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Dandelion cottage 
 
 CARROLL WATSON RANKIN 
 
 IVith Illustrations by Florence Scovel Shinn and Elizabeth 
 R. Ftniey 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1904 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 October, 1934 
 
 N. R. A. 
 
 PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY 
 
 QUINN & BODEN COMPANY. INC. 
 
 RAHWAY, N. J. 
 
TO 
 
 RHODA, FRANCES AND ELEANOR, 
 
 Whose lively interest made the writing 
 of this little book a joyful task. 
 
 803S79 
 
THE PERSONS OF THE STORY 
 
 The Dandelion 
 Cottagers. 
 
 Bettie Tucker: 
 
 Jeanie Mapes: 
 
 Mabel Bennett: 
 
 Marjory Vale: 
 
 The Tucker Family : — Mostly boys. 
 
 The Mapes Family : — Two parents, two 
 
 boys. 
 Dr. and Mrs. Bennett : — Merely Parents. 
 Aunty Jane: — A Parental Substitute. 
 Mrs. Crane : — The Pleasantest Neighbour. 
 Mr. Black : — The Senior Warden. 
 MRc Downing: — The Junior Warden. 
 Miss Blossom: — The Lodger. 
 Mr. Blossom: — The Organ Tuner. 
 Grandma Pike: — Another Neighbour. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Milligan : 
 Laura Milligan : 
 The Milligan Boy and 
 the Milligan Baby 
 The Milligan Dog : 
 
 The 
 
 Unpleasantest 
 
 Neighbours. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 L Mr. Black's Terms .... i 
 
 11. Paying the Rent i6 
 
 HI. The Tenants take Posses- 
 sion 28 
 
 TV. Furnishing the Cottage . . 44 
 \. Poverty in the Cottage . . 58 
 YI. A Lodger to the Rescue . . 68 
 Ani. Making the Lodger Com- 
 fortable 77 
 
 VUL The Girls Disclose a Plan . 85 
 IX- An Unexpected Crop of 
 
 Dandelions 98 
 
 X. Changes in the Neighbour- 
 hood .110 
 
 XI. Plans for Mrs. Crane's Old 
 
 Age 119 
 

 Yin 
 
 Contents 
 
 
 Chapter 
 
 
 Page 
 
 XII. 
 
 The Coming of the MilH- 
 
 
 
 gans 
 
 130 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Unpleasantness of 
 
 
 
 Laura 
 
 138 
 
 XIV. 
 
 An Embarrassing Visitor . 
 
 ISO 
 
 XV. 
 
 More Trouble with Laura . 
 
 162 
 
 XVI. 
 
 A Lively Afternoon . . . 
 
 171 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Laura's Version of the 
 
 
 
 Story 
 
 182 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The Junior Warden . . . 
 
 193 
 
 XIX. 
 
 An Unexpected Letter . . 
 
 204 
 
 XX. 
 
 An Obdurate Landlord . . 
 
 214 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Submitting to the Inevita- 
 
 
 
 ble 
 
 221 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Mabel Plans a Surprise . 
 
 231 
 
 XXIIL 
 
 Several Surprises Take Ef- 
 
 
 
 fect 
 
 239 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 A Hurried Retreat . . . 
 
 250 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The Response to Mabel's 
 
 
 
 Telegram 
 
 260 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Mr. Downing's Apology . 
 
 269 
 
Contents 
 
 IX 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 XXVII. The Odd Behaviour of tbe 
 
 Grown-ups 277 
 
 XXVIII. Just before Dinner ... 289 
 XXIX. A Bewildering Silence Ex- 
 plained 299 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGt 
 
 '^Yes/' said Bettie, * 'We're Looking for a 
 House." By Florence Scovel Shinn. 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 A Middle-aged Young Lady Stood on the 
 Door-step. By Elizabeth R. Finley , 69 
 
 Laura, Perched High on the Fence, Began 
 to Sing. By Elizabeth R. Finley . . .173 
 
 *' 'We're the People that have been De- 
 ceived,' said Mrs. Mulligan." By Flor- 
 ence Scovel Shinn 247 
 
 ** Holding Each Other's Middle -ag*id 
 Hands.'* ^y Florence Scovel Shinn . . 305 
 
DANDELION COTTAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE little square cottage was unoccu- 
 pied. It had stood for many years 
 on the parish property, having, indeed, been 
 built long before the parish bought the land 
 for church purposes. It was easy to see 
 how Dandelion Cottage came by its name 
 at first, for growing all about it were great, 
 fluffy, golden dandelions; but afterwards 
 there was another good reason why the 
 name was appropriate, as you will discovei 
 shortly. 
 
 The cottage stood almost directly behind 
 the big stone church in Lakeville, a thriving 
 Northern Michigan town, and did not show 
 very plainly from the street because it was 
 so small by contrast with everything dse 
 
Dandelion Cottage 
 
 near it. This was fortunate, because, after 
 the Tuckers had moved into the big new rec- 
 tory, the smaller house looked decidedly for- 
 lorn and deserted. 
 
 " We'll leave it just where it stands," the 
 church wardens had said, many years pre- 
 viously. " It's precisely the right size for 
 Doctor and Mrs. Gunn, for they would 
 rather have a small house than a large one. 
 When they leave us and we are selecting an- 
 other clergyman, we'll try to secure one with 
 a small family." 
 
 This plan worked beautifully for a num- 
 ber of years. It succeeded so well, in fact, 
 that the vestry finally forgot to be cautious, 
 and when, at last, it secured the services of 
 Doctor Tucker, the church had grown so 
 used to clergymen with small families that 
 the vestrymen engaged the new minister 
 without remembering to ask if his family 
 would fit Dandelion Cottage. 
 
 But when Doctor Tucker, and Mrs. Tuck- 
 er and eight little Tuckers, some on foot and 
 
Mr. Black's Terms 
 
 some in baby carriages, arrived, the vestry- 
 men regretted this oversight. They could 
 see at a glance that the tiny cottage could 
 never hold them all. 
 
 "We'll just have to build a rectory on 
 the other lot," said Mr. Black, the senior 
 warden, " That's all there is about it. The 
 cottage is all out of repair, anyway. It 
 wasn't well built in the first place, and the 
 last three clergymen have complained bitter- 
 ly of the inconvenience of having to hold up 
 umbrellas in the different rooms every time 
 it rained. Their wives objected to the wall 
 paper and to being obliged to keep the po- 
 tatoes in the bedroom closet. It's really 
 time we had a new rectory." 
 
 " It certainly is," returned the junior war- 
 den, " and we'll all have to take turns enter- 
 taining all the little Tuckers that there isn't 
 room for in the cottage while the new bouse 
 is getting built." 
 
 Seven of the eight little Tuckers were 
 boys. If it hadn't been for Bettie they 
 
Dandelion Cottage 
 
 would all have been boys, but Bettie saved 
 the day. She was a slender twelve-year- 
 old-little Bettie, with big brown eyes, a mop 
 of short brown curls and such odd clothes. 
 Busy Mrs. Tucker was so in the habit of 
 making boys' garments that she could not 
 help giving a boyish cut to even Bettie's 
 dresses. There were always sailor collars 
 to the waists, and the skirts were invariably 
 kilted. Besides this, the little girl wore 
 boys' shoes. 
 
 " You see," explained Bettie, who was a 
 cheerful little body, " Tommy has to take 
 them next and of course it wouldn't pay to 
 buy shoes for just one girl." 
 
 The little Tuckers were not the only chil- 
 dren in the neighbourhood. Bettie found a 
 bosom friend in Dr. Bennett's Mabel, who 
 lived next door to the rectory, another in 
 Jeanie Mapes, who lived across the street, 
 and still another in Marjory Vale, whose 
 home was next door to Dandelion Cottage. 
 
 Jean, as her little friends best liked to call 
 
Mr. Black's Terms 
 
 her, was a sweet-faced, gentle-voiced girl of 
 fourteen. Mothers of other small girls were 
 always glad to see their own more scatter- 
 brained daughters tucked under Jean's lov- 
 ing wing, for thoroughly-nice Jean, without 
 being in the least priggish, was considered 
 a safe and desirable companion. It doesn't 
 always follow that children like the persons 
 it is considered best for them to like, but in 
 Jean's case, both parents and daughters 
 agreed that Jean was not only safe but de- 
 lightful — the charming daughter of a 
 charming mother. 
 
 Marjory, a year younger and nearly a 
 head shorter than Jean, often seemed older. 
 Outwardly, she was a sedate small person, 
 slight, blue-eyed, graceful and very fair. 
 Her manners at times were very pleasing, 
 her self-possession almost remarkable; this 
 was the result of careful training by a con- 
 scientious, but, at that time, a sadly unap- 
 preciated maiden aunt, who was Marjory's 
 sole s^uardian. There were moments, how-« 
 
Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ever, when Marjory, who was less sedate 
 than she appealed, forgot to be polite. At 
 such times, her ways were apt to be less 
 pleasing than those of either Betty or 
 Jean, because her wit was nimbler, hei 
 tongue sharper and her heart a trifle less 
 tender. Her mother had died when Mar- 
 jory was only a few weeks old, her 
 father had lived only two years longer, 
 and the rather solitary little girl had missed 
 much of the warm family affection that had 
 fallen to the lot of her three more fortunate 
 friends. Those who knew her well found 
 much in her to like, but among her school- 
 mates there were girls who said that Mar- 
 jory was "stuck-up," affected and "too 
 smart." 
 
 Mabel, the fourth in this little quartette 
 of friends, was eleven, large for her age, 
 and young for her years, always an unfor- 
 tunate combination of circumstances. She 
 was intensely human and therefore liable to 
 «rr, and, it may be said, she very seldom 
 
Mr, Black's Terms 
 
 missed an opportunity. In school she read 
 with a tremendous amount of expression but 
 mispronounced half the words; when ques- 
 tions were asked, she waved her hand tri- 
 umphantly aloft and gave an3^hing but the 
 right answer; she had a surprising stock of 
 energy, but most of it was misdirected 
 Warm-hearted, generous, heedless, hot-tem- 
 pered and always blundering, she was some- 
 thing of a trial at home and abroad ; yet no 
 one could help loving her, for everybody 
 realised that she would grow up some day 
 into a really fine woman, and that all that 
 was needed in the meantime was considera- 
 ble patience. Rearing Mabel was not un- 
 like the task of bringing up a St. Bernard 
 puppy. Mrs. Bennett was decidedly glad 
 to note the growing friendship among the 
 four girls for she hoped that Mabel would, 
 in time, grow dignified and sweet like Jean, 
 thoughtful and tender like Bettie, graceful 
 and prettily-mannered like Marjory. But 
 this happy result had yet to be achieved. 
 
8 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 The little one-story cottage, too much out 
 of repair to be rented, stood empty and neg- 
 lected. To most persons it was an unattrac- 
 tive spot if not actually an eye-sore. The 
 steps sagged in a dispirited way, some of 
 the windows were broken, and the fence, in 
 sympathy perhaps with the house, had shed 
 its pickets and leaned inward with a dis- 
 couraged, hopeless air. 
 
 But Bettle looked at the little cottage long- 
 ingly — she could gaze right down upon it 
 from the back bedroom window — a great 
 many times a day. It didn't seem a bit too 
 big for a playhouse. Indeed, it seemed a 
 great pity that such a delightful little build- 
 ing should go unoccupied when Bettie and 
 her homeless dolls were simply suffering for 
 just such a shelter. 
 
 "Wouldn't it be nice," said Bettie, one 
 day in the early spring, " if we four girls 
 could have Dandelion Cottage for our very 
 own?" 
 
 "Wouldn't it be sweet," mimicked Mar- 
 
Mr. Black's Terms 
 
 jory, " if we could have the moon and about 
 twenty stars to play jacks with." 
 
 "The cottage isn't quite so far away/* 
 said Jean. " It would be just lovely to have 
 it for we never have a place to play in com- 
 fortably." 
 
 " We're generally disturbing grown-ups, 
 I notice," said Marjory, comically imitating 
 her Aunty Jane's severest manner. " A lit- 
 tle less noise, if you please. Is it really 
 necessary to laugh so much and so often ? " 
 
 " Even mother gets tired of us some- 
 times," confided Jean. "There are days 
 when no one seems to want all of us at 
 once.*' 
 
 "I know it," said Bettie, pathetically, 
 *' but it's worse for me than it is for the rest 
 of you. You have your rooms and nobody 
 to meddle with your things. I no sooner 
 get my dolls nicely settled in one corner than 
 I have to move them into another, because 
 the babies poke their eyes out. It's dread- 
 ful, too, to have to live with so many boys. 
 
lO Dandelion Cottage 
 
 I fixed up the cunningest playhouse under 
 the clothes-reel last week but the very min- 
 ute it was finished, Rob came home with a 
 horrid porcupine and I had to move out in 
 a hurry." 
 
 " Perhaps/' suggested Marjory, " we 
 could rent the cottage." 
 
 "Who'd pay the rent?" demanded Ma- 
 bel. " My allowance is five cents a week 
 and I have to pay a fine of one cent every 
 time I'm late to meals." 
 
 " How much do you have left ? " asked 
 Jeanie, laughing. 
 
 " Not a cent. I was seven cents in debt 
 at the end of last week." 
 
 " I get two cents a hundred for digging 
 dandehons," said Marjory, "but it takes 
 just forever to dig them, and ugh! I just 
 hate it." 
 
 " I never have any money at all," sighed 
 Bettie. " You see there are so many of us." 
 
 " Let's go peek in at the windows," sug- 
 g'^sted Mabel, springing up from the grass. 
 
Mr. Black's Terms 1 1 
 
 " That much won't cost us anything at any 
 rate." 
 
 Away scampered the four girls, taking a 
 short cut through Bettie's back yard. 
 
 The cottage had been vacant for more 
 than a year and had not improved in appear- 
 ance. Rampant vines clambered over the 
 windows and nowhere else in town were 
 such luxurious weeds as grew in the cottage 
 yard. Nowhere else were there such mam- 
 moth dandelions or such prickly burrs. The 
 girls waded fearlessly through them, parted 
 the vines and, pressing their noses against 
 the glass, peered into the cottage parlour. 
 
 " What a nice, square little room," said 
 Marjory. 
 
 " I don't think the paper is very pretty," 
 said Mabel. 
 
 " We could cover most of the spots with 
 pictures," suggested practical Marjory. 
 
 ** It looks to me sort of spidery," said 
 Mabel, who was always somewhat pessi- 
 mistic. " Probably there's rats, too." 
 
12 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " I know how to stop up rat holes," said 
 Bettie, who had not lived with seven broth- 
 ers without acquiring a number of useful 
 accomplishments. " I'm not afraid of spi- 
 ders — that is, not so very much." 
 
 " What are you doing here? " demanded 
 a gruff voice so suddenly that everybody 
 jumped. 
 
 " The startled girls wheeled about. 
 There stood Bettie's most devoted friend, 
 the senior warden. 
 
 "Oh!" cried Bettie, "it's only Mr. 
 Black." 
 
 "Were you looking for something?" 
 asked Mr. Black. 
 
 " Yes," said Bettie. " We're looking for 
 a house. We'd like to rent this one only 
 we haven't a scrap of money." 
 
 "And what, in the name of common 
 sense, would you do with it ? " 
 
 " We want it for our dolls," said Bettie, 
 turning a pair of big pleading brown eyes 
 upon Mr. Black. " You see, we haven't 
 
Mr. Black's Terms 13 
 
 any place to play. Marjory's Aunty Jane 
 won't let her cut papers in the house so she 
 can't have any paper dolls, and I can't play 
 any place because I have so many brothers. 
 They tomahawk all my dolls when they play 
 Indian, shoot them with beans when they 
 play soldiers and drown them all when they 
 play shipwreck. Don't you think we might 
 be allowed to use the cottage if we'd prom- 
 ise to be very careful and not do any dam- 
 age?" 
 
 " We'd clean it up," offered Marjory, as 
 an inducement. 
 
 " We'd mend the rat holes," offered Jean, 
 looking hopefully at Bettie. 
 
 " Would you dig the weeds ? " demanded 
 Mr. Black. 
 
 There was a deep silence. The girls 
 looked at the sea of dandelions and then at 
 one another. 
 
 " Yes," said Marjory, finally breaking the 
 silence. "We'd even dig the weeds." 
 
 " Yes," echoed the others, " we'd even 
 
14 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 dig the weeds — and there's just millions of 
 
 em. 
 
 " Good ! " said Mr. Black. " Now, we'll 
 all sit down on the steps and I'll tell you 
 what we'll do. It happens that the Village 
 Improvement Society has just notified the 
 vestry that the weeds on this lot must be 
 removed before they go to seed — the neigh- 
 bours have complained about them. It 
 would cost the parish several dollars to hire 
 a man to do the work, and we're short of 
 funds just now. Now, if you four girls 
 will pull up every weed in this place before 
 the end of next week you shall have the use 
 of the cottage for all the rest of the summer 
 in return for your services. How does that 
 strike you ? " 
 
 *' Oh ! " cried Bettie, throwing her arms 
 about Mr. Black's neck. "Do let me hug 
 you. Oh, I'm glad — glad ! " 
 
 "There, there!" cried stout Mr. Black, 
 shaking Bettie off and dropping her where 
 the dandelions grew thickest, " I didn't say 
 
Mr. Black's Terms 15 
 
 I was to be strangled as part of the bargain. 
 You'd better save your muscle for the dan- 
 delions. Remember, youVe got to pay your 
 rent in advance. I shan't hand over the key 
 until the last weed is dug." 
 
 " We'll begin this minute ! " cried en- 
 thusiastic Mabel. " I'm going straight 
 home for a knife." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Ipa^ing Cbe IRcnt 
 
 THIS is a whopping big yard," said 
 Mabel, looking disconsolately at 
 two dandelions and one burdock in the bot- 
 tom of a bushel basket. " There doesn't 
 seem to be any place to begin." 
 
 " Fm going to weed out a place big 
 enough to sit in," announced Bettie. 
 "Then I'll make it bigger and bigger all 
 around me in every direction until it joins 
 the clearing next to mine." 
 
 " I'm a soldier," said Marjory, brandish- 
 ing a trowel, " vanquishing my enemies. 
 You know in books the hero always battles 
 single-handed with about a million foes and 
 always kills them all and everybody lives 
 happy ever after — zip ! There goes one ! '* 
 
 " I'm a Dioneer," said Jean, slashing away 
 i6 
 
Paying The Rent 17 
 
 at a huge, tough burdock. " Fm chopping 
 down the forest primeval to make a potato 
 patch. The dandelions are skulking Indians 
 and Fm capturing them to put in my bushel* 
 basket-prison." 
 
 " I'm just digging weeds/* said prosaic 
 Mabel, " and I don't like it." 
 
 " Neither does anybody else," said Mar- 
 jory, "but I guess having the cottage will 
 be worth it. Just pretend it's something 
 else and then you won't mind it so much. 
 Play you're digging for diamonds." 
 
 " 1 can't," returned Mabel, hopelessly. 
 " I haven't any imagination. This is just 
 plain dirt and I can't make myself believe 
 it's anything else." 
 
 By supper time the cottage yard presented 
 a decidedly disreptuable appearance. Be- 
 fore the weeds had been disturbed they stood 
 upright, presenting an even surface of green 
 with a light crest of dandelion gold. But 
 4ftow it was different. Although the num- 
 ber of weeds was not greatly decreased, the 
 
1 8 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 yard looked as if, indeed, a battle had been 
 fought there. Mr. Black, passing by on his 
 way to town, began to wonder if he had 
 been quite wise in turning it over to the 
 girls. 
 
 At four o'clock the following morning, 
 sleepy Bettie tumbled out of bed and into 
 her clothes. Then she slipped quietly down- 
 stairs, out of doors, through the convenient 
 hole in the back fence and into the cottage 
 yard. She had been digging for more than 
 an hour when Jean, rubbing a pair of sleepy 
 eyes, put in her appearance. 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Jean, disappointedly. " I 
 meant to have a huge bare field to show you 
 when you came, and here you are ahead of 
 me. What a lot you've done ! " 
 
 "Yes," assented Bettie, happily. 
 " There's room for me and my basket, too, 
 in my patch. I'll have to go home after a 
 while to help dress the children." 
 
 Young as she was — she was only twelve 
 «— Bettie was a most helpful young person^ 
 
Paying The Rent 19 
 
 It is hard to imagine what Mrs. Tucker 
 would have done without her cheerful little 
 daughter. Bettie always spoke of the boys 
 as " The children," and she helped her 
 mother darn their stockings, sew on their 
 buttons and sort out their collars. The care 
 of the family baby, too, fell to her lot. 
 
 The boys were good boys, but they were 
 boys. They were willing to do errands or 
 to pile wood or to carry out ashes but none 
 of them ever thought of doing one of these 
 things without first being told — sometimes 
 they had to be told a great many times. It 
 was different with Bettie. If Tom ate 
 crackers on the front porch, it was Bettie 
 that ran for the broom to brush up the 
 crumbs. If the second baby but one needed 
 his face washed — and it seemed to Bettie 
 that there never was a time when he didn't 
 need it washed — it was Bettie that attended 
 to it. If the cat looked hungry it was Bet- 
 tie who gave her a saucer of milk. Dick's 
 rabbits and Rob's porcupine would have 
 
20 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 starved if Bettie had not fed them and Don- 
 ald's dog knew that if no one else remem- 
 bered his bone kind Bettie would bear it in 
 mind. 
 
 The boys' legs were round and sturdy, 
 but Bettie's were very much like pipe stems. 
 
 "I don't have time to get fat," Bettie 
 would say. " But you don't need to worry 
 about me. I think I'm the healthiest person 
 in the house. At least I'm the only one that 
 hasn't had to have breakfast in bed this 
 week." 
 
 Neither Marjory nor Mabel appeared dur- 
 ing the morning to dig their share of the 
 weeds, but when school was out that after- 
 noon they were all on hand with their bas- 
 kets. 
 
 " I had to stay," said Mabel, who was the 
 last to arrive. " I missed two words in 
 spelling." 
 
 " What were they ? " asked Marjory. 
 
 " * Parachute ' and ' dandelion ' — I hate 
 dandelions, anyway. I don't know whal 
 
Paying The Rent 2i 
 
 parachutes are, but if they're any sort of 
 weeds I hate them, too." 
 
 The girls laughed. Mabel always looked 
 on the gloomiest side of things and always 
 grumbled. She seemed to thrive on it, 
 however, for she was built very much like a 
 barrel and her cheeks were like a pair of 
 round red apples. She was always honest, 
 if a little too frank in expressing her opin- 
 ions, and the girls liked her in spite of her 
 blunt ways. She was the youngest of the 
 quartette, being only eleven. 
 
 " There doesn't seem to be much grass 
 left after the weeds are out," said Bettie, 
 surveying the bare, sandy patch she had 
 made. 
 
 " This has always been a weedy old 
 place," replied Jean. " I think the whole 
 neighbourhood will feel obliged to us if we 
 ever get the lot cleared. Perhaps our land- 
 lord will plant grass seed. It would be fine 
 to have a lawn." 
 
 "Perhaps," said Marjory, "he'll let us 
 
22 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 have some flower beds. Wouldn't it be 
 lovely to have nasturtiums running right up 
 the sides of the house? " 
 
 "They'd be lovely among the vines," 
 agreed Bettie. " I've some poppy seeds that 
 we might plant in a long narrow bed by the 
 fence." 
 
 " There are hundreds of little pansy 
 plants coming up all over our yard," said 
 Jean. " We might make a little round bed 
 of them right here where I'm sitting. What 
 are you going to plant in your bed, Mabel ? " 
 
 " Butter-beans," said that practical young 
 person, promptly. 
 
 "Well," said Bettie, with a long sigh, 
 " we'll have to work faster than this or sum* 
 mer will be over before we have a chance to 
 plant anything. This is the biggest little 
 yard I ever did see." 
 
 For a time there was silence. Marjory, 
 the soldier, fell upon her foes with renewed 
 vigour, and soon had an entire regiment in 
 durance vile. Jean, the pioneer, fell upon 
 
Paying The Rent 23 
 
 the forest with so much energy that tcs 
 speedy extermination was threatened. Ma- 
 bel seized upon the biggest and toughest bur- 
 dock she could find and pulled with both 
 hands and all her might, until, with a sharp 
 crack, the root suddenly parted and Mabel, 
 very much to her own surprise, turned a 
 back somersault and landed in Bettie's 
 basket. 
 
 " Hi there ! " cried a voice from the road. 
 " How are you youngsters getting along? " 
 
 The girls jumped to their feet — all but 
 Mabel, who was still wedged tightly in Bet- 
 tie's basket. There was Mr. Black, with his 
 elbows on the fence, and with him was the 
 president of the Village Improvement So- 
 ciety ; both were smiling broadly. 
 
 "Sick of your bargain?" asked Mr. 
 Black. 
 
 The four girls shook their heads emphat 
 ically. 
 
 "Hard work?" 
 
 Four heads bobbed up and down. 
 
24 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 "Well," said Mr. Black, encouragingly, 
 "youVe made considerable headway to- 
 day." 
 
 "Where are you putting the weeds," 
 asked the president of the Village Improve- 
 ment Society. 
 
 " On the back porch in a piano box," said 
 Bettie. " We had a big pile of them last 
 night but they shrunk like everything before 
 morning. If they do that every time it 
 won't be necessary for Mabel to jump on 
 them to press them down." 
 
 " Let me know when you have a wagon 
 load," said Mr. Black. "I'll have them 
 hauled away for you." 
 
 For the rest of the week the girls worked 
 early and late. They began almost at day- 
 light and the mosquitoes found them still 
 digging, at dusk. 
 
 By Thursday night, only scattered patches 
 of weeds remained. The little diggers could 
 hardly tear themselves away, when they 
 could no longer find the weeds because of 
 
Paying The Rent 25 
 
 the gathering darkness. Now that the task 
 was so nearly completed it seemed such a 
 waste of time to eat and sleep. 
 
 Bettie was up earlier than ever the next 
 morning, and with one of the boys' spades 
 had loosened the soil around some of the 
 very worst patches before any of the other 
 girls appeared. 
 
 By five o'clock that night the last weed 
 was dug. Conscientious Bettie went around 
 the yard a dozen times, but however hard 
 she might search, not a single remaining 
 weed could she discover. 
 
 " Good work," said Jean, balancing her 
 empty basket on her head. 
 
 " It seems too good to be true," said Bet- 
 tie, " but think of it, girls, the rent is paid ! 
 It's most time for Mr. Black to go by. Let's 
 watch for him from the doorstep — our own 
 precious doorstep/' 
 
 " It needs scrubbing," said Mabel. " Be- 
 sides, it isn't ours, yet. Perhaps Mr. Black 
 has changed his mind. Some grown-up 
 folks have awfully changeable minds." 
 
26 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Oh ! " gasped Marjory. " Wouldn't it 
 be perfectly dreadful if he had ! " 
 
 It seemed to the little girls, torn between 
 doubt and expectation, that Mr. Black was 
 strangely indifferent to the calls of hunger 
 that night. Was he never going home to 
 dinner? Was he never coming? 
 
 " Perhaps," suggested Jean, " he has gone 
 out of town." 
 
 ** Or forgotten us," said Marjory. 
 
 "Or died," said Mabel, dolefully. 
 
 "No-no,'' cried Bettie. "There he 
 is; he's coming around the corner now — I 
 can see him. Let's run to meet him." 
 
 The girls scampered down the street. 
 Bettie seized one hand, Mabel the other, 
 Marjory and Jean danced along ahead of 
 him and everybody talked at once. Thus 
 escorted, Mr. Black approached the cottage 
 lot. 
 
 "Well, I declare," said Mr. Black. 
 "You haven't left so much as a blade of 
 grass. Do you think you could sow some 
 
Paying The Rent 27 
 
 grass seed if I have the ground made ready 
 for it?" 
 
 The girls thought they could. Bettie 
 dmidly suggested nasturtiums. 
 
 " Flower beds too ? Why, of course," 
 said Mr. Black. " Vegetables as well if you 
 like. You can have a regular farm and 
 grow fairy bean-stalks and Cinderella pump- 
 kins if you want to. And now, since the 
 rent seems to be paid, I suppose there is 
 nothing left for me to do but to hand over 
 the key. Here it is, Mistress Bettie, and 
 I'm sure I couldn't have a nicer lot of ten- 
 ants." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Cbc tenants XTal^e ipo66e66toti 
 
 **/"\ UR own house — think of it ! " criea 
 
 V^ Bettie, turning the key. " Push, 
 somebody; the door sticks. There! It's 
 open." 
 
 " Ugh ! " said Mabel, drawing back has- 
 tily, " it's awfully dark and stuffy in there. 
 I guess I won't go in just yet — it smells so 
 dead-ratty." 
 
 " It's been shut up so long," explained 
 Jean. " Wait. I'll pull some of the vines 
 back from this window. There ! Can you 
 see better?" 
 
 " Lots," said Bettie. " This is the par- 
 lour, girls, but oh, what raggedy paper. 
 We'll need lots of pictures to cover all the 
 holes and spots." 
 
 "We'd better clean it all first," advised 
 
The Tenants Take Possession 29 
 
 sensible Jean. " The windows are covered 
 with dust and the floor is just black." 
 
 " This," said Marjory, opening a door, 
 " must be the dining-room. Oh ! What a 
 cunning little corner cupboard — just the 
 place for our dishes." 
 
 " You mean it would be if we had any," 
 said Mabel. " Mine are all smashed." 
 
 "Pooh!" said Jean. "We don't mean 
 doll things — we want real, grown-up ones. 
 Why, what a cunning little bedroom." 
 
 " There's one off the parlour, too," said 
 Marjory, "and it's even cunninger than 
 this." 
 
 " My ! what a horrid place ! " exclaimed 
 Mabel, poking an inquisitive nose into an- 
 other unexplored room, and as hastily with- 
 drawing that offended feature. " Mercy 
 I'm all over spider webs." 
 
 " That's the kitchen," explained Bettie. 
 " Most of the plaster has fallen down and 
 it's rained in a good deal. But here's a 
 good stovepipe hole ^nd such a cunning cup- 
 
3© Dandelion Cottage 
 
 board built into the wall. What have you 
 found, Jean ? " 
 
 "Just a pantry," said Jean, holding up 
 a pair of black hands, " and lots of dust. 
 There isn't a clean spot in the house." 
 
 " So much the better," said Bettie, whose 
 clouds always had a silver lining. " We'U- 
 have just that much more fun cleaning up. 
 I'll tell you what let's do — and we've all 
 day to-morrow to do it in. We'll just reg- 
 ularly clean house — I've always wanted to 
 clean house." 
 
 " Me too," cried Mabel, enthusiastically. 
 " We'll bring just oceans of water " 
 
 "There's water here," interrupted Jean, 
 turning a faucet. " Water and a pretty 
 good sink. The water runs out all right." 
 
 " That's good," said Bettie. " We must 
 each bring a broom, and soap " 
 
 "And rags," suggested Jean. 
 
 " And papers for the shelves," added 
 Marjory. 
 
 " And wear our oldest clothes," said Bet- 
 tie. 
 
The Tenants Take Possession 3 1 
 
 ** Oo — ow, wow ! " squealed Mabel. 
 
 " What's the matter ? " asked the girls, 
 rushing into the pantry. 
 
 "Spiders and mice/' said Mabel. "I 
 just poked my head into the cupboard and 
 a mouse jumped out. I'm all spiderwebby 
 again, too." 
 
 " Well, there won't be any spiders by to- 
 morrow night," said Bettie, consolingly, 
 *' or any mice either, if somebody will bring 
 a cat. Now let's go home to supper — I'm 
 hungry as a bear." 
 
 " Everybody remember to wear her oldest 
 clothes," admonished Jean, " and to bring a 
 broom." 
 
 " I'll tie the key to a string and wear it 
 around my neck night and day," said Bettie, 
 locking the door carefully, when the girls 
 were outside. " Aren't we going to have a 
 perfectly glorious summer ? " 
 
 When Mr. Black, on the way to his office 
 the next morning, met his four little friends, 
 he did not recognise them. Jean, who was 
 
32 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 fourteen, and tall for her age, wore one of 
 her mother's calico wrappers tied in at the 
 waist by the strings of the cook's biggest 
 apron. Marjory, in the much shrunken 
 gown of a previous summer, had her golden 
 curls tucked away under the housemaid's 
 sweeping cap. Bettle appeared in her very 
 oldest skirt surmounted by an exceedingly 
 ragged jacket and cap discarded by one of 
 her brothers; while Mabel, with her usual 
 enthusiasm, looked like a veritable rag-bag. 
 When Bettie had unlocked the door — she 
 had slept all night with the key in her hand 
 to make certain that it would not escape — 
 the girls filed in. 
 
 " I know how to handle a broom as well 
 as anybody," said Mabel, giving a mighty 
 sweep and raising such a cloud of dust that 
 the four housecleaners were obliged to flee 
 out of doors to keep from strangling. 
 
 " Phew ! " said Jean, when she had 
 stopped coughing. " I guess we'll have to 
 take it out with a shovel. The dust mUwSt 
 be an inch thick." 
 
The Tenants Take Possession 33 
 
 " Wait," cried Marjory, darting off, '' V\\ 
 get Aunty's sprinkling can; then the stuff 
 won't fly so." 
 
 After that the sweeping certainly went 
 better. Then came the dusting. 
 
 " It really looks very well," said Bettie, 
 surveying the result with her head on one 
 side and an air of housewifely wisdom tha/* 
 would have been more impressive if her 
 nose hadn't been perfectly black with soot. 
 " It certainly does look better, but I'm afraid 
 you girls have most of the dust on your 
 faces. I don't see how you managed to do 
 it — just look at Mabel." 
 
 "Just look at yourself! " retorted Mabel, 
 indignantly. " You've got the dirtiest face 
 I ever saw." 
 
 " Never mind," said Jean, gently. " I 
 guess we're all about alike. I've wiped all 
 the dust off the walls of this parlour. Now 
 I'm going to wash the windows and the 
 woodwork, and after that I'm going to 
 ^crub the floor," 
 
34 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Do you know how to scrub ? " asked 
 Marjory. 
 
 " No, but I guess I can learn. There ! 
 Doesn't that pane look as if a really, truly 
 housemaid had washed it ? " 
 
 "O Mabel! Do look out!" cried Mar- 
 jory. 
 
 But the warning" came too late. Mabel 
 stepped on the slippery bar of soap and sat 
 down hard in a pan of water, splashing it 
 in every direction. For a moment Mabel 
 looked decidedly cross, but when she got up 
 and looked at the tin basin, she began to 
 laugh. 
 
 " That's a funny way to empty a basin, 
 isn't it ? " she said. " There isn't a drop of 
 water left in it." 
 
 "Well, don't try it again," said Jean. 
 "That's Mrs. Tucker's basin and you've 
 smashed it flat. You should learn to sit 
 down less suddenly." 
 
 " And," said Marjory, " to be more care- 
 ful in your choice of seats — we'll have tc 
 
The Tenants Take Possession 35 
 
 take up a collection and buy Mrs. Tucker a 
 new basin, or she'll be afraid to lend us any- 
 thing more." 
 
 The girls ran home at noon for a hasty 
 luncheon. Rested and refreshed, they all 
 returned promptly to their housecleaning. 
 
 Nobody wanted to brush out the kitchen 
 cupboard. It was not only dusty, but full 
 of spider webs and worst of all, the spiders 
 themselves seemed very much at home. 
 The girls left the back door open, hoping 
 that the spiders would run out of their own 
 accord. Apparently, however, the spiders 
 felt no need of fresh air. Bettie, without a 
 word to anyone, ran home, returning a mo- 
 ment later with her brother Bob's old tame 
 crow, blinking solemnly from her shoulder. 
 Bettie placed the great, black bird on the 
 cupboard shelf and in a very few moments 
 every spider had vanished down his greedy 
 throat. 
 
 '* He just loves them,''* said Bettie. 
 
 ** How funny," said Mabel. " Who ever 
 
36 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 heard of getting a crow to help clean house. 
 I wish he could scrub floors as well as he 
 clears out cupboards." 
 
