Part 4

Jessie paid no attention to this remark but continued her line of thought. “I think she misses my playing with her as much as I used to, so I’ll tell her she can play with the crow all she likes. I wonder what we’d better call him. He’s as shiny and black as coal; you know the kind that has all sorts of colors in it. He looks that way when he turns his head.”

“I don’t think Coal would be a very pretty name,” objected Adele.

“I don’t think so either,” Jessie agreed with her. “I’ll have to think of something else.” They turned over in their minds all the things that suggested blackness or darkness, from ink to thunder-clouds, finally hitting upon Ebony, which was a happy thought of Jessie’s who remembered an ebony chest in her Aunt Lucy’s house. “We can call him Ebon for short,” she said. “It is a nice, easy name.”

“And Eb would be still shorter,” said Adele. “Hello, Eb.”

The crow responded by putting his head to one side and remarking “Caw!” in a way which made both girls laugh.

“When I get the gray kitten,” said Jessie, “I shall have two new pets.”

“And I haven’t any,” said Adele wistfully.

“I am sure Effie Hinsdale would give you one of the kittens,” said Jessie. “I’ll ask mother if we can go there Saturday. I know she will be glad--Effie I mean--to get a good home for another kitten. There is a gray something like mine and two black ones.”

“I’d rather have black, I think, and I’ll call it Velvet,” said Adele swift in decision.

“I’ve named mine Cloudy,” Jessie told her. “We can’t have them yet, you know.”

“Why not?”

“They’re not big enough to leave their mother. I thought I saw a cat, a yellow cat, on your porch one morning.”

“Oh, that’s the stable cat. He is very wild and won’t let me come near him. I’d rather have a kitten anyway.”

“Well, we can go see the kittens at Effie’s even if we can’t take them just yet, and we shall have the crow.”

“And Polly,” put in Adele with a laugh.

“She isn’t a pet; she is a friend,” replied Jessie with some dignity, feeling that Adele meant to underrate Playmate Polly’s importance.

In a very short time Ebon had become quite tame, and followed the little girls as if he were a dog. He constantly amused them by his funny ways. Although he had not yet learned to talk, Sam declared that he would in time, and meanwhile Adele went with Jessie to see Effie’s kittens, and was promised a black one. So from having no companions at all, Jessie felt that she would be very well supplied that winter. “There will be you and your kitten, me and my kitten, Polly and Eb,” she said to Adele. “That will be a great many of us to play together.”

“Yes, and there will be Miss Eloise and horrid lessons,” returned Adele.

Jessie sighed. “Yes,” she said, “I have been thinking of that. I wish we could take lessons like pills and have done with them.”

“In jelly?”

“No, I’d just gulp them down with water and have some bread and jelly afterward.”

The children were in the sitting-room, having just returned from Effie’s. Mrs. Loomis was sitting there sewing. She smiled as she listened to what the children were saying. “I think you will be doing just about as you say,” she remarked. “You will swallow down your lessons in the morning, and in the afternoon you will have your bread and jelly in the shape of play. I don’t believe you will find the lessons such a terrible dose as you think.”

“Indeed, I hope so,” returned Jessie with a sigh. “Come on, Adele; Peter Pan has lost his shadow again and I must find it.” This Peter Pan of Jessie’s lost his shadow much more frequently than did the original one, for the shadow was nothing but a bit of newspaper fastened by a piece of thread and it was torn off very often.

“I’m going to have a Peter Pan, too,” Adele announced triumphantly. “Aunt Betty has written papa to bring me one the next time he comes.”

“There couldn’t be two Peter Pans,” said Jessie in an annoyed tone.

“There could, too. I am sure I have just as much right to name my doll after the Peter Pan as you have. There are hundreds and hundreds of George Washingtons in the world and lots and lots of Grover Clevelands.”

Jessie could not deny this, but she was not pleased with the idea of there being another Peter Pan so close at hand. “If you name your doll Peter Pan, I’ll call mine something else,” she said, and then she added, “I won’t have any use for the grotto, of course, so I will just pull it down.”

“I think you are horrid mean,” said Adele. “You know I do love that grotto.”

“Well, you can make one for yourself,” said Jessie calmly. “There’s just as much stuff for it on your side of the brook as there is on mine.”

