The Carter Girls' Mysterious Neighbors Part 1

The Carter Girls' Mysterious Neighbors.

by Nell Speed.

CHAPTER I

EN ROUTE TO THE FARM

"How I hate being poor!" exclaimed Helen Carter, looking ruefully at her darned glove.

"Me, too!" echoed the younger sister, Lucy.

"Shh! Father will hear you," admonished Douglas.

"n.o.body can hear above the rattle of this horrid old day coach,"

declared Helen. "There is something about the odor of a common coach that has spent its life hauling commuters from home to work--from work to home, that sickens me," and Helen's sensitive nostrils quivered in disgust.

"I'm sorry, dear; I know it is all so hard on you," said Douglas.

"Not a bit harder on me than it is on you."

"Not a bit!" from Lucy.

"I think it must be," smiled Douglas. "I have an idea Nature did not intend me to ride in Pullmans. I am really just as comfortable in a day coach and I think they are lots more airy and better ventilated.

What do you think about it, Nan?"

"Oh, I like 'em--such interesting types," drawled Nan. "You get to your destination sooner, too, as the Pullman is always. .h.i.tched onto the back end of the train."

"I can't see anything very interesting in commuters, I must say,"

laughed Helen, "but Nan was always easy to please."

"Yes, Nan is our philosopher," said Douglas.

"Well, since Lucy and I are to join the army of commuters it would be foolish of us not to find them interesting. Don't you remember Mrs.

Doasyouwouldbedoneby? If we find them interesting maybe they will return the compliment."

"Yes, and I remember Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, too," declared Douglas, exchanging a sly glance with Helen.

The two older sisters could not help seeing that a nice looking boy sitting across the aisle had already found something to interest him in the dreamy brown eyes of one courageous commuter to be. His own grey eyes were twinkling with merriment. Evidently the rattle of the despised coach had not drowned the conversation so far as he was concerned. He had made some pretense of studying, but Latin Comp. was deadly dull in comparison with the chatter of the Carter girls.

The Carters were _en route_ to their winter quarters, chosen after much discussion and misgivings as the best place they could find for all concerned. The doctor had p.r.o.nounced the ultimatum: Mr. Carter must be in the country for another year at least and he must have no business worries. He must live out-of-doors as much as possible and no matter how perplexing the problems that in the natural course of events would arise in a household, they were not to be brought to the master of that household. As Mrs. Carter had determined many weeks before to play the role of a lily of the field, announcing herself as a semi-invalid, who was to be loved and cherished and waited on but not to be worried, it meant that Douglas, as oldest child, must be mother and father as well.

Hers was the thankless task of telling her sisters what they must and must not do, and curbing the extravagance that would break out now and then in spots. Small wonder that it was the case, as, up to a few months before this, lavish expenditure had been the rule in the Carter family rather than the exception.

They had spent a wonderful summer running a week-end boarding camp on the side of a mountain in Albemarle County. It had been a remarkable thing for these young girls to have undertaken and accomplished, all untrained as they were. But when their father's nervous breakdown came and the realization that there was no more money in the family till, and none likely to be there unless they could earn it, right manfully they put their young shoulders to the wheel and with a long push and a strong push and a push all together they got their wagon, if not hitched to a star, at least moving along the highroad of life and making some progress.

Dr. George Wright, the nerve specialist who had undertaken Mr. Carter's cure, had been invaluable in their search for the proper place in which to spend the winter, this winter that was to put the keystone in their father's recovery. Such a place was not easy to find, as it must be near enough to Richmond for Nan and Lucy to go to school. That was one time when Douglas put her foot down most emphatically. The two younger girls were quite willing to follow in their sister Helen's footsteps and "quiturate," but Douglas knew that they must be held to their tasks.

She bitterly regretted her own inability to continue her education, as college had been her dream, and she also deplored the fact that Helen was not able to spend the one more year at school necessary for her graduation. As for Helen, not having to go to school was the one bright spot for her in the whole sordid business, at least she had boldly declared such was the case.

The winter was to be a busy one for Helen, as the home work was to fall to her share. Douglas, by a great piece of good luck, had obtained a place as teacher in a district school not far from the little farm that had been selected as the abiding place for the Carter family during that winter of 1916 and '17. The teacher who had been employed had been called away by private affairs, and Douglas had fallen heir to the position.

The train rocked and swayed and b.u.mped on the illy-laid road-bed as our girls sped on to their destination. Mrs. Carter in a seat across the aisle had placed her tired head on her husband's shoulder. The poor little lady felt in her heart of hearts that all of this going to out-of-the-way country places to spend winter months was really absurd, but then it was absurd to be poor anyhow, something she had not bargained for in her scheme of existence. She had said not a word, however, but had let Douglas and that stern Dr. Wright manage everything. She felt about as capable of changing the plans of her family as her youngest child, Bobby, might.

