Marjorie's New Friend

by Carolyn Wells

  CHAPTER XIII

  GOLDFISH AND KITTENS

  Leaving Delight asleep, Marjorie wandered out to the dining-room, whereMrs. Spencer was assisting the waitress in her duties. As Maggie was notallowed to leave the sick-room, Mary, the waitress, did the cooking, andthis left many smaller offices to be performed by Mrs. Spencer.

  "Can't I help you?" asked Marjorie, who was at her wits' end foroccupation.

  Usually, she could entertain herself for any length of time, but thestrangeness of her surroundings, and a general feeling of homesicknessmade books or games unattractive.

  "Why, no, Marjorie; little girls can't help," said Mrs. Spencer, whonever thought of calling on Delight for assistance.

  "Oh, yes, I can; truly I can do lots of things. Mayn't I put away thatsilver?"

  "No; you don't know where it belongs. But if want to help me, can't youattend to Delight's canary? He hasn't had his bath, and Mary is too busyto do it. Do you know how?"

  "Oh, yes; I often give our bird his bath, and clean his cage, and givehim fresh seed and water. Where shall I find the birdseed?"

  "In the small cupboard in Delight's playroom, the room where the bird is,you know."

  "Yes'm, I know."

  Marjorie ran upstairs, interested in this work, and taking the cage fromits hook, set it on the table. She found the little bathtub and filled itwith water of just the right warmth, and taking the upper part of thecage from its base, set it over the tub, which she had carefully placedon a large newspaper.

  "There," she said, "spatter away as much as you like, while I cut a niceround paper carpet for your cage. I don't know your name, but I shallcall you Buttercup, because you're so yellow."

  The bird cocked his black eye at her, and seemed to approve of his newattendant, for he hopped into his bath, and splashed the watervigorously.

  "You're a nice little Buttercup," went on Midget; "some bad littlebirdies won't jump in and bathe. There, I think that's enough; you'llwash all your feathers off! Here you go back home again."

  She replaced the cage, filled the seed and water vases, and hung it backon its hook.

  Midget was a capable little girl, and she took away the bathtub, andtidied up all traces of her work, as neatly as Mary could have done. Thenshe looked around for more worlds to conquer.

  She saw the aquarium, a small round one, all of glass, in which were fourgoldfish.

  "I think I'll give you a bath," said Midget to the fishes, laughing atthe absurdity of the idea. But as she stood watching them, she observedthe green mossy slime that covered the stones and shells at the bottom ofthe aquarium, and it occurred to her that it would be a good idea toclean them.

  "There's a small scrubbing-brush in the bathroom," she said to herself,"and I can scrub them clean, and put in fresh water, and Mrs. Spencerwill be so surprised and pleased."

  She was about to bring a bowl of water from the bathroom to put thestones in while she scrubbed them, but she thought since there wasalready water in the glass, she might as well use that, and then getclean water for the fishes afterward.

  "But I don't believe they'll like the soap," she thought, as, scrub-brushin hand, she was about to dip the soap in the water. "So I'll lay themaside while I scrub."

  Marjorie had never had any goldfish, and knew nothing about them, so withno thought save to handle them gently, she took them out of the water,and laid them on the table in the sunlight.

  She caught them by the simple process of using her handkerchief as adrag-net, and with great care, laid them softly down on the felttable-cover.

  "There, fishies," she said, "don't take to your heels and run away. I'llsoon clean up these dirty old stones and shells, then I'll give you nicefresh water, and put you back home again."

  The stones and shells did look better, according to Midget's way ofthinking, after she had vigorously scrubbed the moss from them. Theyshone glistening, and white, and she put them back in the aquarium andfilled it with clean water, and then went for the fish.

  "Ah, taking a nap, are you?" she said, as the four lay quiet on thetable. But when she carefully put them back in the water, and they didn'twriggle or squirm a bit, she knew at once they were dead.

  "You horrid things!" cried Midget, "what did you go and die for, justwhen I was fixing up your cage so nice? You're not really dead, are you?Wake up!"

  She poked and pinched them to no avail.

  "Oh, dear!" she sighed, "whenever I try to be good and helpful, I'm badand troublesome. Now I must go and tell Mrs. Spencer about it. I wonderwhat she'll say. I wish I could tell mother first, but they'd hear me onthe telephone. Perhaps the old things will come alive again. Maybethey've only fainted."

  But no sign of life came from the four victims, who calmly floated on topof the water, as if scorning the clean white stones and shells below.They looked so pretty and so pathetic, that Marjorie burst into tears,and ran downstairs in search of Mrs. Spencer. That lady heard the talewith a look of mingled amusement and annoyance on her face.

  "I've heard you were a mischievous child," she said, "but I didn't thinkyou'd begin your pranks so soon."

