CHAPTER III--ROCKING CHAIR ADVENTURES
"Well, girls," exclaimed Ruth, next morning at the breakfast table,"here we are ready for adventures. But they will have to be earlymorning or late evening ones. It's already too hot to breathe."
"For my part," observed Miss Sallie, "the only adventure I am seeking isto sit on the shady side of the piazza, in a wicker chair, and read themorning paper."
"But, Miss Sallie, even that might turn into something," said romanticMollie.
"Yes, indeed," pursued Ruth, "you know the way mamma met papa was bystaying at home instead of going to a ball."
"Why, Ruth!" cried Miss Sallie.
"But it's quite true, dear Aunt Sallie. Mamma was visiting at a houseparty in the South, somewhere, and she had a headache and stayed homefrom a ball, and was sitting in the library. Papa came a-calling on oneof the others, and was ushered into the library, by mistake, andintroduced himself to mamma--and she forgot her headache and he forgothe was due to catch a train to New York at nine o'clock. It was simply acase of love at first sight."
"My dear, I am not looking for any such romantic adventures," said MissSallie, bridling. "Your father was an intimate friend of the family atwhose house your mother was stopping. It was perfectly natural theyshould have met, if not that evening, at least another one. I alwayssaid your mother showed extreme good sense in staying away from a partyand nursing her headache. Not many others would have done the same."Miss Stuart gave her niece a meaning look, while the four girlssuppressed their smiles and exchanged telegraphic glances of amusement.
Not long before Ruth had "doctored" herself up with headache medicine,and had gone to a dance against her aunt's advice. As a result she hadbeen obliged to leave before the evening was over, more on account ofthe medicine than the headache, Miss Sallie had believed.
"Dearest little auntie, you have a touch of sun this morning, haven'tyou?" asked Ruth, leaning over and patting her aunt's soft cheek; whileMiss Stuart, who was indeed feeling the general oppressiveness of theweather, melted at once into a good humor and smiled at her niecetenderly.
Two persons were rather curiously watching this little scene from behindthe shelter of the morning papers. One of them, a very handsome elderlyman, seated at a table by the window, had started perceptibly when theparty entered the room; and from that moment, he had hardly eaten a biteof breakfast. He was occupied in examining not the fair young girls butMiss Sallie herself, who was entirely unconscious of being the object ofsuch scouting.
The other individual was quite different in appearance. He was dressedin black leather from head to foot, and a motor cap and glasses laybeside him on the table. His evident interest in the conversation of thegirls was impersonal, perhaps the curiosity of a foreigner in a strangecountry. There was some admiration in his eyes as they rested on prettyMollie's golden curls and fresh smiling face; but his manner wasperfectly respectful and he was careful to conceal his glances by thenewspaper.
"That man is rather good-looking in a foreign sort of way," whisperedMollie.
"Too much blacky face and shiny eye, to suit my taste," replied Bab. "Helooks like a pirate, or a smuggler, in that black leather suit."
"Dear me, you are severe, Bab," observed Ruth. "If he were not so young,I should take him for an opera singer on a vacation. He would do nicelydressed as a cavalier."
"Be careful, my dears; you are talking much too loudly," admonished MissSallie, for the young foreigner had evidently overheard theconversation, and had turned his face away to conceal an expression ofamusement.
"I vote we adjourn to the porch," said Ruth, "until we decide where weare going this morning. Come on, auntie, dear. There may be a rockingchair adventure waiting for you on that shady piazza. I saw a whitehaired gentleman giving you many glances of admiration, this morning,around the corner of his newspaper. Did you notice it, girls?"
"I did," replied Grace, somewhat hesitatingly, for she was just a littlefearful about entering into these teasing humors with Ruth.
"Don't be silly, Ruth," said Miss Sallie. But she glanced quickly overher shoulder, nevertheless, as she led the little procession from thedining room, her lavender muslin draperies floating in the breeze. Shestopped in the office and bought a newspaper, then proceeded to theshady piazza, where she seated herself in a rocking chair and unfoldedthe paper.
The girls leaned over the railing and looked down into the street, whileRuth expounded her views on their morning's ride.
