Jewel's Story Book

  Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and theOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  "YOU'VE MADE ME SOME STORIES, MOTHER!"]

  JEWEL'S STORY BOOK

  BY

  CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM

  WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

  NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Made in the United States of America

  COPYRIGHT 1904 BY CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  _Published October, 1904_

  _TO THE CHILDREN WHO LOVE JEWEL_

  CONTENTS

  I. OVER THE 'PHONE

  II. THE BROKER'S OFFICE

  III. THE HOME-COMING

  IV. ON THE VERANDA

  V. THE LIFTED VEIL

  VI. THE DIE IS CAST

  VII. MRS. EVRINGHAM'S GIFTS

  VIII. THE QUEST FLOWER

  IX. THE QUEST FLOWER (CONTINUED)

  X. THE APPLE WOMAN'S STORY

  XI. THE GOLDEN DOG

  XII. THE TALKING DOLL

  XIII. A HEROIC OFFER

  XIV. ROBINSON CRUSOE

  XV. ST. VALENTINE

  XVI. A MORNING RIDE

  XVII. THE BIRTHDAY

  XVIII. TRUE DELIGHT

  JEWEL'S STORY BOOK

  CHAPTER I

  OVER THE 'PHONE

  Mrs. Forbes, Mr. Evringham's housekeeper, answered the telephone oneafternoon. She was just starting to climb to the second story and did notwish to be hindered, so her "hello" had a somewhat impatient brevity.

  "Mrs. Forbes?"

  "Oh," with a total change of voice and face, "is that you, Mr. Evringham?"

  "Please send Jewel to the 'phone."

  "Yes, sir."

  She laid down the receiver, and moving to the foot of the stairs calledloudly, "Jewel!"

  "Drat the little lamb!" groaned the housekeeper, "If I was only sure shewas up there; I've got to go up anyway. _Jewel!_" louder.

  "Ye--es!" came faintly from above, then a door opened. "Is somebody callingme?"

  Mrs. Forbes began to climb the stairs deliberately while she spoke withenergy. "Hurry down, Jewel. Mr. Evringham wants you on the 'phone."

  "Goody, goody!" cried the child, her feet pattering on the thick carpet asshe flew down one flight and then passed the housekeeper on the next."Perhaps he is coming out early to ride."

  "Nothing would surprise me less," remarked Mrs. Forbes dryly as shemounted.

  Jewel flitted to the telephone and picked up the receiver.

  "Hello, grandpa, are you coming out?" she asked.

  "No, I thought perhaps you would like to come in."

  "In where? Into New York?"

  "Yes."

  "What are we going to do?" eagerly.

  Mr. Evringham, sitting at the desk in his private office, his head restingon his hand, moved and smiled. His mind pictured the expression on the faceaddressing him quite as distinctly as if no miles divided them.

  "Well, we'll have dinner, for one thing. Where shall it be? At theWaldorf?"

  Jewel had never heard the word.

  "Do they have Nesselrode pudding?" she asked, with keen interest. Mrs.Forbes had taken her in town one day and given her some at a restaurant.

  "Perhaps so. You see I've heard from the Steamship Company, and they thinkthat the boat will get in this evening."

  "Oh, grandpa! grandpa! _grandpa!_"

  "Softly, softly. Don't break the 'phone. I hear you through the window."

  "When shall I come? Oh, oh, oh!"

  "Wait, Jewel. Don't be excited. Listen. Tell Zeke to bring you in to myoffice on the three o'clock train."

  "Yes, grandpa. Oh, please wait a minute. Do you think it would be tooextravagant for me to wear my silk dress?"

  "No, let's be reckless and go the whole figure."

  "All right," tremulously.

  "Good-by."

  "Oh, grandpa, wait. Can I bring Anna Belle?" but only silence remained.

  Jewel hung up the receiver with a hand that was unsteady, and then ranthrough the house and out of doors, leaving every door open behind her in amanner which would have brought reproof from Mrs. Forbes, who had begun tobe Argus-eyed for flies.

  Racing out to the barn, she appeared to 'Zekiel in the harness room like asmall whirlwind.

  "Get on your best things, Zeke," she cried, hopping up and down; "my fatherand mother are coming."

  "Is this an india rubber girl?" inquired the coachman, pausing to look ather with a smile. "What train?"

