THE DESPERATION OF DUM.
Back at Gresham and trying to get into harness! Some of us kicked over
the traces, feeling our oats, as it were; and Dum got the bit between
her teeth and came very near running all the way home before we could
stop her.
It was hard to get into what Mr. Mantilini calls "the demnition grind"
after three weeks of untrammeled freedom. The whole school seemed
restive and the teachers were not much better than the pupils. Miss
Peyton had to drive her coach very carefully. Her infinite tact showed
itself constantly. A word of warning here, a slight tightening of the
reins there, just a little tap to the ones who seemed inclined to
laziness, and soon we were trotting along the road of knowledge just as
though we had not been kicking up our heels in the green pastures. All
but Dum, she could not get back to work.
"If the year were only half over, but it's only the middle of January
now! We've got months and months to wait before we see Zebedee again.
When we once get into February, I can stand it better. I can't and won't
study, and as for demerits--let 'em give me all they want to. Let 'em
put me in bounds. I don't want to go off of the old place. What fun is
it to walk down into that dinky little village keeping step like
convicts? I'd rather have striped clothes like convicts than these old
stupid blue things. There is some variety in stripes but this eternal,
and everlasting dark blue--ugh! I hate it!"
"But, Dum," I expostulated, "if you get so many demerits you will not
only be in bounds but you'll have to write pages and pages of
dictionary."
"I'll see 'em make me. 'You can lead a horse to water but you cannot
make him drink.' They can tell me to write the dictionary all they want
to, but I've yet to see the man, woman, or child who can make me write
anything. I just won't and that's an end of it."
"But what will your Father think?" I asked, hoping to get on her better
side by appealing to her love for her adored Zebedee.
"Think? 'He can think like young niggers think: buckeyes is biscuit.'"
This made me roar, as it was a saying I had told the twins that Mammy
Susan had taught me when I was a child. There was no persuading the
headstrong Dum. She had the bit between her teeth and she was rushing
straight to destruction. She got zero in her classes during the day, and
that night in study hall she spent the time making cunning little
brownies out of the colored clay she had brought in her pocket. She did
not open a book except for the purpose of propping it up on her desk to
conceal the little lifelike figures she was so busy modeling.
Dee gazed at her with an agonized expression on her face and I gave her
many an appealing glance, but she merely made a face at me and went on
with her sculpture. Where was it to end? Zero for that day's lessons and
many preceding days; and not a single one prepared for next day. She
seemed perfectly careless of the teacher who was keeping study hall, as
though she invited reproval; but it so happened that Miss Sears, who was
on duty that night, did not seem to notice Dum's behavior. When the
study hall was over, the reckless girl picked up all her brownies and
carried them carefully on her open book up to her room, right under Miss
Sears's nose.
"She must be crazy," whispered Dee to me, "and Miss Sears must be in
love or blind or something. She didn't see how Dum was cutting up."
"Well, Dum was certainly reckless. I thought every minute she was going
to be called down. You've got to be either good or careful, and Dum was
certainly neither."
Miss Sears beckoned to me and I fell back, and the Tuckers went on to
117.
"Page," said Miss Sears, "Miss Peyton is rather worried over Virginia
Tucker. Of course I saw how she was conducting herself during study
hall, but Miss Peyton has decided the best way to get hold of Dum is to
let her alone for a while. The rest of the school is back in working
order, but she is as wild as a deer. Miss Peyton asked me to take you
into our confidence and see if you can help us some. Will you keep a
pretty sharp eye on Dum?"
"You mean tell on her if she gets into scrapes?" I asked, flushing
painfully.
"My dear girl, no. You would not be the kind we would go to if we wanted
an informer. We want you to try to influence Dum to quiet down, and let
her realize that she must get to work. Demerits seem to have no effect
on her. I verily believe she enjoys getting as many as she can. You have
lots of influence with those girls, and I believe a talk from you would
do her more good than being brought up before the faculty," and Miss
Sears looked at me very kindly.
"Well, I'll do my best but I can't promise that Dum will listen to me."
I did not like to say that I had already done what I could, but I
determined to try, try again.
Dum had her brownies ranged in a line on the bureau and under each she
had tucked one of her visiting cards, on which she had written
something. Dee looked sad and Dum defiant.
