is a Carey chicken after all, Gilbert,” she said.
“But she’s Uncle Allan’s chicken, and I’m Captain Carey’s eldest son.”
“That’s the very note I should strike if I were you,” his mother responded, “only with a little different accent. What would Captain Carey’s eldest son like to do for his only cousin, a little girl younger than himself,—a girl who had a very silly, unwise, unhappy mother for the first five years of her life, and who is now practically fatherless, for a time at least?”
Gilbert wriggled as if in great moral discomfort, as indeed he was.
“Well,” he said, “I don’t want to be selfish, and if the girls say yes,
I’ll have to fall in; but it isn’t logic, all the same, to ask a sixth to share what isn’t enough for five.”
“I agree with you there, Gilly!” smiled his mother. “The only question before the council is, does logic belong at the top, in the scale of reasons why we do certain things? If we ask Julia to come, she will have to ‘fall into line,’ as you say, and share the family misfortunes as best she can.”
“She’s a regular shirk, and always was.” This from Kathleen.
“She would never come at all if she guessed her cousins’ opinion of her, that is very certain!” remarked Mrs. Carey pointedly.
“Now, mother, look me in the eye and speak the whole truth,” asked
Nancy. “Do you like Julia Carey?”
Mrs. Carey laughed as she answered, “Frankly then, I do not! But,” she continued, “I do not like several of the remarks that have been made at this council, yet I manage to bear them.”
“Of course I shan’t call Julia smug and conceited to her face,” asserted Nancy encouragingly. “I hope that her bosom friend Gladys Ferguson has disappeared from view. The last time Julia visited us, Kitty and I got so tired of Gladys Ferguson’s dresses, her French maid, her bedroom furniture, and her travels abroad, that we wrote her name on a piece of paper, put it in a box, and buried it in the back yard the minute Julia left the house. When you write, mother, tell Julia there’s a piece of breast for her, but not a mouthful of my drumstick goes to Gladys Ferguson.”
“The more the hungrier; better invite Gladys too,” suggested Gilbert, “then we can say like that simple little kid in Wordsworth:—
“‘Sisters and brother, little maid,
How many may you be?’
‘How many? Seven in all,’ she said,
And wondering looked at me!”
“Then it goes on thus,” laughed Nancy:—
“‘And who are they? I pray you tell.’
She answered, ‘Seven are we;
Mother with us makes five, and then
There’s Gladys and Julee!’”
Everybody joined in the laugh then, including Peter, who was especially uproarious, and who had an idea he had made the joke himself, else why did they all kiss him?
“How about Julia? What do you say, Peter?” asked his mother.
“I want her. She played horse once,” said Peter. The opinion that the earth revolved around his one small person was natural at the age of four, but the same idea of the universe still existed in Gilbert’s mind. A boy of thirteen ought perhaps to have a clearer idea of the relative sizes of world and individual; at least that was the conviction in Mother Carey’s mind.
Chapter VI.
Nancy’s Idea
Nancy had a great many ideas, first and last. They were generally unique and interesting at least, though it is to be feared that few of them were practical. However, it was Nancy’s idea to build Peter a playhouse in the plot of ground at the back of the Charlestown house, and it was she who was the architect and head carpenter. That plan had brought much happiness to Peter and much comfort to the family. It was Nancy’s idea that she, Gilbert, and Kathleen should all be so equally polite to Cousin Ann Chadwick that there should be no favorite to receive an undue share of invitations to the Chadwick house. Nancy had made two visits in succession, both offered in the nature of tributes to her charms and virtues, and she did not wish a third.
“If you two can’t be more attractive, then I’ll be less, that’s all,” was her edict. “‘Turn and turn about’ has got to be the rule in this matter. I’m not going to wear the martyr’s crown alone; it will adorn your young brows every now and then or I’ll know the reason why!”
It was Nancy’s idea to let Joanna go, and divide her work among the various members of the family. It was also Nancy’s idea that, there being no strictly masculine bit of martyrdom to give to Gilbert, he should polish the silver for his share. This was an idea that proved so unpopular with Gilbert that it was speedily relinquished. Gilbert was wonderful with tools, so wonderful that Mother Carey feared he would be a carpenter instead of the commander of a great war ship; but there seemed to be no odd jobs to offer him. There came a day when even Peter realized that life was real and life was earnest. When the floor was strewn with playthings his habit had been to stand amid the wreckage and smile, whereupon Joanna would fly and restore everything to its accustomed place. After the passing of Joanna, Mother Carey sat placidly in her chair in the nursery and Peter stood ankle deep among his toys, smiling.
“Now put everything where it belongs, sweet Pete,” said mother.
“You do it,” smiled Peter.
“I am very busy darning your stockings, Peter.”
“I don’t like to pick up, Muddy.”
“No, it isn’t much fun, but it has to be done.”
Peter went over to the window and gazed at the landscape. “I dess I’ll go play with Ellen,” he remarked in honeyed tones.
“That would be nice, after you clear away your toys and blocks.”
“I dess I’ll play with Ellen first,” suggested Peter, starting slowly towards the door.
“No, we always work first and play afterwards!” said mother, going on darning.
Peter felt caught in a net of irresistible and pitiless logic.
“Come and help me, Muddy?” he coaxed, and as she looked up he suddenly let fly all his armory of weapons at once,—two dimples, tossing back of curls, parted lips, tiny white teeth, sweet voice.
Mother Carey’s impulse was to cast herself on the floor and request him simply to smile on her and she would do his lightest bidding, but controlling her secret desires she answered: “I would help if you needed me, but you don’t. You’re a great big boy now!”
“I’m
