Wilfred Everard Berkeley,Peter Everard Berkeley,Robin Everard Berkeley.
Wilfred Everard Berkeley,Peter Everard Berkeley,Robin Everard Berkeley.
‘P.S.–Kit isn’t in it, because he raised objections and we shunted him. So your lifelong gratitude need not be extended to him.’
‘But when are you going to give Jill the letter?’ asked Barbara, looking extremely puzzled, as she came to the end of this elaborate composition.
‘We’re not going to give it to her,’ explained Peter. ‘It’s going to be dropped into the barn through a hole in the roof, as soon as Robin has coaxed her to go inside. The letter is to explain why we’ve locked her––’
He did not finish his sentence, for Wilfredcalled him from below, and he seized the sheet of paper and scampered off with it.
Barbara was left in a great state of bewilderment. Something was evidently going to happen to Jill, and it was apparently intended to save her from something that was much worse; but what it all meant was a mystery to her, and there was no one about to give her any more details. The three conspirators were careful to keep out of her way, and she did not see any more of them until after lunch, when they raced out of the front door and disappeared in the direction of the nine-acre field.
‘I’m going to leave you for half an hour,’ said Jill, when Barbara had finished her midday meal. ‘Bobbin has been worrying me all dinner-time to go and look at a baby rabbit he has found, so I promised to run down to the barn and meet him there. Do you mind?’
Barbara said she did not mind at all; and she was left behind, consumed with curiosity as to whether Jill was really going to be locked into the barn, and whether it really could be for her good, as the boys had said, and whether Jill would be angry with them for doing it or would give them her lifelong gratitude. Somehow, Babs did not believe in the lifelong gratitude much; it did not seem likely that Jill would be grateful to any one for shutting her up in a dark and dirty barn for a whole afternoon, even if it was to save her from an awful fate that still remained to be explained. As she thought about it, Babs even began towonder if she had been right in promising not to warn Jill. But then, if itwasto save her from an awful fate, as Peter declared it was, it would have been very unkind to keep her from going down to the barn.
She gave up trying to reason it out, and hoped it was all a joke, and that Jill would come back again at the end of half an hour. But more than half an hour passed by, and still she did not come back. Everything suddenly grew very dull. The garden looked more deserted than usual, and after the pony carriage had come round and taken Finny and Auntie Anna and Egbert for a drive, there was not another sound to break the stillness. Babs began to feel neglected; she had not once been left alone like this, ever since she was first taken ill, and she found it extremely depressing. If it was really necessary for the future happiness of Jill that she should be kept in the barn all the afternoon, some one else might have been told off to take her place in the sickroom. Besides, as the afternoon wore on, the little invalid realised with some sadness that unless Jill did come in, there would be no one to get her tea ready; and she wanted her tea rather badly.
At last, to her intense relief, a thump came at the door, and Kit rushed unceremoniously into the room.
‘Where’s Jill?’ he demanded hurriedly.
‘I wish I knew for certain, but I don’t,’ said Barbara, plaintively.
‘Then they’ve done it!’ exclaimed Kit, in a tragic tone, and he dropped into a chair and looked at her.
‘Done what?’ inquired Babs, eagerly. Kit’s behaviour was as remarkable as every one else’s to-day, so perhaps she was going to get at the truth at last.
‘Locked her up in the barn!’ gasped Kit. ‘They said they were going to, yesterday, but I thought they were only rotting. I told ’em it wasn’t good enough, and I’d have nothing to do with it, so I s’pose that’s why they didn’t tell me any more. And then, I forgot all about it; and after dinner to-day I went into Finny’s study to read a stunning book I’d found there; and I didn’t think of anything, till it suddenly struck me how awfully quiet everything was. If she’s disappeared, they must have done it, stupid owls!’
‘But isn’t it all right?’ cried Barbara, looking distressed. ‘Peter said it was to save her from an awful fate––’
‘That’s all very well,’ returned Kit; ‘but the game isn’t worth it, and that’s what I told them. You see, the Doctor’s coming after tea to-day, to fetch Jill and take her over the new infirmary he’s so keen about, because Jill is nuts on nursing and all that, don’t you know. Well, Peter overheard them talking about it yesterday and Auntie Anna said at breakfast that she’d come home from her drive in time to go too, if she could. But we all knew that she wouldn’t get back in time, most likely; and besides, theDoctor meant business from the look of him, Peter said, so he’d be dead certain to come early enough to go off with Jill alone. Trust him! That was jolly dangerous, you see, because the chap is going away to-morrow, and it’s their last chance of being together.’
‘Why is that dangerous?’ asked Barbara, trying hard to follow his bewildering tale.
‘Oh, well, if he’s ever going to ask her to marry him, or any of that rot, he must be going to do it to-day,’ explained Kit, with a certain contempt in his voice. ‘Anyhow, what we’ve been trying to do all the holidays is to save Jill from the Doctor; so naturally we were rather upset when Peter brought us the news. But I said I’d have nothing to do with locking any one up, ’specially Jill; so they said I could make myself scarce, and I did.’
‘Oh, Kit!’ exclaimed Barbara, opening her eyes, ‘do you think Jill is in that horrible dark barn all this time?’
Kit sprang to his feet and made for the door. ‘I’ll go and see if I can find those idiots,’ he said, but an exclamation from the sofa made him look back. Babs was clapping her hands wildly, and her face had suddenly reddened with excitement.
‘It’s all right, Kit. It’s beautiful,’ she was crying joyfully. ‘Don’t stop them, Kit; don’t help her to escape, whatever you do. Leave her alone till the prince comes. Don’t you see he’ll be able to break the spell at last!’
Kit did not see at all. Indeed, he lookedrather alarmed, and came back into the room. ‘Look here, Babe, you’re not going to get excited again, or anything like that, are you?’ he asked her, nervously.
Barbara set his mind at rest by laughing merrily. ‘You silly old Kit, of course I’m not!’ she said. ‘I never felt so jolly in my life!’
