Part 9 (1/2)

Meanwhile Miss Pike and her rescued mirror had reached the hedge, the girls breathing a sigh of relief when they saw her bearing triumphantly down upon them.

”There! There! If I never do another deed as long as I live I shall feel that I have _not_ lived in vain! What _would_ your poor mother have said had she returned to find this priceless heirloom destroyed,”

she cried, as she rested the mirror against a tree trunk and clasped her hands in rapture at sight of it.

”Perhaps mother _might_ ask first whether _we_ had been rescued,”

whispered Constance, but added quickly, ”_there_ is mother now. O I wonder who told her,” for just then a carriage was driven rapidly to the front gate and as the girls ran toward it Mrs. Carruth stepped quickly from it. She was very white and asked almost breathlessly, ”Girls, girls, is anyone hurt? Are you _all_ safe? Where's Mammy?”

”We are all safe mother, Mammy is here. Don't be frightened. We have done everything possible and the fire is practically out now,” said Constance, pa.s.sing her arm about her mother who was trembling violently.

”Don't be alarmed, mother. It isn't really so dreadful as it might have been; it truly isn't,” said Eleanor soothingly. ”Loads of things have been saved.”

”Yes, Mammy has outgeneraled us all, Mrs. Carruth,” cried Hadyn Stuyvesant, who now came hurrying upon the scene. ”I guess she has shown more sense than all the rest of us put together, for she's kept her head.”

”And oh, my dear! My dear, if all else were lost there is one invaluable treasure spared to you! Come with me. I saved it for you with my own hands. Come!” cried Miss Pike, as she slipped her arm through Mrs. Carruth's and hurried her w.i.l.l.y-nilly across the lawn.

There was the little round mirror in its quaint old-fas.h.i.+oned frame leaning against the tree and reflecting all the weird scene in its s.h.i.+ning surface, and there, too, directly in front of it, strutted a lordly game c.o.c.k which belonged to the Carruths' next door neighbor.

How he happened to be there, in the midst of so much excitement and confusion no one paused to consider, but as Miss Pike hurried poor Mrs. Carruth toward the spot, Sir Chanticleer's burnished ruff began to rise and the next instant there was a defiant squawk, a frantic dash of brilliantly iridescent feathers, and the cherished heirloom lay shattered beneath the triumphant game-c.o.c.k's feet as he voiced a long and very jubilant crow.

It was the stroke needed, for in spite of the calamity which had overtaken her this was too much for Mrs. Carruth's sense of humor and she collapsed upon the piano stool which stood conveniently at hand, while Miss Pike bewailed Chanticleer's deed until one might have believed it had been her own revered ancestor's mirror which had been shattered by him.

Just then Mammy came hurrying upon the scene and was quick enough to grasp the situation at a glance.

”Bress de Lawd, Honey, ain' I allers tol' ye' chickens got secon'

sight? Dat roos'er see double suah. He see himself in dat lookin'

gla.s.s an' bus' it wide open, an' he see we-all need ter laf stidder cry, an' so he set out ter mek us.”

At sight of her Mrs. Carruth stretched forth both hands like an unhappy child and was gathered into her faithful old arms as she cried:

”But oh, Mammy; Mammy, the insurance; the insurance. If I had _only_ been able to pay it yesterday.”

”Huh! Don't you fret ober de 'surance. Jis clap yo' eyes on _dat_,”

and Mammy thrust into her Miss Jinny's hands a paper which she hastily drew from the bosom of her frock.

CHAPTER X

Readjustment

It was all over. The excitement had subsided and all that remained to tell the story of the previous afternoon's commotion was a fire-scorched, water-soaked dwelling with a miscellaneous collection of articles decorating its lawn. When the early morning suns.h.i.+ne looked down upon the home which for eight years had sheltered the Carruths, it beheld desolation complete. Alas for Eleanor's chemicals!

Her experiments had cost the family dear.

The only living being in sight was a policeman mounting guard over the ruins. A staid and stolid son of the Vatterland who had spent the wee sma' hours upon the premises and now stood upon the piazza upright and rigid as the inanimate objects all about him. Beside him was a small, toy horse ”saddled and bridled and ready to ride,” and anything more absurd than the picture cut by this guardian of the law and his miniature charger it would be hard to imagine.

Meanwhile the family was housed among friends who had been quick to offer them shelter, Mr. Stuyvesant insisting that Mrs. Carruth and Constance accept his aunt's hospitality through him, while the next door neighbor, Mr. Henry, harbored Eleanor, Jean and Mammy, who refused point blank to go beyond sight of the premises and her charge--Baltie.

Mammy was the heroine of the hour; for what the old woman had not thought of when everyone else's wits were scattered was hardly worth thinking of. In the blanket which she had charged the girls to guard were all of Mrs. Carruth's greatest treasures, among them a beautiful miniature of Mr. Carruth of which no one but Mammy had thought.

Jewelry which had belonged to her mother was there, valuable papers hastily s.n.a.t.c.hed from her desk, and many of the girl's belongings which would never have been saved but for Mammy's forethought. At seven o'clock, when all was over, the crowd dispersed and the family gathered together in Mr. Henry's living-room to collect their wits and draw a long breath, Mrs. Carruth drew Mammy to one side to ask: