Bonnie Bell she was busy, after her little ways, fixing her
garden or laying out her flower beds, or reading, or studying about
pictures. She drove her electric brougham a good deal, riding around.
She was riding along one day in the park below our house when she seen a
girl go riding by, with some others and a young man or two, on
horseback, bouncing along bumpety-bump, rising up every jump as though
the saddle hurt 'em. One of the girls was on a mean horse, but she was
going pretty well and didn't seem to mind it. But this horse he taken a
scare at a automobile that was letting off steam, and, first thing you
know, up went the horse in front and the girl got a fall.
There wasn't any of them very good riders, and this horse, being a bad
actor, scared the others. They all bolted off, not seeming to know that
this girl had fell off. She lit on her head.
Bonnie Bell seen all this happen, and she gets out of her car on the
keen lope and runs over to where the girl is and picks her up. Her and
a policeman took her in Bonnie Bell's brougham. She didn't know nothing
yet, being jolted some on the head.
Now that girl was pretty as a picture herself, with light hair and blue
eyes, and kind of a big mouth. She was smiling even when she didn't know
a thing. She was always smiling. She was dressed like she had lots of
money; and she was fixed for riding--boots and some sort of pants.
Bonnie Bell couldn't bring her to and she concludes to take her home to
our house. First thing I know, there she was outside, hollering for me.
"Come here quick, Curly!" says she. "Come help me carry her into the
house."
So I helped her. The girl still had her quirt in her hand and she was
kind of white.
"Who is she, Bonnie Bell?" says I; and she says she didn't know, and
tells me to go and get a doctor.
But while I was getting William to telephone--I couldn't use them things
much myself--the girl comes to, all right; and she sets up and rubs her
head.
"Oh, what do you know about that!" says she. "He got me off. I thank you
so much. Which way did he go?" she ast.
"He was headed to the riding-school barn," says Bonnie Bell, "the last I
saw of him. Your friends were all going the same way. So I thought the
best thing I could do was to bring you here till you felt better."
I don't reckon the girl was hurt bad, she being young; and such girls is
tough.
"Well," says she, "it certainly was nice of you. And how am I to thank
you?" She kissed Bonnie Bell then for luck. "You're nice," says she,
"and I like you."
Bonnie Bell, if you'll believe me, was kind of timid and scared, with it
being so long since any woman had said a kind word to her. She didn't
hardly know what to say, at first, till the girl kissed her again.
"I am Katherine Kimberly," says she. "We live just above the park. Where
is this?"
"This is just above the park too," says Bonnie Bell--"on the boulevard.
This is Mr. John William Wright's place," says she, "and I'm Miss
Wright. Can I serve some tea to you?" So she calls William.
When William brings in the tea them two set up and begun to talk right
sociable. This here Kimberly girl she rubbed her head once in a while,
but she wasn't hurt much along of having so much hair to fall on her
head with. The tea fixed her all right.
"I hit my coco a jolt!" says she. "Gee! I was going some. I'll never
ride that long-legged old giraffe again; he's nothing but a dog after
all--not that I'm afraid, but I don't like him," says she. "Do you
ride?"
"Would you like to come and see my horses?" says Bonnie Bell. "If you
like horses----"
"Do I like them? I'm crazy over them! Can you ride?"
"Oh, some," says Bonnie Bell. "Curly says I can."
"Curly?" And she looks at me.
"He's our foreman," says Bonnie Bell. "Talk to him if you want to know
about riding--he's a rider."
"I was once, ma'am," says I, "but not no more. I wouldn't get on a mean
horse now for a thousand dollars. I'm scared of horses, ma'am; but she
ain't"--meaning Bonnie Bell. "She still thinks she can ride any of 'em."
"Yes," says Bonnie Bell; "and, as far as that goes, if I could get you
to come with me I would always ride a horse and not go in a car or
boat."
"Boat?" says Miss Kimberly. "Oh, of course you have 'em too."
"Come down," says Bonnie Bell, "and you and I can look at my horses and
boat and things. After that I'll take you home."
"Oh, may I go?" says this Katherine girl. "You see, I suppose I must get
home before they tell mommah."
Well, she hadn't more than got out on our porch than she knew in a
minute where she was. This was where she showed she was a lady born and
a good girl too. She never let on beyond that first look--she seen she
had been brought into the house of us can-nyes. This was the house with
the wall, where nobody of the Row ever went.
"How lovely it is!" says she. "Do you know you have the nicest place on
this whole street? It's tasteful. I like this little sunken garden--it's
a dear! And see how the ivy grows on the wall! And over there's the
boathouse. May I see your things?"
Now what she said last wasn't any bluff. It was just the girl in her
talking to another girl. I seen Bonnie Bell give her another look, kind
of asting like--she herself was free and friendly every way; but she
hadn't been used to this right along lately. So she looks at this
Katherine Kimberly right close for about half a second, till she seen
she was on the square.
Then this Kimberly girl puts her arm round Bonnie Bell. That was the way
them two went down to the boathouse--their arms around one another. When
they come back, in about ten minutes or so, they was talking so fast
neither one of them could of heard what the other was saying.
