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UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00022094760 
 
BOOKS BY PENN SHIRLEY, 
 
 BOY DONALD SERIES. 
 
 Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents. 
 < Boy *Donald. 
 
 <Boy 'Donald and His Chum. 
 < Boy ^Donald and His Hero* 
 
 LITTLE MISS WEEZY SERIES. 
 
 Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents. 
 Little cMiss Weezy. 
 
 Little €Miss Weezy's brother. 
 
 Little SMiss Weezy's Sister* 
 
 THE SILVER GATE SERIES* 
 
 Illustrated. Price per volume, 75 cents. 
 Young cMaster Kirke. 
 
 'The SMerry Five. 
 
 The Happy Six* 
 
 COMPLETE CATALOGUES FREE. 
 . ■ . - 
 
 LOTHROF LEE & SHEPARD CO. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://archive.org/details/happysixbypennshOOshir 
 
The lad dashed forward 
 
 See Page 55 
 
THE SILVER GATE SERIES 
 
 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 BY 
 
 PENN SHIRLEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF "LITTLE MISS WEEZY " "LITTLE MISS WEEZY's BROTHER' 
 
 " LITTLE MISS WEEZY's SISTER " " YOUNG MASTER 
 
 KIRKE" "THE MERRY FIVE" ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 BOSTON : 
 LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 
 
Copyright, 1897, by Lee and Shepard 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 The Happy Six 
 
 J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
 Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Five and One 7 
 
 II. Shot and Sing Wung 15 
 
 III. Who was the Thief? 31 
 
 IV. Kirke's Brave Deed 44 
 
 V. Off for New York 59 
 
 VI. Off for Europe 78 
 
 VII. Ten and One 93 
 
 VIII. Eleven in France 104 
 
 IX. The Mysterious Bag 115 
 
 X. Where is Number Six? 130 
 
 XI. What Strange Countries! .... 144 
 
 XII. The Very Happy Six 159 
 
 9.S9468 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 " The lad dashed forward " Frontispiece. 
 
 " ' Oh ! I am ever so sorry,' said Weezy " . . Page 87 
 
 4 ' Here I is, Mamma" 142 
 
 " I've found it ! " 169 
 
THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FIVE AND ONE 
 
 "The Happy Six" grew out of "The Merry 
 Five," and this was the way of it: — 
 
 The Merry Five, as you may remember, 
 were Molly, Kirke, and Weezy Rowe, and 
 their twin neighbors, Paul and Pauline Brad- 
 street; and they lived in Silver Gate City, 
 in sunny California. 
 
 Well, — to go on with the story, — one May 
 morning before school-time, as Kirke was 
 amusing his little brother upon the veranda, 
 Molly came rushing out in great excitement, 
 crying, — 
 
 "O Kirke, you can't guess what's going 
 to happen to The Merry Five ! " 
 
 7 
 
8 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 Kirke, engaged in attaching a string to 
 the neck of a speckled horned toad, answered 
 coolly without looking up, — 
 
 " No ; and I never said I could. Fortune- 
 telling is not my trade." 
 
 " What is your trade, you funny boy ? " 
 asked little Miss Weezy, suddenly appearing 
 from the garden. 
 
 "Just at present I am in the harness busi- 
 ness/' he returned, as he tied together the 
 ends of the cord. 
 
 Yellow-haired Donald, on his hands and 
 knees at his brother's feet, watched the pro- 
 ceeding with deep interest, for this toad was 
 to be his little pony. 
 
 " In the teasing business you mean, Kirke 
 Rowe," retorted Molly, tossing back her long 
 auburn braid with some impatience. "You 
 want me to think you don't care what hap- 
 pens to The Merry Five." 
 
 " Whisper it to me, Molly, please do ! " 
 
FIVE AND ONE 9 
 
 implored Weezy, her dainty sea-shell ear close 
 
 to her sister's mouth. " I can keep a secret 
 
 all to myself." 
 
 "It's not a secret," cried Molly, waltzing 
 
 the child down the veranda. " It's not a 
 
 secret, but Kirke needn't listen." And she 
 
 chanted gayly at the top of her voice, — 
 
 " We're going to Europe, to Europe, to Europe, 
 The Merry Five are going to Europe ! " 
 
 This aroused Kirke. 
 
 " Molly Rowe, what do you mean ? " he 
 cried, nearly letting the toad escape, harness 
 and all. "Who said such a thing?" 
 
 "Well, Captain Bradstreet is going, anyway. 
 There's some trouble in Paris about one of his 
 vessels: he's obliged to go in June." 
 
 "But what has that to do with us, I'd like 
 to inquire ? " 
 
 " Oh, nothing, nothing at all ! Only we're 
 going with him ; that is, I almost know we 
 are. The doctor said yesterday that papa 
 
10 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 needed a sea voyage, and mud-baths, and 
 things. And mamma said just now, * Yes, 
 Edward, you ought to go to Europe.' And 
 when mamma says that" — 
 
 "I declare, Molly Rowe, it does look like 
 it! June, did you say?" 
 
 "Is it far to Europe ? " asked Weezy anx- 
 iously ; " farther than Mexico ? " 
 
 "Farther than Mexico? Why, you little 
 goosie, Mexico is within sight of us, and Europe 
 is 'way off to the other side of the world." 
 
 "Truly? Then I'm not going to any old 
 Europe ! " 
 
 And Weezy's lip began to quiver. 
 
 " Not with papa and mamma, darling ? " said 
 Molly. "They'll go with us and so will Cap- 
 tain Bradstreet, and they'll all take care of 
 The Merry Five." 
 
 " Here's three cheers for Europe ! " shouted 
 Kirke, swinging his cap. " And hurrah ! Three 
 cheers for The Merry Five ! " 
 
FIVE AND ONE II 
 
 "Hurrah! Free chairs for Mary Five/" 
 echoed little Donald, flapping his arms like 
 a windmill in a gale. " Hurrah ! Free chairs 
 for Mary Five!" 
 
 It was so droll to hear him that his lis- 
 teners all laughed: and who can wonder? 
 
 " Bravo, Don ! " roared Kirke, tossing the 
 little cheerer over his shoulder. " If your 
 Mary Five wants free chairs she ought to 
 have 'em ! " 
 
 "So I say," said Molly, drying her eyes. 
 "And a little boy that can shout for her like 
 that deserves a reserved seat ! " 
 
 " Let's give him one — a reserved seat in 
 our club," returned Kirke good-naturedly. 
 "He ought to come into The Merry Five." 
 
 "Only with him, you see, we shouldn't be 
 The Merry Five any longer," demurred Molly ; 
 "there'd be one to carry." 
 
 "Then we might call ourselves The Merry 
 Six: how is that?" amended Kirke, setting 
 
12 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 Donald down again. "What do you say to 
 The Merry Six ? " 
 
 "The Merry Half Dozen would be nicer, 
 / think," put in Weezy; "a great deal nicer." 
 
 "Nonsense, Weezy," retorted Kirke, "that 
 sounds like a nestful of eggs ! Let's have it 
 The Merry Six." 
 
 "Why not The Happy Six?" asked Molly, 
 with a roguish smile. "Let's be happy now, 
 just for a change." 
 
 "Agreed, Molly, I'm willing, if Paul and 
 Pauline are." 
 
 "So am I, too," assented Miss Weezy, 
 though secretly preferring a half dozen to 
 six. 
 
 Paul was just now away on a visit, but 
 when they proposed the question to Pauline 
 that afternoon, she received "little Number 
 Six" into the club with open arms, and de- 
 clared that his extreme youth was no objec- 
 tion whatever. She had heard that as people 
 
FIVE AND ONE 1 3 
 
 grow older, they always approve of having 
 young members come into their clubs. She 
 was sure Paul would welcome Master Donald 
 cordially, and would agree with them all that 
 the new name proposed by Molly was ex- 
 actly the thing. 
 
 Thus it happened that Donald and his 
 " Mary Five " became straightway " The 
 Happy Six;" and this is a true account of 
 the transaction; though, to be sure, it had 
 not been settled yet that the club was going 
 to Europe. 
 
 " But what difference does that make ? " 
 asked Pauline. "Can't we be The Happy 
 Six, all the same, wherever we are ? I move 
 that we try to be happy right here in Cali- 
 fornia till the middle of June, anyway, and 
 then " — 
 
 "I second the move," responded Molly. 
 
 "'Tis a vote," cried Kirke and little Num- 
 ber Six in chorus. 
 
14 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 And now, in the chapters that follow, you 
 will hear more of this new brother-and-sister- 
 hood, and will learn of its whereabouts and 
 all its proceedings. 
 
SHOT AND SING WUNG 1 5 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SHOT AND SING WUNG 
 
 Whether the Rowes should decide to go 
 to Europe or not, the Bradstreets were go- 
 ing; and Captain Bradstreet thought it high 
 time to inform Paul of the plan. The boy- 
 had not been well for some days, and for 
 change of air had been sent to the ranch of 
 Mr. Keith, a relative, who had a warm re- 
 gard for himself and his sister Pauline. 
 
 " Kirke," said the captain, driving up that 
 afternoon after school, " I'm going out to 
 Mr. Keith's to see Paul. Would you like to 
 go with me ? " 
 
 "Thank you, thank you, Captain Brad- 
 street, I'll be ready in a second," cried 
 Kirke, rushing for his hat. 
 
1 6 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 The spirited horse had been reined up to 
 the hedge, where he pawed and champed 
 the bit, till his passenger appeared and 
 vaulted headlong into the phaeton. 
 
 In his haste, Kirke had forgotten to tie 
 Shot, the fox-terrier, into his kennel. 
 
 "Weezy, Weezy," he called over his shoul- 
 der, as the carriage started. " Look out for 
 Shot, please, Weezy ; don't let him follow us." 
 
 " I won't let him/' said Weezy ; " I'll keep 
 him." And she drew him into the house 
 and closed the door. 
 
 Having done this, she went back upon the 
 veranda to finish her sewing. She was mak- 
 ing a golf cape for her pet doll to wear at 
 sea; and the work proved so absorbing that 
 she failed to notice what Donald was doing. 
 Before she knew it, the child had opened 
 the front door, and run into the hall; and at 
 the same time Shot had run out, and gone 
 tearing after the phaeton. 
 
SHOT AND SING WUNG 1? 
 
 Kirke looked rather crestfallen when the 
 little animal came barking about the wheels. 
 
 " There's that dog, after all. I didn't 
 mean he should come." 
 
 " Send him home, then," suggested the 
 captain. "Why don't you send him home, 
 Kirke ? " 
 
 " Because he wouldn't go," answered the 
 lad, in laughing confusion. " He wouldn't 
 go, and I should only hurt his feelings for 
 nothing." 
 
 The ruddy-faced captain suppressed a 
 smile, and listened patiently, while Kirke 
 proceeded to sing the praises of the grace- 
 ful white terrier, who would not obey his 
 master. 
 
 " He loves me tremendously ; he can't bear 
 to stay away from me : there's the trouble." 
 
 And in truth a more affectionate dog than 
 little Shot never lived. He was a general 
 favorite, which certainly could not have been 
 
1 8 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 said of Zip, Donald's Mexican cur that had 
 died the preceding autumn. 
 
 As the phaeton whirled along, Shot darted 
 first to one side of the road and then to the 
 other, to chase squirrels and gophers into 
 their holes, but without once losing sight of 
 his beloved owner. 
 
 " I suppose, Kirke, you're very fond of the 
 little rascal," observed the captain, as they 
 drew near the end of their drive. 
 
 "You'd better believe I am, Captain Brad- 
 street. I wouldn't part with him for a farm." 
 
 "The lad's in sober earnest," thought the 
 gentleman, peering from beneath his white 
 eyebrows at Kirke's animated face. " I never 
 knew a boy more devoted to his friends." 
 
 They were now spinning along the wind- 
 ing avenue leading to Mr. Keith's house. At 
 their right was a green lawn, bordered with 
 orange-trees; on their left, a thrifty olive- 
 orchard, in which a Chinaman was plowing. 
 
SHOT AND SING WUNG 1 9 
 
 "They're always plowing somewhere," com- 
 mented the captain. " I understand the soil 
 has to be turned over pretty often to keep 
 it light and moist." 
 
 "And it has to be irrigated, too, doesn't 
 it ? " asked Kirke, watching Shot, skipping 
 nimbly across the field toward the mule- 
 team. 
 
 " Irrigated ? Oh, yes. But there's not 
 water enough at present to do the thing 
 thoroughly, and that is why Mr. Keith is 
 having a new well dug over yonder." 
 
 " I see it," said Kirke, glancing in the 
 direction indicated by the captain; "and he 
 has got the curb up already." 
 
 " So he has. Ah, here comes Paul. I " — 
 
 The sentence was cut short by a prolonged 
 howl from Shot. The confiding little creature 
 had ventured too near the Chinaman's heels, 
 and Sing Wung, suspecting him of evil inten- 
 tions, had driven him away by a vigorous kick. 
 
20 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 " The old wretch ! " cried Kirke, springing 
 over the carriage-wheel. "He's been abusing 
 my poor little Shot!" 
 
 And as the yelping dog ran up to him for 
 protection, Kirke soothed him as he would 
 have soothed a baby. 
 
 Before Captain Bradstreet could hitch his 
 horse to the post under the pepper-tree, Paul 
 was beside him, his face aglow with pleasure 
 as well as with sunburn. The sunburn 
 caused him to look more than ever like his 
 father. Each had large, frank, blue eyes 
 and a ruddy complexion ; but while the cap- 
 tain's hair was snow-white, his son's was 
 flaxen, or, as Pauline would have it, "a light 
 ecru." 
 
 "How are you, Paul? How are you, my 
 dear boy ? Better, I hope ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, papa, ever so much better, thank 
 you. But why haven't you come before? 
 I've looked for you and looked for you ! " 
 
SHOT AND SING WUNG 21 
 
 Paul spoke with feeling. He and Pauline, 
 though now fifteen years of age, were not 
 ashamed to show their love for their father. 
 The affection existing between Captain Brad- 
 street and his motherless twins was some- 
 thing beautiful to behold. 
 
 Kirke was surprised to see how coolly 
 Paul received the news of the proposed trip 
 to Europe. Though greatly pleased, he was 
 by no means as excited as Kirke had been 
 that morning when the plan was first men- 
 tioned. Paul was a quieter sort of boy than 
 Kirke, and two years older. Moreover, he 
 had already been to sea several times, and 
 the novelty was pretty well worn off. Still, 
 he wished to go again very much, especially 
 if the Rowes would go, too, for "that would 
 make it a good deal jollier." 
 
 After chatting awhile, Captain Bradstreet 
 went into the lemon-house to speak with his 
 cousin, Mr. Keith, leaving the boys to enter- 
 
22 . THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 tain each other. Paul, acting as host, at once 
 invited Kirke to visit the well that had been 
 begun ; and they sauntered by the lemon- 
 grove to a deep hole sunk in the ground. 
 Above the hole stood a windlass with a 
 bucket attached to it. 
 
 " Is anybody down there now ? " asked 
 Kirke, dropping upon his knees and peer- 
 ing into the dark cavern. 
 
 " No, Yeck Wo is sick to-day ; so Sing 
 Wung left off working here, and is cultivat- 
 ing in the orchard." 
 
 " So it takes two to run this thing ? " 
 
 " Yes. Sing Wung stays below to shovel 
 earth into the bucket, and Yeck Wo stays up 
 here to turn the windlass and draw the 
 bucket up into daylight." 
 
 "I see," said Kirke, "and the Wo fellow 
 tips the earth out of the bucket on to this 
 heap here, then sends the bucket back empty. 
 It must be fun to watch him." 
 
SHOT AND SING WUNG 2$ 
 
 " It'll be more fun, though, when they strike 
 hard pan, for then they'll begin to blast." 
 
 It was not Paul who said this, but Mr. 
 Keith. He and Captain Bradstreet had now 
 joined the boys and were standing with them 
 near the well. "When they begin to blast, 
 Kirke, you must come down here and make 
 us a little visit," added Mr. Keith. 
 
 Kirke accepted the invitation eagerly, for, 
 like most boys of thirteen, he revelled in the 
 explosion of gunpowder. 
 
 " Let's see, can't you come Saturday, bright 
 and early? I've promised to let Sing Wung 
 go home Friday, and Paul will drive out for 
 him Saturday morning, and could bring you 
 back with him as well as not." 
 
 "O Mr. Keith, I hope I can come," said 
 Kirke joyously, as he and the captain took 
 their departure. 
 
 But in repassing the olive-orchard the 
 youth's happy face clouded. In the distance 
 
24 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 he caught a glimpse of Sing Wung in the 
 very act of flinging a stone at little Shot, 
 who, forgetful of the recent repulse, had 
 frisked again into his neighborhood. 
 
 "If that old Chinaman wasn't so far off I'd 
 give him ' Hail Columbia ! ' " muttered he. 
 " Mean creature ! Wouldn't I like to dump 
 him into that new well ? " 
 
 "No; you certainly wouldn't," said the cap- 
 tain with an indulgent smile. " On the con- 
 trary, I'll wager that if he should fall in, 
 you'd be the first to help pull him out." 
 
 Kirke was indignantly protesting that he 
 "should do no such thing," when suddenly the 
 horse, Pizarro, stumbled upon a rolling stone 
 and turned a half-somersault down the hill. 
 
 In an instant Captain Bradstreet and Kirke 
 had leaped to the ground. 
 
 " Sit upon his head, Kirke," ordered the 
 captain. " So long as his head is kept down 
 he can't flounder about." 
 
SHOT AND SING WUNG 2$ 
 
 Kirke did as he was told, and while he was 
 perched upon Pizarro's broad cheek, Captain 
 Bradstreet unbuckled the harness and de- 
 tached it from the phaeton. 
 
 " The thill is broken, isn't it ? " asked Kirke. 
 
 "Yes, broken almost in two." 
 
 Captain Bradstreet firmly grasped the 
 horse's bridle. " Now jump, Kirke, and be 
 quick about it." 
 
 Kirke promptly obeyed, and Pizarro straight- 
 way struggled to his feet, looking very much 
 ashamed. 
 
