A FALLING OUT
IT was quite late when they reached the ranch, and an anxious crowd
was awaiting them on the veranda. Blue Bonnet wished there were rather
fewer people there; it was tiresome to make explanations before such
an audience. Besides, she did not know the visitor's name,--introductions
had been of a rather sketchy sort that day. Suddenly she made up her
mind: she would explain nothing just then, and trust to her grandmother's
ready tact to understand her reasons.
"This is--" Blue Bonnet looked at the youth inquiringly.
"--Knight Judson," he supplied.
"--and he's met with an accident and will stay here till his arm is
better," she said rather breathlessly to her uncle.
"Very glad to have you, I'm sure," said Uncle Cliff with ready,
outstretched hand.
Knight Judson took the proffered hand with an air of relief. "You're
very kind, sir," he stammered.
"Not at all," Mr. Ashe protested cordially. "Come right in to supper."
They all went in without further ceremony to the delayed supper which
Juanita stood waiting to serve; and the meal progressed in the usual
gay fashion that prevailed at the ranch. Knight Judson was placed
between Alec and Uncle Cliff, and in that congenial company the youth
lost his shyness and was soon chatting away like an old friend. The
awkwardness of eating with one hand gave him occasional bad moments,
but little services, rendered unobserved by his attentive neighbors,
tided over even these trying times.
The girls stole occasional glances down to that end of the table,
which were promptly frowned upon by Blue Bonnet and Sarah. On the
whole, they acted rather well considering the strain on their
curiosity; it was not every day that a good-looking young chap,
wearing a bright red sash for a sling, appeared at the ranch.
It was not until after supper, when Alec had taken the visitor to his
room, that the others heard the whole story of the day's adventure.
Sarah and Blue Bonnet told it almost together, a rather incoherent but
wholly thrilling tale, while the rest of the girls hung breathlessly
on the recital. Mrs. Clyde look worried when Sarah dwelt on the peril
that had threatened the two of them; Blue Bonnet wished Sarah had not
found it necessary to enlarge on that part of it. She, herself,
preferred to describe young Judson's skill and quickness, his
wonderful daring, and heroism under pain.
"Judson, Judson," repeated Sarah, wrinkling up her brow. "Where have I
heard that name before?"
Blue Bonnet thought deeply for a moment. "I know," she cried; "don't
you remember Carita, Carita Judson,--my missionary girl!"
"I wonder if they're related!" exclaimed Sarah. "She lives in Texas,
you know."
"We must ask him in the morning," said Blue Bonnet.
Early the next day Mr. Ashe despatched one of the Mexicans with a
letter from Knight Judson to his uncle at the Big Spring.
"Tell him not to expect you until he sees you," Mr. Ashe admonished
the youth. "You must stay until that wrist is perfectly well."
"You're very good, sir," replied Knight warmly. He was not at all
averse to spending any length of time in this pleasant place; he and
Alec had fraternized at once, and he welcomed the chance to know the
bright Eastern boy better; as for the girls, there were too many of
them, he thought.
At breakfast Blue Bonnet opened fire on him.
"Carita!" he exclaimed. "Am I any relation to her? Well, I guess
yes--she's my cousin! Do you know her?"
"I don't exactly know her," Blue Bonnet confessed, "--but we
have--corresponded." She stopped abruptly; it was impossible to tell
Knight about the missionary box; he might feel sensitive about it.
Happily Sarah came to the rescue.
"Father knows the Reverend Mr. Judson," she remarked. "Is he your
uncle?"
"Yes,--and Carita's father," he explained. "You see, Uncle Bayard has
charge of a summer camp for boys up at the Big Spring; he has had it
for several years,--we have wonderful times there. A few days ago I
had a letter from my cousin George in Chicago asking me to look up his
friend Abbott, who had been ordered to Texas for his health. Abbott
was at the Spring with us last summer, but it didn't agree with him,
so he came to Kooch's. I was on my way there when--"
"When!" exclaimed Kitty dramatically. "We've heard what happened. We
ought to have known better than to let a tenderfoot like Blue Bonnet
go off with no protector but Sarah."
"It wasn't Blue Bonnet's fault," protested Sarah indignantly. "I was
driving."
"And I suppose you drive as scientifically as you swim?" mocked Kitty.
