POLLY ENCOUNTERS THE SERVANT QUESTION.
As time went on, Polly's first impression of the sisters was
unchanged. In fact, the girls all agreed in pronouncing Jessie "a
dear," and she was at once made to feel at home with the V, which
hospitably extended its arms to take her in. But with Katharine it
was a different matter. Critical of others, and constantly
studying the effect of all that she herself said or did, she was
rather a damper on the good times of the girls. Fortunately, she
usually scorned them as children, and spent much of her time with
her mates in the fashionable boarding-school at which she and her
sister were day pupils. And yet, she was not to blame for this
artificial side of her nature. At heart she was as true and sweet
a girl as Molly herself; but, bred up in the atmosphere of her
western city home where there was but one end in view, to struggle
up to the top of the social scale, if need be, over the bodies of
one's dearest friends, what wonder was it that her growth towards
womanhood was cramped by being forced out of its natural beauty
into the artificial lines of fashionable society. But it was not
yet too late to undo the harm, for a generous, warm heart lay
under her affected indifference and ambition; and her parents had
been wiser than they realized, when they sent their daughters East
to be educated, and left them in the care of the motherly woman
whose social position was too assured to have her feel the need
for striving, and who, like Mrs. Adams, believed that a woman's
highest life lay in her home and children, and that society was
incidental, rather than the main end in view.
There were times, and they were by no means rare, when Katharine's
native sweetness showed itself, and then the girls welcomed her to
their circle. Florence was her favorite among them, while she
openly courted Alan's favor, to the amusement of the boy's mother,
who smiled quietly to herself over his unconsciousness of her
attempts and his continued, unswerving devotion to Polly.
"But what I don't understand," she said to Florence, one day, when
they were out for a walk together, "is how you girls ever happened
to pick up Jean Dwight."
"Pick her up? What do you mean?" asked Florence, meeting her
friend's look with a glance which was almost defiant, for she was
too loyal to Jean to fail to notice the scorn in Katharine's tone
and manner.
"You know what I mean, Florence, so don't pretend to be as absurd
as Polly Adams and Molly are. Of course you and I both know that
you three girls could have the pick of the town, if you chose; and
I don't see why you take up with the daughter of a carpenter."
Polly had called Florence "a flat," but there was no suggestion of
weakness in her reply now. On the contrary, she drew up her small
figure to its full height, and spoke with a simple, childish
dignity which might have put to shame her companion.
"You needn't say any more about it, Katharine. It is just because
we do have the pick of the town that we have taken up with Jean
Dwight. At least, she is too much of a lady to slander her friends
behind their backs, even if she is only a carpenter's daughter."
"Don't be so crushing, Florence. I only wanted to know what was
the reason you were with her so much," answered Katharine, trying
to pass off the matter lightly, although she was privately
resolving to cultivate the acquaintance of this girl, of whom her
friends were so fond.
One bright day in early October, the V had walked up from school
together as far as Molly's, where they settled themselves on the
piazza to talk over the doings of the day. Katharine and Jessie
had joined them, and they sat there chatting till the clock struck
five. At the sound, Polly sprang up.
"Oh, dear! I ought to have gone home long ago," she said
regretfully. "Is anybody else coming?"
"I'm going to stay a little longer," answered Jean. "Wait just a
few minutes, Poll."
"I can't, Jean; mamma will be expecting me." And Polly picked up
her hat and started for home, followed by Alan who escorted her to
the gate.
She was surprised, when she entered the house, to find the lower
rooms deserted and in some confusion. Her astonishment was
increased when, on going up-stairs, she saw her mother with her
bonnet on, busy in packing her small satchel. Mrs. Adams's red
eyes and white face told her daughter that something was amiss.
"So you have come, at last!" she exclaimed, with an air of relief,
as she caught sight of Polly in the door; "I was just thinking
that I should have to send Mary after you."
"What's the matter, mamma; are you going away?" Polly asked
anxiously.
"For a little while, dear. We have had a telegram that Uncle
Charlie is very, very ill. And Aunt Jane and I are going to New
York to-night."
So Aunt Jane was going too! Polly was relieved at that. Uncle
Charlie she scarcely knew, so her main anxiety was for her mother,
of whose devotion to this only brother she was well aware. "Is he
going to die, mamma?" she asked slowly.
The tears were falling on the toilet-case in Mrs. Adams's hand,
but she answered steadily,--
"I hope not, dear; but they are very anxious about him. I am sorry
to leave you all alone here with papa, and he is away so much of
the time, too."
"Don't you worry about me, Jerusalem," answered Polly
courageously, though her heart sank, a little, as she thought of
the lonely evenings.
"I presume I shan't be gone long," said Mrs. Adams thoughtfully;
"but it is so uncertain. If only Aunt Jane could be here, it would
be a comfort to you."
