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[Illustration: The room we girls were to occupy was a great square
chamber with a large window looking on a cobbled street.
(_Frontis_) (_Tripping with the Tucker Twins_)]
TRIPPING WITH THE TUCKER TWINS
BY NELL SPEED
AUTHOR OF
"The Molly Brown Series," "The Carter
Girls Series," etc.
[Illustration]
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
Printed in U. S. A.
Copyright, 1919,
BY
HURST & COMPANY, INC.
MADE IN U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. ASSETS AND LIABILITIES 5
II. EARNING A LIVING 24
III. A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT 38
IV. WHAT ZEBEDEE SAID 48
V. A TRIP TO CHARLESTON 64
VI. THROUGH THE GRILLE 82
VII. THE ABANDONED HOTEL 98
VIII. TUCKER TACT 111
IX. CHURCHYARDS 124
X. THE HEAVENLY VISION 143
XI. THE GUITAR 161
XII. MORAL COURAGE 172
XIII. ENGAGING BOARD 189
XIV. THE CLERK OF THE COUNCIL 206
XV. WHO WON THE BET? 215
XVI. LETTERS 231
XVII. MISS ARABELLA 244
XVIII. A CHANCE FOR LOUIS 261
XIX. A RED, RED ROSE 280
XX. MORE LETTERS 287
XXI. THE SUMMING UP 300
Tripping with the Tucker Twins
CHAPTER I
ASSETS AND LIABILITIES
After our boarding-school burned on that memorable night in March, it
seemed foolish to start to school again so late in the season; at least
it seemed so to the Tucker twins and me. Their father and mine were
rather inclined to think we had better enter some institute of learning
in Richmond or take extra classes, do something besides loaf; but we
earnestly pleaded to be let off for the rest of the year, and they
succumbed to our entreaties.
My ankle gave me a good deal of trouble. You remember, no doubt, how I
sprained it getting out of the second-story window when the false alarm
of fire rang, the afternoon before the real _bona fide_ fire. Dee's
first aid to the injured was all very well for the time being, but when
we arrived in Richmond a surgeon had to be called to attend to it, and
the ankle was put in plaster.
"A sprain can be much more serious than a break," the surgeon said
solemnly as he looked at the much swollen foot and ankle. "I shall have
to take an X-ray of this to be sure no bones are broken, and then, young
lady, you will have to be quiet for some days, how many I can't yet
tell."
Never having been disabled in my life, I had no idea how irksome it
could become. On no account to put your foot to the ground and to feel
perfectly well is about as hard a job as could be given me, an active
country girl. Father came up from Milton and heartily agreed with the
surgeon in charge.
"I have set a carload of broken legs in my time and bandaged a wagonful
of ankles, and I am sure I have had less trouble from the legs than the
ankles. It is because, as a rule, a sprain is not treated seriously
enough. Now, honey, you have got to sit still and take it."
I sat still all right, although it nearly killed me to do it. Not even
crutches were allowed for a week for fear I might be tempted to bear my
weight on the offending member.
The Tuckers, father and twins, were goodness itself to me. I was afraid
to express a wish, because no matter how preposterous it was they would
immediately rush off and try to get whatever silly thing I had in a
careless moment expressed a desire for. For instance, one day Dum came
in enthusiastic over a new drugstore drink she had discovered:
"Vanilla ice cream with fresh pineapple mixed up with it, orange syrup
and lots of bubbly soda! The best mess you ever sucked through a straw!"
"Ummm-ummm! Sounds good to me! When I can trust this old limb of Satan I
am going to make straight for that drugstore and drink three of them."
Mr. Tucker had just arrived from the newspaper office where he labored
many hours a day. He must have been tired sometimes, but he never looked
it and never complained of work. Eternal youth seemed to belong to him,
and undying energy.
"Good? I think it sounds awful!" he exclaimed. "You girls must astonish
your poor little insides with the impossible mixtures you put in 'em."
"I think it sounds fine, and I am surely going to have three of them
just as soon as I can toddle."
