THE GUESTS ARRIVE
The Morton family were up early the next morning. Jane was in a state
of prickly excitement between her delight over her wonderful pony, all
her very own, and the expected pleasure of seeing Katy and Gertie.
"If the others have grown as much as you kids, we shan't recognize
them," said Frank.
"Anyhow, we can tell which bunch to cut out by Alice and Dick," Ernest
answered.
Mrs. Morton was horrified. "Ernest, the idea of your talking about our
friends as if they were cattle! I do trust you children will not mortify
me before our guests by using such vulgar expressions."
"Never mind, Mother," Frank consoled her, "Alice and Dick will revel in
these vulgar westernisms. See if they don't. Why Mother, it's by slang
that a language is enriched, didn't you know that?"
"That will do, Frank. I should think you would try to help me keep up
correct standards instead of hindering. You will feel very differently
when Jilly is a little older."
The train was due at two-thirty at the neighboring town of Garland--the
neighboring town being some nine miles distant. They decided to have an
early dinner at home, then Dr. Morton would drive the spring wagon in
for the guests, Frank would take the farm wagon for the trunks, while
Jane and Ernest formed a sort of ornamental body guard on their new
ponies.
"My, but you present an imposing appearance!" laughed Marian coming out
to the road with Jilly to see them off.
"We do look rather patriarchal," said Frank, glancing around at the
impressive array. "If we only had you and Mother mounted on donkeys, the
reception committee would be complete. I will do my best to apologize
for your absence."
"If you are late, send Jane on ahead, they can see her a mile off on
that calico pony."
"The piebald is conspicuous," said the Doctor, "I guess Captain Clarke
picked him out for the Chicken so her mother could see her from afar."
Chicken Little ignored this pleasantry. "Thank you for saying calico,
Marian. I was just wondering what to call him and that will do
beautifully."
"Oh, have some mercy on the poor beast," put in Ernest. "Think of his
having to answer to the name of Calico. Why don't you call him gingham
apron or something really choice?"
"Allee samee, his name's Calico. If you want to call yours, Star of the
Night or Aladdin or something high falutin, you just can." Jane set her
lips firmly. She didn't specially care for Calico but she wasn't going
to be laughed out of it.
"That will do, children, it's time to be off." Dr. Morton suited the
action to the word by clucking to the team of bays he drove, and the
procession started.
They reached the station in good time. Both Ernest and Chicken Little
wanted to stay on their mounts and dash up beside the train, but their
father forbade it.
"Those ponies have never been properly introduced to an engine, and I
don't wish to take you back in baskets. You can show off sufficiently
going home."
So the ponies were left with the teams at a safe distance from the
railroad.
The train was twenty minutes late and it seemed an age to Chicken
Little. "I don't see why you always have to wait for nice things, while
the unpleasant ones come along without ever being asked," she
complained.
"What about the ponies? Do you class them with the unpleasant things?"
queried her father. "But here comes the train."
Jane watched it puff in with a roar and a rattle and sundry bangs, her
eyes strained for the first glimpse of Katy and Gertie, Alice and Dick.
She really didn't know which one she wanted to see worst.
"Bet Sherm will be the first one out," said Ernest.
"Bet you Katy will!"
But it was Dick who hailed them first, before he turned to help down the
little girls. Alice came next, with Sherm who was still rather bashful,
bringing up the rear loaded down with satchels and lunch baskets. Katy
and Gertie fell upon Chicken Little instantly and Alice had to embrace
the whole bunch, because they kept on hugging and kissing Jane, laughing
hysterically.
"Here, where do I come in?" Dick rescued Jane from her friends and gave
her a resounding smack himself. After which he held up his hands and
exclaimed: "Say, Doctor Morton, what do you feed these infants on to
make them grow so fast? Jane's a half head taller than either Katie or
Gertie and we thought Sherm would surely top Ernest. In fact, we had our
money on him to beat any of your mushroom Kansas effects, but Holy
Smoke, I have to look up to Ernest myself."
Alice and Katie and Gertie were looking at Jane's riding habit, Gertie
in considerable alarm.
