"Yea, verily. You don"t mean to say you have never read those books!
Why, there is not a year since I was eight years old that I haven"t pored over them. Every time I have been here, and that is at least once a year, I go for those books, I"d advise you to make their acquaintance."
"You tell me the story; then I won"t have to read it."
"No, my child, I shall not allow you to neglect your opportunities through any weakness on my part. Read it for yourself, and thereafter, the red book will be one of your prized memories of "Overlea.""
"Then tell me again about the lady and the willow tree," begged Edna; "that was so funny."
Ben laughed. "I am afraid I don"t remember that so well as I do the fox story, but maybe I will think of some more about her. Come, it is time to go in. They may be eating those chicken or turkey sandwiches this very minute."
Hanging on his arm, Edna skipped along to the house to find that it was quite too early to think of sandwiches, though the lamps were lighted in all but the living-room where a cheerful fire made the place light enough. Around the fire sat grandma, Aunt Emmeline, Aunt Alice and Mrs.
Conway. Aunt Lucia was upstairs with the babies. Uncle Wilbur was taking a nap, and grandpa and Uncle Bert were out looking after the stock, as Ira and the other man had been allowed a holiday. Over in the corner of the sofa sat Cousin Becky and her lover talking in low tones.
"Dear me," said grandma, as the children all trooped in, "we must have a light; these little folks may not like to sit in the dark."
"This is the best kind of light," declared Ben, "and the very time for telling tales. Let"s all sit around the fire and have a good time. We"ll begin with the oldest and so on down to the youngest If we don"t have time to go all the way down the line, we"ll stop when we"re hungry.
How"s that, grandma? Do you like the plan?"
"It is just as the others say, my dear," she answered.
"It"s a lovely plan, Ben," said Mrs. Conway. "You will have to begin, mother, and Aunt Emmeline can come next."
"Oh, dear," protested that lady, "I never was one for telling tales; you will have to count me out."
"I am sure if I can, you can," grandma a.s.sured her. "What shall it be about, children?"
"Oh, about when you were a little girl," cried Edna.
"About the time the horse ran away with you," spoke up the boys.
"About your first ball please," begged Celia.
Grandma laughed. "Just listen to them. They have heard all those things dozens of times. I"ll tell you what we will do. I will tell about the runaway horse, that belongs to the time when I was a little girl, and Emmeline shall tell about her first ball, and I can remind her if she forgets anything. I remember her first ball even better than my first, for it was at hers I met your grandfather."
This was all so satisfactory that there was not a murmur of dissent, and grandma began: "It was when I was about ten years old that I went one day with my father to the nearest village. He was driving a pair of spirited horses, and on our way home a parcel we were bringing home, fell out of the buggy. My father stopped the horses and ran back to pick up the parcel, but before he could get to the buggy, the horses took fright at a piece of paper blowing along the road in front of them and off they started, full tilt, down the road. In vain my father cried, "Hey, there! Whoa, Barney! Whoa Pet!" on they went faster and faster. I managed to hold on to the reins but my young hands were not strong enough to control the wild creatures, and I thought every minute would be my last, for up hill and down dale we went at such a pace I had never known. Over a stump would jounce the buggy, and I would nearly pitch out. Around the last curve they went with a swing which I thought would land me on my back or my head, but I managed to keep my seat and at last saw the open gate of our own lane before me. Would the horses go through without hitting a gate post? Would they run into a fence or over a pile of stones at one side? My heart was in my mouth. I jerked the reins in a vain attempt to guide them, but on they went, pell-mell, making straight for the open gate. Presently I saw some one rush from the house and then another person come flying from the stables. Just before we reached the gate, it was flung to with a bang. The horses pranced, swung a little to one side and stopped short, and I heard some one say, "So, Barney, so Pet!" I didn"t know what happened next but the first thing I knew I was lying on the lounge in the sitting-room, my mother bending over me, and holding a bottle of salts to my nose, "Oh, dear, oh, dear," my mother was crying, "another minute and the child might have been killed.""
