SUMMER'S END
"Keep away from that coffee pot!" said Warren for the sixth time in as
many minutes.
Rosemary laughed and pulled Shirley back from the fire.
After twice fixing a day for the picnic, only to have Doctor Hugh
summoned by telephone and obliged to remain away till early evening,
the suggestion of a picnic supper had been suggested and accepted.
"A good idea, I call it," Winnie had approved. "We won't have to start
till around four o'clock and by that time Hughie ought to have a couple
of hours off, anyway. I'm not crazy about eating outdoors, but if a
body can have something hot, it isn't so bad as it might be."
Warren and Richard had promised to build the fire and make the
coffee--they assured Winnie that even she would praise their brew--and
Doctor Hugh had insisted on the "hot dogs" without which no properly
conducted supper--so he said--could be arranged. He was sharpening a
stick to serve Sarah as a toaster now.
Winnie's hospitable soul rejoiced in the groups gathered about the
glowing fire, built on an improvised stone hearth between two tree
stumps. Winnie had put her best efforts into the food and she liked to
be assured that the quantity, as well as the quality, would be
appreciated.
They were all there--the six from the Willis household, Mr. and Mrs.
Hildreth, Richard and Warren; and the six Gays with roly-poly little
Mrs. Robinson and her husband who had come up to introduce his wife to
the farm and leave her there while he finished "the season" on the
road. Mrs. Willis had been delighted to have this opportunity to meet
the people who were to live with the Gay children and who would, she
reasoned, have more or less influence over them. Mrs. Robinson had
been three days at the farm and already she had won the friendship of
Louisa and Alec, not an easy matter to bring about. The younger
children were devoted to her and it was apparent that the motherless
household unconsciously welcomed her wealth of tact and wisdom and
sympathy.
"They need you so," said Mrs. Willis when she had a chance to speak
confidentially to the wife of the circus agent.
"Not more than I need them," responded Mrs. Robinson. "They have no
mother and I have no children."
And if the payment of the quarter's rent in advance had "turned the
luck," as Alec insisted, it was the coming of Mrs. Robinson that turned
the Gays back to normal, happy living.
Rosemary had stipulated that the "grown-ups" were to visit and leave
the preparation of the supper to the children. Most of the preparation
was confined to setting the table--on a flat rock--and to boiling the
coffee and toasting the meat. Richard and Warren were in charge of the
fire and Louisa and Rosemary undertook to set out the eatables, while
Alec carried fresh water from the spring, fished out ants from the milk
pitcher and endeavored to keep the younger fry from tasting everything
left unguarded.
Sarah's insistence on toasting her own "hot dog" led to a general
clamor for sticks and Doctor Hugh obligingly whittled a dozen wands.
taking care to make them long as a precaution against a too eager
approach to the fire.
The table looked very pretty when Rosemary summoned them, for a bouquet
was in the center and tiny wreaths of flowers circled the paper dishes.
Warren's coffee was pronounced delicious and Winnie received so many
compliments on her stuffed eggs and the potato salad that she told Mrs.
Hildreth it would serve her right if the cake should turn out to be
soggy.
"Then," declared Mrs. Hildreth neatly, "I should know it was no cake of
your baking!"
But one distressing incident interrupted the serene progress of that
wonderful supper--when the paper cup of ants and bugs and beetles and
flies that Sarah had captured before sitting down, upset directly into
her saucer of home-made ice cream. Even that catastrophe could not mar
the general enjoyment, though Sarah retired to fish out the bugs
carefully by hand with the forlorn hope of "drying them off and saving
them."
When the supper was over and everything cleared away, Warren built up
the fire again and they gathered around it. The day had been warm but
a slight chill was in the air--the early touch of fall.
"It doesn't seem as though we were going home to-morrow," remarked
Rosemary pensively. "And school opens next week."
"The summer has gone so swiftly," said Mrs. Willis. "I can scarcely
realize that this is September. The Hammonds have started--Hugh had a
letter yesterday."
"I think it's been a long summer," declared Sarah, trying to hide a
yawn.
"Well, I'm glad it's over," said Louisa bluntly.
Then the baby June was discovered asleep in Alec's lap and Mrs.
Robinson offered to take her back to the house and put her to bed.
Louisa decreed that bed-time had arrived for the other Gays and they
all turned homeward, promising to say good by to the Willises in the
morning.
"And remember you've promised to bring Rosemary out to see us this
winter, Doctor Willis," Louisa reminded him.
"You come along, Sarah, and see the new tricks I've taught your pig,"
said Mr. Robinson with the kindest intention in the world.
