LUCY GIBBONS
 
 
 
 


 
 THE CHEZZLES 
 
 A STORY 
 
 LUCY GIBBONS MORSE 
 
 Eiustratetr 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOTJGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 ffce RfljersiDe Press, 4TambnD0t 
 
 1888
 
 Copyright, 1888, 
 BY LUCY GIBBONS MORSE. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co.
 
 TO MY CHILDREN. 
 
 2037233
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE REASONS WHY CHALLEY AND BOB CHEZZLE HAD TO 
 STAY IN NlPSIT ALL SUMMER, WITH NOBODY TO TAKE 
 CAKE OF THEM BUT CAPTAIN PEPPER 1 
 
 II. 
 How CHALLEY AND BOB DECIDED TO CATCH A WHALE, AND 
 
 HOW THEY WERE SURE THAT AN INDIAN WAS GOING TO 
 8CAU THEM 19 
 
 m. 
 
 How THE FRENCH DOCTORS FRIGHTENED MRS. CHEZZLE, 
 
 AND HOW HER ARRIVAL AT HER BROTHER'S HOUSE DE- 
 LIGHTED LITTLE MARIA ANTOINETTE PEXBOT 38 
 
 IV. 
 
 MOLLY DOLAN TAKES MR. CHEZZLE' s CLEAN CI/XTHES HOME 
 ON TOP OF A CHERRY PIE, AND MAKES THE MACKSBYS' 
 COOK UNHAPPY BY CLEARING OUT THE TUBS AND MENDING 
 THE CLOTHES-WRINGER FOR HER 60 
 
 V. 
 
 CAPTAIN PEPPER'S TALK WITH THE CHILDREN ON THE 
 PORCH . , 70
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 HOW LUCKY IT WAS THAT BOB ? S LEG WAS NOT BITTEN EN- 
 TIRELY OFF 77 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE UTTER USELESSNESS OF TRYING TO CONVINCE MOLLY 
 
 DOLAN THAT A DOGFISH IS NOT A WHALE 94 
 
 VIII. 
 
 How MARIA BOUNCED INTO THE LITTLE OFFICE AND TOOK 
 A DARK GENTLEMAN INTO HER CONFIDENCE 105 
 
 IX. 
 
 SHOWS HOW WELL A LITTLE GlRL CAN SELECT BOATS IN 
 PARIS FOR BOYS IN AMERICA 112 
 
 X. 
 
 THE ANXIETY OF TWO MISSIONARIES AND THE DOCTORS IN 
 ATTENDANCE UPON MR. PENROY TO GET THAT GENTLEMAN 
 TO SIGN A DEED OF GIFT FOR THE BENEFIT OF A SCHEME 
 TO RAISE THE STANDARD OF EDUCATION IN THE ISLAND 
 OF MADAGASCAR . 126 
 
 XL 
 
 How MARIA PENROY GAVE MORE OF HER CONFIDENCE TO 
 
 THE DARK GENTLEMAN AND DELIGHTED HIS SOUL THEREBY 138 
 
 XII. 
 
 HOW POOR LITTLE RANNA WAS NEARLY FRIGHTENED TO 
 DEATH . . .145
 
 CONTENTS. Vli 
 
 xm. 
 
 HOW UNREASONABLY SEVERE CHALLEY AND BOB SHOWED 
 THEMSELVES TOWARD THE WHOLE BRITISH NATION ; AND 
 HOW SHIRLEY BARNES CONVINCED CHALLEY THAT HE 
 KNEW BETTER THAN ANYBODY WHAT AVAS THE MATTER 
 WITH RANNA .... . 159 
 
 XIV. 
 
 How CHALLEY SAVED RANNA' s LIFE WHEN NOBODY ELSE 
 COULD . 171 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE LAUNCHING OF THE ''MARIA PEPPER" AND THE 
 "THOMAS ANTOINETTE" 187 
 
 XVI. 
 
 HOW MUCH FASTER MR. PENROY GOT WELL THAN THE DOC- 
 
 TORS EXPECTED HIM TO . . 192 
 
 XVII. 
 
 POSITIVELY THE LAST APPEARANCE IN THIS STORY OF THE 
 DOCTORS AND THE MADAGASCARITES 201 
 
 XVIIL 
 CLOSE OF MRS. CHEZZLE'S JOURNAL ......... 214 
 
 XIX. 
 
 MR. CHEZZLE is MORE DAZED BY A SHORT LETTER FROM 
 MR. PENROY THAN HE EVER WAS BEFORE. THE WORK 
 THE LETTER GAVE HIM TO DO . . 220
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 XX. 
 
 WATCHING FOR THE NIPSIT COACH 236 
 
 XXI. 
 
 MR. CHEZZLE CONVINCES HIS WIFE THAT THE PENROYS' 
 NEIGHBORS ARE CHARMING PEOPLE 247 
 
 XXII. 
 
 THE CHILDREN CANNOT MAKE LITTLE BANNA UNDERSTAND 
 
 257 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 MR. PENROY TELLS HIS SISTER ABOUT THE VARIOUS PAPERS 
 f WHICH HAD BEEN SIGNED BY HER AND HIS TWO FRENCH 
 PHYSICIANS . 2t>0
 
 THE REASONS WHY CHARLEY AND BOB CHEZZLE HAD TO 
 STAY IN NIPSIT ALL SUMMER, WITH NOBODY TO TAKE 
 CARE OF THEM BUT CAPTAIN PEPPER. 
 
 MRS. CHEZZLE was staring at vacancy. She 
 was in a car, on her way home after a 
 long shopping- expedition with her two little 
 boys, Challey and Bob, as every one called 
 them, although their names were really Charles 
 Templeton Penroy Chezzle and Robert Hun- 
 tingdon Chezzle, as anybody could prove by 
 looking in the inside of a copy of " Franklin's 
 Arithmetic " belonging to the former, and one 
 of " Swinton's Second Reader " belonging to 
 the latter. 
 
 The Chezzles lived so far out t on Tremont 
 Street that people had not stopped calling it 
 Roxbury. 
 
 It was the seventh day of June, and very 
 warm. Everybody was hot except Mrs. Chez-
 
 2 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 zle, and she would have been if she had had 
 time to think of the weather. There were ten 
 people on the side of the car where Bob and 
 his mother sat, and only nine on Challey's 
 side. Bob had counted them several times, and 
 he did not see why a very stout lady who got 
 in at Waltham Street chose to sit down next to 
 him, when there was more room on the other 
 side. He wished people wouldn't be so fat, 
 anyhow ; and as soon as he could squeeze him- 
 self from behind the lady's elbow he slid down, 
 and took a seat opposite, by Challey. 
 
 " Don't you wish we were in Nipsit this 
 very minute, Challey ? " he asked, taking off 
 his hat and fanning himself with it because 
 that was what his brother was doing. 
 
 " Yes," said Challey, " only I 'd like to go 
 with mamma first, in the * Veal dy Hovver ' 
 to-morrow, would n't you ? I mean, to go only 
 just over to Europe and straight back again to 
 Captain Pepper's, because I wish mamma 
 would n't stare so ! Everybody 's looking at 
 her." And Challey tried to reach across the 
 car to touch his mother, but the conductor got 
 in his way. 
 
 He need not have cared, for she was a most 
 pleasant little lady to look at, with her fair, 
 pure forehead, her cheeks reddened both by 
 the heat and her busy thoughts, and her
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 3 
 
 smooth, dark hair drawn loosely back over her 
 ears, showing the natural curves in which it 
 grew and a pretty way of its own of kinking a 
 trifle upon one side of the parting and droop- 
 ing a little on the other. Her bonnet and 
 dress, simple enough to escape notice, betrayed 
 a person of exquisite neatness and refined 
 taste. She was only a little over thirty, and, 
 staring into vacancy with her great blue eyes, 
 she looked wonderfully like Challey and quite 
 as innocent. 
 
 There was never a more unconscious stare 
 on the face of anybody. She had been ex- 
 amining a handful of papers with memoranda 
 upon them, and was trying to think of some- 
 thing she had forgotten. The conductor moved 
 along, and Challey was just going to touch her 
 when the item she wanted flashed into her 
 memory. 
 
 " Glassman ! " she cried out, aloud, glaring 
 into the face of an opposite passenger, and 
 making him jump as she dropped hands and 
 papers suddenly upon her knees. She was 
 irresistibly unconscious. Everybody laughed. 
 They were in such a quiet street and her. voice 
 had rung out so clearly that the word and ac- 
 tion had not been lost by anybody, except the 
 fat lady, who awakened, with a start, from a
 
 4: THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 comfortable doze, and, with a sudden fear lest 
 she had passed her destination, hitched herself 
 about to discover where she was and what the 
 people were laughing at. Her eye caught 
 nothing unusual but Challey, who was bursting 
 with indignation, and had doubled up his fists 
 at everybody. 
 
 " Never mind, sonny," she said, leaning for- 
 ward to pat his shoulder good-naturedly. " Let 
 'em laugh at you ; what 's the harm ? " 
 
 Bob could not hold in another second, and 
 sniggered outright. 
 
 " Never mind ! " the fat lady said again. 
 
 But Challey did mind very much. He said 
 nothing, however, for he succeeded at last in 
 touching his mother and motioning to the con- 
 ductor to stop the car and let them out. 
 
 " Go in the house quickly, Challey dear," 
 his mother said, when they reached the side- 
 walk. " You are overheated and must not be 
 in the sun. I have an errand to do a little 
 way down this street ; tell papa I shall be at 
 home in a few minutes to help with the pack- 
 ing." Mrs. Chezzle turned the corner and 
 disappeared while the little boys rang the front- 
 door bell. 
 
 " / could n't help it, Challey," Bob was 
 saying when Molly Dolan opened the door ;
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 5 
 
 " first mamma staring her eyes most out, and 
 then you slamming your hat on this way," 
 Bob imitated the act perfectly, " and then 
 that awful fat lady waking up, and all the peo- 
 ple laughing ! A fellow can't help laughing 
 when everybody 's funny all at the same time, 
 can he ? " 
 
 " Sure now an' who 'd be wantin' 'em to ? 
 And with all that 's goin' on in the house 
 this day it 's a bit of a laugh now an' thin '11 
 be useful an' hilp along the worrick," said 
 Molly, who was a neat, blooming Irish girl 
 with very red eyes, which belied her cheerful 
 words. 
 
 After a general tour of inspection the boys 
 submitted to having their best clothes ex- 
 changed for every-day ones, and retired to the 
 back yard in search of amusement. 
 
 ChaUey would be nine years old early in 
 August, and Bob was but just seven. Molly 
 had lived with the Chezzles since Challey was a 
 baby, and her eyes were red because she was to 
 be separated from her " two byes " for the first 
 time. She was a sunny-hearted girl, however ; 
 and if she took advantage of the opportunity 
 to have a cry while her mistress was out, or if 
 she shed a few tears in the retirement of the 
 china-closet, she made it a point to be cheerful 
 in the presence of any of the family.
 
 6 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " Bein' as it 's me juty," she explained to 
 her younger sister Katy, who had come for the 
 day to help, " to kape up ther spirits a hit be 
 befar they '11 be scat scattered " she had 
 to recover her breath before she sobbed out in 
 spasmodic jerks " scattered to the far winds. 
 Oh, what '11 I do ! But it 's you, Katy, that 
 knows the whilst I 'm gay an' lively me heart 
 is jist breakin' into into twinty smahl paces 
 it is that but," with tears rolling down her 
 cheeks, " I 'm cheerful an' as gay as as the 
 tay-kittle. It 's not mesilf '11 be putting anny- 
 thing extra into the prassent emargency ! " 
 
 It was certainly an emergency. There had 
 never been one like it in the Chezzle family. 
 Here was the little house to be rented fur- 
 nished, all but the large third-story back room, 
 which Mr. Chezzle was to occupy himself, as 
 his business would keep him in town all sum- 
 mer. The little boys were to be sent to Nip- 
 sit coast to board with Captain Zenas Pep- 
 per, and Mrs. Chezzle was to sail for France 
 in the " Ville de Havre " on the very next 
 day. 
 
 Bob said it was like fire-crackers going off 
 to decide so many things all at once, and both 
 children enjoyed the excitement hugely. 
 
 " It feels like a birthday," Challey said, " as
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 7 
 
 if something was going to happen all the time, 
 and it 's almost as much fun as moving." 
 
 The cause of the excitement was the arrival, 
 a few days before, of two letters from France 
 for Mrs. Chezzle. One was from a lawyer, and 
 read as f oUows : 
 
 PARIS, May 25. 
 
 MME. ELLEN PEKROY CHEZZLE. 
 
 DEAR MADAME, At the request of my 
 client, Mr. Thomas Penroy, your brother, I 
 write to convey to you the painful intelligence 
 that, according to the report of his physicians, 
 he is ill beyond all hope of recovery. He is 
 anxious to provide for his young daughter, and 
 looks to you and your husband as the only rel- 
 atives in any way able to assume the care of 
 her. He therefore begs that you will, if it be 
 in your power to do so, come to him without 
 delay and prepared to take the child back with 
 you to America immediately upon the event of 
 his death. If you are unable to come yourself, 
 Mr. Penroy wishes to send his daughter to you 
 under my own personal protection. He ear- 
 nestly begs that you will cable your reply to 
 his entreaty as soon as possible. 
 
 In further accordance with his wishes I en- 
 close a check, which he hopes will be sufficient 
 to defray the expenses of your journey, in case
 
 8 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 you decide to come, and he expresses the hope 
 of being able also to pay for the cost of your 
 passage home. With respect, I am, Madame, 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JEAN AUGUSTS DUVERGNE. 
 
 The other letter was from Meaux, in the sub- 
 urbs of Paris, and was evidently written with 
 great difficulty, in a round, struggling, childish 
 hand. It read : 
 
 MA TANTE HELENE, Papa will to go to 
 Heffen in pont vun mont or leetl days. Papa 
 say I mus yu to luf a cause he yu luf ven you 
 leetl chile i yu luf eaf yu haf ze chin not poke 
 out like to M. le docteur fraidikeu an eaf yu 
 hav not les yeux si petit votre niece 
 
 MARIA ANTOINETTE PENROY. 
 
 i haf no personnes i luf excepte mon papa. 
 J'aime toujours mon papa. 
 
 Mrs. Chezzle had read the letters until she 
 knew them by heart, and had cried over them, 
 especially over the one written by her little 
 niece. She had heard nothing of her brother 
 for many years, and had not seen him since she 
 was too young to remember what he looked 
 like. 
 
 Of course it was decided at once that she
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 9 
 
 would obey his summons, and that she would 
 bring Maria home with her. 
 
 " Since your features are all right, Nelly 
 dear, I think we are safe on that score," her 
 husband had said, smiling. " There '11 be only 
 the consideration of one more child to pro- 
 vide for, and we must manage that somehow. 
 I judge from the lawyer's letter that if Mr. 
 Penroy succeeds in scraping together enough 
 to pay her passage, it will be all he can do. As 
 to your passage, my dear, I prefer to pay that 
 myself, if I have to sell something to make it 
 possible. I hope I shall be able to write to you 
 to return his check, or to reserve it for his 
 little girl's benefit." 
 
 " But, John," his wife replied, " as I am go- 
 ing for his sake, I don't see why you should not 
 let him pay my way, if he can. Certainly you 
 ought not to afford it, and, if he is dying, poor 
 fellow, and you are going to support Maria, 
 I feel sure she is a dear little thing, and that 
 she is simply pining for some woman to love, 
 you can see by her letter that she does not care 
 now for a soul except her father. I don't be- 
 lieve I was ever so glad before that my eyes 
 are big " 
 
 " And your chin," interrupted her husband, 
 taking hold of it and stooping to kiss her,
 
 10 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " although a fair, decided chin, with a dimple 
 into the bargain, does n't 'poke out' a hair's 
 breadth too far. Well ! " he added, rough- 
 ing up his hair : " There is not much time 
 given us to speculate in, and we '11 hope for 
 the best. Whatever your brother is, he calls 
 for our sympathy. And the wealth of the In- 
 dies could not supply him with such comfort 
 for his last days as the ' Ville de Havre ' will 
 take to him in the form of his little sister, 
 Ellen Chezzle. So now, to business. In the 
 first place, we '11 decide to let that Mr. Macksby 
 who wants the house have it for the summer. 
 That will enable us to send the boys to Captain 
 Pepper, and let us begin to make out the 
 inventory." 
 
 So it was all arranged, and it was no wonder 
 that Molly Dolan thought the family was to 
 be scattered to the " far winds." Challey and 
 Bob were the only ones who enjoyed the situa- 
 tion, but their happiness was a blessing to the 
 household. Of course they got into everybody's 
 way occasionally, but their small legs saved a 
 great many steps for others by the eagerness 
 with which they ran on errands in every direc- 
 tion, and the sense of importance they acquired 
 was fairly earned. 
 
 They were entitled to the happiness as well.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 11 
 
 Their school-fellows had voted the day before, 
 at recess, that the Chezzle boys were " in for 
 the best fun a fellow could possibly have." 
 The boys had been telling one another where 
 they were to spend the summer, and Chal- 
 ley had excited universal envy by making the 
 following announcement : " We are going to 
 Nipsit in Cape Cod to stay all alone with Cap- 
 tain Pepper, and he 's a real sea-captain and 
 he 's been the top-captain of lots of whaling- 
 vessels and has caught heaps of whales and 
 been around the world often and often and he 
 knows everything ! " 
 
 Challey, stopping for breath, Bob struck in : 
 " And he lives all alone and he can keep house 
 and cook just as well as my mother and sew on 
 buttons and take care of sick folks and build 
 a ship and a steamboat all by himself ! " The 
 boys in Bob's class believed every word, but 
 Challey's class contained members who doubted 
 the last statement. However, that was unim- 
 portant ; the main facts were delightful, and a 
 general sentiment prevailed to the effect that 
 the joys of Newport, Narraganset, Lenox, Long 
 Branch even Europe, were mild in contrast 
 with the fun of living all alone with a real sea- 
 captain. " Won't it be grand, Bob, to have 
 nobody to take care of us except good old
 
 12 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Captain Pepper?" said Challey in the back 
 yard where they were sharpening their jack- 
 knives on two bricks. 
 
 " Yes," said Bob. " Don't you pity Fred 
 and Mora Wellington because they 've got to 
 go to their place at Newport ? " 
 
 " Of course," said Challey, " I pity 'em like 
 thunder. Mora told me all about it. They 
 never go barefooted, and they have to ride 
 everywhere in carriages and play tennis and 
 sit at the dinner-table forever ! Bob, you must 
 rub your thumb up and down the blade so 
 to see if it 's sharp enough." 
 
 " Mine is n't sharp yet," said Bob, following 
 ChaUey's directions. " This is the way papa 
 sharpens his razors, Challey," he added, going 
 to work again in a frightful manner with his 
 knife. Presently he said, " But they do have 
 live ponies of their very own, Challey ! and 
 there 's lots of fun in the stables, and then 
 there 's ice-cream for dessert ! " 
 
 " Pooh ! " exclaimed Challey, contemptu- 
 ously, snapping his knife shut and putting it 
 into his pocket. " What 's ah 1 that to digging 
 clams and helping Cap'm Pepper wash out his 
 sail-boat?" 
 
 " And scup ! and puff-pigs ! " cried Bob. 
 " / think just puff-pigs are better than ponies,
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 13 
 
 if you have to be fashionable ! Is your knife 
 done ? I can rub my thumb up and down the 
 blade of mine as hard as anything, and it don't 
 cut yet." 
 
 " I 'm going to finish mine at Nipsit, on 
 Cap'm Pepper's grindstone," said Challey. 
 " Come, let 's pack ; papa said we might put 
 just what we liked in one box." 
 
 " Hurrah ! " shouted Bob, springing up. 
 " Then I '11 take my brick, sure ! " 
 
 The Chezzles had been six successive sum- 
 mers to Nipsit, on the Massachusetts coast, five 
 miles from any railroad. They knew nearly 
 everybody in the village, and could not have 
 found a better place in which to leave their 
 little boys. Captain Zenas Pepper was a man 
 of about sixty, and had lived alone since the 
 death of his wife, eight years back. He had 
 been devotedly attached to her, and showed his 
 reverence and tenderness for her memory in a 
 simple way, which some people thought ridic- 
 ulous, but which he continued to pursue with 
 unaltered regularity. He refused all offers 
 from relatives who wished to help him, would 
 have nobody to live with him, and carried on 
 the little affairs of his house in the precise 
 routine which his wife, Luella, had established. 
 
 He liked nothing better than to talk about
 
 14 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 her, and it was easy to draw him out on the 
 subject. Mrs. Chezzle went to Nipsit the day 
 after she received these foreign letters on pur- 
 pose to make an arrangement with him con- 
 cerning her two boys. They already looked 
 upon him as an intimate and confidential friend, 
 and he had often jokingly proposed to them to 
 come and live with him. To have such a plan 
 considered seriously took him by surprise, and 
 at first he did not know what to say. " But 
 there was Mrs. Chezzle, as neat and quiet as 
 if she had just stepped out of a Quaker Meetin'- 
 house ; " he explained to Mrs. Tuckit, his op- 
 posite neighbor. " Of course, I was n't goin' 
 to let her put up anywhere but to my house for 
 a tiffin, an' I was cookin' it. I never see any- 
 body look trigger, nor move about quieter. She 
 found out where the dishes belong while my 
 back was turned, and she set the table for us 
 two as easy as if she was in her own house. And 
 the most wonderful part of it was her brihgin' a 
 lunch-basket all the way from Boston, with a 
 roast chicken in it, on account of takin' me by 
 surprise ! I never seen any one like her. Then 
 she told me all about her brother dyin' in for- 
 eign parts, and what else could I do, Mrs. 
 Tuckit ? An' she can't do different. She an' 
 her husband can't hand over those two little
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 15 
 
 chaps to anybody that might chance to come 
 along of course not ! So we settled it all 
 while we were washin' the dishes. She 's as 
 deft a body at that as ever I see in my life. 
 Not a single dish did she set down with a bang, 
 and the most she hed to ask was a pleasant- 
 spoken : ( Uncle Zenas, shall I hang the towel 
 here?' 
 
 " So it 's settled, and that Molly of theirs is 
 to come down if either of the boys is taken 
 sick, and, with you to mend 'em up, I don't 
 see but what we '11 get along somehow." 
 
 To Mrs. Chezzle he had explained his habits 
 without reserve, had shown her all over the 
 house with great satisfaction, and, as proof 
 positive that he knew how to take all necessary 
 personal care of her children, had pulled open 
 a bureau drawer while he was saying : " I 've 
 done up my own things ever since Luella died, 
 and I 'd like to see anybody wash and iron a 
 b'iled shirt better than I can. Look for your- 
 self, Mrs. Chezzle, and, if there 's more than a 
 fly-speck left on them shirts an' dickies, I 'd 
 like to know it." 
 
 Once started, the captain liked to go 
 through a list of his regular occupations, so he 
 went on : " My wife Luella used to sweep the 
 f o'castle that 's up-stairs every Wednesday
 
 16 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 two weeks, and the hulk an' lockers every 
 Friday. She did the scrubbin' an' polishin' o' 
 the decks on Saturdays, an' she hauled over the 
 riggin' most any time. Ever since she died, 
 I 've followed in her wake, an' no livin' creetur, 
 man or woman, ain't goin' to do it for me 
 in this house not till I 'm ready to heave-to 
 an' go to the cemet'ry. An' there 's a good 
 deal o' wear in me yet. I like her mem'ry bet- 
 ter than other f oiks' s company. Is there any 
 harm in that, Mrs. Chezzle ? But your chil- 
 dren are different. They '11 be mates and '11 
 take orders. And she was very fond of chil- 
 dren, was Luella ! " And the captain went to 
 the window to see which way the wind was, as 
 an excuse to hide a mist that had suddenly 
 dimmed his eyes. 
 
 Thus, while on the evening of June 8th Mr. 
 Chezzle was putting his third-story back room 
 to rights, a difficult task because so many 
 things had been put there for storage, and 
 while Mrs. Chezzle, down in the harbor, was 
 lying in her berth on the steamer, tired out 
 and very homesick, Challey and Bob were sit- 
 ting in Captain Pepper's kitchen, down at Nipsit, 
 feeling as if life there would be nicer of morn- 
 ings, may be, than after dark, and wishing that 
 mamma was there to put them to bed just that
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 17 
 
 once. They were plucky little fellows, though, 
 and would not, for worlds, own up to each 
 other how they felt. 
 
 Challey ran his fingers through his hair, in 
 imitation of a familiar gesture of his father's, 
 to see if that would encourage him, but it did 
 not seem to. He thought it would, if his hair 
 were not so short. 
 
 Bob squeezed his handkerchief into a tight 
 wad, and rubbed his nose upwards until it was 
 as red as a cherry, remarking : " My nose 
 tickles, Challey, and that 's what makes water 
 come into my eyes ! " 
 
 It was not long, however, before the captain 
 came, and, sitting down in his great leathern 
 arm-chair, lifted Bob upon one knee and Chal- 
 ley upon the other, saying cheerfully : " Now, 
 messmates, this is our first night together, and 
 I 'm going to draw up a compact ; do you 
 know what that is, Bob ? " 
 
 " A compack ? Is it a kind of a trunk ? " 
 asked Bob. 
 
 "Pass it! Do you know, Challey?" he 
 asked while Challey was saying eagerly : " / 
 know : it 's a little thing to tell which is 
 North, and it 's to steer a vessel with ! " 
 
 " No, that 's a compass," said the captain. 
 " Yet you 're about right, too, for my compact
 
 18 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 is to steer with, an' no mistake. Do either of 
 ye know what a promise is ? " 
 
 " Ye-e-es ! " cried both boys together, and 
 Bob added : " It 's saying you '11 do something 
 sure-pop ! " 
 
 " Well," said Captain Pepper, " a compact is 
 just as many promises as there are people. Now 
 we are three people, so there '11 be three prom- 
 ises. You have heard me talk about my wife 
 Luella ; most as much, I reckon, as I 've heard 
 you talk about your mother. My compact is 
 this : that you are to promise to do things 
 about the house just the way Luella would like 
 'em done ; and I am to promise to do everything 
 I can for you just the way your mother 'd like. 
 That '11 be fair an' square. So, to begin with, 
 we '11 get you to bed, and if you '11 work hard 
 at rememberin', I '11 work hard at puzzlin' out 
 your mother's way of doin' it, from the takin' 
 off of these here jackets, clean down to sayin' 
 the prayers what she 's taught ye." 
 
 " Oh, what a splendid compack ! " cried Chal- 
 ley. And Bob held the captain's hand tight, 
 as they climbed the stairs, declaring that it was 
 the best pack he ever heard of in his life.
 
 II. 
 
 HOW CHALLEY AND BOB DECIDED TO CATCH A WHALE, 
 AND HOW THEY WERE SURE THAT AX INDIAN WAS 
 GOING TO SCALP THEM. 
 
 THE responsibility which Captain Pepper 
 had taken upon himself was the talk of 
 Nipsit. The old ladies, especially those who 
 had made him offers of help, were put out 
 about it. At one of the weekly sewing-circles, 
 Mrs. Ann Haxter said it was the " biggest mis- 
 take he 'd ever made yet, and she hoped he 'd 
 live to see it." Aunt Phosbe Miller said boys 
 were well enough where they belonged, but 
 Zenas Pepper's house was not the place for 
 them. Mrs. Shubael Simmaker took off her 
 spectacles to say, solemnly : " Wait till the 
 summer 's over that 's all / ask ! " But 
 Miss Sophia Wringer had the most to say, and 
 felt a grievance into the bargain. " He 's had 
 offers and offers, from the best and most re-
 
 20 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 spectable ladies, to look after his house," she 
 said. " Even / have offered ! But no not a 
 person will he have sleep under his roof, be- 
 cause he 's laid out to keep things just as 
 Luella used to, and a body can't so much as 
 hang a bonnet up for fear of putting it on the 
 wrong peg. And now " she paused to in- 
 clude the whole company in the glare of her 
 spectacles before she said " boys ! " as if 
 she was pronouncing the name of a tribe of 
 savages. " What would Luella have said to 
 boys ? " 
 
 Miss Wringer took up her work again and 
 sewed with such energy that she jerked her 
 body with every stitch. 
 
 " If he 's sot, he 's sot. But he 's gone 
 back on his word, as you say, Miss Wringer," 
 said Mrs. Haxter. 
 
 " Sot ? " cried Miss Wringer. " He 's shifty- 
 minded ! " and she was so angry that she broke 
 her thread. Then she added : " Wait till the 
 boys catch the measles, that's all!" And 
 that suggestion seemed to comfort the ladies 
 greatly, for there was in it a fair prospect that 
 Captain Pepper would be punished for his im- 
 prudence before the summer was over. The 
 mention of " whooping-cough ! " in a cheerful 
 tone, came from one person, " nettle-rash ! "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 21 
 
 from another, and a long list of possible ills 
 followed, from one or other of the company, 
 until the tone of conversation became quite 
 happy. 
 
 Captain Pepper heard a good deal of this, 
 in one form or another, but was not disturbed. 
 His busy, cheery neighbor, Mrs. Tuckit, who 
 had a troop of children of her own, gratified 
 him by saying : 
 
 " With the fancy for young folks that you 
 have, Uncle Zenas, you '11 find out all you 
 need to, most likely, as you go along ; but if 
 you come to anything you don't understand, 
 and want help, just send for me. Let them 
 come over of a Sunday morning to get their 
 neckties put on, and I '11 see that they 're all 
 right for meeting." 
 
 The boys had not been with the good cap- 
 tain twenty-four hours, however, before he en- 
 countered some difficulties for which he was 
 not prepared. He found it next to impossible, 
 at first, to keep up a knowledge of their where- 
 abouts. They would be in a dozen different 
 places in the course of half an hour, and some- 
 times it seemed to him as if they were in all of 
 them at once. 
 
 After a week of surveying the neighborhood 
 in this manner, they took to going nearly every
 
 22 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 day to a place which was known as " Gull 
 Marsh," about half a mile beyond the last cot- 
 tage along the shore, where the sea flowed 
 over some flats and formed itself into most 
 entertaining little bays and creeks. Here they 
 sailed their boats, built dams and bridges, 
 and had a world of pleasure. They found 
 more arrow-heads there than anywhere else, 
 too, and, what with stories of the early settle- 
 ment of the country with which their heads 
 were full, and the sight of an occasional mild, 
 modern Indian taking a short cut through the 
 woods in that direction by what was called 
 " The Indians' Path," and which led to the 
 Reservation a few miles away, the place worked 
 upon their imaginations, and they were fully 
 persuaded that, if Captain Pepper would only 
 let them explore a little beyond it, they would 
 discover wigwams and wild savages, without a 
 doubt. 
 
 Where was the use of his telling them about 
 the Reservation when Challey had read Higgin- 
 son's " Young Folks' History " and Scudder's 
 " United States " ? and then, did not papa tell 
 them Indian stories every night when they 
 were in Boston ? No ; the captain's authority 
 on this subject was insufficient altogether. 
 They decided that his "explorings" were all 

 
 THE CHEZZLES. 23 
 
 carried on by sea, and that it was more than 
 ought to be expected of him that he should 
 know everything about the Indians. 
 
 " Discoveries on land are always made by 
 such folks as Christopher Columbus, Bob," 
 Challey explained. " But it would n't be polite 
 to tell Cap'm Pepper that we know more 
 than he does about Indians. And then he 'd 
 be worried about our playing at the marsh, if 
 he knew there was a tribe so near it ; and there 
 is n't a bit of danger, because we can hide as 
 soon as we hear a war-whoop ! " 
 
 None of these fears troubled the captain, 
 and, in his ignorance of the savage tribes 
 with which the imagination of the boys had 
 peopled the neighborhood of Gull Marsh, he 
 considered it a safe place for them to play 
 in, and was so well satisfied at knowing where 
 to look for them, that he made no complaint 
 because they were very late to dinner, and 
 waited patiently for his meal until they got 
 hungry enough to come home. 
 
 His forbearance was rewarded, however, one 
 day when they were unusually late, by Challey, 
 with a piece of potato on his fork, halfway to 
 his mouth, suddenly asking : " Cap'm Pepper, 
 did you get so hungry as we are, waiting for 
 your dinner ? "
 
 24 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 The captain seized the opportunity, put on a 
 most doleful expression, declared that he had 
 been " as hungry as a wracked sailor," and drew 
 such a pitiful picture of his starving condition 
 that Challey and Bob both declared they would 
 never be late again. But the captain was so 
 overcome with remorse at sight of their peni- 
 tence, that he came very near spoiling their 
 good resolutions by calling himself a heartless 
 sea-monster, and promising to make Bob a new 
 boat immediately after dinner. He fulfilled 
 the promise admirably, and went further, for he 
 made two boats instead of one, and so filled 
 the little hearts with gratitude that they took 
 great pains the next day to listen to the noon 
 bell when it was rung in the village, and after 
 that they were tolerably prompt at dinner. 
 
 In the afternoons they were more with the 
 captain, " helping " him clean his boat, the 
 Luella, taking a sail in it with him, fishing 
 for scup, working in the shed where the car- 
 penter's bench and tools were, digging clams, 
 or doing something equally pleasant. They 
 followed the captain like little dogs, and had 
 so many questions to ask, and so much to tell, 
 that it would have gone hard with him if he 
 had not let much of their talk go into one 
 ear and out of the other. They had, among
 
 . M 
 
 THE CHEZZLES 
 
 other things, a great deal to say about a 
 which they had seen, and indignantl^sepi 
 Captain Pepper's remark that it must ha> 
 a dog-fish, or a floating cask, and althouglr^s 
 explained to them how, sometimes, the dog-fish 
 follow the menhaden into shallow water, and 
 how, if they are not meddled with, they are 
 harmless and soon disappear, the boys were 
 persistent in maintaining that they had seen 
 a veritable whale. 
 
 " It 's a very dangerous whale, too," the 
 captain heard Bob say, " and we 're building a 
 trap to catch him." He took little note of 
 their talk ; none the less Challey gave him a 
 full account of the construction of the trap, 
 and he might have learned a great deal if he 
 had only listened. 
 
 He did go so far as to ask them how many 
 whales the trap was intended to catch, and to 
 inquire occasionally whether they had yet cap- 
 tured any. But they soon detected the light 
 manner with which he regarded their serious 
 enterprise, and were a little injured by it. They 
 brought him round by remarking that they 
 " guessed he 'd believe it when they told him 
 some day that it was caught, and he could have 
 it to sell for a whole lot of money ! " After 
 that he teased them no more, but confined his
 
 26 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 remarks on the subject to speculations as to 
 what he was going to buy with the enormous 
 sum he expected to realize from whales. 
 
 One day he took a party of city boarders out 
 sailing, and, as he expected to be away longer 
 than usual, arranged with the boys that they 
 were to go nowhere except to the marsh to 
 play, and to Mrs. Tuckit's, where they were 
 invited to have tea. They were delighted with 
 the prospect of a visit to the Tuckit children, 
 and took two tin pails to Gull Marsh with them, 
 intending to fill them with raspberries for Elva 
 Tuckit, a demure, housewifely little girl of 
 thirteen, who was a great favorite and care- 
 taker among children generally. 
 
 The whale-trap consisted of two stakes on 
 each side of a narrow creek separating two bits 
 of the marsh which were on a higher level 
 than the rest, and connecting the main water 
 with a sort of inner bay which was only filled 
 at high tide. The stakes were driven just 
 near enough together to hold three planks, 
 one above another, across the creek. Challey 
 and Bob could never have driven in the 
 stakes, or dragged the planks from an old, dis- 
 used pier close at hand, if it had not been for 
 the help of Alex Tuckit, who was a strong, 
 overgrown boy of about eleven, and Crissy
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 27 
 
 Jones, a tough little fellow of the same age as 
 Challey. 
 
 Their idea was, that, when the whale came 
 into shoal water, which he could only do at 
 high tide, he must swim through the creek into 
 the inner bay, and then they would put the 
 planks up between the stakes, the tide would 
 go out, and there the whale would be, high 
 and dry, on the marsh, all ready for Captain 
 Pepper ! 
 
 So, every day when it was possible they went 
 jto examine the trap at high tide to see whether 
 the whale had done what was expected of him. 
 To-day the tide was rising, but Challey said it 
 was not high enough yet for whales, and pro- 
 posed that they should gather berries while 
 they were waiting. They wandered along a 
 grassy road which led westward through a wil- 
 derness of woods and underbrush, filling their 
 pails slowly because of the butterflies, bugs, 
 caterpillars, birds'-nests, and wild flowers which 
 attracted their attention. 
 
 " It 'd be easy enough to pick a million 
 quarts," Bob said, " if it was n't for the " 
 
 " The what? " asked Challey, turning to see 
 why Bob stopped suddenly. 
 
 A low, strange cry sounded from a little 
 distance.
 
 28 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Bob went and stood by Challey. Looking 
 up to him with startled eyes, he whispered : 
 t( It 's Indians ! Don't you wish we had our 
 bows and arrows ? " 
 
 " Yes hark ! " said Challey, putting his 
 arm over Bob's shoulders and drawing him 
 closer. 
 
 Another wail sounded, louder than the last 
 long and strangely piteous. 
 
 " We can't fight Indians with tin pails ! " 
 whispered Bob. 
 
 " No," said Challey ; " and we have n't got. 
 anything to t-trade with, either ! D-d-don't be 
 f-f-f rightened, Bob ! We '11 promise him our " 
 
 Another cry ! Wilder, and broken, like no 
 sound the children had ever heard. Bob said 
 softly : " We have n't our bows and arrows, 
 Challey, so we can't kill him, and / say. let 's 
 hide ! " 
 
 Bob had never before been afraid of any- 
 thing. His suggestion was a good one, and in 
 an instant they were both flat down in the 
 underbrush. 
 
 Challey was pale with fright, but he was not 
 a coward. He put himself in front of Bob, 
 and, turning his head, said in a whisper : 
 
 " Bob I suppose he '11 scalp both of us ; 
 but I 'm the biggest, and he 's got to do me 
 first!"
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 29 
 
 " No, he shan't, Challey ! " said Bob, stoutly. 
 "If he finds us, I 'm going to jump on his back 
 and squeeze my arms tight around his head so 
 he can't see, and Ya-ah ! " he screamed, for 
 another cry interrupted him a hopeless, 
 helpless cry this time, but unmistakably from a 
 child, and accompanied by the sound of feet 
 crackling through the bushes. 
 
 " He 's scalping some child now, Bob ! " 
 cried Challey, in a ghastly whisper ; " we must 
 fight him. Ho-o-oh ! " he yelled with all his 
 rnighjt, and scrambled upon his feet, Bob fol- 
 lowing suit, of course. 
 
 They gave one mighty yell together, and, 
 standing shoulder to shoulder, glared into the 
 woods whence the sounds came. 
 
 Crackle, crackle, came the tread of feet, 
 and just ahead of them, down the path, the 
 bushes parted two small, white hands pushed 
 through the leaves and made an opening for 
 a little girl not more than five years old, hat- 
 less, with brown hair all tangled, tears stream- 
 ing down her cheeks, and sobbing out the piti- 
 ful, strange cries the boys had heard. There 
 was no Indian, no other person. With a shout 
 of relief both boys stepped out of the under- 
 brush into the road, and Challey called to the 
 little girl :
 
 30 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 "Hallo! are you lost?" 
 
 Drawing in her breath, the child prepared to 
 wail once more, when her eye lighted upon the 
 children. She gave a cry, sudden and piercing, 
 ran to Challey, and throwing her arms around 
 him, looked, her face all alive with joy now, 
 first at him and then at Bob. 
 
 " What 's the matter ? " asked Challey. 
 
 " What did you make such queer noises 
 for ? " asked Bob. " Did you see an In- 
 dian ? " 
 
 The little one let go of Challey, put her 
 finger on her mouth, and shook her head. 
 
 " I 'm glad you did n't," said Challey. " But 
 you made such a noise, we thought you were 
 being scalped. Where do you live ? How did 
 you get lost ? " 
 
 The little girl took no notice of him. She 
 was watching Bob eat raspberries out of his 
 pail. 
 
 " Come on ; let 's go back to the marsh. 
 Do you want to see our whale-trap ? " asked 
 Challey. 
 
 Still she took no notice of him, but leaned 
 forward, touched Bob to make him look at 
 her, curled her left arm around an imaginary 
 pail, pretended to eat berries from it, and then 
 stretched her hand out for some.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 31 
 
 " Here ! " said Challey, putting his pail into 
 her hands, " you can have mine ; but I don't 
 see why you don't speak." 
 
 She clasped the pail in one hand and kissed 
 the other to him several times before she began 
 eating the berries, which she did eagerly, and 
 not stopping until they were all gone, when she 
 turned the pail upside down to show that it 
 was empty, returned it to Challey, and kissed 
 her hand to him again. 
 
 He rather sheepishly kissed his hand to her 
 in return. She was certainly the strangest lit- 
 tle girl they had ever seen. 
 
 " Why don't she talk ? " asked Bob. 
 
 " Maybe she 's French ! " said Challey, and, 
 struck by the idea, he said : 
 
 " Polly-voo Frongsay ? " But she took no 
 notice. She only reached to take hold of his 
 hand, closing her little fingers tight over it, as 
 if she did not mean to let go. 
 
 " Let me try," said Bob, and, planting him- 
 self before her, he bent his face to the level of 
 hers, and shouted : 
 
 " Pol-le-e-e voo Fr-rong-sa-ay ? " 
 
 All she did was to smile, pat her mouth 
 several times, and shake her head. 
 
