by Nell Speed
CHAPTER XIII
TEAKETTLE
The fallen tree where Nan and Dum Tucker had chosen to have the picnicproved to be most attractive. It was a great oak that had attained itsgrowth before it had been felled in some wind storm, and now it lay likesome bed-ridden old giant who refuses to die. Part of the roots held tothe soil while part stood up like great toes, poking their way throughthe blanket of ferns and moss that were doing their best to cover them.This tree not only clung to its old branches but had actually thehardihood to send out new shoots. These branches were not growing as thelimbs of an oak usually grow, with a slightly downward tendency from themain trunk, but shot straight to the sky, upright and vigorous.
"It is just like some old man who has to stay in bed but still is opento convictions of all kinds, who reads and takes in new ideas and iswilling to try new things and think new thoughts," suggested PageAllison.
"Yes, that strong green branch struggling to the light there might beequal suffrage," teased Mr. Tucker.
"Yes, and that one that has outstripped all the others is highereducation of women," declared Douglas.
"These little ferns and wild flowers that are trying to cover up hisugly old toes are modern verse. He even reads the poetry of the day anddoes not just lie back on stuffy old pillows and insist that poetry diedwith Alfred Tennyson," whispered Nan, who did not like much to speak outloud in meetin'. Tom Smith heard her, however, and smiled his approvalof her imagery.
"Well, I only hope while we are picnicking on his bed he won't decide toturn over and go to sleep. It would certainly play sad havoc with cheesecakes," laughed Helen.
Much to the satisfaction of the Carter girls, all the week-enders diddecide to come on the picnic, also their mother. They knew very wellthat had that lady made up her mind to remain in camp, Susan's timewould have been taken up waiting on her and the thorough cleaningthat the pavilion and kitchen were crying out for would never beaccomplished.
Mr. Hiram G. Parker, in faultless morning costume, had proffered himselfas squire of dames and was assisting that dainty little lady on therough journey to the fallen tree. She, too, had attired herself withthoughtful care in sheer white linen lawn with a large picture hat offinest straw and a ruffled lace parasol. The girls were in strongcontrast to their chaperone, since one and all, even Tillie Wingo, weredressed in khaki skirts and leggins. The only variation in costume wasthat some wore middies and some sport shirts.
First a fire must be built and a big one at that, as it takes manyhot coals to roast potatoes. Lucy and Lil Tate, with their faithfulfollowers, Skeeter and Frank, had gone on a little ahead, and whenthe rest of the crowd reached the spot the fire was already burningmerrily. In a short time it was ready to drop the potatoes in, Irishpotatoes and great yams that looked big enough for the bed-ridden gianthimself to make a meal of. Then the roasting ears of corn must beopened, the silk removed and the ears wrapped carefully in the shucksagain and placed in just exactly the right part of the fire to cook butnot to burn.
There was some kind of work for all of those inclined to usefulness, andany who were not so inclined could wander around admiring the scenery orclimb up in the tree to secure the choice seats. There were seats forall and to spare in the gnarled old limbs of the giant oak. Mrs. Carterwas enthroned in a leafy armchair while Hiram G. perched beside her.Evidently he was prepared to be waited on and not to wait. Bobby climbedto the tiptop of one of the great branches where he looked like a"little cherub that sits up aloft."
"I'm a-gonter let down a string and pull my eats up here," he declared.
"Oh, Bobby!" shuddered his mother. "Don't say such words!"
"What I done now?" cried that young hopeful, peeping down through theleafy screen, with an elfish, toothless grin.
"Don't say eats! Say luncheon!"
"Yes, I won't! If I say luncheon, they'll send me up 'bout 'nough to putin my eye. I've a great mind to say victuals like Oscar and then they'llsend me up something sho'. Hi, Helen! Put my victuals in a bucket andtie it to this string!" he cried, dangling a string before Helen's eyesas she stooped under the tree, unpacking the basket containing the paperplates and Japanese napkins.
"I won't put anything in the bucket unless you mind mother," said Helenseverely, but her eye was twinkling at Bobby's philological distinction.
"Well, then, Helen dear, be so kind as to put my luncheon in that therelittle bucket what you see turned up over yonder by the fire. But,Helen," in a stage whisper, "please don't put it in like a luncheon butlike it was jes' victuals. Luncheons ain't never 'nough for workin'mens." So all in good time Helen packed a hefty lunch in the bucket forher darling and he drew it up to his castle in the tree and feastedright royally.
When everyone was too hungry to stand it another moment the potatoeswere done, all burnt on the outside and delicious and mealy within.There never were such sandwiches as Helen's; and the corn, roasted inthe shucks, was better than corn ever had been before. The cheese cakesand fried turnovers proved very good for tree eating and not toosquashy. Boxes of candy appeared like magic from the pockets ofmasculine week-enders. Mr. Tucker produced three, one for each of hisgirls.
"Oh, Zebedee!" exclaimed Dum. "I am so relieved. I thought you weregetting hippy. It was candy all the time."
When every vestige of food was devoured and all the paper plates andpapers carefully burned, as Nan said, to keep from desecrating Nature,someone proposed that they should play games.
