Work on the Boarder's Annex was begun with frantic zeal, each and every
member of the Jenkins family lending a helping hand. The Boarder, as
boss carpenter, worked after switching hours until it grew dark; then
the children took turns, in holding a lantern for him. The savings of
the Boarder being taxed by the trip to "Niagry" and the furnishing of
the apartment, great economy had to be exercised in the erecting of the
Annex. He strictly adhered to his determination not to touch the "rainy
day fund."
Amarilly pleaded for a bay window, but the Boarder felt this
ornamentation to be quite beyond his means, so they finally compromised
on a small and simple porch on which Lily Rose could sit of a summer
night while the Boarder smoked by her side. Mrs. Jenkins, moved to
memories long dormant of the home of her youth, suggested blinds instead
of window-shades, but the Boarder after much figuring proved adamantine
in resistance to this temptation.
Lily Rose was the only one who made no suggestions. Anything the Boarder
might construct in the way of a nesting place was beautiful in her eyes.
"She'd be too sorter modist-like to tell me if she was sot on any
perticler thing about the new place," he confided wistfully to Amarilly,
"You're so sharp I wish you'd kinder hint around and find out what she
wants. Jest put out some feelers."
Amarilly diplomatically proceeded to put out "feelers," and after much
maneuvering joyously imparted to the Boarder the information that Lily
Rose loved to look at the one solitary tree that adorned the Jenkins
lot, because to her it meant "the country."
"So that's the way she loves to look out," informed Amarilly, "and, you
see there isn't any window on that side of your rooms."
"There shall be one," declared the Boarder firmly.
"Couldn't you make it a bay?" again coaxed Amarilly, "It's on the side
the sun comes in most, and the doctor said Lily Rose should get all the
sunlight she could. If she could sit in that bay window sunny days next
winter it would be better than medicine for her."
The Boarder sighed.
"Don't tempt me, Amarilly. There ain't a cent more I kin squeeze out."
"I'll think out a way," thought Amarilly confidently.
She took the matter to Colette, who instantly and satisfactorily solved
the problem, and Amarilly returned radiant.
"She says you've saved too much out for furniture, and to build the bay
window from the furniture fund."
The Boarder shook his head.
"I thought of that, but thar ain't a thing I can take out of that. I got
the figgers on the price of everything from the House Furnishers'
Establishment."
"But you see, Miss King says no one ever comes to a wedding without
bringing a present. That it wouldn't be et--,--dear me! I have forgotten
what the word is. And she says not to buy any furniture till all the
presents come, and then I can settle the rooms for you while you and
Lily Rose are away. Lots of the things you are expecting to buy will be
given you."
"It's risky," said the Boarder dubiously. "We'll most likely git casters
and bibles and tidies. That's what I've allers seen to weddin's."
"Well, I see I have got to put a flea in your ear, but don't tell Lily
Rose. Let it be a surprise to her. Miss King is going to give you a
handsome base-burner coal stove. So you can take that off your list."
The Boarder looked pleased and yet distressed.
"She shouldn't go fer to do that!" he protested.
"Well, she wants to give you a nice present because you've been nice to
us, and she thinks Lily Rose is sweet, and she says she believes in
making sensible presents. She asked Mr. Meredith what to get, and he
told her to get the stove so you see it's all right if he says so. She
thought you wouldn't need a stove till next winter, but I told her you
wanted the rooms furnished complete now."
"Then," said the Boarder beamingly, "the bay winder shall be cut out
ter-morrer."
"Don't cut it _out_!" said Amarilly alarmed.
"I don't mean in a slang way," he said, laughing. "I mean cut out with a
saw."
When Lily Rose was brought over one starlight night in budding May to
see the beautiful aperture that would eventually become a bay window and
face the solitary tree, two dewy drops of joy came into her eyes. Before
them all she raised her pale, little face for a kiss which the Boarder
bestowed with the solemn air of one pronouncing a benediction, for Lily
Rose was chary of outward and visible expressions of affection, and he
was deeply moved by this voluntary offering.
The Annex grew rapidly, but its uprising was not accomplished without
some hazard and adventure. There was an exciting day when Cory fell
through the scaffolding where she had been climbing. She suffered a
moment of unconsciousness and a bump on her head.
"An inch nigher her brain, and it would have killed her!" exclaimed the
mother in tragic tones.
"An inch of miss is as good as a mile," said the Boarder
philosophically.
There was also a thrilling moment when Iry thrust his head through the
railings of the new porch. Satisfied with his outlook, he would fain
have withdrawn, but was prevented by an unaccountable swelling of his
pate. Flamingus, coming to the rescue and working seemingly on the
theory that his skull might be compressible, tried to pull him backward,
but the frantic shrieks of Iry caused this plan of ejection to be
abandoned.
"The rest of him is smaller than his head," observed Amarilly
practically, as she arrived upon the scene and took a comprehensive view
of the case, "Push him through, Flam, and I'll go around on the other
side and get him."
Iry, safely landed in Amarilly's arms, laughed his delight, and thinking
it a sort of game, was about to repeat his stunt of "in and out."
"It's time something was done to you," said Amarilly determinedly,
"before you get killed in this place. I am going to spank you, Iry, and
Co, too. I am going to spank you both fierce. And you are to keep away
from the new part."
In spite of wailing protests, Amarilly administered a spanking to the
two younger children that worked effectually against further repetition
of their hazardous performances. But Bobby tobogganed down the roof
during its shingling and sprained his ankle, which necessitated the use
of crutches.
"He can break his neck if he wants to," remarked Amarilly, when besought
by Co to punish him too.
