The Twin Cousins | Page 9

and haven't anything to kiss but her picture!"
Then Aunt Charlotte was full of sympathy, for she knew the dreadful suffering Flaxie spoke of was homesickness. It seemed strange that it should have seized her so suddenly,--but Flaxie was sudden about everything.
"Why, my precious one," said Mrs. Allen, taking the unhappy child in her lap, "you know Milly is coming home next week, and in one week more Dr. Papa will send for you to go home. Two weeks won't be long."
"Oh, yes'm, oh, very long! And they oughtn't to have lemme come; I'm too yo-u-ng!"
"Hullo! Is she sick?" cried Freddy, bursting into the room with a great clatter.
His mother shook her head at him.
"I think Flaxie and I will take a ride in the cars to-morrow," said she. "I think we'll go to Chicopee to see Mrs. Adams, who has some gold-fishes, and a parrot, and a canary. How would you like that, Flaxie?"
"Wouldn't like it a tall, 'cause she isn't my mamma," sobbed the poor little girl. "And we couldn't go to-morrow, 'cause to-morrow is Sunday."
"Sunday? First I ever heard of it," said Freddy. "To-day is Friday, I suppose you know?"
"Oh, Freddy, Freddy, I can't bear that. It's Saturday," said Flaxie.
As she spoke, the tears poured down her cheeks in little streams, and she squeezed her eyelids together so tight that Freddy laughed, for he thought the day of the week was a funny thing to cry about.
"To-day isn't Saturday," said he. "If 'tis, what did I go to school for? Tell me that."
"Oh, it is Saturday, Freddy Allen! Don't I know what day I came here? I came Friday. Didn't I hear Ninny and mamma talk about it, and don't I know?" screamed the wretched child, hopping up and down, then falling, face downward, on the rug. "Oh, I can't bear it; I can't bear it! There, don't anybody in this town know what day it is! Nobody knows it but me!"
This was funny enough to Freddy, but very painful to his mother, who knew the deep trouble at the little girl's heart. Of course Flaxie didn't care a bit what day of the week it was; she only felt so very unhappy that she could not endure the slightest contradiction.
Before another word had been spoken, she sprang up and flew out of the room. About two minutes afterward the front door slammed, and Freddy saw her dashing down street with her hat and cloak on, swinging her valise in one hand and her umbrella in the other.
[Illustration: FLAXIE LOOKED BEWILDERED. Page 60.]
CHAPTER IV.
LUCY'S MITTENS.
Aunt Charlotte ran to the door with the baby, calling out:
"Flaxie, come back! come back!"
But the little runaway would not even turn her head.
"Crazy," said Freddy, still laughing.
"I do believe," exclaimed his mother, "that child is going to the depot! Run after her! You and Johnny both run!"
The boys did their best, but Flaxie was already far ahead, and never once paused till she reached the station, where she nearly ran the baggage-master through the body with her little umbrella.
"Now look here, my little lady," said he, catching her in his arms, "I ain't used to being punched in this style, like a passenger-ticket; and you'd better stop to explain."
"Oh, don't hold me, don't hold me! I'm going on the cars to my mamma. Let me go to my mamma!"
"Why, certainly," said the man, winking to Johnny and Freddy, who had reached the platform and stood there panting. "To be sure! We let little girls go to their mothers. But you didn't think of starting on ahead of the cars, did you?"
Flaxie looked bewildered.
"You see the cars haven't come," said Johnny, coaxingly. "You'd better go back with Freddy and me, and wait awhile."
"No, no, no," said Flaxie, brandishing her umbrella. The boys were too anxious to get her away, and she wouldn't trust them.
"The cars won't be here till two o'clock," said the baggage-man. "Now I'd advise a nice little lady like you to eat your dinner before starting on a journey. Or would you like it any better to have me lock you up in the ladies'-room till two o'clock? But I should think you'd get rather hungry."
He held up a big key as he spoke, and Flaxie gazed at it in dismay. Was this the way they treated little girls that wanted to go to see their mothers?
"Come, Freddy," said Johnny, "let's hurry home, or there won't be any apple-dumpling left. If Flaxie doesn't want to come she needn't, you know."
Johnny spoke with such a show of indifference that Flaxie was struck by it. He was ten years old, just the age of her brother Preston, and had had some experience in managing children younger than himself. As he was walking off with Freddy, she trudged after, exclaiming:
"Well, will you lemme leave