At the Little Brown House

by Edward Stratemeyer

  CHAPTER XV

  PEACE COLLECTS DAMAGES

  The hot summer was drawing to a close. Two weeks more and Septemberwould be ushered in, bringing with it the State Fair, always an event inthe lives of the busy farmers of the State, and particularly of thosearound Martindale and Pendennis, as the fairgrounds were located midwaybetween the two big cities.

  Peace had never attended a State Fair in all her short life, but she hadheard it talked about so much by the residents of Parker that she waswildly excited when Faith decided to enter a cake in the cookingexhibit, and immediately she determined to visit the Fair in person andsee her sister's handiwork fitly rewarded. However, when she made knownthis decision to the rest of the family Gail said quietly, "I am afraidyou can't, dear. It costs fifty cents to enter the grounds, and even ifthey admit children at half price, that would mean twenty-five cents foreach of you three youngest, and Hope would have to pay the full amount,as she is now in her 'teens. We can't afford to go this year."

  This was an item that Peace had not considered. Of course, if she went,the rest of the family were entitled to the same pleasure, and thatwould mean three half dollars and three quarters. She found her slateand laboriously added up the column of figures. "Two dollars andtwenty-five cents! Mercy, that is a lot to spend just to go to the Fairfor one day, isn't it? Oh, dear, why is it we always have to stop andthink about the money? I wish dollars grew on trees, and all we had todo when we wanted any would be to go out and pick them. What fun we'dhave! I do want to go to the Fair so much, though. If only there wassome way to earn the money!"

  She wandered down to the melon patch, the pride of her childish heart,and sat down on one of the green balls to meditate on the subject.

  "I never saw the beat how your melons do grow," exclaimed a voice behindher, as Mrs. Grinnell, on her way to the brown house, paused to admirethe tempting fruit. "If there was just some way of getting them into thecity, you might make a pretty penny off them. Now, mine don't begin tobe as big as yours, and there aren't half so many on the vines. That's awhopper you are sitting on. You ought to take it to the Fair--"

  "Why, Mrs. Grinnell, do folks take _melons_ to the Fair?"

  "Yes, indeed, every year. Why, I've seen lots there that weren't as bigas yours. Of course it's the biggest that win the ribbons, and you mightnot stand a show, but there would be no harm trying. I am intending toenter my two mammoth pumpkins and that Hubbard squash, along with mycorn."

  "Do you s'pose Gail would let me?"

  "Yes, I think so. I'll take it in with mine if you like. I am to lugFaith's cake."

  "Oh, then I'll do it! These two whollipers. That one is almost as big asthe one I play is my armchair. The rest are too little to have a chance,aren't they? Maybe they will be big enough by Fair time, though. Theyhave two weeks more to grow in."

  "No telling what they will do in that time," laughed Mrs. Grinnell,moving briskly away up the path, leaving Peace still perched on top ofthe largest melon busily making her fortune from her small garden patch.

  "If only we hadn't sold Black Prince," she mourned, "we could just cartthese melons into Martindale and make a whole lot on them. There, whydidn't I think of that before? Mike peddles garden truck in the city,'most every day. I'll just have him tote these along. I've got--let mesee--twelve, sixteen, seventeen, twenty-one good ones, besides my bigfellows. I wonder if that will be enough. I'm going right over and seeMike now. He is at home today; I saw him."

  She skipped away through the garden to the O'Hara place, some distancebelow them, and finding the red-haired boy grinding an ax in thedooryard, she startled him by her breathless demand, "How much dowatermelons sell for in the city?"

  "Shure an' it depinds on the size."

  "Mine are great big ones. Mrs. Grinnell says they ought to bring apretty penny in Martindale."

  "Well, thin, I think maybe they'd be bringing a quarter."

  "Each one?"

  "Shure!"

  "And how much would that make if twenty-one were sold?"

  "Five dollars and a quarter," promptly answered Mike, who was quick atfigures and proud of the accomplishment.

  "That would be enough," cried Peace in great glee. "All I need is twodollars and a quarter. Come on over to my house and pick them rightaway."

  "What?" yelled Mike, wondering if the child had gone crazy.

  "Oh, I forgot! I haven't told you yet, have I? You can sell my melons inthe city for me if you like and save me the trouble."

  The boy stared at her, transfixed by her complacent self-assurance.

  "Has the cat got your tongue?" Peace asked, when he did not speak.