Sarah made no reply. She had never voluntarily mentioned Bony since
the morning she had watched him driven off the farm and gradually her
mother and sisters had forgotten him. Not so Sarah. She never forgot
but nothing ever induced her to go and see the pig though she had
plenty of opportunities later, had she so desired.
The twilight shut down and Warren added more fuel to the fire. Shirley
pressed close to her mother, hoping to hide the fact that she, too, was
getting sleepy.
"I don't think it was a long summer," she chirped, "I would like more
summer to get herbs in; Mr. Fiddlestrings likes us to get them for him."
"You don't call him that, do you?" asked Rosemary, shocked.
"Everyone does," retorted Shirley. "Only they say 'Old Fiddlestrings'
and we don't--do we, Sarah?"
"He has a stuffed snake," said Sarah who seldom troubled herself to
answer questions that failed to directly interest her. "Rich, you said
you'd show me how to stuff a snake and you never did."
"Well, I never got around to it," Richard apologized. "I'm one who
found the summer too short."
Mr. Hildreth grunted.
"Guess you don't need a stuffed snake, Sarah," he said humorously. "A
stuffed chicken seemed to be too much for your family."
Sarah looked disgusted, while the others laughed at the recollection of
that chicken. Sarah, a few weeks before, had found a dead chicken
under the carriage house and had decided it to be a Heaven-sent
opportunity to practise her theories of taxidermy. She had stuffed the
carcass with a variety of available materials--grass and hay and
pebbles, mixed with small sticks and cakes of mud--and, her task
completed, had hidden the treasure in a cupboard in the pantry. For
some reason she deemed the sympathy of her family doubtful and she made
no mention of the experiment to anyone.
It was not long before Winnie complained of an unpleasant odor in her
always thoroughly aired pantry. She stood it for one day, grumbling.
The second day she began to talk about "country plumbing" and the third
morning she started in to scrub and scour and disinfect vigorously.
Her activities led her to the dark corner where Sarah had stowed her
chicken and the subsequent interview was brief and to the point. Sarah
buried the unfortunate fowl, using the cake turner which she was later
to bury also on command of Winnie, and this, to date, had been her sole
experience with "stuffing" anything.
Rosemary leaned forward, smiling at the fire.
"What are you thinking of, Rosemary?" asked her brother, dexterously
shifting Sarah's position so that she could not kick the fire with her
shoes--a feat she was anxious to accomplish.
"Oh, ever so many things," said Rosemary. "About Louisa and Alec and
the circus. And the poor farm, too."
Warren was watching the fire closely, too.
"I drove past the poor farm the other day," he said slowly, "and the
lawns have all been ploughed up and seeded. There's no place now for
the folks to sit, except on the back porch. Not till the new grass has
a good start."
"I don't see why Sarah is always planning a farm for animals," Rosemary
declared a little passionately. "If I ever have a farm it is going to
be a home for people who haven't any other home. People like the Gays
and old men and women who have no one to take care of them."
"I'll have a poor farm, too," cried Sarah, wide awake in an instant.
"I never thought of that. I'll have a place for sick animals, too, but
I'll have a real poor farm for old horses and cows and pigs and
things--when they're too old to work, like old Belle."
Warren and Richard laughed and Doctor Hugh patted his small sister's
energetic dark head.
"I wish you and Rosemary could do all you plan," he said with a half
sigh. "There's room enough for that help and more."
Mrs. Hildreth, her busy hands for once idle, stared at the blazing
fire. She had told her husband earlier in the day that she hardly knew
how to behave at a picnic, it had been so long since she had allowed
herself such a frivolous pleasure.
She sat now, between Winnie and Mrs. Willis, tense and upright, unable
to relax, but resting nevertheless.
"It's been a nice summer," she said slowly. "I don't know when I've
had time go so fast. Young people in the house and outside do brighten
things up amazingly. And Warren and Rich have made me so little
trouble--I never knew two boys who needed less waiting on; yes, I've
had a nice summer. I can say that."
Warren's tanned face flushed a little and Richard stirred uneasily.
Both recalled moments of impatience, fortunately suppressed, and
remembered small kindnesses they might have easily performed. Poor
Mrs. Hildreth, so utterly unable to take life easily, was something of
a taskmaster like her husband. She prided herself on asking no more of
anyone than she was willing to do herself and the result was nerves
strung up to concert pitch and a volume of work turned out that was the
wonder of a neighborhood famed for its industry. Warren and Richard
felt guiltily that they might have made more positive contributions to
her "nice summer," but they were thankful for the little they had done
to lighten the good woman's labors.
"How about you, Mother?" said Doctor Hugh mischievously.
"I? Oh, I have learned to love Rainbow Hill," was Mrs. Willis'
response. "I could ask no more of any summer than these weeks have
given me--love and happiness and health. And to-morrow we're going
home!"
