Read Ebook: Mixed Pickles by Raymond Evelyn

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Ebook has 1239 lines and 53869 words, and 25 pages

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"Oh!" gasped Grandmother Capers, throwing her hands upward with a gesture of dismay; "oh, what a terrible infliction!" And she began rocking herself violently to and fro, and screwing her lips about in the manner which, with her, always denoted extreme perturbation. Then she glanced across the pleasant room to a lounge and its occupant.

"I hope--it will not be that!" responded Grandmother Kinsolving, feebly. She still held the bomb-like telegram between her trembling fingers, and was as yet too much overpowered by the announcement it contained to have a better answer ready.

"It is our own house, is it not, mother?" demanded Aunt Ruth, with some asperity.

A voice from the lounge took up the conversation.

"They can't come here; that is all there is about it. If they do, I shall leave." The speaker's tone was decided and aggressive. It caused the eyes of the other three persons in the apartment to fasten themselves upon the fretful face above the great pillows.

Only one of the three, however, had courage to reply. That one was Aunt Ruth, who should have been soft and yielding by nature had she lived up to her name. But she did not; neither did the plain garb of a Friend which she wore appear to have its customary effect in subduing the quick temper with which she had been born.

"If thee wishes to leave, thee is at perfect liberty to do so. The Kinsolving homestead cannot open its doors to one branch of the family and exclude another. Thee and thy kin are welcome here; so is dear Content; so shall my sister Lydia's children be."

With that, which was even more determined in tone than the invalid's had been, Ruth Kinsolving ended all remark upon the telegram, and went away to answer it.

"Grandmother, I shall not stay! I--I won't have everything upset by a lot of young ones!"

"There, there, Melville! don't worry, that's a dear. You know it is so bad for you. Besides, I am sure that Grandmother Kinsolving will not really take in such a lot of children to torment us all with." The old lady in the easy-chair turned toward the one in the straight-back with a cajoling expression.

But the lovely old Friend had had time to regain her wonted calmness, and if the tone in which she responded was gentle in the extreme, it was also equally firm.

"Ruth has spoken the right word, though I wish that she had done so more patiently. When Oliver built this house he built it big and roomy. 'There must be space enough in it to hold all our household and the children which shall come after them,' he said. Lydia's flock must find a resting-place beneath the old roof-tree; but, if they are anything like their mother before them, they will not bring unhappiness to anybody."

A quiet sadness stole over the placid features under the snowy cap, and no one not utterly selfish would have disturbed the mistress of the homestead by any further objection.

When the feeble lad, who absorbed as his right so much of the family attention, again began his impatient protest, Grandmother Kinsolving rose and followed Ruth.

Then arose such a howl of distress as speedily drove Grandmother Capers to the verge of hysterics and brought Content flying in from the orchard, where she had been writing a letter to her father.

"O Melville! what has happened? Are you worse,--suffering so terribly? Can I do anything for you?"

Melville ceased shrieking and broke into a subdued roar, as ominous to his slave, Grandmother Capers, as it was amusing to Content. But she veiled the mirth in her brown eyes, and went on speaking in that sort of soothing fashion which mothers use to a fretful infant.

Suddenly the cripple became silent, and looked up into his cousin's face with an eagerness of expression that showed how little real his grief had been. "Say, Content, does Aunt Ruth know that my heart is affected, and that the doctor says I must have perfect quiet?"

"I don't know, I'm sure. You forget, Melville, that I am almost a stranger to our aunt."

"But--but she's your aunt, you know; you ought to know her!" exclaimed the lad.

"Maybe I ought; but then, you see, I don't. I never saw her till last Thursday, as you know; while you have lived with her for three years."

"And hated her all that time!" cried Melville, bitterly.

"Nonsense!" laughed Content.

"True! I--I wish she'd die, or get married!"

Even Grandmother Capers was shocked at this; and spoke reproachfully to her idol.

"You should not say that, darling. Ruth is a good woman. She means well, even if her manner is unpleasant."

Melville opened his lips to retort, but Content was too loyal to allow this. "Why, Mrs. Capers! Can you really think that? It seems to me Aunt Ruth is so charming. She is so delightfully honest and true. From the first time I looked in her face I felt that I should be safe and happy with her. And as for grandma, I cannot tell you how lovely she appears to me. Papa used to tell such wonderful stories of her goodness that I was almost afraid to come and live with her; I was sure I should shock her a dozen times a day; but if I do she is too kind to show it."

"Why, Content! She thinks you are perfect. She held you up as an example to me yesterday, till I hated her almost as much as I do my aunt."

Into the midst of this mutual admiration talk broke a sound which was even more startling than the telegraph reading had been.

Clitter-ty-clatter! Yaw, whoop-la!

Melville raised himself upon his pillows, Grandmother Capers screamed, and Content ran to the window. Outside stood a tiny dog-cart, drawn by a sturdy little pony, driven by a lad who could not have seen more than eight summers, though his face bore freckles enough to have resulted from a dozen.

"Hello!" cried the licorice-stained mouth of the small teamster. "Is this my grandmother's house?"

"Maybe; what is your grandmother's name?" said Content.

"I--er--I forget! It's--it's--dang it! Why ain't Paula here! She knows everything, and she'd know what it is. You see I came on ahead; me and Pretzel here. Ain't she a stunner? Uncle Fritz give her to me--give me the hull turnout. Say, do you live here? Have you got a grandmother what's an old Quaker lady, and lives in a big homestead with pigs and chickens and folks? Say, this is a big house, ain't it? I bet a cent this is the very place! Won't you just step in and ask if my grandmother does live here? 'Cause I'm all tuckered out. This cart shook me up awful, comin' up hill."

The speaker paused from lack of breath, and Content sprang through the low window-sash and held out her arms to the little fellow.

"I've no need to go and ask, for I am sure that you are my little cousin Fritz. Is it not so?"

"Yep. Anyhow, I'm Fritz; but who the mischief are you?"

"I'm Content; Content Kinsolving; aged fifteen, and your Uncle Benjamin's only child. But where are the rest of your party? The telegram said that all of Aunt Lydia's children were coming."

"Oh, they be; when they get ready. Paula,--she's a stick,--she told Uncle Fritz that she could not come till she had stopped to the hotel and freshened herself. She's always a freshening herself, Paula is, but I'm sure I don't know why, for she never does a blessed thing to get herself messed. Octave, now--Octave, she is a jolly one! she's always messing, but she never freshens. I like Octave."

"Indeed! most boys do like their sisters. But come, come quickly to dear grandmother! She will be so glad to see you!" and Content slipped her arm fondly about the child's waist, as he still sat in the cart.

"How do you know? I'm a 'terror,' Fritzy Nunky says, unless I'm good. And the trouble is, I can't stay good. I can be delightful sometimes, for little short times; then I forget and cut up. I used to try not to, but I've given it up now."

The satisfied and aged expression which settled upon the boyish face was funny in the extreme, and Content laughed more heartily than she had yet done since she parted with her father at Osaka, in far-away Japan.

"I know she will 'like' you; I do"; and she kissed again the pretty, dirty face of the young traveller, and lifted him out upon the grass.

"Where's the stable?"

"Around this way. Can you lead your horse?"

"I can, but I don't want to. I'm tired. Where's the hostler?"

"There is none."

Little Fritz opened his big eyes. "What'll we do then?"

"I'll lead him around to the barn."

Content took hold of the bridle, but, small as he was, this was more than the chivalrous nature of little Fritz could allow.

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