CHAPTER II
DINNER DIFFICULTIES
Nancy jerked her cretonne apron first one way and then the other. Thenshe kicked out a few steps, still pondering. When Nancy was thinkingseriously she had to be acting. This brought her to the conclusion thatshe should hurry out to the porch and look after Miss Townsend, but shehad decided upon that move too late, for the lady in the voile dress wasjust turning the corner into Bender Street.
Nancy's face was a bed of smiles. They were tucked away in the cornersof her mouth, they blinked out through her eyes and were having lots offun teasing her two deep cheek dimples. She was literally all smiles.
"What a lark! Won't Ted howl? The dog and the--the chimney secret," shechuckled. "And dogs know. You can't fool them." She came back into thestore and gazed ruefully at the squatty stove that mutely stood guard.
"I don't suppose mother will want that left there all summer," Nancyfurther considered. "It might just as well be put out in the shed, andthe store would look lots better."
She could not help thinking of Miss Townsend's strange visit. The ladywas unmistakably worried, and her worry surely had to do with theWhatnot Shop.
"But I do hope we don't run into any old spooky stories about thisplace," Nancy pondered, "for mother hates that sort of thing and so doI--if they're the foolish, silly kind," she admitted, still staring atthe questionable fireplace.
"What-ever can Miss Townsend want to be around here for? No hiddentreasures surely, or she would say so and start in to dig them up,"decided the practical Nancy. The clock struck one!
"One o'clock!" she said this aloud. "Of course it isn't," laughed thegirl. "That clock has been going since the moving and it hasn't unpackedits strike carefully. But, just the same, it must be eleven o'clock, andas for the morning's work! However shall I catch up?"
One hour later Ted was in looking for lunch. He had been out "exploring"and had, he explained, met some fine fellows who were "brigand scouts."
"I'm goin' to join," he declared. "They're goin' to let me in and I'mgoin' to bring a lot of my things over to the den."
"Den?" questioned Nancy. "Where's that?"
"Secret," answered Ted. "An' anyhow, it isn't for girls." This was saidin a pay-you-back manner that Nancy quickly challenged.
"Oh, all right. Very well. Just as you say, keep it secret if you like,"she taunted, "but I've got a real one." The potatoes were burning butneither of the children seemed to care.
Ted looked closely at his sister and was convinced. She really wasserious. Then too, everything was on end, no dinner ready, nothing done,the place all boxes, just as they were when he left. Something must havebeen going on all morning, reasoned Ted.
"Good thing mother didn't come home, Sis," he remarked amicably. "Say,how about--chow?"
"Chow?"
"Yes. Don't you know that means food in the military, and I'm as starvedas a bear."
"Well, why don't you get something to eat? I understood we were to camp,share and share alike," Nancy reminded him, giving the simmeringpotatoes a shake that sent the little pot-cover flying to the floor.
"That was your idea. But mother said you had to be sure we ate ourmeals," contended Ted. "I'll get the meat. It's meat balls, isn't it?"
"It will be, I suppose, when _I_ make them," said Nancy, deliberatelyshoving everything from one end of the table with a sweep that rattledtogether dishes, glasses and various other breakable articles.
There was no doubt about it, Nancy Brandon did hate housework. Everything she did was done with that degree of scorn absolutely fatal to theresult. Perhaps this was just why her mother was allowing her to try outthe pet summer scheme.
"I'd go mad if I had to stick in a kitchen," Nancy declaredtheatrically. "I'm so glad we've got the store."
"But we can't eat the store," replied Ted. "Here's the meat. Do get itgoing, Sis. I've got to get back to the fellows."
"Ted Brandon! You've got to help _me_ this afternoon. Do you think, forone instant, I'm going to do everything?"
"'Course not, I'll do my share," promised the unsuspecting boy. "Butjust today we've got something big on. Here's the meat."
"Big or little you have just got to help me, Ted. Look at this place! Itseems to me things walk out of the boxes and heap themselves up allover. Now, we didn't take those pans out, did we?"
"I don't know, don't think so. But here's a good one. It's the meatkind, isn't it?"
"Yes. Give it here." Nancy took from his hand a perfectly flat irongriddle. "I'll fix up the cakes if you make place on the table. We'lleat out here."
"All right." Ted flew to the task. "But you know, Sis, mother said wemight eat in that sun porch. It's a dandy place to read. Look at thewindows."
Nancy had flattened the chopped meat into four balls and was pressingthem on the griddle.
"There. What did you do with the potatoes?"
"Nothing. I didn't take them."
"But we had potatoes--" She lighted the gas under the meat.
"Sure. I smelled them burning."
"Well, hunt around and see if you can smell them now," ordered Ted'ssister. "I can't eat meat without potatoes."
Ted dropped his two plates and actually went sniffing about in search ofthe lost food. Meanwhile Nancy was standing at the stove, a magazine inone hand and the griddle handle in the other. Her eyes, however, werenot upon the griddle.
Presently the meat was sizzling and its odor cheered Ted considerably.
"Don't let's mind the potatoes," he suggested. "I can't find them."
"Can't find them? And I peeled three! We've _got_ to find them."
"Then you look and I'll stir the meat."
"It doesn't have to be stirred." But Nancy stood over the stove just thesame.
"Then what are you watching it for?"
"So it won't burn, like the potatoes."
"Maybe they all burned up." Ted didn't care much for potatoes.
"Oh, don't be silly. Where's the pan?"
"Which pan?"
"Oh, Ted Brandon! The potato pan, of course!"
"Oh, Nancy Brandon! What potato pan, of course! Has it got a name onit?"
