Peggy in Her Blue Frock
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Eliza Orne White >> Peggy in Her Blue Frock
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"I could have beaten you if I had tried," said Christopher.
"Then why didn't you?"
"Well, I thought, as you were a girl and younger, I'd let you get a
start, and I expected to pass you."
"Oh, dear, I am tired of being a girl. Just let's play I'm a boy. You
can call me Peter."
"I don't want to play you are a boy. I like you better the way you are,"
Christopher said, as he glanced at her blue frock.
"Yes, Peggy," said Uncle Joe, "we all like you better the way you are."
"Well, I suppose I'll have to be a girl and make the best of it. But I
do wish I had men and boys in my family."
"You might adopt us," said Uncle Joe. "I would like you and Alice for
nieces. A lot of children I'm no relation to call me 'Uncle Joe,' and
I'm sure the boys would like you and Alice for cousins."
"You bet we would," said Christopher.
So Peggy came back from the picnic a much richer little girl than she
had been when she went to it. "Alice," she said, as she burst into the
house, "Mr. Beal says we can call him 'Uncle Joe,' and we can play that
Tom and Christopher are our cousins."
"I'd like to call him 'Uncle Joe,'" said Alice, "for he was so nice
about Topsy, but I don't want the boys for my cousins."
CHAPTER XI
THE GEOGRAPHY GAME
The children's Uncle Joe was an architect. He was making some additions
to Mrs. Horton's house, and so he came up every little while to see how
the work was getting on; and later, he was given the new Savings Bank to
build. He often came on from New York for a few days and stayed with the
Carters. All the children were delighted when he came, for he was just
as nice as a child to play with. In fact, he was nicer, for he knew so
much more. He was a great traveler, for he had been a Lieutenant in the
army and had been across seas. He had traveled, also, in the United
States, and there was hardly a State he had not stayed in. The children
were never tired of hearing his stories about places and people. He had,
too, a delightful way of inventing games, making them up out of his own
head.
One rainy October afternoon, Alice and Peggy were sitting in the
living-room when the telephone rang. Alice had Lady Janet curled up in
her arms, and Peggy was reading aloud from "Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland." Peggy flung down her book and ran to the telephone.
"Oh, Peggy," said Diana's plaintive voice, "it is so wet I have had to
stay in all day; can't you and Alice come and play with me?"
"I guess so," said Peggy, who was always ready to go anywhere; "I'll ask
mother."
"Don't let's go out, it is so wet," said Alice, who was interested in
the story.
"I'm going if mother'll let me," said Peggy.
Mrs. Owen had no objection, and, as Alice did not like to be left
behind, she and Peggy put on their rubbers and raincoats.
Alice gave Lady Janet a parting hug. "You darling, I am going to see
your mother," she said; "shall I give her your love? Peggy, she is
licking my hand," said Alice.
The two children went out into the chilly October rain. Alice shivered,
but Peggy was delighted to be out. She walked into every puddle she came
to.
"You'll get your feet wet," said Alice.
"I'm just trying to see if it will go over my rubbers," said Peggy. "Oh,
it did that time--I didn't think it would."
"You've got your feet very wet," said Alice.
"I know I have, but I can dry my shoes and stockings at Diana's."
Diana was sitting before the fire in her room with a book. She jumped up
and flung her arms about Alice, who was nearer her, and then about
Peggy.
"Peggy has got her feet wet," said Alice anxiously. "She'll have to put
on some of your stockings while hers are drying."
"I can't get into Diana's stockings," Peggy said, as she looked down at
her feet. "I'll just sit in my bare feet until my shoes and stockings
are dry."
"Uncle Joe and the boys may come in. I'll get you some of mother's,"
said Diana.
So Peggy was dressed in a pair of black silk stockings that were much
too large for her, and a pair of bedroom slippers that were so big that
she was afraid to walk for fear they would fall off. She liked the
slippers very much, however, for they were such a pretty shade of blue,
and they had black fur all around the edge.