 " She is n't French," said ChaUey. 
 
 " It 's lucky she is n't," said Bob, " because
 
 32 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 that 's all the French we know, Challey, except 
 f Donny-moy doo burr seel voo play,' and she 
 has n't got any butter to ask for, and nobody 'd 
 want to say that out in the woods, anyhow ; " 
 and Bob said he " gave up." 
 
 Challey had one more thought, but he was 
 too polite to mention it. He had often heard 
 people say of himself and Bob, when they were 
 bashful and silent, " He must have lost his 
 tongue." And now it occurred to him that 
 perhaps such a calamity did really afflict the hu- 
 man race sometimes, and that perhaps the little 
 girl had lost hers. At any rate, she was hold- 
 ing fast to his hand in a very pretty way, strok- 
 ing it, and laying her cheek against it, and 
 there was a vague something about her which 
 made her seem very helpless and roused his 
 compassion. So he answered the pressure of 
 her hands, and said to Bob : 
 
 " Well, anyhow, she does n't want to talk, 
 or she can't, and she likes us, so we '11 take 
 care of her. Come on ! " and he led the way 
 to the marsh. 
 
 " That 's so," said Bob. " I guess she 's some 
 language we don't know." 
 
 So they went back to the shore, gathering- 
 berries occasionally and offering them to her, 
 and by the time they reached their whale-trap,
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 33 
 
 they had learned, as children do, to adapt them- 
 selves to her. She would not speak a word, 
 but her eyes they were the very brightest, 
 loveliest eyes Challey thought he had ever seen 
 her eyes caught every motion. And it was 
 impossible not to notice how she used her 
 hands and arms. She waved one about con- 
 tinually, in an infinite variety of gestures. 
 Sometimes she let go of Challey 's hand to wave 
 both, now slowly, now very rapidly, or again 
 held for an instant in some significant pose. 
 
 " It looks as if she was dancing with her 
 arms, instead of her feet," Bob said. Once in 
 a while the boys understood her : as when- 
 ever they offered her anything, or when Chal- 
 ley helped her over a fence or wet places. 
 Then she invariably kissed her hand. 
 
 " So," Challey said : " she 's polite, even if 
 she does n't speak, for she means 'thank 
 you.' " 
 
 The shadows were long by the time they 
 reached the shore, the sun was low and shone 
 on the sails of a dozen fishing-boats coming 
 home on the same tack. 
 
 Standing with their backs to the sun, the 
 water looked silvery to the children, and the 
 scene before them was like a vision. But they 
 did not think of it ; they only watched a flock
 
 34 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 of gulls rising from the marsh. At least the 
 little girl did, for the boys were watching her 
 while she spread out her arms as far as they 
 could reach on each side, and moved them 
 slowly up and down with wonderful grace. 
 
 " She means their wings," said Bob ; and he 
 and Challey smiled at each other, for she was 
 more beautiful than the birds when she did that. 
 
 Slowly, more slowly, her dreamy eyes fol- 
 lowing the birds, she moved her arms until, 
 holding them straight up, as high as she could 
 reach, they were quite still for a few seconds, 
 all but her hands, which waved upward once 
 and rested, pointing to the sky. 
 
 " Yes," said Challey, delighted ; " she means 
 they are out of sight, and she thinks they have 
 gone into the sky ! " 
 
 The boys did not care for the gulls, but 
 they could not help watching the little girl. 
 She trod lightly here and there, her face, so 
 innocent and pure, turning which way the 
 birds appeared ; and the boys could tell by her 
 motions when the birds came, how they flew in 
 long curves, and disappeared, or came again. 
 
 By and by she pointed to the water, where 
 she spied something moving. " Oh ! oh ! oh ! 
 It 's the whale ! " screamed Bob, the quickest 
 to see j and sure enough, there was a great fin
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 35 
 
 sticking out of the water and moving in rapid 
 sweeps, leaving a long wake behind. 
 
 In a second Bob was standing, knee-deep, by 
 the stakes, grasping the end of a plank. 
 
 " Now, if it only swims through ! " he cried. 
 But the creature had no such intention. 
 
 There was a most determined, sturdy look 
 about Bob's legs while he struggled and waded, 
 straddled and tugged at his plank. 
 
 Challey was at the other end of it, and they 
 would certainly have waited much longer, in 
 the hope that the fish would reappear, if they 
 had been alone. 
 
 But the little girl beckoned to them, and 
 they had to join her because of that irresistible 
 something which made them wish to do what- 
 ever she wanted of them. 
 
 So they led her home to Mrs. Tuckit's, and 
 begged that she, too, might stay to tea. 
 
 " Deary me ! " cried Mrs. Tuckit, putting 
 her baby down to catch the little girl up in her 
 arms. " It 's 'Lisha Barnes's poor little tor- 
 shent ! Run, Alex, and tell her mother she 's 
 all safe ! Uncle Zenas's boys have found her 
 and brought her home ! There 's been such a 
 scare about her, poor, blessed lamb ! " 
 
 How could Captain Pepper know that the 
 boys' story about the whale had anything in it,
 
 36 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 when they insisted at night, while he was put- 
 ting them to bed, that they had found a little 
 girl in the woods whom the Indians were going 
 to scalp ? 
 
 " At any rate," Challey said, " she could n't 
 talk, and I do believe " he drew near to Cap- 
 tain Pepper to say in a low, awe-stricken tone, 
 " I do believe she has really lost her tongue, 
 and I thought maybe the Indians " 
 
 But the captain roared, and cried : " Bless 
 your heart, no ! Why, that was Shirley Barnes's 
 little sister. She 's got the doom o' silence on 
 her." 
 
 "Mrs. Tuckit called her something like a 
 torch," said Challey, who was very much 
 puzzled. 
 
 " Torshent, 1 child," said the captain ; " don't 
 you know what that is ? Why, it 's the young- 
 est of the family. Benjamin, in the Bible, 
 was his father's torshent, and Bob there is your 
 father's torshent, and the little Barnes girl is 
 her father's ; every one in Nipsit calls her 
 little Torsh Barnes." 
 
 " Did you say she had on a dume, Captain 
 Pepper ? " asked Challey. " She had n't any 
 hat on ; what is a dume ? " 
 
 1 A word much in use on Cape Cod, meaning the youngest 
 member of a family.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 37 
 
 " She 's got the doom o' silence," answered 
 the captain. " She was born with it. She 
 could n't hear the elements roar, and she won't 
 be able to speak until kingdom come ! " 
 
 " What 's her name ? " asked Bob. " Why, 
 it 's it 's Land o' lubbers, what boys 
 you are ! " exclaimed the captain. " I never 
 thought of her name before. If she 's got 
 any, she don't know what it is, poor little 
 Torsh ! And if it ain't any use to her, what 
 does anybody else want with it ? " 
 
 Challey was very quiet until bedtime, with 
 the little mute to think about, but Bob wrote 
 to his father : 
 
 DEER PAPA, We found a torshunt close 
 by Gull Marsh where the wale is an' it be- 
 longed to Capen Barns an' it can't do anything 
 eckcep jabber nor it can't hear a ellyfunt rore. 
 But it likes us an we ar going to take it to 
 Gull Marsh every day wen its hi tide. 
 
 The End. . 
 
 ROBERT HUNTINGDON CHEZZLE.
 
 41 
 
 HOW THE FRENCH DOCTORS FRIGHTENED MRS. CHEZZLK, 
 AND HOW HER ARRIVAL AT HER BROTHER'S HOUSE DE- 
 LIGHTED LITTLE MARIA ANTOINETTE PENROY. 
 
 MR. THOMAS PENROY was full fifteen years 
 older than his sister, Mrs. John Chezzle. 
 He had left America before she was as old 
 as her son Bob, and, consequently, she did not 
 remember him. In her young school -days 
 she had heard her father and mother talk 
 about him as a roving, eccentric fellow, who 
 was sure never to be very prosperous. He 
 could make his own way in the world, they 
 thought ; but when a short letter came, an- 
 nouncing that he had married a poor orphan 
 French girl without a penny, they were much 
 troubled lest he would never be able to make 
 a living for two people. His letters -were 
 very short, and written at long intervals. By 
 the time one came, mentioning the birth of a
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 39 
 
 daughter, his father was no longer living. And 
 the letter which he wrote a few years later, tell- 
 ing of the death of his wife, never reached its 
 destination. Then his mother had died. His 
 sister had married Mr. Chezzle, dwelling-places 
 were changed on both sides of the water, ad- 
 dresses lost, and no more letters were written. 
 
 It was five years since Mrs. Chezzle had 
 heard anything of her brother " Tom," as she 
 had always heard him called, and now she was 
 summoned to his bedside, only to see him die, 
 a sad, bewildering summons, relieved only 
 by the thought of his little girl whom she was 
 going to befriend. 
 
 Thinking, all through her long journey, of 
 finding both father and child poorly provided 
 for, busying her motherly genius with plans 
 for relieving them, what was her surprise when 
 she was met at Havre by an elegant-looking 
 gentleman w r ho introduced himself as M. The- 
 ophile Roubaix, her brother's lawyer, and con- 
 ducted her in the most luxurious manner pos- 
 sible to a house which was, in her eyes, a very 
 palace ! The beauty of its surroundings, its 
 gardens, the elegance of the apartments as- 
 signed to her, dazed her completely for awhile.
 
 40 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 MAU, June 18. 
 
 Of course I am going to write a journal 
 (she wrote to her husband a day or two after 
 her arrival). Who would n't, finding one's self, 
 as I do, suddenly set down in the midst of a 
 story? I expected to find my brother in some 
 poverty-stricken little cottage, and I find him 
 in a palace ! I was prepared to assume the 
 heaviest burdens, the gravest responsibility 
 to be ready, day or night, for the most exhaust- 
 ing labor of nursing. Instead of all that I 
 find myself treated like a queen, with every 
 luxury and a host of servants at my command. 
 My brother is under the care of eminent phy- 
 sicians (so I should judge after a talk of half 
 an hour with one of them), who superintend 
 everything in the sick-room. He has also a 
 most accomplished attendant. 
 
 I could not help crying when I was with 
 the doctor ; for although a stranger to me, 
 Thomas Penroy is my brother, and he is dy- 
 ing ! My French was not only very rusty, but 
 mixed with sobs, and I don't know how much 
 of it the gentleman understood. But I man- 
 aged to gather from him that poor Tom would 
 probably linger some weeks, perhaps a month 
 or two, so I shall not try to see him until he 
 sends for me.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 41 
 
 But I have seen Maria. When I arrived she 
 was out with her governess, and did not return 
 for full two hours. Then she was smuggled 
 into the house, and had her dinner without my 
 knowing it, for the housekeeper and governess 
 together were bent upon making an imposing 
 ceremony of the child's presentation to her 
 aunt, and she was to be dressed in her finest 
 gown for the occasion. 
 
 N. B. They had not seen me when they 
 arranged it all, and did not know of certain 
 old gowns in my trunk, brought to be cut 
 down and made over for my niece ! Imagine 
 their French noses, if they had ! 
 
 But Maria got the better of them. I was 
 kneeling before one of my trunks when I heard 
 a sound, and turning, saw in the doorway a 
 little girl in her petticoats, with a pale, wee 
 face, and a cloud of red-gold hair, holding aside 
 a curtain and peering at me wistfully. 
 
 I had been bewildered until then, but the 
 sight of her restored me, for I knew it was 
 Maria. And I knew that she had no mother, 
 and would soon have no father. Was there 
 any need of knowing more? All in a mo- 
 ment, as I held out my arms to her, my own 
 home, with you and the children in it, seemed 
 like the real palace, while this, with all its
 
 42 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 grandeur and the one little orphan, seemed 
 desolate ! 
 
 Maria looked doubtful for a moment, but I 
 told her that I had two dear little boys at home, 
 far away, and that the sight of her made me 
 long to see them ; would she not come to me ? 
 Then she ran to me, clasped her arms around 
 me, and would not let me go. 
 
 The maid looked cross enough when she 
 came, in answer to my bell, and discovered 
 Maria, for whom she had been searching. But 
 she looked crosser still when I told her I would 
 finish dressing the child myself, and bade her 
 bring the necessary things to my room. If I 
 had given her a chance to think about it, I 
 don't believe she would have obeyed me. 
 
 June 19. Since then Maria does not like to 
 lose sight of me at all, and as she needs me 
 more than anybody else does, I have her with 
 me almost constantly. 
 
 Tom sent for me this morning. It seemed 
 very strange to sit by his bed and realize that 
 the man lying there, with a white face, brown 
 hair and beard, was my own brother. He 
 looked at me with his steady, penetrating, dark 
 eyes, as if he could find out everything I 
 had ever thought in my life. Then he said 
 suddenly to his attendant, " Send for Mile.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 43 
 
 Maria," and watched the door until she came. 
 She hurried to him, kissed him half a dozen 
 times, and I saw that nothing in the world was 
 of any importance to him compared with her. 
 " That '11 do," he said, faintly, as if he was 
 tired, and Maria, moving back, nestled herself 
 against me. He looked at us for a little while, 
 as I stroked her hair, then, in a much stronger, 
 firmer tone, said, " And that will do, too ! " 
 
 I thought he was annoyed at seeing how 
 familiar we had grown, but Maria understood 
 him better, and, laughing, hugged me at once. 
 
 " Will you go to heaven to-day, then, papa ? " 
 she asked him in French, quite cheerfully. 
 
 " No," he answered, " I shall not have 
 time ! " which was certainly a singular remark 
 for a dying man to make. " Go away now, 
 my child," he added, " and send Mme. Toule- 
 son to me." The child obeyed and went. 
 Then Tom held his hand out to me, and said : 
 " You are a good girl to have come, Helen, 
 and your husband is a clever fellow, or he 
 would not have let you. I wanted to see if 
 Maria took to you that is all." I began to 
 say something, but he repeated, " That is 
 all ! " and did not speak again until Mme. 
 Touleson, the housekeeper, entered. I had 
 only seen her once before, but she had made
 
 44 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 me feel, somehow, that my clothes were cheap, 
 and I was so sure that she would detect the least 
 mistake I might make in speaking her language 
 (she does not speak or understand a word of any 
 other) that I forgot, in her presence, all the 
 French I ever knew, and bungled frightfully. 
 
 " What is it that Monsieur will give me the 
 extreme pleasure of doing for him ? " she 
 asked, looking as if it would not be worth 
 while for me to try to understand. A blow could 
 not have startled me more than his answer : 
 
 " I wish the keys given to my sister, Mrs. 
 Chezzle. She will now be the mistress of my 
 house, and everybody in it will obey her ! " 
 Then, turning his head toward his attendant, 
 he said : " Antoine, go with Mme. Touleson 
 to get the keys, and bring them to me at 
 once ! " 
 
 Mme. Touleson was about to speak, but Tom 
 silenced her by a motion of his hand, and she 
 left the room. Antoine returned with the keys, 
 which he handed to me on a little silver tray. 
 
 Tom was very much exhausted, so I left him 
 in a few moments. Of course I went to Mme. 
 Touleson immediately. I expected to find her 
 hurt and angry, but they all seem to under- 
 stand Tom, and she told me, besides, that 
 " Monsieur Pennaroi " had explained to her, a
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 45 
 
 month ago, that I was coming to take command 
 of everything. So I only found her dignified 
 and stiff, anxious to help me discover that, in 
 the arrival of the sister of Mr. Penroy, the 
 people of the house had expected a grand lady, 
 with an American maid, " and perhaps a few 
 little negres as her attendants ! But," she 
 said, in her most formal French, " Madame has 
 come alone, without even a train to her gown, 
 or so much as two poor little diamonds in her 
 ears, and she is " 
 
 " Nevertheless, she is the sister of Mr. Pen- 
 roy ! " I thought fit to say, in my clearest and 
 most distinct tones, looking straight into her 
 eyes. I was pleased to see her embarrassed, 
 and, saying simply that I would like her to 
 come to my parlor in an hour, I left her, afraid 
 that I should feel sorry and apologize if I 
 stayed any longer. 
 
 Poor Tom ! Is n't it pitiful that he should 
 not have realized until now, when he is dying, 
 that it is good to have somebody near who really 
 belongs to him ? 
 
 June 20. Mme. Touleson came to me at 
 the appointed hour, as polite and deferential 
 as possible. It suited me very well to grant 
 her desire to delay her departure for a few 
 days, as it gave me an opportunity to learn the
 
 46 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 ways of the house. She must have reported 
 me to the servants as a dragon, or at least a 
 worthy person, in spite of the absence of a 
 train and diamond ear-rings, for they are all 
 respectful and anxious to please me. 
 
 June 21. I am settling down into a place 
 of my own here, and, without any conceit, I 
 believe my presence is acceptable. Maria is 
 my shadow. I have had my parlor and sleep- 
 ing-room change furniture with each other, so 
 that now her bedroom opens into mine, and 
 she is so happy that her face has lost already 
 the intensely wistful look which was painful to 
 see. Tom looks happier too. But he is cer- 
 tainly very strange. He is under the care of 
 two doctors who hold consultations in the li- 
 brary, and come, one or both, every day. I 
 cannot learn what is the matter with him, for 
 when I ask, they use so many scientific terms 
 that I should need both the French and Eng- 
 lish dictionaries in order to understand them. 
 But they assure me that he cannot survive the 
 summer. 
 
 He has made every arrangement for his 
 death, and the event is spoken of with perfect 
 freedom. " Quand Monsieur sera mort" 
 this or that will take place, and the phrase 
 is so common that I am getting used to it my-
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 47 
 
 self. Every morning he sends for Maria and 
 me, and she is as likely as not to ask him if he 
 is going to heaven in the course of the day, 
 just as our boys ask you if you are going to 
 the office. 
 
 He is certainly very ill. We step about in 
 the quietest way, and all wear soft slippers, for 
 he notices every sound. 
 
 June 23. During most of the year Maria 
 has teachers enough to supply an academy, but 
 as this is vacation, she has only a music teacher 
 to sit with her at the piano an hour every day 
 in the room which is called her study, as far as 
 possible from the apartments her father occu- 
 pies. She is very fond of music, and now 
 that I take my work and sit by during her 
 practicing hour, she enjoys it immensely. 
 
 She is also anxious to speak English, since it 
 is my language and that of her cousins, Chal- 
 ley and Bob, about whom she questions me in- 
 terminably. Tom rarely speaks anything but 
 French to her. But her talent for languages 
 is small, and she has fixed upon the letters of 
 our boys as her standard of perfection ! She 
 was with me yesterday when their first letters 
 came, and it was funny to watch her and hear 
 her comments as I read them. I began with 
 Challey's.
 
 48 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " c June 15. It is just high tide sailing afore 
 the wind to be at Captain Pepper's.' ' 
 
 " Oh ! " said Maria, in French ; " are they 
 in a boat ? " 
 
 I explained what Challey meant, and she 
 was so delighted that I had to repeat the phrase 
 several times. Then I went on : " We haul 
 down sails every night. The captain's bunk is 
 in the little room aft ours. Satterday night we 
 had a hurrycane out at sea in two tubs. Cap- 
 tain Pepper skowered us and its grate fun. We 
 skrub in one tub and rench off in the other. 
 We have to ware biled shirts on Sunday but 
 Mrs. Tuckit has to histe our colors becaus 
 Captain Pepper says he wuoulde rather rassel 
 with a Pirate than tie boze." 
 
 " Please, chere Tante, what is ' biled ' and to 
 ( h-h-hysste couleur ' ? " asked Maria. 
 
 " The boys wear dark flannel shirts all the 
 week," I answered, " but put on starched linen 
 ones on Sunday, and I suppose hoisting their 
 colors means putting on their neckties." 
 
 " Oh, that is beautiful ! " exclaimed Maria, 
 and I had to let her repeat, " biled " and 
 " hyste the couleurs " many tunes. I read on : 
 " The captain makes us skore up the log books 
 on Sunday and that means taking turns ritiiig 
 to you and papa so Bob is riting to papa.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 49 
 
 The Captain says to give you his dooty and tell 
 you we are as well as bluefish and he can't rite 
 because it makes him purrspire too much. 
 
 Good-bye 
 CHARLES TEMPLETON PENKOY CHEZZLE." 
 
 Maria was so delighted that I imprudently 
 read her Bob's letter about the torshunt which 
 they found. Imprudently, because she has 
 teased me ever since to take her where she can 
 see one. 
 
 June 24. A mysterious individual comes 
 occasionally and works by himself, sometimes 
 for a little while, sometimes for several hours, 
 in a little room on the ground floor which has 
 an entrance of its own from the garden. That 
 part of the house is not under my supervision, 
 so I have not -discovered who he is. 
 
 Maria and I take our work when we make our 
 morning visit to her father, and it amuses him 
 to watch us. I think it diverts him by taking 
 his mind from himself. We are very quiet, of 
 course, talking little and in low tones, avoiding 
 whispers, which, I think, are generally exasper- 
 ating to an invalid. It is better for Tom to 
 hear and understand what we say than to 
 make an effort to do either, or have any 
 thought about it. So we say what we please,
 
 50 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 and try not to be rasping. It looks as if we 
 succeeded admirably, too. I am dressing one 
 of Maria's dolls and trying to teach her to sew. 
 She has been taught to study only effect in 
 dress, from a French maid's point of view ; I 
 am setting up a standard of neatness and pro- 
 priety for her, making the doll's clothes like a 
 baby's, dainty, simple, and home-made, not 
 shoppy or machiney. 
 
 Tom watches it all with great interest and 
 enjoys it. He speaks little, but likes to listen, 
 and is delighted at any evidence of Maria's 
 affection for me. This morning she folded the 
 doll to her bosom, like a little mother, and 
 said, looking up to me : " I will love it the 
 same way that you love me, as if it was my 
 child." Tom turned his face away, and I fan- 
 cied he was thinking sadly of Maria's mother. 
 I waited a little while before asking if we tired 
 him, " No no, never ! " he answered has- 
 tily. " Don't go for a long time." And when 
 Antoine announced the arrival of the doctor, 
 he detained me a moment to say : " You are 
 putting healthy ideas into the child's head, 
 Nelly. Keep it up ; I believe she was starv- 
 ing for you." He will have no one else 
 remain in the room while we are with him, 
 and looks disappointed when our visit is over.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 51 
 
 And, really, I think the doctors need not come 
 so often. I insist upon receiving their orders 
 myself, lying in wait for Dr. Frediqueue, who 
 is the regular physician in charge, the other, 
 Dr. De la Quille, being the consulting one. 
 But I am sure that all their conversations in 
 the study cannot be about poor Tom. His 
 condition alters so little from day to day. I 
 am an ignoramus, and what seems trivial to me 
 is really of the gravest consequence. For in- 
 stance, the two doctors came together to-day 
 and were much disturbed to learn the fact of 
 Maria's and my daily visits, with our work, in 
 Tom's room. 
 
 It will not do at all, they say ; and Dr. De la 
 Quille said most decidedly to me : " The excite- 
 ment is excessively dangerous to Monsieur, and 
 may shorten his life perceptibly." And then 
 he explained something about the action of a 
 particular chamber of the brain, but I could 
 not follow him at all. I am sorry, and will 
 certainly take no more work to the sick-room. 
 We must also shorten our visits. 
 
 June 25. " Where 's the doU ? " asked Tom, 
 the first thing this morning. I told him the 
 doctors thought we had better not bring oc- 
 cupation of any kind into his room, but he 
 stopped me with a sudden " Nonsense ! " bade
 
 52 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Maria bring our work, and was impatient until 
 she returned, declaring that it did him good 
 to see something going on, etc., etc. I was 
 not fortunate in my way of objecting, for he 
 seized upon a fancy that my ideas were the 
 only sound ones in the house, and was vexed 
 at having even such a trifling one interfered 
 with. It was with some anxiety, therefore, 
 that I asked Dr. Frediqueue what I should do 
 about it. 
 
 He shook his head, and said that Tom's irri- 
 tability was a discouraging symptom. " But," 
 he said, " Monsieur is too ill to be opposed, and 
 his fantaisie must be indulged. In effect, 
 since he has adopted this singular caprice, it 
 is positively necessary now that you shoidd not 
 enter his room in the morning unless you are 
 accompanied by both Mademoiselle and her 
 doll. Do not omit the doll upon any account ; 
 the result might be fatal to Monsieur. If 
 Madame wishes the life of her brother pro- 
 longed, she will pay strict attention to this 
 matter. It may seem of no importance to a 
 person who is ignorant of medical science," 
 (I thought he was looking particularly hard at 
 me,) " but it is the physician who has had the 
 greatest experience, and whose knowledge is the 
 most profound, it is only the physician of
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 53 
 
 this distinction," (he touched one of his shirt 
 studs as he said " this," unconsciously, of 
 course,) " who understands the significance of a 
 thing so trifling and absurd as Mademoiselle's 
 doll ! " 
 
 Maria appeared in the study doorway just 
 in time to hear the closing phrase, her beloved 
 doll in her arms ; luckily, Dr. Frediqueue did 
 not see her glower at him with anger, which 
 must have burst out if two gentlemen had not 
 accompanied and entered the study with her. 
 I disappeared before they saw me, and she fol- 
 lowed. But, as they stood faciiig the light a 
 moment, I had a full view of them, and I never 
 saw two such cross-grained, forbidding coun- 
 tenances. Their business was with the doctor, 
 and I learned that they were Tom's lawyers, 
 Messieurs Roubaix and Duvergne. If I had 
 the naming of them I would call them " Gruffit 
 and Crusty." I certainly had not recognized 
 M. Roubaix as the affable gentleman who met 
 me on my arrival at Havre. 
 
 June 28. The knowledge that Tom was 
 really worse when I had thought him better 
 has a depressing effect upon me. I was so 
 worried yesterday while Maria and I were in 
 his room, because she talked a little more than 
 usual, that I asked Dr. Frediqueue to come
 
 54 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 again in the evening as a particular favor to 
 me. I was wrong- to think that the doctors 
 
 O 
 
 came too often. I have no doubt now that 
 their extreme watchfulness is absolutely neces- 
 sary. They both came, although they had 
 great difficulty in arranging their other profes- 
 sional visits accordingly. They must stand at 
 the head of the profession, they have so many 
 " extremely critical cases " to attend to. The 
 evening visit vexed Tom, however, and they 
 decided not to repeat it. It was dangerous, 
 they told me, to make any diversion from the 
 regular course of treatment. " Madame means 
 well," said Dr. De la Quille, " undoubtedly ; 
 but, in her affliction, she is incapable of judg- 
 ing, and must trust her brother entirely to our 
 skill." So I feel as if I had been interfering, 
 and, if Tom should be worse, it would be my 
 fault. I wish the poor fellow had a more effi- 
 cient, wiser sister than I ! 
 
 Since Dr. Frediqueue explained the serious 
 aspect of his fancy about the doll-dressing, I 
 am so worried that my fingers tremble fearfully 
 over the work, and I am afraid Tom will per- 
 ceive it. Moreover, he will insist that every- 
 thing I suggest is right. He would not listen 
 to any criticism of me when the doctors annoyed 
 him by their visit the other evening, although
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 55 
 
 it was entirely my fault that they came. I told 
 him so, but he declared that I was perfectly 
 innocent, never worried him for a moment, and 
 that the day seemed long and tiresome when 
 Maria and I left him to himself. The doctor 
 consents to our making a second visit this after- 
 noon, by way of an experiment, but I have told 
 him I am afraid, in my ignorance, that I will 
 kill Tom ! 
 
 June 29. We make two visits daily to 
 Tom's room. Once more my stupidity has in- 
 jured him, I am positive. On our first after- 
 noon visit I took no work to his room, and gave 
 Maria a book to look at, thinking we would be 
 very quiet. But Tom was not at all pleased, 
 and asked what we usually did at that hour. 
 I told him that when the weather permitted, 
 Maria went out, and unless I went with her, I 
 enjoyed rummaging among his books in the 
 library. Since he had claimed us for a part of 
 the afternoon, I said, we had arranged another 
 hour for fresh air and exercise. 
 
 Then he wanted to know what interested me 
 in the library. I answered that it would be 
 easier to say what did not interest me there. 
 " It is such a beguiling room, Tom," I said, 
 "that I don't like to enter it unless I have 
 at least an hour to spare. Where did you
 
 56 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 find that fine old copy of ' The Vicar of Wake- 
 field'?" 
 
 It was an unlucky question, for he ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 " Ah, ' The Vicar !' The good, old < Vicar ! ' 
 Get it, Nelly ; a page or two of ' The Vicar ' 
 would do me good ! " 
 
 I had to get it, of course, and he made me 
 read a full half hour ; and then I was so fright- 
 ened lest it was doing him harm, that I made 
 an excuse to stop. The doctors say he shows 
 evident signs of increased nervous debility, and 
 they are more troubled than ever. 
 
 June 30. Maria just startled me so in her 
 father's room, that I actually could not speak 
 for a moment. Really, my anxiety makes me 
 so nervous now, when I am with Tom, that I 
 sit purposely where he cannot see my face. 
 The doctors are so sure to disapprove of any- 
 thing which diverts or excites him in the least, 
 his nerves, they say, are in such a delicate 
 state, and it seems as if everything we do, 
 however innocent, excites him more and more ! 
 I don't know whether I have mentioned how 
 extremely fastidious he is about everything, es- 
 pecially where Maria is concerned. I had de- 
 cided not to read her any more of the boys' 
 letters, because the sailor talk she had already
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 57 
 
 picked up from them had worried me ever since 
 her father took her to task one day for using 
 some French expression which he called com- 
 monplace. " What would he think of my dar- 
 ling boys, whose one ambition in that respect 
 will inevitably be, for the next three months, 
 to imitate Captain Pepper ? " I said to myself. 
 
 Well, this morning Maria went into ecstasies 
 over the dress which I had just finished and 
 allowed her to put on her doll. Tom was de- 
 lighted over her pleasure, and I thought the 
 excitement too much for him. So, imagine my 
 feelings when Maria looked up suddenly to me 
 and cried joyfully, in English, which she very 
 rarely speaks : " Oh, chere Tante, it is pair- 
 fecte ! It is like high-tide sail-ing af-fore the 
 wint ! Now hyste the couleurs ! " 
 
 Tom gave a sudden start and cried out : 
 " What ? What did you say, Maria ? Repeat 
 it!" 
 
 The child was frightened, and stammered, all 
 in French, except the sea terms : " I said I 
 said only, Papa, it was like to to like to 
 the high-tide sail-ing af-fore the wint ! And 
 I ask Tante Helene to to hi-hi-histe the 
 couleurs ! " 
 
 " And what does ' hi-hi-histe the couleurs ' 
 mean, I should like to know ? And where
 
 58 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 did you learn such choice language ? " her 
 father asked, waving, me off, as he saw me 
 ready to explain. 
 
 " I learned it in the letters of my fine cou- 
 sins," said Maria, in true grammatical form ; 
 " and it means to say ' hi-i-iste the couleurs ' 
 put the necktie onto the neck of my cousin 
 Shall-lee." 
 
 Tom burst into a roar of laughter. He 
 laughed again and again, and asked the child 
 to repeat it. He insisted also that I should 
 take the letters with me to read to him this 
 afternoon. " Why, Tom," I said, " I thought 
 you were so anxious about Maria's learning 
 anything commonplace, that I was repenting 
 having read them to her, and vowing not to do 
 so any more ! " 
 
 " How can you deny such a pleasure to my 
 offspring, Helen ? " he exclaimed. " Common- 
 place ? I call those expressions anything but 
 that ; they are very choice, very choice in- 
 deed, Maria, my child ! " 
 
 And he called me back, as we were leav- 
 ing him, to say, confidentially : " What she 
 gets from common people is commonp/ace, 
 Nelly ; but let her get anything from your 
 children she can which creates a personal in- 
 terest in them. She has not too many to love,
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 59 
 
 poor child ! I want her to love her cousins 
 and " 
 
 He coughed and broke off suddenly, saying, 
 in his tone of pleasantry again : " The expres- 
 sions are decidedly choice, my dear. I don't 
 think her teachers have taught her anything 
 more so ! I enjoyed them quite as much as 
 Goldsmith. Bring ' The Vicar ' along again 
 this afternoon." 
 
 I had to say I would, but I 'm worried to 
 death at his getting so roused. What will the 
 doctors say ?
 
 IV. 
 
 MOLLY DOLAN TAKES MB. CHEZZLE'S CLEAN CLOTHES 
 HOME ON TOP OP 1 A CHERRY PIE, AND MAKES THE 
 MACKSBYS' COOK UNHAPPY BY CLEARING OUT THE 
 TUBS AND MENDING THE CLOTHES - WRINGER FOR 
 HER. 
 
 I 
 
 ABOUT a week after Mrs. Chezzle's depart- 
 ure, her husband was alone one evening 
 in that third-story back room of his house in 
 Roxbury, sitting at his writing-desk, hard at 
 work. His desk was an old-fashioned one, with 
 a bookcase above and a slanting lid in the 
 middle, which let down on two slides with brass 
 knobs. It had belonged to his grandfather, 
 and was made of dark mahogany, with quaint 
 carvings and handsome brass handles. The 
 desk part of it was full of little compartments. 
 Challey and Bob kept their own particular 
 treasures in two shallow drawers in the centre, 
 over the space allotted to the inkstand, holders, 
 etc. Challey's drawer contained three Indian
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 61 
 
 arrowheads, four dead butterflies, a spider's 
 nest, a revolutionary button, and two dollars 
 and sixty-four cents, his pocket-money, which 
 he was saving for a microscope. Bob's drawer 
 contained a specimen of coal, a magnet, a 
 whale's tooth, two pieces of broken, red glass, 
 the rusty frame of a pair of spectacles, and 
 ninety-nine cents, his pocket-money, which 
 he was saving to buy a canoe. 
 
 Mr. Chezzle had a paper before him which 
 he had covered with writing and figures. He 
 was working at a problem which he could not 
 solve. His account-book told, to a penny, -ex- 
 actly what his expenses were. He was com- 
 paring it with his bank-book, and trying, for 
 about the twentieth time, to make the sums in 
 the latter add up a little larger and those in 
 the former add up a little less. Unless he 
 could do this, he did not know how he was 
 going to pay the bills which were running up 
 so fast on all sides. He had gone over them 
 until he knew them aU by heart, and, with the 
 closest calculation, provided there were no " ex- 
 tras " or " accidentals," if he sent his wife the 
 smallest possible allowance, if the new tenants 
 required nothing in the way of repairs, and if 
 they paid their rent promptly , he wondered 
 how big that " if " was, in short, if every-
 
 62 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 thing ran smoothly, the summer expenses 
 amounted to considerably more than the sum 
 which he calculated was the most he could 
 afford for them. He had taken out a " Bond 
 and Mortgage " paper, and said to himself, 
 that, if he sold that investment, he would get 
 through the difficulty. But that paper repre- 
 sented the savings of his lifetime. He could 
 not make up his mind to break into the one 
 little nest-egg he had set aside for his wife and 
 children. In his abstraction he pulled out the 
 children's drawers and counted over their sav- 
 ings. " Poor little chaps ! " he said to himself, 
 putting his hand in his pocket and taking out 
 some loose change. He fingered it with a great 
 longing to drop it into the drawers. " Have n't 
 any right to ! There 's a miserly comfort in 
 making that ninety-nine cents a dollar, though," 
 he thought, dropping a cent into Bob's drawer, 
 and then restoring the money to his pocket, 
 said, half aloud, " Poor little shavers ! " 
 
 He need not have pitied them a bit. They 
 were as happy as crickets, and had not thought 
 of their pocket-money once since they had left 
 home. And if they could have guessed what 
 was in his mind, their hearts would have nearly 
 burst with joy at giving every precious penny 
 to him with the idea that it would help matters.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 63 
 
 Mr. Chezzle knew that, too, but he sighed, 
 and said, " Poor little shavers ! " all the same. 
 
 A knock startled him. " Come in ! " he 
 said, closing the drawers, and Molly entered 
 with a basket of clean clothes. 
 
 " Ha, Molly, that is you, is it ? " said Mr. 
 Chezzle, and, somehow, his face brightened. 
 
 Anybody would brighten at sight of Molly's 
 honest face and pleasant smile. 
 
 " Good avenin', Mr. Chizzle-sir ! " she said, 
 setting the basket on the table. " The things 
 is oil complate, an' have yez anny more letters 
 from the byes come since ? " 
 
 " I believe I read them all to you, Molly," 
 said Mr. Chezzle. " But I shall write to them 
 this evening ; can't you give me a message ? " 
 
 " Indade an' ye can spake a tistament far 
 me," said Molly, drawing a chair in front of 
 him, sitting down on the edge of it, and speak- 
 ing eagerly. " Ye can say, far me, to that 
 Captain Pepper, sir, that he shuddent be en- 
 gaged in his occupayshun of following the say, 
 whilst he laves them childers to make amuse- 
 ment far thimsilves wid a whale ! " 
 
 " Oho ! ho ! " laughed Mr. Chezzle. Why, 
 Molly, what they have written about that is 
 every bit gammon ! A whale could not get 
 into such shallow water. ' They have seen some
 
 64 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 floating log, or cask, or possibly a row-boat 
 upside down, and have mistaken it for a 
 whale. Have you been worrying yourself 
 about that?" 
 
 " Indade an' I have, Mr. Chizzle-sir ! " said 
 Molly, beginning gravely, but growing excited 
 as she went on. " It 's not them byes wid their 
 school knowledge comin' into me kitchen manny 
 a time an' tellin' me the hull multiplicayshun 
 table, savin' what 's beyant six times nine I 
 think it is that 's where Bobby comes to a 
 stand, an' that 's more than ye should expect 
 from his years ! An' it 's not them knows 
 all that an' don't know a whale whin they sot 
 their own blessed eyes on him ! No ! An' it 's 
 a say-captain that thinks no more of a whale 
 than he thinks of of a miskaty ! " 
 
 It cheered Mr. Chezzle to hear Molly go on 
 about his boys, and he tipped back in his chair 
 and listened with evident pleasure to her while 
 she expatiated some minutes on the subject. 
 But he could by no means satisfy her as to 
 Captain Pepper's ability to keep the children 
 out of danger. 
 
 Presently she rose and began to unpack her 
 basket. She put the clothes away carefully into 
 the bureau, and was just lifting something with 
 great care from the bottom of the basket, when
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 65 
 
 there was a sound of loud voices in the hall 
 below, a heavy tramp of feet on the stairs, and 
 a bang on Mr. Chezzle's door. 
 
 Molly opened it, and a sharp-faced woman 
 presented herself. She was the servant of the 
 new tenants, and looked tough and knotty, un- 
 tidy, and as cross as two sticks. 
 
 Ignoring the existence of Molly, she said 
 sharply : " Miss Macksby 'd like ye to come 
 down-stairs immayjit, Mr. Chizzle ! The wash- 
 tubs is lakin' an' the pipes floodin' an' ye 'd be 
 plazed to buy a noo clo'es-wringer an' sind the 
 plumber in the marnin' airly ! " 
 
 Mr. Chezzle's cares had come back with a 
 rush. He was beginning to say that he would 
 examine into the matter, when Molly inter- 
 posed, saying with some spirit : 
 
 " It 's oil jist the craziest nonsinse, Mr. 
 Chizzle-sir, about thim tubs ! An' if they 
 lake, it 's the fault an' nothing else of some 
 ignorant gurril what " 
 
 " And who are you that 's a-spakin' ? " de- 
 manded the other woman. " If anny one 's 
 crazy, it 's yersilf, whoever ye are, an' " 
 
 " Matilda ! " called a worried voice from 
 down-stairs, "just ask Mr. Chezzle if he can't 
 come down into the kitchen himself." 
 
 Mr. Chezzle made a movement to go at once,
 
 66 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 when Molly again stopped him by calling over 
 the banisters : " Mr. Chizzle has bizness of the 
 extramest impartence an' can't lave his room, 
 not if the house is oil ready to float off ! Shut 
 the doore lively, Mr. Chizzle-sir, an' lave me 
 to attind to thim ! " she added, in a comfort- 
 able tone, and, brushing by Matilda, she trot- 
 ted down-stairs before anybody could interfere 
 with her. Matilda followed, of course, and 
 kept up a volley of complimentary remarks, 
 which she fired at Molly's back. The kitchen 
 was a dismal sight. The hearth covered with 
 ashes and bits of coal, with the scuttle, shovel, 
 poker, and a dish-pan in the midst. Unwashed 
 dishes filled the sink and covered the table. 
 There was a piece of an ashy, soggy pie on the 
 dresser, any number of rags were lying about, 
 and everything was in general disorder. 
 
 Molly was ready to blaze as she passed 
 through the room which it had been her pride 
 to keep neat. " Statch-awerry was nivver claner 
 than I left it ! " she muttered, as she looked 
 back into it before stepping into the laundry. 
 She jerked her bonnet off, hung it on a corner 
 of the clothes-horse, rolled up her sleeves, 
 thrust her arm courageously into the unpleas- 
 ant-looking water which filled one of the tubs, 
 and pulled out the stopper.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 67 
 
 Matilda kept up her scold while she held a 
 light and watched the operation. 
 
