CHAPTER XVI
PETER LENDS A HAND
It was quite natural that Nancy should take her problems to Peter Hyde.
More correctly, she did not take them--Peter Hyde discovered them when,a few days later, he found Nancy alone in her Bird's-nest, completelysurrounded by sheets of paper, a frown wrinkling her entire face,furiously chewing one end of her pencil.
There had, of course, to be some explanation of the manuscript. Nancytold him of the play she was writing, how she had really come to NorthHero to finish it!
"I thought I'd have hours and hours to work. And I was so glad when Ifound this hiding place. I've been here, now, weeks and weeks, andhave done scarcely a thing!"
"Is it because the Muse will not come?" asked Peter, eying thescattered sheets with awe.
"Oh, it would _come_--if it had a chance! My head's just bursting withthings I want to write and I dream about them in my sleep. But--itsounds silly--I'm so busy. Maybe the things I do don't seem importantbut I just can't escape them."
She made room for Peter on the seat beside her. Then she told him ofAunt Milly; of that first trip to the orchard, how it had been thebeginning of a new life for the little woman.
"I bring her downstairs every day now, right after breakfast, and she'sone of the family. I'm going to coax Webb to make another sort of achair; one she can wheel herself--I've seen them. She's learned toknit beautifully; she's so proud because she's working on a sock forthe Belgian children--she says it's the first time she's _ever_ feltuseful! She helps B'lindy, too. It makes you want to cry to see howhappy she is. But with all her independence she wants me all the time.When I start to leave her there's something in the way she looks at methat is just as though she reached out and caught me by the hand!"
Nancy described, too, how B'lindy was constantly finding little tasksfor her that would keep her in the kitchen or on the back porch withinsound of her voice.
"You see talking's the joy of B'lindy's life and my ears are new--theyhaven't heard all the things she has to say. Just when I think I canescape she begins telling me of the cake her mother baked for MissSabrina's mother the day the Governor of Vermont came to HappyHouse--or something like that!"
Anxious that Peter should understand everything Nancy made a vividword-picture of Miss Sabrina and of the difficulties she had had inwinning her. "I believe she's fond of me now, but she just doesn'tknow _how_ to show it! She's never displayed one bit of affection inher whole life, I'm sure. She's stone. But sometime she's going tobreak--I'm doing my best to make her! I know she enjoys having dearlittle Aunt Milly around, but do you think she'd say so? Goodness no.But there's a lot of good in Aunt Sabrina and I'm bound to know it all,so I make it my duty to sit with her just so long each day while shetells me about the Leavitts and the other families of this Island. Andthere _is_ something heroic about them all!
"So here I am, just tingling to finish the last act of my play and nota moment to myself! If it isn't precious Aunt Milly or Aunt Sabrina orB'lindy or even dear old Jonathan, it's Nonie or Davy or----"
"Or me," finished Peter Hyde, glancing significantly at the neglectedwork. "Your hands _are_ full!"
Nancy went on earnestly. "And it all seems so worth while! Look atNonie--she's a different creature already. I don't believe shepretends as much, either--her little body is catching up with herspirit. And Davy doesn't hang his head when he looks at you!"
Peter Hyde could understand her feeling toward the children. They hadplanned together to bring something more into those two starved younglives. Like Nancy, he was delighted at the results already apparent.It _was_ work too worth while to be abandoned--for anything.
"Nonie fairly eats up the books I give her but she always wants to readthem with me--it's so that she can ask questions. And the questionsshe asks! Every new thing she learns she immediately adapts to her ownlife. We've begun 'Little Women' and of course she plays Amy! Poorlittle flower, sometimes I think of old Dan'l and Liz and wonder fromwhere on earth the child got her gift. And what a precious blessing itis to her!"
Recalling Davy's contempt for his sister's "actin' lies," they bothlaughed.
"How could _anyone_ think bad things of Davy," cried Nancy,indignantly. "He's the soul of truth and honor! But up here he won'thave a chance."
"Oh, yes, he will!" Peter contradicted. "If I'm any good readingcharacter in a ten-year-old he'll _make_ a chance. He's a leader, now.Look at the way the other boys follow his slightest suggestion!"
Davy's "club" was flourishing. The attractions that Peter and Nancyhad added to its program had made it boom. Several new "fellars" hadcome in. The meetings were even more frequent than Liz cleaned themeeting-house, and now, because it had become known that Miss Sabrina'sniece was a member of the club, no lickings awaited the members upontheir return, rather impatient mothers eager to hear "what that girl atHappy House was up to now." There was some talk about turning the clubinto a Boy Scout troop; Mr. Peter had promised to organize them andtrain them.