 The scrubbing, indeed, looked anything 
 but an inviting task. Jean succeeded fairly- 
 well with the parlour floor, but declared 
 when that was finished that her wrists were 
 30 tired that she couldn't hold the scrubbing- 
 brush another moment. Marjory and Bet- 
 tie together scrubbed the floor of the tiny 
 dining-room. Mabel made a brilliant suc- 
 cess of one of the little bedrooms, but only, 
 the other girls said, by accidentally tipping 
 over a pail of clean water upon it, thereby 
 rinsing off a thick layer of soap. Then 
 Jean, having rested for a little while, fin- 
 ished the remaining bedroom and Marjory 
 scoured the pantry shelves. 
 
 The kitchen floor was rough and very 
 dirty. Nobody wanted the task of scrub- 
 bing it. The tired girls leaned against the 
 wall, looked at the floor and then at one 
 another. 
 
The Tenants Take Possession 37 
 
 " Let's leave it until Monday/' said Ma- 
 bel, who looked very much as if the others 
 had scrubbed the floor with her. " I've had 
 all the housecleaning I want for one day." 
 
 " Oh no," pleaded Bettie. " Everything 
 else is done. Just think how lovely it would 
 be to go home to-night with all the disagree- 
 able part finished. We could begin to move 
 in Monday if we only had the house all 
 clean." 
 
 ** Couldn't we cover the dirtiest places 
 with pieces of old carpet? " demanded Ma- 
 bel. 
 
 " Oh, what dreadful housekeeping that 
 would be," said Marjory. 
 
 " Yes," said Jean, " we must have every 
 bit of it nice. Perhaps if we sit on the 
 doorstep and rest for a few moments we'lJ 
 •^eel more like scrubbing." 
 
 The tired girls sat in a row on the edge 
 of the low porch. They were all rather 
 glad that the next day would be Sunday, for 
 between the dandelions and the dust they 
 had had a very busy week. 
 
38 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Why ! " said Bettie, suddenly brighten- 
 ing. " We're going to have a visitor, I do 
 believe." 
 
 " Hi there ! " said Mr. Black, turning in 
 at the gate. " I smell soap. Houseclean- 
 ing all done? " 
 
 " All," said Bettie, wearily, " except the 
 kitchen floor, and oh! we're so tired. I'm 
 afraid we'll have to leave it until Monday, 
 but we just hate to." 
 
 " Too tired to eat peanuts ? " asked Mr, 
 Black, handing Bettie a huge paper bag. 
 ** Stay right here on the doorstep, all of you, 
 and eat every one of these nuts. I'll look 
 around and see what you've been doing— ^ 
 I'm sure there can't be much dirt left inside 
 when there's so much on your faces." 
 
 It seemed a pity that Mr. Black, who liked 
 little girls so well, should have no children of 
 his own. A great many years before Bet- 
 tie's people had moved to Lakeville, he had 
 had one sister ; and at another almost equal- 
 ly remote period he had possessed one little 
 
The Tenants Take Possession 39 
 
 daughter, a slender, narrow-chested little 
 maid, with great, pathetic brown eyes, so 
 like Bettie's that Mr. Black was startled 
 when Dr. Tucker's little daughter had first 
 smiled at him from the Tucker doorway, 
 for the senior warden's little girl had lived 
 to be only six years old. This, of course, 
 was the secret of Mr. Black's affection for 
 Bettie. 
 
 Mr. Black, who was a moderately stout, 
 gray-haired man of fifty-five, with kind, 
 dark eyes and a strong, rugged, smooth- 
 shaven countenance, had a great deal of 
 money, a beautiful home perched on the 
 brow of a green hill overlooking the lake, 
 and a silk hat. This last made a great im- 
 pression on the children, for silk hats were 
 seldom worn in Lakeville. Mr. Black 
 looked very nice indeed in his, when he wore 
 it to church Sunday morning, but Bettie felt 
 more at home with him when he sat bare- 
 headed on the rectory porch, with his short, 
 crisp, thick gray hair tossed by the south 
 wind. 
 
4-0 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Besides these possessions, Mr. Black 
 owned a garden on the sheltered hillside 
 where wonderful roses grew as they would 
 grow nowhere else in Lakeville. This was 
 fortunate because Mr. Black loved roses, 
 and spent much time poking about among 
 them with trowel and pruning shears. 
 Then, there were shelves upon shelves of 
 books in the big, dingy library, which was 
 the one room that the owner of the large 
 house really lived in. A public-spirited 
 man, Mr. Black had a wide circle of ac- 
 quaintances and a few warm friends; but 
 with all his possessions, and in spite of a 
 jovial, cheerful manner in company, his 
 dark, rather stern face, as Bettie had very 
 quickly discovered, was sad when he sat 
 alone in his pew in church. He had really 
 nothing in the world to love but his books 
 and his roses. It was evident, to anyone 
 that had time to think about it, that kind 
 Mr. Black, whose wife had died so many 
 years previously that only the oldest towns- 
 
The Tenants Take Possession 41 
 
 people could remember that he had had a 
 wife, was, in spite of his comfortable cir- 
 cumstances, a very lonely man, and that, as 
 he grew older, he felt his loneliness more 
 keenly. There were others besides Bettie 
 who realised this, but it was not an easy 
 matter to offer sympathy to Mr. Black — 
 there was a dignity about him that repelled 
 anything that looked like pity. Bettie was 
 the one person who succeeded, without giv- 
 ing offense, in doing this difficult thing, but 
 Bettie did it unconsciously, without in the 
 least knowing that she had accomplished it 
 and this, of course, was another reason for 
 the strong friendship between Mr. Black 
 and Bettie. 
 
 The girls found the peanuts decidedly re- 
 freshing; their unusual exercise had given 
 them astonishing appetites. 
 
 " I wonder," said Bettie, some ten min- 
 utes later, when the paper bag was almost 
 empty, " what Mr. Black is doing in there.*' 
 
 " I think, from the swishing, swushing 
 
42 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 sounds I hear," said Jean, " that Mr. Black 
 must be scrubbing the kitchen." 
 
 " What! " gasped the girls. 
 
 " Come and see,'' said Jean, stealing in on 
 tiptoe. 
 
 There, sure enough, was stout Mr. Black 
 dipping a broom every now and then into a 
 pail of soapy water and vigorously sweeping 
 the floor with it. 
 
 " I think," whispered Mabel, ruefully, 
 " that that's mother's best broom." 
 
 " Never mind," consoled Jean. " You 
 can take mine home if you think she'll care. 
 It's really mine because I bought it when 
 we had that broom drill in the sixth grade. 
 It's been hanging on my wall ever since." 
 
 " Hi there ! " exclaimed Mr. Black, who, 
 looking up suddenly, had discovered the 
 smiling girls in the doorway. " You didn't 
 know I could scrub, did you?" 
 
 Mr. Black, quite regardless of his spot- 
 less cuffs, and his polished shoes, drew a 
 bucket of fresh water and dashed it over 
 
The Tenants Take Possession 43 
 
 the floor, sweeping the flood out of doors 
 and down the back steps. 
 
 "There," said Mr. Black, standing the 
 broom in the corner, " if there's a cleaner 
 house in town than this, I don't know where 
 you'll find it. In return for scrubbing this 
 kitchen of course I shall expect you to in- 
 vite me to dinner when you get to house- 
 keeping." 
 
 " We will ! We do ! " shouted the girls, 
 " and we'll cook every single thing our- 
 selves." 
 
 " I don't know that I'll insist on that," re- 
 turned Mr. Black, teasingly, "but I shan't 
 let you forget about the dinner." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 3Furn(6bing tibe Cottage 
 
 AFTER tea that Saturday night fouf 
 tired but spotlessly clean little girls 
 sat on Jean's doorstep, making plans for the 
 coming week. 
 
 " What are you going to do for a stove? '* 
 asked Mrs. Mapes. 
 
 " I have a toy one/' replied Mabel, " but 
 it has only one leg and it always smokes. 
 Besides, I can't find it" 
 
 " I have a little box stove that the boys 
 used to have in their camp," said Mrs. 
 Mapes. "It has three good legs and *t 
 doesn't smoke at all. If you want it, and 
 if you'll promise to be very careful about 
 your fire, I'll have one of the boys set it up 
 for you." 
 
 "That would be lovely," said Bettie, 
 
 44 
 
Furnishing The Cottage 45 
 
 gratefully. " Mamma has given me four 
 saucers and a syrup jug, and I have a few 
 pieces left of quite a large sized doll's tea 
 set." 
 
 "We have an old rug," said Marjory, 
 "that Fm almost sure I can have for the 
 parlour floor and I have two small rocking 
 chairs of my own." 
 
 " There's a lot of old things in our gar- 
 ret," said Mabel, "three-legged tables, and 
 chairs with the seats worn out. I know 
 mother'll let us take them." 
 
 "Well," said Bettie, "take everything 
 you have to the cottage Monday afternoon 
 after school. Bring all the pictures you can 
 to cover the walls and " 
 
 "Hark!" said Mrs. Mapes. "I thinic 
 somebody is calling Bettie." 
 
 " Oh my ! " said Bettie, springing to her 
 feet, " this is bath night and I promised to 
 bathe the twins. I must go this minute." 
 
 " I think Bettie is sweet," said Jean. 
 ** Mr. Black would never have given us the 
 
46 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 cottage if he hadn't been so fond of Bettie; 
 but she doesn't put on any airs at all. She 
 makes us feel as if it belonged to all of us." 
 
 " Bettie is a sweet little girl," said Mrs. 
 Mapes, " but she's far too energetic for such 
 a little body. You mustn't let her do all 
 the work." 
 
 "Oh, we don't!" exclaimed Mabel, 
 grandly. " Why, what are you laughing at, 
 Marjory?" 
 
 "Oh nothing," said Marjory. "I just 
 happened to remember how you scrubbed 
 that bedroom floor." 
 
 From four to six on Monday afternoon, 
 the little housekeepers, heavily burdened 
 each time with their goods and chattels, 
 made many small journeys between their 
 homes and Dandelion Cottage. The par- 
 lour was soon piled high with furniture that 
 was all more or less battered. 
 
 "Dear me," said Jean, pausing at the 
 'door with an armful of carpet. " How am 
 I ever to get in? Hadn't we better straight- 
 
Furnishing The Cottage 47 
 
 en out what we have before we bring any- 
 thing- more ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Bettie. " I wouldn't be sur- 
 prised if we had almost enough for two 
 houses. I'm sure IVe seen six clocks." 
 
 " Thaf s only one for each room," said 
 Mabel. " Besides, none of the four that / 
 brought will go." 
 
 " Neither will my two," said Marjory, 
 giggling. 
 
 " We might call this * The House of the 
 Tickless Clocks,' " suggested Jean. 
 
 "Or of the grindless coffee-mill," gig- 
 gled Marjory. 
 
 " Or of the talkless telephone," added 
 Mabel. " I brought over an old telephone 
 box so we could pretend we had a tele- 
 phone." 
 
 There were still several things lacking 
 \vhen the children had found places for all 
 their crippled belongings. They had no 
 touch for the sofa pillows Mabel had 
 brought, but Bettie converted two wooden 
 
48 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 boxes and a long board into an admirable 
 cosey corner. She even upholstered this 
 sadly misnamed piece of furniture with the 
 burlaps and excelsior that had been packed 
 about her father's new desk, but it still need- 
 ed a cover. The windows lacked curtains, 
 the girls had only one fork and their cup- 
 board was so distressingly empty that it 
 rivaled Mother Hubbard's. 
 
 They had planned to eat and even sleep 
 at the cottage during vacation, which was 
 still some weeks distant ; but, as they had 
 no beds, and no provisions, and as their 
 parents said quite emphatically that they 
 could not stay away from home at night, 
 part of this plan had to be given up. 
 
 Most of the grown-ups, however, wer^ 
 greatly pleased with the cottage plan. Mar- 
 jory's Aunty Jane, who was nervous and 
 disliked having children running in and out 
 of her spotlessly neat house, was glad to 
 have Marjory happy with her little friends, 
 provided they were all perfectly safe — and 
 
Furnishing The Cottage 49 
 
 out of earshot. Overworked Mrs. Tucker 
 found it a great relief to have careful Bettie 
 take two or three of the smallest children 
 entirely off her hands for several hours each 
 day. When these infants, divided as equal- 
 ly as possible among the four girls, were 
 not needed indoors to serve as playthings, 
 they rolled about contentedly inside the cot- 
 tage fence. Mabel's mother did not hesi- 
 tate to say that she, for one, was thankful 
 enough that Mr. Black had given the girls 
 a place to play in. With Mabel engaged 
 elsewhere, it was possible, Mrs. Bennett said, 
 to keep her own house quite respectably 
 neat. Mrs. Mapes, indeed, missed quiet, 
 •orderly Jean ; but she would not mention it 
 for fear of spoiling her tender-hearted little 
 daughter's pleasure, and it did not occur to 
 modest Jean that she was of sufficient con- 
 sequence to be missed by her mother or any- 
 one else. 
 
 The neighbours, finding that the long-de- 
 serted cottage was again occupied, began to 
 
|0 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 te curious about the occupants. One day, 
 Mrs. Bartholomew Crane, who lived almost 
 directly opposite the cottage, found herself 
 so devoured by kindly curiosity, that she 
 could stand it no longer. Intending to be 
 neighbourly, for Mrs. Crane was always 
 neighbourly in the best sense of the word, 
 she put on her one good dress and started 
 across the street to call on the newcomers. 
 
 It was really a great undertaking for Mrs. 
 Crane to pay visits, for she was a stout, 
 slow-moving person, and, owing to the an^ 
 tiquity and consequent tenderness of her best 
 garments, it was an even greater undertak- 
 ing for the good woman to make a visiting 
 toilet. Her best black silk, for instance, had 
 to be neatly mended with court-plaster, 
 when all other remedies had failed, and her 
 old, thread-lace collars had been darned until 
 their original floral patterns had given place 
 to a mosaic of spider webs. Mrs. Crane's 
 motives, however, were far better than her 
 clothes. Years before, when she was newly 
 
Furnishing The Cottage 51 
 
 married, she had lived for months a stranger 
 in a strange town, where it was no unusual 
 occurrence to live for years in ignorance of 
 one's next-door neighbour's very name. 
 During those unhappy months, poor Mrs. 
 Crane, sociable by nature yet sadly afflicted 
 with shyness, had suffered keenly from lone- 
 liness and homesickness. She had vowed 
 then that no other stranger should suffer as 
 she had suffered, if it were in her power to 
 prevent it; so, in spite of increasing difficul- 
 ties, kind Mrs. Crane conscientiously called 
 on each newcomer. In many cases, hers 
 was the first welcome to be extended to per- 
 sons settling in Lakewood, and although 
 these visits were prompted by single-minded 
 generosity, it was natural that she should, 
 at the same time, make many friends. 
 These, however, were seldom lasting ones, 
 for many persons, whose business kept them 
 in Lakeville for perhaps only a few months, 
 afterwards moved away and drifted quietly 
 out of Mrs. Crane's life. 
 
52 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 That afternoon the four girls realised for 
 the first time that Dandelion Cottage was 
 provided with a doorbell. In response to 
 its lively jingling, Mabel dropped the potato 
 she was peeling with neatness but hardly 
 with dispatch, and hurried to the door. 
 
 " Is your moth — is the lady of the house 
 at home?" asked Mrs. Crane. 
 
 "Yes'm, all of us are — there's four," 
 stammered Mabel, who wasn't quite sure of 
 her ability to entertain a grown-up caller. 
 " Please walk in. Oh ! don't sit down in 
 that one, please ! There's only two legs on 
 that chair, and it always goes down flat." 
 
 "Dear me," said Mrs. Crane, moving 
 toward the cosy corner, " I shouldn't have 
 suspected it." 
 
 "Oh, you can't sit there, either," ex- 
 claimed Mabel. " You see, that's the Tuck- 
 er baby taking his nap." 
 
 " My land ! " said stout Mrs. Crane, " I 
 thought It was one of those new fashioned 
 roll pillows." 
 
Furnishing The Cottage 53 
 
 " This chair," said Mabel, dragging one 
 in from the dining-room, " is the safest one 
 we have in the house, but you must be care- 
 ful to sit right down square in the middle of 
 it because it slides out from under you if 
 you sit too hard on the front edge. If you'll 
 excuse me just a minute I'll go call the oth- 
 ers — ' they're making a vegetable garden in 
 the back yard." 
 
 "Well, I declare!" said Mrs. Crane, 
 when she had recognised the four young 
 housekeepers and had heard all about the 
 housekeeping. " It seems as if I ought to 
 be able to find something in the way of fur- 
 niture for you. I have a single iron bed- 
 stead Fm willing to lend you, and maybe 
 I can find you some other things." 
 
 " Thank you very much," said Bettie, po- 
 litely. 
 
 " I hope," said Mrs. Crane, pleasantly, 
 "that you'll be very neighbourly and come 
 over to see me whenever you feel like it, fof 
 Vm always alone." 
 
54 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Thank you," said Jean, speaking for the 
 household. " We'd just love to." 
 
 " Haven't you any children? " asked Bet- 
 tie, sympathetically. 
 
 " Not one," replied Mrs. Crane. " I've 
 never had any but I've always loved chil- 
 dren." 
 
 " But I'm sure you have a lot of grand- 
 children," said Mabel, consolingly. " You 
 look so nice and grandmothery." 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Crane, not appearing 
 as sorrowful as Mabel had supposed an ut- 
 terly grandchildhss person would look, 
 " I've never possessed any grandchildren 
 either." 
 
 " But," queried Mabel, who was some- 
 times almost too inquisitive, " haven't you 
 any relatives, husbands, or anybody, in all 
 the world?" 
 
 Many months afterward the girls were 
 suddenly reminded of Mrs. Crane's odd, 
 contradictory reply: 
 
 "No — Yes — that is, no. None to 
 
Furnishing The Cottage 55 
 
 speak of, I mean. Do you girls sleep here^ 
 too?" 
 
 " No," said Jean. " We want to, awful- 
 ly, but our mothers won't let us. You see, 
 we sleep so soundly that they're all afraid 
 we might get the house afire, burn up and 
 never know a thing about it." 
 
 " They're quite right," said Mrs. Crana 
 ** I suppose they like to have you at home 
 once in a while." 
 
 " Oh, they do have us," replied Bettie. 
 ** We eat and sleep at home and they have us 
 all day Sundays. When they want any of 
 us other times, all they have to do is to open 
 a back window and call — Dear me, Mrs. 
 Crane, I'll have to ask you to excuse me this 
 very minute — There's somebody calling me 
 now." 
 
 Other visitors, including the girls' parents, 
 called at the cottage and seemed to enjoy it 
 very much indeed. The visitors were al- 
 ways greatly interested and everybody 
 wanted to help. One brought a littk 
 
56 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 table that really stood up very well if 
 kept against the wall, another found cur- 
 tains for all the windows — a little ragged, 
 to be sure, but still curtains. Grandma 
 Pike, who had a wonderful garden, was 
 so delighted with everything that she 
 gave the girls a crimson petunia grow- 
 ing in a red tomato can, and a great 
 many neat little homemade packets of 
 flower seeds. Rob said they might have 
 even his porcupine if they could get it out 
 from under the rectory porch. 
 
 By the end of the week, the cottage pre- 
 sented quite a lived-in appearance. Bright 
 pictures covered the dingy paper, and, 
 thanks to numerous donations, the rooms 
 looked very well furnished. No one would 
 have suspected that the chairs were un- 
 trustworthy, the tables crippled and the 
 clocks devoid of works. The cottage seemed 
 cosey and pleasant, and the girls kept it in 
 apple-pie order. 
 
 Out of doors, the grass was beginning to 
 
Furnishing The Cottage 57 
 
 show and little green specks dotted the 
 flower beds. Other green specks in crooked 
 rows staggered across the vegetable garden. 
 
 The four mothers, satisfied that their little 
 daughters were safe in Dandelion Cottage, 
 left them in undisturbed possession. 
 
 "I declare/' said Mrs. Mapes, one day, 
 **the only time I see Jean, nowadays, is 
 when she's asleep. Ail the rest of the time 
 she's in school or at the cottage." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Bennett, " when I miss 
 my scissors, or any of my dishes or anything 
 else, I always have to go to the cottage and 
 get out a search warrant. Mabel has car- 
 ried off a wagon-load of things, but I don't 
 know when our own house has been so peace- 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ©overts iTn Zbc Cottage 
 
 i^ripHERFS no use talking," said Jean, 
 JL one day, as the girls sat at their 
 dining room table eating very smoky toast 
 and drinking the weakest of cocoa, " we'll 
 have to get some provisions of our own be- 
 fore long if we're going to invite Mr. Black 
 to dinner as we promised. The cupboard's 
 perfectly empty and Bridget says I can't take 
 another scrap of bread or one more potato 
 out of the house this week." 
 
 ** Aunty Jane says there'll be trouble," 
 said Marjory, " if I don't keep out of her ice 
 box, so I guess I can't bring any more milk. 
 When she says there'll be trouble, there usu- 
 ally is, if I'm not pretty careful. But dear 
 me, it is such fun to cook our own meals on 
 .that dear little box-stove, even if most of 
 the things do taste pretty awful." 
 58 
 
Poverty In The Cottage 59 
 
 " I wish/' said Mabel, mournfully, *' that 
 somebody would give us a hen, so we could 
 make omelets." 
 
 " Who ever made omelets out of a hen ? *' 
 asked Jean, laughing. 
 
 " I meant out of the eggs, of course,*^ said 
 Mabel, with dignity. " Hens lay eggs, 
 don't they? If we count on five or six eggs 
 a day " 
 
 " The goose that laid the golden egg laid 
 only one a day," said Marjory. " It seema 
 to me that six is a good many." 
 
 "I wasn't talking about geese," said 
 Mabel, "but about just plain every day 
 hens." 
 
 " Six-every-day hens, you mean, don't 
 you ? " asked Marjory, teasingly. " You'd 
 better wish for a cow, too, while you're 
 about it." 
 
 "Yes," said Bettie, "we certainly need 
 one, for I'm not to ask for butter more than 
 twice a week — mother says she'll be in the 
 poorhouse before Summer's over if she has 
 to provide butter for two families." 
 
6o Dandelion Cottage 
 
 "I just tell you what it is, girls," said 
 Jean, nibbling her cindery crust, " we'll 
 just have to earn some money if we're to 
 give Mr. Black any kind of a dinner." 
 
 Mabel, who always accepted new ideas 
 with enthusiasm, slipped quietly into the 
 kitchen, took a solitary lemon from the cup- 
 board, cut it in half and squeezed the juice 
 into a broken-nosed pitcher. This done, she 
 added a little sugar and a great deal of water 
 to the lemon juice, slipped quietly out of the 
 back door, ran around the house and in at 
 the front door, taking a small table from the 
 front room. This she carried out of doors 
 to the corner of the lot facing the street, 
 where she established her lemonade stand. 
 
 She was almost immediately successful, 
 for the day was warm, and Mrs. Bartholo- 
 mew Crane, who was entertaining two vis- 
 itors on her front porch, was glad of an 
 opportunity to offer her guests something in 
 the way of refreshment. The cottage 
 boasted only one glass that did not leak, but 
 
Poverty In The Cottage 6i 
 
 Mabel cheerfully made three trips across the 
 street with it — it did not occur to any of 
 them until too late that it would have been 
 easier to carry the pitcher across in the first 
 place. The lemonade was decidedly weak, 
 but the visitors were too polite to say so. 
 On her return, a thirsty small boy offered 
 Mabel a nickel for all that was left in the 
 pitcher, and Mabel, after a moment's hesita- 
 tion, accepted the offer. 
 
 " You're getting a bargain," said Mabel. 
 " There's as much as a glass and three quar- 
 ters there, besides all the lemon." 
 
 "Did you get a whole pitcherful out of 
 one lemon ? " asked the boy. " You'd be 
 able to make circus lemonade all right." 
 
 Before the other girls had had time tc 
 discover what had become of her, the pro- 
 prietor of the lemonade stand marched into 
 the cottage and proudly displayed four shin- 
 ing nickels and the empty pitcher. 
 
 " Why, where in the world did you get 
 all that?" cried Marjory. "Surely you 
 
62 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 never earned it by being on time for meals — 
 you've been late three times a day ever since 
 we got the cottage." 
 
 "Sold lemonade/' said Mabel. "Our 
 troubles are over, girls. I'm going to buy 
 two lemons to-morrow and sell twice as 
 much," 
 
 *"Good!" cried Bettie, "I'll help. The 
 boys have promised to bring me a lot of 
 arbutus to-night - — they went to the woods 
 this morning. I'll tie it in bunches and per* 
 haps we can sell that, too." 
 
 " Wouldn't it be splendid if we could have 
 Mr. Black here to dinner next Saturday," 
 said Jean, " I'll never be satisfied until we've 
 kept that promise, but I don't suppose we 
 could possibly get enough things together by 
 that time." 
 
 " I have a sample can of baking powder," 
 offered Marjory, hopefully. "I'll bring it 
 over next time I come." 
 
 " What's the good ? " asked matter-of-fact 
 Mabel. " We can't feed Mr. Black on just 
 
Poverty In The Cottage 63 
 
 plain baking powder, and we haven't anf 
 biscuits to raise with it." 
 
 " Dear me," said Jean, " I wish we hadn't 
 been so extravagant at first. If we hadn't 
 had so many tea parties last week we might 
 get enough flour and things at home. 
 Mother says it's too expensive having all her 
 groceries carried oilf." 
 
 " Never mind," consoled Mabel, con- 
 fidently, " we'll be buying our own groceries 
 by this time to-morrow with the money we 
 make selling lemonade — a boy said my 
 lemonade was quite as good as you can buy 
 at the circus." 
 
 Unfortunately, however, it rained the 
 next day and the next, so lemonade was out 
 of the question. By the time it cleared, 
 Bettie's neat little bunches of arbutus were 
 no longer fresh, and careless Mabel had for- 
 gotten where she had put the money. She 
 mentioned no less than twenty-two places 
 where the four precious nickels might be but 
 none of them happened to be the right one. 
 
64 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Mercy me," said Bettie, " it*s dreadful 
 to be so poor. Fm afraid we'll have to in- 
 vite Mr. Black to one of our bread and 
 sugar tea parties, after all." 
 
 "No," said Jean, firmly. "We've just 
 got to give him a regular seven course din- 
 ner — he has 'em every day at home. We'll 
 have to put it off until we can do it in style." 
 
 "By and by," said Mabel, "we'll have 
 beans and radishes and things in our own 
 garden, and we can go to the woods for 
 berries." 
 
 " Perhaps," said Bettie, hopefully, " one 
 of the boys might catch a fish — Rob almost 
 did, once." 
 
 " I suppose I could ask Aunty Jane for a 
 potato once in a while," said Marjory, " but 
 I'll have to give her time to forget about last 
 month's grocery bill — she says we never 
 before used so many eggs in one month and 
 I guess Maggie did give me a good many. 
 Potatoes will keep, you know. We can save 
 *em until we have enough for a meal." 
 
Poverty In The Cottage 65 
 
 » ■ 
 
 " While we're about it," said Bettie, " I 
 think we'd better have Mrs. Crane to dinner, 
 too. She's such a nice old lady and she's 
 been awfully good to us." 
 
 " She's not very well off," agreed Mabel, 
 **and probably a real, first class dinner 
 would taste good to her." 
 
 " But," pleaded Bettie, " Don't let's ask 
 her until we're sure of the date. As it is, I 
 can't sleep nights for thinking of how Mr. 
 Black must feel. He'll think we don't want 
 him." 
 
 " You'd better explain to him," suggested 
 Jean, " that it isn't convenient to have him 
 just yet, but that we're going to just as soon 
 as ever we can. We mustn't tell him why, 
 because it would be just like him to send the 
 provisions here himself, and then it wouldn't 
 really be our party." 
 
 In spite of all the girls' plans, however, by 
 the end of the week the cottage larder was 
 still distressingly empty. Marjory had, in« 
 deed, industriously collected potatoes, only 
 
66 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 to have them carried off by an equally indus- 
 trious rat; and Mabel's four nickels still 
 remained missing. Things in the vegetable 
 garden seemed singularly backward, possi- 
 bly because the four eager gardeners kept 
 digging them up to see if they were grow- 
 ing. Their parents and Marjory's Aunty 
 Jane were firmer than ever in their refusal to 
 part with any more staple groceries. 
 
 Perhaps if the girls had explained why 
 they wanted the things, their relatives would 
 have been more generous; but girl-like, the 
 four poverty-stricken young housekeepers 
 made a deep mystery of their dinner plan. 
 It was their most cherished secret, and when 
 they met each morning they always said, 
 mysteriously, " Good Morning — remem- 
 ber M. B. D.," which meant of course, " Mr. 
 Black's Dinner." 
 
 Mr. Black, indeed, never went by without 
 referring to the girls' promise. 
 
 " When," he would ask, " is that dinner 
 party coming off? It's a long time since 
 
Poverty In The Cottage 67 
 
 I've been invited to a first class dinner, 
 cooked by four accomplished young ladies, 
 and I'm getting hungrier every minute. 
 When I get up in the morning I always say : 
 * now I won't eat much breakfast because 
 I've got to save room for that dinner ' — and 
 then, after all, I don't get invited." 
 
 The situation was growing really embar- 
 rassing. The girls began to feel that keep- 
 ing house, not to mention giving dinner 
 parties, with no income whatever, was any- 
 thing but a joke. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 7i XoDgec ^o tibe TRescue 
 
 GRASS was beginning to grow on the 
 tiny lawn, all sorts of thrifty young 
 seedlings were popping up in the flower 
 beds and Jean's pansies were actually be- 
 ginning to blossom. The girls had trained 
 the rampant Virginia creeper away from the 
 windows and had coaxed it to climb the 
 porch pillars. From the outside, no one 
 would have suspected that Dandelion Cot- 
 tage was not occupied by a regular grown- 
 up family. Book agents and peddlers of- 
 fered their wares at the front door, and ap- 
 peared very much crestfallen when Bettie, 
 or one of the others, explained that the 
 neatly-kept little cottage was just a play- 
 house. Handbills and sample packages of 
 yeast cakes were left on the doorstep, and 
 once, a brand new postman actually dropped 
 
A MIDDLE-AGED YOUNO LADY STOOD OX THE DOOR-STEP. P. 69. 
 
A Lodger To The Rescue 69 
 
 a letter into the letter-box — Mabel carried 
 it afterwards to Mrs. Bartholomew Crane, 
 to whom it rightfully belonged. 
 
 One afternoon, when Jean was rearrang- 
 ing the dining room pictures — they had to 
 be rearranged very frequently — and when 
 Mabel and Marjory were busy putting fresh 
 papers on the pantry shelves, there was a 
 ring at the doorbell. 
 
 Bettie, who had been dusting the parlour, 
 pushed the chairs into place, threw her 
 duster into the dining room and ran to the 
 door. A lady — Bettie described her after- 
 wards as a " middle-aged young lady with 
 the sweetest dimple " — stood on the door- 
 step. 
 
 "Is your mother at home?" asked the 
 lady, smiling pleasantly at Bettie, who 
 liked the stranger at once. 
 
 "She — she doesn't live here," said Bat- 
 tle, taken by surprise. 
 
 " Perhaps you can tell me what I want to 
 know. I'm a stranger in town and I want 
 
*jo Dandelion Cottage 
 
 to rent a room in this neighbourhood. I am 
 to have my meals at Mrs. Baker's but she 
 hasn't any place for me to sleep. I don't 
 want anything very expensive, but of course 
 I'd be willing to pay a fair price. Do you 
 know of anybody with rooms to rent? I'm 
 to be in town for three weeks." 
 
 Bettie shook her head, reflectively. 
 " No, I don't believe I do, unless " 
 
 Bettie paused to look inquiringly at Jean, 
 who, framed by the dining room doorway, 
 was nodding her head vigorously. 
 
 " Perhaps Jean does," finished Bettie. 
 
 "Are you very particular," asked Jean, 
 coming forward, " about what kind of a 
 room it is ? " 
 
 " Why, not so very," returned the guest. 
 " I'm afraid I couldn't afford a very grand 
 one." 
 
 " Are you very timid ? " asked Bettie, who 
 had suddenl)r guessed what Jean had in 
 mind. " I mean are you afraid of burglars 
 and mice and things like that ? " 
 
A Lodger To The Rescue 71 
 
 " Why, most persons are, I imagine," said 
 the young woman, whose eyes were twink- 
 ling pleasantly. " Are there a great many 
 mice and burglars in this neighbourhood ? ** 
 
 " Mice," said Jean, " but not burglars — 
 It's a very honest neighbourhood. I think I 
 have an idea, but you see there are four of us 
 and I'll have to consult the others about it, 
 too. Sit here, please, in the cosey corner — 
 it's the safest piece of furniture we have. 
 Now if you'll excuse us just a minute we'll 
 go to the kitchen and talk it over." 
 
 " Certainly," murmured the lady, who 
 looked a trifle embarrassed at encountering 
 the gaze of the forty-two staring dolls that 
 sat all around the parlour with their backs 
 against the baseboard. " I hope I haven't 
 interrupted a party." 
 
 "Not at all," assured Bettie, with her 
 best company manner. 
 
 " Girls," said Jean, when she and Bettie 
 were in the kitchen with the door carefully 
 closed behind them, " would you be willing 
 
72 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 to rent the front bedroom to a clean, nice 
 looking lady if she'd be willing to take it? 
 She wants to pay for a room, she says, and 
 she looks very polite and pleasant, doesn't 
 she, Bettie?" 
 
 " Yes," corroborated Bettie, " I like her. 
 She has kind of twinkling brown eyes and 
 such nice dimples." 
 
 " You see," explained Jean, " the money 
 would pay for Mr. Black's dinner." 
 
 "Why, so it would," cried Marjory.: 
 " Let's do it." 
 
 " Yes," echoed Mabel, " for goodness' 
 sake, let's do it. It's only three weeks, any- 
 way, and what's three weeks ! 
 
 " How would it be," asked Marjory, cau- 
 tiously, " to take her on approval ? Aunty 
 Jane always has hats and things sent on 
 approval, so she can send them back if they 
 don't fit." 
 
 "Splendid!" cried Mabel. ''If she 
 doesn't fit Dandelion Cottage, she can't 
 stay." 
 
A Lodger To The Rescue 73 
 
 '* Oh," gurgled Marjory, " what a dinner 
 we'll give Mr. Black and Mrs. Crane. . We'll 
 have ice cream and " 
 
 *'Huh!" said Mabel, "most likely she 
 won't take the room at all. Anyhow, proba- 
 bly she's got tired of waiting and has gone.'* 
 
 " We'll go and see," said Jeaa. ** Come 
 on, everybody." 
 
 The lady, however, still sat on the hard, 
 lumpy cosey-corner, with her toes just 
 touching the ground. 
 
 " Well," said she, smiling at the flock of 
 girls, " how about the idea ? " 
 
 The other three looked expectantly at 
 Jean; Mabel nudged her elbow and Bettie 
 nodded at her. 
 
 " You talk," said Marjory, " you're the 
 oldest." 
 
 "It's like this," explained Jean, "this 
 house isn't good enough to rent to grown- 
 ups because it's all out of repair, so they've 
 lent it to us for the summer for a playhouse. 
 The back of it leaks dreadfully when it 
 
/4 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 rainsp and the plaster is all down in the 
 kitchen, but the front bedroom is really very 
 nice — if you don't raiud having four kinds 
 of carpet on the floor. This is a very safe 
 neighbourhood, no tramps or anything like 
 that, and if you're not an awfully timid per- 
 son, perhaps you wouldn't mind staying 
 alone at night." 
 
 "If you did," added Bettie, "probably 
 one of us could sleep in the other room un- 
 less it happened to rain — it rains right 
 down on the bed." 
 
 "Could I go upstairs to look at the 
 room ? " asked the young woman, 
 
 "There isn't any upstairs," said Bettie, 
 pulling back a curtain, "the room's right 
 here." 
 
 "Why! What a dear little room — all 
 white and blue." 
 
