Dorothy at Skyrie
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DOROTHY
AT SKYRIE
BY EVELYN RAYMOND
ILLUSTRATED
New York THE PLATT & PECK CO.
"HOW MUCH AM I BID FOR THE BEAUTIFUL CALICO PONY?"]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. EARLY VISITORS 9
II. AN UNFORTUNATE AFFAIR 22
III. ON THE ROAD TO SOUTH MEADOW 41
IV. THE LEARNED BLACKSMITH 56
V. AN ACCIDENT AND AN APPARITION 69
VI. MORE PECULIAR VISITORS 85
VII. AT THE OFFICE OF A JUSTICE 96
VIII. A WALK AND ITS ENDING 112
IX. A LIVE STOCK SALE 127
X. AT MILKING-TIME 143
XI. HELPERS 158
XII. SETH WINTERS AND HIS FRIENDS 177
XIII. A BENEFICENT BEE 195
XIV. AN ASTONISHING QUESTION 210
XV. CONCERNING SEVERAL MATTERS 227
XVI. THE FATE OF DAISY-JEWEL 245
XVII. ON THE ROAD TO THE CIRCUS 259
XVIII. THAT SOUTH MEADOW 275
XIX. DOROTHY HAS ANOTHER SECRET 293
XX. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 308
DOROTHY AT SKYRIE
CHAPTER I
EARLY VISITORS
"Hello! How-de-do?"
This salutation was so sudden and unexpected that Dorothy Chesterjumped, and rising from the grass, where she had been searching for wildstrawberries, beheld a row of pink sunbonnets behind the great stonewall.
Within the sunbonnets were three equally rosy faces, of varying sizes,each smiling broadly and each full of a friendly curiosity. It was fromthe biggest face that the voice had come, and Dorothy responded with acourteous "Good-morning!" then waited for further advances. These camepromptly.
"I'm Alfaretta Babcock; this one's Baretta Babcock; and this other one,she's Claretta Babcock. The baby that's to home and can't walkyet--only just creep--she's Diaretta Babcock."
Dorothy laughed. The alphabetical names attached to these several"Babcocks" sounded very funny and she couldn't help her amusement, evenif it were rude. However, no rudeness was suspected, and Alfarettalaughed in return, then walked a few steps to the bar-way, with hersisters following. These she hoisted upon the rails, and putting herhands upon the topmost one vaulted over it with an ease that astonishedthe city-bred Dorothy.
"Why! how well you did that! Like a regular gymnast!" she exclaimed,admiringly, and observing that this was a girl of about her own agethough much larger and stronger in build, as the broad back now turnedtoward her showed.
Alfaretta did not reply, except to bid the children on the other side ofthe bars to "hop over," and when they were too timid to "hop" withoutaid she seized their hands and pulled them across, letting them drop onthe long grass in a haphazard way that made Dorothy gasp and exclaim:
"Oh! you'll hurt them!"
Alfaretta faced about and keenly scrutinized Dorothy's face, demanding:
"You makin' fun, or not?"
"Fun? I don't see anything funny in such tumbles as those, and I surelywasn't making fun of the way you sprang over that fence. I wish I was asnimble."
"Pooh! That's nothing. I'm the best climber anywheres on the mounting. Ican beat any boy 'round, even if I do wear petticoats. I'll learn you ifyou want me to," offered the visitor, generously.
"Thank you," said Dorothy, rather doubtfully. She did not yet know hownecessary climbing might be, in her new country life, but heraspirations did not tend that way. Then thinking that this trio ofBabcocks might have come upon an errand to Mrs. Chester, she inquired:"Did you want to see my mother?"
Alfaretta sat down on a convenient bowlder and her sisters did the same,while she remarked:
"You may as well set, yourself, for we come to see you more'n anybodyelse. Besides, you haven't got any mother. I know all about you."
"Indeed! How can that be, since I came to Skyrie only last night? And Icame out to find some wild strawberries for my father's breakfast--wehaven't had it yet."
If this was intended for a polite hint that it was too early in the dayfor visiting it fell pointless, for Alfaretta answered, without theslightest hesitation:
"We haven't, neither. We've come to spend the day. Ma she said shethought you might be lonesome and 'twasn't no more'n neighborly to startin to once. More'n that, she's glad to get us out the way, 'cause she'sgoing down mounting to the 'other village' to 'Liza Jane'sstore--Claretta, stop suckin' your thumb! Dorothy Chester don't do that,and ma said she'd put some more that picra on it if you don't quit--tobuy us some gingham for dresses. She heard 'Liza Jane had got in a lotreal cheap and she's going to get a web 'fore it's all picked over."