Christopher sped away, reassured, and Barbara lay back on her cushions and waited impatiently for the sound of the Doctor’s gig. She did not have to wait long, and she waved her hand gaily in answer to the flourish of his whip with which he greeted her as he drove up to the door.
‘Come up here, Dr. Hurst, and be as quick as you possibly can!’ she called down to him; and a minute later he was in the room.
The first thing he did was to ask where Jill was, just as Kit had done. Barbara laughed more merrily than ever. Her small black eyes were glittering with excitement.
‘Shehasbeen locked up by the cruel old giant, and you can go and rescue her at last,’ she told him.
Dr. Hurst frowned slightly. ‘What do you mean, child?’ he asked a little impatiently. He was evidently not in a mood for joking, and Barbara instantly became grave.
‘I didn’t mean to play, but itisso like a fairy story,’ she said penitently. ‘And it’s quite true about the locking up. They’ve put her in the barn, Peter and the others have,–not Kit,–and they mean to keep her there tillyou’ve gone away, so that–so that you won’t get a chance of marrying and living happily ever after! It’s to save Jill from you, they say, but Kit’s furious about it, and––’
The Doctor flung his driving-gloves on the table. They were quite new ones, she noticed, and he had even forgotten to take the tissue paper off the buttons of one of them. ‘Where is the barn?’ he asked grimly.
‘It’s at the far end of the nine-acre field,’ explained Barbara, and before she could say any more she found she was alone.
Excitement had made her forget all about her tea, though the hour for it was long past. She wished with all her heart that she could be transported to the scene of the rescue and actually see the princess fall into the prince’s arms, while the giant lay stretched at their feet. Then she remembered that the giant was Peter, and perhaps Will and Bobbin too, and she hoped he would not lie stretched there for long.
The minutes crept slowly by, and still no one came in. It was no use looking out of the window, for the nine-acre field was on the other side of the house, beyond the orchard. Then she began to be afraid that something dreadful must have happened. She reminded herself again that Peter was the giant, and that the Doctor was small and slight in comparison, even for a prince. Supposing, contrary though it was to all the laws of fairy tale, that the giant should be too strong for the prince, and the princess should not be rescued after all? Atlast she heard the welcome sound of footsteps coming along the gallery, and then Jill opened the door softly and hurried up to her. The Doctor was just behind her.
‘My dear little Babs!’ cried Jill, dropping on her knees beside the sofa, ‘have you been wondering what had become of me?’
‘Oh, no,’ answered the child; ‘I knew about the dark and gruesome dungeon. But I think I’d like my tea, please.’
‘Of course you would,’ said Jill, in much distress, and she began bustling about the room and making preparations for tea in quite a flustered sort of way. Babs turned to the Doctor. A question was burning on the tip of her tongue, and he smiled encouragingly.
‘Didyou rescue the princess?’ she asked.
‘I did,’ answered the Doctor, briefly.
She looked anxiously at his tie, which had wandered under his right ear, and at his collar, which was crumpled. ‘Did you hurt the giantmuch?’ she asked.
‘I found him in three pieces,’ answered the Doctor, gravely, ‘and I give you my word I did not leave him in more.’
Barbara was not yet satisfied. ‘How did you get into the dungeon?’ she asked.
‘Through the door,’ replied the Doctor.
She opened her eyes wide. ‘Then you must have stepped over the body of the giant,’ she said.
‘So I did,’ laughed Dr. Hurst. ‘But do not let that alarm you, for here he comes.’
The door was pushed open once more, and the three conspirators tumbled into the room. Their ties and collars were in much the same condition as the Doctor’s, but they seemed none the worse for that. Indeed, they looked rather cheerful over it than otherwise, until they saw the Doctor sitting there, holding Barbara’s hand; and then they stopped short and hesitated.
‘Do, do tell me,’ implored Babs. ‘How did Dr. Hurst rescue Jill?’
‘I’ll tell you, Babs dear,’ cried Robin, suddenly dancing up to the Doctor, and climbing on his knee in quite a friendly manner. ‘He came walking with big long steps up to the door of the barn, where we was keeping guard over Jill; and he said, “Who can wrestle, out of you young scamps?” ’Course I saidIcould, but he just swinged me up in the apple tree an’ left me there, which was horrid, but I didn’t mind much, ’cause I saw all the fun. An’ the others said they could, if he liked; an’ the Doctor said whoever won was to have Jill, an’ Peter said “Yes,” ’cos he’s lots bigger’n the Doctor and he thought he’d win. But he didn’t win, nobody did, ’cept only Dr. Hurst; so he got Jill and brought her back here; an’ I climbed down from the apple tree all by myself, an’ the others shook hands with the Doctor and stopped behind, lookin’ scared!’
‘I beg to state,’ said Jill, severely, from the other side of the room, where she was preparing tea, ‘that nobody hasgotme, as you call it. And the sooner you all go out of this room and leave me alone with my patient, the better.’
‘So he got Jill’
‘So he got Jill’
‘I say,’ began Wilfred, who was standing first on one leg and then on the other, and trying not to laugh, ‘you’re not really wild with us, are you, Jill?’
‘I’m simplyfuriouswith you,’ said Jill, and she began cutting bread and butter with vigour.
‘We really did it for your good,’ added Peter, putting on an air of mock penitence. ‘How were we to know you didn’twantto be saved from the Doctor?’
Jill tossed her head and went on cutting bread and butter still, with her back turned to them all. ‘Next time you try to save any one from any one else,’ she remarked, ‘you’d better make sure first that she does want saving.’
Anything they might have said in reply to this was drowned by the noisy entrance of Christopher. He bounced into the room and shook his fist wrathfully at his brothers.
‘Look here, you fellows!’ he shouted. ‘Next time you shut a chap into apig-sty, perhaps you’ll choose a pig-sty that doesn’t belong to a pig that comes home at tea-time and bangs against the door. I’d like to––’
He was brought to an abrupt pause. It suddenly struck him that there was something a little odd about the way every one was assembled in the Babe’s room.
