"THE SUMMER WILL TELL WHO LAUGHS LAST!"
To use Sidney's own thought, "things happened" with amazing swiftness.
If a fairy godmother had been invited in at her christening her plans
could not have prospered more.
First came Mrs. Milliken's unpleasant announcement that the Summer
Convention of the League was to be held in Middletown during July which
meant that every day for two weeks would see the old house invaded by
the curious and the reverent. Mrs. Milliken, in Sidney's hearing, had
gently hinted that it would be very nice if the girls could go away
somewhere for July--at least all of them except dear Isolde.
Then Sidney heard for the first time of Isolde's invitation to the
Deerings. Isolde had thrown it in self-defense at Mrs. Milliken. "I do
not expect to be here, Mrs. Milliken. I am going to Professor Deering's
for July and August to help him with his new book." Sidney turned away
to hide a sudden smile, not, however, before she caught Trude's eyes
anxiously upon her.
Then the Egg--seventy whole dollars--came on the same day that
Godmother Jocelyn informed Vick by telegram that if she could be ready
by the first of July she could go with her to California by way of the
Canadian Rockies. "Be ready! Well, I should just say I _could_!" Vick's
eyes had shone like stars against a velvet black sky and Sidney had
again intercepted that anxious glance from Trude.
Isolde considered this an auspicious moment, with all the excitement
over Vick, to break to Sidney their plans for the summer--plans hurried
to a head by the League's announcement.
"And Trude's going to Long Island with the Whites, dear, but you won't
be lonely with Huldah. You can have Nancy here and probably she will
invite you down to Cascade."
"Oh, there's a letter from Huldah on the table in the hall! I meant to
bring it in and forgot," cried Vick.
"Get it, dear," asked Isolde, gently, of Sidney. Action would help
Sidney control her disappointment--if the child _was_ disappointed.
Perhaps Trude was over-apprehensive.
Trude hastily scanned the few lines of the letter Sidney put into her
hands. "Oh, _dear_," she exclaimed "Huldah can't come."
Could any fairy godmother, indeed, have shaped circumstances with more
kindly hand?
"She says she can't leave her niece. Her niece's just had a baby. And
her rheumatism is bad."
"I call that rank disloyalty," cried Isolde with spirit. "After all
we've stood from Huldah!"
"What'll we do? Can't we make her come? Doesn't she owe us more
consideration than her niece?"
Trude put the letter down. "Huldah isn't disloyal. You know that,
Isolde. And she doesn't owe us anything. Don't forget, Vick, that she
worked for us for years for almost nothing when she could have gone
anywhere else and received good pay. This house _is_ damp and big and
Huldah is old. No, we can't beg her to come--over this. It was probably
hard for her to refuse. I'll stay home with Sid. We'll have lots more
fun here together than I'd have with Aunt Edith White on Long
Island--in spite of the League. Will we not, Sid?"
There was so much more sincerity in Trude's honest blue eyes than any
suggestion of self-sacrifice that Sidney ran around to her and hugged
her. She longed to tell Trude and the others of her own budding
plans--only she had not received as yet an answer from Cousin Achsa. So
all she could say was: "We just won't mind the League!"
And then that very afternoon the postman, meeting her outside the wall,
had handed her an envelope addressed to "Miss Sidney Ellis Romley" and
postmarked _Provincetown_!
Sidney ran with it straight to her attic retreat. Her heart within her
breast hurt with its high hopes. There was a Cousin Achsa--her own
letter had reached her and had been answered! She studied the
unfamiliar writing on the envelope--it was a big sweeping script. The
envelope felt fine and soft in her fingers and smelled faintly of a
fragrance that was not of flowers and yet distinctly pleasant. Oh, this
Cousin Achsa must be wealthy, like Pola!
She broke the envelope and spread out the double sheet it contained. At
its top she read, "My dear little Cousin." She paused long enough to
wonder why Cousin Achsa thought that she was little.
"My dear little Cousin:
"Of course you may come to visit us. We shall enjoy learning to
love a young cousin who must be delightful if we can judge from her
letter. We blame ourselves and the miles that have separated us for
not knowing anything of 'Sidney Ellis Romley' until yesterday,
though we knew your mother in days long past. Will you write and
tell us when we may expect you? Can a girl of fifteen find her way
to this outlying bit of country? If you decide you cannot perhaps
we can arrange for you to come with someone. We await your word
with affectionate anticipation.
"Your already loving cousin,
"Achsa."
Sidney blinked hard simply to be certain that the words actually lay
before her eyes. Then she read it again and again--aloud. Oh, it was
too wonderful to believe. It was a _beautiful_ letter--Cousin Achsa
must surely live in the square white house on the eminence she had
pictured. She had written "we" so perhaps Cousin Asabel still lived or
maybe there were young cousins. Anyway, they wanted her. She hugged the
letter to her and rushed off to find the girls. Oh, Huldah could stay
with her niece if she wanted to! And Trude could go to Long Island! The
Leaguers could come and camp in the house! Guided by the murmur of
voices Sidney broke headlong into an informal conference of the older
sisters. Her drama-loving soul could not have built a more perfect
stage, nor asked a more thrilling moment of denouement. Isolde had just
declared generously, that she could not enjoy a day of her stay with
the Deerings if Trude had to give up the Long Island plans.
