THE FOUNDLING.
"Well, Miss Peyton is some mobilizer," sighed Dee as she snuggled down
in her bed after our first study hall had been lived through at Gresham.
"Just to think, here we are hard at work when we have been here only two
days."
"Well, I'm glad, for one," said Dum. "If they work us hard enough, we
won't get Zebedee-sick. That's what Dee and I call homesick. Wherever
Zebedee is, is home for us."
"My Father and Bracken and Mammy Susan and the dogs are so mixed up in
my mind that I can't tell what or which or whom I miss most," and I
scrambled into bed in a great hurry just as the bell rang to warn us
that lights must be out in five minutes. I had not been twenty-four
hours with other girls before I had learned many things that girls know.
One of them was that the last one up has the chores to do, such as
raising the window at the bottom and pulling it down at the top, a
mighty chilly performance when clothed in nothing but a nightgown; also,
the tardy one has the light to put out.
"Oh, you foxy creatures!" cried Dum. "I bet you haven't cleaned your
teeth, you've been in such a hurry to beat me to bed."
"'Deed we have," we declared, "while you were calling on Annie Pore."
"You haven't said your prayers, then," persisted Dum.
"I have," I said. But Dee had neglected this means of grace and had to
crawl out of her nice, warm bed; and she and Dum knelt together. There
was silence for about three minutes; then Dum bounced into bed and
pulled the covers up to her square chin. There she lay, with eyes
closed.
"Dum Tucker, you skipped something. I don't believe you said a single
thing but 'NowIlayme,'" and Dee stood over her sister like an avenging
angel.
"What's it to you?" yawned Dum. "That's a matter between me and my
conscience. Open the window; and turn out the light; and crawl into bed
before our room gets reported."
"Well, it was a matter between my conscience and me whether I said my
prayers at all; and you went and butt in on us. Now you take that
toploftical stand about you and your conscience! Well, you and your
conscience can just lie on the floor together." With which tirade, Dee
yanked Dum and all her bed clothes out on the floor. She then whisked
off the light and, quickly raising the window, jumped into bed.
I wondered what would be the outcome of this battle and if it would have
to be settled according to the Tuckers' code of honor: a duel with
boxing gloves. But just then there was a sharp rap on the door.
"Less noise, please," said a determined voice outside, "or I shall have
to report 117 to the principal."
Dum lay on the floor convulsed with giggles. "Sh-h--." I warned. "Be
careful, or we'll all have to write pages from the dictionary for two
hours."
"You won't have to, surely, when Dum and I made all the racket,"
whispered Dee.
"The teacher said '117,' and that means me, too. Can you get back into
bed? Is the foot untucked?"
"I believe I can if I don't start giggling again," and Dum began to
squirm out of the covers.
"Let me help," said the penitent Dee, and Dum was soon back in her cot
and silence reigned supreme. After a while I heard Dum whisper:
"Say, Dee, I did skip. Conscience bids me confess to thee."
"Well, Dum, I'll give it to you that you and your conscience are perfect
gentlemen," said Dee admiringly.
"Thanks awfully," yawned Dum. "I know one thing, I'm a mighty sleepy
gentleman;" and in a trice the quiet breathing from the disheveled bed
told that Dum and her conscience were at rest.
There were constant surprises in store for one who shared a room with
the Tucker twins. They certainly had the gift of infinite variety in
the kind of scrapes they could get themselves into. They usually got out
of scrapes as easily as they got into them by a certain frankness and
directness that would disarm Miss Peyton herself. They didn't break
rules, because they did things that nobody had ever thought of making
rules about. The principal at Gresham was not so farseeing as the
teacher in "Mary Had a Little Lamb," who seems to have made a rule about
lambs in school:
It followed her to school one day,
Which was against the rule.
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb in school.
One day when we were taking a sedate walk, the school out in full force
with two teachers to keep order along the blue-coated, black-hatted
lines, we saw by the roadside a little kitten, so young its eyes were
hardly open.
