THE MINISTER’S RECEPTION

“Are you ready, Cherry?”

“Almost,” came the muffled reply from the stiffly-starched little figure sitting on the floor struggling with a broken shoe-string. “Why, Peace, where are you going?”

“Where do you s’pose? To the reception, of course,” answered that young lady, who had just entered the room, rigged out in an ancient, faded pink gown which had once been pretty, but was long since outgrown so that several inches of petticoat hung in display the whole way around the skirt, and the ruffs on the sleeves reached almost to the elbow. How she had ever squeezed herself inside the small garment was beyond comprehension, but there she stood, buttoned up and breathless, ready for the evening’s social event.

“Did Faith say you could go, and where in creation did you find that ridiculous old dress?” demanded Cherry, after an astonished survey of the grotesque figure in the doorway.

“Faith doesn’t have anything to say about it,” was the emphatic retort, as the brown eyes snapped indignantly at her sister’s criticism. “Didn’t mother promise I could go to the next reception that the church had, and ain’t this the next? Faith kept me home from Mr. Kane’s farewell, but she can’t make me stay away tonight.”

“Gail isn’t going ” began Cherry, scenting the storm which was sure to follow this declaration from her younger sister; but Peace interrupted, “I am going just the same. Mother said I could!”

“Have you asked her about it today?”

“No, I haven’t. She promised a long time ago, but it was a sure enough promise, and she always keeps her promises.”

“But ”

“There ain’t any ‘but’ about it. I’m going even if I have to walk all by myself. I’m ’most as big as you. Two years ain’t much difference! Faith never kicks about your going, but she always tries to make me stay at home. She won’t this time, though.” The shapely little head shook so vigorously that each tight ring of short, brown hair bobbed emphatically.

“But you can’t go in that dress,” remonstrated Cherry, still staring at the abbreviated gown and neglecting her own preparations. “It is hardly big enough for Allee any more. You’ve had that for three or four years.”

“It’s the only thing I could find. My white one is all worn out, and that ugly green gingham has a long tear on the side which Gail hasn’t mended yet.”

“But what will Faith say when she sees that rig? Why, Peace, it looks awful!”

“I should say it did!” exclaimed a second voice from the hallway, and Faith, a tall, brown-eyed girl of about fifteen years, entered the door. “What in the world do you think you are doing, Peace Greenfield?”

Peace blinked her somber eyes vigorously, for tears were very near the surface, but she swallowed back the lump in her throat and calmly answered, “I’m getting ready for the reception, same as you.”

“Indeed you’re not! Gail isn’t going, and you can stay right here at home with her and Allee.”

“That’s what I did the last time, but you don’t play that trick on me tonight. Mother said I could go to the next reception, and I am going.”

“She didn’t mean this kind of a reception, and you can’t go.”

“I will, I will! Oh, you are the crossest sister!” cried poor Peace, with tears of vexation streaming down over her cheeks. “You always spoil my good times! You never make Cherry stay at home ”

“She is older ”

“Two years ain’t much!”

“She knows how to behave herself.”

“So do I! I’ll be as good as gold ”

“I’ve taken you on that promise before.”

“Oh, Oh, Oh! I will go! I’m going straight to mother and ask her now.”

“Mother is worse tonight and can’t be bothered. Stop your yelling, or she will hear you.”

“I want her to hear! I shall go! She said I might!” The storm was on in all its fury.

“Hush!” interposed Cherry, running to her sobbing sister and trying to soothe her wild rebellion with gentle caresses. “I will stay home with you, Peace. I don’t care much about going, anyway.”

“You can stay at home if you want to,” declared the small rebel with emphasis, “but I am going!”

“Children, children, what is all this racket about?” asked a gentle, grieved voice, suddenly, and the shamed-faced trio wheeled to find the pale, little, invalid mother standing in their midst.

“Oh, mother, mayn’t I go? Faith says I can’t, but you promised me when Mr. Kane went away that I could go to the next reception if I would make no more fuss about not going to his.”

“So I did, dear ”

“But a reception for a new minister is no place for such little girls, mother,” broke in Faith, petulantly.

