crying--poor little Renee's heart could stand no more! And as she clung
to him her fingers were feeling across his face and through his hair and
over the cloth of his uniform as though to tell her it was _not_ a dream
but _true_!
Pat was so happy for Renee that she found her own eyes wet and turned
away to keep back the tears. And there was Aunt Pen, the color of a red
poppy, slipping out of Capt. Allan's arm!
"I might have known, Miss Pat, that you and I were old friends--because
I used to think I had a sort of solid claim on this aunt of yours--only
I didn't know she was your aunt!"
With a triumphant look Pat tried to tell Aunt Pen that she had guessed
it all a long time ago but Aunt Pen, as radiant as a school girl, was
beaming upon Capt. Allan and Capt. Allan was shaking Pat's hands as
though he had to do something violent.
Then Aunt Pen went to Renee and kissed Emile--for, in spite of the deep
lines that his suffering had carved on his face--he looked like a boy!
"It is just as though God was working miracles," she whispered to Renee.
There was so much to tell that no one knew just where to begin! They
all knew, now, that Capt. Allan's French soldier, whom he had found in
the old peasant's cottage, was Emile. Then Emile, still holding Renee
in the circle of his arm as though he could not bear to let her go for
one little moment, told how he and the private who had been left by the
scouting party, had had to separate in order to get back to their line.
"I had a presentiment that I was going to be killed--I gave him my
wallet with all my papers and the sketches I had made. That was why
they thought it was I who had been killed!"
No one wanted to spoil the joy of the evening by asking Emile to tell of
his experiences in the German prison. It was enough that he was there
with Renee once more--in America! Everyone's eyes were very bright and
every now and then everyone was very still, as though the happiness was
too great to be spoken in mere words!
Then Mr. Everett came in and the surprise was a surprise all over again,
and Pat, because it had been her surprise, was allowed to tell him all
about it. He shook hands very warmly with Capt. Allan and Emile, and
laid his arm tenderly over the boy's shoulder as though to express
things he could not say!
They laughed at Capt. Allan because they caught him so often staring at
Renee!
"What _have_ you done to her? It's hard to believe she's the same
little girl I picked up at St. Cloud!"
"It's Penelope's work," answered Mr. Everett; "she's been doing some
experimenting!"
Renee, indeed, was a different child. She had grown taller, sturdier,
her face had lost its delicacy of line and color; now she had, too, in
her step and look the spirit and vigor that only healthy, happy living
can give.
Suddenly Aunt Pen exclaimed: "Goodness me, Renee, we've forgotten to
tell about----"
"_The Lost Baby!_" cried Pat
So there were new surprises all around! It seemed more like a fairy
story than ever--to find, in a few hours, a grandmother and a brother!
Emile was deeply interested; he listened gravely. He knew perhaps more
of his mother's sacrifices and hardships than Renee had known; for a
moment, deep in his heart, he found it hard to feel kindly toward the
proud woman who had made his mother unhappy. Then as Aunt Pen described
her lonely life in the old house, the dreary days shut in with her grief
and her remorse, just as Renee had, he felt a wave of tenderness.
"She is going to begin right away making the old house bright and pretty
and nice to live in! And think how happy she'll be to know Emile has
come back!" cried Renee.
"Well, it looks as though _I_ was the one who had lost out all around,"
broke in Capt. Allan, although he did not look one bit unhappy as he
said it. In fact, his eyes were fastened on Aunt Pen's face with a sort
of eager questioning in them that kept the blushes coming and going on
her cheeks. "I thought I had gotten together a nice little family!
However, I shall go on with my plan of fixing up that old place in the
mountains and maybe, sometime, I can induce my ward and her brother and
her grandmother to make a poor, lonely ex-guardian a visit!"
"And me!" put in Pat, eagerly, for she was certain he was in earnest.
"And me!" laughed Aunt Pen with a look that seemed to flash back an
answer to Capt. Allan.
