THE CANDY DISAPPEARS
Gilbert and Winifred often talked to Ruth of their soldier brother, Vinal;
and she never tired of hearing the story of a midnight visit he
had made during the previous winter.
He had arrived home late one afternoon, coming up the street as if there
were not an English soldier in the city, and had stayed the night in his
own home, departing early the next morning for Valley Forge. It was just
such an adventure as the children admired, and would have well liked to
have had some part in.
Gilbert had reluctantly given up the plan of changing his name to
Lafayette. No one seemed to remember his wish, and after a few weeks he
no longer reminded Ruth or Winifred.
As the time of Ruth's visit to Barren Hill drew near she made many
pleasant plans of all she would see and do while at Aunt Deborah's
square stone house, and recalled all that her aunt had told her of the
beehives in a sunny corner of the garden, the flocks of chickens, the
many birds that nested safely in the orchard trees, and the big attic
that would be such a fine play-house on stormy days. But most of all
Ruth thought of the fact that Barren Hill was only ten miles distant
from Valley Forge, and that there might be some way in which she could
see her father.
"I wish I could find out that the English were going to leave
Philadelphia, and then I would have good news for Father," she thought.
"Or if I could carry a fine present for Father to give Lafayette." But
there seemed little prospect that a little girl like Ruth could be the
bearer of good news to the troops at Valley Forge, or of a present to
the gallant young Frenchman.
Ruth's thumb healed in a few days, so that she could help her mother in
the garden, and do her usual work about the house. Every morning,
directly after breakfast, was the lesson hour, when Mrs. Pennell and
Ruth would sit down in the dining-room and, as Ruth had described it to
Aunt Deborah, "Tell stories."
There were "history" stories, and these Ruth liked best of all. One was
the story of the first Quaker emigrants who came to Philadelphia in
three small ships, bringing a friendly letter from the good-natured King
Charles to the Delaware Indians. She liked to hear how these people
sailed safely across the Atlantic and came up the Delaware, and first
found shelter in caves along the river's bank, and then built themselves
log cabins, and big strong houses.
Then there were stories of the stars, by which sailors steered their
course at sea, and there were stories of birds and beasts, and a very
amusing game in which a small girl from Japan and another from China,
and a little black girl from Africa, each recited the way children were
taught in those countries.
Mrs. Pennell did not always tell the stories, no, indeed! Often Ruth
would be asked to tell the story of William Penn, or perhaps to draw a
little picture of certain constellations. And always there was the
adding of apples, the dividing of apples into four parts and eight
parts, which Mrs. Pennell called "Fractions." And after this pleasant
hour there were the neat stitches to be set in apron, dress, or
handkerchief.
Nearly every child had regular tasks; they were taught to use their
hands as well as their eyes and thoughts, and Ruth was very proud that
she could hemstitch nicely, and "set the heel" of a stocking, and finish
off its toe.
After Vinal brought the letter from Ruth's father Mrs. Pennell seemed
more cheerful, and often said that she was sure it would not be many
months before Philadelphia would be rid of the enemy.
Ruth and Winifred counted the days until the last day of April, when
they were to make the candy as a present for Betty. The pretty
heart-shaped box that was to hold it was already finished. Mrs. Pennell
had helped them make it. She had carefully shaped it from pasteboard,
and then, with a flour paste, the little girls had covered it carefully
with some pretty bits of wall-paper. The cover had three tiny hearts cut
from gilt paper, and Ruth and Winifred were both sure that Betty would
be much pleased by their gift, especially when she opened it and found
it full of sweets.
Ruth had just finished her lesson hour on the morning of the day before
the May-day picnic, when Winifred appeared. She brought a package of
sugar that her mother had given her as her share for the candy, and the
two little girls ran to the kitchen, which they were to have quite to
themselves for their candy-making.
The family cooking was done over the bed of coals in the fireplace, and
Ruth brought out a saucepan, a big spoon, and some sugar from the
pantry, and talking happily of the pleasures of the coming day the two
little friends measured their sugar and set the saucepan over the coals,
while Ruth, spoon in hand, watched it carefully, while Winifred stood
close by ready to help.
