VIII
"WE WILL COME AGAIN AND STAY A WEEK"
They had been several days at The Hague, running about in a restful wayin the morning, and driving all the long golden afternoons. "Don't youdare to go into a picture-gallery or a museum until I give the word,"Grandpapa had laid down the law. "I'm not going to begin by being alltired out." So Polly and Jasper had gone sometimes with Mr. King andPhronsie, who had a habit of wandering off by themselves; or, as thecase might be, Mr. Henderson would pilot them about till they learntthe ways of the old town. And Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Henderson wouldconfess now and then that they would much rather take a few stitchesand overlook the travelling clothes than do any more sight-seeing. Andthen again, they would all come together and go about in a big party.All but Dr. Fisher--he was for hospitals every time.
"That's what I've come for, wife," he would reply to all remonstrance,"and don't ask me to put my head into a cathedral or a museum." To Mr.King, "Land alive, man, I've got to find out how to take care of livingbodies before I stare at bones and relics," and Mr. King would laughand let him alone. "He's incorrigible, that husband of yours, Mrs.Fisher," he would add, "and we must just let him have his way." AndMamsie would smile, and every night the little doctor would tome fromhis tramps and medical study, tired but radiant.
At last one morning Grandpapa said, "Now for Scheveningen to-day!"
"Oh, goody!" cried Polly, clapping her hands; then blushed as red as arose. They were at breakfast, and everybody in the vicinity turned andstared at their table.
"Don't mind it, Polly," said Jasper, her next neighbour, "I want to dothe same thing. And it will do some of those starched and prim peoplegood to hear a little enthusiasm." Polly knew whom he meant,--someyoung Englishmen. One of them immediately put up his monocle andregarded her as if she had been a new kind of creature displayed forhis benefit. Jasper glared back at him.
"Yes, we'll go to Scheveningen this morning," repeated Mr. King,smiling approvingly at poor Polly, which caused her to lift her head;"the carriages are ordered, so as soon as we are through breakfast wewill be off."
"Oh, father," exclaimed Jasper, in dismay, "must we go in carriages?"
"How else would you go, Jasper?" asked his father.
"Oh, by the tramway; oh, by all means," cried Jasper, perfectlydelighted that he could get his father even to listen to any other plan.
"The dirty tram-cars," ejaculated Mr. King, in disgust. "How can youask it, Jasper? No, indeed, we must go in carriages, or not at all."
"But, father," and Jasper's face fell, "don't you see the upper deck ofthe tram-car is so high and there are fine seats there, and we can seeso much better than driving in a stupid carriage?"
Polly's face had drooped, too. Mr. King, in looking from one to theother, was dismayed and a good bit annoyed to find that his plan wasn'tproductive of much happiness after all. He had just opened his mouth tosay authoritatively, "No use, Jasper, either you will go in the way Ihave provided, or stay at home," when Phronsie slipped out of her chairwhere she happened this morning to be sitting next to Mother Fisher,and running around to his chair, piped out, "Oh, Grandpapa, if youplease, do let us sit up top."
"We'll do it now, Polly," whispered Jasper, in a transport, "whenPhronsie looks like that. See her face!"
"Do you really want to go in a dirty old tram-car, Phronsie, instead ofin a carriage?" Old Mr. King pushed back his chair and looked steadilyat her.
"Oh, yes, yes, Grandpapa, please"--Phronsie beat her hands softlytogether--"to ride on top; may we, _dear_ Grandpapa?" That "dearGrandpapa" settled it. Jasper never heard such a welcome command asthat Mr. King was just issuing. "Go to the office and countermand theorder for the carriages, my son; tell them to put the amount on mybill, the same as if I'd used them, unless they get a chance to letthem to some one else. They needn't be the losers. Now then," as Jasperbounded off to execute the command, "get on your bonnets and hats, allof you, and we'll try this wonderful tram-car. I suppose you won't comewith us, but will stay behind for the pleasures of some hospital here,"he added to Dr. Fisher.
"On the contrary," said the little doctor, throwing down his napkin andgetting out of his chair. "I am going, for there is a marine hospitalfor children there, that I wouldn't miss for the world."
"I warrant you would find one on a desert island," retorted old Mr.King. "Well, hurry now, all of you--and we will be off."
