This is Saturday night, or Sunday morning, I am not sure which, as I
have let my clock and watch both run down, for I have not had time to
wind them; but however late it is, I am going to write about all this
remarkableness, to you, leather Louise, so I will never forget how it
all really happened. And writing it may make me believe it is true,
though now it all _will_ seem a dream.
I got up early on account of the quadratics and had a contest, that
lasted until ten o'clock, between them and a very overburdened mind. I
conquered, but at what cost!
But still, from the fight, one of the gratifications of my life came
to me in the shape of the chance to help Belle. Mamie Sue has given up
the study of algebra forever, and is going to take botany instead, but
Belle is still having dreadful struggles. Mamie Sue told me about
Belle having a wet towel around her head all night and other really
tragic things that made me lose all my hurt at her and filled me with
extreme sympathy. I was over at Roxanne's on my way to read diphtheria
to Lovelace Peyton, and just as Mamie Sue was describing how the poor
girl had to put her feet in hot water to take the chill off of them,
down the street came Belle looking all that Mamie Sue had said of her.
My heart was so wrung that I spoke before I had time to let her manner
daunt me.
"Oh, Belle," I said, with hasty enthusiasm, "I worked a lot this
morning and I can solve them all now in the easiest way. Let me show
you."
"I--I wish you would, Phyllis, and thank you," she answered in a meek
voice that was not hers at all. It had a nice, mournful, friendly tone
to it that I wish it could keep even when the cause for sorrow is
removed, which I succeeded in doing in about another hour of hard
manual labor, if you call pounding manual labor. It is!
Roxanne sat down beside us, and we sent Mamie Sue in to keep Lovelace
Peyton quiet with her company; only to use the fudge from her pocket
in case she couldn't succeed. We found them both later with chocolate
smeared on their faces; but Lovelace Peyton likes Mamie Sue, for her
easy nature is most lovable.
"Thank you, Phyllis," said Belle, when we had figured the last formula
as simply as I had found out how to do it. "I have always thought that
you are as smart as anybody in the class, and I now think--"
I wish Belle had had time to finish that sentence, for I don't believe
she will be in such a nice temper for a long time; but we were
interrupted by Tony and the Colonel and Miss Priscilla coming past my
house and into the cottage front gate. The Colonel was dressed up in
his white vest and Sunday hat, and Miss Priscilla was flying more
ribbons and ruffles than usual, while I never saw Tony's grin quite so
broad and his freckles shone out more than ever, as they always do
when he is excited.
"Miss Phyllis," said the Colonel, in his grand manner that everybody
in Byrdsville tries to copy when there is anything important to be
said, especially in public, like the mayor does in his speeches, "I
have come to announce to you that this morning's mail has brought a
great honor to you, and through you, to Byrdsville. Allow me to hand
you this medal that is given you for the heroic feat of life-saving by
the Girl Scouts of America, called, I believe, the Organization of the
Campfire. I wrote on to inform the authorities of the deed of the
Patrol Leader of the Palefaces, as your Girl Scout band is named, and
this letter, with the accompanying medal, is the result. I am
informally showing you the medal now, but the letter will be read and
the medal presented at the commencement exercises of the Byrd
Academy." And with a low bow that crinkled the stiff white vest, the
Colonel handed me the medal.
I was paralyzed--real paralysis of both mind and body, especially legs
and tongue--and I believe I would have been sitting there on the front
steps of the cottage yet, in a dumb and stupid manner, with them all
looking at me, if Tony Luttrell who, as I have remarked before, is a
very understanding person, though a boy, hadn't flared his eyes and
mewed under his breath. Then we all laughed so loud that it brought
Mamie Sue to the door though Lovelace Peyton called so loudly that
Roxanne had to run to him; and so did Mamie Sue, with the treacherous
chocolate smears on her mouth, after having promised not to give it to
him unless she just had to.
"Phyllis, if Tony says Kitten Patrol to you one single time more,
something will have to be done to him that is serious," said Miss
Priscilla, frowning at Tony with a frown that only seemed to bring out
the dimple in her left cheek. "Now congratulate her nicely, Tony!"
[Illustration: The Colonel handed me the medal]
"Madam," said Tony, straightening up and looking so much like the
Colonel that it was funny (but of course Tony has learned
impersonation), "accept my heartfelt congratulations for thus
achieving a triumph of kittenism. Will that do, Miss Prissy Bubble?"