  "Three o'clock. You're going with me to New York. Grandpa says so; to hisoffice, and the boat's coming to-night. Get ready quick, Zeke, please. I'mgoing to wear my silk dress."

  "Hold on, kid," for she was flying off. "I'm to go in town with you, am I?Are you sure? I don't want to fix up till I make Solomon look like thirtycents and then find out there's some misdeal."

  "Grandpa wants you to bring me to his office, that's what he said,"returned the child earnestly. "Let's start real _soon_!"

  Like a sprite she was back at the house and running upstairs, calling forMrs. Forbes.

  The housekeeper appeared at the door of the front room, empty now for twodays of Mrs. Evringham's trunks, and Jewel with flushed cheeks andsparkling eyes told her great news.

  Mrs. Forbes was instantly sympathetic. "Come right upstairs and let me helpyou get ready. Dear me, to-night! I wonder if they'll want any supper whenthey get here."

  "I don't know. I don't know!" sang Jewel to a tune of her own improvising,as she skipped ahead.

  "I don't believe they will," mused Mrs. Forbes. "Those customs take so muchtime. It seems a very queer thing to me, Jewel, Mr. Evringham letting youcome in at all. Why, you'll very likely not get home till midnight."

  "Won't it be the most _fun_!" cried the child, dancing to her closet andgetting her checked silk dress.

  "I guess your flannel sailor suit will be the best, Jewel."

  "Grandpa said I might wear my silk. You see I'm going to dinner with him,and that's just like going to a party, and I ought to be very particular,don't you think so?"

  "Well, don't sit down on anything dirty at the wharf. I expect you will,"returned Mrs. Forbes with a resigned sigh, as she proceeded to unfastenJewel's tight, thick little braids.

  "Just think what a short time we'll have to miss cousin Eloise," said thechild. "Day before yesterday she went away, and now to-morrow my mother'llbraid my hair." She gave an ecstatic sigh.

  "If that's all you wanted your cousin Eloise for--to braid your hair--Iguess I could get to do it as well as she did."

  "Oh, I loved cousin Eloise for everything and I always shall love her,"responded the child quickly. "I only meant I didn't have to trouble youlong with my hair."

  "I think I do it pretty well."

  "Yes, indeed you do--just as _tight_. Do you remember how much it troubledyou when I first came? and now it's so much different!"

  "Yes, there are a whole lot of things that are much different," repliedMrs. Forbes. "How long do you suppose you'll be staying with us now,Jewel?"

  The child's face grew sober. "I don't know, because I don't know how longfather and mother can stay."

  "You'll think about this room where you've lived so many weeks, when youget back to Chicago."

  "Yes, I shall think about it lots of times," said the little girl. "I knewit would be a lovely visit at grandpa's, and it has been."

  She glanced up in the mirror toward the housekeeper's face and saw that thewoman's lips were working suspiciously and her eyes brimming over.

  "You won't be lonely, will you, Mrs. Forbes?" she asked; "because grandpasays you want to live with Zeke in the barn this summer while he shuts upthe house and goes off on his
vacation."

  "Oh, yes; it's all right, Jewel, only it just came over me that in a week,or perhaps sooner, you'll be gone."

  "It's real kind of you to be glad to have me stay," said the child. "I trynot to think about going away, because it does make me feel sorry everytime. You know the soot blows all around in Chicago and we haven't anyyard, and when I think about all the sky and trees here, and the ravine,beside grandpa and you and Zeke and Essex Maid--why I have to just say 'I_won't_ be sorry,' and then think about father and mother and Star and allthe nice things! I think Star will like the park pretty well." Jewel lookedinto space thoughtfully, and then shook her head. "I'm sure the morning wego I shall have to say: 'Green pastures are before me' over and over."

  "What do you mean, child?"

  "Why, you know the psalm: 'He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Heleadeth me beside the still waters'?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, in our hymnal there's the line of a hymn: 'Green pastures are beforeme,' and mother and I used to say that line every morning when we woke up,to remind us that Love was going to lead us all day."

  "I'd like to see your mother," said Mrs. Forbes after a pause.

  "You will, to-night," cried Jewel, suddenly joyous again. "Oh, Mrs. Forbes,do you think I could take Anna Belle to New York?"

  "What did Mr. Evringham say?"

