When asked why this wuz, She said: "Oh, becuz I never could stand orthodoxy.""
Then Wink, who was very clever at everything but growing moustaches, came back very quickly with:
"The groom then he swore and he cust; "I hate to begin saying "must,"
But I know my dear Jane Will surely be sane And be married in church, or I"ll bust.""
There had been some discussion about where they were to be married, Miss c.o.x rather leaning towards going to some friends in Albemarle, but we had joined Mr. Gordon in talking her out of it.
Zebedee made a wonderful toast master, encouraging the bashful members of the party with so much tact and kindliness that even the timid Annie actually got upon her feet and made a very graceful little speech before she seemed to be aware of the fact that she was really doing it.
Then Sleepy, feeling that if Annie did, he must, too, raised his bulky form, and very much in the tone of a schoolboy saying his piece, almost choking with embarra.s.sment, managed to get out the following:
"May joy and happiness be your lot, As down the path of life you trot."
We expressed ourselves in various ways, but we were all sincere in wishing well for the Gordons. I, for one, regretted exceedingly that the one person who had ever made me comprehend mathematics was no longer to teach me. I dreaded the coming year, certain that I would have a terrible time with that bug-bear of a subject.
Zebedee"s speech was: "There are many kinds of toasts I have always known, dry toast, milk toast, French toast and b.u.t.tered toast, and these may be hot or cold,--but bless me if we haven"t more variety of toasts at this nuptial banquet than were ever dreamed of in my philosophy. One thing I can a.s.sert: No one has offered a dry toast nor proffered a cold one. Each has been b.u.t.tered and piping hot, and the best thing I can wish my two dear friends is that their toast may always be b.u.t.tered and piping hot!" And he added feelingly: "May you always eat it together!"
Then Mr. Gordon made a very graceful little concession: he actually quoted "Alice in the Looking Gla.s.s," subst.i.tuting Jinny for Alice. This was pretty nice of him, considering that their early and lasting disagreement had been all because of Lewis Carroll"s nonsense verses.
""Then fill up the gla.s.ses as quick as you can, And sprinkle the table with b.u.t.tons and bran; Put cats in the coffee, and mice in the tea-- And welcome Queen Jinny with thirty-times-three.
""Then fill up your gla.s.ses with treacle and ink, Or anything else that is pleasant to drink; Mix sand with the cider and wool with the wine-- And welcome Queen Jinny with ninety-times-nine!""
Then Miss c.o.x arose to answer the toast, and one would have supposed it was some great sonnet in her honour that her new husband had composed, so graciously did she accept the tribute paid her.
""O Looking Gla.s.s creatures," quoth Jinny, "draw near!
"Tis an honour to see me, a favour to hear; "Tis a privilege high to have dinner and tea Along with the Red Queen, the White Queen, and me!""
CHAPTER XX.
THE AFTER-MATH.
They took a steamer to New York, that Mecca of the newly-wed, and we all adjourned to the pier to wish them G.o.d-speed. As the vessel pulled out, Rags produced from his pocket the self-same old tennis shoes that we had found the morning we took possession of Mrs. Rand"s cottage, and threw them after the departing couple. They looked very comical as they floated along for a moment like veritable gun-boats and then filled and sank.
"_Requiescat in Pace!_" muttered Wink. "At least you can"t forget them again."
The boys were breaking camp next day, and the day after we were to get ready to turn over the cottage to Mrs. Rand"s next tenants. Zebedee bitterly regretted that he had not taken the place for two months, but it was too late now. Besides, his holiday was over and we all well knew that Willoughby would not be quite the same thing with our kind host not there, the boys no longer in their camp, and good Miss c.o.x married and gone.
Zebedee had to go back to Richmond that night, ready for harness the next morning.
"My, but I dread it!" he exclaimed as he took us over to the trolley to start us back to Willoughby Beach. "I almost wish I had never had a holiday, it is so hard to go back to work. What are stupid old newspapers for, anyhow? Who wants to read them?" This made us smile, as Zebedee is like a raging lion until he gets the morning paper, and then goes through the same rampageous humour later in the day until the afternoon paper appears to a.s.suage his agony. "We journalists get no thanks, anyhow. I agree with the Frenchman who says that a journalist"s efforts are no more appreciated than a cook"s; no one remembers what he had for yesterday"s dinner or what was in yesterday"s newspaper."
Blanche listened to Mr. Tucker"s words with rapt attention. She always stood at a respectful distance but within easy ear-shot of the conversation, which she eagerly drank in and then commented on later to Tweedles and me. But this too nearly touched her heart for her to wait until we were alone to make her original and characteristic comments.
