Letty and the Twins Part 10

The sadness of this state of affairs touched the happy, well-cared for twins faintly.

"I guess you'll find another circus to go with," comforted Christopher cheerfully, after a little pause.

"Oh, I don't want to go to another circus! I hate 'em!"

"Then why do you cry because you are leaving this one?" demanded matter-of-fact Christopher.

"Because I haven't any home. Oh, Jane, do you suppose your grandmother knows of any one who wants a maid? I'd be willing to do anything to help and have a home." And the tears rushed to her eyes again.

"Do you mean to say you'd give up a circus to do housework!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Christopher in great astonishment.

"Oh, I should be so happy to! And maybe I should get time to study some."

Christopher stared. Here was a curiosity indeed; a girl who liked housework and study better than traveling around with a circus!

"Mrs. Hartwell-Jones is staying at our house while her ankle gets well,"

put in Jane. "She will be awfully good to Punch and Judy."

"Is she the lady that wants to buy them?" asked Letty.

"Yes," answered Jane, "and she was on the train when we were coming to Sunnycrest, and saw you. And oh, Letty, she writes books, lots and lots of them."

"But she's awfully nice," added Christopher rea.s.suringly. "Not a bit prosy or stuck up."

Two red spots came into Letty's cheeks.

"To think that you know somebody who writes books! Oh, how I wish I could see her!" she exclaimed impulsively.

Jane stared thoughtfully for a moment at the ponies and then said quickly:

"Oh, Kit, let's ask grandfather if Letty mayn't drive the ponies out to Sunnycrest herself. Then she can see Mrs. Hartwell-Jones."

"And we can show her the farm, too. That would be jolly," agreed Christopher. "I speak to ride with Letty in the chariot."

Letty burst out laughing. She was feeling very much excited over the children's plan.

"I shouldn't have to drive the chariot," she said. "Mr. Drake still has the little carriage I used to use at Willow Grove. Do you remember?"

"And I'll ask grandmother about getting you a place," said Jane confidentially to Letty, with a little air of importance. "Perhaps Huldah would like somebody to help her in the kitchen. It would be nice if you could stay with us, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, that would be too good to be true!" cried Letty, bursting into tears again at the very thought of such happiness.

"Oh, shucks!" exclaimed Christopher, turning his back.

Crying always embarra.s.sed him.

CHAPTER VII

MRS. HARTWELL-JONES SEES PART OF THE CIRCUS

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones had limped painfully down-stairs from her bright, chintz-hung bedroom at Sunnycrest, to be in readiness for the two o'clock dinner. She seated herself in one of the comfortable armchairs on the veranda to await the return of Mr. Baker and the twins.

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones had found these days of her unexpected visit at Sunnycrest very happy ones. She was often lonely, in spite of having her brain so full of people. Book friends, even when you make them up yourself, are not the same as real, living, loving people. If it were not that she felt a little in the way, because of her helplessness, she would have wished to stay longer. Her solitary two rooms in the village did not appear very inviting when compared to the busy farm with its constant movement of life and industry, its cheerful master and mistress and above all, the sound of children's voices in the house.

When Mrs. Hartwell-Jones was much younger, many years before the beginning of this story, a very great sorrow had come into her life; her husband and dear baby were taken from her by a dreadful accident, and ever since her life had been sad and lonely, given up to trying to make others happy and in learning to bear her grief bravely and patiently.

Since she no longer had a child of her own to care for, she set herself the task of making other children happy by writing stories for them. She was so successful in this that her readers were always begging for more, and some of Mrs. Hartwell-Jones's most precious possessions were the letters written to her by little children, to thank her for her stories.

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones was thinking of all these things as she sat on the vine-covered veranda in the soft summer air, and perhaps was planning another story, when she happened to look down the road. She looked hard for a moment, then she got up suddenly and walking to the door as quickly as her lame foot would allow, called to grandmother to come and look, too.

A peculiar procession was turning in at the gate. First came grandfather, driving alone in the phaeton. Following was a man on horseback leading three other horses, splendid, strong looking animals; and last of all a girl in a pink cotton dress driving a pair of Shetland ponies harnessed to a tiny, low, old-fas.h.i.+oned basket-phaeton. Beside her on the seat sat Jane like an exalted mouse, while behind, perched on a miniature rumble, Christopher gyrated and squirmed ecstatically.

"It looks as if they had hired the circus to parade out here," exclaimed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones to grandmother, in great astonishment.

The cavalcade drew up at the front steps and grandfather handed the reins to Joshua, who had seen the procession from the stable and had come on a run, wondering if Mr. Baker had bought the whole circus.

"Now, children, 'I choose to tell,' as you say," said grandfather as Jane and Christopher began to babble in duet. "I thought it wiser, Mrs.

Hartwell-Jones, to have you see the ponies for yourself before buying them and also to have Joshua examine them to be sure they are sound."

"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones from the top of the steps, and looked more closely at the ponies.

She also looked at Letty without seeming to, and then turned and said something to grandmother in a low tone.

"This," said grandfather, getting out of the phaeton and going to the side of the pony carriage, "this is Miss Letty Grey, who knows all about the ponies."

"And isn't the carriage great!" exclaimed Christopher, who could not keep still another instant. "I thought Letty would have to drive her chariot, and wouldn't that have made a hullabaloo going through town!

But Mr. Drake had this carriage that Letty used to use in the parade before they got the chariot. This is the one Letty used at Willow Grove."

Mrs. Hartwell-Jones continued to look at the ponies, evidently thinking deeply. Jane sat, still and eager, watching Mrs. Hartwell-Jones with bright eyes. How she hoped she would buy the ponies, dear little Punch and Judy. Presently she slipped out of the carriage and mounted the veranda steps.

"They are so nice!" she whispered, tucking her hand into her grandmother's. "And Letty drove them because she wanted to see you, Mrs.

Hartwell-Jones. She wanted to see you because you write books."

"Would you mind driving them up or down once or twice?" she asked Letty, who had been fidgeting the reins, overcome with shyness.

Grandfather had gone with Joshua and Mr. Drake to the farmyard, for the purpose of examining the other horses. Joshua was celebrated all over the countryside for his knowledge of horses.

"What a nice face that child has!" exclaimed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones to grandmother as Letty guided the ponies at a slow trot around the drive, Christopher still perched on the rumble. "Is she the little girl you spoke to me about?"

"Yes," replied grandmother. "She does not look like a circus girl, does she?"

"She doesn't want to be a circus girl any more," spoke up Jane. "She wants to find some work to do. She hasn't any home. She wants to work.

And I told her," she added importantly, "that I'd speak to you, grandmother, to ask if you knew of anybody who needed a maid."

"A maid!" echoed Mrs. Hartwell-Jones, as if she had been given a new thought. "A maid-and no home!" She turned to grandmother. "Why would I not be the better one to carry out your plan, Mrs. Baker?"