Tabitha\'s Vacation
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Ruth Alberta Brown >> Tabitha\'s Vacation
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"She had to, or get hit herself," bawled Inez, jigging excitedly from
one foot to the other in her exultation over her cousin's defeat.
"Inez!"
"Well, he needn't have come! We telegraphed them not to!"
"_Inez_!"
The girl subsided, and Billiard found courage to leer triumphantly at
her discomfiture. But Tabitha intercepted the glance, and in that
ominously calm voice which had struck terror to his cowardly heart
before, she announced, "It is too late now to think of that side of the
question. We'll have to make the most of a bad situation; but I _will
not_ tolerate fighting. You may as well understand that first as last.
If you boys can't behave like gentlemen, you can just move on down to
the hotel. Is that plain?"
"Yes, sir--ma'am," stammered the abashed Billiard, glancing uneasily
about for some means of escape, but Tabitha had delivered her
ultimatum, and now swept grandly into the house, satisfied that she had
displayed her authority in a very impressive manner.
Hardly had the screen closed behind her, however, when her sharp ears
caught Billiard's hoarsely whispered question, "Who is that high-headed
geezer?"
"The girl who is taking care of us," answered Mercedes unguardedly.
"Girl?"
"Sure! What did you take her for?"
"A--a new woman. A--one of these things that's trying to vote and do
men's work and such like."
"Oho!" yelled the McKittrick girls in unison. "Why, she ain't much
older'n us!"
"She goes to Ivy Hall in Los Angeles, the boarding school I belong to,"
said Mercedes.
"Honest Injun?"
"Cross my heart!"
"Huh!"
And instinctively Tabitha knew that there was trouble ahead for her.
"Isn't this the worst luck you ever heard of?" she groaned to Gloriana
when once inside the house again.
"If I had my way about it, I'd ship them straight home on the next
train," declared the red-haired girl angrily. "The very idea of their
mother doing such a thing as that! What kind of a woman is she,
anyway?"
"I don't know much about her, except that she is utterly selfish and
very rich. The boys are sent away to school most of the year; and
during vacations she manages to shift them onto some of her relatives.
Fortunately, Jim McKittrick is too far away to be bothered with them
very often."
"But what shall you--we do with them? Shall we tell Mrs. McKittrick
that they have come?"
"Goodness, no! At least not yet. It would just worry her more than
ever and she is worn to distraction now. No, we must make the best of
it this week, and by that time Miss Davis will be here. She was raised
in a family of boys and ought to know how to manage them."
"Well, I am thankful _I_ am not in her shoes," breathed Gloriana. "I
suppose we can get along somehow for the six days that are left. Where
shall you put them?"
"Well, I declare! I had forgotten all about that part of it. They
will think I am a real hospitable hostess." She stepped to the door to
call them, but not a soul was in sight anywhere. Two open suitcases
lay on the ground with their contents scattered all about, but both
owners and their cousins had disappeared.
"Mercedes! Susie!" she called peremptorily, but no one answered; and
not even the sound of their voices at play fell on her listening ear.
"Strange," she muttered. "They were here a minute ago. Where can they
have gone so quickly?"
She was about to start on a tour of investigation when a series of
wild, piercing screams of abject terror rent the air, and Rosslyn came
stumbling down the steep incline behind the house, bruised, scratched,
torn, and covered from head to foot with what looked like blood
Gloriana caught him as he fell, for Tabitha turned faint and sick at
the sight; but a shout of boyish disgust from above brought her to her
senses.
"Aw, come back, you bawl baby! We were just foolin'! You ain't hurt a
mite!" Billiard swaggered into view from behind a tall boulder
half-way up the mountainside, and even Tabitha shuddered at the
spectacle he presented, for he was togged out in war paint and feathers
till he looked fiendish as he brandished a tomahawk in one hand and an
evil-looking knife in the other. At sight of the girl on the narrow
piazza, he hastily retreated behind the rocks again; but Tabitha was
there almost as soon as he. Snatching the gorgeous headdress from the
culprit's head, she trampled it ruthlessly in the sharp gravel,
disarmed the would-be Indian brave, breaking the treasured tomahawk and
knife against the rocks, and shook the cowering savage with strong,
relentless hands. But not a word did she speak, and though her victim
writhed and squirmed and wriggled, he could not break the fierce grip
on his shoulders.
"Don't, don't," he blubbered in desperation. "I didn't mean to scare
him so bad. We were only playing Indian."
