*CHAPTER X*
*SETTLING THE NEST*
"Goods have come," called Mr. Ricketts from the mail box one morning.The pink freight card lay on top, and he seemed as pleased as anyone tofind it there. "Letter from out West too, I noticed, so I presume youfolks will be settled pretty soon."
"I almost feel as if I ought to let him read what Mr. McRae says," Mrs.Robbins said amusedly. "He's so friendly and interested."
As she opened the letter, the girls gathered around her chair,eager-eyed and curious to see what it contained. Jean declared that sheliked the handwriting because it was firm and plain without anyflourishes. Kit was sure he used a stub pen and was rather morose anddignified. Helen asked if she might keep the postage stamp for amemento, and Doris kept patting her mother's shoulder tenderly as if shewould have protected her against any disappointment.
"You read it, dear. I'd much rather you did," the Motherbird said,handing it over to Mr. Robbins.
Cousin Roxana was out in the buttery singing softly to herself aboutsome day when the mists had rolled in splendor from the beauty of thehills, and the nurse was upstairs, packing to return to New York thefollowing day. There was just their own little home group of robins andthey listened anxiously for the verdict. The letter ran:
SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN, April 4th, 19--.
_Mr. Jerrold Robbins, Gilead Center, Conn._
MY DEAR MR. ROBBINS: Your letter of March 28th, received. I should bevery glad to rent the old house down at Stony Eddy on a lease, but donot want to let it go out of the family. Miss Robbins can tell you theconditions under which it came into my possession and why I am not atliberty to part with it. If you care to rent it at $100 a year, it isyours. Any necessary repairs it may need I am willing to make. I havenever seen the property myself, but whatever Miss Robbins says about itwill be satisfactory to me, as she was my Aunt Trowbridge's dearestfriend.
Hoping if you decide to take the place, you may be happy there, I am,
Yours sincerely, RALPH McRAE.
"It's ours," Jean breathed thankfully.
"I always felt that it was, somehow," Mrs. Robbins smiled happily aroundat her brood. "And I know you'll like it, Jerry."
"Oh, I know the place, I remember admiring it as a boy. Besides, I'dlike anything up here. Why, I could live out yonder in Roxy's corncribvery comfortably this summer if she'd only let me," teased the invalid."Better send a check out at once for the rent, Betty, and get into it assoon as possible."
It was the third week in April when they drove down in relays from MapleLawn and took possession of the new home. There had been considerablerepairing to be done: painting and papering, mending the waterpipes andfurnace, and cleaning out the chimneys.
The goods had been brought up from Nantic by Hiram in the big hay wagon,he making four trips. Mrs. Robbins had wanted to hire an automobiletruck from Norwich, but Roxana said it was all nonsense with two bighorses standing idle in the barn just aching for work, and Hiram fussingaround over frost still being in the ground so he couldn't do any deepploughing. So the goods came up and were packed into the big front roomdownstairs while the girls and Mrs. Robbins went back and forth"settling."
Hiram's younger brother came to do the papering and painting. He lookedexactly like a young rooster, Kit declared, all neck and legs, and hewas fearfully shy. She found immediate diversion in appearing beforehim suddenly in her most abrupt manner and asking his opinion anxiouslyon something, whereupon Shad would blush intensely to the roots of histaffy colored hair, and splash paste blindly.
His name was Shadrach Farnum, but Shad suited him to perfection. AsCousin Roxana said, he did sort of run to bone. But he could paint andpaper to the queen's taste and gradually the rooms began to lookdifferent. The big living-room was covered with a soft wood brownburlap that harmonized well with their ash furniture and bookcases, andthe brown Spanish leather cushions. Window seats were built around thetwo bay windows, and the girls sewed diligently to cover the cushionsfor these with burlap, and to make inside curtains just to outline, asJean said, the cream filet ones.
"It looks so warm and tender and friendly, doesn't it?" Doris exclaimedwhen the big brown suede cover was laid on the long library table andthe copper lamp placed in the center. The copper lamp was really aninstitution in the Robbins' family. The girls had given it personalconduct from the Cove on Long Island to Nantic. Jean had found it in anold copper and brass shop in New York at a wonderful reduction, and hadcarted it home herself in triumph. The bowl was broad and low andsquat, shaped a good deal like a summer squash. The shade wasperforated by hand with exquisite artistry into strange Muscovitedesigns, through which the light shone softly. When it was lighted thefirst evening in the new home, Helen said she felt as if she were beforea shrine.
"And it is a shrine too," Jean told them, "the shrine of home."