It was early in the afternoon, so the children settled down for a long
play. They were beginning to wish they could think of something else to
do when Uncle Joe came in.
"How cozy you look," said he. "Can you give a poor working-man a seat by
the fire?"
Peggy who was nearest the fire, sprang up, forgetting all about her
slippers.
"I think I see a bird in borrowed plumage," said Uncle Joe. "Did you get
your feet wet?"
"I walked into a mud-puddle on purpose, for the fun of it," said Peggy.
"I wanted to see if it would go over my rubbers. I didn't think it
would, but it did."
"Oh, Uncle Joe, can't we play the geography game?" said Diana. "Peggy
has never played it."
"I don't like geography so very much," said Alice.
"It's just a game," said Diana. "We have to see who can say the
forty-eight States quickest. We say them like the alphabet, those
beginning with A first, and the one who gets the A's done first looks
them up on the map, to see where they are. It's lots of fun."
"Diana likes it because she always beats Tom and Christopher," said her
uncle.
"Let's begin," said Diana, "one, two, three."
But neither Peggy nor Alice could think of a single State beginning with
A.
"There are three," said Diana. "You can look them up on the map and find
them." She brought out an atlas and turned to a map of the United
States.
Alice and Peggy pored over the map eagerly.
"I've found one," said Peggy, "it's Arizona."
"Here is Alabama," said Alice.
"Here, is another one, Arkansas," said Peggy. "Now for the B's."
"There aren't any B's," said Diana.
Tom and Christopher came in just then, and Peggy and Alice listened as
the others played the game. Once in a while Peggy thought of a State
beginning with the right letter, but, as a rule, she thought of the
wrong States. Massachusetts would pop into her head when Uncle Joe was
asking for I's, and South Carolina when he wanted the K's. It was quite
discouraging, for the other children had played the game so much.
"This is only the first part of the game," said Diana. "Uncle Joe has
had us each trace a map of the United States, and then we play we have
to live in one of the States that begins with the same letter our first
name begins with; then we put the tracing over white cardboard and cut
out our State, and we can paint it any color we like. We are going to
put in the rivers and big towns by and by. I can't live in any State but
Delaware," she said regretfully.
"There is only Pennsylvania for me to live in," said Peggy.
"Alice can live in Arizona or Alabama or Arkansas," said Christopher.
"I don't want to live in any of them," said Alice gently, with her
sweetest smile. "I want to live just where I do live."
"But New Hampshire doesn't begin with an A," said Peggy.
"I know it doesn't, but I don't want to live in any other State."
"But it's only a game," said Peggy. "Don't you want to play you live in
nice Alabama where they have such warm winters, and there are such lots
of cunning little black children?"
"No, I don't. I want to cut out a map of New Hampshire and paint it
pink."
"But, Alice, you've got to play the game," said Peggy.
"I'm going to play my own kind of game and cut out a map of New
Hampshire and paint it pink."
"If she doesn't care to live in Alabama or Arizona or Arkansas, we might
let her live in a State beginning with the first letter of her last
name," said Uncle Joe. "How do you feel about living in Ohio or Oklahoma
or Oregon?"
"I don't want to live in any of those States. I want to live in New
Hampshire and paint it pink."
"But you can't," Peggy insisted. "You've got to play the game."
Alice looked up beseechingly at Uncle Joe. She smiled and showed her
dimples. "Dear Uncle Joe," she said sweetly, "can't you fix the game
some way so I can live in New Hampshire and paint it pink?"
Uncle Joe looked thoughtful. A bright idea occurred to him. "Alice, what
word do the three last letters of your last name spell if you begin at
the end and spell backwards?"
"New," said Peggy, before Alice could speak.
"She can live in New Hampshire on that account," said Uncle Joe.
"That isn't fair," said Peggy. "I ought to be able to live in New
Hampshire."
"You can if you like--or in New York, or New Jersey, or New Mexico."