 " He doesn't seem to be injured anywhere," 
 said the captain, after carefully feeling the 
 horse's limbs. " I wish the same could be 
 said of the phaeton. Have you a string 
 about you, Kirke, to splice that shaft with ? " 
 
 For a wonder Kirke' s pocket to-day did 
 not boast of even so much as a fishing-line. 
 
 " I might run to the next ranch and beg a 
 bit of rope," he suggested. 
 
26 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "Wait a moment, my boy, here comes a 
 greaser. Let's see what he can do for us." 
 
 A "greaser" is the common name for a 
 Mexican Indian. 
 
 "What an ugly, stupid-looking fellow," 
 thought Kirke ; " I don't believe he knows a 
 string from a rattlesnake." 
 
 But, unpromising as he appeared, the Ind- 
 ian understood a little English, and, on be- 
 ing offered a silver quarter, uncoiled from his 
 neck a long, narrow strip of deerskin, and 
 with it tied together the splintered ends of 
 the thill. 
 
 "The greasers use those strips of deerhide 
 when they tote bundles on their backs," ex- 
 plained the captain, when they were again on 
 their way. "He has spliced the shaft pretty 
 firmly, Kirke, but it may draw apart. You'd 
 better keep close watch of it." 
 
 The damaged thill was the one on Kirke's 
 side of the phaeton, and for the rest of the 
 
SHOT AND SING WUNG 2? 
 
 drive he felt such a responsibility about it 
 that he forgot everything else; he even for- 
 got his beloved little terrier. 
 
 They were entering the city before he no- 
 ticed that Shot was nowhere in sight. Then 
 he remembered that he had not seen him 
 since leaving Mr. Keith's ranch. 
 
 " Now I think of it, I haven't seen him 
 either," said Captain Bradstreet. " Maybe 
 the little scamp took a notion to stay with 
 Paul." 
 
 "Oh, no, Captain Bradstreet, that wouldn't 
 be a bit like Shot!" exclaimed Kirke vehe- 
 mently. " Don't you know how he's always 
 tagging after me?" 
 
 "Yes, like a dory after a pilot-boat," said 
 the captain, smiling. 
 
 "Where can he be, I wonder? Do you 
 suppose — you don't suppose — that hateful 
 Chinaman can have lamed him or anything?" 
 
 Kirke looked so extremely troubled that 
 
28 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 the tender-hearted captain hastened to reply, 
 " No, indeed ! I don't suppose anything of 
 the kind. More likely Shot has picked a 
 quarrel with a gopher and is bound to have 
 the last word. If he's not at home by sunrise 
 we'll ride back to the ranch to look him up." 
 
 He fully expected to hear the dog's merry 
 bark at any moment, and was quite dis- 
 turbed the next morning when Kirke ran 
 over to tell him that the little terrier was 
 still missing. 
 
 " Don't worry, we'll soon find him," he 
 said ; and immediately telephoned for the 
 horse and surrey. 
 
 But when he and Kirke reached the ranch 
 Shot was not there, nor had he been there 
 since the previous afternoon. "The very 
 last I saw of him, Sing Wung was shying 
 a stone at him," said Paul. " He hates dogs, 
 that Chinaman does. I believe he's afraid 
 of them." 
 
SHOT AND SING WUNG 2g 
 
 " He couldn't have been afraid of my dear 
 little innocent terrier," exclaimed Kirke 
 savagely; "he stoned him just for mean- 
 ness." 
 
 On being interviewed, Sing Wung pro- 
 tested that the dog had followed the car- 
 riage, and that was all he knew about him. 
 But he spoke in such a hesitating way that 
 Kirke was sure he kept back the truth. The 
 lad was passing through a fiery ordeal and 
 his heart was hot within him. " If ever I 
 saw lies I saw 'em to-day in those slanting 
 eyes behind us," he said in Paul's ear as 
 they turned away from the suspected Celes- 
 tial. "I feel just as if he had killed poor 
 little Shot and pitched him into the cailon." 
 
 " Oh, he wouldn't do that, Kirke ; 'twould 
 take too much courage — Sing Wung is a 
 chicken-hearted creature." 
 
 " Not too chicken-hearted to stone my dog, 
 though." 
 
30 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 Paul could not gainsay this, but as he 
 bade Kirke good-by, he remarked cheerily, — 
 
 " I half believe you'll find Shot at home 
 waiting for you. I shall know Saturday 
 morning. Remember I'm coming for you 
 Saturday morning at six o'clock, sharp." 
 
WHO WAS THE THIEF? 3 1 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WHO WAS THE THIEF f 
 
 Paul called for Kirke on the following 
 Saturday, long before breakfast-time. He 
 had driven in from the ranch in Mr. Keith's 
 two-seated wagon, drawn by a pair of little 
 brown mules, and was evidently in a prodig- 
 ious hurry. 
 
 "Hello, Selkirk!" he shouted to the side 
 of the house. " Stir around lively. Mr. 
 Keith wants Sing Wung to get to work on 
 the well early." 
 
 " I'll be there in two seconds," returned 
 Kirke, thrusting a tumbled head through an 
 open window. "All dressed but my hair." 
 
 " Good ! Can't you eat your breakfast on 
 the road?" 
 
32 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "To be sure. I can eat anywhere, every- 
 where." 
 
 The tumbled head disappeared ; and Paul 
 began to munch a buttered roll just brought 
 him by his sister Pauline. Their home was 
 just across the street, and she had watched 
 for Paul, and rushed out to meet him, and 
 now stood leaning against the front wheel of 
 the wagon, chatting with him. She was a 
 warm-hearted, impulsive girl, rather too heed- 
 less and outspoken at times. She had no 
 mother to guide her, and lacked the gentle 
 manners of her friend, Molly Rowe. 
 
 "You ought to put on your hat, Polly. 
 You're getting as brown as a Mexican," re- 
 marked Paul, with brotherly frankness, as he 
 attacked a second roll. 
 
 "Black, you should say," corrected she 
 coolly. " I've noticed it myself. You're an 
 albino. I'm a negress. I've no manner of douH 
 people call us ' the black and white twins.' " 
 
WHO WAS THE THIEF? 33 
 
 "What about Shot, Paul? Has he been 
 heard from ? " called Molly from behind the 
 window-shade of her chamber. 
 
 "Oh, I hoped he had turned up by this 
 time. No, we haven't seen a sign of him, 
 Molly; but we've found this." 
 
 Here Paul held up a dog's collar. 
 
 "Shot's collar!" cried Molly. 
 
 "You don't mean to say you've found that 
 and haven't found the dog ? " exclaimed 
 Kirke, rushing down the steps of the ve- 
 randa, flourishing in one hand a gripsack, 
 in the other a small bunch of bananas. 
 "Where did you find it, Paul? And when?" 
 
 " Last night, Kirke, in the hedge of the 
 olive-orchard." 
 
 "In the hedge?" 
 
 " Yes, tucked under it, 'way out of sight." 
 
 "Then somebody hid it there — Sing 
 Wung! I'll bet 'twas Sing Wung!" muttered 
 Kirke, as he mounted the wagon. "He 
 
 D 
 
34 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 killed Shot. Got mad with him and killed 
 him, and then saved his collar. He thought 
 he could get money for it." 
 
 "Has somebody killed Shot?" piped half- 
 dressed Weezy, screening herself from view 
 behind her sister. "Oh, dear, dear! Poor 
 little Shot!" 
 
 "Deah, deah, poo' 'ittle S'ot!" echoed 
 Don, running to the casement in his ruffled 
 white night-dress, and standing there quite 
 unabashed. 
 
 "Such a sweet, lovely little dog as he 
 was ! " went on Weezy, in a tearful voice. 
 "Just as white and good as he could be; 
 S'pose he's got up to heaven yet, Kirke?" 
 
 " The idea, Weezy ! " Kirke's tone was at 
 once grieved and scornful. "Who ever heard 
 of a fox-terrier's going to heaven?" 
 
 "Don't good little fox-terriers go to 
 heaven ? Nobody ever told me that before," 
 sighed Weezy, as Paul turned the mules 
 
WHO WAS THE THIEF? 35 
 
 toward Chinatown. "0 Kirke, don't you 
 wish Shot had been a good little skye-terrier 
 'stead of a fox? He would have gone to 
 heaven then, you know ! " 
 
 "It's no sign Shot is dead, Weezy, dear, 
 because he just happened to lose his collar," 
 cried Pauline, stepping back from the wheel 
 with a smothered laugh. " He'll come trot- 
 ting home, wagging his tail, one of these 
 days, you'll see ! " 
 
 It was like Pauline to prophesy pleasant 
 things. She was always hopeful, always 
 cheerful. They called her the merriest mem- 
 ber of The Happy Six. 
 
 "Yes, Polly, and you'll see, too," was 
 Kirke' s gloomy rejoinder. " Good-by, every- 
 body." 
 
 "Good-by, Sobersides," retorted Pauline, 
 brushing her sleeves, which had rested upon 
 the dusty tire. " Good-by, Twinny, love, I'll be 
 happy to meet you later in Europe, both of you." 
 
36 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 Kirke hardly smiled at this nonsensical 
 farewell. He cared very little just now about 
 Europe, or any other foreign country. He 
 could only think of Shot's collar found in 
 the hedge. Somebody had hidden it there; 
 and in his heart Kirke convicted Sing Wung. 
 
 "That collar was expensive, you know, 
 Paul," he broke forth, before they had 
 reached the first corner. " He was going to 
 sell it at one of the second-hand stores." 
 
 " How could he have sold it ? That would 
 have given him away, Kirke. Shot's name 
 is on it." 
 
 "Poh! couldn't the villain have ripped off 
 that plate?" 
 
 " Not very easily. Besides, Kirke, if Sing 
 Wung really meant to sell the collar, why 
 didn't he carry it home with him yesterday ? " 
 
 "Perhaps he couldn't screw his courage up. 
 He might have been afraid of getting caught 
 taking it." 
 
WHO WAS THE THIEF? $7 
 
 Though by nature unsuspicious, Kirke was 
 a boy of strong prejudices. Since making 
 up his mind that the Chinaman was guilty of 
 a crime, he could no longer tolerate him. 
 
 " But how are we going to prove that Sing 
 Wung put the collar in the hedge?" asked 
 Paul earnestly. " Mr. Keith says it isn't fair 
 to condemn anybody on circumstantial evi- 
 dence." 
 
 " Fudge ! What more evidence does he 
 want? Didn't we both see Sing Wung ston- 
 ing my Shot ? And has anybody set eyes on 
 my Shot from that day to this ? " 
 
 "No," said Paul, "it does look dark against 
 Sing Wung, I confess, and I'm just as mad with 
 him as you are." 
 
 "I shouldn't think Mr. Keith would keep 
 such a sneak. He ought to discharge him, 
 and I've a great mind to tell him so," returned 
 Kirke, as if his opinion and advice would carry 
 great weight with that gentleman. 
 
38 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "Oh, he can't discharge him now, Kirke! 
 How can he, right in the height of the barley- 
 harvest ? " 
 
 " He can hire somebody else." 
 
 "No, he can't for love or money. The 
 Mexicans and Chinamen are all engaged for 
 the season by this time. Besides, there's the 
 well not half done." 
 
 Kirke bit his lip. He knew that this well 
 was needed at once. He had seen for him- 
 self how Mr. Keith's young orange-trees were 
 turning yellow for want of proper irrigation. 
 As they approached the Chinese quarter of 
 the city, he broke the silence by remarking 
 grimly, — 
 
 " I sha'n't speak to Sing Wung. I want 
 him to know I suspect him." 
 
 " Do you suppose he'll take the cue ? " asked 
 Paul, attempting his sister's trick of punning. 
 
 Sing Wung was waiting for them at the door 
 of his whitewashed cabin. He was dressed as 
 
WHO WAS THE THIEF? 39 
 
 usual in loose blue trousers and a frock of 
 lighter blue denim, his long cue wound about 
 his head in a coil and tied with narrow, indigo- 
 colored ribbon. 
 
 " He has the blues awfully, hasn't he ? " 
 whispered Kirke, not to be outdone by Paul in 
 the play upon words. 
 
 " One of his relatives must have died," was 
 Paul's low answer as he drew in the reins. 
 " I've heard that the Chinese wear blue ribbon 
 on their hair for mourning." 
 
 " If he's mourning for my dog, it looks well 
 in him," mused Shot's bereaved master; and 
 to emphasize his indignation Kirke turned 
 away his head while Sing Wung climbed to 
 the back seat of the wagon. 
 
 Paul cracked the whip, and the grotesque 
 little mules trotted on, flapping their broad 
 ears at every step, as if they considered them 
 wings and were preparing to fly. 
 
 "The grass is getting brown," remarked 
 
40 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 Paul, when they had left the city behind them, 
 " as brown as hay. And phew ! isn't the road 
 dusty ! " 
 
 "Sneezing dusty," answered Kirke; "I don't 
 believe the people that live in that shanty over 
 yonder have to spend any money for snuff." 
 
 As he spoke he pointed to a wretched hut 
 a little removed from the highway, and entirely 
 surrounded by dirt. 
 
 " Mateo lives there," said Paul carelessly. 
 
 " Who's Mateo?" 
 
 " Mateo ? Oh, he's a lazy, no-account Indian, 
 who helps sometimes on the ranch." 
 
 " I wonder if he isn't the fellow that mended 
 our thill for us the other day ? " mused Kirke. 
 " We broke down somewhere near here. How 
 does he look ? Is he fat ? " 
 
 "Fat as butter. He ought to be, you 
 know, considering they call him a greaser." 
 
 Kirke giggled, and Paul looked highly grati- 
 fied at the success of his witticism. He 
 
WHO WAS THE THIEF? 4 1 
 
 thought he might get up quite a reputation 
 as a humorist, if Pauline didn't always say 
 the funny things before he had a chance. 
 He was glad to feel that he was entertaining 
 Kirke : he couldn't bear to see the boy so 
 downhearted. 
 
 The mules were frisky that morning, and 
 reached the end of the journey in excellent 
 season. 
 
 " Heap soon ! " grinned Sing Wung, as he 
 alighted upon the ground, apparently not at 
 all disturbed because Kirke had taken no 
 notice of him whatever. 
 
 " Oh, you can laugh, can you ? " thought 
 Kirke, hopping down over the opposite wheel. 
 "You ought to be howling, you dog-mur- 
 derer ! " 
 
 "You're early, Sing Wung," said Mr. Keith, 
 who had come out to shake hands with the 
 boys. "You've got ahead of Yeck Wo." 
 
 " Hasn't Yeck Wo come yet ? " asked Paul 
 
42 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 quickly. "You don't suppose the man is 
 sick again, do you, Mr. Keith ? " 
 "I'm beginning to fear it, Paul." 
 "If he is, what's to be done, Mr. Keith?" 
 Paul still stood by the wagon, reins in 
 hand. He was very much interested in the 
 progress of the well, and wanted the digging 
 to go on, since Kirke had come on purpose 
 to watch it. 
 
 "Sha'n't I go for Mateo, Mr. Keith?" 
 " No, Paul, thank you, not quite yet. I 
 don't want Mateo as long as there's any hope 
 of Yeck Wo. But if Yeck Wo doesn't come, 
 I may ask you later to go for Mateo. We'll 
 tie the mules here under the pepper-tree to 
 have them handy." 
 
 " No workee ? " asked Sing Wung, not quite 
 understanding what was said. 
 
 "Yes, yes, Sing Wung, you can go right 
 to work here," said Mr. Keith, leading the 
 way to the new well. " Come boys, please, 
 
WHO WAS THE THIEF? 43 
 
 and help me lower him down in the bucket. 
 He must go to digging." 
 
 The boys sprang forward with alacrity, feel- 
 ing that now the fun had fairly begun. 
 
44 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 KIRKE S BRAVE DEED 
 
 Swinging his limber arms, the little blue 
 clad Chinaman scuffed behind Mr. Keith and 
 the boys to the mouth of the unfinished well. 
 Over this stood the temporary windlass, its 
 huge bucket swaying to and fro above the 
 dizzy hollow. 
 
 Kirke noticed that this hollow was deeper 
 than when he had seen it last, and the mound 
 of loose earth near it was considerably higher. 
 
 Mr. Keith and the two boys held the crank 
 of the windlass with an iron grip while Sing 
 Wung stepped inside the bucket; then turn- 
 ing the handle slowly backward, they lowered 
 him deeper and deeper till he had reached 
 the bottom of the dim-yawning cave. 
 
KIRKE' S BRAVE DEED 45 
 
 " I told Captain Bradstreet I'd like to 
 dump Sing Wung into this well, and I've 
 done it," said Kirke aside to Paul. 
 
 " The slant-eyed old villain doesn't weigh 
 much more than your little Shot," responded 
 Paul, bending over the dusky abyss. 
 
 By this time the Chinaman had scrambled 
 out of his novel elevator and was throwing 
 into it great spadefuls of dirt. 
 
 Mr. Keith looked at his watch. " I begin 
 to think Yeck Wo isn't coming. If he lived 
 anywhere near, I'd send to inquire." 
 
 At that moment Sing Wung piped shrilly 
 from beneath their feet. 
 
 "Heap muchee! Pullee ! Pullee!" 
 
 Kirke sprang to the windlass, crying, 
 "Lend a hand, Paul. You and I together 
 can hoist the bucket." 
 
 "You're very kind, boys," said Mr. Keith 
 gratefully, as he assisted them in emptying 
 the dirt. "We'll take turns at this business 
 
46 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 for a little while, if you're willing. Yeck 
 Wo may soon be here. He's worth two 
 Mateos." 
 
 For a half hour the work went on briskly, 
 Sing Wung in the depths below filling the 
 bucket, and Mr. Keith and his young aids 
 above ground hauling it to the surface and 
 there dumping its contents. 
 
 Then suddenly was heard a sharp, metallic 
 sound, — the scraping of the Chinaman's 
 spade against a rock. 
 
 "He's struck hard pan," shouted the ex- 
 cited lads in a breath. "Hurrah! Hurrah! 
 Sing Wung has struck hard pan." 
 
 "You're right, boys, I believe you're 
 right," cried Mr. Keith, hardly less excited 
 than they. " Next thing we may come to 
 water." 
 
 "Are you going to blast now, Mr. Keith? 
 Shall I bring you the drills and hammer ? " 
 asked Paul eagerly. 
 