"Poor little foundling!" "I wonder where it came from!" "I'd like to
pick him up!" ejaculated several of the girls, but Dee Tucker was the
one who acted. She was bringing up the rear with Miss Sears, the Latin
teacher. As they were passing the forlorn little feline, Miss Sears
stepped forward to admonish a couple who were talking too loudly. Dee
stooped and quickly scooped into her muff the poor pussy. No one saw her
and kitty very considerately said nothing. He lay there warm and
contented, dreaming he was back with his soft, loving mother, and
forgetting the rude hand that had put him into a bag with his brothers
and sisters. The bag had had a merciful hole, and he, being the runt of
the family, had fallen through before the proposed drowning came off.
We marched on, all unconscious of the addition to our ranks. When we got
back to school and went up to our room to take off our hats, etc., I
noticed that Dee had very shining eyes and her dimple seemed to be
deeper, but she did not divulge to Dum and me what she had up her
sleeve, or rather her muff. I also noticed at supper that she swiped
some bread and very adroitly concealed it in her middy blouse. She also
very cleverly called the attention of every one at our table to the
autumn moon, that was peeping into the dining room window, and while
they were looking the other way, she filled a little vial with milk from
her glass.
Naturally I said nothing, but adopted the watchful, waiting attitude,
certain that sooner or later I'd find out what Dee was up to. And I did,
all right.
After supper we had an hour before study hall which we usually spent in
the gymnasium dancing. Dum and Dee had undertaken to teach Annie Pore
and me the new dances. All dances were new to poor Annie and me. I could
cut the pigeon wing and dance "Goin' to Church," which is a negro
classic (but the Tango and Maxixe with all of the intricate steps and
side-stepping seemed very difficult). But I must learn, and learn I did.
As for Annie, her sense of rhythm was so great that she took to dancing
as a duck does to water. She had to get over a certain self-consciousness
that was her ruling fault, but when the Victrola was started in one of
the tunes that would make a dead darkey want to get up and pat, why,
Annie would forget all about Annie and her ill-fitting clothes and
would sway to the music with the utmost abandon.
I believe I have forgotten to tell whom Annie got for a roommate. It was
none other than Josephine Barr, the good-natured, dressy Senior, for
whom Miss Sayre felt so sorry because of her great wealth. I fancy Jo,
as we soon called her, was not very well pleased at first at having to
share a room with such a seemingly dismal person; but it was either
Annie or Mabel Binks, as all the other rooms were filled and Jo had not
registered in time to have much choice.
She couldn't bear Mabel Binks; and she did feel sorry for the poor
little new girl who seemed so ready to dissolve into tears. Jo was the
best old thing in the world, with a heart as big as all outdoors and an
optimistic nature that was bound to influence Annie and make her more
cheerful; at the same time, Annie's breeding and careful speech had its
good effect on the husky Jo. Before the year was up, they were as
intimate as a Senior and Sophomore could be.
On that famous evening which was afterward known as the "Kitten
Evening," Dee kept disappearing between dances. She would come back,
flushed and a little troubled-looking, but would go on with the dance
with a do-or-die expression. Study hour in the assembly hall from eight
to ten and then half an hour to get to bed before the bell rang for
lights out: that was the order of procedure. As we studied, I noticed
how Dee kept fidgeting and twisting. Dum noticed it, too, and the
fidgets seemed to be catching. We were on our honor not to speak during
study hour, and of course that settled the matter for the Tuckers and
me. Dee could squirm herself into a bowknot and Dum and I could die of
curiosity, and still honor forbade our making a sign to find out what
was the matter.
I never spent such a long and unprofitable two hours in my life. I tried
to concentrate my attention on my lessons, but it was impossible with
Dee at the desk in front of me never still a minute.
"The bell at last!" exclaimed Dee.
"Well, your lessons have been Reeling and Writhing, Dee Tucker. I never
saw such a wiggler in my life." But Dee was off like a whirlwind,
without a word to Dum and me. She didn't even take her books with her or
gather up the scattered papers that were strewn over her desk. We
mercifully saved her some demerits by putting things in order for her.
"What do you reckon is up with Dee?" said Dum anxiously. "She is either
brewing some mischief or is already in a scrape."
