Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life Part 59

"Yes, it's right. His mother knows it, and she's so kind to me. What do you think! At breakfast she asked me if I wouldn't like to bring Anna Belle down. She says I can bring her to the table whenever I want to.

Isn't it nice? The dear little creature has been so patient, never having a thing to eat!"

Eloise could not help laughing, the manner in which Jewel finished was so suddenly quaint; but she shook her head in silent wonder as she watched the short skirted figure setting forth for the barn.

"Oh cousin Eloise." Jewel turned around. "Will you come to the ravine after lunch, and see what Anna Belle and I have done?"

"Yes."

Jewel walked on a little further and turned again. "You won't wear your watch, will you?" she called.

"No, I'll surely forget it," returned the girl, smiling.

The small figure went on, well content.

"Oh, if I could only be invisible in that barn!" soliloquized Eloise.

"How I would like to hear what she will say. How wonderful it is that that little child has more chance of success, whatever trouble Zeke has been getting into, than any full-grown, experienced sage, philosopher, or reformer, who is a worker in mortal mind."

Anna Belle came to luncheon that day. Mrs. Forbes actually put a cushion in one of the chairs to lift the honored guest to such a height that her rosy smile was visible above the tablecloth. Not content with this hospitality, the housekeeper brought a bread-and-b.u.t.ter plate, upon which she placed such small proportions of food as might be calculated to tempt a dainty appet.i.te. Jewel felt almost embarra.s.sed by the eminence to which her child was suddenly raised.

"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Forbes," she said; "you needn't take so much trouble. Anna Belle's just used to having a part of mine."

But nothing now was too good for Anna Belle. "She shall have a cup-custard to-morrow," returned the housekeeper.

Mrs. Evringham looked on with lack-l.u.s.tre eyes. As well make much of Anna Belle as any other idol. Everything was stuffed with sawdust!

How the sunbeams glanced in the woods that day as Jewel, one hand clasping her doll and the other in Eloise's, skipped along the road to the ravine!

When they had stooped under the wire and gone down the bank, how the brook sang, and how the violets bloomed in Jewel's garden!

"It's very pretty," said Eloise, regarding the paths and flower beds which Jewel exhibited with pride. "It's very pretty, but it lacks one thing."

"What?" asked the child eagerly.

"A pond."

"But it is by the side of a rushing river," returned Jewel.

"Yes, but all the more easy to have a pond."

"How?"

"We'll set a shallow pan, and sink it in the ground, and plant ferns about it to hang over. Anna Belle can have some little china dolls to go in wading in it."

"Oh yes, yes!" cried Jewel delighted. "Hear that, dearie? Hear what Love is planning for you?"

Anna Belle's nose was buried in the gra.s.s and her hat was awry. If she had a fault, it was a tendency to being overdressed. At present her plumed hat and large fluffy boa gave her an aspect unsympathetic with the surroundings. Jewel pulled her upright and placed her on the mossy divan.

"If I'd only brought the trowel I could get the hole ready," Jewel was saying, when a whistle, soft and clear as a flute, sounded above the brook's gurgle.

She lifted a finger in caution. "Oh," she whispered, looking up into her cousin's face, "the loveliest bird! Hush."

Clear, sweet, flexible, somewhere among those high branches sounded again the same elaborate phrase.

Jewel was surprised to see her cousin's pleased, listening expression alter to eager wonder, then the girl flushed rosy red and started up.

"Siegfried!" she murmured.

Again came the bird motif sifting down through the rustling leaves.

"Nat!" called Eloise gladly.

"Any nymphs down there?" questioned a man's voice.

"Oh yes!"

"May Pan come down?"

"Yes indeed."

Jewel, watching and wondering, saw a young man in light clothes swing himself down from tree to tree, and at last saw both his hands close on both her cousin's.

The two talked and laughed in unison for a minute, then Eloise freed herself and turned to the serious-faced child. "You remember my speaking of Nat the other day?" she asked. "This is he. Mr. Bonnell, this is my cousin Jewel Evringham. She is landscape gardening just now, and may not feel like giving you her hand."

"I can wash it," said Jewel, dipping the earthy member in the brook, wiping it on the gra.s.s, and placing it in the large one that was offered her.

"How did you ever find us? I thought you'd gone back to New York. I had no idea of seeing you," said Eloise in a breath.

"Didn't your mother tell you? I have a week off."

The girl's bright face sobered. "Poor mother! She had a--a shock after you were here yesterday. I suppose it put everything out of her head.

Was it she who sent you to find us?"

"No; a ma.s.sive lady met me at the door and informed me that your mother wished to be excused from every one to-day, but that you had fallen down a crack in the earth which could be reached up this road." The speaker looked about. "As there doesn't seem any place to stand here, hadn't we better sit down before we fall in the brook? I might rescue you, but the current is swift."

Eloise at once sank upon the green incline, and he followed her example.

Jewel watched him with consideration, and he became aware of her gaze.

"What are you making, little girl?" he asked, with his sunshiny smile.

"A garden; and I could dig the pond if I had brought the trowel."

"Perhaps my knife will do." He took it out and opened the largest blade.

"What do you think of that?"

"Do you suppose I should break it?" asked the child doubtfully.

"You're welcome to try," he replied.

She leaned forward and accepted it from his outstretched hand.