 " Say on ! say on ! " said Molly. " Don't 
 be quiet, if it hurts yez ! Don't conthrol yer 
 Avurrids for my sake, becaze I 'm not mindin' 
 thim no more than you '11 mind the tubses 
 lakin' whin I git troo wid 'em ! " 
 
 She made a careful examination of the three 
 tubs, and then, after washing her arms under a 
 faucet and drying them with her handkerchief, 
 tied on her bonnet again, while she said quietly : 
 " Annybody can make tubs lake if they lave 
 'em dry long enough. I remarked the day yez 
 come that the tub in the earner was thirsty, an' 
 here it 's a wake sinse an' the poor thing has 
 had ne'er a thrink yit ! An' ye '11 not find the 
 pipes shtopped up afther me pullin' all thim 
 old rags out. A little sinse now an' thin comes 
 in handy, an' I 'd advise yez to git a supply the 
 nixt opporcAwnity ; an' I '11 take the wringer 
 if ye plaze." 
 
 Matilda, keeping up a volley of indignant 
 brogue, struck out with the wringer which 
 Molly took from her. She looked it over care- 
 fully, and then, giving Matilda a withering look, 
 said dryly : " I '11 mend it mesilf, up-stairs, an' 
 bring it back against I go whome ! " 
 
 Matilda followed her to the door, with a few
 
 68 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 remarks ; but Molly turned before she went out, 
 and said, in a voice which insisted upon being 
 heard : " I 'm extramely thankful to yez for yer 
 perliteness ! Ye 've got the manners of a lady, 
 ye have, an' if ye want annything more, let me 
 know it, an' I '11 call agin ! " With which 
 words she sailed out of the kitchen. 
 
 Returning to Mr. Chezzle, she closed the 
 door behind her, and said : " There 's nothin' 
 to call ye down-stairs atall-atall, sir ! It 's the 
 pipes that was stranglin' and one o' the tubs 
 that was cryin' for a thrink ; an' it 's the 
 wringer jist beggin' for a screw in this place, 
 an' the drahr wid the tools is on yer own shilf 
 there, Mr. Chizzle-sir." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Mr. Chezzle, in a tone of great 
 satisfaction, selecting a screw, and, with the 
 weight of those accounts upon him, feeling as 
 if Molly had warded off some enormous burden. 
 " Molly, you 're a blessing to mankind ! " 
 
 " An' that 's more than that gurr'l thinks 
 I 'm after bein' to womm-kind, sir ! " said 
 Molly, her face breaking into smiles all over. 
 It fell dolefully again as she added : " But it 's 
 a sight I 'm glad the byes' mother is spared the 
 lookin' at is the kitchen ! There was n't a 
 thing, from the tubs down to the tay-kittle, but 
 was broken-hearted an' cryin' out to me ! "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 69 
 
 But the wringer was mended, and it was 
 time for her to go home. She went to the bas- 
 ket and took out the parcel she had had in her 
 hand when Matilda knocked. It proved to be 
 a cherry pie which she had made herself with 
 great care, and which she laid on the desk, 
 right on top of Mr. Chezzle's account-book. 
 
 " There ! " she said, with pride. " Fresh 
 this marnin', Mr. Chizzle-sir, an' it does me 
 good to set it before yez, after seein' that 
 hungry old piece on the dresser down-stairs 
 this blessed minute. An' I hope," she added, 
 solemnly, " for the sake of Mrs. Chizzle an' 
 the byes, that it was nivver yersell ate what 's 
 gone o' that pie, sir ! " 
 
 Mr. Chezzle was as delighted as any school- 
 boy with Molly's gift, and began at once to cut 
 out a piece of it with his penknife, expressing 
 his gratitude, and at the same time relieving 
 her of much anxiety by telling her that he had 
 arranged to get his meals at a restaurant. 
 
 She went away with a beaming face and the 
 remark, which she put her head in at the door 
 on purpose to make : " An' the juice is rich an' 
 beautiful, Mr. Chizzle-sir ! "
 
 V. 
 
 CAPTAIN PEPPER'S TALK WITH THE CHILDREN ON THE 
 PORCH. 
 
 OF course Challey and Bob knew nearly all 
 the little boys in Nipsit. Their advan- 
 tages for making acquaintances were excep- 
 tional this summer, because Captain Pepper 
 was as fond of children as ever " Rip Van 
 Winkle " was. He coidd not show himself in 
 the street or sit down in his front porch for 
 any length of time without a flock of children 
 of all sizes and patterns gathering around him. 
 And if he was seen even in his boat alone, peo- 
 ple would say : " There goes Captain Zenas 
 where 's his crew ? " The very babies cried for 
 him. When the Tuckit children were going 
 through the teething period, he had to go to the 
 post-office by a back way, unless he wanted to 
 take some of them along. The irresistible mag- 
 netism of a good heart, which showed itself 
 throughout his personality, attracted all young
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 71 
 
 people to him. Even the little mute, who had 
 never heard his kindly voice or one of his en- 
 chanting stories, would bang on the window- 
 pane, if she saw him pass the house, as if she 
 meant to break the glass, and pantomime the 
 act of hauling up the sail of a boat, which was 
 her way of begging him to take her with him. 
 And he generally did so, for children were 
 never in his way. If he was mending a net, 
 or patching a sail, he could tell a story just as 
 well meanwhile ; and if he had work to do in 
 " the shop," he could station a few children 
 about on the shaving-heap, door-step, carpen- 
 ter' s-bench, or a dozen places as conveniently 
 as he could put his tools away where they be- 
 longed. 
 
 Nobody could have been more watchful 
 than he was over his two charges, Challey and 
 Bob. He made it a point always to know 
 where they were and in what company. They 
 were never afraid to tell him, because, if he dis- 
 approved, he was sure to have something to 
 propose which they liked better. " If a person 
 has n't got wit enough to know how to turn 
 the weathercocks of children's minds to suit 
 himself, he 'd better not meddle with them," 
 he used to say. 
 
 One day, returning with his mail from the
 
 72 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 post-office, he met Challey and Bob, Alex 
 Tuckit, Crissy Jones, Jim Holburn, and Zanzi- 
 bar, filing out of his gate. 
 
 " Hold on ! Where are ye bound ? " he asked. 
 
 " Gull Ma'sh," they all answered at once. 
 
 " We 're going whaling ! " said Bob, whose 
 voice rang out above all the others. 
 
 "Well, heave-to a spell first, can't you?" 
 said the captain. " Here 's a letter for you ; 
 don't you want to read it ? " 
 
 "I I 'd just as lieve wait till after sup- 
 per," said Bob, in a hurry to get off. Challey 
 tucked a long stick, which he had sharpened at 
 one end for a harpoon, under his arm, and was 
 breaking the seal of the letter while the cap- 
 tain was saying persuasively : " Well, whaling 
 is serious work. It takes a long time to to 
 look after a whale when you 've caught him. 
 Now, if you should read the letter first, you 'd 
 have nothin' to interfere with business, and 
 could go off and ketch the whale, and maybe 
 have him skinned afore supper time don't 
 ye see ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Challey, following the captain 
 to the porch. " And this is from mamma, too. 
 Come along, fellows, and hear Cap'm Pepper 
 read it." 
 
 The captain put on his spectacles, while the
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 73 
 
 boys and the dog all sat down in a huddle 
 around him. They giggled and punched 
 one another until the captain was ready to 
 begin. 
 
 " Now, boys," he said, " I want you to be 
 quiet. When mothers put their sayins down, 
 ther 's generally somethin' worth hearin'. So 
 I 'd like to know first who 's goin' to listen." 
 
 " I am ! " they all cried. 
 
 " I 'm goin' to listen like a house afire ! " 
 said little Jim Holburn, looking up into the 
 captain's face. 
 
 " So you shall, chap. Come ; up here, 
 chap ! " Captain Pepper said, tapping his knee, 
 and holding his hand out. Jim went and hid 
 his frowzy head behind his hat, against the 
 captain's blue flannel shirt. Poor little Jim ! 
 His mother had died last winter, and the only 
 person left to take care of him was Miss Lizy 
 Green, and she, according to Jim's account, 
 " was n't blood-related nohow " to him, and was 
 " only some kind of a cousin to somebody in 
 the fam'ly that was dead ! " 
 
 So the captain, who understood, patted Jim's 
 shoulder while he read Mrs. Chezzle's letter to 
 the. boys. It was all about her life in the little 
 French suburb, and about their cousin Maria 
 Antoinette, who had so many toys that Mrs.
 
 74 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Chezzle doubted, she said, if even the * Luella ' 
 could hold them all. 
 
 There was a murmur of " oh ! " at the state- 
 ment, and various sentiments were exchanged 
 to the effect that it was a pity Maria could not 
 sail over to Nipsit with the whole cargo, and 
 that it was an awful waste to have toys meant 
 only for girls in such abundance. If they were 
 only little boats, and engines, and soldiers, 
 what treasures they would be ! Nothing else 
 in the letter caused any particular excitement 
 until a shout was raised by the postscript : 
 " Maria and I are very curious to know what a 
 ' torshunt ' is. We suppose it is some strange 
 animal brought by one of the sailors from a 
 foreign land. Be careful not to let it bite you. 
 I hope it is not dangerous." 
 
 " What in the name of wonder have you 
 boys been writing to her about a torshent ? " 
 asked Captain Pepper. 
 
 " Why-ee ! " cried Bob. " I wrat all about 
 the time we found Ranna and saved her 
 from being scalped by the Indians don't you 
 know?" 
 
 " Oho ! ho ! ho ! " roared the captain, and 
 Challey imitated him, shouting : 
 
 " Oho ! ho ! I say, Bob, Cap'm Pepper said 
 the youngest child was a torshent ; so Maria 's
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 75 
 
 one, of course. We '11 write and tell mamma 
 to be careful she don't bite ! " 
 
 The idea caused so much fun that Alex 
 Tuckit finally jumped up and said he thought 
 they had " drapped anchor long 'nough," and 
 that it was about time they " tacked for the 
 Ma'sh." 
 
 Alex was invaluable to Challey and Bob, 
 he knew so many sea-terms. After the chil- 
 dren had gone the captain opened a letter ad- 
 dressed to himself, which he had forgotten until 
 then. It was from Molly Dolan, and as the 
 spelling was quite original, and there were no 
 stops, it was a work of time to decipher it. 
 
 Molly wrote : 
 
 " It 's a wild profeshun is followin' the sa 
 for them thats boarn an brort up in botes an 
 newer noes wat it is to tred on firrm sile but 
 larns to wawk on the rollling Dape an gets 
 that yuste to it thade go to slape wid Wales 
 an Allygaiters an no more is aven a Crockky- 
 dile to thirn I mane than kittns wid thare ise 
 shut but its thim bies makin frins wid a Wale 
 that ime dramin of till I sa thim in me mind 
 wawk doun his trote an its Bob wood be willin 
 an not wate to No wat wuz beyant an its challe 
 mite be dramin an find himsel inside the cratur 
 an nivver no ware he Wuz nor the wa out an
 
 76 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 du it he wud in his innysinse in spite of the 
 korshun hede resaved from joner that wuz 
 swollered at the sundy-skool but he wood not 
 helave it an now wil yuze captin Pepperser lave 
 him to convints himsel inside the Wale ide 
 like to No Mary ami Dolan." 
 
 " Well ! well ! " said Captain Pepper to him- 
 self, rising and putting the letter in his pocket. 
 " You can't put reason into a head where there 
 are n't any brains for it to stick to ! " 
 
 He went to the shop to do a little work, but 
 his mind was disturbed. Molly's letter vexed, 
 as much as it amused, him. He did not see 
 why she should bother her head because the 
 children chose to let her know they were build- 
 ing a whale-trap. They might build forty, if 
 they wanted to, and what harm would there 
 be if they fancied that they were going to 
 catch even the old Sea Serpent, if they chose? 
 It was about as safe an occupation as they 
 could be engaged in, and, so far from worrying 
 about it, he decided to put some nails and a 
 tool or two in the " Luella," take her round by 
 the marsh, through the guzzle, and after giving 
 the youngsters a little help at their famous 
 whale-trap, to treat them all to a sail home.
 
 VI. 
 
 HOW LUCKY IT WAS THAT BOB'S LEG WAS NOT BITTEN 
 ENTIRELY OFF. 
 
 IT was as difficult to distinguish what any 
 one of the five little boys, all talking at 
 once, was saying, as it would have been to tell 
 which was which among their ten bare legs, 
 walking so fast, all in a huddle, down the vil- 
 lage street. Now and then one voice, oftenest 
 Bob's, screamed down the others ; but even that 
 required skill. As they went hurrying by 
 Elisha Barnes's neat cottage, they were stopped 
 and silenced all at once by his little mute 
 daughter banging, with aU her might, upon 
 one of the window-panes. She shook her hand 
 to them, nodded and laughed with so much 
 joy at beholding her friends Challey and Bob, 
 that the boys stood in a row, looking over the 
 fence and returning her gestures for a moment. 
 Then she left the window and ran quickly
 
 78 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 around to open the door, making vigorous signs 
 to them, pointing down the road with one hand, 
 and drawing a circle around her head with the 
 forefinger of the other. 
 
 " Let her come ! Let her come ! " cried 
 Challey. " She wants to get her hat and go 
 with us. Do let her, Mrs. Barnes, won't you ? 
 I'll take care of her." Her mother had in- 
 stantly followed the little one to the door, 
 and, after a moment's hesitation, assented, and 
 handed the child her hat. 
 
 Challey and Bob had been to see her several 
 times since the day when she had been lost. 
 They, especially Challey, had taken great pleas- 
 ure in showing her their picture-books and 
 teaching her to build houses in Captain Pepper's 
 porch with their blocks. She had claimed Chal- 
 ley as her particular friend and protector from 
 the moment when she had first seen him. Out 
 of her helplessness and the boy's great heart 
 (" like his mother's for oil the wurrld ! " MoUy 
 Dolan often said) there had sprung up a strong 
 sympathy and the first friendship which little 
 Ranna had ever formed. Miranda that was 
 her name. Challey had asked until he found 
 out. It was curious that so few people knew 
 it ; he could not understand that at first. 
 But the reason was simply, as Captain Pepper
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 79 
 
 had said, because there was so little use for 
 it. To attract Ranna's attention, her father, 
 mother, and brother Shirley were obliged to 
 touch her, to tap upon the floor or upon some- 
 thing by means of which she could feel the jar 
 or vibration. Nobody called her by her name. 
 Shirley, with that mysterious instinct of chil- 
 dren which seeks to shield from observation 
 natural defects in those they love, never talked 
 about her much. He took a great deal of care 
 of her, and was, consequently, not very often 
 with the village children. They were invari- 
 ably kind to her, would step out of her way, 
 run to pick up things for her, and the like, but 
 they had nothing in common with her. They 
 could not understand her, and therefore re- 
 garded her only as a curiosity. And she re- 
 garded them how ? Who can tell ? 
 
 With Challey and Bob it was different. They 
 thought they had rescued her from a wild 
 Indian, and they had certainly befriended her 
 when she was in great distress. Their very 
 ignorance of her affliction had made the best 
 beginning possible to their friendship, leading 
 them to treat her just as they would any other 
 child. So she trotted along now, perfectly 
 content, looking up at Challey with her intelli- 
 gent eyes, now and then crooning her inarticu-
 
 80 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 late monotones, and constantly gesticulating 
 with one hand, while she held her companion's 
 with the other. 
 
 " I 'in so used to seein' her, that I never 
 think about her at all," said Jim Holburn. 
 
 "/ do I like to make her gobble," said 
 Crissy Jones. 
 
 " She don't gobble ! " cried Bob, " any more 
 than you do ; an' if you say that, I '11 I '11 " 
 
 " Come on, then, an' do it ! " said Crissy, 
 always ready for fisticuffs, and squaring off. 
 
 " All right ! " said Bob, doubling up his fists 
 in a way which showed that he was not used 
 to it. 
 
 Crissy was delighted. " Hoo-ray for Dixie ! " 
 he cried. " A fight for Dummy ! A fight for 
 Dummy ! " and he knocked off Bob's hat to 
 begin with. 
 
 c5 
 
 " Hold up there ! " screamed Challey, letting 
 go of Ranna, and pushing himself between 
 Crissy and Bob. " If you 're going to fight 
 Bob, you 've got to fight me first, I tell you ; 
 and you shan't call Ranna ' Dummy,' either ! " 
 
 " Dummy ! Dummy ! Dummy ! " squealed 
 Criss, dancing around joyfully, with fists first 
 striking out at Challey and then at Bob. 
 
 " I will fight him ! " screamed Bob. " I 
 will fight him, even if he beats ! "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 81 
 
 " Hold on, I say ! " cried Alex, coming 1 to the 
 rescue and seizing Criss from behind. " If 
 you 're boun' to fight, Criss Jones, take a feller 
 yer own size ! " and Criss rolled over in the 
 dust. 
 
 Before he could get up, Bob straddled over 
 his body, Challey sat down on his legs, and 
 Zanzibar, who thought it was all a play got up 
 for his benefit, pounced upon the heap. 
 
 " Now, Criss Jones," cried Alex, trying to 
 hold down his arms, while the dog was career- 
 ing, " you 've got to promise to behave yerself, 
 or else you shan't go with us ; we '11 go back 
 an' get Captain Pepper ! " 
 
 " Yes ! " screamed Challey. " An' make him 
 say he won't call Ranna i Dummy ! ' He 's 
 a dummy, an' she is n't ! " 
 
 " Wait till I git hold o' you jest, Chal Chez- 
 zle ! " said Criss. 
 
 " Promise ! " cried Alex. 
 
 And there they were, all screaming at once, 
 Ranna looking frightened, and little Jim hold- 
 ing her away from the quarreling boys. But 
 Criss was so overpowered that he promised at 
 last, with a very bad grace and an ominous fist 
 at Challey. 
 
 " I '11 hev a settlin' with you for callin' me a 
 dummy ! " he said. " What / said was true, 
 an' what you said is a lie, for she is dumb ! "
 
 82 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " She is not dumb ! " cried Challey, so furi- 
 ous that, for a moment, every one else was 
 silent. " Animals are dumb, and and people 
 that have n't got wits. Her mother says that 
 at the ins'tute over to Boston, where she goes 
 sometimes on purpose to learn signs to show 
 to Ranna, they call the people mutes, and they 
 don't like to be called dumb ; and it 's meaner 
 to do it to Ranna because she can't hear you 
 and tell you not to ! And if you can't under- 
 stand that, you are dumb, and I " 
 
 " Belay now, ChaUey !" cried Alex. "Don't 
 you go and put a match to him again." 
 
 " Well," said Crissy, " what do ye call her 
 when she makes them noises an' slings her arms 
 roun' every wich way an' don't mean nothin' at 
 all?" 
 
 " She does mean something," said Challey ; 
 they were walking along again, amicably now ; 
 " only she does n't know how to say it. 
 Everything she does means something, and if 
 we were only smart enough, we might know 
 what. Captain Pepper told us a lot about 
 Ranna. He said, if we only knew how to 
 understand her, she could teach us beautiful 
 things, maybe, because because she has n't 
 learned anything wrong, or wicked, and her 
 heart is pure, and perhaps "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 83 
 
 " Yes, and he said she could teach us other 
 things besides goodness," cried Bob, " because 
 her eyes are a great deal brighter than talking- 
 folkses eyes, and she can move quicker " 
 
 " I guess she can't move any quicker than 
 me ! " cried Jim, who liked to tell of his accom- 
 plishments. " I can run like sixty ! " 
 
 " Pooh ! " shouted Bob. " She can run like 
 like a million ! " 
 
 This was a crushing statement ; but as the 
 popular sentiment now was in favor of heaping 
 nothing but praise upon the unconscious little 
 Ranna, Crissy was silent. 
 
 When they reached the marsh the tide was 
 pretty high, and they looked for the whale im- 
 mediately. Not finding it, they fell to playing 
 with their boats. They rolled up their trousers 
 as high as possible, and were busy, in a few 
 minutes, wading in and out of the water, work- 
 ing at a dam in one place, and a wharf in 
 another, with occupation delightfully unlimited, 
 both in quantity and pleasure. Challey had 
 Ranna to take care of, so he did not enter fully 
 into the sport, but continually returned to her 
 where she sat in a dry place among the rushes. 
 On the way there she had found a bird's-nest 
 with a broken egg-shell in it, and she was study- 
 ing it. Children with the gift of speech would
 
 84 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 not have looked at it for more than a minute. 
 But Ranna could not ask questions I She had 
 to discover all she could by herself, and let the 
 rest go. So she examined the nest, turned it 
 over and over, traced with her small forefinger 
 some of the twigs, and tried to find out whether 
 it grew so, or who made it, and why the egg 
 was broken. She only asked one thing which 
 Challey understood. Spreading out her arms, 
 she moved them like wings, as when she had 
 imitated the gulls, then laid her cheek on her 
 open hand and shut her eyes. Opening them 
 again, she pointed to the nest and looked at 
 Challey. Challey puzzled a moment or two, and 
 then, repeating her signs, nodded and pointed 
 to the sky. She wanted to know if birds slept 
 in the nest, and he had told her that they did, 
 but they had flown away. He wished he knew 
 what she was thinking about while she was in 
 such a brown study over it. She would not 
 have known that it had anything to do with 
 birds if she had not seen a ground-bird's nest 
 once, with four little young ones in it. 
 
 While she was busy in this way, Alex and 
 Crissy were at work upon the dam, and Bob 
 and Jim were sailing their boats. 
 
 Suddenly, down went Ranna' s nest, up she 
 sprang, and pointed to the water, running from
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 85 
 
 boy to boy to make each one look. Her eyes 
 were always the first to discover everything. 
 It had seemed as if she could not see anything 
 from her seat among the rushes. 
 
 " Hi ! it 's the whale ! " screamed Bob, in a 
 minute up to his thighs in the water by the 
 trap. 
 
 Sure enough, a large, clumsy creature of 
 some sort had got into the shallow water and 
 was swimming in great curves, trying to find 
 the opening by which he had entered. It 
 was easy to follow its movements because of 
 the big fin in the middle of its back, which 
 stuck out of the water and made an enormous 
 wake. 
 
 Here was the chance for which the boys had 
 waited so long ! Alex stationed himself on 
 one side of the trap, Crissy and Bob on the 
 other, with planks ready to drop between the 
 stakes as soon as the fish should be obliging 
 enough to swim through the little creek into 
 the inner pond. But it declined to swim any- 
 where near the creek. It only curved, rapidly 
 and stupidly, in huge figure 8s, around, and 
 back, and around again. 
 
 " Give it up ! " cried Bob, in a few minutes ; 
 and leaving his plank to Crissy, he waded out 
 and ran to the edge of the bay, where the fish,
 
 86 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 in its curves, made its nearest approach to the 
 shore. Then Bob's legs were everywhere around 
 the bay, in it, and out of it. The other boys 
 watched the fish, which Alex and Crissy rec- 
 ognized now as a dogfish, without the least 
 idea of what Bob's intentions were. They had 
 all deserted the trap because Alex, with a sud- 
 den gleam of intelligence, had said : " There '11 
 be plenty of time to h'ist the planks after he 
 swims through ! Let 's watch him till he does 
 it; you could see him better if ye 'd stop 
 rarin' an' anchor in one spot, Bob ! " 
 
 But Bob was intent upon his own enterprise, 
 and nobody was anxious about him except 
 Zanzibar, who raced after him in every direc- 
 tion, whining at him piteously, and barking 
 loudly at the fish. Ranna knew what he was 
 after. She was the only one who did, and she 
 danced with glee. She knew nothing of fear 
 except what actual experience had taught her. 
 One day when Mr. Parker, the gentleman who 
 owned the prettiest of the five summer cottages 
 in Nipsit, was driving his family through the 
 village with his pair of fast, black horses, 
 Ranna, left alone for a minute, had walked 
 across the road under their very noses. It took 
 all Mr. Parker's strength and skill to rein in 
 the animals, who reared and plunged frightfully
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 87 
 
 while the little mute walked leisurely across 
 their path. Mrs. Parker's scream brought 
 Shirley, white with terror, to his sister's side ; 
 but Ranna, feeling the horses' breath upon her 
 head, had only looked up at them and smiled 
 gently into their faces. A horse had never 
 hurt the child why should she be startled by 
 one, or any number of them ? The day when 
 she had been lost in the woods, it was not a 
 wild Indian, as Challey and Bob had fully per- 
 suaded themselves it was, that had frightened 
 her ; it was a frog which had jumped into 
 her lap ; and now, while she was whoUy un- 
 moved by the plunging horses, she would have 
 been beside herself with terror at the sight of 
 one poor, wee little frog ! So, she was not a 
 bit afraid of the huge dogfish, but hoped with 
 all her heart that Bob would catch him ; and 
 she knew that was what he was after, knee- 
 deep in the water, where at every sweep the 
 creature came nearer. 
 
 Now it was coming ! 
 
 " Come out, Bob ! " shouted Challey, use- 
 lessly, for the twentieth time. Here it comes ! 
 Bob made no sound, for fear of scaring it 
 away. Nearer this time, nearer here it is ! 
 And Bob, with a frantic lunge, grabs it by the 
 tail!
 
 88 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Ah, what a shriek ! For, with the touch 
 of his hands, the animal gave a turn and buried 
 his teeth in Bob's leg ! One shriek ? Shriek 
 upon shriek from poor little Bob for an in- 
 stant, as he came staggering out of the water, 
 the blood streaming from his leg. Challey, 
 gasping, too frightened to scream, was helping 
 him on one side, while Alex was on the other, 
 and they sat him down on the grass. Every 
 boy was pale with fright. Challey thought 
 Bob was hurt unto death ! 
 
 " Tie it up ! How shall we tie it up ? " he 
 cried pitifully, pulling out his small handker- 
 chief for the purpose. The wound was dread- 
 ful, and there was the blood streaming and 
 only three mites of handkerchiefs among all 
 the boys. " Ranna ! maybe Ranna 's got one ! " 
 thought Challey. 
 
 Poor little Ranna ! She did not know what 
 all the excitement was about. The boys had 
 crowded around Bob so quickly that she had 
 not caught sight of the wound or the blood. 
 She had only seen the fish swim away, was dis- 
 appointed, and began looking for her nest 
 again. Challey now ran to her, caught her 
 by the hand, drew her quickly over to Bob, 
 showing her a handkerchief, and pointing first 
 to her pocket and then to his leg.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 89 
 
 She looked, innocently, where he pointed ; 
 her eyes caught sight of the wound and the 
 blood, and her face grew ghastly pale in an 
 instant. Then she turned sick and faint, and 
 threw herself upon the ground, uttering that 
 piteous wail of hers. 
 
 Challey could not attend to her Bob was 
 bleeding to death ! He began with trembling 
 hands to try to stop the blood with the mis- 
 erable little handkerchiefs. Ranna was too 
 much frightened to lie still. In an instant she 
 
 O 
 
 was up again, wailing loudly, her face all 
 drawn with horror, looking towards Bob. Ha ! 
 she saw what Challey was doing ! Quicker 
 than thought, she saw everything and knew 
 that he and Alex were trying to bind Bob's 
 leg. The small handkerchiefs were already 
 saturated with the blood that was sickening 
 oh, so sickening to her ! Anything anything 
 to cover up the dreadful sight 1 That was 
 Ranna' s instinct, as she clutched at her muslin 
 frock. Its touch was enough for her quick wit, 
 and in a moment she was struggling to get 
 it off, frantic in her dumb appeal for help. 
 Challey any of them might have understood 
 her then, but it was Challey who undid the 
 buttons and had the dress off in a minute. 
 Alex bound it around the poor little leg as
 
 90 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 well as he could, for it was clumsy to manage, 
 and they never thought of tearing it. 
 
 Then Challey sat down by his little brother 
 and put his arm around him. " You you 
 need n't cr-cry, Challey ! I do-don't Vlieve 
 I'mk-k-killed ami?" 
 
 " No ! no ! no ! " screamed all the boys at 
 once, while the tears rolled most piteously down 
 the face of Challey, who was less certain. 
 
 " What 's Ranna doing now ? " cried Crissy, 
 pointing to where she had run out on a grassy 
 point and was waving both arms frantically 
 over her head, sending her long, monotonous 
 cries out over the water. 
 
 Ah ! It was Captain Pepper's boat ! Tack- 
 ing far out because of the shoals ; but he was 
 there and would surely come to them. 
 
 " Captain Pepper ! Captain Pepper ! " 
 screamed Jim's shrill voice as he ran to join 
 the shivering and wailing Ranna. Every boy 
 watched the boat until it reached the old pier. 
 Certainly, in all the voyages he had ever 
 made, the captain was never more astonished 
 than he was by the sight of Ranna in her pet- 
 ticoats, little Jim trying to put his jacket on 
 her, and the bundle which the others were tell- 
 ing him was Bob's leg ! 
 
 When the wind blows softly, the water acts
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 91 
 
 as a sounding-board and carries the voice far 
 and clearly. Away out, before he tacked for 
 the narrow channel which he called a "guz- 
 zle," Captain Pepper had heard Ranna's wail, 
 like the cry of a screech-owl at night, from the 
 end of the grassy point. As he steered and 
 came nearer he saw her flinging her arms 
 about in greater excitement than he had ever 
 known her to be in before. It was of no use 
 for Jim to try to get his jacket on her. Her 
 horror at the sight of Bob's wound threw her 
 into a state of wild distress, and when the cap- 
 tain arrived she was almost in hysterics. She 
 ran to and fro between the old pier, where the 
 captain moored his boat, and the group of 
 boys gathered on the beach around Bob, in 
 anguish so much greater because she had no 
 vent for it in speech, that it was impossible to 
 attend to Bob at all until she was quieted. It 
 was thoughtful Challey who accomplished this. 
 The moment the captain approached, with the 
 panic-stricken child clinging to his hands, 
 his knees, any part of him, Challey cried : 
 " Come here ; this side, Capt'm Pepper ! / '11 
 take care of Ranna, so you can take care of 
 Bob ! " and he had forcibly taken Ranna's 
 little bare arms from around the captain and 
 drawn her away. Then, while the captain ex-
 
 92 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 amined and rebound Bob's leg, Challey gave 
 himself to the task of soothing the little mute, 
 drawing her farther and farther away toward 
 the boat. With his touch the extravagance of 
 her fright subsided, and when Captain Pep- 
 per came, carrying Bob in his arms, Challey 
 had coaxed her to put Jim's jacket on at last, 
 and she was only beating her hands together 
 and moaning. 
 
 Bob was all right now, and, with his arms 
 tight around Captain Pepper's neck, there was 
 no fear of his dying. 
 
 " I ain't going to die at all, Challey ! " he 
 called, as soon as he was within hearing of his 
 brother. " And Cap'm Pepper says my leg ain't 
 bitten off, either ; there 's plenty of it left for 
 it to to hitch on by ! " 
 
 That was an immense relief to little Jim 
 Holburn, who had confidently expected to see 
 Bob's leg drop off when the captain lifted him 
 from the ground. 
 
 The reaction from fright and anxiety made 
 the boys intensely happy now. By and by, 
 when Bob lay on a bed made for him on one 
 of the seats, with Challey sitting on a box be- 
 side him, and they told the captain how the ac- 
 cident had happened, Bob was feeling not at 
 all like a martyr, but like a hero who might 
 even be envied.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 93 
 
 "I tell you what, Challey," he said, exult- 
 ing in the experience, " there won't be any of 
 the boys at school that '11 have anything like 
 this leg to tell about ! This is heaps more 
 wonderful than Fred Wellington's yachts an' 
 things ! " 
 
 But ah 1 the cheerfulness that had returned 
 to the boys could not drive away the dazed, 
 frightened look from little Ranna's face. She 
 sat pale and silent all the way home, and no- 
 body could coax the shadow of a smile from 
 her.
 
 VII. 
 
 THE UTTER USELESSNESS OF TRYING TO CONVINCE MOLLY 
 DOLAN THAT A DOGFISH IS NOT A WHALE. 
 
 /CAPTAIN PEPPER was familiar with every 
 \J book on the shelves of the Nipsit Library, 
 except those in the " Fiction " department. He 
 had traveled over a great part of the world's 
 waters, had met Stanley on the coast of Africa, 
 Agassiz on the coast of Brazil, and many other 
 great men who liked to talk with him quite as 
 much as he did with them, and he said he knew 
 " too much of real life to care about what was 
 made up." Pacts were strange enough for him 
 and more interesting than fiction. But, al- 
 though so fond of reading, he had the strong- 
 est dislike to writing. His active occupations 
 by day were out of all harmony with pen and 
 ink. After he had dressed Bob's wound prop- 
 erly with a slice of fresh pork, and supper was 
 over with, he considered it an easier matter to
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 95 
 
 hunt up somebody who was going to Boston 
 the next morning and would undertake to have 
 a personal interview with Mr. Chezzle and tell 
 him all about it, than to write even a meagre 
 account of the accident. Mrs. Tuckit, who 
 came to sit with Bob while he was absent, sug- 
 gested that he might telegraph ; but the captain 
 had an unconquerable objection to sending 
 messages in that way. 
 
 " No," he said, " I 'm goin' to do ez I 'd be 
 done by. / was n't ever telegraphed to by any- 
 body, an' I hope I won't be. I don't know 
 any kind o' news that spiles by keepin' a spell. 
 Telegraphs don't make good news any better, 
 and the only thing they do to bad news is to 
 scare a man out of his senses 'fore they tell it to 
 him ! I '11 look round and see who 's going by 
 the early coach ; that 's the best tack to take." 
 
 After a short search he found Captain Jones, 
 who not only intended to take the earliest train 
 from West Barnstable for Boston, but made 
 the practical suggestion that he should accom- 
 pany Captain Pepper home and see Bob for 
 himself, and that they might stop on the 
 way to get Dr. Skorry to join them, that the 
 most satisfactory report possible might be con- 
 veyed to Mr. Chezzle. His forethought spared 
 that gentleman more anxiety than a little, for
 
 96 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 young Crissy accompanied his father, and his 
 embellishments to the story of the disaster left 
 poor Bob with very little of a leg to stand 
 upon. As an eye-witness, Crissy 's testimony, 
 if considered by itself, would have made Mr. 
 Chezzle's hair stand on end with horror. 
 
 Although spared any serious alarm, Mr. 
 Chezzle decided, however, that he would go to 
 Nipsit by the afternoon train and take Molly 
 Dolan with him. He dispatched a note to her 
 at once, directing her to go to his room, pack 
 a bag for him, and to meet him herself, if pos- 
 sible, at the station. When he reached there, 
 hot and breathless from hurry and hard work, 
 there was MoUy already in the car, with Mr. 
 Chezzle's valise and more bundles than he could 
 count. Her face was fiery red, and her eyelids 
 much swollen from crying. 
 
 " Why, Molly ! Molly ! " said Mr. Chezzle, 
 kindly, taking a seat beside her. " It is n't so 
 bad as that ! Captain Jones has seen fish-bites 
 a great deal worse, and he says little Bob will 
 do finely." 
 
 But Molly only shook with sobs, and groaned 
 into her handkerchief : " Oh, that whale ! that 
 wha-a-le ! " 
 
 "But it wasn't a whale," said Mr. Chezzle ; 
 " it was only a "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 97 
 
 " Don't be tellin' me that, Mr. Chizzle-if-ye- 
 plaze-sir with a contrivance to make me moind 
 aisy ! " said Molly, mournfully. " It 's thim sa- 
 captins don't think anny more o' whales than 
 yersilf does of a hop-toad. An' it 's Bob the 
 blessed chilt that 'd walk down the crathur's 
 troat he wud, as aisy as he 'd run down the 
 back stairs after his rubber ball ! Oh, where 
 was Captin Pepper not to be holdin' him back 
 from his own desthruction ? " And Molly took 
 a clean handkerchief out of her pocket for a 
 fresh burst of tears. 
 
 " But," said Mr. Chezzle, " Captain Pepper 
 could not imagine that Bob would dash into 
 the water to nab a fish four times his own 
 size by the tail ! George ! " he exclaimed to 
 himself, taking off his hat to wipe his forehead, 
 as the perspiration gathered suddenly, with a 
 pang of apprehension as to what Bob's next 
 inspiration might prompt him to do. But he 
 only said mildly to Molly : " We must n't 
 blame Captain Pep " 
 
 " Captain Pepper ! " she exclaimed, stiffen- 
 ing her back and glaring sideways at Mr. Chez- 
 zle. " Pepper ! I '11 pepper him ! An' it '11 
 be red pepper, wid mustard ! an' vinegar ! an' 
 bilin' wather to mix 'em wid ! Wait till I set 
 eyes on him ! "
 
 98 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Mr. Chezzle thought it best to be quiet 
 and let Molly's wrath cool awhile. The cars 
 bumped and whizzed along noisily for some 
 time, and then, as she was looking out of the 
 window quietly, he thought it safe to remark : 
 " See what fine cranberry patches those " 
 
 " An' where 's his mind gone thin ? " Molly 
 interrupted, rolling her eyes again. " Cud he 
 take wan look at the legs o' that darlint, an' 
 not know they 'd go into anny place in the 
 wurrild the first chance they got ? No he 
 cuddent, Mr. Chizzle-sir, no he cuddent ! The 
 bye's legs spake for thimsilves ! " 
 
 So they continued their journey, Molly break- 
 ing out every little while in this way. Mr. 
 Chezzle's patience was inexhaustible. He knew 
 that Molly would lay down her life for his two 
 boys, if it was necessary, and he thought she 
 was therefore entitled to an escape-valve for 
 her feelings. He knew, too, that it was after 
 the manner of her wrath to expend itself in 
 building up plans for vengeance, and to think 
 of bitter things to say, but that the plans were 
 never carried out or the dreadful things .said. 
 
 Her imagination had never worked up so 
 many reproaches, nevertheless, as she was de- 
 termined now to heap upon Captain Pepper. 
 However, by and by the cars jogged her into
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 99 
 
 a state of drowsiness ; she snored, and Mr. 
 Chezzle read his paper, thinking that she was 
 " sleeping it off." 
 
 But, just as they neared their station, she 
 roused, jerked herself upright, and said, omi- 
 nously : " An' I '11 jist ask him if he 's blind 
 not to have seen it in his legs that somethin' 
 was comin' ! " If the conductor had not cried, 
 " West Barnstable ! " she* would have gone on, 
 no doubt. 
 
 But she had to be packed into the stage- 
 coach with all her bundles, and as Mr. Chezzle 
 shared the front seat with the driver, she had 
 no further opportunity for conversation. 
 
 And at last they were at Captain Pepper's 
 gate ; he was helping her out himself. Mrs. 
 Tuckit was in the doorway, smiling and cheery, 
 calling out that Bob was " nicely could n't 
 be doing better ! " She had come across the 
 road to help get supper, in case Mr. Chezzle 
 came. The captain was carrying Molly's trunk 
 up stairs, Challey was hugging papa who was 
 paying the driver, Bob was calling out lustily 
 from the sitting-room where he was propped up 
 on the sofa, and where papa's supper was laid. 
 Molly was hustled into the house, she did n't 
 know how, and, the minute papa's hug was 
 over, was down on her knees beside Bob, so
 
 100 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 glad at the sight of his tousled hair and honest 
 little face that her heart was full of nothing 
 but kindliness. 
 
 With everybody talking at once, nobody un- 
 derstood anything for a little while, but the 
 sight of the boys, ruddy and sunburnt, was 
 enough. Mrs. Tuckit took Molly into the kit- 
 chen, and not only gave her her supper, but 
 answered her questions. And when she learned 
 that the captain had not only prepared his best 
 room for Mr. Chezzle, but that one was ready 
 for her too, and that she, Molly Dolan, was to 
 be treated as a guest in " Luella's house," the 
 last spark of her resentment vanished. 
 
 " I did n't know as anybody 'd come," said 
 Captain Pepper ; " but I thought it 'd go hard 
 with ye to stay away, an' it would n't do any 
 harm to have the decks cleared an' the fo'- 
 castle ready. So make yourselves at home an' 
 carry full sail if ye like, an' report to headquar- 
 ters if everything about the riggin' ain't as it 
 should be ! " 
 
 Face to face with Captain Pepper, Molly never 
 mentioned mustard or vinegar ! He gained 
 ground with her at once by not disputing the 
 identity of the fish, and his own distress over 
 the accident rendered it necessary to console 
 him, and made fault-finding impossible.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 101 
 
 Before going to bed, Molly stepped lightly 
 to the sitting-room door where Mr. Chezzle, hav- 
 ing seen Bob comfortably stowed away for the 
 night, was alone. 
 
 " Whisht now, Mr. Chizzle-sir ! " she said, 
 in a whisper. " If ye plaze ye '11 not be sayin' 
 a wurrid about anny remarks I might be afther 
 makin' on the jarney ! I 've had a conversay- 
 shun wid him, and he 's that mild an' sinsible ! 
 he agraze wid me now, parfectly does the cap- 
 tin, an' he '11 not let the byes play wid the 
 whale anny more ! He 's come to it, an' he 's 
 decided it now, that whales is dangerous coorn- 
 pany for young childers ! Whisht now ! He 's 
 retarnin' ! " And Molly was beaming as she 
 added aloud : " An' I '11 bid yez swate drames 
 an' a good night's rest, Mr. Chizzle an' Captain 
 Pepper-sir ! " 
 
 Molly had only one worry connected with 
 the captain's unusual hospitality, and, anxious 
 to express it, she urged Mrs. Tuckit to accom- 
 pany her to her room, before going home. 
 When she had closed the door carefully she in- 
 vited Mrs. Tuckit to take a seat. Then, still 
 carrying the light, she trod on tiptoe while she 
 opened in turn every door in the room and 
 looked cautiously to see what was behind it. 
 
 " For mercy's sake, Molly, what are you
 
 102 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 looking for ? " asked Mrs: Tuckit, after telling 
 her where three of the doors led. 
 
 " Whisht now, Mrs. Tickles-mum, till I 'm 
 troo, an' I '11 tell yez. An' if ye plaze what 's 
 behint this shart one in under the slant ? " 
 Molly had to bend down to open it. 
 
