NEW FRIENDS
Nancy never looked as untidy as she really felt. In fact, she always
looked "interesting and human," as her friends might say, but she was
sensitive about the disorder she pretended to despise. Now, here were
those two girls! She simply could not go in the store as she looked.
"You're all right," Ted insisted, as they both listened to the jangling
bell. "You look good in that yellow dress."
"Good?" she took time to correct. "You mean--something else. And it
isn't yellow," she countered. "But please, Ted, you go. There's a dear.
I'll do something for you--"
Ted started off dutifully. "But I won't know," he argued.
"Run along, like a dear," whispered Nancy, for persons were now within
the store, she could easily hear them talking and could even see their
reflections in the little hall mirror.
Ted went. He was such a good-natured boy, and Nancy was glad to notice
once more "so good-looking."
After exchanging a few questions and answers with the girls in the
store, Ted was presently back again in the kitchen.
"Blue silk!" he sort of hissed at Nancy. "They want--_blue silk_."
"We haven't any. Tell them we're out of it."
Ted went forth with a protest.
A few seconds later he again confronted Nancy.
"Blue _twist_ then. What ever on earth is blue _twist?_"
"We haven't any!" Nancy told him sharply. "We're all out of sewing
stuff, except black and white."
"Oh, you come on. They're just laughin' at me. It's your store. You go
ahead and 'tend it." Ted was on a strike now. He wasn't going to be that
kind of store keeper. Twist and silk!
"But I'm so dirty," complained Nancy, brushing at her skirt and then
patting her disordered hair. She had been rushing around at a mad rate
since noon hour and naturally felt untidy.
"Well, any how, go tell them," suggested Ted. "They're just girls like
you. You needn't worry about your looks." His eyes paid Nancy a decided
compliment with the careless speech. Evidently she was not the only one
who found good looks in the family.
Out in the store the girls were waiting, and when she finally walked up
to them, Nancy was instantly at ease.
"Oh, hello!" greeted the stouter one. She was genuinely pleasant and
Nancy at once liked her. "You're the girl we've been trying to meet.
This is Vera Johns and I'm Ruth Ashley. We live over on North Road and
we've been wanting to meet you."
"I'm Nancy Brandon," replied Nancy pleasantly, "and I'm glad to meet
you, too. I was wondering if I would get acquainted away out here. Won't
you sit down? Here's a bench," brushing aside the papers. "It takes so
long to get things straightened out."
The girls murmured their understanding of the moving problem, and after
Teddy had called out from the back door, that he was going "over to see
the fellows," all three girls settled down to chat.
"Is it really your own store?" asked Ruth. She had reddish-brown hair,
gray eyes and the brightest smile.
"Yes," replied Nancy. "Just a little summer experiment. You see, I
perfectly despise housework and mother believes I should learn something
practical. I just begged for a little country store. I've always been so
interested reading about them."
"How quaint!" murmured Vera Johns. Her tone of voice seemed so affected
that Nancy glanced quickly at her. Was she fooling? Could any girl mean
so senseless a remark as "How quaint!" to Nancy's telling of her
practical experiment?
"Do you mean," murmured Nancy, "why, just--how quaint?"
"Yes, isn't it?" Vera again sort of lisped. At this Nancy was convinced.
Vera was that sort of girl. She would be apt to say any silly little
thing that had the fewest words in it. Just jerky little exclamations,
such as Nancy's mother had taught her to avoid as affectations.
Vera's hair was of a toneless blonde hue, cut "classic" and plastered
down like that of an Egyptian slave. Her eyes, Nancy noticed were a
faded blue, and her form--Nancy hoped that she, being tall herself, did
not sag at all corners, as did Vera Johns.
"I think it's a wonderful idea," chimed in Ruth, "to have a chance
really to try out business. Just as you say, Nancy, we learn to wash
doll dishes as soon as we can reach a kitchen chair. Then why shouldn't
we learn to make and count pennies as early as we possibly can?"
"Do you hate housework too, Ruth?" Nancy asked, hoping for the joy of
finding a mutual understanding. "Are you also anxious to try business?"
"I hate housework, abhor it," admitted Ruth, dimpling prettily, "but
mother says we just have to get used to it, so we won't know we're doing
it. You would be surprised, Nancy, how easy it is to wash dishes and
dream of babbling brooks."