"Now, then, all scramble up here. Phronsie, you go with me," cried oldMr. King, as they stood in _plein_, and the tram-car halted beforethem. He was surprised to find that he liked this sort of thing, mixingwith a crowd and hurrying for seats just like common ordinaryindividuals. And as he toiled up the winding stairs, Phronsie in frontof him, he had an exhilaration already that made him feel almost asyoung as Polly and Jasper, scampering up the circular stairway at theother end. "Well, bless me, we are up, aren't we?" he exclaimed,sitting down and casting a glance around.
"Did you ever see anything so fascinating?" cried Polly Pepper,clasping her hands in delight, and not stopping to sit down, butlooking all around.
"You had better sit down," advised Mother Fisher, "else when the carstarts you may go over the railing."
"Oh, I can't fall, Mamsie," said Polly, carelessly, yet she sat down,while Jasper got out of his seat and ran up to old Mr. King.
"Now, father, don't you like it?" he cried. "And isn't it better than astuffy old carriage?"
"Yes, I do, my boy," answered his father, frankly. "Now run off withyou, you've planned it well." So Jasper, made happy for the day, rushedback to his seat. A hand not over clean was laid on it, and a tallindividual, who was pouring out very bad provincial French at a fearfulrate, was just about to worm himself into it. Polly, who sat next, hadturned around to view the scenery from the other side, and hadn't seenhis advance.
"Excuse me," said Jasper, in another torrent of the same language, onlyof a better quality, "this is my seat--I only left it to speak to myfather."
But the Frenchman being there, thought that he could get still furtherinto the seat. So he twisted and edged, but Jasper slipped neatly in,and looked calmly up at him. The Frenchman, unable to get his balance,sat down in Jasper's lap. But he bounded up again, blue with rage.
"What's all this?" demanded Mr. King, who never could speak French in ahurry, being very elegant at it, and exceedingly careful as to hisaccent. Phronsie turned pale and clung to his hand.
"Nothing," said Jasper, in English, "only this person chose to try totake my seat, and I chose to have it myself."
"You take yourself off," commanded Mr. King, in an irate voice to theFrench individual, "or I'll see that some one attends to your case."
Not understanding the language, all might have gone well, but theFrench person could interpret the expression of the face under thewhite hair, and he accordingly left a position in front of Jasper tosidle up toward Mr. King's seat in a threatening attitude. At thatJasper got out of his seat again and went to his father's side. LittleDr. Fisher also skipped up.
"See here you, Frenchy, stop your parley vousing, and march down thosestairs double quick," cried the little doctor, standing on his tiptoesand bristling with indignation. His big spectacles had slipped to theend of his nose, his sharp little eyes blazing above them.
"Frenchy" stared at him in amazement, unable to find his tongue. Andthen he saw another gentleman in the person of the parson, who was justas big as the doctor was small. With one look he glanced around to seeif there were any more such specimens. At any rate, it was time to begoing, so he took a bee-line for the nearest stairway and plunged down.But he gave the little doctor the compliment of his parting regard.
"Well," ejaculated Mr. King, when his party had regained their seatsand the car started off, "if this is to be the style of our companions,I think my plan of carriages might be best after all. Eh, my boy?" witha sly look at Jasper.
"But anything like this might not happen again in a hundred times,father," said Jasper.
"I suppose I
must say 'yes, I know it' to that," said his father. Andas everybody had regained composure, he was beginning to feel veryhappy himself as the car rumbled off.
"This is fine," he kept saying to himself, "the boy knew what wasbest," and he smiled more than once over at Jasper, who was pointingout this and that to Polly. Jasper nodded back again.
"Don't let him bother you to see everything, Polly," called Grandpapa."Take my advice--it's a nuisance to try to compass the whole place onthe first visit." But Polly laughed back, and the advice went over herhead, as he very well knew it would.
"Was anything ever more beautiful?" exclaimed Mother Fisher, drawing inlong breaths of delight. The little doctor leaned back in his seat, andbeamed at her over his big glasses. She began to look rested and youngalready. "This journey is the very thing," he declared to himself, andhis hard-worked hand slipped itself over her toil-worn one as it lay onher lap. She turned to him with a smile.
"Adoniram, I never imagined anything like this," she said simply.
"No more did I," he answered. "That's the good of our coming, wife."
"Just see those beautiful green trees, so soft and trembling," sheexclaimed, as enthusiastically as Polly herself. "And what a perfectarch!" And she bent forward to glance down the shaded avenue. "Oh,Adoniram!"
"What makes the trunks look so green?" Polly was crying as they rumbledalong. "See, Jasper, there isn't a brown branch, even. Everything isgreen."
