CHAPTER V.
On some of Beth's visits to town, she had made the acquaintance of HelenReed, a girl of her own age and lucky enough to have five brothers andfour sisters. They were the jolliest set imaginable, all packed as closeas matches in a box. Helen's hair was as yellow as puffed taffy. Hereyes matched the blueness of the summer sky. It takes a large check toclothe, feed and educate ten children. The Reed children had earlylearned how to make the most of hair ribbons, and to trim over hats fromthe season before. They dressed plain enough, goodness knows, but theyhad an "air."
Helen when barely seven would cock up a hat at the side, stick in aquill, slap it on her head and have the general effect of a Frenchfashion plate.
She was a dear little girl who looked out for her own rights while sheremembered the rights of others, just as any little girl learns to dowhen she has been reared with nine other children.
Helen and Beth fell in love with each other at first sight. The former,living in a flat in town, found the yard and trees at the old Wellsplace most delightful. Early in June when school was out, she came up tovisit Beth.
"Your trees are pretty, Beth. I think you'd feel like a queen sittingunder them."
Beth looked at them with new eyes. She had always had them, and did notfully appreciate them.
"Let's play we're queens," cried Helen. "Under that big locust tree onthe bank, we'll build a palace."
"It isn't a locust tree. They don't grow so. It's an oak," said Beth.
"Locust sounds prettier, so I'll call it that," said Helen, who did notknow one tree from another. "It doesn't matter what kind it is. Let'sbuild a palace."
"I don't see how it can be done," said Beth.
"Then I'll show you." She was already picking her way gingerly acrossthe public road. The girls were in their bare feet and the skin was yettender. They stepped as carefully as they could, for the bits of graveland sand could be cruel.
"This will be the drawing room," cried Helen, moving quickly now thatshe had gained the greensward under the trees. "Then we'll have a widehall with a library on one side, a den, and right here will be thenursery." She had been jumping about like a cricket from one place toanother, locating the different apartments of the household.
"I'm not sure where I wish the dining-room. I'd like to have somethingpretty to look at while I'm eating."
"Have it on this side and we can look at the trees and Adee's flowers,"suggested Beth. She had played second in the game. She could not yet seehow Helen could build such a large and elegant affair from nothing atall.
"That's just the thing," cried Helen. "We'll play that the yard is theconservatory. Now, let's put up the walls."
"I don't see how you can," began Beth.
"Help me carry up these nice stones from the beach and you'll see."
She started down the bank, and Beth followed blindly with faith inHelen's power to make something from nothing. For an hour they carriedup small flat stones until they had quite a number piled together underthe trees. All the while, their tongues had kept clacking like theshuttle of a machine.
"Now we'll build. It's going to be a gray stone mansion," said Helen.
"I always did like stone houses," said Beth. She had never seen one, butshe knew at that moment that she always had preferred them to any other.
Helen had already laid down a line of stones. "Start at this corner andmake a line over to here." She laid a stone down to mark the corners ofa large rectangle which was to be the living room. "Right here will bethe door on to the front porch. Don't put stones there,--here will be alarge double door into the library. We'll leave that open."
It took a little time to lay the stones around until the general outlinewas that of the ground plan of a large house. The stones were the walls.Open spaces were the doors and windows.
The little girls stood in the drawing room and looked about with an airof pride. "It's all ready now but the furnishing," said Helen. "We musthave some dishes, too, for the china closet."
"I have some saucers and cups without handles. I'll get them." Shestarted toward the house. Helen gave a scream of horror and clutched atBeth's arm.
"Look what you are doing," she cried. "Do be careful. Come back," andshe forcibly brought her back.
"What's the trouble? What ever am I doing? I can't see that I've doneanything wrong."
"You've stepped over the walls. Who ever knew any one to leave a room bystepping over the wall. Do be careful and go through the doors."
"Oh, I thought the way you screamed that it was a snake--one of thoselittle green ones." She obediently moved through the open space meantfor a door and went for the broken dishes.
By the time she had returned, Helen had furnished the drawing room. Adiscarded wash-boiler, turned upside down, served as a piano. A shingleresting upon two stones did very well as a music rest. Helen was down onher knees before it, singing with all her might and thumping with herknuckles until the tin resounded.
