The next afternoon many merry companies of young people explored the country round about Hazelton in quest of May-flowers. That in which we are interested numbered Frances, Ellen, her brother Joe, their little sister Teresa, and their other cousins, Elsie and Will Grey.
"I generally have to join another band," Ellen confided to Frances, as they walked along in advance of the rest; "because Joe does not usually care to go. He is very good about making the baskets for me; but, as he says, he "don"t take much stock in hanging them." Yet, to-day he seems to be as anxious to get a quant.i.ty of the prettiest flowers as any one. Will comes now because Joe does. But Joe has some notion in his head. I wish I could find out what it is!"
Frances speculated upon the subject a few minutes; but, not being able to afford any help toward solving the riddle, she speedily forgot it in the pleasure of rambling through the fields, so newly green that the charm of novelty lingered like dew upon them; and among the lanes, redolent with the perfume of the first cherry blossoms,--for the season was uncommonly advanced.
Before long everybody began to notice how eager Joe was in his search.
"What are you going to do with all your posies?" queried Will, twittingly.
"They must be for Frances," declared Elsie.
"Maybe he is going to give them to Aunt Anna Grey," ventured Teresa.
"Perhaps to mother," hazarded Ellen.
"Yes: some for mother," admitted Joe; "and the others for--don"t you wish you knew!" And Joe"s eyes danced roguishly as he darted off to a patch of violets.
"He has some project. What can it be?" soliloquized Ellen, looking after him.
Joe, unconscious of her gaze, was bending over the little blue flowers, and humming an air which the children had learned a few days before.
"That tune is so catchy I can"t get it out of my mind," he remarked to Will.
Suddenly Ellen started up. "I know!" she said to herself. Then for a time she was silent, flitting to and fro with a smile upon her lips, her thoughts as busy as her fingers. "Ha, Master Joe! I believe we"ll all try that plan!" she exclaimed at length, laughing at the idea of the surprise in store for him. Presently she glanced toward Teresa and Elsie, who were loitering under a tree, talking in a low tone. Ellen laughed again. "Those two children are always having secrets about nothing at all," mused she.
Ellen was a lively girl, and greatly enjoyed a joke. After a while, when she discovered Elsie alone, she whispered something to her. The little girl"s brown eyes grew round with interest. She nodded once or twice, murmuring, "Yes, yes!"
"And you must not breathe a word of it to anybody--not even to Teresa!"
said Ellen.
"Oh, no!" said Elsie, quite flattered that such a big girl should confide in her.
Then--ah, merry Ellen!--did she not go herself and tell Teresa, charging her also not to reveal it? Later she took occasion to say a word to Frances upon the same topic.
"Splendid!" cried the latter. "I"ll not speak of it, I promise you."
Finally, Ellen suggested the very same thing to Will, who chuckled, looked at Joe, and asked:
"Are you sure you"re on the right track?"
"You"ll see if I"m not!" replied Ellen.
"Well, all I say is," he went on, condescendingly, "you"ve hit upon a capital scheme; and you may bet your boots on it that I won"t do anything to spoil it."
The girl looked down at her strong but shapely shoes (she was a bit vain of her neat foot), and thought that she would not be so unladylike as to "bet her boots" on anything. But, as Will"s observation was entirely impersonal, and intended as a pledge that he would follow her instructions, she made no comment. Moreover, she had now brought about the state of affairs which she had mischievously designed. Each of the party except Joe supposed that he or she had a secret with Ellen which the others knew nothing about; to each she had whispered her conjecture regarding Joe"s purpose, and planned that they, the two of them, should please him by joining in it, without intimating their intention to him or any one. What a general astonishment and amus.e.m.e.nt there would be when it came out that all had known what each had been enjoying as a secret!
Meantime they had been active, and each had gathered a fair quant.i.ty of pretty flowers--arbutus, violets, anemones, and cherry blooms; to which Teresa and Elsie insisted upon adding b.u.t.tercups and even dandelions.
Now the sun was going down, and they gaily turned their steps toward home.
III.
"A happy May-day!" the children called to one another the next morning, as they set out, at a very early hour, upon their pleasant round of floral gift-leaving. Before doing so, however, each had held a special conference with Ellen.
"Yes, I"ve managed it. Won"t everybody be surprised?" she quietly agreed again and again. And yet _how_ surprised everybody would be only sportive Ellen knew.
At half-past seven they rea.s.sembled for breakfast, which Elsie and Will took with their cousins. What a comparing of notes there was during the meal! Teresa had been caught hanging a basket at her little friend, Mollie Emerson"s. Will"s mother had seen him dodging round the corner after fastening one on the front gate for her.
"O Joe! what did you do with that beautiful basket you arranged with so much care,--the large one with the freshest flowers, I mean?" asked Frances, with an ingenious air.
"Never mind!" answered Joe laconically, helping himself to another gla.s.s of milk.
Everyone stole a knowing look at Ellen, without noticing that everyone else was doing so; but that young lady imperturbably b.u.t.tered a second m.u.f.fin, and studiously fixed her eyes on the tablecloth.
"Come, there is the Ma.s.s bell ringing!" called Mr. Moore from the hall.
A stampede followed. To be late for Ma.s.s on May-day would be inexcusable.
Shortly afterward, our friends filed into the Moore"s family pew in the village church. As Joe knelt down he turned his gaze with a gentle, happy expression to the Blessed Virgin"s shrine. The next moment he started, and cast a glance of pleased inquiry toward Ellen. His sister smiled back at him, then bowed her head to recover her gravity.
Hanging from the altar-rail, directly before the statue of Our Lady, was Joe"s handsomest May-basket, just as he knew it would be; for he had fastened it there himself the first thing in the morning. But there also were five other pretty baskets,--the offering which each of his sisters and cousins had made, unknown to one another. The pleasant discovery created a momentary flutter in the pew, but that was all--then.
So this was Ellen"s surprise! Each silently admitted that it was a good one. When they left the church, however, they had a merry time over it.
"But, Ellen, how did you know what I was going to do with my basket?"
asked Joe at last.
"I didn"t until I heard you humming the new May hymn which we learned last Sunday," replied Ellen; "that reminded me of what mother said about the old May customs. I wondered if you were thinking of this too, and presently it all flashed upon me."
"Well, if you are not a true Yankee at guessing!" was his only answer.