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TWO LITTLE WOMEN
AND TREASURE HOUSE
[Illustration: “All right,” Dolly blazed back, “if she _doesn’t_ go, I
don’t!” (_Page 111_)]
* * * * *
TWO LITTLE WOMEN
AND TREASURE HOUSE
BY
CAROLYN WELLS
AUTHOR OF THE PATTY BOOKS, THE MARJORIE BOOKS,
TWO LITTLE WOMEN SERIES, ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
E. C. CASWELL
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1916
BY DODD MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I ALL THEIR OWN 1
II A JOKE AT SCHOOL 15
III AN AFTERNOON CALL 28
IV THE HIGH SCHOOL DANCE 41
V TREASURE HOUSE 55
VI SUCH A LUNCHEON! 69
VII FUNNY UNCLE JIM 83
VIII A STRANGE INTRUDER 96
IX FAIRIES AND SUCH 110
X FORTUNES FOR ALL 124
XI THE FIRE SPIRIT 137
XII MAD AND MEASLES 150
XIII THE FEAST THAT FAILED 163
XIV NEWS INDEED! 178
XV DOLLY AND BERNICE 190
XVI BROTHERS AND FUDGE 202
XVII BOOMING BERNICE 215
XVIII BERT AND THE BARGAIN 228
XIX THE ELECTION 241
XX THE CARNIVAL QUEEN 255
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATIONS
“All right,” Dolly blazed back, “if _Frontispiece_
she _doesn’t_ go, I don’t!” (Page
111)
FACING PAGE
“I’m putting my highbrow books up 66
top”
“I’ll make you popular,—I will 192
honest!”
“I know all about your bargain with 234
my sister”
* * * * *
TWO LITTLE WOMEN
AND TREASURE HOUSE
CHAPTER I
ALL THEIR OWN!
“OH, two rooms!”
“Oh, a fireplace!”
“Oh, a _window-seat_!”
“_Two_ window-seats!”
These exclamations fell swiftly and explosively from the lips of Dotty
Rose and Dolly Fayre, as they leaned over the table at which Mr. Rose
was drawing plans.
And such plans! And for such a purpose! Why, the whole project was
nothing more nor less than a house, a real little house for those two
fortunate girls! All their own, with fireplaces and window-seats and
goodness knows what all delightful contrivances.
It had come about because of the fact that the girls had to study pretty
hard, now that they were in High School, and both found difficulty in
finding just the right place to study. Dolly declared that Trudy was
always having company, and the laughter and chatter was so permeating,
she couldn’t find a place in the house to get out of hearing the noise.
While Dotty said little Genie was always carrying on with her young
playmates, or else Mother and Aunt Clara were having Sewing Society or
something, and she never could be quiet in the library. The girls, of
course, had their own bedrooms, but both mothers objected, on hygienic
grounds, to using those for sitting-rooms.
So Mr. Rose had cooked up a most fascinating scheme, and after a
discussion with Mr. Fayre, he elucidated it to the girls. It seemed Mr.
Fayre fully approved of it, and was quite willing to pay his share of
the expense, but he was too busy to look after the details of building,
and begged Mr. Rose to attend to all that.
Mr. Rose, who was cashier of the Berwick Bank, had plenty of leisure
time, and, moreover, had a taste for architecture, so the plans were in
process of drafting. As the house was to be exceedingly simple, he felt
he could plan it all himself, and thus save the expense of an architect.
“You see,” he said to his interested audience, “it is really nothing but
a summer house, only it is enclosed, so as to be—”
“A winter-house!” interrupted Dotty. “Oh, Daddy, it is too perfectly
scrumptiousiferous! I don’t see how I can live through such joy!”
Dolly’s blue eyes sparkled, but her pleasure was too deep for words, and
she expressed it in long drawn sighs, and occasional Oh’s!
“Say twenty feet by fifteen for the whole house,” Mr. Rose said,
musingly. “Then divide that in halves. Thus we have a front room, a sort
of living room, ten by fifteen. Quite big enough, for in addition we can
have a deep window-seat at each end.”