"Oh, dear," Nancy sighed, perplexed and torn, "it's like having a dreamyou've dreamed crumble all to pieces! I wanted to have my play donebefore my--I mean, I wanted to finish it up here and then send itstraight to Theodore Hoffman himself. Of course you don't know him.He's one of the greatest dramatists and play producers in the world. Iknow it's daring in me and maybe he won't even give a minute to mylittle insignificant effort, but--whatever he may say, I'll know it isthe best criticism I can get!"
To Nancy's surprise Peter displayed a considerable knowledge of playsand actors, critics and producers. He could see her problem, too--howshe was torn between the claims of Happy House and her beloved work.
Nancy was grateful for his sympathy and because he did not laugh ather. But of course, why should anyone who could find music in wavingcorn not understand her own dreams!
Peter's face looked very much as though he was tackling some problem ofdrainage--or a new incubator.
"When you get right down to plain facts, it's a question of conservingtime. You're wasting it--somewhere. I believe you can double up abit. Let Aunt Milly listen to Belinda, and teach Aunt Milly to helpNonie. I'll take care of Davy. You say Aunt Milly likes to feel she'suseful--if you start her she can help Nonie a lot and Nonie'll give hersomething to think about, too."
Nancy considered this with brightening eyes. "I believe you're right!I've just been selfish, trying to do everything myself just because Iloved to, and stupid--to think no one else could do it! Of course AuntMilly can read with Nonie--and play with her, too. I'll begin thisvery day. I'll have a school here in the orchard and Nonie and B'lindyand Aunt Milly shall come. It'll be the funniest school you ever heardof," Nancy laughed. "I'll teach B'lindy the joy of seeing Hopworth'young 'uns' eat her best molasses cookies!"
Nancy's face showed that she was mentally leaping far ahead in herplans. Peter felt that he had been left out.
"Let me be the head taskmaster or whatever you call it. You'lldoubtless need a strong hand now and then. Anyway, you don't know howmuch it helps _my_ work mixing a little fun with it!"
Now that her problems were straightening Nancy felt very kindly andgracious and happy.
"Of course, you may come to the orchard--whenever you want! Oh, you_have_ helped me so much," she cried, with a smile that brought asudden gleam in Peter Hyde's eyes. "Now, if you'll give me a handputting these pages together, I'll run in and prepare Aunt Milly andB'lindy."
Following along the lines of Peter's suggestion, Nancy's "school"developed rapidly. She covered sheet after sheet of paper with"schedules" and finally to her satisfaction, blocked off every wakingmoment of her pupils' day. Aunt Milly fell heartily in with her plans;she was proud to know that she could help. The books for Nonie thatNancy had spirited to Happy House were as fascinating to her as toNonie.
After the first day Aunt Milly thought of a great many new "lessons"they could begin for Nonie. With the promise that after awhile shecould ma
ke for herself a "pinky" dress, like Nancy's, Aunt Milly taughther to hem and seam and tuck. At the same time Nonie learned that itwas quite as bad to wear a torn, soiled dress as to say "him and me" or"I ain't."
"You're _wonderful_, Aunt Milly," Nancy had declared, after thisinnovation in the school. "I never would have thought of it, myself."She laughed, ruefully. "I'd better study with Nonie, I guess, andlearn to mend, myself."
Nancy had told Aunt Milly, too, of Nonie's pretend-mother. Perhapsthat was why Aunt Milly's voice was very sweet and tender as she andNonie talked and played and read together. Nonie liked to wheel thechair; she began to look forward to bolder excursions beyond the gateto the village.
B'lindy, in her heart still a little distrustful that "no good couldcome from encouragin' them Hopworths," nevertheless found countlessexcuses to join the little group under the apple trees, sometimesbringing some hideous lace crocheting that had been years in the makingbut would some day--if B'lindy lived long enough to complete it--covera bed. Sometimes she brought a basket of goodies and other times cameempty-handed and just sat idle with a softened look in her old eyes asthey rested on the purple rim of mountains across the water.
"I guess it makes a body work better for restin' a spell," she said,after one of these intervals.
But with the success of Nancy's new plans were two little clouds--smallat first but growing with each day. One was the realization that verysoon her work for these dear people could go on without her. Andthough in one breath she told herself that this was fortunate, becauseher stay at Happy House must end with her father's return, in the nextshe was swept with a sharp jealousy that, after she had gone, AuntMilly and B'lindy and Nonie and Davy would still gather under the appletree.
Since the afternoon Peter Hyde had found her with the manuscript shehad not laid eyes upon him!
A sense of hurt at his neglect did not grow less when she learned fromold Jonathan, after one or two questions, that he had gone over toPlattsburg; rather it gave way to a resentment that Peter, consideringwhat good chums they had grown to be and the "school" and everything,should have gone off on any such trip without one word of parting!
