a little sharply. Boys were entirely too fond of making slighting
remarks about girls, she thought.
“Oh, keep your old crow,” returned Walter. “No doubt you’ll be glad
enough to get rid of him some day.”
“Why?” asked Jessie.
“Wait and see,” replied Walter mysteriously. “Say, Max, let’s go see
old Ezra. Maybe he is all right now, and I want to know about the
trains. We’ll see enough of the old crow, and it is a good time to go
to Ezra’s.”
“I want to go, too,” said Jessie.
“Well, you can’t,” returned Walter. “We don’t want girls tagging
everywhere we go.”
“Oh, let her come,” put in Max. “You might be a little more decent
to her the first day you get home. You can come, Jess.” Max was the
eldest and Walter generally accepted his lead, so Jessie put her hand
confidingly in her big brother’s and they set out. She thought Walter
was very disagreeable to speak to her as he did when he had been
separated from her all these weeks, and she took pains not to address
a word to him on the way. She chatted to Max, however talking of the
things she knew would interest him: the change in the schedule,
how 589 was very late one day, and how she had flagged a train one
afternoon, how 248 had a hot box one morning so it had to stop on a
siding. When Walter put eager questions to her she simply gave him a
dignified stare and went on talking to Max. Her triumph was complete
when they arrived at the crossing to find that Ezra was back again at
his post and that his best greeting was for the little girl.
“Well, well, well,” he exclaimed, “here you are at last. I certainly
have missed you, little girl. Not going to school any more? I was
afraid you might be sick. Been watching for ye every day since I got
over my rheumatiz. When you going to start again? Hallo, boys.” He gave
a nod to each, but it was plain to see that it was Jessie who had the
warmest welcome.
“I’ve stopped going to school,” Jessie told him. “You weren’t here,
you know, Ezra, so father and mother were afraid to have me cross the
track. I tripped and fell one day when the train was coming.”
“Pshaw!” exclaimed Ezra. “Sykes never told me of that. I was in such
misery I couldn’t think about much else but my pains for a while. You
don’t say you ain’t going back at all?”
“Not this winter,” Jessie told him. “I am studying with Adele Hallett
at the yellow house.”
“They’re new folks, ain’t they? Well, I certainly am sorry to lose the
sight of ye every day. It is too bad Sykes had to take my place or ye
might be mounting the hill every morning just the same as usual. Father
knew I’d look out for ye, didn’t he?”
“Oh, yes. He said as long as you were there he didn’t have any fear,
even if the trains were changed. But after I fell that day when the
train was coming, mother said she would never feel easy again.”
“Too bad, too bad. I am sorry.” Ezra took off his cap and wiped his
bald head with a red handkerchief. He was a little wrinkled-faced old
man with mild blue eyes. He wore a little fringe of beard under his
chin, and his pleasant mouth always widened to a smile for his friends.
“Right warm day for October, ain’t it?” he said pulling up his stool
which stood by the door of the little house. “Wish I had more chairs
to offer ye. Guess ladies will have to come first.” He waved Jessie to
the stool.
“Oh, no.” Jessie refused the proffered seat. “We’d rather you’d sit
there, Ezra. The boys and I can do just as well with these railroad
ties that are piled up here. Has 589 gone by yet?”
Ezra took out his watch. “She’s due in just five minutes. I thought I
heard her whistling for Boyds a while ago. She’s on time to-day.”
“May I hold the flag?” said Jessie eagerly. “It has been such a long
time since I did.”
“To be sure ye may,” returned Ezra, taking the flag from where it stood
leaning against the door. “Yes, I thought so; she’s whistling for the
cut.”
So far Jessie had monopolized the conversation and now Walter spoke up.
“Have they put on any new engines, Ezra?”
He shook his head. “No, Leander still runs old 61 and keeps her
shining.”
“Any accidents?” asked Max.
“Glad to say ther hain’t. Come near being one down by Millersville the
other day.”
“Tell us about it.”
“Have to wait till 589 has went by. Here, honey,” he turned to Jessie.
“Get up and be all ready. She’ll whistle in a minute for our crossing.”
Jessie took her place on the stool set for her, flag in hand, Ezra
standing close by, and presently there was a shrill whistle and next
the train flew by.
“It is so exciting,” said Jessie turning a beaming face to her brothers.
“Humph!” exclaimed Walter in rather a dissatisfied way. He did not like
it that Jessie should be having all the fun. “What about the accident?”
he said turning to Ezra.
“There wasn’t none.”
“Well, I mean the one that nearly was.”