"Suppose we have a lunch fixed up," she was saying, "and spend themorning at Sleepy Hollow? It's lovelier than anything you ever imagined,just what Washington Irving says of it, a place to dream in and seevisions."
A charming tenor voice floated out from an upper window, singing a songin some foreign language.
The girls looked at each other and laughed.
"He did hear us, and he is an opera singer," whispered Grace.
"I knew it," came Miss Sallie's voice from the depths of the paper.
"Knew what?" demanded the four girls somewhat guiltily, as the singingcontinued.
"Knew that we would all be cremated if we came into these dreadful wildregions," replied Miss Sallie, as she gazed tragically down the shadedstreet lined with beautiful old homes.
"But, Miss Sallie," interposed Barbara in soothing tones, "the fires areup in the Catskills and the Adirondacks, aren't they? It is only whenthe wind blows in this direction that we get the smoke from them. EvenNew York gets it, then; and certainly there is no danger of New Yorkburning up from the forest fires."
"Very well, my dears, if we do run into one of those shockingconflagrations, you may just recall my words to you this morning."
The girls all laughed, and there is nothing prettier than the sound ofthe light-hearted laughter of young girls; at least so thought the tall,military-looking man they had seen at breakfast. He had strolled out onthe piazza, and was walking straight toward Miss Sallie with an air ofdetermination that was unmistakable even to the stately lady inlavender.
A few feet from her chair he paused as if a sudden thought had arrestedhim, and the two looked straight into each other's faces for the spaceof half a minute. The girls were fairly dumb with amazement as theywatched the little drama. Miss Sallie's face had flushed and paledbefore it resumed its natural peachy tone. They could not see the faceof the stranger whose back was turned to them.
"Is it possible," asked Miss Sallie after a moment, in a strange voice,"that this is John Ten Eyck?"
She had risen from her chair, in her excitement, and the newspapers hadfallen on the floor with her lavender silk reticule, her fan andsmelling salts, her lace-edged handkerchief and spectacle case, all in aconfused mass.
"You have not forgotten me, Sallie?" the man demanded, almostdramatically. "I am John Ten Eyck, grown old and gray. I never dreamedthat any of my old friends would recognize me after all these years. Butare these your girls, Sallie?" he asked, turning with a courtly air tothe four young women.
"No, indeed, John," replied Miss Sallie, rather stiffly, "I have nevermarried. This is my niece, Ruth Stuart, my only brother's child." Andshe proceeded to introduce the others in turn. "Ruth, my child, this isMajor John Ten Eyck, an old friend of mine, whom I have not seen formany years. I suppose you have lived in foreign lands for so long youhave completely lost sight of your American friends."
"It has been a great many years," answered Major Ten Eyck, after he hadtaken each girl by the hand and had looked into her face with suchgentleness and charm of manner as to win them all completely. "It's beenthirty years, has it not, Sallie?"
"Don't ask me such a question, John Ten Eyck! I'm sure I have no desireto be reminded of how old we are growing. Do you know, you are actuallygetting fat and bald; and here I am with hair as white as snow."
"But your face is as young as ever, Sallie," declared the gallant major.
"Isn't it, Major Ten Eyck?" exclaimed Ruth, who had found her voice atlast. "She is just as pretty as she was thirty years ago, I am cert
ain.Papa says she is, at any rate."
"So she is, my dear," agreed the old man as he gazed with undisguisedadmiration into Miss Sallie's smiling face.
"Do sit down," said Miss Sallie, slightly confused, "and tell us whereyou have been, and what you have been doing these last three decades."
"It would take too long, I fear," replied the major, looking at hiswatch. "I am looking for my two nephews this morning."
"You mean Martin's sons, I suppose?" asked Miss Sallie.
"Yes, they are coming down to stay with me at my old place, back yonderin the hills. They are bringing one or two friends with them, and weshall motor over this afternoon if the weather permits. But tell me,what are you doing here? Spending the summer? Don't you find it a littledull, young ladies?"
"Oh, we are just on a motor trip, too," replied Ruth. "We are birds ofpassage, and stop only as long as it pleases us."
