moreover this young miss isn’t to go; she isn’t fit, all bruised up
as she is. You won’t be alone, bless you, child. There ain’t a kinder
woman in the country than Mrs. Sadtler, and she’ll mother you fine.
You’ll be all right in no time. No, you don’t!” he stopped Jessie from
climbing into the wagon. Mark had unfastened Dapple Gray and had tied
him to the hitching-post. “We’ll go for the cart after a while,” said
Ezra gathering up the reins. “You wait here, child, and I’ll be back as
quick as I can.” So Jessie was obliged to see Adele drive off while she
was left to Kitty’s tender mercies.
_CHAPTER IX_
_The Gray Kitten_
_CHAPTER IX_
_The Gray Kitten_
It was a very subdued and wan little Adele who was helped into the
house by the doctor, who remained to explain the situation, while
Ezra took Jessie home. Poor Miss Betty was overcome at sight of her
niece with her arm in splints and looking so pale. “Child! child!” she
cried. “What has happened? We have been so anxious about you. At first
we thought you had gone home with Jessie, but Otto said he saw you
driving in an opposite direction.” She turned to the doctor. “What has
happened?” she asked tremulously.
“It seems the young ladies were crossing the track just there by
the cut and the wheel caught in the track, upsetting their cart and
throwing them out. Fortunately there is no worse damage done than a
broken arm and a broken cart.”
“The horse ran away!” exclaimed Miss Betty.
“Not a bit of it. Fine little beast that he is, he stood stock still.
Little Loomis girl was thrown into some bushes. She was stunned by the
fall, but seems all right otherwise except for a few bruises. She was a
little Trojan, Ezra Limpett tells me, and tramped across that dangerous
railroad bridge to get help. You’d better have this child put to bed,
Miss Hallett, and I see you look rather the worse for wear yourself.”
“I’ve had one of my headaches,” replied Miss Betty, passing her hand
over her forehead.
“Humph! Fine time to take for explorations. I gather that’s what the
youngsters were doing. At least my wife says so.” The doctor spoke as
if he had no patience with such doings.
Miss Betty turned a troubled face upon Adele. “Oh, my child, how could
you?” she exclaimed. “Didn’t you know we do not allow you to go out of
sight of the house?”
Adele burst into loud sobs. “There, there,” said Miss Betty,
soothingly; “I am sure you have had punishment enough, and I won’t
scold, but I wish your father had never bought you that pony. I shall
never have an easy day after this.”
“The pony is all right,” declared the doctor. “He had the good sense
not to run when he felt the wheel going. He is a fine little fellow
and it is due to his good behavior that the children came to no worse
mishap. I’ll leave a quieting draught for the child, Miss Hallett, and
something for that head of yours.”
“My head was better,” said Miss Betty weakly.
“This won’t come amiss,” replied the doctor, putting a few tablets into
a small phial. “Get the child to bed and go yourself. I’ll come again
in the morning.”
So while those in the yellow house were looking after Adele, Jessie was
being driven home behind Ezra’s old white horse and was delivered safe,
if not quite sound, into her mother’s arms.
As it was getting late Mrs. Loomis was getting anxious, and was
about to send Max to the Halletts’ after his little sister. Ezra had
not waited for thanks, but as soon as he had set Jessie safely down
before her own door he drove off at as rapid a pace as his old horse
could travel. At Jessie’s sudden appearance looking as if she had
been through the wars her mother cried out: “Why, my child, what is
the matter? How did you get such a scratched face? and look at your
stocking torn to shreds.”
“Well, I vow!” exclaimed Walter, “you do look a sight! Been climbing
trees, I bet.”
“Indeed I’ve not,” returned Jessie. “I can climb trees, but I haven’t
done it to-day. I’ll tell you, mother, but I don’t want to before
Walter.”
“Oh, all right,” said that person indifferently, “I don’t want to know.”
Jessie slipped her hand into her mother’s.
“Come up-stairs,” she said in a whisper, “and I’ll show you my leg.”
“Your leg?” Mrs. Loomis began to look alarmed, and led Jessie
up-stairs. “My dear child,” she said when they had entered Jessie’s
little room, “what has happened?”
“It wasn’t my fault, indeed it wasn’t,” began Jessie trying to be
brave, but now that she was in the safe harbor of her mother’s arms,
feeling that she could not keep back the tears. “I tried to make Adele
stop, and not go out of sight, but she just would and would go further
and further. She was bent and determined to go as far as she could, and
I was afraid to let her go off by herself, and yet I knew it wasn’t
right for us to be driving out of sight. I truly didn’t know what to
do, mother. She wouldn’t let me drive nor get out nor anything and she
wouldn’t go back, so all I could do was to sit still. Then she drove
bias across the railroad truck, and the wheel caught, and we were
tipped out. I fell down into some bushes and got an awful bruise. Just
see.” She displayed a large black and blue surface to her mother.