“Where we can curl up in to study!” cried Dotty. “Oh, Dollyrinda, did
you ever _dream_ anything so perfect?”
“I never did! And what is in the other room, Mr. Rose?”
“Well, a sort of dining-room, say ten by ten of it, and that will leave
a neat little five by ten for a bit of a kitchenette.”
“Ooh—eeh—I can’t take it all in! A kitchenette! Where we can make
fudge and cook messes—oh, Dad-dy!” Dotty threw her arms around her
father’s neck, and in her great gratitude, Dolly did too.
“Well, of course, the dining-room isn’t exactly for an eating room
exclusively, but I know you will enjoy having little teas there with
your friends, or taffy pulls or whatever the fad is nowadays.”
“Oh, indeed we can,” said Dolly; “we can all go there after skating and
have hot chocolate and sandwiches! Maybe it won’t be fun!”
“But it is primarily for study,” warned Mr. Rose. “I don’t think though,
you two bookworms will neglect your lessons.”
He was right, for both Dolly and Dotty were studious, and now, being in
the High School, they were most anxious to make good records. They
studied diligently every evening, and though Dotty learned her lessons
more quickly, Dolly remembered hers better. But both were fond of fun
and frolic, and they foresaw wonderful opportunities in the new house.
“Oh, a piazza!” squealed Dotty, as under her father’s clever fingers a
wide piazza showed on the paper.
“Yes, of course; this will be a summer house also, you know, and a
piazza is a necessity. Perhaps in the winter it can be enclosed with
glass. All such details must come later. First we must get the
proportions and the main plan. And here it is, in a nutshell. Or,
rather, in a rectangle. Just half is the living-room, and the other half
is two-thirds dining-room and one-third kitchen. The kitchen includes
kitchenette and pantry.”
“What is a kitchenette, exactly?” asked Dolly.
“Only what its name implies,” returned Mr. Rose, smiling. “Just a little
kitchen. There will be a gas stove,—no, I think it would be better for
you to have it all electric. Then you can have an electric oven and
toaster and chafing-dish, and any such contraptions you want. How’s
that?”
“Too good to be true!” and Dolly sighed in deep contentment. “How long
will it take to build it?”
“Not long, if I can get the workmen to go right at it, and I hope I can.
Now, suppose we plan the living-room, which is, of course, the study.”
“Let’s call it the Study,” said Dolly. “Sounds sort of wise and
grown-up.”
“Very well. Here then, in the Study, suppose we have the door right in
the middle of the front wall, and opening on the front veranda. Then a
small window each side of the door, and a big square bay, with cushioned
seat, at each end of the room.”
“Glorious!” and Dolly danced about on one foot. “Then we can each have
one of them to study in, every afternoon after school.”
“With a blazing wood fire—where’s the fireplace, Daddy?”
“Here, opposite the entrance door. Then you see, one chimney in the
middle of the house, will provide for a fireplace in each room. I’m not
sure this will give you heat enough. If not, you must depend on gas
logs. We can’t be bothered with a furnace of any sort. Perhaps in the
very coldest weather you can’t inhabit your castle.”
“Oh, that won’t matter,” and Dolly’s good-natured face smiled brightly;
“if we have it most of the time, we’ll willingly study somewhere else on
extra cold days. And at one side of the fireplace, the door through to
the dining-room—oh, yes, I see.”
“Right, my child. And on the other side of the fireplace, in the Study,
a set of built-in bookshelves, and in the dining-room, a built-in glass
closet.”
“But we haven’t any glass!” and Dotty looked amazed at the idea.
“Well, I dare say the mothers of you will scout around and give you some
old junk from the attics. I know of a gorgeous dish you can have.” Mr.
Rose’s eyes twinkled, and Dotty broke into laughter: “I know! you mean
‘The Eyesore’!”
This was a hideous affair that some one had sent Mrs. Rose as a
Christmas Gift, and the family had long since relegated it to the
oblivion of a dark cupboard. “No, thank you!” Dot went on, “I’d rather
have things from the ten-cent store.”
