CHAPTER IV
NEW FRIENDS
Nancy never looked as untidy as she really felt. In fact, she alwayslooked "interesting and human," as her friends might say, but she wassensitive about the disorder she pretended to despise. Now, here werethose two girls! She simply could not go in the store as she looked.
"You're all right," Ted insisted, as they both listened to the janglingbell. "You look good in that yellow dress."
"Good?" she took time to correct. "You mean--something else. And itisn't yellow," she countered. "But please, Ted, you go. There's a dear.I'll do something for you--"
Ted started off dutifully. "But I won't know," he argued.
"Run along, like a dear," whispered Nancy, for persons were now withinthe store, she could easily hear them talking and could even see theirreflections in the little hall mirror.
Ted went. He was such a good-natured boy, and Nancy was glad to noticeonce more "so good-looking."
After exchanging a few questions and answers with the girls in thestore, Ted was presently back again in the kitchen.
"Blue silk!" he sort of hissed at Nancy. "They want--_blue silk_."
"We haven't any. Tell them we're out of it."
Ted went forth with a protest.
A few seconds later he again confronted Nancy.
"Blue _twist_ then. What ever on earth is blue _twist?_"
"We haven't any!" Nancy told him sharply. "We're all out of sewingstuff, except black and white."
"Oh, you come on. They're just laughin' at me. It's your store. You goahead and 'tend it." Ted was on a strike now. He wasn't going to be thatkind of store keeper. Twist and silk!
"But I'm so dirty," complained Nancy, brushing at her skirt and thenpatting her disordered hair. She had been rushing around at a mad ratesince noon hour and naturally felt untidy.
"Well, any how, go tell them," suggested Ted. "They're just girls likeyou. You needn't worry about your looks." His eyes paid Nancy a decidedcompliment with the careless speech. Evidently she was not the only onewho found good looks in the family.
Out in the store the girls were waiting, and when she finally walked upto them, Nancy was instantly at ease.
"Oh, hello!" greeted the stouter one. She was genuinely pleasant andNancy at once liked her. "You're the girl we've been trying to meet.This is Vera Johns and I'm Ruth Ashley. We live over on North Road andwe've been wanting to meet you."
"I'm Nancy Brandon," replied Nancy pleasantly, "and I'm glad to meetyou, too. I was wondering if I would get acquainted away out here. Won'tyou sit down? Here's a bench," brushing aside the papers. "It takes solong to get things straightened out."
The girls murmured their understanding of the moving problem, and afterTeddy had called out from the back door, that he was going "over to seethe fellows," all three girls settled down to chat.
"Is it really your own store?" asked Ruth. She had reddish-brown hair,gray eyes and the brightest smile.
"Yes," replied Nancy. "Just a little summer experiment. You see, Iperfectly despise housework and mother believes I should learn somethingpractical. I just begged for a little country store. I've always been sointerested reading about them."
"How quaint!" murmured Vera Johns. Her tone of voice seemed so affectedthat Nancy glanced quickly at her. Was she fooling? Could any girl meanso senseless a remark as "How quaint!" to Nancy's telling of herpractical experiment?
"Do you mean," murmured Nancy, "why, just--how quaint?"
"Yes, isn't it?" Vera again sort of lisped. At this Nancy was convinced.Vera was that sort of girl. She would be apt to say any silly littlething that had the fewest words in it. Just jerky little exclamations,such as Nancy's mother had taught her to avoid as affectations.
Vera's hair was of a toneless blonde hue, cut "classic" and plastereddown like that of an Egyptian slave. Her eyes, Nancy noticed were afaded blue, and her form--Nancy hoped that she, being tall herself, didnot sag at all corners, as did Vera Johns.
"I think it's a wonderful idea," chimed in Ruth, "to have a chancereally to try out business. Just as you say, Nancy, we learn to washdoll dishes as soon as we can reach a kitchen chair. Then why shouldn'twe learn to make and count pennies as early as we possibly can?"
"Do you hate housework too, Ruth?" Nancy asked, hoping for the joy offinding a mutual understanding. "Are you also anxious to try business?"
"I hate housework, abhor it," admitted Ruth, dimpling prettily, "butmother says we just have to get used to it, so we won't know we're doingit. You would be surprised, Nancy, how easy it is to wash dishes anddream of babbling brooks."
