Mary's Rainbow Part 10

With a squeal of delight, the four scampered from the room and up the stairs.

"Lock that door, Mary! Quick! It will never do to let Beth see what we are up to. There, now, if she can tell that this is not her Lucy doll, she has better eyes than most people."

"We can't let her see it, though, until after Uncle has taken a look at it; so I shall lock the door after us, Wilhelmina, when we go out----Mercy on us! What _are_ they up to!" For from the staircase came screams and wails and sounds of falling things which brought every one in the house to the banisters.

Wilhelmina caught Jack at the head of the stairs and bundled him into the playroom, closing the door on him; and then she hurried after Mary, who, picking her way over the books and games scattered on the stairs, was hurrying down to the three in a heap at the foot.

"We's deaded! Oh, we's all deaded; so we is!" wailed Berta as her father lifted her to her feet.

"No, no, pet, it is not so bad as that, I am sure."

d.i.c.k managed to pull himself together and sat on the lowest step, winking very hard; but Beth lay so still that Mr. Selwyn was frightened. He lifted her carefully and carried her into the library, feeling the frail little limbs to make sure that no bones were broken.

Presently, she opened her eyes and looked at him in a dazed way. He pa.s.sed his hand over her little yellow head and felt a great lump at the back of it.

Berta was awed at the grave look on his face and whispered, "Is----is little sister----drefful much hurt, Daddy?"

"She certainly got the worst of this tumble, dear. I cannot tell how serious this b.u.mp on her head may be."

"Oh, dear, me! Poor Beth is all the time getting the worse of ev'ything, so she is! First her Lucy doll's head, and now her own!"

And great tears rolled down Berta's chubby cheeks.

"My----my Lucy doll----did Uncle----make her well?"

"He hasn't come home yet, Bethy; but she is ever so much better, and I am sure she will soon be as well as ever," soothed Mary, who was kneeling beside her father.

"Jack----I was----taking care of him, w.i.l.l.y-mean----"

"He didn't fall, honey. He is up in the playroom."

"My----my head----Daddy----it hurts----drefful much."

"You b.u.mped it, dear; but here are Mother and Aunt Etta and Aunt Mandy, who all know the very best thing to do for b.u.mps. Mary will get some ice, and we shall go upstairs where you can be quiet and rest for a little while."

"But----but I want to help pack, Daddy."

"We won't pack nennything at all till your poor little head is all well, honey. You see, Mother, our new, little kitty was all the time jumping round our feets ev'y whichy way." Berta thought that someone should explain matters. "And she falled Beth down, and Beth b.u.mped d.i.c.k and falled him down, and he b.u.mped me and falled me down, and----and ev'ything falled all down ev'y place, and----"

"But you and d.i.c.k are not hurt, dear, are you?"

"I thinked we is deaded, Mother, but I guess we isn't."

After luncheon, Wilhelmina and Mary tiptoed into the twins' room, where Beth lay in a heavy sleep, an icebag at the back of her head and Aunt Mandy sitting beside her. They placed the new Lucy at the foot of the bed where the little one would see her the moment she opened her eyes.

Then Mary insisted that the old nurse should go to her luncheon, and promised that she and Wilhelmina would stay with Beth. Presently, the child stirred, and the two slipped behind a screen to watch her when she woke. They heard a low gurgle of delight and saw her creep to the foot of the bed and clasp the doll in her arms, kissing her over and over again and crooning, "My most beauty chile, my most beauty chile!"

And they almost laughed aloud when she began to examine the doll's sweet little face for the cracks which she knew should be there, feeling the rosy cheeks with her frail little finger, and rubbing her eyes for a better look. And when she had made sure that Lucy's face was as smooth as it had been before the accident, she began hugging and kissing her again, while she murmured, "Isn't Uncle good! _Isn't_ he good to make you all well, my most beauty chile! I must go find him this very 'zact instinct and love him tight as I can. But----but my head feels very queer, so it does."

Mary stole from behind the screen, ready to catch her if she should show any sign of falling as she climbed unsteadily over the side of her crib; but Beth, dazed from the pain in her head, took no notice of anyone. Her sister followed her down to the library, where Mr. Selwyn and the Doctor stood talking.

"I----I jes' want to give Uncle a big love for making my Lucy doll all well again, and----and then I'se going back to bed, 'cause----'cause I can't see so very well, and the b.u.mp hurts."

"No wonder, pet." The Doctor held her close. "But after you have taken another little nap, you will feel much better. I think Lucy should be kept in bed for the rest of the day, and I am sure she would like you to stay with her. She had a very narrow escape, you know.

Come, we shall go upstairs again."

