<h2 id="c22"><br/>CHAPTER XXII <br/><span class="sc">Saying Farewell to the Cabin</span></h2>
<p>“For my part,” announced Polly
O’Neill, “I am not so heart-broken
as I expected at having to
say farewell to Sunrise cabin. It is so
different for us all, with the Princess not
here and having to think of her back home
in their big house with only her mother
and one little maid of all work. To think
that I used to tell the Princess I thought
she ought to be poor a little while just to
find out what it felt like! I could cry my
eyes out now when I realize that it has
actually come true.”</p>
<p>It was the May meeting of the Sunrise
Council Fire and because it was to be the
last meeting for some time which might
be held on their old camping grounds, the
girls and their guardian had decided that
it should take place outdoors and that at
the close of their regular program there
should be, a general talk over the history
of the past year.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_243">[243]</div>
<p>Esther rose quietly at this speech of
Polly’s, partly because she seemed to wish
to find relief in action and then because
the May night was cold, and put several
fresh pine logs on their already glowing
fire.</p>
<p>“You must not think I am ungrateful,
Rose dear,” Polly continued. “This winter
has been to me the most wonderful one,
sometimes I think the turning point in
my whole life, but if Betty is going to be
trying to take boarders in that big Ashton
house to support herself and her mother
and let Dick finish his medical studies,
why I think Mollie and mother and I
had better be back in our own tiny cottage
to give her our valuable advice.”</p>
<p>“But Betty won’t be keeping boarders
herself, will she? I thought it was Mrs.
Ashton who was to look after things with
Betty to help,” Nan Graham spoke in a
kind of awed tone. “Still it wouldn’t
seem very nice of us to keep on living here
in our cabin, which Betty did a great deal
more toward building than the rest of us,
if she were not here to share it.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_244">[244]</div>
<p>Mollie shook her head decidedly, so
that the feathers of her Indian head-dress
made fantastic small shadows on the ground.
“I don’t think that would matter in the
least and certainly not to Betty,” she said
in her sensible, far-seeing fashion. “Betty
would love to think of our being here and
she would come and visit us whenever it
were possible, but circumstances seem to
have changed for all of us. Here is mother
coming home from Ireland and Polly and I
will want to keep house for her and look
after things while she is at work just as we
have always done, and then Mrs. Meade
says she isn’t willing for Eleanor to be away
from her any longer, and Nan feels she
ought to go home and help her mother with
the younger children, and Esther going
away after a while to New York to study.
Dear me, what changes a few months can
bring! I am glad they have not brought
such big ones to us, Polly.”</p>
<p>Sylvia Wharton had been in the act of
wrapping a white woolen shawl about the
small Faith, who was cuddled close to
Rose Dyer, but now she stopped and
stared hard at Mollie and then at Polly
with an apparently wooden expression of
face.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_245">[245]</div>
<p>“What makes you feel things won’t be
different for you and that your mother
will go back to work?” she stammered,
feeling their guardian give a little warning
tug at her dress but unable to change the
form of her question once it had taken a
start in that way in her mind.</p>
<p>However, both the sisters only laughed,
Polly exclaiming in an amused tone: “Of
course we don’t know anything definitely,
oh Sylvia, in this world of surprises, but
merely that present indications point the
way Mollie has just mentioned.” Fortunately,
Polly, who was usually quick as a
flash to follow up any suggestion, had her
mind on other than her own affairs to-night.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_246">[246]</div>
<p>“Esther,” she continued the next moment,
“this is a kind of confessional
to-night, or at least it may be if we girls
decide that we are willing to confide in one
another (autobiography is so much more
interesting than history anyhow), so I
wonder if you would mind telling us why
you changed your mind so suddenly about
going away from Woodford to study. At
first you said nothing in the world would
persuade you to go and then all of a sudden,
after Betty’s misfortune, when it looked
as though you might be a help to her, you
determined to leave. Don’t answer me
if you don’t like, Esther, I know you have a
perfectly good reason. Of course <i>I</i> change
my mind without a reason, but you don’t.”</p>
<p>Esther now felt that the eyes of all the
members of the Camp Fire circle were fixed
upon her and that many of them held the
same question that Polly had just so frankly
asked.</p>
<p>For a moment she hesitated, looking a
little appealingly at Miss McMurtry and
then at Rose Dyer. Rose nodded her
head.</p>
<p>“I would tell just what I felt, Esther,
as far as you can,” Rose recommended.
“It is only fair to you that Betty’s dearest
friends should understand your position,
even though you would rather that Betty
herself should not know. I feel you can
trust them to keep your secret.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_247">[247]</div>
<p>Esther wound the seven strings of honor
beads into a single chain before she spoke.
