"But, f.a.n.n.y, listen!" Kitty was so eager she scarcely knew how to explain. "You know that Aunt Pike and Anna are going out this evening?"
"Yes, miss," with a sigh of relief; "from four to ten."
"Well," springing off the table in her excitement, "let us have a party too; a jolly little one at home here by ourselves. Shall we?"
Betty slipped down from her perch on the clothes-press, Tony got off the fender, and all cl.u.s.tered round Kitty in a state of eager excitement to hear the rest of her plan. They felt certain there was more.
f.a.n.n.y could not conceal her interest either.
"And what will be best of all," went on Kitty, "will be for you to ask us to tea in the kitchen, and we will ask Jabez too, and Grace, of course"
--Grace was Emily"s successor--"and we will have a really lovely time, just as we used to have sometimes. Shall we? O f.a.n.n.y, do say yes!"
"Seems to me," said f.a.n.n.y, "there isn"t no need. "Tis all settled, to my thinking." But there was a twinkle in her eye, and a flush of excitement on her cheek, and any one who knew f.a.n.n.y could see that she was almost as pleased as the children.
"You are a Briton!" cried Dan, clapping her on the back resoundingly.
"I ain"t no such thing," said f.a.n.n.y, who usually thought it safest to contradict everything they said to her. "I"m a Demshur girl, born and bred, and my father and mother was the same before me. I ain"t none of your Britons nor Cornish pasties neither, nor nothing like "em."
"No, you are a thoroughbred Devonshire dumpling, we know," said Dan soothingly, "and not so bad considering, and you can make a pasty like a native, though you aren"t one, and never will be. It is a pity too, for Jabez only likes--"
"I don"t care nothing about Jabez, nor what he likes, nor what he doesn"t," cried f.a.n.n.y, bending down over her oven to hide a conscious blush which would spread over her round cheeks. "There"s good and bad of every sort, and I don"t despise none. I only pities "em if they ain"t Demshur."
"That is awfully good of you," said Dan solemnly. "We can cheer up again after that. f.a.n.n.y," more eagerly, "do tell us what you are going to give us to eat."
But f.a.n.n.y could not be coaxed into that. "I haven"t said yet as I"m going to give "ee anything," she said sharply; but there was a twinkle in her eye, and matters were soon settled satisfactorily. There was to be a substantial "plate tea" in the kitchen at half-past five, which would allow plenty of time for the laying of the cloth and other preparations after Mrs. Pike and Anna had departed. Then they were to have games and forfeits, and tell ghost stories, and anything else that came into their minds to do, and a nice supper was to wind up the evening, and by ten o"clock all signs of their feast were to be tidied away, and the children were to go as quietly to bed as though Aunt Pike stood at their doors.
CHAPTER XIII.
AN EXCITING NIGHT.
Had Aunt Pike had even the faintest suspicion of what was to happen during her absence he would have given up her party then and there and have remained at home, even though Anna was to receive a prize and to recite.
But, fortunately for her peace of mind, she suspected nothing, and they both went off quite cheerful and excited through the cold and mist of the December evening to the scene of the triumph of Anna"s genius-- Anna with her head enveloped in shawls, her feet in goloshes, her muslin skirts covered with a mackintosh and a fur-lined cloak.
When it came to the moment of departure she felt so sorry for those left behind that she could not help expressing it. "I wish you could have come too, and had some of the fun," she said excitedly.
"Do you?" said Betty bluntly. "Well, I don"t. So you needn"t feel unhappy about it. We would rather have "bread and sc.r.a.pe," or nothing at all, at home. We shall enjoy ourselves, you may be quite sure.
Don"t worry about us," which was wickedness on Betty"s part, for she knew that Anna always suspected that they enjoyed themselves more without her, and resented it.
And there was no denying that Anna"s suspicions were correct.
Before she and her proud mamma had reached the gates of Hillside, Kitty and Betty had stripped off the detested stockings, and were arraying themselves in their last summer"s muslin frocks, intending to be quite as partified as Anna; and Kitty tied her hair with a red ribbon, and Betty"s with a blue one to match her turquoise locket, and down they went to the feast.
Jabez had not yet arrived, but he was momentarily expected. Dan was already there in his new "Eton"s," with a sprig of mistletoe in his b.u.t.ton-hole. Tony was in his best white sailor suit, and f.a.n.n.y and Grace had holly in their caps, and wore their Jubilee medals. The table was loaded with cakes and pasties, and "splits" with cream and jam on them; and then, just as they were getting tired of waiting, Jabez arrived. He was in his best suit, and was very shy, very embarra.s.sed, yet very pleased at having been invited.
"Simmeth like old times, don"t it!" he gasped, seating himself on the extreme edge of the hard chair nearest the door, a chair and a position no one ever dreamed of occupying at any ordinary time.
