Chapter VIII At the Cottage
Johnny found plenty of time for undisturbed possession of the sky-room, for Felix was always off on his bicycle in the morning on pleasant days; so that, when Johnny preferred to stay at home, he was sure of the time until noon to himself. When he could not persuade “Prof.” to accompany him, Felix generally found Harrison Brown quite ready; and since Harrison was a pleasant, well-disposed boy, Mr. Le Bras had given Felix permission to go with him at any time in the morning. As bicycle-riding was vetoed for the afternoon, Felix had various expedients for amusement during that portion of the day, among which were lawn-tennis at a neighbor’s, base-ball with some boys on the park towards evening, and other outdoor recreations. In fact, he was in the house so seldom that Johnny experienced very little inconvenience after the first terror at his coming had subsided. And Felix had never behaved well for so many days in his life before, as since his residence with his uncle: his parents would have been greatly pleased and astonished at his unusual affability and tractableness, which were simply the result of the firm, orderly government under which he found himself placed.
Felix had read to Pierre every morning for two weeks, and at the end of that time accompanied his uncle to Boston, the latter having expressed himself satisfied with the test-reading. Johnny had accompanied them, and, as he was quite familiar with Boston, had shown his cousin the principal sights while his father was transacting the business on which he had come. As soon as Mr. Le Bras was at liberty, he took the boys down the harbor, to Nantasket Beach, after which they returned home.
Felix had made so much improvement, during the two weeks, in reading, that he was now quite ready to take part in the evening readings; and this practice, with the standing instructions Pierre had given him, caused him to make constant improvement.
The morning lessons in the fairy-story had been given by Pierre in his own room, which was the spare chamber. The lesson always began by Pierre’s reading the portion of the story he wished Felix to read, while Felix listened to him, with the purpose of imitating him as nearly as possible when his turn came. As Pierre was a good elocutionist, he read very finely, changing his voice admirably; so that, by the second or third lesson, Felix had nearly given up the monotone which had helped to make his own reading so painful to hear. By being made to read over any words that sounded indistinct, Felix soon overcame the defects of his enunciation. Pierre made him spell, by dividing into syllables, all the words he could not pronounce. This discipline was kept up also during the evening readings, for Felix’s benefit. Of course, the drill rather detracted from the interest of what Felix read; but no one was inclined to complain, except Sue, who had been strictly charged to exhibit no impatience, or say any thing that could discourage Felix or hurt his feelings. He was certainly making a braver attempt to overcome his deficiencies than any one could have expected of him, and his aunt was certain that the example of Rick in the story helped him not a little. “I think,” said Sue one day, “that Rick Lordelle was exactly like Felix in every way,—anyhow, as Felix used to be, whenever we went to see him in New York; though I think he’s an ever so much better boy now; and I like him first-rate, when he isn’t too rough, and don’t get to teasing me awful bad.”
By the last of July, Mr. Le Bras was able to leave his business for a while, and accompany the family to his brother’s seaside cottage. They started off one pleasant morning, with trunks and valises, a very merry company. Mr. Le Bras himself was almost as light-hearted as a boy at getting away from his office: and Pierre, who was a great lover of the sea, by which he had lived when he was a little boy, was full of anticipations of fishing and hunting excursions; he carried his gun in his hand, and had a fishing basket and tackle in his trunk. As for Johnny, Felix, and Sue, of course they were exceedingly happy: Felix and Sue chattered incessantly.
It was a four hours’ journey, with one change of cars. They reached the village nearest the cottage about noon, and found Oliver waiting for them with the carriage. As they were getting out of the cars, an enormous dog jumped upon Felix, barking loudly, and then began to bound about him and the rest of the party with every demonstration of joy possible.
“Why, Clyde!” exclaimed Felix. “Yes, it is Clyde! Of course it is! But how did he ever come here? Where did you find him, Oliver?”
“He jumped off the cars one day, and came right over to the cottage,” replied Oliver, with a smiling side-glance at Mr. Le Bras.
“Well, now! if that wasn’t knowing of him!” said Felix. “But I wonder how he knew which train to take, and how the conductor came to let him stay on, and how he happened to know just what station to get off at?”
“But you’ve always heard tell, Felix, that dogs are mighty knowin’ creatures,” returned Oliver, smiling from ear to ear.
“But they’re not quite so knowing as that, after all,” said Johnny: “there’s some other explanation, if we could only find out.”