"And have you no men along, to look after you and protect you fromhighwaymen, or mend the tires when they are punctured?"
"My dear Major," replied Miss Sallie, "you have been away from Americafor so long that you are old-fashioned. Do you think these athleticyoung women need a man to protect them? I assure you that the world hasbeen changing while you have been burying yourself in Russia and Japan.Ruth, here, is as good a chauffeur as could be found, and BarbaraThurston can protect herself and us into the bargain. She rideshorseback like a man." Barbara blushed at the memory of the stolenhorseback ride on the way to Newport. "Grace and Mollie are a little bitmore old-fashioned, perhaps, and I am as helpless as ever. But two arequite enough. They have got us out of every scrape so far, the two ofthem."
The girls all laughed.
Only Barbara, who was leaning on the railing facing the window, saw afigure move behind the curtain, which had stood so still she had notnoticed it before.
"Since you are off on a sort of wild goose chase for amusement," beganthe major (here the figure that was slipping away paused again),"couldn't you confer a great honor and pleasure on an old man by makinghim a visit?"
"Oh!" cried the girls, breathless with delight, remembering theautomobile full of youths that would shortly appear.
"Now, Miss Sallie, you see they all want to come," continued the major."Don't, I beg of you, destroy their pleasure and my happiness bydeclining this request of my old age."
"Oh, do say yes, Aunt Sallie!" cried Ruth.
And still Miss Sallie hesitated. She had a curious smile on her face asshe looked out over the hills and meadows beyond.
"It's an interesting old place, Sallie," continued the major. "It wasbuilt by my Dutch ancestors, a charming old house that has been added tofrom time to time. I would like to see it full of young faces once more.What do you say, Sallie? Won't you make us all happy? The boys and me,and the girls, too? For I can see by their faces they are eager tocome."
"How far is it from here, John," asked Miss Sallie, doubtfully. "Is itanywhere near those dreadful forest fires?"
"It is fifteen miles back in the country, and I have heard no rumor ofany fires in that vicinity lately. The boys and I are leaving thisafternoon. We will see that everything is ship-shape, and you and thegirls could follow to-morrow. I have an excellent housekeeper. She andher husband were a young couple when I went away, and they have lived atthe place ever since. I am certain she can make you comfortable. I willgive Miss Ruth explicit directions about the route. It is a fairly goodroad for motoring. We have a fine place for dancing there, young ladies.There's a famous floor in what, in my grandmother's time, we used tocall the red drawing-room. There are dozens of places for picnics,pretty valleys and creeks that I explored and knew intimately in myyouth. I have some good horses in my stables, Miss Barbara, if you havea fancy for riding," he continued, turning to Barbara with such grace ofmanner that she blushed for pleasure.
Looking from one eager face to another, and finally into the major'skindly gray eyes, Miss Sallie melted into acquiescence and the party wasmade up forthwith.
The major then pointed out to Ruth and Barbara the street they were totake, which would lead to the road to his old home. He drew a map on apiece of paper, so that they could make no mistake.
"When you come to the crossroads," he added, as a parting caution, "takethe one with the bridge, which you can see beyond. The other road isroundabout and full of ruts besides."
Just then the horn of an automobile was heard, as a large touring carcontaining four young men and a deal of baggage, drew up in front of thehotel. At the same time, Barbara, who was still facing the window, sawthe figure on the other side of the curtain steal quietly away.
Major Ten Eyck went forward to meet the newcomers, and he and his twonephews had a little earnest conversation together for a few moments.The young men looked up, saw Miss Sallie and the girls, and all fourcaps came off simultaneously.
"Please don't go yet," called the major, as Miss Stuart rose to leave."I want to introduce the boys first."
Stephen and Martin Ten Eyck were handsome, sturdy youths, with clear cutfeatures. The two visitors were far different in type; one, AlfredMarsdale, a young English friend, who was spending the summer with theTen Eycks, and the other, Jimmie Butler, who seemed to have come fromnowhere in particular but to have been everywhere.
"And now come along, boys," urged the major, after he had given theyoung people a chance to talk a few minutes. "These ladies want theirride, I know, and we must be off for the hall before it gets too hot forendurance."