KIRKE'S BRAVE DEED 47 
 
 "Yes, Paul, if you please, and a stick of 
 giant powder and the caps and that coil of 
 fuse." 
 
 After these articles had been dropped into 
 the well, Sing Wung began the process of 
 drilling, using the shortest drill first, and 
 longer and longer ones as he pierced farther 
 and farther into the hard pan. He worked 
 quickly, turning the pointed steel instrument 
 a little with his left hand each time he struck 
 its blunt top with the hammer. 
 
 Having assured himself of the Chinaman's 
 skill, Mr. Keith soon shouted to him, " Call 
 me as soon as the hole is three feet deep," 
 and followed by the boys walked away for a 
 drink of cool water from the Mexican olla 
 on the veranda. 
 
 "It will take the man two hours at the 
 least," he remarked, as he reached for the 
 gourd, "and perhaps half a day. There is 
 nothing yet for Mateo to do." 
 
48 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 In about two hours and a half they were 
 summoned by the sharp voice of Sing Wung. 
 He had finished the drilling and awaited 
 further instructions. 
 
 "The next thing to do, Sing Wung, is to 
 fit one of those percussion caps to the end 
 of the fuse," cried Mr. Keith, when he had 
 reached the surface of the well. 
 
 "Yah!" growled Sing Wung, like an im- 
 prisoned bear beneath. 
 
 " Well, now tie the fuse into the paper 
 wrapped around the stick of powder. Do 
 you hear ? " 
 
 " Yah ! " louder than before. 
 
 "A half stick of the giant powder will be 
 enough. Then drop the powder, cap, and fuse 
 into the hole, and press down with a lot of 
 dry earth. Do you understand ? " 
 
 " No tellee ! Makee holee all samee," mut- 
 tered the Chinaman sulkily. Had he not 
 blasted hard pan before ? 
 
KIRKE'S BRAVE DEED 49 
 
 "Then cut off the fuse about four feet 
 from the hole, Sing Wung." 
 
 They heard the Chinaman yawn noisily, as 
 if to say, " Melican man muchee talkee " ; 
 but Mr. Keith continued, undaunted, — 
 
 " And when everything is ready, Sing 
 Wung, set fire to the end of the fuse and 
 jump into the bucket. We'll pull you up in 
 a hurry." 
 
 " Allee yight ! " 
 
 Sing Wung understood perfectly. He was 
 already cutting in two a stick of giant powder. 
 In a short time he had buried this, as di- 
 rected, lighted the fuse, and been drawn up 
 out of the well. 
 
 The four ran to a safe distance, and two 
 minutes later came a loud explosion. Sing 
 Wung, after the dust and smoke had cleared 
 away, was again let down to his work. He 
 carried in his arms a can of black gun- 
 powder. 
 
50 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "If Mateo were here to lower me, I'd go 
 down myself to see the size of the chamber 
 made in the rock," said Mr. Keith. "I don't 
 know about trusting Sing Wung's judgment 
 in regard to the amount of powder to use." 
 
 " Kirke and I can let you down, Mr. 
 Keith," volunteered Paul promptly. 
 
 " Yes, indeed," rejoined Kirke. " I can lift 
 as much as Paul can." 
 
 "I know you're strong for your age, Kirke, 
 but I weigh over two hundred pounds. I'm 
 afraid you boys might let me down in too 
 great a hurry." 
 
 " No, no, Mr, Keith, we'll promise not to 
 drop you." 
 
 Nevertheless, after the gentleman, against 
 his better judgment, had been prevailed upon 
 to enter the bucket, he looked so overgrown 
 in it — like an oak-tree in a tub — that the boys 
 could hardly manage the windlass for laughing. 
 
 Landed at last in safety upon the bed-rock, 
 
KIRKE'S BRAVE DEED 5 1 
 
 Mr. Keith found that the hole drilled by the 
 Chinaman had been enlarged by the giant 
 powder to the size of a great kettle. Into 
 this hole he poured about four quarts of 
 black gunpowder and inserted the end of a 
 fresh fuse. Finally he filled the rest of the 
 cavity with fine dry earth and "tamped" this 
 down very firmly. 
 
 " I've put in a heavy charge, Sing Wung," 
 he said, as he turned from the man and 
 stepped back into the bucket. "After you've 
 lighted the fuse, you must run for your life. 
 You mustn't go to sleep." 
 
 " All yightee, no sleepee ! " responded the 
 Chinaman, who, notwithstanding his oblique 
 eyes, could sometimes see a joke. 
 
 "The Chinese ought to understand gun- 
 powder, considering that they invented it," 
 remarked Mr. Keith, as he emerged into the 
 upper air. " I hope I sha'n't have to go 
 underground again to teach Sing Wung." 
 
52 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 The boys secretly echoed this hope, hav- 
 ing found their host's weight a severe strain 
 to their muscles. 
 
 That this weight had been also a severe 
 strain upon the rope — not a new one — had 
 not occurred to them or to Mr. Keith, or, 
 indeed, to Sing Wung himself. 
 
 " It is evident that Yeck Wo is not coming," 
 said Mr. Keith again, consulting his watch. 
 "After this next explosion there will be a 
 great deal of hard pan to be hoisted out, and 
 we must have Mateo to help us. If you'll 
 bring him, Paul, I'll be much obliged." 
 
 Paul went, and was away some time. Be- 
 fore his return Sing Wung had finished drill- 
 ing the hole in the rock and begun to put in 
 the charge. Mr. Keith and Kirke had let the 
 bucket down to the bottom of the well and 
 stood ready to turn the windlass at a second's 
 notice. 
 
 Suddenly a faint light glimmered in the 
 
KIRKE'S BRAVE DEED 53 
 
 darkness below, and the Chinaman leaped into 
 the bucket yelling, — 
 
 "Pullee! Pullee!" 
 
 He had just ignited the fuse, and as the 
 flame crept slowly along its tube the gunpowder 
 interwoven in its fibres gave out a quick succes- 
 sion of snapping sounds. 
 
 " Hold on, Sing Wung, we'll pull you out 
 in no time!" Mr. Keith shouted back; and he 
 and Kirke turned the crank with a will. 
 
 But, alas ! at the second revolution of the 
 windlass the rope broke, dropping the bucket 
 and its living freight back into the well! 
 
 Half-crazed by the accident, Sing Wung 
 struggled to his knees with a piercing cry, 
 and glared at the fire which drew every mo- 
 ment nearer, hissing and crackling. 
 
 " Step on it ! Put it out, man ! Quick, 
 quick! are you crazy?" shrieked Mr. Keith, 
 leaning down into the well at the risk of los- 
 ing his balance. 
 
54 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 The unfortunate wretch was so paralyzed 
 with fright that he seemed powerless to obey. 
 He could only cower upon the rocks below, 
 muttering and mumbling. 
 
 " Good heavens, Kirke, he'll be blown to 
 inch-pieces ! Where are his wits ? " ejaculated 
 Mr. Keith, rushing to the porch for the olla 
 in the frantic hope of quenching the spark 
 with water. To his dismay the jar was empty. 
 
 Kirke, left to his own devices, roared to 
 Sing Wung, "Try to catch hold of the rope! 
 Hang on to it ! I'll draw you up ! " 
 
 But the frenzied creature never raised his 
 eyes from that fascinating spark creeping, 
 creeping toward the little mine of powder. 
 
 "Thunder and lightning, what ails him? 
 I must save him if I can," thought Kirke, 
 hastily making fast the windlass by tying down 
 the handle. 
 
 Never pausing to consider the risk he was 
 taking, he grasped the dangling rope and slid 
 
KIRKE'S BRAVE DEED 55 
 
 down upon it, hand over hand, toward the burn- 
 ing fuse. Should he be in season to smother 
 it? Ah, that was the question. 
 
 When he sprang from the end of the rope 
 to a foothold upon the rock beside Sing Wung, 
 the advancing flame was scarcely a finger's 
 length from the buried powder. Even then 
 help might be too late. 
 
 With his heart in his throat, the lad dashed 
 forward and planted his foot upon the spark. 
 Oh, joy! it was soon extinguished! He had 
 saved the life of Sing Wung! 
 
 Little cared Kirke at that moment for dizzy 
 head or blistered hands. Even his late hatred 
 of the suspected Chinaman was quite over- 
 weighed by the intense satisfaction of having 
 been the means of his rescue. 
 
 How Sing Wung, speedily rallying from 
 his nervous shock, deftly spliced the severed 
 rope ; and how he and his deliverer, one after 
 the other, were lifted from their gloomy 
 
56 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 quarters, will always remain to Kirke Rowe 
 a blurred memory, for he had hardly returned 
 to the sunlight before he fainted. 
 
 A dash of cold water restored him to con- 
 sciousness, and he opened his eyes to find 
 himself extended full length upon the lawn, 
 and Mr. Keith and Paul bending anxiously 
 over him. There were tears in both pairs of 
 eyes, and Mr. Keith was saying in broken 
 tones, — 
 
 " God bless the noble boy ! " 
 
 And what more did Kirke see? What was 
 that white object nestling lovingly against his 
 breast, now lapping his cold cheek, now 
 barking for joy ? Was it, — he could hardly 
 believe his own senses, — yes, surely, that 
 was Shot, his dear lamented terrier! 
 
 "Why, Shot, you blessed good little dog, 
 where have you been ? " he exclaimed, start- 
 ing up, all alive with happiness. "Why, 
 Shot, where have you been ? " 
 
KIRKE'S BRAVE DEED 57 
 
 " He go heap far ! Indian sabe ! " said Sing 
 Wung, who was squatting on his heels at 
 Kirke's feet, and had been fanning him with 
 a green palm leaf. 
 
 " Indian? What Indian?" 
 
 " He means Mateo," interposed Paul. 
 "Mateo was the thief; he stole Shot, and 
 now he pretends he didn't. He tries to 
 make it out that Shot strayed to his house, 
 and that he tied him there to keep him safe 
 for his master." 
 
 " Keep him safe ! As if my bright little 
 dog wouldn't have known enough to go 
 home, if he had let him alone ! I don't be- 
 lieve one word of that old Indian's story." 
 
 " Neither do I," said Paul. " We all know 
 better, and we told him so. See how his 
 rope has worn the hair from Shot's neck." 
 
 " What a shame ! But there, I won't fret. 
 I have my little terrier back again, alive and 
 well," murmured happy Kirke. 
 
58 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 But he felt a pang of remorse, as he 
 looked at Sing Wung, and met that China- 
 man's eyes fixed upon him with a glance of 
 the deepest devotion. 
 
 "Melican boy muchee good," said the poor 
 fellow, brokenly. " No makee fizzee, fizzee ! 
 Sing Wung no burnee ! " 
 
 " I haven't been so good to you as you 
 think I have, Sing Wung," said honest 
 Kirke. " But I did put out the fuse. I'm 
 no end thankful for that!" 
 
 Still the Chinaman lingered, struggling in 
 vain for words to tell his feelings. 
 
 " Heap glad doggee no killee," said he, at 
 last, pointing his hook-nailed forefinger at 
 Shot, who was at a safe distance from him. 
 " Heap glad Melican boy no lose doggee ! " 
 
 And detesting as he did the whole canine 
 species, how could the simple Celestial have 
 said anything to give stronger proof of his 
 gratitude to Kirke? 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK 59 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 OFF FOR NEW YORK 
 
 " Seems 's if Europe time wouldn't ever, ever 
 come," complained Weezy again and again. 
 For it was settled now that they were to go 
 in June at the beginning of the summer vaca- 
 tion. 
 
 The golf cape for the bisque Aramenta 
 had long been finished, and Weezy having 
 nothing in particular to do spent hours in 
 watching the hands of the clock. 
 
 " They go creep, creep, creepmouse, just 
 as slow as ever they can," she said to Kirke 
 one morning. "Can't you put some of that 
 oil on them ? I 'spect that would make them 
 turn 'round quicker." 
 
 Kirke was in the yard cleaning his wheel, 
 
60 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 and Weezy on the doorstep dividing her at- 
 tention between him and the hall clock behind 
 her. 
 
 " Don't look at the hands for five minutes, 
 Weezy. See if that doesn't make them 
 travel faster," returned Kirke, setting down 
 his little oil-can with a knowing smile. "How 
 would you like it yourself to have anybody 
 staring at you every second ? " 
 
 Weezy laughed. It was pleasant to have 
 Kirke at home again. For weeks he had 
 spent half his time out of school hours at 
 the ranch, for of course he must see that 
 well finished. After quite a long illness, Yeck 
 Wo had recovered and come to the aid of 
 Sing Wung, who could drill hard pan well 
 enough, but would not light another fuse. 
 
 "It will never do to trust Sing Wung with 
 gunpowder again," Mr. Keith had said in 
 confidence to the boys; "he is too excitable, 
 he loses his head." 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK 6 1 
 
 From first to last the sinking of the well 
 had caused Mr. Keith great anxiety, and it 
 was a matter of rejoicing to him that the 
 explosions were now safely over and the 
 hard pan penetrated to a copious supply of 
 water beneath. 
 
 " Shot stares at me and stares at me, and 
 barks for nothing ; but I don't mind," said 
 Weezy, stroking the little terrier as he frisked 
 up to her to be petted. 
 
 Kirke smiled approvingly. Shot was, in- 
 deed, a privileged character in these days and 
 received few rebukes. He might even have 
 been allowed to accompany his master to the 
 Old World had not Captain Bradstreet looked 
 upon the proposal with disfavor. Dogs were 
 a nuisance in travelling, he said. They were 
 a trouble and an expense, and always liable 
 to get lost or stolen. 
 
 This settled it, and after mature reflection 
 Kirke arranged to leave his dog and his 
 
62 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 burro with Manuel Carillo, a humble Spanish 
 boy whom he liked very much. Manuel was 
 fond of animals and would be kind to these, 
 Kirke felt sure. 
 
 Kirke and Molly made numerous calls in 
 the next few weeks, remarking to their 
 friends, — 
 
 " We came to bid you good-by before we sail 
 for Europe." 
 
 And everybody said, " Oh, how I wish I 
 were going too ! " 
 
 Vacation came at last, and with it the long- 
 looked-for day of departure. The party was 
 to go by rail to New York, and after resting 
 in that city a week take the steamer for 
 Havre, France. 
 
 In New York the Rowes were to visit 
 Mrs. Tracey, Mrs. Rowe's sister, and she 
 had promised to provide a nurse-girl to go 
 to Europe with them and assume the care 
 of little Donald. 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK 63 
 
 It was nine o'clock in the morning when 
 the travellers arrived at the railway station at 
 Silver Gate City. Captain Bradstreet and Mr. 
 Rowe checked the baggage, while Mrs. Rowe 
 entered the car followed by The Happy Six. 
 
 " I've seen a worse-looking half-dozen be- 
 fore now, Mr. Rowe," whispered the captain, 
 looking after the children with a proud smile. 
 
 " But never a merrier one, I'll warrant, 
 Captain," returned Mr. Rowe, his eyes fixed 
 on bright-eyed Weezy, who led the procession. 
 
 At her heels strutted little Donald in his 
 first sailor-suit. Then came flaxen-haired Paul 
 and his brunette sister, and behind them 
 fair, freckled Molly and brown, wide-a-wake 
 Kirke. 
 
 After they were all seated and the car had 
 begun to move, Molly gave a deep sigh of 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " We've started on our travels, Polly, do 
 you know it ? " she said with a playful pinch 
 
64 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 of her friend's arm. " Doesn't it seem too 
 good to be true ? " 
 
 That first day's ride was bliss to The Happy- 
 Six. They entertained themselves by gazing 
 from the car window, telling stories and get- 
 ting acquainted with some young girls bound 
 for Chicago. 
 
 But when at the approach of night the 
 colored porter came to make up the sleep- 
 ing-berths, Donald cried for his own little 
 "cribby," and objected to going to bed in "a 
 cupboard with a curtain to it." 
 
 " 'Tisn't a cupboard, it's a berth, you dear 
 little niggeramus" explained Weezy; and when 
 the others laughed at the miscalled word, she 
 thought they were laughing at Donald. 
 
 The little maid was drowsy herself by this 
 time, and quite willing to be helped to her 
 own berth above that of her little brother, 
 where she undressed behind the swaying dra- 
 peries, grumbling in an undertone because the 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK 65 
 
 train wouldn't stop jolting while she put on 
 her pink "slumber-wrapper." She awoke next 
 morning grumbling at the heat of the car. 
 
 Kirke was dressed and stood waiting to 
 take her down in his arms. 
 
 "Yes, it's warm, but what are you going to 
 do about it, Miss ? We're crossing the desert, 
 you see, and didn't think to take along any 
 good cool air for you to breathe." 
 
 " Kirke, Kirke, no teasing," said the mother 
 from her seat in front of them where she sat with 
 her bonnet on, entertaining Donald. " Weezy 
 means to be a good girl to-day, I hope, and not 
 to fret at what can't be helped." 
 
 " But I'm so sticky, mamma, and so dusty," 
 murmured the little girl when she stood upon 
 the floor. 
 
 "Yes, dear, so was I before I bathed. 
 Look at Kirke." 
 
 After one glance, Weezy forgot her griev- 
 ances and laughed outright, for dark rings of 
 
66 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 dirt had settled under her brother's eyes and 
 a speck of soot upon the tip of his nose. 
 
 "The rest of us are ready for breakfast, 
 Kirke, and you must hurry to make yourself 
 presentable. The conductor says we eat at 
 the next station." 
 
 Concealing his grimy face behind his pocket- 
 handkerchief, Kirke rushed past the seated 
 passengers to the men's toilet-room, while 
 Weezy hastened to that of the women, where 
 Molly assisted her in dressing. To comb 
 Weezy's fine, fluffy hair was never an easy 
 task, as she seldom stood still half a minute 
 at a time. To-day it was peculiarly trying, 
 because the motion of the train jolted her 
 about even when she would have been 
 quiet. 
 
 " Oh, oh, Molly, you are most pulling my head 
 off ! " she wailed, at a sudden lurch of the car 
 that tangled her ringlets into the comb. 
 
 Whereupon, Molly nervously set about re* 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK 67 
 
 pairing the mischief, declaring she was sorry, 
 and hadn't meant to hurt Weezy. 
 
