Harriet L. Smith

“ In spite of this triumphant conclusion to her enterprise, Peggy returned to the cottage heavy of heart. There is always a danger that the sensitive and sympathetic will find the revelation of the misery in the world overwhelming, bringing the temptation to shut one’s eyes to suffering, or else in its contemplation, to lose the joy out of life. And as it only takes an added drop to cause a full cup to brim over, Peggy’s dejection reached the overflowing point, through no other agency than the yellow hen. ”

“ After two wretched hours in which the only alleviating feature was her heroic resolve that her suffering should affect no one but herself Ruth fell asleep. And almost immediately, as she thought with indignation, she was waked by Peggy, who stood over her, holding fast to her shoulder and shaking her vigorously at intervals, as she cried: “Oh, you sleepy-head! Aren’t you ever going to get up?”
“Don’t, Peggy!” Ruth’s tone did not reflect the cheeriness of Peggy’s greeting. She jerked away with a feeling of aggrieved resentment. ”

“ Aunt Abigail hummed the air in a cracked soprano, with traces of bygone sweetness. Priscilla’s silvery notes soared flute-like above the others, and even Rosetta Muriel joined after a brief hesitation, probably due to her uncertainty as to whether this was customary in the best society, on the occasion of a formal call.
“That went splendidly,” declared Peggy, her face aglow, when the last verse had filled the room with melody. “Now, what about ‘The Star Spangled Banner?’ Can you play that, Jerry? It’s a lot harder than the other.” ”

“ Not far away was a splendid grove, chestnuts mingling with oak and maple, and the trees far enough apart so that the grass had a chance to flourish at their roots. The pleasant sound of running water, without which no landscape is complete, rose from a ravine to the right, its rocky sides feathered with delicate ferns. With little shrieks of rapture, the girls ran from one point of beauty to another, while Lucy unharnessed, her efforts supplemented by willing, though awkward assistance on Peggy’s part. ”

“ She was some distance from the others when her search was rewarded by the discovery of a clump of bushes unusually full.
“There!” exclaimed Amy triumphantly, as if answering the argument of her almost empty pail. “I knew I’d find them thicker. Peggy–oh, Peg–”
Her summons broke off in a startled squeal. There was a rustle on the other side of the bushes, and Amy took a flying leap which landed her on her knees with her overturned pail beside her. She screamed again, and a girl in a gingham dress and sunbonnet of the same material, ran out from behind the leafy screen. ”

“ Amy confided to Peggy. “Think of picking a six-quart pail full of shoe-buttons, or what amounts to that. Now, blackberries count up.”
The adage that many hands make light work was never better exemplified than on that July day in the berry pasture. Even Lucy lost a little of her air of stern resolution and found herself curiously observant of her surroundings, as if she were regarding them through the unaccustomed eyes of girls who were city bred. She even joined, though with all the awkwardness of a novice, in the gay chatter which went on about the laden bushes. ”

“ Ruth cried, seizing the weeping Dorothy by the hand. “What are you waiting for?” She turned her head, and for a 101 moment stood transfixed, as if astonishment had produced a temporary paralysis.
“Amy Lassell,” she choked, “I–I think you’re just heartless.”
Instead of joining in the retreat, or lending aid to the attacking party, Amy had snatched up her camera, and was bending over the finder in an absorption which rendered her quite oblivious to Ruth’s denunciation. She was, indeed, excusable for thinking that the scene under the maple would make a spirited and unusual photograph. ”

“ After six chickens had been placed in the basket, silence reigned in the nest. The yellow hen settled down on her remaining eggs, emitting, at intervals, an agitated cluck. Peggy vibrated between the woodshed and the covered basket behind the stove, like an erratic pendulum. The other girls, weary at last of waiting for more chickens, trooped to the living-room, and Graham, who like many young gentlemen of twenty, could on occasion conduct himself like a boy half that age, sought to create a diversion by tickling his sister. ”

“ Like most amateur gardeners, Peggy was fond of immediate results. She liked to see shoots starting when the seed had hardly touched the soil, leaf and blossom following with miraculous swiftness. Nature’s slow processes were trying to the patience. Peggy watched Jerry out of sight, and then, her face unusually thoughtful, made her way to the front porch which presented an unusually populous appearance that morning. The day was rather warm, and a forenoon of idleness had appealed to the household as preferable to a more strenuous form of entertainment. ”

“ Old Bess was rearing and plunging with a coltish animation quite inconsistent with the dignity of her twenty-three years. Priscilla and Peggy, armed with the tin covers of the boxes which had contained the cake and sandwiches, were striking wildly at the advance guard of the hornet army. And Lucy, in her efforts to get at the halter, without coming in contact with Bess’s heels or being seriously stung, was dodging about in a fashion calculated to awaken despair in the breast of a photographer. ”