With a last caution to Ruth about the proper road to Ten Eyck Hall, anda reminder to Miss Stuart not to break her promise, the major usheredhis boys into the hotel office, while "The Automobile Girls" went up totheir rooms.
"Isn't this perfectly jolly, girls?" called Ruth from the mirror as shepinned on her hat.
"De-lighted!" exclaimed Barbara and Mollie, joining the others.
"And listen, girlies, dear! Did you scent a romance?" whispered Ruth.
"It certainly looked very much like one," replied Barbara.
"They were engaged once," continued Ruth, "but they had some sort oflovers' quarrel. The poor major tried to make it up, but Aunt Salliewouldn't forgive him, and he went away and never came back, except forflying trips on business. Until to-day she has never seen or heard fromhim."
"But she must have cared some, because she didn't marry anyone else,"observed Mollie reflectively.
"I wonder what he did," pondered Grace.
"Flirted with another girl," answered Ruth. "Papa has often told meabout it. Aunt Sallie had another lover, at the same time, who was veryrich. She kept the two of them dangling on, and it was because she wentdriving with the other lover that Major Ten Eyck paid devoted attentionto some other girl, one night at a ball. So they quarreled andseparated."
"Poor old major!" sighed tender-hearted Mollie.
"But she _did_ have her rocking chair adventure after all," laughedBarbara, as they started downstairs in obedience to Miss Sallie's tap afew moments before.
The lovely vistas of valley and river, with intersecting hills, weresoftened into dream pictures by a transparent curtain of mist, which hidthe parched look of the foliage from the long drought.
The five automobilists sped along over smooth roads between splendidestates. Most of the great houses were screened by stretches of thicklywooded parks, and each park was guarded by a lodge, after the Englishfashion. But there were plenty of charming old houses in full view ofthe passerby--rambling, comfortable homes set down on smooth lawns.
"How beautiful all this is!" sighed Mollie, as she leaned back in herseat and gazed down the long avenue of trees.
"Yes," called Ruth over her shoulder. "I took the longest way to thechurch, because this road is so pretty."
"Here's the lane to Sleepy Hollow," cried the ever-watchful Barbara, andthe automobile turned into a country road that appeared to lead off intolow-lying hills beyond.
"What is that cloud of dust behind us," demanded Miss Sallie, lookingback.
"It's
a man on a motor cycle," replied Grace. "He is turning in here,too, but he is slowing up. I suppose he doesn't want to give us adusting. Rather nice of him, isn't it?"
"Fancy a motor cycle and a headless horseman riding in the same lane,"observed Ruth.
"Well, if it came to a race," replied Barbara, "I think I would take themotor cycle. They do go like the wind."
"And the noise of them is so terrifying," went on Ruth, "that the poorheadless horseman would probably have been scared back to death again."
Presently the girls came to a steep declivity in the land that seemed todip and rise with equal suddenness.
"Is this the Hollow?" asked Mollie a little awed.
"This land is full of hollows, my dear," answered Miss Sallie, who didnot like uneven traveling. "We have been through several already, and,with that hobgoblin on an infernal machine coming after us, and allthese dense forests packing us in on every side, and nothing but alonesome churchyard in front of us, it seems to me we should havebrought along some better protectors than two slips of girls."
Here Miss Sallie paused in order to regain breath.
"I declare," exclaimed Ruth, "I don't know which one of these roadsleads to the churchyard. Of course we can explore both of them, but wedon't want to miss seeing the old church, and we certainly don't want tomiss lunch. It will be so cheerful picnicking in a graveyard."
The automobile stopped and the motor cycle, catching up with them justthen, stopped also. The rider put his foot down to steady himself, andremoving his black leather cap and glasses, bowed courteously to MissStuart.
"Is Madame looking for the ancient church?" he asked, in very excellentEnglish with just a touch of accent.
The five women remembered, at once, that this was the stranger whom theyhad lately seen at breakfast. From closer quarters they saw that he wasgood-looking, not with the kind of looks they were accustomed to admire,but still undeniably handsome. His features had rather a haughty turn tothem, and his black eyes had a melancholy look; but even the heavyleather suit he wore could not hide the graceful slenderness of hisfigure.