We found the door to 117 carefully closed and Dee already in bed. How
she ever managed to get in so rapidly, I could not see, unless she
followed the plan of "Diddle, diddle dumpling, my son, John."
"Now, Dee Tucker, what is the matter with you?" begged Dum anxiously.
"The matter with me?" said Dee with feigned coolness. "Nothing on earth,
my dear sister. What should be the matter with me? I am simply sleepy
and thought I would get into bed."
"How about your teeth and your prayers?"
"Cleaned 'em and said 'em," said Dee laconically, and she turned over
rather gingerly, I noticed, and pretended to have fallen into a deep
sleep.
"She won't be able to keep it to herself very long," whispered Dum to
me. "If it is any fun, she can't be low enough not to share it; and if
it is trouble of some sort, she is sure to let us in on it. I'll take
the motto of Prosper le Gai: 'I bide my time.'"
Respecting Dee's evident desire for silence, Dum and I went very quietly
to bed and had the light out long before it was time.
A knock at the door! "Come in," called Dum. It was Annie Pore, very
apologetic at disturbing us.
"It is ten minutes before lights out bell. I had no idea you had all
gone to bed. I was worried about Dee. Is she all right? She looked so
feverish."
"Oh, yes, she's all right; just sleepy," said Dum politely. "Thank you
all the same, Annie."
Annie softly closed the door. I heard strange sounds from Dee's bed but
could not tell whether she was laughing or crying.
Another knock!
"Come in," a little wearily from Dum.
Miss Jane Cox this time!
"Oh, girls, excuse me! I did not know you were in bed, I was a little
anxious about Dee." A snore from Dee's bed, rather melodramatic in tone.
"She seemed so upset during study hour. I was on duty and I did not know
whether she needed castor oil or a demerit." The snoring stopped. The
snorer was evidently deliberating.
"I think she is all right now, Miss Cox," I ventured. "She went right
off to bed as soon as study hour was over. Maybe she won't have to have
either, demerit or oil. My private opinion is she had a flea down her
back, but she says she was just tired and sleepy." A gratified snore
from Dee and Miss Cox with a little snicker went to her room.
"Night, Sable Goddess, from her ebon throne,
Now stretches forth a leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world."
Lights out bell had rung, and the girls all along the corridors in
Carter Hall had gone to bed and to sleep. I had a feeling of impending
something, not necessarily evil, but excitement, at least. Dum was
breathing gently and regularly like a sleeping infant. Dee stirred every
now and then and occasionally muttered an unintelligible something. I
dozed but waked with a start.
"Mieuw--mieuw--mieuw!" came in a heart-rending wail from Dee's bed.
"Shhhh-shhhh! Poor ittle titty puss! Don't you cwy, honey child!
Shhh----"
"Mieuw--mieuw-mieuw-mieuw!!!!" More subdued endearments from Dee. Dum
slept on, but I heard a door open way down the hall! Some teacher, with
sharp ears, no doubt.
"Dee," I whispered, "put your little finger in its mouth and let it suck
until that busybody down the hall goes back into her room." There was
the sound of a door closing.
"What is your advice, Page?"
"Have you anything for it to eat?"
"Bread and milk, but it won't eat."
"Of course not, it is too little. Did you warm the milk?" I inquired.
"No, how could I with no stove?" One of the rules of the institution
was: no alcohol stoves.
"Wait a minute. I've got a candle that Mammy Susan put in my bag in case
of accidents." How I blessed the kind old woman who had thought of
everything. "Them newfangled lights may be mighty fine but if they 'cide
not to wuck some night, a good ole tallow can'le 'll come in mighty
handy, chile, also some saftest matches," she had said as she overrode
all my objections and tucked the life-saving candle and matches in my
already overworked grip.
I got up, donned slippers and dressing gown, gently closed the window,
as the night was decidedly frosty, and found the matches and candle. We
did not dare to light the electric light because of the transom over the
door. Pussy might at any moment let out another wail, and then the
wakeful teacher, seeing the light, would make for our room. In feeling
for the table, I touched Dum's foot and she waked with a start.