“Why, you poor child, that certainly is a bruise. I must bathe it after
a while. But now go on with your story.” Mrs. Loomis’s hands trembled
as she held Jessie closer.
“Then,” continued the little girl, “when I came to my senses I didn’t
see Adele at first, but I saw Dapple Gray standing quite still by the
railroad track. A cart-wheel was off and the cart was tipped down the
bank. But wasn’t Dapple Gray good not to move?”
“He was indeed, but oh, my little daughter, I dare not think what might
have happened. Suppose a train had been coming along.”
“One did whistle. It was a freight train, I think, but it must have
passed before we got there. Well, I picked myself up and found Adele
sitting there crying about her arm. She has broken it, mother, but we
didn’t know it then and there wasn’t any house nearer than Ezra’s so
I went there.” She hesitated for a moment before going on. “It was so
much nearer not to go across the foot-bridge, so I went the other way.”
“Oh, Jessie!” Mrs. Loomis turned pale.
“Yes, I did. I knew that perhaps I ought not, but it would save time,
you see. I did get awfully dizzy just in the middle, but I shut my eyes
and said,
“‘God shall charge His angel legions
Watch and ward o’er thee to keep,’
and presently I felt all right, so I got over safely and found
Ezra--oh, dear, he hasn’t had his supper. Isn’t that too bad!--and
Kitty washed my face and fixed me up while Ezra and Mark went for Adele
and took her to the doctor. Then they stopped for me and we all took
Adele home and then Ezra brought me.”
“My darling child, what a dreadful time you have had,” exclaimed Mrs.
Loomis.
“I haven’t told any one but you about Adele, mother, truly I haven’t.
I never said to any one that it was her fault. Could I help it
happening? What ought I to have done?”
Mrs. Loomis was silent for a moment. “It was a very hard position for
a little girl, so hard that I do not see how I can consent to your
being thrown with so wilful a child as Adele. I am afraid for the
consequences.”
“Oh, mother!” There were surprise and regret in Jessie’s tones. “Am I
never to play with her again, poor Adele! And am I never to go to the
yellow house? Not for lessons or anything? Oh, mother!”
“I shall have to think it over, dear, and have a talk with your father
before we can decide. It is a very serious matter for us to have our
only dear little girl placed in such danger as you were in to-day. So
far as you were concerned I really do not see how you can be blamed,
and you tried to be brave and noble for Adele’s sake, but we must make
it impossible for such a thing to happen again. Now, come down and have
some supper, and then I think you’d better go to bed, for it has been a
very exciting day for you. There will be no lessons to-morrow and you’d
better not get up very early.” She did not say that she still felt
anxious lest Jessie had suffered more from the accident than at once
appeared.
The next morning Jessie woke up feeling stiff and sore, and was glad
when Max came up with her breakfast. He had added some ripe persimmons
to her bill of fare and was so kind and solicitous that Jessie quite
enjoyed the reputation of invalid. Walter, too, poked his head in the
door and asked how she was feeling, blundering out a half apology by
saying, “Why didn’t you tell a fellow what was the matter when you came
in?” Then he tossed a little pale pink rose on the bed and ran away.
The rose was the last of the season and he had found it braving the
frost which had sweetened the persimmons. Minerva, also, came up with
a plate of tiny hot biscuits which she had baked especially for the
little girl.
Later in the day Max was sent over to inquire how Adele was, and
brought back the report that she was doing very well but had had a
feverish night. By the time Max had returned Jessie had found bed
rather a tiresome place and so had begged to be allowed to get up and
come down.
Her father looked her over, asked many questions and finally decided
that the big bruise was her worst hurt and that she could go out and
in as she pleased. “Run out-of-doors all you want to,” he said, “but
don’t get tired out,” so Jessie availed herself of this permission and
concluded to go hunt up the boys.
She found them in the barn amusing themselves with Eb. He had learned
to say, “Hallo!” and was walking back and forth on a beam, cocking his
eye and looking down at the boys below.
“He’s a funny fellow,” said Max as Jessie came in. “I’d like to take
him back to school. We’re going Monday. Carl is all right, they say.”
“It certainly would make the children laugh and play
To see a crow at school,”
said Jessie laughing.
