Part 19 (1/2)
Peter, crestfallen at her sudden flight, found it, however. He smiled, whimsically, as he held it in the palm of his hand.
”Nice little kid,” he said, as he had said once before, then he put the rose carefully into his pocket.
CHAPTER XVII
NANCY PLANS A PARTY
”What are you doing, Nonie?”
Pencil poised in mid-air; Nancy leaned down from her Nest where she had been working. Aunt Milly was nodding in her chair, her finger and thumb between the pages of ”Sarah Crewe,” from which she had been reading until she had succ.u.mbed to the drowsy sounds of the summer air.
Nonie had been tiptoeing back and forth across the gra.s.s making funny, little, inarticulate sounds in her throat.
”I'm playing party,” Nonie stopped under the apple tree and lifted a thoughtful face to Nancy. ”When I grow up I shall have ten children and have parties all the time. There'll be harps and violins and drums and lots and lots to eat. And I shall wear velvet, with a long train, and carry a big fan.” She sighed. ”Do you always have to be beautiful to do beautiful things?”
”Just doing beautiful things makes you seem beautiful,” explained Nancy.
Nonie was not satisfied. ”B'lindy makes beautiful cakes and pies but _she_ isn't beautiful. And Jonathan puts seeds in the ground that grow into pretty flowers but--he's ugly! Could I do beautiful things and--look like this?” She spread out her shabby skirts.
Behind the troubled gaze Nancy caught the gleam of a vision.
”You can--you can! Nonie, no one can ever take your dreams away from you!”
”Not even Liz,” echoed Nonie, bitterly.
A few days before a tragedy had touched Nonie's life. From out of nowhere there had wandered into her affections a hungry-eyed, maltese cat with two small babies. Nonie had mothered them pa.s.sionately, tenderly. She had hidden sc.r.a.ps of food from her own meagre portions to feed them; she had fitted a box with old rags and had concealed it beneath the loose plankings of the shed. Then, mother cat, satisfied that her babies were in good hands, had disappeared.
”Even kittens can't have mothers,” Nonie had thought, perplexed over the ways of the world. ”Never mind, darlings, Nonie will love you,”
and she had kissed each small puss as a pledge of her devotion.
But a week later she found both kittens lying stiff and cold behind the shed. At her pa.s.sionate outburst, Liz had told her that ”_she_ wa'nt a goin' to have any _cats_ under foot!”
Nonie had taken her sorrow to the Bird's-Nest and Nancy and Aunt Milly had managed to soothe her. But she would not forgive Liz.
”If that mother should ever come back how could I face her,” she had asked very seriously. ”She'd know it was my fault--because I left them! I wish--I wish babies never had to be left--without mothers!”
Thereupon had taken shape the determination in Nonie's heart to some day have ten children whom she would never, never leave--not for a moment!
”Don't forget the fairy G.o.dmother, Nonie, and her wand. Some day she'll turn your old dress into gold cloth and put a crown upon your head.” Nancy made her tone light; she could not bear to see the shadow on the child's face. She jumped down from the tree.
”I've just thought of the loveliest plan! Nonie, let's have a party at Happy House!”
”A _real_ party?”
”Yes, a real party--with lots and _lots_ to eat! It's too warm for velvet, but how would you like to wear a white dress of mine that's dreadfully small for me? I'm sure Aunt Milly's clever fingers can fix it over. B'lindy shall make a cake--like the Governor had, and Aunt Sabrina shall get out all the old silver and linen.”
Nonie's face said plainly that she could not believe her ears!
”Honest?” she whispered, glancing toward Aunt Milly.
”Well----” Nancy laughed. ”Of course, we'll have to consult Aunt Sabrina and Aunt Milly and B'lindy. Suppose we cough very loudly--then Aunt Milly will waken!”