  "No, but you have your nerve," he stuttered. "What d'ye take me for,--adray horse?"

  "You've got a mule team, haven't you?" flared Peace, seeing no occasionfor his anger. "And you peddle truck nearly every day. Then I don't seewhy you can't take my melons and sell them. Black Prince is gone, and wecan't drive about any more ourselves."

  "Well, where do I come in? Melons take up a sight of wagon room, nothingsaid of the time it will take to sell them. And then you expict me to doit all for nothing!"

  "I--I hadn't thought about that," faltered Peace; and, sitting down onthe windmill platform, she pulled a pencil stub from her pocket andbegan to do some figuring on the sole of her shoe.

  Mike watched her serious face in amusement, and grinned broadly when,after five minutes of vigorous scratching and hard thinking, shereleased her foot and said in her most business-like tones, "I'll tellyou what I will do. If you can sell all those twenty-one melons attwenty-five cents each, you can have half the money for your trouble.That will still leave me enough to get our family inside the Fair. Willyou do it?"

  Mike scratched his head thoughtfully and then replied, "I'll take a lookat thim melons first."

  So she led him to the small patch and proudly displayed her treasures."You see there are more than twenty-one melons on the vines. Those twobig ones Mrs. Grinnell is going to tote along with her pumpkins to theFair, and the little ones and the crooked fellers we'll eat at home; butthere are twenty-one nice ones to sell."

  Mike expressed his admiration by the boyish exclamation, "Gee, ain'tthem bouncers? How 'd ye do it? Our'n don't amount to shucks this year."

  "That's what Mrs. Grinnell said about hers. I guess it's 'cause I knowhow to grow watermelons," answered Peace, with charming frankness. "Mr.Strong says that must be the reason. You see, I planted sweet-peas andthese came up. Maybe it's a sweet-pea melon. Do you s'pose it is?"

  "I niver heard tell of such a thing," Mike soberly replied, "but maybethat's what's the matter."

  "Will you sell them for me?"

  Mike was busy thumping the green balls with his knuckles, and feeling ofthe stems, and when he had tested each in turn, he answered, "Yis, I'llsell thim for you, but ye'd better wait a week or two. They aren't ripeenough yit."

  "Oh, dear," mourned the child, plainly disappointed. "The Fair begins intwo weeks, and that is what I wanted the money for. Don't you think theywill be ripe enough before that?"

  "Don't look as if they would," Mike replied firmly. "And green melonswon't sell well. Besides, the longer they grow, the bigger they willbe."

  "Then I suppose I must wait; but don't you tell the girls. I want tos'prise them if we can go, for they don't think we can."

  So, with many promises of secrecy, Mike departed, and Peace from thatmoment became a devoted slave of the melon patch.

  As soon as she was out of bed in the morning she flew down to the gardento exult over her treasures, and with the last gleam of the dying dayshe might be seen bending over the mottled fruit whispering encouragingmessages to them, coaxing them to grow. Bucket after bucket of water shetugged from the well to pour on their thirsty roots, and load after loadof fertilizer she dragged in Allee's little cart to spread over theground in her eager desire to increase their size. But when Gail foundher with soap and scrub-brush polishing off each precious ball, she wasforced to curb her zealous gardening.
However, the vines throve throughall this heroic treatment, and it seemed to Peace that she could almostsee the fruit grow in circumference. Each night she consulted Mike,convinced that they had ripened sufficiently during the day to bepicked, but the boy steadfastly shook his head.

  At length, as the second week of anxious waiting was drawing to a close,Peace could endure the suspense no longer, and one warm afternoon, whileher sisters were occupied with their various duties, she snatched thesharp bread-knife from the pantry shelf, and with Allee in tow, stoledown to her garden plot.

  "What are you going to do?" whispered the blue-eyed tot, as if stillfearful that she might be overheard at the house.

  "Try one of my melons and see if it isn't ripe. This feller will do, Iguess. It is big, but not too big." She plunged the shining blade deepinto the green rind, and as the two halves fell apart, disclosing thebright red heart thickly dotted with black and white seeds, she criedtriumphantly, "There, I knew I was right! Just taste it, Allee. Ain't itsweet and nice? Let's lug it down to the hedge and eat it up."

  "That's a piggy," answered the smaller girl, smacking her lips over thedelicious morsel.