  "But it wasn't pranks, Mrs. Spencer," said Midget, earnestly. "I trulywanted to be help, fill, and I fixed the bird's cage so nicely, I thoughtI'd fix the fishes' cage too."

  "But you must have known that fishes die out of water."

  "No'm; I didn't. At least,--it seems to me now that I ought to have knownit, but I didn't think about it when I took 'em out. You see, I never hadany goldfish of my own."

  "Well, don't worry about it, child. It can't be helped now. But I supposeDelight will feel terribly. She was so fond of her goldfish."

  "I'm sure Father will let me give her some more," said Midget, "but Isuppose she won't care for any others."

  She went back to the library, where she had left Delight asleep, andfound her just waking up.

  "Delight," she said, wanting to get it over as soon as possible, "I'vekilled all four of your goldfish!"

  "On purpose?" said Delight, still sleepy and uncomprehending.

  "No, of course not. It was an accident. I just laid them on the tablewhile I cleaned the aquarium, and they fainted away and staid fainted. Iguess they must have been sick before."

  "No, they weren't. They were awfully frisky yesterday. I think you'rereal mean, Marjorie."

  "I'm awful sorry, Delight, truly I am. But I'm 'most sure Father will letme give you other fish to make up for them."

  "But they won't be the same fish."

  "No, of course not. But we'll get prettier ones."

  "Oh, no, you needn't get any fish at all. I'd rather have a kitten."

  "Oh, I can get you a kitten easily enough. James always knows where toget them. What color do you want?"

  "Gray; Maltese, you know. Will he get it to-day?"

  "I'll ask Mother to ask him to-day. He'll get it soon, I know."

  "All right; I'd heaps rather have that than fish. I'm tired of goldfish,anyway. You can't cuddle them like you can kittens. And I never had akitten."

  "You didn't! Why, Delight Spencer! I never heard of a girl that had_never_ had a kitten! I'll ask Mother to see about it right away. Do youwant two?"

  "Yes, as many as I can have. I ought to have four to make up for thosegoldfish."

  "You can have four, if your mother'll let you," said Midget. "Ask her."

  "Oh, she'll let me. She never says no to anything I want. Does yourmother?"

  "Yes, often. But then, I want such crazy things."

  "So do I. But I get them. Go on and see about the kittens."

  So Midget went to the telephone and told her mother the whole story aboutthe goldfish.

  Mrs. Maynard was surprised at Marjorie's ignorance of fish's habits, butshe didn't scold.

  "I do think," she said "that you should have known better; but of courseI know you didn't intend to harm the fish. And anyway we won't discuss itover the telephone. I'll wait until we're together again."

  "You'll have to keep a list
of all my mischief, Mother," said Midget,cheerfully; "and do up the scolding and punishing all at once, when I gethome."

  "Yes, but don't get into mischief while you're over there. Do try,Marjorie, to behave yourself."

  "I will, Mother, but I'm so tired of staying here I don't know what todo. Delight heard me say that, but I can't help it. I expect she's tiredof having me here."

  "I am not!" declared Delight; "now ask her about the kittens."

  So Marjorie asked her mother about the kittens, and Mrs. Maynard promisedto ask James to see if he couldn't find some that would be glad of a goodhome.

  And so anxious was James to please his dear Miss Marjorie, and sonumerous were kittens among James' circle of personal acquaintances, thatthat very afternoon, a basket was set on the Spencer's porch and the doorbell was rung.

  Mary opened the door and saw the basket, well-covered over.

  "The saints presarve us!" she cried; "sure, it's a baby!"

  She brought the basket in, and Mrs. Spencer turned back the foldedblanket, and disclosed four roly-poly kittens all cuddled into one heapof fur.

  "Oh!" cried Delight, "did you ever see anything so lovely! Midget, I'm_so_ glad you killed the goldfish! These are a million times nicer."

  "But you could have had these too," said Marjorie; "and anyway, I'llprobably put these in the aquarium and drown them, by mistake!"

  "Indeed you won't!" said Delight, cuddling the little balls of fur. "Oh,Mother, aren't they _dear?_"

  "They are very cunning," answered Mrs. Spencer, "and I'm glad you havethem. Though four seems a good many. Don't you want to give them somemilk?"

  "Oh, yes; and we'll teach them all to eat from one saucer, so they'll beloving and affectionate."

  The kittens showed no desire to be other than affectionate, and amicablylapped up milk from the same saucer, without dispute.

  There was one white, one Maltese, one black, and one yellow, and Marjoriefelt sure James had chosen the prettiest he could find.

  "Now to name them," said Delight. "Let's choose lovely names. You'll helpus, won't you, Miss Hart?"

  "You ought to call the white one Pop Corn," said Miss Hart, "for it'sjust like a big kernel of freshly popped corn."

