Dorothy Dainty's Gay Times

The great gateway stood wide open, and through it one could see the fine stone house with its vine-covered balconies, its rare flowers and stately trees.

A light breeze swayed the roses, sending out their perfume in little gusts of sweetness, while across the path the merry sunbeams flickered, like little dancing elves.

Down the path came a lovely little girl, swinging a skipping-rope, and dancing over and under it in perfect time with the song which she was singing.

The sunlight touched her bright curls, making her look like a fairy, and now she skipped backward, and forward, around the circular garden, and back again, only pausing to rest when another little girl ran across the lawn to meet her.

She was Dorothy Dainty, the lovely little daughter of the house, and the sprightly, dark-eyed child who now joined her was Nancy Ferris, her dearest playmate.

"I was just wishing you'd come out, for I've something to tell you," Dorothy said. "You know Aunt Charlotte has all her plans ready for opening her private school next week, and you heard her tell mamma that the class was very full."

"Oh, I know it's to be a big class," said Nancy, "for besides all the girls that used to be in it, there's to be one new one, and one boy, Katie Dean's cousin, Reginald, and,-oh, did you know that Arabella is to join the class?"

"Why, Nancy, are you sure?" asked Dorothy; "only yesterday we looked over toward her house, and there seemed to be no one at home." Nancy's eyes were merry.

"Come and look now!" she said, clasping Dorothy's hand, and running with her down to the gate.

"There!" said Nancy, "see all those windows open, and somebody out there behind the house beating a rug; you see they are at home, and that's her queer little old Aunt Matilda."

Dorothy looked at the resolute little figure, and wondered how the thin arm could wield the rug-beater with so much energy. She remembered that Arabella had said that her father always did as Aunt Matilda directed, and truly the small woman appeared able to marshal an army of men, if she chose.

"Perhaps Arabella will go over to the public school," said Dorothy; "she doesn't have to enter Aunt Charlotte's private class."

"Oh, but she will, I just know she will," Nancy replied, "and Aunt Charlotte'll have to let her. You know Mr. Corryville was in your papa's class at college, and if he says he wishes Arabella to join the class, your papa will surely say 'yes.'"

"He certainly will," said Dorothy, "but there's one thing to think of," she said, with a bright smile, "There are nice girls in the class, and if Arabella is queer, we mustn't mind it."

"We'll try not to," Nancy said, and then, as Dorothy again swung her rope, Nancy "ran in," and the two skipped around the house together, the rope whipping the gravel walk in time with the dancing feet.

It was cool and shady near the wall, and they sat down upon a low seat where the soft breeze fanned their flushed cheeks.

"I'd almost forgotten something that I meant to tell you," Dorothy said. "You know Aunt Charlotte says that the pupils are to give a little entertainment each month, when we are to have dialogues, songs, solo dances, pieces to be spoken, and chorus music. Well, mamma has arranged to have a fine little stage and curtain. You didn't know that, did you?"

"Indeed I didn't," said Nancy, "and I guess the others will be surprised. You haven't told them yet, have you?"

"I only knew it this morning myself, but I'm eager to tell them," said Dorothy.

"Here's Mollie Merton and Flossie Barnet now," cried Nancy, and, turning, Dorothy saw the two playmates running up the driveway.

"Mollie was over at my house," said Flossie, "and we saw you and Nancy just as you ran around the house, and we thought we'd come over."

"We were wild to know if our private school is truly to commence next week. Mamma said it would if enough pupils were ready to join it," said Mollie, "and we knew Katie Dean's cousin was a new one, and won't it be funny to have one boy in the class?"

"Oh, but he is just a little boy," said Nancy.

"And he must begin to go to school this year, and he says he likes girls ever so much better than boys, so he asked if he might go to our school," Dorothy said.

"He always says he likes girls best," said Flossie; "isn't he a queer little fellow?"

"I don't know," Mollie said, so drolly that they all laughed.

"And there is a new pupil, who has just come here to live, and she is very nice, Jeanette Earl says," and as she spoke Dorothy looked up at her friends, a soft pleading in her blue eyes.

She intended to give a kindly welcome to the new pupil, and she hoped that the others would be friendly.

"How does Jeanette know?" asked Mollie, bluntly.

"Oh, Jeanette ought to know," said Nancy, "for the new little girl is her cousin, I mean her third cousin."

"Well, Nina is Jeanette's sister," said Mollie, "so what does she say?"

