OUT IN THE BARN
"The party was a great success, eh?" asked Ralph at the breakfast table
the next morning. "I judged so, because it was one o'clock before I
could leave Dad's office to get some lunch. He and Dick insisted on
holding me there till quarter past."
Brother looked at Sister. Sister looked at Brother. They had both
forgotten they meant to telephone Ralph at half-past twelve!
"Don't worry over it, Brother," said Ralph, laughing. "No serious harm
was done, old chap. I made Dad tell me the mysterious reason of the
wait, and when you didn't 'phone in we all three concluded the party
had been too much for you. I'm glad you liked the dog."
"Oh, yes!" Brother seized upon this safe topic. "It is the nicest dog,
Ralph. And I did mean to say thank you,' only I forgot."
After Daddy Morrison and Ralph and Dick had gone off to the station,
Brother and Sister began to have queer feelings. Yes'm, they both felt
"somehow different," as Brother said.
"I don't want to clear off the table," complained Sister, drawing
pictures on the tablecloth with a fork, a practice which Molly had
always sternly forbidden.
"Neither do I," agreed Brother. "Let's go out in the barn and play."
"Jimmie won't like it," suggested Sister, taking up a cup so carelessly
that some of the coffee left in it slopped over on the clean cloth.
"Jimmie doesn't own the barn," sniffed Brother crossly. "I guess we can
just play in it without hurting any of his stuff."
"Here, here, what are you talking so long about?" demanded Molly
good-naturedly.
She came to the dining-room door and inspected the table critically.
"Just as I thought," she said grimly. "Too much party yesterday!
Sister, give me that cup and stop marking the cloth. Run off and play,
both of you, till you get over being cross. I'd rather do the work
myself than listen to you grumble."
Thus dismissed, Brother and Sister wandered off to the barn. They ought
to have felt happy with the extra time for play, but, for some reason,
they were decidedly uncomfortable.
"Everybody's busy," grumbled Brother. "Nobody cares what we do. Louise
and Grace are sewing, and Mother is going to make strawberry jam. Let's
try the rings, Betty."
They were inside the old barn now, and the swinging rings had always
fascinated Sister. But she knew that Jimmie had said they were not to
touch them, and indeed Daddy Morrison had warned the children not to
play in the barn unless some of the older boys were with them.
"It is really Jimmie's and Ralph's gymnasium," he had explained. "They
know how to use the apparatus, and you don't. When you are older,
Jimmie will teach you and you may play there all you wish."
Sister looked longingly at the rings when Brother suggested them.
"Where's Jimmie?" she asked cautiously.
"Up in his room studying," answered Brother confidently.
Jimmie had been "conditioned" in the June examinations, and now spent
part of every vacation day studying so that he might take another test
before school opened in the fall.
"All right," agreed Sister, assured that Jimmie was not likely to walk
in upon them. "How'll we get the rings untied?"
The rings were fastened up out of the way, tied to a nail on the side
wall, so that when not in use they did not take up any room. Jimmie
could reach this nail easily, but, of course, it was far above
Brother's head.
"I'll get the step-ladder," announced Brother confidently. "You hold it
for me."
The step-ladder was an old one and inclined to wobble. Brother mounted
it slowly, and Sister sat down on the lowest step to hold it steady.
Her weight was not enough to anchor the ladder, and it still shook
crazily when Brother reached the highest step and stood on his tiptoes
to reach the string that held the swings on the nail.
"What are you kids up to now?" a voice asked suddenly.
It was Jimmie! He had come out to the barn to get a book he had left in
the corner cupboard.
Sister jumped to her feet, startled. Her elbow brushed the wobbily
ladder and over it went, carrying Brother with it. He was too surprised
to cry out.
"Are you hurt? Of all the crazy actions?" Jimmie scolded vigorously as
he rushed to his small brother's rescue.
Fortunately for him, Brother had landed on one of the heavy, thick,
quilted pads that were on the floor. The boys used them when on the
apparatus in case they fell. Brother was not hurt at all, but he was
frightened, and when Jimmie picked him up he was crying bitterly.
"I've a good mind to tell Father," continued Jimmie, who, of the three
older boys, was less inclined to leniency with the performances of
Brother and Sister. "Next time you might be badly hurt, and then it
would be too late to punish you. Come here, Sister."
Sister came reluctantly.
"What were you trying to do?" said Jimmie grimly.
"Trying to use the swinging rings," answered Sister meekly.
"There's nothing to do," wailed Brother forlornly. "Everybody's busy
and no one wants to play. And you don't own this barn, Jimmie
Morrison--so there!"
"Perhaps I don't," retorted Jimmie. "But Dad happens to have given me
the use of it. And you're going to stay out if I have to put a padlock
on the door. You've got all outdoors to play in--can't you find
something pleasant to do?"
"Betty! Roddy!" called Nellie Yarrow from her side of the hedge.
"Betty! Come on out, I want to tell you something."
Brother and Sister ran toward the door.
"Wait a second!" shouted Jimmie. "Turn around."
They looked back at him. He was smiling.
"No hard feelings?" he suggested.
Sister dimpled and Brother laughed.
"No hard feelings," they chuckled and ran on down to the hedge.
That was the way the Morrison family always smoothed out their
disputes. There was so many of them that they really could not be
expected to be always pleasant and never quarrel, but every
disagreement was, sooner or later, sure to end with the cheerful
announcement, "No hard feelings."
"I suppose they ought to have a place of their own to play in," said
Jimmie to himself when the children had gone. "I wonder if--"
He had an idea which for the present he meant to keep to himself.