Peggy was dazzled by these opportunities for travel.
"It isn't a bit fair," said Christopher. "Poor Diana oughtn't to have to
live in Delaware when Peggy and Alice have such a lot of States to
choose from."
"It doesn't seem quite fair," Uncle Joe admitted. "I'll have to let
Diana live in a State beginning with a C if she prefers."
"And I am C. C., so I don't have much choice," said Christopher.
"When I get my map of Delaware painted and fixed and I've lived there
awhile, I'll come and live in Colorado with you, Christopher."
"I'm going to begin with Pennsylvania," said Peggy. "I'm going to play
the game in the right way. But where can Uncle Joe live? In Jersey with
the New left off?"
"As I'm uncle to half the children I know, I feel justified in taking up
my residence in the State of Utah," he said.
"Mother," Diana called out, as Mrs. Carter passed the door, "do come in;
you can live in any of eight States, beginning with an M--Maine,
Massachusetts--"
"My mother can, too," Peggy interrupted. "Her name is Mary. What is your
mother's name?"
"Her name is Mary, too."
The two little girls wondered at the coincidence.
"Tom can only live in Tennessee or Texas," said Diana.
"I'm going to live in Texas," said Tom. "Uncle Joe has been there. He
said he saw a prairie fire once and it looked like the waves of the
sea. And at the ranch where he was, the turkeys roosted in trees and the
moon looked as big as a cart wheel."
The children were soon busy tracing their States and cutting them out.
Alice found New Hampshire so hard to do that she was sorry she had not
chosen Alabama, but she would not let anybody know this on any account.
She painted New Hampshire a delicate shade of pink. Peggy painted
Pennsylvania a blue that shaded in with her blue frock. Diana painted
Delaware green, and Tom chose crimson for Texas, the color of the
college he hoped to go to some day.
"I was going to paint Colorado crimson," said Christopher.
"You can't," said Tom. "I have chosen crimson."
"Can't I paint Colorado crimson, Uncle Joe?"
"If you like. I think I'll paint Utah orange, so as to have as much
variety as possible on the map."
"That is a good idea," said Christopher; "I'll paint Colorado yellow."
Alice and Peggy were so interested in the game that they played it every
morning when they first waked up, and they got so they could say the
forty-eight States while they were putting on their shoes and stockings.
It amused them to see which States their different friends could live
in.
They felt there were very few children and still fewer grown people who
ought to be told the game. It was like a secret society. Some people
were so scornful they would think it silly, and they did not care enough
about most people to let them into the secret. Mrs. Owen thought it a
good game, but she was too busy to play it. Age did not seem to make any
difference. Old Michael, for instance, took to it very kindly.
Peggy sat in the wheelbarrow one day while he was raking leaves and she
explained the game to him.
"You are very lucky," she ended, "for you can live in so many
States--Maine, Massachusetts--" she began; and she said over the whole
eight, ending with Minnesota.
"I think I'll try Minnesoty for a change," said the old man. "I've a
cousin who went out to St. Paul. Will you be my grandchild and come and
keep house for me?"
"I'd love to, Mr. Farrell, but I have to live in Pennsylvania. I'm
learning all about William Penn and Independence Hall in Philadelphia,
and Betsy Ross, who made the first flag, so I can tell it to Uncle Joe
when he comes back. And I have to read about New Hampshire to Alice, so
I'm quite busy. Did you know it was called the Granite State, Mr.
Farrell?"
"I have heard tell as much."
"Oh, Mr. Farrell," said Peggy hopping up, "do let me try to rake the
leaves. They dance about as if they were at a party. What does Mrs.
Farrell's name begin with--can she go to Minnesota with you?"
"Her name is Hattie. I guess my old woman will have to stay right here
in New Hampshire. It is hard to break up families that way. My old woman
and I haven't been separated for forty-two years, come Christmas."
