BEING A BOY
Sarah and Phyllis were in the dining-room when the General burst in.
"He's here!" he announced, in much the tone of voice he might have used
in speaking of the advent of a formidable enemy.
"Who's here? Oh, that boy! Where is he?" asked Sarah.
"In the hall—he will be a great disappointment to you."
"He won't be a disappointment to me. I never took any stock in him at
any time."
"He is wholly without manners. Kept on his hat, and took me for a
butler!"
Sarah laughed outright. "What a droll little lad!" she said.
"Do you think it 'droll' for a young jackanapes to insult me?"
"No insult about it," replied Sarah, whose feelings toward the visitor
seemed to have taken a sudden change. "Natural mistake—your outlandish
clothes——"
"'Outlandish clothes!'" gasped the General.
"That is what I said," answered Sarah, composedly.
"Outlandish—!" The General did not complete the sentence; his emotions
overcame him and he left the room.
"Phyllis, see where that boy is!" commanded Sarah.
"Yes'm."
"Make him comfortable till I come."
"Yes'm."
May was sitting on the stairs, waiting to learn her fate in this
strange household, when Phyllis appeared.
"Poor little fellow!" thought Phyllis, moved by the picture of woe May
unconsciously made. Aloud, she asked,—
"Are you General Haines' nephew?"
"I suppose I am at present."
"Miss Sarah will be along in a minute," said Phyllis, thinking that
May's peculiar remark was due to confusion.
"Who is Miss Sarah?" May asked, in alarm. "Is she—another?"
Phyllis' eyes twinkled. "Yes," said she. "Miss Sarah is another!"
"Is she like the General?" May ventured to ask.
"The General is a baby beside her."
"Oh, what shall I do?" And May clasped her hands and gazed entreatingly
into her companion's kind face.
"She'll like you fast enough, if the General doesn't," Phyllis said,
consolingly. "That's her way—what he likes she doesn't; what he doesn't
like she thinks a heap of."
"What very queer people," May said.
"I guess you'd think so, if you worked for 'em!" Then reflecting that
it was neither loyal nor politic to speak so freely of her employers,
Phyllis added, "Not that they are not nice in their way."
"I don't think I'd like their way," May said, with a decided shake of
her head.
"What would you like to do?" Phyllis inquired, mindful of Sarah's
injunction to make the boy comfortable.
"I'd like to go home, but I suppose I shall have to stay till mother's
better," May replied, dolefully.
"Come, now, don't look so sober," said Phyllis, pleasantly. "I know
a real nice place in the orchard, and we'll go there. I go by myself
whenever I can get my work done. That isn't often," with a sigh. "Miss
Sarah is one o' the kind that doesn't believe in getting work done; she
keeps me doing it."
"How dreadful!" cried May, who didn't know that Phyllis' comment on
Sarah's disposition would apply perfectly to many another notable
housewife.
"Here she comes," said Phyllis, softly.
May followed the direction of Phyllis' gaze with eager interest, and
when she saw an attractive figure in wonderful attire advancing toward
them, she cried, unwarily,—
"What a lovely, lovely dress! I wish I had one like it."
While Phyllis was pondering this extraordinary feminine remark May
sprang forward to meet Sarah, who was so favorably impressed with
this impulsive movement that she shook hands with the General's young
relative very cordially, saying, pleasantly,—
"I am glad to see you, Gay. I hope you will enjoy your visit here."
"Thank you, I'm sure I shall if I may stay with you and Phyllis a good
deal," May responded, with a bright smile.
Sarah smiled also; she knew that the boy was too polite to add, "and
not with the General!"
"You may go with Phyllis now," said Sarah. "Phyllis, lay the table for
lunch—and mind, no wrinkles in the under cloth."
"Yes'm."
"May I help?" begged May. "Thomas often lets me. My brother puts on
knives and forks as well as Thomas can, and I can do everything—side
table and all. But that isn't so strange for me as it would be for a
boy."
"For a boy?" Sarah looked dazed. "What are you but a boy?"
May's head dropped. "I don't really know—I'm not much of a boy," she
faltered.
"You are enough of one not to be allowed to meddle with my china,"
laughed Sarah.
This evidence that Sarah did not suspect the truth was so gratifying
that May, much to Sarah's surprise, clasped her affectionately around
the waist and put up her face to be kissed. This embrace was witnessed
with horror by Phyllis, who could not imagine any one safely taking
such liberties with her mistress; her horror changed to astonishment
when Sarah returned the caress.
"The world must be coming to an end," thought Phyllis, as she went
into the dining room, with May at her heels. "I never saw Miss Sarah
so melted—like—somebody will have to pay for it! She's like a pair of
scales: when one is up in her opinion somebody else is way down."
When the young people were gone the General appeared at the library
door; curiosity had conquered outraged dignity.
"What do you think of him?" he asked.
"He's a very nice boy," Sarah said.
"Manners of a clown!" growled the General.
"Very pretty manners," chirped Sarah, "modest and affectionate."
"What business has a boy with affectionate manners? A boy should have
the manners of a gentleman."
"Of the 'old school?'" inquired Sarah, saucily.
"Certainly not of the modern school, Madam!"
When General Haines addressed Sarah as Madam he was very indignant
indeed, and Sarah rarely replied, but upon this occasion silence was
not what the General wanted.
"What did the young savage say to you?" the General questioned.
"He asked if he might help lay the table."
"Help lay the table?" the General roared. "He is a molly-cott, Madam,
as well as a clown! To think a boy with a single drop of Haines blood
in his veins should want to lay a table!—But he shall not do it!—he
shall not ape the ways of a petticoat while under my roof."
"Miss Sarah," cried May, "I came to tell you that cook let me put the
potatoes in the kettle—I hope you don't object to that!"
May stood in the dining-room door, a white apron pinned over jacket
and knickerbockers, and the sight of the badge of feminine neatness
exasperated the General anew.
[Illustration: "TAKE OFF THAT APRON," SHOUTED THE GENERAL]
"Take off that rag!" he shouted.
"Run out and take off the apron, as the General bids you," Sarah said.
And May ran.
"I didn't tell him to go out and change that cloth."
"I did."
"I must remind you, Madam, that he is my nephew and I shall not permit
him to go about dressed like a girl in my house."
"And I must remind you that the boy is your guest, at your invitation,
and I shall not permit you to terrify and oppress him."
The General glared at Sarah and Sarah returned his look. Then Sarah
nodded her head emphatically and the General did the same. There was no
more said, but it looked as if the masquerader's position in the Haines
household was likely to be one of no little importance.