CHAPTER XIX
A DISCUSSION
August was over and our girls were not sorry. The camp had been like anant hill all during that month of holidays. Not that it had been a monthof holidays for the Carters, far from it. There had been times when theydid not see how they could accomplish the work they had undertaken. Theywere two hands short almost all of the month which made the work fallvery heavily on the ones who were left. Gwen was taken up with AuntMandy, the kind old mountain woman who had been so good to the littleEnglish orphan. Now that Aunt Mandy was ill, Gwen felt it her duty to bewith her day and night. Susan was so busy waiting on Mrs. Carter thatshe never had time for her regular duties in the kitchen.
Lewis and Bill were terribly missed. They had done so many things forthe campers, had been so strong and willing and untiring in theirservice that the girls felt the place could hardly be run without them.Skeeter and Frank did all they could but they were but slips of ladsafter all and there were many things where a man's strength wasnecessary.
Mr. Carter was glad to help when he was called on, but he did not seemto see the things that were to be done without having them pointed out.When there was much of a crowd he rather shrank from the noise and thegirls felt they must not let him be made nervous by the confusion. Ofcourse there was much confusion when twenty and more boarders wouldarrive at once, have to be hauled up the mountain and assigned tentroom and then as Oscar would say, "have to be filled up." The girlswould do much giggling and screaming; the young men would laugh agreat deal louder than their jokes warranted, and the boys seemed tothink that camp was a place especially designed for practical jokes.
It was a common thing to hear shrieks from the tents when the crowdwas finally made to retire by the chaperone, and then the cry, "Ouch!Chestnut burrs in my bed!" Once it was a lemon meringue pie, brought allthe way from Richmond by an inveterate joker who felt that a certainyouth was too full of himself and needed taking down a peg! Now there isnothing much better than a lemon meringue pie taken internally, but ofall the squashy abominations to find in one's bed and to have appliedexternally, a lemon meringue pie is the worst.
It was as a censor of practical jokes that Douglas and Helen missed theyoung soldiers most. They had been wont to stand just so much and nomore from the wild Indians who came to Camp Carter for the week-end, andnow that there was no one to reach forth a restraining hand, there wasno limit to the pranks that were played.
Mrs. Carter felt that the job of chaperone for such a crowd wascertainly no sinecure. She complained quite bitterly of her duties.After all, they consisted of having the new-comers introduced to herand of presiding at supper and of staying in the pavilion until bedtime. Miss Elizabeth Somerville had made nothing of it, and onememorable night when there was too much racket going on from the tentsthe boys occupied, she had arisen from her bed in the cabin and, wrappedin a dressing gown and armed with an umbrella, had marched to the seatof war and very effectively quelled the riot by laying about her withsaid umbrella.
The girls looked back on her reign, regretting that it was over. It waslovely to have their mother with them again but she was quite differentfrom the mother they had known in Richmond in the luxurious days. Thatmother had always been gentle while this one had a little sharp note toher voice that was strange to them. It was most noticeable when she hadexpressed some desire that was not immediately gratified.
"I am quite tired of chicken," she said to Douglas one day. "I wish youwould order some sweetbreads for me. I need building up. This roughlife is very hard on me and nothing but my being very unselfish anddevoted makes me put up with it."
"Yes, mother! I am sorry, but my order for this week is in the mail andI could not change it now, but I will send a special order for someTexas sweetbreads to Charlottesville. I have no doubt I can get themthere."
Either the order or the sweetbreads went astray. Mrs. Carter refused toeat any dinner in consequence and sulked a whole day.
"If she only doesn't complain to father we can stand it," Douglasconfided to Nan. "What are we going to do, Nan? I am so afraid she willmake father feel he must go back to work, and then all the good of therest will be done away with. She treats me, somehow, as though it wereall my fault."
"Oh no, honey, you mustn't feel that way. Poor little mumsy is justspoiled to death and does not know how to adapt herself to this changeof fortune."
"You see, Nan, now that Mr. Lane has had to go to Texas with themilitia the business is at a standstill. He was trying to fill theorders they had on their books without father's help."
"Yes, Mr. Tucker said that father's business was a one man affair andwhen that one man, father, was out of the running there was nothing todo about it. Thank goodness, father is not worrying about thingshimself."
"I know we should be thankful, but somehow his not worrying makes itjust so much more dreadful. I feel that he is even more different thanmother. It is an awful problem--what to do."
"What's a problem?" asked Helen, coming suddenly into the tent where hersisters were engaged in the above conversation.
