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Judy, a novel by Temple Bailey |
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Chapter 14. A Precious Pussy Cat |
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_ CHAPTER XIV. A PRECIOUS PUSSY CAT The moon was out and the stars when Judy discovered a flock of sheep in the middle of the great pasture. They were gathered together in a close woolly bunch as she came upon them, and they turned to her their mild white faces, but did not get up from the ground. It was nice to be near something alive, even if it was only such meek, silly creatures, and Judy sat down on a stone near them. "I will stay here," she decided. "I simply cannot walk another step." It was very lonely and she was very frightened. The moon lighted the world with a white light, but the shadows were black under the trees; somewhere in the distance a whippoorwill uttered a plaintive note, and from the gloomy woods beyond came the mournful hoot of an owl. Judy slipped down to the softer grass, and resting her head on her arm gazed up at the sky, and gradually her fear went from her in the silence of the perfect night. A line marked in one of her father's books came to her:
"If I hadn't gone where I ought not to have been, nothing would have happened," was her rather mixed, if perfectly correct, summing up. The little lambs bleated now and then: "Maa-a-a, Maa-aa-a." And the old ewes responded comfortingly, "Baa-aa--" which Judy interpreted as meaning, "I am here, little one, don't be afraid." "I won't be afraid either, you dear old thing," said Judy to the motherly creature near her, who had turned upon her now and then inquiring gentle eyes. "I won't be afraid, and I am going to sleep." She did go to sleep, and when she waked, the world was dark. The moon had sailed away like a golden boat, and the stars seemed very far off. Judy sat up and shivered. A cool wind had risen, but that was not what had roused her. She had heard something! Something that just at the right of the flock of sheep moved silently, something blacker than the darkness that enveloped it! She thought of wild animals, of tramps, of everything natural that might invade a pasture; then as a sepulchral cry broke once more upon the air, she remembered all the tales she had ever heard of Things that visited one in the night. "Judy Jameson, you know you don't believe in ghosts," she tried to reassure herself, "you know you don't, Judy Jameson," but all the same her heart went "thumpety-thump." She cowered back against the rock as a white figure appeared beside the black one, and the two bore down upon her. There was a sudden bewildering chorus: "Caw--caw--caw--" "Purr--rr--meow--" And then Judy screamed, joyfully, "Oh, Belinda, Belinda, you precious pussy cat," and in her relief she hugged the great white animal, as if she were not the same girl who, not many days before, had said, "I hate cats." Becky walked around in a circle and inspected Judy. "So it was you, Becky, was it?" asked Judy, "that I saw first? But what made you look so tall?" She went to the place where she had first seen the apparition, and found the slender stump of a tree, on top of which Becky had been perched. "What are you doing here, so far from home, Belinda," asked Judy, as she sat down and took the purring, gentle creature in her lap. But Belinda could not talk, although she patted Judy's hand with her paw and curled down with her head in the crook of Judy's arm. "My, it's good to have you here," said Judy, "but I wonder how it happened." She gathered the big cat close to her, grateful for the warmth of the soft body, and with Becky perched up on a rock behind, she sat very still, comforted by the sound of Belinda's sleepy song, and by Becky's sentinel-like watchfulness. It was in the black darkness that precedes the dawn that she was roused by a lantern flashing across her eyes. "Grandfather," she said, sleepily, as a haggard old face bent above her. "Grandfather." "Judy," he said, with a break in his voice. Wide-awake now, she saw that his hands trembled so that he had to set the lantern down. "Oh," she said, remorsefully, as she sat up, "how tired you look, grandfather." "We have hunted for you all night," he said, and the dim rays from the lantern showed the droop of his figure and the lines in his face. "Oh, grandfather," she said again, and clung to him, sobbing softly. "Hush," he said, holding her close. "Hush, Judy. You are all right now." "Oh, I am all right," she sobbed, despairingly, "but it is you, grandfather, you are all tired out, and just because I was such--such--a silly goose--" "Never mind, never mind," said the Judge, hastily, "I have found you now." "I am not worth