"I think you girlies had better go to bed!" Mr. Everett had noticed
that Renee's eyes were looking very tired. She had had a most exciting
day. And on the morrow she must go again to the grandmother's with
Emile.
Pat consented to go to bed only when Capt. Allan and Emile promised to
spend the night with them!
She and Renee whispered together for a long time. Pat must hear just
how Renee felt the moment she knew the cross old lady was her _very own_
grandmother!
"I don't believe she'll be cross when she's happy," confided Renee.
"She laughed and it sounded real jolly! And even Elsbeth looked
different after that."
And wasn't it _wonderful_ to have a brother come back?
"I don't mind his losing his arm," Renee whispered, "for I love him so
much I want to do things for him and now he'll have to let me!"
Long after Renee had fallen asleep Pat lay wide awake. There was so
much to think about she was sure she could not ever shut her eyes again.
And she could hear the steady murmur of voices downstairs--she wished
she knew what they were talking about! Then a queer little disturbing
thought commenced to eat at her heart. Renee, alone in the world, had
been very close to her. She had seemed to feel that, because she had
found Renee, Renee belonged to her--was something even closer than a
friend or a sister! And now Renee had suddenly acquired a family and a
home! As the tiny thought grew bigger and bigger and into a real Fear
she sat up very straight and leaning across to Renee's bed, shook her
violently.
"Ren! Ren!" and her voice rang tragically. "Promise me, on your scout's
honor, that you'll _always_ love me more'n--everybody--except Emile!"
Renee thought she was dreaming but she promised sleepily.
"Of course--I'll love you--more'n everybody--'cept Emile--on my scout's
honor!" and just as, on that other night, months before, when Aunt Pen
had tip-toed into their room to see that the little stranger was
comfortable, they fell asleep, clasping hands.
*CHAPTER XXIII*
*THE BEST OF ALL*
To Pat it seemed as though everything exciting was happening at once!
For the next morning's mail brought a letter from Mother saying that she
and Celia would start north in a day or two.
Pat and Renee had wakened very early. The first thought in each mind
was to know if it was all true--that Emile had come back--or was it a
dream?
Outside of their window a friendly robin was trilling a gay song as
though the joy of the spring-time was bursting his proud little throat.
Through the window the sun shone with added brightness and warmth and
delicious earthy smells greeted the girls.
"Oh, isn't it just _grand_ to be alive? Let's dress fast and be the
first ones down!" And Pat, because the sun and the birds and the spring
freshness made her very happy, also burst into a gay snatch of song.
Aunt Pen and Capt. Allan were late for breakfast. When the others had
almost finished they came in from a brisk walk through the park, with
red cheeks and amazing appetites.
Aunt Pen, dropping into the chair next to Pat, slipped a roll of paper
into her hand and whispered:
"There's something that belongs to you, Patsy! I'm ashamed that I didn't
return it before. But now you can write the last verse!"
Pat, immensely curious, peeped at the paper. It was the lost ballad!
And what _did_ Aunt Pen mean about the last verse? Both Aunt Pen and
Capt. Allan were looking at her with eyes full of laughter. Pat felt her
color creeping to her eyebrows and crushed the innocent verses in her
hand. But Aunt Pen checked her rising indignation.
"Patsy, dear, I found 'The Secret Sorrow' on the floor of the library
one night after we had had a pow-wow. I recognized the heroine--by a
guilty conscience, I guess--my hair is not exactly 'of raven hue' or my
eyes 'pellucid blue'! But I loved it, my dear, and I tucked it away,
for I couldn't bear to have you write the sad ending that was coming!
_What_ if you had made her thrust a steel dagger into her breast! Or
have had her leap from one of those mighty crags over which the knight,
her brother hunted!"
Capt. Allan had been furiously scribbling some words on the back of an
envelope. Now he looked up, very seriously.