Tired of standing, Dorothy had also dropped down upon the bowlder andnow was regarding her uninvited guests with much of the same curiositythey were bestowing upon her, and Alfaretta obligingly shoved hersmallest sister off the rock to make more room for their hostess.
"Don't do that! What makes you so rough with them? Besides, I must go.Mother will need me and I don't see any berries," said Dorothy,springing up. "Excuse me, please."
As she stooped to pick up the tin pail she had left on the grass,Alfaretta snatched it from her grasp and was off down the slope, callingback:
"Come on, then! I know where they're thicker 'n molasses in the wintertime!"
With their unvarying imitation of their elder sister the two littlegirls likewise scampered away, and fearing she would lose motherMartha's new "bucket" Dorothy followed also. Across a little hollow inthe field and up another rise Alfaretta led the way and there fulfilledher promise, for the northern hillside was red with the fruit. Withlittle outcries of delight all of them went down upon their knees andbegan to gather it; the younger ones greedily stuffing their mouths tilltheir faces were as red as the berries, but Alfaretta scrupulouslydropping all but a few extra-sized ones into the rapidly filling pail.But she kept close to Dorothy and laughingly forced these finer onesbetween her protesting lips, demanding once:
"Ever go berryin' before, Dorothy C.?"
"Not--this kind of 'berrying,'" answered the other, with a keenrecollection of the "berrying" she had done for the truck-farmer,Miranda Stott. "But how happened you to call me that 'Dorothy C.' asonly my own people do? Who told you about me?"
"Why--everybody, I guess. Anyhow, I know all about you. See if I don't.You was a 'foundling' on the Chesterses' doorstep and they brought youup. You was kidnapped, and that there Barlow boy that Mis' Calvert'sbrought to Deerhurst helped you to get away. Mis' Calvert, she saw youin a lane, or somethin', and fetched you back to that Baltimore citywhere the both of you lived. Then she brought you here, too, 'cause Mr.Chester he's got something the matter with his legs and has had to cometo the mounting and live on Skyrie farm. If he makes a livin' off itit'll be more'n anybody else ever done, ma says. The old man that ownedit 'fore he gave it to Mis' Chester, he was crazy as a loon. Believedthere was a gold mine, or somethin' like that, under the so
uthmedder--'D you ever hear such a thing! Ma says all the gold'll ever bedug out o' Skyrie is them rocks he put into his stone walls. The wholefarm was just clear rocks, ma says, and that's why the walls are fourfive feet thick, some of 'em more. There wasn't no other place to put'em and besides he wanted it that way. The whole of Skyrie farm isbounded--Ever study jogaphy? Know how to bound the states? Course. Is'pose you've been to school more'n I have: but I can bound Skyrie foryou all right. On the north by a stone wall, 'joining Judge Satterlee'splace: on the south by a stone wall right against Cat Hollow--that'swhere I live, other side the mounting but real nigh, cut 'cross lots. Onthe east--I guess that's Mis' Calvert's woods; an' west--Oh!fiddlesticks--I don't know whose land that is, but it's kept off by morestone wall an' the thickest of the lot. Where the stone wall had to beleft open for bar-ways, to drive through, he went to work and nailed upthe bars. That's why I had to hop over, 'stead of letting 'em down.Say, our pail is filling real fast. Pity you hadn't a bigger one. Afterwe've et breakfast we can come and get a lot for Mis' Chester topreserve. Ma she's done hers a'ready. Let's rest a minute."
Dorothy agreed. She was finding this new acquaintance most attractive,despite the forwardness of her manner, for there was the jolliest ofsmiles constantly breaking out on the round, freckled face, and the blueeyes expressed a deal of admiration for this city girl, so unlikeherself in manner and appearance. Her tongue had proved fully as nimbleas her fingers, and now while she rested she began afresh:
"Ma says I could talk the legs off an iron pot, if I tried, and I guessyou're thinkin' so too. Never mind. Can't help it. Ain't it queer to beadopted? There was a power of money, real, good money, offered for you,wasn't there! My heart! Think of one girl bein' worth so much toanybody! It was all in the papers, but ma says likely we never wouldhave noticed it, only Mis' Satterlee she showed it to ma, account ofMis' Chester moving up here an' going nigh crazy over losin' you. Ma shewashes for the Satterlees, and they give us their old papers. Pa heloves to read. Ma says he'd rather set an' read all day than do a stroketo earn an honest livin'. Pa says if your folks had so many children ashe has and some of 'em got away he wouldn't offer no reward for 'em, hewouldn't. But ma said: 'Now, pa, you hush! You'd cry your eyes out ifDiaretta fell into the rain-barrel, or anything!' We ain't all ma'schildren. Four of 'em's named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They'rehired out to work, 'cause they're older 'n what I am, and three is dead.Say, that's awful fine stuff your dress is made of. Do you wear thatkind all the time? and shoes, too?"