The tears rushed to Adele’s eyes. “You know I couldn’t. I should never know how, and besides your side of the brook has a much better bank.”

“Well,” said Jessie, unmoved, “there simply cannot be two Peter Pans.”

Adele snatched up her hat and ran from the room. Jessie, watching her from the window rather shamefacedly, saw her hurrying down the hill. She waited till Adele had safely crossed the log, then she turned away saying to herself, “There couldn’t possibly be two Peter Pans.”

_CHAPTER VI_

_A Mystery_

_CHAPTER VI_

_A Mystery_

Like most of their quarrels this between the two little girls did not last long, for the next morning Jessie had scarcely finished breakfast before Adele appeared eager and smiling. “Papa came last night,” she said, “and so did Miss Eloise.”

“Then are we to begin taking our pills to-day?” asked Jessie.

Adele laughed. “No, not till to-morrow. Aunt Betty and Miss Eloise want to talk, and besides Aunt Betty says Miss Eloise is tired and she mustn’t begin to work right away.”

“I thought we were the ones who had to work,” remarked Jessie.

“Don’t you suppose it is going to be just as hard for Miss Eloise?” put in Mrs. Loomis. “Do you imagine it is going to be very amusing to be shut up with two wilful little girls who don’t like lessons?”

“Oh!” Jessie had never thought of this side of the question. She looked at Adele.

“Oh,” said Adele. Then after a pause, “But she doesn’t have to do it if she doesn’t want to, and we do have to.”

“Do you think all persons who do their duty in this world really prefer not to do some other thing?” asked Mr. Loomis. “Some persons like to teach, I admit, but there are many who have to learn to like teaching just as much as you will have to learn to like studying. So don’t imagine it will be all fun for Miss Laurent. From what I can learn Miss Eloise consented to be your teacher because she is a loyal friend, and as your Aunt Betty, Adele, dreaded the thought of having a stranger in the house, Miss Eloise consented to come. She fortunately has a gift for teaching, but she is willing to come to this little country village because she can be of use to Miss Hallett, and because she thinks she can help you little girls. I hope both of you will remember that, and that you will do nothing to make her sorry that she decided to come.”

This very serious way of taking it made the two little girls feel quite subdued. Adele was first to recover her spirits. “You don’t know what I’ve got,” she sang out as she held something in her hand behind her.

“Let me see,” cried Jessie springing toward her. Adele backed away.

“Guess,” she said.

Jessie shook her head. “Can’t.”

“Something papa brought me.”

“Oh, I know; a doll.”

Adele displayed her new possession. “Yes, but I am not going to call it Peter Pan, at least, not yet a while, for it is smaller than yours. I don’t say I never will, but now I am going to name it after papa.”

“What is his name?” asked Jessie.

“James. I shall call my doll Jamie. Come on, let’s go down to the grotto. I wish now I hadn’t asked for a boy-doll; if it had been a girl one I could have called it Wendy instead of the paper one. Do you know, Jessie, Miss Eloise says that Peter Pan’s house was in the tree tops.”

“So it was,” Jessie remembered.

“But I like the grotto better,” declared Adele. “Aren’t you ready to go?”

“We can’t go yet; the grass is too wet. We’ll have to wait till the sun dries it a little. We can play in here for a while.”

Jessie had not been very enthusiastic over the new doll though she was relieved that it was not exactly like her own, and that Adele had decided to call it Jamie. The doll wore a scarlet coat with tiny brass buttons upon it, white trousers and a little red cap. He was quite a pretty little fellow, and Jessie admired him, though she did not say so. When the sun had dried the grass enough the children set forth, Ebon hopping behind them, sometimes taking a short flight with flapping wings. It was a bright autumn morning, the sky very blue and the air pleasant.

“I’m so glad it isn’t raining,” remarked Adele, “for it is our last morning.”

“Except Saturday. We shall not study on Saturdays, shall we?”

“Oh, no, of course not.”

They had reached the foot of the hill, and Adele made straight for the grotto, but Jessie stopped in front of the little Polly Willow. “Good-morning, Polly,” she said, gently patting the rough bark.

Adele watched her, and then said mockingly, “Good-morning, old Polly.” Then she exclaimed, “I know what I’m going to do; I’m going to have a house for my Peter Pan, and I am going to build it on Polly’s head.”

