"If you have any filial affection for _me_, my dear," returned auntie, laughing, "you will say no more about it. You know I"ve undertaken to restore all you children, as uninjured as possible, to your father and mother. Riding half-broken horses bareback is not exactly the safest thing in the world."
"What let"s do, then?" asked Edna.
"I"m going to take grandma for a nice long ride after breakfast. Suppose two of you come with me, and the other two ride or drive Mopsie and Charcoal," proposed auntie.
"All right. Suppose you and I go in the carriage, Eunice," said Edna, "and let the children take the ponies."
"The children, indeed!" said Hilda, bridling. "I"m as old as you, Edna."
"Cricket"s the only trundle-bed trash," said Archie, pulling her hair.
"Goodness me, auntie, if you"d whipped him a little when _he_ was trundle-bed trash, he might have been very much nicer now," said Cricket, pulling away, and, by her hasty movement, upsetting her gla.s.s of milk. "There, now! I"ve done it again. _Please_ excuse me, auntie."
"It was not your fault, dear. It"s that bad boy of mine that must be blamed. I read a story a little while ago of a plan where all the small boys were put into a barrel when they were six, and fed and educated through the bung-hole, and not let out till they were twenty-one. Would you like to live there?"
"Oh, how lovely!" sighed Edna. "Let"s go there! Think of having no one to tease you."
"Or pull your hair," said Cricket, feelingly.
"Or call you names," said Hilda, severely.
"Or hide your things," added Eunice, reproachfully.
"Or take you sailing, or teach you to wrestle, or write things for your old "Echo," or harness the ponies when Luke is not round, and look out for you generally," said Archie, in a breath. "If boys are barrelled in that place, girls ought to be--"
"Hung," said Edna, sweetly. "Please pa.s.s me the syrup."
"Since you"ve settled that question," said auntie, smiling, "shall we arrange it that Eunice and Edna go with us, and Cricket and Hilda ride the ponies? Or would you rather drive, Hilda?"
"I"ll ride with Cricket, please," said Hilda.
"We"ll have a splendid scamper, then," said Cricket. "Oh, Hilda! do you know, I"ve found out lately how to make Mopsie go up on his hind legs and walk around with me on his back. It"s lots of fun and I don"t fall off a bit, auntie."
"That seems rather dangerous, my dear," said auntie, looking disturbed.
"When did you learn?"
"There"s really not any danger, I think, mother," said Will. "Mopsie"s such a gentle little chap and so well trained. He walks around on his hind legs as smoothly as Charcoal on four, and comes down so gently that you"d hardly know it. He knows just how."
"And if I fall off," said Cricket, "there isn"t very far to fall, you know."
"Oh, girls!" said Eunice, suddenly changing the subject, "don"t forget there is the meeting of the "Echo Club" at three this afternoon, to read the "Echo." Do you want to hear it again, auntie?"
"To be sure I do. I want to know all about your budding geniuses. And it will amuse grandma, too. Meet on the piazza. And can"t you make the hour four o"clock to suit us old ladies, that like a nap after luncheon?"
"Of course we will. I"m president, and I"ll appoint the meeting at four.
Can we be excused now, auntie? We will be round somewhere when you"re ready to go to ride. I"ve got to do a little work on the "Echo" yet. It isn"t quite finished."
Even the long scamper on the ponies, of two or three hours, failed to exhaust Cricket"s energy, and when they returned she wanted Hilda to go for a row with her. Hilda flatly refused.
"You _are_ the most untiresome creature," she said. "I should think you"d be ready to drop. I am, I know. I"m going to get into the hammock, and I"m not going to stir till dinner-time. Do come and sit down yourself, and rest."
"Sit down and rest," repeated Cricket, with much scorn. "As if a little ride like that tired me. Well, if you won"t go to row, come to walk!"
"I"m going to sit still, I say," returned Hilda, firmly, seating herself comfortably in the hammock. "I"ll row this afternoon, perhaps, if it isn"t too hot. Here come Eunice and Edna. Do sit down, Cricket, and be sensible."
"If I sat down I"d be insensible," answered Cricket, trying to sit cross-legged on the piazza-rail. "There"s old Billy! I"ll take him for a row," and Cricket, tipping herself sideways, alighted on her feet on the ground below, and ran off.
"Such a child," sighed Hilda, with the air of forty years. "She is reprehensible!" aiming at irrepressible.
Eunice and Edna joined her on the piazza.
"Where is Cricket?" Eunice asked.
"She"s rampaging off," said Hilda. "I"m so hot that I don"t know what to do, and there"s Cricket calmly going out on that scorching water. Look at her, now!"
The girls followed Hilda"s indignant finger, which pointed to where Cricket, having adjusted old Billy to her satisfaction in the stern, was pushing off the boat. The tide was nearly out, and in another half-hour the flats would be bare.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "CRICKET SAT DOWN ON THE BEACH WITH THE CHILDREN"]
"I wonder if she"ll get stuck again," said Edna, with interest, shading her eyes to look. "Cricket! Cricket! don"t--forget--the--tide!"
she called, making a speaking-tube of her hands.
"No," called Cricket, in reply, "I"m only going a little distance, just for exercise."
"For exercise!" groaned Hilda, sinking down in her hammock.
"For exercise!" echoed Edna, subsiding at full length in a steamer-chair.
"For exercise!" said Eunice, briskly, looking half inclined to follow her, when Edna pulled her down beside her.
"No, you don"t want to go at all. Cricket will be back in a few moments.
She can"t go far, on account of the tide."
"I must finish my "Echo," any way," said Eunice, remembering her editorial duties, and vanishing into the house to get her materials.
It was not long before Cricket turned and pulled in. The children were on the beach with Eliza, and Cricket sat down on the sand with them, after landing, digging and laughing, as if she were six years old herself. Presently they all jumped up, and ran laughing and shouting after her.
"Come on, girls, and play "Tick-den,"" called Cricket, as she pa.s.sed.
"Come and sit down," chorused the girls, but Cricket laughed and ran on, the twins tagging after her, and Kenneth struggling in the rear.
"Tick-den" is a local variation of the time-honoured "hide-and-go-seek."
There is not much fun in it when there are only three playing, especially when two of the three have very short legs, but Cricket seemed to find a certain amount of amus.e.m.e.nt in it, as she did in everything. The other girls made remarks of withering scorn to her, as she flew by, but Cricket only laughed and tossed back her curly head, and ran on.
At last there was a longer disappearance than usual. After a time Zaidee and Helen, with Kenneth lagging after, came disconsolately around to the front piazza. Zaidee"s soft, silky, black hair lay in wet streaks, plastered down on her forehead, while Helen"s golden locks were as tightly curled as grape-tendrils.
"We can"t find Cricket any more, for she"s runned away," announced Zaidee, aggrieved.
"We"ve hunted and hunted," said Helen. "We heard her calling once, but when we got where she was, she wasn"t there any more."