"Only--playing--Indian!" panted Tabitha, in scorching scorn. "Look at
those children! You have frightened them all to death!" Pausing an
instant in her vigorous shaking, she pointed at the circle of
sisters,--Mercedes, weak and trembling, bent over the limp form of
little Janie, blowing frantically in the still, white face; a
thoroughly subdued and frightened Toady was wildly fanning poor Irene,
who had likewise crumpled in a faint; while close by sat Susie and Inez
clinging to each other and sobbing in terror.
"Oh, I didn't mean to!" bellowed Billiard, as Tabitha resumed her
shaking. "I thought they'd seen Indians before."
"And so they have, but not such horrible savages as you!" Shake!
Shake! Shake!
Irene sighed faintly and opened her eyes. Toady's heart gave a violent
thump of relief and thanksgiving, and abruptly dropping the headdress
of feathers which he had been using as a fan, he flew to his brother's
rescue.
"Oh, please, Mrs. Tabitha," he pleaded, "you've drubbed him enough.
Shake me if you ain't through yet. You'll have him plumb addled!
Really, we were just in for some fun. We never dreamed the kids would
scare so easy. That's only vegetable dye on Rosslyn's head. He
thought we had scalped him, but we didn't mean to hurt him."
Tabitha glanced down into the entreating brown eyes at her elbow,
straightway forgave Toady, and released her victim so suddenly that he
fell sprawling into a nest of sharp-thorned Mormon pears; but of this
she was unaware, for with one swoop she gathered up the now hysterical
baby, and stalked off toward the house, saying grimly, "You boys stay
right where you are until you are willing to apologize and promise to
behave yourselves in the future. I've a mind to turn you over to the
sheriff now. Come, girls!" Followed by the troop of white, shivering
sisters, she disappeared within doors, and soon quiet reigned in the
Eagles' Nest.
Only then did the cowed Billiard venture to peer from his retreat at
the house below. It was nearing the supper hour and he was hungry, but
Tabitha had said he must apologize and promise good behaviour before he
would be admitted to the family circle. It was evident that she meant
business.
"Toady," he whispered to the other boy, sitting silent and motionless
where he had dropped when Tabitha had left them an hour before.
"Toady, can you see anyone down there?"
Toady glanced off at the hazy flat below with its winding silver ribbon
of railroad track, and the lonely, dingy station house, and shook his
head.
"Aw, not there!" Billiard protested, seeing that his brother's thoughts
had evidently been running in the same channel. "Down to Uncle Jim's,
I mean."
Scarcely shifting his position, dutiful Toady craned his neck around a
boulder, surveyed the quiet mountainside in the waning afternoon light,
and again shook his head.
"Creep down and see what they're doing. Maybe they are talking about
us."
"Go yourself," returned Toady briefly.
"Aw, come now, Toady! She ain't so mad at you, and besides, you're
littler. They wouldn't see you so quick."
Still Toady remained seated.
"We'll have to have some water to wash off this stuff before she'll let
us in to--to apologize," wheedled Billiard.
"_Are_ you going to apologize?"
"Looks like we got to," answered the older boy gloomily. "She's a
reg'lar cyclone. Smashed up half our things already, and like enough
she will sick the sheriff on us like she said, 'nless we
do--er--apologize."
It was very evident that Billiard was not in the habit of apologizing
for anything; and Toady, grinning with no little satisfaction at his
brother's discomfiture, arose and slowly descended by a roundabout
trail to the cottage. He was gone a long time and Billiard was growing
decidedly restless and anxious when he appeared in sight once more.
"She's--they are going to write to Uncle Hogan!" he announced
breathlessly.
"Uncle Hogan!" cried Billiard in dismay.
"Yes, that's just what I heard them say. Mercedes told her how Uncle
Hogan----"
"I'll get even with Miss Mercedes," Billiard interrupted fiercely.
"You better get that paint off your face and hike for the house with
your apology," advised the more easily persuaded brother, "else you'll
never have a chance to get even with anybody again."
"Why?"
"Because if we don't promise to be good inside of an hour, they are
going to ask the--the--some man, sort of a policeman, I guess, to look
after us until Uncle Hogan answers."
"Do you really think they'd write to Uncle Hogan?"
"Sure! Tabitha knows him. She and that Glory girl with the red hair
kept him all night last winter off some mountain he wanted to climb
'cause they didn't know who he was. She had a gun and shot at them;
but when her father got there he said 'twas all right, and Uncle Hogan
thinks Tabitha is the whole cheese now."
"Supposing we do--apologize, will they write to him still?"