Once in the long ago when they had all been quite young, Jean had beenfound industriously writing names on bits of paper, and fastening themwith mucilage to pieces of the furniture.
"I thought they might feel queer not having any names," she said whendiscovery came, "so I was naming them."
The lamp had a name too; it was always alluded to as Diogenes.
"It looks exactly like the kind of lamp he would have loved," Kitexplained.
The day after they really moved in, Cousin Roxana drove down with EllaLou and some good advice, a large brown crock of freshly baked beans anda loaf of brown bread.
"You need a good safe horse that you all can drive," she said. "SamWilletts has a brown mare that seems just about the ticket. Itelephoned over to him this morning and he'll sell her for $75.00, whichisn't bad at all. If you like, Betty, I'll call him up again as soon asI get back and Honey Hancock can bring her over. Honey's working for Mr.Willetts now, and the mare used to belong to the Hancocks. She was aregular pet, Piney said."
Mrs. Robbins was sure it was a good plan and Cousin Roxana wasinstructed to close the bargain. So it was that Greenacres made theacquaintance of Honey Hancock, destined to be a close friend beforesummer was over, and always a family standby.
It was a little past the supper hour when Honey drove up. Hitched tothe back of the wagon was the brown mare, and they all went out to lookat her. Honey was about fourteen and tall for his age. Rosy-cheeked hewas, with blue eyes and curly brown hair and dimples so deep andingratiating that Helen said it was a burning shame to waste them on aboy.
He stood at the mare's head, patting her slender, glossy neck andcombing her mane with his fingers, telling the girls her history, howshe had belonged to Molly Bawn, their old mare, and how his father hadbroken her to harness himself.
"But she never had to be really broken in. Piney and I started ridingher bareback when she was out in pasture and she was just as tame as akitten. She understands anything you say to her. Mother hated to sellher to Mr. Willetts, but we had to, and as I was working for him, why,she didn't know any difference. She's used to a good deal of petting--"
"Oh, we'll all pet her here," Jean promised. "We must have something todrive her in. Haven't you a davenport that she'll drive nicely in?"
"A davenport!" exclaimed Kit. "Jean Robbins, a davenport's a sofa.She'd look nice hitched to a sofa. My sister isn't used to the countryat all, Honey. She means a democrat, you know. The kind of a wagon youcan put one seat or two on, and still have room to put things away in."
"We haven't anything like that," said Honey, "but they might have downat Mr. Butterick's. He's the carriage maker. He can take a pair of oldcarriage wheels, and turn out a good buggy almost while you watch him."
"You have wonderful people up here," Helen said fervently. "It seems asif whenever you want a certain kind of a person, there he is waiting foryou. Where does Mr. Butterick live?"
"Down in Rocky Glen; second house past the basket weaver, Mr. Tompkins."
"Suppose we go over there tomorrow, girls," Jean su
ggested. "Or do youhave to take the mare over, Honey, and let Mr. Butterick sort of fit herwith a carriage and a harness? I wish I could put her in the barn rightnow."
"Better get somebody to take care of her first," Helen said practically."We'd feed her fish cakes and doughnuts."
Honey shifted his weight from one foot to the other somewhat uneasily.
"Don't suppose you folks think of taking anybody on regularly, do you?Mother said I was to ask, and say if you wanted me I might come up. It'snearer home than Mr. Willetts' and there's only Piney and Mother athome, and they need me to do the chores after I get home at night."
Jean hastily signaled to Kit for fear she wouldn't remember all thatCousin Roxana had told them about Honey Hancock and his sister. But justthen Mrs. Robbins stepped out on the side porch and smiled at Honeyuntil he turned red and grinned delightedly.
"I could come for about ten a month, Mother thought," he vouchsafed withmuch embarrassment.
The other Mother thought ten was about right too, and Honey drove awayin the spring twilight, happy as one of the barn swallows that circledin the dusk in a wonderful vesper dance. All the way up the hill theyheard him whistling "Beulah Land," and the hearts of the girls echoedthe sweet old melody. Although the deal had been closed over the brownmare, and the check reposed in Honey's overalls' pocket, he took herback with him, and promised to ride her over in the morning so the girlsshould not have the care of her over night.
"I asked him what her name was," Doris said, "and he told me they justcalled her Mollie's Baby. We must think up some wonderful name for her.You know, Mother darling, she looked over at me so tenderly andwistfully when Honey said she would have to go back over night. I knowshe longed to stay with us."
The next addition to the place was the lot of chickens. It had beenagreed the first year that no large expenditures should be made foranything, because it was all more or less experimental.
"We want to take care of Dad, and make him well this first year," Jeantold the other girls up in their room one night.
