AUNT JANE'S NIECES AT MILLVILLE
BY
EDITH VAN DYNE (one of L. Frank Baum's pen names)
1908
Continued....
CHAPTER XX.
A LOST CAUSE.
The boy's musings confirmed him in the idea that his
mother's scheme was
entirely practical. He didn't hanker much to marry,
being young and
fairly satisfied with his present lot; but
opportunities like this did
not often occur, and it seemed his bounden duty to
take advantage of it.
He got the "store clothes" next day, together with a
scarlet necktie
that was "all made up in the latest style," as Sam
Cotting assured him,
and a pair of yellow kid gloves "fit fer a howlin'
swell." Skim wasn't
sure, at first, about the gloves, but capitulated
when Sam declared they
were "real cityfied."
In the evening he "togged up," with his mother's
help, and then walked
over to the Wegg farm.
Beth answered the knock at the door. The living room
was brightly
lighted; Uncle John and the Major were playing
checkers in a corner and
Patsy was softly drumming on the piano. Louise had a
book and Beth had
been engaged upon some fancy-work.
When the door opened Skim bobbed his head and said:
"Evenin', mom. I've come a-visitin'."
Beth conquered an inclination to smile.
"Won't you come in?" she said, sweetly.
"Thankee; I will. I'm Skimbley Clark, ye know; down
t' the village. Ma
keeps a store there."
"I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. Clark. Allow me to
introduce to you my
uncle and cousins," said the girl, her eyes dancing
with amusement.
Skim acknowledged the introductions with intense
gravity, and then sat
down upon a straight-backed chair near the piano,
this being the end of
the room where the three girls were grouped. Uncle
John gave a chuckle
and resumed his game with the Major, who whispered
that he would give a
dollar for an oil painting of Mr. Clark--if it
couldn't be had for less.
Louise laid down her book and regarded the visitor
wonderingly. Patsy
scented fun and drew a chair nearer the group. Beth
resumed her
embroidery with a demure smile that made Skim decide
at once that "he
picked the pretty one."
Indeed, the decision did justice to his discretion.
Beth De Graf was a
rarely beautiful girl and quite outshone her cousins
in this respect.
Louise might be attractive and Patsy fascinating;
but Beth was the real
beauty of the trio, and the most charming trait in
her character was her
unconsciousness that she excelled in good looks.
So Skim stared hard at Beth, and answered the
preliminary remarks
addressed to him by Patsy and Louise in a
perfunctory manner.
"Won't you take off your gloves?" asked Louise,
soberly. "It's so warm
this evening, you know."
The boy looked at his hands.
"It's sech a tarnal job to git 'em on agin," he
replied.
"Don't put them on, then," advised Patsy. "Here in
the country we are
allowed to dispense with much unnecessary social
etiquette."
"Air ye? Then off they come. I ain't much stuck on
gloves, myself; but
ma she 'lowed that a feller goin' courtin' orter
look like a sport."
A chorus of wild laughter, which greeted this
speech, had the effect of
making Skim stare at the girls indignantly. He
couldn't find anything
funny in his remark; but there they sat facing him
and uttering
hysterical peals of merriment, until the tears ran
down their cheeks.
Silently and with caution he removed the yellow
gloves from his hands,
and so gave the foolish creatures a chance "to laugh
out their
blamed giggle."
But they were watching him, and saw that he was
disconcerted. They had
no mind to ruin the enjoyment in store for them by
offending their
guest, so they soon resumed a fitting gravity and
began to assist the
youth to forget their rudeness.
"May I ask," said Patsy, very graciously, "which one
of us you intend to
favor with your attentions?"
"I ain't much used to sech things," he replied,
looking down at his big
hands and growing a little red-faced. "P'raps I
hadn't orter tell,
before the rest o' ye."
"Oh, yes; do tell!" pleaded Louise. "We're so
anxious to know."
"I don't s'pose it's right clever to pick an' choose
when ye're all by,"
said Skim, regaining confidence. "But ma, she 'lowed
thet with three
gals handy I orter git one on 'em, to say the
least."
"If you got more than one," remarked Beth, calmly,
"it would be
illegal."
"Oh, one's enough," said Skim, with a grin. "Peggy
says it's too many,
an' a feller oughtn't to take his gal out'n a
grab-bag."
"I should think not, indeed," returned Patsy. "But
here are three of us
openly displayed, and unless you turn us all down as
unworthy, it will
be necessary for you to make a choice."
"What foolishness are you girls up to now?" demanded
Uncle John,
catching a stray word from the other corner while
engaged in a desperate
struggle with the Major.
"This is a time for you to keep quiet, Uncle,"
retorted Patsy, merrily.
"We've got important things to consider that are
none of your affairs,
whatever."
Skim reflected that he didn't want this one, except
as a last resort.
She was "too bossy."
"When I started out," he said, "I jest come
a-courtin', as any feller
might do thet wasn't much acquainted. But ef I've
got to settle down to
one o' ye--"
He hesitated.
"Oh, you must really take one at a time, you know,"
asserted Louise.
"It's the only proper way."
"Then I'll start on thet dark-eyed one thet's a
sewin'," he said,
slowly.
