Kay Lyttleton

“ Jean laughed. “Becky sent down a stack of books for you to read. Frank and Billie call about six times a day to inquire after you, and Madame Ormond has offered to come and sing for you.”
207 “Jean, look at me,” said Kit suddenly. “Will you tell me something, honest and true?”
“I think Mom’s calling.” Jean’s voice was rather hurried, as she started for the door.
“No, she isn’t any such thing. I want to know if you and Ralph are engaged. I don’t see why you should try to keep it a secret when everybody thinks you are anyway. And a wedding in the family would be so exciting.” ”

“ Mrs. Peckham sighed and smiled. “You’re a fearfully good pleader. I don’t suppose it would hurt the other girls any to take hold and help. I’m willing, and if her father is, why, she can go. Seems to me you are starting something you can’t finish, but maybe you can.”
The first part of April was unusually mild. A sort of balmy hush seemed to lie over the barren land, as though spring had chosen to steal upon it sleeping. On one of these warm spring days Kit, Doris, Tommy, and Jack went out to inspect the cabins to see if they needed repairing. ”

“ The first laugh she had ever heard came from the Dean’s lips, although it was more of a chuckle. His next question was apparently irrelevant.
“How do you think you’re going to like Hope College?”
“All right,” Kit responded cheerfully. “I only hope it likes me. I’ve met a few of the boys and girls through Rex and Aunt Della, and I like them awfully well. At home they’re nice to you if they know who you are, and all about your family. But here it seems as if they either like you or not. Just when they first meet you, you’re taken right into the fold on the strength of what you are yourself.” ”

“ Nobody quite noticed Jack in the excitement, but later when all was over, it was found that he had rescued all the treasures possible,26 the pictures, all the linen and family silver, and the glassware.
As the rising glow of the flames lighted up the sky help began to arrive from all directions. Mrs. Gorham’s thoughtfulness in telephoning immediately brought the Judge first, with all of the neighbors that had been at his home for the evening. Becky was bareheaded, little curly wisps of hair fluttering around her face. ”

“ Gallup, but I suppose the danger’s all past now. Kit, you big dope, what did you ever go in that boat alone for? The minute you’re left alone, you’re always up to something. Just like the day when she had you locked up in the corncrib, Frank.”
Frank smiled, a curious reminiscent smile, as he laid his burden down on the bed.
Probably only Kit heard his answer, for Jean had gone after hot tea, and Doris was getting the heating pad, but Kit heard and smiled as he said, “God bless the corncrib.” ”

“ The best trees around Woodhow were up on the old Cynthy Allen place. While the house had burned down the year before, still Cynthy’s fruit trees were famous all over Elmhurst and Mr. Craig had bought up the crop in advance from her.
It was only about a mile and a half to Cynthy’s place from the crossroads, but Jean had taken the car to Nantic and Kit had no inclination to carry several pecks of crabapples in a sack along a dusty road. Doris and her mother were over at Becky’s for the afternoon, so that Kit was left to her own devices. ”

“ The determination to take one of the Craig children had been a sudden one. The Dean had been reading somebody’s theory about the obligations of age to youth.
“Della, my dear,” he had remarked one evening, as the two sat quietly in the old library, “we have been leading very narrow, selfish lives, and we will suffer for it as we grow older. We have shut ourselves away from youth. ”

“ Mr. Craig shook his head with a little smile. “I’m afraid Kit has been overambitious, Mr.18 Hicks,” he said. “I don’t know anything about this, but we’ll go over to the corncrib and find out what it’s all about.”
Kit and Evie secured a good vantage point up on the porch while the others skirted around the garden over to the old corncrib where Tommy and Jack stood guard.
“My, I like your place over here,” Evie exclaimed, wistfully. “You’ve got so many flowers. Mom says she can’t even grow a nasturtium on our place without the hens scratching it up.” ”

“ Aunt Della is darling. It’s more fun to hear her tell of how she worried over a boy coming into the family. The whole house is filled from one end to the other with Uncle Bart’s treasures that he’s been collecting for years. You’re liable to stumble over a stuffed armadillo or a petrified slice of some prehistoric monster anywhere at all. I found a mummy case in the library closet, but there wasn’t anything in it at all, and I was awfully disappointed. ”

