Lilian Garis

“ CHAPTER III—A BROKEN DREAM
It was evening at the Nest, and the quiet settling down on the woodlands vibrated with a melody, at once silent and musical.
Little Nora fairly trembled with expectation. What would the night bring? She was determined to sleep in that attic under the big, dark rafters. As a matter of fact Nora was fascinated with fear; just as one may stop on a river bridge and feel like jumping in.
“Just pound on the floor, Kitten, if you get scared. We’ll run up and get you, quickly enough,” declared Jerry, secretly proud of Nora’s pluck. ”

“ The temptation was strong within Nora to tell Alma just why she wanted to go up close to the big women with hoes and rakes; but the memory of Lucia’s dark eyes, that looked so like dewy pansies when the child begged: “You will never tell,” that memory sealed Nora’s lips, while she eagerly sought out any small figure that might be that of the little slave of labor.
“I don’t like those horrid women,” said Alma. “Why don’t you want to go over the other way, out into the pretty woodlands, Nora? Come on and let’s run back. ”

“ Her golden hair tossed in the wind like new corn silk, and when Jerry and Ted slyly inspected their charge at a safe distance, a most comprehensive nod of a pair of wise heads told volumes to the woodlands and the surrounding Nature audience.
Yes, Nora would do. Now life at the Nest seemed complete. Even this dreamy, romantic little bit of humanity was a real child, and to the pair of adopted parents she seemed as beautiful as a wild flower. ”

“ Everything was so still, but Nora was not lonely—her own reflections kept her such noisy company that isolation had no terror for her. Just outside the cedar grove a strip of road waited for traffic. Few persons passed, but even woodlands must have roads, just as skies must have clouds.
Feeling more at home in her costume every moment, Nora stepped proudly outside the grove into the clearance. A fat little hoptoad crossed the path, but otherwise the prince was lord of all he surveyed. The whole world was busy, evidently, and even a visiting prince attracted no attention in the wild woodlands. ”

“ Obeying, Nora jumped behind a big bush.
Even in the excitement she realized what companionship meant. It was so much more fun than playing at foolish dressing up and imagination games. Could she have but understood more clearly she would have recognized in that situation the theory of having girls “do” to learn, and that active sport of the young is one of the standards of Scout teaching.
She listened as the girls greeted Mrs. Manton. No gasps of alarm nor expressions of fear were exchanged, for Cousin Ted was of the Scout calibre herself. ”

“ The bread box which Vita had given her to play with, and into which the food was deposited for Lucia, stood upon the tree stump with the sliced lamb, the piece of cake, and the big orange which comprised the last installment offered by the sympathetic Nora, just as she had left it.
“Can anything have happened to her?” Nora asked herself. She was almost too disappointed to sit down and rest in the cool, quiet shade. Cap sniffed the box but did not put a paw up to beg, and even the big noisy blue-jay scorned a few crumbs that lay on a fallen leaf. ”

“ Volunteers?” she called out.
“Hush!” begged Nora. “It may be that Vita is upstairs and has not heard us, although she must have heard that knock.”
Again she rapped the knocker.
“Hark!” said Betta. “I honestly thought I heard a cry.”
Everyone was now breathless.
“I do hear some one crying,” declared Alma. “Whoever can it be?”
“That up-attic person, I’m sure,” said Wyn. “Better get the key, Nora. We can’t let them cry to death while we are all here, listening in.”
“I think I heard crying,” said Miss Beckwith. “Perhaps you had better open the door, Nora.” ”

“ The woman’s relief was so evident Nora scarcely knew whether to be grateful or suspicious.
“Now everything be all right,” whispered Vita happily, “and you sleep just like the angel. Here Cap, you go very still,” and she patted the dog with a little shove that urged him toward the door. He understood, evidently, for very quietly indeed he shuffled down, his four feet softer than velvet slippers, as he carried his huge body down the darkened stairway. ”

“ Would it suit you, Aunt Elizabeth? What was your pet name?”
“I think Nora too pretty to drop. Besides, don’t you really think a name is a part of one’s self and ought to be loved and respected?”
“That’s just it. I want to—that is, if you don’t mind, I want to be the self I planned, not this one I didn’t have anything to say about. It’s just like religion. When we grow up big as I am, we ought to be allowed to choose.” ”

“ Jerry repeated this to a rosebush.
As a matter of fact she was not much bigger than a child of eight years might be, but she claimed a few more birthdays and she looked about as substantial as a wind flower. Her eyes were blue, her hair light and fluffy, and she wore such a tiny white slip of a dress, socks and sandals and a white lace hat! Grown up? She looked just like an old-fashioned baby.
“Then, shall I be Bobbs?” asked Nora a moment later, with hope in her voice. ”