“I’ll tell you just how it was, boys,” said Mr. Le Bras, as soon as they were all stowed in the roomy two-horse carriage, and Oliver had started off, with Clyde following behind, wagging his tail joyously. “I think I must confess, now”—
“Oh! you did it, did you?” interrupted Sue. “Before I’d have thought”—
“Hush, Sue!” said her mother: “you must not interrupt papa.”
“Well, the long and short of it is, Felix, that it was unpleasant for us to have such a great, warm-hearted dog as Clyde rushing into a city-house, with his feet dusty or muddy, and jumping up on our clothes, and on the furniture, to say nothing of his tracks on the carpets; and so I concluded, after a little observation of his mischief, to send him down to the cottage. But as I didn’t know you as well as I do now, and wrongly supposed, you might be vexed with me, and not get over it very easily, if I told you Clyde must be banished from the city, I took him down to my office one morning, wrote a note to Oliver, which I tied to his collar, and then accompanied him to the depot, and put him in charge of the conductor, who agreed to hand him over to the conductor of the other road, with instructions to put him off at this station, where I was certain, if he did not find his way to the cottage himself, some one would carry him there; since I knew Oliver would be well known all about here.”
“So that’s the trick you played on me!” replied Felix, looking at his uncle with more of an expression of admiration than indignation. “You’re a pretty fellow, ain’t you? Now, I’ll bet I’ll play you as good a trick as that before you go home!”
“But I thought conductors would not allow dogs on board the cars,” said Johnny.
“The conductor said he would have him tied up in the baggage-car; but I didn’t stop to see what disposal he made of him, beyond the fact that he gave him in charge to one of the baggage-men, who said he would see that it was all right. I offered either to buy Clyde a half ticket, or pay his way as freight; but the conductor, who is a friend of mine, said it was unnecessary, and that the other conductor would be glad to oblige him. So Clyde came as a deadhead.”
“I’m mighty glad he wasn’t lost,” said Felix, “and that I didn’t spend any of my money advertising him. I don’t care so much for the money; but you see, if I’d advertised him, I should have been all the more fooled. I didn’t know how to get along without Clyde down here by the water, and I was going to remind you of your promise that I should have another dog, if he didn’t turn up before we came to the cottage; but we were all in such a hurry and excitement this morning, that I forgot all about it.”
After passing through the village, they came upon a very hard, handsome road perfectly white.
“What makes this road so white?” asked Sue.
“It is a shell road,” replied Felix: “it has been covered with clam and oyster shells, and the carriage-wheels have powdered the shells.”
“It is a very handsome road,” remarked Johnny, “and will be fine for our bicycles.”
“Capital!” returned Felix; “for it is a very long road, and even as a floor; it extends two miles at least, as far as two monstrous cottages which are the only ones beyond ours, though ours is a mile this side of them.”
The shell road soon led along the beach, and in front of a row of small but pretty cottages built quite closely together. Beyond these cottages were larger summer residences, placed much farther apart. As they drove on, there were no more houses to be seen.
“Why! Where is your cottage, Felix?” asked Johnny.
“Oh! you’ll see it in a minute.”
They soon came to a sharp turn in the beach, and just ahead was a handsome house in the Queen Anne style.
“Oh! what a pretty house!” exclaimed Sue. “Is that your cottage?”
“No; but ours is just as handsome; I think ours is painted handsomer.”
There was a little strip of woods beyond the Queen Anne cottage; but when they were past this obstacle to the view, they came suddenly upon another cottage, which was really a large wooden house, built in fancy style, abounding in odd and pretty windows, balconies, and verandas.
Before Sue had time to ask if this was the cottage, Oliver entered a driveway at the right, which led, with a broad sweep, up to the front-door, and continued around the house.
Oliver’s wife met them at the door with,—
“I’m awful glad to see all of you! It’s ben dreadful lonesome here without the folks, and nothin’ to do to keep one busy.”
“You must not suppose, Mary,” replied Mrs. Le Bras, “that you will have all the work to do for such a company. Katie will be here to-night: she could not get away this morning very well.”
The interior of the cottage was prettily furnished with straw mattings, wicker chairs, light curtains, and other furnishings in style appropriate for a summer residence: nothing was lacking to make it as convenient and comfortable as possible. Mrs. Le Bras had her trunks carried to the chamber facing the water, and told Pierre and the children that they could make a selection of the other chambers to suit themselves, if the boys and Sue came to no disagreement in doing so. Johnny said he thought Felix ought to choose first, because it was his father’s cottage; but Felix insisted that Pierre should have the first choice. Pierre said he should like the chamber looking up the road, as that direction, being free from houses, was where he should be most likely to see game. Since that was the most retired room, Felix seemed to think it was the worst choice that could be made; but Pierre said he was perfectly satisfied.
