The Twin Cousins Part 9

"Wait till you know her better, and then you'll see it shine through her face. There's a good look about her that is better than beauty."

After she had once begun, Flaxie would not have missed a day at school for anything. She had never learned so fast before, for she had never had a teacher she loved so well.

"Oh, auntie," said she one day, "I've seen her soul shine! It shines when she smiles."

Milly and Flaxie were the best scholars, so Miss Pike told Aunt Charlotte. But they did not study all the time. Oh, no. Miss Pike understood children, and didn't _expect_ them to study all the time. She often drew pictures on the blackboard for them to copy on the slate, and if they wanted to bring their dinners and play at noon she was perfectly willing; only they were not to scream too loud, or go near the desks, for fear of spilling the ink. She noticed that the little girls were more noisy after Flaxie Frizzle came; but this was not strange, for Flaxie knew a great many games that the Hilltop children had never heard of before.

"Lesson? Oh, yes. I've got that ole thing," she would say sometimes, as she rushed for her hat long before school-time.

"Spell _ocean_, then," said studious Milly, following her with the spelling-book in her hand.

"_O-s-h-u-n._ There! I'm in a hurry. I want to get to school to play 'b.l.o.o.d.y Murder.'"

That sounded dreadful, but I dare say was not as bad as it seemed. And one day after Flaxie had taught the little folks all the games she could possibly remember, she thought of a new thing to do.

"See there, Milly," said she, pointing to a high pile of boards behind the schoolhouse, under one of the windows. "A man has gone and put those down there, and now let's make a house of 'em, and live in it!"

Milly hugged Flaxie, it was such a bright idea. Make a house? Of course they would! They had made cupboards out of shingles and stones, and put clay dishes on the shelves; they had dug ovens all along the bank like swallows' nests; but a real live house, what could be so charming as that?

But when you came to think of it, it wasn't what you might call easy work, for the boards were very heavy; and with all their tugging the little girls could only drag them a little way across the ground.

"Well, Johnny will help," said Milly, puffing for breath. "And perhaps Freddy will too."

She knew they couldn't coax Freddy quite as well as they could Johnny.

The little girls never once thought of asking who owned the boards, but I will tell you; it was Esquire Blake, and he was intending to use them to repair his office, which stood not far from the schoolhouse.

"'Twill be our ownty-doanty house, and n.o.body must come into it but us,"

said Flaxie, gazing with satisfaction at the clean boards.

"The boys must come," suggested Milly.

"Well, yes, I s'pose they'll have to, if they help make it."

"And Ada Blake."

"You always want Ada Blake to go everywhere," pouted Flaxie. "We can invite her for company, if you want to, but 'twill be _our_ house."

Johnny thought it all nonsense, but consented to undertake the business.

He drove four stakes into the ground, near a beautiful maple-tree, and then nailed boards on the stakes all around, making a pen about three feet high. Everybody looked on deeply interested. After that he and Freddy went fishing. The little girls felt very impatient.

"Oh dear," said Milly, "it doesn't look much like a house. You'd think it was for pigs to live in."

Next day it rained; but the day after, as Johnny could get no peace of his life, he nailed on more boards, till the pen was so high you couldn't see over it, unless you stood on tiptoe. That was high enough; but where was the roof?

"Oh, bother, what do you want of a roof? Hold up your umbrella."

"Next house I make I'll make it myself!" cried Flaxie, stamping her foot.

That amused good-natured Johnny, and he called together some of the boys, to help him put on a sloping roof. Then he sawed a door in the side next the river; and when all was done the building looked so much like a "truly house" that the little girls screamed for joy, and Johnny felt rather proud of his work.

"Tell you what," said he, looking around at the boys, "this is the house that Jack built. Now let's saw a hole in the roof and put in a stove-pipe."

Ah, Johnny! Johnny! it was thoughtless enough to use those boards without leave; but to put in a stove-pipe was downright madness!