  "He went away before I had a chance to ask him." Jewel looked wistfullytoward the chair where the doll sat by the window, toeing in, her sweetgaze fixed on the wall-paper. "She would enjoy it so!" added the littlegirl.

  "Oh, it's a tiresome trip for children, such late hours," returned Mrs.Forbes persuasively. "Beside," with an inspiration, "you'd like your handsfree to help your mother carry her bags, wouldn't you?"

  "That's so," responded Jewel. "Anna Belle would always give up anything forher grandma!" and as the housekeeper finished tying the hair bows, thelittle girl skipped over to the chair and knelt before the doll, explainingthe situation to her with a joyous incoherence mingled with hugs and kissesfrom which the even-tempered Anna Belle emerged apparently dazed butdocile.

  "Come here and get your shoes on, Jewel."

  "My best ones," returned the child.

  "Oh, yes, the best of everything," said Mrs. Forbes good-humoredly; andindeed, when Jewel was arrayed, she viewed herself in the mirror withsatisfaction.

  Zeke presented himself soon, fine in a new summer suit and hat, and Mrs.Forbes watched the pair as they walked down the driveway.

  "Now, I can't let the grass grow under my feet," she muttered. "I expectedto have till to-morrow night to get all the things done that Mr. Evringhamtold me to, but I guess I can get through."

  Jewel and Zeke had ample time for the train. Indeed, the little girl'spatience was somewhat tried before the big headlight came in view. Shecould not do such injustice to her silk dress and daisy-wreathed leghornhat as to hop and skip, so she stood demurely with Zeke on the stationplatform, and as they waited he regarded her happy expectant face.

  "Remember the day you got here, kid?" he asked.

  "Yes. Isn't it a long time since you came and met me with Dick, and he justwhirled us home!"

  "Sure it is. And now you're glad to be leaving us."

  "I am not, Zeke!"

  "Well, you look in the glass and see for yourself."

  Just then the train came along and Zeke swung the child up to the highstep. The fact that she found a seat by the window added a ray to hershining eyes. Her companion took the place beside her.

  "Yes," he went on, as the train started, "it's kind of hard on the rest ofus to have you so tickled over the prospect."

  "I'm only happy over father and mother," returned Jewel.

  "Pretty nice folks, are they?"

  Jewel shook her head significantly. "You just wait and see," she repliedwith zest.

  "Which one do you look like?"

  "Like father. Mother's much prettier than father."

  "A beauty, is she?"

  "N--o, I don't believe so. She isn't so pretty as cousin Eloise, but thenshe's pretty."

  "That's probably the reason your grandfather likes to see youaround--because you look like his side of the house."

  "Well," Jewel sighed, "I hope grandpa likes my nose. I don't."

  Zeke laughed. "He seems able to put up with it. I expect there's going tobe ructions around here the next week."

  "What's ructions?"

  "Well, some folks might call it error. I don't know. Mr. Evringham's goingto be pretty busy with his own nose. It's going to be put out of jointto-night. The green-eyed monster's going to get on the rampage, or I missmy guess."

  Jewel looked up doubtfully. Zeke was a joker, of course, being a man, butwhat was he driving at now?

  "What green-eyed monster?" she asked.

  "Oh, the one that lives in folks' hearts and lays low part of the time,"replied Zeke.

  "Do you mean jealousy; envy, hatred, or malice?" asked Jewel so glibly thather companion stared.

  "Great Scott! What do you know about that outfit?" he asked.

  The child nodded wisely. "I know people believe in them sometimes; but youneedn't think grandpa does, because he doesn't."

  "Mr. Evringham's all right," agreed Zeke, "but he isn't going to be theonly pebble any longer. Your father and mother will be the whole thingnow."

  The child was thoughtful a moment, then she began earnestly: "Oh, I'm suregrandpa knows how it is about loving. The more people you love, the moreyou can love. I can love father and mother more because I've learned tolove grandpa, and he can love them more too, because he has learned to loveme."

  "Humph! We'll see," remarked the other, smiling.

  "Is error talking to you, Zeke? Are you laying laws on grandpa?"

  "Well, if I am, I'll stop it mighty quick. You don't catch me taking anysuch liberties. Whoa!" drawing on imaginary reins as the engine slackenedat a station.

  Jewel laughed, and from that time until they reached New York they chattedabout her pony Star, and other less important horses, and of the child'santicipation of showing her mother the joys of Bel-Air Park.