‘Dry up, Kit!’ said Wilfred, with a huge sigh. ‘You were quite right; the game wasn’tworth it. She didn’t want to be saved, after all.’
‘She’s just a girl,’ added Peter, in a tone of deep dejection.
‘She’s aprincess!’ insisted Barbara, from the sofa.
Christopher looked swiftly round the room. The attitude of every one seemed a little strained. Jill was cutting enough bread and butter for a school, and the crumbs flew in all directions as she stood there with her back to them all. The Doctor was smiling in a way that was clearly put on, and Bobbin was examining his watch-chain with a familiarity that would not have seemed possible an hour ago.
‘Well, I’m bothered!’ said Kit, at last. The truth was gradually dawning upon him. ‘Do you mean to say that you two have been and gone and gotengaged, while we’ve been trying to save you?’ he demanded. ‘Haveyou, Jill?’
‘Oh, don’t bother,’ grumbled Jill. ‘Why can’t you ask Dr. Hurst?’
‘Haveyou?’ repeated Kit, turning to the Doctor.
‘Ask Jill,’ replied the Doctor, smiling more than ever.
‘Boys,’ said Christopher, fixing his spectacles firmly on his nose and staring solemnly at his brothers, ‘we’ve made shocking idiots of ourselves.’
Into the middle of them all now walked Mrs. Crofton of Crofts.
‘Such a trouble as I’ve had to get back in time, my dear,’ she was beginning, when she too stopped short and seemed to find things a little unusual.
‘Hey-day!’ she cried, leaning on her blue-knobbed cane and looking sharply round. ‘What’s every one looking so glum about, I should like to know?’
Nobody answered her at first. Dr. Hurst put Robin down and rose to his feet, and he stopped smiling at last, while Jill dropped the bread-knife and turned round with a very red face; but neither of them spoke. It was the Babe who came to the rescue, and it was she who explained everything in her small, dreamy voice.
‘Dr. Hurst has saved Jill from the giant,’ she said, ‘and they are going away to their own kingdom, to live happily ever after! I do wish,’ she added wistfully, ‘that the magician would come back too. Then things would bequitebeautiful.’
The triumvirate sat under the old cedar tree at Crofts, and once more they discussed the important affairs of the little world at Wootton Beeches. It was the first Saturday in the term; and Auntie Anna, true to her promise, had invited Jean and Angela to drive over and spend it with Barbara. The spring had come in with a rush, and May had dawned in such a flood of warm sunshine that the child was able to pass most of her time on a couch in the garden. The Doctor, in spite of the ten miles that lay between his house and Crofts, came nearly every day to see how she was; and he hinted at a promise of crutches in ten days’ time, after which she was to go away to the seaside and get strong enough to return to school at the half-term. It was very nice, Barbara thought, to see the Doctor so often, now that she was so much better and did not really need him; but Christopher was very sarcastic on the subject.
‘S’pose you think he comes to seeyou, don’tyou?’ he remarked scornfully; and when pressed by Barbara for a more definite explanation of the Doctor’s actions, he condescended to add: ‘Once a chap gets engaged to agirl, it’s thegirlwho’s at the bottom of everything he does!’
The day was so hot that Kit and Bobbin came out to join the others under the cedar tree, and they flung themselves on the grass in different stages of exhaustion. Now and then, they threw in a lazy contribution to the conversation that was going on over their heads, though at first this related entirely to the number of new girls, the alterations in the classes, and other bits of school gossip. Then, however, it took a personal turn, and Christopher’s comments grew satirical.
‘Has anybody asked after me?’ inquired Barbara.
‘What a question!’ scoffed Christopher. ‘A kid like you!’
‘They have, though,’ declared Jean, making a great effort to overcome her shyness of Barbara Berkeley’s clever brother. ‘Everybody did, first thing. You’d never think the Babe had only been there one term.’
‘Oh, well, that’s because she smashed herself up,’ said Kit, cheerfully. ‘Girls always fuss over you, if you kill yourself ever so little.’
‘Theydon’t, Kit,’ objected Babs.
‘Guess what Margaret Hulme said about you yesterday,’ put in Angela, eagerly. Angela was not nearly so shy as Jean, and, much toBarbara’s astonishment, Kit found her ‘better fun’ in consequence. It seemed a little strange that the genius of the family should not be able to appreciate the amazing qualities of Jean Murray.
‘What did she say about me?’ asked Barbara, only to be interrupted by another jeer from Christopher.
‘Never knew such cockiness as the Babe’s,’ he laughed, tilting his straw hat a little more over his eyes.
‘Babs always thinks that everybody’s always talkin’ about her,’ added Bobbin, in his shrillest voice.
Barbara stretched as far as she could, and managed with difficulty to knock off Kit’s hat with the end of a stick. Robin was out of reach, so she contented herself with frowning at him severely, and then leaned back again and began to fan herself with her handkerchief. Everything made one feel hot this afternoon. ‘What did Margaret say about me?’ she repeated curiously.
‘It was when I was waiting to put away her books, just before dinner yesterday,’ Angela related with eagerness; ‘or was it before tea? No! I think it was before dinner, because––’
‘Oh, get on, Angela, do!’ interrupted Jean, impatiently. Even the presence of Barbara Berkeley’s clever brother, which was paralysing her, could not keep the leader of the junior playroom from snubbing Angela.
‘Well, she said Babs was the most populargirl in the school,’ continued Angela. ‘She did, honour bright, and I’mnotexaggerating, Jean. She said it to Ruth Oliver, and Ruth Oliver said: “Isn’t it queer? Such a little kid, too.” And Margaret said: “That’s just it, stupid!” Then she saw me listening, and she told me not to listen but to make myself scarce; and of course I wasn’t listening at all, I was only––’
‘There’s nothing new inthat’ interrupted Jean, looking superior. ‘Everybody knows that the Babe––’ Here she caught Kit’s eye, and stopped hastily. She was not sure that she liked Barbara Berkeley’s clever brother; he had such a queer way of looking at one. Nobody in the junior playroom ever made her feel like that.