  "We can 'ford to be pigs this once, I guess," Peace retorted. "If wetake it up to the house they will want to know why we cut it, and we'llhave to tell them about Mike and the Fair. You don't want them to knowthat, do you?"

  "No, but we are too little to eat it all ourselves."

  "Half a melon each ain't much. Why, Len Abbott must have eaten two wholeones at the church sociable the other night. Can you carry your half?"

  "Yes," panted the younger lass, bravely tugging at her heavy load.

  So, with much puffing, and many stops for breath, they dragged thefruit through the cornfield to the creek road, scrambled in behind thedense brush and blackberry vines, and began to dispose of the sweet,juicy center.

  "Let's eat one-half all up 'fore we begin the other," proposed Allee,who seemed to have some doubts as to the capacity of her stomach.

  "All right," Peace agreed. "The melon _does_ look pretty big, and maybewe can't hold it all at one sitting. I'll push the other half under thebushes and cover my handkerchief over it to keep off the flies. What alot of seed this one has! Let's save some for planting next year.S'posing each of these seeds was a ticket to the State Fairgrounds, wecould all of us go every day and invite everyone else in town, prettynear. Hush! There's a team coming up the road. Let's peek and see ifit's anyone we know."

  She drew aside the branches as she spoke, and two inquisitive,fruit-stained faces peered out of the opening just as a two-seatedcarryall drew up by the roadside, and a woman's voice said imperatively,"There is a cluster, Henry,--lovely berries. I thought they were allgone by this time."

  Henry leaped over the wheel to the ground, gathered a handful ofdust-covered blackberries, and passed them up to the other threeoccupants of the rig, remarking, "It's a shame we can't find watermelonsgrowing wild along the roadside. I am afraid if we have a melon socialat the church tomorrow night we must patronize the groceryman for thefruit."

  "I am sorry to have caused you this wild-goose chase," said a meek voicefrom the back seat. "But last year we drove through this town whenwatermelon vines were the only things in sight."

  "That is everything in sight today," laughed Henry teasingly. "Thetrouble is, they don't bear any decent fruit. I'd give five dollars ifanyone would show me twenty good, fair-sized watermelons--"

  "All right, sir!" exclaimed an eager voice at his feet. "Give me thefive dollars, and I'll show you twenty-two!"

  The man jumped as if shot, the three ladies screamed, and even thehorses started at the unexpected sound, or perhaps it was at sight of atousled brown head wriggling excitedly through the thicket, followed byan equally tousled golden head.

  "Well, who are you?" stammered the startled young man, as the childrengained their feet and stood shyly eyeing the city folks.

  "Two of the Greenfield kids," answered Peace. "We were just trying oneof my melons when we heard what you said. We've got some fine ones inour garden, and I'll sell them cheap. They b'long to me. I plantedsweet-pea seeds and they came up."

  The man roared, the young ladies giggled, and then one of them saidsweetly, "Have you some of your melon left so we can see what it islike?"

  "Yes," responded Peace, diving into the brush and dragging forth theuntouched half, covered with her dirty handkerchief. "Here it is. Youcan eat it. Allee and me are 'most full now. Oh, it's black with ants!Never mind, just brush them off; they won't change the taste any."

  But though the ladies admired the ripe red fruit, they seemed to have noappetite for it, and Henry was the only one of the party who sampled it.

  "It's lickum good," he announced, after the first mouthful. "Better havesome, girls. No? Well, I shall lug this piece back with us forrefreshments. Say, Curly-locks, are all your melons as big as that?"

  "Bigger--that is, most of them are. Mrs. Grinnell is going to take twoin to the Fair, but there are twenty-one big ones besides. I meantwenty. This is the twenty-oneth."

  They laughed again, and Henry proposed, "Let's go over and see themanyway. If we can't find the melons, we can have a good time today atleast."

  "Just as you say," chorused the girls; and bundling the soiled, stickychildren into the carriage with them, they drove on to the little brownhouse.

  As the team drew up in front of the gate the group of workers on theporch started to their feet in surprise, but Peace called, "Go on withyour sewing! This is my company! They are going to look at my twentywatermelons to see if they are any good; and then I am going to chargethem five dollars for them."

  The laughing young people came up the walk to meet the embarrassedmistress of the house, and the situation was briefly explained. "OurLeague is planning for a lawn social tomorrow night," said one younglady.

  "Ice-cream and cake," added the second.

  "With watermelons for a side-dish," the young man put in.

  "And we thought we could get better melons if we came out here in thecountry to buy them," said the fourth member of the party.

