Lilian Garis

“ Trixy, the brave and lovable, had been her friend, while the others turned their heads away scornfully. Suspicion painfully confirmed, brought to the little girl from Barbend a sense of something very like shame. She who had never known the blight of contempt, now felt the full blast of its venom. And being a girl, like a fragile human flower, the hidden thing was magnified. She suspected all Sandford as her enemy, she brooded over the disgrace until it seemed unbearable. Debt! How she had always pitied those in debt! But to owe a poor workman with a sick wife and a family of small children! ”

“ Thieves! Stealers!” came the shout from somewhere not very far away, and while Gloria recognized the voices of her tormentors of the morning, she felt a sickening sensation, as if she were being persecuted by a secret foe.
“Trixy,” she gasped, “let’s hurry back to the car. I—can’t stand the taunts—of those children.”
“After they have answered to me,” declared Trixy, hotly. “Then we will go back. But first I am going to shake them into human beings,” she cried, already running through the brush in the direction the stones had come from. “They act like savages,” she called as she ran. ”

“ This similarity of parental privation may have forged the bond of companionship stronger; at any rate, Gloria and Tom were chums.
All the joys of country life ever piped in poet’s tunes would be flat and monotonous if unshared by a chum. You may talk of the music of the birds and the magic of the running brook, even of the glory of wild daisy fields and the beauty of sovereign sunsets, but to youth, to the eager young and even to childhood, these would be all rather stupid in solitude. There is no solitude in the city—that can be said in its favor. ”

“ And of all dreadful things possible, that of public censure seemed to the high-strung Gloria the most dreadful.
“If I could ride away from it all—and go to Jane,” she sighed as the borrowed wheel rolled over the country road out toward Second River. The roads were heavy with mud, and as Gloria pedaled along, her spirits became imbued with the unhealthy conditions surrounding her.
“I don’t blame them one bit,” she told herself. “They always have to live in the worst places, these poor hard working folks, and if any one has to wait for their money it’s the poorest. Jane always said so.” ”

“ Of the day full of happenings, Gloria’s long talk with her Uncle Charley stood out beyond the sunshine and above the shadows.
Aunt Harriet was so much better, relieved, her husband called it.
“And I’m going to get her away from this—it has mostly been my fault,” admitted the big man as big men always do.
“Dr. Daly said all she needed was a change,” agreed Gloria gladly. “It would be lovely for her to get away from Sandford.”
“I’ll get my cousin to come over for a week or ten days—”
“Why?”
“To be with you, of course.”
“I’m going away with Jane,” declared Gloria. “You don’t mind, Uncle Charley? ”

“ Every bloom represented the whole life of the fair flower. How it had budded, how the rain had helped it, how the frost had threatened it— Gloria could see every bush of the tall graceful cosmos, as she sat there thinking. She must write to Tommy. And to Millie. It had been cowardly of her not to have done so before.
Then she remembered Trixy’s remarks about the young man in her house. What a comfort it had been to have such tenants! Weyland Smith, the real estate agent with whom Gloria’s father had placed his business, had written in glowing terms about those Hardys. ”

“ With the first temptation to feel sorry for herself she called up the picture of her dad, Edward Doane, working at a bookkeeper’s desk and dreaming of the great adventure. The young man made serious through sudden hardship—the loss of a lovely wife and the care of a darling daughter. This last would not have meant hardship, if only things had been different in Barbend. But here he had come in quest of the hoped-for health of an ailing wife. Here he had set up his humble home, and here he had still remained for Gloria’s sake.
The girl and her dad were inseparable when he could be at home. ”

“ Gloria felt more and more keenly now that she would positively have to fight this irritating suspicion.
“Anything but disgrace,” she found herself reflecting over and over again. She recalled how she had pitied folks who could not pay their bills, and how she had at one time coaxed Jane to lend the Stanleys ten dollars to satisfy a very urgent claim being pressed by Tommy’s store.
She felt like a culprit all the afternoon, and decided she would in some way have to put a carefully framed question to her Aunt Hattie that very evening. ”