And again we all laughed, the Colonel the most of all, and even Belle
a little, too.
"Phyllis, you are one perfectly good brick," Tony said suddenly,
dropping the teasing of Miss Priscilla from his voice; and he looked
at me with just as affectionate an expression in his squinty eyes as
when he looks at Pink Chadwell. It is a great thing for a girl to feel
that a fine boy likes her as much as he does his most chosen boy
comrade. I felt that keenly.
"Thanks, everybody," I managed to say in an awkward way that mortified
me into being unable to patch it up with any kind of brilliant remark
following.
One of the things that had struck me so dumb was that I thought I had
refused to be the Girl Scout Leader because of my disgrace, and nobody
had paid any attention to my refusal. Thus it is, a person cannot
escape either fame or disgrace because other people take more interest
in both than you do yourself, and do not let you forget.
"And now that the Colonel has made you his speech, Phyllis," said Miss
Priscilla, "I want you to come down to the Presbyterian Church parlors
with me to a joint meeting of our Relief Society with the Methodist
Relief. They want to make you an honorary member of both on account of
the way you have dealt with the Satterwhites, who have for years been
one of the greatest troubles to all of us. Of course this is not a
medal, but it is an expression of hearty esteem, and I hope they will
get the meeting over nicely without any discussion or argument coming
up from either side on the charity question."
By that time I was so numb from having shocks that I let her and the
Colonel lead me down the street, while Tony went in to keep Lovelace
Peyton from fretting for the diphtheria lesson until I could come
back.
Mrs. Luttrell made me the Methodist speech and Mrs. Willis the
Presbyterian one, and they said so much that I felt sure they were
glad that I was only expected to say "Thank you!" and then sit down
while they all offered different resolutions about different things
that were never exactly decided but voted on, nevertheless.
When we came out of the church, I told Miss Priscilla about the box of
paper in such a determined tone of voice that she didn't refuse it at
all, and went with me to buy the pipe for the Colonel, which I know
will make it very valuable to him when I tell him who helped select
it. It is a very interesting thing to be neighbor and friend to a
mysterious love affair that is one of the traditions of Byrdsville. I
believe I have solved the why of the failure of their marriage to come
off, but until I am certain I won't even write it to you, Louise.
On my way home, I am glad to record, I took time to do a little
shopping. I bought some buckets we didn't need from one of the
littlest shops in town, some more groceries for the Satterwhites, a
bolt of gingham to make Sallie Geraldine and Judy Claudia some aprons,
then hurried back on the wings of anxiety to the bedside of Lovelace
Peyton, to get the diphtheria started. As I ran I could just feel him
thrashing around in the bed and persecuting Roxanne and Mamie Sue, if
she had not already escaped for her life.
But as fast as I tried to go, I met an interruption on the way up
Providence Road, that was agreeable although detaining from duty. Tony
and Pink and Sam stopped me and told me that they were just on their
way to bring me to the Crotch, and that I would be the first strange
person that had ever seen it, since they had fixed it up in the
Luttrell barn loft to have Scout meetings in. Mr. Douglass had planned
and helped them with it, and they said there never was such a place of
interest in Byrdsville. The reason they were going to show me was that
I must get the empty room over the garage Father has turned the old
family stable of the Byrds into, to make a wigwam for the Paleface
Patrol to have meetings and keep things in. They had asked Mamie Sue
to go with me because it would take two girls to remember all they
saw, and that would be the last time we could come there, though they
would come often to the Wigwam if we wanted them to show us how to be
as scouty as possible.
Just then Mamie Sue came up, and she either snorted with indignation
or choked with candy, I cannot tell which; but because we had to, we
accepted their kind invitation with gratitude. We stopped at the house
first and told Mrs. Luttrell we were going to the barn with the boys,
and she said not to get hurt or fall, and gave us a tea-cake all
around. Mamie Sue held the plate and happened to get two, not at all
by intention, for they were stuck together.
Tony swung up from the horse trough to the loft by a pole, while Sam
and Pink stayed to push us up. I went up just as easily as Tony did,
before they had time to push me one inch, but poor Mamie Sue stuck
halfway through the trap-door and we thought we would never be able to
get her either up or down without calling out the fire-company, as Sam
suggested; but she kept astonishingly cool herself and wiggled in just
the way Tony told her to, and at last got up. She said she knew that
she could fall down all right, when the time came to go, so for us not
to worry about that, and we proceeded to enjoy the Crotch.