 " Oh, that 's for anything ; it 's the eaves- 
 closet," answered Mrs. Tuckit. " It 's low, but 
 it 's long and handy for brooms. Aunt Luella 
 used to keep her piece-bags there." 
 
 " Well, I 'd fale best to lock it," said Molly, 
 turning the button. " And this ? " opening 
 another, but she shut it immediately, ex- 
 claiming : " Och ! but it 's big an' dark in 
 there ! " 
 
 " Of course ; that is the back attic, and it 
 has no plastering, only the rough beams and 
 rafters. But I don't see what you care so 
 much for," said Mrs. Tuckit, a little tried by 
 Molly's curiosity, and rising to go. 
 
 " Oh, wait jist a minute longer an' I '11 tell ye 
 now, Mrs. Tickles-mum," said Molly, setting 
 the candle on a corner of the high, narrow 
 mantelpiece. " It 's only only I fale jist 
 a wakeness come over me whin I think of of 
 of Captin Pepper's his you know 
 he 's always talkin' about her his wife that 
 was ! "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 103 
 
 "0 Molly! Molly! What are you afraid 
 of ? " said Mrs. Tuckit, laughing. " Ghosts ? " 
 
 " Oh no no ! " cried MoUy. " But he 's 
 that par-tickerlar, an' he 's that fatiguin'-like, 
 tellin' jist how 6 Lewella ' did this an' ' Lew- 
 ella ' did that ! And Lewella, she 's that con- 
 tinyal, that I fale mesilf onaisy for fear she 
 might be lookin' on if I if I did annything 
 the wrong way like ! " 
 
 Molly's tone and manner were so honestly 
 anxious that Mrs. Tuckit said cheerfully : " Oh, 
 you need not worry a single minute, Molly. 
 Luella Pepper was a good woman. She never 
 made a soul uncomfortable in her lifetime. And 
 you are so neat and careful, MoUy, that I told 
 Captain Pepper, when he got it into his head that 
 you 'd be likely to come and he 'd have a room 
 ready for you ; I said : ' Uncle Zenas, Molly is a 
 girl after Aunt Luella's own heart. Her ways '11 
 be Luella's ways you see if they won't.' 
 And you know you 've been coming to Nipsit 
 a good many summers, Molly, with Mr. Chez- 
 zle's family, and I know you pretty well. So 
 go to bed, and go to sleep, and don't worry 
 a mite. Uncle Zenas needs the help, now Bob 
 is laid up. He has let me help him since yes- 
 terday for the first time since Aunt Luella 
 died, and I was thankful when I saw you get 
 out of the coach, for you can save him heaps
 
 104 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 of work and trouble." Molly's face cleared 
 more and more as Mrs. Tuckit spoke, and she 
 bade her a serene good-night. 
 
 " All the same," she said to herself, " I '11 set 
 the candle on the table beside me, so I can blow 
 it out afther I 'm safe in the bed ! " But she 
 was a little taken aback when she had tied on 
 her nightcap, and was ready to get into bed, 
 by the height she was expected to climb, the 
 " feather-tick " on top of the mattress being 
 about on a level with her waist. 
 
 " How a shart woman like me is goin' to rise 
 to that ! " she said. " Missus Lewella must a' 
 been a tahl one ! "
 
 VIII. 
 
 HOW MARIA BOUNCED INTO THE LITTLE OFFICE AND TOOK 
 A DARK GENTLEMAN INTO HER CONFIDENCE. 
 
 ONE bright morning at Meaux, Maria Penroy 
 was pushing an elegant toy carriage 
 around the garden, airing her precious doll, 
 Marguerite Helene, and a new pink parasol. 
 She was enjoying immensely the additional 
 dignity which the parasol seemed to give her, 
 arid that, combined with the motherly solicitude 
 she was full of for the doll, made the occasion 
 perfect for about ten minutes. Then the 
 kitten, coming out from under the piazza, rec- 
 ognized her favorite t playthings, Maria's dainty 
 heels, and immediately hid behind a flower-pot 
 to he in wait for them. At the same moment 
 Dr. Frediqueue descended from his buggy at 
 the end of the path. Maria, unconscious and 
 happy, was studying the best pose for the par- 
 asol, when the kitten's opportunity came, and 
 
 (105)
 
 106 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 she seized one of the heels. Maria gave a leap, 
 cried out, and allowed the parasol to bounce 
 recklessly into the eyes of Marguerite. She 
 might have managed the situation, however, if 
 she had not caught sight of Dr. Frediqueue 
 rapidly walking towards her. She at once 
 abandoned her heels to the kitten, whose teeth 
 were sharp, turned suddenly, bumped and 
 bounced the carriage, parasol, doll, kitten, and 
 herself into the first refuge through an open 
 door at her side. Then she shut the door with 
 a bang, and jumped upon a window-seat to peep 
 through the glass in order to see if Dr. Fredi- 
 queue had perceived and was following her, 
 not noticing that Marguerite and the parasol 
 had rolled upon the floor together. But, be- 
 fore she had a chance to satisfy herself con- 
 cerning the objectionable doctor, she saw a 
 shadow move, close beside her, and beheld the 
 grim face of a tall, dark man looking sharply 
 at her. That was a climax to her power of 
 endurance. She gave a gasp and screamed. 
 
 " Don't be frightened, my child ! " said the 
 gentleman, in a fine, gentle voice. " See ! I 
 think no harm is done. The point of the para- 
 sol has become entangled in her pretty hair, 
 so " He had removed it and gravely seated 
 the doll against some books on his writing-
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 107 
 
 table. " She is quite composed now ; she only 
 cried out because of the pain ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " said Maria, smiling into the dark 
 face, with intense relief . " It was / screamed. 
 Marguerite did not; you know that, Mon- 
 sieur ! " 
 
 " Yes ? " asked the grave voice. " But she 
 would like her curls smoothed again, no doubt. 
 I would do it, if I knew how ; but I have no 
 little girl to teach me." He leaned back in his 
 chair and folded his hands quietly on the table. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Maria, stepping down from the 
 window-seat and going to her doll. " What a 
 pity that is, Monsieur ! Because you are polite 
 to dolls so very polite. But Monsieur le 
 Docteur Frediqueue ! He, is not polite not at 
 all polite to my Marguerite ! He has called my 
 Marguerite a thing that is f oolish ! Think of 
 that ! So I run to hide myself when he comes 
 near. May I stay in here, Monsieur, until le Doc- 
 teur Frediqueue goes away ? I will sit on the 
 window-seat so my little cat shall not bite my 
 feet." Maria was stooping to rub her suifering 
 ankles, while she continued : " And I will not 
 speak at all, so you can write. Often my chere 
 Tante writes long, long times, and I do not 
 speak one word, only to Marguerite." 
 
 " I do not wish to write now, my little girl,"
 
 108 THE CHEZZLES, 
 
 said the gentleman. " You may sit in this 
 easy-chair, if you like, and we will give your 
 kitten something else to play with. So she 
 has found the curtain-tassel. And what do 
 you do while your aunt is writing ? " 
 
 Maria wheeled the chair a little nearer the 
 table, curled herself up in it comfortably with 
 her doll, and proceeded to give her new friend 
 the details of her life with a summary of the 
 perfections of her aunt and the two cousins in 
 America. 
 
 " And I wish I could write fast like chere 
 Tante ! Then I would make big letters to 
 send to my cousins Shallee and Fob. But it 
 is much hard work to write one little small 
 letter ! " and she heaved a sigh. 
 
 " But you shah 1 write as long ones as you 
 choose, my child," said her friend. " See " 
 drawing some paper towards him and dipping 
 a pen into the ink " you may tell me what 
 to say, and I will write it down for you, word 
 for word, just as you say it." 
 
 " Ah ! what fun that will be ! " cried Maria, 
 springing to her feet to stand close to the 
 table upon which she rested her folded arms. 
 " But," she added, looking suddenly anx- 
 ious, " my cousins cannot read French words 
 at all!"
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 109 
 
 " We will have it in English, then," said the 
 gentleman. " Begin ! " 
 
 " that is fine think ! " she cried, breaking 
 out into her funny English ; " an' you will 
 make a lettre for me more pig than chere 
 Tante's. My cousins they shall haf one lettre 
 fot is pig, pig, pigger zan she kent mite. An' 
 I keep zat a secrette. You fill not tell no- 
 tings to ma tante, Monsieur ? " she asked anx- 
 iously. Her friend promised, and she contin- 
 ued her dictation in such a droll mixture of 
 French, English, and " sailore words," that she 
 required considerable help. But her amanuen- 
 sis tried to preserve the general character of 
 what she said. 
 
 " My fine cousins," she dictated, " I luf not 
 Monsieur le Docteur Frediqueue. He iss not 
 polite to my Marguerite and I luf not more 
 M. le Docteur De la Quille. But all the house 
 luf Tante Helene. She iss mine. She make 
 my Marguerite much robes. My papa luf my 
 goot toll Marguerite Helene Sche-zelle Penneroi 
 ant he gif me twenty francs to puy for her a 
 punk. But the clerks in the stores they laugh 
 ant they are like le Docteur Frediqueue. They 
 are not polite when they know not what is 
 punk. I tell to Papa how they laugh, and he 
 look severe. He say they are much dull that
 
 110 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 they know not sailore words. And it make 
 him feel sad that they laugh at me. He put 
 the blanket to cover his face and he shake. 
 He tell me it is the chill my poor papa ! If 
 my Papa could to go with me to the Palais 
 Royale he tell me he t will say to the clerks and 
 to Monsieur le proprietaire, ' Beelay ! ' I 
 know not that word. Papa say they will be 
 frighten and fear to speak and laugh if they 
 hear ( Belay ! ' Papa like me to learn Eng- 
 lish, so he tell me many words. I read to him 
 the lettres what you send to my Tante. He 
 tell me you are ' fine, leetle shaps.' I ask 
 him what is ' shaps/ an' he tell me it mean 
 to say ' sha - veurs.' My papa tell me fine 
 think. He tell me I go with Suzanne to-mor- 
 row to Paris to buy fine ships for my nice 
 leetle sha-veurs." Maria went on dictating for 
 some time longer until she heard Suzanne's 
 voice calling her. Then it was necessary to 
 settle the doll again in its carriage and leave 
 the cosy little office. 
 
 "But I will come again to-morrow morning, 
 Monsieur, to finish my letter," she called, after 
 getting once more outside of the door. " And 
 my little cat shall stay there sleeping in your 
 window until " here she came back to say 
 quite confidentially " until M. le Docteur
 
 THE CHEZZLES. Ill 
 
 shall go away. Then, put her out, if you 
 please, Monsieur, because it will not matter 
 so much if she runs to catch his feet with 
 her little teeth ! " And Maria hurried away 
 without another word. 
 
 During her short visit she and the dark 
 gentleman had become intimate friends, much 
 to the wonder of Suzanne, who asked her " how 
 in the world she had dared to venture into that 
 dismal hole of a room where nobody ever went, 
 and where the awful countenance of Monsieur 
 le Secretaire d'Etat was enough to frighten a 
 brigand ! " 
 
 But Maria was not communicative, for the 
 moment she told Suzanne she had been hiding 
 from Dr. Frediqueue, the maid cried out in dis- 
 may at the thought of anybody running away 
 from such a charming and amiable gentleman. 
 
 At the same moment the dark gentleman, 
 watching them from the office window, was 
 wondering whether the doctor's rude manners 
 to Maria's doll were enough to account for the 
 child's aversion.
 
 IX. 
 
 SHOWS HOW WELL A LITTLE GIRL CAN SELECT BOATS IN 
 PARIS FOR BOYS IN AMERICA. 
 
 From Mrs. Chezzle's Journal. 
 
 JULY 17. The two doctors asked me to meet 
 them this A. M. in the library and made 
 so much fuss about a communication which 
 they had to make to me that I prepared my 
 mind for something tremendous. When, after 
 working up my imagination to the highest 
 pitch, they informed me only that my brother 
 had made his will, I was indignant and en- 
 joyed provoking them a little by my coolness. 
 
 " Very well ; it would be no business of 
 mine if he made forty," I said. But they 
 went on to say that he had not signed the will, 
 and they wanted me to get him to do it. I 
 flared a little when they began to hint at the 
 misfortune which it might be to me, " in case 
 Monsieur may have made some provision for 

 
 THE CHEZZLES. 113 
 
 his devoted sister." I broke out at once and 
 let them know that an American woman was 
 capable of being disinterested. I mentioned 
 " my husband " with great dignity several times, 
 said lie was able and glad to support me, that 
 I was here to think of the life, not the death 
 of my brother, and refused to have anything 
 to do with his will. But they made me feel 
 ashamed of my anger in two minutes, and I 
 found that they thought Tom had the matter 
 on his mind, and that it was the cause of his 
 restless nights. They praised " the noble in- 
 dependence of Madame and her beautiful, self- 
 sacrificing devotion to her brother." They too, 
 they said, had not the remotest interest in 
 the disposition of Monsieur's wealth ; it was 
 " simply to obtain sleep and rest for his poor 
 exhausted frame that they wished him to sign 
 his will." They said they had not failed to 
 perceive how great was my influence over 
 " Monsieur Pennaroi," and that it was becom- 
 ing stronger every day. Tom had asked them 
 to witness the will, it seems, so really it is more 
 their business than mine, and I am sorry I was 
 so hasty. Of course I apologized and promised 
 to seize the first opportunity to obtain the sig- 
 nature, if I could ; and they offered to come 
 at once, on a message from me, to witness it.
 
 114 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 They are most kind, for they must have an im- 
 mense practice, and an extra visit to the house 
 is always difficult for them to arrange. I asked 
 if it would not be best for my brother to see 
 his lawyers, but they objected seriously and 
 gave their reasons. They declared that Messrs. 
 Roubaix and Duvergne had nearly caused 
 Tom's death, when they had drawn up his 
 will, by their violent opposition to his dis- 
 posal of his property. " They made an effort 
 which was almost superhuman," said M. De la 
 Quille, " to thwart the generous and benevo- 
 lent designs of our noble patient. But we 
 came to his rescue. We convinced him that 
 his lawyers, in their study how to obtain the 
 largest possible revenue from his property and 
 that of other estates, had become hardened 
 against the claims of humanity ! They could 
 not understand the great love of humanity in 
 the soul of such a man as Madame Shezelle's 
 brother ! " etc., etc. Then they went on to say 
 that, but for the interference of these lawyers, 
 the will would have been signed long ago. 
 And they made no attempt to conceal from me 
 that they had used their influence with Tom 
 to estrange him as much as possible from 
 Messrs. Roubaix and Duvergne. So now I un- 
 derstand why the doctors have forbidden us to
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 115 
 
 tell Tom how often M. Duvergne calls to inquire 
 about him. 
 
 Two other grentlemen come to see him and 
 
 O 
 
 have long interviews without doing him the 
 least harm. They look clerical and are mis- 
 sionaries. Tom told me one day that they 
 were giving their lives to a very noble purpose, 
 the establishment of some kind of colony in 
 the island of Madagascar, something to en- 
 courage education among the natives. I know 
 you '11 laugh at that ; but perhaps, if I under- 
 stood more about it, you would not. 
 
 July 18. Tom has Maria with him half the 
 time. She is a darling child innocent and 
 winning. He has talked so oddly to her about 
 his death that I think she has an unconscious 
 idea that he can arrange to go to heaven or 
 not, as he pleases. But I think she would be 
 as completely overwhelmed by the actual event 
 as if she had never heard it hinted at. Noth- 
 ing pleases her so much as the children's 
 letters. She studies all their " sailore talk," 
 and takes pride in bringing it out on all occa- 
 sions. And Tom takes a mischievous delight 
 in making her repeat it to him. Fancy her, 
 with her refined, delicate manner, asking an 
 exquisite French clerk to show her a " bunk " 
 for her doll ! She gave up her search for a
 
 116 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " torshent," as the storekeepers invariably pro- 
 duced dish-toweling. And now I expect her 
 to bring out " Belay ! " under the most awk- 
 ward circumstances. That contamination comes 
 direct from Tom not from our precious 
 boys. 
 
 July 22. I have a strange mixture of things 
 to tell you. In the first place, Tom is going 
 to send our boys two enormous toy boats, 
 the like of which they have never seen. Oh, 
 if I could see their dear faces when Captain 
 Pepper opens the boxes ! Tom ordered Su- 
 sanne to take Maria to the largest toy store in 
 Paris and allow her to select exactly what she 
 wanted. I was sitting in his room last evening 
 when the child opened the door, and the boats 
 were brought in for Tom to see. He had told 
 Maria to order them sent here so that Antoine, 
 who is a universal genius and a connoisseur 
 in boats, might inspect and box them up with 
 especial care. You will not understand my 
 dismay until you see the size of them. I sug- 
 gested having them sailed over to America by 
 a couple of skippers as the easiest way to send 
 them. But the boats surprised me less than 
 Tom, who, propped up in bed, laughed until I 
 was afraid he would have hysteria. I thought, 
 of course, that the matter would be treated as
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 117 
 
 a joke and the gigantic toys returned to the 
 store. But Tom silenced me, insisting that he 
 and Maria understood each other perfectly. 
 He told her that she was a capital shopper, and 
 since he found he could rely upon her, that he 
 would give her further commissions. He de- 
 manded paper and pencil, and wrote off a list 
 of things which Antoine is to obtain, or make, 
 and put into the boxes. He grew so excited 
 that he forgot the pillows behind him, sat up 
 straight, and carried on so with Maria that he 
 had her skipping all over the room, in peals of 
 laughter. It alarmed me, but I was helpless. 
 I tried to make him see the absurdity of send- 
 ing such extravagant gifts to our little in- 
 nocent boys, who think shingles pointed at one 
 end, with sticks for masts, perfectly satisfactory 
 ships. I begged him to lie down and let 
 Maria go to bed, warned him that he would 
 not sleep a wink, etc., etc. But not a word 
 would he reply to me except ( Gammon ! ' 
 
 " Tom ! Tom dear ! " I urged, for I was really 
 worried ; " remember the doctors' orders ! " 
 
 " I will ! " he said ; " thank you for remind- 
 ing me. You can tell them ' Gammon ! ' also." 
 Then he called Maria to his side and said, 
 " Maria, I can depend upon you to do exactly 
 what I ask you, my child? "
 
 118 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " Oui, papa," she said, very attentive immedi- 
 ately. 
 
 " Very well," he said, seriously. " Then I 
 want you to be very polite indeed to messieurs 
 les docteurs, and to tell M. Frediqueue that 
 papa desires you to say to him l Gammon ! ' 
 Can you say that ? " 
 
 " Oui, papa, certainement," she answered. 
 " I will say it so : ' M. le Docteur Frediqueue, 
 mon papa vous present ses compliments, et 
 desire que je vous dise, Ga-monne ! ' 
 
 " That is it, exactly, my darling ! " cried 
 Tom. " And I want you to tell M. De la 
 Quille that papa desires you to say to him, 
 ' Gammon and spinach ! ' Let me hear you re- 
 peat that." 
 
 " Ga-monne et spee-nadge ! " repeated Maria, 
 sweetly. 
 
 " That is near enough, dear," said Tom, 
 without a smile. " Try ' spinach ' once more." 
 
 And the scamp actually amused himself with 
 the child's struggles to say the word, which was 
 so difficult for her that she fairly gnashed her 
 teeth over it. 
 
 The worst of it is that Maria is quite inca- 
 pable of taking a joke. I told her afterwards 
 that her father only meant a little pleasantry ; 
 but she looked up at me with surprise, and said
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 119 
 
 so earnestly, " Oh no, chere Tante ! He was 
 quite serious, I am sure ! " that I said no 
 more. My only comfort is that the gentlemen 
 will not understand the message, and if they 
 ask Tom for an explanation, he will have his 
 own to give. 
 
 But his behavior last evening, followed as 
 it was by an excellent night and a demand for 
 eggs and toast for breakfast, lead me not only 
 to think that he is decidedly better, but to 
 wonder whether it is so certain, after all, that 
 he is going to die. In any case, it deprived 
 me of an occasion to broach to him the subject 
 of the will. It also decided me to adopt a new 
 course. Instead of confiding to the doctors 
 every circumstance, I am going to quietly ob- 
 serve Tom by myself. I am the more deter- 
 mined because when I inquired of Dr. Fredi- 
 queue this morning how he found his patient, 
 he answered : " No worse perhaps ! Madame, 
 by keeping him quiet and free from all excite- 
 ment, composes his nerves somewhat, but he 
 grows weaker much weaker ! " And he or- 
 dered no nourishment except toast-water and 
 milk. I began to wonder whether, after all, 
 the doctors understood Tom's case. 
 
 July 23. Tom develops new peculiarities 
 every day. He has refused to take any medi-
 
 120 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 cine for a week past except from Maria. An- 
 toine, his attendant, prepares every dose at the 
 appointed time and leaves it on the mantelshelf. 
 Tom says quietly : " I will take it when Mile. 
 Maria comes." He also takes all his nourishment 
 from her, and will receive it from no one else. 
 
 I broached the subject of the will this morn- 
 ing, and was surprised to find Tom rather 
 pleased to talk about it. We had really the 
 longest and most satisfactory conversation we 
 have had at all, and I learned more about his 
 past life than I have ever known before. He 
 said he owed his prosperity to nobody but 
 Dame Fortune herself. It was simple luck, 
 nothing else ; he had tumbled into it. A 
 friend of his, a poor fellow who never had 
 any luck in his life, was on the verge of ruin 
 and wanted to sell a lot of land in Australia. 
 Tom bought it out of sheer friendship, without 
 ever having seen it. After a year or two, 
 needing money to put into his business, he be- 
 thought himself of the land, and went out to 
 look at it, leaving Maria with her nurse in 
 Paris. His wife was not living. Tom speaks 
 of his wife with great feeling and loved her 
 devotedly. 
 
 When he reached Australia he learned that 
 his friend had died, and that the land covered
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 121 
 
 valuable mines. I liked Tom's way of telling 
 about it. He said : 
 
 " I don't care for money, Helen. I believe 
 it has caused me more pain to think that 
 Maria's mother never had the benefit of my 
 wealth, and that Peters, poor old fellow ! never 
 knew what he parted with in selling me that 
 land, to say nothing of father and mother 
 I believe all that has given me more pain, so 
 far, than the money has pleasure. I had more 
 real fun in buying your boys those boats than 
 money ever gave me before." 
 
 " But, Tom," I said, " your wife my sister " 
 He reached for my hand and kissed it as if it 
 might have been the queen's. 
 
 " Yes ? " he said softly. " What about her ? " 
 
 " You took good care of her ; she never 
 suffered for mone^ " 
 
 " No, thank God ! not after I found her ! " 
 he cried. " I earned enough to give her and 
 our baby all they ever wanted, and it was 
 wealth and luxury to her. We paid our bills." 
 
 Well, he went on for a long time, and told 
 me how he had fyad dreamy plans about send- 
 ing gifts home. 
 
 " But father and mother had gone," he said ; 
 " and to tell the truth, little sister, I have been 
 indifferent to everything and everybody except
 
 122 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Maria. I knew you were somewhere, but I did 
 not know what kind of a woman you had 
 turned out, and I did n't know Chezzle's cir- 
 cumstances, and " 
 
 Of course I would n't let him go into ex- 
 planations why he had not sent me money ; so I 
 interrupted him, and I know I was as red in 
 the face as little Bob gets when he is excited. 
 " Well, Chezzle is a high and mighty charac- 
 ter, Tom," I cried, "and the most obstinately 
 independent man that ever was born under the 
 American flag. Nothing in the world would 
 make him madder than to suppose he could not 
 support his wife and children without am/- 
 body's help, and he has only one fault in his 
 whole being, he works too hard, and won't 
 take comfort as he ought, in the belief that if 
 a man does his best without shirking, and is 
 content and proud because he is able to make 
 an honest living no matter how small it is 
 and John is all that why " 
 
 I stopped because I could n't think fast 
 enough of the words I wanted. Tom had risen 
 
 o 
 
 on his elbow and reached again for my hand, 
 exclaiming : 
 
 " Why what, little sister ? " 
 
 " Why," I cried, " it is good for a woman, 
 and for children too, to make sacrifices some-
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 123 
 
 times ! And if a man's work in the world is 
 as thoroughly and bravely done as John Chez- 
 zle's is, I 'm not afraid of any future, and my 
 boys will never be, either ! " 
 
 Tom put his hand on my head an instant, 
 and said quietly : " That is the true belief , 
 little woman true to the core ! And it is 
 fun to see you warm up all into a blaze of glory 
 over your Chezzle and your boys ! " 
 
 The thought of the boys turned the conver- 
 sation back to the boats, and soon I was my 
 cool self again. Presently I said : " But all 
 this is a thousand miles away from your will, 
 Tom. Why can't I get it out for you this 
 minute and have it ready when the doctor 
 comes ? " 
 
 " Bother the doctor ! " he cried ; but, control- 
 ling himself, he said : " There is n't so much 
 hurry ; I may live some time yet. But I do 
 mean to sign the thing before long. I may as 
 well tell you, Ellen, as I shall want you for one 
 of the witnesses, that I have decided to leave 
 a good deal of my property to charity. The 
 gentlemen who were here last night those 
 missionaries, you know are devoting their 
 lives to the cause of education in Madagascar, 
 and my will, when I am gone, will set the 
 Colony upon its legs. It would be fun to see
 
 124 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 the thing accomplished, and sometimes I won- 
 der whether if my decline is to be dragged 
 on interminably a deed of gift would not be 
 better." 
 
 He asked my advice, and I urged him to let 
 me send for one of his lawyers immediately 
 and have the matter settled, saying that I 
 thought a deed of gift, under the circumstances, 
 would be much better than a will. Maria came 
 in, unfortunately, or the thing might have been 
 attended to then and there, for he was in the 
 mood for action, decidedly. He asked me, how- 
 ever, to explain his change of mind to Dr. 
 Frediqueue. 
 
 He was radiant ! He said a deed of gift 
 would "settle the mind of Monsieur into a 
 state of much better repose." He " hoped my 
 brother would allow me to send for the lawyers 
 to-morrow. But he wished seriously that M. 
 Pennaroi would employ different ones because 
 these Messieurs Roubaix and Duvergne are so 
 very aggressive and disturbing to his sensitive 
 nature." 
 
 Really, Jack, I don't understand your last 
 postscript. For the doctors seem honestly 
 interested and anxious for Tom's welfare, al- 
 though I am beginning to distrust their profes- 
 sional skill. They think to-day that they have 
 discovered " a false action about his heart."
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 125 
 
 Mrs. Chezzle opened her husband's letter to 
 read the postscript once more. " Look a little 
 harder," he wrote, " with those great, honest 
 eyes of yours Challey's are exactly like them, 
 my dear at your brother's exceUent doctors ; 
 and I think, if you have the opportunity, you 
 will do well to make the acquaintance of the 
 lawyers, ' Messrs. Gruffit and Crusty,' as you call 
 them." 
 
 " Why," said Mrs. Chezzle to herself, as she 
 locked her desk. " I had scarcely mentioned 
 the lawyers to him when he wrote that, and I 
 certainly had not questioned the skill of the 
 doctors ! But I have no objection to seeing 
 either of the distinguished legal gentlemen. 
 They cannot hurt me ! Whatever opinion you 
 have of my eyes, Mr. Jack, you evidently think 
 your own are the sharpest ! "
 
 X. 
 
 THE ANXIETY OF TWO MISSIONARIES AND THE DOCTORS 
 IN ATTENDANCE UPON MR. PENROY TO GET THAT GEN- 
 TLEMAN TO SIGN A DEED OF GIFT FOR THE BENEFIT 
 OF A SCHEME TO RAISE THE STANDARD OF EDUCATION 
 IN THE ISLAND OF MADAGASCAR. 
 
 TULY 26. I have had my first difficulty 
 el with the servants. The cook has been 
 complaining to me of Antoine. He is Tom's 
 chief nurse and attendant, as good-natured a 
 young fellow as ever lived, but is spoiled, no 
 doubt, by Tom's unbounded confidence and 
 indulgence. He is tall, hearty-looking, with 
 the plainest of features, which are redeemed by 
 merry brown eyes and a most agreeable smile. 
 Tom sends orders by him right and left, and 
 will receive a suggestion from him more readily 
 than from any one. So, if Antoine chose to
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 127 
 
 make trouble, he could do it so easily that, 
 although I can't help liking the fellow and be- 
 stowing my good will upon him, I must, in 
 reason, sympathize with the cook. Her com- 
 plaint is that he gives her no end of trouble by 
 ordering things at the most unheard-of hours. 
 Roast chicken, beefsteak, soup, oysters, deli- 
 cacies of every kind. She says he has been, 
 until lately, a moderate eater, but that he has 
 become all of a sudden a prodigious gourmand. 
 Added to the annoyance of this, he orders all 
 these things sent up-stairs to his room, a 
 small one next to Tom's bedroom, and the 
 other servants, to state it mildly, do not 
 enjoy waiting upon him. I happened to be in 
 the kitchen this morning when Claudine, the 
 waitress, put her head in at the door and, not 
 knowing I was there, announced in a tone of 
 high disdain : " Mme. Madeleine, you will send 
 up at ten o'clock precisely an omelette soufflee 
 a la Colombine for M. le Due D'Antoine ! " 
 And Mme. Madeleine's nose went up in the air 
 accordingly, as she said to me : " Vous voyez, 
 Madame ? " 
 
 I smoothed her feathers by telling her that 
 I thought, while M. Penroy continued so ill, 
 it would be best to serve " M. le Due " with 
 patience, and that I would help her, if I could
 
 128 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 discover a way. She was so pleased at my adopt- 
 ing Claudine's title for Antoine that I think 
 it softened her grumble considerably for that 
 tune. I will talk with Tom some day about 
 it, but he takes such comfort in Antoine that 
 I shall let the matter alone, at least for awhile. 
 
 July 27. I spoke to Tom again about sign- 
 ing his deed. The missionaries come oftener 
 than ever, and, to tell the truth, I don't like 
 them. I have been in the room several times 
 when they were visiting Tom, and there is 
 something about them which I distrust. They 
 talk so loud, and so fast too, that it puts me 
 out of breath to listen or try to. I should 
 think they would be very exhausting to Tom. 
 I hinted as much to Dr. Frediqueue, but he 
 exclaimed at once that I was mistaken in them 
 altogether. Their visits, he said, were " of 
 the most gratifying nature. Monsieur can only 
 profit by conversing with them. They calm 
 his nerves. They take him out of himself. 
 Their gentle, soothing influence is of incom- 
 parable benefit to my noble patient ! " etc., etc. 
 
 Now, Jack, if you could see them at work 
 with their influence, you would call it something 
 besides soothing or gentle ! They are wiry 
 little men, with anxious, nervous expressions, 
 and a vivacity of manner which enforces the
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 129 
 
 whole attention. They enter Tom's room, to 
 begin with, as if they had more business to ac- 
 complish than any six ordinary men ought to 
 have. They draw up their chairs near the foot 
 of the bed ; one rubs his knees with his skinny 
 hands, and the other wipes his bald head with 
 an enormous yellow silk pocket-handkerchief. 
 One of them has thin, straight eyebrows, low 
 cheek - bones, thin lips, and a red nose ; he 
 wears blue glasses so that I can't see his eyes. 
 The other has no eyebrows at all, little beads 
 of near-sighted eyes which are continually wink- 
 ing and blinking, a long, thin nose, long up- 
 per lip, and retreating chin. They neither of 
 them sit still a minute. Tom says : " Good- 
 morning, gentlemen. How does the mission 
 progress? " Then they " let fly ! " Excuse the 
 slang, but they do it ! They begin to talk so 
 fast that I can only catch a phrase here and 
 there. It is all in French, of course, and Tom 
 is master of it. If one stops to take breath, 
 the other takes up the talk, and how do they 
 do it ? OccasionaUy one takes out a note- 
 book and dots down memoranda. Tom cannot 
 get a word in edgeways unless they ask him 
 about his deed. I have gathered this much 
 that they are as pleased as the doctors at the 
 thought of a deed of gift, and most anxious to
 
 130 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 secure it. I wish Tom would sign the ever- 
 lasting thing and be done with it. 
 
 You advise me to look at the doctors with my 
 " honest eyes " (thank you !) but, I assure you, 
 these " brothers " give them more work. I 
 am beginning to doubt the doctors' skill, as 
 physicians, but I do not distrust them as I do 
 " the Madagascarites." Maria, however, has 
 taken such a dislike to the doctors, that she is 
 actually miserable in their presence. I have per- 
 suaded Tom to give her no more messages for 
 them, and would keep her out of their company 
 if it did not increase her discomfort to have 
 them with either Tom or me alone. She follows 
 me, when I go to the library to speak to them, 
 and watches them as if she were a little cat. 
 
 Tom will not fix the time for the signing 
 of the deed, but consented to my writing to the 
 lawyers yesterday to ask them to send him 
 a deed with blanks which he can fill in him- 
 self with whatever amount he chooses to be- 
 stow and the object to which he means to give 
 it. Think how queer it would feel to have 
 enough money to talk about a deed of gift ! 
 Never mind, though, Jack dear ! We get 
 more fun out of our little income than Tom 
 does from all his wealth. 
 
 July 28. " Mr. Crusty," of the distinguished
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 131 
 
 firm of " Gruffit & Crusty," in other words, 
 Monsieur Duvergne, called to see me this 
 morning while we were at breakfast. I was 
 obliged to keep him waiting a few minutes. 
 Maria, always on the alert to do something for 
 me, ran to carry him my message, and when I 
 entered the parlor soon after, I was surprised to 
 find her conversing with him in the most confi- 
 dential and sprightly manner. There she was, 
 with her darling Marguerite, chattering to him 
 like a magpie, and exhibiting the doll's clothes 
 I had made. And he, with all his solemnity, 
 for he is solemn rather than crusty, appeared 
 to be profoundly interested. When I entered, 
 he rose, asking Maria, " And this lady is your 
 aunt ? " Maria, who in presence of the doctors 
 is the funniest little bit of stiffness and pro- 
 priety that ever you saw, left the doll in his 
 hands, ran to meet me, and, throwing her arms 
 around me, cried, " Yes, yes ! she is my dear 
 aunt mine!" Maria's sense of possession 
 of me gives her supreme satisfaction. 
 
 M. Duvergne is more than six feet tall and as 
 grim a personage as I have ever seen. Iron-gray 
 hair, iron-gray face, iron-gray clothes. Wide- 
 open black eyes which looked straight into mine, 
 gray side-whiskers, and a mouth so solemn that 
 I felt a little as if he had come to pronounce
 
 132 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 my doom ! No soldier ever stood straighter. 
 He bowed to me with dignity and remained 
 standing until I sat down. All the time he 
 held the doll as if it might have been a roll of 
 parchment. Maria remained by me, caressing 
 my hair. 
 
 " Mile. Maria," said M. Duvergne, in French, 
 holding up the doll in one hand and pointing 
 to it with the other ; " she is too young to 
 understand what I wish to talk about to your 
 aunt; will you take her out to walk a little 
 while?" 
 
 Maria sprang to take the doll tenderly in her 
 arms, saying, " I will hold her." 
 
 " Wait," said M. Duvergne, smiling dimly ; 
 his very smile is solemn. " Excuse me, my 
 child, but she is so innocent, it would not be 
 wise for you to let her listen to conversation on 
 business." 
 
 " Oh how droll you are like my Papa ! 
 I will take Marguerite to the garden," said 
 Maria ; and she skipped away, breaking into a 
 fresh little song as soon as she reached the 
 hall. 
 
 I was a little in awe of this severe-looking 
 gentleman, but could not repress a soft cry of 
 pleasure when he spoke to me in English 
 my own language, pure and simple !
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 133 
 
 He began at once : " You are Mr. Penroy's 
 sister?" 
 
 " Yes, his only sister," I answered. 
 
 " Has he any brothers ? " 
 
 " No ; I am his nearest relative, and, in case 
 of his death, he wishes to place his daughter in 
 my charge. I have a husband and two little 
 boys in America." 
 
 His questions were direct. I would not for 
 the world have made my answers a word longer 
 than was necessary. 
 
 We went on, he asking and I answering, un- 
 til he knew all that I do about Tom, the visits 
 of the doctors and the Madagascarites, their 
 .anxiety to get the deed signed, and everything. 
 Then he said : " Your brother asks for a deed 
 of gift and I have brought one, but I hope he 
 will not use it. I hope you will persuade him 
 to listen to reason. Whatever money he be- 
 stows upon this Colony in Madagascar, my part- 
 ner and I are convinced will be wasted. He 
 has trusted our firm with his property, and we 
 have no right to see him throw it away without 
 protesting. He has refused to listen to us ; 
 perhaps he will listen to his sister. In any 
 case, it is right that you should understand. 
 To give what he proposes to this cause is worse 
 than ridiculous ; it is wrong."
 
 134 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 M. Duvergne was growing warm. His man- 
 ner was uncompromising, and his voice had a 
 shade of anger in it. He speaks English per- 
 fectly, his foreign accent being very slight. If 
 he were less careful in the pronunciation of 
 each syllable, I might easily forget that he is 
 not my countryman. He went on, denouncing 
 Tom's judgment for some time, until I began 
 to get almost indignant myself. Indeed, I 
 should have been wholly so, if I had not agreed 
 with him, and if I had not felt positively sure, 
 every minute, that I was listening to a man 
 whose honesty was absolute and whose con- 
 science was like a rock. As a lawyer, I should 
 think he must win every case he undertakes, 
 for I do not see how it would be possible to op- 
 pose him. He did not tell me the amount of 
 Tom's wealth or anything whatever about it, 
 excepting the fact that the Madagascar Colony 
 was likely to obtain a large sum. And you and 
 I, Jack, would consider a sum large which Tom 
 and M. Duvergne would probably call paltry ! 
 
 I could not help approving what he said, but 
 it was unpleasant to hear Tom's wisdom ridi- 
 culed at such a rate, and I wanted to resent it. 
 Finally, he added the one thought which it is 
 impossible for me to endure for a moment. 
 After assuring me that the mission the " mad
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 135 
 
 mission," he called it was got up for the ex- 
 press purpose of getting hold of Tom's money ; 
 that it was nothing but a name ; that, after 
 securing the deed of gift, the missionaries would 
 disappear and never be heard of again ; that 
 they certainly would never be found on the 
 island of Madagascar, educating Malagasy sav- 
 ages ; that Mr. Penroy could never have been 
 so imposed upon if his health had not been 
 impaired, after impressing me with all that, 
 M. Duvergne said : 
 
 "And there is another consideration. Mr. 
 Penroy has a sister and nephews whose right it 
 is to expect " 
 
 "No, it isn't!" I exclaimed, looking as 
 steadily into his great black eyes as they 
 looked into mine. " Mr. Penroy's sister cares 
 enough for her brother to prefer his life 
 to the wealth of all the mines in Australia ! 
 Mr. Penroy's sister would not be here if she 
 were capable of expecting anything but sorrow 
 at his death. Mr. Penroy's sister has a hus- 
 band who is proud and able to support his wife 
 and children, and who greatly prefers to teach 
 his boys how to do honorable work in the world 
 than to want a noble uncle to die so that they 
 may get his money and grow lazy and selfish ! 
 My husband " Jack ! I felt just then as
 
 136 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 if you were a king " my husband," I cried, 
 " has more to give his wife and little boys than 
 Mr. Penroy's wealth twice told ; he has his 
 hard-working life to give them, and " 
 
 But I stopped right there. There came sud- 
 denly before me such a picture of you, so pa- 
 tient, always working and never grumbling, 
 only proud because you can work ! And, in 
 contrast, a picture of those wretches watching 
 around Tom's bed and hoping every day for him 
 to die ! I was too angry to say another word. 
 
 M. Duvergne was taken completely by sur- 
 prise. I had been so quiet and dignified. He 
 waited a few minutes in silence ; then he spoke 
 in a low voice, which had changed wonderfully, 
 and was most gentle and deferential. 
 
 " Madame," he said, " I ask your pardon. I 
 agree with you in every particular. But it is 
 most rare to hear such sentiments expressed. I 
 see that you are in too delicate a position to 
 seek to influence Mr. Penroy. I will not ask 
 you to mention the subject to him. I "will 
 also give you my word of honor of honor, 
 Madame that I will not mention you in any 
 connection whatever with this matter if you 
 will try to obtain Mr. Penroy's consent to see- 
 ing me. If I could see him once more before 
 before "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. . 137 
 
 "His death?" I asked, boldly. 
 
 "Yes, Madame," answered M. Duvergne, 
 sadly. 
 
 I said quietly : " I do not believe he is going 
 to die ; I believe he will get well ! " 
 
 The quick, honest joy which suffused the 
 lawyer's stern face, softening every line as he 
 sprang to his feet and forgot himself com- 
 pletely, proved the sincerity of his interest in 
 Tom. We talked another half hour, and I 
 learned that M. Duvergne had only had two 
 short interviews with Dr. Frediqueue and none 
 at all with Dr. De la Quille. They have, he 
 thinks, made a point of avoiding him. He sus- 
 pects, but no matter what he suspects ; we 
 will wait. At any rate, I feel now that Tom 
 has at least one honest friend beside myself 
 among a nest of doubtful ones. The only 
 thing for me to do is to persuade him to see 
 Monsieur Duvergne, and I think I can easily do 
 that. 
 
 So, my love, I have looked at the doctors 
 with my " honest eyes," and I have made the 
 acquaintance of M. Jean Auguste Duvergne. 
 Now, what is going to come of it ?
 