“ Why, I can’t imagine Ed Doane—well, acting as Charley Towers is acting now,” said the aunt, holding on to the chair arms as if for moral support.
“Oh, I can,” exclaimed Gloria. “If it’s anything about—high mindedness, there isn’t any one on earth higher than dad.”
Mrs. Towers sat back in her chair and breathed in little snatchy gulps. She was evidently surprised at Gloria’s show of spirit. Once or twice she seemed about to speak and then turned her head away with a sharp twist. ”

“ Mr. Doane was with the girls, who had insisted upon obtaining some perilously perched wild columbine, while the remainder of the boys were scattered about near Moon Rock. But now there was a sudden change of base, and the squad presented battle formation at the trunk of the biggest and roundest tree.
There was no need for explanation. The secret signal that shouts danger, was bristling from the red hair of Tommy, and from the black curls of Neddie, and every little gasp of the others fairly echoed to the four ends of the earth, in the silent language of hikers. ”

“ All these details were as familiar to the Barbend folks as was Nancy herself, but while introducing her in her oddities, it is best to take a good look.
Gloria now confronted the woman with something of a scornful smile on her lips. She was so glad that Tommy did not have to answer that foolish accusation! Being a normal girl with a sense of justice ever ready to assert itself, she felt at first very much inclined to tell the old-young lady just what she thought of her, but the small crowd just emerging from the post office were too plainly eager for a lark. ”

“ Trixy and Gloria stood at the top of the stairs. The spring lock was now securely fastened back.
“What—is—it?” asked Trixy.
“A lost river. An underground river!” replied Ben triumphantly.
“Isn’t it dreadful,” moaned Gloria. “And I had hoped it might be fixed.”
“Dreadful! It’s wonderful! Fixed? You bet it can! Sherry always declared this was some magic influence. Well, I’m jiggered.” The pocket light seemed to flash like a head light in the darkness as he directed it from one spot to another.
“And y’u kin drain it?” eagerly asked Marty, apparently forgetting the ankle. ”

“ They have been looking to the ends of the earth for you,” added Trixie. “Why, yes, the doctor was with her most of the afternoon. She had a sort of hysteria. You know she is subject to such spells. I am sure she will be all right.”
“I knew it! I felt it!” sighed Gloria. “Isn’t it hard to know where one’s duty lies? Here I have been with strangers,” she swept her eyes over the forlorn place, “and Aunt Hattie did not know where I was.”
“But they needed you most. Your aunt was not buried in a wilderness like this,” whispered Trixy. ”

“ She and Tom were leaving the village behind them and wending their way homeward.
“I tell you, Tom,” mused Gloria. “I guess poor old Nancy felt sorry for being so—so hasty. You can’t always judge folks, can you?”
“No. Ma said she’d rather have that potted slip all ready for the winter, you know, than most anything else.”
“So, see what your wheel spill did after all.” Gloria laughed lightly—rather too lightly for Gloria. “That geranium’s what they call a conscience gift, I guess,” she continued. “You know how Walter Garrabrant sent a dollar to the trolley company last year?” ”

“ Is there anything more unhappy than to be in a house where a quarrel is seething in the background?
She was going to cry. It was one of her rare occasions but she could choke it down no longer. Here was Uncle Charley and he had brought with him only more gloom. The big cat brushed up to be noticed and Gloria’s hand smoothed the gray fur. A grateful purr made her more lonely. Only a cat to be friends with!
For a long time she crouched there. Tobias was asleep and had ceased to purr. The voices from the porch fell into snatches, then footfalls announced their entrance to the house. ”

“ You went on Mona’s wheel and you took all your money, and I thought—”
“That I had run away! Oh, Auntie! Of course I didn’t. I wasn’t unhappy here, and you have been good and kind to me—”
“After cheating you! After sending Hazel in your place! After stealing Lottie’s money!”
“Hush, Auntie, don’t!” begged Gloria, feeling the hand of Martha Drake urging her to leave the room. “You are only excited and worked up. I know you did nothing wrong, and you must not blame yourself so—”
A grateful look came over the face of Harriet Towers. “You have taught me, you with your quiet, determined spirit. ”

