"Oh, dear!" Nannie exclaimed, when he had finished, "I wish they did not feel that way about things. I did so hope they were going to bring their father here and let us nurse him, and live with us, and be just like my own sisters-I've always wanted a sister so! I can't seem to make it out exactly, pa, how girls like that who have always had every mortal thing on earth, can work just like poor girls."

"No, you can't understand, kitten," stroking her head affectionately; "it's against all the traditions of your bringing up that you should, for your mother takes such extreme views. But for my part, I think they are very n.o.ble and deserve tremendous credit for taking the stand they have."

"Oh! so do I," echoed the girl enthusiastically. "I just love them for it. I think it is grand to be so heroic and brave. Why, just think, pa, they are not very much older than I, and yet all of a sudden it seems as if they were women and I only a baby."

"We want to keep our little girl a while yet," he said. "I have no fear but she will be womanly enough when the time comes."

"We did have the loveliest times when the girls were here, didn't we?"

she said reminiscently. "They could ride as well as any girl in the county, and Julie was the prettiest thing I ever saw. Do you remember the funny tricks Hester did-springing on a horse bareback, and riding backward, and things she'd learned from the cowboys? Oh! I did miss them terribly when they went away."

"They were unusually companionable to us all, I think, Nannie. I am sure I missed them unspeakably."

The girl sat down on the arm of his chair and as she leaned her head against his, two tears trickled down the end of her nose and into his neck. He put his arms about her and drew her into his lap, where she lay, a dejected little heap, sobbing bitterly.

"There, there, kitten, don't cry; Mr. Dale may get better, and the girls may be able to bring him down for a long visit some time-who knows?"

said the kindly Colonel, who was already planning in his mind how he could defray the expenses, should such a journey be possible. "We will all have some happy times together again, Nannie; you'll see, little girl."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GIRL SAT DOWN ON THE ARM OF HIS CHAIR]

Nan heaved a sigh and was comforted. It is easy to be sanguine at seventeen.

Suddenly she exclaimed: "Do you know what?" sitting up and revealing a tear-stained face and two br.i.m.m.i.n.g brown eyes which she rubbed with the Colonel's handkerchief, her own having long since been reduced to a damp little ball; "I'm going to write to the girls not to mind a thing mummie writes them, for she really loves them just the same, and you and I love them heaps more-if such a thing is possible-and think about them and just hope with all our might and main that Cousin Dale will be better, and they won't have to work themselves to death. Oh, don't I just wish I could help them!" "Pa!" she cried in a sudden inspiration, "you know the new saddle you were going to give me for my birthday?"

"Yes, Nannie."

"Well, you have not bought it, have you? and I don't want it-I want you to send the money to the girls instead."

"But, Nannie, child, you have talked of that saddle for months. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Oh! yes," she cried, rapturously with a childish clap of her hands; "I'd love to do it more than anything. Can you see about it to-day?" Her soft brown eyes were not br.i.m.m.i.n.g now, but full of eagerness.

"I am almost afraid," said the Colonel, shaking his head, "that your mother will not consent and that the girls might refuse to let you do it if they knew."

"Oh, they must not know," said Nannie with an air of importance borne of the project in hand. "No one must know, not even mummie; it is a secret between you and me. We will send an anonymous letter the way they do in books. Oh! won't it be fun?"

"Who ever would have suspected we had an arch-conspirator in our midst,"

said the Colonel slyly, "and that she would victimize an old man like me?" In his heart he was rejoicing over her pretty exhibition of girlish love and unselfishness. Then more seriously, he added: "I am afraid we shall have to wait until your birthday really comes round, Puss. I have not the money just now."

"But you are going to let me do it, aren't you? No matter if we do have to wait, come and begin the letter now. We must make it very mysterious, and manage to get it to them somehow so they will never suspect. How do you suppose we can?" She looked at him, confident that he would suggest something.

And he did. But what he said was whispered so low that even we cannot hear. The effect on her was instantaneous, and caused her to dance about delightedly. Then suddenly remembering that her mother was sleeping in an adjacent room, she became subdued and catching her father by the arm drew him quietly into the house.

CHAPTER V

It is not until a great crisis is past that one comprehends with any clearness of vision the mult.i.tudinous events that whirl about the one supreme fact. Stunned by the first shock, one wakes to learn that close on the heels of disaster come the consequences-pell-mell, helter-skelter, pushing, crowding with a grim insistence from which there is no escape. It was small wonder, then, that to the Dale girls the world seemed topsy-turvy.

A change being inevitable, their one desire was to get it over quickly, the first of October, therefore, saw them moved into new quarters. The arrangements had been made by Dr. Ware, who effected a compromise with the girls-he offering them a vacant apartment in a house he owned, they gladly accepting this home if he would allow them to pay rent when they became successful wage-earners. The good Doctor sighed and consented; he recognized there was no thwarting their earnest purpose. In the first discussion of plans, he had suggested a little house in the suburbs; but Hester, with her practical nature fast developing, had said that to do business they must be within reach of people-in the midst of things.