But Polly shook her head violently.
"I'd rather be alone, mamma. I shall get along beautifully, and
you've no idea what good care I'll take of papa."
Mrs. Adams was crossing the room to get her slippers. As she
passed Polly, she stooped to kiss her.
"And you have no idea," she said, "what a comfort it is to me that
you take it so bravely. I know it will be forlorn for you, but
there isn't any help for it. Papa is getting ready, now, to drive
us to the station, for it is almost time for the train."
As she spoke, the doctor's voice was heard from below, calling to
them to hurry; Aunt Jane swept out from her room; Mrs. Adams
snapped the fastener of her bag and turned to say good by to her
daughter. Polly went down-stairs behind her and stood in the door,
looking after them with rather a long face, though she waved her
hand bravely until they were around the corner.
Then she went back up-stairs, feeling as if, all at once, an
earthquake had struck their quiet home. She and her mother had
rarely been separated, and the suddenness and sadness of the
present summons only added to the loneliness. The house was in
that state of disorder which always follows a hurried packing, and
Polly went mechanically up and down, putting the rooms in order
while, in imagination, she followed the travellers to the train.
Then, when, all was done, she went into her own room and sat down
to consider the situation. Taken all in all, it was not an
encouraging picture that the next few days presented. Her father
was liable to be called away at any hour of the night, leaving her
alone with Mary who slept at the far end of the house; there would
be the lonely hours when she was out of school; the next day was
Saturday--what should she do with herself? The prospect was too
much for poor Polly and, throwing herself down on her bed, she
gave herself up to the luxury of a hearty cry.
"I wish I were dead now,
Or else in my bed now,
I'd cover my head now,
And have a good cry."
"Is this what you call a hospitable welcome?" asked a sudden voice.
Polly raised her head in surprise, and saw Molly standing in the
doorway, with a smile on her face and a great bundle in her hand.
Polly sprang up and threw her arms around her friend excitedly.
"Oh, Molly Hapgood! where did you come from? I never, never was so
glad to see anybody in all my life."
"If that's a fact," said Molly coolly, "why didn't you come down-
stairs to meet me, and not make me hunt for you, all over the
house?"
"How could I meet you, when I didn't know you were coming?"
demanded Polly.
"Didn't you?" asked Molly, surprised in her turn. "Why, your
mother just stopped at our house and told me that she had to go
away for a few days, and you wanted me to come and stay with you
till she came back. She said you'd tell me all about it."
"Isn't that just like her!" exclaimed Polly rapturously. "And
you're going to stay here all the time? How perfectly splendid!"
"Where's she gone?" asked Molly, as she unpacked her brown paper
Saratoga.
"Uncle Charlie, in New York, is so ill they've sent for mamma and
Aunt Jane," answered Polly, with sudden seriousness, "and they
don't know anything more than that. It said--the telegram, I mean--
'Charles very ill, come at once,' and mamma is dreadfully
worried. Of course she doesn't know how long she'll be gone. Oh, I
am so glad you've come!" And Polly, with the tears still damp upon
her cheeks, pranced excitedly up and down the room.
"You don't know how lonesome it was going to be," she went on,
when she had quieted down a little. "Now, if only Uncle Charlie
will get well, I don't care much how long they're gone. We'll just
have an elegant time."
"I don't think Katharine liked my coming very well," remarked
Molly, with a giggle, as she pulled out an extra gown and hung it
over the foot of Polly's dainty white and gold bed. "She seems to
think I can't stir, now they are at the house; but I'm not going
to give up all my fun for them. They're nothing but boarders;
'tisn't as if they were on a visit; and Alan can see to them once
in a while. He can't bear Katharine," she continued, after a
pause; "he heard her say to Florence, once, that he was distangy
looking, and he never has forgiven her since. We don't either of
us know just what it means, but he thinks it has something to do
with his nose."
Polly threw herself into a chair and burst out laughing.
"Oh, Molly, Molly! What will you say next? That means
distinguished; it's French, you know." "I don't know anything
about French, Poll; and you needn't laugh at me, for you don't
know much yourself," returned Molly, with some dignity.
"I don't believe Katharine does, either," answered Polly. "The way
I happened to know about that was because she said so to me once,
and I asked mamma what it meant. She says she doesn't think it's
nice for girls to keep putting French and German words into what
they say, for it looks as if they did it to show off. Come on,
let's go down and see what we're going to have for dinner."
Soon after dinner, the doctor went away to his office, and the
girls decided to settle themselves for a quiet visit in front of
the open fire in the parlor. This was their first evening alone
together since Jessie and Katharine had come, and there was much
to be talked over.
"Don't let's have any light but just the fire," Molly suggested.