Miss Betsy Porter was another of Peggy's friends who was greatly
interested in the game. Peggy often dropped in to see her and her cat.
Miss Betsy Porter always had something very good and spicy to eat. This
time it was spice cake. Peggy was on her way back from the village with
some buttons and tape for her mother, so she could not stop long. Miss
Porter thought it a grand game.
"Only, I am a woman without a country," she said. "There are no States
beginning with B, and I can't even come in on Elizabeth."
"You can come in on your last name," said Peggy. "You can live in
Pennsylvania with me."
"That is great. I went to Philadelphia once when I was a girl." And she
told the eagerly listening Peggy all about the Quaker city with its
straight streets and its old buildings.
"I am afraid if your mother is in a hurry for those buttons and that
tape," said Miss Betsy, "you'd better be going home now, but some
afternoon when you can stay longer I'll read you a book about some of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence."
"What a lucky child I am to have my name begin with a P," Peggy said.
"There can't be any other State as interesting as Pennsylvania."
CHAPTER XII
HOW PEGGY SPENT HER MONEY
As Peggy was going out of Miss Betsy's kitchen door, some hens straggled
along the grass. Some were brown and some were white and some were
yellow. Peggy thought they were all fat, prosperous-looking hens. She
admired their red combs and their yellow legs.
"I wish we had some hens," she said to Miss Betsy. "Eggs cost such a lot
we can't ever have any cake."
"I'd give you some fresh eggs to take back to your mother, only I am
afraid you might slip and break them."
Peggy looked thoughtful. It would be nice to have the eggs, but it would
be hard to have to walk home with the eggs on her mind.
"Mother, I wish we kept hens," she said as she ran into the kitchen.
"Miss Betsy has such nice ones."
"How do you happen to know anything about Miss Betsy's hens?" her mother
asked. "Is calling on Miss Betsy your idea of coming straight home from
the village?"
"You didn't say to come straight home, truly, you didn't, mother. I
thought you wouldn't mind my making a short call on her and the cat."
Mrs. Owen found it as hard to find fault with Peggy as it had been to
find fault with Peggy's father.
"We've got a hen-house out in the yard," Peggy went on. "The people who
lived here before us must have kept hens, so it must be a good climate
for them."
"I have a few things to do besides taking care of hens," said Mrs. Owen
firmly.
"I'd take all the care of them."
"I should as soon trust them to Lady Janet's care."
"But Alice could help me. She'd remind me to feed them."
"And, besides, hens cost a great deal," said Mrs. Owen. She had been
thinking of the possibility of keeping hens.
"Do chickens cost a lot? Couldn't we begin with little chickens and let
them grow into hens?"
"If we want eggs this winter we'd have to buy hens."
"Maybe people will give us a few hens," said Peggy hopefully. "Miss
Betsy has a lot, and the Hortons' farmer has millions; and the Thorntons
have some, and so has Michael Farrell."
"My dear little girl, people who are so fortunate as to have hens prize
them more than if they had gold. You might as well expect me to give
away my preserves and canned vegetables."
Peggy was never tired of looking at the rows of jars of preserves and
vegetables, and the tumblers of jelly that her mother had put up. The
greater part of them had been sent away, and there was enough money in
the bank from their sale to buy winter coats and hats for both of the
children, besides something toward then coal.
Peggy went into the pantry for another look at the shelves. There was a
pint jar of the precious strawberry preserve and four pints of
raspberries and a dozen pints of cherries from their own tree, and there
were a great many jars of blueberries and blackberries, and there was
currant jelly and grape jelly. Peggy liked the rich color of the
strawberries and raspberries and cherries next the more somber
blueberries and blackberries.
The shelf where the vegetables were was almost more delightful in color.
The green peas and beans were next the red tomatoes, and beyond them
were a few jars of pale yellow corn. They had turnips and carrots and
beets stored in the cellar, ready for use.