“The ’nouncements said to bring the babies” involuntarily the mother smiled and the other sisters giggled. “I am lots bigger than a baby ”

“You don’t act it ”

“Faith!” The mother’s face was as reproving as her voice, and the older girl’s cheeks flushed crimson as she murmured humbly, “I am sorry, mother; but really, she does say such awful things. She is always talking. And just look at that dress!”

“I thought it would be pretty ” began Peace, but at that moment she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror, and stopped so abruptly, with such a comical look of dismay and despair in her eyes, that the whole group burst out laughing. Peace joined in their merriment, and then soberly said, “I look like a chicken when the down is turning to feathers. What can I do about it? I can’t stay at home!”

“Where is your green dress?”

“Gail hasn’t mended it yet.”

Faith saw her opportunity and immediately compromised. “Peace, if I mend your dress for you so you can go, will you sit perfectly still all the evening and never say a word until you are spoken to?”

“Yes, oh, yes, I’ll promise!”

The mother opened her lips to speak, but thought better of it, and with a smile in her eyes, withdrew, leaving the children to their final preparations.

At length the torn dress was neatly mended and buttoned on the wriggling owner, the bright curls were given a second brushing and tied back with a band of pink ribbon from Faith’s own treasures, and the sisters were on their way to the mother’s room for a good-bye kiss when a fourth girl, looking very sweet in a fresh, blue gingham, rushed excitedly up the stairs and demanded, “Where did you say you put the cake, Faith? Gail can’t find it.”

“Why, it’s on the wash-bench under the pantry window, covered up with the big dishpan.”

“There is nothing under the dishpan but an empty plate.”

“Hope! You are fooling!”

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” was the solemn answer. “Gail looked and I looked. She says somebody must have stolen it.”

“The tramp!” cried Faith and Cherry in one voice.

“Bet he didn’t!” declared Peace, who had stood open-mouthed and silent during Hope’s recital. “I gave him a great big lunch and and some matches to make some more with ”

“Yes,” said Faith, bitterly grieved over the loss of the cake, “and kept him hanging around here all the morning, till we thought he never was going. I suppose he took the cake for his dinner.”

“I don’t believe it! But he did weed those flower beds beau ti fully!” cried Peace, championing his cause. “And he strung Hope’s vines just as even! And the lawn is all mowed, and there ain’t a sprill of grass left in the onion patch, and the rain barrel is fixed up and the back step is mended, and did he stop up the leaks in the hen house? I told him just where they were.”

“Perhaps you told him to pay for his breakfast, too,” suggested the older girl, sarcastically. “We found a half dollar under his cup after he was gone.”

“A sure-enough half dollar?” asked Peace, too astonished to believe her ears.

“Yes, a sure-enough half dollar!”

“Where is it? I want to see it for myself.”

“On the pantry shelf. Gail thought he might have left it there by mistake and would come back after it. But I don’t.”

“Maybe he left it to pay for taking the cake,” suggested Allee, who had joined the excited group in the hall.

“He never took the cake,” Peace asserted stoutly. “But I don’t think he will ever come back for his money, either. He wouldn’t have left it in the dishes if he hadn’t meant it for us. His clothes had pockets in them, same as any other man’s, and if he had any money, he would have kept it there and not carried it around in his hands. Wish he would come back, though. I’d ask him about the cake, just to show you he never took it.”

“See here, Peace Greenfield,” cried Faith, with sudden suspicion, “do you know where that cake is?”

“No, I don’t! How should I know? But I don’t believe that tramp took it. So there!”

“I don’t believe he was even a tramp. Suppose he was a bad man, who had done something terrible, and the police were after him ”

“Yes, or s’pose he was a prince,” Peace broke in, remembering her conversation with the gray, old man. “He might be one for all we know, but he didn’t look like a bad man.”

“Suppose we stop supposing,” laughed Hope, “and all hunt for the cake. Someone may have hid it just for fun. We’ve half an hour before we really must go to the church.”

“I don’t care to go at all if that cake is gone,” declared Faith, crossly. “Mrs. Wardlaw will begin to think I am lying to get out of helping with refreshments if I have to make excuses again tonight.”

