A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia

by Alice Turner Curtis

  CHAPTER XIV

  THE CANDY DISAPPEARS

  Gilbert and Winifred often talked to Ruth of their soldier brother, Vinal;and she never tired of hearing the story of a midnight visit hehad made during the previous winter.

  He had arrived home late one afternoon, coming up the street as if therewere not an English soldier in the city, and had stayed the night in hisown home, departing early the next morning for Valley Forge. It was justsuch an adventure as the children admired, and would have well liked tohave had some part in.

  Gilbert had reluctantly given up the plan of changing his name toLafayette. No one seemed to remember his wish, and after a few weeks heno longer reminded Ruth or Winifred.

  As the time of Ruth's visit to Barren Hill drew near she made manypleasant plans of all she would see and do while at Aunt Deborah'ssquare stone house, and recalled all that her aunt had told her of thebeehives in a sunny corner of the garden, the flocks of chickens, themany birds that nested safely in the orchard trees, and the big atticthat would be such a fine play-house on stormy days. But most of allRuth thought of the fact that Barren Hill was only ten miles distantfrom Valley Forge, and that there might be some way in which she couldsee her father.

  "I wish I could find out that the English were going to leavePhiladelphia, and then I would have good news for Father," she thought."Or if I could carry a fine present for Father to give Lafayette." Butthere seemed little prospect that a little girl like Ruth could be thebearer of good news to the troops at Valley Forge, or of a present tothe gallant young Frenchman.

  Ruth's thumb healed in a few days, so that she could help her mother inthe garden, and do her usual work about the house. Every morning,directly after breakfast, was the lesson hour, when Mrs. Pennell andRuth would sit down in the dining-room and, as Ruth had described it toAunt Deborah, "Tell stories."

  There were "history" stories, and these Ruth liked best of all. One wasthe story of the first Quaker emigrants who came to Philadelphia inthree small ships, bringing a friendly letter from the good-natured KingCharles to the Delaware Indians. She liked to hear how these peoplesailed safely across the Atlantic and came up the Delaware, and firstfound shelter in caves along the river's bank, and then built themselveslog cabins, and big strong houses.

  Then there were stories of the stars, by which sailors steered theircourse at sea, and there were stories of birds and beasts, and a veryamusing game in which a small girl from Japan and another from China,and a little black girl from Africa, each recited the way children weretaught in those countries.

  Mrs. Pennell did not always tell the stories, no, indeed! Often Ruthwould be asked to tell the story of William Penn, or perhaps to draw alittle picture of certain constellations. And always there was theadding of apples, the dividing of apples into four parts and eightparts, which Mrs. Pennell called "Fractions." And after this pleasanthour there were the neat stitches to be set in apron, dress, orhandkerchief.

  Nearly every child had regular tasks; they were taught to use theirhands as well as their eyes and thoughts, and Ruth was very proud thatshe could hemstitch nicely, and "set the heel" of a stocking, and finishoff its toe.

  After Vinal brought the letter from Ruth's father Mrs. Pennell seemedmore cheerful, and often said that she was sure it would not be manymonths before Philadelphia would be rid of the enemy.

  Ruth and Winifred counted the days until the last day of April, whenthey were to make the candy as a present for Betty. The prettyheart-shaped box that was to hold it was already finished. Mrs. Pennellhad helped them make it. She had carefully shaped it from pasteboard,and then, with a flour paste, the little girls had covered it carefullywith some pretty bits of wall-paper. The cover had three tiny hearts cutfrom gilt paper, and Ruth and Winifred were both sure that Betty wouldbe much pleased by their gift, especially when she opened it and foundit full of sweets.

  Ruth had just finished her lesson hour on the morning of the day beforethe May-day picnic, when Winifred appeared. She brought a package ofsugar that her mother had given her as her share for the candy, and thetwo little girls ran to the kitchen, which they were to have quite tothemselves for their candy-making.

  The family cooking was done over the bed of coals in the fireplace, andRuth brought out a saucepan, a big spoon, and some sugar from thepantry, and talking happily of the pleasures of the coming day the twolittle friends measured their sugar and set the saucepan over the coals,while Ruth, spoon in hand, watched it carefully, while Winifred stoodclose by ready to help.