"We don't have to ride to the ranch on horseback, do we?"
Before the doctor could reassure them, Frank replied gravely:
"Of course, what did you expect in Kansas? We've brought six horses and
we thought two of the girls could ride in front of Dick and myself. It's
only nine miles and the horses don't gallop all the way."
The girls looked panic-stricken, even Alice seemed a little dazed, Frank
was so very plausible. Dick helped him on delightfully.
"I told you, Alice, you'd better put your riding habit in your satchel.
I suppose the horses are gentle, Frank."
"Oh, they don't often throw anyone that's used to them. Naturally,
they're a little gayer in summer when they're in the pasture so much."
Ernest could not resist adding his bit. "I was thrown three times last
week, would you like to try my pony, Katy?"
This revealed the game to Alice.
"You awful fibbers, don't you believe a word they say, girls."
"Honest Injun," said Ernest, "I was."
"It's the truth," Frank confirmed.
Poor little Gertie, who was already beginning to realize that she was
very far from home and in a strange land besides, commenced to cry.
Dr. Morton came promptly to the rescue.
"That'll do, boys. Save your joking till our guests are rested from
their journey at least. Frank, you and Dick look up the trunks while
Ernest and Sherm help me bring up the wagons. It's all right, dear," he
put his arm reassuringly around Gertie, "you shall ride in one of the
most comfortable of vehicles if we haven't a carriage to offer you. You
mustn't pay any attention to their teasing."
After the first two miles of their homeward journey, Chicken Little gave
up her pony to Sherm and climbed in with the girls. Ernest offered to
change saddles, but Sherm declared he didn't mind the side saddle and
cheerfully bore all the jokes the party cut at his expense. Dr. Morton
watched him approvingly. "Good stuff," he said to himself, as Sherm
returned the sallies without wincing. The boy's long legs dangling from
the side saddle were a comical sight. Sherm, if not quite so tall as
Ernest, was rather better proportioned and delightfully supple and
muscular. He was the same matter-of-fact, straight-forward boy he had
always been, but his father's long illness had sobered him, though he
could be hilarious, as he was proving now.
"Say, Sherm," Katy prodded, "why don't you borrow Jane's riding skirt
too?"
"Yes, Sherm, go the lengths--you'd make a beautiful girl," teased Alice.
Sherm laughed. "Chicken Little may have something to say to that!"
"I thought you'd be making excuses."
Sherm was not to be bluffed. "Not much, hand it over, Chicken Little."
"You never can get into it, Sherm."
"What'll you bet?"
"It'll be too small around the waist."
Dr. Morton stopped and Jane hastily slipped off the skirt, presenting
rather a funny appearance herself with her habit basque and the blue
lawn dress showing beneath. Sherm dismounted, turning Calico over to
Ernest to hold. The entire party shouted when Jane reached up on tiptoe
to throw the clumsy skirt over his head. Sherm neglected to hold it, and
the shot in the hem promptly dropped it to the ground.
"Gee," exclaimed Sherm, "the cranky thing seems to have a mind of its
own."
"I don't know what the girls want to wear the pesky things for,"
grumbled Ernest.
"They don't want to wear them--but their pernickety brothers and fathers
and husbands consider them modest," Alice hit back promptly.
"I consider them very dangerous," said Dr. Morton.
While this bantering was going on, Chicken Little was vainly endeavoring
to fasten the band around Sherm's waist.
"You'll just have to squeeze in, Sherm. I can never make it meet," she
giggled.
"I'm squeezing in, I tell you."
With a triumphant pull, Jane got the band buttoned and Sherm heaved a
sigh of relief--a disastrous sigh--it sent the button flying and the
weighted skirt once more slid to the ground.
"Drat it!" Sherm groaned.
"Now, you said you'd wear it. Don't let him back out, Chicken Little,"
Katy urged.
"Who said anything about backing out?"
"You'll have to get a string, Jane. Haven't you a piece in your pocket,
Frank?"
Frank produced the string and by dint of using it generously, the skirt
was finally secured and Sherm still allowed some breathing room.