"Will you forgive Aunt Pen if I write the last verse for you?" he asked,
and then, not waiting for an answer, read with dramatic emphasis:
"Back came the lover, wise and bold,
To snatch his lady, grown cross and old,
To a mountain cave he'll carry his prey,
And there they'll be happy for ever and aye!"
Everyone laughed at Pat's disgust.
"_I_ think that's very silly and Aunt Pen _isn't_ cross and old a bit
and----" she stopped suddenly. "Do you mean that's _true_?" she
demanded.
It was Aunt Pen now who grew very red. But she nodded and turned toward
her brother.
"_We_ have a surprise! A long time ago Will and I were engaged--my last
year in college! Then we let foolish things come between us and we have
lost a good many years of happiness, but----"
"Now we're going to make up for it!" put in Capt. Allan. "And I won't
be lonely in that place in the mountains, after all!"
"Oh, Aunt Pen, I'm so glad!" and Pat threw two strong young arms around
Penelope's neck. Everyone talked at once. Renee, looking at Emile and
then at the other happy faces about her, thought that all the joy in the
world must have crowded there within the four walls of the sunny
dining-room!
"It'll be just as though we were really related," she put in, shyly.
"For I'll always feel that Capt. Allan _is_ my guardian and Emile
belongs to me and Pat belongs to Aunt Pen!"
"Don't leave _me_ out, Mouse!"
"Oh, no!" and Renee's contrition was tragic. "For you are the very best
man in the world and belong to all of us!"
Pat, who had been performing a sort of ceremonial dance among them all,
stopped in dismay.
"Oh, Aunt Pen, _what_ about school?"
"Then you will be sorry to lose your teacher, Patsy? But it is almost
the first of May and with a little home study you girls can get along.
Anyway, mother will be here to decide what is best."
Pat's face was serious.
"I am glad mother's coming home! And Celia, too! But I _have_ loved
our school, Aunt Pen! You've made me just like to study all sorts of
things! When mother comes I'm going to tease her to let us go next fall
to the Lincoln school with Peggy and Sheila and the other girls--and
then go to college."
Aunt Pen nodded toward Pat's father. Pat, of course, didn't know that
she was trying to say: "There--_that's_ a real girl talking--who wants
to be of some service, some day, in this world!"
Then Pat insisted that Capt. Allan tell them more about the old house in
the Adirondacks.
"Somehow, I can't imagine him keeping you up there very long, Penelope,"
laughed her brother. "He doesn't know you as well as I do!"
Capt. Allan described to them the old rambling house built half way up
the wooded slope of Cobble Mountain. From its many windows, he
remembered, a wonderful view could be had of a sweep of valley, river
and surrounding slopes.
"Will has promised me that I may go on with all my experiments and fads
just the same! There'll be lots of room there!" she retorted to her
brother. "And some day I shall turn Cobble House into a school for
girls."
"Like _our_ school, Aunt Pen?"
"Yes, and I hope that all my girls there will work as faithfully as you
have, Pat!"
"And I'll be the man-of-all-work around the place and chief executioner,
when you need one!" declared Capt. Allan, mischievously.
Mr. Everett shook hands gravely with his sister.
"All I say is success to you--my dear, whatever you try to do!"
There seemed to be so much to talk about that no one wanted to break up
the little circle. However, the hands of the old clock over the
fireplace were climbing rapidly toward noon and Renee was eager to take
Emile to the grandmother's. Pat begged to go, too. As they started
away, Renee holding tightly to Emile's hand, Aunt Pen, watching the boy,
wiped a suspicion of a tear from her eye.
Capt. Allan saw it and answered the thought that was in her mind.
"He's a brave boy and has a strong will--he'll learn to do his work with
his one arm! But before anything else he must stay in the open until he
has built up his strength and wiped from his mind forever the horror of
all he has gone through!"
The old stone house did not look at all ugly and gloomy in the bright
morning sunshine! And for Renee and Emile it took on a new interest--it
was to be their home! There were signs of life, too, about the place.
