CHAPTER II
HER MOTHER'S BOOKS
At the door of the recitation room, Janet met her room-mate Lina Marcy,but as neither had a moment to spare, Janet did not mention her latestsource of thrills. The teacher already had her roll book open and wasmarking it. She looked impatiently at the girls as they entered andtook their regular seats, not together, for the class was seatedalphabetically. Lina and Janet exchanged a glance which meant "beware".This particular teacher was temperamental.
Lina was opening her book to refresh herself on the lines which theywere to commit. What a poky day it was, to be sure, she was thinking.Even the April fool jokes were stupid.
Janet could scarcely collect her thoughts, so busy was she in thinkingabout the address on the box. "'Jannetje'!--how quaint!" By the "ironyof fate", as Lina told her later, she must, of course be called onfirst for the verses. Called back in her thoughts to the work at hand,Janet hesitated, started correctly on the first few lines, but soonstumbled and forgot the last half altogether.
The teacher looked surprised, an unintentional tribute to Janet's usualform. But hands were waving and some one else gave the lines wanted.Lina gave Janet a sympathetic look, which Janet did not even see.Something even bigger than making a perfect recitation was looming inJanet's foreground. When at last the recitation was over, she ranupstairs to the box. Of course the "je" was a sort of affectionateaddition, a diminutive they called it, she believed. Was it really hername? _Was_ she a Van Meter? Who was P.V.M.? P. Van Meter, of course.Suppose she had a grandfather,--or even a grandmother that she did notknow!
It took only a few moments to open the box, for she cut the heavy cordto facilitate the matter. White tissue paper met her eye, and a littlenote lay on top, that is, something enclosed in a small white envelope.Janet opened it and read--
My dear Miss Jannetje:
I am asked to write a few lines to explain this box. Your uncle, Mr. Pieter Van Meter, is in communication with your attorney and you may have heard before this how he has discovered you and wants to see you.
As he asked me to prepare such a box as school girls like, I have prepared the contents accordingly and I hope that you will like it. I am wrapping, also, two books that were among your mother's things, because I feel sure that you will be interested in seeing something of hers right away that was in the old home place. In one of them I have tucked a note evidently written by your father about you to your grandfather. Of course you know that you were named for your mother, but you will be glad to read about it in your father's handwriting.
May it not be long before we see you in this odd but beautiful old place that was your grandfather's.
Sincerely yours, Diana Holt.
Janet devoured this note rapidly. "Now, who can Diana Holt be?" shethought. She could scarcely wait to see the books, but they were not ontop. Instead, Janet uncovered a smaller box which contained a cakecarefully packed. Packages in oiled paper or light pasteboardcontainers obviously held a variety of good things, from fried chickento pickles and fruit. Ordinarily Janet would have exclaimed over thearray, which she carefully deposited together upon her table, afterfirst removing certain books and papers and spreading the first thingthat she could think of over it. This chanced to be a clean towel.
At last she came to the books, wrapped well in paper and pasteboard.Truly Miss or Mrs. Diana Holt was a good packer.
The prettier or newer book Janet opened first. It was a handsome copyof Tennyson's poems, bound in green and gilt. At once she turned to theleaf on which the inscription was written, "To my Jannetje, fromDouglas".
There, too, was the note, addressed to "Dear Father." It was brief."You received my telegram. I am sure. Jannet sends her dear love. Wehave named the baby for her, because I begged for the name. I will havemore time to write to-morrow. Jannet wants me to write every day, butyou will be quite as pleased, I think, with less frequent reports.There will be the three of us to come home next summer."
Janet noted her father's more or less familiar signature. She had seenmore than one of his letters to her grandmother. "And I suppose that Inever got there at all. How did they lose me, I wonder? Why didn'tGrandmother Eldon leave me some word about my mother?"
Such were Janet's thoughts. But there was nobody to tell her how it hadhappened. In some way her mother's people had lost all track of her.The wonder was that her uncle had found trace of her after so long. Heruncle Pieter! How interesting to have kept the old Dutch spelling. Shewould sign all her papers and letters now with two n's in Jannet!
The other book was more plain, also a book of poems, a copy ofWhittier's verse; and the inscription upon the fly-leaf interestedJanet even more than the other. It was to "my dear Mother, Adelaide VanMeter, from her loving daughter, Jannetje Jan Van Meter Eldon."
It was true, then. Here was the evidence. What a pretty, clear hand hermother had. A little pang went through Janet's heart that she could nothave known her parents, but she resisted any sad thought, saying toherself that she ought to be thankful to know at last who her motherwas. The last doubt in Janet's heart was satisfied. Knowing one or twosad stories in the lives of a few girls at the school, she had wonderedif, possibly, there had been any separation, some unhappy ending to themarriage of her father and mother. This she had never expressed, but ithad haunted her a little. At the date of her birth it had been allright, then, and she knew that she was only five or six months old whenher father had brought her to his mother. She would find her mother'sgrave, perhaps.
There was much to be explained yet, to be sure, if it could be, butJanet was very happy as she now gave her attention to the discardedfeast packing its units back into the box with some satisfaction. JanetEldon had had feasts before, but the materials had all been purchasedat some shop. After dinner she would get permission from Miss Hilliard,when she showed her the books and notes.
Now there was laughter in the hall. She heard Lina's voice and hastenedto unlock her door. Could it be possible that she had spent all Lina'slesson period in looking at the books, reading the letters and thinking?
"'Lo, Janet," said Allie May Loring, walking in ahead of Lina Marcy."Get your box?"