 " I hope you don't mind having children 
 around," said Marjory, somewhat anxious- 
 ly. " You see, we'd have to play in the rest 
 of the house." 
 
A Lodger To The Rescue 75 
 
 **0f course," added Jean, hastily, "if 
 you had company you could use the parlour 
 
 "And the front steps," said Bettie. 
 
 "I'm very fond of children," said the 
 young lady, "and I don't expect to have 
 any company but you because I don't know 
 anybody here. I shall be away every day 
 until about five o'clock because I am here 
 with my father who is tuning church organs, 
 and I have to help him. I strike the notes 
 while he works behind the organ. He has a 
 room at Mrs. Baker's, but she didn't have 
 any place to put me. I think I should like 
 this little room very much indeed — now, 
 how much are you going to charge me for 
 It?" 
 
 Jean looked at Bettie, and Bettie looked 
 at the other two. 
 
 " I don't know," said Jean, at last. 
 
 " Neither do I," said Bettie. 
 
 " Would — would a dollar a week be too 
 much ? " asked Marjory. 
 
j6 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ** It wouldn't be enough/' said the young 
 woman, promptly. *' My father pays five 
 for the room he has, but it's really a larger 
 room than he wanted. I should be very 
 glad to give you two dollars and a half a 
 week — I'm sure I couldn't find a furnished 
 room anywhere for less than that. Can I 
 move in to-night? I've nothing but a small 
 trunk." 
 
 "Ye — es," said Bettie, looking inquir- 
 ingly at Jean. " I think we could get it 
 ready by seven o'clock. It's all perfectly 
 clean, but you see we'll have to change 
 things around a little and fix up the wash- 
 stand." 
 
 "I'm sure," said the visitor, turning to 
 depart, "that it all looks quite lovely just 
 as it is. You may expect me at seven." 
 
CHAPTER Vn 
 
 /Ibaftfng XLbc %ot>gct Comtortable 
 
 **TTI7ELL," exclaimed Marjory, when 
 ¥ f the door had closed behind their 
 pleasant visitor, " isn't this too grand for 
 words! Ifs just like finding a bush with 
 pennies growing on it, or a pot of gold at 
 the end of the rainbow. Two and a half a 
 week! That's — let me see. Why! that's 
 seven dollars and a half ! We can buy Mr. 
 Black's dinner and have enough money left 
 io live on for a long time afterwards." 
 
 " Mercy ! " cried Mabel, " we never said 
 a word to her about taking her on approval. 
 We didn't even ask her name." 
 
 "Pshaw!" said Jean, "she's all right. 
 She couldn't be disagreeable if she wanted 
 to with that dimple and those sparkles in 
 her eyes ; but girls, we've a tremendous lot 
 to do." 
 
 79 
 
78 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Yes," said Mabel, " if she'd known that 
 the pillows under those ruffled shams were 
 just flour sacks stuffed with excelsior, she 
 wouldn't have thought everything so lovely. 
 Girls, what in the world are we to do for 
 sheets? We haven't even one." 
 
 " And blankets," said Marjory, 
 
 "And quilts," said Bettie. ''That old 
 white spread is every bit of bed-clothes we 
 own. I was so afraid she'd turn the 
 cover down and see that ever3rthing else 
 was just pieces of burlaps." 
 
 " It's a good thing the mattress is all 
 right," said Marjory, "but there isn't any 
 bottom to the water pitcher and the basin 
 leaks like anything." 
 
 " We'll just have to go home," said Jean, 
 " and tell our mothers all about it. We'll 
 have to borrow what we need. We must 
 get a lamp too, and some oil, because there 
 isn't any other way of lighting the house." 
 
 The four girls ran first of all to Bettie's 
 house, with their surprising news. 
 
 I 
 
The Lodger's Comfort 79 
 
 "But, Bettie/' said Mrs. Tucker, when 
 her little daughter helped by the other three, 
 had explained the situation, " are you sure 
 she's nice? I'm afraid you've been a little 
 rash." 
 
 " Just as nice as can be," assured Bettie. 
 
 " Yes," said Dr. Tucker, " I guess it's all 
 right. I know the organ tuner — I used to 
 see him twice a year when we lived in Ohio. 
 His name is Blossom and he's a very fine 
 old fellow. I met his daughter this after- 
 noon when they were examining the church 
 organ and she seemed a pleasant, well edu- 
 cated young woman — I believe he said she 
 taught a kindergarten during the winter. 
 The girls haven't made any mistake this 
 time." 
 
 " Then we must make her comfortable," 
 said Mrs. Tucker. " You may take sheets 
 and pillow-cases from the linen closet, Bet- 
 tie, and you must see that she has everything 
 she needs." 
 
 Excited Bettie danced off to the linen 
 
So DandeKon Cottage 
 
 closet and the others ran home to tell the 
 good news. 
 
 " I've filled a lamp for you, Bettie," said 
 Mrs. Tucker, meeting Bettie, with her arms 
 full of sheets at the bottom of the stairs. 
 " Here's a box of matches, too." 
 
 When Bettie was returning with her 
 spoils to Dandelion Cottage she almost 
 bumped into Mabel whom she met at the 
 gate with a pillow under each arm, a folded 
 patchwork quilt balanced unsteadily on her 
 head, and her chubby hands clasped about 
 a big brass lamp. 
 
 " The pillows are off my own bed," said 
 Mabel. " Mother wasn't home but she 
 wouldn't care, anyway." 
 
 " But can you sleep without them ? " 
 
 " Oh, I'll take home one of the excelsior 
 ones," said Mabel. "I can sleep on any- 
 thing." 
 
 Jean came in a moment later with a pile 
 of blankets and quilts. She, too, had a 
 lamp, packed carefully in a big basket that 
 
The Lodger's Comfort 8i 
 
 hung from her arm. Marjory followed 
 almost at her heels with more bedding, tow- 
 els, a fourth lamp and two candlesticks. 
 
 "Well," laughed Bettie, when all the 
 lamps and candles were placed in a row on 
 the dining-room table, " I guess Miss Blos- 
 som will have almost light enough. Here 
 are four big lamps and two candles ^* 
 
 " I've six more candles in my blouse," 
 said Mabel, laughing and fishing them out 
 one at a time. " I thought they'd do for the 
 blue candlesticks Mrs. Crane gave us for the 
 bedroom." 
 
 " Isn't it fortunate," said Jean, who was 
 thumping the mattress vigorously, "that 
 we put the best bed in this room? Beds 
 are such hard things to move." 
 
 "Ye — es," said Bettie, rather doubtful- 
 ly, " but 1 think we'd better tell Miss Blos- 
 som not to be surprised if the slats fall out 
 once in a while during the night You 
 know they always do if you happen to turn 
 over too suddenly." 
 
8 a DandeKcn Cottage 
 
 "We must warn her about the chairs. 
 too," said Marjory. "None of them are 
 really very safe." 
 
 "I guess," said Jean, "I'd better bring 
 over the rocking chair from my own room, 
 but Tm afraid she'll just have to grin an^ 
 bear the slats, because they zvill fall out in 
 spite of anything I can do." 
 
 By seven o'clock the room was really 
 quite comfortable. The washstand, which 
 was really only a wooden box thinly dis- 
 guised by a muslin curtain gathered across 
 the front and sides, was supplied with a 
 sound basin, a whole pitcher, numerous tow- 
 els and four kinds of soap — • the girls had 
 all thought of soap. They were unable to 
 decide which kind the lodger would like 
 best, so they laid Bettie's clear amber cake 
 of glycerine soap, Jean's scentless white 
 castile, Marjory's square of green cucumber 
 soap and Mabel's highly perfumed oval pink 
 cake, in a rainbow row on the washstand. 
 
 The bed, bountifully supplied with cover 
 
The Lodger's Comfort 83 
 
 ings — had Dandelion Cottage been sudden- 
 ly transported to Alaska the lodger would 
 still have had blankets to spare, so generous- 
 ly had her enthusiastic landladies provided 
 — looked very comfortable indeed. At half 
 past seven when the lodger arrived with 
 apologies for being late because the dray- 
 man, who was to move her trunk, had been 
 slow, the cottage, for the first time since the 
 girls had occupied it, was brilliantly lighted. 
 
 "We thought," explained Bettie, "that 
 you might feel less frightened in a strange 
 place if you had plenty of light, though we 
 didn't really mean to have so many lamps — ■ 
 we each supposed we were bringing the only 
 one. Anyway, we don't know which one 
 burns best." 
 
 " If they should all go out," said Mabel, 
 earnestly, " there are candles and matches 
 on the little shelf above the bed." 
 
 When the lodger had been warned about 
 the loose slats and the untrustworthiness of 
 the chairs, the girls said good-night. 
 
84 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 "You needn't go on my account," said 
 Miss Blossom. " It's pleasant to have you 
 here — still, Fm not afraid to stay alone. 
 You must always do just as you like about 
 staying, you know ; I shouldn't like to think 
 that I was driving you out of this dear little 
 house, for it was nice of you to let me come. 
 I think I was very fortunate in finding a 
 room so near Mrs. Baker's." 
 
 " Thank you," said Jean, " but we always 
 have to be home before dark unless we have 
 permission to stay any place." 
 
 " I have to go," confided Mabel, " because 
 I was so excited that I forgot to eat my sup- 
 per." 
 
 " So did I," said Marjory, frankly, " and 
 I'm just as hungry as a bear." 
 
 ** Everybody come home with me," said 
 Jean, "we always have dinner later than 
 you do and the things can't be very cold." 
 
CHAPTER Vm 
 
 ^be (5lrl0 2)(6Close H iplan 
 
 DID you sleep well, Miss Blossom ?^^ 
 asked Bettie, shyly waylaying the 
 lodger who was on her way to breakfast. 
 
 " Ye — es," said Miss Blossom, smiling 
 brightly, " but in spite of your warning and 
 all my care, the bottom dropped out of my 
 bed and landed the mattress on the floor, 
 but no harm was done. As soon as I dis- 
 covered that I was not falling down an ele- 
 vator shaft, I went to sleep again. I think 
 if I had a few nails and some little blocks 
 of wood I could fix those slats so they'd 
 stay in better ; you see they're not quite long 
 enough for the bed." 
 
 " ril find some for you," said Bettie. 
 " You'll find them on the parlour table when 
 you get back." 
 
 Before the week was over thf ^irls had 
 85 
 
86 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 discovered that their new friend was in 
 every way a most delightful person. She 
 proved surprisingly skilful with hammer and 
 nails, and besides mending the bed she soon 
 had several of the chairs quite firm on their 
 legs. 
 
 " Why," cried Bettie, one day, as she de- 
 lightedly inspected an old black walnut 
 rocker that had always collapsed at the 
 slightest touch, "this old chair is almost 
 strong enough to walk! I'm so glad youVe 
 made so many of them safe, because, when 
 Mrs. Bartholomew Crane comes to see us, 
 she's always afraid to sit down. She's such 
 a nice neighbour that we'd like to make her 
 comfortable." 
 
 " We have the loveliest friends," said 
 Jean, with a contented sigh. " It's hard to 
 tell which is the nicest one." 
 
 " But the dearest two,'' explained Mar- 
 jory, discriminating nicely, " are Mr. Black 
 and Mrs. Crane — excepting you, of course. 
 Miss Blossom." 
 
Disclosing A Plan 87 
 
 "Someway," added Bettie, "we always 
 think of those two in one breath, like Dom- 
 bey and Son, or Jack and Jill." 
 
 " But they couldn't be farther apart real- 
 Ij/' declared Jean. " They're both nice, 
 both are kind of old, both are dark and 
 rather stout, but except for that they're alto- 
 gether different. Mr. Black has everything 
 in the world that anybody could want and 
 Mrs. Crane hasn't much of anything. Mr. 
 Black is invited to banquets and things and 
 rides in carriages and " 
 
 " Has a silk hat," assisted Mabel. 
 
 " And Mrs. Crane," continued Jean, pay- 
 ing no attention to the interruption, " can't 
 even afford to ride in the street car — I've 
 heard her say so." 
 
 " I wish," groaned generous Mabel, with 
 deep contrition, " that I'd never taken a cent 
 for that lemonade I sold her last spring. If 
 I'd dreamed how good and how poor she 
 was I wouldn't have. She might have had 
 four ride'- with that money." 
 
88 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " / wish/' said Jean, " we could do some- 
 thing perfectly grand and beautiful for Mrs. 
 Crane. She's always doing the kindest lit- 
 tle things for other people." 
 
 " Well," demanded Marjory, " aren't we 
 going to have her here to dinner, too, when 
 we have Mr. Black ? Please don't tell any- 
 body. Miss Blossom — it's to be a surprise." 
 
 " Still, just a dinner doesn't seem to be 
 enough," said Jean, who, with her chin in 
 her hand, seemed to be thinking deeply. 
 "Of course it helps but I'd rather save her 
 life or do something like that." 
 
 "Little things count for a great deal in 
 this world, sometimes," said Miss Blossom, 
 leaning down to brush her cheek softly 
 against Jean's. " It's generally wiser to 
 leave the big things until one is big enough 
 to handle them." 
 
 " Mrs. Crane is pretty big," offered mat- 
 ter-of-fact Mabel. 
 
 " Oh, dear," laughed Miss Blossom, "that 
 wasn't at all what I meant." 
 
Disclosing A Plan 89 
 
 " Mr. Black/' said Bettie, dreamily, " has 
 enough things but I don't believe he really 
 cares about anything in the world but his 
 roses — his face is different when he talks 
 about them, kind of soft all about the cor- 
 ners and not so — not so " 
 
 "Daniel Webstery," supplied Jean, un- 
 derstandingly. 
 
 " It must be pretty lonely for him with- 
 out any family," agreed Miss Blossom. ** I 
 don't know what would become of father if 
 he didn't have me to keep him cheered up — 
 we're wonderful chums, father and I." 
 
 " Oh," mourned tender-hearted Bettie, 
 " I msh I could make Mrs. Crane rich 
 enough so she wouldn't need to mend all the 
 time, and that I could provide Mr. Black 
 with some really truly relatives to love him 
 the way you love your father." 
 
 "O Bettie! Bettie!" cried Mabel, sud- 
 denly beginning, in her excitement, to 
 bounce up and down on the one chair ^that 
 possessed springs, " I know exactly how we 
 
qo Dandelion Cottage 
 
 could help them both. We could beg seven 
 or eight children from the orphan asylum — 
 they're glad to give 'em away — and let 
 Mrs. Crane sell 'em to Mr. Black for — for 
 ten dollars apiece." 
 
 Such a storm of merriment followed this 
 simple solution of the problem that Mabel 
 for the moment looked quite crushed. Her 
 chair, incidentally was crushed, too, for Ma- 
 bel's final bounce proved too much for its 
 frail constitution; its four legs spread sud- 
 denly and lowered surprised Mabel gently 
 but unexpectedly to the floor. Everybody 
 laughed again, Mabel as heartily as anyone, 
 and, for a time, the sorrows of Mrs. Crane 
 and Mr. Black were forgotten. 
 
 The dinner party, however, still remained 
 uppermost in all their plans. Mabel was 
 in favoui of giving it at once, but the other 
 girls were more cautious, so the little mis- 
 tresses of Dandelion Cottage finally decided 
 to postpone the party until after Miss Blos- 
 ^m had paid her rent in full. 
 
Disclosing A Plan 91 
 
 " Yoti see," explained cautious Marjory, 
 one day when the girls were alone, " she 
 might get called away suddenly before the 
 fhree weeks are up, and if we spent more 
 money than we have it wouldn't be very 
 comfortable. Besides IVe never seen seven 
 dollars and a half all at once and Td like 
 to." 
 
 But the dinner plan was no longer the 
 profound secret that it had been at first, for 
 when the young housekeepers had told their 
 mothers about their lodger, they had been 
 obliged to tell them also what they intended 
 to do with the money. In the excitement of 
 the moment, they had all neglected to men- 
 tion Mrs. Crane, but later, when they made 
 good this omission, their news was received 
 in a most perplexing fashion. The girls 
 were greatly puzzled, but they did not hap- 
 pen to compare notes until after something 
 that happened at the dinner party had re- 
 minded them of their parents' incompre* 
 hensible behaviour* 
 
9^ Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ** Mamma," said Bettie, one evening at 
 supper time, soon after Miss Blossom's ar- 
 rival, " I forgot to tell you that we're going 
 to ask Mrs. Crane, too, when we have Mr. 
 Black to dinner. It's to be a surprise for 
 both of them." 
 
 " What ! " gasped Mrs. Tucker, dropping 
 her muffin, and looking not at Bettie, but 
 at Dr. Tucker. " Surely not Mrs. Crane 
 and Mr. Black, too ! You don't mean both 
 at the same time ! " 
 
 "Why yes, mamma," said Bettie. "It 
 wouldn't cost any more." 
 
 Then the little girl looked with astonish* 
 ment first at her father and then at her 
 mother, for Dr. Tucker, with a warning 
 finger against his lips, was shaking his head 
 just as hard as he could at Mrs. Tucker, 
 who looked the very picture of amazement. 
 
 "Why!" asked Bettie, "what's the mat- 
 ter? Don't you think it's a good plan? 
 Isn't it the right thing to do?" 
 
 *'Yes," said Dr. Tucker, still looking al 
 
Disclosing A Plan 93 
 
 Betti'e's mother, who was nodding her ap- 
 proval, " I shouldn't be surprised if it might 
 prove a very good thing to do. Your idea 
 of making it a surprise to both of them is a 
 good one, too. I should keep it the darkest 
 kind of a secret until the very last moment 
 if I were you." 
 
 "Yes," agreed Mrs. Tucker, "I should 
 certainly keep it a secret." 
 
 Jean, too, happened to mention the matter 
 at home and with very much the same re- 
 sult. Mr. Mapes looked at Mrs. Mapes 
 with something in his eye that very closely 
 resembled an amused twinkle, and Jean was 
 almost certain that there was an answering 
 twinkle in her mother's eye. 
 
 "What's the joke?" asked Jean. 
 
 "I couldn't think of spoiling it by tell- 
 ing," said Mrs. Mapes. "If there's any- 
 thing I can do to help you with your dinner 
 party I shall be delighted to do it." 
 
 "Oh, will you?" cried Jean. "When 
 I told you about it last week I thought, some- 
 
94 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 way, that you weren't very much inter- 
 ested." 
 
 "I'm very much interested indeed," re* 
 turned Mrs» Mapes. " I hope you'll be able 
 to keep the surprise part of it a secret to the 
 very last moment. That's always the best 
 part of a dinner party, you know." 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Mapes, " if you know 
 who the other guests are to be it always 
 takes away part of the pleasure." 
 
 When Marjory told the news, her Aunty 
 Jane, who seldom smiled and who usually 
 appeared to care very little about the doings 
 in Dandelion Cottage, greatly surprised her 
 niece by suddenly displaying as many as 
 seven upper teeth; she showed, too, such 
 flattering interest in the coming event that 
 Marjory plucked up courage to ask for po- 
 tatoes and other provisions that might prove 
 useful. 
 
 "When you've decided what day you're 
 going to have your party," said Aunty Jane, 
 with astonishing good nature, " I'll give or 
 
Disclosing A Plan 9; 
 
 lend you anything you want, provided you 
 don't tell either of your guests who the other 
 one is to be." 
 
 When Mabel told about the plan, she too, 
 was very much perplexed at the way her 
 news was received. Her parents, after one 
 speaking glance at each other, leaned back 
 in their chairs and laughed until the tears 
 rolled down their cheeks. But they, too, 
 heartily approved cf the dinner party and 
 advised strict secrecy regarding the guests. 
 
 School was out, and, as Bettie said, every- 
 day was Saturday, but the days were slip- 
 ping away altogether too rapidly. The 
 lawn, by this time, was covered with what 
 Mabel called " real grass," great bunches of 
 Jean's sweetest purple pansies had to be 
 picked every morning so they wouldn't go 
 to seed, and the long bed by the fence threat- 
 ened to burst at any moment into blossom. 
 Even the much-disturbed vegetable garden 
 was doing so nicely that it was possible to 
 tell the lettuce from the radish plants. 
 
96 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Two of Miss Blossom's three weeks had 
 gone. She herself, was to leave town the 
 following Thursday and the dinner party 
 was to take place the day after ; but even the 
 thought of the great event failed to keep the 
 little cottagers quite cheerful, for they hated 
 to think of losing their lovely lodger. 
 Whenever this charming young person was 
 not busy at one or another of the various 
 churches with her father, she was playing 
 with the children. "Just exactly," said 
 Bettie, " as if she were just twelve years old, 
 too." Her clever fingers made dresses for 
 each of the four biggest dolls, and such cun- 
 ning baby bonnets for each of the four lit- 
 tlest ones. 
 
 Best of all, she taught the girls how to 
 do a great many things. She showed them 
 how to turn the narrowest of hems, how to 
 gather a ruffle neatly, and how to take the 
 tiniest of stitches. Bettie, who had to help 
 with the weekly darning, and Marjory, who 
 had to mend her own stockings, actually 
 
Disclosing A Plan 97 
 
 found it pleasant work after Miss Blossom 
 had shown them several different ways of 
 weaving the threads. 
 
 " I just wish," cried Mabel, one day, in 
 a burst of gratitude, " that you'd fall ill, or 
 something so we could do something for 
 you. You're just lovely to us," 
 
 ** Thank you, Mabel," said Miss Blossom, 
 with eyes that twinkled delightedly, "I'm 
 sure you'd take beautiful care of me — I'm 
 almost tempted to try it. Shall I have 
 measles, or just plain smallpox? ** 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 An TIlnerpecteD Crop ®t 2)andelion6 
 
 IN spite of the prospect of losing her, 
 the last week of Miss Blossom's stay 
 was a delightful one to the girls because so 
 many pleasant things happened. The best 
 of all concerned the cottage dining-room. 
 
 This room had proved the hardest spot 
 in the house to make attractive, for it seemed 
 to resist all efforts to make a well furnished 
 room of it. Most of the faded paper was 
 loose and much of it had dropped off in 
 patches during the time that the cottage was 
 vacant, showing the ugly, dark, painted wall 
 underneath. It was only too evident that 
 the pictures that the girls had fastened up 
 carefully with pins had been put up for pur- 
 poses of concealment, the ceiling was stained 
 
 and dingy, and the rug was far too small 
 08 
 
An Unexpected Crop 99 
 
 to cover the floor where some industrious 
 former occupant had daubed paint of various 
 gaudy hues while trying, perhaps, to find 
 the right shade for the woodwork. 
 
 Moreover, what little furniture there was 
 in the dining room showed very plainly that 
 it had not been intended originally for din- 
 ing room use ; the buffet, in particular, pro- 
 claimed loudly in big black letters that it 
 was nothing but a soap box, and Bettie's 
 best efforts could not make anything else 
 of it. Now that the day for the long post- 
 poned dinner party was actually set, the 
 girls' attention was more than ever directed 
 toward the forlorn appearance of the little 
 dining room. 
 
 "Dear me," said Bettie, one day when 
 the fivQ friends, seated around the table, 
 were cutting out pictures for a wonderful 
 scrap-book for the little lame boy that Miss 
 Blossom had discovered living near one of 
 the churches, " I do wish this dining room 
 didn't look so sort of bedroomy." 
 
lOO Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Yes," said Jean, " I've tried putting the 
 buffet in every corner and all around the 
 walls, and it won't look like an3rthing but a 
 wooden box." 
 
 " I tried covering it with a gathered cur- 
 tain," said Mabel, " but that made it look so 
 like a washstand that I took it off again." 
 
 " Why ! " exclaimed Miss Blossom, 
 "you've given me a beautiful idea. I be- 
 lieve we could make a splendid sideboard 
 out of that piano box that's so in our way 
 on the back porch. We'd just have to saw 
 the ends down a little, nail on some boards, 
 paint it some plain, dark color and spread a 
 towel over the top, and we'd have a beauti- 
 ful Flemish oak sideboard. I'll buy the can 
 of paint." 
 
 "I'll do the painting," said Jean. "I 
 helped mother paint our kitchen floor so I 
 know a little about it." 
 
 " That would be lovely. I've been think- 
 ing, too, that it would be a good idea to fix 
 a little shelf under this window to hold your 
 
An Unexpected Crop loi 
 
 petunia and these two geraniums that are 
 suffering so for sunshine. I think I could 
 make it from the boards in that soap box." 
 
 " Oh, thank you ! " cried Bettie, " I don't 
 believe there's anything you don't know how 
 to do." 
 
 The piano-box, transformed by Miss 
 Blossom and the four girls into a very good 
 imitation of a Flemish oak sideboard, did 
 indeed make such an imposing piece of fur- 
 niture that the rest of the room looked shab- 
 bier than ever by contrast. 
 
 " I'm afraid," said Miss Blossom, survey- 
 ing the effect, with an air of comical dismay, 
 "that the rest of our dining room really 
 looks worse than it did before. It's like 
 trying to wear a new hat with an old gown ; 
 but I'm proud of our handiwork." 
 
 " Yes," said Jean, " it's a great deal more 
 like a sideboard than it is like a piano-box." 
 
 "It's the sideboardiest sideboard I ever 
 saw," said Mabel, " but it's certainly too fine 
 for this room." 
 
102 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Never mind," said cheerful Bettie, 
 "we'll let Mr. Black sit so he can see the 
 sideboard and we'll have Mrs. Crane face 
 the geraniums on that cunning shelf. If 
 their eyes begin to wander around the room 
 we'll just call their attention to the things 
 we want them to see — when mamma enter- 
 tains the sewing society she always invites 
 the first one that comes to sit in the chair 
 over the hole in the sitting-room rug so the 
 others won't notice it. If we catch Mr. 
 Black looking at the ceiling we'll say: 
 * Oh, Mr. Black, did you notice the flowers 
 on the sideboard ? ' " 
 
 Everybody laughed at Bettie's comical 
 idea. This desperate measure, however, 
 was not needed, for one afternoon, the day 
 after the sideboard was finished, something 
 happened, something lovelier than the girls 
 had ever even dreamed could happen. 
 
 It was only three o'clock, yet there was 
 Miss Blossom coming home two whole 
 hours earlier than usual; her white-haired 
 
An Unexpected Crop J03 
 
 father was with her and under his arm in a 
 long parcel were seven rolls of wall paper. 
 
 " My contribution to the cottage," said 
 Mr. Blossom, laying the bundle at Bettie's 
 feet, and smiling pleasantly at the row of 
 girls on the doorstep. 
 
 " It's paper for the dining room," ex- 
 plained Miss Blossom. " We happened to 
 pass a store, on our way to work this noon, 
 where they were advertising a sale of odd 
 rolls of very nice paper at only five cents a 
 roll. There were two rolls that were just 
 righ'. for the ceiling and five rolls for the 
 side wall. It seemed just exactly the right 
 thing for Dandelion Cottage, so we couldn't 
 help buying it." 
 
 ** It would have been wicked," said Mr. 
 Blossom, cutting the string about the bun- 
 dle, " not to buy such suitable paper at sudu 
 a ridiculous price." 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " cried the delighted girls, aS 
 Mr. Blossom held up a roll for inspection, 
 " It might have been made for this house 1 ^ 
 
I04 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Dandelion blossoms in yellow, with 
 such lovely soft green leaves," said Bettie, 
 " and such a lovely, light creamy back- 
 ground. Oh ! what's that ? " 
 
 " That's the border," replied Miss Blos- 
 som. " See how graceful the pattern is, and 
 how saucily those dandelions hold their 
 heads. Show them the ceiling paper, fa- 
 ther." 
 
 "Oh!" cried Mabel, "just picked-off 
 dandelions scattered all over an ocean of 
 milk — how pretty ! " 
 
 "We'll have the Village Improvement 
 Society after us," laughed Marjory. 
 ** They don't allow a dandelion to show its 
 head." 
 
 "I love dandelions," said Miss Blossom; 
 ** real ones, I mean ; they're such gay, cheer- 
 ful things and such a beautiful colour." 
 
 " I love them, too," said Jean, " because 
 you know, they paid our rent for us.'* 
 
 "But," said Mabel, "I'm thankful we 
 haven't got to dig all these dandelions." 
 
An Unexpected Crop 105 
 
 " Now," said Miss Blossom, " we must 
 go right to work. If everybody will help, 
 father and I will put it on for you. You 
 needn't be afraid to trust us, because, last 
 Spring, we papered our two biggest rooms,, 
 and they really looked almost professional 
 except for one strip that father got upside 
 down; but your dining room will be in no 
 danger on that score, for father never makes 
 the same mistake twice. Jean, you and 
 Mabel can move all the furniture except the 
 table and sideboard into the kitchen — we'll 
 have to stand on the table. Bettie, take 
 down all the pictures. Father, you can be 
 trimming the ceiling paper here on the side- 
 board while Marjory starts a fire in the 
 kitchen stove so I can have hot water for 
 my paste — we'll have our wall covered with 
 dandelions in just no time." 
 
 " Now," said Mr. Blossom, when the fur- 
 niture was out and the pictures were all 
 down, " we must dig the soil up well or our 
 dandelions won't grow. Everybody must 
 
lob Dandelion Cottage 
 
 tear as much as she can of this old paper ofif 
 the wall; it's so ragged it comes off very 
 easily." 
 
 ** The roof used to leak, but my brother 
 Rob unrolled some tin cans/' said Bettie, 
 •* and nailed them over the place where the 
 truly shingles are gone, and it never leaked 
 a mite the last four times it rained." 
 
 **The plaster seems fairly good," said 
 Mr. Blossom. " I could mend these holes 
 with a little plaster-of-paris if some obliging 
 young lady would run with this dime to the 
 drug store for ten cents' worth." 
 
 " I'll go," said Mabel. " I don't think I 
 like peeling walls." 
 
 " Mabel," said Miss Blossom, " isn't real- 
 ly fond of work, but I notice that she usually 
 does her share.'* 
 
 Everybody helped to mend the cracks, and 
 everybody watched with breathless interest 
 to see the first long strip, upheld by Mr. 
 Blossom and guided by Miss Blossom and 
 the cottage broom, go into place. 
 
Ai7 Unexpected Crop 107 
 
 " Wouldn't it be awful," whispered Ma- 
 bel, " if it shouldn^t stick? " 
 
 But it did stick smooth and flat, and the 
 paper was even prettier on the wall than it 
 had been in the roll. 
 
 " A side strip next, father, so we can see 
 how it's going to look," pleaded Miss Blos- 
 som. " Remember, we're just children." 
 
 At five o'clock, when half of the ceiling 
 and one side of the wall were finished, the 
 front door was opened abruptly. 
 
 " Hi there ! " said Mr. Black, putting his 
 head in at the dining-room door, "why 
 don't you listen when I ring your bell ? Is 
 that dinner of mine ready? I'm losing ai 
 pound a day." 
 
 *' No," said Bettie, jumping down from 
 her perch on the sideboard, " but it will be 
 next Friday. We*re getting it ready just 
 ds fast as ever we can. We're even paper- 
 ing the dining-room for the occasion." 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Black, " I just stopped 
 in to say that unless you could give me that 
 
lo8 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 dinner this very minute, I shall have to go 
 hungry for the next five weeks." 
 
 " Oh! " cried Bettie, in dismay, " why? " 
 
 "Because I'm going to Washington to- 
 night by the six o'clock train and I shall be 
 gone a whole month — perhaps longer." 
 
 "Oh dear," cried Bettie, "we just 
 couldn't have you, to-night. We're paper- 
 ing the dining-room and besides we haven't 
 a single thing to eat but some stale cake that 
 Mrs. Pike gave us." 
 
 "I strongly suspect," said Mr. Black, 
 smiling over Bettie's head, at Mr. Blossom, 
 *' that you don't really want me to dinner." 
 
 "Oh, we do, we do," assured Bettie, 
 earnestly, " but we just can't have company 
 to-night. If you'll just let us know exactly 
 when you're coming home, you'll find a 
 beautiful dinner ready for you." 
 
 "All right," said Mr. Black, "I'll tele^ 
 graph. I'll say: *My dear Miss Betty- 
 kins, of Dandelion Cottage: It will give 
 me great pleasure to dine with you to-mor- 
 
An Unexpected Crop 109 
 
 row — or would you rather have me say the 
 day after to-morrow? — evening. Yours 
 most devotedly and-so- forth.' " 
 
 " Yes, yes/' cried Bettle, " that will be all 
 right, but you must give us three days to 
 get ready in." 
 
 After all, however, it was Mabel that sent 
 the telegram, and it was a very different one. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Cbanges IFn CTbe 1Rclgbborboo& 
 
 WHEN the little dining-room was fin- 
 ished it was quite the prettiest room 
 in the house, for the friendly Blossoms had 
 painted the battered woodwork a delicate 
 green to match the leaves in the paper ; and 
 by mixing what was left of the green paint 
 with the remaining colour left from the 
 sideboard, clever Miss Blossom obtained a 
 shade that was exactly right for as much 
 of the floor as the rug did not cover. Of 
 course all the neighbours and all the girls' 
 relatives had to come in afterwards to see 
 what Bettie called " The very dandelioniest 
 room in Dandelion Cottage." 
 
 It seemed to the girls that the time 
 
 fairly galloped from Monday to Thursday. 
 xio 
 
Neighborhood Changes ill 
 
 They were heartily sorry when the moment 
 came for them to lose their pleasant lodger. 
 They went to the train to see the last of her 
 and to assure her for the thousandth time 
 that they should never forget her. Mabel 
 sobbed audibly at the moment of parting, 
 and large tears were rolling down silent 
 Bettie's cheeks. Even the seven dollars and 
 fifty cents that the girls had handled with 
 such delight that morning paled into insig- 
 nificance beside the fact that the train was 
 actually whisking their beloved Miss Blos- 
 som away from them. When she had paid 
 for her lodging she advised her four land- 
 ladies to deposit the money in the bank until 
 time for the dinner party and the girls did 
 so, but even the importance of owning a 
 bank account failed to console them for their 
 ^£>ss. The train out of sight, the sober little 
 procession wended its way to Dandelion 
 Cottage but the cosey little house seemed 
 strangely silent and deserted when Bettie 
 unlocked the door. Mabel, who had wept 
 
112 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 stormily all the way home, sat down heav- 
 ily on the doorstep, and wept afresh. 
 
 Pinned to a pillow on the parlour couch, 
 Jean discovered a little folded square of 
 paper addressed to Bettie, who was drum- 
 ming a sad little tune on the window pane. 
 
 "Why Bettie!" cried Jean, "this looks 
 like a note for you from Miss Blossom. Do 
 read it and tell us what she says." 
 
 "It says," read Bettie: "'My dearest 
 of Betties: Thank you for being so nice 
 to me. There's a telephone message for 
 you.' " 
 
 " I wonder what it means," said Marjory. 
 
 Bettie ran to the talkless telephone, slipped 
 her hand inside the little door at the top, and 
 found a small square parcel wrapped in tis- 
 sue paper, tied with a pink ribbon and ad- 
 dressed to Miss Bettie Tucker, Dandelion 
 Cottage. Bettie hastily undid the wrap- 
 pings and squealed with delight when she 
 saw the lovely little handkerchief, bordered 
 delicately with lace, that Miss Blossom her- 
 
Neighborhood Changes 113 
 
 self had made for her. There was a dain- 
 tily embroidered " B ** in the comer to make 
 it Bettie's very own. 
 
 Marjory happened upon Jean's note peep- 
 mg out from under a book on the parlour 
 table. It said : " Dear Jean : Don't you 
 think it's time for you to look at the kitchen 
 clock?" 
 
 Of course everybody rushed to the kitchen 
 to see Jean take from inside the case of the 
 tickless clock a lovely handkerchief just like 
 Bettie's except that it was marked with " J.'* 
 
 Marjory's note, which she presently found 
 growing on the crimson petunia sent her 
 flying to the grindless coffee-mill where she, 
 too, found a similar gift. 
 
 " Well," said Mabel, who was now fairly 
 cheerful, " I wonder if she forgot all about 
 me." 
 
 For several anxious moments the girls 
 searched eagerly in Mabel's behalf but no 
 note was visible. 
 
