Harriet Pyne Grove

“ And funniest of all, several of the girls, who knew more about where Janet was going than the rest, took hands and sang softly around Janet:
“O Uncle Pieter,
Pieter Van Meter
Ain’t no one sweeter,
Be sure to meet her,
Pieter Van Meter!” Lips parted in merry smiles; girls were waving last goodbyes and kisses, as Janet was whirled away in the taxi beside Miss Hilliard. One tear, of which Janet had been scarcely aware, was now carefully wiped away to keep it from splashing upon the new suit. “Weren’t the girls lovely, Miss Hilliard?” she asked. ”

“ Then she took up Jannet’s character, cleverly setting forth some traits that Jannet recognized, though none that were not more or less flattering.
“Gee, she’s giving you a good line, Jannet,” said Chick.
“Sh-sh, you’re interrupting her,” warned Nell.
It grew more interesting. “Some one has looked for you,” said the old woman, “some one not your uncle. If you are found, it will bring you good luck. You have had a loss, but you will find what you look for. There will be something strange in your uncle’s house, but do not be frightened. Nothing will harm you. ”

“ Flash! On came the light and Janet was at the door, ready to run if there were any menacing presence in the room. The bolt was still in position, as she had left it when locking up!
On the chair by the bed was her bath robe; beneath lay her slippers. These all she donned and went to the windows. They were still only a trifle raised, and now Janet threw them up as high as they would go. No one had entered there, though the curious little balcony, with vines beginning to leaf out, shone wet with the rain and the light from Janet’s room. ”

“ Mechanically Janet ascended the stairs; her thoughts elsewhere. A caress from Miss Hilliard, rare, but expressing a real affection, was always something to be remembered. Janet “adored” Miss Hilliard as she occasionally said to Allie May Loring or Lina Marcy. Then, here was this box. In her heart Janet felt that it was for her.
“That quaint old Dutch name!” she thought. “Can it be that my mother—”, but Janet grew confused. There was no use in conjecture. She must open the box. ”

“ Then Jannet drew her chair closer and said, “Now may I take time to tell you what has been happening?”
“Yes, child. What is it?”
One entering the library would have seen an interesting picture for the next half hour. The eager Jannet leaned on the desk with both elbows, and a bright face rested between her two hands as she related to her uncle every detail of her ghostly experiences and told him all about the pearls. She was utterly forgetful of herself and her fear of her uncle. Indeed, that had left her for all time. ”

“ That dear little rocking chair might have been used for years by her mother.
After a tour of the room and a look out of its two windows, one of which opened upon a balcony that stretched away the length of the house, Janet again sat down near the table and looked up at the picture above, when the sudden opening of her door startled her.
A straight, angular woman, with dark hair gathered into a little knot on top of her head, stalked into the room with a large comforter in her arms. She wore spectacles, but as they were drooping upon her nose Janet thought that they were not of much use. ”

“ It might waken Nell.
The door of the attic stood open. Paulina, the neat, careful Paulina, had been too much excited to think of closing it! The trap door so near the partition also stood open. Jannet peered at a crack in the rough partition. Yes, there was the outline of where the top of the secret room stood above the attic floor on the other side of the partition. A pile of lumber, a few odds and ends of boards, rafters and even a few bricks were cleverly arranged to give the impression of waste material and nothing important, should anyone be curious enough to peep through. ”

“ The human contact, and the assurance of “Old P’lina” that there would be no further disturbance, relieved the situation for the girls. Nell, with a sigh of relief, crawled between the sheets. “Ghost or no ghost, I’m going to sleep, Jannet.”
“So am I. But the next time, I’m going to ‘yell’ for Paulina, and not try to see it through myself. Who do you suppose she meant when she told me to ask Uncle Pieter?”
“His wife, I suppose. But there is a lots older ghost than she is, and I ’spect P’lina’s mad at your Uncle Pieter about something. She’s terribly queer herself, you know.” ”

“ On this were bundles, of odd sizes, she guessed, from the different bulges in the old cover over the whole, a piece of yellowed, gay-figured percale, or muslin of a sort.
A rickety rocking-chair, of modern make, and a tall, gray-painted cupboard were the only pieces of furniture that Jannet could see. It was quite evident that her uncle had had all the valuable furniture of an older day put into use, keeping no useless articles to fill the attic. Even the old, old cradle stood in the old kitchen, not far from the old, old settle, with its rockers, too. ”

