THE CHILDREN GO EXPLORING
One hot day soon after the party Dr. Morton handed his wife a letter
from Alice.
Mrs. Morton glanced through it while Olga cleared the table for the
dessert.
"Poor Alice--she is worried because Mr. Harding can't find either
letters or papers to prove her claim to the bank stock. It does seem
strange that all the letters from Mr. Gassett to her father should have
completely disappeared."
"Well," said Dr. Morton drily, "if you want to know my opinion, I
believe that Gassett got hold of them some way and destroyed them."
"It doesn't seem possible he would do anything so dishonest though I
don't like the man--he was so very rude the day he came here. Alice
wonders if it could be possible there are any of her father's papers
hidden away under the roof. You remember almost all of the closets run
off under the roof. It is a wonder we don't have rats with them all open
that way."
"It would be an unpleasant task to explore. I suppose there's twenty
years of dust and cobwebs stored up in those nooks and crannies. There
are places where the roof slopes to form the gables where a man could
hardly crawl through. I suppose I might hire some boy to go through and
see if he can find anything."
Ernest and Chicken Little had been interested listeners to this
conversation.
"Say, Father, let me and the boys explore. We could put on some old
clothes--it would be loads of fun."
"That might not be a bad idea. You couldn't come to any harm other than
a few scratches and splinters. I don't believe you will find anything,
but Alice will be satisfied at any rate."
"Can't I go, too?" demanded Chicken Little.
"Oh, dear no," her mother replied, "it would be horribly dirty and
cobwebby--no place for little ladies to climb round in."
Jane looked disappointed.
"Why not let the child go, Mother? Put an old dress on her and tie up
her hair. She'd enjoy the fun as much as the boys."
"Oh, well, there is that old blue calico in the rag bag you could slip
on, I suppose."
"Goody, goody!" Chicken Little didn't wait to hear the subject discussed
further lest her mother should change her mind. She started off to don
the dress immediately.
Ernest ran over to get Sherm and Carol.
The boys were eager for the hunt.
"You mustn't take matches in there. You might drop one and set the house
afire. You can use the little lantern--that will be safe. Be careful you
don't come through the plastering--there must be some sort of an open
space over the central part of the house though I don't know where
there's any way to reach it. It will be stone dark if there is--there
are no outside windows."
While the exploring party was trying to decide whether to start in with
the front room closet or begin with the one in the maid's room at the
back of the house, Katy and Gertie appeared on the scene. They promptly
begged to go, too.
"Well, ask your mother and get some old clothes on," Mrs. Morton
consented finally after Chicken Little had teased for several minutes.
They were off and back in no time, arrayed in outgrown dresses that gave
them the appearance of being all arms and legs.
"Mother said she wished she could come, too. She said it would be
almost as much fun as exploring a desert island," reported Katy.
It was finally agreed to try the front room closet first. This closet
was a lofty, roomy looking affair for about six feet, then as the roof
slanted sharply downward, faded away into darkness. It was floored and
ceiled to within three feet of the point where roof and floor met, and
it was only by getting down on hands and knees that the children could
crawl, through the aperture left unboarded, into the narrow, unused
spaces next the eaves.
Sherm and Ernest made the first venture, but their progress was soon cut
off short by a partition. So they wriggled back adorned with cobwebs and
sneezing from the dust they had stirred up.
"Let's try the closet in Chicken Little's room next--that's one of the
biggest."
This time Carol and Katy did the scouting with the same results except
that they found an open space between the roof and the uprights and lath
and plaster of the partition, which _seemed_ to lead up to some sort of
an attic over the main part of the house.
Carol hoisted Katy up on his shoulders to see if she could see anything
but she lacked about a foot of reaching the top of the partition. Carol
whistled to Ernest to come, but at this moment a voice called up from
the foot of the stairs, "Ship ahoy!"
"It's Dick Harding, I do believe!" exclaimed Chicken Little, and she
flew down to investigate, closely followed by Gertie.
It was Dick Harding, resplendent in blue overalls and an old cap.
"I met your father down street and he told me what the clan was up to.
This is a business I am mightily interested in, so I asked if I might
come, too. How do you like my regimentals?"
Mr. Harding surveyed his blue overalls proudly. He followed the little
girls upstairs and listened to Ernest's report of their progress.
"Suppose you and I try that. I am taller than Carol and I think I could
boost you high enough to get a look round. Got a light?"
They called to Carol and Katy to come out. Carol was quite ready to
yield the place of honor.
