Amarilly of Clothes line Alley
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Belle K. Maniates >> Amarilly of Clothes line Alley
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"Don't seem fair to Bobby when they're so near twins," she thought.
One day, however, she overheard Bud sweetly offer to buy his near half a
similar outfit. Amarilly listened eagerly for Bobby's answer which
brought a sigh of relief.
"I wouldn't wear one of them rigs on a bet," he had scoffingly answered.
"One hundred and twenty-five dollars," Bud now replied modestly.
"Gee! you take the cake!" said Bobby.
Amarilly was sorry that she had to call Bobby's name next. But Bobby had
a surprise in store for them all.
"Forty-eight dollars!" he cried gleefully, giving Flam, Milt and Gus
exultant glances, "Beat the hull of ye, except Bud!"
"How in the world did you ever do it on paper routes?" asked Amarilly
wonderingly.
Bobby winked at his mother.
"Shall we tell our secret?" he asked. "You tell, Ma."
"You see," she explained, "when the clo'es are bilin' arter you hev all
gone to work and to school, I've made twenty little pies and when Bobby
got out of school, he'd come hum and git 'em and take 'em up to the High
School. The girls bought 'em at five cents apiece. The stuff to make 'em
cost about two cents a pie."
"And Bobby got all the profit!" expostulated Milt indignantly.
"Bobby paid me by taking the clo'es offen the line and bringin' them in
every night, and fetchin' the water," she replied chidingly. "We was
goin' to keep it a secret till he got enough to buy a pony."
"But I'd ruther buy a house," said Bobby.
"I ain't got enough to come in no snidikit," sobbed Co. "I ain't saved
much."
"That's because you spend all you earn on candy," rebuked Milt.
"I ain't nuther. I bought me some rubbers and Iry some playthings."
"How much have you got, Co?" asked Amarilly gently.
"Two dollars and ninety-seven cents," she said, weeping profusely.
"I think that's pretty good for a little girl," said Amarilly. "All you
strapping boys ought to chip in out of your cash on hand what isn't in
the bank and give her some so she could be in on it. Here is fifty cents
from me, Co."
"I'll give you fifty, Co," said her mother.
"Me, too," said Flamingus.
The other boys followed with equal contributions, Bud generously
donating a five-dollar bill he had received that day for a solo at a
musicale given by Miss Lyte.
"Here's fifty cents from me," said the Boarder, who had remained very
thoughtful during this transaction.
"Eleven dollars and forty-seven cents for Co," announced Amarilly.
The little girl's eyes shone through her tears.
"Seems too bad that Iry is the only one left out," said Mrs. Jenkins.
"When he gits old enough to work, he can come in," said Milt. "Add her
up, Amarilly."
"Three hundred and sixty-nine dollars and sixty-seven cents!" almost
screamed Amarilly.
"Gee!" chorused the boys.
"Purty near buy the old shack," said Flamingus.
"Our landlord," said Amarilly sagaciously, "is a shark, and he'll try to
get the best of us. I am going to get Mr. Vedder to do the business for
us, and he'll get the deed in all our names."
"Put in Iry's too," pleaded Mrs. Jenkins solicitous for her Benjamin.
"I'll put it to vote," said parliamentary Amarilly. "Who's for Iry?"
"Me, me, me," came from all, though Milt's response was reluctant.
"I will see Mr. Vedder to-morrow, so we can begin to let the rent apply
right off," said Amarilly.
"We'll take more pride in keeping it fixed up now," remarked Flamingus.
"I'll mend the windowpanes and the door hinges."
"And I'll build some stairs and put up a partition or two," promised the
Boarder.
"I'll paint it," said Gus, proud of his former work in this direction.
Amarilly secretly resolved to select the color.
"I'll make curtains and rag rugs and sofa pillows," she observed.
"And I'll buy some cheers and a hangin' lamp," said Mrs. Jenkins. "Don't
all this talk make you want to housekeep?" she asked with a knowing
glance in the Boarder's direction.
He shook his head thoughtfully, but when the boys and Cory had gone to
bed, he unfolded a proposition that he had been evolving during their
financial discussion, and which now found overwhelming favor and
enthusiasm with his hearers.
The next day Amarilly called upon Mr. Vedder at the theatre.
"He's got more sound business to him than Mr. Derry or Mr. St. John,"
she shrewdly decided.
"When she told him her plan and showed him her figures, he most heartily
approved.
"The house, of course, isn't worth anything," he said, "but land down
that way is a good investment. Who is your, landlord?"
She gave him the name and address.
"I am glad you came to me, Amarilly, instead of to your newer friends."
