CHAPTER V

NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS

"My dear, you look tired out!" Mrs. Blake exclaimed the next morning, when Janet, very flushed and blown, presented herself at the rectory. "What have you been doing?"

"Oh, it's an awfully windy morning, but I'm not really tired," Janet replied.

"Yes, it's blowing a gale and it must be hard to walk," Mrs. Blake agreed. "It's bad enough down here, but it must be dreadful up at your house. I can't be glad enough that we are not on the shore; the sound of the waves would depress me so," she added as she gave a little shudder and held the door open for Janet to come in.

Janet did not bother to tell her that she had battled with those same waves in a leaky boat not half an hour ago, for she knew Mrs. Blake would not understand the importance of replacing a certain book in a certain shelf, nor would she see anything funny in the sight of a torn straw hat lying beside a pair of old gloves. But Janet had a very vivid imagination, and she had rowed over that morning to the Kingdom in order to replace the animal book and further to confuse the mysterious boy, she had left his hat on the library table. Her only regret was that she would not be there to see his expression when he found it. There could be no doubt now that he knew the secrets of the deserted house--the hat and book proved it. But Janet, remembering the look in his gray eyes and the way he had patted Roy, could not find it in her heart to be angry.

A bright fire burned in the rectory living room, and Alice and Mildred were sitting beside it. They were still working over the green bunting.

Janet's heart sank. She hated to sew, for her fingers, in spite of Martha's patient teachings, insisted on acting like thumbs.

"What would you like to do, my dear?" Mrs. Blake inquired sweetly. "Will you help the girls or would you rather do something else?"

"I'll do whatever you like," Janet said hesitatingly, "but I think perhaps I could do something else better than I could sew. I'm not very good at sewing, you see."

Alice and Mildred looked up in shocked surprise.

"Don't you like to sew?" Mildred said incredulously.

Janet flushed. "No, I don't," she said bluntly.

"How odd!" Mildred and Alice exclaimed together. "We love it."

"Daughters!" Mrs. Blake warned, for she had caught the suggestion of scorn in their voices, and she was quick to notice Janet's flush.

At that moment the door from the dining-room opened, and Mrs. Todd entered. Her cheeks were flushed, and her narrow little eyes seemed brighter than ever.

"Morning everybody," she greeted, smiling at Janet. "You look very cozy in here, but you also look very stuffy. What's the matter, Janet!"

"Nothing, only I'm afraid I'm not going to be much of a help," Janet confessed. "I don't like to sew, you see." Janet always said "you see" when she was embarrassed.

"Neither do I,"--Mrs. Todd laughed. "Had to do too much of it when I was a child."

"Perhaps we can find something else for Janet to do," Mrs. Blake interposed.

"Why, of course, we can. Come with me, Janet. We'll rig up the fishing pond."

Janet waited until she was well away from the library before she asked what a fishing pond was. She was used to doing all the explaining and all of the leading when it came to playing with other girls, she had played so seldom with them, and this new and scornful attitude of the Blakes made her unreasonably angry. She knew that if she were competing in climbing trees or rowing--anything that took courage--she would be their superior. But when it was a question of sewing, she had to admit herself beaten. The thought made her very unhappy, for above everything else in the world Janet wanted to be like other girls. Not the Blake girls, but the girl heroines she had read of and dreamed of as friends in her Kingdom.

Mrs. Todd noticed the worried expression on her face and did her best to dispell it by giving her something else to think about.

"A fish pond," she explained in answer to her question, "is a very easy way of making people spend money. You put up a screen and sell little wooden fish poles for ten cents. The buyer goes fishing over the screen and some one ties a present to the end of the line."

Mrs. Todd watched Janet closely, and laughed with delight as the frown deepened on her face.

"Well?" she inquired, "what do you think of it!"

"Not very much," Janet answered truthfully. "Isn't there a better way?"

"I should think there would be,"--Mrs. Todd chuckled. "If you can suggest one we'll change it and surprise them all."

"Why not let them really fish?"

"In water! What would you have them catch? Pincushions and tidies wouldn't be improved by a ducking."

