CHAPTER XV
"'MONGST THE HILLS OF SOMERSET, WISHT I WAS A-ROAMIN' YET!"
THE house party in the Ark--especially because it was to be composedonly of the household--seemed so desirable as the time for it grewnearer that the party to see the Midsummer Night's Dream paled beforeits beacon light.
Yet Robert Gaston gave his guests a blissful evening! Margery, Gretta,Happie and Mrs. Charleford sat in the first box, with Ralph and Roberthimself for the black-coated background to their brightness. Edith,Laura, Bob and Snigs were in the second box under Mrs. Scollard's care.Of course there was no real division of the party.
"We just happen to have a fold in the middle, like a big birthdaycard," said Happie, laying her hand on the plush-covered railing of thenext box as she leaned over to speak to Edith.
Margery settled into her chair, half hidden by the curtain, with along breath of satisfaction. Gretta sat serenely in the middle, lostin admiration of the handsome theatre, the well-gowned women, therustle of anticipation, secure in her sense of being unknown and of noconsequence. She did not guess that many a glass was turned upon herface, with its brilliant tints of red and white skin, dark eyes, andheavy masses of dark hair. Margery and she were rare foils for eachother, like a jasmine blossom and a Jacqueminot rose. No one couldclaim for Happie regular beauty, but she was alight with life, fun,eagerness to enjoy and to give pleasure. Her hair, always lawless,gleamed like tarnished copper, her eyes danced, her dimples came andwent, her lips curved and quivered--she was like an incarnate electriccurrent. Margery was lovely, Gretta was handsome, but Happie wascharming, and on the whole that is the greatest gift of the three.
It did not take long for the audience around the boxes to discover andgrow interested in the theatre party. It was not often that one couldsee so many winsome creatures together as Robert was entertaining thatnight, with a keen sense of the fact and no little pride in his guests.
Not Laura alone enjoyed the music of the Mendelssohn overture, butLaura did enjoy it, leaning far over the edge of the box, her paleface responsive to its spell. Then the curtain went up and the girlswere admitted to fairyland, to the realm of visions, under the domainof sleep-like trance in which the actual world was no more a reality.Shakespeare's poetry, aided by the skill of to-day, wrought the spell.Electric fire-flies flitted through the forest, stung Bottom's sleepypoll, flew hither and yon at Puck's behest, while the owl in the hollowtree winked his electric eyes as the elf teased him. Fairies liftedtheir arms and then flitted across the stage and disappeared among thetrees as Titania or Oberon commanded them; it was hard to believe theywere mortals, so perfectly managed was the illusion of their flight.Happie put a hand over one of Margery's and one of Gretta's, givingherself up to the fun of the grotesque players of Pyramus and Thisbe,yielding her imagination to the forest elves, perfectly happy andunconscious of real life, as Happie always could be when she read orsaw or heard. Not till the curtain fell on the last act in the palaceof the duke, with the fairies flitting through the gathering darknessshedding wedding blessings on the reunited lovers to the softly sungmusic of Oberon, did Happie stir, sighing. The lights blazed up in thebody of the theatre, on every side there was a rustle of preparationfor the street. The illusion was over, and Broadway, with its roar oftrolley and its stream of varied types of life, waited to swallow upthe mortals who for three hours had been transported to the kingdom ofdreams.
Robert Gaston had taken Mrs. Scollard for a walk in the lobby betweentwo of the acts. As she put on her hat Happie fancied there wasbetween them an air of understanding. Her mother seemed stirred, whileRobert looked blissful. He helped Margery into her coat carefully, andlaughingly disentangled Gretta's heavy braid of hair from Happie'sobtruding hook.
"I have had the best birthday I remember, and I'm a thousand timesgrateful to all of you who helped make it that," he said, forestallingthe thanks which they were all ready to pour out to him.
The tea room claimed the girls for two more days, and then came thelonged-for Friday when they were to go to Crestville.
Mrs. Scollard, alone, was not to be of the party. She and JeunesseDoree, she said, would look after the Patty-Pans, for she could notwell be spared from her duties at that time.
"Well, you take good care of yourself while we go out of the Patty-Pansinto the mire," said Bob, hunting around for a mislaid blacking brush.
"That's what we did when we went up the first time, but there's no mirenow, Bobsy; only 'the snow, the beautiful snow!'" cried Happie in highfeather. Their libations to Jack Frost, which Aunt Keren had suggested,had not been in vain. The ground was white, the streets were vociferouswith the Italian drivers of tip-carts, as the "white-wings" gangslabored to clear the snow away in the least possible time.
