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Cloudy Jewel

<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2></div> They all slept very late the next morning, being utterly worn out from the unaccustomed work; and, when they finally got down-stairs, they took a sort of a lunch-breakfast off the pantry shelves again. It was strange how good even shredded-wheat biscuit and milk can taste when one has been working hard and has a young appetite, although Leslie and Allison had been known to scorn all cereals. Still, there were cookies and wonderful apples from the big tree in the back yard for dessert. “When are those men coming back to finish up?” suddenly demanded Leslie, poising a glass of milk and a cooky in one hand and taking a great bite from her apple. “Not till to-morrow,” said Julia Cloud, looking around the empty kitchen speculatively, and wondering how in the world she was going to cook with all the cooking-utensils packed in the attic. “We ought to have left the kitchen till last,” she added with a troubled look. “You crazy children! Didn’t you know we had to eat? I told that man not to take any of those things on the kitchen-table, that they were to stay down until the very last thing, and now he has taken the table even! I went up-stairs to see if I could get at things, and I find he has put them away at the back, and piled all the chairs and some bed-springs in front of them. I’m afraid we shall have 90 to get some things out again. I don’t see how we can get along.” “Not a bit of it, Cloudy!” said Leslie, giving a spring and perching herself on the drain-board of the sink, where she sat swinging her dainty little pumps as nonchalantly as if she were sitting on a velvet sofa. “See! Here’s my plan. I woke up early, and thought it all out. Let’s see,” consulting her wee wrist-watch, “it’s nine o’clock. That isn’t bad. Now we’ll work till twelve; that’s long enough for to-day, because you got too tired yesterday; and, besides, we’ve got some other things to attend to. Then we’ll hustle into the car, and get to town, and do some shopping ready for our trip. That will rest you. We’ll get lunch at a tea-room, and shop all the afternoon. We’ll go to a hotel for dinner, and stay all night. Then in the morning we can get up early, have our breakfast, and drive back here in time before the men come. Now isn’t that perfectly spick-and-span for a plan?” “Leslie! But, dear, that would cost a lot! And, besides, it isn’t in the least necessary.” “Cost has nothing to do with it. Look!” and Leslie flourished a handful of bills. “See what Guardy Lud gave me! And Allison has another just like it. He said particularly that we were not to let you get all worked out and get sick so you couldn’t go with us, and he particularly told us about a lot of things he wanted us to buy to make things easy on the way. After he leaves us and goes back to California we’re in your charge, I know; but just now you’re in ours, you dear, unselfish darling; and we’re going to run you. Oh, 91 we’re going to run you to beat the band!” laughed Leslie, and jumped down from her perch to hug and squeeze the breath out of Julia Cloud. “But child! Dear!” said that good woman when she could get her breath to speak. “You mustn’t begin in that extravagant way!” But they put their hands over her lips, and laughed away her protests until she had to give up for laughing with them. “Well, then,” she said at last, when they had subsided from a regular rough-house frolic for all the world as if they were children, “we’ll have to get to work in good earnest; only it doesn’t seem right to let you work so hard when you are visiting me.” “Visiting, nothing!” declared Allison; “we’re having the time of our lives. I haven’t been in a place where I could do as I pleased since I was eight years old. This is real work, and I like it. Come now, don’t let’s waste any time. What can I do first? Wouldn’t you like to have me take down all the pictures on the second floor, stack them in the attic, and sweep down the walls the way we did down here yesterday?” “Yes,” said their aunt with an affectionate homage in her eyes for this dear, capable boy who was so eager over everything as if it were his own. “And those big bookcases. What are you going to do with the books? Do you want any of them to go with you, or are they to be packed away?” “No, I won’t take any of those books. They’ll need to be dusted and put in boxes. There are a lot 92 of boxes in the cellar, and there’s a pile of papers to use for lining the boxes. But you’ll have your hands full with the pictures, I think. Let the books go till to-morrow.” Allison went whistling up-stairs, and began taking down the pictures; but anybody could see by the set of his shoulders that he meant to get the books out of the way too before noon. “Now, what can I do?” said