_A STREET LEADING TO THE CAPITOL_
And when breakfast was over there was still no Joy.
Finally one of the porters was found who said he had seen a girl leave
the hotel about seven o'clock. "She walked up the street in front of
you, up toward the Capitol."
"There, didn't I tell you! Joy's all right. Nothing can happen to her
here," said Shirley reassuringly.
"Let's walk up that way. We'll probably meet her coming back." Kit
looked anxiously toward the hill. "I can't imagine why she stayed so
long. She can't get inside any of the buildings."
"Maybe I won't have something to say to that girl!" exclaimed Bet
angrily. "She hasn't any right to run off like this and frighten us."
And if Bet had met her at that minute, the girl would probably have
been told many things about herself.
But they did not meet Joy. There was no sign of her on the street
leading up to the Capitol, and no sign of her on the grounds.
Where was Joy?
Even the Judge looked worried. "Not that I think anything will happen
to her, but I'm responsible and I wish she had not gone out by
herself," he declared.
The girls were seeing the Capitol in a very different way than they had
planned. They were in no mood to be impressed by the majesty of the
building. They were watching for the tiny figure of Joy to appear at
every corner.
"It's no use, we might as well go back to the hotel and wait. Maybe
she's there by this time," suggested Judge Breckenridge.
Still Joy had not returned when the party reached their quarters.
"There may have been an accident!" Bet shivered at the thought. Their
laughing Joy! That would be too terrible to think of.
The Judge was about to notify the authorities when Sam Wilkins the
colored steward on their train, walked in leading Joy, a woe-begone
little creature, tear-stained and tired.
"Why Joy Evans! You----" Then catching sight of the girl's white
face, Bet ran and threw her arms about her. "You darling! We thought
you were lost and you were at the train all the time. Oh, Joy dear!"
Tears came to Bet's eyes.
Joy did not break down and cry again until she had reached her own
room. Then the tears came in a flood.
"Oh, I was so frightened," she sobbed.
When she had quieted down, half an hour later, she told her story. "I
woke up hours and hours before the rest of you and I couldn't sleep.
And when I'm at home I always go walking early in the morning. So I
walked up the street leading to the Capitol."
"Yes, we know. We went up there, thinking we'd meet you coming back.
How did you get lost? The hotel is at the end of the street."
"Just you go up there and look!" Joy's eyes snapped, but in a minute
her sense of humor returned. "I wouldn't have believed it possible to
get lost, for, as you say, the hotel is at the end of the street
leading up there."
"Then what happened?"
"Oh, I'm so dumb!" began Joy.
"Tell us something we don't know!" laughed Kit.
"Well, I didn't look at the name of the street. And that old Capitol!
Girls, I don't care if I never see it again! It stands up there on
that hill as if it were the most important thing in the world, and
streets lead up to it from _everywhere_, like the spokes of a wheel.
_All_ the streets lead to the Capitol!"
"And you didn't know which street you came up?" asked Kit.
"That's it. So I walked down all those streets, up and down and up and
down. Why I've seen that building from every angle. It was terrible!"
"Why didn't you just take a taxi to the hotel?" asked the practical
Shirley.
"Oh, I'm not so dumb. I thought of that!" exclaimed Joy with a toss of
her head. "But the taxi man laughed at me. I didn't know the name of
the hotel or the name of the street, and I'd already told him I didn't
have any money."
"You poor little kid," soothed Bet.
"He finally went away and I saw him make a sign to another taxi driver
as much as to say I was crazy. Then I got frightened for fear they'd
speak to me and laugh some more, so I ran away."
"And did you go down all those streets again?" asked Shirley.
"No, I was tired of that. I'd been on all of them, I guess. Then I
remembered the train at the station, and I walked there."
"Oh Joy! All that long way? You could have taken a taxi there," said
Enid.
"No, I couldn't! I didn't have any money and I wasn't going to be
laughed at any more. I couldn't be sure that Sam was there to pay for
me."
"Well, it's over now, and we'd better go sight-seeing. We've wasted
half the morning," exclaimed Bet sharply.
"I don't want to go sight-seeing!" said Joy decidedly.
"Don't be a spoil-sport, Joy. We're not angry at you or anything. But
we do want to see Washington." Bet's voice was raised to a point where
angry words were apt to come. At a signal from Kit, she quieted down
however.
Kit turned to Joy. "You wouldn't want to leave this city without
seeing everything--the Congressional Library and the Capitol......"
"_Please_ don't take me to the Capitol! I think I'll scream if I ever
lay eyes on that dome again! I've seen it a million times to-day, and
that's plenty."
"All right, you can sit in the car while we take a look at it," laughed
Shirley, patting the still half frightened girl.
Still Joy shook her head. "I can't go!" she finally exclaimed. "The
breakfast at the hotel is over and I'm so hungry I'm weak."
"You poor little girl!" spoke up the Judge with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Enid, you take her down the block to that restaurant and get her a
good breakfast. She'll be ready for anything when she gets back."