“But you’re on the program,” protested the smaller girls.

“I guess maybe we will find it somewhere,” said Hope. “Come on and help.” And they scattered in their search for the missing loaf.

But, though they looked high and low, indoors and out, not a trace could they find of it, except the clean, empty plate under the dishpan; and in despair Peace climbed to her gatepost to ponder the question of whether tramp and cake had disappeared together or whether some local agent was the cause of its vanishing. “If it had been a nanimal,” she said, thoughtfully, “it would have knocked the dishpan off the bench and broken the plate. It must have been a person. I’d think it was Hec Abbott, only mercy! What in the world is this? Money! Sure as I’m alive!” Scrambling down from her perch, she raced for the house, shouting, “Gail, Faith, look what I’ve found, hitched to the gatepost!”

The five sisters ran to meet her, and into Gail’s hand she thrust a crumpled, green scrap.

“Ten dollars!” gasped the astonished girl, examining the dingy bill with excited curiosity. “Someone must have lost it ”

“And pinned it to the gatepost so’s we could find it?” demanded Peace. “Well, I guess not! Bet that tramp left it. He surely must be a prince. What shall you do with it, Gail?”

“Show it to mother and ask her advice,” promptly answered the oldest girl, smiling down at the excited group of sisters; and they hurried away to the house with the precious find all but Peace.

A wild, daring thought had suddenly sprung into her active brain, and as her sisters vanished within doors, she flew madly up the road through the summer twilight towards the little village, clasping a shining half dollar tightly in her fist. In a surprisingly short time she returned, breathless but triumphant, bearing a huge paper sack in her arms, just as an anxious group came around the corner of the house.

“Peace! Where have you been?” cried Gail in relief, as the panting form flew in at the gate.

“We’ve been hunting all over the farm for you,” added Faith, severely.

“Thought you might be searching for some more money,” laughed Hope.

“What’s in that big bag?” demanded Cherry.

“Cakes!” gasped Peace, proudly. “Faith said Mrs. Waddler would be nasty if we didn’t take something to eat this time, so I spent the tramp’s half dollar for some of those marshmallow cakes with nuts on top. They are dandy good, and they cost a lot, but they weigh light, so you get a big bag full for fifty cents. Not many people have money enough to buy them very often, and Mrs. Waddler can’t say a word about our bringing them instead of a cake. Have one, Gail and Allee, ’cause you aren’t going to the reception. And take one up to mother. Maybe she’d like them, too.”

“But, Peace,” Faith began, sharply, then stopped at a warning glance from Gail, and with sudden gentleness she took the bulky sack from the small sister’s arms and started off for the church where the reception was to be held.

They were somewhat late in arriving, and the little building was already well filled with a laughing, light-hearted crowd, gathered to welcome the new minister into their midst. Glancing hastily about her, Faith saw one empty chair in a dim corner, and pointing it out to Peace, she said, “Sit down over there, and remember not to talk except when you are spoken to. Above everything else, don’t get to romping. Hope and Cherry are to help Miss Dunbar pass the cake, so they are needed in the kitchen. Remember, now!”

“Yes, I will,” was the unusually meek reply, and Peace obediently curled herself up in the corner to watch proceedings, thankful to be one of the gay company, but wistfully wishing that she might join in the merrymaking. It wasn’t so bad when the program hour came, for everyone sat down then and listened quietly to the music and speeches, but it was very lonely in the dim recess, where Peace was almost hidden from sight, and she longed to have someone to talk to. Everyone was so busy introducing themselves to the young minister and his pretty, sprightly little wife, or gossiping among themselves, that no one paid any attention to the somber, brown eyes peering so eagerly from the corner.

“Oh, dear,” sighed Peace at length, “I might as well have stayed at home like Faith said, for not a single soul has said a word to me since I came in, and I don’t s’pose I will even get a chance to speak to the new minister. My, but he’s got an awfully pretty wife! Wish she would smile at me like that. There come the ’freshments. Like as not they’ll skip me, off here by myself. If Cherry forgets, I’ll shake her good when I get home. A piece of cake is dry eating when all the rest have lemonade, but I’d rather have that than nothing. There, that man is going to play again Faith is pulling out the stops of the organ. Doesn’t he look funny?”

