UNDER THE SYCAMORE
The Hinham girls had brought the pair of bantams they promised Roxy, and
Dulcie took charge of them with many exclamations of admiration and
approval, as much pleased as Roxy herself, and said they should have a
yard and house to themselves not too far from the kitchen for her to
keep an eye on them.
Roxy, looking admiringly at the white dresses of her little visitors,
again decided that Jasmine and Myrtle and Ivy were the prettiest little
girls she had ever seen.
“Our mother came home from Sharpsburg this morning, and she brought each
one of us a ring!” said the smiling Jasmine, and each of the sisters
held out their left hand; on each tiny forefinger shone a chased gold
ring.
“Oh! And my grandmother gave me one yesterday! Look!” exclaimed the
delighted Roxy; and when it was discovered that her ring was exactly the
same pattern as Jasmine’s, Grandma Miller smilingly explained it by
saying that she had purchased Roxy’s ring in Sharpsburg, and that
probably all the rings came from the same shop.
“There’s a secret about our rings,” Jasmine whispered to Roxy. “Every
time we look at them we are to remember something.”
“And I have to remember something every time I look at mine!” declared
Roxy, wishing that she knew what Jasmine’s secret was. The two girls
smiled at each other thinking it very remarkable that not only their
rings were alike but that each of them had a secret.
“Perhaps some day you can tell me what your ring means,” suggested Roxy.
“I’d just as soon tell you that Grandmother gave me my ring so I would
remember to keep promises and not to get angry. You see,” Roxy continued
soberly, “I get angry before I know it,” and she looked at Jasmine as if
expecting her new friend to be greatly surprised; but Jasmine nodded and
smiled as if she had heard the best of news.
“Oh, Roxy! That’s just what I do!” she confessed, and at this they both
began laughing so that Myrtle and Ivy ran toward them to know what the
fun was about. But the two older girls decided to keep this for their
special secret.
While the little girls amused themselves Roland had been telling Mrs.
Delfield of the news that his mother and father had brought from
Sharpsburg: of the battle of Malvern Hill where General McClellan had
repulsed an attack by the Confederates.
“General Lee retreated toward Richmond,” said Roland, “and my father
said there were rumors that General Lee might march on to Washington.”
“That would mean bringing the war into Maryland,” responded Mrs.
Delfield, and Roxy wondered if that would not mean also that her father
would come.
Roland said it was time for them to start for home, and no more was said
of war. Roxy found a chance to tell Jasmine something of the birthday
party as she bade her good-bye, and promised to see her on the following
day.
As Roxy stood looking after the phaeton she happened to glance down and
exclaimed:
“Oh! My dress is all gray and my stockings too!” and she suddenly
realized that her blue-checked gingham was dirty, that her hair was
untidy, and that it was the second time the little Hinham girls had seen
her in that condition. “And they are always in perfectly clean white
dresses, and look just right,” she whispered to herself, and now made a
resolve that the next time the little Hinham girls saw her she would be
as neatly dressed as it was possible for a girl to be.
Mr. and Mrs. Greaves and the Hinhams all accepted Roxy’s invitation to
come to the surprise party for Grandmother Miller’s birthday, and
Polly’s mother and father also promised to attend, and for the week
following the fishing excursion Roxy was very busy. Mrs. Delfield and
Dulcie were taken into the secret, and if Grandma Miller sometimes
wondered at Dulcie’s chuckles and mysterious nods and winks over her
cake-baking she did not really imagine the reason.
Every day Roxy was busy from early morning until late in the afternoon,
either at work with scissors and water-color paints, or running down to
the big sycamore to plan just where the tent should stand, and decide on
the best place for Grandma Miller.
“There ought to be a special seat for Grandma,” she said on the day
before the party, as she and her mother walked up the path to the
sycamore.
“Of course,” Mrs. Delfield agreed; “and if it was right here against the
tree she could see the guests as they came up the path and be ready to
welcome them. We could make a seat of moss.”
“So we could!” exclaimed Roxy. “There’s quantities of nice gray moss
along the ledges and under the beech trees! Can’t we make it now,
Mother?”