"Then we'll sit on the rug and have it all to ourselves."
"I can't help feeling as if Aunt Jane were likely to drop in at
any minute, though," Polly remarked. "She doesn't approve of
people's sitting in the dark; she thinks it is lazy."
"She's half way to New York by this time," said Molly; "but I do
wish your mother was here."
"So do I," groaned Polly fervently, as she caught sight of the
empty fire-place, for there was not one single stick on the
andirons.
Now, to lay an open fire ready for the lighting is at once a
science and a fine art, and Polly was by no means versed in the
operation. Why, of all days in the year, this happened to be the
one on which Mrs. Adams had neglected to arrange her usual pile of
round sticks and kindlings and shavings, it would be hard to say.
Some little unexpected call on her time had made her forget this
regular duty, and had left her daughter as hostess to preside over
a cheerless hearthstone.
"What's the trouble?" asked Molly, as she detected the discouraged
ring to her friend's tone. "Don't you know how to lay a fire?"
"I never have laid one, all alone," admitted Polly, whose share in
the matter, it must be confessed, had been to tuck a handful of
soft, light shavings under the andirons and apply the match.
"But," she added valiantly; "I've watched mamma often enough, and
I know I can do it. We must have a fire; the furnace one is 'most
out, for Mary forgot to put in any coal, and it's just freezing
here. You sit down, and I'll go get some wood."
She came back in a few moments, tugging a great basket of wood,
which she arranged in an orderly, solid pile across the andirons,
much as she might have placed it, had she been packing it in a
woodshed. Then she added a generous handful of shavings, and
touched it off with a match.
"There!" said she, with a prolonged accent of contentment; "you
see it's easy enough. It will all be going, in a minute."
"Don't you be too sure," returned Molly, doubtfully eyeing the
shavings which flashed into flame and quickly died away, leaving
the wood unscorched.
"What do you suppose is the matter?" said Polly, rather annoyed at
her lack of success.
"Seems to me you've put the wood in too tight," said Molly, arming
herself with the shovel, and trying to pry the sticks apart.
"Perhaps I have," said Polly meekly.
Regardless of soot and ashes, she pulled the wood out on the rug,
and began again. This time she arranged it cris-crossing as
regularly as the walls of a log-house, and, having exhausted her
supply of shavings, she lighted a newspaper and thrust it into the
middle opening. The girls watched it with eager eyes. It blazed up
like the shavings and, like them, burned out, leaving only the
blackened cinders, with here and there a line of red, to show
where an edge had been. This was discouraging; the room was
uncomfortably cool, and they were wasting their entire evening in
preparing for their talk.
"The third time conquers," said Molly, laughing, as she saw Polly
tearing down her log cabin. "What are you going to do next, Poll?"
"Lay it yourself, if you want to," retorted Polly, showing more
heat than the fire had done.
"I never did such a thing in my life," Molly assured her. "Can't
Mary do it?"
"I don't know," said Polly, dropping back from her knees until she
sat on her heels; "anyway, she's so cross I don't dare ask her."
"What makes your mother keep her if she's so cross?" inquired
Molly, leaning forward to blow the last spark which still lingered
on the newspaper.
"Because she can't get anything else," answered Polly,
unconsciously touching the key-note of the whole servant question.
"Well," remarked Molly, after a pause, while Polly again wrestled
with the fire, "we shall catch our deaths of cold here, Polly; we
may as well go to bed, for this isn't going to burn to-night."
"I'm sorry, Molly," her hostess said penitently, as they went up-
stairs after leaving a note on the table addressed to the doctor,
and containing the simple but alarming statement: "Good night;
we've gone to bed to keep from freezing."
"I don't care a bit," said Molly. "I like to talk after I'm in
bed, and we shall have ever and ever so long before we get
sleepy."
At breakfast, the next morning, the girls had to bear with much
teasing from the doctor on the subject of their struggles, the
evening before; and, as he rose from the table, he suggested that
they should ask Alan to give them a few lessons in making
bonfires.
"I shan't be back to lunch," he added, as he put his head through
the dining-room door again; "but I'd like dinner on time to-night,
surely, for I must go down to the hospital before my evening
hour."
"I'll tell Mary," said Polly, jumping up to follow him to the
front door, as was her mother's custom.
"Now," she continued, as she went back to the table, "what let's
do all day?"
Their plans were soon formed: a drive with Job in the morning,
for, of late, after many cautions, Polly had been allowed to drive
the old creature; and in the afternoon they would go to see Jean.
"I wonder if Alan wouldn't go with us, this morning," said Polly.
"I think he'd like to," answered Molly. "He caught cold a week
ago, and since then he's been so stiff that he hasn't been
anywhere but just to school and back; and I should think he would
be glad to get away from Katharine. He says he gets so tired of
her."
