Three Little Women Part 9

Meanwhile Miss Pike and her rescued mirror had reached the hedge, the girls breathing a sigh of relief when they saw her bearing triumphantly down upon them.

"There! There! If I never do another deed as long as I live I shall feel that I have _not_ lived in vain! What _would_ your poor mother have said had she returned to find this priceless heirloom destroyed,"

she cried, as she rested the mirror against a tree trunk and clasped her hands in rapture at sight of it.

"Perhaps mother _might_ ask first whether _we_ had been rescued,"

whispered Constance, but added quickly, "_there_ is mother now. O I wonder who told her," for just then a carriage was driven rapidly to the front gate and as the girls ran toward it Mrs. Carruth stepped quickly from it. She was very white and asked almost breathlessly, "Girls, girls, is anyone hurt? Are you _all_ safe? Where's Mammy?"

"We are all safe mother, Mammy is here. Don't be frightened. We have done everything possible and the fire is practically out now," said Constance, pa.s.sing her arm about her mother who was trembling violently.

"Don't be alarmed, mother. It isn't really so dreadful as it might have been; it truly isn't," said Eleanor soothingly. "Loads of things have been saved."

"Yes, Mammy has outgeneraled us all, Mrs. Carruth," cried Hadyn Stuyvesant, who now came hurrying upon the scene. "I guess she has shown more sense than all the rest of us put together, for she's kept her head."

"And oh, my dear! My dear, if all else were lost there is one invaluable treasure spared to you! Come with me. I saved it for you with my own hands. Come!" cried Miss Pike, as she slipped her arm through Mrs. Carruth's and hurried her w.i.l.l.y-nilly across the lawn.

There was the little round mirror in its quaint old-fas.h.i.+oned frame leaning against the tree and reflecting all the weird scene in its s.h.i.+ning surface, and there, too, directly in front of it, strutted a lordly game c.o.c.k which belonged to the Carruths' next door neighbor.

How he happened to be there, in the midst of so much excitement and confusion no one paused to consider, but as Miss Pike hurried poor Mrs. Carruth toward the spot, Sir Chanticleer's burnished ruff began to rise and the next instant there was a defiant squawk, a frantic dash of brilliantly iridescent feathers, and the cherished heirloom lay shattered beneath the triumphant game-c.o.c.k's feet as he voiced a long and very jubilant crow.

It was the stroke needed, for in spite of the calamity which had overtaken her this was too much for Mrs. Carruth's sense of humor and she collapsed upon the piano stool which stood conveniently at hand, while Miss Pike bewailed Chanticleer's deed until one might have believed it had been her own revered ancestor's mirror which had been shattered by him.

Just then Mammy came hurrying upon the scene and was quick enough to grasp the situation at a glance.

"Bress de Lawd, Honey, ain' I allers tol' ye' chickens got secon'

sight? Dat roos'er see double suah. He see himself in dat lookin'

gla.s.s an' bus' it wide open, an' he see we-all need ter laf stidder cry, an' so he set out ter mek us."

At sight of her Mrs. Carruth stretched forth both hands like an unhappy child and was gathered into her faithful old arms as she cried:

"But oh, Mammy; Mammy, the insurance; the insurance. If I had _only_ been able to pay it yesterday."

"Huh! Don't you fret ober de 'surance. Jis clap yo' eyes on _dat_,"

and Mammy thrust into her Miss Jinny's hands a paper which she hastily drew from the bosom of her frock.

CHAPTER X

Readjustment

It was all over. The excitement had subsided and all that remained to tell the story of the previous afternoon's commotion was a fire-scorched, water-soaked dwelling with a miscellaneous collection of articles decorating its lawn. When the early morning suns.h.i.+ne looked down upon the home which for eight years had sheltered the Carruths, it beheld desolation complete. Alas for Eleanor's chemicals!

Her experiments had cost the family dear.

The only living being in sight was a policeman mounting guard over the ruins. A staid and stolid son of the Vatterland who had spent the wee sma' hours upon the premises and now stood upon the piazza upright and rigid as the inanimate objects all about him. Beside him was a small, toy horse "saddled and bridled and ready to ride," and anything more absurd than the picture cut by this guardian of the law and his miniature charger it would be hard to imagine.

Meanwhile the family was housed among friends who had been quick to offer them shelter, Mr. Stuyvesant insisting that Mrs. Carruth and Constance accept his aunt's hospitality through him, while the next door neighbor, Mr. Henry, harbored Eleanor, Jean and Mammy, who refused point blank to go beyond sight of the premises and her charge--Baltie.

Mammy was the heroine of the hour; for what the old woman had not thought of when everyone else's wits were scattered was hardly worth thinking of. In the blanket which she had charged the girls to guard were all of Mrs. Carruth's greatest treasures, among them a beautiful miniature of Mr. Carruth of which no one but Mammy had thought.

Jewelry which had belonged to her mother was there, valuable papers hastily s.n.a.t.c.hed from her desk, and many of the girl's belongings which would never have been saved but for Mammy's forethought. At seven o'clock, when all was over, the crowd dispersed and the family gathered together in Mr. Henry's living-room to collect their wits and draw a long breath, Mrs. Carruth drew Mammy to one side to ask:

"Mammy, what is the meaning of this receipt? I cannot understand it.

Who has paid this sum and where was it paid?"

"Baby, dere comes times when 'taint a mite er use ter tell what we gwine _do_. Dat 'surance hatter be squar'd up an' dat settled it. So _I_ squar'd it--."