 Which of the sisters suffered the more be- 
 fore the toilet was made, it were difficult to 
 tell ; but I rather think it was Molly ; and I 
 suspect that Molly told Pauline she did " hope 
 the nurse girl from New York would take it 
 upon herself to attend to that child's hair." 
 
 However, by dint of haste, Weezy was 
 dressed at last, and on the arrival of the 
 train at the breakfast-station the whole party 
 went out to the dining-room and made a 
 hurried meal. 
 
 "They are to put on a dining-car at noon, 
 I'm happy to say, and we shall have our 
 dinner on the train," remarked Mr. Rowe. 
 " I dislike this rapid eating." 
 
 It was a nice dinner, well served, and The 
 Happy Six enjoyed it immensely. They 
 supped that night from their luncheon-basket 
 and called it a picnic. They had adjoining 
 
68 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 tables by themselves, and the three parents 
 were at a table farther down the aisle. They 
 were now beyond the desert, at Laguna, where 
 the train had been delayed for some hours by 
 an accident to the engine. 
 
 From the window at which Paul was seated 
 they caught a glimpse of the Indian city with 
 its clustering adobe houses and brown church 
 surmounted by a cross. 
 
 " Not much of a city," commented Paul, 
 opening a box of sardines. " It looks more 
 like a village, a tiny, half-grown one into the 
 bargain." 
 
 " But for all that, papa says it holds thou- 
 sands of Indians, just thousands!" said Kirke. 
 "They must be packed snug, like those little 
 fishes." 
 
 "They'd pack better if they were longer 
 lengthwise and shorter widthwise," laughed 
 Paul, glancing at a group of thick-set Indians 
 parading along the track. 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK 69 
 
 "Why are those red men like heavy bis- 
 cuits?" asked Pauline, helping Donald to 
 orange marmalade. 
 
 " Because they're ill-bred," responded her 
 brother. Pauline shook her head. 
 
 " I know why they're like heavy biscuits," 
 exclaimed Weezy confidently. " Because you 
 can't eat 'em." 
 
 "Very bright, little Miss Weezy, but not 
 the answer," returned Pauline amid general 
 merriment. " Kirke, you haven't guessed. 
 Tell me this minute why those Indians are 
 like heavy biscuits?" 
 
 " Because " — Kirke thoughtfully squeezed 
 lemon juice upon his sardine — "because 
 every one of them is good for a shot." 
 
 " No, no ; you're far from the mark ! Molly, 
 now it's your turn." 
 
 " Is it because they're both such a miser- 
 able lot?" asked Molly dubiously. 
 
 " Oh, you stupid guessers ! " Pauline canted 
 
70 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 her head -saucily. "Why, listen now, my 
 children. Those Indians and heavy biscuits 
 are alike because neither have been properly 
 raised." 
 
 "They're ill-bred, then, aren't they, just as 
 I said," retorted Paul, twisting his neck to 
 look at three Indian girls coming toward 
 the car. All wore blankets, not folded, but 
 hanging from their necks by the hems; and 
 their flowing, black hair was straight and 
 coarse, like a horse's mane. 
 
 " Out with your camera, Paul ! " said 
 Kirke, while Molly whispered, — 
 
 " Do look at their faces, a bright vermilion ! " 
 
 "From their foreheads down to their chins. 
 What a waste of good paint ! " Kirke whis- 
 pered back. 
 
 " Let's take them something to eat," said 
 Pauline, gathering up the fragments of the 
 luncheon. 
 
 "Yes, yes, so we will," cried Molly. 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK J\ 
 
 And the gay little party hurried forth to 
 feed the young squaws, and buy some of the 
 curious specimens of rocks they had brought 
 to sell. 
 
 Paul seized the opportunity to take a 
 "snap-shot" at the dusky damsels. Kirke 
 purchased of them several bits of colored 
 stone for his cabinet, and remarked later to 
 Paul that if those squaws couldn't speak 
 English, they could tell a nickel from a dime 
 with their eyes shut. 
 
 This meeting with, the Indians was a pleas- 
 ant experience to The Happy Six, — a much 
 pleasanter one than that which Kirke was 
 doomed to pass through on the morning 
 they entered New York. 
 
 Kirke's experience occurred in this wise: 
 The night before they reached New York he 
 and Paul occupied a section at the front of 
 the sleeping-car next the door, Paul having 
 the lower and Kirke the upper berth. 
 
72 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 After undressing, Kirke had rolled all his 
 clothes together into a bundle, which he 
 placed at the foot of his berth, where he 
 might lay his hands on it in the morning ; for 
 he meant to be up early to see whatever 
 was to be seen. 
 
 But when he opened his eyes at sunrise, 
 the bundle had mysteriously disappeared. 
 
 " Paul has hidden it for a joke," was his 
 first thought; and he leaned over the edge 
 of his berth, and in an explosive whisper 
 charged his comrade with the theft. 
 
 "Taken your clothes? No; what did I 
 want of your clothes ? " answered sleepy 
 Paul, a little cross at being roused from a 
 pleasant dream. "Why don't you ring for 
 the porter ? " 
 
 There was no mistaking the honesty of 
 Paul's tone. Kirke began to be nervous. 
 He pressed the electric bell by his window, 
 and the colored porter presently appeared. 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK 73 
 
 "Want anything, sah?" he asked, thrust- 
 ing his woolly head between Kirke's cur- 
 tains. 
 
 " Yes, porter, I want my clothes ! They 
 were in a bunch at the foot of my bed. 
 Haven't you seen them ? " 
 
 "No, sah; but I'll try to find them, sah." 
 
 Meanwhile Mr. Rowe, Captain Bradstreet, 
 and Paul had dressed in haste, and were 
 now ready to join in the search. 
 
 But though they hunted all through the 
 car, their quest was in vain. The missing 
 garments were not to be found. 
 
 "The conductor thinks the thief must have 
 sneaked in and stolen them at the station 
 where we stopped at midnight," said Paul, 
 coming back to Kirke with the unwelcome 
 news. " It seems the porter left the door 
 unlocked a minute while he ran out to send 
 a telegram for somebody." 
 
 "And here I am in my night-gown, Paul! 
 
74 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 What on earth am I going to do ? " groaned 
 Kirke behind his curtains. 
 
 These were the only curtains now visible 
 in the sleeper. The berths of all the other 
 sections had been put up for the day. 
 
 "It's an outrageous shame, Kirke, an ever- 
 lasting, heathenish shame!'' vociferated Paul; 
 but in the midst of his condolence he had to 
 burst out laughing at the sad predicament. 
 
 Kirke relieved his own feelings by throw- 
 ing a pillow at his friend. To himself the 
 situation was far from ludicrous, it was ap- 
 palling. The train was steaming on at the 
 rate of forty miles an hour; it would soon 
 land him in New York. Then what? 
 
 "Your father has gone to look up your 
 trunk and get out another suit for you," con- 
 tinued Paul, catching his breath. 
 
 " Good ! But, oh dear, how can he open 
 the trunk without the key ? The key was in 
 my pocket ! " 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK ?$ 
 
 But the key was not needed ; the baggage 
 was not on that train. 
 
 A moment later, Mr. Rowe appeared at 
 the section, carrying on his arm a pair of 
 checked blue-and-white overalls. 
 
 " Well, Kirke, I've done my best for you," 
 said he cheerily. " I've bought these of a 
 brakeman. By rolling up the hems, I think 
 you can manage to wear them." 
 
 " Oh, those are a bonanza, Kirke." 
 
 It was his mother's voice at the boy's el- 
 bow. "And I've brought you other things 
 to put on. We'll leave you now to dress. 
 Be as quick as you can." 
 
 As the train ran into the New York sta- 
 tion, a rough-looking lad emerged from the 
 curtains clad in a brakeman's overalls turned 
 up at the hem, Molly's ulster, Mrs. Rowe's 
 overshoes, and Captain Bradstreet's smoking- 
 cap. 
 
 "O Kirke, you look like" — Mrs. Rowe 
 
y6 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 cut short Weezy's comparison by a warning 
 glance. 
 
 "Like a California freak, Weezy. Why, 
 I knew that; did it on purpose," retorted 
 Kirke, assuming an air of bravado. 
 
 "Oh, no, Kirke, you look like a precious 
 mosaic," said Pauline lightly, while the whole 
 party managed to crowd closely about the 
 nondescript boy. 
 
 Partially screened by his friends, the 
 "precious mosaic" of many colors skulked 
 along to a carriage and vaulted into it. 
 Here the little company separated for the 
 present, the Bradstreets proceeding to a 
 hotel in the city, and the Rowes to the home 
 of Mrs. Tracey, where they were to remain 
 till the sailing of the steamer. 
 
 "Auntie'll think you're bringing her an 
 almshouse boy, mamma," Kirke said ruefully, 
 as they alighted before the Tracey mansion. 
 
 To greet his aunt and cousins in such a 
 
OFF FOR NEW YORK J*] 
 
 plight, and to be laughed at the livelong day, 
 was an embarrassing ordeal to the lad; but 
 he bore it manfully, and if afterwards he 
 made wry faces and stamped his foot, he did 
 it in the privacy of his own room, and no- 
 body was the wiser. And in the evening, 
 with the arrival of his trunk, the prolonged 
 and disagreeable trial came to an end. 
 
78 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 OFF FOR EUROPE 
 
 The Silver Gate City party left New York 
 the next Saturday on the French steamer 
 La Bretagne, bound for Havre. They took 
 with them Jane Leonard, a girl of eighteen, 
 who was to have the care of Donald. 
 
 They went on board an hour before sail- 
 ing, and Molly and Pauline immediately ran 
 below deck to put in order the stateroom 
 which they were to share with Weezy. It 
 was a cosy, outside room near the middle of 
 the boat, with two berths, and opposite these 
 a cardinal velvet sofa on which Weezy was 
 to sleep. 
 
 "It's lucky your brush-and-comb case has 
 a loop to hang it up by, Molly," said Pau- 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE 79 
 
 line, as they unpacked their toilet articles. 
 "You'd better pin it to your curtain where 
 you can reach it from your berth without 
 raising your head." 
 
 "What for?" asked Molly, a little impa- 
 tiently. She sometimes thought her friend 
 rather too fond of dictating. 
 
 "You'll find out what for when we get 
 into rough water and things go pitching 
 about the vessel," responded Pauline in a 
 significant tone. "And please, please don't 
 put that cologne bottle in the rack. If you 
 do 'twill rattle and dance and thump till it 
 breaks — or you wish it would." 
 
 Molly meekly dropped the perfumery back 
 into her hand-bag, and hung the bag upon 
 a large hook beside the plate-glass mirror. 
 
 " You scare me to death, Polly," she said, 
 with a shiver. " I almost wish I weren't 
 going to sea." 
 
 " Oh, nonsense, you'll like the ocean when 
 
80 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 you get used to its tricks/' returned Pauline, 
 with the assurance of an old sailor. " How 
 big your eyes have grown, Miss Scared-to- 
 death ! And they are just the color of pur- 
 ple heliotrope." 
 
 " The washed-out kind you mean, I suppose, 
 Polly ? " 
 
 " No, I don't, I mean the washed-in kind 
 that doesn't fade," said Pauline, giving Molly's 
 auburn hair a vicious little pull. "You know 
 your eyes are perfectly lovely." 
 
 "Come, girls." Mrs. Rowe appeared in 
 their doorway from her stateroom across the 
 passage. " Let us go on deck ; the air above 
 will be fresher." 
 
 " So it will, mamma. Besides, we want to see 
 the land every minute we can," sighed Molly. 
 
 As they mounted the stairs of the com- 
 panion-way side by side, she grasped her 
 mother's hand and held it fast. Now that 
 the longed-for hour of sailing had actually 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE 8 1 
 
 arrived, she felt an unexpected reluctance to 
 leaving the solid earth behind her and trust- 
 ing herself upon the heaving waters. But 
 she said nothing more about this to Pauline. 
 Pauline would not have understood her dread. 
 Neither for that matter would fearless Kirke 
 have understood it. 
 
 " I don't see your father and the others, 
 Molly," said Mrs. Rowe rather anxiously when 
 she and the girls stood on the crowded deck. 
 " I hope they won't lose sight of Donald." 
 
 Pauline sprang upon a neighboring settee, 
 where she could look down on the heads of 
 the people. 
 
 "Jane Leonard has him over there by the 
 rail," she cried presently. " Mr. Rowe and 
 papa are close by them." 
 
 " Then if the child is safe, we may as well 
 stay where we are," returned Mrs. Rowe, dis- 
 posing herself upon the settee on which Molly 
 and Pauline were now leaning. 
 
 G 
 
82 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 Her words were lost in the general bustle 
 and confusion. Soon came the cry, "All 
 aboard ! " 
 
 Visitors upon the boat rushed ashore, pas- 
 sengers upon the shore rushed aboard. The 
 last to cross the gang-plank being the captain 
 of the vessel. 
 
 Then shouts of good-by arose from the 
 wharf, and answering shouts from the steamer ; 
 the ropes were thrown off; and with hats and 
 handkerchiefs waving from her deck, La 
 Bretagne slipped from her moorings and glided 
 out into the harbor. 
 
 " Isn't she a beauty, Molly ? " cried Pauline, 
 tapping the back of the settee in her enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
 "Who is a beauty?" 
 
 Molly glanced over her shoulder and saw 
 a graceful young lady seated upon a camp- 
 stool and sorrowfully gazing at the shore. 
 
 " Oh, are you speaking of that young lady 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE 83 
 
 in mourning, Polly? She's pretty, but don't 
 you think she's too pale?" 
 
 "I was speaking of the steamboat, you 
 dear little innocent," answered Pauline, laugh- 
 ing. "I hadn't noticed the other lady before. 
 How white she is, isn't she ? All the color she 
 has is in her eyelids." 
 
 " Poor thing, she must have cried herself 
 about blind, Polly." 
 
 At this point Captain Bradstreet came 
 with the deck-steward to arrange the steamer- 
 chairs of the party. Paul and Kirke followed 
 with the shawls and travelling-rugs. Then 
 those who wished to do so extended themselves 
 at their ease and chatted or dozed till the 
 dinner-bell sounded. The sea was as smooth 
 as glass, and the only motion of the vessel was 
 that caused by the throbbing engines. 
 
 " I'm not a bit sea-sick, boys," boasted Molly, 
 as all went down to dinner ; " I expected to be, 
 but I'm not." 
 
84 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "I hope you'll not be sick during the pas- 
 sage," replied Paul, but his face wore a peculiar 
 smile. It was not the first time he had heard 
 people boast in this way before they were fairly 
 out to sea. 
 
 On entering the dining-room, Molly saw 
 three tables stretching from one end of it to 
 the other, and on either side of these tables 
 were rows of cardinal velvet chairs. Instead 
 of being supported by four legs, each chair 
 swung upon a pivot in a central standard 
 screwed to the floor. 
 
 " Our seats are at the middle table," said 
 Paul. "There are your father and mother 
 just sitting down." 
 
 Weezy was with them and whispered to 
 Molly as she paused beside her, — 
 
 " I tell you how to get into your chair, Molly. 
 You squeeze in sideways and then jiggle it 
 'round." 
 
 "Yes, yes, Weezy, I know." 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE 8 5 
 
 Molly wished her little sister would not 
 make them both so conspicuous when the 
 young lady in mourning sat next Pauline on 
 the opposite side of the table and could hear 
 every word. 
 
 Molly's place was between Kirke and Weezy 
 and over against Captain Bradstreet. 
 
 " You're Number Fifteen, Molly," said Kirke, 
 reading the black letters on his ivory napkin- 
 ring. " You're Number Fifteen and I'm Number 
 Fourteen." 
 
 "And I'm Number Sixteen," added Weezy, 
 after squinting hard at her own ring. 
 
 " Yes, they treat us as if we were convicts in 
 a state's prison," Molly turned to Kirke with 
 a shrug. " You know they make convicts drop 
 their own names and answer to numbers." 
 
 " I should have made a good convict, if I 
 had worn those overalls and " — 
 
 But here Kirke was interrupted by a waiter 
 bringing him a plate of soup. 
 
86 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 They were a long time at dinner, which con- 
 sisted of several courses and ended with harle- 
 quin ice-cream, — red, green, and white. 
 
 Donald's nurse had given her charge an 
 early supper in the children's cabin, and when 
 the party returned to the deck he was already 
 in bed. 
 
 " My little brother can't stay awake after 
 dark 'cause it makes him cross," Weezy frankly 
 explained to the pale young lady in black with 
 whom she had become friendly during dinner. 
 
 " Can't he ? That's unfortunate," replied 
 the young lady, smiling. 
 
 " Oh, I don't care. Not so very cross." 
 
 Weezy was eying keenly a bag of black 
 alligator skin dangling from her companion's 
 belt. It was rather larger than an ordinary 
 reticule, and furnished with a steel clasp and 
 chain. The young lady played absently with 
 the chain while talking. 
 
 " She pets her pretty bag like a kitten. I 
 
"'On! I'm ever so sorry,' said Weezy " 
 
 Page 87 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE 87 
 
 wonder what's in it ? " thought Weezy, wish- 
 ing it would not be rude to inquire. She 
 suspected that it contained something very, 
 very precious. 
 
 "Didn't anybody come with you, lady?" 
 she questioned shyly, being exceedingly de- 
 sirous to know. " Are you all sole alone ? " 
 
 "Yes, dear; all sole alone." The speak- 
 er's voice trembled. " My father had in- 
 tended to cross the ocean with me; but he 
 was taken suddenly ill last month, and — 
 he has died." 
 
 "Oh, I'm ever so sorry," replied Weezy, 
 with tears in her eyes, thinking how she 
 should feel if it were her own papa. 
 " Haven't you any mamma ? " 
 
 The young lady shook her head, not trust- 
 ing herself to speak. 
 
 Weezy' s hand stole quietly into that of her 
 new friend. 
 
 " That's dreadful — not to have any papa 
 
88 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 and mamma ! Don't you want to see my 
 
 mamma ? Please come over to the other 
 
 side of the boat, and I'll induce you to her." 
 
