Cecelia Anne was delighted with the idea. Jimmie had wandered out to see
about the sports that were going to be held on the Fourth of July, and
so the burden of explanation fell upon the little heiress. She drew her
account book from its drawer in her father's desk, settled herself
comfortably in the hollow of his arm and proceeded to disclose the
"trend of her inclinations" as is evidenced by her shopping list:
"One sloop yat _Jennie H_ swoped for hockey skates when it got cold.
One air riffle.
Three Tickets.
One riding skirt.
Two Tickets.
Six white rats two died.
Four Tickets.
Leather Stocking Tales. Three Books.
Three Tickets.
Four Boxing Gloves.
Eight Tickets.
One bull tarrier dog and collar he fought Len Fogerty's dog bit him all
up and father sent him away."
"I remember him," said Mr. Hawtry, "a well-bred beast but a holy terror,
go on dear."
"One Byccle.
Three Tickets.
Stanley's Darkest Africa two books but not very new.
One printing press.
Two Tickets.
Treasure Island. One Book."
"And that's all the big things," finished Cecelia Anne in evident
relief. "Jimmie wrote down the prices, wouldn't you like to see them?"
And she crossed to Mr. Debrett and laid the open book on his knee.
Mr. Debrett, as Cecelia Anne teetered up and down on her heels and toes
before him, read the list again, counted up the total expenditure and
admitted that his ward had got remarkably good value for her money.
"But what are all these 'tickets,' my dear?" he asked her.
"Eden Musee," answered Cecelia Anne. And the very thought of it drew her
to her mother's knee. "Jimmie and the boys used to take me there
Saturday afternoons in the winter to try to get my nerve up. They say,"
she admitted dolefully, "that I haven't got much. So they used to take
me to the Chamber of Horrors so's I'd get accustomed to life. That's
what Jimmie thought I needed. They used to like it, and I expect I'd
have liked it, too, if I could have kept my eyes open, but I never
could. I couldn't even _get_ them open when the boys stood me right
close to that gentleman having death throes on the ground after he'd
been hung on a tree. You can hear him breathing!"
"I know him well," said Mr. Debrett. "He is rather awful I must admit.
And now we'll talk about the books. Don't you care at all about 'Little
Men' and 'Little Women' or the 'Elsie Books?'"
"Jimmie says," Cecelia Anne made reply, "that 'Darkest Africa' is better
for me. It tells me just where to hit an elephant to give him the death
throes. He says the 'Elsie Books' wouldn't be any help to us even with a
buffalo. We're going to buy 'The Wild Huntress, or Love in the
Wilderness' next month. Jimmie thinks that's sure to get my nerve
up--being about a girl, you see--"
"And 'Treasure Island' now;" said her guardian, "did you enjoy that? It
came rather late in my life, but I remember thinking it a great book."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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