"Yes, Allie May, a scrumptious box like anybody's. My mother's peoplehave discovered my existence at last. Really, Lina. Somebody at the OLDHOME PLACE fixed up the box for me, and they sent me two books of mymother's. Just think, girls, I was named for her and everything. I'drather you would not speak about it to the other girls, though. Italways embarrassed me a little, you know, that I did not know anythingabout my mother, but you see, Grandmother Eldon died before I was oldenough to ask very much about it. I called her Mamma at first; then shewas so very sick and for so _long_." Janet paused a moment.
"Really, girls, this has been about the only home that I have known,this and your house, Lina."
The other two girls had sat down to listen quietly. Allie May was thefirst to speak. "I never would have thought anything about your notknowing about your mother. You always seemed perfectly natural abouteverything, Janet."
"Did I? I'm glad."
"You are a little more--what does Miss Hilliard call it?--reserved,with all the girls, than some of us," said Lina. "She tells us not totell all we know, and you don't!"
Allie May and Janet laughed at this. "Miss Hilliard's brought me up,you know," smiled Janet. "I can remember yet crying for 'Gramma' andhaving her comfort me. Then came your auntie to teach here, Lina,--andI was fixed!"
"I can remember how crazy I was to see you, Janet," said Lina. "Iwasn't allowed to come here until I was twelve, Allie May; and Auntietold me all about the 'darling child with the golden hair' that tookpiano lessons of her and practiced away so hard with fat littlefingers. She said she wanted to hug you every other minute, but had toteach you piano instead. Your fingers aren't
fat now, Janet."
"When did you first see Janet?" asked Allie May, interested.
"The first time that Aunt Adeline brought her home with her. MissHilliard used to look after her the first two or three vacations. Youweren't with her all the time, though, were you, Janet?"
"Just part of the time. She had my old nurse that took care of me whileGrandmother was sick, and we'd go to the seashore, or somewhere in themountains. But Miss Hilliard kept an eye on me. I never can pay herback, or your Aunt Adeline either."
"You'll never need to. Just having you in the family is enough. Butwon't it be wonderful to have some kin folks? Tell us about it, Janet."
Janet then handed the girls the books and read them the letters,pledging them again to secrecy, for she did not want to have the fiftygirls talking over her private affairs. Like Janet, her friends weremore interested in the surprising facts which she had to tell than inthe good things in the box, though when she showed them the cake withits white frosting and unwrapped the pieces of chicken from the oiledpaper, offering them their choice, there were some exclamations ofpleasure. "That is a family worth having!" said Allie May. "No, Janet,I'd rather eat a good dinner and then when I am starved as usual afterstudying come to your feast."
"Whom are you going to invite, Janet?"
"I want to take something to your aunt, Lina, and to Miss Hilliard, anddo you think it would be very piggy just to have this by ourselves?Some way, I don't want anybody much right now, and I just had a partyof our crowd last Saturday, you know."
"Suits me," laughed Allie May.
"It wouldn't be 'piggy' at all, Janet," asserted Lina. "I know how youmust feel,--sort of dazed, aren't you?"
Janet nodded assent. "I'll let you know when, after I talk to MissHilliard. I am to see her after dinner."
But when Janet asked Miss Hilliard she was asked in turn if she hadever attended a late feast in the school. To this question Janet gavean honest reply. "Why, yes, Miss Hilliard."
"Then you were either invited without my knowledge by one of the oldergirls or attended a feast held without permission, though I shouldscarcely think that you knew it, Janet, and I shall not ask you now.No, to-morrow is Saturday, fortunately. It is cool and your box cameright through. You may put the chicken in the refrigerator if you like.Have your party at any time on Saturday you like before evening."
There was so much of greater importance waiting to be discussed thatJanet did not feel much disappointment. She did have one thought,though, expressed to Lina later. "Won't it be fine to go to a homewhere you do about as you please, the way it is at your house?"
But Lina reminded Janet that even there, late refreshments were notencouraged.
Miss Hilliard did not disappoint Janet in any other way. She waspleased that the note of explanation was so cordial. "I should say thata woman of some intelligence wrote that kind note," she said. "It mustbe a satisfaction to you, too, Janet, that you are named for yourmother. Perhaps there will be some pictures of her in the Van Meterhome. I know how you have wished to see some."
"Oh, there will be!" Janet exclaimed. "I had not thought of that!"
"We shall be expecting news direct from your uncle, then. When yourgrandmother first wrote to me, urging me to take you at a time when theonly small girls were day scholars, she said that your mother was of afine family in the east and that your father, her son, was ill when hebrought you to her. Does this depress you, Janet?" Miss Hilliard hadnoticed that Janet seemed touched when she first showed her the booksand names.
"Oh, no, Miss Hilliard. My father and mother are like beautiful dreamsto me. This makes them a little more real,--that is all, and I felt alittle 'teary' when I read my father's letter."
"I will try to find that old correspondence. I must have kept it, Ithink, though when you first came, we were expecting nothing like yourgrandmother's sudden death. I understood that she was an invalid, butwith some ailment that could be cured in time."
"And I have forgotten so much, except the fact that I did not know myown mother's name!"
"You should have told me, if that troubled you, Janet. I will ask MissMarcy, who wrote about you to your grandmother, I think, what she knowsabout those early circumstances. Have you been happy here, Janet?"
"Oh, you know, Miss Hilliard, don't you, how I have been so glad foryou and Miss Marcy and all my friends?"
"Yes, Janet. You have always been more than appreciative."
On the next day, Janet, Lina and Allie May made a lunch out of theirparty, by Miss Hilliard's suggestion, and it was almost as much fun asa late feast. As it happened, it was well that they had their fun earlyin the afternoon, for about three o'clock Janet was sent for. There wasa gentleman waiting for her, the maid said.