Fairy Tale
Read books online » Fairy Tale » What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge (best novels to read in english txt) 📖

Book online «What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge (best novels to read in english txt) 📖». Author Susan Coolidge



1 ... 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ... 26
Go to page:
so queerly, that Clover almost laughed; and even Katy, who could see nothing wrong in people she loved, was glad to carry her away to the playroom.

“Come out to the bower,” she said, putting her arm round the blue bar�ge waist.

“A bower!” cried Imogen. “How sweet!” But when they reached the asparagus boughs her face fell. “Why it hasn’t any roof, or pinnacles, or any fountain!” she said.

“Why no, of course not,” said Clover, staring, “we made it ourselves.”

“Oh!” said Imogen. She was evidently disappointed. Katy and Clover felt mortified; but as their visitor did not care for the bower, they tried to think of something else.

“Let us go to the Loft,” they said.

So they all crossed the yard together. Imogen picked her way daintily in the white satin slippers, but when she saw the spiked post, she gave a scream.

“Oh, not up there, darling, not up there!”. she cried; “never, never!”

“Oh, do try! It’s just as easy as can be,” pleaded Katy, going up and down half a dozen times in succession to show how easy it was. But Imogen wouldn’t be persuaded.

“Do not ask me,” she said affectedly; “my nerves would never stand such a thing! And besides—my dress!”

“What made you wear it?” said Philly, who was a plain-spoken child, and given to questions. While John whispered to Dorry, “That’s a real stupid girl. Let’s go off somewhere and play by ourselves.”

So, one by one, the small fry crept away, leaving Katy and Clover to entertain the visitor by themselves. They tried dolls, but Imogen did not care for dolls. Then they proposed to sit down in the shade, and cap verses, a game they all liked. But Imogen said that though she adored poetry, she never could remember any. So it ended in their going to the orchard, where Imogen ate a great many plums and early apples, and really seemed to enjoy herself. But when she could eat no more, a dreadful dulness fell over the party. At last Imogen said:

“Don’t you ever sit in the drawing-room?”

“The what?” asked Clover.

“The drawing-room,” repeated Imogen.

“Oh, she means the parlor!” cried Katy. “No, we don’t sit there except when Aunt Izzie has company to tea. It is all dark and poky, you know. Beside, it’s so much pleasanter to be out-doors. Don’t you think so?”

“Yes, sometimes,” replied Imogen, doubtfully, “but I think it would be pleasant to go in and sit there for a while, now. My head aches dreadfully, being out here in this horrid sun.”

Katy was at her wit’s end to know what to do. They scarcely ever went into the parlor, which Aunt Izzie regarded as a sort of sacred place. She kept cotton petticoats over all the chairs for fear of dust, and never opened the blinds for fear of flies. The idea of children with dusty boots going in there to sit! On the other hand, Katy’s natural politeness made it hard to refuse a visitor anything she asked for. And beside, it was dreadful to think that Imogen might go away and report “Katy Carr isn’t allowed to sit in the best room, even when she has company!” With a quaking heart she led the way to the parlor. She dared not open the blinds, so the room looked very dark. She could just see Imogen’s figure as she sat on the sofa, and Clover twirling uneasily about on the piano-stool. All the time she kept listening to hear if Aunt Izzie were not coming, and altogether the parlor was a dismal place to her; not half so pleasant as the asparagus bower, where they felt perfectly safe.

But Imogen, who, for the first time, seemed comfortable, began to talk. Her talk was about herself. Such stories she told about the things which had happened to her! All the young ladies in The Ledger put together, never had stranger adventures. Gradually, Katy and Clover got so interested that they left their seats and crouched down close to the sofa, listening with open mouths to these stories. Katy forgot to listen for Aunt Izzie. The parlor door swung open, but she did not notice it. She did not even hear the front door shut, when Papa came home to dinner.

Dr. Carr, stopping in the hall to glance over his newspaper, heard the high-pitched voice running on in the parlor. At first he hardly listened; then these words caught his ear:

“Oh, it was lovely, girls, perfectly delicious! I suppose I did look well, for I was all in white, with my hair let down, and just one rose, you know, here on top. And he leaned over me, and said in a low, deep tone, ‘Lady, I am a Brigand, but I feel the enchanting power of your beauty. You are free!’”

Dr. Carr pushed the door open a little farther. Nothing was to be seen but some indistinct figures, but he heard Katy’s voice in an eager tone:

“Oh, do go on. What happened next?”

“Who on earth have the children got in the parlor?” he asked Aunt Izzie, whom he found in the dining-room.

“The parlor!” cried Miss Izzie, wrathfully, “why, what are they there for?” Then going to the door, she called out, “Children, what are you doing in the parlor? Come out right away. I thought you were playing out-doors.”

“Imogen had a headache,” faltered Katy. The three girls came out into the hall; Clover and Katy looking scared, and even the Enchanter of the Brigand quite crest-fallen.

“Oh,” said Aunt Izzie, grimly, “I am sorry to hear that. Probably you are bilious. Would you like some camphor or anything?”

“No, thank you,” replied Imogen, meekly. But afterwards she whispered to Katy:

“Your aunt isn’t very nice, I think. She’s just like Jackima, that horrid old woman I told you about, who lived in the Brigand’s Cave and did the cooking.