The children felt very important, and as if their mother could not have
had the garden without their help. As she believed in profit-sharing,
she paid them for part of their work, while some they did just to help
the garden along. At the end of the season they had each earned nearly
two dollars. Their mother made it quite two dollars and told them they
could spend the money exactly as they pleased, provided they did not get
anything to eat with it, like candy.
"You can each get a toy if you like--something that won't break too
easily; or you can get something to wear, or something growing--like a
house plant."
As usual, Alice knew exactly what she wanted most. It was a doll
carriage, and she and Peggy went down to the store and chose it.
Peggy did not care for any of the toys. "I want something that's alive,"
she said, "like a canary-bird, or one of Miss Betsy's hens. I think I'll
buy a hen--that will be most useful. If she laid an egg every day we
could take turns in having a fresh egg."
"That would be great," said Alice.
Miss Betsy Porter was greatly interested in the children's plan. "Only,
are you sure your mother will be willing to let you keep hens?" she
asked prudently.
"Yes, we have a house for them, and she said we could get anything we
liked. She had thought about keeping hens, only they are so expensive."
"I will sell you a Rhode Island Red," said Miss Betsy. "They lay well,
and I will throw in a fine young cock. My neighbors are complaining
because the young spring roosters are beginning to crow, and I was
expecting to have to send them to the market. I'll let Michael Farrell
take them up to your house this afternoon, if your mother will let you
have them. You can stop at his house and send me word by him whether or
not your mother wants them."
Peggy and Alice went out into the yard with Miss Betsy to choose a hen
and a rooster.
"It is like a family," said Peggy, "having two of them. They won't be
lonely. I shall call them Henry Cox and Henrietta Cox."
"Well, children, what did you buy with your two dollars?" Mrs. Owen
asked when they came home that morning.
"I got a carriage for Belle," said Alice.
"And what did you get, Peggy?"
She hesitated--"Something very useful," she said. "Guess, mother. It's
something that will grow and something that is alive."
"A rose in a pot," said her mother.
Peggy laughed. "Oh, mother, you are 'way off. It has feathers."
"You haven't bought a canary-bird?" Mrs. Owen said in tones of dismay.
"No, mother, she is much more useful. It is a hen, and her name is
Henrietta Cox, and Miss Betsy gave me a young cock because he crowed so
he woke up the neighbors; and we haven't any near neighbors. And his
name is Henry Cox."
"A hen and a cock! Peggy, what will you think of next!"
"You said I could get anything I liked, mother, and I am sure a hen is
much more useful than a doll's carriage. I'll let you have one of her
eggs every third morning for your breakfast."
"Did you ever stop to think how they were to be fed? Grain is so high
now many people have stopped raising hens."
"Miss Betsy says the Rhode Island Reds aren't so particular as some
hens. She says you can feed them partly with sour milk and scraps off
the table."
"Sour milk!" said Mrs. Owen; "it's all very well for Miss Betsy to talk
about sour milk, for her brother keeps a cow, and he sends her all the
skim milk she can use. I am surprised she let you have a hen and cock
without consulting me."
"She did say she would send them up this afternoon by old Michael if you
would let me have them," faltered Peggy. "But, oh, mother dear, I do
want them so much. It isn't as if I had spent my money on something
foolish, like candy."
"No, that is true," said Mrs. Owen. After all, she had thought of
keeping hens herself.
"I'll tell you what we'll do, Peggy," she said. "You can sell
Henrietta's eggs to me, when she begins to lay, at whatever the market
price is, and the money can go toward their food, and if there is any
left you can have it to spend. That will be a good lesson in arithmetic
for us."
So Peggy and Alice ran over to old Michael's house, where he was always
to be found at his dinner-hour, to tell him the glad news.
Mrs. Farrell came to the door. She was a prosperous, comfortable looking
person, with a plump, trig figure and smoothly arranged white hair.
Peggy thought of telling her about the geography game, but there was
something about her that made her hesitate. She was afraid Mrs. Farrell
would think it a crazy game.