finding," said Judy, miserably, "I am not, grandfather." But the Judge laughed at that, and smoothed her hair away from her forehead with a loving touch. "You are always my dear little girl," he assured her, "whatever you do--you know that, don't you?" "Yes," she whispered, and laid her face against his sleeve. "Now we will go back," he said presently, and with Belinda and Becky in close attendance, they went up the hill together. At the top Judy gave a cry of astonishment, for right in front of her, on the other side of the hill, was the little gray house, ablaze with light. "And I have been right back of it all night. If I had just walked a few steps farther," exclaimed Judy. "I must have gone in a circle, and I thought I was miles from here--" As they came to the door the little grandmother met them, and Anne, and in the background Tommy Tolliver. "We didn't know you were lost," explained Anne as she received the returned wanderer in her arms, "until we got back from Lake Limpid. Grandmother thought you had joined us down the road, and we thought you had stayed at home, and the Judge, of course, thought you were with me, and so none of us worried until we came back to-night and found you had been gone all day." "And then Tommy told us that you had gone to the gipsy camp," went on Anne. At Judy's reproachful glance Tommy burst out: "I couldn't help telling, Judy. Launcelot made me." "I should say I did," said a voice from the doorway, and Launcelot came in with Dr. Grennell. "I was sure he knew something about it." Judy greeted them from the big rocking chair--where she sat big-eyed and weary, but a most interesting spectacle. "Launcelot went to the camp and found that the gipsies had gone, so we knew you couldn't have seen them--" began the Judge, and at that Judy interrupted him. "But I _did_ see them, grandfather," she said, "I went to the camp." "And were they there?" asked Launcelot "Yes." "Were they packing while you were there?" "No." "I wonder what made them leave so suddenly," and Launcelot and the Judge and Dr. Grennell looked at each other. "Did you give them anything, Judy?" asked the Judge. "Nothing but twenty-five cents. They were horrid, and the old woman wanted me to give my chain and Spanish coin. She knew an awful lot and I was crazy to hear the rest of my fortune, but I couldn't give away my coin." "What coin, Judy?" asked Tommy, curiously. "This one--" Judy put her hand to her neck, then she screamed: "It's gone, grandfather. Launcelot, it's gone." "What?" They all bent forward in excitement. "I thought so," said the Judge, settling back in his chair, "when she said she had seen them, and then they disappeared before we could get to them. I thought they had been up to something." "It was my chain with the pearl in it," said Judy, "the one you gave mother." "Yes, and the rascals knew that the pearl was worth more than their whole outfit." Launcelot picked up his hat. "I'm going to get it for you," he said, "they can't play any tricks like that." "I'll go with you," said Dr. Grennell, "you may need an older man to help you. I think we can catch them with good horses." He bent over Judy before he went out. "I wish you had come to me to have your fortune told," he said, "I could have told you more than that old hag." "How?" asked Judy, puzzled. "I should have told you that life is what we make it. And your fortune will be good or bad as you live it. It will not be a gipsy queen but Judy Jameson who shall decide the final issue." "But, doctor, she knew that I loved the sea, and--and--that I had lost some one that I loved--" "Oh, Judy," Launcelot's tone was impatient, "didn't you tell that fellow that you were coming, and didn't they have lots of time to find out about you." "I didn't think of that." said Judy meekly. But as he went out of the door, she had a little flash of temper. "If you had waited for me this morning, I shouldn't have gone to the camp." "If you had been ready, I shouldn't have left you," was Launcelot's reply, as his quiet eyes met Judy's stormy ones. "Oh," she said, helplessly, and turned her gaze away, feeling that, as usual, he had the best of it. And at that he whispered, "But I didn't have a good time, Judy--we--we missed--you--" and he followed Dr. Grennell. "And now," said the little grandmother, "every one go home, and let me put this naughty girl to bed," but she smiled at Judy as she said it, and the tired little maid put her arms around her, and buried her face in the motherly bosom, and shook in a sudden chill. "I am afraid she is going to be ill," said the Judge, anxiously, but the little grandmother tried to cheer him. "She will be all right when she is rested," she said, with a confidence she did not really feel. But