“Yes; and it was just to show you how dutiful I'm going to be.
Daddy, I felt so sorry for the poor old lady; it is so beautiful to
know that one is doing good and bringing happiness into other
people's lives! I think I'll go and see her often, and carry her
something nice if you'll let me.”
Helen said all that as gravely as a judge; but Mr. Davis was
agreeing so delightedly that she feared she was carrying the joke
too far. She changed the subject quickly.
“Oh, Daddy!” she cried, “I forgot to tell you--I met a genius
to-day!”
“A genius?” inquired the other.
“Yes,” said Helen, “and I've been walking around with him all
morning out in the woods! Did you never hear that every place like
that has a genius?”
“Yes,” assented Mr. Davis, “but I don't understand your joke.”
“This was the genius of Hilltown High School,” laughed Helen.
“Oh, Arthur!”
“Yes; will you believe it, the dear boy had walked all the way from
there to see me; and he waited out by the old seat at the spring!”
“But where is he now?”
“I don't know,” said Helen. “It's very queer; I left him to go see
Mrs. Woodward. He didn't go with me,” she added, “I don't believe he
felt inclined to charity.”
“That is not like Arthur,” said the other.
“I'm going to take him in hand, as becomes a clergyman's daughter,”
said Helen demurely; “I'm going to be a model daughter, Daddy--just
you wait and see! I'll visit all your parishioners' lawn-parties
and five o'clock teas for you, and I'll play Handel's Largo and
Siegfried's Funeral March whenever you want to write sermons. Won't
you like that?”
“Perhaps,” said Mr. Davis, dubiously.
“Only I know you'll make blots when I come to the cymbals,” said
Helen; and she doubled up her fists and hummed the passage, and gave
so realistic an imitation of the cymbal-clashes in the great dirge
that it almost upset the chair. Afterwards she laughed one of her
merriest laughs and kissed her father on the forehead.
“I heard it at Baireuth,” she said, “and it was just fine! It made
your flesh creep all over you. And oh, Daddy, I brought home a
souvenir of Wagner's grave!”
“Did you?” asked Mr. Davis, who knew very little about Wagner.
“Yes,” said Helen, “just a pebble I picked up near it; and you ought
to have seen the custom-house officer at the dock yesterday when he
was going through my trunks. 'What's this, Miss?' he asked; I guess
he thought it was a diamond in the rough. 'Oh, that's from Wagner's
grave,' I said. And what do you think the wretch did?”
“I'm sure I don't know, my love.”
“He threw it back, saying it wasn't worth anything; I think he must
have been a Brahmsite.”
“It took the longest time going through all my treasures,” Helen
prattled on, after laughing at her own joke; “you know Aunt Polly
let us have everything we wanted, bless her heart!”
“I'm afraid Aunt Polly must have spoiled you,” said the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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