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Judy, a novel by Temple Bailey |
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Chapter 5. Too Many Cooks |
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_ CHAPTER V. TOO MANY COOKS In spite of herself Judy was having a good time. "I know you will enjoy it," had been Anne's last drowsy remark, and Judy's final thought had been, "I'll go, but it will be horrid." But it wasn't horrid. There had been Anne's happiness in the first place. Judy had wondered at it until she found out that Anne's picnic experiences had been limited to little jaunts with the children of the neighborhood, and an occasional Sunday-school gathering. The Judge had lived his lonely life in his lonely house, and except when Anne and her little grandmother had been invited to formal meals, he had not interested himself in any festivities. There had been the early start, the meeting of the queer boy at the crossroads--the boy with the lazy air and the alert eyes; the crowding of the big carriage with two rather dowdy little country girls, one of whom was, in Judy's opinion, exceedingly pert, and the other exasperatingly placid; the laughter and the light-heartedness, the beauty of the blossoming spring world, the restfulness of the dim forest aisles, the excitement of the arrival on the banks of the stream, and the arrangement of the camp for the day. And now Judy, having declined more active occupation, was in a hammock, swung in a circle of pines. The softened sunlight shone gold on the dried needles under foot, and everywhere was the aromatic fragrance of the forest. Now and then there was a flutter of wings as a nesting bird swooped by with scarcely a note of song. A pair of redbirds came and went--flashes of scarlet against the whiteness of a blossoming dogwood-tree. Far away the squalling of a catbird mingled with the mellow cadences of the mountain stream. There was the sound of laughter, too, and the chatter of gay voices in the distance, where the young people fished from the banks. Judy could just see them through an opening in the pines. The three girls perched on the bent trunk of an old tree, which hung over the water, were dangling their lines and watching the corks that bobbed on the surface. The Judge, with a big hat pushed away from his warm, red face, held the can of bait and discoursed entertainingly on his past angling experiences. Perkins in the foreground was opening the lunch-hampers, and just outside of Judy's circle of pines, a brisk little fire sent up its pungent smoke, and beside the fire, Launcelot Bart was cutting bacon. Judy watched him with interest. He was tall and thin, but he carried himself with a lazy grace, and in spite of his old corduroy suit, there was about him a certain air of distinction. He was whistling softly as he put the iron pan over the coals, and dropped into it a half-dozen slices of the bacon. "Watch these, Perkins," he called, "I'll be back in a minute," and he started towards the hammock. As he came up, Judy closed her eyes, with an air of indifference. "Asleep?" asked Launcelot, a half-dozen steps from her. Judy opened her eyes. "Oh--is that you?" she asked. "Yes. Don't you want to come and help me cook?" He was smiling down at her pleasantly. "I hate cooking." Judy's voice was cold. She hoped he would go away. Launcelot leaned against a tree to discuss the question. "Oh," he said. "I don't hate it. It's rather a fine art, you know." "Anybody can cook," murmured Judy with decision. "H-m. Can you, little girl?" Judy sat up at that. "I'm fourteen," she flashed. Launcelot laughed, such a contagious laugh, that in spite of herself Judy felt the corners of her lips twitch. "That waked you up," he said, "you didn't like to have me call you 'little girl.' Well, am I to say Miss Jameson or Judy?" Judy pondered. "Neither," she said at last. "Then what--?" began Launcelot. "Oh, by Jove, the bacon's burning. I'll be back in a minute." When he had taken the bacon out of the pan, and had laid the fish in a corn-mealed symmetrical row in the hot fat, he again turned the pan over to Perkins and came back to Judy. "Well?" he asked, as he came up. "Call me Judith," said the incensed young lady. "Judy is my pet name, and I keep it for--my friends." Launcelot gave a long whistle. "Say, do you talk like this to Anne?" he asked. "Like what?" "In this--er--straight from the shoulder sort of fashion?" "No. Anne is my friend." Launcelot shook his head. "You can't have Anne for a friend unless you have me." "Why not?" "She was my friend first." "Oh, well," Judy shrugged her shoulders and shut her eyes again, "it is too hot to argue." There was a long silence, and then Launcelot said: "Don't you want to fish?" "I hate fishing." "Or to pick wild flowers?" "I hate--" Judy had started her usual ungracious formula, before she recognized its untruth. "Well, I don't want to pick them now," she amended, "I'd rather stay here." "But you are not going to stay here." "Why not?" "You are going to help me cook those fish." "I won't." "Oh, yes you will. Come on." "Oh, well. If you won't let me alone." She slipped out of the hammock and picked up her hat. There was a tired droop to her slender young figure. "No, I am not going to let you alone," said Launcelot quietly. "You poor little thing." She looked at him, startled. "Why?" she breathed. "You are lonely. That's why. You've got to do something. You just think and think and think--and get miserable--I know--I've been there." It came out haltingly, the boyish expression of sympathy and understanding. And the sympathy combined with a hitherto unmet masterfulness conquered Judy. For a moment she stood very still, then she turned to him an illumined face. "You may call me--Judy," she said shyly, then slipped past him and ran to the fire. When he reached her, she was bending over the pan. "How nice they look," she said, as Launcelot turned the fish, and they lay all crisp and brown in an appetizing row. "You shall do the next," said Launcelot, smiling a little as he glanced at her absorbed face. So while he made the coffee, Judy fried more bacon, and they slipped six fish into the big pan. "Mine don't seem to brown as yours did," she told him, anxiously. "Perhaps the fat wasn't hot enough," was Launcelot's suggestion. "It has to be smoking." "Oh, dear," sighed Judy, "mine are going to look light brown instead of lovely and golden like yours." "Put on some more wood." Launcelot's tone was abstracted. He was measuring the coffee, and it took all of his attention. Judy poked a stick into the centre of the fire. For a moment it seemed to die down, then suddenly the big black pan seemed held aloft by a solid cone of yellow flame. The grease in the pan snapped, and little burnt bits of corn-meal flew in all directions. "Now they are cooking all right," and Judy shielded her face with her hand, as she held the long handle and watched complacently. Suddenly Launcelot dropped the coffee-pot. "Take them off, take them off," he cried. Judy, with her fork upraised, stared at him as if petrified. "Why?" she stammered. He snatched the pan from the fire. "They're burning," he cried, and turned the fish up one by one. They were as black as coals down to the very tips of their crisp little tails! _ |
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