<h2 class='c006'>CHAPTER XVI<br/> <span class='large'>THE RETURN OF THE CHILDREN</span></h2></div>
<p class='c010'>We had a great surprise this morning. I
can't help thinking it over as I sit here this
evening on the feather bed, my body half
asleep, but my mind awake and lively.</p>
<p class='c000'>It was just about dinner time—that is, the
early, noon dinner of the Gleasons—Slyboots
and I were on the upper veranda. Serena
was in here in this closet on the feather
bed. She feels so terribly about her experiences
of last night at the mole-hunt that I
have not been able to get her to budge out of
the house all day.</p>
<p class='c000'>Well, Slyboots and I heard carriage wheels
and looked down. There was a stout-looking
woman driving a big horse harnessed to a
double-seated express wagon in which sat
beside herself three children. I knew that
they must be the Gleason children coming
<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>home, so I got up and looked curiously
through the veranda railing.</p>
<p class='c000'>Yes, there they were, the two little boys,
and the little girl and their aunt. Mrs. Gleason
ran out of the house and kissed her
children, and Mary and her mother came out
too.</p>
<p class='c000'>My dear little mistress was greatly excited.
I knew that she was, by the way she looked
from her mother to the children. She was
longing to go and speak to them, and presently
Mrs. Denville took her hand, and led
her forward.</p>
<p class='c000'>The two boys were the queerest little fellows
I ever saw. There is only a year's difference
between their ages, and they look
almost like twins. Timothy and Robert are
their names. The girl is a little witch. Her
name is Della. The two boys are prim and
proper like two little old men. They keep
together nearly all the time. The girl is flying
about by herself all over the place. I
fancied at first that Mary would like the little
boys better than the little girl, but now I am
beginning to think I was mistaken.</p>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>As soon as the aunt arrived this morning,
her sister-in-law, Mrs. Gleason, said: “You
will, of course, put your horse out.”</p>
<p class='c000'>The fat woman nodded, and Mrs. Gleason
went in the house and blew the dinner horn
twice. That meant Denno, and he soon came
running to take the aunt's horse to the stable.
Then all the grown people went inside, and
Mary and the little Gleasons stood staring
at each other.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Those your dogs?” inquired the little
girl, pointing to Mona and Dolly.</p>
<p class='c000'>Mary nodded her head.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Got any more animals?” inquired Della.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Yes, some cats and birds,” replied Mary.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Let's see 'em,” returned Della with a
commanding air, and Mary led the way up-stairs.</p>
<p class='c000'>“I'm not going to be mauled by strange
children,” said Slyboots, and she fled. I
stood my ground, and presently they all
trooped out on the veranda.</p>
<p class='c000'>The little girl gave a squeal when she saw
my long hair. The boys said never a word,
but they both stroked me gently.</p>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>“Say,” remarked Della, “let's go see our
own critters.”</p>
<p class='c000'>Forgetting all about the birds, for which
the canaries would be truly thankful, for they
hate strangers, the children rushed down-stairs,
and I came more slowly behind with
Mary.</p>
<p class='c000'>“Why don't you go faster?” inquired
Della rebukingly, as she waited for us in the
kitchen doorway.</p>
<p class='c000'>Mary blushed furiously. “I can't,” she
said. “I have a weak back.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Turn round,” said the little girl peremptorily,
“let me see it!”</p>
<p class='c000'>Oh! how angry I was. I could have
scratched her. Her request, or command,
seemed so brutal when I thought of the sensitiveness
of my dear little mistress.</p>
<p class='c000'>I heard Mary making a choking sound in
her throat. However, she did as she was told,
and then Della who, if rough, is at heart a
very kind child, did a very nice thing.</p>
<p class='c000'>She passed her hand swiftly but gently up
and down Mary's back, then she turned her
round again and throwing her arms about
<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>her neck she kissed her heartily and said,
“I'm sorry.”</p>
<p class='c000'>The two boys stared hard at the girls, then,
by common consent, they all walked slowly
instead of running to the barn. Della put
her arm round Mary's waist. It had not
taken them long to get acquainted. My dear
little mistress' face just beamed, and I saw
that she would like these children.</p>
<p class='c000'>When we reached the barn, Della went
straight to the grain room. There she filled
the pockets of her blue cotton dress with oats
and cracked corn. Then she led the way to
the horse stalls. Oh! how glad the horses
were to see those children. They stretched
their heads over the door and neighed and
whinnied and Della and the boys rubbed and
hugged them. As for the pony, he almost
went crazy, and coolly opening the door of his
stall, Della let him out. He followed her just
like a dog, occasionally putting his nose over
her shoulder to sniff at the oats in her hand.</p>
<p class='c000'>The cows were all out to pasture. Della
unfastened the calves, and let them play a
little about the barn floor. I never saw such
<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>extraordinary antics in any young creatures.