"Yes; we were looking for the church," replied Miss Sallie in a somewhatmollified tone, considering she had just called him a hobgoblin on aninfernal machine. "Will you be good enough to tell us which one of theseroads we must take?"
"If you will follow me," answered the stranger, "I also am going there.You will pardon me if I go in front? If you will wait a moment I willget somewhat ahead, so that madame and the other ladies will not bedusted."
"I must say he is rather a polite young man," admitted Miss Sallie, "ifhe is somewhat rapid in his movements."
"He is curiously good-looking," reflected Ruth. "Not exactly our kind, Ishould say; but, after all, he may be just foreign and different. Justbecause he is not an American type doesn't keep him from being nice."
All the time the foliage was getting more impenetrable. Tall treesreared themselves on either side of the road, seeming vanguards of theforests behind them. A cool, woodsy breeze touched their cheeks softly,and Barbara closed her eyes for a moment that she might feel theenchantment of the place.
"How many Dutch burghers and their wives must have driven up this samegrassy road," she was thinking to herself. "How many wedding parties andfuneral trains, too, for here is their graveyard. No wonder a travelerimagined he saw ghosts on this lonely road, with nothing but a cemeteryand an old church to cheer him on his way. And here is our auto runningin the very same ruts their funny old carriages and rockaways must havemade, and this stranger in front of us on something queerer still. Iwonder if ghosts of the future will ride in phantom autos or on motorcycles. What a fearful sight! A headless man on an infernal machine----"
Her reflections were interrupted by the turning around of theautomobile. Ruth had evidently decided to go back by the way they hadcome. Opening her eyes she saw before her a quaint and charming oldchurch set in the midst of a rambling graveyard.
There also stood the black cyclist, like a gruesome sentinel among thetombs. He lifted his cap as they drew up, and, after hesitating amoment, came forward to open the door and help Miss Sallie alight.
"Permit me, Madam," he said, with such grace of demeanor that the ladythanked him almost with effusion. Grace and Mollie were assisted as ifthey had been princesses of the blood, as they described it later, whilethe other two girls leaped to the ground before he had time to make anyovertures in their direction.
There was rather an awkward pause, for a moment, as the stranger, withuncovered head, stood aside to let them pass. The silence was not brokenand Miss Stuart chose to let it remain so.
"One cannot be too careful," she had always said, "of chanceacquaintances, especially men." However, she was predisposed in favor ofthe cyclist, whose manners were exceptional.
The girls were strolling about among the graves, examining the stoneswith their quaint epitaphs, while the stranger leaned against a tree andlit a cigarette.
Miss Stuart, with her lorgnette, was making a survey of the church.
"From the account of the supper party at the Van Tassels' in SleepyHollow," said Ruth, "the early Dutch must have just about eatenthemselves to death. Do you remember all the food there was piled on thetable at the famous quilting party? Every kind of cake known to man, tobegin with; or rather, Washington Irving began with cakes. Roast fowlsand turkeys, hams and sausages, puddings and pies and the hummingtea-urn in the midst of it."
"I don't think the women had such big appetites as the men," observedMollie. "At least Katrina Van Tassel is described as being very dainty,and I can't imagine a pretty young girl working straight through such abill of fare, and yet looking quite the same ever after."
"But remember that they took lots of exercise," put in Barbara, "of akind we know nothing about. All the Dutch girls were taught to scrub andpolish and clean."
"What were we doing when Ruth and Miss Sallie and Mr. Stuart arrived,Bab, I'd like to know?" interrupted Mollie indignantly. "Weren't werubbing the parlor furniture and polishing the floor?"
"Yes," returned Barbara, "but you could put our entire house down in theparlor of one of those old Dutch farm houses, and still have room and tospare."
"And think of all the copper kettles they had to keep polished," addedGrace.
"And the spinning they had to do," said Ruth.
"And the cooking and butter making," continued Bab. "Yes, MistressMollie, I think there's some excuse for sausages and all the rest. And Iam sure I could have forgiven Katrina if she ate everything in sight."
"Ah, well," replied Mollie, "no doubt she was fat at thirty!"