Molly Brown of Kentucky Page 17

  CHAPTER XVII.

  HEROES AND HERO WORSHIPERS.

  The next morning poor Molly slept late again. With all good intentionsof waking early and going down stairs in time to see about her husband'sneglected breakfast, when morning came she did not stir. Mildred hadgiven her another wakeful night after all, finding out more things abouther little pigs. Finally the little monkey had given up and dropped offto sleep, and she and her doting mother were both dead to the world whenthe time came for Professor Green to go to lectures.

  Again he gave instructions to Katy not to disturb the mistress and creptout of the house as still as a mouse. Breakfast had been a littlebetter. Molly was rubbing off on Katy evidently. Just to associate withsuch a culinary genius as Molly must have its effect even on the worstcook in the world, which Katy surely seemed to be.

  Coming across the campus, he ran into Billie McKym, Josephine Crittendenand Thelma Olsen. They looked very bright and rosy as they gave him acheery good morning. Each carried a bundle. He wondered that they weregoing away from lecture halls instead of toward them. But after all, itwas not his business to be the whipper-in for lectures. Wellington was acollege and not a boarding school. If students chose to cut lectures, itwas their own affair until the final reckoning.

  "Just our luck to meet Epimenides Antinous!" cried Billie. "He shouldhave been out of the house five minutes ago, at least."

  "His legs are so long he doesn't have to start early," declared Jo."Just see him sprint!"

  "I am certainly sorry to cut his lecture to-day," sighed Thelma, "butthis thing must be done."

  The Greens' front door was never locked except at night, so the girlscrept quietly in. Billie peeped into the kitchen, where she discoveredKaty on her knees "scroobing" the part of the kitchen she could notfinish the evening before, when Molly was so hard-hearted as to makeher stop and prepare vegetables. Such a sea of suds!

  "Katy," whispered Billie.

  "Merciful Mither! And phwat is it? Ye scart me," and the girl sat backon her heels and looked at Billie with round, wide eyes.

  "We are great friends of Mrs. Green and we have come to dust her booksand--ahem--do a few little things. Is she still asleep?"

  "Yis, and the master was after saying she must not be distoorbed, not onno account."

  "Of course she must not be! That is why we have come to dust the things.We think she looks so tired."

  "And so she is, the scwate lamb; but she do fly around so, and she docook up so mooch. I tell her that she thinks more of her man's insidesthin she do of her own outsides."

  "Well, Katy, we want you to let us have a broom and a wall brush. Webrought our own aprons and rags," and Billie pressed a round, hardsomething into Katy's hand. It was not so large as a church door norso deep as a well, but it served to get the Irish girl up off of herrun-down heels; and in a trice the coveted broom and wall brush were inpossession of the three conspirators, as well as a stepladder, whichthey decided would be needful.

  "Don't say a word to Mrs. Green, Katy,--now remember. We are going towork very quietly and hope to finish before she gets downstairs. Wedon't want her to know who did it, but we mean to get it all donebefore noon," said Jo, rolling up her sport shirtsleeves and disclosingmuscular arms, that showed what athletics had done for her and what shecould do for athletics.

  "Where must we begin, Thelma?" asked Billie, who was as willing as couldbe but knew no more about cleaning than a hog does about holidays, Jodeclared.

  "Begin at the top," laughed Thelma, tying up her yellow head in a greattowel and rolling up her sleeves.

  "Gee, your arms are beautiful!" exclaimed Billie. "I'd give my head forsuch arms. I'd like to drape them in a silver scarf. Think how theywould gleam through." The arms were snow white and while Thelma'sstrength was much greater than Jo's, her muscles did not show as theydid on that athletic young person.

  Thelma blushed and laughed as she balanced herself on a stepladder andbegan taking down pictures. A cloud of dust floated down and envelopedher.

  "Look, look! She looks like the 'white armed Gudrun'! Don't you rememberin William Morris's 'Fall of the Neiblungs'? The battle in Atli's Hall?

