Carolyn Wells

“ But no matter, I will inquire at the hotel myself."
"But truly, Miss Dillingham, I am the proprietor," and Dorothy stood up and put on the most dignified air of which she was capable. "I am Dorothy Dorrance, and this hotel is the property of my grandmother; but I am the acknowledged proprietor, and I shall be very glad to talk to you as such."
"You don't mean it, child! well if that is not the greatest I ever heard of! I am a great believer myself in the capability of women; but for a girl like you to run a hotel, is one ahead of my experience! ”

“ Surely there must be some way other than boarding at Mrs. Hickox's, or living on bread and tea.
"At any rate," she thought to herself as she finally fell asleep, "nothing will be done until Mr. Lloyd is heard from, and that will give me at least two or three days to think of a plan."
But try as she would, the next day and the next, no acceptable plan would come into Dorothy's head.
"We are the most helpless family!" she thought to herself, as she lay in the hammock under the trees. "There is positively nothing that we can do, that's of any use. ”

“ Dorrance sank down on a wooden settle that stood in the kitchen, and clasping her hands, exclaimed, "It's too much, girls, it's too big; we never can do anything with it."
"Now you mustn't look at it that way, granny, dear," said Dorothy, brightly; "this is our home; and you know, be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. And if a home and all its fixings are too big, instead of too little, why, you'll have to manage it somehow just the same. ”

“ You have lots of perseverance in your nature, Dorothy."
"It's nice of you to call it by that name," said Dorothy; "but I think it's just stubbornness. I've always been stubborn."
"We all are," said Leicester; "it's a Dorrance trait. Grandmother hasn't much of it, but Grandfather Dorrance was a most determined old gentleman."
"There's only one thing that's bothering me, about our good times," said Dorothy. "And that is, that grandma can't enjoy them as much as we do. She doesn't care about going in the boats, and she can't take the long walks that we can." ”

“ And so, my dear Miss Dorrance, if you don't mind, I'll just take some other room. I'm sure you have plenty of them, and if that big, strong Mr. Hickox will help move my things, I'm sure it will be no trouble at all. Perhaps your sister Fairy will look after the children a little bit, while Celestine and Lisa assist me. The baby is asleep, and perhaps she won't waken, but if she does, would Miss Lilian mind holding her for just a little while? or she might take her out in her baby-carriage for a bit of a ride. ”

“ Wouldn't it be awful if we were really guests instead of purporietors?"
"You wouldn't be a guest," said Leicester, teasingly; "no well-conducted summer hotel would take a flibbertigibbet like you to board!"
"Nobody would take us Dorrances to board anyway, if they could help it," said Fairy, complacently; "we all know how obnoxiorous we are."
"I know," said Grandma Dorrance, sighing; "and if we can only make a little corner of this big place habitable, I shall certainly feel a great relief in not being responsible for you children to any landlady." ”

“ Leicester can help with the out-of-door work; the grass ought to be mowed and the paths kept in order. But good gracious! none of this work is going to amount to much. If we're spry, we can do it all up in less than no time, and have hours and hours left every day to play, and read, and go out on the lake, and tramp in the woods, and just enjoy ourselves. Oh, isn't it great!" and jumping to the floor with a bang, Dorothy seized the hands of the others, and in a moment all four were dancing around in a ring, while the three Dorrance voices loudly proclaimed that there was no place like home. ”

“ Haven't got a horse, have you?" Mr. Hickox said this casually, as if he thought Leicester might have one in his pocket.
"No," said Leicester; "we don't own a horse. Is it too far to walk?"
"No; 'tain't any too much of a sprint for young legs like yours. It's two miles around by the road and over the bridge. But it's only a mile across by the boat."
"But we haven't any boat."
"Haven't any boat! well I should say you had. Why there is half-a-dozen rowboats belongs to this hotel; and a catboat too, and a sneak-box,—my land! you've got everything but a steamboat." ”

“ Cooper's dining-room was an assistance rather than a bar to the repression of hilarity.
The Dorrances sat at a long table, two of the children on either side of their grandmother, and this arrangement was one of their chief grievances.
"If we could only have a table to ourselves," Leicester often said, "it wouldn't be so bad. But set up side by side, like the teeth in a comb, cheerful conversation is impossible."
"But, my boy," his grandmother would remonstrate, "you must learn to converse pleasantly with those who sit opposite you. You can talk with your sisters at other times." ”

“ Fairy flew around, as Jack Harris expressed it, "like a hen with her head off," and everywhere Fairy went, she dragged the more slowly moving Gladys after her, by one hand. Gladys was devoted to Fairy, and admired her thistledown ways; but being herself a fat, stolid child, could by no means keep up to Fairy's pace.
Dorothy took Edith Putnam to her room, and being intimate friends the two girls sat down together, and became so engrossed in their chat, that when nearly a half-hour later, Lilian and May Lewis came in to talk with them, Edith had not yet even taken off her hat. ”

