CHAPTER 19
The Response to Mabel's Telegram
The night of their flitting from Dandelion Cottage, the girls hadhastily eaten all the radishes in the cottage garden to prevent theirfalling into the hands of the grasping Milligans. Now, the morning aftertheir visit to Mr. Downing, they were wishing that they hadn't; notbecause the radishes had disagreed with them, but for quite a differentreason. They could not enter the cottage, of course, but it hadoccurred to them that it might be possible to derive a certainmelancholy satisfaction from tending and replenishing the little garden.That pleasure, at least, had not been forbidden them; but beforebeginning active operations, they took the precaution of enlarging thehole in the back fence, so that instantaneous flight would be possiblein case Mr. Downing should stroll cottageward.
Their motive was good. When Mr. Black returned, if he ever should,Bettie meant that he should find the little yard in perfect order.
"We'll keep to our part of the bargain, anyway," said Bettie, as thefour girls were making their first cautious tour of inspection about thecottage yard. "There's lots of work to be done."
"Yes," agreed Jean. "We said we'd keep this yard nice all summer, and itwouldn't be right not to do it."
"I wonder if we ought to ask Mr. Downing?" asked conscientious Bettie,stooping to pull off some gone-to-seed pansies.
"Perhaps you'd like the job!" suggested Marjory, with mild sarcasm.
"My sakes!" said Mabel. "I wouldn't go near that man again if I wasgoing to swallow an automobile the next moment if I didn't. I could hearhim roar '_No_' every few minutes all night. I fell out of bed twice,dreaming that I was trying to get off of that old porch of his before hecould grab me."
"Well, I guess we'd better not ask," said Jean, "because I'm pretty surehe'd have the same answer ready."
"He certainly ought not to mind having us take care of our own flowers,"said Marjory.
"That's true," said Bettie, poking the moist earth with a friendlyfinger. "They're growing splendidly since the rain. See how nice andfull of growiness the ground is."
"I can get more pansy plants," offered Marjory, "to fill up these holesthe Milligan dog made."
"Mrs. Crane promised to give us some aster plants," said Mabel. "Let'sput 'em along by the fence."
"Let's do," said Jean. "You go see if you can have them now."
"I _know_ Mr. Black will be pleased," declared Bettie, "if he finds thisplace looking nice. I'm so thankful we didn't remember to ask Mr.Downing about it."
"We didn't have a chance," said Jean, ruefully; "but just the same, I'mwilling to keep on forgetting until Mr. Black comes."
It began to look, however, as if Mr. Black were never coming. Bettie hadwritten as she had promised but had had no reply, though the letter hadnot been mailed for ten minutes before she began to watch for thepostman. Even Mabel, having had no response to her telegram andsupposing it to have gone astray, had given up hope.
Mabel, ever averse to confessing the failure of any of her enterprises,had decided to postpone saying anything about the telegram until one oranother of the girls should remember to ask what had become of thethirty-five cents. So far, none of them had thought of it.
Still, it seemed probable, in spite of Mr. Black's continued absence,that he would get home some time, for he had left so much behind him. Inthe business portion of the town there was a huge building whose signread: "PETER BLACK AND COMPANY." Then, in the prettiest part of theresidence district, where the lawns were big and the shrubs were plantedscientifically by a landscape gardener and where the hillside bristledwith roses, there was a large, handsome stone house that, as everybodyknew, belonged to Mr. Black. Although there were industrious clerks atwork in the one, and a middle-aged housekeeper, with a furnace-tending,grass-cutting husband equally busy in the other, it was reasonable tosuppose that Mr. Black, even if he had no family, would have to returnsome time, if only to enjoy his beloved rose-bushes.
Thanks to Mabel's telegram (Bettie's letter, forwarded from Washington,did not reach him for many days) he did come. He had had to stop inChicago, after all, and there had been unexpected delays; but just aweek from the day the Milligans had left the cottage, Mr. Blackreturned.
Without even stopping to look in at his own office, the traveler wentstraight to the rectory to ask for Bettie. Bettie, Mrs. Tucker told him,he would probably find in the cottage yard.
Mr. Black took a short cut through the hole in the back fence, arrivingon the cottage lawn just in time to meet a procession of girls enteringthe front gate. Each girl was carrying a huge, heavy clod of earth, outof the top of which grew a sturdy green plant; for the cottagelesscottagers had discovered the only successful way of performing thedifficult feat of restocking their garden with half-grown vegetables.Their neighbors had proved generous when Bettie had explained that ifone could only dig deep enough one could transplant _anything_, from acabbage to pole-beans. Some of the grown-up gardeners, to be sure, hadbeen skeptical, but they were all willing that the girls should make theattempt.
