He sat round sideways, one leg on the seat, and the reins now hanging loosely in his hands, as Shadrack jogged lazily on, while he was evidently highly pleased and flattered by Marion"s attention.
"Well, Jabe," continued Marion, "perhaps, if you don"t like to work, you like to study. Do you ever go to school?"
"I went last winter by spells, an" I s"pose I shall go this winter too."
"Do you like it?" asked Marion; "what do you like best,--spelling?"
"Spelling," repeated Jabe, in a ruminating tone,--"spelling, no, I don"t like it much, that is, I don"t like it the way they larn you down there.
I think p"r"aps if they"d let a feller follow his own fashion I might like it; but they put in so many letters that there aint no kind o"
sense in havin", that it jest confuses me, an" so I ginerally spells accordin" to fancy."
"O Jabe!" replied Marion, "that will never do in the world; but perhaps you like arithmetic better."
""Rithmetic!" and Jabe fairly dropped the reins and struck an emphatic blow on his knee, as he exclaimed again: ""rithmetic! I tell you _there_ you got me. If there is anything I do hate on the face o" this airth, it"s "rithmetic! Spellin"s bad enough, but "rithmetic"s wus. When you set me to doin" a sum it"s jest like the feller that had to go through the drill for the whole regiment; he got on fust-rate till they told him to go form a holler-square; but he said _that_ "wrenched him awfully.""
"O Jabe! Jabe!" cried Marion, now fairly convulsed with laughter, "I am afraid you will never make much of a scholar anyway. But, indeed, you ought to try and do better; just think what a comfort you might be to your mother, if you would only----But stop the horse, stop the horse a minute; I"ve got an idea!"
Jabe drew up the reins with a sudden jerk, and looked at Marion as if she had scattered every idea he ever possessed.
"You jump out!" she exclaimed; "no, you needn"t do that; just help me over on to the front seat, and then you climb on to the back. I"m going to drive up to school in style."
Jabe dropped the reins, and did as he was told, with a very bewildered expression on his great, round face, as he looked at Marion very much as if he doubted her sanity; but she went on talking very fast as she tucked in the almost worn-out robe, and took the reins in her hands.
"Don"t you see, we"re almost to the school, and everybody will be on the lookout for me; so I want to dash up to the door in very stunning fashion. Now sit up straight; fold your arms; hold your head up;--so,--that"s it; you"re my tiger; that means the groom, boy, you know, who sits behind when the gentleman drives. Now, when I stop the horse, you jump out just as quick as ever you can and rush to his head, as if you thought he wouldn"t stand still long enough for me to get out. Do you understand?"
"Yes," replied Jabe, who sat as straight as a ramrod, his eyes twinkling under his bushy, fur cap, and his mouth stretched from ear to ear. If he didn"t love work, he certainly did a good joke, and he entered fully into the spirit of the thing.
"Well, now, keep sober, and don"t forget what I told you."
Marion braced her feet against the dasher; threw back her shoulders; extended her arms at full length, and gave poor old Shadrack such a tremendous "cut" with the whip that he sprang forward as if forty fiends were after him; but Marion was used to driving, and only flourished the old wooden-handled ox-whip, and urged him on the faster.
Everything happened precisely as Marion wished. Of course Miss Stiefbach had become considerably alarmed at her long absence, and every one had come into the front of the house, and all were looking out for her, their faces pressed up against the window-panes as they crowded together.
Just as Marion came in sight some one opened the front door; this was what she wanted. Giving the whip an extra flourish, and saying in an undertone to Jabe, "Be ready," she dashed up to the gate, and suddenly drew the reins up short. Poor Shadrack, being thus brought to a very unexpected stand-still, threw his head up in the air, and planted his fore feet straight out in front of him, in a most warlike att.i.tude.
Almost before they stopped Jabe sprang out and grasped the poor panting beast by the head, as Marion threw the reins down, and stepping to the ground exclaimed in a pompous tone, loud enough to be heard by those standing in the door-way, "Rub him down well, Thomas, and give him an extra measure of oats;" then, as she turned into the gate, "and Thomas, have the tandem at the door in the cutter, to-morrow-morning at ten."
Jabe, not to be outdone, touched his hat, sprang on to the seat, and whisked Shadrack round and up the road, at a pace that would have made his mother hold up her hands in holy horror.
