Abbott, Jane - Keineth

by Keineth(Lit)

  "The three Indians who had come and gone in such friendly fashion were

  not of the far-off tribe they claimed to be, but had been sent on ahead

  by the chieftain to see how things were at the fort. They had gone back

  and told their story and the chieftain, expecting that some escape

  might be attempted, had planned to surprise the fort in the night.

  "His flesh stinging with the wound of the arrow, Robert lifted his

  musket and fired quickly. Years before, in his own country, he had been

  honored by his King for his good marksmanship, but it was God who

  guided that aim through the darkness, for it shot straight into the

  very heart of the chieftain! While, in confusion, the Indians gathered

  about their fallen chief, Robert, with Angele fainting at his feet, was

  soon lost in the kindly darkness of the river--paddling eastward!"

  "Oh, were they saved?" cried Peggy, drawing a long breath.

  "Yes. Days afterward they reached a fort where they found a priest who

  married them. And they lived happy, useful lives in a settlement in

  Pennsylvania. Some records of the fort where the priest married them

  tell the whole story--they're right in the house," and Grandma nodded

  her head proudly toward the open door.

  "Didn't I tell you she was like a page out of history?" Barbara asked

  Keineth as they drove homeward.

  "You just feel as if you were an American History book, beginning with

  the discovery of America," laughed Peggy.

  "If I was a history book I'd leave out dates and the Cabots--I never

  can get 'em straight," Billy chimed.

  "There must be lots and lots of stories about brave men that were never

  put in books," Keineth added thoughtfully.

  Peggy yawned widely. "Well, I'm glad I'm not that poor captive maiden

  and just plain Peggy Lee of Overlook!"

  "And I'm gladder still that mother is sure to have ice cream for

  dinner!"

  This, of course, from Billy.

  CHAPTER X

  PILOT IN DISGRACE

  "Anyone might think that this was Friday the thirteenth," growled

  Billy. "I broke my fishing rod and I've lost my knife and Jim Archer

  stepped on a nail and can't go on a hike this afternoon--"

  Billy's curious talk never failed to interest Keineth. She knew that it

  was not Friday and it was not the thirteenth and wondered what Billy

  ever meant! But she never asked him; something in the scornful

  superiority with which Billy treated all girls made Keineth very shy

  with him. She wished they might be better friends, for she felt very

  sure that it would be great fun to share with him the exciting

  adventures Billy seemed always to find! Vaguely she wondered what she

  could do that might put her on an equal footing with this

  freckled-faced lad who was, after all, only two years older than she

  was!

  "Jim stepped on the nail yesterday--what's that got to do with to-day!"

  Peggy answered teasingly, "Well, we were going to hike to-day," Billy

  explained, too doleful to indulge in retort. "And all the other fellows

  are doing something else."

  "Billy--Billy," called Alice from around the corner. "Just see what I

  found!" She ran toward them, holding in her hand a dirty, ragged piece

  of leather.

  "Where'd you find that?" demanded Billy, taking it from her.

  "It's--why, jiminy crickets--it's one of my best shoes!"

  Billy meant that it had been!

  "Pilot!" the children cried, looking at one another.

  "That's what mother used to scold about Rex doing," Peggy recalled.

  "Why couldn't he eat my old ones!" groaned Billy, throwing the leather

  off into some bushes. He felt troubled--he remembered that he had left

  the shoes out on the floor of his dressing room. It was all his fault,

  but Pilot would be blamed!

  "What can we do?" asked Keineth, sensing a tragedy.

  "I don't care anything about the shoes," answered Billy, "'cause I'd

  just as soon wear these old ones as not--what d' I care about shoes?

  But mother'll say that we can't keep the dog!"

  "He's only on trial--" Peggy broke in sadly.

  "If you girls could keep it a secret we'd give Pilot another chance--"

  "Alice is sure to tell! She can't keep anything!"

  "I can keep a secret! You just try me!"

  "Well, then," Billy lowered his voice mysteriously, "not a word! You

  just cross your hearts that you won't tell a word! We'll give Pilot

  another chance!"

  Solemnly the three girls crossed their hearts. Billy went off then in

  search of some amusement of his liking, leaving them with the burden of

  the secret.

  It weighed upon them through the day. And the more heavily when at noon

  time the cook from Clark's tapped upon the kitchen door and reported

  with great indignation that "jes' while her back was turned a minute

  that there dog had stolen her leg she was about to be carvin' and had

  gone off with it like he was possessed."

  "Your leg--well, now!" cried Nora, all sympathy. "Faith--not my _own_

  leg, but a leg of lamb!" wept the other, "and what the mistress will be

  a sayin' I don't know!"

  "Where is that dog?" Mrs. Lee had sternly asked of the children. No one

  knew. Keineth and Peggy exchanged troubled glances and then fixed

  frowning eyes upon Alice.

