"Where does he live?"
"Paradise, I think. Mebbe not, though."
"I"m sorry for his folks."
"This is Handel."
"What of?" and Nan got up to look.
"Not a dipper-handle, but a man of that name. He could play too."
"He looks kind of like a woman--look at his hair."
"That is his wig."
"Was he a bawheady?" and Beth got up to look more closely at the man who was afflicted like her beloved doll.
"I s"pose he must have been. But it doesn"t show like your doll"s," said Nan.
"This is a bust of Diana."
"Where is she busted?"
"All but her head and shoulders."
"Who did it?"
"A man I guess. This is the "Kiss of Judas.""
"Oh, isn"t Judas mean-looking?"
"Looks like a bug thief." This from Beth.
"Burglar, child," said Nan.
"Bug thief is what I meant," said Beth with dignity, for she didn"t propose to be corrected by Nan or sister. Then she walked over to her mother. "Are you very old, mother?" she asked. "I"ve been meaning to ask. Are you a hundred, or eleven, or is that your size shoe?"
"Elizabeth Rayburn!" said Ethelwyn, dropping the photographs and coming over to her mother, followed by Nan. "Our mother isn"t old at all!"
"No I know she isn"t, only she must be toler"bly old, to know so much goodness."
"I"m just old enough to love you," said their mother, laughing and hugging them all three at once in a way she had.
"I"ve some money in the bank," said Nan presently. "I"ve been thinking what I"d buy for the Rest, and I"ve "bout decided on a feeble chair."
"Goodness me! I shall never sit in it, if it"s feeble, Nan," said Aunty Stevens, laughing.
"No, _for_ the feeble," corrected Nan. "I want my mother to give something too; she has some money, and I believe if she would give it for my brother"s sake, she would feel better and wouldn"t cry so much.
Perhaps she will."
"We are all going to church to-morrow, "cause your father is going to preach about the Rest,--pray over it too, and mother"s going to sing the offertory, two verses, if the sermon"s too long, and three if it isn"t.
You tell your father that, for singing is much more interesting than preaching any day."
"Ethelwyn!"
"Why it is, mother."
"I"ll tell father, but he is likely to go on a long time when he is once started," said Nan.
"If I don"t go to sleep, I"ll be sure to wiggle," said Beth.
But they all went to sleep.
Ethelwyn sat in the choir seats close to her mother; while Elizabeth sat below with Aunty Stevens. Nan sat quite near them and sweetly smiled at Elizabeth.
"How do you feel?" she asked in a shrill whisper. "Wiggly? I told father not to preach very long, but there is no telling. Mother has some gum drops for me if I wiggle."
"Don"t you think you will then?" asked Beth.
But Nan"s mother stopped further disclosures by turning her daughter around, and setting her down with emphasis on the other side of her.
Fortunately they all three fell asleep in the early part of the sermon and did not wake up until Mrs. Rayburn began to sing. At the first note Ethelwyn slipped down, and stood with her hand in her mother"s. Then Elizabeth eluded Aunty Stevens"s vigilant eye, slipped out of the seat and walked up and stood on the other side, her head raised looking into her mother"s face, and to their great delight the three verses were sung.
_CHAPTER IX_ _Once a Year_
Birth days, Earth days, Seem very few; Year days, Dear days, When life is new.
By constant and hard work, the house was ready for occupancy on Ethelwyn"s birthday.
Two or three days before it was finished, Nan"s mother came over, the melancholy look on her face somewhat lifted. She brought with her the deed of the land adjoining the cottage and sloping down to the sea. This land she at once undertook to have equipped for a playground with swings, tennis courts, a ball ground and all the things that delight young hearts.
"It is for Philip," she said simply. "I have put his money into it, and perhaps, by looking a little after homeless, suffering children, I can forget my own heartache."
"You have chosen the very best way to do so," said Mrs. Rayburn.
Nan"s "feeble" chair came the night before the opening, and all three of the children christened it, by getting in, and wheeling it over the shining floors at a high rate of speed, thereby proving it to be anything but feeble.
The morning train brought a bevy of pale-faced, joyless-looking waifs.
At first they were stiff and shy, but under the vigorous leadership of Nan, Ethelwyn, and Beth, they were soon organized into a Rough Riders Company, and slid down the banisters, and shot out into the playground with shrill yells of delight.
d.i.c.k was general, for he was not yet strong enough to run, so he sat in his wheel-chair, and directed the others.
"We made him general, for generals never have anything to do but boss others; they are never killed or anything," explained Nan.