“Felix must choose next,” said Johnny, “because he is the next oldest.”
“Then, I’ll take the room I had last summer, which looks down the beach. To be sure, you can’t see down the beach only a little way, on account of the grove: but there’s a real nice girl lives in the cottage there; and when she could play with me, she used to hang a blue ribbon out of that window in the corner, which is the only one you can see through the trees. I sha’n’t want to play with her this year, because I have other company; but I was glad enough to, last year, for there wasn’t a boy or another girl in any of the other cottages around here.—And now it’s your turn, Johnny.”
“I’ll take the corner room next to yours, then, which has one window toward the woods, and two towards the grounds back of the house, where there is such a fine huckleberry pasture in view, with rocks and juniper-trees. Now for you, Sue.”
“I think I’ll take the little room that opens out of mamma’s, because that looks towards the sea too; and although it isn’t as big as your rooms, if it gets too little for me any time, I can go right through into mamma’s big room. There is a real cunning balcony out of the little room, too, and I can sit out there ever so much.”
“Yes,” said Felix: “there is a canopy there; and, if you draw it up, it will make it cool and shady in the balcony any time.”
“There is the north-west corner room left for company,” said Johnny.
“But where will Katie sleep?” asked Sue.
“There are two splendid rooms up the next flight, a good deal like your sky-room at home,” replied Felix: “Oliver and his wife have one of them, and Katie can have the other. Come up, and I’ll show it to you.”
The verdict was that Katie’s room was very pleasant indeed, and had the best landward view of any; since you could see through and over the grove, and down the beach from the east window, and far beyond the huckleberry pasture, to a country road in the distance, from the north windows. It had a west window also, looking much farther west than Pierre’s room; so that, if he had not already chosen, he thought he should have preferred that room. The boys said, however, that he must not change; for they wanted him on the same floor with themselves. By the time the selection was made, Mary announced dinner and; they went down into the cool dining-room, which looked very inviting, with its neatly set table.
Mr. Le Bras was seated before a platter of roast lamb, with a smoking dish of potatoes by its side; while bread, green peas, and other accompaniments were interspersed at suitable intervals.
“Mrs. Oliver has treated us very handsomely,” said Mr. Le Bras; “although we wrote that she must not put herself out, since we could very well wait till Kate arrived, and I had a chance to go marketing.”
“Where shall I go to hire a sail-boat, Felix?” inquired Mr. Le Bras when dinner was over.
“Hire a boat? Why, we’ve got two boats—a row-boat and a sail-boat—of our own!”
“I remember, now, hearing you say so; but as I saw no boat around here, I had forgotten about it. Where are the boats kept?”
“They are down at the pier usually, when they are in use. I’ll go and ask Oliver about them.”
Oliver soon came in with Felix, and stated that the boats were at the pier which they had noticed just this side of the row of cottages; they had been in the keeping of a man in the village who owned a boat-house, and had not been taken out until Oliver heard Mr. Le Bras was coming; but, the day before, he had told the man to bring them to the pier, and he presumed they would be found there, although he had forgotten to notice as they came past. Felix’s father was intending to have a little wharf built out in front of the cottage, but he had not been able to attend to it yet.
“But the beach comes to an end for a while, a little above here,” continued Oliver; “and you can run a boat up there, and land by the rocks, when you don’t want to go down as far as the pier; but the pier is a handier place to get out and in, if you’ve got ladies along.”
Sue was very anxious then to see the pony and dog-cart which Felix said she could use. Oliver told her he would harness the pony by and by, so that she could drive along the beach.
“But it won’t be half so nice to go alone, and the boys don’t care any thing about riding in a dog-cart.”
“I shouldn’t at all wonder,” said Mary, who was standing in the kitchen-door, “if Miss Julia, the young lady who lives in the next cottage, would like to ride with you: she has asked to borrow the dog-cart several times herself, when she’s had young friends here, and she seems to like it very much. Mr. Le Bras told her she could take it any time she wanted it.”
“I wish some one would ask her,” said Sue. “Won’t you, Felix?”
“Yes: if you and Johnny will come and sit in the front piazza, I’ll go and ask her to come over here and get acquainted.”