Knight looked up with twinkling eyes; evidently the We are Sevens were
not all of Sarah's type. Blue Bonnet he had already put in a class by
herself.
"Please tell us some more about the boys' camp," begged Blue Bonnet,
"I've heard about the Big Spring, and Uncle has promised to take me
there. But, somehow, he never seems to get time. Is it a camp just for
boys?--it sounds so interesting."
"It's one of Uncle's fads," Knight returned, showing by his tone that
he was rather proud of "Uncle's fad." "He's tremendously interested in
boys and has started a sort of 'get together' movement for fellows who
live on big ranches and farms and don't get a chance to see much of
other young people--"
"Like me!" Blue Bonnet nodded.
"They club in on expenses, share the work, and, incidentally, have
more fun than some of them ever had before," he continued. "Uncle
isn't at all strong--that's why he came back from his mission--but he
works hard all the time, always doing good--" he stopped abruptly. "I
didn't mean to brag, but when I get started on Uncle Bayard, I never
know when to stop."
"And Carita--does she go camping, too?" asked Blue Bonnet.
"Aunt Cynthy often brings the whole family for over Sunday," he
replied. Then a thought seemed to strike him. "Why don't you all come
up and camp--it isn't a hard trip?"
Blue Bonnet clapped her hands. "Oh, I think it would be perfectly
lovely. Grandmother, may we?" she asked.
Mrs. Clyde looked up with her sympathetic smile. "It sounds
attractive. Perhaps we can arrange it."
Without seeming to do so Grandmother had heard every word of the
conversation, and her heart had warmed to the boy who spoke so
glowingly of his uncle's work. Knight Judson was a manly young fellow,
she concluded, the right sort to be among girls; the best of
companions for the frail, bookish Eastern lad.
Alec himself was charmed with Knight. There was something fascinating
about a boy who had spent most of his life in the open, and without
much aid from books had yet thought more deeply than most youths of
his age. He was tall and strong, all bone and muscle, with something
about him that was suggestive of a restless colt; but a thoroughbred,
every inch of him.
After breakfast the two boys set out to hunt for Knight's horse, as
nothing had been seen or heard of that frisky pony since he had
vanished so unceremoniously the evening before. Alec carried a lariat,
for learning to lasso had become the absorbing passion of his life,
and young Judson, in spite of the hampering folds of the sling about
his left arm, could give lessons in that art to any boy of his age in
Texas.
Blue Bonnet and Mrs. Clyde looked after the youthful pair with
interested eyes. It was plain that Knight had brought a new element
into Alec's life, and these two good friends rejoiced, though they
said nothing and only smiled with new understanding.
"I'm glad we nearly tipped over!" Blue Bonnet suddenly declared.
"Blue Bonnet!" exclaimed her grandmother in a pained tone.
"Well, I reckon I didn't mean that," confessed Blue Bonnet after a
moment's reflection. "But I'm glad we've met Knight Judson. Alec has
had too many girls around him here. He needs a spell of roughing it,"
and then, as she saw an odd look on her grandmother's face, she asked
quickly: "Isn't 'roughing it' in good society?"
Mrs. Clyde laughed. "I believe it moves in the best circles--here."
"That's good, for there isn't a Massachusetts word that could possibly
take its place."
"The dining-table is cleared, Benita says," Sarah announced from the
doorway, "and we can begin our sewing lesson."
They all repaired to the house, and a few minutes later the big
dining-room was the scene of great activity; the table strewn with the
bright-hued pieces of material, Benita smoothing and pinning the
patterns, the Señora superintending, and the girls cutting and
snipping to their hearts' content. At the same time there went on an
incessant chatter, chatter, to the cheerful accompaniment of the
sewing-machine.
When Juanita entered to spread the cloth for their early dinner, the
girls looked up in surprise.
"I never knew time fly so quickly before," said Debby.
"If I'd known this kind of sewing was so easy and so fascinating,"
Blue Bonnet declared, "I'd have taken it up before. It's much nicer
than embroidery or mending. Just see how much I've done!" She proudly
held up the bright red garment.
Sarah scanned it with perplexed eyes. "It looks rather queer to me,"
she said.
Kitty examined it, too, then snatched the suit from Blue Bonnet's
hands. "Look!" she bade the rest, "--there's no place to get into it.