The windows had been opened and from the back of the house came sounds
of vigorous beating. As they walked slowly up the brick path Renee
suddenly darted in among the wild honeysuckle growing close on either
side of the door.
"Emile--_see_! A daffodil!"
There it was--lifting its bright head through the tangle of undergrowth
as though it knew that sunshine and happiness had come to the neglected
home! And there were more, too, and Renee, hunting eagerly, found
hundreds of tiny blades of bright green grass and beyond a rose vine
climbing toward the old stone wall.
"Oh, it _is_ going to be nice!" she cried to Emile. "We can have a
garden like Susette's."
Emile, with the soul of an artist, was already mentally transforming the
entire house and garden. It would be very pleasant to do nothing for
awhile but work out among the growing things with Renee! Mrs. Forrester,
eager to see again her "little flower," had roused Elsbeth very early in
the morning that she might be in readiness. She had insisted upon
putting on her old black silk dress; she had folded a soft net fichu
around her neck and had fastened it with a lavender ribbon.
"Now _don't_ stand and stare at me like that silly," she had rebuked the
old servant. "Can't you understand that I'm not sick any more? Watch
me!" and holding her head very high she walked slowly across the room
out into the hall.
So it was in the living room they found her. God had given back to her
so much that she was not even startled when Renee very simply told of
Emile's coming. She could not speak a word as she reached up her arms
to embrace the boy, for he looked so much like his mother that it
brought a choking sob to her throat.
And if in Emile's heart there had lingered any hardness toward the
grandmother it disappeared when he saw her! She looked so little and
fragile, sitting in the big walnut chair, that it roused all the
chivalry in the boy's soul. He kissed her tenderly on each wrinkled
cheek.
Then Pat was introduced; Renee had to tell, too, of finding the
daffodils. Elsbeth, her face twisted into a comical expression of
bewilderment, listened in the doorway, and from all parts of the house
there was a rumble of furniture and the tread of feet.
"In a very little time this place will all be changed," Mrs. Forrester
said, patting Renee's hand. "We will have flowers growing all around
us--and we will be very happy, we three!"
It was a very busy day! Emile must be admitted to the secrets of the
Eyrie; he was shown the account book of LaDue and Everett and some of
Renee's work. Then he had to hear the story of Paddy and the lost
formulas, of Sheila and Peggy and Garrett and Hill-top, of Troop Six and
the scout work, and of Keineth and the coming party! Surely never in
the world did a tongue wag faster that Pat's nor did eyes shine more
brightly than Renee's as Emile was made acquainted with all that had
brought so much happiness into her life during the past winter.
Downstairs Aunt Pen, Capt. Allan and Daddy were talking, too. Pat with
her remarkable instinct for sensing "when plans were in the making"
exclaimed, as she entered the room:
"Daddy Everett, you look _just_ as though you had a secret!"
Her Daddy assumed a very important air.
"I have! I have a surprise! You've all had one but me! And I am sure
you will think that _mine_ is best of all! And I thought of it all
myself!"
"Oh, what _is_ it? If much more happens I'll be walking on my _head_!
What _can_ it be!" Pat looked from one to another. "Aunt Pen, you're
giggling so silly I believe it's something about your wedding! It is!
_It is_! May Ren and I be bridesmaids, Aunt Pen, and wear gauzy dresses
and big hats and carry bouquets?"
"You're warm, Pat!" teased her father.
"_Please_, Aunt Pen!" implored Pat in an agony of curiosity.
"Mother has suggested in a note to me that your Aunt Pen and I bring you
and Renee to Atlantic City and meet them there----"
"But _I'm_ determined to make Aunt Pen marry me right away, you see; I
can't even wait for gauzy hats and big dresses--we've wasted so much
happiness, already!" cut in Capt. Allan.
