Read Ebook: The country Christmas by Fox Frances Margaret Barry Etheldred B Etheldred Breeze Illustrator

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Ebook has 580 lines and 20123 words, and 12 pages

"You can't guess the latest!" he shouted, as he ran up the stairs three steps at a time, reaching the door of the sewing-room out of breath, and beaming with smiles.

"It must be something good," ventured Sally, forgetting to pull basting threads in her eagerness to hear more.

Cornelia Mary looked doubtfully at her brother. "Well, what is it?" she asked.

"Get your camphor bottle ready. I'm going to let you down easy, but you had better be prepared. Corny, your school's gone. You won't teach in the Hodgkins district this year, I can tell you right now."

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said."

"Did the schoolhouse burn up?"

"Worse'n that."

"Have they hired another teacher?"

"Worse yet."

"Come, Tom, tell us," besought Mrs. Brown.

"He's fooling!" declared Sally.

"No, sir, I mean what I say," insisted Tom. "Corny's school has gone, bag and baggage."

"Well, how could it?" demanded Cornelia Mary.

Tom shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know how it could be so cruel," he said, "but maybe it didn't like to have you for a teacher. Fact is, it's gone. The Beans and the Kilpatricks have got work in the sugar factory, and they moved to town. There goes your A Class and your B Class and--"

"Well, the Chart Class isn't gone," interrupted Cornelia Mary, laughing in spite of herself at Tom's antics. "You can have a school if there's only one child in the whole district and little Willie Jessup begins this summer. Poor little fellow, he'll be lonesome."

"No, little Willie won't be lonesome," mocked Tom, "because little Willie's going too. I tell you, Corny, your school's gone. Cheer up, you've got me left. I'll be home all summer. Never mind the Hodgkins district, let it go."

"You go away," retorted Cornelia Mary, struggling with tears, "you're a comfort, aren't you?"

"It was my painful duty, Corny, to tell you before the neighbours did and this is all the thanks I get, just 'go away.' What an ungrateful world it is. Never mind, Corny, if you ever need a friend, you come back to your sweet brother. He'll forgive you."

"Will you go away!" repeated Cornelia Mary.

"Oh, yes," was the reply, "I mustn't stay in a damp place for fear of rheumatism. Better get up your umbrella, Sally," and Tom went away whistling.

Cornelia Mary did cry, at least she cried until Sally Brown appeared to be very much excited about something.

"What is the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown, while Cornelia Mary wiped her eyes and stared.

"Why--why the Mulvaneys!" exclaimed Sally. "Why can't they move out here and go to school?"

"Who are the Mulvaneys?" asked Cornelia Mary.

"Well, they're the Mulvaneys," Sally insisted, "and--"

"Can it be," interrupted Mrs. Brown, "that Sally has never mentioned them to you?"

"Never," replied Cornelia Mary. "Do tell me about them."

"You, mamma, you will tell it so much better than I could."

"It is a dismal story," began Mrs. Brown, "and one I would gladly have forgotten."

"Why Mamma Brown!"

"Don't misunderstand me, Sally; I shall never forget Mrs. Mulvaney's kindness, but as I have said a dozen times, we cannot help the family and there is no use in continually dwelling upon their misery."

"Only I can't help hoping," murmured Sally. "Go on, mamma."

When the story was finished, Cornelia Mary turned to Sally with a puzzled look on her face.

"How do you think we could get that family into the Hodgkins district?" she asked. "What would they do? I mean, where would they live, and what could Mrs. Mulvaney do to earn their bread and butter, I'd like to know?"

"Couldn't she take in washing?" demanded Sally.

Cornelia Mary shook her head. "I'm afraid not in the country."

"Oh, but she could," Sally declared. "Mrs. Turner says she could get more washing to do in the village than five women could manage, especially when the summer boarders are there. Mrs. Turner says too she's even wondered why some one doesn't start a laundry."

"But that's in the village and wouldn't help my school any."

"Maybe that's true," agreed Sally, "but couldn't they live in the country, and couldn't Chinky and Hannah go after the washings and take them home? The worst trouble is finding a place for the Mulvaneys to live. There isn't a house they could get in the village."

"How do you know?" asked Mrs. Brown.

Sally smiled. "Oh, Mrs. Turner and I went house-hunting only last Saturday. We thought maybe we could find a cheap little house, but we couldn't on account of the new sugar factory. Houses are scarce and rents are high. We found out a few things. That's the way I do my hoping, mamma."

"Would they come?" inquired Cornelia Mary, growing interested.

"Come!" echoed Sally, "they'd come flying!"

"Yes, they would," agreed her mother. "There's no doubt of it. But how could we manage, Cornelia Mary? Where could they get a house, and how could they furnish it?"

"Of course they would have to bring their furniture," suggested Cornelia Mary.

"But they haven't anything worth mentioning, even if they could afford the expense. I doubt if Mrs. Mulvaney ever had money enough ahead to buy tickets for the whole family, and their clothes are unthinkable. No, it is hopeless."

"Don't say that, Mrs. Brown, on account of my school. If there is a way to get them here, Sally and I must do it. Father will help us, I know. Come on, Sally, we'll go and find him. If what Tom says is true, and I'm sure it is because I heard something about it last week, why, there'll be three houses empty and perhaps we may be able to get one of them cheap."

"You never can tell until you try," added Sally.

HOUSE-HUNTING

The Beans, the Kilpatricks, and the Jessups might as well have taken their houses with them so far as the Mulvaneys were concerned. Mr. Bean's father and mother were to live in their vacant house. The Kilpatrick home was rented to an old couple related to the Beans, while the residence of the Jessups was to be torn down.

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