"Now, Hazel, we 're ready," said Rose, after the dinner dishes had been
washed and the children's time was their own. Hazel submitted meekly to
the blindfolding process.
She had tried in vain to find out something of what the children
intended to do, but they were too clever for her to gain the smallest
hint as to the initiation. March had been busy in the ice-house, and
Cherry had been ironing the aprons for the family,--that was her
Saturday morning duty. Budd and the St. Bernard puppy were off with Chi
in the fields.
Rose led her through the woodshed and out of doors--Hazel knew that by
the rush of soft air that met her face--and away, somewhither. At last
she was helped to climb a ladder; Chi's hand grasped hers, and she felt
the flooring under her feet. Then she was left without support of any
kind, not daring to move with Chi's story in her thoughts.
"Guess we 'll have the roll-call first," said Chi, solemnly. There was
not a sound to be heard except now and then a rush of wings and the
twitter of swallows.
"Molly Stark."
"Here," said Rose.
"Markis de Lafayette."
"Here," from March.
"Marthy Washin'ton."
"Present," said Cherry, forgetting she was not in school. Budd
snickered, and the president called him to order.
"Fine of two cents for snickerin' in meetin'." Budd looked sober.
"Ethan Allen."
"Here," said Budd, in a subdued voice.
"Old Put,--Here," said Chi, addressing and answering himself. "Now,
Markis, read the by-laws."
"Number One.--We pledge ourselves not to be afraid to tell the truth."
"Number Two.--We pledge ourselves to be afraid to tell a lie.
"Number Three.--We pledge ourselves to try to help others whenever we
can, wherever we can, however we can, as long as ever we can.
"Number Four.--We, as American boys and girls, pledge ourselves never to
play the coward nor to disgrace our country."
"Molly Stark, unfurl the flag," said Chi.
Hazel heard a rustle as Rose unrolled the banner of soft red, white, and
blue cambric.
"Put Old Glory round the candidate's shoulders," commanded the
president, and Hazel felt the soft folds being draped about her.
"There now, Lady-bird, you 're dressed as pretty as you 're ever goin'
to be; it don't make a mite of difference whether you 're the Empress of
Rooshy, or just plain every-day folks; 'n' now you 've got that rig on,
we 're ready to give you the hand of fellowship. Markis, you have the
floor."
"What name does the candidate wish to be known by?" asked March, with
due gravity; then, forgetting his role, he added, "You must take the
name of some woman who has been just as brave as she could be."
Hazel, feeling the folds of the flag about her, suddenly recalled her
favorite poem of Whittier's.
"Barbara Frietchie," she said promptly and firmly.
The various members shouted and cheered themselves hoarse before order
was restored.
"What'd I tell you, Budd?" said Chi, triumphantly; then there was
another shout, for Chi had broken the rules in speaking thus.
"Two cents' fine!" shouted Budd, "for speaking out of order in meeting."
"Sho! I forgot," said Chi, humbly; "well, proceed."
"Do you, Barbara Frietchie, pledge yourself to try to keep these
by-laws?"
"Yes," said Hazel, but rather tremulously.
"Well, then, we 'll put you to the test. Molly Stark will extend the
first hand of fellowship to Barbara Frietchie--No, hold out your hand,
Hazel; way out--don't you draw it back that way!"
"I did n't," retorted Hazel.
"Yes, you did, I saw you!"
"You didn't, either."
"I did."
"You did n't."
"I did, too."
"He did n't, did he, Chi?" said Hazel, furious at this charge of
apparent timidity.
"I don't believe you drew it back even if March does think he saw you,"
said Chi, pouring oil both ways on the troubled waters; "'n' I never
thought 't was just the thing for a boy to tell a girl she was a coward
before she'd proved to be one--specially if he belongs to this Society."
The Marquis de Lafayette hung his head at this rebuke; but in the action
his cocked hat of black and gilt paper lurched forward and drew off with
it his white cotton-wool wig. Budd and Cherry, forgetting all rules,
fines, and sense of propriety, rolled over and over at the sight; Rose
sat down shaking with laughter, and even Chi lost his dignity.
"I wish you would let me _see_, or do something," said Hazel,
plaintively, when she could make herself heard.
"'T ain't fair to keep Hazel waiting so," declared Budd, and the
president called the meeting to order again.
"Put out your hand, Hazel," said Rose. "Now shake."
Hazel grasped a hand, cold, deathly cold, and clammy. The chill of the
rigid fingers sent a corresponding shiver down the length of her
backbone, and the goose-flesh rose all over her arms and legs. She
thought she must shriek; but she recalled Chi's words, set her teeth
hard, and shook the awful thing with what strength she had, never
uttering a sound.
"Bully for you, Hazel! I knew you 'd show lots of pluck," cried Budd.
"Got grit every time," said Chi, proudly. "Now let's have the other
test and get down to business. Guess all three of you 'll have to have
a finger in this pie. Hurry up, Marthy Washin'ton!" Cherry scuttled
down the ladder, and in a few minutes labored, panting, up again.
