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[Illustration: Zebedee lost his balance and shot over our heads into the
soft snow.--_Page 190_]
BACK AT SCHOOL WITH THE TUCKER TWINS
by
NELL SPEED
Author of "The Molly Brown Series," "The Carter
Girls Series," etc.
[Illustration]
A. L. Burt Company
Publishers New York
Printed in U. S. A.
Copyright, 1917,
by
Hurst & Company, Inc.
Made in U.S.A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE GET AWAY 5
II. THE BIRTHDAY PARTY 18
III. GRESHAM AGAIN 27
IV. RULES AND RESULTS 41
V. SOME LETTERS 52
VI. THE HALLOWE'EN PARTY 64
VII. WHEN GHOST MEETS GHOST 83
VIII. INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE 97
IX. ECCLESIASTICAL POWER 110
X. VIRGINIA VERSUS CAROLINA 119
XI. THANKSGIVING DINNER 136
XII. THE BALL 148
XIII. NODS AND BECKS 159
XIV. HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS 184
XV. CHRISTMAS GUESTS 199
XVI. CHRISTMAS EVE AT BRACKEN 211
XVII. SANTA CLAUS 220
XVIII. CHRISTMAS FOR SALLY WINN 237
XIX. BACK IN THE TREAD-MILL 255
XX. THE FIRE DRILL 265
XXI. THE REALITY 281
XXII. IN MOTLEY RAIMENT 300
Back at School with the Tucker Twins.
CHAPTER I.
THE GETAWAY.
Could it be possible that only one year had passed since I started to
boarding school? So much had happened in that time, I had met so many
persons, made so many friends, and my horizon had broadened so that it
seemed more like ten years.
There I was once more on the train headed for Richmond, having arisen at
the unearthly hour of five. Dear old Mammy Susan had as usual warmed up
my bath water and prepared a bountiful breakfast. Father had been unable
to accompany me to Richmond to put me on the Gresham train as we had
planned, all because poor Sally Winn had made a desperate effort to
depart this life in the night.
It was all so exactly as it had been the year before, I had to pinch
myself to realize it was not just a dream of what had happened. My new
mail order suit was a little different cut from the last year's, as
Cousin Sue Lee, in planning my wardrobe, insisted upon up-to-date style,
and my suit case did not look so shiny new. That was about the only
difference that I could see. The colt had had a year to settle down in,
but he was quite as lively as ever. My last hug with Mammy Susan was cut
short by his refusing to stand still another minute, and as I piled into
the buggy with Father, the spirited horse whirled us around on one wheel
and we covered the six miles to Milton in such a short time that I had
half an hour to wait for my train.
Sitting in the station at Richmond awaiting the arrival of my dear
Tuckers and Annie Pore, I thought that if the first part of my journey
had been a repetition of last year, now, at least, some variation was in
order. Here I was waiting for friends I had already made, instead of
wondering if I should meet any one on the train going to Gresham.
Annie Pore came first, her boat, from Price's Landing, having arrived
early. Could this be the same Annie? This young lady had a suit on
rather too much like mine for my taste, as I simply hate to look like
everybody else! But a mail order house does not profess to sell only one
of a kind, and I myself had introduced Annie to the mysteries of
ordering by catalogue, so I really had no kick coming; but I couldn't
help wishing that our tastes and pocketbooks had not coincided so
exactly. When I thought of the Annie of last September and the Annie of
this, I hated myself for caring.
My mind still retained the picture of the forlorn little English girl
with her tear-stained face and crumpled hat, her ill-fitting clothes and
bulging telescope. Now she looked like other girls, except that she was
a great deal more beautiful. In place of the battered old telescope, she
carried a brand new suit case; and a neat little hand bag held her
ticket and trunk check, also a reservation in the parlor car. She was
still timid but when she spied me a look of intense joy and relief came
over her face, and in a moment we were locked in each other's arms. How
school girls can hug!
