"There she is now, blue dress and all!"
Ruth was just coming out of the house; and her aunt was talking to her,
as if giving her some very decided directions. The children could hear
Ruth's last words, as she walked away from the house, which were, "Yes,
ma'am, I'll be sure and remember."
"Let's go and meet her," said Sue, slipping from the wall, and walking
down the road. Johnny and Julia followed. They met Ruth about half way.
"I'm ever so glad to see you again, Ruth," said Johnny: "this is a
neighbor of ours, Julia Peterson; and this is my sister Sue."
"I'm so glad you can go," said Sue, taking Ruth's hand, and walking
along by her. "I think your new dress is real pretty. You must be
awful proud that you made it all yourself."
Although Sue was wholly unconscious of the fact, she could not have said
any thing more comforting to poor Ruth, who had noticed, with true
feminine observation, as soon as she saw the girls, how prettily they
were dressed. Sue wore a handsome red Mother Hubbard, trimmed with
white, and Julia a richly embroidered white dress. Ruth's dark blue
calico was made very plain; there was not even a tuck or ruffle on it:
but as she was a very sweet-looking girl, with bright eyes and deep
dimples, and had a refined, lady-like manner, she looked better in the
plain dress than would have been the case with a girl of less pleasing
appearance. Her hair was braided, and tied with a bit of blue ribbon;
and she wore a cheap but becoming sun-hat, plainly trimmed with blue.
The children all walked back to where Mr. Shepard was standing.
"I'm glad enough you can go, Ruth," said her uncle: "I hope you will
have a raal good time."
"Thank you," said Ruth, getting up on the wall to bid him good-by. She
put her arms around his neck, and kissed him. He gave her a good hug,
and then looked furtively towards the house, as if he were afraid his
wife would see them; but, fortunately, Mrs. Shepard was not in sight,
although she came into the parlor a few moments afterward, and peered
out from between the shutters.
"You'll be a good girl, I know," he said: "be as perlite as you know
how."
"I'm afraid I sha'n't know how very well," replied Ruth, a little
anxiously.
"I'll resk you! I'll resk you!" said Mr. Shepard heartily. "I'd come
and git you, but this young man says his mother is to bring you home."
Johnny had gone across the road, and brought the dog-cart, which was now
waiting for its occupants.
"You get in first, Ruth," said Sue politely.
As Sue seated herself in the middle, and took up the reins, she said,
"Good-by, Mr. Shepard: we'll take good care of Ruth, and send her home
all safe."
"Thank you," replied Mr. Shepard, brushing his hand hastily across his
eyes. "Now, you have as good a time as ever you can, Ruth: you don't
git sich a chance every day, you know."
[Illustration: "Ruth looked back and smiled at him."]
Ruth looked back and smiled at him as the dog-cart moved away. "Don't
you worry," she returned. Evidently there was a good understanding
between Ruth and her uncle, in spite of the redoubtable Mrs. Shepard.
When they reached the turn in the road, Johnny, who had run ahead for
his bicycle, joined them.
"You forgot to go back for Felix," said Sue.
"There wasn't time to go back, because we didn't have to wait for Ruth.
I don't believe his hour is up yet."
"No," said Julia, looking at a dainty little gold watch: "it isn't quite
a quarter-past nine; it lacks ten minutes."
Ruth felt so much awed at first, by being in such fine company, that she
said very little, scarcely more than answering the questions addressed
to her. But Sue and Johnny paid so much attention to her, that she soon
felt more at her ease; although she was quite shy of Julia, whose manner
was not quite as cordial and unconstrained as that of her companions.
The truth was, Julia was considerably puzzled at the attention which
Johnny and Sue paid to the lighthouse keeper's niece, and this not the
less from her mother having remarked, when she asked leave to go with
them on the errand, "What can Mrs. Le Bras be thinking of, to want to
invite that poor country girl to spend the day with her children? But
since she has, and the Le Bras are such fine people, I suppose you can
go, though I do think it is queer of her."
When they reached the wharf on the way back, the boys had disappeared
from the pier. The pavilion, however, was quite filled with children and
their nurses, and groups of boys and girls were to be seen here and
there along the shore.
"I don't see Jack anywhere," remarked Sue.
"Like enough, he is one of those boys way down there on the point," said
Johnny. "It's almost bathing-time now: I should like to see all the
folks in bathing. We might come down about eleven."
"Yes, let's!" replied Julia: "it's great fun. Let's come down in our
bathing-suits, and go in too: it's ever so much more fun where there are
a lot."
"We haven't any bathing-suits yet," said Sue: "mother's going into town
in a day or two to get us some, and then we can have great times. You
must come over and bathe with us, Ruth. Have you a bathing-suit?"
"No; but I sometimes put on an old dress, and go a little way into the
surf with my uncle."