"I was just telling Dum," began Dee.
"Never mind what you were telling Dum," interrupted the outrageous girl.
"It's none of your business nor is it Page Allison's if I get into
scrapes. I reckon I'm old enough to take care of myself without the
assistance of persons no older nor wiser than I am."
"So you are, but you owe a penny for interrupting Dee; that's
twenty-five cents since the holidays," I said sternly.
"I don't care if I do. I don't intend to pay it. I need my money for
other things besides this foolishness."
I looked at Dum in amazement. She and Dee often were rude to each other
but in the three months that I had known them, neither one of them had
been anything but scrupulously polite to me. I realized that silence
would be the better part of valor in this encounter, so I prepared for
bed without saying a word. I gave a warning glance at Dee, and she, ever
tactful, held her peace. Dum was evidently disappointed, as she was
simply "sp'iling for a fight."
We got to bed as lights out bell rang and in a moment everything was
perfectly quiet. I did not go to sleep immediately but pondered over
what Miss Sears had said. "How can I best help Dum?" I asked myself. I
must keep an eye on her and still not let her know it. It was hard to
take her rudeness without giving her as good as she sent, but I felt
that a real loss of temper on my part would mean an equal loss of
influence. I dropped off to sleep with Dum on my mind.
It must have been a little after midnight when I awakened, and something
prompted me to glance at Dum's bed. It was a bright night, the moon not
full, but big enough to make everything in the room visible. A light
snow was on the ground, which aided the lighting powers of the moon by
reflection.
Dum's bed was empty. Her nightgown was on the floor and her clothes
which I had seen her throw on the chair near her bed were gone. I got up
in an excitement that made my heart go like a trip hammer and found her
hat and jacket gone, too. "Dee, Dee," I said in as quiet a voice as I
could command, "Dum is gone!"
"Gone! Gone where?" said poor sleepy Dee.
"I don't know, but it is up to us to find out. Get into your clothes as
fast as you can. I don't believe she has been gone long, her bed is so
warm."
I had felt it as soon as I jumped out of mine. Dee shuddered at this
announcement of mine. She said afterward it sounded like the report of a
coroner's inquest.
Fire engine horses could not have sprung into their harness quicker than
Dee and I did into our clothes. In a twinkling we were wrapped in our
warm sweaters and had donned hats and rubbers, the last not only because
of the snow but to deaden our footsteps down the long corridors. I got
ready a moment sooner than Dee and I struck a match and read one of the
cards Dum had stuck under the little clay brownies: "To Miss Peyton as a
parting token of appreciation of her discipline." I gasped with
astonishment. Dum was crazy surely, perfectly daft.
"What is on the card?" asked Dee anxiously.
"Oh, just some of Dum's nonsense! Hurry!" I did not think I had better
tell Dee. It sounded like a last farewell.
We found the front door unlocked. She had certainly gone out recently,
as the watchman made his rounds every hour and it was then 12:20 by the
big clock in the hall. I know the wisest thing for us to have done would
have been to warn the watchman and let Miss Peyton know, but somehow I
felt that we could cope with Dum by ourselves; and I also knew that the
offense that Dum was guilty of was a very serious one and might mean
that she would be expelled from Gresham.
"The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a luster of midday to objects below."
So, thank goodness, the prints of Dum's tennis shoes were quite plain to
us. I was relieved to see that they went toward the village. I had had a
nameless fear of the lake. On we sped! Once we saw where poor Dum had
evidently paused and then turned back for a few yards. That encouraged
me more than anything we had found out yet. She was softening and
relenting.
"What do you suppose she means to do, Page?" panted Dee.
"She is trying to make that 12:40 train to Richmond. There she is!"
We had turned a sharp corner and there about a hundred yards ahead of us
was Dum. She had almost reached the crossing where Captain Leahy had his
unique abode. One minute more would land her at the station, and already
we could hear the far-off whizzing of the approaching express. There was
a light in the little gatehouse and just at that moment the dear old man
emerged and began to let down his gate.
"Well, Saints preserve us! And what maid travels so late? Why, if she
isn't one of the sponsors of Oliver." Dum stopped stockstill in the
road.
"Captain Leahy, I'm going to take that midnight train to Richmond. Will
you flag it for me?"
