"Fever?" echoed Mrs. Travers. "Tavia, close that door this very minute!
We cannot afford to catch fevers."
Dorothy felt as if some one had slapped her face. To think of her father giving any one sickness!
"Nonsense, ma," spoke up Tavia. "The major is only ill from walking in the hot sun. Come in, Doro dear, and tell us if we can help you."
"Aunt Libby is alone with him, and when the doctor comes she may need something. If your ma would not be afraid to let Johnnie run over about noon, I would pay him for any errand," spoke Dorothy.
"Oh, certainly, dear," the woman replied, now venturing to poke her uncombed head out of doors, thinking, evidently that the mere mention of money was the most powerful antiseptic known. "Of course Johnnie will be too pleased. I"ll send him any time you say."
Secretly glad that her mother had so promptly overcome her fear of the fever, but also ashamed that her motive should be so flagrant, Tavia slipped on her things and joined her companion.
"I wouldn"t keep you another minute," she began, "for I know just how anxious you are. But I"m going along to help. I can go on errands at least, and keep you company."
"Oh, Tavia, dear, perhaps you had better go to school. On account of the trouble yesterday, teacher will think we are both defying her."
"Then let her send the Lady Sarah to find out," retorted Tavia. "I would show her if I had freckles on my tongue."
"Please don"t talk so, Tavia, it is wrong--"
"Wrong? My father says there are some men in this world too mean to bother the law about. He says he knows one he would like to thresh only he is sure the sneak would not hit him back, but would have him arrested. Physical punishment is the kind for such, father declares.
And that"s just the way I feel about Lady Sarah. I would not tell teacher on her, for that would give her a chance to "crawl," as Johnnie calls being mean. So sticking my tongue out at her is the nearest I can come to physical punishment."
This doctrine did not in any way coincide with the upright views of Dorothy, but she knew argument would be useless. Besides, her head and heart were too full of other things to bother about school girl troubles.
"Are you going to print the whole paper?" Tavia asked, with amusing ignorance of the ways of the Great American Press.
"Why, no, dear, I could not print it. Ralph must do that."
"Oh, I know. Just put things in it."
"I may have to write some," Dorothy replied, with an important air.
"The parade story was not written. Father intended to do that."
"Oh, goody!" went on the irrepressible Tavia. "Say that the meanest girl in school, Miss Sarah Ford, was chosen, at the last moment, to lead the girls, owing to the sudden illness of Miss Dorothy Dale, the most popular girl in school, who took a headache from the sun, but later recovered in time to carry a Betsy Ross flag, along with her dear friend, Miss Octavia Travers, the flags being presented to the girls by Major Dale. There now, how"s that?" and Tavia fairly beamed at the very idea of having her "story" printed.
"I declare, Tavia, you can string words together, as father would say.
But we cannot say anything against any one. That would bring on lawsuits, you know."
"Oh yes, I know. It"s just as pa says: some folks are too mean for anything but a good thrashing--and that"s Sarah. But I"ll do anything I can to help you, and I hope I won"t get the Bugle into any lawsuits."
Dorothy thanked her, and remarked that it was not likely.
By this time they had reached the newspaper office. Up two flights of stairs, over the post-office and drug store, the girls found the much-perplexed Ralph Willoby waiting anxiously for his employer.
Ralph was that kind of a young man whom people trust at once. He was known all over Dalton as a most zealous worker in the "Liquor Crusade,"
that was being very actively carried on in the town. He had a firm face, and deep, clear eyes. The major used to say his eyes could talk faster than his tongue--and he knew how to converse well, too.
He had his sleeves rolled up, and was bending over a pile of "copy"
when the girls entered the office. He brushed his sleeves down and rose to hear their message.
"Father is ill," began Dorothy weakly, for inside the office its difficulties seemed to crush her.
"And we"re going to get the paper out," blurted Tavia, trying to grasp the wonders of a real newspaper office in a single sweeping glance.
"Can"t he come down?" and the young man"s voice betrayed his anxiety.
"I"m afraid not," went on Dorothy. "He said we were to do the best we could. I was to help--"
"And I guess I"m to sell the papers. Hurry up and print some. Is this the printing press?" Tavia rattled on.
"But the parade," demurred Ralph, "it is not even written. I can manage the press well enough, but our reporter Mr. Thomas, has not come in this morning. I suppose yesterday was too much for him."
"I think I could write up the parade," ventured Dorothy. "I have often helped father read proof, you know."
"Perhaps you can," a.s.sented Ralph. "Here is a pencil and some copy paper. You had better try at once, as I will have to go to press earlier than usual to allow for "snags,"" and he smiled to apologize for the newspaper slang.
Dorothy sat down at her father"s desk. Somehow, she felt a confidence in her efforts when seated there, where he had worked so faithfully, and successfully, too, for the Bugle sounded always the note of truth and sincerity. She started at once to write up the parade. She should be careful, of course, not to mention the major"s name, or her own (her father never did) and she hoped she could at least make a good composition or essay on Memorial Day.
Dorothy worked earnestly, for she meant to have that issue of the paper up to the mark, if her labors could bring it there.
Ralph had rolled up his sleeves again, and was busy with the press.
Tavia was "nosing around," as she expressed it. The door opened suddenly and little Johnnie Travers rushed in.
"The major sent me--to tell you--" and he had to get a new breath in somehow--"to tell you that old Mrs. Dougla.s.s is--is dead!" he finally managed to say. "He wants you to be sure to--to--put her in the paper."
"Nothing but live stuff in this paper, Johnnie dear," spoke up Tavia.
"Mrs. Dougla.s.s was bad enough alive--but dead! We really haven"t s.p.a.ce," and, in spite of the real seriousness of the matter, for Mrs.
Dougla.s.s was an important woman in Dalton, or had been up to that morning, Ralph and Dorothy were compelled to laugh at the wit of their friend.
"She was a big woman," said Ralph, adding to the mix-up in language, "and the Bugle is small. But being "big" we cannot afford to slight her memory. There is so little time--"
"I can write that," said Tavia, shaking her head with a meaning. "And I know all about Mrs. Dougla.s.s and her high fence. Also the flowers behind the boxwood. Here, Doro, give me some of that paper--"
"Oh, you would have to see some of the family," interrupted Ralph.
"Find out how she died, when she will be buried; if she said anything interesting--about charities, you know--"
"For mine!" sang out Tavia, adjusting her hat.
"Yes, your first a.s.signment," ventured Ralph. "Dorothy must finish the parade, and I must attend to the typesetting, so if you could, really,--"
"Of course I can. Haven"t I spent more time in the graveyard than at school? And don"t I know what they say about dead persons?
""Here lies Mrs. Doug,-- She had a mug, And none in Dalt could match it, When she took sick, She died that quick, The Bugle couldn"t catch it."
"How"s that?" went on the girl. "Shows it was our busy day and we hadn"t time to catch the dead news, not Mrs. Doug"s face, you know."
"Oh, Tavia, what slang!" cried Dorothy, and added: "you had better not go, you will surely say or do something--"