Abbott, Jane - Keineth

by Keineth(Lit)

  So, with her hand in her father's, Keineth saw Washington! He told the

  driver to go slowly while he pointed out to them the buildings they

  passed. The whole city lay bathed in sunshine that brought with it the

  balminess of real springtime for which they waited so long in the

  North. Robins were singing in the trees, so gladly that Keineth thought

  that even they must have guessed how happy she was!

  Keineth and Peggy listened while John Randolph told Mr. Lee of his trip

  home across the ocean--how to escape the submarines of the Germans they

  had run cautiously, at half-speed, as in a fog, with look-outs posted

  all along the ship's decks and all lights out! Their voices were very

  serious as they talked and Keineth noticed for the first time that her

  father's face, under its tan, looked worn and tired, as though he had

  been working very hard.

  But each time that his eyes came back to her face they lighted with a

  smile.

  "I can hardly believe that this is my little girl," he said to Mr. Lee.

  "Her stay with you has done wonders for her!" And what he said was very

  true, for the year had changed Keineth from the shy-eyed, delicate

  child he had left to a happy, round-cheeked, strong-limbed girl. The

  pretty simple dress she wore had the becoming touch of color that Tante

  used to think unsuitable, and her fair hair, drawn loosely back from

  her forehead and fastened with a barrette, hung in heavy waves over her

  shoulders.

  At the hotel after breakfast Keineth's father opened his trunk and took

  from it a box of gifts he had collected from every country he had

  visited. A carved box from Japan, a gay Chinese robe from Pekin, dolls

  of all sorts, brass plates from Egypt, embroidered scarfs from

  Constantinople, coral from Italy and other treasures over which Keineth

  and Peggy went into ecstasies of delight!

  "For us?" she cried to her father.

  He smiled--her "us" meant to him that Keineth had found at last the

  true joy of friends.

  "Divide them as you wish, my dear," he answered. Thereupon the two

  girls sat down, cross-legged upon the floor and commenced assorting the

  gifts into little piles--for "Aunt Nellie," for "Barbara," the Japanese

  dolls for Alice, and, of course, the carved dagger from Petrograd, for

  Billy! "Oh, were ever girls as happy as we are?" Peggy cried.

  Later Mr. Lee broke in upon this pleasant occupation. "If we are here

  to see Washington we'd better start out! Keineth--after luncheon your

  father wants to take you for a little walk--Peggy and I will go to the

  National Museum."

  So it was that Keineth, trim in her new hat and coat, found herself

  early in the afternoon walking slowly down the "Avenue of the

  Presidents," holding her father's hand. They said little, each felt too

  happy to talk much, time enough for the stories later.

  Suddenly through the trees of Lafayette Park, all a-quiver with their

  new spring leaves, Keineth glimpsed the stately lines of the White

  House.

  She stopped short. "Daddy, is that where the President lives?"

  Mr. Randolph smiled. "Yes, my dear! And we are going there now to

  call--at his request!"

  So Keineth was really going to see Mr. President!

  She felt very excited as she walked past the policeman guarding the

  gates and up the winding avenue leading to the great columns before the

  door. Through the branches of the trees the sun was shining slant-wise

  against the square-paned windows, making tiny sparks of fire. Another

  policeman at the door halted them. Keineth thought it too bad that the

  President of the United States should have to be guarded in this

  manner--for who could want to harm him? Then they were ushered into the

  entrance hall, where a servant took the card Mr. Randolph offered.

  For Keineth the simple stateliness of the place had an atmosphere of

  romance. Staring curiously about her she went slowly through the

  spacious corridors to an oval-shaped room whose walls and windows were

  hung in heavy blue silk. The sunlight streamed through the windows

  across the highly polished floor and glinted through the crystals of

  the great chandelier hanging from the ceiling. From between the heavy

  blue curtains Keineth caught a glimpse of the green lawn outside,

  sloping down to the stretches of the Park--all adot with dandelions.

  Her father pointed out to her the gold clock on the mantel and told her

  that it had been presented by Napoleon the First to General Lafayette

  and by him in turn to Washington. Then as they turned to examine the

  bronze vases standing on either side of the clock a quiet voice

  startled them.

  "And so this is the little soldier girl!"

  And there across the room, one hand extended, stood the President of

  the United States!

  Keineth tried to say something, but found that her tongue would not

  move. But President Wilson, not noticing her embarrassment, was shaking

  her hand and talking as though they were old friends.

  "Of course--after our letters--an introduction is unnecessary! I am

  delighted, however, to meet in person John Randolph's daughter."

  He turned then from Keineth to her father and Keineth felt a glow of

  pride in the tone of intimacy with which the President greeted her

  father.