"He'll see how well we can get along without him," she had declared toherself after the third day. After all he probably _was_ hidingsomething; this sudden disappearance must have some connection with it.
His comradeship had grown very pleasant, she admitted, but, she toldherself, it belonged to the real Anne Leavitt, like Aunt Milly andNonie and the others, he must drop out of her life when she left HappyHouse.
So that he might not even be missed by Davy and his cronies, Nancydevoted one entire afternoon to teaching the boys of the club how tobuild a fire without matches. When, after repeated and discouragingfailures, the last one had joyfully succeeded, Nancy had promised toteach them to wig-wag at the very next meeting.
When Nancy returned to the house, flushed and tired from the hours onthe beach, old Jonathan, at the door, presented her with a half-blownrose, its stem thrust through a folded sheet of paper.
"Mr. Peter, over to Judson's, asked me to give it t'you."
With a certain set of the college men and girls Nancy had been verypopular; more than once pretty tributes of flowers had come to her.She had accepted them rather indifferently, had kept them with dutifulcare in water and had pasted the cards that had come with them in herremembrance book. But this gift was different; it was quaint--and _so_pretty!
"If you will meet me at seven in the orchard I will tell you a surprisethat will tickle you to pieces," Peter Hyde had scrawled across thepaper.
"How--_funny_!" laughed Nancy, reading and re-reading the lines. "Whatcan it be?"
If Nancy had asked herself why she sang as she dressed for supper shewould have thought, truthfully, that it _was_ because she wasravenously hungry and B'lindy's supper smelled very good; and she choseto wear, from her slender wardrobe, a pink organdy, because it would becool--_not_ that she even dreamed, for a moment, of doing such a sillything as going to the orchard at seven o'clock, to meet Peter Hyde!
A dozen times, during the evening meal, she resolved that Peter Hyde'ssurprise could wait. He presumed, indeed, to think that, after he hadabsented himself for so long without one little word of explanation,she would go running at the crook of his little finger!
However, she put the pink rose in her belt and occasionally slipped itout to smell of it. It was the most beautiful rose she had everseen--she must ask Jonathan its variety.
At five minutes of seven she picked up her knitting and sat resolutelydown between her aunts on the hollyhock porch. Just as Aunt Sabrinawas telling her how, back in 1776, Robert Leavitt had dined withBenedict Arnold on the flagship of his little Champlain fleet, two daysbefore its engagement with the British, the old clock within the housestruck seven. With her breath caught in her throat Nancy countedsixty, twice--then suddenly sprang to her feet and rushed off theveranda.
"Why, Nancy--dear," cried Aunt Milly, startled.
"Humph," grunted Aunt Sabrina, clicking her needles faster than ever.
Peter was in the orchard. He had been there since quarter of seven.He was disappointed at the coolness of Nancy's greeting; it seemed tohim that he had been gone for ages, and he had, during his absence,quite foolishly, been looking forward to this meeting.
He had hoped, too, that she might wear the rose.
"One guess where I've been," he commanded lightly, as he held out hishand to assist her into the tree.
"Dear me, how can I tell? Buying plows or pigs or----"
Nancy tried to make her tone seem airily indifferent, when all the timeshe was really consumed with curiosity and a desire, too, to tell himhow splendidly her work was going.
"I have seen Theodore Hoffman!"
"_What?_"
"Don't look as though you thought I'd gone mad. He's human. Ihappened to hear that he was staying at Bluff Point, so I went over tosee the gentleman."
Nancy's eyes _did_ say that she thought he had gone quite out of hismind!
"How did you _dare_?"
"I know a fellow that knows him. He was very nice--as I said, he'shuman, terribly human. You should see him playing tennis!"
"What--_what_ did you say to him?"
"I told him I had a little friend who was soon to become one of thegreatest playwrights in the world and----"
"_Peter!_" Nancy lifted an imploring finger. "Honest, what _did_ yousay? And why----" she was suddenly abashed. He had done this for her.
Peter kept his tone light.
"You see I did have some pig business over that way, so it was easyenough to do a favor for a little pal at the same time. Hoffman wasvery nice--he's going to be around up here for some weeks and promisedme he would drive over here. Now it's up to you to have the manuscriptready."
"Oh, Peter, I'm _frightened_! You're a darling! I shall _always_bless pigs! Of _course_ I'll have it done--I'll work night and day.I'll go straight back to the house now." She jumped to the ground. Inher haste she forgot the poor rose she had hidden behind her.
Peter, crestfallen at her sudden flight, found it, however. He smiled,whimsically, as he held it in the palm of his hand.
"Nice little kid," he said, as he had said once before, then he put therose carefully into his pocket.