THE DAY AT LAST
"If it rains to-morrow I think I shall die," Janet said as she got
ready for bed that night.
She need have had no fears, for the next day dawned clear, with just
enough of autumn chill in the air to whip the color into your cheeks.
Tom's telegram had said that they would arrive by the same train that
he had come by.
Janet wished it had been an earlier one, but the day passed more
quickly than she had hoped. In the morning she drove Clinker out
into the woods and came back with the cart full of brilliant autumn
leaves.
As she drove back through the village it seemed as though every one
stopped her to ask when Phyllis was coming. She told them all, and
her excitement mounted every time she uttered the magic words but
toward afternoon the fear that had depressed her the day before
returned and she could not shake it off. She felt suddenly very shy.
When train time came it was all she could do not to fly to the
Enchanted Kingdom and hide, as she had done on the day of the fair.
She walked up and down the platform in a fever of excitement, and her
hands were icy cold.
Old Mr. Jenkins came out from the ticket office to talk to her.
"Quite a day for you, isn't it?" he asked with evident interest.
"Can't say as I ever heard of another case quite like it. To have a
twin sister that you never saw and didn't even know you had! I often
wondered when you'd find it out."
"Did you know all about it?" Janet asked in surprise.
"I should say I did." Mr. Jenkins nodded his head to give further
weight to his words.
"I wonder why no one ever told me," Janet said more to herself than
to him.
Mr. Jenkins chuckled.
"I kinda guess all the folks that knew about it, knew your
grandmother didn't want it told, and perhaps you've noticed folks
have a way of doing things like she wants."
"I suppose that was it," Janet agreed idly. "Isn't that the train?"
she asked a minute later as a faint rumble became audible.
Mr. Jenkins consulted his watch.
"Wouldn't wonder if it were," he said. "I'd better be getting the
mail bags ready."
Janet couldn't very well ask him to wait, but she watched his
retreating figure with a sinking feeling around her heart. At least
he was somebody to talk to, and anything was better than being alone.
She could feel her heart pounding, and something in her throat seemed
to interfere with her breathing.
Never did a train take so long to slow up and finally stop, but Janet
found herself suddenly wishing that it would take twice as long.
The first person to alight was Tom, and he took time to wave to her
before he turned to help down a slender little lady dressed in pearl
gray. Janet started forward to meet them, and then stopped short for
she saw herself stepping off the train; eyes, hair, straight little
nose, even to the solitary dimple in the left cheek. She was
carrying a basket and she was laughing at Tom. Then she looked up
and stopped too.
The Page twins stared at each other.
"Janet!" Phyllis was the first to regain the power of speech. She
dropped her basket into Tom's arms and ran forward.
The next thing Janet knew she was being kissed and hugged.
"Oh, you adorable love!" Phyllis exclaimed rapturously. "Isn't it
all perfectly thrilling and fairy-taleish? I could just eat you
alive, I am so excited. Please say right away that you are going to
love me or I shall die of misery."
Poor Janet! She had never heard so many adjectives in all her life
and the speed with which Phyllis rattled on dumbfounded her. Miss
Carter, Aunt Mog, came to her rescue.
"Phyllis, my love, do stop talking and give some one else a chance to
say how do you do to Janet." She laughed. "Janet, my dear, I am
your Aunt Mog, and I am, oh, so very happy to see you."
Janet kissed her and murmured, "Thank you."
"Well, don't I get a kiss, little sister of mine?" Tom inquired in
his deep, good-natured voice.
At the sound of it Janet found her tongue.
"Of course you do!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I am so happy, I can't think
of anything to say," she confessed shyly.
"You precious love, that's just exactly the way I feel!" Phyllis
could not keep still another instant. "There are all sorts of funny
little chills miming up and down my back and--oh, for goodness'
sakes, Tommy, what are you doing to Sir Galahad!" She snatched the
basket away from Tom and lifted out a huge tortoise-shell cat with a
big blue bow around his neck.
Boru, who had been sniffing at Tom's side, gave a sudden jump, and
Janet caught him just in time to save the cat.
"Get down, sir," she scolded, "and don't you dare to touch that cat.
Do you understand?" Boru slunk away with his tail between his legs.
"Poor kitty, did he frighten you? I'm so sorry,"--Janet stroked the
ruffled fur comfortingly.
Phyllis laughed. "What a time we will have with those two!" she
exclaimed; "but they'll make friends sooner or later. Sir Galahad is
just as much to blame as your dog. He has no manners when it comes
to dogs. Go back in your basket, you're in disgrace."
"Let's make at least a start for home," Tom suggested. "I'm hungry."
"There's a wagon to carry up your bags," Janet said, "but I'm afraid
we will have to walk."
"Oh, yes, let's do start. I'm simply crazy to see the house and
grandmother and Martha. Here, Tommy, you carry puss, now that you
have no bags. I'm going to walk with Janet. You and Auntie Mogs can
bring up the rear."
"You are going to do no such thing," her aunt contradicted her
smilingly. "I don't want Janet deaf by the time we reach the house,
and besides I want to talk to her myself."