Mrs. Jenkins lost a finger-nail by an injudicious use of the hammer. Bud
sat down in the paint pot, and had to go to bed while his clothes were
cleaned. In fact Lily Rose was the only one of the whole family circle
to suffer no injury, but the Boarder guided her so tenderly over every
part and plank of the Annex that there was no chance for mishap.
When the lathing and plastering were completed, the little bride-elect
began to tremble with timidity and happiness at the consciousness of the
nearness of her approaching transfer to the Home.
The plan of the Boarder had been to leave the walls rough and unfinished
till their settling process should be accomplished, but Amarilly,
absorbed heart and soul in this first experience of making a nesting
place, pleaded for paper--"quiet, pretty paper with soft colors," she
implored, Derry's teachings now beginning to bear fruit in Amarilly's
development of the artistic.
"Amarilly, we can't hev everything to onct," he rebuked solemnly. "The
paper'll crack as sure as fate, if you put it on now."
"Let it crack!" defied Amarilly. "Then you can put on more. You're away
nearly all day, and the rest of us are at work, but if Lily Rose has to
sit here all day and look at these white walls that look just like sour
bread that hasn't riz"--Derry had not yet discovered this word in
Amarilly's vocabulary--"she'll go mad."
"Amarilly," sighed the Boarder, "you'll hev me in the poorhouse yit!"
"Oh, dear!" sighed Amarilly. "I'll have to let you into another secret.
Mr. Meredith is going to give you and Lily Rose a handsome centre-table
and an easy-chair. There won't be any surprises left for you by the time
the wedding is over, but you're so set, I have to keep giving things
away to you."
"That makes me think," remarked the Boarder. "I was going to ask you
what I'd orter give the preacher fer marryin' Lily Rose and me. The
fireman of Number Six told me he give two dollars when he was spliced,
but you see Mr. Meredith is so swell, I'd orter give more."
Amarilly gazed reflectively into space while she grappled with this
proposition.
"Do you know," she said presently, with the rare insight that was her
birthright, "I don't think Mr. Meredith would like money--not from you--
for Lily Rose. You see he's a sort of a friend, and you'd better give
him a present because money, unless it was a whole lot, wouldn't mean
anything to him."
"That's so," admitted the Boarder, "but what kin I give him?"
Amarilly had another moment of thought.
"Make him a bookrack. Mr. Derry will draw you the design, and you can
carve it out. You can do it noons after you eat your luncheon, then you
won't lose any time building the house."
"That's jest what I'll do. So with the fee saved and the cheer and table
out, I kin paper the rooms. You find out what kind Lily Rose wants and
help her pick it out."
"She'll choose blue," lamented Amarilly, "and that fades quick."
Lily Rose was easily persuaded to let Derry be consulted. He promptly
volunteered to tint the walls, having studied interior decorations at
one time in his career. He wrought a marvellous effect in soft grays and
browns with bordering graceful vines.
Lily Rose by taking advantage of a bargain sale on suits saved enough
from her trousseau to curtain the windows in dainty blue and white
muslin.
Derry then diverted the appropriation for an ingrain carpet to an
expenditure for shellac and paint with which he showed Amarilly how to
do the floors. Some cheap but pretty rugs were selected in place of the
carpet.
At last the Annex was ready for painting. Lily Rose wistfully stated
that she had always longed to live in a white house, so despite the fact
that the Jenkins house proper was a sombre red, the new part was painted
white.
"'Twill liven the place up," Amarilly consoled herself, while Colette
breathed a sigh of relief that the Annex was not to be entirely
conventional.
At Amarilly's suggestion, the woodwork was also painted white.
"Hard to keep clean," warned Amarilly, divided in her trend of
practicality and her loyalty to St. John's favorite color. White won.
The moment the paint was dry and the Annex announced "done," the Boarder
took Lily Rose to view their prospective domicile. They were
unaccompanied by any of the family, but it took the combined efforts of
Mrs. Jenkins, Amarilly, and Flamingus, whose recent change in voice and
elongation of trousers gave him an air of authority, to prevent a
stampede by the younger members.
Lily Rose returned wet-eyed, sweetly smiling, and tremulous of voice,
but the Boarder stood erect, proud in his possessions.
Colette vetoed the plan for Amarilly to settle in the absence of the
groom and bride.
"If you have it all furnished beforehand," she argued, "there will be
just so much more room to entertain in on the night of the wedding."
And then Lily Rose confessed that "she'd love to be 'to hum' in her own
place."
"But they won't be furnished," argued Amarilly.
"Oh, yes, they will," assured Colette. "It's etiquette--" she paused to
note Amarilly writing the word down in a little book she carried--"for
people to send their presents before they come, and you can settle as
fast as they come in."
The wedding gifts all arrived the day before the wedding. The base-
burner, though not needed for some months, was set up, because the
Boarder said he would not feel at home until he could put his feet on
his own hearth. John Meredith sent an oaken library table and an
easy-chair. Derry's offering was in the shape of a beautiful picture
and a vase for the table.
The best man, who fortunately had appealed to Amarilly for guidance,
gave a couch. The Jenkins family, assessed in proportion to their
respective incomes, provided a bedroom set. Lily Rose's landlady sent a
willow rocker; the girl friends at the factory a gilt clock; the
railroad hands, six silver spoons and an equal number of forks. Lily
Rose's Sunday-school teacher presented a lamp. A heterogeneous
assortment of articles came from the neighbors.
These presents were all arranged in the new rooms by Lily Rose, and the
elegance of the new apartment was overwhelming in effect to the
household.
"It looks most too fine to feel to hum in," gasped the Boarder. "It
makes me feel strange!"
"It won't look strange to you," assured the bride-elect, looking shyly
into his adoring eyes, "when you come home and find me sitting here in
my blue dress waiting for you, will it?"
"No!" agreed the Boarder with a quick intake of breath, "'Twill be home
and heaven, Lily Rose."