  It was a great event to be permitted to make candy, and both Winifredand Ruth decided that it would be a much more acceptable present than atable.

  In a short time the melted sugar, flavored with rose leaves, was readyto be turned into the tiny heart-shaped molds, and set to cool on thewindow ledge.

  "Let's go out in the garden," suggested Ruth. "If we stay in here weshall keep looking at the candy to see if it is ready to turn out, andit will seem forever." So they went out to the seat under the mapletree, played with Hero, talked about the May party and the time, nownear at hand, when Ruth would go to visit Aunt Deborah, and nearly anhour passed before they returned to the kitchen.

  "Why, where are the molds?" exclaimed Ruth. "Where is the candy?"demanded Winifred, and they looked at the vacant window-sill where theyhad left the sweets to cool.

  "Mother must have put them in the pantry," said Ruth.

  "Of course," Winifred agreed, and the little girls exchanged a smile ofrelief as they both turned toward the pantry.

  But the candy was not there.

  "I'll run and ask her where she put it," said Ruth, and hurried off tofind her mother who was busy in one of the upper rooms.

  "But I have not been down-stairs, dear child," Mrs. Pennell replied."You do not suppose the molds have fallen out of the window?" she asked,and without stopping to answer Ruth ran back to the kitchen, and leanedout of the window, but there was no candy to be seen.

  "Oh, Ruth! The box is gone, too! Some one must have come in and takenit!" said Winifred; and, sure enough, the pretty box had disappearedfrom the table as well as the molds from the window. Both the littlegirls were ready to cry with disappointment.

  They knew that each of the other guests would bring Betty a present, andthey knew also that their mothers could not spare any more sugar forcandy. Besides this the pretty box was gone, and they had no more bitsof paper to make another.

  "I shan't go to the party," Ruth declared. "And who could have been meanenough to take the candy?"

  Mrs. Pennell was nearly as troubled as Ruth and Winnie. It was evidentthat some one must have entered the house by the front door, taken thecandy, and made off while the girls were in the garden. She feared thatother things must have been taken, but a careful search proved thatnothing else was missing.

  Winifred agreed with Ruth that they did not wish to go to the partywithout a present for Betty. "And now it is too late to even think ofanything," she said as she started for home, leaving Ruth puzzled andunhappy, and wondering to herself if perhaps some ill-natured fairieshad not made off with the sweets. The more Ruth thought of this the moreconvinced she was that it was what had happened. She remembered hearingqueer little noises at her window that morning that she had thought weremade by the birds nesting in the hawthorn. Now she said to herself thatit must have been fairies coming into the house. "And because I did notmake them welcome they have taken the candy," she decided, remembering afairy tale that Mrs. Merrill had once told the two girls in whichchildren had always welcomed fairies who came tapping at the windows ofa spring morning, by singing:

  "Welcome, fairies good and kind; Come in, come in, and welcome find."

  In the story the fairies had brought wonderful gifts, but if they hadnot been welcomed they would have taken the children's dearestpossessions, which could only be recovered by walking around the gardenjust before sunrise and bowing low three times to the lilac, three timesto a robin, and three times with your eyes shut tight, repeating
eachtime:

  "Fairies, fairies, here I bow. Will you kindly pardon now That I did not hear or see When you came to visit me?"

  Ruth was glad that she could remember it.

  "I'll get up before sunrise to-morrow morning and do exactly as thelittle girl did in the story when the fairies brought back her silverheart, and then probably when I open my eyes there will be the box andthe candy," thought Ruth.

  "Why, of course, it was because the box and the candies wereheart-shaped," she decided; "that's another reason I'm sure it wasfairies. It will be splendid if I can get them back. I won't tellWinifred until after breakfast to-morrow. Won't she be surprised?"

  Mrs. Pennell wondered a little that Ruth was in such good spirits therest of the day, after the disappearance of the candy, and that she wasso ready to go to bed at an hour earlier than the usual time.