Part 23 (1/2)

Joe looked just splendid, the little girl decided. If she could only have seen Dolly!

The Beekman coach was sent up for Margaret, who kissed her little sister and went off like Cinderella!

”Oh, do you suppose she will meet the king's son?” asked Hanny, all excitement.

”Oh, child, what nonsense!” exclaimed her mother.

It wasn't the king's son; but young Doctor Hoffman was there, and Margaret danced several times with him. They talked so much about Joe that Margaret felt very friendly with him.

After that the world ran on in snow, in suns.h.i.+ne, and in rain. The days grew longer. March was rough and blowy. Mother Underhill had to go up in the country for a week, for Grandfather Van Kortlandt died. He had been out of health and paralyzed for a year or two. Aunt Katrina had been staying there, and they would go on in the old house until spring. She was grandmother's sister. Of course no one could feel very sorry about poor old Uncle Nickie, as he was called. He had always been rather queer, and was no comfort to himself, for he had lost his mind, but everybody admitted that grandmother had done her duty, and the Van Kortlandt children, grown men and women, thanked her for all her good care.

Oh, what fun the children had on the first of April! What rags were pinned to people--what shrieks of ”My cat's got a long tail!” And there on the sidewalk would lay a tempting half-dollar with a string out of sight, and when the pedestrian stooped to pick it up--presto! how it would vanish. When one enterprising wight put his foot on it and picked it up triumphantly the boys called out:

”April fool! That's an awful sell, mister! It's a bad half-dollar.”

They watched and saw him bite it and throw it down. Then they went after it and had their fun over and over again. Stephen had given the half-dollar to Jim with strict injunctions not to attempt to pa.s.s it or he'd get a ”hiding,” which no one ever did in the Underhill family. Mrs.

Underhill declared ”'Milyer was as easy as an old shoe, and she didn't see what had kept the children from going to ruin.” Joe always insisted ”it was pure native goodness.”

Then they called out to the carters and other wagoners: ”Oh, mister, say! Your wheel's goin' round!” And sometimes without understanding the driver would look and hear the shout.

They had another trick they played out in the Bowery. Boys had a reprehensible trick of ”cutting behind,” as the stages had two steps at the back, and the boys used to spring on them and steal rides. It was such a sight of fun to dodge the whip and spring off at the right moment. Sometimes a cross-grained pa.s.senger who had been a very good boy in his youth would tell.

On this day they didn't steal the ride. They called out with great apparent honesty: ”Cuttin' behind, driver--two boys!”

Then the driver would slash his whip furiously, and even the pa.s.sers-by would enjoy the joke. Of course you could only play that once on each driver.

Altogether it was a day of days. You were fooled, of course; no one was smart enough to keep quite clear. But almost everybody was good-natured about it. Martha found some eggs that had been ”blown,” and a potato filled with ashes, and there were inventions that would have done credit to the ”pixies.”

The little girl would not go out to play in the afternoon, and she didn't even run when Jim said, ”Nora wanted her for something special.”

But she really had no conscience about fooling her father several times.

He pretended to be so surprised, and said, ”Oh, you little witch!” It was a day on which you had need to keep your wits about you.

Then with the long days and the suns.h.i.+ne came so many things. Little girls skipped rope and rolled hoops, their guiding-sticks tied with a bright ribbon. The boys had iron hoops and an iron guider, and they made a musical jingle as they went along. There were kites too, but you didn't catch Benny Frank flying one. And marbles and ball. In the afternoon the streets seemed alive with children. But what would those people have said to the five-story tenement-houses with their motley crew! Then Ludlow and Allen and many another street wore such a clean and quaint aspect, and the ladies sat at their parlor windows in the afternoon sewing and watching their little ones.

”Ring-a-round-a-rosy” began again. And dear me, there were so many signs! You must not step on a crack in the flagging or something dreadful would happen to you. And you mustn't pick up a pin with the point toward you or you would surely be disappointed. If the head was toward you, you could pick it up and make a wish which would be sure to come to pa.s.s. You must cut your finger-nails Monday morning before breakfast and you would get a present before the week was out. And if you walked straight to school that morning you were likely to have good lessons, but if you loitered or stopped to play or were late, bad luck would follow you all the week. And the little girls used to say:

”Lesson, lesson, come to me, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, three, Thursday, Friday, then you may Have a rest on Sat.u.r.day,”

So you see a little girl's life was quite a weighty matter.

That summer political excitement ran high. Indeed, it had begun in the winter. A new party had nominated Mr. James Harper for mayor, and in the spring he had been elected. Mr. Theodore used to pause and discuss men and measures now that it was getting warm enough to sit out on the stoop and read your paper. Country habits were not altogether tabooed.

But what impressed his honor the mayor most strongly on the little girl's mind was something Aunt Nancy Archer, who was now an earnest Methodist, said when she was up to tea one evening.

”I did look to see Brother Harper set up a little. It's only natural, you know, and I can't quite believe in perfection. But there he was in cla.s.s-meeting, not a mite changed, just as friendly and earnest as ever, not a bit lifted up because he had been called to the highest position in the city.”

”There's no doubt but he will make a good mayor,” rejoined Mr.

Underhill. ”He's a good, honest man. And all the brothers are capable men, men who are able to pull together. I'm not sure but we'll have to go outside of party lines a little. It ought to broaden a man to be in a big city.”

The little girl slipped her hand in Aunt Nancy's.