"Really!" That was Vera again. "I adore dishes, but I won't dream of
bobbling brooks, ever."
"Bobbling," repeated Ruth. "That's good, Vera. I suppose they bobble
more than they babble. But I guess you're not much of a dreamer, Vera,"
she finished, in a doubtful compliment.
Nancy was amused. Ruth was going to be "good fun" and Vera was already
proving a pretty good joke. Their acquaintance was surely promising, and
Nancy responded fittingly.
She had time to notice in detail each of these new friends. Ruth was
dimply and just fat enough to be happily plump. She also was
correspondingly sunny in her disposition. She wore her hair twisted into
three or four "Spring Maids" and it gave her the effect of short, curled
hair. Her summer dress was a simple blue ratine, and Nancy admired it
frankly.
Vera was affected in manner, in style, in dress and every way. Her hair
was so arranged Nancy couldn't be sure just how it was done, but it
looked like a model in a hairdresser's window. Also, she wore, bound
around it a Roman ribbon, with a wonderful assortment of rainbow colors.
Her costume was sport, with a very fancy jacket and a light silk and
wool plaid skirt. That she had plenty of money was rather too obviously
apparent, and Nancy wondered just how she and Ruth were connected.
They were inspecting the newly acquired little store.
"And you are the manager, the proprietor--"
"The clerk and the cashier," Nancy interrupted Ruth. "I've always loved
to play store, so now, mother says, she hopes I'll be satisfied. But
this is a very old-timey place. I don't see how the Townsends ever made
it pay."
"Miss Townsend is a queer old lady," replied Ruth. "I guess of late
years they didn't have to worry about making things pay in the store."
"Why Ruthie!" exclaimed Vera. "Don't you know every body says they went
bankrupt?"
"Oh, that," laughed Ruth. "I guess Mr. Townsend lent out his money and
couldn't get it back handy."
"But he and his sister had a perfectly desperate fight over it,"
insisted Vera, eyes wide with curious interest.
"Desperate," repeated Ruth, as if trying to give Nancy a cue to Vera's
queer vocabulary. "I can imagine their sort of desperate fight. Sister
Sarah would say to Brother Elmer: 'Elmer dear, you really can't mean a
thing like that,'" imitated Ruth, "and Brother Elmer would clasp and
unclasp his thin hands as he replied: 'I'm sorry, Sister Sarah, but it
looks that way.'"
Ruth and Nancy laughed merrily as the little sketch ended.
"That's about how desperate those two would fight," Ruth declared.
"Then why did they sell out?" demanded Vera. "Every body knows they lost
everything."
"We haven't actually bought the place," Nancy explained, "just have an
option on it. You see, we had to go to the country every summer, and
mother thought this might suit us. It is so convenient for her to
commute, and Ted and I can't get into a lot of mischief in a place like
this. So it seems, at least," she hastened to add.
"Well, if you let your brother go around with that queer old fellow we
saw him with today, he may get into mischief," intimated Vera,
mysteriously, with a wag of her bobbed head.
"Mr. Sanders? What's the matter with Mr. Sanders?" demanded Nancy,
rather sharply.
"Oh talk, talk, and gossip," Ruth interposed. "Just because he sees fit
to keep his business to himself--"
"You know perfectly well, Ruth, that is more than gossip," insisted
Vera.
"What is? What's the mystery?" again demanded Nancy, dropping her box of
lead pencils rather suddenly.
"Well," drawled Vera, getting up with a tantalizing deliberateness, "if
you were to see a person in front of you one minute and have him vanish
the next--"
A peal of laughter from Nancy broke in rudely upon Vera's recitation.
"All right," Vera added, in a hurt tone. "Don't believe me if you don't
want to, but just wait and see."
"Disappearing Dick?" chanted Nancy gaily. "Do you mean to say he's one
of those so-called miracle men?"
"Oh, no, nothing of the sort," protested Ruth. "But there is
something--different about him. A lot of people say he does disappear,
but of course, there's nothing uncanny about it. It's probably just
clever," Ruth tried to explain.
"Rather," drawled Vera.
And Nancy could not suppress an impolite but insistent chuckle.