“Jessie had a little crow
As black as you can think.
It followed her to school one day
And drank up all the ink,”
said Max.
“Ho, I can do better than that,” boasted Walter.
“Jessie had a little crow
As black as any sloe
And everywhere that Jessie went
The crow was sure to go.”
“What is a sloe?” asked Jessie.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Walter. “Ask Max. He is the walking
dictionary.”
“It is a kind of plum, I believe,” Max told them.
“I never saw a plum as black as Ebon is,” said Jessie, stroking the
shining feathers of the bird who had flown down and was sitting on her
wrist.
“And I suppose you never saw a green rose, but I have,” returned Max.
“Where did you see it?” Jessie asked.
“In a greenhouse, Mr. Atkinson’s.”
“Well, I suppose plums could be black,” said Jessie persuaded that Max
knew what he was talking about.
“Look at Eb pecking at your buttons, Jess,” said Walter. “He has one
almost off.”
Jessie wore a red jacket whose bright buttons pleased Ebon’s fancy. “He
is getting to be a great mischief,” she said. “He tried to carry off
mother’s thimble yesterday. Go ’long, Eb. Go pretend you are a chicken
or something. Max, will you go with me to Effie Hinsdale’s to get my
kitten? It is big enough now, and if I am not to go to Adele’s any more
I shall need the kitten.”
“Let’s go with her,” proposed Walter. “Then we can see Jack and some of
the other boys. We’ll go, Jess.”
Walter was very amiable to-day, Jessie thought. He really loved his
little sister, and the fact that she had been in great danger the day
before made him realize what it would be to lose her.
“We might get both kittens,” said Jessie, “and then we could leave
Adele’s for her on our way home. She will be so glad to have it now
that she has a broken arm and no one to play with.”
“Do you suppose her father will sell Dapple Gray?” said Walter. “I wish
our father could buy him.”
“Adele would feel awfully to have him sold,” said Jessie. “Oh, dear!”
she drew a long sigh.
“What’s the matter?” asked Max anxiously.
“Nothing much. I was only thinking what a pity it is that things can’t
always go right.”
“I don’t see what possessed you two to go off that way,” said Walter
reading her thoughts.
“I don’t either,” returned Jessie turning away. “I’m going up to the
house now to get a basket for the kittens.”
“I don’t believe she had a thing to do with it,” said Max to his
brother when Jessie was out of hearing. “I’ll bet it was the Hallett
girl that wanted to have her way, and Jess won’t tell on her.”
“That’s pretty decent of Jess then,” said Walter, “and it was pretty
fine of that pony not to bolt when the wheel came off. I’ll tell you a
pony like that is worth having. Ezra said he stood as still as a post
till they led him away.”
“I reckon Mr. Hallett won’t want to give him up,” returned Max.
“But he’ll not let those two kids go driving off by themselves again,”
remarked Walter with the superiority of his years, which were but two
more than Jessie’s.
Jessie with her two brothers made the visit to the Hinsdales, and
Jessie bore away the gray kitten in triumph, but her pleasure was
marred by finding that the black kitten had been given to a cousin of
the cook’s, so there was none for Adele.
“I am so sorry,” said Effie, “but Adele shall have first choice of the
next batch.”
“She’ll be dreadfully disappointed,” said Jessie sadly.
“I am so sorry,” repeated Effie, “and if there were one left she should
have it, but we never take the last one from Tippy, you see; that
wouldn’t be right, and yours is the last one left to give.”
Jessie hugged her own furry darling to her, and, the boys having called
out that they couldn’t wait any longer, she was obliged to join them,
but all the way home she was struggling with a problem. Ought she to
give up the gray kitten to Adele? Poor Adele had no brothers and no
mother, and, if Jessie must give her up, she would have no playmate.
Although Adele had been the means of getting them both into serious
trouble, Jessie felt the sorrier for her on account of her very
naughtiness, and somehow could only think of her friend as she was
in her most charming moods. When she chose, Adele could be the most
fascinating of companions, and Jessie believed that her love was very
genuine, so the more she thought of it the more she felt that she ought
to give up the kitten.
However, she decided not to make up her mind right away, and in the
meantime she need not let Adele know that the gray kitten had been
taken away from Effie’s. But while she was weighing the matter in her
own mind came a note from Adele that settled the question. It arrived
the next morning, and was the outcome of a visit from Effie who had
literally let the cat out of the bag when she went to see how Adele
was. The note ran thus:
“You don’t love me, for you haven’t been to see me and I suppose you
think I am too bad to play with. You can go to your old Polly and
stay with her all the time. I shall not trubble you, but I want my
Peter Pan and I know Polly has stoled him to spite me. Efy says you
have your kiten. What made you take it when there wassent any for me?