"And sure I'll do anything to please the ladies, but aren't ye young
and tinder to be after taking such a thrip at this toime o' night?"
"But I have to go. I could never go back to Gresham now, and it would be
best for me to go straight to my Father."
Dee and I had advanced silently, thanks to our rubber shoes, and we now
came up behind the old Irishman and Dum.
"Come on, Dum, you can get back to Gresham before the watchman makes his
one o'clock rounds if you hurry."
Dum looked at me aghast. "Page, you here, and Dee!"
"Where should I be but with my twin? We have never spent a night apart
yet, Dumplingdeedledums." Dee's tact had won the day. That was Mr.
Tucker's pet name for Dum, and Dee using it at such a time brought Dum
to her senses. "What would Zebedee think and say of this escapade?" was
what came to Dum's mind.
"Good-night, Captain, I reckon I won't go to Richmond to-night. We'll
have to hurry to get in before one. That's the 12:40 now whistling for
the crossing." And before the old man could get his breath, we had
scurried away over the light fall of snow like so many rabbits.
It was uphill most of the way back to Gresham, but we made short work of
it. If I had not been so desperately afraid the watchman would discover
that the front door was unlocked before we got back and perhaps raise an
alarm, I would have enjoyed our run immensely. The moon went behind a
great black cloud, but we knew our way well enough not to be dependent
on her light. Not one word did we speak, but saved our breath for this
real fox-trot.
At the school at last! I tried the great door, almost afraid to breathe.
It yielded to my push and we were in the dark hall. I had just sense
enough left to lock the door, and then we flew up the steps and were
safe in our room without having encountered the watchman.
"Quick work!" I gasped, falling on my bed. "Down to the station and back
in forty minutes!"
But safety was not ours yet. We heard a door open down the corridor and
light-slippered steps approaching 117.
"In bed with you, quick!" exclaimed Dum; and without the formality of
night dresses, we jumped into bed, only taking the precaution to remove
our hats. Diving under the covers with only our noses sticking out, we
were to all appearances as lost to the world as the seven sleepers.
It was a teacher who had evidently heard a suspicious noise and had come
out to investigate. She stopped a minute in front of our door and then
gently turned the knob. "All quiet along the Potomac!" She stood a
minute listening to Dum's "gently taken breath" and Dee's lifelike
snore, and then quietly retired on tiptoe; and in a moment we heard her
door close at the end of the corridor. If we got dressed like engine
horses going to a fire, we got undressed like boys seeing who can get
into the swimming hole first.
Dum kissed us both good-night, or rather good-morning, but said never a
word about what her intentions had been nor the reasons for her
flitting. We were asleep in a minute and the next morning I had to pinch
myself to see if it had not been a dream. Our damp skirts and overshoes
and each girl's hat under her bed was all that made me realize that we
had been on that mad chase at midnight after the irrepressible Dum.
"Girls, you are both bricks!" exclaimed Dum, rubbing her eyes as the
relentless rising bell tolled out. "Just think! If you had not come for
me, I would have been in Richmond by this time and poor old Zebedee
disgraced for life. There is nothing I can do to make it up to you----"
"Yes, there is," chorused Dee and me, "get to work again."
"I wasn't quite through what I was saying, but I am not going to impose
the fine that you owe for interrupting, and I am going to pay my fine
that amounts to a quarter now. I was awfully ashamed of not paying it
last night, but you see I just did have enough money to get me to
Richmond if I traveled on a day coach, so I had to let my debts of honor
slide. I have been a bad, rude, unreasonable girl and I am just as sorry
as I can be. I deserve to be expelled. I don't know what has been the
matter with me but I believe I have been getting ready to go to the home
for the criminally insane. I hated the school; I hated the teachers; I
hated lessons and rules; I just wanted Zebedee. He was the only person I
wanted and I wanted him so bad I was just going to have him." Dum got
out one of the gentlemen's handkerchiefs that she and Dee used and wept
copiously. "Do you reckon we'll be found out?"