"What's the matter, Dee? Are you sick?" And Dum sat up in bed.
"Shhh--No, Dum, she's not sick but the little kitty is hungry," I
whispered.
"The _what_ is hungry?"
"Not so loud, Dum dear, please! It's just a poor, miserable little
foundling of a kitty puss that I simply could not leave by the roadside.
I've got it in bed with me here."
"Oh, Caroline Tucker! A nasty little cat in bed with you? What would
Zebedee say?" and Dum sniffed the air disdainfully.
"He would say just what I say, Virginia Tucker, that it is a mighty
funny thing that you, who were in line before me and must have seen the
poor little wretched kitten first, didn't feel it your duty to rescue it
from its misery. I am ashamed of you, belonging to the S. P. C. A.,
too," and Dee gave her little charge a brand new finger to suck.
Things were looking rather serious: Dum and Dee calling one another
Virginia and Caroline and that in no modulated tones; and the candle
making such a bright light that I expected every minute to hear a
teacher rapping on our door.
"Now, look here, Tweedles, both of you stop your fussing and 'tend to
the business in hand. You can fight it out to-morrow, but for Heaven's
sake, put all of your surplus energy now on getting the kitten fed and
quiet and 117 not in a deluge of demerits. Dum, get up and pin two middy
ties over the transom."
Dum obediently carried out my instructions while I warmed the milk that
Dee had purloined from the supper table over the blessed candle. I
sweetened it a little and diluted it with water. I warmed it in Dee's
silver pin-tray, as we had no pan of any sort.
"Dip your finger in here, Dee, and let the kitten taste it so it can
realize succor is near. It is lots too young to lap and will have to
suck a rag."
Dum tore up an old handkerchief for me and in a little while kitty was
tugging away for dear life, one end of the bit of cambric in its pink
flannel mouth and the other in the pin-tray of milk.
Dum was soon won over to the helpless little thing. "It is sweet, Dee, I
declare; let me hold it a minute."
Dee magnanimously handed it over to her sister who held the pin-tray
very carefully and let kitty feed as tenderly as any young mother. It
soon got its fill and curled up and purred "just like a fairy buzz-saw,"
Dum declared.
"To think of a tiny cat like that knowing how to purr!" exclaimed Dee.
"To think of a tiny cat like that having such enormous fleas on it,"
shuddered Dum. "Here, take the beastie, I'm going back to bed before I
get full of 'em."
"Yes, they are something awful," sighed Dee, "I am literally eaten
alive."
"Poor old Dee! Change your nightgown and leave your bed to the pussy and
come snuggle in with me," said Dum.
Pussy slept very well in Dee's bed, waking only about every two hours
and mewing for nourishment. Dee and I would get wearily up, warm the
milk and administer.
"Oh, who could be a cat with kittens?" sighed Dee.
Morning finally came and the problem of what to do with our adopted
child had to be faced.
"Do you know what I'd do if I were you, Dee? I'd go right to Miss Peyton
and tell her all about it. I'll go with you. She would sympathize with
you, I really believe, and help you find a home for pussy," I said.
"I'll go, too," cried Dum.
Miss Peyton was fine. She seemed to think Dee had merely been imprudent,
not at all naughty. She agreed with Dee that it was a strange thing that
the whole line of girls and teachers should have passed the little waif
by.
"Girls, I am proud and happy that you should have felt I was the person
to confide in. If all the school could only understand that I am their
friend and not just the principal and dealer in demerits. Of course you
can't keep the kitten in your room, but I will see that a good home is
found for it with someone who will take the trouble to feed it until it
can lap for itself. I think I know exactly the right person in the
village."
We went from the principal's office in very happy and exalted states of
mind.
"Isn't she wonderful?" exclaimed Dee. "Wasn't she splendid to us?"
"She was fine," enthused Dum. "I am certainly relieved."
I said to myself: "Miss Peyton was awfully nice, but it is plain to be
seen she is fond of cats. I wonder how she would have felt if it had
been an orphan snake or an abused Billy-goat!"