Beth had learned her lesson and came into the room by way of the doorrather than over the wall. She surveyed the drawing room with pride.
"Scrumptious, isn't it?" asked Helen.
"It's certainly kertish," replied Beth. Kertish was a new word to Helen.
"Now what does ker-tish mean, Beth Wells? You are forever using it."
"It means scrumptious and a whole lot more," said Beth. "I can't justexactly explain. It means just what the drawing-room is now."
"It does look rather nice," said Helen complacently. "These chairs inpink velvet and brocade are certainly scrumptious."
She pointed to several billets of wood which she had stood on end toserve as chairs. Then she seated herself cautiously upon them, for pinkvelvet chairs made from a cross-cut on square timber will wobblesometimes in spite of one.
"They certainly are 'kertish'," said Beth. She had made up that wordherself. It expressed all she had in her mind, and being her very ownword, she could thrust it about to fit any feeling or any condition. Shewas moving about the drawing-room in a dignified fashion, arranging atregular intervals wild roses on the heavy sod. Helen watched her.
"The green velvet carpet with pink roses is just the thing to go withthese chairs," said Helen. "I must say that in all my travels I neversaw anything more scrumptious."
"It is the most kertish thing I ever saw," said Beth.
"Who are we anyhow?" asked Beth at last. "I mean who are we besidesourselves."
"I am Mrs. Queen of Sheba," said Helen, "and you can be Mrs. Princess ofWales."
So it was. Royalty had set up housekeeping under the shady trees whichcovered the bank before the old Wells place.
Royalty is not domestic. Before a second day had passed, Mrs. Queen ofSheba grew tired of the monotony of housekeeping.
"Princess of Wales, we will take a trip around the world," she said."The ship is ready." She pointed majestically to an old row boat which,water-logged and unseaworthy, lay abandoned on the beach. "We will go onboard at once."
"I am ready, Mrs. Queen of Sheba."
An hour later, they were ship-wrecked and forced to wade ashore frommid-ocean. A little accident like this did not deter them. They were ona voyage of experience and discovery.
"While we are waiting for a ship to rescue us, let us explore the land,"said the Queen of Sheba.
"It would be the most kertish thing we could do."
They proceeded slowly, making their way around Great Island, which theuninitiated might have called the big rock lying out well towardmid-stream. They crossed Knee-Deep Gulf and came to Cant-Wada Bay wherethey were forced to turn back. Along the shore, they had a horribleexperience. Helen screamed and sank down, pulling Beth with her.
"Look," she whispered, pointing her finger to the opposite shore. "Thereare cannibals. Do not let them see us, or they will roast us and eat usalive."
Beth sank down with a shiver, clutching at Helen's bare feet as thoughto find protection in them. At length, she found courage to raise hereyes and look where Helen poin
ted. "Those--those--cannibals," she cried.Her voice was a mixture of relief and scorn. "They're only boys inswimming. That big one is Jimmy--"
"They are cannibals, and that big one is the chief. Don't let them seeus. Let us creep softly away." They crept. It was a horrifyingexperience. No one could tell what might have happened, had not adistant sail appeared.
"A ship! A ship! We shall be saved," cried the Queen of Sheba, kickingup her sunburnt legs and waving her arms with delight.
"A ship! A ship! We are saved," and Mrs. Princess of Wales indulged inantics which are not generally practiced by people of royal blood.
"Put up a signal of distress," said Mrs. Queen of Sheba.
"Here is a flag. Put it on the pole," cried the Princess of Wales. Shepromptly stuck her sunbonnet on the end of a stick and waved franticallyto and fro.
So while the cannibals were shrieking and performing wild antics on theopposite shore, the Queen of Sheba and the Princess of Wales crept onboard the water-logged boat and were saved.
These were glorious days. The little girls lacked for nothing. What wasnot theirs in actuality, became theirs by the gift of imagination. Theyreveled in motor cars, airships, mansions and pink velvet furniture.They were billionaires, with all the possessions and none of the troubleof taking care of them.
They were happy together for several weeks. Then Helen invited Beth toher birthday party, and Beth was heart-broken. Even Adee could notcomfort her for a time.
That Little Girl of Miss Eliza's: A Story for Young People Page 5