Janet thought for a minute. They were in the Sunday-school rooms, and she was sitting perched up on the high platform.

"Why can't they catch things that come from the sea!" she suggested.

"What, for instance!"

"Oh, shells and coral and fishes and stones. They are every bit as sensible as pincushions and so much prettier."

"No doubt about that,"--Mrs. Todd laughed--"but where shall we get them?"

"Oh, we have just loads of them up in the attic; queer old shells from all over the world that my great-grandfather, I think it was, brought home with him."

"But, my child, you can't give those away," Mrs. Todd protested.

"Why not?"

"Your grandmother--"

"Oh, she wouldn't mind; she can't bear them. You know, she hates anything that reminds her of the water." Janet looked at her companion wonderingly.

"Queer, isn't it?" she said.

Mrs. Todd looked at her with a peculiar light in her steely eyes. "Not under the circumstances," she said softly, but though Janet waited she did not say any more.

"I asked grandmother once, oh, long ago, if I might play with those shells,"--Janet returned to the subject in hand--"and she said I might do anything I liked with them as long as I kept them out of her sight."

Mrs. Todd seemed to consider the idea. Finally she said,

"Well, bring them along with you this afternoon, and if they are of no value we'll use them and surprise the neighborhood."

"They certainly are beauties," she said, when after luncheon Janet had returned with a box full of queer old shells and rough bits of coral.

"They must have come a long way, to judge by the looks of them."

"Well, I think my great-grandfather used to sail all the way 'round the world," Janet replied. "Do you think they will do?"

Mrs. Todd looked at her. "Do, child! Why, they will cause so much excitement that our booth will be by far the most popular. The only reason I hesitate is that I am afraid that some day you will be sorry you were so generous."

"But how silly,"--Janet laughed. "These are only a few of what we have. There are heaps left in the attic."

"Settled,"--Mrs. Todd laughed. "And now, Miss Original, will you please tell me what other ideas you have lurking in the back of your brain?"

"Now you're teasing,"--Janet laughed. "There's nothing else to think of, except the pond itself, and that ought to be easy. A big tub of real sea water with pebbles and sand banked around it, and perhaps we could borrow some of Mrs. Blake's palms. She has so many, and, oh, well, we can make it look--now, you're laughing at me."

"Not a bit of it," Mrs. Todd denied emphatically. "I am laughing with you, and there's all the difference in the world between the two. But I would like to know just where you got all your imagination."

For a minute Janet was tempted to tell the secret of the Kingdom, but with a start she realized that it was no longer just her secret alone and that in telling it she would almost be guilty of betraying a confidence.

The Sunday-school room was gradually filling up with people. Janet knew them all and bowed politely to each in turn. For the most part the women from the farms, who were bringing in their donations of pies and cakes, stared at her with ill-concealed curiosity. Although she did not know it, Janet was often the topic of conversation and gossip at sewing bees. Women with daughters often spoke of her as "that poor lonely child," and thought of her as different from other girls. It was a decided shock to see her in eager consultation with Mrs. Todd--a most important person--her cheeks ablaze and her eyes sparkling, and having quite as good a time as any ordinary girl; and acting for the most part with far less affectation than their own children.

But though Janet did not show it, she was conscious of the eyes upon her, and it did make her uncomfortable. She was very much relieved when Mrs. Todd stopped in the middle of a sentence and said:

"Stuffy; let's go out and see about finding our landscape."

Once outside, Janet drew a breath of relief. Harry Waters was passing, and she hailed him with so much enthusiasm that he decided that he was forgiven and he responded joyfully.

"Want to help me this afternoon?" Janet inquired. "I want a big box of sand, and Mrs. Todd says we may drive her horse and cart to the shore. You get a box," she directed in her old manner.

Harry was too delighted to be back into favor again to make any objections and dashed off at once.

Mrs. Todd nodded her head slowly and laughed. "Boys are better fun than girls, eh?" she inquired.

"Heaps," Janet replied, as she disappeared into the barn to assist in the harnessing of Durward, Mrs. Todd's horse.