CHAPTER VI

THE FAIR

The Sunday-school room was packed with people, but to an observant eye it was noticeable that the greatest number were in the corner under a silk canopy that looked like an Arab's shelter. Hanging beside it on the wall was a sign, printed in orange and blue, that read,

COME AND FISH IN THE INDIAN OCEAN A SURPRISE FOR EVERYBODY 10 CENTS A LINE

Beyond the tent a group of high palms pointed the way to the beach, where a huge tub filled with water and reflecting myriads of little pebbles was surrounded by a stretch of sand. Sticks with strings and hooks attached stood ready, and to one side a mysterious mound covered by a silk scarf invited the curiosity of the passersby.

Mrs. Todd stood a little to one side and kept looking at her watch. Mrs. Blake came over to her, and it was plain to be seen that they were both worried.

"What do you suppose is keeping her?" Mrs. Blake exclaimed. "It is after four o'clock, and we must begin with the pond. Really, I think it is most inconsiderate of her to keep us waiting. Of course, if Mrs. Page has changed her mind--"

"Mercy Page never changed her mind in her life," Mrs. Todd snapped. "It is something very different than that, and I have a strong suspicion what it is." She looked at a group of giggling girls who were whispering to each other in one corner, and had one of them turned at just that moment they would have wanted to run away, for Mrs. Todd looked very stern and forbidding.

"Let some one else start it," she said. "I'll help them; she may come after all; who knows."

But Janet at that particular moment was rowing with all her might, and she was rowing in the opposite direction from the church fair.

Something glistened in both of her eyes and she stopped every now and then to brush it away. Nothing in the world could have induced her to turn around.

She was hurt and very angry, and the one thought in her confused little mind was to forget there ever was such a thing as a church fair.

This is what had happened. Harry and she had been busy in the early part of the afternoon putting the finishing touches to their work, when Janet found she wanted a pair of scissors. A number of girls were decorating a booth across the room and she went over to borrow theirs. She was hidden from them by a curtain of bunting. Just as she was about to speak, she heard one of them say,

"I don't care if she is Janet Page, I don't like her. She's not a bit like other girls." And another voice answered, "I don't either; she's so bossy." "Plain stuck up," a third voice added.

Janet flushed crimson and fled. Harry remembered that she looked awfully queer, he said, when he told Mrs. Todd later, "She said she was going and not another word," he finished.

Janet had indeed gone. She felt as though the world was falling about her ears. Try as she could, she could not keep the hot tears from coming.

The brisk row did her good, and she started up the sand dunes with her usual expectant step. By the time she was in sight of the house, she was laughing at herself.

"I may be different but I am not as bad as all that, and besides I don't like those girls any better than they like me, so we're even."

She decided to read about Mr. Micawber in "David Copperfield." He always cheered her up when she was downhearted.

The quiet of the old house soothed her feelings. She walked slowly around to the cellar window and opened it softly. Just as she was about to slip through it, a piece of tin hit her sharply on the nose.

She jumped and looked up and directly into the gray eyes of the mysterious boy. He was sitting on the edge of the sloping roof not fifteen feet above her.

"Hurt you?" he called down.

"Not much," Janet answered, rubbing her nose, for it smarted.

"Yes, it did; it's bleeding. Say, I'm awfully sorry. Wait a jiffy and I'll be down."

He slid near the edge and jumped to the ground almost beside her.

They looked at each other and then burst out laughing. Janet held her handkerchief up to her face and regarded him over the corner of it.

"What were you doing up there?" she inquired. "You nearly scared me to death."

"Well, I was kind of scared myself," the mysterious boy admitted. "I was fixing the roof up a bit. It leaks onto the books now you know, and I just happened to look down at you, I was so surprised that I let the tin drop.

"I found my hat," he added after a minute, and grinned sheepishly.

"Whatever made you leave it by our fence?" Janet inquired.

"Did you see me jump over your wall the other day?"

"Yes."

"Well, I was bringing it to you then--"

"And my dog barked at you."

"No,--that is, he did, but that isn't what scared me. Your dog and I are great friends. It was the woman that came out of the house. I couldn't explain before her so I bolted."

"Explain what?"

"I wanted to show you something about taking a splinter out of a dog's paw and a way to put on a bandage so that it won't come off."

Janet laughed, and he joined in.

"I was after the same book the other day and I couldn't imagine who had taken it and then I found it beside your hat and I knew you must come here too."

"Have you been coming long?"

"Two years."

"Oh, I've been here six months, but I found it the first week I was here."

"Where do you live?" Janet inquired.

The boy pointed down the hill. "At Vicker's farm," he answered. "I'm staying there all this winter." He laughed self-consciously. "I'm supposed to be weak or something, so Doc sent me here."

"Who's Doc?" Janet inquired.

"He was Dad's best friend, and now I guess he's mine. He sort of looked out for me after Dad--after Dad went."

Janet looked up at him quickly, for his voice had trembled.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "Let's go in and look up that part in the animal book."

She started to slide into the cellar, but he stopped her.

"I know a better way than that. Come around here." He led her to the old porch and took down two boards from one of the windows. Janet crawled through and found herself in the Kingdom.

"Oh, that is a lot better. Wonder why I never thought of it. It saves going through the spooky kitchen, and I just perfectly hate that ghostly hall."

They sat down together on the floor and were soon engrossed by the book before them. From discussing dogs and horses they turned to other subjects, and before she realized it Janet was telling him why she had not gone to the fair.

She looked at him after she had finished. He was frowning.

"It was rough, I'll grant you," he drawled slowly, "but you should have stayed and faced the guns. There's never any sense in running away."

Janet felt very much ashamed of herself all at once, and a dozen reasons why she should have stayed rushed into her mind.

"It was cowardly of me," she exclaimed, "and I'm going back this very minute."

"Good for you; it won't be much fun, but you'll be glad you did it, I guess. Say," he added after a pause, "will you be back to-morrow?"

"Will, if I can."

"And, say, you don't mind about my coming here, do you?"

Janet had crawled through the window but she called back over her shoulder, "No, I'm glad." A red head appeared in the opening.

"My name's Peter Gibbs," he called.

"Mine's Janet Page."

"Good night, Janet."

"Good night, Peter."

As the people came back to the Sunday-school room after the supper that had been served in the gymnasium, many of them were astonished to see Janet with Harry by the tent. Mrs. Blake was particularly so.

"Why, Janet, where have you been? We were so worried about you!" she exclaimed. "And what have you done to your nose?"

"I cut it, Mrs. Blake," Janet answered, "and I am sorry to be late."

"Why, you poor child; what a pity. It doesn't matter at all about your being late."

"Well, Janet, we thought you were lost, but I see you've found yourself,"--Mrs. Todd came up and interrupted her cousin. Janet looked at her blue eyes and knew she understood something of what she had gone through.

"Yes, Mrs. Todd," she replied gravely, "I think I have."