SUSANNE ENTERTAINS A CALLER
"Let's make some candy. It's too hot to play."
Susie and the twins were sitting idly on a great, shaggy, redwood log
in the scanty shade of the house, fanning themselves as briskly as
their tired arms would move, and longing for the cool of sundown.
Irene looked startled at the older sister's suggestion, and began,
"Tabitha----"
"Oh, I know she made us promise not to get into mischief," Susie
impatiently interrupted her, "but taffy ain't mischief. We'll make a
big batch so's there will be plenty for the others when they get back."
"It's so hot," objected Inez, as Susie turned to her for approval.
"We'll use the gasolene stove."
"But you've never lighted it. How'll you----"
"Oh, Irene, you make me tired! Don't you s'pose I know how? Haven't I
watched mamma and Tabitha hundreds of times? Guess I can manage it if
Mercy can. Come on, Inez!"
"Do you know how to make taffy?" questioned the undaunted Irene,
following the other two into the sweltering kitchen.
"Course! Molasses and sugar and vinegar and butter. Ask me something
hard."
"Tabitha measures 'em."
"So shall I. You go fetch the m'lasses jug and a cup. Inez, bring the
vinegar and butter, and I'll measure things after I get the stove
a-going." Mopping her face and bustling energetically about the small
room, Susie marshalled her forces and set to work with contagious
enthusiasm. All three donned huge aprons, hunted up long-handled
spoons, and rattled among the neat array of pots and pans until it
sounded as if a whole regiment had been turned loose in the kitchen.
The stove was lighted without any trouble, much to the relief of the
breathless trio, and the candy making was soon in progress. Sugar was
measured and molasses spilled with reckless abandon over table, floor
and stove, in their hurry to get their delectable sweet on cooking
before the rest of the family should return from their day's outing and
interfere, for, secretly, each be-aproned girl, paddling in the pot
with her sticky spoon and dribbling syrup wherever she ran, felt that
she was not strictly obeying Tabitha's parting injunction, and was
anxious to have a peace offering ready when she returned with the rest
of her brood.
They had gone for a drive to the river, and as there was not room in
the light wagon for all the large family, Susie and the twins had been
bribed to remain at home with the promise of ice-cream sodas at the
little drug-store. However, that unusual treat had disappeared long
ago down the three eager throats, and they had begun to rue their
bargain when Susie's inspiration fired them with enthusiasm once more.
"I wish we had some nuts," panted perspiring Inez, stirring the
bubbling mess in the kettle so vigorously that a great spatter flew up
and struck Irene on the hand.
"Ooo!" screeched the unfortunate victim. "What made you do that?"
"I didn't do it a-purpose," indignantly denied her twin. "Stop your
jumping and suck it off."
Irene obediently thrust the smarting wound into her mouth, and
immediately let out another howl of anguish, for the sticky mass had
burned the little tongue sadly, and the tears rained down the rosy
cheeks unchecked while the dismayed sisters racked their brains for
some soothing remedy to deaden the pain.
"Try this," suggested Susie, hurrying out of the pantry with a can of
baking powder in her hand, vaguely recalling that some kind of white
powder used in cooking was good for burns.
"I will not," sobbed Irene angrily. "You don't know what it will do.
You're just guessing."
"Gloriana put coal oil on Toady's foot," timidly began Inez, half
distracted at having been the cause of all her sister's woe.
"And you think I'll stick my _tongue_ in _that_?" roared the usually
gentle twin so savagely that both her companions fell silent, perplexed
at the unhappy situation.
Meanwhile the bubbling syrup had been forgotten, and with an ominous
hiss and a pungent odor, the seething mass boiled over the top of the
kettle and was promptly licked up by the eager flames of the stove. A
great cloud of smoke filled the kitchen, and the paralyzed girls awoke
to their danger with a sickening horror.
"Oh, oh, oh!" they screamed in frenzy. "The house will catch! We'll
all be burned up! What will mamma say?"
"Hush! Shut up! Give me your apron!" commanded an authoritative voice
behind them, and a big, shabby stranger rushed past them, snatched
Susie's apron, gave a deft twist to the flaming burner, seized the
smoking kettle, and vanished through the kitchen door before any of the
sisters realized what had happened. He was soon back with the
blackened pot in his hands and a reassuring smile on his lips. "It's
all right, kids," he announced cheerily, noting the terror in their
faces. "No harm's done. It won't take but a few minutes to clean up
that stove and pan and no one will be the wiser. You are housekeeping
by yourselves to-day, I see." His quick, restless, eager eyes had
noted the tell-tale signs of mischief about him before he hazarded that
remark.