She did not quite know how she knew this-perhaps it was more that she felt it instinctively; but it met with Dr. Ware's approval and had great weight with Julie, who secretly longed for the country, but put aside all personal inclination and voted with her sister. The result was a flat in a quiet, unpretentious neighborhood, which yet took on a semblance of gentility from its proximity to Crana Street.

By methods known only to himself, Dr. Ware saved furniture enough to make the place comfortable, while Bridget, who a.s.sumed mysterious airs for days before their departure, saw to it that there was no lack of household necessities. Bridget was no small factor in those days. She came to the front with tremendous energy, backed up her young mistresses in all their plans, and vowed she would never leave them. So the little family held together, which was the main thing, and the girls settled themselves in the new quarters with brave spirits-was not this, after all, the real meaning of "making a home for Dad"?

All the choicest things were brought to the furnishing of his room; the gayest pictures to relieve the tedium of the weary hours, his best loved books near at hand, though he could no longer read or even reach out his hand to touch them. In the window-sill Julie had set up a miniature conservatory of potted plants that promised to bloom gayly, for down upon them poured the morning sun, filling the room with golden light.

This was their resting-place in the new life-their father the center about whom they gathered in every spare moment-the room a little shrine from which in the midst of their attendance upon him many a silent prayer for strength and courage went up to G.o.d.

The other sleeping-rooms were bedrooms by courtesy-mere closets, one of which was given to Bridget and in the other the girls managed to squeeze a double bed. Hester suggested that berths would be much more convenient, and only the lack of money prevented her having that sort of sleeping arrangement constructed.

"Julie!" she exclaimed, in the first days of squeezing themselves in, "it is something like living in the car again, isn't it? only it is so-so different. I believe I'll call the flat 'The Hustle'-only instead of _its_ hustling like the car, we'll be the ones. Oh, Julie dear, to think of never racing around the country like that again!"

"Don't Hester; I can't bear to think of it." In spite of her good resolutions Julie's courage sometimes failed her.

A few days later Hester came into the kitchen one morning, her arms full of paper bags strongly suggestive of the corner grocery. "There!" she cried, "I've invested my last dollar in things for the cake."

"Is it to-day you are going to see Miss Ware?" Julie asked.

"Yes, if the cake comes out all right. Roll up your sleeve, old girl, and we'll begin." Hester suited the action to the words by weighing the ingredients and turning the b.u.t.ter into a bowl. But ah! how hard it was to put her pretty hand into it-how greasy the b.u.t.ter felt and how sandy the sugar, and how unpleasant the general stickiness! But she worked it through her fingers energetically, while Julie beat the eggs.

"It is going to be death on our hands, my dear," remarked Hester, picking up a knife with which she sc.r.a.ped the dough from her fingers.

"I wish you would always let me do that part, Hester. I know how you will feel it to hurt your hands."

"Well, as if I'd be likely to! No one part is worse than another. We'll get used to it after a while, though I know our hands will spread out to twice their natural size."

"Perhaps even if they do get big and not quite so fine as they are now, _perhaps_ we won't mind, Hester, if we just think of it as scars in the battle, you know. Don't you know how Daddy has often talked of the honorable scars in the battle of life? We're just finding out what that means, old girl."

"Well, if you haven't a most blessed faculty for putting a comfortable construction on everything!" Hester emphasized her words by a last vigorous beat of the dough and held out the spoon to her sister. "Just taste this, will you, Julie? I think it's fine."

"Umph, it is," agreed Julie, who had disdained the spoon, and dabbed her finger in the mixture after the manner of cooks. "But, my dear, if we create a demand for cake like that which requires only the whites of eggs, what shall we do with the yolks? Eat them, I suppose," making up a wry face.

"They are better than nothing and I do not see chickens hopping in the window, do you?"

"No," reluctantly. "We have fifteen dollars in the house," she announced solemnly. "How long do you suppose we can live on that?"

"I am sure I don't know, Julie. We must learn to eat less, and that is no joke. I'll tell you what, one of the hardest things is learning to do without what has always seemed absolutely necessary." There was a husky sound in Hester's voice which Julie did not like to hear.

"No matter, dear, we are young and strong, and we will accomplish something before we get through. Why, if you stop to think of it, nearly every one who has made a success of life has started in the smallest kind of way."

Hester nodded.

"Did you say you were going to see Miss Ware to-day?"

"Yes, I think I had better take her this loaf if it bakes properly. Will you come with me, Julie?"

"No, dear, I think you will manage better alone, though I'll go of course, if you want me."

"No, I had rather go alone," said Hester.