Then Mrs. Evringham ran her finger along the edges of the volume and let the type-written pages flutter before its owner"s delighted eyes.
"You"ve made me some stories, mother!" cried Jewel. One of the great pleasures and treats of her life had been those rare half hours when her busy mother had time to tell her a story.
Her eyes danced with delight. "Oh, you"re the _kindest_ mother!" she went on, "and you"ll have time to read them to me now! Anna Belle, won"t it be the most _fun_? Oh, mother, we"ll go to the ravine to read, won"t we?"
Mrs. Evringham"s cheeks flushed and she laughed at the child"s joy. "I hope they won"t disappoint you," she said.
"But you wrote them out of love. How can they?" returned the little girl quickly.
"That"s so, Jewel; that"s so, dear."
CHAPTER VIII
THE QUEST FLOWER
The garden in the ravine had been put into fine order to exhibit to Jewel"s father and mother. Fresh ferns had been planted around the still pond where Anna Belle"s china dolls went swimming, and fresh moss banks had been constructed for their repose. The brook was beginning to lose the impetuosity of spring and now gurgled more quietly between its verdant banks. It delighted Jewel that the place held as much charm for her mother as for herself, and that she listened with as hushed pleasure to the songs of birds in the treetops too high to be disturbed by the presence of dwellers on the ground. It was an ideal spot wherein to read aloud, and the early hours of that sunshiny afternoon found the three seated there by the brookside ready to begin the Story Book.
"Now I"ll read the t.i.tles and you shall choose what one we will take first," said Mrs. Evringham.
Jewel"s attention was as unwinking as Anna Belle"s, as she listened to the names.
"Anna Belle ought to have first choice because she"s the youngest. Then I"ll have next, and you next. Anna Belle chooses The Quest Flower; because she loves flowers so and she can"t imagine what that means."
"Very well," returned Mrs. Evringham, smiling and settling herself more comfortably against a tree trunk. "The little girl in this story loved them too;" and so saying, Jewel"s mother began to read aloud:--
THE QUEST FLOWER
Hazel Wright learned to love her uncle d.i.c.k Badger very much during a visit he made at her mother"s home in Boston. She became well acquainted with him. He was always kind to her in his quiet way, and always had time to take her on his knee and listen to whatever she had to tell about her school or her plays, and even took an interest in her doll, Ella. Mrs.
Wright used to laugh and tell her brother that he was a wonderful old bachelor, and could give lessons to many a husband and father; upon which uncle d.i.c.k responded that he had always been fond of a.s.suming a virtue if he had it not; and Hazel wondered if "a.s.suming-a-virtue" were a little girl. At any rate, she loved uncle d.i.c.k and wished he would live with them always; so it will be seen that when it was suddenly decided that Hazel was to go home with him to the town where he lived, she was delighted.
"Father and I are called away on business, Hazel," her mother said to her one day, "and we have been wondering what to do with you. Uncle d.i.c.k says he"ll take you home with him if you would like to go."
"Oh, yes, I would," replied the little girl; for it was vacation and she wanted an outing. "Uncle d.i.c.k has a big yard, and Ella and I can have fun there."
"I"m sure you can. Uncle d.i.c.k"s housekeeper, Hannah, is a kind soul, and she knew me when I was as little as you are, and will take good care of you."
The evening before Hazel and her uncle were to leave, Mrs. Wright spoke to her brother in private.
"It seems too bad not to be able to write aunt Hazel that her namesake is coming," she said. "Is she as bitter as ever?"
"Oh, yes. No change."
"Just think of it!" exclaimed Mrs. Wright. "She lives within a stone"s throw of you, and yet can remain unforgiving so many years. Let me see--it is eight; for Hazel is ten years old, and I know she was two when the trouble about the property camp up; but you did right, d.i.c.k, and some time aunt Hazel must know it."
"Oh, I think she has lucid intervals when she knows it now," returned Mr.
Badger; "but her pride won"t let her admit it. If it amuses her, it doesn"t hurt me for her to pa.s.s me on the street without a word or a look. When a thing like that has run along for years, it isn"t easy to make any change."