"Why, Marion Berkley, where _have_ you been?" exclaimed a chorus of voices, Miss Stiefbach"s actually among the number.
"I"ve been taking an airing on the Western Avenue. How do you like my turn-out? Neat but not gaudy, isn"t it?"
"Well, Marion, I don"t know what you will do next," said Miss Christine; "but where have you really been?"
"Marion, I must ask you to give a strict account of yourself," said Miss Stiefbach, who, now that she had recovered from her unusual surprise and alarm, was her own stately self again. Whereupon Marion gave a brief and satisfactory history of her afternoon"s expedition, embellishing it with sundry remarks and expressions of her own, which rendered it highly entertaining to her younger hearers; and I might say to all but Miss Stiefbach, for Miss Christine joined heartily in the general laugh at Marion"s first sleigh-ride of the season.
CHAPTER XI.
LA SOIReE MUSICALE.
"Girls! what do you think"s up?" exclaimed Sarah Brown, as she bounced into the library one afternoon. "Miss Stiefbach and Mr. Stein have just been having a long confab in the "secret-chamber," and they came out just as I pa.s.sed the door, and I heard Miss "Stiffy" say, "Yes, I knew you would prefer Friday, so I ventured to invite them without seeing you again; as yet the young ladies know nothing about it!" Now _I_ should like to knew what in the world _it_ is."
"Well, so should I!" exclaimed Julia Thayer. "What can she mean; "invited them," and "the young ladies know nothing about it." She must be going to give a party."
"Yes, that"s it, you may be sure," said Marion; "she"s going to give a party, and she and Mr. Stein are going to lead the German. Won"t they look well dancing the "deux-temps" together?"
"O Marion, how perfectly ridiculous!" laughed Florence. "You know she can"t be going to have a party; but what can it mean?"
"Are you sure you heard right, Sallie?" asked Grace Minton. "Why didn"t you break your shoe-string and stop to tie it up; or do something or other to keep you there long enough to get something a little more satisfactory?"
"Why, I couldn"t hang round the hall listening to what they said, could I? But I know there is to be something going on here Friday; see if there isn"t."
"Yes, and Miss Stiefbach isn"t going to say anything about it to us until the last moment, because she thinks our heads will be full of it,"
e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Marion. "I"ve a great mind to ask her myself."
"If I was in the habit of betting, I would bet you anything that I know all about it," remarked Georgie Graham, who had kept silent while the other girls were making their comments.
"Oh, what is it?" asked Marion; "my principles and my purse too will stand a pound of candy."
"And I another," cried Sarah.
"Not so fast," replied Georgie. "I said _if_ I was in the habit of betting, but I never bet; it is very unladylike."
"Granted!" cried Marion; "but please reserve your lecture for another time, and out with your secret."
"I really don"t know as I _ought_ to tell," said Georgie, as she counted the st.i.tches on her canvas in a provokingly cool way. "I knew it by accident, and that is the reason I haven"t spoken of it before."
"Oh, if you got possession of it in the same way you have of several other secrets here, I don"t blame you for not wanting to tell of it,"
retorted Sarah.
"I don"t know what you mean to insinuate, Sarah; but I heard of this entirely by accident two weeks ago to-morrow," replied Georgie in the same unmoved tone. "I was in the anteroom looking over an exercise which monsieur wanted me to correct, when I heard Mr. Stein and Miss Stiefbach talking together in very low tones in the school-room. Of course it did not occur to me that there could be anything private in what they were saying, or I should have let them know I was there"--("Of course,"
laconically remarked Marion)--"but when they had got through their conversation Miss Stiefbach said, "We will say nothing about it to any one, as I wish it should remain a secret for the present;"--so I said nothing."
"Well, don"t you _intend_ to say anything?" cried Sarah Brown; "now that we know there is something going on, don"t you intend to tell us what it is?"
"I really don"t think it would be very honorable in me," rejoined Georgie, thoroughly enjoying her important position.
"Don"t trouble her, Sarah; we all know what her conscientious scruples are. It would be a pity to have them disturbed," remarked Marion in a cutting, sarcastic tone. "I can tell you what it all means in five seconds."
"What is it?--tell us, do!" cried all, with the exception of Georgie.
"Miss Stiefbach intends to have some sort of a musical spread next Friday, and we girls have got to play."
"How did you know it?" exclaimed Georgie, thoroughly off her guard.