CHAPTER XV
PUNISHMENT
The Reading ladies had departed, and the younger guests of Dana Denehad also trotted homeward.
“It’s too bad to take those things off of Eliza,” said Dolly, “she looksso pretty in ’em. Let’s take her, wheelbarrow and all, to show to theaunties.”
“I’m ’fraid Aunt Nine will faint again,” objected Dick.
“Oh, no, she won’t; it was the carving knife that scared her.”
So the twins trundled the white-draped wheelbarrow, and its white-garbedoccupant straight up to the front door of the house.
“Come out, aunties!” they called. “The queen wants you to salute hermajesty!”
Hearing the commotion, the three ladies came out on the veranda, andthis time Aunt Penninah did not faint, but seemed greatly interested inthe majestic Eliza.
“What have you put on her?” the old lady cried. “Why, they’reclothes,—rough-dry! Did you take them from the clotheslines? Rachel, doyou allow these children to act up like that? I am ashamed of them, andyou, too!”
Just then Delia came out to the veranda with a clothes-basketful of thegarments the children had played with. Good-natured Delia rarely mindedthe twins’ mischief, but it had been a specially hard day, and the extrawork and company had tired her out completely. Also, it _was_ annoyingto find her carefully washed clothes all muddied and grass-stained!
“Will ye look at this, Miss Rachel!” she exclaimed, her face red andangry. “It’s too much to ask of a gur-rl to hurry up her wash an’ cookfor comp’ny on a Monday, an’ thin to go fer her clothes, an’ find ’emlike this!”
Aunt Rachel and Aunt Abbie looked at the twins. So did Aunt Penninah.Dick and Dolly looked at the clothes in Delia’s basket. They _were_ asorry sight, but the twins seemed surprised rather than ashamed.
“Why, Delia Maloney!” cried Dick. “Are you sure we spoiled those clotheslike that! Why, we just wore them to the coronation. I didn’t ’spect itwould hurt ’em a bit!”
“Neither did I!” cried Dolly. “I’m awful sorry, Delia. I s’pose we oughtnot to have taken ’em; but truly, I never thought about their gettingdirty. Will you have to wash ’em all over again?”
“Will I!” said Delia, grimly; “that I will, Miss Dolly; an’ a foine timeI’ll have gettin’ the green stains out, for-bye the mud; an’ to saynothin’ of their being torn to bits!”
She held up a sheet and a tablecloth, each of which showed a jaggedtear.
“I’ll mend those,” said Dolly, cheerfully, “they’ll be good practice,for Aunt Rachel is just teaching me darning in my sewing lessons.”
Soft-hearted Delia couldn’t help smiling at the earnest little face;Aunt Rachel and Aunt Abbie looked perplexed; but Aunt Penninah wasunable to restrain expression of her feelings.
“You’re the worst children I ever saw!” she exclaimed; “the very worst!At nine years old you should know better than to cut up such naughty,wicked tricks! You must be severely punished. Rachel, if you don’tpunish them, I shall do so myself!”
Now Dick and Dolly were quite unaccustomed to this sort of scolding.Aunt Rachel, though severe in principle, was very lenient in practice,and Aunt Abbie was gentleness itself. So it was with real curiosity thatthe twins drew nearer, to look at the reddening face and flashing blackeyes of their great-aunt, and Dick said, very seriously:
“We _were_ naughty, Aunt Nine; and if you punish us, how are you goingto do it?”
The question was not at all impertinent, Dick’s round little face showedonly a justifiable interest, and Aunt Penninah looked a little baffled,as both twins waited eagerly for her answer.
“Do just what you please in the matter, Aunt Nine,” said Miss Rachel,who had never quite outlived her youthful awe of the stern old lady.Miss Abbie clasped her hands in alarm, as if fearing the twins would besubjected to torture, and they all awaited Miss Penninah’s dictum.
“I think,” said the old lady, slowly,—and then she paused, a littledisconcerted at the earnest gaze of the four brown eyes, that were solike those of the children’s father, her favourite nephew.
“I think,” she went on, more gently, “that I shall forbid you to gooutside the house all day to-morrow.”
She didn’t say that she had had a far more severe punishment in mind,but had been deterred from inflicting it by those appealing eyes.
“Whew!” cried Dick, “stay in the house a whole day!”
“Yes,” said Aunt Nine, her ire returning as she noted the other aunts’sorrowful looks, and Delia’s woe-begone face. “You children needdiscipline. It’s terrible the way you’re let to run wild! Rachel, you’veno idea of training children properly, and as for you, Abbie, you’resimply a tool in their hands!”
Dolly took a step nearer to the old lady.
