DICK AND DOLLY
by
CAROLYN WELLS
Author ofThe Marjorie Books,The Patty Books,The Two Little Women Series,
Illustrated by Ada Budell
Grosset & DunlapPublishers New York
Made in the United States of America
Copyright, 1909, byDodd, Mead and Company
Published, October, 1909
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE BROOK 1
II THE ARRIVAL 15
III AN EARLY STROLL 29
IV GARDENS 43
V A PLAYGROUND 57
VI A SOCIAL CALL 72
VII PINKIE 87
VIII A SECRET 102
IX PHYLLIS 118
X AN AUCTION SALE 132
XI FUN WITH LADY ELIZA 147
XII OBEYING ORDERS 161
XIII AUNT NINE 177
XIV A CORONATION 191
XV PUNISHMENT 207
XVI THE PLAYHOUSE 222
XVII THE FATE OF DANA COTTAGE 236
XVIII A LOVELY PLAN 249
XIX THE BIG CHIEF 264
XX A GAY PARTY 279
ILLUSTRATIONS
“She Saw a Little Girl Coming _Frontispiece_ Eagerly Toward Her”
“Oh, How Good the Cool Ripply Facing page 40 Water did Feel!”
In the Garden ” ” 124
Lady Dusenbury’s Party ” ” 200
CHAPTER I
THE BROOK
Dick and Dolly were twins and had been twins for nine years.
Most of these years had been spent with Grandma Banks and Aunt Helen,for Dick and Dolly were orphaned when they were tiny tots, and AuntHelen Banks was their mother’s sister.
Then, about two years ago, Grandma Banks had died, and now Aunt Helenwas to be married and go far away across the sea to live.
So their Chicago home was broken up, and the twins were sent to the oldDana homestead in Connecticut, to live with their father’s people.
This transfer of their dwelling-place didn’t bother Dick and Dolly much,for they were philosophical little people and took things just as theyhappened, and, moreover, they were so fond of each other, that so longas they were together, it didn’t matter to them where they were.
But to the two people who lived in the old Dana place, and who wereabout to receive the twin charges, it mattered a great deal.
Miss Rachel and Miss Abbie Dana were maiden ladies of precise andmethodical habits, and to have their quiet home invaded by two unknownchildren was, to say the least, disturbing.
But then Dick and Dolly were the children of their own brother, and so,of course they were welcome, still the aunts felt sure it would make agreat difference in the household.
And indeed it did.
From the moment of the twins’ arrival,—but I may as well tell you aboutthat moment.
You see, Aunt Helen was so busy with her wedding preparations that shedidn’t want to take the time to bring Dick and Dolly all the way fromChicago to Heatherton, Connecticut, so she sent them East in charge ofsome friends of hers who chanced to be coming. Mr. and Mrs. Halkett weregood-natured people, and agreed to see the twins safely to Dana Dene,the home of the waiting aunts.
And the aunts were waiting somewhat anxiously.
They had never seen Dick and Dolly since they were tiny babies, and asthey had heard vague reports of mischievous tendencies, they feared forthe peace and quiet of their uneventful lives.
“But,” said Miss Abbie to Miss Rachel, “we can’t expect children to actlike grown people. If they’re only tidy and fairly good-mannered, Ishall be thankful.”
“Perhaps we can train them to be,” responded Miss Rachel, hopefully;“nine is not very old, to begin with. I think they will be tractable atthat age.”
“Let us hope so,” said Miss Abbie.
The Dana ladies were not really old,—even the family Bible didn’tcredit them with quite half a century apiece,—but they were of a quiet,sedate type, and were disturbed by the least invasion of their dailyroutine.
Life at Dana Dene was of the clock-work variety, and mistresses andservants fell into step and trooped through each day, without avariation from the pre-arranged line of march.
But, to their honest souls, duty was pre-eminent, even over routine, andnow, as it was clearly their duty to take their brother’s children intotheir household, there was no hesitation, but there was apprehension.
For who could say what two nine-year-olds would be like?
But in accordance with their sense of duty, the Misses Dana accepted thesituation and went to work to prepare rooms for the new-comers.
Two large sunny bedrooms, Dolly’s sweet and dainty, Dick’s more boyish,were made ready, and another large room was planned to be used as astudy or rainy-day playroom for them both. Surely, the aunts were doingthe right thing,—if the children would only respond to the gentletreatment, and not be perfect little savages, all might yet be well.