"Oh, you know more about it than they do," she replied, "and besides,
some way I wouldn't feel as if I were bothering you."
"Not a bit of bother, Amarilly, and I hope you will always feel that
way."
The ticket-seller was prompt, thorough, and shrewd in the matter. He had
a friend in the real estate business, who appraised the property for
him, and he proved most diplomatic in his dealing with the surprised
landlord, who fortunately chanced to be in dire need of some ready cash.
In an incredibly short space of time the bargain was closed.
The Jenkins family including the Boarder and Iry left the house one
noon, each bearing a red bank-book. To the onlookers in the
neighborhood, this Armada was all-impressive.
"Looks like a run on the bank," said the Boarder facetiously, as they
all trooped up the steps to the big stone building.
The payment was made, and the deeds drawn in the names of all the
family, but to the list was also added the name of the Boarder.
CHAPTER XXI
"I don't see," observed Colette, on learning of the existence and
development of the syndicate, "why the Boarder is in on it. I thought he
was going to have a Lily Rose garden all his own."
"We thought so, too," replied Amarilly. "He's been saving up to get
married, and he's got a raise now, so the day is set for some time in
June; but he told us the night we were first planning to buy the house
that he wanted to be one of the syndicate. You see Lily Rose works--I
mean she overworks--in a factory, and so the Boarder--you know he is
awful gentle-like to her--says that she mustn't keep house or do
anything but real light work after this. He has an interest in the house
now, and he is going to build on a sort of an annex with a sitting-room
and a bedroom and furnish it up fine, and when they are married, they
are going to live there and take their meals with us. And they want Mr.
St. John to marry them, and they want you to come. And Mr. Derry is
coming. He asked to be invited."
For once Colette did not laugh at the chronicles of the Jenkins family.
A very tender look came into her flashing eyes.
"That is very sweet in him--in the Boarder--to feel that way and to be
so tender with Lily Rose. She ought to be very happy with a love and
protection like that awaiting her."
"Yes," assented Amarilly; "it must be very nice to feel like that, and
Mr. Derry says he really believes that it is only with poor folks like
us and the Boarder and Lily Rose that love runs smooth."
"Then," said Colette musingly, "I wish I were poor--like you and the
Boarder and Lily Rose!"
Amarilly secretly divined that this was merely a thought spoken aloud,
so she made no comment. She had pondered a great deal over the attitude
of her two friends towards each other. The only place she ever
encountered them together was at church and to her observing eyes it was
quite apparent that there was a restraint in their bearing. Amarilly
remained so preoccupied with her thoughts that Colette, looking at her
searchingly, became curious as to the cause.
"Amarilly," she commanded, "tell me what you were thinking of just now--
I mean since I spoke last. I shall know by; your eyes if you don't tell
me exactly."
"Mr. Derry says my eyes will always give me away," evaded Amarilly.
"Of course they will. You can never be a flirt, Amarilly."
"I don't want to," she replied indignantly.
Colette laughed.
"Well, tell me what you were thinking about?"
"I was wondering if Mr. St. John wasn't trying any more to find that
thing you lost in the surplice pocket."
"Oh, Amarilly, has Mr. Phillips censored that word, too? I was in hopes
he would never hear you say 'surplus,' so he could not correct you."
"I told him you didn't want me to speak correctly," said Amarilly a
little resentfully.
"You did!" cried Colette, looking rather abashed. "And what did he say?"
"He said it was selfish in you to think more of your amusement than of
my improvement."
Colette colored and was silent a moment.
"He's right, Amarilly," she said impulsively. "I _am_ selfish to
everyone. All I have ever cared for is to be entertained and made to
laugh. I have been as selfish to St. John as I have to you and--I'll
tell you a secret, Amarilly, because I know that I can trust you. I've
gone just a little bit too far with St. John. I told him he needn't ever
come to see me again until he found what was in the pocket of the
surplice, and he took me at my word."
"He did all he could to find it," said Amarilly, immediately on the
defence for the rector.
"I know he did, but you see before this I've always had everything I've
asked for, even impossible things, and I didn't want to have him fail
me. I have been selfish and exacting with him, and I think he realizes
it now."
"Well, when you're in the wrong, all you've got to do is to say so."
"That isn't easy, Amarilly."
"But it's right."
"Oh, Amarilly, you're like a man with your right and your wrong!"
"But you would make yourself happy, too, if you told him you knew it
wasn't up to him any more to find that."
"I'd rather be unhappy and stick to what I said. I must have my own way,
Amarilly."
