don’t believe I could give him to you altogether, but we might go shares, you know.”
Adele sat down with the kitten in her lap.“Jessie Loomis, I think you are the dearest girl that ever lived,” she said earnestly, “and I should love to come over there and hug you, but I won’t, because I must be good. No, I won’t let you give me even half the kitten, but I do love to have him come over for a visit. See, he is sleepy. Shall I put him back in the basket and let him have a nap?”
“He has just had a big saucer of milk,” said Jessie, “but he is very playful most of the time. You might let him have a little nap, and I will find something else to send over to you.”
“No, let me send something this time; you have done it all,” said Adele. “I’ll go up to the house in a minute and get something. Would you mind if I took Cloudy to show to Aunt Betty and Miss Eloise? I won’t let anything happen to him and I’ll bring him right back.”
“Of course you may take him,” Jessie consented generously. And carrying the basket steadily, Adele sped away.
She was not gone very long and when she came back she brought a small paper bag of cakes and another of candies which were promptly despatched across the watery way to Jessie; butas Cloudy was asleep in the basket the little bags themselves were tied on the pole and were transported in that way.
“Aunt Betty said Cloudy was lovely,” said Adele, “and he behaved beautifully. I told her how generous you offered to be, and she sent her love to you.”
“What did Miss Eloise say?”
“She wasn’t there. Aunt Betty said she had gone somewhere, but she didn’t say where. I asked Aunt Betty if she thought papa would bring me a kitten from the city, and she said he was going to bring me a big dog in place of Dapple Gray. I’d love a big dog.”
“But where is Dapple Gray?” asked Jessie.
“He’s been sent away,” said Adele in a low voice. “Papa said as long as I couldn’t be trusted that I couldn’t have him to drive till I was old enough to have common sense, and so he has sent him to my cousin till my sense grows enough for me to have him again. Do you suppose common sense does grow?”
“I think it must,” returned Jessie thoughtfully, “for all grown people have it.”
“I don’t believe they do,” said Adele, “for Ihave heard papa say ever so many times that So-and-So had not a grain of common sense, and So-and-So would be a big man, too.”
“Well, maybe they get it and then lose it,” replied Jessie, “like some persons do their hair. Some persons have a great deal, and others are quite bald, you know, like Dr. Sadtler.”
This seemed a reasonable conclusion and Adele accepted it. “Well,” she said, “I hope if I ever do get my common sense that it will be nice and thick and long like Miss Eloise’s hair.”
“Is your cousin a little girl?” asked Jessie returning to her thoughts of Dapple Gray.
“No, he is a little boy, and he has been very ill, so papa said it would be a great comfort to him to have a little pony like that.”
“Is he a big boy?” asked Jessie.
“About as big as your brother Max.”
“He will hate to give Dapple Gray up?” said Jessie.
“Maybe he will be strong and well again by the time my common sense gets here,” said Adele. “I hope that won’t be so very long.”
“I hope so, too,” replied Jessie, thinking more of Dapple Gray than of Adele’s development.
“Cloudy is waking up,” said Adele. “I’d better send him back to you.”
“Tie the basket on very strongly,” said Jessie, “so it can’t fall in the water.”
But though Adele tied the basket securely enough, she was not quite so certain of her own footing, her useless arm causing her to lose her balance, and in regaining it she allowed the pole to drop so far that the basket was dipped into the water, though fortunately not so far that Cloudy received more wetting than gave him two dripping paws.
“Oh, dear, I am so relieved,” said Adele. “I thought he was drowned. Why am I always doing such dreadful things?”
“You couldn’t help it,” Jessie assured her. “You have only one arm, you see, and it was very hard to manage that long pole.” She dried Cloudy’s paws on her handkerchief and then cuddled him under her jacket. “I think I shall have to carry him up to the house,” she said, “for he might take cold. Besides, I am sure it must be nearly dinner time.”
“We have had a perfectly lovely time,” returned Adele. “I was so miserable last nightwhen I went to bed, and I cried myself to sleep.”
“What made you so miserable?”
“Why, you see Dapple Gray went away yesterday afternoon, and I felt so lonely when I thought I couldn’t have you or him either. I am so glad you came down to the brook this morning. Will you come again this afternoon?”
“If mother says I may.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Tell her what?”
“That you have been playing with me all the morning.”
“Of course I shall tell her. I tell her everything, and you know we have minded exactly, for neither one of us has crossed the brook. Mother never said I couldn’t talk to you; she only said I was not to go over to your place.”
“And Aunt Betty said I mustn’t go to your place, so we really have minded them, haven’t we?”
“I should think we had,” replied Jessie. “Good-bye.”
“Good-bye,” responded Adele. And both little girls went off feeling very virtuous.
Jessie did not delay in telling her mother all about the morning’s meeting. “Do you mind, mother?” she asked.
“No,” answered her mother. “I don’t think I do in the least. I see that you both meant to be obedient, and I think the hard lesson Adele has had promises to do her a great deal of good.”
“I feel so sorry for her, oh, so sorry,” said Jessie thoughtfully. “She cried herself to sleep last night because she was so lonely. If she had had you, mother, to tuck her up and kiss her good-night and to make her feel comfortable inside, as you do me after I have been naughty, she wouldn’t have felt so.”
“Poor little child,” said Mrs. Loomis compassionately.
“I think she loves me very much,” said Jessie, “and she did just as I told her was right this morning. She never said one word about Polly or Peter Pan, either. Don’t you think I can be friends with her again, mother?”
“I think you can, for I am sure that you can do a great deal for her. It is evident that she has never been used to giving her confidences to her aunt, and so far, Miss Eloise has not beenable to win them. I think Miss Eloise will in time, and meanwhile we must do all we can. Miss Eloise was here this morning, dearie.”
“Was she? Then that is why she was not at home when Adele took Cloudy up to show her. What did she say, mother?”
“She said a great many things, and some things she said made me decide to let you begin your lessons again, but I would rather you did not spend too much time at the yellow house. If you go there in the morning, that will be enough, and in the afternoon it will be better for Adele to come here to play with you. I think it is getting too cold to play by the brook, but there is the attic where you can be perfectly safe. I will have one end cleared for you, and you can have all your playthings up there.” Jessie threw her arms around her mother’s neck. “You are just the dearest mother in the world,” she cried. “I wish Adele had one exactly like you. May I just go down to the brook a few minutes this afternoon and tell her, and may I bring her back with me?”
Mrs. Loomis smiled down at the eager face as she gave her consent.
“Just one thing more,” said Jessie. “Do you mind if I stay long enough to shut up Peter Pan’s house for the winter? It won’t take long.”
“No, Miss Wendy, I don’t mind, if you will promise to mind the tree tops.”
Jessie laughed, and felt very thankful that she had such a mother.