“Indeed you shall not,” replied Jessie. “She is mine and I shall not let you. Besides you said you weren’t going to call your doll Peter Pan.”

“I said I wasn’t at first.”

“This is at first.”

“No, it was at first when I said that; now it is after a while.”

Jessie turned her back on Adele and it seemed as if their last evening’s quarrel would break out afresh.

“Are you mad, Jessie?” questioned Adele.

No answer.

“Are you, Jessie?”

“Yes, I am.” The reply came in offended tones. “You know I don’t like you to make fun of Polly.”

“Then say you like me best.”

“I have said that.”

“But do you really mean it?”

“Ye-es,” rather reluctantly. “At least I do when you don’t do me so mean.”

“I won’t have the house on Polly’s head then. I’ll take this high bush.” She set the scarlet-coated little figure in a bush close by. “He looks like some red flower there, doesn’t he? I’m going to get something to build the house with.”

“What kind of things?”

“Oh, leaves and moss and things.”

“Then I’ll stay here and get the grotto in order,” Jessie decided.

“I’m going to make a cradle for Peter Pan,” said Adele as she moved off.

Jessie did not follow, but busied herself in sweeping up, with a bunch of twigs, the bits of earth which had fallen down over night upon the floor of the cave, and in putting the moss into place. Ebon, hopping about, regarded her with his bright eyes, and coming nearer tried to peck at the shining piece of glass which made the lake in the centre of the grotto. “Go away, Eb,” cried Jessie. “You are getting too fusty entirely.” She shoved him away with her elbow, and he strutted off dipping his head and uttering some protesting caws. After a few minutes Jessie had the grotto in pretty good order, but concluded a few more pebbles would not come amiss. These must be found in the brook. The water was very clear, and in the shallow parts one could easily get at the pebbles lying at the bottom of the stream. There was a scraggy tree trunk at the water’s edge, and on this Jessie sat, holding on to one gnarly root while she reached over to get the pebbles. Brown leaves went drifting by on the stream; a Bob White called from the grass near by. Jessie nodded understandingly to Playmate Polly. “You like it, don’t you, Polly, or you wouldn’t stay here. The idea of any one’s building a house on your head. I shall put your hat on and then you will be able to show that you are not just an ordinary tree. But now I must take back my pebbles.”

She gathered up the little stones and returned to the grotto where she went on with her paving till she heard Adele’s voice saying: “I have some beauty leaves all red and yellow, and I found some moss, too.” Then an exclamation: “Why, where is my Peter Pan? Jessie Loomis, you have hidden him just to tease me.”

“’Deed I have not,” returned Jessie. “I have been getting pebbles from the brook.”

“I put him right here on top of this bush,” said Adele, “and he’s gone, so you must have taken him. You did it on purpose just because you didn’t want me to have a Peter Pan.”

“I did not,” returned Jessie indignantly. “He could easily have fallen off. Look all around, in the grass and the leaves.”

“Has Mrs. Mooky been here?” asked Adele. “You know that story of the little Tom Thumb that the cow was going to eat.”

“I believe Mrs. Mooky was somewhere about,” Jessie told her. “No,” she remembered, “it wasn’t near here that I saw her; it was on the other side of the fence in the pasture.”

Adele began to hunt around diligently, Jessie joining in the search, but no lost doll was to be found. Once a bunch of scarlet berries on a bush deceived them into thinking that by some mysterious means the doll had been spirited away. “For you know he could fly,” said Adele.

At last they were obliged to give up looking, and Adele went home quite convinced that Jessie knew where the doll was hidden, and Jessie, in her turn went off up the hill toward the house, hurt and distressed to think that Adele should not have believed her.

She went back after dinner to renew the search, and became satisfied after a long hunt that Adele had mistaken the bush and that she had put it somewhere else. A hollow stump in the neighborhood seemed the most likely place, but though she managed to climb up where she could peep into the hollow, it was all dark within and a stick poked in did nothing more than scare a chipmunk nearly out of his wits, so that presently he came out chattering and bristling with rage and fear. Jessie went home and told her mother all about it, and after Mrs. Loomis had gone with her to see what she could do, they both concluded that the doll must have fallen far down into this same hollow stump, and that it could not be found unless the stump were grubbed up.

