On the platform at the depot, aunt Madge, Prudy, and Dotty Dimple, were waiting for them. A hearty laugh went the rounds, which Fly thought was decidedly silly. Aunt Madge took the young travellers right into her arms, and hugged them in her own cordial style, as if her heart had been hungry for them for many a day.
"We"re so glad!--for it did seem as if you"d never come," exclaimed Dotty Dimple.
"And I"d like to know," said Horace, "how you happened to get here first."
"O, we came by express--came yesterday."
"By "spress?" cried Flyaway, pulling away from aunt Madge, who was trying to pin her frock together; "_we_ came by a "ductor.--Why, where"s Flipperty"s ticket?"
Horace seized Prudy with one hand, and Dotty Dimple with the other, turning them round and round.
"I don"t see anything of the express mark, "Handle with care." What has become of it?"
"O, we were done up in brown paper," said Prudy, laughing, "and the express mark was on that; but aunt Madge took it off as soon as she got the packages home."
"Why, what a story, Prudy Parlin! We didn"t have a speck of brown paper round us. Just cloaks and hats with feathers in!"
Dotty spoke with some irritation. She had all along been rather sensitive about being sent by express, and could not bear any allusion to the subject.
"There, that"s Miss Dimple herself. Let me shake hands with your Dimpleship! Didn"t come to New York to take a joke,--did you?"
"No, her Dimpleship came to New York to get warm," said Peacemaker Prudy; "and so did I, too. You don"t know how cold it is in Maine."
By this time they were rattling over the stones in their aunt"s elegant carriage. It was dusk; the lamps were lighted, the streets crowded with people, the shops blazing with gay colors.
"I didn"t come here to get warm, either," said Dotty, determined to have the last word: "I was warm enough in Portland. I s"pose we"ve got a furnace,--haven"t we?--and a coal grate, too."
"I do hope Horace hasnt"t got her started in a contrary fit," thought Prudy; "I brought her all the way from home without her saying a cross word."
But aunt Madge had a witch"s broom, to sweep cobwebs out of the sky.
Putting her arm around Dotty, she said,--
"You all came to bring sunshine into my house; bless your happy hearts."
That cleared Dotty"s sky, and she put up her lips for a kiss; while Flyaway, with her "hangerfiss" on, danced about the carriage like a fly in a bottle, kissing everybody, and Horace twice over.
""Cause I spect we"ve got there. But, Hollis," said she, with the comical shade of care which so often flitted across her little face, "you never put the trunk in here. Now that "ductor has gone and carried off my nightie."
CHAPTER III.
THE FROLIC.
If Aunt Madge had dressed in linsey woolsey, with a checked ap.r.o.n on, she would still have been lovely. A white rose is lovely even in a cracked tea-cup. But Colonel Augustus Allen was a rich man, and his wife could afford to dress elegantly. Horace followed her to-night with admiring eyes.
"They say she isn"t as handsome as Aunt Louise, but I know better; you needn"t tell me! Her eyes have got the real good twinkle, and that"s enough said."
Horace was like most boys; he mistook loveliness for beauty. Mrs.
Allen"s small figure, gentle gray eyes, and fair curls made her seem almost insignificant beside the splendid Louise; but Horace knew better; you needn"t tell _him_!
"Horace," said Aunt Madge, "your Uncle Augustus is gone, and that is one reason, you know, why I begged for company during the holidays. You will be the only gentleman in the house, and we ladies herewith put ourselves under your protection. Will you accept the charge?"
"He needn"t _pertect_ ME," spoke up Miss Dimple, from the depths of an easy-chair; "I can pertect myself."
"Don"t mind going to the Museum alone, I suppose, and crossing ferries, and riding in the Park, and being out after dark?"
"No; I"m not afraid of things," replied the strong-minded young lady; "ask Prudy if I am. And my father lets me go in the horse-cars all over Portland. That"s since I travelled out west."
Here the bell sounded, and the only gentleman of the house gave his arm to Mrs. Allen, to lead her out to what he supposed was supper, though he soon found it went by the name of dinner. Neither he nor his young cousins were accustomed to seeing so much silver and so many servants; but they tried to appear as unconcerned as if it were an every-day affair. Dotty afterwards said to Prudy and Horace, "I was "stonished when that man came to the back of my chair with the b.u.t.ter; but I said, "_If_ you please, sir," just as if I "spected it. _He_ don"t know but my father"s rich."
After dinner Fly"s eyes drew together, and Prudy said,--
"O, darling, you don"t know what"s going to happen. Auntie said you might sleep with Dotty and me to-night, right in the middle."
"O, dear!" drawled Flyaway; "when there"s two abed, I sleep; but when there"s three abed, I open out my eyes, and can"t."
"So you don"t like to sleep with your cousins," said Dotty, "your dear cousins, that came all the way from Portland to see you."
"Yes, I do," said Fly, quickly; "my eyes"ll open out; but that"s no matter, "cause I don"t want to go to sleep; I"d ravver not."
They went up stairs, into a beautiful room, which aunt Madge had arranged for them with two beds, to suit a whim of Dotty"s.
"Now isn"t this just splendid?" said Miss Dimple; "the carpet so soft your boots go in like feathers; and then such pictures! Look, Fly! here are two little girls out in a snow-storm, with an umbrella over "em.
Aren"t you glad it isn"t you? And here are some squirrels, just as natural as if they were eating grandpa"s oilnuts. And see that pretty lady with the kid, or the dog. Any way she is kissing him; and it was all she had left out of the whole family, and she wanted to kiss somebody."
"Yes," said aunt Madge.
""Her sole companion in a dearth Of love upon a hopeless earth."
"If that makes you look so sober, children, I"m going to take it down.
Here, on this bracket, is the head of our blessed Saviour."
"O, I"m glad," said Fly. "He"ll be right there, a-looking on, when we say our prayers."
"Hear that creature talk!" whispered Dotty.
"And these things a-shinin" down over the bed: who"s these?" said Flyaway, dancing about the room, with "opened-out" eyes.
"Don"t you know? That"s Christ blessing little children," said Dotty, gently. "I always know Him by the rainbow round His head."
"Aureole," corrected Aunt Madge.
"But wasn"t it just _like_ a rainbow--red, blue and green?"
"O, no; our Saviour did not really have any such crown of light, Dotty.