ANOTHER YEAR WITH
DENISE AND NED TOODLES
[Illustration:
_Frontispiece--Denise._
“DENISE RAISED HER HEAD AND LISTENED FOR THE SECOND CALL.”
_See page 15_
]
ANOTHER YEAR
WITH
Denise and Ned Toodles
BY
GABRIELLE E. JACKSON
_With Illustrations_
PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
CAPS AND CAPERS
DOUGHNUTS AND DIPLOMAS
$1.00 each
A BLUE GRASS BEAUTY
Fifty cents
Copyright, 1904, by Henry Altemus
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I PAGE
WHAT THE WOOD-THRUSH TOLD 13
CHAPTER II
“MABIE LILLY TAINTIT” 23
CHAPTER III
AN OLD FRIEND AND A NEW ONE 35
CHAPTER IV
HART 48
CHAPTER V
KING ROYAL DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF 61
CHAPTER VI
THE SUNSET HOUR 71
CHAPTER VII
“OH, WE’LL SAIL THE OCEAN BLUE!” 85
CHAPTER VIII
POKEY AND A CIRCUS 99
CHAPTER IX
THE EARTH OPENS AND POKEY IS SWALLOWED UP 113
CHAPTER X
TROUBLES NEVER COME SINGLY 124
CHAPTER XI
A TIMELY RESCUE 136
CHAPTER XII
JOY TURNS POKEY DAFT 150
CHAPTER XIII
MISCHIEF 160
CHAPTER XIV
AUNT MIRANDA COMES TO TOWN 174
CHAPTER XV
AUNT MIRANDA AND NED HAVE A LITTLE ALTERCATION 187
CHAPTER XVI
AUNT MIRANDA INTERVIEWS NERO’S OWNER 200
CHAPTER XVII
NED DISGRACES HIMSELF, BUT MAKES AMENDS 214
CHAPTER XVIII
A BIRTHDAY FROLIC AND WHAT CAME OF IT 227
CHAPTER XIX
DENISE TO THE RESCUE 240
CHAPTER XX
A COASTING EPISODE 254
CHAPTER XXI
ANOTHER CHRISTMAS DAY DRAWS NEAR 269
CHAPTER XXII
CHRISTMAS FOR ALL THE PETS 280
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
“Denise raised her head and listened for the second call”
_Frontispiece_
“‘Why not call it the _River Kelpie_?’” Facing p. 94
“The man bent down to avoid the branches” “ 150
“They had many things to talk over” “ 230
WHAT THE WOOD-THRUSH TOLD
ANOTHER YEAR WITH DENISE AND NED TOODLES
CHAPTER I
WHAT THE WOOD-THRUSH TOLD
Denise sat all alone in her phaeton, her elbows resting upon her knees,
and her chin propped upon her hands. The soft brown curls fell all
about her face, and the brown eyes, which matched the curls in color,
looked dreamily off toward the glassy river. The linen carriage-robe
had slipped from her knees and one end trailed out upon the fresh green
grass upon which the phaeton stood, for she had driven out of the main
road into a little by-way leading up the mountain, her favorite spot
for a “good quiet think,” and she and Ned Toodles were reveling in the
beauty of that early spring day. The atmosphere was so balmy, so filled
with the thousand promises of spring, the sun so warm and comforting,
without the oppressive heat that would come later in the season, and
all nature so entrancing in the exquisitely soft green of her new
spring attire, that it was no wonder that the sensitive, imaginative
child of eleven should be transported into a fairy-like reverie, or
the little pony, which had now been her constant companion for more
than eighteen months, should, so far as an animal can sympathize with
a human being’s moods, enter into sympathy with Denise’s. He stood
perfectly still, his head turned slightly toward the river upon which
Denise’s eyes rested, his head slightly drooping, and the usually
wide-awake eyes partly closed, as though he, too, had nearly slipped
away into the land of dreams. One ear, however, was turned backward
toward the occupant of the phaeton, as though he had placed an anchor
in the land of reality in which his beloved little mistress dwelt most
of the time.
To the right of the phaeton stretched the great woodland, with its
silence, broken only by the wind whispering through the trees, and its
bird-calls. It was a dreamy, beautiful world which Denise and her pet
were dwelling in just there and then, and a fitting surrounding for
a child whose life had been filled with sunshine, and whose nature
reflected it, as well as for the little pony, who ever since he had
become hers, eighteen months before, had not known the meaning of a
harsh word or unkindness.
Presently from out the woodland came the incomparable call of the
wood-thrush, rising from its soft, tender note to the clear joyous call
which told to all the world that life was, oh, so sweet! Denise raised
her head from her hands and listened for the second call which she
knew would follow. It came, and this time a little nearer, as though
the bird were searching the woods for its mate. Then back went the
answering call, but not from the bird’s mate. Raising her head, Denise
puckered up the soft red lips, and clear and sweet from between them
came the
[Music]
Then she listened for the answer. It came, and so did the bird, peering
cautiously from a leafy covert, flying nearer and nearer the still
figures at the roadside, hopping questioningly from bough to bough, as
though asking, “Where is she?”
