At Boarding School with the Tucker Twins Read online

  CHAPTER IV.

  MY ROOMMATES.

  They made such a racket that a sad, crooked face waspoked into the door.--_Page 48._]

  "Heavens, I'm tired of tears!" I thought as my conductor left me with asignificant smile. "I'm actually damp from all of the weeping going onaround me."

  A stormy voice was raised in the room that I was about to enter, and Istopped in the hall, not knowing just what to do.

  "Now what did I tell you?" said the stormy, sobbing voice. "Didn't Itell you all along I was going to make myself just as disagreeable as Icould if you would put someone in with us? Aren't we going to bemiserable enough without you, without having some old stick-in-the-mudhoisted on us from the country, to sleep in the room with us; and justas like as not want the window shut at night; and rub her chapped faceall over with mutton-suet? Paugh, I can smell it now, the horrid stuff."

  "Now, Dum, cut it out. You don't even know that your roommate getschapped," said a whimsical voice.

  "The Tuckers!" I exclaimed, but naturally had a delicacy in entering,after what I had heard Dum say about a roommate from the country. "Couldshe know that I am the one?" I asked myself.

  "Well, how are Dee and I to fight it out the way you have brought us upto do if we have got some old mutt in here with us? We might just aswell have left our boxing gloves at home."

  "Oh, Dum, you are making it hard for me," said poor Mr. Tucker.

  "That's good, I want to make it hard," sobbed the wretched Dum.

  "I have told you over and over that I think it best for you and Dee tohave to control yourselves more, and the only way to do it is to realizehow your tantrums affect other people. You are the best old Tweedles inthe world, but you have no self-control. I am surely sorry for yourroommate, whoever she may be."

  "Well," broke in Dee, "I think it all depends on who she is. I must sayit is some lottery. Roommates ought to be carefully chosen; one shouldnot just trust to this grab-bag method."

  "Well, how do you know Miss Peyton has not chosen someone she feels willbe suitable? I wish it would turn out to be somebody like the littlegirl on the train. Don't you, Tweedles?"

  "Yes, yes!" tweedled Tweedles. "But no such luck."

  This reassured me and I knocked on the open door. There was perfectsilence, broken only by the sound of Dum's blowing her nose and Mr.Tucker's clearing his throat; and then a faint little "Come in," fromboth girls.

  "Oh, it's you! How good of you to come look us up!" exclaimed Mr.Tucker. "We were afraid it was the hated roommate. Tweedles are treatingme so terribly because I insist on their having a roommate so they canbroaden out a bit and learn to control themselves some, which they willnever do so long as they stay together all the time. I'll leave it toyou, Miss Page, don't you think it will be best?"

  "Well, I have a delicacy in saying," laughed I. "You see, I am thatpoor unfortunate, despised roommate. This is 117 Carter Hall, isn't it?"

  Then all the weeping was turned to laughter and the irrepressibleTuckers, father and all, grabbed hands and danced around me singing,"Gayly cheer the bride." They made such a racket that a sad, crookedface was poked into the door, evidently feeling a duty to admonish, butZebedee in his most Zebedeeish humor, sang out in a friendly voice:

  "Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? Willyou, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"

  Then the strangest thing happened to that long, sad, crooked face. Theplain features were illuminated by a smile, the person who owned theface came impulsively into the room, and after she had carefully shutthe door, she caught hold of hands with the crazy trio and the dancewent on; and all of us sang:

  "'Will you walk a little faster!' said a whiting to a snail, 'There's a porpoise close behind us and he's treading on my tail. See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! They are waiting on the shingle--will you come and join the dance?'"

  Then the chorus: "Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will youjoin the dance?"

  I refused to play "frog in the middle" any longer and broke into thedance, soon dropping into the unfamiliar tune but very familiar words ofthe Lobster Quadrille. We sang all four of the verses from that immortalnonsense.

  "'What matters it how far we go?' his scaly friend replied, 'There is another shore, you know, upon the other side. The farther off from England, the nearer is to France. Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance.'"

  The owner of the long, sad, crooked face was also owner of a singularlyclear, true, well-trained voice, and Mr. Tucker's fresh baritone fittedin finely, while Dum and Dee and I did the best we could with whatNature had seen fit to endow us in the way of voices. Finally we girlssank exhausted on the bare, uncovered beds, but Mr. Tucker and themysterious visitor stood clasping hands.

  "Jeff Tucker, what in Heaven's name are you doing at a young ladies'boarding school?"

  "Entering my girls: Tweedles. And you, Jinny Cox, what are you doinghere?" And Mr. Tucker kept on shaking her hand.

  "I teach singing here. Have been here for years. And to think of yourgirls being old enough to go to boarding school! It seems only yesterdaythat you and dear little Virginia were leading the germans at theUniversity. I haven't seen you since you married. I meant to write youwhen Virginia died, but somehow I just couldn't."

  "That was all right, Jinny. I knew how you felt without hearing fromyou. She only lived a year, you know. Tweedles were just a few weeks oldwhen she died." And the dear man who a moment before had been socheerily singing the Lobster Quadrille, now wiped his eyes and seemedgiven over to melancholy.