Oh, I am verry miserble with nobuddy to play with. If Polly dossent
send back my Peter Pan I am going to burn her up. Her scraggy hair
would make a luvly blaze.
“Your forsakened frend,
“ADELE.”
At the end was a tear-stained postscript which read: “I did love you. I
did, I did.”
Evidently Adele was in one of her worst moods and was feeling very
remorseful and unhappy. This Jessie knew, but at the same time she was
indignant that Adele should still harp upon Polly’s wickedness. Of
course it was very absurd for her to say such things, for how could
Polly steal anything? Yet the note quite decided Jessie not to give up
the gray kitten, and her pity for Adele suffered a change.
_CHAPTER X_
_Across Water_
_CHAPTER X_
_Across Water_
It was some time before the two little girls met, for Mrs. Loomis could
not make up her mind to allow Jessie to go over to the yellow house,
while Miss Betty and Miss Eloise appreciated the fact that there was
reason for hard feelings against Adele, and moreover thought that
nothing would make the little sinner realize her misdoing more than
such a punishment as a separation from Jessie. Mrs. Loomis had not
failed to get daily reports of Adele’s progress and sent her over many
dainties while she was in bed, so that Adele’s remorse was all the
greater.
Jessie answered the note by saying she was very sorry about the kitten,
but she did not refer to Peter Pan nor to Playmate Polly. For a whole
week she was obliged to spend her time with her old companions, for the
boys returned to school as expected, so Eb and the gray kitten were a
great source of solace. Eb took a great fancy to Cloudy, and it was
very funny to see him, with outspread wings, hopping after the prancing
kitten who was in no way afraid of him, and who would give him little
impertinent dabs when he came too near. He infinitely preferred Cloudy
to the chickens.
Finally when a week had gone by, and Jessie, who had avoided the brook
for some days, was again playing with Peter Pan and Playmate Polly,
she looked across the little stream to see a wistful pair of dark eyes
gazing at her. “Oh, Adele!” she cried, “are you able to come out again?”
A flashing smile changed the expression of Adele’s face. “I was so
afraid you wouldn’t speak to me,” she exclaimed. “I can’t come over,
for I am trying awfully hard to be good. Can’t you come to this side?”
“I’m afraid not,” replied Jessie slowly, “but perhaps if each stays on
her own side we can have some sort of play and won’t be disobedient
either.”
“I think that will be lovely,” cried Adele. “What can we play? I can
use only my right arm, you know.”
“Will it be a long time before you can use the other?” asked Jessie
interestedly.
“Not so very, very long. The doctor says it is doing very well indeed,
but oh, Jessie, it has been awful without you.”
“Are you having lessons?”
“No, not yet. Aunt Betty hasn’t said anything about that, and--and,”
the tears came to her eyes, “if you are not there I shall hate lessons
worse than ever. I was getting so I didn’t mind them.”
“It is too bad,” returned Jessie.
“I suppose your mother thinks I am too wicked for you to play with,”
remarked Adele after an awkward pause.
“Well,--not exactly,” Jessie wondered how she could explain, “but you
see she is afraid we’ll get into some mischief.”
“I know, I know,” returned Adele. “I suppose I am very wicked, but I
shall never want to be good if we can’t be friends.”
Jessie pondered for a moment over this speech. It made her feel a great
responsibility. She wondered if her mother knew that Adele was in
danger of becoming very, very wicked, if it would make any difference
in her decision about their friendship. Certainly it was a subject that
needed to be discussed, and it should be done that very night when
Jessie and her mother had their last little talk before Mrs. Loomis
kissed her daughter good-night. For the present it would be best not to
talk about it, and so she said, “I’ll tell you what we can do; we can
send boats back and forth to each other. You can stay on one end of the
log and I will stay on the other.”
“If I come to the middle, will you come and kiss me?” asked Adele.
Jessie thought there could be no harm in doing that upon strictly
neutral ground. “But we mustn’t stay there,” she concluded.
“Oh, no, we won’t stay there,” agreed Jessie. So they proceeded to the
middle of the log that spanned the brook, fervently kissed one another,
and then retreated each to her own side.
“I’ll get some chips,” said Jessie, “and throw some over to you. We
ought to have some string, too. Oh, I know where there is some; in the
grotto I had a little ball of it the other day, and I put it there to
keep it safe.”