"Won't you come in, you little dears?" said Mrs. Farrell.
Alice looked pleased at being called a "little dear," but Peggy was all
the more sure that Mrs. Farrell would not care for the geography game.
"I just wanted to see Mr. Farrell a minute," she said.
"He is at dinner. Can't you give me the message?"
"I don't think I could," said Peggy. "It is very important, and it is
not easy to remember all of it. We'll not keep him a minute--truly, we
won't."
"I guess I can remember the message if you can."
"It is about a hen and a rooster that Miss Betsy Porter wants him to
call for to send down to our house--only mother wants our hen-house
fixed first."
How bald it seemed put in this way! If only she could have seen old
Michael himself, how differently she would have worded the message!
"It isn't very hard to remember that message, dearie," said Mrs.
Farrell, in her cooing voice.
Peggy hated to have her call her "dearie." Half the pleasure in her
purchase would be gone if she could not see old Michael. Suddenly, she
had a bright idea. She ran around the side of the house to the kitchen
window and waved her hand to old Michael.
It was one of the warm days in late autumn, and she was still wearing
one of her blue frocks. Her hair was flying about and she pushed it
back. Old Michael loved children, and he never hesitated to come at
their call. He hastily shoved a large piece of apple pie into his mouth,
and, seizing a piece of cheese, he came out of the kitchen door. They
were out of hearing of Mrs. Farrell--that unfortunate "Hattie," who was
doomed always to live in New Hampshire, while her husband was free to
travel into any State, beginning with M, where his imagination led him.
"Well, what is it now?" he asked.
"Oh, Mr. Farrell, the most wonderful thing has happened!" said Peggy; "I
have bought such a lovely hen from Miss Betsy Porter, and she has given
me a young rooster, and I am going to play they are people from the
State of Rhode Island; and their names are Mr. Henry Cox and Mrs.
Henrietta Cox--only, of course, for most people, they are just a cock
and hen--just two Rhode Island Reds."
"I see," said old Michael. "But why are you telling me about it?"
"Miss Betsy said you could bring them to us this afternoon. She said you
were working for her, but mother wanted the hen-house fixed up a little
first. Can you do it to-morrow?"
"I see," said old Michael; "you want the apartment in the hotel made
ready for Mr. and Mrs. Cox?"
"Oh, yes," Peggy said, laughing with delight; "I want everything done
for the people who are renting my house."
"All right, Peggy, I'll look out for the comfort of your tenants."
"My tenants are not going to keep any maid, Mr. Farrell; I've got to
give them most of their meals, although they will get some out, and I
thought you'd advise me what food is cheapest and best."
They talked about the best food for Mr. and Mrs. Cox all the way to
Peggy's house, where Mr. Farrell stopped to inspect the hen-house on his
way to Miss Porter's.
"I always meant to keep hens sometime," Mrs. Owen confided to Mr.
Farrell, "but I did not mean to begin this winter."
"If you have them at all, you might as well have a few more," he said;
"it is a little like summer boarders--the more you have, the more profit
you get."
"I know," said Mrs. Owen, "but unfortunately, you have to begin by
buying the hens."
CHAPTER XIII
MRS. OWEN'S SURPRISE PARTY
Mrs. Owen was to have a birthday, and Peggy and Alice felt something
especial ought to be done to celebrate it. It was Miss Pauline Thornton
who put the idea of a surprise party into Peggy's head. She came over
one rainy evening to tell Mrs. Owen about a surprise party the Sewing
Circle was to give to the minister's wife on her fiftieth birthday. Miss
Pauline Thornton lived with her father in the large gray stone house
behind the stone wall on which Peggy was fond of walking. She was a
great friend of Mrs. Owens, who could never understand why the children
did not like her, for she was tall and good-looking and always wore
beautiful clothes. Older people found her very agreeable and efficient.
Mrs. Owen helped her off with her raincoat. Underneath it was a dress
the color of violets.
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