"At last, Dear Mopsy, you"ve come to me! Behold your birthday gift!
only a--"
As Marjorie read the last words she opened the box, and when she saw the contents she finished the rhyme herself by exclaiming, "key!"
CHAPTER XIV
"BREEZY INN"
Sure enough, the tiny box contained a small key tied with a bit of blue ribbon. Marjorie looked at it in bewilderment.
"It must unlock something!" cried Molly.
"Molly Moss," exclaimed Uncle Steve, "you have a wonderfully clever head for your years! How did you ever guess that a key would unlock something? You must have seen keys before!"
"But she never saw this one," cried Midge. "Oh, Uncle Steve, what is it for?"
"You"ve been in suspense quite long enough, and now we"ll try to find a lock for that key to fit. Grandma and I will go first, and if you three young ladies will follow us, we will go and hunt for a keyhole."
Full of delightful antic.i.p.ation, the three girls followed their older leaders. Marjorie was in the middle, her arms twined about Molly and Stella on either side, and their arms around her. Molly and Midge wanted to skip, but Stella never skipped, so the result was a somewhat joggly gait as they went down the path to the orchard.
The south meadow was a wide expanse of humpy gra.s.s-land, with only a few trees here and there.
Especially fine trees were two that were usually called the twin maples. These two very old trees grew side by side, their great trunks not more than four feet apart and their branches so intermingled that they were practically one tree in two parts. The delightful shade of this double tree afforded a favorite playground for the children, and they had missed it during the past week when they were forbidden to go into the meadow.
As they neared the meadow, Marjorie grew more and more amazed. There was nothing unusual in sight: no swing, no merry-go-round, and certainly nothing that a key could unlock. They reached the twin maples, and then Uncle Steve said: "If you"ll all step around to the other side of this tree I think we may discover that missing keyhole."
The girls scampered around, and, looking up into the tree, they saw such an astonishing sight that the three simply sat down on the ground and stared at it. It was nothing more nor less than a house, a real little house high above the ground and nestled into the branches of the trees, just as a bird"s nest might be.
The house, which was big enough for the girls to have gone into if they could have reached it, had a front door and a window on either side.
There was a veranda on which stood three small rustic benches, quite strong enough to have held the three girls had they had wings to fly up there. The veranda had a railing around it, above which hung two hanging-baskets filled with bright flowers.
The door was shut and a keyhole could be distinctly seen.
"There"s the keyhole, Mopsy, which I have reason to think will fit your key," said Uncle Steve.
"But I can"t reach up to it," said Marjorie, looking very puzzled.
"What"s the house for? Is it for birds?"
"Yes, for three birds that I know of, who wear gingham dresses and hair ribbons."
"But we don"t wear wings," interrupted Marjorie. "Oh, Uncle Steve, do tell me what that house is for!"
"It"s for you, chickabiddy, and if you"d like to go up there I"ll show you a way."
Uncle Steve stepped over to the double trunk, and reaching up pulled down something, which proved to be a weight hung on the end of a long cord. The cord reached up to the veranda of the little house.
"Here," said Uncle Steve, as he put the weight into Marjorie"s hand, "this is perhaps as useful a birthday gift as the key I gave you. Pull hard, and see what happens."
Marjorie pulled hard, and as she pulled, a rope ladder came tumbling down from the edge of the little porch. It was a queer-looking ladder, the sides being of rope and the rounds of wood, while the top seemed to be securely fastened to the veranda floor.
"There you are," said Uncle Steve; "there"s your birthday gift, and all you have to do is to skip up there, unlock the door, and take possession."
But instead of doing this, Marjorie, with a squeal of delight, threw her arms around Uncle Steve"s neck.
"You dear, old, blessed uncle!" she cried. "I understand it all now; but truly I couldn"t think how we were ever going to get up there. It"s a lovely surprise, the best I ever had! You are SO good to me, and Grandma, too!"
Having nearly squeezed the breath out of Uncle Steve, Marjorie left him, and flying over to Grandma, treated her to a similar demonstration. And then, with her precious key tightly clasped in her hand, she started to climb the rather wabbly ladder. Impetuous Molly was crazy to follow, but Uncle Steve declared that it was the law of the house that there must never be more than one on the ladder at a time.
Though Marjorie became accustomed to it afterward, it was not an easy matter to climb the rope ladder for the first time; but under Uncle Steve"s direction she began to learn the trick of it, and safely reached the top. Agile Molly scrambled up as if she had been used to rope ladders all her life; but to timid Stella the climbing seemed an impossible feat. But Uncle Steve held the ladder firmly at the bottom, and Marjorie encouraged her from the top, while Molly threw herself flat on the porch and reached down a helping hand.
At last the three girls were safely on the little veranda, and the sensation was as delightful as it was strange. To sit on the little benches, high above the ground, and look out straight across the meadow; and then, turning to either side, to see the great limbs and branches of the old maple-trees, was indeed a fairy-tale experience.
Over the door swung a quaint little old-fashioned signboard, on which in gilt letters were the words "Breezy Inn."
With bewildering antic.i.p.ations of further delight, Marjorie took her little key and unlocked the door.
Grandma and Uncle Steve, watching from below, heard shouts of joy as the girls disappeared through the doorway.
But in a moment they reappeared at the windows, and their beaming faces told the tale of their happiness.
"Good-by," called Uncle Steve, "the presentation is over and "Breezy Inn" is yours. I"ve fastened the ladder firmly, so you can go up and down as you choose. The furnishings are your birthday present from Grandma, but we"re going back now to a house that we can get into; and you children had better show up there about dinner-time. Meanwhile, have all the fun you can."
Grandma and Uncle Steve went away, leaving the children to explore and make acquaintance of "Breezy Inn."
It was a fairy house, indeed; and yet, though tiny, everything seemed to be just large enough.
The interior of the house was one large room; and a smaller room, like an ell, at the back. The large room contained the front door and two front windows, also a window at each end. The smaller room had no outer exit, but three windows gave ample light and air.
The front room, or living-room, as Marjorie termed it, was pleasantly furnished. On the floor was a rug of gra.s.s-matting and the furniture was of light wicker. The sofa, chairs, and tables were not of a size for grown people, but were just right for twelve-year-old little girls.
At one end were a few built-in bookshelves; at the other a wardrobe or cupboard, most convenient to keep things in.
Grandma"s handiwork was shown in some dear little sofa-pillows and chair-cushions, in dainty, draped curtains and table covers.
The room at the back, Marjorie declared was a workroom. In the middle was a large table, just splendid to work at when making paper-dolls"
houses or anything like that; and round the room were shelves and cupboards to hold materials.
"It just takes my breath away!" said Marjorie, as she sank down on the settee in the living-room; "I never saw anything like it! Can"t we have just the best fun here all summer!"
"I should say we could!" declared Molly. "It seems almost as if it must be our birthdays too. We"ll have just as much fun here as you will, Midge."
"Why, I couldn"t have any fun at all without you two; at least, it would be very lonesome fun."
"I don"t see how they ever built it," said Molly, who, by way of finding out, was hanging out of a window as far as she could and investigating the building.
"I know," said the wise Stella; "I read about one once; they nail the beams and things to the trunks of the trees and then they nail boards across, and then they build the house. But the one I read about wasn"t as nice as this."