WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH LOBELIA PARKINS?
"Lobelia, I insist upon knowing!"
"Oh, Peggy, please don't ask me!"
"But I will ask you. I do ask you. What is it that you are afraid of? I
shall find out sooner or later, so you might as well give up at once and
tell me."
Lobelia looked around her uneasily. She and Peggy were sitting in a cosy
little hollow under the lee of a great brown rock, waiting for the
others to come up.
"Come!" said Peggy. "There's nobody behind that rock. What is the matter
with you, Lobelia Parkins, and why don't you sleep? Out with it!"
Lobelia sighed, and twisted her buttons. "I--I never am a very good
sleeper," she said at last. "I--I'm nervous, Peggy. And then--"
"And then, what?"
"Oh, dear me! I can't tell you. You won't believe me if I tell you.
Things come into my room and frighten me."
"Things? What do you mean, Lobelia?"
"I don't know what I mean!" cried the poor girl, looking about her
again, as if in dread of some unseen terror. "I don't know who it is, or
what it is. Something--or somebody--comes through my room at night and
goes out of the window."
"Ah!" said Peggy. "Well, go on. How long has this been going on?"
"Oh, ever so long! At first--Peggy, you will feel badly if I tell you
this."
"Well, then, I've got to feel badly," said Peggy, stoutly. "Though I
can't see what I have to do with it--so far. I'll have plenty to do with
it from now on!" she added, significantly. "Go on, Lobelia."
"Well, you know that time you were so good to me, Peggy; when Blanche
Haight and those others were teasing me, and you came in like a lioness
and drove them off. I never shall forget it as long as I live, Peggy,
never!"
"Nonsense!" said Peggy. "It wasn't anything at all. Don't be absurd,
Lobelia. Well, what since then?"
"It began after that. She--I know that it used to be Blanche Haight
then--she used to come in after I was in bed, and frighten me. She had a
sheet on, and at first I thought it was a ghost, and I fainted the first
time, I think; and then she used--she used to make faces and pinch me,
and one time I saw her ring, and so I knew who it was."
"The cowardly brute!" muttered Peggy. "It's well for her that she's out
of this school. Now, Lobelia Parkins, why, in the name of all that is
feeble-minded and ridiculous, didn't you tell me this before?"
"Oh, I couldn't!" said Lobelia. "I had given you enough trouble, Peggy.
And besides--"
"Well! besides what?"
"I was afraid! I was afraid she would kill me if I told."
"My goodness gracious _me_!" cried Peggy, bouncing on her mossy seat,
till Lobelia shrank away scared and trembling. "Do you think we live in
the Middle Ages, Lobelia Parkins? This is what comes of reading history;
it puts all those old-fangled notions into your head, till you have no
sense left. I know! You had all that stuff about Florence and Rome, and
poisoning, and all that. I had it too; awful stuff, and probably
two-thirds lies. History is the father of lies, you know; somebody says
so somewhere."
"I--I thought it was Herodotus who was called that," Lobelia ventured,
timidly.
"Perhaps it was; it's all the same."
"No, I am wrong. Herodotus was called the father of history, and then
some other people said he was the father of lies; but now it has all
come true, so he isn't any more!"
Lobelia, who was stupid and painstaking, proffered this lucid
explanation painfully, and then gasped; it seemed a liberty for her to
explain anything to anybody.
"Who cares?" said Peggy. "He's dead, anyhow. Oh, how it used to provoke
my dearest Margaret when I said that. I only mean, I never see how it
can matter so much as people think. But you are not dead, Lobelia; and
the idea of your being killed, here in this school, in the nineteenth
century! Why, it is absurd, don't you see? It is funny! You must laugh
about it, my dear!"
Lobelia, with an effort, produced a watery smile; seeing which, Peggy's
mood changed, and she laid her hand instantly on the skinny, shrinking
arm.
"My dear, don't think I was laughing at _you_," she cried, warmly. "No;
I am going to be furious in a minute, when I get round to that part
again. Well, but Lobelia, Blanche Haight is gone now, and a good
riddance, and yet you say you are still afraid. What are you afraid of?"
"I--I don't know who it is now!" said Lobelia. "But some one comes
through, just the same."
"How do you mean, just the same? some one pinches you?"
"No! oh, no! this person never speaks to me or looks at me.
