CHAPTER FIFTEEN A HAPPY REUNION
Within the cabin the three children sat about the table, eating theirmidday meal. Carol at the window heard Ken say: "Dix, this is the secondday that you haven't eaten one bite. If you get sick, how on earth'llBaby Jim and I get along?"
The girl turned from the table and began to sob. "I'm sorry, Ken," shesaid, "truly I am, but I don't know that I'll ever be able to eat againunless Carol comes home."
"Well, I sort o' wish she'd come, too," Ken declared, blinking veryhard.
There was a sudden warm glow in the heart of the little listener. Afterall, she would be welcome. Even Ken wanted her! With a glad cry she ranin the open door and threw her arms about her sister. Then she pouncedupon Ken and kissed him.
"I'm home," she cried, "and please, please let me stay forever andever."
Baby Jim was clamoring for attention, and he was caught in a crushinghug while he waved his spoon and uttered joyous little squeals, althoughhe did not understand Carol's home-coming any more than he had herdeparture only the day before.
After a time, in which tears and laughter blended, Carol cried, "Dixie,I'm 'most starved with that long walk and not eating much breakfast. I'mso glad you've got fried potatoes and baked beans."
"I'm hungry, too, now that I take notice of it," the older girl said,her freckled face beaming.
"Well, I thought I'd had enough, but I guess I could take anotherhelping," Ken declared. And so they all sat down, and a merry meal itwas.
Oh, how much nicer her own home was, Carol thought, where even Baby Jimcould talk if he wished and not be told that only grown-ups shouldconverse at table. Carol didn't tell all that had happened. In fact, shedidn't seem to wish to speak of her recent experience. She inquired withinterest about the well-being of the pig and the three hens as thoughshe had been away a year.
Then she asked what had happened at school that day. None of them hadattended. They hadn't had the heart to do anything, but on the morrowall of them would go.
After the dishes were done, Carol climbed to the loft. For some reasonthat she could not explain to herself, she wanted to see her old doll.She hadn't played with it for a year, not since Jessica Archer had madefun of her and called her a baby for playing with a doll.
How cosy the loft bedroom seemed, the small girl thought as she reachedthe top of the ladder. Those turkey-red curtains, with the sunlightshining through them, were very cheerful looking. Peggotty Ann wasprobably the most surprised and the happiest doll in the whole State ofNevada, when, a moment later, she was caught up and kissed by her littlemistress.
Ken entered the kitchen, and, going to the table where Dixie sat sortingthe mending, he said very softly, that the girl in the loft might nothear: "Dix, something'll have to be done, now that Carol's back. Wecan't make ends meet on nine dollars a month, and one to be laid asidefor taxes."
Dixie looked up brightly. "There's still two dollars and thirty cents inthe sock, Ken," she said, "and we haven't reached trouble's stone wallyet."
"Dix," the boy declared admiringly, "you're a brick!" Then he added,with a mischievous grin, "and I don't mean because you're red-headed,either."
A moment later when Carol, with her doll in her arms, looked out of thesmall window in the loft, she saw Ken digging in the garden and heardhim whistling, and, for the first time in her young life, she realizedsomething of the contentment and joy contained in that one word, "home."
Being very, very tired, after an almost sleepless night and a long walk,the small girl curled up on the husk-filled bed to rest, her doll heldclose. Soon she was asleep, and so she did not hear a horse and buggystop at the door. In fact, she never knew that Mr. Clayburn had called,but Dixie knew, and what that kind man told brought joy to the heart ofthe little mother.
The banker said that he was glad to inform her that he had succeededthat very morning in loaning her father's small principal in a way thatwould bring fifteen dollars a month interest.
He did not tell her that he had loaned the money to himself, as he knewthat no one else would pay so high a rate of interest, and he wasdetermined that the wolf should be kept from the door of the four littleorphans who were too proud to accept charity.
When he was gone, Dixie ran out into the garden.
"Ken! Ken!" she called, and the boy thought that never before had heseen her face so aglow. "We've reached trouble's stone wall, and there_was_ an opening through and on the other side is a garden that's allsunshine."