“I can’t help it, Muth! Honestta goodness I can’t. He looked just like a neat little poached egg on a piece of toast. I hope you don’t call that thing a man, Jin! If you do, I’m off you fer life!”
Jane, half-annoyed and very tired, suddenly sat down in a kitchen chair and laughed till she cried.
“Gee, Jin, what’s gotcha?” asked her amazed brother, coming to the kitchen door to watch her.
“She’s all tired out,” said her mother anxiously.
Tom brought Jane a drink of water and took her hat off roughly, after which unusual attentions he clambered out to the garage. Whenever he was embarrassed or his family annoyed him or didn’t understand him, Tom always went out to the garage whistling and did something to the car.
Sherwood was not in evidence much the next morning. He nodded to Jane when she came in but was called almost immediately to the chief ’s office and did not return for an hour, when he appeared to be very busy with a number of papers he had brought back with him.
“Any trouble?” asked Jane, anxiously making an excuse to pass his desk toward noon, on her way to the inner office to take dictation.
“Oh no,” said Sherwood, glancing up with his boyish look on. “Just wanted to ask me a few questions about some people I used to know. Why? Did you think I might be getting fired?”
“Oh no,” said Jane laughing, “I couldn’t see why you would. I never saw anybody catch on to things quicker.”
“Thanks awfully for the kind words!” Sherwood bantered. “Just for that I’d take you out to lunch if I didn’t have to go in another direction this noon. See you this evening, though. Be waiting for you at the door.”
A little later she saw him go out the side entrance with the chief and was vaguely disturbed. Why should a newly employed underling be running around with the chief?
Late in the afternoon a little note was sent around to the employees that the firm had decided that on account of the unprecedentedly hot weather, the midsummer rules of all-day Saturday closing would be maintained until the end of September.
Jane’s heart leaped up joyfully. That meant they would have all day for their trip and not just the afternoon.
On the way home that evening, Jane rallied Sherwood on the fine company he had been keeping at lunchtime.
“You’ll soon be out of my class at this rate,” she laughed.
“Oh, Dulaney used to know my father and mother, you see. He just wants to be nice to me,” he explained, and somehow a weight was lifted from Jane’s heart—or mind, she wasn’t sure which. She wondered idly why she cared and then explained to herself that she didn’t want this nice boy to get into trouble right at the start.
They fell to discussing their plans for the next day.
“Will this change at the office make any difference with you about starting tomorrow?” asked Jane. “Would you be able to start earlier, or have you a lot of things to attend to?”
“Not a thing!” asserted the young man. “Start tonight if you like.”
Jane laughed. “You certainly are the best comrade ever,” she said. “Are you always so easily adjustable?”
“Not always!” he said thoughtfully. “There are some people I just don’t adjust to at all, if you know what I mean?”
“I’m not sure I do, but wouldn’t it be good for you to come in and eat supper with us while we make some definite plans?”
“May I?” he asked with a light in his eyes.
“You certainly may if you don’t mind a very simple supper that Betty Lou had to cook.”
“But she won’t be expecting me.”
“Oh, there will be enough!” laughed Jane. “Betty Lou always has enough. Come on in. Tom will want to get things planned.”
Chapter 7
Tom was in the kitchen washing automobile grease from his hands, but he wiped it hurriedly on the roller towel and came to the door.
“Hello, Jinny!” he called. “That coddled egg of yours has been here—!”
“What!” said Jane sharply, and she realized that this was the first time she had remembered Lew Lauderdale all day and then realized that he had failed to meet her at eight o’clock in the morning as she had suggested.
Tom paused in the doorway, adjusted his elbows out, curved in his waist, pursed his lips to a rosebud semblance, and began to amble lazily toward his sister, toeing out in exact imitation of Lauderdale. It was impossible to mistake his intention.
“I said,” he began in an affected tone, “that your coddled egg had been here!”
“Where is he?” asked Jane in a startled tone. “Tom, I hope you haven’t been rude to him!”
“Oh no! I haven’t been rude, sistah!” protested Tom airily. “If I had, he wouldn’t have known it. He was much too engrossed in his own affaihs. He didn’t even notice we had a house, I’m suah!”
Jane had to laugh in spite of her annoyance, the imitation was so well done. It brought out something in Lauderdale that had always perhaps annoyed Jane, only she had not analyzed it.
“Well, where is he?” she demanded at last when the laughter had subsided enough for her voice to be heard.
“I’m suah I couldn’t say, sistah!” responded the lawless youth. “Up in the sky somewheah, I suppose, sistah! He said he was going by aiahplane up to N’Yahk to ah polo game! He said he’d return by a little aftah six to-morrah night, and you could call him any time aftah that houah at the Bellevue. He said to tell you that you were dining with him at eight.”
“Did you tell him I would not be here?” asked Jane sharply.
“No, sistah, I did not mention that little old fact,” said the incorrigible brother. “I thought that was youah own affaiah!”
Jane began to laugh with them all now, but looking up she saw that Sherwood was studying her and knew a passing discomfort as to what he thought about the whole affair.