  "I will," said Delight, "for it's like that; but as that's a hard name tosay, I'll call her Poppy for short. A white poppy, you know. Now theblack one?"

  "Blackberry," suggested Marjorie, and that was the chosen name. Theyellow one was named Goldenrod, and the gray one Silverbell, and the fourtogether made as pretty a picture as you could imagine. The girls spentan hour or more playing with them and watching their funny antics, andthen Miss Hart proposed that they, crochet balls of different color foreach little cat.

  Mrs. Spencer provided a box of worsted and they chose the colors.

  A red ball was to be made for Blackberry, and a light blue one for Poppy.Goldenrod was to have a yellow one, and Silverbell a pink one.

  Miss Hart showed the girls how to crochet a round cover, hooping it toform a ball, and then stuffing it tightly with worsted just beforefinishing it.

  They made the four balls and tried to teach the kittens to remember theirown colors. But in this they were not very successful, as the kittensliked the balls so much they played with any one they could catch.

  When Mr. Maynard came home, true to his word, he sent Marjorie a gift.

  The bell rang, and there on the doorstep lay a parcel.

  It proved to contain two picture puzzles.

  "Oh, goody!" cried Midget. "These are just what I wanted. I've heardabout them, but I've never had any, and Father told me last week he'd getme one. One's for you, Delight, and one's for me. Which do you choose?"

  "Left hand," said Delight, as Marjorie's hands went behind her.

  "All right; here it is."

  "But I don't know how to do puzzles. I never saw one like this."

  "If you knew how to do it, it wouldn't be a puzzle. I don't know either;but we'll learn."

  "I'll show you how to begin," said Miss Hart. "Wait a minute."

  She went out to the dining-room, and returned with two trays, oblong,square-cornered and of fairly good size.

  "Make your puzzles on these," she said, "and then you can carry themaround while working on them, if you want to. You can't do that, if youmake them right on the table."

  So with the trays on the table in front of them the girls began. Eachpuzzle had about a hundred and fifty pieces, and they were not easy ones.Miss Hart showed them how to find pieces that fitted each other; butwould not help them after the first two or three bits were joined, forshe said the fun was in doing it themselves.

  "But I can't!" said Midge, looking perfectly hopeless; "these pieces areall brownish and greenish and I don't know what they are."

  "I see," said Delight, her eyes sparkling; "you must find a face, orsomething that you can tell what it is, and start from that."

  "But there isn't any face here," said Midget; "here's one eye,--if it_is_ an eye!"

  "Begin with that," advised Miss Hart. "Find some more of a face to gowith it."

  "Oh, yes; here's a nose and lips! Why, it just fits in!"

  Soon the two children were absorbed in the fascinating work. It was anovelty, and it happened to appeal to both of them.

  "Don't look at each other's picture," warned Miss Hart, "and then, whenboth are done, you can exchange and do each other's. It's no fun if yousee the picture before you try to make it."

  "Some pieces of mine must be missing," declared Marjorie; "there's nopiece at all to go into this long, narrow curving space."

  Miss Hart smiled, for she had had experience in this pastime.

  "Everybody thinks pieces are lost at some stage of the work," she said;"never mind that space, Marjorie, keep on with the other parts."

  "Oh!" cried Delight. "I can see part of the picture now! It's going to bea--"

  "Don't tell!" interrupted Miss Hart; "after you've each done both ofthem, you can look at the finished pictures together. But now, keep itsecret what the pictures are about."

  So the work went on, and now and then a chuckle of pleasure or anexclamation of impatience would tell of the varying fortunes of theworkers.

  "Oh!" cried Delight. "I just touched a piece to straighten it, and Ijoggled the whole thing out of place!"

  Then Miss Hart showed them how to take a ruler and straighten theedges,--if the edges were built; and how to crowd a corner down into acorner of the tray, and so keep the pieces in place. So engrossed werethe two that Mrs. Spencer had difficulty to persuade them to come todinner.

  "Oh, Mother," cried Delight, "do wait till I find this lady's other arm.I'm sure I saw it a moment ago."

  And Marjorie lingered, looking for a long triangle with a notch in theend.

  But at last they set their trays carefully away, at different ends of theroom, and even laid newspapers over them, so they shouldn't see eachother's puzzle.

  "That's the most fun of any game I ever played," said Delight, as shetook her seat at the table.

  "I think so too," said Midge; "are there many of them made, Miss Hart?"

  "Thousands, my dear. And all, or nearly all, different."

  "When we finish these," said Delight, "I'll ask my father to bring ussome more. I just love to do them."

  "You musn't do too many," said Miss Hart; "that stooping position is notgood for little girls if kept up too long at a time."

  "It did make the back of my neck ache," said Delight; "but I don't mind,it's such fun to see the picture come."