Four Girls and a Compact | Page 6

acquainted with Emmeline,
and to hope she should find the green house--perhaps it would be the
Eldorado house! Wonders happened sometimes.
"I don't suppose--there isn't a blue pump, is there? I've set my heart on
a blue pump!" she laughed, as if the little, old woman who knew
Emmeline would understand. The little, old woman smiled
delightedly--as if she understood!
"Dear land, no! I hope Emmeline ain't painted her pump blue--and her
livin' in a green house! But she'd go out an' do it--it would be just like
Emmeline, if she knew anybody wanted a blue pump! Here we are,
deary! This is Placid Pond we're coming to! You see that sheet o' water,
don't you? Well, that's it!"
The Talentless One buttoned her jacket and clutched her little black bag.
Her thin cheeks bloomed suddenly with tiny red spots of excitement.
She seemed on the edge of an Adventure; and, to one who had stood
behind a counter nearly all her days, an Adventure began with a capital
A. The train slowed up and stood panting--in a hurry to go again.
"Oh, I wish you were going to get out here!" T.O. said, wistfully.
The little, old woman seemed like an old friend to her. She felt oddly
young and inexperienced. Then, remembering the girls left behind in
the B-Hive and their confidence in her, she threw up her small head and
hurried away valiantly.

"Good-by!" she called back, from the bit of platform outside.
"Good-by! Give my love to Emmeline!" nodded and beamed the little,
old face in the car window.
It was a tiny place. T.O. could see only the great, placid sheet of water
and the diminutive station at first. She accosted the only human being
in sight.
"Which way is the city--village, I mean?" she asked.
He was an old man and held a scooped palm behind his ear.
"Eh?"
"The village--please direct me to it."
"Well," he laughed good-humoredly, "all the village they is you'll strike
yonder," pointing. "You keep a-goin', an' you'll git thar!"
She thanked him and set out courageously. She kept "a-goin'." The
country road was shady and dusty and sweet with mystic, unseen,
growing things. Her feet, used to hard pavements, sank into the soft
dust luxuriously. She breathed deep and swung along at a splendid pace.
It was hard to believe that she was a clerk at Torrey's! There did not
seem to have ever been handkerchiefs in the world--even all-linen,
warranted ones!
"This is Eldorado!" she said aloud, and was proud of herself for finding
it so soon--coming straight to it! Lucky she had been the one to draw
the longest strip.
She passed one or two houses, but none of them were painted green.
She said to herself she would keep on to "Emmeline's" house. The
whim had seized her and was holding on tight that Emmeline's might
be the Right Place. So she swung on buoyantly.
[Illustration: "WHICH WAY IS THE VILLAGE?" SHE ASKED.]

A stone wall bordered the road on one side, and over the wall she spied
a sprinkling of little flowers that called, "Come and pick us!" to her.
She did not know that they were bluets, but she knew they were dainty
and sweet and beckoned to her. She paused an instant uncertainly, and
then climbed the wall. It was rather an arduous undertaking for a clerk
at a handkerchief counter, and she went about it clumsily. The wall was
high and the stones "jiggled" in a terrifying way. One big stone climbed
down on the other side with her--they went together unceremoniously.
The Talentless One laughed a little under her breath as she sat up
among the little flowers, but she was not quite sure that she wanted to
laugh. The big stone was on her foot and she regarded it with disfavor.
It required considerable strength to roll it off--then she got up. Then she
sank down again very suddenly.
"Oh!" she cried, sharply. For several moments she said nothing more,
did nothing more. The discovery she had made was not a pleasant
discovery. In Eldorado clumsy people who could not climb stone walls
came to grief. She had come to grief. When she moved her foot, terrible
twinges of pain were telegraphed all over her body. She sat, a sorry
little heap, among the stranger flowers that had brought about her ruin.
The roadway stretched dustily and emptily up and down, on the other
side of the wall.
"Oh!" breathed the Talentless One. It had been a sigh before, now it
was a groan. What was she to do? A sort of terror seized her. She had
never been really frightened before. The beautiful country about her no
longer was beautiful. It was no longer Eldorado to her.
Then she discovered