"Oh, my goodness!" says Katherine after a little. "I must be going home.
It isn't far, you know."
"Yes; I know," says Bonnie Bell, quiet.
"And you said you'd take me home in your car?"
"And you want me to?" says Bonnie Bell, kind of funny.
"I wish you would--if you will. Of course I could walk."
"Does your head hurt now?" ast Bonnie Bell.
The girl looked at her straight. Then I knew she was on the square.
"No, it don't," says she; "but I'd like it if you would take me home in
your car," says she. "I want you to come in and meet my mommah. We want
to come down here if you'll let us, all of us. Will you let us? Will you
let us, Bonnie?" says she.
Now, ain't it funny how much can happen quiet and easy? I expect more had
happened for Bonnie Bell this last hour or so than had in a whole year
before--and all by accident, like most good things comes to us. Not a
woman in that block had ever called on Bonnie Bell and it didn't look
like they ever would. We wasn't on the map--even me, that ain't got any
brains at all, knowed that.
And yet I could tell that if Bonnie Bell Wright drove along the front of
that block with Katherine Kimberly in her car, and they got off at the
Kimberlys' and went in--and if the Kimberlys come up to our house,
too--why, then I knowed we was on the map. I don't think Bonnie Bell
cared. What was in her heart was mostly gladness at meeting some girl
friend she could talk to right free.
Of course, living there so long, I couldn't help knowing some of the
things along the Row. I knowed there was a sort of a fight there as to
which was the queen of Millionaire Row, which was the same as being the
queen of the society of this here city of Chicago. Either it was this
Mrs. Henry D. Kimberly or else it was Mrs. David Abraham Wisner. The
Kimberlys was in wholesale leather, while the Wisners was in wholesale
beef and pork, and them things. Most everybody in the Row, it seemed to
me, had something to do with a cow, one shape or another, except
us--which, dealing with cows on the hoof, might of been said to be at
the bottom of the whole game. But that ain't respectable, like I told
you. Sausage or hides or leather is better--especial if wholesale.
Bonnie Bell was quiet. She taken up the collar of this Katherine girl
and looks at the little pin she wore on it.
"What year was yours?" says she.
"Last June," says Katherine.
Then I seen they was both scholars of that same Old Man Smith, where
Bonnie Bell had went to school. They had on some sort of pins so they
knew each other, like Masons. Not having nothing better to do, they
kissed each other again.
By the time Bonnie Bell had drove over to the Kimberlys' house folks had
found Katherine's horse, but not her; so her ma was scared silly,
natural enough. When she seen her long-lost daughter coming with Bonnie
Bell, both of them able to walk and talk, she was right glad, and fell
on the necks of both of them, weeping some.
"And who is this young lady," says she, meaning Bonnie Bell, "who has
been so kind as to bring you home to your mother?"
And she smiled at Bonnie Bell, her being the second woman to do that in
Chicago in two years. You see, if a girl is handsome women mostly hate
her; the men don't--which is why.
"This is our neighbor, Miss Wright, mommah," says Katherine. "They live
just below us a little way."
She got red in the face then, for everybody on the street there knew
about us and the high fence; yet nobody knew us personal. But
Katherine's ma was different from most of these other people. Besides,
you only needed one good look at Bonnie Bell to see that she wasn't any
common folks.
"She left Smith the year before I went in, mommah," says Katherine, "and
she's in my sororyety; and she's been here ever since they built their
fine house; and she's a dear and I love her." Katherine had a way of
talking all in one breath, like a sprinter running a hundred yards flat.
"I want you to love her, too," says she to her ma.
And then Old Lady Kimberly she taken Bonnie Bell in her arms and kissed
her some more; and the kid, like enough, come near to spilling over
then.
"Come right in and have a cup of tea," says she.
So they went into the house, and the Kimberlys' sad man, which was named
William, too, brought them some tea. They didn't need it none, because
they was full of it already; but women can hold plenty of tea. When they
was drinking that and, like enough, all three of them talking at once,
Katherine tells her ma all about how she got threw from her horse, and
how Bonnie Bell saved her life and carried her home and took care of
her, and now brought her back.
"Mommah, their place is lovely," says she. "They've all sorts of nice
things and we're going to call as soon as Bonnie Bell will let us."
"Yes, indeed," says her ma, who was going to back any play her girl
made.
"Bonnie Bell," says she--"that is a odd name and a very pretty one."
Bonnie Bell laughed at that.
"It's one my dad gave me," says she. "My real name is Mary Isabel. My
dad always called me Bonnie Bell; and so did Curly."
"Curly?" says the old lady, not knowing who that was--me.
"Oh, Curly's a dear," says Katherine then. "He's a cowboy, or was when
he was younger; but he isn't young now. And he can ride any sort of
horse living, and rope things--I think he must be the stableman."
"Indeed he isn't," says Bonnie Bell. "He's our foreman."
They didn't know what that was, being city people; so she told them.
Them Kimberlys couldn't see why they took me to the city when they
didn't have no cows. I reckon they must of talked of me and Old Man
Wright plenty--you see, Bonnie Bell told me of it like it happened. She
told me what Katherine's ma wore and what their William looked like, and
what sort of pictures was on the walls. Womanfolks can see more than a
man and remember it better.