  "'Lo, lo, in the hall of the Murder where the white-armed Gudrun stands, Aloft by the kingly high-seat, and nought empty are her hands; For the litten brand she beareth, and the grinded war-sword bare: Still she stands for a little season till day groweth white and fair. Without the garth of King Atli, but within, a wavering cloud Rolls, hiding the roof and the roof-sun; then she stirrith and crieth aloud.'"

  "Cut it out! Cut it out!" cried Jo, "and come lend a hand."

  "Mustn't we dust before we sweep?" innocently asked Billie.

  "If you want to, but you'll have to dust again afterwards," said thewhite-armed Gudrun from her ladder. "The books are really so dirty thatI don't think it would hurt to wipe down the walls without coveringthem, but that is a mighty poor cleaning method. Poor Molly! Didn't shelook tired yesterday? I hope she won't think we are cheeky to take ahand in her affairs."

  "Cheeky! She will think we are her good friends, not like that snippyMiss Fern who stared so at the cobwebs and then went out and palaveredover Epimenides Antinous. She used to claim him, so I am told. One ofthe nurses at the infirmary told me that when Epi Anti had typhoidthere, years ago, Miss Fern came and dressed herself up like a nurse andalmost bored the staff to death taking care of her sick cousin," saidBillie, delighted with the job that had been given her of wiping downwalls. "Isn't this splendid? Just look at all the dirt I got on myrag!"

  "Well, don't rub it back on the wall," admonished Jo.

  "No. Well, what must I do with it?"

  "Can't say, but don't put it back on the walls."

  "Jo, you and Billie dust the books and I will finish up the pictures.I can't trust myself to dust Professor Green's books. I am afraid ofbreaking the tenth commandment all the time," sighed Thelma. "I'll washthe windows, too."

  "Oh, Thelma! The white-armed Gudrun sitting in windows washing them!That's not occupation meet for a queen. Let me do it."

  "You, Billie McKym, wash a window! Did you ever wash one in your life?"

  "Well, no, not exactly, but I bet I could. What's the use of a collegeeducation if one can't wash windows when she gets to be a full grownsenior?"

  But since the object of the girls was to get the room clean, it wasdecided that Thelma was to wash the windows. My, how they worked! Jofound she had muscles that her athletics had never revealed. She foundthem because they began to ache.

  "Why, to dust all these books and books is as bad as building a house,"she said, straightening up and stretching when she had finished thepoet's corner.

  "Exactly like laying brick," declared Billie. "I'm going to join theHod-carriers' Union. I'll be no scab."

  Katy had occasionally poked her head in at the door, entreating "whinthey coom to the scroobing" to call her.

  The cleaners made very little noise, so little that the sleeping Mollyand Mildred were not at all disturbed.

  "I wish she knew it was almost done," said Thelma, perched in the windowsill and rubbing vigorously on a shining pane. "She would be so glad. Iknow she is worrying about it in her sleep. Hark! There is the baby!"

  Then began the business of the day upstairs. Katy was called, for watermust be heated as Katy, according to her habit, had let the fire go outbefore the boiler was hot.

  "Katy, we must hurry up with Mildred this morning and get to thelibrary. It is filthy," said Molly, as she slipped the little Frenchflannel petticoat over Mildred's bald head.

  "Yes, mum!" grinned Katy.

  "We have luncheon almost ready, with the cold lamb to start with."

  "Yes, mum."

  "Don't you think you could get the dining room cleaned while I amattending to the baby?"

  "Yes, mum, if yez can schpare me."

  "Oh, I think I can. But, Katy, before you go hand me that basket.
And,Katy, perhaps you had better wash out this flannel skirt. I am so afraidshe might run short of them. You can empty the water now--and, Katy,please hold the baby's hand while I tie this ribbon, she is such awiggler--and, Katy--a little boiled water now for her morning tipple.She must drink lots of water to keep in good health."

  "Yes, mum, and how aboot breakfast for yez, mum?"

  "Oh, I forgot my breakfast! Of course I must eat some breakfast. I'llcome down to it."

