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_ The elm-tree avenue was all overgrown, the great gate
was never unlocked, and the old house had been shut up
for several years.
Yet voices were heard about the place, the lilacs
nodded over the high wall as if they said," We
could tell fine secrets if we chose," and the mullein
outside the gate made haste to reach the keyhole,
that it might peep in and see what was going on.
If it had suddenly grown up like a magic bean-
stalk, and looked in on a certain June day, it would
have seen a droll but pleasant sight, for somebody
evidently was going to have a party.
From the gate to the porch went a wide walk,
paved with smooth slabs of dark stone, and bordered
with the tall bushes which met overhead, making a
green roof. All sorts of neglected flowers and wild
weeds grew between their stems, covering the walls
of this summer parlor with the prettiest tapestry.
A board, propped on two blocks of wood, stood in
the middle of the walk, covered with a little plaid
shawl much the worse for wear, and on it a miniature
tea-service was set forth with great elegance. To be
sure, the tea-pot had lost its spout, the cream-jug its
handle, the sugar-bowl its cover, and the cups and
plates were all more or less cracked or nicked; but
polite persons would not take notice of these trifling
deficiencies, and none but polite persons were invited
to this party.
On either side of the porch was a seat, and here
a somewhat remarkable sight would have been revealed to
any inquisitive eye peering through the
aforesaid keyhole. Upon the left-hand seat lay seven
dolls, upon the right-hand seat lay six; and so varied
were the expressions of their countenances, owing
to fractures, dirt, age, and other afflictions, that one
would very naturally have thought this a doll's hospital, and
these the patients waiting for their tea.
This, however, would have been a sad mistake; for
if the wind had lifted the coverings laid over them,
it would have disclosed the fact that all were in full
dress, and merely reposing before the feast should
begin.
There was another interesting feature of the scene
which would have puzzled any but those well acquainted
with the manners and customs of dolls.
A fourteenth rag baby, with a china head, hung by
her neck from the rusty knocker in the middle of
the door. A sprig of white and one of purple lilac
nodded over her, a dress of yellow calico, richly
trimmed with red-flannel scallops, shrouded her slender
form, a garland of small flowers crowned her
glossy curls, and a pair of blue boots touched toes
in the friendliest, if not the most graceful, manner.
An emotion of grief, as well as of surprise, might
well have thrilled any youthful breast at such a
spectacle; for why, oh! why, was this resplendent
dolly hung up there to be stared at by thirteen of her
kindred? Was she a criminal, the sight of whose execution
threw them flat upon their backs in speechless horror?
Or was she an idol, to be adored in
that humble posture? Neither, my friends. She was
blonde Belinda, set, or rather hung, aloft, in the place
of honor, for this was her seventh birthday, and a
superb ball was about to celebrate the great event.
All were evidently awaiting a summons to the
festive board; but such was the perfect breeding of
these dolls, that not a single eye out of the whole
twenty-seven (Dutch Hans had lost one of the black
beads from his worsted countenance) turned for a
moment toward the table, or so much as winked,
as they lay in decorous rows, gazing with mute
admiration at Belinda. She, unable to repress the joy
and pride which swelled her sawdust bosom till the
seams gaped, gave an occasional bounce as the wind
waved her yellow skirts, or made the blue boots
dance a sort of jig upon the door. Hanging was
evidently not a painful operation, for she smiled
contentedly, and looked as if the red ribbon around
her neck was not uncomfortably tight; therefore, if
slow suffocation suited her, who else had any right
to complain? So a pleasing silence reigned, not
even broken by a snore from Dinah, the top of
whose turban alone was visible above the coverlet,
or a cry from baby Jane, though her bare feet stuck
out in a way that would have produced shrieks from
a less well-trained infant.
Presently voices were heard approaching, and
through the arch which led to a side-path came two
little girls, one carrying a small pitcher, the other
proudly bearing a basket covered with a napkin.
They looked like twins, but were not, for Bab was a
year older than Betty, though only an inch taller.
Both had on brown calico frocks, much the worse
for a week's wear; but clean pink pinafores, in honor
of the occasion, made up for that, as well as the
gray stockings and thick boots. Both had round,
rosy faces rather sunburnt, pug noses somewhat
freckled, merry blue eyes, and braided tails of hair
hanging down their backs like those of the dear little
Kenwigses.
"Don't they look sweet?" cried Bab, gazing with
maternal pride upon the left-hand row of dolls, who
might appropriately have sung in chorus, "We are
seven."
"Very nice; but my Belinda beats them all. I do
think she is the splendidest child that ever was!"
And Betty set down the basket to run and embrace
the suspended darling, just then kicking up her heels
with joyful abandon.
"The cake can be cooling while we fix the children.