 **I can't think where It could be,^ said 
 
114 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 housewifely Jean, stooping to pick up a bit 
 of string from the dining-room rug, and 
 winding it into a little ball. "IVe looked 
 in every room and — Why! what a long 
 string! I wonder where it's all coming 
 from/' 
 
 *' Under the rug," said Marjory, making 
 a dive for the bit of paper that dangled from 
 the end of the string. ** Here*s your note, 
 Mabel/' 
 
 *'I think," wrote Miss Blossom, **tha1 
 there must be a mouse in the pantry mouse- 
 trap by this time." 
 
 "Yes," shouted Mabel, a moment later, 
 ** a lovely lace-edged mouse with an * M * 
 on it — no, it's * M B ' — a really truly mon- 
 ogram, the very first monogram I ever had,** 
 
 " Why, so it is," said Marjory. " 1 sup- 
 pose she did that so we could tell them apart 
 because if she'd put M on both of them we 
 wouldn't have known which was which,** 
 
 '* Why," cried Jean, " it's nearly an hour 
 since the train left. Wasn't it sweet of heir 
 
Neighborhood Changes 115 
 
 io think of keeping us interested so we 
 shouldn't be quite so lonesome,** 
 
 **yes," said Bettie, "it was even nicer 
 than our lovely presents but it was just like 
 her/* 
 
 "Oh dear,** said Mabel, again on the 
 verge of tears, "I wish she might have 
 stayed forever. Whaf s the use of getting 
 lovely new friends if you have to go and 
 lose them the very next minute? She was 
 just the nicest grown-up little girl there ever 
 was and I'll never see — see her any— ^" 
 
 "Look out, Mabel," warned Marjory, 
 " if you cry on that handkerchief you'll spoil 
 that monogram. Miss Blossom didn't in- 
 tend these for crying-handkerchiefs — one 
 good-sized tear would soak them." 
 
 Miss Blossom was not the only friend 
 the girls were fated to lose that week. 
 Grandma Pike, as everybody called the 
 pleasant little old lady, was their next-door 
 neighbour on the west side and the cottagers 
 were very fond of her. No one dreamed 
 
ii6 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 that Mrs. Pike would ever think of going to 
 another town to live; but about ten days 
 before Miss Blossom departed, the cheery 
 old lady had quite taken everybody's breath 
 away by announcing that she was going 
 West, just as soon as she could get her 
 things packed, to live with her married 
 daughter. 
 
 When the girls heard that Grandma Pike 
 was going away they were very much sur- 
 prised and not at all pleased at the idea of 
 losing one of their most delightful neigh- 
 bours. At Miss Blossom's suggestion, they 
 had spent several evenings working on a 
 parting gift for their elderly friend. The 
 gift, a wonderful linen traveling case with 
 places in it to carry everything a traveller 
 would be likely to need, was finished at last 
 — with so many persons working on it, it 
 was hard to keep all the pieces together — ■ 
 and the girls carried it to Grandma Pik^ 
 who seemed very much pleased. 
 
 " Well, well," said the delighted old lady, 
 
Neighborhood Changes 117 
 
 unrolling the parcel, " if you haven't gone 
 and made me a grand slipper-bag — I'll 
 think of you, now, every time I put on my 
 slippers." 
 
 " No, no," protested Jean. " It's a trav- 
 elling case with places in it for 'most every- 
 thing hut slippers." 
 
 " We all sewed on it," explained MabeL 
 *' Those little bits of stitches that you can't 
 see at all are Bettie's. Jean did all this 
 feather-stitching and Marjory hemmed all 
 the binding. Miss Blossom basted it to- 
 gether so it wouldn't be crooked." 
 
 "What did you do, Mabel?" asked 
 Grandma Pike, smiling over her spectacles. 
 
 " I took out the basting threads and em- 
 broidered these letters on the pockets." 
 
 " What does this ' P ' stand for? " 
 
 "Pins," said Mabel. "You see it was 
 sort of an accident. I started to embroider 
 the word soap on this little pocket, but when 
 I got the S O A done, there wasn't any room 
 left for the P, so I just put it on the next 
 
Ii8 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 pocket. I knew that if I explained that It 
 was the end of * Soap ' and the beginning of 
 * Pins ' that you'd remember not to get your 
 {uns and soap mixed up." 
 
CHAPTER M 
 
 DURING the lonely days immediatel]^ 
 following Miss Blossom's departure, 
 Mrs. Bartholomew Crane proved a great 
 solace. The girls had somewhat neglected 
 her during the preceding busy weeks; but 
 with Miss Blossom gone, the cottagers be- 
 came conscious of an aching void that new 
 wall paper and lace handkerchiefs and a 
 bank account could not quite fill; so pres- 
 ently they resumed their former habit of 
 trotting across the street many times a day 
 to visit good-natured Mrs. Crane. 
 
 Mrs. Crane's house was very small and 
 looked rather gloomy from the outside be- 
 cause the paint had long ago peeled off and 
 
 the weatherbeaten boards had grown black 
 "9 
 
I20 DandeKon Cottage 
 
 with age; but inside it was cheerfulness per- 
 sonified. First, there was Mrs. Crane her- 
 self, fairly radiating comfort. Then there 
 was a bright rag carpet on the floor, a glow- 
 ing red cloth on the little table, a lively yel- 
 low canary named Dicksy in one window, 
 and a gorgeous red and crimson, but very 
 bad tempered parrot in the other. There 
 were only three rooms downstairs and two 
 bed chambers upstairs. Mrs. Crane's own 
 room opened off the little parlour and vis- 
 itors could see the high feather bed always 
 as smooth and rounded on top as one of 
 Mrs. Crane's big loaves of light bread. The 
 privileged girls were never tired of examin- 
 ing the good woman's patchwork quilts 
 made many years previously of minute, 
 quaint old-fashioned scraps of calico. 
 
 Even the garden seemed to differ from 
 other gardens, for every inch of it except 
 the patch of green grass under the solitary 
 cherry tree was given over to flowers, many 
 of them as quaint and old-fashioned as the 
 
Planning For Mrs. Crane 121 
 
 bits of calico in the quilts, and to vegetables 
 that ripened a week earlier for Mrs. Crane, 
 than similar varieties did for any one else. 
 Yet the garden was so little, and the variety 
 so great, that Mrs. Crane never had enough 
 of any one thing to sell. She owned her 
 little home, but very little else. The two 
 upstairs rooms were rented to lodgers, and 
 she knitted stockings and mittens to sell be- 
 cause she could knit without using her eyes, 
 which, like so many soft, bright black eyes, 
 were far from strong; but the little income 
 so gained was barely enough to keep stout, 
 warm-hearted, over-generous Mrs. Crane 
 supplied with food and fuel. The neigh- 
 bours often wondered what would become 
 of the good, lonely woman if she lost hef 
 lodgers, if her eyes failed completely or if 
 she should fall ill. Everybody agreed that 
 Mrs. Crane should have been a wealthy 
 woman instead of a poor one, because she 
 would undoubtedly have done so much good 
 w^ith her money. Mabel had heard her fa- 
 
122 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ther say that there was a good-sized mort- 
 gage on the place, and Dr. Bennett had 
 instantly added: "Now, don't you say 
 an3rthing about that, Mabel," but ever after 
 that, Mabel had kept her eyes open during 
 her visits to Mrs. Crane, hoping to get a 
 glimpse of the dreadful large-sized thing 
 that was not to be mentioned. 
 
 On one occasion she thought she saw 
 light. Mrs. Crane had expressed a fear 
 that a wandering pole-cat had made a home 
 under her woodshed. 
 
 " Is mortgage another name for pole- 
 cat?" Mabel had asked a little later. 
 
 " No," imaginative Jean had replied, ** a 
 mortgage is more like a great, lean, hungry, 
 grey wolf waiting just around the comer 
 to eat you up. Don't ever use the word be- 
 fore Mrs. Crane ; she has one." 
 
 "Where does she keep it?" demanded 
 Mabel, agog with interest. 
 
 "I promised not to talk about it," said 
 Jean, " and I won't." 
 
Planning For Mrs. Crane 123 
 
 Miss Blossom had been gone only two 
 days when something happened to Mrs. 
 Crane. It was none of the things that the 
 neighbours had expected to happen, but, for 
 a little while, it looked almost as serious, 
 Bettie, running across the street right after 
 breakfast, one morning, with a bunch of 
 fresh chickweed for the yellow canary, and 
 a cracker for cross Polly, found Mrs. Crane, 
 usually the most cheerful person imaginable, 
 sitting in her kitchen with a swollen, crim- 
 son foot in a pail of luke-warm water, and 
 groaning dismally. 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Crane ! " cried surprised Bet- 
 tie. "What in the world is the matter? 
 Are — are you coming down with any- 
 thing?'* 
 
 " I've already come," moaned Mrs. Crane, 
 grimly. " I was out in my back yard in my 
 thin old slippers early this morning putting 
 hellebore on my currant bushes and I stepped 
 down hard on the teeth of the rake that I'd 
 dropped on the grass. There's two great 
 
124 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 holes in my foot. How I'm ever going to 
 do things I don't know, for 'twas all I could 
 do to crawl into the house on my hands and 
 knees." 
 
 " Isn't there something I can do for 
 you ? " asked Bettie, sympathetically. 
 
 " Could you get a stick of wood from the 
 shed and make me a cup of tea? Maybe 
 I'd feel braver if I wasn't so empty." 
 
 " Of course I could," said Bettie, cheer- 
 ily. 
 
 " I tell you what it is," confided Mrs* 
 Crane, " it's real nice and independent liv* 
 ing all alone as long as you're strong and 
 well, but just the minute anything happens, 
 there you are like a Robinson Crusoe, cast; 
 away on a desert isle. I began to think nO" 
 body would ever come." 
 
 " Can't I do something more for you ? '" 
 asked Bettie, poking scraps of paper undet 
 the kettle to bring it to a boil. " Don't yoti 
 want Dr. Bennett to look at your foot!: 
 Hadn't I better get him?" 
 
Planning For Mrs. Crane 125 
 
 "Yes do," said Mrs. Crane, "and then 
 come back. I can't bear to think of staying 
 here alone." 
 
 For the next four days there was a deep 
 depression in the middle of Mrs. Crane's 
 puffy feather bed for the injured foot was 
 badly swollen and Mrs. Crane was far too 
 heavy to go hopping about on the other one. 
 At first, her usually hopeful countenance 
 wore a strained, anxious expression, quite 
 pathetic to see. 
 
 " Now don't you worry one bit," said 
 comforting little Bettie. "We'll take turns 
 staying with you ; we'll feed Polly and Dick- 
 sy, and I believe every friend you have is 
 going to offer to make broth. Mother's 
 making some this minute." 
 
 " But there's the lodgers," groaned Mrs. 
 Crane, " both as particular as a pair of old 
 maids in a glass case. Mr. Barlow wants 
 his bed-clothes tucked in all around so tight 
 that a body'd think he was afraid of rolling 
 out of bed nights, and Mr. Bailey won't 
 
126 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 have his tucked in at all — says he likes 'em 
 'floating round loose and airy/ Do you 
 suppose you girls can make those two beds 
 and not get those two lodgers mixed up? 
 I declare, I'm so absent-minded myself that 
 I've had to climb those narrow stairs many 
 a day to make sure I'd done it right." 
 
 " Don't be afraid," said Jean, who had 
 joined Bettie. " Marjory's Aunty Jane has 
 taught her to make beds beautifully, and I 
 have a good memory. Between us we'll 
 manage splendidly." 
 
 "But there's my garden," mourned the 
 usually busy woman, who found it hard to 
 lie still with folded hands in a world that 
 seemed to be constantly needing her. 
 " Dear me ! I don't see how I'm going to 
 spare myself for a whole week just when 
 everything is growing so fast." 
 
 "We'll tend to the garden, too," prom- 
 ised Bettie. 
 
 "Yes, indeed we will," echoed Mabel 
 " We'll water everything and weed ^^ 
 
Planning For Mrs. Crane 127 
 
 " No you won't," said Mrs. Crane, quick- 
 ly. " You can do all the watering you like, 
 but if I catch any of you weeding, there'll 
 be trouble." 
 
 The young cottagers were even better 
 than their promises, for they took excellent 
 care of Mrs. Crane, the lodgers, the parrot, 
 the canary and the garden, until the injured 
 foot was well again ; but while doing all this 
 they learned something that distressed them 
 very much indeed. Of course they had al- 
 ways known in a general way that their 
 friend was far from being wealthy, but they 
 had not guessed how touchingly poor she 
 really was. But now they saw that her cup- 
 board was very scantily filled, that her cloth- 
 ing was very much patched and mended, her 
 shoes distressingly worn out and that even 
 her dish-towels were neatly darned. 
 
 " But we won't talk about it to people," 
 said fine-minded Jean. " Perhaps she 
 wouldn't like to have everybody know." 
 
 Even Jean, however^ did not guess what 
 
128 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 a comfort proud Mrs. Crane had found it 
 to have her warm-hearted little friends stand 
 between her poverty and the sometimes-too- 
 prying eyes of a grown-up world. 
 
 Unobservant as they had seemed, the girls 
 did not forget about the Mother-Hubbard- 
 like state of Mrs. Crane's cupboard. After 
 that one of their finest castles in Spain al- 
 ways had Mrs. Crane, who would have 
 made such a delightful mother and who had 
 never had any children, enthroned as its 
 gracious mistress. When they had time to 
 think about it at all, it always grieved them 
 to think of their generous natured, no- 
 longer-young friend dreading a poverty- 
 stricken, loveless and perhaps homeless old 
 age, for that, they had discovered, was pre- 
 cisely what Mrs. Crane was doing. 
 
 " If she were a little, thin, active old lady, 
 with bobbing white curls like Grandma 
 Pike," said Jean, " lots of people would have 
 a corner for her ; but poor Mrs. Crane takes 
 tip so much room and is so heavy and slow 
 
Planning For Mrs. Crane 129 
 
 that she's going to be hard to take care oi 
 when she gets old. Oh why couldn't she 
 have had just one strong, kind son to take 
 care of her ? " 
 
 "When I'm married," offered Mabel, 
 generously, " I'll take her to live with me. 
 I won't have any husband if he doesn't 
 promise to take Mrs. Crane, too." 
 
 ** You shan't have her," declared Jean. 
 " I want her myself." 
 
 "She's already promised to me," said 
 Bettie, triumphantly. " We're going to 
 keep house together some place, and I'm 
 going to be an old-maid kindergarten teach- 
 er." 
 
 " I don't think that's fair, Bettie Tucker,'* 
 said Marjory, earnestly. " I don't see how 
 my children are to have any grandmother 
 if she doesn't live with me. Imagine the 
 poor little things with Aunty Jane for a 
 grandmother 1" 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 ^e Coming Qt c;be /ftflUgane 
 
 TO the moment of Grandma Pike's 
 departure, all their neighbours had 
 been so pleasant that the girls were deceived 
 into thinking that neighbours were never 
 anything but pleasant. Although they felt 
 not the slightest misgiving as to their future 
 neighbours, they had hated to lose dear old 
 Grandma Pike, who had always been as 
 good to them as if she had really been their 
 grandmother, and whose parting gifts, sun- 
 dry odds and ends of dishes, old magazines 
 and broken parcels of provisions, gave them 
 occupation for many delightful days. In 
 spite of the lasting pleasure of this unex- 
 pected donation, however, they could not 
 help feeling that, with Mr. Black away. Miss 
 
 Blossom gone, Mrs. Pike living in another 
 130 
 
The Coming Of The Milligans 131 
 
 town and only disabled Mrs. Crane left, they 
 were losing friends with alarming rapidity. 
 Grief for the departed, however, did not pre- 
 vent their taking an active interest in the 
 persons that were to occupy the house next 
 door, which Mrs. Pike's departure had left 
 vacant. 
 
 "I wonder," said Marjory, pulling the 
 curtain back to get a better view of the 
 empty house, " what the new people will be 
 like. It's exciting, isn't it, to have some- 
 thing happening in this quiet neighbour- 
 hood? What did Grandma Pike say the 
 name was?" 
 
 " MilHgan," replied Bettie. 
 
 "Kind of nice name, isn't it?" asked 
 Jean. 
 
 "Yes," agreed Mabel, brightening sud- 
 denly. "I made up a long, long rhyme 
 about It last night before I went to sleep. 
 Want to hear it?" 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 "This one really rhymes," explained 
 
S32 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Mabel, importantly. Her verses sometimes 
 
 lacked that desirable quality so when they 
 
 did rhyme Mabel always liked to mention it. 
 
 " Here it is : 
 
 As soon as a man named Milligan 
 
 Got well he always fell ill again — ill 
 
 again — ill 
 
 Dear me, I can't remember how it went 
 There was a lot more but Fve forgotten the 
 rest." 
 
 " It's a great pity," said Marjory, drily, 
 " that you didn't forget all of it, because if 
 there's really a Mr. Milligan, and I ever see 
 him, I'll think of that rhyme and I won't 
 be able to keep my face straight" 
 
 "We must be very polite to the Milli- 
 gans," said considerate Bettie, "and call 
 on them as soon as they come. Mother 
 always calls on new people; she says it 
 makes folks feel more comfortable to be wel- 
 comed into the neighbourhood." 
 
 " Mrs. Crane does it too — we're the 
 nearest, perhaps we ought to be the first" 
 
The Coming Of The Milligans 133 
 
 " I think/' suggested Jean, considerately, 
 "we'd better wait until they're nicely set- 
 tled ; they might not like visitors too soon — 
 you know we didn't." 
 
 " They're going to move in to-day," said 
 Mabel. " Goodness ! I wish they'd hurry 
 and come; I'm so excited that I keep dust- 
 ing the same shelf over and over again — 
 I'm just wild to see them." 
 
 It was sweeping-day at the cottage when 
 the Milligans' furniture began to arrive, but 
 it looked very much as if the sweeping 
 would last for at least two days because the 
 girls were unable to get very far away from 
 the windows that faced west. These were 
 the bedroom windows, and, as there were 
 only two of them, there were usually two 
 heads at each window. 
 
 " There comes the first load," announced 
 Marjory, at last. " There's a high-chair on 
 the very top, so there must be a baby." 
 
 " Fm so glad," said Bettie. " I just love 
 a baby." 
 
134 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Two men unpacked the Milligans' furni- 
 ture in the MilHgans' front yard, and each 
 load seemed more interesting than the last. 
 It was such fun to guess what the big, 
 clumsy parcels contained, particularly when 
 the contents proved to be quite different 
 from what the girls expected. 
 
 " Somehow, I don't think they're going 
 to be very nice people," said Mabel, " I 
 b'lieve we're going to be disappointed in 
 em. 
 
 " Why, Mabel," objected Jean, " we don't 
 know a thing about them yet." 
 
 " Yes, I do too. Their things — look — 
 they don't look ladylike/' 
 
 "Oh, Mabel," laughed Marjory, "you're 
 so funny." 
 
 " Perhaps," offered Jean, " the Milligans 
 are poor and the children have spoiled 
 things." 
 
 " No," insisted Mabel, " they've got some 
 of the newest and shiningest furniture I ever 
 8aw, but I b'lieve it's imitation." 
 
The Coming Of The Milligans 135 
 
 " Oh, Mabel," laughed Jean, " I hope you 
 won't watch the loads when / move. For 
 a girl that's slept for three weeks on an imi- 
 tation pillow, you're pretty critical." 
 
 Presently the Milligans themselves ar- 
 rived. Mabel happened to be counting the 
 buds on the poppy plants when they came. 
 
 " Girls ! " she cried, rushing into the cot- 
 tage with the news, " They've come. I 
 saw them all. There's a Mr. Milligan, a 
 Mrs. Milligan, a girl, a boy, a baby and a 
 dog. The girl's the oldest. She's just 
 about my size — I mean height — and she 
 has straight, light hair. The baby walks 
 and none of them are so very good-look- 
 mg. 
 
 It did not take the newcomers long to 
 discover that their next-door neighbours 
 were four little girls. Mrs. Milligan found 
 it out that very afternoon when she went to 
 the back door to borrow tea. Bettie ex- 
 plained, very politely, that Dandelion Cot- 
 tage was only a playhouse, and that their 
 
136 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 tea-caddy contained nothing but glass 
 beads. When Mrs. Milligan returned to 
 her own house, she told her own family 
 about it. 
 
 " You might as well run over and play 
 with them, Laura," she said. " Take the 
 baby with you, too. He's a dreadful nui- 
 sance under my feet. That'll be a real nice 
 place for you both to play all summer." 
 
 The girls received their visitors pleas- 
 antly; almost, indeed, with enthusiasm; but 
 after a very few moments, they began to eye 
 the baby with apprehension. He refused to 
 make friends with them but wandered about 
 rather lawlessly and handled their treasures 
 roughly. Laura paid no attention to him 
 but talked to the girls. She seemed a bright 
 girl and not at all bashful, and she used a 
 great many slang phrases that sounded new, 
 and it must be confessed, rather attractive 
 to the girls. 
 
 " Oh land, yes," she said, " we came here 
 from Chicago where we had all kinds of 
 
The Coming Of The Milligans 137 
 
 money, and clothes to burn — we lived in a 
 beautiful flat. Pa just came here to oblige 
 Mr. Williams — he's going to clerk in Wil- 
 liams's store. Come over and see me-^ 
 v^e'll be real friendly and have lots of good 
 times together — I can put you up to lots of 
 dodges. Say, this is a dandy place to play 
 in — I'm coming over often." 
 
 Jean looked in silence at Bettie, Bettie at 
 Mabel and Mabel at Marjory. Surely such 
 an outburst of cordiality deserved a fitting 
 response, but no one seemed to be able to 
 make it. 
 
 "Do," said Jean, finally, but rather 
 feebly, " we'd be pleased to have you." 
 
CHAPTER Xm 
 
 XLbc "Clnplcasantness ©f Xaura 
 
 EXCEPT for a few lively but good- 
 natured squabbles between Marjory, 
 who was something of a tease, and Mabel, 
 who was Marjory's favorite victim, the 
 little mistresses of Dandelion Cottage had 
 always played together in perfect harmony; 
 but with the coming of the Milligans every- 
 thing was changed. 
 
 To start with, between the Milligan baby 
 and the Milligan dog, the girls knew no 
 peace. Mrs. Milligan was right when she 
 said that the baby was a nuisance, for it 
 would have been hard to find a more trouble- 
 some three-year-old. He pulled down 
 everything he could reach, broke the girls' 
 best dishes, wiped their precious petunia 
 
 and the geraniums completely out of ex- 
 138 
 
Unpleasant Laura 139 
 
 istence and roared with a deep bass voice if 
 anyone attempted to interfere with him. 
 The dog carried mud into the neat little cot- 
 tage, scratched up the garden and growled 
 if the girls tried to drive him out. 
 
 " But/' said Mabel, disconsolately, in one 
 of the rare moments when the girls were 
 alone, " I could stand the baby and the dog, 
 but I can't stand Laura." 
 
 " Laura certainly likes to boss," said Bet- 
 tie, who looked pale and worried. " I don't 
 just see what we're going to do about it. 
 I try to be nice to her but I can't like her. 
 Mother says we must be polite to her, but 
 I don't believe mother knows just what a 
 queer girl she is — you see she's always as 
 quiet as can be when there are grown people 
 around." 
 
 "Yes," agreed Mabel, "her company 
 manners are so much properer than mine 
 that mother says she wishes I were more 
 \ike her." 
 
 "Well," said Marjory, uncompromising- 
 
140 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ly, " I'm mighty glad you're not. Your 
 manners aren't particularly good but you 
 haven't two sets. I think Laura's the most 
 disagreeable girl I ever knew. Just as she 
 fools you into almost liking her she turns 
 around and scratches you." 
 
 " Perhaps," said Jean, " if her people 
 were nicer — by the way, mother says that 
 after this we must keep the windows shut 
 while Mr. Milligan is splitting wood in his 
 back yard so we can't hear the awful things 
 he says, and that if we hear Mr. and Mrs. 
 Milligan quarreling again we mustn't 
 listen." 
 
 "Lisen!" exclaimed Mabel, "we don't 
 need to listen. Their voices keep getting 
 louder and louder until it seems as if they 
 were right in this house." 
 
 " Of course," said Marjory, " it can't be 
 pleasant for Laura at home, but, dear me, 
 it isn't pleasant for us with her over here." 
 
 Badly-brought-up Laura was certainly 
 not a pleasant playmate. She wanted to 
 
Unpleasant Laura 141 
 
 lead in everything and was only amiable 
 when she was having her own way. She 
 was not satisfied with the way the cottage 
 was arranged but re-arranged it to suit her* 
 self. She told the girls that their garments 
 were countrified, and laughed scornfully at 
 Bettie's boyish frocks and heavy shoes. 
 She ridiculed rotund Mabel for being fat, 
 said that Marjory's nose turned up and that 
 Jean's rather large mouth was a good open- 
 ing for a young dentist. Before the first 
 week was fairly over, the four girls who had 
 lived so happily before her arrival, were 
 grieved, indignant or downright angry 
 three- fourths of the time. 
 
 Laura had one habit that annoyed the 
 girls excessively, although at first they had 
 found it rather amusing. Later, however, 
 owing perhaps to a certain rasping quality 
 in Laura's voice, it grew very tiresome. 
 She transposed the initials of their names. 
 For instance, Bettie Tucker became Tettie 
 Bucker, Jeanie Mapes became Meanie Japes, 
 
142 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 while Mabel became Babel Mennett. It 
 was particularly distressing to have Laura 
 speak familiarly in her sharp, half-scornful 
 tones, of their dear, departed Miss Blossom, 
 whose name was Gertrude, as Bertie Glos- 
 som. Mr. Peter Black, of course, became 
 Beter Plack, and Mrs. Bartholomew Crane 
 was Mrs. Cartholomew Brane, to lawless 
 young Laura. 
 
 " I don't think it's exactly respectful to 
 do that to grown-up people's names," pro- 
 tested Bettie, one day. 
 
 "Pooh!" said Laura, "Mrs. Carthol- 
 omew Brane looks just like an old washtub, 
 she's so fat — who'd be respectful to a 
 washtub ? There goes Toctor Ducker, Tet- 
 tie Bucker. Huh! I'd hate to be a par- 
 son's daughter — they're always as poor as 
 church mice. What did you say your 
 mother's first name is?" 
 
 " I didn't say and I'm not going to," re- 
 turned Bettie. 
 
 ** Well, anyhow, her bonnet went out of 
 
Unpleasant Laura 143 
 
 style four years ago — I should think the 
 parish'd take up a subscription and get her 
 a new one." 
 
 " I wish, Laura," said exasperated Jean, 
 another day, "that you wouldn't meddle 
 with our things. This bedroom is mine 
 and Bettie's and the other one is MabeFs 
 and Marjory's. We wouldn't think of 
 looking into each other's private treasure 
 boxes. I've seen you open mine half a 
 dozen times this week. The things are al! 
 keepsakes and I'd rather not have them 
 handled." 
 
 " Huh ! I guess I'll handle 'em if I want 
 to. My mother can't keep me out of her 
 bureau drawers and I don't think you're so 
 very much smarter." 
 
 A day or two later, the girls of Dandelion 
 Q)ttage were invited to a party in another 
 portion of the town. The invitations were 
 left at their own cottage door and the de- 
 lighted girls began at once to make plans 
 for the party. 
 
144 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 "Let's carry our new handkerchiefs,** 
 suggested Jean, going to her treasure box. 
 " I believe I'll take mine home with me — I 
 dreamed last night that the cottage was on 
 fire and that mine got burned. Besides, I'll 
 have to get dressed at home for the party 
 and it would be handier to have it there." 
 
 " Guess I will, too," said Bettie. 
 
 "Great idea," said Marjory, taking her 
 own box from its shelf. " I never should 
 have thought of anything so bright. Let's 
 all write to Miss Blossom and tell her that 
 we carried our — Why! mine isn't in my 
 box!" 
 
 " Neither is mine," cried Mabel, who had 
 turned quite pale at the discovery. " It was 
 there this morning — girls, did any of you 
 touch our handkerchiefs ? " 
 
 " Of course we didn't," said Jean. " See, 
 here's mine with * J ' on it and there's no 
 others in my box." 
 
 "Of course not," echoed Laura. 
 
 " Mine's here, all right," said Bettie, who 
 
Unpleasant Laura 145 
 
 -°— ~ — I 
 
 had been struggling with her box, which 
 opened hard. " Are you sure you left them 
 in your Doxes ? " 
 
 " Certain sure," replied Mabel, " I saw it 
 this morning." 
 
 " So did I see mine," asserted Marjory. 
 "After I'd shown it to Aunty Jane 
 I brought it back to put in my treasure- 
 box." 
 
 " Laura," asked Jean, " was Marjory's 
 handkerchief in her box when you looked 
 in it this morning ? I heard the cover make 
 that funny little clicking noise that it always 
 makes and just a minute after you came out 
 of her room." 
 
 "I — I don't know," stammered Laura. 
 " I didn't see it — I never touched her old 
 box. If you say I did, I'll go right home 
 and tell my mother you called me a thief. 
 I'm going now, anyway." 
 
 The girls were in the dining-room just 
 outside of the back bedroom door. As 
 Laura was brushing past Jean, the opening 
 
146 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 of the new girFs blouse caught in such a 
 fashion on the corner of the sideboard that 
 the garment, which fastened in front, came 
 unbuttoned from top to bottom. From its 
 bulging front, dropped Bettie's bead chain, 
 various articles of doll's clothing, and the 
 two missing handkerchiefs. 
 
 "They're mine," cried Laura, making a 
 dive for the things. 
 
 " They're not any such thing," cried in- 
 dignant Jean. " I made that doll's dress 
 myself and I know the lace on those hand- 
 kerchiefs." 
 
 " They're my mother's," protested Laura. 
 
 I took 'em out of her drawer." 
 
 "They're not," contradicted Mabel, pry- 
 ing Laura's fingers apart and forcing her to 
 drop one of the crumpled handkerchiefs. 
 "Look at that monogram — *M B' for 
 Mabel Bennett." 
 
 " It's no such thing," lied Laura, stoutly. 
 "It stands for Bertha Milligan and that's 
 my mother's name." 
 
Unpleasant Laura 147 
 
 " Give me that other handkerchief this 
 instant," demanded Jean, giving Laura a 
 slight shake. "If you don't, we'll take it 
 away from you." 
 
 " Take the old rag," said Laura. " My 
 mother gives away better handkerchiefs 
 than these to beggars. I just took 'em any- 
 way to scare Vargery Male and Babel Men- 
 nett, the silly babies." 
 
 After this enlightening experience, the 
 girls never for a moment left their unwel- 
 come visitor alone in any of the rooms of 
 Dandelion Cottage. They stood her for 
 almost a week longer, principally because 
 there seemed to be no way of getting rid of 
 her. Mabel, indeed, had several lively 
 quarrels with her during that time, because 
 quick-tempered Mabel, always strictly truth- 
 ful herself, could not tolerate deceit in any- 
 one else, and she had, of course, lost all 
 faith in Laura. 
 
 The end came suddenly one Friday after- 
 noon. Miss Blossom had sent to the girls, 
 
148 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 by mail, a photograph of her own charming 
 self, and nothing that the cottage contained 
 was more precious. After one of the usual 
 tiffs with Mabel, high-handed Laura spite- 
 fully scratched a disfiguring moustache right 
 across the beautiful face, ruining the price- 
 less treasure beyond repair. 
 
 Even Laura looked slightly dismayed at 
 the result of her spiteful work. The others 
 for a moment were too horror-stricken for 
 words. Then Mabel, with blazing eyes, 
 sprang to her feet and flung the cottage door 
 wide open. 
 
 " You go home, Laura Milllgan," she 
 cried. " Don't you ever dare to come inside 
 this house again." 
 
 "Yes, go," cried mild Bettie, for once 
 thoroughly roused. " WeVe tried to be 
 nice to you and there hasn't been a single 
 day that you haven't been rude and horrid. 
 Go home this minute. We're done with 
 you." 
 
 " I won't go until I'm good and ready," 
 
Unpleasant Laura 149 
 
 retorted Laura, tearing the disfigured photo- 
 graph in two and scornfully tossing the 
 pieces into a corner. " Such a fuss about 
 a skinny old maid's picture." 
 
 " You shan't stay one instant longer," 
 cried indignant Jean, stepping determinedly 
 behind Laura, placing her hands on the 
 girl's shoulders and making a sudden 
 run for the door. " There ! You're out 
 Don't you ever attempt to come in again." 
 
 Bettie, grasping the situation, and the Mil- 
 ligan baby at the same time, promptly set 
 the boy outside. She had handled him with 
 the utmost gentleness, but he always roared 
 if anyone touched him, and he 1 oared now. 
 
 " Yah ! " yelled Laura, " I'll tell my moth- 
 er you pinched him — slapped him, too." 
 
 " Sapped him, too," wailed the baby. 
 
 " Well," said Jean, turning the key in the 
 lock, "we'll have to keep the door locked 
 after this. Mercy! I never behaved so 
 dreadfully to anybody before and I hope 
 I'll never have to again*" 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Hn Bmbatrassfng Dlaltor 
 
 PREVIOUSLY to the time of the un^ 
 pleasantness with Laura, the girls 
 had unlocked the cottage in the morning and 
 had left it unlocked until they were ready 
 to go home at night, for the girls spent all 
 their waking hours at Dandelion Cottage. 
 Bettie, indeed, had the care of the youngest 
 two Tucker babies, but they were good little 
 creatures and when the girls played with 
 their dolls they were glad to include the two 
 placid babies, just as if they, too, were dolls. 
 The littlest baby, in particular, made a re- 
 markably comfortable plaything, for it was 
 all one to him whether he slept in Jean's 
 biggest doirs cradle, or in the middle of the 
 dining-room table, as long as he was per- 
 mitted to sleep sixteen hours out of the 
 twenty-four. When he wasn't asleep, he 
 
 ISO 
 
An Embarrassing Visitor 151 
 
 sucked his thumb contentedly, crowed hap 
 pily on one of the cottage beds, or rolled 
 cheerfully about on the cottage floor. The 
 older baby, too, obligingly stayed wherever 
 the girls happened to put him. After this 
 experience with the Tucker infants, the Mil- 
 ligan baby had proved a great disappoint- 
 ment to the girls for they had hoped to use 
 him, too, as an animated doll, but he had 
 refused steadfastly to make friends even 
 with Bettie, whose way with babies was 
 something beautiful to see. 
 
 The girls were all required to do their 
 own mending but they found it no hardship 
 to do their darning on their own doorstep 
 on sunny days, or around the dining-room 
 table if the north wind happened to be blow- 
 ing, for they always had so many interesting 
 things to talk about. 
 
 During the daytime, the cottage was 
 never left entirely alone. It was occupied 
 even at meal-times because the four families 
 dined and supped at different hours; for in- 
 
152 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 stance, Marjory's Aunty Jane always liked 
 her tea at half past five, but Jean's people 
 did not dine until seven. Owing to the im- 
 possibility of capturing all the boys at one 
 time, supper at the Tucker house was a 
 movable feast, so Bettie usually ate when- 
 ever she found it most convenient. As for 
 Mabel, it is doubtful if she knew the exact 
 hours for meals at the Bennett house be- 
 cause she was invariably late. After the 
 handkerchief episode, the girls planned that 
 one or another of them should always be 
 in the cottage from the time that it was 
 opened in the morning until it was again 
 locked for the night. The morning after 
 the later quarrel, however, the girls met by 
 previous arrangement on Mabel's doorstep, 
 went in a body to the cottage and, after they 
 were all inside carefully locked the door. 
 
 " We'll be on the safe side, anyway," said 
 Jean, "but I shouldn't think that Laura 
 would ever want to come near the place 
 again." 
 
An Embarrassing Visitor 153 
 
 " Oh, she'll come fast enough/' said Ma- 
 bel. "She's cheeky enough for anything. 
 Do you 'spose she told her mother about it? 
 She said she was going to." 
 
 " Pshaw ! " said Marjory, " she was al- 
 ways threatening to tell her mother but 
 nothing ever came of it. If she'd told her 
 mother half the things she said she was 
 going to, she wouldn't have had time to eat 
 or sleep." 
 