Beth looked up from her work and smiled.
"Go ahead, Mr. Clark," she said, encouragingly. "My
name is Beth. Had
you forgotten it?"
"Call me Skim," he said, gently.
"Very well, Skim,--Now look here, Patsy Doyle, if
you're going to sit
there and giggle you'll spoil everything. Mr. Clark
wants to court, and
it's getting late."
"P'raps I've went fur enough fer tonight," remarked
Skim, uneasily.
"Next time they'll leave us alone, an' then----"
"Oh, don't postpone it, please!" begged Beth, giving
the boy a demure
glance from her soft brown eyes. "And don't mind my
cousins. I don't."
"These things kain't be hurried," he said. "Si
Merkle courted three
weeks afore he popped. He tol' me so."
"Then he was a very foolish man," declared Patsy,
positively. "Just look
at Beth! She's dying to have you speak out. What's
the use of waiting,
when she knows why you are here?"
By this time Skim had been flattered to the extent
of destroying any
stray sense he might ever have possessed. His utter
ignorance of girls
and their ways may have been partly responsible for
his idiocy, or his
mother's conviction that all that was necessary was
for him to declare
himself in order to be accepted had misled him and
induced him to
abandon any native diffidence he might have had.
Anyway, the boy fell
into the snare set by the mischievous young ladies
without a suspicion
of his impending fate.
"Miss Beth," said he, "ef yer willin', I'll marry
ye; any time ye say. I
agreed t' help Dick Pearson with the harvestin', but
I'll try to' git
Ned Long to take my place, an' it don't matter much,
nohow."
"But I couldn't have you break an engagement," cried
Beth, hastily.
"Why not?"
"Oh, it wouldn't be right, at all. Mr. Pearson would
never forgive me,"
she asserted.
"Can't ye--"
"No; not before harvest, Skim. I couldn't think of
it."
"But arterward--"
"No; I've resolved never to marry after harvest. So,
as you're engaged,
and I don't approve of breaking engagements, I must
refuse your
proposition entirely."
Skim looked surprised; then perplexed; then annoyed.
"P'raps I didn't pop jest right," he murmured,
growing red again.
"You popped beautifully," declared Patsy. "But Beth
is very peculiar,
and set in her ways. I'm afraid she wouldn't make
you a good
wife, anyhow."
"Then p'raps the gal in blue----"
"No;" said Louise. "I have the same prejudices as my
cousin. If you
hadn't been engaged for the harvest I might have
listened to you; but
that settles the matter definitely, as far as I am
concerned."
Skim sighed.
"Ma'll be mad as a hornet ef I don't get any of ye,"
he remarked, sadly.
"She's paid Sam Cotting fer this courtin' suit, an'
he won't take back
the gloves on no 'count arter they've been wore; an'
thet'll set ma
crazy. Miss Patsy, ef yo' think ye could----"
"I'm sure I couldn't," said Patsy, promptly. "I'm
awfully sorry to break
your heart, Skim, dear, and ruin your future life,
and make you
misanthropic and cynical, and spoil your mother's
investment and make
her mad as a hornet. All this grieves me terribly;
but I'll recover from
it, if you'll only give me time. And I hope you'll
find a wife that will
be more congenial than I could ever be."
Skim didn't understand all these words, but the
general tenor of the
speech was convincing, and filled him with dismay.
"Rich gals is tarnal skeerce in these parts," he
said, regretfully.
Then they gave way again, and so lusty was the
merriment that Uncle John
and the Major abandoned their game and came across
the room to discover
the source of all this amusement.
"What's up, young women?" asked their Uncle,
glancing from their
laughing faces to the lowering, sullen one of the
boy, who had only now
begun to suspect that he was being "poked fun at."
"Oh, Uncle!" cried Patsy; "you've no idea how near
you have been to
losing us. We have each had an offer of marriage
within the last
half hour!"
"Dear me!" ejaculated Uncle John.
"It shows the young man's intelligence and good
taste," said the Major,
much amused. "But is it a Mormon ye are, sir, to
want all three?"
directing a keen glance at Skim.
"Naw, 'tain't," he returned, wholly disgusted with
the outcome of his
suit. "All three got as't 'cause none of 'em's got
sense enough t' know
a good thing when they seen it."
"But I do," said the Major, stoutly; "and I maintain
that you're a good
thing, and always will be. I hope, sir, you'll call
'round and see me in
Baltimore next year. I'll not be there, but ye can
leave your card, just
the same."
"Please call again, sir," added Uncle John; "about
October--just before
snow flies."
The boy got up.
"I don't keer none," he said, defiantly. "It's all
ma's fault, gittin'
me laughed at, an' she won't hear the last of it in
a hurry, nuther."
"Be gentle with her, Skim," suggested Beth, softly.
"Remember she has to
face the world with you by her side."
Having no retort for this raillery, which he felt
rather than
understood, Skim seized his hat and fled. Then Patsy
wiped the tears
from her eyes and said:
"Wasn't it grand, girls? I haven't had so much fun
since I was born."
AUNT JANE'S NIECES AT MILLVILLE
Continued....
 
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