Part 2 (1/2)

”What on earth's Hannah scratching 'round upstairs so long for? That orphant'll be growed up before they get it.”

”She's jist ready,” remarked his mother, hopefully, ”an' there's no use talkin' about it, either. It jist wastes time. Jake!” she called, anxiously. ”Are you sure you're all ready now?”

The man turned a desperate face toward her.

”I think so, Harriet. But if this collar don't bust soon an' give me a breath, I'll choke.”

”Did you find your pipe?”

Mr. Sawyer dived absently into his coat pockets. ”We'll miss that train as sure as---- Where in the nation's that pipe o' mine got to?”

He rummaged despairingly. ”Oh, I forgot! Susan Winters said I wasn't to take it, for fear the smoke might be bad for the orphant's eyes.

D'ye think it would, Harriet?” he inquired, wistfully.

”Tuts!” she cried, disdainfully, ”not a bit. Davy, there, was brought up on smoke. You go and get that pipe and put it in your pocket.”

Mr. Sawyer started hopefully for the kitchen door. Davy Munn might not be exactly a bright and s.h.i.+ning example to set for the bringing up of the orphan, but at least he looked healthy, and Jake was even more than usually helpless when bereft of his pipe. He paused on the way indoors to make one more despairing appeal to the power above. ”Hannah!

Aren't you 'most ready?”

Hannah's face, round and red, like the full moon, appeared for an instant from its cloudy curtain. ”Harriet! Harriet Munn!” she called, ”and you, Arabella, could you run up here a minit an' pin on these blue cuffs o' mine? An' I can't find my Sunday gloves, high nor low, nor my----”

The rest was lost in the curtains, but the two friends had already disappeared inside, and were charging up the stairs. Mrs. Winters, who was emerging from the kitchen door with the bottle of milk, turned and darted after them. ”She ain't goin' to put them blue cuffs on that black dress!” she screamed.

”Ella Anne,” whispered Jake, sidling up to the young lady with the high pompadour, ”could you take a look 'round, and see if you can find my pipe? I can't seem to think where I've laid it.”

Miss Long strolled around the kitchen, casting an absent eye here and there.

”Davy!” called a sharp voice from the upstairs window. ”Davy Munn!

Don't you dast to forget to call when the train hoots for Cameron's Crossing!”

The only calm person on the premises glanced up with half-closed eyes.

”Hoh!” he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, planting his feet upon the dashboard and expectorating disdainfully in the direction of Rebekah's head, ”Gabriel's trump'll hoot 'fore this shootin' match goes off! Gosh blame, if here ain't another one!”

A tall woman was coming up the lane. She was a stately, severe person, with iron-gray hair and a stern gray eye, behind which a kindly twinkle hid itself carefully from view. She had a commanding way, which, combined with the fact that she had taught the Elmbrook school for twenty years, and was the only woman in the village who neither feared Mrs. Winters nor regarded Granny Long's telescope, had earned her the t.i.tle of the Duke of Wellington.

”Are you not away yet, David?” she demanded; and the boy sat up as though he had received an electric shock.

”N-no, but we're jist startin',” he said, apologetically. She pa.s.sed him to where Mr. Sawyer stood in the doorway wrestling with his collar.

”Do you remember this, Jake?” she asked, holding up a baby's rattle.

”I bought it for your little Joey, and put it away in my desk till he would be big enough to use it, and it's been there ever since. Maybe the new baby'll like it.”

The man's eyes grew misty as he took the little toy and gazed at it tenderly. The woman's face had lost all its sternness; her gray eyes were very kind.

”Well, well, well,” he stammered, with masculine dread of giving expression to anything like sentiment. ”It--it looks quite--new.” He hesitated, then his face brightened as he found himself once more on familiar ground. ”Say, d'ye think you could help them weemin folks in there to find my pipe? It seems to have got laid away somewheres, an'

I'm afraid we're goin' to miss that train as sure as--anything.” He ended up lamely, making the polite alteration out of respect for the Duke's dignity.

Miss Weir marched into the kitchen. It was a scene of wild disorder.

”h.e.l.lo!” giggled Miss Long. ”We're having an awful time. Hannah ain't ready, of course.”