She laughed aloud at a sudden ludicrous fancy, and her laugh was echoed so close beside her that she nearly jumped out of her chair. Recovering herself, she whirled around to find the strong-faced young pastor looking down at her.

“What do you find so funny to laugh at, hid away here in this dark corner?” he asked, in a cheery, hearty voice, as he drew up an old stool and sat down beside her.

And, forgetting her fright in the friendly glance and tone of this new preacher, Peace giggled out, “I was just thinking s’posing we were all grasshoppers, how funny we’d look hopping around here instead of walking. We’d have to shake feet instead of hands, and if we wanted to go across the room all we’d have to do would be to take a big jump.”

For a fraction of a second the minister was dumb with amazement at the unexpected answer; then he threw back his head and laughed uproariously, as he gasped, “What ever put such a thought in that little noddle?”

“That man with the big fiddle,” was the prompt reply. “Doesn’t he look like a grasshopper with that long-tailed coat and all that shirt front? If he just had feelers on his head, he’d be perfect. Don’t you think so?”

Again the young man laughed, for Peace’s picture was not overdrawn the tall, angular cellist in evening dress certainly did resemble a grasshopper. But, of course, it would never do for him to say so, and he sought to turn this unusual conversation by inquiring, “Aren’t you one of the Greenfield girls? You look amazingly like two or three who have been introduced to me this evening. Isn’t the organist a sister of yours?”

“Yes, that’s Faith.”

“And the blue-eyed one just coming in the door?”

“That’s Hope.”

“And there is a third one here somewhere, is there not?”

“Yes, Cherry. Her real name is Charity, but that is such a long name for a little girl that we call her Cherry.”

He smiled at the diminutive maiden with her grown-up air, and said musingly, “Faith, Hope and Charity. Then you must be Mercy.”

“Oh, mercy, no!” was the horrified exclamation. “That would be worse than ever! I am Peace. Faith says I ought to have been called ’War and Tribulation’ it would have been more ’propriate; but I am not to blame for my name, if it doesn’t fit. I would have been something else if I’d had my way about it. Unless babies are named pretty names I think their folks ought to wait until they can pick out their own names. Grandpa named me all of us but Gail and Allee. If I just hadn’t been born for two weeks longer maybe I’d have had a pretty name, too, for grandpa died when I was only thirteen days old. You see, grandpa was a minister papa used to be a minister, too and he never had any other children but papa, so he didn’t get a chance to do much naming in his own family. Papa named Gail; her real name is Abigail. And then grandpa came to live with us. He liked Bible names, so the rest of us were picked out of the Bible except Allee, and she wasn’t born then. Mamma named her.”

She paused for breath, and the amused, amazed preacher found opportunity to murmur, politely, “But I am sure you all have good names ”

“Oh, yes, they are good enough! The trouble is, they don’t fit, except Hope’s. She is our sunbeam, always doing and saying something pretty, and meaning it, too. Now, Gail isn’t a gale at all, but just the bestest kind of a sister; while Faith is usu’lly cross as two sticks unless things go just as she wants them; and Cherry doesn’t stand around on corners d’livering tracks and worn-out clo’s to the needy poor, like Charity always does in the pictures. But mine is the worst misfit. Still, I’m thankful it isn’t any worse. Just s’posing I had Irene for a middle name that’s my favorite, and Olive is Hope’s choice then my ’nitials would have spelled P. I. G. and hers H. O. G.; and the school children would never have called us anything else. I know, ’cause they call Nort Thomas Nettie. His whole name is Norton Edwin Thomas, but he always signed his ’nitials on his ’rithmetic papers, and the boys took to calling him Nettie. It makes it all the worse ’cause he is a regular sissy boy. Have you got any children?”

“No.”

“Well, I s’pose you will have some day, and if I was you, I’d name them something pretty, or else wait till they got big enough to choose for themselves. And whatever you do, don’t let your church people raise ’em.”