"She didn't say anything," said Nancy, "she just looked."

"Arabella Corryville is to be in our class," said Flossie, "and when I told Uncle Harry he laughed, and asked me if her Aunt Matilda was coming to school with her."

Of course they laughed, and it was Mollie who first spoke.

"Your Uncle Harry is always joking," she said, "and sometimes I can't tell whether he is in earnest, or only saying things just for fun."

"Well, I guess you'll laugh when I tell you what he said next! He said that although he had graduated from college, and now was in business, he would urge Aunt Charlotte to let him attend a few sessions of our school, if Arabella's Aunt Matilda was to be there. He said it would be a great pleasure which he really could not miss."

How they laughed at the idea of Flossie's handsome young uncle in the little private school, while Arabella's prim little aunt was also a pupil.

"I asked him what he meant," said Flossie, who looked completely puzzled, "and he said that sometimes a man's wits needed sharpening, and that Aunt Matilda would be a regular file. Papa laughed, but mamma said: 'Harry, Harry, you really mustn't,' and he ran up to the music-room whistling 'O dear, what can the matter be?' I can't help laughing even when I don't understand his teasing jokes, he says things in such a funny way, while his eyes just dance."

"He looked very handsome the day he wore his uniform, with the gold lace on it," said Dorothy; "don't you remember, Flossie? Your aunt was on the piazza, and she stooped and pinned a rose in his buttonhole. Do you think he knew how fine he looked, when he sprang into the saddle, and rode away?"

"I don't know," Flossie said, her blue eyes very thoughtful, "he never seems to think about it, and one thing I don't at all understand, he's big, and brave, and manly, yet he plays with me so gently, and he's as full of fun as a boy."

"That's why we all like him," said Nancy, "and he never acts as if we were just little girls, and so not worth noticing."

"Do you remember the day that the tramp came into our kitchen, and frightened the cook? Uncle Harry was just strolling along the driveway. He walked into the kitchen, took the dirty tramp by the collar and marched him right out to the street," and Flossie's cheeks glowed with pride for her dear Uncle Harry.

"Yes, and a moment after, he saw little Reginald fall off his bicycle, and you ought to have seen how tenderly he picked him up, and brushed off the dust, and he was quite as gentle as mamma would have been."

"Oh, he's just fine," said Mollie, "and I do wish he would visit our school on a day when Arabella's aunt would be there! I love to see him when he looks at her. Someway he seems so very respectful, and yet his eyes laugh."

"Well, it's just a few days now before school begins, and what fun we'll have," said Flossie, "and perhaps Arabella will invite her aunt to one of our entertainments; if she does, I'm just sure Uncle Harry would go."

"Oh, come here this minute, every one of you," called a cheery voice, and Nina Earl stepped through an opening in the hedge.

"Why, how surprised you look! I've been over to the stone cottage to call for you, Nancy, and Aunt Charlotte said that you were with Dorothy, so I ran across the lawn. I could hear you all talking, and I was wild to tell you something."

"Oh, tell it, tell it, Nina!" cried Mollie.

Nina looked back through the opening in the hedge.

"She's just saying 'good-morning' to Aunt Charlotte," she said, "and let me tell you something; she's been all over the stone cottage, looking into this thing and peeping into that, till I'd think Aunt Charlotte would be wild. It's Arabella's aunt, and she says she came to learn if the house was a healthy one to be in, and to see if the plumbing was all right."

Dorothy's sweet eyes suddenly flashed.

"Doesn't she think my papa would keep Aunt Charlotte's house as comfortable as ours?" she said.

"Oh, 'tisn't that!" laughed Nina, "she said she felt obliged to find out if the cottage was a healthy place for a private school to be in, before she could say that Arabella might belong to the class! Did you ever hear anything like that?"

"Well, what makes her let Arabella come to our school?" queried blunt little Mollie; "she could go to the public school. I guess we wouldn't mind."

"Mamma says we must be kind to Arabella," said Dorothy, "so I think we mustn't speak like that."

"I'll be kind to her when she comes," said Mollie, "because your mamma wishes it, but now, before school begins, I'm going to say that I just wish Arabella was going to the other school."

The others felt, as Mollie did, that the class would be quite as pleasant if Arabella attended the public school, but they did not like to say so.