They gathered about the table in a few minutes to Betty Lou’s simple little dinner. Potatoes roasted in their skins till they cracked open crisply and showed their white feathery contents, thin pink slices of ham, a great platter of yellow bantam corn, lovely little golden ears just young enough and not too young, and plenty of it. Bread and butter and good cold applesauce, with a great pitcher of cold creamy milk. “A supper fit for a king,” Sherwood said when Betty Lou tried to apologize for the lack of a real dessert.
He did full justice to it and then insisted on helping with the dishes afterward until everything was in order. They gathered around the mother’s couch for a few minutes to discuss the details of the next morning. A hurried consultation with the physician at the hospital relieved their minds about Father. He would be quite able for the ride in the morning, and it was even better than to start in the afternoon and try to take the whole ride without rest. The doctor had advised that nothing be said about the trip until they were on their way. Then the father would not have to worry about it, and perhaps miss getting any sleep because of the excitement.
Sherwood took himself away early, promising to be on hand at eight o’clock sharp, and Jane went up to her room to write a note to Lauderdale.
It took her some time because she had to tear up several before she was satisfied. Tom’s impersonation had made her self- conscious and put Lauderdale in an unpleasant light, which she felt was not entirely fair. She recalled his attentions in the mountains, how flattered she had been by them, and felt that he had been at a decided disadvantage yesterday. After all, he had come a long way to see her and failed, and the fact that he was returning again on a fruitless errand made things look pretty bad. She did not feel that she wanted to break off her friendship with him in this summary way without time for thought, and yet what could she do? So she finally wrote a pleasant note of regret, telling him she was sorry to have missed him that evening, and sorrier still that she could not accept his invitation for dinner, because she was taking her father and mother who had both been seriously ill, down to the shore for a few days, and she would not be back until Monday morning
. If he could stay over till Monday she would lunch with him, or he could call her at the office Monday morning and arrange another time for meeting.
After she was satisfied that she had made out her case as kindly as she could under the circumstances, she took her letter down to the corner mailbox and then came back to finish her own packing, not the elaborate clothes she had taken with her to the mountains—well, perhaps one or two pretty things for Sunday— but sensible plain things, and of course things she would need to wear to the office daily.
As she hurried through her room glancing into bureau drawers and closet for anything she might have forgotten, she came on her neglected Bible lying unheeded on the little table by her bed. And yet she had not read in her Bible! Well, she would have time on Sunday likely, and she would make a new beginning and see if she couldn’t keep her resolves.
So she tucked it in between her pretty bathing suit and a simple little sport dress and got herself into bed as quickly as possible, knowing that she was already in the short hours and that morning would come all too soon. No prayers either. That was bad, too, but she would pray in bed just this time. So she started:
“Dear Father, help me to be—” but before she had decided just what it was she had meant to ask, she was sound asleep.
Did the angels, looking on this child of God, wonder and weep that she could be so absorbed in things of earth?
Betty Lou was on hand at six. She was too excited to stay asleep. It was Betty Lou’s first excursion for a long time. There had not been money nor time for many vacations. They had all concentrated on Jane’s for several years back.
It was Betty Lou who got down first and started the coffee, made the toast, and cooked some quick cereal, even fixed Mother’s tray and took it to her just as Jane was coming down. Dear little Betty Lou with her delicate face and her eager eyes that had deep blue shadows under them. Jane’s heart smote her. She must contrive somehow to make things easier for Betty Lou.
At last there was a flurry of excitement while they were trying with all their might to keep calm for Mother’s sake.
There was the house to shut up and the gas to be turned off. Tom was very important about that and talked a great deal about it. He demanded to know if anybody had examined all the water faucets to see that they were surely turned off, and if somebody had looked in every closet to see if there were forgotten things. He made a tremendous talk about forgetting things and then started off finally without his old sweater and had to go back for it, seeming to think it was somebody else’s fault that he had forgotten it. “I ask you,” he demanded, “if a man can look after everything! Can’t I have a little help around this dump?”
But they all got packed nicely in at last, Mother in the backseat with pillows, Betty Lou on the suitcases at her feet, Jane in front with Tom.
Sherwood had come promptly, seen to it that every comfort for the father was stowed in his car, brought a basket of wonderful grapes, another of peaches, and a big box of candy, and then suggested that he go to the hospital and get Father. It would be less excitement, he said, than if two or three of them went to explain. He was sure he could make it all right, and they could just wait at the corner till he drove out and then they would stop for a moment’s greetings.
Jane and Mother thought this a very good plan, and so he appeared at the hospital door with a “good morning” and a pleasant smile.
“You didn’t know, Mr. Arleth, that you and I were slated for a ride, did you?”
“Why, no,” said Mr. Arleth, looking up, pleased. “Did Tom have to go to work this morning? I thought he had another week.”
“Yes, he has another week, all right, but, you see, we made up a little surprise for you, and Tom had to look after the other end of it just now, so I thought perhaps I would do in his place. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” said Mr. Arleth. “I’m delighted to see you again. I’m in the hands of my friends, you see, until I get the doctor’s release. He tells me that I’ll be all fixed up pretty soon and able to get back to my work, so I’m satisfied.”