 It was hopeless, the girls had decided, to 
 attempt to mend the ruined photograph, so, 
 at Bettie's suggestion, they had sorrowfully 
 cut it into four pieces of equal size, which 
 they divided between them. They had just 
 laid the precious fragments tenderly away 
 in their treasure boxes when the doorbell 
 rang with such a loud, prolonged, jangling 
 peal that everybody jumped. 
 
 " Laura ! " exclaimed the four girls. 
 
 " No," said Jean, cautiously drawing 
 back the curtain of the front window and 
 peeping out. " It's Mrs. Milligan ! " 
 
154 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 "Goodness!" whispered Marjory, 
 ^there's no knowing what Laura told her 
 — she never did tell anything straight" 
 
 "Lefs keep still," said Mabel. "Per- 
 haps she'll think there's nobody home." 
 
 "No hope of that," said Jean. "She 
 saw us come in. But, pshaw! she can't 
 hurt us anyway." 
 
 " No," said Marjory. " What's the use 
 of being afraid — we didn't do anything to 
 be ashamed of. Aunty Jane says we should 
 have turned Laura out the day she took the 
 handkerchiefs." 
 
 " I'm not exactly afraid," said Bettie, 
 *' but I don't like Mrs. Milligan — still, we'll 
 have to let her in, I suppose." 
 
 A second vigorous peal at the bell warned 
 them that their visitor was getting impa- 
 tient. 
 
 " You're the biggest and the most digni- 
 fied," said Marjory, giving Jean a shove. 
 " You go." 
 
 "Don't ask her in if you can help it,** 
 
An Embarrassing Visitor 155 
 
 warned Bettie, in a pleading whisper. 
 " The doorbell sounds as if she doesn't like 
 us very well/' 
 
 But the visitor did not wait to be asked 
 to come in. The moment Jean turned the 
 key the door was flung open and Mrs. Milli- 
 gan brushed past the astonished quartette 
 and sailed into the parlour, where she seated 
 herself bolt upright on the cosey corner. 
 
 " I'd like to know," demanded Mrs. Mil- 
 ligan, in a hard, cold tone that fell unpleas- 
 antly on the cottagers' ears, " if you con- 
 sider it ladylike for four great overgrown 
 girls to pitch into one poor innocent little 
 child and a helpless baby? Your conduct 
 yesterday, was simply outrageous. You 
 might have injured those children for life 
 or even broken the baby's back." 
 
 " Broken the baby's back ! " gasped Bet- 
 tie, in honest amazement. " Why, I simply 
 lifted him with my two hands and set him 
 just outside the door — I never was rough 
 with any baby in all my life." 
 
156 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ** I happen to know, on excellent author- 
 ity," said Mrs. Milligan, " thai you slapped 
 both of those helpless children and threw 
 ^liem down the front steps. Laura was so 
 excited about it that she couldn't sleep and 
 the poor baby cried half the night — we fear 
 that he's injured internally." 
 
 " Nobody here injured him/' said Mabel. 
 " He always cries all the time, anyhow." 
 
 " We did put them out and for a very 
 good reason," said Jean, speaking as re- 
 spectfully as she could, "but we certainly 
 didn't hurt either of them. I'm sorry if the 
 baby isn't well, but I know it isn't our 
 fault." 
 
 " Laura walked down the steps," said 
 Bettie, " and the baby turned over and slid 
 down on his stomach the way he always 
 does." 
 
 " I should think that a minister's daugh- 
 ter," said Mrs, Milligan, with a withering 
 glance at poor shrinking Bettie, "would 
 scorn to tell such lies.*' 
 
An Embarrassing Visitor 157 
 
 Bettie, who had never before been accused 
 of untruthfulness, looked the picture of con- 
 scious guilt; a tide of crimson flooded her 
 cheeks and she fingered the buttons on her 
 blouse nervously. She was too dumb- 
 founded to speak a word in her own de- 
 fence ; Mabel, however, was only too ready. 
 
 " Bettie never told a lie in her life," cried 
 the indignant little girl. " It was your own 
 Laura that told stories if anybody did — 
 ?ind I guess somebody did, all right. Laura 
 never tells the truth; she doesn't know how 
 to." 
 
 " I have implicit confidence in Laura," 
 returned Mrs. Milligan, frowning at Ma- 
 bel. " I believe every word she says." 
 
 "Well," retorted dauntless Mabel, 
 "that's more than the rest of us do. We 
 kept count one day and she told seventy-two 
 fibs that we know of." 
 
 *' Oh Mabel, do hush," pleaded scandal- 
 ised Bettie. 
 
 ** Hush nothing," said Mabel, not to be 
 
158 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 deterred. " I'm only telling the truth. 
 Laura took our handkerchiefs and then 
 fibbed about it and we've missed a dozen 
 things since that she probably carried off 
 and " 
 
 " Mabel, Mabel ! " warned Jean, pressing 
 her hand over Mabel's too reckless lips. 
 " Don't you know that we decided not to 
 say a word about those other things ? They 
 didn't amount to anything and we'd rather 
 have peace than to make a fuss about them." 
 
 " I can see very plainly," said Mrs. Milli- 
 gan, with cold disapproval, " that you're not 
 at all the proper sort of children for my 
 little Laura to play with — I forbid you to 
 speak to her again; I don't care to have 
 her associate with you. I can believe all 
 she says about you for I've never been 
 treated so rudely in my life." 
 
 "Apologise, Mabel," whispered Jean, 
 whose arm was still about the younger girl's 
 neck. 
 
 " If I was rude," said candid Mabel, " I 
 
An Embarrassing Visitor 159 
 
 beg your pardon. I didn't mean to be im- 
 polite, but every word I said about Laura 
 was true," 
 
 "I shall not accept your apology," said 
 Mrs. Milligan, rising to depart, " until 
 you've sent a written apology to Laura and 
 have retracted everything you've said about 
 her, besides." 
 
 " It'll never be accepted then," said quick- 
 tempered Mabel, " for we haven't done any- 
 thing to apologise for." 
 
 " No, Mrs. Milligan," said Jean, in her 
 even, pleasant voice, " no apology to Laura 
 can ever come from us. We stood her just 
 as long as we could and then we turned her 
 out just as kindly as anyone could have done 
 it. I told mother all about it last night and 
 she agreed that there wasn't anything else 
 we could have done." 
 
 " So did mamma," said Bettie. 
 
 " So did Aunty Jane." 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Milligan, pausing on 
 the porch, " I'd thank you young gossips to 
 
i6o Dandelion Cottage 
 
 keep your tongues and your hands off my 
 children in the future." 
 
 Jean closed the door and the four girls 
 looked at one another in silence. None of 
 their own relatives was at all like Mrs. Mil- 
 ligan and they didn't know just what to 
 make of their unpleasant experience. At 
 last, Marjory gave a long sigh. 
 
 " Well," said she, " I came awfully near 
 telling her when she forbade our playing 
 with Laura that my Aunty Jane has forbid- 
 den me to even speak to her poor abused 
 Laura." 
 
 "As for me," said Mabel, with lofty 
 scorn, " I don't need to be forbidden." 
 
 " Come girls," said Jean, " I'm sorry it 
 had to happen, but I'm glad the matter's 
 ended. Let's not talk about it any more. 
 Let's have one of our own good old happy 
 days like we had before Laura came." 
 
 " I'll tell you what we'll do," said Bettie, 
 *" we'll each write out a bill of fare for Mr. 
 Black's dinner party, and we'll see how 
 
An Embarrassing Visitor i6i 
 
 many different things we can think of. In 
 that way, we'll be sure not to forget any- 
 thing." 
 
 "But the Milllgans/' breathed Marjory, 
 promptly seeing through Bettie's tactful 
 scheme. 
 
CHAPTER Xy 
 
 fSsotc ^Trouble 'CSlitb X^auni 
 
 THE Milligan matter, however, was not 
 by any means ended. It was true 
 that the girls paid no further attention to 
 Laura but this did not deter that rather vin- 
 dictive small person from annoying the little 
 cottagers in every way that she possibly 
 could, although she was afraid to work 
 openly. 
 
 As Laura knew, the girls took great pride 
 in their little garden. Bettie's good-na- 
 tured big brother Rob had offered to take 
 care of their tiny lawn and he kept it smooth 
 and even. The round pansy bed daily 
 yielded handfuls of great purple, white or 
 golden blossoms; the thrifty nasturtiums 
 were beginning to bloom with creditable 
 
 freedom, and many of the different, prettily 
 162 
 
More Trouble With Laura 163 
 
 foliaged little plants in the long bed near 
 the Milligan's fence were opening their first 
 curious, many-coloured flowers. 
 
 Some of the vegetables were positively 
 getting radishes and carrots on their roots, 
 as Bettie put it. The pride of the vegetable 
 garden, however, was a huge, rampant vine 
 that threatened to take possession of the 
 entire yard. There was just the one plant, 
 no one knew where the seed came from or 
 how it managed to get itself planted, but 
 there it was, close beside the back fence. 
 For want of a better name, the girls called 
 it " The Accident," and they expected won- 
 derful things from it when the great yellow 
 trumpet-shaped flowers should give place to 
 fruit, although they didn't know in the least 
 what kind of a crop to look for. But this 
 made it all the more delightful. 
 
 "Perhaps it'll be pumpkins," said Jean. 
 "I guess rd better hunt up a recipe for 
 pumpkin pie, so's to be ready when the time 
 comes." 
 
164 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Or those funny, pale yellow squashes 
 that are scalloped all around the edge like a 
 dish," said Marjory. 
 
 " Or cucumbers," said Bettie. " I took 
 Mrs. Crane a leaf, one day, and she said it 
 might be cucumbers." 
 
 "Or water-melons," said Mabel. 
 " Um-m ! wouldn't it be grand if it should 
 happen to be water-melons." 
 
 " What Fm wondering is," said Jean, " if 
 there's any danger of the vine's going 
 around the house and taking possession of 
 the front yard, too. I can almost believe 
 that this a seedling of Jack's beanstalk ex- 
 cept that it runs on the ground instead of 
 up." 
 
 "If it tries to go around the corner," 
 laughed Bettie, " we'll train it up the back 
 of the house. Wouldn't it be fun to have 
 pumpkins, or squashes, or cucumbers, of 
 melons, or maybe all of them at once, grow- 
 ing on our roof? " 
 
 The day after Mrs. Milligan's visit, 
 
More Trouble With Laura 165 
 
 Laura, who was not invited to the party, 
 and who found time heavy on her hands, 
 watched the girls, after stopping for Mar- 
 jory, set out in their pretty summer dresses 
 to spend the afternoon at their young 
 friend's house. Laura gazed after them en- 
 viously. There was no reason why she 
 should have been invited for she had never 
 met the little girl that was giving the party, 
 but she didn't think of that. Instead, she 
 foolishly laid the unintentional slight at the 
 little cottagers' door. 
 
 Mrs. Milligan was sewing on the door- 
 step and had given Laura a dishtowel tc 
 hem. Saying something about hunting for 
 a thimble, Laura went to the kitchen, took 
 the bread-knife from the table drawer, stole 
 quietly out of the back door, and slipped 
 between the bars of the back fence. Reach- 
 ing the splendid vine that the girls loved so 
 dearly, she parted the huge, rough leaves 
 until she found the spot where the vine 
 Started from the ground. First looking 
 
1 66 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 about cautiously to make certain that no one 
 was in sight, spiteful Laura drew the knife 
 back and forth across the thick stem until, 
 with a sudden, sharp crack, the sturdy vine 
 parted from its root. 
 
 Two minutes later, Laura, looking the 
 picture of propriety, sat on the Milligan's 
 doorstep hemming her dishtowel. 
 
 Of course, when the girls made their next 
 daily excursion about their garden they 
 were almost broken-hearted at finding their 
 beloved vine flat on the ground, all with- 
 ered and dead. 
 
 " Oh," mourned Marjory, " now we'll 
 never know what * The Accident ' was going 
 to bear, pumpkins or squashes or " 
 
 " Yes," said Mabel, who was blinking 
 hard to keep the tears back, "that's the 
 hardest part of it, it was cut off in its 
 p-prime — Oh dear, I guess I'm g-going to 
 cry." 
 
 " What could have done it ? " asked Bet- 
 tie, who was not far from following Ma- 
 
More Trouble With Laura 167 
 
 bel's example. " Has anyone stepped on 
 it?" 
 
 " Perhaps a potato bug ate it off," sug- 
 gested Jean. 
 
 " A two-legged potato bug, I guess," said 
 Marjory, who had been examining the 
 ground carefully. " See, here are small 
 sharp heel prints close to the root." 
 
 "Whose handkerchief is this?" asked 
 Mabel, picking up a small tightly crumpled 
 ball and unrolling it gingerly. " There's a 
 name on it but my eyes are so teary I can't 
 make it out." 
 
 "It looks like Milligan," said Bettie, 
 turning it over, " but we can't tell how long 
 it's been here." 
 
 " Horrid as she is," said charitable Jean, 
 " it doesn't seem as if even Laura would do 
 such a mean thing. I can't believe it of 
 her." 
 
 "/ can," said Mabel. "If she liad a 
 squash vine, or a pumpkin vine, I'd go 
 straight over and spoil it this minute."' 
 
1 68 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ** No, no," said Jean, " we mustn't be hor 
 rid just because other folks are. We won't 
 pay any attention to her — we'll just be pa- 
 tient." 
 
 The girls found four small, oval, green 
 igg-like objects growing on the withered 
 vine; they cut them off and these, too, were 
 laid tenderly away in their treasure boxes. 
 
 "When we get old," said Mabel, tear- 
 fully, " we'll take 'em out and tell our grand- 
 children all about ' The Accident.' " 
 
 But even this prospect did not quite con- 
 sole the girls for the loss of their treasure. 
 
 For the next few days, Laura remained 
 contented with doing on the sly whatever 
 she could to annoy the girls. One evening, 
 when the girls had gone home for the night 
 and while her mother was away from home, 
 Laura threw a brick at one of the cottage 
 windows, breaking a pane of glass. Reach- 
 ing in through the hole, she scattered ha'd- 
 fuls of sand on the clean floor that the girls 
 had scrubbed that morning. Another night 
 
More Trouble With Laura 169 
 
 she emptied a basketful of potato parings on 
 their neat front porch and daubed molasses 
 on their doorknob, mean little tricks prompt-^ 
 ed by a mean little nature. 
 
 It was very little fun, however, to annoy 
 persons who refused to show any sign of 
 being annoyed, and Laura presently changed 
 her tactics. Taking a large bone from the 
 pantry, one day, when the girls were sitting 
 on their doorstep, she first showed it to Tow- 
 ser, the Milligan dog, and then threw it 
 over the fence into the very middle of the 
 pansy bed. Of course, the big clumsy dog 
 bounded over the low fence after the bone, 
 crushing many of the delicate pansy plants. 
 After that at regular intervals, Laura threw 
 sticks and other bones into the other beds 
 with very much the same result. 
 
 The next time Rob cut the grass he no- 
 ticed the untidy appearance of the beds and 
 asked the reason. The girls explained. 
 
 " I'll shoot that dog if you say so/' 
 offered Rob, with honest indignation. 
 
170 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " No, no," said Bettie, " it isn't the do^s 
 fault." 
 
 " No," said Jean, " we're not sure that 
 the dog isn't the least objectionable member 
 of the Milligan family. 
 
 " How would it do if I licked the boy? " 
 asked Rob. 
 
 "It wouldn't do at all," replied Bettie. 
 " He works some place day times and never 
 even looks in this direction when he's home. 
 He's afraid of girls." 
 
 "Then I guess you'll have to grin and 
 bear it," said Rob, moving off with the 
 lawn-mower, *' since neither of my remedies 
 seems to fit the case." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 7i Xivelis Htternoon 
 
 IT happened one day that Mrs. Milligan 
 was obliged to spend a long afternoon 
 at the dentist's, leaving Laura in charge of 
 the house. Unfortunately, it happened, too, 
 that this was the day when the sewing-so- 
 ciety met and Mrs. Tucker had asked Bettie 
 to stay home for the afternoon because the 
 next to the youngest baby was ill with a 
 croupy cold and could not go out of doors 
 to the cottage. Devoted Jean offered to 
 stay with her beloved Bettie, who gladly 
 accepted the offer. Before going to Bet- 
 tie's, however, Jean ran over to Dandelion 
 Cottage to tell the other girls about it. 
 
 " Mabel," asked Jean, a little doubtfully, 
 " are you quite sure you'll be able to turn a 
 
 deaf ear if Laura should happen to bother 
 171 
 
172 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 you ? I'm half afraid to leave you two girls 
 here alone." 
 
 "You needn't be," said Mabel. "I 
 wouldn't associate with Laura if I were paid 
 for it. She isn't my kind." 
 
 " No," said Marjory, " you needn't wor- 
 ry a mite. We're going to sit on the door- 
 step and read a perfectly lovely book that 
 Aunty Jane found at the library — it's one 
 that she liked when she was a little girl. 
 We're going to take turns reading it aloud." 
 
 "Well, that certainly ought to keep you 
 out of mischief. You'll be safe enough if 
 you stick to your book. If anything should 
 happen just remember that I'm at Bettie's." 
 
 "Yes, grandma," said Marjory, with a 
 comical grimace. 
 
 Jean laughed, ran around the house and 
 squeezed through the hole in the back fence. 
 
 Half an hour later, lonely Laura, discov- 
 ering the girls on their doorstep, amused 
 herself by " sicing " the dog at them. 
 Towser, however, merely growled lazily for 
 
Laura, perched high on the fence-post, began to sing. 
 
 P, 173- 
 
A Lively Afternoon 173 
 
 a few moments and then went to sleep in 
 the sunshine — he, at least, cherished no 
 particular grudge against the girls and prob- 
 ably by that time he recognised them as 
 neighbours. 
 
 Then Laura perched herself on one of 
 the square posts of the dividing fence and 
 began to sing in her high, rasping, exasper- 
 ating voice, a song that was almost too per- 
 sonal to be pleasant. It had taken Laura 
 almost two hours to compose it, some days 
 previously, and fully another hour to com- 
 mit it to memory, but she sang it now in an 
 off-hand, hap-hazard way that led the girls 
 to suppose that she was making it up as she 
 went along. It ran thus: 
 
 ** There's a lanky girl named Jean, 
 Who's altogether too lean. 
 
 Her mouth is too big. 
 
 And she wears a wig, 
 And her eyes are bright sea-green." 
 
 Of course it was quite impossible to read 
 even a thrillingly interesting book with rude 
 
174 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Laura making such a disturbance. If the 
 girls had been wise, they would have gone 
 into the house and closed the door, leaving 
 Laura without an audience; but they were 
 not wise and they were curious. They 
 couldn't help waiting to hear what Laura 
 was going to sing about the rest of them, 
 and they did not need to wait long; Laura 
 promptly obliged them with the second 
 verse : 
 
 ** There's another named Marjory Vale, 
 Who's about the size of a snail. 
 Her teeth are light blue — 
 She hasn't but two — 
 And her hair is much too pale." 
 
 Laura had, in several instances, sacrificed 
 truth for the sake of rhyme but enough re- 
 mained to injure the vanity of the sub- 
 jects of her song very sharply. Marjory 
 breathed quickly for a moment and flushed 
 pink but gave no audible sign that she had 
 heard. Laura, somewhat disappointed, pro 
 ceeded: 
 
A Lively Afternoon 175 
 
 " There's a silly young lass called Bet, 
 Thinks she's ev'rybody's sweet pet. 
 
 She slapped my brother, 
 
 Fibbed to my mother — 
 I know what she's going to get." 
 
 Mabel snorted indignantly over this in- 
 justice to her beloved Bettie and started to 
 rise, but Marjory promptly seized her skirt 
 and dragged her down. Laura, however, 
 saw the movement and was correspondingly 
 elated. It showed in her voice: 
 
 " But the worst of the lot is Mabel, 
 She eats all the pie she's able. 
 
 She's round as a ball. 
 
 Has no waist at all, 
 And her manners are bad at the table." 
 
 Marjory giggled. She had no thought 
 of being disloyal, but this verse was cer- 
 tainly a close fit. 
 
 "You just let me go," muttered Mabel, 
 crimson with resentment, and struggling to 
 break away from Marjory's restraining 
 hand. " I'll push her off that post" 
 
176 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 "Hush!" said diplomatic Marjory, 
 " perhaps there's more to the song." 
 
 But there wasn't. Laura began at the 
 beginning and sang all the verses again, giv- 
 ing particular emphasis to the ones concern- 
 ing Mabel and Marjory. This, of course, 
 grew decidedly monotonous ; the girls grew 
 tired of the constant repetition of the silly 
 song long before Laura did. There was 
 something about the song, too, that caught 
 and held their attention. Irresistibly at- 
 tracted, held by an exasperating fascination, 
 neither girl could help waiting for her own 
 especial verse. But while this was going 
 on, Mabel, with a finger in the ear nearest 
 Laura, was industriously scribbling some- 
 thing on a scrap of paper. 
 
 As everybody knows, the poetic muse 
 idoesn't always work when it is most needed, 
 and Mabel was sadly handicapped at that 
 moment. She was not satisfied with her 
 hasty scrawl but, in the circumstances, it 
 was the best she could do. Suddenly, be- 
 
A Lively Afternoon 177 
 
 fore Marjory realised what was about to 
 happen, Mabel was shouting back, to an 
 air quite as objectionable as the one Laura 
 Was singing: 
 
 " There's a very rude girl named Laura, 
 Whose ways fill all with horror. 
 She's all the things she says we are; 
 All know this to their sorrow." 
 
 " Yah ! yah ! " retorted quick-witted 
 Laura. " There isn't a rhyme in your old 
 song. If I couldn't rhyme better'n that I'd 
 learn how — - come over and I'll teach you." 
 
 For an instant, Mabel looked decidedly 
 crushed — no poet likes his rhymes dis- 
 paraged. Laura, noting Mabel's crestfallen 
 attitude, went into gales of mocking laugh- 
 ter and when Mabel looked at Marjory for 
 sympathy Marjory's face was wreathed in 
 smiles. It was too much; Mabel hated to 
 be laughed at. 
 
 " I can rhyme," cried Mabel, springing to 
 her feet and giving vent to all her grievances 
 at once. "My table manners are good. 
 
178 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 rm not fat. I've got just as much waist as 
 you have." 
 
 "You've got more," shrieked delighted 
 Laura. 
 
 Faithless Marjory, struck by this indubit- 
 able truth, laughed outright. 
 
 "You — you can't make Indian-bead 
 chains," sputtered Mabel, trying hard to find 
 something crushing to say. "You can't 
 make pan-cakes. You can't drive nails." 
 
 " Yah," retorted Laura, vi^ho was right in 
 her element, "you can't throw straight." 
 
 " Neither can you." 
 
 "I can — if I could find anything to 
 throw I'd prove it." 
 
 Just at this unfortunate moment, a gro 
 ceryman arrived at the Milligan house with 
 a basketful of beautiful scarlet tomatoes. 
 In another second, Laura, anxious to prove 
 her ability, had jumped from the fence, 
 seized the basket and, with unerring aim, 
 was delightedly pelting her astonished ene- 
 my with the gorgeous fruit Mabel caught 
 
A Lively Afternoon 179 
 
 one full in the chest, and as she turned to 
 flee, another landed square in the middle of 
 her light blue gingham back; Marjory's 
 shoulder stopped a third before the girls re- 
 treated to the house, leaving Laura, a pic- 
 turesque figure on the high post, shouting 
 derisively : 
 
 " Proved it, didn't I — Ki ! I proved it." 
 Marjory, pleading that discretion was the 
 better part of valour, begged Mabel to stay 
 indoors; but Mabel, who had received, and 
 undoubtedly deserved, the worst of the en- 
 counter, was for instant revenge. Rushing 
 to the kitchen she seized the pan of hard 
 little green apples that Grandma Pike had 
 bequeathed the girls and flew with them to 
 the porch. 
 
 Mabel's first shot took Laura by surprise 
 and landed squarely between her shoulders. 
 Mabel was surprised, too, because throwing 
 straight was not one of her accomplish- 
 ments. She hadn't hoped to do more than 
 frighten her exasperating little neighbour. 
 
i8o Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Elated by this success, Mabel threw her 
 second apple, which, alas, flew wide of its 
 mark and caught poor unprepared Mr. Mil- 
 ligan, who was coming in at his own gate, 
 just under the jaw, striking in such a fash- 
 ion that it forced the astonished man to 
 suddenly bite his tongue. 
 
 Nobody likes to bite his tongue. Nat- 
 urally Mr. Milligan was indignant; indeed, 
 he had every reason to be, for Mabel's con- 
 duct was disgraceful and the little apple was 
 very hard. Entirely overlooking the fact 
 that Laura, who had failed to notice her 
 father's untimely arrival, was still vigorous- 
 ly pelting Mabel, who stood as if petrified 
 on the cottage steps and was making no 
 effort to dodge the flying scarlet fruit, Mr. 
 Milligan shouted: 
 
 " See here, you young imps, I'll see that 
 you're turned out of that cottage for this 
 outrage. We've stood just about enough 
 abuse from you. I don't intend to put u^ 
 with any more of it." 
 
A Lively Afternoon i8i 
 
 Then, suddenly discovering what Laura, 
 who had turned around in dismay at sound 
 of her father's voice, was doing, angry Mr. 
 Milligan dragged his suddenly crestfallen 
 daughter from the fence, boxed her ears 
 soundly, and carried what was left of the to- 
 matoes into the house; for that particular 
 basket of fruit had been sent from very far 
 South and express charges had swelled the 
 price of the unseasonable dainty to a very 
 considerable sum. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 3taura'0 Veteion ®f ^be Stors 
 
 MARJORY, in the cottage kitchen, was 
 alternately scolding and laughing 
 at wo-begone Mabel when Jean and Bettie, 
 released from their charge, ran back to Dan- 
 delion Cottage. Mabel, crying with indig- 
 nation, sat on the kitchen stove rubbing her 
 eyes with a pair of grimy fists — Mabers 
 hands always gathered dust. 
 
 " Oh Mabel ! how could you ! " groanecV 
 Jean, when Marjory had told the afternoon's 
 story. "I'll never dare to leave you here 
 again without some sensible person to look 
 after you. Don't you see you've been al- 
 most — yes, quite — as bad as Laura?" 
 
 " I don't care," sobbed unrepentant Ma- 
 bel. "If you'd heard those verses — and 
 — and Marjory laughed at me." 
 
 " Couldn't help it," giggled Marjory, who 
 182 
 
Laura's Version 183 
 
 was perched on the corner of the kitchen 
 table. 
 
 ** But surely/' reproached gentle-man- 
 nered Jean, " it wasn't necessary to throw 
 things." 
 
 " I guess," said Mabel, suddenly sitting 
 up very straight and disclosing a puffy, 
 tear-stained countenance that moved Mar- 
 jory to fresh giggles, "if you'd felt those 
 icy cold tomatoes go plump in your eye 
 and every place on your very newest dress 
 you'd have been pretty mad, too. Look at 
 me ! I was too surprised to move after I'd 
 hit Mr. Milligan — I never saw him coming 
 at all — and I guess every tomato Laura 
 threw hit me some place." 
 
 " Yes," confirmed Marjory, " I'll say that 
 much for Laura. She can certainly throw 
 straighter than any girl I ever knew — she 
 throws just like a boy." 
 
 Jean, still worried and disapproving, 
 could not help laughing, for Laura's plump 
 target showed only too good evidence of 
 
184 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Laura's skill. MabeFs new, light bfue ging- 
 ham showed a round scarlet spot where 
 each juicy missile had landed; and besides 
 this, there were wide muddy circles where 
 her tears had left high-water marks about 
 each eye. 
 
 " But, dear me," said Jean, growing sober 
 again, " think how low down and horrid it 
 will sound when we tell about it at home. 
 Suppose it should get into the papers ! Ap- 
 ples and tomatoes ! If boys had done it it 
 would have sounded bad enough, but for 
 girls to do such a thing! Oh dear, I do 
 wish I'd been here to stop it ! " 
 
 " To stop the tomatoes, you mean," said 
 Mabel. " You couldn't have stopped any- 
 thing else, for I just had to do something 
 or burst. I've felt all the week just like 
 something sizzling in a bottle and waiting 
 to have the cork pulled ! I'll never be able 
 to do my suffering in silence the way you 
 and Bettie do. Oh girls, I feel just loads 
 Setter." 
 
Laura's Version 185 
 
 "Well, you may feel better," said irre- 
 pressible Marjory, " but you certainly look 
 a lot worse. With those muddy rings on 
 your face you look just like a little owl that 
 isn't very wise." 
 
 " Oh dear," mourned Bettie, " if Miss 
 Blossom had only stayed we wouldn't have 
 had all this trouble with those people." 
 
 " No," said Marjory, shrewdly, " Miss 
 Blossom would probably have made Laura 
 over into a very good imitation of an honest 
 citizen. I don't think, though, that even 
 Miss Blossom could make Laura anything 
 more than an imitation, because — well, be- 
 cause she's Laura. It's different with Ma- 
 bel '' 
 
 Mabel looked up expectantly, and Mar- 
 jory, who was in a teasing mood, con- 
 tinued. 
 
 "Yes," said she, encouragingly, "Miss 
 Blossom might have succeeded in making a 
 nice, polite girl out of Mabel if she'd only 
 had time ■" 
 
1 86 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " How much time ? " demanded Mabel, 
 with sudden suspicion. 
 
 " Oh, about a thousand years," replied 
 Marjory, skipping prudently behind tall 
 Jean. 
 
 "Never mind, Mabel," said Bettie, who 
 always sided with the oppressed, slipping a 
 thin arm about Mabel's plump shoulders. 
 **We like you pretty well, anyway, and 
 you've certainly had an awful time." 
 
 " Do you think," asked Mabel, with sud- 
 den concern, "that Mr. Milligan could get 
 us turned out of the cottage? You know 
 he threatened to." 
 
 " No," said Bettie, " the cottage is church 
 property and no one could do anything 
 about it with Mr. Black away because he's 
 the senior warden. Father said only this 
 morning that there was all sorts of church 
 business waiting for him." 
 
 " Well," said Mabel, with a sigh of re- 
 lief, " Mr. Black wouldn't turn us out, so 
 we're perfectly safe — guess I'll go out on 
 
Laura's Version 187 
 
 the porch and sing my Milligan song again." 
 ** I guess you won't," said Jean. 
 "There's a very good tub in the Bennett 
 house and I'd advise you to go home and 
 take a bath in it — you look as if you ne^de^ 
 two baths and a shampoo. Besides, it's al- 
 most supper time." 
 
 Laura's version of the story, unfortunate- 
 ly, differed materially from the truth. 
 There was no gainsaying the tomatoes, Mr. 
 Milligan had seen those with his own eyes, 
 but Laura claimed that she had been com- 
 pelled to use those expensive vegetables as 
 a means of self defence. According to 
 Laura, whose imagination was as well 
 trained as her arm, she had been the inno- 
 cent victim of all sorts of persecution at the 
 hands of the four girls. They had called 
 her a thief and had insulted not only her but 
 all the Milligans. Mabel, she declared, had 
 opened hostilities that afternoon by throw- 
 ing stones, and poor, abused Laura had only 
 used the tomatoes as a last resort. The 
 
1 88 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 apple that struck Mr. Milligan was, she 
 maintained, the very last of about four 
 dozen. 
 
 Had the Milligans not Been prejudiced, 
 they might easily have learned how far from 
 the truth this assertion was, for the porch 
 of Dandelion Cottage was still bespattered 
 with tomatoes but, in the Milligan yard, 
 there were no traces of the recent encounter. 
 This, to be sure, was no particular credit to 
 Mabel for there might have been had Mr. 
 Milligan delayed his coming by a very few 
 minutes, for Mabel's pan still contained 
 seven hard little apples and Mabel still 
 longed to use them. 
 
 The Milligans, however, were prejudiced. 
 Although Laura was often rude and dis- 
 agreeable at home, she was the only little 
 girl the Milligans had; in any quarrel with 
 outsiders they naturally sided with their 
 own flesh and blood, and, in spite of the 
 tomatoes, they did so now. In her mother 
 Laura found a staunch champion. 
 
Laura's Version 189 
 
 " I won't have those stuck-up little imps 
 there another week," said Mrs. Milligan. 
 "If you don't see that they're turned out, 
 James, I will." 
 
 " They stick out their tongues at me every 
 time they see me," fibbed Laura, whose own 
 tongue was the only one that had been used 
 for sticking-out purposes. " They said ma 
 was no lady and " 
 
 " I'm going to complain of them this very 
 night," said Mrs. Milligan, with quick re- 
 sentment. " I'll show 'em whether I'm a 
 lady or not." 
 
 " Who'll you complain to ? " asked Laura, 
 hopefully. 
 
 * The church warden, of course. These 
 cottages both belong to the church." 
 
 "Mr. Black is the girls' best friend," 
 said Laura. " He wouldn't believe any- 
 thing against them — besides he's away." 
 
 " Mr. Downing isn't," said Mr. Milligan. 
 "I paid him the rent last week. We'll 
 threaten to leave if he doesn't turn them out 
 
190 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 He's a sharp business man and he wouldn't 
 lose the rent of this house for the sake of 
 letting a lot of children use that cottage. 
 I'll see him to-morrow." 
 
 "No," said Mrs. Milligan, "just leave 
 the matter to me. I'll talk to Mr. Down- 
 mg. 
 
 " Suit yourself," said Mr. Milligan, glad 
 perhaps to shirk a disagreeable task. 
 
 After supper that evening, Mrs. Milligan 
 put on her best bonnet and went to Mr. 
 Downing's house, which was only about 
 three blocks from her own. The evening 
 was warm and she found Mr. and Mrs. 
 Downing seated on their front porch. Mrs. 
 Milligan accepted their invitation to take 
 a chair and began at once to explain the 
 reason for her visit. 
 
 The angry woman's tale lost nothing in 
 the telling, indeed, it was not hard to dis- 
 cover how Laura came by her habit of ex- 
 aggerating. When Mrs. Milligan went 
 home half an hour later, Mr. Downing was 
 
Laura's Version 191 
 
 convinced that the church property was in 
 dangerous hands. He couldn't see what 
 Mr. Black had been thinking of to allow 
 careless, impudent children that played with 
 matches, drove nails in the cottage plaster 
 and insulted innocent neighbours, to occupy 
 Dandelion Cottage. 
 
 " Some way," said Mrs. Downing, when 
 the visitor had departed, " I don't like that 
 woman. She isn't quite a lady.'* 
 
 " Nonsense, my dear," said Mr. Down- 
 ing, "if only half the things she hints at 
 are true, there would be reason enough for 
 closing the cottage. The place itself doesn't 
 amount to much, I've been told, but a fire 
 started there would damage thousands of 
 dollars' worth of property — besides, there's 
 the rent from the house those people are 
 in, we don't want to lose that you know." 
 
 " Still, there are always tenants " 
 
 " Not at this time of the year. I'll look 
 into the matter as soon as I can find time." 
 
 " Remember," said Mrs. Downing, think- 
 
192 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ing of Mrs. Milligan's rasping tones, " that 
 there are two sides to every story." 
 
 " My dear/' said Mr. Downing, compla- 
 cently, " I shall listen with the strictest im- 
 partiality to both sides." 
 
CHAPTER XV^l 
 
 Cbe Juntor MarDcn 
 
 BY nine o'clock the next morning, the 
 girls were all at the cottage as usual. 
 Mrs. Mapes had given them materials for a 
 simple cake and Jean and Bettie were in the 
 kitchen making it. Marjory, singing as she 
 worked, was running her Aunty Jane's car- 
 pet-sweeper noisily over the parlor rug, 
 while Mabel, whistling an accompaniment 
 to Marjory's song, was dusting the side- 
 board; at all times the cottage furniture 
 received so much unnecessary dusting that 
 it would not have been at all surprising if 
 It had worn thin in spots. 
 
 When the doorbell rang suddenly and 
 sharply, Marjory's tune stopped short, high 
 in air, and Mabel ran to the window. 
 