"Oh, just--just--nothing much!" faltered Douglas.
"Now that's a nice way to treat a partner. You and Nan are alwaysgetting off and whispering together and not letting me in on it. What'sworrying you?"
"The situation!"
"Political or climatic?"
"Carteratic!" drawled Nan. "We were talking about mother and father."
"What about them? Is father worse?" Helen was ever on the alert when herfather's well-being was in question.
"No, he is better in some ways, but unless he is kept free from worry hewill never be well," said Douglas solemnly.
She had not broached the subject of money with Helen since the questionof White Sulphur had been discussed by them, feeling that Helen wouldnot or could not understand.
"Who's going to worry him? Not I!"
"Of course not you. Just the lack of money is going to worry him, and heis going to feel the lack of it if mother wants things and can't havethem."
"Why don't you let her have them?"
"How can I? I haven't the wherewithal any more than you."
"I thought we were making money."
"So we are, but not any great amount. I think it is wonderful that wehave been able to support ourselves and put anything in the bank. I hadto draw out almost all of our earnings to pay for the things motherbought in New York, not that I wasn't glad to do it, but that means wehave not so much to go on for the winter."
"Oh, for goodness' sake don't be worrying about the winter now! Mothersays our credit is so good we need not worry a bit."
Douglas and Nan looked at each other sadly. Douglas turned away with a"what's the use" expression. Helen looked a little defiant as she sawher sister's distress.
"See here, Helen!" and this time Nan did not drawl. Helen realized herlittle sister was going to say something she must listen to. "You havegot a whole lot of sense but you have got a whole lot to learn. I knowyou are going to laugh at me for saying you have got to learn a lot thatI, who am two years younger than you, already know. You have got tolearn that our poor little mumsy's judgment is not worth that," and Nansnapped her finger.
"Nan! You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
"Well, I am ashamed of myself, but I am telling the truth. I don't seethe use in pretending any more about it. I love her just as much, butanyone with half an eye can see it. I think what we must do is to faceit and then tactfully manage her."
Douglas and Helen could not help laughing at Nan.
"You see," she continued, "it is up to us to support the family somehowand make mumsy comfortable and keep her from telling father that shehasn't got all she wants. Of course she can't have all she wants, butshe can be warm and fed at least."
"But, Nan, it isn't up to you to support the family," said Douglas. "Youmust go back to school, you and Lucy."
"Well, it is up to me to spend just as little money as possible and toearn some if I can. I am not going to
be a burden on you and Helen. Youneedn't think it."
"We'll have the one hundred from the rent of the house and then Helenand I shall have to find jobs. What, I don't know."
"Well, I, for one, can't find a job until I get some new clothes,"declared Helen. "I haven't a thing that is not hopelessly out of style."
"Can't your last winter's suit be done over? Mine can."
"Now, Douglas, what's the use in going around looking like a frump? Ithink we should all of us get some new clothes and then waltz in and getgood jobs on the strength of them. If I were employing girls I shouldcertainly choose the ones who look the best."
Douglas shook her head sadly. Helen was Helen and there was no makingher over. She would have to learn her lesson herself and there was noteaching her.
"Dr. Wright says we must keep father out of the city this winter but weneed not be in the dead country. We can get a little house on the edgeof town so Nan and Lucy can go in to school. I think we can get along onthe rent from the house if you and I can make something besides."
When the question of where they were to live for the winter was broachedto Mrs. Carter, she was taken quite ill and had to stay in bed a wholeday.
"No one considers me at all," she whimpered to Nan, who had brought hera tray with some tea and toast for her luncheon. "Just because you andDouglas like the country you think it is all right. I am sure I shalldie in some nasty little frame cottage in the suburbs. It is ridiculousthat we cannot turn those wretched people out of my house and let me goback and live in it again."
"But, mumsy," soothed Nan, "we are going to make you very comfortableand we will find a pretty house and maybe it will be brick."
"But to dump me down in the suburbs when I have had to be away fromsociety for all these months as it is! I am sure if I could talk it overwith your father he would agree with me--but you girls even coerce me inwhat I shall and shall not say to my own husband. I do not intend tosubmit to it any longer."
"Oh, mother, please--please don't tell father. Dr. Wright says----"
"Don't tell me what Dr. Wright says! I am bored to death with what hesays. I know he has been kind but I can't see that our affairs must beindefinitely directed by him. I will sleep a little now if you will letme be quiet."