“They have some awfully nice things there,” suggested Dolly, “and I know
Mother has a lot of odds and ends we can have. Oh, when the house is
built, it will be lots of fun to furnish it. Trudy will make us lovely
table-covers and things like that. And we can have paper napkins for our
spreads.”
“And Aunt Clara says she will make all the curtains,—whatever sort we
want.”
“That’s lovely of her! I know we’ll have lots of things given to us, and
we’ll find lots of things around our homes—and the rest we’ll do
ourselves.”
“Yes, and Thomas will bring wood for us, and take away the ashes. We
must have enormous wood-baskets or wood-boxes. Oh, it’s just like
furnishing a real house! What loads of fun we’ll have!”
“Then, in the kitchen,” Mr. Rose went on, drawing as he spoke, “we’ll
have a tiny sink, all nice white enamel, and a wall-cupboard for your
dish-towels and soap and such things. Also a sort of a small—a very
small—kitchen cabinet for your pepper and salt, with a place underneath
for pans and kettles.”
“You think a lot about the kitchen, Daddy. I believe you expect to come
there sometimes to join our feasts.”
“I certainly shall, if I’m invited. Then, you see, the dining-room can
have a deep window, and if you don’t care for a window-seat there, how
about a window-box of bright flowers?”
“I don’t know about that, Mr. Rose,” demurred Dolly. “If the house isn’t
always warm, the poor posies would freeze, wouldn’t they?”
“Right you are, Dollykins. Cut out the growing plants, then, and have
now and then a vase or bowl of flowers on the table. Now, let me see. An
electric light over the table in the dining-room, and perhaps a side
light or two. Then in the Study, a reading light for each, and one or
two pretty fixtures beside.”
“Why, will we use it so much at night, Mr. Rose?”
“If you choose to. And anyway, in the winter time, you’ll need lights by
five o’clock, or on dark days, even earlier.”
“That’s so; how thoughtful you are. I s’pose some days we won’t go in
the house at all, and others we’ll be there all the afternoon and all
the evening.”
“And all Saturdays,” said Dotty; “we’ll always spend Saturdays there,
and we can make things for the house or make our Christmas presents, or
make fudge and have the girls and boys come over—”
“Or just sit by the fire and read,” interrupted Dolly.
“Oh, you old kitten! You’d rather lie by the fire and purr than do
anything at all!”
“Well, then I’ll do that. We’re to do whatever we please in our own
house, aren’t we, Mr. Rose?”
“Yes, indeed, Dolly. But amicable always. No, I don’t think you two are
inclined to quarrel, but you do have little differences now and then,
and I’d hate to have the charm of this little nest disturbed by foolish
squabbles.”
“I’ll promise, for one, _never_ to scrap,” said Dolly, eagerly, and
Dotty said with equal fervour, “Me, too!”
“We’ll have nice, plain, hard floors,” continued Mr. Rose, “and I’m sure
your mothers can find some discarded rugs.”
“Oh, we can make those,” exclaimed Dolly. “Don’t you know, Dot, that new
way your Aunt Clara told us about? You take rags, you know, and sew them
in pipings, and then crochet them,—oh, it’s just lovely!”
“Yes, I know. We’ll each make one of those, it’ll be fine!”
“And we’ll put them in the Study, one on each side of the room. Yours on
my side, mine on yours.”
“All right. Which side do you want?”
“I’ll take the side next my house and you the side next yours. Then if
our mothers call us, we can hear them.”
“Good idea,” said Mr. Rose. “I think we’ll put the house just on the
dividing line between your father’s ground and mine.”
“And Mother can hang a red flag out the window if she wants me in a
hurry. Or if dinner is ready.”
“We might have a telephone,” suggested Dotty.
“We’ll see about that later,” said Mr. Rose. “You must remember that the
expenses are counting up, and Mr. Fayre and I are not millionaires. But
we want you to have a good substantial little nook for yourselves. Then,
later, if we see fit to add a telephone or a wireless apparatus or an
airship garage, we can do so.”
“All right,” returned Dotty with a satisfied grin. “Say, Doll, shall we
bring our desks from our bedrooms?”
