A FAIR EXCHANGE
"We didn't have to go to Philadelphia after all," explained Bob, after
greetings had been exchanged. "We found we could get off at New Brunswick
and come back from there."
"Why didn't you find out that before telegraphing?" laughed Patty.
"Never once thought of it," said Bob, "You know the Barlows are not noted
for ingenuity."
"Well, they're noted for better things than that," said Patty, as she
affectionately squeezed Bumble's plump arm.
"We wouldn't have thought of it at all," said honest Bob, "if it hadn't
been for Nan. She suggested it."
"Well, I was sent along with instructions to look after you two
rattle-pated youngsters," said Nan, "and so I had to do something to live
up to my privileges; and now, Bob, you look after the luggage, will you?"
"Let me help," said Kenneth. "Where are your checks, Miss Allen?"
"Here are the checks for the trunks, and there are three suit-cases; the
one that hasn't any name on is mine, and you tell it by the fact that it
has an extra handle on the end. I'm very proud of that handle; I had it
put on by special order, and it's so convenient, and it is identification
besides. I didn't want my name painted on. I think it spoils a brand-new
suit-case to have letters all over it."
"We'll find them all right; come on, Barlow," said Kenneth, and the two
young men started off.
They returned in a few moments with the three suit-cases, Bob bringing
his own and his sister's, while Kenneth Harper carefully carried the
immaculate leather case with the handle on the end. These were deposited
in the Fairfield carriage. Patty and her guests were also tucked in, and
they started for the house, while Kenneth followed on his wheel.
"Come over to-night," Patty called back to him, as they left him behind;
and though his answer was lost in the distance, she had little doubt as
to its tenor.
"What a nice young fellow!" said Nan. "Who is he?"
"He's the nephew of our next-door neighbour," said Patty; "and he's
spending his vacation with his aunt."
"He's a jolly all-round chap," said Bob.
"Yes, he's just that," said Patty. "I thought you'd like him. You'll like
all the young people here. They're an awfully nice crowd."
"I'm so glad to see _you_ again," said Bumble, "I don't care whether I
like the other young people or not. And I want to see Uncle Fred, too. I
haven't seen him for years and years."
"Oh, he's one of the young people," said Patty, laughing; "he goes 'most
everywhere with us. I tell him he's more of a boy than Ken."
As they drove up to the house, Bumble exclaimed with delight at the
beautiful flowers and the well-kept appearance of the whole place.
"What a lovely home!" she cried. "I don't see how you ever put up with
our tumble-down old place, Patty."
"Nonsense!" said Patty. "I had the time of my life down at the
Hurly-Burly last summer."
"Well, we're going to have the time of our life at Boxley Hall this
summer, I feel sure of that," said Bob, as he sprang out of the carriage
and then helped the others out.
"I hope you will," said Patty. "You are very welcome to Boxley Hall, and
I want you just to look upon it as your home and conduct yourselves
accordingly."
"Nan can do that," said Bumble, "but I'm afraid, if Bob and I did it,
your beautiful home would soon lose its present spick-and-span effect."
"All right, let it lose," said Patty. "We'll have a good time anyhow. And
now," she went on, as she took the guests to their rooms, "there'll be
just about an hour before dinner time but if you get ready before that
come down. You'll probably find me on the front veranda, if I'm not in
the kitchen."
Bob was the first one to reappear, and he found Patty and her father
chatting on the front veranda.
"How do you do, Uncle Fred?" he said. "You may know my name, but I doubt
if you remember my features."
"Hello, Bob, my boy," said Mr. Fairfield, cordially grasping the hand
held out to him. "As I last saw you with features of infantile vacancy, I
am glad to start fresh and make your acquaintance all over again."
"Thank you, sir," said Bob, as he seated himself on the veranda railing.
"I didn't know you as an infant, but I dare say you were a very
attractive one."
"I think I was," said Mr. Fairfield; "at least I remember hearing my
mother say so, and surely she ought to know."
Just then Bumble came out on the porch with her hair-ribbon in her hand.
"Please tie this for me, Patty," she said. "I cannot manage it myself,
and get it on quick before Uncle Fred sees me."
"But I am so glad to see you, my dear Bumble," said Mr. Fairfield, "that
even that piece of pretty blue ribbon can't make me any gladder."
Bumble smiled back at him in her winning way, and Patty tied her cousin's
hair-ribbon with a decided feeling of relief that in all other respects
Bumble's costume was tidy and complete.
"Where's Nan?" she inquired; "isn't she ready yet?"
"Why, it's the funniest thing," said Bumble, "I tapped at her door as I
came by, but she told me to go on and not wait for her, she would come
down in a few minutes."
Just as Pansy appeared to announce dinner, Nan did come down, and Patty
stared at her in amazement. Bob whistled, and Bumble exclaimed:
"Well, for goodness gracious sakes! What are you up to now?"
