The Automobile Girls in the Berkshires Part 17

"But, auntie, you will so hate the climb up that trail," Ruth argued.

"And the wigwam is dreadful after you get there. Only the little Indian girl is exquisite, like a flower growing in some horrid place. I don't believe you will ever be equal to the trip."

"Ruth," insisted Miss Stuart in stately tones, "since I have thrown in my fortunes as chaperon to 'The Automobile Girls' I have had many strange adventures. Doubtless I shall have many others. Persuading an obstinate woman to do what is best for the child she loves is not an impossible task. It does not matter in the least whether the woman is white or an Indian. Tell Naki to take me to the wigwam at once."

"Aunt Sallie, you are an angel!" cried Ruth, throwing her arms around her aunt. "Now, Bab, don't you worry any more," she called into the next room.

"Aunt Sallie does not know what she promises!" said Barbara, joining Ruth and her aunt.

"Just let's leave her alone, Bab," whispered Ruth. "We will go along with her to see Eunice. I think I am counting on my Aunt Sallie to win."

Miss Stuart paused to draw one deep breath, when she finally reached the Indian woman's wigwam. Then she quietly entered the tent and walked over to Eunice's bedside. Crouched on the floor by the child was the old Indian squaw, who did not even lift her eyes to look at Miss Sallie.

Eunice was lying on her cedar bed, with her cheeks the color of the scarlet leaves that once crowned her black hair.

"How do you do?" asked Miss Stuart politely, bowing to the Indian woman.

As Miss Sallie put her soft hand on Eunice's hot head, the child stopped her restless movements for a second. The grandmother looked up.

"Your little girl is very ill!" Miss Stuart continued quietly. "I have come to see that she has proper care. She must be taken to a hospital at once. Naki will see to the arrangements. The doctor says the child must be moved to-day."

The Indian woman shook her head. "The child shall not leave my wigwam!"

she declared, obstinately.

"Listen to me!" commanded Miss Stuart, quietly. Ruth and Barbara stood near her, trembling with excitement. "We mean no harm to your little girl. Naki will explain matters to you. But she must be properly looked after. You are too old to attend to her, and your wigwam is not a fit place. You declare your Eunice shall not go away from you even for a little time." Miss Sallie spoke slowly and impressively. "If you do not allow the child to go away, now, for a short time, so that the doctor can make her well for you, she will leave you forever!"

But still the Indian woman muttered: "My child shall not leave my wigwam.

Indians have no need for white men's doctors."

"You are alone, aren't you?" inquired Miss Stuart, gently. "Are not you and your grandchild the last of your race? Perhaps, if you had allowed it, the doctors might have kept other members of your family for you."

The Indian woman s.h.i.+vered. Miss Stuart had touched some chord in her memory. She raised her black eyes to Miss Sallie and spoke mournfully.

"You are right!" she a.s.serted. "My grandchild and I are the last of a great race. I am very old and I am now afraid. Let your white medicine man make my Eunice well again. But I must follow where the child goes.

Down in the village they will steal her from me."

"Why, who would wish to steal her from you?" inquired Miss Stuart.

The old woman mumbled. "An enemy came to my door but yesterday." Then a look of cunning crossed her face. She spoke childishly. "The lady is wise!" she declared. "Who could wish to steal a poor little Indian girl?

Who in all this world has a claim on her but her poor old grandmother?

Enough has been said. An Indian does not like too much talk. The child and I will go down into the valley to ask the service of the white doctor. Naki is my friend. I will do as he says. An Indian can keep a secret. Naki has long known that my child and I lived on this hilltop, but he has not betrayed us. He has not even told his own wife. An Indian can keep a secret." The old woman rocked back and forth as though well pleased with herself.

"Keep whatever secrets you will!" Miss Sallie replied. "It is enough that you will permit the child to have proper care."

"Girls!" Miss Stuart spoke from the depth of the largest chair in the living room of their log cabin. It was nearly dusk and she was worn out from her long walk to the Indian wigwam. "Girls, I want to ask you something."

"Attention, girls!" cried Bab. "What is it, Miss Sallie?"

"What do you say," continued Miss Stuart, "to our going back to civilization? We have had a beautiful time on our hill. I, for one, shall long remember it. But the days are growing shorter. If we are to enjoy Lenox, and all the delights it offers, don't you think it is about time we were moving there? To tell you the truth, I have already engaged our board at the hotel."

