What Two Children Did.
by Charlotte E. Chittenden.
_CHAPTER I_
_On the Way_
In the train we"re watching Outdoors speeding by: Endless moving pictures, Framed by earth and sky.
"Mistakes are very easy to make, I think," said Ethelwyn, with an uneasy look at her mother who sat opposite, thinking hard about something. The reason Ethelwyn knew her mother was thinking, was because at such times two little lines came and stood between her eyes, like sentinels.
"Do you think G.o.d made a mistake when He sent us here?" asked Beth.
They were in a Pullman car which was moving rapidly along in the darkness. Inside it was very bright and beautiful, and would have been most interesting to the children, had it not been for those two lines in their dear mother"s face.
"She is thinking about the naughty things we have done," said Ethelwyn to Beth in a tragic tone, at the same time taking a mournful bite out of a large, sugary cooky. They had eaten steadily since starting, and any one who did not understand children, would have been alarmed at possible consequences.
On the seat between them there was a hospitable-looking basket with a handle over the middle and two covers that opened on either side of the handle. Underneath the covers and the napkins the children, entirely to their joy, had found sandwiches without limit. Some were cut round, others square, and all were without crust; inside they found minced chicken, creamy and delicious, also ham and a little mustard, and best of all were the small, brown squares with peanut b.u.t.ter between.
"It"s like Christmas or a birthday, having these sandwiches," said Ethelwyn. "They"re all different and all good, and each one seems better than the others."
Then they began on the cookies, and bit scallops out of the edges, while between times they thought about their last mistake and their mother"s forehead lines.
Sitting up straight against the velvet cushioned seat, the two children looked about the same age; the two heads were nearly on a level, as were both pairs of feet stuck out straight in front of them; but Ethelwyn"s came a little farther out than Beth"s, and her golden head came a little farther up on the seat than Beth"s dark one.
Just now there was a small cloud on their horizon. Although they found the interior of their palace car, the porter, and the pa.s.sengers, fascinating, and the luncheon an endless feast, they both felt that before they slept they must straighten things out; hence their first question.
Mrs. Rayburn came back presently to a realizing consciousness of the two anxious faces opposite hers, and with a smile dismissed the sentinel lines.
"G.o.d never makes mistakes," said she, with refreshing faith and emphasis. "It is we who do that."
"I think," said Beth, slowly pondering on this, "that the old surplus in the garden of Eden who bothered Adam and Eve has something to do with it."
"Serpent, child," said Ethelwyn crushingly, beginning on cake.
"Surplus, I mean," said Beth, getting out a piece of cake for herself.
"I"d give a good deal, sister, if you wouldn"t always count your chickens before they"re hatched!" Whereupon she climbed down and went over to sit by her mother, where she glared indignantly at her sister.
Her dear "bawheady" doll was in her arms.
This doll was so called because early in life he had lost his wig, and thereby developed a capability for being a baby, a bishop, or a boy.
There was a fascinating hole on top of his head, thus making it possible to secrete things like medicine or food until they were fished out with a b.u.t.tonhook or darning needle. He was fed on cake now, but was generally given crusts, when there were any, because Beth did not like them.
"Why did you ask that question?" asked their mother.
"We thought you looked as though we"d made you an awful lot of trouble,"
said Ethelwyn, regarding the gorgeous ceiling of the car.
"Yes, you did, although I was not thinking of it just then; you ran away--"
"Walked, mother," corrected Beth, "to the "lectric car, with grandmother"s gold dollar, to go down to buy a trunk specially for our dolls--"
"It was fun, mother," put in Ethelwyn, "only when we stood up and fussed to see who"d push the b.u.t.ton to get off, the man slowed up so fast we both fell through a fat man"s newspaper into his lap and upon his toes.
He was angry too, for he just said "ugh," when we asked him to excuse us, please. The trunk man gave us back four big silver nickels with the trunk; we put them inside, and you can have them, mother, to help heal your feelings."
"Your mistake was in not asking--"
"We thought you"d better not be "sturbed, "cause ever since grandpa and brother died, you"ve thought such a lot, and looked so worried--"
"But I was more worried about you when I found you weren"t in the house or grounds; I thought you might be lost, and I was about telephoning to the police station about it, when you came, and there was just time to catch the train."
Then Ethelwyn got down, and went over to squeeze in on the other side of her mother. She knelt on the cushions and patted the dear face until the little smile they loved, came out again, and drove the care lines away.
"Children are such a worry, mother," she said in a funny, prim fashion, "that I should think you"d be sorry you ever bought us."
"But we are going to be good from now on, so good you"ll nearly die laughing," said Beth, getting up to pat her side of the face.
Their mother laughed now in a bright fashion they loved, and squeezed them up tightly.
"No, no, chickens," she said, "I"m never sorry I bought you; you were bargains, both of you, but I"ve had much to think of, and plan for, in the last few months, and perhaps I"ve neglected you somewhat."
"Can you tell us "bout things, mother?" asked Ethelwyn. "P"raps we could help some."
"Yes, I am going to, but not now, for the porter wishes to make up our beds."
"There are stickers in my eyes," said Beth, yawning. "There"s one more question I"d like to know about though," she said as they moved across the aisle. "If G.o.d can"t make mistakes, why does He let it be so easy for folks to?"
"That I don"t just know," said her mother, "but it"s a good sign when we know they are mistakes."
It was only a short time after this that they were all asleep in their curtained beds, and while it was still dark, and the children were too sleepy to realize much about it, they reached their destination and were driven to the seash.o.r.e, cottage where they were to spend the summer.
_CHAPTER II_ _At the Sh.o.r.e_
Underneath the washing waves The requiem of the sea, For those whose hopes are buried there, Is tolling ceaselessly.
It was interesting to go to sleep in a Pullman car, and to wake up in a dainty room hung with rosebud chintz draperies, and with an altogether delightful air of coziness about it.
But there was something outside their room that, like a magnet, drew them out of bed. They climbed on chairs, and gazed eagerly out of the windows.
The house they were in, was on a hill. Pine trees grew near, and there below them and very near, was the great silvery blue sea, with the sunshine flashing on its tossing waves? The children gasped with delight.
"It"s another door to Paradise," said Ethelwyn.
"The gold place that shows where the sun sets is another one," said Elizabeth. Then they heard their mother, who had come in quietly, and in a moment was cuddling them up in her arms.