“ It was the third week in June when Grandma Dorrance received a letter from Mr. Lloyd, the contents of which were far from pleasant.
She called the children together in the great parlor, which they had come to use as a living-room, and her pale face quite frightened Dorothy.
"What is the matter, grannymother dear?" she said. "Has Mr. Lloyd found some one who wants to rent the hotel, and must we vacate at once?"
"Oh, don't mention such a calamity as that," cried Leicester; "if a man came up here to rent this hotel I should tell him to march right straight back again. ”

“ While Fairy was talking, Mrs. Hickox had shaken hands all around, and had backed down the steps.
"Good-bye," she said, vigorously waving both hands as she went away.
"Well, of all queer people!" exclaimed Dorothy, as they went back to the parlor. "I'm glad we haven't many neighbors, if they're all like that. Mr. Hickox is funny enough, but she's funnier yet."
"We don't care whether we have neighbors or not, we've got the Dorrance Domain," said Leicester; "and that's enough to make us happy, and keep us so."
"So say we all of us," cried Lilian; "the Dorrance Domain forever!" ”

“ She had a capable mind too, and often astonished her grandmother by her intelligent grasp of business matters or financial problems. Indeed, Dorothy at sixteen had a far more practical knowledge of the ways and means of existence than Mrs. Dorrance at seventy.
"Grandmother," she said at last, after she had sat for some minutes staring straight ahead of her, and looking, as Leicester said, "almost as if she were really thinking." "Grandmother, I think we are old enough now,—at any rate I am,—to know something about our income. How much money do we have a year?" ”

“ Sylvia was in crisp white muslin, with fluttering bows of pink ribbon, and Montmorency wore a boyish garb of white piqué.
"Won't you speak to me?" asked Lilian, putting out her hand to the little girl.
"No," said the child, hiding her face in her nurse's apron; "do away. I's af'aid."
"Mees Sylvie,—she is afraid of everything," said Celestine; "she is a naughty—naughty,—a bad ma'amselle."
"No, no," cried Sylvia; "me not bad. Me dood ma'selle."
"Me dood!" announced three year old Montmorency; "me no ky. On'y babies ky. Me bid man!"
"You are good," said Fairy, "and you're a nice big man. ”

“ She continued to be surprised at the doings of the Dorrances, but had never been to the Domain since her first call upon the family.
"Mr. Hickox tells me you've got a roof-garden," she said to Fairy one day, as they sat sociably in the milk-room. "Now for the land's sake do tell me what that is. Is it the thing that runs by electrics?"
"No," said Fairy, who never laughed at Mrs. Hickox's ignorance; "it's the Shooting Star that runs by electricity; the roof-garden doesn't run at all,—it just stays still." ”

“ How I envy you, Lilian, with a whole summer of this before you."
"But you're going away with your mother, next month, aren't you?"
"Yes; but we'll be cooped up in one or two little rooms at some seashore place; it is very different from having a whole hotel all to yourself."
"Indeed it is," said Dorothy; "we certainly did the wisest thing when we came up here this summer. And now that Kathleen is here, I have almost nothing to do in the kitchen, and the rest of the housework that I do have to look after is so light that I don't mind it a bit." ”

“ And surely no typical hotel clerk, even though decorated with the traditional diamond pin, could show a more faultless array of official-looking desk-furnishings.
The Horton House stage rolled slowly up the driveway, and stopped at the main entrance. Mr. Hickox was on hand to open the stage door, and look after the hand luggage.
With an instinctive grasping of the situation, both Mr. and Mrs. Faulkner appreciated Dorothy's frame of mind, and acted precisely as if they were entering a hotel run on regulation lines. ”

“ It is very pleasant to set dainty and tempting dishes before one's guests; but when it comes to a practical business arrangement it is necessary to be careful in such matters. I don't want you to be over-economical, but on the other hand you cannot afford to be extravagant."
"If you're going to be a boarding-house keeper, Dot," said Lilian, "you must set a table exactly like Mrs. Cooper's!"
At this speech, Leicester started the famous Dorrance groan, and its wails reached the ears of Mr. Hickox, who was sauntering near by in his aimless, wandering fashion. ”

“ Lloyd took the occasion to express his hearty appreciation of what they had done.
"You seem to have the Dorrance grit," he said; "your Grandfather Dorrance would have been proud of his grandchildren, could he have known what they would accomplish. He little thought when he bought this hotel property that his family would ever live here,—let alone running it as a hotel."
"It seems so strange," said Dorothy, "to think that this old Domain that we've made fun of for so many years, and never thought was good for anything, should have helped us through this summer." ”

“ You see I didn't mean to speak so much, and right at the dinner table, too, but I just have to stand up for my grannymother. She's so old, and so ladylike that she can't stand up for herself. And I was 'fraid you mightn't understand, so I thought I'd 'pologize. Is it all right?"
Fairy looked up into Mrs. Hill's face with such angelic eyes and pleading smile, that even that dignified lady unbent a little.
"Yes, my dear," she said; "it's all right for you to stand up for your grandmother, as you express it. But you certainly do talk too much for such a little girl." ”