Barbara was in deep perplexity. ‘Is that why every one clapped, then, on the night of the display?’ she said wonderingly.
Christopher looked in mock reproach at Angela. ‘You shouldn’t have told her,’ he said. ‘She won’t be fit to speak to for a month now.’
‘Oh, don’t, Kit!’ retorted Barbara, more from habit than because she really resented his words. As a matter of fact she had hardly heard them, for she was busy puzzling things over in her mind. ‘I can’t think what it all means,’ she went on; ‘every one used to complain of me so. There was Mary Wells, for instance––’
‘Oh, Mary Wellsadoresyou!’ cried Angela,in her effusive manner. ‘She said so directly you broke your leg.’
Barbara puzzled still more. ‘I don’t understand about Margaret Hulme a bit, though,’ she observed. ‘Only the day before the display, she told me I was a little nuisance, because I didn’t hear her the first time she spoke to me; so of course I thought she hated me!’
‘That was before you broke your leg, though,’ explained Jean.
‘Sheadoresyou now,’ added Angela.
Kit and Bobbin burst out laughing, but Barbara went on puzzling, and did not notice them. Adoration at Wootton Beeches seemed to spring from the strangest causes. After being more or less neglected for a whole term by the greater part of her school-fellows, it was at least surprising to be suddenly placed on a pinnacle of fame, just because she had broken her leg. If she had only guessed at Angela’s envy of that same broken leg–an envy that was probably shared by half the junior playroom–she might have been still further amazed.
The boys strolled indoors to find Auntie Anna and to beg for tea in the garden; and the conversation under the cedar tree grew more intimate. Jean came out of her shell, and talked about her home in Edinburgh in a way she had never done before, even on half-holidays at school; and Angela, in her turn, gave an elaborate description of her eldest sister’s drawing-room dress, and of the longingit had aroused in her own frivolous little mind to be presented at Court herself.
‘And so I shall be, some day; mother says so!’ she announced, spreading out the folds of her rough serge skirt, and seeing it in imagination many times its length and composed of shimmering satin.
‘I shan’t,’ said Jean, regarding her with scorn. ‘I don’t want to be presented. Any stupid idiot can put on a white satin dress, miles long, and grin at Queen Victoria.Iwant to be clever like father, and get a degree at college, and lecture to thousands and thousands of people, and––’
‘Oh, don’t be like that, Jean,’ interrupted Barbara, earnestly. ‘If you’re going to give lectures you’ll have to go away from all your children, for months and months and months, and leave them to break all their legs, all by themselves, and–oh, itisso horrible to break your leg all by yourself!’
‘Poor dear,’ said Angela, ready as usual with a tearful and demonstrative sympathy.
Jean was much too wrapped up in her future to sympathise with anybody. ‘I dare say I shan’t have any children,’ she said, seized with a happy inspiration. ‘You can’t have everything, and I’d much sooner have a degree.’
Barbara looked at her in some doubt. ‘That’s all very well,’ she remarked, ‘but you’ll be jolly dull if you don’t look out.Idon’t mean to go without children; I’m going to have millions of ’em–all boys–see if I don’t!Then we can always be sure of having enough for sides, without inviting strangers to come and play. You can never be sure how strangers are going to play, and sometimes they spoil the game, and that’s a bore.’
‘If you have boys of your own, you’ll be a mother; and if you’re a mother, you won’t join in the games at all. Mothers only sit and look on, and send the ones to bed that can’t agree,’ said Angela, with an air of experience.
‘I don’t advise you to be a mother, Babe,’ added Jean, earnestly. ‘You’ll have to mend such a lot of socks, and p’r’aps make babies’ clothes too; and you’ve been a whole term getting round the hem of one flannel petticoat, as it is.’
‘Youcanget things ready-made,’ answered Barbara, but her tone did not sound hopeful. She had to own sadly to herself that she was not cut out for a mother, and she fell back on the more practical futures of other people. ‘Wilfred’s going to be a doctor, after all,’ she told them, with great pride. ‘Auntie Anna says she’ll stand all the money that father can’t, and he’s going to St. Thomas’s–Will is, I mean. Isn’t it awfully splendid?’
Her friends murmured something appropriate, but they were not deeply interested in the career of Wilfred. At school, the girls’ conversation was largely made up of details of this kind; but Crofts was not school, and neither Jean nor Angela felt inspired to carry on the discussion. Babs, however, failed to noticetheir want of enthusiasm. Everything was happening exactly like the fairy story she had planned, the fairy story that had begun in the old London house, on the day that a certain dragon had entered it as a fairy godmother; and for the moment she was back again in her own kingdom, where the old witch still wandered about in her steeple-hat, in the company of Kit the prince, and where the twice-disenchanted beast was placing a crown on the charming head of the princess who had waited so long for him, and where a crowd of other princesses, after breaking their heads and their legs and suffering numerous unpleasant penalties of the kind, had at last returned from their banishment and were hailing the child herself as their queen. But one familiar figure was still missing from her fairy kingdom; and the little queen came sadly back to the world under the cedar tree, with a sigh and a murmured remark about ‘America’ and ‘lectures’ that her listeners only half understood. They recognised the Babe’s very natural wish for her father’s return, but they did not know how the wish had grown into a longing since her accident, during the weary days in which there had been no school to distract her, and nothing to do but to think.
‘He’ll be back in two months, won’t he?’ asked Jean, meaning to be sympathetic, though her manner was awkward.
‘Two months!’ echoed Babs, dolefully, ‘What’s two months?’
‘It’s years, isn’t it?’ responded Angela, with her accustomed inaccuracy.
Having secured their sympathy, such as it was, Barbara allowed herself to become more doleful still. ‘He must have missed all our letters, too,’ she sighed. ‘The last one he sent us was from some awful American place, that Kit says is in the map if you’ve got a month to look for it, only you haven’t!–and he never told us where to write next, and he didn’t say a word about me. So he’s not even heard yet that I fell off the rings!’