“ It rests with you now, Kit, to make yourself so adaptable that they will forget all about wanting a boy. I have no objection to your staying for the winter term at Hope College. Between ourselves, dear, our plans are a little unsettled. Dad is certain that the house will be ready for us this winter, but you know how slowly the carpenters work.
“Make all the friends that you possibly can. You won’t realize it now, but so many of these friendships become precious lifelong ones. Billie is leaving this week for school. You remember Frank Howard, who came to look after our trees? ”

“ Kit exclaimed, sinking with110 a luxurious sigh of content down among the cushions on the broad couch in the Bellamy’s living room, “I’d give anything, sometimes, if I’d been an only child. Of course, you’ve got a brother, but you’re the only girl. You don’t know what it is to be one of four. I share my room with Doris, back home, and all honors with Jean. Then, of course, there’s Tommy, and while we are all crazy about each other, still you do have to elbow your way through a large family, if you want to keep on being yourself. ”

“ She followed Kit back to her seat, and Georgia exchanged glances with her right-hand neighbor, Amy Parker. Kit was altogether too new to realize just exactly what she had done. Being the Dean’s grandniece, she considered herself unconsciously a privileged person. As a matter of course, Della had accompanied her that morning and introduced her to four or five girls in the junior prep class, who came from the representative best families of the town. ”

“ Becky had given a neighborhood party and Frank Howard had interested Jean considerably, especially because he told her he was bound for France the first of November. Jean was always so easily impressed just the first few times she met a person. It took Kit a long time to really admit a stranger to her circle of selected ones, although she made friends easily. And she had never quite forgiven Frank Howard for trespassing in the berry patch, even though it had been in the cause of science. ”

“ Kit answered. “Because I’ve got a plan that I’ve been thinking about for ever and ever so long. I’m going to try and persuade Dad to let us put in hogs.”
“Hogs,” repeated the Dean in a baffled tone.157 “Hogs, my dear. Who ever heard of raising hogs when they could raise anything else at all?”
“Well, we’re going to if Dad will let me. I just can’t stay here in this beautiful place with nothing to worry over, while the family are all worried to death.”
There was silence in the old study. The Dean was looking straight at Annui as if for inspiration. ”

“ If Jean or Doris had been home, she knew perfectly well they would have been soft-hearted13 and lenient, but every berry on every bush was precious to Kit, and she felt that now was the appointed hour to catch the thief.
Inside of a few minutes Tommy and Jack came back hot and red-faced, but filled with the pride of accomplishment.
“We’ve got him,” Tommy said, happily, “safe and sound in the corncrib, and it’s hotter than all get out in there. He can’t escape unless he slips through a crack in the floor. ”

“ Rex glanced up at the radiant face as he came along the hedge-bordered drive between his home and the Dean’s and waved back in neighborly fashion.
“I’m going up to the campus now,” he said.85 “Ask Miss Della if she’d let you be in the dramatic club. There’s a meeting this morning.”
“Could I, Aunt Della? Please say yes. I’m dying to join something. I haven’t joined anything in ages,” Kit begged. “I can meet everyone and get acquainted. If you don’t need me this morning—” She hesitated, but some of her enthusiasm had caught Della, and she immediately succumbed to the whim of the moment. ”

“ Kit went on happily, “that’s one reason why you and I are going to be terribly good friends, ’cause you don’t know everything in creation. It seems to me I can’t speak of anything at all at home now that Jean doesn’t know more about it than I do, or Doris thinks she does, which is worse. ”

“ Both girls stood still listening, until Jean whispered, “It must be Mr. Ormond. He’s playing on a cello, isn’t he?”
187 “Then, that’s what he does,” Kit’s tone held a touch of admiring awe as she listened. “And we thought he might be anything from a counterfeiter to an escaped convict hiding away up here. Oh, Jeannie, why do you suppose he keeps away from everyone?”
“Probably got a hidden sorrow,” Jean answered. “Still he’s got a terrific appetite. Mrs. Gorham says she doesn’t see how he ever puts away the amount of food he does. He buys whole roast chickens and eats them all himself.” ”

