Carolyn Wells

“ Hooray!” shouted King. “’Scuse me, Miss Larkin, but I sure am glad!”
“Me too—me too—me too,” chanted Marjorie, until Kitty cried out:
“I’m glad, myself, but Mops, do stop singing a dirge about it.”
“What is a dirge, Kit?” asked King. “You do use such awfully grown-up words. You oughtn’t to do it at nine years old. What’ll you be when you’re as old as I am?”
“I hope I’ll be less noisy than you two are,” said Kitty, but she smiled good-naturedly at her more boisterous brother and sister. “Anyway, I think we all might be quiet long enough to let Miss Larkin say what she wants to.” ”

“ Marjorie was sobbing all the while she was talking, and as she stammered out these remarks between her choking sobs, Miss Larkin was not a little perplexed to understand her.
“Brutus? Cæsar? what do you mean?” she asked.
“Oh, we were playing Shakespeare,” began Marjorie, “and now I come to think of it, it was all my fault for getting up the game.”
Just then, Doctor Mendel arrived, and came briskly into the living-room.
“Well, well!” he exclaimed, in his hearty way; “what’s the matter now? Have you young barbarians been breaking each other’s bones?” ”

“ You know next week Wednesday is Miss Larkin’s birthday.”
“Yes, I know it,” said Kitty; “how old is she?”
“Kit,” said her brother, “I’m ashamed of you! You mustn’t talk about grown-up people’s ages. You ought to know that.”
“Well, what’s the sense of a birthday, if it doesn’t mean how old you are?” demanded Kitty.
“Never mind that,” resumed Marjorie; “we mustn’t say a word about her age. I know that much myself. But, you see, we did upset her awf’ly when we bounced the Simpsons right into the middle of her grand dinner party, and I don’t think she ever got over it.” ”

“ Kingdon went first. He was a tall boy for his years, and so Mr. Henderson’s fur motor-coat just escaped touching the ground. The April sunshine was a bit warmish, but King valiantly encased himself in his furs, cap, earflaps, and all, and rather awkwardly stumbling along on his snowshoes, dragged his float behind him.
The float itself was beautiful. With Delight’s help, King had arranged an Arctic Region of cotton snowdrifts, from the centre of which rose a most imposing North Pole. This was white, also, and glistening with the tinsel frost that is used for Christmas trees. ”

“ Miss Hart smiled.
“You hate routine work, Marjorie,” she said; “and you disliked the confinement and discipline of the regular schoolroom. Our lessons are so varied and unsystematic, they don’t tire you in the same way.”
“They don’t tire me at all, Miss Hart; but it is you who make them so pleasant. Nobody else ever could teach things as you do. You make lessons seem play.”
“They are play, if you enjoy them. Anything we enjoy is a recreation, and, therefore, pleasant.”
“You’re coming over this afternoon, you know, Mops; the Jinks Club meets here.”
“’Course I am, Delight. We’re all coming. ”

“ She had plenty of paper flowers to decorate with, and when the birthday came, she intended to wreathe the big cake with smilax, and festoon the sides of the float with the same pretty green.
“It isn’t such a lot of work, after all,” said Delight, as, when the noon whistle blew, the children put on their things to go home.
“Poor old Flossy Flouncy,” said King; “how can you say so? You’ve been helping everybody else so much, your own wagon is scarcely touched.”
“Oh, pooh!” said Delight, “I can finish that up this afternoon, or Monday afternoon, after school. What time is the parade, Marjorie?” ”

“ And, sure enough, as the closed lids fluttered open, and the color came slowly back to the white cheeks, Kitty gave a convulsive shudder, caught sight of Rosy Posy’s bandaged arm, and fell into a hysterical crying-fit.
“Take the baby out of the room,” commanded the doctor; “and now, Kitty, girl, listen to me. Your little sister is not seriously hurt, but I want to go to her and properly bandage her arm. I can’t leave you until you stop this crying—or, at least, partly stop it. So, as long as you keep it up, you are keeping me away from little Rosamond who needs me more than you do.” ”

“ Into the pie our gifts we’ll throw—ha, ha, ha, and ho, ho, ho!”
“King, you’re a lovely poet,” said Marjorie, “but won’t you come here now and help me fasten this pie on its wheels?”
“Certingly, certingly, my liege lady; hast any tackerinos?”
“No; but here’s a hammerino. Can’t you find some nails?”
“Ay, ay, in just a jiff!”
And sure enough, in a few moments Marjorie’s big birthday cake sat proudly on a board across an express wagon, which, though a toy, was a good-sized affair.
“Now for the fiddle-de-dees!” cried King, as he picked up a pile of paper roses and strewed them on the cake. ”

“ Instead of going to school, as King and Kitty did, Marjorie went every day across the street to Delight Spencer’s, where Miss Hart, Delight’s governess, taught both girls. Miss Hart’s methods of teaching were unusual, but exceedingly pleasant.
Often the girls had no idea as to what lessons would be taught until they came to the schoolroom.
And so, as Marjorie and Delight, with their arms about each other, came into Miss Hart’s presence one morning, they saw on the schoolroom wall a placard bearing this legend:
“The Ides of March are come.” ”

“ King and Kitty stared at this. What had come over wilful, headstrong Midget to make her talk like that?
But Miss Larkin only smiled pleasantly, and made no comment on Marjorie’s manners as a hostess, all through dinner.
As the two sisters were going to bed that night, Kitty said:
“I can’t make her out. I think she’s real nice, and then the next minute she does something so queer, I don’t know what to make of it.”
“I think she’s what they call eccentric,” said Marjorie. “And I do believe if we let her alone a good deal, she’ll let us alone. She seems awfully wrapped up in her own affairs. ”

“ Miss Larkin is, I know, more anxious to please you children, than you are to please her. And so, to please me, I want you all to be very good to her. Kind, polite, deferential, considerate, all the things that a host and hostess should be to their guest.”
“H’m,” said Marjorie, considering; “p’raps she’d better be hostess, and let me be guest.”
“No, Mopsy; that matter’s settled. You shall be the lady of the house; and Miss Larkin your honored guest for whose pleasure and comfort you must do all you can.”
“Pooh,” said King, “if she’s only company, I don’t see why she need come at all.” ”

“ His genial tones as well as his actual words were such a comfort to Marjorie, that she regained at once her rapidly-disappearing composure, and felt that she had found, most unexpectedly, a helpful friend.
King, too, appreciated the gentleman’s good-will, and after a few words of greeting, felt his own courage fortified, and went over to where Miss Larkin sat, with her eyes still closed to the dreadful sight before her. “Now, look here, Larky,” he whispered, “you’re making it all worse by acting like that. Brace up to the ’casion, and let’s see what we can do.” ”

“ Carefulness cannot always guard against accidents. So promise me that you will never again play any game that includes the use of any dangerous instrument: dagger, knife, scissors, chisel, anything, in fact, that might do physical harm in case of accident.”
“Of course we promise,” said Marjorie, tearfully. “And we don’t have to promise. For we couldn’t play with such things after to-day. But, Doctor Mendel, it was all my fault, ’cause I got up the whole game.” ”

“ I don’t think you realize what bad taste it is, for a child to speak so of an elder person. Call your school friends by nicknames, if you like, but show to grown-ups the civility and respect that good-breeding calls for.”
“All right; I’ll call her the Honorable Miss Larkin; Dear Madam,” and King swept a magnificent bow nearly to the floor, in token of his great respect for the lady.
“But do hurry home as soon as you can,” said Marjorie, as she squeezed her father’s coat sleeve with one hand, and with the other reached out to grasp a fold of her mother’s trailing gown. ”

“ He smiled broadly, and looked about for some laughing faces to appear suddenly.
“It’s nice of you to be so indulgent,” said Miss Larkin, but she herself was far from pleased. She had hoped to present four demure and prettily-dressed children, whose manners should seem above reproach even to exacting Mrs. Mortimer.
However, there was no sight or sound of the Maynard quartette, so the guests were shown to their rooms by Sarah, while Miss Larkin laid aside her own wraps, and then went to the kitchen to see that dinner was progressing properly. ”

“ Ellen, at risk of endangering the fine dinner she was preparing, had come to see if she could help her beloved young people in any way. Nannie, seeing Rosy Posy’s plight, had carried her off to the nursery, and Sarah, wringing her hands in dismay, was consulting in whispers with Thomas, as to what could be done to help Miss Marjorie and Master King out of this scrape. ”

“ Though not of great value, they were all dainty and pretty little souvenirs, and Miss Larkin had real tears in her eyes, as she received one after another.
“It’s like Christmas!” exclaimed Flip, as he smiled with pleasure at the box of fudge given him by Kitty.
“Don’t open it now,” warned King; “take it home with you; ’cause we’re going to the dining-room in a minute.”
“All right,” said Flip, “but it looks greedy not to pass it around.”
“No, it doesn’t,” said Kitty; “’cause it’s your present. It only just happens to be a pass arounder. ”

“ Have pity on a poor lone woman. Don’t send me to the poorhouse.”
“But what else can you do?” said the overseer of the poor. He was not unkindly in speech or tone, but he could see no other future for the mother and her seven children. Not one of them was old enough to earn a living, and as Mrs. Simpson had been in sore straits before the fire, surely she was really destitute now.
But the look of agony on her ashen face was so tragic that Marjorie felt her own heart breaking.
“Mrs. Simpson,” she said, “you shall not go to the poorhouse! You shall come home with us!” ”