  "Oh, no, mum! And let me be after bringing it oop to yez, mum," insistedthe wily Katy, who was anxious for the youthful house cleaners toaccomplish their dark and secret mission without interruption. Not onlywas it great fun, a huge joke, in fact, for her to be paid fifty centsto let others do her work, but it meant that since others were doing it,she would not have to, and she could have just that much more time for"scroobing" and resting. A tray was accordingly got ready and Mollyfound she had a little more appetite than the morning before; also, thatKaty's food was really a little better.

  "Your coffee is better this morning, Katy," she said, believing thatpraise for feats accomplished but egged on the servitor to other andgreater effort.

  "Yes, mum, so the master said."

  "Poor Edwin," thought Molly, "how I have neglected him. I must dobetter. But if I don't wake up, I don't wake up. If I could only get alittle nap in the day time. Mother always wanted me to take one, but howcan I? The living room must be cleaned to-day." She felt weary at thethought. Accustomed as she was to being out of doors a great deal, shereally needed the fresh air.

  "As soon as luncheon is over, we must get busy with the cleaning. I wishwe might have done it in the forenoon, but I am afraid it is too late."

  "Yes, mum, it's too late!" and Katy indulged in such a hearty gigglethat her mistress began to think perhaps she was feeble-minded as wellas inefficient.

  "Is the table in the dining room cleared off, Katy, so you can set itfor luncheon?"

  "No, mum, it is not!"

  "Oh, Katy! What have you been doing all morning?"

  "Well, mum, I scroobed my kitchen, and--and----"

  "And what?" demanded Molly.

  "And I did a little head work in the liberry, that is, I----"

  "Oh, Katy, did you clean the living room, clean it well?"

  "Well, mum, yez can wait and see if it schoots yez," and Katy beat ahasty retreat to warn the cleaners that the mistress was about todescend.

  The room presented a very different appearance to what it had before thegirls rolled up their sleeves. The slanting afternoon sun would seek outno dusty corners now; everything was spick and span. The books no longerhad to be beaten and blown before you dared open them, and they stood inneat and orderly rows; the walls held no decorations in the shape ofIrishman's curtains now; the picture glass shone, as did the windowpanes; the rugs were out in the back yard sunning after a vigorousbeating and brushing from Thelma, whom Billie called "the powerfulKatrinka."

  The floor, being the one part of the room that Katy had put some lickson, did not need anything more serious than a dusting after everythingelse was done.

  "Katy, you might bring in the rugs now as we have done everything else,"suggested Billie. Katy went out into the back yard and bundled up therugs. Molly, seeing her from an upper window, smiled her approval.

  "I believe she is going to do very well," she said to herself. "Sheseems to be trying, and she is so fond of Mildred."

  "Come on, girls, we must hurry and get off! Molly will be down stairsany minute now and she must not see us," and Thelma unwound the towelfrom her head and took off her apron.

  "Well, surely the white-armed Gudrun is not going across the campus witha black face," objected Billie. "Why, both of you look like negrominstrels----"

  "And you!" interrupted Jo. "You should see yourself before you talkabout kettles. You'd have not a leg to stand on and not a handle to yourname. I told you to tie up your head. I believe nothing short of ashampoo and a Turkish bath will get the grime off you."

  "Let's hide behind the sofa and after Molly goes on the porch with thebaby, we can sneak up to the bath room," suggested Thelma. The girlsthen crouched on the floor behind a sofa that stood near the poet'scorner.

  In a minute Molly came down the stairs, little Mildred in her arms andon her face a contented and rested expression. She stood in the doorwayof the living room and exclaimed with delight over its polishedcleanliness.

  "Oh, Katy, how splendid it is! Did you do it all by yourself and in sucha short time? I don't see how you managed it. Why, you have even dustedthe books. That is almost a day's work in itself. I was dreading itso,--it is such a back breaking job."

  Jo rubbed her aching back, with a grim smile, and nudged Billie.

  "And you have kept yourself so clean, too!" Molly began to feel that shehad the prize servant of the east: one who could clean such an AugeanStable as that room had looked, dust all the books, wash the windows andwipe down walls, beat rugs, polish picture glass, etc., etc., and stillbe neat and tidy. "Why, I would have been black all over if I had donesuch a great work."