 " It's a man," announced Mabel. 
 193 
 
194 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 "Mr Milligan?" asked Marjory, anx- 
 iously. 
 
 " He's moved so I can't tell." 
 
 " Try the other window/' urged Marjory, 
 impatiently. 
 
 " It doesn't look like Mr. Milligan's legs 
 — I can't see the rest of him. They look 
 neat and — and expensive." 
 
 " Probably it's just an agent ; they're kind 
 of thick lately. You go to the door and 
 tell him we're just pretend people, while I'm 
 putting the sweeper out of sight." 
 
 " Good morning," said Mr. Downing. 
 " Are you — Why ! this is a very cosy little 
 place. I had no idea that it was so com- 
 fortable. May I come in ? " 
 
 "Ye — es," returned Mabel, eyeing him 
 doubtfully, "but I think you're probably 
 making a mistake. You see, we're not 
 really truly people." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Mr. Downing, with an 
 amused glance at plump Mabel. " Is it pos- 
 sible you're a ghost ? " 
 
The Junior Warden 195 
 
 " I mean," explained Mabel, " we're just 
 children and this is only a playhouse, not 
 a real one. If you have anything to sell, or 
 are looking for a boarding place, or want 
 to take our census " 
 
 " No," said Mr. Downing, " I don't want 
 either your dollars or your senses. My 
 name is Downing and Fm not selling any- 
 thing. I called on business. Who is the 
 head of this — this ghostly corporation?" 
 
 " It has four," said Mabel. " I'll get the 
 rest." 
 
 Bettie and Jean, with grown-up gingham 
 aprons tied about their necks followed Ma- 
 bel to the parlour. Mr. Downing had seated 
 himself in one of the chairs and the girls 
 sat facing him in a bright-eyed row on the 
 couch. Their countenances were so eager 
 and expectant that Mr. Downing found it 
 hard to begin. 
 
 " I've come in," he said, " to talk over 
 a little matter of business with you. I 
 understand that you've been having trouble 
 
196 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 with your neighbours — exchanging com* 
 pliments " 
 
 " No," said honest Mabel, turning crim- 
 son, "it was apples and tomatoes. The 
 Milligans are the most troublesome neigh- 
 bours we've ever had." 
 
 " So-o ? '* said the visitor, raising his eye- 
 brows in genuine surprise. "Why, I un- 
 derstood that it was quite the other way 
 round. I'd like to hear your version of the 
 difficulty." 
 
 Jean and Bettie, with occasional assistance 
 from Marjory and much prompting from 
 Mabel, told him all about it. During the 
 recital Mr. Downing's attention seemed to 
 wander, for his eyes took in every detail 
 of the neat sitting room, strayed to the pret- 
 tily papered dining-room and even rested 
 lingeringly upon the one visible comer of 
 the dainty blue bedroom. Bettie had neg- 
 lected to close the door between the kitchen 
 and the dining-room, which circumstance 
 
The Junior Warden 197 
 
 proved unfortunate, because the tiny scrap 
 of butter that Jean had left melting in a 
 very small pan on the kitchen stove, got too 
 hot and with threatening, hissing noises, 
 began to give forth clouds of thick, disagree- 
 able smoke. Jean, the first of the girls to 
 notice it, flew to the kitchen, snatched a 
 lid from the stove, and, with a newspaper 
 for a holder, swept the burning butter, pan 
 and all, into the fire. Then the paper in 
 Jean's hand caught fire, and for the instant 
 before she stuffed it into the stove and 
 clapped the lid into place, fierce red flames 
 leaped high. 
 
 To the visitor, prepared by Mrs. Milligan 
 for just such doings, it looked for a moment 
 as if all the rear end of the cottage was in 
 flames ; but Jean returned to her place on the 
 couch with an air of what looked to Mn 
 Downing very much like almost criminal un- 
 concern. How was Mr. Downing, who did 
 no cooking, to know that paper placed on a 
 
198 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 cake-baking fire always flares up in an 
 alarming fashion without doing any real 
 harm? He didn't know, and the incident 
 decided the matter he was turning over in 
 his mind. The girls had found it a little 
 hard to tell their story, for it was plain that 
 their visitor was using his eyes rather than 
 his ears ; moreover, they were not at all cer- 
 tain that he had any right to demand the 
 facts in the case. When the story was fin- 
 ished, Mr. Downing looked at the row of 
 interested faces and cleared his throat; but, 
 for some reason, the words he had meant 
 to speak refused to come. He hadn't sup- 
 posed that the evicting of unsatisfactory ten- 
 ants would prove such an unpleasant task. 
 The tenants, all at once, seemed part of the 
 house, and the man realised, suddenly, that 
 the losing of the cottage was likely to prove 
 a severe blow to the four little housekeepers. 
 Perhaps it was disconcerting to see the ex- 
 pression of puzzled anxiety that had crept 
 into Bettie's great brown eyes, into Jean's 
 
The Junior Warden 199 
 
 hazel ones, into Marjory's grey, and Mabel's 
 blue ones ; at any rate, Mr. Downing decided 
 to be well out of the way when the blow 
 should fall; he realised that it would prove 
 a trying ordeal to face all those young eyes 
 filled with indignation and probably with 
 tears. 
 
 " Ah hum," said Mr. Downing, rising to 
 take his leave. " I'm much obliged to you 
 young ladies. Hum — the number of this 
 house is what, if you please? " 
 
 " Number 224," said Bettie, whose mind 
 worked quickly. 
 
 " Hum," said Mr. Downing, writing it on 
 the envelope he had taken from his pocket, 
 and moving rather abruptly toward the door, 
 as if desirous to escape as speedily as possi- 
 ble with the knowledge he had gleaned. 
 "Thank you very much — I bid you all 
 good morning." 
 
 " Now what in the world did that man 
 want ? " demanded Mabel, before the front 
 door had fairly closed. " Do you s'pose he's 
 
200 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 some kind of a lawyer, or (Mabel turned 
 pale at the thought) a policeman disguised 
 as a — a human being? Do you suppose 
 the Milligans are going to get us arrested 
 for just two apples — and — and a little 
 poetry?" 
 
 "More likely," suggested Jean, "he's a 
 burglar. Didn't you notice the way he 
 looked around at everything? I could see 
 that he sort of lost interest after while — as 
 Jf he had concluded that we hadn't anything 
 worth stealing." 
 
 " Nonsense ! " said Bettie. " I don't know 
 what he does for a living, but he can't be 
 a burglar. He hasn't lived here very long, 
 but he goes to our church and comes to our 
 house sometimes to vestry meetings. Some- 
 times on warm Sunday's when there's no- 
 body else to do it, he passes the plate." 
 
 " Well," said Mabel, " I hope he isn't a 
 policeman weekdays." 
 
 "More likely," said Marjory, "he does 
 reporting for the papers. The time Aunty 
 
The Junior Warden 201 
 
 ^■^— "™^^"^~ 
 
 Jane was in that railroad accident, a reporter 
 came to our house to interview her, and he 
 asked questions just as that Mr. Downing 
 — was that his name? — did. He took the 
 number of the house, too." 
 
 " Oh mercy ! " gasped Mabel, turning 
 suddenly from white to a deep crimson. 
 "If those green apples get into the paper 
 I'll be too ashamed to live! Oh girls! 
 Couldn't we stop him — couldn't we — 
 couldn't we pay him something not to?" 
 
 " It's probably in by now," said Marjory, 
 teasingly. " They do it hy telegraph, you 
 know." 
 
 " He couldn't have been a reporter," pro- 
 tested Mabel. " Reporters are always young 
 and very active so they can catch lots of 
 scoons — no, scoots." 
 
 " Scoops," corrected Jean. 
 
 "Well, scoops. He was kind of slow 
 and a little bit bald headed on top — I 
 noticed it when he stooped for his hat.'* 
 
 "Well, anyway," comforted Jean, "let's 
 
202 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 not worry about it. Let's rebuild our fire — • 
 of course it's out by now — and finish our 
 cake." 
 
 In spite of the cake's turning out much 
 better than anyone could have expected, 
 with so many agitated cooks taking turns 
 stirring it, there was something wrong with 
 the day. The girls were filled with uneasy 
 forebodings and could settle down to noth- 
 ing. Marjory felt no desire to sing and even 
 the cake seemed to have lost something of 
 its flavor. Moreover, when they had stood 
 for a moment on their doorstep to see the 
 new steam road roller go puffing by, Laura, 
 had tossed her head triumphantly, and had 
 shouted tauntingly : *''' I know something / 
 sha'n't tell." After that, the girls could not 
 help wondering if Laura really did know 
 something — some dreadful thing that con- 
 cerned them vitally and was liable to burst 
 upon them at any moment. 
 
 For the first time in the history of their 
 housekeeping, they could find nothing that 
 
The Junior Warden 203 
 
 they really wanted to do. During the after- 
 noon they had several little disagreements 
 with each other. Mild Jean spoke sharply 
 to Marjory and even sweet-tempered Bettie 
 was drawn into a lively dispute with Mabel. 
 Moreover, all three of the older girls were 
 inclined to blame Mabel for her fracas with 
 the Milligans; and the culprit, ashamed one 
 moment and defiant the next, was in a most 
 unhappy frame of mind. Altogether, the 
 day was a failure and the four friends parted 
 coldly at least an hour before the usual time, 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Hn TUncipecteD Xetter 
 
 HE next morning, Jean, with three 
 large bananas as a peace offering, 
 was the first to arrive at Dandelion Cottage. 
 Jean, a wise young person for her years, had 
 decided that a little hard work would clear 
 the atmosphere, so, finding no one else in the 
 house, she made a fire in the stove, put on 
 the kettle, put up the leaf of the kitchen table 
 and began to take all the dishes from the 
 pantry shelves. Dishwashing in the cottage 
 was always far more enjoyable than this de- 
 spised occupation usually is elsewhere, 
 owing to the astonishing assortment of 
 crockery the girls had accumulated. No 
 two of the dishes, with the exception of a 
 pair of plates bearing life-sized portraits of 
 ** The frog that would a-wooing go, whether 
 
 his mother would let him or no," bore the 
 204 
 
An Unexpected Letter 205 
 
 same pattern. There was a bewildering di- 
 versity, too, in the sizes and shapes of the 
 cups and saucers, and an alarming variety 
 in the matter of colours. But, as the girls 
 had declared gleefully a dozen times or 
 more, it would be possible to set the table for 
 seven courses when the time should come 
 for Mr. Black's and Mrs. Crane's dinner 
 party, because so many of the things almost 
 matched if they didn't quite. Jean was 
 thinking of this, as she lifted the dishes from 
 the shelf to the table, and lovingly arranged 
 them in pairs, the pink sugar bowl beside the 
 blue cream-pitcher, the yellow coffee cup 
 beside the dull red Japanese tea cup, and the 
 " Love-the-Giver " mug, beside the " For 
 my Little Friend " oat-meal bowl. She had 
 just taken down the big, dusty, cracked 
 pitcher that matched nothing else, which, 
 perhaps, was the reason that it had remained 
 high on the shelf since the day Mabel had 
 used it for her lemonade, when the door bell 
 rang. 
 
2o6 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Hastily wiping her dusty hands, Jean ran 
 to the door. No one was there, but the 
 postman was climbing the steps of the next 
 house, so Jean slipped her fingers expectant- 
 ly into the little, rusty iron letter-box. Per- 
 haps there was something from Miss Blos- 
 som, who sometimes showed that she had 
 not forgotten her little landladies. 
 
 Sure enough, there was a large white let- 
 ter, not from Miss Blossom to be sure, but 
 from somebody. To the young cottagers, 
 letters were always joyous happenings ; they 
 had no debts, consequently they were unac- 
 quainted with bills. With this auspicious 
 beginning, for of course the coming of a 
 totally unexpected letter was an auspicious 
 beginning, it was surely going to be a cheer- 
 ful, perhaps even a delightful day. Jean 
 hummed happily as she laid the unopened 
 letter on the dining-room table, for of course 
 a letter somewhat oddly addressed to " The 
 Four Young Ladies at 224 Fremont Street, 
 City," could be opened only when all four 
 
An Unexpected Letter 207 
 
 were present. When Marjory and Bettie 
 came in, they fell upon the letter and ex- 
 amined every portion of the envelope, but 
 neither girl could imagine who had sent it. 
 It v/as impossible to wait for Mabel, who 
 was always late, so Bettie obligingly ran to 
 get her. Even so there was still some con- 
 siderable delay for Mabel had to lace her 
 shoes; but presently Bettie returned, with 
 Mabel, still nibbling very-much-buttered 
 toast, at her heels. 
 
 "You open it, Jean," panted Bettie. 
 ** You can read writing better than we can." 
 
 " Hurry," urged Mabel, who could keep 
 other persons waiting much easier than she 
 herself could wait. 
 
 " Here's a fork to open it with," said 
 Marjory , " I can't find the scissors. Hurry 
 up; maybe it's a party and we'll have to 
 R. S. V. P. right away." 
 
 "Oh goody, if it is!" squealed Mabel. 
 ** I can wear my new tan Oxfords. 
 
 " It's from Yours Respectably — no, 
 
2o8 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Yours Regretfully, John W. Downing," an- 
 nounced Jean. "The man that was here 
 yesterday, you know." 
 
 " Read it, read it," pleaded the others, 
 crowding so closely that Jean had to elevate 
 the letter above their heads in order to see 
 it at all. "Do hurry up, we're crazy to 
 hear it." 
 
 " My Dear Young Ladies : " read Jean in 
 a voice that started bravely but grew fainter 
 with every line. " It is with sincere regret 
 that I write to inform you that it no longer 
 suits the convenience of the vestrymen to 
 have you occupy the church cottage on Fre- 
 mont Street. It is to be rented as soon as 
 a few necessary repairs can be made, and in 
 the meantime, you will oblige us greatly by 
 moving out at once. Please deliver the key, 
 at your earliest convenience to me at either 
 my house or this office. 
 
 "Yours Regretfully, 
 "John W. Downing.'* 
 
 For as much as two minutes no one said 
 
An Unexpected Letter 209 
 
 a word. Jean had laid the open letter on 
 the table. Marjory and Bettie with their 
 arms tightly locked, as if both felt the need 
 of support, re-read the closely written page 
 in silence When they reached the end, they 
 pushed it toward Mabel. 
 
 " What does it mean in plain English ? " 
 asked Mabel, hoping that both her eyes and 
 her ears had deceived her. 
 
 " That somebody else is to have the cot- 
 tage," said Jean, " and that in the meantime 
 we're to move." 
 
 " In the meantime ! " blurted Mabel, with 
 swift wrath. " I should say it was the 
 meantime — the very meanest time anybody 
 ever heard of. I'd just like to know what 
 right * Yours-Respectably-John-W.-Down- 
 ing ' has to turn us out of our own house. 
 I guess we paid our rent — I guess there's 
 blisters on me yet — I guess I dug dande- 
 lions — I guess I ^" 
 
 But here Mabel's indignation turned to 
 grief, and with one of her very best howls 
 
2IO Dandelion Cottage 
 
 and a torrent of tears, she buried her face in 
 Jean's apron. 
 
 " Bettle," asked Jean with her arms about 
 Mabel, " do you think it would do any good 
 to ask your father about it ? He's the min- 
 ister, you know, and he might explain to 
 Mr. Downing that we were promised the 
 cottage for all summer." 
 
 " Papa went away this morning and won't 
 be home for ten days. He has exchanged 
 with somebody for the next two Sundays." 
 
 " My pa — pa — papa's away, too," 
 sobbed Mabel, "or he'd tell that vile Mr. 
 Downing that it was all the Mill — ill — 
 igans' fault. They're the folks that ought 
 to be turned out, and I just wuh — wuh — 
 wish they — they had been." 
 
 " Why wouldn't it be a good idea," sug- 
 gested Marjory, " for us all to go down to 
 Mr. Downing's office and tell him all about 
 it. You see, he hasn't lived here very long 
 and perhaps he doesn't understand that we 
 have paid our rent for all summer." 
 
An Unexpected Letter . 211 
 
 " Yes," assented Jean, " that would prob- 
 ably be the best thing to do„ He won't 
 mind having us go to the office because he 
 told us to take the key there — but where 
 is his office." 
 
 " I know," said Bettie. " Here's the ad- 
 dress on the letter, and the dentist I go to is 
 right near there, so I can find it easily." 
 
 " Then let's start right away," cried eager 
 Mabel, uncovering a disheveled head and a 
 tear-stained countenance. " Don't let's lose 
 a minute." 
 
 " Mercy no," said Jean, taking Mabel by 
 the shoulders and pushing her before her to 
 the blue-room mirror. " Do you think you 
 can go any place looking like that ? Do you 
 think you look like a desirable tenant? 
 We've all got to be just as clean and neat 
 as we can be. We've got to impress him 
 with our — our ladylikeness." 
 
 " I'll braid Mabel's hair," offered Bettie, 
 " if Marjory will run around the block and 
 get all our hats. I'm wearing Dick's straw 
 
212 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 one with the blue ribbon, just now, Marjory, 
 You'll find it some place in our front hall if 
 Tommy hasn't got it on." 
 
 " Bring mine, too,'* said Jean, " it's in my 
 room." 
 
 " I don't know where mine is," said Ma- 
 bel, "but if you can't find it you'd better 
 wear your Sunday one and lend me your 
 everyday one." 
 
 " I see myself lending you any more 
 hats," said Marjory, who had, like the other 
 girls, brightened at the prospect of going to 
 Mr. Downing's. " I haven't forgotten how 
 you left the last one out-of-doors all night 
 in the rain, and how it looked afterwards, 
 when Aunty Jane made me wear it to pun- 
 ish me for my carelessness. You'll go in 
 your own hat or none." 
 
 "Well, I guess," said Mabel, meekly, 
 "you'll probably find it in my room under 
 the bed, if it isn't in the parlour behind the 
 sofa." 
 
 "Now remember," said Jean, who was 
 
An Unexpected Letter 213 
 
 re-tying the bow on Bettie's hair, " we're 
 all to be polite, whatever happens, for we 
 mustn't let Mr. Downing think we're any- 
 thing like the Milligans. If he won't let 
 us have the cottage when he knows about the 
 rent's being paid — but I'm almost sure he 
 will let us keep it — why, we'll just have to 
 give it up and not let him see that we care." 
 
 " I'll be good," promised Bettie. 
 
 " You needn't be afraid of me'^ said Ma- 
 bel. " I wouldn't humble myself to speak, 
 to such a despisable man." 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 Hn ©bDurate 3LanMor& 
 
 TWENTY minutes later when Mr. 
 Downing roared "COME IN" in 
 the terrifying voice he usually reserved for 
 agents and other unexpected or unwelcome 
 visitors, he was plainly very much surprised 
 to see four pale girls with shocked, reproach- 
 ful eyes file in and come to an embarrassed 
 standstill just inside the office door, which 
 closed of its own accord and left them im- 
 prisoned with the enemy. 
 
 " Oh, good morning," said he, in a much 
 milder tone, as he swung about in his revolv- 
 ing chair. " What can I do for you ? 
 Have you brought the key so soon ? " 
 
 " We came," said Jean, propelled sudden* 
 
 ly forward by a vigorous push from the rear, 
 
 " to see you about Dandelion Cottage. W» 
 
 think you've made a mistake." 
 214 
 
An Obdurate Landlord 215 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Mr. Downing, who did 
 not at any time like to be considered mis- 
 taken. " Suppose you explain," 
 
 So sweet-voiced Jean explained all about 
 digging the dandelions to pay the rent, about 
 Mr. Black's giving them the key at the end 
 of the week, and about all the lovely times 
 they had had and were still hoping to have 
 in their precious cottage before giving it up 
 for the winter. 
 
 Mr. Downing, personally, did not like 
 Mr. Black. He had a poor opinion of the 
 older man's business ability, and perhaps a 
 somewhat exalted one of his own. He con- 
 sidered Mr. Black old-fashioned and far too 
 easy-going; he felt that parish affairs were 
 more likely to flourish in the hands of a 
 younger, shrewder and more modern person 
 — he had an idea that he was that person. 
 At any rate, now that Mr. Black was out of 
 town, Mr. Downing was glad of an oppor- 
 tunity to display his own superior shrewd- 
 ness. He would show the vestry a thing 
 
21 6 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 or two, and, incidentally, increase the parish 
 income, which as everybody knew stood 
 greatly in need of increasing. He had no 
 patience with slipshod methods. He was 
 truly sorry when business matters compelled 
 him to appear hard-hearted; but to him it 
 appeared little short of absurd for a man of 
 Mr. Black's years to waste on four small 
 girls a cottage that might be bringing in a 
 comfortable sum every month in the year. 
 
 " Now that's a very pretty little story," 
 said Mr. Downing, when Jean had finished. 
 " But you see, you've already had the cot- 
 tage more than long enough to pay you for 
 pulling those few weeds." 
 
 *'Few!'' exclaimed Mabel, in indignant 
 protest and forgetting her promise of silence. 
 "Few! Why, there were billions of 'em. 
 If we'd been paid two cents a hundred for 
 them we'd all be rich. Mr. Black promised 
 us we could have that cottage for all sum- 
 mer and our rent hasn't half perspired yet." 
 
 " She means ^;rpired,'* explained Mar- 
 
An Obdurate Landlord 217 
 
 jory, " but she's right for once. Mr. Black 
 did say we could stay there all summer — it 
 isn't quite August yet, you know." 
 
 " Hum," said Mr. Downing, " nobody 
 said anything to me about any such arrange- 
 ment and I'm keeping the books. I don't 
 know what Mr. Black could have been think- 
 ing of if he made any such foolish promise 
 as that. Of course it's not binding. Why! 
 that cottage ought to be renting for ten or 
 twelve dollars a month." 
 
 " But the plaster's very bad," pleaded 
 Bettie, eagerly, " and the roof leaks in every 
 room in the house but one, and something's 
 the matter underneath so it's too cold for 
 folks to live in during the winter. It was 
 vacant for a long time before we had it." 
 
 " It looked very comfortable to me/' said 
 Mr. Downing, who had lived in the town 
 for only a few months and neither knew nor 
 suspected the real condition of the house. 
 "Fm afraid your arrangement with Mr. 
 Black doesn't hold good. Mr. Morgan and 
 
2i8 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 myself think it best to have the house va- 
 cated at once. You see we're in danger of 
 losing the rent from the next house for the 
 Milligans have threatened to move out if 
 you don't." 
 
 " If — if seven dollars and a half would 
 do you any good," said Mabel, " and if 
 you're mean enough to take all the money 
 we've got in this world " 
 
 "I'm not," said Mr. Downing. "I'm 
 only reasonable and I want you to be reason- 
 able too. You must look at this thing from 
 a business standpoint. You see, the rent 
 from those two houses should bring in twen- 
 ty-five dollars a month, which isn't more 
 than a sufficient return for the money in- 
 vested. The taxes " 
 
 " A note for you, Mr. Downing," said a 
 boy, who had quietly opened the office door. 
 
 " Why," said Mr. Downing, when he had 
 read the note, " this is really quite a remark- 
 able coincidence. This communication is 
 from Mr. MilUgau, who has ^und a desir- 
 
An Obdurate Landlord 219 
 
 able tenant for the cottage he is now in, and 
 wishes, himself, to occupy the cottage you 
 are going to vacate. Very clever idea on 
 Mr. Milligan's part. This will save him 
 five dollars a month, and is a most conven- 
 ient arrangement all around. He wishes to 
 move in at once." 
 
 " Mr. Milligan ! " gasped three of the as- 
 tonished girls. 
 
 "Those Milligans in our house!" cried 
 Mabel. " Well, isn't that the worst ! " 
 
 " You see," said Mr. Downing, " it is 
 really necessary for you to move at once. I 
 think you had better begin without further 
 loss of time. Good morning, good morn- 
 ing all of you, and please believe me, I'm 
 sorry about this but it can't be helped." 
 
 " I hope," said Mabel, summoning all her 
 dignity for a parting shot, " that you'll never 
 live long enough to regret this — this out- 
 rage. There are seven rolls of paper on the 
 walls of that cottage that belong to us, and 
 we expect to be paid for every one of them." 
 
220 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " How much ? " asked Mr. Downing, sup- 
 pressing a smile, for Mabel was never more 
 amusing than when she was very angry. 
 
 " Five cents a roll — thirty-five cents al- 
 together." 
 
 Mr. Downing gravely reached into his 
 trousers' pocket, fished up a handful of loose 
 change, scrupulously counted out three 
 dimes and a nickel and handed them to Ma- 
 bel, who, with averted eyes and chin held 
 unnecessarily high, accepted the price of the 
 Blossom wall-paper haughtily, and follow- 
 ing the others, stalked from the office. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Submitting ^o XLbc ITnevitable 
 
 THE unhappy girls could not trust them- 
 selves to talk as they hastened home- 
 ward. They held hands tightly, walking 
 four abreast along the quiet street, and bare- 
 ly managed to keep the tears back and the 
 rapidly swelling lumps in their little throats 
 successfully swallowed until Jean's trem- 
 bling fingers had unlocked the cottage door. 
 Then, with one accord, they rushed pell- 
 mell for the blue-room bed, hurled them- 
 selves upon its excelsior pillows and burst 
 into tears. Jean and Bettie cried silently 
 but bitterly. Marjory wept audibly, with 
 long, shuddering sobs; but Mabel simply 
 bawled. Mabel always did her crying on 
 the excellent principle that, if a thing were 
 worth doing at all, it was worth doing well. 
 She was doing it so well on this occasion 
 
 221 
 
222 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 that Jean, who seldom cried and whose 
 puffed, scarlet eyelids contrasted oddly and 
 rather pathetically with her colorless cheeks, 
 presently sat up to remonstrate. 
 
 " Mabel ! " she said, slipping an arm 
 about the chief mourner, " do you want the 
 Milligans to hear you ? We're on their side 
 of the house, you know/' 
 
 Jean couldn't have used a better argu- 
 ment. Mabel stopped short in the middle 
 of one of her very best howls, sat up and 
 shook her head vigorously. 
 
 " Well, I just guess I don't," said she. 
 " I'd die first." 
 
 " I thought so," said Jean, with just a 
 faint glimmer of a smile. " We mustn't let 
 those people guess how awfully we care. 
 Go bathe your eyes, Mabel — there must be 
 a little warm water in the tea kettle." 
 
 Then the comforter turned to Bettie, and 
 made the appeal that was most likely to 
 reach that always-ready-to-help young per- 
 son. 
 
The Inevitable 223 
 
 " Come, Bettie dear, you've cried long 
 enough. We must get to work for weVe a 
 tremendous lot to do. Don't you suppose, 
 if we had all the things packed in baskets or 
 bundles that we could get a few of your 
 brothers to help us move out after dark? I 
 just can't let those Milligans gloat over us 
 while we go back and forth with things." 
 
 Bettie's only response was a sob. 
 
 " Where in the world can we put the 
 things ? " asked Marjory, sitting up sudden- 
 ly and displaying a blotched and swollen 
 countenance very unlike her usual fair, rose- 
 tinted face. " Of course we can each take 
 our dolls and books home, but our furni- 
 ture " 
 
 " I'm going to ask mother if we can't 
 store it upstairs in our barn. I'm sure she'll 
 let us." 
 
 " Oh, I wish Mr. Black were here. It 
 doesn't seem possible we've really got to 
 move. There must be some way out of it 
 Oh Bettie! couldn't we write to Mr. Black?" 
 
224 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " It would take too — oo — oo long," 
 sobbed Bettie, sitting up and mopping her 
 eyes with the muslin window curtain, which 
 she could easily reach from the foot of the 
 bed. " He's way off in Washington. Oh 
 dear — oh dear — oh dear ! " 
 
 " Why couldn't we telegraph ? " demand- 
 ed Marjory, with whom hope died hard. 
 " Telegrams go pretty fast, don't they ? " 
 
 " They cost terribly," said Bettie. 
 " They're almost as expensive as express 
 packages. Still, we might find out what it 
 costs." 
 
 " I dough the telegraph-mad," wheezed 
 Mabel from the wash-basin. " I'll go hobe 
 and telephode hib and ask what it costs ■ — 
 I've heard my father give hib bessages lots 
 of tibes — Oh by, by dose is all stuffed up." 
 
 " Try a handkerchief," suggested Jean. 
 " Go ask, if you want to ; it won't do any 
 harm nor probably any good." 
 
 Mabel ran home, taking care to keep her 
 back turned toward the Milligan house. 
 
The Inevitable 225 
 
 During her brief absence, the girls bathed 
 their eyes and made sundry other futile at- 
 tempts to do away with all outward signs 
 of grief. 
 
 " He says/' cried Mabel, bursting in ex- 
 citedly, " that sixty cents is the regular price 
 daytimes, but it's forty cents for a night 
 message. It seems kind of mean to wake 
 folks up in the middle of the night just to 
 save twenty cents, doesn't it?" 
 
 " Yes," said Bettie. " I couldn't be im- 
 polite enough to do that to anybody I like 
 as well as I like Mr. Black. If we haven't 
 money enough to send a daytime message, 
 we mustn't send any." 
 
 " Well, we haven't," said Jean. " We've 
 only thirty-five cents." 
 
 "And we wouldn't have had that," said 
 Mabel, " if I hadn't remembered that wall- 
 paper just in the nick of time." 
 
 Strangely enough, not one of the girls 
 thought of the money in the bank. Per- 
 haps it did not occur to them that it would 
 
226 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 be possible to remove any portion of their 
 precious seven and a half dollars without 
 withdrawing it all — they knew little of 
 business matters. Neither did they think 
 of appealing to their parents for aid at this 
 crisis; but, indeed, they were all too dazed 
 from the suddenness and tremendousness of 
 the blow to think very clearly about any- 
 thing. The sum needed seemed a large one 
 to the girls, who habitually bought a cent's 
 worth of candy at a time from the generous 
 proprietor of the little corner shop. Mabel, 
 the only one with an allowance, was, to her 
 father's way of thinking, a hopeless little 
 spendthrift, already deeply plunged in debt 
 by her unpaid fines for lateness to meals. 
 
 The Tucker income did not go round for 
 the grown-ups, so of course there were few 
 pennies for the Tucker children. Marjory's 
 Aunty Jane had ideas of her own on the sub- 
 ject of spending-money for little girls — 
 Marjory did not suspect that the good, but 
 rather austere woman made a weekly pil* 
 
The Inevitable 227 
 
 grimage to the bank for the purpose of de- 
 positing, religiously, a small sum in her 
 niece's name, and if she had known it, Mar- 
 jory would probably have been improvident 
 enough to prefer spot cash in smaller 
 amounts. Only that morning tender-heart- 
 ed Jean had heard patient Mrs. Mapes la- 
 menting because butter had gone up two 
 cents a pound and because all the bills had 
 seemed larger than those of the preceding 
 month — Jean always took the family bills 
 very much to heart. 
 
 The girls sorrowfully concluded that there 
 was nothing left for them to do but to obey 
 Mr. Downing. They had looked forward 
 with dread to giving up the cottage when 
 winter should come, but the idea of losing 
 it in midsummer was a thousand time* 
 worse. 
 
 "We'll just have to give it up," said 
 grieved little Bettie. " There's nothing else 
 we can do, with Mr. Black away. When I 
 go home to-night I'll write to him and apol- 
 
228 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ogise about not being able to keep our prom- 
 ise about the dinner party — that's the hard- 
 est thing of all to give up." 
 
 "But you don't know his address/* ob' 
 jected Jean. 
 
 " Yes I do, for father wrote to him about 
 some church business this morning, before 
 going away, and gave Dick the letter to 
 mail. Of course Dick forgot all about it 
 and left it on the hall mantelpiece. It's 
 probably there yet, for I'm the only person 
 that ever remembers to mail father's letters 
 — he forgets them himself most of the 
 time." 
 
 "Now let's get to work," said Jean. 
 " Since we have to move let's pretend we 
 really want to — I've always thought it 
 must be quite exciting to really truly move. 
 You see, we must get it over before the 
 Milligans guess that we've begun, and there 
 isn't any too much time left. I'll begin to 
 take down the things in the parlour and tie 
 them up in the bed clothes. We'll leave all 
 
The Inevitable 229 
 
 the curtains until the last so that no one will 
 know what we're doing." 
 
 " ril help you," said Bettie. 
 
 " Mabel and I might be packing the dish- 
 es," said Marjory. " It will be easier to do 
 it while we have the table left to work on. 
 Come along, Mabel." 
 
 Mabel followed obediently. When the 
 forlorn pair reached the kitchen, Marjory 
 announced her intention of exploring the 
 little shed for empty baskets, leaving Mabel 
 to stack the cups and plates in compact piles. 
 Mabel, without knowing just why she did 
 it, picked up her old friend, the cracked 
 lemonade-pitcher and gave it a little shake. 
 Something rattled. Mabel, always an in- 
 quisitive young person, thrust her fingers 
 into the dusty depths to bring up a piece 
 of money — two pieces — three — pieces — 
 four pieces. 
 
 "Oh!" she gasped, "it's my lemonade 
 money. Oh, what a lucky omen! Girls 1 
 
230 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 * ' ■"^— ■ 
 
 The next instant Mabel clapped a plump, 
 dusty hand over her own lips to keep them 
 from announcing the discovery, and then, 
 stealthily concealing the twenty cents in the 
 pocket that still contained the wall-paper 
 money, she stole quickly through the cottage 
 and ran to her own home. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 /iBabcl iplana H Surprise 
 
 ^T^HE girls were indignant later when 
 A they discovered Mabel's apparent de- 
 sertion. It was precisely like Mabel, they 
 said, to shirk when there was anything un- 
 pleasant to be done. For once, however, 
 they were wronging Mabel — poor, self- 
 sacrificing Mabel, who with fifty-five cents 
 at her disposal, was planning a beauti- 
 ful surprise for her unappreciative cot- 
 tage-mates. The girls might have known 
 that nothing short of an ambitious project 
 for saving the cottage from the Milligans 
 would have kept the child away when so 
 much was going on. For Mabel was at 
 that very moment doing what was for her 
 the hardest kind of work; all alone in her 
 own room at home she was laboriously com- 
 posing a telegram. 
 
 231 
 
23a Dandelion Cottage 
 
 She had never sent a telegram, nor had 
 she even read one. She could not consult 
 her mother because Mrs. Bennett had incon- 
 siderately gone down town to do her mar- 
 keting. Dr. Bennett, however, was a very 
 busy man and sometimes received a number 
 of important messages in one day. Mabel 
 felt that the occasion justified her studying 
 several late specimens which she resurrected 
 from the waste-paper basket under her fa- 
 ther's desk. These, however, proved rather 
 unsatisfactory models since none of them 
 seemed to exactly fit the existing emergency. 
 Most of them, indeed, were in cipher. 
 
 " I suppose," said Mabel, nibbling hef 
 pen-holder thoughtfully, "they make 'em 
 short so they'll fit these little sheets of yel- 
 low paper, but there's lots more space they 
 might use if they didn't leave such wide 
 margins. I'll write small so I can say all I 
 want to, but dear me, I can't think of a thing 
 to say." 
 
 It took a long time, but the message was 
 
Mabel Plans A Surprise 233 
 
 finished at last. With a deep sigh of satis-^ 
 faction, Mabel folded it neatly and put it 
 into an envelope which she carefully sealed. 
 Then, putting on her hat, and taking the 
 telegram with her, she ran to Bettie's home 
 and opened the door — none of the four 
 girls were required to ring each other's door- 
 bells. There, sure enough, was the letter 
 waiting to be mailed to Mr. Black. Mabel, 
 who had thought to bring a pencil, copied 
 the address in her big, vertical hand-writing, 
 and without further ado ran with it to her 
 friend, the telegraph operator, whose office 
 was just around the corner. All the dis- 
 tances in the little town were short, and Ma- 
 bel had frequently been sent to the place 
 with messages written by her father, so she 
 did not feel the need of asking permission. 
 