‘Never mind, Babs dear,’ said Angela, consolingly; ‘think howproudyou will be when you can tell him all about it yourself.’
Not appreciating the distinction of having broken her leg quite so warmly as Angela, Babs did not respond; and the arrival of tea, and with it every one from the house, made her give up the immediate attempt to pity herself. After all, people who went away to America to lecture could not leave their children to break their legs by themselves for ever; and meanwhile, there was home-made cake and strawberry jam under the cedar tree.
It was in the middle of tea, just as Robin, with a wavering hand, was conveying a second cup to Babs, that the wonderful event happened. Jill had the best view of the house from where she sat at the tea-table, and her sudden exclamation interrupted the jeers of the others over Robin’s strenuous performance.
‘Such a funny-looking man is coming upthe drive!’ she remarked. ‘He’s wearing the very oddest kind of clothes, too–a sort of Inverness cape, and a squashy brown hat. And do look at the way he is walking, with his arms swinging about–just like Peter, when he’s in a hurry.’
‘He must be a tramp,’ said Angela, giggling.
Everybody looked round, except Barbara, who made a plaintive request, that nobody heard, for her couch to be wheeled into a different position.
Then Auntie Anna gave a little shriek, and dropped her pince-nez into her lap.
‘Bless my soul!’ she cried, fumbling for them in an agitated manner. ‘Why, it looks exactly like–I do believe–look, Jill! Your eyes are younger than––’
The boys were sharper than Jill, though, and they settled the question at once in their own riotous fashion. Barbara’s second cup of tea fell with a crash and a splash, before she could reach out her hand for it, and her two brothers rushed shouting and screaming across the lawn. In another instant they had disappeared in the folds of the Inverness cape; and Angela Wilkins realised with a shock that she had called Barbara Berkeley’s father a tramp!
‘Well, Everard, and what have you to say for yourself?’ demanded Auntie Anna, in a severe tone, as soon as she could make herselfheard. For quite ten minutes, every one had been talking at once.
‘What have I to say?’ repeated Mr. Berkeley, with his eyes twinkling. ‘Why, plum-cake, to be sure! You haven’t offered me any tea yet.’
His sons nearly wrecked the tea-table in their efforts to be first in supplying his wants; and Auntie Anna gave up the attempt to be firm.
‘Well, well,’ she said, shaking her head, ‘you always were incorrigible, Everard! But what about the end of your lecturing tour?’
‘There won’t be any end, as far as I’m concerned,’ smiled her brother, devouring plum-cake with avidity.
‘But–but what did theysayto your extraordinary departure?’ cried Auntie Anna.
‘I didn’t give them time to say much,’ answered Mr. Berkeley. ‘The boat was starting in a couple of hours, you see.’
Auntie Anna threw up her hands. ‘Of all the improvident, hot-headed––’ she was beginning, when the change of expression in her brother’s face silenced her. He held out his cup to her with a pathetic look.
‘You always forget,’ he said. ‘Two lumps, please.’
The boys flung themselves upon the sugar-basin, and more than two lumps found their way into his cup. Jill took the opportunity to present Barbara’s friends to him, and Mr. Berkeley smiled and said something genial toboth of them, which made Jean forget at once how shy she was and drove away the last bit of Angela’s confusion over her stupid mistake. But his attention soon wandered back to his children, and he stirred his tea and beamed upon all three of them alternately, until the others began to feel that they were in the way. His eyes rested longest of all upon Babs, who lay on her couch with an expression of complete contentment on her face; and Auntie Anna saw, and understood.
‘I said all the while it was madness to write and tell you about it,’ she grumbled.
Mr. Berkeley chuckled. ‘I never got your letter till last Wednesday week,’ he said. ‘It had been following me about from place to place. Poor little Babe!’ he added, pinching her cheek softly; ‘what a shame to let you knock yourself about, when your poor old father wasn’t there to take care of you!’
Auntie Anna smiled grimly. ‘No one could very well be less capable of taking care of her,’ she remarked.
Robin clambered on his father’s knee and hugged him afresh.
‘Whydidyou come home, father?’ he cried, raising his voice higher than ever.
Mr. Berkeley looked mildly surprised. ‘Can’t you guess, sonny?’ he asked. ‘Do you suppose I could stay another minute in somebody else’s country, when I heard that my little girl was ill over here?’
Jill got up rather suddenly, and offered totake Jean and Angela round the garden; and Auntie Anna grasped her blue-knobbed cane, and rose slowly to her feet. Before she went off, however, she shot one more question at her brother in her most abrupt manner. ‘What about your luggage, Everard?’ she demanded. ‘Where have you left it?’
Mr. Berkeley reflected a moment. ‘Ithinkit was Boston,’ he began doubtfully, ‘but it may have been––’
He did not finish his sentence, for the old lady shook her head in despair at him and hobbled off towards the house. Barbara watched her retreating figure, and smiled gently to herself. Auntie Anna might pretend as much as she liked that she was a dragon, but nothing could prevent her looking like a fairy godmother!
Her father stroked her rough, tumbled hair caressingly, and smiled back at her.
‘What is it, Babe?’ he asked.
The child gazed at him as he sat there, with the two boys clinging to him as though they would never let him go again; and the whimsical look stole into her bright little eyes, and lighted up the whole of her small impish face.
‘The magician has come back,’ she said, with a happy laugh; ‘and there isn’t room tomovein my fairy kingdom!’
THE STANDARD SCHOOL LIBRARY.
(Each Volume, cloth, 50 cents. Sold singly or in sets.)
BAILEY. LESSONS WITH PLANTS.Suggestions for Seeing and Interpreting Some of the Common Forms of Vegetation. By L. H. Bailey. 12mo. Illustrated. xxxi + 491 pages.
