THE TELEGRAM
Grocer Jack was in the kitchen, and Benedicta called, “Miss Polly!”
The man greeted her with the smile that he usually wore.
“Good-morning,” he said. “You’re goin’ to have comp’ny!”
“Am I?” she asked in surprise. “One visitor has just left. Who else is
coming?”
“Wal,” replied the grocer, “all I know is what Richmond told me, jus’
’s I was startin’ out.”
“Richmond?” repeated Polly questioningly.
“Yere, ’xpress agent, ticket agent, freight agent, telegraph
operator--all hands in one. He said he had a telegraph for you, an’ you
was goin’ to have comp’ny, he guessed, comin’ on the quarter-of-twelve
train this noon.”
“But why didn’t he send me the telegram?” Polly’s eyes were wide with
amazement.
Grocer Jack puckered up his mouth and raised his eyebrows.
“I guess ther’ wasn’t anybody lyin’ round handy ’t could come. He said
I could tell ye the drift of it.”
“Did you see it?” questioned Polly.
“Only as he had it in his hand. I--”
“Why didn’t he send it up by you?” she broke in.
“I dunno. Guess likely he didn’t think ’s he could. I didn’t.”
Dismay sat on Polly’s face.
“And don’t you know whom it was from?”
“I was tryin’ to think. I can’t seem to remember. It was a funny
name--I’ve heard it before somewhere.”
“It wasn’t from my father, was it?” excitement in her voice.
“Le’ ’s see, your name’s--”
“Dudley. My father is Robert Dudley.”
“No, ’twa’n’t that,” was the slow answer.
“Sardis Merrifield?”
“That’s the ticket! I know now where I’d heard it! I remembered that
‘Church in Sardis,’ there in Revelations, you know. Yere, he’s the
one. He’s comin’ this noon. Whatever made anybody name a boy Sardis!
’Xpectin’ of him, was you?”
Polly nodded absently. She was looking at the clock and making a quick
calculation. Was there time to get down to Overlook before that 11.45
train? She decided she could do it.
Running upstairs, she begged Lilith to get Dolly and herself ready for
the ride, while she slipped into a fresh frock and then out to the
garage.
She stood gazing at the car in a bewildered way, when Benedicta rushed
up with a little wailing cry.
Polly turned, and the woman began to weep into her hands.
“What in the world!--First the car and now you! Am I dreaming or not?”
“Oh, Miss Polly! Miss Polly! I wish it was a dream! Sinners and snobs,
I wish it was!”
“What is the matter, Benedicta? What are you crying for?”
“Oh, dear! oh, dear! I wish I hadn’t ever touched your chariot at all!”
“Where is my car?” asked Polly quietly.
“Oh, Miss Polly!--it’s--down in Overlook!”
“Did you have an accident? What is the trouble? Stop crying, and tell
me about it!”
“I will, Miss Polly--oh, to think I should hurt your beautiful car!”
And again Benedicta wept.
“But what did you do to it?”
“I--I can’t bear to say it!”
“I will wait till you can. We must get to Overlook in time to meet that
train, and I’m going to drive this car, if it’s drivable, no matter
whose it is.” Polly proceeded to test the steering-gear and the brakes,
without a look towards the sobbing Benedicta.
“If that old Sardis had only waited till to-morrow or next day,” began
the weeping woman, “then you needn’t have known anything about it--oh,
dear! You’ll never trust me again, Miss Polly, and--and--oh, I didn’t
mean to do it!”
Polly threw up her head and laughed, a genuine, exhilarating little
laugh, which brought Benedicta’s hands down from her face, showing her
eyes big and red and staring.
“I hadn’t the least idea, Benedicta, that you smashed my car on
purpose.” She laughed again.
“Teeters and tongs!” ejaculated the housekeeper, “if you ain’t the
limit!”
“I am afraid my patience will be at the ‘limit’ if Lilith and Dolly
don’t come pretty quick.”
“Oh, I don’t want ’em to, till I’ve told you how it happened!”
“Hurry up, then!”
“I will, I will!” And Benedicta dropped into the doorway at Polly’s
feet. “I didn’t smash it, Miss Polly, as you said--that is, I only
smashed up a headlight and one wheel. You see, I went down the hill
careful, just as you told me to, and was goin’ along Fountain Street
pretty good, when who should I spy comin’ towards me, in an auto, but
my Miss Flora and Mr. Aimé! I couldn’t believe my eyes at first, and
I said to myself, ‘It ain’t them!’--‘It is, too!’--‘It ain’t!’--‘It
is!’--just like that. Then, when I see they were real flesh and blood,
if I didn’t steer for ’em--not thinkin’, I s’pose, but that I was
drivin’ a horse an’ buggy--and before they could get out o’ my way
bang--! I was right into ’em! The queer part is, I didn’t hurt them
a mite, or their car, either. But what did make me do such a fool
thing--that’s what I’d like to know!”