It--she--only wants to go through the window. It has something light
gray over its head and shoulders. It goes down the fire-escape and
stays about half an hour, and then comes back. I--I don't mind it so
very much, now. I dare say it's all right, only--I can't sleep very
well, you know."
"I see!" said Peggy. "Well, I think we can settle that matter, Lobelia.
Hush! here come the others. We won't say anything more about it now.
Well, girls, how did it go? Isn't it a lovely little scramble?"
Rose Barclay and Viola appeared, with the other two just behind. Viola
was panting, and her delicate colour was deepened by exertion till she
was almost as rosy as her companion.
"My dear!" she cried. "You are responsible for my life! I am killed;
simply killed, Peggy Montfort. I shall never recover from this awful
fatigue, I know I shall not."
"Nonsense!" said Peggy, briefly. "Here! sit down here, V., and get your
breath; you'll be all right in a minute. It wasn't bad, was it, Rose?"
"It was a bit stiff in one place!" Rose admitted. "I rather think we
took the wrong turn, Peggy. Did you say left, after the big pine?"
"No, right; you didn't come up that bank? Poor little V.! no wonder she
thinks she is killed. Let me take your hat off, V., and get you some
water or something."
But Viola refused to part with her hat. She sat panting and crimson, and
seemed really exhausted. Peggy eyed her with remorse. "I couldn't know
that you would take the wrong turn, could I?" she said. "I'm awfully
sorry!"
"Oh, but it was fine!" said Ethel Bird. "How do you find out all these
places, Peggy? This is just lovely, isn't it?"
"By looking," said Peggy. "I like to poke about, and I came on this the
other day. See, here's a little baby spring, trickling right out of the
rock here. Isn't it pretty? and the water is clear and cold as ice.
Shall I make you a leaf-cup, Viola? The best way, though, is to put your
mouth down and drink, this way."
"Oh, I never would do that!" cried Clara Fair. "Why, a snake might go
right down your throat, Peggy Montfort; truly it might. There was a
man--"
"Oh, don't talk about a man!" cried Rose Barclay. "How could you, Clara?
You remind me of my German lesson."
"I never said a word about your German lesson," said Clara, who was
literal and matter-of-fact.
"No, but you reminded me," said Rose, who was imaginative and poetic.
"All the morning I was saying to myself:
"'Der dickere Mann,
Des dickeren Mannes,
Dem dickeren Manne,
Den dickeren Mann.'"
"You seem to have learned it, anyhow," said Peggy, laughing.
"Oh, but that isn't all!" said Rose. "There is more horror. It goes on,
you know:
"'Die dickeren Manner,
Der dickeren Manner,
Den dickeren Mannern,
Die dickeren Manner.'"
"I think foreign languages are the silliest things in the world!"
declared Peggy. "Well, I do! Such perfect foolishness as they talk! I
have no patience with them."
"Well, but Peggy, they aren't foreign when they are at home!" protested
Ethel.
"Well, then, I wish they would stay at home. I don't know whether German
is so bad, though that sounds awful, all that you said just now, Rose;
but I have French; and I have to try to mince and simper, and twist my
mouth up into all kinds of shapes, just saying things that are too silly
to _be_ said. I wish there was a law that no one in this country should
ever speak anything but English. It would be ever so much more
sensible."
"So it would!" assented Rose. "I say! what a pity we didn't think to
bring something to eat! I'm awfully hungry, walking all this way."
"All this way, Rose!" said Peggy. "Why, how far do you think it is?"
"Oh, four or five miles, I'm sure!"
"Well, it isn't two. Look here, girls, what is the reason none of you
seem to know how to walk?"
"What do you mean? We have walked, haven't we? Here we are."
"Oh, you call this a walk! that's just it, I tell you. You walk a mile,
or two at the very most, and you think you have done something
wonderful; and poor Viola is all tired out, and says she will never come
again. Well, but this isn't what _I_ call walking, you know. Why, I went
with the Owls the other day, and we walked fifteen miles if we did a
step, and it was perfectly glorious. _That's_ what _I_ call walking, and
I do wonder how it is that none of you ever learned. You are all strong
and well, aren't you?"
Yes, they were all strong and well; except Viola, who still declared she
had got her death, and should never recover.
"Well, but what's the use?" asked Rose. "I think this is great fun, to
come to a pretty place like this, and sit and talk and look at the view;
but just to go on walking and stalking along the way you and the Owls
do,--what's the use of it? We are not ostriches, and why should we
pretend we are? Besides, it takes such a lot of time."