This volume is the outgrowth of “observation lessons.” The book is based upon the idea that the proper way to begin the study of plants is by means of plants instead of formal ideals or definitions. Instead of a definition as a model telling what is to be seen, the plant shows what there is to be seen, and the definition follows.
BARNES. YANKEE SHIPS AND YANKEE SAILORS.Tales of 1812. By James Barnes. 12mo. Illustrated. xiii + 281 pages.
Fourteen spirited tales of the gallant defenders of theChesapeake, theWasp, theVixen,Old Ironsides, and other heroes of the Naval War of 1812.
BELLAMY. THE WONDER CHILDREN.By Charles J. Bellamy. 12mo. Illustrated.
Nine old-fashioned fairy stories in a modern setting.
BLACK. THE PRACTICE OF SELF-CULTURE.By Hugh Black. 12mo. vii + 262 pages.
Nine essays on culture considered in its broadest sense. The title is justified not so much from the point of view of giving many details for self-culture, as of giving an impulse to practice.
BONSAL. THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE.Extracts from the letters of Captain H. L. Herndon of the 21st U. S. Infantry, on duty in the Philippine Islands, and Lieutenant Lawrence Gill, A.D.C. to the Military Governor of Puerto Rico. With a postscript by J. Sherman, Private, Co. D, 21st Infantry. Edited by Stephen Bonsal. 12mo. xi + 316 pages.
These letters throw much light on our recent history. The story of our “Expansion” is well told, and the problems which are its outgrowth are treated with clearness and insight.
BUCK. BOYS’ SELF-GOVERNING CLUBS.By Winifred Buck. 16mo. x + 218 pages.
The history of self-governing clubs, with directions for their organization and management. The author has had many years’ experience as organizer and adviser of self-governing clubs in New York City and the vicinity.
CARROLL. ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.By Lewis Carroll. 12mo. Illustrated. xiv + 192 pages.
CARROLL. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE.By Lewis Carroll. 12mo. Illustrated. xv + 224 pages.
The authorized edition of these children’s classics. They have recently been reprinted from new type and new cuts made from the original wood blocks.
CHURCH. THE STORY OF THE ILIAD.By Rev. A. J. Church, vii + 314 pages.
CHURCH. THE STORY OF THE ODYSSEY.By Rev. A. J. Church. vii + 306 pages.
The two great epics are retold in prose by one of the best of story-tellers. The Greek atmosphere is remarkably well preserved.
CRADDOCK. THE STORY OF OLD FORT LOUDON.By Charles Egbert Craddock. 12mo. Illustrated. v + 409 pages.
A story of pioneer life in Tennessee at the time of the Cherokee uprising in 1760. The frontier fort serves as a background to this picture of Indian craft and guile and pioneer pleasures and hardships.
CROCKETT. RED CAP TALES.By S. R. Crockett. 8vo. Illustrated. xii + 413 pages.
The volume consists of a number of tales told in succession from four of Scott’s novels–“Waverley,” “Guy Mannering,” “Rob Roy,” and “The Antiquary”; with a break here and there while the children to whom they are told discuss the story just told from their own point of view. No better introduction to Scott’s novels could be imagined or contrived. Half a dozen or more tales are given from each book.
DIX. A LITTLE CAPTIVE LAD.By Beulah Marie Dix. 12mo. Illustrated. vii + 286 pages.
The story is laid in the time of Cromwell, and the captive lad is a cavalier, full of the pride of his caste. The plot develops around the child’s relations to his Puritan relatives. It is a well-told story, with plenty of action, and is a faithful picture of the times.
EGGLESTON. SOUTHERN SOLDIER STORIES.By George Cary Eggleston. 12mo. Illustrated. xi + 251 pages.
Forty-seven stories illustrating the heroism of those brave Americans who fought on the losing side in the Civil War. Humor and pathos are found side by side in these pages which bear evidence of absolute truth.
ELSON. SIDE LIGHTS ON AMERICAN HISTORY.
This volume takes a contemporary view of the leading events in the history of the country from the period of the Declaration of Independence to the close of the Spanish-American War. The result is a very valuable series of studies in many respects more interesting and informing than consecutive history.
GAYE. THE GREAT WORLD’S FARM.Some Account of Nature’s Crops and How they are Sown. By Selina Gaye. 12mo. Illustrated. xii + 365 pages.
A readable account of plants and how they live and grow. It is as free as possible from technicalities and well adapted to young people.
GREENE. PICKETT’S GAP.By Homer Greene. 12mo. Illustrated. vii + 288 pages.
A story of American life and character illustrated in the personal heroism and manliness of an American boy. It is well told, and the lessons in morals and character are such as will appeal to every honest instinct.
HAPGOOD. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.By Norman Hapgood. 12mo. Illustrated. xiii + 433 pages.
This is one of the best one-volume biographies of Lincoln, and a faithful picture of the strong character of the great President, not only when he was at the head of the nation, but also as a boy and a young man, making his way in the world.
HAPGOOD. GEORGE WASHINGTON.By Norman Hapgood. 12mo. Illustrated. xi + 419 pages.
Not the semi-mythical Washington of some biographers, but a clear, comprehensive account of the man as he really appeared in camp, in the field, in the councils of his country, at home, and in society.
HOLDEN. REAL THINGS IN NATURE.A Reading Book of Science for American Boys and Girls. By Edward S. Holden. Illustrated. 12mo. xxxviii + 443 pages.
The topics are grouped under nine general heads: Astronomy, Physics, Meteorology, Chemistry, Geology, Zoology, Botany, The Human Body, and The Early History of Mankind. The various parts of the volume give the answers to the thousand and one questions continually arising in the minds of youths at an age when habits of thought for life are being formed.
HUFFORD. SHAKESPEARE IN TALE AND VERSE.By Lois Grosvenor Hufford. 12mo. ix + 445 pages.
The purpose of the author is to introduce Shakespeare to such of his readers as find the intricacies of the plots of the dramas somewhat difficult to manage. The stories which constitute the main plots are given, and are interspersed with the dramatic dialogue in such a manner as to make tale and verse interpret each other.