"Well," said Amarilly, abandoning an apparently hopeless subject, "I
came to ask you to do me--us--the Boarder and Lily Rose, I mean, a
favor."
"What is it, Amarilly?"
"Why, as I said, they want Mr. St. John to marry them, and they're
afraid he won't want to because he--well--because he isn't their kind,
you know, and he has such a fashionable church."
"And you don't know St. John better than that?"
"Why, yes; of course _I_ do, but they don't know him at all, you know.
And the Boarder is real shy, anyhow. And so I told him I'd ask you to
ask him."
"Why don't you ask him?"
"I think it would please him so to have you ask. He likes to have you
take interest in others."
"Amarilly, you are a regular little Sherlock! Well, yes, I will,"
promised Colette, secretly glad of this opportunity for friendly
converse with John once more, "but if the--Annex has to be built first,
there's no hurry."
"Yes, there is. The Boarder wants everything settled now, so they can be
looking forward to it."
"Very well, Amarilly. I'll see him to-morrow night. Will that do?"
"Oh, yes; thank you, Miss King."
"Tell me more about the wedding plans. Are you to be bridesmaid?"
"She isn't going to have one. It won't be a stylish wedding, you know.
Just quiet--like one of our neighborhood evenings. Only when I told Mr.
Derry about it, he said he should come up that afternoon and trim the
house up with greens, and that he should come to see them married."
"And I shall furnish the flowers and the bride's bouquet. Let me see, I
think lilies of the valley and pink roses would suit Lily Rose, don't
you?"
"They will be beautiful," said Amarilly, beaming. "And we are going to
have a real swell meal. I have learned to make salads and ices, and then
we'll have coffee and sandwiches and bride's cake beside."
"Some one has to give the bride away, you know, Amarilly, in Episcopal
weddings."
"I know it. But poor Lily Rose has no one that belongs to her. Her
relations are all dead. That's another reason why the Boarder is so nice
to her. So ma is going to give her away. We're going to ask the
neighbors and you and Mr. Derry and Mr. Cotter, of course. He's the
brakeman friend of the Boarder."
"And are the Boarder and Lily Rose going away?"
"Yes; the Boarder can get a pass to Niagara Falls. They are going to
stay there a week. Lily Rose has never been on the cars. And they are
going to ride to the train in a hack."
"Why, it's going to be quite an affair," said Colette enthusiastically.
"We'll throw an old shoe and some rice after them. And will she be
married in white?"
Amarilly's face fell.
"I am afraid she can't afford a wedding dress. She's got to get a
travelling suit and hat and gloves and shoes, and with other things it
will take all she has saved. She'd like a white dress and a veil and get
her picture taken in it to hang up by the side of the Boarder's in the
surplice. And that makes me think, we want you to ask Mr. St. John if he
will wear our surplice instead of bringing one of his. We'll do it up
nice before the wedding."
"Oh, that prophetic surplice!" groaned Colette. "It's yesterday, to-day
and forever; I wish something would happen to it, Amarilly. I hate that
surplice!"
"I'm sorry, Miss King, but we all love it. And you see it means a good
deal to Lily Rose; because she has looked at its photograph so long."
"Very well, Amarilly. I yield. St. John shall wear his surplice once
more, and when he does--"
A sudden thought illumined her face. "I believe I will tell him--"
Amarilly deemed it a fitting time to depart, and she hastened to assure
Lily Rose that it was "all right."
"Miss King will speak to Mr. St. John about marrying you, and she will
ask him to wear our surplice. She's going to send you flowers--lilies of
the valley and roses. It all would be perfect, Lily Rose, if only you
had a white dress!"
Lily Rose smiled sweetly, and told Amarilly she was glad to be married
in any dress, and that she should not miss the "reg'ler weddin' fixin's"
nearly as much as Amarilly would mind her not having them. When Amarilly
set her head and heart on anything, however, it was sure to be
accomplished. It was a puzzling problem to equip Lily Rose in the
conventional bridal white vestments, for the bride-to-be was very proud
and independent and wouldn't hearken to Amarilly's plea to be allowed to
contribute toward a new dress.
"We're under obligations to _him_, you know," argued Amarilly "and I'd
like to help him by helping you."
Lily Rose was strong of will despite her sweet smile.
Deep down in her heart Amarilly, throughout all her scheming, knew there
was a way, but she chose to ignore it until the insistent small voice
spoke louder and louder. With a sigh of renunciation she yielded to the
inevitable and again sought Lily Rose.
"I've thought out a way to the white dress," she announced.
Lily Rose's eyes sparkled for a moment, and their light died out.