Mr. Tucker laughed and left the room, and I wearily resumed a not very
interesting book I was reading while Dum followed her father. I read on,
hoping to come to something better. I fancy not more than ten minutes
had elapsed when father and daughter burst into the room, Dum carrying
two foaming soda-water glasses and Zebedee one. The dauntless pair had
actually cranked up Henry Ford, as they dubbed their little old
automobile, and speeded down to the drugstore where they knew how to
make that particular mixture, and brought them back to me.
"Your blood be on your own head if you drink them. They look pizen to
me."
But drink them I did, all three, much to the wonderment of Zebedee, who
declared that girls were fearfully and wonderfully made. I did feel
slightly fizzly, but after my kind friends had brought them to me and
even braved the danger of arrest and fine for speeding, trying to get
the drinks to me with the foam on, I felt it was up to me to show my
appreciation. The only way to show it was to drink the soda. What if I
did burst in the effort?
The Tucker twins and I were almost seventeen, our birthdays coming quite
near together, and their father, now Zebedee to all of us, was about
thirty-seven, I think, almost thirty-eight. The Tuckers were so
irresponsible in some ways that I often felt myself to be older than any
of them, although I was certainly not very staid myself. Zebedee always
declared he was just grown up enough to keep out of debt, but keep out
of debt he would no matter what temptations he had to withstand.
Tweedles regarded debt as the only lawful state, and hard they found it
to keep within their allowance, but the one time when Zebedee was really
severe was when they exceeded that allowance. Dum was worse about it
than Dee, as her artistic temperament made it hard for her to keep up
with money.
"It just goes, and I don't know where!" she would exclaim.
When we got back to Richmond after the fire, one day when Zebedee was in
Norfolk attending a convention of newspaper men, to be gone several
days, the sisters realized that a day of reckoning had arrived and they
must take stock of their assets and liabilities. Each one had borrowed
small sums from various friends at school, intending to pay back out of
allowances forthcoming, and also expecting to realize large sums from
old clothes that our washerwoman would sell on commission to the colored
contingent in the village. Colored people for some unknown reason would
much rather have clothes that have been worn by white people than new
ones out of shops. Of course the fire had interrupted this traffic and
Tweedles never expected to see the money owed them by our washerwoman's
clients.
"I could have worn that corduroy skirt for months longer, but I thought
I could get two dollars and a half for it at least and help get out of
debt," wailed Dee.
"And I just loved my blue linen shirtwaist and the frayed cuffs hardly
showed at all, and now the old washerwoman has got my shirt and the
fifty cents, too--to say nothing of my old-rose dinner dress that I am
scared to death about every night for fear Zebedee will ask me why I
don't wear it. He always liked the color of it so much," and Dum looked
ready to weep.
"Well, girls, count it all up and see where you stand; maybe I can lend
you enough to get you out," I said.
"You sound like we were in jail," declared Dee ruefully. "I don't see
how on earth you keep on top so yourself. You seem to do as many things
as we do and always pay your share, and still you don't get in debt."
"I don't know how it is," I laughed, "unless I am like the Yankee who
left his wife a large fortune, much to the astonishment of his
neighbors, who did not know he had anything. When questioned as to the
way her husband had made the money, the wife said: 'Wal, you see my
husband was powerful fond of oysters, and whenever he went up to the
city he just didn't get any.' You girls don't know how free you are with
money. If you buy a paper that costs a penny you always say, 'Keep the
change!' And then when a tip of ten cents is all that is necessary, you
invariably give twenty-five."
"I know that's so," they contritely tweedled.
"Count up and see where you're at," and then they figured in silence for
a few minutes.
"I owe five dollars and seventy-three cents," said Dee, getting hers
added up first and emptying her purse; "I've got just thirty-seven
cents and a street car ticket between me and the penitentiary."
"And I owe seven dollars and twenty-three cents and I haven't got
anything but a green trading stamp and a transfer to Ginter Park that I
did not use," and Dum searched in the corners of her purse for a
possible penny that might have escaped her.
"I've three dollars and will have some more soon, as father is going to
send me a check for a spring suit. You let me pay you both out of debt."
"We just can't. It only puts off the evil hour. We can't let you give us
the money, and how will we ever pay it back?"
"Why don't you earn it?" I ventured.