It was a great event to be permitted to make candy, and both Winifred
and Ruth decided that it would be a much more acceptable present than a
table.
In a short time the melted sugar, flavored with rose leaves, was ready
to be turned into the tiny heart-shaped molds, and set to cool on the
window ledge.
"Let's go out in the garden," suggested Ruth. "If we stay in here we
shall keep looking at the candy to see if it is ready to turn out, and
it will seem forever." So they went out to the seat under the maple
tree, played with Hero, talked about the May party and the time, now
near at hand, when Ruth would go to visit Aunt Deborah, and nearly an
hour passed before they returned to the kitchen.
"Why, where are the molds?" exclaimed Ruth. "Where is the candy?"
demanded Winifred, and they looked at the vacant window-sill where they
had left the sweets to cool.
"Mother must have put them in the pantry," said Ruth.
"Of course," Winifred agreed, and the little girls exchanged a smile of
relief as they both turned toward the pantry.
But the candy was not there.
"I'll run and ask her where she put it," said Ruth, and hurried off to
find her mother who was busy in one of the upper rooms.
"But I have not been down-stairs, dear child," Mrs. Pennell replied.
"You do not suppose the molds have fallen out of the window?" she asked,
and without stopping to answer Ruth ran back to the kitchen, and leaned
out of the window, but there was no candy to be seen.
"Oh, Ruth! The box is gone, too! Some one must have come in and taken
it!" said Winifred; and, sure enough, the pretty box had disappeared
from the table as well as the molds from the window. Both the little
girls were ready to cry with disappointment.
They knew that each of the other guests would bring Betty a present, and
they knew also that their mothers could not spare any more sugar for
candy. Besides this the pretty box was gone, and they had no more bits
of paper to make another.
"I shan't go to the party," Ruth declared. "And who could have been mean
enough to take the candy?"
Mrs. Pennell was nearly as troubled as Ruth and Winnie. It was evident
that some one must have entered the house by the front door, taken the
candy, and made off while the girls were in the garden. She feared that
other things must have been taken, but a careful search proved that
nothing else was missing.
Winifred agreed with Ruth that they did not wish to go to the party
without a present for Betty. "And now it is too late to even think of
anything," she said as she started for home, leaving Ruth puzzled and
unhappy, and wondering to herself if perhaps some ill-natured fairies
had not made off with the sweets. The more Ruth thought of this the more
convinced she was that it was what had happened. She remembered hearing
queer little noises at her window that morning that she had thought were
made by the birds nesting in the hawthorn. Now she said to herself that
it must have been fairies coming into the house. "And because I did not
make them welcome they have taken the candy," she decided, remembering a
fairy tale that Mrs. Merrill had once told the two girls in which
children had always welcomed fairies who came tapping at the windows of
a spring morning, by singing:
"Welcome, fairies good and kind;
Come in, come in, and welcome find."
In the story the fairies had brought wonderful gifts, but if they had
not been welcomed they would have taken the children's dearest
possessions, which could only be recovered by walking around the garden
just before sunrise and bowing low three times to the lilac, three times
to a robin, and three times with your eyes shut tight, repeating each
time:
"Fairies, fairies, here I bow.
Will you kindly pardon now
That I did not hear or see
When you came to visit me?"
Ruth was glad that she could remember it.
"I'll get up before sunrise to-morrow morning and do exactly as the
little girl did in the story when the fairies brought back her silver
heart, and then probably when I open my eyes there will be the box and
the candy," thought Ruth.
"Why, of course, it was because the box and the candies were
heart-shaped," she decided; "that's another reason I'm sure it was
fairies. It will be splendid if I can get them back. I won't tell
Winifred until after breakfast to-morrow. Won't she be surprised?"
Mrs. Pennell wondered a little that Ruth was in such good spirits the
rest of the day, after the disappearance of the candy, and that she was
so ready to go to bed at an hour earlier than the usual time.