Blue Bonnet has sewn it up the back!"
There was a great outcry at this, which had the unexpected effect of
making Blue Bonnet angry.
"There's nothing on earth gives Kitty Clark such pleasure as finding
me out in a mistake," she declared with flashing eyes and cheeks that
burned with mortification. Then she turned on Kitty,--"I'm sorry the
ranch can't offer you any other enjoyment!" she said scathingly and
then, snatching back her ridiculed work, flung herself out of the
room.
Kitty's cheeks turned as red as her hair and she was just framing an
angry reply to hurl after Blue Bonnet when she met Mrs. Clyde's eyes,
full of a pained surprise. The girl checked the words on her lips at
once, but a few hot tears came in spite of her efforts.
"I was only joking," she said with a catch in her voice.
"I'm afraid it was my fault," said Sarah. "I shouldn't have called
attention to her mistake. I'll go and apologize."
Kitty turned to Mrs. Clyde. "I apologize to _you_, Señora," she said,
adding proudly, "but I've nothing to apologize for to Blue Bonnet.
Half the fun of being a We are Seven is being able to say just what we
want to. If everybody is suddenly going to be thin-skinned, I'll have
to go about muzzled."
"Blue Bonnet was hasty," said Mrs. Clyde, "and I'm sure she'll be
ready to apologize as soon as she has thought it over."
The sewing lesson for that day ended in a gloomy silence. At dinner
the two "magpies," as Uncle Joe had nicknamed them, were mute. This
unheard of state of affairs would have aroused comment at any other
time, but just now their attention was diverted.
"Doctor" Abbott, who had ridden over to "take a look at Knight's
wrist," had stayed to dinner--there being always room for one more at
that elastic table--and his bright humorous talk had completely
fascinated every one. After dinner the men went off for a smoke, and
the girls retired for their siesta in an atmosphere as hazy as if they
too had indulged in the fragrant weed.
They went to the swimming hole later in the day, but somehow the zest
was all gone from the sport, with the two leading spirits distrait and
moody, avoiding direct speech with each other, and preserving an
attitude of injured pride. Blue Bonnet had made up her mind that Kitty
owed her an apology, while Kitty obstinately refused even in her
thoughts to acknowledge herself in the wrong.
"Blue Bonnet thinks she's the king-pin of the universe," she mused
angrily. "The others can keep on spoiling her if they want to, but I'm
not going to kowtow all the time. They ape her every action,--_I'll_
show her that one of us has independence."
Keyed up by this formula, repeated mentally a great many times, Kitty
began to indulge in heroics. Aching to excite some admiration for
herself she did "stunts" in the water that would have terrified her
the day before. Once she plunged her bright head under the water and
kept it there until she was almost black in the face, in an effort to
prove her "staying powers." It only frightened the other girls and
went apparently unnoticed by Blue Bonnet for whose benefit the test
had been made.
[Illustration: "'_I_ BELIEVE THE ONLY WAY TO LEARN TO SWIM IS TO DIVE IN
HEAD-FIRST.'"]
"I'll show her we're not all 'fraid-cats!" Kitty resolved
passionately. "I believe," she announced to the girls, in a tone loud
enough to reach Blue Bonnet, who was doing an overhand stroke in the
quiet water of the opposite bank. "_I_ believe the only way to learn
to swim is to dive in head-first--then you just _have to_. Big boys
always toss little fellows into the middle of the pool and make 'em
scramble back--they always do it right off. Here goes!"
She poised only for a moment on the bank, not daring to give herself
time to reconsider. Blue Bonnet shot a quick glance at her; she saw at
once that Kitty had chosen too shallow a spot,--a dive at that point
might be dangerous. At any other time she would have shouted a hasty
warning, but now she hesitated,--and in that second Kitty shot
head-first into the water.
The girls gave a gasp, and kept their eyes on the spot where she had
gone down, waiting to see the red locks reappear. But the water closed
over Kitty,--and stayed closed.
"Blue Bonnet!" they shouted shrilly, "she hasn't come up!"
