Three Little Cousins Part 9

"Well then; it is about Mary."

"Mary! Oh, Molly!"

"Yes, what do you think? She wasn't at the Whartons' at all yesterday afternoon."

Polly looked as astonished as Molly expected, though she said, after a pause: "Well she never said she was."

"She let us think so. She didn't deny it."

"But did she go to Green Island? Now I think of it, all she said was that she thought it was a pretty place. She knew that because she saw it when she went over there to the party."

"Yes, I know that, but it wasn't at Green Island that she got the strawberries, Polly, and she didn't go anywhere with the Whartons."

"How do you know?"

"I saw Grace at the post-office. I said to her: 'It was real nice of you all to take Mary out in the launch yesterday,' and she looked so surprised when she said: 'Why, we didn't take Mary. We didn't go out at all yesterday, for Uncle Will had some of his friends up from town and they were using the launch all day.'"

"What _did_ you say?"

"I didn't know what to say. 'Did Mary tell you she was with us?' Grace asked, and I had to crawl out by saying: 'No, Luella thought so.' Then Grace said--now what do you think of this, Polly--she said: 'Why, I saw Mary going out with Ellis Dixon in his brother's boat. I watched them rowing off. I am sure it was Mary. I couldn't be mistaken for no one around here has a hat like hers.'"

Polly was silent with amazement and Molly went on: "I had to say, 'Oh, very likely Aunt Ada knows all about it,' and then I came away as fast as I could."

"Why Molly Shelton!" exclaimed Polly finding her voice, "do you suppose she sneaked off that way with a strange little boy when she says her mother is so particular that she doesn't even let her go on the street alone? I can't believe it. I think Grace must have been mistaken."

"No, she wasn't. I know that."

"How do you know?"

"I saw Parker Dixon and he said, 'Did the little girl get home all right? She was pretty safe with El, but I didn't know as your aunt mightn't hev been oneasy, seeing they was just two children. You tell her she needn't hev no fear of El; he can handle a boat as good as I kin.'" Molly unconsciously imitated Parker's manner of speaking.

"Then it is true; of course it is," decided Polly. "Are you going to tell Aunt Ada?"

"I don't know what to do. I feel as if I ought, and yet I feel sort of sorry for Mary. She is 'way off from all her people and we've been picking at her for being so particular and not doing this and not doing that, so maybe she thought she was doing no more than we would have done if we had been in her place."

"I know, and maybe we would have done the same, but she needn't have been deceitful," returned Polly. "She could have asked if she might go."

"She didn't have a chance, for we had gone sailing, you know."

"Then she ought to have told the first thing, as soon as she saw Aunt Ada. No, she is a sneaky, horrid girl and I am not going to have anything more to do with her, if she is my cousin. I was beginning to like her, too." Polly spoke regretfully.

"So was I," agreed Molly. "But now the main thing is, shall we tell or shall we not? I hate to be a tattle-tale."

"Then don't let's tell, but don't let's be more than polite to her and she'll see that something is wrong and maybe she will tell of her own accord. I wish she'd go. I don't like sneaky girls; I'd rather they'd be out and out naughty."

"Why do you suppose she didn't tell?" said Molly thoughtfully. "She might have known that Aunt Ada wouldn't punish her or even scold. She would only have said: 'I'd rather you'd always tell me, Mary, before you undertake such trips again.'" Again Molly imitated the person she quoted. "It doesn't seem to me she could be scared of Aunt Ada when she's always so gentle and kind."

"Well, I don't care whether she was scared or not, she wasn't honest, and I think anyhow it was very queer for her to sneak off with a boy she didn't know."

"But I know him; I used to play with him when I was only four years old," said Molly. "He is a very nice boy. Aunt Ada says that he has been very well raised and that any mother could be proud of him. He is real bright, too: why, he can manage a sail boat as well as a man, and he's always so ready and willing to do anything he can for any of us.

He is very different from some of the others who just can't bear the summer people."

"Never mind about him; I suppose he is all right; it is Mary I am bothered over."

"Well, the only thing we can do is to wait and see if she will tell of her own accord; maybe she hasn't had a good chance yet to see Aunt Ada alone; we are giving her the chance now, so we will wait and see what happens."

This Polly agreed was best, but they returned to the house to turn a cold shoulder to Mary, and to ignore her in every way they could without being directly rude. So directly opposite was this course of conduct from that of the morning, when her cousins had been all smiles and sweetness, that Mary's fears again arose and she was so miserable that at bedtime when Molly went in to her English cousin's room to get a bottle of cold cream with which to anoint her sunburned face, she heard a soft little sob from Mary's bed.

Immediately her sympathies were aroused. Mary was far from home and mother. What if she had done wrong? She was alone among comparative strangers and who knew the exact truth of yesterday's proceedings? She crept softly to Mary's bedside. Her cousin's face was buried in the pillow, and she was shaking with sobs. Molly leaned over her. "Are you sick, Mary?" she whispered, "Do you want me to call Aunt Ada?"

"No," came feebly from Mary.

"Is anything the matter? Please tell me. I'll get into bed with you."

And suiting the action to the word she slipped in beside Mary, putting a sympathetic arm around her. "What is it?" she repeated.

Only sobs from Mary.

"Please tell," persisted Molly.

"Oh, I can't, I can't," said Mary, her tears flowing fast.

"I won't tell a soul. I cross my heart I won't."

Mary checked her sobs a little as she gave heed to the earnest promise.

It was a relief to have Molly's comforting presence near by there in the dark. But in a moment her tears gushed forth again. "I want my mother, oh, I want my mother," she wailed.

"Are you so homesick? Is that it?" asked Molly with concern. "Never mind, Mary, you'll see your father soon, and--and--I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm sorry we were horrid to you. Is that why you are homesick, because Polly and I weren't nice to you?"

"Oh, n-no, it isn't that," replied Mary. "I deserved it, Molly, but oh, you won't tell, you won't tell, will you?"

"Tell what?"

"Oh, Molly, I've lost Aunt Ada's diamond pin, and I can't find it.

I've looked and looked and Ellis Dixon helped me, too. I thought if it had been found we would know by this time. That is why we went over to Green Island."

"Then you did go with Ellis."

"Yes, he came along while I was looking for the brooch, after you had all gone sailing, and he offered to take me to Green Island in his brother's boat, and when we got there the postmaster put up a notice in the post-office and we looked all over the hall everywhere, and all along the road and asked every one we met, but it was no use, and now I am afraid to tell Aunt Ada, and diamonds cost so much I could never buy another like it." It was a relief to Mary to thus unburden herself.

"I don't seem to remember exactly about the pin," said Molly. "Aunt Ada is always getting some pretty new thing, but I don't believe she showed me any diamond pin; it must be quite new. I was so excited about my own costume that night, I forget about any ornaments you wore.

Perhaps you could buy another one some time. I have some money, five dollars, and I'll give it to you; I'll take it out of my bank when we go home; that would help."

"Oh, Molly, how good you are!" Mary turned over to put her arm around her cousin. "I have a pound, too, and that might be half enough, or nearly half, but I am afraid it would be a long time before we could get the rest."

"Well, I wouldn't be scared of Aunt Ada, Mary," Molly said. "She is a dear, and she'll be very sorry, but she will know it was not your fault that you lost it."

"Miss Sharp would say it was my carelessness, and she would be so very vexed."