Part 5

“May I go over now and tell her?”

“Yes, if you won’t stay too long.”

Jessie set off toward the brook. She did not fail to search for the doll as she went, but she stopped to lay her hand upon Playmate Polly and to say: “You would have believed me, Polly. You always do believe me, and I don’t think I shall ever tell Adele again that I like her best.”

Playmate Polly made no answer, but the murmuring brook sang a little song that Jessie liked and the whispering trees seemed to say: “We know, we know.” The same little chipmunk was sitting on his haunches on top of the hollow stump. He chattered fiercely as he saw Jessie, and leaping into the nearest pine tree went whisking off. Jessie was not sure but she liked her favorite playground better without the presence of Adele, and she almost wished the yellow house were still empty. It seemed as if she and Adele were continually at odds, and though Adele professed to care very much for her, she didn’t see how it were possible when she doubted her word.

She went rather slowly through the piece of woods and through the orchard which lay on the other side of the brook. She realized that now she would meet Miss Eloise, and though she wanted much to see what manner of person she was, she rather dreaded the meeting, and besides she really did not feel in a very friendly mood toward Adele just then, only she could not have her go on believing untrue things. At last she came out close to the garden fence. She stood still for a moment before she opened the gate and went through. There was no one about, but she heard voices from the front porch, and as she turned the corner of the house she saw that there were four persons on the porch, Miss Betty, a strange lady with fair hair who must be Miss Eloise, a man who was probably Adele’s father, and Adele herself. Jessie paused where she stood but Adele had heard the click of the gate and had caught sight of the visitor.

“There she is now,” cried Adele. “Have you found him, Jessie? Have you found him?”

Jessie came slowly forward. “No,” she said shyly. “Mother helped me to look. We think he must have fallen down into a hollow stump and has gone way down inside, but mother says she is going to town very soon and she will get you another doll just like it.”

Miss Betty was listening. “Indeed she must not do that, Jessie,” she said. “A little cheap doll like that is no loss, besides it was not you who lost it, but Adele, and her father can easily get another when he goes back to the city.”

“But,” Jessie hesitated, then she turned to Miss Betty. “I want mother to get it so Adele will believe I spoke the truth, that I don’t tell stories.” Jessie held her head high.

Miss Betty looked at Adele. “Why, honey,” she said, “I am sure you never told Jessie that she wasn’t truthful.”

Adele nodded. “Hm, hm, I did, because I thought she might have hidden the doll to tease me and because she didn’t want me to have a Peter Pan.”

“But she has proved that she does want you to have one by asking her mother to replace the one that is lost, and besides, you told me that you were the last one that had the doll.”

Adele rushed at Jessie and flung her arms around her. “Wasn’t I horrid?” she said. “I’ll believe every word you say after this. I suppose you will say,” she whispered, “that Polly always has believed you.”

“Yes,” Jessie nodded, “she certainly does.”

“I don’t care,” returned Adele defiantly. “I believe after all that she is a thief, and that she stole my doll.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Miss Betty. “You both look as fierce as turkey-cocks.”

“I’m talking about that old Polly,” answered Adele.

“You absurd children!” said Miss Betty laughing. “Come, Jessie, don’t you want to meet your teacher? She is very anxious to meet you. Eloise, dear, this is your other little pupil.”

Jessie was conscious of a pair of gray eyes that looked at her very steadily but very kindly, and of two warm hands that held hers, but she was overcome with shyness and said not a word.

“Do you think you are going to like her more than you do me?” Adele asked Miss Eloise anxiously.

“You jealous little monkey,” said her aunt. “Why shouldn’t she like Jessie best? Don’t you want her to?”

“I want her to like us both alike,” replied Adele.

“A perfectly safe reply,” said Miss Eloise. “I hope I have a place in my heart big enough for both of you, my dears.”

“This is papa,” said Adele swinging Jessie around in front of Mr. Hallett, who held out his hand.

“I hope you and this will-o’-the-wisp of ours will be good friends,” he said to Jessie. “She needs some one to tone her down a little, and keep her from having tantrums.” He softly patted Adele’s hand as he spoke.

“Jessie has tantrums, too,” spoke up Adele, “but they are pouty ones, not screamy like mine.”

Jessie blushed and felt greatly embarrassed. She wished Adele were not quite so outspoken.

“Never mind, dear,” said Miss Eloise leaning over and putting her arm around Jessie. “If we don’t all have tantrums we all feel like it sometimes, and when we were little girls very few of us did not have them. We generally outgrew them, or learned self-control, and that is what you and Adele will do.”

Jessie looked up gratefully and from that moment liked Miss Eloise.