"Oh, but it is so unchristian, so wrong," returned his sister. "If you only had a loving enough feeling, d.i.c.k, it seems as if you might take her by storm."
Mr. Badger smiled at some memory. "I tried once. She did the storming." He shrugged his shoulders. "I"m a man of peace. I decided to let her alone."
Mrs. Wright shook her head. "Well, I haven"t told Hazel anything about it.
She knows she is named for my aunt; but she doesn"t know where aunt Hazel lives, and I wish you would warn Hannah not to tell the child anything about her or the affair. You know we lay a great deal of stress on not voicing discord of my kind."
"Yes, I know," Mr. Badger smiled and nodded. "Your methods seem to have turned out a mighty nice little girl, and it"s been a wonder to me ever since I came, to see you going about, such a different creature from what you used to be."
"Yes, I"m well and happy," returned Mrs. Wright, "and I long to have this trouble between you and aunt Hazel at an end. I suppose Hazel isn"t likely to come in contact with her at all."
"No, indeed; no more than if aunt Hazel lived in Kamschatka. She does, if it"s cold enough there."
"Dear woman. She ignored the last two letters I wrote her, I suppose because I sided with you."
"Oh, certainly, that would be an unpardonable offense. Hannah tells me she has a crippled child visiting her now, the daughter of some friends. Hannah persists in keeping an eye on aunt Hazel"s affairs, and telling me about them. Hannah will be pleased to have little Hazel to make a pet of for a few weeks."
He was right. The housekeeper was charmed. She did everything to make Hazel feel at home in her uncle"s house, and discovering that the little girl had a pa.s.sion for flowers, let her make a garden bed of her own. Hazel went with her uncle to buy plants for this, and she had great fun taking geraniums and pansies out of their pots and planting them in the soft brown earth of the round garden plot; and every day blue-eyed Ella, her doll, sat by and watched Hazel pick out every little green weed that had put its head up in the night.
"You"re only gra.s.s, dearie," she would say to one as she uprooted it, "and gra.s.s is all right most everywhere; but this is a garden, so run away."
Not very far down the street was a real garden, though, that gave Hazel such joy to look at that she carried Ella there every day when it didn"t rain, and would have gone every day when it did, only Hannah wouldn"t let her.
The owner of the garden, Miss Fletcher, at the window where she sat sewing, began to notice the little stranger at last; for the child stood outside the fence with her doll, and gazed and gazed so long each time, that the lady began to regard her with suspicion.
"That young one is after my flowers, I"m afraid, Flossie," she said one day to the pale little girl in the wheeled chair that stood near another window looking on the street.
"I"ve noticed her ever so many times," returned Flossie listlessly. "I never saw her until this week, and she"s always alone."
"Well, I won"t have her climbing on my fence!" exclaimed Miss Fletcher, half laying down her work and watching Hazel"s movements sharply through her spectacles. "There, she"s grabbing hold of a picket now!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I"ll see to her in quick order."
She jumped up and hurried out of the room, and Flossie"s tired eyes watched her spare figure as she marched down the garden path. She didn"t care if Miss Fletcher did send the strange child away. What difference could it make to a girl who had the whole world to walk around in, and who could take her doll and go and play in some other pleasant place?
As Hazel saw Miss Fletcher coming, she gazed at the unsmiling face looking out from hair drawn back in a tight knot; and Miss Fletcher, on her part, saw such winning eagerness in the smile that met her, that she modified the sharp reproof ready to spring forth.
"Get down off the fence, little girl," she said. "You oughtn"t ever to hang by the pickets; you"ll break one if you do."
"Oh, yes," returned Hazel, getting down quickly. "I didn"t think of that. I wanted so much to see if that lily-bud had opened, that looked as if it was going to, yesterday; and it has."
"Which one?" asked Miss Fletcher, looking around.
"Right there behind that second rosebush," replied Hazel, holding Ella tight with one arm while she pointed eagerly.
"Oh, yes." Miss Fletcher went over to the plant.
"I think it is the loveliest of all," went on the little girl. "It makes me think of the quest flower."