 XL 
 
 HOW MARIA PENROY GAVE MORE OF HER CONFIDENCE 
 TO THE DARK GENTLEMAN AND DELIGHTED HIS SOUL 
 THEREBY. 
 
 THE person whom Susanne had called " Mon- 
 sieur le Secretaire d'Etat " was no other 
 than M. Jean Auguste Duvergne, the lawyer to 
 whom Mr. Penroy had confided the management 
 of his business affairs, and for whose conven- 
 ience the room opening on the garden had been 
 fitted up. He lived at Meaux, and, before going 
 every day to his office in Paris, was in the habit 
 of stopping at the little room to look over Mr. 
 Penroy' s letters, to answer or place them on file, 
 and attend to various matters of the kind. It 
 was necessary for him to stop an hour or two 
 sometimes, while at others he would remain
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 139 
 
 scarcely ten minutes. Maria went, therefore, 
 several times without finding him. Then it 
 rained for two days, and on the third her aunt 
 purchased for her a doll to be dressed for the 
 little mute girl at Nipsit, and her delight in that 
 so overshadowed her enthusiasm for letter-writ- 
 ing that over ten days elapsed before M. Du- 
 vergne, busy at his table by the window, saw a 
 shadow on his paper, and, looking up, beheld 
 outside Maria flattening her small nose against 
 the pane and peering through one of the trans- 
 parent spots in the figured glass. She entered 
 without waiting for an invitation. 
 
 " Hush ! Please do not make a noise, Mon- 
 sieur ! " she said, shutting the door as softly as 
 possible, after she had wheeled the doll's car- 
 riage inside. " Marguerite has been so very 
 ill ! You do not know ! And she is fast asleep ; 
 do you see ? " She lifted some lace which was 
 thrown over the carriage-top, so that M. Du- 
 vergne might satisfy himself of the fact. " Yes, 
 I thought she would die last night ! " she 
 added, regarding M. Duvergne with a care-worn 
 expression, and gently rolling the carriage a few 
 inches to and fro to make Marguerite's slumber 
 sounder still. " Yes, truly ! She had the the 
 action of the heart ! Think of that, Monsieur ! 
 The same that my Papa has the action of the 
 heart ! "
 
 140 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " That is most serious indeed," said M. Du- 
 vergne, gravely. " Ought you not to consult 
 the doctor?" 
 
 " Oh no, never ! I will not let them see 
 even so much as one eye of my Marguerite ! " 
 cried Maria, indignantly, shocked at the idea, 
 and scowling so that M. Duvergne said has- 
 tily : " Oh, I mean some other wonderful phy- 
 sician ; not either of your Papa's doctors." 
 
 "Ah yes, certainly," said Maria, glad to 
 have M. Duvergne right himself. " I asked 
 le Docteur Antoine, and that is why my poor 
 child is better this morning. We gave her " 
 she peeped under the lace once more, and then 
 trod on tiptoe softly to M. Duvergne' s table, 
 " we gave her a little tooth-powder out of 
 Papa's box, Monsieur, and it stopped her heart 
 instantly ! " 
 
 " That was the best thing possible to do, of 
 course," said M. Duvergne. " I hope the ' ac- 
 tion ' will not return ; I should be seriously 
 alarmed if it did." 
 
 " No, I think it will not," said Maria, while 
 she took off her hat and arranged the carriage 
 so that she could reach it from the arm-chair 
 upon which she hoisted herself. " But she would 
 be worse, and I know she would die, if I let her 
 take any of M. Frediqueue's medicine ! Only
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 141 
 
 think, Monsieur, he is not like you at all. I told 
 him a message from Papa, and he cannot under- 
 stand. And neither M. De la Quille just 
 because of two little English words ! They do 
 not know anything ! I tell them ' Ga-monne ' 
 and ' Spee-naahdge ' many time," here Maria 
 broke into English, " but the chin of M. le Doc- 
 teur Frediqueue, it poke out so an' he say 
 I haf not the words right, an' M. le Docteur De 
 la Quille he shut the eyes up small - leetle, an' 
 make me say it five time. Alors he tell me it 
 make him grief que mon Papa mus' not eat the 
 spee-naahdge a cause that will make him die ! 
 an' I know the word is not goot to eat, a cause 
 I tell Papa tout ce que they say an' he tell me 
 all pout it. Then he shake the ped with the 
 chill. I feel so sad, I get much blanquette to 
 put on him, an' I want Antoine to come with 
 hot pags. But Papa tell me no hot pags 
 make him sick. 
 
 " Papa an' myself, we haf beaucoup plaisir. 
 He is droll Papa. I gif to him the medecine, 
 but he not trink it wile I look he send me 
 to the win'ow to see out. An' he teU me he 
 like to know if my dinneur is goot for me an' 
 I mus' pring to him my plate from the table. 
 It is biff what I haf, but Papa think it is not 
 goot for me to eat. He say I mus' leaf the
 
 142 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 plate by his side an' tell Tante Helene the meat 
 she gif me is not tendre she mus' gif me 
 some more what is goot. Chere Tante not 
 know what that mean ; she think it was much 
 tendre. When I go back to Papa, the biff is 
 not there. But I fin' out where is that biff ! 
 It is one pig secrette ; you fill not tell it, Mon- 
 sieur, to " 
 
 " Oh, not to anybody ; be sure that I will not 
 mention it," said M. Duvergne, looking much 
 pleased, but not daring to smile outright lest 
 the little girl should take offense. 
 
 " Papa tell me," she was beginning again, 
 when she broke off to exclaim, " But I will 
 to put all the secrettes all all the secrettes 
 in the pig lettre for mes cousins ! Where is 
 my lettre ? " 
 
 " Ah, yes, it is here, Mademoiselle," said M. 
 Duvergne, taking it from a side drawer and 
 preparing to write. " But people do not write 
 secrets." 
 
 " Seulement to Amerique, Monsieur ! " said 
 Maria. " Vous voyez ? They go to Amerique 
 away, far, so they come not pack ! " 
 
 So she settled down to dictate to her cousins, 
 and M. Duvergne wrote rapidly, without further 
 interruption than was necessary to help her ex- 
 press herself. When she had chattered until
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 143 
 
 she was tired she announced that Marguerite 
 was awake, and it would be necessary to take 
 her upstairs again immediately to get another 
 dose of tooth-powder. She accordingly hurried 
 away. But M. Duvergne, although consider- 
 ably belated, allowed his whole face to break 
 into smiles the moment she had disappeared, 
 and did not leave the little room until he had 
 read over again, with evident enjoyment, the 
 letter she had dictated, which ran on as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " It is Papa wot eat that biff ! an' he tell 
 me I mus' tell Antoine to pring to him hot 
 soup an' a small-leetle sheeken all koo-ooke. 
 Not a papa-sheeken, an' not a maman-sheeken 
 non plus, but nice leetle shile - sheeken. I 
 tell Antoine an' he know all pout it. Papa 
 say Antoine know effery think. Myself an' 
 Papa, an' Antoine, we have high-tide-sail-ling 
 tout ensemble. Nobody know. It is secrette 
 we keep to make Chere Tante glad one day 
 when we tell her to it. An' the pig, pig, fine 
 secrette my Papa tell to me, it is that he haf 
 the mind all shange an' he will go not to 
 heaven no, not at all ! I fin' out many 
 think. I fin' out he haf not the chill unner the 
 blanquette ; it is that he lauyh all the time ! 
 An' we tell to Antoine to get from Madeleine
 
 144 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 in the kit-clienne all thinks that is goot for 
 Papa to eat. Madeleine, she not like that an' 
 she think it is Antoine what eat so much. An' 
 I fin' out when Papa send me to look through 
 the win'ow, he throw the medecine on the 
 small rose-tree I buy one day for him ! An' I 
 fin' out it is Antoine what is great docteur all 
 the time ! Papa tell me it is Antoine know 
 what will make him well ! An' he laugh that 
 M. Antoine ! He laugh so much he go behint 
 the screen. An' the docteur come not more 
 in the morn-ning. Papa tell me one time I mus' 
 say to the docteurs he feel too much sick, he 
 cannot to see them. An' I tell them that they 
 come pas si sou vent. They caU to me what is 
 that I say ? I am on the stair an' I call loud : 
 ' My Papa is too much sick to see so many 
 time Messieurs les docteurs ! ' Then I run fas'. 
 They pang the door of the street an' they make 
 much noise ! "
 
 XII. 
 
 HOW POOR LITTLE BANNA WAS NEARLY FRIGHTENED TO 
 DEATH. 
 
 ONE of the old Nipsit skippers called Elisha 
 Barnes's wife, Debby, " the snuggest little 
 housewife you could find in a ride of a thou- 
 sand miles," and he found nobody to disagree 
 with him. Elisha was one of the best carpen- 
 ters in the place. He had built the house they 
 lived in while he was " waiting on " Debby, 
 and it was his wedding gift to her. She was 
 very proud of showing its pretty nooks and 
 conveniences, and thought privately that her 
 husband was a wonderful genius. They had 
 two children : Shirley, who was seven years 
 old, and Miranda, who was not quite five. 
 When they knew that their baby girl was deaf, 
 Debby cried to break her heart many times,
 
 146 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 until one day when Elisha, coming home un- 
 expectedly, found her at it by the child's crib. 
 
 " We have no time to grieve, little wife," he 
 said. " The child brings a new trade, much 
 harder than house-building, for us to learn. 
 We 've got her mind to build, Debby, and the 
 only help we shall have will be from her eyes. 
 But the Lord has given her a wonderful pair ; 
 see, they are looking into your face now ! " 
 
 " 'Lisha ! " cried Debby, turning quickly 
 away from the child, " and who knows what 
 she sees ? " Then she wiped away her tears 
 and looked up at her husband with a new 
 resolution. " There ! " she said, with a brave 
 smile, " I '11 try never to let her see anything 
 she should n't in my face again ! I '11 set to 
 work at my trade to-day." 
 
 And Debby had worked at it so industriously 
 that to see her and the little girl together was 
 a beautiful sight, and it seemed as if they un- 
 derstood each other perfectly. 
 
 Of course some of the neighbors who did not 
 have the work to do thought they could teach 
 the child better, and the parents had plenty 
 of counsel. Miss Sophia Wringer, for instance, 
 thought t she knew, well enough, how that 
 young one could be taught ! ' As she did not 
 often withhold advice when she thought it was
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 147 
 
 needed, she went to Elisha's cottage one morn- 
 ing on purpose to instruct Deborah. A slight 
 accident which occurred a few minutes after 
 she arrived, opened the way for her admirably. 
 Just as her mother had dressed her carefully 
 in a clean gown, Ranna pulled a bowl of milk 
 down from a table and dashed the contents all 
 over herself. Her mother wiped up the milk 
 and was getting out another set of clothes for 
 the child, who was chattering and gesticulating 
 in dismay, when Miss Wringer seized her op- 
 portunity. 
 
 " Deborah Barnes, you 're half-witted ! " she 
 exclaimed. " / could teach that child how to 
 keep her hands off things. You and 'Lisha are 
 makin' slaves of yourselves ! That child can't 
 learn nothin' 'xcept through sufferin', an' she 'd 
 ought to be made to suffer ! To look at that 
 now ! A good birch rod 'd give her a lesson 
 she would n't forgit in a hurry, an' she 'd 
 ought to have it ! Laid on well, too ! I 'd jest 
 like to give it to her myself ; an' you are neg- 
 lectin' your dooty, you are ! " 
 
 " Thank heaven I am, Sophia, if you call 
 that duty ! " said Debby, flushing with indig- 
 nation, while she buttoned Ranna' s gown and 
 stooped to kiss the back of her neck. 
 
 " Well, it 's a disgrace to you not to know
 
 148 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 better ! " said Miss Wringer, getting really 
 angry. " Look at the child ! Look at her, 
 without a spark o' sense o' the trouble she 's 
 ben an' made ! " 
 
 Nothing could well have added more to Miss 
 Wringer's anger than Ranna's innocent efforts 
 to explain the accident. She pointed to the 
 wet clothes in a heap on the floor, mimicked her 
 mother wiping up the milk, and smoothed her 
 fresh gown complacently. 
 
 " Yes, indeed, / see ye ! " said Miss Wringer. 
 " You know what 's happened well enough, 
 and I 'd like to show ye somethin' else that 
 could happen, too ! I know what 'd happen 
 fast enough to my nephew, Criss Jones, if he 
 done such a thing ! He 'd suffer a spell, I ken 
 tell ye ! " 
 
 Debby was flushing more and more, but she 
 only said : " Well, Miss Sophia, you won't 
 have the satisfaction of seeing Ranna made to 
 suffer ; and if you 'd let Crissy alone, I don't 
 believe he 'd be half so troublesome as he is." 
 
 " You don't know what you 're talkin' about, 
 Deborah Barnes ! " said Miss Wringer, rising 
 and hitching up her shawl behind with her el- 
 bows. " /do my dooty, an' I've told you yours. 
 I 've ben wantin' to give ye a piece o' my mind 
 for a long tune, an' now I've done it. An' I'll
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 149 
 
 say once more " Miss Wringer's voice was 
 rising a good deal " once more before I go, 
 that child can't learn without suffering an' 
 she 'd ought to be made to suffer. Solomon 
 says, ' Spare the rod and ' " 
 
 " Stop ! " cried Debby, suddenly, standing 
 before Miss Wringer. " Why do you quote 
 Solomon and forget Jesus ? How dare you 
 look at that child, born into a world of dead 
 silence, and ask me to add to the suffering 
 she 's got to bear all her life ? " 
 
 " I 've spoke my mind, Deborah Barnes, an' 
 done my dooty ; mortals can't do more than 
 that ! " said Miss Wringer, severely. 
 
 " Well, you 'd have a better mind to speak 
 if you studied the Bible a little more," said 
 Debby, spicily. " Maybe, if you looked hard 
 enough, you 'd find something in it about love, 
 and gentleness, and patience, and a little about 
 your duty towards the young lives given you 
 to answer for. And you 'd better " 
 
 Miss Wringer was walking down the path to 
 the gate like a grenadier, but Debby was stand- 
 ing on the doorstep, angrier than she had ever 
 been in her life, and called out clearly : " You 
 had better not speak your mind to 'Lisha, for 
 I think his mind would n't be very pleasant 
 to anybody who talked about raising a hand 
 to his little Raima ! "
 
 150 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 There was a trouble, not of anger, on Debby's 
 face when Jim Holburn brought Ranna home 
 from Gull Marsh with his jacket on. He told 
 Mrs. Barnes, while she was changing the jacket 
 for a dress, all about the accident to Bob 
 Chezzle, with plenty of detail, but she did not 
 half hear him, for something very unusual was 
 the matter with Ranna. She was pale and 
 silent ! Although doomed never to hear a 
 sound, a deaf-mute child makes a great deal of 
 noise unconsciously. After being away from 
 her mother for any time, Ranna always returned 
 to her in a state of excitement, and, in her 
 struggle to impart everything she had seen, 
 kept up a chatter-chatter, with a vigorous ges- 
 ticulating of hands and arms until she was 
 satisfied that she had told her whole story. 
 But to-day she did nothing. She drooped her 
 head on her mother's breast and was silent. 
 Debby could not rouse her. Shirley came in 
 presently and tried every trick his imagination 
 could contrive to attract his little sister's notice, 
 but Ranna only looked at him with dull, pas- 
 sionless eyes. 
 
 Then her father came, and he and Shirley 
 tried what they could do together, while Debby 
 set the table and got supper ready. Shirley, 
 sure that he had thought of the right thing at
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 151 
 
 last, ran across the road and returned with one 
 of the new little puppies from Captain Bix's. 
 But Ranna would not even look at it, and 
 Shirley carried it back, discouraged. 
 
 " If she won't look at a lovely, darlin* new 
 pup, father, she won't look at nothin' ! " Shir- 
 ley said, when they had eaten supper and his 
 father was trying to make Ranna notice the big 
 clock which usually pleased her so much. 
 
 But it was all useless. The little one was 
 put to bed more quietly than ever before. 
 Debby stood at the foot of the crib and made 
 the signs of the Lord's prayer, after her usual 
 custom. Ranna knew them all ; she and her 
 mother often made them together, looking up 
 at the stars. Debby thought the child would 
 understand their significance by and by, when 
 she was old enough to be taught how to read, 
 and she wanted Ranna to remember that they 
 had always said the prayer together. But no 
 answering, repeating sign came from Ranna 
 to-night. 
 
 So Debby went with Shirley to see him to 
 bed, and he, after the manner of children, was 
 unusually talkative because of the awful still- 
 ness. 
 
 "Jus* wait till mornin', mother," he said. 
 " Then / '11 make Ranny all right again ! I
 
 152 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 guess, if I go down to Cap'm Pepper's an' get 
 ole Zanzibar, he can make her laugh ! She 
 can't help it, if she sees him lick my face 
 upside down. An' I '11 stick some splendid 
 shavins she likes shavin'-curls awfully on 
 Zanzibar's ears an' his tail. mother, only 
 wait till Ranny sees him wag his tail with a 
 long shavin' tied to the end of it ! Hi-ya ! 
 Don't you wish it was mornin' ? " So Shirley 
 rattled on, and it was a comfort to hear him. 
 Debby came out of the room looking brighter, 
 got her work-basket, and sat down at the sit- 
 ting-room table to darn her husband's socks. 
 She could get her hand down into the foot of 
 one and, pulling the top over her arm, stretch 
 it to the tip of her elbow. Elisha made her try 
 it, while he assured her that Ranna would be 
 " all right to-morrow." 
 
 But she was not so, by any means. She was 
 quite passive, scarcely tasted her breakfast, and 
 afterwards, while her father worked at the 
 vines before going to his shop, instead of hand- 
 ing up to him the tacks and little bits of 
 leather, an occupation she generally delighted 
 in, she sat on the doorstep with her doll, 
 content to do nothing. She waved a feeble 
 good-by when her father and Shirley started 
 off to the shop, which was a quarter of a mile
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 153 
 
 away, down in the heart of the village. Shirley 
 was going after Zanzibar and the shavings. 
 
 But she allowed Captain Pepper to come in 
 without caring even to look at him. She had 
 one pretty sign always ready for him : she 
 would pull at the ropes of an imaginary boat, 
 intimating that she wanted to go sailing with 
 him. He looked for it, but she shook her head 
 now. The captain had come to explain the 
 singular use made of her little dress, sat down 
 on the step, and took Ranna on his knee while 
 he was talking. 
 
 " Don't mention the dress, Uncle Zenas ! " 
 Debby said. " You ought to have torn it up 
 without stopping to think twice. I 'm so glad 
 the little fellow is n't more hurt ! " 
 
 " Oh, it 's nothing to fuss over," said the cap- 
 tain. " The pork is curing him as fast as natur 
 wants it to, an' I reckon his walk into the shark 
 '11 save him from walking into his grave ! " 
 
 After a little more conversation, the captain 
 went away, and Debby went to the wood-shed, 
 back of the barn, to sort over some berries 
 which she was going to do up for winter use. 
 
 Ranna might have " come round all right," 
 as her father had said she would, if Mrs. Tuckit 
 had not unluckily hit upon Caleb Bix and 
 Crissy Jones as her messengers to take home
 
 154 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 the little dress which she had washed and 
 ironed for Captain Pepper. 
 
 Caleb and Crissy were a strong team and an 
 unruly one when they got together. Caleb's 
 father was too well off ; that was the main 
 trouble with him. He was the owner of the 
 largest cranberry bog in the county, and al- 
 lowed Caleb to " carry too much sail," people 
 said. In the cranberry season the boy made 
 trouble among the pickers, " bossing and spy- 
 ing." And the sin of laziness was planted well 
 and grew like a weed. 
 
 " If ye want to carry much property that 's 
 valuable," Captain Pepper said, " you must be 
 mighty careful to choose a good vessel. It 
 takes plenty o' ballust an' sound riggin', an' 
 everybody has n't got the hulk for it. I reckon 
 it 's the savin' of most of us that we have to 
 work for a livin'." And of Crissy Jones he 
 said : " Natur gave him a weak bowsprit at 
 the start, and his Aunt S'fia don't steer him 
 straight. She is n't much of a hand at man- 
 aging anyhow, an' when it comes to a craft 
 like Criss, she 's all at sea about it. If she 'd 
 coax him along at the tiller, instead of haulm ' 
 an' naggin' at the sails, he 'd do well enough." 
 
 When the boys reached Elisha Barnes's 
 cottage, Ranna was still sitting on the step,
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 155 
 
 leaning her head against the side of the door- 
 way. They were going fishing and had their 
 poles over their shoulders. 
 
 Crissy knocked at both the front and kitchen 
 doors, but the wind blew and made such a 
 noise in the trees behind the barn where Debby 
 was busy that she did not hear them. Caleb 
 amused himself by poking his pole at Ranna. 
 She usually greeted visitors with a volley of 
 chatter and excited gesture, but now she only 
 put Caleb's pole away from her gently, again 
 and again. 
 
 " I say, here 's some fun, Criss ! " called 
 Caleb. 
 
 Crissy flung the bundle on the grass and 
 also began to poke at Ranna. The dead silence 
 out of which Ranna looked gave to her face 
 when it was in repose an expression which ap- 
 pealed to every one who noticed her. It was 
 intensified now. But Caleb and Crissy were 
 too thoughtless to see it. 
 
 " Why don't she gobble ? " said Caleb. 
 
 " Ye'd orter heerd her yeste'dy, though ! " 
 said Criss. 
 
 " Let 's fish for her doll ! " said Caleb, un- 
 winding his line for the purpose. 
 
 Ranna began to make little moans as she 
 pushed the lines away from her eyes.
 
 156 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 The boys had no idea that she was ill, or 
 they would never have gone on teasing her. 
 
 " Ho ! here 's a haul ! " cried Crissy, as his 
 hook caught Ranna's hat and he swung it to 
 and fro. 
 
 The child wailed louder and reached her 
 hands for it. 
 
 "Gobble! gobble! gobble!" said Caleb, 
 imitating perfectly an angry turkey. 
 
 Criss slung the hat until he lodged it up in 
 the big silver poplar tree by the gate. He had 
 to shin up the trunk to get his hook out, but it 
 was worth the trouble. Caleb fixed the doll on 
 his hook and dangled it. Ranna made a feeble 
 effort to recover it, but she was too indifferent 
 to make the sport very exciting for the boys, 
 and they would have left her in a minute or 
 two, if a new idea had not seized Crissy. His 
 success with the hat suggested it. 
 
 " Hold on ! Never mind her any more, Cale ! 
 Let 's see if we ken sling the bundle up inter 
 that gable-winder ! " He stuck his fish-hook 
 through a bit of the parcel and began trying 
 the experiment. It was very good fun, and 
 they took turns at it. Ranna did not mind 
 that until, while the pole was in Caleb's hands, 
 the insufficient piece of paper which was 
 wrapped around the parcel came off and was
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 157 
 
 blown away, and the dress, unrolled, was left 
 hanging on the hook. Ranna's eyes lighted 
 upon it, and, like a great wave, the scene at 
 the marsh rushed back upon her. Instantly 
 she was like a wild thing. Springing away 
 from the step, she threw herself on the grass, 
 trembling all over with passion. With a bound 
 she was up again, tearing away, now this way, 
 now that, with the speed of a fawn, flinging 
 herself anywhere away from the touch of the 
 gown. Fright such as she had never known 
 possessed her. The sight of that sickening 
 blood came back upon her ; she could see 
 nothing else. 
 
 " Drap it ! drap it ! " cried Crissy, alarmed. 
 But Caleb paid no heed, and, delighted to have 
 made Ranna chatter at last, continued the 
 game, racing about in order to keep her mo- 
 tions within the boundary of the house front. 
 
 " Drap it ! drap it ! " cried Crissy again. 
 " Here comes Shirley Barnes, an' his father '11 
 give us jassy, I tell ye ! " 
 
 Ranna was making strange, unearthly sounds, 
 in short, quick gasps, as she rushed every- 
 where, trying to escape from Caleb, and nobody 
 heard her except poor little Shirley, who was 
 coming down the road with Zanzibar decked 
 out with long shavings streaming and dangling
 
 158 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 from ears and tail. But Shirley tore through 
 the gate and flung himself into the midst of 
 the fray, with Zanzibar. There was a fearful 
 moment when Shirley, Crissy, and the dog 
 rolled over together ; when Caleb tore the 
 dress off the hook, flung it on the ground, and 
 dragged Crissy away just in time to escape be- 
 fore his old uncle, Captain Laban, came hob- 
 bling across the road to see what was the mat- 
 ter, and Debby dropped on her knees before 
 Ranna, who was lying, white as snow, on the 
 bed of trampled pansies.
 
 xm. 
 
 HOW UNREASONABLY SEVERE CHALLEY AND BOB SHOWED 
 THEMSELVES TOWARD THE WHOLE BRITISH NATION ; 
 AND HOW SHIRLEY BARNES CONVINCED CHALLEY 
 THAT HE KNEW BETTER THAN ANYBODY WHAT WAS 
 THE MATTER WITH RANNA. 
 
 IT was great fun to have a wounded leg. 
 To have papa to play with, Molly to wait 
 upon him and make him her kind of milk 
 toast, and Captain Pepper out in the shop, 
 making him a pair of crutches, coming in to 
 measure him for them, and all " " It 's 
 just as good, papa," Bob said, "as if I was a 
 real soldier and had got wounded fighting the 
 British ! " 
 
 " Only you don't get me to be the British, 
 now Bob ! " said Challey, who was building a 
 fort with the blocks on the floor of the sitting- 
 room, so that Bob could presently take part in 
 a battle between two armies of tin soldiers.
 
 160 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " Well, I don't see why ; I think you 're 
 real mean, if you don't ! / can't do it, up 
 here on the sofa ! " 
 
 " You would n't do it, no matter where you 
 were, and you know it, Bob," said Challey. 
 " And you can do the British better on the 
 sofa, because it '11 be a gra-deal harder to fire 
 the cannon from there, and easier for the 
 Americans to beat. Do you think it 's fair, 
 papa ? " he asked, turning to his father, who 
 was whittling a miniature cannon. " Bob al- 
 ways wants me to be the British ! He '11 never 
 be the enemy. He 's only been the British 
 twice this summer, and he has n't been the 
 Indians at all ! And you can't fight a battle 
 without the British ! " 
 
 " Of course not," said Mr. Chezzle. " But 
 that is a difficulty easy to settle now, because / 
 will be the British." 
 
 But this proposition was hailed with scorn 
 and derision. " Ho-o-o-o-oh ! " they both cried, 
 groaning down a scale of contemptuous notes, 
 and Bob screamed : " That 'd be unfairer than 
 anything ! Because, you see, if you 're an army 
 in a battle, you 've got to fight as well as you 
 can, and we have the marbles for cannon-balls, 
 and you are the best shot ! Don't you see ? " 
 
 " Yes, I see that," said Mr. Chezzle, smiling ;
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 161 
 
 " but why can't we fight the battle of Long 
 Island, where the British beat by a " 
 
 " No ! no ! no ! " both boys screamed at 
 once. 
 
 " Not quite so loud ! " said Mr. Chezzle. " I 
 don't believe both armies, put together, made 
 such a noise about it. Wait : the British cer- 
 tainly did beat at the battle of Long Island, 
 and afterwards, as you have learned in your 
 history, Chal " 
 
 " No, sir ! That 's just what I did n't 
 learn, papa ! " said Challey, getting up on his 
 feet to give his father the facts better. " The 
 battle of Long Island ! " he cried, defiantly. 
 " And the defeat of the Americans for ever so 
 long afterwards ! and the British gaining vic- 
 tories and advantages every minute, and noth- 
 ing but disasters an' disasters to Our army ! 
 There are two whole chapters all about that 
 and nothing else, and our history class just 
 would n't stand it, and we went to Mr. Gray 
 at recess, and we told him we did n't want to 
 learn those chapters, and he said we might skip 
 'em ! Hm ! Do you think a man 'd have any 
 right to make a boy learn such chapters as 
 those ? Anyhow, Mr. Gray did n't ! He was 
 on our side right off, and said we might skip 
 every word ! "
 
 162 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " Yes ! " cried Bob, wagging his head with 
 Challey's ; " and we 're going to skip the disaster 
 part in our history too, in my class ; but 
 we 've got seven chapters before we get to it." 
 
 "Don't you think Mr. Gray is the best 
 teacher in the whole world, papa ? " asked 
 Challey, settling down again on the floor. 
 
 " Certainly, I do," said his father. " But I 
 don't see exactly how you manage, if you fol- 
 low history. And especially, if you do your 
 best and Challey shoots for the British. He 
 must be a better shot than you, Bob ; don't 
 you let them beat, un " 
 
 " NO ! The British never beat ! " they both 
 roared at once. Then Challey explained : 
 " You see, here 's the fort, and the Ameri- 
 cans have got possession of it, and the best 
 marbles and soldiers are inside. Bob manages 
 that. Then, across six squares of the carpet, 
 here is the enemy, and they have n't so many 
 marbles, and their soldiers are the most dam- 
 aged and can't stand up so well. I manage 
 that. Then it 's night, and the British are 
 asleep when the Americans begin. Bob is n't 
 so good a shot, but the British don't wake up 
 till he 's had one good hit. By agreeing to 
 that, we manage pretty well. I know," said 
 Challey, earnestly, " it 's giving the Americans
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 163 
 
 the advantage every time, and it 's meaner to 
 take the enemy by surprise ! It 's lots more 
 fun when Bob will take their side, because I 
 can give him the advantage and beat him, too. 
 But then, this way is better than letting the 
 British beat." 
 
 " Yes ! " said Bob, dolefully ; " it 's better 
 than that ! But I ain't the feller to turn against 
 my country, Challey ; so you just need n't ex- 
 pect it ! Jim Holburn was British once, and 
 that was fun ; but he won't be it any more ; 
 none o' the boys will. How would you manage, 
 papa ? " 
 
 But the question was a puzzle even to papa. 
 
 " We tried having a girl once Elva Tuck- 
 it did it," said Challey ; " and that was sort o* 
 good, 'cause girls are n't any kind o' shots, you 
 know, and it was awfully easy to beat her. But 
 she wanted to have hospitals and take care of 
 the wounded and everything, and boys don't 
 care for that. If a soldier's leg is shot off, 
 why it 's off, you know, an' we like to play that 
 he don't mind it, but just fires once more and 
 kills a British officer, and then he dies." 
 
 " Yes," Bob struck in, it was a very excit- 
 ing play, " girls are n't worth anything to 
 play battle with ! Besides the wounded, Elva 
 wanted a Daughter of the Regiment ! What
 
 164 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 do men want of Daughters of the Regiment 
 going round? We let her have one in the 
 enemy's army ; they 're good enough for the 
 British ! " 
 
 So the boys rattled on about their plays, and 
 Mr. Chezzle patched up the American army, 
 making more chips than had ever been seen 
 before on the sitting-room carpet. 
 
 " But I 've been obsarvin' Captain Pepper- 
 sir, most par-tickler," said Molly, as she brushed 
 up the litter ; " an' it was plazin' to his faylins, 
 sir, that yez decloined makin' yersilf comfort- 
 ubble in the porler. An' I told him, says I to 
 him, Captain Pepper-sir, says I, l it 's Mr. Chiz- 
 zle has the dilicate comprehinsion of a lone wid- 
 dywer, wid Mrs. Chizzle acrost the dape ocean. 
 An' it 's Molly Dolan-sir, says I-sir, that '11 
 respict the sperrit-faylins of Mrs. Pepper that 
 was, an' not be doin' annything out o' place 
 that wuddent be in accardence wid her own 
 ways.' ' 
 
 Molly suffered unnecessary anxiety on this 
 score, for the relief which it was to Captain 
 Pepper to have Mr. Chezzle and herself re- 
 sponsible for Bob's welfare, crowded out of his 
 mind his usual worries concerning the house 
 affairs. Nevertheless, Molly trod on tiptoe over 
 the sacred mats which Luella had braided, was
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 165 
 
 half inclined to apologize to the feather-beds 
 for shaking them, spread the sheets and blan- 
 kets with gentle strokes and tuckings, and pat- 
 ted the pillows soothingly. She also gratified 
 the captain by admiring the ease and skill which 
 he displayed in the kitchen. 
 
 He had n't " cooked aboard ship, an' been 
 captain an' mate an' doctor an' highcockoloruni 
 all his life without learning a few things ! " 
 he told her, while showing her how to make 
 chowder. 
 
 " So ye need n't worrit, Mr. Chizzle-sir, but 
 I '11 git along all right," said Molly. 
 
 " Indeed, I don't worry a bit about you, 
 Molly," said Mr. Chezzle ; " you would get 
 along anywhere." 
 
 " An' aisy it is, sir," said Molly ; " an' I '11 
 give ye a resate for the same. Take plinty of 
 instroocktion that's wan thing. Ye must 
 make yersilf willin' to be taght what ye know 
 oil about, in the first place ; and, afther that, 
 obtain fargiveness. Niwer moind what it 's 
 far, Mr. Chizzle-sir ; don't be thriflin' wid 
 findin' out, but take it oil. It 's a foine 
 accomplishment to know how to take thim two 
 things, an' it 's mesilf that 's taken more o' 
 both, in me toime, than ye '11 find in a thrug- 
 shtore ! "
 
 166 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Molly sat down by Bob's sofa to mend up 
 his and Challey's clothes, which, she said, looked 
 " as if the fishes had been takin' a chaw at 
 thim, toimes whin dillicate refrashment like 
 byes' legs was denied thim ! " 
 
 In a little while came Shirley Barnes with 
 the sad news that Ranna was very dangerously 
 ill, and petitioning for Challey to come. Shir- 
 ley was sure that he could help Ranna. 
 
 " It 's 'cause she 's scared ; she got scared 
 when Bob got bit, an' she 's scared so it makes 
 her mos' die ! " sobbed Shirley. " An' I ran to 
 get Challey, 'cause Ranny she she loves him 
 barrels-full. Alex an' Jim said Challey made 
 her quiet when she was rarin' at the mash." 
 
 " come ! come, papa ! " cried Challey, 
 pulling his father along. " I do know what to 
 do. Ranna will be quiet for me, 'cause you 
 know Bob an' I saved her from the Indians 
 when she was lost ; an' when I put my hand 
 softly over her mouth an' shake my head, it 
 makes her as still as anything ! " Challey was 
 hurrying his father and Captain Pepper down 
 the road while he was talking. " And, papa," 
 he said, squeezing his father's hand, " you 
 notice Ranna and tell me if you know what 
 makes me feel like taking care of her, and sorry 
 for her even when she 's happy."
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 167 
 
 When they reached the house, Mr. Chezzle 
 and Captain Pepper went in softly, leaving the 
 two boys outside to wait for them. 
 
 It seemed as if they were gone a long time. 
 Two yellow-birds in the silver poplar tree were 
 teaching their young ones to fly and making a 
 great to-do. Looking up at them, Challey saw 
 Ranna's old, battered straw hat. He climbed up 
 for it and was very tender of it. Ranna's moans 
 came through the windows, and, although they 
 knew she could not hear, the children talked in 
 whispers. Shirley crept into the house and 
 stayed awhile, trying to persuade somebody that 
 Challey could help Ranna, if he could only 
 be allowed to try. He came out again, how- 
 ever, and said: "No, Challey, they won't let 
 anybody but papa upstairs ! They say Ranny 
 don't know anybody now, an' she 's rarin' 
 wuss than ever ! / know wot ails her, but 
 they won't listen to me 'cause I 'm only a little 
 boy ! " Challey put his arm over Shirley's 
 neck and said : " Come, let 's tell Molly all 
 about it, Shirley ; she '11 listen, I know." 
 
 So Shirley told Molly his whole story at last, 
 saying, at the end : " I know it 's all Cale Bix 
 an' Crissy Jones that scared her mos' to death ! 
 That 's wot 's the matter, Molly ; an' wo- 
 won't you go tell the people ? Cale an' Crissy
 
 168 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 has gone off to Bedford on Cap'm Jones's 
 schooner ; but they would n't tell the truth, if 
 they was here ! An' it is the truth ; an' I 'm 
 go-goin' to f-f-f-fight both o' them boys, I 
 am ! ! " 
 
 But Molly was a great comfort to Shirley 
 and sent him home brighter for her promise to 
 tell Mr. Chezzle and Captain Pepper his story, 
 at least. 
 
 Bob declared it was all nonsense. " / 'm 
 the feUow that got bit," he said, " and if /ain't 
 scared, I don't see why anybody else is ! " 
 
 Mr. Chezzle and Captain Pepper came in, and 
 to them Molly repeated Shirley's story. The 
 captain was inclined to treat it as child's talk 
 and of no consequence, but Mr. Chezzle lis- 
 tened to it more seriously. 
 
 "Where is Challey?" he asked. "Every 
 one seems to agree that he quieted the poor 
 little girl when others failed ; let us find what 
 he has to say. Where is Challey, Bob ? " 
 
 Bob pointed to the soles of Challey's shoes 
 sticking out from under the big leaf of a table. 
 
 " You might as well come out, Challey ; 
 everybody knows you 're there," said Bob. 
 
 Challey's face worked painfully as he crawled 
 out. 
 
 "Come here, Challey-boy," said his father,
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 169 
 
 gently, and lifting him upon his knee. " Tell 
 papa what it is, dear boy." 
 
 Challey buried his face against his father's 
 bosom and broke down, sobbing. 
 
 " It 's all Ranna," he said, brokenly. " She 's 
 so little, papa ! An* she don't know even so 
 much as Zanzibar, but she wants to, an' she 
 looks, an' looks, an' looks at me just as if she 
 believed / knew everything ! And I feel as if 
 she 'd die if I did n't find out now what fright- 
 ens her ! Maybe I could ! Maybe I could ! " 
 
 " An' so you shall you shall, me darlint ! " 
 said Molly, interrupting and putting away her 
 work. " It 's the Lord that 's maybe given it 
 to the chilt to know, Mr. Chizzle-sir, an' it 's 
 His wark denyin' spache to the pore -little lone 
 thing yander ; an' it 's not for me nor anny 
 one to be sayin' that it 's not the sowl o' Saint 
 Michael himsilf that 's spakin' troo the moind 
 of Challey this blessed minute of toime ! It 's 
 Bob does n't nade me the whilst I take a 
 smahl run an' make Mrs. Barnes an offer of me 
 sar vices for a shart time annyhow ! " So say- 
 ing, Molly hurried away, and Challey, much 
 relieved, set to work to repair the ruins of the 
 broken forts. 
 
 The next morning Mr. Chezzle returned to 
 Boston. But Captain Pepper begged Molly to
 
 170 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 remain for a week or so, and he was particu- 
 larly glad to have her consent because her visit 
 to the little Ranna had proved of great service 
 to Debby. So she stayed ; and every day, after 
 devoting the morning to Bob and giving such 
 assistance in the house affairs as the captain 
 would allow, she went to take the mother's 
 place beside Ranna for a few hours. What a 
 comfort it was to Debby to see Molly's fresh, 
 bright face in the doorway, only Debby her- 
 self and Elisha knew.
 
 XIV. 
 
 HOW CHALLET SAVED RANNA's LIFE WHEN NOBODY ELSE 
 COULD. 
 
 BOB was disappointed. His leg got well so 
 fast that he did not have half the fun he 
 had expected out of the crutches. And, worse 
 still, Captain Pepper took them away from 
 him just when he wanted them the most, 
 which made Bob call him an " Injungiver ! " 
 He called the captain that dreadful name at 
 night, in the dark, after Challey and he were 
 in bed, when the captain had gone to smoke 
 his pipe on the front porch. And he said he 
 wished Molly had not moved over to Shirley's 
 house, so that " she could put him to bed, 
 'stead of Cap'm Pepper ! " 
 
 " That is n't fair, Bob," said Challey. 
 " Cap'm Pepper only took your crutches away
 
 172 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 because you were learning to go down-stairs 
 backwards and climb over the fence with them. 
 And he said he reckoned he took 'em just in 
 time to save your life." 
 
 " I don't care ! " said Bob. " He would n't 
 let me even bring 'em to bed ; and he is a 
 Injungiver 1 " 
 
 " Well," said Challey, " you know you could 
 n't help rolling over onto 'em and waking your- 
 self up, Bob. And when you wake up, all the 
 rest of us have got to wake up too ! " 
 
 " Well, I guess you 'd wake somebody up 
 if you dreamt you got lost and a buffalo's 
 horns " Bob's voice was wailing off into a 
 cry, he was so sorry for himself. 
 
 "Anyhow, Bob," said Challey, "the buffalo 
 is n't here now. Do be still. You know, at 
 any rate, that your leg has been well for ever 
 so long, and you have n't needed the crutches 
 since " 
 
 "Yes I have too!" cried Bob. " MoUy 
 said when she was here that of course my leg 
 was stiffer in the mornings. But it gets better 
 by the time breakfast 's atten. It '11 be worse, 
 though, to-morrow ; you see if it is n't ! Just 
 wait till Cap'm Pepper sees me try to walk 
 without crutches ! He '11 feel sorry enough 
 then /"
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 173 
 
 " Well, you won't get 'em back, I don't be- 
 lieve, anyhow," said Challey ; " and you ought 
 n't to call him ( Injungiver ' because you know 
 you 're only mad and you really love him." 
 
