THE TUCKERS
There had been general rejoicing at Week-End Camp when Nan had announced
that Jeffry Tucker and his daughters were to come up for a short stay.
The Tuckers were great favorites and were always received with open
arms at any place where fun was on foot. Mr. Tucker had written for
accommodations for himself and daughters and their friend, Miss Allison.
No one would have been more astonished than Jeffry Tucker, the father
of the Heavenly Twins, at the kind of reputation he had with a society
woman of Mrs. Carter's standing. For her to think that his bringing
his daughters to the camp meant that he considered it to their social
advantage--at least not to their social detriment--would have convulsed
that gentleman. He thought no more of the social standing of his
daughters Virginia and Caroline (Dum and Dee) than he did of the fourth
dimension. He came to the camp and brought his daughters and Page
Allison just because he heard it was great fun. He had known Robert
Carter all his life and admired and liked him. His daughters had gone
to the kindergarten and dancing school with Douglas and Helen and when
rumor had it that these girls were actually making a living with
week-end boarders at a camp in Albemarle, why it was the most natural
thing in the world for the warm-hearted Jeffry Tucker immediately to
write for tent room for his little crowd.
I hope my readers are glad to see the Tuckers and Page Allison. The fact
of the business is that they are a lively lot and it is difficult to
keep them in the pages of their own books. They might have stayed safely
there had not the Carter girls started this venture in the mountains.
That was too much for them. Zebedee had promised Tweedles again and
again to take them camping, and since what they did Page must do too,
of course she was included in the promise. This is not their own camp
and not their own book but here they are in it!
"Douglas Carter, we think you are the smartest person that ever was!"
enthused Dum Tucker as Douglas showed them to their tent where three
other girls were to sleep, too. "Isn't this just too lovely?"
"I'm not smart, it's Helen who thought up this plan," insisted Douglas.
"We are so glad you have come and we do hope you will like it."
"Like it! We are wild about it," cried Dee, and Page Allison was equally
enthusiastic.
"Where is Helen?" demanded Dum.
"She is chief cook and can't make her appearance until she has put the
finishing touches to supper."
"Does she really cook, herself?" cried Dee. "How grand!"
"Sometimes she cooks herself," drawled Nan, coming into the tent to see
the Tuckers, who were great favorites with her, too, "sometimes when we
get out of provisions, which we are liable to do now as six persons have
come who had not written me for accommodations."
"Mother and father got here from a long trip this afternoon," explained
Douglas, "and we are so upset over seeing them that we are rather late.
Helen usually does all she has to do before the week-enders come."
"Let us help!" begged Dee. "Dum and I can do lots of stunts, and Page
here is a wonderful pie slinger."
"Well, we would hardly press Miss Allison into service when she has just
arrived," smiled Douglas.
"Please, please don't Miss Allison me! I'm just Page and my idea of
camping is cooking, so if I can help, let me," and Page, who had said
little up to that time, spoke with such genuine frankness that Douglas
and Nan felt somehow that a new friend had come into their circle.
"We'll call on all three of you if we need you," promised Douglas,
hastening off with Nan to see that other guests had found their tents
and had what they wanted in the way of water and towels.
"Isn't this great?" said Dee. "I'm so glad Zebedee thought of coming.
I think Douglas Carter looks healthy but awful bothered, somehow."
"I thought so, too. I'm afraid her father is not so well or something.
Think of Helen Carter's cooking!" wondered Dum.
"Why shouldn't she?" asked Page. "Is she so superior?"
"No, not that," tweedled the twins.
"Helen's fine but so--so--stylish. Mrs. Carter is charming but she is
one butterfly and we always rather expected Helen to be just like
her--more sense than her mother, but dressy," continued Dee.
"You will know what Mrs. Carter is, just as soon as you look at her
hands," declared Dum. "If the lilies of the field were blessed with
hands they would look exactly like Mrs. Carter's."
"Well, come let's find Zebedee. I smelt apples frying," and the three
friends made their way to the pavilion where Mrs. Carter was receiving
the week-enders with all the charm and ceremony she might have employed
at a daughter's debut party.
Her reception of the Tuckers was warm and friendly. It had been months
since she had seen anyone who moved in her own circle and now there were
many questions to ask of Richmond society. Jeffry Tucker, who could make
himself perfectly at home with any type, now laid himself out to be
pleasant to his hostess. He told her all the latest news of Franklin
street and recounted the gossip that had filtered back from White
Sulphur and Warm Springs. He turned himself into a society column and
announced engagements and rumors of engagements; who was at the beach
and who was at the mountains. He even made a stagger at the list of
debutantes for the ensuing winter.