“ Peggy’s countenance reflected the disgust of Amy’s voice. “It isn’t much of a gift, Lucy. That yellow hen is really the worst apology for a mother I ever imagined. Freckles is a nice chicken, but he’s got some very bad faults. He will come into the house whenever the screen door is left open, and he seems to have a perfect mania for picking shoe-buttons and shoe-strings. I suppose it’s because of the way he’s been brought up, but he’s so fond of human society that he makes a perfect nuisance of himself.” ”

“ On Amy Lassell’s front porch a quartet of wilted 2 girls lounged about in attitudes expressive of indolent ease. Tall Priscilla occupied the hammock, and Ruth was ensconced in a willow rocking-chair, with a hassock at her feet. Peggy had made herself comfortable on the top step, with sofa cushions tucked skilfully at the small of her back, and behind her head. Amy herself sat cross-legged like a Turk on the porch floor and fanned vigorously to supplement the efforts of the lazy breeze. ”

“ For half an hour the excited planning went on, and then four enthusiastic girls separated to subject the enterprise to the more cautious consideration of fathers and mothers. And that was the end of listlessness on Friendly Terrace for that hot wave, at least. At almost any hour of day, one might see a girl running across the street, or bursting into another girl’s house without warning, in order to set forth some new and brilliant idea which had just popped into her head, or to ask advice on some perplexing point, or to answer the objections somebody had raised. ”

“ But Priscilla was not to be turned aside by the little compliment. “It isn’t any reason to be cheerful. I mean, Peggy, that this affair with Claire has just helped to show me what I’m like myself.”
Peggy broke into excited protests, to which Priscilla listened unmoved.
“It’s exactly the same thing. I’ve been jealous of Elaine in just the same way she has been jealous of you. And both of us called it love, when all the time it was just the meanest kind of selfishness. I wonder why it is that your faults never look very bad till you see them in somebody else.” ”

“ Long before Jerry had come to accept with cheerful philosophy the disapproval of his neighbors. They understood crops and dairying. He understood birds and trees, and, in his own opinion, he was at no disadvantage in the comparison, but rather the opposite. He regarded their knowledge as humdrum, and it did not disturb him that they looked on his acquisitions as worthless.
But with Peggy it was different. The naturalist who had impoverished himself in his eagerness to study birds, she had held up to his admiration as a great man. Jerry was sure that his neighbors would not so estimate him. ”

“ The frantic child, between her sister’s blows and angry words, was more like a furious little animal than a human being. Struggling in Rosetta Muriel’s grip, her face crimson with passion, she showed herself ready to use tooth and nail indiscriminately in order to free herself. For all her advantage in size and strength, Rosetta Muriel was unable to cope with so ferocious an antagonist. She solved the problem by giving Annie a violent push, as she released her hold. The child struck the ground at some distance and with a force which brought Peggy’s heart into her mouth. ”

“ Be a good girl and don’t fret.”
But Dorothy did not feel like being a good girl. One of her rare wilful moods had taken possession of her. She stood motionless, scowling at Peggy’s unconscious back, and then her little face overcast and rebellious, she turned and made her way down to the willow and the waiting canoe. The latter moved gently as the water rippled past. It seemed to Dorothy to be tugging at its fastenings with an impatience that matched her own.
“You don’t like ’sploring either, do you?” she said, addressing the canoe in a confidential undertone. ”

“ Elaine Marshall, whom Peggy waylaid as she came home from her work, not long after the plan had been broached, gave it her immediate approval, pluckily trying to hide her consternation at the thought of Friendly Terrace without Peggy. But, in spite of her brave fluency, something in her eyes betrayed her, as she knew when Peggy slipped an arm about her waist and hugged her remorsefully.
“Now, Peggy Raymond, don’t go to being sorry for me, and spoiling your fun. You mustn’t fancy you’re so indispensable,” she ended with a feeble laugh. ”

“ The people were breaking up into groups of twos and threes, and moving away, but Lucy Haines and Jerry stood motionless, their gaze following the vanishing speck which was the south-bound train. Then slowly Lucy’s head turned. She had never been friendly with Jerry Morton. She had shared the disapproval of the community, intensified by her inherent inability to understand the temperament so unlike her own. Yet all at once she found herself feeling responsible for him. To be helped means an obligation to help, at least to unselfish natures. ”

“ Bess was making a spectacular though not altogether successful effort to stand on her head, while the agility displayed by Peggy and Priscilla would have gratified their teacher of gymnastics in the high school, had she been present to witness the performance.
Before Lucy was able to reach the fence, the hitching strap had given away under the unusual strain, sending old Bess to her knees. But with no trace of the stiffness of age, she was up in an instant and galloping across the pasture, a number of enraged hornets in hot pursuit. ”