"Gee, it's hot and stuffy in there!" he groaned, fanning himself with an
old shoe he had picked up from the floor of the closet.
"You're so awful fat, Carol. I didn't mind it," said Katy frankly.
"Fat nothing--a shadow would smother in there. Your face looks red where
it ain't black, which is pretty much all over," retorted Carol nettled.
He didn't enjoy being called fat.
Dick Harding followed Ernest in. There was just about room enough for
him to get to his feet. He gave Ernest a lift to his shoulder. This
brought the boy's eyes about five inches above the partition. Ernest
waved the tiny lantern about distractedly in an effort to pierce the
gloom about him.
"Hold the lantern still and just look. Your eyes will grow accustomed to
the dimness pretty soon and then you can see if there's anything there."
Ernest obeyed and in a few moments was able to see across to the
slanting roof opposite.
"Not a thing but rafters and cobwebs," he reported at last in disgust.
"Shift your lantern and look again carefully--we don't want to miss
anything. You don't see any old boxes or piles of papers do you?"
"Nope."
"Nothing that looks like a bundle of old letters? Take the lantern in
the other hand and hold it out as far as you can."
"Not a blamed thing but a piece of old board and it's sticking up so
there's nothing under it."
"Well, I really didn't suppose there would be. It would be too difficult
a place to reach, but I wanted to be sure," returned Dick. "How many
more closets are there?"
"Three."
"It's my turn next--and Gertie's!" declared Chicken Little.
"All right, crawl along. Perhaps you won't mind it if I follow, too,"
Dick replied, smiling.
They took Ernest's room next. Chicken Little slid past the coats and
trousers and much accumulated junk which untidy Ernest had piled in on
the closet floor. She knocked over a baseball bat in her haste and
disappeared in under the eaves so promptly that Gertie felt quite
deserted and decided she didn't want to go into that nasty dark place.
It was all Dick could do to follow. In fact he was afraid he was going
to stick, the passage was so narrow. His overalls were run through with
slivers from the rough boards. Fortunately, only one penetrated his
skin.
Chicken Little cheered him on by calling back.
"I've found some newspapers. Hurry up with the lantern."
It was a triangular space made by the gable. Chicken Little couldn't
quite stand up and Dick could get no further than his knees. A big pile
of dusty newspapers lay on the rafters. They had apparently been shoved
carelessly in.
"Let's get them out to the light. I'll back out and you pass them
through to me."
Jane did as she was bid, handing out a few at a time but just as she
lifted the last layer, gave a squeal.
"There's something alive here!"
Dick started in again.
"Look out, Jane, it might be a house snake, though I didn't know we ever
had them here."
"'Tisn't any snake--it's a mouse nest. There are four baby mice--I can
feel them. I'm going to put them in my pocket."
The children were so excited over the mice that they left the papers to
Dick Harding.
He carried them to the window and ran through them hastily.
"Pshaw, nothing but old newspapers--wartime papers most of them, with
long lists of men killed and wounded. Ugh--they certainly are gruesome!"
Dick dropped the pile and turned to have a look at the mice.
"Say," he added a moment later, staring at the minute heap of paper and
its tiny occupants which Chicken Little had deposited on a chair,
"there's writing on some of those scraps! They aren't all newspapers.
Are you sure you found everything there was, Chicken Little?"
Jane wasn't sure, so Sherm took the lantern and went back to look. He
found nothing, however, except a few scraps of paper.
In the meantime Dick Harding was running over the newspapers more
carefully, taking them one at a time to see if any letters or documents
could have been tucked away among them. He straightened up with a sigh
of disappointment as he finished.
"Another fond hope blasted," he complained. "I never loved a bug or
flower but what 'twas first to fade away."
The children looked at him in astonishment.
"No," he replied to their look of inquiry. "I'm not crazed with the
heat, but I was just dead sure we should find something. Let's tackle
the other two closets."
The exploring party moved on and made a thorough search of the other
closet ends, and the open spaces under the eaves, but without result.
One empty and extremely dirty pasteboard box was all they got for their
pains.
"There's no other place about the house where anything could be hidden,
is there?" asked Dick Harding of Mrs. Morton.
"I have never heard of any secret cupboards, Mr. Harding. The people who
lived here before we bought the house might have found letters and
destroyed them. But Alice said her mother, at the time of her father's
death, searched every place where business letters or papers could
possibly be concealed."
"Well, I suppose I'll have to give up," said Dick. "The worst of it is
I'm afraid Alice can't hold the stock without further evidence."
