Nancy and Plum

by Betty Macdonald

  Nancy said, “You forgot your bundle of treasures. Here, catch. Now watch me.”

  She slid down. Then she and Plum patted Old Horse, ran across the field, climbed over the fence and started down the road.

  On either side the wild roses, their pink dewy faces turned to the sun, tumbled over the fences, sprawled on the ground and filled the air with their pure summery smell. Freshly waxed buttercups crowded close to the road and great clumps of blue lupin and black-eyed Susans leaned forward to see over them. The billowing green fields wore white daisies like a light-falling snow and the distant hills were as purple as kings’ robes. Meadowlarks threw back their heads and tossed lovely songs into the blue sky and like stars from rockets the notes hung there suspended for one breathless, exquisite moment. It was such a morning.

  Nancy and Plum felt very frisky. They pranced in the sunlight. Gathered bunches of the wild roses. Crushed tansy leaves. Colored their chins with the buttercups. Surprised fat bees in the lupin and told their fortunes with daisies.

  Then the sun grew higher and hotter. Like the beam of a giant flashlight she focussed her blazing eye directly on them. The backs of their necks turned red, beads of sweat came out on their upper lips and the dust choked them. Not only that, but every time a car went by they either had to throw themselves down in the ditches beside the road or scramble behind bushes.

  Plum threw a rock at a fence post and said, “We must have been walking for hours and hours and hours. Gosh, I’m hungry. Why don’t we come to that old town?”

  Nancy said, “The town’s a long way from Mrs. Monday’s but why don’t we come to a stream? I’m so thirsty.”

  Plum said, “If we come to a stream I’m going swimming.”

  Nancy said, “Imagine lying in cool water with little leaves floating around and a big fat frog watching you.”

  Plum said, “People die of thirst, don’t they?”

  Nancy said, “In the desert they do. Their tongues swell up and they crawl across the sand calling, ‘Water, water!’ ”

  Plum said, “Hey, up ahead there is a grove of trees. Let’s lie down in it and rest.”

  Nancy said, “Maybe we can find some wild strawberries.”

  Plum said, “Let’s run. We can’t be any hotter and we’ll get there faster.”

  Nancy said, “All right, here we go.”

  When they reached the grove they found a funny old grassy road branching off the main road and leading down a bank to a beautiful little stream with a deep brown pool almost hidden by willows.

  “Oh, boy,” Plum said as she kicked off her shoes, ripped off her jeans and shirt and jumped into the pool in her panties. “Oh, Nancy, hurry,” she called. “It’s sandy on the bottom and so cool.”

  Nancy jumped in and it was just as she had imagined it would be. Leaves and little sticks slowly whirled and drifted past, two fat green frogs peered out at them from the rushes and little shafts of sunlight pierced the tea-colored water and showed them their white feet and cloudy footsteps on the sandy bottom. They held their noses, opened their eyes under water and looked for periwinkles and minnows. They jumped off the bank and landed on the water, sitting down. They climbed on an old log and dove in belly-flop style. They floated on their backs and looked up at the sky through the trees. They found a tiny stream and made a dam. Plum caught a frog and named him Frank. Nancy started to gather rushes to weave a basket. Plum learned to whistle on a grass blade. If they hadn’t been so very hungry they might have stayed there forever.

  They were taking one last dive when suddenly a man’s voice said, “How’s the water?”

  Plum looked at Nancy and they both looked scared.

  The voice said, “Don’t be frightened, girls. My name’s Mr. Campbell and I own the haystack you slept in last night.”

  Plum said, “Did you know we slept in your haystack?”

  Mr. Campbell said, “My wife saw you slide down and run across the field this morning. She wanted me to ask you in for breakfast but I was out getting the cows and by the time she found me, you had disappeared.”

  Nancy said, “I hope you didn’t mind our sleeping in your haystack.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Glad to have you but how did you get up there?”

  Plum said, “We used Old Horse, I mean your horse. We just called him Old Horse last night. He was awfully nice to us.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Jerry’s gentle as a kitten. He’s too old to work much any more, so I just let him eat hay, get fat and enjoy himself.”