It does smell perfectly delicious!" said Bab, lifting
the napkin to hang over the basket, fondly regarding
the little round loaf that lay inside.
"Leave some smell for me!" commanded Betty,
running back to get her fair share of the spicy fragrance.
The pug noses sniffed it up luxuriously, and the
bright eyes feasted upon the loveliness of the cake,
so brown and shiny, with a tipsy-looking B in pie-crust
staggering down one side, instead of sitting
properly a-top.
"Ma let me put it on the very last minute, and it
baked so hard I couldn't pick it off. We can give
Belinda that piece, so it's just as well," observed
Betty, taking the lead, as her child was queen of the
revel.
"Let's set them round, so they can see too," proposed
Bab, going, with a hop, skip, and jump, to
collect her young family.
Betty agreed, and for several minutes both were
absorbed in seating their dolls about the table; for
some of the dear things were so limp they wouldn't
sit up, and others so stiff they wouldn't sit down, and
all sorts of seats had to be contrived to suit the
peculiarities of their spines. This arduous task accomplished,
the fond mammas stepped back to enjoy the
spectacle, which, I assure you, was an impressive one.
Belinda sat with great dignity at the head, her hands
genteelly holding a pink cambric pocket-handkerchief
in her lap. Josephus, her cousin, took the foot,
elegantly arrayed in a new suit of purple and green gingham,
with his speaking countenance much obscured
by a straw hat several sizes too large for him; while
on either side sat guests of every size, complexion,
and costume, producing a very gay and varied effect,
as all were dressed with a noble disregard of fashion.
"They will like to see us get tea. Did you forget
the buns?" inquired Betty, anxiously.
"No; got them in my pocket." And Bab produced from that
chaotic cupboard two rather stale and crumbly ones, saved
from lunch for the fete. These were cut up and arranged in
plates, forming a graceful circle around the cake, still in
its basket.
"Ma couldn't spare much milk, so we must mix
water with it. Strong tea isn't good for children,
she says." And Bab contentedly surveyed the gill
of skim-milk which was to satisfy the thirst of the
company.
"While the tea draws and the cake cools, let's sit
down and rest; I'm so tired!" sighed Betty, dropping
down on the door-step and stretching out the
stout little legs which had been on the go all day; for
Saturday had its tasks as well as its fun, and much
business had preceded this unusual pleasure.
Bab went and sat beside her, looking idly down the
walk toward the gate, where a fine cobweb shone in
the afternoon sun.
"Ma says she is going over the house in a day or
two, now it is warm and dry after the storm, and we
may go with her. You know she wouldn't take us in
the fall, cause we had whooping-cough, and it was
damp there. Now we shall see all the nice things;
won't it be fun?" observed Bab, after a pause.
"Yes, indeed! Ma says there's lots of books in
one room, and I can look at 'em while she goes round.
May be I'll have time to read some, and then I can
tell you," answered Betty, who dearly loved stories,
and seldom got any new ones.
"I'd rather see the old spinning-wheel up garret,
and the big pictures, and the queer clothes in the
blue chest. It makes me mad to have them all shut
up there, when we might have such fun with them.
I'd just like to bang that old door down!" And
Bab twisted round to give it a thump with her boots.
"You needn't laugh; you know you'd like it as
much as me," she added, twisting back again, rather
ashamed of her impatience.
"I didn't laugh."
"You did! Don't you suppose I know what laughing is?"
"I guess I know I didn't."
"You did laugh! How darst you tell such a
fib?"
"If you say that again I'll take Belinda and go
right home; then what will you do?"
"I'll eat up the cake."
"No, you won't! It's mine, Ma said so; and you
are only company, so you'd better behave or I won't
have any party at all, so now."
This awful threat calmed Bab's anger at once, and
she hastened to introduce a safer subject.
"Never mind; don't let's fight before the children.
Do you know, Ma says she will let us play in the
coach-house next time it rains, and keep the key if
we want to."
"Oh, goody! that's because we told her how
we found the little window under the woodbine, and
didn't try to go in, though we might have just as
easy as not," cried Betty, appeased at once, for, after
a ten years' acquaintance, she had grown used to
Bab's peppery temper.
"I suppose the coach will be all dust and rats
and spiders, but I don't care. You and the dolls
can be the passengers, and I shall sit up in front
drive."
"You always do. I shall like riding better than
being horse all the time, with that old wooden bit in
my mouth, and you jerking my arms off," said poor
Betty, who was tired of being horse continually.
"I guess we'd better go and get the water now,"
suggested Bab, feeling that it was not safe to encourage
her sister in such complaints.
"It is not many people who would dare to leave
their children all alone with such a lovely cake, and
know they wouldn't pick at it," said Betty proudly,
as they trotted away to the spring, each with a little
tin pail in her hand.