So soon did this lady put her at her ease that in a few minutes she found herself talking quite glibly about her home, her pets, and her reasons for leaving school, realizing that she would not in the least mind having lessons the next day. But presently she remembered that she was not to stay too long, so she took her leave, Adele calling after her: “Remember, you are not to get another doll. I won’t let you, and I’d rather have a Wendy anyhow.”

_CHAPTER VII_

_Taking Pills_

_CHAPTER VII_

_Taking Pills_

It was with rather mixed feelings that Jessie set out the next morning to begin lessons with Miss Eloise. She didn’t enjoy the idea of studying, but she did like Miss Eloise and it would be quite a novelty to have but one other schoolmate. She felt rather important, too, from the fact that she was to begin French and music. This last thought gave confidence to her step and brightness to her face when she appeared on the porch of the yellow house.

Adele danced out to meet her. “We’re all ready,” she said. “Miss Eloise and I have been fixing up the schoolroom, and we have put flowers in there so it looks very nice. We are to have a table between us, you and I. You shall choose which end you like best and I will take the other. Elle est ici, mademoiselle,” she called out when they reached the top of the stairs, and Jessie suddenly remembered that Adele knew French almost as well as English, and she felt herself very ignorant.

However, Miss Eloise gave her such a cordial greeting, and the schoolroom was so bright and cheery that she soon forgot everything but her interest in choosing which end of the table she preferred, and in looking at the books Miss Eloise had piled up. They were all fresh and new and Jessie liked new books. “I don’t know a word of French,” she said when she had seated herself.

“You need not say that very long,” said Miss Eloise.

“She need not say it five minutes from now,” put in Adele. “She can begin with _Bon jour_, can’t she, Miss Eloise? Say _Bon jour_, Jessie.”

Jessie obediently repeated the words.

“Now you can say good-day,” Adele told her, “and you can’t say any more that you don’t know a word of French.” Then she turned to Miss Eloise and chatted away volubly for a minute or two while Jessie listened and wondered if she would ever be so glib with a foreign tongue.

“I think I will make a rule that you are to speak to each other only in French during lesson hours,” said Miss Eloise. “That will give you both a chance and Jessie will be surprised how soon she will be able to understand and speak a number of words. Now we will start in with something else. Come here, Jessie, and show me how far you have gone in arithmetic and how well you can spell.”

It turned out that Jessie was far ahead of Adele in these studies, but that the latter knew more history and had a smattering of a number of other things which Jessie knew nothing about. But after a while Miss Eloise managed to arrange classes for them, dropping some of Adele’s studies, which did not seem necessary for the present, and adding some to Jessie’s list. But they had hardly settled down to real work before it was time for a morsel of lunch and a fifteen minutes’ run out-of-doors.

“I don’t think those were very bad pills to take,” said Jessie as the two sat munching their apples on the porch steps.

“They will be worse after a while, I suppose,” said Adele. “Wait till you have to sit at the piano and practice stupid exercises half an hour at a time. You won’t like that one bit.”

“I suppose not,” returned Jessie with a sigh. “But you don’t have to do that all the time, do you? You will have pieces after a while.”

“Oh, after a fashion, but they are not what I call tunes,” she said scornfully.

This sounded very discouraging, but Jessie was not going to give up hope. “Maybe some teachers do that way,” she said, “but I don’t believe Miss Eloise will.”

“Wait and see,” returned Adele with a wise shake of the head.

The tinkle of a little bell took them indoors to lessons again, and the next hour or two passed quickly, and to Jessie’s surprise very pleasantly. “It is much nicer than going to the Hill School,” she told her mother. “I know a whole lot of French and some of my notes on the piano. When I know them all am I going to have a piano, mother?”

“Not at present,” Mrs. Loomis told her. “You are to practice on Adele’s piano for a while. Pianos are rather expensive things and we shall have to save up a lot of eggs and butter before we can buy one.”

“Adele is richer than I am, isn’t she, mother?”

“In some things, perhaps, but she has no mother nor brothers.”

Jessie threw her arms around her mother’s neck and gave her a mighty hug. “And you are worth all the money in the world,” she said. “My two brothers are pretty far away, but I do see them sometimes, and that’s much better than not having any at all. Yes, I believe I am much richer than Adele. She hasn’t any pets either. Where is Eb, mother?”

“Oh, my dear, I don’t know. He is out-of-doors somewhere. We cannot have him in the house very often, for he gets into so much mischief.”

Jessie went out to find Eb, but not seeing him near, she concluded to go to Playmate Polly and tell her all about her morning at the yellow house, for Polly was always a good listener. It was rather pleasant, too, to feel free to do exactly as she liked after the restriction of a morning in the schoolroom.