HUGHES. TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS.By Thomas Hughes. 12mo. Illustrated. xxi + 376 pages.
An attractive and convenient edition of this great story of life at Rugby. It is a book that appeals to boys everywhere and which makes for manliness and high ideals.
HUTCHINSON. THE STORY OF THE HILLS.A Book about Mountains for General Readers. By Rev. H. W. Hutchinson. 12mo. Illustrated. xv + 357 pages.
“A clear account of the geological formation of mountains and their various methods of origin in language so clear and untechnical that it will not confuse even the most unscientific.”–BostonEvening Transcript.
ILLINOIS GIRL. A PRAIRIE WINTER.By an Illinois Girl. 16mo. 164 pages.
A record of the procession of the months from midway in September to midway in May. The observations on Nature are accurate and sympathetic, and they are interspersed with glimpses of a charming home life and bits of cheerful philosophy.
INGERSOLL. WILD NEIGHBORS. OUTDOOR STUDIES IN THE UNITED STATES.By Ernest Ingersoll. 12mo. Illustrated. xii + 301 pages.
Studies and stories of the gray squirrel, the puma, the coyote, the badger, and other burrowers, the porcupine, the skunk, the woodchuck, and the raccoon.
INMAN. THE RANCH ON THE OXHIDE.By Henry Inman. 12mo. Illustrated. xi + 297 pages.
A story of pioneer life in Kansas in the late sixties. Adventures with wild animals and skirmishes with Indians add interest to the narrative.
JOHNSON. CERVANTES’ DON QUIXOTE.Edited by Clifton Johnson. 12mo. Illustrated. xxiii + 398 pages.
A well-edited edition of this classic. The one effort has been to bring the book to readable proportions without excluding any really essential incident or detail, and at the same time to make the text unobjectionable and wholesome.
JUDSON. THE GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN NATION.By Harry Pratt Judson. 12mo. Illustrations and maps. xi + 359 pages.
The cardinal facts of American History are grasped in such a way as to show clearly the orderly development of national life.
KEARY. THE HEROES OF ASGARD: TALES FROM SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY.By A. and E. Keary. 12mo. Illustrated. 323 pages.
The book is divided, into nine chapters, called “The Æsir,” “How Thor went to Jötunheim,” “Frey,” “The Wanderings of Freyja,” “Iduna’s Apples,” “Baldur,” “The Binding of Fenrir,” “The Punishment of Loki,” “Ragnarök.”
KING. DE SOTO AND HIS MEN IN THE LAND OF FLORIDA.By Grace King. 12mo. Illustrated. xiv + 326 pages.
A story based upon the Spanish and Portuguese accounts of the attempted conquest by the armada which sailed under De Soto in 1538 to subdue this country. Miss King gives a most entertaining history of the invaders’ struggles and of their final demoralized rout; while her account of the native tribes is a most attractive feature of the narrative.
KINGSLEY. MADAM HOW AND LADY WHY: FIRST LESSONS IN EARTH LORE FOR CHILDREN.By Charles Kingsley. 12mo. Illustrated. xviii + 321 pages.
Madam How and Lady Why are two fairies who teach the how and why of things in nature. There are chapters on Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Coral Reefs, Glaciers, etc., told in an interesting manner. The book is intended to lead children to use their eyes and ears.
KINGSLEY. THE WATER BABIES: A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND BABY.By Charles Kingsley. 12mo. Illustrated. 330 pages.
One of the best children’s stories ever written; it has deservedly become a classic.
LANGE. OUR NATIVE BIRDS: HOW TO PROTECT THEM AND ATTRACT THEM TO OUR HOMES.By D. Lange. 12mo. Illustrated, x + 162 pages.
A strong plea for the protection of birds. Methods and devices for their encouragement are given, also a bibliography of helpful literature, and material for Bird Day.
LOVELL. STORIES IN STONE FROM THE ROMAN FORUM.By Isabel Lovell. 12mo. Illustrated. viii + 258 pages.
The eight stories in this volume give many facts that travelers wish to know, that historical readers seek, and that young students enjoy. The book puts the reader in close touch with Roman life.
McFARLAND. GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE TREES.By J. Horace McFarland. 8vo. Illustrated. xi + 241 pages.
A charmingly written series of tree essays. They are not scientific but popular, and are the outcome of the author’s desire that others should share the rest and comfort that have come to him through acquaintance with trees.
MAJOR. THE BEARS OF BLUE RIVER.By Charles Major. 12mo. Illustrated. 277 pages.
A collection of good bear stories with a live boy for the hero. The scene is laid in the early days of Indiana.
MARSHALL. WINIFRED’S JOURNAL.By Emma Marshall. 12mo. Illustrated. 353 pages.
A story of the time of Charles the First. Some of the characters are historical personages.
MEANS. PALMETTO STORIES.By Celina E. Means. 12mo. Illustrated. x + 244 pages.
True accounts of some of the men and women who made the history of South Carolina, and correct pictures of the conditions under which these men and women labored.
MORRIS. MAN AND HIS ANCESTOR: A STUDY IN EVOLUTION.By Charles Morris. 16mo. Illustrated. vii + 238 pages.
A popular presentation of the subject of man’s origin. The various significant facts that have been discovered since Darwin’s time are given, as well as certain lines of evidence never before presented in this connection.
NEWBOLT. STORIES FROM FROISSART.By Henry Newbolt. 12mo. Illustrated. xxxi + 368 pages.
Here are given entire thirteen episodes from the “Chronicles” of Sir John Froissart. The text is modernized sufficiently to make it intelligible to young readers. Separated narratives are dovetailed, and new translations have been made where necessary to make the narrative complete and easily readable.
OVERTON. THE CAPTAIN’S DAUGHTER.By Gwendolen Overton. 12mo. Illustrated. vii + 270 pages.
A story of girl life at an army post on the frontier. The plot is an absorbing one, and the interest of the reader is held to the end.