“ Nora saw how friendly the girls all were with Ted, and felt a pang, not of jealousy, but of regret. Why had she never known such companionship?
“I must go back to my trees,” said Mrs. Manton, when the girls had found a clear path of sunshine. “I have some important marking to do. Nora, you follow directions and you need not fear earth, sky or water. These little Scouts are impervious to all catastrophes.” ”

“ Just look at the dandy outfit. Alma, we most humbly apologize——”
“Wyn,” shouted Thistle, “please listen! Can’t you see there is something the matter?”
“Oh, there is really, girls,” panted Nora. “Come quick! There is someone—dying in our—attic!”
“Dying?”
“I was up there—getting these things, and I—heard the awfulest moans——”
“Maybe it was Cap,” suggested Treble. Her eyes had not wandered from the surprising spectacle.
“Oh, no, he was outside,” said Nora, “and no one is home, not even Vita. Oh, please do come! I know someone is in agony,” and her voice trailed off into agony of her own. ”

“ If spiders had any talent for observing, those in that cubby hole would have had a wonderful story to tell to the crawling things in roof and rafters, but even they did not so much as try, with a web, to arouse the half-conscious child, and one lacy net was so near Nora’s face her gasps of breath swayed and rocked the baby spider in its cradle. ”

“ I expect to stay quite a while,” replied Nora. She liked the roguish smile Pell bestowed upon her—it was, somehow, a little like Barbara.
“Then perhaps you would like to visit camp,” pressed Thistle. “We love callers, don’t we, girls?”
This provided an opportunity for general conversation, and presently, no one knew just how it happened, but the Scouts and Nora the rebel, were having a perfectly splendid time on the side porch, talking about the things girls love to discuss, but which always appear to the onlooker or listener as a series of giggles and gasps. ”

“ Just imagine being a troop of one,” said Nora.
“About as interesting as Laddie’s collection of one piece of genuine mica,” replied Betta. “As much as I detest the girls” (she gave Alma’s arms an affectionate squeeze in explanation) , “still, I would rather be pestered with them than to be a Lone Scout on the Big Mountain. There, Nora! That would make a stunning title for your coming book.”
“What book?” demanded the unsuspecting Nora.
“The one that is coming next,” serenely replied Betta. “But let us hasten! See yon girls are turning into the other yon road,” she went on. ”

“ This was a proud boast.
“The woods are full of them,” said Jerry the champion of all girls, Scouts and near Scouts. “Just give them the chance.”
But up in her own room Nora was pondering. “It’s just like getting married,” she reflected. “That is, I guess it is,” she amended wisely. “One must clear up every secret and fix all the old troubles when one gets married, and one must clear up all the old worries and secrets when she joins the Scouts,” concluded the systematic, little self-appointed conscience cleaner. ”

“ As if a girl couldn’t do just as she pleased in the woodlands! And they were her own Cousin Jerry’s lands too,” Nora scoffed.
“What’s the matter, Nora?” asked Mrs. Manton, as she panting, sank down on a freshly-cut stump. “You don’t mean to tell me you are actually afraid of those little girls, just because they wear uniforms?”
“Oh, no, Cousin Ted, I am not afraid of them,” her voice would shake somehow, “but I didn’t know them.”
“I see. Well, we must all get acquainted in these pretty parts. The birds and the furry things never wait for an introduction,” replied Ted, kindly. ”

“ Nora might have ridden out to the Ledge in the little runabout, but she preferred to walk with the girls.
“I’m so excited about joining,” she confided to Betta and Alma, her hike partners. “I feel as if I were going to have my final exams.”
“You don’t want to,” advised Betta. “You know your manual perfectly, and have nothing to worry about. But we shall all be so glad, Nora, when you are really a Scout. It is all well enough to be a lone Scout out in the wilderness, but while we’re around there is no sense in such isolation.” ”

“ But being converted to scouting could not at once cure Nora of her dream habits. Being so long alone in school, and having a brain insatiable for creative material, she usually went to bed to think and she went to sleep to dream. ”

“ How quickly the cloud of Anxiety can darken the brightest home?
More than an hour later all three searchers returned to the Nest and admitted they could not find Nora.
“She couldn’t be in the house, could she?” asked Ted, disconsolately.
“We looked hastily, but it was best to do all the outdoor looking first,” replied Jerry. “Do you suppose she went to visit anyone? Did she make friends with Alma and Wyn, our pet Scouts?”
“I wish she had. There’s that about the Scouts, they go in groups,” answered Ted, with feeling. “Let us look over the house more carefully. But why should she hide?” ”