It was an early start that the eight o'clock train necessitated, butthere was no other train until twenty minutes of two, and that wouldnot get them to Crestville until nearly half past five--too late andtoo dark for pleasure-seekers. Besides, what was the use of wasting thevaluable afternoon which might be gained by taking what Crestvillianscalled "the mail train"? This arrived at noon, in the sunniest,brightest part of the day. Nevertheless, catching it meant leaving thePatty-Pans at not much past seven. Not that there was any doubt ofgetting off. The Scollard family was stirring before six, and the firstsound it heard was a pounding on the dumb-waiter, announcing that theGordon boys were ahead of them.
Mrs. Scollard bundled her youngest into an extra coat as a protectionagainst the mountain wind that she would face driving up from thestation, and kissed her children all around with fervor enough to makeup for the two days in which she should not kiss them. She clung toMargery and kissed her repeatedly.
"Good-bye, little Margery, good-bye, best of daughters. You're sucha comfort to me, dear, and no one will ever love you quite as motherdoes," she whispered.
Margery looked at her, guessing, perhaps, the reason for thistenderness.
"I'm never going to be less than your eldest daughter, mother dear. Icouldn't care for anything that took me from you," she whispered back.
Then the joyous crowd started out noisily, all the Scollards, flankedby Ralph and Snigs, who joined them in the hall.
They had allowed more time than they needed to get down to the station,and sat watching the crowd of incoming suburbanites hurrying throughthe outer gates as if New York were a mammoth kinetoscope which theywere barely in time to see.
After a short wait a personage in brass buttons with a voice ofmarvelous volume and monotony aroused the occupants of the waiting-roomwith what sounded like a recitation from the gazeteer, a long list ofstations at which this mail-bearing train stopped. The Scollard partyhurried through the gates, and lengthened down the car aisle, tenstrong.
"Let's divide up our crowd and sit on both sides of the car. If we'reall on one side we'll have to telephone if the first pair should wishto communicate with the last pair," said Snigs. "I sit with Happie!"
"Not this trip, little brother!" observed Ralph, elbowing up to takethat place.
"Happie sits with Gretta," announced Happie. "And Mr. Gaston must beone of the right-side people, because that side has a better view ofthe Water Gap. All the rest of us have seen it before."
Margery slipped into a seat on the right side of the car, RobertGaston beside her. Bob dropped down behind them beside Gretta, anddefeated Happie accepted Ralph's presence and crow of victory withoutperceptible regret. Laura on the other side of the car welcomed Snigsas a traveling companion, with a gracious smile, and Polly and Pennysettled down together behind them, immediately to unsettle withexcited bounces on the seat, kneeling up to look out of the window,then flouncing down for two minutes in which they tried to convey theimpression that they were seasoned and somewhat blase travelers.
"We look like a bridal party, with Margery in that gray suit ahead, andGaston so beautiful to behold in his new top-coat----I'm sure it's anew one!" Ralph whispered to Happie. "Bet you what you will the peoplein
this car think Margery's a bride, and Bob and I are bridesmaids."
"And Snigs and I the stern parents!" added Happie. "Rather a youngbride, I should think. It's years before Margery will be old enough tomarry. What do you suppose they think Polly and Penny are?"
"Grains of rice," said Ralph promptly. "As to 'years before Margery'sold enough,' she's eighteen, and after that danger signals are flying."
"Humph!" ejaculated Happie with more sincerity than politeness.
The three hours and a half journey up to Crestville is pretty for thefirst half of the distance, and beautiful the last half. At eleveno'clock the jolly young group from the Patty-Pans was looking out ofthe windows with twenty eager eyes to see the approach to the DelawareWater Gap. Laura and Snigs were perching on the arms of the seats ofthose on the more favorable side, and Polly and Penny had crowded, onein with Happie and Ralph, the other with Gretta and Bob.
The train curved around the shining track like a snake, the locomotiveplainly to be seen as it tugged along the bend that brought it intoview from the rear cars. The river, swollen by snows, ran swiftly downits rocky bed and on either hand rose the dark mountains, snow-patchedand pine-clad, through which in countless ages the Delaware had cut itsway to the sea.
"We begin to be proud about here," Bob explained to Robert over thelatter's shoulder. "From this point up we consider our feet upon ournative heath and our name is MacGregor, of the purest Gregorian--if youdoubt it, look at Gretta."
Robert laughingly turned. Gretta's eyes were dilated, they were darkerthan ever, and looked ready to leap across the intervening mountainsto behold Crestville. Her cheeks were crimson, her lips parted by herquick breathing; joy radiated from her very hands.
"It's a beautiful country, Gretta," said Robert. "How you do love it! Idon't quite see how you stay away, when it makes you feel like this toget back."