"I should think you would be afraid," said Johnny, "on account of the
undertow."
"But my uncle is a very good swimmer, and he only takes me in a very
little way. I hold tight on to his hand. Sometimes the surf knocks me
down, but uncle Ethan pulls me right up again."
"I'm going to begin to learn to swim, first thing, as soon as I get my
bathing-suit," said Johnny. "Felix can swim, and he and Oliver are to
show me how."
"I don't see why mamma did not think of the bathing-dresses before we
left home," said Sue.
"Why, don't you remember? Felix told her they had a larger variety down
this way. You see, they don't keep bathing-clothes so much in inland
towns. I doubt if we could have got what we wanted at home, without
having them made."
They soon came in sight of the Peterson cottage. Mrs. Peterson was
sitting on the veranda with some fancy-work. She was a handsome, finely
dressed woman, with a slightly haughty air. She and Mrs. Le Bras had
exchanged calls, and the children had been over several times to visit
Julia. When she saw the dog-cart coming, she looked quite curiously at
Ruth, and then turned towards a lady visitor, who came out of the door
at that instant, and said something with a smile. Of course, the
children did not hear what she said; but it was, "Don't that country
girl, in her dark calico, look odd with Julia and Sue? I wonder what
Mrs. Le Bras invited her for!"
"Have you seen Felix, mother?" asked Julia.
"I saw him going down the road with Jack Billings a while ago."
"Jack Billings! Jack didn't touch my kitten, did he?"
"I think not. They have not been around our house. He and Felix were
out at the barn, I think. Jack had not been up here more than fifteen
minutes or so. I heard him call out to Felix, as he went into the yard,
that he wanted him to go down to the Point fishing, with him and some
other boys."
Julia laughed merrily. "Well!" she said, "Felix did get mad with me in
earnest!"
"You should say vexed, not 'mad,'" corrected her mother; and the
children rode on to the next cottage.
When Mrs. Le Bras saw them coming, she came out of the door, and down
the steps, to shake hands with Ruth, and tell her she was glad to see
her.
"And now, my dears," said Mrs. Le Bras, "you had better go right in out
of the hot sun, for it is getting to be a very warm day. You will find
some lemonade in the dining-room. You can play in the parlor or
dining-room, or you can go up in Johnny's or Sue's room. I am busy in
my room painting this morning; but by and by, when I get through for
to-day, I will call you in to see how far I have got with my picture."
"What are you painting?" inquired Johnny, wheeling his bicycle up
against the end of the veranda.
"I am painting that pretty little bay across from here, with the fishing
and sail boats anchored in it, and the blue hills behind, and the sky
with the gulls overhead. I think I will make your father a birthday
present of the sketch if I can get it done in time: you know his
birthday comes the fifteenth of August."
"Oh! I 'most forgot!" said Sue. "I must be thinking what I will get
for him."
"And I too," said Johnny. "He likes something we make better than any
thing we can buy. If I can get a piece of nice wood, I will whittle a
paper-cutter of my own design, and get mother to show me how to paint
something on it."
Mrs. Le Bras took Ruth's hand, and led her into the house, talking to
her very pleasantly. She inquired about her uncle and aunt, and asked
her how she liked living by the sea. Ruth replied in an intelligent,
lady-like manner, although a little bashfully.
Johnny took the dog-cart to the barn, and told Oliver he would unharness
the pony. But Oliver said he would see to it, as he was not busy.
"So Felix went off with Jack Billings fishing?" said Johnny.
"Yes," replied Oliver, "and I was glad enough to see them go. They were
round fooling a while, as if they were up to some mischief or other. I
was afraid they would disturb those settin' hens: I heard them making a
great cackling. They seem to be all right, though. I guess the boys
were playing 'stumps' in the barn: they were racing and jumping a good
deal. Felix was in for one of his high times. You see, your father's
gone off, and he'll be likely to take advantage. He appeared more like
himself as he used to be than I've seen him afore, sence he's ben here
this summer. I tell you, he was a high one last year! His own folks
couldn't do nothin' at all with him; and he was mighty sassy to them,
and to Mary and me, you'd better believe, when he was crossed in any
thing, and when he wasn't crossed, as well. Your father and mother have
got the upper hand of him somehow, and I'm mighty glad on it."
"Where has my father gone?"
"He's gone off with Mr. Frothingham, to sail in his yacht. Mr.
Frothingham came down in his fast team this morning, and wanted your
father to go with him."
"I thought father told him he couldn't go just now."
"Well, he said jest for a day, you know; and your mother said your
father could go for a day jest as well as not, and so he did. They're
coming home to-night."
"Where did the yacht start from?"
"Mr. Frothingham keeps it at the Harbor: that's a mile or so this side
of town. You'll have to go down and see the Harbor, Johnny; it's a
mighty fine place; no end of yachts and sail-boats and steamboats and
schooners and barges, and all sech craft, passing along by."
