CHAPTER II
TRAVELING NORTH
As a result of many letters back and forth between Mr. Fairfield and theNorthern aunts, Patty stood one morning on the platform of the railwaystation, all ready to depart for her new homes.
It was the first week in December, and the little girl shivered as shethought of the arctic cold to which she imagined herself going.
"Of course they'll meet me in a sleigh, won't they, papa?" she said.
"Perhaps so, but I doubt it," he replied. "They don't have such snowstormsin Jersey now as they used to when I was a boy. Last winter they had nosleighing at all. But here comes Miss Powers; let us go to greet her." MissPowers was a sharp-faced lady who came marching along the platform with afirm step.
Patty was to travel in her care, not because she was an especiallydesirable traveling companion, but because she was the only acquaintance ofthe Fairfields who chanced to be going North at that time.
"Good-morning," she cried, "are you here already? I was certain you'd belate and miss the train. Not a very pleasant day, is it? I wish we hadplanned to go to-morrow instead. Why, Patty, you are wearing your best hat!You'll spoil it, I'm sure. Have you your trunk check? Give it to me, you'llcertainly lose it else."
"Here it is, Miss Powers," said Mr. Fairfield, pleasantly, "and I dare sayyou will prove more responsible than my rattle-pated daughter."
He squeezed Patty's hand affectionately as he said this, and a great waveof homesickness came over the child's heart. She caught her father roundthe neck, and vainly trying to keep the tears back, she whispered,
"Oh, papa, dear, let me stay with you. I don't want to go to AuntIsabel's,--I know she's horrid, and I just want you, you, _you_!"
Miss Powers was shocked at this exhibition of emotion, and said withasperity:
"Come, come, it's too late to talk like that now. And a big girl like youought to be ashamed to act so babyish."
But Mr. Fairfield kissed Patty tenderly and said: "Dear, we're going to bevery brave, you know,--and besides, you're only going for a visit. Allpeople go visiting at some time in their lives, and next December I'll beshaking the dust of Richmond off of my feet and coming after you,pell-mell." Patty smiled through her tears, and then the train came tootingalong and they all climbed aboard.
As the train waited for ten minutes, Mr. Fairfield had ample time to findthe seats engaged for the travelers, and to arrange their hand-luggage inthe racks provided for it. Then he bade Miss Powers good-bye, and, turningto Patty, clasped her in his arms as he said:
"Pattykins, good-bye. The year will soon pass away, and then we'll have ajolly little home together. Be brave and gentle always, and as a partinggift I give you this little box which contains a talisman to help you bearany troubles or difficulties that may come to you."
As he spoke, he put into Patty's hand a small parcel sealed at each endwith red sealing-wax.
"Don't open it now," he continued. "Keep it just as it is until you reachAunt Isabel's. Then after you have gone to your room on the first night ofyour stay with her, open the box and see what is in it."
Then the warning whistle blew, and with a final embrace of his littledaughter, Mr. Fairfield left the car.
The train started, and for a moment Patty saw her father waving hishandkerchief, and then he was lost to her sight. She felt just likeindulging in a good cry, but Miss Powers would have none of that.
The worthy spinster was already opening her bag and preparing to makeherself comfortable for her journey.
"Now, Patty," she said, but not unkindly, "you've left your pa behind, andyou're going away from him to stay a year. You've got to go, you can't helpyourself, so you might just as well make the best of it, and be cheerfulinstead of miserable. So now that's settled, and you'd better get out yourbooks and games or whatever you brought along to amuse yourself with."
Miss Powers had taken off her hat and gloves and arranged a small balsampillow behind her head. She put on her glasses, and opened a book in whichshe at once became absorbed.
Patty, being thus left to her own devices, became much interested in thenovelty of her surroundings. It was great fun to lean back against thehigh-cushioned seat and look out of the window at the trees and plantationsand towns as they flew by. This kept her amused until noontime, when awaiter came through the car banging a gong.
Miss Powers shut her book with a snap, and announced that they would go tothe dining-car for their lunch.
This was even more fun, for it seemed so queer to Patty to sit at a tableand eat, while at the same time she was flying through the country at suchbreak-neck speed.
"It's like the enchanted carpet, isn't it, Miss Powers?" she said, as theyslid through a thick grove and then out into the sunshine again.
"What is? what carpet?" asked Miss Powers, looking down at the floor of thecar.
"Oh, not a real carpet," said Patty, politely repressing a smile at theelder lady's ignorance of fairy-lore. "I mean, for us to go scooting alongso fast is like the travelers on the magicians' carpet. Don't you know, thecarpet would move of itself wherever he told it to."
"H'm," commented Miss Powers, "that would be a good kind of a carpet tohave at housecleaning time, wouldn't it?"
This prosaic disposition of the magic carpet quite shocked Patty, but sheadapted herself to the idea, and said, "Yes, indeed; you could just say,'Carpet, get up and go out and hang yourself on the clothes-line, and thenshake yourself well and come back again,'--oh, that would be convenient."
Miss Powers smiled in an absent-minded sort of way, and Patty chattered on,half to herself and half to her companion.
"But suppose the carpet should be naughty and refuse to go,--that wouldn'tbe so pleasant."
"Or suppose it should run away and never come back?"
This latter remark was made by a strange voice, and Patty looked up quicklyto see the man who was seated opposite, smiling in a very friendly way.
He was an elderly gentleman with white hair and beard, and it seemed toPatty's vivid imagination that he looked like Noah, or some other of theancient patriarchs.
"That would be a great joke on the housekeeper," Patty answered, feelingalready well acquainted with the pleasant old gentleman, "and I suppose shewould have to get a new carpet."
"Or have a hard-wood floor laid in her room," he responded.
"Or live on a bare floor," said Miss Powers. "I think it would be a veryslack housekeeper who would let her carpets shake themselves, and she wouldprobably be too lazy or too poor to replace the ones that ran away."
Mr. Noah, as Patty called the old man in her mind, laughed heartily atthis, and during the rest of the luncheon hour proved himself a genial andentertaining companion.
The day passed quickly, and at bedtime Patty was quite tired enough towelcome the thought of tucking herself away in one of those queer-lookingbunks that the porter was arranging.
"I'll sleep on the top shelf," she said, gleefully, "may I, Miss Powers?"
"I'll be very glad if you will, child,--I've no desire to climb up there.Ugh, I don't think I can sleep anywhere on this bobbety-bobble train."
Then the porter brought a small step-ladder, and this delighted Pattybeyond measure.
"Ho!" said she, "now I'm 'Jack and the Beanstalk.' 'A-hitchet, a-hatchet,a-up I go'!" and with two jumps and a spring she landed in the upper berth.
"Now," she said to herself, "I know how Alice felt when she grew so largethat she filled up the whole room. Let me see, what did she do? She put onearm out the window and one foot up the chimney. Well, I can't do that, andI don't see any little cakes to eat, as she did, that will make me growsmaller, so I s'pose I'll just have to scrounch around till I'm ready forbed, and then slide in. I'm sure I shan't sleep, it's all so noisy andexciting."
But when she finally straightened herself out on the coarse,cinder-sprinkled linen of the Pullman, the chink-a-chunk of the trainchanged to a lullaby, and in about two minutes Patty was sound asleep.