"Yes, oh, yes!" breathed Susie in great relief. "Tabitha's taken the
rest of the children down to the river, and we're all alone."
"The river?"
"The Colorado. We often go there when we can get the assayer's horses,
but the wagon won't hold us all, so we three stayed at home to-day."
"And had ice-cream sodas for being good," added Irene.
"We _wanted_ to make some taffy," mourned Inez, ruefully eyeing the
blackened mass which the mysterious stranger was deftly removing from
the stove and floor.
"'Twas so lonesome here by ourselves," supplemented Susie
apologetically, remembering that she was responsible for the candy
suggestion.
"So 'while the cat's away the mice will play'," chuckled the man,
beginning a vigorous scraping of the sticky kettle.
"Why, how did you know her name was Catt?" cried Irene in amazement.
"Goosie!" exclaimed Susie sarcastically.
"He didn't know. That's not what he meant. But truly, mister, I don't
think Tabitha would have minded a bit if our candy had come out all
right. As 'tis, we've wasted such a lot of m'lasses and sugar that I
reckon she'll scold----"
"If she ever finds it out," broke in Inez.
"That's it--_if_ she ever finds it out," chuckled the man again. "Who
is this mysterious Tabitha that you are so scared of?"
"We ain't _scared_ of her," protested Susie loyally. "Her name is
Tabitha Catt, and she's taking care of us while mamma is with papa at
the hospital in Los Angeles. She's only a girl herself, but we
promised to mind her so mamma could go, and not fret about us all the
time, and we're trying hard to keep our promise."
"But sometimes we forget," said truthful Irene. "We oughtn't to have
made that candy, 'cause we told her we wouldn't get into mischief while
she was gone. I guess that's why it burnt up."
"I guess it's no such thing!" Inez contradicted hotly. "You made such
a fuss over nothing that Susie and me forgot to watch it and it boiled
over."
"I guess you'd have made a fuss if I'd blistered your hand like you did
mine," cried Irene in great indignation, suddenly remembering her
grievance, and affectionately regarding the white blister on her plump
hand. "Then on top of that you told me to suck it off, when you knew
it was boiling hot and would skin my whole mouth."
"Tut, tut!" interrupted the stranger, seeing that a quarrel was
imminent. "Now don't get mad all at once. I've a proposition to make
to you----"
"A what?" asked Susie, glad she had taken no part in the flare-up
between the twins.
"A bargain. I'll make you a mess of candy that'll pop your eyes out if
you will give me a square meal,--something to eat, you know, and plenty
of it. I'm hungry as the deuce, and candy ain't very filling. Is it a
go?"
Susie looked at her crestfallen companions, and they looked at her.
"There were no potatoes left from dinner," began Irene.
"But there's any number of cans of stuff in the pantry," said Inez
hastily.
"Salmon and sardines and veal loaf and corned beef and vegetables,"
added Susie hopefully, yet fearful lest the menu should not prove
sufficiently tempting to the queer, unexpected, unknown visitor. "And
Tabitha cut the cake for dinner."
"Besides cookies and crackers and bread," murmured Irene, seeing
reproof in her sisters' eyes, and feeling that she had been
inhospitable to their hungry guest.
"Good!" promptly answered the man. "I reckon we'll make out. Just
open a tin of salmon, make a pot of strong coffee, and bring on your
bread and cake and sauce--lots of it, now, for I haven't had a bite to
eat since last night. Lost my money, you know, and it hurts a decent
fellow's pride to beg."
The trio nodded sympathetically, and hurried to do his bidding, while
he rapidly measured out fresh supplies of sugar and syrup, and briskly
began stirring the mass over the fire, talking all the while. "I just
happened to be passing when I smelled your stuff burning, and thinks I,
now there's trouble in there. Just then you all commenced screaming,
and I was sure the house was a-fire, so I rushed in to help. Good
gracious, but I was scared for a minute when I see the flames jumping
so high. You might have had an explosion any minute."
"Yes," gravely agreed the girls, the look of terror returning to their
eyes.
"If it hadn't been for you, I reckon the house would have burned down,
and it's the only one we've got," said Irene.
He nodded. "I understand, and so I thought you wouldn't begrudge me a
bite to eat, after I had put out the fire and cleaned up the clutter so
Tabitha wouldn't know that you had been in mischief."