“Of course we can,” said Mrs. Delfield, and they at once started off up
the pasture slope and gathered armfuls of the clean gray moss from the
ledges and under the beech trees and heaped it up to make a comfortable
seat under the sycamore; and when they had finished Roxy felt she could
hardly wait for the next morning to come when Polly and her father were
to put up a small white tent for the circus.
The morning of July twentieth was clear and pleasant, and Roxy was up at
an early hour and ran to her grandma’s room to wish her a happy
birthday. At breakfast time Mrs. Delfield gave her mother a pretty lace
collar, and Roxy presented her with a frilled white apron that she had
made, and Mrs. Miller declared that it was the happiest birthday
breakfast she had ever had.
“But I can’t imagine what ails Dulcie this morning,” she said. “She has
been talking to herself and chuckling as if something wonderful was
about to happen!”
It was difficult for Roxy to keep quiet, and as soon as breakfast was
over she ran up to her room for the boxes that held the paper animals
and then hurried off toward the sycamore where she found Polly and Mr.
Lawrence awaiting her. Mr. Lawrence had brought the white canvas tent
and set it up on the smooth field just beyond the big tree.
It was not a very large tent, and the girls decided to leave one side
open.
“Then everyone can see in,” said Roxy. Mr. Lawrence set two flat boxes
at the closed end of the tent, and Polly and Roxy brought ferns and wild
flowers and fastened them over the rough sides and ends, leaving the
tops of the boxes uncovered; for the paper animals were to be set out in
a “procession.”
After Mr. Lawrence had set the boxes in the tent he bade the girls
good-bye, promising to return in the afternoon, and now Roxy and Polly
set to work on the circus that was to entertain Grandmother Miller and
her birthday guests.
The big elephants were to lead the procession, and following these came
four camels, several lions and tigers, zebras, a number of ostrich, and
then a group of monkeys. Beside all these Roxy had cut out and colored
several parrots, a bird of paradise and two peacocks with wide-spreading
tails.
“We might fix a tree for the birds,” suggested Polly; and they made a
fairy-like tree from the stout green brakes that grew near the brook. On
the top of this tree they fixed the parrots, while the peacocks were
placed at the foot.
When it was all arranged the circus made a very attractive sight, and
the two girls gazed at it admiringly.
“Roxy! It would be a good idea for you to dress up and be the manager of
the show, and tell where all the animals were captured. That ‘Animal
Book’ tells, doesn’t it?” said Polly, her blue eyes eager at the thought
of an added interest for Roxy’s “circus.”
Roxy jumped about, delighted at this suggestion.
“What will I dress up in, Polly?” she asked.
For a moment Polly did not answer; then she said:
“There are some things in our attic that will be just what we want.
There is a tall white hat, and a long blue coat with big brass buttons!
And, Roxy! We can make whiskers and a moustache for you out of yarn and
tie them on. Then you must have a long stick and stand here,” and Polly
placed herself at one end of the procession of animals, “and you must
begin like this: ‘Ladies and gentlemen. First come the largest elephants
in the world. I captured them in Africa——’”
“Oh, Polly! Polly!” shouted Roxy, hardly able to speak because of
laughter, “that will be splendid.”
“You must be serious and not laugh, remember!” Polly warned her. “I’ll
go home now and get the things. We must have everything ready by three
o’clock.”
It was nearly noon when Roxy returned home and whispered to Dulcie that
she must be sure to have the birthday cake at the big sycamore by four
o’clock, and Dulcie chuckling with delight promised to be in good time.
As soon as dinner was over Mrs. Delfield reminded her mother that they
were to go for a drive, and had better start at once; and Mrs. Miller
was surprised to find that her white horse was already harnessed to the
tall buggy and at the door, and with a smiling word to Roxy, Mrs.
Delfield helped her mother into the carriage and they drove off.
And now Roxy ran up to her own room quickly followed by Dulcie with a
big pitcher of hot water.
“W’ile yo’ is a bathin’ I’ll fetch yo’ white muslin dress. De ruffles
all sets out as fine as kin be,” said Dulcie.
