NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS
"My dear, you look tired out!" Mrs. Blake exclaimed the next morning,
when Janet, very flushed and blown, presented herself at the rectory.
"What have you been doing?"
"Oh, it's an awfully windy morning, but I'm not really tired," Janet
replied.
"Yes, it's blowing a gale and it must be hard to walk," Mrs. Blake
agreed. "It's bad enough down here, but it must be dreadful up at
your house. I can't be glad enough that we are not on the shore; the
sound of the waves would depress me so," she added as she gave a
little shudder and held the door open for Janet to come in.
Janet did not bother to tell her that she had battled with those same
waves in a leaky boat not half an hour ago, for she knew Mrs. Blake
would not understand the importance of replacing a certain book in a
certain shelf, nor would she see anything funny in the sight of a
torn straw hat lying beside a pair of old gloves. But Janet had a
very vivid imagination, and she had rowed over that morning to the
Kingdom in order to replace the animal book and further to confuse
the mysterious boy, she had left his hat on the library table. Her
only regret was that she would not be there to see his expression
when he found it. There could be no doubt now that he knew the
secrets of the deserted house--the hat and book proved it. But
Janet, remembering the look in his gray eyes and the way he had
patted Roy, could not find it in her heart to be angry.
A bright fire burned in the rectory living room, and Alice and
Mildred were sitting beside it. They were still working over the
green bunting.
Janet's heart sank. She hated to sew, for her fingers, in spite of
Martha's patient teachings, insisted on acting like thumbs.
"What would you like to do, my dear?" Mrs. Blake inquired sweetly.
"Will you help the girls or would you rather do something else?"
"I'll do whatever you like," Janet said hesitatingly, "but I think
perhaps I could do something else better than I could sew. I'm not
very good at sewing, you see."
Alice and Mildred looked up in shocked surprise.
"Don't you like to sew?" Mildred said incredulously.
Janet flushed. "No, I don't," she said bluntly.
"How odd!" Mildred and Alice exclaimed together. "We love it."
"Daughters!" Mrs. Blake warned, for she had caught the suggestion of
scorn in their voices, and she was quick to notice Janet's flush.
At that moment the door from the dining-room opened, and Mrs. Todd
entered. Her cheeks were flushed, and her narrow little eyes seemed
brighter than ever.
"Morning everybody," she greeted, smiling at Janet. "You look very
cozy in here, but you also look very stuffy. What's the matter,
Janet!"
"Nothing, only I'm afraid I'm not going to be much of a help," Janet
confessed. "I don't like to sew, you see." Janet always said "you
see" when she was embarrassed.
"Neither do I,"--Mrs. Todd laughed. "Had to do too much of it when I
was a child."
"Perhaps we can find something else for Janet to do," Mrs. Blake
interposed.
"Why, of course, we can. Come with me, Janet. We'll rig up the
fishing pond."
Janet waited until she was well away from the library before she
asked what a fishing pond was. She was used to doing all the
explaining and all of the leading when it came to playing with other
girls, she had played so seldom with them, and this new and scornful
attitude of the Blakes made her unreasonably angry. She knew that if
she were competing in climbing trees or rowing--anything that took
courage--she would be their superior. But when it was a question of
sewing, she had to admit herself beaten. The thought made her very
unhappy, for above everything else in the world Janet wanted to be
like other girls. Not the Blake girls, but the girl heroines she had
read of and dreamed of as friends in her Kingdom.
Mrs. Todd noticed the worried expression on her face and did her best
to dispell it by giving her something else to think about.
"A fish pond," she explained in answer to her question, "is a very
easy way of making people spend money. You put up a screen and sell
little wooden fish poles for ten cents. The buyer goes fishing over
the screen and some one ties a present to the end of the line."
Mrs. Todd watched Janet closely, and laughed with delight as the
frown deepened on her face.
"Well?" she inquired, "what do you think of it!"
"Not very much," Janet answered truthfully. "Isn't there a better
way?"
"I should think there would be,"--Mrs. Todd chuckled. "If you can
suggest one we'll change it and surprise them all."
"Why not let them really fish?"
"In water! What would you have them catch? Pincushions and tidies
wouldn't be improved by a ducking."