To Kitty, who always felt shy if others were, it was as little like old times as could be, for every one seemed borne down with an unnatural politeness and quiet, and of them all Jabez suffered most. He had never been asked to a party before, not a full-dress party, and he found it embarra.s.sing. But Dan came to the rescue, and with his jokes and his laughs and his funny stories soon made them all feel more at ease, so that by the time the first cups of tea were drunk, and the dish of "splits" emptied, the ice had been melted and all was going well.
"Jabez," said Dan, turning to him with a very solemn face, "it is you we have to thank for this feast."
Jabez stared, bewildered. "I don"t take your meaning, sir," he answered in a puzzled voice. "Tedn"t nothing to do with me. I am the invited guest, I am, and proud so to be. I only wishes I"d a-got a bit of a place fitty for to ask "ee and the young leddies to come to, sir."
"Never mind, Jabez; we can wait. Perhaps you"ll have one soon," said Dan consolingly, and he glanced knowingly round the table, letting his eye rest for a moment longer on f.a.n.n.y than any one else. "By another Christmas we may--dear me, I think this room must be very hot," he remarked, breaking off abruptly to look at f.a.n.n.y"s rosy cheeks. But f.a.n.n.y rather tartly told him to "go on with his tea and never mind nothing "bout hot rooms, nor anything else that didn"t concern him," and quite unabashed he turned to Jabez again.
"You see," he explained, "if you hadn"t gone to father that day I shied the wood at you, we shouldn"t have had Aunt Pike here, and f.a.n.n.y wouldn"t have asked us out here to tea because Aunt Pike was out, because, you see, she wouldn"t be here to go out, and we couldn"t be glad about her going, for we shouldn"t know anything about it to be glad about, and so there wouldn"t be anything special to ask us here for, and so--"
"Master Dan," cried Jabez piteously, "if you don"t stop to once, the little bit of brain I"ve got"ll be addled! Iss, my word, addled beyond recovery, and me a poor man with my living to get."
"It do put me in mind of my old granny," said Grace, laughing, "when poor grandfather died, and she was getting her bit of mourning. "Well,"
she saith, "if my poor dear Samuel had died a week sooner or later, and Miss Peek had put her clearance sale back or fore a week, I should have missed that there remlet of merino and lost a good bargain, whereas now it"ll always be a pleasure to me to look at and feel I saved two shillings on it.""
"Now, f.a.n.n.y," cried Dan, "a story from you, please."
f.a.n.n.y demurred a little, of course. People never like to be told to tell stories. They prefer to drift naturally into them, without a lot of people waiting expectantly for what they are going to say.
But f.a.n.n.y had such stores of tales of ghosts, fairies, witches, and other thrilling subjects, that she never failed to fascinate her listeners. She did so now, when once she had begun, until they were all almost afraid to look round the dim kitchen, and Jabez wished, though he would not have owned it, that he had not got that walk home in the dark.
Then they burnt nuts, and melted lead in an iron spoon and poured it into tumblers of cold water, and f.a.n.n.y"s took the shape of the masts and rigging of a ship, though Jabez declared it wasn"t nothing of the sort, but was more like clothes-postens with the lines stretched to them, yes, and the very clothes themselves hanging to them. All but Jabez, though, preferred to think it a ship; it was more exciting. Grace"s lead formed tents of all sizes, and Grace seemed quite pleased.
Of Kitty"s they could make nothing at all.
"That looks to me like a rolling-pin lying at the bottom," cried Dan excitedly, "and a beautiful palace, almost like a fairy palace, and--but I don"t know what all those little pieces can be meant for. I think it must mean that you are going to be a cook in a large house--a palace, perhaps."
"I fink those are fairies," chimed in Tony thoughtfully, "and that"s a fairy palace, and--and--"
"And the rolling-pin is me in the midst of it all," cried Kitty, throwing her arm round her little brother. "Tony, you are a dear; you always say something nice."
"I shouldn"t think it very nice to be called a rolling-pin," said Betty.
"But do tell me what mine is, Kitty!"
"I really can"t," said Kitty, after they had each gazed at it solemnly.
"I can"t tell whether it is meant for a ship, or an iceberg, or a tent.
Perhaps it is all three, and means that you are going to travel, Bettikins."
"Oh yes," said Betty, "I shouldn"t be surprised. I mean to travel when I am grown up, and I always feel that I shall do something some day."
"I feel I shall do something to-night if I don"t get something to eat soon," interrupted Dan, in a tone intended to touch f.a.n.n.y"s heart.
"It is half-past eight, and tea has been over for more than two hours."
"Well," said Jabez, as the tumblers and the mysterious lead figures were whisked away, ""tis just as well n.o.body couldn"t attempt to tell what mine was, for I wouldn"t "ave "urt anybody"s ingenooity with trying to.
If "twasn"t a blacksmith"s shop, "twas a vegetable stall; and if "twasn"t that, "twasn"t nothing; and things when they"m like that is best left alone, it"s my belief."
"P"r"aps it was the table with supper laid on it," suggested Kitty.
"P"r"aps "twas, Miss Kitty; but I"m sorry for us all if "twas, for the dishes, if dishes they was, was empty, and that wouldn"t suit us at the present minute."