"No, I guess not. If you'll promise to behave, they will let you stay
until some woman who's going to take care of the kids most of the
summer gets here. Then she can do as she pleases about writing. You
better knuckle under, Billiard."
The older boy groaned. "You don't seem to care very much," he
complained bitterly, feeling that Toady had deserted him at the most
critical moment.
"I--I've apologized already," acknowledged the other. "I'd rather do
that than have Uncle Hogan get after us."
"So would I," Billiard sulkily decided, and pulling himself up from his
rocky seat, he slowly shambled down the mountainside, with Toady at his
heels hugely enjoying his brother's humiliation, for, though comrades
in mischief, the older boy loved to bully the younger, and Toady had a
long list of scores to settle, so he could not refrain from grinning
broadly behind Billiard's back, particularly since his part of the
disagreeable program had already been accomplished.
"Better wash your face, first," he suggested, as Billiard made straight
for the kitchen door, through which savory odors of supper cooking were
beginning to steal.
"Aw, come off!"
"She won't let you in till you do."
"Well, then, where's the water?"
Toady pointed toward a basin on a nearby rock, and Billiard made a
vigorous, if somewhat hasty toilet. Then, after a moment's further
hesitation, he entered the kitchen with hanging head, and, addressing a
grease spot on the floor by Tabitha's feet, muttered surlily,
"I--er--apologize."
Tabitha's lips twitched. He looked so utterly downcast and abject that
she could scarcely keep from smiling openly. "Are you ready to promise
to behave yourself from now on?"
"Yes, sir--I mean, ma'am," he gulped, flushing angrily as the girls
tittered.
Tabitha instantly silenced their mirth, and turning to the boy, said
graciously, "Then we'll let bygones be bygones; but we'll have no more
such actions while you stay. Your suitcase is in the back bedroom.
Toady will show you. But first, please bring in a couple armfuls of
wood. It looks like rain and----"
"Wood! We never bring in wood at home!" the boy rebelled.
"You are not at home now," Tabitha answered sweetly.
"But--we're paying board!"
"I haven't seen any board money yet. And anyway, we need the wood."
Angrily the boy jerked out a purse from his trousers pocket and slammed
some gold pieces on the table.
"Twenty dollars," she counted. "For how long?"
"All summer."
"Ten weeks! Two dollars a week for two of you! Board on the desert is
cheap at a dollar a day. You can write your mother to that effect; and
in the meantime, perhaps you better put up at the hotel----"
"Oh, she said if anyone made a fuss, she'd pay more," Billiard hastily
explained, for somehow the hotel idea did not appeal to him.
"Well, you tell her a dollar a day for each of you is the regular rate.
And now you will have just about time to get that wood before supper is
ready."
Billiard glanced questioningly up into the clear, olive face above him,
as if he could not believe his ears.
"The pile is close to the door," she continued, paying no attention to
the amazement in his face: "and the woodbox is on the screened porch."
Billiard hesitated, opened his lips as if to speak, closed them again,
and inwardly raging, but outwardly meek, marched out of the door to the
woodpile.
CHAPTER IV
MISCHIEF MAKERS
Tabitha retired late that night, weary but triumphant, congratulating
herself that Billiard was conquered; but she had reckoned without her
host. Two little heathen such as Williard and Theodore McKittrick are
not to be converted in one day, nor are they apt to be forced into
reforming. Brought up with utter disregard for other people's rights,
by a mother who bore them no particular love, but who surrounded them
with every luxury money could buy simply because she found it less
trouble to indulge than to deny them, it is scarcely to be wondered at
that they had no idea of honor or obedience.
Their father, Dennis McKittrick, had been more successful than his
brothers in his struggle for wealth. After amassing a comfortable
fortune, he had not lived to enjoy it, and before his oldest son had
seen his sixth birthday, the father was laid to rest in the shadow of a
resplendent monument in an Eastern cemetery; and the rearing of the two
boys was left wholly to their fashion-plate mother, whose only gods
were dress and personal pleasure. Tabitha had heard many stories of
the selfish, heartless woman, who found her motherhood a burden rather
than a blessing, but she did not understand the difficulties one must
contend with in attempting to reform such lawless youths, and being
little more than a child herself, it was only natural that she should
make mistakes.
But she did not at once realize this fact, for Billiard, completely
surprised by the unusual treatment accorded him, was a model of
obedience and politeness for the next two days, and Tabitha was
deceived into thinking his reformation was genuine and lasting; while
in reality, the young scapegrace was merely studying the unique
situation and plotting how to "get even" with the girl who already had
mastered him twice. A coward at heart, he knew he could not come out
openly and fight her, so he slyly planned little annoyances to hinder
her work and try her patience. Yet so adroitly did he manoeuvre that
Tabitha was some time in finding out the real culprit.