"And what would you be doing with your time?" asked Peggy, hotly.
"Reading stories, or just sitting, sitting, and talking, talking. My
goodness gracious _me_! the way some of the girls just sit around all
their spare time, doing nothing, makes me tired. Why, if I hadn't
stalked, as you call it, how would you have come here to-day, and seen
the prettiest place you ever saw since you came here--for it is, and you
can't deny it, girls. I do hate to see people doing nothing. I don't
much care what they do, so long as it is _something_!"
"Peggy, you're getting very ferocious, do you know it?" said Clara Fair.
"And, after all, we did come, and now we are doing just as much as you
are, and why are you shouting at us?"
"I won't shout any more," said Peggy, laughing. "I suppose we all have
our hobbies, haven't we? Walking is one of mine; and you are going to
like it just as much as I do, girls, before we get through the term.
Why, there are about twenty of the loveliest walks, and none of
them--hallo!"
Peggy stopped abruptly, and seemed to listen.
"What's the matter?" asked Rose. "I didn't hear anything."
"I thought I did," said Peggy, quietly. "Be still a minute, will you?"
She bent her head. There was a moment of perfect silence; then,
somewhere close at hand, a singular dry, rattling sound.
"What a queer noise!" said Ethel. "What is it?"
"It's time to go home, girls!" said Peggy. "You'd better start along,
and I'll come behind you. Come, Viola, give me your hand--so! Now take
her, Rose, and hurry along! Lobelia, go with them, will you?"
"What upon earth is the matter, Peggy Montfort?" asked Rose, eyeing her
curiously. "What do you want to get us out of the way for? I believe you
have found something, and want to keep it to yourself."
"Rose, _please_ go!" said Peggy, earnestly. "I am coming, I tell you.
No, not there! that way--along by the big pine. Keep away from the
rock--so! Now hurry, and I'm coming right along."
The girls hardly knew why they obeyed; but there was such a singular
earnestness in Peggy's look and gesture that they did not stay to
question her, but one and all--or so it seemed--turned and hastened down
the side of the hill.
No sooner were their backs turned than Peggy, whose keen eyes had been
fixed all this time on one spot, moved swiftly behind a great rock that
stood close by. There, stooping, she sought with eager hands and eyes;
sought and found a stout stick. She tried its strength--it was strong
and tough. Then warily she came back, and looked once more at the pile
of withered leaves that had riveted her attention before. The pile
seemed to move--to undulate; and from it came once more the dry,
rattling sound. Something reared itself, brown and slender; at the same
instant a shriek rang through the wood. It did not come from Peggy's
lips. Like a flash, the girl had sprung forward, and caught the snake's
neck under her crotched stick, just as he was raising himself to strike.
Pinned firmly to the earth, the creature could only twist and wriggle in
impotent rage. Looking around coolly, Peggy saw Lobelia's face peering
around the trunk of a tree, pale with horror.
"Well!" said Peggy. "You are a nice obedient child, aren't you? Since
you are there, you might get me a good stone; he's all right; he can't
get his head round."
Gasping and trembling, Lobelia found and brought a stone, which she held
out at arm's length.
"Oh, Peggy!" she whispered. "Is it--is it a rattlesnake?"
"That's what!" said Peggy, relapsing into slang in the absorption of the
moment. "He won't be a rattlesnake much longer, though. There! now you
can look, Lobelia; he's dead. I tell you he's dead, as dead as Julius
Caesar. What are you crying for, child?"
Lobelia came forward, trembling and cringing.
"Oh, Peggy, I knew it was. I didn't say anything, because I thought you
wouldn't want me to--"
"Quite right," said Peggy. "Sensible rabbit!"
"And--and I am terribly afraid of snakes--oh, I was sure you would be
killed, Peggy!"
"And so you came back to be killed with me? Lobelia, what a foolish girl
you are. There, there, don't cry. Why, the snake isn't crying, and he
really has been killed."
"Oh, Peggy, if you had been killed, I should have died. I shouldn't have
needed any snake to kill me."
"Nonsense!" said Peggy, gruffly. "Lobelia, do stop crying. My goodness
gracious _me_, come along, or we shall have them all back again after
us. I'm going to bring him too, and get Colney to dry him for me. He's a
beauty! look at him, Lobelia! Not look at him? Why, I tell you he's
dead, as dead as--who was he?--the Father of Lies! Come along, now."