  After they had exchanged a few words he took her hand and drew her

  towards a divan.

  "Let us sit down here and have a little talk. I wonder if you know, my

  dear girl, what a wonderful man your father is."

  Keineth smiled at this! President Wilson, patting her hand upon his

  knee, went on:

  "His work for us is not done, either! And I am going to ask you to help

  me, Miss Keineth. I want him in my official family--I need his judgment

  and advice--need it badly! If he tries to refuse me then you must make

  him do what I want him to do! Wouldn't you like to live in Washington?"

  "Oh--yes!" cried Keineth, then she stopped short. "But--it wouldn't

  have to be a secret, would it?"

  The President broke into a hearty laugh. "No, indeed, my dear!" Then,

  more seriously, "You were very brave to help us guard so carefully his

  journeying. It was necessary that it should be kept a secret because in

  every land where he went there were bitter enemies to the work he was

  trying to do--enemies who, if they had had one word of the mission upon

  which he was going about, would have done everything within their power

  to defeat its purpose, even to taking his life without one moment's

  hesitation! Keineth, this is a funny world. It is made up of big

  nations and small nations and they struggle against one another like so

  many bad, heedless boys fighting in an alley."

  "I know!" cried Keineth, bright-eyed. "When they ought to be living

  like nice families in a quiet street, each one keeping its own yard

  clean from rubbish and the doorsteps washed." She used her father's

  words with careful precision.

  President Wilson turned to John Randolph. "The child has described it,

  exactly! What an ideal! Do you think we'll ever reach it?" Then, to

  Keineth, "And tha
t is the mission that took your father abroad--to lay

  before the peoples of those other lands this plan of democracy; to show

  them the picture of how we all--as nations--might live as you have

  described it, like thrifty families on a clean-kept street, some in

  finer houses than others, perhaps, but each one with its door-step

  clean and its corners well cleared out. Well--well, in your lifetime

  you may come to it, child. And when you do--remember that the way was

  opened by the message your father carried!"

  They talked a little longer of things Keineth could not understand,

  though she listened with rapt attention while her father spoke of the

  Emperor of Japan and the Czar of Russia as though they were just

  ordinary men!

  President Wilson walked with them to the door; he shook hands and

  begged them to come again! "I should like some day to show you around

  Washington myself, Miss Keineth," he said, patting her shoulder. Then

  as they walked out toward the street gates Keineth turned back and saw

  him watching from the open door. She waved her hand impulsively and he

  lifted his in a farewell salute.

  Keineth drew in a very deep breath: as Peggy would say, "Who _could_

  believe that she was little Keineth Randolph?"

  CHAPTER XXV

  THE CASTLE OF DREAMS

  When her father suggested that they let the sightseeing wait and take a

  walk, Keineth was delighted. She wanted more than anything else right

  then to talk and talk and talk to her daddy! There was so much to tell

  him!

  "We'll have plenty of time to see all the interesting things," Mr.

  Randolph said. "We'll stay here a week or two longer." "Peggy, too?"

  asked Keineth.

  "Peggy, too, of course!"

  "Oh, what _fun_!" cried Keineth, squeezing her father's hand with both

  of hers. She fairly danced along by his side, so that he had to walk

  very fast to keep up with her light feet 'Way across the Park through

  the trees they could see the waters of the Potomac gleaming blue, and

  beyond the hills of Arlington. Two weeks--her eyes shone--two weeks

  with Daddy and Peggy!

  "You know, Daddy, that Peggy is my very best friend!" Keineth said very

  solemnly. She commenced to tell him of Overlook and the happy summer

  days--of Stella, whom she had seen several times during the winter and

  had learned to love--of Grandma Sparks and her quaint old home--of Mr.

  Cadowitz and the hours in his queer studio--of the Jenkins cousins and

  the little Penny girls. He listened with a smile, perhaps not always

  able to follow her excited chatter, but certain from it that Keineth

  had found what he had hoped she would find when he had sent her to the

  Lees.

  Then Keineth thought of a confession she must make.

  "Is it dreadful, Daddy, but I have forgotten to be lonesome for Tante?

  I am ashamed because I do not think of her oftener. Where do you

  suppose she is?"

  "I saw her, my dear! Think what a coincidence it was! When I was in

  Paris one of the secretaries from the American Embassy took me around

  to visit the soup kitchens they have opened up there to feed the needy

  children of the soldiers at the front. At the very first one we went

  into, a woman in charge came up to greet us--and it was good Madame

  Henri! I might have known she'd be doing something like that! She knew

  me, of course--the tears ran down her cheeks as she clasped my hand.

