CHAPTER XVIII. ALL IN THE DAY'S WORK
The huge brown bear whined again and seemed grieved that hisinnocent attentions should be so ungratefully received. Thehysterical Miss Peckham kicked again and Pietro backed away andleft space for his suavely smiling master in the doorway of theDay's kitchen.
"I--I wash my hands of you!" moaned the prostrate spinster.
"What--How did you come to bring that bear into my yard?"demanded Mr. Day, finally recovering his voice.
"Boy tella me you give Pietro supper," said the man with the veryengaging smile. "Bread-butter. Pietro lika heem."
"That Arlo Weeks Junior!" cried Janice suddenly. "Oh, Daddy,there he is outside."
There was a loud explosion of laughter back of the bear and histrainer, on the dark porch, and then the clatter of running feet.Junior's proclivity for practical jokes was too well known forthe Days to doubt his connivance in this most surprisinghappening.
"No maka troub', Signore," whined the Italian master of the bearin about the same tone Bruin himself had begged.
Mr. Day was helping the overwrought Miss Peckham to her feet.
"Of all things!" he muttered, "Take her out the other way,Janice--do."
"I wash my hands of you!" repeated the spinster, scarcely awareyet of what had happened. Then she suddenly descried the bearagain. She shrieked in a most ear-piercing tone:
"There it is! I know Janice Day did that! Don't talk
to me! She's the plague of the neighborhood. No wonder Sophronycouldn't stand it here. Bringing bears into the house!"
"Oh! Oh, Miss Peckham! I never!" cried Janice.
"Don't deny it. You--you horrid child!" declared the spinster;and repeating again that she "washed her hands" of them all, sheran out of the house by the other door and quickly disappeared inthe direction of her own cottage.
"Well, I never!" exclaimed Mr. Day, falling into a chair. Thenhe burst into uproarious laughter.
The Italian, who had been about to withdraw, and was tugging onthe bear's chain, began to smile again. He foresaw leniency whenthe master of the house could laugh like this.
Janice gave way to merriment, too. It was funny. Much as shewas sorry for Miss Peckham's fright, the situation altogether wasone to amuse her.
Pietro waddled into the kitchen and sat up like a dog to beg. Abear is a foolish looking beast at best, unless it becomesill-tempered; and this big brown thing, so his smiling mastersaid, "had the heart of a child."
"And the stomach of an ostrich!" declared Janice, after almostevery cold scrap in the house had followed several slices of"bread-butter" down Pietro's cavernous maw.
The old fellow was as good-natured as he could be. After thefeast he went through his little repertoire of tricks with littleurging.
He "played soldier" and went through his own particular manual ofarms with his master's stick as a gun. He "played dead," butwith his little pig-like eyes twinkling all the time.
Finally he danced with his master, and with such abandon, if notgrace, that the dishes rattled on the shelves in the kitchencupboard.
"There, that will do. He's paid for his supper. Next thinghe'll have the house down about our ears," declared Mr. BroxtonDay.
"Grazias, Signore; grazias, Signora," said the bear trainer, overand over again, and bowing deeply as he jerked Pietro by thechain toward the door.
His eyes, his teeth, and the little gold rings in his ears, alltwinkled together. Janice thought he was a very polite man.
"And I hope he is always kind to Pietro," she said, when theforeigner and his strange pet were gone. "But, Daddy! Don't wehave the greatest happenings in our house?"
"Right you are, my dear. An aristocratic lady has left us flat;the neighborhood censor has washed her hands of us; and we haveentertained a highly educated bear, all in a single day. As youmight say, all these astonishing happenings are 'all in the Days'work.' The Days certainly do entertain the most astonishingadventures."
"Oh, my! Don't we?" giggled his daughter.
"And now, if Pietro the bear has left us anything in the house toeat, let us have supper, Janice. I expect that hereafter MissPeckham's opinion of us will be too acrimonious for speech."
"Oh, she never did like me much," sighed Janice. "And now ArloJunior has made it worse again. Just think! The bear on top ofthe cats--"
"Scarcely that, my dear," laughed her father. "But if she reallybelieves you introduced that bear for the praise of scaring her,her poor Sam's getting hurt over here will be a small incidentcompared with this ursine hold-up. The neighbors are going tohear about this, I feel sure."
Nor was he mistaken on that point. Before forty-eight
hours had elapsed it was noised around the neighborhood that"that very ladylike person, Mrs. Watkins" had been obliged toleave the Days and had returned to Marietteville, because of thetreatment accorded her in "that house, which she had entered onlyas a favor."
It was told that Janice had invited a tramp with a dancing bearinto the house and that "no lady who deemed herself such" couldendure rudeness of that character. Somehow, the neighborhoodcensor did not figure in the story of the dancing bear; perhapsshe feared to be ridiculed.
But Janice told Mrs. Carringford all about it. That good womanhad serious troubles of her own; but she was not so selfish thatshe could not sympathize with Janice.
"I do wish I could do something to help you and your father, mydear," said the woman. "When people have as nice a house as youhave Amy has told me all aboutit--it does seem too bad that it can't be kept as a home should bekept."
"Like yours, Mrs. Carringford," said Janice.
"My dear," sighed Mrs. Carringford, "I don't know how long we'llhave our home, poor as it is. We owe a lot of money on it. I amafraid I did wrong in trying to buy this place," and she shookher head sadly.
Janice did not feel like asking the friendly woman pointblankwhat she meant; but Amy afterward explained.
"You see, Janice, Mr. Abel Strout, of Napsburg, owned this house.It was he who advised mother strongly to
buy a home with father's insurance money. We didn't know howmuch it cost to keep up a house after you get possession of it.
"Mr. Strout took part of our money in payment and mother gave amortgage to him for the balance of the price. And that mortgageis troubling mother greatly."
"I guess mortgages are bad things," Janice observed, with a wisenod of her head.
"They are when poor folks have 'em, anyway. You see, mother heldback some money to live on. But taxes and repairs andassessments have to come out of that, as well as the interest onthe mortgage that comes due half-yearly. And that isn't all."
"No?" asked Janice, interested.
"Now it seems that Mr. Strout only wrote that mortgage
for a year and he can do what he calls 'call it in' a month fromnow. Of course, mother can't pay the mortgage; it is hard enoughto pay the interest on it. And so Mr. Strout says he will justtake the house back and we--we'll lose our money, and all,"finished Amy with almost a sob.
"Why, I think that is too mean for anything!" cried her friend."Can't he be stopped?"
"I don't know how. And I guess mother doesn't. He says he wouldaccept a payment on the principal--that'sthe mortgage, you know. But mother doesn't dare give up any moreof our money. There is nobody earning any but Gummy. And howfar do you suppose his three dollars a week goes in buying foodfor all us children, for instance?"
Janice had no answer for this; but she determined to tell daddythe particulars of Mrs. Carringford's trouble. Besides, she hadin her mind, and had had for a long time, a desire to bring herfather and Amy's mother together. She wanted them to know eachother, and for a very definite reason.