The Automobile Girls in the Berkshires Part 22

The child clutched them eagerly. "It is the red color that I love!" she cried in delight.

"Eunice," Ruth asked, "do you remember your father and mother?"

Eunice shook her head. "I remember no one," she replied. "Long ago, there was an old Indian man. He made canoes for me out of birch bark. He was my grandmother's man--husband, I think you call him in your language."

The three "Automobile Girls" were disappointed. Eunice could remember no a.s.sociations but Indian ones. There was nothing to prove that Eunice was not an Indian except the child's appearance.

Mollie decided to make another venture.

"Eunice," she asked, "do you still wear the gold chain around your neck?

I saw it the day you were hurt. It is so pretty I should like you to show it to my friends."

The Indian girl looked frightened. "You will not tell my grandmother?"

she pleaded. "She would be very angry if she knew I wore it. I found the pretty chain, one day, among some other gold things in an old box in the wigwam." Why! Eunice pointed in sudden excitement to the watch Ruth wore fastened on the outside of her blouse--"there was a round s.h.i.+ny thing like that in the box. The other golden ornaments are at the wigwam. Only this chain is Indian. So there seemed no wrong in my wearing it."

Eunice slipped her chain from under her gown. Ruth and Grace examined it closely.

"Eunice," Grace exclaimed, "there are two English letters engraved on the pendant of your chain. They are E. L., I am pretty sure."

"The same letters are on all the gold things," Eunice declared.

"Well, E. stands for Eunice plainly enough," volunteered Ruth, "but I can't guess what the L. means."

Mollie said nothing.

"You know, Ruth," protested Grace, "the initials may not be Eunice's. The child only found the chain at the wigwam. There is no telling where the jewelry she speaks of came from."

"Oh!" Ruth cried, in a disappointed tone, "I never thought of that!"

"Eunice, we must go now," announced Ruth, "but I want you to promise me not to go back to the wigwam with your grandmother until you have first seen me. Tell your grandmother I wish to talk with her. I want you to come to see where I live."

Eunice shook her head. "I should be afraid," she replied simply.

"But you are not afraid with me, Eunice," Mollie said. "If you will promise to come to see us, when you are better, you shall stay right by me all the time. Will you promise?"

"I promise," agreed the child.

"Naki is to let me hear as soon as you are well enough to leave the hospital," said Ruth.

"O Ruth," whispered Mollie. "Eunice will have no clothes to wear up at the hotel, even to spend the day. Shall I send her a dress of mine?"

"Eunice," Ruth asked, "do you know what a present is?"

"No," was the reply.

"Well, a present is something that comes in a box, and is soft and warm this time," Ruth explained. "Eunice must wear the present when she is ready to leave the hospital. When you are well enough to come to see us, I am coming to the hospital for you. I am going to take you flying to the hotel where we are staying, on the back of a big red bird."

"You make fun," said the Indian solemnly.

"You just wait until you see my motor car, Eunice!" cried Ruth. "It is the biggest bird, and it flies as fast as any you have ever seen. So do please hurry up and get well."

"I will, now. I did not wish to get well before," Eunice replied. "It is cold and lonely up on the hill in the snow time."

CHAPTER XVIII

PLANS FOR THE SOCIETY CIRCUS

"Ralph and Hugh! I am so delighted to see you!" cried Mollie Thurston, a few days later. She was alone in their sitting room writing a letter, when the two friends arrived. "We girls have been dreadfully afraid you would not arrive in time for our Society Circus. You know the games take place to-morrow."

"Oh, it is a 'Society Circus' we have come to! So that is the name Lenox has given to its latest form of social entertainment?" laughed Hugh.

"Sorry we couldn't get here sooner, Mollie; but you knew you could depend on our turning up at the appointed time. Where are the other girls and Aunt Sallie?"

"They are over at the Fair Grounds, watching Bab ride," Mollie explained.

"Ralph, I am awfully worried about Bab. One of the amus.e.m.e.nts of the circus is to be a riding contest. Of course, Bab rides very well, but I don't think mother would approve of her undertaking such dangerous riding as jumping over hurdles. Amba.s.sador Morton has told Aunt Sallie that there will be no danger. He is used to English girls riding across the country; and I know, at the riding schools in New York, they give these same contests; but we have never had any riding lessons. I can't help being nervous."

"I wouldn't worry, Mollie," Ralph replied kindly. "I am sure Bab is equal to any kind of horseback exercise. Remember the first time we saw her, Hugh? She was riding down the road in the rain, astride an old bareback horse. We nicknamed her 'Miss Paul Revere' then and there. There isn't any use trying to keep Bab off a horse, Mollie, when she has the faintest chance to get on one."

"Come on, then," laughed Mollie, smiling at the picture Ralph's remark had brought to her mind. "We will walk over to the Fair Grounds. You will find nearly everybody we know in Lenox over there. You remember that you boys gave Ruth and Bab liberty to put your names down for any of the games; come and find out what trouble they have gotten you into. You never dreamed of such absurd amus.e.m.e.nts as we are to have."

"Oh, we are game for anything," Hugh declared. "Lenox sports are the jolliest I have yet run across. Don't think any other place can produce anything just like them. Certainly the amus.e.m.e.nts are a bit unconventional, but they are all the more fun. 'Society Circus' is a good name for the entertainment. Anything goes in a 'Society Circus.'"

"What curious amus.e.m.e.nts people _do_ have for the benefit of charities!"

reflected Mollie. "But I expect the Lenox Hospital will receive a great deal of money from the sports this year. You see, they are in charge of the English Amba.s.sador. That alone would make the entertainment popular."

"Is Mollie growing worldly wise, Hugh?" asked Ralph, with mock horror.

"Looks like it, Ralph," was the reply.

The boys and Mollie found Barbara in the midst of a gay circle of young people. Grace and Ruth were nowhere to be seen.

Aunt Sallie sat with Mrs. Morton in the grandstand. The Amba.s.sador and Mr. Winthrop Latham wandered about near them. Many preparations were necessary for the next day's frolic.

In front of the grandstand stretched a wide, green field, enclosed with a low fence. A little distance off stood the club house.

Bab came forward with both hands extended to greet her friends. She gave one hand to Ralph, the other to Hugh.

"I am so glad to see you!" she declared. "I can't wait to shake your hands in the right way. We girls were so afraid you had turned 'quitters'! Come, this minute, and see Aunt Sallie. You must be introduced, too, to Amba.s.sador and Mrs. Morton."

"But where are Ruth and Grace?" inquired Ralph.

"Over yonder," laughed Bab, pointing to the green inclosure in front of them.

The boys spied Ruth and Grace some distance off. The two girls were deep in conversation with a farm boy. Strutting around near them were a fat turkey gobbler and a Plymouth Rock rooster.

Just at this moment Ruth was giving her instructions. "Be sure you bring the turkey and the rooster over to the Fair Grounds by ten o'clock to-morrow morning."