when Anne was fast asleep, and Judy lay awake, tossing restlessly in the gray light of the dawn, the little grandmother came in, in a flannel wrapper, with her curls tucked away under a hand-made lace nightcap. "Can't you sleep, dearie?" she whispered, as she sat down beside the bed. "No. I think, and think, and think--about grandfather, and what a worry I am--" and Judy gave a great sigh. "He has so many cares." The little grandmother's tone was gentle but it carried reproof, and Judy sat up and looked at her with troubled eyes. "But I can't help my nature," she cried, tempestuously. "I can't bear to do things like other people, and when I get restless it seems as if I must go, and when I am angry I just have to say things--" But the little grandmother shook her head. "You don't have to be anything you don't want to be, Judy," she said. "But it seems so easy for Anne to be good," pursued Judy, "and so hard to me." "It isn't always easy for Anne," said the little grandmother. "Isn't it?" with astonishment. "No, indeed. Anne has fought out many little fights of temper and wilfulness right here in this little room--she is a dear child." "Indeed she is," agreed Judy, glancing at the serene face on the pillow. "But Anne has learned to think for others. That is the secret, dearie. Think of your grandfather, think of your friends, and it will be wonderful how little time you will have to think of Judy Jameson." "If I had my mother." Judy's lip quivered. The little grandmother laid her old cheek against the flushed one. "Dear heart," she said, "I can't take her place, but if you will try to talk to me as Anne does, maybe I can help--" "I will," said Judy, and kissed her; but when the little grandmother had gone away, Judy could not sleep, and finally she got up and put on her red dressing-gown and sat by the window and looked out upon the waking world. The robins were up and out on the dewy lawn, safe for once from Belinda, who was curled up sound asleep on the foot of Anne's bed. Becky with her head under her wing was on top of the little bookcase, and the house was very quiet. Suddenly through the mists of the morning Judy saw a carriage coming down the road. It stopped at the gate and Launcelot leaped out. Judy spoke to him from the window. "Hush," she said, "every one is asleep. I will come down." As she met him at the lower door, he swung something bright and shining in front of her eyes. "We found it," he whispered, excitedly, as Judy took her chain with a cry of delight. "We came across the gipsies on the Upper Fairfax road. The man tried to bluff it out, but the girl gave him away. While he was talking to Dr. Grennell she told me that he had it. I think she was mad at him about something, but she said he would kill her if he knew she told. So I just went on about the Judge and how he intended to put the police on the case if we didn't bring back the chain, and that he would be willing to hush it up if we got it, and so he handed it out--said it had been found on the ground after you left." "Where is Dr. Grennell?" asked Judy. "I dropped him at the manse," said Launcelot, "but I couldn't wait to bring this to you. I thought you would want to know about it." "I couldn't sleep," explained Judy, "I was so afraid I had lost it." "It's a funny coin, isn't it," said Launcelot. "Dr. Grennell knows a lot about such things, and he says it is a very old one." "Yes," she told him. "Father found two of them on the beach in front of our house, 'The Breakers.' There have been others found on the Maryland coast near it, and they say that a Spanish vessel was shipwrecked off there years ago, and that now and then some of the money washes in. The fishermen along the shore dig holes in the sand, and occasionally they find one of these." "Well, you had better leave it at home the next time you go on a wild goose chase." "There won't be any next time," said Judy, with a sober face. Launcelot looked up from the coin with a quick smile, which faded as she gave a hoarse little cough. "Go into the house, child," he ordered, "you will take cold out here--" "Oh," in that moment Judy was herself again, tempestuous, defiant, "don't be so bossy, Launcelot." "Go in," he said again, but she threw up her head and lingered. "What a beautiful morning it is," she said. "Look, Launcelot, the sun, it is like a ball of gold through the mist." But Launcelot was looking at her--at the melancholy little figure in the trailing red gown, with the dark hair braided down on each side of the white face, and hanging in a long braid at the back. "Go in," he said, for the third time, peremptorily. "You are tired to death, and you will be sick--" _ |
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