[happy house
By Jane D. Abbott
COPYRIGHT. 1920. BY J. B. UPPINCOTT COMPANY
J------I
“The fairy godmother has
bursting in upon the Hopworth
come,” declared Nancy, later,
family with her strange news.
She had to read and re-read the
letter so that they could under
stand and Eric Hopworth had to
hear all about the afternoon at
Happy House when the great
Theodore Hoffman had called.
At first he had decidedly op
posed the plan. Liz had snorted
in disapproval. Nonie had stared
at first one, then another, with
round, bewildered eyes.
“You ought not to throw away
such a chance.
It’s a wonderful school—I’ve
visited there. Nonie will have
splendid training-”
“I know all about it,” Eric
Hopworth had broken in, and
Nancy suddenly remembered
what, the master had told her.
“Tell me about Nome’s moth
er,” she begged.
There was not much to tell—
she had come into Eric Hop
worth’s life and gone out again,
in a few years.
“I always had a feelin’ I’d
. _ * _ i i. . _ ..i? .. I .. a. *> TT „«
vm.on.u 1101 ui a »v<
■worth said humbly, turning in his
hand the photograph he had
brought out from old Dan’l’s
bureau to show Nancy.
It was a cheap little photo
graph, taken a few months after
they had been married. But the
pretty face that smiled out of it
was a happy face. Nancy, as she
studied it closely, wondered if it
had ever been shadowed by a
regret for the dreams she had
sacrificed by her marriage.
“Then—don’t cheat Nonie
now,’’ Nancy answered.
So before she went away it was
decided that Nonie should go to
Tarrytown and while little Nonie
was pinching herself to he sure
she was awake and not. dreaming,
NSncy’s and Liz’s minds, in true
feminine fashion, leaped ahead to
the question of “clothes”. Upon
their perturbed planning came
Mrs. Cyrus Eaton, walking into
the Ilopworth kitchen with the
air of one familiar with its
threshold.
Trip many strange things had
happened for Nancy to In*
amazed at this. And when she
saw Mrs. Eaton pat Eric Hop
worth’s arm as she sat down be
side him, Nancy knew that in the
woman’s heart, all silly pre
judices had been swept away by
a deep affection for the man who
had saved her hoy’s life.
Mrs. Eaton had to hear all
about the master’s letter and
Nonie’s wonderful chance to go
to the school at Tarrytown.
“Clothes—- land sakes, Liz Hop
worth, you’ve got enough to do
without fussing over clothes. Let
me get the child ready. L always
did want to sew for a girl. Be
sides, it isn’t much for me to do,
a considering- she could not
finish, but she laid her hand,
again, on Eric Hopworth's arm.
Nancy realized, more than Liz,
how much Mrs. Eaton wanted to
have this opportunity to do some
thing for Nonie, so she.answered
quickly, before anyone could
make a protest:
That will be splendid if yob
will help out that way, Mrs.
Eaton,” and she made her tone
very final, as though they must
all consider the matter settled.
Nancy left Mrs. Eaton and Liz
fussing over the wearing quali
ties of various fabrics ‘hitherto
absolutely unknown to Nonie and
walked slowly homeward. It was
a sunny, still afternoon, conduc
ive to mediation. And Nancy, in
a pensive mood, had much to
meditate over.
A Amoment’s whim had
brought her to Happy House and
bow much had happened because
of her coming. How curiously
intermixed everything had been;
her acquaintance with Judson’s
hired man had brought her in
touch with the great Theodore
Hoffman and then he, through
her, had found Nonie.
Life was so funny—Nancy sud
denly remembered a game she
had played when she was very,
very small. She had had a box
of queer shaped and many col
ored Japanese blocks, that, if
placed together in just the right
way, made a beautiful castle
upon the highest peak of which
she could place a shining red
ball. But it had beeu very diffi
cult to build; Nancy had, often,
In impatience, thrown the blocks
down, but her father had al
ways come, then, to her help and
had laughingly coaxed her to try
again.
Life was like that—if one could
£1
successfully fit all the queer
edges together and build up,
piece by piece one could have the
reward of the shining ball at
the top. But Nancy, thinking of
it now, felt the tugging impati
ence that she had used to feel to
ward the pile of colored blocks.
A few weeks had so changed
her own life—she must take up
the little pieces and begin to
build again.
At the gate of Happy House
she paused, and turning, looked
down the road. In the last few
days she had caught herself of
ten looking down that road and
yet she would not admit to her
self—she was too proud to ad
mit it that she was always wish
ing that she would see Peter
Hyde coining. It was very lone
some at Happy House without
him.
Suddenly, in a swirl of dust, a
motor turned the corner at the
smithy and aproached toward
her at a tremendous speed, its
outline barely distinguishable be
cause of the cloud that enveloped
it. No one came up that road
_1—„ 4 U .. .: a ~ u
uiuvua i/tivj tt vi v vvnautg uv
py House.
Then someone, swathed in lin
en and green, floating veiling,
spied Nancy and waved wildly
from the tonneau.
Scarcely believing her eyes,
Nancy took a step forward. With
a swerve and a roar the car came
to a stop and from the front seat,
throwing off goggles and cap,
sprang Eugene Leavitt.
“Daddy!” cried Nancy, throw
ing herself into his arms.
“I thought it was Anne, but I
couldn’t-” she began, finally
withdrawing from his tight clasp
lo greet the others. “I just—
couldn’t believe it.”
Anne was standing now beside
her, and behind Anne, unwinding
yards of dust^covered veiling,
laughed Claire.
“Oh, it’s too good, good, good
to be true,” Nancy cried, trying
to embrace them both at the same
time. “To have you all corne
al once. I'm so happy, 1 just
want to cry.”
“And, Nancy, at list you’re
going to meet my brother Bar
rs.' interrupted Claire, her eyes
sparkling. “You wouldn’t come
to Merrvcliffe, so you see I had
to bring him here.”
Nancy was so happy that she
could aven turn to greet the de
spised “lion” with a radiant
smile. Claire’s brother, who,
forgotten by the others in their
joyous reunion, had been busying
himself with the engine of his
car, now turned and removed
from a dust stained face the gog
gles that had almost completely
hidden it.
“Be-ter. You—” and Nancy,
her face crimson, put her 'two
bunds behind her back.
UxlAL 1 llixt A At A.
Barry.
Nancy presented such a picture
of bewilderment and unbelief
that the others all laughed—ex
cept Peter; his face was very
grave.
“You see I though the only
way I could get you—to forgive
me—was by bringing them all
back with/me.’’
But Nancy had no intention of
forgiving—-at least, at once—the
trick that had been [flayed upon
her. She lifted her chin with
meaning disdain and turned to
the others.
“Let's go up to the house;
My aunts will be so glad to «ee
you all,’’ and slipping one hand
through her father’s - arm and
another into Anne’s she turned
up the path, leaving Claire and
her brother to follow.
Miss Sabrina had seen the car
stop at the gate and had come
to the door. She knew at once
that this was Nancy’s father. A
color swept her cheeks and fad
ed. She tried to say some word
of welcome but her trembling
lips could not frame a single syl
lable. But almost instantly her'
fears were set at rest, for Eugene
Leavitt took her two. hands in
his clasp and lightly kissed her
cheek in a cheery way that put
aside forever the trouble that had
separated them.
In the hub bub and chatter
that followed, Nancy did not
realize that Peter Hyde had
slipped away; not until Aunt Sa
brina had carried her father off
to Aunt Milly’s ro“xn and
B’lindy, radiant, Rad gone back
t to the kitchen to prepare a sup
per “fit for folks,” leaving the
three chums together. Claire
gave her friend an affectionate
shake.
“N«w, Nancy Leavitt, don’t be
silly and stay cross at Barry. It’s
my fault. 1 knew he was here
and that you were here, and that
he knew you and you knew him,
and neither of you-”
“Please, please Claire,”
begged Nancy, trying to stop
her friend. Her face turned
scarlet. Of course she could not
be offended at his deception, had
she not, herself, been masquer
ading? But burning in her mind
was fhe recollection of that af
ternoon when she had opened her
heart to Peter and had told him
how she despised Barry Wallace
and his kind. And he had let her
talk—she could not forgive that,
ever.
“After you’d been here a few
weeks,” Claire went on, “Barry
wrote to me. I suppose he’d got
ten to the point where he simply
had to confide in someone. You
can imagine, I nearly dropped
when I saw the postmark and
knew what he was doing, but pic
ture how I felt when he wrote
that he’d met the ‘best girl ever
—no frills and fropperies like
mother’s crowd, but a regular
girl.’ Of course I knew he
meant you. I let him write a few
more letters—I don’t think Bar
ry ever wrote so onen to me
before—and then, I told him
everything.”
‘‘You did?” exclaimed Nancy.
‘‘Then-” she stopped short.
Now she understood why he had
refused to accept her answer as
final—that last evening they had
been together.
‘‘And I made him promise on
his honor not to tell you that I
had told. So don’t be cross at
him,” Claire pleaded, a little
worried at Nancy’s expresssion.
‘‘He has gone back to Judson’s
and he said—he asked me to ask
you if you would go out to Bird’s
Nest—after supper—and ”
Claire, failing in words, threw
her arms around Nancy’s neck
and kissed her. Anne, who had
been impatiently waiting for an
opportunity, took up her part of
the story.
‘‘Goodness, Nancy, you can be
thankful you’ve been up here
and not at the apartment— it’s
unbearably stuffy and hot. Al
though it ought to have seemed
like paradise after my quarters
in London, snapping her lips to
gether. Poor Anne, her dream of
service was now only a bitter rec
ollection. ‘‘I was sitting there as
forlorn as could be when in blew
—no other word could describe
it — Claire’s brother. You 1
wouldn’t have dreamed from the
way he acted that he’d never laid
eyes on me before. He told me
about the confession you’d writ
ten him and he said he knew you
were unhappy up here because
of your false position and that I
ought to come back up here with
him and get you out of it. He
didn’t want me to lose a moment.
Then, while we were talking,
your letter came with its as
tonishing news. Isn’t it all like
some nightmare—all the aunts
and things mixed up the way
they were? We had to read your
letter over and over to under
stand it. Then when we finally
got it through our heads, we de
cided we’d get Claire and start
the next day for North Hero.”
‘‘But Dad?” asked Nancy.
‘‘We were all ready to go when
a taxi drove up to the door and
out jumped your father. Of
course he had to hear the whole
story way back to the letter Noah
brought to our room. Barry didn’t
give him a chance to even wash
his face, he bundled him straight
into the automobile as though it
were a matter of life and death.
•iviui nere we are. auu uus place
looks like Heaven,” Anne fin
ished. - m
It was a merry party that gath
ered around’Miss Sabrina’s table.
B’lindy wanting to express all
that was in her heart, had spread
a supper fit for the gods. Nancy’s
father had carried Miss Milly
downstairs and sat bet.ween her
and Nancy. Every now and then
Nancy slipped her hand into his,
under the tablecloth. Miss Sa
brina, at the head of the table,
beamed down upon them all in a
pathetic ecstasy of happiness.
From the kitchen came the insist
ent “goo’s” of the smallest Hop
worth, to the accompaniment of a
silver spoon beating against a
silver mug.
Through all the light chatter in
the room there was an undertone
of deep happiness and content
ment. Only occasionally Claire’s
eyes flashed a worried, pleading
message to Nancy that Nancy
wilfully ignored. But when, af
ter supper, the others all went
to the Hollyhock porch and
Nancy slipped away, the watchful
Claire drew a sigh of relief and
proceeded to feel riotously
happy. «
ks Nancy walked slowly down
*
the path to the orchard she felt
her heart grow inexplainably,
foolishly light. She was so glad
that Peter Hyde had come back.
The gladness shone ifi her eyes
as she let him clasp her two
hands. He did not even ask her
if she would forgive him; they
both laughed joyously, like two
children.
“Wasn’t it funny? Both of us
up here pretending to be some
one else.”
“But it wasn’t fair. You knew
—and I didn’t.”
Peter hastened to defend him
self. “I didn’t—at first. And
then Claire made me promise not
to let on that I knew. Anyway,
I’d grown so downright sick of
that Barry Wallace that I want
ed to just see if I could make
someone like plain Peter Hyde.
Did I?” he asked.
Nancy ignored the direct ques
tion and avoided the pleading in
Peter’s eyes.
“Why did you come here, Pet
—Barry 1 ’ ’
“t _
stand, Nancy?” Peter’s voice
was serious. “Mother thought
I was crazy and Claire would
have, too—at the time. But when
I heard you tell—that afternoon
—what you though of Claire’s
brother, I decided I’d done just
about the right thing. You see,
when I came back from the other
side, just because father and
mother are quite prominent, I
found that a lot of stuff had been
printed about all the things I’d |
done-”
“But you did do them,” cried
Nancy, warmly.
(To be continued next week).
“The railroads have been slowly
starving,” said J. H, Beek, of the Na
tional Industrial Traffic League, at
the traffic gathering in Sioux City.
Reports of net income of the railroads
for the last five years do not tell the
same story. It is not "starvation”
that hurts the railroads. It is ma
nipulation by financiers. The rail
roads' troubles are rooted in misman
agement and wrecking in past years,
not in “vindictive legislation.” They
are trying to make the govern
ment shoulder the sins of the Harri
mans and the Goulds.
Does mind control matter? Yes, al
so life and death. You need read no
book on faith healing to prove It.
In Berlin Mr. Kobler disliked a
merchant, ill from consumption. -
Daily Mr. Kobler called up the un
fortunate man to ask “have you still
got your lung?” Or to suggest “you
had better ham? yourself, you will
fail anyway before you die." The
victim died prematurely.
, Millions of fathers .and mothers,
constantly putting into the minds of
children thoughts of fear, disease,
etc., thus diminish their mental pow
ers of resistance.
It Is possible to protect children
without frightening them. This is not
written by a Christian Scientist but
by one who believes in w-ordly science.
You can use science to combat
disease without frightening the pa
tient to death while using it.
The French are agitated because
the "European balance of power has
been upset.” Upset is putting it mild
ly. Against a little more than 100,
000,000 inhabitants of England, Italy
and France are now arrayed 200,000,
000 of Germans and Russians, to say
nothing of the Turks and the pos
sibility of other hundreds of millions
farther east.
The European balance is a delicate
thing, to be established only by a
common sense determination to work
and buil<?T instead of fighting and
tearing down.
An Italian paper allege") that Ger
many and Russia already have an
agreement as to foreign policy with
the netw Turkish governfnent at An
gora. That was inevitable. It will
interest Rumania, nestling close to
bolshevism and other Balkan states.
Also the big -allies. Countries like
Germany, Russian and Turkey with
not much to lose except their debts,
mnv trv dangerous things.
0 Just The Place.
From the New York Sun.
Madge—I’d call on one of my friends
only I’m coughing and sneezing all the
time.
Marjorie—In that case, my deer, why
don't you go to the theater?
Where It Was Needed.
From London Answers.
Willie was being measured for his
fiset made-to-order suit of clothes.
“Do you want your shoulders padded,
my little man?” inquired the tailor.
“No,1’ said Willie significantly; “pad
the trousers*'
That’s Different.
From the Boston Transcript.
“Folks all well this morning, Johnny?”
asked a friend of the family.
" Yes’m.”
“Glad to hear it. The last time I heard
from them your father was suffering
froqj rheumatic gout and your mother
had'neuralgia.”
“Oh. yes, they’ve ^stlll got ’em. I
thought you meant was any of us sick.”
A Passing Acquaintance.
From Pittsburgh Chromcie-Telegrap'*..
They had Just been Introduced in the
smoking room of the club.
"Do you know, colonel.” said the
major, “I cannot help thinking I have
met you before?"
“And strangely enough sir, I have a
slmtlar'feeiing with regard to you.'*
“Were you at the storming of Flare
upatumT'
“I was, major.”
“And were you present at the time the
fort exploded and blew up the entire
pk»ce?”
“I•had that honor!”
"Then I know where I have eeen you
j before. I passed you as you were going
1 up and I was coming down.”
low TWO WOMEN
ESCAPED OPERATIONS
Doctor Advised Use of Lydia E. Pink
ham’s Vegetable Compound
Happy Results in Both Cases
St.Joseph,Missouri.—“Both of my
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There was heavy pressure and pains
through my lower organs ana the
doctor told me to try Lydia E. Pink
lam’s Vegetable Compound for these
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White Plains, N. Y.—“I had such a
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octor said that I needed an opera
tion. I was sick for a year before I
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I am taking the medicines still, but I
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— Mrs. MARYMAKK,37HamiltonAve.,
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Some female troubles may through
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This book contains valuable information.
Gent of the Old School.
Gipsies apparently do not take
much stock in the newer feministic
theories. A swarthy nomad and his
gaily-dressed wife came into a cigar
store on Cadillac square. He bought
some good cigars for himself and a
package of pipe tobacco for her. She
demonstrated with him in gipsy lan
guage about something, turned her
back to him and started for the door.
His face clouded with anger, he raised
his large foot and administered a lus
ty kick that was forceful enough to
She made no protest and they walked
away together.—Detroit News.
Some men try to do others they are
dunned by.
One of the First.
The auto salesman, after a great
deal of hesitancy, had agreed to take
the old car In part payment for the
| new.
“What Is the number of the motor?”
he asked.
The owner poked his head down on
the bonnet a moment and then bobbed
up again. “Eighteen sixty-three,” he
answered.
“1 asked,” said the salesman, “the
number of the motor, not the date of
manufacture.”—New York Sun.
Changing Color Scheme.
“Father, are all Bolshevists red?”
“No, my boy; some of them are
pretty blue.”—Der Brummer (Berlin).
I
j
I
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