Leslie, whirling around from wiping the last cup and plate they had used. “There’s one more bureau besides yours. Does it need emptying out?” “No, dear. That has your grandmother’s things in it, and is in perfect order. She had me fix up the things several months ago. Everything is tied up and labelled. I don’t think we need to disturb it. The men can move it up as it is. But we need to get the rest of the bed-clothes out on the line for an airing before I pack them away in the chest up-stairs. You might do that.” So Leslie went back and forth, carrying blankets and quilts, and hanging them on the line, till Mrs. Perkins had to come over to see what was going on. She came with a cup in her hand to ask for some baking-powder, and Julia Cloud gave her the whole box. “No, you needn’t return it,” she said, smiling. “I shall not need it. I’ve rented the house, and am going away for a while.” Mrs. Perkins was so astonished that she actually went home without finding out where Julia Cloud was going, and had to come back to see whether there was anything she could do to help, in order to get a chance to ask. <div>93</div> It was really quite astonishing what a lot could be done in three hours. When twelve o’clock came, the two children descended upon their aunt with insistence that she wash her hands and put on her hat. The rooms had assumed that cleared-up, ready look that rests the tired worker just to look around and see what has been accomplished. With a conviction that she was being quite a child to run away this way when there was still a lot to be done, but with an overwhelming desire to yield to the pressure, Julia Cloud surrendered. When she came down-stairs five minutes later in her neat black suit and small black hat with the mourning veil about it that Ellen had insisted upon for the funeral, the car was already at the door, and she felt almost guilty as she locked the door and went down the path. But the beauty of the day intoxicated her at once, and she forgot immediately everything but the joy of riding out into the world. Leslie was a bit quiet as they glided down the road out of town, and kept eyeing her aunt silently. At last, as Julia Cloud was calling attention to a wonderful red woodbine that had twined itself about an old dead tree and was setting the roadside ablaze with splendor, Leslie caught her eye. “What is it, dear? Does something trouble you? Is anything wrong with me?” asked Julia Cloud, putting up a prospecting hand to her hair and hat. Leslie’s cheeks went rosy red. “O Cloudy, dear,” said Leslie, “I was just wondering. 94 But I’m afraid to say it. Maybe it will make you feel bad.” “Not a bit, deary; what is it?” “Well, then, Cloudy, do you think Grandmother would care very much if you didn’t wear black? Do you like it yourself, or feel it wouldn’t be right not to wear it? I don’t mean any disrespect to Grandmother; but oh, you would look so sweet in gray, gray and lavender and soft pink, or just gray now for a while. Are you very mad at me for saying it?” Julia Cloud reached over and patted the young hand that lay near her on the seat. “Why, no, dear! I’m not mad, and I don’t care for black myself. I don’t believe in wearing black for the people who have left us and gone to heaven. It seems to me white would be a great deal better. But I put on these things to please Ellen. She thought it would be showing great disrespect to mother if I didn’t, and rather than argue about it I did as she wanted me to. But I don’t intend to darken the place around me by dressing in mourning, child; and I’m glad you don’t want me to. I like bright, happy things. And, besides, Leslie, dear, your grandmother was a bright, happy woman herself once when she was young, before she was sick and had trouble; and I like to remember her that way, because I’m sure that is the way she looks now in heaven.” “Oh, I’m so glad!” sighed Leslie. “That makes the day just perfect.” “I think I’ll wait until I get away to change, however,” said Julia Cloud thoughtfully. “It would just 95 annoy Ellen to do it now, and might make such people as Mrs. Perkins say disagreeable things that would make it unpleasant for your aunt.” “Of course!” said Leslie, nestling closer, her eyes dancing with some secret plans of her own. “That’s all right, Cloudy. How dear and sort of ‘understanding’ you are, just like a real mother.” And somehow Julia Cloud felt as if she was entering into a new world. Allison seemed to know by intuition just where to find the right kind of tea-room. He ushered them into the place, and found a table in a secluded nook, with a fountain playing nearby over ferns, and ivy climbing over a mimic pergola. There were not many people eating, for it was past one o’clock. There were little round tables with high-backed chairs that seemed to shut them off in a corner by themselves. “This is nice!” he