  "It really is very foolish in us to keep him," Mrs. Lee went on.

  "Probably this is just the beginning of the annoyances he will cause!"

  "He tramples down the flowers terribly," Barbara complained.

  Mr. Lee caught the anxious look in Billy's eyes.

  "Well, well, Mother, perhaps Billy will keep a closer watch on his dog

  after this!"

  Billy promised with suspicious readiness. "Mr. Sawyer says Pilot's a

  valuable dog," he told them. "And we ought not to give a valuable dog

  away, anyway!"

  "We'll see," Mrs. Lee concluded.

  But that evening Pilot sealed his own doom!

  For, as the children were playing croquet near the veranda, he came

  running across the lawn and triumphantly dropped at Billy's feet a

  beautiful gold fish, quite dead!

  "Oh--oh--oh!" screamed Alice.

  "It's from Sawyer's pond!" cried Peggy on her knees.

  "The poor little thing." Keineth lifted it. "It's dead!"

  "It's their new Japanese gold fish," added Barbara, who, with Mrs. Lee,

  had come down the steps from the veranda. "You'll have to pay for this,

  Billy!"

  "I think this is the last straw," said Mrs. Lee sternly, turning to her

  husband.

  "Oh, Mammy, he couldn't help it--they swim round and he thinks they are

  playing!" Peggy implored.

  Pilot, standing back, his tail wagging slowly, regarded them with

  wondering, disappointed eyes. He had felt so very proud of his fish and

  now his family seemed to look upon him with displeasure.

  "And I can tell the secret now," cried Alice, "we weren't going to

  tell--he ate one of Billy's _best_ shoes!"

  "You just wait!" cried Billy. Peggy turned a terrible face upon Alice.

  "We'll never, never, never tell anything to the tell-baby again!" she

  hissed. "Will we, Ken?"

  "I guess I knew it first," Alice whimpered.

&nb
sp; "It was my fault--I left them out, Mother! And I'd just as soon wear my

  old shoes!" Billy turned pleadingly to his mother.

  "I am sure you would," she smiled, "but nevertheless I must be firm

  about this dog. He is a nuisance and will be an expense. By the time we

  have paid the Clarks for their lamb and the Sawyers for their goldfish

  and bought you a pair of shoes the damages against Pilot will have run

  up to a nice little sum!"

  "But, Mother, you can take it out of my allowance!"

  "That will not guard against other things of this same sort happening.

  No, my son, I do not like to make you unhappy, but we must get rid of

  the dog. Please say no more about it. Day after to-morrow we'll send

  him into the city with the vegetable man."

  Mrs. Lee turned back to the veranda. When she spoke with that tone in

  her voice the children never answered. Peggy, linking her arm in

  Keineth's, turned an angry shoulder upon Alice. Billy blinked his eyes

  very fast to clear them of the tears that had gathered in spite of

  himself, threw his arm about the dog's neck and led him away to some

  hiding place where, secure from intrusion, he could pour out his

  rebellious heart to his pet.

  "There's no use staying angry at Alice!" Keineth protested in a low

  tone to Peggy as they walked away. She felt sorry for the little girl

  standing at a little distance irresolutely swinging a croquet mallet.

  "It was her secret, anyway and Aunt Nellie would have found out about

  the shoe some time. Perhaps we were wrong not to tell her at first."

  "You always stand up for everybody," Peggy complained, dropping

  Keineth's arm in vexation. But Peggy's sunny nature could not long

  carry a grudge of any kind. She had made a solemn vow, too, that she

  would never be unkind to Alice again! And there _would_ be just time

  before dark to play one more game of croquet!

  "Will you play, Allie? You can have red and play last," she cried.

  "Come on, Ken!"

  CHAPTER XI

  PILOT WINS A HOME

  "What a horrid day!" with a wide yawn Peggy threw the stocking she was

  darning into the basket. "I wish mother wouldn't make me wear

  stockings--then I wouldn't have any holes!"

  "I wish the sun would shine," Alice chimed, disconsolately.

  "If mother were here, she would say that we must make our own

  sunshine," Barbara laughed. She was folding carefully the white

  undergarment she had finished making for her college "trousseau"--as

  her father called it.

  "Well, it seems as if everything goes wrong all at once," Peggy refused

  to be cheered. The children knew she was thinking of Pilot. Pilot's

  disgrace and sentence hung like a gloomy cloud over their hearts.

  "Who'd believe you could think so much of a dog?" Keineth frowned as

  she pondered the thought. "I used to think Aunt Josephine was so silly

  over Fido. I am sure Fido was never as nice as our Pilot, but I suppose

  Aunt Josephine thinks he's much nicer. Once he swallowed a paper of

  needles from Aunt Josephine's work basket and she almost fainted, and

  Celeste had to call a doctor for her and another for the dog and they

  sent the dog to a hospital. Then Aunt Josephine blamed Celeste and told

  her she must leave at once and Celeste had hysterics, for you see she'd

  been with my aunt since she was very young and they had to send for the

  doctor again for Celeste."