“ Jean replied, “I don’t think you’re especially like Dad at all. He hasn’t a quick temper and he’s not the least bit domineering.”
Kit leaned over her tenderly. “Darling, am I domineering to you? Have I crushed your38 spirit? I’m awfully sorry. I didn’t mean that my bad habits were inherited from Dad. What I meant was my initiative and craving for something new and different. Just at the moment I can’t think of anything that would be more interesting or adventurous than going out to Uncle Bart’s, and trying to fulfill all his expectations.” ”

“ STUDY HOUR
“That’s absolutely ridiculous,” she said, tapping just the same. “Nobody’s studying today. Let us in, Ginny.”
A sound of scraping over the floor, and muffled giggles came to waiting ones in the hall, then the door was thrown wide, and Kit caught her first glimpse of Virginia Parks, the most popular girl at Hope. She was about seventeen, but a short, pudgy type, with curly rumpled hair and blue eyes. There were five other girls with her, and papers littered the bed, chairs, and desk.
“We’re terribly busy, kids,” Virginia said, “What do you want?” ”

“ Ormond spoke into the twilight gloom.
“Is that you, Tommy?”
“No, it’s just us girls,” answered Kit. “We’re going down to the mill.”
“Would you mind so very much asking if anyone has telephoned a telegram up for me from the station? I’m expecting one.”
“There, you see,” Jean said, dubiously, as they went on down the road. “We just get rid of one mystery, and he hands us another to188 solve. Who would he be getting a telegram from?”
Kit laughed and said, “You’re getting just as bad as everyone else in Elmhurst, Jean. I thought only Mr. Ricketts took an interest in telegrams and post cards.” ”

“ Do you think the boys would stand for that?”
105 “Jeepers, why shouldn’t they?” demanded Kit hotly. “And I’d like to know what they’ve got to say about it anyway. I don’t think that’s the college spirit. Anyone who wants an education and is willing to work for it should be admitted.”
“Yes, but if they had any sense at all,” responded Georgia placidly, “they wouldn’t put themselves into a position of being snubbed. You can talk all you want to about the college spirit from the standpoint of Deans and faculties, but when all’s said and done, it’s the student spirit that rules. ”

“ A quick rap came on the door, and before Virginia could even call “come in” Peggy entered with her usual galaxy behind her, Amy, Georgia, and a newcomer from Iowa, Henrietta Jenkins.
“Tony Conyers sent word she’d be ready in five minutes,” said Georgia. “She’s got a lot of the girls in there with her. Ginny, I think this is a perfectly stupendous idea of yours.”
“’Tisn’t mine,” answered Virginia, “it’s Kit’s. This is her party. Her coming-out party at Hope.”
“Oh, are you the founder’s granddaughter?” Amy inquired, her eyes opening wide. ”

“ Jean Craig had always wanted to be an artist. But when her family had moved to Woodhow in Connecticut, she had given up her art lessons. Later, when she was able to resume them, she realized how important a career was to her. ”

“ Becky reminded. “Get some two-burner oil stoves and folding tables. Lay in a stock of candles and lamps. I’d make them bring up their own bedding if I were you, because that would be the only nuisance you’d have to contend with.”
“It’s too bad,” Kit said, “that we’re so far172 away from any kind of stores. There are eight cabins altogether, and there’ll be ever so many things people will want to buy. Do you suppose, Mother, that Mr. Peckham would let Lucy manage anything like that up here? She’s just dying to do something besides housework all her life.” ”

“ After the Christmas holidays when Jean had gone back to New York again, Kit found her opportunity of laying her summer plan before170 her mother and father. She had discarded hogs for a new idea she had thought up on the train coming home. Before Jean had left, Kit had told her about her scheme and together they had worked out the details. With Jean’s additional suggestions in mind, Kit felt she was ready to approach her parents.
“There are acres and acres here that we never use at all. All that wonderful land on both sides of the river up through the valley, and the two islands besides. ”