"Oh, Page, I'm glad to see you! I had a terrible feeling I had missed my
train, but of course if you are here, I couldn't have."
"Still the anxious traveler, aren't you, dear? We've at least twenty
minutes."
"Harvie Price was to meet me at the boat landing and bring me up here,
but I was afraid to wait for him. He believes in just catching a train
and it makes me extremely nervous not to be ahead of time. I am afraid
he will think it very rude of me."
"Maybe it will teach him a lesson and he will learn from the early bird
how better to conduct himself," I comforted her. "Now the Tuckers say it
is much better to have a train wait for you than wait for a
train.--Speaking of angels,--here they are!"
In they trooped, Mr. Tucker laden with suit cases and umbrellas, and
Dum carrying gingerly in both hands a box about a foot square which
contained something very precious, it was evident, as she most carefully
deposited it on a bench before she gave me her accustomed bear hug. Dee
had Brindle, her beloved bull dog, in her arms and she dispensed with
the ceremony of putting him down before she embraced Annie and me, so we
both got a good licking in the left ear from that affectionate canine.
"Zebedee is mad with me for bringing him, as it means he will have to
keep him in the newspaper office until luncheon time, but somehow I
could not part with him before it was absolutely necessary. It hurt his
feelings terribly when I went last year and did not let him see me off,"
and Dee wept a little Tucker tear on the wrinkled and rolling neck of
her dog. To one who did not know Brindle, he seemed to be choking with
emotion, but Brindle's make-up was such that every intaken breath was a
sniffle and every outgoing one a snort.
Mr. Tucker's handsome and speaking countenance beamed with delight as
he waited his turn to give Annie and me the warm handshake that was as
much a part of the Tuckers as anything else about that delightful trio.
"What a place this station would be to have the Lobster Quadrille!" he
exclaimed. "I am so glad to see you, little Page, and you, Miss Annie,
that I feel as though I must dance, but that might get us in bad with
that dignified-looking porter over there and so maybe we had better
refrain--Besides, I could not dance on this day when my Tweedles are
leaving me," and instead of dancing as he had threatened, this youngest
of all the Tuckers, in spite of being the parent, began to show decided
signs of shedding tears.
"Now, Zebedee, this is ridiculous! You act worse than you did last
year," admonished Dum.
"Well, it is worse than it was last year," and Zebedee drew his girls to
him while Brindle choked and chortled and tried to lick all three of
them at once. "You see, last year we did not know just how bad it would
be, and this year we know."
"That's so!" tweedled the twins. "If you could only go with us to
Gresham, it wouldn't be so bad."
"If we had just been triplets instead of twins and a father!" said
Zebedee, and then we all of us laughed.
Just then Harvie Price arrived in a state of breathless excitement,
having missed Annie at the pier and, aware of her timidity, fearing
something dire had befallen her.
Harvie had a great tenderness for his one-time playmate and usually
assumed the big brother air with her, but the large box of candy he
produced for the journey, and which he handed to her with very much a
"Sweets to the sweet" expression, was not so very big brotherish to my
way of thinking. Brothers have to be very big brothers indeed and
sisters very little sisters for the former to remember that the latter
might be pleased by some little attention in the way of candy on a trip.
I don't mean to criticise brothers, as I'd rather have one than anything
in all the world. I'd excuse him from all gallant attentions if he
would only just exist.
"If you had not brought Brindle, I believe I would go half way with you
girls, and come back on the train we strike at the Junction," said
Zebedee.
"If you go, I will, too," chimed in Harvie.
"Now, Virginia Tucker! Just see what you have done! You put that dog
before your own flesh and blood!" exclaimed Dum.
"No such thing! He is my own flesh and blood, Caroline Tucker," and Dee
held the ugly bull dog close in her arms.
"Tut! Tut! Don't have a row for Heaven's sake," begged their father.
When Dum and Dee Tucker called one another by their Christian names, no
one knew so well as their devoted parent how close they were to a breach
that could only be healed by _trial de combat_. It was almost as serious
a state of affairs as when they addressed him as Father or Mr. Tucker.