"Yes: Felix told me about it. Couldn't you take us down in the buggy or
carriage some day?"
"Sartin! sartin! Any time your folks say."
Johnny then went in to join the girls.
*CHAPTER XII.*
*THE DAY.*
The children amused themselves happily in various ways until nearly
noon, Julia remaining; as she, too, had been invited to dinner. Mrs. Le
Bras had called them in to see her painting, and also read them a story
from a paper which had arrived by the morning's mail. Julia at length
proposed that they should go over and sit in the west piazza of her
house, which was shaded by large vines, and was cool in the middle of
the day. Mrs. Peterson and her friend were in the parlor, which opened
upon this piazza by two large windows reaching to the floor; so that,
when the windows were open at the bottom, a person could step through
into the piazza. The windows were open, but the blinds were partly
closed. There were armchairs and rustic seats upon the piazza; and,
after her visitors were seated, Julia said she would go and get her
kitten.
Ruth had been made to feel so much at home at the Le Bras cottage, that
she was now quite at her ease: she had even forgotten for the time that
she was not dressed as well as her companions, or that her aunt had made
her promise she would find an opportunity to go down to the cottages,
and see if any one wanted a nurse-girl, before the day was over.
Just after Julia had gone, Mrs. Peterson stepped out into the piazza,
and spoke to the children. Sue introduced Ruth, and told Mrs. Peterson
what a nice time they were having.
"I suppose you will want to come over and see the children quite often,
now," remarked Mrs. Peterson to Ruth.
"I should like to, if I could," replied Ruth hesitatingly, and looking a
little troubled; "but I don't know as my aunt will think best. It is
possible I may get a place down at one of the cottages, to take care of
children. I must go down there and see before I go home."
"May I go with you?" asked Sue.
"Yes: I would like to have you, if your mother is willing."
"Are you acquainted with any other nurse-girls, Sue?" inquired Mrs.
Peterson.
"No, ma'am: I have noticed some of them when we have ridden past the
cottages, but I didn't see any who were at all like Ruth."
"How do you know they were not like Ruth?"
"Because they laughed loud, and acted rough, and looked you right in the
face, in a kind of unpleasant way," replied Sue, who, although she did
not know exactly why she was not prepossessed by the nurse-girls she had
seen around the cottages, was resolved to give as good a reason as she
could.
"I suppose they are nice girls enough, in their way," said Mrs.
Peterson; "but of course they don't expect to associate with other young
persons about here. I suppose you know, Ruth, that, if you are a
nurse-girl, you can only go with your own class: and, besides, you will
have no time to yourself; you will have to be with the children you take
care of, day and night.
"Yes, ma'am," replied Ruth, coloring; "I know that; but I think it will
be pleasanter than being where there are no children. I had younger
brothers and sisters at home, and I used to help take care of them. I
liked it very much. I've missed them a good deal."
"How came you to be separated from your brothers and sisters?"
"My father was dead, and their father was my step-father. After our
mother died, my stepfather was married again, and my step-mother thought
it was enough to have my step-father's children. So my uncle came and
took me, because I hadn't any own father and mother."
"Oh! that was it? That was very mixed up. How old were you when your
mother married again?"
"Six years old. And my father died when I was a year old. He used to
live a little way from here: he was a farmer."
"And what is your step-father's business?"
"He keeps a grocery-store in town."
Just then Julia came back with a very red face and flashing eyes.
"I can't find my kitten anywhere!" she exclaimed, in an indignant tone,
"and I don't believe but what Felix Le Bras and Jack Billings have done
something with her! I believe they've carried her off! She always
comes when I call her the least little bit; but I've called and called,
ever so far from the house, too, and I haven't heard a single mew!"
"Perhaps she has wandered off farther than usual, and will be back
pretty soon," said Mrs. Peterson soothingly. "I am sure I should have
noticed if the boys had a cat about them, when they went past, down the
road. They walked close by the piazza, where I was sitting and appeared
perfectly innocent and unconcerned."
"I don't care! She's gone! And, if they didn't take her, who has?"
returned Julia, sitting down disconsolately in a large rocker, and
rocking violently back and forth, in an unabated state of excitement.
At that moment Johnny, who was sitting on the railing at the end of the
piazza, holding to the corner post, exclaimed,--
"There comes Felix now! Let's ask him about it."
Julia sprang up, and ran around into the front piazza. Sue followed her
closely. Ruth came and stood by Johnny's side, who said to her, "I
wonder if it is possible Felix has had any thing to do with the kitten's
being missing! If he has, I am afraid there will be another penalty to
pay."
"What is a penalty?" asked Ruth.
"Why, if any of us do any thing wrong, my father has some punishment for
us, which he calls a penalty."