"What did you bring two for?" demanded Budd.
"'Cause March said 't would balance me better on the ladder," replied
Cherry, innocently. At which explanation Chi laughed immoderately, much
to Cherry's discomfiture.
"Now, Hazel, roll up your sleeve and hold out your bare arm," said the
Marquis. Hazel obeyed, wondering what would come next.
"Here, Budd, you hold it; all ready, Cherry?"
"Ye-es--wait a minute; now it's all right."
"This we call burning in the Society's brand,--N.B.B.O.O.;" the voice of
the Marquis was solemn, befitting the occasion.
Hazel drew her breath sharply, uncertain whether to cry out or not.
There was a sharp sting across her arm, as if a hot curling-iron had
been drawn quickly across it; then a sound of sizzling flesh, and the
odor of broiled beefsteak rose up just under her nostrils.
There was a diabolical thud of falling flat-irons; Rose tore the bandage
from Hazel's eyes, and the bewildered candidate for membership, when her
eyes grew somewhat wonted to the dim light, found herself in a corner of
the loft in the barn, with the elegant figure of the Marquis in cocked
hat, white wig, yellow vest, blue coat, and yellow knee-breeches dancing
frantically around her; Ethan Allen in white woollen shirt, red yarn
suspenders, and red, white, and blue striped trousers, turning back-hand
somersaults on the hay; Chi standing at salute with his
great-great-grandfather's Revolutionary musket, his old straw hat
decorated with a tricolor cockade, and Cherry in a white cotton-wool
wig, a dark calico dress of her mother's and a white neckerchief, flat
on the floor beside two six-pound flat-irons.
A piece of raw beef on a tin pan, some bits of ice, and a kid glove
stuffed with ice and sawdust, lay scattered about. They told the tale of
the initiation.
"Three cheers for Barbara Frietchie!" shouted Budd, as he came right
side up. The barn rang with them.
"Now we 'll give the right hand of true fellowship," said Chi, rapping
with the butt of his musket for order.
Rose gave Hazel's hand a squeeze. "I 'm so glad you 're to be one of
us," she said heartily; and Hazel squeezed back.
March came forward, bowed low, and said, "I apologize for my distrust of
your pluck," and held out his hand with a look in the flashing gray eyes
that was not one of mockery; indeed, he looked glad, but never a word of
welcome did he speak.
"I could flog that proud feller," muttered Chi to himself.
Hazel hesitated a moment, then put out her hand a little reluctantly.
March caught the gesture and her look.
"Oh, you 're not obliged to," he said haughtily, and turned on his heel.
But Hazel put her hand on his arm.
"I 'm afraid we are both breaking some of the by-laws, March. I do want
to shake hands, but I was thinking just then that you did n't mean the
apology--not really and truly; and if you did mean it, there was
something else you needed to apologize for more than that!"
March flushed to the roots of his hair. Then his boy's honor came to
the rescue.
"I do want to now, Hazel--and forgive and forget, won't you?" he said,
with the winning smile he inherited from his father, but which he kept
for rare occasions.
Hazel put her hand in his, and felt that this had been worth waiting
for. She knew that at last March had taken her in.
Budd gripped with all his might, Cherry shook with two fingers, and
Chi's great hand closed over hers as tenderly as a woman's would have
done.
This was Hazel's initiation into the Nobody's Business But Our Own
Society. It was the second meeting of the year.
"Now, March, I 'll make you chairman and ask you to state the business
of this meetin', as you 've called it. Must be mighty important?"
"It is," replied March, gravely, all the fun dying out of his face.
"You remember, all of you,--don't you?--what mother told us that night
she said Hazel was coming?"
"Yes," chorussed the children.
"Well, I 've been thinking and thinking ever since how I could help--"
"So 've I, March," interrupted Rose.
"And I have, too," said Budd.
"What's all this mean?" said Chi, somewhat astonished, for he had not
known why the meeting had been called.
"Why, you see, Chi, we never knew till then that the farm had been
mortgaged on account of father's sickness, and that it had been so awful
hard for mother all this year--"
Chi cleared his throat.
"--And we want to do something to help earn. If we could earn just our
own clothes and books and enough to pay for our schooling, it would be
something."
"Guess 't would," said Chi, clearing his throat again. "Kind of workin'
out the third by-law, ain't you?"
"Trying to," answered March, with such sincerity in his voice that Chi's
throat troubled him for full a minute. "And what I want to find out,
without mother's knowing it, or father either, is how we can earn enough
for those things. If anybody 's got anything to say, just speak up."
"What you goin' to do with those Wyandottes?"
"I knew you 'd ask that, Chi. I 'm going to raise a fine breed and sell
the eggs at a dollar and a half for thirteen; but I can't get any
chicken-money till next fall, and no egg-money till next spring, and I
want to begin now."