"Earn it! Splendid! But how? Dum earned fifty cents once making paper
dolls to sell at the Arts and Crafts, and Zebedee pays us both to dust
the books and put them back in the right places, something the
housemaids are incapable of doing; but this money we must earn without
letting Zebedee get on to it. Where's the morning paper?"
But Dum had already got it and was poring over the want ads. Dee had to
content herself with the news section, while Dum monopolized the "Help
Wanted--Female" part.
"What's this?" demanded Dee, reading headlines: "'Ordinance to prohibit
the drivers of jitney cars!' That is a sin and a shame. I can't see why
they can't let the poor men make a little money without issuing
ordinances. Oh, it is only under consideration! They may not pass it----
"By the great Jumping Jingo, I've got a scheme! I'm going to turn Henry
Ford into a jitney bus. Zebedee'll be away for two more days, and by the
time he comes back I bet I'll have enough to pay my debts and blow us
all to the swellest supper at Rueger's."
Jitneys had just reached Richmond that spring, and every man or boy out
of work who could beg, borrow or steal an old tumbled-down car had gone
into the business of running a jitney. The streets were swarming with
them, and the public, pleased with the novelty, patronized them to the
neglect and chagrin of the trolleys. Of course there were some drivers
who would hardly have been trusted with coal carts, and there were many
accidents by reason of this. We adored the jitneys. Of course, I had not
been able to ride in them because of my ankle keeping me house-bound,
but I loved to see them swing around the corner, and always had my chair
or sofa in the bay window where I could get a good view of them. There
seemed to be such a happy, good-natured crowd of passengers; and
certainly many a shopgirl and workingman got to ride in a jitney who had
despaired before of ever being fortunate enough to get into an
automobile. The Tuckers were strong upholders of the poor man's rights
and patronized the jitneys whenever their own Henry Ford was out of
commission or in use by some other member of the family.
"But what will your father say?"
"More than likely he will say something that won't bear repetition, but
by that time I will have paid my debts."
"But will they let girls run one?"
"How are they going to help it? The ones who are running them are liable
to be stopped any day, but so far there are no laws one way or the other
about it, and I am going to get in my licks before they have time to
make any. Besides, I am not going to look very feminine."
"That's what I get for being a pig and snatching up the want column
before you could get it. Now if I had let you have it like a lady I
could have got the jitney scheme first," grumbled Dum.
"What difference does that make? You can go in on it, you goose!"
"But I'm not going in. I think I ought to earn something my own way.
That was your scheme, and I am not going to butt in on it."
"Well, you know you are welcome; but suit yourself."
"But, Dee, you say you are not going to look very feminine. Surely you
are not going to wear pants?" I asked, aghast at what these Heavenly
Twins would do next.
"Oh, no! I have no intention of landing in the pen. I'm just going to
make up the upper half to look mannish. I'll wear Zebedee's big coat,
which I tried to make him take to Norfolk with him and he wouldn't, just
to be stubborn. Now ain't I glad?" and she put it on to show how well it
fitted. "If it is a nice cool day I can keep the collar turned up so!
Now there is no law about a lady's hat, and I am going to wear Zebedee's
chauffeur's cap." She accordingly put it on, pulling it well down over
her ears. "Now all I need is a dirty face. I've never yet seen a jitney
driver who did not have a shady face. I wonder if I had not better just
acquire it by the natural method of gradual accumulation, or if I could
smudge it on tomorrow morning."
By this time Dum and I were reduced to a pulp with the giggles. Dum had
for the time being abandoned her search for a lucrative job and had
entered with zest into her sister's plans.
"Your hair is too lumpy-looking under your cap and it rides up too high
on your head."
"Well, it shall have to be cut off then. It will grow out again."
"Dee! No! You mustn't! That would make your father really angry. Plait
it in a tight rope and put it down your neck, inside your collar."
No sooner said than done, and now the cap came down to meet the upturned
collar.
"You must wear Zebedee's gloves and take off your ring. Your hands look
mighty sissy. You'll do fine if Henry Ford will just behave and you
don't have to get out to crank him. It's too bad about the pants. You
would be perfect if you could just wear pants. If you should have to get
out, it would sho' be a joke if you got arrested for wearing skirts. You
look terribly like a bad boy," and so she did. "And now I must get back
to the task of finding a job for myself," and Dum returned wearily to
the want column. Dee's delightful get-rich-quick scheme made everything
else seem very colorless.