  Katy stood by, quite delighted with the undeserved praise. The youngladies had told her not to tell and far be it from her to refuse toaccept the unaccustomed praise from any one. She had never been very aptin any work she had undertaken and no one had ever taken any great painsto teach her, and now if this pretty lady wanted to praise her, why shewas more than willing. She felt in her pocket for her fifty cent piece,that still seemed a great joke to her. The sweet taste of the praise didone great thing in her kindly Irish soul: it was so pleasant, shedetermined to have more of it, and through her slow intelligence therefiltered the fact that to get more praise, she must deserve more praise,and to deserve it she must work for it. She beat a hasty retreat to thedining room and actually cleared off the table, where the master hadeaten his solitary breakfast, in a full run. She broke no dishes thatmorning, either, which was a great step forward.

  Molly could not tear herself away from the wonder room. She movedaround, busying herself changing ornaments a bit and placing chairs ata slightly different angle, doing those little things that make a roompartake of a certain personality.

  "Here, baby, lie on the sofa, honey. Muddy is going to give you a littleride. Do you know, darling, that Katy knows how to put things in placejust like a lady? She must have an artistic soul. Look how she hasarranged the mantel-piece! Servants usually make things look so stiff.Actually there is nothing for me to do in the room, she has done it sobeautifully."

  Billy here dug an elbow into Jo's lame back that almost made her squeal,but she held on to her emotions and in turn gave her chum a fourthdegree pinch.

  "Now, Muddy is going to ride her baby--this sofa must go closer to thewall," and Molly put Mildred on the sofa and gave it a vigorous push.The law of impenetrability, that two things cannot be in the same placeat the same time, prevented the baby from having much of a ride. Mollygave a harder push. "I must be very feeble if I can't budge this sofa."

  Then came a smothered groan from the huddled girls, and one by one theyemerged from their corner, clutching their bundles of dust rags andaprons and exposing to Molly's amazed eyes three of the very blackest,dirtiest faces that ever Wellington had boasted in her senior class.

  They sat on the floor and laughed and giggled, and Molly sat down besidethem and would have felt like a college girl again herself if it had notbeen for little Mildred, who took all the laughter as an entertainment,got up for her express amusement, and gurgled accordingly.

  "Now you must all stay to luncheon!" cried the hospitable Molly.

  "Oh, indeed we mustn't," said Billie, who never could quite get used toMolly's wholesale hospitality, having been brought up in the lap ofluxury but with no privileges of inviting persons off hand to meals.

  "But you must. I won't do a thing for you but just put on more plates.I was going to have the very simplest meal and I'll still have it."

  The girls stayed, after giving themselves a vigorous scrubbin
g, andMolly's luncheon was ready when Professor Green arrived. The cold leg oflamb played a noble part at the impromptu party, flanked by a lettucesalad that Billie insisted upon dressing, reminding Molly more than everof her darling Judy. A barrel of preserves had just arrived, some thatMolly and Kizzie had put up during the summer. On opening it, a jar ofblackberry jam, being on top, was chosen to grace the occasion. Mollymade some of the tiny biscuit that her husband loved and that seemedsuch a joke to Katy. When she came in bearing a plate of hot ones, shespread her mouth in a grin so broad that Professor Green declared shecould easily have disposed of six at one mouthful.

  "I always call them Gulliver biscuit," he said, helping himself to threeat a time, "because in the old Gulliver's Travels I used to read when Iwas a kid there was a picture of Gulliver being fed by the Lilliputians.He was represented by a great head, and the Lilliputians were climbingup his face by ladders and pouring down his throat barrels of littlebiscuit that were just about the size of these."

  They had a merry time at that meal. Molly told her husband why his prizepupils had cut his lectures and all others that morning, and how she hadalmost passed a steam roller over them in form of the library sofa.

  "We were terribly afraid we would offend her," explained Thelma, "butshe was dear to us."

  "Offend me! Why, I can't think of anything in all my life that has everhappened to me that has touched me more. I don't see how you everthought of doing anything so nice."

  "'Twas Billie," from Thelma.

  "Thelma and Jo did all the dirty work," declared Billie.