 "Thank you, darling; but I'd rather not 
 
 go- 
 
 " My mamma's very nice," pleaded Weezy. 
 " Her name is Mrs. Rowe. My name is 
 Louise Rowe, only 'most all the time it's 
 Weezy." 
 
 "I'm sure your mother must be very nice, 
 Miss Louise. She has a lovely expression ; 
 yet, all the same, I can't intrude upon her." 
 
 "I wish you could," said Weezy, wonder- 
 ing what was meant by "intrude." "If you 
 could, you wouldn't be lonesome, 'cause we 
 have ten peoples — only Donald is abed." 
 
 " With ten in your party, Miss Louise, I'm 
 sure you have enough peoples without me," 
 responded the young lady in crape, uncon- 
 sciously cheered by the child's artless sym- 
 pathy. " Look, your mamma is beckoning you." 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE 89 
 
 Mrs. Rowe had feared lest her sociable lit- 
 tle daughter might annoy the stranger; but 
 after hearing Weezy's story about her, changed 
 her mind. 
 
 " The poor girl looks very sad and lonely," 
 she said, watching the sweet, sensitive face, 
 which she had observed at dinner. " I'll go 
 back with you, Weezy, and speak to her." 
 
 And having crossed the deck, she grace- 
 fully introduced herself to the desolate young 
 lady in mourning, who in return gave her 
 own name as Miss Evans. 
 
 "Cannot I prevail upon you, Miss Evans, 
 to make my little daughter and the rest of us 
 happy, by joining us ? " said Mrs. Rowe cor- 
 dially. " We have a vacant seat to offer you." 
 
 There was no resisting the rare charm of 
 the lady's manner, and the desolate stranger 
 gladly accepted the invitation, though on 
 being presented to the other members of the 
 party she betrayed great shyness. 
 
90 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "Evidently unaccustomed to society," 
 thought Mrs. Rowe; "yet so cultivated and 
 refined ! I can't quite understand it." 
 
 After they had become better acquainted, 
 Miss Evans told her that her father and 
 herself had always lived together a retired 
 life, seeing more of books than of people. 
 He was a scientist, and had devoted many 
 years to preparing a learned work on 
 biology. 
 
 "As soon as his book was finished, papa 
 meant to take a vacation with me, Mrs. 
 Rowe," she said tremulously. "We were to 
 visit my uncle in Paris. But the very day 
 after our passage on the steamer had been 
 engaged, papa had a fatal stroke of paralysis. 
 And so," added Miss Evans, with touching 
 pathos, "and so I came alone." 
 
 "Alone in one sense, my dear Miss Evans; 
 yes, sadly alone," replied Mrs. Rowe with 
 feeling. " But please consider yourself one 
 
OFF FOR EUROPE 91 
 
 of our large party. Please look upon us all 
 as your friends." 
 
 She pressed the young mourner's hand 
 warmly as she spoke, and resolved to do all 
 in her power to enliven her voyage. 
 
 Molly and Pauline bestowed stealthy glances 
 upon the diffident newcomer shrouded in 
 black in Donald's chair. In the splendor of 
 the moonlight her pale face assumed an un- 
 earthly radiance, and Kirke remarked confi- 
 dentially to Paul that she was " a regular 
 stunner." 
 
 " Solemn as a tombstone, though," re- 
 sponded Paul. "And see her hang on to 
 that bag at her belt! Anybody'd think it 
 was a life-preserver." 
 
 " I suppose it was once, when the skin 
 was on the alligator's back," laughed Kirke. 
 " Hark, Paul, your father is beginning a 
 story ! " 
 
 Captain Bradstreet's stories were always 
 
92 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 worth hearing, and the evening being warm 
 and still, the little company was beguiled into 
 remaining up until a late hour to listen to 
 some of his thrilling experiences at sea. 
 
 "What delightful people these are ! " thought 
 the lonely Miss Evans. " It is such a solace 
 to be with them. And I had not expected to 
 speak with a soul on board." 
 
TEN AND ONE 93 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 TEN AND ONE 
 
 The next day the weather continued fine. 
 The ship passed schools of porpoises sporting 
 in the sun and splashing the water like swim- 
 ming children at play. 
 
 Captain Bradstreet told Weezy that these 
 porpoises were sometimes called fish-hogs. 
 They not only drive shoals of herrings and 
 salmon and mackerel before them, but they 
 sometimes dive to the bottom of the sea and 
 root for eels and sea-worms, as pigs on land 
 root for acorns buried under leaves. 
 
 The second morning Paul descried a sporting 
 whale to leeward, and an hour later an ocean 
 steamer. When the vessels were near each 
 other, La Bretagne ran up several small flags. 
 
94 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 " Those flags ask, ' Have you seen any 
 icebergs ? ' " said Captain Bradstreet. 
 
 And when the other vessel signalled by 
 flags that the passage was clear, he seemed 
 greatly pleased. 
 
 " I always dread to meet icebergs in a 
 fog," he remarked. 
 
 "But there isn't a speck of fog to-day, 
 Captain Bradstreet," put in Weezy. 
 
 " No, not yet, but we shall run into it off 
 the Banks, little maiden." 
 
 " What banks, Captain Bradstreet ? " asked 
 Weezy, taking a peep through his spy-glass, which 
 rested across the top of Molly's chair. " I don't 
 see anything around here but just water." 
 
 " I mean the banks of Newfoundland, an 
 island; but you needn't look for them, you 
 can't see them." 
 
 " I can see something though, — something 
 white. Look, look, Captain Bradstreet ! Don't 
 you believe it's going to begin to fog?" 
 
TEN AND ONE 95 
 
 " Already ? Is that so ? " The captain 
 raised the glass and peered through it him- 
 self. " Yes, you're right, Bright- Eyes. The 
 fog is ' going to begin ' to bear down upon us." 
 
 And in a few moments the white fog had 
 shrouded the vessel from stem to stern. Then 
 came at frequent intervals the dreary sound 
 of the fog-horn. 
 
 "What a hoarse old thing!" exclaimed 
 Weezy, stopping her ears in disgust. " It brays 
 just like Kirke's burro, only awful worse." 
 
 "As if it had a long sore throat," laughed 
 Molly, buttoning her sister's cape at the neck. 
 
 "They're manning all the lookouts," re- 
 marked the wise Pauline. 
 
 " They're doing what, Pauline ? And what 
 are they doing it to?" asked Molly playfully. 
 " Won't you please speak English ? " 
 
 " Oh, you dear, stupid old land-sparrow ! 
 Don't you see those wooden cages high 
 above the forecastle ? " 
 
96 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 " I don't know what the forecastle is ; but 
 do you mean those little platforms with fences 
 round them ? " 
 
 "Yes, those are the lookouts. There are 
 five on this steamer, — I've counted, — and the 
 mate has sent a sailor to each one to watch 
 and sing out if there's danger of our running 
 into anything." 
 
 " Ugh ! I wouldn't be in their places for 
 a hundred dollars," said Molly. " But Kirke 
 would like it, you may depend. I never heard 
 of such a boy ! To think of the way he went 
 down into that well to save Sing Wung ! " 
 
 " Kirke is a noble little fellow," returned 
 Captain Bradstreet heartily, to Molly's intense 
 satisfaction. "And here he is now, coming 
 aft, and Paul is behind him." 
 
 Pauline flirted her handkerchief at the lads 
 as her father spoke, and they walked across 
 the wet deck toward her, Paul slipping once 
 on the way and nearly falling. 
 
TEN AND ONE 97 
 
 "A miss is as good as a mile," said his sis- 
 ter merrily, when he came up to her. 
 
 " Some misses are as good as two miles, if 
 not better," said Kirke, attempting to be witty 
 and bowing with much gallantry first to Pau- 
 line and next to Molly. " Oh, girls, I tell you 
 we've been having fun ! " 
 
 "With what, Kirke?" they both inquired. 
 "With shuffle-board?" 
 
 " No, no, not with shuffle-board, but with 
 — well, you might call it 'shovel-aboard,' if 
 you want to," said Kirke, "dropping into" 
 wit again ; whereupon Paul chuckled and 
 cried, " Pretty good, Kirke. You see we've 
 been watching the men shovel coal into the 
 furnace." 
 
 " Can't we go down there, too ? " asked 
 Molly, taking a step forward. 
 
 " No, indeed, not you girls ! You'd spoil 
 your dresses. Why, the furnaces are a deck 
 below the boilers." 
 
98 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "And halfway down the stairs give out 
 and you have to go the rest of the way on 
 a ladder," added Kirke. 
 
 " It's a droll place, though, when you get 
 there," resumed Paul. " Coal-bins all around, 
 — they call 'em bunkers, — and stokers black 
 as soot wheeling the coal to the furnaces in 
 barrows." 
 
 "Stokers?" repeated Weezy. "Kirke, did 
 I ever see a stoker? Is it a donkey?" 
 
 " Not always, little Miss Quiz," replied 
 Kirke with a giggle; and they all laughed, 
 as if she had said something very foolish. 
 
 " Now, I know you're making fun. I 
 think you're as unpolite as you can be ! " 
 
 Her head drooped; but before the tears 
 could fall, Captain Bradstreet soothed her 
 wounded feelings by whispering in her ear 
 that little girls who had never been to sea 
 couldn't be expected to know about stokers. 
 He would tell her in confidence that stokers 
 
TEN AND ONE 99 
 
 are the men who tend the fires on a steam- 
 boat. 
 
 "The poor souls weren't more than half 
 dressed," said Paul, when peace had been 
 restored. " But still they looked ready to 
 melt. You never saw such a fire as they 
 keep up in those furnaces, girls." 
 
 "Threw coal into the fire-boxes every min- 
 ute or two," interposed Kirke. 
 
 Molly suddenly fell to dusting her brother's 
 coat with her handkerchief. "You've run 
 against something white, Kirke. And so has 
 Paul. They don't keep their flour-barrels 
 down there, I should hope." 
 
 " No ; that's a stoker's mark. One of the 
 stokers drew a chalk-line around our waists 
 and said we couldn't go till we'd paid our 
 fee." 
 
 "A stupid joke, I should call it," said Molly, 
 for the chalk-mark was hard to remove. 
 
 "A pretty old joke," responded the cap- 
 
100 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 tain. "They always try it on visitors. I 
 hope you took it in good part, boys ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, papa," said Paul. " Each of us 
 gave the man a dime." 
 
 "And made money by it, too," declared 
 Kirke. "'Twas well worth a quarter to be 
 let out of that hot hole." 
 
 " I'd like some of the heat up here," said 
 Molly, her teeth chattering. " Miss Evans 
 had to put away her writing and go below, 
 her hands were so stiff." 
 
 " She's writing a story, Kirke, and she'll 
 read it to me sometime. She promised she 
 would," exclaimed Weezy, very proud of the 
 notice she received from her new friend. 
 
 "We just met her at the foot of the com- 
 panion-way with her tablet in her hand," 
 said Kirke. 
 
 "Yes," added Paul, "and she was clutch- 
 ing that bag of hers, as usual. I believe 
 she's carrying diamonds in it." 
 
TEN AND ONE 10 1 
 
 "Then you must believe her to be a very 
 silly young woman, my son. I wonder you 
 don't tell her that passengers are expected 
 to give their valuables to the purser, to be 
 locked in his safe," observed the captain 
 jestingly. " For my part, I never should 
 suspect that the poor girl was rolling in 
 gold." 
 
 " I'm sure she isn't rich. She dresses very 
 plainly," said Pauline. " By the way, what 
 makes rich people want to ' roll,' I wonder ? " 
 
 "Especially in gold," added Molly flip- 
 pantly, as they entered the dining-saloon. " I 
 shouldn't want to roll in gold, of all things. 
 It's one of the hardest things in the world." 
 
 "And the hardest to get," broke in Paul, 
 with a grin. 
 
 " What would you like to roll in, Molly ? 
 Soft money ? " said Kirke, with a grin of his 
 own. "That shows your politics, miss. 
 You're a soft-money girl." 
 
102 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "A soft, mooney girl, Kirke Rowe? She's 
 no such thing. I deny it ! " cried Pauline, 
 pretending to have misunderstood. " Now 
 bring the Alphabet Bewitched, there's a good 
 boy, and we'll have a game of letters." 
 
 With the beginning of the game, the chil- 
 dren's lively banter ceased, and Captain Brad- 
 street walked off to the further end of the 
 saloon to converse with Mr. and Mrs. Rowe. 
 
 That was the last quiet morning on board 
 ship for three long days ; for in the night a 
 rough gale swept over the sea, tossing the 
 vessel to and fro, and almost hurling pas- 
 sengers from their berths. Once Molly was 
 awakened by a loud crash, and cried out in 
 terror to Pauline in the upper berth. 
 
 "It's only dishes breaking in the dining- 
 saloon," yawned Pauline, turning over. "Why 
 don't you go to sleep ? " 
 
 As her father proudly said, Pauline was a 
 chip of the old block, a born sailor. She 
 
TEN AND ONE IO3 
 
 liked the swell of the ocean. She was never 
 timid, never seasick. The same was true of 
 Captain Bradstreet and of Kirke. They all 
 went to the dining-table three times a day, 
 sometimes five, undisturbed even though the 
 plates might dance a jig, and the glasses in 
 the rack above them jingle and jump and 
 threaten to come down upon their heads. 
 
 The rest of the party, more or less ill for 
 a time, rallied after the abatement of the 
 storm — all of them but Weezy. When at 
 last able to be carried on deck, she was 
 still pale and languid, and felt rather forlorn. 
 
 The rest of the company made every effort 
 to entertain her, but in vain. There were only 
 two people on whom the little maid would 
 condescend to smile. One of these was Miss 
 Evans, who read aloud some of the delightful 
 tales she had written ; the other was a young 
 man who never even spoke to the child; but 
 you will hear of him in the following chapter. 
 
104 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ELEVEN IN FRANCE 
 
 Of all the passengers on the ship, — and 
 there were perhaps six hundred, — none inter- 
 ested the boys of The Happy Six like the 
 young man with one leg, who was going to 
 London and Paris to astonish the people by 
 his tricks on a bicycle. 
 
 He had a wife, a very pleasant young 
 woman, and Molly and Pauline liked to talk 
 with her. She told them she was in the 
 habit of riding on her own wheel, ahead of 
 her husband, and throwing balls in the air 
 for him to fire at as he followed her; and he 
 never failed to hit the balls. 
 
 "How wonderful!" cried Pauline. 
 
 "Yes," returned the wife proudly; "but 
 
ELEVEN IN FRANCE 105 
 
 really not so wonderful as his spinning his 
 wheel down a toboggan slide. That is some- 
 thing that has never yet been done by any 
 man with two legs." 
 
 "Oh, I should hope not," said Molly; "it 
 makes me shudder to think of it." 
 
 "Look, look," cried Pauline; "see what he 
 is doing now ! " 
 
 Some one was playing the fiddle, and this 
 extraordinary young man was actually danc- 
 ing in perfect time with one foot. He was 
 laughing, too, and seemed to enjoy the per- 
 formance as much as any one else. 
 
 He was always in good spirits, so his wife 
 said ; and he assured the boys that he did 
 not mind the loss of his leg. 
 
 "There's a philosopher for you," said Mr. 
 Rowe to Captain Bradstreet; and when the 
 dancing was over, they both went up and 
 shook hands cordially with the happy trick- 
 cyclist. 
 
106 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 And now the ship was almost at the end of 
 her voyage. On the afternoon of the Fourth 
 of July the deck was crowded with pas- 
 sengers looking pleased and expectant. 
 
 Presently across the sea to port was dis- 
 cerned a brown speck, and caps went up with 
 a shout. 
 
 "What are you all making such a noise 
 for ? Tell me quick ! " cried Weezy, running 
 to the rail where Paul stood clapping his 
 hands. By this time Weezy had quite re- 
 covered and was again her healthy, inquisi- 
 tive little self. 
 
 " We've sighted Land's End, Weezy Rowe, 
 that's what," answered Paul, with unwonted 
 excitement. 
 
 " Oh ! Oh ! Are we coming to the end of 
 the world, Paul ? " Weezy' s eyes sparkled like 
 twin stars. " Are we truly, truly ? " 
 
 " No, no, not to the end of the world, Miss 
 Quizzy." Paul smothered a laugh. "We're 
 
ELEVEN IN FRANCE \0J 
 
 only coming to the end of England. There's 
 a long stretch of world beyond that." 
 
 "Oh, that's too bad!" sighed Weezy. 
 
 And as they sailed closer to the shore, she 
 added in a tone of disapproval, — 
 
 "Land's End is a weeny bit of a thing, 
 isn't it?" 
 
 " Not very large, Weezy. That sharp tongue 
 is called Lizard's Point. People there are watch- 
 ing out and every time an ocean steamer comes 
 in, they telegraph about it to New York." 
 
 "Why, Paul, I think that's telling tales. 
 Can't a ship" — began Weezy; but was in- 
 terrupted by this glad cry from Kirke, — 
 
 " The pilot boat ! Paul, the pi-lot boat ! " 
 
 A white-winged yacht was approaching. 
 When it had come near enough, the steamer 
 stopped and took the pilot on board. The 
 passengers smiled as he mounted the rope- 
 ladder at the vessel's side, for now they knew 
 they should land in France the next morn- 
 
108 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 ing. No vessel is ever allowed to land with- 
 out a pilot to show her the way. 
 
 " Come, Weezy, it's time to dress for din- 
 ner," said Molly a little later, pausing in a 
 promenade with Miss Evans. " We want to 
 look our very best to-night, Weezy, because 
 the captain is going to give a grand Fourth 
 of July banquet." 
 
 " I knew that ; I heard it before you did, 
 Molly Rowe." 
 
 Weezy skipped away with her sister to 
 their stateroom, and when the bell rang they 
 entered the dining-saloon, arrayed in their 
 finest apparel. 
 
 The saloon was a brilliant mass of color. 
 American flags draped the walls ; the tables 
 were decked in red, white, and blue; and 
 every napkin was a white tower with a small 
 flag at its top. 
 
 " They've planted our ' Old Glory ' every- 
 where," said Paul. "Only see!" 
 
ELEVEN IN FRANCE IO9 
 
 It was really a grand banquet and lasted 
 a long while. With the dessert were passed 
 little favors of colored tissue paper. Kirke's 
 favor proved to be a blue Liberty cap which 
 he put on with much glee. Paul and Weezy 
 had Marie Stewart bonnets ; Pauline and Molly 
 red military hats. 
 
