Tabitha's Vacation Part 6

"If I had my way about it, I'd s.h.i.+p them straight home on the next train," declared the red-haired girl angrily. "The very idea of their mother doing such a thing as that! What kind of a woman is she, anyway?"

"I don't know much about her, except that she is utterly selfish and very rich. The boys are sent away to school most of the year; and during vacations she manages to s.h.i.+ft them onto some of her relatives.

Fortunately, Jim McKittrick is too far away to be bothered with them very often."

"But what shall you--we do with them? Shall we tell Mrs. McKittrick that they have come?"

"Goodness, no! At least not yet. It would just worry her more than ever and she is worn to distraction now. No, we must make the best of it this week, and by that time Miss Davis will be here. She was raised in a family of boys and ought to know how to manage them."

"Well, I am thankful _I_ am not in her shoes," breathed Gloriana. "I suppose we can get along somehow for the six days that are left. Where shall you put them?"

"Well, I declare! I had forgotten all about that part of it. They will think I am a real hospitable hostess." She stepped to the door to call them, but not a soul was in sight anywhere. Two open suitcases lay on the ground with their contents scattered all about, but both owners and their cousins had disappeared.

"Mercedes! Susie!" she called peremptorily, but no one answered; and not even the sound of their voices at play fell on her listening ear.

"Strange," she muttered. "They were here a minute ago. Where can they have gone so quickly?"

She was about to start on a tour of investigation when a series of wild, piercing screams of abject terror rent the air, and Rosslyn came stumbling down the steep incline behind the house, bruised, scratched, torn, and covered from head to foot with what looked like blood Gloriana caught him as he fell, for Tabitha turned faint and sick at the sight; but a shout of boyish disgust from above brought her to her senses.

"Aw, come back, you bawl baby! We were just foolin'! You ain't hurt a mite!" Billiard swaggered into view from behind a tall boulder half-way up the mountainside, and even Tabitha shuddered at the spectacle he presented, for he was togged out in war paint and feathers till he looked fiendish as he brandished a tomahawk in one hand and an evil-looking knife in the other. At sight of the girl on the narrow piazza, he hastily retreated behind the rocks again; but Tabitha was there almost as soon as he. s.n.a.t.c.hing the gorgeous headdress from the culprit's head, she trampled it ruthlessly in the sharp gravel, disarmed the would-be Indian brave, breaking the treasured tomahawk and knife against the rocks, and shook the cowering savage with strong, relentless hands. But not a word did she speak, and though her victim writhed and squirmed and wriggled, he could not break the fierce grip on his shoulders.

"Don't, don't," he blubbered in desperation. "I didn't mean to scare him so bad. We were only playing Indian."

"Only--playing--Indian!" panted Tabitha, in scorching scorn. "Look at those children! You have frightened them all to death!" Pausing an instant in her vigorous shaking, she pointed at the circle of sisters,--Mercedes, weak and trembling, bent over the limp form of little Janie, blowing frantically in the still, white face; a thoroughly subdued and frightened Toady was wildly fanning poor Irene, who had likewise crumpled in a faint; while close by sat Susie and Inez clinging to each other and sobbing in terror.

"Oh, I didn't mean to!" bellowed Billiard, as Tabitha resumed her shaking. "I thought they'd seen Indians before."

"And so they have, but not such horrible savages as you!" Shake!

Shake! Shake!

Irene sighed faintly and opened her eyes. Toady's heart gave a violent thump of relief and thanksgiving, and abruptly dropping the headdress of feathers which he had been using as a fan, he flew to his brother's rescue.

"Oh, please, Mrs. Tabitha," he pleaded, "you've drubbed him enough.

Shake me if you ain't through yet. You'll have him plumb addled!

Really, we were just in for some fun. We never dreamed the kids would scare so easy. That's only vegetable dye on Rosslyn's head. He thought we had scalped him, but we didn't mean to hurt him."

