It was nearly two hours before Jenkins, the long-suffering maid, succeeded in settling her mistress to her satisfaction behind the curtains of her berth. The girls made no attempt to get into the dressing-room until the little comedy was over. They laughed until they were hysterical over each scene as it occurred. A comedy in three acts, Betty called it--the losing of the cold-cream bottle and the finding of same in madam"s overshoe. The unavailing search for a certain black silk handkerchief in which madam was wont to tie her head up in of nights, and the subst.i.tution of a towel instead, which the porter obligingly brought.
Next there was a supposed case of poisoning, Jenkins in her trepidation having administered three pink pellets from a bottle instead of two white ones from a box. Five minutes" reign of terror after that mistake brought the poor maid to a witless state that left her almost helpless.
Various trips were made to the dressing-room, at which times the old lady"s face was ma.s.saged, her grizzly hair rolled on crimping-pins, and her shoulders rubbed with an evil-smelling liniment which permeated the whole car. She seemed as oblivious to the presence of the other pa.s.sengers as if she were on a desert island, and, being somewhat deaf, made Jenkins repeat her timid replies louder and louder until they were almost screaming at each other.
Every one on the car was smiling broadly when at last she subsided behind the curtains. The smiles grew to audible mirth when she confided in a loud voice to Jenkins, stowed away in the berth above her, that she hoped to goodness n.o.body on board would snore and keep her awake.
Jenkins"s answer, floating tremulously down, convulsed the sleepy girls: "Hi "ope not, ma"am. Hit"s a bad "abit, ma"am, halmost, you might say, han haffliction."
"What?" came in a thunderous voice from the lower berth, and Jenkins, craning her head turtle-wise over the edge of her bed, called back in a tremulous squeak: "Hi honly said as "ow hit were a bad "abit, ma"am!"
"Hump!" was the answer. "See that you don"t do it yourself. I"ve got my umbrella here ready to punch you if you do."
A t.i.tter ran from seat to seat. The girls, unable to stifle their amus.e.m.e.nt any longer, seized their bags and hurried down the aisle to the dressing-room, where, under cover of the rattle of the train, they could laugh as freely as they pleased.
When Lloyd and Betty stole back to their berths a few minutes later, they looked at each other with an amused smile. From the opposite section came an unmistakable sound, long-drawn and penetrating as a cross-cut saw. Madam was evidently asleep. Betty giggled, as from Jenkins"s perch came a gentle echo.
""Hi honly said as "ow hit were a bad "abit, ma"am,"" whispered Lloyd.
"Wouldn"t you love to jab the old lady herself with an umbrella?"
Gay, in the dressing-room, was carefully counting over her toilet articles, as she put them back into her bag. "Soap-box, comb, nail-file, tooth-powder--I haven"t lost a thing this trip, Allison. I"m beginning to feel proud of myself. Here"s my watch and here"s my tickets, b.u.t.toned up in this pocket. Mamma had it made on purpose, so in case of a wreck at night I"d have them on me. She patted the pocket sewed securely in the dark blue silk robe she wore, made in loose kimono fashion.
"Now I"m all ready," she added, dropping her shoes into her bag and closing it. In her soft Indian moccasins, beaded like a squaw"s, she executed a little heel and toe dance in the narrow pa.s.sage outside, while she waited for Allison to gather up her clothes and follow. She thought every one else was in bed, and when suddenly the outside door opened and she heard some one coming in from the next car, she flew down the aisle like a frightened rabbit.
It was only a brakeman who stood just inside the door a moment with his lantern, and then went out again. All the lights had been turned down in the car, and Gay stumbled several times over shoes and valises protruding in the aisle. But finally, with a bound, she made her escape, as she supposed, from whoever it was that had caught her dancing in her moccasins in the pa.s.sage.
She gave a headlong dive into her berth. Just then the car lurched forward, sending her bag banging against the window, but she did not loosen her hold of it, and she was still clinging to it five minutes later.
For, with a scream of terror, she rolled out of the berth far faster than she had rolled in. It was madam"s fat body that writhed under her, and her stern voice that yelled "Murder! murder!" in a voice calculated to wake the dead.
""Elp! "elp!" screamed Jenkins from the upper berth, afraid to look out between the curtains, but bravely pushing the b.u.t.ton of the porter"s bell till some one, wakened by the cries and persistent ringing, wildly called "Fire!"
"It"s train robbahs!" gasped Lloyd, sitting up. Little cold shivers ran up and down her back, but she was conscious of a pleasant thrill of excitement. Heads were thrust out all up and down the aisle. The bell and the cries of murder and "elp never stopped until the porter and Pullman conductor came running to the rescue.
But there was nothing for them to see. At the first yell, Gay had tumbled hastily out, still clinging to her bag. Before the old lady had sufficiently recovered from her surprise enough to wonder what sort of a wild beast had pounced in upon her, Gay was safe in her own berth, drawn up in a knot, and trembling behind her closely b.u.t.toned curtains. Her heart beat so loud that she thought it would certainly betray her.
"You must have had the nightmare," said the conductor, politely, trying not to smile as the angry face, under its towel turban, glared out at him.
"Nightmare!" blazed the irate old lady. "I"m no fool. Don"t you suppose that I know when I"m hit? I tell you somebody was trying to sandbag me.
I thought a Saratoga trunk had fallen in on me. It"s your business to take care of pa.s.sengers on this train, and I intend to hold the company responsible. I shall certainly sue the railroad for this shock to my nervous system as soon as I get home. I have a weak heart and I can"t stand such performances as this."