"It isn't as though we girls received invitations every day," she
explained tearfully. "And it'll be stupid for you here, Trude, with
just Sidney. Perhaps it's my duty to stay home and help Mrs. Milliken."
"Your sacrifice is quite unnecessary!" Sid answered in such a queer
voice that the three older girls stared at her in alarm. In truth her
flushed face and wild eyes gave strength to the sudden conviction that
she had gone mad! She fairly leaped at Isolde and flung her letter into
Isolde's lap. "I guess 'just Sid' is capable of making her own plans!"
Sidney had a moment's terror that she was "beginning" wrong but
Isolde's remark which she had overheard had upset all her preplanned
diplomacy. Now she stood back, anxiously, and watched Isolde read the
letter.
As Isolde read it aloud she punctuated it with excited exclamations.
"'My dear little Cousin'--Why, Sid, how did you happen to write to her?
How did you know she wasn't dead? Why--'Of course you may come and
visit us!' Sid, what _have_ you been doing? Why--" and so, to the end.
Sidney drew a long breath and braced herself. Her explanation tumbled
out with such incoherence that the girls kept interrupting her to ask
her to repeat something. Well, they had told her she could use the Egg
any way she wanted to and she wanted to go somewhere a long way off--on
a train. One always had to visit someone or with somebody and she'd
remembered these cousins--
"Why, how _could_ you, Sid? I don't think you've ever heard us speak of
them. I'm sure I'd almost forgotten them--"
"Well, I _did_. Blood's thicker than water," witheringly, "and maybe
you can just remember relatives without ever hearing anything about
them. She's nice, I know, because her father was persevering and
thrifty--"
A sudden laugh from Vick brought Sidney to an abrupt stop. But Isolde,
rebuking Vick with a lift of her right shoulder, turned her attention
again to the letter.
"It's a very nice letter--a--a cultured letter, don't you think so,
Trude? Somehow I have always had the idea that these relations in the
East--the Greens--were very poor and--well, uneducated. But this letter
doesn't look like it. And they actually seem to _want_ Sidney to come!"
"It's a long way--" Trude put in.
"But I want to _go_ a long way. I don't just want to go to some place
right near home--like Cascade. There's money enough--Nancy and I asked
at the railroad station. And the man there gave me a timetable with all
sorts of interesting pictures on it. It's the very most interesting
place I ever heard of--it's an education. I want to go. I've--I've
never been anywhere."
Isolde was trying not to look as though this unexpected development of
things was pleasing but she simply could not suppress the thought that
in permitting Sid to go to these cousins lay their one chance of happy
escape for their summer. After all--these Cape Cod relatives _were_
first cousins of their mother's, her very own people. She wished she
could remember what her mother had told of them from time to time but
it could not have been anything to their discredit or she would have
remembered. And the letter, in its woody fragrance, the bold sweep of
the handwriting, the expensive texture of the paper, bespoke culture,
even wealth. However, with a lingering sense of duty, she reminded
Sidney that this Cousin Achsa must be very old.
As if that mattered! Sidney flung out an impatient hand. It was like
Isolde to sit rock-fashion and trump up reasons why she'd better not
go. But Vick came unexpectedly to her aid.
"If she's old--all the better. She'll make Sid behave herself. I think
this is the luckiest thing that could have happened. Now we can all go
away. Sid wanted adventure--she'll have it with Cousin--what's her
name?"
Though she writhed under the tone in Vick's voice Sidney bit her lips
over the retort that sprang to them. Anyway, she _would_ have her
adventure. She wanted to go on the train all alone; the ticket office
man had said it would be quite safe and had told her that he'd write
something on a card that she could show to each conductor. She'd like
not to have even to do _that_, for that seemed a little babyish.
Trude had found a reassuring thought. "I'll be near enough, anyway, so
that if Sid gets homesick or finds that things aren't just what she'd
like them to be she can telegraph to me and come home. You will, won't
you, kid?"
Sid promised hastily. Then for the next half hour everything whirled
about her; she could not believe what her ears heard, what her eyes
beheld. The girls were actually planning for her--clothes, trunks,
tickets, trains. Trude was figuring and making notes on the back of
Cousin Achsa's letter. It was, "Sid will need this--Sid had better do
that--it will be nice for Sid to see this--I think by way of Boston is
the better route--you'd better write to Cousin Achsa, Trude--No, let
Sid write herself--had we ought to consult the Trustees? Why, we're old
enough to decide this for ourselves--she'd better go just before Vick
and then we can pack away our intimate things and turn the house over
to the League."
"Didn't Evangeline come from somewhere up that way? Oh, no. Well, I
always think of Cape Cod and Nova Scotia as being off there on the map
together. Anyway, write and tell us, kid, when you find the Chalice or
Grail or whatever it is! If you discover any untrodden fields of
romance--wire us and we'll send one of Issy's poets down--"
Now, in her exalted spirit Sid could meet Vick's raillery with a level
glance. Let Vick laugh! Cape Cod wasn't off "somewhere" in a corner of
the map. It was as intriguing as the Canadian Rockies. And she had a
lot shut away in her heart about which Vick and the others knew
nothing. All that about the good ship _Betsy King_. _Betsy King_ had
foundered as a good ship should, but there was a big chance that Cousin
Asabel, Ezekiel's son, might have a boat. Then she had a glimpse into a
beautiful world that Pola had given her; she would see Pola's world
from the train window. It was simply all too breath-taking to think of.
Oh, the summer would tell who would laugh last!