"That's what makes it so pretty," said Jasper. "I don't wonder theseoaks in the _Scheveningsche Boschjes_--O dear me, I don't know how topronounce it in the least--are so celebrated."
"Don't try," said Polly, "to pronounce it, Jasper. I just mark thingsin my Baedeker and let it go."
"Our Baedekers will be a sight when we get home, won't they, Polly?"remarked Jasper, in a pause, when eyes had been busy to their utmostcapacity.
"I rather think they will," laughed Polly. "Mine is a sight now,Jasper, for I mark all round the edges--and just everywhere."
"But you are always copying off the things into your journal," saidJasper, "afterward. So do I mark my Baedeker; it's the only way to jotthings down in any sort of order. One can't be whipping out a note-bookevery minute. Halloo, here we are at the chateau of the Grand Duke ofSaxe-Weimar. Look, Polly! look!"
As they looked back in the distance to the receding ducal estate, Pollysaid: "It isn't one-half as beautiful as this delicious old wood is,Jasper. Just see that perfectly beautiful walk down there and thatcunning little trail. Oh, I do so wish we could stay here."
"Some day, let us ask Dr. Fisher to come out with us, and we will trampit. Oh, I forgot; he won't leave the hospitals."
"Mr. Henderson might like to," said Polly, in a glow, "let's ask himsometime, anyway, Jasper. And then, just think, we can go all in andout this lovely wood. How fine!"
"Father will come over to Scheveningen again and stay a few days,maybe," said Jasper, "if he takes a fancy to the idea. How would youlike that, Polly?"
"I don't know," said Polly, "because I haven't seen it yet, Jasper."
"I know--I forgot--'twas silly in me to ask such a question," saidJasper, with a laugh. "Well, anyway, I think it more than likely thathe will."
"I just love The Hague," declared Polly, with a backward glance downthe green avenue. "I hope we are going to stay there ever so long,Jasper."
"Then we sha'n't get on to all the other places," said Jasper. "Weshall feel just as badly to leave every other one, I suppose, Polly."
"I suppose so," said Polly, with a sigh.
When they left the tram-car at the beginning of the village ofScheveningen they set off on a walk down to the _Curhaus_ and thebeach. Old Mr. King, as young as any one, started out on the promenadeon the undulating terrace at the top of the Dunes, followed by the restof his party.
Down below ran a level road. "There is the Boulevard," said Grandpapa."See, child," pointing to it; but Phronsie had no eyes for anything butthe hundreds and hundreds of Bath chairs dotting the sands.
"Oh, Grandpapa, what are they?" she cried, pulling his hand andpointing to them.
"Those are chairs," answered Mr. King, "and by and by we will go downand get into some of them."
"They look just like the big sunbonnets that Grandma Bascom always worewhen she went out to feed her hens, don't they, Jasper?"
"Precisely," he said, bursting into a laugh. "How you always do seefunny things, Polly."
"And see what queer patches there are all up and down the sides of someof them," cried Polly. "Whatever can they be, Jasper?"
"Oh, those are the advertisements," said Jasper. "You'll find thateverything is plastered up in that way abroad."
"Just as the omnibuses in London are all covered over with posters,"said Polly; "weren't they funny, Jasper?"
"Yes, indeed,--'Lipton Teas,'--I got so tired of that. Andthese,--cocoa or chocolate. You know Holland is full of manufactoriesof it."
"And isn't it good?" cried Polly, smacking her lips, as she had feastedon it since their arrival in Holland, Grandpapa considering itespecially good and pure.
"I should say so," echoed Jasper, smacking his lips, too.
"Dr. Fisher--" The parson turned to address his neighbour, but therewas no little doctor.
"Oh, he is off long ago," said his wife, "to his beloved hospital. Whatis it, Samuel?"
"I was only going to remark that I don't believe I ever saw so manypeople together before. Just look!" he pointed down to the Boulevardand off to the sands along the beach.
"It is a swarm, isn't it?" said his wife. "Well, we must go, for Mr.King is going down to the Boulevard."
Polly and Jasper, running in and out of the fascinating shops by theConcert terrace, had minds divided by the desire to stay on the sands,and to explore further the tempting interiors. "We must get somethingfor the boys," she declared, jingling her little silver purse; "justlet us go in this one now, then we'll run after Grandpapa; he's goingdown on the sands."
"He's going to sit with Phronsie in some of those big sunbonnets ofyours, Polly," said Jasper. "There they are," pointing to them. "Well,we'll go in this shop. I want to get a pair of those wooden shoes forJoel." And they hurried in.