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""I TELL YOU SOMEBODY WAS TRYING TO SANDBAG ME""]
It took a long time to pacify her. Gay lay in her berth, shaking first with fright and then with laughter. She could not go to sleep without sharing her secret with the other girls, but she was afraid to trust herself to speak. She had grown almost hysterical over the affair.
Finally she crept in beside Lloyd to whisper, brokenly: "_I_ am the nightmare that sandbagged the old lady. _I_ am the Saratoga trunk that fell on her. Oh, Lloyd, I"ll never brag again. I had just told Allison I hadn"t lost a single thing this trip, and then I turned around and lost myself. I got into the wrong berth. Oh! oh! It was so funny to see her, all done up in that towel. It"ll kill me if I can"t stop laughing."
She crept back to her own side of the aisle again, and Lloyd got up to repeat it to Betty and Allison, who pa.s.sed it on to Kitty. It was nearly half an hour before they stopped giggling over it, and then Kitty started them all afresh by leaning out to say, in a stage whisper, as a certain duet was renewed by Jenkins and her mistress, ""Hi honly said as "ow hit were a bad "abit.""
It was snowing next morning, just a few flakes against the window-pane, as they sat in the dining-car at breakfast, but the landscape grew whiter as they whirled on toward home.
"Just as it ought to be for Christmas," declared Allison. "Oh, The Beeches will look so lovely in the snow, and the big log fire will seem so good, I can hardly wait to get there!"
"I know just how it"s all going to be," exclaimed Kitty, wriggling impatiently in her seat. "It will be this way, Gay. They"ll all be down at the station to meet us, mother and little Elise and Uncle Harry and his dog. Aunt Allison will probably be there, too, and grandmother, if she feels well enough. And old black fat Butler will be standing by the baggage-room door with his wheelbarrow, waiting to take our trunks. And we"ll all talk at once. Everybody along the road will be calling "Howdy!" to us, and at the post-office Miss Mattie will come out to shake hands with us, and tell us how glad she is to see us back. Then it"ll be just a step, past the church and the manse and the Bakewell cottage, and we"ll turn in at The Beeches, _and the fun will begin_."
Betty turned to Gay. "That doesn"t sound very exciting or especially interesting to a stranger, but, oh, Gay, the Valley is so _dear_ when you once get to know it. And when you go back, you feel almost as if everybody were related to you, they"re all so friendly and cordial and glad to welcome you home."
Even to impatient schoolgirls homeward bound, the journey"s end comes at last, so by nightfall it all happened just as Kitty had predicted. Such a royal welcome awaited Gay that she felt drawn into the midst of things from the moment she stepped from the car.
"You"re right, Betty," she whispered as she left her. "It _is_ a dear Valley, and I feel already as if I belong here."
The two groups separated when the checks had been sorted out and the baggage disposed of. Then, still laughing and talking, Kitty led one on its merry way toward The Beeches, and the other whirled rapidly away in the carriage toward the lights of Locust.
CHAPTER VIII.
A PICNIC IN THE SNOW
"WHAT a good gray day this is!" exclaimed Betty next morning, turning from the window to look around the cheerful breakfast-room, all aglow with an open wood-fire. "It"s so bleak outside that there is no temptation to go gadding, and so cosy indoors that we"ll be glad of the chance to stay at home and finish tying up our Christmas packages."
"Yes," a.s.sented Lloyd, who, having finished her breakfast, was standing on the hearth-rug, her back to the fire and her hands clasped behind her. "And for once I intend to have mine all ready the day befoah, so I need not be rushed up to the last minute. For that reason I am glad that mothah had to take the early train to town this mawning, to finish her shopping. If she"d been at home, I should have talked all the time, without accomplishing a thing."
"I think your tissue-paper and ribbon was put into my trunk," said Betty, drumming idly on the window-pane. "I"ll go and unpack it in a minute, and have it off my mind, as soon as I see who this is coming up the avenue."
A tall young fellow had turned in at the gate, and was striding along toward the house as if in a great hurry.
"It"s Rob Moore!" she exclaimed, in surprise. "I thought he wasn"t coming home until Christmas eve."
"So did I," answered Lloyd, crossing the room to look over Betty"s shoulder. "I"ll beat you to the front doah, Betty."
There was a wild dash through the hall. Both slim figures bounced against the door at the same instant. There was a laughing scuffle over the latch, and then the two girls stood arm in arm between the white pillars of the porch, gaily calling a greeting.
Rob waved a pair of skates in reply, and quickened his stride until he came within speaking distance. One would have thought from his greeting that they had seen each other only the day before. Rob never wasted time on formalities.
"Hurry up, girls! Get your skates. The ice is fine on the creek, and there"s a crowd waiting for us down at the depot."
"Who?" demanded Lloyd.
"Oh, the MacIntyre boys and the Walton girls and that little red-headed thing that they brought home from school with them. Kitty"s going to have a picnic on the creek bank for her."
"A picnic in Decembah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Lloyd.
"That"s what she said," Rob answered, clicking his skates together as he followed the girls into the house. "They telephoned over to me to hustle up here and get you girls. They"re on their way to the station now.
We"re to meet them in the waiting-room."
"They should have let us know soonah," began Lloyd, "so that we could have had a lunch ready. There"ll be nothing cooked to take this time of day."
"They didn"t know it themselves," he interrupted. "Kitty proposed it at the breakfast-table, and they just grabbed up whatever they could get their hands on and started off."