 After-dinner speeches followed, the French 
 people complimenting the Americans, and the 
 Americans complimenting the French. And 
 then, having returned thanks to the captain 
 for his courtesy, the guests arose from the 
 feast. 
 
 In leaving the room Molly turned to speak 
 with Miss Evans and observed that she had 
 exchanged her black serge travelling dress for 
 one of mourning silk, but still wore at her 
 belt the large, conspicuous reticule. 
 
 "A leather bag at a grand dinner! What 
 strange taste ! " she thought. " And yet Miss 
 Evans is certainly a lady." 
 
110 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 In the morning they landed at the port of 
 Havre and passed through the Custom House. 
 There, to Weezy's great indignation, their 
 trunks were opened and searched. When a 
 dark, sour-looking officer handled roughly her 
 cherished Araminta, the little girl could no 
 longer contain herself, but in her anxiety ex- 
 claimed aloud, — 
 
 "Please, sir, lift my doll easy! Sometimes 
 her eye falls out ! " 
 
 He never answered, never even looked up, 
 but went on holding the unfortunate Araminta 
 upside down in his left hand, while with his 
 right hand he fumbled about among the con- 
 tents of the box. 
 
 Weezy considered his conduct extremely 
 rude, and was very angry with him, till her 
 mother suggested that as he was a French- 
 man he might not have understood what she 
 said. 
 
 After the luggage had been examined and 
 
ELE VEN IN FRANCE 1 1 1 
 
 chalked with a capital letter D, our party 
 drove to the Frascati, a large hotel, for break- 
 fast. 
 
 After breakfast the boys walked off to the 
 immense stone bath-house across the court. 
 A white-capped old woman sat at a desk in 
 the broad entrance hall, writing accounts in a 
 ledger. The boys had French money — francs 
 and centimes — which they had received from 
 the purser on the ship in exchange for United 
 States money. 
 
 Paul could speak a little French, and he 
 bought the bath-tickets, paying an extra sum 
 for soap and towels. 
 
 "Well, I hope that's mean enough!" said 
 Kirke, when this was explained to him. " Do 
 they charge extra for the water, too ? " 
 
 Then they followed a waiting-maid up-stairs 
 into separate bath-rooms ; and again Kirke was 
 astonished, for when he had entered his room, 
 the girl turned the key and locked him in. 
 
112 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 To the American boy, unused to foreign cus- 
 toms, this seemed a strange proceeding. 
 
 When he had made his toilet, rung a bell, 
 and been released from solitary confinement, 
 he ran out to seek Paul in the waiting-room. 
 
 "What do you think, Paul Bradstreet! That 
 girl locked me into my room ! " 
 
 "Well, she locked me into mine, too; that's 
 a way they have in this country." 
 
 Kirke related his experience to the girls that 
 afternoon in a very graphic way, as the quar- 
 tette strolled together on the heights. 
 
 Pauline laughed, and Molly demurely re- 
 marked that she had never heard before of 
 a country where people were shut up who 
 hadn't been naughty ! 
 
 " Be careful, Molly, or President Faure may 
 hear you," said Paul, in pretended alarm. " I 
 suppose he is in that square, cream-colored 
 house this minute ; it's where he lives in the 
 summer." 
 
ELE VEN IN FRANCE 1 1 3 
 
 " How do you know that ? " asked Pauline. 
 "Who said so?" 
 
 "The head clerk at the hotel described it 
 to me." 
 
 "Head clerk, indeed! You mean concierge," 
 corrected his sister. " One would think you 
 had never been abroad before. You must 
 use the French names." 
 
 " A queer country," said Molly. " No mat- 
 ter how gray-headed a man is, they call him 
 garcon ; and garcon means boy." 
 
 It had been Miss Evans's original plan to 
 proceed directly from Havre to Paris; but 
 on being urged by her Silver Gate friends to 
 visit with them various points of interest 
 along the road, she could not resist the in- 
 vitation. 
 
 "I came to France mainly on account of 
 an important errand in Paris," she said to 
 Mrs. Rowe. "I've been wanting to tell you 
 about it, only I can't mention the subject 
 
114 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 without crying. But now I find that the 
 people I wish to see will be out of the city 
 for another week or two. And so," she con- 
 tinued, drying her eyes, " I believe I may 
 allow myself this pleasant holiday with you." 
 Accordingly she wired her uncle that he 
 need not expect her at present, as she was 
 to join the Silver Gate party next morn- 
 ing for a carriage-drive through picturesque 
 Normandy. 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS BAG 115 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS BAG 
 
 The Silver Gate tourists all assembled for 
 breakfast in the hotel dining-room dressed 
 for their excursion. The clothes worn by 
 them on shipboard had been packed in a 
 box to be forwarded to Liverpool, in readi- 
 ness for the home voyage, and The Happy 
 Six appeared now in tidy new suits. Miss 
 Evans wore a neat black mohair and a fresh 
 black straw hat, but had not laid aside the 
 familiar reticule. 
 
 "The bag looks like a padlock, Paul. Do 
 you suppose she needs all that to fasten her 
 belt ? " 
 
 " It seems like it," murmured Paul. 
 
 But the remarks were strictly confidential. 
 
Il6 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 The boys would not have injured Miss 
 Evans's feelings on any account: they were 
 too well-bred for that. Besides, they liked 
 her very much. 
 
 The early breakfast — or le cafe — con- 
 sisted of cafe au laity — which is coffee 
 served with boiled milk, — rolls, and unsalted 
 butter. This butter had been moulded into 
 the shape of wild roses, with petals as thin 
 as wafers, and each guest had two of these 
 wee roses on a tiny dish beside his plate 
 at table. 
 
 " Papa enjoys the butter, don't you see, 
 mamma ? " said Molly, in a low tone as they 
 left the dining-room. 
 
 "Yes, I observed it," returned her mother, 
 looking pleased. " I fancy his appetite is 
 really improving." 
 
 Then they all mounted the black jaunting- 
 car waiting in the court. Donald was in 
 boisterous spirits : so delighted at his escape 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS BAG 117 
 
 from the confinement of the steamer that he 
 could hardly contain himself. 
 
 The two seats of the car ran lengthwise 
 and faced each other. Miss Evans sat near 
 the front, just behind the driver's box, which 
 the voluble coachman shared with Captain 
 Bradstreet. French cockers are very fond 
 of imparting information, and this one dis- 
 coursed so rapidly concerning the farms, 
 houses, and people along the way that the 
 captain finally turned around to Miss Evans 
 with a comical look of despair, and said, — 
 
 " Will you please tell me what this man 
 is raving about? He telescopes his words 
 so that I can't understand him." 
 
 " He was speaking just now of these neat piles 
 of broken stone by the roadside, Captain Brad- 
 street," replied Miss Evans, smiling. "He says 
 government requires every man to furnish a 
 given weight — I missed the number of pounds 
 — of this crushed stone to repair the highways." 
 
Il8 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "That's why the roads look so very neat. 
 Just the thing for bicycles. I wish they had 
 such a law in the United States." 
 
 "I made the same remark to the cocker" 
 returned Miss Evans, who seemed to talk to 
 the man with the greatest ease. 
 
 After this, she was constantly appealed to 
 for translating French into English. On one 
 of these occasions, Mrs. Rowe said, with one 
 of her affable smiles, "We are grateful to 
 you, Miss Evans, for acting as our interpre- 
 ter. Mr. Rowe and I find ourselves sadly 
 rusty in French." 
 
 " So are Molly and I, Miss Evans," added 
 Pauline. " You never would dream that 
 we've just been studying it; now would 
 you ? " 
 
 "And we had good marks at school, too," 
 said Molly. " I don't see what the trouble 
 is." 
 
 "I do," said Pauline. " We are not one 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS BAG II9 
 
 bit to blame. The people don't understand 
 their own language, that's all. Ask 'em a 
 question, and they just shake their heads and 
 rattle off the sounds of the vowels, — 'A, ah, 
 aw, a, e, e,' and so on." 
 
 Pauline was a capital mimic, and rendered 
 this burlesque of foreign speech with a droll- 
 ery that provoked loud applause and aroused 
 Donald to a high pitch of enthusiasm. 
 
 "A, ah, ow; bow, wow wow," he screamed, 
 waving his little hands like Pauline. 
 
 Jane Leonard quietly slipped her arm about 
 his waist to prevent his falling from the car- 
 riage, and whispered him to be quiet, for 
 her head ached. She considered little Num- 
 ber Six a very noisy child. Though too 
 young to appreciate the quaint, beautiful pict- 
 ures of the constantly changing landscape, 
 he enjoyed their novelty, and was constantly 
 trying to express his delight. 
 
 "And this is Normandy," said Mrs. Rowe, 
 
120 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 drawing a long breath of satisfaction; "pictu- 
 resque Normandy." 
 
 Ancient houses, on which were growing 
 grass and flowers, — among the flowers the 
 fleur-de-lis \ or lily of France. By the road- 
 side, gorgeous red poppies, hobnobbing with 
 the blue corn-flower or bachelor's button. 
 Acres and acres of sugar beets, and of flax, 
 and of absinthe. In one valley, some peas- 
 ants — men and women — were pulling the 
 absinthe and laying it in rows to dry. 
 
 "They should burn it instead," Captain 
 Bradstreet remarked rather severely. " The 
 drink they make from absinthe intoxicates 
 and does them much harm." 
 
 " But it's a good medicine and brings them 
 a deal of money," said Mr. Rowe. 
 
 Farther on, at a turning of the road, Donald 
 gave an ecstatic little scream and pointed with 
 his finger. 
 
 " Oh, look, mamma, look ! " 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS BAG 121 
 
 An old dame was approaching, leading five 
 cows abreast, all tied together by the horns. 
 
 " She seems to be moving her dairy," re- 
 marked Kirke to the carriage at large. 
 
 " Her dairy ? The dairy of the whole 
 neighborhood, more likely," said Paul. 
 
 "A £tfw-operative dairy," suggested Pauline 
 quickly, whereupon they all laughed. 
 
 A little way behind the " co-operative dairy " 
 followed a young peasant woman in a short 
 dress trundling a black baby carriage. 
 
 " Think of a solemn black carriage like 
 that for a dear little baby ! " exclaimed Mrs. 
 Rowe. "Yet the French are called a cheer- 
 ful people ! " 
 
 They passed black Norman carts with enor- 
 mous wheels, and the carts were drawn by 
 Norman horses with large hairy feet. 
 
 "Not a bit like America anywhere," said 
 Kirke, "and I'm glad of it. We came here 
 to see something new." 
 
122 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when The 
 Happy Six and their elders reached the fish- 
 ing village where they were to spend the 
 night. Its gray stone inn was more than 
 two hundred years old, and like many inns 
 in Europe had once been a castle. There 
 were no carpets, but the floors were spot- 
 lessly white, and the copper saucepans and 
 kettles in the kitchen shone through the 
 windows of the room as the setting sun 
 shone through the ruins on the neighboring 
 cliff. 
 
 After dinner the gentlemen and lads of the 
 company prowled about these ruins in the 
 twilight, while Pauline and Molly chatted in 
 the inn parlor with three young English girls 
 boarding with their mother in the house. 
 
 Miss Evans, wearing the alligator-skin bag, 
 as was her habit, came in to read by the 
 lamp upon the centre-table ; but, after Weezy 
 and Donald were in bed, went to assist Mrs. 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS BAG 1 23 
 
 Rowe in the care of Jane Leonard, who was 
 now suffering severely from headache. 
 
 The next day Jane could not raise her head 
 from the pillow. Mrs. Rowe and Miss Evans 
 sat with her by turns, while Donald was left 
 to the care of the rest of the party. 
 
 This disposal of himself suited his little 
 lordship, for, everybody's business being no- 
 body's, he was allowed to run at large, and 
 within certain limits do about as he pleased. 
 
 Captain Bradstreet, Paul, and Kirke had 
 set out early for another peep at the ruins, 
 and as soon as the dew was off the grass 
 Donald slipped away from his father, loung- 
 ing in front of the hotel, and trudged behind 
 Weezy and the older girls toward the sea. 
 
 The beaten path which they followed ended 
 abruptly at the smooth, flat cobble-stones of 
 the shelving beach. Here stood a row of 
 disabled old fishing-boats, drawn up above the 
 dashing of the tide and fashioned into rude 
 
124 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 cottages, each with a thatched roof, narrow 
 door, and two or three small windows. 
 
 It was in these tiny buildings that the 
 fishermen stored their wares. As the chil- 
 dren drew near, fish-wives were sitting upon 
 the door-steps of some of the boat-houses, 
 netting seines of coarse green twine. A few 
 of the women wore starched white caps with 
 wide, flopping borders. The rest were bare- 
 headed, and the sun stared saucily down at 
 their shiny red faces. 
 
 " Let's speak to the best-looking one, Pau- 
 line," suggested Molly, as they sauntered 
 along the row of women. 
 
 "To the least ugly one, you mean, don't 
 you?" returned Pauline, casting a scrutiniz- 
 ing glance at the busy workers. 
 
 "The least ugly one is that woman straight 
 ahead in the sky-blue apron." 
 
 "She has hair on her chin, Polly." 
 
 "And haven't they all, or nearly all, you 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS BAG 1 25 
 
 fastidious creature ? And isn't she the only 
 one that looks reconciled to it ? " Pauline 
 rattled on. " I think she deserves to be 
 noticed." And stepping up to the peasant, 
 she made a graceful bow, and said, — 
 
 " Bon jour, madanie" 
 
 " Bon jour, mcdriselle" replied the fish-wife 
 politely, not pausing from her netting. Then 
 nodding toward Donald, she added something 
 about " le joli petit enfant." 
 
 " She seems to be delivering an oration, 
 Molly," murmured mischievous Pauline with 
 a serious countenance. 
 
 " Don't, Polly, don't make me laugh in her 
 face," entreated Molly, her lips twitching. 
 " She said Donald was a pretty little child. 
 I understood as much as that." 
 
 "Pretty? Of course he is, and he's sweet; 
 but that's no reason why she should run her 
 words all together like melted caramels," 
 retorted Pauline, looking straight at the 
 
126 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 woman and speaking in an easy, conversa- 
 tional tone. 
 
 The woman sat there, serenely unconscious 
 that she was talked about, and Molly had 
 to turn away to hide her merriment. It was 
 one of her minor trials that Pauline could, at 
 almost any time, surprise her into a giggle, 
 while remaining herself as sedate as an owl. 
 
 As Molly was looking toward the hotel, 
 she happened to espy the three English girls 
 tripping down the path in Indian file, swing- 
 ing long towels in their hands. 
 
 " They are actually going in bathing," 
 said Molly, pretending that this was what 
 she was laughing at. 
 
 "/ want to go bavin', " echoed Donald, 
 hopping up and down on the great loose 
 cobble-stones. "/ want to go bavin'." 
 
 In his excitement he lost his unsteady foot- 
 ing, and pitching headlong into the fish-net, 
 became entangled in it like a fly in a cobweb. 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS BAG \2J 
 
 Molly extricated him as deftly and quickly 
 as she could, though this was a work of 
 time, because he struggled and twisted him- 
 self about and kept catching his active little 
 fingers in the meshes. 
 
 But the annoying little incident had not 
 diverted the boy in the least from his original 
 desire. He was no sooner free than he re- 
 peated emphatically, — 
 
 " I say, I want to go bavin\" 
 
 " Not to-day, precious," answered Molly, 
 smoothing his hair, which the net had tossed 
 this way and that, till the child's head resem- 
 bled a thistle gone to seed. "We can't any 
 of us go into the ocean to-day, not even 
 Kirke. We didn't bring our bathing-suits 
 with us, you see, Donny." 
 
 Her reply provoked from her little brother 
 a heartrending shriek which drew the three 
 English lassies in haste to his side. 
 
 " Poor little fellow, we saw him fall into 
 
128 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 that net. Is he dreadfully hurt ? " cried the 
 eldest, whom her sisters called Edith. 
 
 "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the 
 Seine," replied Pauline, who never could re- 
 sist the chance to make a pun. 
 
 " No, he was not hurt," said Molly. " Only 
 in his little feelings, because I can't let him 
 go in bathing, Miss Edith. We haven't his 
 bathing-suit here, and if we had, I don't believe 
 mamma would dare let him go into the sea." 
 
 "Wouldn't she allow him to take off his 
 shoes and stockings and wade in the shallow 
 water ? " asked kind Miss Edith, wishing to 
 see the grieving child happy. 
 
 " Mamma would, mamma would," piped 
 Donald, taking it upon himself to answer the 
 question. 
 
 " Do you think so, little sailor ? " 
 
 Miss Edith caressingly touched the embroid- 
 ered anchor upon the collar of his navy-blue 
 jacket, and turning to Molly said, — 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS BAG 1 29 
 
 " Because I know of a nice, shallow pool 
 where little ones often wade. It is over there 
 between those two rocks near the foot of the 
 chalk cliffs." 
 
 "Thank you, Miss Edith, you're very kind 
 to tell us about it," replied Molly, wiping 
 Donald's eyes, again beginning to twinkle. 
 "You are sure it is perfectly safe?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, it's so far from the sea that the 
 waves never wash into it except at high tide." 
 
 This was all true; and thinking she had 
 done a kindness to the young Americans, 
 Miss Edith gave them a pleasant nod and 
 followed her sisters to the bath-house lower 
 down the beach, to prepare for a plunge into 
 the ocean. 
 
 K 
 
130 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 
 
 " Come, go wadin' ; Molly, please come," 
 coaxed Donald, pulling at his sister's skirt 
 before the English girls were out of hearing. 
 
 " Yes, in a minute, little brother." 
 
 Molly lingered to tell the fish-wife in pains- 
 taking French that they were sorry to have 
 interrupted her netting. 
 
 The woman puzzled over Molly's words as 
 Molly and Pauline had previously puzzled 
 over her own, for the language of Paris is 
 far different from the patois of Normandy. 
 
 " She looks as black as the boat-house," 
 observed roguish Pauline, at the same time 
 glancing tenderly at the old peasant, as if 
 paying her a compliment. 
 
WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 131 
 
 " You sha'n't guy the poor woman, Polly ; 
 that's shabby/' expostulated her comrade. 
 " But tell me how to make her understand 
 what I said." 
 
 " Smile at her, Molly, and shake your head 
 at Donald, then at the seine. See how that 
 will work." 
 
 Apparently it worked well. The fish-wife 
 smiled at Molly in return and spread out the 
 seine to show that it was uninjured. 
 
 " It's a minute now ! " cried Donald at the 
 end of his scanty allowance of patience. " Please 
 go, Molly, please, please ! " 
 
 "We're going this very second, Donny; 
 but what a little tease you are ! " returned his 
 sister, taking his chubby hand in hers. 
 
 Then, bidding adieu to the matron of the 
 quaint, thatched cottage, they all walked down 
 to the beach in the direction pointed out by 
 Miss Edith. 
 
 The cobble-stones were rounded and smooth 
 
132 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 like paper-weights, and moved beneath their 
 feet with every step. Molly was obliged to 
 support her little brother very carefully to pre- 
 vent his stumbling, and he dragged so heavily 
 upon her arm that she reached the pool 
 quite fatigued. 
 
 Once there, divested of shoes and stockings, 
 and with his sailor trousers rolled above the 
 knee, Donald skipped about in the shoal 
 water, laughing and screaming at the top of his 
 little lungs. 
 
 " It's 'most as good as bavin'," he called to 
 Weezy. " Come wade wiv me ! " 
 
 " Pretty soon," replied Weezy, seating her- 
 self upon the rough ledge that separated the 
 pool from the ocean, and beginning to unbutton 
 her boots. 
 
 At the second button her hand was arrested 
 by a shout from the summit of the cliff that 
 rose abruptly at her side. It was Kirke's 
 voice, as clear and shrill as a trumpet. 
 
WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 1 33 
 
 " Come up here, all of you ! Come up and 
 see the ruins ! " 
 
 Pauline sprang in haste from her perch on a 
 rock, crying, — 
 
 "We'll do it, Molly, won't we? I'm on 
 tiptoe for it." 
 
 All the morning she had been longing to 
 explore this ancient Roman fortress, of which 
 the boys had talked the night before. Her 
 imagination had been revelling in its half -buried 
 donjon, its secret passages and its mouldering 
 lookout, from which, according to Kirke's ex- 
 travagant statement, they could " almost see the 
 north pole." 
 
 And now was the very time to visit the old 
 gray walls; yes, the very time, for her father 
 and Paul and Kirke were wandering up there 
 photographing the ruins, and could help Molly 
 and herself over the risky places. It was a 
 damper to her enthusiasm when Molly sorrow- 
 fully replied, — 
 
134 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 " You and Weezy can go, Polly, but I can't ; 
 I can't leave Donald." 
 
 "There'd be no fun without you, Molly." 
 Pauline made a wry face. " Can't we take 
 Donald up with us ? " 
 
 " Not peaceably, I'm afraid," whispered 
 Molly with a sage smile. " Certainly not just 
 yet." 
 
 " Supposing he should cry a little ; that 
 wouldn't hurt him," persisted Pauline, hard- 
 hearted in her eagerness. 
 
 Molly flushed an indignant crimson. "I'm 
 not going to drag my little brother out of the 
 water for anybody," she retorted quickly. "I 
 think 'twould be a burning shame, when he 
 loves it so and has hardly been in it two 
 seconds." 
 
 Donald entertained the same opinion, and 
 when Pauline essayed by sweet words to coax 
 him upon dry land, he retreated with all speed 
 to the middle of the pool. This, though 
 
WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 1 35 
 
 scarcely nine feet across and but four inches 
 in depth, was an ocean to him ; and from its 
 secure centre he shook his wilful little head 
 at his would-be captor. 
 
 His sisters smiled indulgently ; but Pauline 
 betrayed an impatience that wounded Molly. 
 
 " I want to see the ruins as much as Polly 
 does," she reflected; "but I won't cheat Don- 
 ald of his little rights." 
 
 Then a bright idea occurred to her. " I've 
 a great mind, Pauline, to ask Kirke to come 
 down here and stay with Donny while we 
 go up there." 
 
 And she bent her neck backward to gaze 
 to the top of the dizzy height. Upon the 
 side where they stood and also upon the side 
 fronting the ocean the cliff was almost per- 
 pendicular. 
 
 " Oh, do ask him ! " returned Pauline. " He 
 and Paul have been through the fortress twice, 
 and we haven't seen so much as the shed." 
 
136 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "Pd scream to him and ask him, Molly," 
 said Weezy, ever free with advice. 
 
 "Come up — to see — the ru-ins!" repeated 
 Kirke on a higher key, wondering why they 
 vouchsafed no reply. 
 
 "Answer him, Molly, do, or he'll crack the 
 ears of France," cried Pauline at her elbow. 
 
 Molly laughed. 
 
 "Take pity on me, Miss Ready-wit, and 
 stop being so funny," she entreated, proceed- 
 ing to make a speaking-tube of her hands, 
 and calling energetically to Kirke, "Will you 
 — come down — to look out — for Donald?" 
 
 Though sweet and full, her tones were not 
 very strong. "Look out" was all that Kirke 
 could distinguish of her sentence. "Can't 
 hear," he vociferated; "speak louder." 
 
 "We'll go — if you'll— look out—lor Don!" 
 shouted Molly explosively, nearly splitting her 
 throat. "Will you do it?" 
 
 " Of course I will ! Come right along ! " 
 
WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 1 37 
 
 thundered Kirke, who had caught a word here 
 and a word there and had "jumped" at his 
 sister's meaning. She wanted him to go with 
 her to the Lookout, that tumble-down tower 
 overlooking the sea. He was sure that was 
 what she wished, for she was always turning 
 giddy in high places and clinging to him, 
 afraid to take a step by herself. 
 
 So, not to vex her with needless questions^ 
 Kirke simply waved his hand to put an end 
 to the talk, and went back to the lofty tower 
 to mount anew the broken steps within; for 
 he wanted to decide how far up it would 
 be safe for Molly and Pauline and Weezy to 
 climb. 
 
 Meanwhile the girls below expected at any 
 moment to see him descending the winding 
 path that led from the chalk cliffs to the fish- 
 ing village. When he failed to appear, Pauline 
 bethought herself of the secret passages she 
 had heard of. Probably he had chosen one 
 
I3S THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 of these to shorten the distance. Why, of 
 course he had, and there was no knowing 
 just where he would come out. 
 
 " He must be here soon, Molly," said Pau- 
 line impatiently, " and it's getting hotter and 
 hotter. Why can't we be going on slowly ? " 
 
 "Will you keep Donald happy till Kirke 
 gets here, darling ? " asked Molly, smiling at 
 her sister. " If you will, I'll give you a 
 nickel." 
 
 "I'll give you another, and that'll be a 
 dime," added Pauline. 
 
 Weezy gladly consented to the bargain. 
 She was filling a scrap-book with paper flags 
 of all nations, and a dime would purchase 
 several of these. 
 
 "You can run to overtake us, you know, 
 Weezy, as soon as Kirke comes," called Molly 
 from the entrance of the path. "Tell him 
 not to let Donald wade too long." 
 
 "I won't forget," screamed Weezy, as the 
 
WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 1 39 
 
 two girls passed from her view behind a 
 bend in the hill. 
 
 At their last glimpse of Donald, he was 
 standing outside the pool with Weezy, look- 
 ing at some peasant women who were wash- 
 ing at the margin of the beach. The women 
 were kneeling with their backs to the chil- 
 dren, rubbing the clothes white upon the 
 smooth stones. 
 
 Twenty minutes may have elapsed, and 
 Pauline and Molly were approaching the dry 
 moat, that half surrounded the hoary fortress, 
 when they were startled by piercing shrieks 
 from Weezy, following one another in quick 
 succession. 
 
 Shrieking in their turn to Captain Brad- 
 street and Paul above them, they rushed 
 madly down the descent, and as they drew near 
 the foot, met Weezy herself, sobbing wildly, — 
 
 "Donald's drownded. I know he's 
 drownded." 
 
140 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 And choking with grief and terror, she 
 faltered out her pitiful story : — 
 
 Tired of waiting for Kirke, she had left 
 Donald for "just a teeny second," and 
 skipped away to look at the kneeling washer- 
 women. On her return the child had van- 
 ished, and his little blue sailor-suit lay in a 
 tumbled heap upon the brink of the pool. 
 
 " Donny had been teasing again to go in 
 bathing, and I wouldn't let him go," wailed 
 his despairing little sister; "so I s'pect when 
 I wasn't there he skipped into the ocean all 
 alone by himself. Donald, Don-aid, where 
 are you ? Oh, dear, dear. I wish I was 
 dead!" 
 
 " Run to the inn, Weezy, for papa and 
 mamma ; run as fast as you can," cried 
 Molly, in a husky voice. 
 
 The sympathetic peasant women, having 
 discovered the cause of the outcry, had de- 
 serted their washings and clattered in their 
 
WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 141 
 
 hob-nailed shoes toward the base of the cliff, 
 near the tell-tale garments. Here the water 
 was deeper than on the beach in front of 
 the boat-house, and it dashed over a ledge 
 worn into many chambers. The peasants 
 were pointing to these deep chambers with 
 gloomy looks, and muttering low to one 
 another, when Mr. and Mrs. Rowe and Weezy 
 came flying from the inn, and met Captain 
 Bradstreet and the boys upon the shore. 
 
 Though pale with anguish, Mrs. Rowe had 
 shed no tears. But when her eyes fell upon 
 the little empty sailor-suit, she gathered it in 
 her arms with the bitter cry, " O Donald, 
 my little Donald, come back to your poor 
 mamma ! " 
 
 Then it was that something unexpected 
 happened — something which changed her 
 mourning into gladness. A little golden head 
 shot suddenly up from behind a neighboring 
 rock, and a shrill little voice cried out, 
 
142 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 " Here I is, mamma. Oh, please come 
 qui-ck." 
 
 Everybody jumped as if an earthquake had 
 swallowed the cliff. 
 
 "It's Donald, it's Donald! I didn't drown 
 him at all ! " shouted Weezy, dancing up and 
 down in frantic joy. 
 
 Her mother had rushed behind the shelter- 
 ing rock to embrace her lost baby. 
 
 " Oh, my sweet, cold darling," she cried, 
 pressing the wet child to her breast; "how 
 could you frighten mamma so ? " 
 
 " Didn't mean to, truly. Was only just 
 a-bavin','' — here disobedient Donald hung his 
 head, — "and Weezy corned back, and then I 
 runned and hid, — just for fun, mamma!" 
 
 "But after that, Donald dear, you heard 
 people call to you. Why didn't you answer 
 them and tell them where you were ? " 
 
 Donald snuggled closer to his mother's 
 breast. " I hadn't a bit o' clo'es on, mamma, 
 
Here I is, Mamma " 
 
 Page 142 
 
WHERE IS NUMBER SIX? 1 43 
 
 don't you know ? " he whispered ; " not a single 
 bit o' clo'es on ! S'pose I wanted the queer 
 old womens to see ? " 
 
 Mrs. Rowe answered him with a kiss. And 
 when she had hurried on his dry garments, 
 she yielded him up to his father and the rest 
 of the family to be loved and petted, as if he 
 had been a very good instead of a very mis- 
 chievous little fellow. 
 
144 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES'. 
 
 "Oh, isn't it nice, Molly, that we're all 
 going to Ruin f " exclaimed Weezy, giving her 
 sister's hand an ecstatic squeeze under the 
 table. 
 
 They were breakfasting again at Hotel Fras- 
 cati, their party having returned the night be- 
 fore to Havre. 
 
 " Don't say Ruin, Weezybus ! You mix it 
 up with the other ruins; but it's a city, and 
 it's called Rouen," corrected laughing Molly, 
 ending the name with a nasal flourish. 
 
 " How silly ! I should think they'd know 
 better ! " retorted the young American critic. 
 But at the approach of a waiter she immedi- 
 ately became mute. She had a private con- 
 
WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES! 1 45 
 
 viction that these black-coated individuals must 
 comprehend English, they looked so wise. 
 
 On leaving the dining-room, Weezy and 
 her friends passed out into the spacious vesti- 
 bule, and there waited for the carriage which 
 was to convey them to the station. Jane Leonard 
 was with the others, free from headache and 
 keeping a strict watch over frisky little Donald. 
 
 As they stood at the foot of the long stair- 
 case, the hotel servants — concierge, garcons, 
 maids in white caps and all — crowded 
 around them. 
 
 "They're sorry we're going away, aren't 
 they, Molly ? Just as sorry as they can be," 
 whispered gratified Weezy. 
 
 "There, you're mistaken, little miss," 
 said Paul, who had overheard the remark. 
 "They're only hanging around for a fee." 
 
 " What is a fee, Molly ? " questioned Weezy 
 aside. 
 
 " Money paid for work, dear. See, papa is 
 if 
 
146 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 taking out his purse, so is Captain Bradstreet ; 
 they're going to give some French coins to 
 the servants." 
 
 " To get the servants to move out of the 
 way," interposed Paul archly. "They'll 
 hand each of them a small sum to 
 make them 'move on,' as you do to organ- 
 grinders." 
 
 Here the carriage drove up, and the party 
 hastened to catch the train for Rouen. The 
 train was composed of several small black 
 cars or coaches, which Kirke declared looked 
 like a row of Saratoga trunks in mourning. 
 Each coach was divided widthwise into com- 
 partments, having on either side a door with 
 a sliding glass panel at the top. 
 
 Captain Bradstreet was fortunate enough 
 to secure a vacant compartment which would 
 just accommodate the party, and The Happy 
 Six were soon quietly ensconced in the front 
 seat with their backs toward the engine. 
 
WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES! Itf 
 
 Miss Evans sat opposite Paul and gazed 
 abstractedly out of the window, hardly lifting 
 her eyes from the trim green hedge that 
 bordered the railway track. Once — they 
 were then near Rouen — he saw her start 
 nervously and press her hand to her left 
 side, as if to assure herself that the reticule 
 was in its place. 
 
 " How she does clutch that old bag," he 
 whispered in Kirke's ear, as they stopped at 
 the station. " Probably the conductor takes 
 her for a mail-carrier." 
 
 " Rouen is a famous old city, Molly ; I 
 hope you'll learn all you can about it," said 
 Mr. Rowe wearily, as they alighted at the 
 hotel. 
 
 He had not recovered yet from the fatigu- 
 ing sea voyage, and as soon as they had 
 engaged their rooms at Hotel d'Angleterre, 
 he went to lie down. 
 
 When shown to their own apartment, 
 
148 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 Molly and Pauline exclaimed at the number 
 of looking-glasses it contained. Even the 
 upper halves of the windows were mirrors; 
 and in trying to gaze out upon the river 
 Seine, Pauline was surprised to see only her 
 own. face. 
 
 "They want to make the most of their 
 guests, I should say," she remarked dryly, 
 after viewing herself in seven different 
 glasses. 
 
 "This might be called 'the chamber 
 of reflection,' " she continued, arranging her 
 crimps. 
 
 "You're too bright to live," cried Molly. 
 "But put on your hat again, Miss Vanity. 
 Don't you know we're going to drive around 
 the city?" 
 
 "Who are going?" 
 
 "Only The Happy Six; that's all." 
 
 Their driver was an old man, intelligent 
 and fond of scenery. He took them first 
 
WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES! 1 49 
 
 through some of the oldest streets of Rouen, 
 hardly six feet wide, where two teams could 
 not possibly pass each other. Perhaps it 
 may have been to warn away other drivers 
 that he cracked his whip so sharply, — "as 
 if he were killing an elephant," Kirke whis- 
 pered to Paul. 
 
 Then they went to see the round tower 
 in which Joan of Arc spent so many tedious 
 months, in a cell only large enough to admit 
 a narrow window, yet with walls twelve feet 
 thick. 
 
 Thence they drove to the spot where she 
 was burned as a witch; and Molly stepped 
 from the carriage to read the inscription 
 carved upon the stone in the pavement. 
 
 " Oh, how wickedly they did treat that 
 innocent creature ! " said she, with flashing 
 eyes. "You know she didn't want to go 
 into battle ; but she * went forth to save 
 France.' " 
 
150 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 "And to crown Charles Seventh," added 
 Pauline. " I detest him — the ungrateful 
 thing ! " 
 
 It was some comfort to the indignant girls 
 to find towers and fountains and streets 
 named for Jeanne D'Arc, and one church 
 sacred to the wonderful maid, where mass 
 is said for soldiers. They came to that 
 in returning from St. Catharine's Hill, from 
 which they had gazed down upon the 
 Seine. 
 
 "What a tiny river," said Kirke; "no 
 wider than a New England brook ! " 
 
 It mattered little to them that Corneille 
 was born at Rouen, and that William the 
 Conqueror died there. Their interest in the 
 history of the city was centred in the trial 
 and martyrdom of Joan the Maid. 
 
 Their next resting-place was Mantes, at 
 an old hotel built around an open court 
 — the very court, so Pauline was told, where 
 
WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES! 15 1 
 
 William the Conqueror received his death- 
 blow, falling from his horse. 
 
 "But I'm thankful to say William didn't 
 die here," said the lively girl, tilting her 
 nose. "They carried him to an abbey at 
 Rouen, where I hope 'twas cleaner!" 
 
 " But Mantes is an interesting city, any- 
 way," returned Molly dreamily. "Just think, 
 Polly, it's eight hundred years old ! " 
 
 " Humph ! not very forward for its age," 
 sniffed Pauline. "Can't even keep out of 
 the dirt! Mould and antiquity are all very 
 well for those that can afford 'em; as for 
 me, I'm satisfied with simple magnificence." 
 
 She found "simple magnificence" a day or 
 two after at the Palace of Versailles, in the 
 Glass Saloon, a ball-room lined with mirrors. 
 
 " Yankee Molly, can you believe your ears ? 
 The guide-book says this is where Queen 
 Victoria once opened the ball with Napoleon 
 Third ! " 
 
152 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 And Pauline danced airily across the floor, 
 by way of illustration. 
 