  Nancy said, “He stood still while we climbed on him. At first he wanted to take us for a ride but then Plum steered him back and made him stand by the haystack.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Have you had a lot of experience with horses, Plum, is that right, Plum?”

  Nancy said, “Her name’s really Pamela but she called herself Plum when she was little.”

  Plum said, “I like horses and I’m not scared of them. Old To … I mean, a friend of mine used to let me help him with the horses and cows.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Have you children had any breakfast?”

  Plum said, “No, and we’re starving.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Well, I just pulled my wagon off the road to eat my sandwiches and I’d be glad to share them. Mrs. Campbell always fixes enough for an army.”

  Plum and Nancy said, “Oh, boy.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “I’ll go up and spread the lunch out while you get dressed.”

  He turned and went up the road. They could hear him talking to his horses, so Plum and Nancy climbed up the bank, got clean, dry panties out of their bundles, put on their overalls and shirts, squeezed some of the water out of their hair, gathered up their treasures and old shoes and went up to join Mr. Campbell.

  He was sitting on the grass beside his wagon, cracking a hard-boiled egg. On the grass around him were spread several red-and-white-checked napkins. On one was a stack of homemade bread-and-butter sandwiches. On another was a heap of cold fried chicken. On another were six smooth, brown, hard-boiled eggs. On another was a pile of sugar cookies as big as saucers. On another were three huge dill pickles and four bananas.

  Plum looked at all the food and said, “Wow, Mr. Campbell, you must eat an awful lot.”

  Mr. Campbell laughed and said, “Well, actually I don’t eat very much. But Mary Ann, that’s Mrs. Campbell, always fixes enough food for ten men. She says that there’s nothing she despises worse than a skimpy meal. Now help yourselves, children. There are two drumsticks, two wings and two second joints and that bread was baked yesterday.”

  Plum and Nancy were so hungry their hands shook as they reached for the fried chicken. They were on their third piece of chicken and fourth bread-and-butter sandwich when Mr. Campbell said, “My gosh, I forgot the milk.” He went to the wagon, reached under the seat and got a bundle of wet gunny sacking inside of which was a two-quart fruit jar of cool, rich milk. They drank right out of the jar, passing it back and forth and laughing at each other’s creamy mustaches.

  When finally they couldn’t hold another bite, Mr. Campbell said, “Well, I guess I better get started if I’m going to get to town and back before midnight. Which way are you girls heading?”

  Nancy said, “We’re going to town to get a job.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “I’d be delighted to have you ride along with me. I had to take the wagon because I’m picking up a new cow in town, and though wagon riding is slow and kind of bumpy it is an awfully good way to see the country.”

  Plum said, “We’d certainly like to ride, if you don’t care. We don’t mind walking but our shoes are awfully worn out and the road’s so dusty we can’t always see the rocks.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “I’d rather wear no shoes than shoes with holes in ’em. If you’re barefoot you know it and you walk carefully but if you have on shoes you forget about the hole and first thing you know you’re stepping on a thistle.”

  After the girls had climbed up the high seat and settled themselves be
side Mr. Campbell and after he had clucked to the horses and they had started down the road, he said, “What kind of work did you have in mind, Nancy?”

  Nancy said, “Oh, washing dishes or baby sitting, something like that.”

  Plum said, “I’d rather milk cows or be a dog trainer, myself.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Have you ever been to town before?”

  Nancy and Plum said, “Oh, yes. We used to go every Library Day.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Oh, so you live around here.”

  Plum said, “We used to.”

  Nancy said, “We might as well tell you, Mr. Campbell, we used to live at Mrs. Monday’s Boarding Home and we’re running away.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Running away is kind of serious business. Are you sure it’s the thing to do?”

  So Nancy and Plum told him all about Mrs. Monday’s. About Uncle John, the letter, the school program, the picnic, about Marybelle hiding Eunice’s doll, even about Christmas and the empty box Plum found in the trunk room.

