"I guess you can"t say it _that_ way," laughed Jeanette, "for Aunt Charlotte wouldn"t let you. You said it just as if you"d said, "Here is a great, big sandwich, oh, queen!""
"Well, I _didn"t_ say that, and you needn"t laugh. It makes you feel big to be queen!" "_Reginald_!"
"Well, it does," declared the small boy, "an" Arabella said so yesterday."
"Arabella likes to say mean things," said Jeanette, "but it doesn"t prove that they"re so because she says so."
Everything went smoothly at the afternoon rehearsal, until Dorothy said that Nancy was to do a lovely fancy dance for one number on the programme, when Arabella felt moved to make one of her unpleasant remarks.
"My Aunt Matilda doesn"t "prove of dancing," she said, looking sharply at Nancy.
"Well, your Aunt Matilda doesn"t _have_ to dance," said Mollie, pertly.
Mollie knew that she was naughty, but truly Arabella was trying.
"Perhaps your aunt likes music," said Nina; "Dorothy is going to sing."
"I don"t know whether she likes singing or not," Arabella replied, "but she doesn"t like dancing, I know, for she said she wouldn"t ever let me learn to dance."
"P"r"aps your father"d let you learn," said Reginald.
"He wouldn"t unless Aunt Matilda said I could."
"Why _does_ folks have Aunt Matildas?" muttered Reginald.
Mollie Merton laughed. She had heard what he said, although he had spoken almost in a whisper.
They left the cottage, promising to study their parts very carefully, and as they walked down the avenue they repeated some of the pleasing lines which they remembered.
Suddenly Reginald spoke.
"I"ve got to go back; I"ve left my ball on my desk," he said.
"Don"t go back," Katie said, "you won"t want it to-night."
"P"raps I will, and anyway I"m going after it," said Reginald, stoutly; "you wait for me."
"Oh, we can"t, Reginald," Katie said, "but you can overtake us if you hurry."
Reginald was already running toward the cottage, so he did not hear what Katie said. He pushed open the little gate and ran in, and up the steps on to the piazza.
"I left my ball on my desk," he said to Aunt Charlotte, who was standing in the hall.
"The schoolroom is open," she said with a smile, and Reginald rushed past her, and hurried to his desk. The ball was not on it, nor was it in the desk, as careful hunting proved.
"I left it right on top of my desk," he declared to Aunt Charlotte, who had followed, and now stood beside him.
"Are you quite sure of that?" she asked gently.
"Oh, yes, I _know_ I left it there, and I came back on purpose to get it," he said, his blue eyes wide with surprise, "and now it is getting late to hunt for it, "sides, I don"t know where to hunt."
His lip quivered, and there was something very like tears in his eyes, although he blinked very hard to hide them.
"I will search for the ball, and keep it for you to-morrow morning,"
Aunt Charlotte said; "it may have dropped to the floor, and rolled away into some shadowy corner, or behind the draperies. It is almost twilight now, but the lamplight to-night or the bright daylight to-morrow will help me to find it for you."
Thus comforted, Reginald left the cottage, but although he ran nearly all the way home, he saw neither of his schoolmates. He had hunted so long for the coveted ball that they had reached their homes before he was even in sight.
"We can"t wait for him," Katie had said, as she looked down the road to see if he were coming, and then they had become so interested in talking of their dialogue that they forgot all about him.
Usually Reginald called for his cousin Katie, but the next morning he was so eager to learn if his ball had been found, that he started early, intending to be the first at school, and hurried past Katie"s house lest she might call to him to wait. He had almost reached the cottage when he remembered that he had left both his spelling-book and reader at home.
It was really provoking, and for just a moment he paused, wondering if he might borrow books, or if indeed he ought to return for his own.
It was only a few days before that Aunt Charlotte had spoken of promptness at school, and at the same time said that only a careless pupil would be obliged to borrow.
He would not be the first to be thought careless; he would run back to the house, but he must hurry, or be late.
There was a field that he could cross, and thus save a little time, he thought, but when half-way across it he found that he was losing, instead of gaining time. The uneven ground and coa.r.s.e gra.s.s were much harder to run over than the fine, hard surface of the avenue, and in his haste he stumbled along over sticks and rough places, reaching the house flushed and tired.
He found his books just where he had left them and hurried past the maid, who was surprised to see him.
"Why, Master Reginald, I thought I see yer go out to school some time ago," she said.
"I had to come back after my books," he replied, looking over his shoulder as he ran down the walk.
"I won"t go across that little old field," he said in disgust. "It must have taken twice as long to go that way."
So he ran along the avenue, and soon neared the bend of the road where, between trees and shrubbery, he could see a bit of the cottage.
"I"ll be the only one that"s late," he thought, when at that moment he noticed some one farther along the avenue.
It was Arabella Corryville, but what was she doing?
He drew back, and stood behind a bush which overhung the sidewalk and partly hid him.
Arabella was looking over the low wall,--ah, now she was reaching down as if trying to get something that was hard to reach, or was she dropping something over?
[Ill.u.s.tration: She was reaching down as if to get something.]
Reginald could not guess which she was doing, and he knew that if he asked her, she would not tell him.
Now Arabella was running; Reginald ran, too. He knew that he must be quite late, for none of the other pupils were in sight.
He was a swift runner, and he entered the door just as Arabella was about to close it.
"You"re late, too," she whispered.
The little pupils were singing, and the two went softly to their seats.