Ezra launched forth into an account of how the freight train from the
west was on the track and a special was behind her. Somehow Bill Downs
didn’t get the orders clear and backed into a siding just in time to
avoid a crash. “Reversed, sir,” said Ezra. “Heard the special whistle
at the cut and put on steam so he reached the siding in time to back.
If he’d been a second later all would have been up.”
The children listened attentively. Bill Downs was a familiar figure
to them, and his engine an old acquaintance, so his escape was of
momentous interest.
After a little more railroad gossip the boys concluded it was time to
return, as the sun was setting and the short afternoon was nearly over.
“Come again, come again,” said Ezra, his eyes on Jessie who waved her
hand to him till a turn in the road hid him from sight.
“I wish I had taken him some apples,” she said. “His trees have hardly
any on them this year, and he is so fond of them.”
“We’ll take some to him to-morrow,” said Walter importantly. “You
needn’t bother.”
“I thought of it first,” said Jessie, not liking to have her ideas
taken possession of in this style.
“That makes no difference,” returned Walter. “The few you could carry
wouldn’t do much good. Max and I can take a big basketful.”
Jessie did not answer, but she determined to carry out her plan if
she could. If going away to school made Walter like this she didn’t
think it was doing him much good. The boys left her at the first gate
for they caught sight of their father in a field near by, and joined
him, so Jessie went up to the house alone. She sought her mother
immediately. “Mother,” she said, “I wish you would send Walter to
another school.”
“Why, my dear,” returned Mrs. Loomis, looking up with a smile.
“Because he’s so--so--he has such a contemptibleness for girls since
he’s been away. He used not to care when I wanted to go with him and
Max, and now he is at home again he just wants to put me down all the
time. I said I wanted to take some apples to Ezra, and he says he is
going to. I thought of it first, mother, and Ezra has been so good to
me. Couldn’t you let Sam go with me to-morrow morning, and carry a big
basketful, bigger than Walter and Max could carry?”
Mrs. Loomis was thoughtful for a moment. She realized that Walter had
no right to set aside Jessie’s little plan, so she said, “I am afraid
Sam cannot be spared, but I will tell you what can be done. I have to
go to Mrs. Traill’s to-morrow morning, and you could go as far as the
crossing with me. We can carry a big basket of apples in the phaeton
and leave them for Ezra, then you can go on to your lessons from
there.”
“Oh, lovely!” cried Jessie. “You always do think of just the right
thing, mother. Will you tell Walter we are going to take the apples?”
“Yes, and I think it is right that you should be the one to go with
them, for we appreciate very much his kindness to you.”
No more was said then, but at the supper table Mrs. Loomis told her
husband what had been arranged and asked him to select a lot of their
finest apples for the basket. Jessie gave Walter a triumphant look
across the table. He answered by making a mouth at her, but she did not
care as she had her mother on her side.
“Sneaky thing,” whispered Walter as she passed him after supper.
“Sneaky yourself,” returned Jessie. “I told mother how horrid you were.”
“Tattletale,” returned Walter. “Just like a girl.”
This time Jessie had no words except the expressive exclamation “Pff!”
given with a most contemptuous toss of the head.
_CHAPTER VIII_
_Dapple Gray_
_CHAPTER VIII_
_Dapple Gray_
The rest of the time that the boys were at home Jessie did not see much
of them. She found so many things to interest her at the yellow house,
that she enjoyed the novelty of it, and moreover, when she was there
she was free from Walter’s teasing, so she spent most of her time with
Adele, to the latter’s delight.
The afternoon of the day when the apples were taken to Ezra, the two
little girls sought their playground by the brook, but Max and Walter
discovered them, and as they did not want their secrets known, they
quickly covered up the grotto and beat a hasty retreat across the
brook. “I don’t mind Max so much,” Jessie explained, “though even he
teases sometimes, but Walter is such a worry when he sets out to be,
and if he knew about Playmate Polly and Peter Pan’s grotto he would be
sure to do something to them just to pay me back for taking the apples.
So we will play in your garden or the summer-house. I will take
Charity and you can get one of your dolls.”
“The back porch is a good place,” returned Adele. “I am sorry your
brothers aren’t nice and I am glad I haven’t any.”
“But they are nice,” returned Jessie on the defensive. “They are very
nice. All boys tease and Max was lovely the other day when I wanted to
go with them. He is older than Walter. I suppose that is the reason.
Since Walter has been going to boarding-school he thinks himself so
smart.”
The two little girls trudged up the hill toward the yellow house and
as they entered the garden they heard some one calling, “Adele! Adele!
where are you?”