But the girls were not yet satisfied. Katy insisted upon lending him her
leghorn hat and Alice contributed a veil. Gertie offered a hair ribbon
which Chicken Little slyly pinned to the collar of Sherm's coat.
He was a sight for the gods when he finally remounted. But he carried it
off with a dash, assuming various kittenish airs and coquetries, even
waving saucily at two cowboys who passed them and turned to stare in
bewilderment at his bizarre costume.
The ride home passed quickly with all this fun. Gertie cheered up and
enjoyed the prairie sights as much as the others. Gertie seemed the same
little girl of three years before except for her added inches, but Katy
had many little grown-up airs and graces and evidently felt the
importance of her fourteen years.
"Almost fifteen," she answered Dr. Morton when he inquired her age. The
two girls were dressed alike still, but Katy managed in some subtle way
to give her clothes a different air from Gertie's. "I don't know just
what the difference is," Marian remarked to Alice a day or two after
their coming, "but Katy is stylish and Gertie demurely sweet in the
self-same dress."
"Personality will out, even in children," Alice replied. "They are both
unusually bright and well brought up, but Katy is ambitious and likes to
cut a bit of a dash, and Gertie doesn't. She is a home and mother girl.
I am amazed that she screwed up her courage to come so far without her
mother. I fear she is already a trifle homesick, though she is enjoying
every minute, and is enchanted with the chickens and pups and all this
outdoor life."
Chicken Little found out these things more gradually. On the long ride
home from the station they chattered busily. All three felt a little shy
for the first minutes but there was so much to tell. Katy had finished
her freshman year in the High School and spun great tales of their
doings. Carol had graduated the week before.
"He is awfully handsome, Chicken Little. All the girls are mashed on
him."
"Are what, Katy?" demanded Alice who had been listening to Dick and Dr.
Morton with one ear open for the girl's confidences. She felt rather
responsible to Mrs. Halford for Katy and Gertie.
Katy colored. "I don't care, Alice, that's what all the girls say, and I
can't be goody-goody and proper all the time."
"All right, Katy, if you think Mother likes that kind of slang, I don't
mind."
Katy didn't say anything further to Alice, but when she resumed her
story to Jane, she said: "Well, I don't care what you call it, but they
all are! And he just smiles in that lazy way of his and doesn't put
himself out for anybody. He didn't even take a girl to the senior party,
and lots of the Senior girls had to go in a bunch because they didn't
have an escort."
"But he had awfully good marks," added Gertie, "and Prof. Slocum said he
could have been Valedictorian just as well as not if he had tried a
little harder."
"That's the trouble--he's too lazy to try. I guess if he goes to the
Naval Academy as he wants to, he'll have to get over being lazy." Katy
evidently wasted no sympathy on Carol.
The mention of the Naval Academy fired Jane. She shouted the news to
Ernest who was some distance ahead with Sherm.
"Yes, Sherm's just told me," he called back, "wouldn't it be scrumptious
if we both got to go?"
"Oh, is Ernest going?" Katy and Alice and Dick all exclaimed nearly in
unison.
Chicken Little told them all about Ernest's plans and about the Captain.
Katy wished to call on this fascinating individual immediately. But Dr.
Morton suggested that he thought they would all be tired enough to rest
for the remainder of the day by the time they arrived at the ranch. They
were, but not too tired to enjoy Mrs. Morton's hearty country supper.
Dick ate hot biscuit and creamed potatoes and fried chicken till Alice
declared she shouldn't have the face to stay a month, if he gorged like
that all the time.
"You'll stop keeping tab on his appetite before you have been here many
days, Alice. You'll be busy satisfying your own. You will find country
air a marvellous tonic," Dr. Morton assured her.
They were all amused to see Katy looking in shocked amazement at Gertie
who had just been persuaded to have a second heaping saucer of
raspberries and cream. To be sure, Katy herself had had two drumsticks
and a breast. But she considered being served twice to dessert away from
home highly improper.
"I wish it were a little later in the season so Ernest could bring us in
quail for you," said Mrs. Morton.