She took Janet's arm and started off, and Phyllis and Tom followed.
"Phyllis doesn't always talk as much as this," she said as they
walked along; "she is just excited to-day."
"Oh, but I love it," Janet said quickly. "She's--well she's
everything she said I was." She looked at her companion and smiled.
Miss Carter was a dainty little lady, Janet thought she looked as
though she had just stepped down from a Dresden vase, her cheeks were
such a soft shell pink and her eyes such a delicate china blue.
Unconsciously she looked down at her feet; they were nearly small
enough to fit the slippers in the trunk in the attic.
"Oh, Janet, do tell me who lives in that cunning little house!"
Phyllis called.
"The Waters," Janet told her; "that's Harry looking out of the barn
door."
Phyllis laughed merrily. "Oh, but he's fat," she cried. "Do you
know him!"
"Yes."
"Like him?"
"Not much."
"Why!"
"Isn't he the boy who is afraid of snakes?" Tom asked, laughing.
"Yes."
"Well, I don't blame him for that!" Phyllis exclaimed. "I'm scared
to death of the crawly things myself, but I do think he is a little
bit too fat." She chattered on and succeeded in monopolizing the
conversation until they reached the house. At the first glimpse of
it she went into ecstasies.
"It's perfect," she announced from the garden gate. "Oh, Janet, do
love me so that I can stay here always. There's a real sundial!
Auntie Mogs, do look. Tommy, you never told me about it. And what
ducky little white flowers!"
In the hall she was equally enthusiastic over the grandfather's clock
and the big brass warming pan.
Martha met them at the door, arrayed in a stiff white apron, her face
shiny with soap applied vigorously.
Before she had a chance to speak, Phyllis was shaking her hand.
"You're Martha," she said. "I'm awfully glad to know you."
Martha turned to Miss Carter. "She said that like Master Tom," she
said.
Aunt Mog smiled. "Yes, she is very like her father," she said. "I
see it so often. It's queer, isn't it! Janet is more like her
mother."
"She is, indeed, ma'm, even in her ways." Martha spoke proudly, and
she looked at Janet affectionately.
"Won't you be coming up to your room? You must be tired."
They all followed her upstairs, Phyllis leading the way and once more
carrying her cat.
Tom brought up the rear, carrying the bags, which had arrived a few
minutes before from the station.
"I must change my dress before I see grandmother," Phyllis said as
she opened a big suitcase, "but I won't be a minute, so stay and talk
to me while I wash in this adorable basin," she said to Janet.
Aunt Mog took off her hat and with a smile, which neither of the
girls noticed, she slipped from the room and joined Tom at the foot
of the stairs.
"It's quite perfect, as Phyllis says," she laughed, "and now suppose
I go in and say 'how do you do' to Mrs. Page."
When the girls came down a few minutes later they heard voices and
Tom's hearty laugh. Janet sighed with relief and opened the door
softly.
"Grandmother," she said in the hushed voice she always used in that
room, "here is Phyllis."
Before Mrs. Page had had time really to look at her other
granddaughter, Phyllis had kissed her warmly on both cheeks and was
rattling on in her joyful way.
"Grandmother, isn't this fun!" she demanded. "I'm so glad to see
you. Why, only just imagine, I never knew you existed until Tom came
out of the skies and told me about you and Janet. You can imagine,
can't you, how surprised I was, and of course I've been simply crazy
to see you ever since."
"Phyllis dearest, be careful; I'm afraid you'll tire your grandmother
with so much chattering," Aunt Mog admonished gently.
"Let the child alone, Marjorie," Mrs. Page snapped.
"Oh, but I'm sorry," Phyllis was contrite at once, "I always forget,
and you know you don't look a bit sick, grandmother, even though you
are in bed. Here, let me shake up your pillows for you. They don't
look half puffy enough to be really comfortable." She suited the
action to the word, and in the twinkling of an eye the pillows were
re-arranged to her satisfaction.
"Keep still a minute, child," Mrs. Page said not unkindly; "I want to
look at you."
Phyllis smiled down at her, and stood as still as it was possible for
her.
"I wish you would all leave me now," Mrs. Page said when she had
studied each of Phyllis's features in turn. "Come in and say good
night to me, child, when Janet comes."
They left her, and the girls went into the garden. Janet was too
surprised to voice her thoughts, but Phyllis did not seem even to
know that she had done anything out of the ordinary. She dismissed
her grandmother with "she's really a love," and returned to more
important subjects.
By evening she knew all about the Enchanted Kingdom, Peter, Mrs. Todd
and the Blake girls, and she had moved her suitcase into Janet's
room, "for--" she said--"what is the use of having a sister if you
can't sleep with her and talk over things with her in the dark."
Miss Carter and Tom, sitting in the living-room before the fire,
heard the buzz of their voices late into the night.
"How alike they are," she said, smiling. "And yet how absolutely
different."
Tom nodded. "And to think they're both my sisters; bless 'em, do you
know, Auntie Mogs, I'm a very proud man this night!"
Auntie Mogs leaned over and patted his hand in understanding.
"They must never be separated again," she said with decision.