“That’s Aunt Betty,” said Adele. “I wonder what she wants.”
“Let’s go see,” returned Jessie.
They ran around the corner of the house. Miss Betty and Miss Eloise
were both on the front porch. By the steps was standing a little gray
pony harnessed to a small pony cart. “Oh, dear, company, I suppose,”
said Adele disgustedly. “I wish we’d stayed away. I suppose now I
shall have to be kissed and called a sweet child.”
“I wonder who it is,” said Jessie more curious. “That turnout does
not belong to any one around here. I know just what every one drives.
Effie Hinsdale’s mother has a white horse; the minister’s wife drives a
sorrel; Mrs. Traill has two black horses and----”
But she went no further for Miss Betty had seen the two children and
was calling out, “Come here, dears, such a lovely surprise for you!
Whose do you think that is, Adele?”
“I’m sure I don’t know. It isn’t the cousins from the city, is it, Aunt
Bet?” said Adele.
“No.” Miss Betty shook her head. “It belongs to the cousin of the
cousins from the city.”
Adele looked bewildered. “Who is that?”
Miss Betty laughed. “Who is your cousins’ cousin? Don’t you know?”
“Aunt Betty, you don’t mean me!” cried Adele. “It isn’t mine. It
couldn’t possibly be.”
“That is exactly whose it is,” Miss Betty told her. “Your father has
sent it to you for a birthday gift.”
“But my birthday is past and gone.”
“That is true. He couldn’t get what he wanted at once, so he had to
wait, and so your present has just arrived.”
Adele rushed forward and clasped the pony’s neck. “Oh, you dear
beautiful thing,” she cried. “I love you. Oh, Jessie, isn’t he a
beauty?”
Jessie could but agree that he certainly was.
“And can I drive him myself?” asked Adele eagerly.
“When you learn how,” she was told.
“I can drive,” declared Jessie. “I often drive when I am out with
mother.”
“Your father says he is very gentle,” remarked Miss Eloise to Adele.
“Then couldn’t we try him now?” begged Adele.
“Couldn’t Jessie drive him just a little way to see how he goes?”
Miss Betty looked at Miss Eloise. “Do you think it would be safe?” she
said.
“Can you really drive, Jessie?” asked Miss Eloise.
“I truly can,” Jessie told her. “I often drive all the way. I can turn
out for the big teams and I can drive in through the gates as straight
as anything.”
“Then you may jump in and show us what you can do,” Miss Betty
consented, and the little girls were not slow in obeying.
“How far may we go?” asked Jessie taking up the reins.
“Oh, not out of sight. Just up and down the road where we can see you,”
Miss Betty directed.
Jessie proudly turned the pony’s head toward the gate, drove through
without accident, and soon the little pony was trotting up the road.
Miss Betty and Miss Eloise came to the gate to watch. Jessie turned
carefully and brought the pony back in triumph.
“Can’t she drive well?” said Adele admiringly. “She is going to teach
me, and when she isn’t here to do it Otto can.” Otto was the Halletts’
man. “What shall I name him, Aunt Betty?”
“Why not call him Dapple Gray?” suggested Miss Eloise.
“Good! That will just suit him, but I shall never lend him to a lady to
ride him far away. Oh, no, we don’t want to get out yet.”
“But the little pony must be tired. He has come a long distance to-day.”
That put another face upon the matter and Adele was quite willing that
Jessie should give up the reins to Otto who led Dapple Gray to the
stable.
“I never knew such lovely things as happen nowadays,” said Adele as
she and Jessie returned to the garden. “First I met you and we had the
lovely plays down by the brook, then came Eb, and now this dear Dapple
Gray! Before I came here weeks and weeks used to go by and nothing at
all happened. I do hope we can go driving every day by ourselves; it
would be such fun.”
Within a week Adele had learned to manage her pony pretty well, and the
two little girls were allowed to take a short drive each day, not going
out of sight of the house, but in time Adele tired of this and was bent
upon going farther. She begged and entreated till Miss Betty was on the
point of yielding, and at last agreed to take a longer drive than usual
in her own carriage that Adele and Jessie might follow in the pony
cart. This satisfied Adele for a week, but there came a day when Miss
Betty had one of her severe headaches, and Miss Eloise was not willing
to leave her, so the two little girls were told they could take their
drive alone, but must not go out of sight.
They started off contentedly enough, but soon Adele became tired of
the monotonous drive up and down in front of the house. “Miss Eloise
is with Aunt Betty and I know she isn’t thinking about us,” she said.