"Oh, Mr. Black!" shrieked the four girls, dropping their burdens to makea simultaneous rush for the senior warden. "Oh! oh! oh! Is it reallyyou? We're so glad--so awfully glad you've come!"
"Well, I declare! So am I," said Mr. Black, with his arms full of girls."It seems like getting home again to have a family of nice girls waitingwith a welcome, even if it's a pretty sandy one. What are you doing withall the real estate? I thought you'd all been turned out, but you seemto be all here. I declare, if you haven't all been growing!"
"We were--we are--we have," cried the girls, dancing up and downdelightedly. "Mr. Downing made us give up the cottage, but he didn't sayanything about the garden--and--and--we thought we'd better forget toask about it."
"Tell me the whole story," said Mr. Black. "Let's sit here on thedoorstep. I'm sure I could listen more comfortably if there were not somany excited girls dancing on my best toes."
So Mr. Black, with a girl at each side and two at his feet, heard thestory from beginning to end, and he seemed to find it much more amusingthan the girls had at any time considered it. He simply roared withlaughter when Bettie apologized about Bob and the tin.
"Well," said he, when the recital was ended, and he had shown the girlsMabel's telegram, and the thoroughly delighted Mabel had been praisedand enthusiastically hugged by the other three, "I _have_ heard ofcottages with more than one key. Suppose you see, Bettie, if anything onthis ring will fit that keyhole."
Three of the flat, slender keys did not, but the fourth turned easily inthe lock. Bettie opened the door.
"Possession," said Mr. Black, with a twinkle in his eye, "is nine pointsof the law. You'd better go to work at once and move in and get tocooking; you see, there's a vacancy under my vest that nothing but thatpromised dinner party can fill. The sooner you get settled, the sooner Iget that good square meal. Besides, if you don't work, you won't have anappetite for a great big box of candy that I have in my trunk."
"Oh," sighed Bettie, rubbing her cheek against Mr. Black's sleeve, "itseems too good to be true."
"What, the candy?" teased Mr. Black.
"No, the cottage," explained Bettie, earnestly. "Oh, I do hope winterwill be about six months late this year to make up for this."
"Perhaps it'll forget to come at all," breathed Mabel, hopefully. "I'dalmost be willing to skip Christmas if there was any way of stretchingthis summer out to February. Somebody please pinch me--I'm afraid I'mdreaming--Oh! ouch! I didn't say _everybody_."
By this time, of course, all the young housekeepers' relativeswere deeply interested in the cottage. After living for anever-to-be-forgotten week with the four unhappiest little girls intown, all were eager to reinstate them in the restored treasure. Thegirls, having rushed home with the joyful news, were almost overwhelmedwith unexpected offers of parental assistance. The grown-ups were notonly willing but anxious to help. Then, too, the Mapes boys and theyoung Tuckers almost came to blows over who should have the honor ofmendin
g the roof with the bundles of shingles that Dr. Bennett insistedon furnishing. Marjory's Aunty Jane said that if somebody who coulddrive nails without smashing his thumb would mend the holes in theparlor floor she would give the girls a pretty ingrain carpet, one sideof which looked almost new. Dr. Bennett himself laid a clean new floorin the little kitchen over the rough old one, and Mrs. Mapes mended thebroken plaster in all the rooms by pasting unbleached muslin over theholes. Mr. Tucker replaced all broken panes of glass, while his busywife found time to tack mosquito-netting over the kitchen and pantrywindows.
So interested, indeed, were all the grown-ups and all the brothers thatthe girls chuckled delightedly. It wouldn't have surprised them so verymuch if all their people had fallen suddenly to playing with dolls andto having tea-parties in the cottage; but the place was still far toodisorderly for either of these juvenile occupations to prove attractiveto anybody.
In the midst of the confusion, Mr. Downing stopped at the cottage doorone noon and asked for the girls, who eyed him doubtfully andresentfully as they met him, after Marjory had hesitatingly ushered himinto the untidy little parlor.
