Well, I have never seen anything work better. Aggie, who had refused to put a foot out of the car, stood up in it and held the hose. As fast as she wet a bit of lawn, we followed with the pails. I spread my mackintosh out and knelt on it.
[Ill.u.s.tration: As fast as she wet a bit of lawn, we followed with the pails]
The thing took skill. The worms had a way of snapping back into their holes like lightning.
Tish got about three to my one, and talked about packing them in moss and ice, and feeding them every other day. Hutchins, however, stood on the lawn, with her hands in her pockets, and watched the house.
Suddenly, without warning, Aggie turned the hose directly on my left ear and held it there.
"There"s somebody coming!" she cried. "Merciful Heavens, what"ll I do with the hose?"
"You can turn it away from me!" I snapped.
So she did, and at that instant a young man emerged from the shrubbery.
He did not speak at once. Probably he could not. I happened to look at Hutchins, and, for all her usual _savoir-faire_, as Charlie Sands called it, she was clearly uncomfortable.
Tish, engaged in a struggle at that moment and sitting back like a robin, did not see him at once.
"Well!" said the young man; and again: "Well, upon my word!"
He seemed out of breath with surprise; and he took off his hat and mopped his head with a handkerchief. And, of course, as though things were not already bad enough, Aggie sneezed at that instant, as she always does when she is excited; and for just a second the hose was on him.
It was unexpected and he almost staggered. He looked at all of us, including Hutchins, and ran his handkerchief round inside his collar.
Then he found his voice.
"Really," he said, "this is awfully good of you. We do need rain--don"t we?"
Tish was on her feet by that time, but she could not think of anything to say.
"I"m sorry if I startled you," said the young man. "I--I"m a bit startled myself."
"There is nothing to make a fuss about!" said Hutchins crisply. "We are getting worms to go fishing."
"I see," said the young man. "Quite natural, I"m sure. And where are you going fishing?"
Hutchins surprised us all by rudely turning her back on him. Considering we were on his property and had turned his own hose on him, a little tact would have been better.
Tish had found her voice by that time. "We broke a window in the tool-house," she said; "but I put fifty cents on the sill."
"Thank you," said the young man.
Hutchins wheeled at that and stared at him in the most disagreeable fashion; but he ignored her.
"We are trespa.s.sing," said Tish; "but I hope you understand. We thought the family was away."
"I just happened to be pa.s.sing through," he explained. "I"m awfully attached to the place--for various reasons. Whenever I"m in town I spend my evenings wandering through the shrubbery and remembering--er--happier days."
"I think the lamps are going out," said Hutchins sharply. "If we"re to get back to town--"
"Ah!" he broke in. "So you have come out from the city?"
"Surely," said Hutchins to Tish, "it is unnecessary to give this gentleman any information about ourselves! We have done no damage--"
"Except the window," he said.
"We"ve paid for that," she said in a nasty tone; and to Tish: "How do we know this place is his? He"s probably some newspaper man, and if you tell him who you are this whole thing will be in the morning paper, like the eggs."
"I give you my word of honor," he said, "that I am nothing of the sort; in fact, if you will give me a little time I"d--I"d like to tell all about myself. I"ve got a lot to say that"s highly interesting, if you"ll only listen."
Hutchins, however, only gave him a cold glance of suspicion and put the pails in the car. Then she got in and sat down.
"I take it," he said to her, "that you decline either to give or to receive any information."
"Absolutely!"
He sighed then, Aggie declares.
"Of course," he said, "though I haven"t really the slightest curiosity, I could easily find out, you know. Your license plates--"
"Are under the cushion I"m sitting on," said Hutchins, and started the engine.
"Really, Hutchins," said Tish, "I don"t see any reason for being so suspicious. I have always believed in human nature and seldom have I been disappointed. The young man has done nothing to justify rudeness.
And since we are trespa.s.sing on his place--"
"Huh!" was all Hutchins said.
The young man sauntered over to the car, with his hands thrust into this coat pockets. He was nice-looking, especially then, when he was smiling.
"Hutchins!" he said. "Well, that"s a clue anyhow. It--it"s an uncommon name. You didn"t happen to notice a large "No-Trespa.s.sing!" sign by the gate, did you?"
Hutchins only looked ahead and ignored him. As Tish said afterward, we had a good many worms, anyhow; and, as the young man and Hutchins had clearly taken an awful dislike to each other at first sight, the best way to avoid trouble was to go home. So she got into the car. The young man helped her and took off his hat.
"Come out any time you like," he said affably. "I"m not here at all in the daytime, and the grounds are really rather nice. Come out and get some roses. We"ve some pretty good ones--English importations. If you care to bring some children from the tenements out for a picnic, please feel free to do it. We"re not selfish."
Hutchins rudely started the car before he had finished; but he ignored her and waved a cordial farewell to the rest of us.
"Bring as many as you like," he called. "Sunday is a good day. Ask Miss--Miss Hutchins to come out and bring some friends along."
We drove back at the most furious rate. Tish was at last compelled to remonstrate with Hutchins.
"Not only are we going too fast," she said, "but you were really rude to that nice young man."
"I wish I had turned the hose on him and drowned him!" said Hutchins between her teeth.
II