Strawberry Acres | Page 4

rusty lock and
opened the door, which turned creakingly upon its long unused hinges.
But with the first step inside Sally's drooping spirits leaped up again.
"Oh Max," she cried, "what a beautiful old hall!"
"Beautiful, is it?" inquired Max, laughing contemptuously. "Well, I
can't say I see it."
"Looks just like a barracks to me!" sniffed Alec. "Phew-w--what air--or
lack of it!"
"But it is beautiful," persisted Sally, in genuine enthusiasm. "See how
wide and high, sweeping straight through to that door at the back. And
see the wide, low staircase with the spindle railing and the curved posts
at the bottom. See the carving over the doors--and the fanlight over the
outside ones. And look at that fireplace!"
She dragged Max by one arm and Uncle Timothy by the other, to stand
in front of it. Halfway down the hall, sharing one of the great chimneys
with another fireplace on the other side of the wall, was a
chimney-piece of fine old colonial design. The proportions were
colossal.

"It would take a cord of wood to keep the thing going an evening,"
asserted Max.
"And then nobody'd be warm unless he was sitting with his head inside
the hood," supplemented Alec.
But Sally was already off upon explorations. She rushed into the room
upon the left of the hall; it was a drawing-room thirty feet long by
twenty wide. She darted into the room on the right--it was twenty feet
square, and back of it lay another of similar size. She could no longer
wait for her party, with their slow and indifferent following of her, but
ran from room to room, calling back injunctions to note special points
of interest.
Bob kept close behind her. If he cared little for old houses, he cared
much for Sally, and he liked to see her eyes sparkle and her lips laugh.
Sally had times of being very sad and discouraged, as no one knew so
well as he, and if she could find interest in this old barracks--he thought
Alec had struck the right word--he was not the boy to dampen it.
"Let's skip up this back staircase, Bobby," proposed Sally, as they
turned about from exploring the kitchen and store-rooms. "I'm crazy to
find if there aren't some smaller rooms--nice, cozy ones, you know. It
can't be all so big everywhere."
"Don't you suppose the upstairs rooms are just the shape of the lower
ones?" suggested Bob, as they ran up.
"In front, perhaps, but not back here. There ought to be some lovely
rambling passageways, and steps up and steps down, and rooms where
you don't expect them, and a splendid attic--and perhaps a secret
staircase. Bob--what if there should actually be a secret staircase!"
Bob laughed. "You've been reading spooky stories. I suppose--"
"Robert Rudd Lane! Will you behold that little flight of five steps,
leading up to that door!"

Sally was down the hall and up the five steps in a flash. She would
have burst into the unknown region beyond, but a locked door barred
her way. Bob stood below and laughed at her baffled expression.
"You'd rather see through that door than into any other spot in the
house that isn't locked up, wouldn't you, Sally Lunn?" he commented,
knowingly.
"Run down to Max for the keys, will you, dear?" she begged, and Bob
ran.
The others came up. Max and Bob, Alec, and even Uncle Timothy,
tried every key in the bunch in vain. Sally attempted to peer through the
key-hole. Bob ran outside, and returning reported that there were no
shutters in the region opposite the probable position of the door.
"It's undoubtedly a dark store-room, with a row of empty shelves," said
Max. "Give it up, Sally. There are places enough to explore. A
regiment of infantry could be bivouacked in this second story. See the
rooms, and rooms inside of rooms."
"Oh, come away home!" cried Alec, impatiently, before Sally was half
satisfied.
"I'm going over to the timber tract. You'd better come along, Al. Let
Sally stay here and plan her hotel. Maxwell Inn--eh, Sally? A number
on each door, and a fire-escape at each end of the hall. A bell-boy and
two chambermaids for this floor; in time, an elevator and a manicure
shop!" And Max clattered laughing away down the front staircase, the
shallow steps of which he took two at a time.
"It isn't a very cozy nest, is it, Sis?" said Bob, sympathetically, as Sally,
after one look into the great square rooms over the front, closed the
doors with a bang.
At mention of the timber tract Uncle Timothy had gone downstairs
after the others. They heard him shut the front door, and from an upper
window saw him walking briskly away.

"No, it isn't--now," she