They were so awkward with their legs and
heads—Mary laughed till the tears came in
her eyes. After a while Della fastened up
the calves, said, “Come on!” and, going out-of-doors,
led the way round to the back of the
barn, where a big door opened into the barn
cellar. She would not go down the staircase,
because the pony wanted to go with her.</p>
<p class='c000'>Mary and the boys followed meekly behind.
Della went up to the first pig-pen. The pigs
knew her, and began to squeal. She had no
food for them, so she got a stick and scratched
their backs.</p>
<p class='c000'>“What dirty creatures pigs are,” remarked
Mary with a shudder.</p>
<p class='c000'>“They ain't dirty,” said Della reprovingly.
“Pigs are clean. Men are dirty,
'cause they don't give them clean bedding.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“But they are playing in such black stuff,”
said Mary.</p>
<p class='c000'>“That stuff is nice sods from the
meadow,” said Della. “They have to work
it over. Don't you know 'Root hog or
die?'”</p>
<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>Mary said she did not, and Della went on.
“Pigs like to play in the dirt, but my pa says
a pig always wants a clean bed. Sometimes
we keep pigs out in the pasture, and they
make lovely clean beds for themselves of
leaves and grass.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“How do they do that?” asked Mary.</p>
<p class='c000'>“They carry the stuff in their mouths,”
replied Della, “and when it's going to rain
they run fast and hurry to make a fresh bed.
You can always tell when a storm is coming
by the pigs.”</p>
<p class='c000'>Mary looked doubtfully at the boys, but
they nodded their heads as if to say, “Our
sister is right.”</p>
<p class='c000'>Della went from one pen to another. I
looked through the cracks in the board fence
about the pens. The pigs were nice-looking,
and although each one was playing in the
black earth, there was a clean bed of straw
in the corner for them.</p>
<p class='c000'>At the last pen Della opened the little gate
leading to it and let a pig out. He was a pet
pig called Bobby, and he was as pleased to
see her as a dog would have been. He
<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>grunted with delight, and tried to rub himself
against her, and she leaped and danced to
get out of his way, for he was all covered
with mud, and the more she sprang in the
air the harder the boys and Mary laughed.</p>
<p class='c000'>Finally they all went out in the sunshine
again, the pig and pony following. “Now
for the hens,” said Della, and she lifted up
her voice, “Biddy, biddy, biddy—chickie,
chickie, chickie.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Have you chickens?” inquired Mary
eagerly. “I haven't seen any yet.”</p>
<p class='c000'>“Yes, two broods,” said Della, “but the
hens stole their nests away, and are pretty
shy. However, I think I can get them. You
and the boys stand here,” and she went on a
little way.</p>
<p class='c000'>The pony and the pig followed her, but she
did not seem to mind them. “Biddy, biddy,
biddy,” she called again, and then the hens
came running from the meadow, the orchard,
and one old hen, with a following of lovely
yellow chickens, came out of the barn cellar
behind us, and hurried toward Della.</p>
<p class='c000'>The little girl sat down on the ground, and
<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>it was most amusing to see the hens gather
round her. Some even got on her lap, and
looked in her pockets for the grain that they
knew she had. One old thing gave her a loving
peck on the neck that made Della squeal.</p>
<p class='c000'>“What friends!” exclaimed Mary admiringly.
“How they love her!”</p>
<p class='c000'>“She's always fussing round them,” said
Timothy, the elder of the two boys, “they
ought to like her—Come on, Robert, let's
go down to the river and have a swim.”</p>
<p class='c000'>Mary looked at them curiously. She could
have stayed here all day watching the hens.
Then she said, “Don't you like animals?”</p>
<p class='c000'>Timothy looked at Robert, and Robert
looked at Timothy, and finally the elder one
said, “Yes, but we don't want to live and die
with them the way Della does.”</p>
<p class='c000'>Just then the dinner-horn sounded, and
without waiting for the girls, the two boys
ran like the wind toward the house.</p>
<p class='c000'>Della dismissed the hens, put the pig back
in the pen, took the pony to his stall, then,
accompanied by Mary, went to the house.</p>
<p class='c000'>Her father made a great fuss about her.
<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>“Ho, ho!” he laughed catching her up in
his arms, big girl though she was, “ho, ho!
I'm glad to have my tomboy back, and my
little sissies,” and he winked at the two demure
little boys.</p>
<p class='c000'>Della wriggled away from him, and went
to her mother's bedroom to tidy herself.
The farmer and his men always washed their
faces and hands and brushed their hair in
a little wash-room off the kitchen.</p>
<p class='c000'>In a few minutes every one was ready for
dinner. Mr. Gleason sat at the foot of the
table, his wife at the head, then there were
the four children, the two men, and Mr. Gleason's
sister. Mr. and Mrs. Denville, not caring
for such an early dinner, were going to
have theirs later.</p>
<p class='c000'>The food smelt very nice and hot. They
had beef and potatoes, turnips and lettuce,
and a big plum pudding with a nice sauce. I
sat under the table, and listened to all that
was said. It was pleasant to have every one
so happy. There was a good deal of laughing
and joking, and no cross words.</p>
<div class='chapter'>
<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>
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