  "Dirty work, indeed! You looked as though you had used yourself to wipedown the walls with," laughed Jo.

  "Well, anyhow, when that snippy Miss Fern comes again, giving herperfunctory pokes at the baby and looking at the cobwebs until nobodycan help seeing them, I bet she won't find anything to turn up her noseat. I'd like to use her to clean the walls with. If there is anything Ihate it is any one who is the pink of perfection in her own eyes. Wewere having such a cozy time until she lit on us with her dove-coloredeffects. Who cared whether there were cobwebs or not?"

  "Did Miss Fern speak of the cobwebs?" asked Edwin, while the others sataround in frozen horror, remembering that she was his cousin and that hewas evidently very fond of her.

  "Oh, no, she didn't open her lips; she just pursed them up and staredat the corner. Of course, she had already given her dig about Molly'ssurely not having time to write and attend to her house, too; and thenwhen she fixed her eyes on that Irishman's curtain we all knew what shewas thinking, and that she wanted us to know it, just as well as thoughshe had spoken it and then written it and then had it put on theminutes.... What's the matter?... Oh, Heavens! What have I done?... Oh,Professor Green! She is your cousin! Please, please forgive me," andBillie clasped her hands in entreaty.

  "Oh, don't mind me," said the professor with a twinkle. "Go as far asyou like. If the ladies have such open minds that he who runs may read,and they think disagreeable things about my wife, why, they deserve tobe used for house cleaning purposes, have the floor wiped up with themand what not."

  The luncheon broke up in a laugh and evidently there were no hardfeelings on the part of the host for the criticism of Miss Fern thathad so ingenuously fallen from the lips of the irrepressible Billie.

  "Billie! What a break!" screamed Jo, when they got outside after Mollyhad given them all an extra hug for the undying proof of friendship theyhad given her.

  "Break, indeed! I never forgot for an instant that Epi Anti was a nearcousin to that maidenhair fern. I just thought I'd let him know howshe had acted and how uncomfortable she had made our Molly feel. Iknew Molly would never let him know, and I could do it and make out itwas a break."

  "Well, if you aren't like Bret Harte's heathen Chinee, I never saw one,"laughed Thelma.

  "'Which I wish to remark, And my language is plain, That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.'"

  "All the same, I bet old Epi Anti doesn't tell Molly any more what asweet thing Alice Fern is."

  "How do you know he did?"

  "Insight into human nature," and Billie made a saucy moue.

  "Gee, my back aches!" said Jo. "I think I'll do housework often. Itcertainly does reach muscles we don't know about. But didn't it pay justto see dear old Molly's face when we rolled out from behind the sofa?"

  And all of them agreed it had.

  "Edwin," said Molly, after the girls had gone, "I think I'll send forKizzie to come help me. I may put her in the kitchen and take Katy for anurse."

  "Good! I am certainly glad you have come to that decision. What changedyou?"

  "Well, it seems to me that when it comes to the pass that my collegegirls feel so sorry for me they cut such lectures as yours to give thewhole morning to cleaning up for me I must do something, and the onlything I can think of doing is to send for Kizzie."

  "Can you mix the black and white without coming to grief?"

  "Remember, Katy is more green than white, and she is so good-natured,she could get along with anything."

  "I can't tell you how relieved I am, honey. I wanted you to do whatpleased you, but I could not see how I was coming in on this. I feltvery lonesome, and while I wasn't jealous of the baby, I was certainlyenvious of her. If Kizzie comes, you can be with me more and nurse mesome."

  "Yes, dearie, I missed it, too, but somehow I couldn't get through. IfKaty had been more competent----"

  "But she wasn't and isn't."

  "No, she certainly isn't, but she adores Mildred already and Mildredactually cries for her. I believe she would make a fine nurse. If onlyshe doesn't feel called upon to scrub the baby."

  Edwin laughed and, settling himself for a pleasant smoke, opened themorning paper, which neither he nor Molly had found time to read.

  "Oh, what a shame!" he exclaimed. "The Germans dropping bombs on Paris!Infamous!"

  "Paris! How can they? Oh, Edwin, Judy and Kent both there!"