Berta and d.i.c.k begged off from their nap and began the afternoon by stripping pin-cus.h.i.+ons and emptying trays of pins and hairpins which they scattered among the straw in a basket meant for china and gla.s.sware. This was too much for the real workers, who felt that they could breathe easily only when the four were sound asleep; and the little ones, worn out after their busy morning, did not open their eyes until time to dress for dinner.

CHAPTER X.

TUESDAY.

Beth, a little paler than usual, but quite ready for work, was the first at the breakfast table next morning. The evening before, when Berta and d.i.c.k had gone to see her for a few minutes, the three had planned what they would do the very first thing in the morning; and the glances and smiles which pa.s.sed between them during the meal, did not escape the Doctor's eye. Before leaving the table, he whispered to his sister that mischief was brewing. Mrs. Marvin took Jack upstairs with her for safe keeping; and Mrs. Selwyn, with an eye on the other three, busied herself at the china closet while they brought in a bushel basket, filled it with straw from a barrel in the corner of the dining-room, carried it into the front hall and put it under the staircase. She waited until she saw them go into the library and begin to pack their books and games, when, knowing that her husband would look after them there, she hurried to the work waiting upstairs.

After packing and unpacking the box many times, the children decided that it was ready for the cover. Mr. Selwyn came down from his ladder to nail it on for them; but in order to please them, he had to drive so many nails into it that the heads of them made a very neat border around the edge. Then the telephone rang; and when he returned to the library, the little ones had gone. A half hour later, he needed the hammer and nails; but they were not to be seen. After a long search, he thought he must have carried them to the telephone with him; but no, not a nail could he find. Suddenly, he remembered that he had promised to call up his lawyer that morning, and not being sure of the number, he turned to look it up in the directory. The book was not in its usual place, nor could he find it anywhere else in the room. He asked the packers if they had seen it, but they had not. Then he called to Mary to see whether anyone upstairs had it or his hammer and nails. In a few moments, she came down empty-handed.

"Have you asked the twinnies, Father?"

"I thought they were upstairs with you. I have not seen them for a half hour."

"They are up to something then. I wouldn't be surprised if they were out in the yard driving nails into the fence and benches."

As she ran through the hall, she heard a m.u.f.fled _meow_ coming from under the staircase and saw there what looked like a heap of carpet with a ha.s.sock on top of it. Again came the _meow_. "Surely, Fluff can't be under there. The poor little thing would be smothered." She lifted the ha.s.sock and a thick rug and found a bushel basket carefully covered with a barrel head which began to move. She raised it, and out sprang the pretty Angora kitten which the Doctor had brought to her little sisters a few evenings before. Down the hall toward the kitchen it fled, and Mary hurried out the side door to the yard. No sign of the children there, and Tom in the barn had not seen them that morning.

She searched the bas.e.m.e.nt and then returned through the kitchen and dining-room to the front hall, where she decided that they must have gone up the back stairs while she was coming down the front ones. Just outside the dining-room door she paused. Surely, that was a whisper.

There it was again. "Yes, she's gone. Goody!" The table cloth, which had not been taken off after breakfast, hung nearly to the floor. Mary lifted one corner of it, and three pairs of eyes, dancing with mischief, met hers.

"s.h.!.+ s.h.!.+ we's making Daddy a s'prise--a most beauty, grand s'prise."

Berta pointed to the box of nails before them and to the box cover in which lay a number of them carefully wrapped in white tissue paper.

The hammer, also well wrapped, was near by.

"But how is Father going to fasten the covers on his boxes of books if you pack all his nails?"

"Oh, I'se quite sure Tom has plenty of nails and hammers and all things same as that in his big box in the barn----_plenty_!"

"Then why did Father go to the store last evening to buy these, Beth?

He has looked everywhere for them and can't imagine what has become of them. Surely, when he has nailed your box up so nicely for you, you won't be so stingy as to take his hammer and all his nails from him."

"But----but you don't misstand, Mary. We's making a _s'prise_ for Daddy."

"But Father would rather have his hammer and nails, Berta. It is too bad to spoil the surprise; but I know what we can do. Put all the nails that you have wrapped so nicely into the box cover, and I shall ask Father to try to get along with those in the box. If there are any left, you can pack them later; and it won't be very much trouble to wrap the hammer again."

The three looked rather mournful as they crept out from under the table.

"Oh, I almost forgot about it. Do you know anything about the telephone book?"

From the way they looked at one another, Mary felt sure that they knew a great deal about it. Just then, Fluff ran across the room.

"Why, Fluff, where _did_ you come from? We thinked you was all packed nice and comfy in the basket we fixed for you. Go right straight back there this instinct and don't be jumping around our feets and falling us down same as you did yesterday morning-time."