“ For the next ten minutes there was perfect silence in the box of a room, while the candle fluttered a little and Jannet, wrapt in what she was reading, almost lost sight of where she was. Many and many a long year before, some one had read those little notes tucked away in the old portfolio with as much interest and more anxiety. “Dere Father,” ran the first that Jannet pulled from the sticky leather at the side. “It is hard to get the food to the attic without being seen. The Captin watches us or some one is there while we are cooking. But they watch my mother more than they watch me. ”

“ Andrew viewed with some amusement the little bed made comfortable for the night and the rocking chair with its comforter and little pillow. The pitcher, which had held the lemonade, and the cooky plate still remained on the floor. “You missed some of your fudge,” said Andy, picking up a piece and putting it in his mouth as he sat down on the bed and looked around. “It is some time since I have been in this attic. I never cared for attics; I was always for outdoor sports. Did you know that I can ride again, Jannet?” ”

“ Uncle Pieter was not at dinner, as it happened, which fact relieved Nell of the slight embarrassment she felt. Cousin Diana and Cousin Andy admired the result, though the costumes would have been considerably improved by pressing. Vittoria, who waited upon the table, looked curiously at the girls, so pretty in their new characters, and Jannet caught one look that was not very friendly. Perhaps poor Vittoria was a little jealous. It must be hard not ever to be in things! But Jannet had too many pleasant things to think about to be disturbed by the opinion of Vittoria. ”

“ Jannet wondered what she would have thought if Nell had come, too. But Paulina could just get over thinking that she could run everything.
At Miss Hilliard’s school, Jannet was in the habit of obedience to her elders. Here, too, she respected the authority of her uncle and her cousins, but beyond them, Jannet’s Dutch independence asserted itself.
“I’m sorry, Paulina,” Jannet said courteously, “that you don’t want me to be in the attic, but I have every right to be here and I shall stay. You need not be worried about anything of yours. ”

“ To tell the truth, he seems to me like a disappointed and unhappy man. What there is back of that I do not know, unless it is the health of his son who is one of the war victims. Yet Andy, as we know him, is one of the finest lads, and his father may be glad to have him back at all. I understand, too, that there was serious difficulty between Mr. Van Meter and his second wife. At any rate she is not there any more. Indeed, she may not be living.”
“I know nothing about Mr. Van Meter’s family, and only just met his son and the cousin who is practically in charge of Jannet, Mrs. Holt.” ”

“ Nell asked nothing more but sat on a box by the low window, to watch like the sister of Bluebeard’s wife. Jannet tried to poke the key, which was on the outside, and force it out, but with no success. Then she shook the door and called. “The trouble is,” said she, “if Paulina hears a racket in the attic, she will think it the ghost, and Hepsy and Vittoria sleep over in the new part. But there is no use in calling or going into hysterics over it. If the one who locked us in is here, very naturally she wants us to stay.” Jannet thought of burglars, but did not mention that theory. ”

“ Yes, I’ll ‘consider your application,’ as Miss Hilliard says. But I’m only going to marry somebody very wonderful, and he’ll not dare leave me till I’m as old as Grandma Meer, or whatever her name is.”
“Some outlandish name,” said Nell, “that I’ve heard and forgotten.”
“Chick, she says that she is only going to marry somebody very wonderful. That settles it. It isn’t me. Honestly, Jannet, she read you a pretty good fortune; but some of it was queer. Of course, you know that the whole countryside knows about our ghost, so she could make up anything there.” ”

“ Jannet kept right on, not looking around Paulina’s bedroom, though she could see how clean and plain it was, just like Paulina. “I haven’t had any chance to talk with you, Paulina, about things; and as I am going to make my home here, there are some things that are important, you know, like whether my dear room is safe or not and everything like that. You know that I didn’t enjoy that last queer time a bit. There was some one in my room, Paulina. Ghosts don’t pull comforters off from beds.”
“That is just what our ghost does.” ”

“ Where is Uncle Pieter?”
“He had to go out on the farm, but he talked with Paulina and he wants to see you as soon as he comes in. Here he comes now!”
Stooping and brushing off dust, Mr. Van Meter came from the back, or more properly the front of the attic. He was smiling and remarked that he passed an excited boy on the way. “This is a new place for a family conference,” he added. “We have come up in the world, I see.”
But Jannet, tired as she was after her experiences of the night, liked this close gathering with its entire loss of all formality. ”