She was sitting on a big rock talking quietly in an undertone to Polly, when with a whoop and a hallo two boys came vaulting over the fence and rushed toward her. For a moment Jessie was so startled that she could give only little shrieks, but these soon changed to a squeal of delight when she discovered the two intruders to be her brothers, Max and Walter. “Oh! oh!” she cried. “Where did you come from, and how do you happen to be home to-day?”

“Why, it is just a piece of luck for us,” said Max catching her up and kissing her. “One of the boys, Carl Potter, is ill with something, the doctor doesn’t know just what yet, and so he thought we boys had better come home for a few days till he finds out whether it is diphtheria or not. Of course I don’t mean it is luck for old Carl, but it gives us a holiday.”

“I hope it isn’t diphtheria,” said Jessie sympathetically, “though it is nice to have you home; it does seem so quiet without you. I have a thousand things to tell you.”

“Fire away,” said Max.

“Well, I don’t go to the Hill School any more, but I have lessons with Adele--she lives in the yellow house, you know. I know some French. _Bon jour, monsieur. Comme portez vous?_”

“Pshaw!” interrupted Walter. “I can beat that with Latin.”

“Let’s hear you,” said Jessie.

“Stop your fooling,” put in Max. “Don’t be such a blower, Walter. I know just about how much Latin you know. Never mind him, Jess, go on.”

“I have begun music, too,” Jessie turned to her elder brother, “and some day I shall have a piano when mother can save enough butter and eggs to get me one.”

“That will be fine,” said Max encouragingly.

“Then you don’t see old Ezra any more,” said Walter, “and can’t tell us anything about the trains and the engines.”

“No.” Jessie shook her head. “I haven’t been to see him. He had rheumatism, and I fell on the track one day; that’s why I stopped going to school. There is a cross man in Ezra’s place and I don’t like him.”

“I say, that’s too bad,” said Max. “Old Ezra is always so good-natured about letting you flag trains and things.”

“I’ve got a crow,” suddenly exclaimed Jessie, “and his name is Eb. That’s short for Ebony. He doesn’t talk yet, but he is going to, Sam says. I think he must be up in the barn. Come, and I’ll show him to you. I have a new friend, too. Her name is Adele Pauline Falaise Hallett, and she lives in the yellow house.”

“Mother wrote to us that the yellow house was taken,” said Walter. “I’m sorry, for now we fellows can’t go there and play in that empty barn like we used to.”

“I thought Effie Hinsdale was your best friend,” said Max to his sister.

“Effie is a friend, of course, but she lives across the railroad, and I can’t go to see her unless some one goes with me. Besides, she has a new friend, too; a girl named Anna Sharp that has come to the neighborhood, so Effie don’t mind being second best. She has a gray kitten that is to be mine when it is big enough.”

“Girls are always so crazy about cats and kittens,” said Walter scornfully. “I’d much rather have the crow.”

“Well, you can’t have him. Sam brought him to me,” returned Jessie a little sharply. Boys were entirely too fond of making slighting remarks about girls, she thought.

“Oh, keep your old crow,” returned Walter. “No doubt you’ll be glad enough to get rid of him some day.”

“Why?” asked Jessie.

“Wait and see,” replied Walter mysteriously. “Say, Max, let’s go see old Ezra. Maybe he is all right now, and I want to know about the trains. We’ll see enough of the old crow, and it is a good time to go to Ezra’s.”

“I want to go, too,” said Jessie.

“Well, you can’t,” returned Walter. “We don’t want girls tagging everywhere we go.”

“Oh, let her come,” put in Max. “You might be a little more decent to her the first day you get home. You can come, Jess.” Max was the eldest and Walter generally accepted his lead, so Jessie put her hand confidingly in her big brother’s and they set out. She thought Walter was very disagreeable to speak to her as he did when he had been separated from her all these weeks, and she took pains not to address a word to him on the way. She chatted to Max, however talking of the things she knew would interest him: the change in the schedule, how 589 was very late one day, and how she had flagged a train one afternoon, how 248 had a hot box one morning so it had to stop on a siding. When Walter put eager questions to her she simply gave him a dignified stare and went on talking to Max. Her triumph was complete when they arrived at the crossing to find that Ezra was back again at his post and that his best greeting was for the little girl.

“Well, well, well,” he exclaimed, “here you are at last. I certainly have missed you, little girl. Not going to school any more? I was afraid you might be sick. Been watching for ye every day since I got over my rheumatiz. When you going to start again? Hallo, boys.” He gave a nod to each, but it was plain to see that it was Jessie who had the warmest welcome.