Now it happened that when Mr. and Mrs. Halkett reached New York withtheir young charges, the trip from Chicago had made Mrs. Halkett soweary and indisposed that she preferred to remain in New York while herhusband took the twins to Heatherton. It was not a long trip, perhapsthree hours or less on the train, so Mr. Halkett started off to fulfilhis trust and present Dick and Dolly at the door of their new home,assuring his wife that he would return on the first train possible afteraccomplishing his errand. Mrs. Halkett took pride in seeing that thechildren were very spick and span, and prettily arrayed, and gave themmany injunctions to keep themselves so.
Sturdy Dick looked fine in his grey Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers,with wide white collar and correct tie. Pretty little Dolly was in whitepiqué, very stiff and clean, with a tan-coloured coat and flower-trimmedhat.
The twins looked alike, and had the same big, dark eyes, but Dick’s hairwas a dark mass of close-cropped curls, while Dolly’s was a tangle offluffy golden ringlets. This striking effect of fair hair and dark eyesmade her an unusually attractive-looking child, and though they hadnever thought of it themselves, the twins were a very beautiful pair ofchildren. Docilely obedient to Mrs. Halkett’s injunctions, they satquietly in the train, and did nothing that could by any possibility betermed naughty.
Truth to tell, they were a little awed at the thought of the two aunts,whom they did not yet know, but had every reason to believe were not atall like Auntie Helen. They chatted together, as they looked out of thewindow at the landscape and stations, and Mr. Halkett read his paper,and then looked over his timetable to see how soon he could get back toNew York.
There was a train that left Heatherton for New York about half an hourafter their own arrival, so he hoped he could leave the twins at DanaDene and return to the metropolis on that train. But owing to a delay o
fsome sort they did not reach the Heatherton station until about twentyminutes after schedule time.
After the train Mr. Halkett desired to take back to New York, there wasno other for two hours, and greatly annoyed was that gentleman. Whenthey stood at last on the station platform, a pleasant-faced Irishmanapproached and informed Mr. Halkett that he was from Dana Dene, and hadbeen sent to meet Master Dick and Miss Dolly. As the man appeared socapable and responsible, Mr. Halkett was tempted to put the children inhis care, and return himself at once to New York.
He explained about the trains, and told of his wife’s illness, and theintelligent Michael said at once:
“Shure, sor, do yez go back to New York. I’ll be afther takin’ thechildher safe to the house. Don’t yez moind, sor, but go right along.Lave all to me, sor.”
Impressed with the man’s decisive words, and sure of histrustworthiness, Mr. Halkett assisted the children into the carriage,and bidding them good-bye turned back to the station.
Dolly looked a little wistful as he turned away, for though no relative,he had been a kind friend, and now she felt like a stranger in a strangeland.
But Dick was with her, so nothing else really mattered. She slipped herhand in her brother’s, and then Michael picked up his reins and theystarted off.
It was early May, and it chanced to be warm and pleasant. The carriagewas an open one, a sort of landau, and the twins gazed around with eagerinterest.
“Great, isn’t it, Dolly?” exclaimed Dick, as they drove along a windingroad, with tall trees and budding shrubs on either side.
“Oh, yes!” returned Dolly. “It’s beautiful. I love the country a wholeheap better than Chicago. Oh, Dick, there’s woods,—real woods!”
“So it is, and a brook in it! I say, Michael, can’t we get out here aminute?”
“I think not,” said the good-natured coachman. “The leddies is forninst,lookin’ for yez, and by the same token, we’re afther bein’ late as itis.”
“Yes, I know,” said Dick, “but we won’t stay a minute. Just let us runin and see that brook. It’s such a dandy! I never saw a brook but onceor twice in all my life.”
“Yez didn’t! The saints presarve us! Wherever have yez lived?”
“In the city,—in Chicago. Do stop a minute, please, Michael.”
“Please, Michael,” added Dolly, and her sweet voice and coaxing glancewere too much for Michael’s soft heart.
Grumbling a little under his breath, he pulled up his horses, and letthe children get out.
“Just a minute, now,” he said, warningly. “I’ll bring yez back here someother day. Can yez get under the brush there?”
“We’ll go over,” cried Dick, as he climbed and scrambled over a lowthicket of brush.
Dolly scrambled through, somehow, and the two children that emerged onthe other side of the brush were quite different in appearance from thetwo sedate-looking ones that Mr. Halkett had left behind him.
Dick’s white collar had received a smudge, his stocking was badly torn,and his cheek showed a long scratch.
Dolly’s white frock was a sight! Her pretty tan coat had lost a buttonor two, and her hat was still in the bushes.
“Hey, Doddy, hey, for the brook!” shouted Dick, and grasping eachother’s hands, they ran for the rippling water.