Alas, for the faith of these too confiding mammas!
They were gone about five minutes, and when they
returned a sight met their astonished eyes which
produced a simultaneous shriek of horror. Flat upon
their faces lay the fourteen dolls, and the cake, the
cherished cake, was gone.
For an instant the little girls could only stand
motionless, gazing at the dreadful scene. Then Bab
cast her water-pail wildly away, and, doubling up
her fist, cried out fiercely, --
"It was that Sally! She said she'd pay me for
slapping her when she pinched little Mary Ann, and
now she has. I'll give it to her! You run that way.
I'll run this. Quick! quick!"
Away they went, Bab racing straight on, and bewildered
Betty turning obediently round to trot in the
opposite direction as fast as she could, with the water
splashing all over her as she ran, for she had forgotten
to put down her pail. Round the house they
went, and met with a crash at the back door, but no
sign of the thief appeared.
"In the lane!" shouted Bab.
"Down by the spring!" panted Betty; and off
they went again, one to scramble up a pile of stones
and look over the wall into the avenue, the other to
scamper to the spot they had just left. Still, nothing
appeared but the dandelions' innocent faces looking
up at Bab, and a brown bird scared from his bath in
the spring by Betty's hasty approach.
Back they rushed, but only to meet a new scare,
which made them both cry "Ow!" and fly into the
porch for refuge.
A strange dog was sitting calmly among the ruins
of the feast, licking his lips after basely eating up the
last poor bits of bun, when he had bolted the cake,
basket, and all, apparently.
"Oh, the horrid thing!" cried Bab, longing to give
battle, but afraid, for the dog was a peculiar as well as
a dishonest animal.
"He looks like our China poodle, doesn't he?"
whispered Betty, making herself as small as possible
behind her more valiant sister.
He certainly did; for, though much larger and
dirtier than the well-washed China dog, this live one
had the same tassel at the end of his tail, ruffles of
hair round his ankles, and a body shaven behind and
curly before. His eyes, however, were yellow, instead
of glassy black, like the other's; his red nose worked
as he cocked it up, as if smelling for more cakes, in
the most impudent manner; and never, during the
three years he had stood on the parlor mantel-piece,
had the China poodle done the surprising feats with
which this mysterious dog now proceeded to astonish
the little girls almost out of their wits.
First he sat up, put his forepaws together, and
begged prettily; then he suddenly flung his hind-legs
into the air, and walked about with great ease.
Hardly had they recovered from this shock, when
the hind-legs came down, the fore-legs went up, and
he paraded in a soldierly manner to and fro, like
a sentinel on guard. But the crowning performance
was when he took his tail in his mouth and waltzed
down the walk, over the prostrate dolls, to the gate
and back again, barely escaping a general upset of
the ravaged table.
Bab and Betty could only hold each other tight and
squeal with delight, for never had they seen any thing
so funny; but, when the gymnastics ended, and the
dizzy dog came and stood on the step before them
barking loudly, with that pink nose of his sniffing
at their feet, and his queer eyes fixed sharply upon
them, their amusement turned to fear again, and they
dared not stir.
"Whish, go away! " commanded Bab.
"Scat! " meekly quavered Betty.
To their great relief, the poodle gave several more
inquiring barks, and then vanished as suddenly as
he appeared. With one impulse, the children ran to
see what became of him, and, after a brisk scamper
through the orchard, saw the tasselled tail disappear
under the fence at the far end.
"Where do you s'pose he came from?" asked
Betty, stopping to rest on a big stone.
"I'd like to know where he's gone, too, and give
him a good beating, old thief! " scolded Bab, remembering
their wrongs.
"Oh, dear, yes! I hope the cake burnt him dreadfully if he
did eat it," groaned Betty, sadly remembering the dozen good
raisins she chopped up, and the "lots of 'lasses" mother put
into the dear lost loaf.
"The party's all spoilt, so we may as well go
home; and Bab mournfully led the way back.
Betty puckered up her face to cry, but burst out
laughing in spite of her woe.
"It was so funny to see him spin round and walk on
his head! I wish he'd do it all over again; don't you?"
"Yes: but I hate him just the same. I wonder
what Ma will say when - why! why!" and Bab
stopped short in the arch, with her eyes as round
and almost as large as the blue saucers on the
tea-tray.
"What is it? oh, what is it? " cried Betty, all ready
to run away if any new terror appeared.
"Look! there! it's come back!" said Bab in an
awe-stricken whisper, pointing to the table.
Betty did look, and her eyes opened even wider, --
as well they might, -- for there, just where they first
put it, was the lost cake, unhurt, unchanged, except
that the big B had coasted a little further down the
gingerbread hill. _
Read next: CHAPTER II. WHERE THEY FOUND HIS MASTER
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