Accordingly, Johnny and Sue sat down in the veranda while Felix ran off towards the cottage. Pierre was just going up the road with his gun.
“Don’t you want to get back in time for a sail about four?” asked Mr. Le Bras. “Oliver, who, they say, is a good hand with a boat, is going to take Mrs. Le Bras and myself out about that time, and we should like to have you along.”
“Which way shall you go?” inquired Pierre, stopping.
“We thought we would go up toward the cottages above here. Oliver tells me there is a good landing there; and, as I have a little business with a gentleman who lives in one of the cottages, I thought I would make him a call.”
“I am going up that way,” replied Pierre; “and I will be around about the time you arrive, and come back with you, if you are willing.”
“Certainly,” replied Mr. Le Bras, who was standing in the front-door: “we will be on the lookout for you.”
Presently Felix came back, accompanied by a pleasant-looking girl of about Johnny’s age: she had golden-brown wavy hair, and eyes that looked quite blue before she came into the shade of the piazza, after which they appeared to be of a grayish color, with a slight suspicion of brown in them; they were very bright eyes, that seemed to take in every thing at a glance.
“This is my cousin Johnny, Julia, and this is Sue,” said Felix, as if he thought a very slight introduction indeed would answer for a little girl like Sue. But Sue pieced out her introduction by saying, “I’m Johnny’s sister: but I sha’n’t tell that I’m Felix’s cousin, because he wouldn’t say so himself; and I don’t much care, because I’ve got a good many relations without him.”
Julia laughed heartily at this, and Felix looked a little nonplussed.
“I’m real glad there are to be so many young folks here this season,” said Julia: “there wasn’t any one here last summer, except Felix, without I went ever so far to see them. It wasn’t pleasant at all: I was just as homesick as I could be. But now I think we can have very nice times, unless,”—and she looked questioningly at Johnny,—“unless Johnny is as great a tease as Felix is.”
“Johnny is not a bit of a tease,” said Sue: “I don’t know as he ever tried to tease me in his life; though I tease him once in a great while, when I have what he calls one of my ‘high times.’”
“He must be a new kind of a boy if he don’t tease,” returned Julia: “every boy I ever knew liked to tease, but Felix is the very worst boy to plague any one I ever saw.”
Felix laughed, and made up a comic face.
“But you liked to play with him last year, or you wouldn’t have hung the blue ribbon out of the window,” replied Sue.
“Now, you go and tell every thing! that’s just like you!” exclaimed Felix, with a look of vexation.
“He didn’t see the blue ribbon very often,” replied Julia, laughing. “After he had teased me real hard, I wouldn’t play with him for ever so long, and that happened pretty often. I guess he wouldn’t have got on very well if it hadn’t been for a boy who came up from one of the cottages.”
“I wonder if Jack is here this year?” said Felix.
“Yes: I saw him one day down by his cottage, firing pebble-stones at a little kitten he had thrown into the water, to keep her from coming ashore. I stopped the carriage, and told him he ought to be ashamed of himself. Then he let the kitten come ashore; and I got out, and took up the poor, shivering little thing, and brought it home. I saw him a while after, and he accused me of stealing his kitten; but I did not pay any attention to him: I didn’t believe a boy had any right to a kitten he wanted to keep just for the sake of treating it cruelly. It’s a beautiful little tortoise shell; and he’ll never get it again, if I can help it!”
They had all been talking so fast that Johnny, who was always careful not to interrupt, and who never forced himself into notice, had not said a word, except to bow, and say “Good-morning,” when he was introduced.
“Why don’t you say something, Johnny?” whispered Sue in his ear, as Felix went on talking about Jack, saying he was a pretty good fellow to have a gay time with, and he thought he should look him up before long.
“I haven’t had a good chance,” Johnny whispered back: “I’m waiting for Felix to get through.”
“He never will get through,” returned Sue: “when he makes a little pause, you just say something as quick as ever you can.”
“What if I should set Clyde on the kitten?” said Felix to Julia.
“You’d better not, young man: I’ll never forgive you if you do!”
“Just let me get a sight of her, that’s all,” returned Felix, running off in the direction of the cottage in which Julia lived, looking back, and laughing roguishly as he ran. “Come, Clyde!” he called back; and Clyde, who was lying in the piazza, jumped up and followed him.
“I sha’n’t please him by running after him,” said Julia: “but if he does set Clyde on the kitten, I’ve a mind not to have any thing to do with him all summer; he is one of the most annoying boys I ever saw; I only came over because I wanted to get acquainted with the rest of you.”