Janet thought for a minute. They were in the Sunday-school rooms,
and she was sitting perched up on the high platform.
"Why can't they catch things that come from the sea!" she suggested.
"What, for instance!"
"Oh, shells and coral and fishes and stones. They are every bit as
sensible as pincushions and so much prettier."
"No doubt about that,"--Mrs. Todd laughed--"but where shall we get
them?"
"Oh, we have just loads of them up in the attic; queer old shells
from all over the world that my great-grandfather, I think it was,
brought home with him."
"But, my child, you can't give those away," Mrs. Todd protested.
"Why not?"
"Your grandmother--"
"Oh, she wouldn't mind; she can't bear them. You know, she hates
anything that reminds her of the water." Janet looked at her
companion wonderingly.
"Queer, isn't it?" she said.
Mrs. Todd looked at her with a peculiar light in her steely eyes.
"Not under the circumstances," she said softly, but though Janet
waited she did not say any more.
"I asked grandmother once, oh, long ago, if I might play with those
shells,"--Janet returned to the subject in hand--"and she said I
might do anything I liked with them as long as I kept them out of her
sight."
Mrs. Todd seemed to consider the idea. Finally she said,
"Well, bring them along with you this afternoon, and if they are of
no value we'll use them and surprise the neighborhood."
"They certainly are beauties," she said, when after luncheon Janet
had returned with a box full of queer old shells and rough bits of
coral.
"They must have come a long way, to judge by the looks of them."
"Well, I think my great-grandfather used to sail all the way 'round
the world," Janet replied. "Do you think they will do?"
Mrs. Todd looked at her. "Do, child! Why, they will cause so much
excitement that our booth will be by far the most popular. The only
reason I hesitate is that I am afraid that some day you will be sorry
you were so generous."
"But how silly,"--Janet laughed. "These are only a few of what we
have. There are heaps left in the attic."
"Settled,"--Mrs. Todd laughed. "And now, Miss Original, will you
please tell me what other ideas you have lurking in the back of your
brain?"
"Now you're teasing,"--Janet laughed. "There's nothing else to think
of, except the pond itself, and that ought to be easy. A big tub of
real sea water with pebbles and sand banked around it, and perhaps we
could borrow some of Mrs. Blake's palms. She has so many, and, oh,
well, we can make it look--now, you're laughing at me."
"Not a bit of it," Mrs. Todd denied emphatically. "I am laughing
with you, and there's all the difference in the world between the
two. But I would like to know just where you got all your
imagination."
For a minute Janet was tempted to tell the secret of the Kingdom, but
with a start she realized that it was no longer just her secret alone
and that in telling it she would almost be guilty of betraying a
confidence.
The Sunday-school room was gradually filling up with people. Janet
knew them all and bowed politely to each in turn. For the most part
the women from the farms, who were bringing in their donations of
pies and cakes, stared at her with ill-concealed curiosity. Although
she did not know it, Janet was often the topic of conversation and
gossip at sewing bees. Women with daughters often spoke of her as
"that poor lonely child," and thought of her as different from other
girls. It was a decided shock to see her in eager consultation with
Mrs. Todd--a most important person--her cheeks ablaze and her eyes
sparkling, and having quite as good a time as any ordinary girl; and
acting for the most part with far less affectation than their own
children.
But though Janet did not show it, she was conscious of the eyes upon
her, and it did make her uncomfortable. She was very much relieved
when Mrs. Todd stopped in the middle of a sentence and said:
"Stuffy; let's go out and see about finding our landscape."
Once outside, Janet drew a breath of relief. Harry Waters was
passing, and she hailed him with so much enthusiasm that he decided
that he was forgiven and he responded joyfully.
"Want to help me this afternoon?" Janet inquired. "I want a big box
of sand, and Mrs. Todd says we may drive her horse and cart to the
shore. You get a box," she directed in her old manner.
Harry was too delighted to be back into favor again to make any
objections and dashed off at once.
Mrs. Todd nodded her head slowly and laughed. "Boys are better fun
than girls, eh?" she inquired.
"Heaps," Janet replied, as she disappeared into the barn to assist in
the harnessing of Durward, Mrs. Todd's horse.