"Do you know, I believe with a little strategy we can take Brindle,
too, and not in the baggage car either. I know how he hates that."
"Oh, Zebedee, how? Dum, I'm sorry I called you Caroline," and Dee gave
her twin an affectionate pat.
"Forget it! Forget it! Besides, I called you Virginia first."
"Well, stop making up now. Sometimes you Tweedles make up with more
racket than you do fighting it out. Now listen! We can dress Brindle up
like a baby if you girls can dive in your grips for suitable
apparel--anything white and fluffy will do. Take off that veil you've
got twisted 'round your neck, Dum, and here is a cap all ready for
baby," and he fashioned a wonderful little Dutch cap out of his large
linen handkerchief and tied it under the unresisting and flabby chin of
Brindle.
We were so convulsed we could hardly contain our merriment, but contain
it we were forced to do, because of the exceedingly dignified and easily
shocked porter who stood at the door of the elevator like a uniformed
bronze statue.
"Gather 'round me, girls," begged Dee, "so we can have a suitable
dressing room for Brindle. He is very modest."
Brindle was so accustomed to being dressed up by Dee, who had played
with him as though he were a doll ever since he had been a tiny soft
puppy, that he submitted with great docility to the role he was forced
to play. We all wanted Zebedee and Harvie to go with us to the Junction
if it could be managed, but the cast-iron rules of the railroads forbade
the carrying of dogs into the coaches. Brindle was there and there was
nothing to do with him but take him, and take him we did. Annie had a
short petticoat made of soft sheer material with lace whipped on the
bottom and little hand tucks and hemstitching. This she took out of her
new suitcase, proud to be the one to have the proper dress for baby. Dee
tied the skirt around Brindle's neck and pulled it down over his passive
legs.
"Yes, my baby has never worn anything but handmade clothes," said Dee
with all the airs of a young mother.
Then Dum's automobile veil, the pride of her heart because of its
wonderful blue colour, covered the sniffling, snuffling nose of our
baby. The transformation was completed just as our train was called, and
with preternaturally solemn countenances we trooped through the gate,
the handmade dress of the baby hanging over Dee's arm in a most
life-like manner.
The man who punched the tickets at the gate looked rather earnestly at
the very young girl with the rather large bunchy baby, and of course
just as Dee passed him, Brindle had to let forth one of his especially
loud snorts. Dee turned pale but Zebedee came to the rescue with:
"My dear, I am afraid poor little Jo Jo has taken an awful cold. I have
some sweet spirits of nitre in my case which I will administer as soon
as we are settled in the Pullman."
Dee looked gratefully at her thoughtful father and whispered:
"Gather around me closely, girls."
We gathered, while Harvie and Zebedee brought up the rear.
We passed the solicitous Pullman porter, who even offered to take the
baby, and we sank finally into our seats in a state of collapse. I had
long ago found out that she who followed the Tuckers, father and
daughters, would get into more or less scrapes; but she would have a
mighty good time doing it and would always get out with no loss of life
or honour.
"Zebedee!" gasped Dee. "Why did you call Brindle, Jo Jo?"
"Why, Jo Jo, the dog-faced boy! He was one of the marvels of my youth.
No side show was complete without him. If the worst comes to the worst
we can be a freak show traveling West, on our way to the fair in
Kalamazoo."
"What will you be?" I laughed.
"Oh, I'll be 'Eat-'em-alive' and Miss Annie will have to be the lion
tamer. They are always beautiful blondes. Dum and Dee of course will be
the Siamese Twins disconnected for the convenience of travel."
"And me--what will I be?"
"Oh, you will have to be the little white rabbit I'm going to eat
alive," and he made a horribly big mouth that I know would have made
poor Jo Jo bark if he could have seen it through his thick blue veil,
but the conductor appeared at this crucial moment and Zebedee had to sit
up and behave.