“ But Paulina had overheard and looked back over her shoulder. “We have no rats,” said she, “and rats don’t tiptoe down imaginary stairs. It was her again.”
Jan looked cross, but he said nothing further as Paulina rapidly walked toward the house. Jannet fancied that Jan did not like to have Paulina’s superstitions aired before the Clydes. There was enough talk in the neighborhood, in all probability.
Chick urged his horse on, passing Jannet and Nell, but Jan, as he followed, leaned over to Jannet. “Paulina is an old goose,” said he in a low tone. “Her imagination works all night. ”

“ More than once she had heard Jan and Chick clattering down the two flights, first the attic stairs, banging the door shut, then the back stairs from the second floor to the first. If they were not afraid to be up there, why should she be afraid of the attic?
She did wish for Nell, though on second thought she came to the conclusion that it was just as well for her to investigate alone first. There might be things that some one outside the family could not appreciate. Family was a big thing to Jannet just now. ”

“ But you are not so much to blame as the one who ordered you to do it. It must have been a shock to you when we discovered Jannet. Well, Vittoria, we can not help the past. We have all made mistakes. Try to be a good girl and a good wife to Herman. I will have some work for him when I build the new barn.”
“Oh, thank you, sir, I’ll—,” but Vittoria’s voice was tearful, and Jannet heard her uncle open and close the door. Vittoria had gone, too upset to say another word. She had come in sullen and hard, and left all touched and softened by Mr. Van Meter’s treatment of her. ”

“ Jan looked curiously at Jannet. “That sounds as if you heard something,” said he. “Yes, somebody comes down some invisible stairs; you can hear slow footsteps, you know. Maybe something drops, but there is nobody there!” Jan made big eyes at Jannet, who grinned delightedly. ”

“ I found out that a letter and a telegram came for Uncle Pieter from my mother long ago, after he had gone to Europe, after my grandmother’s death. Do you remember anything about it? He did not know about them, of course, at the time. Who was here, then?”
“All the rest of us; Andy, though, was on a visit. He never stayed with his stepmother if he could help it. Vittoria was here. Mrs. Van Meter had her since she was fifteen or sixteen. Vittoria isn’t as young as she looks.” Paulina thought a moment, her stolid face looking more intelligent than usual. ”

“ As she spoke, Jannet began to open the little drawers which she knew, while Nell exclaimed over the tiny springs and the skill with which the drawers had been hidden.
But Jannet did not want to make Nell have an unhappy time over her lost pearls. In a few moments she was her philosophical self again. “It can’t be helped, Nell, and as I never did have them before, I can get along without them now. Let’s get to bed. I’m glad that you think the room is pretty and the things nice. I’m wealthy enough in my mother’s things without the pearls. ”

“ Eaves were dripping and she heard the beat of the drops upon the tin roof of a porch outside.
Eyes the color of brighter skies considered thoughtfully the prospect till the sound of an opening door made them turn in another direction. Quickly Janet stepped to the floor, rounding the newel by catching hold of it and swinging herself around it. At the second door, down the hall to her right, she presented herself.
It was Miss Hilliard, principal of this small school for girls to whom Janet curtsied prettily. “Allie May said that you wanted to see me. Miss Hilliard,” she said. ”

“ Jannet kept thinking that it was her mother’s home country. “I wonder if my mother used to ride,” she said to Jan.
“Sure she did. Andy said something yesterday about her having a horse called Juniper that threw her once and pretty nearly ended her life then and there. How queer that you have all this to find out!”
“Yes, and that’s the advantage of being here for a while. Things come out gradually, just the sort of little everyday things that you would like to know. What are we going to do up here besides the picnic lunch, Nell?” ”

“ Thus clad, they slipped quietly down the back stairs, and Nell stepped close to the door to listen. A heavy pin, with which she had fastened her kimono, fell out at this juncture and in the stillness of the hall it made quite a little noise.
“What’s that?” they heard Chick say, and presently a low grunt answered him. The bed creaked and the girls flew upstairs as fast as they could, Nell retrieving her pin first.
“Well,” said Jannet, as they entered the room again, “shall we wake up Paulina and get things stirred up? You will be afraid to go to sleep again, won’t you?” ”