Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer Part 31

"Why, you know Nita is Mrs. Van Vorst's daughter; she was the one who got her mother to let us have the lawn. She's just lovely, I have been going to see her every day for-"

At this moment Ellen, her face glowing with pleasure, touched Nathalie on the arm as she cried, "Oh, Miss Nathalie, Mrs. Van Vorst has sent me to ask you to come up and see Miss Nita, and to bring two of your friends with you!"

Nathalie stared a moment as if not comprehending what Ellen had said, and then, "Oh, Ellen, do you mean that Mrs. Van Vorst wants me to come up to see Miss Nita and to-"

"Yes, that is just what I mean, Miss," rejoined Ellen, evidently enjoying Nathalie's amazement. "Miss Nita wants to meet some of your Pioneer friends. Bless the child, Miss Nathalie, but you and your friends have brought real sunshine straight to the heart of my bairn.

Bless you for it!"

Nathalie smiled and nodded as she answered, "All right, Ellen, I'll be right up!" Then, as the old nurse disappeared among the throngs on the lawn Nathalie turned to Grace, who was standing in open-mouthed astonishment at this sudden turn in the day's doings.

"Oh, Grace, will you go with me? Didn't I tell you Nita was lovely?"

Then seizing the girl by the arm she swept her across the gra.s.s to where Helen was standing talking to her brother.

"Helen," she panted, "I want you to come with me to see Nita. Mrs. Van Vorst has sent for me to come up and says for me to bring two of my friends. Will you come?"

"Come!" exclaimed Helen, "of course I will. I have been on the point of expiring with curiosity ever since you told me of your adventure at the gray house."

"Adventure?" repeated Grace. "Oh, Nathalie, you have not told me about it!" in an aggrieved tone.

"But I'm going to! Oh, but I must hurry and get the cream ready or it will be too late!" She started to run, but after a few steps turned back, and waving her hand at the girls, called, "Helen, you tell her while I am getting the tray."

"But I'm coming to help you," replied that young woman. "You come, too,"

she added, catching Grace by the arm. But to her surprise Grace pulled away from her with the exclamation, "Oh, Helen! I wouldn't go in that house for a mint of money! Why didn't you know? No, I'm not to tell,"

she ended mysteriously, "but you go," she added, "that is if you are not afraid."

"Afraid?" echoed her companion in amazement, "why should I be afraid, surely you don't think any one could harm us as long as Nathalie has been there and come away safely?"

"I don't know," hesitated Grace, "I!-"

"Oh, girls, I have the tray all ready, but you will have to help me carry it. Do come on, for I do not want to keep Mrs. Van Vorst waiting too long!" Nathalie was back again.

"Grace says she is afraid to go," explained Helen.

"Afraid!" repeated Nathalie bewildered. "What are you afraid of?" she demanded abruptly turning towards her friend.

"Why Nathalie, don't you remember that day we-"

Nathalie continued to gaze at her blankly, and then her face broke into a smile as she remembered the day she and Grace had run away from the gray house afraid of the crazy man.

"Oh, Grace," she cried with merry laughter, "that was the best joke on you and me, for, O dear, why, Grace, it wasn't any crazy man at all, it was only a c.o.c.katoo!"

The long kept secret that had troubled Nathalie so much at first was out at last, and she and Helen, who had been told about that when her friend's silence was first broken as far as she was concerned, broke into prolonged laughter at the richness of the joke.

"A c.o.c.katoo?" exclaimed Grace incredulously, and then annoyed at the girls' merriment she added crossly, "Oh, I do wish you would explain what is so funny, I think it real mean of you both to laugh that way!"

"Yes, it is mean," added Nathalie, stifling her laughter as she saw the irate expression on her friend's face. "But, Grace, it was funny. I would have told you all about it before-that is how I found out-only I had sworn not to tell. But if you will promise not to reveal what I am going to tell you-honor bright-" this in answer to the girl's nod of a.s.sent, "I will tell you the mystery of the gray house!"

It was not long now before Grace heard the long story of how Nathalie had come to go to the house, how she had found out about the c.o.c.katoo, the star part she had played with the princess, and the many other happenings that had taken place within the last few weeks.

"But is the poor thing such a terrible monster?" demanded Grace in ready sympathy.

"A monster?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Nathalie in amazement. "Who said she was a monster?"

"Why, don't you remember? Edith-"

"Now, see here," exclaimed Nathalie stamping her feet angrily, "don't tell me another word of what the Sport says. I am just beginning to hate that girl, she is always saying and doing things she has no-" She stopped suddenly as it came to her in a conscience-stricken flash that Pioneers were never to say evil of any one.

Helen, seeing the strange expression in her eyes and noticing how her color was coming and going in flashes, cried, "Oh, Nathalie, what is it?"

