Janice Day, the Young Homemaker Part 50

"Oh, Olga!" gasped Janice.

"Huh? What iss it the matter?"

"We have looked everywhere for you!"

"For me? Why for me? I don't vork no more. I keep house for my hoosban'," and Olga smiled broadly.

"You--you are married to Mr. Sangreen?" asked Janice doubtfully.

"I bane married right avay when I left you. We go to his folks--dey leev up in Michigan. He try vork dere and I coom back on a veesit to Yon Yonson's wife. He vork for Misder Latham."

"Yes, I know!" cried Janice, anxiously.

"Now Willie bane coom back to his old yob at de pickle vorks.

And how is you? You look fine."

"Oh, Olga, we have been dreadfully worried. When-- when you went away from our house did you see a little box--like a jewel box?

I left it on your trunk in the storeroom."

"On my troonk?" repeated the woman. "Where it stood in de storeroom?"

"Oh, yes!" cried Janice clasping her hands.

It had suddenly impressed her that beyond any doubt, Olga was not a thief. Whatever had happened to the treasure-box, Olga did not knowingly have it in her possession.

"I remember de leetle box. Yes! You t'ink I take it?"

"We haven't been able to find it since you left, Olga," cried Janice.

"Huh! I saw it. But--Here! This boy will drive us back mit him to your house?"

"Oh, yes, Olga!" cried Janice, with a glance at Gummy, who nodded.

"I'll go mit you," said the woman, and immediately she climbed to the high seat." Janice followed her. Gummy turned the horse about and away they went on the return journey.

On the way Janice thought it best to say nothing more about the lost treasure-box; but she told Olga of how she had tried to trace her through the Johnsons.

"My bad look!" cried Olga. "I break a dish by that Latham woman's house and she vant me to pay for it. Huh! People ought not to use such spensive dishes. Me, I use common chinnyware in my house."

When they arrived at the house on Knight Street, Olga jumped briskly down and followed Janice inside. Gummy called after them that he would wait. He was so excited and interested himself that he could not leave until the mystery was cleared up;

"Ve go oop to dot storeroom," declared Olga and proceeded to do so, with Janice trembling and hoping beside her.

Once in the room the woman seized a strong chair, climbed upon it, and, being tall herself, she could reach over the carved strip of woodwork on the front of the wardrobe to the s.p.a.ce that lay behind. In a moment she brought something forth covered with dust and cobwebs that caused Janice to utter a shriek of delight.

"That iss it, yes?" said Olga. "I be mad mit you dot morning I leaf here. The box was on my troonk and when Willie come up the stairs for it, I grab de box and pitch it up hyar. I don't know you vant it, Janice-- and your fader."

"Well," sighed Broxton Day, when he heard the good news and had the treasure-box in his hands, "'All's well that ends well.' But what a peck of trouble that Swedish girl made us!"

"No, no I" exclaimed Janice warmly. "I did it. It was my fault.

I was the careless one, or the box would not have been where she could see it. But I am awfully glad, Daddy, that Olga proved not to be a thief."

Daddy showed her the tiny spring in the bottom of the box which, when released, enabled him to lift up the thin part.i.tion. He removed the thin packet of letters, and put them in a leather case, placing the case into the wall safe.

"I know where they are now, my dear. Do what you will with the other keepsakes and the treasure-box itself. I cannot tell you how glad I am to get these letters back."

But Janice thought she did know something about that.

"That Mexican mine business is not likely to cause us any more trouble until spring, anyway," said daddy one night at dinner.

"Oh, Daddy! then won't you have to go down there?" Janice cried.

"Not likely. Fact is, there is a big fight on in the mining country, and the mines have got to shut down. But the government promises us that we shall be able to open up again next spring.

We might as well sit tight and hold on, as I tell them. I'm sorry that so much of our funds are tied up in the business, however. Politics below the Rio Grande are 'mighty onsartain,' as Brother Jase would say."

"Now that Mammy Blanche is here with us, I would not have to go to Poketown, even if you did go to Mexico, Daddy. Would I?"

"M-mm! Well, that's hard telling," he replied, with twinkling eyes. "Let's not cross that bridge till we come to it."

So Janice saw nothing but a cheerful vista before her --with school coming soon, pleasure in study, plenty of fun between times, and such a fortunate state of affairs at Eight Hundred and Forty-five Knight Street that she did not have to worry about daddy's comfort or her own at all.

Mrs. Carringford had had no easy time of it with the shyster lawyer and the others who were making trouble for her over her property. But in the end her own lawyer triumphed; and then the mortgage on the place was cleared off, much to the satisfaction of both the Carringfords and the Days.

"It does seem," said Janice with an ecstatic sigh, to Amy Carringford one day when both girls had their sewing on the porch, "that everything always does turn out for the best for us Days."

"Humph!" returned Amy, threading her needle, "I guess they wouldn't turn out so 'right' if you and your father didn't do something to turn 'em out."

And, perhaps, that was so, too.