  She couldn't say a word at first. She herself took us through the place

  and as it was at noontime, we stayed to see her hungry family. It was a

  sight I'll never forget--women, shivering in ragged clothing, with

  babes in their arms and gaunt, unhappy faces and eyes that looked at

  you as if they were eternally asking something and afraid to ask! Most

  of them had some scrap of dingy crepe somewhere about them--had lost

  their men at the battle-front! And little children gulping down the

  hot soup as though they were starved! Tante said it was the only meal

  most of them had during the day. After her work was over she and I went

  into a little room to talk. I knew she wanted to ask me about you--'her

  baby,' she called you. When I told her you were well and happy she

  broke down and sobbed 'thank God!'

  "She told me that her mother was dead and that her brother's wife and

  her little family were on a farm in northern France. When they did not

  need her longer she had gone to Paris to help.

  "'Give her my love,' she said to me--I knew she meant you. 'Keep her

  safe! It is my one comfort in these terrible days that she is not

  suffering! I love America--but I can never go back--my work is here!' I

  knew then that until the end Madame Henri would stick to her post and

  help wherever she could do the most good. She is a noble woman!"

  Keineth sighed. "It doesn't seem right to be so happy when others are

  not," she said, troubled.

  "But remember what she said--because you are happy is the one bright

  spot in Madame Henri's life! So it may be with others; you can always

  help someone."

  "You couldn't do anything else at the Lees'," broke in Keineth,

  "because Aunt Nellie is so kind and unselfish that we children are

  terribly ashamed to be anything else! Daddy--" Keineth stopped short;

  for the first time it crossed her mind that now that her daddy had come

  back her visit at the Lees' would end. "Where will we live now, Daddy?"

  He waited a moment before he answered.

  "I am going to ask you to decide that for yourself, Keineth." Keineth

  remembered then the night her father had made her decide between Aunt

  Josephine and the Lees! How hard it had been!

  John Randolph led her to a bench. "Let's sit down here and talk. I'll

  show you two pictures, Keineth, and you shall choose. You heard what

  the President said; he has asked me to be in his Cabinet! That is a

  great honor--perhaps the highest honor that may ever come to me!"

  "You'll be more than a soldier that doesn't wear a uniform?"

  Her father smiled at her quaint phrasing. "Yes, much more! But, besides

  the honor and the work of the position it will mean this to us--we will

  have to take a house here in Washington and live in such a way that we

  can entertain many, many guests. My time will never be my own, for

  there will be countless social demands besides the duties of the

  office--I will be able to spend very little time with my little girl!

  But she will not mind that because she will have ever so many new

  friends and new things to do, too. And we're too simple to know how to

  live such a life, so there's only one thing that'd happen--" Keineth

  was making tiny circles in the soft grass with the toe of her shoe. She

  had listened intently, now she interrupted quickly: "Aunt Josephine!"

  "Yes--Aunt Josephine would have to come down to show us how!"

  For some reason Keineth did not like the picture--and yet Daddy had

  said it was a great honor! But Aunt Josephine--

  Near the Monument the Marine Band had begun its program for the first

  afternoon concert of the season. A great many people had begun to

  gather in groups on the green. The music h
ad seemed to reach Keineth

  and her father as though it was all a part of the soft spring air and

  beauty around them--they had scarcely heeded it as they talked! But

  suddenly a familiar note struck Keineth's ear. She lifted her head

  quickly.

  "Oh, listen!" she cried, clutching his arm. "Listen!"

  "What is it, child?" He was startled by the look on her face. She had

  sprung to her feet.

  "That--that--" she whispered as though her voice might drown out the

  soft strains of the music, "that is my Castle of Dreams!" She lifted

  her hand to beg him not to speak until it had ended. They listened

  together until the last note died away.

  "Beautiful, my dear, but--"

  She turned shining eyes toward him. "I wrote it," she added simply.

  "You--you--" He stared at her in such a funny way that Keineth burst

  out laughing. "Why, my dear--"

  "Aunt Nellie taught me to write music! And I sold this! I didn't want

  to tell you until I had a chance to play it for you."

  "You--wrote--that?" He seemed not able to really believe. "My little

  girl?" A world of pride warmed the tone of his voice.

  "Yes, and it's such fun putting down what comes to my fingers! Only Mr.

  Cadowitz says that I must learn a great deal more and practice what the

  masters can teach me. And Aunt Nellie says, too, that I ought to wait

  until I have finished school."

  "Yes, they are right," Mr. Lee put in. Then he caressed the small

  fingers that lay in his clasp. "But, my dear little girl, what a joy