Bobby, who had spent the time on the train most advantageously, having made friends with the brakeman and conductor, was now sitting in an alert att.i.tude, as his new friends had informed him that there were only five minutes more before they would reach Grantly, their destination.

Going to the country was just what he wanted and he was preparing to have a glorious time with no restrictions as to clean face and hands. To be sure, he had heard that he was to go to school, but since Douglas was to be the teacher this fact was not disturbing him much.

The summer in the mountains had done much to develop this darling of the Carters. He no longer looked so much like an angel as when we were first introduced to the family. His curls were close cropped now and he was losing teeth faster than he was gaining them. If there could be such a thing as a snaggled tooth angel perhaps that celestial being would resemble Bobby Carter; but I am sure if that angel could have thought up as much mischief in a week as Bobby could execute in an hour, he would have met the fate of Lucifer and been hurled from Heaven. It may be, though, that if Lucifer had possessed such eyes as this little boy he would have been forgiven and might still be in his happy home. It was an impossibility to harbor wrath against Bobby if once you looked in his eyes. They were like brown forest pools. His sister Nan had the same eyes and the same long curling lashes. The shape and color of their eyes were inherited from their beautiful little mother, but the soulful expression that the children possessed was something that came from within and is not controlled by laws of heredity. Mrs. Carter's eyes if they reminded one of forest pools were certainly very shallow pools.

"At last!" as the brakeman called out their station, came with a sigh of relief from the whole family.

The station consisted of a platform and a little three-sided shed designed to s.h.i.+eld the traveler from the weather, if the weather did not happen to arrive on the unprotected fourth side.

"They promised to meet us," said Douglas as she collected parcels and umbrellas, "but I don't see a sign of them."

"Maybe they are on the other side," suggested the hopeful Nan, peering through the window.

They weren't, however, nor anywhere in sight. Douglas and Helen looked at each other askance. The two older girls were the only ones in the family who had seen their future abode and they felt very responsible.

This. .h.i.tch of not being met was most disconcerting. They had felt if everything went off smoothly and well their choice of a home would be smiled upon. First, the day they moved must be good, and this day in October was surely perfect. The packing must be done without bustle and confusion, and that had been accomplished. They must have a good luncheon before leaving Richmond, and Miss Elizabeth Somerville, who had invited them to her house, had feasted her cousins most royally, sending them forth with well-nourished bodies and peaceful minds in consequence.

This was the first obstacle to their carefully laid plans. They were to learn that no plan depending in any particular on the cooperation of their landladies, the Misses Grant, would go through safely.

Miss Ella and Miss Louise Grant were joint owners of the small farm that the glib real estate agent had persuaded Dr. Wright and our girls was the one and only place in which the winter could be comfortably spent.

"Excellent air and water; close to schools and churches; neighborhood as good as to be found in Virginia, and what more could be said? House one of the old landmarks of the county; the view from the front porch quite a famous one; R. F. D. at yard gate; commuting distance from Richmond; roads excellent, as we have found on our way here." They had motored out and certainly the roads had seemed very good.

The Misses Grant were all that was left of a large and at one time influential family. They lived in a great old mansion erected in the middle of what was at one time a vast estate but which had gradually shrunk through generations of mortgages until now it comprised about two thousand acres. The name of this old place was Grantly.

The farm that Helen and Douglas had rented for the year was only called a farm by courtesy, as it had in its holding only about ten acres. It had at one time been the home of the overseer of Grantly when that aristocratic estate could boast an overseer. It was too humble an abode to have a name of its own, but our girls were determined to give it a name when they found out what would suit it. Now they stood on the platform of the tiny station and said in their hearts that such a place, belonging to such unreliable persons, deserved no name at all.

"Oh, I'm so sorry they haven't sent to meet us. They told me if I would write to them they would have a carriage and a farm wagon here," wailed Douglas.

"Why not walk?" suggested Mr. Carter. "A quarter of a mile is nothing."

"Oh, do let's walk!" exclaimed Lucy. "We can just leave the luggage here and get someone to come back for it."

"All of you can walk," came faintly from Mrs. Carter. "Just leave me here alone. I don't fancy anything much will happen to me."

"But Mumsy, only a quarter of a mile!" begged Lucy.

"Why, my child, I never expect to walk more than a few blocks again as long as I live."

Mr. Carter looked pained and ended by staying with his wife while the four girls and Bobby trooped off to find someone to send for them.

"Why does Mother say she never expects to walk more than a few blocks again as long as she lives?" blurted out Lucy. "Is she sick? She looks to me like she's getting fat."

"Tell her that," suggested Nan, "and I bet you she will find she can walk a teensy little more than a few blocks."