“Judy, Mrs. Woodsmall has just ‘phoned over that her hated R. F. D.
Woodsmall is bringing you a letter from your father. She says she could
only make out it was from him, but could not decipher anything else. She
has an idea he is on his way, as the postmark showed it was mailed on
the train somewhere in Kansas. Isn’t she too funny? She makes some of
the neighbors furious, but we always laugh at her little idiosyncrasy.
After all, it is perfectly harmless. She really is as kind a little soul
as there is in the county. Her life has been so narrow. If she could
have been a real worker in a big city she might have grown into a very
remarkable person. What a detective she would have made!”
Judy yawned and stretched and sat up as Molly came in bearing a tray of
lunch for her tired friend as well as the news of a letter from Mr.
Kean, somewhere on the road, and to be delivered some time that day if
Bud Woodsmall’s automobile behaved.
“Oh, Molly, I am tired! Are you the only one of the crowd to be up and
doing after last night?”
“I have persuaded mother to stay in bed and get a good rest. The boys
took a late train into town, and Miss Hunt never did go to bed. Aunt
Mary said she came down early this morning and ’phoned over to Aunt
Clay’s coachman to come for her immediately, and off she went without
saying ‘boo to a goose.’ I wish you could have heard Aunt Mary’s
description of her!
“‘Yo’ Aunt Clay’s comp’ny sho ain’t no wet weather beauty. Her ha’r was
so flat her haid looked jes’ like a buckeye; and her dress ‘min’ me of a
las’ year’s crow’s nes’. She was so shamefaced like she resem’led that
ole peacock when Shep done pull out his tail.’”
Judy laughed. “Oh, I do love Aunt Mary! But, Molly, won’t it be fine to
see mamma and papa? Do you suppose they are really on their way?”
“It will be fine to see them, but it will be pretty sad to have them
take off my Judy. I am mighty afraid that is what they are going to do.
Go back to sleep now and I will bring you your letter as soon as Bud
puts in his appearance. I am going to have a hard game of tennis with
Jimmy Lufton against Ernest and that nice Miss Rogers. Weren’t those
girls spunky last night? An experience like that will make you know
people better than years of plain, everyday life. Professor Green has
struck up quite an acquaintance with Miss Ormsby. It seems they have
many mutual friends, both of them having summered many times at
‘Sconset.’”
Molly spoke quietly, but there was a slight tremor of lip and a
deepening of color that the sharp Judy saw and noted, but nothing would
have made her let Molly know that she had betrayed herself in the least.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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