Denise smiled, but made no sound, and the little bird, deciding that
those odd-looking creatures so near by were harmless, opened his tiny
beak, and clear and sweet at her very side gave his entrancing call
again.
The moment it ceased Denise repeated hers, and for a few moments a very
bewildered little bird flitted about the phaeton, calling and hearing
the answering call without seeing the lady bird whom he felt sure must
be near at hand. It was altogether too tantalizing, and the mystery
must be solved if possible, so, gathering courage from his intense
curiosity, down he flew from his leafy branch and alighted upon the
wheel of the phaeton, to give a still louder and more peremptory call.
It was of no use, for even though his lady-love politely answered from
between Denise’s lips, she refused to appear, and with an indignant
flourish of his brown tail, off flew her suitor to seek a lady-love
less disdainful.
As he disappeared into the wood a merry laugh rippled after him, which
must have caused a surprised flutter from his wings, and, giving one
bound, Denise sprang over the wheels and landed upon the grass beside
Ned. The move was a sudden one, but Ned was used to moves of all sorts,
so, giving a soft little whinny of welcome, he aroused himself from his
dreams, took a step or two nearer, and poked his head under Denise’s
arm. She dropped upon the soft grass, saying:--
“Ned Toodles, it’s springtime, springtime, springtime! I am so glad,
aren’t you?” And cuddling both arms about the warm head which was
thrust into her lap as she sat there, she buried her face in the silky
forelock and “snuggled” as hard as she could. Ned responded by a
succession of subdued whinnies, as though saying, “More delighted than
I can express, for spring means green grass, long walks with you, and
no bother with blankets!”
“Now, Ned, listen,” continued Denise, for these conversations were by
no means uncommon; they were held daily. “Spring means warm weather,
warm weather means vacation, vacation means Pokey! What do you think
of that? Vacation doesn’t mean much to us, does it? It’s a sort of
vacation all the time with Miss Meredith, for she seems to know just
when I have done enough, and doing any more would make my brain all
sort of muddled up, and it’s just fun to study with some one who
makes you see every solitary thing you learn, till you couldn’t _help_
knowing it unless you were as stupid as--as, well that funny person who
called upon mamma the other day and who said to me, ‘So this is the
examplry child I have heard so much about. Dear me, I think I shall
have to ask your mamma to let you come and visit my children for a
while; they are simply irrepressible, and perhaps your shining example
will serve as a beacon to their benighted minds.’”
“Ned, it was just awful! Really, it was! That funny woman was so very
much dressed up, and was so very, very polite, but she used such queer
words. I did not dare look at mamma for fear I should laugh, and then
what would she have thought of this ‘examplry’ child I am sure I
don’t know. Mamma said, ‘We do not consider Denise a model child by
any means, Mrs. Smithers; she is no more than any child may be if the
parents will take the trouble to study their children’s characters and
learn the wisest manner of government. “One man’s meat is another man’s
poison,” you know, and I think the rule will apply to children pretty
well, too, don’t you?’ And then mamma smiled that odd little smile of
hers that just means _so_ much. You sort of _feel_ its meaning way down
inside you, and even if you could not _tell_ in words just what she
means you know it all the same. Then she said to me, ‘Mrs. Smithers
will excuse you now, Sweetheart,’ and gave me the little love-nod which
means, ‘I see you don’t understand what it is all about, but we will
talk it over together when twilight comes and we have our cuddle in the
big armchair in the library.’ Ned Toodles, that armchair is just the
very nicest place in the whole wide world, do you know that?”
Ned evidently agreed perfectly, for he answered, “Hoo-hoo-hoo!” and
Denise continued:--
“But, oh, dear, I’m just miles away from where I started! What was
I telling you? Oh, yes, I remember. Vacation and Pokey. You see, Ned
Toodles, Pokey is smart, very smart, indeed, and some day she is going
to be famous, because she told me so. She is going to study hard and
get to be a teacher, and buy a dear little house and furnish it all
just as pretty as can be, and have her mother live with her and never
wish for a single thing that she cannot give to her right off! Isn’t
that just splendid? But to do that she must study hard while she is a
little girl, and that is what she is doing now, oh, _so_ hard! And she
gets all tired out and fidgety, and sort of criss-cross, because she
doesn’t know what ails her, but mamma says it is because the brain is
trying to grow too fast for the body, and Pokey can’t keep up to it, so
just as soon as vacation comes Pokey will come out here, and--_then_!”
This thought was too tremendous to be dealt with in a sitting position,
and, springing up, Denise cried:--
“Let’s go home just as fast as ever we can, Ned, for I’ve a sort of
feeling that something fine is going to happen,” and she scrambled into
the phaeton, and was soon spinning down the road toward home--the very
road down which she and her beloved Pokey had scurried the previous
summer in their vain attempt to escape from Colonel Franklin when
their taffy candy had led them into disgrace. Her thoughts were still
busy with her little friend as she hurried along, but she could not
look into the future to see that friend’s dream a reality beyond her
most sanguine hopes nor behold her grown to dignified womanhood and
presiding as superintendent of one of the largest schools in the city
which had always been her home.