 " No I don't ; I hate him ! " said Bob. 
 " He 's as bad as the British ! Everybody is 
 as bad as the British when they don't do any- 
 thing I want 'em to. And when I 'm mad, 
 I donit love people I hate 'em ! " 
 
 " Cap'm Pepper read out of the Bible that 
 you must n't stay angry after the sun went 
 down ; and he said we 'd feel bad if we went 
 to sleep hating anybody," said Challey. 
 
 " /won't ! " said Bob. " I just as lief go to 
 sleep hating 'em as to stay awake hating 'em ; 
 and I don't believe that, anyhow. / think 
 it 's a lot wickeder to hate while you 're awake, 
 'cause you know what you 're about then, and 
 if you go to sleep doing it you liave to stop. 
 You can't hate folks while you 're snoring, can 
 you ? So there ! " 
 
 " Well anyhow, you 'd better say, ( Forgive 
 us,' over again," said Challey, who felt virtuous 
 in contrast with Bob's state of mind. 
 
 " I won't ! " said Bob. " I don't want the 
 Father in Heaven to forgive me to-night. I 'm 
 not going to ask him to do it till to-morrow, 
 and maybe not till the day after."
 
 174 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Challey gave up trying any further to im- 
 press Christian feelings upon his brother, and 
 that unrepentant little sinner, since the truth 
 must be told, went to sleep entirely satisfied 
 with his own perversity. When morning came, 
 however, his ill-feelings had vanished, and he 
 went to breakfast " piggy-back " on the cap- 
 tain's shoulders, entirely forgetting that he had 
 intended to decline the invitation and to limp 
 down-stairs by himself in the most painful man- 
 ner possible. 
 
 The captain trotted with him around the 
 breakfast table, out, through the kitchen, into 
 the garden, Challey holding on to the tail of 
 his pea-jacket, around the house, and back 
 again into the sitting-room, where he stopped 
 in front of the high clock. " HoUoa ! Is it 
 mine ? " asked Bob, taking a letter from the 
 clock-face. 
 
 " It 's for both, I reckon, as it has n't got 
 either of your given names on it. Let Chal- 
 ley open it, as he is the biggest," the captain 
 said. 
 
 Challey recognized his cousin Maria's irreg- 
 ular handwriting. " Mess-mess-i-eurs," he read. 
 " That is n't in our names. But it 's our letter, 
 because ( Chezzle ' comes after it. I don't see 
 why she calls us * Mess-i-ers.' '
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 175 
 
 " Perhaps it 's the French for ( messmates,' ' 
 said Bob, and they agreed at once that it was. 
 
 It was a good deal of trouble to read one of 
 Maria's letters, because of the French phrases 
 and terminations. Letters are not always 
 sources of unmitigated pleasure to boys, espe- 
 cially when they have to be answered. 
 
 " Our cousin Maria 'd be a lot nicer if she 
 was our language," Bob said. 
 
 " Yes," said Challey, " French is worse than 
 Mr. Steeples when he comes to our house to 
 dinner ; " and he further explained to Captain 
 Pepper, " Mr. Steeples knows everything, and 
 he teaches it to people at the table." 
 
 " There ! " said the captain, thinking it was 
 as well not to discuss Mr. Steeples. " Here 
 are the spuds," setting a dish of baked pota- 
 toes on the table. " Come, eat your breakfast, 
 an' then run along to Miss Leigh with your 
 letter." 
 
 The boys always carried Maria's letters to 
 Miss Leigh, the school-teacher, to get them 
 translated, or interpreted. But they had 
 planned to dig clams this morning, and Chal- 
 ley said : " It '11 be a dreadful waste of low 
 tide to go ! 
 
 " I wish Maria 'd send her letters in the 
 noon mail-bag, or else there ! " he suddenly
 
 176 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 broke out, intensely bored, and flinging him- 
 self upon his seat at the table. " I just hate 
 French letters ! And I don't care a snap about 
 the French country, either ! " 
 
 " Belay your f eelins for a spell," said Cap- 
 tain Pepper. " I 've got a notion only a no- 
 tion, mind, that you '11 have a better opinion of 
 the French nation and maybe of the language 
 into the bargain, after you read that letter." 
 
 " Why? why?" asked both boys, for there 
 was a twinkle in the captain's eye, and he 
 looked as if he knew something very pleasant. 
 
 " Never you mind why," he said ; " but I 
 don't often get a notion into the sou'sou'west 
 corner of my intellect unless it means some- 
 thing." 
 
 It certainly did this time. Half an hour af- 
 terwards, the boys were sitting on the captain's 
 fence, with Alex and Clifford Tuckit, Jim Hoi- 
 burn,, and Shirley Barnes, all huddled in a com- 
 pact row, Challey and Bob in the middle. The 
 captain's prediction proved correct. The feel- 
 ings of the two boys toward the French had 
 altered. Not only that, they meant everybody 
 to know it. 
 
 " / think French is the best language in the 
 whole world ; don't you, Challey ? " said Bob. 
 
 " Yes sir-ee, of course I do," said Challey.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 1,7:7 
 
 " And when it 's mixed up with English it 's 
 just splendid ! " 
 
 " Ken you speak it ? " asked Clifford. 
 
 Ye - e - es ! " said Bob. Of course ! 
 Dunny-moy de burr that 's French. And 
 I think France is the best country, too, except 
 America." 
 
 " So do I ! " cried ChaUey. " If there 's ever 
 a war between France and any other country, 
 / 'm going to stand up for France ! " 
 
 "So am I!" said Bob. "And won't I 
 give it to to the French's enemy ! " Bob 
 doubled up his fists and glared at Shirley, who 
 wagged his head and said ' he guessed he 'd 
 join the French too.' 
 
 " Well ! " said Bob, swelling up so much 
 with importance that he was obliged to get 
 down from the fence to imitate Captain Pep- 
 per by giving his small breeches a hitch. " I 
 guess any fellow that wants to sail my French 
 boat '11 have to go in for Maria an' Uncle 
 Tom, anyhow ! " 
 
 " Who 's M'riar ? " asked Clifford. 
 
 Bob did not stop to take breath. " She 's 
 our French cousin over in Europe and her 
 father 's our Uncle Tom and she 's the best 
 and nicest cousin in the whole world and so 's 
 Uncle Tom the best uncle any boy ever had ! "
 
 178 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 he screamed, louder and louder, while Challey 
 was saying in a steady undertone : " She 's 
 Maria Annty-net Penroy and her father 's my 
 mother's big brother and they live in France 
 where they make the best ships and, if you 
 want me to, I '11 read her letter about the boats 
 out loud." 
 
 As Bob talked the fastest, he got through 
 first, and the last clause of Challey's speech 
 was understood and met with approval. So he 
 pulled the letter, much crumpled already, out 
 of his pocket and read as follows, interpreting 
 as he went along : 
 
 " l MAY SHAKE KOOZANGS.' That 's the 
 French for 'my dear cousins.' You will get 
 two boats. It is mong papa that send me to the 
 store to buy them. Share Tont ' that means 
 ' dear aunt ' ; she calls mamma that. ' Share 
 Tont is much a-tonny they are so big but my 
 papa think them tooty fay bong.' ' A-tonny ' 
 means astonished, and i tooty fay bong ' means 
 ' entirely good.' 1 1 tell share Tont that I love 
 may koozangs tray large boats full with many 
 sails. Ad-jew, voter koozeen, 
 
 MARIA ANNTY-NET PENROY.' ' 
 
 Challey felt very scholarly to be able to in- 
 terpret so much French, and the boys admired
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 179 
 
 him greatly. They all went in a body to con- 
 sult Captain Pepper about the time when the 
 boats might arrive. As Mrs. Chezzle had 
 written to him not to look for them until near 
 Challey's birthday, and as that was not to be 
 until August 16th, nearly a fortnight, the cap- 
 tain decided to interest them during the in- 
 terval in the building of a miniature wharf on 
 his little strip of beach ; a decision which was 
 a stroke of genius on his part, as, without it, 
 the impatience of the boys would have been 
 hard to bear. 
 
 The hope that Ranna would be well by 
 the birthday helped also to make the children 
 more patient. The poor little mute continued 
 very ill, however, and was either in a stupor or 
 delirious most of the time. Molly, after Bob 
 ceased to need her, had taken up her abode at 
 the Barnes's cottage, and, with her natural love 
 for children, and her interest in Ranna much 
 increased by Challey and Shirley, she was a most 
 skilful nurse. 
 
 One day a slight incident gave her a new 
 clue to the situation. She was arranging things 
 more tidily in a closet and happened to hang on 
 a peg at the foot of the child's bed the little 
 dress which had been wrapped around Bob's 
 leg when the fish had bitten him. Ranna,
 
 180 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 coming out of a stupor, caught sight of it and 
 instantly became violently excited. It did not 
 take Molly long to discover that the sight of 
 the dress was enough to fill the child with fear 
 which was painful to witness. She put it away, 
 after satisfying herself of the fact, and set to 
 work to think, while she sewed with great en- 
 ergy. By and by, when Debby came in, Molly, 
 with a new idea in her mind, put on her bonnet 
 and went in search of Challey. She found him 
 at work upon the wharf, and taking him to a 
 point at a little distance from which a window 
 in the Barnes cottage was visible, told him to 
 look at it often, and if he saw a towel fastened 
 to the shutter to go to her at once. Two days 
 afterwards Challey perceived the signal, and in 
 a few minutes was clattering up the stairs lead- 
 ing to Ranna's room. Molly hurried to meet 
 him in the entry. 
 
 " Whisht ! she 's slaping," she said. 
 
 " But she could n't hear me, Molly," said 
 Challey, out of breath with running, "if I 
 made the loudest noise I can." 
 
 " I know, I know, darlint," said Molly ; " but 
 it 's not aisy to remimber that same. Nivver 
 moind it only mark what I '11 be sayin*. 
 Rannan slapes heavy the same as she 's sla- 
 pin' this minute, ontil her breath grows that
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 181 
 
 hard she 's not able to draw it longer an' thin 
 she wakes up suddent. I 've been watchin', 
 an' I 've larned wan thing : she 's in a fright 
 manny an' manny a toime ; but ye moind 
 now what yersilf an' Shulley told me whin I 
 axed yez all about it the dress she had on 
 that day, an' thim oogly byes had it shakin' 
 at her the day she tuk sick do ye moind, 
 Challey ? " 
 
 Challey, with his glorious eyes fixed upon 
 Molly's face, minded every syllable. " Go on ; 
 don't stop, Molly," was all he said. 
 
 " Well, darlint," continued MoUy, " the 
 fright takes her, whin she sets eyes on that 
 dress, in a way that 's ahful to say ; an' I 've 
 made up me moind that she thinks, whin she 's 
 lookin' at it, that she 's there at the same spot 
 agin where yez played wid the whale. Whisht 
 now ! an' don't spake, for she '11 be wakin' 
 shartly. Ye moind how she went mad wid the 
 sight o' blood that day ? Maybe she 's thinkin' 
 it oil over, an' Shulley says the dress was covered 
 wid it. Now it was yous, Challey, that got her 
 quiet thin; I want yez to do the same now. 
 Come in the room quiet, me love, an' stan' 
 where her eyes '11 light on ye. I want Rannan 
 to see ChaUey Chizzle instid o' the ahful thing 
 in her moind ! An' I 've talked it over wid her
 
 182 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 mother that 's in there too, to see what the 
 chilt '11 do whin she sees him ! " 
 
 Molly led Challey into the room. His face 
 worked, and he could not help crying at first, 
 Ranna looked so unnatural and wasted. Debby 
 drew him close to her, and stood with him at 
 the foot of the little bed. How heavy Ran- 
 na's breathing was ! He thought it must hurt 
 to breathe like that. And she waited so long 
 between ! He counted six of his own breaths 
 in the intervals. He was counting again, when 
 Molly said : 
 
 " Whisht ! she 's wakin' ; closer, Challey 
 there ! " The two women stood aside and 
 waited, motionless. 
 
 One mighty breath, a start, and Ranna' s 
 eyes opened wide. Challey was bending over 
 her ; she looked right into his face. He 
 smiled touchingly at her and laid his hands 
 upon hers. Look ! Was that the beginning 
 of a smile upon her lips ? It passed too 
 quickly to tell. With a violent start, she 
 threw both arms around Challey and clung to 
 him an instant. Then she let go with one 
 hand to point to something at the foot of the 
 bed, hid her face against him, and trembled all 
 over. Again and again she did the same thing, 
 let go, clung to him, and made desperate mute
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 183 
 
 appeals to him. Challey tried his innocent 
 wiles to quiet her, but in vain ; she only re- 
 peated her frantic gestures. 
 
 Challey looked imploringly at Molly. " Yes, 
 darlint, I think I know ! " said Molly, her 
 face white as snow, and her eyes intensely 
 eager. " Kape yer place beside her till I tell 
 yez to do somethin' ; an' will ye do it Challey 
 bye? Will ye do it?" 
 
 " Yes, Molly ; yes I will, if she '11 let me," 
 sobbed Challey. 
 
 " Go thin, whin I say the wurrid," said 
 Molly ; " go thin, swateheart, an' take Rannau's 
 dress from where it 's hangin' there. Bring it 
 to her, so she '11 see it plain as the day " 
 
 " Oh Molly ! " moaned Challey, beseeching. 
 
 " Do it jest as I tell yez, me love ! " said 
 Molly, steadily. " Show it to her plain, an' 
 thin take it slow slow, to let her watch yez 
 take it to the fire on the hearth, and let her 
 see yez put it right onto the coals an' the 
 whilst ye do that, I '11 make her look at it 
 burnin'. Now, me love now ! " Molly 
 unclasped Ranna's arms from Challey 's neck, 
 liftecl her, although she struggled violently, and 
 held her firmly in her strong arms while the 
 boy did as she had told him. Ranna watched 
 his every motion. Her face was drawn with
 
 184 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 terror and pitiful to behold as he showed her 
 the dress, but, as he walked with it to the 
 fireplace and set it ablaze ; as she saw it burn, 
 Molly carried her close to the fire, as the 
 little gown lost all shape in the flames and 
 burned to ashes, a change came over Ranna. 
 The muscles of her face relaxed, her eyes lost 
 their wildness, she turned to Challey with one 
 long look of love, love and unbounded grati- 
 tude, and at last ! at last ! her own rare, 
 wonderful smile broke all over her face. 
 
 " Nearer, Challey, nearer, dear boy ; she 
 wants you ! " whispered Debby, hoarsely, kneel- 
 ing with clasped hands, and never taking her 
 eyes from Ranna. Challey drew close just in 
 time to let the little head fall upon his neck 
 and feel one caress from the child's hands 
 before they fell, sliding, powerless, from his 
 shoulders. 
 
 " That 's all right now ! All right now ! " 
 said Molly's cheery voice. " Don't cry no 
 more, Challey love, but go send the doctor to 
 us an' tell him the wark '11 be hopefuller now ! " 
 Challey ran like the wind. 
 
 Late that night, when the captain went up- 
 stairs and looked in at the children, Bob was 
 fast asleep, but Challey was sitting bolt-upright 
 in bed.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 185 
 
 " H'lo, messmate ! what the matter ? " asked 
 the captain, sitting down on the edge of his 
 cot. 
 
 " I can't sleep," said Challey, tears rolling 
 down his cheeks. " I keep feeling Ranna's 
 head right here," touching his neck, " and I 
 can see her face the way it was and then," 
 sobs came so that it was hard to get the words 
 out, " the way it was, all dreadful, and then 
 then the way the angels look ! " 
 
 " But she is n't an angel yet, boy ! No ! " 
 said the captain, cheerfully ; " an' she won't be 
 for a long spell. She 's ridin' on a quiet sea 
 now, my boy, full sail, with a fair wind, an' 
 she '11 git into port mighty soon, with all her 
 colors flyin' at her topmast ! Think o' that, 
 Challey!" 
 
 "I know it," said Challey, with a little, 
 happy laugh, and wiping his eyes with his 
 nightgown sleeve. "I I ain't cryin', Cap'm 
 Pepper ! it 's water that comes into into 
 my eyes ! I 'm so glad she 's goin' to get well 
 that I 'm laughing, I am I can't help it ! " 
 he added, with a sob. " But I want to know 
 something. Do you think " Challey's eyes 
 were so big and earnest now " do you think 
 God understands Ranna ? " 
 
 " Why yes, of course I do," said the cap-
 
 186 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 tain. " Everybody understands what they make 
 themselves, Challey, of course ! And she is n't 
 any more of a puzzle to the Lord than than 
 the little boat you made yesterday is to you ! 
 Now go to sleep, sonny, an' ye '11 see things 
 clear as sunshine in the morning." 
 
 " Yes, I will," said Challey, nestling down 
 contentedly under the bedclothes. " Ranna 's 
 ah 1 right, if He understands. I 'm glad He 
 does, but I wish He did n't have to keep it a 
 secret ! "
 
 XV. 
 
 THE LAUNCHING OF THE " MABIA PEPPER " AND THE 
 " THOMAS ANTOINETTE." 
 
 f^\ HALLE Y'S birthday came at last, and the 
 \J boxes containing the famous boats were 
 out in Captain Pepper's wood-house. And he 
 was not the man to keep boys waiting not 
 he ! Instead of trotting around the garden, 
 with Bob on his back and Challey following 
 behind, to take their morning " shake-up " 
 before breakfast, the captain made a bee-line 
 for the wood-house, and the boys had a good 
 chance to examine the big cases, with Charles 
 T. P. Chezzle on one, and Robert H. Chezzle 
 on the other, printed in rousing big letters, 
 and plenty of daubs and labels on both. 
 
 It did not take long to eat breakfast that 
 morning ; there was no dawdling. And after 
 that was over, the only thing they had to do 
 was to run across the road to get the Tuckit
 
 188 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 family and send little Cliff to tell Jim Holburn 
 and just a few of the other boys. Cliff's legs 
 were sturdy, though, if they were little, and it 
 was astonishing how quickly he collected a 
 crowd. There were " ohs ! " in every key that 
 was ever invented, at sight of the boxes, but 
 when the ends were unscrewed and the ships 
 were slid out on runners, as if they were being 
 launched, the rafters rang with shouts. 
 
 There had never been an excitement of the 
 kind in Nipsit, and the boy populace were de- 
 lighted. For the Chezzle boys were neither 
 exclusive nor selfish, and this meant fun for 
 everybody. The captain selected certain boys 
 to help Challey and Bob carry the boats down 
 to the shore, and they were joined by every 
 child who caught sight or sound of what was 
 going on. 
 
 Then the little ships were launched from the 
 new wharf, amid the waving of all the flags 
 which Uncle Tom had sent with them. They 
 sailed beautifully, and in the course of fifteen 
 minutes there were more little bare legs pad- 
 dling over the shoals than it was easy to count, 
 and enough to furnish a meal for a whole 
 school of young sharks ! , A fine morning the 
 children had of it, for the sun was warm and 
 the tide low enough to admit of plenty of wad-
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 189 
 
 ing. Dinner was looked upon as a frightful 
 bore. Challey and Bob were followed back 
 to the wood-house by a retinue of boys, for 
 they had grown very popular indeed. 
 
 But every one had gone when Elva Tuckit, 
 who had been down on the shore with the baby 
 in her arms, spied little Jim Holburn running 
 by the garden fence, wiping his eyes with his 
 shirt-sleeve. 
 
 " What 's the matter, Jim ? " said Elva, head- 
 ing him off gently. Elva was very good to 
 Jhn. In fact, she was good to children gen- 
 erally, helped many an one out of a scrape, 
 and had eyes that were quick to discover the 
 chance to do them a good turn. Elva was 
 freckled and ungainly, her nose was larger 
 than she wished it was, and her feet clumsier, 
 but there was grace and beauty in her soul. 
 
 She hoisted the baby deftly upon her left 
 arm and had a hand to lay upon Jim's shoulder. 
 Jim smothered a sob with a tremendous sniff. 
 
 " Here ! " said Elva, confidentially ; " come 
 into the barn-yard nobody '11 see us behind 
 the hen-coop." She led him by the hand and 
 said again : " What 's the matter, Jim ? Were 
 the boys ugly to ye ? " 
 
 " No," said Jim, mournfully ; " I 1-1-loike 'em 
 dreadful much, but " ,
 
 190 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " But what, Jim ? " asked Elva, sitting the 
 baby on the hen-coop while she righted Jim's 
 hair and put his cap on straight. " Ye need n't 
 mind tellin' me, ye know ; did ye get hurt ? " 
 
 " No ! " said Jim, looking up to her with a 
 tinge of scorn. " As ef I 'd croy 'cause I 'd 
 got hurt ! I hain't croyin' neow, an' I hain't 
 agoin' to, nuther." Elva said, " Of course 
 not ! " and Jim went on : " But them boats, 
 Elvy ! Don't yew wish you bed a cousin Mriar 
 an' uncle Tom? But don't tell I croyed 
 will ye?" 
 
 " No indeed," said Elva, feeling a pang for 
 poor little Jim. " Ye did n't cry enough to 
 tell about, Jim. But ye '11 get a sight o' fun 
 out o' them boats see if ye don't. Chal an' 
 Bobby are real friendly boys, Jim, an' they '11 
 let you be captain sometimes I '11 ask 'em 
 to, myself." 
 
 " Will ye ? " said Jim. " Then they '11 do it, I 
 should n't wonder, tomorrer mornin' ! G'bye ! " 
 
 Jim ran home while Elva lifted up the baby 
 again and thought to herself that it would be 
 nice if Jim had an uncle Tom, or a cousin, or 
 something ! 
 
 A drizzling rain the next day prevented the 
 boys from sailing their boats again, but it gave 
 a fine opportunity for writing letters of thanks
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 191 
 
 to their uncle and cousin. They were very 
 economical of time spent in this way, and agreed 
 to divide the expression of their gratitude be- 
 tween Uncle Tom and Maria ; Challey to write 
 to the former, and Bob to the latter. 
 
 Challey wrote : 
 
 " DEAR UNCLE TOM, I thank you very moch 
 for my boat. We sailed them yestidy and all 
 the boys go in for the french and we luffed the 
 sales and highsted the colors and played on the 
 sholes bearlegd. Thair is a fog and I tell You 
 if they is a war with f ranee Bob and I are go- 
 ing to fite for You and Cousin maria and so 
 are all the boys in Nipsit and captin Pepper. 
 I love You and maria and mamma big war 
 vessles full wen is mamma coming home. 
 
 CHARLES TEMPLETON PENROY CHEZZLE. 
 
 " ps captain Pepper took Bob's krutches away 
 'cause he said Bob wood keel over his topmast 
 into gulloaryhallyluyer he slid down the bannis- 
 sters lots." 
 
 Bob wrote : 
 
 " DER CUZZEN MERIRE a french cuzzen is the 
 best thing to have i think you and unkle torn ar 
 furs clas and mi bote is furs claser challys bote 
 is named merire Pepper and mine is the tomas 
 antynet. ROBERT HUNTINGDON CHEZZLE 
 
 the end."
 
 XVI. 
 
 HOW MUCH FASTER ME. PENROY GOT WELL THAN THE 
 DOCTORS EXPECTED HIM TO. 
 
 From Mrs, Chezzle' s Journal. 
 
 JULY 30. On the morning when M. Du- 
 vergne called on me, I went to Tom's 
 room later than usual. 
 
 " Ah, another one ! " exclaimed Tom, as 
 soon as he looked at me. 
 
 " Another what ? " I asked. 
 
 " She asks ' Another what ? ' : " he said ; " and 
 she knows it is in her pocket ! " I could not 
 imagine what he meant, but he went on with 
 his nonsense. " It is of no use, Mrs. Chezzle, 
 for you to conceal a fact so palpable and in- 
 nocent. I have learned that nothing is so 
 becoming to you as a casual mention of your 
 Chezzle or the Middies ! I have frequently 
 brought them into our conversation for the
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 193 
 
 express purpose of putting a little more tone 
 into your countenance and adding a certain 
 poise to your figure which it requires to make 
 it entirely satisfactory ! " 
 
 He went on teasing me pleasantly in that 
 fashion for awhile, and then asked : " Well, if 
 you have n't any letters, what has happened ? 
 What, or who has given you that agreeable 
 expression? " 
 
 I answered, quietly : " M. Duvergne." 
 
 " What ? " roared Tom. He was honestly 
 surprised that time. 
 
 " I have had an hour's talk with M. Du- 
 vergne this morning; he called to see me," 
 I said. 
 
 " Good King George of Oxford ! " exclaimed 
 Tom under his breath ; and after a moment of 
 silence he asked : " What on earth did Dom- 
 bey and Son want of you ? " 
 
 " He does not want anything whatever of 
 me," I said ; " he wants to see you. But the 
 doctors have reported you to him as being too 
 ill to see any one excepting your physicians and 
 attendants. He has been terribly distressed, 
 Tom, to hear of your sufferings and reduced con- 
 dition, and when I told him that I did not share 
 the discouraging views of the doctors, he seemed 
 so glad that it was delightful to see him. He
 
 194 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 said it was of no use for him to ask the doc- 
 tors' permission to see you, or to send you any 
 more messages by them, and he had therefore 
 called upon me. He said, if it troubled you, 
 he would postpone all conversation upon busi- 
 ness matters until you were better, that all he 
 desired was to see you and to restore, if pos- 
 sible, your confidence in his friendship and its 
 sincerity." Tom's attention was riveted upon 
 every word I had to say about my conversation 
 with the lawyer. 
 
 " Go on, my child ! " he said, once. " Do 
 not omit anything which it is possible for you 
 to recall of that conversation. You are let- 
 ting daylight into my recollection of several 
 shadowy circumstances and setting me to guess- 
 ing riddles proceed ! " 
 
 So I told him everything except about my 
 little outburst concerning his will, and ended 
 by asking him to let me write to M. Duvergne 
 and appoint a time for him to call. He was 
 silent for some minutes, and then said, taking 
 my work away and keeping one of my hands : 
 " Why, I will you need not mention it, my 
 dear, but I will write to Duvergne myself." 
 
 He was going to say something more, but 
 evidently changed his mind. He knitted his 
 brows and was very grave for a time, forget-
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 195 
 
 ting that he was still holding and stroking my 
 hand. 
 
 Then he smiled suddenly in a pleasant way 
 and said : " Call Antoine, my dear ; I think I 
 will get up." 
 
 July 31. Both Messieurs Roubaix and Du- 
 vergne appeared this morning and were closeted 
 with Tom for full two hours in his cosy little 
 study. The two doctors also appeared and 
 were again met by Maria with Tom's absurd 
 message that he was "too ill to see them." 
 The child stood on the stairs with her arms 
 stretched across from wall to banisters, looking 
 down upon them. 
 
 " How ? " said Dr. Frediqueue, in a tone of 
 surprise, putting a foot on the bottom step. 
 " If he is so ill, mademoiselle, it is necessary 
 that we see him immediately ! " 
 
 " Non Monsieur ! " said Maria. " My papa 
 sees only Dr. Antoine to-day ! My aunt is in 
 the parlor and she will explain. Papa says so. 
 Chere Tante ! " she called down to me and re- 
 treated, as fast as she could go, up-stairs. 
 
 Added to my confusion, I felt a little in- 
 dignation that Tom should leave me to invent 
 an excuse for his absurd message. But the 
 gentlemen, luckily, took up another point of 
 grievance.
 
 196 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " How is this ? What does this mean, Ma- 
 dame Shezelle ? " asked Dr. Frediqueue, ner- 
 vously. "Is M. Pennaroi consulting another 
 physician ? " 
 
 " Yes, Madame ! " interrupted Dr. De la 
 Quille, with austerity far more agreeable, I 
 assure you, than his usual sweetness. " Is M. 
 Pennaroi committing such a serious impro- 
 priety ? " 
 
 " Oh, not at all ! not at all, gentlemen ! " I 
 exclaimed. " It is Mademoiselle Maria's pleas- 
 antry alone which awards the title of ' Doctor ' 
 to Antoine, M. Penroy's attendant." 
 
 " Ah ! " they both cried at once, much re- 
 lieved ; and they continued in mixed murmurs 
 of: "It is amusing, that!" "Mile. Maria's 
 pleasantry is charming ! " " Absolutely charm- 
 ing!" 
 
 But I knew they wanted to shake her. I ex- 
 plained to them simply that my brother was 
 inclined to rest and did not think a professional 
 visit necessary ; that was all. 
 
 " But I shall invent no more excuses for 
 your ridiculous messages, Mr. Tom ! " I said 
 to myself. Moreover, I told him so, late in 
 the afternoon, when Maria came to take me to 
 his study where she expected me to be much 
 surprised to see him sitting up in a big arm-
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 197 
 
 chair. I could be as surprised as she wished, 
 for Tom looked handsomer than I had ever 
 seen him. In bed he had looked full fifty 
 years old ; now he looked his age, forty-three. 
 
 Maria provided us with an unexpected en- 
 tertainment, however, in the shape of a letter 
 which M. Duvergne had written, from her dic- 
 tation, to the boys. She brought out the fact 
 that she has been making frequent calls upon 
 him in his little office opening on the garden, 
 and I learned that he was the mysterious gen- 
 tleman I had heard the servants mention with 
 so much awe. But Maria regards him as a 
 most intimate friend, whom she admires im- 
 mensely because of his respect for her doll, 
 Marguerite Helene Penroy. She was very 
 proud of the length of her letter which M. 
 Duvergne had advised her i to show to her aunt 
 who might wish to send some message to her 
 little boys.' 
 
 August 1. Oh, Jack ! Jack ! To think of 
 niy precious Bob ! Your letter is diplomatic, 
 presenting to me first a picture of the happy 
 little convalescent, with Molly, the captain, and 
 yourself in attendance. And your account of 
 the accident is decidedly meagre. You should 
 have seen Maria's face when she asked if 
 i American fish often tasted little boys ! '
 
 198 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Tom wants to know what we will take for 
 the boys, and says he stands ready to make a 
 considerable offer for them. He tells me to 
 congratulate you that Captain Pepper was on 
 hand with his slice of pork for Bob's leg, in- 
 stead of the two French gentlemen who have 
 been in attendance upon himself. He allowed 
 them to come up-stairs yesterday, I am con- 
 vinced for the express purpose of asking them 
 what they thought of fresh pork applied to 
 severe wounds. He seems to have lost all 
 confidence in them now, and I don't know why 
 he does not dismiss them. I am beginning to 
 pity them just a little, he teases them so by 
 asking the absurdest questions with the most 
 perfect gravity. They do not in the least 
 know what to make of him. When they were 
 announced yesterday, he directed Antoine to 
 put a cushion under his feet, a blanket over his 
 knees, and to make him look generally like an 
 invalid. Then he had the audacity to ask me 
 if I thought he looked feeble enough to gratify 
 them ! I protested that he was doing wrong 
 not to tell them honestly that he was getting 
 well fast and did not need them. But he said 
 he was not quite ready to do that. 
 
 " No," he said ; " I wish to be very feeble on 
 this occasion, and I shall mention with anxiety
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 199 
 
 let me see the reverse action of my heart. 
 I wonder how they '11 take that, Nelly ! They 
 have been a good deal concerned about my 
 heart ; let us see how they will like its reverse 
 action. Call them up, Antoine ! " 
 
 If Antoine understood English, or if Tom 
 talked in this manner in Maria's presence, I 
 should be more troubled. 
 
 While Mrs. Chezzle was writing the his- 
 tory of the day in her journal, Maria was 
 sobbing violently in a big arm-chair in the 
 library. It was a chilly evening, and Antoine 
 had lighted the fire. But Maria did not see 
 its cheerful glow or hear the crackle of the 
 burning wood, or the step of somebody coming 
 through the hall. She heard nothing but her 
 own sobs until her father lifted her in his arms, 
 and sitting down with her in the arm-chair, 
 tried to find out what terrible sorrow was afflict- 
 ing her. It took him some time to quiet her 
 sufficiently to enable her to talk, and when 
 Mr. Penroy discovered that the cause of her 
 grief was the thought of her aunt's return to 
 America, he made no attempt to reconcile her 
 to so painful a prospect. It was a comfort to 
 the child, however, to see her father also 
 grieved over it. To be miserable together was
 
 200 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 something. Mr. Penroy presently turned up 
 the lights so that they could shine upon the 
 beautiful portrait of Maria's mother, and re- 
 turning to his former position, they continued 
 their conversation for a long time. But the 
 only consolation that produced any effect what- 
 ever upon Maria's spirits was her father's sug- 
 gestion that perhaps, some day, they too would 
 go to America.
 
 XVII. 
 
 POSITIVELY THE LAST APPEARANCE 
 CT THIS STORY OF THE DOCTORS 
 AND THE MADAGASCARITES. 
 
 AUGUST 7. Tom begs me 
 to report to you an amus- 
 ing scene which we had this morning. He 
 appointed his breakfast hour as the time for 
 both doctors to make a visit which he decided 
 should be their last. He grew impatient, how- 
 ever, and came down - stairs a little earlier to 
 join Maria and me. His delight in sitting once 
 more at the head of his own table in what he 
 called " a respectable manner," with somebody 
 to pour his coffee, lengthened the meal consid- 
 erably. Maria, who knew the situation par- 
 tially, was in a hurry for the doctors to ap- 
 pear, and could scarcely sit still. 
 
 " Ah, papa, you are so long ! " she cried at 
 last. " The bifftek when will him be ate ? " 
 
 " Him is ate now," said her father, laughing. 
 " We will go into the parlor." 
 
 But the door-bell was ringing, and a moment
 
 202 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 or two afterwards, to our amazement, Maria, 
 who had disappeared, was showing the two 
 doctors into the breakfast-room. They looked 
 aghast as they saw Tom ! But they looked 
 more so, and Tom's face grew purple with sup- 
 pressed laughter, as Maria broke out, with ab- 
 solute innocence and in high glee : 
 
 " See ! see, Messieurs ! There was a large 
 bifftek on that dish and iny papa has eaten 
 nearly all of it ! And he has eaten a great 
 many other ones too. And chickens ! and 
 soups ! and he is all well ! Are you not glad ? 
 We kept it for a great surprise for you ! A 
 great surprise ! A great surprise ! " she shouted, 
 jumping up and down and clapping her hands. 
 She took possession of the field, and in her ex- 
 citement forgetting her dislike of the doctors, 
 rattled off a volley of French which six weeks 
 ago I could not possibly have understood. No- 
 body could get a word in sideways, or rather 
 no one tried, for she was conducting the scene 
 to perfection. Presently, however, when she 
 was beginning, " And oh, Messieurs ! Antoine 
 is not a servant at all, he is a wonderful doctor, 
 and he has made papa all well, and " Tom 
 thought it time to silence her. 
 
 " Never mind that part, little grasshopper," he 
 said, laughing, leading the way into the parlor.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 203 
 
 There we held the drollest conversation I ever 
 heard. The doctors covered their embarrass- 
 ment with a mild fit of coughing on Dr. Fredi- 
 queue's part, and a great deal of silk pocket- 
 handkerchief on Dr. De la Quille's. But they 
 had some trouble in composing an explanation 
 of their long course of treatment. They finally 
 declared that their medicines were " intended to 
 make M. Pennaroi hungry to produce an 
 uncontrollable a2^petite f " They professed the 
 most unbounded joy at his recovery, and made a 
 great to-do announcing that he would no longer 
 require their professional services. Tom gave 
 utterance to a surprised " oh ! " at that, but 
 when Dr. Frediqueue proclaimed that they 
 were ' proud and justly gratified at their com- 
 plete success in curing him,' he could not re- 
 press an exclamation of " Thunder and Mars ! " 
 As they did not understand him, however, it 
 made no difference. 
 
 In the midst of the interview a card had 
 been handed to him by Antoine, and, look- 
 ing at it now a second time, he turned the 
 conversation into a new channel by asking 
 the gentlemen if they objected to following 
 him to the library in order to witness a certain 
 deed of gift which, he said, would be quite 
 complete with the addition only of their two 
 signatures upon it.
 
 204 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 Of course he meant the deed of gift for the 
 Madagascar missionaries, and you can imagine 
 the joy which flashed into the faces of the 
 doctors at his speech. They could not repress 
 murmurs of pleasure ; they fairly purred with 
 satisfaction all the way up-stairs. I confess I 
 do not understand why Tom is convinced that 
 the doctors are humbugs and yet seems to 
 cling to his faith in the missionaries. They 
 have all four been equally earnest about his 
 gift. Why should he be so much impressed 
 by M. Duvergne's discovery that the doctors 
 have no standing whatever in the medical pro- 
 fession, and reject his discovery that the mis- 
 sionaries are impostors ? If he cares so much 
 for the Madagascarites, why were they not here 
 this morning to witness his deed for him and 
 receive his munificent gift ? 
 
 But it is all none of my affair, and I will 
 not ask Tom a question which might suggest 
 that I am anxious or even interested in the dis- 
 position of his money. I would rather have 
 him throw it away than think that ! 
 
 The doctors were much annoyed and embar- 
 rassed to find M. Duvergne waiting for us in the 
 library. I thought he scrutinized me a little and 
 that he was thinking of the part of our first 
 conversation which I had never reported to
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 205 
 
 Toin. At any rate / was thinking of it when 
 I sat down at the desk to put my name on the 
 blank space which Tom was indicating for me. 
 Tom asked if I objected to signing legal 
 documents. I thought the doctors looked as 
 if they hoped I did, so I dashed off my name 
 with a particularly indifferent flourish and said 
 I was ready to sign as many as the firm of 
 Roubaix and Duvergne cared to produce. I 
 do not understand business forms, Jack, and 
 am glad that I am not obliged to. I had sup- 
 posed that the two doctors and I were all to 
 put our names upon the same paper as wit- 
 nesses to whatever it contained. But the paper 
 they signed was printed, while the one I signed 
 was written I recognized Tom's hand. Are 
 deeds of gift written, Jack, or must they be 
 printed ? Never mind, though, I don't care for 
 the answer. I have not the least idea what was 
 on the paper which I signed, and I should 
 think the doctors' knowledge of what they 
 were about must have been misty. Perhaps- it 
 is not necessary for witnesses to know what 
 they witness is it? The poor doctors had 
 rather a hard time, for they were painfully ill 
 at ease with M. Duvergne. It was impossible 
 for them to meet his steady, sharp gaze, and al- 
 though they looked at the deed and appeared
 
 206 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 to read some of it, I am sure they were think- 
 ing every minute of the lawyer. They were 
 simply anxious to get out of his presence as 
 soon as possible I am sure of that. They 
 sisrned their names in the most nervous haste, 
 
 O * 
 
 mumbled over a few phrases of which I caught 
 only a word here and there, and bowed them- 
 selves out in a very short time. 
 
 Tom put the deed and my paper into his 
 desk, and that is the last I have seen of either. 
 
 I wonder why M. Duvergne was so compla- 
 cent through it all ! He had protested so 
 strongly against Tom's throwing away his 
 money in the " Mad Mission " as he called it 
 had begged me to influence him at first, you 
 know ; yet he not only saw the deed completed 
 without a word of opposition, but with what 
 looked very like supreme satisfaction ! Perhaps 
 Tom has persuaded him that the mission is not 
 such a fraudulent one, after all. He may have 
 completely changed his mind. But I should 
 think he would tell me, if that is the case, since 
 he has said so much to me about their being im- 
 postors. He has been here every day and at 
 all hours for the past week, but neither he nor 
 Tom broach the subject of the missionaries in 
 my presence. But I do not call this minding 
 my own business with absolute consistency 
 do you ?
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 207 
 
 M. Duvergne took Tom out to drive, and I 
 went down-stairs, where I had the double pleas- 
 ure of ordering lunch and dinner for all of us 
 together, and of explaining to the cook the mys- 
 tery of " M. le Due D'Antoine's " enormous 
 appetite. 
 
 Of course, John, it is quite true that Tom 
 has been ill. He was undoubtedly very feeble 
 when I first came, and much reduced ; but M. 
 Duvergne thinks he must have got over the 
 worst then. We all think that nature had 
 a hard fight against those wretched doctors. 
 Tom and M. Duvergne think she would not 
 have won the victory so easily if it had not 
 been for me, my dear ! Antoine declares 
 that it is I alone who have saved his master's 
 life. I can't quite think that, but I am just 
 a little conceited, do you think ? Well, 
 perhaps. 
 
 No, I 'm not I am very much so ! 
 " Whew ! " I can hear you exclaim, while you 
 measure me under your chin after your favor- 
 ite method, and make your pet speech about 
 me : " You are little, Nelly, but you are 
 great ! " Ah ! I 'd like to be under your chin, 
 Jack, this very minute ! My attack of conceit 
 came on a little before one o'clock to-day, when 
 Tom returned from his drive and said, the mo-
 
 208 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 nient I appeared in the hall to help him with 
 his wraps, " Nelly, you are a brick ! " 
 
 " Thank you ! " I answered. " Don't go up- 
 stairs, Tom, we shall have luncheon in a few 
 minutes ; your mail and newspaper are in the 
 breakfast-room." 
 
 His answer was to put one hand on my head 
 and to take hold of my chin with the other, 
 turning my face up to have a deliberate look 
 at it. " A brick ! " he whispered pleasantly, 
 smiling full upon me and bending down to kiss 
 me. 
 
 I smiled back and said : " I am glad to hear 
 it; I like my big brother to think I am a 
 brick." 
 
 " You do ! " he said, walking with me into 
 the breakfast-room. "Well, he has thought 
 so for some time, my dear. That Jack of yours 
 is a lucky dog." 
 
 Maria's unmistakable ring at the front door 
 vibrated through the house, but it did not in- 
 terrupt Tom, I am sure ; he would not have 
 said another word. Maria came in like a fresh 
 breeze, rosy and happy, with her hoop in her 
 hand and so much to tell that she kept break- 
 ing out all through luncheon into little bursts 
 of joyful talk, and that, with Tom's quiet 
 humor, kept my wits busy.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 209 
 
 " So, Maria, you too think your aunt is a 
 brick ? " said Tom. 
 