“ When he was at home Gloria could do nothing but enjoy his company, and now even the temporary breaking up of her home did not debar her from this coveted pleasure.
Millie and Tom helped distribute the picnic invitations, Mr. Doane insisted that every one who could be piled into the Finnan-Laddie be asked, and when Saturday afternoon came it brought with it exquisite sunshine from a sapphire sky that belongs distinctly to the early autumn. ”

“ That she had come in the big car with her chauffeur was easy to understand, for having received Gloria’s urgent message and knowing that she would only be out at Gorman’s in a real emergency, Trixy took no chances of being hampered with her own little runabout.
“You have been having a dreadful time, I know,” said Trixy. “I was so sorry I happened to be out.”
“But you lost precious little time in getting here,” said her grateful companion. “Trixy!” there was a gasp with this. “I feel like a human churn. I am scared to death about Aunt Hattie—and my nerves are just churning.” ”

“ She had not dared ask Marty to phone her, lest his message frighten the nervous woman, but recalling how ill she had looked that morning she realized that perhaps she had not wanted her to go out, else why had she asked would she be away long? Gloria felt trapped and helpless in the emergency.
“Where’s the nearest phone?” she asked, anxiety now getting the better of her.
“There ain’t any,” declared Ellen.
“There must be one somewhere. Isn’t there one in any of the big barns?” persisted Gloria. ”

“ Gloria was seeing to it that Neddie got his cone. Her solicitude was really not necessary, Neddie being more apt to get more than his share than to be neglected, but her devotion to the small boy helped her to cover other emotions, and her companions, noticing her strange manner, naturally ascribed it to threatening homesickness.
“Mr. Doane,” called Grace Ayres, she with the lovely, long brown braids and two active dimples, “I think you should have two cones. You are the guest of honor.” ”

“ Gloria choked and gurgled back her own tears.
“Jane! Oh, Jane!” she hardly whispered. “I’ve needed you so!”
“Then why—”
“If you will just give your orders, Miss Glorified, Beautified, Florence Nightingale Doane,” interrupted Trixy, “I’ll shoo Marty off for the Berg nurse. We really must make rapid strides now if we are too cover the rest of the high spots.”
“You’re right,” said Jane, tilting her chin down on the baby’s fist that was so intimately exploring her neck lines. She had rescued the child as her first maternal act following the reckless joy of reclaiming her own baby, Gloria. ”

“ But when Natalie Warren said something about the Towers being “pretty well off,” and with the comment bestowing a compassionate glance at the silent Gloria, there had almost been an outbreak of the temperamental flash that always seemed held in restraint just back of those glittering eyes.
“I suppose they consider me the poor relation,” she was thinking now, while preparing before the homemade dresser for her day at Sandford Central School. ”

“ While Marty sped off Gloria heated more coffee and again undertook the difficult task of forcing the half conscious woman to drink some of it. But even the seriousness of this did not blot out the memory of her real mission there. Perhaps pride is a tyrant, yet it must be reckoned as inspiring, when the best that is in one responds to its call. ”

“ She said maybe a fairy would move in and settle her family there. They ain’t afraid of water in the cellar,” he scoffed approvingly.
“Oh, what a pretty—”
“That’s it! That’s the park! Ain’t it swell?”
“Lovely,” breathed Gloria. Without the warning of even a smoothed road they had fairly spilled into the park—Echo Park! A rustic sign swinging from a real home grown, non-transplanted, little white birch tree, announced in quaint letters, cut deep into a barked shingle:
Echo Park “Oh,” exclaimed Gloria. “Isn’t it beautiful!”
“Ain’t it,” paraphrased Marty. “And ain’t they the dubs to condemn it?” ”