Mr. Downing smiled at them in a friendly but decidedly embarrassedmanner. He had not forgotten his own lack of cordiality when the girlshad called on him, and he wanted to atone for it. Mr. Black hadtactfully but effectively pointed out to Mr. Downing--already deeplydisgusted with the Milligans--the error of his ways, and Mr. Downing, asgenerous as he was hasty and irascible, was honest enough to admit thathe had been mistaken not only in his estimate of Mr. Black, but also inhis treatment of the little cottagers. Now, eager to make amends, helooked somewhat anxiously from one to another of his silent hostesses,who in return looked questioningly at Mr. Downing. Surely, with Mr.Black in town, Mr. Downing _couldn't_ be thinking of turning them out asecond time; still, he had disappointed them before, probably he wouldagain, and the girls meant to take no chances. So they kept still, withsearching eyes glued upon Mr. Downing's countenance. All at once, theyrealized that they were looking into friendly eyes, and three of themjumped to the conclusion that the junior warden was not the heartlessmonster they had considered him.
"I came," said Mr. Downing, noticing the change of expression inBettie's face, "to offer you, with my apologies, this key and thislittle document. The paper, as you will see, is signed by all thevestrymen--my own name is written _very_ large--and it gives you theright to the use of this cottage until such time as the church feelsrich enough to tear it down and build a new one. There is no immediatecause for alarm on this score, for there were only sixty-two cents inthe plate last Sunday. I have come to the conclusion, young ladies, thatI was overhasty in my judgment. I didn't understand the matter, and I'mafraid I acted without due consideration--I often do. But I hope you'llforgive me, for I sincerely beg _all_ your pardons."
"It's all right," said Bettie, "as long as it was just a mistake. It'seasy to forgive mistakes."
"Yes," said Marjory, sagely, "we all make 'em."
"It's all right, anyway," added Jean.
Mr. Downing looked expectantly at Mabel, who for once had preserved adead silence.
"Well?" he asked, interrogatively.
"I don't suppose I can ever really _quite_ forgive you," confessedMabel, with evident reluctance. "It'll be awfully hard work, but I guessI can try."
"Perhaps my peace-offering will help your efforts a little," said Mr.Downing, smiling. "It seems to be coming in now at your gate."
The girls turned hastily to look, but all they could see was a veryuntidy man with a large book under his arm.
"These," said Mr. Downing, taking the book from the man, who had walkedin at the open door, "are samples of inexpensive wall papers. You're tochoose as much as you need of the kinds you like best, and this man willput it wherever it will do the most good, and I'll pay the bill. Now,Miss Blue Eyes, do I stand a better chance of forgiveness?"
"Yes, yes!" cried Mabel. "I'm almost glad you needed to apologize. Youdid it beautifully, too. Mercy, when _I_ apologize--and I have to do a_fearful_ lot of apologizing--I don't begin to do it so nicely!"
"Perhaps," offered Mr. Downing, "when you've had as much practice as Ihave, it will come easier. I see, however, that you are far moresuitable tenants than the Milligans would have been, for my humbleapologies to them met with a very different reception. I assure youthat, if there's ever any rivalry between you again, my vote goes withyou--you're so easily satisfied. Now don't hesitate to choose whateveryou want from this book. This paperhanger is yours, too, until you'redone with him."
"Oh, thank you, thank you, _thank_ you," cried the girls, with happyvoices, as Mr. Downing turned to go; "you _couldn't_ have thought of anicer peace-offering."
Of course it took a long, long time for so many young housekeepers tochoose papers for the parlor and the two bedrooms, but after muchdiscussion and many differences of opinion, it was finally selected. Thegirls decided on green for the parlor, blue for one bedroom, and pinkfor the other, and they were easily persuaded to choose small patterns.
Then the smiling paperhanger worked with astonishing rapidity and saidthat he didn't object in the least to having four pairs of bright eyeswatch from the doorway every strip go into place. It seemed to be notrouble at all to paper the little low-ceilinged cottage, and, oh! howbeautiful it was when it was all done. The cool, cucumber-green parlorwas just the right shade to melt into the soft blue and white of thefront bedroom. As for the dainty pink room, as Bettie said rapturously,it fairly made one smell roses to look at it, it was so sweet.
It was finished by the following night, for no paperhanger could havehad the heart to linger over his work with so many anxious eyesfollowing every movement. Mrs. Tucker washed and ironed and mended thewhite muslin curtains; and, with such a bower to move into, the secondmoving-in and settling, the girls decided, was really better than thefirst. When their belongings were finally reinstalled in the cottageeven Mabel no longer felt resentful toward the Milligans.