 " A prick ? How can chere Tante be such 
 a think ? " asked Maria. " A prick wot is to 
 puild a house kent be like to ma tante ! " 
 
 " In America, my child," Tom always be- 
 gins with America when he wants to impress 
 anything favorably upon Maria's mind, " in 
 America, my child," he said gravely, " the term 
 1 brick ' is applied to persons who have an un- 
 usual number of the cardinal virtues." To my 
 relief, he added : " But it is an expression used 
 only by gentlemen, Maria, and I would prefer 
 not to have you adopt it." 
 
 August 9. I spend a good deal of time in 
 my own sunny, beautiful sitting-room. I feel 
 like a duchess in it, with its fine hangings, 
 luxurious lounge, and easy-chairs. And the pic- 
 tures in it are inspiring. There is a " Corot " 
 over the fireplace, and a " Diaz " by the win- 
 dow, two of Gerard Dow's, those engravings 
 of "The Winder" and "The Reader," you 
 know, and some etchings which I delight in. 
 If I express a particular pleasure in any picture 
 in the house, in Tom's hearing, I find it in my 
 room the next day. So I am careful. This 
 writing-desk I enjoy next to the pictures. It is 
 of mahogany, beautifully carved, just the right 
 height for me, and not too small.
 
 210 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 The one thing out of harmony with the 
 house's grandeur is the little woman just men- 
 tioned, whose figure I meet occasionally at one 
 of the mirrors, which fortunately are few. She 
 looks as if she had lost her way in somebody's 
 palace. But she is honored like a queen in it, 
 and if her big brother does not like her gowns, 
 he has the good taste not to let her know it, 
 and his little Maria thinks she is perfection 
 just 
 
 Evening. I was interrupted by Tom's rap, 
 and he came in saying : " Nelly, bring out the 
 picture of that everlasting Chezzle of yours ; I 
 want to see it again." And down he sat in 
 the big chair by the window to study your phy- 
 siognomy. I am quite used to Tom's abrupt 
 ways, which might be called impulses except 
 that they generally follow a good deal of think- 
 ing. His way is to " turn a thing over in his 
 mind," as mother used to say, study it well, 
 mention it, and do it immediately. So, when 
 he asked for your picture in that way, I said to 
 myself : " Now what has John got to do with 
 it ? " But I said nothing aloud. It was a 
 damp, misty, drizzling day, so I lighted the fire. 
 I leave the weather to take care of itself gen- 
 erally, and do not often notice its changes un- 
 less Tom comes along. After a few minutes
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 211 
 
 he leaned forward, his elbows on the arms of 
 his chair, and, tapping his finger-tips with your 
 photograph, said : " Is Chezzle a good business 
 man, Nelly?" 
 
 " Of course," I answered. 
 
 " What do you call a good business man, 
 madam ? " he asked. He likes to call me 
 " madam." 
 
 " If a man could not get any work to do ex- 
 cept to sweep the streets for a living, I should 
 call him a good business man if he was proud 
 to do that and did it as well as it could be 
 done," I answered. 
 
 " Good ! " said Tom. " Chezzle is that sort ? 
 Then he can get something better." 
 
 " He supports his family, sends his children 
 to a good school, and would lie awake at night 
 if he owed anybody twenty-five cents which he 
 could not pay," I remarked. 
 
 " Then he is a capital business man. Is he 
 obliging? " said Tom. 
 
 " You said he was, when he spared me to 
 come here," was all I said. 
 
 " And the same thing proves him to be un- 
 selfish the more so, that he thought I was 
 a poor man. One more question, Nelly," he 
 said, changing his seat to an arm-chair beside 
 me. " If he was not perfect, would you let me 
 or anybody else find it out ? "
 
 212 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " No ! " I said, very loud for me. 
 
 " I thought so," he said, flipping the photo- 
 graph lightly down my face with his fascinating 
 impudence. Then, tossing it upon a table, he 
 stretched back, with hands clasped behind his 
 head, and said : " Did you ever hear, Nelly, of 
 two men who made, each, an enormous fortune 
 one, by minding his own business, and the 
 other by letting that of his neighbors alone ? 
 No ? That is strange you and your Jack 
 remind me so of both of them. You '11 be 
 wealthy people some day, if your husband is 
 like you in this particular, my dear." 
 
 It was such an idle thought of his ! My 
 mind went so completely over to you in your 
 little " three-pair-back," working over your ac- 
 counts and trying to make the smallest kind 
 of a balance in your own favor, that, before I 
 knew it, Tom was behind my chair, scratching 
 my forehead with his rough chin and saying, 
 with rare tenderness : " Why, Nelly ! Nelly ! 
 How quickly your eyes can travel across the 
 Atlantic ! Bring them back and don't let them 
 wander again, little sister, for we are going to 
 talk business. For once, your want of curi- 
 osity is provoking; why don't you ask what 
 has started me to inquire so much about your 
 husband all at once ? "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 213 
 
 I laughed and said, no doubt he would tell 
 me, if he wanted me to know. His answer 
 took my breath away. You know more than I 
 do, probably, about it all, by this time, Jack. 
 " My child," he said, " you have become neces- 
 sary to my little Maria and me. It would be 
 unreasonable to expect us to do without you. 
 The advantage to Maria of remaining in your 
 vicinity, the companionship of the middies and 
 an ' Oncle Chon,' as she calls him every- 
 thing demands that we shall all go to America 
 together ! " 
 
 I was speechless with the glad bewilderment 
 of it all. But Tom went on ; he said he 
 thought I " had better take the whole dose at 
 once and have it over with ! " "I have written 
 to your husband, Nelly, asking him to take a 
 cottage for me in Nipsit, where we will go 
 direct, and stay a month while we are choosing 
 a suitable place on which to build a summer 
 home. And all the rest will follow, my dear ! 
 There ! " he exclaimed when he had finished, 
 making me stand up and taking me by the 
 shoulders to face the mirror ; " you will oblige 
 me very considerably if you will take that 
 face home to your ' Jack ' and the middies ! "
 
 xvm. 
 
 CLOSE OF MRS. OHEZZLE's JOURNAL. 
 
 AUGUST 13. Maria sings all over the house. 
 The confusion made by the dismantling, 
 packing, boxing, and sending off of the goods 
 and chattels just suits her. But the things 
 she produces to be packed suit me by no 
 means. Her one idea of preparing to go to 
 America is to collect things to take to her 
 cousins. Her talk is all " my cousins," and, 
 if she could have her way, she would empty 
 the toy-shops for them. But I have finally 
 persuaded Tom to set a limit to her purchases 
 and to draw the line at a pair of wooden ele-
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 215 
 
 phants almost big enough for the boys to ride. 
 Maria cried so at being refused permission to 
 order them sent that Tom came to me last 
 night, after she had gone to sleep, quite dis- 
 tressed about it. " But I won't go back on 
 you, Nelly," he said ; " and what I say I '11 stick 
 to." 
 
 So, as Maria understands that her father's 
 decisions, once made, are final, she had her cry, 
 and there the matter ended. She is sunnier 
 and happier than ever to-day. Tom leaves 
 more decisions to me than I quite care for. 
 As, for instance, the question of servants. An- 
 toine is to go with us, and Madeleine, the cook. 
 For the others, I have persuaded him that Bos- 
 ton has resources. Certainly nobody can pre- 
 pare the Nipsit cottage for us better than 
 Molly and Katy Dolan. This house is to be 
 vacated in a few days, and we are to spend the 
 interval until the 22d at some hotel in Paris. 
 
 I hope I have not written so much about 
 Tom that you '11 hate him ! Or talked so much 
 about you to him that he '11 never become ac- 
 quainted with you ! I have tried not to fling 
 your virtues at each other, and I don't think I 
 can have done much harm. I don't see how 
 any reasonable being could be disappointed in 
 Challey and Bob, under any circumstances. I
 
 216 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 am not at all worried about Maria. She is so 
 delighted at the mere possession of us all, that 
 her castles will not easily tumble. Her talk 
 about " Shallee an' Fob " is incessant, and Tom 
 likes to show her your picture, and ask if she 
 knows whose it is, for the fun of hearing her 
 say, "Mon Oncle Tchonne Tche-zelle,'" as if 
 she were going to sneeze. I wonder what she 
 will do when she finds herself, this dainty little 
 Parisienne, face to face with the rough-and-tum- 
 bleness of our two happy-hearted boys. But 
 her admiration for them is born of a hunger for 
 companionship, and I am not troubled. 
 
 HOTEL, PARIS, August 17, Evening. 
 
 And I shall see you and my boys in about 
 two weeks ! It seems too good to be true. 
 Maria is irrepressible in her joy. Everything 
 in the way of preparation seems complete, and 
 Tom's house is in the hands of agents, for sale. 
 We spend all our time now in sight-seeing. 
 Tom teases me delightfully. He declares that 
 I will not remember a single picture in the 
 Louvre, that my rapt expression is simply be- 
 cause my mind is wandering, and that he is 
 sure I see nothing on the canvases but the 
 faces of Challey and Bob and " that tiresome 
 Jack ! "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 217 
 
 I have just had the most entertaining conver- 
 sation with him upon a new subject clothes. 
 After Maria had gone to bed, we were sitting 
 in our parlor, pretty tired of course, reading. 
 Tom suddenly threw down his newspaper and 
 exclaimed : " See here, Nelly, you are a 
 woman ! " 
 
 " Yes, Tom," I said. 
 
 " Well then," he continued, " I suppose you 
 want to spend some time in the shops dress- 
 makers, milHners, girncracks, and that sort of 
 thing." 
 
 " No I don't, Tom," I answered. 
 
 " Give me your purse, madam, and tell me 
 no lies ! " he said, sternly, reaching his hand 
 across the table. 
 
 " I don't tell lies, and I won't give you my 
 purse," I said, quietly. " With only a week 
 before me for the Louvre, I would not use up 
 my precious hours in shops for the trousseau 
 of a duchess unless," I added, " you are 
 ashamed of my appearance, Tom." 
 
 " Thank heaven ! " he exclaimed, taking up 
 the paper again. "I am sorry, though, that 
 you are not more obedient when I ask for your 
 purse," he said, scowling at me. " I shall re- 
 port you to Jack ! " Then he went off into a 
 brown study, looking at me with what he meant
 
 218 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 
 
 for a severe expression, and repeating several 
 times : " To Jack, madam ! To Jack ! " But 
 there was a look of intense amusement all about 
 his eyes and mouth. 
 
 August 19. Three days more ! The last 
 of my journal will be mailed to-morrow, and 
 when you read it you will be watching the 
 papers for news of our steamer. It has been 
 a queer sort of journal to read, has n't it ? It 
 might have been written from anywhere, and 
 is all about people. Well, after all, are not 
 people the best part of the world ? Is even 
 the Louvre as interesting as a newly found 
 brother and little niece? And how could I 
 work myself up into a state of excitement over 
 Paris and its suburbs while I was living in such 
 a story as the history of these two months 
 past? Perhaps, when I am in my own dear 
 home again, when we will have grown used to 
 having Tom and Maria near us, you and I will 
 croon of an evening by the sitting-room fire, 
 and my mind will travel back here again for 
 your entertainment. But, from your account 
 of the Macksbys, it will take some time for 
 either of our minds to get away from our im- 
 mediate surroundings. Poor Jack ! I did not 
 dare to teh! you before I came away that 
 Mrs. Macksby's back hair was tied with an old
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 219 
 
 shoe-string ! I knew then what was before you, 
 and thought it would be merciful to let it come 
 gradually. 
 
 Only prepare for an awful, monstrous 
 scolding, Jack ! How could you, in your last 
 letter, draw such a melancholy picture of the 
 contrast between " the elegance of Tom's grand 
 house at Meaux, and the disheartening aspect 
 of things at home " ? You will have that 
 question to answer face to face, sir ! Home 
 disheartening ! And what is ah 1 Tom's luxury 
 compared with my pride in what is my own ? 
 Just wait until Molly with her scrubbing- 
 brushes, and I with my wits, get to work ! 
 And don't I know, too, that you '11 take a 
 turn yourself with hammer and nails and fur- 
 niture polish ? And then won't I flourish the 
 feather duster over your head !
 
 XIX. 
 
 MR. CHEZZLE IS MORE DAZED BY A SHORT LETTER FROM 
 MR. PENROY THAN HE EVER WAS BEFORE. THE WORK 
 THE LETTER GAVE HIM TO DO. 
 
 I THINK I drew it mildly when I wrote to 
 Nelly," Mr. Chezzle thought to himself as 
 he was walking down town one morning. 
 " Poor little wife ! I don't want her to discover 
 it all at once the shock would be awful. To 
 come home from such a life and encounter 
 Mrs. Macksby at the front door ! And, as for 
 Macksby, a back view of him is enough for me ! 
 If ever there was a person with ' incapable ' 
 stamped all over him, Macksby 's the man." 
 Mr. Chezzle said " Whew ! " aloud, and took 
 off his hat to wipe his forehead. Then he 
 went on with his thinking in this fashion : " I
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 221 
 
 wonder what Nelly will do ! The condition of 
 the carpets alone is enough to take away the 
 courage of a woman. Any woman but Nelly. 
 Bright little Nell ! She '11 mend the rags, and 
 think up a rug or two to cover the stains that 
 won't come out ; she says I tell her to ' think 
 up ' things that we need as if she had Alad- 
 din's lamp." Nobody, seeing Mr. Chezzle's 
 pleased expression, would have suspected that 
 he was thinking of anything dreary, certainly. 
 But the smiles were where " Nelly " came in. 
 His face was cloudy again in a minute as he 
 entered the banking-house. 
 
 " What 's up, Chezzle ? " asked Mr. Ruggett, 
 one of the clerks, and a confidential friend of 
 Mr. Chezzle's. " Has anything happened ? " 
 
 " No ; I wish it would ! " said Mr. Chezzle, 
 hanging his hat up. 
 
 " That sounds as if the situation was rather 
 a bad one," said his friend. 
 
 " Ruggett," said Mr. Chezzle, a little desper- 
 ately, " the situation is simply this : my wife's 
 brother is getting well so fast that she may 
 come home any time now, and before that 
 innocent woman sets eyes on the interior of 
 that house in Roxbury, I 'd like I believe 
 I 'd like to put a barrel of dynamite in the cel- 
 lar and blow it up ! And I don't know as I 'd
 
 222 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 be over - particular about the Macksby family 
 getting out of the way altogether ! " 
 
 Mr. Ruggett laughed. " I ask your pardon, 
 old fellow," he said ; " but how can you expect 
 ine to help it ? When things get so bad as 
 that, what can you do ? You can't help your- 
 self, and you might as well give up and enjoy 
 it." 
 
 " The giving up is easy enough ! " said Mr. 
 Chezzle. " I did that last night, when I trod 
 on some bread and butter on the hall-floor. It 
 is n't so easy to enjoy it. I 've been trying 
 all summer to patch up and coax things along ; 
 kept hammer and tacks handy, so that I could 
 nail down the stair-carpet any time, and carried 
 a screwdriver in my pocket. But Ruggett, 
 when I trod on that bread and butter, I kicked 
 the plate down the kitchen stairs, and felt like 
 getting the hatchet and chopping down the 
 banisters ! " 
 
 "Well, there is some comfort in seeing a 
 thing done thoroughly ! " said Mr. Ruggett. 
 "Can't you do something? Can't you force 
 your tenants to pay for damages ? Are they 
 ugly?" 
 
 " Ugly ? " asked poor Mr. Chezzle. " They 
 have n't character enough ! And pay for dam- 
 ages ? They have n't got the money. Ten to
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 223 
 
 one if I get the rent. I did venture to protest 
 once or twice, but you wouldn't ask such 
 idiotic questions, Ruggett, if you had ever seen 
 Mr. Macksby's back ! " 
 
 " Talk of something else, then," said Mr. 
 Ruggett. " Here 's the postman." 
 
 Most of the letters were for the officers of the 
 House ; there was only one for Mr. Chezzle. 
 
 Mr. Ruggett had never seen so extraordinary 
 a change come over the spirit of his friend as 
 took place within the next five minutes. 
 
 Mr. Chezzle, after reading his letter, which 
 was very short, over several times, let his arm 
 drop at his side and said, " George ! " 
 
 " It looks as if the scene had shifted," said 
 his friend. 
 
 " Well, it has rather ! " said Mr. Chezzle, 
 brightly. " Listen to this, Ned : instead of 
 Nelly's coming home to the Macksby mansion, 
 she 's to come to the best furnished cottage I 
 can hire in Nipsit, and is to bring the whole 
 caboodle along- with her ! Her brother and his 
 
 O 
 
 little daughter and two French servants ! I 'm 
 to look out for a shipload or two of boxes which 
 are on the water now, and the letter tops off 
 with a check for a thundering amount ' to pay 
 expenses and in case of duties at the Custom 
 House,' etc."
 
 224: THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " And, for the present at least," said Mr. 
 Ruggett, cheerfully, " the Macksby family may 
 go to grass ? " 
 
 " Exactly ! " said Mr. Chezzle. " And - 
 would you mind just locating my head for me, 
 Ruggett ? " 
 
 With such agreeable responsibilities to over- 
 shadow his cares it was easy for a methodical 
 man like Mr. Chezzle to attend to his business 
 through the day. When the closing hour came, 
 he made arrangements for an absence of a few 
 days, and returned to Roxbury in a very differ- 
 ent frame of mind than he had been in when 
 he left it in the morning. 
 
 Molly and Katy Dolan agreed to be prepared 
 to go to Nipsit whenever he should summon 
 them, and were much set up at the idea of work- 
 ing for awhile in company with Mr. Penroy's 
 French servants. 
 
 " Although," said Molly, " I 'd be partickler 
 to have Misther Pinrye understand himsilf that 
 it 's to yous an' Mrs. Chizzle an' the byes that 
 me sarvice is engaged parmy-nintly, do ye take 
 it in Mr. Chizzle-sir what it is I 'm a-sayin' ? " 
 
 " Certainly, Molly ; we could not get along 
 without you," Mr. Chezzle assured her. 
 
 " Thin it 's a bargin ! " said Molly, cheer- 
 fully, adding, with a twinkle in her eyes, " an'
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 225 
 
 a foine opporchunity it '11 be far me to improve 
 mesilf in the Frinch language ! " 
 
 If it had not been for those boats, the 
 " Maria Pepper " and the " Thomas Antoi- 
 nette," it might not have created any extraor- 
 dinary excitement to have the Hubble cottage 
 hired by Mr. Chezzle for Mr. Penroy. But 
 the boats had made the names of " Uncle 
 Tom " and " Cousin Maria " famous to every 
 child in Nipsit. The Chezzle boys had risen 
 to great importance in the youthful community, 
 and the arrival of a gentleman who had sent 
 such magnificent gifts to them was regarded as 
 a most momentous event. His very name was 
 reported to be " Pennyroyal " and seemed to 
 have a comforting sound. 
 
 On the morning when the travelers were to 
 arrive in Nipsit, Molly and Katy Dolan were 
 busy getting dinner ready for them. Now even 
 a Thanksgiving dinner for the Chezzle family 
 was an undertaking which Molly felt equal to, 
 but here was a meal to prepare for " a double 
 family, Katy Dolan, and half o' thim Frinch ! " 
 
 " How do ye make that out, Mary Ann ? " 
 asked Katy. " Is n't Mr. Pinrye Mrs. Chizzle's 
 natural-born-brother, an' the childern all blood- 
 related no more an' no less? " 

 
 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " Sure an' don't I know that ? " said Molly, 
 turning the cake in the oven. " But there 's 
 more behind it all, Katy." 
 
 " If ye mane the Frinch cook an' waiter-bye, 
 now, it 's more than they '11 find thimsilves 
 aqual to, if they think they can put me about, 
 an' I tell ye that, free of charge, Mary Ann 
 Dolan!" ' 
 
 " Och now Cathern McFarly, don't be shart- 
 sighted ! " said Molly. " It 's not the hilp, it 's 
 Mr. Pinrye I 'm thinkin' about. It 's he that 's 
 been in every known land all over the wurreld 
 a-thravelin' amongst lards an' ladies an' " 
 
 " An' supposin' he has, Mary Ann ? " said 
 Katy, who was making pastry, and stopped to 
 roll her sleeves up a little higher. 
 
 Molly was a little anxious about Katy, who, 
 she thought, was not sufficiently impressed with 
 the seriousness of the occasion. 
 
 " An' ye don't see the impartance of suppos- 
 in' he has, Katy Dolan ? " she asked. Then 
 she added, solemnly : " Oh Katy ! Katy me 
 child, listen to me now whilst I tell yez. There's 
 Mr. Pinrye been inhabitin' every known land, 
 as I was a-sayin', till he 's well acquainted this 
 minute with all the languages ever was spoke, 
 an' there 's not the bit o' mate, nor the article 
 in anny o' the cookery books ; no, not the
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 227 
 
 petaty that he 'd see put on the table and not 
 know, as quick as his eye rested on it, whether 
 it was cooked in accardance wid the Frinch na- 
 tion or the English " Molly had picked up 
 a long basting-spoon and marked off each na- 
 tion with a wave of it " or the I-talien, or the 
 Chi-nese, or the the Parchy-geese " (she was 
 delighted to have thought of them) " or the 
 the the rest o' them all ! " with a wave of 
 the spoon which took in the world at large. 
 
 " Well, what o' that ? " asked Katy, balanc- 
 ing a pie on one hand while she neatly trimmed 
 off the superfluous dough. " There 's wan 
 thing he '11 do annyhow." 
 
 " An' what 's that ? " asked Molly. 
 
 " Why," said Katy, with a twinkle in her 
 eye, " whether he brings wid him a Frinch, or 
 a Dutch, or a Christian or a hay then appetite, 
 it 's an American male he '11 put into him- 
 silf!" 
 
 " Mind yer wit now, and kape it for yer own 
 convanience, Katy Dolan ! " said Molly, laugh- 
 ing in spite of herself. " An' mind another 
 thing too, if ye know where ye are ! Kape yer 
 eyes in yer head an' yer ears where they belong, 
 Katy dear, an' whin the furrin help comes, be 
 ready to pick up all the knowledge ye '11 find 
 lyin' round. For there 's no sinse in Mrs.
 
 228 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 drizzle's own brother kapin' the shtyle all to 
 himsilf . So, mark what I 'm sayin' if he 's 
 comin' here to bring along wid him anny high, 
 furrin juke-ways we '11 have them same in 
 the Chizzle family." 
 
 Katy responded to this idea very promptly. 
 " That 's me own mind too, Molly," she said. 
 " We '11 show the Frinchies the high-standing 
 o' the Chizzle family in no time at all. Only 
 I 'm thinkin' it 's not juke-ways at-all-at-all that 
 the two byes '11 be showin' off ther' bettermost 
 Bobby himself most partickerlar ! " 
 
 " Let the byes alone to show for themselves," 
 said Molly. " It 's not half an eye the cook 
 an' waiter-bye '11 have betwixst thim if they 
 can't see that it's Challey an' little Bob as 
 hasn't their aqual in anny place. But what 
 are we thinkin' of? Ain't they conrin' this 
 blessed day an' ain't the time a-flyin' ? " 
 
 On her way through the kitchen-wing Molly 
 saw Captain Pepper coming across the grass 
 and stept out upon the piazza to meet him with 
 a pleasant " Good-morning, Captain Pepper- 
 sir ! " 
 
 " Good-morning ! " said the captain, a little 
 dolefully. " I found a slice and dogs in my 
 back attic," setting down a long-handled fire- 
 shovel and pair of quaint iron andirons, " and
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 229 
 
 I thought maybe Mrs. Chezzle 'd like 'em. 
 Tell her they 're a present, will you ? " The 
 captain was looking out to sea, as he added : 
 " I 'm thinking about goin' to the Vineyard 
 this morning, and, if there 's any " 
 
 "Whatever do ye mane, Captain Pepper- 
 sir ? " exclaimed Molly. " To be goin' to Mar- 
 ther's Vineyard to-day, wid the stage-coach an' 
 Mrs. Chizzle an' her husbant an' all o' them 
 comin' ? An' ain't ye falin' well, Captain Pep- 
 per-sir ? " 
 
 " Well maybe I 'm a little mauger," he an- 
 swered. " I think I '11 go, the tide 's good, 
 and " 
 
 " Come in ! Come in till I git yez a cup o' 
 tay," said Molly, anxiously. She had never seen 
 the captain so dejected and she was troubled. 
 "Will ye have that nayther? No? Thin 
 come in till ye jist rest a bit do now ! No ? 
 Thin stop till ye do somethin' far me." 
 
 This plea induced the captain to follow Molly 
 into the parlor. 
 
 " There ! " she said, drawing out an old- 
 fashioned rocking-chair ; " sit down now ! " 
 
 " Oh no, I '11 stand. I 'm not so bad as that 
 yet. What can I do for you ? " 
 
 " Do far me ? Well, it 's not for me so 
 much as it 's for the family," said Molly, in-
 
 230 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 geniously, for she had guessed by this time 
 what was the trouble with the captain. Look- 
 ing around the room to try and discover some 
 excuse for requiring his services, her eye lighted 
 upon the fire-board, and she bethought herself 
 of his gift of the andirons, and said : 
 
 " If I knew just how, I 'd like to fix up the 
 fireplace wid a little fire ah 1 ready to light 
 the way Mrs. Chizzle's heart '11 warm up to it 
 like. An' I was hopin' ye 'd look afther the 
 byes a " 
 
 " The boys ? " asked the captain, a little 
 sadly. " I don't know what the boys '11 want 
 with me ! I 've just taken down their beds, 
 and strapped up their trunks ; I '11 wheel 'em 
 over in the barrow 'fore noon. My cruise with 
 the boys is over ! " 
 
 " Over is it ? " said Molly, gayly. " Go 'long 
 Captain Pepper-sir, I 'm sorry far yez ! If ye 're 
 in expectaytion that them byes are done trackin' 
 up yer settin'-room kyarpet, ye 're dramin'. I 
 thocht ye knew better than that, I did now ! 
 They '11 be hangin' round yez like like jist 
 themsilves thin an' nothing else, barrin' the 
 wood-ticks that gets clawed into them." 
 
 " You think so ? " said the captain. " Well, 
 your opinion counts, Molly. But I '11 own up 
 to you, without tackin', that it was like a funeral
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 231 
 
 to take down those two bunks ! I felt like 
 reading the service ! " 
 
 " The sarvice ! " said Molly, laughing out- 
 right. " Well, don't read it till I git time to 
 listen to yez, for I 'd like to perfarm high mass 
 afther it ! " 
 
 Molly was a capital antidote for low spirits. 
 "I won't," the captain said, more brightly. 
 " Those little chaps have been more than com- 
 pany for me, an' my flag is clear down at half 
 mast at the thought of parting with 'em. Ye 
 want that fire-board down ? All right ! I 
 reckon I '11 wait a couple o' tides before I go to 
 the Vineyard ! " 
 
 He set to work at the fireplace while Molly 
 went about the house putting finishing touches 
 everywhere and singing her Irish songs up- 
 stairs and down. The captain was thinking, 
 " That 's done ; what next ? " when there was 
 a rush of legs across the piazza and Challey 
 appeared, panting, and with trouble on his 
 countenance, saying : " I say, Cap'm Pepper, 
 ain't it just mean ? Bob has gone and " 
 
 " Haul in ! Haul in an' drop anchor a min- 
 ute, chap, till ye get yer wind an' start fair. 
 There so ! " said the captain, taking Challey 
 up bodily, turning him upside-down, right 
 again, and setting him on his feet, a favorite
 
 232 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 trick of his when he saw trouble brewing with 
 the boys. He used to say that ' it made the 
 temper spill overboard, turned the tide, and 
 started 'em on a new tack.' 
 
 But Challey's temper did not spill overboard 
 this time. He came up with a decided thunder- 
 cloud on his face, and broke out in an excited 
 and injured tone : " I say it 's mean ! And it 
 is n't a bit fair of Bob ! He 's been and gone 
 and got the biggest wheelbarrow an' he 's load- 
 ing it with all his might with the things that 
 belong in my own corner of the shop and he 's 
 going to carry his pile of shavings and mine 
 too, and all the chips you gave us, over to Uncle 
 Tom's big shed and no, I don't want to be 
 put upside-down the chips you gave me for 
 my very own because he says you won't let us 
 keep our things over to your place any more, 
 and the other boys and I have got the ( Maria 
 Pepper ' and the ( Thomas Antynette ' by your 
 front gate, and Bob 's going to take his boat to 
 Uncle Tom's gate and " 
 
 " And it 's blowin' gales and hurricanes 
 enough to take our ears off ! " cried the cap- 
 tain, catching Challey up by the middle of his 
 body and walking off with him under one arm. 
 " We '11 right the sails in no time at all an' 
 satisfy the crew, if possible ! "
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 233 
 
 The crew was satisfied in about two minutes. 
 The captain gave them hearty permission to 
 continue in possession of their pet corners in 
 his carpenter-shop, and Bob unloaded the wheel- 
 barrow on the spot. 
 
 " Hurrah ! That 's just gullorious ! " said 
 Challey. " Our shop 's a lot better than Uncle 
 Tom's ! " 
 
 "I know that !" said Bob, from behind as 
 many shavings as his arms could hold. " I 
 don't want to go over there at all, only I 
 thought we 'd got to. And if you 've got to 
 do a thing, Challey, why you 've got to ! " 
 
 "I know that, Bob," said Challey. "But 
 you 're all for doing it right off, and / want to 
 be pop sure I 've got to before I go at it ! " 
 
 " Well, we have n't got to this time, anyhow. 
 Won't it be fun to come over here every morn- 
 ing?" said Bob. 
 
 " Yes, like men going to work," said Challey. 
 " Now my things are fixed just the way I want 
 papa and mamma and Uncle Tom and Maria 
 and the French waiter and cook to see them. 
 Don't you touch 'em again, Bob ! Now I 'm 
 going to take the carriage to get Ranna in," 
 saying which, he hurried away with the clumsy 
 wheelbarrow wobbling behind him. 
 
 He soon came back, harnessed to it, in the
 
 234 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 character of a pony, with Alex Tucldt for the 
 " off " horse and Ranna driving them. She 
 looked paler than she used to, but smiling and 
 merry. They stopped at the gate where the 
 boats were stationed in all the glory of hoisted 
 sails and flying colors. 
 
 The boys had planned a reception of the 
 travelers at this spot. Ranna was to sit in the 
 wheelbarrow, like a little queen, with cushions 
 and a gay shawl, provided by Mrs. Barnes, for 
 her feet. She was content to let Challey do what 
 he liked with her, and submitted to being lifted 
 off her throne, dumped back again, stationed 
 anywhere, or trundled about. She was finally 
 left between the gate-posts, one of which Bob 
 clapped his hands on, exclaiming : " I speak 
 for this ! " 
 
 " All right ! " said Challey. " Then I '11 take 
 the other." It was only an hour before the 
 coach would be due, but the boys considered 
 that it was time to begin to watch for it. 
 
 Children collected from all sides, but Elva 
 Tuckit took care of them, setting them to play 
 games and managing to keep the space free in 
 front of Ranna, that she might look on and 
 enjoy it all. 
 
 Challey and Bob were too much excited to 
 join in the games, and spent the hour in arrang-
 
 THE CHE%ZLES. 235 
 
 ing, over and over again, the sails and rigging of 
 the boats, and in climbing the gate-posts where 
 they stood at intervals, like sentinels, with the 
 American and French flags which they waved 
 vigorously over the head of the bright little 
 mute who looked up and swung her arms in 
 high glee, without the faintest idea of what it 
 was all about.
 
 XX. 
 
 WATCHING FOR THE NIPSIT COACH. 
 
 FOR it 's not two, but it 's twinty legs that 
 bye has ! For his mother's sake, run save 
 some o' them, Captain Pepper-sir lookat ! " 
 cried Molly, in great distress. The coach was 
 in sight, and Bob was climbing his post. Chal- 
 ley and he were roaring, with all their mights, 
 for the captain to come too. His "cruise 
 over with the boys " ? What nonsense ! They 
 could not greet the coach without him. 
 
 Of course it stopped at the gate. Mrs. Chez- 
 zle got out of it, the boys were on the ground 
 in a flash, and the flags of the two nations would 
 have been trampled under foot if Alex Tuckit 
 and Jim Holburn had not caught them. 
 
 It was a wonder how Mrs. Chezzle ever got 
 her breath again after that first hug ! For 
 there were two boys to give it to her, and it 
 was a double, tumbling, grasping, clasping hug
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 237 
 
 of a mighty order! But they came out of it 
 safely. Uncle Tom towsled the heads and 
 lifted each of the boys up to a level with his 
 kind, brown eyes, by way of an embrace. 
 When he set them down again, they exchanged 
 shy glances with Maria, who, keeping fast hold 
 of her aunt's dress, did not know whether she 
 was most frightened or pleased to find herself 
 suddenly set down in the midst of such a crowd 
 of children. Mrs. Chezzle could not help her, 
 because she had to reach across half a dozen 
 heads to shake hands with Captain Pepper and 
 present him to her brother. They could not 
 go into the house without recognizing the group 
 of interested little spectators. So Uncle Tom 
 said " Halloa ! " several times, in the most 
 gratifying manner, took suitable notice of the 
 boats, and bowed acknowledgments for both 
 Maria and himself when Challey led off " three 
 cheers for the ' Thomas Antynette ' and the 
 ' Maria Pepper ' ! " 
 
 Then Uncle Tom wanted to know whose 
 bright eyes those were peering at him from 
 under the flags which Alex and Jim had al- 
 lowed to droop so that they nearly covered little 
 Ranna in the wheelbarrow. That made Chal- 
 ley and Bob dive in among the children to 
 either side of Ranna and present her.
 
 238 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " See, mamma ! See, Uncle Tom and Maria. 
 This is Ranna ! " cried Challey, waving the 
 children aside to let his mother and Maria draw 
 near. 
 
 A pretty little minute happened just then. 
 Ranna looked up straight into Maria's eyes, 
 and Maria, looking down and meeting that quiet, 
 wistful, searching look, felt as if her heart had 
 suddenly grown too big, and with infinite ten- 
 derness held out her arms. Ranna sprang to 
 her feet and stood an instant motionless on 
 her wheelbarrow ; then she seemed to laugh all 
 over her little body as she threw herself upon 
 Maria's breast. It was only a minute, but it 
 gave birth to a friendship which was to last a 
 lifetime, and which opened for Ranna a new 
 world. 
 
 Then Maria went into the house with her 
 cousins, Alex wheeled Ranna home, and the 
 crowd scattered, leaving nobody there but Mr. 
 Chezzle and Captain Pepper getting the last of 
 the parcels and shawls out of the coach. 
 
 It did not make a bit of difference what they 
 had for dinner. So far from knowing how it 
 was cooked, Mr. Thomas Penroy knew nothing 
 about it, and for his life could not have told 
 the nationality of his appetite ! After the meal 
 was over the grown folks had so much to say
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 239 
 
 to one another and so many details to arrange 
 that the children were thrown entirely upon 
 their own resources. The boys screwed up 
 their courage to ask Maria to go with them 
 down to the beach to see the " Luella " and 
 Captain Pepper, but as soon as they had her all 
 to themselves they were abashed. 
 
 While she was getting her hat they waited 
 on the piazza. 
 
 " Challey, you talk French to her ! " whis- 
 pered Bob. But Challey called to Elva Tuckit, 
 who was passing by, and pulled his big straw 
 hat far down over his eyes as soon as he heard 
 Maria coming. 
 
 " Please come with us, Elva, and don't go 
 away," he whispered entreatingly. Elva was 
 enchanted. 
 
 Challey could introduce Ranna in the midst 
 of the crowd, because mamma was there, and 
 the boys, and everybody. But he could not 
 possibly introduce Elva and Maria now ! So 
 they all walked along without a word. 
 
 Elva lagged a little so as to get a view of 
 Maria from behind. Certainly, she thought 
 little Miss Penroy was not like any child in 
 Nipsit. She was far more beautiful and walked 
 like a fairy. Elva tried to imitate her, but 
 her feet were too clumsy. She heaved a sigh
 
 240 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 and wished she had the baby so that she 
 would know what to do with her hands. Poor, 
 honest, simple-hearted Elva ! If she had but 
 known it, Maria was more abashed than any 
 of the children. She was ashamed of both her 
 French and her imperfect English and did not 
 utter a word. Bob ran a few steps in advance, 
 walked ahead, joined Challey and his cousin 
 for a minute, then lagged behind with Elva, 
 taking in Maria from every point of view. 
 
 " I thought Challey and you talked French," 
 Elva whispered. " Why don't you do it now ? " 
 
 " I 'm goin' to ; who 's afraid ? " said Bob. 
 He edged up to Maria, kept step with her for 
 a rod, then suddenly looked at her and ex- 
 claimed : " Pollyvoo Frongsay dunnymoy-dy- 
 burrseelvooplay that 's aU / know ! " and turned 
 a somersault. 
 
 It was the best thing he could have done, 
 under the circumstances, and it broke the ice 
 immediately. 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Maria, anxiously. " Haf 
 you tummle town ? " 
 
 The children ah 1 laughed at the idea, Bob 
 loudest. 
 
 Seeing that he was not hurt, Maria smiled 
 and asked : " Iss that nice sai-lore talk you say 
 to -me?"
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 241 
 
 The children laughed again, and Bob 
 shouted : " No ; it 's French ! " Then Maria 
 laughed aloud, took two little skips, and said : 
 " Tell it me more will it ? " 
 
 Bob repeated the somersault, not the French. 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Maria again. " You will preak 
 the pones off the head ! " 
 
 " Oho-ho ! Break his head ! No, he won't 
 see ! " cried Challey, instantly imitating Bob 
 in an alarming manner. It took a great many 
 somersaults to teach Maria that they were not 
 dangerous to life and limb. The boys thought 
 she had better learn at once, in spite of Elva's 
 protestations. But the result was satisfactory 
 so far as helping to get them acquainted with 
 one another. 
 
 An hour or so later, coming back into the 
 house, the children found nobody about but Mr. 
 Penroy, sitting by the fire which was crackling 
 peacefully on Captain Pepper's old andirons. 
 Maria, delighted with a little Shaker arm-chair 
 which she spied in a corner, placed it on the 
 hearth-rug and ran up-stairs to get Marguerite. 
 Challey and Bob waited in the entry a moment 
 to take a private view of their uncle through 
 the crack of the door. 
 
 He considerately allowed them to think he 
 was unconscious of the fact, until Challey, who
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 was uppermost, bore down rather heavily upon 
 his little brother and caused him to give a snort 
 altogether too loud to ignore. Challey burst 
 out laughing, but Bob was furious and cried 
 out : " There ! You jammed me right into the 
 crack, Challey, and you very nearly pinched my 
 nose off you know you did ! I '11 " 
 
 " Come in, shavers ! " said Uncle Tom, hold- 
 ing his hand out invitingly to them. " Did 
 you really get hurt ? " he asked, with some 
 concern, as Bob entered the room, still holding 
 on to his nose, and scowling. Challey said 
 quietly : " Of course he did n't. If he had, 
 he 'd have screamed so you 'd 'a' jumped out 
 of your chair like a scarecrow. What are you 
 holding on to your nose for, Bob ? " 
 
 " 'Cause I 'm just glad I 've got it, and that 's 
 why ; and I 'm glad / did n't be impolite and 
 call Uncle Tom a scarecrow ! " said Bob. 
 
 " Oh, I don't mind that," said his uncle, 
 while Challey blushed scarlet. "It would be 
 quite an accomplishment, Bob, if I could jump 
 like a scarecrow. I should like to know how, 
 amazingly. But come here, both of you; I 
 want to know something. Tell me what you 
 wish I had brought you in one of those great 
 boxes out in the barn." 
 
 " Hew-ee ! " cried Bob, getting astride of
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 243 
 
 his uncle's knee. " What I want would n't go 
 inside of them if they were all made into one 
 box!" 
 
 " Would n't it, indeed? " asked Uncle Tom, 
 making big eyes at Bob while he drew Challey 
 to a seat upon his other knee. " What can it 
 be?" 
 
 ^ Why," said Bob, eagerly, " I want a big, 
 three-masted war-vessel, with a hundred guns, 
 to give to Captain Pepper all for his own so 
 that he could beat the British all to nothing." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Uncle Tom. " Well, we must 
 consider that. And what do you wish I had 
 brought you, Challey-boy ? " 
 
 " What I really want, Uncle Tom," said 
 Challey, confidentially, " is a pair of topen-lif t 
 halyards to fasten up my trousers." 
 
 " Top and what? " asked Uncle Tom. 
 
 " Topen - lift - halyards," repeated Challey. 
 " You see, Uncle Tom, my trousers button onto 
 my shirt-waist, but / think I 'm old enough to 
 wear halyards." 
 
 Uncle Tom still looked puzzled, so Bob 
 struck in : " Crissy Jones calls 'em galluses, 
 but Challey means s'penders." 
 
 " You see," pursued Challey, " the topen-lif t 
 rope on a sailboat goes from the cabin-door, 
 across deck and up the mast and over the sail
 
 244 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 and down, back to the tiller. Now," he slid 
 off his uncle's knee and lifted up his jacket to 
 explain better, " the buttons behind are the 
 tiller-cleats, and the buttons before are the other 
 cleats, and " 
 
 "I see, perfectly," said Uncle Tom. "If I 
 can only remember, I shall never mention sus- 
 penders again ! And you shall have a pair of 
 topen-lift halyards, without the shadow of a 
 doubt. Of course, Bob, if Captain Pepper 
 feels as you do, we '11 have to charter a war- 
 ship from the government." 
 