“We may just as well go a little further and she will never know. It is
so silly to go up and down, up and down, this stupid road and nowhere
else.”
“Oh, but it wouldn’t be right, whether she sees us or not,” protested
Jessie.
“There isn’t a bit of harm in it,” Adele insisted. “We go every day,
and just because we are not with them it doesn’t matter. I am going
further whether any one likes it or not.” She gave a little jerk to the
reins and Dapple Gray started off on a trot. The excitement of a faster
gait stirred Adele to further desire for a rapid drive. “I am tired to
death of this old road,” she declared. “I want to go somewhere new. I
am going to turn up this way.”
“Oh, no, please don’t,” begged Jessie.
“You needn’t say a word,” Adele interrupted. “You haven’t a thing to
do with it. This is my pony and my cart, and you have to do it to sit
still. You are my company and I am taking you to drive.”
Jessie felt that this was quite true, though she knew that Adele was
doing wrong. She realized that she ought to do something, but she did
not know just what. If she insisted upon getting out and going home
she would leave Adele all alone, and that would be worse than staying
to help her out of any difficulty into which she might fall. “Perhaps
I’d better drive,” she ventured after a while when Adele had recklessly
driven over a big stone and had almost bumped into a stump by the way.
“No, you shall not,” returned Adele. “The only way to learn to do a
thing is to keep on doing it, no matter if you do it wrong sometimes.
Papa always says so.”
Jessie had nothing to reply to this, but she watched Adele carefully.
They were coming to a hill. Jessie looked around earnestly. “Oh!” she
exclaimed, “do be careful, Adele. We are coming to the cut. It is at
the foot of this hill. We came by the mill, I remember, and this leads
by the old schoolhouse. We’d better turn and go back.”
“No, thank you,” replied Adele, “I’m going on. If you are scared you
can get out and walk.”
Jessie’s feelings were deeply hurt. She wasn’t exactly scared, but she
knew at the foot of the hill was the railroad cut, and though there
was always some one there, if the horse took fright, or if anything
happened to the cart or harness, it might mean an accident. “We have to
cross the railroad,” she said after a pause.
“Well, suppose we do; other people cross it,” was the answer.
“Hold him in,” cried Jessie sharply, clutching at the reins as Dapple
Gray went down the hill at a more rapid rate than she felt safe.
“Just let me alone,” cried Adele giving Dapple Gray a light touch with
the whip.
“Don’t! Don’t!” cried Jessie, but Adele only laughed, and directly they
were at the foot of the hill where the railroad ran. Instead of taking
a clean straight course across it, Adele tried to drive diagonally.
“There’s a whistle,” cried Jessie in alarm. Adele raised the whip
again. Dapple Gray made a plunge forward. A wheel caught and presently
Jessie was conscious that she was rolling down an embankment. Then she
knew nothing for some time.
When she came to her senses, she was lying in a little gully among some
bushes. She raised her head and then struggled to her feet. “No bones
broken,” she said to herself, though she felt shaken and sore. She
stood up and looked around. At a little distance she saw Adele sitting
sobbing miserably. She ran toward her as fast as her bruises would
allow. “Oh, Adele! Adele!” she cried, “are you hurt?”
“Oh! my arm, my arm,” moaned Adele. “I believe it is broken.”
“Oh, dear, dear, how dreadful,” responded Jessie. “Where is Dapple
Gray?”
“I don’t know.”
Jessie climbed the bank and there saw Dapple Gray patiently standing,
a broken wheel showing what had happened. The wheel had caught in the
track and although both girls were thrown out as the wheel gave way the
little pony had not bolted, but stood his ground. Jessie went up to
him, and began to unfasten the harness. “It won’t do for you to stand
so near the track,” she said. “You were a dear good pony not to run.
The cart isn’t on the track, I am glad to say.” She led the pony down
the bank to where Adele sat. “We are quite a way from home,” she said.
“Shall you be afraid to stay here while I go for some one to take us
back?”
“Oh, don’t leave me, don’t leave me,” Adele wept.
“If you could come up a little higher, you could watch me as I go,”
said Jessie. “Ezra lives the nearest, and I am going down the track to
call him.” Adele, still moaning and crying, allowed herself to be led
to a higher spot. “I don’t think there will be any more trains for some
time,” Jessie assured her, “and if you stay right here you can watch me
going and coming. I will be as quick as I can.”