sighed. “We’re a real family now, aren’t we?” and he looked over at Julia Cloud with that fine homage that now and then a boy just entering manhood renders to an older woman. “Creamed chicken on toast, fruit-salad, toasted muffins, and ice-cream with hot chocolate sauce,” ordered Allison after studying the menu-card for a moment. “You like all those, don’t you, Cloudy?” “Oh, but my dear! You mustn’t order all that. A sandwich is all I need. Just a tongue sandwich. You must not begin by being extravagant.” “This is my party, Cloudy. This goes under the head of expenses. If you can’t find enough you like among what I order, why, I’ll get you a tongue sandwich, 96 too; but you’ve been feeding us out of the cooky-jar, and I guess I’ll get the finest I can find to pay you back. I told you this was my time. When we get settled, you can order things; but now I’m going to see that you get enough to eat while you’re working so hard.” Leslie’s eyes danced with her dimples as Julia Cloud appealed to her to stop this extravagance. “That’s all right, Cloudy. I heard Guardy Lud tell Al not to spare any expense to make things comfortable for you while you were moving.” So Julia Cloud settled down to the pleasure of a new and delicious combination of foods, and thoroughly enjoyed it all. “Now,” said Leslie as the meal drew to a close, “we must get to work. It’s half-past two, and the stores close at half-past five. I’ve a lot of shopping to do. How about you, Cloudy?” “I must buy a trunk,” said Julia Cloud thoughtfully, “and a hand-bag and some gloves. I ought to get a new warm coat, but that will do later.” Leslie eyed her thoughtfully, and raised one brow intensively at her brother as she rose from the table. Allison landed them at a big department store, and guided his aunt to the trunk department with instructions to stay there until he and Leslie came back. Then they went off with great glee and many whisperings. It is a curious thing how easily and quickly young people can shop provided they have plenty of money and no older person by to hamper them. Allison and Leslie were back within the time they had set, looking 97 very meek and satisfied. Leslie carried a small package, which she laid in Julia Cloud’s lap. “You said you needed a hand-bag,” she said; “and I came on a place where they were having a sale. I thought this was a peach; so I bought it. If you don’t like it, we can give it to Aunt Ellen or some one.” Julia Cloud’s cheeks grew pink with pleasure, and she felt like a very young, happy child as she opened the parcel to find a lovely gray suède hand-bag with silver clasp and fittings, containing quite a little outfit of toilet articles and brushes in neat, compact form. She caught her breath with delight as she touched the soft white leather lining, and noticed the perfection and finish of the whole. It seemed fit for a queen, yet was plain and quiet enough on the outside for a dove to carry. She looked up to see the two pairs of eager eyes upon her, and could hardly refrain from throwing her arms about the children right there in the store; but she stopped in time and let her eyes do the caressing, as she said with a tremble in her low, sweet voice: “O you dear children! How you are going to spoil me! I see I must get settled quickly so that I shall have the power to restrain you.” They rollicked forth then, and bought several things, a big steamer rug for the car, a pair of long gray mocha gloves to match the hand-bag, a silk umbrella, and for Aunt Ellen a shiny black hand-bag with a number of conveniences in it, and a pair of new black gloves with long, warm wrists tucked inside of it. Then Allison thoughtfully suggested a handsome 98 leather wallet for Uncle Herbert, and Julia Cloud lingered by the handkerchief-counter, and selected half a dozen new fine handkerchiefs. It all seemed just like a play to her, it was so very long since she had been shopping herself. Ellen had bought everything for her for years, because she was always too busy or too burdened to get away. When they were out in the street again, it was still too early to think of going to the hotel for dinner. “How about a movie, Cloudy?” asked Allison shyly. “There’s a pippin down the street a ways. I saw it as we came by. Or don’t you like movies? Perhaps you’d rather go to the hotel and lie down. I suppose you are maybe worn out. I ought to have thought of that.” “Not a bit of it!” said the game little woman. “I should love to go. Maybe you won’t believe it, but I never went to a movie in my life, and I’ve been wanting to know what they were like for a long time.” “Never went to a movie in your life! Why, Cloudy, you poor dear!” said Allison, who had been fairly fed on movies. “Why, how did it happen? Don’t they have moving pictures in your town?” “Yes, they have them now, though only a year or so ago. But