"Hm--" said Chi, taking off his straw hat and slowly scratching his
head. "Well," he said after a pause in which all were thinking and no
one talking, "why don't all of you go to work raisin' chickens for next
Thanksgivin'?"
"By cracky!" said Budd, "we could raise three or four hundred, an' fat
'em up, an' make a pile, easy as nothing."
"I don't know about it's bein' so easy; but children have the time to
tend 'em, and I don't see why it won't work, seein' it's a good time of
year."
"But where 'll we get the hens to set, Chi?" said March.
"Oh, there 's enough of 'em settin' round now on the bare boards," Chi
replied.
"Can I raise some, too?" asked Hazel, rather timidly.
"Don't know what there is to hinder," said Chi, with a slow smile.
"And can I buy some hens for my very own?"
"Why, of course you can; just say the word, 'n' you 'n' I 'll go
settin'-hen hunting within a day or so."
"Oh, what fun!" cried Hazel, clapping her hands. "But I want some that
will sit and lay too, Chi; then I can sell the eggs."
There was a shout of laughter, at which Hazel felt hurt.
"There now, Lady-bird, we won't laugh at your city ways of lookin' at
things any more. The hens ain't quite so accommodatin' as that, but we
'll get some good setters first, 'n' then see about the layin'
afterwards."
"But, Chi, it will take such a lot of corn to fatten them. We don't want
to ask father for anything."
"That's right, Rose. Be independent as long as you can; I thought of
that, too. Now, there 's a whole acre on the south slope I ploughed
this spring,--nice, hot land, just right for corn-raisin'; 'n' if you
children 'll drop 'n' cover, I 'll help you with the hoein' 'n' cuttin'
'n' huskin'; 'n' you 'll have your corn for nothin'."
"Good for you, Chi; we 'll do it, won't we?" cried March.
"You bet," said Budd.
"I can pick berries," said Rose, "and we can always sell them at the
Inn, or at Barton's River."
"Yes, and we can begin in June," said Cherry; "the pastures are just red
with the wild strawberries, you know, Rose."
"It's an awful sight of work to pick 'em," said Budd, rather dubiously.
"Well, you can't get your money without workin', Budd; 'n' work don't
mean 'take it easy.'"
"I 'm sure we can get twenty-five cents a quart for them right in the
village. I 've heard folks say they make the best preserve you can get,
and you can't buy them for love nor money," said Rose. "Mother makes
beautiful ones."
"Was n't that what we had last Sunday night when the minister was here
to tea?" asked Hazel.
"Yes," said Rose.
"I never tasted any strawberries like them at home, and the housekeeper
buys lots of jams and jellies in the fall." Hazel thought hard for a
minute. Suddenly she jumped to her feet, clapped her hands, and spun
round and round like a top, crying out, "I have it! I have it!"
The N.B.B.O.O. Society was amazed to see the new member perform in this
lively manner, for Hazel had been rather quiet during the first month.
Now she caught up her skirts with a dainty tilt, and danced the Highland
Fling just to let her spirits out through her feet. Up and down the
floor of the loft she charged, hands over her head, hands swinging her
skirts, light as a fairy, bending, swaying, and bowing, till, with a big
"cheese," she sat down almost breathless by Chi. Was this Hazel? The
members of the N.B.B.O.O. looked at one another in amazement, and
March's eyes flashed again, as they had done once before during the
afternoon.
"Now all listen to me," she said, as if, after a month of silence, she
had found her tongue. "I 've an idea, and when I have one, papa says
it's worth listening to,--which is n't often, I 'm sure. We 'll pick
the strawberries, and get Mrs. Blossom to show Rose how to do them up;
and I 'll write to papa and Doctor Heath's wife and to our housekeeper
and Cousin Jack, and see if they don't want some of those delicious
preserves that they can't get in the city. I 'll find out from Mrs.
Scott--that's the housekeeper--how much she pays for a jar in New York,
and then we 'll charge a little more for ours because the strawberries
are a little rarer. Are n't there any other kinds of berries that grow
around here?"
"Guess you 'd better stop 'n' take breath, Lady-bird; there 's a mighty
lot of plannin' in all that. What 'd I tell you, Budd?" Chi asked
again.
Budd looked at Hazel in boyish admiration, but said nothing.
"I think that's splendid, Hazel," said Rose, "if they'll only want
them."
"I know they will; but are there any other berries?"
"Berries! I should think so; raspberries and blackberries by the bushel
on the Mountain, and they say they 're the best anywhere round here,"
said March.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Cherry, "I wish we could go to work right now."
"Well, so you can," said Chi, "only you can't go berryin' just yet. You
can begin to drop that corn this very afternoon: better be inside the
ground pretty soon, with all those four hundred chickens waitin' to join
the Thanksgivin' procession."
[Illustration: "'You can begin to drop that corn this very afternoon'"]
"Oh, Chi, you 're making fun of us," laughed Rose.
"Don't you believe it, Rose-pose; never was more in earnest in my life.
Come along, 'n' I 'll show you."