“And bring my bronze slippers and blue sash,” called Roxy, for she was
resolved that to-day the little Hinham girls should see her in a dress
as white as their own.
“Of course I’ll have to cover it all up for the circus, but when they
come they’ll see me looking just as nice as they look themselves,” she
thought, as she brushed her wavy brown hair until it crinkled and shone,
and when Dulcie had tied it with a wide blue ribbon and fastened Roxy’s
sash she exclaimed admiringly:
“Yo’ suttin’ly do look fine, Missy Roxy. Yo’ looks jes’ as if yo’ might
a bin born in Marylan’! Yo’ sho’ does!” And Dulcie was sure no one could
expect or receive higher praise than this. “Now step keerful, chile!”
she warned the little girl, as Roxy put on a pretty leghorn hat trimmed
with blue flowers, and started off for the sycamore.
Mrs. Delfield had promised to bring Grandma Miller to the big tree at
exactly three o’clock, and at that time everything was in readiness.
The guests had been told to follow the path leading from the stone
bridge beside the brook, and Polly, wearing a blue dimity dress with
white collar and sash, and Roxy were ready to meet and welcome them and
lead them to the seat where Grandma Miller would receive them.
The guests, however, all arrived before Grandma Miller; and when Roxy
led her up the path followed by Mrs. Delfield and Polly, and the smiling
group greeted her with a chorus of “Happy birthday,” she was as much
surprised as Roxy had expected her to be, and seated herself on the
cushion-like moss declaring that it was well worth while to be sixty
years old to have so glorious a birthday.
The tent was behind the tree and had not been noticed by anyone but
Roland, and when Roxy and Polly suddenly disappeared Roland was the only
one who suspected that a real surprise was in store for the members of
the birthday party.
It was Polly who announced the “circus.” Making a pretty curtsy to Mrs.
Miller and then to the guests, she said:
“In honor of Mrs. Miller’s birthday I have the pleasure of announcing
that Signor Delroxana has brought his menagerie of trained beasts and
birds. If you will kindly follow me,” and taking Grandma Miller by the
hand Polly led the way to the open tent where a strange little figure in
a tall white hat, a blue coat that trailed on the ground, and whose face
was nearly covered with a beard of curly brown yarn, stood ready to
introduce the animals and tell of their capture in far-off lands.
Roxy did not laugh once, as in a gruff voice she named each group of
animals and birds; but her listeners found it difficult to keep quiet,
and Roland whispered to his mother that it was the funniest thing he had
ever seen, and the minister said it was very instructive as well as
amusing, while Grandma Miller laughed until she had to wipe the tears
from her eyes.
Dulcie, standing near the little Hinham girls, was the only sober person
in the audience.
“Dat ruffle-muslin; I reckons it look like a rag ’fore dis! My lan’! Wot
good fer Missy Roxy to kiver up her fine clo’es dis way,” she muttered
disapprovingly.
After Roxy had finished and taken off the coat, hat and whiskers, her
grandmother said that her little granddaughter must sit beside her on
the fine seat of moss; and Dulcie brought the huge birthday cake which
Grandma cut, and Roxy was delighted to carry the plates to the smiling
guests who were gathered in the shade of the big sycamore. There were
pitchers filled with raspberry shrub, and various sorts of tempting
cakes handed about by a smiling negro girl who had come to help Dulcie;
and when Roxy saw the abundance of plum tarts, exactly like the ones she
had eaten on the day she had quarrelled with Polly, she smiled happily,
and felt that nothing was lacking.
It was sunset before the guests started for home, and as Roxy, hand in
hand with Grandma Miller, walked up the slope toward home she thought it
had been the happiest day she remembered.
“Everybody had a good time, didn’t they, Grandma?” she asked eagerly, as
they sat down on the porch.
“Indeed they did, Roxy; and I was proud indeed that my little
granddaughter could plan and carry out so fine an entertainment.”
Roxy’s face flushed happily. It was pleasant to have Grandmother praise
her.
“Polly!” she exclaimed suddenly, remembering all Polly’s suggestions and
help. “It was Polly did the best of the circus!”
“I am sure Polly helped what she could,” replied Grandma Miller.