Part 6 (1/2)
”I had a loneness too, Auntie Lucy. Seemed as if the time never would go.”
And then the dark head and the fair head met again for more kisses, while both the mammas looked on and said, in low tones and with smiles, as they always did:--
”How sweet! Now we shall hear them singing about the place like two little birds.”
This was Tuesday. The days went on happily until Thursday afternoon, when ”the Dunlee party,” which always included the Hales and Sanfords, set forth up the mountain for a sight of the famous ”air-castle.” Of course Nate was with them, but this time not as a guide; the guide was Uncle James.
The road, though rather steep, was not a hard one. Mr. Dunlee had his alpenstock, and Uncle James walked beside him, holding little Eddo by the hand. Bab and Lucy, or ”the little two,” as Aunt Vi called them, were side by side as usual, and Lucy had asked Bab to repeat the story of ”Little Bo-Peep” in French, for Nate wanted to hear it. Bab could speak French remarkably well.
”Pet.i.t beau bouton A perde ses moutons, Il ne sais pas que les a pris.
O laissez les tranquille!
Ils se retournerons, Chacun sa queue apres lui.”
Mrs. Dunlee and Kyzie were just behind the children, and while Bab was repeating the verse Kyzie said in a low tone:--
”Oh, mamma, let me walk with you all the way, please. There's something I want to talk about.”
She looked so earnest that Mrs. Dunlee wondered not a little what it was her eldest daughter had to say.
V
THE AIR-CASTLE
”A vacation school, Katharine? And pray what may that be?”
Kyzie's cheeks were flushed, her eyes s.h.i.+ning. She held her mother's hand and talked fast, though plainly she did not feel quite at her ease.
”Why, mamma, you've certainly heard of vacation schools--summer schools?
They're very common nowadays. In the summer, you know; so that college people can go to them, and business people.”
”Ah! Like the one at Coronado Beach? Now I understand. But it didn't occur to me that my little daughter would know enough to teach college people!”
”Now, mamma, don't laugh at me! Of course I mean children, the little ignorant children right around here,” making a sweeping gesture toward the cottages and ”bunk houses” that dotted the country lower down the mountain, ”I know enough to teach little children, I should hope, mamma.”
”Possibly!”
Mrs. Dunlee's tone was so doubtful that her daughter felt crushed.
”Possibly you may know enough about books; but book-knowledge is not all that is required in a teacher. Could you keep the children in order?
Would they obey you?”
The little girl's head drooped a little.
”Let me see, you are only fourteen?”
”Fourteen last April, mamma. But everybody says, don't you know, that I'm very large for my age.”
She tried to speak bravely, but the look of quiet amus.e.m.e.nt on her listener's face made it rather hard for her to go on.