One point about the Robbins family that was different from otherfamilies was their distinctive individualities; they simply demandedseparate expression, as Jean put it. Nobody liked to double up withanyone else, and here at Greenacres there were plenty of rooms to choosefrom, so that each daughter might have her own. Two large bed-roomswith alcoves crossed the front of the house. These had been turned overto Mr. and Mrs. Robbins. Then came curious rooms, as Kit said. Thehallway rambled through the second story, two steps up over here and twosteps down over there. There were unexpected little corridors openingout from it like crooked arms. It really was a fascinating hallway, andthe rooms along it were quite exceptional. There were two wings to thehouse, and an extension at the back over the summer kitchen "ell." Thiswas a source of delight to the girls, for they found all kinds ofinteresting relics tucked back in this extension.
"Mother dear," Helen said seriously, appearing one day with cobwebs inher hair and dust smudges on her arms and face, "we've found perfectlywonderful things. Old newspapers before the war, and old magazines withhoopskirts in them and bonnets with flowers inside the poke!"
"And two old maps dated 1829, one of New York State and one ofConnecticut," Kit added. "Both mounted on old yellow homespun linen andbraced with hand carved ebony. Now what do you think of that, Dad?I'll bring them down to you. And a thing that looks like a little pilotwheel, but it isn't. Jean says it's part of a spinning outfit becauseshe's seen them out in front of antique shops on Madison Avenue in NewYork. And we found a foot warmer, and an hour glass with one supportbroken, and a tailor's goose, and some old clothes-pins that had beenwhittled by hand."
Jean selected the west room for her very own. It had a square bay windowover the bower, as the girls had nicknamed the little conservatory offthe dining-room. The upstairs window was smaller, but almost aspleasant, with small panes of glass and a beautiful outlook over thevalley and the old dam.
Doris had a smaller room next to Jean's, and then came a pleasantsoutheast room for a guest chamber.
"And for pity's sake, let's make it comfy and cheery," said Kit. "Mostguest chambers give you the everlasting dumdums, don't they, Jeanie?Let's make ours look as if it were really to enjoy."
Kit had taken for her special domicile the room over the summer kitchen,because it had so many shelves and cupboards in it. At first she hadwanted the cupola room, but was talked out of it, much against her willand predilections. The upper staircase was circular, and you had towatch out going up to the cupola, or you'd get an unmerciful bump on thehead as the door was very low. But once inside, it was a surprise, thatheld you spellbound for a minute. The room was square in shape, and hadeight long narrow windows in it. From them you caught wonderful framedviews of the far-reaching valley, the ruined stone mill, the great brownrock dam, covered now with the spring freshet, and beyond the placidlake with several islands dotting it and long rows of hills guarding itsmargins, one after the other like sentinels.
"Yes, I want this one," Kit had said. "I'm the only one in the familywith genius and this should be mine. I want to walk around this crystalenclosure and play that I am one of Maeterlinck's sleeping princesses."
"They didn't walk," Jean had protested, "and you needn't imagine thatyou're a genius, Kit Robbins, because you're not."
"Well, I'm the only one in the family with much imagination anyway," Kithad answered pleasantly. "'Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,'you know, Jeanie dear. And if I can't be a sleeping princess I will bethe Lady of Shalott." Whereupon she had swept about the room with acouch cover draped around her in approved Camelot style, and a curtaincord bound about her brow for a circlet, declaiming:
"'Four gray walls and four gray towers, Overlook a space of flowers, And the silent isle embowers, The Lady of Shalott.'"
"It would be such a hard place from which to rescue you if the housecaught fire," Helen had remarked thoughtfully, peering from one of thewindows. "You couldn't very well skip down the lightning rod, Kit."
"I should prefer to have all my girls nearer to me," Mrs. Robbins hadremarked. "Suppose you should be taken ill in the night! How would anyof the rest know of it or be able to help you? You had better select aroom on the floor below, Childie."
"Very well," Kit had said regretfully. "Of course I will not insist ifthe family are going to worry over me, but I shall come up here everyday to comb out my golden tresses. I think we'll get Shad to build uswindow seats all the way around, stain the floor, and make a sort of sunparlor out of it."
"Oh, Kit, remember the place in Egypt we always wanted to see, theRamasseum, the thinking place of the king?" Jean's dark eyes hadsparkled with mischief. "Let's call this the Thinking Place. Then wecan retire here when we wish to meditate, and fairly soak in thesunlight until we feel radiant and revived. Do you all like that?"
So it had been agreed upon and the cupola room became the thinking placeof the four princesses.