"Quail?" Dick's face lighted. "Is the hunting still good around here?"
"Excellent for quail and prairie chicken, and the plover are plentiful
at certain seasons," Dr. Morton replied.
"They found two deer on the creek last winter," added Ernest.
"Yes, there are a few strays left but the day for them has practically
gone by."
"Dick, if you go hunting you've got to take me." Alice put her hands on
her husband's shoulders and rested her chin on his hair.
"Barkus is willing if you can stand the tramp."
"We don't tramp, we drive. It's a trifle too early for hunting, but by
the latter part of next week, you might try it. You can take the boys
and spring wagon and have an all-day picnic. I can spare them, and
Ernest for a guide."
"Can we all go?" Katy started up excitedly.
"Of course, I can shoot a little," Chicken Little sounded patronizing.
"Yes, Chicken Little can shoot but she never hits anything--she always
shuts her eyes before she pulls the trigger," Ernest called her down
promptly.
"It's no such thing, Ernest Morton, I killed a quail once, didn't I,
Father?"
"Dick, if you'll come and unrope our trunks, I think we'd better be
getting our things out," said Alice an hour later.
"Yours to command, Captain. I am perishing to have Chicken Little see my
present."
"Yes, Jane, what do you think? Dick had to go and pick you out a gift
all by himself--he wasn't satisfied with my efforts. And he has the
impudence to insist that you will like his best."
"We've got a package for you, too, but I don't know what's in it. Mother
wouldn't let us see. Let's go unpack quick, Gertie, and find out."
"And I want to show my trousseau! Shall I get it out to-night, Mrs.
Morton, or wait till morning?"
"To-night, Alice," spoke up Marian, "I want to see it and I'll be busy
in the morning. I am pining to see some pretty clothes."
Dick had already vanished into the upper regions and he called down
airily: "Doors open, ladies. World renowned aggregation of feminine
wearing apparel, including one pair of the very latest hoops and the
youngest thing in bustles, now on exhibition."
Mrs. Morton looked shocked, and Marian and Alice tried to control their
amusement. "The heathen, I warned him to be good." Alice laughed in
spite of herself with an apologetic glance at Mrs. Morton. The girls had
bolted upstairs at the first words of Dick's invitation.
"Come on, Mother, don't mind Dick's nonsense," said Marian, linking her
arm in hers and gently drawing her up. "It will do you good to see
Alice's pretty things."
Dick held the door open for them with a deep salaam. Alice held up a
finger warningly with an imperceptible gesture in Mrs. Morton's
direction. He shrugged his shoulders repentantly.
"Now, Alice, if you'll just dig out my particular parcel I'll vamoose.
Women complain that men never take an interest in their affairs and then
if a misguided chap tries to act intelligent, he is snubbed." Dick's
tone sounded injured.
Alice kissed the tip of his ear and shoved him out of the way. "You're
so big, Dick, there's never room for anyone else when you're around."
Alice deftly opened trays and lids, pulling out protecting papers; she
handed Dick a large flat parcel.
Dick received it with his hand on his heart, then striking an oratorical
attitude, addressed Jane in the formal tone he used in court.
"Ladies, Miss Chicken Little Jane Morton, I have the great honor on this
suspicious occasion to present to you on behalf of my unworthy self, a
slight testimonial of my deep respect and undying affection--Alice, stop
winking at Marian--Mrs. Morton, is it fitting for a wife to stop the
flow of her husband's eloquence by winking? I wish you'd take Alice in
hand. I think she needs some lessons in the proprieties. As I was
saying, I wish to present this trifle to you, and the only expression of
gratitude I desire in return, is thirty kisses to be delivered one
daily, on or before the twelfth hour of each day, to which witness my
seal and hand."
With another bow, he resigned the parcel to Chicken Little.
She promptly tendered one kiss in advance. Then stripped off the papers
with eager fingers. A charming white leghorn hat appeared. It was faced
with pale blue and trimmed with knots of apple blossoms and black velvet
ribbon.