I never dreamed boys could get together so many remarkable things and
make it so interesting to tell about them. The big kettle to boil
water and the poles and the sticks and the blankets and tin cups and
plates were in one corner and a shelf held the knapsacks with the
"first aid" things in the opposite corner. All of Sam's bird-eggs, the
collection of which he had seen the error of, and had to give up when
he became a Scout, was on a table by the window, and his butterflies
were pinned on large pieces of brown paper on the wall and looked like
a beautiful decoration.
And while we looked at the things it had taken the boys so long to
collect, I rejoiced that I could manage to spend a lot of money to fix
up the Wigwam, and told them about each thing that I could buy, as I
thought it up, from seeing something that they had.
"Say, Bubble, is the long pole for exercise going to be braced so the
Dumpling can go over without danger?" said Tony, in the teasing voice
he uses to girls, that doesn't make them mad.
"I think we ought to have every single thing that girls can use to
make them as strong as boys," I answered. "When girls are strong
enough not to be any burden, the boys will take them everywhere they
go and everybody will have just twice as much fun."
"I suppose you would like to make the boys learn to do tatting and
sewing to let them in on that sort of kitten gatherings," said Sam,
with a laugh that was not so nice as Tony's.
"We would, if it wasn't for the fact that Petway does the knitting act
so well that he is a perfect lady. We never could equal him," answered
Tony, with jolly good humor to save our feelings from being hurt by
Sam.
"Well, I don't believe it will hurt--" I was just going to say, when
we heard Uncle Pompey, calling down in the barn for me to please come
quick before Lovelace Peyton killed them all dead.
We all slid down, including Mamie Sue, with astonishing grace, and I
promised to begin to fix the Wigwam next week. I promised, but a pain
hit my heart. Did I know that I would be in Byrdsville next week or
ever again? What would Father do when that prosecution found him? For
ten days I had not been letting myself think about the future, but it
seems that every minute I live in Byrdsville, my heart winds around my
friends and theirs around mine. To take me away now would be to tear
me--but where was Father, and why didn't I hear what he is going to do
and have done to him?
As I once more hurried down the street to the diphtheria lesson, it
seemed to me that Byrdsville broke on me all suddenly as a lovely and
maybe to-be-lost vision. All the leaves have come out on the trees and
vines now, and everybody's yard is in bloom and is full of sweet
odors. Doors and windows stand wide open and people sit on their front
porches and visit back and forth like every evening was a great big
party. And amid it all I have felt like I belonged to something for
the first time in my life.
Then suddenly it came true that now I do belong. This is how it
happened! Just as I had got to Lovelace Peyton and soothed him by a
few lines of the symptoms of fever and nausea and headache that come
first in diphtheria, Roxanne stood at the door with a telegram in her
hand for me, and my heart stopped beating while it took leaps all over
my body, about fifty to the second. I promised Lovelace Peyton a half
dozen rolls of antiseptic bandages and a paper of sticking-plaster and
a June-bug, if I could find one, to let me into the living-hall to
read it. I felt that if it said, "No," about the secret article I
couldn't trust myself not to let him know that something was the
matter.
It didn't say "No!" Wait, I'll copy it, Louise!
A payment of one thousand dollars for articles from you will
be in Byrdsville on Saturday. Letter follows.
COUSIN GILMORE.
My knees shook under me, and my eyes couldn't take in the letters
well, but I asked Roxanne, who was standing waiting to hear what the
telegram could be about, just as a friend should feel over a telegram,
to run out to the shed and get our Idol quick, and I would tell them
all about it together. He came in looking perfectly beautiful with his
coat off and a big apron on him. His eyes were just as excited as mine
felt, now that the mist had cleared, and it seemed to me even in that
moment that no other thousand dollars in the world could have brought
so much suspense and excitement as this one had.
But I knew that I might have a battle to fight in which I must win,
and I steadied my nerves and made myself feel like Father looks when
he reads important letters and begins to dictate answers in telegrams.
"Mr. Douglass Byrd," I said, perfectly coolly over my own inward
volcano, "you remember you promised me that if I could use my own
brains on a plan to get the doctor here for Lovelace Peyton's eyes,
you would let me do it?"
"Yes, I said just about that," he answered me, and he looked in my
eyes in a depending way that was so like Lovelace Peyton used to do
that again the mist came over my eyes. I am getting to have that
proper mist now instead of the choke, and I am glad, because it can be
hid better than a choke.