“Oh!” cried Dolly, her eyes shining. “Did you _ever_!”
To the very edge of the brook they went, dabbling their fingers in theclear stream, and merrily splashing water on each other.
All this would have been a harmless performance enough if they had beenin play clothes, but the effect on their travelling costumes was mostdisastrous.
Leaning over the mossy bank to reach the water caused fearful greenstains on white piqué and on light-grey knickerbockers. Hands becamegrimy, and faces hot and smudgy. But blissfully careless of all this,the children frolicked and capered about, rejoiced to find thedelightful country spot and quite oblivious to the fact that they wereon their way to their new home.
“Let’s wade,” said Dick, and like a flash, off came four muddy shoes,and four grass-greened stockings. Oh, how good the cool ripply water didfeel! and how they chuckled with glee as they felt the wavelets plashinground their ankles.
Across the brook were the dearest wild flowers,—pink, yellow, andwhite.
“We must gather some,” said Dolly. “Can we wade across?”
“Yep; I guess so. It doesn’t look deep. Come on.”
Taking hands again, they stepped cautiously, and succeeded in crossingthe shallow brook, though, incidentally, well dampening the piqué skirt,and the grey knickerbockers.
Sitting down on the mossy bank, they picked handfuls of the flowers andwondered what they were.
“Hollo! Hollo!” called Michael’s voice from the road, where he satholding his horses.
“All right, Michael! In a minute,” shrilled back the childish voices.
And they really meant to go in a minute, but the fascination of theplace held them, and they kept on picking flowers, and grubbing amongthe roots and stones at the edge of the water.
“We really ought to go,” said Dolly. “Come on, Dick. Oh, look at thebirds!”
A large flock of birds flew low through the sky, and as they circled andwheeled, the children watched them eagerly.
“They’re birds coming North for the summer,” said Dick. “See thosefalling behind! They don’t like the way the flock is going, and they’regoing to turn back.”
“So they are! We must watch them. There, now they’ve decided to go on,after all! Aren’t they queer?”
“Hollo! Hollo! Come back, yez bad childher! Come back, I say!”
“Yes, Michael, in a minute,” rang out Dolly’s sweet, bird-like voice.
“In a minute, nothin’! Come now, roight sthraight away! Do yez hear?”
“Yes, we’re coming,” answered Dick, and together they started to wadeback across the brook.
Then there were shoes and stockings to be put on, and with sopping wetfeet, and no towels, this is not an easy task.
They tugged at the unwilling stockings and nearly gave up in despair,but succeeded at last in getting them on, though the seams were far fromthe proper straight line at the back. Shoes were not so hard to put on,but were impossible to button without a buttonhook, so had to remainunbuttoned.
Meantime, Michael was fairly fuming with angry impatience. He could notleave his horses, or he would have gone after the truants, and nopassers-by came along whom he could ask to hold his restive team.
So he continued to shout, and Dick and Dolly continued to assure himthat they were coming, but they didn’t come.
At last they appeared at the thicket hedge, and as the two laughingfaces peeped through, Michael could scarcely recognise his youngcharges. Torn, soiled, dishevelled, unkempt, there was absolutely notrace of the spick and span toilets Mrs. Halkett had looked after socarefully, in spite of her aching head and tired nerves.
“Yez naughty little rascals!” cried Michael. “Whativer possessed yez totousel yersilves up loike that! Shame to yez! What’ll yer aunties say?”
For the first time, the twins realised their disreputable appearance.
What, indeed, would their new aunties say to them? Aunt Helen would havelaughed, in her pretty, merry way, and sent them trotting away to cleanup, but with new and untried aunties they couldn’t be sure. Moreover,they had an idea that Aunt Rachel and Aunt Abbie were not at all likepretty, young Auntie Helen.
Rescuing her hat from the thorn bush where it hung, Dolly lookedruefully at its twisted flowers. The more she tried to pull them intoshape, the worse they looked.
She put it on her head, dismayed meanwhile to find her broad hair-ribbonwas gone, and her sunny curls a moist, tangled mop.
Dick was conscious of a growing feeling of wrong-doing, but there wasnothing to be done but face the music.
“Get in,” he said, briefly to his sister, and they clambered into thecarriage.
Michael said no mor
e; it was not his place to reprimand the children ofthe house, but he sat up very straight and stiff, as he drove rapidlytoward home. To be sure, his straightness and stiffness was to conceal afit of merriment caused by the thought of presenting these ragamuffinsat the portals of Dana Dene, but the ragamuffins themselves didn’t knowthat, and regretful and chagrined, they sat hand in hand, awaiting theirfate.