THE NAME CAUSES TABITHA TROUBLE
"Tabitha!"
The child was curled in a forlorn heap on the little front stoop which
took the place of piazza to their cottage, staring with gloomy eyes
toward the radiant sunset, but for once unaware of the glorious beauty
of the skies. Her heart was very heavy. In two days more the school was
to give their first exhibition--that was what Miss Brooks called it--in
the town hall; and all the parents and friends were invited to come and
hear them speak the pieces and sing the songs they had been learning
ever since school had commenced, six weeks before. Miss Brooks thought
it helped the scholars to have public exercises occasionally, for it
brought the parents in closer touch with their boys and girls and
encouraged the children to do better work; so she had planned to have
these exhibitions every six weeks or two months in the _town hall_. The
school house was too small to seat many visitors if all the scholars
were present.
Tabitha was to recite a long selection all by herself, and she had taken
great pride in learning it with appropriate gestures, conscious of the
fact that she was the best speaker in the room, and happy in the
teacher's unstinted praise and her playmates' envious admiration.
But now! Miss Brooks had asked the girls to wear white dresses, and
Tabitha had none! What a calamity! She had expected to wear her new
green gingham. It wasn't a very pretty color, to be sure, or very
becoming, but she had coaxed Aunt Maria to make it after the fashion of
Carrie's dainty dresses and was delighted with the result. Now the rest
of the girls would be in white, and it would look dreadful to have one
green dress in the splendid array on the platform. What could she do?
It was useless to ask for a white gown, and even if there were any
possibility of getting the new material it was too late to make it up in
time for the exhibition, for Aunt Maria wasn't a great success as a
seamstress, and it took her a long time to make a dress. Why, she had
worked more than a week on the green gingham, and that was just tucked!
If there could be a white dress it would have to have ruffles on it; all
the other girls' white dresses had ruffles on them somewhere. Carrie's
had two ruffles on the skirt, and Mamie Cole's had _three_. Bertha
Dean's had only one ruffle around the shoulders and the skirt was
tucked, but it was very pretty; and if Tabitha could not have ruffles on
the skirt, she would want at least a shoulder ruffle with lace around
it. Well, there was no use in planning, she could not have a white
dress. But how could she face all those people in a green gingham and be
the only odd girl there?
"Tabitha Catt!" The voice was sharp and insistent, and at the sound of
the hateful name almost forgotten now, the child came suddenly out of
her unhappy reverie.
"What is it, Aunt Maria?"
"Where in the world have you been? I've called you half a dozen times
already. Go to my trunk and bring me that box of odd pieces just under
the tray. I want to mend this dress before dark. Mind you are careful
now. The tray is broken; lift it carefully."
Tabitha rose slowly to do her bidding, still thinking of the dress she
did not have. Under ordinary circumstances she considered it a great
honor to be allowed even to lift the cover of the big, old trunk in the
corner, for it contained many wonderful relics for childish eyes, and
sometimes Aunt Maria would let her look at some of the treasures, and
even tell her a little about them on rare occasions. Today, however,
even this prospect was not alluring, and with listless hands Tabitha
pulled the rickety tray out of its place and bent over the trunk in
search of the box in question. There were several boxes under the tray,
but Aunt Maria never remembered this, and it was always necessary to
open them to discover which was the one wanted. So the child seized the
nearest and pulled off the cover. No pieces in that. But in the act of
replacing the cover she noticed something shining in a mass of white,
and paused to investigate. It was a string of glistening beads, and as
she lifted them from their crushed tissue wrappings there lay disclosed
the shimmering folds of a white silk dress, carefully laid away with
dried "Sweet Mary" leaves.
"Child, are you making those pieces?" The girl started guiltily, dropped
the cover over the box and pulled open its neighbor. There were the
scraps Aunt Maria wanted, and with these in her hands she scurried out
into the kitchen where the fussy old lady sat sewing in the waning
light.
"There are seven boxes just under the tray, Aunt Maria," she announced.
"I opened the wrong one by mistake, and there was a silk dress inside."
She hesitated, not knowing how to ask for the information she desired,
for the aunt, like the father, never encouraged the asking of questions.
"That was my first silk dress," the woman said reminiscently. "My
grandfather gave it to me when I was a little girl so I could go to my
favorite aunt's wedding. I never wore it but twice, for my mother did
not believe in finery for children, and this being white, she was afraid
it would get soiled. Did you close that trunk?"
Tabitha went back to put things in order again, but could not resist one
more peep at the enticing box. How beautiful the silk looked, and how
daintily it was made! To be sure, there were no ruffles adorning the
soft folds, but the bottom of the skirt was beautifully scalloped, so
even and nice, and each scallop bound with a narrow strip of the same
material.
She lifted the dress out of its box and looked at it with shining eyes.
How rich one must be to own a silk dress! How she wished it belonged to
her! If it had been hers, she should have worn it more than twice--such
a dainty, pretty thing as that--and it was white. White? Yes. And she
wanted a white dress so much.