 "I hope the queen did it as gracefully as 
 that," replied Molly admiringly. " But oh, 
 Pauline, you haven't seen the splendid ' Court 
 of Marble ! ' I can show you the balcony 
 above it that poor Marie Antoinette stepped 
 out upon when she tried so hard to pacify 
 that howling mob." 
 
 " More than a hundred years ago that was, 
 wasn't it, Molly ? " said Pauline, following her. 
 " It makes me feel dreadfully modern, like an 
 hour-old mosquito." 
 
 After looking through the famous picture 
 gallery, which so fully illustrates the history 
 of France, the tourists proceeded to Grand 
 Trianon, the palace built by Louis XIV. for 
 Madame de Maintenon. The apartments are 
 all on one floor. 
 
 " Perhaps the madame was clumsy and 
 didn't like to climb stairs," suggested Pauline. 
 
WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES! 1 53 
 
 Paul and Kirke were delighted with the 
 private rooms of Napoleon First, and with 
 his gorgeous nuptial carriage seen afterwards 
 at the Royal Stables. 
 
 But Grand Trianon did not interest any of 
 them as much as did Little Trianon, quarter 
 of a mile away. This is a bewitching toy 
 hamlet in excellent preservation. Here stands 
 the quaint old mill where Louis XVI. played 
 at being miller, and the rustic dairy where his 
 queen, the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, made 
 butter with her own royal hands; and there 
 are modest little houses grouped around the 
 water, like our summer cottages in America. 
 
 "Aren't you glad that poor old king and 
 queen had a little fun before they lost their 
 heads ? " said Paul. 
 
 "If they hadn't lost their heads first, 
 though, they never would have dared risk so 
 much fun," flashed back his sister. 
 
 "There seems to have been no end to the 
 
154 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 extravagance of the French court in those 
 days. No wonder the people were in- 
 censed," remarked Mr. Rowe, as they entered 
 the carnage which was to take them to Paris. 
 
 Halfway to the city they paused at the 
 beautiful village of St. Cloud to visit the cele- 
 brated park that had once contained a palace, 
 — the favorite resort of royalty. 
 
 "Think of the Germans burning it in the 
 late war. What good did that do them?" 
 cried the boys indignantly. 
 
 "They're dangerous people, those Ger- 
 mans, always making a smoke," said Pauline, 
 dismissing the topic at the entrance of the 
 Bois de Boulogne. 
 
 For miles the road lay through this beauti- 
 ful forest, no longer as of old haunted by 
 robbers, but now a fashionable park. It was 
 a lovely drive, one never to be forgotten. 
 Even Weezy and Donald were quiet, too fas- 
 cinated to speak. 
 
WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES! 1 55 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when the Silver 
 Gate tourists arrived in "the most beautiful 
 city in the world." On all sides were life 
 and gayety. Everywhere as they passed 
 were little tables along the pavement, and 
 people seated around them eating their 
 suppers and chatting in high, good humor. 
 Weezy wondered aloud if they "ever drank 
 tea in their houses?" Captain Bradstreet 
 said, "Yes, when it rained." 
 
 The carriage left our party at an immense 
 hotel, The Continental, which with its six 
 or seven hundred rooms was quite a city in 
 itself. 
 
 Here Miss Evans was met by her uncle, 
 and she regretfully took leave of her kind 
 friends. Mrs. Rowe's last words to her 
 were : — 
 
 " If you don't succeed with your errand in 
 Paris as you wish, I hope you'll try London. 
 You remember we are to leave here in a 
 
156 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 fortnight. When our route is decided upon, 
 I'll write you. We should be delighted to 
 have you for a travelling companion again." 
 
 As The Happy Six met next morning in 
 the court, Paul announced, — 
 
 " The picture galleries and shops and every- 
 thing will be closed to-day. " 
 
 " What for, Twinny dear ? " asked his sister 
 in an aggrieved tone. 
 
 "It's the Fourteenth of July, Better-half, 
 the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille. 
 The French call this their Independence 
 Day, so our garqon says. Something like 
 our Fourth of July, I suppose." 
 
 " Don't they have Fourths of Julys ? " put 
 in Weezy. " What funny, funny folks ! " 
 
 "Their Fourteenth seems to be Memorial 
 Day and Fourth-of-July in one," replied 
 Paul. " Kirke and I are going to Pere la 
 Chaise this forenoon to see them decorate 
 their soldiers' graves." 
 
WHAT STRANGE COUNTRIES! 1 57 
 
 As the boys approached this cemetery, the 
 finest in the city, they found the streets on 
 every side filled with dealers in crosses and 
 relics and immortelles ; and these sombre 
 tokens which were afterwards placed so ten- 
 derly above the sleeping dead were really 
 hideous things. 
 
 " Not a single flower or green leaf in them, 
 Molly," said Kirke, on their return, "nothing 
 but wire and tinsel and glass." 
 
 But after their mourning duty was per- 
 formed, the Parisians had a festive time for 
 the rest of the day, dancing on the streets in the 
 evening, — old men and old women, young men 
 and young women, and babies and all. 
 
 The whole fortnight in Paris was a giddy 
 whirl of delight to The Happy Six. They 
 drove along the boulevards in fiacres, or on 
 the tops of omnibuses. They sailed in pleas- 
 ure boats on the Seine. They visited churches, 
 palaces, and the tomb of Napoleon. They 
 
158 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 even ascended to the dizzy summit of the 
 Eiffel Tower which Weezy said "reached 'most 
 to heaven." 
 
 Of all the days Donald preferred the last, 
 at the Gardens of Acclimatization. Here he 
 saw animals from every zone, and actually 
 was carried on an ostrich's back. 
 
 The children would all have liked a longer 
 time in the beautiful white city, but Mr. 
 Rowe was in haste to reach the baths of 
 Baden Baden. 
 
 On the morning of their departure the 
 Silver Gate people were joined at the rail- 
 road station by Miss Evans, who shook hands 
 with them all very cordially. 
 
 "You perceive I've accepted your kind 
 invitation and am going on to London with 
 you," she said to Mrs. Rowe. 
 
 And, tapping her reticule with her gloved 
 finger, she added a few words, inaudible to 
 the rest. 
 
THE VERY HAPPY SIX 1 59 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE VERY HAPPY SIX 
 
 " See, she's tacked on that everlasting bag 
 again, Molly," whispered Pauline, as the train 
 started. " It always reminds me of a great 
 tag on a little parcel, as if Miss Evans had 
 been done up to be sent by express." 
 
 That night they reached Besancon, an old 
 Roman city just under the wall of the Jura 
 Mountains. The hotel at which they stopped 
 was very curious, with sleeping-rooms tucked 
 away here and there, like swallows' nests in 
 a bank. Sometimes these rooms were entered 
 from within the house, sometimes from with- 
 out, by sly, crooked stairways. 
 
 Molly and Pauline could see no beds in 
 their apartment, and ran after the porter to 
 ask him where they were to sleep. 
 
l60 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 He smiled rather patronizingly, and threw 
 open some unsuspected doors in the parti- 
 tion, which had been concealed by the flowery 
 wall-paper. Inside were two single bedsteads, 
 with maroon curtains of damask, and on each 
 bed was the usual little down quilt called a 
 duvet, which had an inconvenient habit of 
 crawling off upon the floor whenever the oc- 
 cupant of the bed turned over. 
 
 Altogether the hotel was very quaint, and 
 so completely surrounded by tall buildings 
 that it rarely saw the sun. 
 
 " Papa says the house is centuries old," said 
 Molly, throwing up their narrow window. 
 
 " Well, we might have known it," replied the 
 ready Pauline. " We might have known it was 
 built in the dark ages by the lack of light in it." 
 
 "Papa says Victor Hugo was born in this 
 city," returned Molly. "We're all going by 
 and by to see his old house, and we'll pho- 
 tograph it." 
 
THE VERY HAPPY SIX l6l 
 
 Next day the party drove in carriages 
 through the lovely valley of the Loire to the 
 bewitching little village of Mouthier, where 
 there are no streets to mention, the houses 
 being scattered around in clusters, "as if," as 
 Kirke said, they had been "shaken out of a 
 pepper-box." 
 
 Here they visited a cheese-factory, in what 
 had once been a convent, and they declared 
 they should never want any more French 
 cheese; but they forgot this afterward. 
 
 To tell of all their travelling experiences 
 would weary you. How they drove through 
 tunnels and around the brink of precipices, 
 to see the Loire rush out from its mountain 
 cave a full-grown river. 
 
 How in Switzerland they climbed the Alps 
 on wise-looking little donkeys, took a peep at 
 the yellow stone city of Neuchatel, once peo- 
 pled by the Lake-dwellers, and looked down 
 into the bear-pits of Berne. 
 
1 62 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 How in Germany they spent weeks in Ba* 
 den Baden, and Mr. Rowe was benefited by 
 the mud-baths, which in Weezy's opinion 
 were not at all clean. 
 
 How in approaching Cologne they passed 
 vast grain-fields, where the wheat had been 
 reaped and stacked into piles shaped like 
 little woodsheds. 
 
 How in Cologne they spent much time in 
 its cathedral, — the finest Gothic cathedral in 
 the world. Paul and Molly never tired of 
 gazing at its graceful arches, its clustered col- 
 umns and beautiful pictured windows of 
 stained glass. 
 
 Kirke and Pauline, however, were more fas- 
 cinated by the scene in front of their hotel, 
 the Victoria. 
 
 It chanced to be market morning, and the 
 peasant women had flocked into the city be- 
 fore sunrise, pushing before them hand-carts 
 filled with fruit and vegetables. Large dogs 
 
THE VERY HAPPY SIX 1 63 
 
 were harnessed underneath many of these 
 carts, and trotted contentedly with their bur- 
 dens to the open square, where they either 
 lay down to rest, or stood howling and bark- 
 ing by fifties, while their mistresses chattered 
 and laughed, and spread out their wares to 
 attract customers. 
 
 It was while still in Germany that the 
 Americans took a carriage drive along the 
 banks of the Rhine to visit a grim, feudal 
 castle covered with ivy and surrounded by a 
 moat. The castle was the residence of an 
 absent count, and was kept open by servants, 
 who, for a small fee, would show the interior 
 to visitors. 
 
 " What a lovely, mouldy old place ! " exclaimed 
 Pauline, when the horses had stopped before 
 it. And springing to the ground she hastened 
 into the court, across what formerly had been 
 a drawbridge. 
 
 Miss Evans followed more slowly, pausing 
 
1 64 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 midway to peep over the rail down into the 
 sluggish water of the moat beneath her. 
 Owing to a vegetable growth upon its sur- 
 face, this water was as green and velvety as 
 a meadow. 
 
 " I should think that pasture-y look would 
 fool near-sighted cows, shouldn't you, Miss 
 Evans ? " said Kirke at her elbow ; and he 
 was gratified that she positively laughed at 
 his nonsense. This made the second time 
 she had laughed that day. Entranced by the 
 beauty and antiquity of the spot, she ran 
 about the park with Weezy like a gay young 
 girl; stopped at the ponds to feed from her 
 own luncheon the gold-fish and swans; and 
 on returning to the castle waved her handker- 
 chief from its highest turret. 
 
 " She actually looks happy, Polly," observed 
 Molly, answering the salute from the bridge 
 below. 
 
 "So she does. She must have forgotten 
 
THE VERY HAPPY SIX 1 65 
 
 herself," responded Pauline with a touch of 
 sarcasm. 
 
 Pauline was right. Miss Evans had for- 
 gotten herself, and for this reason something 
 very sad had occurred — something which 
 little Miss Weezy was the first to recognize. 
 
 She sat opposite Miss Evans in the carriage, 
 and after they had driven several miles toward 
 Cologne suddenly exclaimed, — 
 
 " Why, how funny, Miss Evans ! You 
 haven't brought your reticule ! " 
 
 The young lady flashed a glance at her 
 belt and threw up both hands with a cry. 
 
 "What shall I do ? What shall I do? I've 
 lost my bag! I had it when we started, and 
 now it is gone ! " 
 
 " Edward," exclaimed Mrs. Rowe to her 
 husband, "please ask the coachman to turn 
 the carriage about. We must drive back for 
 the reticule at once. I've told you of its 
 valuable contents." 
 
166 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 " Family heirlooms probably," reflected Cap- 
 tain Bradstreet. " What was the girl thinking 
 of to carry such trinkets about her person ? " 
 
 " Do you recollect where you last saw the 
 reticule, Miss Evans ? " asked Mr. Rowe, when 
 the horses were retracing their steps. 
 
 " Oh, I can't remember, Mr. Rowe ! " Miss 
 Evans's face was ghastly white. " I haven't 
 the remotest idea. How could I — how could 
 I have forgotten that reticule for one mo- 
 ment ? " 
 
 " Don't worry, Miss Evans ; we'll find it 
 for you," called Kirke from his seat beside 
 the coachman. " Paul and I will find it for 
 you, if we kill ourselves running." 
 
 But though the boys hunted diligently, and 
 the whole party aided in the quest, twilight 
 fell, and the reticule had not been discovered. 
 
 They had searched the highway leading 
 to the castle ; had searched the castle itself, 
 and questioned the apple-cheeked serving- 
 
THE VERY HAPPY SIX 1 67 
 
 maid, who had just shown them its interior; 
 had searched the park, and even the ponds 
 within it; and at last had met in despair 
 upon the bridge that spanned the moat. 
 
 " I think I must have dropped my reticule 
 into this water when I leaned over the rail 
 here this afternoon," said Miss Evans, her 
 voice quivering. " In that case, the manu- 
 script would be spoiled before now." 
 
 "Let's take another look for it in the park; 
 it's lighter there," whispered Kirke to Paul; 
 from no expectation of finding the coveted 
 object where it had been so patiently sought, 
 but from a strong desire to get out of the 
 way before Miss Evans began to cry. Like 
 boys in general, he had a great aversion to 
 seeing a woman in tears. 
 
 " Have you a copy of the book, Miss 
 Evans ? " asked Mrs. Rowe, as the boys 
 were walking away unobserved. 
 
 " Not one line, Mrs. Rowe. My father, by 
 
1 68 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 mistake, destroyed the rough draft when he 
 was burning up old papers." 
 
 "I pity you with all my heart, dear 
 friend," said Mrs. Rowe, deeply moved. 
 " But don't be discouraged. It is too dark 
 to look longer now, but we will come back 
 to-morrow." 
 
 "O Mrs. Rowe, if I had only listened to 
 you, and sent it by express ! " wailed Miss 
 Evans. " But I had too much sentiment. 
 That book was my father's life-work, and I 
 couldn't bear to trust it out of my sight." 
 
 " I'm very sorry for you, Miss Evans," ob- 
 served Captain Bradstreet, adding mentally, 
 "sorry, too, that you should have been so 
 foolish." 
 
 " It is too dreadful ! " The young lady 
 could no longer restrain her tears. " O 
 Captain Bradstreet, to think that the precious 
 manuscript should have been lost by me, 
 papa's own daughter!" 
 
I've found it ! " 
 
 Page 169 
 
THE VERY HAPPY SIX 1 69 
 
 " Miss Evans had failed to make satisfac- 
 tory arrangement for bringing out the book 
 in Paris, Captain Bradstreet," explained Mrs. 
 Rowe. " Consequently, she was taking it to 
 publishers in London." 
 
 "It's a sad loss, a sad loss," returned the 
 captain, as he helped the ladies into the car- 
 riage. " But where are the rest of us ? " he 
 added. "We can't leave our boys." 
 
 "They're coming, they're running like 
 everything," cried Weezy, standing upon the 
 wagon-seat to look. " Kirke is holding some- 
 thing up high, and shaking it." 
 
 "It's a bag!" shouted Molly, clapping her 
 hands. "I do believe it's Miss Evans's bag!" 
 
 " I've found it ! Found it just outside the 
 park," yelled Kirke, when within hearing dis- 
 tance. " It's all right. The dew hasn't 
 hurt it!" 
 
 It seems that in leaving the park Kirke 
 had seen the glitter of steel under the luxu- 
 
170 THE HAPPY SIX 
 
 riant ivy at its entrance, and stooping to 
 brush aside the vines, had touched the clasp 
 of the lost reticule. 
 
 " I suppose the chain caught upon the 
 fence when you squeezed through that nar- 
 row gap, Miss Evans," said he, in winding 
 up his story. 
 
 " Yes, Miss Evans, it must have caught 
 and twitched your bag off so quickly that 
 you didn't know it," added Paul, as the car- 
 riage rolled on ; " and then the bag fell into 
 that tangle of leaves where nobody noticed 
 it but Kirke. His eyes are as sharp as a 
 razor." 
 
 " Fortunately for me, Paul ! " Miss Evans 
 was half -laughing, half-crying. " O Kirke, I 
 can't be grateful enough to you for bringing 
 this back to me ! " 
 
 Kirke blushed with pleasure, and Paul felt 
 a momentary pang of regret that he had not 
 discovered the valued article himself. 
 
THE VERY HAPPY SIX \J\ 
 
 He looked on with interest as Miss Evans 
 drew from the alligator-skin bag a parcel 
 neatly encased in oiled silk. It was her 
 father's manuscript, written in a fine clear 
 hand, upon very thin commercial paper. 
 
 "Untouched, uninjured! This is more than 
 I deserve!" she exclaimed joyfully. 
 
 "Good! Three cheers for the finder! 
 Nine cheers for the owner ! " cried Paul, 
 swinging his cap. 
 
 And The Happy Six joined in a gay 
 hurrah. 
 
 We might follow the glad children over 
 Europe and back again to their sunny home 
 on the Pacific ; but perhaps it is better to 
 leave them right here, for then we end the 
 book as we began it, with a chorus of chil- 
 dren giving three cheers. 
 
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 By AMY BROOKS 
 
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 by the Author Price $1.00 Each 
 
 Dorothy Dainty 
 Dorothy's Playmates y 
 
 Dorothy Dainty at School 
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 Dorothy Dainty at Home 
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 Dorothy Dainty's Winter 
 Dorothy Dainty in the Mountains 
 
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 — Rochester (N. V.) Herald. 
 
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 LITTLE Winifred's efforts to find some 
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 LOTHROP, i.BB & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON 
 
 
 
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 1 
 
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 winifred's 
 Neighbors 
 
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 H " ""NINA RHOADES 
 
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