Part 25 (1/2)

”It can't be they air agoin' to keep a hoss!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Wint.

”You never kin tell nuthin' about them Jenkinses. They're so sort of secretin' like,” lamented Mrs. Hudgers.

The Jenkins family were fully as ignorant as were their neighbors of the nature of the contemplated occupant of the new edifice commonly referred to as the ”cow-house,” The Boarder put up a very substantial shed with a four-paned window and a door that locked though not very securely. The grocer had on hand a small quant.i.ty of green paint which he donated to the cause of the coming cow.

”Thar ain't enough to more'n paint two sides of it,” criticized Gus, ”so I'll paint the front and west sides.”

”Thar's a can of yaller paint out in the woodshed,” informed Mrs.

Jenkins. ”You can paint the other two sides with that.”

Then the Boarder made a suggestion:

”If I was you, I'd paint a strip of yaller and then one of green.

That'll even it up and make it fancy-like.”

Amarilly protested against this combination of colors so repellent to artistic eyes, but the family all agreed that it ”would be perfickly swell,” so she withdrew her opposition and confided her grievance to Derry's sympathizing, shuddering ears.

Gus proceeded to bicolor the shed in stripes which gave the new building a bedizened and bilious effect that delighted Colette, who revelled in the annals of her proteges.

Each member of the Jenkins family had a plan for utilising this fine domicile, as there seemed to be a general feeling of skepticism regarding the ability of Gus to produce a cow in the flesh. This sentiment, however, was not openly expressed, as the lad was found to be decidedly sensitive and touchy on the subject.

”Mebby a cow'll jest walk right into the back yard and make herself to hum in the new shed,” prognosticated Mrs. Jenkins optimistically. ”It's such a beautiful place. I'll bet there is cows as would ef they knowed about it.”

”I perpose,” suggested Flamingus patronizingly, ”that we start a cow fund and all chip in and help Gus out.”

”Sure thing!” declared the generous Amarilly. ”He can have all my savings. We ought to all help Gus get a start.”

”I'm in,” cried Bobby.

”You kin hev all you want from me, Gus,” offered Bud.

Firmly and disdainfully Gus rejected all these offers and suggestions.

”Thar ain't agoin' to be no pardner business about this,” he announced.

”The cow won't come till she's mine--all mine--and when she does, I'm agoin' to pay the Boarder for his work.”

”If he wants to be so all-fired smart, we won't help him git no cow,”

declared Flamingus, ”and the shed kin be used for a summer kitchen arter all.”

This use of the new building had been the fondest dream of Mrs. Jenkins, who deemed it an ideal place in which to keep her tubs, mops, boiler, and wringer. Milt had designs upon it for a boy's reading-room and club; Flamingus coveted a gymnasium. Bobby, Bud, Cory, and Iry had already appropriated it as a playhouse.

Amarilly openly and ably defended Gus and his cherished, illusory plan.

Of all her brothers, he was the one to whom her heart most inclined. For Bud she possibly had a more tender, maternal feeling on account of his being so delicate. She paid homage to the good points of Flamingus, but he was too cut and dried, ”bromidic,” she cla.s.sified him, for Derry had carefully explained the etymology of the word. Milt was honest, but selfish and ”near.” Bobby was disposed to be fresh, but Gus was just such a boy as Amarilly herself would have been, reincarnated. He was practical, industrious, thrifty, and shrewd, and yet possessed of the imagination and optimism of his sister. She called him aside one day for a private consultation.

”Say, Gus, your scheme's all right. Go ahead and get your cow. I'll let you have my savings, and the other boys needn't know. You can pay me when you get ready to.”

”That's bully in you, Amarilly, but I'm agoin' to see this thing through alone and start in without no help front no one,” firmly refused Gus, and his st.u.r.dy little sister could but admire him for his independence.

He locked up his new possession very carefully, putting the key in his pocket every morning before going to the business precincts to pick up a job. The children, however, were not dispossessed by this precaution, finding ingress and egress through the window. Gus most opportunely secured a week's job driving a delivery-wagon, and he instantly invested his wages in the provisioning of the cow quarters.