"Well then, Aunt Sallie, we have no choice in the matter, have we?" asked Ruth, ruefully. "I want to enjoy Lenox, too, but I do so hate to leave this heavenly hill."

"I vote for Lenox with Aunt Sallie!" Grace exclaimed.

"Sensible Grace!" Miss Stuart murmured.

"See here, Ruth, dear," protested Grace, "please don't look as if you were offended with me. We have had a simply perfect time in the log cabin, but I am just longing to see the lovely places down in Lenox, and to meet the delightful people."

"Ruth," Barbara spoke sadly, "I, too, want to go down into Lenox now. If Eunice is to be laid up in the hospital I want to be near her, so I can find out how she is each day. I shall never be happy again until I know she is well."

Mollie put her arm round her sister. "Don't you worry so, Bab, dear," she pleaded. "I don't believe your shooting poor little Eunice in the arm is going to do her harm in the end. Poor little thing! It was simply dreadful for her to have to spend all her time with her old Indian grandmother. She never had a chance to see anybody, or to learn anything.

She was simply sick for companions of her own age. That is why she was always haunting our cabin. I don't believe Eunice is more than part Indian, anyway!" Mollie ended impressively. "I've a feeling that we shall do her more good, in the end, from this accident than we have done her harm."

"You are a dear!" cried Bab, already comforted by her sister's prophecy.

"You are all against me!" quoth Ruth, rising. "I surrender, as usual, to my beloved aunt. I want to go to Lenox, but--I want to be here on the hill, too. So runs the world. We can't manage to have all the things we want at the same time; so hurrah for Lenox and the gay world again! Come here to the door with me, children. Let us say farewell to our sweet hillside!"

The girls stood arm in arm on their front porch. The evening wind swept up the hill and rustled through the pines. The brook near their house hurried down the slope into the valley as though it were late for a night's engagement.

"Ruth," Barbara declared solemnly, "whatever happens to 'The Automobile Girls,' one thing is certain, nothing can ever be lovelier than the weeks we have spent together on this beautiful hill. Let us kiss all around.

Call Aunt Sallie. She must be a party to the agreement. We will never forget our little log cabin--never, no, never, in all our lives."

CHAPTER XV

SOCIETY IN LENOX

"Miss Sallie, is Lenox the oldest summer resort in the United States?"

inquired Barbara, as they sat on a private veranda which opened into their own sitting-room, in the most beautiful hotel in Lenox.

"I am sure I don't know, Bab, dear," Miss Sallie answered complacently.

"I think modern Lenox has been transformed by the wealth that has come into the place in the last fifty years. I am told that it once had more literary a.s.sociations than any other town in the country. As Ruth tells me you are ambitious to become a writer some day, this will interest you.

You girls must go about, while you are here, and see all the sights."

Barbara blushed and changed the subject. She did not like to talk of her literary ambitions.

"Ruth and Mollie are late in getting back, aren't they?" she asked. "You know they have gone over in the automobile to inquire for Eunice. I hope they will be back in time for tea. Did Ruth remember to tell you that the British Amba.s.sador's daughters, Dorothy and Gwendolin Morton, are coming in to tea? And perhaps Mr. Winthrop Latham and Reginald Latham will be here also."

Miss Sallie nodded. "Yes; I am expecting them," she declared. "It is most kind of them to call on us so promptly. I was afraid we would know no one in Lenox, as I have no acquaintances here. I did not expect you and little Mollie to pull friends down from the sky for us, as you seem to have done by your rescue of Mr. Latham and his nephew. What a strange thing life is!"

"Do you know, Miss Sallie," Barbara continued, "it seems awfully funny for Mollie and me to to be a.s.sociating with such important people as the daughters of the English Amba.s.sador. I am even impressed with that funny little German Secretary, Franz h.e.l.ler, just because he is attached to the German Emba.s.sy. It makes me feel as though I were a character in a book, to even meet such clever people. Dear me, what a lot you and Ruth have done for us!"

"Barbara, dear," replied Miss Stuart, kindly, "we have not done much more for you than you girls have done for us in a different way. True, through my brother, we happened to have the money to pay for our good times; but poor Ruth and I couldn't have had those good times without the other three 'Automobile Girls.' How is Grace's headache? Will she be able to see our friends this afternoon?"

"Shall I ask her?" Bab suggested, going in to the bedroom through the French window which opened onto their porch.

She came out, shaking her head. "Grace is not well enough to get up yet,"

she explained. "She says she may be able to join us for a few minutes when our guests arrive; but you are not to worry. Her headache is better."