"I mean that Douglas shall come out next winter, too," said the little
lady during the supper that followed. Nan, seeing that her mother was
having such a pleasant time with the genial Jeffry Tucker, arranged to
have the Tuckers placed at the table that had been set aside for their
mother and father. The Carter girls made it a rule to scatter themselves
through the crowd the better to look after the hungry and see that no
one's wants were unsatisfied.
"Ah, is that so? I had an idea she was destined for college. It seems
to me that Tweedles told me she had passed her Bryn Mawr exams."
"So she did, but I am glad to say she has given up all idea of that
foolishness. I am very anxious for her to make her debut."
Nan, who was making the rounds of the various tables to see that
everyone was served properly, overheard her mother's remark and glanced
shyly at Mr. Tucker. She caught his eye unwittingly but there was
something in the look that he gave her that made her know he understood
the whole situation and was in sympathy with Douglas, who was very
busy at the next table helping hungry week-enders to the rapidly
disappearing potato salad.
There was a rather pathetic droop to Douglas' young shoulders as though
the weight of the universe were getting a little too much for her. Mr.
Tucker looked from her to Robert Carter who seemed to be accepting
things as he found them with an astonishing calmness. He was certainly a
changed man. Remembering him as a person of great force and energy, who
always took the initiative when any work was to be done or question
decided, his old friend wondered at his almost flabby state. Here he
was calmly letting his silly wife, because silly she seemed to Jeffry
Tucker, although charming and even lovable, put aside his daughter's
desires for an education and force her into society. He could see it all
with half an eye and what he could not see for himself the speaking
countenance of the third Carter, Nan, was telling him as plainly as a
countenance could. He determined to talk with the girl as soon as supper
was over and see if he could help her in some way, how, he did not
know, but he felt that he might be of some use.
The supper was a very merry one in spite of the depression that had
seized poor Douglas. She tried not to let her gloom permeate those
around her. Helen was in a perfect gale and the Tucker Twins took their
cue from her and the ball of good-humored repartee was tossed back and
forth. Tillie Wingo was resplendent in a perfectly new dancing frock.
The beaux buzzed around her like bees around a honey pot. The silent
Bill Tinsley kept on saying nothing but his calf eyes were more eloquent
than any words. He had fallen head over heels in love with the frivolous
Tillie from the moment she offered to tip him on the memorable occasion
of her first visit to the camp. Lewis Somerville, usually with plenty to
say for himself, was almost as silent as his chum, Bill. It seemed as
though Douglas' low spirits had affected her cousin.
"What is it, Douglas?" he whispered, as he took the last plate of salad
from her weary hand. "You look all done up. Are you sick?"
"No, indeed! Nothing!"
"When the animals have finished feeding, I want to talk to you. Can you
give me a few minutes?"
"Why, of course, Lewis, as many as you want."
Douglas and Lewis had been friends from the moment they had met. That
had been some eighteen years before when Douglas had been crawling on
the floor, not yet trusting to her untried legs, and Lewis, just
promoted from skirts to breeches, had proudly paraded up and down in
front of his baby cousin. There never had been a problem in Douglas'
life that she had not discussed with her friend, but she felt a delicacy
in talking about this trouble that had arisen on her horizon because it
would mean a certain criticism of both her mother and sister.
"Walk after supper?" Bill whispered to Tillie. "Something to say."
Tillie nodded an assent.
Supper over, the tables and chairs were piled up in a twinkling and the
latest dance record put on the Victrola.
"Why, this is delightful!" exclaimed Mrs. Carter, looking around for Mr.
Tucker to come claim her for the first dance, but she saw that gentleman
disappearing over the mountainside with Nan.
"Nan is entirely too young for such nonsense!" she exclaimed with some
asperity, but partners were forthcoming a-plenty so she was soon dancing
like any girl of eighteen, while her indulgent husband smoked his pipe
and looked contentedly on.
Susan and Oscar washed the dishes with more rattling than usual as Oscar
had much grumbling in store for the delinquent Susan.
"Wherefo' you done lef' yo' wuck to Miss Helen?"
"I's a-helpin' Mis' Carter. She kep' me a-openin' boxes an' hangin' up
things. I knowed Miss Helen wouldn't min'. She thinks her maw oughter
have what she wants. I done heard her tell Miss Douglas that she means
to see her maw has her desires fulfilled. Sounded mos' lak qua'llin'
the way the young missises was a-talkin'."
"Well, all I got to say is that Mis' Carter ain't called on to git any
mo' waitin' on than the young ladies. They's as blue-blooded as what she
is an' even mo' so as they is got all the blood she's got an' they paw's
beside. I bet she ain't goin' to tun a han' to fill any of these folks
up. There she is now a-dancin' 'round like a teetotaller a-helpin' the
boarders to shake down they victuals. I'll be boun' some of these here
Hungarians will be empty befo' bed time."