Pearl and Periwinkle | Page 2

he had had ample opportunity to observe that she was
worried and cross and looked every day of her twenty-nine lonely years;
and of course it could not but give him much satisfaction. This
disturbing thought crowded out the remembrance of the unloved,
unwelcome niece and nephew until a sharp curve in the road brought
into view the smoke begrimed depot and, drawn up before it, the train
which had just come to a puffing, throbbing standstill like a wild horse
unwilling to pause in its mad race.

Several of Miss Hetty's acquaintances, gathered on the station platform,
were not accorded the usual recognition, for her eyes were fixed
intently on the childish pair alighting from the train. The one, a tall,
slender lad of about thirteen, with curls of golden yellow hair clustering
over a broad forehead, a mouth whose sensitive delicately modeled lips
together with the shadowy depths of deep grey eyes indicated even in
one so young the temperament of a dreamer, first engaged her attention.
But little Pearl! Hair black as night when only one star is shining and
eyes like the double image of that star; a figure as tiny as the dream of a
fairy: that was Pearl.
It was not her childish charm however that made Miss Hetty gasp. It
was the enormous bow, half covering her head, and the butterfly comb
that caught back her curls. The ribbon seemed larger than the silk frock
buoyant with many skirts and quite abbreviated, while the little
high-heeled shoes seemed designed for anything rather than wear.
For a time the children stood quite alone on the platform. Their first
appearance had held Miss Hetty spellbound at her position near the
door. She felt rather than heard a suppressed chuckle run through the
small crowd. Then suddenly her gaze met a pair of compelling brown
eyes, not cold and scrutinizing as they had been when their owner had
passed her a short time before, but sympathetic and friendly. She
blushed furiously and, quickly walking toward the forlorn pair,
extended to each a cold hand of welcome.
"Come Periwinkle, come Pearl," she said, not ungently. "I am your
Aunty Hetty and have come to take you home." And holding her head
high and her eyes straight ahead, she lead the strange pair past the tall
gentlemen on the platform.
"Do you know, Aunt Hetty, I thought it was you," said the boy eagerly
as they left the station. "You look a little like our mother did. She told
us lots about you, and so did the Fat Woman."
"The fat woman," exclaimed Miss Hetty somewhat in surprise. "Who is
she?"

"She looked after us," replied Pearl in a voice so sweet that in spite of
her aversion to her duty Miss Hetty's heart began to warm to her
unwelcome charges. "Even while mother was living she cared for us,
and she told us all we know. She got me all my clothes. She was so
jolly and nice, and so was Mr. Barleydon, and I didn't want to leave the
circus, I didn't, but Periwinkle did."
"Why did Periwinkle want to leave," asked Miss Hetty, now becoming
much interested, although she did purse up her lips when she spoke the
obnoxious name. Periwinkle answered for himself: "I didn't like the
trapezes, nor the everlasting traveling. I wanted to be in a home like
mother told us about and go to school. And besides that, I didn't want
Pearl to be like the spangled circus ladies, even if some of them were
lovely and the Fat Woman perfectly grand; so was one of the clowns.
You can't imagine, Aunt Hetty, what a noble, charitable fellow Jerry
was. I disliked to leave them. But how I hated the snake-charmer; you
can't imagine, Auntie."
Aunt Hetty shivered at the mere mention of a snake-charmer. She could
easily sympathize with Periwinkle in his aversion for her.
"You use pretty big words for a boy, Periwinkle," was, however, all
that she said.
"Yes, the Fat Woman said she couldn't account for them, but she taught
us, and she is a very brilliant woman. Little Pearl can read splendid.
You can't imagine, Aunt Hetty."
"You said that the Fat Woman told you about me," hinted Miss Hetty,
forgetting that she didn't wish to know anything about these worldly
people.
"O yes," replied Pearl, also desirous of furnishing her aunt with some
more information concerning her friend, the Fat Woman. "She said as
you would be different from the ladies we were used to, but you'd be
our relation and mean all for our good, and we was to put up with you
as you'd put up with us, and to respect you and love you like we did her.
But you won't mind just at