He seemed greatly pleased to get out into the world again, said the weather wasn’t quite so hot as he remembered it that last day before he went to the hospital, and admired the shiny little flivver. They let him walk down the steps by himself, which made him happier, for he seemed to feel he was getting into shape again rapidly, and he settled into the cushions of the car with pleasure, bidding his nurse a cheerful good-bye, and telling her to come and see him someday when the weather got cooler and she could be spared. Then they started off, and he was pleased as a child to be going out into the city again.
He watched everything they passed, and when they turned down toward the city instead of toward his house, his bright eyes discovered it at once.
“Aren’t you making a mistake?” he asked gently. “My house is off to the right, Mr. Sherwood.”
“Oh, that’s part of the surprise,” said Sherwood with a twinkle, “and here, we’re going to stop right here and speak to these people in this other car for a minute. They seem to think they know you.”
Father Arleth turned surprised eyes and recognized his old car, with Tom at the wheel.
“Why!” said he. “Why! Why! Why! What does this mean? The children, and Mother, too! Why, this is great! How do you feel, Mother?”
“Oh, I’m feeling fine,” said Mother, sitting up straight and smiling.
“And so you came out to meet me,” said Father, looking bewildered. “But where are we all going?”
“We’re going on a picnic!” said Betty Lou, clapping her hands joyously. “Daddy, it’s a great long wonderful picnic.”
“A picnic!” said Father. “Oh—do you think that’s quite wise— for Mother, so soon after she’s been sick?”
“It’s all right, Father,” said Jane’s reassuring voice. “The doctor said so. In fact, he ordered it—for you both!”
“Oh, the doctor ordered it.” Father smiled and rested back against the cushions. “Well, then it’s all right and we can enjoy it.”
“Are you all comfortable there, Father?”
“Oh, wonderfully comfortable! It’s great to be out again, and this car is fine!”
“We thought it might be easier for you than crowded in here.”
“Well, it’s wonderful!”
“Will you promise to tell Mr. Sherwood if you get the least bit tired?”
“I promise.”
“All set?” said Tom. “All set, John?”
Jane looked up in astonishment and saw twinkles in the gray eyes.
“All set, Tom, drive ahead. We’ll keep you in sight.”
So the procession started on its way to the sea.
The sun was already getting in good work, and the hot pavements in the city reflected back a shimmering heat like a young furnace, even so early in the day, but the movement of the car made a breeze that was comfort in contrast to the stuffy little living room at home, even with the shades drawn down.
“Too much heat for you, Mums?” asked Tom, casting an anxious look behind as traffic blocked him and a signal light caught him.
“Oh no,” said the mother in a sprightly tone, turning from a close study of the people in the cars about her. “This is interesting, and besides I have my palm leaf. Don’t you worry about me.”
“She’s a good old sport, isn’t she, Jin?”
Then the light flashed green and they could move on.
The crossing of the river was a thrilling event to Betty Lou. Every mast held a fairy story for her and every sail a romance. At last they were out on the highway, and because it was late in the season, they had little traffic to contend with and could make better time.
The way was threaded with sweet little tree-shaded villages, and the breeze of their going made life worth living again for the people who had been enduring the worst hot wave that the city had known for years. Mother even drew her little shoulder shawl around the back of her neck.
“I declare, I never thought I’d be cool again,” she said apologetically as she did so. “I guess the weather must have changed.”
By and by, the villages grew fewer and farther apart, and then Jane began to try and persuade her mother to lie down awhile and get a nap.
“You know, it will be enough excitement for you to get settled in new quarters when we get there, and you must save up your strength or you’ll just be sick again; and then we’ll have to come home and put you in the hospital,” reminded Jane.
“That’s all nonsense,” asserted Mother. “I’m feeling fine, and I don’t want to miss anything. I haven’t had a ride like this in—I don’t know when.”
“Well, you’re going to have some more now, every day,” said Tom, “so you better lie down and rest as Jane says.”
“Well, suppose you just stop and run back and see how Father is getting along? I couldn’t rest until I know,” said his faithful partner.
So Tom drew up under the shade of a big tree and waited till the flivver drew alongside.
“Tired?” said Mr. Arleth. “Why should I be tired? I’m having a grand time! This young man knows a lot of people up in New York State where I come from, and we’re just enjoying ourselves.”
“But oughtn’t you to rest, George?” asked his wife anxiously. “We could change around now for a while and let you lie down in this backseat. It’s real comfortable here.”
“It can’t be any more comfortable than it is here, and I’ve got pillows galore, pillows behind me, pillows beside me, pillows before, and one under my head. No, you can’t get me out of this car till we get there. I’m having too good a time.”
He smiled happily, and Jane caught a glimpse of Sherwood’s face with its boyish look. Sherwood was actually having a good time, too. What a charming boy he was!
“Hey, John!” called Tom as they were about to start on their way again. “About two miles below here’s a filling station. I’m stopping for gas. And after you leave it there is that sharp turn to the left, and take the middle of the three roads you’ll find at the next corner.”