BAD NEWS
“Well, who was the witch then?” said Doris.
She and Elizabeth Ann were talking over the party. It was the next
morning and they had slept till ten o’clock. They had just had
breakfast and were sitting in the sun on the steps, with Tony between
them. It was so cold now--the first of November--that they needed their
hats and coats on, even to sit in the sun.
Doris had been insisting that Mrs. Gould was the witch. When Elizabeth
Ann pointed out to her that Catherine’s mother had sat at the table
near Doris, at the same time the witch was passing the cocoa, Doris had
to admit that Mrs. Gould could not have been the witch.
“Who was the witch, then?” asked Doris.
“I think Aunt Nan was the witch,” Elizabeth Ann said, “I noticed when
we stopped trying to bite the apples on a string she wasn’t in the
barn. I think she went to the house and put on her witch’s costume and
came back. And when we were in the kitchen, I looked all around and she
wasn’t there--unless she was the witch.”
Doris nodded slowly.
“Yes, Aunt Nan must have been the witch,” she agreed. “But Elizabeth
Ann, where is the prize we won?”
“I forgot it,” confessed Elizabeth Ann. “I must have left it in the
barn. I guess Catherine will bring it over to-day.”
“You’d better go and get it,” Doris advised. “Catherine will eat all
that candy up, and not say anything about it.”
“Why, Doris Mason, what a thing to say!” cried Elizabeth Ann, much
shocked. “Catherine won’t eat the candy we won as a prize.”
“Yes, she will,” said Doris obstinately. “She’s a mean girl, and I
don’t like her. If you won’t go, I’ll go and ask for our prize. I’ll
ask her mother.”
Elizabeth Ann gazed at her cousin in some exasperation. Ordinarily
Doris wouldn’t open her mouth to talk to Mrs. Gould, and here she was
planning to ask her for the prize box of candy.
“You can’t do things like that,” Elizabeth Ann scolded. “You have to be
polite. In the first place, for all you know, Catherine will bring the
candy over to-day; if she doesn’t, she may bring it to school Monday.
And if she never brings it,” finished Elizabeth Ann impressively, “you
can’t talk about it to her.”
“Catherine isn’t polite,” said Doris calmly. “She didn’t want to give
Roger the prize he won; and she’ll eat up our prize if you don’t do
anything to stop her.”
“She’ll have to eat it then,” Elizabeth Ann replied. “Couldn’t Roger
play the piano beautifully? He told me he plays by ear.”
“What’s by ear?” asked Doris, looking as though she rather suspected
Elizabeth Ann might be teasing her.
“He hears people play, and he can play what they do,” Elizabeth Ann
explained. “He can’t read music--not the way Catherine can, when she
practices her music lesson.”
Aunt Grace came to the door and opened it.
“Catherine just telephoned,” she said. “She is coming over to see you;
if you get too cold outdoors, you must bring her in. There is a nice
fire in the fireplace in the parlor.”
“What did I tell you?” said Elizabeth Ann, when Aunt Grace had closed
the door. “Catherine is coming to bring us our candy.”
Doris refused to be convinced and when fifteen minutes later Catherine,
empty-handed came up the path, Doris looked at Elizabeth Ann with a
I-told-you-so expression that was really very funny.
“Hello,” said Catherine. “It’s cold to-day, isn’t it?”
Elizabeth Ann sighed. She wasn’t cold and she liked to stay outdoors.
Doris usually wanted to go in after a few minutes and now here was
Catherine who liked to stay indoors, too.
“There’s a fire in the first cabin,” said Elizabeth Ann. “We can go in
there, if you’d rather.”
“I wish you wouldn’t talk that silly way,” Catherine said pettishly.
“When you mean the parlor, say so. Let’s go in--I’m freezing.”
Elizabeth Ann saw that she was cross. Some people are cross the day
after a party, and Catherine was evidently one of those who do not feel
happy the next day.
They went into the house and sat down on the white rug before the
logs blazing so merrily in the fireplace. Doris didn’t say a word and
Elizabeth Ann was rather glad she didn’t. She was so afraid that if
Doris did say anything, it would be to mention the chocolates.
“I know I never should have asked that dreadful Roger Calendar to my
party,” said Catherine unexpectedly. “Now I hope you’re satisfied,
Elizabeth Ann; you and Miss Owen. You’re the ones who thought I ought
to ask him.”
“I do think you ought to have asked him,” Elizabeth Ann declared
staunchly. “You couldn’t ask the whole class and leave him out. Miss
Owen said so.”
“Well, he’s made plenty of trouble,” said Catherine disagreeably. “He
left the door of the corncrib open last night and one of my father’s
best cows got in and ate too much corn and died. It was a very valuable
cow.”
Elizabeth Ann looked horrified.
“But how do you know it was Roger who left the corncrib door open?” she
asked. “There were other boys at the party.”
“Roger came over and helped Aunt Nan fix the strings from the barn to
the kitchen,” explained Catherine. “Aunt Nan told us this morning when
Daddy found the cow on the barn floor. He opened the corncrib door to
see how to run one of the strings under it and I suppose he forgot to
close it.”
“I don’t believe he forgot to close it,” Elizabeth Ann said.
“Oh, if you want to be silly, I can’t help it,” declared Catherine.
“My father thinks he left it open and so does Aunt Nan. So does Mr.
Bostwick.”
Doris looked up and Elizabeth Ann’s eyes widened.
“Did your father tell Mr. Bostwick?” she demanded.
“Of course he told Mr. Bostwick,” said Catherine. “Lydia was one of
our most valuable cows. Roger hasn’t any money to pay for her, but Mr.
Bostwick is going to make him work for my father every Saturday till
the cow is paid for. My father says that carelessness is a bad habit,
and he thinks Roger ought to be cured of it. Paying for the cow will
help him remember.”
“But I don’t believe Roger had anything to do with it,” Elizabeth Ann
insisted.
“Why do you keep saying that?” asked Catherine. “I’m telling you that
he left the corncrib door open.”
Elizabeth Ann stood up.
“Did Roger say he left the door open?” she inquired pointedly.
“No, of course he won’t admit he did,” said Catherine. “He says he
closed the door, but that is silly. He’s only trying to get out of
being blamed for killing our cow.”
“If Roger says he closed the door, he did close the door,” Elizabeth
Ann insisted, her face flushing.
“Would you rather take his word than mine?” asked Catherine. “Roger
Calendar is a perfect nobody, a boy from the poor farm.”
“I don’t care, he tells the truth,” Elizabeth Ann flung out and from
behind her Doris piped up, “He wouldn’t eat candy that didn’t belong to
him--where’s the candy we won at your party, Catherine Gould?”
And just at this moment Uncle Hiram stepped into the room and he looked
as though he had heard every word.