“Is the grotto just the same?” asked Adele wistfully. “I should so
love to see it. I wish I could come over just for a minute. Do you
think I might?”
Jessie shook her head decidedly. “No, I don’t think you ought. Of
course I’d love to have you, but it would be disobeying; even doing it
once would be disobeying.”
“It is very hard to be perfectly good,” returned Adele woefully.
“Yes, it is,” sighed Jessie, “but when we are sure a thing is wrong we
ought not to do it. Sometimes you aren’t quite sure, and sometimes you
forget. Forgetting is my worst sin,” she added solemnly.
“I don’t know what mine is, my very worst, I mean. When I begin to
think about them I am afraid to go to bed at night.”
“Oh! Mother always----” began Jessie and then she remembered that there
was no mother to whom Adele could unburden her conscience and from whom
she could receive loving advice and comfort. She therefore changed the
subject quickly. “I am going to get the string and the chips,” she
said, “and I will send you over a load of persimmons. Do you like them?
I brought some with me this morning. They are so good now that we have
had frost. I don’t suppose I can send more than one or two at a time.”
Adele was delighted at the prospect of receiving such a valuable cargo
which by dint of a long switch Jessie managed to pilot safely over to
a spot where Adele could reach it. The second expedition was not so
successful, however, but was lost in the raging torrent before it was
half-way across. When a vessel is only six inches long it is very hard
to navigate among the whirlpools of an uncertain stream. Nevertheless
at least half a dozen persimmons reached the other shore and were duly
consumed by the person to whom they were consigned.
“There will be chestnuts pretty soon,” said Jessie. “I shouldn’t wonder
if there were some now. We might go and get some. Oh, I forgot they are
on this side. Never mind, I will get Sam to gather some and to-morrow
I can send you over a lot. I can put them in a basket and tie the
basket on a long pole and in that way I can reach them over to you.
Oh, I wonder if the boys took all those they gathered. I am going to
the barn to see, and if they didn’t I’ll bring all I can. Just wait a
minute.”
She ran off to the barn and pretty soon came back. She stopped on the
way to put something in the grotto, and then went on to the brook with
a small covered basket. “I’d better tie it on this pole,” she said,
“for it might fall off. It is full of chestnuts. When you have emptied
them send the basket back to me, and I will put something else in it.”
“What will you put in it?” asked Adele watching Jessie tie the basket
securely to the pole.
“That is a secret,” said Jessie laughing.
By going upon the log she was able to reach far enough so that Adele
could get the basket which was unfastened and sent back after it had
been emptied of its contents. “I think you were lovely to send me all
these,” said Adele delightedly.
“Oh, we shall have plenty more,” Jessie told her. “Sam says there are
lots down in the big field. You shall have some of those, too. Now be
very careful when you untie the basket this time. It isn’t for you to
keep always, but only for a little while.”
While Adele was puzzling over this, Jessie went off to the grotto from
which she abstracted something. She kept her back to Adele, and was
some time in getting the basket settled to suit her. “I am just crazy
to see what it is,” said Adele excitedly.
Jessie laughed and this time went further out upon the log carrying
the pole very carefully and reaching it out to where Adele stood at
the other end of the log. “Go a little further away when you open the
basket,” she suggested, and Adele, wondering, obeyed.
She opened the lid of the basket and peeped in. “Oh!” she cried, “how
lovely!”
“He has only come for a visit,” said Jessie hurriedly. “His name is
Cloudy, you know. I thought you might like to see him.”
“Isn’t he a darling?” said Adele snuggling the kitten up against her
face.
Jessie watched her with a serious countenance. Presently she said
rather breathlessly, “Would you like to call him half yours? I don’t
believe I could give him to you altogether, but we might go shares, you
know.”
Adele sat down with the kitten in her lap. “Jessie Loomis, I think
you are the dearest girl that ever lived,” she said earnestly, “and I
should love to come over there and hug you, but I won’t, because I must
be good. No, I won’t let you give me even half the kitten, but I do
love to have him come over for a visit. See, he is sleepy. Shall I put
him back in the basket and let him have a nap?”
“He has just had a big saucer of milk,” said Jessie, “but he is very
playful most of the time. You might let him have a little nap, and I
will find something else to send over to you.”
“No, let me send something this time; you have done it all,” said
Adele. “I’ll go up to the house in a minute and get something. Would
you mind if I took Cloudy to show to Aunt Betty and Miss Eloise? I
won’t let anything happen to him and I’ll bring him right back.”
“Of course you may take him,” Jessie consented generously. And carrying
the basket steadily, Adele sped away.