“Aunt Nine!” she cried, with flashing eyes, “don’t you talk like thatabout my Aunt Abbie, or my Aunt Rachel, either! They know how to bringup children just splendid! And they’re doing the best they can with meand Dick, but, as you know yourself, we’re the worst children ever,—sowhat can you ’spect?”
“Yes,” said Dick, taking his sister’s part, as usual. “We’ll do your oldpunishment, and we’re sorry we were naughty;—but you can’t jump on ouraunties like that!”
The youngest inheritors of the celebrated Dana “spunk,” faced bravelythe oldest member of the proud old family, and she realised the justiceof their reproof.
“The children are partly right,” she said, turning to her older nieceswith a short, sharp laugh; “and the matter must not be discussed furtherin their presence. Dick and Dolly, you will obey my orders aboutto-morrow, and now come and kiss me, and we will drop the subject.”
Dick stared at his aunt and hesitated, but quicker-witted Dollyappreciated that, in Aunt Penninah’s mind, the coming punishment wipedout even remembrance of the fault, and she willingly kissed her. Not thespontaneous, loving sort of embraces they gave the other aunties, but awhole-hearted, honest kiss of truce.
Dick followed her example, and then the twins were excused, and theyraced out in the kitchen after Delia.
“The intherferin’ ould lady!” cried Delia, as she snatched the childrenin her arms. “Sorra the day I iver wint to Miss Rachel wid thim clo’es;but I was that put about, Miss Dolly, dear.”
“Oh, pooh, Delia,” cried Dick; “you were all right, and we’ve come to’pollergize for spoilin’ your wash all up. We’re awful sorry.”
“Yes,” chimed in Dolly, as Delia embraced them both; “we’ll never do itagain; but, truly, Delia, we didn’t think!”
“Av coorse ye didn’t, ye blissid babies! Shure ye niver think! An’what’s a wash, more or less? I wish ould Miss Penninah had to do ithersilf fur teasin’ ye.”
“Now, Delia,” said Dick, “you mustn’t talk that way. Aunt Nine is ouraunt, and we must love and respect her just as we do the other aunties.”
“It’s a thrue Dana ye are, Masther Dick; both of yez. An’ ye’re right,too. Miss Penninah is the grand old lady, and the rale head of thefambly. So do yez take yer punishment like the shwate childher ye be.”
And having duly made good their reputation as “true Danas” Dick andDolly trotted off to bed.
The next day proved to be the very loveliest day of the whole Spring.
The sun incessantly winked an invitation for the twins to come out andplay. The blue sky smiled the same plea, and the soft breeze whisperedit again and again.
The flowers nodded at them as they looked out of the windows, and thetrees spread their branches, as in a welcoming embrace.
The birds twittered, “Come, come!” and, though too far away to be heard,Dolly knew, her pet chicken was peeping the same words.
But worst of all was to see Pat watering their own flower-beds,—theirpansies and daffodils that had never drank from any hands save thetwins’ own!
This sight nearly made the tears come, but Dick said bravely:
/> “We must make the best of it, Dollums. There’s no use of getting allweepy-waily when it won’t do any good.”
“No, but Dick, don’t you s’pose she’d just let us go and water ourplants,—if we came right back?”
“Sha’n’t ask her; and don’t you ask that, either. Now we’ll both do ourpractising,—I guess I’ll practise another hour while you’re doing yourold sewing,—and then let’s go up in the attic to play.”
Dolly brightened a little. “All right; we’ve always been going to fisharound up there, and we never had a good chance before.”
So Dolly went to one piano, and Dick to the other, and they practised sodiligently and painstakingly, that Aunt Penninah, who listened at thedoors, was greatly pleased with their thorough work.
“There’s good stuff in those children, Rachel,” she said; “if you don’tspoil them by your foolish leniency and over-indulgence.”
“I don’t mean to, Aunt Nine,” said Miss Rachel, a little meekly, “butyou know they’re never purposely mischievous. The Danas are allimpulsive and thoughtless, and Dick is exactly like his father was athis age.”
“Yes, I know all that; but they need a strong hand to rule them, andthough you and Abbie are firm enough in some ways, you give right in tothose twins. Now, I don’t!”
“No,” said Miss Rachel, grimly, “you don’t. How long are you going tostay this time, Aunt Nine?”
“I planned to stay only a day or two; but as I’ve become interested inJohn’s children, I shall remain a week at least. I want to learn theirnatures, and, incidentally, I can help you with my judgment and advice.”
Miss Rachel groaned in spirit, but made no audible objection to heraunt’s decree.
Dolly’s sewing hour that day was devoted to mending the clothes she andher little friends had torn, and by dint of much instruction from thethree aunts, and honest industry on her own part, she achieved some verycreditable darns and patches.