  "Oh, how funny!" laughed Peggy, though Keineth's face was very serious.

  "Then Aunt Josephine felt sorry and forgave Celeste and they called up

  the next day from the hospital to say that Fido was very well and that

  needles seemed to agree with him. But Aunt Josephine worried for weeks

  and weeks over him."

  "Pilot would know better than to eat needles," Alice broke in

  scornfully.

  "Yes--he likes shoes and goldfish," Barbara finished. "Where's Billy?"

  From the mother to the smallest of them they felt sorry for Billy. For,

  though Billy had said not a word concerning the fate of his pet, the

  hurt look in his eyes betrayed the sorrow he felt. No one knew where he

  was--he had disappeared quietly after breakfast. And Pilot was with

  him.

  "No tennis or golf to-day," grieved Barbara, going to the window.

  "Anyway we can swim," cried Peggy.

  "In the rain?" asked Keineth, astonished.

  "Why, of course, silly! Wouldn't we get wet, anyway?"

  Keineth's face colored. Peggy went on with a toss of her head: "And I

  simply must practice swimming under water to-day--the contest isn't

  very far off. You can't expect me to help you out to the rock, Ken,

  you'll have to play in shallow water!"

  Keineth's soul smarted under this humiliation. The rock was the goal

  around which their fun centred. It was twenty yards out from shore and

  its broad, flat surface gave room for six of them to stand upon it at

  one time. As around it the water was five feet deep, it was necessary

  for one of the children to help Keineth reach it. Then, while the

  others practiced all the feats known to the fish world, Keineth always

  stood carefully in its centre, head and shoulders above the water's

  surface and watched them with interest and admiration, tinged with

  envy.

  To conceal the tremble in her voice Keineth had now to swallow very

  quickly. "All right, Peggy," was all she answered and Peggy never knew

  how deeply her careless words had hurt her.

  Keineth _had_ grown discouraged with her swimming. Somehow it was so

  easy when some one was with her, but she could never seem to muster the

  courage to dive off into the water the way the others did. And Daddy

  would be so disappointed!

  Mrs. Lee had given her careful instruction in the stroke--perhaps if

  she was alone, away from Billy's roguish glance and the terror of his

  catching her ankle under water, she might feel more confidence.

  This thought still lingered in her mind when, in the afternoon, they

  went to the beach. Billy was already in the water; the faithful Pilot

  was digging on the beach for dog treasures. Because of the drizzling

  rain Mrs. Lee had not come down.

  While Barbara and Peggy were racing under water Keineth found it very

  easy to slip away. She chose a spot where a bend of the shore concealed

  her. She stood knee-deep in the water, going through the movements of

  the arm stroke, with a careful one, two, three. She put her small teeth

  tightly together--she _would_ have confidence, she _would_ go out

  deeper, throw herself calmly into the water in Peggy-fashion and swim

  off, one, two, three! She _would_ remember to breathe easily and keep

  her arms under the surface of the water!

  There was an indomitable will in the child. She _did_ throw herself in,

  and, counting one, two, three, forgot her usual gasp of fright;

  suddenly it seemed natural and as if she had always done it! She felt a

  delicious joy in the ease with which her stroke carried her ahead

  through the water. She wished Billy might see her now! Then, exhausted

  by her effort, triumphant and happy, she reached for a footing on the

  bottom. Her toe could not find it! With a cry of terr
or she threw her

  arms wildly upward, involuntarily seeking for some hold! Then she

  slipped, slipped down, fathoms and fathoms it seemed--a dreadful

  choking gripped her, like tight arms upon her chest! She tried to call,

  but the water only made a fearful gurgle in her throat! She wanted her

  father--_he'd_ stop that terrible pain in her chest and take that grip

  from her throat!

  Suddenly she felt very, very tired and as if she would sleep when the

  pain was gone. Her body lifted slowly; her hand, flung upward, gripped

  something soft but firm in her clutch--the water splashed about her!

  She thought it was her father! He was pulling her away, then she seemed

  to go to sleep.

  When consciousness returned, Keineth found herself lying upon the beach

  wrapped in Barbara's raincoat. Peggy was crying and Barbara, her face

  very white, was rubbing her hand. On her other side knelt Billy, the

  rain dripping from his bare arms, his face flushed as though from

  violent exercise. Behind him stood Pete, the man of all work in the

  community, who had been drawing gravel from the beach.

  "Darling!" cried Barbara. "Oh, are you all right?"

  Keineth slowly looked all around. _Had_ it been some dream,

  then--wasn't her Daddy there at all? Barbara had slipped an arm under