Keineth Part 24

Then the night would have pa.s.sed like any night at home, only that Peggy _did_ fall out of bed!

She awakened suddenly to find herself in a heap in the aisle of the car with the brakeman, a swinging lantern in his hand, bending over her.

"Well, bless my stars!" he was saying.

It took a moment or two for Peggy to realize where she was and what had happened! Then, torn between a desire to laugh at herself and to cry with chagrin, she clambered back into the berth and snuggled very close to Keineth.

It was too funny not to tell Keineth, who had wakened, but after she told her she made Keineth promise, crossing her heart over and over, that she would never, never, never tell Billy that Peggy had rolled out of bed!

"Where are we? It isn't a bit different from home," the girls cried as they stood the next morning with Mr. Lee viewing from the platform the country through which they were speeding.

"This is Maryland. In just half an hour we'll be in Washington. We'll wait and eat breakfast at the hotel there."

Mr. Lee was acting curiously excited and impatient. He looked at his watch several times. "On time," the girls heard him say once or twice--as if it made any difference. Before they were in the city he told them to put on their wraps.

"We'll be the first ones off," he said.

It was only a moment then before they had rolled into the station shed.

They stepped from the train and walked a long way down between rows of cars. A great many people seemed hurrying in every direction. There was a dull roar echoing through the vaulted smoky s.p.a.ce pierced by the loud voices of the trainmen giving their orders and the occasional clang of a bell. Then they pa.s.sed through a little iron gate into the station.

Keineth, clinging to Mr. Lee's arm, thought it quite the biggest place she had ever seen! Every step made an echo and though there were crowds of people there did not seem to be many because there was so much room!

Mr. Lee gave some checks to a porter, then stood looking up and down the great s.p.a.ce as though expecting to see someone. Peggy was just whispering something in Keineth's ear when Keineth gave a clear, joyous cry.

For there, stepping out from a little group, walking straight toward them, a smile on his tanned face, both arms extended as though they could not reach her quickly enough, was her dear, dear daddy!

CHAPTER XXIV

MR. PRESIDENT

Her own dear father!

Keineth had not realized until then how very dear he was to her! She clung to him as though she could not bear to ever lose her hold. A woman waiting in the station was watching the little scene, and turned away, wiping her eyes. And Keineth did not know whether she wanted to laugh or to cry!

So this was Mr. Lee's big surprise! He had known John Randolph was in Washington!

"This is Peggy," Keineth managed finally to say. At which John Randolph put his arm about Peggy and kissed her, too!

Mr. Lee said something about breakfast, and Keineth's father hurried them into a waiting taxicab. And as they drove away Keineth was so busy looking at her father's dear face that she did not notice the Capitol, its n.o.ble dome outlined against the blue morning sky. But Peggy gave an excited little shriek. "Oh--look--look!"

So, with her hand in her father's, Keineth saw Washington! He told the driver to go slowly while he pointed out to them the buildings they pa.s.sed. The whole city lay bathed in sunshine that brought with it the balminess of real springtime for which they waited so long in the North. Robins were singing in the trees, so gladly that Keineth thought that even they must have guessed how happy she was!

Keineth and Peggy listened while John Randolph told Mr. Lee of his trip home across the ocean--how to escape the submarines of the Germans they had run cautiously, at half-speed, as in a fog, with look-outs posted all along the ship's decks and all lights out! Their voices were very serious as they talked and Keineth noticed for the first time that her father's face, under its tan, looked worn and tired, as though he had been working very hard.

But each time that his eyes came back to her face they lighted with a smile.

"I can hardly believe that this is my little girl," he said to Mr. Lee.

"Her stay with you has done wonders for her!" And what he said was very true, for the year had changed Keineth from the shy-eyed, delicate child he had left to a happy, round-cheeked, strong-limbed girl. The pretty simple dress she wore had the becoming touch of color that Tante used to think unsuitable, and her fair hair, drawn loosely back from her forehead and fastened with a barrette, hung in heavy waves over her shoulders.

At the hotel after breakfast Keineth's father opened his trunk and took from it a box of gifts he had collected from every country he had visited. A carved box from j.a.pan, a gay Chinese robe from Pekin, dolls of all sorts, bra.s.s plates from Egypt, embroidered scarfs from Constantinople, coral from Italy and other treasures over which Keineth and Peggy went into ecstasies of delight!

