"We have had the varsovienne," said Nan, "that is like the minuet.
Mother says they are old-time dances, but they are new in our cla.s.s."
"We may have a costume affair next month," went on Dorothy. "Some of the girls want it, but I don"t like wigs and long dresses, especially for dancing. I get all tangled up in a train dress."
"I never wore one," said Nan, "excepting at play, and I can"t see how any girl can dance with a lot of long skirts dangling around."
"Oh, they mostly bow and smile," put in Bert, "and a boy has to be awfully careful at one of those affairs. If he should step on a skirt there surely would be trouble," and he snapped his whip at the donkeys with the air of one who had little regard for the graceful art of dancing.
"We had better go back now," said Dorothy, presently. "You haven"t had a chance to see our own place yet, but I thought you wanted to get acquainted with the ocean first. Everybody does!"
"I have enjoyed it so much!" declared Nan. "It is pleasanter now than when the sun grows hot."
"But we need the sun for bathing," Dorothy told her. "That is why we "go in" at the noon hour."
The drive back to the Cliff seemed very short, and when the children drove up to the side porch they found Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Emily sitting outside with their fancy work.
Freddie could hardly find words to tell his mother how big the ocean was, and Flossie declared the water ran right into the sky it was so high.
"Now, girls," said Aunt Emily, "Mrs. Manily has gone to bring Nellie down, so you must go and arrange her room. I think the front room over Nan"s will be best. Now get out all your pretty things, Dorothy, for little Nellie may be lonely and want some things to look at."
"All right, mother," answered Dorothy, letting Bert put the donkeys away, "we"ll make her room look like--like a valentine," she finished, always getting some fun in even where very serious matters were concerned.
The two girls, with Flossie looking on, were soon very busy with Nellie"s room.
"We must not make it too fussy," said Dorothy, "or Nellie may not feel at home; and we certainly want her to enjoy herself. Will we put a pink or blue set on the dresser?"
"Blue," said Nan, "for I know she loves blue. She said so when we picked violets at Meadow Brook."
"All right," agreed Dorothy. "And say! Let"s fix up something funny!
We"ll get all the alarm clocks in the house and set them so they will go off one after the other, just when Nellie gets to bed, say about nine o"clock. We"ll hide them so she will just about find one when the other starts! She isn"t really sick, is she?" Dorothy asked, suddenly remembering that the visitor might not be in as good spirits as she herself was.
"Oh, no, only run down," answered Nan, "and I"m sure she would enjoy the joke."
So the girls went on fixing up the pretty little room. Nan ran downstairs and brought up Nettie Prentice"s flowers.
"I thought they would do someone good," she said. "They are so fragrant."
"Aren"t they!" Dorothy said, burying her pretty nose in the white lilies. "They smell better than florists" bouquets. I suppose that"s from the country air. Now I"ll go collect clocks," and without asking anyone"s permission Dorothy went from room to room, s.n.a.t.c.hing alarm clocks from every dresser that held one.
"Susan"s is a peach," she told Nan, apologizing with a smile, for the slang. "It goes off for fifteen minutes if you don"t stop it, and it sounds like a church bell."
"Nellie will think she has gotten into college," Nan said, laughing.
"This is like hazing, isn"t it?"
"Only we won"t really annoy her," said Dorothy. "We just want to make her laugh. College boys, they say, do all sorts of mean things. Make a boy swim in an icy river and all that."
"I hope Bert never goes to a school where they do hazing," said Nan, feeling for her brother"s safety. "I think such sport is just wicked!"
"So do I," declared Dorothy, "and if I were a new fellow, and they played such tricks on me, I would just wait for years if I had to, to pay them back."
"I"d put medicine in their coffee, or do something."
"They ought to be arrested," Nan said, "and if the professors can"t stop it they should not be allowed to run such schools."
"There," said Dorothy, "I guess everything is all right for Nellie."
She put a rose jar on a table in the alcove window. "Now I"ll wind the clocks. You mustn"t look where I put them," and she insisted that not even Nan should know the mystery of the clocks. "This will be a real surprise party," finished Dorothy, having put each of five clocks in its hiding place, and leaving the tick-ticks to think it over, all by themselves, before going off.
CHAPTER VII
NELLIE
"Shall I take my cart over to meet Nellie and Mrs. Manily, mother?"
Dorothy asked Mrs. Minturn, that afternoon, when the city train was about due.
"Why, yes, daughter, I think that would be very nice," replied the mother. "I intended to send the depot wagon, but the cart would be very enjoyable."
Bert had the donkeys. .h.i.tched up and at the door for Nan and Dorothy in a very few minutes, and within a half-hour from that time Nan was greeting Nellie at the station, and making her acquainted with Dorothy.
If Dorothy had expected to find in the little cash girl a poor, sickly, ill child, she must have been disappointed, for the girl that came with Mrs. Manily had none of these failings. She was tall and graceful, very pale, but nicely dressed, thanks to Mrs. Manily"s attention after she reached the city on the morning train. With a gift from Mrs. Bobbsey, Nellie was "fitted up from head to foot," and now looked quite as refined a little girl as might be met anywhere.
"You were so kind to invite me!" Nellie said to Dorothy, as she took her seat in the cart. "This is such a lovely place!" and she nodded toward the wonderful ocean, without giving a hint that she had never before seen it.
"Yes, you are sure the air is so strong you must swallow strength all the time," and Nellie knew from the remark that Dorothy was a jolly girl, and would not talk sickness, like the people who visit poor children at hospital tents.
Even Mrs. Manily, who knew Nellie to be a capable girl, was surprised at the way she "fell in" with Nan and Dorothy, and Mrs. Manily was quite charmed with her quiet, reserved manner. The fact was that Nellie had met so many strangers in the big department store, she was entirely at ease and accustomed to the little polite sayings of people in the fashionable world.
When Nellie unpacked her bag she brought out something for Freddie.
It was a little milk wagon, with real cans, which Freddie could fill up with "milk" and deliver to customers.
"That is to make you think of Meadow Brook," said Nellie, when she gave him the little wagon.
"Yes, and when there"s a fire," answered Freddie, "I can fill the cans with water and dump it on the fire like they do in Meadow Brook, too."
Freddie always insisted on being a fireman and had a great idea of putting fires out and climbing ladders.
There was still an hour to spare before dinner, and Nan proposed that they take a walk down to the beach. Nellie went along, of course, but when they got to the great stretch of white sand, near the waves, the girls noticed Nellie was about to cry.
"Maybe she is too tired," Nan whispered to Dorothy, as they made some excuse to go back home again. All along the way Nellie was very quiet, almost in tears, and the other girls were disappointed, for they had expected her to enjoy the ocean so much. As soon as they reached home Nellie went to her room, and Nan and Dorothy told Mrs. Minturn about their friend"s sudden sadness. Mrs. Minturn of course, went up to see if she could do anything for Nellie.
There she found the little stranger crying as if her heart would break.
"Oh, I can"t help it, Mrs. Minturn!" she sobbed. "It was the ocean.
Father must be somewhere in that big, wild sea!" and again she cried almost hysterically.
"Tell me about it, dear," said Mrs. Minturn, with her arm around the child. "Was your father drowned at sea?"