“I don’t think you’re a bit polite to tell me so,” retorted Katy, very angry at this speech.

“Oh, never mind, dear, don’t take it to heart!” replied Imogen, sweetly. “We can’t help having relations that ain’t nice, you know.”

The visit was evidently not a success. Papa was very civil to Imogen at dinner, but he watched her closely, and Katy saw a comical twinkle in his eye, which she did not like. Papa had very droll eyes. They saw everything, and sometimes they seemed to talk almost as distinctly as his tongue. Katy began to feel low-spirited. She confessed afterward that she should never have got through the afternoon if she hadn’t run up stairs two or three times, and comforted herself by reading a little in “Rosamond.”

“Aren’t you glad she’s gone?” whispered Clover, as they stood at the gate together watching Imogen walk down the street.

“Oh, Clover! how can you?” said Katy But she gave Clover a great hug, and I think in her heart she was glad.

“Katy,” said Papa, next day, “you came into the room then, exactly like your new friend Miss Clark.”

“How? I don’t know what you mean,” answered Katy, blushing deeply.

So,” said Dr. Carr; and he got up, raising his shoulders and squaring his elbows, and took a few mincing steps across the room. Katy couldn’t help laughing, it was so funny, and so like Imogen. Then Papa sat down again and drew her close to him.

“My dear,” he said, “you’re an affectionate child, and I’m glad of it. But there is such a thing as throwing away one’s affection. I didn’t fancy that little girl at all yesterday. What makes you like her so much?”

“I didn’t like her so much, yesterday,” admitted Katy, reluctantly. “She’s a great deal nicer than that at school, sometimes.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” said her father. “For I should be sorry to think that you really admired such silly manners. And what was that nonsense I heard her telling you about Brigands?”

“It really hap—” began Katy.—Then she caught Papa’s eye, and bit her lip, for he looked very quizzical. “Well,” she went on, laughing, “I suppose it didn’t really all happen;—but it was ever so funny, Papa, even if it was a make-up. And Imogen’s just as good-natured as can be. All the girls like her.”

“Make-ups are all very well,” said Papa, “as long as people don’t try to make you believe they are true. When they do that, it seems to me it comes too near the edge of falsehood to be very safe or pleasant. If I were you, Katy, I’d be a little shy of swearing eternal friendship for Miss Clark. She may be good-natured, as you say, but I think two or three years hence she won’t seem so nice to you as she does now. Give me a kiss, Chick, and run away, for there’s Alexander with the buggy.”

CHAPTER VII COUSIN HELEN’S VISIT

A little knot of the school-girls were walking home together one afternoon in July. As they neared Dr. Carr’s gate, Maria Fiske exclaimed, at the sight of a pretty bunch of flowers lying in the middle of the sidewalk:

“Oh my!” she cried, “see what somebody’s dropped! I’m going to have it.” She stooped to pick it up. But, just as her fingers touched the stems, the nosegay, as if bewitched, began to move. Maria made a bewildered clutch. The nosegay moved faster, and at last vanished under the gate, while a giggle sounded from the other side of the hedge.

“Did you see that?” shrieked Maria; “those flowers ran away of themselves.”

“Nonsense,” said Katy, “it’s those absurd children.” Then, opening the gate, she called: “John! Dorry! come out and show yourselves.” But nobody replied, and no one could be seen. The nosegay lay on the path, however, and picking it up, Katy exhibited to the girls a long end of black thread, tied to the stems.

“That’s a very favorite trick of Johnnie’s,” she said: “she and Dorry are always tying up flowers, and putting them out on the walk to tease people. Here, Maria, take ‘em if you like. Though I don’t think John’s taste in bouquets is very good.”

“Isn’t it splendid to have vacation come?” said one of the bigger girls. “What are you all going to do? We’re going to the seaside.”

“Pa says he’ll take Susie and me to Niagara,” said Maria.

“I’m going to make my aunt a visit,” said Alice Blair. “She lives in a real lovely place in the country, and there’s a pond there; and Tom (that’s my cousin) says he’ll teach me to row. What are you going to do, Katy?”

“Oh, I don’t know; play round and have splendid times,” replied Katy, throwing her bag of books into the air, and catching it again. But the other girls looked as if they didn’t think this good fun at all, and as if they were sorry for her; and Katy felt suddenly that her vacation wasn’t going to be so pleasant as that of the rest.

“I wish Papa would take us somewhere,” she said to Clover, as they walked up the gravel path. “All the other girls’ Papas do.”

“He’s too busy,” replied Clover. “Beside, I don’t think any of the rest of the girls have half such good times as we. Ellen Robbins says she’d give a million of dollars for such nice brothers and sisters as ours to play with. And, you know, Maria and Susie have awful times at home, though they do go to places. Mrs. Fiske is so particular. She always says ‘Don’t,’ and they haven’t got any yard to their house, or anything. I wouldn’t change.”

“Nor I,” said Katy, cheering up at these words of wisdom. “Oh, isn’t it lovely to think there won’t be any school to-morrow? Vacations are just

1 ... 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ... 26
Go to page:

Free ebook «What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge (best novels to read in english txt) 📖» - read online now

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet. You can be the first!
Add a comment