“ Dorothy began to wonder whether Miss Dillingham might not have escaped from some lunatic asylum, but she only said, "Thank you very much for your kind offer, but the hotel is running smoothly, and I really can't see the necessity for any change in the administration." Just at this moment Fairy came flying across the lawn, and flinging herself into the hammock, drew the sides of it together around her athletic little body, and with a peculiar kicking motion twisted herself and the hammock over and over in a sort of revolving somersault. ”

“ Of course with so many extra people, more waitresses will be necessary; but as you say, Lilian, if we hire a lot of servants it will make our profits pretty slim. And so I propose that we three girls wait on the table."
"Oh, no, children," cried Grandma Dorrance; "I won't allow anything of that sort!"
"Now wait a minute, grandma," said Dorothy; "don't say things that you'll just have to take back afterwards. There is no disgrace at all in waiting on a table. Lots of college girls and boys do it right along, in the colleges,—and they go to summer hotels, too, and wait on the tables there. ”

“ I wish we lived in Texas, instead of on Manhattan Island. Texas has a great deal more room to the square yard, and I don't believe people are crowded down there."
"There can't be more room to a square yard in one place than another," said Lilian, who was practical.
"I mean back yards and front yards and side yards,—and I don't care whether they're square or not," went on Leicester, warming to his subject. "My air-castle is situated right in the middle of the state of Texas, and it's the only house in the state." ”

“ What's the use of three sisters if they can't get a fellow some supper?"
"That's so," agreed Dorothy; "and we all must go right to work. You can't help with this part, Leicester. You skip away now, your turn will come later. Now girls," she went on, as Leicester vanished, not without the usual accompaniment of an ear-splitting yell, "we're going to have an awful lot of fun; and we can make just as much noise and racket as we please; but all the same there's a lot of work to be done, and we're going to do it, and do it properly. ”

“ This in no way interfered with her flow of conversation, and she went on: "We can make all the racket we like, too,—nobody minds a speck,—not even Miss Marcia Van Arsdale. She says it's nothing but animal spiritualism."
"It has been one of the greatest comforts," said Grandma Dorrance, "to think that the children could make all the noise they wanted to; for I suffered tortures at Mrs. Cooper's, trying to keep them quiet. Here, they are free to do as they choose, and there is room enough to do as they choose, without annoying other people. ”

“ Cooper's boarders were privileged to sit in the parlor in the evening, the Dorrances rarely availed themselves of this permission. For the atmosphere of the formal and over-punctilious drawing-room was even more depressing than that of the dining-room. And even had the children wanted to stay there, which they didn't, Mrs. Dorrance would have been afraid that their irrepressible gayety would have been too freely exhibited. And another thing, they had to study their next day's lessons, for their hours between school and dinner-time were always spent out of doors. ”

“ Cooper's, you know."
This time Fairy started the groan, and again they all chimed in with those deep growling wails that always made Mrs. Dorrance clap her hands to her ears.
"For pity's sake!" exclaimed the long-suffering old lady; "don't make any reference to Mrs. Cooper while the Faulkners are here; for if they heard those fearful groans of yours, they'd leave at once."
"What's Mr. Faulkner like?" asked Leicester; "will he say, 'well, my little man,' to me?"
"No," said Dorothy, laughing at the remembrance; "Mr. Faulkner is an awful nice man. Not very young, and not very old." ”

“ One day she was suddenly impressed with a conviction that Grandma Dorrance must often feel lonely, and that something ought to be done to give her some special pleasure.
"We all have each other," said Dorothy to the other children, "but grandma can't go chasing around with us, and she ought to have somebody to amuse her, at least for a time. So I think it would be nice to invite Mrs. Thurston up here to spend a week with us." ”

“ Shure, I niver saw anything so grand, mum. It's a castle, it is."
"That's right, Tessie," said Leicester; "a castle is the same as a domain. And all these millions of bedrooms are part of our Domain. Our very own! Hooray for the Dorrance Domain!"
The wild cheer that accompanied and followed Leicester's hurrah must have been audible on the other side of Lake Ponetcong. At any rate it served as a sort of escape-valve for their overflowing enthusiasm, which otherwise must soon have gotten beyond their control. ”

“ Hickox sat down carefully on the edge of one of the chairs.
"I'm surprised," she said, "that you should use this best room so common. Why don't you sit in some of the smaller rooms?"
"We like this," said Grandma Dorrance, quietly. "May I present my grandchildren,—this is Dorothy."
The four were duly introduced, and really behaved remarkably well considering they were choking with laughter at Mrs. Hickox's continual surprises.
"Do you propose to live in the whole house?" asked Mrs. Hickox, after the children had seated themselves a little more decorously than usual. ”

“ A lake nine miles long has got to be fed by something."
"This lake is so tame it would eat out of your hand," said Leicester.
"Even so, I wouldn't want to feed it," said Dorothy; "my present array of table boarders is quite enough for me, thank you."
"There is an inlet," said Lilian, "just this side of Dolan's Point. The one that has the floating bridge across it, you know."
"But that isn't enough to make any impression on this big lake," insisted Bob; "there must be two or three arms somewhere, and if there are, we'll find them to-day; for I'm going all around the shores of the lake." ”