"Tabitha!"
"Yes, Aunt Maria."
"What are you doing? I want you to set the table. It is almost supper
time and Thomas will soon be here."
Tabitha dropped the dress hastily on the rug beside the trunk, put the
cover on the empty box and slipped it back in its place with the other
six. Down went the tray on top of them, the lid of the trunk fell with a
snap, and the white silk dress was no longer inside. With beating heart
and red face she carried the garment into her own tiny room and hung it
in the very darkest corner of the closet. Then she ran to set the
table.
How the next day ever passed she never knew, for before her eyes
wherever she looked danced that lovely, quaint old gown of shimmering
silk, and she could think of nothing else. It hid the map of Europe when
she opened her geography, it played leap-frog among common fractions
when she tried to do her sums, it waved at the head of the Continental
Army while she led those brave men to victory, and when it came to
spelling class she could think of nothing but "s-i-l-k."
But Exhibition Day came at last. Aunt Maria was not going, as Tabitha
well knew, so would not see her in the borrowed gown until too late to
raise any objections. She had no intention of wearing the dress without
Aunt Maria's knowledge, but she did intend to wear it first, and tell
about it afterwards, accepting whatever punishment the woman saw fit to
give her for the transgression. So she smuggled the gown out of the
house in her school-bag, and up among the tall boulders beyond the
Carson place, where there was no possibility of anyone finding her. Here
she dressed, and under one great rock hid the once admired but now
despised green gingham. Then with her long cape covering her quaintly
gowned figure, she hurried up to Carrie's door to call for her playmate,
having waited until the last minute in the hope that her friends would
be gone. Nor was she disappointed. The doors were locked and no one came
to answer her knock; so with flying feet she sped toward the hall,
noting that only a few people were bound in that direction, and knowing
that most of the expected visitors were already seated within.
"Oh, Theodora Gabrielle!" exclaimed the teacher as the child flew up the
aisle to her place on the platform, "I was so afraid something had
happened to keep you away. It would never do to have our best speaker
absent, you know;" and she smiled into the shining black eyes of the
breathless Tabitha; but the next instant the smile faded. Tabitha had
loosened her cape, and Miss Brooks caught sight of the quaint, queer old
gown underneath. "Child!" she cried involuntarily. "Whatever possessed
you to put on that rig?"
The beloved silk dress called a "rig!" Tabitha was dismayed, and the
tears came welling into the bright eyes, as with quivering lip she
confessed, "It was the only _white_ dress I could get, Miss Brooks. I
thought it would be very 'propriate, for I am to speak a war piece, you
know. Aunt Maria had this when she was a little girl, and she must be
pretty much older than the war."
"I meant that the silk was too good for common wear, dear," fibbed the
teacher, seeing the sorrow in the thin, brown, wistful face. "It is a
pretty idea to wear a dress that was made in war times, and I never
would have thought of it myself. But we must take off the ribbons from
your hair, Theodora, and fix it in the old-fashioned way to go with your
gown. I remember a picture of my mother with her hair done in the
queerest braids. Come, we will have to hurry."
As this inspiration flashed through the young teacher's mind, she saw a
way out of the dilemma so that neither child nor school should be
ridiculed because of Tabitha's mistake; and she hurriedly completed the
small girl's "war times toilette" so that when Tabitha emerged from
under her skillful hands she was the admiration and envy of all her
mates. And truly she presented a pretty picture as she stood before the
none too critical audience and recited _Sheridan's Ride_ with such vim
and spirit that every heart was fired with patriotism and the applause
was so prolonged that Miss Brooks told her she must speak another piece,
even though it was not on the program. Purposely the teacher had left
Tabitha's part in the exercises well toward the last, knowing that she
could be depended upon to make a fitting climax for the afternoon's
program, nor was she disappointed; and she fairly beamed upon the little
girl as she gently pushed her toward the front of the platform to
respond to her encore.
Having done so well with one war piece, Tabitha decided that _Barbara
Fritchie_ was a most appropriate selection to recite this second time,
besides being quite in keeping with her old-fashioned dress. So she
began the familiar lines:
Up from the meadow rich with corn
Clear in the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.
How she loved that poem, how vividly the whole scene seemed to lie
before her, and how her very soul thrilled as she gave life to the
stirring words!
Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.
She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.
Suddenly from among the audience one face seemed to leap before her
eyes,--white, set, terrified. Tom! And beside him, leaning forward as he
stood near the door, his face grim and threatening, was her father! Her
surroundings were forgotten; she seemed to be standing beside the dusty
road again with a pail of blackberries at her feet; and with gaze
rivetted upon those two figures in the back of the hall, she recited:
Slap, if you dare, you old gray head,
I'll scratch like a--cat--till you'll wish you were dead.
Was there a titter behind her, were the faces in the audience smiling?