"Not the Capitol, Judge! I draw the line at that." She laughed like
the old Joy once more.
Half an hour later Joy returned and announced that even the sight of
the Capitol would not prevent her from accompanying them.
For the rest of the stay in the city she had to put up with a good deal
of teasing, and the Judge noticed that she did not allow the girls to
get out of sight for a moment.
Joy had learned her lesson.
"We're just like tourists," sighed Bet when the day was almost over.
"We've rushed around from one thing to another. I don't like it. My
eyes ache from looking at so many pictures. Imagine two galleries in
one afternoon, besides the White House and the Capitol. That's too
much sight-seeing! I'll be glad when we go."
But the trip down the river to Mount Vernon the next day was enjoyed by
all the girls, and when they caught sight of the old mansion, Bet
cried, "Why, it looks something like Merriweather Manor."
"A little," said Joy, "but I think Merriweather Manor is much nicer."
"Thanks, Joy. I'm always so proud and happy when you girls say you
like my home. To me it's just the loveliest place in the world. I
wouldn't change it for anything modern. Sometimes Auntie Gibbs gets
fussy and says it's too much work."
"Your dear old housekeeper is getting old," said Enid.
"Yes, Auntie Gibbs is almost seventy and Dad wants her to have plenty
of help. But she won't hear of it and she won't retire. So what are
we to do?" said Bet wistfully. "You know Dad and I love Auntie Gibbs
and Uncle Nat as much as if they were really members of our family."
The girls were thrilled as they stepped inside the old mansion. Here
Washington had lived. He once sat at that very table, used those
dishes, drank from those glasses. They could scarcely believe it.
They tried to imagine him as he had been before the responsibilities of
the great war lay heavy on his shoulders. The young Washington, owner
of the estate. There must have been gay parties in this house. Bet
shut her eyes for a second and could see the belles of that day. She
wondered if Lady Betty Merriweather had ever been a guest in the house.
It would not be impossible. She hoped that it was so.
"Some day," said Bet, as they were returning to Washington on the boat,
"let's come and live for a winter in Washington. Then we can see
things thoroughly. This is just skimming the surface. We haven't seen
anything well."
"Oh yes, we have!" laughed Joy. "There's that Capitol. I could draw
it with my eyes shut!"
But the girls were tired enough so that, a few days later, they
welcomed the announcement that they would leave Washington at midnight.
The train with their cozy berths looked good to them and they settled
down for the two days' trip to Arizona. It was good not to have to go
sight-seeing for a while.
Shirley strapped her camera in its case and laid it away. She had
taken so many pictures in Washington that she was tired, for once in
her life.
But that did not last long. Very quickly the nature of the country
changed and they were going through the south-land, where the huts of
the negroes added a picturesque touch to the landscape. Charming
little black-eyed pickaninnies were at the stations and grinned at
Shirley while she took their pictures.
"Girls, I'll have pictures enough for my shop this winter, and for half
a dozen more!" Shirley exclaimed. Shirley was the business girl and
had made a success of a little gift shop in Lynnwood. She had helped
to support her parents and been able to continue at school with her
chums. In this venture, The Merriweather Girls had all joined. They
had worked and planned under the leadership of Colonel Baxter, and the
little shop had given them many interesting adventures.
Shirley had developed a commercial instinct and, together with her
talent for photography, was what the girls liked to call a business
success.
The sameness of the desert country through Texas, the dust and dirt was
a bit trying to the nerves of the girls. But there was no complaint.
They looked ahead to the wonderful experience that would be theirs when
they would leave the train and journey into the cowboy land.
"Kit, do tell us about them," begged Joy.
"I won't do it. You've got your own ideas from the movies and I can't
change them. Now you'll just have to get disappointed. There aren't
any _handsome_ cowboys in my country."
Kit spoke impatiently.
"Isn't Seedy Saunders handsome?" Joy asked again.
Kit shouted with laughter as she brought a picture of the old cowboy to
her mind. He was a small man, bow-legged and thin. A sort of dried-up
desert rat. In looks Seedy was nothing at all. Only when he was in
the saddle did he shine, for he could throw a rope better than anyone
Kit had ever seen, and as for taming a wild horse, there was no better
cowboy in the mountains than this old hand at the game.
"No, of course Seedy isn't handsome. He's old, and plain and common
looking," Kit answered.
"I'll not believe it until I see one. For I'm very sure that some of
the cowboys on the screen are the real thing. Just see how they can
ride and throw the ropes and catch the cows by the horns! Why, they're
wonderful!"
Bet Baxter laughed. "Go on, Joy, rave some more! And don't worry,
we'll find a handsome cowboy if we have to import one from the movies
for you."
"Thanks, Bet," laughed Joy, blowing her a kiss from the ends of her
fingers. "I'll pick my own. Kit is trying to discourage me, but I'll
find a handsome cowboy. You just wait and see!"