“Oh, Clover,” she cried, “just listen to this! Papa can’t come for us. Isn’t it too bad?” And she read:—
“Burnet, March 20.
“My dear Girls,—I find that it will not be possible for me to come for you next week, as I intended. Several people are severely ill, and old Mrs. Barlow struck down suddenly with paralysis, so I cannot leave. I am sorry, and so will you be; but there is no help for it. Fortunately, Mrs. Hall has just heard that some friends of hers are coming westward with their family, and she has written to ask them to take charge of you. The drawback to this plan is, that you will have to travel alone as far as Albany, where Mr. Peters (Mrs. Hall’s friend) will meet you. I have written to ask Mr. Page to put you on the train, and under the care of the conductor, on Tuesday morning. I hope you will get through without embarassment. Mr. Peters will be at the station in Albany to receive you; or, if any thing should hinder him, you are to drive at once to the Delavan House where they are staying. I enclose a check for your journey. If Dorry were five years older, I should send him after you.
“The children are most impatient to have you back. Miss Finch has been suddenly called away by the illness of her sister-in-law, so Elsie is keeping house till you return.
“God bless you, my dear daughters, and send you safe.
“Yours affectionately,
P. Carr.”
“Oh, dear!” said Clover, with her lip trembling, “now papa won’t see Rosy.”
“No,” said Katy, “and Rosy and Louisa and the rest won’t see him. That is the worst of all. I wanted them to so much. And just think how dismal it will be to travel with people we don’t know. It’s too, too bad, I declare.”
“I do think old Mrs. Barlow might have put off being ill just one week longer,” grumbled Clover. “It takes away half the pleasure of going home.”
The girls might be excused for being cross, for this was a great disappointment. There was no help for it, however, as papa said. They could only sigh and submit. But the journey, to which they had looked forward so much, was no longer thought of as a pleasure, only a disagreeable necessity, something which must be endured in order that they might reach home.
Five, four, three days,—the last little square was crossed off, the last dinner was eaten, the last breakfast. There was much mourning over Katy and Clover among the girls who were to return for another year. Louisa and Ellen Gray were inconsolable; and Bella, with a very small pocket handkerchief held tightly in her hand, clung to Katy every moment, crying, and declaring that she would not let her go. The last evening she followed her into No. 2 (where she was dreadfully in the way of the packing), and after various odd contortions and mysterious, half-spoken sentences, said:—
“Say, won’t you tell if I tell you something?”
“What is it?” asked Katy, absently, as she folded and smoothed her best gown.
“Something,” repeated Bella, wagging her head mysteriously, and looking more like a thievish squirrel than ever.
“Well, what is it? Tell me.”
To Katy’s surprise, Bella burst into a violent fit of crying.
“I’m real sorry I did it,” she sobbed,—“real sorry! And now you’ll never love me any more.”
“Yes, I will. What is it? Do stop crying, Bella dear, and tell me,” said Katy, alarmed at the violence of the sobs.
“It was for fun, really and truly it was. But I wanted some cake too,” —protested Bella, sniffing very hard.
“What!”
“And I didn’t think anybody would know. Berry Searles doesn’t care a bit for us little girls, only for big ones. And I knew if I said “Bella,” he’d never give me the cake. So I said ‘Miss Carr’ instead.”
“Bella, did you write that note?” inquired Katy, almost to much surprised to speak.
“Yes. And I tied a string to your blind, because I knew I could go in and draw it up when you were practising. But I didn’t mean to do any harm; and when Mrs. Florence was so mad, and changed your room, I was real sorry,” moaned Bella, digging her knuckles into her eyes.
“Won’t you ever love me any more?” she demanded. Katy lifted her into her lap, and talked so tenderly and seriously that her contrition, which was only half genuine, became real; and she cried in good earnest when Katy kissed her in token of forgiveness.
“Of course you’ll go at once to Mrs. Nipson,” said Clover and Rose, when Katy imparted this surprising discovery.
“No, I think not. Why should I? It would only get poor little Bella into a dreadful scrape, and she’s coming back again, you know. Mrs. Nipson does not believe that story now,—nobody does. We had ‘lived it down,’ just as I hope we should. That is much better than having it contradicted.”
“I don’t think so; and I should enjoy seeing that little wretch of a
Bella well whipped,” persisted Rose. But Katy was not to be shaken.
“To please me, promise that not a word shall be said about it,” she urged; and, to please her, the girls consented.
I think Katy was right in saying that Mrs. Nipson no longer believed her guilty in the affair of the note. She had been very friendly to both the sisters of late; and when Clover carried in her album and asked for an autograph, she waxed quite sentimental and wrote, “I would not exchange the modest Clover for the most beautiful parterre, so bring it back, I pray thee, to your affectionate teacher, Marianne Nipson;” which effusion quite overwhelmed “the modest Clover,” and called out the remark from Rose,—“Don’t she wish she may get you!” Miss Jane said twice, “I shall miss you, Katy,” a speech which, to quote Rose again, made Katy look as “surprised as Balaam.” Rose herself was not coming back to school. She and the girls were half broken-hearted at parting. They lavished tears, kisses, promises of letters, and vows of eternal friendship. Neither of them, it was agreed, was ever to love anybody else so well. The final moment would have been almost too tragical, had it not been for a last bit of mischief on the part of Rose. It was after the stage was actually at the door, and she had her foot upon the step, that, struck by a happy thought, she rushed upstairs again, collected the girls, and, each taking a window, they tore down the cotton, flung open sashes, and startled Mrs. Nipson, who stood below, by the simultaneous waving therefrom of many white flags. Katy, who was already in the stage, had the full benefit of this performance. Always after that, when she thought of the Nunnery, her memory recalled this scene,—Mrs. Nipson in the door-way, Bella blubbering behind, and overhead the windows crowded with saucy girls, laughing and triumphantly flapping the long cotton strips which had for so many months obscured the daylight for them all.
At Springfield next morning she and Clover said good-by to Mr. Page and Lilly. The ride to Albany was easy and safe. With every mile their spirits rose. At last they were actually on the way home.
At Albany they looked anxiously about the crowded depot for “Mr. Peters.” Nobody appeared at first, and they had time to grow nervous before they saw a gentle, careworn little man coming toward them in company with the conductor.
“I believe you are the young ladies I have come to meet,” he said. “You must excuse my being late, I was detained by business. There is a great deal to do to move a family out West,” he wiped his forehead in a dispirited way. Then he put the girls into a carriage, and gave the driver a direction.
“We’d better leave your baggage at the office as we pass,” he said, “because we have to get off so early in the morning.”
“How early?”
“The boat goes at six, but we ought to be on board by half-past five, so as to be well settled before she starts.”
“The