Green Valley | Page 9

smiled back and sighed
gratefully.
"Well, son,--I don't know as that saint father of yours and your sinning
granddad made such a mess of things after all. It's something to give
the world a man. Go back home to Green Valley and marry a Green
Valley girl."
And without bothering to say another word Joshua Churchill died.
Nanny came back to her valley town when the budded lilacs dripped
with rain and the wooded hillsides were blurred with spring mists.
But Green Valley rain never bothered Nanny Ainslee. Those who were
not out to greet her telephoned as soon as they heard she was back
home again.
And just as she had gone to help pack, Grandma Wentworth came to

help unpack. There were three trunks besides those Nanny had taken,
from Green Valley. Nanny laughed and chuckled as she explained.
"The joke's on father. We met up with a nice American chap on our
travels. He was so likable that father, who was pretty homesick by that
time and would have loved anything American, fell in love with him. I
can't quite understand why I didn't lose my head too. I came mighty
near it once or twice. But the minute I'd think of that boy here in Green
Valley I'd grow cool and calm. That's all that saved me, I believe. But
father was quite taken with him and being a man he felt sure that I must
be. He was so sure that my maiden days were over that he dared to be
funny. One day he sent up these three brand new trunks to the hotel.
Said I might as well get my trousseau while I was gadding about this
time. Well--I was pretty mad for a minute. But I concluded that father
wasn't the only one in our family who is fond of a joke. So I just
blushed properly and went off shopping. And I tell you, Grandma,
Green Valley will just grow cross-eyed looking at the pretties that I
have in these treasure chests. I showed Dad every mortal thing I bought
and asked his advice and was oh, so shy--and wondered if he just could
let me spend so much; and Dad just laughed and said he guessed an
only daughter could be a bit extravagant, and to just go ahead. So I
smiled again shyly and demurely and went ahead. And when not so
much as a bit of ribbon or a chiffon veil could be squeezed in anywhere
I shut those trunks and sat on them and swung my feet and bet Dad that
I wouldn't marry that boy after all. And he was so sure that he was rid
of me at last and that he could start out on his next trip blissfully free
and alone that he bet me Jim Gray's Gunshot that I'd be married in six
months to the gentleman in question. Of course it was a disgraceful
business, the two of us betting on a thing like that, but somehow we
never thought of that, we were so busy teasing each other. Well, of
course Dad lost. I refused that nice chap three times in one week. And
here I am, heart-free still, with three trunks of booty and the finest,
blackest, and swiftest little horse in the county--mine. This has
certainly been a profitable trip! Poor Dad, he's so delightfully
old-fashioned. He does so believe in early marriages and husbands and
wedding veils. And he thinks that twenty-three is absolutely a
grewsome age. Poor Dad! And he says too that for what I have done to

him in this trunk deal I shall be duly punished. That the good Lord who
looks after the fathers of willful, old-maidish daughters will see to that.
Why, he has gone so far as to say that he wouldn't be surprised if I
wound up by marrying some weird country minister. Fancy that! Why,
that from father is almost a curse. And he's worried sick about my
riding Gunshot. But I shall manage. So expect to see me dash up to
your gate in great style any day now."
"Nanny," warned Grandma, "I don't trust that horse either. You'd better
be mighty careful. That horse isn't mean but it's young and scary."
Nan however laughed at fear and rode all about and around Green
Valley town. And then one evening when she was least watchful and
tired from the long day's sport, a glaring red motor came honking
unexpectedly around the corner. So sudden was its appearance, so
startling its body in the sunset light, so shrill its screeching siren, that
the young horse reared. And Nan, caught unprepared, was helpless.
From the various groups of people standing about figures detached
themselves and shot across the square. But before