Well, sir, it wasn't any more than a week before Old Lady Kimberly drove
up to our house in her car; and she come right up the walk herself and
didn't send in any of them little cards that says: "Tag; you're It."
She come into our parlor, and our William went out and got Bonnie Bell
for her, and them two must of had a regular visit, because Katherine's
ma insisted on seeing our ranch room, which pleased her mighty much.
She said she certainly was going to bring her husband over, because he
would be crazy over it.
"Tell me," says she--"when can we come?"
"Why," says Bonnie Bell, "in a real ranch there isn't a time of the day
or night when you can't come and be welcome. Everybody's welcome at a
ranch, you know."
Old Lady Kimberly, she seemed kind of thoughtful over that; but she
didn't say nothing about being slow starting. Says she:
"If you'd let us come we'd all be so glad to come and sit in your ranch
room--it's new to us and we like it. I know my husband would like it
very much. As for Katherine, I don't think I'll be able to keep her away
after this."
Well, that afternoon, late, Katherine calls up on the telephone
again--about the eighth time she had already that day--and she ast might
her pa and ma and her come over that evening to see our ranch room. Of
course Bonnie Bell told them to come.
"Well, what do you know, Curly?" says she to me. "This ain't according
to Hoyle. Mrs. Kimberly ought to of waited till I returned her call, and
till maybe one or the other of us had invited the other to a reception,
or to a dinner or something."
"What's a reception?" says I.
"Something we never had yet, Curly," says she. "It's a place where
people ain't happy; but there's plenty of 'em. Maybe tonight is the
closest we've come to it."
Well, they all came that night, all three of 'em--twicet in one day,
which was going pretty strong; and, like enough, something they hadn't
never done before in all their lives.
"No you don't!" says Mrs. Kimberly when Bonnie Bell was going to take
'em into the parlor. "We're going right into the ranch room and sit
there, all of us--mayn't we, please?"
So they come in and Old Man Kimberly he walked around and looked through
the place; and he was like a kid.
"By golly, Wright!" says he. "I didn't know a alderman could have as
much sense as this," says he. "This is the real goods," says he--"you
can set down in one of those chairs and not break its legs off. And
here's tobacco handy, and matches all over the place. Now over in the
club all you get is a place to smoke and a big chair, and a fireplace to
look into. Ain't a city a cold old place, John Wright?" says he.
"Well, you see," says Old Man Wright by and by--"you see, folks get to
be pretty busy with one thing and another. I know they all mean right
well," says he, "but they get so busy in a town like this they don't
have time for anything."
That was about all that ever was said about our being neighbors on our
street. Nobody apologized for not having done this or that. We just
dropped in like we'd always been doing that way.
"Well, Alderman," says Old Man Kimberly after a time, "you certainly
know how to live. I'm going to drop in here every day or so, evenings,
because I can't get a match at the club without calling a boy, and here
you can just reach out and get plenty."
"Come in as often as you like, neighbor," says my boss; and he fills his
own pipe and passes the fine-cut.
Sometimes I think, after all, folks is a good deal alike inside, and
what makes good in one place will in another. We used these people like
we was all out on the Yellow Bull; and here was Old Man Kimberly feeling
better than he had in two years and all of 'em glad to come back to our
place. Which all happened right soon--and because of them two girls.
"Well," says Katherine's pa after a while, "if I had to choose I believe
I'd rather be a ranchman out West than anything in the world. Tell
me--what made you sell out and come East to live? Why couldn't you be
content where you was at?"
"Well," says my boss, kind of smiling crooked out of the end of his
mouth, "we come East to get some of the Better Things."
They looked then, both of 'em, over at the two young girls on the sofa.
They was so busy talking they didn't know anybody was looking at 'em.
When we was all quiet they both spoke out right at the same time. "I got
mine at Madeleine's," Katherine was saying; and Bonnie Bell says: "We
fry ours in butter." The Lord only knows what they'd been talking about;
but it didn't make no difference.
Well, anyways, we all had quite a fine time, setting there in our ranch
room, with the smoky mantelpiece and the old tables and chairs, and the
sofa covered with a hide, where the two girls was setting.
By and by they all got up and said they had to go home. Old Man Kimberly
he held out his hand to my boss, and they shook hands quite a while
together, not saying very much.
"Will you come over some evening?" he ast Old Man Wright.
And he says:
"Shore!"
About then Katherine's ma was kissing Bonnie Bell some more--she seemed
never to get tired of kissing Bonnie Bell. Then them two girls they
walks off to the front door, their arms around each other. I seen 'em
standing there under the light. By and by Katherine picks up Bonnie
Bell's hand and looks it over, and there wasn't no rings on it.
"Are you engaged yet, Bonnie?" she ast.
Bonnie Bell kind of blushed at that.
"No," says she. "Are you?"
"No. Mommah says I'm too young," says she; "but then----"
"Yes," says Bonnie Bell; "but then----"
Old Man Wright he turns to me after they'd all went away.
"Well, Curly," says he, thoughtful, "I reckon we're coming on."
"Yes," says I; "but then----"