"Yes, there's really a way," persisted Amarilly, answering the unspoken
denial. "You said you could squeeze out slippers and stockings, didn't
you?"
"Yes," she admitted.
"Well, there's your new white dress skirt, and for a waist there is my
lovely lace waist that I told you about--the one Miss King gave me."
"Your weddin' waist! No, Amarilly. It's like you to offer, but I
couldn't take it from you."
"No, I'm not giving it to you. Just lending it to you for your wedding.
You couldn't hurt it any wearing it two hours. Then I'll lay it by again
till I'm married. And I'll like wearing it all the more because you wore
it to your wedding. Come over some day and we'll try it on. Then Miss
King is going to give you the bouquet, and for a veil--"
"Oh, the veil! Amarilly, I would love a veil!" Lily Rose cried
wistfully.
"Well, I've got one spoken for. You see, Mrs. Jimmels has been married
so many different ways, I felt sure she must have worn a veil at one of
her weddings, and seeing she had been married so many times, I thought
she couldn't have any special feeling about any one of them, so I asked
her if she wouldn't lend hers to you, and she's glad to have it put to
use again. You'll look just perfectly swell, Lily Rose. And she's going
to give you a pair of white gloves that she had when she was slim-like."
The little renunciator went home feeling amply rewarded by the look of
shining content in the blue eyes of Lily Rose.
* * * * *
The next night Colette in accordance with her promise to Amarilly
summoned John to council. It was not easy to bridge the distance which
had been steadily increasing with the months that had rolled by since
the surplice denouement, and Colette, formerly supreme in her sway, was
perceptibly timid in making the advance. After writing and tearing up
several notes she called him up by telephone and asked him in a
consciously casual tone if he could find it convenient to call that
evening with reference to a little matter pertaining to their mutual
charge, the Jenkinses.
The grave voice in which he accepted the invitation was tinged with
pleasure.
When he came Colette, fearful lest he should misinterpret her action in
making this overture, plunged at once into the subject.
"I promised Amarilly I would see you and ask you for something in her
friends' behalf."
"Then it is to Amarilly I am indebted for this call," he remarked
whimsically.
"It's about the Boarder," she continued, gaining ease at the softening
of his brown eyes. "You know he is to be married to Lily Rose, the girl
we saw at the organ recital where Bud made his debut."
"I inferred as much at the time. When are they to be married?"
"In June. Just as soon as the Annex can be added to the Jenkins's
upright. They are to build on two new rooms or rather the Boarder will
do so and he will furnish them for his new abiding-place. But because
she is 'delicate like' and overworked she is to become a Boarderess
instead of a housekeeper, and they will 'eat' with the Jenkins family,
thus increasing the prosperity of the latter. Amarilly says the Boarder
is 'awful gentle of Lily Rose and wants to take good care of her.'"
The expression that moved the frostiest of his flock came into the still
depths of his eyes and brought the wild rose to Colette's cheeks.
"They are going to make quite an affair of the wedding," she continued,
speaking hurriedly and a little breathlessly. "You and I and Mr.
Phillips are to be guests. There is to be a hack to take the bride and
groom to the train and a trip to Niagara Falls, because Lily Rose has
never been on the cars. They are to have salad and ice-cream and
sandwiches and coffee. Mr. Phillips is to act as florist and I shall
furnish the decorations and the bride's bouquet. I'd love to throw in a
bridal gown and veil, but Lily Rose, it seems, is proud and won't accept
them."
"I can find it quite in my heart to admire the reluctance of Lily Rose
to accept them."
"And so can I," replied Colette, the rare sweetness coming into her
eyes. "Underneath all my jests about this wedding, it is all very sweet
and touching to me--the Boarder's consideration for her, the
preparations for the wedding which appear so elaborate to them. And then
the wedding itself seems to mean so much to them. It's so different from
the weddings in our class which often mean so little."
"Colette, I know--I have always known in spite of your endeavor to have
me believe otherwise--anything really true and genuine appeals to you.
I--"
"But I haven't told you yet," she said, seized with an unaccountable
shyness, "what your part is to be. The Boarder, Lily Rose, and naturally
all the Jenkinses, want you to perform the ceremony. The Boarder, being
shy and retiring, forbore to ask you, and Amarilly for some reason
desired me to ask you if you would officiate, and I assured her you
would gladly do so."
"I should have felt hurt," replied John with a happy smile, "if they had
asked anyone else to marry them. And you will be there, Colette?"
"Certainly," she declared. "I wouldn't miss it for anything."
"And--you will go with me, Colette?"
She colored, and her eyes drooped beneath his fixed gaze.
"Yes," she said, "I will go with you."