"Yes, this is an everyday frock that dear Mrs. Calvert had made for meand gave me. She is my father's friend and is sorry for him, and doesthings for me, I reckon, just to help him. Of course, I wear shoes--whenI have them!" laughed Dorothy, carefully refraining from looking atAlfaretta's own bare feet.
"What you laughing at?" demanded that observant young person, alreadyjoining in the mirth without knowing its cause.
"I was thinking how I was once allowed to buy a pair of shoes for myselfand picked them out so small they nearly crippled me. And I have beenbarefooted, too, sometimes, when I was trying to escape from thetruck-farm;" and once started upon the subject, Dorothy did not hesitateto complete the narrative of her adventures and, indeed, of all hershort, simple life, as already related by me in another book called,"Dorothy Chester."--how she had been picked up on the doorstep by Mrs.Chester and brought up as that lady's own child--how she had beenkidnapped and taken to the truck farm--how honest Jim Barlow had provedher best friend--and how at last the rich Mrs. Calvert had restored herto her foster parents at this picturesque if rather dilapidated home inthe Highlands of the Hudson.
Alfaretta was likewise confidential, and with each passing moment andeach fresh remembrance the liking between the two little maidsstrengthened. Finally, with a trifle of gloom, the country girldisclosed the fact:
"Pa he's the scolder to our house, but ma she's the licker. She says sheain't going to spoil her children by sparing rods when our 'upper lot'is full of 'em. The rods, I mean. She doesn't, neither. That's true aspreachin'."
"Why, Alfaretta! Are you ever whipped? A big girl like you?"
"Huh! I may be bigger 'n you but I ain't much older. When's yourbirthday?"
"The second of April."
"My heart! If that don't beat the Dutch! Mine's the first. So we must benext door to twins. But lickin's! You just come to Cat Hollow anySaturday night, 'bout sundown, and you'll be in the nick of time to geta whack yourself. Ma says she's real impartial, 'cause she takes us inturn. One week she begins with me and the next time with Claretta.Diaretta ain't old enough yet to fall into line, and the boys were letoff soon as they went to work and fetched in money. Ma says all of usneed a lickin' once a week, anyhow, and she don't have time to botherwith it only Saturday nights, after we all get washed. When do you getlicked, yourself, Dorothy C.?"
"When? Never! Never in my whole life has anybody struck me. I--Iwouldn't bear it--I couldn't!" cried Dorothy, indignantly. "But Imustn't stop here any longer. We've more than enough berries forbreakfast and I'm so hungry. Besides, we're out of sight of the houseand my father John will worry. He said last night, when he had me in hisarms again after so long and so much happening, that he meant to keep meright beside him for the rest of his life. Of course, he didn't meanthat exactly, and he was asleep when I came out. I waked up so early,with all the birds singing round, and oh! I think this wonderful oldmountain is almost too beautiful to be true! Seems as if I'd come tofairyland, sure enough! I'm going now."
Dorothy said this with a faint hope that her visitors might departwithout taxing Mrs. Chester to provide them a meal. She knew that nofood was ever wasted in mother Martha's frugal household and butsufficient for three ever prepared, unless there was due warning of moreto partake. Twice three would halve the rations and--at that moment,with appetite sharpened by early rising and the cool mountain air--theyoung hostess felt as if she could not endure the halving process.
However, her hope proved useless, for with a shout and bound, Barettastarted for the cottage and Claretta kept her a close second, bothcrying loudly:
"I'm hungry, too! I'm hungry, too!"
Alfaretta was off with a rush, carrying the pail of berries and burstingin upon the astonished Mrs. Chester, with the announcement:
"We've come to spend the day! We're Mis' Babcock's children. See all theberries I've picked you? Is breakfast ready? 'Cause we are if it ain't!"
"Where--is--Dorothy C.?" questioned the housemistress, recognizing theextended pail as her own, wondering how it had come into this girl'shands, and failing to see any sign of her daughter, no matter howclosely she peered outward.
"Why, sakes alive! Where is she?" echoed Alfaretta, with great surprise,also searching the landscape. "A minute ago she was tagging me, close,and now she isn't! My heart! What if she's gone and got herselfkidnapped again!"