“Wh at?”

“That’s just what they’ll try to do. They did with our family, and when they got us all spoiled, they said we were the worst children in town that ministers’ children always were. Why, Mrs. Waddler her name is Wardlaw, but she is so big and fat that I call her Waddler that’s her over there feeding cake to that scrap of a man he’s her husband well, she told Mrs. Grinnell once that I was possessed of seven devils. I asked mother what that meant, and she was dreadfully mad. It takes a lot to make mother mad, too. When we first moved here to Parker, Mrs. Wardlaw thought I was the cutest little girl she had ever seen she told me so lots of times but she doesn’t any more. Now she says I am a hoy-ena no, that isn’t the word. It means tomboy, anyway. That is what Mr. Hardman calls me, too. He’s the imbecile who lives on the farm next to our place.”

“The wh at?”

“Well, he is! He says so himself. He doesn’t b’long to any church, and hardly ever goes, and he says r’ligion is all tommyrot.”

“Oh, you mean infidel,” suggested the pastor, trying hard not to laugh again.

“Maybe. His name is really Hartman. I nicknamed him ’cause he won’t let us have the hazelnuts in his pasture, and he stole my pet chicken, leastwise, he let it stay in his flock so now I can’t coax it back; and he chased us out of his apple trees one day when we were just climbing after one pretty red one way up high out of reach. We did knock off quite a few, but we never meant to carry them off with us. He doesn’t like girls, and says if he had a family of six like us, he’d ”

“Are you six girls all there are?”

“Isn’t that enough? Seems to me it’s a pretty big family. When I was little, Cherry and me used to pray that the angels would never bring any more babies to our family, ’cause the pieces of pie were getting awfully little, and, of course, they got littler every time there was another baby. But they brought us Allee anyway. That was just after mother’s onliest uncle died and left her some money, and she made papa take it and buy our farm and bring us out here to live after he had been sick a long, long time with tryfoid fever, and had lost all his pretty hair.”

“Didn’t you say your papa was a minister?”

“I said he used to be.”

“What is he now?”

“An angel.”

“Oh!”

“You see, papa went right on acting like a preacher even after the bad people in Pendennis made him sick; and when Old Skinflint I mean Mr. Skinner most folks call him deacon, but I guess it’s just ’cause he is so different from a truly deacon, and is always blaming the Lord for everything that happens well, when he got cold and had pneumonia, papa helped take care of him. The deacon is so ugly that hardly anyone else would have anything to do with him; and one rainy night papa was soaked going up to Skinner’s house, and he had to sit up ’most of the night in a cold room, ’cause the deacon wouldn’t have anyone in his room where the fire was. So papa caught cold, too, and he never got well. The angels came and carried him away.”

“Oh!”

“Yes, and I heard Mrs. Abbott tell a lady one day that she thought mother would soon be an angel, too. Do you s’pose she will?” The big, brown eyes had suddenly grown wide with fear, and Peace piteously searched the strong face above her for some comforting assurance.

Just a moment he hesitated, and then answered, tenderly, “We shall all be angels some day if we are good.”

“Oh, mamma is good as gold! But two sure-enough angels in one family is too many, ’specially when it’s the mother and father. Don’t you think so?”

Poor man! What could he say? But at that moment came a timely interruption in the shape of Miss Dunbar with a huge platter loaded with glasses of lemonade; and as she spied the two figures in the little recess, she exclaimed, “Why, Mr. Strong, we’ve been hunting all over the building for you. What an effective screen those brakes and columbines make! None of us thought of finding you here. Peace, you are very quiet this evening. Would you like some lemonade? Have you had refreshments, Mr. Strong? The committee is looking for you to make arrangements for Sunday’s meetings.”

“I will be there in a moment, Miss Dunbar. Good-night, little Peace, I see your sisters beckoning to you. When the parsonage is ship-shape I want you to come and see us. Will you?”

“You bet!” was the prompt and emphatic reply, as Peace skipped happily away to join her sisters, forgetting, in her gladness, that neither Hope nor Charity had brought her any cake to eat with her lemonade.