"I never was away to get back to it before," said Gretta. "I couldn'tstay away with any one but these dear people. There isn't any one uphere that really cares a bit what becomes of me, yet it seems as thoughall these trees knew me, and the mountains--oh, I can't tell you howthe mountains look to me! Not a bit the way they look to any of you,I'm sure of that. I see the mountains, too, and how splendid they are,but I see them something as you see your mother--something that I sawwhen I first opened my eyes."
"Yes, I understand," said Robert gently. "Strange, and beautifullystrange, the kinship we all feel for our mother bit of earth!"
The ride up the steep grade from the Water Gap to Crestville seemedlong to the hungry and impatient "Archaics," as Bob had called the Arkoccupants the previous summer. It took three-quarters of an hour forthe train to wind up the fifteen miles, ascending sharply, and with thetrack curved and inclined so that the locomotive came in sight often,as it labored to get its charge up the grade.
"There's the solitary pine, Hapsie!" cried Bob, pointing to a landmarkthat stood out alone on a summit which they passed in the drive fromthe station over to the Ark.
"I see!" Happie's voice echoed Bob's pleasure, and Gretta caught herbreath.
"Crestville! Crestville!" shouted the guard. But the party for the Arkwas on its feet before the announcement, and Penny had bolted for thedoor, to the dismay of careful Polly, burdened with responsibility forher successor who lacked all of her own steadiness.
Drawn up beside the station platform as the Archaics came around, wasJake Shale's team. The horses were as discouraged-looking as ever,but the children had learned that their gauntness and melancholy wererather habits than the proof of actual discomfort. They were harnessedto a bright blue wagon body, set on two sleds. The wagon was filledwith straw, and Jake sat on the seat smiling helplessly, with no changeof expression on his cadaverous face to indicate the pleasure that hereally did feel on seeing the Scollard young folk again.
Beyond Jake stood Don Dolor, fairly shining with prosperity andgrooming, harnessed to a pretty dark green sleigh with a removablesecond seat, which none of the newcomers had ever seen before. MahlonGruber held the reins. He was just as limp, just as near fallingto pieces, apparently, as ever, but he grinned with inane joy asBob shouted to him: "Hallo, Mahlon!" and responded "Hallo," with anapproach to animation.
Margery and Robert, the latter because he was the guest of honor andMargery because he was largely her guest, got into the back seat of thesleigh, and Polly and Penny were tucked in beside Mahlon, with someregret for the straw-filled wagon body and the majority.
"Do they let you drive alone, Mahlon?" asked Bob, tucking in his largeand his smaller sisters, and patting Don Dolor--dolorous no more--onhis handsome black nose.
"Ye-e-ah!" said Mahlon in a long drawn note of triumph, ending witha staccato snap. "Yep! Yes, sirree! I kin drive that there horseanywheres. He knows me good."
"He looks fine, Mahlon. You take every bit as good care of him as Idid," said Bob, turning away to join the waiting Shale party.
"I bet ye!" said the proud Mahlon emphatically, and with the thingiggle that the children remembered so well.
"She couldn't come over," said Jake Shale, turning his long vehiclewith its long squeak on the frozen snow. "She sent word yesterday I'dgot to be over till to-day fer the mail train. She was afraid shehadn't the dare to come, fear of cold. I didn't see how I was goin' tomake it--I'm haulin' fer a man that's lumberin' a piece he's took overthe other side. He's cuttin' mine props and ties. But I told him I'dhave to do it a while, to oblige her, and I come. If I hadn't a wentAaron could, but I was using the team. So you was to the city, Gretta.You look good."
"I am good, Jake," said Gretta, as keenly alive now as any otherdistinguished stranger, to the dialect of her native village.
"Miss Bradbury isn't ill, is she? She's able to be out?" asked Happie,rightly construing Jake's feminine pronoun to apply to her godmother.
"I guess," said Jake. "But she was afraid she might wetten her feetout, so she said she guessed she hadn't ought to went. Rosie wouldn'tleave her go, for all; she wanted to come along bad, but she saidshe'd have to let the meetin' you folks to me."
"And she couldn't have 'let' it to a better man, Jake," said Bobgravely.
The drive up to the Ark could not have been more beautiful ifCrestville had felt precisely as the young Scollards felt, and hadwanted to show Robert Gaston the country under its most attractiveaspect. A light, but wet snow which had not reached New York, hadfallen here on the preceding day. It was the sort of snow that rests onthe bare tree branches and clothes them in white. The entire landscapewas a study in black and white, trees all white on a line of blacklimb, serried ranks of black woods touched with white in the distance,white fields, black rocks, all against a gray sky that had the effectof nearness and of palpable softness.