  "The melon patch belongs to Peace," Gail told them. "We think she hassome pretty good fruit. Come this way and see for yourself."

  "Oh, what big ones!" cried the visiting quartette. "Surely you won'tsell all these for five dollars?"

  "No, only twenty," answered Peace gravely. "You can't have the twobiggest ones, and of course you don't want the crooked fellers. Mikesays they will sell for twenty-five cents each in Martindale."

  So the twenty splendid melons were cut and loaded into the wagon, Peacewas paid a spandy new five-dollar bill, and the visitors departedmerrily. The child watched them out of sight, still holding fast to hermoney, and then turned to Gail, sighing contentedly, "Now we can go tothe Fair! I've had an awful job getting rid of those things, but theyare gone at last, and here is the money. I 'xpect Mike will be mad ashops, but he didn't know beans when he said they weren't ripe. I'veraised melons enough so I know."

  "But, dearie," interrupted the oldest sister, "you mustn't spend yourmoney so recklessly for our pleasure. It will take almost half of thatfive dollars just to pay our way into the grounds, and another dollarfor carfare."

  "Then it's lucky Mike didn't sell the melons for me," said Peace, "or I'xpect we'd have had to walk. I sold those watermelons just so's we allcould go to the Fair, Gail, and now you mustn't say no."

  "Then I won't," suddenly whispered the tired mother-sister, seeing thelonging in the somber brown eyes, and realizing the child's unselfishlove. "When is Mrs. Grinnell to take your big melons away?"

  "Tomorrow," she said. "The Fair begins Monday, you know."

  "Then you better go say good-bye to them now," teased Faith. "It isnearly supper time, and you will hardly have a chance in the morning."

  But Peace shook her head, declaring seriously, "There will be timeenough. And if the melons don't win a prize, we'll bring them back home,Mrs. Grinnell says."

  When the morning dawned,
however, and Peace ran eagerly down to visither garden, she stopped in dismay at the sight which greeted her eyes.On the ground, strewn all over the patch, were broken, batteredmelon-rinds; and the two mammoth balls were gone.

  "Oh, my darlings! my precious melons!" she cried in grief. "Someone haseaten them all up!" Throwing herself flat amid the wreck, she sobbed asif her heart would break, so overwhelmed by her loss that it neveroccurred to her to report the disaster to the rest of the family. It wastoo cruel!

  When the hot tears had relieved the little heart somewhat, she sat upand looked about her once more, saying, with quivering lips, "I don'ts'pose they would have won a prize anyway, but it was hatefully mean ofwhoever took them. I'll bet Mike O'Hara did it to get even with me forselling the others to the city folks and keeping all the money myself!I'm going straight over and tell him what a nice kind of a gentleman heis."

  She bounced to her feet, started swiftly across the patch, caught hertoe in a tough vine and fell sprawling on the ground again, rapping herhead smartly on a small, unripe melon at the edge of the field. "Mercy!you're a hard-shelled old sinner!" she exclaimed, rubbing her bruisedforehead and glaring at the offending fruit. "Well, no wonder! I hit aknife, as sure as you're alive! It ain't Mike's either. It's--HectorAbbott's! Why didn't I think of him before? Of course he is the_culvert_; but I'll bet he will wish he hadn't seen those melons when Iget through with him."

  Burning with indignation, she sped away to the village, never pausinguntil the Judge's house was reached. As she approached the place shecould see the family gathered around the breakfast table, set on thewide, screened porch; and forgetting to knock, she threw open the doorand rushed in as if on the wings of the wind. Straight to Hector's chairshe stalked, and before the surprised family could recover their breath,she clutched the unhappy youth by the hair and jerked him out of hisseat, crying accusingly, "Hec Abbott, you disgraceful son of a judge!You stole my melons, my State Fair melons! You can't say you didn't,'cause I've found your knife in the garden! I s'pose it walked there,didn't it? Well, maybe it did, but _you_ walked it! You can just settlefor damages this very minute!"

  By this time the Judge had found his tongue, and loosening the angryfingers from his youngest son's luxuriant topknot, he demanded of Peace,"What do you mean by such actions? Where are your manners? Why didn'tyou knock? Who brought you up?"