"Oh, how fine!" exclaimed Polly. "Well, I saw a carved bear I thinkDavie would like, and--" the rest was lost in the confusing array oftempting things spread out for their choice by deft shopkeepers.
When they emerged, Polly had a china windmill, and an inkstand of Delftware, and several other things, and Jasper carried all the big bundles."O dear me," said Polly, "now we must run, or we sha'n't have much timeto stay on the beach; and besides, Grandpapa will worry over us ifwe're not there."
"We can't run much, loaded down with this," said Jasper, looking at hisarmful and laughing, "or we'd likely drop half of them, and smash themto pieces. Wait a bit, Polly, I'm going to buy you some fruit." Theystopped at the top of the stone stairway leading down to the sands,where some comely peasant women, fishermen's wives, held great basketsof fruit, and in one hand was a pair of scales. "Now, then, what willyou have, Polly?"
"Oh, some grapes, please, Jasper," said Polly. "Aren't they mostbeautiful?"
"I should say they were; they are black Hamburgs," declared Jasper."Now, then, my good woman, give us a couple of pounds." He put down thecoin she asked for, and she weighed them out in her scales, and didthem up in a piece of a Dutch newspaper.
"We are much worse off now, Jasper," laughed Polly, as they got overthe stairs somehow with their burdens, "since we've all these grapes tocarry. O dear me, there goes one!"
"Never mind," said Jasper, looking over his armful of presents, toinvestigate his paper of grapes; "if we don't lose but one, we'relucky."
"And there goes another," announced Polly, as they picked their wayover and through the thick sand.
"Well, I declare," exclaimed old Mr. King, peering out of his Bathchair, "if you children aren't loaded down!" He was eating blackHamburg grapes. Phronsie sat opposite him almost lost in the depth ofano
ther Bath chair, similarly occupied. And at a little remove was theremainder of the party, and they all were in Bath chairs, and eatingblack Hamburg grapes.
"We've had such fun," sighed Polly, and she and Jasper cast theirbundles on the soft sand; then she threw herself down next to them, andpushed up the little brown rings from her damp brow.
Jasper set his paper of grapes in her lap, then rushed off. "I'll getyou a Bath chair," he said, beckoning to the attendant.
"Oh, Jasper, I'd so much rather sit on the sand," called Polly.
"So had I," he confessed, running back and throwing himself down besideher. "Now, then, do begin on your grapes, Polly."
"We'll begin together," she said, poking open the paper. "Oh, aren'tthey good, though!"
"I should rather say they were," declared Jasper; "dear me, what abunch!"
"It's not as big as mine," said Polly, holding up hers to the light."You made me take that one, Jasper."
"It's no better than mine," said Jasper, eating away.
"I'm going to hop into one of the chairs just a minute before we go,"said Polly, nodding at the array along the beach, and eating her grapesbusily, "to see how they feel."
"Oh, Polly, let me get you a chair now," begged Jasper, setting downthe remainder of his bunch of grapes, and springing up.
"Oh, I don't want to, I really and truly don't, Jasper," Polly madehaste to cry. "I like the sand ever and ever so much better. I onlywant to see for a minute what it's like to be in one of those funny oldthings. Then I should want to hop out with all my might, I just know Ishould."
"I'm of your mind," said Jasper, coming back to his seat on the sandagain. "They must be very stuffy, Polly. Well, now you are here, wouldyou like to come back to Scheveningen for a few days, Polly?"
"I think I should," said Polly, slowly, bringing her gaze around overthe sea, to the Dunes, the beach, with the crowds of people of allnationalities, and the peasant folk, "if we could stay just as long,for all that, at the dear old Hague."
And just then old Mr. King was saying to Phronsie, "We will come outhere again, child, and stay a week. Yes," he said to himself, "I willengage the rooms before we go back this afternoon."
"Grandpapa," asked Phronsie, laying her hand on his knee, "can I havethis very same little house next time we come?"
"Well, I don't know," said Mr. King, peering up and down Phronsie'sBath chair adorned with the most lively descriptions of the merits ofcocoa as a food; "they're all alike as two peas, except for the matterof the chocolate and cocoa trimmings. But perhaps I can fix it,Phronsie, so that you can have this identical one," mentally resolvingto do that very thing. "Well, come, Phronsie, we must go now and getour luncheon."
"I am so glad if I can have the same little house," said Phronsie, witha sigh of contentment, as she slowly got out of her Bath chair. "It isa nice little house, Grandpapa, and I love it very much."