"Not a bit of it," I reassured her. "The blessed snow that was in that
black cloud hiding the moon last night has covered up all our rabbit
tracks, and when we take our walk this afternoon I am going to slip out
of line long enough to warn Captain Leahy not to tell on us. Now, Dum,
you get back to bed and stay there all day. I am going to tell Miss
Peyton you don't feel quite up to snuff, which is certainly so. You jump
in and study all your back lessons that you have missed and catch up
with your classes. It will take a day of diligent work to do it because
you have loafed ever since we got back to school, and by to-morrow
morning you will feel reconciled to life and take your place again."
"Well, that would be kind of pleasant, but bring me up enough breakfast,
'cause I am not too ill to eat; and before you go down, hand me those
brownies I made last night," and Dum reduced the inoffensive little
works of art to Limbo with one squeeze of her hand. "I was leaving one
of them for each teacher. I wanted to make them into devils but thought
maybe that would be a little too sassy. I don't feel a bit that way now.
I may model some angels to-day if I can get time after I have mastered
all my back work."
Miss Peyton was easily persuaded by me that a day in bed would restore
Dum to health and reason. She said she had hoped I could do something
with the refractory twin and she was going to trust to me, since I was a
doctor's daughter and no doubt had inherited some skill as a healer.
That afternoon, when we took our walk, Dee and I got permission from the
teacher in charge to stop a moment at the crossing, presumably to call
on Oliver and see how much he had grown.
"Captain Leahy," I cried, "you won't tell anyone about our being down
here last night, will you?"
"And phwat do ye take me for?" he asked. "Didn't I see that ye were
after saving the little twinlet and that she was crazy with
homesickness? I mind too well the time many years ago when I got off of
that very express just as Miss Peyton, then a wee slip of a maid, was
after boarding it; and I took her by the hand and led her back to
Gresham, she weeping bitterly all the toime. She was half mad for the
sight of her folks and had run away from school."
"Miss Peyton!" we exclaimed in one breath. "Not Miss Peyton, the
principal?"
"The same," he answered; "and this is the first toime, so help me, that
I have mintioned it to a livin' sowl."
"Well, we'll never tell, Captain," I said, grasping his hand.
"And don't I know that? Would I be divulging the loiks to ye if I did
not know the stoof ye are made of? I just tell ye so ye can know that
I'll keep the little twinlet's secret as long as I have Miss Peyton's.
If I iver tell it, it will be when she cannot be hurt by it, and some
other poor little lamb can be oop-lifted."
"You want us to tell Dum, don't you?" asked Dee.
"For sure! And all of you come have tea with me soon and bring Miss
Peyton."
We joined the line of blue-coated girls after a sharp run and then had
to make up things to say about Oliver, because we had forgot even to ask
about him.
Miss Cox spoke to me on the way to supper that evening. She looked
worried and her face was crookeder than ever, but her eyes had a very
kind light in them.
"Did I wake you last night, Page, when I opened your door?"
"Oh, was that you?" I involuntarily exclaimed.
"I had an idea some of you were awake," and the kindly woman smiled at
my ingenuous acknowledgment. "I was afraid to knock, hoping you were
asleep, so I tried the door and peeped in. I did not mean to be spying,
but I have been very uneasy about Dum lately. I was afraid she needed
some friendly advice. I had been writing late and had not been able to
get to sleep, and I was almost certain I heard the front door open and
shut. I simply could not rest without making sure that you three girls
were safe in your downies. I had thought I heard something some forty
minutes before but tried to make myself think I was just a foolish,
nervous old maid."
I felt very foolish during this talk and could hardly look kind Miss Cox
in the eye, but I did not consider it to be my secret and I said
nothing. Mammy Susan always said: "The saftest thing in fly time is ter
keep yo' mouf shet," and I felt that this was fly time for me.
"I have written to Mr. Tucker," Miss Cox continued. "I don't want the
twins to know it, but I felt it was my duty as an old friend of both
their parents to let him know how miserable Dum is."
"Oh, I have written, too!" I cried. "I wish I could stop my letter now,
but it is too late. Poor Mr. Tucker will think things are in a terrible
way with Dum. I believe she is herself again now after a day in bed, but
I just felt I must let him know that an early visit from him would be
advisable. I wouldn't let Tweedles find out for a million that I have
done it."
"Well, you keep my secret and I'll keep yours. I am glad the Tuckers,
father and daughters, have such a wholesome friend as you," and Miss Cox
pressed my hand warmly.