“I’ve stopped going to school,” Jessie told him. “You weren’t here, you know, Ezra, so father and mother were afraid to have me cross the track. I tripped and fell one day when the train was coming.”

“Pshaw!” exclaimed Ezra. “Sykes never told me of that. I was in such misery I couldn’t think about much else but my pains for a while. You don’t say you ain’t going back at all?”

“Not this winter,” Jessie told him. “I am studying with Adele Hallett at the yellow house.”

“They’re new folks, ain’t they? Well, I certainly am sorry to lose the sight of ye every day. It is too bad Sykes had to take my place or ye might be mounting the hill every morning just the same as usual. Father knew I’d look out for ye, didn’t he?”

“Oh, yes. He said as long as you were there he didn’t have any fear, even if the trains were changed. But after I fell that day when the train was coming, mother said she would never feel easy again.”

“Too bad, too bad. I am sorry.” Ezra took off his cap and wiped his bald head with a red handkerchief. He was a little wrinkled-faced old man with mild blue eyes. He wore a little fringe of beard under his chin, and his pleasant mouth always widened to a smile for his friends. “Right warm day for October, ain’t it?” he said pulling up his stool which stood by the door of the little house. “Wish I had more chairs to offer ye. Guess ladies will have to come first.” He waved Jessie to the stool.

“Oh, no.” Jessie refused the proffered seat. “We’d rather you’d sit there, Ezra. The boys and I can do just as well with these railroad ties that are piled up here. Has 589 gone by yet?”

Ezra took out his watch. “She’s due in just five minutes. I thought I heard her whistling for Boyds a while ago. She’s on time to-day.”

“May I hold the flag?” said Jessie eagerly. “It has been such a long time since I did.”

“To be sure ye may,” returned Ezra, taking the flag from where it stood leaning against the door. “Yes, I thought so; she’s whistling for the cut.”

So far Jessie had monopolized the conversation and now Walter spoke up. “Have they put on any new engines, Ezra?”

He shook his head. “No, Leander still runs old 61 and keeps her shining.”

“Any accidents?” asked Max.

“Glad to say ther hain’t. Come near being one down by Millersville the other day.”

“Tell us about it.”

“Have to wait till 589 has went by. Here, honey,” he turned to Jessie. “Get up and be all ready. She’ll whistle in a minute for our crossing.”

Jessie took her place on the stool set for her, flag in hand, Ezra standing close by, and presently there was a shrill whistle and next the train flew by.

“It is so exciting,” said Jessie turning a beaming face to her brothers.

“Humph!” exclaimed Walter in rather a dissatisfied way. He did not like it that Jessie should be having all the fun. “What about the accident?” he said turning to Ezra.

“There wasn’t none.”

“Well, I mean the one that nearly was.”

Ezra launched forth into an account of how the freight train from the west was on the track and a special was behind her. Somehow Bill Downs didn’t get the orders clear and backed into a siding just in time to avoid a crash. “Reversed, sir,” said Ezra. “Heard the special whistle at the cut and put on steam so he reached the siding in time to back. If he’d been a second later all would have been up.”

The children listened attentively. Bill Downs was a familiar figure to them, and his engine an old acquaintance, so his escape was of momentous interest.

After a little more railroad gossip the boys concluded it was time to return, as the sun was setting and the short afternoon was nearly over. “Come again, come again,” said Ezra, his eyes on Jessie who waved her hand to him till a turn in the road hid him from sight.

“I wish I had taken him some apples,” she said. “His trees have hardly any on them this year, and he is so fond of them.”

“We’ll take some to him to-morrow,” said Walter importantly. “You needn’t bother.”

“I thought of it first,” said Jessie, not liking to have her ideas taken possession of in this style.

“That makes no difference,” returned Walter. “The few you could carry wouldn’t do much good. Max and I can take a big basketful.”

Jessie did not answer, but she determined to carry out her plan if she could. If going away to school made Walter like this she didn’t think it was doing him much good. The boys left her at the first gate for they caught sight of their father in a field near by, and joined him, so Jessie went up to the house alone. She sought her mother immediately. “Mother,” she said, “I wish you would send Walter to another school.”

“Why, my dear,” returned Mrs. Loomis, looking up with a smile.

“Because he’s so--so--he has such a contemptibleness for girls since he’s been away. He used not to care when I wanted to go with him and Max, and now he is at home again he just wants to put me down all the time. I said I wanted to take some apples to Ezra, and he says he is going to. I thought of it first, mother, and Ezra has been so good to me. Couldn’t you let Sam go with me to-morrow morning, and carry a big basketful, bigger than Walter and Max could carry?”