 The clerk opened the envelope — Mabel 
 considered this decidedly rude of him — and 
 proceeded to read the message. It took him 
 a long time. Then he looked from Mabel's 
 flushed cheeks and eager eyes to the little 
 
234 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 collection of nickels and dimes she had 
 placed on the counter. Mabel wondered 
 why the young man chewed the ends of his 
 sandy moustache so vigorously. Perhaps 
 he was amused at something; she looked 
 about the little office to see what it could be 
 that pleased him so greatly, but there seemed 
 to be nothing to excite mirth. She decided 
 that he was either a very cheerful young 
 man, naturally, or else he was feeling joyful 
 because the clock said that it was nearly time 
 for luncheon. 
 
 " It'll be all right, Miss Mabel," said he 
 at last. " It's a pretty good fifty-five cents' 
 worth; but I guess Mr. Black won't object 
 to that. I hope you'll always come to me 
 when you have messages to send." 
 
 " I won't if you go and read them all," 
 said Mabel, at which her friend looked even 
 more cheerful than he had before. 
 
 Ten minutes later, Mabel mumbling some- 
 thing about having had an errand to attend 
 to, presented herself at the cottage. Beyond 
 
Mabei Plans A Surprise 235 
 
 a few meekly-received reproaches from Mar- 
 jory, no one said anything about the unex- 
 plained absence. Indeed, they were all too 
 busy and too preoccupied to care ; the great- 
 er grief of losing the cottage having swal- 
 lowed up all lesser cares. 
 
 At a less trying time the girls would have 
 discovered within ten minutes that Mabel 
 was suffering from a suppressed secret ; but 
 now, everything was changed. Although 
 Mabel fairly bristled with importance and 
 gave out sundry very broad hints, no one 
 paid the slightest attention. Gradually, in 
 the stress of packing, the matter of the tele- 
 gram faded from Mabel's short memory, for 
 preparing to move proved a most exciting 
 operation; and also a harrowing one. 
 Every few moments somebody would say: 
 " Our last day,'' and then the other three 
 would fall to weeping on anything that hap- 
 pened to come handy. Of course the pack- 
 ing had stirred up considerable dust; this 
 mingled with tears added much to the for- 
 
236 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 lornness of the cottagers' appearance, when 
 they went home at noon with their news. 
 
 The parents and Aunty Jane said it was 
 a shame, but all agreed that there was noth- 
 ing to be done. All were sorry to have the 
 girls deprived of the cottage, for the mothers 
 had certainly found it a relief to have their 
 little daughters* leisure hours so safely and 
 so happily occupied. Mabel's mother was 
 especially sorry. 
 
 Never was moving more melancholy nor 
 house more forlorn when the moving, done 
 after dark with great caution, and mostly 
 through the dining-room window on the side 
 of the house furthest from the Milligans, 
 was finally accomplished. The Tucker boys 
 had been only too delighted to help. By 
 bedtime the cottage was empty of every- 
 thing but the curtains on the Milligan side 
 of the house. An hour later the tired girls 
 were asleep ; but under each pillow there was 
 a handkerchief rolled in a tight, grimy little 
 ball and soaked with tears. 
 
Mabel Plans A Surprise 237 
 
 In the morning, the girls returned for a 
 last look, and for the remaining curtains. 
 Dandelion cottage, stripped of its furniture 
 and without its pictures, showed its age and 
 all its infirmities. Great patches of plaster 
 and wall-paper were missing, for the gay- 
 posters had covered a multitude of defects. 
 The indignant Tucker boys had disobeyed 
 Bettie and had removed not only the tin they 
 had put on the leaking roof, but the steps 
 they had built at the back door, the 
 drain they had found it necessary to 
 place under the kitchen sink, and the bricks 
 with which they had propped the tottering 
 chimneys. 
 
 Before the day was over, the tenants 
 whom the Milligans had found for their own 
 house were clamouring to move in, so the 
 Milligans took possession of the cottage late 
 that afternoon, getting the key from Mr. 
 Powning, into whose keeping the girls had 
 silently delivered it that morning. To do 
 Mr. Downing justice, nothing had previous- 
 
238 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ly hurt him quite as much as did the digni- 
 fied silence of the three pale girls who waited 
 for a moment in the doorway, while equally 
 pallid Jean went quietly forward to lay the 
 key on his desk. He realised suddenly that 
 not one of them could have spoken a word 
 without bursting into tears ; and, for the rest 
 of that day, he hated himself most heartily. 
 
M 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Several Surptises ^afte ^Effect 
 
 R. BLACK opened the door of his 
 hotel apartment in Washington one 
 sultry noon in response to a vigorous, pro- 
 longed rapping from without. The bell- 
 boy handed him a telegram. When Mr. 
 Black had read the long message he smiled 
 and frowned, but cheerfully paid the three 
 dollars and forty-one cents additional charg- 
 es that the messenger demanded. 
 
 It was Mabel's message; the clerk had 
 transmitted it faithfully, even to the two 
 mis-spelled words that had proved too much 
 for the excited little writer. If the receiv- 
 ing clerk had not considerately tucked in a 
 few periods for the sake of clearness, there 
 would have been no punctuation marks, be- 
 cause, as everybody knows, very few tele- 
 239 
 
2.40 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 grams are punctuated ; but Mabel, of course, 
 had not taken that into consideration. It 
 was quite the longest message and certainly 
 the most amusing one that Mr. Black had 
 ever received. It read : 
 
 " Dear Mr. Black, 
 
 " We are well but terribly unhappy for 
 the worst has happened. Cant you come 
 to the reskew as they say in books for we 
 are really in great trouble because the Milli- 
 gans a very unpolite and untruthful famil}/ 
 next door want dandelion cottage for them- 
 selves the pigs and Mr. Downing says we 
 must move out at once and return the key 
 our own darling key that you gave us. We 
 are moving out now and crying so hard we 
 can hardly write. I mean myself. Is Mr. 
 Downing the boss of the whole church. 
 Cant you tell him we truly paid the rent for 
 all summer by digging dandelions. He 
 does not believe us. We are too sad to 
 write any more with love from your little 
 friends 
 
 " Jean Marjory Bettie and I." 
 
 P. S. How about your dinner party if 
 we lose the cottage. 
 
Surprises Take Effect 241 
 
 Mr. Black read and re-read the typewrit- 
 ten yellow sheet a great many times ; some- 
 times he frowned, sometimes he chuckled; 
 the postscript seemed to please him particu- 
 larly, for, whenever he reached that point, 
 his deep-set eyes twinkled merrily. Pres- 
 ently he propped the despatch against the 
 wall at the back of his table and sat down in 
 front of it to write a reply. He wrote sev- 
 eral messages, some long, some short; then 
 he tore them all up — they seemed inade- 
 quate compared with Mabel's. 
 
 " That man Downing," said he, dropping 
 the scraps into the waste basket, "means 
 well, but he muddles every pie he puts his 
 finger in. Probably if I wire him he'll 
 botch things worse than ever. Dear me, it 
 is toe bad for those nice children to lose any 
 part of their precious stay in that cottage, 
 now, for of course they'll have to give it up 
 when cold weather comes. If I can wind 
 my business up to-day there isn't any good 
 reason why I can't go straight through with- 
 
Z4'2 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 out stopping in Chicago. It's time I was 
 home, anyway; it's pretty warm here for a 
 man that likes a cold climate." 
 
 Meanwhile, things were happening in Mr. 
 Black's own town. 
 
 It was a dark, threatening day when the 
 Milligans, delighted at the success of their 
 efforts to dislodge its rightful tenants, hur- 
 riedly moved into Dandelion Cottage; but 
 dark as it was, Mrs. Milligan soon began to 
 find her new possession full of unsuspected 
 blemishes. Now that the pictures were 
 down and the rugs were up, she discovered 
 the badly broken plaster, the tattered condi- 
 tion of the wall-paper, the leaking drain and 
 the clumsily mended rat-holes. She found, 
 too, that she had made a grievous mistake 
 in her calculations. She had supposed that 
 the tiny pantry was a third bedroom; with 
 iits neat muslin curtains, it certainly looked 
 like one when viewed from the outside ; and 
 crafty Laura, intensely desirous of seeing 
 the enemy ousted from the cottage at any 
 
Surprises Take Effect 243 
 
 price, had not considered it necessary to en- 
 lighten her mother. 
 
 " My goodness ! " exclaimed Mrs. Milli- 
 gan, a thin woman with a shrewish counte- 
 nance now much streaked with dust, " I 
 thought you said there was a fine cellar un- 
 der this house? It's barely three feet deep 
 and there's no stairs and no floor. It's full 
 of old rubbish." 
 
 " I never was down there," admitted 
 Laura, dropping a dishpanful of cooking 
 utensils with a crash and hastily making for 
 safe quarters behind a mountain of Milligan 
 furniture, "but I've often seen the trap 
 door." 
 
 " It hasn't been opened for years. And 
 Where's the nice big closet you said opened 
 off the bedroom? There isn't a decent 
 closet in this house. I don't see what pos- 
 sessed you " 
 
 " It serves you right," said Mr. Milligan, 
 unsympathetically. "You wouldn't wait 
 for anything, but had to rush right in. I 
 
244 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 told you you'd better take your time about 
 it, but no " 
 
 " You know very well, James Milligan," 
 snapped the irate lady, "that the Knapps 
 wouldn't have taken our house if they 
 couldn't have had it at once." 
 
 " Well, I don't know," growled Mr. Milli- 
 gan, scowling crossly at the constantly 
 growing heaps of incongruously mixed 
 household goods, " where in Sam Hill 
 you're going to put all that stuff. There 
 isn't room for a cat to turn around and the 
 place ain't fit to live in, anyway." 
 
 Bad as things looked, even Mr. Milligan 
 did not guess that first busy day, how hope- 
 lessly out of repair the cottage really was; 
 but he was soon to find out. 
 
 The summer had been an unusually dry 
 one; so dry that the girls had been obliged 
 to carry many pails of water to their garden 
 every evening. The moving-day had been 
 cloudy — out of sympathy, perhaps, for the 
 little cottagers. That night it rained, the 
 
Surprises Take Effect 245 
 
 first long, steady downpour in weeks. This 
 proved no gentle shower, but a fierce, robust, 
 pelting flood. Seemingly a discriminating 
 rain, too, choosing carefully between the 
 just and the unjust, for most of it fell upon 
 the Milligans. With the sole exception of 
 the dining-room, every room in the house 
 leaked like a sieve. 
 
 The tired, disgusted Milligans, drenched 
 in their beds, leaped hastily from their show- 
 er baths to look about, by candle-light, for 
 shelter. Mr. Milligan spread a mattress, 
 driest side up — on the dining-room floor, 
 and the unfortunate family spent the rest 
 of the night huddled in an uncomfortable 
 heap in the one dry spot the house afforded. 
 
 Very early the next morning they sent 
 post-haste for Mr. Downing. 
 
 Mr. Downing, who hated to be disturbed 
 before eight, arrived at ten o'clock; and, 
 with an expert carpenter, made a thorough 
 examination of the house, which the rain 
 had certainly not improved. 
 
246 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " It will take three hundred — possibly 
 four hundred dollars," said the carpenter, 
 who had been making a great many figure? 
 in a worn little note-book, "to make this 
 place habitable. It needs a new roof, new 
 chimneys, new floors, a new foundation, 
 new plumbing, new plaster — in short, just 
 about everything except the four outside 
 walls. Then there are no lights and no 
 heating plant, which of course would be ex- 
 tra. It's probably one of the oldest houses 
 in town. What's it renting for ? " 
 
 " Ten dollars a month." 
 
 "It isn't worth it. Half that money 
 would be a high price. Even if it were 
 placed in good repair it would be six years 
 at least before you could expect to get the 
 money expended on repairs back in rent. 
 The only thing to do is to tear it down, build 
 a larger and more modern house that will 
 bring a better rent, for there's no money in 
 a ten-dollar house on a lot of this size—* 
 the ta*rf>^ eat all the profits." 
 
'We're the people that have been deceived," said Mrs. 
 
 MiLLIGAN. P. 247. 
 
Surprises Take Effect 247 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Downing, " this house 
 certainly looked far more comfortable when 
 I saw it the other day than it does now. 
 Those children must have had the defects 
 very well concealed. They deceived me 
 completely." 
 
 " I think we're the people," said Mrs. Mil- 
 ligan, resentfully, " that have been deceived. 
 Half of our furniture is ruined. Look at 
 that sofa!" 
 
 Mr. Downing looked. The drenched old- 
 gold plush sofa certainly looked very much 
 like a half-drowned Jersey calf. 
 
 " Of course," continued Mrs. Milligan, 
 sharply, " we expect to have our losses made 
 good. Then we've had all our trouble for 
 nothing, too. Of course we can't stay here 
 — the place isn't fit for pigs. I suppose the 
 best thing we can do is to move right back 
 into our own house." 
 
 " Ye — es," said Mr. Milligan, overlook- 
 ing the fact that Mrs. Milligan had inad- 
 vertently called her family pigs, "it cer- 
 
248 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 tainly looks like the best thing to do. I'll 
 go tell the Knapps that they'll have to move 
 out at once — we can't spend another night 
 under this roof." 
 
 The Knapps, however, proved disobliging 
 and flatly declined to move a second time. 
 The Milligans had begged them to take the 
 house off their hands, and they had signed 
 a contract. Moreover, it was just the kind 
 of house the Knapps had long been looking 
 for, and now that they were moved, more 
 than half settled and altogether satisfied 
 with their part of the bargain, they politely 
 but firmly announced their intention of stay- 
 ing where they were until the lease should 
 expire. 
 
 There was nothing the former tenants 
 could do about it — they were homeless and 
 quite as helpless as the four little girls had 
 been in similar circumstances; and they 
 made a far greater fuss about it. By this 
 they gained, however, nothing but the dis« 
 approval of everybody concerned ; so, finally. 
 
Surprises Take Effect 249 
 
 the Milllgans, disgusted with Dandelion 
 Cottage, with Mr. Downing and for once 
 even a little bit with themselves, dejectedly 
 hunted up a new home in a far less pleasant 
 neighbourhood, and moved hurriedly out of 
 Dandelion Cottage — and, except for the 
 memories they left behind them, out of the 
 story. 
 
CHAPTER XXrV 
 
 B SKurrieD TRetreat 
 
 THE girls, of course, had been barred 
 out while all these exciting latest 
 events were taking place in their dear cot- 
 tage; but Marjory, who lived next door to 
 it, had seen something of the Milligans' 
 hasty exit, and had guessed at part of the 
 truth. Mrs. Knapp, who seemed a pleasant, 
 likeable little woman, in spite of her unwill- 
 ingness to accommodate her new landlord, 
 unknowingly confirmed their suspicions 
 when she told her friend Mrs. Crane about 
 it ; for Mrs. Crane, in her turn, told the news 
 to the four little housekeepers the next 
 morning as they sat homeless and forlorn 
 on her doorstep. It was always Mrs. Crane 
 to whom the Dandelion Cottagers turned 
 
 whenever they were in need of consolation 
 250 
 
A Hurried Retreat 251 
 
 and, as in this case, consolation was usually 
 forthcoming. 
 
 The girls, in their excitement at hearing 
 the news about their late possession, did not 
 notice that sympathetic Mrs. Crane looked 
 tired and worried as she sat, in the big red 
 rocking chair on her porch, peeling potatoes. 
 
 " Oh ! " squealed Mabel, from the broad 
 arm of Mrs. Crane's chair, " I'm glad ! I'm 
 glad! I'm glad!" 
 
 " I can't help being a little bit glad, too," 
 said fair-minded Jean. " I suppose it 
 wasn't very pleasant for the Milligans but I 
 guess they deserved all they got." 
 
 " They deserved a great deal more," said 
 Marjory, resentfully. " Think of these last 
 awful days ! " 
 
 " If they'd had much more," said Mrs. 
 Crane, " they'd have been drowned. Why 
 children! the place was just flooded." 
 
 " I'm ashamed to tell of it," said Bettie, 
 " but I'm awfully afraid that our boys took 
 off part of the pieces of tin that they nailed 
 
^52 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 on the roof last spring. I heard them doing 
 something up there the night we moved ; but 
 Bob only grinned when I asked him about 
 it" 
 
 " Good for the boys ! *' cried Marjory, 
 gleefully. " I wouldn't be unladylike 
 enough to set traps for the Milligans myself, 
 but I can't help feeling glad that somebody 
 else did.'*' 
 
 " It was Bob's own tin," giggled delight- 
 ed Mabel, almost tumbling into Mrs. Crane's 
 potato pan in her joy. " I guess he had a 
 right to take it home if he wanted to." 
 
 " Anyway," said Jean, from her perch on 
 the porch railing, " I'm glad they're gone.** 
 
 " But it doesn't do us any good," sighed 
 Bettie. " And the summer's just flying." 
 
 " Yes it does," insisted Jean. " We can 
 stand having the cottage empty — we can 
 pretend, you know, that it's an enchanted 
 castle that can be opened only by a certain 
 magic key that " 
 
 " Somebody's baby has swallowed/' 
 shrieked Mabel, the matter-of-farJ^ 
 
A Hurried Retreat 253 
 
 ** Mercy no, goosie," said Marjory. 
 ** She means a magic word that nobody can 
 remember." 
 
 " That's it," said Jean. " Of course we 
 couldn't do even that with the cottage full 
 of Milligans." 
 
 " No," assented Marjory, " the most act- 
 ive imagination would refuse to activitate 
 
 "To what?" gasped Mabel. 
 
 " To work," explained Marjory. 
 
 " I should say so," agreed Mabel, again 
 threatening the potatoes. " It was just as 
 much as I could do to come over here this 
 morning to breathe the same air with that 
 cottage with those folks in it staring me in 
 the face, but now " 
 
 "After all," sighed Bettie, sorrowfully, 
 from the other arm of Mrs. Crane's big 
 chair, " having the Milligans out of the cot- 
 tage doesn't make much difference, as long 
 as we're out, too. Oh, I did love that little 
 house so. I just hated to think of cold 
 
254 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 weather coming to drive us out ; but I never 
 dreamed of anything so dreadful as having 
 to leave it right in this lovely warm 
 weather." 
 
 " If Mr. Black had stayed in town," said 
 Mabel, feelingly, " we'd be dusting that dar* 
 ling cottage this very minute." 
 
 Mrs. Crane sniffed in an odd way she had 
 of doing whenever Mr. Black's name was 
 mentioned. This scornful sniff, accom- 
 panying Mrs. Crane's evident disapproval 
 of their dearest friend was the only thing 
 that the girls disliked about Mrs. Crane. 
 
 " I know you'd like Mr. Black if you only 
 knew him," said Bettie, earnestly. '^ In 
 some ways you're a good deal like him. 
 You're both the same colour, your eyebrows 
 turn up the same way at the outside corners 
 and you both like us. Mr. Black has a 
 beautiful soul." 
 
 "Indeed," said Mrs. Crane. "And 
 haven't I a beautiful soul too ? " 
 
 "Why, of course," said Bettie, leaning 
 
A Hurried Retreat 255 
 
 down to rub her cheek against Mrs. Crane's. 
 " I meant both of you : We like you both 
 just the same." 
 
 "Only ifs different," explained Jean. 
 ** Mr. Black doesn't need us and sometimes 
 you do. We like to do things for you." 
 
 "I'm glad of that," said Mrs. Crane, 
 " for I need you this very minute. But 
 don't you be too sure about his not needing 
 you as well. He must lead a pretty lonely 
 life for it's years since his wife died — I 
 never heard of anybody else liking her but I 
 guess he did. He's one of the faithful kind, 
 maybe, for he's lived all alone in that great 
 big house ever since. I guess it does him 
 good to have you little girls for friends." 
 
 " What was his wife like ? " asked Mabel, 
 eagerly. " Did you used to know her ? " 
 
 " No, indeed," said Mrs. Crane, again 
 giving the objectionable sniff. " That is, 
 not so very well — a little light-headed, use- 
 less thing no more fit to keep house — but 
 there! there. It doesn't make any differ- 
 
256 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ence noWj and I've learned that it Isn't the 
 best housekeepers that get married easiest. 
 If it was, I wouldn't be so worried nozv." 
 
 " Is anything the matter ? " asked Jean, 
 quick to note the distress in Mrs. Crane's 
 voice. 
 
 " Yes/' returned the good woman, " there 
 are two things the matter." 
 
 "Your poor foot?" queried Bettie. in- 
 stantly all sympathy. 
 
 " No, the foot's all right. It's Mr. Bar- 
 low and my eyes. Mr. Barlow is going to 
 be married to a young lady he's been writing 
 to for a long time, and I'm going to lose 
 him because he wants to keep house. It 
 won't be easy to find another lodger for that 
 little, shabby, old-fashioned room. I'm try- 
 ing to make a new rag carpet for it, but I'm 
 all at a standstill because I can't see to 
 thread my needle — I declare I don't know 
 what is going to become of me." 
 
 "When I grow up," said Bettie, "you 
 shall live with me." 
 
A Hurried Retreat 257 
 
 " But what am I to do while I'm waiting 
 for you to grow up ? " asked Mrs. Crane, 
 smiling at Bettie's protecting manner. 
 
 " Let us be your eyes/' suggested Jean. 
 " Couldn't we thread about a million needles 
 for you ? Don't you think a million would 
 last all day?" 
 
 " I should think it might," said Mrs. 
 Crane, somewhat comforted. " I haven't 
 quite a million, but if Marjory will get my 
 cushion and a spool of cotton I'll be very 
 glad to have you thread all I have." 
 
 The girls worked in silence for fully five 
 minutes. Then Mabel jabbed the solitary 
 needle she had threaded into the sawdust 
 cushion and said : 
 
 " Don't you suppose Mr. Downing might 
 let us have the cottage now, if we went to 
 him? Nobody else seems to care about it. 
 What do you think, Mrs. Crane ? " 
 
 " Why, my dear, I suppose it wouldn't 
 do any harm to ask. You'd better see what 
 your own people think about it." 
 
258 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Lef s go ask them now," cried impetu- 
 ous Mabel, springing to her feet. Forget- 
 ting all about the needles and without wait- 
 ing to say good-bye to Mrs. Crane, the eager 
 girl made a diagonal rush for the corner 
 nearest her own home. 
 
 The others remained long enough to 
 thread all the needles. Then they, too, went 
 home with the news about the cottage and 
 about Mrs. Crane. They were realizing, 
 for the first time, that their good friend 
 might become helpless long before they were 
 ready to use her as a grandmother for their 
 children, but they couldn't see just what was 
 to be done about it. The idea of going to 
 Mr. Downing, however, soon drove every 
 3ther thought away, for the parents and 
 Aunty Jane, too, advised them to ask. 
 They even encouraged them. 
 
 But when Jean and Bettie, hopefully 
 dressed in their Sunday-best, and Marjory 
 and Mabel, with their abundant locks elab- 
 orately curled besides, presented themselves 
 
A Hurried Retreat 259 
 
 and their request at Mr. Downlng's house 
 that evening, they were not at all encouraged 
 by their reception. 
 
 Mr. Downing, a man of moods, had just 
 come off second best in an encounter with 
 Mrs. Milligan, whom he had accidentally 
 met on his way home to dinner, and the cot- 
 tage, at the moment the girls appeared, was 
 just about the last subject that the badgered 
 man cared to discuss. Before Jean had 
 fairly stated her errand, enraged Mr. Down- 
 ing roared " NO ! " so emphatically, that hia 
 four alarmed visitors backed hurriedly off 
 tbe Downing porch and fled as one girl 
 Mabel, to be sure, measured her length in 
 the canna bed near the gate, but she scram- 
 bled up, snorting with fright and indigna- 
 tion, and none of them paused again in their 
 flight until Jean's door, which seemed safest, 
 had closed behind them. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 TOe iResponsfe to ilbabeV&^ Celejjtam 
 
 THE night of their flitting from Dande- 
 lion Cottage the girls had hastily 
 eaten all the radishes in the cottage garden 
 to prevent their falling into the hands of the 
 grasping Milligans. Now, the morning 
 after their visit to Mr. Downing, they were 
 wishing that they hadn't; not because the 
 radishes had disagreed with them, but for 
 quite a different reason. They could not 
 enter the cottage, of course, but it had oc- 
 curred to them that it might be possible to 
 derive a certain melancholy satisfaction 
 from tending and replenishing the little gar- 
 den. That pleasure, at least, had not been 
 forbidden them ; but before beginning active 
 operations, they took the precaution of en- 
 larging the hole in the back fence, so that 
 260 
 
A Pleasing Response 261 
 
 instantaneous flight would be possible in 
 case Mr. Downing should stroll cottage- 
 ward. 
 
 Their motive was good. When Mr. 
 Black returned, if he ever should, Bettie 
 meant that he should find the little yard in 
 perfect order 
 
 "We'll keep to our part of the bargain, 
 anyway," said Bettie, as the four girls were 
 making their first cautious tour of inspection 
 about the cottage yard. " There's lots of 
 work to be done." 
 
 " Yes," agreed Jean, " we said we'd keep 
 this yard nice all summer and it wouldn't 
 be right not to do it." 
 
 " I wonder if we ought to ask Mr. Down- 
 ing?" asked conscientious Bettie, stooping 
 to pull off some gone-to-seed pansies. 
 
 " Perhaps you'd like the job ! " suggested 
 Marjory, with mild sarcasm. 
 
 "My sakes!" said Mabel, "I wouldn't 
 g-o near that man again if I was going to 
 swallow an automobile the next moment if 
 
262 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 I didn't. I could hear him roar ' NO ' every 
 few minutes all night. I fell out of bed 
 twice, dreaming that I was trying to get off 
 of that old porch of his before he could grab 
 me." 
 
 ** Well, I guess we'd better not ask," said 
 Jean, " because I'm pretty sure he'd have the 
 same answer ready." 
 
 " He certainly ought not to mind having 
 us take care of our own flowers," said Mar- 
 jory. 
 
 "That's true," said Bettie, poking the 
 moist earth with a friendly finger. 
 ** They're growing splendidly since the rain. 
 See how nice and full of growiness the 
 ground is." 
 
 " I can get more pansy plants," offered 
 Marjory, " to fill up these holes the Milligan 
 dog made." 
 
 " Mrs. Crane promised to give us some 
 aster plants," said Mabel. " Let's put 'em 
 along by the fence." 
 
 "Let's do," said Jean. "You go see if 
 you can have them now." 
 
A Pleasing Response 263 
 
 " I know Mr. Black will be pleased," de- 
 clared Bettie, " if he finds this place looking 
 nice. I'm so thankful we didn't remember 
 to ask Mr. Downing about it." 
 
 " We didn't have a chance," said Jean, 
 ruefully, " but just the same, I'm willing to 
 keep on forgetting until Mr. Black comes." 
 
 It began to look, however, as if Mr. Black 
 were never coming. Bettie had written as 
 she had promised but had had no reply, al- 
 though the letter had not been mailed for ten 
 minutes before she began to watch for the 
 postman. Even Mabel, having had no re- 
 sponse to her telegram and supposing it to 
 have gone astray, had given up hope. 
 
 Mabel, ever averse to confessing the fail- 
 ure of any of her enterprises, had decided to 
 postpone saying anything about the telegram 
 until one or another of the girls should re- 
 member to ask what had become of the 
 thirty-five cents. So far, none of them had 
 thought of it. 
 
 Still, it seemed probable, in spite of Mr. 
 
264 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 Black's continued absence, that he would get 
 home sometime, for he had left so much be- 
 hind him. There was a huge building, in 
 the business portion of the town, whose sign 
 read: "PETER BLACK AND COM- 
 PANY." Then, in the prettiest part of the 
 residence district, where the lawns were big 
 and the shrubs were planted scientifically by 
 a landscape gardener and where the hillside 
 bristled with roses, there was a large, hand- 
 some stone house that, as everybody knew, 
 belonged to Mr. Black. Although there 
 were industrious clerks at work in the one, 
 and a middle-aged housekeeper, with a fur- 
 nace-tending, grass-cutting husband equally 
 busy in the other, it was reasonable to sup- 
 pose that Mr. Black, even if he had no fam- 
 ily, would have to return sometime, if only 
 to enjoy his beloved rose-bushes. 
 
 Thanks to Mabel's telegram (Bettie's let- 
 ter, forwarded from Washington, did not 
 reach him for many days) he did come. He 
 had had to stop in Chicago, after all, and 
 
A Pleasing Response 265 
 
 there had been unexpected delays, but just 
 a week from the day the Milligans had left 
 the cottage, Mn Black returned. 
 
 Without even stopping to look in at his 
 own office, the traveller went straight to the 
 rectory to ask for Bettie. Bettie, Mrs. 
 Tucker told him, he would probably find in 
 the cottage yard. 
 
 Mr. Black took a short cut through the 
 hole in the back fence, arriving on the cot- 
 tage lawn just in time to meet a procession 
 of girls entering the front gate. Each girl 
 was carrying a huge, heavy clod of earth, out 
 of the top of which grew a sturdy green 
 plant; for the cottageless cottagers had dis- 
 covered the only successful way of perform- 
 ing the difficult feat of re-stocking their 
 garden with half-grown vegetables. Their 
 neighbours had proved generous when Bet- 
 tie had explained that if one could only dig 
 deep enough one could transplant anything, 
 from a cabbage to pole-beans. Some of the 
 grown-up gardeners, to be sure, had been 
 
266 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 skeptical, but they were all willing that the 
 girls should make the attempt. 
 
 " Oh Mr. Black ! " shrieked the four girls, 
 dropping their burdens to make a simul- 
 taneous rush for the senior warden. " Oh ! 
 oh! oh! Is it really you? We're so glad 
 
 — so awfully glad youVe come ! " 
 "Well, I declare! So am I,'' said Mr. 
 
 Black, with his arms full of girls. " It seems 
 like getting home again to have a family of 
 nice girls waiting with a welcome, even if 
 ifs a pretty sandy one. What are you doing 
 with all the real estate? I thought you*d 
 all been turned out, but you seem to be all 
 here. I declare! If you haven't all been 
 growing ! " 
 
 " We were — we are — we have," cried 
 the girls, dancing up and down delightedly. 
 " Mr. Downing made us give up the cottage, 
 but he didn't say anything about the garden 
 
 — and — and — we thought we'd better 
 forget to ask about it." 
 
 " Tell me the whole story," said Mn 
 
A Pleasing Response 267 
 
 Black. " Let's sit here on the doorstep — 
 I'm sure I could listen more comfortably if 
 there were not so many excited girls dancing 
 on my best toes." 
 
 So Mr. Black, with a girl at each side, and 
 two at his feet, heard the story from begin- 
 ning to end, and he seemed to find it much 
 more amusing than the girls had at any time 
 considered it. He simply roared with 
 laughter when Bettie apologised about Bob 
 and the tin. 
 
 " Well," said he, when the recital was 
 ended, and he had shown the girls Mabel's 
 telegram, and thoroughly delighted Mabel 
 had been praised and enthusiastically hugged 
 by the other three, " I have heard of cot- 
 tages with more than one key. Suppose 
 you see, Bettie, if anything on this ring will 
 fit that keyhole." 
 
 Three of the flat, slender keys did not, 
 but the fourth turned easily in the lock. 
 Bettie opened the door. 
 
 " Possession," said Mr. Black, with a 
 
268 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 twinkle in his eye, " is nine points of the 
 law. You'd better go to work at once and 
 move in and get to cooking; you see there's 
 a vacancy under my vest that nothing but 
 that promised dinner party can fill. The 
 sooner you get settled, the sooner I get that 
 good square meal. Besides, if you don't 
 work, you won't have an appetite for a great 
 big box of candy that I have in my trunk." 
 
 " Oh," sighed Bettie, rubbing her cheek 
 against Mr. Black's sleeve, " it seems too 
 good to be true." 
 
 "What, the candy?" teased Mr. Black. 
 
 " No, the cottage," explained Bettie, earn- 
 estly. " Oh, I do hope winter will be about 
 six months late this year to make up for 
 this." 
 
 " Perhaps it'll forget to come at all," 
 breathed Mabel, hopefully. " I'd almost be 
 willing to skip Christmas if there was any 
 way of stretching this summer out to Feb- 
 ruary, Somebody please pinch me — I'm 
 afraid I'm dreaming — Oh ! ouch ! I didn't 
 say ever-vhodv*^' 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 ^r. J5)owning'0 Hpologig 
 
 BY this time, of course, all the young 
 housekeepers' relatives were deeply 
 interested in the cottage. After living for a 
 never-to-be-forgotten week with the four un- 
 happiest little girls in town, all were eager 
 to reinstate them in the restored treasure. 
 The girls, having rushed home with the joy- 
 ful news, were almost overwhelmed with un- 
 expected offers of parental assistance. The 
 grown-ups were not only willing but anxious 
 to help. Then, too, the Mapes boys and the 
 young Tuckers almost came to blows over 
 who should have the honour of mending the 
 roof with the bundles of shingles that Dr. 
 Bennett insisted on furnishing. Marjory's 
 Aunty Jane said that if somebody that could 
 
 drive nails without smashing his thumb 
 269 
 
270 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 would mend the holes in the parlour floor she 
 would give the girls a pretty ingrain carpet, 
 one side of which looked almost new. Dr. 
 Bennett himself laid a clean new floor in the 
 little kitchen over the rough old one, and 
 Mrs. Mapes mended the broken plaster in all 
 the rooms by pasting unbleached muslin over 
 the holes. Mr. Tucker replaced all broken 
 panes of glass, while his busy wife found 
 time to tack mosquito-netting over the 
 kitchen and pantry windows. 
 
 So interested, indeed, were all the grown- 
 ups and all the brothers, that the girls 
 chuckled delightedly. It wouldn't have sur- 
 prised them so very much if all their people 
 had fallen suddenly to playing with dolls 
 and to having tea-parties in the cottage ; but 
 the place was still far too disorderly for 
 either of these juvenile occupations to prove 
 attractive to anybody. 
 
 In the midst of the confusion, Mr. Down- 
 ing stopped at the cottage door one noon, 
 and asked for the girls, who eyed him doubt- 
 
Mr, Downing's Apology 271 
 
 fully and resentfully as they met him, after 
 Marjory had hesitatingly ushered him into 
 the untidy little parlour. 
 
 Mr. Downing smiled at them in a friend- 
 ly, but decidedly embarrassed manner. He 
 had not forgotten his own lack of cordiality 
 when the girls had called on him, and he 
 wanted to atone for it. Mr. Black had tact- 
 fully but effectively pointed out to Mr. 
 Downing, already deeply disgusted with the 
 Milligans, the error of his ways, and Mr. 
 Downing, as generous as he was hasty and 
 irascible, was honest enough to admit that 
 he had been mistaken in not only his estimate 
 of Mr. Black, but in his treatment of 
 the little cottagers. Now, eager to make 
 amends, he looked somewhat anxiously from 
 one to another of his silent hostesses, who 
 in return looked questioningly at Mr. Down- 
 ing. Surely, with Mr. Black in town, Mr. 
 Downing couldn't be thinking of turning 
 them out a second time ; still, he had disap- 
 pointed them before, probably he would 
 
2/2 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 again, and the girls meant to take no 
 chances, so they kept still, with searching 
 eyes glued upon Mr. Downing's counte- 
 nance. All at once, they realised that they 
 were looking into friendly eyes, and three 
 of them jumped to the conclusion that the 
 junior warden was not the heartless mon- 
 ster they had considered him. 
 
 " I came," said Mr. Downing, noticing 
 the change of expression in Bettie's face, 
 "to offer you, with my apologies, this key 
 and this little document. The paper, as you 
 will see, is signed by all the vestrymen — 
 my own name is written very large — and 
 it gives you the right to the use of this cot- 
 tage until such time as the church feels rich 
 enough to tear it down and build a new one. 
 There is no immediate cause for alarm on 
 this score, for there were only sixty-two 
 cents in the plate last Sunday. I have come 
 to the conclusion, young ladies, that I was 
 over-hasty in my judgment. I didn't un- 
 derstand the matter, and Fm afraid I acted 
 
Mr. Downing's Apology 273 
 
 without due consideration — I often do. 
 But I hope you'll forgive me for I sincerely 
 beg all your pardons." 
 
 " If s all right," said Bettie, " as long as 
 it was just a mistake. It's easy to forgive 
 mistakes." 
 
 " Yes," said Marjory, sagely, " we all 
 make 'em." 
 
 " It's all right, anyway," added Jean. 
 