During the sewing hour, Aunt Penninah sought out Dick, and had a talkwith him. She was rather severe, but the clan feeling was strong inboth, and after their conversation Dick felt a loyalty and respecttoward the old lady, if not a deep affection.
Then, Dolly’s sewing hour being over, the twins scampered for the attic.
“It’s horrid,” said Dick, “to be shut up in this stuffy old place on aday like this; but let’s get all the fun we can out of it.”
“Let’s,” agreed Dolly, and as a starter they rambled through the old,unused rooms, and looked at the old pictures and discarded furniturestored there.
“Awful poky!” said Dick as they sat down on a haircloth sofa, and staredat each other.
“Yes,” said Dolly, with a scowl. “I think Aunt Nine is a horrid——”
“Don’t talk that way, Doll,” said Dick, remembering his conversationwith the old lady; “just forget it,—forget outdoors and flowers andeverything,—and let’s play something nice.”
“What can we play?” asked Dolly, disconsolately.
“I dunno; but isn’t it funny why we can’t think of something? If it wasa rainy day and we couldn’t go outdoors, we’d have lots of fun in thehouse.”
“Well, let’s play it’s raining then.”
This was a distinct suggestion, and Dick caught it at once.
“Wow!” he cried, looking out of the window; “what a storm! It’s justpouring!”
“So it is!” said Dolly, gleefully; “we couldn’t go out to-day even withumbrellas! Do you s’pose it’ll clear by to-morrow?”
“Yes, I guess so. But it won’t stop all day to-day.”
“No, I don’t believe it will. So we’ll play up here to-day.”
Then the twins went into the big lumber room, where all sorts of oldthings were stored away.
“What’s that big boxy thing, face to the wall?” asked Dolly, looking ata plain black walnut affair, about as high as herself.
“Dunno; let’s turn it around.”
Dick pulled the thing out from the wall, which was quite easy, as itrolled on casters, and it proved to be entirely open on the other side.
It was about four feet high, and about three feet wide, and thoughsomething like a small wardrobe, it was divided into six equalcompartments, each of which was lined with wallpaper.
“Why, Dick!” cried Dolly, “it’s a playhouse! A doll’s house, you know. Ibelieve it was Aunt Abbie’s when she was a little girl. Do you s’posethere’s any furniture for it?”
“Must be; somewheres. Isn’t it gay? See the windows, they have realglass in ’em. This must be the kitchen with oilcloth on the floor.”
“Yes; and the other floors are all bare. I s’pose the carpets are putaway somewhere, with the furniture. Let’s hunt them.”
The twins were not long in discovering three or four good-sized boxestied together, which proved to contain the furniture of the doll’shouse.
“Oh, what fun!” cried Dolly, as they took out little beds and tables andchairs. “But we can’t put these in place till we find the carpets. Oh,here comes Aunt Rachel. Auntie, was this your babyhouse when you were alittle girl?”
“Yes,” said Aunt Rachel, coming toward the twins. “I meant to fix it upfor you some day, Dolly, but perhaps you’ll like to fix it yourselvesjust as well.”
“Yes, we will, Auntie!” cried Dolly, tumbling into her aunt’s arms for afew caresses before they looked for the carpets.
“Who made the house, Auntie?” said Dick, snuggling into her other arm,and patting her cheek.
“Why, a carpenter, I suppose. Father had it made for me when I was tenyears old, and your father was a toddling baby. He used to creep up toit, and pull out the things that he could reach.”
“Did he look like us?” asked Dolly.
“He looked like Dick. You both have eyes like his, but his hair was indark ringlets all over his head, like Dick’s is. Now, let’s find thecarpets, and fix up the house. Wouldn’t you rather have it down in theplayroom?”
“Oh, yes,” said Dick. “It’s pretty hot and dry up here. The playroom islovely and airy, ’most like outdoors.” He gave a little sigh, and AuntRachel remembered that the children were undergoing punishment.
Her eyes twinkled a little, as she said:
“Aunt Nine didn’t make any other stipulation, except that you were tostay in the house all day, did she?”
“No’m,” said Dick. “And, Auntie Rachel, we’re _awful_ sorry we spoiledthe clean clothes.”
“Yes, _terrible_ sorry,” added Dolly, while they both fondled their aunthalf-unconsciously.
“You can be the sorriest pair of twins I ever saw, after your mischiefis accomplished,” said Miss Rachel. “Why doesn’t your sorriness beginbeforehand, I’d like to know?”
“Well, you see,” said Dolly, “we don’t think——”
“That’s just it, you never ‘think.’ Now, I’m going to teach you tothink,—somehow; I don’t know how yet, but we’ll manage to make youthinkers somehow.”
“After Aunt Nine goes away,” suggested Dick.
“Yes,” agreed Aunt Rachel, “after Aunt Nine goes away.”