The girls were charmed, and wanted a fireplace immediately. Why not?

That wasn't much to make, and they made it themselves with the loose pieces of brick they picked out of the old hearth in the recitation-room.

Squire Blake knew nothing of this; neither did the teacher. The new and elegant building was located on the bank behind the schoolhouse, and as the windows that way let in the sun, the blinds were kept closed, and Miss Pike did not look out. If she had only looked out! But then perhaps she wouldn't have thought much about it; for who would dream of little daughters of respectable parents bringing matches to school?

It might be very funny to light a fire on one's own little hearth, and bake one's own little biscuits for tea; but then it was certainly wrong.

If it hadn't been wrong, why didn't the little girls tell of it at home?

What made Flaxie seize a bunch of matches from the kitchen-shelf and hide them in her pocket? What made Milly s.n.a.t.c.h that piece of dough when Nancy's back was turned, and run away with it so fast? Children are never sly, you know, when they are doing right.

If these biscuits turned out well, they were to bake some more to-morrow, and have what Johnny called a "house-warming," and Freddy had partly promised some fish. But this was only the very first day of housekeeping, and they had invited n.o.body but Ada Blake to tea,--Ada and her dolls.

It seemed as if recess would never come that afternoon, and when it came it wasn't "any longer than your little finger." The fire was kindled the very first minute, the thimble-biscuits rolled out, and then the three children sat on the gra.s.s around their hearth to watch the baking. Seven dolls sat there too, with their party-dresses on, waiting very politely.

There was a dictionary in the middle of the room for a table, with a pocket-handkerchief spread on it for a table-cloth, and Milly had set out all her best dishes there at noon, with a dot of b.u.t.ter, a pinch of sugar, and some bits of cake.

"I guess our oven is slow; they don't bake much," said Milly, peeping at the biscuits, which were placed in a row on a cabbage-leaf at a respectful distance from the fire.

"Let's wish something while we're waiting," said hungry Flaxie, who had only s.n.a.t.c.hed a very hurried dinner. "I wish this world was one big doughnut, with only us to eat it!"

"Pshaw!" sniffed Milly, "why didn't you wish something good,--sponge-cake, with jelly between?"

"Wish yourself, Milly Allen, if you can do it so much better'n I can,"

retorted Flaxie, putting another stick on the fire.

"Well, lemme see; I wish you and I were sisters, Flaxie Frizzle, and Ada was our aunt come from Boston."

"Well there, Milly Allen, that isn't half as nice as my doughnut! What's the use to wish we were sisters, when we are twins now, and that's almost as good?"

"Oh, I never!" laughed Ada. "Such a _nidea_ as _you_ being twins! You weren't born the same day, either of you! Twins have to be born the same day, now truly, or they can't _be_ twins!"

There was wisdom in Ada's voice, and wisdom in her superior smile.

Flaxie raised her eyes, but that smile was too much for her, and she dropped them again. If there was one thing Flaxie could not bear, it was to be laughed at by a girl of her own age, who knew more than she did.

At that moment the school-bell rang, and, oh dear, those biscuits were not half done! So very queer, too, for the stove-pipe was red-hot, and roaring away beautifully!

The three little cooks were the last to enter the schoolhouse, and Miss Pike wondered what they were whispering about in the entry.

"Dear little creatures," thought she, petting their heads, "I'm glad they've had a good time, for they deserve it!"

She called a cla.s.s, and everything went on as usual, till suddenly she thought she smelt smoke, and went to the window to look out.

Miss Pike was a most sensible young lady, and knew better than to scream; but I a.s.sure you she never felt more like screaming in her life.

The "house that Jack built" was all ablaze from top to bottom, and had already set fire to the schoolhouse!

She had to think fast. There were sixty children to be got out, and no time to lose. If they should know the house was on fire they would be crazed with fright and run hither and thither like wild creatures; it would never do to let them know it.