"'Wanted--A mother's helper to mind four children and wash dishes.' What
do you reckon the lazy thing would be doing while I was doing all that
for her? 'Wanted--Woman to wash only by the day.' Does the idiot think I
could keep it up all night? Here we are! 'Wanted--Twenty able-bodied
young women to apply between the hours of three and five p. m. to make
house-to-house canvass, selling a number of household novelties.'" Dum
grabbed her hat and began to draw on her gloves. "Here, Page, cut this
out for me. It is ten minutes to three now and I can just get there!"
Dum was out of the house before we could say Jack Robinson, the clipping
from the want column grasped tightly in her hand and her chin set in its
determined, square, do-or-die lines.
"When Dum looks like that she always gets what she goes after," said
Dee, looking admiringly after her twin as she jumped in Henry Ford, who
spent a large part of his waking life parked in front of the apartment
house or newspaper office. "Maybe going in a car, even a bum one like
Henry, will queer her game. If she will only have sense enough to stop a
little to one side of the place!"
We waited in almost breathless silence for Dum's return, Dee
experimenting with her hair for the morrow's fray and I gazing out of
the window at the whirling jitneys skidding around the corner, making
hair-breadth escapes.
"There she is!" and Henry Ford sure enough threaded his way jauntily
through the crowded street, turned himself about like a graceful skater
and parked himself in good order just one inch from the curb. The
Tuckers were all born chauffeurs, and, like most born chauffeurs or
riders or drivers, they showed their skill by going faster than the law
allows. They prided themselves on being able to go very close to things
without touching them, and indeed I have seen Henry Ford almost take the
buttons off the fat traffic cop at Seventh and Broad. That time Zebedee
was driving, and as he skimmed by the grinning policeman he called out:
"If it had been after dinner I would have hit you," and the delighted
officer shook his fat sides and patted his bay window with its row of
gleaming buttons, showing he understood Mr. Tucker's joke. "There are
two classes of persons I always keep in with--policemen and cooks. You
can get into no very serious trouble when you have them on your side,"
Zebedee had laughed gaily.
"I've got a job! I've got a job!" cried Dum, almost breathless with
haste and excitement as she rushed into the room where Dee and I waited.
"What is it?"
"Selling household novelties, of course. I'm to report at eight in the
morning. I was the third girl to get in to see the boss. You never saw
such a pompadoured, gum-chewing crowd in your life. I felt so ladylike I
hardly knew myself. The boss was sure some household novelty himself. He
is fat and soft, looks powerful like a dough ball, wears button shoes
and an embroidered vest, curly black hair done up in a roach and stewed
prune eyes and a full set, upstairs and down, of false teeth that look
like
"'Thirty white horses on a red hill,
Now they dance, now they prance,
Now they stand still.'"
"But, Dum, what on earth are household novelties?" I gasped.
"And how much are you to get?" demanded Dee.
"One at a time! There is a whole bunch of novelties: one is a little
plug to keep windows from rattling; another a needle-threader; another a
silver polish; another a spot-knocker; a patent batty-cake turner that
makes the batty-cake do the flipflap by pressing a button--either for
cakes or omelettes; then there's Mrs. Rand----"
"No, not really!"
Mrs. Rand was a miscellaneous implement we had taken to boarding-school
that had been purchased from a street fakir and we had named for the
landlady at Willoughby Beach, who had been very irate over the Tuckers
having lost the one she had in the cottage they rented from her. It was
a combination apple-corer, can-opener, cheese-grater, potato-parer, and
what not. It was the kind of thing you could use for everything but the
things it was intended for. It was a great screw-driver and tack hammer
and invaluable to gouge things out of deep cracks.
"I'll buy a Mrs. Rand with pleasure," I promised. "I have never ceased
to regret that I did not save ours in the fire and let the pincushion
Cousin Park Garnett gave me perish in the flames."
"Well, that's one sale already! That means five cents. I get five cents
on every sale I make."
"I'll take a batty-cake turner just to see it do the flipflap, if it
takes a whole trip of fares to pay for it."
"Good for you, Dee! I'll ride in your jitney if my work takes me in the
West End."