"So _I_ said let's _all_ go and meet Mother, and we can have the wedding
down there where the breaking waves dash high----"
"Oh, _Daddy, Daddy_, that's the _bestest, grandest_ surprise of all! A
_wedding_ in Atlantic City! Only the waves can't dash very high--'cause
there's no stern and rock-bound coast--only sand! But we'll trim the
room with flowers----"
"And you and Renee _shall_ be my bridesmaids, no matter what dresses you
wear!"
"And Emile shall be my best man!"
"And, oh, _won't_ mother and Celia be surprised? You see _I_ had guessed
all about Capt. Allan because Aunt Pen acted so funny when we spoke of
him, but Mother doesn't know a single thing! Was there ever such a
nice, jolly wedding planned before?"
Renee's face was a little clouded. It would be wonderful to go to the
sea, but ought she and Emile to leave the little grandmother?
"Bless you, she shall come, too! Ocean air will finish up the good work
that her happiness has started! I can't have my plan spoiled--not even
if we have to charter a whole train!"
Pat wanted to begin packing immediately.
"When will we go, Daddy?" she cried.
"Day after to-morrow," he answered with the promptness of decision that
was characteristic.
"I'm glad that you give me _that_ much time! I'll have to get 'something
old and something new, something borrowed and something blue,'" laughed
the bride-to-be.
"And we can go to Keineth's party and tell them all about it!" Pat was
silent for a moment. Then going to her Daddy she laid her cheek
coaxingly against his arm.
"Daddy, as long as there are so many going--and weddings are jollier
when there are a lot of people--can't we take Sheila, too? She's never
been any further from the city than Hill-top and she's always so
contented and happy and's never teasing for things the way I am! Just
_think_ how she'd look when she saw the ocean! I have so much more fun
than she does, Daddy, I'd just as soon stay home if she could go in my
place!"
And Pat, thinking how Sheila's face _would_ look when she first beheld
the great sweep of deep, blue sea, was very much in earnest.
Mr. Everett patted the pleading face. He did not smile for he had been
deeply touched by Pat's generosity.
"Yes, daughter, Sheila shall go, too."
"Oh, Daddy, you _are_ the best daddy in the world! Let's run straight
over and tell her, Ren! _Think_ how happy she'll be!"
From the library window Aunt Pen and Mr. Everett watched the two girls,
arms interlocked, swing down the walk that led from the Everett house to
the street. There was pride in Aunt Pen's face as she watched. Her
girls had learned generosity and unselfishness as well as Latin and
Algebra! And they had found, too, the joy of fellowship! They were
hurrying now to share their happiness!
Mr. Everett was thinking the same thoughts as his sister, but looking
slyly at her from the corner of his eye, he repeated teasingly:
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
Silver bells and cockle shells----"
Aunt Pen laughingly interrupted: "And larkspur all in a row! But won't
this world's garden be richer and more beautiful for healthy, happy
girls like ours, Daddy Everett?"
* * * * * * * *
*THE SUNNY BOY SERIES*
*By RAMY ALLISON WHITE*
Children! Meet Sunny Boy, a little fellow with big eyes and an
inquiring disposition who finds the world at large a wonderful place to
live in. There is always something doing when Sunny Boy is around.
In the first book of the series he visits his grandfather in the country
and learns of many marvelous things on a farm, and in the other books
listed below he has many exciting adventures which every child will
enjoy reading about.
SUNNY BOY IN THE COUNTRY
SUNNY BOY AT THE SEASHORE
SUNNY BOY IN THE BIG CITY
SUNNY BOY IN SCHOOL AND OUT
SUNNY BOY AND HIS SCHOOLMATES
SONNY BOY AND HIS GAMES
SUNNY BOY IN THE FAR WEST
SUNNY BOY ON THE OCEAN
SUNNY BOY WITH THE CIRCUS
SUNNY BOY AND HIS BIG DOG
SUNNY BOY IN THE SNOW
SUNNY BOY AT WILLOW FARM
SUNNY BOY AND HIS CAVE
SUNNY BOY AT RAINBOW LAKE
*GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK*