Books: Keineth

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"Let me hold him, please, Billy!" begged Peggy. Keineth stood a little
apart. She was not yet sure that she wanted a closer acquaintance with
the newcomer. She had known few dogs; her father had always warned her
to leave the stray dogs that she met on the street quite alone--and she
had detested Aunt Josephine's silky poodle! But this poor scrap was
wagging his stubby tail and looking at her in a coaxing manner that
said plainly, "Let's be friends!"

Within the house Billy was cramming down biscuits and chicken gravy
with an enjoyment that covered the concern he felt at his mother's
attitude. When he could speak for the food in his mouth he told her of
the crowds at the fair. But with the last mouthful of custard pie
bolted he went straight to the point: "Can I keep him, Mother?"

She rose and, with Billy following, went out upon the veranda. At sight
of his new master the dog broke away from Peggy and leaped upon him,
his big paws on Billy's shoulders.

"Can't I keep him, Mummy?" he asked, pleadingly, looking from his
mother to his father.

"Mummy, this is such a lovely dog--" implored Alice, the June bugs
forgotten.

"And we'll take care of him," added Peggy.

Billy put one arm around the dog's neck.

"I guess when you hear the story 'bout him you'll let him stay," he
said solemnly.

"Tell us, son," Mr. Lee joined in for the first time.

So Billy stood before them to plead for his dog.

"Jim and I got to the Fair, 'nd he told me to wait outside and he'd
scout around and see if he couldn't find his uncle who had a show
inside, 'cause Jim thought maybe his uncle could get us in for nothing
and we'd have more money to spend. It was awful hot and I went over and
sat under the trees across the road and watched the people come. All of
a sudden I heard a dog cry, and over near one of the other trees was a
man that looked like a tramp trying to make a dog go ahead and kicking
him awful 'cause the dog wouldn't go! The dog would cry and then the
man'd kick him again and swear awful. Well, I was mad--I gave that
whistle that Rex used to know and the dog sort of listened, then I
whistled harder and the dog made a jump and broke his string and ran
like a flash right to me just's if he knew I was a friend! The man came
after him, swearing harder than ever. But I just took the dog and stood
right up and I said to him: 'You don't know how to treat a dog!' I
thought maybe he'd hit me, he looked so mad, but I went on talking real
fast. I said, 'He's a lot like a dog I know--what'll you sell him for?'
Because I'd sort o' decided he'd stolen him and might be glad to get
rid of him, you see! And the man said, 'How much'll you give?' and I
told him I'd give a dollar, and he reached out for the string and said,
'That ain't enough,' and I said, 'That's all I've got,' and just that
minute a policeman came along towards us and he said quick, 'He's
yours,' and I gave him my dollar and you ought to have seen him beat
it!"

Upon the rest of the story Billy touched lightly--how, his dollar gone,
he had had no money with-which to buy his way into the fair; how Jim,
returning from an unsuccessful search for the uncle and finding Billy
and the dog under the tree, had, disgusted by Billy's extravagance,
left him there, bidding him wait! But later Jim had relented and had
treated Billy to an ice-cream cone from the tent near the gate. Then
Jim had started for home and Billy had walked the five miles between
Middletown and Overlook, pushing the bicycle and leading the tired dog.

"And I never saw the Fair at all," he finished, breathless from his
story.

"Well, Mother--don't you think Billy deserves the dog?" said Mr. Lee
when Billy had finished. And Keineth whispered, "Goody, goody!"

Mrs. Lee laughed. "I will say that he may stay here on trial--while
we're in the country. But, oh, dear--I had hoped we'd never have
another dog--and of all things, a long-haired dog!"

"Jim Archer said he was an Airedale," broke in Billy, proudly stroking
the dirty head. "Pretty cheap for a dollar, I think!"

"Let's name him," cried Alice eagerly. "I think you'd better bathe him
first," chuckled Mr. Lee. Then, turning to his wife, "You know I think
it is a valuable dog! The fellow must have stolen him!"

In triumph Billy and Peggy led the newcomer towards the pump for his
bath, while Keineth went in search of soap and a sponge. Over the bath
they discussed names and, as it looked as though they could not agree,
they decided that, because Keineth was a visitor, she should select the
name.

And after a little thought she called him Pilot.

"Pilot Lee," said Peggy, squeezing a spongeful of water over the dog's
head.

An hour later a very tired boy was sleeping soundly, while on the floor
beside his cot lay the dog--his warm muzzle faithfully snuggled against
Billy's dusty shoe.

CHAPTER VI

THE MUSIC THE FAIRIES PUT IN HER FINGERS

On the shaded corner of the wide veranda Mrs. Lee sat making
buttonholes in a blouse for Billy, humming as she worked. Occasionally
she patted the crisp cloth in her hand as though she loved this task of
stitching for her youngsters. About her quiet reigned; broken now and
then by Peggy's bird in its cage and the far-off sound of the gasoline
mower on the golf course.

Suddenly Barbara came around the corner of the house, like a rose, in
her fresh pink gingham. In her hand she swung a putter.

"Off for the golf links, dear?" Mrs. Lee asked, glancing with pride
over the straight, slim figure of the girl.

"Yes, Mother, Carol Day and I play off our match this afternoon. If I
beat her I'll win those candlesticks--"

"They will look very pretty on your dresser," smiled Mrs. Lee. "I know
what you mean, Mother--that I'm just playing for the candlesticks alone
and I'm not at all, for when I do win one I sort of hate taking a
prize. But I would like to beat Carol because she does play such a good
game!"

"That's the spirit, Bab. Where are the little girls?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Mother," Barbara, balancing
herself on the arm of a chair, tapped her toe with the putter. "Peggy
and Alice have gone off to Molly Sawyer's and they've left Keineth
home. I don't think they're treating her a bit nicely!"

"Why didn't she go with them?"

"I don't think Peggy asked her to go. She and Molly were going to play
tennis on the Sawyer courts with Joan Crate, a girl that's out here
from town, and Keineth felt left out. Peggy told her she couldn't play
well enough to play with them and that it spoiled a game playing with
beginners, anyway!"

Mrs. Lee stitched in silence. Barbara went on:

"And I heard Billy the other day teasing her about her father. He
laughed at her when she said her father was a soldier, only the kind
that didn't wear a uniform, and he told her there weren't any soldiers
like that! I think you ought to speak to the children, Mother."

"Never mind, Bab, those things will straighten themselves. Peggy must
be more considerate and patient and I will tell Billy something about
Keineth's father--Billy will be interested. We may some day have reason
to be very proud of knowing him, for he may become a very great man,
besides doing an immense good for this country of ours. Run along,
dear, to your game and good luck to you!"

Barbara kissed the top of her head and hurried away. Mrs. Lee sat on
alone, her hands idly clasped over the blouse in her lap. It was her
way to puzzle out these little problems quietly.

Suddenly across the June stillness came the sound of exquisite music;
clear, thrilling notes, unreal--fairylike! Almost hesitatingly Mrs. Lee
turned as though she expected to see a fairy sprite in gauzy robes
approaching her from the shadows of the house! She rose and crept
toward the window. No sprite was there--only Keineth sitting before the
piano, her small hands softly touching the keys as though by magic she
drew the melody from them. Across her fair head fell a slanting bar of
sunlight. To this her eyes were raised in rapt contentment.

From the window Mrs. Lee watched and listened. There seemed to be no
beginning or end to the melody--it ran on and on, now plaintive, like a
small voice crying--now full of laughter with a happy note like that of
a bird.

"Child--" Mrs. Lee stepped through the long window into the room.
Keineth turned quickly.

"I didn't know--anyone was here," she said, shyly.

But Mrs. Lee scarcely heard her. She had clasped her arms about the
small form and was holding it very close.

"I was just playing--what the fairies put in my fingers," Keineth
explained from the depths of Mrs. Lee's embrace.

"They are fairy fingers indeed," laughed Mrs. Lee. "Let us sit down
here together and you must tell me all about it. Who taught you to play
like that, child?"

"No one--like that. Madame Henri always gave me lessons. They were very
stupid and I hated having to practice. But every evening, when we'd sit
together, I'd play to Daddy the music that came into my fingers.
Sometimes he'd stand by the piano until I was finished and then he'd
kiss my fingers and say 'fairy fingers', only Tante used to snore so
loudly, poor thing."

"And you love music?"

"Oh--most of anything in the world. Sometimes Daddy would take me to
the big opera house to hear music and it seemed, when I heard it, as
though I was floating right away. Then we'd go home and I'd make up
more music and tell them a story on the piano and sometimes Daddy could
guess the story almost. Tante used to shake her head and Daddy would
say, 'Leave her alone--she knows more than we do.' I don't know what he
meant, but some day I shall study hard and try to be a great musician.
Daddy said-I should-only he said I must wait until my body grew as
strong as my spirit."

"Keineth, my dear, do you know what a precious trust has been given
you? God gives to some of His children great gifts--they are in trust
for Him! You must care for it and guard it and keep it and see that it
is bestowed generously upon many! Music is one of the most precious
things in this world--and to create it is a great power!"

Keineth, with puzzled eyes, tried to understand. Mrs. Lee patted her
hand.

"How your mother would have loved to hear what these fingers can do!
She had a nature that was like a song in its sweetness. But your father
is right; before all else you must build up this little body of yours!"

"What did he mean, Aunt Nellie?"

"He wants you to run and play games and grow strong. And you must not
be discouraged and unhappy if you can't keep up just yet with Peggy and
Billy and the others. Remember, while they've been racing their legs
off you've been doing other things. If Peggy _can_ beat you at tennis,
you just ask her to play one of her pieces for you! Poor Peg, her
fingers are all thumbs! Everything evens up in this funny world,
child."

"You're so wonderful, Aunt Nellie! I did fed as if Peggy didn't like me
because I couldn't do things as well as she can, but if she'll help me
learn to swim real well and beat Billy just once at tennis, I'll help
her with her music!"

"A fine idea, Keineth! And then sometimes, when Peggy perhaps wants to
do something that you don't care about, I will help you write down the
music you play. Some day we will surprise them all--you and I will have
a secret!"

Keineth clapped her hands eagerly. "Oh, I have wished I could! It'll be
such fun! I'll send it to my father! You _are_ wonderful, Aunt Nellie."
The child threw her arms about Mrs. Lee's neck in a burst of joy.

"Remember, now! No discouraged heart because you can't get a ball over
the net or stand on your head in the water!"

That evening an east wind blowing up with a fine, driving rain, gave an
excuse for a fire in the big fireplace. And as they sat around it;
Alice on the arm of her mother's chair, Barbara close to her father, a
little silent, because Carol Day _had_ beaten her; Peggy and Keineth on
the floor side by side, and Billy and his dog sprawled near the door,
Mrs. Lee told the children the story of the little boy who went each
day to his attic room to play on the old piano there; how one day, the
sound of the music reaching the ears of people below, they crept one by
one to the dark stairway to listen. Then in wonder they brought others
and even more. These foolish folk thought it was a spirit who came to
the attic room and made the music, but finally one of them crept closer
and opened the door and found the little boy!

"I know, Mother," cried Barbara, "it was Mozart!"

"Yes, it was Mozart, who, when he grew older, made music that will last
as long as this world. Keineth, will you play for us, dear?"

Keineth, with a very red face, walked bravely to the piano. But her
heart was happy and her fingers tingled with the music she felt. With
the firelight dancing across the darkened room it seemed like the old
library at home and as if Daddy must be sitting close to her with
Madame Henri nodding in her chair near the window!

They were silent when she had finished. Barbara sighed-as though the
music had made her sad; Billy said something under his breath that
sounded like "Gee!" and Mrs. Lee patted Peggy's hand. She had found
time for a little talk with Peggy about Keineth.

"Oh, I think you're wonderful!" Peggy cried now to Keineth, running to
her and linking her hand in Keineth's arm. "I wish I could play one bit
as well as that----"

After the children had gone to bed Mr. and Mrs. Lee sat for a long time
in the room lighted only by the flames of the fire. Somehow the music
seemed to linger about them.

"Isn't this world funny, William--" Mrs. Lee stared into the blaze. "If
that child had not lived that funny, lonely life in that big house with
no one but the queer governess, that gift of hers might never have
developed! I wonder what the future may have in store for her?"

"Above all--let us hope--health and happiness!"

CHAPTER VII

ALICE RUNS AWAY

"I've got something to show you all," Billy announced at the luncheon
table. He wore the satisfied air of one who has accomplished something
long desired.

"What've you got?" Peggy answered promptly.

"Guess!" Billy fixed his attention upon his plate in a tantalizing way.

"Oh, I know--it's a new sending set! I guessed first!"

"You didn't guess, either! I'll bet you saw Joe Gary bring it!"

"What is a sending set?" asked Keineth.

"I'll show you afterwards," Billy answered, with a kindness meant to
crush Peggy.

Mr. Lee broke in: "But I thought you had to save three dollars more
before you could buy one--"

Billy flushed. "Well, this ain't exactly mine--yet, Dad! Joe Gary made
it and he's going to make another and he says I can use this one until
I want to buy it or at least for a while. I have that dollar I was
saving and my onions and radishes."

"Good gracious!" Barbara laughed, "I suppose we'll live on onions and
radishes three times a day."

Mr. Lee turned to Billy. "Don't you think, son, it might be better to
wait until you have the money to pay Joe? And a little more practice?"

"Billy's always spending money on all those foolish things," Barbara
put in. "He doesn't seem to want to save and help you!"

"Well, say, don't you think those things are foolish! You read all
sorts of things how wireless messages save people--"

"On sinking ships, yes!"

"Well, lots of other ways, too!" Billy's face blazed with wrath. "I'll
just show you some time!"

"Molly Sawyer's brother knows a boy who is a wireless operator in the
Canadian Army and sends messages from trees!"

"And if I have a little more practice I can try the troop exams next
winter and get a certificate!"

"Billy," broke in his mother, "run over to Mrs. Clark's and tell Alice
to come home at once. Nora rang the bell for her but she did not hear."

"Why, Mother," said Peggy, suddenly alarmed, "Janet Clark was with us
this morning!"

Janet Clark was Alice's closest playmate. The two families lived in
adjoining houses. Mrs. Lee had returned to the house at noon and Nora
had told her that she had last seen Alice running through the gate
between the two gardens.

It was only a worried moment before Billy came home to say that Alice
had not been there that morning! It was not like Alice to be long away
from home. Mrs. Lee, hiding her concern, directed the children to scour
the neighborhood.

Not until they had come back from the club and beach and neighboring
houses and reported no sign of her did the mother and father openly
express alarm. The children saw a look come into their mother's face
that it had never worn before! Like a shock its agony pierced into each
child's heart! Very white, Billy rushed off to enlist the services of
his boy friends for a thorough search of the beach. Barbara, with her
father, started in the motor for Middletown. "I will stay here near the
telephone," Mrs. Lee had said in answer to her husband's quick,
concerned look.

Peggy came running down the stairs.

"Her bathing suit is gone, Mammy, and her pink apron--"

"And her penny bank is broken!" Keineth held out in her hands the
pieces of the china pig which had held Alice's collection of pennies.
"It's all broken!" and, miserably, Keineth looked down at the
fragments.

"We will find her," said Mrs. Lee, bravely, putting an arm about each
child. "You girlies must stay with me and help me."

From Middletown Mr. Lee telephoned that they had found a clue. A child
answering Alice's description had stopped at a small candy store and
had purchased a selection of lolly-pops. She had paid for them in
pennies. Someone in the store had seen her climb upon a trolley car
bound for the city. Mr. Lee and Barbara were going on to the city.

But at dusk they returned with no further news. In the crowd at the
city station no one had seen the child! And Billy and his boy friends
had found no trace upon the beach!

"The police are working," the children heard their father say. Then
Mrs. Lee suddenly sank limp against his arm and he led her away.

"Courage--courage!" they heard him whispering.

Nora laid a tempting meal upon the table and carried it away, for no
one could eat a mouthful. Peggy had run to her room, where Keineth
found her-her face buried deep in her pillow.

"Oh," she sobbed, "I've been so mean to Allie lots of times and maybe
she's dead somewhere and I can't ever tell her--"

Keineth could offer small comfort, but the two locked their arms tight
about one another and listened as though in the gathering darkness they
might hear Alice's dear voice.

Mr. Lee had rushed off again to the city after a whispered word to
Barbara to stay close to her mother. Billy, his heart breaking, his
eyes burning with the tears which his boyish pride would not allow him
to show, and feeling the bitterness of his youth and his uselessness,
slowly mounted the stairs to the corner of the attic which was his own
particular den. The nickel of his beloved wireless apparatus gleamed at
him through the darkness. Like a flash a hope sprang into his heart!
Snatching up the phone he placed it upon his head, then ticked off his
message, with call after call, in every direction!

Now and then someone picked up his words--an unsatisfactory answer
would come back. However, finding relief in doing something, Billy
repeated his calls; listening intently for any answer.

Just as to his mind vividly came the picture of Alice's hurt face,
when, that very morning, he had roughly taken from her his old stamp
book, his own call came through the air. Every nerve in his body
tingled a response! It was Freddie Murdock--they had often talked back
and forth across the lake from where, on the Canadian shore, Freddie
Murdock's father had a cottage. And the words that Freddie was sending
to him by the waves of the air were: "Sister found--all right!"

Shouting the good news Billy rushed three steps at a time down the
stairs straight into his mother's arms! She clung to him, burying the
boy's face, down which the tears were streaming, close to her heart.

And while they clung together, crying and half laughing, Barbara
reached her father on the telephone to tell him how Alice had been
found!

Two hours later Genevieve brought the little truant home. Mrs. Lee
carried her off for a warm bath and bed, while Nora, her eyes very red
with weeping, fixed her a bowl of hot milk toast.

"I coaxed the story from her," Mr. Lee told his wife and Barbara later;
"that child wanted to see Midway Beach! Do you remember how hard she
begged to go with the Clarks when they went over and how unreasonable
she thought we were in refusing? Well, she just made up her mind to go
alone. She took her bathing suit and her pennies. She walked from here
to Middletown, took the trolley there for the city. On the trolley she
saw a party of picnickers headed for Midway Beach and she just walked
along with them. It was very simple. She watched the merry-go-rounds
and spent all her pennies! When it began to grow dark she laid down on
the beach and fell asleep. They found her there, later, after young
Murdock had given the alarm of a child lost! She didn't seem to be
frightened until they handed her over to a policeman to take her back
to the city; then the seriousness of her runaway must have come to her.
I do not think you will have to worry that she will do it again."

Up in her cot Alice lay wide awake. Beside her Peggy and Keineth,
exhausted by their anxiety, were breathing heavily. Below Alice could
hear voices that she knew were her father's and mother's. She wished
awfully that her mother would come to her! With a child's instinct she
had read on her mother's face the suffering she had caused. Suddenly
she felt terribly alone--perhaps none of them would love her now or
want her back. She had been so very, very naughty. She clutched the
blanket with frightened fingers.

The voices ceased below and in a moment Alice saw her mother's face
bending over her. With a little cry she threw her arms about the dear
neck.

"Oh, Mammy, Mammy," she cried, in a passion of sobs, "say you love
me--say you want me back! I don't ever, ever, ever want to go away
alone! I thought it would be fun--I didn't think I was so naughty. Hold
me close, Mammy----" exhausted, she hid her face.

"Oh, my dear--my baby," the mother breathed in comfort and forgiveness,
and the loving arms did not relax their hold until the child was fast
asleep.

"I think, Billy," said Mr. Lee, the next morning, "the family will
present to you with their compliments the finest sending set we can
find!"

"And aren't they useful?" Billy cried in just triumph.

CHAPTER VIII

A PAGE FROM HISTORY

For several days a peaceful quiet reigned at Overlook. Little Alice
dogged her mother's footsteps, as though she could not bear one
moment's separation; Barbara spent the greater part of her time at the
golf club, coming home each day glowing with enthusiasm over the game
and fired with a hope of winning the women's championship title. Billy
had no thought for anything but the new sending set which his father
had ordered for him and which Joe Gary was helping him to install.
Keineth, under Peggy's tutorage, was faithfully practicing at tennis,
spending much time volleying balls back and forth across the net and
trying to understand the technic of the game. Then each afternoon came
a delicious dip into the lake, when Mrs. Lee would patiently instruct
Keineth in swimming. They were gloriously happy days--seeming very
care-free after the hours of agonizing concern over Alice; days that
brought new color into the young faces and an added glow into the
bright eyes.

"Does Keineth know how we spend the Fourth of July?" Billy asked one
evening.

"I hate firecrackers!" Keineth shuddered. "We always went away over the
Fourth to a little place out on Long Island."

"We just have balloons and Roman candles in the evening because they
are not dangerous," Peggy explained.

"And then on the Fourth we always make our visit to Grandma Sparks."

"Who is she?" asked Keineth. She had never heard them speak of Grandma
Sparks.

"Father calls her a page out of history."

"Every man that had ever lived in her family has served his country--"

"She isn't really our grandmother. Just a dear friend."

Barbara explained further: "She has the most interesting little old
home about two miles from here. Part of it is over one hundred years
old! She lives there all alone. And her house is filled with the most
wonderful furniture--queer chairs and great big beds with posts that go
to the ceiling and one has to step on little stepladders to get into
them, only no one ever does because she lives there all alone. She has
some plates that Lafayette ate from and a cup that George Washington
drank out of--"

"And the funniest toys--a doll that belonged to her grandmother and is
made of wood and painted, with a queer silk dress, all ruffles! She
always lets me play with it."

"And her great-great-grandmother, when she was a little girl, held an
arch with some other children, at Trenton, for Washington to pass
through when he went by horse to New York for his first inauguration.
They all wore white and the arch was covered with roses. Grandma Sparks
loves to tell of it and how Washington patted her great-great-grandmother
on the head! If you ask her to tell you the story she will be very
happy, Keineth."

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