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_Young Master Kirke._
_The Merry Five._
_The Happy Six._
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[Illustration: “THE LAD DASHED FORWARD”
_See Page 55_]
_THE SILVER GATE SERIES_
THE HAPPY SIX
BY
PENN SHIRLEY
AUTHOR OF “LITTLE MISS WEEZY” “LITTLE MISS WEEZY’S BROTHER”
“LITTLE MISS WEEZY’S SISTER” “YOUNG MASTER
KIRKE” “THE MERRY FIVE” ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
BOSTON:
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY LEE AND SHEPARD
_All Rights Reserved_
THE HAPPY SIX
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. FIVE AND ONE 7
II. SHOT AND SING WUNG 15
III. WHO WAS THE THIEF? 31
IV. KIRKE’S BRAVE DEED 44
V. OFF FOR NEW YORK 59
VI. OFF FOR EUROPE 78
VII. TEN AND ONE 93
VIII. ELEVEN IN FRANCE 104
IX. THE MYSTERIOUS BAG 115
X. WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 130
XI. WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES! 144
XII. THE VERY HAPPY SIX 159
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
“The lad dashed forward” _Frontispiece._
“‘Oh! I am ever so sorry,’ said Weezy” _Page_ 87
“Here I is, Mamma” 142
“I’ve found it!” 169
THE HAPPY SIX
CHAPTER I
FIVE AND ONE
“The Happy Six” grew out of “The Merry Five,” and this was the way of
it:--
The Merry Five, as you may remember, were Molly, Kirke, and Weezy Rowe,
and their twin neighbors, Paul and Pauline Bradstreet; and they lived
in Silver Gate City, in sunny California.
Well,--to go on with the story,--one May morning before school-time,
as Kirke was amusing his little brother upon the veranda, Molly came
rushing out in great excitement, crying,--
“O Kirke, you can’t guess what’s going to happen to The Merry Five!”
Kirke, engaged in attaching a string to the neck of a speckled horned
toad, answered coolly without looking up,--
“No; and I never said I could. Fortune-telling is not my trade.”
“What _is_ your trade, you funny boy?” asked little Miss Weezy,
suddenly appearing from the garden.
“Just at present I am in the harness business,” he returned, as he tied
together the ends of the cord.
Yellow-haired Donald, on his hands and knees at his brother’s feet,
watched the proceeding with deep interest, for this toad was to be his
little pony.
“In the teasing business you mean, Kirke Rowe,” retorted Molly, tossing
back her long auburn braid with some impatience. “You want me to think
you don’t care what happens to The Merry Five.”
“Whisper it to _me_, Molly, please do!” implored Weezy, her dainty
sea-shell ear close to her sister’s mouth. “I can keep a secret all to
myself.”
“It’s not a secret,” cried Molly, waltzing the child down the veranda.
“It’s not a secret, but Kirke needn’t listen.” And she chanted gayly at
the top of her voice,--
“We’re going to Europe, to Europe, to Europe,
The Merry Five are going to Europe!”
This aroused Kirke.
“Molly Rowe, what do you mean?” he cried, nearly letting the toad
escape, harness and all. “Who said such a thing?”
“Well, Captain Bradstreet is going, anyway. There’s some trouble in
Paris about one of his vessels: he’s obliged to go in June.”
“But what has that to do with us, I’d like to inquire?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing at all! Only we’re going with him; that is, I
almost know we are. The doctor said yesterday that papa needed a sea
voyage, and mud-baths, and things. And mamma said just now, ‘Yes,
Edward, you ought to go to Europe.’ And when mamma says that”--
“I declare, Molly Rowe, it does look like it! June, did you say?”
“Is it far to Europe?” asked Weezy anxiously; “farther than Mexico?”
“Farther than Mexico? Why, you little goosie, Mexico is within sight of
us, and Europe is ’way off to the other side of the world.”
“Truly? Then I’m not going to any old Europe!”
And Weezy’s lip began to quiver.
“Not with papa and mamma, darling?” said Molly. “They’ll go with us
and so will Captain Bradstreet, and they’ll all take care of The Merry
Five.”
“Here’s three cheers for Europe!” shouted Kirke, swinging his cap. “And
hurrah! Three cheers for The Merry Five!”
“Hurrah! _Free chairs for Mary Five!_” echoed little Donald, flapping
his arms like a windmill in a gale. “Hurrah! Free chairs for Mary Five!”
It was so droll to hear him that his listeners all laughed: and who can
wonder?
“Bravo, Don!” roared Kirke, tossing the little cheerer over his
shoulder. “If your _Mary Five_ wants _free chairs_ she ought to have
’em!”
“So I say,” said Molly, drying her eyes. “And a little boy that can
shout for her like that deserves a reserved seat!”
“Let’s give him one--a reserved seat in our club,” returned Kirke
good-naturedly. “He ought to come into The Merry Five.”
“Only with him, you see, we shouldn’t be The Merry Five any longer,”
demurred Molly; “there’d be one to carry.”
“Then we might call ourselves The Merry _Six_: how is that?” amended
Kirke, setting Donald down again. “What do you say to The Merry Six?”
“The Merry Half Dozen would be nicer, _I_ think,” put in Weezy; “a
great deal nicer.”
“Nonsense, Weezy,” retorted Kirke, “that sounds like a nestful of eggs!
Let’s have it The Merry Six.”
“Why not The _Happy_ Six?” asked Molly, with a roguish smile. “Let’s be
happy now, just for a change.”
“Agreed, Molly, I’m willing, if Paul and Pauline are.”
“So am I, too,” assented Miss Weezy, though secretly preferring a
half-dozen to six.
Paul was just now away on a visit, but when they proposed the question
to Pauline that afternoon, she received “little Number Six” into
the club with open arms, and declared that his extreme youth was no
objection whatever. She had heard that as people grow older, they
always approve of having young members come into their clubs. She was
sure Paul would welcome Master Donald cordially, and would agree with
them all that the new name proposed by Molly was exactly the thing.
Thus it happened that Donald and his “Mary Five” became straightway
“The Happy Six;” and this is a true account of the transaction; though,
to be sure, it had not been settled yet that the club was going to
Europe.
“But what difference does that make?” asked Pauline. “Can’t we be The
Happy Six, all the same, wherever we are? I move that we try to be
happy right here in California till the middle of June, anyway, and
then”--
“I second the move,” responded Molly.
“’Tis a vote,” cried Kirke and little Number Six in chorus.
And now, in the chapters that follow, you will hear more of this new
brother-and-sisterhood, and will learn of its whereabouts and all its
proceedings.