"My brefus food ain't nice," wailed Janie, the third morning of her
cousins' stay.
"Nor mine, either," protested Rosslyn, tasting his critically, and
wrinkling his nose in disgust.
"You've salted it something fierce," said Billiard, winking solemnly at
Toady while Tabitha was busy sampling her dish of porridge.
"It's so salt that sugar doesn't sweeten it," added Susie, making a wry
face at the first mouthful and taking a hasty swallow of water.
Tabitha's mystified face quickly cleared. Seizing the sugar-bowl, she
cautiously tasted its contents, and turning toward Inez, said
accusingly, "You filled it with salt instead of sugar!"
"Then someone put the salt cup in the sugar barrel," cried Inez
indignantly, "'cause I just poured one cupful into the sugar-bowl."
"Well, be more careful the next time," admonished the black-eyed girl,
retreating to the pantry for a fresh supply of sweetening; and
Billiard, elated at the success of his first attempt, determined to try
again.
"What in the world did you put in that salad dressing, Glory?" cried
Tabitha, snatching up her glass of water with eager hands.
"What's the matter with it?" demanded the second cook, whose turn it
was to wait upon the table that day.
"You used ginger 'stead of mustard," scolded Toady, who had a
particular aversion for red hair, and took little pains to conceal it.
Gloriana had her suspicions as to how such an accident could have
happened, but a hurried visit to the pantry disclosed the spice cans in
their proper places, all correctly labelled; so she reluctantly
admitted her mistake, but decided to keep her eyes open.
"There's soap in my glass of water," complained Irene at the next meal.
"Soap!" echoed Mercedes. "I washed those glasses myself, and never
used a bit of soap on them! That's the way mamma told us to wash them."
But the fact still remained that not only was Irene's glass soapy, but
more than half the dishes on the table tasted of Fels Naptha. Tabitha
looked concerned, but Billiard and Toady were so innocent appearing
that she never suspected them of having had a hand in the affair.
The next time it was Tabitha's biscuits. When they appeared on the
table they were as thin as wafers and as hard as bricks. In some way
she had substituted corn starch for baking powder; but as another
hurried visit to the pantry showed both articles where they belonged on
their respective shelves, she concluded that carelessness on her part
had caused the trouble, and let the matter drop.
Then the house began to be infested with all sorts of obnoxious insects
and reptiles. Mercedes found two huge grasshoppers in the soup one
day; a long, wriggling centipede fell out of the cook-book as Tabitha
turned its pages in search of a favorite recipe; a scorpion dropped off
the cake plate which Gloriana was in the act of passing, so frightening
the girl that she dashed cake, dish and all onto the floor, and
promptly had hysterics. Horned toads, ugly lizards, and worms of every
description made their appearance by the dozen, until even Tabitha grew
alarmed; but still she did not suspect the cause of such an invasion,
as the two brothers were apparently as docile and obedient as their
gentler cousins.
Even when they found a dead rattler coiled up in the middle of the
kitchen floor, Tabitha attributed it to Carrie's dog, General, who
still spent much of his time at the McKittrick cottage. Nor did she
notice that the reptile was coiled in a most impossible manner, with
its head propped up by two tiny wires. She merely hustled the thing
out of doors, hacked it into pieces with the axe, and buried the
remnants under a pile of rocks to make sure no harm came of them. It
never occurred to her to wonder how General, who was not allowed in the
house, could have dragged the snake inside without someone seeing or
hearing him, for he was proud of his snake-killing accomplishment and
always made a big commotion when he succeeded in trapping one. So the
culprits enjoyed the girls' scare, and retired to the water-tank behind
the assayer's office to hatch up some new scheme.
Only Gloriana, whose cordial dislike for boys, caused by her unhappy
experiences in Manchester, made her suspicious of all that species of
humanity, seemed aware of what was going on, but she could not catch
them red-handed. And knowing that she suspected them, the brothers
made life miserable for her in a hundred ways. They hid her crutch in
the most out-of-way places, adroitly misplaced her cooking utensils, or
whatever article she was about to use, causing her many a long and
annoying search when she was in a hurry. They stopped the clock or set
it ahead with aggravating frequency; and discovering that the plucky
girl grimly bore their tormenting in silence, they grew bolder, jumping
out at her from unexpected corners, tweaking her long braids, tripping
her up, and calling her "Carrots," or "Red-top," when Tabitha was out
of hearing, for they still entertained a wholesome fear of that
strong-armed, hot-tempered little housekeeper, who demanded instant
obedience from her charges, and was able to enforce her authority by
main strength if necessary.