  "Why didn't _Hec_ knock when he came for my melons last night? Where are_his_ manners? What did _he_ mean by such actions? _You brung him up!_"

  Len Abbott choked over his coffee, Cecile hid her face in her napkin,and even the anxious mother smiled, but the Judge looked more ruffledthan abashed, and he fairly thundered, "How do you know the knife isHector's?"

  "Don't you s'pose I have seen it enough to know whose it is? Didn't Igrab it from him the day he pretended to cut off Lola Hunt's ears? I cuthis hand, too, but he deserved it! He's the meanest boy at school nextto Jimmy Jones. Teacher took the knife away one time when he wasskinning a frog, and I saw it then. Anyway, it's got his name onit,--not just his 'nitials, but his whole name. And there it is!"

  She held out the article for the Judge's inspection, and that worthygentleman, seeing the look of guilt in his small son's face, pocketedit, saying whimsically to the wrathful accuser, "That is merelycircumstantial evidence. He might yet be innocent of the charge."

  "He might," Peace retorted grimly; "but he ain't! Ask him!"

  The Judge turned gravely to the crimson-cheeked lad and asked severely,"Son, are you guilty or not guilty?"

  "Guilty," muttered the miserable culprit.

  "Didn't I tell you?" triumphed the girl.

  "What would you recommend as his sentence?" asked the Judge.

  "Sentence?" repeated Peace, with the uncomfortable feeling that she wasbeing laughed at.

  "Punishment, I mean."

  "A good, sound thrashing that ain't all show and no hurt," was the harshverdict.

  "Very well! I will administer it now. Len, hand me that strap. Hector,come here!"

  Leonard passed the strap to his father, the younger son shuffled acrossthe porch to receive his sentence, and Peace stood breathlessly by,watching with frightened eyes. The Judge raised the strip of leather andbrought it down with a resounding thwack across the boy's legs. Hesquirmed, let out a wild yell, and began to blubber. The strap rose andfell the second time, there was a second yell, and Peace, with blazingeyes and blanched face, flew in between man and boy, snatched theupraised strap and flung it clear across the room, screaming in fierceindignation, "Don't you touch him again! You're a pretty kind of ajudge! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

  "You sentenced him yourself," stammered the surprised man.

  "Well, I'll let him off this time," she replied slowly, "but he willhave to pay for those melons."

  "How much?"

  "A dollar each."

  "Whew! They are pretty expensive fruit, aren't they?"

  "I've put more'n a dollar's worth of trouble into getting them ready forthe Fair, and now he's et up my blue ribbon."

  "Your blue ribbon?"

  "Yes, maybe those melons would have won a blue ribbon. Now I'll neverknow."

  "Well, well, that's too bad," sympathized the amused Judge. "Hector willhave to pay for them, surely. Son, go get the money out of your bank."

  "I didn't eat all of them. Jimmy Jones and Ted Fenton and the Beldonboys helped," said Hector, wiping his eyes sullenly.

  "You can c'lect from them later," retorted Peace. "You were at the headof it, I know."

  "Get the money, son," repeated the father sternly, and the unhappy boythought it wise to obey without further demur.

  When the two silver dollars were laid in her hand Peace smiled herrelief, and with a curt "Thank you," turned to go, when to the utteramazement of the whole family, she whirled suddenly about and confrontedHector again, saying calmly, "While I am here, I might as well c'lectfor that cake you stole more'n a year ago."

  "Cake?" echoed the group, while the boy's face grew scarlet with guiltonce more.

  "Yes, cake! We thought my tramp took it at first. Faith made it for theminister's reception and put it on the wash-bench under a dishpan tocool. 'Twas gone when she went to get it again. Hec stole it."

  "Hector, did you?"

  The boy nodded, too miserable to speak.

  "How much was that worth, Peace?"

  "It was bigger'n a fifty-cent one. I guess it will be seventy-fivecents."

  "Get your bank and settle your account, Hector."

  And once more the boy was forced to obey.

  "There!" breathed Peace, closing her fingers over the added coins. "Iguess we are square now. I just happened to think of the cake. Isn't itlucky I did? I wasn't quite sure he took it, but seeing that my trampdidn't do it, I knew it must be someone in town, and I couldn't think ofanyone else mean enough. Good-bye!"

  She ran lightly down the steps and away toward home, chanting toherself, "He had to pay up, he had to pay up!" Suddenly she halted bythe roadside and listened. "Yes, sir! That's Hec a-howling! I guess theJudge got hold of that strap again. Well, he deserves a good licking,but I'm glad I'm not there to see him dance."