"We'll ask him, then," said Polly. "I think 'twould be a good idea
to start early, so I'll go out to tell Mary about lunch, and have
John harness right away."
She was gone for some time, and when she came back to Molly in the
sitting-room, her face was flushed and her eyes were shining with
an angry gleam.
"Why, Polly?" said Molly, raising her eyebrows inquiringly.
"It's that horrid Mary!" responded Polly, casting herself down on
the sofa with unnecessary vigor. "I don't see what we are going to
do, Molly Hapgood; I've a good mind to send you right straight off
home."
"You've done it before now," Molly began teasingly, but seeing the
real trouble in her friend's face, she relented and asked, "What's
gone wrong, Polly?"
"It hasn't gone, it's only going," answered Polly lugubriously.
"It's Mary. She says mamma has been promising her a vacation for a
long time, and that she's going to take it now, for it's such a
good time when part of the family are away. I told her she
mustn't; but she says she's going to, or else she'll go for good.
I don't dare let her do that, but whatever am I going to do,
Molly? She's going right off now, and you'd better go home to
stay." And Polly rose and stalked tragically up and down the room,
with her fingers buried in her curls.
Molly surveyed her in pity; then she rose to meet the emergency
like a heroine.
"I'm not going to go home one single step, Polly," she declared.
"I'll stay here and help you through with it."
"But you'll starve, Molly," remonstrated her hostess tearfully.
"Nonsense!" responded Molly. "Now you just sit down and don't go
rushing round like this, and we'll talk the matter over, and take
an account of stock."
This was encouraging, and Polly felt her spirits coming up again.
"Well?" she asked, as she seated herself on the sofa once more.
"In the first place," said Molly, with a calmness born of
inexperience, "we'll tell her to go. I have heard mamma say, often
and often, that it's easier to do the work yourself than to have a
girl around that's restless and wanting to be off all the time."
There was something so impressive in Molly's manner, as she
delivered herself of this sentiment, that Polly gazed at her with
a new respect. She had never dreamed that her friend knew so much
about housekeeping.
"And so," Molly went on, "we'll just get rid of her and do the
work ourselves. I've always been dying to try it, and this is a
splendid chance. We won't do much sweeping and dusting, for it
will only be for a day or two--How long was she going to be gone,
Polly?"
"A week," answered Polly briefly.
"A whole week!" Molly's face fell. Then she resumed, "Well, we
shall get on, in some way or other."
"We needn't do much but get the meals and wash the dishes," said
Polly, with renewed courage.
"We shouldn't have time, if we wanted to," returned Molly. "Now,
Polly, the question is: how much do you know about cooking?"
"Not very much," Polly confessed. "I can boil eggs and make toast,
and I have made coffee, once or twice, just for fun."
"That's good," said Molly enthusiastically; "you're a treasure,
Polly. I can do codfish and milk, and make molasses candy, and fry
griddle-cakes. We shan't have such a bad time, after all."
"We have ever so many cook-books," suggested Polly. "Can't we do
something with them?"
"I'm afraid they'd be tough, unless we boiled them a good while,"
giggled Molly. "But really, Poll, we can work out of them; try
lots of new things, you know, to astonish your father. What does
he like?"
"Welsh rarebit," responded Polly promptly; "and baked macaroni,
and lemon pudding, and--"
"Not too much, Polly; we can't do all that at once. We'll try
something new every meal. Oh, say! don't let's tell your father
Mary has gone. We'll have dinner all ready when he comes, and not
let him know that we cooked it ourselves, until he's eaten it.
Then we'll tell him and surprise him."
"Well," assented Polly, with a vague misgiving that her father
might discover the change of cook; "I think it will be fun, Molly;
and then, if we get hard up, there are plenty of crackers and
preserves to fall back on."
"We shan't want them," said Molly scornfully. "I know we shall
have a great deal better things to eat than if Mary stayed.
Servant girls are so unreliable!" she added, with a whimsical
imitation of Aunt Jane's manner.
"I'll tell you one thing," said Polly, with decision, "we must not
tell the girls or Alan, for if they knew about it, they would
invite themselves to meals. If we cook for us three, that is all
we can do."
"What if they come here to see us?" asked Molly.
"We'll lock the door and hide," replied Polly inhospitably. "There
are times when company is a nuisance,--I don't mean you, Molly,
for you are head housekeeper, and I couldn't get along without
you. But come, we'll go up and put our room in order, while we are
waiting for her to get out of the way."
At this very moment Mrs. Adams, one hundred and fifty miles away,
was congratulating herself that she had left her little daughter
with such a competent servant who, though far from amiable, yet
was quite capable of taking the entire charge of the house during
her absence. Perhaps it was just as well that she was not within
hearing of the conversation which the girls had just been holding.