"Really!" That was Vera again. "I adore dishes, but I won't dream ofbobbling brooks, ever."
"Bobbling," repeated Ruth. "That's good, Vera. I suppose they bobblemore than they babble. But I guess you're not much of a dreamer, Vera,"she finished, in a doubtful compliment.
Nancy was amused. Ruth was going to be "good fun" and Vera was alreadyproving a pretty good joke. Their acquaintance was surely promising, andNancy responded fittingly.
She had time to notice in detail each of these new friends. Ruth wasdimply and just fat enough to be happily plump. She also wascorrespondingly sunny in her disposition. She wore her hair twisted intothree or four "Spring Maids" and it gave her the effect of short, curledhair. Her summer dress was a simple blue ratine, and Nancy admired itfrankly.
Vera was affected in manner, in style, in dress and every way. Her hairwas so arranged Nancy couldn't be sure just how it was done, but itlooked like a model in a hairdresser's window. Also, she wore, boundaround it a Roman ribbon, with a wonderful assortment of rainbow colors.Her costume was sport, with a very fancy jacket and a light silk andwool plaid skirt. That she had plenty of money was rather too obviouslyapparent, and Nancy wondered just how she and Ruth were connected.
They were inspecting the newly acquired little store.
"And you are the manager, the proprietor--"
"The clerk and the cashier," Nancy interrupted Ruth. "I've always lovedto play store, so now, mother says, she hopes I'll be satisfied. Butthis is a very old-timey place. I don't see how the Townsends ever madeit pay."
"Miss Townsend is a queer old lady," replied Ruth. "I guess of lateyears they didn't have to worry about making things pay in the store."
"Why Ruthie!" exclaimed Vera. "Don't you know every body says they wentbankrupt?"
"Oh, that," laughed Ruth. "I guess Mr. Townsend lent out his money andcouldn't get it back handy."
"But he and his sister had a perfectly desperate fight over it,"insisted Vera, eyes wide with curious interest.
"Desperate," repeated Ruth, as if trying to give Nancy a cue to Vera'squeer vocabulary. "I can imagine their sort of desperate fight. SisterSarah would say to Brother Elmer: 'Elmer dear, you really can't mean athing like that,'" imitated Ruth, "and Brother Elmer would clasp andunclasp his thin hands as he replied: 'I'm sorry, Sister Sarah, but itlooks that way.'"
Ruth and Nancy laughed merrily as the little sketch ended.
"That's about how desperate those two would fight," Ruth declared.
"Then why did they sell out?" demanded Vera. "Every body knows they losteverything."
"We haven't actually bought the place," Nancy explained, "just have anoption on it. You see, we had to go to the country every summer, andmother thought this might suit us. It is so convenient for her tocommute, and Ted and I can't get into a lot of mischief in a place likethis. So it seems, at least," she hastened to add.
"Well, if you let your brother go around with that queer old fellow wesaw him with today, he may get into mischief," intimated Vera,mysteriously, with a wag of her bobbed head.
"Mr. Sanders? What's the matter with Mr. Sanders?" demanded Nancy,rather sharply.
"Oh talk, talk, and gossip," Ruth interposed. "Just because he sees fitto keep his business to himself--"
"You know perfectly well, Ruth, that is more than gossip," insistedVera.
/> "What is? What's the mystery?" again demanded Nancy, dropping her box oflead pencils rather suddenly.
"Well," drawled Vera, getting up with a tantalizing deliberateness, "ifyou were to see a person in front of you one minute and have him vanishthe next--"
A peal of laughter from Nancy broke in rudely upon Vera's recitation.
"All right," Vera added, in a hurt tone. "Don't believe me if you don'twant to, but just wait and see."
"Disappearing Dick?" chanted Nancy gaily. "Do you mean to say he's oneof those so-called miracle men?"
"Oh, no, nothing of the sort," protested Ruth. "But there issomething--different about him. A lot of people say he does disappear,but of course, there's nothing uncanny about it. It's probably justclever," Ruth tried to explain.
"Rather," drawled Vera.
And Nancy could not suppress an impolite but insistent chuckle.