IN A PATIO
"Are you hurt? Daddy, are you hurt?" Alice cried, but even as she did,
tears of laughter were rolling down her cheeks. She had never in her
life seen her father in such a ridiculous position, which was saying
something, for Adair MacKenzie had a knack of getting himself in more
absurd situations than anyone else in the world.
"Stop your blubbering." Adair was thoroughly irritated this time. "I'll
conquer you yet." He scolded the mule. "Think you can vanquish Adair
MacKenzie, do you? I'll show you." But to all of this scolding that fell
dully on the tropical verdure about them, that sounded harsh and out of
place in the soft greenness of the scene, the mule never blinked an
eyelash.
"Daddy, are you hurt?" Alice repeated her question as she took hold of
one arm while Walker Jamieson took the other.
But their offers of assistance went unappreciated. Adair MacKenzie
merely shook off their hands, used his own to push himself up, and then
stood, brushing himself off while he continued his tirade.
"Now, you're going home, and you're going to stay there." Adair
spluttered off into the kind of scolding that he might have given an
erring child. With this, he about faced and walked, leading the mule
beside him the three miles back to the hacienda.
It was a quiet party, but one full of suppressed mirth, that wound its
way back over the path. The Lakeview Hall girls could scarcely contain
themselves until they got in their apartments.
"It was just perfect." Laura laughed heartily.
"Did you see the way he looked, and the way the donkey looked?" Amelia
asked.
"They just stared at one another until I thought that cousin Adair would
beat the beast with his cane."
"I thought of that, too," Bess said. "But I guess he's too kind-hearted
to do anything like that."
Bess was right. Adair MacKenzie had never in his life made any attempt
to hurt a dumb animal in any way until that morning when he had dug his
heels in irritation into the mule's side. At home, he always had animals
about him, a dog that was now well along in years, a stable full of
horses, and yes, a mule that he once bought on the street when he saw
its master trying to beat it into moving along.
"The crust of that mule," Laura said slangily. "Did it ever do my heart
good to see its stubbornness matched against Mr. MacKenzie's! I wonder
what kind of a character sketch he would make of it, if he had the
chance, that is, I mean, if the mule could understand him."
"Probably, 'stubborn fool' and let it go at that," Nan answered. "Anyway
his troubles with that mule will never be forgotten."
"And 'stubborn as a mule', will always mean something to us now," Nan
added. "Now, we've got to get ready and get downstairs. Dinner's going
to be ready very shortly."
So the girls changed their clothes, washed, combed and presented
themselves downstairs all clean and neat.
There was no one around. They walked through the great hall and out into
the patio. Still they found no one except the servants.
"I never saw so much help in all my life," Grace remarked. "Why, just
millions of people work here. I haven't seen the same person twice at
all."
"Didn't you hear Walker Jamieson say that labor's cheap in this
country?" Nan explained. "Everyone has one or two or three servants. But
I wonder where cousin Adair and everyone is now."
She hadn't long to wait, for just as she spoke they heard loud voices
from the direction of the kitchen at the back, and shortly Adair, Alice
and Walker appeared.
"There that's done," Adair slapped his hands together as though he had
just disposed of a mighty problem. "Trouble, trouble all the while," he
looked at the girls as he spoke. "If it isn't one thing, it's another.
One moment it's a mule and the next it's a woman." He looked utterly
worn out, and Nan felt sorry for him.
"Oh, daddy, don't take Mrs. O'Malley too seriously," Alice tried to ease
his worry.
"Too seriously! Well, I like that," Adair exclaimed. "When the best
housekeeper in all Christendom threatens to walk out on you, tell me
now, what are you supposed to do? Say, all right, go ahead? Just what
would you do, now?" He looked at Alice.
She hesitated.
"There," he didn't give her a chance to answer, "she'd walk out on you
before you did anything. You can't hesitate in serious matters like
this. You have to act. But never mind," he turned to his guests, "you
don't need to worry. I have acted. Mrs. O'Malley has promised to stay.
The Chinese cook has promised to stay. Everyone's staying. There'll be
no deserting the ship on this trip."
"That's fine, daddy," Alice complimented him. "And now when do we have
dinner?"
"Dinner? Where's dinner?" Adair was off again. He picked up a bell and
rang it forcefully. Everyone, except the famous Mrs. O'Malley and the
Chinese cook came running. People came out of doors, in through the
arches of the patio, and stuck their heads out from windows. Everyone
thought that there was something radically wrong. When they saw that it
was just the American again, they disappeared as quickly as they came.
The old women shook their heads. Would he never learn, they wondered,
that there was no necessity to rush anything, that if you let things
just go their own quiet, placid way, they would eventually work
themselves out. They couldn't understand this man who had come to them
as their master. Already, thanks to the guide of the morning, legends
about him and his wrath were spreading around the place. The wireless
that civilization knows is fast, but the grapevine among the Mexican
Indians was even more effective.
When he saw the commotion he had caused, Adair MacKenzie sat down, and
shortly dinner appeared, as it would have appeared even though he had
done nothing.
The dinner was good and the cool fruit juices that followed it were
good. And everyone sat, as long as the warmth of the day permitted, in
the patio under the tropical sky and talked some, sat silent more, for
it was all very peaceful.
"So you're not going to work on that smuggling story after all?" Adair
MacKenzie asked Walker just before they all got up to go in.
"Well, I wouldn't say that," Walker answered carefully. "Feel the need
of a little rest now and I like this place and I like the people and
it's hard to tear myself away."
"We thank you, don't we?" Adair took his daughter's hand in his. He
felt vaguely that there was something more serious in all of this than
appeared on the surface, but just now he was too tired to question. He
squeezed Alice's hand.