Nancy dropped her magazine on a littered chair, in sheer disgust. Sherealized the meat was cooking; (it splattered and spluttered merrily onthe shallow griddle,) and she too was hungry. Ted might be satisfied toeat just bread and meat, but she simply had to have freshly cookedpotatoes. Wasn't housework awful? Especially cooking?
There was a jangle of the store bell, actually some one coming at thatcritical moment.
"Oh, dear!" groaned Nancy. "What a nuisance! I suppose I'll have togo--"
"But the meat?" Ted was getting desperate.
"It's almost ready." Nancy wiped her hands on the dish towel and hurriedto the store.
"A man!" she announced, as she went to open the screen door.
Ted left his post and cautiously stole after her. A customer was a realnovelty and Ted didn't want to miss the excitement. A pleasant voicefilled in the moment. A gentleman was talking to Nancy.
"I'm glad to find some one in," he was saying. "Since my friend, ElmerTownsend, left here I've been rather--that is, I've missed the littleplace," explained the man. Ted could see that he was very tall andlooked, he thought, like a school teacher, having no hat on and not muchhair either.
"We've just been unpacking," Nancy replied. She was conscious of theconfusion in the store as well as she had been of things upset in thekitchen.
"Oh, yes," drawled the man, stepping behind the counter. "It will takeyou some time to go over everything. But you see, Mr. Townsend and I aregreat friends, and I know where most of the things are kept. You don'tmind if I take a look for a ball of twine?"
"No, certainly not," agreed Nancy.
"I can get you that," spoke up Ted. "I had it out last night," and hejumped behind the counter to the littered cord and twine box.
Nancy pulled herself up to that famous height of hers. S
hesmelled--something burning!
"Ted!" she screamed. "It's a-fire! The kitchen! I see the blaze!"
"The meat!" yelled Ted, springing over the low counter and following hissister toward the smoke filling place.
"Oh-h-h-!" Nancy continued to yell. "What shall we do!"
"Don't get excited," ordered the stranger. "And don't go near thatblazing pan. Let me go in there," and he brushed Nancy aside making hisway into the untidy place, which now seemed, to the frightened girl, allin flames.
"The meat--gosh!" moaned poor Ted, for the stranger had opened the backdoor, and having grabbed the flaming pan with that same towel Nancy hadtossed on the chair, he was now tossing the blazing pan as far out fromthe house as his best fling permitted.
"There!" he exclaimed, brushing one hand with the other. "I guess we'resafe now."
"Oh, thank you, Mister, Mister--" Nancy waited for him to supply thename, but he only smiled broadly.
"Just call me Sam," he said pleasantly.
"Sam?" echoed Ted.
"Yes, sonny. Isn't that all right?" asked the stranger.
They were within the cluttered kitchen now and, as is usually the casewith girls of Nancy's temperament, she was much distressed at the looksof the place. In fact, she was making frantic but futile efforts toright things.
"What's the matter with Sam?" again asked the man, curiously.
"Oh, nothing," replied Ted. "Only it isn't your name."
"No? How do you know?" persisted the stranger, quizzically.
"You don't look like a Sam," said Ted, kicking one heel against theother to hide his embarrassment. He hadn't intended saying all that.
The man laughed heartily, and for the moment Nancy forgot the upsetkitchen. But the dinner!
"I hope your dinner isn't gone," remarked the stranger who wanted to becalled Sam.
"Oh, no," replied Nancy laconically, avoiding Ted's discouraged look."That was only some--some meat we were cooking."
"Can't keep house and 'tend store without spoiling something. But I feelit was somewhat my fault. Suppose we lock up and trot down to the cornerfor a dish of ice cream?" he suggested. "It's just warm enough today forcream; don't you think so?"
"Oh, let's!" chirped Ted. A hungry boy is ever an object of pity.
"You go," suggested Nancy, "but I think I had better stay here."
"Oh, no. You've got to come along. Let me see. If you call me Uncle Samwhat shall I call you?"
"I'm Nancy Brandon and this is my brother Ted," replied Nancy. "But I'dlike much better to call you by your real name."
"Real name," and he laughed again. "I see we are going to be criticalfriends. Now then, since you insist Sam won't do suppose we make itSanders. Mr. Sanders. How does that name suit?" and he clapped Ted'sshoulders jovially.
"Then Mr. Sanders, you and Ted go along and get your cream. I reallymust attend to things here," insisted Nancy. "We are all so upset andmother will expect us to have things in some sort of order."
"Oh, Sis, come along" begged Ted. "I'll help you when we get back. Itwon't take a minute."
Hunger is a poor argument against food, and presently the back door waslocked, the front door was locked, and the two Brandons with the man whocalled himself Mr. Sanders, because they refused to call him Uncle Sam,were making tracks for the ice cream store.
Burnt potatoes, burnt meat with ice cream for dessert, thought Nancy.But she was still convinced that business was more important thanhousekeeping.
"Glad we didn't burn up," remarked Ted, as he trotted along beside Mr.Sanders.
"Never want to throw water on burning grease," they were advised. "Andalways keep a thing at full arm's length, if you must pick it up. Ofcourse, if you turned out the gas and pushed the pan well in on thestove it would eventually burn out, but think of the smoke!"
"You bet!" declared Ted, as they reached the little country ice creamparlor. Two girls, whom Nancy had seen several times since she came toLong Leigh, were just leaving the place and she thought they looked ather very curiously as they passed out. Then, she distinctly heard one ofthem say:
"Fancy! With him!"
And Nancy knew she had made some sort of mistake in accepting thewell-intentioned invitation.