“Oh, Jim! It will be lots of fun! You’ll be the cook to fix the fine party dinner, and Jack can play minister. John and Anne will be my children and Washington’s step-children, you know,” explained Martha.
“Kin we-all git some cookies an’ watermelyon fer de party?” asked Jim with sudden interest.
“Sure! I’ll get mother to ask mammy for some, and besides I’ll find some more good things to eat. John can bring some, too, and we can have a make-believe stove and cook lots of fine things that they had at that wedding supper,” replied George.
“Den Ah’ll play cook!” agreed Jim.
“S-sh! I know I heard a horn that time!” cried Martha.
“So’d I! And see – down by the road that runs over the bridge of the creek – there comes the car!” shouted George, forgetting his wedding arrangements and wars in the imminent joy of seeing his cousins who were coming to have a long visit at the Parkes’ home.
As you remember, George and Martha Parke were the two children who played the youthful life of George Washington, in the first book called “Little Washingtons.”
Their home was situated in the beautiful country suburbs of Washington, D. C., and being descended in one line of the illustrious Parke family of Washington fame, naturally these children loved to hear all about the great American general’s life. In September of that year Mrs. Parke began reading the history of George Washington’s life – beginning with his introduction when he chopped down the cherry tree.
In the first book George and Martha Parke had heard read, and then applied to their play, the destruction of the homestead where George was born, the boy’s education, his surveying trips and camp, and finally the battle under General Braddock, when the latter was killed at Fort Duquesne.
Then, just as the two children found the old-fashioned costumes (while being shut in the attic for punishment for ruining the hedge at that momentous battle) and Jim crept out of the attic window and found himself on the ground, the story ended. But it starts again in this book with the Parke children watching for their cousins’ arrival.
John Graham, the next-door neighbor of the Parke children, had not been heard from or seen that morning, but Jim, the only child of mammy, the cook in the Parkes’ household, was on hand to welcome the expected visitors; then, just as the machine turned in at the stone gateway to roll up the driveway, John Graham rushed breathlessly up from the side lawn.
“Aren’t they here yet?” called John eagerly.
“Just comin’!” cried George, never taking his eyes from the fast-approaching automobile.
“Heigh – hello there!” shouted a boy’s voice, as a smiling face showed beaming over the side of the limousine.
“Hello, Jack! We’re glad to see you!” cried George, jumping down the steps to reach the terrace where the car stopped.
Martha followed after her brother, but Jim and John stood in the background, watching and wondering at the two strangers. The four cousins found they were not shy at all, and in fact, as they still retained the looks of former times, they soon felt very much at home with one another. Jack was a year the senior of George, and Anne was about a year older than Martha.
The Philadelphia children had lost none of their fun-loving dispositions, although Mrs. Parke had hoped they had developed into models of perfection. So this visit promised to be of great importance to the “Little Washingtons” in many ways. Hence the warm welcome bestowed by George and Martha, and later by John Graham and the factotum, Jim.
Mrs. Davis greeted her little niece and nephew affectionately, then she followed Mrs. Parke up the veranda steps and into the house.
“Have you got to change your clothes before we do anything?” asked George, who wore his second-best suit and clean blouse-shirt.
“Oh, I guess not. We’re all dusty from travelling anyway, so a little more dust won’t hurt any,” laughed Jack.
“And mother said my dress had to go straight in the tub, ’cause I upset a glass of choklate soda all down the front,” added Anne, spreading out the dimity ruffled dress to show her companions.
“Come on then and see the place. Jim’s got a rabbit hutch at the barns, and John’s going to lend us his pony when we want to use it in our play,” explained George, leading the group over the lawn by walking backward in front of them.
Martha skipped on one side of the two new arrivals, and John Graham on the other side, while Jim, the dark shadow, followed closely at their heels.
“Say, you’ve got a dandy place for fun, haven’t you?” admired Jack, gazing around at the wide expanse of lawns and gardens at the rear of the estate.
“Yes, but they always find us out just when we’re having the finest time!” sighed John dolefully.
Jack laughed. “I’m sure they wouldn’t find me if I lived here! But Anne and I only have a yard in a city block. The front steps from the door go right down to the sidewalk, and there’s a little patch of grass in front of the basement windows, with an area-way going to the back kitchen. We have only as much open space on each side of our house as from here to there.” As he explained, Jack showed a distance of five feet in front of him.
“But you have the loveliest park only a few blocks away – and the museums, and zoo, and lots of things we haven’t!” said George enviously.
“You can’t have fun in the zoo or a museum as you can in the open like this place; but we’ll make up here for not having the place in Philadelphia, won’t we, Anne?” laughed Jack.
“Yes, if George and Martha won’t have to spend all the time at lessons,” said Anne anxiously.
“Oh, no, we were going to have a private teacher at home because the only school is so far away from us in winter, but the house-teacher mother engaged was taken sick and couldn’t come as soon as expected, so mother has been hearing our lessons and reading history to us. Now that your mother is visiting here, mother won’t have as much time to hear our lessons, see?” explained Martha eagerly.
“And we can have all the more time for fun,” added George.
“How about you, John?” asked Jack, turning to the little neighbor boy.
“Oh, I was going to join George and Martha at their house for lessons this year – my mother and their mother arranged it, you see, ’cause we are distantly related, too, but now I don’t have to study, either!” said John with satisfaction.
“Then we’re all free for a fine time! You see, it just happened that the same week our school opened, the measles broke out so bad that they had to close again for a short time; and as every one we knew got the measles, mother hurried us off for a visit until the thing is over again,” laughed Jack, feeling very happy over the consequences of the epidemic.
“Fine!” declared George, turning to lead the way to the last scene of battle – the broken-down hedge between the Grahams’ and Parkes’ country estates.
CHAPTER II – THE CUSTIS WEDDING PARTY
“Now that we’ve been all over the place, come up to the attic and let us show you the old trunk full of costumes,” urged Martha, as the five children returned from the inspection of the grounds.
“Maybe the folks’ll be looking for us to change our clothes,” ventured Anne, looking carefully at the windows of the house, as they came into view from the path where the children skipped or ran.
“How long will it take you?” questioned Martha.
“Oh, we’ll have to take a bath, and my curls will have to be done over fresh, and a clean dress put on – dear me, we can’t have a speck of fun all starched up, you know!” complained Anne.
“Let’s get in without any one seeing us!” whispered George.
“How?” chorused the others.
“Mother