PALGRAVE. THE CHILDREN’S TREASURY OF ENGLISH SONG.Selected and arranged by Francis Turner Palgrave. 16mo. viii + 302 pages.
This collection contains 168 selections–songs, narratives, descriptive or reflective pieces of a lyrical quality, all suited to the taste and understanding of children.
PALMER. STORIES FROM THE CLASSICAL LITERATURE OF MANY NATIONS.Edited by Bertha Palmer. 12mo. xv + 297 pages.
A collection of sixty characteristic stories from Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Babylonian, Arabian, Hindu, Greek, Roman, German, Scandinavian, Celtic, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Anglo-Saxon, English, Finnish, and American Indian sources.
RIIS. CHILDREN OF THE TENEMENTS.By Jacob A. Riis. 12mo. Illustrated. ix + 387 pages.
Forty sketches and short stories dealing with the lights and shadows of life in the slums of New York City, told just as they came to the writer, fresh from the life of the people.
SANDYS. TRAPPER JIM.By Edwyn Sandys. 12mo. Illustrated. ix + 441 pages.
A book which will delight every normal boy. Jim is a city lad who learns from an older cousin all the lore of outdoor life–trapping, shooting, fishing, camping, swimming, and canoeing. The author is a well-known writer on outdoor subjects.
SEXTON. STORIES OF CALIFORNIA.By Ella M. Sexton. 12mo. Illustrated. x + 211 pages.
Twenty-two stories illustrating the early conditions and the romantic history of California and the subsequent development of the state.
SHARP. THE YOUNGEST GIRL IN THE SCHOOL.By Evelyn Sharp. 12mo. Illustrated. ix + 326 pages.
Bab, the “youngest girl,” was only eleven and the pet of five brothers. Her ups and downs in a strange boarding school make an interesting story.
SPARKS. THE MEN WHO MADE THE NATION: AN OUTLINE OF UNITED STATES HISTORY FROM 1776 TO 1861.By Edwin E. Sparks. 12mo. Illustrated. viii + 415 pages.
The author has chosen to tell our history by selecting the one man at various periods of our affairs who was master of the situation and about whom events naturally grouped themselves. The characters thus selected number twelve, as “Samuel Adams, the man of the town meeting”; “Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution”; “Hamilton, the advocate of stronger government,” etc., etc.
THACHER. THE LISTENING CHILD.A selection from the stories of English verse, made for the youngest readers and hearers. By Lucy W. Thacher. 12mo. xxx + 408 pages.
Under this title are gathered two hundred and fifty selections. The arrangement is most intelligent, as shown in the proportions assigned to different authors and periods. Much prominence is given to purely imaginative writers. The preliminary essay, “A Short Talk to Children about Poetry,” is full of suggestion.
WALLACE. UNCLE HENRY’S LETTERS TO THE FARM BOY.By Henry Wallace. 16mo. ix + 180 pages.
Eighteen letters on habits, education, business, recreation, and kindred subjects.
WEED. LIFE HISTORIES OF AMERICAN INSECTS.By Clarence Moores Weed. 12mo. Illustrated. xii + 272 pages.
In these pages are described by an enthusiastic student of entomology such changes as may often be seen in an insect’s form, and which mark the progress of its life. He shows how very wide a field of interesting facts is within reach of any one who has the patience to collect these little creatures.
WELLS. THE JINGLE BOOK.By Carolyn Wells. 12mo. Illustrated. viii + 124 pages.
A collection of fifty delightful jingles and nonsense verses. The illustrations by Oliver Herford do justice to the text.
WILSON. DOMESTIC SCIENCE IN GRAMMAR GRADES.A Reader. By Lucy L. W. Wilson. 12mo. ix + 193 pages.
Descriptions of homes and household customs of all ages and countries, studies of materials and industries, glimpses of the homes of literature, and articles on various household subjects.
WILSON. HISTORY READER FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.By Lucy L. W. Wilson. 16mo. Illustrated. xvii + 403 pages.
Stories grouped about the greatest men and the most striking events in our country’s history. The readings run by months, beginning with September.
WILSON. PICTURE STUDY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.By Lucy L. W. Wilson. 12mo. Illustrated.
Ninety half-tone reproductions from celebrated paintings both old and modern, accompanied by appropriate readings from the poets. All schools of art are represented.
WRIGHT. HEART OF NATURE.By Mabel Osgood Wright. 12mo. Illustrated.
This volume comprises “Stories of Plants and Animals,” “Stories of Earth and Sky,” and “Stories of Birds and Beasts,” usually published in three volumes and known as “The Heart of Nature Series.” It is a delightful combination of story and nature study, the author’s name being a sufficient warrant for its interest and fidelity to nature.
WRIGHT. FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS AND THEIR KIN.By Mabel Osgood Wright, edited by Frank Chapman. 12mo. Illustrated. xv + 432 pages.
An animal book in story form. The scene shifts from farm to woods, and back to an old room, fitted as a sort of winter camp, where vivid stories of the birds and beasts which cannot be seen at home are told by the campfire,–the sailor who has hunted the sea, the woodman, the mining engineer, and wandering scientist, each taking his turn. A useful family tree of North American Mammals is added.
WRIGHT. DOGTOWN.By Mabel Osgood Wright. 12mo. Illustrated. xiii + 405 pages.
“Dogtown” was a neighborhood so named because so many people loved and kept dogs. For it is a story of people as well as of dogs, and several of the people as well as the dogs are old friends, having been met in Mrs. Wright’s other books.
YONGE. LITTLE LUCY’S WONDERFUL GLOBE.By Charlotte M. Yonge. 12mo. Illustrated. xi + 140 pages.
An interesting and ingenious introduction to geography. In her dreams Lucy visits the children of various lands and thus learns much of the habits and customs of these countries.
YONGE. UNKNOWN TO HISTORY.By Charlotte M. Yonge. 12mo. Illustrated. xi + 589 pages.
A story of the captivity of Mary Queen of Scots, told in the author’s best vein.