If Nelly, the quiet Nelly, were as glad and excited as this, how do you suppose the adventurous Rob felt, when he heard the news? The house wouldn"t hold him. He had to run out and turn summersaults on the gra.s.s. Then he raced off down to the tents, and told Flora and Ralph and Thomas. It was early in the morning, and Arthur was not up. All the servants were glad. They all liked Rob and Nelly, and they all saw how much better Arthur had grown since he had had children to play with.
"Ah, Master Rob," said Thomas, "just wait till I drive ye out in the Park; that"s a place worth looking at,--all beautiful green gra.s.s, and lakes, and roads as smooth and hard as a beach, and groves of trees,--not like this bare wilderness, I can tell ye."
"Are there mountains there, Thomas?" asked Rob.
"Mountains! no! The Lord be praised: never a mountain!" exclaimed Ralph; "and if ever I"m thankful for anything, it is to get out of sight of the ugly sides of "em!"
"Oh, Ralph!" was all Rob could say at hearing such an opinion of mountains.
When Flora and Thomas brought Arthur out of the tent, Rob ran towards them.
"Oh, Arthur--" he began.
"I know all about it," said Arthur: "Nelly and you are going home with us. I"d rather stay here, but they won"t let me; and having you go home with us is next best."
Rob thought this was rather an ungracious way for Arthur to speak, and so it was.
"You wouldn"t like it here in the winter half so well as you do now, Arthur," he said. "It"s awfully cold sometimes; and real deep snow. You"d be shut up in the house lots."
"So I am at home," said Arthur: "weeks and weeks."
"But your house is nicer to be shut up in than ours," continued Rob.
"I don"t care," said Arthur: "I wanted to stay. But I"m real glad you and Nelly are going. Can Nelly skate? We"ll go and see her skate in the Park."
"No, she can"t! but I can," said Rob. "Is there good skating there?"
"Oh, goodness, Rob!" exclaimed Arthur, "didn"t you know about the skating in Central Park? Well, you"ll see! We drive up there every pleasant day. I"m sick of it. But the skating"s some fun: I wish I could skate."
"Perhaps you"ll get strong enough to, pretty soon," said Rob, sympathizingly.
"If they"d let me stay here I might," said Arthur, fretfully; "but they won"t."
The nights grew cool so fast that Mr. and Mrs. Cook began to be impatient to set out for home. At first, Mr. and Mrs. March pleaded with them to stay longer; but one morning Mrs. March said suddenly to her husband:--
"Robert, I"ve changed my mind about the children"s going: I think the sooner they go the better. It is just like having a day set for having a tooth pulled: you suffer all the pain ten times over in antic.i.p.ating it. I can"t think about anything else from morning till night. Oh, I do hope we haven"t done wrong!"
"It isn"t too late yet to keep them at home," said Mr. March. "Don"t let us do it if your mind is not clear. I don"t think Nelly more than half wants to go now."
"Oh, yes, she does!" replied Mrs. March. "She is so excited in the prospect that she talks in her sleep about it. I heard her, last night."
"The dear child!" said Mr. March. "It was Nelly that they really wanted most."
"Not at all," said Mrs. March, quickly: "Mr. Cook told me that he would have only asked for Rob, but he knew the children could not be separated."
"Well, that"s odd," said Mr. March. "Mrs. Cook told me that she had been long thinking that she wished she could have Nelly, but she knew it would be out of the question to separate the children."
Mrs. March laughed.
"I see," she said: "they disagree about the children, just as you and I do. Mrs. Cook likes Nelly best, and Mr. Cook likes Rob."
"Why, Sarah!" exclaimed Mr. March, "what do you mean? We love the children just alike."
"Yes, perhaps we love them equally," replied Mrs. March; "but we don"t like them equally. I like Rob"s ways best, and you like Nelly"s. It"s always been so, ever since they were born. You"ll see Nelly will make a good, loving, lovable woman; but Rob will make a splendid man. Rob will do something in the world: you see if he does not!"
Mr. March smiled.
"I hope he will," he said. "But as for my little Nelly, I wouldn"t ask any thing more for her than to be, as you say, "a good, loving, lovable woman.""
CHAPTER XVI
"GOOT-BY AND GOOT LUCK"
When Nelly heard that they were to set out in three days, she exclaimed:--
"Why, I didn"t bid Ulrica good-by, or Mr. Kleesman, or Billy and Lucinda. I thought we weren"t going for two weeks. Mayn"t I go up to-morrow, mamma? I can sell some eggs, too, even if it isn"t the regular day. Ever so many people ask me for them always. Hardly anybody keeps hens in Rosita."
Mrs. March said she might go. So, very early the next morning, Nelly set off on her last trip to Rosita. Billy was standing in his doorway as she pa.s.sed.
"Hullo, Nelly! Where"s Rob?" he said.
"Rob"s at home with Arthur," she replied. "He didn"t want to come. I only came to bid everybody good-by. We"re going day after to-morrow."
"Be yer?" said Billy, slowly. "Be yer glad, Nelly?"
"Why, yes, Billy, I can"t help being glad; and for all that, it makes me cry when I think about going away from mamma and papa.
Isn"t that queer?" said Nelly: "I"m glad, and yet it makes me cry."
"No, "tain"t queer," said Billy: ""twould be queerer if ye didn"t.
Ain"t Rob goin" to bid anybody good-by?"
"Oh, he"ll have time when we go by, the day we go," said Nelly.
"We"re all coming up to Rosita to sleep to-morrow night at the hotel; and then papa and mamma and Rob and I are going in the stage to Canyon City. There isn"t room for any more in Mr. Cook"s carriage. Perhaps Rob"ll go in the wagon with Ralph and Thomas. He wants to; but mamma wants to see all of him she can.
"That"s just the difference between them two children, Luce," said Billy, after Nelly had walked on: "Rob he"s all for himself, without meanin" to be, either; he jest don"t think: but Nelly she"s "s thoughtful "s a woman about everybody."
"I donno why you say "s thoughtful "s a woman, Billy," said Lucinda.
"I"ve seen plenty of women that was as selfish as any men ever I see."
"Well, I expect that"s so, Luce," said Billy. "You ought to know, bein" a woman."
Nelly went first to Ulrica"s. Ulrica listened with wide open mouth and eyes to the news that she would see Nelly no more all winter. At first, her face was very sad; but in a few moments she said:--
"Bah! shame me to be sorry. It are goot! goot! Ulrica vill be glad.