"Who was it shut the gate?" asked Allen eagerly.
"Amanda"s mother, who was living with us at that time."
"And who caught the horses?" queried Ted.
"Jim Doughty, who was our hired man."
"Weren"t you nearly frightened to death?" Lulie put the question.
"Very nearly, and so was my father. He was as pale as a ghost when he got home. He had to walk all the way, and said he thought he should never get there. The country wasn"t as thickly settled as it is now, and there were no houses between us and the spot where the horses took fright."
"Where is the place you lived?" asked Allen.
"About five miles from here."
"I should like to see it," said the boy musingly. "I suppose those horses are dead. I"d like to see horses that could run like that."
"They would be somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty-five or seventy years old by this time," said grandma with a smile, "and the oldest horse I ever knew was forty."
"Gee! but that was old," remarked Frank. "Whose was it, grandma? Yours?"
"No, my grandfather"s. Her name was Dolly, and she took my grandparents to church every Sunday for many years, up to a little while before she died. Now, Emmeline, let"s hear about the ball."
"It was just a ball," began Aunt Emmeline.
"The County Ball," put in grandma. "They always have one every year at Fair time. Emmeline was sixteen and I was eighteen. Now go on, Emmeline."
"I wore white tarlatan trimmed with forget-me-nots," said Aunt Emmeline, "and I danced my first dance with Steve Hardesty." She paused and gave a little sigh. "He took me into supper, too, poor Steve." Grandma leaned over and laid her hand softly on her sister"s. "It is such a long time, such a very long time ago," she said softly.
Aunt Emmeline smiled a little sadly. "Yes, a long time," she repeated.
"You wore, what was it you wore, Cecelia?"
"I wore pink tarlatan trimmed with rosebuds and a wreath of them in my hair. The skirt was caught up with bunches of the little buds and green leaves, and I thought it the prettiest dress I ever saw."
"It was a great ball," Aunt Emmeline went on, brightening. "I danced every set, and so did you, Cecelia."
"And how everyone did talk because I danced so many with Ben Willis whom I had met for the first time that night. He would see me home, you remember, although Uncle Phil and Cousin d.i.c.k were both there to look after us; we were staying at our uncle"s, my dears. It was during the early days of the war, and there was much talk of what would happen next and who would be going off to join the army, you remember."
"It was not till two years after, that Steve went," said Aunt Emmeline wistfully.
"Tell us about Steve," spoke up Frank. "Did he become a soldier?"
Celia shook her head warningly at her little brother, for she knew Aunt Emmeline"s story, and of how her young lover was killed in battle, but Aunt Emmeline did not hesitate to answer. "Yes, he went, but he never came back."
Silence fell upon the little group for a moment till Aunt Emmeline herself broke it by saying, "Do you remember, Cecelia, how angry you were with Polly Parker because she copied your dress, and how you were going to have yours trimmed with daisies, and changed all that at the last moment? I can see you now, ripping off those inoffensive daisies and flinging them on the floor."
Grandma laughed. "Well, after all, hers wasn"t a bit like mine, for it was a different shade of pink and wasn"t made the same way. Yes, I was furious, I remember, because it wasn"t the first time Polly had copied my things; she had a way of doing it."
"Here comes grandpa," announced Herbert who did not find all this talk of dress and b.a.l.l.s very interesting.
The entrance of grandpa and Uncle Bert broke up the party by the fire, for soon the sandwiches and other things were brought in, then came songs and games till, before anyone realized it, bedtime came and Thanksgiving Day was over.
CHAPTER V
THE RED BOOK
Whether it was the search for the key in the chill of the early morning, or whether it was that she ate too heartily of grandma"s good things, certain it was that when Edna waked up the morning after Thanksgiving, she felt very listless and miserable. Her father was already up and dressed, and her mother was making her toilet when the little girl turned over and watched her with heavy eyes.