you know I’ve never been able to get away, even if they had been all about me. Besides, I suppose I should have been considered crazy if I had gone, me, an oldish woman! If there had been children to take, it would have been different. I suppose it is a childish desire, but I always loved pictures.” “Well, we’re going,” said Allison. “Get in quick, 99 and I’ll have you there before you say Jack Robinson!” And so in the restful cool of a flower-laden atmosphere in one of the finest moving-picture places in the city Julia Cloud sat with her two children and saw her first moving picture, holding her breath in wonder and delight as the people on the screen lived and moved before her. “I’m afraid I’m having too good a time,” she said quietly as she settled back in the car again, and was whirled away to the hotel. “I feel as if I were a child again. If this keeps on, I won’t have dignity enough left to chaperon you properly.” “Oh, but Cloudy, dear, that’s just why we want you, because you know how to be young and play with us,” clamored both of them together. Then after a good dinner they went up to their rooms, and there was Julia Cloud’s shining new trunk that had to be looked over; and there on the floor beside it stood two packages, big boxes, both of them. “This must be a mistake,” said Julia Cloud, looking at them curiously. “Allison, you better call the boy and have him take them away to the right room.” Allison picked up the top package, a big, square box. “Why, this is your name, Cloudy Jewel!” he exclaimed. “It must be yours. Open it!” “But how could it be?” said Julia Cloud perplexedly. “Open it, Cloudy. I want to see what’s in it.” Julia Cloud was bending over the long pasteboard box on the floor and finding her name on that, too. “It’s very strange,” she said, her cheeks beginning 100 to grow pink like those of a child on her first Christmas morning. “I suppose it’s some more of your extravagant capers. I don’t know what I shall do with you!” But her eager fingers untied the string, while Leslie and Allison executed little silent dances around the room and tried to stifle their mirth. The cover fell off at last, and the tissue-paper blew up in a great fluff; and out of it rolled a beautiful long, soft, thick gray cloak of finest texture and silken lining, with a great puffy collar and cuffs of deep, soft silver-gray fox. “Oh-h!” was all Julia Cloud could say as the wonderful garment slipped out and spread about over the box and floor. And then the two children caught it up, and enveloped her in it, buttoning it down the front and turning the collar around her ears. “It’s yours, Cloudy, to keep you warm on the journey!” cried Leslie, dancing around and clapping her hands. “Doesn’t she look lovely in it, Allison? Oh, isn’t she dear?” and Leslie caught her and whirled her around the room. Then Allison brought the big square box, and demanded that it be opened; and out of it came a small gray hat in soft silky beaver, with a close gray feather curled quietly about it, that settled down on Julia Cloud’s lovely white hair as if it had been made for her. “You don’t mind, do you, Cloudy, dear? You don’t think I’m officious or impertinent?” begged Leslie anxiously. “It was Allison’s idea to get the hat to match the coat, and it was such a dear we couldn’t help taking it; but, if there is anything about them you don’t 101 like, we got special permission for you to exchange them to-morrow morning.” “Like them!” Julia Cloud settled down in a chair, and looked at herself in helpless joy and admiration. Like them! “But O children! You oughtn’t to have got such wonderful, expensive things for me. I’m just a plain, simple woman, you know, and it’s not fitting.” Then there arose a great clamor about her. Why was it not fitting? She who had given her life for others, why should she not have some of the beautiful, comfortable things of earth? It wasn’t sensible for her to talk that way. That was being too humble. And, besides, weren’t these things quite sensible and practical? Weren’t they warm, and wouldn’t they be convenient and comfortable and neat? Well, then, “Good-night,” finished Allison. And so at last they said “Good-night,” and went to their beds; but long after the children were asleep Julia Cloud lay awake and thought it out. God had been good to her, and was leading her into green pastures beside quiet waters; but there were things He was expecting of her, and was she going to be able to fulfil them? These two young souls were hers to guide. Would she have the grace to guide them into the knowledge of God in Christ? And then she lay praying for strength for this great work until the peace of God’s sleep dropped down upon her. <hr class='toprule' /> <div class='chsp'> 102 <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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