Another discovery they made soon after was the Peace Spot. This wasover on the hillside across the bridge. Here was a rocky field with anynumber of evergreen trees. They were assorted sizes and all varieties.There were juniper trees and hemlocks, fat tubby little spruces andslender straggly cedars. It looked like a premeditated burial ground,Kit remarked, but Helen named it the Peace Spot. They often walked overthere in the late afternoons. Kit had ideas of turning it into awonderful Italian garden some day, but just now it was their place ofrest.
At first the housework had proved to be the great stumbling block in theway of perfect peace and daily comfort.
"I tell you, Motherbird, if you'll just say what you want done, we'll beyour willing handmaidens," Jean had promised at the very beginning, butthe willing handmaidens had found themselves tangled up in less than twodays, treading on each other's heels and losing their tempers too.
Mrs. Robbins laughed at them when she happened in and found them all"looking down their noses," as D
oris expressed it.
"Girls, you'll have to learn team work," she explained. It appearedthat Jean had put a chicken to roast in the top of the double baking panand the gravy had all run out of the air draft at one end. "You mustlearn that when you put your bread to rise it doesn't shape itself intoloaves and hop into the pans and walk over to the oven." Here Kitblushed hotly, remembering how her first batch had risen to the occasionbeyond all expectations, and rambled during the night all over the edgeof the pan and the arm of the chair she had set it on. "And, Dorrie,precious, if you catch mice in traps alive, and then decide to tamethem, we'll have mice all over the place."
Doris had discovered a nice little brown prisoner under the pantryshelf, had taken him out into the rose garden and there let him go, allin a spirit of lofty pity that left Kit and Jean speechless.
Also, Doris had taken to rescuing flies caught on sticky paper, puttingthem into pill boxes until they recovered their usual blithe anddebonnaire attitude towards life. Also, sundry noises having issuedfrom her room at night, the other girls had started down the dark hallto investigate, and had stepped on turtles which Doris had found sunningthemselves on logs in the pond, and had put into empty tomato cans andsmuggled up to her room for future humanitarian reference.
"Go for us, Queen Mother," Jean cried valiantly. "Go for us. It's theonly way we'll ever learn anything. I told Kit to fix the bread a dozentimes. I was reading up tomato plants, and Helen was cutting out astencil for her scrim curtains--conventionalized tulips--"
"Lotos buds," corrected Helen.
"Well, I'm not sure. They look like raised biscuits to me. I wishspring would hurry along and make up its mind to stay a while." Shepressed her nose against the window pane and stared out at the land.Letters had come from some girl friends back at the Cove that day, andshe felt a wave of loneliness and half panic at what they hadundertaken.
Just then Honey came to the kitchen door, bareheaded and smiling.
"Piney said for me to tell you folks that she heard Ma Parmelee had somegood Plymouth Rocks for sale. They're about as reliable a hen as youcan get. Ma's going to sell off everything and go to live with her sondown in Nantic. It's near towards where I live, if you'd like to driveover that way."
Mrs. Robbins thought it was a good idea, and that Jean could go withher. There had been a trip over to Rocky Glen after the purchase ofMollie's Baby, and Mr. Butterick had been persuaded to part with a buggythat just fit the mare. It was low and held three easily on its broadcushioned seat, and there was a fair space at the back where odds andends could be packed away.
It seemed rather foolish to call the mare Mollie's Baby every time theyspoke to her, so a family council had given her a brand new cognomen andalready she pricked up her ears when she heard it. They called herPrincess, and the Jersey heifer that came up from the State farm wascalled Buttercup, after her famous predecessor. Buttercup was Mr.Robbins' special pride on the farm and great things were hoped from her.
Jean gathered up the reins and Honey put some burlap sacks in the backof the wagon for the hens.
"Better tie them to something when you start off," he advised. "Theyalways flop around a lot in sacks."
It was a drive of about two and a half miles, up through the hills.Each new road seemed to lead them straight up to the edge of the worldand then to dip again and leave cloudland behind. The woods held a hazeof green now that hung over the distant hills like a mist. Once a rowof young quail blinked dizzily from a pasture bar at the surprisingapparition of the horse and buggy. And all at once there came the quickthud of hoofs behind them, and a young girl riding horseback drew reinbeside their buggy. She was about as old as Kit, with thick brown hairbrushed back boyishly from her face, and big friendly blue eyes.
"How do you do," she said, blushing in a way that seemed familiar tothem, for it reminded them of Honey. "I'm Piney Hancock. Molliewouldn't let me ride by unless I stopped to let her see Babe."
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