"Let's play teakettle!" exclaimed Skeeter, so teakettle it was. Some ofthe company had to be enlightened as to the game and perhaps some of myreaders may have to be also. This is the way: whoever is "It" or "OldMan" must go out of ear shot and then the company selects a word. The"Old Man" then returns and asks a question to each one in turn. Theanswer must contain the chosen word, but in place of the word,"teakettle" must be inserted.
"You go out, Zebedee, you are so spry," suggested the irreverent Dum.
"No, that's not fair! We must count out," declared Dee, determined thather parent must be bossed only by her own sweet self.
"I bid to count!" from Lucy. "'Eny, meny, miny mo, cracker, feny, finy,fo, ommer noocher, popper toocher, rick, bick, ban, do, as, I, went, upthe, apple, tree, all, the, apples, fell, on, me, bake a, pudding, bake,a, pie, did, you, ever, tell, a, lie, yes, you, did, you, know, you,did, you, broke, your, mammy's, tea, pot, lid, did, she, mind?'" Shestopped at Lil Tate, who was equal to the occasion.
"No!" cried Lil; and Lucy took up her counting out in the sing-song wehear from children engaged in that delightful occupation of finding outwho is to be "It." No matter where one lives--east, west, north orsouth--it is the same except for slight variations in the sense of theincantation.
"N, o, spells, the, word, no, and, you, are, really--It!" An accusingfinger was pointed at Nan, who perforce must crawl from her comfortableperch and go around the side of the mountain while the assembled companychose a word.
After much whispering, Mr. Tucker hit on a word that appealed to all ofthem, and Nan was whistled for to return.
"Helen, what do you enjoy most in camp life?"
"Teakettles!" was the prompt response.
"Skeeter, did you and Frank get any squirrels yesterday?"
"No, not one! We told them if they would let us shoot them that theycould come with us on the picnic--but they said: no teakettles forthem!" Indignant cries from Skeeter's chums ensued.
"You came mighty near giving us away, you nut!"
Nan thought a moment.
"Is it pies? Helen certainly enjoys pies, and if the squirrels had comeon the picnic it would have been in a pie."
"No; guess again! Guess again!"
"Mother, are you comfortable up there?"
"Yes, my dear; I had no idea one could have an armchair at a teakettle."
"'Picnic!' 'Picnic!' I know that is the word. Mumsy gave it away. Youhave to go out, mumsy."
"Picnic" was the word and everyone thought Nan very clever to guess itso quickly. Mrs. Carter was
loath to leave her leafy bower, so Mr.Parker gallantly offered to take her place and be "It."
A word was quickly chosen for Mr. Parker although they feared it wouldbe too easy. That gentleman was really enjoying himself very much.Climbing trees was not much in his line, but he congratulated himselfthat while his suit no doubt looked perfectly new, it was in realitythree years old and was only his eighteenth best. The lapels were alittle smaller than the prevailing mode and the coat cut away a bit morethan the latest fashion. He could not wear it much longer, anyhow, andin the meantime he was having a very pleasant time. The girls were aripping lot and he would no doubt have the pleasure of bringing them outin years to come. He might even stretch a point and ask some of them todance the german with him before they made their debuts. That littleAllison girl from the country was a charmer and as for the Tuckertwins--the only trouble about them was he could not decide which onewould take the better in society. Helen Carter was sure to win inwhatever class she entered. Douglas Carter had deceived him somewhat.The evening before, while looking very pretty she had lacked animation.He had been quite serious in his advice to Mrs. Carter not to bring herout that year. With the scarcity of beaux only a girl who was allanimation had any show of having a good time in her debutante year. Nowtoday this girl had thrown off her listlessness and was as full of lifeas anyone. She was really beautiful. If a complexion could show up aswell as hers did in the sunlight what would it not do in artificiallight? And her hair! Hair like that could stand the test of dancing allnight, and Mr. Hiram G. Parker had found out from long experience thatnot much hair could stand the test.
"Always coming out of curl and getting limp!" he muttered, but just thenthey whistled for him and he returned to the tree.
"Ahem! Miss Douglas, are you expecting to miss the boys who have gone tothe border with the Blues?"
"Yes, indeed!" blushed Douglas; "but if I were a teakettle it would beeven worse."
"Is it a mother? Of course it would be worse if you were a mother! Ah,maybe you have been promising to be a sister to one of them."
Douglas blushed so furiously that she almost fell off her precariousperch.
"'Mother' isn't the word--neither is 'sister'!" shouted the crowd."Guess again!"
"Miss Dum Tucker, are you going to remain long in camp?"
"I am afraid I shall have to leave on Monday, but if the teakettlefancier is no longer here, I don't believe I should care to remain."
"Teakettle fancier! Sounds like spinsters. I can't see what it is. MissDee, what are these teakettles like?"
"There are as many styles of teakettles as there are teakettles, talland narrow, short and squat, with snouts of all shapes."
"Heavens! Still no light on the subject! Tucker, what is your opinion ofthe war? Will it last much longer?"