"I am glad Alice has her Uncle Joseph to protect her," said Mrs.
Morton. "But what black faces and hands, children! Go wash up
immediately."
The party did seem a little the worse for wear. It was a warm day and
trickles of perspiration had mingled with the dust till their faces
resembled a cross-roads map.
Dick Harding looked from one grimy face to another with a twinkle in his
eye.
"Suppose we all clean up and go downtown to get some ice-cream. I'll
stand treat. Won't you come, too, Mrs. Morton?"
"I don't think I care to risk the walk in the sun. I fear it will take
some time to make these children presentable."
Dick pulled out his watch. "Perhaps they might meet me at the ice-cream
parlor at four. I certainly need to freshen up myself."
It was so arranged and there was a prompt scattering homeward to get
ready. An hour later, shiny from much soap and water, and very stiff and
starchy as to waists and dresses, they flocked around Dick Harding.
"I can eat two saucers of cream and three pieces of cake and I'm sure I
can depend upon you boys to do as well. We'll limit the ladies to one
saucer and two pieces of cake because they are supposed to be delicate.
Is that right, Chicken Little?"
Dick joked and the children stowed away the dainties industriously. In
the midst of the feast an idea struck Gertie.
"What became of the baby mice?"
Sure enough what had become of them? Nobody seemed to know.
"I guess we just left them up on the chair in the bedroom," said Ernest.
"They weren't big enough to run away," observed Carol.
"Oh, dear, I hope nothing will hurt them--they were so cunning," mourned
Chicken Little. She hunted them up the minute she got home. The tiny
heap of paper was where they had left it, but the mice were gone. Olga
and Mrs. Morton denied having seen them.
Ernest and Jane hunted the room over, but the mice had disappeared.
When they fed Pete that night he seemed droopy and turned up his nose at
his best beloved dainties.
"Has Pete been loose today?" asked Dr. Morton.
"Yes, but I don't think he went out of the front room upstairs," replied
Mrs. Morton.
"Well, I'd be willing to wager Pete knows what became of the baby mice,"
laughed the doctor. "Trim him up with flowers, Chicken, and he'll make a
nice green grave for the dear departed."
A few days later Jane and Gertie were playing paper dolls in one of the
window recesses upstairs and remembering the mice decided to have a doll
funeral. But a funeral required mourning and they couldn't find a scrap
of black paper. While they were rummaging, they came across their find
of old newspapers, which Mrs. Morton had stacked up on a table till Dr.
Morton found time to look them over. Jane noticed that some of them had
heavy black bands across the front page.
"Say, they'd be fine--we could paste them close together on white paper
for the dresses and veils."
She started off to ask her mother's permission to use them.
"Why, I don't know whether your father wants any of them or not. He
spoke as if he would like to save a few--you might take the ones the
mice nibbled."
There were four or five of these and the children were soon busily
engaged in cutting out the black strips. When Gertie unfolded the last
one two letters fell out.
Jane pounced upon them with a shriek. "Oh, Gertie, do you s'pose?"
"Maybe they are--let's take them to your mother quick!"
The little girls pattered downstairs to Mrs. Morton, thrilled with
excitement.
"Don't get so excited, children. Little ladies should learn to compose
themselves."
She slowly put on her spectacles and deliberately examined the
envelopes.
"They do seem to be addressed to Mr. Fletcher, but there isn't one
chance in a hundred they are of any value. However, I'll turn them over
to Mr. Harding."
"Oh, Mother, see what's inside, quick!"
"My dear little daughter, I have no right to read other people's
letters. Mr. Harding is Alice's lawyer and it is his place not mine to
examine these. You little girls may get your hats and take them down to
Mr. Harding's office. I think I can trust you not to drop them."
The children surprised Dick Harding by rushing in waving the letters
breathlessly. They had run about half the way in their zeal. He was a
more satisfactory listener than Mrs. Morton--he was excited, too. It
took him about four minutes to run through the letters, Chicken Little
and Gertie explaining how they came to find them while he read.
The first letter he dropped impatiently, muttering, "No good." After a
glance at the signature of the second he said "Ah" softly.
When he had finished it, he jumped up and seizing Chicken Little with
one hand and Gertie by the other, spun them round the room so fast he
made their heads swim.
"Blessed be paper dolls and little girls! One sentence in that letter
will do the work or I am no lawyer! Go home and look through the other
papers and see if you can find any more, though I don't believe we need
them."