"And with your yellow head you will look like an angel."
"Now, see here, Miss Sunset and Sunrise, I don"t mind being cloudy or even starry, nor yet heavenly, but don"t you dare go one lat.i.tude or longitude further. I am mortally afraid Aunt Winnie has elected to wear amethyst this very evening, and when the combination gets together I expect something will happen--something like Mt. Pelee, you know."
"We might call it our elementary evening," went on Tavia, "and then look out for storms. You said the boys were coming?"
"Coming!" and Dorothy sprang to the door. "They are here now. Listen to that shout? That"s Ned. Oh, I must run down. Come along," and before Tavia had a chance to "collect her manners" she was bowing after Dorothy"s profuse introduction.
"I"ve heard of Miss Travers," said Edward pleasantly, while Nat was "weighing" Dorothy with one hand, and attempting to shake the other in Tavia"s direction.
"You must call her Tavia," insisted Dorothy, getting away from Ned, "or if you prefer you may call her Octavia--she has a birthday within the octave of Christmas."
"Should have been called Yule, for yule-tide," said Nat. "Not too late yet, is it Tavia?"
Mrs. White was smiling at the good times "her children" had already made for themselves. She now insisted upon calling Dorothy daughter and she was so kind to Tavia that she made no distinction but said "daughters" in addressing both.
"Just see, boys," said their mother, unpinning Tavia"s now famous half head of hair, "that is all there is left."
"Never!" exclaimed Nat, handling the braid gingerly. "How much did you settle for?"
"That would be telling," said Mrs. White, "but what I want you boys to do is to drive the girls down to your barber"s. You said it was a very nice place."
"Tip-top," interrupted Ned. "Bay rum or old rum or anything else from oyster c.o.c.ktail to Castile soap."
"But have you seen ladies go there?" asked the mother.
"Took "em there myself," insisted the younger boy. "Don"t you remember the day Daisy Bliss got burrs in her hair? Of course I did not put them there--"
"Oh, no!" drawled Ned.
"Well, she always was a dub at ducking," went on the other, "but I put up for the hair cut all the same."
"Now do listen, boys," and the mother spoke firmly. "Tavia must have her hair trimmed. I tried to get a hair-dresser to come out here, but we could not have it done until after the railroad man appraised it. So now the hair-dresser could not get here until after Sunday. That is why I am having recourse to a barber."
"Couldn"t do better, mother," spoke up Ned, who had been trying to get a word in with Dorothy "on the other side."
"Then run along, girls, get your things. Don"t dress up; it is country all the way, and the dinner folks are not out yet. It will be pleasanter to fix up after the operation," said Mrs. White.
"But I say, momsey," called Nat after her as she went upstairs, "you wouldn"t suggest a "Riley," would you?"
"Nathaniel White, if you dare get that girl"s hair cut in any but the most lady-like fashion I"ll--disinherit you!"
"Shadows of the poorhouse! Don"t! I"ll make the fellow trim it with a b.u.t.ter knife. Come along, children. I"ll show you the newest in chaperonage at Mike"s!"
Both girls appeared on the veranda to which the depot cart had been drawn up. Dorothy looked like a pond lily, Tavia had told her, in her light green dress with her yellow hair falling over it. Tavia too was attractive, she had on a brown dress with gold in it that reflected the glint of her hair, and, as Ned handed Nat the reins he whispered: "A stunner and a hummer."
"It"s real jolly to have a girl around," Nat remarked to Tavia, who had the front seat beside him, "and mother is so fond of girls--I have always worn my hair long to please her."
"Quite a protection in summer, isn"t it?" asked Tavia, noticing how the sunburn stopped where the hair began, and that otherwise the young man was much tanned.
"Yes, some. But a fellow can"t expect to be a peachblow at Camp Hard Tack."
"It must be a great sport to camp," ventured Tavia.
"The greatest ever! I would like to go out on a ranch but mother says "no, little boy, you must stay home," so home I stay."
Dorothy and Ned were evidently enjoying themselves as well as those at front, for, it seemed to Tavia that Dorothy"s laugh had not rung out so jolly in many weeks--so much had happened lately to dampen mirthful spirits.
"Just fancy," said Tavia turning back to Ned, "I was sent along to keep Dorothy lively, she was actually threatened with nervous prostration, and think, how lively I did keep her? Came nearing firing a train."
"Oh, anything for a change," politely answered Ned. "One cannot tell just what sort of tonic is best, I am sure she looks first rate."
"Bully," added Nat, "but don"t worry that you"ve laid aside nursing, Yule, I have not been well myself. Ahem! Just finish off on me!"
"There comes our barber shop," called Ned, as a striped pole appeared in view. "Now for the artistic clip-the-clip. Mike is a genius, blushing unseen here. But I mean to set him up some day. Tried to get him out to camp but he shied when we told him there were no "cops."
Mike loves "cops," when the fellows get busy with his tonsorial apparatus."
"Don"t faint this time," Dorothy cautioned Tavia with a merry smile, thinking that those two boys would likely dip her in the brook at the side of the shop should she attempt anything like that.
"Indeed I know where and when to faint," responded Tavia. "Mr. French has a way about him--"
"But you never tried me," said Nat, making a funny move as if to catch an armful of thin air. "I am an authority on faints. Every girl at school says I"m a perfect dear, for catching falls at commencement time. They all keel over then."
They were in front of the barber shop now. Mike opened the door with such a bow Tavia could scarcely repress a smile.
Ned made the arrangements, and Tavia mounted the high chair, allowed Mike, the Italian, to tuck the ap.r.o.n around her neck, then all she could see was a very queer looking girl in the gla.s.s in front of her.
"Just trim it evenly," said Dorothy, walking up to the chair, and feeling it was hardly safe to trust the boys with the order.
Carefully the barber let down the heavy coil.
"What!" he exclaimed, seeing it was only "half a head." "Fire, you been in explosion?"
"Sure!" answered Ned, mechanically.
Then Mike went through a series of groans, grunts and jabs at the air.
"So shame," he wailed. "The hair is so fine--like gold, brown gold."
With many a sigh and groan the barber plied his shears, stopping constantly to give vent to his feelings with a shrug of his broad shoulders and deep gutteral mutterings.
"Oh, quit gargling your throat, Mike, and get through with the job. The young lady is alive, you see, and expects to get back to the Cedars in time for breakfast," said Ned.
"I am sure that will do," said Dorothy at last, whereat Tavia gladly got out of the stuffy chair.
"Great!" both boys exclaimed in admiration as they saw how "smart"
Tavia looked.
"It is becoming," said Dorothy.