Part 17 (1/2)

”I'm glad, too,” murmured Tessie, quite ready to forget Joe Cary. ”I don't care what Joe Cary said! And I am going to try and be a good queen and do my duty by my people! Be simple and honest, is what Madame Cabot said.”

”Of course you are! But what is there in this Sons of Suns.h.i.+ne business?” curiously. ”Anything?”

”I'm afraid there is!” A little frown broke the pretty curve of Tessie's eyebrows. ”It's true. Joe is right that some of the people want a native ruler. They rebelled against Uncle Pete, but he kept them down. Now that he is gone they don't want a white queen. They aren't the best people, Ka-kee-ta said,” she explained apologetically. ”They're the--the lower cla.s.ses. And they haven't seen me! They don't know how I plan to help them!”

”They'll adore you the minute they do see you!” declared Mr. Bill unsteadily.

”Oh, I hope they will!” faltered blus.h.i.+ng Tessie.

”Of course they will! Didn't I?” Mr. Bill caught her hand and squeezed it hard.

XIV

Joe Cary's rude and reckless words had an effect, although perhaps not the one he had hoped. But they did make Tessie think of something besides Mr. Bill, her new frocks and her new pleasures. The interruption of the Evergreen banquet did not bother her long, for that was a problem for the store detective to solve. But Joe Cary made her realize that the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands were more than a throne and a bank for their queen. It was odd that, when Tessie returned to the Waloo, she should find Granny reading one of the big books in which there was an entire chapter devoted to ”The Pearl of the Pacific--The Suns.h.i.+ne Islands.” Granny looked up from a picture of sea and palms when Tessie came in.

”Tessie,” she began at once, ”are you sure you're going to like being a queen for a lot of naked cannibals?”

”Why, Granny!” Tessie stood still and stared at her. What did Granny mean? Of course Joe Cary had been talking to her, and for a moment Tessie hated him. She didn't care if he had been her only friend when she was a salesgirl at the Evergreen. She quite forgot that he had taken her to a moving-picture show once in two weeks. ”What's the matter now?” she asked impatiently. ”Have people been complaining about Ka-kee-ta again?” For there were people who had complained of Ka-kee-ta, and it must be confessed that it was disconcerting to a timid woman, or even a brave man, to walk down a dimly lighted corridor and find oneself face to face with a bare-footed colored man, in loosely fitting blue clothes; a man with a tattooed nose and frizzled hair stiffened with cocoanut oil, and carrying a s.h.i.+ning ax. Tessie herself would have shrieked if she had come upon such a man in a dimly lighted corridor. As it was, she often felt like screaming when she saw him, and just now, after her talk with Joe, she was impatient. ”What is it now, Granny?”

she wanted to know. A lot of her nervous impatience was in her voice as she stood in front of Granny, and there was more nervous impatience in her frowning little face.

Granny looked up and sighed as she saw the slim little creature in a very modish frock and a very modish hat. Tessie was very, very different from the shabby little girl in the cheap black cotton dress, but that was no reason why Granny should sigh mournfully as she looked at her.

Surely Granny did not want Tessie to be the shabby little girl of those old days!

”I was just wondering,” Granny said meekly, ”as I read this book if you had learned to eat raw fish yet?”

An angry flush stained Tessie's face, and she stamped her high-heeled shoe.

”No, I don't like raw fis.h.!.+” she cried stormily. ”And I don't ever expect to like raw fis.h.!.+ Why should I? Can't I have somebody cook fish for me?” she demanded haughtily.

”In the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands it's the custom to eat it raw,” Granny said very gently, for she could recognize the beginning of a tantrum as well as any one. ”And there isn't anything that's harder to change than a custom. When I read about the food and some other things in this book, and looked at a few of these pictures, I got to wondering how we are going to like those islands and the customs the people have there. You know, Tessie,” she went on, when Tessie said never a word, but just stood sulkily tapping the rug with the pointed toe of her shoe, ”when you came home from the Evergreen that day and told me about your Uncle Pete and how he had died and made you a queen, I couldn't think of anything but how wonderful it was. My boy a king! And my girl a queen!

And I pictured those Suns.h.i.+ne Islands like England and Italy, and perhaps a little like the United States, even if the United States ain't got crowned kings and queens. It was so wonderful that I was all puffed up like bread sponge. But since we came to the Waloo, and I got so much time, no was.h.i.+ng or cooking to do, I've looked into some of these books and talked to Ka-kee-ta as much as a body can talk to a critter that don't know more than the rudiments of real language, and I can't find that these islands are like any place I ever heard of. I don't know as we're going to like them. The folks don't all wear clothes,” she confided to Tessie in a dubious whisper.

”I can teach them to wear clothes,” Tessie said coldly. ”I've talked to Mr. Kingley, and he's going to send me some clothes from the Evergreen.

We're going to begin with bathing suits.”

”Mr. Kingley's a real business man, ain't he? Always thinking of the Evergreen!” Granny had to admire Mr. Kingley's ability to think of his business at all times. She went on a bit sarcastically. ”And is young Mr. Bill going to take charge and open a branch in the islands? It won't pay in your lifetime, Tessie. You mustn't count on it! It'll take more than Mr. Kingley's say-so to put even bathing suits on folks that don't wear anything but a bit of fringe around their waists. And it ain't only clothes,” she added mournfully. ”It's white ants and centipedes and snakes and sharks and----”

”For goodness sakes, Granny!” Tessie jumped when Granny spoke of sharks, and she was almost at the end of her patience when there was a loud thump on the door. ”I do wish,” exclaimed Tessie, glad of a legitimate reason to let Granny see that she had reached the end of her patience, ”that Ka-kee-ta would learn to knock. I hate to hear him hit the door with his old ax!”

”That's just what I've been telling you,” began Granny. ”You ain't going to like the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands' way of doing things.”

But Tessie did not listen to her. She walked to the door and threw it wide open. ”Ka-kee-ta,” she began sternly, but instead of facing Ka-kee-ta she looked at a fat man with a light, oh very light, hair, and a big nose. ”Oh,” Tessie murmured feebly. ”Oh!”

”Queen Teresa?” asked the stranger eagerly, although he knew very well that she was Queen Teresa. ”Of the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands?” He came into the room and shut the door carefully behind him.

A great hope dashed into Tessie's mind. He was the special representative from the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands, the man who was to escort her to her kingdom in obedience to the orders in her Uncle Pete's last will and testament. Of course he was the special representative. In spite of the fact that he made Tessie think that he must be made of tubs, large and small, neatly piled upon one another. He had an air of great a.s.surance and greater authority. He could tell her all about the islands and that it would not be necessary for her to eat native food nor to have Ka-kee-ta bang on the door with his ax. He would tell her everything. He looked as full of information as a complete set of encyclopedia. And when he spoke, she was sure he was the special representative, for he said smilingly, ingratiatingly, ”I have come to talk to you about the Suns.h.i.+ne Islands.”