"Course we're glad to give you something to eat," Inez again hastily
interrupted. "'Specially when you are making us some more candy. Are
you ready for your--lunch--now?"
"In a jiffy. Just grease a pan for this dope and I'll pour it out to
cool. Bet it beats yours all hollow. There! Set it in the
window--so! Now, I'll sample your larder. Looks fine and smells
bully. Which store is best here in town?"
"Brinkley's," promptly answered the trio, with longing eyes fixed upon
the golden flood of syrup cooling in the window.
"Though Dawley's is bigger," added Irene.
"Do they make much money?"
"They ought to. Prices are high enough," answered Susie with a
comically grown-up air.
"Most of the miners trade at Dawley's, 'cause he don't hurry 'em so
about paying," said Inez naively. "But the Carsons and Catts and Dr.
Hayes, and those folks buy at Brinkley's, 'cause his stuff is nicer."
"We _did_ trade there," began Irene, but Susie interrupted, "Most of
our stuff comes from Los Angeles now. It's cheaper to trade that way,
and anyhow, papa knows the man real well, and now that he's sick in the
hospital, he doesn't have to worry about pay day all the time, for this
man will wait till he is well enough to work again."
"When is pay day?" casually inquired the man. "I mean how often does
it come?"
"Once a month--the fifteenth."
The stranger's eyes glittered with satisfaction, and he muttered, "The
fifteenth,--that's to-morrow."
"What did you say?" asked Susie.
"I was just thinking," he replied, glancing uneasily from one bright
face to the other to see if any of the children had caught his
indiscreet remark. "By the way, who lives in that little, unpainted
house on the edge of town?" He pointed vaguely over his shoulder, and
the sisters looked at each other in bewilderment.
"The pest house?" suggested Irene.
"The Ramsey place?" said Inez questioningly.
"The haunted house?" ventured Susie. "You see, there are so many
unpainted houses on the edge of town."
"The haunted house!" laughed the stranger incredulously. "Whoever
heard tell of a haunted house in a mining camp!"
"Silver Bow has one," stoutly asserted the twins.
"Where? Which one? I confess I am curious."
"It's the last one on the East End Lode," replied Susie with dignity,
feeling that the reputation of her town was at stake.
"The queer old shack beyond Tabitha's," added Inez.
"There are only three houses in that hollow," explained Irene. "The
Carson's big house, the Catt's littler one, and this haunted house."
"What haunts it?" jeered the man, pushing back from the table and
glancing sharply down the trail toward town.
"A--a ghost," the twins half whispered.
"A man killed himself there once," said Susie.
"Or was murdered," shuddered Inez.
"Or else he just died," put in practical-minded Irene. "Anyway, they
found him there dead."
"And sometimes now folks hear queer things there."
"And see lights."
"Tabitha never has," Irene declared. "And she lives nearest it."
"Well, 't any rate, it's haunted and no one ever goes there now, not
even Tabitha, who ain't afraid of a _thing_."
The stranger rose slowly to his feet, yawned as if bored by their
chatter, picked up his hat, and started for the door; then paused, and
casually surveying the pan of taffy on the window sill, remarked,
"Believe if I was you, I'd eat that all up before the rest of the folks
get back. There's just about enough for three, and I've a notion that
Miss Tabitha will think you didn't keep your promise very well if she
ever finds out how near you came to setting the house a-fire. She'll
never dare trust you again. It might be well not to mention that I
dropped in, either. Tramps aren't often welcome visitors, even in a
mining camp, you know. But I appreciate your dinner, and thank you
kindly. Good-day, ladies."
"Good-day," they echoed mechanically, and with puzzled eyes watched him
disappear in the direction of the railroad station on the flats. Then
they faced each other.
"Do you s'pose we better--" began Susie slowly.
"Not tell?" ventured Inez.
"And eat all the candy ourselves?" added Irene.
There was a moment's pause while three active brains worked furiously.
Then Susie sighed, "I b'lieve he's right. Tabitha would never trust us
again. We better keep still about the whole thing."
"Then we'll have to hurry and clear up this mess," said Irene. "We can
hide the candy until later, but this table would give everything away."
So the trio flew to work again, put away the remains of the tramp's
dinner, washed the telltale dishes, and had the kitchen in its usual
spick and span order when the rest of the large family returned an hour
later from their sojourn to the river. If their consciences pricked
them a little for their deception, they said nothing, not even to each
other; and it was several days before the young housekeeper discovered
their secret.