"Oh, Mr. Tucker, it is so considerable of you to find a symbolarity between the chosen professions of master and handymaiden! Sense I have been conductoring of the curlinary apartment of your enstablishment, I have so often felt the infutility of my labours. What I do is enjoyed only for the momentariness of its consumption, and is never more thought of unless it is to say too rich or something; and then, if it disagrees, poor Blanche is remembered again, and then not to say agree"bly.
Sometimes whin I have been placin" clean papers on the kitchen shelves, the same sentimentality has occurred to me that you so apely quotetioned a moment ago, Mr. Tucker; namely, in relation to journalists and cooks.
I see all that pretty printin" going to was"e jes as a restin" place for pots "n pans, and then in the garbage pail I see the cold waffles that was once as fresh and hot as the next, one no more considered than the other, and I could weep for both of us. Our electrocution teacher used to say a piece about "Impervious Caesar, dead and turned to clay doth stop the crack to keep the wind away.""
We stood aghast during this speech. Dum looked as though she would welcome Death, the Deliverer, with joy, anything to relieve the strain she was on to keep from exploding with laughter; but Zebedee did not seem to think it was funny at all. He listened with the greatest courtesy and when she had finished with her quotation (which we afterwards agreed was singularly appropriate, since Caesar had been made "impervious" enough to keep out water as well as wind), he answered her very kindly:
"I thank you, Blanche, for understanding me so well. I can tell you that I, for one, will always remember your waffles; and had I known at the time that there was any more batter, there would not have been any cold ones to find their last ignominious resting place in the garbage pail."
"I also have saved some of your writings, Mr. Tucker,--an editorial that Miss Dum said you had written before you came for your holiday,--and I will put it in my mem"ry book as an epitaph of you."
Then Dum did explode. She made out that she was sneezing and even insisted upon purchasing a menthol inhaler before she went back to Willoughby, declaring she felt a head cold coming on.
The Beach seemed stale, flat and unprofitable somehow when we got back.
We missed Miss c.o.x and above all we missed Zebedee.
"I"m glad we couldn"t get the cottage for another month," yawned Dum.
"Old Zebedeelums couldn"t be here more than once or twice in that time and it would surely be stupid without him;" and all of us agreed with her in our hearts.
The cottage was in a terrible state of disorder. We had been too excited in the morning to do our ch.o.r.es. Beds were unmade, the living-room messy and untidy with sweaters on chairs, crumbs on the table and floor and shades some up, and some down, and some crooked (nothing to my mind gives a room a more forlorn look than window shades at sixes and sevens); the kitchen, usually in the pink of perfection, just as Blanche had left it after cooking what she had termed, a somewhat "forgetable" breakfast.
"Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow," said Dee. "Let"s leave this mess and take a dip before supper. We will have fifteen minutes at least before Blanche can get the funeral baked meats on the table."
We were to have a very simple repast and we told Blanche just to put it on the table and we would wait on ourselves. The girl was as tired as we were and we felt we must spare her. We determined to get the cottage in perfect order the next day and just to "live keerless" for that evening and night, as Blanche expressed it.
Five hats and five pairs of gloves, dropped where the owners happened to fancy, did not help to make the living-room look any more orderly. Dum took off her white kid pumps, that had been pinching a little all day, and left them in the middle of the floor. The morning paper, despised of Zebedee but eagerly devoured nevertheless, was scattered all over the divan and floor, and a bag of bananas Blanche had been intrusted with was in a state of dishabille on the crummy table. It was surely a place to flee from and flee we did.
Such a swim as we had! It seemed the best of the whole month. The water was perfect, just a little cooler than the air, and the setting sun turned it to liquid gold.
"Why, look at Annie! She is swimming, really swimming!" called out Mary Flannagan. And sure enough there was Annie staying on top of the water and calmly paddling around like a beautiful white swan.
"Of course I can swim in golden water! Who couldn"t? I do wish Mr.
Tucker could see me. Isn"t it too bad after all his patience with me that I wait until he is gone to show what I can do? Somehow this seems like a dream, and the water is fairy water."
"Let"s all catch hold of hands and lie on our backs and float," I suggested.
"If you won"t leave me when the tide comes, to turn over and swim in,"
pleaded Annie.
"I will stay with you until your shoulders grate against the sh.o.r.e,"
promised Mary.
And so we lay all in a row on top of the water, faces upturned to the wonderful evening sky, our bodies as light as air and our hearts even lighter.
"Gee, Dee! I am glad you suggested this!" sighed Dum. "I never felt more peaceful in my life than I do this minute, and I know I never felt more forlorn than I did when we first got back to the cottage."
"Me too! Me too!" we chorused.
"Let"s float to Spain and never come back," suggested Annie.
"And this from a little lady who has been afraid to get her toes wet all month! Well, I"m game if the rest of you are," and Mary gave a few vigorous kicks that sent the line some distance from sh.o.r.e; and still Annie with her white-swan expression floated peacefully on. We lay there chatting and dreaming, washing off "the cares that infest the day,"