“Do you think I ought to give her my Peter Pan?” Jessie asked hesitatingly. “I like him best of all my dolls except Charity.”

“No, I don’t think you need do that,” her mother told her, “but when I go to town I will try to find one that you can give her to replace this.”

“May I tell her so?”

“Yes, if you like. I think if you do, it will convince her that you spoke the truth.”

“She ought to have believed me anyhow.”

“Circumstances were against you, my dear. I know it is very hard to be suspected, but there was some reason for Adele’s doing so, and I am sure she will be satisfied when you tell her she is to have another doll.”

“May I go over now and tell her?”

“Yes, if you won’t stay too long.”

Jessie set off toward the brook. She did not fail to search for the doll as she went, but she stopped to lay her hand upon Playmate Polly and to say: “You would have believed me, Polly. You always do believe me, and I don’t think I shall ever tell Adele again that I like her best.”

Playmate Polly made no answer, but the murmuring brook sang a little song that Jessie liked and the whispering trees seemed to say: “We know, we know.” The same little chipmunk was sitting on his haunches on top of the hollow stump. He chattered fiercely as he saw Jessie, and leaping into the nearest pine tree went whisking off. Jessie was not sure but she liked her favorite playground better without the presence of Adele, and she almost wished the yellow house were still empty. It seemed as if she and Adele were continually at odds, and though Adele professed to care very much for her, she didn’t see how it were possible when she doubted her word.

She went rather slowly through the piece of woods and through the orchard which lay on the other side of the brook. She realized that now she would meet Miss Eloise, and though she wanted much to see what manner of person she was, she rather dreaded the meeting, and besides she really did not feel in a very friendly mood toward Adele just then, only she could not have her go on believing untrue things. At last she came out close to the garden fence. She stood still for a moment before she opened the gate and went through. There was no one about, but she heard voices from the front porch, and as she turned the corner of the house she saw that there were four persons on the porch, Miss Betty, a strange lady with fair hair who must be Miss Eloise, a man who was probably Adele’s father, and Adele herself. Jessie paused where she stood but Adele had heard the click of the gate and had caught sight of the visitor.

“There she is now,” cried Adele. “Have you found him, Jessie? Have you found him?”

Jessie came slowly forward. “No,” she said shyly. “Mother helped me to look. We think he must have fallen down into a hollow stump and has gone way down inside, but mother says she is going to town very soon and she will get you another doll just like it.”

Miss Betty was listening. “Indeed she must not do that, Jessie,” she said. “A little cheap doll like that is no loss, besides it was not you who lost it, but Adele, and her father can easily get another when he goes back to the city.”

“But,” Jessie hesitated, then she turned to Miss Betty. “I want mother to get it so Adele will believe I spoke the truth, that I don’t tell stories.” Jessie held her head high.

Miss Betty looked at Adele. “Why, honey,” she said, “I am sure you never told Jessie that she wasn’t truthful.”

Adele nodded. “Hm, hm, I did, because I thought she might have hidden the doll to tease me and because she didn’t want me to have a Peter Pan.”

“But she has proved that she does want you to have one by asking her mother to replace the one that is lost, and besides, you told me that you were the last one that had the doll.”

Adele rushed at Jessie and flung her arms around her. “Wasn’t I horrid?” she said. “I’ll believe every word you say after this. I suppose you will say,” she whispered, “that Polly always has believed you.”

“Yes,” Jessie nodded, “she certainly does.”

“I don’t care,” returned Adele defiantly. “I believe after all that she is a thief, and that she stole my doll.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Miss Betty. “You both look as fierce as turkey-cocks.”

“I’m talking about that old Polly,” answered Adele.

“You absurd children!” said Miss Betty laughing. “Come, Jessie, don’t you want to meet your teacher? She is very anxious to meet you. Eloise, dear, this is your other little pupil.”

Jessie was conscious of a pair of gray eyes that looked at her very steadily but very kindly, and of two warm hands that held hers, but she was overcome with shyness and said not a word.

“Do you think you are going to like her more than you do me?” Adele asked Miss Eloise anxiously.

“You jealous little monkey,” said her aunt. “Why shouldn’t she like Jessie best? Don’t you want her to?”

“I want her to like us both alike,” replied Adele.

“A perfectly safe reply,” said Miss Eloise. “I hope I have a place in my heart big enough for both of you, my dears.”