Blue Bonnet felt a queer tightening around her heart; she had heard of
boys breaking their necks that way. With a few powerful strokes she
reached the shallows and felt for Kitty. "Help me girls--quick!" she
cried, "she's struck her head on the bottom." She had seized Kitty by
this time and held the girl's head above the water, but the body
hung limp and heavy in her arms. The girls sprang to help and among
them they managed to lift the slight figure to the bank and lay it
tenderly on the soft grass. Kitty's face was deathly white, and from a
gash on the top of her head a trickling stream was dyeing her bright
locks a deeper red.
Blue Bonnet's teeth were chattering. "Go for somebody!" she gasped,
and then, as Debby started on the run, she called after her--"That
young doctor--bring him!" Then she turned to Sarah: "Here, help me set
her up--work her arms--so!"
Dripping as she fled like a frightened water-sprite, Debby burst upon
the others as they sat under the magnolia and screamed tragically:
"Come quick--the doctor, everybody! Kitty dove and Blue Bonnet went
down after her and she's drowned!"
Then breathless, exhausted, and with her bare feet cut and bleeding
from her run over the rough meadow, she fell headlong at Mrs. Clyde's
feet.
Uncle Cliff dropped his pipe and ran, followed by the two boys and
Abbott, who paused only to catch up his medicine case from the
veranda, and then sped like the wind after the others. Mrs. Clyde had
turned ghastly white at Debby's cry and had sprung up to follow the
men. But the sight of the little messenger lying in a pathetic heap by
her chair, stopped her. Hastily summoning Benita she helped carry
Debby into the house and put her to bed; and not until a faint tired
moan told of returning consciousness, did she yield to her anxiety and
hasten to the pool.
With her feet winged by fear she crossed the meadow, ran as she had
not run for forty years, and burst upon the group on the bank with a
wild cry--"My girl, my girl--where is she?"
At the sound Blue Bonnet sprang up, and running to her grandmother
hugged her convulsively. "She isn't dead--only stunned," the girl
sobbed in a glad relief.
Mrs. Clyde held her off for a second. "It wasn't you then?" she
questioned as if afraid to trust her eyes.
"No, no!" cried Blue Bonnet.
"Thank God!" breathed her grandmother. Then she folded the girl, wet
as she was, in her arms, and held her close as if she would never let
her go. In that moment Blue Bonnet knew and was never to forget how
much she was loved by her mother's mother.
A sound drew them to the group about Kitty.
"There now!" young Abbott was saying cheerfully. "She's all right.
Now, Knight, get in some of your good work,--first aid to the injured
as taught by the Reverend Bayard Judson. A stretcher is what we need."
Much pleased to be called upon, Knight set about his task, while Alec
supplied the place of his disabled arm. Under his directions two stout
saplings were cut and the small twigs trimmed from them. Then
stripping off his coat he bade Alec thrust the two poles into its
sleeve, one in each. Uncle Cliff's coat went on at the other end; both
coats were buttoned underneath, and there before the eyes of the
interested group, was a stretcher ready for the patient.
Kitty, still weak and dazed, but with the color beginning to return to
her milk-white cheeks, was borne gently to the house by Uncle Cliff
and the doctor, attended by a body-guard of Alec and Mrs. Clyde, and
followed by the other dripping and subdued We are Sevens.
There was a rather bad quarter of an hour for Kitty while the doctor
bathed and dressed her wound. After much debating and grave
consideration in his most profound manner, young Abbott had decided
that the cut was not deep or wide enough to warrant his sewing it up.
Whereat there was great rejoicing in the household,--not, however,
shared by the medical man. A bit of stitching would have given him
practice and no end of professional enjoyment. However, Kitty felt
that she had had quite her share of attention and was glad to be left
alone in the nursery tucked in between cool sheets, to sleep off the
ache in her broken head.
When she awoke it was dusk in the room. Beside her bed stood somebody,
bearing a tray.
"Are you awake?" asked a sepulchral voice.
"Yes," she whispered faintly.
The tray was hastily placed on a stand, a second pillow slipped deftly
under Kitty's head, and then before she had recognized her servitor a
pair of soft lips were laid on hers and a penitent voice whispered:
"I'm so sorry, Kitty,--and ashamed!"
"It wasn't your fault, Blue Bonnet," said Kitty, returning the kiss
warmly. "Served me right for being such a peacock."
"Then all's serene on the Potomac?" Blue Bonnet questioned.
And with a reassuring, though somewhat shaky smile, Kitty returned:
"All's serene!"