Also, they felt a certain boyish admiration for the tall, lithe girl
who bore such a record for bravery, though not for the world would they
have admitted the fact, even to each other; and they could not resist
plaguing her on the sly whenever a chance presented itself. But to
tease her openly was out of the question; so Gloriana received a double
share of tormenting, which she bore with such uncomplaining fortitude
that the boys forgot to be cautious, and one afternoon while Tabitha
was in town on an errand, Mercedes came upon them as they were limping
about the kitchen in an exaggerated fashion chanting with tuneless
voices,
"Baa-baa, black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full;
One for the master, one for the dame,
And one for the 'gory head' who limps awful lame."
Tears were standing in the tired gray eyes, but Gloriana, with her back
resolutely turned toward her tormentors, scrubbed her pan of vegetables
more vigorously, and tried not to hear the taunting words, though she
knew from the sound of their steps that the boys were circling nearer
and ever nearer, and would soon jerk off her hair-ribbon or poke her in
the back.
"Cowards!" exploded Mercedes wrathfully. "You'd never dare do that if
Tabitha was here! I'm going to tell her just how mean you are!"
"Tattletale, tattletale!" jeered Billiard, taking a rapid survey of the
yard as he limped past the door, to see if the other housekeeper had by
any chance returned from the post-office.
"You wait and see what you get when Tabby finds out what you have been
doing," threatened the girl; and the little name slipping inadvertently
from her tongue gave the boys another inspiration.
"Tabby Catt, Tabby Catt," they began in
unison, "where have you been?
I've been to Silver Bow to buy me a bean.
Tabby Catt, Tabby Catt, what saw you there?
I saw 'Gory Hanner' with her fearful red hair."
So intent were they upon rendering their new song, that neither boy
heard the screen open and close softly behind him, but Mercedes caught
a glimpse of the set, white face and flashing eyes through the doorway,
and held her breath in mingled fear and expectation.
"Billy goat, Billy goat, where have you been?" a low, ominous voice
interrupted; and the two tormentors came to an abrupt halt in the
middle of the floor, paralyzed at the unexpected appearance of the
black-haired girl.
"A-chewing the whiskers, that grow under my chin," the voice calmly
finished, and seizing the pan of dirty water from which Gloriana had
just rescued the last potato, Tabitha dashed its contents over the
astonished duet. Then realizing that once more she had let go of her
fiery temper, she fled from the house up the trail to a great boulder
on the summit of the mountain, and threw herself face down in an
abandon of shame, remorse and despair.
"Oh, dear, why can't I be good?" she sobbed. "Just when I think I can
hold onto myself and be ladylike no matter how mad I get, something
comes up to show me that I'm mistaken. I'm just as hateful as
Billiard! Oh, dear! And I thought he was being so good, and all the
while he was doing mean things behind my back. I make a miserable
fizzle of everything I undertake. What would Mrs. McKittrick say if
she could have seen me a few minutes ago? Now I've lost all the hold I
had on the boys. They can't respect anyone who doesn't control her
temper any better than I.
"How I wish I had never offered to take care of the tribe of
McKittrick! No, that isn't so, either, for then the mother couldn't
have gone inside with Mr. McKittrick, and perhaps the operation would
have killed him. I'm glad he had his chance, bad boys or no bad boys!
But oh, I am so thankful that Miss Davis will soon be home. I will
never play housekeeper again, never! But now,--how can I make it right
with Billiard and Toady? What a world this is to live in! Always
stepping on someone's toes and then having to beg pardon. The trouble
of it is I--I don't believe I am very sorry that I doused the boys. I
am sorry I got so mad and did such a hateful thing, of course, but they
deserved more than they got. And yet they aren't to blame, either,
after the bringing up they have had. I suppose--it's up to me--to do
the apologizing act--myself--this trip."
Drying her eyes and taking a firm grip on herself, she descended from
her refuge and sought out the boys in their room.
"Come in," Billiard called gruffly in response to her knock, though
inwardly he was quaking with fear lest it might be the sheriff or Uncle
Hogan, whose authority he had never but once dared to defy. So he was
visibly relieved when he saw Tabitha standing alone on the threshold,
but waited uncertainly for her to state her errand.
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