“No,” Mr. Rose answered for her. “Those are too flimsy and dainty; and
besides, you’ll need them where they are. I shall ask the privilege of
contributing two solid, sensible Mission desks of greenish tinge, with
chairs to match. Then if you want to curl up on your window cushions to
study you may, but there will be a place to write your compositions.”
“Lovely, Father! How good you are!” and Dotty fell on his neck, while
Dolly possessed herself of his hand and patted it.
The two girls were equally fond of their fathers, but Mr. Rose was more
chummy in manner than Mr. Fayre. The latter was devoted to his children,
but was less demonstrative of his affection.
But Dolly well knew that her father would not be outdone in kindness or
generosity and that he would give an equally welcome gift, as well as
pay his share of the building expenses.
“All right, Mr. Rose,” she said, “if you do that, I’m sure father will
furnish the dining-room with whatever we want.”
“There won’t be much needed for that, just a table and chairs, which can
doubtless be snared in our attics. But your father, Dotty, offered the
whole kitchenette outfit, which, I can tell you, is a noble gift.”
“Indeed it is!” cried Dotty. “I’m crazy to get at that electricky-cooky
business!”
“So’m I,” declared Dolly. “When will it be all done, Mr. Rose?”
“Can’t say exactly. If all goes well you ought to get in by the last of
October.”
“About Hallowe’en, then,” said Dolly. “We might have a kind of
Hallowe’en party for a house-warming.”
“Gay!” cried Dotty. “We’ll get all our treasures in it by that time.”
“Let’s call it our Treasure House,—how’s that for a name?”
“Pretty good,” said Mr. Rose. “I’ve been wondering what to call it.
Treasure House isn’t bad at all. Makes you think of Treasure Island.”
“Yes, so it does,” and Dolly’s blue eyes sparkled at the name of one of
her best-loved books. “Oh, won’t it be fun to arrange our bookshelves.
I’m glad to move some of my books, my shelves at home are overrunning.”
“Then, you see, children,” Mr. Rose was still adding to his drawings,
“in the summer, you can have hammocks on the veranda, and piazza-boxes
with flowers—”
“Yes, Daddy, dear, you _shall_ get those flower-boxes set up as soon as
the gentle Spring gets around.”
“Well, I do love flowers,” and Mr. Rose smiled, for his family well knew
his great fondness for gardening. “Now you girls won’t have any too much
time to get your flummerydiddles ready. For after the house is built and
papered and painted, you ought to have your furnishings all ready. And
to make curtains and cushions and lace whatd’y’callums—tidies? will be
a few weeks’ work,—won’t it?”
“Yes, indeedy. But all our beloved lady relatives will help us and among
our sisters and our mothers and our aunts, I ’spect we’ll accumulate
about enough housekeeping stuff to stock a hotel.” Dotty danced around
the table as she talked, and catching Dolly in her arms, the two
executed a sort of triumphal hoppity-skip that expressed their joy and
relieved their feelings.
“And now,” sighed Dolly, suddenly looking thoughtful, “I’ve got to go
right straight, smack home and do my Geometry for to-morrow.”
“Oh, my goodness! me too!” exclaimed Dotty. “Dear! how I wish Treasure
House was done, and I could go there to study. It’s an awful long time
to wait.”
“But we can make things every chance we get. Oh, Dotty, I’m going to
make a birch-bark scrapbasket. I’ve got a lot of that bark left that I
brought down from Crosstrees. Won’t it be fine?”
“Great! Shall we have two?”
“No, only one scrapbasket and such things. It’s more cosy. But two of
everything that we use separately. Like two desks, you know.”
“Only one set of bookshelves.”
“Well, there’ll be nooks for books, beside the fireplace, and beside the
window casings,” said Mr. Rose, “in addition to the regular shelves. I
haven’t half fixed those things up yet.”
“Oh, it will be just heavenly!” sighed Dolly. “But I must scoot to my
Geometry now. See you to-morrow, Dot. Good-bye.”
“All right. Good-bye.”