Tabitha glanced down into the entreating brown eyes at her elbow, straightway forgave Toady, and released her victim so suddenly that he fell sprawling into a nest of sharp-thorned Mormon pears; but of this she was unaware, for with one swoop she gathered up the now hysterical baby, and stalked off toward the house, saying grimly, "You boys stay right where you are until you are willing to apologize and promise to behave yourselves in the future. I've a mind to turn you over to the sheriff now. Come, girls!" Followed by the troop of white, s.h.i.+vering sisters, she disappeared within doors, and soon quiet reigned in the Eagles' Nest.

Only then did the cowed Billiard venture to peer from his retreat at the house below. It was nearing the supper hour and he was hungry, but Tabitha had said he must apologize and promise good behaviour before he would be admitted to the family circle. It was evident that she meant business.

"Toady," he whispered to the other boy, sitting silent and motionless where he had dropped when Tabitha had left them an hour before.

"Toady, can you see anyone down there?"

Toady glanced off at the hazy flat below with its winding silver ribbon of railroad track, and the lonely, dingy station house, and shook his head.

"Aw, not there!" Billiard protested, seeing that his brother's thoughts had evidently been running in the same channel. "Down to Uncle Jim's, I mean."

Scarcely s.h.i.+fting his position, dutiful Toady craned his neck around a boulder, surveyed the quiet mountainside in the waning afternoon light, and again shook his head.

"Creep down and see what they're doing. Maybe they are talking about us."

"Go yourself," returned Toady briefly.

"Aw, come now, Toady! She ain't so mad at you, and besides, you're littler. They wouldn't see you so quick."

Still Toady remained seated.

"We'll have to have some water to wash off this stuff before she'll let us in to--to apologize," wheedled Billiard.

"_Are_ you going to apologize?"

"Looks like we got to," answered the older boy gloomily. "She's a reg'lar cyclone. Smashed up half our things already, and like enough she will sick the sheriff on us like she said, 'nless we do--er--apologize."

It was very evident that Billiard was not in the habit of apologizing for anything; and Toady, grinning with no little satisfaction at his brother's discomfiture, arose and slowly descended by a roundabout trail to the cottage. He was gone a long time and Billiard was growing decidedly restless and anxious when he appeared in sight once more.

"She's--they are going to write to Uncle Hogan!" he announced breathlessly.

"Uncle Hogan!" cried Billiard in dismay.

"Yes, that's just what I heard them say. Mercedes told her how Uncle Hogan----"

"I'll get even with Miss Mercedes," Billiard interrupted fiercely.

"You better get that paint off your face and hike for the house with your apology," advised the more easily persuaded brother, "else you'll never have a chance to get even with anybody again."

"Why?"

"Because if we don't promise to be good inside of an hour, they are going to ask the--the--some man, sort of a policeman, I guess, to look after us until Uncle Hogan answers."

"Do you really think they'd write to Uncle Hogan?"

"Sure! Tabitha knows him. She and that Glory girl with the red hair kept him all night last winter off some mountain he wanted to climb 'cause they didn't know who he was. She had a gun and shot at them; but when her father got there he said 'twas all right, and Uncle Hogan thinks Tabitha is the whole cheese now."

"Supposing we do--apologize, will they write to him still?"

"No, I guess not. If you'll promise to behave, they will let you stay until some woman who's going to take care of the kids most of the summer gets here. Then she can do as she pleases about writing. You better knuckle under, Billiard."

The older boy groaned. "You don't seem to care very much," he complained bitterly, feeling that Toady had deserted him at the most critical moment.

"I--I've apologized already," acknowledged the other. "I'd rather do that than have Uncle Hogan get after us."

"So would I," Billiard sulkily decided, and pulling himself up from his rocky seat, he slowly shambled down the mountainside, with Toady at his heels hugely enjoying his brother's humiliation, for, though comrades in mischief, the older boy loved to bully the younger, and Toady had a long list of scores to settle, so he could not refrain from grinning broadly behind Billiard's back, particularly since his part of the disagreeable program had already been accomplished.

"Better wash your face, first," he suggested, as Billiard made straight for the kitchen door, through which savory odors of supper cooking were beginning to steal.

"Aw, come off!"

"She won't let you in till you do."

"Well, then, where's the water?"