For Nan, instead of wearing the pretty gown which Bumble knew she had
brought in her suitcase, was garbed in the complete costume of a trained
nurse. A white piqué skirt and linen shirt-waist of immaculate and
starched whiteness, an apron with regulation shoulder-straps, and a cap
that betokened a graduate of St. Luke's Hospital, formed her surprising,
but not at all unbecoming, outfit.
Nan's roguish face looked very demure under the white cap, and she smiled
pleasantly when Patty at last recovered her wits sufficiently to
introduce her father.
"Nan," she said, "if this is really you, let me present my father; and,
papa, this is supposed to be Miss Nan Allen, but I never saw her look
like this before."
"I am very glad to meet you, Miss Allen," said Mr. Fairfield, "and though
we are all apparently very well at present, one can never tell how soon
there may be need of your professional services."
"I hope not very soon," said Nan, laughing; "for my professional
knowledge is scarcely sufficient to enable me to adjust this costume
properly."
"It seems to be on all right," said Patty, looking at it critically; "but
where in the world did you get it? And what have you got it on for? We're
not going to a masquerade."
"I put it on," said Nan, "because I couldn't help myself. I wanted to
change my travelling gown, and when I opened my suit-case this is all
there was in it, except some combs and brushes and bottles."
"Whew!" said Bob. "When I picked up that suit-case I wasn't quite sure I
had the right one. You know I went back for it after we left the train at
New Brunswick, and you said it was the only one in the world with a
handle on the end."
"I thought it was," said Nan, "but it seems somebody else was clever
enough to have an end-handle too, and she was a trained nurse,
apparently."
"Many of the new suit-cases have handles on the end," said Mr. Fairfield,
"though not common as yet I have seen a number of them. But just imagine
how the nurse feels who is obliged to wear your dinner gown instead of
her uniform."
"I hope she won't spoil it," exclaimed Bumble. "It was that lovely light
blue thing, one of the prettiest frocks you own."
"I can imagine her now," said Bob: "she is probably bathing the brow of a
sleepless patient, and the lace ruffles and turquoise bugles are helping
along a lot. In fact, I think she's looking rather nice going around a
sick-room in that blue bombazine."
"It isn't bombazine, Bob," said his sister; "it's beautiful, lovely
light-blue chiffon."
"Well, beautiful, lovely light-blue chiffon, then; but anyway, I'm
sure the nurse is glad of a chance to wear it instead of her own
plain clothes."
"But her own plain clothes are not at all unpicturesque, and are very
becoming to Miss Allen," said Mr. Fairfield. "But haven't your trunks
come?" he added, as they all went out to dinner.
"No," said Bob; "Mr. Harper and I investigated the baggage-room, but
they weren't there."
"Oh, call him Kenneth," said Patty. "You boys are too young for such
formality."
"I may be," said Bob, "but he isn't. He's a college man."
"He's a college boy," said Patty; "he's only nineteen, and you're sixteen
yourself."
"Going on seventeen," said Bob proudly, "and so is Bumble."
"Twins often are the same age," observed Mr. Fairfield, "and after a few
years, Bob, you'll have to be careful how you announce your own age,
because it will reveal your sister's."
"Pooh! I don't care," said Bumble. "I'd just as lieve people would know
how old I am. Nan is twenty-two, and she doesn't care who knows it."
"You look about fifty in those ridiculous clothes," said Patty.
"Do I?" said Nan, quite unconcernedly. "I don't mind that a bit, but I
don't think I can keep them at this stage of whiteness for many days.
Can anything be done to coax our trunks this way?"
"We might do some telephoning after dinner," said Mr. Fairfield. "What is
the situation up to the present time?"
"Why, you see it was this way," said Bumble. "When the carriage came to
take us to the station, the trunks weren't quite ready, and mamma said
for us to go on and she'd finish packing them and send them down in time
to get that train or the next."
"And did they come for that train?"
"No, they didn't, and so, of course, they must have been sent on the next
one; but even so, they ought to be here now, because, you know, we went
on through and came back."
"But how did you get your checks if your trunks weren't put on the
train?"
"Oh, the baggageman knows us," explained Bob, "and he gave us our checks
and kept the duplicates to put on our trunks when they came down to the
station. He often does that."
"Yes," said Bumble, "we've never had our trunks ready yet when the man
came for them."
"Nan's was ready," put in Bob, who was a great stickler for justice,
"but, of course, hers couldn't go till ours did. Oh, I guess they'll turn
up all right."
They did turn up all right twenty-four hours later, but the exchange of
suit-cases was not so easily effected.
However, after more or less correspondence between Nan and the nurse who
owned the uniform, the transfer was finally made, and Nan recovered her
pretty blue gown, which certainly bore no evidence of having been worn in
a sickroom.
"But I bet she wore it, all the same," said Bob. "She probably
neglected her patient and went to a party that night just because she
had the frock."