Adele suffered herself to be left and Jessie set out. Further down the
railroad spanned a gully through which ran the brook. The only way to
cross it was upon a narrow boardwalk on one side the bridge, this being
used by the workmen as a short cut. The longer way was to go down hill
and around to a foot-bridge higher up the brook. Jessie hesitated when
she reached the path which led down hill. Should she go that way, or
should she venture across the railroad bridge? If she did not look down
and hold closely to the railing, perhaps it would not be so bad. She
decided to try. So she stepped cautiously upon the planks and went on
slowly, doing very well till she reached the middle, when incautiously
she glanced down at the rushing water below. For one moment she felt
sick and faint. Everything swam around. Then she closed her eyes and
held tightly to the railing, stepping along slowly, each moment seeming
an hour. In a few minutes her heart stopped its rapid beating and her
head felt steady, so she opened her eyes and fixed them on the opposite
bank, not once turning them from there, and at last she was safely over.
A little beyond was Ezra’s house with its smiling garden and white
fence. Although she felt sore and bruised she began to run, forgetting
her pain in her anxiety to reach the house. It was about Ezra’s supper
time; there would be no trains coming or going at this time of day,
and she would be sure to find the old man at home. So she began to
call, “Ezra! Ezra!” and presently she saw his gray head over the fence.
He opened the gate and came out to meet her. “Why, little girl!” he
exclaimed, “what are you doing on this road? ’Tain’t your way from
home. Why, your face is cut and you’re all mussed up. Tumble down?”
“Oh, Ezra! Ezra!” cried Jessie, seizing his hand, “the pony cart upset
us over the bank there by the cut, and Adele has hurt her arm. The pony
is all right. He is standing just as still, but the cart-wheel is off
so we can’t get home, at least I don’t know how to get Adele and the
pony home.”
“Where did you say they were?” asked Ezra.
“On the other side of the gully, there by the cut.”
“You didn’t come over the railroad bridge?”
“Yes, it was the shortest way,” said Jessie simply.
Ezra uttered an exclamation. “You poor little tot, what would your
mother say? Suppose you had slipped under the hand-rail and had fallen
into the water?”
“I shut my eyes when I got dizzy.”
“Humph! Well, you don’t go back, that’s all. Come right in here and let
my daughter straighten you out, wash off that poor little battered up
face. Mark and I will go get the pony and the little girl. What do ye
say her name is?”
“Adele. Adele Hallett.”
Ezra nodded. “Belongs to the yellow house. What ye been doing driving
off in that direction by yourselves, is what I want to know.”
Jessie was silent. She did not like to blame Adele, though she knew it
was entirely her fault. “I told Adele I’d hurry back,” she said.
“You’re not going back,” declared Ezra. “I’ll look after that young
miss myself. Come right in the house. Here, Kitty,” he spoke to a young
woman at the door. “Here’s Miss Loomis that brought us those good
apples. She’s had an accident up the road a piece. Her and a young miss
was out driving, and as far as I can make out they got catched on the
railroad and a wheel came off. You tidy her up a bit while Mark and me
goes after the other one.”
Jessie had often seen Ezra’s daughter as well as her husband Mark, and
she was quite willing to be taken indoors to have her face bathed, the
dirt brushed from her clothes and herself generally looked after. There
was a tremendous bruise on her leg, one stocking was badly torn, and
the side of her face was scraped and sore where she had fallen against
the bank.
“It’s lucky you weren’t killed outright,” said Kitty, when by dint of
much questioning she learned how the thing happened. “Pappy’ll be back
in no time. You just set still and wait for him. I reckon your ma’ll be
glad to see you alive when she hears what’s went on.”
She established Jessie in a chair by the window and continued her
preparations for supper. In a very short time Ezra and Mark were back
again with Adele in the wagon and Dapple Gray behind it. “I conclude
she has broken her arm,” said Ezra to his daughter as he came into the
house. “There ain’t no time to lose in getting her to the doctor to
have it sot, so I think the quickest way is to drive her right to Dr.
Sadtler’s and let him see what’s wrong. I ain’t said nothin’ to her
about what I think.”
“Pore little thing,” said Kitty, “she looks real white.”
Jessie had flown to Adele. “I couldn’t come,” she exclaimed. “Ezra
wouldn’t let me. Do you feel any better?”
“No.” Adele shook her head and her tears broke out afresh. “I want to
go home, I want to go home,” she sobbed.
Ezra came out before Jessie had time for another word. “You stay here,
honey,” he said to Jessie. “I’ll take this young lady to the doctor and
let him fix her up so she’ll feel better and then we’ll come back for
you.”
But Adele wailed out, “Go with me, Jessie. Go with me. I don’t want to
see the doctor all alone.”
“Ezra will be with you,” said Jessie who was feeling rather shaky
herself.