Meg of Mystery Mountain

  CHAPTER XIII. TWO LITTLE COOKS

  The kitchen of the log cabin had one window and a door which opened outinto what Gerry called the "back-yard part of their ledge." It was onlyabout fifty feet to the very edge, and Gerry crept on hands and knees tolook over, that he might see where their "back-yard went." He lifted aface filled with awe and beckoned his sister to advance with caution.Lying flat, the two children gazed over the rim of the ledge, straightdown a wall of rock, far below which the road could be seen curving."Ohee!" Julie drew back with a shudder. "What if our cabin should slideright off this shelf that it's built on?"

  "It can't, if it wants to," the boy told her confidently. "We're safehere as anything. That's two ways a bear can't come," he continued; "buton the other side, where the creek is, and in front, where the stonesteps are, I suppose the bear came in one of those two ways."

  The small girl looked frightened. "Oh, Gerry," she said, "what if a bearshould come again? What would we do?"

  "Why, Dan would shoot it, just the way Dad did," the boy replied withgreat assurance. His big brother was his hero, and that he could notperform any feat required was not to be thought of for one moment.

  "But Dan hasn't a gun, has he?" Julie was not yet convinced.

  "Indeed he has, silly. Do you s'pose Dad would let us come into this wildcountry without guns? Dan has two in his trunk. One's a big fellow! Dadlet me hold it once, and, Oh, boy, I'm telling you it's a heavy one. Imost had to drop it, and I've got bully muscle. Look at what muscle I'vegot!"

  Gerry crooked his bare arm, but his sister turned away impatiently,saying: "Oh, I don't want to! You make me feel what muscle you've gotmost every day."

  Julie returned to the kitchen, but Gerry followed, and, if he wereoffended by her lack of interest in his brawniness, he did not show it.He was far too interested in the subject under discussion. "That big gunI was telling you about is the very one Dad used when he shot thegrizzly, and if it shot one bear, then of course it can shoot anotherbear."

  The little girl was convinced. That seemed clear reasoning, but sheinterrupted when the boy began again, by saying: "Gerald Abbott, do stoptelling bear stories, and help me clean up this kitchen. Jane won't beany more use than nothing and we might as well do things and pretend sheisn't here, the way I wish she wasn't."

  "I sort of wish she hadn't come, myself," Gerry confessed. "Now, let'ssee. Here's a cupboard all nailed up. I guess I can pull out the nails,but first I'd better make a fire in this old stove. I'll have to fetch insome wood."

  "No, you won't! Not just at first. There's a box full behind the stove.Big, knotty pieces; pine, I suppose; but maybe we do need some kindling.Then bring me some water from the creek and I'll wash up everything. Dadsaid we'd find some dishes in the cupboard, if they hadn't been stolen."

  "Gee, I hope they haven't!" The boy, who was as handy about a home as washis small sister, soon had a fire in the stove, and then, having found apail, he went to the creek, stealing around past the front porch andunder his sister's window as quietly as he possibly could. Although drytwigs creaked and snapped, the two sleepers did not waken.

  Such fun as those youngsters had putting the kitchen in order. In thecupboard they found all of the dishes which their father had mentioned.Although the china was coarse, the green fern pattern was attractive.Gerald, standing on a chair, handed it out, piece by piece, to the smallgirl, who put them in hot, sudsy water and then dried them till theyshone. Gerald, meantime, was washing the shelves. Then they replaced thedishes and stood back to admire their handiwork.

  "Oh, aren't we having fun?" Julie chuckled. "Now, we're all ready to getthe lunch."

  It was one o'clock when Julie went to waken Jane, and Gerald, at the sametime, went out on the porch where Dan had been sleeping, but the olderboy was sitting up on the edge of his cot drinking in the beauty of thescene which, to him, was an ever-changing marvel. He sprang up,wonderfully refreshed, and going to the packing trunk, he procured atowel.

  "Hello, Jane," he called brightly to the tall girl, who appeared in theopen door. Then he gave a long whistle. "Sister," he exclaimed, love andadmiration ringing in his voice, "I hope that Jean Sawyer, who is comingto dine with us day after tomorrow, has a heart of adamant. I pity him ifhe hasn't! I honestly never saw anyone so beautiful as you are, with theflush of slumber on your cheeks and your eyes so bright."

  Jane came out smiling. This was the sort of adulation she desired andrequired, but her brother felt a twinge of guilt, for, even as he hadbeen talking, he had seen in memory a slender, alert little creature witheyes, star-like in their dusky radiance, gazing out at him from underdark, curling lashes.

  But they were so unlike, these two, he told himself. The one proud,imperious, ultra-civilized; the other, a wild thing, untamed, or so shehad appeared to him in that one moment's glance, a native of themountains.

  "Where are you going with that towel?" Jane asked him.

  The lad laughingly dived again into the packing trunk and brought outanother. "Let's go to the creek to wash," he suggested. "I haven't evenseen it yet, and I'm ever so eager to feel that cold mountain water dashinto my face." Then in a low tone he whispered close to his sister's ear,"The children have a surprise for us, Jane, and so let's be very muchsurprised and not disappoint them."

  Jane shrugged. To her, children and their ways had to be endured, but shetook no interest in what they did or did not do. However, she accompaniedher brother around the house.

  She glanced at him with a sense of satisfaction, which was, as usual,prompted by selfishness. If Dan seemed so much better in one day, hemight be so well by the end of a fortnight that she would not need toremain with him. If she were sure that all was to be well with him, shewould return to Merry. The lad, not dreaming what her thoughts were,caught her hand boyishly. "Oh, Jane," he cried as he pointed ahead, "canyou believe it, Sister-pal, that is our very own mountain stream! Isn'tit a beauty?"

  The sunlight, falling between the pines, lighted the narrow, rushing,whirling little mountain brook, which sparkled and seemed to sing for thevery joy of being. Standing on its edge, Dan looked up the mountain alongthe course the brook had come. "See," he cried jubilantly, "wherever thesunlight filters through, it gleams as though it were laughing. Dad saidthat it springs out just below the rim rock. Oh, I do hope by next week Iwill be able to climb up that high."

  Jane's glance followed her brother's up the rough, rocky mountain sideand she shook her head. "I'll never attempt it," she decided, but Danwhirled, laughing defiance. "I'm going to prophesy that you'll climb therim rock before a fortnight is over."

  Then kneeling, he splashed the clear, cold water in his face and reachedfor the towel that Jane held. Then he implored her to do the same. Withgreat reluctance she complied, and so cool and restful did she find it,that she actually smiled, almost with pleasure.

  But Dan had the misfortune to say the wrong thing just then. "I supposethis brook, or one like it, is all the mirror that the mountain girl, MegHeger, has ever had," he began, when he sensed a chill in his sister'sreply.

  "I certainly do not know, nor do I care." Then she added, as anafterthought, "And I shall never find out."