“You are not the first one, Benedicta, that has run into another car.”
“Don’ know ’s I want to be a fool ’cause somebody else is! Wal, Mr.
Aimé towed my--your car to the garage that Dick Ringo keeps--I’ve known
Dick ever since he was an infant, and he let me have this car. He said
it was a dandy, and you’d never know the difference. But I told him,
‘Don’t you b’lieve that nonsense, Dick Ringo!’--‘Know the difference!’
I saw what would happen soon ’s you set your eyes on it, an’ I was
scared out o’ my senses. Dick said they’d fix up yours good as new; so
I kep’ comfortin’ myself all the way home by sayin’ it might ha’ been
worse. But I couldn’t bear to have you know it--no, I couldn’t. An’,
Miss Polly, what do you think! My Miss Flora and Mr. Aimé want me to
come live with them, same as I did before. But I said, ‘No, sir! I’m
goin’ to stay with Miss Polly to the last minute she’s here, an’ if she
comes up to Overlook Mountain next year and the next and the next, I’m
with her through the very last next.’--My, there’s Miss Brooks luggin’
that child!” And Benedicta ran across the lawn to take Dolly from the
arms of Lilith.
The miles to the railway station were covered in good time, and the
borrowed car was waiting for Sardis Merrifield when the first whistle
of the 11.45 train rang down the narrow valley of Overlook.
As the big locomotive appeared round the curve, Dolly was quiet with
suppressed excitement. Sardis was coming! Once more she would hear
his loving voice! Every pulse in her frail little body thrilled with
the thought of it. As the cars glided by, she peered eagerly from
the automobile in the hope of seeing his familiar face at one of the
windows. But she could recognize no one. With nerves at high tension,
she watched the people as they filed out of the train. The little
station-house hid the rear car, and her eyes wandered back and forth.
“I’ll go round in front,” said Polly, and her lithe figure disappeared
on the other side of the building.
She did not come back.
Dolly sat alert and breathless, a sudden terror growing in her heart
lest her watching were all in vain.
The train moved away, and still Polly was not in sight.
“I’m afraid--” began Dolly softly.
Then Polly appeared--alone!
“He hasn’t come!” the watchers heard her say. “Dear little girl, don’t
feel bad!” For the child’s eyes were threatening an overflow. “Probably
he missed his train. All we have to do is to wait for the next.”
The tone was heartening, and Dolly began to smile.
“I was afraid he wouldn’t come at all,” she confessed.
“He will come,” Polly assured her confidently.
“How soon is the next train?” questioned Lilith.
“In about an hour and a half. We’ll go uptown and get some ice-cream.”
At this delightful suggestion Dolly brightened. Of course, Sardis would
come on the next train. How foolish she had been to lose hope!
Before they left the station, Polly called at the telegraph office
and obtained her message, leaving instructions to have any possible
future telegrams delivered to her at once. The slip of yellow paper was
fascinating to Dolly, since it seemed to bring her brother nearer.
Expect me on 11.45 train to-morrow.
SARDIS MERRIFIELD
That was all it said. The date was of the previous day.
The cream was all that the little girl’s fancy had pictured it, and the
pineapple ice that Polly added made it quite the finest that she had
ever tasted. If Sardis had been sitting at her side her joy would have
been perfect. Still, her anticipation was there to make up any lack,
and she was very happy.
The 1.06 train thundered in and out of Overlook valley; the borrowed
car with its anxious passengers waited back of the station-house; but
Sardis Merrifield did not appear.
Polly was philosophical.
“There’s nothing to do,” she said, “but to wait.”
“Till when?” asked Lilith.
Polly studied her time-table placidly.
“The next, and last, train is due at 5.30.”
“Oh!” was the dismayed exclamation from Lilith and Dolly.
Polly laughed.
“Never mind,” she said; “we’ll go over to the inn and have dinner--I
think it isn’t too late,” as she consulted her watch. “And then--” She
halted, thinking. “Oh, I know! We’ll drive down to Leslieboro and go to
the movies!”
“Oh, my!” cried Dolly, her eyes big with surprise.
“How will that do?” Polly smiled.
“Splendid!” returned the child.
“Jolly,” said Lilith. “There’s a good picture on this week. I remember
reading of it in the _Gazette_.”
In the proposed way the afternoon passed pleasantly, and the party was
back at the Overlook station when the last train rolled in. Yet once
more they were disappointed. Only six passengers alighted, three women,
a small boy, and two middle-aged men. Sardis Merrifield was missing.
Polly inquired again at the telegraph office. There was no message; but
the man of various positions promised to send her whatever should come.
The drive up the mountain was for the most part silent. Dolly was too
full of grief to talk, and after a while she went to sleep on Lilith’s
arm. It had been a hard day for the little girl.