* * *

The few days of waiting were past, and now the first day of school had come. The door of the pretty stone cottage stood wide open, as if assuring a welcome to the little pupils who would soon arrive, while the sunlight streamed in across the hall, giving a cheery greeting.

On the rug sat Pompey, the cat, his fine coat sleek and glossy, and his white bosom as pure as much washing could make it. His paws were snugly tucked in, and he purred softly to himself as if he knew that it was nearly time for the pupils to arrive, and remembered that the little girls had been very fond of him.

In the cheery sitting-room, which was used as a schoolroom, sat Aunt Charlotte Grayson, looking over some books which lay upon the table.

Her soft gray gown and broad lace collar were most becoming, and she looked every inch the gentlewoman that she really was. She had once been Mrs. Dainty's governess, and now, as mistress of a thriving private school, she was independent and happy. The class was not a large one, but the little pupils belonged to families who were well able to pay generously for fine instruction, and her home at the stone cottage was a loving gift from Mr. and Mrs. Dainty.

Mrs. Grayson had permitted Dorothy and Nancy to call her "Aunt Charlotte," and now it had become the loving title by which all her pupils addressed her.

She was eager to have her little class assemble, and, wondering if they were late, she looked at her watch.

"Quarter of nine," she said, and as if he understood what she had said, Pompey blinked up at the tall clock, yawned, and looked at the door.

The sound of merry voices made him prick up his ears. A moment more, and Dorothy and Nancy, Mollie and Flossie, Nina and Jeanette Earl ran up the steps and in at the open door. Pompey received his usual number of love-pats, and then the girls, having hung their hats and coats in the hall, walked quietly in to greet Aunt Charlotte.

It was a fixed rule at the private school that there should never be any haste in reaching places in the schoolroom.

"It matters not that you are little girls, or that you are at school," Mrs. Grayson would say; "let me always have the pleasure of seeing you enter the class-room in as gentle a manner as you would enter a drawing-room," and her pupils took pleasure in doing as she wished.

The broad window-seats were banked with flowering plants, and as the children took their places they thought it the brightest, cheeriest schoolroom in the world.

As if to show that he also had a place in Aunt Charlotte's class, Pompey ran across the floor and sprang up into a space on one window-seat between two large flowerpots, where he could enjoy a sun-bath.

Katie Dean, with her little Cousin Reginald, now entered, just in time to avoid being late.

"I thought you said your cousin was coming," whispered Mollie, but Aunt Charlotte had opened her Testament, and was commencing to read, so Nina only shook her head, and Mollie saw that she must wait until recess to know what Nina would say.

"'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God,'" read Aunt Charlotte, and every girl looked towards Flossie Barnet, who was always trying to say a pleasant word of an absent friend, or to coax two playmates, who had become estranged, to be fast friends again. Often they had heard her Uncle Harry say: "Flossie, you're a peacemaker." Her hands were clasped, and her blue eyes were full of interest in the verse which Aunt Charlotte was reading. Her red lips moved.

"'They shall be called the children of God,'" she whispered, and in her gentle little heart she determined to be, if possible, more kind and loving than ever before, toward her playmates.

Little Reginald had failed to understand the verse, and sat staring at Aunt Charlotte with round eyes. He was a handsome little fellow, with soft flaxen curls, and a smart, sturdy figure, and as he looked up into Aunt Charlotte's face, he seemed like a pudgy cupid whom some one had dressed in a sailor suit.

Singing followed the reading, and all through the two merry songs which they sang, Reginald watched Aunt Charlotte, and wondered over the verse which she had read. When the arithmetic lesson was over, Aunt Charlotte asked if any one had a question to ask.

Katie Dean wished to hear an example explained, and when it had been made clear to her, Reginald held up his hand.

"What is your question?"

"What's 'peacemakers'?" he asked.

Aunt Charlotte explained the verse, and Reginald listened, but it was easy to see that he was disappointed.

"Do you understand now what the peacemakers are?" Aunt Charlotte asked.

"Yes'm," said Reginald, "but I wish I didn't."

"And why?" questioned Aunt Charlotte.

"'Cause I thought grandma was a peacemaker," Reginald said, "for she's piecin' a silk patchwork quilt, an' papa said she'd be blessed glad when it's done."

Aunt Charlotte was the only one who did not laugh, but the small boy was not at all vexed.

"You needn't laugh," he said to Katie, "for you've seen her makin' pieces out of silk, an' what's the difference between makin' pieces an' peacemakin'?"