"I hope not, although I hear it is an excellent way to dispose of lastyear's teakettles. They are using so many of them in the Red Crossservice."
"Oh, come now! I must do better than this. Mrs. Carter, have you any ofthese teakettles about you?"
"No, Mr. Parker, I haven't a single teakettle--ye-et," rather sadly.
"Mr. Smith!" That young aviator, not expecting to be called on, almostfell out of the tree, which would have been an ignominious proceedingfor one accustomed to the dizzy heights of the clouds. "Do you comeacross any of this stuff, whatever it is that these crazy folks callteakettles?"
"Yes, I do occasionally. Even here in this camp there is a lot of thestuff that teakettles are made of--the raw material, I might say, but ifI should, no doubt future teakettles would climb up the tree and mobme."
"'Debutantes!' 'Debutantes!' That is the word! Stupid of me not to guessit sooner. Thank you, Miss Dum, for the compliment you just paid me, ordid you mean your father? Because I understand that he is somewhat fondof young girls himself."
"I meant you in the game--but Zebedee in reality," declared Dum, who hadno more idea of coquetting than a real teakettle.
"Mr. Smith is 'It'!" shouted Lucy. "We are going to get a hard one forhim."
Skeeter wanted to take "flying machine" but that was too easy. Manysuggestions were made but Nan finally hit on a word that they were surehe could never guess.
"The trouble is it is hardly fair to take a word that is so obscure,"objected Mr. Carter, who had been quietly enjoying the fun as much asany of the party.
"Well, it is a compliment to give him a hard one," declared Mr. Tucker."It means we have some reliance on his wit."
Tom Smith was proving himself a very agreeable companion and old andyoung were feeling him to be an acquisition to the camp.
"You youngsters up there in the top of the tree, come down and bequestioned!" cried the "Old Man." "You, Bobby, what are you doing upthere?"
"I'm a-playin' I'm one er them there teakettles," said that ready-wittedinfant. Everyone shouted for joy at his answer.
"And you, Frank Maury! Do you want to take a trip with me some day?"
"Sure! I'd ruther be a birdman than--a--teakettle," said Frank lamely.
"Did you ever see one of these teakettles, Skeeter?"
"Naw, and nobody else."
"But you didn't use the word, Skeeter," admonished Lil.
"Then you use it for him," suggested the questioner. "I take it then ifhe never saw a teakettle and no one else has ever seen one, that it issome kind of mythological creature. Am I right?" he appealed, followingup the advantage Skeeter had given him.
"Yes, a teakettle is a mythological being," said Lil primly.
"Skeeter can give more things away without using the word than mostfolks can using it," declared Lucy cruelly.
"Miss Nan, did I ever see a teakettle that you know of?"
"I have an idea you thought you saw a teakettle once," drawled Nan.
"'Wood nymph!'" exclaimed Tom Smith.
Everyone thought he was very clever to have guessed a very difficult andobscure word in five questions.
"Nan's turn again! That isn't fair when Skeeter really and truly was theone who got him going. You've got to go, Skeeter," and Frank and Lil andLucy pounced on their chum and dragged him from the tree.
"Yes, I haven't! I'd never guess c-a-t. Get somebody else."
"I'll go," Mr. Tucker volunteered magnanimously.
"Let him; he's dying to!" exclaimed the twins in one breath.
"Well, don't tweedle!" commanded their father. He always called ittweedling when his twins spoke the same thing at the same time.
A word was hard to hit on because as his daughters said Mr. Tucker hadwhat men call feminine intuition.
"You can't keep a thing from him," Dum said.
"And sometimes he sees something before it happens," declared Dee.
"Oh, spooks!" laughed Page.
"'Spooks' would be a good word," suggested someone, but Mrs. Carter hada word which was finally determined on. Zebedee was whistled for andcame quickly to the front.
"Mr. Smith, tell me, while flying through the air would you like to haveone of these teakettles with you? I mean would it be the kind of thingyou could carry with you? Would it be of any value on the journey?"
"We--el, I can't say that a teakettle would be of any great practicalvalue on a flight, but it would certainly be great to have one. Ibelieve I'd rather have one than anything I can think of. In fact, Imean to take one with me some day."
Mr. Tucker looked into the glowing countenance of the young birdman. Hesaw there youth, character, romance.
"A 'teakettle' is a 'sweetheart,'" he said simply.
"Talking about spooks--what do you know about that?" cried one of thecrowd.
"Well, what did I tell you? Didn't I say you couldn't keep anything fromZebedee?" said triumphant Dee.
"I betcher I ain't a-gonter take no sweetheart with me when I gits me aarryplane," shouted Bobby from his vantage ground. "I'm a-gonter takeJosh and Josephus, ander--ander--father."
The picnic in the tree had been a decided success. It was one moreperfect day for the week-enders to report
as worth while to the possiblefuture boarders. Even Mr. Parker was enthusiastic, although he was notas a rule much of an outdoor man. He was conscious of the fact that heshone in a drawing room, and under the "great eye of Heaven" did notamount to quite so much as he did under electric lights with pinkshades.