"Dear me, it is a lovely country!" Robert said, looking about himdelightedly. "What a glorious view! No wonder Gretta is glad to getback!"
"It was the dreariest, most desolate place to us when we came here lastApril that one could imagine. The house dilapidated, unfurnished, orfurnished with rickety fragments, and mother so ill, and our futureso unsmiling! Aunt Keren was everything to us; she literally savedmother's life, we think, but indeed it was discouraging enough thenight we drove this road for the first time," said Margery. "There isour Ark!"
Mahlon let Don Dolor turn in at the gate. The big sled was not farbehind, speed being nearly equal up hill between tired horses and afresh one.
Miss Keren risked taking cold, standing on the upper step to beam herwelcome. Beside her stood Rosie Gruber, as tall and gaunt as ever, butnow her gauntness had the effect of an original design, and when theArk had first known her Rosie had given the impression of being gauntfrom over-work and under-feeding.
She caught Polly and Penny into her arms, both at once, like acapacious threshing machine grasping at peculiarly succulent littlegrains.
"Well, my days, children, I didn't know you'd have room enough in NewYork to grow like you have! I guess country air shown you how! Yourun in and see once what Rosie's fixed
for dinner! Margery, you deargirl, leave me hug you!" Rosie's welcome forestalled Miss Keren's inthese cases, but Miss Keren was welcoming Robert, whom she presentedto Rosie, and to whom Rosie extended a hard and bony hand, with a keenglance that appraised the young man accurately.
"Glad you come," she said. "It hain't so cold where you live, but youwouldn't feel it if you stayed up to git use to it. My days, there'sthe team, and Bob, and Ralph--and Happie yet!"
Rosie's tone expressed her sense of Happie as a climax. The secondScollard girl had always been to her the perfection of girlhood.
In a moment they were all hugging and shaking hands with Rosie,while Robert Gaston looked on with amused and admiring eyes, fullyappreciating the relations between this free-born American citizen andthe family she looked after.
Miss Keren submitted to the arm Happie wound around her, as they allbundled into the small entry and into the library. On the hearth Rosiehad built a generous fire of logs, odorous cherry logs, which filledthe room with faint fragrance and emphatic warmth. Aunt Keren lookedbetter, Happie thought. And how pretty this room was which they hadfound so forlorn on its first sight! The low ceiling, the wide planksin the flooring, the comfortable chairs, the table, book-strewn, theshelves lined with books of all sizes and colors, the soft shortcurtains, the good pictures, the firelight throwing shadows and highlights though it was noon, for the day was gray--how pretty andindividual it all was.
"Now get your things off while I dish up, and then you kin all set upand eat a while," said Rosie, in the familiar phrase which had amusedthe family so much on their first acquaintance with it.
"Let us help you, Gretta and I!" cried Happie throwing off her hat andcoat. "We always did."
Dinner was served quickly, generously, and though Rosie, who waited onthe table, joined in the conversation and asked eager questions, itwas obviously not from disrespect, but rather from a mutual respectthat did away with inequalities. Margery--and for that matter thetwo Keren-happuchs--watched Robert to see how he took this Arcadiansimplicity. They felt, justly enough, that it tested his intelligenceand the genuineness of his breeding.
His eyes were full of humorous kindness, he was eating with boyishrelish the country viands, and he smiled at Rosie's queer ways with asmile as friendly as it was amused.
"Well, he'll do!" thought Miss Keren.
"I knew he'd look like that! He never fails one," thought Margery.
And Happie nodded approvingly to Gretta as she signaled her admirationof Robert's appetite for schmier-kase and apple butter.
"We have a long afternoon," said Miss Keren when dinner was over. "Allof my guests know the place rather better than their hostess--exceptMr. Gaston. What do you propose for your own entertainment?"
"We thought we would go skating, Aunt Keren," said Bob. "We fourboys--if Mr. Gaston permits our counting him in--and Margery,Happie,--all the girls, except the kiddies."
"I am going to stay in the house all the afternoon with Aunt Keren,"announced Happie.
"I am going to take Polly and Penny coasting; I promised it a weekago," said Gretta.
"Laura and Margery, will you desert us?" asked Bob.
"Let's all go coasting!" cried Ralph. "Let's borrow sleds somewhere andcoast. It's more fun than skating--we'll skate in the morning."
"Much more fun!" cried Robert Gaston.
"And Happie, I won't allow you to stay here with me," said Aunt Kerendecidedly.
"If it's coasting I couldn't, dear Auntie Keren. I haven't coastedsince I was young," cried Happie.
"How can you remember it then?" inquired Ralph.