CATHERINE DAWDLES
The chug-chug of the bus sounded on the main road. Dave was blowing his
horn, too, as he always did, to warn any stragglers.
“Hurry!” urged Elizabeth Ann, taking hold of Doris’s hand to make her
run. “Hurry, Catherine--you’ll be late.”
Elizabeth Ann and Doris ran as fast as they could, but Catherine simply
walked as usual. Once Elizabeth Ann looked over her shoulder and called
to her to run, but Catherine didn’t even answer.
“Almost missed it,” said Dave, when Elizabeth Ann reached the low, wide
step, scarlet-faced and breathless and dragging a breathless Doris
after her.
All the other children were inside and that showed Elizabeth Ann how
nearly she had missed the bus. Usually she and Doris were on hand to
stand in line and march in with the others.
“Hurry up,” Dave commanded. “Hop in.”
Doris obediently “hopped,” but Elizabeth Ann hung back.
“Catherine Gould is coming--I have to wait for her,” she said, looking
pleadingly at Dave.
“Well, where is she?” he demanded impatiently.
Elizabeth Ann looked. Catherine wasn’t in sight yet. The road dipped
behind a hill and you couldn’t see anyone coming up till he or she had
almost reached the top. It was plain that Catherine didn’t intend to
hurry.
“Get in,” said Dave curtly. “I can’t wait for Catherine--she never is
willing to hurry.”
But he sounded his horn twice to let Catherine know he was there.
“Get in, Elizabeth Ann,” said Dave again. “I can’t wait any longer.”
Elizabeth Ann shook her head.
“I have to wait for Catherine,” she declared. “You go on without me.”
“Oh, Elizabeth Ann, you’ll be late for school,” cried Doris from her
seat in the bus. “You know Miss Owen hates to have a tardy mark against
the class.”
Tears came into Elizabeth Ann’s eyes, but she looked steadily at Dave.
“I can’t go and leave her,” she said.
For answer Dave suddenly stood up. He slid out from behind the wheel
and stooped down, seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and lifted her
into the bus. He put her down on the long seat and closed the door with
a snap.
Then he started the bus.
“Wait!” screamed Catherine, just reaching the road. “Wait for me! Hey,
Dave, you wait for me!”
Dave glanced at Elizabeth Ann. He stopped the bus. And that troublesome
Catherine stopped running and began to walk as slowly as she could.
“Don’t wait for her, Dave,” said some of the boys. “She’s always acting
like that. Serve her right to go on and leave her.”
To everyone’s surprise, Dave backed the bus. He let it run backward so
fast that he reached the dawdling Catherine before she realized it.
Neither was she prepared to have Dave jump out lift her up and tumble
her into the bus with scant ceremony.
Then he closed the door again and began to drive with such a grim face
that none of the children thought it best to speak to him. Elizabeth
Ann didn’t feel very happy, but she was glad none of them would be
late--at the rate Dave was driving they’d probably get to school a
little earlier than usual.
Catherine sat and frowned out of the window all the way. She acted,
thought Elizabeth Ann, as though someone had made her almost late
instead of being the one who had nearly made the entire bus load late
for school. Elizabeth Ann shuddered to think what Miss Owen would say
if an entire bus load of children walked into school late. Of course
they were not all in her room, but many of them were.
When they reached the school yard, Dave stopped the bus, but he did not
open the door.
[Illustration: He seized the surprised Elizabeth Ann and lifted her
into the bus.]
“I just want to tell you,” he said quietly, “that the next time anyone
stages a performance like that this morning, I shall report him or her
to the principal. And I’ll leave him behind, too--you’re all old enough
to behave yourselves and if you’re not willing to make the bus and get
to school on time, why that’s your affair, not mine.”
He swung the heavy iron lever that opened the door and the children
began to file out quietly. Elizabeth Ann stayed in her seat until the
last one was out and then she came up to Dave.
“I had to wait for Catherine,” she said earnestly. “She’s my friend.”
“Well--all right,” returned Dave. “I suppose you thought you had to
wait for her; but the trouble with Catherine Gould is that too many
people wait for her--give in to her, I mean. She’d be late for school
every morning, and not care if the whole school would be late, too.”
Elizabeth Ann sincerely hoped that Catherine would try harder to
get to school on time. Because she was so often later going home
afternoons--on account of that homework that she just wouldn’t do--and
if she had to walk to school mornings, dear me, she would be in a sad
way.
Doris told Uncle Hiram about the bus incident, and Elizabeth Ann
was sorry she had not asked her to keep still about it. Uncle Hiram
declared that Elizabeth Ann and Doris should not wait past the usual
time another morning for Catherine.
“She must get here in time to walk with you to the bus, or you must
start without her,” said Uncle Hiram firmly. “Catherine is entirely too
selfish and she gets more spoiled every week.”
And the very next morning Catherine missed the bus again--Elizabeth Ann
and Doris didn’t even see her, but she wasn’t at the cross-roads with
them and Roger Calendar and the others when Dave drove up. He honked
his horn as usual, but no Catherine appeared, so he drove on to school.
It was ten o’clock when Catherine appeared, to the surprise of
everyone, including Miss Owen who had marked her absent. At recess
Catherine, whose eyes were red from crying, told Elizabeth Ann that she
had missed the bus and had turned around and gone home.
“I’d rather be absent than tardy,” she sniffed, “but my father saw me
coming back and he said I’d have to go to school. He wouldn’t drive me,
either--I had to walk all the way. I wouldn’t have come, only he said
if I didn’t I couldn’t have the party. After I’d told everybody about
the party, I just couldn’t give it up.”
When Doris heard that, she said she was glad. If there was one thing
Doris wanted to go to it was that Hallowe’en party. Elizabeth Ann
looked forward to it, too, but she was more interested to learn what
the others said when they saw Roger Calendar in his embroidered silk
costume, than anything else.
Catherine kept telling them something new about the party every day,
and the afternoon before it was actually to take place she confided
that it was to be held in her daddy’s big barn.
“We’ve moved the piano out there and everything,” said Catherine
proudly. “We’re going to have a lovely time. Do come early.”