"How charming!" exclaimed Mrs. Morton.
"Dick, I didn't suppose you had such good taste!" added Marian.
"Try it on quick, Chicken Little."
Chicken Little's shining eyes and clear, fair skin fitted like a charm
under the pale blue.
Dick was jubilant. "I saw that hat in a shop window and I thought it
looked exactly like Chicken Little. Who says a man can't pick out a
hat?"
He departed without waiting for any disparaging remarks.
Alice's present came next, a charming muslin with sash and hair ribbons
the exact shade of the blue hat facing.
"If it only fits, Jane. I left some to let out in the hem, but you are
bigger every way than I thought. I tried it on Katie."
"Changing it a little at the waist will make it perfect," Marian
reassured her.
"Oh, I am so glad it is snug, and just the right length, Alice.
Mother--" Chicken Little stopped suddenly, she couldn't be criticising
mother before company. "You see I grow so dreadfully fast that Mother
has to make everything too big so it'll last a while."
Marian supplemented this explanation later to Alice.
"Poor child, Mother Morton does make her clothes too big! And it doesn't
do a bit of good for they hang on her the whole season and by the next
they're either worn or faded--and she generally manages to out-grow
them, in spite of their bigness."
The girl's parcel was found to contain candy and a duck of a fan.
But Alice's wedding things soon put everything else in the shade. The
dainty sets of underwear with their complicated puffs and insertings,
frilled petticoats, silk and muslin and poplin gowns, hats and parasols,
lay in a rainbow colored heap on the bed and chairs.
"Alice," said Marian, caressing some of the dainty lingerie, "who is
going to iron all these puffs and ruffles? It would take hours to do
them right, especially the petticoats."
"I know, Marian--I asked Aunt Clara the same question. And do you know
what I have done?"
Her audience looked interested.
"I just went down town the minute I got to Centerville and got some nice
strong muslin and I've been making it up perfectly plain except for a
tiny edge. They are heaps more comfortable--and I wear these others for
best. Why, I couldn't keep a maid and hurl all that stuff at her every
week!"
"Are they wearing hoops pretty generally?" Mrs. Morton inquired as Alice
laughingly held a pair up for inspection.
"Yes, and bustles too. See this buff poplin with the panniers just has
to have a bustle. Thank goodness they're young yet, as Dick says, but I
suppose they'll keep on getting bigger."
"Oh, I should think they'd be so hot and horrid."
"They are, but the hoops are delightfully cool, only you have to be on
your guard with the treacherous things or they swing up in front when
you sit down, in a most mortifying fashion."
"I have a pair to wear with my muslin dresses--it makes them stand out
beautifully," said Katy complacently. "But Mother wouldn't let Gertie
have any. She said she was too young."
"I didn't want the old things," Gertie protested. "And you wouldn't have
got yours if you hadn't teased perfectly awful, and I heard Mother say
she guessed you'd soon be sick enough of them."
"I agree entirely with your mother, Gertie, I consider them unsuitable
for little girls. But they do set off a handsome dress to advantage. I
remember during the war we used to wear such large ones we could hardly
get through a door with them."
"Mother Morton, I bet you were a lot more frivolous than we are now."
Marian put her hand lovingly on the wrinkled one that was smoothing the
folds of a rich silk.
Mrs. Morton smiled. "Well, we had our pretty things. Alice's dresses are
lovely, but she hasn't anything more elegant than my second day dress.
It was a brown and silver silk brocade with thread lace chemisette and
under sleeves. And my next best was apple green and pink changeable,
trimmed in yards and yards of narrow black velvet ribbon all sewed on by
hand."
"How I should love to have seen them!" Alice smiled wistfully. "You know
I didn't have any of my mother's things."
"Come on, girls, it's getting late, let's help Alice put her treasures
away. They couldn't be nicer, Alice, and I think you are going to be a
very happy woman to make up for that desolate girlhood of yours."
Marian was already folding the garments. They were soon laid away snugly
in trunk and closet and drawers, and the whole family packed off to bed
to be ready for the early farm breakfast on the morrow.