Was Miss Brooks speaking her name, were someone's arms around her
trying to drag her to her seat? It seemed an age that she stood there,
words frozen on her lips, heart that seemed to have ceased its beating,
and eyes that looked without seeing. Then, pausing for neither hat nor
cape, she plunged down from the platform, fled blindly through the aisle
and rushed out of the open door.
Up the rocky path she stumbled, but stopped on the summit of the first
rise. What was the use of running away? He would find her and the
punishment would come sooner or later. It might as well come now and be
over with. Up on the nearest boulder she crept and waited, a heap of
frozen misery. Would he remain until the exercises were over? How would
he punish her?
The waiting was short, although to her it seemed hours before the
parents and children came out of the hall and dispersed to their various
homes. A few passed her on the trail, but she did not see them--not even
Carrie, sobbing aloud as she stumbled along beside her mother.
When they were all gone, her father suddenly stood before her. When he
came, or how he got there, she did not know.
"Tabitha Catt," she heard his even tones saying, "get down from there."
She slid to the ground beside him.
"Come with me."
She turned and followed him, not down the hill to the cottage as she had
expected, but back towards town. The day was warm, but she was shivering
violently, and even her teeth chattered until it seemed as if the silent
man at her side could not fail to hear them.
"What have you told these people your name was?" the same even tones
demanded.
"Theodora Marcella Gabrielle Julianna Victoria Emeline. I never told
anyone but Carrie and Miss Brooks."
A glimmer of a smile played around the man's stern mouth, hidden by his
moustache.
"And Tom's? What name did you give Tom?"
"Dionysius Ulysses Humphrey Llewelyn."
"Hm, not as long as yours."
"He thought it would do. I had some more he might have had."
"So he called himself that jargon, did he?"
"Oh, no! He couldn't remember them. That was just my name for him."
"Well, Miss Tabitha Catt, you have told these people a lie."
Lie? Tabitha was startled. Lie? Was it a lie to change one's name--just
one's first name? It had not appealed to her in that light before. But
the relentless voice was still speaking. What was it saying?
"You have stolen your aunt's dress--"
"I--"
"Not a word yet, Tabitha Catt. When I have finished, you will have a
chance to explain. You are to go to every store and hotel in this town
and say--listen now, so you will get it straight, 'I told you a lie. My
name is Tabitha Catt and not Theodora Marcella Gabrielle Julianna
Victoria Emeline; and my brother's name is Thomas Catt and not Dionysius
Ulysses Humphrey Llewelyn.' Now go, and don't you miss a single store."
The child's black eyes flashed dangerously, but she obediently started
down the main street of the town, counting on her fingers, "Two drug
stores, three grocery stores--no, four--one butcher shop, two dry goods
stores, one millinery shop, three hotels and the bakery."
The first in line was a hotel, Silver Bow Hotel, the largest in town,
and the office was crowded when she entered. Every head was lifted and
every pair of eyes looked curiously at the odd little figure in its
quaintly scalloped dress and shining black braids. She hesitated, looked
about her in desperation, saw no familiar face in all the crowd, and
haltingly began her dreadful speech:
"I told you a lie. My name is Tabitha Catt--" Someone interrupted with a
mocking laugh. She wheeled toward him, shook her tightly clenched fist,
and with blazing eyes continued, "and not Theodora Marcella Gabrielle
Julianna Victoria Emeline; and my brother's name is Thomas Catt and not
Dionysius Ulysses Humphrey Llewelyn. My father's name is Lynne
Maximilian Catt, but you can call him 'lean Manx Catt;' he doesn't like
it, but it ain't any worse than ours. I have an Aunt Maria." She turned
as if to go, but paused to throw back over her shoulder, "My mother's
name was Theodora Marcella. She was a decent woman. The good die young."
With a profound bow she was gone before the spell-bound group had
recovered their breath The next place was a grocery store, and though
near the supper hour, it chanced to be empty, except for the proprietor,
whom she knew, and with him for her audience she spoke her little piece
again, omitting none of it, and leaving him in a state of utter
bewilderment. On down the long street she went, into every store and
shop. Sometimes the people laughed at her, but more often absolute
silence greeted her speech, for her eyes burned like live coals and her
thin face was pale as death, except for a scarlet spot high on either
cheek. In one shop she saw Miss Brooks, but though the teacher pitied
the child with all her heart, and longed to comfort her, she knew this
was no time to say anything, and was silent with the rest.
So at last the terrible ordeal was over and Tabitha dragged her feet
wearily up the last slope toward home. Her father met her where she had
left him, and greeted her with the remark, "Now, what have you to say
for yourself, Tabitha Catt?"
She lifted her eyes full of scorching scorn and looked straight into his
face so like her own, as she replied with passionate emphasis, "That
you're a beast, lean Manx Catt, and I'm ashamed of you!"
"She's right," he said to himself, and in silence followed the fleeing
form through the sunset glow toward home.