Part 9 (1/2)

Then Julie chimed in with: ”Jane, please come and see it.”

The older girl, who was feeling terribly sorry for herself, rose languidly and went with the small sister. The boys followed.

”Why, what a nice room this is!” Dan, truly pleased, remarked. Then anxiously, and in his voice there was a note that was almost imploring, he asked: ”Jane, dear, don't you think you can be comfortable in here?”

The girl's heart was touched by the tone more than the words, and she turned away that she might not show how near, how very near, she had been to crying out her unhappiness. It was hards.h.i.+p to her to be in a log cabin where there were none of the luxuries and conveniences to which she had been used. She smiled at her brother, but he saw her lips tremble. He was tempted to tell her to go back to civilization, since it was all going to be so hard for her, but something prompted him to wait one week.

Inwardly he resolved: ”If Jane is not happy here by one week from today, I am going to insist that she return to Newport and to the friend Merry for whom she cares so much.”

But Jane, too, had been making a resolve, and so when she spoke her voice sounded more cheerful.

”It is a nice room,” she said. ”That wide window has a wonderful view of the mountains and the valley.” It was hard to keep from adding, ”If anyone cares for such a view, which I do not.”

But instead she looked up at the rafters. ”What are those great bundles that are hanging up there?” she inquired.

Dan laughed. ”Why, those bundles, Dad said, contain the mattress and bedding which he and mother stored away. They are wrapped in canvas and so he expected that we would find them in good condition.”

”But how are we to get them?” Julie wanted to know.

Gerald's quick eyes found the answer to that.

”Look-it!” he cried, pointing. ”There's a ladder nailed right against the back wall. I'll skin up that in two jiffs. Give me your knife, Dan. I'll cut the ropes.”

The boy was soon sliding along a rafter. ”Out of the way down below there!” he shouted the warning. ”Here they come!”

There was a soft thud, followed by another as the two great bundles fell to the floor. An excellent mattress was in one of them and clean warm blankets in the other.

”Now, I'll get the sheets from the packing trunk and a pillow case, and in less than no time at all we'll have a fine bed in our lady's chamber.”

Dan led Jane to another large comfortable though rustic chair as he said:

”The rest of us are going to pretend that you are a princess today and we are going to wait upon you. By tomorrow, when you have had a long sleep, perhaps you will want to be a mountain girl.”

Again there was the yearning note in his voice. How he hoped that Jane would want to stay, but a week would tell.

Jane was quite willing to pretend that she was a princess and be waited upon, and so half an hour later, when the bed in her room was made, she consented to lie down and try to make up the many hours of sleep that she had lost on the train. Hardly had her head touched the pillow before she was sound asleep. Two of her windows, that swung inward, were wide open and a soft mountain breeze wafted to her the scent of the pines. Even though she was not conscious of it, the peace of the mountains was quieting her restless soul. She had supposed that, as soon as she were alone, she would sob out her unhappiness, but her weariness had been too great, and not a tear had been shed.

Julie reported that Jane had gone right to sleep and Dan's face brightened. Surely his sister-pal would feel better when she awakened and how could she help loving it all, so high up on their wonderful mountain.

The younger children had gone on another trip of exploration, and soon burst back into the big living-room with the information that on the other side of the cabin there were two smaller bedrooms and a real kitchen.

Dan held up a warning hand and framed the word ”quiet” with his lips, and so the excited children took his hands and dragged him from the deep easy chair where he had sought to rest for a moment and showed him what lay behind the two doors on the other side of the cabin. ”Aren't these little bedrooms the cunningest?” Julie whispered. ”See the front one has a bed in it like Jane's and the other has the cot. But there are three of us, so what shall we do?” Julie's brown eyes were suddenly serious and inquiring.

”That's easy!” Dan told her. ”Dad said there were several cots. See, there they are, hanging up on the rafters. I shall take one of those and put it out on the wide front porch. That's where I want to sleep. I don't want to be shut in by walls. And Julie may have this pretty front room with the bed and Gerald the other. Now, let's get them made up, just as quietly as we can. Then we will unpack the supplies that you got from the store, Julie, and prepare a noon meal.”

The cots were untied from the rafters and one was placed on the porch in the position chosen by Dan, then the bedding was put on all of them and it was 11 o'clock and the sun was riding hot and high above the mountain when Julie, suddenly becoming demure, announced that she wanted Dan to go to sleep also, and that she and Gerald would get the lunch.

The older boy did not require much urging and when he saw the eager light in the eyes of the little girl, who had in the beginning supposed that she alone was to be the one to take care of him, he decided to do as she wished. Julie had had six months' training with her grandmother, who believed that a girl could not begin too young to learn how to cook, and she had often boasted that she had a very apt pupil.

He soon heard the children whispering and laughing happily at the back of the cabin, then a door was closed softly and the lad heard only the soughing in the pine trees close to the porch and the humming of the winged insects far and near. Then he, too, fell into a much needed slumber.

CHAPTER XIII.