“This is papa,” said Adele swinging Jessie around in front of Mr. Hallett, who held out his hand.

“I hope you and this will-o’-the-wisp of ours will be good friends,” he said to Jessie. “She needs some one to tone her down a little, and keep her from having tantrums.” He softly patted Adele’s hand as he spoke.

“Jessie has tantrums, too,” spoke up Adele, “but they are pouty ones, not screamy like mine.”

Jessie blushed and felt greatly embarrassed. She wished Adele were not quite so outspoken.

“Never mind, dear,” said Miss Eloise leaning over and putting her arm around Jessie. “If we don’t all have tantrums we all feel like it sometimes, and when we were little girls very few of us did not have them. We generally outgrew them, or learned self-control, and that is what you and Adele will do.”

Jessie looked up gratefully and from that moment liked Miss Eloise.

So soon did this lady put her at her ease that in a few minutes she found herself talking quite glibly about her home, her pets, and her reasons for leaving school, realizing that she would not in the least mind having lessons the next day. But presently she remembered that she was not to stay too long, so she took her leave, Adele calling after her: “Remember, you are not to get another doll. I won’t let you, and I’d rather have a Wendy anyhow.”

_CHAPTER VII_

_Taking Pills_

_CHAPTER VII_

_Taking Pills_

It was with rather mixed feelings that Jessie set out the next morning to begin lessons with Miss Eloise. She didn’t enjoy the idea of studying, but she did like Miss Eloise and it would be quite a novelty to have but one other schoolmate. She felt rather important, too, from the fact that she was to begin French and music. This last thought gave confidence to her step and brightness to her face when she appeared on the porch of the yellow house.

Adele danced out to meet her. “We’re all ready,” she said. “Miss Eloise and I have been fixing up the schoolroom, and we have put flowers in there so it looks very nice. We are to have a table between us, you and I. You shall choose which end you like best and I will take the other. Elle est ici, mademoiselle,” she called out when they reached the top of the stairs, and Jessie suddenly remembered that Adele knew French almost as well as English, and she felt herself very ignorant.

However, Miss Eloise gave her such a cordial greeting, and the schoolroom was so bright and cheery that she soon forgot everything but her interest in choosing which end of the table she preferred, and in looking at the books Miss Eloise had piled up. They were all fresh and new and Jessie liked new books. “I don’t know a word of French,” she said when she had seated herself.

“You need not say that very long,” said Miss Eloise.

“She need not say it five minutes from now,” put in Adele. “She can begin with _Bon jour_, can’t she, Miss Eloise? Say _Bon jour_, Jessie.”

Jessie obediently repeated the words.

“Now you can say good-day,” Adele told her, “and you can’t say any more that you don’t know a word of French.” Then she turned to Miss Eloise and chatted away volubly for a minute or two while Jessie listened and wondered if she would ever be so glib with a foreign tongue.

“I think I will make a rule that you are to speak to each other only in French during lesson hours,” said Miss Eloise. “That will give you both a chance and Jessie will be surprised how soon she will be able to understand and speak a number of words. Now we will start in with something else. Come here, Jessie, and show me how far you have gone in arithmetic and how well you can spell.”

It turned out that Jessie was far ahead of Adele in these studies, but that the latter knew more history and had a smattering of a number of other things which Jessie knew nothing about. But after a while Miss Eloise managed to arrange classes for them, dropping some of Adele’s studies, which did not seem necessary for the present, and adding some to Jessie’s list. But they had hardly settled down to real work before it was time for a morsel of lunch and a fifteen minutes’ run out-of-doors.

“I don’t think those were very bad pills to take,” said Jessie as the two sat munching their apples on the porch steps.

“They will be worse after a while, I suppose,” said Adele. “Wait till you have to sit at the piano and practice stupid exercises half an hour at a time. You won’t like that one bit.”

“I suppose not,” returned Jessie with a sigh. “But you don’t have to do that all the time, do you? You will have pieces after a while.”

“Oh, after a fashion, but they are not what I call tunes,” she said scornfully.

This sounded very discouraging, but Jessie was not going to give up hope. “Maybe some teachers do that way,” she said, “but I don’t believe Miss Eloise will.”

“Wait and see,” returned Adele with a wise shake of the head.