Tabithas Vacation | Page 5

lisped little Janie dejectedly, seeming to comprehend the tragedy of the situation as well as did the older children.
Slowly Tabitha turned toward her companion. Gloriana's gray eyes bravely met the questioning glance of the black ones. "Would your father----"
"Our father," Tabitha mechanically corrected her.
"Our father let you--us, I mean?"
"All summer, if he thought we wanted to; but it won't be that long."
"Only two weeks."
"Until Miss Davis gets back--or Mrs. Goodale."
"Do you think Mrs. McKittrick would leave the----"
"I don't know," confessed the older girl in worried accents. "It's a chance for him. I believe she'll take it. I'm sure we are old enough."
"And know enough about keeping house."
"They would be perfectly safe with us two."
"Supposing we ask her."
Impulsively, Tabitha started for the house with Gloriana at her heels; and the children, though not understanding the drift of the conversation they had just overheard, fell in behind the two, and marched in solemn procession up the path, feeling sure that something was about to happen which would clear away the heavy cloud of despair hovering over their household.
Again Mrs. McKittrick was sitting beside the battered kitchen table with her head on her arms as they had found her the day before, but this time Tabitha did not hesitate. Breathlessly, excitedly, she began, almost before she was inside the house:
"Oh, Mrs. McKittrick, Mercy has told us all about it--how Miss Davis and Mrs. Goodale are away and you can't find anyone to leave the children with. But you mustn't stay here on that account! Glory and I will take charge of the house. Really, we know how to cook and can manage splendidly, I'm sure, if you will let us try. Miss Davis will soon be back and then she can look after everything. Two weeks isn't very long. No harm can come to us in that time, I know. We'd love to do it. Say you will go. It means so much to you----"
She had not intended to say just that, but misreading the look of wondering surprise in the tear-stained face lifted to hers, she blundered, hesitated, and stood silent and distressed in the middle of the floor, shifting uneasily from one foot to the other, and looking so much like the frank, outspoken, bungling Tabitha of old, that Mrs. McKittrick could not refrain from laughing. It was an odd, hysterical, little laugh, to be sure, more pathetic than mirthful, but it relieved the sharp tension of the situation; and Gloriana, quick to take advantage of auspicious moments, broke in, "All you need to do is to say yes. We will be model housekeepers and take the best of care of the family."
"But--but--what about your father? He won't listen to such a plan, I'm sure."
"Now, don't you fret about that!" cried Tabitha joyfully, regarding the battle as good as won. "Daddy won't care a mite! Two weeks is such a little time. He will be glad to have us come."
"I believe--I better--take Janie. She is so small, and----"
"I believe you better not!" the black-eyed girl laughingly retorted. "She would be dreadfully in your way, no matter how good she is; and you want to be free to take care of your--patient. Now, where is your trunk? What clothes do you need to take? If you will tell us where to find things, we will begin to pack at once while you are getting the house settled the way you want to leave it, and writing out your orders."
"'Cause we'll be ist as dood as anjils," lisped Janie, as the procession, at a signal from Mercedes, quietly trooped forth into the June sunshine once more, and, with radiant faces and happy hearts, skipped down to their boulder playhouse to celebrate.
CHAPTER II
TABITHA AND GLORIANA, HOUSEKEEPERS
"You really think you want to do it?" Mr. Catt glanced quizzically from one bright, girlish face to the other as his fingers gently stroked the red tresses and the black hovering so close to his knee.
"Sure, daddy!" promptly answered Tabitha, patting the arm nearest her in a fashion that a year before she never would have dreamed of.
"Perfectly sure!" repeated Gloriana, snuggling closer to the big armchair in which her adopted father sat, and smiling contentedly at thought of the new life opening up before her.
"Two weeks mean fourteen whole days," he warned them.
"Yes," they giggled, "fourteen whole days!"
"And six lively children can raise quite a racket."
"The house is too far from the rest of town for their noise to bother anyone else," Tabitha reminded him.
"That's another point. What would you do if burglars broke in at night? You would be too far from town to call help."
"There is nothing at McKittrick's to burgle," his daughter retorted triumphantly. "I am not afraid."
"Nor I," said Gloriana, though somewhat faintly, for of a sudden a new phase of the matter