"Thank you, Colette," he answered gently, realizing what a surrender
this was, and deeming it wise not to follow up his victory immediately.
And at his reticence Colette was conscious of a shade of disappointment.
She began to feel an uncomfortable atmosphere in the silence that
ensued, so she broke it, speaking hastily and confusedly.
"Oh, John, there is something else they want of you. The request is made
by unanimous desire that you wear their surplice--that awful surplice!"
A shadow not unlike a frown fell athwart John's brow, and he made no
immediate reply.
The introduction of the unfortunate topic made them both self-conscious,
and for the first time Colette acknowledged to herself that she had been
in the wrong in the matter of the surplice. John, misinterpreting her
constraint, and fearing that the reference to the garment had revived
all her old resentment, arose to depart.
"I will wear it if they wish," he said stiffly.
"I, too, wish you would wear it," she said in a voice scarcely audible.
He looked at her in surprise, hope returning.
"To please them," she added, coloring.
"Colette!" There was a pleading in his voice that told her all she
longed to know. "Colette, don't you think I have been patient? Won't you
be friends again?"
"I will," she said, "after--the Boarder's and Lily Rose's wedding!"
CHAPTER XXII
Work on the Boarder's Annex was begun with frantic zeal, each and every
member of the Jenkins family lending a helping hand. The Boarder, as
boss carpenter, worked after switching hours until it grew dark; then
the children took turns, in holding a lantern for him. The savings of
the Boarder being taxed by the trip to "Niagry" and the furnishing of
the apartment, great economy had to be exercised in the erecting of the
Annex. He strictly adhered to his determination not to touch the "rainy
day fund."
Amarilly pleaded for a bay window, but the Boarder felt this
ornamentation to be quite beyond his means, so they finally compromised
on a small and simple porch on which Lily Rose could sit of a summer
night while the Boarder smoked by her side. Mrs. Jenkins, moved to
memories long dormant of the home of her youth, suggested blinds instead
of window-shades, but the Boarder after much figuring proved adamantine
in resistance to this temptation.
Lily Rose was the only one who made no suggestions. Anything the Boarder
might construct in the way of a nesting place was beautiful in her eyes.
"She'd be too sorter modist-like to tell me if she was sot on any
perticler thing about the new place," he confided wistfully to Amarilly,
"You're so sharp I wish you'd kinder hint around and find out what she
wants. Jest put out some feelers."
Amarilly diplomatically proceeded to put out "feelers," and after much
maneuvering joyously imparted to the Boarder the information that Lily
Rose loved to look at the one solitary tree that adorned the Jenkins
lot, because to her it meant "the country."
"So that's the way she loves to look out," informed Amarilly, "and, you
see there isn't any window on that side of your rooms."
"There shall be one," declared the Boarder firmly.
"Couldn't you make it a bay?" again coaxed Amarilly, "It's on the side
the sun comes in most, and the doctor said Lily Rose should get all the
sunlight she could. If she could sit in that bay window sunny days next
winter it would be better than medicine for her."
The Boarder sighed.
"Don't tempt me, Amarilly. There ain't a cent more I kin squeeze out."
"I'll think out a way," thought Amarilly confidently.
She took the matter to Colette, who instantly and satisfactorily solved
the problem, and Amarilly returned radiant.
"She says you've saved too much out for furniture, and to build the bay
window from the furniture fund."
The Boarder shook his head.
"I thought of that, but thar ain't a thing I can take out of that. I got
the figgers on the price of everything from the House Furnishers'
Establishment."
"But you see, Miss King says no one ever comes to a wedding without
bringing a present. That it wouldn't be et--,--dear me! I have forgotten
what the word is. And she says not to buy any furniture till all the
presents come, and then I can settle the rooms for you while you and
Lily Rose are away. Lots of the things you are expecting to buy will be
given you."
"It's risky," said the Boarder dubiously. "We'll most likely git casters
and bibles and tidies. That's what I've allers seen to weddin's."
"Well, I see I have got to put a flea in your ear, but don't tell Lily
Rose. Let it be a surprise to her. Miss King is going to give you a
handsome base-burner coal stove. So you can take that off your list."
The Boarder looked pleased and yet distressed.
"She shouldn't go fer to do that!" he protested.
"Well, she wants to give you a nice present because you've been nice to
us, and she thinks Lily Rose is sweet, and she says she believes in
making sensible presents. She asked Mr. Meredith what to get, and he
told her to get the stove so you see it's all right if he says so. She
thought you wouldn't need a stove till next winter, but I told her you
wanted the rooms furnished complete now."
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