  By the time they finished telling everything they were at the edge of town. Mr. Campbell said, “Well, Nancy and Plum, from what you’ve told me and from what I know about Mrs. Monday I’m on your side but I’d like to have Mary Ann’s opinion on the matter. Now, I’ve got some business to attend to but I’ll leave the wagon tied right here by this feed store. You go and see about your jobs, and I certainly wish you luck, however, if by some chance, you shouldn’t find work you like or you need help, you come back here to the wagon and I’ll be waiting.”

  Nancy and Plum thanked him, put on their shoes and socks, jumped out of the wagon and started up the street hand in hand. Mr. Campbell watched them until they rounded the corner by the drugstore and then he followed them, keeping out of sight by stepping into doorways and ducking down behind shrubs.

  The first place where Nancy and Plum asked for a job was a large white house with a smooth green lawn. A woman with steel-rimmed glasses and a white uniform like a nurse’s opened the door and said, “We don’t allow solicitors.”

  Nancy said, “We’re not solicitors. We want a job.”

  “Job?” the woman said, laughing in an unpleasant mocking way. “That’s the silliest thing I ever heard of. Now go home to your mother and tell her to wash your dirty little faces.” She slammed the door.

  Nancy began to cry but Plum said, “Boy, I’m glad we don’t work for her. She’s crabbier than Mrs. Monday.”

  Nancy said, “I’m scared. What if we can’t find a job?”

  Plum said, “Then we’ll just be like crickets and sleep in haystacks and eat berries and never have to work.”

  Nancy said, “Sleeping in haystacks is all right but we didn’t get much to eat this morning until Mr. Campbell came along.”

  Plum said, “We had a good swim though. Here’s a nice little house, let’s go in here.”

  It was a small gray cottage with yellow roses climbing over the door and a shiny brass knocker, which Nancy timidly lifted and let fall once. Immediately one of the crisp white curtains at the front window was pushed aside and an old lady peered out at them. Nancy smiled at her, a tremulous smile, but Plum stared. After a while the old lady opened the door and asked them what they wanted. Plum said, “We would like work. Any kind of work.”

  The old lady smiled sweetly at them but said, “Land sakes, you are far too little to be looking for work. Now run along home.”

  She was nice but she thought they were just pretending and when Nancy tried to tell her that they really needed work, she only laughed and shut the door.

  There was nobody home at the next house and at the next one a cross man told them to run along, his wife was sick. At the next house, a maid in a uniform told them that people who wanted work should go to the back door, and at the next house a little girl answered the door and stuck out her tongue.

  They were just turning the corner to start on another street when they saw Mrs. Monday’s black truck, cruising slowly along, Mrs. Monday, Old Tom and Marybelle in the front seat. Plum saw it first and before Nancy knew what it was all about she found herself lying flat on her face behind a hedge.

  Angrily she said to Plum, “What’s the matter with you? What’s the idea of pushing me down?”

  Carefully Plum parted the branches of the hedge and said, “Look.”

  Nancy looked and her face turned pale. “Oh, Plum,” she whispered, “do you think they saw us?”

  “I don’t think so,” Plum said. “We hadn’t gotten around the corner yet and we were hidden by this hedge.”

  Nancy said, “Now we won’t dare go up and down the streets looking for work.”

  Plum said, “Sure we will. We’ll go down the alleys and knock at the back doors.”

  So all that long, disheartening afternoon they knocked at doors, asked for work and dodged Mrs. Monday and her truck.

  They watched little children in bathing suits running through sprinklers, they saw fat babies kicking up their heels in baby carriages, they played peek-a-boo with babies in playpens, but nobody wanted a baby sitter. At least nobody seemed to want these small, shabby, dusty, barefooted baby sitters. Discouraged, they hid in a vacant lot, chewed the tender sweet ends of grass and wondered what to do.

  Plum said, “Even if I have to go to jail I won’t go back to Mrs. Monday’s.”

  Nancy said, “I didn’t think work would be so hard to find. I thought people needed help with their children.”

  Plum said, “I guess it’s just that we’re too little. Look, it must be dinnertime. See the fathers coming home. Say, I’ll bet that means that Mrs. Monday has gone back to the Boarding Home.”