"It is nothing," replied the girl quickly in a choked voice, "I just stopped-because-well, I remembered that one of the Pioneer laws is not to speak evil of any one. I'm going to keep mum after this, but that girl," her eyes shadowed again, "does provoke me so!"

"Oh, Nathalie, you are a dear girl," exclaimed Helen, putting her arm around her friend and giving her a hug. "I wish we were all as careful about keeping the Pioneer laws as you, but gracious, child, don't repent with such dire woe, for none of us are saints, and the Sport is trying, the Lord knows. But explain to Grace about your friend."

"No," said Nathalie determinedly. "I am not going to say another thing, only that Nita is not a monster, only a humpback, and-but there, if you want to know about her, come and see her."

"Well," spoke up Helen, "if we are going to see the Princess in the tower-how fairylike that sounds-we had better go. And then, as seeing is believing, we'll go and tell the Sport all about it, and stop that funny little tongue of hers that creates so much trouble at times."

"Oh, that will be just the thing; Helen, you are a dear!" cried Nathalie. Then the three girls hurried to the ice-cream table for the tray. Hastily taking it they pushed their way through the crowd, coming and going about the tables, to the porch, where Ellen relieved them of their burden and then conducted them to the sun parlor, where Mrs. Van Vorst and Nita sat waiting to receive them.

"Oh, Mrs. Van Vorst," cried Nathalie as she greeted that lady and her daughter, "it was lovely of you to allow me to bring my two friends to meet Nita. This is Miss Helen Dame," she continued drawing Helen to her, "and this is another Pioneer friend, Miss Grace Tyson."

"I am very glad to meet you, Mrs. Van Vorst," broke in Helen, "for I feel that we are very much indebted to you for allowing us to use your lawn."

"Yes," chimed Grace, as she shook the lady's hand, "we all feel that you have given us a lovely afternoon."

"I think the indebtedness is on my side," smiled the lady, looking down with pleased eyes at the two girls, as they stood glancing shyly at her, their white dresses and red caps making them appear unusually pretty.

"But let me make you acquainted with my daughter," she added, leading them to where Nita sat, her blue eyes almost black with the excitement of meeting these two new Pioneers, while her cheeks, usually so pale, were flushed with a delicate pinkness.

After the general hand-shaking was over and the little party had gathered closer to the window to admire the gay-colored flags that fluttered, one from each table, showing with unusual vividness between the green foliage and light dresses of strollers across the lawn, Nathalie asked Nita how she had liked the drill.

"Oh, Nathalie," rejoined the princess enthusiastically, "it was just the prettiest sight, and I told Ellen and Mamma every flag story, didn't I?"

Then suddenly remembering the two strangers, she relapsed into a shy silence and crouched back in the friendly shelter of her chair as if with the sudden thought of her deformity and the fear that the girls would see it.

But Grace and Helen were not thinking of the "awful hump" as Nathalie had defined it, but of the pale sweet face with the lovely violet eyes that were shining like bright stars.

"I am awfully glad you liked it," said Helen, suddenly recalled to her duties as the leader of one of the groups. "We tried to make it look as festive as we could with Uncle Sam's old liberty banners, but if it had not been for the lawn we should not have been able to have the drill."

"You are all very kind to thank me so prettily," said Mrs. Van Vorst, "but, as I said, I think you have given me and my little daughter more pleasure than we have given you. The poor child sees so little of life, as we are so secluded here behind these high walls."

In a few moments, as Nita's shyness began to wear off, the little group was chatting in the most friendly way, talking over the incidents of the drill, the Pioneers telling about the nice little sum they had made for their camp expenses, while they all ate their cream and cake. Ellen, like a good soul that she was, had hastened out to the lawn and brought enough of those delicacies to provide for the whole group.

Helen's remark about the Camping Fund started a new subject of conversation and opened the way for Nita to ask many questions about this summer dream of the Pioneers. "Oh," she declared at length, "I just wish you could come up to Eagle Lake and camp on its sh.o.r.es. We have a bungalow up there, you know, and it is just a glorious place. But it gets so lonely after a while, with nothing but the birds and squirrels to talk to. Oh," she ended suddenly with a little sigh, "if I was only well and strong, then I would be a Pioneer, too."

"Oh, but you-" interrupted Nathalie, and then she paused. She was going to say "why you can be," but the quick remembrance of the hump and the delicate face of the girl caused her to halt. With quick readiness she changed to, "Oh, but you would enjoy seeing one of our cheer fires; they are an inspiration for all kinds of dreams with the burning logs and glowing embers."

"You ought to see the f.a.got party we are going to have Monday night,"

chimed in Grace. "It is to be a burning send-off to one of the girls who is going South to live for a while."