 " Hurrah ! " shouted Bob, sure of the vessel 
 from that moment. " Then we can all go on a 
 whaling voyage in it ; will you go too, Uncle 
 Tom?" 
 
 " Well, I don't quite like to promise that," 
 said Mr. Penroy. " If I went, I should be 
 afraid the whale would get me, instead of my 
 getting him ! He might be like that shar " 
 
 " Now look here, Uncle Tom ! " interrupted 
 Challey, hastily. " That dog-shark was all right 
 when he bit Bob ! A fish has got a right to 
 bite if you catch him by the tail ! He 's got 
 a right to do it, anyway, if he can ! " 
 
 " Yes," screamed Bob ; " but you need n't be 
 afraid, Uncle Tom ! / know what to do well 
 enough when I catch the next one ! Hm !
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 245 
 
 'deed I do ! That fellow did n't bite me for 
 nothing ! " 
 
 " How will you manage next time ? " asked 
 Uncle Tom, much interested. 
 
 " Why ! " said Bob, confidentially, panto- 
 miming the act with his small fists, " I M catch 
 him by the gills ! Hm ! I tell you he could n't 
 bite then ! I asked Captain Pepper, and he 
 said so too." 
 
 Uncle Tom's eyes expressed a good deal, but 
 he did not say anything. In a moment or two 
 Maria came singing down the stairs, and, taking 
 possession of the Shaker chair, asked her father 
 to tell a story, and he entertained the children 
 until tea was announced. 
 
 When bedtime came, Bob told his mother 
 all about the war-vessel which Uncle Tom was 
 going to give to Captain Pepper. 
 
 " And if the British do make a war and 
 come to Nipsit, won't they catch it, though ! " 
 he said. " You need n't laugh, mamma ; Uncle 
 Tom did n't." 
 
 " No," said Challey ; " that 's just the most 
 splendid thing about him. He knows exactly 
 what a boy wants, too ! " 
 
 Mrs. Chezzle began to lecture the boys on 
 the impropriety of asking Uncle Tom for 
 things, but she soon found that she had no
 
 246 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 cause for anxiety, and, after kissing the little 
 faces snuggled into their pillows, she went 
 down-stairs with such a bright face that her 
 brother exclaimed once more 'how astonish- 
 ingly becoming the middies were to the little 
 mother.' 
 
 The lights were out at an early hour all over 
 the cottage. Up in the top window of the 
 kitchen wing Molly's candle was the last one to 
 be seen. As she extinguished it she remarked 
 to Katy, who was half asleep : " I 've larned the 
 two names o' thim, annyhow. It 's i Ong- 
 twong ' they call the waiter-bye, and it 's noth- 
 ing but e Mad Lane ' they call the cook ! Sure 
 it 's the craziest language ivver invinted. It 's 
 only jist a mixin' of the Chinee an' the Lunytic 
 Asylum. Katy, me chilt, I think I '11 not 
 throuble mesilf to larn Frinch at all, for ther 's 
 not a grain o' sinse in it ! "
 
 XXI. 
 
 MB. CHEZZLE CONVINCES HIS WIFE THAT THE PENROYS* 
 NEIGHBORS ARE CHARMING PEOPLE. 
 
 BY the middle of October there were a 
 number of questions which puzzled Mrs. 
 Chezzle. Her brother had devoted many days 
 to traveling over Boston in search of a suit- 
 able house to purchase. Whenever her hus- 
 band could get away from business, he had 
 accompanied Mr. Penroy, and they had driven 
 nobody knows how many miles in coupes, 
 cars, and, in the emergency, had even bumped 
 around in a herdic an experience to which 
 Mrs. Chezzle had supposed her brother would 
 never submit. A house had finally been se- 
 lected on Marlborough Street, and Antoine had 
 been established in it to superintend the un- 
 packing of the things sent from Nipsit and to 
 conduct the setting of it in order. 
 
 All that was simple enough, but Mrs. Chezzle 
 had expected to be consulted more. Hereto- 
 fore her counsel had been necessary to her
 
 248 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 brother, and now he seemed to want very little 
 of it. Of course her husband was wiser, and 
 it was certainly a pleasure to see the two men 
 grow more and more intimate and take to each 
 other, just as she had hoped they would. That 
 was so satisfactory that she was quite content 
 at not being invited to accompany them on 
 their house - hunting expeditions. But when 
 the house was decided upon, she was surprised 
 at not being asked to look at it even, before it 
 was purchased. And nothing was said about 
 its distance from the little house in Roxbury. 
 Certainly, with all the labor of tidying-up after 
 the Macksby family, she could not be expected 
 to make frequent visits away off in Marlborough 
 Street. Her brother had thought her influence 
 of the greatest importance to Maria, and now 
 he was putting half Boston between them. He 
 must be intending to have a governess for the 
 child again, but she would miss " Chere Tante " 
 terribly. And " Chere Tante " had grown so 
 fond of her niece that it would come very hard 
 to part with her. Tom had made so much 
 of the boys too it was strange for him to 
 plan deliberately to have Maria live three miles 
 away from them. Mrs. Chezzle wondered if 
 her brother had perceived faults in the char- 
 acters of Challey and Bob which he was afraid
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 249 
 
 Maria might imitate. But that was impossible ! 
 " Tom cannot have settled upon an idea so 
 utterly absurd as that" she decided, and put 
 the thought out of her mind. 
 
 What puzzled her as much as anything was 
 that her husband should set so light a value as 
 he appeared to upon all these considerations. 
 Jack was almost provoking. He was so en- 
 thusiastic about the prettiness and convenience 
 of the interior of the house, that he would not 
 give any importance whatever to its location, 
 and, when his wife hinted that her brother and 
 niece would be lonely at such a distance from 
 them, he only talked about some delightful 
 neighbors who would be next door. In fact, 
 Mrs. Chezzle got a little tired of hearing about 
 those neighbors and one day protested, saying, 
 with some spirit : "But they are not going to 
 take the place of near relations, John ! How 
 can you be sure that an exclusive fellow like 
 Tom is going to get acquainted all at once ? 
 And how do you know they are delightful ? " 
 And she thought to herself that his reasoning 
 was " just like a man ! " 
 
 But he answered good-naturedly : " Oh, I 
 think I can tell. I have seen the lady several 
 times, and she strikes me as a bright, pleasant 
 little person ; neat and trig enough to suit
 
 250 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 me, anyhow, Nelly. She is nice with her chil- 
 dren, too ; I saw them with her one day, and 
 they will make capital playmates for Maria. 
 For after all, my dear, you must remember that 
 it is well for Maria to have plenty of com- 
 panions. She ought to have some little girl 
 friends." 
 
 " Certainly ! " said Mrs. Chezzle. " And if 
 Tom would send her to school she might have 
 any number of them. But she has already 
 grown fond of Challey and Bob, and I do not 
 believe she is going to transfer her interest so 
 easily, as Tom and you seem to think, to two 
 little girls who are perfect strangers to her." 
 
 Mr. Chezzle only smiled and said pleasantly 
 that ( children had simple ways of settling all 
 such matters and invariably adapted themselves 
 to circumstances.' Which remark made his wife 
 think once more that he was " just like a man." 
 
 However, she made a task for herself of at- 
 tending to her own affairs more exclusively, 
 and took comfort in the thought that her 
 brother wanted her and nobody else to direct 
 the important " finishing touches " to the ar- 
 rangement of his new dwelling. So she went 
 down from Nipsit one morning on purpose, 
 and was conducted at once to the house by Mr. 
 Chezzle, who met her at the station.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 251 
 
 They stopped in front of a moderately large 
 corner house against which a smaller one 
 nestled, with chrysanthemums in full bloom, 
 climbing ivy and grass in the court-yards of 
 both. 
 
 " Which is Tom's ? " asked Mrs. Chezzle. 
 
 " The corner one, of course," said her hus- 
 band. " How do you suppose the other could 
 hold his magnificence ? " 
 
 " Then ' the delightful neighbors ' live 
 there ! " said Mrs. Chezzle, looking up some- 
 what frigidly at the second-story bay-window 
 of the smaller house. " Where are they ? I 
 don't see a sign of the place being occupied." 
 
 " Yes, the lady is about somewhere ; I 
 caught a glimpse of her," Mr. Chezzle said, 
 smiling. " Perhaps we will see her again pres- 
 ently. But just now I would like your atten- 
 tion to your brother's dwelling, little woman. 
 Come in ; here is Antoine holding the door 
 open for you." 
 
 The house was certainly very pretty, al- 
 though far less elegant than the one Mr. Pen- 
 roy had occupied at Meaux. 
 
 " It is as comfortable as can be, and beauti- 
 ful," Mrs. Chezzle said, after they had gone 
 over every room and had returned to the large 
 front one on the second floor which was des-
 
 252 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 tined for Maria. " I had expected Tom to de- 
 mand more luxury and elegance, though. Only 
 because he is used to them, however, for he 
 certainly cannot need anything finer than this. 
 Perhaps," she added gayly, " his life at Nipsit 
 gave him a taste of something better and more 
 satisfying ! And perhaps he gave so much to 
 that Madagascar Mission that people talk a 
 good deal about its costing more to live here 
 than it does abroad he may not be able to 
 be so extravagant as he was there. If he did, 
 and, Jack, I never thought of that before, but 
 if he gave away enough to make him feel 
 like going to work and doing something, his 
 deed of gift to the ' Mad Mission ' would not 
 be money thrown away at all, even if 
 Where does that go, Jack?" she asked sud- 
 denly, pointing to a door in the wall. 
 
 " Ah, at last ! " said her husband. " I have 
 been waiting for that question, and expected it 
 sooner. Yes, my dear," he said, answering a 
 very puzzled look upon her face, " it does lead 
 directly through the wall and into the house of 
 Tom's neighbors ! Come, let us see if we can 
 find that little lady anywhere by this time. 
 And don't," he added mischievously, " don't 
 begin with a prejudice against those neighbors, 
 Nelly, for I assure you they are very clever
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 253 
 
 people." As he finished, he led his wife into 
 a room of the adjoining house. But he had to 
 wait a few minutes to allow her to get over 
 her bewilderment ; for there were f amiliar old 
 pieces of furniture from the house in Rox- 
 bury, newer pieces from Meaux, and pictures 
 from both places, to make her feel as if she 
 were dreaming. 
 
 "Well!" she finally exclaimed, "I don't 
 know whether I am in Europe or America ! 
 Tell me which it is, John ! Has Tom taken 
 this house too ? And are we " 
 
 " Yes, my dear," said her husband. " Your 
 intellect is brightening. We are Tom's tenants, 
 as well as his neighbors. I made one mistake 
 in reference to the latter, however ; I should 
 have excepted you when I called them clever, 
 for a more surprisingly dull little woman than 
 you have been all along, Tom and I together 
 never saw ! " 
 
 " Oh, Jack ! " cried his wife, as red as a 
 peony. " I got an idea at the start that ' the 
 lovely children ' you talked about were girls, 
 and after that how could I guess you meant 
 ourselves? But now the mystery is over, I 
 want to hear all about it. I must see every 
 nook and corner of the house first, and then 
 you must tell me the whole story."
 
 254 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 So, in another half hour they were sitting 
 together in a pleasant little room on the parlor 
 floor and the story was told. 
 
 " It would all have been much easier," said 
 Mr. Chezzle, " if it had not been for the compli- 
 cation of having both Tom and the Macksbys to 
 manage. Taken separately, the task of manag- 
 ing either was difficult enough, but together ! 
 After going with me once to the Macksbys', 
 Tom and I agreed only upon one small point 
 that we would not aUow you, if we could help 
 it, to set eyes on that place. If the destruction 
 of things had only been greater, it would n't 
 have been so hard to decide what to do bon- 
 fires, or chopping up for kindling, might have 
 settled it. But the Macksbys can't do any- 
 thing perfectly ; they left everything too much 
 injured to keep, and not bad enough to throw 
 away. Tom wanted to empty the house, and 
 besieged me with suggestions of auctions, junk- 
 shops, and dumping-grounds. He thought it 
 would be a capital plan to leave everything on 
 the sidewalk, disappear for a few hours, and 
 send what was left when we returned to a dust- 
 heap ! But I put my foot down finally and 
 settled it that he should keep away altogether 
 from the Macksby region, and leave me alone 
 to rescue what I could of our household gods.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 255 
 
 Mammy Dolan helped me, and you see the re- 
 sult. Between her and the carpenter a good 
 deal was saved, and Tom was honestly surprised 
 when he saw it collected here. Mammy is con- 
 siderably cut up at our moving away from her 
 vicinity, but she was delighted at having you 
 spared the sight of the Roxbury house in its 
 present condition and at my sending for her to 
 help get this one in order. She took great 
 pleasure in the comparative grandeur of this as 
 compared with the old one, and beamed with 
 satisfaction when I told her that the Dolan 
 family would still be necessary to our existence. 
 ' We shall not forget our old friends, Mammy, 
 wherever we are,' I said to her ; and you should 
 have heard her declare : ' No sir ; not the hull 
 Riyal Fam'ly of England could make anny o' 
 the Chizzles do that ! ' " 
 
 " And Mammy is right, too," said Mrs. Chez- 
 zle, laughing at her husband's account. "I 
 think it will be some time before I get used to 
 the delight of starting housekeeping with every- 
 thing clean and whole I shall enjoy that 
 more than the beauty. But tell me more about 
 Tom ; have you really learned to manage him, 
 Jack? I don't think even / could do that ! " 
 
 " You are his little sister, my dear, but I am 
 an independent American citizen ! " Mr. Chez-
 
 256 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 zle answered pleasantly. " Tom is a fine fellow 
 and is not going to stand between me and my 
 real wishes. It was a pleasure to see him try 
 to help arrange everything just as you would 
 like it. It was his idea placing this desk here, 
 in just the right light, with those two old ladies 
 over it, as they were in your sitting-room at 
 Meaux, he said." 
 
 " W ell ! " said Mrs. Chezzle, sitting down at 
 the desk and looking up at the engravings of 
 Gerard Dow's " Winder " and " Reader." I 
 did not know that one ' Mother ' was winding 
 the thread of my life so neatly all the while, or 
 that the other was reading half so pretty a for- 
 tune for me. It is all beautiful, and I am as 
 happy as ever Tom and you could wish me to 
 be ; but I suppose it is absurd of course it 
 is but I can't help feeling sorry " she laid 
 her cheek down on the slanting lid of the desk 
 and spread her hands upon it as she said, 
 " sorry that I 'm not to have the chance of 
 showing you and Tom how happy I 'd be in 
 helping you mend up and make the best of 
 things at the old house ! " 
 
 When her husband leaned over her, tears 
 were really blinding her eyes, although she 
 was laughing up at him, too, in a half-and-half 
 way.
 
 XXII. 
 
 THE CHILDREN CANNOT MAKE LITTLE KANNA UNDER- 
 STAND THAT THEY ARE GOING AWAY. 
 
 IT was a sore grief at first to Challey and 
 Bob that they were not to be allowed to 
 take their famous boats to Boston. But Cap- 
 tain Pepper made a point of the pleasure and 
 comfort it would be to him in his loneliness, if 
 the little vessels could be loaned to him for the 
 winter. 
 
 " And that settles it for me ! " said Bob, 
 planting himself between the captain's knees. 
 " You can take care of my boat, anyhow, and 
 you can sail it all you want to." 
 
 " So you can mine too, of course," said Chal- 
 ley, and he afterwards sought an opportunity
 
 258 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 to ask the captain privately whether it would 
 be a still further consolation if the name of the 
 " Maria Pepper " were changed to " Zenas Lu- 
 ella," or just plain " Captain Pepper." He was 
 relieved to have the captain stoutly resist any 
 alteration whatever, for he did not quite know 
 how to explain such a change to Maria. 
 
 The boys had a great time saying good-by 
 to the captain, a ceremony which they had to 
 repeat all over again every hour or so the day 
 before they left Nipsit, because of new things 
 to say to him which were continually suggest- 
 ing themselves. Most important among them 
 were consultations about Thanksgiving time 
 when, after a deal of urging from their par- 
 ents, he had consented to visit them in Bos- 
 ton, which city, in their opinion, was thereby to 
 be honored by the presence of a guest whose 
 distinction was not to be rivalled. They made 
 plans for exhibiting him to their schoolfellows, 
 which were to overwhelm them with honor and 
 excite them to a pitch of enthusiasm beyond 
 anything they had ever experienced. 
 
 They were to have a party for the express 
 purpose ; all the schoolboys were to be invited, 
 and the captain was to tell stories while the ice- 
 cream and cake were passed around. But he 
 was to have some ice-cream too; they would
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 259 
 
 have a whole pyramid of the best kind for just 
 him and nobody else, and some " Charlotte- 
 Roosh " beside, if he wanted it ! They wished 
 they could have roast clams instead, though ! 
 My ! would n't that be just too magnificent 
 for anything ? To have Captain Pepper make 
 a little clam-bake in the back yard ! They 
 could send a barrel of seaweed from Nipsit on 
 purpose, and it would be easy enough to get 
 stones for the oven. That was the best fun for 
 a boys' party that was ever heard of. They 
 would ask Papa and Mamma as soon as they 
 got home to have a clam-bake instead of ice- 
 cream, and they went at once to ask Molly to 
 have the barrel of seaweed go, without fail, 
 with the baggage, that it might be on hand 
 when it was wanted. They would pack it them- 
 selves, and she need not have a bit of trouble. 
 " An' wid St. Michael's blessin' on yez for 
 bein' the conthrivinest byes that ivver was born 
 into the wurreld," said Molly, in dismay. " I 'm 
 thinkin' me throuble 'd come wid the emptyin' 
 of the barr'l, an' not the packin' of it at-all-at- 
 all ! " But her ready wit came to her aid, and, 
 after a few minutes' conversation on the sub- 
 ject, she said, brightly : " Whisht now an' I '11 
 tell yez ! Wid the time goin' by befar Thanks- 
 givin' day, the pile o' stuff in the back yard
 
 260 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 might be onhandy, an' if yez 'd jist lave arders 
 wid Captain Pepper to bring it along whin he 
 comes himsilf " 
 
 " Hurrah ! That 's what we '11 do, sure 
 enough ! " cried Bob. " Come on, Challey ! 
 Come tell Cap'm Pepper, and maybe he can 
 pack a few eels, and some puff-pigs and " 
 
 But the boys were out of hearing, and Molly 
 heard no more. 
 
 " An' if it was to come, we could give the 
 unpackin' of it to Miss Mad Lane ; I 'd invite 
 her over mesilf for the parpose ! " she said to 
 herself, laughing. 
 
 There was a strong feeling of rivalry be- 
 tween the French cook and Molly, and it was 
 probably only their inability to understand each 
 other's language which kept the peace between 
 them. Madeleine had no opinion of Nipsit, 
 and was continually going into French ecstasies 
 over the " magnifique chateau " in which Mr. 
 Penroy had lived in Meaux. Molly, gathering 
 from her tone, expression, and extravagant ges- 
 tures that the " chateau " was nothing short of 
 royal in its splendor, went into Irish ecstasies 
 over everything which pertained to the Chezzles, 
 and the result was that neither knew enough of 
 what the other was saying to reply. If Molly 
 had known about the new house in which the
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 261 
 
 Chezzles were to live, Madeleine would scarcely 
 have had a chance to put in a word sideways. 
 
 But Mrs. Chezzle wanted the children to 
 be as much surprised as she had been, and 
 had managed to keep her Nipsit friends in 
 ignorance of the fact that their home had 
 been transferred from Roxbury to Marlborough 
 Street. 
 
 Molly had a good many trials during those 
 last few days. The things which Challey and 
 Bob brought to her to pack were not easy to 
 manage. When she was doing her best to 
 make the packages and trunks as few as pos- 
 sible for the express, it was very hard to find 
 places for horseshoes and every sort of beach 
 treasure. She was altogether too fond of her 
 boys to refuse to take what they brought, 
 that was out of the question, and, if she had 
 been left with absolute authority, even that bar- 
 rel of seaweed might have found its way to the 
 new house. As it was, she had one horseshoe 
 and several crab-shells packed away with her 
 best bonnet. And there was Maria, too, bring- 
 ing birds'-nests and snail-shells of every size and 
 variety. Maria, in her determination to like 
 everything and everybody associated with her 
 cousins, had thrown herself pell-mell into the 
 affections of Molly, who had in consequence be-
 
 262 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 come devoted to her. Maria's struggles between 
 the French and English tongues, with her study 
 of " sailore talk " and the occasional creeping 
 into her conversation of a touch of Molly's 
 brogue, appealed to the Irish girl's sympathy. 
 The child had a delicate ear for sound, and 
 picked up everything. In the French tongue 
 she was at home, and expressed herself well ; 
 but, as the natural result of her delight in newly 
 found relations, and the new home in which she 
 had been transplanted, it was her ambition to 
 adopt the language which her playmates used, 
 and she was inclined more and more to discon- 
 tinue the use of French. Her aunt worried 
 somewhat to see her losing what she had ac- 
 quired so perfectly, and did her best to correct 
 her frequent mistakes, but her efforts were only 
 feebly supported by Mr. Penroy, who was too 
 well satisfied with the more important influ- 
 ences of his daughter's surroundings to care 
 for such a small matter. " School and the 
 proper teachers will set everything straight," 
 he said. " Her heart is growing now ; and 
 that is of more consequence than her improve- 
 ment in any language." 
 
 But to Molly it was most pathetic to hear 
 Maria struggle to express herself, and " talk 
 all the languages to onct, darlint, the whilst yez
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 263 
 
 are wid Molly Dolan," she said. " It 's the lis- 
 tenin' that 's impartant, an' it 's the under- 
 standin' we need n't be partic'lar about." 
 
 So Maria brought Molly her birds'- nests, 
 shells and branches of coral, which were the 
 gifts of Captain Pepper, and what would not 
 go into the trunks, Molly arranged to carry in 
 her hands. When the parcels to be so disposed 
 of met the scornful gaze of Madeleine, it was a 
 little trying perhaps ; but Molly had the chil- 
 dren on her side and felt amply rewarded for 
 her good-nature by their complete satisfaction, 
 to say nothing of the help which their ready 
 young arms eagerly offered. 
 
 The most difficult task which the children 
 had to perform was the parting with little 
 Ranna. She had grown so fond of them all, 
 and of Molly, and now they were going away, 
 and there was no way of telling her of all the 
 good things which were in store for her. They 
 took her their building-blocks as a parting gift, 
 and covered Mrs. Barnes's sitting-room floor 
 with miniature railroads, acted out in panto- 
 mime the going away and returning again, 
 built a stage-coach with chairs, did everything 
 they could think of to make the little mute un- 
 derstand, but all to no purpose. She danced 
 about the room in high glee, entered into their
 
 264 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 plays with more spirit than any of them, and it 
 was wonderful to see with what quickness she 
 mimicked whatever they did. 
 
 The only thing she did not understand was 
 what made them look anxious and troubled 
 every little while. She would go up to Challey 
 or Maria, and look into their faces earnestly to 
 try to find out. But it was of no use. 
 
 " We might as well give it up," said Challey 
 at last. " We can't make her understand a 
 single thing that 's going to happen ! " 
 
 So they said good-by, and walked away, 
 looking back repeatedly to wave their hands, 
 as Ranna and her mother stood upon the door- 
 step watching them. Yet they could have told 
 her such a pretty story ! 
 
 For they knew that Maria's father was going 
 to send for Ranna to go to Boston and make 
 her a visit ; and that he was going to find out 
 a beautiful place where she was to be taught, 
 and where her mother could go too, to take care 
 of her. Ranna was to be made all over new, 
 and to learn to be like everybody else ! 
 
 Mrs. Barnes knew it too, of course ; but it 
 was hard, all the same, to have to watch her 
 little girl, for days after the Chezzle boys and 
 Maria left Nipsit, running about everywhere 
 in search of her companions. It was hard to
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 265 
 
 take her to the house where they had lived and 
 show it to her, all shut up and deserted ; to 
 hear her wail her pitiful cries, and be as help- 
 less as anybody to comfort her. It was hard 
 to discover that, for a long time, even the 
 sight of the old toys the children had given 
 her caused nothing but pain to the mute child 
 in her desolation. All she could be made to 
 understand was that her playmates were gone. 
 And for her there was no to-morrow, or by-and- 
 by. Her life was only in each minute as it 
 came and went. 
 
 Her playmates had been now they were 
 no more, and that was why her mother found 
 her, the day after they had left, on the floor of 
 Captain Pepper's shop, where she had sobbed 
 herself to sleep.
 
 xxm. 
 
 MB. PENROY TELLS HIS SISTER ABOUT THE VARIOUS 
 PAPERS WHICH HAD BEEN SIGNED BY HER AND HIS 
 TWO FRENCH PHYSICIANS. 
 
 MRS. CHEZZLE wanted the children and 
 Molly to be as much surprised and de- 
 lighted over the new house as she had been, 
 and arranged everything to bring about that 
 result. Of course they would not notice a 
 hundred or more details which gave her the 
 greatest pleasure. They would not know where 
 scratches had been varnished or polished off of 
 the furniture, how the parlor sofa had been 
 restored from a perfect wreck of injuries, how 
 chairs that had been weak in their joints were 
 stiffened up again, or how curtains had been 
 neatly mended and done up. Molly might 
 notice a good deal of this, and certainly the 
 restorations among the kitchen furniture would 
 not escape her, but the children would only 
 observe what was new, or marked changes in 
 the general disposition of things.
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 267 
 
 Most women enjoy more seeing old things 
 restored than having them replaced by new 
 ones, and Mrs. Chezzle bestowed many a 
 friendly touch upon the familiar pieces of fur- 
 niture as she dusted the parlor on the morning 
 when the children arrived. 
 
 When she had finished, she sat down and 
 looked about her with keen satisfaction. The 
 children would half believe in fairies, all over 
 again, she thought. Everything looked so fresh 
 and pretty, with the dainty curtains, new car- 
 pet and piano, and pictures. She had bunches 
 of chrysanthemums on the piano and in the 
 bay-window, had drawn up the shades so that 
 the sun could shine in ; the andirons glittered, 
 and pine knots crackled in the fireplace. She 
 was so glad that it was chilly enough to light 
 the fire, and, as a finishing touch in her prepa- 
 rations, she had a few pieces of precious drift- 
 wood to burn by and by, when she would have 
 shown the children all the beauties of their two 
 homes, and they would sit down to watch the 
 wonderful colors come and go. 
 
 There was a very pretty color in her own 
 face when the carriage stopped at the door and 
 she hurried to let the party in herself. Here 
 they were, with then- queer bundles, all ready 
 for the beautiful surprise !
 
 268 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 But Mrs. Chezzle was disappointed. Of the 
 children, Maria was the only one in ecstasies, 
 and it was not at all satisfactory to hear her 
 and Molly exclaiming at everything while Chal- 
 ley and Bob remained silent. 
 
 What on earth was the matter ? They stood, 
 looking around them for a moment or two, and 
 then, instead of the joy which their mother 
 was watching for, thunder-clouds settled upon 
 their faces as they looked at each other. 
 
 " Fred Wellington ! " was all Challey said, 
 with a deep sigh. 
 
 Bob said " Yes " in a mournful tone, and 
 tried not to let Maria see that his face was 
 puckering. " Have we got to live here ? " he 
 asked his mother. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " cried Maria, dancing about on 
 tiptoe ; " ant iss my house only there ? " point- 
 ing to a door of communication which her aunt 
 was showing to them. " Ant I ken come all 
 the days here, chere Tante? Ant iss not all 
 of it bee-yu-teefle n'est-ce pas, mes cousins 
 Shallee et Fob? You are so glat n'est-ce 
 pas?" 
 
 " Hm ! " said Bob. " You 've been rich so 
 long that you don't mind it ! And you never 
 went to Fred Wellington's ! " 
 
 " No ! " said Challey. " I bet you would n't
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 269 
 
 think it was nice if you knew Fred Welling- 
 ton ! " 
 
 " Dear children ! " exclaimed their mother, 
 in dismay, sitting down and holding out a hand 
 to each. " What is the trouble ? And what 
 has Fred Wellington to do with it ? " 
 
 " Why he 's got enough to do with it ! " 
 cried Bob. " I guess you would n't like it, 
 either, if you had to to only just spend the 
 day there. You have to wipe your feet most 
 off, to begin with ; and Fred said he did n't 
 believe his mother would ever invite me to go 
 there again, just because I slid across the 
 dining-room floor ! And I don't care if I did. 
 The stairs were awful slippery too, so I 'most 
 fell down and broke both my legs ! " 
 
 "Oh, but Bob!" struck in Challey, "that 
 was n't the worst part. You know you tipped 
 over your glass of milk at dinner and Fred's 
 mother told you not to put your feet on the 
 rungs of the chairs and you kept forgetting 
 and " - 
 
 " Well I don't care ! " Bob shouted. " A 
 fellow can't help it if his legs are too short 
 can he ? And there was n't a single place in 
 the whole house for my legs, and I got a hole 
 in the knee of my stocking and Fred's nurse 
 said if he had such a hole in his stockings they
 
 270 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 would n't let him go to the dinner-table. And 
 I would n't have spilled my milk if I had n't 
 been trying to sit with my leg turned the wrong 
 way, so that Mrs. Wellington could n't see the 
 hole ! It was real mean, too, when she threw 
 away Fred's stones and his best caterpillar that 
 was going to be a splendid butterfly ! " 
 
 " Yes ! " cried Challey ; " and oh, mamma ! 
 she threw away the stones because they had 
 barnacles and seaweed on them and smelt bad, 
 and I am awfully afraid Bob's and my horse- 
 shoes that we got on the beach yesterday 
 great splendid ones, mamma, but they do smell 
 just a little bad, and I 'm afraid you won't want 
 us to keep them in such a nice house as this is, 
 because at Fred Wellington's " 
 
 " Whisht now, an' let the Juke o' Welling- 
 ton attind to his own concarns ! " cried Molly 
 Dolan. " It 's him has n't got a mother made 
 o' the same ma-tarial as is yer own, Challey-bye. 
 An* if it 's going aginst yer falings, Mrs. Chiz- 
 zle-mum, to have the byes' dead fish an' eyes- 
 ters anny place else, I might kape them out- 
 side the " 
 
 But Mrs. Chezzle did not hear half that 
 Molly said, for she was hugging a boy with 
 each arm and fast changing the expressions of 
 their faces by telling them there should be
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 271 
 
 places found for all their treasures, and some- 
 thing about a fine play-room in the attic to 
 which she led the way immediately. 
 
 Dinner, to which Mr. Penroy and Maria had 
 come also, was over at the Chezzles'. The chil- 
 dren had gone up-stairs into the library to put 
 together a toy model of the Brooklyn bridge. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Chezzle and Mr. Penroy had 
 gathered around the large, open fireplace in the 
 front parlor. 
 
 " Nelly," said Mr. Penroy, presently, taking 
 a seat near the little work-table where she was 
 busy, " I want your close attention ; I want to 
 talk to you about something." 
 
 " Yes, Tom," said his sister. Then, as he 
 looked rather grave and did not speak, she 
 asked : " Shall I put away my work ? Is it so 
 important as that ? " 
 
 " It is serious, Nelly," answered her brother. 
 " I believe I am more in earnest than I ever was 
 before in my life, but go on with your work, 
 please. I can talk better if you do not look at 
 me, perhaps. I am going to talk about you, 
 my dear. Jack knows the drift of what I am 
 going to say, and he has promised not to inter- 
 rupt. You have disappointed me twice, Nelly ; 
 do you know it ? "
 
 272 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 " Indeed I do not, Tom. How ? " she asked, 
 looking up from the little garment she was 
 making. 
 
 " And now you are looking at me, when I 
 particularly asked you not to ! " he answered, 
 with a pretense of annoyance. " What is that 
 you are at work upon ? " 
 
 " A night-gown for the Infant Asylum," she 
 said, holding it up a moment before resuming 
 her stitching. 
 
 " Very well," he said. " Keep your eyes 
 upon it, it looks as if it would just fit one 
 of Bob's ninepins, and don't interrupt me 
 again, or I shall make no sort of progress at 
 all. Yes, you have twice disappointed me. 
 When I first imported you, my child, I looked 
 for a person of less character who would al- 
 low me to to assume a little more authority 
 over her, in fact. But one day you blazed up 
 so with your Chezzle independence that I was 
 obliged to retreat, against my will against 
 my will, I wish you to understand ! That was 
 my first disappointment. My second was on one 
 evening in Paris, when you refused to obey my 
 orders and would not give me your purse ! I 
 have done what I said I would I have re- 
 ported you to Jack, madam ! But he has dis- 
 appointed me also; he declines to find fault
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 273 
 
 with you. He is as unmanageable as you are. 
 Very well ! No ; it is not very well, it is very 
 bad ; but as I cannot make either of you over 
 again, and as I will not be responsible for your 
 sins, I have determined to have recourse to the 
 law ! Patience, Mrs. Chezzle ! Patience ! and 
 keep your eyes on that ninepin garment. I 
 should have settled all this long ago, if you 
 had not disappointed me in the ways I have de- 
 scribed. But the mischief of it is in the quiet 
 way by which you have turned what was the 
 simplest sum in my arithmetic into the most 
 difficult problem. 
 
 " Here is the plain English of it : After years 
 of an indifference which was unutterably stupid, 
 I had worked myself up into a state of semi- 
 demi-interest in a foreign mission upon which I 
 was about to bestow considerable property, when 
 my lawyer, Duvergne, convinced me that it was 
 all a grand humbug. Naturally, I wished to 
 get rid of my deed of gift, and would like to 
 have palmed it off upon my sister. She, in her 
 turn, showed me that she liked her Jack's inter- 
 minable letters better than my old legal docu- 
 ments, and did not exactly decline to touch it, 
 but what was as bad, or worse made me 
 afraid to offer it to her. Now she brings me 
 to America and shows me a pair of middies
 
 274 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 whose future looks so well for their characters 
 that I don't like to interfere with it seriously. 
 There you are, Nelly ! You see what a scrape 
 you have got me into. Now I expect you 
 to get me out of it, and, as I informed you, I 
 have had recourse to the law. Do you under- 
 stand ? " 
 
 " Not a syllable ! " Mrs. Chezzle answered, 
 dropping her hands and her work into her lap. 
 " What can the law do to Jack or me ? And, 
 if you knew that the Madagascar Mission was 
 a humbug, why did you give it anything ? Did 
 not the doctors and I sign a deed of gift to it 
 that morning ? " 
 
 " Not exactly," said Mr. Penroy. 
 
 " What did we sign, then ? " she asked, very 
 much puzzled. " Jack understands, or he would 
 not look so much amused." 
 
 " Oh, the doctors signed a deed of gift a 
 straightforward, honest, bona fide gift," said 
 her brother, laughing. " I had invited them to 
 witness one, and I did not disappoint them in 
 that. There was a little change in the order of 
 it, however, which they failed to observe, that 
 was all." And he and his brother-in-law seemed 
 to be enjoying something very much. 
 
 " Do tell me aU about it, Tom," said Mrs. 
 Chezzle. " Since Jack and you are so enter-
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 275 
 
 tained by it, let me have a little of the fun too, 
 please." 
 
 "Well, Nelly," said her brother, "they 
 signed a deed which disposed of some twenty 
 thousand dollars, but from which neither the 
 Madagascar Mission nor the eminent physi- 
 cians Messieurs De la Quille and Frediqueue 
 will derive any benefit. You see, my dear, I 
 felt myself entitled to a little entertainment out 
 of them, for they had certainly had their share 
 out of me. And I am quite satisfied, I assure 
 you. The recollection of those two rogues 
 going away that morning in such good spirits, 
 thinking that they had made their fortunes 
 out of me, is very satisfactory, I assure you. 
 When they reached home they found a letter 
 from Duvergne explaining the situation to them. 
 He thought I missed the best part of the play 
 by not having the denotement in the library, 
 after they had witnessed my deed. But I had 
 had enough of them and was quite willing to 
 let the curtain drop where it did. They are 
 fine actors all four of those men, Nelly. 
 We paid a rather high price for the entertain- 
 ment, but it was worth something." 
 
 " When did you lose sight of the mission- 
 aries, Tom ? " asked his sister. 
 
 " T did not have to do that at all Du-
 
 276 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 vergne lost them," Mr. Penroy answered. " He' 
 did it pretty effectually too. We thought that 
 even Frediqueue and De la Quille did not know 
 where they were when we came away. The 
 lawyers had discovered their whole scheme to 
 be a fraud, and might have had all four men 
 arrested. Roubaix and Duvergne both thought 
 I ought to allow them to do it, have the thing 
 exposed, and the men convicted as swindlers. 
 But it would have altered my plans so entirely, 
 postponing considerably my coming here, to say 
 nothing of the disagreeable publicity and a 
 thousand other annoyances, that I would not 
 consent. It would have pleased me to pre- 
 vent the doctors from practising medicine any 
 more. I would like the satisfaction of know- 
 ing that I was their last patient. But they 
 will certainly set up their next office a good 
 way from the offices of Messrs. Roubaix and 
 Duvergne." 
 
 " Oh, they '11 get up a new comedy alto- 
 gether," said Mr. Chezzle, throwing a bit of 
 driftwood on the fire. " Their genius does 
 not stop with either medicine or missionary 
 work. It will not be easy for them to find 
 another patient like Mr. Thomas Penroy, and 
 they will abandon the medical profession." 
 
 " Tom," said Mrs. Chezzle, leaving her work
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 277 
 
 to sit down by her husband on the cosy little 
 sofa on one side of the fireplace, " what did / 
 sign that morning ? Was it anything to do 
 with the mission ? " 
 
 " So," he exclaimed, " Mrs. Chezzle's curi- 
 osity is roused at last, is it ? Well, it shall be 
 satisfied. No, my dear ; your paper had noth- 
 ing to do with the Mad Mission, although it 
 concerned missionary work perhaps. It gave 
 you a mission of your own, and I expect you 
 to fulfill it. To tell you the truth, little sister, 
 it was not exactly a legal paper at all. As 
 long as I believed in that Madagascar scheme 
 I meant to ask you to be one of the witnesses 
 of my deed ; but when my purpose changed, 
 the character of the deed made your signature 
 a little unnecessary rather out of place, in 
 fact. So " Mr. Penroy went behind the sofa 
 where his sister was sitting, and leaned over 
 her with a very pleasant expression upon his 
 face, as he continued "so to avoid mys- 
 tifying you, I had to get up something for you 
 to sign, you see. You need n't be worried ; 
 it was not a legal document, and you may burn 
 it, if you like. It was only a little agreement 
 between you and me, which your Jack here 
 quite approves of an agreement to help your
 
 278 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 old brother practise some of the disinterested- 
 ness you have in such abundance ; to stand by 
 him and aid him, by carrying out the purpose 
 of the deed those villains signed, as well as you 
 can. For in that deed this is what I meant 
 by having recourse to the law I placed the 
 sum I had intended for the Mad Mission at 
 the disposal of Ellen Chezzle, for the establish- 
 ment here of some kind of institution which 
 will make the world better off. So, there it is, 
 Nelly," dropping a paper into her lap, " and it 
 is for you to say whether we will set up a new 
 public library, or a Home for mute children 
 like Maria's little friend, or what do you say 
 to a new home for your ' Ninepin Babies ' ? 
 Are n't the ' Ninepin Babies ' better objects of 
 charity than the Madagascar savages ? Well, 
 well ! " he cried, taking her head tenderly be- 
 tween his hands and rubbing her hair all the 
 wrong way as he stooped low enough to kiss 
 her forehead, " I have hit upon a new dis- 
 covery ! I believe your * Ninepin Babies ' are 
 almost as becoming to you, little woman, as 
 your husband and children are ! " 
 
 She had clasped her husband's arm and was 
 beginning to exclaim, " Jack ! Jack ! " as 
 if it was all his doing, when there was a
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 279 
 
 noise of young feet overhead and the children 
 came scampering down-stairs, Challey carrying 
 the Brooklyn bridge under one arm. 
 
 " Just in time to bring you to, Nelly ! " 
 said her brother, leaving her and going to meet 
 the children. " Come along, middies, and let 
 us see how it works." 
 
 " It is the most splendid thing you ever saw, 
 Uncle Tom, and it goes up as easy as nothing ! " 
 cried Challey, dumping the box on the floor 
 and tumbling the bridge out in pieces. " See 
 how fast we can do it ! " 
 
 He and Maria set to work putting the blocks 
 in the proper order, while Bob hitched together 
 a tiny train of cars and scattered a medley of 
 little boats on the carpet. 
 
 " You pull this string, you see, and the cars 
 go over the top. And one fellow stays over 
 there and another has to be here ! " screamed 
 Bob, while Challey was explaining another part 
 of the toy. Maria, down on her knees, was 
 pulling miniature boats along under the bridge 
 and watched her opportunity, when the boys' 
 voices lulled, to exclaim : 
 
 " See ! Viola chere Tante et mon Oncle 
 Tchonn, et mon Papa ! Effery think is h-h- 
 high-tide-sailing affore the wint ! "
 
 280 
 
 THE CHEZZLES. 
 
 But her aunt did not hear her because her 
 eyes were looking at vacancy, just as they 
 were looking at the beginning of this story, 
 and she was smiling to herself, with her mind 
 busy among the " Ninepin Babies."
 
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