“ The effect of Peggy’s words on this new-born complacency was the havoc of a hailstorm on premature buds. Just as he was beginning to enjoy the flavor of approbation, his attention had been directed to his lacks and shortcomings. He stayed away from Dolittle Cottage because his last visit had been responsible for this present uneasy discomfort. He fished and hunted, rose early, and wandered late, without succeeding in the effort which older and wiser people have undertaken with equally poor success, the attempt to escape from one’s self. ”

“ Peggy disappeared through the open door of the woodshed, to have her jubilant suspicions instantly confirmed. The yellow hen was in a mood of extreme agitation, and a shrill peeping from beneath 130 her ruffled feathers furnished the explanation of her disquiet.
Peggy herself was hardly more composed, and her excitement was contagious. All plans for the remainder of the afternoon were instantly forgotten till Peggy’s chickens should be ushered from their egg-shell prison-houses into the world of sunshine. ”

“ But of course,” concluded Peggy firmly, perceiving that Rosetta Muriel was inclined to argue the point, “If you’d rather not take the part, I can probably find some one else. But whoever takes it, will have to be dressed suitably.”
That argument was as effective with Rosetta Muriel as it had been with Claire. She yielded as the other girl had done, and as ungraciously. “It’s easy enough to see through that,” she told herself angrily. “Those city girls want to be the whole thing. They’re afraid to let me dress up nice, for fear folks will look at somebody else.” ”

“ The remainder of the day justified Peggy’s optimism. Bess was captured at the further end of the pasture, where she was grazing placidly amid the stumps, with nothing in her demeanor to suggest her brief relapse into youthful agility. The girls picked flowers and ferns, explored the ravine and made friendly advances to a family of gray squirrels who chattered angrily at them from the boughs overhead, apparently under the impression that they were the owners of the wood which these noisy human creatures were invading. ”

“ In addition to their anxiety about Aunt Abigail, certain unformulated doubts regarding their chances for supper and bed, weighed upon their spirits.
“Look!” cried Amy suddenly. “Look!” and pointed a directing finger upward. The shutter of one of the bedroom windows was conducting itself very strangely, now opening a trifle, and then slamming to as if it had suddenly changed its mind. But presently it opened sufficiently wide to give the watchers below a glimpse of snowy hair, arranged in a rather elaborate combination of coils and puffs. ”

“ As Farmer Cole’s carry-all could not accommodate the party, a farm wagon with three seats, and abundant space for baskets, was put at their disposal, along with two horses of sedate and chastened mien. But Peggy looked at them askance. Peggy laid no claim to skill in horsemanship, and though lack of confidence was not one of her failings, she would almost as readily have undertaken to manage a team of giraffes, as this stolid pair, with their ruminative eyes, and drooping heads. ”

“ Peggy got to her feet. She had an odd feeling that she could not do her subject justice sitting on a woodpile, with her feet dangling.
“Lucy Haines,” she said with a severity partly contradicted by the kindness of her eyes, “I’m ashamed of you. I can tell just by the little I know of you, what kind of ancestors you had, and you ought to be thankful for them every day you live. Think of all the sickly people in the world, that can’t more than half live at best, and you with your splendid, strong body. ”

“ After this auspicious beginning, the cheeriness of the midday meal was in pleasing contrast to the gloom of breakfast. Even Amy forgot to mourn over missing the three-legged race, and Ruth, who, under Graham’s tutelage, had become an ardent devotee of baseball, was reconciled to her failure to witness the unique contest between the Fats and the Leans. The morning had passed so rapidly, 80 and so pleasantly on the whole, that every one was inclined to be hopeful regarding the remainder of the day, and to wait with tranquillity the further unfoldment of Peggy’s plans. ”

“ It really looked as if she could not easily forgive Aunt Abigail for her failure to be kidnapped by gypsies.
And just at the right moment somebody giggled. Among other benefits that laughter confers on the race, it not infrequently serves as a lightning conductor. With all the anxiety they had suffered, the situation was ludicrous nevertheless. While they had agonized below stairs, Aunt Abigail had sat on the garret floor, absorbed in a sensational serial story, oblivious to everything but the next chapter. ”

“ The yellow hen strutted off in the direction of her peeping brood, clucking complacently, as if she congratulated herself on solving some problem satisfactorily. The poor little outcast followed with a piteous pipe, which caused the Spartan mother to turn and repeat her admonition.
For a moment Peggy was at a loss for an explanation. Then she understood. “I know,” she cried. “He’s a different breed from the others, and he’s outgrown them, and the senseless old creature thinks he doesn’t belong to her. ”