  "I want you to know our girls. This is Virginia," indicating Dum, "andthis, Caroline," meaning Dee. I was rather amused at the fact thatearlier in the day he could not remember their official names, as hecalled them. "I named this one Virginia, thinking she was going to haveher mother's eyes, but the little monkey changed them on me and in atwinkling turned herself into a hazel-eyed monster," and poor Zebedeeforgot to cry any more and began to laugh. "This is the much dreadedroommate, Miss Page Allison, of Milton, Virginia. The wild orgy whichyou so tactfully joined was in honor of the discovery that this younglady was the roommate."

  "Well, girls, I am glad to see all of you and hope we can be greatfriends. My name is Jane Cox. I can't remember any one having thehardihood to call me Jinny for some sixteen or seventeen years. Ihaven't danced for at least ten years. I don't know what the managementor the girls would think or say if they knew I had cut up this way. Idon't know what made me do it. I came to the door to stop the racket andwhen I saw Jeff Tucker whirling around with three girls singing, 'Willyou, won't you, won't you, will you, will you join the dance?' mydiscretion flew to the four winds. I just did have sense enough left toshut the door. I forgot I was an old maid, teaching singing in aboarding school."

  "It was simply splendid of you to come in and help us out," exclaimedDee. Dee was usually the one who knew what to say and when to say it.Some persons call it tact, but I have always thought it was just a kindheart that made her know what people wanted her to say. Cousin Sue Leewas the same kind of natural-born social wonder. "I think your voice isbeautiful, and how on earth did you happen to know our tune?"

  "Why, child, your father and I made up that tune on a picnic once yearsbefore you were born. Do you remember, Jeff, when we went to Monticello,and how it rained? We composed the tune and improvised a LobsterQuadrille to cheer up the bedraggled crowd. How Virginia did laugh! Ihaven't thought of that tune for ages. Perhaps it is because I have notbeen with the kind of people who would enjoy 'Alice in Wonderland.'"

  "Zebedee has put us to sleep with it ever since we were born," said Dum."I mean the tune."

  "And I have been reading Alice in Wonderland ever since I was born," Iventured.

  "Well, I'm certainly glad to meet some kindred spirits at Gresham," saidMiss Cox, "and now, girls, I'm going to ask a great favor of the threeof you. I want you to keep to yourselves that I broke loose
as I did. Ihave hard enough work as it is keeping order during study hour when thattask falls to me, and if the girls ever found out that I was capable ofsuch high-jinks, I'd lose all control of them." We promised, but I, forone, thought that the more human you find your pastors and masters tobe, the more apt you are to want to make things easy for them. Miss JaneCox was much older than I, but she had yet to learn that wisdom.

  "We'll all promise," we declared in unison.

  "But please break loose again, sometimes, Jinny," begged Mr. Tucker."The idea of your calling yourself an old maid! I bet you are notthirty-five yet. I'm only thirty-six myself, and, goodness knows, I amnothing but a kid!"

  "Teaching is a very aging occupation," sighed Miss Cox. "I don't mindthe singing, but it's teaching mathematics to the backward pupils thatadds ten years a season to my already full years. Do your girls sing,Jeffry?"

  "Not so's you can notice it. Dum, here, is going to be a great sculptor;and Dee is uncertain whether she wants to be a trained nurse or aveterinary surgeon."

  "Vet'rinary surgeon? Surely you wouldn't let her go into such aprofession?" exclaimed Miss Cox with her twisted smile.

  "Why not? I'll let my girls go into any profession that appeals to them.Dum loves to make mud pies and Dee loves to nurse sick puppies. Both ofthem rather dirty arts, but 'Every man to his taste.'"

  Miss Cox had to leave us and go to attend to various duties, but beforegoing she assured Mr. Tucker that she would take especial care of allthree of his girls. You can fancy what it meant to me to be included. Ialmost called him Zebedee, but I was afraid it might make him feel likethe father of triplets, so I refrained.

  It was almost time for the train which Mr. Tucker was to catch, as heintended to take a sleeper back to Richmond that night. I felt thetactful thing for me to do would be to leave the girls alone with theirfather, so I told him good-by and went off to see how Annie Pore wasfaring.

  I found her sitting in a forlorn heap in one of the neighboring rooms,her hat and jacket still on; her disreputable telescope in the middle ofthe room; and the expression on her face suited to the tragic muse.

  "Who's your cellmate, Annie?" said I, bursting in on her.

  "I don't know, but I know she will hate me."

  "Hate you, indeed! No one could hate you. Why don't you unpack and getyour things in order? I am going to stay with you until Mr. Tuckerleaves, so Tweedles can get a chance to be alone with him for a while. Iam rooming with them, you know. Our room is quite near you and we canall be real chummy."

  The rooms were all perfectly bare and bleak-looking: white walls, whiteiron beds, curtainless windows and carpetless floors. The pupils weresupposed to decorate their own rooms if they wanted them decorated.Annie Pore had been put into a two-girl room a bit smaller than the oneassigned to the Tuckers and me, but otherwise exactly like it.

  "I am dreading a roommate," sighed the girl. "I have never slept in theroom with any one in my life."

  "Neither have I, but I am crazy about it. Just think what fun it will beto have some one to talk to and giggle with."

  I could not fancy giggling with Annie Pore in her present melancholyframe of mind, but I was sure that was a phase that would pass and shewould end by being as girlish as the next. She had too keen a sense ofhumor to be lost in gloom forever.