"Well, I found the plan and worked it for us, and I will have the
thousand dollars by night-time, and we can get the doctor from
Cincinnati by to-morrow, and have it all over before the algebra
examination on Monday," I answered.
Then, in very many less words than I have used to tell about it to
you, Louise, I told him what I had done, with Roxanne standing with
her arm across my shoulders, that trembled with excitement. To cap off
the climax of the story in proper fashion, as we are taught in the
rhetoric to do, I handed him the telegram--and I felt like the Colonel
looks when I did it. He stood for what seemed hours, with the telegram
in his hand, and something makes me suspect that he was having the
same hard time as I was having with a choke, only this was the first
time and it came very near resulting in weeping, which I had never
done up to that time.
"It is a wonderful thing for you to have done, dear," he said at last,
with a look that got down to the core of my inexperienced heart and
made it thump uncomfortably. "And if there were no other way to get
the doctor for the kiddy's eyes I would accept this loan gladly, but I
have heard in the morning mail, that I can sell the Washington letters
and I am going immediately to arrange about it that way. You know,
though, how great it was of you to do this, and how it makes us all
love you. We don't have to tell--"
But here he was interrupted by an avalanche of words that must have
been dammed up in me for all the fifteen years of my life for that
special occasion, and I delivered them with an eloquence that must
have equaled that famous valedictory of Colonel Stockell's at the Byrd
Academy, the year he left for the war. I told him just what a lonely
life had been broken into by the sunshine of Roxanne's and Lovelace
Peyton's and his family affection for me, and now they were just the
core of my heart, which he was wounding. I described in detail how I
had suffered when Roxanne and Lovelace Peyton had been hungry, and had
been brought to the dishonesty of feeding him in private, with never a
word of my suffering to hurt that Byrd family pride that they are
turning as a weapon on me. I even mentioned the patches on his
trousers and the break in Roxanne's shoes that had been patches and
rents in my own heart. I tried to make them see how hard it had been
when I have been commanded to buy things for people that I didn't care
about hardly at all, except as fellow-beings, when I was hungry to
give what was needed to my most beloved. By this time I had got to the
point of exaltation, and Roxanne had hid her head on my shoulder,
while that Idol's eyes were so wide with astonishment that I thought
he would never be able to get them to normal size again. "And after
Lovelace Peyton has hurt himself in my cause, as he did from hearing
that I wanted an explosion," I still ruthlessly continued, "you want
to deny me the happiness of getting his eyes saved by my own unaided
efforts. When I was disgraced and humiliated, I put that kind of pride
I had aside and came to you when you called me because you needed me,
trusting in your friendship for me and love of me, but now that the
time has come for you to yield just a little bit of your pride, you
won't do it for me."
Here I paused, and a thought of explanation for their cruelty came
over me. "Because I am my father's daughter, do you think this money I
have made is tainted, too? And is that the reason why you don't want
to use it?"
"Oh, Phyllis!" Roxanne gasped under my chin, and the Idol got as white
as a sheet and his eyes looked like I had struck him a blow.
"You can't get the money from the telegraph office and give it to me
quick enough, kiddie," he said, with the choke coming out clear in his
voice. "Forgive me! The youngster's eyes will be twice the value saved
in such a way," and he took my hand and held it in both of his against
his heart, in a manner to make me feel that never again would I have
to struggle with that Byrd pride.
"Please forgive me for fighting you like that," I said with a horrible
blush of memory coming over me as I thought of all I had said, about
the patches on the trousers especially. "You made me do it and--"
But here we were interrupted as an apparition stood in the door and
regarded the sad and joyful tableau we made with its head on one side,
right corner of the mouth up, and left eyelid drooped. It was Father,
and I had never seen him look so grand or with such a noble expression
on his face! And as he stood still and looked at us, I held my breath
far longer than it is safe to do. And as Father looked, the Idol drew
himself up and his head took on the pose of the feminine Byrd
portrait, but he still held my hand in both of his as he looked Father
steadily in the face. I was scared and so was Roxanne as we hugged
each other as women always do from fright.
Then, without a word, Father walked right up under the portrait and
took the Idol by both shoulders and gave him one good shake that
tottered us all.
"You young idiot, you! You young idiot!" he said in a tone of such
affection that it was unbelievable to my ears. And as I heard it, I
knew that all my trials and disgraces and puzzlings were over, and I
turned my head upon Roxanne's back hair and wept tears, the first time
in my life--and I hope not the last.