 Mr. Downing looked expectantly at Ma- 
 bel, who for once had preserved a dead 
 silence. 
 
 " Well ? " he asked, interrogatively. 
 
 " I don't suppose I can ever really quite 
 forgive you," confessed Mabel, with evident 
 reluctance. " It'll be awfully hard work, 
 but I guess I can try." 
 
 " Perhaps my peace-offering will help 
 your efforts a little," said Mr. Downing, 
 smiling. " It seems to be coming in now at 
 your gate." 
 
 The girls turned hastily to look, but all 
 they could see was a very untidy man with 
 a largfe book under, his arm. 
 
274 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " These/* said Mr. Downing, taking the 
 book from the man, who had walked in at 
 the open door, " are samples of inexpensive 
 wall papers. You're to choose as much as 
 you need of the kinds you like best and this 
 man will put it wherever it will do the most 
 good, and I'll pay the bill. Now, Miss Blue 
 Eyes, do I stand a better chance of forgive- 
 ness?'' 
 
 " Yes, yes! " cried Mabel. " I'm almost 
 glad you needed to apologise. You did it 
 beautifully, too. Mercy! when / apologise 
 — and I have to do a fearful lot of apologis- 
 ing — I don't begin to do it so nicely." 
 
 " Perhaps," offered Mr. Downing, " when 
 you've had as much practice as I have, it 
 will come easier. I see, however, that you 
 are far more suitable tenants than the Milli- 
 gans would have been, for my humble apolo- 
 gies to them met with a very different recep- 
 tion. I assure you, if there's ever any rival- 
 ry between you again, that my vote goes 
 with you — you're so easily satisfied. Now 
 
Mr. Downing's Apology 275 
 
 don't hesitate to choose whatever you want 
 from this book. This paper-hanger is 
 yours, too, until you're done with him." 
 
 " Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you," 
 cried the girls, with happy voices, as Mr. 
 Downing turned to go, " you couldn't have 
 thought of a nicer peace-offering.'' 
 
 Of course it took a long, long time for so 
 many young housekeepers to choose papers 
 for the parlour and the two bedrooms, but 
 after much discussion, and many differences 
 of opinion, it was finally selected. The girls 
 decided on green for the parlour, blue for 
 one bedroom and pink for the other, and 
 they were easily persuaded to choose small 
 patterns. 
 
 Then the smiling paper-hanger worked 
 with astonishing rapidity and said that he 
 didn't object in the least to having four pairs 
 of bright eyes watch from the doorway 
 every strip go into place. It seemed to be 
 no trouble at all t paper the little low~ceil- 
 inged cottage, and oh ! how beautiful it was 
 
2/6 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 when it was all done. The cool, cucumbery 
 green parlour was just the right shade to 
 melt into the soft blue and white of the front 
 bedroom. As for the dainty pink room, as 
 Bettie said, rapturously, it fairly made one 
 smell roses to look at it, it was so sweet. 
 
 It was finished by the following night, for 
 no paper-hanger could have had the heart 
 to linger over his work with so many anx- 
 ious eyes following every movement. Mrs. 
 Tucker washed and ironed and mended the 
 white muslin curtains and, with such a 
 bower to move into, the second moving-in 
 and settling, the girls decided, was really 
 better than the first. When their belong- 
 ings were finally re-installed in the cottage 
 even Mabel no longer felt resentful toward 
 the Milligans. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 Cbe ©DD ^Bcbaviouc ®t Zbc (5rown*up3 
 
 EVEN with all its ingenious but inex- 
 pensive improvements, the renovatea 
 cottage would probably have failed to satisfy 
 a genuine rent-paying family, but to the con- 
 tented girls, it seemed absolutely perfect. 
 
 It looked, at last, to everybody as if the 
 long deferred dinner party were actually to 
 take place. There, in readiness, were the 
 girls, the money, the cottage and Mr. Black, 
 and nothing had happened to Mrs. Barthol- 
 omew Crane, who might easily, as Mabel 
 suggested harrowingly, have moved away or 
 died at any moment during the summer. 
 
 One day, very soon after the cottage was 
 settled, not-at-all-surprised Mr. Black and 
 very-much-astonished Mrs. Crane each re- 
 ceived a formal invitation to dine under its 
 277 
 
2/8 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 re-shingled roof. Composed by all four, the 
 note was written by Jean, whose writing and 
 spelling all conceded to be better than the 
 combined efforts of the other three. Bettie 
 delivered the notes with hei own hand, two 
 days before the event, and on the morning 
 of the party she went a second time to each 
 house to make certain that neither of the ex- 
 pected guests had forgotten the date. 
 
 " Forget ! " exclaimed Mr. Black, stand- 
 ing framed in his own doorway. " My dear 
 little girl, how could I forget, when Fve been 
 saving room for that dinner ever since early 
 last spring? Nothing, I assure you, could 
 keep me away or even delay me. I have 
 eaten a very light breakfast, I shall go en- 
 tirely without luncheon " 
 
 " I wouldn't do that," warned Bettie. 
 " You see it's our first dinner party and 
 something might go wrong. The soup 
 might scorch " 
 
 " It wouldn't have, the heart to,'* said Mr. 
 Black. " No soup could be so unkind." 
 
The Grown-ups Behave Oddly 279 
 
 Of course the cottage was the busiest place 
 imaginable for the days immediately preced- 
 ing the dinner party. The girls had made 
 elaborate plans and their pockets fairly 
 bulged with lists of things that they were to 
 be sure to remember and not on any account 
 to forget. Then the time came for them 
 to begin to do all the things that they had 
 planned to do, and the cottage hummed like 
 a hive of bees. 
 
 First the precious seven dollars and a half, 
 swelled by some mysterious process to seven 
 dollars and fifty-seven cents, had to be with- 
 drawn from the bank, the most imposing 
 building in town with its almost oppressive 
 air of formal dignity. The rather diffident 
 girls went in a body to get the money and 
 looked with astonishment at the extra pen- 
 nies. 
 
 " That's the interest," explained the cash- 
 ier, noting, with quiet amusement, the puz- 
 zled faces. 
 
 "Oh!" said Jean, " weVe had that in 
 
zSo Dandelion Cottage 
 
 school but this is the first time we've ever 
 seen any." 
 
 " We didn't suppose," supplemented Bet- 
 tie, "that interest was real money. / 
 thought it was something like those x-plus-y 
 things that the boys have in algebra." 
 
 " Or like mermaids and goddesses/' said 
 Mabel. 
 
 " She means myths," interpreted Mar- 
 jory- 
 
 " I see," said the cashier. " Perhaps you 
 
 like real, tangible interest better than the 
 kind you have in school." 
 
 " Oh, we do, we do ! " cried the four girls. 
 
 " After this," confided Bettie, " it will be 
 easier to study about." 
 
 Then, with the money carefully divided 
 into three portions, placed in three separate 
 purses, which in turn were deposited one 
 each in Jean's, Marjory's, and Bettie's pock- 
 ets, Mabel having flatly declined to burden 
 herself with any such weighty responsibility, 
 the four went to purchase their groceries, 
 
The Grown-ups Behave Oddly 281 
 
 The smiling clerks at the various shops 
 confused them a little at first by offering 
 them new brands of breakfast foods with 
 strange, oddly spelled names, but the girls 
 explained patiently at each place that they 
 were giving a dinner party, not a breakfast, 
 and that they wanted nothing but the things 
 on their list. It took time, and a great deal 
 of discussion to make so many important 
 purchases, but finally the groceries were all 
 ordered. 
 
 Next the little housekeepers went to the 
 butcher's to ask for a chicken. 
 
 " Vat kind of schicken you vant ? '* asked 
 the stout, impatient German butcher. 
 
 Jean looked at Bettie, Bettie looked at 
 Marjory, and Marjory, although she knew 
 it was hopeless, looked at Mabel. 
 
 " Veil ? " said the busy butcher, interroga- 
 tively. 
 
 " One to cook — without feathers," 
 gasped Jean. 
 
 "A spring schicken?" 
 
282 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 ** Is that — is that better than a summer 
 one?" faltered Bettie, cautiously. "You 
 see it's summer now." 
 
 " Perhaps/* suggested Mabel, seized with 
 a bright thought, " an August one ^" 
 
 " Here, Schon ! " shouted the busy butch- 
 er to his assistant, " you pring oudt three- 
 four schicken. You can pick von oudt vile 
 I vaits on dese odder gostomer." 
 
 " I think," said Jean, indicating one o£ 
 the fowls John had produced for her inspec- 
 tion, " that that's about the right size. It's 
 so small and smooth that it ought to be ten- 
 der." 
 
 "I wouldn't take that one. Miss," cau- 
 tioned honest John, under his breath, " it 
 looks to me like a little old bantam rooster. 
 Leave it to me and I'll find you a good one." 
 
 To his credit, John was as good as his 
 word. 
 
 The little housekeepers felt very impor- 
 tant indeed, when, later in the day, a pro- 
 cession of genuine grocery wagons, drawn 
 
The Grown-ups Behave Oddly 283 
 
 by flesh-and-blood horses drew up before the 
 cottage door to deliver all kinds of really 
 truly parcels. They had not quite escaped 
 the breakfast foods after all, because each 
 consignment of groceries was enriched by 
 Several sample packages ; enough altogether, 
 the girls declared joyously, to provide a 
 great many noon luncheons. 
 
 Of course all the parcels had to be un- 
 wrapped, admired, and sorted before being 
 carefully arranged in the pantry cupboard, 
 which had never before found itself so boun- 
 tifully supplied. Then, for a busy half day, 
 cook books and real cooks were anxiously 
 consulted, for as Mabel said, it was really 
 surprising to see how many different ways 
 there were to cook even the simplest things. 
 
 Jean and Bettie were to do the actual 
 cooking. The other two, in elaborately 
 starched caps and aprons of spotless white 
 (provided Mabel, but this seemed doubtful, 
 could keep hers white) were to take turns 
 serving the courses. The first course was 
 
284 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 to be tomato soup ; it came in a can with di- 
 rections outside and cost fifteen cents, which 
 Mabel considered cheap because of the print- 
 ed cooking lesson. 
 
 "If they'd send printed directions witl> 
 their raw chickens and vegetables," said she^ 
 " maybe folks might be able to tell which 
 recipe belonged to which thing." 
 
 " Well," laughed Marjory, " some cooks 
 don't have to read a whole page before they 
 discover that directions for making plum 
 pudding don't help them to make corned- 
 beef hash — you always forget to look at 
 the top of the page." 
 
 " Never mind," said Jean, " she found a 
 good recipe for salad dressing." 
 
 " That's true," said Marjory, " but before 
 you use it you'd better make sure that it 
 isn't a polish for hard-wood floors — there, 
 don't throw the book at me, Mabel, I won't 
 say another word." 
 
 The three mothers and Aunty Jane, grown 
 suddenly astonishingly obliging, not only 
 
The Grown-ups Behave Oddly 285 
 
 consented to loan whatever the girls asked 
 for, but actually thrust their belongings upon 
 them to an extent that was almost over- 
 whelming. The same impulse seemed to 
 have seized them all. It puzzled the girls, 
 yet it pleased them too, for it was such a 
 decided novelty to have six parents (even 
 the fathers appeared interested) and one 
 aunt positively vying with one another to aid 
 the young cottagers with their latest plan. 
 The girls could remember a time, not so 
 very far distant, when it was almost hope- 
 less to ask for even such common things 
 as potatoes, not to mention eggs and butter. 
 Now, however, everything was changed. 
 Aunty Jane would provide soup spoons, 
 napkins and a tablecloth, yes, her very best 
 short one. Marjory could hardly believe 
 her ears, but hastily accepted the cloth lest 
 the offer should be withdrawn. The girls, 
 having set their hearts on using " The-Frog- 
 That-Would-A'Wooing-Go " plates for the 
 escalloped salmon (to their tmods there 
 
286 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 seemed to be some vague connection between 
 frogs and fishes) were compelled to decline 
 offers of all the fish plates belonging to the 
 four families. The potato salad, garnished 
 with lettuce from the cottage garden was to 
 be eaten with Mrs. Bennett's best salad 
 forks. The roasted chicken was not to be 
 entrusted to the not-always-reliable cottage 
 oven but was to be cooked at the Tucker's 
 house and carved with Mr. Mapes's best 
 game set. Mrs. Bennett's cook would make 
 a pie, yes, even a difficult lemon pie with a 
 meringue on top, promised Mrs. Bennett. 
 
 Then there were to be butter beans out 
 of the cottage garden, and sliced cucumbers 
 from the green-grocer's because Mrs. Crane 
 had confessed to a fondness for cucumbers. 
 There was one beet in the garden almost 
 large enough to be eaten; that, too, was to 
 be sacrificed. The dessert had been some- 
 thing of a problem. It had proved so hard 
 to decide this matter that they concluded to 
 compromise by adding: both pudding and ice 
 
The Grown-ups Behave Oddly 287 
 
 cream to the Bennett pie. A brick of 
 ice cream and some little cakes could easily 
 be purchased ready-made from the town 
 caterer, with the change they had left. 
 Thoughts of their money's giving out no 
 longer troubled them, for had not Mabel's 
 surprising father told them that if they ran 
 short they need not hesitate to ask him for 
 any amount within reason? 
 
 "I declare," said bewildered Mabel, "I 
 can't see what has come over papa and mam- 
 ma. Do I look pale or anything — as if I 
 might be going to die before very long ? " 
 
 " No," said Marjory, " you certainly 
 don't; but I've wondered if Auntie Jane 
 could be worried about me. I never knew 
 her to be so generous — Why! it's getting 
 to be kind of a nuisance. Do you s'pose 
 they're going to insist on doing every- 
 thing f " 
 
 "Well," said Bettie, "they've certainly 
 helped us a lot. I don't know why they've 
 done it, but I'm glad they have. You see 
 
288 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 we must have everything perfectly beautiful 
 because Mr. Black is rich and is accustomed 
 to good dinners, and Mrs. Crane is poor and 
 never has any very nice ones. If our people 
 keep all their promises, it can't help being a 
 splendid dinner." 
 
 The three mothers and Aunty Jane and 
 all the fathers did keep their promises. 
 They, too, wanted the dinner to be a success, 
 for they knew, as all the older residents of 
 the little town knew, and as the children 
 themselves might have known if the story 
 had not been so old and their parents had 
 been in the habit of gossiping (which for- 
 tunately they were not) that there was a 
 reason why Mr. Black and Mrs. Crane wera 
 the last two persons to be invited to a tete-a* 
 tete dinner party. Yet, strangely enough, 
 there was an equally good reason why no 
 one wanted to interfere and why every c«i€ 
 wanted to help. 
 
CHAPTER XXVm 
 
 3u0t :Bctoxc 2)inner 
 
 THE girls, a little uneasy lest theif 
 alarmingly interested parents should 
 insist on crooking and serving the entire din- 
 ner, were both relieved and perplexed to find 
 that the grown-ups, while perfectly willing 
 to help with the dinner provided that they 
 could work in their own kitchens, flatly de- 
 clined the most urgent invitations to enter 
 the cottage the afternoon or evening of the 
 party. 
 
 It was incomprehensible. Until noon of 
 the very day of the feast the parents and 
 Aunty Jane had paid the girls an almost em- 
 barrassing number of visits. Now, when 
 the girls really wanted them and actually 
 gave each of them a very special invitation, 
 each one unexpectedly held aloof. For, as 
 
 the hour approached, the girls momentarily 
 280 
 
290 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 became more and more convinced that some^ 
 thing would surely go wrong in the cottage 
 kitchen with no experienced person to keep 
 things moving. They decided, at four 
 o'clock, to ask Mrs. Mapes to oversee things. 
 
 " No indeed,'* said Mrs. Mapes. " You 
 may have anything there is in my house, but 
 you can't have me. You don't need any- 
 body; you won't have a mite of trouble." 
 
 Finding Mrs. Mapes unpersuadable, they 
 went to Mrs. Tucker, who next to Jean's 
 mother, was usually the most obliging of 
 parents. 
 
 "No," said Mrs. Tucker, "I couldn't 
 think of it. No, no, no, not for one mo- 
 ment. It's much better for you to do it all 
 by yourselves. 
 
 Still hopeful, the girls ran to Mrs. Ben- 
 nett. 
 
 " Mercy no ! " exclaimed that good wom- 
 an, with discouraging emphasis. " I'm not 
 a bit of use in a strange kitchen and there 
 are reasons — Oh ! I mean it's your party 
 
Just Before Dinner 291 
 
 and it won't be any fun if somebody else 
 runs it." 
 
 " Shall we ask your Aunty Jane ? " asked 
 Bettie. " We don't seem to be having any 
 luck." 
 
 " Yes," replied Marjory. " She loves to 
 manage things." 
 
 But Marjory's Aunty Jane proved no 
 more willing than the rest. 
 
 " No ma'am! " she said, emphatically. 
 " I wouldn't do it for ten dollars. Why ! 
 It would just spoil everything to have a 
 grown person around. Don't even think of 
 such a thing." 
 
 So the girls, feeling just a little indignant 
 at their disobliging relatives, decided to get 
 along as well as they could without them. 
 
 At last, everything was either cooked or 
 cooking. The table was beautifully set and 
 decorated and flowers bloomed everywhere 
 in Dandelion Cottage. Jean and Bettie, in 
 the freshest of gingham aprons, were taking 
 turns watching the things simmering on the 
 
292 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 stove. Mabel looking fatter than ever in 
 her short, white, stiffly starched apron, was 
 on the doorstep craning her neck to see 
 if the guests showed any signs of coming, 
 and Marjory was busily putting a few en- 
 tirely unnecessary finishing touches to the 
 table. 
 
 The guests were invited for half past six, 
 but had been hospitably urged by Bettie to 
 appear sooner if they wished. At exactly 
 fifteen minutes after six, Mrs. Crane, in her 
 old-fashioned, threadbare, best black silk, a 
 very-much-mended real lace collar and with 
 her iron-grey hair far more elaborately ar- 
 ranged than she usually wore it, crossed the 
 street, lifting her skirts high and stepping 
 gingerly to avoid the dust. She supposed 
 that she was to be the only guest, for the 
 girls had not mentioned any other. 
 
 Mabel, prodigiously formal and most un- 
 usually solemn, met her at the door, ushered 
 her into the blue room and invited her to 
 remove her wraps. The light shawl that 
 
Just Before Dinner 293 
 
 Mrs. Crane had worn over her head was the 
 only wrap she had, but it was not as easily 
 removed as it might have been. It caught 
 on one of her hair pins, which necessitated 
 re-arranging several locks of hair that had 
 slipped from place. This took some time 
 and while she was thus occupied, Mr. Black 
 turned the corner, went swiftly toward the 
 cottage, mounted the steps and rang the door 
 bell. 
 
 Mabel received him with even greater 
 solemnity than she had Mrs. Crane. 
 
 " I think I'd better take your hat and 
 coat," said she. " We haven't any hat rack, 
 but they'll be perfectly safe on the pink-room 
 bed because we haven't any Tucker babies 
 taking naps on it, to-day." 
 
 Mr. Black handed his things to her with 
 an elaborate politeness that equalled her 
 own. 
 
 " Marjory ! " she whispered as she went 
 with the guest's belongings through the din- 
 ing room. " He's wearing his dress suitl " 
 
294 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Sh ! he'll hear you," warned Marjory. 
 
 " Well, anyway, I'm frightened half to 
 death. Oh would you mind passing all the 
 wettest things ? I hadn't thought about his 
 clothes." 
 
 " Yes, I guess I'd better ; he might want 
 to wear 'em again." 
 
 " They're both here," announced Mabel, 
 i)pening the kitchen door. 
 
 "You help Bettie stir the soup and the 
 mashed potatoes," said Jean, whisking off 
 her apron and tying it about Mabel's neck. 
 " I'll go in and shake hands with them and 
 then come back and dish up." 
 
 Jean found both guests looking decidedly 
 ill at ease. Mr. Black stood by the parlour 
 table absent-mindedly undressing a family 
 of paper dolls. Mrs. Crane, pale and nerv- 
 ously clutching the curtain, seemed unable 
 to move from the bedroom doorway. 
 
 "Oh!" said Jean, "I do believe Mabel 
 forgot all about introducing you. We told 
 her to be sure to remember, but she hasn't 
 
Just Before Dinner 295 
 
 been able to take her mind off of her apron 
 since she put it on. Mrs. Crane, this is our 
 — our preserver, Mr. Black." 
 
 The guests bowed stiffly. 
 
 Jean began to wish that she could think 
 of some way to break the ice. Both were 
 jolly enough on ordinary occasions, but, 
 seemingly, both had suddenly been stricken 
 dumb. Perhaps dinner parties always af- 
 fected grown persons that way, or perhaps 
 the starch from Mabel's apron had proved 
 contagious. Jean smiled at the thought 
 Then she made another effort to promote 
 sociability. 
 
 " Mrs. Crane," explained Jean, turning 
 to Mr. Black who was nervously tearing tb^ 
 legs off of the father of the paper doll fam- 
 ily, " is our very nicest neighbour. We like 
 her just ever so much — everybody does. 
 WeVe often told you, Mrs. Crane, how fond 
 we are of Mr. Black. It was because you 
 are our two very dearest friends that we ii^ 
 vited vou both -- — ^' 
 
296 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Je-e-e-e-an ! " called a distressed voice 
 from the kitchen. 
 
 " Mercy ! " exclaimed Jean, making a hur- 
 ried exit, " I hope that soup isn't scorched ! " 
 
 "No," said Bettie, slightly aggrieved, 
 "but I wanted a chance, too, to say how- 
 ^o-you-do to those people before I get all 
 mixed up with the cooking. I thought you 
 were never coming back." 
 
 " Well, it's your turn now," said Jean. 
 " Give me that spoon." 
 
 Bettie finding both guests seated in oppo- 
 site corners of the room and apparently 
 deeply interested in the cottage literature — 
 Mr. Black buried in " Dottie Dimple " and 
 Mrs. Crane absorbed in " Mother Goose " — 
 naturally concluded that they were waiting 
 to be introduced, and accordingly made the 
 presentation. 
 
 " Mrs. Crane," said she, " I want you to 
 meet Mr. Black, and I hope," added warm- 
 hearted Bettie, " that you'll like each other 
 very much because we're so fond of you 
 
Just Before Dinner 297 
 
 both. You're each a surprise party for the 
 other — we thought you'd both Hke it better 
 if you had somebody besides children to 
 talk to." 
 
 " Very kind, I'm sure," mumbled Mr. 
 Black, whose company manners, it seemed 
 to Bettie, were far from being as pleasant as 
 his everyday ones. Bettie gave a deep sigh 
 and made one more effort to set the conver- 
 sational ball rolling. 
 
 " I'm afraid I'll have to go back to the 
 kitchen now, and leave you to entertain each 
 other. Please both of you be very enter- 
 taining — you're both so jolly when you just 
 run in." 
 
 Bettie's eyes were wistful as she went to- 
 ward the kitchen. Was it possible, she 
 wondered, that her beloved Mr. Black could 
 despise Mrs. Crane because she was poor? 
 It didn't seem possible, yet there was cer- 
 tainly something wrong. Perhaps he was 
 merely hungry. That was it of course ; she 
 would put the dinner on at once — even 
 
298 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 good-natured Dr. Tucker, she remembered, 
 was sometimes a little bearlike when meals 
 were delayed. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 H :fi8ewilDer(ng Silence JExplaineO 
 
 FIVE minutes later, Marjory escorted 
 the guests to the dining-room, and, 
 finding both of these usually talkative per- 
 sons alarmingly silent, she inferred of course 
 that Mabel had forgotten — as, indeed, Ma- 
 bel had — her instructions in regard to in- 
 troducing them. Marjory's manners on 
 formal occasions were very pretty ; they were 
 pretty now, and so was she, as she hastened 
 to make up for MabeFs oversight. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Black," she cried, earnestly, 
 *^* I'm afraid no one remembered to introduce 
 you. It's our first dinner party, you know, 
 and we're not very wise. This is our dear- 
 est neighbour, Mrs. Crane, Mr. Black." 
 
 The guests bowed stiffly for the third 
 
 299 
 
300 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 time. Practice should have lent grace to the 
 salutation, but seemingly it had not. 
 
 " Aren't some of you young people going 
 to sit down with me ? " demanded Mr. Black, 
 noticing suddenly that the table was set for 
 only two. 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Crane with evident dis- 
 may, " surely you're coming to the table, 
 too." 
 
 "We can't," explained Marjory. "It 
 takes all of us to do the serving. Besides 
 we haven't but two dining-room chairs. Sit 
 here, please, Mrs. Crane; and this is your 
 place, Mr. Black." 
 
 Mr. Black looked red and uncomfortable 
 as he unfolded his napkin. Mrs. Crane 
 looked, as Marjory said afterward, for all 
 the world as if she were going to cry. Per- 
 haps the prospect of a good dinner after a 
 long siege of poor ones was too much for 
 her, for ordinarily, Mrs. Crane was a very 
 cheerful woman. 
 
 Although both guests declared that the 
 
A Silence Explained 301 
 
 soup was very good indeed, neither seemed 
 to really enjoy it. 
 
 " They just kind of worried a little of it 
 down," said distressed Marjory, when she 
 handed Mr. Black's plate, still three quarters 
 full to Jean, in the kitchen. " Do you sup- 
 pose there's anything the matter with it?'' 
 
 "There can't be," said Bettie. "I've 
 tasted it and it's good." 
 
 " They're just saving room for the other 
 things," comforted Mabel. " I guess / 
 wouldn't fill myself up with soup if I could 
 smell roasted chicken keeping warm in the 
 oven." 
 
 Although Mabel had asked to be spared 
 passing the spillable things, it seemed rea- 
 sonably safe to trust her with the dish of 
 escalloped salmon. She succeeded in pass- 
 ing it without disaster to either the dish or 
 the guests' garments, and her apron was still 
 immaculate. 
 
 " Why," exclaimed Mabel, suddenly no- 
 ticing that the guests sat stiff and silent, 
 
302 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " the girls said I was to be sure to introduce 
 you the moment you came and I never 
 thought a thing about it. Do forgive me — 
 I'm the stupidest girl. Mrs. Black — I 
 mean Mr. Crane — no, Mrs, Crane ** 
 
 " We've been introduced/' said Mr. Black, 
 rather shortly. " Might I have a glass of 
 water?" 
 
 A pained, surprised look crept into Ma- 
 bel's eyes. A moment later she went to the 
 kitchen. 
 
 The instant the guests were left alone, 
 Mrs. Crane did an odd thing. She leaned 
 forward and spoke in a low, earnest tone to 
 Mr. Black. 
 
 " Peter," she said, " can't we pretend to be 
 sociable for a little while? It isn't com- 
 fortable, of course, but it isn't right to spoil 
 those children's pleasure by acting like a pair 
 of wooden dolls. Let's talk to each other 
 whenever they're in the room just as if we 
 had just met for the first time." 
 
 "You're right, Sarah," said Mr. Black. 
 
A Silence Explained 303 
 
 " Let's talk about the weather. It's a safe 
 topic and there's always plenty of it." 
 
 When Marjory opened the door to carry 
 in the salad there was a pleasant hum of 
 voices in the dining room. It seemed to all 
 the girls that the guests were really enjoy- 
 ing themselves for Mr. Black was telling 
 Mrs. Crane how much warmer it was in 
 Washington, and Mrs. Crane was inform- 
 ing Mr. Black that, except for the one show- 
 er that fell so opportunely on the Milligans, 
 it had been a remarkably dry summer. The 
 four anxious hostesses, feeling suddenly 
 cheered, fell joyously to eating the soup and 
 the salmon that remained on the stove. Un- 
 til that moment, they had been too uneasy to 
 realise that they were hungry; but as Mar- 
 jory carried in the crackers, half- famished 
 Mabel breathed a fervent hope that the 
 guests wouldn't help themselves too lavishly 
 to the salad. 
 
 To the astonishment of Mabel, who car- 
 ried the chicken successfully to its place be- 
 
304 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 fore Mr. Black, who was to carve it, Mr. 
 Black did not ask the other guest what part 
 she liked best, but, with a whimsical smile, 
 quietly cut off both wings and put them on 
 Mrs. Crane's plate. 
 
 Mrs. Crane looked up with an odd, 
 tremulous expression — sort of weepy, Ma- 
 bel described it afterwards — and said: 
 " Thank you, Peter." 
 
 It seemed to Mabel at the time that the 
 guests were getting acquainted with a rapid- 
 ity that was little short of remarkable-— 
 " Peter " indeed. 
 
 Then, when everything else was eaten, 
 and Marjory had brought the nuts and 
 served them, Mrs. Crane, hardly waiting for 
 the door to close behind the little waitress, 
 leaned forward suddenly and said : 
 
 " Peter, do you remember how you 
 pounded my thumb when I held that hard 
 black walnut for you to crack ? " 
 
 "I remember ever5rthing, Sarah. I've 
 always been sorry about that thumb — and 
 
A Silence Explained 305 
 
 IVe been sorry about a good many other 
 things since. Do you think — do you think 
 you could forgive me ? " 
 
 " Well, I just guess I could," returned 
 Mrs. Crane, heartily. " After all, it was 
 just as much my fault as it was yours — 
 maybe more." 
 
 " No, I never thought that, Sarah. 1 
 was the one to blame." 
 
 When the door opened a moment later 
 to admit the finger-bowls and all four of the 
 girls, who had licked the ice cream platter 
 and had nothing more to do in the kitchen 
 since everything had been served, there, to 
 the housekeepers' unbounded amazement, 
 were Mr. Black and Mrs. Crane, with their 
 arms stretched across the little table, hold- 
 ing each other's middle-aged hands in a 
 tight clasp, and both had tears in their eyes. 
 
 The girls looked at them in consternation. 
 
 "W^as — was it the dinner?" ventured 
 Mabel, at last. " Was it as bad as — as all 
 that?" 
 
306 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Black, rising to go 
 around the table to place an affectionate arm 
 across Mrs. Crane's plump shoulders, " it 
 was the dinner, but not its badness — or 
 even its very goodness." 
 
 " I guess you'd better tell 'em all about 
 it, Peter," suggested Mrs. Crane, whose eyes 
 were shining happily. " It's only fair they 
 should know about it — bless their little 
 hearts." 
 
 " Well, you see," said Mr. Black, who, as 
 the girls had quickly discovered, was oncer 
 more their own delightfully jolly friend, 
 " once upon a time, a long time ago, there 
 was a black-eyed girl named Sarah, and a 
 two-years-younger boy, that looked a good 
 deal like her, named Peter, and they were 
 brother and sister. They were all the broth- 
 ers and sisters that each had for their pa- 
 rents died when this boy and girl were very 
 young. Peter and Sarah used to dream a 
 beautiful dream of living together always, 
 and of going down, hand in hand to a peace- 
 
A Silence Explained 307 
 
 ful, plentiful old age. You see, they had 
 no other relative but one very cross grand* 
 mother, v^ho scolded them both even oftener 
 than they deserved — which was probably 
 quite often enough — so I suspect that those 
 abused, black-eyed, half-starved children 
 loved each other more than most brothers 
 and sisters do.'* 
 
 " Yes," agreed Mrs. Crane, nodding her 
 head and smiling mistily, " they certainly 
 did. The poor young things had no one 
 else to love.'' 
 
 " That," said Mr. Black, " was no doubt 
 the reason why, when the headstrong boy 
 grew up and married a girl that his sister 
 didn't like, and the equally headstrong girl 
 grew up and married a man that her brother 
 couldn't like — a regular scoundrel that 
 
 " Peter ! " warned Mrs. Crane. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Black, hastily, " it's all 
 over now, and perhaps we had better leave 
 that part of it out. It isn't a pretty ?tr*r> 
 
3o8 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 and we'll never mention it again, Sarah, 
 But anyway, girls, this foolish brother and 
 sister quarrelled, and the brothers-in-law 
 and sisters-in-law and even the grandmoth- 
 er, who was old enough to know better, 
 quarrelled, until finally all four of those hot- 
 tempered young persons were so angry that 
 the brother named Peter said he'd never 
 speak to his sister again, and the sister 
 named Sarah said she'd never speak to her 
 brother again — and they haven't until this 
 very day. Just a pair of young geese, 
 weren't they, Sarah ? " 
 
 " Old geese, too," agreed Mrs. Crane, 
 '* for they've both been fearfully lonely ever 
 since and they've both been too proud to say 
 so. One of them, at least, has wished a 
 great many times that there had never been 
 any quarrel." 
 
 " Two of 'em. But now this one," said 
 Mr. Black, placing his forefinger against his 
 own broad chest, " is going to ask this one 
 (he pointed to Mrs. Crane) to come and live 
 
A Silence Explained 309 
 
 with him in his own great big empty house, 
 so he'll have a sister again to sew on his but- 
 tons, listen to his old stories and make a 
 home for him. What do you say, Sarah ? " 
 
 " I say yes," said Mrs. Crane ; " yes, with 
 all my heart." 
 
 " And here," said Mr. Black, smiling into 
 four pairs of sympathetic eyes, " are four 
 young people who will have to pretend that 
 they truly belong to us once in awhile, be- 
 cause we'd both like to have our house full 
 of happy little girls. You never had any 
 children, Sarah ? " 
 
 " No, and you lost your only one, Peter." 
 
 " Yes, a little brown-eyed thing like Bet- 
 tie here — she'd be a woman, now, probably 
 with children of her own." 
 
 "It's — it's just like a story," breathed 
 Bettie, happily. " We've been part of a 
 real story and never knew it ! I'm so glad 
 you let us have Dandelion Cottage, so glad 
 we invited you to dinner, and that nothing 
 happened to keep either of you away." 
 
jio Dandelion Cottage 
 
 " Peter and I are glad, too," said Mrs. 
 Crane, who indeed looked wonderfully 
 happy. 
 
 "Yes," said Mr. Black, "it's the most 
 successful dinner party I've so far attended. 
 Of course I can't hope to equal it, but as 
 soon as Sarah and I get to keeping house 
 properly and have decided which is to pour 
 the coffee, we're going to return the compli- 
 ment with a dinner that will make your eyes 
 stick out, aren't we, Sarah ? " 
 
 " Ob, we'll do a great deal more than 
 that," responded generous Mrs. Crane. 
 " We'll keep four extra places set at our 
 table all the time." 
 
 ''Of course we will," cried Mr. Black, 
 heartily. "And we'll fill the biggest case 
 in the library with children's books — we'll 
 all go to-morrow to pick out the first shelf- 
 ful — so when it gets too cold for you to 
 stay in Dandelion Cottage you'll have some- 
 thing to take its place. You're going to be 
 little sunny Dandelions in the Black-Crane 
 
A Silence Explained 311 
 
 house whenever your own people can spare 
 you. But what's the matter? Have you 
 all lost your tongues ? I didn't suppose you 
 could be so astonishingly quiet." 
 
 "Oh," sighed Bettie, joyfully, "you've 
 taken such a load off our minds. We were 
 simply dreading the winter, with no cottage 
 to have good times in." 
 
 " Yes," said Jean, " we didn't know how 
 we could manage to live with the cottage 
 closed. We've been wondering what in the 
 world we were going to do." 
 
 " But with school, and you dear people 
 to visit every day on the way home," said 
 Marjory, "we'll hardly have time to miss 
 It. Oh ! won't it be perfectly lovely ? And 
 won't Aunty Jane be glad ? " 
 
 " I'm going to begin at once to practise 
 being on time to meals," said Mabel. " I'm 
 not going to let that extra place do any wait- 
 ing for me" 
 
 These were the things that the four girls 
 said aloud ; but the joyous look that flashed 
 
312 Dandelion Cottage 
 
 from Jean to Bettie, from Bettie to Marjory, 
 from Marjory to Mabel, and from Mabel 
 back again to Jean said even more plainly: 
 " Now there'll be somebody to care for Mrs. 
 Crane, now there'll be somebody to make a 
 home for lonely Mr. Black." 
 
 And indeed, subsequent events proved that 
 it was a beautiful arrangement for every- 
 body, besides being quite the most astonish- 
 ing thing that had happened in the history 
 of Lakeville,