"For us?" she cried to her father.

He smiled--her "us" meant to him that Keineth had found at last the true joy of friends.

"Divide them as you wish, my dear," he answered. Thereupon the two girls sat down, cross-legged upon the floor and commenced a.s.sorting the gifts into little piles--for "Aunt Nellie," for "Barbara," the j.a.panese dolls for Alice, and, of course, the carved dagger from Petrograd, for Billy! "Oh, were ever girls as happy as we are?" Peggy cried.

Later Mr. Lee broke in upon this pleasant occupation. "If we are here to see Washington we'd better start out! Keineth--after luncheon your father wants to take you for a little walk--Peggy and I will go to the National Museum."

So it was that Keineth, trim in her new hat and coat, found herself early in the afternoon walking slowly down the "Avenue of the Presidents," holding her father's hand. They said little, each felt too happy to talk much, time enough for the stories later.

Suddenly through the trees of Lafayette Park, all a-quiver with their new spring leaves, Keineth glimpsed the stately lines of the White House.

She stopped short. "Daddy, is that where the President lives?"

Mr. Randolph smiled. "Yes, my dear! And we are going there now to call--at his request!"

So Keineth was really going to see Mr. President!

She felt very excited as she walked past the policeman guarding the gates and up the winding avenue leading to the great columns before the door. Through the branches of the trees the sun was shining slant-wise against the square-paned windows, making tiny sparks of fire. Another policeman at the door halted them. Keineth thought it too bad that the President of the United States should have to be guarded in this manner--for who could want to harm him? Then they were ushered into the entrance hall, where a servant took the card Mr. Randolph offered.

For Keineth the simple stateliness of the place had an atmosphere of romance. Staring curiously about her she went slowly through the s.p.a.cious corridors to an oval-shaped room whose walls and windows were hung in heavy blue silk. The sunlight streamed through the windows across the highly polished floor and glinted through the crystals of the great chandelier hanging from the ceiling. From between the heavy blue curtains Keineth caught a glimpse of the green lawn outside, sloping down to the stretches of the Park--all adot with dandelions.

Her father pointed out to her the gold clock on the mantel and told her that it had been presented by Napoleon the First to General Lafayette and by him in turn to Washington. Then as they turned to examine the bronze vases standing on either side of the clock a quiet voice startled them.

"And so this is the little soldier girl!"

And there across the room, one hand extended, stood the President of the United States!

Keineth tried to say something, but found that her tongue would not move. But President Wilson, not noticing her embarra.s.sment, was shaking her hand and talking as though they were old friends.

"Of course--after our letters--an introduction is unnecessary! I am delighted, however, to meet in person John Randolph's daughter."

He turned then from Keineth to her father and Keineth felt a glow of pride in the tone of intimacy with which the President greeted her father.

After they had exchanged a few words he took her hand and drew her towards a divan.

"Let us sit down here and have a little talk. I wonder if you know, my dear girl, what a wonderful man your father is."

Keineth smiled at this! President Wilson, patting her hand upon his knee, went on:

"His work for us is not done, either! And I am going to ask you to help me, Miss Keineth. I want him in my official family--I need his judgment and advice--need it badly! If he tries to refuse me then you must make him do what I want him to do! Wouldn't you like to live in Washington?"

"Oh--yes!" cried Keineth, then she stopped short. "But--it wouldn't have to be a secret, would it?"

The President broke into a hearty laugh. "No, indeed, my dear!" Then, more seriously, "You were very brave to help us guard so carefully his journeying. It was necessary that it should be kept a secret because in every land where he went there were bitter enemies to the work he was trying to do--enemies who, if they had had one word of the mission upon which he was going about, would have done everything within their power to defeat its purpose, even to taking his life without one moment's hesitation! Keineth, this is a funny world. It is made up of big nations and small nations and they struggle against one another like so many bad, heedless boys fighting in an alley."

"I know!" cried Keineth, bright-eyed. "When they ought to be living like nice families in a quiet street, each one keeping its own yard clean from rubbish and the doorsteps washed." She used her father's words with careful precision.