Part 28 (1/2)

Having made a friend of the little witch of a girl, and of Buddy, who had been the baby the year before, but whose place had been usurped because of the advent of another tow-head into the family, the others of ”them Trimminses,” as they were spoken of in Polktown, had become Janice Day's staunch friends. Virginia and two of her sisters came regularly to the meetings of the Girls' Guild which Janice had founded; but it was a long walk to the Union Church and Janice really wondered how they ever got over the road in stormy weather.

It always puzzled Janice where so many children managed to sleep when bedtime came, unless they followed the sea law of ”watch and watch.”

Now all the children who were at home poured out of the cabin to greet the driver of the Kremlin car. The whole family, as now arrayed before her, she had not seen since Christmas.

She had not forgotten to bring a great bag of ”store cakes,” of which these poor little Trimminses were inordinately fond; so most of them soon drifted away, each with a share of the goodies, leaving Janice to talk with Mrs. Trimmins and Jinny and play with Buddy and the baby.

”It's a right pretty evening, Miss Janice,” said Mrs. Trimmins. ”I sh.e.l.l be glad enough when the settled weather comes to stay. I kin git some o' these young'uns out from under foot all day long, then.

”Trimmins has got a gang wo'kin' for him over th' mountain a piece----”

”Here comes dad now,” said the sharp-eyed Virginia. ”And the elder's with him.”

”Why--ya-as,” drawled her mother, ”so 'tis. It's one of Concannon's timber lots Trimmins is a-wo'kin' at.”

The elder, vigorous and bewhiskered, came tramping into the clearing like a much younger man. Trimmins slouched along by his side, chewing a twig of black birch.

”No, Trimmins,” the elder was saying decisively. ”We'll stick to the letter of the contract. I furnish the team and feed them. I went a step further and furnished supplies for three men instead of two. But not one penny do you nor they handle till the job is finished.”

”That's all right, Elder,” drawled the Georgian. ”That's 'cordin' to contrac', I know. I don't keer for myself. But Narnay and that other feller are mighty hongree for a li'le change.”

”Powerful thirsty, ye mean!” snorted the elder.

”Wa-al--mebbe so! mebbe so!” agreed Trimmins, with a weak grin.

”They knew the agreement before they started in with you on the job, didn't they?”

”Oh, ya-as. They knowed about the contrac'.”

”'Nuff said, then,” grunted the elder. ”Oh! is that you, Janice Day?

I'll ride back with you,” added the elder, who had quite overcome his dislike for what he had formerly termed ”devil wagons,” since one very dramatic occasion when he himself had discovered the necessity for traveling much ”faster than the law allowed.”

”You are very welcome, Elder Concannon,” Janice said, smiling at him.

She kissed the two babies and Virginia, shook hands with Mrs. Trimmins, and then waved a gloved hand to the rest of the family as she settled herself behind the steering wheel. The elder got into the seat beside her.

”I declare for't, Janice!” the elder said, as the started, the words being fairly jerked ouf of his mouth, ”I dunno but I'd like to own one of these contraptions myself. You can git around lively in 'em--and that's a fac'.”

”They are a whole lot better than 'shanks' mare,' Elder,” said the young girl, laughing.

”I--should--say! And handy, too, when the teams are all busy. Now I had to walk clean over the mountain to-day to that piece where Trimmins and them men are working. Warn't a hoss fit to use.”

”Has Mr. Trimmins a big gang at work?”

The elder chuckled. ”He calls it a gang--him, and Jim Narnay, and a boy. They've all got a sleight with the axe, I do allow; and the boy handles the team right well.”

”Is he Jack Besmith?” questioned Janice.

”That's his name, I believe,” said the elder. ”Likely boy, I guess.

But if I let 'em have any money before the job is done--as Trimmins wants me to--none of 'em would do much till the money was spent--boy and all.”