A VISIT FROM THE TUCKERS.
The Tuckers arrived, and Tucker-like, neither at the time nor by the
route expected. I was just calling Sam to hitch Peg (short for Pegasus)
to the surrey to drive to Milton to meet them, when the unaccustomed
toot of an automobile attracted my attention. It was tearing down our
avenue at breakneck speed. Dee was at the wheel with Mr. Tucker beside
her, and Dum was bouncing around alone on the back seat.
"Beat the train! By Jove, I thought we could!" exclaimed Mr. Tucker,
when he spied me at the yard gate. "We were so afraid you might have
started for Milton. That's the reason we were violating the speed
limit," and they all piled out, the girls hugging me and kissing me and
Mr. Tucker almost hugging me and not quite kissing me.
"It was such a grand day we couldn't resist coming in the car," tweedled
the twins, "but if you had started for Milton before we got here, we
would have died of mortification."
When I told them I had not even had Peg hitched up yet, they were
delighted.
"A mounted policeman chased us just as we were leaving Manchester, but
we dusted him so Tweedles and I are hoping he did not get our number,"
said Mr. Tucker.
I called Sam to bring in the grips and rugs.
"I am sorry he can't take your steed around to the stable, Mr. Tucker,
but we don't know a thing about automobiles at Bracken."
"Leave it where it is, maybe we can have a spin later on."
We went into the house, where the open wood fires made everything bright
and cheerful, although not very warm for persons who are accustomed to
steam heat. Mammy Susan in a stiffly starched purple calico dress with a
gay bandanna handkerchief on her head was ready to greet the guests.
"Well, bress the Lord, an' you done come all the way from town in that
there fire wagon. I hearn the horn a tootin' and a rushin' like mighty
wings, and I says, says I: 'Susan Collins, 'tis the Angel Gabr'el a
comin' fer you.' So I clap on my clean head hankcher an' a starched
apron tow be ready fer the Resrection."
"Mammy Susan, we've heard a lot about you. Page talks about you all the
time at school," said the twins, shaking the old woman warmly by the
hand.
"Well, now, does she? Mammy's baby don't fergit her any more'n Mammy
fergits her baby. An' is this your pa? Well, save us, ef you don't look
more like somebody's great-grandson than anybody's pa."
"Well, they do treat me like a stepson, sometimes, Mammy," laughed Mr.
Tucker. "If I could only take on the looks of years without the years,
I'd be glad, and maybe I could command more respect."
"Why don't you grow some whiskers, then? They ain't nothin' so ageyfying
as whiskers on a young man."
"I'll do it, I'll do it!" exclaimed Mr. Tucker.
"Yes, and you do and we'll pull 'em out," Tweedles declared.
"Well, here am I a-gassin' when I ought to be settin' a little lunch fer
the travelers."
"Oh, we had lunch on the way," the three of them declared. "We were not
going to be any trouble to you by coming so much earlier than we were
expected."
"Oh, now, you must be hungry," I said. "It won't take Mammy Susan a
minute."
"Cose they's hungry, child. Can't I tell hungry folks soon as I claps
eyes on 'em? Maybe they did eat a snack in that there chariot of fire,
but the way they come down the abenue was enough to jolt down a
Christmus dinner, plum puddin' an' all, an' plum puddin' takes a heap er
joltin'," and Mammy Susan hastened out to "set a little lunch,"--which
the Tuckers later declared was a feast.
They were hungry and cold, in spite of their protestations to the
contrary, and cold turkey and country ham with the delicious little
cornmeal cakes that Mammy could stir up and bake in half a minute
disappeared like magic.
"Such coffee!" and Mr. Tucker rolled up his eyes in ecstasy. "And real
cow cream! I tell you, Tweedles, as soon as you finish getting this much
needed education, we've got to get out of an apartment and into a house
where we can do some real housekeeping and have some home cooking."
"You ought to be made to eat at Gresham for a month or so, Zebedee, and
you would think the cafe is pretty fine," said Dee. "The grub at Gresham
is not so bad, but there is such a deadly sameness to it."
"Well, the grub may be tejus," broke in Mammy, who had just come in with
a heaped-up plate of corn cakes, "but it must hab suption in it, 'cause
lil Miss Page is growd in width as well as wisdom, and you two young
twin ladies is got cheeks like wine-saps."
"You are right, Mammy, the food must be pretty good to keep them so fat
and rosy," said Mr. Tucker, helping himself plentifully to the dainty
little cakes.
"Yassir," and Mammy had a sly twinkle in her kind old eyes, "an' that
there caffy whar you gits yo' victuals mus' be dishin' out some
nourishment, too, 'cause you ain't to say peaked lookin'."
How we did laugh at Zebedee, and as for him, he got up and gave Mammy a
little hug. The Tuckers all knew how to take jokes on themselves.
"She certainly did get you, Zebedee," teased Dum. "You were trying to be
so Mr. Tuckerish, too, admonishing Dee and me for complaining about the
food at Gresham."
Father came in soon from his rounds and greeted the visitors in his
kindly hospitable way. Mr. Tucker was to have several days' holiday from
his newspaper and Father said the neighborhood was in an extremely
healthy condition, owing to the clear, cold weather, and he did not
expect to be overworked; so the gentlemen began immediately to plan
their hunts. Dum and Dee were wild at the prospect of going on the deer
hunt.
"I saw Jo Winn this morning, daughter," said Father, "and he will go
with us. He has a cousin from New York who is visiting him and he wants
to take him."
"Well, if the cousin has no more conversation than Jo he certainly will
not bore us with his chatter," I said. "Now, how about lunch, Father? We
must give Mammy some warning, because she gets flustrated if we come at
her too suddenly."
"To-morrow suits Jo and his kinsman, and it will suit us, too, I think.
Tell Mammy how many of us there are and tell her to put up twice as much
lunch as you think she should. That ought to be 'most enough. We'll want
the big camping coffee pot and a skillet and some salt; also some sliced
bacon, ground coffee and sugar, and a little flour to roll the rabbits
in. We may make a fire and cook some if we get cold and have good luck
in the morning."
I went out to the kitchen to interview Mammy, Tweedles following me, and
then we had to go see the dogs. Dee approved of them and they heartily
approved of her. Dum did not have the passion for them that Dee and I
had, but she liked them well enough. The dogs licked her hand
respectfully and then jumped up on Dee and knocked her down and had a
big romp.
How delightful it was to have some companions of my own age at my
beloved Bracken! The Tuckers wanted to see everything and go everywhere.
We visited the horses in the stable and the cows in the pen and climbed
up in the hay loft to hunt for eggs that a sly old blue hen refused to
lay in the proper place.
"It's just like Grandpa Tucker's, only nicer," declared Dum. "Grandpa
treats us as though we were about two years old and treats Zebedee as
though he had just arrived in his teens, so when we go there, while we
have splendid times, we are being told what not to do from morning till
night."
"Well, nobody ever has told me not to do things," I said. "Mammy Susan
grumbles when she thinks I am too venturesome, but she has always ended
by letting me have my own way; and Father says he thinks my way is about
as good as anybody's way."
"Well, isn't it funny you are not spoiled?" tweedled the girls.
"I believe I used to be spoiled when I was a tiny thing; but Father says
if people grow up spoiled, it is because they lack sense, and he always
said he knew I had sense enough to live down the spoiling that he and
Mammy Susan just couldn't help giving me."
"I believe Dr. Allison is right, Dee," said Dum very solemnly, "and when
we are unruly with Zebedee I know it is not the fault of our early
training that we love to lay it on, but just plain lack of sense."
"Well, I'm going to try to be mighty good, then," exclaimed Dee. "If
there is anything in the world I hate, it's stupidity."