Rosemary smiled across the fire at her mother. She, too, liked to
think of going home.
"I only hope the smell of the paint will be out of the house," remarked
Winnie who could never, under any circumstances, be accused of being
sentimentally inclined.
"And the gas stove," went on Winnie dreamily. "If that Greggs has been
mixing messes on it and dropping his glue on the enamel, I'll give him
a piece of my mind. I left that kitchen like wax and it's my hope to
find it like that, but I have my doubts."
Doctor Hugh laughed and put back a brand that slipped from the glowing
embers.
"Ah, Winnie, you know you can hardly wait to get to the straightening
up part," he accused her. "You're already turning the rooms inside out
in your mind's eye for a grand cleaning. I had thought of getting
someone to come in and have it all in order for you and then I was
afraid you might not like it so I changed my mind."
"Hughie, if a strange person lays hand on a thing in that house," began
Winnie solemnly and then she stopped as she saw the smiling face.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself to be teasing me," she scolded.
"Shirley's asleep and so is Winnie," said Doctor Hugh suddenly.
"I am not!" protested Shirley indignantly as usual.
"Eh?" Winnie jerked her eyes open with a start. "For mercy's sake, do
we have to stay out here all night?" she demanded crossly. "I can
stand a picnic supper, if I have to, but it's no picnic for me to have
to sleep out on damp grass."
Doctor Hugh laughingly declared that after that gentle hint there was
nothing to do but go in. He helped the boys cover the fire and stamp
out every vestige of an ember and then led the way to the house,
carrying Shirley and leading Sarah who pretended to be very wide-awake
but whose feet lagged unaccountably.
"I declare, I can't get used to having no dinner dishes to wash," said
Winnie when they had reached the porch. "I'm going in now and see if I
left the kitchen in good order."
She disappeared and Mrs. Willis took Shirley and Sarah up to bed, while
Doctor Hugh snapped on the reading light.
"I want to look over the paper," he said comfortably. "Don't go,
Warren--it's early yet, Rich."
Rosemary found her favorite low rocker and the boys chose the swing.
"We'll miss this," said Warren slowly.
"Yes, we haven't any swing at Ag State," declared Richard with a grin.
"You know what I mean, well enough," retorted Warren. "Confabs,
music--being inside a home."
Richard was silent. He knew.
"Mother says she asked you to write to her," broke in Rosemary. "She
says we'll never forget this dear little house at Rainbow Hill and the
friends we've made this summer."
"Have you found your pot of gold, Rosemary?" asked Richard, watching
the light which threw the outline of the girl's pretty head into relief.
Rosemary laughed a little. Early in the summer Mrs. Hildreth had
explained that the name "Rainbow Hill" had been given the farm by Mrs.
Hammond because the first time she had seen the house its roof had been
spanned by a beautiful rainbow. The Willis girls had waited hopefully
two months for a glimpse of a rainbow, but none had been vouchsafed
them. Sarah, for one, believed the rainbow to be as mythical as the
pot of gold Mrs. Hildreth had told her was always to be found at its
end.
"I don't believe I've found any pot of gold," said Rosemary wistfully.
"Oh, yes, you have," contradicted Warren. "Look at the Gays--you
helped them find their pot of gold; look at Miss Clinton--you gave her
many happy hours; look at Mrs. Hildreth--she says she never knew a
summer to go so quickly and it's all because she has had someone
cheerful to talk to her. Look at Rich and me--"
"Oh, Warren!" Rosemary protested. "Sarah did more for the Gays than
ever I did. And Mother and Winnie talked to Mrs. Hildreth. I haven't
done anything."
"It's your pure joyousness, I think," went on Warren as though he had
not heard her. "I don't believe enough people are simply happy in this
world. That's your pot of gold, Rosemary--happiness. And you share it
with everyone you meet. It makes a fellow feel--well, as though he
were standing on a mountain top in the morning, just to look at you."
"Oh!" said Rosemary softly, astonished at quiet Warren and yet oddly
pleased, too. "Oh!"
"You're even glad to go back to school, aren't you, Rosemary?" asked
Richard with a half unconscious sigh. Going back to school for him,
and for Warren, meant much hard work and more anxiety.
The dreamy light went out of the girl's eyes. Her lovely, vivid face
glowed with characteristic enthusiasm. It might be said of Rosemary
that no future was ever else than rosy to her ardent gaze.
"Of course I'll be glad!" she answered eagerly. "It will be my last
year in grammar school, you know. And it's sure to be exciting--in
spots. Besides I just love going ahead!"
Across his lowered paper, Doctor Hugh smiled at the two boys in the
swing.
"And that," he said whimsically, "explains why Rosemary is Rosemary."
THE END