“Felix has been pretty good at our house this season,” replied Johnny, “and I don’t believe he will tease you this year if father finds it out; for father don’t believe in teasing, and he has charge of Felix this summer.”
“Then, you don’t tease!” returned Julia, with a pleased look. “I am so glad! I think I can have some nice times with you and your sister.”
Sue then asked Julia if she would go to ride in the dog-cart with her.
“Yes, indeed! I should like to go very much, any time.”
Felix soon came back, saying he could not find the kitten this time, but he should be on the lookout for it.
“I should like to stay longer, if Felix had not begun to tease,” said Julia; “but since he has, I think I will go home:” and she rose, and began to go down the steps.
“I wish you wouldn’t go yet: I haven’t more than half got acquainted,” said Sue.
“I’ll go home with you, and see if I can find the kitten,” remarked Felix, beginning to walk down the steps also, and laughing.
“No, you won’t!” replied Julia, sitting down on the steps. “I declare, Felix Le Bras, I won’t come over here another time, if you are going to act like this!”
It happened that Mr. Le Bras, who had been sitting in a balcony over the piazza, had heard most of the conversation between the children. He now appeared at the door, and said, “Is this the young lady who lives near us?”
“Yes,” replied Johnny: “she came to make us a call.”
“And Felix is teasing her,” said Sue.
“How is that, Felix?” asked Mr. Le Bras, in a tone of feigned surprise. “I hope you would not be so ungentlemanly, and towards a visitor too!”
“Oh! I’m only joking with her a little,” returned Felix.
“Is the joke amusing to you or to her?”
“Why, to me.”
“And it is very annoying to me,” said Julia.
Mr. Le Bras came out, sat down in a chair on the piazza, and began to talk with Julia. She seemed much pleased, and conversed with him very prettily.
“I want you to come in now, Julia, and see Mrs. Le Bras,” he said, after they had conversed for about ten minutes, “so that we shall all be acquainted with you.” He then took Julia up into the balcony where Mrs. Le Bras was sitting.
“I think you’ve been a good deal of a tell-tale this morning, Sue,” said Felix, looking quite cross.
“I haven’t told any thing but the truth,” replied Sue, quite decidedly.
“But you know, Sue,” said Johnny, “that you shouldn’t tell any thing any one would not like to have told, unless there is some very necessary reason.”
“I didn’t think when I told about the blue ribbon,” replied Sue: “and I told papa, because I thought Felix ought not to tease Julia; but I won’t tell any more, unless Felix is very troublesome indeed.”
“All the fun there is in being with girls is to tease them: every one knows that,” replied Felix. “I don’t tease you, Sue, because you are not as old as I am; but it’s all right to tease Julia, and she don’t care half as much as she pretends.”
“But you wouldn’t really set Clyde on her kitten, would you?” asked Johnny.
“Why, of course I would! What harm would it do? It would only scare the kitten a little, and make her bristle up her tail, and run up a tree.”
“How would you like to have a great, savage-looking animal run after you?” replied Johnny.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t like it. But what has that to do with it?”
“The kitten wouldn’t like it, either,” said Sue.
This putting himself in the place of a kitten, imagining her terrors, and pitying them, was an entirely new idea to Felix; but he was not willing to admit that he saw any force to the argument. “Oh! girls have queer notions,” he said, “and Johnny’s just like them. For my part, I’m going to do as other boys do: I ain’t going to be a girl-boy. I shall tease Julia some; and if Sue wants to keep on being a tell-tale, she can.”
Julia then came running down-stairs.
“I’ve had a splendid visit,” she said, “and I’m going home to tell mamma about it. Now, don’t you follow me, Felix!”
She ran down the steps and towards home like a flash. Possibly it might have been Felix’s intention to follow her with Clyde; but as his uncle appeared at the door just after Julia left, he sat still on the steps.
“That is a nice, bright girl,” said Mr. Le Bras: “you are very lucky to have such a neighbor, children.”
Mr. Le Bras then returned to the balcony, and Sue accompanied him. Felix whistled to Clyde, and went to the barn to see Oliver. But Johnny continued sitting in the piazza for some time, looking at the light waves that curled up over the beach in front of the cottage, and gazing off at the blue expanse, here and there dotted with a white sail. He was interested, too, in the flight of the sea-gulls, of which a great many were darting about over the water. For once, when alone, he forgot to wish for a book to read.