THE HAPPY SIXCHAPTER IFIVE AND ONE
THE HAPPY SIX
“TheHappy Six” grew out of “The Merry Five,” and this was the way of it:—
The Merry Five, as you may remember, were Molly, Kirke, and Weezy Rowe, and their twin neighbors, Paul and Pauline Bradstreet; and they lived in Silver Gate City, in sunny California.
Well,—to go on with the story,—one May morning before school-time, as Kirke was amusing his little brother upon the veranda, Molly came rushing out in great excitement, crying,—
“O Kirke, you can’t guess what’s going to happen to The Merry Five!”
Kirke, engaged in attaching a string to the neck of a speckled horned toad, answered coolly without looking up,—
“No; and I never said I could. Fortune-telling is not my trade.”
“Whatisyour trade, you funny boy?” asked little Miss Weezy, suddenly appearing from the garden.
“Just at present I am in the harness business,” he returned, as he tied together the ends of the cord.
Yellow-haired Donald, on his hands and knees at his brother’s feet, watched the proceeding with deep interest, for this toad was to be his little pony.
“In the teasing business you mean, Kirke Rowe,” retorted Molly, tossing back her long auburn braid with some impatience. “You want me to think you don’t care what happens to The Merry Five.”
“Whisper it tome, Molly, please do!”implored Weezy, her dainty sea-shell ear close to her sister’s mouth. “I can keep a secret all to myself.”
“It’s not a secret,” cried Molly, waltzing the child down the veranda. “It’s not a secret, but Kirke needn’t listen.” And she chanted gayly at the top of her voice,—
“We’re going to Europe, to Europe, to Europe,The Merry Five are going to Europe!”
“We’re going to Europe, to Europe, to Europe,The Merry Five are going to Europe!”
“We’re going to Europe, to Europe, to Europe,
The Merry Five are going to Europe!”
This aroused Kirke.
“Molly Rowe, what do you mean?” he cried, nearly letting the toad escape, harness and all. “Who said such a thing?”
“Well, Captain Bradstreet is going, anyway. There’s some trouble in Paris about one of his vessels: he’s obliged to go in June.”
“But what has that to do with us, I’d like to inquire?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing at all! Only we’re going with him; that is, I almost know we are. The doctor said yesterday that papaneeded a sea voyage, and mud-baths, and things. And mamma said just now, ‘Yes, Edward, you ought to go to Europe.’ And when mamma says that”—
“I declare, Molly Rowe, it does look like it! June, did you say?”
“Is it far to Europe?” asked Weezy anxiously; “farther than Mexico?”
“Farther than Mexico? Why, you little goosie, Mexico is within sight of us, and Europe is ’way off to the other side of the world.”
“Truly? Then I’m not going to any old Europe!”
And Weezy’s lip began to quiver.
“Not with papa and mamma, darling?” said Molly. “They’ll go with us and so will Captain Bradstreet, and they’ll all take care of The Merry Five.”
“Here’s three cheers for Europe!” shouted Kirke, swinging his cap. “And hurrah! Three cheers for The Merry Five!”
“Hurrah!Free chairs for Mary Five!” echoed little Donald, flapping his arms like a windmill in a gale. “Hurrah! Free chairs for Mary Five!”
It was so droll to hear him that his listeners all laughed: and who can wonder?
“Bravo, Don!” roared Kirke, tossing the little cheerer over his shoulder. “If yourMary Fivewantsfree chairsshe ought to have ’em!”
“So I say,” said Molly, drying her eyes. “And a little boy that can shout for her like that deserves a reserved seat!”
“Let’s give him one—a reserved seat in our club,” returned Kirke good-naturedly. “He ought to come into The Merry Five.”
“Only with him, you see, we shouldn’t be The Merry Five any longer,” demurred Molly; “there’d be one to carry.”
“Then we might call ourselves The MerrySix: how is that?” amended Kirke, settingDonald down again. “What do you say to The Merry Six?”
“The Merry Half Dozen would be nicer,Ithink,” put in Weezy; “a great deal nicer.”
“Nonsense, Weezy,” retorted Kirke, “that sounds like a nestful of eggs! Let’s have it The Merry Six.”
“Why not TheHappySix?” asked Molly, with a roguish smile. “Let’s be happy now, just for a change.”
“Agreed, Molly, I’m willing, if Paul and Pauline are.”
“So am I, too,” assented Miss Weezy, though secretly preferring a half-dozen to six.
Paul was just now away on a visit, but when they proposed the question to Pauline that afternoon, she received “little Number Six” into the club with open arms, and declared that his extreme youth was no objection whatever. She had heard that as peoplegrow older, they always approve of having young members come into their clubs. She was sure Paul would welcome Master Donald cordially, and would agree with them all that the new name proposed by Molly was exactly the thing.
Thus it happened that Donald and his “Mary Five” became straightway “The Happy Six;” and this is a true account of the transaction; though, to be sure, it had not been settled yet that the club was going to Europe.
“But what difference does that make?” asked Pauline. “Can’t we be The Happy Six, all the same, wherever we are? I move that we try to be happy right here in California till the middle of June, anyway, and then”—
“I second the move,” responded Molly.
“’Tis a vote,” cried Kirke and little Number Six in chorus.
And now, in the chapters that follow, you will hear more of this new brother-and-sisterhood, and will learn of its whereabouts and all its proceedings.