“ Well,” he sighed deeply, “I suppose Ted and I and Cap will have to go on our picnics alone, in spite of all our plans.”
“Oh, Cousin Jerry! Did you have a picnic planned!” eagerly asked Nora, leaving her place at the table to join Jerry on the big couch.
“I did but I haven’t,” he replied, with pretended disappointment. “What good are picnics for Girl Scouts? They want big game with real guns and elephant meat for supper,” he finished pompously.
“Oh, Cousin Jerry!” pouted Nora. “If you really had a picnic planned couldn’t we have it, and couldn’t I invite my Scout friends?” ”

“ Playing mother to a butterfly is not often a very satisfactory experience, but there was Nora, and if ever a child needed a mother this little “whimsy” did.
“To think of calling her mother Nannie,” reflected Mrs. Manton, “and if only I could have called such a child ‘daughter.’”
Jerry was back from his enforced trip to the lumberland, and his whistle trickled in the window on a flood of sunshine.
“Oh, let’s go down,” exclaimed Nora, brushing things hastily into the dresser drawer and neglecting to tie her sash in an even bow. ”

“ In other words I’m a surveyor,” explained Jerry.
“And Aunt Elizabeth helps. Isn’t that lovely? We won’t, any of us, have old pesky house work to think about. I haven’t ever dreamed a dream, not a single one, about housekeeping. Some one always does that for me, or I just don’t think about it at all and it’s all done beautifully,” boasted Nora. “I love your place. It’s so romantic,” she expanded her arms and fluffy little skirt to fill the big chair. ”

“ Vita put a trembling hand on the door that led to the back stairs and opened into the kitchen. No sooner had she done so than Cap bounded past her, and the next moment the big dog and the forlorn little prince tumbled into the room.
“Nora!” exclaimed both Jerry and Ted.
“It isn’t! It can’t be!” faltered the surprised maid. “This is boy——”
“Boy nothing!” almost shouted Jerry, so glad to see Nora in any guise that her strange costume interested him not at all.
“The poor little darling,” cried Ted, gathering the black velvet form up into her arms. “What ever happened to you, dear?” ”

“ You can swim, of course?” asked Wyn.
“No, not a stroke,” replied the frightened Nora.
“Don’t you mind Wynnie, Nora,” spoke up Betta. “There’s no possibility of any one having to swim. This boat would sail the rapids, wouldn’t she, Jimmie?”
“Here’s another hat,” offered Thistle. “Say, Jim! At least you ought to bring a tin can,” she said in her jolliest tone. ”

“ What manicuring would erase those, and yet how precious they would seem when Cousin Jerry would hear what she had done to help with his wonderful surveying?
“And we must fix up and look pretty for tonight,” said her companion, as if reading Nora’s thoughts. “I so seldom want to go out evenings I really have to think what to wear.”
“Do we dress up?” queried Nora.
“A little, that is we don’t wear these,” indicating the khaki. “But all the Lenox folks are professionals in one line or the other, and you know dear, they always claim a social code of their own.” ”

“ It was not unusual for a girl like Nora to think the very worst first, in fact the normal, childish mind is very apt to leap at a sensation, but only the high spot is sensed, the detail is always conspicuously lacking. ”

“ To this, woman-like, Mrs. Jerry Manton had not agreed, because to go to school in the wilderness is always more picturesque than practical.
But Nora had endeared herself to those generous hearts, and even the thought of that real mother with an unreal name did not thrill her as did the knowledge that she had “made good” with these devoted friends.
Home now—that is to the Nest, Nora rushed up to her room to devour Alma’s letter. She ignored Vita’s appeal to come see the wonderful flowers sent from some one for Mrs. Manton. She must read the letter before going down to dinner. ”

“ She must conquer it. And here was the new trouble about Lucia!
“I always thought secrets were such fun, and yet these are positively—tragic,” she thought. “If only I could tell Alma about Lucia, at least that would be a comfort.”
Another call from Vita. Cousin Ted and Cousin Jerry were in now. The cheery whistle and the joyful “Whoo-hoo!” must be answered.
“Oh, dear me!” sighed Nora. “I suppose things always happen that way.” She gave Lucia’s flowers an affectionate squeeze, dropped them into her ivory box, slipped Alma’s letter under the cushion and went down to dinner. ”