“It sounds rather absurd of me and pretentious
I know,” she began slowly; “of
course I have a great many reasons in my
mind why I feel it best for me to go away
from Woodford right now and the most
important one I cannot tell, but there is
another which perhaps I have the right
to let you try to understand. I am not
deserting Betty just when she seems to
need me most; it is because Betty now is
poor and some day I may be able to help
her if I do go away and succeed with my
music that I am willing to go. You see
Betty has done such a lot for me and has
wanted to do so much more and—and—”
Esther could not continue with her confession,
but it was hardly necessary, for
rising from her place Polly marched solemnly
around their circle and sitting down
by Esther put her arm about her neck.</p>
<p>“I understand you perfectly now, Esther,
though I want you to believe that no one
of us has ever doubted you. You are too
unselfish and too unworldly to care to make
a big success in the world with your talent
if it is only for yourself, but the thought
that maybe you can some day bring back
wealth and happiness again to the Princess
makes most any effort worth while?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_248">[248]</div>
<p>Esther bowed her head, too full of
emotion to answer Polly’s question in words.</p>
<p>“I supposed I cared for Betty a lot, I
have known her so much longer than you
have,” Polly went on thoughtfully, “but
I don’t half love her as you do, Esther,
even in this little while. I suppose it is
because you haven’t any relatives of your
own and your father is still so new to you.
But didn’t you have a baby brother or
some one long years ago——?”</p>
<p>Polly’s remark was never finished because
Miss Dyer now got up quickly. Because
the evenings were so cool the May Council
Fire had started early and though it was
well nigh over, there was still a faint
reflection of daylight.</p>
<p>“I thought I heard the wheels of a wagon
several moments ago,” she explained, “and
now I think I can see Dr. Barton’s buggy
being driven this way. I wonder what
in the world he can want with us at this
time of the evening? Polly, will you
come back to the cabin with me to see.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_249">[249]</div>
<p>The Council Fire was being held at no
great distance from the Sunrise cabin,
but perhaps it was Rose Dyer’s purpose
at this moment to separate Polly and
Esther.</p>
<p>Of course Polly followed with entire
willingness, but a few feet from their door,
seeing Dr. Barton’s buggy draw nearer
and that it held two occupants instead of
one, her face crimsoned and she bit her
lips to control her vexation. She was
returning to join the girls when Dr. Barton’s
voice called after her: “Don’t go away,
Miss O’Neill, please, our call is upon your
sister and you. I was driving through the
woods and found Mr. Webster with a
telegram which had been telephoned to
the farm and which he was bringing out
to you and I offered to give him a lift.”</p>
<p>Although neither of the two young men
had received any invitation to alight,
they both got out of the buggy and both
wearing somewhat crestfallen expressions,
stood gazing at the two young women.</p>
<p>“I will call Mollie,” Polly declared
stiffly, drawing back from Billy’s hand
which held a square of paper in it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_250">[250]</div>
<p>“You need not speak to me, Miss O’Neill,
simply because I happen to be your messenger
boy,” the young man said as
haughtily as Polly could have spoken.
“And you need not feel any contamination
at accepting this message from me. The
telegram was telephoned out to our farm
and my mother wrote it down, so I haven’t
the faintest idea what the paper contains.”</p>
<p>Without showing any further signs of
recognizing the speaker, Polly reached for
the paper, but the next instant her frightened
cry for Mollie brought her sister, Sylvia
Wharton, and half a dozen other persons
to her side. “I must have read it wrong,
it is so dark, or your mother must have
made some mistake!” Polly cried, forgetting
her policy of silence in her agitation. And
then standing with a white face and
clenched teeth she watched Mollie read
the message.</p>
<p>Mollie did not betray any great grief
or anger, only a considerable amount of
surprise, so that Polly for an instant believed
her own eyes must have deceived her.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_251">[251]</div>
<p>“Why, I can’t quite understand it,”
Mollie said aloud, seeing the puzzled group
of faces around her. “Mother telegraphs
that she and Mr. Wharton, Sylvia’s father,
have been engaged to be married for the
past few months and that she was coming
home to tell us about it and to ask us if we
were willing, but something has happened
or else Mr. Wharton has just persuaded
her, for they are married already and are
sailing for home to-morrow. Mother says
she is very happy and hopes we will forgive
her and be almost as overjoyed as she is
in coming home to us. At least that is
what I think the cablegram means. Billy
was mistaken in thinking it a telegram.
How do you feel, Polly dear? I am too dazed
to take it all in.”</p>
<p>“I feel,” said Polly, with a return to her
old passionate, uncontrolled manner, “that
I shall never be happy again as long as I
live.” And then observing a slow, hurt
look in Sylvia Wharton’s usually unmoved
face, she turned for an instant toward her.
“I don’t mean to hurt your feelings,
Sylvia, or to say anything against your
father, but it just isn’t possible for you to
understand what this means to me.” And
with this thoroughly Polly-like point of
view she ran away and hid herself inside
the cabin.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_252">[252]</div>
<p>Billy Webster walked off with Mollie
and the other Camp Fire girls to talk
things over, giving Dr. Barton a chance
to linger for a few moments with Rose
Dyer.</p>
<p>“I don’t know why you seem so offended
with me these days, Miss Rose,” that
young man was soon saying in rather an
humble voice for so stern and upright a
judge of other people’s duties, “but may
I say that I think your work among the
Camp Fire girls this winter has been quite
wonderful and that I never dreamed you
could or would be interested in anything
outside of society? Oh, Rose——”</p>
<p>“Rose of the World,” Rose Dyer finished
in a slightly mocking tone, which did not
show whether or not she had forgiven the
young man’s former opinion of her.</p>
<p>However, he <i>was</i> obstinate and so would
not be interrupted. “Oh, Rose of a
Thousand Leaves,” he ended for himself.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_253">[253]</div>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.