"Oh, Mammy! Mammy!" broke in Mrs. Carruth, almost in tears.

"Hush, chile! Pay 'tention ter _me_. What would a come of we-all if I hadn't paid dat bill den an' dar? Bress de Lawd I had de cash an' don'

pester me wid questions. Ain' I tole yo' I'se _rich_? Well den, dat settles it. When _yo_ is, yo' kin settle wid _me_. _Dat_ don' need no argufyin' do it? Now go long wid Miss Constance an' Ma.s.sa Stuyvesant lak dey say an' git yo' sef ca'med down. Yo' all a shakin' an' a s.h.i.+verin' lak yo' got de ager, an' dat won' never do in de roun'

worl'. Yo'll be down sick on my han's."

And that was all the old woman would ever hear about it. When the thirty dollars were returned to her in the course of a few days she took it with a chuckle saying:

"Huh! Reckons _I_ knows wha' ter investigate _my_ money. Done git my intrus so quick it like ter scar me."

After the first excitement was over came the question of where the family was to live, and it was Hadyn Stuyvesant who settled it forthwith by offering the home which had been his mother's; a pretty little dwelling in the heart of Riveredge which had been closed since his mother's death and his own residence with his aunt. So in the course of the next week the Carruths were installed therein and began to adjust themselves to the new conditions The first question to be answered was the one concerning their home. Should it be rebuilt with the money to be paid by the insurance company, or should it be sold?

It was hard to decide, for sentiment was strongly in favor of returning to the home they all loved, while sound sense dictated selling the land and thus lessening expenses. Sound sense carried the day, and the little house on Hillside street became home, and in the course of a few weeks the machinery ran along with its accustomed smoothness, although it was some time before the family recovered from the shock of realizing how close they had come to losing all they possessed, and also keenly alive to the fact that what _had_ been saved must be carefully guarded. Fifteen thousand was not an alarming sum to fall back upon and the rent for the new home although modest, compared with what their own would have commanded, had to be considered.

Meanwhile the girls had returned to their school duties, the older ones working harder than ever, especially Eleanor, whose conscience troubled her not a little at thought of her carelessness which had caused all the trouble, for well she realized that her failure to care properly for the powerful acids with which she had been experimenting when Constance appeared upon the scene had started the fire.

Constance had immediately set to work to evolve from the apparel rescued a winter wardrobe for the family, and displayed such ingenuity in bringing about new gowns and headgear from the old ones that the family flourished like green bay trees. Still Constance was not satisfied, and one afternoon said to Eleanor, who now shared her room, but who had _not_ laid in a new supply of chemicals:

"Nornie, put down that book and listen to me, for I'm simmering with words o' wisdom and if I don't find a vent I'll boil over presently."

Eleanor laid aside the book she was poring over, laughing as she asked:

"What is it--some new scheme for making a two-pound steak feed five hungry mouths, or a preparation to apply to the soles of shoes to keep them from wearing out?"

"It has more to do with the stomach than the feet, but I'm not joking.

I want to take account of stock and find out just where we are _at_ and just what we _can_ do. Mother has her hands and head more than full just now, and I think _I_ ought to give a pull at the wheel too."

"And what shall _I_ be about while you are doing the pulling? It seems to me a span can usually pull harder than a single horse. By-the-way, apropos of horses, what _has_ Mammy done to poor old Baltie? Do you realize that she has not yet had him two months, but no one would ever recognize the old horse for the decrepit creature Jean led home that afternoon."

"I know it! Isn't she a marvel? I believe she is half witch. Why, blind and twenty-five years old as he is, old Baltie to-day would bring Jabe Raulsbury enough money to make the covetous old sinner smile, I believe; if anything on earth could make him smile. I thought I should have screamed when she started off with her steed the other day. That old phaeton and harness she found in the barn here were especially sent by Providence, I believe. I never expect to see a funnier sight if I live to be a hundred years old than Mammy driving off down the road with that great basket of apples by her side and Jean perched behind in the rumble. Mammy was simply superb and proud as the African princess she insists she is," and Constance laughed heartily at the picture she made.

"What did she do with her apples? I wish I could have seen her," cried Eleanor.

"She had them stored away in our cellar. She had gathered them herself from mother's pet tree and packed them carefully in a couple of barrels. How on earth she finds time to do all the things she manages to I can't understand. She took that basket out to Mrs. Fletcher. You remember Mrs. Fletcher once said there were no apples like ours and Mammy remembered it. Still, I am afraid Mrs. Fletcher would never have seen that basket of apples if her home had not adjoined the Raulsbury place. You know Jabe had to pay a large fine before he could get free.

Such an hour of triumph rarely comes to two human beings as came to Mammy and Jean when they drove that old horse past Jabe's gateway and kind fate drew him to that very spot at the moment. Mammy is still chuckling over it, and Jean isn't to be lived with. But enough of Mammy and her charger, let's get to stock-taking."

"Yes, do," said Eleanor.

"I've been putting things down in black and white and here it is,"

said practical Constance, opening a little memorandum book and seating herself beside her sister. "You see mother has barely fifteen hundred dollars a year from father's life insurance and even _that_ is somewhat lessened by the slump in those old stocks. Now comes the fire insurance settlement and the interest on that won't be over seven hundred at the outside, will it?"

"I'm afraid not," said Eleanor with a doubtful shake of her head. "But suppose we are able to sell the old place?"