  Nancy said, “I ate so much lunch I never thought I’d be hungry again but I am, I’m awfully hungry.”

  Plum said, “I smelled so many good things when we were knocking at back doors that I got hungry a long time ago. Do you remember how good those chocolate cookies smelled in that house where the woman looked so tired and was so cross?”

  Nancy said, “Best of all I liked the smell of fresh bread in that house that had the little boy who kicked us.”

  Plum said, “Do you suppose that Mr. Campbell really meant it when he said he’d wait for us?”

  Nancy said, “Yes, I’m sure he meant it. He’s a very kind man and I can tell by his eyes that he tells the truth.”

  Plum said, “Well, let’s go and find him then, and see if we can sleep in his haystack again.”

  Nancy said, “Do you know where that feed store is?”

  Plum said, “I’m not sure but I think it’s over that way.” She pointed north.

  Nancy said, “Oh, no, Plum, you’re wrong. I’m sure it’s not that way. I think it is that way.” She pointed south.

  Plum said, “Well, as long as you think it is that way and I think it is that way, then let’s go this way,” and she pointed east.

  Nancy said, “All right, we’ll go five blocks this way and then we’ll turn and go five blocks another way.”

  So they walked and they walked and they walked. They went this way and that way and the other way. Dinnertime passed and the fathers who had come home earlier stood in their shirt sleeves watering their lawns while the street rang with the cries of children playing catch and hide and seek. Occasionally mothers’ voices called “Yohoo, Charlie, bedtime,” screen doors slammed with a clack, front doors slammed with a dull boom. Cars drove by slowly, the tires making a gritty noise on the pavement.

  Plum said, “I’m getting tired and I don’t know where we are.”

  Nancy said, “I feel lonesome and all choky like I’m going to cry.”

  Plum said, “I think I’ll just go up and knock on one of those doors and tell them we’re lost.”

  Nancy said, “They’ll send us back to Mrs. Monday’s.”

  Plum said, “Well, there’s no use our walking any more. We’re not getting anywhere except loster.”

  Then away down the street they heard the clop, clop of horses’ hooves and the creak of wagon wh
eels. Plum said, “Oh, Nancy, maybe that is Mr. Campbell. Maybe he’s looking for us.”

  Nancy said, “Come on, let’s run.”

  Sure enough it was Mr. Campbell. When he saw them he called out, “Thought you were never coming. I’m near starved. Hurry and climb in.”

  Nancy and Plum climbed in and then they both began to cry.

  Mr. Campbell said, “Here, here, what’s all this about?”

  Plum said, “We couldn’t find any work and we were lost.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “I followed you around most of the afternoon. Only lost track of you when I went to get the cow. What’s the matter, don’t the people in this town need any help?”

  Nancy said, “They all said we’re too little. One woman told us to go home and have our mother wash our dirty little faces.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Well, I’ll tell you, most children your size don’t do much work.”

  Plum said, “But what will we do? We can’t go back to Mrs. Monday’s.”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Well, one thing you can do, Plum, is to drive for me. As soon as we get out of town here, I’d certainly appreciate a little help.”

  Plum wiped her eyes on her bundle of treasures and said, “Do you really mean it? May I drive?”

  Mr. Campbell said, “Certainly I do. Now reach down there under the seat and you’ll find a bag of hot roasted peanuts. One nice thing about fresh peanuts when you’re driving in a wagon, they taste awful good, they don’t spoil your appetite and you can throw the shells over your shoulder.”

  Nancy and Plum got out the peanuts and cracked and ate them ravenously in handfuls. Then Plum took the reins and Mr. Campbell ate peanuts.

  After a while Plum said, “I forgot all about the cow.” She turned around and looking behind her said, “Am I going too fast for you, old cowie?”

  Mr. Campbell said, “I haven’t named her yet. What do you suggest, Nancy?”

  Nancy said, “Well, we could name her after Plum and me like we did Eunice’s doll and call her Nanela?”

  Mr. Campbell said, “I like that but do you think Eunice would like her doll to have the same name as a cow?”

  Nancy said, “I suppose not. Maybe we’d better call her Wild Rose.”