[Illustration: “Walk right in--I’m a ghost,” he said politely.
_Elizabeth Ann’s Houseboat_ _Frontispiece_]
ELIZABETH ANN’S
HOUSEBOAT
BY
JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE
AUTHOR OF
“ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH ANN,” “LINDA
LANE,” “THE TWO LITTLE FELLOWS,” ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED BY_
_JOHN M. FOSTER_
PUBLISHERS
BARSE & CO.
NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J.
COPYRIGHT, 1929
BY
BARSE & CO.
_Printed in the United States of America_
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A LETTER 11
II ABOUT ELIZABETH ANN 21
III ALL DECIDED 31
IV SAILOR TALK 39
V TAKEN BOYS 50
VI THE BONNIE SUSIE 61
VII SCHOOL NEWS 70
VIII ROGER CALENDAR 79
IX OFF FOR SCHOOL 88
X A BUSY MORNING 97
XI PARTY PLANS 106
XII SEAMEN’S CHESTS 114
XIII CATHERINE DAWDLES 125
XIV AT THE PARTY 134
XV WITCHES AND ALL 145
XVI BAD NEWS 154
XVII SOMETHING DIFFERENT 162
XVIII ELIZABETH ANN WAITS 172
XIX ROGER’S MISTAKE 183
XX THE FORTUNE-TELLER 194
XXI ALL STRAIGHTENED OUT 205
ILLUSTRATIONS
“Walk right in--I’m a ghost,” he said politely
(page 136) _Frontispiece_
PAGE
“For mercy’s sake, who are you?” she said 51
He seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and
lifted her into the bus 129
“It looks as if we were in for more snow,
doesn’t it?”--and he pointed with his
broom toward the sky 177
ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT
CHAPTER I
A LETTER
“I don’t see why we have to hurry,” protested Elizabeth Ann.
She wanted to get out and see what kind of a flower was growing in
the middle of the large field on the right hand side of the road. Lex
had declared that for once he couldn’t stop. Usually Lex did just as
Elizabeth Ann asked him to--Cousin Nellie said that both Lex and Uncle
Doctor always did as Elizabeth Ann asked.
“I promised your Cousin Nellie to come right back with the mail,”
explained the patient Lex for the second time. “When I make a promise,
I keep it.”
“Oh!” said Elizabeth Ann. “I wonder why Cousin Nellie couldn’t wait
for the mail man.”
Lex said he didn’t know, but he had his suspicions.
“I don’t think the mail man knows how to hurry,” said Lex. “Maybe he
gets out and picks all the flowers he sees. He’s late enough most of
the time, to pick a dozen bouquets.”
Elizabeth Ann giggled.
“I don’t think he picks bouquets,” she announced, “but he does read the
magazines, and his horse forgets to go. I think the mail man likes the
stories in magazines.”
Lex, driving Uncle Doctor’s big car as he always drove, carefully, but
fast on an open road, nodded.
“Another week and we won’t care what the mail man does,” he suggested.
“Mind going back to school, Elizabeth Ann?”
It was that small girl’s turn to shake her head.
“I don’t exactly mind going to school,” she explained. “I think I’ll be
glad to see my Aunt Ida, too. And I know I’ll be glad to see Doris. But
there is a great deal to learn, Lex.”
Lex laughed and looked down at the little figure beside him.
“Little Miss Anxious!” he teased. “You know you don’t study all the
time, Elizabeth Ann. Part of the time you play. And when you are
working away at those books with the great deal to learn in them,
suppose you think of me, plugging away. I’ve a great deal to learn
myself.”
Elizabeth Ann smiled a little. She knew when Lex was teasing her.
“I wouldn’t mind if I was learning to be a doctor--like you,” she said.
“You _like_ to study, because you want to hurry up and be a doctor.”
The car had come in sight of the house where Elizabeth Ann, her Uncle
Doctor and Cousin Nellie had been spending the summer.
“When I was your age,” said Lex, driving across the dry and burned
lawn straight toward the long, low windows, “when I was your age, I
suspect I was studying just about the same lessons you’ll have this
winter--arithmetic, and spelling and so forth.”
The car stopped, and Cousin Nellie stepped through one of the
windows--they were really more like doors than windows.
“Did you bring the mail, Lex?” she asked eagerly.
“Yes’m,” answered Lex, handing her the package of letters and papers
and magazines, tied together with a string. “Everything’s there.”
Elizabeth Ann climbed out of the car and went around to the kitchen to
see if Lyn didn’t know a girl who needed cookies. Lyn often knew a girl
who needed cookies to keep her from starving, and strangely enough that
girl was usually Elizabeth Ann.
Though it was the first week in September, it was still very warm.
Elizabeth Ann found Lyn finishing the ironing on the side porch, and
she sat down to talk to her. She had only known Lyn since Uncle Doctor
had come to Cally for the summer, but they were great friends now. Lyn
was a tall, pleasant-faced girl and her real name you’ll never guess so
we’ll have to tell you--it was Patricia Gwendolyn Matilda Barr.
“I’m awfully sorry you’re going home next week,” said Lyn over her
shoulder, as she disappeared into the kitchen.
Elizabeth Ann thought she went to get a hot iron and Lyn did, but she
also brought back a plate of cookies and put it down on the top step
beside Elizabeth Ann.
