HAROLD AND CHARLES
Harold was frankly curious. He had not heard of the guest at the
Warner’s. Indeed, having arrived but that day he had heard nothing except
his mother’s anxiety about Gwynette. Could it be possible that the
fine-looking chap at his side was a friend of Jenny’s? He could easily
understand that anyone, man or woman, who had once met her would, ever
after, wish to be counted as one of her friends.
When they were well out in the country, the lad at the wheel turned and
smiled in his frank, friendly way. “Stranger hereabouts?” he inquired.
“Yes and no,” the young man replied. “This is my third visit, though the
other two could hardly be called that. I came here when the rainy season
began up north to put my sister, who is not strong, in the seminary here.
I hoped that your more even climate might help restore her strength.
Dakota is our home state. We have a ranch there, but the winters are very
severe. Sister, I am sorry to say, was not happy at the seminary, and,
when she did take a severe cold, she did not recover, and so I made my
second flying trip with the intention of taking her to Arizona if that
seemed best, but, when I arrived her nurse told me that she believed a
pleasant home atmosphere would do more for my sister than a dry air.
This, I was glad to find, had already been offered to Lenora. She had met
a girl, Jenny Warner is her name, and the two had become fast friends. On
the very day that I arrived Miss Jenny was also going to the seminary
with an invitation from her grandmother which was to make my sister a
guest in their home until she should be strong enough to travel. That was
two weeks ago. This, my third visit, is for the purpose of determining if
Lenora is well enough to accompany me to our home in Dakota. My name is
Charles Gale, and I have just completed the agricultural course connected
with the state college at Berkeley.”
Harold reached out a strong brown hand which was grasped heartily by
another equally strong and brown.
“Great! I’d like well to take that course. Harold Jones is my name.
Mother and Sis put a Poindexter and a hyphen in the middle. Women like
that sort of thing. It was mother’s maiden name. Well, here we are at the
long lane that leads up to the farm.”
Charles leaned over to pick up his suitcase. “Don’t turn in. I can hike
up to the house.”
“Nothing doing.” Harold swung into the narrow dirt lane. “I was planning
to pay a visit to Susan Warner. She took care of me when I was a small
kid, you see, and so I claim her as sort of a foster grandmother, and, as
for Silas Warner, there’s no finer example of the old school farmer
living, or I miss my bet.”
Charles looked interested. “I’d like to meet him. I was here such a short
time on my last visit that, although I met Mrs. Warner, I did not see her
good spouse.”
Harold, eager to create some sort of a stir, caused his sport siren to
announce their arrival with shrill staccato notes. It had the desired
effect. First of all dear old Susan Warner bustled out of the kitchen
door, then from around the front corner of the house came Jenny with her
friend, frail and white, leaning on her arm. Lenora’s face brightened
when she saw her brother and she held out both arms to him as he leaped
from the low car. Harold chivalrously sprang up on the side porch to
shake hands first of all with his one time nurse, then he went to Jenny,
and although he did not really frame his thought in words, he was
conscious of feeling glad that it was _his_ arrival and not that of
Charles Gale which was causing her liquid brown eyes to glow with a
welcome which, at least, was most friendly.
“Come in, all of you, do, and have a glass of milk and a cookie.” Grandma
Sue thought of them as just big children, and, by the eagerness with
which they accepted the invitation, she was evidently not far wrong.
Jenny skipped to the cooling cellar to soon return with a blue crockery
pitcher brimming with creamy milk. Susan Warner heaped a plate with
cookies. Charles led his sister to Grandpa Si’s comfortable armed chair
near the stove. When they were all seated and partaking of the
refreshments, the older of the lads said, “Sister, you are not yet strong
enough to travel, I fear.”
“O, I think that I am! We could have a drawing room all of the way and I
could lie down most of the time.” But even the excitement of her
brother’s arrival had tired her.
Jenny went to her friend’s side and, sitting on the broad arm of the
chair, she pleaded: “Don’t leave me so soon, Lenora! Aren’t you happy
here with us? You’ve been getting stronger every day, and only yesterday
Grandma Sue told the doctor that she hoped you would be here another
fortnight, and he said, didn’t he, Grandma Sue, that it would be at least
that long before you would be able to travel.”
Lenora looked anxiously at her brother. She knew that he was eager to get
back to their Dakota ranch home, knowing that their father needed him and
was lonely for both of them. But the young man said at once, “I believe
the doctor is right. I will wire Dad tonight when I go back to the hotel
that we will remain two weeks longer.” Then, turning toward the nodding,
smiling old woman, he asked: “Mrs. Warner, you are quite sure that we are
not imposing upon you? I could take my sister with me if——”
Susan Warner’s reply was sincerely given. “Mr. Gale,” she said, her ruddy
face beaming, “I reckon there’s three of us in this old farmhouse as
wishes your sister Lenora was goin’ to stay all summer. Jenny, here,” how
fondly the faded blue eyes turned toward her girl, “has allays had a
hankering for an own sister, and since it’s too late now for that, next
best is to adopt one, and Lenora is her choice and mine, too, and Si’s as
well, I reckon.”
The young man’s relief and appreciation were warmly expressed. Then he
said, “Father will want us to stay under the circumstances. I will remain
at the hotel——” Grandma Sue interrupted with, “I do wish we had another
bedroom here. It’s a powerful way from the farm to town and Lenora will
want to see you every day.”
Harold had been thoughtfully gazing at the floor. He now spoke.
“Charles,” then with his half whimsical, wholly friendly smile he
digressed, “you won’t mind if I call you that, will you, since we are
merely boys of a larger growth,” then continued with, “Don’t decide where
you will bunk, please, until I have had an opportunity to talk the matter
over with my invalid mother. I’d like bully well to have you for my
guest. I have a plan, a keen one if I can carry it out. I’ll not reveal
it until I know.” Harold stood up, suddenly recalling that he had a duty
to fulfill which was being neglected for his own pleasure. That had
always been his way, he feared, when he had to choose between Gwynette
and someone who really interested him.
To Mrs. Warner he said, “I’m on my way over to the seminary to see my
sister. Poor kid! There are two more days of prison life for her, or so
she considers it. Mother requested that she remain at the seminary until
the term is over and it’s being hard for her.” Then to the taller lad,
“Charles, you want to stay here with your sister until evening anyway,
don’t you?”
The girl quickly put out a detaining hand, as she said, “O please do
stay. I haven’t asked you a single question yet. It will take you until
dark to answer half that I want to know.” The big brown hand closed over
the frail one. To Harold he replied, “Yes, I’ll be here if I can get a
bus to town in the evening.”
“You won’t need the bus, not if my little gray bug is in working order.”
They had all risen except Lenora, and Susan Warner said hospitably,
“Harry-lad, if your ma don’t need you over to the big house, come back in
time for supper. I’ll make the corn bread you set such a store by.”
“Thanks, I’ll be here with bells,” the lad called as he leaped into his
waiting car.