“M-m-m,” mumbled Elizabeth Ann, taking a delicious bite. “My, you make
good cookies, Lyn. We have to go home, you know. Uncle Doctor has to
cure sick people and I have to go to school. Couldn’t you go and live
with Cousin Nellie?”
“She asked me,” Lyn admitted, beginning to iron one of Elizabeth Ann’s
dresses, “but I can’t go that far away from home. Maybe next year, when
some of my sisters are older and can help my mother, I’ll be able to
go.”
“Don’t you have to go to school?” asked Elizabeth Ann, biting her
cookie all around the edge. She thought they lasted longer that way.
“No-o, I don’t,” Lyn said, “but I suppose I ought to. Your Cousin
Nellie talked to me about school this summer. She says everyone ought
to learn as much as they can.”
“My, yes,” agreed Elizabeth Ann seriously. “There is a great deal
to learn. Maybe you never get through. My Aunt Ida who has a
school--that’s where I went last winter with my cousin Doris--goes to
school herself. She takes lectures during vacation and studies all the
time.”
Lyn had never heard of a school teacher who still studied school books,
and before she could think of anything to say, an old white horse came
rambling up to the steps. This was Elizabeth Ann’s horse, Jaspar, and
she had ridden him all summer.
“He wants sugar!” cried Elizabeth Ann. “Lex got some at the store--it’s
under the car seat--please wait a minute, Jaspar, and I’ll be right
back.”
She dashed away to the front of the house. The car was still standing
where Lex had stopped it, though she didn’t see him there. Elizabeth
Ann didn’t expect to see Lex--she knew that every spare moment he could
get to himself he spent studying the books that were to help him enter
college that fall.
Cousin Nellie was still there, though. She was sitting on the low
front steps, reading her letters.
“Elizabeth Ann, I have a letter from your Aunt Jennie,” said Cousin
Nellie (Elizabeth Ann really had a great many relatives, but she
managed to keep them all straight in her mind).
“How is Antonio?” Elizabeth Ann asked, feeling under the seat of the
car for the package of lump sugar. “How’s Doris?”
Cousin Nellie looked at the letter lying in her lap.
“It’s a very important letter, dearie,” she said, a little seriously.
“Your Aunt Jennie doesn’t mention Antonio--but Doris has been ill for
two weeks.”
“That’s why she didn’t answer my letter!” exclaimed Elizabeth Ann. “I
wrote her a long, long letter and she didn’t send me even a little
letter. Poor Doris! Did she have the measles, Cousin Nellie?”
Cousin Nellie was reading the letter. Her lips moved, but she didn’t
speak aloud. When she reached the end of one page she looked at
Elizabeth Ann.
“When is your Uncle Doctor coming home?” she asked.
Elizabeth Ann blushed suddenly.
“Oh--I forgot to tell you,” she said, looking ashamed. “Cousin Nellie
he told me to be sure and tell you he would come home to lunch to-day.
I forgot all about it.”
Cousin Nellie folded the letter and put it in its envelope.
“Never mind,” she said kindly. “There’s no harm done, Elizabeth Ann.
I’m very glad he will be here for lunch--there is something I must tell
him.”
She went into the house, so Elizabeth Ann couldn’t ask questions. But,
dear me, she _thought_ questions!
“I wonder what Aunt Jennie wrote!” thought Elizabeth Ann’s busy little
brain. “I wonder if Doris is very sick. I wonder if Aunt Jennie wants
Uncle Doctor to come and make Doris well. Uncle Doctor can cure
anybody.”
Elizabeth Ann went around to the back porch. Jaspar was still waiting
for his sugar.
“You spoil that horse,” said Lyn, watching as Elizabeth Ann stood on
the top step and held out her hand, palm up, with a lump of sugar on
it, as Lex had taught her.
“He likes sugar,” Elizabeth Ann declared, while Jaspar’s long nose came
down to her little hand and he took the sugar daintily in his teeth.
“What will he do when you’ve gone home?” demanded Lyn. “Who will give
him sugar then?”
“Mr. Hanson,” Elizabeth Ann answered promptly. “He promised me he
would. He says he will take the best of care of Jaspar, because he
knows I love him.”
Mr. Hanson owned the factory in Cally, and Lyn knew _him_, so he said
he wouldn’t be surprised if Jaspar lived on sugar for the rest of his
life.
Elizabeth Ann opened her mouth to say that no horse could live on
sugar, but instead she cried, “Uncle Doctor!” and dived off the porch
into the arms of a tall, white-haired man, as if it had been weeks
since she had seen him. This was Uncle Doctor, and he and Elizabeth
Ann had had breakfast together that morning; but his little niece was
always perfectly delighted to see him.
“Cousin Nellie has a letter, Uncle Doctor,” said Elizabeth Ann. “Doris
has been sick--maybe they want you to come and cure her. And how did
you get here from town?”
“You put things backward, Elizabeth Ann,” teased Uncle Doctor. “If you
must know, I got a lift from one of the salesmen who brought me as far
as the cross-roads in his car; I walked the rest of the way. Where is
Cousin Nellie and this letter?”
“Here, Cran,” Cousin Nellie said, looking through the kitchen screen.